July 2011 vol. 4 issue 7
FUTURÉALE arts . culture . living
www.futuréale.com
Cover story featuring Jonathan Calleri on pages 16-17
ART FOR OUR SAKES PG.8
PYSCHRHYTHMS PG.22
WORLDWIDE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL PG. 14
X-MEN:FIRST CLASS PG.6 ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY PG. 5
a r t s . c u l t u r e. l i v i n g
Note From the Editor FUTURÉALE
Dear loyal FUTUREALE readers, We hope that everyone is enjoying the hot summer days. Summer is the perfect time for relaxation but also rejuvenation- it is the high time for creativity and inspiration. The two things that are packed between the colorful pages of your favorite magazine or book. We are thrilled to unveil this month’s edition and want to thank everyone for the time invested into making it come to life as it has. There are articles fit for every eye to peruse, featuring an eccentrically cool cover piece on artist Jonathan Calleri, a look at our favorite returning and new TV shows, and stories that will make you question your moral compass. Embracing different aspects of livelihood we bring to you our latest venture. May you be inspired and read on, Editor in Chief Shawn Shapiro -Interim EIC: Anastasia Rokina and Jess Silver
Editor in Chief Shawn Shapiro
Online Content Editor Shawn Shapiro Executive Director Omar Murji Contact FutuRéale at: info@futureale.com www.futureale.com ISSN 1916-3215 FUTURÉALE FutuRéale Magazine is published by The Organic Press www.organicpress.ca FutuRéale Magazine is a proud member of the ONAMAP Network www.onamap.ca © 2011 ONAMAP Enterprises
Masthead Publisher Omar Murji Editor in Chief Shawn Shapiro Acting Editor-in-Chief Anastasia Rokina Jess Silver Layout Artists Michael Nguyen Graeme Mollison Rav Rawat GH Interns: Sarah Doktor Olena Protsiv Melissa Doyle Editorial Interns Anastasia Rokina Lindsay Romeo Olivia D’Orazio Jess Silver Brian McLellan Jess Morton Olga Shugurova Abby Plener Vicky Tobianah Ilana Perry Contributing Writers Anastasia Rokina Lindsay Romeo Jess Silver Abby Plener Jess Morton Maryam Gordpour Mark Kinash Cindy Ng Ham Marcus Pidek Danielle Marcotte Brian McLellan
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Table of Contents
a r t s . c u l t u r e. l i v i n g
04 Gaga Vs. Madonna Mark Kinash 05 Animal Therapy Cindy Ng Ham 06 Review X-Men: First Class Maryam Gordpour 07 Medical Drama’s Jess Silver 08 Art for our Sakes Marcus Pidek 10 Dancing to the Drum Marcus Pidek 12 Green Goddess Abby Plener 14 Short Film Festival Lindsay Romeo 16 Jonathan Calleri Jess Silver 18 Disney Subliminal Messages Lindsay Romeo 20 Fall T.V. Jess Morton 22 Psych Rhythms 24 Psych Rhythms Cover Story Anastasia Rokina 26 Hidden Gems Brian McLellan 28 Secret Holiday 30 Secret Holiday Cont. Danielle Marcotte
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Lady Gaga/Lady Madonna:
A case of Diva vs. Diva By Mark Kinash
The first time I saw Lady Gaga on television, I wasn’t impressed. She seemed to be one in a long line of Madonna impersonators who enjoyed a renaissance starting in the late 90’s with the launch of Britney Spears’ video “Hit me Baby One More Time...”. But whereas Britney Spears imitated early Madonna with her pop-campy style that seemed frivolous but catchy, Lady Gaga was like an over-thetop spoof of Madonna’s “Blonde Ambition” phase. If you’re too young to remember when “Blonde Ambition” invaded the early 90’s, it was the time when Madonna took herself way too seriously as a pop icon. Everywhere you looked there were reminders of her self-conscious narcissism. There was the infamous “Strike a Pose” lyric in “Vogue” that became a manifesto for posers everywhere. And it all peaked with her “Truth or Dare” documentary where she put her boy-toy crushes on display (Antonio Bandaras, Warren Beatty) in a garish manner that would make Kathy Griffin blush. Of course, Madonna paid her dues long before “Blonde Ambition” became a cultural touchstone. In the 80’s she toiled as a disco dance queen long after the disco ball crashed, whereas Lady Gaga seemed to want it all way too soon. Watching Gaga’s first videos like “Poker Face” where she presented herself as a decadent gadfly in a “La Dolce Vita” setting, I thought “Who the hell does she think she is?” She seemed like a nobody presenting herself as a somebody who’d rather be a nobody. This cynically postmodern approach to celebrity was exaggerated by her self-described monstrous sense of style. Unlike Madonna, Lady Gaga’s style isn’t sexy, nor is it meant to be. It was meant to emulate Lady Gaga’s other mentor Michael Jackson, who in his later years wore similarly hideous getups to hide himself from mobs of his crazy fan love slaves, as well as those nasty sun rays that threatened to destroy his dream of eternal youth.
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their early fame way into old age? Very few, although The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Prince, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen still produce some very good work now and again. One thing that Madonna and Lady Gaga have in common is the feverish devotion of their gay fans. When Madonna was at her peak, she was often accused of being a tease by hinting at her same-sex attractions in an ambiguous manner. Madonna’s flirtation with acerbic lesbian comedienne Sandra Bernhard during an 80’s appearance on the Letterman show was a nostalgic reminder of a time when she could still be considered provocative. Still, this rubbed many in the gay community the wrong way. She tried to make up for this by expressing love for her gay dancers in “Truth or Dare”, but when the film showed her treating them like a doting mother bird looking after her babies she came off as incredibly patronizing. Lady Gaga fares no better. Her love for “her little monsters” is code-word for all her flamingly gay fans who feel they don’t fit in with mainstream society. But does she have to be so hideous in her depictions? Ritual suicides, threesomes, Nazi transvestites, and apostle biker gangs are all included in her act. And all seemed designed to arouse the ire of evangelicals and social conservatives everywhere. At least Madonna had a point to her provocation. Her most controversial video “Like a Prayer”, where she fell in love with a reanimated black saint in a climate of racial prejudice, had a message of not judging a man’s faith by the colour of his skin. Sure, Pepsi pulled out from backing the “Blonde Ambition” tour because she was singing in front of burning crosses, but she was calling attention to racial prejudice, not celebrating it.
So the Lady Gaga approach to becoming a celebrity was very simple. Present yourself as a celebrity before you actually become famous, by behaving like a flaky washed-up has-been whose fame peaked ages before it ever began.
The problem with Lady Gaga is that she seems to celebrate prejudice. Without prejudice she couldn’t behave like such a misunderstood monster. That’s why her drama queen melodrama lies in stark contrast to Madonna’s more straight-track careerism. Whereas Madonna pushed the gay-inspired meterosexual style into the mainstream, Lady Gaga wants to push it to the furthest fringe, along with the rest of the world.
Many would threaten to say the same thing about Madonna, yet the only difference is that Madonna already displayed a considerable amount of talent before she took over the world. Sure, her star faded a long time ago, but how many musicians still continue to match
I confess that when I’m at my most self-absorbed, I like to pull out a Lady Gaga track to rejoice in my own self-exile. Yet after a while I decide to act like a grown-up and shove my own make-believe monsters back where they belong, under my bed.
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Animal Assisted Therapy: Who’da Thunk It? By Cindy Ng Ham
legitimized pet therapy in therapeutic healing.
mental, but their presence, affection and simple needs give us this sense of belonging in the world. It’s the way they listen to you and comfort you without commenting on all the little details of your life. They’re just there for you, to keep you safe and secure, to give you peace of mind without provoking you in any way, to promote physical activities which can be great in the long run, and to motivate you in being joyful, friendly and social. It’s a natural way to treat some of those mental and behavioural illnesses in which some medication or psychotherapists may not be able to do in the long run.
Nowadays, several facilities train large varieties of animals (i.e. dogs, cats, horses, elephants, dolphins, birds, rabbits, and many other small animals) with specific characteristics that would then be used on specific patients with physical, social, emotional, and cognitive functionality problems.
Believe it or not, animals have always been great natural therapists. Not only are they not judge-
Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) started in 1792 at the York Retreat in England. After the death of a Quaker (a member of the Society of Friends) weeks after her admission in an insane asylum near York in 1791, the Quakers began questioning the treatment of insane persons. It was later found that the mentally ill were mistreated even worse than animals as they were shackled and thought to be possessed by demons. William Tuke (a Quaker tea merchant) then suggested that they should build a better environment for the mentally ill, which would then be governed by the Society of Friends. And this idea gave birth to the York Retreat. Patients who were admitted did gardening, backyard exercises, and took care of animals like birds and rabbits as part of their therapy. As of 1919 in the United States, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC used dogs with psychiatric patients. In 1942, the US military also used pet therapy at the Pawling Army Air Force Convalescent Hospital at Pawling, New York to help recovering veterans.
But in spite of these attempts of promoting the advantages of AAT, there will always be people criticizing this form as well as any other forms of therapy in the world. So in the end, it will be up to the patient and his or her parents to choose the preferred therapy. And it is highly suggested that the patient does thorough research before finally deciding.
And yet despite their efforts to spread this type of therapy, actual scientific research was not documented until 1961 when a doctor named Boris Levinson documented his observations on the link between human and animal interaction. With Levinson’s research, the health care field finally FUTURÉALE
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-Men: First Class Movie Review By Maryam Gordpour
X-Men: First Class is an exhilarating film that came out on June 3rd, 2011 and made 25 million at the box office and received a ¾ stars rating. In the beginning, I thought since Hugh Jackman was not the main character in this film, it was going to go downhill in no time. However, to my surprise it was not like most prequel films that are made from a different story to confuse the viewers. X-Men: First Class was formed with the same structure as X-Men: -The Last Stand, X-Men: United and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Director Matthew Vaughn was remarkable in transforming the younger characters into who we are more familiar with now grown up in comic books. The film starts out with the Nazis in 1944, where young Magneto reveals his powers from such an early stage in his life, due to the fact that his mother was taken from him. Very similar to a Batman background but still very different, the audience feels the emotions of why Magneto can control his powers with his anger and what memories are left in his mind thereafter. We are then introduced to the wealthy Professor X who has the ability to read minds and he meets his future rival Mystique who can shape shift, in his kitchen at a very young age where they instantly become close friends. The relationship that they have becomes much like a sibling kind of love. The images on screen makes one discover why certain characters had such a vast connection to one another in the other movies. As for where Mystique actually came from is still a huge mystery and her name gives off the feel that it should never be revealed. James Mcavoy and Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of the younger version of their characters were very outstanding and surprising. They both captured the essence of the comic book characters and made the audience understand their relationships when they became older. Michael Fassbender’s role felt like a mix of Casino Royale and Batman Begins, his charms and his witty lines, “Lets just say I’m Frankenstein’s monster” made him the ultimate badass on the cinema screens of 2011. James Mcavoy’s representation of his younger character form was filled with the right kind of emotions and depth to convey what his character used to be and what he became. Kevin Bacon played a very good villain as Sebastian Shaw, he is made for evil characters and his acting was impeccable. The other three female actresses that caught my eye were Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence and January Jones. These three leading ladies kept the audience on there feet when there wasn’t much action going on. The three actresses were all playing different sides of the field which made it even more delightful to watch. Professor X, also known as Charles Xavier, grew up in front of our eyes and displayed the facts of how he became a very smart intelligent scientist. Professor X was always a very compassionate character in the older stages of his life, he was known as the “good guy” and throughout this film
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it shows how Professor X came about to become such an amazing character in comics and other films. Magneto, also known as Erik Lehnsherr, grew up being a very angry man and as he tries to control his anger with the help of Professor X, he slowly falls short. Magneto throughout the film wanted to have his revenge on one man and that was Sebastian Shaw. Mystique also known as Raven Darkolme had a lot of confidence issues about how she appeared when she was not hiding. She is blue with fire red hair and has lizard eyes, she starts out like a typical teenage girl not accepting who she is and trying to hide her mutation from everyone around her, including herself. Other mutated characters are introduced to the viewers and they just do not have it all together because this film does not explain everyone’s story. It is mostly on how Professor X found these characters and their powers were very new and fresh. The CIA was introduced in the first few segments also to introduce Sebastian Shaw’s mutated sidekicks. CIA Agent Moira MacTaggert tracks down Professor X and starts to expand her human mind to all the new possibilities regarding mutation. During the foreshadow of the young characters, the film starts introducing the political formation and disagreements that change the plot of the story to more of a war scene. In this case, the war brings out the heroes and to differentiate good and evil. The destiny of how Charles and Erik become Professor X and Magneto is the main focus in this film, how their personalities came about and what their motives were. The film has a lot of emotions that can relate to humans outside of the mutated world. The kind of emotions that people can relate to these characters by seeking their similarities without the powers they hold. This film shows a lot of drama, action and it makes you think about society and the metaphoric knowledge it holds within the story itself. It is a classical good vs. bad, yet the fact of the matter is, is that because we are shown the relationship between Erik and Charles before they become Magneto and Professor X, viewers can understand where both parties are coming from. A part of me did not dislike Magneto towards the end of the film even if he became Professor X’s arch nemeses in the future. This film was on an all time high and the definition of action packed. The film does this along with the very mind boggling adventures of how the characters developed throughout the series. I recommend this film both to viewers who have seen the other X-Men movies and to new fans whom have not. I’m sure if you’re new to the comic book world you will be intrigued to watch what happens next. For the X-Men lovers out there that have not seen this film get out there and absorb the beginning of how it all started. Lets give it up for X-Men: First Class.
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Scrubbing In on the Truth: Medical Dramas Dubbed Teaching Tools, How Safe is the O. R? Jess Silver Bet you never thought that those handsome Hollywood hunks that you sit down to drool over on a Thursday night, as they don their scrubs, could be teaching the doctor you went to see in the ER. The fact is that medical students are learning the ropes from medical dramas that the average person watches to take a load off. How reassuring is it to know that teaching hospitals draw from the crazy, unethical, fictitious beast better known as Dr. Gregory House? – Not very. But it is the pill-popping, hopelessly addicted saviours in dark blue that we look to for more than just a steamy romance. The medical public turns to them as a foundational ground for educating the future practitioners of tomorrow.
People are always hungry for more whether that more is defined by the degree of interpersonal or inter-relational conflict, or whether it means more traumatic experiences to satisfy the subconscious yearning for terror in one’s mind. The medical drama can satisfy that yearning. “Since its inception in the 1960’s, the medical drama has been one of television’s most popular genres”, says Kevin Goodman, author of “Imagining Doctors: Medical Students and the TV Medical Drama”. The growing popularity of the genre extends far beyond the fact that the TV watching public loves the blood and gore that is so realistically represented. It has to do with the reality that shows such as House and HBO’s Nurse Jackie are capable of presenting patient cases in ways that are far more engag-
ing for students. Rather than sitting hunched over in front of statistical data, they can learn about patient cases and diagnostic scenarios from their favourite television shows. A survey published by The American Journal of Bioethics found that 85% of medical students both prospective and intermediate watched medical dramas. According to Jeffery P. Spike PhD in an article entitled TV doctors’ flaws become Bioethics teaching moments, “The Hollywood dream factory can help educators educate medical students in bioethics discussions”. They [the shows] provide a good starting point. As with everything in life, there are always multiple sides to a story and this one is no exception. Dr. Spike who is an Associate Professor at Florida State University’s Medical Department contends that it is because of famed medical dramas like CBS Scrubs and House MD that students are talking about ethics and diagnostics. As he says, “There should be no shame in admitting that sometimes professional script writers can write a better script than a small team of doctors and ethicists working at a medical school in isolation”. Despite the fact that engaging the students and making scenarios relatable is crucial to their understanding and appreciation for medical ordeals, others worry that the medical dramas act as a breeding ground for malpractice and poor bedside manner. While many love Dr. House for his bad boy antics and often outrageous approach to diagnostics, there are others who believe that the shows through the use of character types like Dr. House are promoting unrealistic truths about life as a physician.
After all, the shows must satisfy network requirements which stipulate that they have a certain time slot that their approach to diagnosis and treatment of a patient must follow, no matter how serious the illness may be, which proves that the show is unrealistic. “No matter where they come from [real people] are more complicated than characters on TV shows”, says Dr. Trachman, a pediatric nephrologist at Schneider’s Children’s Hospital in New York. The good news is that people are showing more interest in medicine because of medical dramas. When it comes to misdiagnosis, the hope is that the shows teach to students what behaviour not to engage in. TV show creators of medical dramas must have a team of physicians available to consult with before writing each episode, because the information represented must be credible.“We cannot all of a sudden make a patient’s nose grow uncontrollably”, said David Shore, creator of House MD. “The illnesses need to be real”, he says. Scrubbing in on the truth requires a lot more than Dr. McDreamy’s good looks or Mcsteamy’s sexy outbursts, it is a matter of teaching students validity and the value of being able to use cinematic discretion. The last thing a dying patient wants is for them to be treated with a killing concoction of vicodin grâce à Nurse Jackie, or for a team of physicians to raid their house. Do not always trust the boys in blue on the silver screen. When it is a matter of life and death, take matters into your own hands.
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ART FOR OUR SAKES By Marcus Pidek
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Dancing To The Drum!
Marcus Pidek “Yoga and Pilates! I mix them with Hatha Yoga and Jane Fonda’s Chal-
lenger Workout.”. Her answer to how does she keep a figure that I imagine even some teenagers would envy. Farida, her show name, doesn’t just do belly dancing. She is a belly dancer. It pours out from the deepest part of her soul.
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Her earliest memories from two years old are of her mother leaving classical music on the radio for her at bedtime. The music filled her with the feeling of dancing and she would drift to sleep. “I love the freedom of belly dancing. It’s a soul dance, your soul is in motion. You can learn the techniques but your dance is your own expression. The dancing is like a connection of myself with the universe. Through dance, I feel like I’m conversing with all my surroundings. I see movement in water and
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a r t s . c u l t u r e. l i v i n g trees shaking in the wind. Waves are wonderful. They inspire circular movements in belly dancing.” “You can create your own dance from what you feel – no restrictions. I feel like I can almost reach other dimensions. The Sufis dance in a circle to reach God. When I dance, I’m in touch with the unseen – reaching to God.” Farida left Europe to continue her studies in Canada. “I studied ballet, modern dance and jazz but I found the most freedom in belly dancing. You dance what you feel.” “I love drums. Dancing to drums is almost like an out of body experience – like the rhythm of the heart, the movement of the Earth – because I am one with the drum. I was so intense that I broke costumes dancing to the drum. In belly dancing you use your emotions – your body is talking. Before there was language, we spoke to others with the movement of every muscle of our body. Now, when learning dance, we discover muscles we didn’t know we had, through movement. There’s a lot more to it than using your belly. You need a lot of stamina and workouts. In mixing belly dancing with modern dance, I can do everything I want, to express my spirit.” “I can be very busy. Belly dancing, now, is acknowledged as an art form. It’s still in demand. I like performing for everyone. I want to reach every member of the audience and show that magic I’m experiencing and touching. It’s a healing energy. I want others to feel it. After some shows, I feel so complete that if I knew it were my last day, I don’t think I could feel more fulfilled.” “I like to show the art and beauty of a dance and the emotion you can feel and take people to a different dimension. There is nothing sleazy about belly dancing. I want to show the control and authority of this dance to freely experience our emotions and who we are. I like the feeling of surrendering the ego – so the power of this energy can flow. When you surrender to the music, you can feel free and not be afraid of showing that feminine power.” Whoa, wait, please. Tell me more about feminine power. Farida obliges, happily. “Feminine power was considered as something dark throughout history. Women were not supposed to show their feminine power. It was misunderstood. There were superstitions and old wives tales of magic and possession. Now, women don’t have to be afraid. The right way to take it is to admire the feminine beauty and energy – to accept and enjoy it. In this way, a woman feels empowered. In her spirit she feels free. As a dancer, this completes, frees, helps and opens her creative flow – it makes her whole.” “Dancing empowers me as a person because I feel one with God. It frees me from ego, I feel more understanding and compassionate. I’m happier and nicer and emptied of any negative force – there’s no aggression. So many tell me I’m a different person when I perform. Many times, when the show is finished, I just want to leave and not talk with the people. I want to leave them with their knowledge of the dance and of me as a dancer. It’s a mystical experience.” “When I was a little girl I was a born dancer. I danced in my room with imaginary people watching me in a circle. I studied dance and theatre and came to Canada. When I discovered belly dancing, I fell in love with it and realized this is who I am. I’m attracted especially to the hand movements but all of the body movements are so graceful. I was already moving my hands around the ages of three to four like the gestures of belly dancers. I want to know more about her one woman show that she’s developing. “It’s a set of dances that reveals the struggles in this world which seems to block our efforts to throw off the things that hold us back. Our Anyone wishing to comment can send an email to m1111@rogers.com
search is hopeless until we realize that what we’re looking for is within us, within each moment.” On a hunch, I asked Farida if time changes when she dances. “Oh, yes! When I dance, I wish there was no time. I believe in time as an extension of movement. From that point of view, a big movement – say a year, is not so long at all. When I’m dancing, I don’t want to know about time, I just dance. In life, we have to tame our expressions. When we dance, we are free - sensual, sexual – one with the experience of the joy of being. I’m uninhibited in experiencing movement through my body – a true, wonderful expression. I call my dance style, Soul In Motion.” And, speaking of style, Farida loves fashion. “I like white very much. I associate it with purity of the soul in dance. For the same reason I like white smoke. I prefer red for empowerment and blue because it offers a sense of cooling and an extension of my soul. When I see blue I think of water and sky and I could just dive into it. I designed some of my costumes and others were designed by different dancers. I don’t get those off the rack. In a normal evening I’ll wear one costume but I can wear two or even three if there is time.” Her audiences are mixed because of so many venues from theatres to banquet halls, weddings to birthdays and I wondered how the women felt about her dancing. “Both the men and the women are so enthusiastic. They have so many inspiring observations. They’ll say, “To dance like this is from God.” “This was not just a dance – it was a healing process.” “You seemed from another dimension, not real.” I’m happy people react this way to my art because I know I’m sending the right message. For years, people gave me an Arabic nickname which means High Voltage, especially with dances to the drum. The tabla is a medium sized drum which can give the musician many different sounds and tones. The feeling is like a goddess of dance. Every woman is a goddess in her own way but in dance she experiences the sensations as a goddess.” “Belly dancing is very sacred to me because it was used in temples as a dance for God. The dance is more like a prayer with the body and I like when that is acknowledged by the audience.” Farida is accustomed to teaching private lessons, in the client’s home, of yoga and dance together. She can be found at businessonvideo. biz/farida/. You can click on a video of her dancing to different pieces. “For all women this is a wonderful way because it gives each a sense of satisfaction. They find the body is more fluid in movement and energy flow. They can find their true selves. I show them the techniques but each woman discovers her own dance that is true to her own self, spirit and body type. A woman of any type of body will appreciate her body and find a dance that works for her.” I asked her, “What do you want for women?” She said, “For each woman to find her own freedom and self delight, to have the purpose or knowledge of how to access the power of movement and find joy and happiness from being genuine and feeling good about herself. My personal inspiration is Isadora Duncan.” “I want to embrace each person with love, through dance, to touch them with the energy in their heart and soul. I feel like I can levitate from the energy I feel through my feet. Some people have said I seem to be too long in the air. I strive to leave people with the feeling of love, beauty and being healed of any negativity. Enriched. When I dance on stage there’s no border. I’m an extension of my body and soul – one with the universe. The energy of my circular motions takes over. There’s no thinking where I’m heading. I just go with the energy. I forget about the body. If there is someone watching, who can’t hear, they will feel the music as they watch me dance.”
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Green Goddess Religious Environmental Activism Abby Plener A few months ago, I was lucky enough to join hun- it be mapped onto the political spectrum in such a polarizing way? dreds of Montreal youth at a conference featuring DaOver the years, religious groups across Canada have become increasvid Suzuki as the keynote speaker. Suzuki announced to the ingly concerned with their own carbon footprint as environmentalism young crowd that as he grows older, he feels increasingly obligated to bestow whatever wisdom he has upon future generations, because unlike us, he “ha[s] nothing left to loose.” Like children eagerly awaiting to hear their grandparents share their stories, the audience hung on to his every word, charmed by his humour, and touched by his impassioned, spirited delivery, as he urged us to rethink the way we conceive of environmental issues. “Let’s put the ‘eco’ back in economy!” he proclaimed, explaining that those who resist more aggressive action in support of climate justice often argue that the economic systems we have in place are “natural”. Their logic follows that environmental policies must conform to this status quo instead of the other way around. Thus, those in the later group create a binary between environmental and economic sustainability as if advocating for one will undermine the other. When this dichotomy is mapped on to the political spectrum (a dichotomy which may or may not reflect reality), those who support a more conservative economic agenda are assumed incapable of pursuing a more progressive environmental one, while environmental activists are immediately linked to the Left because they are perceived as eager to reconstruct the status quo. From the cynic’s perspective, the former are the voice of reason and practicality while the later are naive idealists. Suzuki’s charge to “put the ‘eco’ back in the economy” can be seen as a challenge to this binary. Some conservatives are just as dogmatic as the progressives they dismiss as too ideological, while many climate change activists are inspired by scientific and economic research, disproving the idea that their activism is “irrational” or too “impassioned”. Though environmentalism is definitely a political issue, must
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has become a unifying issue across faiths and within individual community. Their activism continues to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of what an environmentalist looks like. It’s not just the young, Leftist religious folk who we expect to associate with progressive causes. It’s traditional and progressive sects alike, like those joining the Greening Sacred Spaces project, in an effort to cut down costs by building their institutions more sustainably. It’s Conservative Jews establishing Community Supported Agricultural programs to make organic and kosher foods accessible to their communities, while advocating that Kosher food should not only be produced in accordance with traditional Jewish law, but with ecological concerns in mind as well. It’s religious leaders at theological seminaries across the country who are incorporating ecology and environmentalism into their curriculums. It’s the United Church of Canada who launched an advocacy campaign during lent to teach their congregations about water resources worldwide.
Like environmentalism, when religion is projected upon the political spectrum, one side is imagined to have a monopoly over faith while the other is perceived to be disconnected from it entirely. Yet, the fact that ecological concerns have reached such diverse demographics within religious communities, proves how artificial those labels really are. In an interview with Energy Evolution, the United Church of Canada’s Dr. David Hallman explained that the church’s involvement in climate change activism, “takes it beyond discussions over the individual self interest of various countries and the necessity of technical discussions” by focusing on the moral implications of the debate. Like Suzuki’s imperative, the faith-based environmental activism transcends the economy / ecology binary which often hovers over these debates. Perhaps what these communities really teach us, is that climate justice is a gospel we can all get behind.
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Worldwide Sho Lindsay Romeo Five days, twelve programs, twenty-five countries, one hundred and five short films. I did not love all of the one
hundred and five films I saw over those five days, and I did not get to the two programs I most wanted to see, but I was in absolute Indie cinema heaven. From the very first short, a cool little Dutch film about a twelve year old who channels the spirit of Charles Bukowski while on vacation, to the last short, which was from New Zealand’s Taika Waititi (“Eagle vs. Shark”), I was completely engaged. The 17th annual Worldwide Short Film Festival played in Toronto from May 31st to June 5th. It showcased 275 short films in 33 programs, and each program running approximately 90 minutes long. The more popular programs played Friday night at the Bloor Cinema, with the bulk of the showings split between the Royal Ontario Museum and the Varsity Cinema. There were also a couple of exciting trips to the CN Tower for a date night, and Shorts for Shorties and a night of comedy at The Garrison. The Opening Gala at The Bloor was well attended, and the six award winning shorts in the program represented six different countries and ranged from experimental to dramatic. It ended with “The Lost Thing” which was this year’s Oscar winning best animated short from Australia. There was enough spectacle and entertainment in that one evening to cover an entire summers worth of blockbusters. And at only $10 a ticket it was about half what you’d expect to pay for a single show in the bigger festival coming later in September. The best kept secret in the Toronto film landscape. That’s what I called it the very first night. Eleven years in Toronto, eleven years attending TIFF, a self confessed indie movie junkie and this was my first experience attending the Worldwide Short Film Festival. How could that be? After all, what is more indie than a short film? And I’m very easily sold when it comes to movies. Ask me if I want to see a movie and the answer is almost always yes. And to see something that most other people won’t even know exist, I’m the first in line. A short film is never going to find a huge audience. Even winning the Oscar I’d never seen or even heard about “The Lost Thing” till I took my seat and checked my program to see what we would be watching. And that is my ultimate joy. I’d rather discover a film than be one of the masses simply watching it.
ema, Toronto’s movie lovers. As I’ve learned over the past couple years, Toronto, cinema city, is filled with people who appreciate and revel in indie movies and films from all across the globe. Next to our beloved TIFF, the Worldwide Film Festival should be a bright spot in the movie watching landscape of our city. It should certainly not be kept a secret. The first real festival program I attended was called Golden Girls. It was eight films from women, about women. “I am a Girl” won the Documentary prize at the festival this year, a wonderful 15 minute Dutch film about a little twelve year old transgendered girl that absolutely stole my heart. I found it on YouTube and sent it to my best friend and my 11 year old niece. I enjoyed the film so much. Also in the program, “Smart Girls”, an unsettling 24 minute film from Bosnia and Herzegovina about a girl losing her virginity, and a real tear jerker from South Korea, “Teamwork”, about a young woman and her dying grandmother. Seo Yun Hong came all the way from South Korea to show the film and take questions at the end. She was explaining why she switched between the high def red cam and the old fashioned 16mm, and letting us know that the 11 minute film was indeed autobiographical. That one 92 minute program was the most fun I’ve had inside a theatre since seeing “Winter’s Bone” for the first time last summer. “Teamwork” moved me to tears and I haven’t fallen in love with a character on screen like Joppe in “I am a Girl” since Luc Besson’s 1994 film “The Professional” which introduced me to a young Natalie Portman. If my fellow cinephiles knew the best two hours they’d spend inside a theatre this year would be at the Worldwide Short Film Festival, it would not be the best kept secret in Toronto. But the word on the festival obviously isn’t just a secret to me as I saw this wonderful program in the vacuous number eight theatre at The Varsity, with more than 800 seats and only 75 fellow movie lovers, less if you don’t count festival programmers and the films representatives.
The Worldwide Short Film Festival is for people who truly love cin-
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ort Film Festival Originally I had planned on seeing as many programs as I could and then reporting back on some of the shorts you should seek out for yourself, and on the up and coming talent we might all be seeing in years to come. I’d let you know about great young Canadian filmmakers like Katrina Saville, whose little 8 minute short, “The Appointment”, which screened in the One Night Stand program got big laughs and a couple of shocked “oh my God’s” from the audience. In the same program, fellow Canadian Alex Epstein’s “You are so Undead” proved Epstein can not only write (“Bon Cop, Bad Cop”), but that he’s a talented director and someone to watch out for in the near future.
So no matter what program you chose, you were guaranteed to see some amazing cinema. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to love every short film you watch. As it is with Independent feature films, there are going to be some you enjoy more than others and some that no matter how well and passionately made just don’t move you. I looked over my booklet and every program I saw had at least one A and one D. But mostly there were solid films in between that I enjoyed. I learned quickly that there would be at least one film I’d have to suffer through and see the artistic side of, but that would have been balanced out by a movie just before or just after that moved me.
My favourite Canadian short came out of the prairies. “Rusted Pyre” was a completely original Canadian ghost story about two young girls and an old abandoned car sitting in the woods outside of town. Written by Daniel Audet and directed by Laurence Cohen it’s the sort of movie the twelve year old in all of us can relate to. No cheap scares or gore, just a chilling good story that will send a shiver down your back on the warmest of summer nights.
Just like a feature film festival, most of the programs had at least one director come to the stage to talk about his or her movie and take questions from the audience. Often there were several, and they even had prizes for the people who asked the questions.
I could tell you about a dozen amazing movies, and I do suggest you go to www.shorterisbetter. com to check out some of the titles. But after sitting through several nearly empty screenings, what I’d like to do is quickly tell you why I enjoyed the Worldwide Short Film Festival as much as I did, and get you to at least consider attending in 2012. Because it is the largest short film festival in North America, the Canadian Film Center is able to attract the best short films from all over the world. From more than 4000 submissions they choose 275 films. Of the 105 films I personally saw there was only one I thought didn’t belong, one movie that looked like it could have been a do it yourself YouTube special.
And there was no special film maker section where they were separated and protected from the public. Often the gentleman I was sitting next to or the lady in front of me would end up on stage after the screening talking about their films. One night I was sitting next to an actress, the next a producer/director. And because they were usually younger, hungrier film makers just excited to be a part of the festival they were more than happy to stand around outside afterwards to talk about their film, or even other films they’d seen in the festival. These were film makers more excited about having their movies seen than getting them sold and they were happy I was a part of their special moment. So next year, think about coming out and helping me fill some chairs. An all movie access pass was selling for just $125, and if you just want to give it a chance, a single show with anywhere from 4-16 short films cost a mere $10. Odds are you’ll be in the audience with a future star, so when that indie movie comes out three years down the road and your cinephile friend from work starts telling you all about it, you can say, “oh yeah, she’s a very talented director, I saw “The Appointment” a couple years ago, a very nice woman too, claimed she was “the queen of awkward situations.”
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Artist Jonathan Calleri Accentuates Eccentricity Jess Silver The room is painted white on purpose to take your eyes on a journey filled with vibrance and life. The art gallery is a place where color sees
no bounds and where each person takes to his own style. It allows for a kind of meditation with a swagger where we ponder over the definition and constitution of art. Today’s society thrives with possibilities allowing for differing interpretations to collide and develop because of the social media at our finger tips. Canadian up and coming artist Jonathan Calleri recently discussed, in an interview, the beauty of difference when he said, “The reason that I started getting into the style that I work with now is because I want to show people that no matter what impression you get from somebody else, everyone is beautiful on the inside, some of my imagery may be described as horrific but it is meant to show people that difference is beautiful.” Beauty in art comes from its subjectivity. It allows for every person to come up with his or her own idea or notion behind a piece or notion that it attempts to define. Much of the reason why Mr. Calleri became interested in art is because he wanted to showcase the beauty behind simplicity but more so, to accentuate the eccentricity that exists within an ever-changing world. His works are diverse in subject matter dealing with human life, the development of facial and physical features and also the inanimate objects that living beings rely on for sustenance. e said that for him the greatest joy in his work comes from “exploring the grotesque.” When asked if he has a particular emotive response that he looks for from an audience, he said that of course one cannot predict how someone will react. He feeds off of the differing reactions because we live in a very fleeting and fragmented world where nothing and no one is perfect and exact. He did say “the goal is to get emotion from people. I’d rather have someone hate my work than not respond to it at all”. Without precedent he noted that his most recent series of works deal with sadness, but his goal is to get people to come to terms with this notion of imperfection, as it exists to help human nature thrive. He commented on the grotesque as it appears in works famed by other surrealists such as Salvador Dali. He also commented on the eccentricity as brilliance in the case of artist and director Tim Burton, whose quirky style has become a Hollywood peril. He said, for example, that “a man who has a bigger nose and may seem ugly to others is beautiful and different to me, people enjoy Contemporary Surrealism because it is a step out of reality and allows one to get away from what becomes their routine. I want people to
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focus on the subject and that is why I choose simplistic objects to represent in my work. I feel that using flat colors and simplistic themes helps to elicit emotions from the viewer.” The notion of simplicity, while it contradicts absurdism and eccentricity, gives people the chance to relate to that which they are familiar with. Mr. Calleri discusses the source of his inspiration as being that which is unconventional, asymmetrical and different. “As a kid, I always liked Sci- Fi and Horror Films because they dealt with the uncomfortable. I still feel as though being around something that makes me feel uncomfortable eventually helps me to understand and appreciate it, and that is the goal of my work. I want help people appreciate what is different” he says. The response that I was given to that question reminded me of a recent experience of my own that I had while visiting New York. I was at the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art with its countless galleries and stunning pieces that range from Picasso to Renoir to the more Contemporary works. I came across this work entitled To Be With Art is all We Ask by Gilbert and George from 1970. The work addresses the notion of subjectivity as it is ever- present is every medium of artistic expression whether it is a painting, a poem or a ballad. Through its first person narration the painting tells a compelling story of the meaning of art as a creative outlet but more so as a platform for questioning and contemplation. Its opening line on the wall reads “Oh art, what are you? You are so strong and powerful, so beautiful and moving.” It then continues to probe at the questions that a work of art elicits from its viewer. The nature of the piece is reminiscent of Jonathan Calleri’s mission, that he explained to me in the interview, which is to exhibit the fragmentary and fleeting as they are present within the world, not to fear the speed and eccentricity of life’s situations but rather embrace it. The work by Gilbert and George rings true to all people’s curiosities and inspirations as it comments on the universality of one’s love for art. It represents the
fact that art is a fluid medium of expression where it says for example, “You make us thirst for you and then run from you escaping completely into a normal life”. This line represents the fact that art is capable of developing so many natural responses. The reason why we hunger for surrealist work, as John Calleri says, is because it doesn’t do that but it “creates a distance between what we know and where we want to go next in our minds”. For him accentuating eccentricity is integral to who he is and what he does as an artist. Calleri repeatedly noted that he treats everyone equally and is careful to suspend all judgment, both in his art and on a personal level. When questioned on his technique and artistic medium of choice, he bluntly said, “I use pen”. He likes simple stokes, simple to help one flesh out what is complex and at times mortifying. The need to ease oneself slowly into turbulent waters resonates with his own ideas of a future trajectory. The aspiring Canadian Surrealist is by no means afraid of taking a quick step into the world of galleries and fame; he hopes to get there with his abstract creative energy flowing freely in the open air. “I am in love with the weird but beautiful looking brown sewer pipes at City Hall Downtown Toronto. I have started experimenting with them already and cannot wait to see where the cool looking structures will lead me”. Surrealism capitalizes on what is unfamiliarly and non-cohesive to all of human nature. In this manner it makes life interesting in its attempt at cohesion through amalgamating the dissimilar. We are creatures looking for adventure and as Jonathan Calleri attests to. We can only find what is interesting out there in the world when we are not afraid to break with form. Contact at: m1111@rogers.com
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Disney: What our children are really watching Subliminal Messaging in Disney Films: A Feminist Perspective on Gender Roles Lindsay Romeo
Many of us have grown up watching Disney, hav- Disney teaches children how to be a boy and a girl: ing fond, loving memories of the films. So we should consider the underlying themes that shape them, or in other words, our culture. Disney’s stories shape a child’s imagination on a global scale, so we should question what stories are really being told.
Walt Disney is the influential giant for children of the 21 century. The Disney franchise owns television and radio networks, cable systems, music studios, internet sites, media production companies, magazines, sports teams, theatres and theme parks. It has the power to influence culture. Disney has seeped into North American pop culture and that the dangerous subliminal messaging is harmful to a generation surrounded by media. The films help to shape the minds of youngsters and this will in turn contribute to the construction of their beliefs and identity. Often the messages that are portrayed in Disney’s films are well hidden and go unnoticed. If we take a closer look at the lessons the films are instilling, we will find dangerous implications. The films subliminally convey messages about stereotypical gender roles. Children accept these implications because - as a child knows no better- Disney sugar coats them with fantasy and innocent images, normalizing and instilling concepts that essentially shape future generations. The phenomenon is strict when it comes to how their image is portrayed across media forms, including any mention of Disney in books. Any and all books having regard(s) to the franchises stories, films and/ or corporation must have permission to publish any and all Disney images, including famous characters. These precautions are taken to decrease any changes of legal battles in the courtroom. Why? They wants to maintain a consistent and unaltered image of innocence. The enormous power Disney has over the production and consumption of their representations makes it even harder to see its dark side.
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A woman uses sex to get what she wants:
Something that has not changed over the years with the characters that audiences have come to know and love is the representation of the ideal female body: a tiny waist, large breasts and big eyes with fluttering eyelashes. Young girls see this ideal body image as what a girl is supposed to look like, and so she must try hard to develop this body image in order to be a girl. Such examples include the half woman/half horse of 1940’s Fantasia and Megara in the contemporary 1997’s Hercules. These women have shy, bashful expressions and are seductive in their use of a sexualized body in order to get what they want. This tells young girls that if they do as the women have done, then they too will get what they want. Disney films convey sex as a tool to be a proper woman and get the things that you want. Another example is the mermaid, Ariel, from The Little Mermaid which is a well known movie and television show that also fills these requirements put forth by Disney in regards to what it means to be a woman. This ideal sexualized figure is not only shown in humans, but in animals. An example of this is the goldfish in 1940’s Fantasia. The gold fish is curvy, with big eyes and fluttering eyelashes, plump sexualized red lips whose movements are flirty. In 1942’s Bambi the female rabbit is seducing the male rabbit with her flirty movements and sexualized physical features. The male rabbit looks dumbfounded by her beauty and her big sparkling eyes. This teaches young girls that in order to get a man to listen, you must seduce him. Though this is not a reflection of what women are in real life, the franchise is presenting what a woman should be based on its expected criteria of femininity. This is also evident in 1953’s Peter Pan with Tinker bell who is self conscious about the size of her hips. Disney hides these notions of what femininity should be with magic and innocence so that young girls do not feel threatened by these images. They come to understand these notions through a world of imagination.
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Beauty and the Beast: How a woman and a man should act together: The relationship between Lumiere, the male candle stick, and the very “feminine” broom shows children how men and women should interact. Lumiere is acting out the male role as the aggressor. The broom first refuses him but after is charmed by him, suddenly allowing him to have control. This shows male and female roles to children; men having the control over a woman and her choices. The woman is represented as being timid and shy, whereas the man is represented as being strong. And even though she is saying that she does not want it, what she is actually saying is that she does because in the end she gives into him. This confuses the young audience with the meaning of the word “no”. Reoccurring theme: A woman always needs to be saved by a man: No matter how strong of a female character the woman may be, in the end she always needs a man to save her. Many women in these classic films seem to easily get into trouble and lack the ability to save themselves. So, the strong male character is always taking the hero roles. An example of this is in 1999’s Tarzan, where the strong, smart female character, Jane, still manages to get herself into trouble and has to be saved by Tarzan. Another contemporary example is in 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame where the courageous Quasimodo saves the beautiful, street smart gypsy Esmeralda from a fire. The famous and well-known Little Mermaid also has to be saved by her “knight in shining armour”. This theme is found in almost every film, and this is dangerous because it leads girls to believe that they cannot take care of themselves no matter how strong or smart they are. A glimpse of Disney’s past: Your Prince Charming will come if you take pride in the domestic realm: In 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White takes pride in cleaning the house and she loves to cook. These are stereotypical fe-
male roles that Disney embraces and sells to the young female audience. Snow White is secluded in a forest with her friends that are the animals surrounding her and attracted to her nurturing qualities. Snow White is enthusiastic and clearly enjoys cleaning the house and she gets her animal friends to participate with her. By the end of the film, Snow White does get her Prince Charming, so this is positive reinforcement to the female audience that Snow White did the right thing by loving to cook and clean because she got Prince Charming. The contemporary world: Make sacrifices for your Prince Charming: In 1989’s The Little Mermaid Ariel does go against her father’s wishes, so this shows woman empowerment against a male figure, but she does this in order to be with her Prince Charming. On one end, Ariel is making her own choices, but on the other end, she is still doing it for a man, in this case it is her Prince Charming. So, this is how Disney can tweak the same themes to fit the growing culture of the current day the film comes from. And as the film goes on, Ariel is willing to lose her voice for her Prince Charming, so this shows that the woman must make sacrifices in order to be with the man of her dreams. And once Ariel loses her voice, the only thing she has left to get her Prince Charming with is by using her body, because she has no voice. So, this reinforces, even in a contemporary culture, that a girl must use her body to get what she wants. Disney is impossible to avoid; the phenomenon is everywhere. It has made its way onto big billboards, children’s toys, cereal boxes, clothing, newspapers, magazines, and the list is seemingly endless. The franchise owns so much of the media that it has made itself in-escapable. We live in a society where only a few major companies control our culture, and one of them is Disney. The company is more than an entertainer, but has become a teacher as well. Disney should recognize the power that they have over our children’s minds, and they should educate about the world that the children actually live in, not one that is trapped in gender stereotypes.
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Fall Televisi Jess Morton Returning:
This fall there are some returning shows that viewers Glee – The season finale of Glee was the first episode of the series to are desperately waiting to see. For some of these series it is be filmed almost entirely outside. With all the characters coming face a long awaited return and for others it is simply a reaction from a jawdropping season finale. Whatever the reason, I’ve given the low-down on what’s changed, some need to know facts, and what makes the upcoming season worth watching
Fringe – The season finale of Fringe left the series with the most puzzling cliff hanger yet. This development of course stays true to the heart of the science fiction thriller, as Fringe is notorious with having viewers grasping for the next episode. The series stayed strong with viewers and ratings despite being moved to the Friday ‘death time-slot’ at the end of January. There were worries for the series because of the move, but Fringe will return in the fall to the Fox network for a full fourth season. Much speculation currently surrounds Joshua Jackson’s character Peter, as he suddenly ceased to exist from existence in the finale. Whatever happened or will happen to Peter is exclusively ‘hush hush’ but the word is he’ll be back for season four. The Walking Dead – AMC thought that they were taking a gamble for their TV adaptation of the comic book series The Walking Dead. Their first season only consisted of six episodes since this series was the AMC’s first attempt at anything with a cult following. The Walking Dead had millions of viewers following the episodes and, of course, those viewers were hungry for the next season. The series was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Television Series and a Writers Guild of America award for Best New TV Series for 2011. After a ten-month break, The Walking Dead will be returning to AMC this October with thirteen new episodes.
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to face with New York City they understood that the world is a lot bigger than their small town in Ohio. It added a whole new live feeling to the series that stayed true to movie musical classics. The anticipation with season three is that viewers will be saying goodbye to some of their favourite characters as these students graduate. This idea begs the question where will these characters go, and which freshmen will come to McKinley High to replace them? The musical series Glee returns to Fox in September. House – House is due to return for season eight in the fall. The big news with this series is not only that Dr. House has become increasingly out of control, but also that one key character, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, ended her contract with the series. Even though House drove his car into Cuddy’s livingroom, the writers of House M.D. also didn’t kill off Dr. Cuddy in the season finale. I’m curious to see how the writers will write out Cuddy now that Lisa Edelstein has walked away from the show. Its also likely the writers will write up a new character to replace Cuddy. The next season of House M.D. certainly gives writers and producers more creative room for a bigger and better show. Two and a Half Men – Two and a Half Men is the one show out of this list with the most controversy and speculation. Charlie Sheen doesn’t need an explanation as to why he was fired from the series he starred in. What’s curious is how the producers replaced the most scandalous man in television. The word is that Ashton Kutcher is the new leading man, not as Charlie Harper, but as a new and currently unnamed character. Since I’m sure producers want to see how this gamble will all play out, Kutcher has only signed on for one season. The question for the ninth season of Two and a Half Men is, not whether is will it be different, but will it be different in a good way?
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ion Preview New: With every show that gets canceled, there are countless new series waiting to take their time-slot. I’ve given a list of five new promising shows with all the essential material, including who’s starring, the gist of the plot, and why the shows would be worth keeping up with. Grimm – This fantasy thriller series was brought to NBC’s fall line-up by executive producers David Greenwalt, who produced Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Jim Kouf, who produced Angel and National Treasure. Greenwalt and Kouf give Grimm a dark and supernatural feel to our favourite Brothers Grimm fairytales. The series centers on Detective Nick Burkhardt who suddenly discovers he is a descendant of a group of hunters called ‘Grimms.’ Grimms can see supernatural creatures and are charged with the responsibility of keeping these creatures from harming humans. Detective Nick Burkhardt is played by David Giuntoli, but Grimm also stars Silas Weir Mitchell, Russel Hornsby, Sasha Roiz, Bitsie Tulloch and Reggie Lee. Once Upon A Time – This series is a fantasy drama that separates itself from Grimm by drawing away from the dark supernatural and delving into the magical. The series centers on Emma Swan who finds herself in a small town in Maine called Storybrooke. Here fairytale characters from the story of Snow White are living an alternate life as people of the town. Emma soon discovers from the people she meets that she is the lost daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. These people are trapped by the spell of the Evil Queen and it is up to Emma to free them all. Once Upon A Time is produced by ‘Lost’s’ executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis and stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jamie Dornan, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, and Raphael Sbarge.
Charlie’s Angels – This reboot of the 1970’s original is from executive producer Drew Barrymore and it is packed with action. The series centers on the three angels: Kate, Eve, and Abby. Abby was a world-class thief, Kate was a dirty cop, and Eve was a street racer. Charlie Townsend recruited them to solve his cases. This series stars Rachael Taylor as Abby, Annie Ilonzeh as Kate, Minka Kelly as Eve, and Ramon Rodriguez as Bosley. The series will set itself apart from the movie franchise of the same name by taking out the family comedy and replacing it with more class and grown-up humor. This tactic makes Charlie’s Angels more geared towards the adult crowd instead of being family friendly. Person of Interest – From producer J.J. Abrams and writer Jonathan Nolan comes the dramatic crime-thriller Person of Interest. Person of Interest stars James Caviezel as Reese, an ex-CIA hitman recruited by Mr. Finch, played by Michael Emerson. The two work together to prevent crimes by using an endless set of numbers. Reese and Finch’s secret operation is constantly under threat with cameras and microphones everywhere. Reese doesn’t know where the numbers come from and Mr. Finch is constantly keeping him on edge. This series is perfect for anyone looking for a new fast-paced show that develops itself over the course of the season. New Girl – This new feel-good comedy stars Zooey Deschanel as Jessica Day, a woman who suffers a disastrous break-up and needs a fresh start. Ironically her fresh start is moving in with three guys. Not only do the clueless men have to deal with post-break up Jessica but also with all her quirky antics, including singing to herself on a regular basis. The show uses this hilarious premise to explore the politics of dating from the point of view of both men and women. New Girl also stars Max Greenfield, Damon Wayans Jr., and Jake M. Johnson as the three male roommates. With Zooey Deschanel playing a character we’ve all been once or twice, New Girl could be my next guilty pleasure.
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PsychRhythms
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By Anastasia Rokina
A fear is healthy. A phobia is not.
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We’ve heard of the most bizarre phobias ranging from the fear of sleep to the fear of bread, but however ridiculous they may seem, it is no laughing matter. To be brief, let us first mark the main difference between a fear and a phobia.
Heights, for instance, are evolutionarily engrained in our brains to signal danger. We have developed a fear of heights as a tool for survival. Toddlers as young as 2 years-of-age are afraid of heights without any pervious experience telling them so. It’s an innate machine that prolongs specie survival.
In layman’s terms? Fear is the wrong reaction, or the right reaction to the wrong object. In order to understand this we must first understand why fear is important in the first place. Fear, like previously mentioned, acts as a survival mechanism in warning us when a situation or object is harmful. Determining if a reaction of fear is necessary depends on whether or not it warns us of particularly harmful circumstances. A reaction of fear when around a wild animal, for instance, is good. It warns us of a creature of unknown power, unknown strength, unknown origin and
Phobias, on the other hand, are developed through dissociative attachment, or in other words, genuine fear to something completely unrelated to anything scary.
possibly well-equipped; things with good reason for precaution. A fearful reaction to bread, on the other hand, isn’t healthy or natural because bread is not powerful, equipped, strong nor possibly harmful.
A fear is healthy. A phobia is not.
Phobia sufferers understand the dangers, or lack thereof, of the objects or situations they fear. However, they cannot control the associated emotion, much like how addicts are aware of their bad habits, but have difficulty disengaging from them. Like many psychological attachments, whether good or bad, phobias are experts in false stimulation. At a young age, a child experiences a situation that induces genuine fear. The mind is inhibited from constructing a proper association, and the reactive emotion (fear) attaches
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itself to an unrelated situation or object. Hence rendering the intense fear irrational. Fear acts as the glue that creates the association the individual has with the object, rendering the subject’s ability for a proper attachment flawed. Fear acts as the misconstrued associative element.
Let us then question the increasingly “popular” phobias. Why is it that selachophobia (fear of sharks) has grown tremendously in the last 35 years? Could it be that a usual dislike for sharks is being misdiagnosed as a phobia? Or is it perhaps that the media has degraded these creatures to evil, dangerous hunters? The ambiguity creates a limbo in the debate, which is where we usually find ourselves. After all, where do we draw the line between natural fear of something that could be harmful and irrational fear of something that could be harmful?
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The phobia of sharks has increased tremendously since 1975 when Spielberg’s Jaws was released. It’s popularity sparked a mass hysteria of the general public. Since then, sharks have been misconceived as violent, evil creatures; laughably inaccurate to the marine biologist. The exaggeration of isolated shark attacks, and the fame of killer shark films, has rendered the general population with the misconception that all sharks are vicious and violent creatures who eat everything in sight.
Whale sharks are the largest living fish species. They can grow up to 40 feet long weighing up to 36 tonnes. Whale sharks feed on plankton.
In some cases the distinction is obvious, in others it isn’t. That begs another question: is an intense fear a phobia? And who is to say? If a fear of toothy sharks is healthy, then why can it be a phobia? At what point does a general fear become a phobia? The answer may be simple. If a fear begins to affect your life, then perhaps it’s time to reevaluate it’s presence. Phobias can be treated, but it is extremely difficult considering the fact that one of the mind’s automatic reflexes must be altered. That’s like telling someone not to blink when water is thrown in their face. It’s an automatic response.
One explanation could be that an uneducated perspective creates an intense fear that isn’t necessary. Great whites, for example, do not roam warm waters. Nor do they swim at shallow depths. Like all possibilities, there are chances of isolated incidents, and likewise, these isolated incidents have occurred. This negatively reinforces our fears. So now what? The object of behavioral therapy is to desensitize the phobic response to non-dangerous stimuli. The more one is exposed to the stimulus without any harm done, the more the brain understands that the object/situation is harmless. This part of behavioral therapy is called exposure. An individual is exposed to the feared object and/or situation, and when done continuously enough, the brain’s fear response eventually disappears.
A non-phobic individual is afraid of large, carnivorous sharks (yes thats right, there are sharks that don’t eat other fish or meat) when roaming deep waters or when in shark populated areas. The phobic individual is afraid of sharks to the extent that they get severe anxiety and panic even when entering a pool; their mind bombarded with thoughts that at any moment, a shark could attack them.
Phobias may seem ridiculous, but that’s just context. Imagine being fear stricken by a small, harmless thing. Your body flushes with anxiety and you can’t breathe. You begin to panic. You know it’s just a tiny bug, in fact you know you could just step on it. It’s so puny, but you can’t help but feel you could cry from the numbing pain of fear. It’s exhausting. They may be harmless foods, actions, creatures or inanimate objects, but beneath the surface is a struggle with fear itself. And fear is no laughing matter.
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Hidden Gems & Guilty Pleasures Brian McLellan This week, we’ll take a look at two films that were both live-action adaptations of beloved Japanese cartoons. Both were better than any of us thought they’d be, both were panned by critics, and both pretty much bombed at the box office. Here’s why I think they’re worth your time.
Speed Racer (2008) Director: The Wachowski Brothers Producer: Joel Silver Starring Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Rain By 2008, the Wachowski Brothers’ star had fallen. They’d incurred a lot of bad karma for the underwhelming Matrix Revolutions, and even though the Wachowski-produced V For Vendetta (2006) had done well at the box office and gained good reviews, it was difficult to remove the brothers from their folly. 1999’s The Matrix was my generation’s Star Wars. Like Star Wars, The Matrix changed the way action movies were made. The influence of The Matrix’s green-filtered, fetishistic aesthetic was so far reaching that when James Cameron’s candy-coloured Avatar shattered box office records ten years later, it prompted New York Times critic Manohla Dargis to say that the film finally represented a shift in sci-fi movie making away from The Matrix’s grasp. But while the boring and ponderous Matrix Revolutions was a slap to the face of fans, 2008’s Speed Racer is the Wachowski Brothers’ redemption.
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The 2008 film adapts the bright look of the original series by ramping up the contrast and dropping the audience into a world dominated by primary colours. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is one of the greatest drivers in the World Racing League, where cars spin around on 180-degree axles, hammer into each other, and use jump jets to leap over opponents. When slimy billionaire Royalton (V For Vendetta’s Roger Allam) tries to sponsor and then blackmail the Racer family, Speed is catapulted into a world of corruption and gangsters. The only one who can help him is the mysterious Racer X (Lost’s Matthew Fox), a racecar driver who moonlights as an ass-kicking superhero. To say any more would ruin the joy of the film, which sets up the expectation that it’s going to be one kind of film, and then yanks the carpet out from under the audience’s feet, bucking the formula and laying in surprise after surprise. Critics had no idea what to make of the movie, which combined expensive and often beautiful special effects with a stylized, bizarre script that succeeded at capturing the pitch and tone of its wonky predecessor. Critics widely scorned it and audiences didn’t go near it. Roger Ebert even called the film the equivalent of a crass money-grab, just another movie in a long line of adaptations of cartoon properties, like G.I. Joe and Transformers. Speed Racer doesn’t quite deserve the derision, considering how much the film is obviously a labour of love. Consider the detail. There’s a tremendous amount of world-building in the film like little production details that try to create the idea of a universe where nineteen-sixties futurism became the future. The action scenes are virtuosic, with the camera often making impossible movements around the actors, as if it were animation instead of live action.
Everything ludicrous about the Wachowskis’ style makes sense in the world of Speed Racer—the pretentious, show-off cinematography, the obsession with martial arts, the sharp colours, the costumes—all of these fit perfectly into a live action movie that is intended to look like animation.
Finally, the movie’s commitment to its artistic vision makes the whole thing work, from the artsy-fartsy camera angles to the Hanna Barbera-inspired lunacy, to Michael Giacchino’s brassy 1960s-inspired soundtrack. The film is a marvel.
I’m still surprised when I meet people who don’t remember the old Speed Racer cartoon. Released initially in Japan in 1968 as Mach Go Go, Speed Racer wasn’t as ubiquitous as, say, Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby Doo, but it was constantly playing on television somewhere or another, up until the present day. High-profile shows like Family Guy and Dexter’s Laboratory frequently parodied its motor-mouthed voice acting and lunatic dialogue.
The cast is great as well, boasting people like John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Korean superstar Rain, but special mention has to go to Korean actor and model Joon Park, who is in the movie for about two minutes. He has no lines, but shows his white spiky hair, piercing stare and blue goggles in practically every scene he’s in. Park went on to a much bigger role in the next film on our discussion, another adaptation of a Japanese animated series, Dragonball: Evolution.
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a r t s . c u l t u r e. l i v i n g Dragonball: Evolution (2009) Director: James Wong Producer: Stephen Chow, for Christ’s sake Starring. Justin Chatwin, Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, James Marsters Like Speed Racer, Dragonball Evolution is based off of a beloved Japanese animated series. They were both produced by people with real film credibility ( Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers for Speed Racer, and the legendary director and producer Stephen Chow for Dragonball). They both star actors who had been in well-respected films. But Dragonball: Evolution is the Goofus to Speed Racer’s Gallant. Why is that? Dragonball: Evolution is a film that was seemingly made without an audience in mind. It jettisons most of the plot of the animated series it was based on and instead makes the main character a high-school student trying to date the most popular girl in the school. This alienated the built-in fandom, and yet the film retains enough of the quirkier elements of the original series to make it just too damn weird for mainstream audiences. Who was this film for? If you’ve somehow gone through the past twenty years without ever hearing of the most popular Japanese animated series of all time, which still, almost two decades after its last production, makes billions worldwide in merchandising and syndication, here’s a breakdown: Dragonball was a TV series created by Akira Toriyami, which was a parody of the famous Asian story Journey to the West. It was enormously, staggeringly popular. Dragonball eventually became Dragonball Z, and I’m trying to think of how to describe it to you, theoretical reader who somehow went through life not knowing about it. Imagine a TV series, where every season was like The Seven Samurai, only instead of samurai, they were muscle-bound superheroes who threw explosions at each other and grunted a lot. If you were a twelve-year old boy, Dragonball Z was ultimate wish fulfillment. If you’ve never heard of Journey to the West, well then, I don’t know what to tell you. Even Wishbone had a Journey to the West episode. That scene in Forbidden Kingdom where Jet Li is a monkey must have been really confusing for you. But for all its considerable flaws, what gave the Dragonball series its longevity was its emphasis on strongly developed characters and overarching, grand themes. You won’t find those in Evolution. The first quarter or so of Evolution concerns the efforts of Goku (the always adorable Justin Chatwin) trying to get around in high-school, deal with bullies, and win the heart of Chi Chi ( Jamie Chung). But Goku is raised by his kooky grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim), who still believes in the old religion, and so Goku is a little bit of a fish out of the water at school. Hence, the bullying. On Goku’s eighteenth birthday, Gohan gives Goku a dragonball, a legendary object, of which there are only seven scattered throughout the world, which is said to grant wishes when all of them are collected.
Goku takes his dragonball to Chi Chi’s party and as a result is absent when the evil dark lord Piccolo ( James Marsters) descends from the sky and shatters both Goku’s grandfather and the house. As Goku is picking through the pieces, he encounters Bulma Briefs (opera prodigy and award-winning actress Emmy Rossum), a technophile who is also searching for a dragonball that Piccolo had stolen. They head off together, trying to find all seven dragonballs before the evil Piccolo does. Like Speed Racer, a surprising chunk of Evolution’s production design devotes itself to world building. This is film set a couple years ahead in the future, where students have touchscreen laptops built into their desk, and the cities are renovating themselves into a futurist utopia. This leads to one of the film’s surprisingly clever visual images. In the original cartoon, when Goku and Bulma go to find martial artist Master Roshi, he lives on an island in the middle of nowhere. In the film, Master Roshi (Chow Yun Fat) lives in a house on an island in the middle of an enormous sea of construction, one of the last remnants of an older world. Yes, Chow Yun-Fat is in this movie. His breakthrough role in North America was his stoic performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2003) and a lot of his following roles in American movies have been modeled after that one, casting him as a humble monk or a grim pirate king. As a result, Western audiences have never really gotten a chance to see just how much Chow Yun-Fat can over-act. You definitely see some of that talent in Evolution. His Master Roshi is a mess of quirky facial expressions and off-the-wall line readings. And speaking of over-acting and off-the-wall line readings, let’s talk about Joon Park. In Speed Racer, he stole his small amount of scenes just by standing there and looking amazing. As a thief in Evolution, however, he matches Chow Yun-Fat for overacting, and his line-readings are a dizzy combination of enthusiasm and over-enunciated American accents. Park must have spent a lot of time with his speech trainer because he sounds like someone making fun of Americans. Meanwhile, James Marsters is suitably cartoonish as the evil Piccolo. One of the wonderful things about Marsters is his tendency to come off as an absolute egomaniac in interviews, from his story of intimidating the other hopefuls at the Buffy auditions by dropping some Shakespeare on them, to talking up the role of Piccolo as if it were the acting job of a lifetime, to even going so far as to convince the make-up artists to make him uglier, to show how rotten Piccolo’s soul has become. He is truly one of the most entertaining parts of the film. But not everything about Evolution is bad. Justin Chatwin is a good actor, and he seems to have some real chemistry with Jamie Chung. Several of the action scenes have a low-budget make-do charm to them and the film seems really committed to realizing its setting, which makes it tremendously endearing. And for all the complaining from hardcore Dragonball fans, this isn’t even the worst live action adaptation out there. In 1989, a Taiwan film company made Dragonball: The Magic Begins, which by all accounts is like watching a weirder, lower quality Inframan. So there’s a lot to be grateful for when it comes to Evolution and there’s a lot to like, whether it’s good or bad. I really recommend checking it out.
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Secret Holiday and Brilliant Add-On Danielle Marcotte
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“There’s a proud, quirky, friendly community that lives there and an ne of Canada’s best traveling secrets is comincredible amount of artists for such a small remote location. You can mon knowledge in Germany: The Yukon fish, canoe, or kayak right off the downtown core on the Yukon River, Territory is the place to be. In summer, twice a but you can also visit many art galleries that can compare easily, in my
week, big jets full of vacationers fly non-stop from Europe to Whitehorse, not bothering with either Montreal or Toronto. A large amount of those travelers then rent a motor home and visit the Yukon and neighboring Alaska during the long hours of the midnight sun.
Meanwhile Canadians, though extremely proud of their mythical north, are not quite sure if the Yukon’s capital is Whitehorse or Yellowknife. Why are we not discovering also in great numbers this magnificent wilderness? This is most likely because we are not aware of two relatively recent changes. Whitehorse has become much more affordable for southerners with the arrival of Air North in 2001, which is the Yukon’s airline, in order to compete with Air Canada on the north-south route. The land of the Klondike gold rush is also appealing now to a large spectrum of travelers, from the outdoor enthusiast and the history buff to the artistically inclined. “From the air, the Yukon is spectacular: high mountains, broad valleys, dense forests, very few roads. But when I first left the airport to drive down the embankment into Whitehorse’s small centre,” says Bob Bourgeois, a Vancouver area retiree who has been to the territory 5 times in the last 2 years, “I was not too impressed. The city was not quaint or cute. What I quickly learned though, is to look beyond the potholes and dust.”
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opinion, with what a world resort such as Whistler in BC has to offer.”
One more literally brilliant fact about the Yukon is the possibility to see and do a lot in a short visit because of the midnight sun. Though most attractions shut down after Labor Day, a well-organized energetic traveler can almost pack two days into one, simply because daylight allows it between June and August. Living this experience, even for a few days, is in itself worth the trip. The body is at first energized by this constant light and the position of the sun in the sky. It is a strange contradiction. One feels at once young and somewhat restless, yet falls into the sweet tempo of life in this part of the north. The general advice is to go with the flow. “Everything operates on Yukon time. Allow for a 10 to 20 minute delay to most things, other than train and plane schedules, and you will be happier with life in general,” advises Bourgeois. How much will this little jaunt cost you as an add-on to your trip to BC or Alberta? Approximately you and your companion will pay $1,300.00 dollars each if you plan well. You and a traveling companion could, over 5 days, visit Whitehorse, take a stunning train ride to Skagway in Alaska, and explore the historic Dawson City on foot and cross the artic landscape of the Tombstone Mountain Territorial Park on a tour bus. Here is how you can do it:
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a r t s . c u l t u r e. l i v i n g The key to your arrangements is the timing of the air schedule, the use of a free shuttle to a downtown accommodation, good walking shoes, and picnic utensils. Both airlines offer comfortable regular jet service but Air North still has a complimentary small meal for its clients, sometimes with delicacies such as caribou sausage or warm cookies. From Vancouver or Edmonton to Whitehorse, a direct flight takes approximately two and a half hours. The flight takes a little longer from Calgary. It is worth investing in a good lodging downtown Whitehorse. This allows you to walk everywhere on those long summer evenings and practically double your exploration possibilities. If your room has a small refrigerator and microwave oven, you will save on breakfast and snacks, thanks to your utensils. It is also crucial to pick your hotel well because of another northern reality much less savory: Alcoholism. There is a type of establishment that caters to people affected by this problem. Lodging there would be very noisy and unnerving. Getting into Whitehorse on a Friday, with a “plane and two days hotel package”, allows you to walk around the downtown core. You can also visit art galleries, or see two small museums before discovering on foot the 5 km Millennium trail looping around the Yukon River to the south. Stopping occasionally to
read historical panels, relax and adjust to the Pacific Time zone as well as to the midnight sun. Do take the traditional photograph by the old paddle wheeler that Parks Canada maintains on the shore, as it is part of the iconic landscape of the Yukon. This great picture for your Facebook page will speak volumes about the beauty of this vast and empty land: 26,000 people live in the capital, and some 8,000 souls in the rest of the territory which is almost twice the size of Great Britain. Across the street from the boat you catch a picturesque trolley to another green space, Shipyard Park, where some of the outdoor summer celebrations occur. On Saturday morning you can walk to the downtown train station, and start your journey at 8:30 am on the bus and train trip to Skagway, Alaska. This beautiful voyage on the road and rails is a great bargain at $135.00 compared to similar excursions anywhere else in Canada. It is offered most days but not some Sundays. If you cannot or do not want to go to this US destination, like if you forgot your passport for example, other options are also offered. This relaxing day trip allows you to see why the Yukon’s landscape is world famous without having to rent a car. Similarly, if you ask, many outfitters will come and get you at your hotel Saturday morning to bring you kayaking, fishing, or horseback riding instead of riding the train down to the Pacific shores. Another car-less option is to pack a lunch and simply walk to the Kanoe People downtown log office near the Yukon River. They offer a
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three hour canoe trip for $60.00. “It’s amazing to be on the water” says Alex McDougall, “the river is an emerald color and you can see eagles and beavers, and the occasional bear and moose. The trip is 20 km and we arrange to meet you downstream and bring you back.” Alex is the son of the owners and proud of his Yukon native ancestry. Though his great-grandfather was a famous Yukon River captain, and his family lives by the water, McDougall also suggests a land based activity: rent a bike. “Most people go to Miles Canyon and back,” he says, “but there’s all sorts of trails around Whitehorse and our map is very good.” Choose the morning for these activities to allow some shopping and gallery viewing time upon your return to Whitehorse in the afternoon. Regardless of your choice of explorations, try to reserve some time to chat up the local merchants. Talk to the goldsmiths; learn about mammoth’s ivory found in the river and the provenance of dog hair and qiviuq for knitted crafts. Enjoy what is becoming a rarity in the south: a well-stocked independent bookstore. At Mac’s Fireweed, you will find, among other things, a large selection of works about the north, from art to humor and history, as well as great local cookbooks. Early Sunday morning, take a flight to dusty Dawson City, 500 kilometers north of Whitehorse. This hamlet bulges up to 1,900 souls in the summer. Also located on the Yukon River, the whole town is an open-air museum. A great way to visit this gem with no time constraint is to rent an audio self-guided tour from Parks Canada and walk everywhere. The era of the Klondike gold rush and its colorful participants in the 1890‘s will then come alive as you enter historic buildings.
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Go back much further in time, thousands of years in fact, and discover also the history of the area’s fist nation at the Tr’ondek Hwech’in Cultural Interpretive Centre. Do not hesitate to register for a beading workshop if one is offered that day. It is a golden opportunity to interact with the local people. “Walk or rent a bike and cycle to the top of Midnight Sun Dome the views are spectacular,” advises Air North’s marketing director Debra Ryan. “Pop by Raven’s Nook for great sports wear. Skookum Brand Parka designer lives and work from Dawson City [as does] Halin de Repentigny a renowned Yukon artist” she adds. Or simply walk the river front trail and observe the young people attracted to the region’s wilderness adventures at play in the park. They give a feel of the abandon and playfulness of the sixties to the town. Air North, the only scheduled airline to offer service to this charming but isolated place, proposes a one-night hotel package with the flight on a turbo prop. Consider staying two nights and discover an amazing territorial park nearby, Tombstone Mountain, on a Gray Line Yukon tour bus. This is the best way to view tree-less mountains and valleys typically found much more to the north, as there are no car for rent in Dawson City. Thereafter, a picture, on your desktop, of the muskeg doted with tiny flowers, will certainly make you hanker to come back north of the ordinary….
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