Issue 3 - Oct 5 2017

the newspaper University of Toronto’s independent community paper

Since 1978

Volume XL October

Issue III 5th 2017

Masthead

the memes

Cover Ashima Kaura

the newspaper University of Toronto’s independent student paper since 1978 Editor-In-Chief Alina Butt Managing Editor Natalia Herran Senior Copy Editor Rebecca Gao Business Manager Kelly Chan Public Relations Coordinator Gabbi Gard Design Editor Rel Ryann Visual Content Editor Noah Kahansky Online Editor Hilary Lo Comment Editor Maxim Basu Music Editor Chantel Ouellet Arts Editor Joyce Wong Mascots Honeybee, Flora and Fauna, Miguel and Paco Contributors Anagha Acharya, Kathleen Chen, Manjiri Deshpande, Angela Feng, Gabbi Gard, Saba Javed, Noah Kahansky, Renna Keriazes, Chantel Lee, Weiyun Li, Hilary Lo, Shahmurad Lodhi, Jenny MacPherson, Michelle Mao, Natalie Michael, Miranda Mirabelli, Jacob Newfeld, Andrew Park, Mark Parkhomenko, Rel Ryann, Haoxin Wen, Joyce Wong All U of T community members, including students, alumni, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contribute! the newspaper is published by Planet Publications Inc., a non-profit corporation

thenewspaper.ca

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IMPORTANT UPDATES FROM THE NEWSPAPER • We hired a lot of people recently, so check out the masthead to see if someone you know is finally employed. We don’t pay, but it still counts!

• Charlie XCX tweeted back our Online Editor, Hilary Lo, tonight when she missed her opening set. Upon leaving, she cried in the street.

• Please excuse any errors in this issue, as we spent production night working through the tears while listening to Songs About Jane like it’s 2002.

HERE LIES

THE MIRROR 199? - 2017

thank you for making us feel good (and bad) you will be missed p.s. joyce deserves the 7 years of bad luck

Nuit Blanche Isn’t About Art

Meet the DILF of your dreams in Dream Daddy, a dating simulator where you play as a dad dating other hot dads.

...was it ever?

by Manjiri Deshpande

Last Saturday, I did what the entirety of Toronto seemed to be doing that night: Nuit Blanche. But unlike the rest of Toronto, my hype for this event hadn’t begun some days in advance after perhaps seeing a Facebook event post. Rather, my hype and anticipation for this event had begun, embarrassingly enough, two years too early in my sad and silent grade 11 French class.

I read about what “nuit blanche” really meant besides its literal translation of “white night.”

Contextually, “nuit blanche” means pulling an allnighter. Culturally, it alludes to the night where Parisians collectively pull a “nuit blanche,” or rather “passent une nuit blanche,” whilst they view the city in a different way at night, lit by the dull light of a thousand stars, the vivid neons and bien sûr moonlight.

To say the least, I was enamoured. When I learned that this nocturnal fiesta was a global phenomenon that was hosted in Toronto as well, I knew that there was no option but to go if I ever found myself in the neighbourhood around this autumnal time.

So, it was no surprise to find Nuit Blanche penciled into my calendar a week before I even moved to Toronto this fall.

As the date approached, I read up on the event. It was meant to be a night when art was celebrated.

When museums, private and public art galleries all provided free admission. When public transit is free knowing that this night, the city would be alive when it would normally be in a slumber. It is a time when art receives the spotlight that it deserves; when it reaches a larger audience than it otherwise would. A time when art would be accessible; when it would be impactful.

But I construed an even grander meaning for Nuit Blanche, a deeper symbology that made me even more prone to the ensuing disillusionment. The “blanche” in this phrase symbolizes the lights that would inevitably be left on by those who were still awake during the wee hours. But in the context of the festival, it is not so much the light that is the focus of the night but rather the art itself, which lights up the night and attracts flocks of people to admire it. Hence, it is the art which illuminates the darkest hours of this night, and perhaps we can extrapolate that to be art’s function in society as well: art and expression are the beacons of light allowing for people in a society to come together and bond when times seem darkest, whether socially, politically or economically.

Considering that these were all high expectations from something as mere as an event, I had set myself up perfectly for a quaint amount of disillusionment.

To begin with, I had been wrong. Public transit (i.e, le grand TTC), though operating throughout the night, was not free. But the night was young and the fact that the city took this opportunity to capitalize off the vast influx of people heading downtown could not harm my content mood! However, upon reaching said destination (which was nowhere in particular but rather the vague and generalized region somewhere between Dundas Square and Nathan Phillips Square), the disillusionment struck hard. I was not immersed in art, as I had expected, but rather in a herd of people and a cloud of

smoke. I was not breathing in the cultured aura of the city I had anticipated, but rather an awkward amalgamation of hydroponic weed and strawberry vape. Perhaps it was my fault for leaving home too sober to be swept away—too sober not to notice that Nuit Blanche wasn’t truly about art at all.

As I continued weaving through the crowded streets and trying not to lose my friends along the way, I could not deny that there was art, and some quite notable pieces too. One of them was STARscape, an exhibit by the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture. It was a mesmerizing installation comprised of a rippling canopy stretching through an alleyway upon which digitally-created images of stars had been projected. It created an artificial sky full of stars in a city where the real night sky had no observable stars, highlighting our current state of light pollution and its detrimental impact upon our chances to observe something much larger than ourselves. It was rather coherent with the thematic idea of Nuit Blanche since it echoed the overarching contrast of light and dark.

On the other spectrum, there were certain pieces that were absolutely incoherent with the feel of the night, such as eerie vegan activism piece that did little to promote the cause but inadvertently and unfortunately projected a fanatic characterization of vegans. Should it really be surprising that a tableau of pigs cooking humans isn’t going to attract a favourable reaction from the audience? Despite the oddity of this “art” piece, what struck me most was the large hot air balloon hovering above Nathan Philips Square. I found it rather amusing, the sheer amount of people who found a large hot air balloon that only lifted up some 20 feet off the ground worthy of flocking around and staring at. Is our attention so fickle that only something so large and bright can hold it? This is what Nuit Blanche’s art had come to: a mere speckle on the streets while food trucks and people flooded them.

So, as I strolled on, I began to wonder, if not art then what was Nuit Blanche really about? I attempted to string the things together that I saw that night—people in their halloween costumes, people laughing at disturbing art, the gawky moment someone first holds their date’s hand, people dancing on the streets and lines too long for me to pursue. The art under the spotlights took a backseat whilst the majority of the crowd simply used this art festival to get massively intoxicated.

Could this possibly be bastardizing art? Demeaning the value of art by using it as a pretentious interest for a night, while in reality the only interest of the night is to get high or drunk or both? Essentially, I found that Nuit Blanche was like any other wild house party, but this time downtown Toronto was the house and the cops weren’t shutting down the party, only the roads.

As art itself, the experience of Nuit Blanche is idiosyncratic to each person. To me, it was the first time I used a winter coat this season and the night I almost got a tattoo of Spiderman on my arm. To me, it was escaping with your friends to Chinatown to satisfy a craving for sesame paste balls. To me, it was realizing only after I returned home at 4:30AM that Drake had been at Dundas Square.

But at the end of the night, it was still a success! I had gotten my 20,000 steps for the day, a hangover and some leftover Chinese take-out for the next so who could really complain?

Article & Illustrations by Rel Ryann

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Though you’re a great dad, your gameplay will not revolve around solving Amanda’s problems, but rather her helping you with yours. Like any thoughtful child, she’ll help you navigate social media (DadBook), respond to texts and explain what memes are to you.

‘Manda will be your motivational speaker throughout the game, your food-sharing companion and your best buddy for watching bad reality T.V. (gotta love Long Haul Paranormal Ice Road Ghost Truckers!) The game’s storytelling is rich and endearing, and this shows in your relationship with your daughter, which is fleshed out and well-established as mutually supportive and loving.

You may even find yourself wanting to hang out with her more than other dads!

Oh, Daddy!

Nobody would’ve guessed that the most popular indie game of the year would be a dating simulator, let alone one as openly queer as Dream Daddy (2017). The smash hit, developed by Game Grumps, is a huge win for queer and POC representation with gameplay so delightful that even the straights can play it without feeling threatened. (No homo, bro? Yes, homo!)

Dream Daddy lets you play as yourself, only dorky dad-ified: you tell bad jokes, don’t know how to cook and were once in a ska band called The Skammunist Manifesto.

You’ve just moved to Maple Bay with your daughter Amanda, and while it’s been tough being a single dad, making friends in this town is somehow even harder when all you want to do is nap and watch “The Game.”

Things get easier when you discover that all of your new neighbors are also dads … and really, really cute.

“You’ve got DADS!” Dream Daddy defies virtually all the norms of dating sims by featuring a diverse, maturely aged cast of queer characters as opposed to heteronormative relationships with homogenous partners. Of the seven dateable dads, three are a part of visible minorities, one is overweight and another is trans (gamers can also play as trans dads by selecting the “binder bod” build in their avatar creator at the start of the game). The player’s late spouse and daughter, Amanda, are also brown and non-customizable—a strong move that shoots down players’ prejudices for having a white family.

2meirl4meirl Are depression memes a worrying trend or the holy grail to mental health?

by Haoxin Wen

In a society where anything considered too “negative” is shunned by others, it is immensely exhausting for people who are depressed to get by on a daily basis. The cheeriness of everyday social interactions can often feel frustrating, and even pointless at times. One might start to think: if only there was a way not only to allow people to be more vocal about these negative things, but to actually let them be praised for sharing the deepest and dankest recesses of their minds...

Look no further! Meet depression memes, the hot new trend in the memescape, featuring the subject of crippling anxiety, low-self esteem, suicidal thoughts and the kind of less-than-pleasant things some people deal with on a day-to-day basis. They come in different forms, whether it’s the starter pack with photo sets or just your average text over pic. The idea is pretty simple: a good depression meme must be relatable (tragic), funny and it needs to promote mental health awareness in a way that is fresh and “interesting.”

Dream Daddy still falls in line with other dating sims, however, when it comes to casting common archetypes as love interests. The nerd is Amanda’s sharp-dressed English teacher Hugo, and the boy-next-door is Joseph, the youth minister that lives … next door. Mat is a music-loving hipster that runs the local coffee shop and Craig is your old keg-standing roommate from college (who has since gotten ripped, bro!) Damien is the goth trans dad, while Brian is the outdoorsy type. Ultimately, I picked Robert, the mysterious bad boy who’s all about conspiracy theories, knives, whiskey, film and texting back way too late (me too, daddy, me too). It was love at first play-through.

In addition to the DILFs, you’ll meet their children and other recurring characters—most of which are women with vivid personalities and character development, like your daughter Amanda.

Dating sims generally aren’t associated with wholesome content, but that’s all Dream Daddy is. The story is very light-hearted despite dealing with a handful of serious themes, and the gameplay is PG-13 yet provocative (successful flirting actions will cause an animation of eggplant and squirting emojis to erupt from your date).

The dialogue is witty and provokes plenty of giggles and warm fuzzy feelings that you’d be hardpressed to find on a real date. Cute, quirky and fun, it’s all the things a good dating sim should be. I recommend it to anyone—queer or otherwise—who’s ready for a refreshingly endearing gameplay experience. So, are you ready?

Hi ready, I’m Dad.

the newspaper rating:

‘Manda Panda While our leading men may be a bit archetypical, your daughter is by no means casted in the Misogyny-Lite™ trope of the whiny and dramatic teenage girl. ‘Manda Panda is hilarious, independent, adorable and kickass—the teen we’ve all been and the daughter we’d all love to have. She breaks windows, wings her eyeliner, finger-guns her way out of conversations and will pet EVERY dog. You’re very proud of her, and even though you don’t understand art, you know she makes good art and you’ll brag about it whenever you can.

Depression memes have recently been on the rise, and it has spawned a whole community of “depressed meme lovers.” While browsing through depression meme pages, I noticed how surprisingly supportive people are in the comment sections. For example, rather than ridiculing others for being depressed, they show sympathy for those going through a hard time. It’s surprising because these are complete strangers over the internet. Yet somehow, they seem to be showing more support for the mentally ill than a lot of friends and family members do IRL. Sure, it’s the internet and people are able to relate to each other more easily. But maybe if people with mental illnesses were given more attention in real life, they wouldn’t need to spend hours on meme pages looking for some support. Just saying.

However, as much as depression memes can be a source of entertainment and social support, it can also be a hinderance to self-improvement, recovery from depression and unhealthy lifestyles. Having people to share in your social isolation and unhealthy lifestyle certainly is relieving, but it almost seems to legitimize these behaviours.

Depression memes are only a way to delay the issues you are dealing with, rather than solve them. Although the path to self-improvement may not be as easy as the click of a button on a screen, the effort you put in will be so much more rewarding in the long term.

Often times, depression memes can actually act to encourage self destructive behaviours rather than extending a “helping hand” to pull people back onto the right track. Someone obsessed with depression memes might start to think, “This is where I belong. This is where everyone has it as bad as I do.” They lose the motivation to actually deal with the problems in their lives and contend

5 out of 5 eggplants

Dream Daddy is now available on Steam for $16.99 CAD.

“

Often times, depression memes can actually act to encourage self destructive behaviours rather than extending a ‘helping hand’ to pull people back onto the right track.

”

to be just another average “depressed meme lover.” We have to start realizing the potential danger of self-deprecating humor. Self-esteem is not something people should be tossing away for the price of a few chuckles.

What starts out as something silly and fun could end up becoming deeply unsettling.

Of course, encouraging self destructiveness definitely isn’t something memers intend to do, as most just want to gain some internet popularity with their artwork. Yet, as memes become an increasingly large part of popular culture, it is important to consider WHAT people should be memeing about rather than how many likes it can get. As relieving as it might be to joke about mental illness, maybe it really isn’t helping us address the issue head-on.

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the shoe

unboxing the stories behind the footwear

Photos by Noah Kahansky

walk a mile in our shoes

the box

hi readers— We here at the newspaper are coming to you with our shoes and their stories because much like us, they are truly the underdogs, the underrated heroes. Our shoes have been there every step of the way and they have the battle scars to prove it.

It is easy to forget how much shit our shoes have seen and been through when we shove our feet into them every morning without thinking, in a rush to get to class or work. We often overlook how a scuff on our shoe can reveal a specific memory or how a hole can reveal the longevity and conviction of our relationship with a certain pair of shoes. Or maybe all of this just reveals that we at the newspaper need better quality shoes.

Either way, here’s a trip down memory lane.

Joyce

Renna

Gabbi

Natalie

Hilary

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the academia

It’s Gotta Be Something Asking why we like horror in the wake of Stephen King’s It remake

by Renna Keriazes

In just shy of a month, the recent film adaptation of Stephen King’s best-selling novel It has accrued a record-breaking $550 million at the box office. Seeing as how the film follows closely after what The Guardian deemed “The Great Clown Panic of 2016,” it may be surprising that the re-adaptation is getting so much attention. After all, Pennywise, the antagonist of the film, is an entity that takes on the form of a killer clown.

Considering how many people were afraid (or rather, obsessed), having a movie that encapsulates those fears is a bit jarring—but it may also make perfect sense.

The thought of paying to go see something that will ultimately terrify you for your own amusement is paradoxical, and ultimately makes one wonder: why do people enjoy horror? Of course, there is the element of adrenaline that one may receive from it, like the feeling of ascending a roller coaster and not yet seeing what is over the edge.

E-Books & Library Loans

e.g.

Library Genesis

e.g.

Discount Textbooks Store

If you’re dying to get to the bookstore to get a new copy of your favourite textbook, just cross the road to the Discount Textbooks Store, located at 229 College Street. Just two minutes from the money-sucking bookstore is a sketchy-looking underground shop that sells the same textbooks for a fraction of the price!

Tusbe.com, Bookro.com,

If you’re looking to buy or sell your textbooks there are so many student websites to choose from! Tusbe, Toronto University Student’s Book Exchange, is one of my favourites. You create a free account and have access to almost every textbook ever made. However, if you’re a fan of the new textbook feel, Amazon sells textbooks for a fraction of the price, and with student Prime it can arrive as soon as the next day.

Not only are textbooks a waste of money, they’re hundreds of pages of deforestation. Fortunately, the university has started introducing programs that reduce the amount of textbooks students have to purchase.

The Green Courses program aims to reduce paper consumption on campus. A few of my professors have been recognized for their participation, so they have uploaded all the relevant readings to Blackboard and informed us not to buy a textbook. I think this is a great idea to keep costs down (oh, and for the environment too)! Perhaps in the near future more professors will participate in this movement. But until then, know that you’re not alone and that there are many more options besides spending hundreds of dollars every year!

n an

Websites

e.g.

An Evening with ALLIE X

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Looking to spend no money at all? The Library Genesis online database contains more than 2,000,000 files of free PDFs available for download. Search for your textbook there and download a copy to read on your electronic device. Additionally, many classes at U of T have a copy of textbooks for loan in a library on campus. Speak to your professor and find out where you can borrow these textbooks for free!

Discount Stores There are a vast amount of Facebook pages where you can buy and sell your textbooks. Since they’re used, you can buy them for up to half the original price, and if you keep them in good condition, resell them for the same. With a simple direct message you can set a price and organise a place to make an exchange on or off campus.

The first half of the set was calm, playing tunes from

Although I love many bands that fall into the category of alt rock, many just don’t have that ***rockstar*** quality. I want my rockstars to look and act insane, not to wear flannel, tiny hats and be shy. NO NO NO. Give me The Lemon Twigs!

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U of T Textbook Exchange

The band itself has been described as psych pop, alternative rock and even baroque pop. All in all, it’s one of the only truly fun rock bands out there today.

Similar to their contemporaries Foxygen, they create songs that are inspired by the ’60s and ’70s, and as such are completely dramatic. One example, and one of my

They may seem young and sweet on the record, but The Lemon Twigs IRL are in a different realm. One simply must begin with the ensembles of Michael and Bryan. Bryan’s look is more subtle than Michael’s, but with high-waisted wide-leg jeans and a printed blouse … how subtle can it really be? Then there is Michael. He was wearing a black, shiny, ultra glam jumpsuit with full makeup (think heavy eyeliner) and a mullet. You could say he was channeling a goth David Bowie.

both their first album, Do Hollywood (2016), and their new EP, Brothers of Destruction (2017), with Bryan taking on singing duties while Michael plays on drums. No crazy gimmicks with Bryan, just the lovely sound of his voice. An interesting point about this band and part of the reason why they switch up roles halfway through is because they split songwriting. This makes for a more passionate and dynamic performance for both. And passionate it was! You could tell Michael would be an insane frontman just judging by the showmanship he had banging on those drums. The last half of the set had Michael singing and it was chaotic. Wonderfully chaotic. It was like watching a 2017 Iggy Pop, acting like he didn’t give a shit, walking off stage, jumping around, knocking things over and doing high kicks every two minutes. What can I say, I loved it. Pure entertainment.

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e.g.

The Lemon Twigs are a band comprised of two brothers, Michael and Bryan D’Addario, as well as some of their schoolmates, Danny Ayala and Megan Zeankowski (yes, schoolmates, as they are still teens). They all grew up in Long Island near the vibrant NYC scene—a scene with which their father was familiar with. They stem from a musical family, with dad Ronnie D’Addario being an accomplished songwriter of the ’70s and ’80s. Their father was obsessed with ’60s psych rock, and you can REALLY see the influence on the band.

favourites, is their single “As Long As We’re Together.”

It’s a charming song that can not only transport you back to the early ’70s, but also captures a certain sense of youth. One verse goes, “Yeah arm to arm and thigh to thigh,/ Even though there’s plenty of room,/ And I look just like an owl,/ And you think that’s just fine,/ But it doesn’t matter, anyway.” There is something very sweet about this line that reminds me of being 16 and going over to my crush’s house, only to sit awkwardly and barely talk.

by

Facebook Groups

It was a surprisingly hot eve in September, and I was looking for rock ‘n’ roll. It came to me in the form of one of my favourite bands, The Lemon Twigs, who were performing at Lee’s Palace.

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Here are some alternative ways to acquire textbooks that may lead you to reconsider overspending at the U of T Bookstore.

We may enjoy horror films because we can simply separate it from our reality to see a paranormal or supernatural story unfold before us, to gain satisfaction in the guessing game of more mysterious films or to simply feel the adrenaline that they induce upon us.

by Gabbi Gard

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The process started in my first year as I made a trip to the U of T bookstore (though now that I think about it, I probably made about four trips there because it was so overwhelming). I naively ended up buying about six books and spent close to $550. I justified the purchase with the optimistic thought that I would be able to sell them after I finished the courses. Sadly, a majority of professors either change the required texts or editions the year after. In fact, my professor recently informed my class that authors are commonly forced to change a few minor details to publish newer editions in order to make more money.

Fortunately, I have learned ways around this textbook dilemma, and I am here to convince you of the alternative options. Not only did my purchases take a turn—as I sold my Rotman texts for philosophy books—but I have managed to master the art of minimal money-spending when shopping for textbooks.

Though this more complex protagonist does not make horror films less enjoyable—but it begs more investment from a viewer. It relies on the audience’s own moral compass to determine what they see as right and wrong rather than making it explicitly clear (like in It).

Rock ‘n’ roll’s most promising young band in concert

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I would like to think that I’ve learned a few things from my time at U of T. However, a lot of the things I’ve learned were not taught in lecture halls. As a wise old woman in my fourth year, the overwhelming journey of dealing with things like breadth requirements, Subject POSt Enrolment and the Co-Curricular Record is finally reaching an end. A remaining source of headaches, however, is coming up with the best process for buying and selling textbooks.

Considering Professor Aaron Garrett’s philosophical reasoning, one should examine how the context of the film It (2017) allows it to be so successful. The film directly separates itself from reality by creating a separate entity (It/Pennywise) that is fulfilling the evil, while also remaining in a fictionalized context. This initiates distance to give the audience an obvious goodand-evil side while also following a simple cinematic arc, into whose clutches the audience can easily fall in order to be scared. Meanwhile, the group of boys in the movie fit the archetype of the good “misfits,” and through them the audience is introduced to characters to which they can relate. Audience members are drawn to the protagonists who act as a surrogate for the viewer.

In a more complex horror film, there is a human villain and the barriers get easily blurred. Some antagonists that may seem monstrous in nature are given human backstories, creating a much more complicated and controversial narrative. It creates and invites uncertain morals by giving villains tragic backstories to which an audience can relate, and an audience may use this as a reason to excuse them for their crimes. Making an audience potentially sympathize with the antagonist is ultimately problematic because in the sense of a horror film, the person with which they may sympathize is a maniacal and psychotic killer. Allowing people to possibly relate or sympathize with them may be a problematic idea.

For Love & Lemon Twigs

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by Natalie Michael

He then compares horror to melodrama. In the context of going to see a melodramatic film we willingly witness people suffer, which is another thing people likely avoid in their day-to-day lives (since, normally and hopefully, seeing human suffering makes us feel sad). He comes to the possible conclusion that the context in which the scene was viewed is what determines what makes fear pleasurable or not. For example, when one is witnessing a film on screen, one acknowledges that no real harm had been done and that it was all a mere fallacy. It was a story, and one can gain meaning and appreciate aspects of film that one wouldn’t know unless it was evoked within the outlet of horror.

Additionally, the fact that the antagonist of It (2017) is a monster immediately dehumanizes it, even simplifies it to a certain extent. But then the paradox here is that even though we don’t believe it’s real, we feel human emotion towards it. How is this complicated if there is a more complex antagonist?

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Alternative ways to acquire textbooks that are wallet-friendly.

Still, there may be a more psychological reason for why people enjoy watching horror films. Aaron Garrett, a professor of philosophy at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences, explores how exactly the paradox of getting pleasure out of fear may be explained. He explains that if we were faced with a scenario in real life akin to what we witness in a horror film, we would most likely avoid that situation. We also usually avoid feeling fear in our everyday lives, since, from a social perspective, it is usually associated with weakness.

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A Textbook Case of Being Broke

the music

An Xquisuite Xposition of Xtraordinary Xpression

by Noah Kahansky

On Monday, September 25, Toronto-born, LA-based singer Allie X opened the doors of the Church of the Holy Trinity for an invite-only performance, a sort-of love letter to her hometown. With a limited number of first-come, first-served spaces available, her small but dedicated fanbase anxiously queued outside the venue, vying for one of the coveted spots.

Upon entering the venue, I was inundated with a perfectly-curated pop manifesto, from the haunting visuals projected on walls riddled with “X” motifs and the pamphlets handed out detailing “The Story of X” to the large neon “X” that filled the back of the stage. Allie has likened her “X” to the mathematical variable “X,” which in this case represents the unknown aspect of her identity—it is a means of self-expression on her quest for self-discovery, a philosophy that may not be immediately apparent in her dreamy and dark pop music. The use of the Church of the Holy Trinity is fitting, especially considering its active involvement with the LGBT community, of which Allie considers herself a strong supporter. Her visuals shine like religious iconography, heralding in new life—and a new mindset—to the beautiful Gothic Revival structure.

As the crowd collected on the floor, the stage filled with the regular pieces of Allie’s band, as well as a string quintet consisting of two violins, a viola, a cello and a double bass. A grand piano sat in front of the stage.

“

Allie has promised a ‘reimagining’ of her favorite songs.

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Allie X floats on stage, dressed chicly in a red shift dress cinched in with a black and white obi belt and accented with her signature sunglasses and space buns. She greeted the audience tentatively, probably as confused about the energy of the still-sitting crowd as I was. She began with a reinterpretation of “Paper Love,” the lead single from her latest album CollXtion II (2017). She carried the originally synth-heavy song with confidence, melding her acutely whimsical voice with the dreamy strings. The crowd livened up, ready to stand for the duration of her set. Allie greeted the crowd again more enthusiastically this time, taking off her sunglasses and letting her infectiously bright personality bubble up. She crossed her fingers and stuck them in the air, a sign of affection to her fans.

Allie continued with her hit single “Catch.” As she emerged from her shell, her voice grew even more in strength and clarity. After knocking out some of her poppy bops, she took a seat at the piano, playing soulfully as she belted out the melancholic “True Love is

Violent.” She reassumed her position on stage to finish her short but sweet set with ballad “Sanctuary.” If she hadn’t convinced the crowd of her vocal chops yet, this powerhouse song solidified her soprano status, not once faltering on the soaring, sky-high notes.

As a true ode to her diehard fans, she played the lesserknown single “Misbelieving” as her encore song. Her final goodbye involved a gracious thank you to everyone in attendance, as well as the crossing of her arms in the air to form an “X” with her forearms.

There is little self-indulgence behind Allie X’s pop persona, her true motivation clearly being her fans, urging them to go forth and “Feel X.”

Ultimately, you want to live in a society where you can share the perspectives and cultural aspects of your family and your life, and at the same time, this becomes loaded because it’s one of the few limited representations that are out there. There’s not enough representations of, let’s say, a marginalized South Asian person, an immigrant, to make it feel like the accent’s worth it to me.

Hari Kandabolu Hari Kondabolu doesn’t pull any punches when confronting issues of race and discrimination, and his gutsiness makes his jokes all the more hilarious. the newspaper had the chance to talk to Kondabolu about how he examines politics and race through comedy, and about the importance of representation. the newspaper: People have described you as a political comedian. How do you think comedy as a medium is particularly suited to political commentary, and what are its limitations?

Hari Kandabolu: I think that the strength of comedy is the directness with which you can speak to an audience.

You’re given some room to say things that might make people uncomfortable because there’s the promise of laughter. So that has to be the focus: are you making people laugh? Because if you don’t, you kind of renege on that promise and then people get agitated because nobody wants to be preached to.

That’s also a limitation because jokes work best when people are laughing throughout. Brevity, generally speaking, is good for comedy, but brevity also removes lots of details. tn: I wanted to ask you about your choice not to use accents in your routines. Some comedians say that they use accents just because they want to accurately represent the people who are close to them, or use accents in order to reclaim the power associated with accents. What is your response to that?

HK: Sure, I understand and respect that.

I don’t do accents well, so I can’t accurately represent people. It’s not going to be a good impression, but rather, very caricaturish. Secondly, accents only work if the spirit of the joke is going in the right direction.

Is the person being disempowered? If I’m doing jokes about my mom and if people are laughing because I’m doing an accent, then I no longer like that joke [...] that’s people are laughing at an accent. However, if I take the accent away and people are still laughing, it’s a good joke, and it has a purpose to it.

If you’ve ever seen that one photo of Lucy Liu wearing that tank top that says “babe,” then you understand how it feels to watch Ali Wong live as an Asian-Canadian woman. In 2016, she shook up the world with her brilliant stand-up special Baby Cobra, a blessed respite from the many self-loathing, atheist, nerdy cool-boys who too-often get recognition in the comedy world.

At JFL42, Wong performed material from her soon-tobe-released second special. Unlike many other comics, Wong doesn’t make fun of herself. Yes, she sees the humor and absurdity that fills the world around her, but she’s bold, confident and unapologetic throughout, challenging every assumption that you might make about an Asian-American woman. She has sex. She queefs. She makes more money than her husband.

Underlying the jokes about breastfeeding, fame, prenups and pussies are her strength and cleverness.

Motherhood is hard, and Wong delves into this with understanding and rambunctious grace, commenting on the double standard that exists between mothers and fathers, and especially the toll childbirth takes on a woman’s body. In the media, we rarely hear anything about mom bods, and Ali Wong isn’t afraid to rectify that. From labias and C-sections to elongated nipples, she’s not just making jokes, she’s creating a space for people to laugh with her, rather than at her. She’s come a long way from selling tickets on Groupon, but she

tn: Why should people in the general community, not only people who are involved in stand-up and entertainment, care about issues of representation in the media?

HK: I think that life imitates art and art imitates life.

Your view of yourself often gets influenced by what other people think of you and what images you’re exposed to. That’s going to restrict how you interact with people. You might play into it, you might avoid those discussions, and you might hide who you are.

There’s a reason why, after Ellen DeGeneres came out on her show, more people felt comfortable coming out.

Representation has always been very big in influencing people’s opinions on other human beings. You cannot avoid being influenced by it—that’s why it’s important.

And it has an impact on something as basic as who do I feel comfortable talking to in a room. Everyone’s going to have their preconceived notions. Do I fear people of colour? Do I fear black men? Do I feel like I have nothing in common with a South Asian woman, so I won’t talk to her?

The Lucas Brothers Dressed in matching jackets and “f*ck Nixon” buttons and coming straight out of their stand-up special On Drugs (2017), The Lucas Brothers sat down with the newspaper to talk about comedy, philosophy and their creative process. the newspaper: At what point did you realize that you wanted to do comedy and wanted to do it together?

Kenny: I would say the point that we realized that we wanted to do comedy was 2009. We were both in our third year of law school and we weren’t really feeling the legal education and we didn’t want to pursue that as a profession and that [was] when I decided I wanted to do it with him. tn: Would you ever consider doing comedy by yourself ?

KN: I don’t think I want to do it by myself. I think we have such a unique and dynamic act and so much of it depends on our timing together and our communication and our skills, and I think I’ve grown not only as a comedian but as a person working with him everyday. hasn’t changed much. She’s still just talking about her life, but with a unique perspective and sharpness that makes her a delight to watch. Ali Wong is living that Whole-Foods-sliced-mango life, and the not-so-simple hoe deserves it. ng

by Angela Fe

ali wong will kick AND eat your ass

by Kathleen Chen

Our culture is still grossed out by women’s bodies.

People are uncomfortable talking about periods or childbirth, but are completely comfortable with—and accustomed to—viewing women’s bodies as sex objects.

Our bodies are considered disgusting when they’re just doing their biological job.

And I just want to see how far we can take it…. We might try it one time, just as a joke. tn: In your set, you talk a lot about race relations and politics. Why have you chosen to tackle those topics through comedy?

Keith: [...] a lot of these things are what people are talking about and it’s easier to connect to people comedically than sometimes politically ‘cause people aren’t listening, but at least with joke telling, their ears are open and they’re willing to hear new ideas.

KN: I truly believe that comedy is a didactic process.

I think that especially in old comedy, in the Greeks, comedy wasn’t just to make people laugh, but also to make people think and to meditate on important issues.

I think that with the rise of nationalism and autocratic governments there also needs to be a counterbalance in our satire and a counterbalance in what kind of comedy we present. I feel that deeply. Some people disagree.

But it depends on the artist. I’m not saying every comic should talk about politics. tn: I see a lot of influences from philosophy in your comedy. What did you get out of your philosophy degree?

KN: Everything and nothing…. It’s completely informed our comedic process in the sense that we employ the dialectic where we consider a hypothesis and we consider the opposite of the hypothesis. We fuse it together to try to get some synthesis, and we do that in everything. Every topic that we bring up, we’ll have a conversation about the truth of it.

KT: And with philosophy you’re taught to question everything. No belief is sacrasanctional.

KN: You question everything. And that’s the same with comedy. You’re questioning everything, so there’s that parallel and we’ve been able to at least see some of the similarities between comedy and philosophy … and to see how they work off one another. tn: So what’s next?

KT: We’re still developing material for our next special, and just taking it easy…. I think a couple years ago I was so focused on results, results, results, I didn’t take a step back and appreciate everything we’ve been able to accomplish [… and] been able to experience.… It’s a truly special time to do what we’re all doing.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. You can read the full versions of these articles and more JFL42 coverage at thenewspaper.ca!

Ali Wong doesn’t dilute the weirdness of women’s bodies. She portrays her afterbirth as her baby girl’s house exiting, along with her Bob Marley poster and the leftover food in her fridge that she forgot to throw out. She describes how, after 72 hours in labour, her friend’s vagina looked like two dicks, which she had to pinch together to hold in a queef. Part of what makes these stories effective, apart from the outrageous and original visual imagery, is the fact that we’re not used to hearing them. It’s new even for Ali Wong, and part of the joke is her shock at discovering what actually happens to her body after giving birth.

Ali Wong never calls our bodies gross. The graphic imagery is part of the joke, but because Wong’s the one telling the story in such an open and unapologetic manner, she allows women to reclaim ownership of these experiences—which are gross, painful and uncomfortable because they are physically so for women. And not just because they’re unpleasant for men to think about.

Most people are unused to hearing stories like this, but comedy allows Ali Wong to examine topics we wouldn’t normally talk about. She is capable of making an entire audience laugh hysterically about queefing and C-sections when in our regular lives, it’s still taboo to talk about periods.