Capilano Courier Volume 46 Issue 24

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CANADA COMmAnDS

THE GAlAXY Battle Rap

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Comic Book Apocalypse

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Get a Job

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De-Extinction

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CAPILANO Courier THE CAPILANO COURIER IS HIRING The Capilano Courier is advertising for the following positions, effective from September 2013 to April 2014. Please note: these job descriptions reflect the ideal candidate, but we are more than willing to train motivated and energetic applicants if needed. Deadline for applications is June 30, 2013. Only eligible applicants will be interviewed. Please include a resume, cover letter, and two writing or art samples, where relevant. Applications or questions should be sent to editor@capilanocourier.com.

COPY EDITOR – Responsible for the overall style of the Courier’s writing. Corrects spelling, grammar, punctuation, style, etc. before the final layout. Must work well under pressure and deadlines. Familiarity with CP Style is an asset.

WEB EDITOR – Responsible for maintaining the Courier’s website. Requires updating the content weekly, and knowledge on web design, Html, CSS, WordPress, and other online applications.

MANAGING EDITOR – Works to promote the paper, and as an additional editor for all sections, as needed. Works alongside the Editor-in-Chief in organizing meetings, working and recruiting writers and events. Must have some writing experience.

AVAILABLE POSITIONS

ART DIRECTOR – Recruits illustrators, artists, cartoonists and photographers to produce art for weekly articles. Must oversee the overall artistic design of the paper, and should be able to work under pressure to produce graphics for various and demanding themes, topics, and constraints.

ARTS EDITOR – Covers campus and local arts and entertainment, including previews, reviews, and profiles, along with other interesting arts and culture related stories. Oversees editing and writing quality of the Arts section. Requires writing and editing experience and an understanding of the local arts scene.

PRODUCTION MANAGER – Responsible for layout, typography and graphic design of the paper, as well as printing and production. Must be familiar with Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. Will educate the right applicant on the details of the Courier’s design expectations.

FEATURES EDITOR – Responsible for assigning and editing feature and special feature stories on a wide variety of topics. Requires editing and writing experience, as well as knowledge and interest in a range of local and current topics.

ADS AND EVENTS MANAGER – Develops and maintains a local advertising base for the Courier. Must be able to design ads and write copy, and keep track of ad accounts. Helps organize and curate events related to the paper.

NEWS EDITOR – Covers campus issues, student clubs and organizations and other stories assigned. Requires related writing experience and an understanding of student politics and local current news. Also must be a current student at Capilano University for the 2013 fall school year.

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER – In charge of distributing the Courier every week to designated locations on and off campus. Must have a car and a valid driver’s license.

OPINIONS EDITOR – Responsible for assigning and editing researched and insightful opinions, specifically covering issues related to student interests.

COLUMNISTS – Responsible for a column article every two weeks, exploring a specific topic. Writing experience required.

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HUMOUR AND FICTION EDITOR – Responsible for the humour and fiction section (Caboose), and recruits cartoonists and humour writers. Comes up with weekly themes and assuring the section has enough creative content. Previous humour writing is an asset.

STAFF WRITER – Responsible for writing a minimum of two articles per week. Must be reliable and ready to write for all sections of the paper. Writing experience required.

2 ×× melissa dex guzman

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× Letter from the editor ×

TINY CASTLES × ON the Cover ×

Stefan tosheff Stefan Tosheff has written most of the artist biographies this year; now he gets to write his own once again. This will be his greatest of all biographies, you will bask in its majesty. fart fart fart Stefantosheff.com

Featured Contributors Gurpreet Kambo is a graduate of the Global Stewardship program at Capilano University.

Gurpreet is a fan of ‘90s pop rock, video games, pizza and traveling: so basically he’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!

Gurpreet is passionate about “political and social justice issues, [and] any form of storytelling – theatre, film, literature, abstract.” He says he gets “easily obsessed” about his favourite artists and food – rumour has it he has a pretty ballin’ Prince t-shirt. Gurpreet now works for Telus and is “currently taking training in group facilitation using theatre drama techniques.” Sounds fancy! Presently Gurpreet lives in Burnaby, having lived in Surrey and Richmond previously.

“They all have their unique and interesting qualities to them, and all have a special place in my heart,” he says. Gurpreet’s passions for writing and activism are among his proudest achievements; he’s particularly proud of “many of the articles that I've written, and much of the advocacy work that I've been involved in, especially on behalf of post-secondary students.” So what’s his biggest dream? “Tell you when I get there.”

People are able to discern certain things about you just by taking a glance. A lot of what people think they see can be unfair assumptions, but certain things can be deduced about each other by the way we carry and style ourselves. Personally, I’ve found it’s quite easy for people to learn about me by looking at my tattoos.

I generally hate talking about my tattoos or explaining them to people. To some, a tattoo is a story to tell others. To me, they’re personal and what they represent seems fairly obvious anyway. I have characters from the Wizard of Oz on me because the Scarecrow and the Tin Man symbolize knowledge and love, respectively. I grew up with the books and the film and there’s also a nostalgic comfort in these “friends” I met through film and books that I now have on my skin. The symbolism seems obvious to me, but I suppose other people don’t necessarily have the same frame of reference. I guess it’s just awkward to talk to a complete stranger one-on-one about why you’ve chosen to commit to a certain image, marked on your skin for eternity. Or, well, until your time is up, I guess.

Recently I got a portrait of Walt Disney tattooed on my arm. It’s actually scabbing and itching me into insanity as I type this. Why would I do such a thing, aside from the fact that, as any casual reader of the Capilano Courier could tell you – I’m obsessed with his work? Well, Walt Disney’s journey represents a lot to me. It’s about creating something out of nothing. Building an inspiring body of work and a legacy out of nothing but personal talent and the will to do so. It’s pretty amazing.

I’m definitely a sentimental person, and a lot of early memories for me revolve around the work Disney and his creative peers have made.

My fondest memory from my entire childhood is summed up in one specific moment. On a mystery summer vacation, my mom, dad and sister all knew we were going, but I was kept in the dark. Each day was a random drive, a new weird motel with mismatched bed sheets, and a lot of Bad-era Michael Jackson. On one of the days, I sat across from my parents at a lunch stop in a pizza restaurant, and my mom asked me if I knew what attractions were in California. “Disneyland,” I said, to which my mom replied, “We’re going to go there tomorrow.” The excitement in that exact moment was overwhelming, one that I remember frame for frame 22 years later. The reason this experience was even possible for me was because of Walt Disney himself. He inspired so many people in what he created and the legacy he left that he was able to inadvertently impact me years after he died. To me that’s a beautiful mark to have made, and a remainder of a beautiful way to go about living your life.

At the beginning of the school year when I started this job, I thought “Oh yeah! This is great! I could do this forever!” And yeah, I’ve had a good run – I’ve met a lot of great people, had the opportunity to work with a lot of my closest friends, met a lot of new ones, and learned a hell of a lot in the process. In fact, I’ve experienced and learned so much in my year as Editor-in-Chief that I knew early on I would want to leave after one year was up. Not only did I want to give the opportunity to someone else (and congratulations to my successor, Leah Scheitel), but

THE VOICE BOX

I’ve discovered that riding this cool wave for another round would be ultimately a waste of an opportunity – the opportunity for whatever other different thing (or things! multiple!) that I will end up doing with my time now that I’m leaving this place.

My time here makes me think of Walt Disney. I’ve definitely not done anything as culturally impactful as Walt, but I am proud of myself and my entire team for what we’ve created this year. While Walt Disney is known as the guy who drew Mickey Mouse, he also had his fingers in a lot of pots because he was curious about the world. He revolutionized creative realms like animation and film, he explored opportunities abroad, creating thousands of opportunities for people throughout the years. Creative visionaries still make work under his name, remaining inspired by what he started. He was the boss but he got shit done, and once he tried something out for a while, he conquered it and moved on to something new and exciting – a brand new opportunity through which to impact the world.

People ask me what I will do now that I am leaving the Courier. To be honest, I don’t know. I’ll definitely go to Disneyland, obviously. But in the big picture, I don’t have a fucking clue! Maybe I’ll write a play.

Maybe I’ll read a lot. Maybe I’ll actually hang out with my friends and family now that I’ll have some free time. What I do know is that, based on what I’ve done and learned here, I will do something meaningful and impactful – because I want to, and because I have to. I owe it to myself and I owe it to this world. Not to mention to my mom!

I have the words “tiny castles” tattooed on my right arm, and I often get asked what this means. The truth is that it stems from a poem I wrote for a creative writing class years ago, but I’ve also reappropriated it for various artistic endeavours. But to every new person I meet, the instant question is “what the hell does that mean?” It’s not anything life changing, but it’s basically the idea that a “castle” can be about finding the refuge – and the magic – in wherever you are at that point in your life. As someone who moved a dozen times within the first decade of leaving his childhood home, I had a hard time with the idea of finding a house that felt like a home. What I needed to realize was that, as long as I was happy and creative and inspired – I was home. I was in my castle, no matter the size or structure.

Britney Spears once sang, “There’s only two types of people in the world – the ones that entertain, and the ones that observe.” Well, baby, I’m a put-on-a-show kind of guy, and I’ve had a blast running this circus. The Capilano Courier has been one hell of a castle for me the last few years. It’s a world of opportunity, and I would highly encourage any student to take advantage in getting yourself into these pages. The people I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had, and the opportunities I’ve been given and have created for myself and others – it’s all been one big magical ride, different in style and stature, but as exciting and inspiring as the ones you’d wait an hour in line to board at Disneyland. But as this ride comes to a stop, I welcome the next one. I encourage all of you to do the same. Don’t become stuck because you’re afraid of change or what might happen next. It’s great, because you get to decide the next step for yourself.

A new castle awaits.

Featuring: giles Roy

Thus concludes another pitiful volume of the Voicebox! Here are the student body’s final opinions for the spring term, in all their unfiltered glory.

Remember that you can always anonymously harass, interrogate, or flirt with Giles Roy by texting (778) 235-7835. If you did any of those things over the course of this past year, the Courier thanks you.

“Why dont we have a cnc machine at cap? The engineers and capmakerspace is in DIRE need!”

“Why do so many people think it’s ok to abuse their dogs in public?

I’ve seen people throw sand in their dogs eyes. Swear , yell and degrade their dogs and drag them on their leashes while they practically choke them. Guess what humans ? Just because you have a dog on your leash does not make you more powerful or in control than anyone else. You are not tough because you can swear at your dog. You are a lowlife and I hope to hell you don’t have kids too.”

I agree with all of this except for the swearing at dogs part, which is just a classic bit. Try it! It kills at parties.

“Thank you guys for working so hard at putting out a quality free newspaper every week.. I’ve been reading since the first issue and it actually gets better every week. Keep up the good work! - Taylor”

You’re a jackass and I’m willing to bet you wear a fedora.

“fuck you Giles”

“It’s a good thing EVERY translink bus is late, because that way when one of them is late, i don’t have to worry about missing my connection later. Thank you so much Translink!!!”

Thank you, goodnight!

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I’d like to point out that you did, in fact, pay a newspaper levy that was discretely included in your student fees. But you’re welcome.

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“I’ve been going to this school for two years now and i still haven’t seen any hot girls. Ladies, you could at least try”

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I just Googled “CNC machine” and I still don’t know what it is. I thusly fear you, respect you, and wish you luck in your search. But I also learned that you can easily make your own CNC machine using everyday household materials, like a drill press, a band saw, and some lasers.

For those of you not keeping track, roughly 40 per cent of this year’s Voicebox was anti-TransLink sentiment. It’s almost as though they’re a total joke or something.

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× Editor-in-Chief

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Dajana Coric is an Art History student at Capilano University. Her interest in the visual side of life is no new endeavour, though.

Prior to learning about fine art, Dajana completed the make-up artistry program at Vancouver Community College. In her off-time, she enjoys reading (Harry Potter and Hunger Games are her faves), running, and hanging out in Starbucks drinking “lots of passion tea lemonade.”

True to her roots, Dajana enjoys experimenting with make-up and posts her favourite looks on her Instagram. She also works as a Beauty Advisor at London Drugs and does freelance make-up art on the side. “I want my make-up to be on the cover of Vogue,” she says. Dajana is also passionate about “running, eating, as well as female rights.” Dajana was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and moved to Vancouver at a young age. She’s learned the ropes of North American culture … for the most part. “I can't pronounce the word perfume. I always pronounce it ‘parfume,’” she jokes. Dajana enjoys Internet culture to a tee. She loves Jennifer Lawrence and “while texting I will almost always respond with a gif I got off of Tumblr.” Follow Dajana on Instagram @djana1234.

“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things … We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

- Walt Disney

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NEWS

News Editor ×

Lindsay Howe × news @ capilanocourier . com

Act of gratitude expands cultural hub Capilano celebrates opening of International Experience centre Andy Rice × Staff Writer Catherine Vertesi, Capilano University’s vice president of international programs, external relations and new initiatives, fondly remembers a young man by the name of Sheldon Trainor from her former days as a business instructor and assistant dean at UBC. “He was always the kind of guy who started everything,” she says. “He was out there raising money for St. Paul’s hospital and putting on events for students to go to, and he was just that type of guy.”

At the time, Vertesi was pioneering an international exchange program and encouraging many of her students to study abroad. “I was talking to him one day and said, ‘you should go,’ and at that point we only had one school to send people to, and that was Denmark’s international study program in Copenhagen. I really pushed him hard and he decided he would go. This was around 1988.”

“It turns out that Sheldon went into investment banking, worked for various companies but in the end was the number two guy for Meryl-Lynch for Asia,” continues Vertesi. “And around 2004 or 2005 he got in touch with me and said he’d really love to see me; he knew I came to Hong Kong sometimes. He said, ‘I would never have done any of this if you hadn’t have made me go to Denmark, so I would like to give you something for Capilano ... What do you want?’”

Vertesi’s answer was an expanded centre for international students, a gathering place on campus that could replace the tiny office corridor in the Birch building that the department had long since outgrown. Just a few weeks ago, that wish became a reality.

Trainor and his wife Emelda Wong donated $500,000, paying for not only the construction of the centre in a renovated area of Capilano’s library building, but several scholarships for students to go abroad as well. A soft opening took place on Apr. 5, and on Jun. 13 the Trainor and Wong Centre for International Experience will commemorate its official opening with the donor and his family in attendance.

The centre’s director, Donna Hooker, says she’s overjoyed with the new space. “We now have a space that is so welcoming and open, and it’s just an amazing, bright and beautiful place for [international students] to come and feel like they’re comfortable. At the same time it’s intended to be a place for Canadian students who might want to look at study abroad materials or brochures or magazines or field schools.”

“That whole social space is easy to configure in a lot of different ways,” adds Vertesi. A lobby area with colourful seating greets students as they come in the door. A large television screen will soon be installed to play a slideshow of images from students’ past trips abroad, as well as movies that will help to prepare students for their trips and aid presenters during information sessions.

Multiple counselling offices are housed within the new facility and, for the first time, a proper meeting space as well.

“Those little offices [in Birch] were fine when there were 40 students here, but we’re over 600 now and it’s so disrespectful for people to come from so far away and then you just give them a little office to go to,” says Vertesi. “We really engage our students in helping to share their message in whichever way we can, and this is such a great place to bring students together. It’s warm and welcoming, and it’s a great hosting space.”

“Where we were was a functional office space and we could definitely do our work,” adds

Hooker, “but where we are now sends a message to our clients, to our students –that you are important to us; you are valued.”

With the completion of the Bosa Centre last year, the university saw an influx of new classrooms, allowing much of the library building’s bottom floor to be renovated into several student spaces, including the CSU Library Lounge and the newly opened Aboriginal Student Centre. With Trainor’s donation, Capilano was not only able to afford to build the centre, but do so by spending “hardly any” of its own funds on construction costs, says Vertesi. “I’m lucky that he gave me a big amount of money to do something that we never would have been able to afford to do without the gift, given what our situation is.”

“We’re being killed with our funding formula,” she explains, adding that VIU, UFV and Kwantlen all get about $600 more per student than Capilano does. “[The government] never gave us a lift when we became a university and all those guys got a lift in their budget ... That’s why we wouldn’t have got an international centre without an external donor.

Half a million dollars for us is a huge donation.”

“And half a million for international, that’s especially huge,” says Hooker, adding that the centre will allow the department to grow over time.

“That’s all going to have to come with increased revenues. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we have the capacity now to really do new things and bigger things, and grow both in numbers of students coming in, numbers of students going out, [and] numbers of staff.”

“About 10 per cent of our student body is international, and we would like to eventually get to 15 per cent,” adds Vertesi. “And we are also really conscious of having them come in all program areas, so we are doing a lot of work to encourage students to come for early childhood education and motion picture arts and for

human kinetics, not only business and tourism.” 54 countries were represented in this past year’s enrollment.

Capilano also allows its domestic students to experience a semester or two in another country, much like Trainor did at UBC over two decades ago. “In all of our degree programming now we have relationships where students can go abroad,” she says. “On exchange, you pay your tuition at home and you go abroad. International student fees around the world are very high and it’s a way to avoid that.” Shorter study tours and field schools are offered as well, usually in February, and have a duration ranging from 10 days up to five weeks.

In just under two months, Trainor and Wong will return to Capilano University to see their money at work. It’s a donation that carries a different meaning for each of them. “Sheldon says this centre is about getting Canadian students to go abroad and Emelda says this is about looking after international students who come,” says Vertesi.

“Having this centre together where we are welcoming both students who are coming in and students who are leaving, there’s an opportunity for those connections to be made [between the two] in our area, in our space,” adds Hooker. “Sheldon picked up the phone and made that call because that experience was the first step in changing his life. I think it’s just an amazing story, and I think it’s a story that we hear in our field over and over again from students.”

“You never know what’s going to happen to any of your students in the long run,” says Vertesi. “The fact that he did this was fantastic. Really fantastic.”

MAKING CHANGE ON CAMPUS Event assists students to make change through seed funding Katherine Gillard

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Capilano University will soon be holding their first Changemaker Challenge, an event highlighting social innovation and networking on campus. The Capilano Students’ Union, President’s Office, School of Business, and Global Stewardship Program are funding the event which will be judged by Charles Tsai from Ashoka Canada, Sherwin Catindig, the Director of Sales at the North Vancouver Holiday Inn (he also works with the Social Innovation Challenge at SFU), and Carolyn Stern, an instructor from Capilano’s business school. The participants are from a diverse range of programs at Capilano University.

The event will promote student-led initiatives through projects presented at the event that will then be judged and awarded with seed funding to help implement the initiatives at the university.

The judges and mentors involved will choose up to five different projects that will receive between $250 and $500. According to the CSU’s advertisement, “These projects range from solutions for environmental issues, social justice issues, campus artwork, community building and more.”

Brittany Barnes, Educational Issues Coordinator for the Capilano Students’ Union, says, “It is surprising what you can accomplish with $250 to $500 for a project. The best thing about this event is that you can connect with other students or community members that may have similar ideas or be able to provide you with mentorship. Building your team is one of the most important stages in project planning.”

Barnes continues, “Through these people you may be able to have material donated, collaborate with projects already focusing on similar interests, or even meet funders that can contribute to the seed funding. It is all about putting yourself out there and really networking yourself, which is exactly what we want everyone who attends this event to do. Connect, converse, and collaborate.”

The event is set to begin with students presenting their projects and ideas, followed by networking and drinks. The Changemaker Showcase was adopted from Ashoka Canada, where the seed funding announcements will take place. During this part of the evening keynote speakers such as Morgan Westcott from LinkBC, who managed Project Change, and Jordan Bober, founder of Seedstock Community Currency, will discuss their own social innovations. This will be followed by community networking and drinks because the

event hopes to promote networking between students, faculty members and community partners, so that they can collaborate on ideas.

Barnes explains, “The purpose of the Changemaker Challenge is to provide students with a resource to receive both seed funding and mentorship in order to implement their social innovation into the campus community.” She continues, “It is also to highlight those students and community partners that are already working on initiatives, that are creating positive social change.

The networking event … is to allow for community partners, both inside and outside of the university, to connect with each other, converse, and possibly collaborate.”

Any student with an idea for a project can apply and register online, as well as purchase tickets from the Changemaker Challenge website. The entire public is welcome to attend, and anyone who aspires for change is encouraged. Barnes says, “There is a hunger at Cap for interdisciplinary studies and communication. This event provides that opportunity. Not only that, but it also allows us to look at the current system of getting things done at a campus level and analyze whether there is a better, more efficient way of accomplishing the same thing. That is what social innovation is all about.

If those innovations can come from student-led

projects or even a collaboration of multi-lateral efforts within the university, it makes the change even stronger.”

The Changemaker challenge will begin at 4 p.m. on Apr. 29, in the NSCU Centre.

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A NEW APPROACH Cap counselling centre wants your help addressing mental health Gurpreet Kambo × Writer Not just content with helping individual students cope with their stresses, anxiety and personal struggles, members of the counselling department at Capilano University are endeavoring to involve the broader community as well. On May 2, Capilano counsellors Daniel Frankel and Jules Smith will be hosting a day-long event called, “The Compassionate Campus: Making the connections for student mental health.”

“Student mental health is increasingly in the spotlight provincially, nationally and internationally,” says Frankel, on what prompted him to organize the event. “It is increasingly recognized that students face considerable stress, and that many suffer from high levels of depression, various anxiety disorders and other mental health issues.”

“Uncertainties about future educational and career opportunities, financial stresses, highly competitive programs, patterns of substance use which may involve high-risk behaviour (such as binge drinking), and many varieties of personal and family problems are just some of the common

factors which impact student mental health and well-being,” he adds.

The event’s official description lists three key areas that will be focused on: “the well-being of all university/college students, the needs of the many students coping with different forms and degrees of mental illness, and the reduction of risky behaviours associated with substance use.”

The counselling department hopes to bring together the various stakeholders in the Capilano community, including instructors, service providers, support staff, administrators and students to “begin a conversation, share ideas and explore strategies and initiatives related to student mental health, well-being and substance use.”

The event is being held in conjunction with Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses, a provincial inititative and “community of practice,” that is a partnership between the B.C. branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Centre for Addictions Research-B.C. Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses was created to address the issue of student mental health, taking the approach that it is the responsibility of the institution to provide an environment that facilitates mental well-being. The organization focuses on a wider, systemic response to the issue

of mental health, and the website notes that their primary areas of focus are “improving practices, influencing policy and addressing broader determinants of health in the post-secondary context.”

Other areas that may be looked at include, “student development, campus life, university policies, learning/classroom environment, direct care services, physical space and organizational culture.”

The event, which is open to all students once they register, has a number of activities and panels planned for participants.

“The opening presentation will situate this event in the context of some exciting and inspiring work being done elsewhere on the issue of student mental health,” says Frankel. “The event will be a combination of speakers from the Healthy Minds/ Healthy Campuses project; two or three panels of people from the campus community, who will be interviewed on stage by our facilitators; a World Café exercise where people will be working and discussing issues in small groups; and a closing plenary session in which we’ll be looking back at main points that have emerged during the day, and looking forward to possible goals and initiatives for next year.”

Notably, suicide is the leading cause of death among those between the ages of 10 to 24, after

car accidents, and about 75 per cent of mental illnesses start before the age of 25. Other universities have also been making strides to address these issues. Last November, Queens University released a high-profile report on student mental health. The report was commissioned partly in response to the tragic deaths of six students during the 2010-11 school year (three of which were suicides). It made 116 recommendations to improve the institutional framework with regard to student wellbeing, including more flexible schedules (including for exams), suggestions for how to make wellness centres more inviting for students taking steps to reduce the stigma around asking for help, and better training to help staff and educators overcome their concerns about privacy, and reach out to students in need. One of the most interesting proposals was to erase a poor or failed mark from a students’ record if it’s deemed a “false start,” if the student realizes too late that the class was a poor fit.

Students interested in attending the free day-long workshop can register at Making-the-connections. eventbrite.ca or by contacting the Counselling and Learning Support Centre in BR267 or at 604.984.1744.

THE STATE OF SUMMER EMPLOYMENT How the summer job market is shaping up, and how to get in there Lindsay Howe × News Editor

partment’s website posts new jobs regularly, and the website gives you access to other job-finding organizations such as Work B.C. Any student of Capilano University can book a personal appointment with Somerville to receive assistance in finding employment, as well as past students of Capilano. “When a student graduates from Cap they can come back and work with us free of charge for the first couple of years. If you’re a graduate and you go out there and got a job and it didn’t work out, you can come back. We believe in nurturing our alumni. I work with students one, two, three years out … more and more I’m working with seven years out because of the economy.

This is something not many people know about.”

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state must be measureable. An example of what is not measureable is that many people write on [their] résumé [things like] attention to detail, works well within a team, very efficient and effective in communication. None of that is measurable … you can’t measure that against your candidacy … those vague statements, I say this respectfully, are just you saying something nice about yourself, unless you have measureable text in your resume.”

“There are tens of thousands of students applying for a reduced amount of jobs in the province, it’s imperative that your document stands out,” says Somerville.

While Capilano University’s Student Employment Services do not place students in jobs, they work with students to make them the best candidates they can be. Somerville notes that her de-

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It was around this time last year that the Federal Government announced that Service Canada Youth Employment Centres across the nation would be shut down. The closures would save the government $6.5 million a year and move the services strictly online. The centres, which were open from May to August annually, were a resource for students seeking summer work, often to pay for their tuition for the upcoming fall semester. With one less resource available, students who have not yet secured summer employment for this year may be facing concerns about the number of available positions and the number of students competing for those openings.

“There are certainly fewer jobs since the crash of 2008, and definitely fewer summer jobs,” says Shoshana Somerville, Capilano University’s Employability Coach working in the university’s Student Employment Services Department. “We are in a difficult position nationwide for youth employment or underemployment, it is now at 14.5 per cent, and that’s up to age 29.” The lack of employment opportunities can be attributed to an unstable economy, government cutbacks, and an unequal ratio of supply and demand for students and jobs. This lack of employment has lead to students no longer seeking work related to their school discipline, and instead looking for employment in other industries that may not interest them, or make use of their skills.

While summer jobs are not in abundance, Somerville notes that there are still opportunities available. “Parks, tourist attractions, children’s camps, the big box stores, cafes ... summer employment is usually about tourism in Metro Vancouver.” While Somerville recalls the days of ample, well paying summer work availability through government agencies

such as Service Canada, she says not all summer work is paid minimum wage. “Summer wages are pretty standard, and probably minimum wage, but most attractions do pay a little more, and jobs with organizations like Parks Canada pay between $20 to $25 per hour.”

Somerville believes that the key to landing fulfilling employment for the summer or upon graduation lies within one’s ability to self assess, and their ability to understand what a job posting is truly asking for. “Today in such a competitive marketplace, the point I need to emphasize most is that students need to be more prepared in understanding themselves and how they’ll fit into the environment they’re going into.”

Somerville uses a method that she developed at the university 10 years ago called job posting deconstruction, in which students identify key words in a job listing to help them understand their potential candidacy for a position.

Another crucial factor in securing employment is in the form of documentation, Somerville believes. “Your résumé is one of the most critical life documents you will ever have because this document is going to secure employment for you.” Somerville adds, “Résumés tend to be very emotional documents, building that résumé is emotional because it automatically surfaces feelings of inadequacy that you don’t have what’s necessary out there and you don’t know how to put it down.” She emphasizes that résumés have evolved from the days of Word Document templates, and now should feature more personal information that will give the employer a better understanding of your character. “Today we can create our own résumés: you have your education, experience and references, besides those, we can create our own headings. If you’re someone heavily involved in sports we can make a sports heading, or music, or community service.” Somerville also mentions your chance of employment will be increased by cutting unnecessary statements from your resume. “Everything you

×× lydia fu

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NEWS BRIEFS Lindsay Howe, News Editor The most recent Capilano University Board of Governors meeting occurred on Apr. 9.

Highlights from the meeting are as follows: Financial Business Board Chair Robyn Brayne discussed his recent communication with the Ministry of Advanced Education. Brayne says he’s continuing to try and push the government into reconsidering the increase of Capilano University’s operating grant, but believes the Ministry does not see an issue with the current amount of funding. The Ministry’s advice to the University was to increase revenues through enrolling more international students, and to hire more accountants to help out current Vice President of Finance and Administration, Cindy Turner. Capilano University never had an increase in its operating grant when it became a university.

The Board of Governors has been dealing with the issue of a funding shortfall of $2.5 to $3 million in its 2013-2014 budget. While there had been discussion about applying to run a controlled or managed deficit, the board decided to go forward with submitting a balanced budget. While the draft documentation of what cuts the school will need to make won’t be released until next board meeting, there was considerable conversation about what would be cut. To balance the budget, the University is considering removing from its budget any money for renovations, new equipment, ceasing hiring in departments like IT services and the Registrar’s office although they are understaffed, ceasing new hiring in all capacities, creating no new sections for courses that are heavily waitlisted, the pos-

sibility of potential layoffs in undisclosed areas, and suspending certain programs for a year. The consideration of possibly suspending or ending particular programs comes from concerns with low enrollment, and duplication in the system, meaning that other institutions are offering the same program, and Capilano’s cannot compete.

Capilano University President Kris Bulcroft believes the University needs to decide what it does well, and what it does not. If this is the route that the University chooses to take, it was stated that feedback from the campus community will be taken into consideration.

Miscellaneous Business The meeting featured a guest named Ray Wolfe, a local architect who has created student collaborative spaces at other B.C. universities, including Kwantlen Polytechnic and Thompson Rivers University. Wolfe believes that Capilano University’s current spaces are not allowing students to socialize, and thinks the university needs more diverse spaces. Wolfe’s interactive presentation featured a video of what his vision of the future Capilano University looks like. This vision included food services in the Library Building, increased seating both inside and right outside of the cafeteria, new ceilings, and new furniture.

Wolfe is currently working with Capilano’s Vice President of Finance and Administration Cindy Turner to figure out how much money would be necessary for this project.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING CONTINUES The collective agreement between the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) expired on June 30, 2012. The two organizations have been in collective bargaining since then, and have yet to agree on a fair contract. At a recent semi-annual general meeting of the CSU, comments were made from students on the high staffing costs of CSU employees. Chairperson of the CSU’s

management committee, David Clarkson explains, “Employees at the CSU are paid significantly more than employees working in similar positions at other student societies in B.C. partly because, over the last 20 years, wages at the CSU have increased by an average of 3.4 per cent every year, which is significantly more than inflation. In fact, had wages increased only by inflation since 1990, the CSU would have saved over $60,000 on its personnel costs in this year alone.”

While the CSU Board of Governors believes in no additional wages for long term employees of the CSU, and only modest increases for student employees, Clarkson notes, “Under our proposal, all of our employees will continue to enjoy all of their existing extended health and dental benefits, improved retirement benefits, and a generous amount of paid holidays and vacation time.” While Clarkson believes the CSU’s proposal is reasonable, the two parties have experienced difficulty in reaching an agreement, an issue CUPE National representative Meena Brisard believes can be attributed to some of the CSU’s actions. “We feel that the addition of a management consultant (lawyer) into the mix has added an additional layer that interferes with open dialogue and dealing with the real workplace issues that would lead us to a new contract,” she says.

“It feels like the Board has forgotten that this is about real people and their jobs.”

While only time will tell the future of the collective bargaining, Brisard insists the future depends on the CSU. “That will depend on the Board's willingness to sit down with us and conclude a fair and reasonable collective agreement. That has always been our goal. The union continues to make every effort to get the Board to return to an open and collaborative approach.”

to campaign, yet campaigners on their behalf are allowable. “The main problems that we have structurally speaking are that we are generally opposed to restrictions in campaigning, except if they are reasonable restrictions that would be for the purposes of making sure that students aren’t interfered with in their ability to vote, or that there isn’t bribery or other kinds of sleazy things happening,” says David Clarkson, “but a blanket prohibition on campaigning, we find that to be unreasonable.”

While the Board of Directors for the CSU has their issues with these policies, ultimately, a change in the policy is out of the CSU’s hands, and would only be able to be made by the University Senate.

UNIVERSITY ELECTION POLICY There has been recent controversy surrounding the Senate and Board of Governors student representative elections. Due to current CSU policy on university elections, candidates are not allowed

× guest editorial ×

Love is Stronger than Death Gurpreet Kambo × Writer

the capilano courier

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Dearest Kevin: I hardly knew you, but I always wanted to. There is a hole in my heart, and I didn’t even know you sat there until you were gone. You left us too soon, and our family is incomplete without you.

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Three weeks ago, I lost a family member. My cousin Kevin suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Handsome, charismatic and with a cool, detached demeanour, he was the kind of guy who was popular in school despite not trying to be.

He was also only 20 years old – old enough to be his own person, but young enough to still have his whole future in front of him. I found myself wondering what some alternate version of the future would be like with him in it. If, apparently, an insignificant event like a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world causes a hurricane somewhere else, how different would the universe be with something a bit more significant changing? Something like if Kevin was still with us? If he hadn’t left us, and shattered our worlds, what would he be like in future years? Would he have children, and would they be friends with any children that I have?

At times I sort of forget about reality, or make myself forget and just think he’s gone away for a bit. It’s easy to let yourself think that someone’s gone off on a trip and that you’ll see them when they’re back. When I catch myself thinking this

way, it suddenly all comes back: the realization, the overwhelming emotions, the sense of loss, the feeling that I’ve personally lost all sense of personal security. The thought of never seeing him again even makes me start to rethink my long-held agnostic beliefs. It’s too hurtful to think that I will never actually see him again. While I’m not actually going to go down that road, for a little while it is comforting to wrap myself in the thought that there may be an afterlife where we could one day meet again.

And heck, I hardly knew the guy. I have known him my whole life, but that’s the weird thing about family – it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re close or that you are particularly good friends with each family member. Regardless, when a member of a family dies it means that now when your whole family is together, it’s missing a crucial component. Knowing someone your whole life, from when you were both children, even if it wasn’t well, still gives you a special relationship with that person. It gives you shared memories of growing up, birthday parties, inside family jokes, funny stories about other family members and family events which, in the future, won’t be the same because of such a conspicuous absence. For those closer to him, I’m sure the loss is different, and I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like, but what I’m left with is a sense of regret for not having known him better.

In terms of describing how this has affected me and my family, if I’m merely spouting clichés so far, it’s only because there’s far more than a kernel of truth to them – and I know that now. I know

that every person who has lost someone, especially someone so young, has likely experienced similar feelings and thoughts, but I’m feeling this with such intensity it feels to me like no one has ever felt this before. For an occurrence that is so common in everyone’s lives (155,000 people die every day, according to the CIA), suddenly losing a loved one can feel like the greatest shock you can possibly go through.

It is near impossible to pick up a newspaper without seeing news of someone passing away.

Death, the great equalizer, may be the greatest element that all humans have in common. We are constantly reminded that death happens all the time, and yet we are so desensitized to it. One of my favourite writers, Roger Ebert, just passed away. While I felt sad about it for a little while, as he’d touched me through his writing, I didn’t know him personally – so it’s clearly a different loss than I’ve experienced with Kevin.

It’s hard to know what the person on the news, in tears because they loved the deceased, is going through until it’s you. We are not only left with an overwhelming sadness and sense of loss, but a broken sense of personal security. Things that wouldn’t normally faze me and had nothing to do with Kevin’s passing now freak me out, because it feels like I’ve lost control of my environment, and the things that happen to me. I find myself double- and triple-checking the locks at night and watching my surroundings more carefully in public. Someone stole my family’s recycling bin on garbage day this week, which normally would be kind of amusing if not annoying, left me weirdly

shaken up. Kevin’s Facebook memorial page was defaced by a 4chan “raid” – a thread was posted on that website instructing forum dwellers to post obscene comments about him for “lulz,” and I spent the better part of a couple days begging the forum posters to leave us alone to no avail, along with deleting and reporting hundreds of obscene comments. My faith in humanity was momentarily shattered.

As a result of my misplaced sense of personal control and security, I’ve found escapism to be an important coping method. I lost myself in playing video games and watching movies for a while. I realized why they were so comforting for me at this time – despite the grotesque creatures and violence in many of these games, unlike life they were designed for me to win. If my character died, I could just restart, and my success depended only on me having the skill and muscle memory to get a job done. The cruel chance of real life was absent in this venture, giving me a sense of control that had suddenly and violently been yanked out of my real life. However, I do realize this is not a healthy way to process this loss.

It’s not like this is the first time that someone I knew passed away, but after a time it is so easy to fall back into that place where you forget how precious your life and relationships are, and how fragile they can be.

13-04-12 9:58 PM

Columns

Columns Editor ×

JJ Brewis × E ditor @ capilanocourier . com

SATURDAY NIGHT LOVE

Leah Scheitel × Columnist

The only ship you need is a Friendship Over the past four months, I have poured the details of my love life into this column. Using too many Saturday Night Live references and squandered attempts at self-deprecating humour, I have divulged about insecurities, love letters and prank calls. It has gone through cycles of being therapeutic at times and fucking annoying at others, but overall, I’m so happy to have this space to clear my head and bring entertainment to the readers.

Not everyone has the same reaction. When I tell guys that I’m interested in that I write about my “flailing love life,” the usual reaction is open fear that whatever they say or do is going to end up in these pages. But the thing is – I have an interesting dating life. In the past month I have been stood up, and then I made revenge prank calls. I also got an invite to Utah from a guy I haven’t spoken to in years, and later developed feelings for a guy who has a relative presently being convicted with child molestation. My first question when he told me was: “Is that shit hereditary?”

As odd and strange as my dating life is, it gives me something to write about. It gives me stories to tell over wine and cheese plates. And whether or not they like to admit it – it keeps my friends entertained.

Over dinner on a Saturday night, I was bitching about finding something to write about.

I was dry out of material and felt the need to be extra poignant in my last story for the year. My friend Facto has read or been there for most of these tales. While affectionately patting my shoulder, he said, “Don’t worry. You’ll find something to say. You always do.”And then we left for the bar on our bikes.

About a block later, I smashed into a car side mirror. I took the mirror clean off with my face, and lost two teeth. Right after the crash, I remember Facto holding my head in his hands, with my blood all over the two of us, and hysterically laughing.

“Oh man, I had such nice teeth.”

I spent the rest of the night in the emergency wing of Vancouver General Hospital. I received emergency dental work, putting wires to keep my remaining teeth straight, and four stiches in the bottom of my chin. Through the entire operation, the doctor was verbally harassing me because I wasn’t paying attention. I kept trying to call my crush in Ontario, trying to tell him about my accident. I don’t know why I was so fixated on telling him, but at the time, it was the most important thing to me. Maybe it was the idea of having

a significant other there to care for me, one that would care more than anyone else.

After 12 unanswered phone calls throughout the night, I realized that maybe there were others that cared more. Like Facto, and his date Monica, who refused to leave the hospital waiting room until they knew I was okay. The water fountain in the waiting room was broken, and the vending machine was clean out of water, but they stayed, dehydrating by the minute, to make sure I was okay. Or my friends Holly and Andy, who got out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to pick my stitched ass up from the hospital and drive me home, and then cleaned my entire apartment while I passed out in my bed.

Or JJ, who came over with three pink flowers as soon as he could. I cuddled those flowers like a stuffed animal in bed the rest of the day, and they are now slightly damaged.

At the hospital that night, when I went to pay for the ambulance ride, the nurse commented on it.

“I came to get your credit card three times tonight,” she said, “but I could never get to you.

You had so many friends around who cared so much that they wouldn’t let me bother you until I absolutely had to.”

“Really?” I said, surprised (I was slightly

THE APERTURE OF BEING

concussed and my memory was blurred).

“Oh yeah. You have good friends. It looked like any one of them would have taken your spot if they could have.”

That extreme amount of care that I wanted out of one guy I actually already have in the form of my many different friends. This incident has filled me with so much gratitude for the non-romantic people in my life. The romance will come and go, but the ones that would rather take a car window to their teeth than to see it happen to their friends – those ones are gold. And if I can keep them even slightly entertained with the details of my dating life, I will continue to do so, for as long as necessary.

Leah Scheitel lives her own life like a sketch comedy.

In this column, she will explore the stories and anecdotes of her love life and their correlations to her favourite late night comedy show. Her self-deprecating wit and candid nature make her our very own Molly Shannon we’re pretty okay with that.

Melissa Dex Guzman × Columnist

Breaking Down Inspiration Inspiration can be hard to grasp at times for some creative types. Personally, I’ve always found motivation and inspiration to arrive hand in hand.

When one is absent, so is the other. When one decides to come around, the other follows shortly behind. There is a tendency to overthink things, but when broken down into simpler pieces, it’s easier…well, sometimes. So where to find inspiration? Here are a few of my go-tos.

IT’S NOT JUST PHOTOGRAPHY

It always comes out as cynical but I'm thankful for never being happy with my own work. I don’t want to stop learning or become stagnant.

I always want to improve and explore new things that could enhance my style. Once upon a time, I was a daydreaming teenager who lost a good quarter or so of her hearing at concerts – I wished I was able to take the photos I saw in Rolling Stone magazine. I couldn't afford it for many years of my life but once I had saved up my first $1,400

Change is good. I promise. There are changes that are easy to embrace immediately such as falling prices on camera equipment and mobile phones, but some changes are harder. With photography, learning how to photograph in changing light environments, mixed in with spacial awareness, is always a constant. My two best friends moved away from Vancouver over the last year and it’s been excruciatingly lonely at times with no one to hang out with on the fly. I’ve had to get a grip on things and foster the relationships and things I have.

There will be hardships and learning how to

Melissa Dex Guzman by day is a systems administrator, and moonlights as a rock and roll wedding photographer. It’s like the Bruce Wayne turning into Batman complex, but less dangerous (and probably not as cool). Her published credits include SPIN, CBC Radio 3, and TEDx. Melissa also served as the Director of Photography for Ricepaper Magazine. You can harass her on Twitter via @m3lissa.

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NEVER BE 100% SATISFIED WITH YOUR WORK

EMBRACE THE ONLY CONSTANT: CHANGE

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I know most of you will argue with me. I sure argued against my college instructor when he told me this, but once I actually listened – I realized he was true. “Just write. You’re thinking too hard on this. Drop the ego, stop judging your work and write.” Sometimes remembering to breathe can be difficult under the pressure. I deal with anxiety and once it starts, everything hits at once. It may take a bit of time but if you take the simple joy of

I’m on the computer for an average of eight to 10 hours a day. I used to be on there for even longer. I longed to see all the places I kept seeing on Reddit, and found myself feeling a bit envious when looking at friends' vacation photos. One day I made a point to actually experience these places myself. I wanted to photograph a StarCraft tournament and I did it. I photographed a local one here in Vancouver and then I shot Korea's largest league in California. So all the pictures of all the cool places you bump into online? Try to see them in person. Live your life through your own eyes rather than someone else’s. It’s important to have your own experiences, something to call your own. Keep yourself hungry for more and keep doing it.

pull through them will make it easier. A creative outlet like photography is, ultimately, the best distraction from the bad changes in life.

Inspiration and motivation come and go. You life will change and your art will change. We are all on different paths in life, choosing who our friends are, our passions and poisons. When it comes down to it, inspiration will always be there – just remember to look back once in a while.

You’ve already come a long way.

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WRITER’S BLOCK DOESN’T EXIST

LEAVE THE COMPUTER

to buy a camera, I decided to go rogue and see what it was like to take photos of my favourite artist. I fell in love with the production and the precision it took to get the perfect shot. After my long failed attempt at trying to learn the guitar, I finally found what married my creative side with my passion for music. Soon enough, photography also became my channel to love and passion. A few years ago I began shooting weddings, but I try my best to throw in a bit of my rock ‘n’ roll edge from my concert photography.

the capilano courier

In my opinion, photography is derived from visual arts. I’m inspired by painters, musicians, filmmakers. I have found that it’s easy to keep looking at other photos and be hard on myself, debilitating myself from any creative output.

It’s crippling and leads to defeat. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” (I learned that from Tumblr, thanks Internet.)

If the going gets tough, step away and enjoy art in a different way on different platforms, whether it be listening to the latest Kanye West on the Skytrain or freehand drawing on a sketchpad. Taking in other medium of work can help to get the creative juices flowing in your own line of creative work.

writing, painting, taking a photograph – without worrying about your academic school grades or Facebook “likes” – it gets easier to just start. Lay it out, polish it later. As the old school subscribers to freestyling say, ”shoot from the hip;” edit, stylize and process later.

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×× melissa dex guzman

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Columns

Columns Editor ×

JJ Brewis × E ditor @ capilanocourier . com

Growing Pains

Robert Catherall × Columnist

Reflections on an Edible City If you’re not a huge fan of the outdoors, yoga, or spirituality, you’ve already got your work cut out for you in this town – especially if you’re a beaming young cynic like myself. It’s an urban-angst I’ve managed to reconcile by gleefully stuffing pork belly sandwiches down my throat and sucking back pints of IPA while others are setting personal bests on the Grouse Grind. Finding solace in West Coast appropriations of southern classics paired with an extensive whiskey list, or traditional British pub grub and a pint of lager, Vancouver boasts more inspired eateries than any foodie in the city has time to enjoy. Greasy spoons and cheap noodle houses have met their match as charming tapas bars and gut-busting fusion joints are popping up in Gastown and Mount Pleasant like teenage zits to all interested parties. They’re re-assessing how far that tax and tip calculation can really go.

For as many successes as there are to boast about, however, doing something well is an equal invitation for criticism. And after a near decade of ongoing dialogue concerning the development of the Downtown Eastside, a group of frustrated individuals has begun to respond in some pretty vocal – and visual – methods. As it opened its doors in early February, protestors gathered outside local eatery Pidgin, decrying the restaurant as gentrifiers guilty of displacing local residents in favour of their haughty food establishment.

Echoing their disdain were shattered windows at Famoso Pizza on Commercial Drive and a stolen A-frame street sign from Mark Brand's flagship restaurant Save-on-Meats in mid-March.

Inspired by the anxiety of DTES residents and their supporters, the AGF (Anti-Gentrification Front) has taken responsibility for the former incident, stating, “For all too long now, yuppies have been peacefully going about their gourmet dinners, buying up their lucky condos and flaunting their wealth by driving around in expensive cars. We thought it would be great to remind them AGF is still here,” before closing with the ominous, “Pidgin its [sic] time you fly away or face the consequences,” in a Mar. 13 press release via the Vancouver Media Co-op website.

Of all the new restaurants that have contributed to gentrification throughout the city, it’s difficult to explain why these three were targeted years after the development of these neighbourhoods began. “I don’t think they’re connected. Although there are very similar issues they’re targeting ... as for a direct connection, I wouldn’t have any information on that,” says Anna Farrant, Senior Community Coordinator at Save-on-Meats.

Supposing that it is simply Brand’s exposure that has made his restaurant a target, Farrant believes it may have been in virtue of the restaurant’s recent media coverage for initiatives like its meal token program, which provides roughly 500

free meals to single occupancy residents each day.

“Not every business has lots of media attention ... every time you put yourself out in the media you make yourself available for people to criticize you,” Farrant explains.

Athough it did not take direct responsibility for the Save on Meats sign theft, a similarly disgruntled press release appeared on the Co-op’s website the following day. Drawn up in a tone similarly sympathetic to Pidgin protestors, it was prefaced with the assertion, “The ghetto revolt will not stop until every capitalist enterprise has ceased to destroy daily life.” Further on it takes Brand to trial, claiming he is “masquerading as a savior with his paternalistic, segregating token program, and his multiple gentrifying businesses in the DTES-area.”

His solution? Bring in a new sign that helps individuals show their support for the restaurant.

It’s a similar A-frame sandwich board, but this time it’s topped with a silhouette of the pose the thieves made as they bragged about holding the sign hostage from their media release. Supporters and passers-by are encouraged to pose with their face in the sign’s silhouette cut-out to show their appreciation for the restaurant as a welcome business in the area. To up the ante, Brand has vowed a free breakfast to residents of the Rainier Hotel every time a photo of the sign is posted to any of the restaurant’s social media sites. It’s a playful comeback that has been well received by

supporters. “Overall the response has been really positive. We took a negative situation and made it positive and the response has been really overwhelming,” concludes Farrant.

I’m not going to put Brand, who operates nine restaurants in the city, on a pedestal for his marketing campaign, but for the time being this petty theft is a toothless prank that lacks a positive contribution to the conversation of how to address the interests of residents, citizens, entrepreneurs, and social justice. In fact, it’s proven to be a great way to make those who showed an interest in the development of the neighbourhood, like Brand, <i>less<i> inclined to participate in bilateral discussions for a balanced solution. Instead he’s taken the reigns and belittled the thieves, giving their actions even less credibility –and as unjust as that may seem, having a discussion on how development should occur needs to show some maturity or else, as we’re seeing, the result will be at the whim of those already in control.

Having seen some of the world’s greatest (and worst) cities, Robert believes Vancouver can become the former. However, it will not happen without some growing pains. Through his writing he intends to show that development can have a positive social effect, but only if we are willing.

An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

Evelyn Cranston × Columnist

the capilano courier

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Zombie Pigeons in Jurassic Park

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Could long gone creatures live again? Scientists have speculated that we’re in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction event, or the Holocene extinction. What makes this event different from the End Cretaceous extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, or the End Permian, otherwise known as the “Great Dying,” is that the cause of species loss is correlated to human activity.

Habitat loss and climate change pose the biggest risk, and the background extinction rate is alarmingly high. However, it turns out extinction may not be forever.

Although effective application is still in the realm of science fiction, scientists have constructed a field of study known as “de-extinction.” In 2003, a clone of a Pyrenean ibex, an officially extinct goat-like species, was brought back to life using a frozen tissue sample. It lived for just seven minutes, but the endeavour was a breakthrough in scientific progress. Right now, teams of scientists are attempting to bring the passenger pigeon, the Yangtze River dolphin, the Tasmanian tiger and a host of other extinct species back to life by isolating DNA segments from preserved specimens and piecing a complete genome back together. The processes are difficult, and the science is not advanced enough yet, but it’s certainly on the horizon. De-extinction has divided people into two main camps: for and against.

Stuart Pimm, of Duke University, states that, “efforts to bring back species are a colossal waste.”

Resurrecting a species is of no use if the factors that pushed it to extinction, such as habitat loss or over-hunting, are still a threat. As well, there’s a myth of a pristine state of wilderness, where every intricate detail exists in perfect balance.

Nature is more complicated than that – when presented with a singular change, the system as a whole changes. Re-introducing a lost species to a newly adapted ecosystem may be like introducing something completely alien and potentially disruptive.

Alexandra Heiberg, a UBC graduate in Natural Resources Conservation and Volunteer at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, states, “Most of the time, you’re not going to be in a situation where you can re-introduce them to the wild ... they’re going to have to be in some sort of captivity. It’s almost like a novelty, as they’re not going to have that many interactions with their natural environment.” The original habitat that supported the ibex, for example, is now either gone or drastically changed. It’s also argued that de-extinction is a seductive vision of a science-engineered solution to a socially created problem, and shifts responsibility away from conservation efforts. If we can just store DNA in a jar and revive a species later, it can seem to justify short-term extinction.

Science writer Hannah Waters calls de-extinction “blatantly narcissistic” and recommends cutting our losses, and focusing efforts on pulling living species back from the brink of extinction.

An individual’s views on de-extinction are often very connected to their personal field of study and interest. Heiberg states, “You can split [the issue] into people that are more interested in the genetics side of it, as opposed to the ecology and conservation side of it.” De-extinction does preserve genetic diversity, either to the benefit of damaged ecosystems or scientific advancement.

Heiberg explains that having that more diverse

genetic pool is valuable for future research. In fact, a central vision for the museum is to be like a library of species for future scientists to revisit and reference. Some argue there’s a moral obligation for environmental justice. We must make a valiant effort to bring back what we obviously killed off.

Others still argue for the benefits of deextinction for future drug research. According to the National Institutes of Health, over half of all new pharmaceutical drugs within the past 20 years have been based off chemical compounds from plants, animals or micro-organisms. If a cure for a debilitating disease could be found in an extinct species, there becomes a moral obligation to humanity to revive it. The “Revive and Restore” project argues that de-extinction is not likely to draw focus away from conservation, but rather make people care more. The revival of iconic, charismatic creatures could stir public interest in conservation efforts.

Tanis Geiselman, interpreter at the museum, explains that quite a few zoo programs do similar things already, by trying to boost population numbers in species on their way to extinction through. Geiselman explains that on a more practical ecosystem level, reintroducing ex-

tinct species is going to come with a lot of implications. She states, “Each organism has a huge impact on the rest of the ecosystem. If you’re bringing back something like a mammoth, that’s going to require an awful lot of food and space, which we’re already running short of. It’s a very cool and interesting thing to think about ... but you have to think about the implications of what happens afterwards.”

Conservation and de-extinction technology are both valuable in their own right, and it shouldn’t be a matter of exclusively picking one over the other. However, because finite resources are available to biologists, ecologists and researchers, it becomes a fight of “us versus them” for project support. In order to preserve remaining living species and advance science by giving extinct ones a second chance, there must be greater appreciation for biodiversity as a whole.

Evelyn Cranston studies environmental geography at UBC. After considering all possible majors and feeling interested in all of them, she decided going with the study of the world would be a safe bet. She likes long walks on the beach, searching for dead starfish, barnacles and old kelp clumps.

×× Karen Picketts

13-04-12 9:58 PM

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GARDEN CITY OF GOOD AND EVIL

Crashing the Party Leader Absence makes the heart grow fonder as the old saying goes, but for politicians in a re-election campaign, absence might really be the kiss of death.

I grew up in Langley, and a more reliably conservative electoral riding would be hard to find in British Columbia. Most people I knew would vote for the “conservative” candidate no matter who they were. Until recently, I doubt many Langley residents could pick our Member of Parliament, Mark Warawa, out of a crowd.

Shockingly, Warawa has transformed from Ottawa potted plant into dissident, over MP independence. He is, if not famous, now less obscure thanks to his stand against his own party’s leader, Stephen Harper.

Stances like Warawa’s often make stars out of the challengers, but in politics the David really needs to be on somewhat equal footing with their chosen Goliath. Warawa is a sitting MP, theoretically not that different from Stephen Harper.

Taking up an electoral challenge against a party leader is a harder proposition, with no guarantee of a similar escape from obscurity. Just ask the people who ran against Harper in Calgary Southwest, if you can remember their names.

Aside from the chosen few like Premier Christy Clark or NDP leader Adrian Dix, who leap from foot solider to supreme commander, most of our politicians stay cocooned, comfortably or not, in obscurity. Rank and file politicians aren’t

unknown just to the larger public, but often just to their own constituents. As the leadership of all parties increase their hold over our political process, individual members seem to matter less. However, despite their power, Dix and Clark must take their democratic lumps alongside less-exulted MLAs. Enter the challengers from stage left, right, and centre.

While they might not suffer from obscurity, Clark and Dix will each confront the different obstacle of absence in winning re-election.

Adrian Dix has won two landslide victories in Vancouver-Kingsway, but this will be the first election he faces as party leader. Over in VancouverPoint Grey, Premier Clark is facing stiff competition from candidates of all three of B.C.’s major opposition parties less than two years after she scraped a by-election win in the riding by five hundred votes. Both leaders will mostly be off campaigning around the province, and will have little time for their own ridings.

Gurtij Dhillon, the Liberal candidate facing Dix, thinks Dix’s elevation to leader and the absence from his riding as a result of this position, will provide her with a great advantage. “I imagine he won’t have time to be in the riding much,” Dhillon says, “Which gives me an opportunity to get on the doorsteps and sway some votes.” While being a premier or a party leader brings power, notoriety, and bigger budgets, those positions also carry the disadvantage of controversial and

unpopular baggage to lug around. As Dhillon also says, “It's like [running against] any other opponent, though Mr. Dix has a record that he needs to defend.”

A record that needs defending, whether their own or their party’s, has felled many Canadian leaders. In B.C.’s recent history, premiers that have lost their own seats along with the whole electoral shebang have usually been stooges for the previous leader’s disasters, scandals, or unpopularity. Christy Clark has been premier nearly three years, and the public’s distaste for Gordon Campbell has thinned along with his own absence and obscurity. Clark might now own her party’s record and the loss of her seat in Point Grey could be but one more nail in the Liberal government’s coffin.

Duane Nickull, Conservative candidate in Point Grey, points to another weakness for leaders: the fact that they are often parachuted into ridings they have little connection to. “I feel I have a strong chance against Christy Clark based on the fact this riding is my home,” Nickull says. While the premier is from Port Moody and merely ran in Gordon Campbell’s vacated riding for the sake of convenience, she will remain far better known than opponents with stronger ties to the riding.

“She, as premier, does get more press,” Nickull says, “Unfortunately this is at the expense of the constituents.” What remains to be seen is whether those constituents believe they can get anything

FILM CLUB

Max Olesen × Columnist

more from a present but obscure MLA, than they can from an absent but prominent premier or party leader.

All candidates in every election are in a race against obscurity on the same level as their opponents. Candidates taking on a party leader often start deeper in the obscurity tank than most, owing to the perception that those leaders are unbeatable by mere virtue of their fame. There is, however, the real possibility both Dix and Clark could find themselves out of a job come May, trading in their stardom for obscurity while the previously obscure Nickull, David Eby (who is also running against Clark in the NDP slot), or Dhillon could find themselves the David standing over their Goliath. Obscurity and presence might trump notoriety and absence. As usual with B.C.’s volatile politics, everything seems up for grabs in this election. British Columbians are a capricious electorate, so stay tuned to this election, everything could be changing one more time.

Max Olesen, a recent graduate of the University of Victoria, is a freelance writer and political enthusiast. He will use his column to help illuminate the workings, failings, and eccentricities of our provincial government and its fearless leaders from the front lines of the City of Gardens. Follow Max on Twitter at @WritingOlesen

Brandden Dancer × Columnist

The Digital Frontier good story, it doesn’t matter to the majority of the audience what you used to shoot it. Digital will never be the same as film, but it will get as close as it can to hopefully honour it, take the torch, and give people new ways to dream.

Brandden Dancer is a freelance videographer, director, and editor in addition to being a film connoisseur. He co-hosts an Internet movie review show called Dangerhouse Reviews which features movies, friends, comedians, and fellow Courier writers, viewable at Youtube.com/dangerhousereviews. He is father to a cat named Wyatt, who is a weirdo.

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illusion of movement.” Despite many films and television shows still being shot on film, several major manufacturers of motion picture cameras have all ceased production of film cameras and have developed digital counterparts to meet the demands.

Following suit, Fuji has ceased production of motion picture film. Film cameras will still be available to rent, but it is a major shift for the industry. It shows the state of where film is at and begs us to ponder what the future holds.

Digital SLR cameras are now the primary means for aspiring filmmakers. Many do not even think of shooting on film as an option due to the cost factor. DSLRs are affordable, compact, and easy to use. They are giving young artists the opportunity to create high-definition video that can easily be uploaded to websites like Vimeo and YouTube, to showcase and spread their work. This is important, as these artists are the people who are going to find new, innovative ways to change the landscape and scope of filmmaking. It all starts with kids fucking around with their parents’ camera and finding a way to express themselves and their ideas.

Digital film will never be the same as celluloid film. Digital doesn’t have the grit, grain, and texture of film. Not just the image, but everything else that goes into it: the magic of the light capturing the image and the time and energy it takes to process and splice together the film. People should see film and digital as separate mediums used for a similar purpose. Digital film can get a higher resolution and the quality and abilities are only going to get better. Yes, it loses some of the magic we associate with film, but essentially it is still the manipulation of images to tell a story. That is what it comes down to in the end and if you have a

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digital debate. Many have long since switched over to exclusively shoot films digitally. Digital condenses the workflow and allows for more flexibility and creative potential. The cameras are smaller, lighter, and more adaptable. Thousands of feet of film are now replaced by a small SD card. It gives the director more control to see exactly what is being shot so proper adjustments can be made to get the look they are going for. Side by Side comes at a time when filmmaking is at a pinnacle moment, a transition between the old ways and the new.

Roger Deakins, ASC, is a cinematographer whose credits include The Shawshank Redemption and O Brother Where Art Thou? In the documentary, he says of the ARRI ALEXA, the first digital camera he shot with, “It’s the first camera I’ve worked with that I’ve felt gives me something I can’t get on film ... [Shooting on Digital] gives me a lot more options ... Am I nostalgic for film? I mean it’s had a good run, hasn’t it?”

Despite the benefits, many directors see digital as inferior to film, and that it takes away from the experience. These film-promoting artists feel like digital is a cheap imitation and that although it is now the chief means of shooting, it is not doing justice to photochemical film production.

Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight Trilogy, finds the digital manipulations to be “seductive, but ultimately they are a little bit hollow.”

Quentin Tarantino, another proponent of film says, “For me, the magic of movies has always been connected to 35mm because everyone thinks ... when you’re filming something on film that you’re recording movement ... You are just taking a series of still pictures ... but when shown at 24 frames per second through a light bulb, it creates the

the capilano courier

Since the late 1880s, film has moved towards becoming the primary method of visual storytelling. Now that photochemical film production has reached as far as it can go, digital filmmaking is taking the medium to new heights. But some filmmakers reject it as a valid medium and believe it to be a poor substitution.

Growing up as a teen, my cousin and I made short films with our grandfather’s camcorder.

We would then “edit” them by connecting the camcorder, the VCR and the TV. The results were silly and shaky, but fun to make. I remember seeing ourselves as professional “directors” and “actors” even though we were just fucking around.

The process of setting up a scene, and having a camera pointed at you brought the magic of moviemaking down to a level where suburban kids felt like maybe this was what making a Hollywood film would actually be like.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, independent filmmakers started to use the same consumermade video cameras to produce films on a lowbudget, for purely creative purposes. Films like The Celebration, Julien-Donkey Boy, and Chuck and Buck introduced the industry and the world to a new generation of filmmakers and a new, more accessible style of filmmaking. Although criticized as being muddled and amateur-ish, it brought a certain level of intimacy to these films that had previously only been associated with pornography, news footage and documentaries.

The recent Keanu Reeves-produced documentary Side by Side examines the science, art and the impact of digital cinema. In the film, various directors and cinematographers let their feelings be known as to where they stand in the film-versus-

9 ×× vivian liu

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Columns

Columns Editor ×

JJ Brewis × E ditor @ capilanocourier . com

ADVENTURES IN HOLLYWEIRD

Luke Atlas × Columnist

Earn Your Pizza I sit on the white bedspread in my parents’ downtown L.A. hotel room while my mom methodically folds a lavender-coloured bow tie around my neck. Now I know why they invented the clip-on bow tie – I could never get the hang of tying those things. Around me there’s a buzz in the air of buttons being buttoned, zippers zipped, laces pulled tight, hair coifed just right, and everyone jockeying for a precious patch of mirror space. Today is the big day; my family and I have tickets to the Grammys.

Yes, The Grammys – the great American communal back rub for the biggest pop stars of today and those perennial Baby Boomer acts that seem to crawl out of their mansions for every awards show. What started as a once-in-a-lifetime splurge after my dad was recovering from cancer has turned into an annual tradition. We had so much fun the first time that for the past three Februarys we’ve assembled in sunny Los Angeles for a night of glitzy escapism that is a welcome respite from the post-Holidays, mid-winter blahs.

But for now it’s just that – an escape from real life.

It’s surprisingly easy to get into the Grammys; I buy tickets, just like the vast majority of people who attend. This is the first year we’re allowed to walk down the red carpet, which is bisected into the “star” and nominee side with flashing cameras and mic-wielding journalists, and the plebeian side where security guards urge you to “keep it moving.” It’s a thrill to stroll down the footballfield length of plush carpet, even if the cameramen aren’t barking my name. The glamorous illusion fades slightly as I enter the Staples Center, a basketball arena home to the L.A. Lakers, fast food stalls, and men hawking popcorn. Still, here I am

in the same room (albeit a very large one) with nearly every major star of the mainstream music world. I briefly entertain the warped thought that if one bomb went off in the VIP floor seating area, it’d be the end of popular music as we know it.

Over the next three hours I bathe in the strobe lights of the made-for-TV musical performances, and get to peer behind the scenes as enormous set pieces descend from the ceiling and celebs run to the bathroom during commercial breaks.

But watching from the nosebleeds in my suit and patent leather shoes amidst all the celebrity and fanfare, I’m plagued by a nagging feeling that I don’t deserve to be here; I haven’t earned it. Every year these awards acknowledge talent (or something like that) in the field in which I work, and being the dreamer and optimist that I am, I feel like it’s in the faintest realm of possibility for me to someday be invited – that is, to be nominated. The way I’ve entered this year and years before – to buy my own way in, feels like cheating. It’s like opening your presents the day before Christmas. Of course I’m having fun with people I love, but I can’t help but think about how much better it’d feel to be invited here through hard work, instead of just coughing up the money to attend. After the show I’ll have to hang up my tux and the fantasy for another year.

Since my uneasiness at the Grammys, this concept of “earning it” has been dominating my brain. At a time in my life when even sleeping feels like a luxury, I often think, “did I earn this sleep? Can I feel good enough about what I’ve accomplished today to allow myself some beautiful shut-eye in this big, soft bed?” If the answer is no, I’m not going to deprive myself, but

I’m not going to feel as good about it unless I’ve earned it. I want to feel like I deserve all the nice things in my life, from a trip to the beach to my French press in the morning. That large, hot pizza with all the toppings feels well deserved (and tastes better) when devoured after a long, steep hike in the hills. I can let loose and enjoy myself more on a night out with friends if I’ve checked off all the to-dos on my list for the day.

Sure, there are times I fantasize about winning a windfall of cash in the lottery and traveling on endless whims around the world, or marrying a rich older woman and eating frozen grapes by the pool all day, but would I really feel good about it? For a while it’d be fun, but then I’d have to live with my good-for-nothing self after the initial enchantment wore off. So I’ll keep working for the

day I can truly earn my way into that silly awards show, and a hundred other rarified places. In my day-to-day I’m trying to feel like I’ve earned all my little pleasures by working hard and being a good person. My bed. My food. My family and friends.

It’s the year of earning it, setting goals and rewarding yourself for hitting them. Earn Your Pizza.

Earn Your Sleep. Earn Your Dreams. Because all the sweat you put in now makes the long, steamy shower of success feel that much better.

Luke Atlas is the former singer and songwriter for Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (later renamed Brite Futures). He currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where he is an aspiring Svengali for the pop stars of tomorrow. He appreciates you following him on his adventures in Hollyweird!

×× Dave Mcansh

STYLE REVISITED

Katie Blecker × Columnist

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Anyone who’s had a job in any sort of retail environment will tell you that dealing with the public has both positive and negative aspects. I’ve been employed at various retail jobs, mostly in the realm of fashion, for the greater part of my working life and am most grateful for the amazing and truly inspiring people I have met along the way.

In the fashion retail world, there are certain unspoken rules of personal conduct. Generally, most people who have worked at jobs in this field have these guidelines naturally ingrained into their systems by simply having dealt with the public and developing the ability to discern what is and is not appropriate in a public setting. However, part of our job is to interact with those who may have a whole different set of manners when it comes to shopping in a retail space.

Here are some helpful tips to make everyone’s shopping experiences enjoyable, especially in vintage stores.

FITTING ROOM ETIQUETTE When trying on clothing in a vintage shop, it’s important to remember that the clothes are often very old, and can be more delicate than items in a new clothing store. If you have to strain a garment to get into it, force a zipper, or generally have a difficult time trying something on – ask for

assistance. That is part of a sales person’s job and we’re always happy to lend a hand.

Better safe than sorry when it comes to preserving historic garments. I’ve had the unfortunate experiences of witnessing 80-plus year-old garments unknowingly destroyed by having been tried on and treated without special care and attention.

The same goes for treating a piece of clothing with respect after you have tried it on. Sometimes we find garments left in a heap on the floor after having been tried on, instead of being hung back on the hangers from which they came. This can cause more trouble than one may initially realize, as it can not only put the integrity of an item at risk, but if the garment wrinkles easily, it will have to be re-steamed by an employee before it can go back on the floor for display.

Patience is key when waiting for a fitting room.

Most vintage shops only have a small number of rooms in which to change, so if the store is exceptionally busy, there will likely be a short wait for one to be available. If there are a number of people also waiting for rooms, it is helpful to stay close by, so as to not lose your place in line. There are lots of amazing and unusual things to look at in vintage shops, but they can wait until after you’ve finished in the fitting rooms!

RETAIL DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

PLAYING NICE

Always ask a sales associate for assistance should you have queries about items in any sort of deliberate display, both in the window and around the shop. Helping yourself to clothing from a window display is no help at all, and can actually cause a lot of damage. In many vintage stores, the props used for display are also vintage or antique and can be quite delicate. Removing articles of clothing without knowing the state of the form that displays them can potentially cause things to fall over or break.

It is important to remember that everybody working in any retail space is a person just like you and me, and is likely a complete stranger.

Treat them as you would like to be treated, if you were in their shoes. Though many of us who work in vintage stores tend to have unusual senses of style, it makes us just as uncomfortable as anybody else to be noticeably gawked at. My favourite unfavourable comments I’ve received at work about my physical appearance are, “Do they make you dress like that to work here?” and “Wow, you need some sun!” Do unto others...it’s a cliché for a reason!

Naturally, every job has its small annoyances. Luckily for those of us in fashion retail, particularly in the realm of vintage, we get to experience all sorts of new interactions with people from different walks of life every day. In my opinion, the variety is what keeps things interesting – and it can make for a hilarious story!

TILLSIDE MANNERS Though this should go without saying, using a cell phone whilst simultaneously attempting to make a purchase in any kind of store can be frustrating for the person assisting you with the sale. It makes communication unnecessarily difficult and awkward. Instead, it is best to wait until your conversation is done before making your purchase or alternatively, put the conversation on a brief hiatus until the transaction you’d like to make is complete.

Katie Blecker is a devotee to vintage style, with a particular interest in collecting items from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s. She also enjoys sewing, Old Hollywood, dance and cheesy puns. Follow her on Tumblr at Threadandcloth.tumblr.com.

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arts

arts Editor ×

Celina kurz × arts @ capilanocourier . com

THE GOLDEN AGE Arts Club celebrates Season 50, diverse productions ahead Samantha Thompson × Copy Editor “There go the profits,” joked Bill Millerd, as a wine glass shattered on the ground. He was raising a toast to the Arts Club’s golden anniversary, and someone (as someone always does) accidentally dropped their beverage onto the floor. Millerd is the artistic managing director at the theatre company, and his naturally comedic one-liner was one of many contributing to the overall bubbly atmosphere at the kickoff of the Arts Club’s 50th season.

Millerd is something of a fixture at the Arts Club. He’s been with them since 1969, after graduating from UBC and the National Theatre School, when the Arts Club was just starting out at its Seymour Street theatre.

The 50th season launch was an affair complete with reflective speeches, musical performances of pieces from classic Arts Club productions, and an unveiling of a plaque from the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. The plaque is part of the Places That Matter project, which works to memorialize people, places and events that have sig-

nificantly impacted Vancouver’s history, but are yet to be recognized. With the Arts Club’s extensive history, the unveiling, next to the lamppost that previously stood outside the company’s first theatre, was a perfect fit.

The theatre company has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a converted gospel hall.

Although the 250-seat theatre closed in 1991, the Arts Club had already begun growing with its expansion to the Granville Island Stage in 1979, and the Revue Stage in 1983.

Despite its success, Millerd attributes most of the Arts Club’s growth to pure luck: “A lot of it is just by accident, being at the right place at the right time and having a tremendous amount of support from many, many individuals, ” he says.

But with the recent closure of the Vancouver Playhouse, Millerd acknowledges that it is a concern, and that they work to be aware of what’s going on and adjust the productions accordingly.

“We are always are aware of our audience and the need for support from our audience, so hopefully if someone tells us we’re not relevant, we won’t ignore that,” he says. “So it’s just always being conscious … in some ways you’re only good

as your last show but you know, just making sure you have your ear to the ground.”

With its growth has come additional funds, turning the Arts Club into a $12 million organization. With a bigger budget they’re able to host things like their LEAP program, an intensive screenwriting program for young artists, and other programs for youth. As part of the 50th season, the Arts Club will also launch archival exhibitions online and in its three stage lobbies. It also makes them the largest theatre company in Vancouver, which means they play a significant role in the arts and culture scene.

“Certainly we try and liven the culture scene,” says Millerd. “From a theatre point of view we try to lead and support the other theatre companies … as well as just community outreach.”

Community outreach is something the Arts Club has given particular focus to over the past several years, offering support to the smaller theatre companies by loaning out props and costumes, and providing mentorship. What they want to do, says Millerd, is give “artists the opportunity to do what they do best.”

While Millerd is a fan of musicals, he emphasizes that, “My vision has always been

clearly eclectic programming.” Season 50 will see some crowd favourites like Mary Poppins and Monty Python’s Spamalot, Arts Club classics like It’s Snowing on Saltspring and Red Rock Diner, as well as premieres of Helen Lawrence by Chris Haddock and Stan Douglas, and Armstrong’s War by Colleen Murphy. Returning from last year are two of the highlights from the 49th season: Boeing-Boeing (on tour) and Santaland Diaries. The Arts Club has a full production schedule ahead of them, but for Millerd, one of the greatest parts of working for the Arts Club is being able to work with so many different artists.

“Every day is different, every show has different people involved,” he says. “It’s [about] getting to know them, and really taking some satisfaction in letting their dreams be fulfilled.”

For the full list of Season 50 productions, visit Artsclub.com.

ONE ADVENTURE AT A TIME Rich Aucoin carves live show in pop niche JJ Brewis

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“As various adventures have come to light I’ll be like ‘I’ll try that now,’” says Rich Aucoin. The Halifax musician has been making his rounds for a while, but has no specific agenda in terms of planning out his next steps. Aucoin’s musical legacy began in 2007, after graduating with a philosophy degree. “I was interested in making music and playing in recreational bands. At the end of my degree I decided I was going to make a record for the fun of making a record,” he says. For the last six years he’s done just that, taking the world by storm with his blend of party-ready dance music, with eccentric song titles such as “Brian Wilson is A.L.i.V.E.” Despite having “no real other intention other than completing it as a project,” Aucoin took his Public Publication EP from coast to coast, first with his brother’s band Hylozoists, and then on a brave solo trek. “I thought the next adventure would be a tour of my own, and I went across Canada on a bicycle in the summer,” he says. The solo tour would see Aucoin beginning what he would become known for almost instantly: his over-the-top live show.

Filled with confetti, a parachute, interactive video medleys and a microphone equipped with a satellite light bulb so that you can spot him while he roams frantically through his crowd – it’s all become pretty standard for Aucoin. “I like to make it as original as I can,” he says. His next trick? A massive balloon filled with confetti that he can have explode over his audience like a Technicolor death star.

Another element Aucoin has become known for is his draw to cinema. Before he takes the stage,

Aucoin screens a series of fake “film trailers.” In his music video for “It”, he recreates footage from a handful of classics, from Forrest Gump to E.T. Public Publication was in fact written with the intention to sync up frame-by-frame to the 1966 Dr. Seuss animated classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He recreates a portion of the pairing in his live show, and he’s planning to do it all again on his next release. “[It] is a concept record that syncs up to the clay animation version of The Little Prince,” Aucoin says. “I’m really interested in film and I originally wanted to go to film school after high school.”

Though Aucoin ended up in music, film is still a huge part of his practice. “I like always writing music to movies, [and] there’s a couple other scores [I’ve made] for short films – films for my friends,” adding that he uses film to “add structure” to his writing process.

His next record will also be the first time Aucoin writes and records with a pre-conception of how it’ll play out in his live performance. “I’m unsure if I’ll always be thinking in the context of the live setting, but particularly with this record and project I’ve definitely thought about it a lot – how the songs will translate live. They’re kind of being made to be the way I’ve performed them.”

In the past, it almost seems the Rich Aucoin album has come secondary to the performance. Material from his debut LP, 2011’s We’re All Dying To Live is a far cry from what’s in his show, despite the fact he plays those songs nightly. “I’ve remixed [songs from that album] so much from the way they were recorded on the record that some people don’t even recognize them as the same songs.”

Now that his live and recorded music will be on the same page, the cohesion is something Aucoin is looking forward to. “I’m currently interested in making a really high energy, fast paced record

that’s kind of stemming from the live show, that I’ve been doing in the last few years,” he says.

Aucoin sees his output as a pretty natural thing and doesn’t like to get too caught up in the semantics of why he’s doing it. “I hardly ever say the word ‘creator,’ in the [artistic] framework like that. I kind of just make one thing at a time and enjoy what I’m doing at each moment.” With each show captioned off by a video montage bearing the phrase “We are so lucky to be alive,” it’s clear he’s pretty grateful to be where he is, too.

But don’t mistake his positive vibes or upbeat dance music for a lack of emotional output. He may spend half of his stage performance preaching his endearing (and honestly, kind of true) “lucky to be alive” mantra, but he wants people to be aware of his depth. “I think, like a Pixar movie or a Disney movie, the overall feeling is you feel good after, but they’re sad as well,” he says. He calls the more introspective moments on his albums “a contrast to the positivity. I think the overall feeling when people leave the shows [though], is a happy ending.”

Rich Aucoin plays the Commodore Ballrom on April 20, opening for K-os. He also plays the Whistler World Ski & Snowboard Festival on April 19.

×× Scott Munn

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MAKING LIVE MUSIC LEGAL Non-Profit Society Creating Inclusive, All-Ages Venue James Martin × Writer When you’re a young person who wants to attend live music performances on a typical young person’s budget, the city of Vancouver has very few reasonable options available. Shows at larger theatres and stadiums are often too pricey to attend on a regular basis. Any restaurants that host live music often expect you to buy dinner if you want to keep your seat, which can add up quickly. There are some bars and pubs where you can enjoy a show on a budget, but those options are off-limits to anyone under 19 years old. If you know the right people, you might just be lucky enough to hear about a cool show happening in somebody’s basement or some other less-thanlegal performance space, but the question of safety at such an unregulated venue might make such an option less appealing.

The Safe Amplification Site Society is on a mission to provide a new alternative. S.A.S.S., or Safe Amp, is a local non-profit organization with a mission to remove the barriers that keep music fans and performers apart by operating their own inclusive all-ages venue in Vancouver. Taking cues from such successful ventures as Seattle’s VERA project, they’ve been working to find support for a venue where anyone can enjoy music legally, regardless of age.

“The Safe Amplification Site Society is a cheeky play on the safe injection site ... what we’re asserting is that in Vancouver, most live music is virtually illegal – especially all-ages and DIY music,” explains Marita Michaelis, who has been on the board of directors of Safe Amp since 2010. “Most venues that exist [to host these types of shows] aren’t legal because of crazy bylaws. So if you can create a safe injection site, why can’t you make a safe amplification site where we can make music

that we’re going to do anyway, and do it legally and without the fear of being shut down and told what we’re doing is wrong?”

The organization’s criteria for a venue stipulates that it must be “safe, all-ages, affordable, and completely accessible,” says Reid Blakely, another member of Safe Amp’s board of directors. While accessible mainly refers to physical accessibility, it also leads into their “affordable” part of their mandate – the importance of financial accessibility. Shows thrown under the Safe Amp banner are generally $5 or pay what you can, “so if you don’t have enough money or aren’t able to pay, no one is turned away for lack of funds,” he explains.

“We believe that live music ... should be available to everyone regardless of how much money they have.”

Currently, in order to be all-ages and legal, all shows thrown by Safe Amp are required to be liquor-free. “The easiest way to have all-ages shows is to be dry,” explains Michaelis. “We’re not antiliquor ... it’s just the easiest way to do it. Also, we are doing something different. If you want to go to a bar and see a show, you can do that. But the space we are creating is something else.” In terms of opening a sustainable venue, this adds difficulty as many music venues rely on liquor sales to make money and thus pay their rent.

On Apr. 27, the organization will host the grand opening performance at their new temporary home at Astorino’s on Commercial Drive, an old banquet hall. The organization will be able to host roughly nine all-ages shows per month at this location, and anyone can book a show. “It’s effectively kind of a temporary version of the permanent all-ages music venue that we’d eventually like to establish,” explains Blakely.

He points out that there are still some hurdles to overcome for their long-term goal, including dealing with a number of bylaws and regulations that make it difficult to legally operate a live music

venue. “There’s all sorts of laws and zoning and licenses for that sort of thing to be viable on a permanent basis. And we’re currently working on that, we’re in various levels of contact with various people who represent the city of Vancouver.”

Among other actions, they recently began a petition for the provincial liquor laws to be altered on Change.org.

Although Safe Amp’s temporary residence at Astorino’s has yet to officially commence, the society has already hosted a few shows there that have showed promise for the new venue. Others at Safe Amp hope that if things go smoothly, it will help them build a case to convince the city to take action to help make their eventual permanent

venue and others like it more viable. “We’re just kind of moving ahead with this temporary venue, and hopefully after we get established with that, we’ll be able to demonstrate to the city of Vancouver, ‘See? This kind of thing can actually exist!’ and hopefully they’ll listen.”

Safe Amp’s show on Apr. 27 at Astorino’s will feature Cascadia, Pups, Chung Antique, Village, Fake Tears, Collapsing Opposites, and Chris-a-riffic. Admission is pay what you can. For more information on Safe Amp, visit Safeamp.org.

×× Celina Kurz

KING OF THE DOT TAKES THE THRONE Battle rappers find their footing online and off Giles Roy × Managing Editor

nobody wants to hear an anecdote for half a round.

They wanna hear you rap, and they wanna hear punchlines. So if you’re trying to build up this huge verbose story, you lose people’s interest.”

That is, after all, the whole point. Entertainment is the most important aspect of every battle, and despite the one-on-one nature of the spectacle, the audience plays a crucial role in each decision.

Mitchell is always conscious of who’s watching.

“What you do live may not translate, like the room’s energy, and sometimes you write complex stuff, and it might be awesome on video, but the crowd doesn’t really catch it.”

So to get the full experience, the obvious thing to do is just join in. Go witness a King Of The Dot battle first-hand. Then re-watch it on YouTube later. Then inexplicably leave a comment containing a verse of your own. Just kidding, don’t do that.

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The next KOTD event takes place May 19 at the Red Room, with Pigsty facing off against local legend Aspire. For more information, as well as a wealth of video footage, visit KingOfTheDot.com.

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quite ready to go back to recording. “The idea is to have an audience ready when I do decide to drop something,” he says, “The thing is, battling is taking up a lot of my time right now. It’s a super huge promotion tool, but at the same time I’m always writing for battles.”

Talking to Mitchell is like talking to an ambitious athlete. He’s focused, determined, and most of his time is clearly dedicated to careful calculation of his next move.

So what sport would he compare battle rap to?

Nascar? Pokemon training?

“MMA,” he says, without hesitation. “It’s just too warlike to be compared to anything but a fight.

There are so many different styles. Like some guys might go up and just do jokes, and they can’t necessarily rap very well but they’re funny as fuck, and they can win that way.”

The warlike aspect really does come through in YouTube clips. Rappers take aim at their opponents with little to no mercy, often bringing in elements from their opponent’s personal life to get a rise. These disses, or “personals,” have become a huge part of the sport – “I’m personally of the opinion that you can’t go too far,” says Mitchell. “If you’re a rapper, it’s a risk you have to be willing to take.”

But despite this no-holds-barred attitude, there’s still an audience to worry about.

“A lot of time personals will fall flat because

the capilano courier

If you’ve only ever seen the 2002 film 8 Mile, you could be forgiven for thinking that battle rap was a footnote to modern hip-hop, a temporary side attraction to music’s most commercially viable genre. The movie won its star Eminem an Oscar for best song (“Lose Yourself ”), and introduced mainstream audiences to the general concept of battling: two competitors take turns rapping over the course of several rounds, trying to top each other with personalized disses and punchlines, before (in some cases) snapping back to reality and heading back to their mobile homes.

You also may have the impression that battles exclusively took place in secluded Detroit nightclubs a decade ago, rather than in the mean streets of various Canadian cities today.

That’s where King Of The Dot comes in. A “battle entertainment league” with divisions in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver, the company has become the undisputed premiere name in Canadian battle rap over the course of its five-year existence. And with a new division (“Fresh Coast”) starting up in Los Angeles, the company is quickly becoming a major player in North American hip-hop, period.

“That’s old news, you know what I mean?” says Pigsty (real name Stu Mitchell), a Coast Salish rapper from North Vancouver who has become one of the Vancouver division’s biggest new names. “A couple of years ago there used to be all of these weird boundaries where people didn’t know about Canadian hip-hop, but because of the proliferation of the Internet and YouTube, the exposure to all these battles, it’s not an issue anymore.”

Someone seeing a real King Of The Dot battle for the first time might be a little confused by how slightly a real-life modern battle resembles its fictional counterparts. Apart from the drastic difference in setting (nowadays battles tend to consist of a bunch of microphone-less dudes standing around in a warehouse rather than a packed nightclub), the most notable difference is the absence of musical accompaniment. Rappers are bound by a time limit rather than a beat, which both allows for more creative freedom and exposes weaker emcees.

The effect is not dissimilar to slam poetry, though it’s decidedly more street. “I’m not really sure how that happened,” laughs Mitchell.

Despite the difference between recorded rap and battle rap, however, the sport is unquestionably a worthwhile avenue for new rappers to come up.

Mitchell had been rapping since he was 13, but it wasn’t until he entered the KOTD circuit in 2011 that he started to accumulate a real fan base. And despite that success, he’s still not sure whether he’s

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arts

arts Editor ×

Celina kurz × arts @ capilanocourier . com

KA-POW! Vancouver Comic Arts Festival to bring artists and fans together Lauren Gargiulo × Writer “It's about connecting the creators with their fans – and with each other,” says Shannon Campbell, President and Chairperson of the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival. VanCAF 2013 marks the second Vancouver Comic Arts Festival, which celebrates comics and the independent artists who create them. Described as “a weekend-long celebration of comics” on their website, VanCAF is a completely free event that runs the weekend of May 24-26.

The festival will include a multitude of special guests with experience in many different facets of the comic industry, a huge list of exhibitors who will be showing off their comics and artwork, and plans for panels, workshops and other events where attendees get the chance to learn more about their favourite artists.

Campbell has spent the past four years traveling to various conventions with her husband, who is an independent cartoonist. “Over time I began to notice that the shows which were the most miserable were the ones that put the most emphasis on badge sales and attendee

needs, over the interests of exhibitors and other professionals … but the shows where creators were treated with the same consideration as the attendees always fared better,” she says.

VanCAF is about comics, comic fans and comic creators. “VanCAF is an all-creator focus,” Campbell says. Often, other conventions, such as Canada’s Fan Expo, have more of a popculture focus, showcasing TV and movies as well as comics and feature famous actors and actresses as draws. “With the exception of our handful of small press exhibitors, tables at VanCAF are occupied by people who are either successful or trying to be successful in the comic book industry,” says Campbell.

Calgary’s Comic Expo and Toronto’s Comic Expo (TCAF) were both huge inspirations for what Campbell wanted VanCAF to be like. “I'm particularly fond of Calgary because of their enthusiasm in making sure the exhibitors are settled in and comfortable,” says Campbell. “[And] TCAF because it has free admission and provides an excellent professional environment for creators.”

VanCAF, unlike the Calgary Comic Expo and TCAF, has a much smaller network. Campbell took inspiration from Octopus Pie creator and organizer of Webcomics Weekend, Meredith

Gran, with this small-scale approach. Webcomics Weekend, founded in 2009, was a New Englandbased convention focused exclusively on webcomics. “I attended its second year in 2010 and was very impressed by everything that she was able to accomplish with a small support network …

She gave me the confidence to give it a shot in Vancouver.” Gran will be attending VanCAF as a special guest this year.

Other special guests at VanCAF include local Rebecca Dart, creator of Battle Kittens, who will be hosting a panel on “Women as Warriors,” as well as The Last Airbender: Zuko’s Story artist Nina Matsumoto, (better known as Space Coyote, her online alias), Marv Newland, founder of Vancouver-based animation company International Rocketship Limited, and Camilla D’Errico, creator of Tanpopo.

Whiteout artist Steve Lieber will also be attending VanCON. Dark Horse, DC and Marvel comics among many others have published Lieber’s comics and illustrations. “With a huge library under his belt, and from a creator's perspective he's an established veteran of both Big Two [Marvel and DC Comics] and creator-owned work, which makes him an invaluable resource for advice and guidance,” Campbell says.

Events featured at VanCAF include “The Last Political Cartoonists” featuring Matt Bors and JJ McCullough and “Breaking into Comics” which features stories from independent comic artists about how they got into the world of comics.

Another panel that Campbell is excited about, but hasn’t been officially confirmed yet features Meredith Gran, Joey Comeau, Tyson Hesse, and Becky Dreistadt. Since the event has not been announced, details are pending; however, Campbell says that the panel’s topic “starts with Adventure and ends with Time.”

Since VanCAF is a free, non-profit event, VanCAF 2013 and all future events rely heavily on fundraising and volunteers. They’re currently looking for volunteers, and VIP packages full of goodies and treats can be purchased for $15.

VanCAF gives Vancouverites the opportunity to support some of the city’s talent, meet some of the creators of their favourite comics from elsewhere, and to check out something they may have never seen before.

For more information about VanCAF, volunteering, and new events as they are posted check out VanCAF’s website at Vancaf.com.

SOME NEATO FRIENDS WHO ARE TABLING AT VANCAF Celina Kurz, Arts Editor Featuring shameless friend-repping! We’re very non-partisan here at the Courier.

Katie So – She is the Art Director of the Courier and makes comics about 1) Satan 2) Cool dicks 3) Bad boyfriends. Katieso.tumblr.com.

Stefan Tosheff – He is the Production Manager of the Courier and makes drawings that look like superheroes, and he also likes drawing sexy babes.

Stefantosheff.tumblr.com.

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Ryan Pequin – Arts Editor Celina Kurz used to follow his blog on LiveJournal when she was a teen and now he writes a webcomic with tons of poop and fart jokes called Three Word Phrase. He’s friends with Katie and Stefan!

Threewordphrase.com.

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Emily Partridge – Writes cool autobiographicalstyle comics and draws cute drawings! Also friends with Katie and Stefan. Empartridge.com.

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Sam Alden – He makes wonderful comics, is from Portland, and Stefan wants to kiss him tenderly on the mouth. Samaldencomics.tumblr.com.

Emily Carroll – “She’s cool. She’s married to that other woman who does stuff as well,” says Katie.

Thanks Katie! Her work looks really beautiful, she does illustrations and comics. Emcarroll.com.

×× lydia fu

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Publishing House Rules Edmontonite travels coast to coast for literary perspective Andy Rice × Staff Writer On the first of April, author and editor Erinne Sevigny left her home in Edmonton, hopped on a flight to Vancouver, and began a month-long tour of publishing houses from coast to coast. Seeking a behind-the-scenes look at the industry, she’ll be sharing what she learns about the industry online. Her journey will end at Humber College in Toronto, where she’s embarking on four months of intensive study in the Creative Book Publishing program this summer. It’s certainly a novel’s worth of traveling, crammed into a single chapter.

“I start [the program at Humber] in May and I knew that I’d like to drive there because I’d like to have my vehicle with me and I thought well, if I’m going to drive there I should make use of all the space between Edmonton and Toronto, and stop off at some publishing houses and meet some people,” she says. “And then I thought, if I’m going to do that I should blog about it. And if I’m going to blog about it I can’t really ignore the coast because there are so many publishing houses there too, so it kind of turned into a go big or go home thing.”

Sevigny’s first two stops were in Victoria before she headed back to Vancouver the following day. She is now working her way east by car: first to Edmonton, then Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, visiting several publishing houses in each. A trip to Halifax, “by plane, bus or shuttle, and maybe a Good Samaritan or two,” will cap off the tour. “Officially it will end on Apr. 26 at Gaspreau Press in Halifax but there’s been a lot of interest from publishers, especially a ton in Toronto and I don’t have time to fit them in during the month of April – so there will likely be some post-tour interviews and house tours while I’m still out in Toronto,” she says.

Sevigny is blogging the entire trip on her website, keeping a travel diary, and sharing details and anecdotes about each of the stops along the way. The journey, she says, is about filling the blanks in her skill sets and helping others do

the same. “I do have an extensive background in the literary community, but some of the business aspects, some of the technology aspects to publishing, those are my thin spots. I want to fill in that knowledge so that I can be as well-informed as I possibly can be.”

“At the same time, I know that making all of those connections in the publishing industry is one of the ways that will contribute to any of my success in the industry because it’s about who you know,” she continues. “My goal is to learn and when I make it out the other side, based on what I know, I’ll make my decision as to how I want to contribute to the literary community in Canada and how I am best positioned for it.”

Citing “a lot of negative energy within the publishing industry and the media,” Sevigny says she’s also setting out to prove “that the publishing industry isn’t quite as dismal as it seems. That’s what the blog is for, to say look at what these people are doing, look at where they come from, look at where they’re going. It’s a very positive thing. I want to add something positive to the discussion.”

Even just a few stops into the tour, Sevigny says she has found the experience to be very stimulating. “The amount of information that I’m getting is amazing and it’s too much to fit into a single blog post. I’ve got hours and hours of audio from our conversations and every conversation I leave I’m just so energized by what I’m hearing. People are open to talking to me, and open to sharing things that they might not share with other people, so I’m definitely using that to my advantage, to ask the questions that other people might not get an answer to.”

In a digital age of Skype calls and instant messages, it’s easy to wonder if Sevigny’s journey could be undertaken from the comfort of a computer chair. However, she assures that nothing beats an in-person interview. “On Facebook and Twitter there’s definitely connections made that way and who’s to say which is stronger, but I know within the publishing industry, the face to face connection will outweigh an e-mail connection any day. People just answer questions differently that way. In the publishing industry, it’s actually

common in Canada for sales reps and people just getting started to do a cross-country tour. This is something I learned after planning it – that it is a common way to build contacts. What I’m doing isn’t anything new, it just hasn’t been done in a while.”

“It’s also more fun; it’s an adventure,” she says.

“We have a conversation, they ask me about myself

too, and then in the end I leave with not just an interview and not just a story – but I leave with a colleague.”

Follow Sevigny’s story on her blog, Thegreatcanadianpublishingtour.com

TURNING TABLES

My Turquoise Years re-examines motherhood Faye Alexander × Writer

during the play’s only dance number. The set was an array of turquoise colored commodities; for example there was a great diner-style table with the chrome-beveled edges in the kitchen. I could go on about mid-century dining sets and why that design movement is still so relevant today, but I would be getting off track. At the forefront of the stage was a large piece of driftwood where the beach should have been. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off that diner-style table though; it was riveting. I wish Marion had spent more time sitting down with

her Aunt Elsie at that table and realizing that her family was there all along. Everyone has a mother (where else would we have come from) but that doesn't make a parent, and it doesn't make a family. Marion should have sat down at that amazing turquoise and chrome diner-style table. If she had just realized how awesome that table was, the play could have been done by intermission.

My Turquoise Years plays at the Arts Club's Granville Island Stage through May 4.

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The Arts Club is back with a new play based on M.A.C. Farrant’s book recounting her 14th summer spent in British Columbia’s Cordova Bay in 1960, My Turquoise Years, a memoir of Canadian girlhood.

The story follows Marion, a 13-year-old who outwardly expresses distaste for everything. She abhors French kissing, boobs, her new haircut, the way other people carry themselves, and most of all her mother Nancy. You see, when Marion was only five, her mother abandoned her on Vancouver Island so she could carry on jet-setting aboard cruise ships and philandering about with worldly men. I suppose this would incite some resentment in any pubescent teen girl, but Marion was laying it all on a little thick. She was like a turquoise-clad Charlie Brown – the only thing missing being a few “good griefs.” She narrated the summer in a stylized staccato that usually began with “and that night.” The truth is I never found myself rooting for her. Maybe I am too far removed from my teen years or have grown too wise in my twenties, but there is something bratty about the inability to appreciate what you do have. It would

have been nice if that was in fact the lesson Marion came to learn.

M.A.C. Farrant felt that her book needed a few extra storylines to work better on stage. While I was wondering if Nancy was ever going to arrive on Vancouver Island, an overabundance of drama unfolded. Marion’s guardian Aunt Elsie discovers an emotional affair, a marriage collapses, a young woman struggles to start a family of her own, and a man sleeps through his audition to become Victoria’s Elvis Presley. It was hard to keep my balance while the cast juggled their turns having their pivotal moments on stage. I learned that if you’ve caught your husband in an emotional affair the best thing to do is get a new haircut and cook him his favourite meal. I found out that even if you miss your audition to become Victoria's Elvis Presley, you’ll probably have to get a real job. I discovered if you’re struggling to have a family, eventually if you keep having sex and you’re fertile you will wind up having kids. I suppose I learned a lot of things I already knew, but the plight of Marion in her turquoise outfits began to blend into the set and nearly evaporated into the stage lights.

The stage boasted a comically over-sized wave, which had the audacity to light up in Technicolor

15 ×× The cast of My Turquoise Years. Photo by Emily Cooper

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ESBEN AND THE WITCH at The Media Club

SKY FERREIRA

××mark cohene

at the Biltmore Cabaret

JJ Brewis ×Editor-in-Chief As summer fast approaches, basically every touring band prepares to roll across the country. Luckily for us, a good sprinkling made their way through in the spring to give us a nice break from term papers and exam cramming. Here’s a look at some of the best shows this season.

×× tom nugent

EFTERKLANG

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46 issue N o . 24

at the Biltmore Cabaret

HOW TO DRESS WELL at the Biltmore Cabaret “She’s dying, ‘cause she’s old as shit,” says Tom Krell of How To Dress Well about his grandmother Florence. He then takes a moment to dedicate the set to her, excited that he’s just had a chance to spend some time with her on this tour. Much like the last time he was in town, Krell’s performance was a beautiful foray into his beautiful blend of R&B, electronica and hip-hop – a combination he’s truly owned and maintained. Krell’s voice is simply unlike any other, and he spends his time onstage smartly soaring his lyrics over inter-looped beats and violin solos. When the Vancouver crowd talks right through it, Krell is quick to acknowledge the poor behaviour. “This kinda has the vibe of playing in a shopping mall food court. Some people are getting Wendy’s … Oh, there just happens to be a band playing.” When the crowd refuses to cooperate, Krell makes Vancouver feel even more artistically uncultured by mentioning he just played a sold-out 1000-person show in New York, and the crowd stayed attentive through his a cappella set.

Bummer. Well, Vancouver might suck at watching, but How To Dress Well proved once again that he’s one of the biggest game-changers in the field of modern music today.

Every word feels heartfelt, and every song feels perfectly calculated in its set list slot.

Somehow this is less surprising when you learn that Copenhagen’s Efterklang actually have worked on two films together. Their music has now been used as both backdrop and plot device in Vincent Moon’s An Island and the more recent The Ghost of Piramida by Andreas Koefoed. Throughout their live set, vocalist Casper Clausen crouched around on-stage in his Dr. Who-like blazer and bowtie and appeared most excited when speaking about the films. “You can go to our website and host a private screening for you and your friends,” he urged the crowd. From the beginning of their overly morose set, the guys created a mostly melancholy appearance, heavy on the somber tones from their newest album Piramida. But there are catchy moments here – “I Was Playing Drums” dives into a piano-driven operatic territory that plays with the idea of a Caribbean flavour. The morose and bass-heavy “Apples” recalls the somber yet enchanting shift perfected by The National. By the end of the set, Clausen is out of his shell a little, blazer tossed aside, banging his microphone on the low ceiling as an added percussion element.

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Celebrity vanity projects leave much to be criticized, but Sky Ferreira has the upper card.

Ferreira, who began her career as the next-touted electro-pop flash in the pan gets all that out of her system in her opener “Lost in My Bedroom”.

The rest of the set almost feels like a tribute to great female artists who’ve perhaps inspired her upcoming debut album. Acoustic ballad “Sad Dream” is part Dolly Parton-era country, “Red Lips” feels like Veruca Salt and Hole battling it out. “I dedicate it to my mom sometimes ‘cause she watches all my YouTube videos,” Ferreira says before “Werewolf (From Waist Down)”. It’s endearing, and all the more so when she seems legitimately overwhelmed that her crowd knows all the words to every song. Near set end, during “You’re Not the One” Ferreira shows serious vocal chops, shutting down anyone who has pegged her as just another model-turned-singer.

Exactly 34 people experienced Esben and the Witch do their thing. I know. I counted them.

Their short but powerful set was all the more intense by the sparse crowd, and paired with the band’s goth rock melodies it felt all the more suitable. The trio from Brighton didn’t let low attendance stop them from putting on one of the most best, most understated shows of the season. Singer Rachel Davies’ on-point vocals are paired against drummer Daniel Copeman’s haunting whispering lyrical add-ons. The moody and atmospheric set didn’t stray too far from the band’s album versions, aside from the intensely loud drums at parts, after which the entire band cracked up and Davies confesses into the mic, “Holy shit!” The amount of smiling on stage, despite the dark tones of their music, seemed to add an almost-self-aware element of humour, perfect considering the band’s tongue-in-cheek new album title, Wash the Sins Not Only the Face.

∆ (Alt-J) at The Commodore

JAMIE LIDELL at Fortune Sound Club Jamie Lidell does not fuck around. He enters his stage exactly at set time, shakes the hands of the as many people he can possibly reach in the first three rows, and gets down to business. His solo set – performed atop a massive mirrored spaceship-looking turntable deck, staring in the face of the most intense laser show is one that will be remembered. Considering it’s just him up there, it’s impressive just how much presence he creates: it’s quite something to see a tall lanky white dude in a beige trench coat flip-flopping in between beat boxing, crooning a cappella ballads. Before he begins each new track, Lidell engages with his crowd, running around his stage and questioning his own songwriting choices, like the high register “You Naked”: “Sometimes you write a song and you don’t think ‘I’m gonna have to singing this later!”

Hype is a strange thing. Mercury Prize winners and all around buzz band ∆ (pronounced Alt-J, based on the computer stroke that creates the symbol, how clever) know all too well. Even before their sold-out Commodore Ballroom show took place, the guys had already announced a date for this fall (Sept. 1 at the Vogue). To their credit, these guys may be an early runner for this year’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” in their own Peak FM favourite “Breezeblocks”. In an interesting twist though, that song may have been the least interesting of their whole set –surely the Kylie Minogue meets Dr. Dre mash-up “Slow Dre” was more memorable, as was “Dissolve Me”, an early set highlight that perfected their psychedelic folk atmosphere in precision. ∆ seem to do a lot of things well, whether it’s wacky all-over-the-place Bollywood sampling like “Taro” or the a cappella opener, “Ripe & Ruin”. They’ve noted their hype and conquered it.

×× tom nugent

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FUCK THE JUNOS

The 2013 Capilano Courier Music Awards…or something like that

Each year, the Canadian music industry honours the top dogs in the country at the annual Juno Awards. And guess what? It’s usually a really embarrassing reminder that popular Canadian music sucks balls. Unlike the Grammys, that gets cool people like Adele and Tony Bennett, the best thing we have is, well, Drake. Though there are some decent nominees this year—Grimes, Purity Ring, The Weeknd—it’s once again a matter of looking out of touch, as holiday albums are nominated for album of the year and the “Alternative” category still has Stars and Metric (what?!). But don’t worry, the “Fan Choice” award has options like Nickelback, Hedley and Marianas Trench. Need I say more? Fuck the Junos. Here are some albums they missed.

Ancient Mars The Zolas Claire Jane McGillivray, Writer On their sophomore album, The Zolas create a delicate balance and romance between the voices of a smooth electric guitar and gentle acoustic piano, occasionally burgeoning into the territory of jazz organ sounds. Building tension in harmony and layering, tracks like “Local Swan” and “Strange Girl” have an infectious energy that inspires dancing in the summer rain. The album dabbles with an essence of nostalgia, featuring haunting and poetic lyrics that take us on a journey from falling in love in a campus library in the title track to that limitless feeling of youth, inspiration and “the worlds we unwrap off the top of our heads” in “Cultured Man”. With a comforting shift between lilting riffs and unconventional harmonies, The Zolas create a perfect dynamic of artistic honesty.

Fearlessly admitting and embodying heartache is all part of the job description – the songs live in an uncomfortable but beautiful space between understanding and accepting that love and bliss are sometimes an invitation for collateral damage.

Death Dreams PS I Love You Brian Pascual, Writer

Lesser Evil Doldrums

Spectral Dusk Evening Hymns

Adam Jennison, Writer

Brian Wilson, Writer

Emerging from Montreal’s very “of-the-moment” electronic music scene, Doldrums’ debut Lesser Evil held certain expectations. As a counterpart to labelmate Grimes, I was prepared for the interlacing of vocal distortion with swathes of grinding, pulsating synths, the central force of her dazzling release Visions, but where Visionsreads as a pop record, Lesser Evil takes its cues entirely from the realms of psych and noise music. Individual moments of the album feel clear and accessible, with oddly familiar rhythms that parallel more concise bands like Yeasayer and Klaxons – bands that create songs that feel self-contained. Where these moments act as complete songs for related acts, Doldrums sees them as brief sketches to stitch together and wash over as a means of creating a more expansive sound. His delicate, sweetly feminine vocals fit this landscape nicely, being equal parts eerie and mesmerizing. In examining all these details, Lesser Evil is a complete haze, one in which I was entirely averse to getting lost in (besides the oasis that is “Sunrise”) until I gave it repeated chances. The whole dissolution of format is nothing new, but Doldrums gives you nothing to truly hold on to.

It’s strangely unnerving, but ultimately rewarding.

Dealing with the pain and loss of a father, Spectral Dusk is an album that instills the expectations to the acceptances that eventually follow grief and death, and is a bit of hope for those in dark places.

Evening Hymns’ Jonas Bonnetta takes you on a hike through with woods that smells of pine trees and wood stoves, sharing his intimate memories that can only draw up your own personal stories.

It’s a light at the end of the tunnel, one that is perhaps only realized with an emotional output found in these songs. The emotional anguish of a son losing a father and finding that desire to keep his stories alive makes for hard goodbye, but ultimately Bonnetta discovers this moment as a celebration of a life that each of us can be deeply affected by.

Evelyn Cranston, Writer Christian Hansen’s new album, C’mon Arizona is a departure from the sweaty, synth-heavy, electronic dance sound of its predecessor Power Leopard, but it’s kept the essence of what makes his music addictive and uplifting. It’s impossible to listen to this album and still feel in a funk.

Hansen’s strong, overly dramatic voice delivers lyrics that are sarcastic and dark at times, set against a background of acoustic guitar, synth, tambourine and melodic, cutesy backup female vocals. His insight into punk rock, social media and lifestyle living are brilliantly critical. In “Hurry Up and Die” he laments the practice of turning Facebook profiles of the deceased into memorial sites, singing, “Please get off the Internet, you remind me of death.” In “I Hate Punk Rock” he tells the pathetically accurate tale of driving across Saskatchewan to play for an audience of five, getting too old for that shit and buying a house and a couch instead. It’s a shame there was no Juno nomination, because Christian and wife/keyboardist Molly are always drop-dead dressed up, but it does mean a hilarious Twitter narrative during the show.

SYSTEMATIK SYSTEMATIK Giles Roy, Managing Editor It’s a good thing this band is from Vancouver, because their self-titled debut LP is the type of record that makes you wish you were watching them live. A Systematik set is always a wake up call, regardless of who they’re opening for: backed by screeching guitar work and some truly bonkers drumming, frontman Isaiah Mapp relentlessly shrieks, snarls, thrashes, and generally terrifies everyone in his general vicinity. They’ve successfully recreated that live magic with these eight songs, but have also added an extra dose of inaccessibility by recording it on an obscure tape machine that I just had to Google. The result is “noisy,” “blistering,” “relentless,” and other punk words, but it’s also expertly crafted. And since there are approximately zero slow or pretty parts on this thing, you can happily power through it without distraction several times in a row. So Systematik will probably never win a Juno, but that likely won’t detract from their status as the best no-bullshit, bad-to-the-bone, can-I-borrowa-cigarette hardcore punk band in the country. I hereby declare them that.

Everything is Expensive Esthero Marco Sousa, Writer

Esthero has truly matured, re-emerging after a seven-year break with raw, bold and haunting tracks. From the first track “Crash (Prelude)”, she sets up what will be a journey of her personal life over the last 14 years since she began her career.

The album shows a softer acoustic side in tracks like “Black Mermaid” and “Go”, moving over to the straight-up bitter yet powerful piano ballad “You Don't Get A Song”. You can't mistake the beautiful soulful-sultry voice of Esthero, even managing to pull off a bit of a country vibe here, in songs like “Over” and “Crash”.

Esthero still manages to write fun upbeat-witty pop songs as proven by lead single “Never Gonna Let You Go”, while simultaneously being inspiring and humble on “Gracefully”. It even gives a touch of optimism, seeing the chorus backed by a children’s choir. Overall, these seven-year breaks that Esthero takes between each album (beginning after her 1998 debut Breath From Another) seem to pay off: As she matures and evolves as an artist, writer and producer, her sound and style changes with her age and wisdom.

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By comparison, Death Dreams might not be the same sonic body slam of PS I Love You’s debut, Meet Me at the Muster Station, but that doesn’t mean it lacks any wallop whatsoever. When your records go balls-to-the-walls from top-to-bottom, it’s hard to surprise anyone with each subsequent release. PS I Love You must be aware of this as they lead off their sophomore effort with a dream-like instrumental suite, not only lulling their listeners into a false sense of calm, but also offering a teasing glimpse into the territory their sonic palette can take them. But lest you think they’ve completely changed their ways, the one-two punch of “Sentimental Dishes” and “Don’t Go” quickly reminds you what makes this band great: pounding drums, shredding but melodic guitars, and yelpy Isaac Brock-like vocals. What gives them notice is their growing penchant for pop melodies. On songs like “Future Dontcare” and “How Do You” the hooks are undeniable, despite how noisy things get. Where these two will go next remains to be seen, but for now they’ve mastered their niche and that’s totally fine.

C’mon Arizona Christian Hansen

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TO BE THE TOP SCARER

Monsters University creates unique challenges as a prequel Samantha Thompson

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“Every Pixar movie goes through an awkward teenage phase where it doesn’t make sense, or it’s bizarre, or it’s not quite working right,” says Dan Scanlon, director of Pixar’s Monsters University.

“And you can get terrified that you’re never going to crack it, and it’s just this relentless journey to just keep trying new things.”

Scanlon and producer Kori Rae explain that they’re both amazed that the story team is always able to find the solution. “Even when you think you’re never going to come up with it, they’re always just pitching out new ideas; they’re always game to try new things,” Scanlon adds.

“As painful as it was at times, early on as we were developing the story, I learned so much about how difficult this is,” says Rae. “It made me even more aware and surprised that we ever pull one of these things off, because it’s so hard.”

The team is long past the story-developing stage now though, with Monsters University set to hit theatres on June 21. It is the 14th feature film out of Pixar Animation Studios, and is the prequel to 2001’s Monsters Inc., which saw immense box office success, bringing in more than $500 million.

Although Pixar has created a number of successful sequels to its films (Toy Story 2 and 3, Cars 2 and the recently announced Finding Dory), Monsters University is the first time it has released a prequel. The film takes its audience back to a time when James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski are just starting university, before the two monsters became friends. “We loved the characters of Mike and Sulley, and we loved [their] relationship,” says Scanlon. The team liked the idea of explaining how the two monsters met, and so doing something at a university seemed like the natural choice.

“I think we just knew that we wanted the characters to be somewhat familiar [to audiences], we wanted this to be a story about how they became friends,” says Scanlon. “If we went back too far and did Monsters Elementary – we just didn’t feel like that would be the Mike and Sulley that we remembered and loved.”

However, using a university as a setting for a children’s movie presents its own problems, specifically when it comes to the more rambunctious behaviour typically associated with post-secondary life.

“What are you talking about? College isn’t… what’s going on in college?” jokes Scanlon. “Yes. We had to be careful … the good thing is that we were able to get a lot of wild, fun behaviour that still reads as sort of a fun part of college, but it’s probably no different than the wild crazy stuff that goes on at an eight-year-old’s birthday party … it was a challenge, but luckily they’re monsters – so they can be pretty wild.”

The university setting provides a touching component as well: “That coming of age … is so crucial in all of our lives, whether you went to college or not,” says Rae. She adds that it’s a time of figuring out who you want to be, and of reinventing yourself.

To make sure their film was a realistic representation of student life, the Monsters University team did plenty of research and went to “back to college,” according to Scanlon. “You know, a lot of us went to art school, which apparently is nothing like real college,” he jokes.

The team visited many different campuses and just walked around, soaking it all in – they even went into some “gross dorms … it was great,” says Scanlon. They wanted to get back into the student

mindset while the art team drew buildings and campuses that later influenced the overall appearance of the Monsters University campus. With the end result, Scanlon hopes that people will see the campus and say, “Hey, that’s my school.”

TIME TRAVEL One of the things unique to creating a prequel is changing the characters so that they look younger, but still retain the familiarity that the audience has grown to love. To do this, the art department focused on making the monsters brighter in colour, as well as making them thinner. “Thinning them up really helped,” says Scanlon. “We were all a little thinner in college.”

“We had to make them look younger, so our art department did a really good job trying to study, you know, ‘how do you make an eyeball look younger?’,” he adds. Each character went through a physical transition from working scarer back to college student. For example, Sulley is also significantly less muscular in college than he was working at Monsters Inc., because he is not yet a tough scarer.

When Monsters, Inc. came out more than a decade ago, it broke new digital ground in creating realistic animation of fur and fabric. “It’s uncanny how we’re using the similar technology that was built on in Monsters, Inc., but what we can do now is pretty staggering,” says Rae. In the decade between films, new systems of lighting movies have been created, which gives Monsters University a much richer look than its predecessor.

One of the greatest challenges the team encountered with Monsters University “is just the characters. The sheer number of characters and the variety of characters … [needed] to popu-

late the university,” says Rae. She notes that on average there’s anywhere from six to 10 characters in the foreground alone, with many roaming around the background. It made for a lot of work in the animation and character departments, especially because each character is different – there are flying monsters, monsters with any number of legs, eyes and arms, and even those that resemble slugs.

Joining Mike and Sulley are a number of new characters as well, that Scanlon hopes feel like “people we went to school with.” One of these characters is Scott “Squishy” Squibbles, created as a “classic 18-year-old college student that hasn’t decided what they want to be,” according to Scanlon. “They show up at school unaware of what exactly they want to become, they’re sort of a ball of clay waiting to be molded – and in his case he’s literally a mushy, tiny ball of Morpheus clay.”

There’s also Art, “that weird guy in college that you don’t know anything about,” and the Oozma Kappa, a “less popular fraternity of scarers … scarer rejects, if you will.”

DRIVING THE CAR As well as bringing new characters on-screen, Monsters University has some different faces behind-the-scenes as well. This is Scanlon’s first time as a director for a full-length Pixar film, something that was an eye-opening experience for him.

“As far as I’m concerned, my favourite part was probably just getting to sit in the seat and really see what everyone does at Pixar,” he says. “Being the director I got the rare opportunity to see everything, and see what everyone does to contribute to the film and make the film better … it was just a really rare and amazing opportunity to be in kind

of the driver’s seat of this particular vehicle.”

Rae’s long list of Pixar credits includes favourites like Up, The Incredibles, and the original Monsters, Inc., which she worked on as the assistant producer. “Here [at Pixar] we learn so much on every single film, but you know … you learn something different from each one because you’re working with different people … and so what I try to do is really to learn from all of the different people on every film, and pay attention … to the small stuff so that I can use it later.” She points out that she’s used things she learned from movies like The Incredibles and A Bug’s Life in the making of Monsters University.

FINDING YOURSELF Although Monsters University is meant to tell the story of how Mike and Sulley became friends, it provides a much deeper meaning as well – of figuring out who you are, and what you want to do with your life.

Rae points out that the movie is definitely about “Self-discovery and friendship, and what that means in the long path of figuring out who you are.”

“It’s definitely something I experienced in college, that feeling of realizing this was going to be a lot harder than I thought,” says Scanlon. “That maybe I’m not the person I thought I was, and rather than giving up completely, really finding out who you are.”

“We want it to be a really fun college movie, but we also want to … touch something in people emotionally in our films,” says Scanlon. “We feel like this film is very much about what happens when you come up to a closed door, and how you get around that – and how you let go of the thing you think you absolutely have to be to be happy, in order to find out who you truly are.”

To apply to Monsters Monstersuniversity.com.

University,

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DRAWING A CROWD Vancouver animation scene steps up to the big leagues ××Susan

JJ Brewis ×Editor-in-Chief “Vancouver has always been known to be a production ground, where the American companies send their work to be done for cheaper. As of late, we are seeing more and more original content being created here.” Jeremy Sikorski is a Shading Supervisor at Rainmaker Entertainment, whose credits include the recent big-screen smash Escape To Planet Earth. In Vancouver, Sikorski has found a creative playground unlike any others in his field – a tight-knit community filled with opportunities for growth. Although he originally worked in the video game industry in Chicago, Sikorski jumped ship for his current position on the West Coast – a transition that is surprisingly popular and common in Vancouver’s creative industries.

RENDERED TOGETHER

THE POWER OF CARTOONS

A REAL FRAME CHANGER The world of animation stays fresh by an ever-changing model of what type of content can be featured within its frames. Marat notes some major changes have occurred in the half-decade she’s been around, namely in on-screen material aimed at the television market. “You can’t draw people smoking in cartoons anymore. On all of the shows I’ve worked on anytime anyone is in a car they have to have a seat belt on, and the characters have to wear helmets and safety gear while skateboarding, riding bikes etc.” Marat also notes that the industry has become less of a guy’s world. “Women are more involved and there’s more of [us employed in animation] than when it first started.”

Sikorski finds the community changing more in terms of job demand. “10 years ago, there were very few people that could do CG animation. This is not the case anymore. CG is a very common thing and relatively accessible. I think you’ll start to see the industry change and adapt in order to survive.”

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Animation, whether on the big screen or television, for kids or adults, is a viable entertainment form that will likely endure the test of time. “Just like film, animation is an art form. It’s just a different tool that’s used to bring people’s imaginations to life,” says Marat. “As a designer I really try to make my designs look appealing. I put a lot of effort into my work because I really enjoy what I do and I feel pretty lucky to be able to do this sort of thing for a living.”

Working within this field is a dream come true for kids who grew up sketching their favourite cartoon characters and can now find work doing the same thing, without having to head to California to do so. “The most important thing to me is quality,” says Sikorski. “I don’t care how many projects I work on, I want to put the best product on screen. I want to provide other artists and other studios with a benchmark.”

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“Studios like Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks have been creating … movies that are highly respected in the film community for years,” says Sikorski. “I’d be hard pressed to find a kid anywhere that didn’t know who Nemo was.” Marat agrees that animation will always have relevance – to children of all ages. “I am a child living in an adult body. I don’t think I’ll ever grow up, I’ll still be laughing at poop and fart jokes when I’m old and wrinkly.” Again, Pixar has led the way here – Up and Toy Story 3 have shown credibility not just within the animation realm, but within film altogether – being nominated in the Best Picture category alongside live action features.

Cartoons have come a long way since the child-oriented material of the ‘80s and ‘90s. “There was a trend [back then] with cartoons for children; it seemed adults didn’t care for [animation],” says Sikorski. “As that generation of kids grows older and enters this industry, you’ll start to see more content that can be enjoyed by both adults and children alike.” Certainly a lot of material exists today that appeals to various age demographics, including films like Wall-E which is cute to youngsters but contains a deeper message about the state of worldly affairs for the parents taking their

kids to theatres. “My personal philosophy when working on a film is ‘How do we make this appeal to everyone?’” says Sikorski.

“People want entertainment. Animation is an excellent medium,” says Marat. Certainly the public has spoken: 12 of the top 100 grossing films from last year were animated, doubled from the amount a decade earlier.

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Vancouver has become a major epicentre for animation production, intending to work up to the speed of its international partners in America and abroad. In 2010, noted giants of the industry Pixar opened their second location in downtown Vancouver. If Buzz Lightyear thinks Vancouver has something to offer, maybe they’re right. Pixar is presently at the top of the animation game, beating even their partner company Disney out at the box office and awards – Pixar have cleaned up seven of the past 12 Best Animated Picture Oscars.

But even outside of Pixar, a handful of smaller studios are emerging with innovative work that is putting Vancouver on the animation map.

“There are other places in Canada where animation is happening, like Toronto and Ottawa,” says Marat. “But not everyone wants to live there. I don’t think I want to live there. But I don’t think I would say no if I got an opportunity to move there and work on something really cool.”

On the other hand, Sikorski, a transplant from Chicago, chooses to stay in Vancouver to work rather than going back to his home country, where animation is thriving even more than it is here. He equates his tenure in Vancouver to the opportunities for multi-disciplinary opportunities.

“There is a bustling visual effects, film production and game development community here,” he says. “Most artistic skills are actually transferrable between these industries, so we’ll see artists go from game development right into visual effects production.”

Despite its fairly recent popularity as a hub, Vancouver has had a hand in animation for a few decades. Martin Rose, an animation instructor at Emily Carr University, has been a figure in Vancouver’s arts community since the 1980s.

Rose graduated from Emily Carr’s animation program in 1985, worked as a freelance animator and on projects for the National Film Board.

Rose reflects that much of the reason Vancouver has animation roots is due to a couple specific innovators who got the ball rolling. “Al Sens ran an animation company and owned animation stands, which is where much of the work in town was shot and photographed. Marv Newland came to town in the early 1970s and started his company, International Rocketship, and much of the commercial community grew around Al’s and Marv’s companies.”

The little guy, it turns out, can become the big guy, as proven by Vancouver’s unique talent pool.

Moving up from being the lackey to the boss has indeed happened for some now big-name players. “Animation has grown in Vancouver

largely because of the games industry, and because of TV production, at places like DHX (formerly Studio B) and Bardel Entertainment,” Rose says.

“Those studios began as service houses for productions from Los Angeles and Eastern Canada. They now produce their own content.”

While two of the six biggest animation houses have Vancouver bases, the other heavy hitters like Disney, Bluesky, Illumination Entertainment and Dreamworks still pull a lot of talent away from Vancouver to their American studios.

Rose says, despite some of the big guys still not setting up shop in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver still has a lot to be proud of. “Animation thrives in Vancouver because of the history, because of the firmly entrenched studios.” He attributes the work done by the “boutique studios” as particularly notable; small businesses that have seen Vancouver’s animation community thrive despite economic problems, partially due to pairing with partnering coalitions and organizations. “The industry has gone through peaks and valleys and has seen good times and bad. The independent scene has suffered recently, because of cutbacks in the cultural sector. The community thrives because of their determination. The other associated industries like film, games and special effects also provide support and gainful employment, to supplement a person’s endeavours.”

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Animation has flourished in Vancouver largely in part to the schools turning out animation students for the last few decades, creating a pool of ready-made candidates with applicable skill sets. Emily Carr led the pack with the city’s first animation program in 1968, which has flourished and grown. Programs are now offered at Capilano University, Vancouver Film School and VanArts, all of which began in the 1990s.

Sidney Marat graduated from Capilano’s Commercial Animation program in 2007, and now with five years under her belt in the industry, is content to stay in Vancouver rather than head to a bigger hub. Marat presently works on post-board design for Johnny Test at Atomic Cartoons. “I’m really only familiar with the studios doing 2D TV animation but it’s pretty small, everyone seems to know each other,” she says. “[Vancouver] sort of has that small-town kind of vibe, which is pretty cool. I get the same feeling from talking to my friends that work in the 3D studios.”

Vancouver’s community of animators is unique, filled with artists and business-savvy creative types ready to give this billion-dollar business a go. Of the big film animation companies, two operate in Vancouver – Rainmaker and Pixar. A handful of television animation companies thrive here as well, including Nitrogen Studios (Yo Gabba Gabba!), Atomic Cartoons (Pirate Express, Johnny Test) and Bardel (Bob’s Burgers) among others.

Sikorski adds that the animation community in Vancouver is different from other major hubs in his field like Los Angeles or London. In Vancouver, “Everyone knows everyone, and the majority of artists float from one studio to another doing short contracts,” he says.

VANCOUVER VS. THE WORLD

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FASHION

PUT IT ALL ON ME The Courier hits Cap’s trails to find the best in campus style Photography by Victoria Furuya Katherine Gillard × Writer

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Spring has sprung, but with exams looming and Vancouver weather being predictably erratic, it can be hard to get in the mood to dress nicely for school. With a little inspiration, comfort and fashion can go hand-in-hand, as all of these stylish Capilano students have shown.

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Brittany shows how a student can fancy up a basic t-shirt and jeans outfit with just accessories and coloured denim.

Name: Brittany Robart Program: Music, first year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: Probably my boots.

Inspiration for your style: I don’t like to look like a slummy student – I like to look semi-nice and professional, but still comfortable.

Go-to place for clothing: H&M.

It’s the little details that make Yaris’s outfit interesting: the cut of his cardigan, the cool buttons and his colourful toque. It looks stylish, but without sacrificing comfort or convenience.

Jillian shows how to dress for spring even on a rainy day, with her maxi skirt and boots being both practical and fashionable in the Vancouver weather.

Jason shows how guys can dress in trendy clothing that is also practical for school, and for Vancouver’s unpredictable spring weather.

Name: Yaris Bosman Program: MOPA, second year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My SpiderMan toque.

Inspiration for your style: Anything my parents or sister buy me.

Go-to place for clothing: Japan.

Name: Jillian Greenshields Program: Music Diploma, first year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My skirt.

Inspiration for your style: Neutral colours, toned-down greens and browns.

Go-to place for clothing: H&M.

Name: Jason Wang Program: Business, fourth year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My shirt.

Inspiration for your style: Relaxed and comfortable.

Go-to place for clothing: Small stores in Gastown.

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Yanan has impeccable style for school, dressing up his outfit with his trendy shoes, bag and socks. His outfit is perfectly professional and casual, with the always-appreciated flourish of a bow tie.

Nicolette makes basic items come together to look stylish, tying together more classic elements with dressy accessories, to make a casual look for school still look fabulous.

Jocelan brings together the classic Vancouverversatile look with her boots and jacket. Easy to wear to school on a rainy day, with a pop of yellow to add a little colour.

Patrick’s casual jeans and t-shirt with a jacket is an easy go-to outfit for any guy, with his chucks tying together the basic but classic style.

Name: Yanan Zhang (Tony) Program: Tourism Management, third year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My bag.

Inspiration for your style: Street style.

Go-to place for clothing: Zara and Topman.

Name: Nicolette Fantana Program: Business, third year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My white collared shirt.

Inspiration for your style: Audrey Hepburn, simple and put-together.

Go-to place for clothing: Winners.

Name: Jocelan Jansen Program: MOPA, second year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My mustard-coloured scarf.

Inspiration for your style: I don’t have one.

Go-to place for clothing: Thrift stores and my sister’s old clothes, ‘cause I have seven of them.

Name: Patrick Thom Program: Communications, fourth year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My shoes.

Inspiration for your style: I can’t say that I have one.

Go-to place for clothing: Club Monaco.

Chris and Jacob are dressed for comfort and style.

They show how the right shirts and jeans can be pulled off to perfection. It’s all about confidence.

Madison shows how dressing professionally can also be casual. Her boots and collared shirt keep her looking polished, while the jeans keep her outfit toned down for school – and also comfortable.

Name: Chris Dredrusy Program: IDEA Program, third year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My Fist City shirt.

Inspiration for your style: White trash and surf thrash.

Go-to place for clothing: Value Village.

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Name: Jacob Gauthier Program: IDEA Program, third year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My Rangler shirt.

Inspiration for your style: What was clean today. It’s been a struggle.

Go-to place for clothing: Value Village.

Name: Madison Morton Program: General Studies, first year.

Favourite item that you’re wearing: My boots, or my blazer.

Inspiration for your style: Tomboy-chic kinda look, Rachel Bilson is my inspiration.

Go-to place for clothing: So many places, but I like Aritzia.

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GOOD MORNING, EARTH!

×× Stefan Tosheff

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Canada: the unsung hero of space exploration

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Connor Thorpe × Staff Writer “Good morning, Earth!”

So begins the day of Canadian astronaut and International Space Station (ISS) commander Chris Hadfield, as he greets the people of his home planet via Twitter. Since his arrival at ISS in December 2012, Hadfield has been utilizing social media to an extent previously unseen by his predecessors, posting stunning high-quality photos of the Earth from space as well as allowing the public a unique look into the daily life of an astronaut on a mission.

Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, Acting Director General of Space Exploration for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), believes that the interactivity of Hadfield’s posts are instrumental in drumming up vital public support for the Canadian space program.

“[Public support] is essential. The space program is done for Canada and it’s done for Canadians. If Canadians don’t see how the space program relates to their lives, then we’re missing something – it’s very important,” he says. “[Chris Hadfield’s work] brings space closer to people.”

Hadfield, the first Canadian to conduct a spacewalk, emphasizes that his goal lies within educating the public. By using social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, he appears to have done just that. Bob McDonald, host of CBC’s science journalism program Quirks and Quarks, agrees about the other reason that Hadfield’s social media interactivity is vital to the continued success of the Canadian space program: interest and encouragement from the public.

“The space programs are publically supported. They’re government-run organizations and they’re very expensive. If you’re going to have governments spending billions of dollars of public money, you’ve got to convince the public that

it’s worthwhile,” McDonald says. “I think Chris is doing a great job of not only conveying the excitement of what he’s doing up there, but the importance of it – that it’s good science. That message needs to be out there, rather than having this exclusive club of these fighter pilots and scientists who just sort of do their thing and nobody knows what they’re doing. It’s really important that the public be entertained. Otherwise, if public support fails, the whole program will fail.”

As a part of his educational social media campaign, Hadfield launched one of the most successful Reddit Ask Me Anything pages of all time, in which users were able to put forth questions for the commander.

“As a species, we have always taken the very best of our technology and used it to take us to the furthest reaches of our knowledge – the horse, the wheel, the sailing ship, steamship, propeller, jet, rocket, Space Station. Yes, we will establish a permanent base on the Moon and beyond, but

when depends on inventions not yet made,” Hadfield wrote in response to one question. “My guess is that power generation is the primary obstacle, and fossil fuels and even solar power won’t be enough. Meanwhile, the Space Station is the crucible where space exploration technology is designed and tested. When we go further out, it will be heavily indebted to the pedigree of space hardware proven on ISS.” The first Canadian commander of ISS, Hadfield emphasizes the natural beauty of our universe with palpable wonder.

“It looks like a carpet of countless tiny perfect unblinking lights in endless velvet, with the Milky Way as a glowing area of paler texture,” Hadfield responded to a user who asked about the visual quality of the sky beyond Earth’s atmosphere. When questioned about dreams in space, Hadfield notes that they are “the same, I think – the idle ramble of my recharging brain, organizing my perceptions into fancy and drama. It’s when

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I’m awake that things are very different.”

Some of his answers, which are in turn thoughtful, scientific and poetic, illuminate some of the specific minutiae of living in space, while others delve into issues plaguing the space program and concerns for the future of human space travel.

“There’s always positive and negative. We lost a crew early in Apollo, and the last two Moon landings were cancelled even though the rockets were built. Skylab decayed and fell from the sky before the shuttle could be made ready to fly,” Hadfield writes of the trials humanity has faced in journeys outside of their home planet. “We’ve endured accidents, budget cycles, and many naysayers. But meanwhile we have accomplished countless acts of magnificence, from walking on the Moon to Hubble teaching us about the universe, to international cooperation, to Curiosity drilling on Mars, to permanently leaving Earth on ISS. I’m working as hard as I can to help all that happen, and have been for 20 years. It’s hard to leave home, but we’re managing to do it as a species, regardless. Pretty amazing.”

THE THIRD WHEEL

CANADA IN SPACE

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“We have two new Canadian astronauts in training right now to take over after Chris Hadfield retires, because this will be his last flight, and continue that tradition of contributing to the human exploration of space,” McDonald says. “We’ll also being doing work in astronomy.

Canada is one of the tops in the world when it comes to publishing papers on the rest of the universe. We’re really top notch at what we do, and looking out from the ground. A lot of big telescopes are supported by Canada: a couple in Hawaii, a couple in South America. We’ll be continuing to contribute from a fundamental science point of view, from a technological point of view and from a human point of view. That’s pretty good for a country that – when it comes to our budgets – is remarkably small.”

McDonald asserts that Canada will maintain its

presence in future exploration missions. “I think we’ll be involved in future planetary exploration, as more robots are sent out to Mars and beyond.

We’ll be there in a technical sense. Again, we won’t be making a lot of noise about it, but we’ll be there.”

Hadfield’s impressive social media reach is evidence of public interest in the Canadian space program, and the endeavour of space exploration in general. After Hadfield returns from what will be his last flight, Piedboeuf encourages Canadians to continue pursuing their interest in space – and to continue their support of the agencies that make it possible.

“Space should not be seen as something that is not related to the lives of Canadians,” Piedboeuf says. “It should be part of them.”

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Agency on two [future] Mars missions – the one in 2016, where we will provide some communications antenna, but the one we’ll provide more robotics technology is the Mars 2018 [mission] for the rover,” Piedboeuf explains, noting that a boost in government funding will help expedite technological developments for future missions. “As part of the Economic Action Plan in 2009, the government provided $110 million to the CSA for prototypes of technology for exploration – mainly rovers and manipulators and associated technologies: vision, drilling and spectrometers.”

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“It’s kind of clever what Canada has done. We provide expertise, we provide intellectual capital and then we hitchhike rides on other people’s rockets. We let them build the billion-dollar rocket and we just take a ride on it rather than building them ourselves. I think that’s a pretty good deal – a pretty good way to do things,” says McDonald. “We have a number of different focuses. The space program not only supports the astronauts – they’re the most visible – but there’s a whole space industry that Canada runs where we built satellites or instruments for other countries. There’s a Canadian instrument on the Mars rovers right now. Both Curiosity, the latest one that went there, and its predecessors Spirit and Opportunity, they

"It looks like a carpet of countless tiny perfect unblinking lights in endless velvet, with the Milky Way as a glowing area of paler texture."

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McDonald believes that Hadfield’s appointment as the commander of the ISS is representative of Canada’s reputation internationally as a highly regarded contributor to space exploration and research.

“I think it’s very significant. Once again, it’s a nod from the international community that Canada is well respected. He’s only the second non-American or non-Russian to command the space station, because the Americans and the Russians are the two big players,” he says. “It’s not easy to hand over the keys to a $100 billion orbiting laboratory and say ‘Okay, you’re in charge,’ unless they have a lot of respect for us. Chris has earned his respect over and over again.”

McDonald feels that it’s important to note that Canada’s space program is lightly funded when compared to nations like Russia and the United States, and as such the contributions from Canadian citizens are typically relatively minimal.

“In terms of Canadian public input, very often I’m asked ‘What’s the point of spending so much money on space when there are problems to solve down here on the Earth?’ The Canadian budget for the entire space program for the Canadian Space Agency comes out to less than ten bucks a year per person in Canada,” he explains. “Ten bucks. That’s what it costs us. That’s nothing. We spend more on a case of beer than we do that; we spend more on chocolate bars than we do the space program. If we’re going to say ‘Where could we put our money?’ there are lots of other places that we waste money that we could pick on, but for that ten bucks we get our highest science and technology, we get role models for all ages and we get Canada on the international stage doing the most difficult thing that humanity can do. That’s a pretty good deal for ten bucks.”

had instruments that were built in Canada that can give you the chemical composition of the rocks using a special technique. We’ve always done that.

In fact, going right back to the moon program, the Apollo moon landing, the footpads of the lunar lander, the big round pads, were built in Montreal.

You could say that Canada was first to land on the moon – the first foot on the moon was Canadian.”

The evidence of Canada’s contributions to space programs internationally stretches back farther than the Moon landing. At the dawn of the space race, Canada was the underdog operating beneath the shadow of the United States and the U.S.S.R. Canada became the third country to have a presence in space in 1962 with the launch of satellite Alouette 1, one year after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

“At the time, when Alouette was being built, the Americans didn’t really think that Canada could pull it off. There was even a $1 bet that this thing wouldn’t last. It actually ended up lasting for 10 years – they had to turn it off, it didn’t actually wear out, and in fact, it’s still up there,” McDonald says. “I find it kind of funny. The first satellite in space that the Soviet Union put up was Sputnik in ’57. The Americans were behind with theirs called Explorer 1, and then Canada in 1962 put up Alouette. The other two fell out of their orbits after a few months or years, and Alouette is still up there today. When we put something up, it stays up.”

Since Canada’s first venture into space, the country has been steadily building respect and acclaim from the international community.

“It was really the success of Alouette that put Canada on the map internationally, because we proved that we could take on a challenge to do something that nobody has done before, to design something from the ground up and to do it with such high quality and precision and that we’re a serious contender. We don’t build giant rockets and we don’t put up people on space shuttles,” says McDonald, noting that while Canada doesn’t put people up into space, they do provide America’s NASA with astronauts. “We’ve been recognized right from the beginning and that legacy continues with our satellites that we put up, like Radarsat and the newest one called Neosat that’s looking for near-Earth asteroids. We should be proud of that.”

Exemplified by the endurance of Alouette 1, it’s always been Canada’s technical prowess that has garnered the nation recognition. McDonald explains: “We’ve always done that. We build bits and pieces, we build components, we also build entire satellites, but we’re again recognized by the international community that if you need an instrument, Canada’s a good place to design one.”

Despite concerns regarding the Canadian space program’s pedigree following the resignation of former program head Steve McLean in February, Piedboeuf agrees that Canada’s influence is strong in the technical side of space exploration.

“On the robotics side, we have a recognized expertise,” says Piedbeouf, referencing the Canadarm and Canadarm 2, which have been used to assemble and maintain the ISS. “When [NASA] needed an inspection system after the Columbia accident, they came to a Canadian industry to provide a laser-based camera system to provide 3D images of the shuttle, to do some analysis.”

Prior to Canada’s contributions to the rovers mentioned by McDonald, Piedboeuf says that Canada participated in a mission “with the Japanese where we provided a thermal analyzer, [though] the mission failed because the Japanese spacecraft was not able to finish the travel,” and that Canada provided a laser-based device to analyze Mars’ atmosphere on the Phoenix lander.

The country plans to continue to contribute to future missions to the Red Planet.

“We’re working with the European Space

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Calendar@ capilanocourier . com

AN EVENT-FUL SUMMER Here are some things that you might like to go to!

JJ Brewis ×Editor-in-Chief

Samantha Thompson

Well, we’ve told you all year about what’s going on, and now we’re not gonna be printing all summer. Uh-oh. But guess what? We have compiled all the cool concerts and arts events happening throughout the summer! Awesome, right?

× Copy Editor

MUSIC JAMES BLAKE

BEAT CONNECTION

SIGUR ROS

PASSENGER

Apr. 25 at The Commodore, $30.

Hot on the heels of his sophomore album, Overgrown, UK boy wonder James Blake brings his eclectic mix of crooning, electronica and (gulp) dubstep. His austere and introspective live show brings a new mix to the idea of solo performance, creating a full chilling sound without the help of a backing band.

May 10 at The Electric Owl, $13.

Last year this Seattle outfit added vocalist Tom Eddy to the already high-energy electronic duo consisting of Reed Juenger and Jordan Koplowitz.

The trio’s first output together, The Palace Garden saw a newly layered sound, adding emotive lyrical elements laced between the synth and keyboard dance frenzy.

May 27 at Deer Lake Park, $72.75.

Icelandic experimental rock band that often induces bouts of crying in their die-hard crowds play beautiful lakeside venue? Whoever booked this one is a damned genius! Their music is really just very pretty and well-crafted and that’s kinda all you want on a summer evening.

Jul. 10 at The Vogue, $28.50.

Despite the masses of screaming tweens, a Passenger show is something beautiful. One man act Mike Rosenberg from England brings it with his refreshing blend of singer-songwriter acoustics, mixing in personal stories making for a nice shift between sentimental moments and humour.

PURITY RING

TOM ODELL

TWIN SHADOW

THE POSTAL SERVICE

Apr. 25 at The Vogue Theatre, $20.

Corin Roddick and Megan James are one of Canada’s most lauded electronic acts to emerge within the past few years. Their debut Shrines hit nearly every critic’s top ten list last year. Their live set includes Roddick’s unique light bulbinfused synth.

May 12 at The Media Club, $15.

British singer-songwriter plays tunes from his new LP Long Way Down. What a little charmer! Also, he has really nice hair and song titles like “Hold Me”. Can we talk about this guy?

May 28 at The Commodore, $25.

Twin Shadow’s 2012 sophomore album Confessacted as a crossover from indie darling to top 40 radio star, with the help of catchy singles like “Five Seconds” and “Golden Light”. His live shows take the electronic edge down a bit, balancing with guitar rock fare for a more rounded edge. But the dance party is encouraged all the same.

Jul. 16 at Rogers Arena, price TBD. Indie fans have been waiting for this for, oh you know, only a good decade or so. Celebrating the ten year anniversary of their landmark debut (and only!) album, Give Up, the duo of Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) are finally taking their show on the road.

This may be your only chance!

BEACH FOSSILS

May 17 at The Vogue, $27.

Fans have about a month with the band’s brand new Dear Miss Lonelyhearts before this show. The Long Beach, California rock quartet have been doing this for a decade now, and their live shows are not to be missed, filled with stand-up Americana, highlighted by singer Nathan Willett’s odd bluesy falsetto.

NEW FOUND GLORY

BRUNO MARS with ELLIE GOULDING

Apr. 26 at The Electric Owl, $15.

The New York lo-fi quartet, fronted by Dustin Payseur, are the perfect musical precursor to summer: breezy guitar-driven indie pop, filled with reflective lyrics evocative of youth. The guys are on the road promoting their new release Clash the Truth.

WEIRD AL YANKOVIC Apr. 27 at Red Robinson Show Theatre, $45-60.

The “Alpocalypse” Tour sees the return of comedy music’s greatest (or only?) star. Apparently Al rides around on a Segway on-stage, and that’s just priceless.

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Apr. 28 at The Commodore, $30.75.

We’ve all heard the radio jam “Too Close”, and now is the chance to see what else this UK crooner is all about. His album came out almost two years ago in Europe and North America is finally catching on. This is your chance, Vancouver.

BRAD MEHLDAU Apr. 29 at Kay Meek Centre, $48/45.

An American jazz piano superstar. This is an exciting one for many, as Mehldau’s talent has reached many demographics, both with his original works and his unique spins on songs by Radiohead and others.

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS May 3 at The Commodore, $39.25.

Welsh pop singer Marina Diamandis and her band rolled through last summer, and it was one of the sleeper hits of the season. Filled with brilliant selfaware pop ditties that actually have something intelligent to say, Marina and her gang also have all the makings of a brilliant pop show: costumes, neon lights and characterized makeup. What more is there to ask for?

COLD WAR KIDS

FLEETWOOD MAC May 19 at Rogers Arena, $60-209.

There isn’t a more legendary show this summer than this one! It’s unbelievable they’re even heading back on the road, considering their last voyage in 2009 was touted as their last. But, boom, the band behind “Dreams”, “Everywhere”, “Rhiannon” and so many other gems is back... for a brief moment at least!

YOUTH LAGOON May 23 at Venue, $20.

Solo artist Trevor Powers hails from Boise, Idaho, which really isn’t that far. But his dream-pop and noisy psychedelia tunes have the atmospheric range to make you feel like you are floating far away in some type of video game daydreaming ethereal state. Wacky!

The xx May 24 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, $47.50/39.50.

Their performance last year was one of those shows everyone talked about for months and everyone who didn’t go felt kinda crummy about it. The return of the critical darlings from London is kind of a big deal. It’s not really just a show, it’s more of a whole... experience.

DEVENDRA BANHART May 26 at The Commodore, $35.25.

Devendra is kind of one of those artists you either really like, or really don’t. But the mark he’s left on lo-fi and folk is undeniable. Plus, he’s prolific as hell! 20 albums and EPs in a decade. Maybe his show will be 20 hours long.

Jun. 1 at The Rickshaw, $27.

Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their hit Sticks and Stones, the American pop punkers have no qualms with this comeback/reunion tour.

They’re back, and that’s pretty cool for all us nostalgic people out there. True story: guitarist Chad Gilbert got electrocuted on-stage on the Anaheim date of this tour! Oops!

TONY BENNETT Jun. 7 at Red Robinson Show Theatre, $109.50129.50.

Tony Bennett’s live show is unbelievably good. It’s even more sweet when you consider the fact that he’s 86! Who else can name drop personal stories about stars ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Lady Gaga? Only this cool jazz cat.

CAMERA OBSCURA Jun. 23 at The Commodore, $22.50.

One of Glasgow’s hottest musical exports also happen to be one of the greatest twee-infused live indie acts. The ensemble group includes up to 11 members and their moderately self-deprecating songs include titles like “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”. Bummer. Good thing the melodies are catchy!

TAYLOR SWIFT with ED SHEERAN Jun. 29 at BC Place. $60-390.

The teen queen who needs no introduction returns to Vancouver with her “Red Tour,” and who more adequate to open for her than ginger heartthrob Ed Sheeran? The two friends have been sharing the stage for their duet “Everything Has Changed” on this tour. Spoiler alert!

Jul. 20 at Rogers Arena, $50-115.

The “Moonshine Jungle Tour” rolls into town with two of the best live artists in the game, perhaps you’ve heard of them? Mars is one of the top hitmakers this decade and Goulding isn’t far behind him. They’ve both got catchy-as-hell new albums to promote, so this is likely to be one big dance party.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and JAY-Z Jul. 31 at BC Place. $54-273.

Let’s be real: this is the one show this summer than nobody’s going to want to miss. Timberlake’s return to the music scene after a seven-year absence was the biggest comeback of the year. And Jay-Z is debatably the most legendary rapper worker today.

Plus, there’s always the off chance Beyonce could show up. Just saying.

LIVE AT SQUAMISH Aug. 8-10 Earlybird tickets $149, later $179.

A fairly diverse lineup, ranging from local favourites (Dan Mangan, Yukon Blonde) to international heavy hitters (Vampire Weekend, Macklemore) roll in for a three-day festival that’s sure to be an ultimate rager. They have an entire portion of their website explaining their “glamping”, now that’s what we’re talking about!

fun. and TEGAN AND SARA Aug. 31 at Ambleside Park, $45.

A double-bill that seems a little odd until you realize that both of these bands are legitimate hitmakers. fun. made a big splash with last year’s “We Are Young” (you may have heard it – a million goddamn times), and Tegan and Sara have been one of Canada’s biggest musical forces over the last decade.

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Theatre

festivals Projecting Change Film Festival Apr. 24-28 at SFU Woodwards, $10 per film,

music world’s most soulful tunes.

In the House Festival

varying prices for special events.

Everyone in Vancouver looking to be creators of change all join together for five days of watching inspiring films, listening to speakers from around the globe, and discussing ways to have a positive impact in the world. This year’s festival will screen films like Kick It, Edible City and This Space Available – each of which tackles a completely different topic, resulting in a diverse experience of social justice films.

June 7-9 at various venues, ticket prices to be announced.

This festival gives audience members to experience unique components of the arts community in non-traditional settings: performances include everything from cabaret, Persian ensembles, shadow puppets and burlesque.

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of this special production – and best of all, different home owners in the city open up their homes and backyards for each show, creating an intimate concert experience.

DOXA Documentary Festival

Carnaval Del Sol

May 3-12 at five venues in the city, $12 plus $3 membership.

This year’s documentary festival is striving to challenge the conventions of a documentary with its selection of 74 films. Amongst these will be the much-anticipated Occupy The Movie, Google and the World Brain, and Good Ol’ Freda. Whether you see one showing or five, the DOXA festival is guaranteed to shift your perspective on the world as you know it.

July 6-7 in downtown Vancouver, free.

This festival has successfully epitomized summer for the past five years. Each year it takes over Vancouver’s downtown core with a series of plazas, and gives passerby the opportunity to eat Latin American foods, play a little soccer, dance to Latin music and generally be reminded of the countries that are so much warmer than here.

Eat! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival

July 24-Aug. 9 around Vancouver, ticket prices to be announced.

This 18-day festival celebrates queer art and artists from a whole range of disciplines. Featuring a compelling arts show called TransgressionNow, and Canada’s first-ever lesbian opera When the Sun Comes Out, QAF’s diverse repertoire of performances, galleries and workshops make it one of the must-see festivals of Vancouver.

May 24-26 at B.C. Place Stadium, $16 per day.

Everyone you can possibly think of from the food world is going to be in Vancouver this weekend – celebrity chefs, artisans, cookbook authors, wineries, restaurants...the list goes on. Come with your stomach empty, because this fun festival features events like the opportunity to sample chef ’s appetizers for $1 to $4 per piece. Don’t worry, there are plenty of chances to sample the many wines, beers and spirits present as well.

City of Bhangra Festival May 30-June 8 around Vancouver and Surrey, some free events, some ticketed.

Vancouver’s most colourful festival returns for yet another season. The festival will showcase free outdoor concerts, hundreds of performers, and featured international artists from New York, the U.K. and India. Soak up the sights and sounds of bhangra, and don’t forget to attend one of their workshops to learn the craft yourself.

Music Waste

Anime Revolution Aug. 16-18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, $60 for 3-day pass.

Vancouver has a phenomenal anime scene, and there is no better way to experience it than by attending the convention that brings anime lovers together under one roof. Experience cosplay, listen to panels and events, and shop anime to your heart’s content – or be a part of it from the outside and just soak up all the creatively-dressed Vancouverites walking around this weekend.

Apr. 16-20 at the Arbutus Theatre at Capilano, $5 ($2 for students).

This annual theatre production is host to a unique concept: creative writing and acting students come together to make a special festival comprised of student-written and directed plays. This year’s edition will be showcasing 20 productions over five days – and at an affordable price.

June 12-23 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, ticket prices vary.

No introduction is needed for this infamous broadway musical, which has been seen by over 53 countries in 38 countries, in 21 languages.

Based on Victor Hugo’s renowned novel, Les Mis recently graced the silver screen but is now back where it belongs – powerfully wowing audiences on the live stage.

Arts Club Summer

Bard on the Beach

Beginning May 9 and June 20 at The Stanley and Granville Island Stage, ticket prices vary.

The Arts Club is bringing several exciting hits to the stage this summer, including Dreamgirls, which tells the rags-to-riches tale of a 1960s group loosely based on The Supremes, and Avenue Q, the raunchy musical that tells the story of Princeton, a college graduate trying to make it big in NYC (the production is part-humans, part-puppets, which guarantees a laugh). Either performance will provide you with a summer-worthy night on the town.

June 12 to Sept. 14 at Vanier Park, $43/$25.

Bard on the Beach is a Vancouver classic, particularly because it brings together people of all ages, and presents Shakespeare’s plays in creative ways while still remaining faithful to the original script. Be sure to dress warmly though, because although the theatre does provide the audience with a prime view of Vancouver’s landscape, it also means the Bard’s tents can get quite cold. This year’s festival will be showing Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, and Elizabeth Rex, by Timothy Findley.

Ballet BC at the ‘Bolt May 23-25 at the Shadbolt, ticket prices vary.

Ballet BC have been the artists-in-residence at the Shadbolt this past season, and over these three days they will be performing the repertoire they have been working on over the past several months. It is ballet like never before, combining contemporary with innovation to guarantee a worthwhile dance experience.

rEvolver May 14-16 at the Cultch, $14, multi-show passes available.

This festival gives audience members the opportunity to experience the many different stages of theatre: script-based theatre, stage-readings of works-in-progress, and discussions with the artists themselves. In exchange, it provides emerging artists and companies the chance to present their evolving work.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Aug. 15-25 at various movie theatres in Vancouver, prices to be announced.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in Vancouver, this film festival brings the best in queer film to the city’s screens. Amongst last year’s productions were tales of heartbreak, prejudice and transgender issues, with a cool balance of comedy, drama and social activism - and this year’s is sure to be just as diverse. Often the festival is able to bring in the directors of several of its films, adding to what is already an excellent theatrical experience.

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Vancouver International Jazz Festival

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June 21-July 1 at multiple venues, ticket prices to be announced.

One of the city’s most renowned music festivals is returning again this summer for another week of swingin’ jazz with some of Canada’s favourite names in the genre. This year will feature the likes of Carmen Souza, Herbie Hancock, and David Murray Infinity Quartet featuring Macy Gray.

Head into the heat of summer with some of the

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Les Miserables

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June 6-9 at various locations in Vancouver, buy a festival pass for $15 (limited), or $5 per show.

Head to one of Vancouver’s classic music festivals, featuring tons of local bands, comedians, and artists. If you feel like getting totally wasted, get the weekend pass and go to as many shows as you can! Compete with friends! There will be so many shows.

Queer Arts Festival

Sacred Space: The Tom Cone Festival of New Plays

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OPINIONS

Opinions Editor ×

Leah Scheitel

× opinions @ capilanocourier . com

the People vs. the Pipeline

Enbridge up against a strong defense Katherine Alpen × Writer “New jobs, support for local communities, world class standards and a strong economy. It’s more than a pipeline. It’s a path to our future,” touts the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline’s official website. And who can blame them for every press release sounding like a warm hug; they’re an oil company, they need all the soft landings they can afford.

For starters, a pipeline is never going to be an easy sell. Add on that the oil itself is for international export, and you have another layer of difficulty. Multiply that by the destruction of natural landscape, boreal forest and the potential for oils spills on B.C.’s coast, and you have the perfect storm for social unrest and a media shit show, so to speak. It’s no wonder Enbridge is facing a solid wall of opposition from B.C. residents and environmentalists alike, the environmental cons far outweigh the menial pros in terms of financial or employment gain for B.C. residents.

First Nations all across Canada and even in the U.S. have made their voices loud and clear on the subject. Across the board, the voicing is unanimous: no pipeline, and that’s that. With Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike (though more specifically based around aboriginal rights), the organized movements of Idle No More and the Nishiyuu walkers, First Nations in Canada have been busy keeping their government aware of their presence. If Prime Minister Harper were to proceed without the blessing of First Nations people in B.C., he would face serious political turmoil, a mass upheaval and the worst reputation for being the biggest bully ever to grace Canadian politics – not that he hasn’t already gained that title.

But Harper is smart. Dangerously smart, and underestimating his political savvy and patience

when it comes to getting his way in Canada would be a mistake. To stop this project, the Canadian people have to be smarter, more patient and even firmer in their convictions than he is, which is no easy task, given the present day apathy that plagues the Canadian people.

As far as bad timing for Enbridge, the recent oil spills across the U.S. couldn’t be having worse repercussions. For days, Shell denied an oil spill that had occurred, leaking 30,000 gallons of crude into a waterway that lead to the Gulf of Mexico.

The spill in Arkansas was reported, not by Exxon’s officials, but by neighbours who noticed gallons of crude oil piling up in their yards, which continued to pour for 45 minutes after Exxon was notified.

The CP oil spill caused by a train derailing caused 100 times more damage than initially reported by the company, and an oil spill by the same company in Minnesota on Mar. 27 leaked 15,000 gallons

of tar sands crude. The sheer potential for disaster exemplified by these recent spills, coupled with the blatant disregard and failure to act quickly to protect the environment completely confirms what is known already: oil companies work solely for profit, no matter what the consequence.

It’s like the final standoff in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (you pick which is which), with specifically B.C. opposition, First Nations in Canada and the U.S., the oil companies, Harper, and China all standing in a circle with guns pointed at each other, waiting for someone to make their move.

Premier Christy Clark has laid out the following criteria for the pipeline: Successful completion of environmental review, world-leading environmental oil-spill response, prevention and recovery systems, world-leading terrestrial spill response, address aboriginal concerns and treaty rights and,

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B.C. must get a fair share of the benefits.

Yet these seem to be nothing but pipe dreams.

For starters, the environmental review has yet to be completed. How on earth can we trust “worldclass spill response” and safety procedures when one of the oil spill response ships has already run aground along B.C.’s coast? As far as land response goes, our government needs to learn something from the present Arkansas disaster. In terms of “addressing” Aboriginal concerns, the rhetoric of the requirement doesn’t mean the government has to have complete First Nations support, but merely that they have to review and decide for themselves whether they’ve done enough in terms of treaty rights.

These standards are a danger in that they could allow the project to go ahead without a concern or recognition of the majority of voices that are against the pipeline even if it does meet the aforementioned conditions. This venture is a decision for the people of British Columbia, and no one else.

At its core, this entire project could be summed up as such: China wants oil. Harper wants international trade development. Alberta has oil.

Harper has rich oil friends that want to get richer.

B.C. has the way to connect these things. And what stands in their way is the people of British Columbia and common sense. Considering Harper has already snuffed out science and the means to protect waters and lands in Canada under environmental protection, it seems like a losing battle for the environment.

But there’s still hope. If the people of B.C. and everyone around the world voices against this threat to some of the world’s last untouched flora and fauna, we can save B.C. from the inevitable environmental disaster this could cause.

Because when it comes down to it, increased tanker traffic on our coast is only a ticking time bomb for the worst environmental disaster Canada has ever seen.

Hot Child in the City

A Student’s Guide to Summer in Vancouver Brenda Ho

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Summer time in Vancouver is like a metropolis on ecstasy. Everything has blossomed; the trees, the gardens, and the people’s wonderful taste in clothing that matches the sunshine, reflecting so brightly on their personalities. It means more bikes on the roads, more skaters to look out for and children eating ice cream like it’s their first popsicle from the dentist.

The summer brings out a joy in people that you just cannot get from the horrendously glum winters. There’s a certain sparkle in everybody’s morning and evening from magic-hour to magichour. It is always a joy seeing sun-soaked peers and their hair frizzled like crazy Magic School Bus drivers. The accessible beaches are a must-do when it is hot out, and Vancouver has about 18 kilometres of sand surrounding the city! Not to mention the breath-taking landscape while walking on the Seawall, or just lying down in the sand soaking up the sun.

“Why wouldn't you want to be in Vancouver during the summer time?” says Capilano student

Connor Rempel. “There are so many people out and about!” He loves the Celebration of Light, the fireworks displays that happen among the beaches of our city. “So many countries come together and perform a show for us, and it is a great way to be on the beach with your friends at night.”

When summer rolls around, there are great promotions that come about. Who doesn't enjoy summer for the $1 drink deals that McDonalds has on their fountain drinks and delicious iced coffees? The hotter the weather, the cooler the drinks! Not to mention the hotter people get while wearing shorts and T-shirts. “You're allowed to wear less clothes in the summer,“ says Rempel.

“It's so normal to just walk down the street and admire the beautiful people.”

Don’t feel like walking around? Blast your radio with the windows down while you cruise over the Lions Gate Bridge, onto the North Shore.

If you don’t feel like socializing in the heart of Vancouver for whatever reason, the mountains are a perfect getaway. With our three local mountains, Grouse, Cypress and Seymour, all offering scenic drive areas, we have many opportunities to overlook the city from up high. It truly is the best of both worlds.

There are so many events that are held outside during the summer in Vancouver. If you're feeling like you're at a loss of things to do, just put on your favourite shades and go walking downtown, wherever. You’re bound to discover something to do, or make a new friend. The art gallery is always home to some type of protest – sometimes with a cool catering gig on the side to reel people in.

Commercial Drive is often alive with their patio eateries, where people-watching is a sport. Also, the filmmaking is a blast to walk-by. Vancouver is a hot spot for film and television, and even though the movie does not involve us everyday folks, the rest of the world is getting a taste of what we have in our backyard everyday – so let’s take a little pride when we strut our stuff with iced coffee in our hands.

From the greens to the blues to the yellows, Vancouver just compliments the greatness of summer. There is always something to be doing!

It's never too hot, nor too cold, compared to other parts of the world. If it is raining, it does not matter because it is still nice to stroll through to get to your destination. Take a walk up and down Granville Street and you'll be entertained by the summer vibe. Want to shop ‘til you drop? Don't

spend your time inside the mall, get out on Vancouver's runway: Robson Street!

After a long day, who doesn't love grabbing some brew and friends and having a fire down by the riverside? When the cops come, put the fire out with the accessible water source Vancouver obtains. Good company and summer nights are sometimes all a person needs after a day exploring the town. Hope for clear skies to see the stars, or turn to the horizon where you can see the lights from the city.

Summer in Vancouver has everything from mountains to an accessible ocean to lakes.

It does not matter if you are city lovers or country folks – Vancouver has a variety of things to do when the sun is out. It shocases such an infinite beauty of elements. The magnificent mountains soaring to the sky, from the deep blue depths of the swaying ocean – it all makes me feel like I truly belong on this earth.

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The Slimy, Slithery Monsanto Act

With the public distracted, Obama signs controversial bill Jeremy Fornier-Hanlon × Writer A week or two ago, while America was embroiled in a massive debate as to whether gay marriage should be legal (FYI: it should), Congress passed a bill that was then sent to President Obama, who signed it – despite the loud objections of the few people who knew about it. This bill, the “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013” (or H.R. 933 for short), is being called the Monsanto Protection Act by critics of the bill – after agricultural supergiant Monsanto, a huge supporter and seller of genetically modified crops and seeds. Meant to be a renewable finances bill, it contains a slightly confusing clause which says that if a court rules that genetically modified food is actually hazardous to people’s health, and orders producers of such food to stop selling it as such, they have the right to completely ignore them, with absolutely no legal consequences.

This is a very problematic situation for the common consumer who might be looking at how

to feed their families in a responsible way, while still maintaining a budget, as Monsanto has never been known for its transparency, and the company has been working on some pretty shady projects.

And you know your operation is really dishonest when even the Tea Party starts criticizing it. Dustin Siggins, Tea Party member and frequent blogger for their website, wrote: “It is not the purview of Tea Party Patriots to comment on the merits of GMOs – that is a discussion and debate for experts and activists within that field. From the perspective of citizens who want open, transparent government that serves the people, however, the so-called ‘Monsanto Protection Act,’ Section 735 of the Continuing Resolution, is one heck of a special interest loophole for friends of Congress.”

This isn’t the first time the Monsanto Corporation has had its hand in unsavoury business, either. Among other things, Monsanto has been involved in the production of corn that produces its own pesticide. These plants actually have it written in their genes, so that means no matter how many times someone washes it, they’ll still be eating a product that was specifically designed to kill anything that eats it. This was initially sup-

posed to reduce dependence on insecticides, and it worked astonishingly well ... for about six years, at which point the insects that couldn’t handle the pesticide died, and the ones that could got their freak on and thrived to the point that the only worms around now are essentially crazy mutants that can handle any shit you throw at them.

At that point, the only recourse for farmers is to blitz their crops with even more pesticides than before, in order to try and knock out the superworms in the corn patch – which raises more health risks.

Also bear in mind that Monsanto was a major developer of Agent Orange – a herbicide used during the Vietnam War to destroy the forests of Vietnam, which has been shown to cause birth defects in Vietnamese children even now, and caused massive spikes of cancer in American soldiers deployed to Vietnam.

So despite overwhelming evidence that genetically modified crops (at least from Monsanto) could very well be very unhealthy, they can continue selling their product as suitable food, and they’re not even required to tell people that their food is modified.

This is funny because since 2007 President Obama has promised to make it mandatory for genetically modified ingredients to be labelled in foods. Since that promise six years ago, not a single bill has been passed that even suggests it might happen.

The one saving grace about this act is that because it was part of a renewable economic bill, it will go up for vote again in the fall to determine whether the bill is really in the best interest of the citizens of the United States. One can only hope that President Obama can shake the strings off his back by then and make a decision for positive change. It’s always important to be aware what we’re putting into our bodies, and the potential risks of what we eat, but any law that gives more immunity to ruthless corporations with histories of opacity will only end up making the acquisition of this, and other free information, more difficult.

A PUSH IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Why does life have to be so bad if you can’t do math?

Dajana Coric × Writer

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Fast-forward to present day, sitting in an art history class with a student loan debt closing in on about $30,000, still wondering what exactly I could have done differently. There were so many things I could’ve done, had I been just given the chance to prove myself – but unfortunately, things happened the way they happened. I just wish teachers, parents and peers would be more considerate and offer a “Wow, you did great!” a little more often.

the capilano courier

Way back in ninth grade, I was sitting in French class, the language of love, being educated by a sixfoot tall crossed eyed monster of a teacher.

“Comment es-tu?” asked the cross-eyed monster. 14-year-old me looked up, uncertainly.

“What?”

“It’s an easy question!” shouted the monster.

Next thing I knew, a desk was being kicked over, and a pencil was flying through the air, headed straight for my face.

In terms of punishment, you know what happened to him? Nothing. What happened to me? I was so embarrassed that I didn’t return to class for the rest of the term, and failed. I let his authority over me, as a teacher, stop me from questioning his teaching methods, and when I finally did go to the school counsellor she didn’t have time for me because she had to go to Starbucks. Unfortunately, this is a true story.

I was never encouraged to tell someone his lack of punishment stopped me from continuing to learn the language, yet it has always been something I wanted to learn. The only other alternative that was given to me was to either take a supervised study block, or another language.

There was no encouragement or reassurance that I wouldn’t end up with the same teacher if I had decided to retake the course, and not even a discussion on how this would affect my choices, in not continuing to learn French, in postsecondary schools.

It’s funny to think that our education system in B.C. encourages the opportunity to let us decide our own future when in reality we don’t.

Every choice during our adolescence affects us immensely in our post-secondary studies. By offering simplified classes, like different math levels for each grade, that do not qualify you for certain post-secondary courses (or do not qualify you for post-secondary school at all), the education system is actually doing students a disservice instead of helping them. While it is giving more students the

opportunity to graduate, and that is fine for some, for most teenagers it leaves more barriers that they have to overcome, without getting the assistance of a teacher, once out in the real world.

Something that would be more beneficial to a student would be to provide one-on-one time with students who are struggling in classes like math, so that they could have the chance to understand the material instead of being sorted and labeled as someone incapable of learning math.

According to Statistics Canada, out of the 1,955,340 instructional programs at public postsecondary schools during 2010-2011, only 57,894 students from both universities and colleges do enroll in the mathematics, computer and information sciences programs.

In the article, “The tools of encouragement” published in Reaching Today’s Youth, Timothy Evans wrote, “Encouragement is defined as positive feedback that focuses primarily on the effort or improvement, rather than the outcomes.

And teachers and adults must acknowledge and believe that children, while in school or outside of it, have a positive wish to solve problems and make changes.”

It ends up being that the student that needs encouragement the most, gets it the least. For something very important to child development, very few educators, counsellors and parents realize that. Evans also stated, “What is very beneficial from receiving encouragement is that it develops psychological self-assurance. A person with fully developed social interests knows where he or she belongs, and is a worthwhile member of the human community.” In short, those that have a sense of belonging and dont feel outcasted, take life in stride.

My experience with teachers during high school was completely awful. Had I decided to not let their condescending comments get under my skin, and their type of encouragement had actually been just that – and not a way to coerce their way into getting the outcome they wanted – then who knows, maybe I could have continued on with my interest in chemistry, rather than focusing all my attention on art.

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OPINIONS

Opinions Editor ×

Leah Scheitel

× opinions @ capilanocourier . com

School's in for Summer

Classes offered in the sunny months are a good option Victoria Fawkes × Writer The idea of taking classes during the summer is a stereotypical student’s nightmare, getting in the way of the precious sunny Vancouver weather.

But in post-secondary schools, summer school is seen as a good way for students to get ahead and try something that they normally wouldn’t during the fall and spring semesters. By taking courses during the summer, students can schedule their lives around their education in a way they can’t during the rest of the year, while at the same time collecting credits.

Taylor Ramsay, who took an accounting course at Capilano University during the 2012 summer semester, says the course was an extremely positive experience. “I think that they’re a really great way to get ahead or to increase the pace of a parttime student’s education. I feel like in a lot of cases students don’t recognize the difficulty of the condensed courses that are offered in the summer and take on way more than they can handle, but other than that I think they’re awesome,” she says.

Ramsay enjoyed her summer course at Capilano so much that she plans to take another summer course at a different institution this year, thankful that the summer course she took at Capilano University helped her to transfer there.

For Capilano’s summer courses, the number of credits for courses taken counts for the same number taken during spring and fall semester courses, and condensed summer courses allow students to get their credits sooner than they would with other classes. Those who decide to take courses during the summer semester also find that they can alleviate that traditional boredom that often accompanies summer vacation, as the courses give them goals and more of a purpose. Students that work part-time or full-time jobs during the summer will also find that taking only on or two classes fits will with their schedule much better than it would during the traditional spring or fall semesters.

For other students, the incentive behind taking classes during the summer is the ability to lessen their course load later in their academic careers.

Taking a class during the summer that only lasts a few weeks lessens a student’s course load during their spring or fall semesters, when every class

taken is full length and more arduous than summer courses. If students can keep up with the fast pace with which teachers run summer courses, the benefit is great. However, Ramsay argues that many students don’t realize the time and commitment that condensed summer classes and their teachers demand.

“In non-condensed summer courses, I would say the normal curriculum isn’t deviated from. However, in condensed courses I would say the material that is deemed as ‘less important’ is not covered in the class,” notes Ramsay, whose own summer course was seven weeks long. Although the summer semester features a narrower selection of courses than the rest of the year, plenty of essential classes are offered, such as business, communications, anthropology and tourism. But due to their condensed nature, many students are not informed as to whether summer courses are as educationally valuable to them as spring and fall courses until they’ve actually taken the class.

Another common concern for students is how involved the teachers will be in summer courses compared to their involvement in spring and fall semester courses. “The teachers for summer courses

are as involved in the students as they are for spring and fall courses, if not more so, since they generally do not have that many students to teach during summer term,” says Ramsay. In fact, the average summer class size is usually no more than 30, and both teachers and students are more engaged.

Because professors are typically teaching only one or two courses for the semester, they are able to give their classes and individual students more attention than they can during the rest of the year.

Although there are fewer courses to choose from during summer semester, and students run the risk of taking on more than they can handle as a result of not understanding the difficulty of condensed courses, those who have participated in summer semester have generally had a positive experience.

“The reason why I enjoyed summer courses is because I always get bored in the summer, so it gave me something to do, I got to keep in touch with my school friends, and I felt good about getting the credits done earlier,” says Ramsay. To those who pursue them and work hard, summer courses can be a fulfilling and worthwhile experience that will help them to get ahead in the future.

COMIXOLOGY'S CLOUD CRASH

Comics were meant to be Apocalypse-Proof Sam MacDonald

the capilano courier

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When people talk about online comics, they’re talking about Comixology, the digital distribution platform for comics on the Internet. Every major comic publisher distributes their digital comics through them, and their store App is available on anything that connects to the Internet – like most things human beings love. But Comixology is also the harbinger of the Internet-Apocalypse.

Digital comics are all good and fine until you consider that the same people that buy comics are the same people that gather, en masse, physical objects to help protect them during the end of the world. Nerds don’t collect random shit under the half-baked impression that they’re investing money, with plans to sell it at a profit years later (that’s just incredibly stupid), but instead because they need physical things to read when everyone else is busy cannibalizing each other, or dying.

During the multimedia/drunk-networking festival South By SouthWest, Marvel Comics announced a new editorial initiative for their digital

comics with Comixology. In the business tradition of drug-lords everywhere (the first taste being free), Marvel offered up 700 issue #1 comics – the first issues of multiple different series, mini-series, and one-shot stories – free of charge. They were offering first issues of every modern series currently involved in Marvel’s status quo, as well as multiple older titles – and even David Aja’s Immortal Iron Fist #1, the dankest of dope. Showcasing that level of free merchandise is like putting Tony Montana in front of a mountain of cocaine: Tony is going to snort that cocaine mountain and then die in a bloody shoot-out. It can’t end any other way.

Comixology’s servers crashed within the hour.

The company and the cloud that powered its products were out. No one could access their comics – not just the newcomers acquiring comics through the Marvel deal, but customers who had previously paid, too.

Comixology had to put Marvel’s sale on hold just to get their servers working.

Eventually, of course, they fixed it, but the paranoia had already infected the collective nerd consciousness.

Not every creative medium is cloud-

based, but all the media that western culture enjoys seems destined to one day be purely digital. Physical music is dying with the compact disc, people watch movies on Netflix more readily than on other platforms, and e-books are rising in popularity – all of these will be gone if this country (or even just the United States) loses electricity in an apocalyptic scenario. There doesn’t even need to be a loss of electricity or major infrastructure for this to happen: if the Internet goes away, it’s all gone.

This is the paranoia that influences the modern nerd’s gnawing impulse to hoard things: The Internet-Apocalypse. It’s the idea of the Internet dying, or a large-governing body shutting it down for some religious fear of the singularity, or Google implementing a charge to search. The crash will be upon the people, and they’ll be forced to mail letters through the post office, shop everywhere physically, and interact with only the people in their immediate vicinity. But for people who have been raised on the Internet, talking to other humans is on par with being “centipeded together.”

Cloudbased systems such as Comixology are just credence for the mass fear of restrictive freedoms of digital media. The service doesn’t actually give their customers comics to own.

Instead, they give the customer a license to access what they bought from the company’s servers. A simple reason for this model is to crack down on people illegally distributing the product online for free. A more cynical reason is because the company loves money, a trait rarely seen amongst any other company in history.

Comixology has held standard monopoly for some time now, and its system of exchange certainly works in theory. There isn’t a pesky download involved at any point in the process, so the customer doesn’t have something they can back-up on a separate hard-drive. This wouldn’t be a problem if people could have faith in the monopoly holder’s ability to do its job.

But it turns out that nerds with credit cards and iPads is a big enough demographic to crash a major company’s servers. In their fear of a digital wasteland, these nerds fail to see what the true cause of the apocalypse will really be: themselves.

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13-04-12 9:58 PM

the caboose

caboose Editor ×

Scott Moraes

× caboose . capcourier @ gmail . com

ST. JUDE'S BOYS SCHOOL JJ Brewis × Editor-in-Chief

Connor Thorpe

any more time watching gender-segregated staring contests. Remember how we learned about found art last semester? We’re going to need a found high.

I heard once that you could roast banana peels and smoke them. It might have been nutmeg. Your mom takes Xanax, doesn’t she?

× Staff Writer See you third period.

Charlie.

Hey Charlie, I’m writing this in Bible study, in between glances from Sister Annette. She’s blind as shit so I don’t imagine she’ll see me, but who knows – Rodney’s hands are still red as a baboon’s ass from last week, when she whacked him with a ruler.

I stole fifty bucks from my mom’s purse over Easter break, but I doubt she’ll even notice. Got Ryan Parker to pick up some joints for me, and the bastard kept the change! So it’s a no go on the Jack. We’ll have to find some other way to get fucked up for the party at the girls’ place this weekend. Hey, if you wanna meet me in third period to smoke these bad boys in the bathroom, it sounds a lot better than another fucking sermon about giving unto yourself or whatever the fuck it is? Boring. If there really is a god, they would get Jennifer Love Hewitt to lead mass in a bikini and hand out joints instead of communion wafers.

Not that I believe in god by this point, but boy do I believe in tits and weed.

Travis.

Travis, I hope you catch a few licks from Annette for trusting that weasel Parker with the fifty. I’ll take you up on the weed, but I’m not going to that shitty party sober. Every time it’s Rodney and his jerkoff soccer pals standing at one corner of the room with the girls on the other. We slide in there somewhere in the middle. Not in a good way, either. Fuck that shit. We don’t need to waste

Yo Charlie, “Bathroom break” yesterday was killer. It went down all the more smoothly just knowing old man Anderson was leading mass at the same time.

Fucking hilarious. We should make this shit a weekly tradition, you think? My mom sent me a letter today – my dad lost his job and they’re worried about money so now I feel a bit bad about taking the cash from her wallet. Do you think maybe god is real and this is his way of telling me to smarten up? Guess this means she’ll be upping the Xanax. At any rate, the good thing about them going broke is they won’t be able to afford to send my brother here next year. Thank goodness cause he’s a fucking narc. Though it would be sweet to have a miniature accomplice around, gotta say. “Jimmy, go steal the whiskey out of Sister Annette’s drawer!” Haha.

Speaking of which, what the hell are we gonna do for the party? I do agree we need something to take the edge off. Ain’t no way you’re gonna get into Rebecca Blanketstone’s uniform with your natural charm. No offense.

Travis

Travis, You don’t actually buy any of this God shit, do you?

If God were real, your family wouldn’t be broke and your mom wouldn’t be popping pills in the first place. But hey, it’s been tough for everybody lately, right? As for your brother, maybe some day we should be as lucky. Public schools are packed with scumbags like Parker, and most of them have enough business sense to give their customers back their change. There’s something to be said for repeat business, you know.

Are you sure there’s whiskey in Annette’s drawer? She seems pretty sharp to be old and a drinker. I’m pretty sure that’s just the way old people smell. Maybe go take a peek, if you’re so convinced she’s blind.

And bum me a smoke, will ya?

Charlie.

Charlie, I overhead Parker and some guys talking in the bathroom. I was blazing when they came in so I had to cut that shit out as soon as I heard those noisy ass boots he wears. You can hear that bastard coming like elephants on a hardwood floor.

Anyway I shut the fuck up and wouldn’t you know it, classic case of being in the right place at the right time!

He says Rebecca Blanketstone and him fucked behind the chapel. I don’t know if it’s true. When

he said it, Rodney told him she’s actually a virgin so who the hell knows. So maybe you still got a chance? The rest of the shit they were talking about was a bunch of bullshit but he seemed to know about Annette’s – get this – complete bar she’s got hidden in the choir book library! Holy shit. I vote you volunteer to catalogue the book returns and use it as a chance to get the goods for us.

I’d do it but she’d never trust me after that whole swearing bullshit. You’ve got the angelic look about you. I dunno about god. I’m thinking about it.

You’re the one capitalizing his name, maybe you’re subconsciously committed.

Travis

Travis, You know how much I hate admitting that you’re right, don’t you? The bottles were all there lined up in the drawer of her desk. It was beautiful. I got this feeling, like anything’s possible if you’ve got a full bar stashed away somewhere. All the bottles looked old as shit. Like, older than us. I grabbed the freshest looking one. Nobody likes stale whiskey. When I was cataloguing the books, I managed to grab something for Blankey. It’s a book of poems by this guy called e.e. cummings.

She fancies herself a writer, doesn’t she? Here’s a line in it that goes like this: you’re divine! said he (you are mine said she) I think she’ll really go for that. If needledick Parker hasn’t got to her first. That’d be really bad timing. Sometimes I find it funny that we go to St. Jude’s. The patron saint of desperate causes. If there is a God, he owes me one after all the prayer I’ve gone through at this school. If you’re forced to pray, it still counts, right?

Charlie.

the capilano courier

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DEAR MOTHER Scott Moraes × Humour and Fiction Editor Dear Mother, Paris is the most unusual of places. One would be amazed at how much it strays from the glistening pristine beauty of its postcards and perfume brochures. If you’re living in it, I mean. I remember the first time we came, a typical New World family hooked to the centuries-old architecture, the museums and hotels, and of course, the food.

It was all so movie-like, so magical and almost too good to be true.

I firmly believed that coming here to learn the ins-and-outs of French cooking would be a pleasant affair. But much like the coffee they drink is derived from the toil of Ethiopian farmers, the lavish Parisian diet is derived from the murderous kitchens that supply it.

French kitchens are stages to daily civil wars.

Verbal abuse is the norm, and a friendly talk over a cigarette in the loading dock can quickly turn into violent animosity as soon as cooks enter the kitchen. I have transitioned to a new kitchen for the third time this month, and though they were all in their own right very vibrant learning environments, I am determined to find one both vibrant and safe.

Cooks casually steal food from the cooler and fornicate with the wait staff in the cold and dark dry storage area. Jealousy, gossip, competitiveness, and stress all contribute to the highly charged environment. Everyone is given nicknames meant to offend them. Mine is “Big Mac.” Even though

I haven’t had a Big Mac in over a decade, it is still the “defining dish of my cuisine,” says the chef.

This past week, a disturbing episode took place, mother. Pétit Antoine, a very energetic and proud dwarf, a man of resilient moral fibre, was pushed to his very limit and driven to an act of lunacy.

As a little man, incapable of stretching his way to the altitudes in which everything is laid out in the kitchen, he was relegated to shucking oysters, de-bearding mussels, peeling vegetables, helping the dishwasher, and so forth. The mounting offences cast at him during a particularly fierce dinner rush were indeed cruel and unfair by any standards. Not being able to bear a minute longer of the pointless harassment, he let out a barbaric scream (an unlikely undertaking for such a small voice box) and firmly grasped an oyster shucker.

It glistened like a true sword against his tiny frame – as he ran gallantly toward the chef and stabbed him in the thigh, before scurrying out of the restaurant and into the night, never to be seen or heard of again.

Being stabbed so near the scrotum is a terrifying prospect capable of mentally incapacitating a man.

But the chef kept working, after merely tying a cloth over his wound, his blood dripping down his pants and onto the slippery floor. Here we were, scrambling for our lives, trying to get through the rush, as though nothing had really happened. It occurred to me this might have been just another one of many stabbings this crew had seen.

I myself feared for my life at one point. I had admirably succeeded in deboning quails, stuffing them with prosciutto-wrapped figs and then trussing them for service. The chef was so impressed he put me in charge of the foie gras for the night.

While trying to transfer the beautiful buttery piece

onto a plate, it slipped and landed on the floor. I was in terror – I could foresee a 12-inch chef ’s knife digging straight into my heart, my body chopped into pieces and thrown out casually at the end of the night along with all the garbage.

My legs started to shake.

“What are you waiting for, Big Mac? Pick it up, blow on it and put it on the plate,” the chef yelled at me. I was too afraid at this point to challenge his decision, so I did it. I gathered from his overall attitude that wasting a beautiful piece of foie was not worth the safety of some “rich tourist with health insurance.” That was his overall nonchalance whenever someone sneezed or sweated into the food, which happened quite often.

The chef has so much foie gras on the menu that it made me wonder if he had no reservations at all about the, you know, animal rights controversy.

It turns out, the man has an unnatural hatred for geese. I wonder if it was the deliciousness of the foie or his hatred for geese that dictated the menu.

I asked him stealthily, “Do you not think they feel pain being force fed that way?” “I do not know,” he replied, “I do not speak to gooses. I do not look them in the eye. I only twist their necks and cook them.”

The irony was almost unbearable. Why would God allow such a torturous process to result in something so delicious? And further, why would God allow a madman to have such talents to fuel his hatred?

On a brighter note, it is still as wonderful as ever to be on the consumer side of things. A bowl of fresh fruit laced with crème fraîche is a simple pleasure of absurd proportions. One night, coming home exhausted, it brought me close to tears. I have found it harder to appreciate the fruit

of someone else’s toil in bistros and restaurants.

My palate can identify the pain present in the food.

Parisian markets are heart-warming and aweinspiring. The variety of raw milk cheeses, cured meats and buttery pastries has made me a happier man. I had a strange dream the other day in which I stuffed myself with fresh croissants while the Pillsbury Doughboy cried in front of me, repeating under his breath, “You don’t love me anymore.” I believe I asked him how he had been allowed into the country by immigration authorities, him being a walking blasphemy to French culture. He replied, “You don’t love me anymore,” and I said, “I never did, boy.” Later on in the dream, I held a balloon in the shape of a pork hock. To cut a long story short, food has occupied all of my conscience.

My heart is filled with joy when I walk around the city for hours on end, observing and learning.

The French have peculiar customs, such as having sex under bridges, in shady parking lots, in park benches at night, or under the trees. Perhaps they were all tourists, but I very much doubt it. Every French person I’ve talked to is somehow entangled in much more than just a love triangle, but rather in a seemingly endless chain of triangles woven together in a nasty kaleidoscope of vice and sin.

My apartment is barely big enough for myself, but I’ve attempted to entertain a few friends on a few occasions. One of my neighbours, a Swiss pastry student, has grown quite friendly to me.

She is very flirty and fairly good-looking. Things were going well between us, but strangely, she is very fond of Engelbert Humperdinck, Rod Stewart, and Todd Rundgren. I find it very difficult to be romantic with a girl who has the exact same musical taste as you, mother, but she might be content with mere friendship in the end.

She is also into Django Reinhardt, so things are not entirely hopeless.

Hope all is well with the family. I’m attaching a few recipes in case you’re ever in want of inspiration next time someone spits your boiled carrots and broccoli onto the floor.

Love,

the capilano courier

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the caboose

caboose Editor ×

Scott Moraes

× caboose . capcourier @ gmail . com

Shotgun reviews : LAST ONEs EVER UNTIL NEXT YEAR BUT MAYBE THEY WONT HAVE IT ANYMORE I dont know CANT SEE THE FUTURE

Stamps are possibly the most pointless, useless thing you could collect. So, naturally, I spent eight years of my childhood filling what would become a 20-pound binder full of the little guys. I’d flash my Super Exclusive Stamp Quest Membership Card (which allows you to go on a Stamp Collecting Adventure!) proudly, I’d use my dorky magnifying glass to really “get a closer look,” and I’d stress out about getting all the stamps into the binder (using tweezers, obviously) before they were destroyed by the world’s acidity. And these things were supposed to make me rich! Instead, they’re sitting under my bed, surrounded by Beanie Babies (with tag protectors!) and hundreds of Pogs. The worst part is, I obviously can’t get rid of them because I know that one day this useless junk will make me millions (right?).

Call me crazy, but the type of dude I’m always attracted to is the “hot loser.” A perfectly respectable man my age, with a good job and a nice relationship with his parents? Fat chance there’s gonna be any chemistry there. Last year, in the fit of my late-twenties existential crisis, I dated an 18-year-old chav, complete with terrible stick-and-poke tattoos, faux-gangster style and self-prescribed “addiction” to “style” (wow). The chav look unfortunately defines everything I like, and also proves that a million wrongs can indeed make a right. In chav land, oversized gold tricked out jewellery and satin sports team jackets create a beautiful mess that is just irresistible to me. I can’t help it! Call it a lack of taste, I might just agree. Wife-beaters are never a good look on their own. But pair that shit with tear-away track pants and a giant medallion, and it’s fuck time.

I even appropriated the “squarey cube” earring look into my own style vernacular. I wear a small piece of chav culture because, honestly, I can’t deal with owning the whole look. What!? I don’t wanna look like a total douchebag! Just a partial one.

I used to pretty much hate all dogs (no offense).

Recently, though, I’ve turned a corner in my life and I actually think they are pretty neat, but I don’t really get to spend much time around them except in parks and stuff. The only crappy part is that dogs come with all sorts of baggage that they aren’t shy about sharing. And just like dumb little toddlers, their “parents” can’t usually do shit about it, even though they try really pathetically hard. Like the other day, this really beautiful red-coloured golden retriever came over to my friends and I while we were sitting in the park, just being all nice and wanting pets, and maybe chewing on a stick. But then his owner just started yelling “Stanley! STANLEY! Stop chewing sticks!” and then to us, “I’m really sorry, he just always chews sticks.” So what? He clearly just has some sort of Oedipus complex or some other Freudian dog thing. Why should that preclude me from petting his beautiful red coat?

(Seriously, it was like January Jones’ hair, who wouldn’t want to pet that?)

Even though I really want to write a shotgun about Liz Phair and how much she rules because I literally listened to Exile in Guyville for the first time yesterday, I feel like I should write a tiny something about how this is probably my last year with the Courier and that’s like a big deal.

I kind of fell into this whole thing by accident but I’m thinking, maybe it was fate? I’m kind of drunk right now and it’s like, woah, maybe fate is real! Anyway, it’s been really cool. I wrote a lot of stuff. My favourite stuff was when I got to be funny, like when I got to write the story about cops getting down ‘n’ dirty and all the calendars.

I also liked when I got to write about skateboarding because I like skateboarding.

Anyways, Liz Phair rules, peace out, haters gotta love. XOXO.

CHARLIE DAY AS MY CHEERLEADER Leah Scheitel

GLOSETTE PEANUTS Lindsay Howe

LIFE Giles Roy

KATIE’S MOM Katie So

I’ve been a sad sack with no teeth all week. So I’m passing the time the best way I know how: watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and getting a lady boner for Charlie Day. Sunny is amazing when you think you are a bad person, because no matter what you did, at least you’re not eating almonds you found in a back alley or having sex with Danny DeVito in a garbage dumpster. And I want Charlie Day as a personal cheerleader for my life. He thinks every idea is a good idea. Just imagine having a best friend who thinks every idea is the best one you’ve EVER had. I’d say, “Let’s kill all the rats with a baseball bat.” He’d say, “Great.” I’d say, “Let’s find the car window that smashed my teeth out and blow it up with a rocket.” He’d say, “Already found it.”

I’d say, “Let’s make mittens for kittens.” And he wouldn’t even know that I totally stole his idea.

I’m starting a petition to get Charlie Day as my cheerleader. If you want to sign it, email me at charlieismycheerleader@hotmail.com. Do it now.

Charlie would think it’s a great idea.

I am a huge fan of Glosette peanuts. I think they are absolutely delicious, and the perfect combination of salty and sweet. As per usual, I invested in a jombo package of Glosettes to help get me through a long evening of essay writing and left them in my car while I came in to school.

Upon returning to my car, I found the peanuts were gone. They had been the victim of theft.

Who would do this? Was it an animal? Someone playing a cruel trick? Why would someone even steal Glosette peanuts when they are readily available in the vending machines at school for a reasonable price? Is there a rat living in my car? So many questions, yet so few answers. The only thing that’s certain is that the next time I purchase a package, I am keeping them on me at all times. I never realized they were this much of a hot commodity.

I’m pretty sure I’m the first person in human history to ever realize this, but life is pretty bad.

Humanity bleeds the Earth dry, rapes, murders, and demeans itself, and just generally fucks everything up. Meanwhile, just about everything gives us cancer. Then the stuff that doesn’t give us cancer is boring. We get an average of about 70 years before we die, and we waste most of it screwing around on the Internet. Shitty people have kids and are surprised when their kids turn out shitty. Or they don’t notice, because they’re busy having more shitty kids. Some people even get the vague suspicion that existence is a waste of time, but then they fuck it up even further by turning to religion. The whole experience is just a long, steady decline. Nobody takes responsibility for any of it – some people pretend to care but they go on hypocritically taking part in the cosmic joke anyway. Everyone is so happy and nobody deserves to be. We are all terrible and I hate everything. 3 out of 5 stars.

Let me tell you about my mom. Despite my radically Asian exterior, my mom is actually as Swiss as Heidi. She is from Biel, Switzerland, and like a true Von Trapp child, grew up dressed in dirndls and blond pigtails while frolicking in the edelweiss fields of the Alps. She is really great and has an accent that no one can seem to accurately imitate. She likes to watch hockey, and her foreign brand of commentary is sweet as Toblerone. Her hockey vocabulary includes phrases like “power game” instead of “power play,” and scoring is referred to as “making goals.” She loves all of the Canucks and was very sad to see our centre Cody Hodgson (or as she called him, “Hodge Podge”) leave last year. And no matter what, she always feels sorry for the losing team. While watching a game, my mom will have to occupy herself with another activity.

She has terrible ADD and cannot be content with doing just one activity at a time. So, she will do Sudoku puzzles (or “suduko” in mom vernacular) or will play Tetris on her Gameboy.

If I had the choice to watch hockey in a bar or at home, I’d much rather see the Canucks make a power game goal with my mom.

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ON ENDINGS Celina Kurz

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PARK DOGS Natalie Corbo

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CHAVS JJ Brewis

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STAMPS Samantha Thompson

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