Issue 8 - Mar 8 2018

Volume XL Issue VII 3.8.18

t h e n e w s p a p e r University of Toronto’s independent community paper Since 1978

Masthead

the criticism

Cover Ashima Kaura

the newspaper

A Big, Wild Experience

University of Toronto’s independent student paper since 1978 Editor-In-Chief Alina Butt Managing Editor Natalia Herran Senior Copy Editor Rebecca Gao Assistant Copy Editor Erica Sung Business Manager Kelly Chan Public Relations Coordinator Gabbi Gard Design Editor Rel Ryann Visual Content Editor Noah Kahansky Online Editor Hilary Lo News Editor Noah Walker Comment Editor Maxim Basu Music Editor Chantel Ouellet Arts Editor Joyce Wong Mascots Honeybee, Flora and Fauna (r.i.p.), Miguel and Paco Contributors Zeynel Akkus, Nina Anggala, Alina Butt, Ted Fraser, Carter Gibson, Natalia Herran, Ashima Kaura, Rel Ryann, Richard Slater, Carsten van Wersebe, Ethan Vilu, Noah Walker, Haoxin Wen 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

256 McCaul St. Suite 106 Toronto, ON M5T 1W5

from a place we never thought we’d go to a place we never thought we’d leave

And you know what? n: No, what?! /s a: It turned out to be exactly as awkward as I expected it to be. I walked in and the small crowd was underwhelming, milling about and just … standing there, swaying, as the music drifted around in the dark room. I felt out of place and self-conscious.

I had no idea how I would possibly begin to enjoy myself without being completely out of it.

But somehow, and I don’t know quite how, time went on, the room filled up, the music got louder, and I found myself loosening up. As much as I hate to admit I was wrong, I did end up having a really good time … and that was the time I went to a Big Wild concert. n: Okay, so… a: I had to say all of that just so I could use that title for our end-of-year editorial and have it make sense. If you’re a stooge like me, then much like thinking about going to a Big Wild concert, writing about your feelings fills you with an unfun mixture of apprehension and cynicism. n: “Writing about my feelings is literally all I do,” I say as I struggle to write about my feelings.

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The University of Polarization

More and more while searching for the truth we’re being pushed to the left or right

by Ted Fraser

by Alina Butt and Natalia Herran

a: Somehow, I found myself going to an EDM— okay, okay, it was more just electronic—concert.

I’m usually down for any kind of music, but I just couldn’t imagine how I would possibly have fun at this sort of concert. I don’t know what kind of a dancer I am but I know I’m not into vibing, which is what I was told would be the rhythm of choice.

a: But this time, there’s really no getting around it—for many of us here at the newspaper, this will be our last issue. That kinda means we have to write about our feelings.

When I started at the newspaper in my first year I was just looking for a way to get involved and get my writing out there. I would drop in on a meeting here or there, but other than that I didn’t really take it too seriously. n: I was thrown into an executive role. Obviously equal parts skill and experience but mostly the fact that we desperately needed a Senior Copy Editor. Shout out to Chantel for recommending me.

I joined the newspaper family pretty late compared to most people, I was just starting my fourth year but now here I am, five months after graduating, saying goodbye to the place that made me fall in love with editing.

a, n & honeybee diligently working away on production night c. 2016 a - 2014-2018 n- 2016-2018

a: I don’t remember when I started to take the newspaper seriously, but when I saw an opening I took it and ended up being Senior Copy Editor. Suddenly I had a stake in how things were going, and since then I haven’t been able to stop.

If your parents went to university and you did well in high school, university enrollment is not a question—it is a near-certainty. It’s an automatic process, job market anxiety and an academics-oriented family would actively convince the student to go. This automated march towards post-secondary begs the question: why are people at university in the first place?

But I don’t think I would have gotten as far as I did, as early as I did, without being pushed by people like Dylan and Zach. They sat me down at the end of my second year and told me I should run for Editor-in-Chief. Fraser talked me through as I tried to convince myself it was something I could do. People like Ariel, Prisca and Hilary really made the newspaper home, and I didn’t want to leave.

Jordan Peterson, the terrifyingly articulate and chronically controversial University of Toronto professor, says that “the reason you come to university is because there is nothing more powerful than someone who is articulate and can think and speak.”

n: I’ll forever hold that first year close in my heart.

I remember getting home at 3 a.m. after my first production night but the rest of the year was admittedly a blur of late nights, disagreements about the style guide and reading every single article out loud with Rebecca to make sure our over-tired brains didn’t miss anything. I never felt like I fit in anywhere during my years at university until I spent every other Wednesday night with our production team working our asses off to meet our deadline.

Helen Keller agreed, “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

As Managing Editor, I was definitely a lot less connected to the paper than I was as Senior Copy Editor. Nothing beats having to be there every single night making sure that every single word fit perfectly within every single article. However, I am really glad that I decided to stay another year after graduating. It allowed to keep ties with a place that I never thought I’d love but do now, surprisingly.

Between Descartes’ meditations, Marx’s assertions, Fukuyama’s delusions and Plato’s opinions, you get submerged under a swirling whirlpool of tugging, contradicting and complementary thoughts. These debates are what make university worthwhile.

a: Everything sort of fell into place, and now I have had the pleasure (and pain) of being Editor-in-Chief for two years. This publication has become a part of my daily routine, and honestly, my life. It still isn’t quite hitting me, even though I’m going to graduate soon.

I suppose when it comes to getting my feelings down about my time at the newspaper, I just want to keep on saying thank you to everyone who stuck around, everyone who challenged me to keep growing as a writer, a leader, a person—and everyone who made this experience what it has been … big and wild. n: Yeah, what she said.

And there’s that. It’s been good, guys. xoxo a&n on behalf of the newspaper staff

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3

idea. Obama talked about how social media gives us personalized newsfeeds. Liberals will be fed stories from The New York Times or CNN since Facebook knows you don’t agree with Sean Hannity. It can even go so far as it did for conservatives, many of whom were fed a deluge of divisive propaganda by Russian bots.

But getting an unfiltered flow of ideas is crucial if you want to move towards a closer approximation of the truth. And isn’t that why we follow the news? Or why we go to university?

In the mid-1950s, while the sun set on McCarthyism, a sociologist stumbled upon some rattling statistics. A survey of American academics revealed that only 16 per cent identified as Republican, while 67 per cent said they believed they were “more liberal than the average person.” Last year, the Adam Smith Institute published similar findings, where eight out of 10 professors at British universities identified as “liberal or left-wing.”

The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus thought along the same lines, writing, “Only the educated are free.”

After wandering through aisle after aisle of these vaguely familiar, slightly inspiring quotes, you find a common thread. University lets you sharpen your intellectual axe with a rotating toolkit of prescribed books, guided thought and debate. New and unsettling ideas are lobbed at you daily. Your old beliefs get expanded upon and put to the test.

Academia has a natural left-wing slant. Compared to conservatives, liberals are simply more likely to become teachers. “Openness to experience” is a shared personality trait of both liberals and teachers. Of course, there are conservatives with “openness to experience” too, but regardless, neither side seems to be as open as they would like to believe.

At times, academia can turn into quite the liberal echo chamber, which drowns out the smaller conservative lobby and obscures any sense of the reality of the landscape of opinions that actually exist.

But now, ideological polarization is intensifying and fewer of these productive debates are happening. We insulate ourselves from conflict or dismiss it entirely.

At Sussex University, a professor held a workshop titled, “How to deal with right-wing attitudes in the classroom.” At UTM, the Students’ Union refused to recognize a university-affiliated club because of its ‘prolife’ views. At the University of Toronto, 125 faculty members officially condoned the Graduate Students’

On David Letterman’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, former president Barack Obama touched on this

Venue for Sale The gentrification, and reduction, of art in Toronto

“

How does a person express sadness objectively? Are the facts just spoken and emotions cast aside? Do we merely swallow down grimaces as projected profit margins replace the culture cultivated in this diverse city?

Certainly, it makes sense. It is difficult to argue that people do not always need a place to live, but what becomes of a city when it is built on population rates and the arts are thrown to the wind?

As venues close and tears are shed, heads swivel desperately in search of anything that can replace the memories that fall along with the bricks of Toronto’s musical legacy. Slowly, the arts are getting pushed further into an already tiny corner. With the closure of Honest Ed’s in late 2016, Toronto lost two of its venues in a single swoop.

by Noah Walker

Toronto’s already grey in the winter, so it would be a shame for it to lose all of its color.

”

The removal of The Hoxton and The Central broke hearts, but it was expected with the massive redevelopment of the Holy Oaks property. Holy Oaks ultimately increased the cost of rent to an unattainably high amount to ensure current businesses left the block—an illegal practice to perform on private citizens, but is common practice in regards to business. These two venues fought a losing battle from the beginning.

As a former employee of Lucan Wai’s The Central, its closure particularly breaks my heart. Set to be torn down and replaced with living accommodations four towers deep, the question of whether these developments actually enhance the city or fatten the pockets of development companies is constantly on the minds of Torontonians. Ultimately, it comes down to opin-

Union’s anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian theme week.

Meanwhile, however, conservative Varsity Blues have gained traction, and many have tethered themselves to University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson. Peterson has become a free-speech martyr for many, speaking to over 300,000 YouTube subscribers and sustaining a well-funded Patreon page. Shrines all over Reddit have praised Peterson for his outspokenness.

The Campus Conservatives have proven to be a very vocal group on campus and have organized well-attended talks with figures like Patrick Brown, Jason Kenny and Tony Clement. The group has about 1,000 Twitter followers, compared to the UofT Liberals’ 1,800.

A more insidious fact is that some of the most alienated conservatives can be pushed even further to the right, past the point of no return.

Trump’s right-hand man Stephen Miller is a case in point. After paratrooping deep into Democratic territory at his high school in Santa Monica, he was marooned. Miller was incessantly peppered with politics that were not a representation of his own ideas, so he had to learn to articulate and defend himself against them. In the process, he became resentful and radicalized. Now, at 31, he’s got Trump’s ear.

“The Truth Will Make You Free” is scrawled over the south entrance to Old Vic, the architectural centerpiece of the Victoria College campus. The bold, all-caps inscription reminds students why they’ve spent $100,000 to be there. The vertigo-inducing lean in academia needs to be corrected, or at the end of four years the “enlightened” masses will prance away with only half the truth.

ions between those with money and those who count their transactions in terms of show tickets. To me, this is the real catastrophe.

The arts and business are no longer able to coexist within the city of Toronto. According to Councillor Josh Colle of the Toronto Music Advisory Council, “We are a growing city, with 100,000 people moving to it every year, increasing property values, increasing rent—so every independent business is under threat.”

Unfortunately for the arts, the majority of venues are independent businesses that work with the community to turn a limited profit. They simply cannot compete.

To exemplify this point, a person need only look to Toronto’s famed Hard Rock Café that, having closed in May, is preparing itself to be remodeled into yet another Shoppers Drug Mart. Even the most analytical of Toronto feel a dull pain in their hearts at the thought of saying goodbye to this historical monument of the city’s.

Since 1978 the Toronto Hard Rock Café, the second in the world, offered countless shows to bands that could not have found a gig anywhere else. It existed for the community and for the city at large, serving as a staple of the city’s music scene. With memorabilia torn from the walls and the lights dimming with the closure of this colossus, Torontonians are only left to wonder what’s next. Art collectives have sprouted up all around the city in an effort to revive the dying art scene, but require the help of the people. Collectives like Queen’s Park Water Tower (QPWT) and Black Siren Entertainment stand at the edges of their worlds as they seek out the psyched artists of the city. Toronto’s already grey in the winter, so it would be a shame for it to lose all of its colour.

Well ... I bet you had fun though!

Ask Aunty (because she knows best)

do I ask my parents to arrange my Q: How marriage to the boy I like?

Ready for the next step already, eh?

Then clearly you don’t go to U of T.

Well, luckily for you, it won’t be that hard. After all, if you’re asking this question then odds are that you know this guy is someone they’re likely to say yes to. I’m going to guess he’s just brown enough, just Muslim enough, and just successful enough, if not exceeding any and all of your expectations.

...

Nope.

But what if I don’t feel like crying?

Yeah.

Are you a graduate?

What did you study?

But I digress—here’s what I have to offer.

If you want to get something by them, you have to do it on their terms, or at least make it look like you are.

That means letting your parents feel like they really are arranging your marriage.

Obviously this whole process really depends upon how close you are to your parents, but again, if you’re asking this question you’re probably still not close enough to just up and share important parts of your life with them. So I suggest taking it slow.

Cry.

ok

U of T

what to do after

STEM.

I’m so sorry...

You did do your parents a favor by find-

Smaaaaaaart.

Are you a still a student?

Are you graduating this year?

Nope.

Yeah!

Yeah.

No.

Have you looked at your grades recently?

Then maybe try another branch...

Are you sure?

Well, at least you still have sthe summer to look

Before I give you my advice, know that I’m not really an aunty. I have just spent a fair amount of time in their midst, learning how to talk to them and like them.

They think I’m a hoot. Heck, tell your parents about me.

What do you mean?

by Alina Butt, Ashima Kaura, Zeynel Akkus, Nina Anggala and Haoxin Wen

ing a boy who checks off on all the boxes, so don’t be too timid when you go up to them. I understand feeling cautious because at the end of the day you don’t know how your parents will react (good or, hopefully not, bad), but treat it less like you’re fessing up to something and more like you’re trying to get with someone.

You’ve probably been talking to this guy for, what, a few months now? That means you have at the very least met up with him before, and your parents might not be naive enough to roll with that. Keep the story simple: you met through school or work while amongst friends, started to talk, and you think it’s worth considering because he mentioned his parents have been haranguing him as much as yours have.

If you’re feeling particularly guilty, it’s worth owning up to the fact that you’ve met him before, but say it was nothing more than coffee, or while out with a group of friends.

The whole idea is to convey that this has been appropriate from the get go. Don’t show too much interest, but don’t be too casual either … basically, at the end of the day, treat your parents like you would a guy you aren’t looking to marry.

6

the new frontier

the reviews

Hart House Theatre presents

Titus Andronicus Titus Andronicus, the classic but especially violent tragedy by William Shakespeare, is currently being put on at Hart House Theatre by director James Wallis from Friday, March 2 until Saturday, March 10.

The play begins with Saturninus (Tristan Claxton), emperor and pompous elder brother, and Bassianus (Megan Miles), his just and fair sister, both marching in with groups of Roman tribunes at their heels.

Following them is our tragic hero, Titus Andronicus (David Mackett), returning from war against the barbaric Goths with captives—Queen Tamora (Shalyn McFaul), her lover Aaron the Moor (Shawn Lall) and her sons.

Other significant characters to appear are Marcus Andronicus (Annie MacKay) and Titus’s sister, the most agreeable of the Andronicus siblings. Another significant character is Lavinia (Bailey Green), Titus’s young daughter, who is meant to wed Saturninus. However, she is instead swept away by Bassianus with the help of Titus’s sons. Saturninus, unconcerned, takes the lovely but deadly Tamora as his bride—and thus sows the seeds of disaster.

Violent, grieving and deeply disturbing, Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare’s work at its most provoking and entertaining. One of the most memorable moments of the production is when Titus first witnesses the mutilated form of his daughter. David Mackett gives a performance with such heart, anguish and unrelenting sorrow that he brought tears to even

by Carter Gibson

Black Panther (2018), the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), takes the multibilliondollar superhero franchise to new and unexplored locations—and I don’t just mean the fictional central African nation Wakanda. Black Panther is directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, who broke into the movie scene with the similarly socially-charged Fruitvale Station (2013). Coogler attempts to meld a sociallyconscious narrative with the action-packed silliness of an Avengers film, and for the most part, he pulls it off quite well.

It is the presentation of these social issues that is certainly the film’s greatest strength. Its plot is carefully woven together to present the complex problems and histories surrounding race adeptly and without leaning too heavily upon generalization. At no point is the audience being hamfisted by issues either. Instead, these ideas are constructed incredibly thoughtfully, resisting opportunities to excessively villainize or victimize. Black Panther seems to primarily want to further the dialogue surrounding the issue of race by challenging common assumptions and educating those who may not understand its intricate complexities.

As a white man, there is no way for me to adequately describe the importance of this film to the those of African descent. But to hazard a guess, it must be incredibly gratifying to finally see a major blockbuster production taking this specific social climate and identity seriously and on such a large scale. Additionally,

And indeed the stage was alive—a lot of credit must be given to the production designers.

The costumes, designed by Allie Marshall, deviate from the traditional Roman wardrobe. Instead of capes, tunics and armor, Titus is dressed in a double-breasted army coat, cargo pants and army boots.

Instead of the white togas traditionally worn by Roman emperors, Saturninus is dressed in a lean black suit, fitted for a Bond villain. These unique costume choices, although not perfectly conventional, do seem to give the play a refreshing feel and bring out new sides to Shakespeare’s characters.

Director James Wallis says: “Titus Andronicus is a play about revenge, which may not be the most conscious concept we interact with everyday, but it remains part of our cultural landscape through movies and television. But Titus is also about the absolute grief that comes from complete horror. Those concepts seem ripe to explore in our world. But how do we interact, as an audience, with such violence?”

Personally, my favorite part about the production was its play with lighting, done by Melissa Joakim, and especially in scenes with blood and violence. Instead of casting the spotlight on the bloodshed itself, the lighting averts from the atrocity and puts the spotlight on a dancing clown. The almost absurd contrast between the light-hearted clown and the backset horror adds another layer of memorability to the production.

Themes of violence and revenge are nothing new to entertainment. It is a subject that audiences never tire of, be it in 16th century England or nearly four-anda-half centuries later at Hart House Theatre. A humorous tweet from Hart House Theatre’s Twitter account after the opening night performance declared, “A bloody-good time was had by all.” If nothing else, James Wallis’s Titus Andronicus reminds us all of the magic of theatre and the importance of seeing live performances on stage now and then.

Although Shakespeare’s plays have daunted countless students for generations, having the opportunity to see it well-adapted on the stage is always an enjoyable experience. If you have not seen Titus Andronicus yet, I highly recommend you go!

However, despite its critical social importance, the film as an artistic endeavour—even one as genre-specific as a superhero film—has room for improvement. As should probably have been expected, Black Panther shares many of the common inadequacies of its preceding generations of superhero films, providing very little in the way of any kind of cinematic creativity. If the Marvel formula works for you, all the better as it is on full display here, but if not, well … this is your warning.

The film runs at least 20 minutes too long, relying on needless exposition that seems to teeter on the edge between lazy world-building and cliched backstory.

What results are several scenes that are too vague to be interesting and too complicated to be thrilling.

Despite this, as the scattered plot begins to weave itself together more tightly, characters become entangled in more eccentric and intriguing situations and tension finds room to build.

These tense sequences are punctuated throughout

by Noah Walker

SPACE—the final frontier. Perhaps that’s too cliché a tagline for the likes of Elon Musk, but we will struggle on regardless. By this point in March, pretty much everyone has heard of the launch of a Tesla Roadster into space by private rocket firm SpaceX, and if you haven’t, then let me be the first to welcome you to the world of modern media.

Though clearly a test for SpaceX and their new Heavy Load rockets, it is almost indisputable that this launch, which occurred on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 doubles as a massive publicity stunt. Originally heralded as a great success for falling into the Earth’s orbit, it is unsurprising that Musk’s dream to have a manned mission to Mars within a decade is receiving so much support. This support has made Musk’s reputation porcelain and has distinguished SpaceX as a leader of the modern space race.

However, Musk’s reputation is not quite as clean as it once was. After receiving immense backlash from NASA and the scientific community as a whole, SpaceX must run damage control over one critical mistake. A general rule for space travel, for those that do not frequently fly the stars, concerns the sterilization of all equipment intending to land whilst in space. This little detail has created a world of trouble for the pioneering rocket firm as the Roadster, which hurtles towards Mars even now, is likely infected with microbes from Earth. The inherent issue with the movement of these microbes through space is that they can be later misinterpreted as organic life, or alien to Earth, when it is actually of terrestrial origin.

To book tickets, contact: Hart House Theatre Box Office tickets.harthouse.ca 416.978.8849

Black Panther

the success of the film itself speaks to its importance.

At the time of writing, the film has grossed more than $900 million worldwide, ranking second in the MCU behind only the first Avengers film. A response like that not only furthers the attention these issues are demanding from the population of movie-goers, but will also hopefully ensure that companies will now focus their efforts on the production of like minded films.

The fastest car in the world receives backlash from the scientific community.

by Haoxin Wen

The story changes much in pacing and mood in the second part of the play. Titus becomes chaotic and mentally unstable. The scenes shift more rapidly into new and different locations, with fewer characters and gradually uncovered revelations. The tempo gains, and the characters move with an increasingly anxious and fervid pace. Finally, as the characters converge, the play reaches the height of its bloody crescendo in a swirl of rose petals and the pounding of drums.

A barrier-breaking blockbuster despite Marvel’s stale superhero formula

A Starlit Drive

A novel and bloody good take on Shakespeare

the manliest cheeks in the audience. He earned himself and his fellow performers a great ovation from the audience.

the film by a variety of classic blockbuster set pieces.

Explosions, crashing vehicles, sophisticated weaponry, slow motion acrobatics—it’s got it all. However, it’s an all that is incredibly dull. These scenes are used frequently, and are so excessive and grandiose that the violence becomes banal, trite distractions from any interesting character development or plot point.

Coogler makes some questionable decisions with cinematography in this film. Commonly he chooses to have the lens float through large sets, spinning around frantically and following the violence like a spastic housefly, and resulting in a look of comparable aesthetic.

Breaking the patterns of previous Marvel films in a positive way is Black Panther’s villain, Killmonger.

Typically, otherworldly forces antagonise the hero, bent on destruction for no particular reason apart from that they are simply evil—nothing more or less.

Played by Michael B. Jordan, Killmonger does away with such simplicity in favour of creating a character who, like many of this film’s supporting characters, is complexly motivated and even justified in his exploits.

This ties into the film’s treatment of its social themes, but all the same, was a welcome shift.

While the film’s technical and creative shortcomings are lamentable, they pale in comparison to the critical importance this film carries socially. Black Panther fails to challenge what a superhero film can be, but positively redefines what a superhero film can do.

7

The Video Essay YouTube has over 1.5 billion active monthly users, and a good portion of this extensive community has been involved in popularizing a new phenomenon—the video essay.

There is a lot of variation within this genre, and creators are able to be as expressive as they like. Some video essays include many clips edited together while a voice reads from a script in the background, while others prefer to be more minimal, with the camera on them as they recite a script with clips edited in when needed.

Given this wide range, video essays allow for a lot of diversity—and this is what makes them so interesting.

Though lots of videos on YouTube use almost the exact same format as a video essay, they differ in one respect.

Video essays are argumentative, with a structure to the video that gives it an internal coherence—just like normal, written essays have. To put it simply, video essays have a thesis.

To illuminate how wonderful this medium can be, I’ll take a look at some of the most popular video essayists on YouTube, such as Nerdwriter1 and Lessons from the Screenplay.

I’ll start with Nerdwriter1, who is among one of the larger channels on YouTube, with a subscriber count of over two million. Almost every video he puts out is a

high-quality video essay of about 15 minutes in length that focuses on a specific artistic work, whether that is a movie, a painting, a song or album.

What makes his channel among the best is his ability as an editor to put these clips together into a wonderfullyargued video essay. Since he is analyzing art, having the ability to edit in works all throughout the video is absolutely crucial. This reduces his use of jargon, and easily allows the viewer to know what they need to to appreciate his argument even without having ever seen the movie scene or heard the song that he is analyzing.

If one was to write an essay on any medium that wasn’t just word-based, it would be quite difficult to get the reader to understand what you’re talking about unless they also happen to be familiar with the piece. The video essay proves to be much more entertaining and accessible. Of course, this would prove problematic if someone desired more scholarly analysis, as much of the time spent within the video is on showing the piece itself to the audience. However, this point proves to be irrelevant considering what most creators of such video essays are aiming for.

One video from the channel Lessons from the Screenplay called “Rogue One vs. The Force Awakens—The Fault in Our Star Wars” (perhaps a pun using the title of John Green’s novel?) is a wonderful example of the power that

illustration by Rel Ryann

As to why SpaceX decided against cleaning the vehicle, the Tesla was never intended to land on Mars. This is a difficult pill to swallow, as it seems impossible to assume that the car would never make it there in some capacity, if not for the simple fact that it was shot there—but impacts and controlled landings are two very different things. With little to do about the ever-fleeting microbes, a person might find solace in the vacuum of space, a place where all living things must find their conclusion. Unfortunately, microbes are hardy organisms that can survive some of the harshest conditions on Earth.

Among them, there are those with the ability to survive on the vehicle for millions of years.

According to the planetary scientist Jay Melosh of Purdue University, “If there is an indigenous Mars biota, it’s at risk of being contaminated by terrestrial life.” Unfortunately, there is little that can be done at this point to contain the problem, but perhaps we can still ensure this does not happen again.

Elon Musk is a visionary—a Benjamin Franklin of the new age, if you will. He strives to meet impossible goals that have the potential to come about with the dedication of large teams and large amounts of resources. He has the public at his back and his eyes set on a future he hopes to build for the rest of the world. With publicity becoming more important and the Musk brand becoming a reality of modern life, perhaps all a person needs to do to preserve places like Mars is not allow themselves to become caught up in what just might be the next great race to space.

A popular trend on YouTube with unexplored potential

by Carsten van Wersebe

such a medium has. This video compares the two films, focusing mostly on the main protagonists in either film.

Nerdwriter1 is able to easily and seamlessly jump from one movie to the other as he goes through the major plot points in both films. When he references another author, he cuts to a picture of the book and the quote he is citing. This format allows for easy consumption while still being to a large extent quite rigorous. It’s also virtually impossible to do the same kind of analysis for film in any other medium.

YouTube is a platform that rewards viewership and popularity, much like journalism does. The video essay has a particularly acute journalistic advantage over written essays by being able to grab varying forms of content and edit them together to provide a comprehensive yet accessible take. Though the format has its limits and videos of higher quality are very difficult to create well, the final product is often worth it.

Already many mainstream media outlets such as Vox and The Independent are creating video essays of their own, and many of them are quite good. Though most video essays on YouTube have been focused on art and film critique, the medium has much more potential— and if the content produced by Nerdwriter1 and Lessons from the Screenplay can tell us anything, it’s that such content is well worth looking forward to.

=

Vesuvius Chapel If we bought the one bedroom two storey converted family chapel in vesuvius bay british columbia we could play bocce ball in the ferry terminal parking lot.

We could buy snow-cones at the roadside store.

I assume that they sell those, and if they don’t, then to hell with them we’ll open up a snow-cone stand and make millions.

We could take long walks through the gnarled trees in the forest, then shorter walks on the hard shores of the bay, then shorter walks along the road’s soft shoulder, then still shorter walks in the yard, and we could look out the window over the hedge, and out at the water when my limbs start to shake and my mind begins to wander and we’d turn, smile softly at each other, then look away and they could bury me quietly, in the dirt under the arbutus tree, behind the vesuvius chapel.

Untitled (Sumac Leaves) The leaves of a sumac plant are like arching green rainbows, moving all the way down.

They are found in the stands by the fields, they envelop the brickworks

hills, and they visit the periphery of my dreams. In the fall, they turn as red as

soft glorious

infernos, and they light Ontario on fire

with their colour.

I have seen them in my darker days, and they have brightened up my Life.

Poetry Corner — featuring Ethan Vilu —

Paradise Valley Days (Lost in the Woods) My friends all have nicknames like “Owl” or “Juniper”. And so do I, I assume. The stream runs down hill through the hard lichen and pine brush - only time and fate know where on earth she’s headed.

As for me, I stay and wait on winds for any trace of perfection, ‘cause one day I’d like to be like my hero, “Forget-Me-Not” and be glorious, beautiful and still.