V 47 i07 lores

vol ume

47

north vancouver

× October 21th 2013

CAPILANO

issue

N o . 07

COURIER

Running for the Cure?

The morals and methods behind charitable fundraising

CANDROGENY

×

DIWALI FEST

×

BETTER BIKE LANES

×

TALKIN’ ABOUT TALK SHOWS

vol ume

47 issue N o . 07

CAPILANO Courier

@capilanocourier

@capcourier

Capilanocourier.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

04

06

10

12

13

16

19

News

Columns

features

calendar

A+C

opinions

caboose

Sea Death Stars

Tribe Tribulations

Bustling Buskers

Pumpkin Time

Tie-Dye Guy

National Gay-dar

Oppressive Manor

Therese Guieb Features Editor

Andy Rice Arts + Culture Editor

The Staff

Scott Moraes Managing Editor

Kristi Alexandra Copy Editor

Katherine Gillard News Editor

the capilano courier

Ă—

volume

47 issue N o . 07

Leah Scheitel Editor-in-Chief

of this boob-loving university paper.

2

Jeremy Hanlon Caboose Editor

Andrew Palmquist Production Manager

Cheryl Swan Art Director

Faye Alexander Opinions Editor

Ricky Bao Business Manager

Carlo Javier Staff Writer

Lindsay Howe Marketing/Ads/Web Editor

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.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

obsessing over the right stuff Leah Scheitel

“Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion.”

× Editor-in-Chief

– Paul Carvel

When I was a little girl, I was convinced that I lived next door to Danny from the New Kids on the Block. I sincerely believed that our neighbourhood was home to a worldwide superstar, and my friends and I would devise ways to get his attention from his living room window. This was in 1990, when I was four, and he was watching Saved by the Bell after school.

The crush turned weird, and I collected all the NKOTB paraphernalia that I could. I had cups, posters, books, tapes, and shirts all splattered with their logos and song lyrics. And at that tender young age, I did truly believe that Danny was my soulmate. I also thought that he lived in Coquitlam, so these beliefs were clearly not grounded in reality.

My next-door neighbour’s real name, according to my brother, was Jason. He would babysit us on the odd occasion when my parents went out for the evening, and before going to bed, I would put on my best nightie and some of my mom’s lipstick (which was usually all over my teeth) and with my little fingers wrapped around my fan book, I’d shyly ask for his autograph.

“I’m not fucking Danny,” he’d growl, annoyed that I interrupted an episode of Full House.

His babysitting skills were obviously not up to standard if he was swearing at a four-year-old in a pink frilly nightgown, but in his defense, I was a chubby little girl, with snot constantly pouring out of my nose – it was a medical condition that is now fixed, I swear – and a giant crush on a boy four times my age. I was more than a little annoying.

This crush grew into a slight obsession, and then a rather large obsession. My friends Jennifer, Tessa, and I would practice kissing the boys on posters pasted to Jennifer’s walls. We used her dad’s telescope to look across into his bedroom window, and constantly be on the look-out, thinking that the rest of the band would show up for a surprise visit, and take us with them on their next tour. We became slightly delusional, and highly obsessive over a small crush and the false idea that we were living next to a pop star.

This is the first time I can recall fostering something to the point of obsession, but it definitely wasn’t the last. I can’t even count how many times I have let a somewhat wee crush grow into this massive and dramatic thing. I openly obsess over the quality of my writing and schoolwork.

And I, accompanied by the rest of the Courier staff, weekly obsess over what goes into these pages, reading everything multiple times over before it gets published.

THE VOICE BOX

“What is the Liar anyway? Are they competing with you guys?

I can't see their paper anywhere.”

“What's up with that earthquake shakeout? I wasn't down to stand in the cold for a facade of an earthquake.”

The Liar is our university’s student-run literary magazine. I think it only comes out twice a year. Last year, I picked up a copy and after 10 pages I wanted to switch to People magazine because it’s a better read. I just tossed the ‘zine instead. But it's a great thing for us to have and I hope the next issue is a bit more readable. If you have weird poetry, send it to them. If you just write normal stuff, come see us.

I heard about that. Those drills are usually pretty useless, since people never listen anyways and just panic whenever a natural disaster befalls us. Once, a history teacher told us that he was obligated to read the emergency procedures to us, and then he played us a video made by the U.S. government during the Cold War, called “Duck and Cover”. You should look it up. It tells children to duck and cover under their desks in the event of atomic bombs being dropped on them by the Russians. Fun stuff.

“This has been the most beautiful early fall ever, and now it's foggy as shit outside, and I'm suddenly depressed. What do you do when you get seasonally depressed?”

volume

47 issue N o . 07

First off, if you call SNL shitty, prepare to meet the wrath of our editor, who openly talks about her love for that show way too often. I know – she’s weird. As for the rest of us, yeah, we like TV. We may need to get out of the house more often. Text me and invite me places – 778-689-4642.

×

*

The Voicebox is back, ready to humbly respond to your questions, concerns, and comments about anything Courier. To inquire, just send a text to 778 - 689 - 4642 to anonymously "express" and "voice" your "opinion" and "thoughts" on any "subject" or "issue". And, as long as it's not offensive, we will publish it here, right in the Voicebox. It's a win - win, or whine - whine - whatever way you look at it.

I never get seasonally depressed. But you could try a couple of things: watch tropical films while eating tropical fruits, drop out of school and take a vacation somewhere tropical, go for a jog, listen to the Beach Boys, buy an umbrella and a tightly-woven alpaca jacket, take pills, see a counselor, get new friends, or get laid.

“You guys seem to talk a lot about TV shows like Breaking Bad and Saturday Night Live a lot. Like too much. Do you guys actually put together a paper, or just watch shitty shows all the time?”

the capilano courier

WITH : SCOTT MORAES

But perhaps the worst personal example of fostering obsession to the point of mania is that I have let my affection for Saturday Night Live get a little weird. All potential dates and guys that I meet go into my iPhone under an SNL alias. It’s just better to think that John Belushi, Seth Meyers, and Taran Killam want to contact me rather than whomever it actually is (no offense).

Obsessions aren’t always a bad thing. They can be useful for accomplishing difficult things that likely wouldn’t have happened without an element of obsession. I doubt Sir Edmund Hilary would have been as successful summiting Mount Everest for the first time if he didn’t obsess over this ambition first, analyzing every possible way to climb the mountain. And I wonder if some great works of literature would have been as great without the author flirting with obsession. The lines between passion and obsession are blurry, and taking things past the point of what’s healthy is really easy to do because of the blurred lines (consider this a plug for Robin Thicke).

But our more unhealthy obsessions are becoming a bigger problem for us as a society. Taking fascinations past the point of sanity is made easier by the abundance of technology at our fingertips. Never before have we been able to follow our idols on Instagram, and see what they eat for breakfast. We can interact with them by Twitter, in good or bad ways. And celebs can engage in full-blown online battles with us, just by tweeting back. Technology is fostering our addictive personalities. The current number of people with some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder is two out of every 100 people, according to the BBC. That number has doubled since 1980. But, according to Psychology Today, the main difference between having a healthy obsession and a not-so-healthy one is our individual personalities. That is why some girls can go to a Bieber concert and have a good time dancing with friends while others camp outside his hotel, screaming to the point of hysteria and hyperventilation. The level of obsession is entirely dependent on the person.

My obsessive tendencies are a little odd, and I would hope that if Seth Meyers ever found out about my address book full of SNL cast members whom I’ve never actually met, he would think it was endearing and not psychotic. And what it comes down to, like most things in life, is that you have to know your own habits, and yourself to stay on the healthy side of the line. I’m relieved that the greatest technological advancement in 1990 was the Sony Walkman, or that obsession on Danny could have been much worse.

3

NEWS

NEWS EDITOR × KATHERINE GILLARD

NEWS@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

Exchange letters FORMER CAPU EMPLOYEES VOICE CONCERN OVER DR. KRIS BULCROFT Lindsay Howe × Web Editor / Marketing + Advertising

“Negotiations are going on right now and it’s hard to speak the straight truth, but the straight truth is that they are trying to turn Capilano into a film and business school,” says Bill Schermbrucker, a former Capilano University employee. A recent open letter to Capilano University’s Board of Governors has sparked conversation in the campus community in regards to changes made under the leadership of Dr. Kris Bulcroft. The letter, written

by Schermbrucker and signed by 38 other former employees, expressed concern about a plethora of issues including program cuts, a lack of consultation in the budget process, and the university’s future.

Schermbrucker was the first full-time faculty member at Capilano University. He was hired in 1968, and worked as an English and creative writing instructor. His letter, addressed to Board of Governors Chairperson Jane Shackell, outlined what he believes are flaws in the management of the university. The letter states, “We are deeply concerned that Dr. Bulcroft has abandoned Capilano’s tradition of providing the community with

a full complement of programs. By cutting so many successful and vital programs, particularly in the faculty of fine and applied arts, the president’s current agenda will deprive present and future generations of North Shore students a full range of educational opportunities.”

“They are turning Capilano into something different from what we built,” says Schermbrucker, noting that the variety of the programs are not what they once were. “We built a very exceptional comprehensive community college which responded to the needs of all the residents in the different areas that we served. Comprehensive means we did academic, career vocational, I think B.C. was the only place that had comprehensive community colleges in Canada,” Schermbrucker adds. Schermbrucker also notes that Capilano Community College was comparable to the types of community colleges found in California and New York state, as opposed to other community colleges in Canada, specifically Ontario, that were basically technical schools.

The lack of diversity that ignites his comments

poses another potential future concern for the institution. In the letter, Schermbrucker notes that this lack of diversity could lead to current and future donors to support other organizations.

“Some of us have already indicated to the Capilano University Foundation that the university will not merit our support so long as Dr. Bulcroft’s philosophical shift away from comprehensive education is in place,” Schermbrucker’s letter reads.

While Schermbrucker and a number of former university employees maintain there is a reason for concern, the reactions from students and the Board of Governors Chairperson revealed confidence in the leadership of Capilano University.

Many university students posted messages of support in response to the open letter, with one stating “We love Cap and our President,” and another stating “Sometimes being a leader means taking the less popular path.”

In response to Schermbrucker’s letter, Shackell thanked him for his comments and went on to explain that the university’s Board of Governors does not share the same views as him. “I will not

specifically address all of your comments, however I do wish to emphasize that Dr. Bulcroft has the confidence of our Board of Governors.” Shackell states in the letter of response. The letter continues explaining the nature of the controversial budget cuts, and the future of academic planning at the university by stating “Dr. Bulcroft has initiated development of an academic plan that will inform the long term direction of Capilano’s curriculum…The process is widely consultive, and I hope you will take part in one or more of the discussions.”

While opinions on the open letter seem to vary on and off campus, and only time will tell what the future of the university will looks like, Schermbrucker maintains “[students] are losing a huge number of options. If the university becomes mainly a film and business school, it will lose all of the range of intelligence that was there…this is a very narrow concept of what Capilano should be, and I think it’s unfortunate.”

where have all the sea stars gone?

UNKNOWN DISEASE OR WATER POLLUTION CAUSES DECAY Meggan Jacobson

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

× Writer

4

This past month, sea stars have been mysteriously dying off the coastline of British Columbia. According the Vancouver Aquarium's website, “from serene sand flats to swaying kelp beds and waveswept rocks, British Columbia’s waters boast a great diversity of habitats.” One of these inhabitants is the sea star. Sea stars, also inaccurately known as starfish, come in an array of over 2,000 species and Vancouver’s temperate waters are known for inhabiting a vast number of them. Whytecliff Park located in West Vancouver, just west of Horseshoe Bay, is famous in the scuba-diving community for its large wall of colourful, orange sea stars, in particular the sunflower sea star.

At the beginning of September, Jonathan Martin, a marine science consultant, went scuba-diving at Whytecliff Park, and noticed the sea stars were decaying and the ocean floor was covered in sea star arms. He was the first to notify the Vancouver Aquarium and now, a month later, the sea stars at the park are gone. The rapid rate at which this epidemic has occurred has left scientists all over the world questioning what the cause might be and how it occurred. In an interview with CTV News, the Vancouver Aquarium reported that it was difficult gathering specimens because seastars that looked healthy in the ocean turned up as goo at the lab.”

“I was just as confused as the Vancouver Aquarium after hearing about the epidemic on the ra-

dio…It can’t be from predators because the sea stars are dropping arms and decaying, so it must be some disease,” Mike Kiraly, biology professor at Capilano University says. As a scuba diver himself, he recalls that this past year has had “a record number of sea stars.”

He agrees with the statement made by Rhode Island University professor, Marta Gomez-Chiarri, who told CTV News that, "often when you have a population explosion of any species you end up with a disease outbreak…When there's not enough food for them all it causes stress, and the density of the animals leads to increased disease transmission.”

“This must be nature’s way of correcting a bigger problem,” Kiraly agrees.

Other authorities suggest that the death of the sea stars was caused by the large amount of rainfall that Vancouver was exposed to this past month.

Environment Canada records that Vancouver has had 130.60 mm of rainfall in September, which is more than twice the average amount 63.50 mm for that month. Sea stars are salt water dependent and are negatively affected by large amounts of fresh rainfall. Chris Harley, University of British Columbia zoologist, told CBC News, “Sea stars are really, really bad at dealing with fresh water.” He continued, “You can see a little bit of shimmer in the water [which happens] when salty water mixes with fresh water.”

× Cheryl Swan

Many are unsure of what the long-term effects of this phenomenon are going to be on the environment. Rachel Clearwater, Capilano University biology professor says, “Sea stars live at high densities on the coast, so if they are not feeding, this going to have a large effect on the food chain, with sea stars being a large predator of bivalves.” This could lead into an increase in sea star population.

Bivalves are a biological classification of shellfish that include oysters, clams, mussels and scallops.

The food chain will also be affected by those creatures that feed on sea stars like seagulls and crab

who may suffer a shortage from their normal diet.

With all of these theories, there is still no definite answer to what is causing this phenomenon.

Gomez-Chiarri said that “diseases don't just completely disappear after a massive die-off." The lack of clarity on this issue and untestable specimen forces scientists into the realm of opinion and speculation until hard, scientific facts surface.

The Vancouver Aquarium is still asking public to email them at fishlab@vanaqua.org if anyone has more information.

fixing facilities MAINTENANCE DEFERRAL IS A FACT OF LIFE FOR BC UNIVERSITIES Andy Rice × Arts + Culture Editor

British Columbia’s colleges and universities are plagued and united by a common concern: money – and the fact that there never quite seems to be enough of it. Funding restraints can affect postsecondary institutions in a variety of different ways, several of which have made news headlines in recent months. For Capilano University, it was the thinning of fine arts programs back in April, and for Simon Fraser University it was maintenance issues uncovered on its campus this past September. But as details emerge and fingers are pointed, students at campuses around the province are left with a burning question for their school of choice: could the same thing happen to us?

The answer isn’t a simple one. With enough money, nearly anything is said to be possible, but the same goes for lack of money. Sometimes, no matter how diligent staff or administrators strive to be, things simply can’t be accomplished with the funding at hand and sacrifices must be made. It’s a problem many departments within a university face, but especially those overseeing maintenance.

“Funding constraints make life difficult,” says Susan Doig, CapU’s director of facilities. “I think that SFU does a really good job in facilities maintenance, in fact, I think they do an excellent job. I don’t think they have enough money, right. I think that you can’t fix if you haven’t got the funds to

do that, and so one of the biggest challenges for facilities professionals is to identify where is that money best spent in order to have the maximum benefit back to the institution.”

“We [at Capilano] don’t have any of our buildings that are at end of life,” says Doig, “but we have some building systems that are at end of life, like our [direct digital control] system. There’s tons that we could do on this campus to improve performance but I don’t think we have anything falling down around us in any way, shape, or form.

I think what we have is opportunities to look at each of our buildings and to identify the different systems in them so we know what’s in all our buildings, we know how old it is, we know when it needs to be replaced.”

“We do have a backlog of maintenance but we are funding constrained,” she continues, “so we look at safety issues as the highest priority and we look at student comfort and their experience and we address that. We have things that it would be really nice if we had replaced them already because they are at end of life, but our buildings are not falling down.... We take our facilities maintenance really seriously and we try and do a really good job with the limited resources that we have.”

CapU’s buildings are maintained using provincial funding, which has seen a drastic decline over the past five years. A total of $1,500,396 was provided in 2008/2009, decreasing to $1,110,803 the following year. In 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 that number was slashed by over half, for a total of

$425,300. It was decreased further in 2012/2013 to a base contribution of $370,176, which stayed the same for the current 2013/2014 budget year.

Cindy Turner, CapU’s vice president of finance and administration, notes that an extra contribution of $122,600 was provided last year for “life safety such as safe access to roofs for our facilities staff.” Similarly, the university received an additional $158,647 from the ministry this year to be put toward an undisclosed capital project.

Turner is adamant that the recent provincial contributions for facilities maintenance have been far from meeting the university’s needs. “We believe that even the 08/09 level of funding was not sufficient to keep our buildings up to the standard we are trying to achieve,” she says. “We are very fortunate that most of our buildings were built after 1990 and the issues that other institutions are facing with those buildings, we are not experiencing.”

CapU’s oldest structures – the film studio near the library, the fitness centre, and Arbutus – date back to 1976. And although a portion of the library building predates them by three years, an extensive renovation and major addition in 1993 allows it to be considered only 20 years of age. The Fir building opened in 1982, followed by Cedar, Horticulture, and the Sportsplex in 1991. Birch was completed in 1996, and the Bosa Centre saw its first occupants in 2012.

Buildings located on SFU’s Burnaby Mountain Campus are much older and numerous than those

found at CapU – most were constructed in 1965 to coincide with its opening. SFU’s facilities department once had an annual maintenance budget of $6 million, although consistent reductions in recent years have left the current amount at around $500,000. The university’s five-year capital plan, released in 2011, lists over half of its structures as being in “poor” condition with another quarter described as “fair.” It goes on to recommend that approximately $20 million would be needed annually just to keep them as they currently are.

“The Ministry [of Education] has moved to a centralized distribution of maintenance funds in order to be able to ensure the most important work on all their buildings is done first,” explains Turner. “In order to assess that, they compiled a centralized database to identify deferred maintenance throughout the post-secondary sector and Capilano is a participant. We use the information to assist us to prioritize where the funding will be spent.”

“We’re managing the best we can with the resources that we have, taking the critical factors into consideration – safety, health, those types of things – and then moving down to what’s the critical priority,” says Doig. “To do excellence if you haven’t got funds is really difficult. You have to identify what’s really important... and I think we’re doing a good job.”

Digging up the roads VANCOUVERS CONTROVERSIAL BIKE LANE SAGA CONTINUES Ben Bengston × Writer

× Dominic Chan

47 issue N o . 07

trians to make foot-users safer.

The new bike lane will be 4500 feet long and 12 feet wide – or, approximately “one and a quarter acres of blacktop concrete,” to quote Coupar.

While there is certainly support in favour of the “greening” of Vancouver and the addition of safer paths for bikers and pedestrians, some also argue for a closer look at how Vancouver spends its budget. It seems for now that the debate will rage on.

The Kitsilano Beach Bike Lane is slated for completion by May 15, 2014 at a cost of $2.2 million.

volume

the beach, those people that are involved – they weren’t properly consulted.” Coupar alludes to the main source of tension regarding the decision: a lack of public consultation and a complete absence of transparency when raising the idea of a new project in general. Coupar explained that the current Kitsilano Beach Bike Lane was an addendum to the proposed safety and improvement measures implemented on the Point Grey Road-Cornwall Avenue corridor a couple of months ago. While there was significant discourse concerning the proposed road improvements for Point Grey RoadCornwall Avenue, there was very little discussion nor attention paid to the Kitsilano beach portion of the proposal. “The Point Grey and Cornwall portion of the bill was well publicized,” explains Coupar, “but the addition to Kits was literally tacked onto the end of the bill; by the time the public caught on, the proposal was basically being passed with construction set to start immediately.”

The current public outcry seems to be more for a lack of awareness about the projects existence then the construction of a new bike lane itself.

While Coupar suggests that a number of the crossing points between the bike and pedestrian sections of the new lane are still of some concern, it is undeniable that the vast number of park users support the plan. A recent interception survey of 370 citizens was conducted by the city concerning park upgrades and the majority were immensely supportive of the separation of bikes and pedes-

×

Beach Bike lane has been billed as a necessary safety measure for the community. “There has been a lot of support for a safe, separated bike route in Kits,” says Sarah Blyth, chair of the Vancouver Parks Board. “We will do everything we can to create a natural, safe environment for users.” Blyth, who is also the liaison for the West Point Grey and Dunbar communities, emphasized the public need for a well-built, safe bike lane through Kitsilano beach that would also seamlessly integrate with the area’s beautiful landscape.

While there is certainly some support for safer public paths and spaces for bikers and pedestrians, the Kitsilano Beach Bike Lane highlights both sides of the debate spectrum when it comes to the disunity towards public projects these days.

Compared to his counterpart Sarah Blyth, Park Board Commissioner John Coupar offers a more concerned view of the recent approval of the beach bike lane. The City of Vancouver website explains that Coupar is a “passionate advocate for horticultural excellence in parks and green spaces.” He is most well-known for his successful attempt to save the Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park after the Parks Board voted to close it in 2009.

Coupar voted a stern “No” on the proposed Kitsilano Beach Bike Lane on Oct. 7, citing a myriad of concerns that he explained over the phone.

“There was a total lack of public consultation on this,” says Coupar. “The people – the people in the community, the people that actually use

the capilano courier

In an effort to make bikers and pedestrians safer, the Vancouver Parks Board has approved a plan to build a bike lane through Jericho Beach and Hadden Park at an estimated $2 million dollars.

These particular areas of Kitsilano are often very crowded – a hustle and bustle of joggers, motorists, pedestrians and bikers – and the new bike lane serves to further segregate these activities from each other in a bid for increased safety. While this project is a far cry from the recent $6 million dollar Point Grey Bike Lane – an approved project that will effectively turn one kilometer of Point Grey Road into a residents-only bike lane – the Kitsilano Beach Bike Lane has experienced both opposition and support from local citizens after it was approved on Oct. 7.

Mayor Gregor Robertson and his team have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to create bike lanes and bike-friendly spaces all over the city.

They’ve improved biking and pedestrian infrastructure, including separated bike lanes, on the Burrard Bridge, Hornby Street, and Dunsmuir, to name a few. The Kitsilano Beach Bike Lane and the subsequent reengineering of Hadden Park is the latest in a long line of city renovations.

While many bike routes built under Mayor Robertson’s administration have been under the guise of public recreation, beautification, and Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, a bid that would see the city become the “greenest” city within the next decade, the current Kitsilano

5

Columns

COLUMNS EDITOR

× LEAH SCHEITEL

EDITOR@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

crazy happy healthy THE POLITICS OF FAT CONSUMPTION

× Shirley Wu

Kendra Perry

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

Columnist ×

6

Fat does not make you fat. In fact, moderate amounts of fat in your diet are necessary for optimal health and longevity. In the past 50 years, food industry propaganda and media fear mongering have managed to scare an entire generation of people away from eating fat. We are told that saturated fat causes heart disease and obesity. The food system has reacted accordingly, increasing production of polyunsaturated oils, like canola and soybean oil.

I call bullshit. If saturated fat did, in fact, cause heart disease, then the whole human race would be dead — because almost every single traditional, ancestral diet throughout history has relied heavily on saturated fat as a main component of their diet.

Consider the work done by Weston A. Price, who was the head of the American Dental Association research branch in the 1930s. In his dental practice he observed dental decay, malformed jaws and physical degeneration. To understand this phenomenon he studied 14 different primal diets around the world like the Inuit's and Natives’ in North America, Melanesian cultures’ and the Indians’ of South America, to name a few.

In every culture, he found people with healthy teeth, free of decay, well-formed jaws, resistance to disease, lean physiques, and easy childbirth. He observed their diets which contained 10 times the amount of fat soluble nutrients (A, D, E, and K) and four times the amount of water soluble vita-

Kendra Perry skis, hikes, and rock climbs a lot. When not venturing around the mountains around Nelson she is writing on her blog, Crazyhappyhealthy.com, where she turns her education into articles for others, and will be the inspiration for this column.

mins (B and C) than people living in westernized civilizations. Their diets were rich in high quality protein and saturated fats like raw milk, cod liver oil, eggs, butter, shellfish, and organ meats. In fact, polyunsaturated fat was a miniscule constituent of their food intake.

The idea that saturated fat causes heart disease began forming its roots in the early 1900s. Nikolaj Anitschkow fed rabbits cholesterol and saw that it lead to changes in the arteries. Not sure if anyone considered the fact that rabbits are herbivores, and don't naturally eat any cholesterol, but the idea that saturated fat is bad for you has been stewing ever since.

In the 1950s, Dr. Ancel Keys published the Seven Countries Study. Keys found in seven different countries where cholesterol consumption was high, and thus, so was heart disease. Unfortunately, this should have been called the “22 Countries Study”, since Keys actually studied 22 different countries but selectively picked data that supported his hypothesis. He left out the countries that consume high-fat diets and have low amounts of heart disease, like Norway and Holland, and countries that eat low-fat diets and have high amounts of heart disease, like Chile. The results are all over the map and no concrete conclusion should have been drawn.

Crazy enough, this study is the whole basis for the lipid hypothesis, which states that eating a diet

high in saturated fat, leads to cholesterol in your blood, which clogs arteries and gives you heart disease. And thus began over 50 years of brainwashing in which health authorities were able to convince millions of people that the fats they had been eating for generations are bad and should be removed in favour of industrial refined unsaturated fats like vegetable oil.

We now know that 75 per cent of cholesterol is produced in your liver. Only 25 per cent comes from diet alone. Cholesterol is an important lipid in your body, as it is precursor for all your steroid hormones (androgen, estrogen and progesterone), bile acids and vitamin D. Cholesterol is also an important structural component of cell membranes and thus is essential for all animal life.

In 2004, a meta-analysis was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It combined data from 21 different studies that included close to 350,000 people, 11,000 of whom developed cardiovascular disease and were tracked for 14 years. It concluded there was no relationship between the intake of saturated fat and heart disease.

Just to drive this point home a littler further, a scientific review for the Journal of Epidemiology was conducted in 1998 in which four studies were reviewed spanning 35 different countries to assess the correlation between saturated fat consumption and coronary heart disease. No positive correlation

was found. Hundreds of other studies have found similar results.

It should also be noted that multiple studies have linked the use of polyunsaturated fats (soybean oil, canola oil, safflower oil, margarine) to a higher risk of deaths from all causes. I think it is important to consider the fact that in the past hundred years we have greatly increased our consumption of polyunsaturated fats at the expense of saturated fats, but heart disease and obesity is continually on the rise.

That being said, not all fats are created equally.

Any study that has linked the consumption of red meat to heart disease has used corn-fed beef. Cows do not naturally eat corn and the result is acidosis of the intestinal tract, and thus requiring cattle to be fed large quantities of antibiotics to prevent infection and death.

Your sources of saturated fat should come from grass-fed beef and other naturally pasture-raised animals, organic butter, coconut oil, palm oil and organic dairy products. In my experience, substantially increasing the amount of good saturated fat in my diet has made me feel amazing. So my advice to you – just eat the fat, eat lots, and feel good about it.

bands that make her dance NEW VENUES, OLD NEIGHBOURHOOD Daniel Harf × Columnist Daniel Harf loves music so much that his shoelaces have music notes on them. Being an East Van native, he knows the ins-and-outs of the music scene in Vancouver and B.C. all too well, and with this column, will give us a glimpse into it.

It’s 2 a.m. The night is Confessional Folk Monday at Guilt and Co. I’ve been drinking heavily, and have just bummed a smoke from a stranger outside. I hear screams echo back and forth across the brick corridors of Gastown. My reaction is not shocked, or worried for whoever is potentially suffering. I express my limited interest with a slow and annoyed head roll to find the culprit. I anticipate that the sound was a junkie, high, and reaching for the stars, or a dealer coming to collect from a resident living in Blood Alley’s Stanley Hotel.

Instead it’s a batch of well-dressed college graduates arguing about which direction they should stumble down Carrall St. from the Blarney Stone to grab a cab.

To my right, a resident of the Downtown Eastside is asking me for a smoke. “I bummed this one from him,” I say, betraying the benevolence of my supplier. The same person that had just hooked me up promptly denies the panhandler. I feel bad, but not bad enough to hook them up with some of the change lingering in my pocket. He says he will pump out 85 pushups for a buck. “Ok,” I say, “I’ll give you a buck for 85 pushups.” Despite missing a few near the end, he made it through 82. Feeling generous, I doubled our initial contract to a

toonie. “Hey man, give me $4,” he responds. Hurt that my 200 per cent markup of our original deal wasn’t taken with gratitude, I turn for shelter in my warm and exclusive bar. How dare he, I thought, as I sat at the solid top cedar-stained bar, and brought my credit card out for last call.

Craft beer is hotter than Jessica Simpson’s thighs after a StairMaster demo for Jenny Craig. All across the Downtown Eastside, upscale bars are opening up and attracting fancy people. What hasn’t changed, despite the best efforts of certain proprietors in the area, is that residents of the Downtown Eastside’s vast low-income housing community are still hustling to get by in their community. With more bars comes more opportunity for locals to make a few bucks. Some residents, such as the prolific artist Ken Foster, sell their art. Others offer magic tricks or push ups. But what seems to still rule the clandestine economy of the marginalized residents of the Downtown Eastside are drugs and prostitution.

Gastown’s makeover has relatively calmed the once wild benches of Pigeon Park, where instead of shooting up and turning tricks there is an almost exact balance of yuppies and homeless squatters.

Head East a few blocks down Cordova and you

× Miles Chic

will find the Chapel, one of the lesser-known venues in Vancouver for the performing arts.

On Oct. 13, the Chapel was host to the finale of Safe Fest, an all ages festival organized by Vancouver based band, BESTiE. The event was a fundraiser for the St. James music Academy – not a block away on Cordova – and Safe Amp’s initiative to open an all-ages venue. The Chapel for the Performing Arts has been beautifully restored and is located directly across the street from Openheimer Park on Cordova and Dunlevy.

Surrounded by the disenfranchised residents of the surrounding area, and the sombre yet elegant architecture of the Chapel, the spectrum of have and have-nots was tangible. The smoke pit was partitioned from Cordova St. by a five-foot high gothic fence. Throughout the evening there was stream of working girls getting picked up not half a block from the venue’s entrance. Based on the nonchalance of the crowd, I would wager that most of the “under-aged” attendees had already been exposed to the street life of the DTES. As more and more development money comes into the Downtown Eastside, and wealthier patrons claim the territory as their own, an unrealistic perception that all of the sudden the area will

“clean up” is assumed. Either way, if Gastown is on the way to completing its gentrification project, then Oppenheimer Park is a clear indicator the Downtown Eastside still belongs to its residents.

Hailing a cab, typing a text clumsily or stooping around with a smoke outside the security of your venue’s walls, the chances are high that you will be solicited for some type of charity. What’s important to understand is that we are tourists drawn to the area by a trendy nightlife scene. The Chapel may not be an ideal location for a permanent all-ages venue, but the sooner Vancouverites are exposed to the plights of people living in this trendy area, the sooner we can think of ways to give back to the community.

Is there a long-term solution for urban trendies and the longtime residents of the DTES to coexist? I’d like to think so, but I’m going to pass the buck and hope that some person brighter than myself is enlightened enough to find a clever way of including the hosts of our recreation with the abundance of our lifestyles. In the meantime, I will continue what I like to consider “field studies” inside and out of pints at The Alibi Room. Provecho.

humans ASSIMILATION IN THE AMAZON Christine Janke Columnist ×

Christine Janke is the kind of soul that cares for all of the ones around her. Her education in Human Rights from Malmo University in Sweden has allowed her to look at the world in a different light. Her Humans column will delve into human rights, and how Canada is in comparison to the world. × Crystal Lee

47 issue N o . 07

cently seen several tribes displaced by force and assimilated into Colombian culture because of illegal cocaine traffickers. As a response to this problem, the Colombian government doubled the size of land occupied by two tribes living in the south of the country. Even still, indigenous tribes are bound to find themselves in the way of traffickers and resource extractors helping themselves to the abundance of natural resources in the Amazon.

These people deserve to have their right to life protected, and like every other indigenous cultural group under threat of assimilation or extinction, the right to life comes down to land rights. The only way to preserve and sustain a vulnerable culture is to give it space, and leave it in peace. I only hope those tribes in the Amazon are luckier than the indigenous tribes and people of North America, and that they see a better future. One cannot help but see history continuing to repeat itself as the land, essentially the life, of many people living in the Amazon is seized illegally and all for profit. Once again, it is time for human life to take precedence over private wealth, and the protection of un-contacted tribes becomes a priority for governments and especially the South American community.

volume

“the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the Amazon and the world.”

In Peru, the greatest biodiversity of any nature reserve in the world can be found in the now protected Manú National Park, inhabited by several tribes. In Colombia, nearly half of its Amazon region is designated for national parks, spreading 14.8 million acres. Resguardos, which are private reserves owned by the indigenous peoples, span 66.7 million acres. In 2011, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed new legislations guaranteeing “the rights of un-contacted indigenous peoples… to remain in that condition and live freely according to their cultures on their ancestral lands.” Through granting land reserves and even affirming the indigenous Amazonian’s right to life, government attempts seem to be headed in the right direction.

The harsh reality is that such promises have failed. In Peru, ecotourism brings outsiders into the Amazon where they can stare at these indigenous peoples' reclusive existence, like animals to a tourist on a safari. One of countless incidents in 2012 was when illegal logging inside Peru’s Manú National Park displaced a group of Mashco-Piro Indians from their traditional forest. The unpoliced Colombian region of the Amazon has re-

×

language is all under threat from resource extraction from within their lands.

Helplessly, these groups have watched their forests and their lands not only shrink in size, but go through utter destruction before their very eyes.

Apart from the trauma of losing homes and becoming displaced, the tragedy of clear-cut logging in itself must be a traumatic experience as tribes in the Amazon are quite spiritual people with very strong beliefs regarding the connection between nature and humans. Finding themselves amongst outside humans and cut-blocks, they have continued to flee deeper into the Amazon Rainforest for protection and escape.

Their only hope for survival is their land. Uncontacted, indigenous tribes need to be respected, especially in cases where the damage of assimilation has not yet been accomplished, such as in the Amazon of South America. Ignored for decades by government bodies, unwilling to respond to the indigenous need for protection, measures have finally been taken towards helping indigenous populations.

In 1987, Brazil’s Indian Agency, FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio), set apart a piece of land called the Javari Valley Indigenous Land.

FUNAI reports that this region of land contains

the capilano courier

It's baffling to realize that there are still humans who are living self-sufficient, nomadic, and autonomous lives – entirely separate from outside society and influence. These are indigenous people who have resisted the hand of colonialism and maintained their traditional lifestyle at all and any cost. Sadly and unsurprisingly, their unique ways of living are under threat from the outside world.

The world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, is home to the largest number of un-contacted tribes.

By choice or not, some have maintained contact with the outside world for almost 500 years. Like other indigenous peoples around the world, they assimilated but saw an increase in poverty, alcoholism, unemployment, or dependence upon tourism. Others continue to remain having no contact at all, and from what little we know, seem to be living in happy, healthy communities. Unfortunately today, an increasing amount of illegal logging, mining, oil and gas exploration, as well as cattle ranching, has meant an increase in encounters between indigenous peoples of the Amazon and outsiders. This increase in contact with the outside world is a direct threat to the existence of such cultures as the process of assimilation begins slowly but ends quickly. Their human right to life, their right to preserve their heritage, culture, and

7

Columns

COLUMNS EDITOR

× LEAH SCHEITEL

EDITOR@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

gastronome's dilemma ONE TO MANY FATAL HARVESTS Scott Moraes × Columnist

Scott Moraes once picked out what kind of food we ate at an office lunch and it took over three hours to arrive. He loves and tends to his food with passion normally reserved for loved ones and cute things. In this column, he explains why he cares about his food, and why you should too.

× Cathy Mithmeuangneua

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

Walking through any well-supplied supermarket will give the average shopper an illusion of plenty.

There appears to be such a daunting range of fruits and vegetables that most of us can't even claim to have tried them all. In reality, uniformity – not variety – is the current ruler of the food world.

In an authoritative report called “What is happening to Agrobiodiversity,” the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that since the beginning of the 20th century, “some 75 per cent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have left their multiple local varieties for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties.” That report was published in 2004, and that percentage is likely to have climbed even higher. The FAO also cites nine major crops (wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybean, and sugar) as supplying over three quarters of the world's food energy. Genetic varieties within those crops have also severely decreased. The same report indicated terrifying losses in animal breeds. “In Europe, half of the livestock breeds that existed at the beginning of the century have become extinct and a third of the remaining 770 breeds are in danger. Almost 20 per cent of breeds in the developing world are at risk,” the report reads.

8

Since the beginnings of agriculture, people have exercised some form of genetic influence over plants and animals, by selecting which mutations to save and proliferate – like natural selection, with a little helping hand. This, essentially, expanded biodiversity worldwide by establishing several different genetic strains suited to different environments. Renowned Indian activist and author Vandana Shiva wrote that “variety in crop plants is what protects against the vagaries of a changing environment.”

The laws of economics and globalization dictate that high yield and low costs take precedence over biodiversity. Monocultures, the common choice of industrial agriculture, are an open invitation for trouble, since pests can affect crops on a much larger scale. This leads to an ever-growing use of pesticides, as well as a drive to genetically engineer high-yielding and pest-resistant varieties. These inbred and lab-designed seeds are then patented (which makes it illegal to save the seeds as they are, traditionally) and spread, aggravating the biodiversity loss. Examples of the dangers abound – the notorious 1845 Irish potato famine was caused by a blight that affected and wiped out one dominant potato variety. A corn blight in 1970 in the United States also caused about $1 billion in crop losses.

More recently, in 2000, the U.S. ordered a massive recall of genetically engineered corn, Starlink corn, when it was found in the food system although it had not been approved for human consumption.

According to the essay collection The Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, close to 90 per cent of genetic varieties of tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and lettuce have been lost since the early 1900s. The loss of sweet corn varieties is particularly troubling, since it is flirting with extinction. In Mexico, home of most corn varieties anywhere in the world, concerns grow around the introduction of genetically-modified American varieties, which could affect biodiversity through gene flow (“contaminating” local strains by crossbreeding) and through economic pressure – since local varieties cannot compete with the prices of the high yielding varieties.

Some will argue that we don't miss the Dodos, and likewise won't miss hundreds or thousands of edible species or varieties as long as we're still getting enough food to survive. But that is beside the point. Without exaggeration and with full semantic awareness, we could say that we have depleted nearly all of our food items, and continue to dangerously alter the natural genetic composition of those that remain.

Sustainable Solutions for the Global Marketplace.

Our BBA in Sustainability and International Business enables you to complete your third and fourth year full time on-campus. You’ll build an international network while learning with like-minded students from around the globe, with real-world guidance from expert instructors. We’re ready when you are: 1.877.778.6227.

life.changing

royalroads.ca/bba

Luckily, not all have stood idly by. The Slow Food movement has maintained a project called The Ark of Taste since 1996, “created to point out the existence of [threatened] products, draw attention to the risk of their extinction within a few generations, [and] invite everyone to take action to help protect them.” In total, the Ark now counts over 1200 products on board. Canadian products such as Saskatoon berries, Montreal melons, and Nodding onions are “on board” the ark, along with 14 others.

While its intentions are definitely good, the Ark of Taste cannot itself protect its threatened products and keep them from going over the extinction threshold. If we are to regain access to clean and natural, as opposed to engineered, food we need to sacrifice the dream of limitless economic growth and rethink our priorities.

Read more about the Ark of Taste project at Slowfoodfoundation.com/ark

FEATURES

FEATURES EDITOR ×

THERESE GUIEB

S P E C I A L F E AT U R E S . C A P C O U R I E R @ G M A I L . C O M

STUDY DRUGS: PUTTING THE HIGH IN HIGHER LEARNING THERES A NEW GROUP OF DOPERS IN TOWN, AND THEY’RE DOING IT FOR THE GRADES Kiera Obbard × Fulcrum - University of Ottawa × Cheryl Swan OTTAWA (CUP) - For many university students, the demands of academic life are stressful to say the least. To cope, some of us turn to liquor, chocolate, coffee, or cigarettes. Some of us take caffeine pills to stay awake, sleeping pills to fall asleep, or anxiety pills to stabilize our frayed nerves. We’ll try anything to get us through our degree – especially if it gets us an A. For more and more students, this list includes academic doping.

A new way to study

*Name has been changed —With files from Tori Dudys

47 issue N o . 07

Nonetheless statistics seem to indicate that recreational use of Adderall and Ritalin on college and university campuses is on the rise.

For anyone who’s seen the movie Limitless, the pros of academic doping seem clear: you pop a little pill and your brain is working at maximum capacity for the next few hours, allowing you to achieve that A+ grade, excel at work, and clean your apartment all without getting tired. Surely, there must be a number of potentially positive benefits to taking brain-enhancing drugs.

But taking ADHD medication, even in the short term, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

“Taking stimulant medication without a prescription can be very dangerous,” says Rogers.

“Large doses of stimulants can lead to psychosis, seizures, and other serious medical problems.

When combined with alcohol, stimulants may create a sensation of less drunkenness and euphoria, which can lead to excessive drug and alcohol consumption, possibly resulting in overdose.”

Taking stimulant medication illegally can lead to a number of negative side effects, including insomnia, anxiety, depression, strokes, and diarrhea.

Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin are habit-forming drugs and can lead to addictions. Adderall has even been labeled a gateway drug that can lead users to harder drugs like cocaine.

For example, in February the New York Times reported on 24-year-old Richard Fee from Virginia Beach, Va., who hung himself in his bedroom closet due to an Adderall addiction. He became addicted to an ADHD drug in college and after spending a week in a psychiatric hospital in 2011 he committed suicide a few weeks after his prescription expired.

Is academic doping simply another way to give yourself an advantage in a time when, due to economic instability, every advantage counts? Or is it immoral, dangerous, and even a form of cheating?

Keays believes the argument is two-tiered. He says that on one hand, people who use study drugs still have to write their own papers and study to learn the material to pass an exam.

“On the other hand,” he says, “people are gaining a competitive advantage by using something that’s not available to everyone. But you could say the same thing about students who can’t afford a tutor or have less time to study because they need to work.”

U of O regulations on academic fraud, which contain clauses on items such as plagiarism, falsifying research data, and “any other action for the purpose of falsifying an academic evaluation,” cites a number of punishments for infractions. These include a failing grade on an assignment, a failure in a course, loss of credits for the academic year, expulsion from the U of O for at least three years, and even the revocation of a degree. There are currently no explicit rules against taking nonprescription study aid drugs in these regulations.

For Sampson, academic doping has never been an ethical issue, but just another way to study and efficiently complete the necessary hours of homework for students.

“I’ve never considered it cheating, simply using my time effectively,” she says. “Why would I spend 10 days writing a paper when I could spend 10 hours?”

While the ethics behind academic doping remain unclear, the reasons students are taking study drugs are a little more straightforward.

“I think some people are going to try to get any advantage they can,” says Keays. “Getting into a graduate program can be very important and extremely competitive. Faced with that kind of pressure I can completely understand why people would take drugs if they thought it could raise their GPA a few points.”

Until universities start moving towards a better work-life balance, or start implementing antiacademic doping policies, or administering urine tests at the beginning of exams, the decision to take brain-enhancing drugs is ultimately up to the individual.

volume

Given how difficult it is to maintain a high average in university, and given students’ propensity to attend school full-time, volunteer, and work all at once, the use of ADHD medication as a study aid is on the rise in both the U.S. and Canada.

Although the statistics may seem minimal, Rogers contends there are other dangerous facts collected from studies on academic doping.

“While it is most prevalent on university and college campuses, it is now being seen in high school students as well, which is very alarming,” she says. “Although we don’t know for sure how students are getting their hands on these prescription medications, it is most likely from friends who have been prescribed the drug, or from someone who has stolen the medication illegally.”

Since study drugs aren’t over-the-counter, students who use the drugs recreationally without a prescription can get in serious legal trouble if they are caught using or distributing. Sampson got the

There are consequences

Is it moral?

×

How common is academic doping?

It's against the law

drugs mainly from dealers, but also from friends with prescriptions.

Amphetamines and methylphenidates are currently controlled under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), Canada’s federal drug control statute. The Act states, “Except as authorized under the regulations, no person shall possess a substance included in Schedule I, II or III.” Methylphenidates are listed as Schedule III drugs, which means they require a prescription or license for legal possession. The maximum punishment for possession of a methylphenidate such as Ritalin is up to three years imprisonment.

Under Bill C-10, commonly known as the Safe Streets and Communities Act passed by Parliament in March 2012 to make amendments to the CDSA, amphetamines like Adderall are listed as Schedule I drugs and have a maximum punishment of seven years imprisonment for possession without a prescription.

the capilano courier

Academic doping is a term that refers to the use of brain-enhancing drugs such as amphetamine and methylphenidate in order to improve mental alertness, focus, or information retention. Academic dopers who use these drugs are doing so without a prescription.

Dr. Maria Rogers, an assistant professor and the director of the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Development Lab at the University of Ottawa, notes that drugs such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Concerta are typically used to treat ADHD, a disorder that affects approximately five per cent of university-aged adults.

“Although there are slight differences in how the various ADHD medications work, they all essentially work the same way,” says Rogers. “[They] increase levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain that allow people to concentrate and focus better.”

For people with ADHD, these medications give an extra boost to calm the mind and focus on the task at hand. For those without ADHD, Ritalin (or methylphenidate, a psycho-stimulant drug) and Adderall (a mild form of speed also used to treat narcolepsy), sharpen the brain and give an extra boost while studying for a killer exam or finishing off a research paper.

Recent University of Ottawa graduate Pamela Sampson* says she often used Adderall, Ritalin, Vyvanse, and Concerta during her time at school to get through essays and while studying for exams. She compares the feeling of taking drugs to ecstasy, with an added sensation of intense focus.

“Physically, I felt like I was extremely anxious and it drove me to chain smoke constantly,” she says. “However, I have never felt so productive or focused in my life. Large doses are a comparable feeling to other recreational stimulants such as MDMA, but surprisingly my mental capacity was enhanced despite the anxiety.”

In 2011, the National Post published an article, which cited a survey conducted by McGill University of 400 students. The results suggested that 5.4 per cent of participants had used “study drugs” like Ritalin or Adderall for cognitive enhancement at least once in their academic careers. In the same year Maclean’s blogger Scott Dobson-Mitchell followed suit, posting information on academic doping and questioning the merit of using nonprescription ADHD medication to get ahead academically.

Though the issue is reported more frequently in the news, the majority of students didn’t necessarily participate or even know about academic doping. Peter Keays, an economics and psychology student at Carleton University, says that academic doping isn’t exactly running rampant on university campuses.

“I don’t know of anyone that is taking study drugs,” he says. “Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t happen. People aren’t exactly open about that sort of thing. You certainly hear rumours of people using them.”

There has been a recent focus on the abuse of study drugs on Canadian campuses, like at the University of British Columbia and Western University. The Vancouver Sun and CBC have reported on students who wanted an edge during their studies. According to Rogers, however, there is currently limited research on the use of study drugs at the U of O. “I have heard about [them] being used by University of Ottawa students during exam time, but we don’t have any statistics on our campus specifically,” she said. “Research done in other parts of Canada and the U.S. has shown that anywhere from seven to 15 per cent of university students engage in academic doping.”

“Almost every student I know has used them at some point,” she says. “And all the dealers sell out around exam time, so I assume a ton of people on campus do them as well.”

9

FEATURES

FEATURES EDITOR ×

THERESE GUIEB

S P E C I A L F E AT U R E S . C A P C O U R I E R @ G M A I L . C O M

Cheating Charity

× ON the Cover Vivian Liu Vivian Liu is a student in her 3rd year of the IDEA Program. Her skills and her creative mind are a concoction that result in beautifully crafted works. She has a lovely graphic touch and her contributions to the Courier this year have been a hit. You go girl!

DO PROFITS FROM BREAST CANCER FUNDRAISERS GO ENTIRELY TO RESEARCH?

Rana Sowdaey × Writer

Fundraising for breast cancer charities is a purely disorganized political affair. If you haven't heard, much less of your donations to the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) over the past years have been going less towards research. In fact, nothing on this information is hidden and there's no conspiracy.

This is just how the system surrounding breast cancer charities work. It's a corporate, competitive, and profit-driven system.

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

The Financial Statement

10

“Most scientists don't realize that the budget has been going up and up, and donations have been growing, but the budget for research has been shrinking,” said McMaster University researcher, Brian Lichty. He argued that “scientists will be surprised and disappointed when they find out that this is the case and the trend.”

The story initially broke out in 2011 when CBC investigated the available financial statements on the CCS organization website. Over the last 10 years, fundraising was on a rise while expenses put into research declined. CBC found that CCS is able to raise more money each year, but “the proportion of the money spent on research dropped dramatically from 40.3 per cent in 2000 to under 22 per cent in 2011.” The 2012 CCS budget states that $73,490 goes to programs, $60,803 to fundraising, $47,434 to research, $8,773 to advocacy, and $7,283 goes to administration.

The CCS report reads that the advocacy budget goes toward the activities that relate to “influencing policy makers to implement public policies and programs that enable adoption of healthy behavior.” The program budget involves promoting health for Canadians and support patients while the research budget is created to “support cancer risk reduction, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.”

But not all organizations are as transparent. Samantha King’s book, Pink Ribbon Inc., states that the money earned from fundraising is put towards most research groups, but pharmaceutical companies contribute more to the money.

“My friend's mom had breast cancer for the second time in 2010. Since then, I've donated maybe $200. I don't know if I would have donated if I knew so much is going to fundraising,” says Capilano University student, Aramesh Atash.

While CCS claims that it's conscious of its partner members, King shows evidence that many corporations are misleading consumers by using the pink ribbon on its products. In the documentary Pink Ribbon Inc. directed by Léa Pool, it is said that “Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns.”

Lack of coordination and transparency among

× Vivian Liu

groups and organizations did not allow for the development of a unified mission. From the beginning, the network was unstable, without a unified and responsible group. King explains in Pink Ribbon Inc. that there was never meant to be one.

Philanthropy Politics At the U.S. business conference in 1981, Ronald Reagan gave a speech that would shape social issues onwards while constituting as strong contributing factor to the economy. The Pink Ribbon Inc. pointed out that the speech enabled to change policies and government – social balance of power.

“Volunteer activities and philanthropy play a role as well as economic incentives and investment opportunities,” said Reagan. “To be certain we're talking about Americans’ deep spirit of generosity.

But we're also talking about a buck for business that helps to solve our social ills. With the same energy that Franklin Roosevelt sought government solutions to problems, we will seek private solutions,” he said.

King noted that Reagan introduced explicitly the policy designed to shift responsibility of all health care and concerns away from government and towards the private organizations.

Thirty years later, women are drawn into the breast cancer culture of pink shirts, pink hats, free juice, and concerts. Women are coming together in an inspiring and empowering way to fight against the struggles that come with breast cancer. The documentary noted that by coming together in this way, women strive to oppose oppression and anger. But Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action, Barbara Brenner argued against the point. “I think if people knew what was really happening they would be really pissed off, they should be,” she said. People are consuming products embedded with the pink ribbon symbol because they believe that, in buying these products, they are doing something good. Brenner and the San Franciscobased group urge women to read the fine print of the special promotions before buying the product.

Companies put the pink ribbon on their products to raise money and awareness for breast cancer, but the fine print showing the donation claims that sometimes not every profit is being donated.

The group started a campaign called Think Before You Pink, which urges women to ask how much of the price of a special product actually goes to research projects. In one promotion, King noted that “a company promised to donate 10 cents from every container of pink ribbon labeled yogurt sold during a period. Only those who read the fine print learned the donation was capped at $80,000, so every sale after that went straight to

the company's bottom line.”

The group also said that some companies who wear the pink ribbon products actually sell products linked to cancer. A yogurt brand for example, made with dairy products from cows is treated with bovine growth hormone – a product linked, by many studies, to the development of breast cancer. Showing support for breast cancer is good for business and is successful with a consumer. Cancer research student from the University of Toronto, Jennifer Tat, states that she was only vaguely aware of the conflict surrounding the CCS investing more money into fundraising. “I think those organizations should be giving more directly to research institutes for sure,” says Tat. She explains that “it's not easy to show [the public] how much our work is doing.” Like various organizations relying on funding and grants, Tat noted that what gives work to the most number of people will sometimes be the focus of the operation. CCS is, after all, home to work for over 1000 people.

Other-Cancer Awareness October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. People are currently running for a cure, jumping for hope, and walking for campaigns for awareness.

“These campaigns are about awareness, but awareness of what?” said King. Studies have shown that Canadian women are very aware of the treatment of breast cancer and of the need for self-exams – so aware that most overestimate the treatment of the disease. So much awareness, in fact, that more life-threatening cancers are being ignored. The top four life threatening in Canada are pancreatic, stomach, lung and colorectal cancer. According to a report done by the group Charity Intelligence, breast cancer accounts for half of all cancer donations in Canada. These top threatening cancers account for less than two per cent of charity funding.

The horror of this part of the story is that those people affected by deadliest cancers, like pancreatic cancer, do not get the chance to speak out about their cause because they simply don't live long enough to do so.

Karen Greve Young, co-author of the report and cancer research analyst said, “Breast, leukemia, childhood cancers ask loudly and frequently, whereas other cancers like pancreatic, stomach, lung, and colorectal don't have a voice.” Young said that, in addition to raising the most charitable or individual donations of all cancers, breast cancer is also the most funded by institutions.

Canada has over 85,000 registered charities. Terry Fox, Heart and Stroke, and Movember are just a few examples. Some are local, others national or international. Donating local often means mak-

ing the best of a donation, minimal costs go to administration and fundraising.

Boobies Campaign Many people think that focusing on breasts themselves undermines the cause. It's inappropriate − according to some – to try to make a disease sexy.

The “booby bracelet” has been banned in some schools because they believe it helps break the taboo around the disease, which makes it easier for people to talk about breast cancer and share stories. In Philadelphia, two students and their middle school went to court over their suspension for wearing “I (heart) boobies” bracelets. It was ruled in court that the bracelet was acceptable to be worn in school. The other charity group, who manages to lightheartedly focus on some body part to raise money for cancer, is Movember. There's little controversy with the group as mustaches don't allude to undermine feminism, nor are they as explicitly “sexy” as breasts.

Another controversial campaign by the charity linked to cervical cancer, called Julyna, promotes Brazilian waxing to raise funding and awareness.

Ladies are invited to fundraise from friends and family and are encouraged to choose a cool design.

In another cautionary tale of breast cancer charities called “Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture undermines Women's Health,” author Gayle Sulik argued that these messages and sexual innuendos create, what the Globe and Mail described as “a muted version of awareness.” They exploit the actual issue, which is a life-threatening disease. Maybe not related to one another at all, but still, is it really that far from raising awareness?

No one can deny that breast cancer charities originally bring to mind lovely moms in jogging pants and the pursuit of hope, let alone the fight for life. Over 59,000 women die from breast cancer each year. At least 450 women in North America are diagnosed with breast cancer every day. We all know someone who has been affected and it's for this reason that the core issue has been overlooked.

King brought to light the point that the corporations are taking serious advantage of consumers, fundraisers, and the good people affected by the disease. Now, it's on us to be conscious of the difference between marketing and what we like to call a good cause.

BUSK IT OR BUST IT VANCOUVER’S STREET MUSICIANS STRIVE TO ENTERTAIN DESPITE MULTIPLE BY-LAWS

Romila Barryman × Jana Vanduin

× Writer

No matter what the weather is outside, the music still continues. Guitar chords echo down Robson and vocals fill up the SeaBus bridge. Be it in the middle of frigid winter, golden crisp fall or t-shirt wearing summers, these street entertainers that can be heard throughout the city. Known as buskers, these musically inclined individuals are frequently found performing in various skytrain stations and street corners all year round, and have taken it upon themselves to ensure that there is always an upbeat chord every few blocks.

DONT STOP ME NOW

AMPLIFY MY WORLD, NOT TOO MUCH THOUGH

A VANCOUVERITE'S APPLAUSE

volume

47 issue N o . 07

“Artistic and cultural life is integral to Granville Island’s creative environment as it encourages performers to showcase their craft,” states the initial page of the busking regulations at Granvilleislandbuskers.com. The 2013 Busking Program for Granville Island guideline continues to outline etiquette and management of sound and legalities.

This is one of the many guidelines that express the intent of support the community has towards street entertainment in Vancouver.

Performing on such a public stage can have its safety risks as well. “It's a bit different being a girl and different being by myself,” admits Anarson.

“There are people who can't take a hint.” One incident involved a homeless man who shouted

profanities at Anarson during her performance.

“He was very drunk,” she recalls, “someone else saw and went and got security.” Other incidents include uninvited flirtatiousness. “I keep the conversation flowing and handle them as professional as possible. If it gets past what I can stand, that’s when I’ll call a TransLink officer.”

Although Vancouver’s streets become quieter during the winter season, meeting the financial goals set up for the buskers is not impossible. “I’ve covered a lot of my debt through busking,” says Lennox, “I guess you could say it’s like bartending money.” He informs that he makes $4,000 dollars through performances in the months of September and October alone. “It's all about flow,” Anarson explains, “I can't expect to make the same amount everyday. So, I'll do songs people don't expect, like ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ by Kid Cudi.

I do a cover of 'Hallelujah' and I make it reggae,” Anarson continues. “In the winter and fall, I'll play more covers and songs that are upbeat and make people happy.” To the performers that fill streets and stations with entertainment year round, the support from Vancouverites is not a seasonal one.

“We definitely make more in summer, there are more tourists, but you can make good money in the winter,” says Lennox.

Though there are several challenges in being a busker, Anarson finds that Vancouverites are sufficiently supportive. In a comparison to busking in Salmon Arm, she notes that the small town attitude is not so different despite the big city feel Vancouver has. “As far as being a girl and being vulnerable, it's all about how you talk to people,” she says. “Being forceful and being assertive helps me get by.” Anarson admits that Vancouverites have helped her get by tough situations whenever she performs. “Other people will come up and help me and people are very supportive. If I'm alone and someone is harassing me they won't just turn the other cheek, you know,” she explains.

×

The standards around busking are regulated by city by-laws. One of the most contested by-laws in place for buskers is their ability to amplify their instruments or vocals. New regulations introduced in the year 2013-2014 are restrictions surrounding bagpipes and amplified flutes. These instruments were initially banned by Granville Island and the City of Vancouver. But recently, revisions have taken place which allows the instruments to be played. Officials expressed that the addition of the two instruments have been revised to establish diversity and a range of acts.

The by-law regulating volume of performers is currently set to a limit of 70 decibels. Instruments that can create their own sound (such as vocals, guitars, accordions, etc.) are not permitted to be played with amplification. “It’s like conversation level,” says Sons of Granville guitarist, Matthew Lennox, “asking a performer to do that is like ask-

ing an artist to paint within the lines.” As a result, many buskers are found breaking the regulations in order to be able to perform their art. Most recently, drumming circle, Kutapira, was banned from busking by the City of Vancouver after numerous complaints by surrounding businesses.

“You can perform on a level that you can be heard with amplification and not cause disturbances,” states Anarson. “I personally think that the decibel level should be raised to at least 85,” explains Lennox. Another TransLink officer, who wanted to rename nameless, expresses that the general noise levels with buskers rarely cause disturbances to transit users. “If it gets to a point where I can’t hear my radio over them, that’s when I have to tell them to turn it down,” he explains.

However, exceptions have been made for instruments prohibited from amplification. Lennox successfully obtained permission from the City of Vancouver to amplify the instruments used in Sons of Granville, after arriving back from Europe. He compared busking laws and regulations abroad to plea his case. “They initially denied my request,” he continues, “I called them back thoroughly explained my reasons, and they made an exception.

I haven’t gotten a single complaint.”

the capilano courier

If you’ve ever seen a busker jamming outside, you may have noticed a white card propped up alongside their musical instrument that showcases a headshot and general information of the performer. Various licenses can be obtained through the City of Vancouver, Granville Island, and TransLink. The City of Vancouver calls these licenses Street Entertainment Permits. For performers choosing to showcase their talent on the streets, a maximum of three people can make up a busking group and valid permits must be on hand by every individual performing. Performers go through an audition process where they are then issued a license to perform in the street around the city if they are accepted.

Of the three choices to obtain busking licenses, TransLink has been the oldest supporter of the art form in Vancouver. It was as far as Expo 86 that the transit company allowed various performances throughout different platforms and stations.

Among hundreds of buskers, only 40 are selected to play each year. The audition process takes place in front of a panel of judges, as well as performers competing for the same licensing. Upon selection, the 12-month permit for the license is a total of $75. “I make that up within the first day of busking. It’s a very fair price,” says busker Keanna Anarson. TransLink buskers also have the upside of being sheltered during performances throughout various stations. “Number one, you're inside away

from the cold and it's a constant flow of people,” she continues, “Second, when you're busking on the street and you ask someone when they’re going to be done and they can go 'Oh, whenever I feel.'” However, a TransLink officer, who chose to be unidentified for privacy reasons, states that the mutual understanding between TransLink buskers is very high when it comes to respecting the scheduled performance times and audience-interaction etiquette. “These are unwritten rules between buskers who have licenses with us,” he explains.

Licenses on Granville Island go through the same process of auditioning as the City of Vancouver and TransLink. Licenses are revoked through a three hole-punch system. This means that any manner of disrespect and disobedience of regulations result in one-hole punch on permits of performers. At three hole-punches, the busker’s license is then revoked. Although reapplying for future licenses is allowed, if the performers are granted a new card, the conditions around the license are more rigid.

11

cap calendar Monday 21

Tuesday 22

Wednesday 23

Thursday 24

Friday 25

@capcourier

Capilanocourier.com

@capilanocourier

New Zealand Meets Asia

Deer Tick

P!nk

Art For Thought Exhibit

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden 6:30 pm $89

Rickshaw Theatre 9:30 pm $20.00

Rogers Arena 7:30 pm $40 - $125

Roundhouse Community Centre 9 am – 10 pm $ - free

For those of you who are totally irresponsible with the sum of your student loan and refuse to make yourself Kraft dinner night after night, a collection of Asian restaurants in terminal city pair up with New Zealand wines for an evening of pairing and tasting. At this rate, you should probably just get your education in spirits and Szechuan.

Alt-country band, Deer Tick, got its name when frontman John McCauley found a deer tick — known for spreading lyme disease — on his scalp after a wilderness hike. Funny, because hearing Deer Tick’s folksy-twang and McCauley’s Waitslike growl is the exact soundtrack to inspire a walk into the wilderness. Warning: may cause phantom itch.

Originally known for her shock of short, pink hair and hit tune “There You Go” in the early 2000s, American pop-rock singer-songwriter Alecia Beth Moore has since become a total snooze. Arguably, the most entertaining things she’s done is get burned on an episode of Punk’d. You go Ashton!

What exactly is a “bright, green future”? Explore the Art for Thought exhibit to determine what sustainability, environmental footprint and eating locally means to you at the Roundhouse, as part of the Sustenance Festival. Blackboard provided to write down your green ideas.

Shindig 2013

Architecture + Design: Film Night

Vancouver Writers Fest

Bonobo

The Railway Club 9:30 pm $5

Hollywood Theatre (3123 West Broadway) 7:30 pm $ - by donation

Granville Island All day $17 - $33

The Commodore Ballroom 8 pm $26.50

CiTR’s annual 13 week battle of the bands style competition continues at the Railway Club.

Showcasing Mi'ens, The Slough, and Zen Mystery Fogg. Three bands, free prizes, questionable tasting beer. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Showing in the recently re-painted historic Hollywood Theatre, Vancouver Heritage Foundation presents Pruitt Igoe Myth, a 2011 film with themes of architecture and design. This evening is one of four nights to play host to Architecture and Design: Film Nights at the Hollywood. There will also be concession snacks by donation.

The Vancouver Writers Fest kicks off on Granville Island. Featuring readings, performances, interviews and discussions with award-winning and emerging writers from around the world— there is something for everyone. This year’s festival includes Margaret Atwood, Joseph Boyden, Anne Michaels and Colin Mochrie.

DJ Simon Green takes his stage name, Bonobo, from an endangered pygmy chimpanzee specific to the regions of the Congo. Green’s funky brand of trip-hop proves to be as rare and endangered as the animal he takes his name from. See for yourself this evening at the Commodore Ballroom.

Pumpkin Carving Party

Heart of the City Festival

The Blow

The Hound of the Baskervilles

CapU Cafteria 1 pm $ - free

Carnegie Community Centre Theatre 2 pm to 3 pm $ - free

Electric Owl 9 pm $15.00

Newton Cultural Centre 7:30 PM $10-25

7 Leaders and SuperFriends are hosting pumpkin carving in the cafeteria from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Come carve pumpkins in the cafeteria in preparation for the Halloween Carnival on Friday, Oct. 25. Pumpkins supplied! It’s free and everyone is welcome.

To celebrate the East Van festival’s 10th anniversary, an abundance of events are kicking off all over the city, including drum circles, films, talkumentaries and dance troupes. The opening ceremony will host Sam George of the Squamish First Nation, with multiple acts to follow.

I still can’t get the Blow’s song “True Affection” out of my head, and it’s been at least six years since its release. Admittedly, none of their other material ever really stood up to the standard of that one song, but I would pay $15 just to hear them play it once, and then leave. “I was out of your league, and you were 20,000 underneath the sea…” pure genius.

Bad Dog Productions presents director Ellie King's version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story about Sherlock Holmes and a mysterious case involving a spectral hound. Adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson.

Judge Dee's Chinatown Haunted House

CocoRosie

Savour Festival

John Cleese

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden 7-10 pm $12

Venue 9:30 pm $25.00

Lonsdale Quay Market All day $ - free

The Vogue Theatre 8 pm $75

Seven Tyrants Theatre presents a haunted house featuring more than 12 actors, dancers, and musicians who create a one-of-a-kind experience inspired by the gruesome stories of Judge Dee. Absolutely not suitable for children, or bitch-ass whiners.

Labelled as freak-folk and experimental, Bianca and Sierra Casady are the French-American sisters that make up CocoRosie. With five albums under the band’s belt, the sisters’ sound can still be pretty hard to describe – but they scratch a musical itch you never knew you had.

Delight your senses at Savour, Lonsdale Quay Market's food and beverage festival. Explore the array of fine foods and experts who prepare them, from locally grown produce to imported delicacies. Cooking demonstrations, guided market taste tours, and contests are among the activities at the festival. Free taste tour will begin at 5 p.m.

British comedy icon and Monty Python star performs six shows on his aptly-named Last Time to See Me Before I Die tour. Come see him and his bizzare British teeth, “Fawlty” sense of humour, and praise the Queen with the rest of the mudslapping peasants.

CapU Sports Time

Late Night Movie

Haunted Village

The Marvellous Real

CapU SportsPlex 8 pm to 11 pm $ - free admission

The Rio Theatre 11 pm $6 in costume, $8 without

Burnaby Village Museum & Carousel 6 pm - 9 pm $14

Museum of Anthropology 10 am – 5 pm $14.50 for students

SuperFriends, 7 Leaders, and Capilano Athletics and Recreation are throwing a Halloween Carnival! DRESS UP! Pumpkin Carving, Spin the wheel prizes, costume contest, mask/face painting, photo booth, and raffle prizes. All proceeds go to support charity.

Wes Craven’s 1978 cult classic, Halloween, is on the docket for this week’s installment of the Rio’s Late Night Movie. A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets is the original plot for the movie that’s been redone more times than Joan Rivers’ face.

Spirits be haunting, spectres be creeping, and banshees be wailing. Wear your ghostly garb and come join the fun. Dance at "The Bone Shaker Ball" on Main Street, savour tasty toes at the Butcher's Block Café, make a withdrawal at the Blood Bank and enjoy the Circus Sideshow and ride the carousel.

Museum Of Anthropology at UBC invites visitors on a twisting, mind-expanding journey with the Marvellous Real: Art from Mexico, 1926-2011.

Featuring works from luminary artist Frida Kahlo, Betsabeé Romero, Dr. Atl and more, this exhibition showcases Mexico’s magic realism.

Buffy the Musical

The Brick Games, Charity Lego Event

Thrill Vancouver 2013!

Blogging With Miss 604

The Cinematheque 8:45 pm $15

Langley Events Centre 10 am - 5 pm $30

The Roundhouse Community Centre 4 pm $ - by donation

West Vancouver Memorial Library 2 - 4 pm $ - free

Your favourite musical (other than Rocky Horror, of course) where you sit in a theatre and sing (along) towards moving images is back! A special late evening screening at the Pacific Cinémathèque! Since this is right before Hallowe'en, come as your favourite Slayer, vampire, or other Whendonverse character.

While driving out to Langley might be quite a stretch, this is the closest you’ll get to LegoLand without spending over $500. In a move for charity, set up and build Lego fortresses (or anything your imagination desires) in an all-day creativity contest. All children under 13 must have a parent/ guardian present with a spectator ticket.

Put Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on repeat and get ready for Vancouver's annual Thriller Dance.

Learn the dance online: grab your friends, your family, your neighbours and show up for Thrill Vancouver! Includes zombie make-up studio by Blanche MacDonald students for $10 to $40.

Local blogger and online-media specialist Rebecca Bollwitt, also known as Miss604, presents a discussion on blogging and the importance of social media in our world—especially helpful for any of your aspiring writer luddites.

Wonderland In Vancouver

Art Abandonment

Die Hard

Capilano Suspension Bridge

All over the city 1 pm - 8 pm $ - free but must register

UBC Learning Exchange 12 pm to 3 pm $ - free

CMT 6 pm $ - cost of cable

Capilano Suspension Bridge 9 am – 5 pm $29

Dress up as one of the characters from Wonderland, then arrive and join the other characters at any one of the seven city check points. Your character will be tasked to take part in photo missions. There will be reporters and photographers planted along the route. Photographers and bloggers will get access to the Flickr pool upon registration.

An afternoon of random acts of art! Be part of a community movement where you make art together and then go out to abandon the art at random places for random people to pick up and enjoy. If it’s really good, an art dealer might pick it up and sell it for what you wished you had.

After this week, I think the world has had enough of Halloween themed events. Curl up on the couch with some popcorn and get into the world’s favourite Christmas action movie, Die Hard. Yeah, it’s October. So what? Bruce Willis is a silver-fox all year round.

Stop spending all of your Sundays hungover and try something active for once in your 20s. Or, alternatively, if you are hungover, taking a rocky stroll over the Capilano Suspension Bridge is sure to activate your vertigo and make you puke. And won’t you feel better for it?

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

Saturday 26

with kristi

12

Sunday 27

A + C EDITOR ×

ANDY RICE

ARTS@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

arts + Culture live free or dye TIE DYE ARTIST COMMEMORATES COLOURFUL CAREER Andy Rice It’s 7:38 p.m. on Sept. 27 and a devoted crowd of Deadheads is rapidly filling up seats of the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. This night is number one of a three-day trip down memory lane for longtime fans of the Grateful Dead.

Rhythm guitarist-singer Bob Weir and bassist Phil Lesh have been honouring the band’s repertoire by performing together as Further since 2009. And while several of their former bandmates have passed on or dispersed to other projects in recent decades, one of the Dead’s most important contributors returned to celebrate a major milestone at those September concerts – tie dye artist Courtenay Pollock.

Pollock has been creating visuals for the band’s stage shows since meeting them by chance in 1970, and 2013 marks 30 years since his first stage backdrop was unfurled. How a curious hobbyist ended up revolutionizing the art of tie dye is a story in itself, but the series of uncanny coincidences that led Pollock toward a place in rock and roll history were, as he puts it, “really cosmic.” That particular anecdote begins in the city that never sleeps.

“I had a boutique head shop in Greenwich Village, New York back in the late ‘60s and that’s the first time I saw tie dye,” recalls Pollock from his home in Powell River. “I liked the way the colours swirled together... so I decided that when I had an opportunity I was going to try my hand at this craft.”

“I had composed a method in my head and it was a geometric folding and dipping technique that I applied,” he explains. “It turns out that it’s a unique approach and it had a unique result. And it was a hit right off with everybody that saw it. I couldn’t satisfy everybody’s demands for my work from the get go, so I knew I had something special and I continued with it.”

Within a month, a local boutique had heard of Pollock’s work and commissioned him to create a mandala, a graphic interpretation of the cosmos used for meditation. “I applied my philosophy to the construction of the mandala and when I finally completed it and opened it up it was a sensational effect, really psychedelic and brilliant,” he recalls.

“I kind of stuck with it. It became my thing.”

He soon found himself creating mobiles and stage backdrops for the Incredible String Band, a psychedelic folk group on tour from Scotland.

Then, after being invited to create the environment for the Stratton Arts Festival, Pollock headed to New England. “I was living on a commune by then, up in Vermont – a 500 acre farm – and we had this idyllic summer where I did the Stratton Arts Festival and the Eastern States Exposition and was the honorary guest at the government’s invitation dinner for the artists and craftsmen of New England,” he remembers. “And then suddenly our idyllic summer was up. Winter was coming on, it was going to be deathly cold up there, and so we all dispersed. I threw the I Ching – the Chinese oracle which was what I always consulted when I had a decision to make – and it said ‘fortune in west’ so I just jumped on a Greyhound bus and... got off in San Francisco.”

Wandering through the Haight-Ashbury district, Pollock soon found a kiosk for travellers and newcomers looking for accommodation. “I went in and said I wanted to live in the rolling green hills, kind of like where I’d just left.” The staff laughed, pointing out that Marin County, the neighborhood he was referring to, was where all the rich rock and rollers lived. But as fate would have it, the office received a call from a cottage owner in the area who was looking to rent a room.

Within minutes, Pollock was on another bus and heading off to meet his new landlord.

“I shared the house, it was brilliant low rent, and in the morning he was gone off to work,” he recalls. “I came out of my room and the house was empty, so I didn’t really know where I was geographically but I put a bag of tie dyes on my back and walked on down Nicasio Valley Road. I was kind of looking for a place where like-minded people might live... so I walk about a mile down the road and I look up this driveway and yep, you know, it looked like freaks lived there. I went up and banged on the door, [asking] ‘anybody want to see any of my tie dyes?’ This beautiful girl with a ring in her nose says ‘Yeah come on in, oh these are great, the guys should be back off the road any minute, and here they are.’ And these rowdies all tumble out of the trucks and storm through the house and stop in the middle of the room and look around at all this stuff hanging up and they go ‘Far out, man, you can do our speaker fronts.’ And there I was, doing speaker fronts for the Grateful Dead 24 hours after getting off the bus.”

Pollock would spend the next two decades working on the band’s visual presence – one that has come to define them almost as much as their

music, if not more. “It was a great marriage of visuals and music from the get go,” he says. “I came along at the right time when they were just ready to step onto the big stage and yeah, it took off like crazy. It added an ingredient that wasn’t there before.”

When the wall of sound era came in the 1980s, giving way to exposed amplifiers of greater numbers, Pollock shifted his focus from speaker fronts to giant stage backdrops. His latest project is a commemoration of one he designed for a 1983 performance at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. “It’s 30 years this year since I did the last big backdrop... and I called [Weir] up and proposed we do an anniversary issue. I put it together, financed it myself, and I still own the backdrop. Of course I get exposure, you know from getting to do a big project and having it showcased on stage in front of tens of thousands of people, but also it’s a thank you to the fans to whom I owe my living. They’re the people that buy my stuff still.”

Deadheads around the world know Pollock as “the backdrop guy”, and these days he sells his custom mandalas and t-shirts from an online store

on his website, Courtenaytiedye.com. His work on large backdrops resumed in 2010 after Weir requested one for Further’s American tour, and in June, Pollock began putting together his anniversary creation. He didn’t know it at the time, but it would be his biggest and best one yet.

“I was approaching it the way that I’d done all the other backdrops, with big squares of cloth,” he says, “but it wasn’t giving me the brilliance that I was looking for and I was limited by the heaviness.” In the end, he elected to use a type of cloth called Quilter’s Cotton Sateen and retooled his methods to accommodate its narrower width.

“It allowed me to re-approach everything without using squares of cloth... so it defined more what I was able to do design-wise. I had come up with an interesting folding design over the previous year which essentially I used... and of course I made everything bright colours, lots of multi-colours so that the lighting would have a lot of different effects and it would stand out. The bottom line is the fans still like the bright psychedelic effect.

That’s always been my ticket and it’s still the most popular.”

After “a couple of hundred hours” the piece was dyed, dried and finally complete. Then came the challenge of joining the 28 individual panels into one, a task Pollock outsourced to Best Films Studios in Vancouver. Industrial seamster and Capilano University student Ian Cox was the one to stitch it all together. “Ian actually did that sewing job single-handed in four hours flat,” says Pollock.

“I had [the panels] all labeled and stacked and I showed him a snapshot of what it looked like... and explained the labeling. He just confirmed it, took them out of the stack, zipped them together and bang, he was marvelous. I mean, that is a lot of yardage and then all the edging with all the tie loops and everything. He was so fast, and perfect straight lines -- not a wrinkle.”

Altogether, the backdrop measured 24 feet high by 60 feet wide. Folding it was a challenge, even in a large facility made for such projects, but eventually it was ready for transport. “A friend of mine, he’s a stage lighting guy, he came up and took it across the border and put it on the Further equipment truck,” says Pollock. “They gigged in Seattle on the way down to the Berkeley Greek... and he

met them at 7:30 in the morning on the Friday of the first gig. He helped them arrange the lighting and then hung the backdrop and then kept an eye on it throughout the weekend and then took it down, folded it up and brought it back up. The whole thing only weighed about 50 pounds.”

While Pollock didn’t personally make the trip to California to see his work that weekend, he enjoyed many photos and videos of it as they popped up online. Overall, he says he’s “satisfied” with how the project turned out. “It’s definitely the finest work I’ve done on a backdrop, but even though each panel is a good art panel on its own, the backdrop itself once it was assembled is definitely more than the sum of its parts. Everything has great dimensional effect and the overall look has quite a grandeur to it, kind of like an assemblage of psychedelic prayer rugs or something.”

Admitting that many words could easily describe the feeling one might get from decades of fond memories and the opportunity to live the dream all over again, Pollock chuckles before borrowing just one from the band’s name. “Grateful.”

× Arts + Culture Editor

× Matt Robertson the capilano courier

× volume

47 issue N o . 07

13

A+C

eco fashion week : fashionably responsible JUSTICE NEVER GOES OUT OF STYLE Katherine Gillard

× Carlo Javier

× News Editor

Sometimes, the cost of fashion goes deeper than the retail price seen in stores. The clothing industry is dictated by two simple characters: the consumers and the producers. It’s a “give the people what they want” system, and often, that demand overshadows every other facet of production. On the first day of the seventh annual Vancouver Eco Fashion Week, eyes were opened about some hidden truths about the ugly side of fashion. Using a string of slave labour controversies that were recently revealed about several major fashion retailers as a launching pad, speakers at a seminar on Oct. 6 delved into a collective need for more responsibility and transparency in the world of fashion.

SUPPLY THE DEMAND In order to meet the rapidly rising demand for the coolest and trendiest pieces of apparel, the biggest retailers in business favour the low-cost, highefficiency route of manufacturing. But just how fast are today’s major players in retail delivering their designs to stores? To put it in comparison, when Myriam Laroche, president and founder of Eco Fashion Week, started working in the industry 20 years ago, they delivered four times a year: in spring, summer, back to school, and on the holidays. Nowadays, demand is at the point where deliveries come every two weeks.

Esme Smith of People Footwear explains that despite high ethical intentions, sometimes the pressures of the deadline a company places on its designers and manufacturers become a little too much to bear. “You will work with factories that maybe you wouldn’t have worked with in the first place but you just have to get that product done on time,” he begins. “You don’t really even care at that point what it takes just to get it done because that is what head office is going to tell you... They don’t want to know where it’s getting made, they just want to get it done.”

In some factories across the globe, the pressures for a manufacturer to produce become so great that work conditions begin to breach human rights codes. These scenarios are only worsened when coupled with the increasing demand for lower retail prices. “Because our prices are being driven lower and lower and lower, they’re making very minimum wages, they’re not having enough money to provide for their families and care for their children and their education to actually break

the cycle of poverty,” says Tara Teng, Miss World Canada 2012 and human rights activist. According to Laroche, part of that problem stems from marketing. “David Beckham gets $60 million to just be on a poster and look pretty. We love him, super hot, no problem with that. But hey, $60 million to be on a poster,” she begins. “If a company pays that amount of money for one human being, how many other people are getting hurt? It’s about the reality on how much marketing is taking space in the windows.”

The Role of Consumerism “The new generation is so stimulated by what’s new,” says Laroche. “What’s trendy right now? Everything.” Consumerist behaviour isn’t stopping – if anything it’s only growing. “Zara is a force that no one can touch,” adds Smith. “They have 10,000 skews a year and from conception to retail floor they do it in two weeks. It’s crazy and they’re continuing to grow. Nobody can touch them and they’re one of the worst offenders when it comes to the things that we’re talking about.” The panel went on to discuss a recent incident where Zara was caught having 30 workers chained to their sewing machines. Shoe manufacturer TOMS was also exemplified as having unfair expectations of its workers. Smith comments, “For them to do one-to-one, they negotiate their pricing for two pairs for the price of one. They want two pairs of shoes manufactured for under four dollars….

Think about how does a company afford to be profitable and give away one for one? There’s something happening behind the curtain that we’re not thinking about….They have to go into these in-

land areas where labour is extremely low and quality is questionable.”

If consumer behaviour is dictated by what’s new, and if the biggest retailers are only getting bigger, then is there hope in finding a balance between fashion and responsibility? Smith believes the answer lies in transparency. “I don’t think it’s going to change. The consumerism, that part is not going to change. I think what needs to change is the demand from the consumers for more transparency from these companies and really forcing them to take more responsibility,” he says.

The end product of affordable, high fashion presents an ironic dichotomy. The clothes that end up on the mannequins and shelves of some stores are desirable and appealing, but the process that it took for those clothes to get there can often incite the opposite feeling. Teng places her hopes for the betterment of the fashion industry in the hands of the buyers: “All of that could be so much more holistic,” she says. “We could change all of that if consumers just changed their demand into a way that was actually respecting those within the supply chain and actually those who were making the raw materials for the products as well.”

In the end, companies will always seek to supply those in demand, but if the consumers also demand for more transparency, then the companies will be pressured to oblige. “People put Nike through the ringer in terms of where they were manufactured and transparency,” says Smith, “and they now do a top end job at making sure that everything is to code and they’re very open about it, it’s part of their marketing – how good they are to their factories.”

viff reviews CANADA STANDS STRONG AMONG INTERNATIONAL FILMS Scott Moraes

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

× Managing Editor

14

Since it began in 1982, The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) has grown to become one of the five largest in North America. From highly-anticipated blockbusters to hidden gems, organizers have maintained high standards of quality and diversity in their programming choices, and in recent years the festival has grown to include an impressive roster of Canadian features and shorts. Even alongside heavyweight foreign films, these local offerings have managed to hold their own and leave a lasting impression on audiences. Here are some Canadian highlights from this year's festival: MY PRAIRIE HOME An intimate documentary interspersed with music video-like vignettes; Chelsea McMullan's My Prairie Home is successfully genre-bending. In a thin frame of 75 minutes, the film tells the tale of Alberta-born transgender singer-songwriter Rae Spoon. In the film, Spoon professes preference for the pronoun “they”, which is gender neutral, and stealthily walks down memory lane, resurfacing memories of a childhood marked by an abusive father, evangelical Christianity, intolerance at school, gender identity issues, and the blossoming of love – all of which end up influencing their music.

McMullan, a Langley native and a graduate of the film program at York University, has been working with Spoon for years (shooting music vid-

eos, collaborating on scores), and following them on tour gathering the material for this film. “All those projects were kind of getting Rae comfortable being on camera,” she says. The songs – from Spoon's latest album – are all the more compelling when contextualized in Spoon's “life plot” and stylistically enhanced by the vignettes, which were shot after all the documentary footage had been gathered but blend in seamlessly. With a fairly universal story, a killer score, and visually arresting footage, My Prairie Home is compulsively watchable. McMullan admits that it's not easy being a filmmaker in Canada, and that “not having much of a private sector sometimes breeds mediocrity, but you can make it if you have hustle.”

Rae Spoon will perform in Vancouver at the Rickshaw Theatre on Oct. 27.

CHI In this very upfront treatment of a universally sensitive topic, Anne Wheeler documents Vancouver actress Babz Chula's last efforts to battle out her cancer by travelling to an Ayurveda “resort” in India in hopes that traditional medicine will outdo the dubious benefits of Western-style chemotherapy. Walking the line between hope and frustration, Chi offers valuable insight into the trials and triumphs of an alternative healing system, while at the same time exposing fragments of Chula's own personal video diary while in India. At heart, this is not a comparative study between different cultures and their perspectives on disease and healing – it is the honest, uncensored, straight-up record of one woman's struggle.

VIC + FLO SAW A BEAR Vic and Flo is an unexpectedly powerful auteur film from Quebec-based director Denis Côté.

The film picks up when two women are released from prison and try to start life over in the Quebec countryside, maintaining a fairly fickle love affair.

Without ever exposing the past actions that led the protagonists to prison in the first place, Côté uses the scant information as a tool of suspense, especially when a revenge plot unfolds slowly and painfully before our eyes. “I am not a social filmmaker,” declares Côté. “This is not a film about Quebec society, or about women coming out of jail, or homosexuality.” For its slowly shifting moods, Côté admits that “the film is a big pizza and you don't know if it's holding together.” In the end, it does hold together quite well, bound by assured performances and a spot-on economical screenplay, and packs a punch that lingers long after the end credits.

SALMON CONFIDENTIAL Winner of the 2013 VIFF Most Popular Canadian Environmental Documentary Award, Salmon Confidential is a very relevant and timely documentary to West Coast residents in particular, but its messages should be alarming to viewers anywhere in the world. Filmmaker Twyla Roscovich focuses her camera on biologist Alexandra Morton, who has been trying for years to expose the truth about the presence of piscine reovirus (PRV), a European virus in wild B.C. salmon populations. Salmon Confidential flat-out exposes the current state of salmon disease and how government officials have been trying to keep scientists from speaking out

on the matter. The concerns and damage caused by intensive fish farming built on salmon's natural migratory route are a shocking matter, clearly needing immediate attention. Luckily for those who missed the festival screenings, the entire film can be watched online at Salmonconfidential.ca.

HUE: A MATTER OF COLOUR Veteran director/cinematographer Vic Sarin turns the camera upon himself as a starting point for a global exploration of colourism – differential treatment based on skin colour. Sarin himself openly admits to the often ingrained shame associated with growing up in a colour-conscious society.

Growing up in India, he says, he was told by his mother to avoid the sun at all costs in order to preserve his lighter skin – a notion, though irrational, that he has carried into adulthood. Travelling all over the world – Africa, Asia, South America – looking for anecdotes, Sarin focuses on differential treatment based on different hues of skin colour within the same ethnicities rather than the muchexplored racism between different ethnicities. Sarin travels to the Philippines where skin whitening cosmetics have boomed into a multi-million dollar industry, to India where darker-skinned women have a much harder time finding husbands, and to Tanzania, where albinos are often maimed or killed by the local witch hunters. This is an eyeopening documentary, one that seeks to be a forum for debate rather than proposing a set of answers.

Hue, My Prairie Home, and Chi will eventually become available for streaming or purchase through the National Film Board website, Nfb.ca.

lighting up vancouver SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY SHINES BRIGHT WITH DIWALI CELEBRATIONS Romila Barryman × Writer

It’s almost here: the sparked skies coloured with an array of fireworks, the gifting of a mass assortment of Indian sweets, and the boom of the bass underlining the many traditional dances. Symbolizing the triumph of knowledge, prosperity, and good in the world, the celebration of lights – known as Diwali – falls upon us this autumn. The Hindus traditionally celebrate Diwali as a triumph of the deity Rama against the demon Raven. “Once he was defeated the lights guided Rama back home,” details Naveen Girn, research curator at Surrey Art Gallery. Sikhs take part in the festivities in the community as well, to celebrate the freedom of Guru Hargobind Ji from imprisonment. “One Diwali day he was allowed to leave,” Girn explains.

“He unraveled a cloth and each prisoner held a piece of it so they could leave with him.”

The word Diwali directly translates into “rows of lamps,” and true to its name, the festival can be seen displaying neat lines of little oil lamps called diyas, usually made from clay and dipped in ghee or various vegetable oils. “I guess in India you can make them at home, but here we can buy them

on Main Street,” Girn laughs. Women can be seen with mehndi, a Vedic custom where turmeric paste is used to create elaborate designs on their hands and feet to represent the symbolic nature of the inner light. As music plays well into the night, keeping the festivities and dancing alive, it is clear that bright colours are not limited to the fireworks in the skies at Diwali festivals. Doorways and entrances can usually be found adorned with dry flour and rice dyed in bright neons, and decorated into detailed geometric or flower-shaped patterns, traditionally done as a sacred welcoming for the gods. “It's again one of those community bonding events,” Girn smiles.

The South Asian Canadian community was birthed in 1897 and has grown steadily ever since. Sikh troops fighting for the British Army travelled through Canadian mountains and lakes across Canada for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, only to evangelize the Canadian landscape and settlement potential to family members and friends back home. Eventually, the immigration of South Asians to Canada was abundant enough for traditional celebrations to take place. “From what our oldest documents tell us, there was a lot of intermingling between First Nations and Chinese communities when South Asian immigration

grew,” Girn reveals. Early South Asian immigrants in Canada took to referring to First Nation members as “Taike”, which translates as a family member through marriage from the father’s side. “What it represents is an elder brother in a sense,” Girn says, “and as far as we know it's a word that only exists in Vancouver.”

The history of multiculturalism in early Canadian settlers is what some celebrators are trying to recreate today. One of the key missions of Diwali Fest – one of the biggest celebrations of Diwali in the Lower Mainland – is to “encourage participation, allowing all communities to experience the Diwali spirit and learn the traditions of their friends and neighbours.”

“Some people might feel Diwali is only celebration for South Asians,” says Girn, “but Diwali is open enough to accommodate other cultures in this celebration of good over evil.”

Diwali Fest is one of many organizers aiming to showcase and celebrate South Asian festivities through workshops, cooking classes, and various cultural performances. From Oct. 28 to Nov. 8, workshops will take place at several locations including Yaletown Roundhouse, Trout Lake Community Centre, Renfrew Park Community Centre, Thunderbird Community Centre, and

× Desiree Wallace South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. Topics will include diya lamp painting, rangoli designs, as well as Bollywood dancing and mehndi, all taught by featured artists and organizers. The 11 days of festivities will also feature a cooking class and chai house, along with a performance from Juno award winner Chin Injeti.

For more information, interested readers may visit Diwalifest.ca.

all ages scene hindered by landlords + law AND WHERE ARE THE KIDS, ANYWAYS? Megan Forsyth × Writer

× Arin Ringwald

volume

47 issue N o . 07

that they consistently refuse or remove underage patrons who are under the influence and that eliminating all-ages events is not going to prevent teenagers from drinking.

Until the end of the month, suggestions are being taken online at Gov.bc.ca/liquorpolicyreview on how to make balanced, common-sense changes to B.C. liquor laws. All comments will be considered in a report that is being prepared for the Attorney General and Minister of Justice. A recent survey conducted by the Mustel Group for concert promoter Blueprint Events found that 54.5 per cent of adults would approve of venues holding all-ages events where only those with wristbands could purchase alcoholic beverages. It’s a system that has proved successful in many other cities and could possibly change live music in Vancouver for the better.

Now the only question is: if Vancouver is eventually able to establish more permanent all-ages venues and/or see positive changes to B.C.’s tight liquor laws, will the kids actually show up?

×

day night’s closing show at Chapel Arts, most of the attendees were far from teenagers. Nevertheless, Safe Fest had honourable intentions: to promote a sense of ownership and participation in Vancouver’s culture with the belief that “access to the power of the live music experience should not hinge solely on whether one is old enough to order a drink in a bar.”

Unfortunately, B.C.’s infamously strict liquor laws cause yet another major roadblock when it comes to hosting all-ages events. In January, a new policy by the B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) went into effect and banned venues like the Rickshaw from requesting temporary “de-licensing” to hold all-ages events. Venues like the Orpheum that are deemed “theatres” are still able to host all-ages events with a bar for of-age attendees, but when a venue falls into the category of a “cabaret” like the Rickshaw, it faces far more restrictions. The LCLB argued that minors were found drinking outside of venues like the Rickshaw prior to shows, while the venues argued

the capilano courier

Small, all-ages venues in Vancouver are few and far between, and due to tight laws and easily irritated landlords, the ones that do manage to exist rarely last for long. Zoo Zhop, a small record store that has been hosting all-ages shows since 2009, is the latest casualty. After months of struggling with city demands to bring the building up to mandatory fire codes and being ordered to cease holding concerts, Zoo Zhop’s landlord gave owner David Mattatal notice to move out of the space near Main and Hastings, a decision that he believes was due to unrelenting pressure from the city.

In the most expensive city in North America, finding an affordable, accessible space to use for small concerts – particularly all-ages ones – proves almost impossible. The only options are often in old and dilapidated buildings, such as Zoo Zhop’s, which need a lot of work done to bring them up to proper code in order to be considered legal venues. These major renovations require large sums of money — more money than new business owners can afford to spend.

“Why can’t we just be like everything else that got started?” Mattatal asks. “What about the Railway Club and the Commodore? They existed in neighbourhoods where it was affordable and then they were eventually institutionalized, but they were allowed to remain. We’ve been here for four years and we’re not being allowed to remain. We aren’t being allowed to expand in the way that is natural and organic and actually builds a city, and actually built this city. We’re really hindered.”

The Prophouse, a unique café at Commercial and Venables that hosts all-ages shows amongst its colourful antique lamp collection, has been serving musicians and other creative types in the community since 2009.

“I had a difficult time trying to get licensed at the start through the city because of all their

bureaucracy and everything that they wanted me to do,” says owner Ross Judge. “I’d basically have to be quite rich to get everything done that they wanted.”

To get around city requirements, he ran the café on his First Nations status.

“The city has come around,” he says. “They actually support the café now because they realize how important we’ve become in the arts and culture scene in Vancouver, helping to support it and the middle-to-no-income artists. I’ve opened their eyes to things and I support them at the same time. It’s not like I’m trying to run an illegal venue or anything. I’ve been very upfront with them and I’m not trying to hide anything. I’m just showing them that other systems work.”

Sadly, The Prophouse will soon suffer a fate similar to the Zoo Zhop. The landlord, who lives upstairs, has grown weary of the noise and no longer supports the café. The Prophouse only has a few months left before it will be pushed out of its current location, although Judge does plan to relocate.

Still, there are other grown-ups pushing for change for the kids. The Safe Amplification Site Society (Safe Amp) is a non-profit organization that aims to establish permanent, affordable, and accessible all-ages venues in Vancouver. Earlier this year, Safe Amp obtained a space at Astorino’s, a former ballroom and bingo hall across the street from the Prophouse, and has been putting on allages events there since April. Astorino’s is only a temporary solution, however, as the building is now owned by a developer who hopes to build a 15-storey tower on the site. Safe Amp may only have a year at the ex-bingo hall before it needs to find another home.

For all the public outcry for more local all-ages shows, however, the turn out for the events is often abysmal. Thanksgiving weekend saw the first annual “Safe Fest” held in various all-ages venues in the city (including the Prophouse and Astorino’s), but looking around the half-empty room at Sun-

15

arts Shorts

Lindi Ortega

"OVER THE NIGHT"

"TIN STAR"

× Arts + Culture Editor

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

Since 2011, a noted Vancouver sideman and former member of Yukon Blonde has been forging a path of his own as White Ash Falls. Andy Bishop’s latest solo record, Over the Night, was released through Light Organ Records on Nov. 5 as a follow-up to his 2012 debut, By the River Bend. The LP truly sounds as though Bishop built a campfire in the centre of Hive Studios’ live room, gathered a half a dozen of his closest friends, and pressed the big red button. And by all accounts, he likes it best that way. Despite being very much a studio record, Over the Night retains much of the same organic and spontaneous feel found on its live-off-the-floor predecessor. And while Bishop’s voice isn’t overly distinctive or memorable, it does

the capilano courier

KRISTI ALEXANDRA

white ash falls

Andy Rice

16

ART SHORTS EDITOR ×

have a certain character that is put to good use on each of the album’s 10 tracks. Folk-country can be a hard genre to stand out in, but Bishop has managed disperse a few head-turners throughout.

The opening track, “Want It Bad”, uses a tempo change halfway through that’ll stop any listener in their tracks. “Lock the Door” is a catchy countryinfused ditty with a few unexpected chord changes thrown in during the chorus. A later track titled “Ain’t It Gone My Home” moves from a repetitive and slow-building vocal intro to as much of a dance beat as the genre can allow. Live energy could do a few of the less remarkable tunes on the record some good, and it will be interesting to see what White Ash Falls can bring to these songs when there’s a crowd in the room. With an album release show scheduled for Nov. 28 at the Biltmore, Vancouver fans won’t have long to wait.

Andy Rice × Arts + Culture Editor Alt-country songstress Lindi Ortega has continued to define herself on her third release, Tin Star. The instrumentation may be all country, but the voice offers something more -- think Dolly Parton meets Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse.

The album’s second track, the cutesy and playful “Gypsy Child”, is undeniably autobiographical, chronicling her journey from Toronto to Nashville to find that voice. And for the rest of this album, boy, does she ever use it. Many of the lyrics found on this record are clearly personal. The struggle of a performing artist isn’t known to be easy, and Ortega is open about it in her songwriting. The title track, “Tin Star”, is especially poignant in this regard.

COPY@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

The soulful “Voodoo Mama” quickly moves the subject matter from Tennessee to Louisiana.

Short and sweet, the album’s 11 tracks go down fast and easy, and this one is no exception. Later on, “I Want You” and “This Is Not Surreal” cross over into a more indie aesthetic while maintaining strong ties to the country sound that weaves its way through the entire album. While Ortega’s compositions do offer a fair amount of predictability, that’s simply the nature of the genre. She uses her experience and versatility to keep things exciting and unique, clearly in control of her voice as both a vocalist and a songwriter. Ortega will appear at the Biltmore on Nov. 13, supported by Devin Cuddy. It’s safe to say that “All These Cats” is a definite crowd pleaser, well worth shouting out a request for at one of her upcoming North American tour stops.

Japandroids

Phantogram

BILTMORE CABARET

COMMODORE BALLROOM

Leah Scheitel

Faye Alexander

× Japandroids Enthusiast

× Opinions Editor

Being from East Vancouver, a local audience expects a lot from the Japandroids shows. And the Japandroids expect a lot back from their audience.

Starting the tour at home is odd for the duo, as Vancouver is usually the last stop on their tours.

“This is for all of you who say we are road-worn when we play Vancouver,” yelled guitarist Brian King. The boys are embarking on a final 10-city tour before taking some time to write and record a new album. Because of this, they were dusting off some old songs from Celebration Rock, and PostNothing before retiring them. Songs like “Crazy/ Forever” and “Rockers East Vancouver” stoked the crowd of die-hard fans, and everyone knew all the words, singing along without hesitation.

Because they are a hometown band playing for a hometown audience, there was an element of respect both ways. After an enthusiastic crowd surfer was ushered off stage by security, drummer Dave Prowse politely reminded security that “we are all friends here.” They invited people on stage to do their thing, but only for 10 seconds, and the crowd took full advantage of this. One guy in a jean vest

The dark electro-rockers, Phantogram, made their way onto the pitch black stage at Commodore Ballroom Tuesday night. The gold chains hanging from the stage lit up in a flash revealing lead singer Sarah Barthel kicking up her heels in sharp pointed moves. Phantogram has evolved from their original two-piece, and has expanded for their live performances, adding a drummer as well as a second keyboardist/guitarist. Now being able to boast a string of sold out shows through their North American tour, Phantogram has added the instrumental backing to deliver their knock out numbers as a full musical experience. Small mirrors decked the stage and glittered through the eerie pulse of fan favorites 'Mouthful of Diamonds' from their breakthrough release Eyelid Movies. Phantogram seamlessly blends electronic loops, hip hop beats, and elements of pop like a well mixed cocktail, The band performed some unknown tracks but that didn't keep the audience from rolling along with it

× Andrew Palmquist stole the mic away from King to sing the chorus of “Fire’s Highway” and another interrupted a song to take a selfie with the frontman. “Really?

Is that what it’s come to?” he asked, “Selfies at rock shows?” In the end, it’s great to see a local band cater to the fans that have been behind them from the start. It’s hard to tell who had a better time, the audience or the band. And if you love these guys, try to see them before the end of the tour, as it’s the last time they will play some of their classic songs live. Or so they say.

full swing. It was a spooky electro light show, and Phantogram played with an infectiously genuine enthusiasm. "You're always so good to us" Barthel told the crowd, praising the Vancouver fans flooding the stage. Evolving beyond the original duo, Phantogram has grown beyond their small beginnings, and they aren't going anywhere, closing the set with "Celebrating Nothing".

OPINIONS

OPINIONS EDITOR ×

FAYE ALEXANDER

OPINIONS@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

online high FBI ARRESTS MASTERMIND OF BILLION BUCK DRUG TRADE Faye Alexander × Opinions Editor At the beginning of October, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took down more than 4,100 internet pharmacies which were found to illegally sell potentially dangerous and unapproved drugs to online consumers. The FDA then seized approximately $10.5 million worth of illegal pharmaceuticals worldwide. Despite the bust, online shoppers can still get their fix if they look hard enough with the help of increasingly complex privacy software.

Where would you go if you wanted to anonymously buy illegal drugs online? Drugs like black tar heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, ecstacy, or LSD? Up until recently, you could purchase all these illicit substances simply by visiting the website SilkRoad.com, the eBay of street drugs among other unsavory things. SilkRoad offered goods and services you wouldn’t imagine finding anywhere else – things like forged documents, hackers for hire, stolen bank-account credentials, and deadly weapons.

Founded in 2011, SilkRoad.com was a veritable underground online marketplace where users had the ability to purchase, sell, and swap illegal drugs under a mask of anonymity without having to swipe a major credit card or use a PayPal account.

Instead, SilkRoad covered themselves further by having users trade and use virtual currency, known as Bitcoin. Without involving any financial institutions, this cryptocurrency can be stored in a digital wallet removing any need for authority when

it comes to online transactions. However, virtual currency opens up a world of possibility for fraud and deceit. It’s hard to establish any solid worth since they are subjectively valued by individuals.

In March, 2013, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network targeted Bitcoins to try and establish some sturdy guidelines, but it’s proven a challenge to get a handle on something so intangible.

To keep the underground market a safe haven for drug users and dealers alike, SilkRoad required all potential users to use a routing service called Tor, which encrypts their IP address multiple times over, routing their presence to dozens of locations worldwide. Originally, Tor was created by and for the U.S. Navy to aid in masking top secret information. Although Tor could be used with great legitimacy, it wouldn’t take long before the software would be abused. Software such as Tor helps to protect the identities of child pornographers, drug lords, and other cybercriminals. Enter SilkRoad mastermind, 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht.

“The best way to change a government is to change the minds of the governed, however. To that end, I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force,” reads Ulbricht’s LinkedIn profile.

The FBI was wise to SilkRoad and had been attempting to unmask the identity of the the man behind the marketplace for well over a year, known only by the internet handle “Dread Pirate Roberts”.

After tireless searches of the online metropolis, it

was only a matter of time before a few slip-ups on Ulbricht’s part would be discovered. Ulbricht had carelessly used his real name and email address on two occasions while posting in forums.

Set to pounce, the FBI quickly issued subpoenas to Google and the technology firm which runs virtual private network (VPN) software. Agents would soon find Ulbricht at his local branch of the San Francisco public library – one of the few locations Ulbricht ran SilkRoad out of.

Since its beginnings, SilkRoad has run through and processed over $1.2 billion dollars worth of transactions, with Ulbricht collecting a sweet commission to boot. Ulbricht would have made about $78 million sitting at that Californian coffee shop.

SilkRoad was ultimately undone by Ulbricht’s own professional carelessness.

Paranoia had obviously had an impact on Ulbricht as the website raked in the virtual dollars.

With more at stake, Ulbricht was willing to go from marketplace mastermind to killer if it would sustain the business. Over the past 12 months, Ulbricht has used some of his Bitcoin wealth to hire two hitmen to murder individuals he suspected of threatening the website and his personal identity, including former employee FriendlyChemist who threatened leaking Ulbricht’s personal information. Ulbricht would later attempt to contract another hit for a Canadian man who had threatened to release the identities of thousands on SilkRoad.

Despite Ulbricht's actions and the ultimate shutdown of SilkRoad, other black market websites are rearing to fill the void. Competitors like

× Megan Collinson BlackMarketReloaded.com have already established customer bases. The news of SilkRoad’s headline making bust is not a blow to the integrity of anonymous networks – it’s an example of the fallibility of the people who operate them.

With the creation of both virtual currencies and intricate privacy software programs, which will always land in the hands of the wrong people eventually, there is an invitation for websites such as SilkRoad to thrive. Understanding the potential dangers that these software programs pose, there needs to be a better solution when these issues come to light; some easier way for institutions like the FBI to track the threats, to quickly remove the websites altogether. If you’re really in need of black tar heroin, society should stick to the old-fashioned way. Get down to the grittiest street corner available and ask, no anonymity involved.

Scanning for gays HOMOPHOBIC TESTING METHODS DON'T EXIST Dini Stamatopulos × Writer

× Cheryl Swan

volume

47 issue N o . 07

mosexuality or gaydar. Whether it’s the personal information on Facebook profiles or pages filled out to create email accounts, the need to know personal details and to label them is increasing.

If this proposal gets accepted, the results will not be found ethically. In fact, the process will most likely be similar to drowning women to see if they’re witches. We have all read, in disbelief, the descriptions found in textbooks of a time when any woman or young girl who was different was accused of evil sorcery. Once accused, there was nothing they could do but face the jury; being burned, hanged, or drowned were a few of the ways to “test” them for their magic. Perhaps one day this era will be in textbooks. Young students will read in disgust how we tried detecting gayness, and discriminated against anyone who did not exhibit hetero-normative behaviour.

×

with the same sex, but again, even if there are signs one could argue that those physical signs/injuries are from something else. For example, anal tearing. In the medical world it is referred to as “anal fissure” and can occur due to multiple reasons including constipation or fecal matter that is difficult to pass. Maybe it isn't anything medically related, maybe the detection of homosexuality will be through the aid of stereotypes.

Is it possible that they will have a bunch of items displayed to the person being tested to see how they will react towards them? For example, holding a pair of women’s underwear and a picture of Johnny Depp in front of a man and seeing which one he looks at the most favourably. Of course, this theory couldn't work since, like many women, some gay men do not find Depp that attractive – and a person could fake being straight. Maybe the people conducting the screens will be homosexual themselves, and will be able to use their "gaydar".

Realistically, "gaydar” has never been as an actual human ability. Is it reliable enough to base the decision of barring someone from their country on it? Whether or not someone believes they possess the mythical power of "gay detection", by using it they are potentially adding fuel to the stereotype fire. Why can't we just leave people’s sexual preference alone? Whether it's trying to pry into other people’s business, to kick them out of their own country or to support them, no one but that individual has the right of labeling themselves. We have become a census-craving society; this is not about the debate on the validity or morality of ho-

the capilano courier

Throughout the ages people have been trying to either pull others out or shove them back into the metaphorical closet. The issue of being identified as gay is a contentious one – something we can hopefully all agree on. Media and culture have created a stereotype of what a "gay" likes, what a "lesbian" would wear – these stereotypes are portrayed with a mix of pink and plaid, depending on the gender. There is nothing wrong with these stereotypes, they can, to some degree, be true, but assuming that every women with short hair and tattoos prefers the same sex is stupid and quite frankly a little juvenile. Unfortunately, a large part of society still feels the need to know every part of a person’s life and to direct that person’s life accordingly.

An example of exclusion or prejudice-if-wefind-out-you’re-gay is the army. Hundreds of people were judged and alienated because they wanted to serve their country but preferred the same sex.

"No gays in the army," was frequently used and then came the "Don't ask, don't tell," policy to ensure the safety of gays who were serving. Why it is important for your workplace to know your sexual preference? As long as there are no disruptions at the office or "war zone", how is it anyone’s business but your own?

Recently, it was proposed that the clinical screening of expatriates returning to one of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (ie. Bahrain, Kuwait,

Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) could also be used to detect homosexuals. If these screens identify someone as a homosexual they will be banned from returning to the country. Homosexual acts are already illegal in these countries, and apparently by implementing the "search for homosexuals" into the screens, it will help eradicate the growing problem of homosexuality. The penalties for being homosexual or taking part in homosexual acts can be anything from jail time, to getting kicked out of the country, or even death depending on age, place, and the act.

Besides the legal system, there are also people who will beat and kill homosexuals. There aren’t a lot of happy coming-out stories in these places.

The suggestion to “detect” homosexuals is ridiculous, inhumane and any other word for unjust you can think of. First of all, people who fight for their country will not be let back in, isn't that the perfect way of saying "Thank you for serving"?

Secondly, who would be implementing this detection process? There are no “Gay Hunter” jobs floating around the market, which bring us to the third reason that this proposal is idiotic: the detection process How exactly do they plan on detecting if someone is a homosexual? Since there are clinical screenings, one guess is that it will be through body examination, but is there really any physical signs of being gay? Not all homosexuals have the same eye, skin, or hair colour, or any other form of unanimous physical identification. Perhaps they will be detecting any signs of sexual interactions

17

aging sucks

A MASS TAKEOVER OF SENIOR CITIZENS IS UPON US Rana Sowdaey × Writer

You might have heard that the world's population is aging – that is, the number of old people is growing faster than the number of young people.

But you probably haven't realized how fast this is happening. In 1990, the average age of the population in Canada was 28 years old. Today, the average age is 40.

Baby and booming will be two words you'll hear quite a lot. It's a global phenomenon, with Japan, Italy and Germany at the top of the list of oldest populations. When 2011 came, babyboomers began to turn 65 heralding the shift in demographics world-wide. In Canada, particular towns and provinces will be older than others.

Parksville, B.C. will have the highest population in Canada with an impending 38.9 per cent of the population over the age of 65. Nova Scotia will win as the oldest province with 16 per cent of the population over the age of 65.

According to Statistics Canada, by 2031, the last group of the baby boomer generation born in 1965 will reach the age 65. This means things are going to start getting different for Generation X through Y. Old people will be everywhere.

They'll be a major concern for city planners, pension experts, health care officials, and economists.

It's going to ultimately impact our bank accounts and change what we do with our time. And guess what? Our generation is just going to have to buck up and take it.

You probably haven't thought much about

what this will mean for you, your savings account, and for your valuable time. As each generation gets older, new challenges naturally arise and one can wonder: would the challenges for our aging generation be technological as they were for our parents? Could they be musical as they were for our grandparents?

I recall my grade 10 history teacher telling us vaguely about how we'd have to prepare to deal with the enormous number of baby-boomers born after WWII. I realize now, our generation’s biggest dilemma won't be a struggle with robots or entertainment performers who most certainly can't shock us anymore. Our generation’s challenge will be managing the mass of elderly citizens.

For starters, you're going to pay higher taxes than any other Canadian has paid before you. The huge work force of baby boomers will be leaving to enter retirement and there are hardly enough tax payers to replace them. On top of that, money will be needed for the new crosswalks that beep for the blind, for more health care and for the various new recreation centres for retirees with nothing much else to do.

Apparently, a rise in income immigration over the next few years will help to make up for the gap in the younger population. It's like, “Hey! Come live with us and help us pay our taxes!” You'd think we were past it. The Minister Jason Kenney told the Globe and Mail that it has to be done slowly to avoid a serious resistance to immigration, since

× Emily McGratten

“only 10 to 15 per cent of Canadians are in favour of raising immigration levels.”

Besides taxes, there will also be drastic changes to the commercial markets. As the top consumers purchase canes and wheelchairs, and spend less time at the mall, they are contributing less to your economy. It's no surprise that old people have a higher amount of savings than young people, but according the Globe and Mail, they'll spending less as they enter retirement.

If you’re not depressed yet, wait until you consider the changes to the labour market. Not all of them are bad. In fact, the bottom line is that there will be more jobs available for our generation. Need I remind you how glorious this will be? We will get past this youth employment crisis filled with unpaid internships, and as soon as the old people peace out, the jobs will be waiting for us. Employment opportunities will be abundant.

There will be less competition to get into schools, more blue collar jobs available, and education will be more affordable.

There's another downside though. Since pension plans have been passed recently from the hands of the government to the employer, they have become less traditional and reliable, and actually cause the employee to carry investment risk.

Basically, there's going to be more competition and the prospect of retirement won't be as sweet as it was for most of them.

It's basically on our generation to manage all these problems. On top of everything, we're going to have more funerals to go to than anyone in history. Old age will be upon us, surrounding us, literally. I guess all there is to say is enjoy your youth now, enjoy your freedom while you have it.

no canada LEAVE THE LYRICS ALONE Carlo Javier × Jana Vanduin

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

× Staff Writer

18

In the minds of a group of prominent Canadian women, the lyrics to “O’ Canada” are out-dated, gender-biased, and are well overdue for a restoration. Restore Our Anthem, a campaign led by influential women in Canadian culture and politics – namely former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, writer Margaret Atwood and Senator Nancy Ruth – are calling for a more gender-neutral update to the song, specifically through the replacement of the word “sons”.

But this proposal seems to forget that “inclusion and diversity” runs far deeper than genderequality, and a feminist agenda is not enough to make a drastic change to the anthem of a nation built on diversity.

The lyrics – as they have been for the past hundred years – sing “in all thy sons command.” The song was last modified in 1913, and is reaching the 100-year anniversary since the change. The campaign is inspired by the original lyrics written in 1908, which said “thou dost in us command,” and aim to bring a modernized, gender-neutral version with, “in all of us command.”

At the heart of the movement is a call for more inclusiveness and diversity. Restore Our Anthem’s video campaign argues, “The lyrics of ‘O’ Canada’ now exclude more than 50 per cent of our nation,” but if inclusion and lack of diversity are the issues, then it looks as though this seemingly feminist

campaign is breaching hypocrisy.

If revising the lyrics to accommodate the women who feel left out due to the word “sons” is of utmost importance, then the words “native” and “God” should also be placed under the microscope. Why half-ass an attempt at political correctness and leave the discussion at sexism? Or is it that Margaret Atwood and her team are using “inclusion and diversity” as a façade to cover up simple self-righteous feminism?

What Restore Our Anthem seems to miss is that equality and inclusiveness are not exclusive to gender – culture, religion and heritage are among the eggs in the same Canadian basket.

In a scathing commentary from the National Post, Barbara Kay wrote, “If we change one version of the anthem to suit feminists, then we should change the other to suit multiculturalists.” Kay suggests that changing the English version also calls for updating the French version, which contains the lines “bear the cross,” implying a Christian bias. Nit picking through the lyrics of “O’ Canada” will bring about a domino effect and stir further debate and controversy regarding other words of the lyrics.

For example, “our home and native land” is not a sufficient representation of every Canadian.

Yes, Canada is home to its inhabitants, but by no means is it everyone’s “native land.” A hub for di-

versity and multiculturalism, Canada is home to different ethnicities, and for “O’ Canada” to follow political correctness, it should be updated to represent the citizens who hail from other countries.

Furthermore, only the Aboriginals who actually originated in Canada can claim to be properly represented by this lyric. If the feminists of Restore Our Anthem argue that the lyrics fail to represent and tribute the many influential women in Canadian history, then the Aboriginal community also falls victim to misrepresentation.

Another line to be challenged is “God keep our land….” It’s another case of misrepresentation considering it clearly implies a religious bias for Christians. Statistics Canada reports that Christianity is practiced by 67 per cent of Canadians. But, as a country that prides itself on its freedom of religious practice, the inclusion of other religions in Canada seems only right. This is a campaign for more inclusion and diversity after all. Or is it?

Currently, Quebec is in the midst of a heated debate about separatist Parti Quebecois’ call for the banning religious-wear of all kinds: Jewish kippahs, Muslim hijabs and Sikh turbans, even Christian crucifixes are in the conversation. The party aims for the provincial government to be religion-neutral – at the cost of freedom of religious practice.

Despite clear constitutional laws providing the liberty to practice any religion, religion in Canada is

still prone to becoming a casualty for the sake of political correctness.

If inclusion and diversity are at the heart of the Restore Our Anthem campaign, then isn’t an update to include the many non-Christian citizens of Canada worthy of the same attention placed on this supposed gender-biased, sexist lyrics?

It’s clear that political correctness is running amok and one of its tentacles, feminism, has placed a firm grip on the harmless, innocent lyrics to “O’ Canada.”

This same debate had been opened up in 2010, when then Governor General Michaelle Jean proposed a review and a poll regarding the same issue of having more gender-neutral lyrics. The poll not only showed that about 75 per cent of Canadians are against such changes to the lyrics, it also resulted in backlash.

Sometimes the quest for political correctness yields a domino effect that will inevitably touch every ideology in a society. If the lyrics to “O’ Canada” isn’t inclusive and is lacking in diversity, then sexism isn’t the only issue, as the Aboriginals, immigrants, and religious are also all at odds in terms of representation. Considering “O’ Canada” has been sung loud and proud for the past hundred years, leaving it alone might just be the best route to take.

the caboose

CABOOSE EDITOR ×

JEREMY HANLON

CABOOSE.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

where the lone Steve Tornes × Writer

× Scarlett Aubrey

Prologue My body shivered and spirit paled when I first beheld the letter from my dead brother – although, to be fair, he was only legally dead. They never found his body in the northern wilderness. Every bit of sadness I had bottled up in the last 10 years shifted violently to anger, as I remembered the state in which he left our mother and me.

Why did he disappear and wait a decade before contacting me?

He regretted nothing in his letter, and politely requested my help in some unspecified endeavour.

I was instinctually compelled to burn the letter, but my soul couldn’t rest without confronting him, and so I followed his directions.

It was a mistake.

II

Continued in issue 8...

volume

47 issue N o . 07

“Now hurry, come along,” he said suddenly.

“There is still so much to show.” We walked up a few flights of stairs and lingered by a window on the top floor. “Look sister. Do you see the thing prowling the grounds?” He laughed. “It is a Windigo.”

I stared at the horrifying beast. It was covered in fur, with luminous yellow eyes. Its arms, grotesquely long and muscular, dragged along the ground as it walked upright. I repressed the scream borne from my soul. It had disjointed jaws, like a serpent, and rows of jagged, broken teeth in its giant, gaping mouth.

I almost hid behind my brother in fear before he started laughing. “That thing was once a French Canadian coureur des bois. A fur trader. A couple centuries ago, he was called Antoine Delacroix, and he went out with a small group of traders.

They got caught in a blizzard and ran out of food. Most died. Soon, there were only two left.

The isolation and the unsympathetic nature of

the forest weighed upon their minds. Delacroix broke first. He became mad and butchered his companion. He was starved – craving anything to eat – and so he ate his victim. Once his mind became deranged, and he committed an unforgivable sin, his body adapted to match his soul. Now he’s something worse than a beast, and it wanders the forest killing and devouring whatever it comes across. Because you see, sister, loneliness changes people. LOOK AT HIM!” As my brother yelled that last bit, the Windigo raised its ugly head, saw me staring from the window, and it frantically ran to the manor entrance.

I heard immediate wild pounding in the distance.

“What is this place? We need to leave!”

“Sister, don’t worry. Your big brother is here to protect you. It can’t even touch you as long as I protect you.”

“What? What is happening?”

“Wait, I have one more thing to show you.”

I wanted to run, but I couldn’t. I thought my legs were frozen, but as my brother beckoned, they moved. What is happening to my body? I couldn’t speak, but God knew I tried. My mind wailed and screamed before falling into a daze caused by some formless pressure.

×

The trees were bare and stunted, slightly deformed; living without life. They looked like grotesque grave markers pointing to where they had once lived. The cold air held some kind of ancient quality, as if some perverse primordial presence existed here and nowhere else.

The car raced through the forest with unrestrained life before I spied the manor and killed the engine. The juxtaposition of the once roaring engine and the prehistoric, eternal stillness of the manor made me think that this was another world. It was as if sound was heard for the first time and trivially cast aside. Nothing could compare to the uncaring energy of the manor. It was a strange structure, so full of additions that one could not see the original construct. With every part so irrationally added and forcibly spliced, I could only assume that it was the will of its unnaturalness which kept it together.

Through the windshield, I saw a forlorn figure standing behind a dirty window. I assumed

to this still land. It horrified him and, in his madness, he chose to become part of that horror. According to the others, the reason why this house has so many additions is because of the spirits that haunt him. He built this manor like a maze to trap them, and they are now lost in it, unable to whisper to him. Forever they will wander the dark corners of the manor.”

He stopped and pointed to a room at the end of the hall. It radiated unrepressed rage, like a rabid animal, which poured out as light from underneath the door.

“The lord is still here you know. He exists in that room.” My brother looked at me the entire time, grinning.

the capilano courier

I

it must be the brother that I had come to see. I ruefully stepped out of the car and drifted towards those heavy oak doors. Although unlocked they were unfamiliar to movement, so I had to pry the door open, creating the smallest of spaces. As I passed through the crevice, the door closed behind with a heavy thud. My brother stood before me, smiling with open arms. I didn’t move.

“Don’t look like that, dear sister. I must apologize for the house, it being what it is and times being what they are, but I do hope you can forgive me.”

“Is that all you ask forgiveness for?”

“No, but that must wait ‘til later. For now, let me give you a tour of my humble abode.”

I followed behind him while staring at this fantastical manor. There were windows that opened to other rooms, doors with walls behind them, and many other weird designs, such as a fireplace along the staircase. There were many fireplaces, at least one per room, but occasionally two. I couldn’t remember there being so many chimneys outside.

But strangest of all were the arcane symbols brutally etched into door frames and scrawled along walls. I couldn’t begin to decipher them.

My brother turned around and smiled, saying, “I suppose you will want to know the history of this fascinating place. The original lord came from the moors of England, bringing his entire fortune.

He was mad, of course, which he denied even as he conversed with unseen spirits. It didn’t help matters that he killed his entire family. His mental state only worsened after that. It was strange, that for all his ramblings about being haunted, he continued to murder. That’s why he left, you see. The spirits, they would whisper to him, and wouldn’t stop, but then again, neither did he.”

I was hung on every word, as my brother gleefully continued. “So the lord came here, attracted

19

the caboose

CABOOSE EDITOR ×

JEREMY HANLON

CABOOSE.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

SHOTGUN REVIEWS : TALK SHOWS

RICKI LAKE

MUTHA LUV

JENNY JONES

RUSH LIMBAUGH

Kristi Alexandra // Copy Editor

JJ Brewis // Writer

Faye Alexander // Opinions Editor

Steve Tornes // Writer

I have always thought that talk show connoisseurs were lazy hillbillies without jobs – hence having the time to watch daytime television. That uberjudgemental assessment was proven correct when I met Toby, a six-foot-something Canadian Idol contestant with gladiator wings spiking out of his head for hair. Upon meeting him, he told me that he was once on an episode of Ricki Lake with his ex-girlfriend (surprise) who had accused him of cheating. He’d agreed to take a lie-detector test on national television to prove his innocence. I suspect, being unemployed, he just had nothing better to do. I tried to call bullshit on his story, but it turns out he actually carried a VHS copy of the episode in his guitar case. He then took out his guitar to sing me the song he penned about the experience. I do remember the lyric “I never lied, but the test said otherwise,” which I thought was pretty clever. Now I see him on weeknights as the clerk at my local liquor store, regaling his tale to anyone who cares.

On Forgive and Forget, guests ask their estranged friends and loved ones for apologies on various causes. They go stand in front of a big ole door that swings open — if the person wants to apologize they show up behind the door. If not, they record a video message explaining why. But its host, Mother Love, patronizes and pouts like she actually gives a shit — despite the fact that she’s secretly exploiting these white trash bastards for her own amusement. On “I’m Too Fat To See My Sister!”, she tries to relate to a woman with an eating disorder, too afraid to see her sister, by saying “Lemme tell you, I’m a fat woman, too,” and then goes on to say “But I hear you sayin’ you eatin’ things you ain’t even like!” Oh come on, Mother Love, not only do you not live up to your own name, but you don’t have a clue about any of the actual real issues you’re trying to cover on your show. I’d love to stand behind that door and push it right back in your face you big ole ninny.

1 out of 5 Doorknobs.

I thought my mom was just trying to win her way into my good graces when she booked us a trip to New York together when I was merely 14. Things had been rocky between us ever since she had discovered me behind the house sucking on popsicles, testing the limits of my gag reflex. You know, stuff most eighth grade girls are up to. Instead, my mom would soon be carting me on stage of the Jenny Jones program for a “My Teenage Daughter is Out of Control” episode. I have to admit, I looked great for my national TV debut. Jenny Jones tried to guilt trip me and my mom spent the better part of the next few days crying after my “video confessional” played on. You should have seen the look on her face when I admitted to trading sexual favours for fast food. By the time the overly-muscled bootcamp guy came out, yelling and getting all up in my grill, I was famous. Turns out, he would be one of the best lovers I ever had.

I like to assume that every idiot is actually an enlightened saint, and is just testing me. Breathe in, breathe out. I have proof, because no one can be so stupid as to say what Rush Limbaugh says. He must be testing me. Gosh darn it Rush, I won’t let you down. When you said “Holocaust? 90 million Indians? Only four million left? They all have casinos – what’s to complain about?” I face-palmed so hard, I learned to pity the heartless. When you popularized the term feminazi, I learned to have the courage of my convictions and fight against injustice. When you said “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?” I learned to … turn off the radio. I had reached my personal nirvana. You are done. You can stop. But then again, you are still the spiritual teacher for many Americans. The Rush Limbaugh Show is the highest rated talk radio show in America. So keep teaching us what not to be. I salute you with my middle finger.

OVER THE LINE W/ JEREMY HANLON KLEPTOMANIACS THEY TAKE THINGS LITERALLY. MAMBO NUMBER 5 WHERE DID THE PREVIOUS FOUR GO?

the capilano courier

×

volume

47 issue N o . 07

JUSTIN BIEBER IMPERSONATORS OVERACHIEBERS?

20

KARAOKE AT TWO LIONS WHY? NETFLIX IS RIGHT HERE! BLANKET FORTS WHY, YES, I AM AN ADULT FLUBBER CHARMING MOVIE OR STICKY BED MESS? JAZZ CAME FROM JIZZ. NOT EVEN JOKING. TINDER I WEAR MY SUIT ONLINE MR. LIMBAUGH NOW LET'S NOT RUSH TO CONCLUSIONS. ARTS DEGREE AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN AS UNEMPLOYMENT 101.

× Christina Kruger-Woodrow