Capilano Courier Volume 46 Issue 6

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Planting for Pennies

taylor swift

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Bad boyfriends

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parade of lost souls

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DEboning

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CAPILANO Courier TABLE OF CONTENTS news

The Staff 4

of this amazing university newspaper

Got beef? Oh, sorry

columns

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Space jam

arts

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JJ Brewis Editor-in-Chief

Giles Roy Managing Editor

Samantha Thompson Copy Editor

Natalie Corbo Features Editor

Celina Kurz Arts Editor

ANARCHY IN THE LIBRARY!

features

10

Beers for fears

Opinions

14

Lindsay Howe News Editor

JT brings sexy back

calendar

17

Taylor Swift, fuckin' finally

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Scott Moraes Caboose Editor

Ricky Bao Business Manager

Katie So Art Director

Connor Thorpe Staff Writer

Colin Spensley Distribution Manager

Leanne Kriz Ads & Events Manager

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sports

the capilano courier

Leah Scheitel Opinions Editor

Often involve balls, lol

CABOOSE Stuck in a boiler room with Pitbull

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Stefan Tosheff Production Manager

CONTACT US LOVE US? HATE US? SEX US?

Phone: 604.984.4949 Fax: 604.984.1787 www.capilanocourier.com If you are interested in contributing, story meetings are Tuesdays @ noon in Maple 122

Shannon Elliott Web Editor

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× Letter from the editor ×

IS THIS COMMUNITY? × ON the Cover ×

Dave Mcansh

Dave likes punk music and oil painting. He's also a graphic designer and excellent lover, so I've heard. davemcansh.com

THIS WEEK IN THE

WORLD This stuff happened POCKET LIKE IT'S HOTT × Drake graduates high school × Anna L. is still single ×

× JT marries a horse ×

The Voicebox gives you the chance to have your opinion heard, no matter how irrelevant or uninformed. Just send a text message to (778) 235-7835 to anonymously “voice” your “thoughts” on any “subject.” Then, as long it’s not too offensive, we’ll publish it! It’s a win-win-win, unless you’re a loser.

“Why didn’t you print my Voicebox entry?”

Because, smartypants, you sent it in after last issue’s deadline. As you can see, it’s in this issue, as well as this superfluous entry. You got two entries. Happy?

“How did Cheetah get her name?”

Sometime in the fall of 2008, editor Christine McLaren decided that the next person hired would be nicknamed “Cheetah,” regardless of their personality. Then Shannon got hired and it actually stuck.

Nobody knew that our little Cheetah would one day be so successful!

Well, I mean, some of us knew.

“Someone once asked: what hurts more, being kicked in the nuts or going into labour? My initial reply was: one is an act of terrorism and one is your own damn fault.”

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That didn’t happen. Nothing has ever not happened more than this.

“Every Monday morning around 10 a.m., my classmates and I get a waft of tobacco filled air into Fir 111. Please don’t smoke near the fresh air intake! - Sensitive Nose” Hey, lay off. These people need somewhere to look stupid, smell like shit, and die. Have a little respect.

“Some of you ass holes are on Tumblr, don’t lie to me.”

Assholes is one word. Also, if you have Tumblr, you should follow Katie So (katieso), Stefan Tosheff (stefantosheff) Shannon Elliott (cheetahpower), Natalie Corbo (simcities), Celina Kurz (aqueenbeeseaqueen), Samantha Thompson (samanthathompson) and JJ Brewis (tinycastles).

Their Tumblrs combine to make a Courier Megazord.

“I heard your dream is to one day live in a Starcraft van. Cool dreams, bro! How will you make this happen? Will you sell all your possessions and hit the road?

Hey look, this creepy person lurked me on Instagram! I’m flattered! If any other creepy ladies want to lurk me on Instagram, it’s @visionloser.

Unfortunately, I’m the only Courier employee with Instagram.

“The Voicebox is really negative!”

“I would like to claim my ‘free massage,’ please.”

A/S/L?

Fight me. Tuesday at noon, Maple 122.

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Connor and Stefan got heckled by two Snookis

Samantha is feeling this

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Featuring: giles Roy

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already heard about it by now.” Sure, anyone with a set of ears or eyes was made aware of the story, whether it was on the National Post or Facebook. Yeah, we’ve all heard about it by now. But let’s slow the fuck down for a moment - have we?

Sure, these days there seem to be just as many “media outlets” out there as there are human beings, ranging from national dailies to by-theminute Twitter feeds attempting to inform, infatuate and entertain. But perhaps we can hold off on this constant push for the next big story and stop to take a look at the root of the story further. We’re all dying to be the first to know the next thing without taking time to fully understand the last story in full.

Did Amanda Todd need to die? No. And neither should anyone her age. While I didn’t know her personally, I do know what it was like to be a depressed teen; many of us do. But unlike Todd, I had people to turn to when things got painful and problematic.

And if this story makes anything clear at all, it’s that Todd not only felt marginalized and targeted, she also felt altogether alone, something that none of us truly want to feel, ever. People like me were lucky. I am where I am today (as in, alive and well and all of that) only because there were helping hands, of my friends, my family, my neighbours even, to help me out of the shit I was in. Things are different now. Todd turned to the Internet time and again when her in-person communities and realities failed her.

It’s not about investigating why one teenager took her own life. It’s the issue of why this is happening today, in 2012, when so many resources are available to all of us to supposedly make our lives easier. Many of us have taken a stand against bullying with such outlets as “It Gets Better,” but this isn’t really helping the big picture. Yes, it’s a nice gesture. Even legislation is being pushed to illegalize bullying. But shoplifting, and heroin and murder are all illegal, technically, so what’s going to actually become of some words on a paper that say, essentially, “Play nice, ok?”

I’m not saying I have the answers. Not at all. But I am inherently frustrated with the system. I work at a public library and see school kids pushing each other, calling their classmates names, while their adult chaperones just stand by and think they’re “playing.” It’s not just playing: it’s the first step of many that is going to lead to future generations of Amanda Todd’s, continuing this sad, upsetting cycle. So no, I don’t have the answers. But I do believe in change. And perhaps change starts back where it used to: in our communities. It’s time we got together to create dialogues and conversations that are going to help our kids thrive.

While I might not have the answers, maybe all of us do — if we put our ideas together.

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We went to Kamloops, even though JJ and Leah wanted to go to Saskatoon

THE VOICE BOX

× Editor-in-Chief

the capilano courier

Binders full of lemyn

Last weekend, the Courier staff went to Kamloops for a regional conference. Over the course of a very full day, we were treated to diverse lectures, seminars, and roundtables about the ins and outs of various journalism facets. The core theme of the speakers’ content seemed to be community.

Speakers shared information about the idiosyncrasies and nuances in working at a small town daily newspaper. The keynote speaker, Cliff Lonsdale, co-founder of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, lectured about his experiences as a young journalist. Lonsdale explained some major shifts in the world that have occurred in the past several decades that have changed the face of not only reporting - but of communities whose lives are being recorded in this daily news.

Lonsdale spoke about the dangers and complications in working both abroad in war-torn areas and locally in insular communities. Attendees at this keynote learned about the possibility of working as a small town reporter and being asked to cover, say, a motor vehicle fatality, and the likelihood of having personally knowing the deceased.

It’s a scary thought, but it also portrays the healthy bond that can occur in a small community where people take the time to actually get to know one another. Community is a fragile concept in these modern times. Many of us seem to befriend complete strangers from across the world online while not even being able to rattle off the names of a few neighbours who live on our block. I’m not saying anything is wrong with this (I am actually guilty of this odd shift myself ), but we do have to admit that there’s something a little weird about how our interests and attitudes to those of us around us have changed rapidly over the years.

A lot of us have no idea what is going on under our noses. There’s a fine line between apathy and that nosy neighbour who knows every detail, but surely we could all meet at some middle ground in terms of being aware and alert to our surroundings.

The lost community angle is likely a contributing factor (of many, let’s be honest) in the untimely death of Amanda Todd. News of Todd’s death had broken last week shortly before this conference, and several of the speakers used this story as a springboard for conversation. And fair enough, it’s not only nationally relevant with a local urgency, but the core of the story is horrifying on so many social levels, pertaining to misogyny, class, age and power.

The story has led to every news outlet covering the story in some aspect. But if I learned anything at this conference, it was about the ever-changing face of news. Being completely honest, today’s revelations are just as quickly yesterday’s old hat. One of our speakers, a reporter for a B.C. daily, commented on how staff at her publication wanted to make the Amanda Todd story their cover feature, but felt that “everyone’s

By JJ Brewis

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NEWS

News Editor ×

Lindsay Howe × n e w s @ c a p i l a n o c o u r i e r . c o m

CFIA HAS BEEF WITH XL FOODS E. coli outbreak traced back to Alberta factory Connor Thorpe × Staff Writer Canada is undergoing the most extensive food recall in its history after tainted beef infected at least 12 people with E. coli. The source of the outbreak was traced back to the XL Foods factory in Brooks, Alberta, that is responsible for producing one-third of Canada’s beef. Upwards of 1,500 different products sold under a variety of brand names have been recalled thus far.

After the closure of the XL Foods facility on Sept. 27, tensions rose between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and XL management, culminating in the layoff of XL’s entire staff – an aggressive move that prevented the CFIA from completing their investigation.

A statement from the CFIA on Oct. 13 explained that impasse, as well as the progress of the investigation up until that point, and the CFIA’s difficulty in proceeding without the assistance of XL Foods.

“On Friday [Oct. 12] and Saturday [Oct. 13], we oversaw the cutting of carcasses in the plant that had tested negative for E. coli by the CFIA. We need to observe the plant’s E. coli controls in action, so this activity is a critical element in our assessment of the company’s E. coli safeguards,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, the company decided to stop operations after only cutting about half of the carcasses. At this time, we are unable to complete our assessment.”

In a strange turn, XL allowed 800 employees to return to work the following day to assist the CFIA

in completing the investigation. The decision came amidst fears of an extended conflict between the two sides.

“XL Foods staff are back at the plant to continue processing the remaining beef carcasses that are present in the facility and have tested negative

by CFIA for E. coli,” said Tim O’Connor, Media Relations Manager for the CFIA. The results of the investigation are currently unclear, but if the CFIA approves the food safety practices they observe at the facility, XL could have its license reinstated.

“CFIA inspectors are focusing their intensified inspection on a number of areas, including: sanitation equipment, general food hygiene, sampling procedures for E. coli 0157:H7,” O’Connor explained. “It is important for CFIA inspectors to closely observe how plant employees carry out tasks in these areas. For example: Is sanitation equipment working properly? Are plant employees properly sanitizing knives and other equipment between carcasses while deboning?”

At print time there was no schedule for a return to normal operations, should the investigation deem the XL Foods plant to be up to CFIA standards. The CFIA will only make a decision after extensive observation of the food safety practices at the facility during carcass cutting.

“This limited, controlled activity will allow the Agency to monitor and fully assess the facility’s E. coli safeguards in action,” O’Connor continued. “Meat from these carcasses will be subject to testing. No product will go to market until CFIA confirms to the Minister of Agriculture in writing that it is safe to do so.”

The E. coli outbreak in Canada runs parallel to similar outbreaks that have occurred recently in Belfast, North Ireland and in North Carolina.

The situation in Belfast was traced back to one particular restaurant and has affected a confirmed total of 12 people, with the number of suspected cases nearing 60. The North Carolina outbreak infected 21 people who ate at a county fair – and one person, a 2-year-old boy, has died from the illness.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the risks of contracting E. coli are present for all segments of the population, though the symptoms – which include vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps and a slight fever – are more likely to manifest themselves severely in the “very young and the elderly.”

Those infected with E. coli face the possibility of developing a potentially life-threatening condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a kidney and blood disorder which manifests itself through seizures and strokes. Cases like this account for roughly five to 10 per cent of E. coli infections. In some instances, the infection causes lasting kidney problems that can plague sufferers for the remainder of their lives.

A fact sheet on E. coli from the Public Health Agency of Canada notes that the bacteria is easily killed through proper cooking, and encourages consumers to ensure that their meat is cooked to the proper internal temperature. Still, despite the relative ease in preventing E. coli infections, they are prevalent in Canada. On average, 440 cases are reported every year.

To learn more about E. coli and how to prevent it, visit Publichealth.gc.ca.

×× Peter Pawlowski

Ferry Fares Unfair?

BC Ferries seeks to end revenue woes Natalie Corbo

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It has been a tough year for funding in B.C.'s major transportation organizations. As of Oct. 1, the BC Ferries Commission has allowed fares to increase by four per cent per year, to a total of 12 per cent by 2015. Although TransLink’s requested 12.5 per cent fare increase was rejected, it is still possible that commuters could face a 10 per cent increase in 2013 – combined with gas prices, transportation in British Columbia is getting more expensive across the board.

However, as TransLink's ridership has steadily increased over the past decade, putting pressure on an underfunded system, BC Ferries face the opposite problem of steadily declining ridership.

According to BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall, ridership on BC Ferries peaked over 25 years ago, just after Expo happened.

Marshall explains that regardless of ridership, the company has fixed costs to cover, and those costs are increasing. “Back in 2004 the cost of fuel for BC ferries was $50 million, last year we paid $121 million, so that’s one example of how costs escalate, and unfortunately we do have to increase our rates to be able to cover those costs.”

“Nobody likes to see the price of anything increase but I think you have to look at our fixed

costs, and that way people can understand why our rates have to go up,” adds Marshall. Whether people understand or not, a Global BC online poll indicated that 83 per cent of the 664 respondents think the ferries are now too expensive, and they plan to cut down on some or all of their trips.

However, for some, paying the extra costs doesn’t really feel like an optional thing.

“Unfortunately for me, I’m stuck,” says Lauren Sander, who grew up on Vancouver Island but now lives in Metro Vancouver and commutes back and forth regularly to see her family. “We always laugh about it back home and most people from the island just think it’s getting ridiculous, it’s getting unaffordable for people to take the ferry. I mean for myself just for myself and my vehicle is about $67 to go one way.”

Although people like Sander with family or business commitments across the water will con-

tinue riding the ferries regardless of what they cost, Transportation Minister Mary Polak told the CBC that she’s concerned the higher fares will translate into even less ridership, which could lead to more cuts to service. There have already been 98 sailings cut between now and March of 2013. Sander adds that although she will still go to the Island regularly, the increased fares may make her reconsider a brief Friday to Sunday weekend trip.

Marshall corroborates the fact that service levels are under review, saying that the provincial government is “about to go ahead with a public consultation process regarding the future of BC Ferries and service levels.”

With sailings often limited already, Sander says she always makes a reservation to ensure that she’s able to make the ferry, because her vacation time is limited and the ferries fill up fast on long

weekends, with reservations sometimes selling out months in advance. She’s frustrated with the cost of that too, saying “the only thing you get is that you’re paying [an extra] $17.50 to ensure your place on the ferry … and even if I change [the reservation] weeks in advance, it’s another $9 charge to change it, and all you’re doing is giving them the luxury of knowing that the boat is going to be 30 per cent full, potentially.”

Critics have expressed concern with BC Ferries’ handling of its revenues, which come from consumer-paid fares, as well as a government subsidy. In July of this year, long-time member of the BC Ferries Advisory Committee Dennis Forsyth resigned out of frustration with the company executives receiving huge bonuses while ferry users pay more and more.

Forsyth told CBC "The top executives in BC Ferries were behaving hypocritically in taking large bonuses at a time when everybody else in all these small communities is suffering."

Sander wonders as well, “With all this talk about what’s going on with TransLink ... you think it’s the same sort of situation, like are they managing their budget wisely? I don’t know.”

For now, says Sander, “I’m still basically going to go when I want, I’m just going to be displeased that I’m having to pay the money that I’m paying.”

×× Conor Moher

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CFIA HAS BEEF WITH XL FOODS Former CEO of VANOC takes on the Georgia Straight Leah Scheitel × Opinions Editor John Furlong and Laura Robinson may be in for a long legal battle against each other. Furlong has publically stated that he intends to sue the freelance journalist for an article she penned for the Georgia Straight for defamation of character. And if he sues, Robinson has said that she would counter-sue, starting a battle of “he said” vs. “she said.”

The article, published on Sept. 27, states that Furlong lied about coming to Canada in the early 1970s as a missionary and teaching at a residential school in Burns Lake, B.C. The article claims that during his time in Burns Lake, he verbally and physically abused Native students.

The article is backed by eight written affidavits from former students, all swearing that the abuse occurred.

John Furlong, former CEO of VANOC and current executive chair of the Vancouver Whitecaps, furiously denied all the allegations made against him. “I want you to know I categorically deny absolutely any wrongdoing and I believe that the RCMP looking into this matter will discredit the complaint entirely because it did not happen,” Furlong said in a press conference on Sept. 28. Furlong went on to accuse Robinson of “a

shocking lack of diligence” and claims that he was never contacted by Robinson or anyone from the Georgia Straight to clarify the claims against him.

The claims of “lazy journalism” against Robinson are the ones she plans to take action against if Furlong proceeds to take legal action against her, again, for defamation of character.

According to Robinson, she put “months and months” of research into the article: She began researching Furlong’s past in 2009 before the Olympics, but researched more intensively when his 2011 book, Patriot Hearts was released. “I really spent a lot of time once his book came out. I read his book, I used a lot of the information he gave in the book to try and research that information on the Net.” Robinson, who lives in Ontario, ventured to Northern B.C. five times to find more answers on Furlong.

“I spent endless amounts of time. I went to Dublin for five days. I researched all of the newspaper archives, to get his background. I tried to be as absolutely thorough and fair as possible,” she explained, “I don't know how many emails between his publisher and his lawyers I sent, asking politely for these questions to be answered.

To get those 4000 words, I have just done tons of research to do that kind of a good article.”

The accusations on both parties are only three weeks old, so there have been no official suits filed against any of the parties involved. “I think it’s the

same with any legal actions is that you really have to wait beyond the allegations stage because we’re right at the very beginning,” explains John Fairlie, a law professor at Capilano University, “It’s just ‘he said, she said’ at this point, and all of the evidence needs to come out.”

If it does go to trial, it could be years before the public sees the final outcome, and any damages that have to be paid out.

“It really depends on the parties involved,” explains Moira Wong, another law professor at Capilano University, who specializes in tort law. “Sometimes lawsuits can take many years before they finally get to trial, if it goes that far. It depends on what the motives of the parties involved [are], and if they want a quick resolution or if Mr. Furlong wants to stick to his guns and fight it all the way through.”

Robinson and the Georgia Straight may be able to use a new defense against Furlong, provided he decides to pursue legal action. The Responsible Journalism defense, originally from England, can be used to defend the actions of journalists.

“Essentially, it is a defense to reporting factual inaccuracies, if they satisfy certain requirements.

And one of them is to show that they have done their due diligence and reported responsibly,” Wong explained. The defense doesn’t just apply to journalists, but anyone who publishes anything within the public interest.

Fairlie agrees that this defense may be important, as for how much research was done. “It seems like there is going to be a little bit of a battle on the evidence, on that very specific point: how much effort did she make?”

Regardless of the public questioning of her journalistic integrity, Robinson is sticking by her work. “This is a very important piece of journalism. I'm very proud of it, the Georgia Straight is very proud of it,” she said. “I really believe in history being told as close to the truth as you possibly can.”

TAKING THE GUESSWORK OUT OF EATING Capilano students bring food dialogue to the North Shore Lindsay Howe × News Editor

"although it is much easier for people to make better choices while at home , there are very few food choices in the area of our campus,giving our cafeteria somewhat of a monopoly"

The Harvest Thoughtluck is taking place on Oct. 30 from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the CSU lounge in the Library building. Weekly Earthworks Food Club meetings take place Thursdays from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15p.m. in Arbutus 125.

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and sustainable food to campus awareness; by creating this interactive and fun event we will garner attention to some important issues and solutions that we are working on.”

Jung, who has always been interested on the food served on our campus, reinforces this idea of bringing local and sustainable food to campus awareness by asking some tough questions. Jung continued to explain that she wants to know where the food that she is eating on campus came from,

piece of fruit. She notes that not only do we not even know what we are consuming, but we don’t know what effects these chemicals will have on our health in the future.

Although understanding food, and the role all of these potential chemicals play in our bodies can be confusing, Jung sounds upbeat and optimistic when speaking of the future of food at Capilano: saying “Together we, three CFSG co-ordinators and student collaborators, make the EarthWorks Food Club - partnered with the EarthWorks Collective. We are holding a kick-off event to celebrate the joy of eating and to continue a campus-wide dialogue on the topic of food at Capilano.”

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the cultural values around the food and also that it was produced under fair and safe working conditions. Jung believes that Capilano is an example of a “commuter campus,” and although it is much easier for people to make better choices while at home, there are very few food choices in the area of our campus, giving our cafeteria somewhat of a monopoly. Jung wants to see more diversity of food in the cafeteria, including food from various cultures, and other speciality items for those who are gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan.

On e o f Ju n g’s i n s p i r a t i o n s f o r assuming this role as a coordinator is the North Shore’s Edible Garden Project, a project that teaches people how to grow organically and work collectively, and provides the low income residents of the area with locally grown, fresh, organic produce.

This social j u s t i c e aspect of sustainable food is what led Jung to the realization that food should not be taken for granted, and people, no matter what their financial status, should be able to access quality food.

Another food related issue that Jung believes needs to be talked about more often is the idea of chemical pesticides. She believes that these harmful sprays turn food into not only a social justice issue, but also a human rights issue, as we are unaware what we are actually putting into our body when we think we’re doing our body good by eating a

the capilano courier

While many students here at Capilano spent last semester working away on their class assignments and crossing their fingers that summer was on its way, three Capilano students were working on an assignment of a whole different kind. Tiaré Jung, Hannah Deboer and Jory Cadman, all students here at Capilano, were preparing their applications to become the campus food strategy group coordinators for our university.

The Campus Foods Systems Project is an initiative that aims to create a dialogue surrounding food on campus. Jung explains “Ideally, this dialogue involves not only students, but faculty, staff, administration, food businesses/ contractors and community partners in the formation of an inter-disciplinary, multistakeholder Campus Food Strategy Group.”

The Campus Foods Systems Project, although only launched in October 2011 is already working with 10 campuses nationwide to assist students in building upon the capacities of each universities’ individual campus.

Jung notes that the project also helps to “build relationships between the different individuals and groups in their campuses and surrounding communities, procurement practices, and applied student research for the food systems on their campuses and in their regions.”

Becoming the campus food strategy group coordinators for the Campus Foods Systems Project means that the three are able to take big ideas and bring them back home. Jung explains “The Campus Food Systems project refers to the project on a national level. The three of us coordinators are liaisons between what happens on a national level and our school.” The project is run in partnership with the Sierra Youth

Coalition, a youth centre for those concerned about the environment, and Meal Exchange, a non-profit organization that focuses on empowering youth and tackling the issue of hunger.

Aside from the weekly meetings of the EarthWorks food club here at Capilano, Capilano will play host to another upcoming event that deals with these ideas of food dialogue and sustainability. Capilano will be hosting a “Harvest Thoughtluck” next week that is described

by Capilano’s Environmental Issues Coordinator Desiree Wallace as, “It will consist of informational booths, workshops, and of course, food! The collective is working together to bring local

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Columns

Columns Editor ×

JJ Brewis × E d it o r @ c a p i l a n o c o u r i e r . c o m

HE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE

Giles Roy × Columnist

Brought to you by Red Bull

×× Stefan Tosheff

Last Sunday, while many of us were sitting around in our underwear, playing with our cats, debating what breakfast cereal to have and, in some cases, smoking drugs to cure our hangovers, a brave little Austrian man named Felix Baumgartner jumped out of space.

Maybe you heard about it: Baumgartner, a noted BASE jumper (that’s a thing that you can be in 2012) ascended to 24 miles above the Earth’s surface in a newly developed specialized weather balloon, jumped off, and fell freely for almost five minutes before deploying a parachute. In the process, he broke the sound barrier and set three world records, including highest altitude and highest free fall speed. And he survived! Thank you, BASE jump! Sorry.

So mankind wanked its feeble wiener yet again and went on with its Sunday routine. After all, someone surviving a sound barrier-breaking freefall solo carries approximately no practical implications to us common folk. But while I wouldn’t go so far as to call the exercise “useful,” it’s certainly significant, for a number of reasons.

The first reason is because technology has once again reachedStar Trek-levels of awe-inspiration.

Developments like this, in which science fact catches up with science fiction, happen all the time - albeit usually in our cell phones. But the technology behind Baumgartner’s skydive is tru-

GALLERY

ly astonishing. Red Bull’s balloon, for example, had to take Baumgartner over 5000 feet higher than the world altitude record for jet aircraft.

Baumgartner’s pressurized suit itself had to be capable of both protecting him from the speed and providing him with safe oxygen. And everything did exactly what it was supposed to - the leading implication of which is the possibility of Heinlein-esque moonwalking. I mean, one day.

Another reason is that an estimated eight million people watched that shit! That’s not a completely accurate figure, given that it doesn’t even account for people watching it later on YouTube, but it’s a quantifiable whole lot. It shows that people still care about these outer space antics - at least eight million of them - even if they subsequently flooded the Internet with an equal number of snarky tweets.

But the most significant aspect of the whole thing is the fact that NASA (America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in case you forgot) had virtually nothing to do with it. The Red Bull Stratos team funded the whole project independently, and the media did not imply any connections with the space administration.

An unfortunate reason for that is that in February it was announced that NASA’s budget would be cut significantly. Billions of dollars initially penciled in by the Obama administration were seemingly revoked and redistributed, heavily affecting the Planetary Science Division in particular. Bill Nye, science guy and current CEO of the Planetary Society, called the cut “devastating,” as it forced the administration to scramble its priorities.

So while they remain the world’s leading space administration, they’ve been essentially neutered in the most crucial way. And instead of joining

in, NASA watched the space jump in their undies with their cats like the rest of us.

The organization’s nearly silent online stance on the spectacle could probably be construed as jealousy. I mean, if I were NASA, I'd be jealous.

Given their own recent accomplishments (like landing an advanced robot on Mars), I’d probably even be a little bitter about the attention the jump received. Dave Their, for Forbes.com, speculates that “Red Bull isn't in it for the science," which is obviously true. The company’s main goal was to ingrain their presence into the public’s brain, by way of a ridiculous and amazing stunt.

But this is the age we’re heading into, for better or for worse - an age when soft-drink sponsored showmanship-centric science may be about as good as it gets. And that also means the experience was worth it for what it implies about the imagination of the future - because when I watched Felix salute the stars and then jump from them, I got that one feeling. That anything-is-possible, let’s-get-really-juiced-up-and-go-do-stuff sort of feeling. Like how people in the ‘80s felt, when they did drugs.

Giles Roy is trying his best to put modern scientific developments into laymen’s terms for you, the non-science-care-about-er. This makes sense because Giles is about as “lay” as it gets. If you’re a real scientist, cringing at every sentence in this column, he’s dreadfully sorry.

Jillian Aquino × Columnist

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I’ll admit it: walking into a gallery can be intimidating. It’s one thing entering a large public gallery like Vancouver’s, or even one on a smaller scale like the Contemporary Gallery where you can at least blend into a crowd - be it hundreds or even just a handful of gallery-goers. It is a whole other issue walking into a small gallery on a drizzly weekday afternoon only to find it empty aside from staff members, who shoot you a terse “hi” over their shoulder upon entry and then promptly go back to measuring something on a yet-to-befilled white wall.

I went to Or Gallery to see Science Fiction 18: The Future From Memory, a show featuring works by Allison Hrabluik, Emma Kay and Elizabeth Zvonar. A fan of Zvonar’s collage works, I thought I’d pop around the corner after my day job to have a look. According to the Or Gallery website, Science Fiction 18: The Future from Memory is the “18th installment of roughly 88 science fiction-related exhibitions and projects produced by the Or Gallery over a 260-year period.”

Inside the gallery space, the idea of the future is imagined as dark; a dimmed room enhanced only by sparse grey light guides you through the works.

Indeed, in order to ascertain detail in the dark the viewer is compelled to get up close with Zvonar’s collages. In Universal, a disembodied female arm with its graceful hand floats above a rainbow-coloured galaxy. Peering at it, with my face so close to the glass, the message seemed to be that you have to work for what you see - life doesn’t hand it to you so clearly in the future. Apparently there are no labels for art in the future either, which is either frustrating by art reviewer standards or telling of a future in which there are no certainties and where we all must fend for ourselves by Googling when we get home.

There is a slight hum of noise that you hear in the gallery belonging to a piece by Allison Hrabluik. Her work is a video projection of two white flickering screens that shiver against the wall, with a hint of black gradient at the edges. Walking past this work your shadow immediately becomes a part of it and you are silhouetted against the wall.

It is hypnotic seeing yourself lit up and exposed against her piece but the quivering light and unpredictable nature of the work is an anxious experience. Hrabluik’s work acknowledges the uneasiness of not knowing what is to come, with a struggle between light and dark and with all of those who come close to her work becoming a part of it.

Emma Kay’s work seems to reinforce the uncertainty of the future. The Future From Memory is a video work projected against another wall in the gallery and scrolls along quickly upwards in the same manner as Star Wars movie introductions.

Simple black text sentences appear against a white background at the bottom of the screen and then move upwards, growing into paragraphs, then becoming smaller and fading away. Her art deals with individual memory versus official information: the text on the screen is Kay’s own memory of various sources, from scientific to spiritual, and their theories of the future. Filtered through her own mind the text seems disjointed, and when you are at the point of nearly figuring out an idea

the text has left the screen, moving too quickly for any coherent understanding. It is a frustrating piece to look at, but I can’t help but chuckle at the humour in it; the viewer is left inundated with an abundance of words and information but no actual knowledge of what is to come. Evidently, the future is not so far off.

The future, if I’m going by this show, will be a little absurd with a lot of unknowns. Going to see art can feel like this - it isn’t always comfortable and you might not know what you will encounter when you get there, but you will be rewarded with new ideas and information that you would not have had if you had not stepped between those white walls. With this, I push open the door to exit and open my umbrella up to the rain, but not before tossing a “thank you” over my shoulder to the attendant who greeted me at the door.

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Food for thought

Yvette Yardanoff × Columnist

Planning, portioning and portability I love cooking, but I hate meal planning for myself. I prefer to be spontaneous and decide what to eat on the spot. The reality of asking myself, “What do I feel like eating?” when doing a grocery shop is a matter of setting myself up for poor self-care. It’s not easy, but it’s more necessary than we think to pack, plan and prepare our own meals.

Chances are, I'm going to eat a more nutritious meal if I make it myself instead of waiting until I'm hungry and just buying whatever is available in the moment. Far too often what's available simply sucks. Planning ahead is cost effective and ensures that I have more control over quality assurance, rather than relying on pre-made convenience foods with no accessible ingredient list.

Meal planning means I have to get my shit together, as if there isn't already enough to do.

The reward of good wholesome food that I create for myself far outweighs a terrible Subway “sandwich.” What the hell is in their bread anyway? It smells like nothing I have ever encountered in my life. I would rather smell the subway in New York than a soggy Subway “sandwich.” But apparently they do have salad options.

A TIME TO PLAN Things to consider when meal planning: What is my schedule like this week? What's on sale? How

much time can I allot for cooking? How can I best maximize my meal selections in order to get a cross-section of nutrient dense food? Do I have access to a fridge, a toaster oven and or a microwave during my time away from home?

Making your own meals is not only healthier, but it can save you more than you realize. If you can, make your first tea or coffee of the day at home and take one with you. Health stores carry a wide variety of organic teas. Many retailers often sell a high quality organic coffee (I prefer Ethical Bean) for just over $10 a bag. I use a stovetop espresso maker, a Vietnamese phin (stainless steel coffee filter) or a French press to make my coffee, depending on how much time I have and what kind of coffee I'm in the mood for. The stovetop espresso maker is fast. Although I'm not thrilled about using aluminum in the kitchen, the coffee doesn't sit in the vessel for a long period of time.

RACING THE EGG TIMER I find it a challenge guessing how much grub to pack when I know I'm going to be out of the house for the next twelve hours. For me, this means packing two small meals and snacks. Everyone is different. It's important that you figure out what you need.

I favour almonds, nutritious organic sunflower seeds, and you already know I'm nuts about apples. There are so many options with salads;

IN DA HOUSE

rice pasta with marinated artichokes, greens, red peppers, feta or tofu. The combinations are limitless. Selections of fruit; tangerines, grapes and berries are all easy to eat on the go with no cutting required. No matter what your taste, you’ll thank yourself later if you do a big shop to grab all of your preferred snacks for the week. Later on when you’re swamped with obligations, you’ll applaud your foresight when you don’t have to continuously worry about what you’ll be eating through the week.

Sometimes I make one-pot or one-dish meals that I can just let cook on the stove or in the oven while I work at home. I prepare my mise-en-place, assemble the meal and let it cook. This works well for curries, stews, soups, casseroles and lasagna.

Portioning, then freezing or refrigerating meals seems to work best for me.

ON THE GO Some things to consider when packing and porting meals: Scientists have discovered concerns with BPA (Bisphenol A) when storing food in plastic containers. Other alternatives are much safer. I have a couple of Pyrex oven safe dishes; mind you, the lids are plastic. Most of the time, I haul my food around in stainless steel containers (tiffins) or glass jars. Waxed paper is a reliable resource for sandwich packing.

Say I've been out of the house for five hours;

I've had a morning snack and time to eat my unrefrigerated lunch. If I don't have access to a toaster oven or a microwave, I am more than happy to eat a room temperature chana masala (chick pea curry). Eaten this way, chana masala is just one hell of a flavourful bean salad with rice, potatoes or bread. Now, in theory, room temperature food in my backpack might not be a safe food storing practice. Prepared foods should be refrigerated or frozen within two hours. If you're concerned about bacteria and food poisoning, you can get a re-freezable ice pack or make your own by freezing some water in a durable freezer bag. MEC has a take-out cooler bag, which conveniently holds the space equivalent of six aluminum cans.

Before I know it, the bulk of a ridiculously long day has passed, I'm on the bus snacking on the remainder of the day's planned meal; carrot sticks, a nut butter sandwich, fuel to get me in the door. With some time, effort and planning, anyone can work towards improving self-care, making better food choices and saving money too. The real wealth is health.

Yvette Yardanoff has worked in kitchens since her youth and traveled the world enough to know basically everything there is to know about food. From choosing unique ingredients to sitting down with a carefully prepared meal, Yvette believes the entire process is integral to one's happiness.

Samantha Thompson × Columnist

The end of ignorance “It's tough when you're young and getting your life together, to fully know the issues or feel particularly well informed or passionate about politics. Someone shouldn't vote if they don't grasp the subject matter and it is just as important that young people put the pressure on older people to make sure they are informed enough to cast a vote.”

-George Stroumboulopoulos, in Apathy Is Boring

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Liberals are more liberal ×× MILES CHIC with spending but remain just a little left of centre, resulting in some social programs, but not as many as we would expect out of their leftist neighbours, the socialist NDP; and the Greens are all about the e n v i ro n m e n t . R i g h t ?

Not necessarily.

Each of these parties have had previous policies or platforms that do not exactly line up with their stereotyped reputation: the Tories introduced tax station on campus where huge groups of students credits for families looking to put their children were lining up to cast their vote. The Conservatives in arts programs, the Liberals voted to include heard this was happening and filed a complaint with ending the prohibition of marijuana in their party Elections Canada, arguing that the polling platform, the NDP pledged to keep corporate tax station was not in line with election policy. Although breaks competitive with the U.S. during the 2011 there were some minor errors, they were the fault election, and the Greens’ economic policy of the Elections Officer, and not the students, so includes a desire to lessen dependency on trade Elections Canada deemed the votes valid. Drama aside, the fact that the Conservatives were suddenly with the U.S. Sure, things aren’t exactly what they seem, but all about preserving democracy (yeah, what?) could this is why you owe it to yourself to learn the suggest that maybe they really don’t want students issues. We’re all tired of people pulling the hood to vote. Mercer’s message to youth continued, as he over our eyes just because they think we’re “too reminded young voters that if “you want to scare young to get it” or that we’re “apathetic and can’t the hell out of the people that run this country, this time around do the unexpected… vote.” be bothered.” Let’s prove them wrong.

We have to remember that an informed Last year, Rick Mercer released one of his rants that specifically spoke to young voters, electorate is an electorate worth paying attention telling them to get out and vote in the 2011 federal to. When we learn the issues for ourselves, we election – and people listened. Groups of young shout a message loud and clear: we’re a force to be voters launched “vote mobs” to encourage the reckoned with. youth to the polls. As part of this movement, the University of Guelph had a special ballot polling

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Growing up, I longed for the day when I would turn 18. While others were looking forward to it because they’d be able to buy porn and go drinking in Alberta, I was excited because it would mean I was old enough to vote.

When the day finally arrived, I expected some kind of big to-do. Maybe a “First-Time Voter” button, or at least a family dinner? But alas, there was nothing – my parents went and voted hours before I was even awake, so I was left to trudge up to the polling station by myself. Shaking with nerves, I handed over my driver’s license, grasped my ballot with sweaty palms, and went over to a cardboard shield. I read over the instructions three times, voted carefully and officially cast my ballot.

And just like that, it was over.

I emerged into the sunlight feeling as though I’d just been through some crazy initiation process, texted everyone I knew to tell them the news, and then went home to watch Gossip Girl re-runs.

Although losing my voting virginity was obviously a big deal for me, the stats suggest I’m kind of an anomaly. In 2008, 59.1 per cent of Canadians voted in the election, with 55.9 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 saying they cast a ballot. In 2011, there was a 61.4 per cent voter turnout, with 28 per cent of eligible voters stating that they didn’t vote because they weren’t interested in voting,

according to Statistics Canada.

It is accepted that youth are the least likely demographic to cast a ballot (in fact, Elections Canada has taken special action just to encourage us), but across the country little more than half of the population actually votes – which speaks volumes in and of itself.

I’m all for getting Canadians to vote – after all, it’s an integral part of a democracy (not voting is also a choice you get to make in this system), but I wish people choosing to vote would take the time to learn about the candidates. I have met so many people in my political life who simply vote for a party because their parents do, and there is no reason for it. We’re all busy, but let me tell you – having a family with members who know their political shit makes dinners all the more entertaining. I should know – the day I told my dad that I wouldn’t be voting for the party he and most of my family have been supporting their whole lives, he “joked” about excommunicating me. When he realized that wasn’t going to work, he offered to set up dinners with all his MP friends, and me, in an effort to convert me. It was a great time in my life, because it forced me to learn the issues of all the parties so that I could back-up my decision, and now our regular debates are much more exciting than any Harper-Mulcair exchange.

(If this sounds absolutely terrifying to you, don’t panic: chances are this kind of stuff is unique to my family tree.)

If we are going to vote, we need to make sure that we’re informed about the issues each of the party represents. Sure, they all have their predetermined reputations (in some cases, they’re painfully obvious): Conservatives are conservative – with spending and with policy;

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arts

arts Editor ×

Celina kurz × a r t s @ c a p i l a n o c o u r i e r . c o m

WIDE AWAKE AND DREAMING Copenhagen’s Indians evokes musical fantasies JJ Brewis × Editor-in-Chief “Music is one thing humans have in common; we all need it, and we all enjoy it. It helps people to dream, and it wakes feelings inside the body that you haven't felt before or for a while. It’s magic.”

For Copenhagen’s Søren Løkke Juul, musical awakening has been a lifelong process, but it’s only recently that he’s struck out on his own to deliver his own brand of soft ambient electronica that he calls Indians.

Juul began as a keyboardist and backing vocalist in various bands a decade ago. “I got lots of experience of working hard with different projects and people. It’s been a journey,” he explains.

But eventually, the need to break free got to Juul. “It was too safe of a feeling for me going onstage as a keyboard player in the background,” he explains. “I was actually a bit frustrated ‘cause I didn't feel the music anymore, so I quit the band and started writing my own songs. I decided to challenge myself, to get the love for music back.”

The escape from his old musical outlets was a refreshing turn for Juul, one that he made without any clear image of what was next. “I didn't have any idea of a concept or a sound, though I made one rule: not to buy any new equipment, I had to

recorded [on] my phone,” he says. “Usually I have keep it simple and use what I already had.”

Recording with his synth, electro piano and an idea of what I want to do, and it turns out comdrumpads, Juul formed a new entity under the pletely different [than] what I first had in mind.”

He cites his Denmark home for “[affecting] moniker of Indians. Juul only performed his first concert as Indians earlier this year, and released the music in the sense [that we have] lots of dark his debut single “Magic Kids” in April without nights and rain, so I spend lots of time inside, making music, with a warm cup any real plans of where the of coffee.” The songs themselves project would take him. “I didn't certainly seep with an intensely have any thoughts of doing an personal aura, like the recently album,” he says. “I never tried to released “Cakelakers”, which be the lead singer before, and I adds an understated guitar to wasn't even sure if I was going to Juul’s setup. like to be the front man.”

To commemorate his deal He explains, “I was shaking with 4AD, Indians released a before going on stage, but the live performance video filmed second we entered the stage, in three locations in Osea Isand I could feel the audience, I land in the UK. A press release knew that this was going to be states, “The starting point for special.” The performance led to ×× Katie So the performance was embracing opening spots for Bear in Heaven, Lower Dens, and Beirut. And now, with only the challenge of playing, recording and filming a 7” single to his credit, Juul has been signed to outside, placing the music into a vast open space, London’s 4AD Records, home of Bon Iver and The under sky and near water.”

But it’s live performance that Juul finds most National, among others.

The lack of direction and clarity at the start of satisfying about the project. While it can be “overthis leg of his musical journey is, in a way, mirrored whelming,” he says, “Playing live and sharing the in his song writing. “All the songs have a different music with people is very important to me.”

This spring, Indians made his Vancouver debut approach. Some songs started with a sound on the keyboard, others as a little peace of a melody in a big way, opening for Beirut at the Orpheum

Theatre. He actually chose this show as one of his career highlights so far. “It might sound cheesy, [but] playing at the Orpheum Theatre, opening for Beirut in your town was really special,” he professes. “The venue was so beautiful, and people were so nice. I could feel the connection though I was far away on a big stage.”

For Indians, a bedroom art project became a means of sharing his work and leads to a world of social interaction. “There isn't a lot of screaming and crying yet,” he jokes, but “I really enjoy talking to people after a show, and the reaction is very important to me. I spend a lot of time on my own in the studio and on the road and I feel privileged to have the chance to meet people from different cities all around the world.”

Juul sees his music as a chance to reinterpret his childhood dichotomies of fables and fantasy. “I tell stories,” he says. “The songs [are] about what I see and experience.” The balance of life and fantasy is apparent in his jangly ethereal songs, but also translates to his thought process. “Since I was a little boy, I always used music to let things out,” he says. “Music is fantasy but also [an] opportunity to capture the moment of thoughts and feelings.”

Indians opens for Other Lives at The Electric Owl on Oct. 26.

Indians’ debut Somewhere Else will be available Jan. 29 2013.

TAKING A CHANCE ON COMMUNITY Strathcona’s monument to the printed page Connor Thorpe

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The STAG Library isn’t hidden - there’s a sign out front on the quiet block of East Pender in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood. Still, pushing through the metal gate, past private entrances and into the clearing in which the house sits evokes the feeling of discovery that is too often fleeting in adulthood.

“Our library is in the living room of our home, which itself is a coach house in a residential neighbourhood. It’s neither intentionally secret nor especially public – it definitely doesn’t follow the logic of publicity that says you need to get as many people’s attention as possible,” says Gabriel Saloman, who curates the STAG Library with Aja Rose Bond. The pair welcome visitors and members of the library into their home every Sunday from 12 p.m to 5 p.m. “The effect is that people have to make a choice to come visit that involves stepping into ‘private property’, in a sense trespassing, which we’ve been convinced is a terrible crime.”

“That anxiety is transformed for most people once they’ve stepped into our home and realize that they’re welcome, even if they’re a stranger,” Saloman explains. “This is one of the most important meanings of our project: to blur the lines between private and public; to re-stage our domestic space as a partial commons.”

After a roommate of Saloman and Bond’s moved out of the home on East Pender, the pair found themselves with an abundance of space –

and with it, an abundance of possibilities.

“We almost defaulted to getting another roommate, but when we stopped to consider, we realized we were really excited about the possibilities contained within an empty room,” Bond says of the initial incarnation of the STAG. “We packed our library and furniture into one half of the living/dining room and the other half we opened as a gallery/residency/project space which we called the STAG (Strathcona Art Gallery).”

The STAG operated in this capacity for around a year, until Saloman collected his belongings from his parents' house in the San Francisco Bay area. Bond says that the bounty they came home with represented the impetus for the shift to a full-blown library.

“We drove a cargo van down and literally filled it to the top with all [Saloman’s] records, books, 'zines, comics and CDs that he hadn’t seen since moving up to Canada a few years back,” Bond explains. “When we got home and unpacked all these treasures, we found that our library – which was already pretty extensive – had doubled. In order to have it all out and accessible, we had to take over what had been the exhibition space in the STAG.” The STAG Library continues to offer the residencies that were standard during its formative years. Primarily, Bond and Saloman offer a workspace, full access to library and “the incentive of creating a small run publication with the resources we can funnel from the membership fees we collect, plus whatever [the residents] want to contribute.”

“We are open to a lot of different things

happening in the space, as long as the event is conceived with the STAG’s values and limitations in mind,” Bond elaborates. “Sometimes people write to us with ideas that sound awesome, but are obviously not a good fit for the space, so we really encourage people to come by and see the space for themselves before they pitch something to us.”

The contents of the library fill almost the entirety of the living room. They are arranged on shelves, tucked carefully into boxes or held gently in the hands of a visitor.

“The STAG Library represents our own personal collection which has been built for well over a decade, through many moves and a few purges. That said, anyone who starts their own library will soon find that people of all types are really excited to donate materials,” Saloman says. “A lot of people hold onto old collections of things because they know that they are valuable to someone or for some reason. They want these collections to be useful and to be used.”

Despite the sheer mass of Saloman and Bond’s collection, there is still space to socialize. It’s a place to get lost in, but it’s also a place to share discussions over coffee with Saloman, Bond or anyone else that happens to wander in on that particular day.

“The world we want to live in involves more trust and generosity than the world we find out in the everyday of Vancouver, and this isn’t something we can abide,” Saloman says. “It’s up to everyone as individuals to collectively take risks and attempt to change our common culture by their own actions. Opening our domestic space and lending our private belongings feels risky, but

if it can work it becomes a model for how others can also begin dismantling the walls and armour we erect all the time in order to protect ourselves from each other.”

“So if there is a philosophy behind this project, it is a type of radical hospitality,” he continues.

Becoming a member of the STAG Library is as simple as paying the one-time, $10 fee and providing Saloman or Bond with some basic contact information. STAG membership grants lending privileges, though Saloman concedes that the criteria for what in the library is available for lending and what is strictly reference isn’t set in stone.

“We’re very upfront that this is an arbitrary process,” he says. “It is completely up to us and dependent on a few variables: how expensive, rare or irreplaceable the material is; how well we know the member who is borrowing the material; whether the material is something we might need for our own personal reference in the foreseeable future. Somewhere in the balance of those three criteria we decide whether to lend material out.”

When questioned on the impact of the STAG Library on Vancouver’s community of artists, musicians and writers, Bond remains humble.

“We offer what we have,” she says. “We do what we can.”

Learn more about the STAG Library at Thestaglibrary.tumblr.com or drop by on Sundays from 12 p.m. and 5 p.m .

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SOMETHING EVIL'S LURKING IN THE DARK Public Dreams celebrates 17 years of Parade of Lost Souls Lauren Gargiulo × Writer With Halloween coming, people start looking at the mystic, magic and the evil in myths, fairy tales, and costume stores, as they’re getting ready for the 31st. However, for some cultures, the supernatural is more of a spiritual calling than dressing up like a provocative witch and going bobbing for apples.

For those wanting to tap into the more spiritual side of Halloween, the Parade of Lost Souls is a good choice.

The Parade of Lost Souls was first organized in 1995 by Public Dreams Society founders Paula Jardine and Dolly Hopkins. Inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead ceremonies, the Parade of Lost Souls is a two-week festival in which participants can attend workshops, a dance party, and the main attraction: the parade itself, called the Secret Souls Walk.

Public Dreams Society “is a charitable organization that strengthens communities, neighbourhoods and cities in the Lower Mainland by inspiring creativity in everyday life,” explains creative director Azfir. If being a part of Public Dreams and their events seems like fun, they welcome new volunteers every year: “Public Dreams needs its volunteers as part of our community-based drive.

It’s lots of fun, and you get to meet a variety of people,” Azfir says.

While the parade has, in the past, been a more large-scale event, in recent years they have scaled it down. Azfir explains, “The Parade became incredibly successful and at its peak was seeing more than 60,000 participants. As the event grew, it became more and more difficult to produce and so in 2010, Public Dreams decided to take it back to its roots as a small community event.”

This year’s theme of the Parade of Lost Souls is “Beyond the End of Time, A New Beginning”, which celebrates the “transition from one age to the creation of a new one,” according to their website.

The actual parade isn’t the only way to get involved: starting Oct. 17 and ending on Oct. 27, Public Dreams will be holding workshops for those who wish to walk in the Secret Souls Walk.

The workshops aim to help participants, allowing people to create characters, build décor pieces, and learn choreography and vocal routines for the walk. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with professional actors, dancers, singers and designers, plus it’s lots of fun, and really brings a sense of community to people with similar interests,” read their website. Some of the workshops offered include Vulture Puppet Creation, Improvised Song and Music, and Spirit Creatures: Stilting and Performance.

However, if you are just into watching the spectacle that Public Dreams creates, there are two events to attend, both on Oct. 27. First is the Secret Souls Walk, which takes place in East Vancouver at a secret location, which will be revealed on Public Dreams’ website, Facebook page, and Twitter on Oct. 27 at 12:01 a.m. The parade is by donation, with all proceeds going towards production of next year’s parade, and starts at 5:30 p.m. Part of this year’s parade will be a dance to Michael Jackson's “Thriller” (for the third year in a row), the choreography for which can be learned in one of the workshops.

The Lost Souls Dance Party, the second event, starts at 9 p.m. and is taking place at the Rickshaw Theatre.

If you want to try something different from the Halloween you’re used to, the Parade of Lost Souls is definitely be something worth checking out - and maybe even taking part in, next year.

All information about the Parade of Lost Souls can be found at Publicdreams.org.

×× Shannon Elliott

FALLING FOR LOCAL FOOD farmers markets keep local edibles available through winter Tiaré Jung × Writer

A directory of all the market websites in Greater Vancouver can be found at Gvrd.com/farmersmarkets/index.html, and the Vancouver Farmers Market Association can be found at Eatlocal.org.

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at $2.49 per pound.” By Klipperstein’s assessment, the bright orange sale stickers or weekly specials cannot be compared as fair pricing. “Loss leaders in the grocery store might be on special, but they are actually selling below the wholesale cost to get people in the door.”

The farmers market may actually be the better option for those with a limited budget, such as students, who want to try a variety of fresh edibles that have not been genetically modified or sprayed with synthetic chemicals. “Going to the market is a weekly ritual and an experience that makes me feel in touch with my food,” says Al Faktor, a BCIT student shopping at the Trout Lake Farmers Market. “I would say you have to shop strategically and what is in peak season.”

With this in mind, Faktor gets almost all of their produce and bread at the market, spending about $25, while finding the other essentials from the grocery store. “There was a mini-market at BCIT and that was a good idea!” recalls Faktor. “I think more small markets like that would make local organic food more accessible to students.”

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“Though it seems almost ridiculous to contemplate, acquiring groceries in the past meant you’d give a shopkeeper a list of items and quantities you wished to purchase,” writes Jennifer Cockrall-King in her book, Food and the City. She describes four generations ago when the general store was a dry goods store, fresh produce came from a central city market, and fresh meat came from a butcher’s shop or a butcher stall at the market.

Nowadays, the average supermarket shopper makes 1.7 trips to the supermarket per week, according to the Food Marketing Institute. And yet Kevin Klippenstien, farmer with Klipper’s Organics and vendor with the Vancouver Farmers Market Society, expects up to 2000 people will come through his produce stand in a day.

Along their way, they may also encounter quinoa flour bread, rosemary, gluten-free cupcakes with chocolate swirly icing, hazelnuts raw or roasted, freshly brewed chai tea, pottery dishes, homemade deodorant and hand-sewn dolls.

The Vancouver Farmers Market Society (VFMS) offers an alternative to the fluorescently lit, linoleum-floored aisles of the grocery store.

Wanderers are serenaded by accordions and ukuleles and offered tasters of everything from homemade lime-chipotle hummus to biodynamic pears. Cyclists may park their wheels in the bicycle valet and residents without organics pick-up drop of their food scraps for a donation of two dollars.

The VFMS hosts six neighbourhood markets across the city to spread the bounty of the spring, summer and fall. In the winter, the least prolific growing season, these markets centralize in the Vancouver Winter Farmers Market as of Nov. 3. Other seasonal markets also pop up, peddling their Christmas crafts and edibles. If

breads, muffins, cookies and other pastries tickle your fancy you can find these - including vegan and gluten-free options - at the Bakers Market hosted at the Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre.

“The difference,” says Klippenstien, “between buying things at the market [from buying them at the store] is that you’re getting it from someone who actually knows the product so you can ask questions, and you’re getting it fresh as well.”

Klippenstien says diversity makes apples one of his favourite winter crops. “We have about 20 different varieties of apples. If you want sweet, tart, crunchy, soft - we pretty much have it.” This family-owned farm has been selling at Vancouver farmers markets for 10 years. Their produce is harvested just before the market and sold at the market, whereas produce for grocery stores is picked green and goes through a distribution centre before making it to the shelves. Winter crops sold at the market also store well: lots of apples, squash, onions, beets and carrots.

Oyster mushrooms, white mushrooms and shitake mushrooms are some of the varieties offered by Jill Owen at the Richmond Specialty Mushrooms at the Trout Lake Farmers Market and the Winter Farmers Market. Mushroom spores are cultivated indoors on compost or sawdust with controlled humidity, air and light, independent of the season. “We’re just a small operation - we grow our mushrooms on shipping containers on a small plot of land,” says Owen. “We act as a broker for other companies. For the market we’re called a co-op. You couldn’t just sell oyster or shitake [mushrooms], people want variety; which is why we’ve formed a co-op with other certified organic mushroom growers.”

The price of these options compared to other grocery stores, according to Klipperstien, is actually cheaper for the fresher product.

“Heirloom tomatoes at the store were between $5 and $8 per pound and we’re $3.99 per pound.

Organic apples were $3.99 per pound, and we’re

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arts

arts Editor ×

arts WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA Grimes flies high in kooky set

By JJ Brewis, Editor-in-Chief So much has been written about Grimes. Basically Vancouver’s biggest musical export this decade, Claire Boucher has created an entire alternate universe in which the aesthetics of ‘90s pop culture collide with Illuminati symbols, stoner iconography and basically anything else you could think of that is textbook “weirdo.” Sonically, she’s created a legion of followers with her strange brew of experimental dream pop and neo-electronica.

With a stage decorated in plush Totoro toys and an abundance of floral displays, it was apparent from the start that this would not be your typical Commodore show. Grimes is every bit the child at heart that she sounds like when she squeakily opens her mouth. “I’m from Vancouver, so it’s really exciting to be home!” she professed, with a smile on her face so endearing it was hard not to feel her excitement. She’s done well for herself, creating her own niche and running with it. It’s also admirable to see a local musician become so acclaimed who you’re not embarrassed to say is from your town (sorry, Kroeger).

Excitedly jamming behind her turntable setup, Grimes was a portrait of punky peppy joy, bouncing in her oversized Marilyn Manson t-shirt and shaking her tall ponytail the entire set. Essentially providing an extended remix of her 2012

breakout release Visions, the crowd was on her side the whole time. Even though she was essentially stuck behind her equipment during the whole performance, Grimes has enough stage presence to make it work.

“I just gotta say, it smells reallly good in here,” Grimes chirped, referring to the massive cloud of pot smoke filling the Commodore that could have given Snoop Dogg (Lion? Whatever.) a run for his money. The evening was essentially a stoner’s paradise; with blissed out thumpy beats juxtaposing Grimes’ airy vocals, the shift of which was best displayed on her Pitchfork-praised single “Oblivion”.

After a while, a lot of the material started to sound very similar, but Grimes was so entertaining to watch that it didn’t matter. With two backing vocalists dressed first in plastic Death Eater-esque ponchos, and later on in neon skeleton suits, Grimes was in wacky, but good company. She made sure to be the star of the show, encapsulating the spirit of not only her influences, but her own now-iconic entity.

Celina kurz × a r t s @ c a p i l a n o c o u r i e r . c o m

shorts PLANT TOUCH THIS Local stage group brings cult classic to life... and death

By JJ Brewis, Editor-in-Chief I hate those reviews where the writer just talks about how cool the person they saw was, and how they wish that they could be as cool as that person, and how their enjoyment of the show was so high that they actually make you jealous for not attending said show.

Sadly for most of you, this is one of those reviews. Luckily for me, I was present for Nick Waterhouse’s flawless set at the Biltmore last Tuesday. The night was every ounce an occasion of sweat, pressed white-collared shirts, and the illusion of stepping back in a musical jukebox time machine to the likes of Motown and Stax.

Those unfamiliar with Waterhouse’s work may have been shocked to see a scrawny white guy with oversized spectacles oozing with sheer unbridled passion and R&B/soul talent.

“This is a song about a girl who used to pull out a vacuum and put on Roy Orbison records and pretend we weren’t having problems,” Waterhouse told the crowd before playing “Raina”, a lovelorn ballad complete with doo-wop girl group-style backup vocalists, low slung sax solos, and a slick confident frontman in Waterhouse who walked around like he owned the place, in the best way possible.

“Raina”, like most of the material off Waterhouse’s 2012 debut Time’s All Gone, drips with sincerity and legitimacy—this is not some 25-year-old white kid from California. Well, actually, it is. But Waterhouse has done his homework in his genres, and has clearly learned the rules before changing the game: though his songs at first sound like revisits of a well-loved era, he puts enough of himself to switch it up and make the sound his own.

Most of the tracks clock in barely over three minutes, filled with quick punchy horn arrangements, tambourines, and a core marinated in a mix of bossanova, soul and pre-rock. This sounds and looks every bit authentically analog as possible for a room filled with photo-snapping iPhones. But Waterhouse’s songs about shitty relationships, causing a ruckus (“Trouble”), and life’s unexpected shitty deals (“I Can Only Give You Everything”) add a new dimension of personality that move beyond the realm of influences and into the camp of boy genius.

Waterhouse keeps the downtime raw with humour; after “Time’s All Gone”, he pleaded with the crowd, “Aw man, that’s all I get for that!? I practically saw blood spraying out of George’s saxophone!”

So, luckily for you, you’ve now heard about Nick Waterhouse, and you probably want to download or buy his music so that the next time he rolls to town, you’ll be there sweating buckets and drowning in sound with me.

PLANT TOUCH T HIS Local stage group brings cult classic to life ... and death JJ Brewis

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× Editor-in-Chief

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Musical theatre isn't everyone's thing. Such was the case for local director Ryan Mooney before he realized the world wasn't all about out-dated golden-age shows. In 2007, Mooney started his own musical theatre company for which he is now Artistic Director, Fighting Chance Productions: "At that time no one was really doing rock musicals or sort of edgy plays. It just sort of evolved from there. Now we do a full five show season. We've been very busy."

Following their successful productions of Grey Gardens, Sweeney Todd, and The Wiz, Fighting Chance have taken on the cult classic Little Shop of Horrors as their 26th production, which has opened to critical acclaim. Horrors has gained a massive following over the years as both a play and film, based on a plot about a man-eating plant who both encourages and petrifies its owner to keep feeding it human flesh.

The show sees Melissa Clark, a graduate of Capilano's musical theatre program in the female lead as Audrey. Clark believes her history as a Capilano student was the key to where she is today: "Auditioning for the musical theatre program was one of

the best decisions I ever made. I learned from the best and made friends for life. I left the program feeling ready to enter the acting/performance industry and start working."

The key to Little Shop, says Mooney, is mostly in the music-driven plot. "All the music is done by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who did all the music for Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin for Disney," says Mooney. "They know how to write a good song. It's a fun, quirky story with amazingly catchy music."

While many musical theatre tales deal with stereotypical love stories, Little Shop takes on a different archetype, says Mooney. "[Little Shop] is such a funny take on the Faust story, which is essentially making a deal with the devil. The devil is, in this case, a man-eating plant. It's just about selling your soul, with a fun take on that with amazingly catchy music." Clark agrees that the odd subject matter makes for great stage fodder. "The concept of a man-eating plant is so over the top, but that's this show," she says. "Doing this show is like being in a comic book or ‘B’ movie. It's so much fun and the audience has fun too."

In creating an intimate atmosphere to bring the audience closer to the stage (and the aforementioned man-eating plant), Mooney and his team chose the Jericho Arts Centre to create a tight bond between cast and crowd. "There [are] only

120 seats so it's really quite intimate. You feel like you're sort of right there in the middle of it. It's nice when you can have it in a small venue and make people feel like they're right there with you."

Though the show has been around for years and Mooney says, "You can't really change a lot with the show," a few changes add a new air of fun to an already delightful script. Generally the show is set in the 1980s, but in this version Mooney has gone for a vintage 1950s take. A few character nuances add a new flair as well: "My character Audrey is a sweet, vintage pin-up type who has had a rough go in life," says Clark. "My version of Audrey is a little inspired by Marilyn Monroe, but still with a New York edge. I have tried to keep her as lovable as ever."

But for Mooney, the biggest surprise and change may be for those familiar with the film, who are used to the script's specific turn of events, which differ on stage. "The biggest difference is in the ending of the show," he says. Will the audience members be snapped up by the giant plant? You'll have to show up to see.

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FEATURES KEEPING IT LOCAL Features Editor ×

NATALIE CORBO

× s p e c i a l f e at u r e s . c a p c o u r i e r @ g m a i l . c o m

A look at the B.C. brewing scene Alan O’Doherty × Writer

Tree Brewing Company

Founded in the 1950s and ever popular for its respectable alcohol content and budget price, Cariboo is likely to be a familiar sight to anyone who lives in Vancouver and isn’t paid in wheelbarrows filled with gold. Despite referring to themselves as a microbrew, Cariboo are too big of an operation to qualify these days. However, their brews are a rare sight outside of B.C., despite the brand’s ubiquitous presence throughout the province. It’s now also available in a more aesthetically pleasing bottled form, but it’s unlikely that anyone who fetches a six-pack of Cariboo is doing it out of unfettered desire.

Enough history and posturing, though – how does it taste?

From the wilds of Kelowna comes the Tree Brewing Company. Despite having only been around since 1996, and giving a fairly inane spiel about why they’re named “Tree” (it’s because there are lots of trees in B.C. – who knew!), they are putting out some damn tasty beers. Those who appreciate teenage boy-level humour will most likely know these folks for their Thirsty Beaver amber ale, but they also offer a lager, IPA, pale ale and pilsner.

Their real strength though has been in their seasonal beers.

Cariboo Genuine Draft The workhorse beer of every student’s fridge, the driving force behind every house party and ill-conceived extreme-sports challenge, these green cans are a familiar sight at every morning after the night before. It’s light, fizzy, inoffensive when it comes to flavour and frankly it’s never going to rock the world, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If it’s a reliable lager you’re after, that won’t leave you needing a second mortgage or require you put away a whole six-pack to get a little buzzed, then you could certainly do a lot worse than Genuine Draft.

Vertical Winter Ale As the days get shorter and God has a crack at inducing a second global flood, starting with Vancouver, Vertical Winter Ale can offer a small consolation. Available in bottles only, and a wee bit on the pricey side, it’s worth the investment for a DVD and sofa night-in, or as a reward for walking home in one of our regular monsoons.

It tastes and smells like an Innis and Gunn – vanilla, caramel and other kinds of loveliness are all crammed in. If I had to raise one quibble it would be to see a slightly stronger brew in a winter beer - vertical Winter Ale is five per cent alcohol by volume which is perfectly respectable, but it’d be nice to have something a little fiercer to ward off the winter chill.

Dead Frog Cheeky upstarts Dead Frog have been operating in Aldergrove since 2006, fronted by beer-happy couple Derrick and Donna Smith. 2008 was a busy year for the brewers with a move to a new, larger facility, the beginning of their bottling line, and a legal battle over bottle shape with Sleeman breweries. Despite these legal troubles, Dead Frog went on to pick up trophies at the Canadian brewing awards in 2009 and again in 2011, and even expanded outside their home province into Alberta in 2010. For a young’un, Dead Frog certainly seems to be making headway in the brewing world.

Pale Ale I often find Pale Ales are a good measure to size up a brewery – more interesting than a lager without veering into the potential over-complicated world of Imperial Stouts or Fruit Fusion Beers. Dead Frog’s offering is nice to look at -- a hazy light brown with a creamy white head with a citrus-y smell. The taste is on the fruity side with a grainy undertone. Not too fizzy but still enough going on to give a nice mouthfeel. I’m a fan of this one – I’m

not certain I’d consider it a one-off treat, but I may just have found myself a new session beer.

R and B Brewing Billing themselves as “Vancouver’s Local Microbrewery”, R&B have been bucking the trend of big, faceless corporate breweries with a small location in East Van and a staff of seven to 10 brewers, depending on the season. R&B make a point of using as much local produce as possible in their brews. Rick Dellow (the R in R and B) explains that, “B.C. is great for local fruit, also things like Chanterelle mushrooms, bacon and some fresh hops for our casks. We’re going to be introducing a cherry brown ale for Bitter Tasting Room using local cherries, and we’re planning a beer to celebrate the end of the world called Apocalypto, brewed with a nod to the Mayan style and using roasted corn. My background is in English brewing but we try to draw on as many styles as possible.”

Review Dark Star Oatmeal Stout It’s a shame that most casual drinkers never get further into the world of stout than an overindulgence of Guinness on St Patrick’s Day, as they’re missing out on some fabulous treats.

Dark Star Oatmeal isn’t the prettiest beer I’ve ever seen (think coffee mixed with chocolate milk and no sign of the pretty creamy head you’ll find on a Guinness) but lean in for a sniff and there’s oaty, chocolatey goodness to be had. It’s the same when you taste it, with a heavy body and hardly any carbonation. You’re unlikely to sink a bottle of this at a house party, but as a follow-up to dinner when you’ve had some kind of roasted animal with potatoes, it’s awesome.

Up and up from here With a newly announced craft beer mega-pub planned for Vancouver’s historic Salt Building in the Olympic Village, craft brewing continues to gain momentum. But has B.C. got any more tricks up its beer-soaked sleeve, and does the province have any lesser known brewing traditions to draw on in order to stand out from the crowd? Rick Green thinks so: “Brewers here, like elsewhere in North America, are experimenting in ways unimaginable 10 years ago, unthinkable in Europe.

Who would have thought IPAs and pumpkin ales would be so popular? Barrel-aged beer? Sour beer?

And though the Asian community really hasn't had much influence on brewing in B.C., there have been experimental beers with ginger, ginseng, and tea that lend themselves very well to pairing with Asian food. A handful of Vancouver establishments - like Balilicious, Mae Nam, Vij's, and Wild Rice - do offer examples of what is possible when the choice of beer to offer is more driven by a restaurant's menu.”

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With a healthy population of tourists, hipsters and snow-sport junkies, it’s not a surprise that Vancouver is becoming a hotspot for the world of craft beer. Hopheads are increasingly favouring local brews over big brands with microbreweries being responsible for 6.4 per cent of beer sales in March 2007 and shooting to 12.7 per cent as of March 2011. Vancouver is rife with brewpubs and microbreweries churning out some interesting (and delicious) concoctions, and events like Vancouver Craft Beer Week are helping to spread the word about brewing in B.C. to the rest of Canada - and beyond. While success can likely be attributed to quality, the question is, what took so long?

Despite Granville Island, founded in 1984, laying claim to being Vancouver’s first microbrewery, it wasn’t until the 21st century that the B.C. craft beer market started building serious momentum.

Rick Green, president of Vancouver Craft Beer Week, thinks the problem might be in the motivation early brewers had for getting into the industry. “With the initial surge in popularity of craft beer with the launch of Horseshoe Bay, Spinnakers, Granville Island, and Island Pacific (Vancouver Island) in the early ‘80s, a number of parties got into the industry for the business opportunity, not because they had any particular passion for good beer,” he says. “Some were in over their heads. Others were risk-averse, preferring to let the market drive their businesses at a time when the market lacked knowledge about beer.”

So far, B.C. beers are seeing a surge in popularity within their home market, but it is not yet expanding further afield. “Until recently, very little of our craft beer made it beyond B.C., since our brewers have been challenged just keeping up with the exploding local demand,” says Green. He warns that there are some obstacles to seeing B.C. brews turning up on liquor store shelves outside of the province. “There is certainly a lot of room for expansion. You only need to look at Seattle, Portland, or San Diego to see where things could go. Whether or not we get there is another question - the current provincial government doesn't really seem to be that interested in facilitating this, like they did with our wine industry. I hope that changes. The market potential for B.C. craft beer definitely extends beyond the province.”

But for those who lack the civic-mindedness to have already taken a healthy interest in getting buzzed off of local brews, where should the journey into B.C. brewing begin?

Cariboo

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FEATURES

Features Editor ×

NATALIE CORBO

× s p e c i a l f e at u r e s . c a p c o u r i e r @ g m a i l . c o m

MONEY DOESN’T GROW ON TREES How the economy affects the dirty student tree planter Leah Scheitel

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×× dave mcansh

How does this sound: You wake up at 6:00 a.m. in a cold, damp tent to put on disgusting, dirt-laden leggings that have more holes in them than a slice of Swiss cheese. You drag your ass up and out of bed to the cook tent, where you encounter a herd of dozens of other dirty people, all stuffing their faces with enough food to satisfy a never-ending appetite. Loading your boots, bags, shovel, and water into the back of a crummy pick-up truck, you stuff yourself between two other people and a dog in the backseat to drive to the cut block. You stumble out of the truck to at your piece of land to plant for the day, but the cache is not set up yet, so you have to wait another 20 minutes for the foreman to drop everyone else off before he can give you the baby seedling that you are going to

put in the ground. When the trees come, you load 300 trees into your giant hip bags, which put an extra 50 pounds on your hips. Then you walk through raw ground, littered with sticks, rocks, and cow feces, taking three steps and planting a tree, and you do it again, and again…

About 2,000 times that day: bend over, plant a tree, repeat.

Tough Work Tree planting has been described as one of the more difficult jobs in Canada. Planters work in downpours of rain, in 35 degree blazing sun, in sleet and wind, while battling millions of mosquitoes and black flies. It’s like taking a 10-hour hike, everyday, with 50 extra

pounds on your hips. A tree planter literally bends over for pennies, making anywhere from 9 to 30 cents per tree planted. Because it is piecework, the planter’s pay is entirely dependent on how hard they work. The more trees planted, the bigger the paycheque. This is why it is a popular summer job for post-secondary students: They can plant all summer, and have the chance to make enough money to pay for school. But the reforestation industry suffered the effects of the 2008 economic blowout, and according to a recent article published in the Prince George Citizen, there has been a 30 per cent wage decrease for the average tree planter in the past five years.

John Betts, the executive director of the Western Silvicultural Contractors Association is

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quoted in the Prince George Citizen series, saying: "Our workers are working at rates we were paying back in 2000 or earlier and we know what the costs of inflation have been. That makes it difficult for contractors to compete in the market.”

There are many companies competing for the licenses to various contracts. The licensees, usually the mills responsible for replanting the logs they cut, are like any other business - they try to keep the costs of this as low as possible, which can create bid wars between companies.

“It's to the advantage of licensees to keep prices as low as they can and the problem we're all going to face now is with pressure to keep costs down, the industry works literally on the backs of the employees. We haven't been keeping up with the wages they need to earn and deserve, given how hard they work.”

Betts states that due to a combination of the lowered price per tree and the increased cost of living, the current wage for planters is 30 per cent less than it was a decade ago.

Trees + Tuition

As another side effect of the economic spiral, companies started to out-bid each other, continually accepting prices for their work that were lower than ever.

“There are two types of contracts,” says Maxwell, “There are open contracts, which are open to any bids, and then there’s direct award, which doesn’t get any bid at all.”

When companies started to get desperate for work, they started lowering their bid prices to win the contract over their competition. British Columbia Timber Service (BCTS) is the main contractor that kept pushing for lower bid prices.

“I think a huge precedent was set by BCTS. They’re cutting corners and cutting dollars,” explains Maxwell. “It’s common practice for anyone taking a bid to take second lowest bid – never the lowest bid. And that always kept people from going ‘Fuck these guys, let’s cut it in half just to get the work.’ You had to have some integrity. It kept people playing fair.”

Low bidding companies became a problem for ethical reasons. In 2011, the Surrey-based reforestation company, Khaira Enterprises, faced legal trouble for hiring immigrant workers, and paying them a fraction of what the ground was worth so they could under bid the competition and win the contract. The only contracts they had were awarded to them by BCTS. The conditions got so dismal that 28 workers had to be rescued from their remote location, 40km outside of Golden. The planters were living in camp with no running water or toilet facilities, and paying camp costs of $25 per day to eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches for breakfast and unrefrigerated chicken for dinner.

Although the government stepped in and helped rescue the workers, it was a branch of the government that started it. As Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair pointed out to the Tyee: “They were working for British Columbians, in their forests, under a government contract.”

Maxwell, who works as a foreman for Seneca, a company based out of Prince George, remembers the effect that Khiara’s low bidding had on the industry.

“They started bringing in all these immigrants, they were bidding on all these contracts and even classic low bidders were getting holes shot in their bids by these guys. And everyone was like ‘how the fuck can they do this?’”

The 2011 Final Summit Report for the WSCA stated that the nation-wide coverage of the debacle

When you plant trees, you become a member of a strange tribe; once you’ve been a planter, you’ll always empathize with others who do it. Old planters meet each other in the city, and there is a sense of camaraderie, like no one else will exactly understand what they’ve gone through, or what it’s like to be out there, in the middle of nowhere, replenishing a once-thriving forest. It’s not the most glamorous job, and the people who endure the long days know that. But when the pay reflects how hard the work is, it makes up for the lack of glamour.

“What is planting when you’re not drinking single malt scotch with your friends, and eating at fine restaurants and not thinking about it?” Facto jokes, “Why else do we go to the bush, but to live in the lap of luxury?”

As long as forests are being logged, there will be the need for workers to replant them. The industry needs to start climbing the cycle again to make it attractive to the people who put on the dirty leggings, stuff their feet into the boots, put on the bags, and bend over time and time again for pennies.

"You don't have first year apprentices out building houses. It shouldn't be acceptable in any industry really, where quality is an issue."

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The overall economic trend is that the silviculture industry goes in cycles.

“It’s kind of cyclical for five to 10-year cycles, from what I can understand,” says Clark. Because of the economic crunch that apexed in 2010, many veteran workers gave away their shovels and bags, and retired from planting for good, leaving many companies with little choice but to hire rookies.

Clark noticed, “Industry wide, I would say that definitely the number of people that come back to planting, the number of vets, is down a bit. Over the last several years, retention rates are down since the 2000s.”

The WSCA reported, “The availability of trained and competent workers has steadily decreased over the past several years, both in terms of recruitment of new workers and retention of experienced workers.” This point was noted as one of the key challenges that the “current depressed market” is facing.

“Rookies aren’t putting in numbers. It’s the hardest work you can do,” Facto commented.

New tree planters face a large learning curve.

In their first year, some planters are lucky to walk away with any profit, after paying for travel expenses and beer costs. A first-year planter that Maxwell worked with actually ended up owing the company money for the cost of equipment and bar tab.

New planters are primarily recruited through word-of-mouth. They hear about it from their friends who plant, so when the industry took a turn for the worst, people who many have been curious about it were probably turned off from the negative year.

“Once the industry started to fall apart in 2008-09, which was directly a result of the economy going into the toilet,” explains Clark, “[new planters] were hearing stories from people in the camp that were saying that there was less work than there was last year, and the prices aren’t as good. So you get two years of declining prices

Bid Wars

at Khiara Enterprises had a negative impact on the industry. “It is hard to estimate just how many workers this has kept away from the sector and how much it has undermined public confidence in forestry,” said the report. “British Columbia has some of the best silviculture employment regulations, camp standards and worker safety programs in Canada, if not the world.” Due to licensees’ constant drive to cut costs, the camp and safety standards were compromised, tainting the reputation of the industry in the midst of an economic downturn.

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The Cycles of Planting

and shorter seasons, and - it’s not just the vets but also the rookies - everyone just kind of gets the impression that it’s really shitty in the industry.”

The problem for the forests is that with a higher ratio of less experienced planters, the trees may not be going into the ground properly, and this is something that concerns foreman and forestry officials.

“It’s absolutely paramount,” says Maxwell of having experienced planters on his crew. “It’s no different than any trade. You need experienced people. You don’t have first year apprentices out building houses. It shouldn’t be acceptable in any industry really, where quality is an issue.”

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The price decline has a huge effect on students who plant to pay for their education.

“It’s a big source of income for people who only have a couple months to work,” says Kris Maxwell, a crew boss and former planter. “You start chewing that down, while raising tuition, and there you go: hello student loans.”

Students who planted to subsidize an education in the 2000s were able to do so without heavy student loans, but that may not be as easy to do anymore.

“I never worked a second job in university,” explained Jeff Facto, a tree planter who graduated from university in 2011. “Just one winter I had to get another job. It was actually after my first season tree planting. I just didn’t make any money that year so I worked at Chapters for a bit. I had to plant for my spending money. Everything between rent and my going out and that.”

The decline of university students is a trend that the WSCA noticed. “Education costs have matched the drastically inflationary trends of fuel.

This means that with declining planting prices and the irregularities of seasonal work, our university work pool is drying up as they look for other ways to work away at their debts,” read the WSCA’s 2011 Summit Report on the State of the B.C. Silviculture Sector.

The forestry industry felt the effect of the 2008 economic crash in a hard way. Almost every aspect of the industry floundered, from the closing of small-town mills across the province to the number of trees available to plant. According to a 2008 article in the Vancouver Sun, B.C.’s forestry industry was bruised hard by the downturn in the American economy because they buy two—thirds of our timber exports.

“Owing to a combination of negative factors, logging contractors and lumber producers all across B.C. are struggling with the worst economic conditions in several decades,” the article stated.

This crunch also affected planters because not only were the prices down, but the number of days in a season was decreased, meaning less overall income for a season of planting.

Jonathon Clark is a veteran bush worker and runs the website Replant.ca, which is dedicated solely to informing planters about the industry.

He has worked in some capacity in the bush since 1990, either as a tree planter, crew foreman, or contract supervisor. “I know that 2007 was the peak year for the 2000s. I think that year, my camp at Folklore did about 74 days, and then we dropped down [in] 2008 [and] 2009 to 58 days. 2010 was our worst year, and we were down to 49.”

Using these numbers, and assuming a planter makes about $250 per day, in 2007 they would have pocketed $18,500 for a summer’s worth of work. In 2010, given the cut in working days, that same planter would make $12,250 -- a loss of $6,250.

Clark saw the prices drop first hand. “At their worst, they went down 25 per cent. Say we were on a contract in Prince George or in Northern Alberta, where it’s really easy, flat land with no slash, raw ground would have been 12 and a half cents five years ago, and it got to the point where it was 10 cents a tree.”

“Last year, at [Folklore], we saw it starting to come back up. We saw a lot of 11 cent trees … it’s still down 20 per cent from where it was five years ago, and in the mean time tuition prices have gone up, beer has gone up, food’s gone up.”

Clark believes that the situation could be looked at in an optimistic manner. “On one hand, you could look at it and say that the industry is doing terrible because it was 20 to 30 per cent less than it was five years ago, or you could look at it from the optimistic side and say that it’s coming back from where it was two years ago.”

And optimism is something that everyone in the industry is hoping for. According to the WSCA website, 2013 may be one of the longest seasons since the mid-’90s. “As many as 260 million seedlings may be planted to restock government and industry projects across B.C.,” said a statement from Sept. 18, 2012. “This is up approximately 20 million from this year. But the rising demand for planting is raising concerns about whether there will be enough planters next year to match the demand.”

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OPINIONS

Opinions Editor ×

Leah Scheitel

× opinions@capilanocourier.com

I READ IT SOMEWHERE The dangers of satire in journalism Peter Warkentin × Writer Famed art historian Bernard Berenson, who lived from 1865 to 1959, once said, “You can parody and make fun of almost anything, but that does not turn the universe into a caricature.”

However, the proliferation of satiric news websites and social media sharing is creating a world where that may not necessarily hold true.

On Sept. 28, an Iranian journalism organization, the Fars News Agency, published an article titled “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama.” According to their website, Fars is “Iran's leading independent news agency,” but Western news organizations state that the agency is a semi-official source that has ties to the Iranian government. Fars has a history of publishing falsified news stories, including a fake pro-Iran interview with Egyptian president Mohammed Mursi. However, rather than just blatantly fabricated propaganda, this recent article, which states that many U.S. citizens would rather spend time with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. President Barack Obama, was actually a word-for-word duplicate of an article released on Sept. 24 by The Onion, an American satire news publisher.

Sites like Theonion.com produce outrageously fake news stories, intended as humorous political satire, but present them as factual information, often leading to confusion among readers.

This parody is aided by realistic writing styles

and convincing website design, which, if one does not look too carefully at, can easily be accepted as legitimate.

Pe o p l e believe these articles are authentic more often that you’d think; one website, aptly named Literally Unbelievable, posts p e o p l e ’s Facebook reactions to Onion articles they think are true.

If you think the only people who believe these stories are hardheaded conservative hicks, you couldn’t be more wrong. Anyone can be taken in by a fake publication, especially if it aligns with their existing political views. A recent article published by satire news website The Daily Currant, exaggerating Michelle Bachmann’s anti-Muslim tendencies with false quotes and a hatred for falafels spread like wildfire across social media platforms and by word of mouth.

The people who circulated this story were educated, intelligent people, who were simply fed inaccurate information.

While many articles published by satire websites are obviously false - profanity and poorlyaltered images are a dead giveaway - an increasing amount are becoming more and more difficult to discern from legitimate news stories. Links to real organizations and sources are included in some

×× Alex harvey wickens

articles, and the Daily Currant even included a convincingly fabricated image of a fake tweet in a recent article. This article quotes Bill Nye issuing a scientific challenge to Republican Congressman Todd Akin, who made some controversial and scientifically inaccurate statements about “legitimate rape.” This article was widely popularized on Facebook and Twitter as genuine, and was followed by another satire site, Super Official News, publishing a false article in which Akin accepts the challenge. Five days later, this second article was quoted in the Portland Examiner as a genuine news story.

The fact that a respectable news organization, which is trusted by its readers to provide them accurate information, published such an article

is scary and alarming.

The need for legitimate information is especially pertinent as political events like the U.S. presidential election are so close at hand. Like official news sources, satire sites are quick to jump on such divisive topics, and fake articles are often used by people to justify their views and sway their peers’ opinions. As the current sphere of information becomes more and more crowded with stories, both true and false, it is important to look at the reasons why satire sites publish their content.

While it is pretty clear that the intentions of The Onion are focused on humour and social commentary, other sites have much more ambiguous goals. Super Official News, for example, publishes a mixture of real news stories and sardonic parody, often including both in a single article. Are sites like this intentionally trying to trick readers, and to what end? Is it ethical for these sites to continue producing this kind of content?

The answer isn’t a simple one. We cannot stop sources like Super Official News and the Daily Currant from continuing to release articles, but we shouldn’t just turn into apathetic, all-doubting shut-ins. As a society, we must be more cautious when we read articles on the Internet, and be mindful to look into the sources of the information we are consuming. If we do not put effort into finding the truth, we risk letting ourselves be swayed politically or ideologically. We cannot allow for our world to become a caricature.

LET'S BE BLUNT ABOUT THIS Drugs and Celebrities are not cool together Victoria Fawkes × Writer

JJ Brewis

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Lohan. Sheen. Downey. Jr.: All members of the elite club of celebrity drug addicts that we love to watch traipse along the rocky and drama-rich road of drug abuse. Most of the celebrities that have been caught red-handed using drugs have never taken sincere or repentant responsibility for their actions, and never suffered serious, negative consequences for something that non-celebrities are arrested for every day. Not only that, but the masses continually admire celebrities that are famous for their bounces from addiction, to sobriety, and back again. Celebrity icons like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston all died as a result of drugs, yet have continued to garner legions of adoring fans and immortalization on episodes of Glee after their deaths. Keith Richards’ face looks like a leather couch in a frat house because of his years of negligent drug use, and it’s likely he will always be worshipped as a rock god.

Just glance around: drugs are in schools, on the streets, and more than anything, in the media. But the difference between the narcotics on the streets and the ones seen glamourized by the media is that the drugs in the media are associated with money, gorgeous people and the glory of fame. Since drugs have such a long and infamous history in the world

of celebrity and pop culture, it is now an accepted aspect of the lifestyle of the rich and famous, something that all the episodes of Celebrity Rehab with Doctor Drew in the world can’t fix.

Celebrities doing drugs is an attractive thing.

It has this stigma of mystery and grace, and epitomizes the rock and roll energy that has intrigued everyone from groupies to Perez Hilton.

However, the bitter reality for the majority of us who do not enjoy the free passes fame provides is that non-celebrities are quick to suffer the consequences when charged with drug-related crimes.

In Amy, My Daughter, Mitch Winehouse chronicles his tragic and famous daughter Amy Winehouse’s battles with multiple substances. It is unbelievable to think that just years ago, Amy was on top of the world, winning Grammys and breaking records. But her very public romance with crack cocaine and heroin proved to be a massive destruction. Though alcohol was ruled to be her official cause of death, Mitch explains that years of drug abuse deteriorated her body to a point of no return. Yet when she was alive, she would perform live in front of crowds blitzed out of her mind, while her crowds would both celebrate her for her public messiness, and scrutinize her for what was actually an issue of being an on-paper disease of addiction.

Recently Rolling Stone published an article about controversial Internet celebrity, and all around bad boy, Hunter Moore. Running alongside the article was a photo of Moore snorting cocaine with a cap-

tion reading “Up all night: Moore doing coke at a New York club.” The photo and the caption tread the waters of casual conduct, displaying drug use as a benign part of life that we’re all supposed to accept without batting an eyelash. But by showing an entertainer casually snorting cocaine within the pages of a magazine, Rolling Stone makes all illegal drugs seem like a casual recreational activity devoid of consequences, instead of a crime.

The worst part about glorifying drugs is that it doesn't force us to talk about their harmful effects. It would be one thing if photos of drugs came with a surgeon’s general warning about all of the side effects, like ads for pharmasutical drugs do.

Sure, they show the happy people who are better off by taking Prozac, but they also come with a small novel about all the damages that the drug could potentially do. Cocaine and heroine can do similar damage, but with no warning labels to inform people of exactly how screwed up they can make a user.

To portray drugs as a casual activity without consequences for celebrities is wrong, as it sure as hell isn’t acceptable in the eyes of the law for those of us who aren’t famous. Just ask Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, Whitney’s daughter who not only had to deal with the unglamorous reality of losing a parent while in her teens, but also grew up seeing her parent’s turbulent and drug-fueled relationship splashed across tabloids weekly. Despite the fact that her substances often dictated Whitney Houston’s ups and downs, her triumphs are what people are choosing to hold onto. But that doesn’t

change the fact that these vices are what ended up being her downfall.

The media shouldn’t show drugs in a casual manner. It makes them appear cool, and the harsh reality of drugs is that they are anything but.

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JUST-IN THE NICK OF TIME What Trudeau’s leadership bid really means for Canada Samantha Thompson × Copy Editor Justin Trudeau. The name alone elicits a whole range of emotions for Canadians – pride, excitement, arousal. He’s the amicable man who goes to Comic-Con “for his kids,” who stands up for youth programs, and brings a certain level of wit and charm to the House of Commons.

Although Justin Trudeau has long been acknowledged as one of the most attractive MPs in the House at present, he’s also been working hard to prove that he’s more than just about good looks. “Let’s look at what people have to say and not how nice their hair is,” he said in a recent Globe and Mail article.

Joking aside, the fact that Trudeau has chosen now as his time to announce his leadership bid speaks volumes about where the world of Canadian politics stands. Son of a man who was arguably one of Canada’s most beloved prime ministers (Pierre Trudeau), many Canadians have been begging him to run for leadership since he first became an MP for Papineau in 2008. When their dream came true a couple of weeks ago, Trudeau’s supporters exploded in fits of joy.

That’s not to say Trudeau doesn’t have his

foes – in fact, he has plenty. Critics say that he lacks experience, he is riding on the coattails of his father’s legacy, and that he cannot speak without eventually letting something slip that sends the media into frenzy. Although some of these criticisms are justified, the polls tell us that Trudeau has actually seized the opportune moment to announce his leadership bid.

It’s no secret that the Liberal party is in a state of rebuilding. The outcome of the last election surprised people across the political spectrum – no one believed that the Liberals would lose

×× ARin Ringwald

that badly. But they did, Michael Ignatieff resigned, Bob Rae was elected interim leader (until an official leadership race could be called), and since then the party has been finding its footing. This is the first reason Trudeau has chosen this leadership race over others to enter: the veteran Liberals do not have an advantage, because many in the party are uncertain whether or not they want to put their faith in those associated with the “old” Liberals. In June 2012, Ipsos Reid released a poll, which reported that 56 per cent of Canadians believed the Liberal Party of Canada to be a “party of the past.” This works in Trudeau’s advantage because he is running on a platform of renewal and of bringing Canadians together to create a nation they can be proud of again.

“Be a part of the change,” he has written at the top of his very suave, recently launched website, Justin.ca (with which he is emphasizing that he wants a level of intimacy and connection with voters that is unheard of with some of the other federal parties).

The second, and most important, reason that Trudeau has chosen this race to run in is because of a recent policy change in the Liberal party. For the first time in Canadian history, people will be able to vote for a party’s leader without actually being an official “member” of the party. This is monumental because normally citizens would have to officially register as a party member, and pay a minimal membership fee (typically ranging from $5 to $30, depending on the party). However, the Liberals have created a new category, where you can sign up as a “party supporter” for free – people simply give them their name and email, are added to the Supporters Registry, and suddenly they have voting privileges for the leadership race. This is vital to Trudeau’s success because he has held the popular vote for a long time – and now, any Canadian who is not a member of another federal party can vote directly

for him in the leadership race. In late September, the National Post reported that if Trudeau was the leader of the Liberals, 39 per cent of those surveyed would vote for the party, allowing them to win the election (the Conservatives under Harper came in at 32 per cent, and the NDP with Mulcair had 20 per cent). The most recent poll since Trudeau officially announced his leadership showed that if an election was held today, Liberals would get 30.1 per cent of the vote, the Tories would get 33.3 per cent, and the NDP, 27.9 per cent. Canadians made it obvious that they really do love Justin Trudeau.

The best thing about Trudeau deciding to run for Liberal leader is that it opens up Canadian politics for so much potential excitement. There is the chance that he will lose, and there will be a big upset. There is a chance that he will win, and the House of Commons may see a new party in power. But best of all, Trudeau is the kind of politician that actually attracts people to politics – and more specifically, Canadian youth. Certainly, there are MPs who advocate for youth, but Trudeau does it all the time. He demands post-secondary funding, he was rightly outraged that Katimavik had its funding cut, and he actually takes the time to go to events specifically held for young Canadian voters. He knows that statistically speaking, people aged 18-25 tend not to vote – but he wants to talk to them anyway, which is an effort that makes him stand out amongst other MPs. The Liberal leadership race will have more than one candidate, and it will be an exciting race to watch. But because of Trudeau, more people will be paying attention. He’s not just running for the leadership of the Liberals. His campaign is all about taking Canada back from the Conservatives, and turning it into a country Canadians are proud of. It is clear that this race is an important precursor to the next federal election, where, if successful in his bid for leadership, he will then take on Stephen Harper – and actually stand a chance at winning.

EVERY BODY'S GOT SOMEBODY Lady Gaga starts a conversation about body image Celina Kurz × Arts Editor

specialist counselors and psychologists, while in high demand, can be found.

Blackhorse describes recovery as “a lot of falling down and getting back up. A lot of crying and swearing and then calming down and taking another big step forward.” The conversation that Lady Gaga has initiated will hopefully motivate people who are struggling with eating disorders to get the help they need. But perhaps more importantly, it will get our society as a whole talking about the reasons behind these illnesses and making efforts to make our communities safer places, through the images we perpetrate and the language and ideas we use around food and our bodies. Ultimately, this problem needs to be dealt with at the root, and that root lies deep in the heart of our culture. * Name has been changed

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live in a culture that cares about physical appearance above and beyond all else and you'd be hard pressed to go a day without somebody commenting on your appearance in one way or another.”

“While I was trying to recover, my mother and her friends were all doing Weight Watchers and so would blather on about how many points were in things right in front of me,” she continues, which highlights not only a commonness of our obsession with food and dieting, but also how negatively this attitude can affect us. When food restriction is treated as the main aspect of being healthy, it can seriously warp our relationship with food and our bodies.

Most intensive recovery programs require a referral; even getting the correct counselling requires a referral. One example of an intensive program is Vista, a publically funded program that has found some success since it started 17 years ago. It’s a three-month live-in program where clients live in a house that is staffed by nurses, counsellors, and care workers who specialize in eating disorders. According to Mary Spoto, an employee at Vista, “A very small percentage of our clients return for a second time.” Vista only has 10 beds, and the only other comparable program is on Galliano Island, and hosts 10 partially publically funded beds.

Several Anorexic/Bulimic Anonymous groups, which are support groups run with philosophies similar to those found in Alcoholics Anonymous, also run in Vancouver. Other groups are run out of facilities such as Vancouver Coastal Health, and

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“Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15,” reads the caption on a photograph of Lady Gaga wearing only her underwear. The picture, which she posted on her website LittleMonsters.com, has spawned a dialogue on the forums of the website, with thousands of her fans (who call themselves “little monsters”) posting their own pictures which expose their body insecurities, from weight to scars to physical disabilities. The movement has been dubbed Gaga’s “body revolution” and has people talking about our society’s obsession with image and the body in what could be a new way.

Western society’s obsession with body and image is not a fresh or new topic. It’s obvious from just looking at a magazine stand in any grocery store; the covers are plastered with messages of how to obtain a “healthy” body weight (“Lose Twenty Pounds Fast!”) and pictures of celebrities either being praised for their beauty or slammed for their failure to maintain it.

On Gaga’s website, many of the people posting images of themselves, often in their underwear, include captions detailing their issues with accepting their bodies. “Fighting every day against anorexia and bulimia because I have to love my body and love myself,” reads one. Another: “When you don’t like who you are, sometimes it’s easier to focus on

what you can control in your world, rather than what you can’t.”

These messages toe the line between being inspirational and depressing. While it’s great that Gaga has gotten her “monsters” to open up about their disorders, eating disorder recovery is a long and difficult process that varies between each individual, and almost always requires professional help. Unfortunately, a “like” on a picture from a favourite celebrity is not a quick fix for a complex disorder like anorexia or bulimia - although it is excellent positive reinforcement. An online forum is a good place to start, but many of these people need to find support in their families and communities.

Zelda Blackhorse* has struggled with bulimia and anorexia for over three years and effective treatment has been difficult to find. “The greatest obstacle in getting support for an eating disorder is probably just how misunderstood they are,” she explains. “A lot of nurses treated me like I was refusing to eat in the same way as a kid throwing a tantrum.” This attitude is not uncommon - the idea that people with eating disorders “just need to eat a cheeseburger” is something that shows up in media all too often.

The fact that we value thinness so highly doesn’t help either: “One side is telling you to just start eating and stop being ridiculous, [while] the other side is praising you for how thin you are and openly expressing their envy. That's hard,” she says. “We

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× Staff Editorial ×

WELL I GUESS THIS IS GROWING UP Celina Kurz × Arts Editor

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This is just me talking about a bunch of my feelings; this isn’t even all of them. In my head I literally, actually thought of myself as a 16-yearold. No more than two weeks ago I started sobbing while watching My So-Called Life because I related so deeply to the trials of the 15-year-old protagonist Angela Chase. My go-to albums when I wanna chill out include Blink-182’s Enema of the State and Avril Lavigne’s Let Go. Also, I go to jazz school, which is basically like high school except everyone is a band nerd and it’s 900 per cent more fun. The only discernable difference between who I am now and my 16-year-old self that I can think of is that my acne might actually be worse (that’s what happens when you stop taking birth control, apparently).

But let’s be real: that’s a lovely idea and a thing I love saying, but I’ve learned a lot and grown considerably since I was a teenager. Looking to my past, some of the fears I have overcome include, but are not limited to: wearing jeans for the first time (grade 8), talking to a boy I had a crush on (grade 10), wearing makeup (grade 9), not wearing any makeup (summer 2012), kissing a boy (grade 11), auditioning for jazz school (grade 12),

breaking up with my boyfriend of three and a half that’s not something that I can do,” is the fact that years (autumn 2011), and singing songs about my where you are is just so comfortable, and you’re a real feelings in front of both friends and strangers little scared to jump outside of your safety zone. (summer 2012). There’s a little potpourri of my Part one is where you call yourself out for being a personal achievements. baby, but in a gentle way because it’s silly to beat Basically, I look at life as a series of freaky yourself up. things that I have to do even though This is they freak me out, because otherwise I almost as might as well be a stupid bug. Right? difficult as Part And depending on how I’m feeling, Two, which is getting out of bed and taking a shower actually figurcan be as big a challenge as professing ing out how to a true crush via text message. do it. My part What I’m leading up to is that at the two initially beginning of the month I came to the was perfect: six realization that I need to move out. wonderful peoAlthough I love my parents, I’m ple that I know getting to the age where I’m tired just moved of getting calls at 12:30 a.m asking into a beauti×× Celina Kurz where I am and reminding me that I ful three-story have homework I should be doing. I’m also tired house on St. Catherine’s and 13th - and they had of concealing my tattoo and various other things an extra room. The combination of how rad the six that they would not necessarily be cool with. people are and their actual need for an extra roommate was what, in fact, helped me realize I needed to move out. However, I think I might need to tatTAKING STEPS too “nothing is ever perfect” backwards on my face Part One of making a decision is realizing you to remind me each time I look in a mirror (which have to do it. Basically this is the part where you is all the time because I am very beautiful and love realize the only thing that is making you go, “Oh, looking at my face) that nothing is ever perfect.

The house is infested with bedbugs and there is very little chance that it’s going to be un-bugged by Nov. 1, which is when I was planning on moving out. And while I do believe, as I said before, that doing freaky things is vitally important to growing up, I also believe that a little bit of self-preservation is key as well. I also believe that bugs are gross, and what if they get into the food? Oh my god gross gross gross - what if they crawl into my mouth!?

So. The situation is somewhat uncertain, but I’m fairly certain I’m going to have to wait longer than a month to move out. I’m extremely lucky in that I don’t actually have any serious problems in my home other than “my mom thinks my hair is dumb,” but it’s still frustrating to have to put my life on hold - especially just because of bugs!

But maybe this is a True Life Lesson. Maybe the bugs are a metaphor for all the small things in life that you are going to constantly have to fight against to get exactly what you want and to live a life that is as close to accurate as you believe you deserve, and the bugs range in size from tiny to super disgustingly huge. And maybe they will get in your mouth sometimes, but you just have to keep spitting them out. And when the house finally gets fumigated, or you find a new house, you’ll be a better homeowner because you’ll know how to avoid bugs.

work for the capilano courier story meetings every tuesday maple 122

capilanocourier.com come visit & we will dance and larp.

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cap calendar

Calendar@ c a p i l a n o c o u r i e r . c o m

Contact us to have your event featured in the calendar monday OCT. 22 CELINA’S SISTER’S BIRTHDAY Celina’s sister’s name is Emily and it’s her birthday today! I hear she likes cake and parties so if you see her make sure you give her both of those things! I love people who love birthdays and everyone should celebrate birthdays all the time!

All day, everywhere. Cost of birthday celebration stuff.

FIREHALL ARTS’ CHELSEA HOTEL Chelsea Hotel tells the tale of a writer checking into the infamous hotel, in an effort to find inspiration for his next song. Wading through his past, he tries to find the right words to cure love’s pain. Best of all, the whole thing is set to Leonard Cohen’s classic, emotive songs.

8 p.m., Firehall Arts Centre. $27/$22.

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB Okay so do you guys remember how I said I loved English indie groups? Yeah, still do, and Bombay Bicycle Club is a great example.

They’re adorable, humble, and have a sound that makes you want to cry because it’s so beautiful.

8 p.m., Commodore Ballroom. $25.

tuesday oct. 23 COURIER STORY MEETING If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that making friends on campus is hard. But if you come to Courier story meetings, you’ll have a sweet hang-out sesh, and make some sweet cash.

Noon, Maple 122. Make money get paid.

MAYER HAWTHORNE Leah loves this guy so much. She describes his music as “funky sexy time!” Mayer isn’t his real first name but I personally think it’s pretty awesome. His music will transport you to the magical land of California!

8pm Commodore $36

wednesday oct. 24 HEART OF THE CITY FESTIVAL Arguably one of the best festivals in the city, Heart of the City showcases the rich and diverse communities in the Downtown Eastside. It includes everything from music and poetry, to history walks and theatre.

Runs until Nov. 4. Various times and locations.

Free/by donation/pay what you can.

TAYLOR SWIFT’S NEW ALBUM LISTENING PARTY You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this album. Seriously. First, I thought it came out two weeks ago, and then last Friday, and each time I’ve been HORRIBLY DISAPPOINTED. But not today! Today I am going to have a 24-7 listening party with all my BFFs. All day, Sam’s house. Cost of deluxe CD.

PUMPKIN PIE DAY Recently we did an office poll and it turns out most people here at the Courier like pie better than cake. Not me though! I’m a cake person 110 per cent. The only exception is pumpkin pie, because it’s delicious.

All day, everywhere. Cost of tasty pie.

Thursday oct. 25 VPL BOOKSALE (ON UNTIL SUNDAY) As well as pumpkin pie, I also really like books – and the VPL book sale is legitimately the best place to get some. Be careful though – some serious book hunters go there and stake out their territory and it’s terrifying. So just be prepared. Runs until Oct. 28. Various times, Central VPL branch.

Cost of great books!

A TOMB WITH A VIEW This sounds like a terrifying piece of theatre, which is perfect for the week before Halloween – it takes place in a creepy library with a mad-eyed old man and his creepy family.

And apparently it has a surprising conclusion!

Runs until Nov. 3.

8 p.m., 1398 Cartwright St. $18/$14.

CSU AGM The Capilano Students’ Union is having their Annual General Meeting! Come vote on motions, all of which are very important!

Get to know your CSU executive and grill them on hot topics! Eat the free vegetarian lunch!

11:30 a.m., CSU Library Lounge. Free.

Friday oct. 26 OTHER LIVES WITH INDIANS Other Lives is a sweet folk band whose members are very passionate about music. It’s pretty beautiful. Indians, their opener, is also super awesome. We have a whole story about him in this week's arts section.

8 p.m., Electric Owl. $16.

CRYSTAL CASTLES One time my friend Wesley put some music on my iPod and one of the albums belonged to these guys. And it was totally unlike anything I’d ever heard before but I loved it anyway. Be forewarned – their shows have a reputation for being a little cray-cray.

8 p.m., Commodore Ballroom. $61.

LUCIANA SOUZA WITH “A” BAND AND NITECAP Souza is a Grammy-award winning vocalist from Brazil, and she’s performing with some of our favourite Capilano jazz acts! Her voice has been described by DownBeat Magazine as “warm and inquisitive.”

8 p.m., NSCU Centre. $32/$29.

STOMP IT OFF! SWING DANCE Get your swing dance on! I don’t know what that means but it sounds like it would be super awesome! There’s a drop-in lesson, and then the actual event which has been described as “Vancouver’s premier swing dance event.”

7:30 p.m., Royal Canadian Legion #179. $13/$20.

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LAST ANNUAL ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW If you’re a fan of toast throwing, dancing, and time warps, make sure you get down to the Ridge Theatre for the LAST EVER screening of Rocky Horror (today and on Oct. 31)!

Don’t delay! It’s super sad because I think the Ridge is probably going to be turned into condos or something similar.

Midnight, the Ridge Theatre. $13.

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JIM BYRNES CD RELEASE PARTY Byrnes has been a Vancouverite since the ‘70s, and creates music that is a Juno-winning combo of blues and rock. Fun fact: he voiced some characters in Sonic the Hedgehog!

8 p.m., Electric Owl. $25/$27.

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SUNday sept. 28 MATT AND KIM AND OBERHOFER This duo is really cute because they’re a couple! And they love making music!

Oberhofer is also awesome, but Letterman hates them for some reason! But he’s an old loser so who cares.

8 p.m., the Commodore. $33.

the capilano courier

Saturday oct. 27

FIVE SHORT FILMS ON LITTLE MOUNTAIN HOUSING Little Mountain Housing is nearing the eviction of its last tenants, and this film screening will feature five films by David Vaisbord, who is a member of the community. He has documented the lives of some of the residents and the relationship to their displacement in the city.

7 p.m., Little Mountain Gallery. Free.

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SPORTS GET YOUR ASS IN THE SEATS Examining sports attendance in a hockey-mad city Connor Thorpe × Staff Writer “We have one of the top stadiums. It’s second to none,” said BC Lions cornerback Dante Marsh, in an interview with the Province. “We’re defending champions, we’re 9-4 and we can’t get 40,000 people?”

Marsh’s frustrated comments reference the attendance of BC Lions games, which tend to fluctuate. The disparity between season low and season high attendance equates to north of 13,000 seats filled. As Marsh noted, this is particularly paradoxical after the Lions have followed a Grey Cup winning season with a strong showing on the field.

“Sometimes fans don’t realize how important they are as the 13th man,” Marsh continued. “So get your ass in the seats.”

It’s no secret that football doesn’t take priority amongst the majority of sports fans in Vancouver. It is, and likely always will be, a hockey city.

Still, the disparity between Canucks ticket prices and those of other major sports teams in the city is worth noting. Canucks tickets start at $65, in comparison to the Lions ($35) and Vancouver Whitecaps ($20). So why can’t teams like the Lions and Whitecaps play to a packed house after practically giving away their tickets?

In the case of the Vancouver Whitecaps, the perception of low attendance is perhaps undeserved.

The Whitecaps play primarily to the lower bowl of BC Place – their home stadium since last season, when they became only the second-ever expansion team to join Major League Soccer (MLS). While there are still seats to sell in the stadium, White-

caps President Bob Lenarduzzi says he’s pleased with the crowds the team has drawn. Initially, the Whitecaps had planned to make the shift to MLS in the proposed Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium, which would have held a capacity of 18,000 – a number that has been surpassed by the team’s attendance since moving into a renovated BC Place.

“The renovations that were done, some of them were soccer specific - like the seats behind the goals and the second roof that provides the intimate atmosphere that we were looking for,” Lenarduzzi says of the remodeled arena. “So our capacity of 21,000 and our average attendance of 19,500 is something we felt was achievable, and something we could build from there.”

Lenarduzzi agrees with Marsh in that the fans are an integral part of the experience of a game – both for the players and for other fans.

“Our supporters’ groups are generating that unique atmosphere at our games and it’s no question, the players feed off of that,” Lenarduzzi explains. He believes that the quality of the Whitecaps product will draw more fans. “We just need to keep performing on the field and ideally the fans will continue to support us in the way that they are, and our fan base will grow as a result.”

The effect of an NHL lockout on the attendance rates for other major Vancouver sports teams won’t be known until a later date – the first game of the NHL season would have taken place on Oct. 10.

Lenarduzzi feels that if the lockout extends into the Whitecaps post-season, the team could see an increase in ticket sales.

“We don’t necessarily get a home game right away, but if we were to win the first round then

we could get a home game and I think at that point, if the lockout is still on, you more than likely would,” he says. “And I think the Lions would benefit from that, and I think the Giants would benefit from that as well. People have discretionary income that they were spending elsewhere that is freed up, and they might take the opportunity to go to a soccer game if in fact they haven’t been to one.”

“Last year our average was just over 20,000 [fans] – but what we did was play at least one game in an expanded capacity against the Galaxy, which was 27,000,” Lenarduzzi explains, citing the Galaxy game as an outlier that bumped up the averages for attendance in the team’s first MLS season.

“So, we’re not far off of where we were last year.”

“We also need to acknowledge that it wasn’t a good year on the field,” he continues. “So, we’re happy we’ve retained similar numbers.”

Despite the fact that the Lions and Whitecaps play in the same arena, they shouldn’t be categorized together when it comes to attendance. As Lenarduzzi mentions, even though attendance has dipped slightly since last year, the Whitecaps are doing relatively well in comparison to what the team’s attendance would have maxed out at, had the plans for the Waterfront Stadium panned out.

Still, he believes there is always room for improvement, and hopes the Whitecaps can mirror the fan base growth of their predecessors.

“Ideally, it’ll look a lot like the original Whitecaps in the mid-70s to mid-80s,” he says. “We grew from an average attendance early of maybe 5,000 to 6,000, and by the time we hit ’79 and ‘80 we were averaging 28,000 people a game at the

old Empire Stadium. So I’m fully aware of growing your product, and believe that we’re taking the steps to lead us in that direction.”

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POETRY Midterm nights' nightmares

Ode to My Bike

Carlo Javier

Celina Kurz

× Writer

×Arts Editor

Cold fall night Entering a dangerous plight Feet on the fire Mind’s in flight My studies remain stagnant Notes sleep on my desk When the morning sun rises The collector will wait Answerless sheets of tests Sitting idly by on desks Sleepless I conjure up my morning potion to keep me awake Adventure through mid-October with marks at stake Tomorrow’s another day Another day to waste

Miyata, black stallion, beach runner you speak a different language than all these automobiles

Scott Moraes

× caboose.capcourier@gmail.com

BAD BOYFRIEND

they turn into a dragon, a dog you turn into a bird or a butterfly thin wings you sing to the world that there are no suits of armour, there is only skin and wind. you say, tight-lipped grin, raised eyebrows: fill your shoes with water, because the world is wet

Katieso.tumblr.com

BOILER ROOM Lauren Gargiulo × Writer

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During that time, I was also creating another naked panting of a client’s girlfriend. My paintings are my pride and joy - they’re how I express myself, and how I making a living. Naked portraits seemed to be a new trend. Ironically, the client’s husband, who I was painting the naked picture of his wife for, had the same name as the client whom I was painting his naked girlfriend for. Joseph had introduced me to both clients, so in the sport of good friendship, I took him up on his bet. What I didn’t yet know was how stupid of an idea this would turn out to be.

Since, for me, a naked woman is a naked woman, I managed to mix up the two paintings.

I ended up giving the man a naked painting of his wife - ruining his birthday present, and giving his wife a naked painting of her best friend and her husband’s girlfriend of four years, ruining their friendship. The two women were so upset that they decided to slash my tires and destroy my car’s engine, making it impossible for my car to start, and making me late for rehearsal.

Joseph thought it was hilarious. “I was waiting for something like this to happen. But a bet’s a bet.”

Because of Joseph not only did I lose two clients and my car, but now I am currently stuck in a boiler room, dirty as a chimney sweep and waiting for Joseph to come down to his basement.

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Because my car wouldn’t start, I have to clean Joseph Charles Bentley’s boiler room. It all started as a bet during rehearsals, which happened every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Currently I am in a production of The Wizard of Oz, and I was running late because I couldn’t find any clean straw. I needed some for my scarecrow costume but I had managed to get all the straw I had covered in paint, while working on a portrait of a client naked. It was a surprise for her husband’s birthday, and it needed to be finished within the week.

Having managed to finally find some straw, I rushed to rehearsals, but because of how itchy the straw was, I got distracted and lost. Joseph, who plays the Tin Man, was sick of me always showing up late. “My costume was rusty, but that doesn’t stop me from grabbing an oil can, oiling up the joints, and running here as fast as I can without getting arrested!” He mocked, before I threw water on him, making him rust again.

Swearing that he’d get me back, he bet me unlimited drinks at the pub for three months if I showed up on time for every rehearsal in the next two weeks. If I lost, I had to clean his boiler room.

I’m still not sure why Joseph has a boiler room in his house, but I do know that since Joseph has a fear of boilers, (he won't explain why) he never goes down there - meaning it’s certainly filthy.

×× susan li

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the caboose

caboose Editor ×

Scott Moraes

× caboose.capcourier@gmail.com

Shot gun reviews

FREAKS AND GEEKS Celina Kurz

CONSPIRACY THEORY Peter Warkentin

COMMUNITY PROTEST Carlo Javier

JOB HUNTING Lauren Gargiulo

Why didn’t I watch this TV show in high school?

I’ll tell you why: my parents thought it would be good for my development if we didn’t have cable, so the only channels I could watch were CBC and CTV. Pro-tip, mom and dad: I’m pretty sure it would have been better for my development if instead of watching hours and hours of reruns of The Drew Carey Show and Jonovision, I had gotten to watch Freaks and Geeks. Oh my god!

Everything I felt in high school that I thought no one else ever felt is represented in this show! Years of feeling like the only teen in the world who ever got good grades and hung out with people who smoked pot could have been avoided! I would have started listening to Black Sabbath way earlier! And in total seriousness, I would marry whoever created the character of Mr. Rosso. Also: everyone in that show is a fucking babe. How the fuck did this show only get 18 episodes? I’m frigging hulking just thinking about it!

If you’ve ever been drunkenly browsing YouTube at 4:30 a.m., then you’ve probably seen at least one conspiracy theory video. The topics are endless: ancient aliens, 9/11, JFK, mind control, freemasons, and my personal favourite: the belief that a race of lizard people are secretly running the world.

I’d like to issue an open question to any conspiracy theorists out there: have you ever tried organizing a surprise birthday party? It ain’t easy. Besides just keeping it a secret, you have to organize a location, pick a date and time, find people who will attend, and somehow acquire a cake (or booze if you’re not a baby). Now imagine trying to organize the biggest surprise party of all time. You’ve got to assassinate a president, start a revolution, and abduct and probe some backwoods hicks - all while making sure nobody finds out that you’re behind it all. I really hope that if logic means nothing and all the theories are true, that some day in the near future, the clouds will start raining confetti and giant lizard-controlled robots will burst out of the ocean and yell “SURPRISE!!!” That would be pretty cool.

Protests, protests, protests. They're all around us.

From political matters such as revolutions against tyrannical regimes and for the good of democracy, religious issues like that video no one even knew about until the protests actually happened, or even the long-standing Occupy movement.

The point is, protesting has never been so apparent, and to a certain extent, effective. But now comes something that’s really worth fighting for.

Everyone’s favourite cult TV show, Community, has once again (yeah, once again!) been benched

by NBC. The delaying of the ambitiously written, self-aware, pop-culture reference-heavy comedy will not be taken kindly; NBC should expect fans’ evil alter-egos outside their offices. Without a doubt, this protest will involve more than just a fistful of paintballs, blanket forts, Donald Glover crying and a morning talk show to recap events.

It’s gonna happen, in this timeline or the other.

NBC, consider yourself Chaaaaanged.

I hate job hunting. It’s almost as self-esteem killing as bathing suit and bra shopping, except you actually have to put effort into your appearance and smile a lot. What’s wonderful about living in a city of old people (North Vancouver) is that some employers are stupidly conservative, which at times, can be just downright silly. What’s worse is that said old conservative managers automatically hate me ‘cause I have blue hair.

If the people who come into your grocery store think that I’m going to set fire to their cars because I have blue hair, then they should really have a look at what their own teenage daughters are wearing. Not only is my bum covered, but I’ve been working since I was 14 - the colour of my hair will not interfere with my skill of slicing deli meat. If you’re so picky about what colour your employees’ hair should be, it’s no wonder that that job opening has been there for six months.

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ACROSS 2 Wheelchair Jimmy learns to yolo 5 Mmmbop to the top and back down again 6 The country girl with the sun always in her eyes 9 Ginger was my fave 14 RIP the king of pop :( 17 My beautiful dark twisted Kardashian 18 Playin “Blue jeans…white sh..zzzzzzz” 19 “Thank you for embracing my weirdness” Ew, shut up 23 Justin Bieber’s mom 24 Her band is called “The Scene” and that’s lol 25 Mrs. Lil Wayne 26 Glitter x Puke = DOWN 1 Mother of Destiny 3 Forever crying about that chick stealing his records 4 The worst person on this list, proved in that she rhymes with “stink” 7 She’s at the bottom of every bottle 8 Barbados’ queen of weed 9 Wub wub wub wub 10 She’s over her poker phase 11 School girl uniform, then bald with an umbrella 12 The high priest of swaggy 13 One Direction / Five Erections 15 Nick Kevin and Joe, if you remember ‘em 16 Mission: Call May Be Possible 20 “21” and pregnant 21 My co-worker thought his name was Bulldog and that’s way funnier 22 Material mama with those scary ass arms

"YOLO" JOKES Still very popular FUCK TRANSLINK In their big bussy ass BATMAN About due for a comeback SEX ED And his brother, Sex Bob CHEWING ICE CREAM Sad APPLES TO APPLES Please stop making us play it at parties REMEMBER WHEN EVERYTHING WAS "FIERCE?" That was cray DILBERT Pretty racist TWITTER Now you can use your iPhone to read shitty puns PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES We just like them, that's all

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