The Other Press – May 1

Lettitor

Health is wealth

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t’s an odd transition to go from being a broke-ass student to being a somewhat less broke-ass working professional, but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.

Probably the strangest choice to make once you escape the meagre life of a student is where exactly to delegate the extra funds that shows up in the bank account, and for the longest time the scared student in me believed that the best choice was to simply sock it all away.

There’s a few reasons for that. One being that, as a student, my finances were constantly in flux. I’d work my ass off in the summer so that I could eat during the semester, scrape by on ramen and Kraft Dinner until finals were finally over, and then launch myself right back into overtime shifts at two to three different summer jobs.

Another was the age-old mentality of

saving your money for a rainy day, or for an emergency, or for a down payment on a half a million-dollar studio apartment somewhere in Vancouver (yeah, right), but I quickly realized that no matter how much you save, you’ll never necessarily feel like you had enough.

Anyway, what I’m beating around the bush to actually say, is that it’s important to allow your spending habits to change along with your income, especially when it concerns your overall health.

No, I don’t mean go out and buy a $1,000 juicer, or get dinner from some fancy vegan restaurant every single evening. What I mean is that, when—and if—you finally do have the income that can sustain it, maybe you should consider buying a few fruits and vegetables, instead of a 12 pack of Kraft Dinner just because it was on special for less than $10... looking at

you, Superstore.

Your overall health should become a priority over saving up for that new Playstation, or purchasing a motorcycle, or whatever it is you kids are excited about these days. Sure, eating nothing but toast, eggs, and spaghetti for every meal is okay if you literally can’t afford anything else, but once you start earning a bit more, the unhealthy eating habits gotta be the first to go.

It’s just not worth sacrificing your health for a little bit more cash in the bank, and you’d be doing yourself a disserve down the line by continuing on with the diet of a broke college student, even if it does save you a few bucks.

Take it from me, the guy who balked at the idea of spending $50 a month on a gym membership, but would drop $50 on a night out with friends, no questions asked.

The “Live fast, die young,” attitude gets old quick, just like those who hold onto it for too long. The reality of it is that you’re just setting yourself up for failure down the line.

Your own body is, without a doubt, the most valuable thing you could ever invest your time or money in, because you’re basically buying yourself additional time down the road. It might not be an easy thing to grasp right now, but you’ll be thanking yourself for eating that occasional apple in the years to come—I’m sure of it.

Cheers,

Chandler Walter

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Angela Ho Business Manager Jacey Gibb Distribution Manager Elizabeth Jacob Production Assistant Cara Seccafien Illustrator Colten Kamlade Staff Reporter Greg Waldock, Jillian McMullen, and Katie Czenczek Staff Writers Analyn Cuarto Staff Photographer Jerrison Oracion, Ed Appleby, Cheryl Minns Senior Colomnists Janis McMath, C J Sommerfeld, Ethan Gibson Contributors

College’s student newspaper since 1976.

Since 1978 we have been an autonomous publication, independent of the student union. We are a registered society under the Society Act of British Columbia, governed by an eight-person board of directors appointed by our staff.

Our head office is located in the New Westminster campus.

OO The Other Press is published weekly

during the fall and winter semesters, and monthly during the summer. We receive our funding from a student levy collected through tutition fees every semester at registration, and from local and national advertising revenue. The Other Press is a member of the Canadian University Press (CUP), a syndicate of student newspapers that includes papers from all across Canada.

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choose what we will publish, and we will not publish material that is hateful, obscene, or condones or promotes illegal activities. Submissions may be edited for clarity and brevity if necessary. All images used are copyright to their respective owners.

OO Coquitlam reviews housing initiative OO BCFS demands cap on international tuition increases OO $15.20 minimum wage coming to BC by 2021 And more!

BIKE THE BLOSSOM VANCOUVER 2018

Photos by Analyn Cuarto

News

Have an idea for a story?  news@theotherpress.ca

news // no. 4

theotherpress.ca

$15.20 minimum wage coming to BC by 2021 ööDouglas College students share their thoughts on the change Katie Czenczek Staff Writer t appears that the NDP is honouring their campaign promise to increase BC’s minimum wage.

Premier John Horgan and Minister of Labour Harry Bains made a February 8 announcement that the NDP government plans to gradually increase the minimum wage. Starting officially June 1 this year, the wage will increase by $1.30, and will go up on every June 1 until 2021.

The announcement was made in a JJ Bean. The coffee chain decided to pay non-Ontarian employees $14 an hour following Ontario’s minimum wage increase. In order to account for the cost of increasing wages, JJ Bean increased the cost of their items.

Jillian Antalan said that it’s great that they’re increasing the wage, although it should have been done earlier.

“Considering we have some of the highest taxes, much like Toronto and Quebec City, I think it’s long overdue. At least they’re trying to increase the minimum wage.”

For those who working at a serving wage, June 1 will mean that their hourly rate is raised from $10.10 per hour to $11.40 per hour. By 2021, the NDP government plans to have every worker get paid at least $15.20—no matter if their profession is currently below minimum wage. This includes servers, farm workers paid by piece prices, resident caretakers, live-in camp leaders, and live-in support workers.

Claire Dookwah, a student at Douglas College, said in an interview with the Other Press that she has mixed feelings about the news.

“It’s a good thing and a bad thing.

It’s good that people are getting more

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

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money, but at what cost? Businesses might have to start cutting staff and making things more expensive.

It’s like everything—there’s always positives and negatives,” she said.

According to Horgan’s press release, the reasoning for slowly increasing the wage is to avoid shocking small businesses with such a drastic change. Three experts recommended gradual increases from the Fair Wages Commission in order for a smooth transition.

Dr. Kira Tomsons, a professor at Douglas College, said in an interview with the Other Press that, despite how it will place a burden on small business owners, it ultimately still is the right thing to do.

“It can’t be denied that small business

It’s good that people are getting more money, but at what cost?” — Claire Dookwah, Douglas College student owners will be disproportionately affected by the change,” Tomsons said.

“That being said, one could argue that if your business plan cannot sustain people who work full-time for you, then there are other issues at play.”

Anasthasia Anganete, a student at Douglas College, said in an interview with the Other Press that she supported the change.

“The living cost is high here, so I

Steep slope development ööCoquitlam reviews retaining wall requirements Colten Kamlade Staff Reporter

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he City of Coquitlam is looking to change policies and guidelines related to steep slope development and retaining walls.

Houses built on slopes generally require the use of retaining walls to maintain the land. Unfortunately, these walls can become unsightly if they are built too large. According to the City of Coquitlam website, the height of these walls has recently increased in Coquitlam. In some areas of the Burke Mountain region, retaining walls have reach 10 metres high, and this is due to several factors. Neighbourhoods are being developed on a portion of Burke Mountain that has steeper slopes then areas previously developed; increasing housing costs has made smaller lots more desirable and when developed on steeper site, which can lead to more and higher retaining walls; market demand for traditional housing designs

is very strong despite the fact these designs are generally better suited to flat sites; and developer design has not responded to hillside development on increasingly-steep slopes.

Higher walls pose concerns over liveability and aesthetics. This has led the City to address the height of retaining walls in Coquitlam.

In an email interview with the Other Press, George Fujii, development services director for the City, said the City has proposed new requirements for retaining walls, but nothing is set in stone as of yet.

“The City is proposing new rules for maximum wall heights. The maximum height, where only one retaining wall exists between two homes, will be 2.4 metres. The maximum height of two retaining walls built on the slope between two ‘back to back’ houses would be a combined maximum of 4.8 metres where no single wall could exceed a 3.6 metre maximum height for any individual wall (of the two),” Fujii said.

The details of such changes are

still being worked out, but Fujii emphasized that safety was of the utmost concern.

“The City is now proposing a variety of solutions to allow for the development of new communities while at the same time safely reducing the reliance on high retaining walls. All walls over 1.2 metres in height will continue to be certified by a professional engineer when they were built, and the City will still review these walls for safety and construction standards prior to issuing an occupancy permit,” Fujii said.

The City of Coquitlam website states that a “multidisciplinary” team has reviewed current practices and has worked with developers to examine ways to improve the aesthetics and livability of new communities.

think this will help to make a better way of life for many people. Especially for students since they’re the ones working these lower-paying jobs,” she said.

In BC currently, over 20 per cent of the population works for less than $15 dollars an hour. Of those 20 per cent, according to an article posted in CBC, “more than half of those workers are university or college graduates over the age of 25.”

issue 28 // vol 44

news // no. 5

BCFS demands cap on international tuition increases ööInternational tuition increased 64 per cent since 2006, BCFS says Jake Wray News Editor

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he British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) is asking the provincial government for an annual cap on tuition increases for international post-secondary students.

Tuition for domestic students can only increase by two per cent each year in British Columbia, but no such regulation exists for international students. Provincial funding for postsecondary institutions has decreased in recent years, while operating costs for those institutions have increased, leading most post-secondary institutions to rely on international students’ tuition payments as a primary source of revenue growth.

“Due to government underfunding, institutions have come to depend on the revenue they receive from increasing fees for international students,” a post on the BCFS website said. “However, unpredictable fees make budgeting impossible, meaning some international students are forced to leave Canada before completing their studies.”

Aran Armutlu, chairperson of the BCFS and former finance director for the DSU, said the Fairness for International Students campaign is currently in a “soft launch” for the summer but it will be in full swing by September. He said BCFS members will lobby the provincial government and their respective schools.

“One of the main ways our members will be doing that is by sending postcards to the Minister of Advanced Education asking them to implement policy,” Armutlu said in an interview with the Other Press. “They will also be sending postcards to their respective [post-secondary] administration requesting the same thing.”

The BCFS also plans to lobby for increased provincial funding for post-secondary institutions, which could counteract any future revenue compromised if international tuition increases were capped, but Armutlu said that will be a separate campaign, which could begin as soon as January 2019. A dearth of provincial funds for postsecondary schools “is the underlying issue that is causing many of the other issues,” Arumtlu said.

Armutlu said BCFS campaigns generally follow election cycles to maximize lobbying impact, but the current NDP government has demonstrated openness to issues the BCFS values.

“The NDP have made a number of promises that fall

in line with our campaign goals (i.e. elimination of interest on student loans) so we will continue to put pressure there,” he said.

International students at Douglas College chastised Douglas College administrators about tuition increases during a student budget consultation at the college in February.

Christen McDonald, an international student who studies environmental science at Douglas College, addressed administrators during the consultation and blasted a 9.4 per cent increase in her tuition.

“Douglas College unexpectedly raised my tuition fees for fall 2017 by 9.4 per cent with no warning to the people paying that,” she said.

“Like many international students, my parents are not wealthy. With uncapped tuition increases, my education is at stake.”

Tracey Szirth, chief financial officer for Douglas College, said during the budget presentation that the college increased international student tuition by 1.9 per cent annually for three years, but they received feedback from students who said annual increases were difficult to plan for.

Consequently, the college increased international student tuition by 9.4 per cent in the 2017/2018 fiscal year, but there will be no international student tuition increases for the following two years, according to Szirth.

Coquitlam reviews housing initiative ööPublic consultations to be held in May Colten Kamlade Staff Reporter

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f housing is a concern for you, it should come as welcome news that the City of Coquitlam is seeking to address this issue through their Housing Choices Program.

According to the City of Coquitlam website, the program is meant to provide more options for those looking to invest in a home, but who are stuck choosing between an expensive house and a tiny apartment. It is also meant to provide seniors with the option to stay in familiar neighbourhoods when they wish to downsize.

Recently, the City has decided to review the program and consult with the community. The first half of public engagement began in the fall of 2017 and continued into early 2018.

This was on the proposed expansion of backyard suites in Southwest Coquitlam. The second stage has already begun, and the city will be focusing on bringing more duplexes, triplexes, and quadraplexes into areas of Coquitlam.

There will be several opportunities to participate in this round of consultation. Specifically, there will be an online survey open until May 14, a community information session

on May 3 at the MacDonald-Cartier Room at Poirier Community Centre, and a pop-up kiosk at the Poirier Street Farmers Market at Dogwood Pavilion on May 6. Community input will help shape the objectives of the program, which will again be subject to revision after another survey.

In an email interview with the Other Press Andrew Merrill, community planning manager for the City, elaborated on the focus of this phase of community engagement.

“This first round of consultation in this second phase of the Housing Choices Review will look at the community’s values and objectives as they relate to housing options, infill policies and neighbourhood character in existing areas that are designated as being allowed to have Housing Choices units such as garden cottages, laneway homes, duplexes, or triplexes,” he said.

In the future, a third phase will deal with a wider swath of Coquitlam.

“The previously-endorsed Phase 3 will be replaced by a new, separate project which will involve a broader review of housing options and land uses across Southwest Coquitlam, and could be initiated after the end of the Housing Choices Review (anticipated in early 2019),” Merrill said.

The City has decided to review the program and consult with the community.”

Have an idea for a story?  arts@theotherpress.ca

Arts

OO Narratives abound in latest Amelia Douglas Gallery exhibit OO Local author releases long-awaited debut novel And more!

ööA spoiler-free ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ review

hen the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 with Iron Man, comic book movies were a joke. Outside of Nolan’s Batman and Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogies, there were almost no good superhero movies available. This perception has changed radically over the past 10 years. The first part of the culmination of this colossal, genre-spanning, industrydefining endeavour was released April 26, and Infinity War did not disappoint.

Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron are structurally different from so many other films, a trend which Infinity War continues. The films need to be able to introduce pre-existing characters and a unifying thread, show the heroes unite after some light fighting, and resolve the internal and external conflicts while maintaining a screen time balance for all the characters to set them up for their next movies.

This makes the films massively unwieldly to write, and Age of Ultron is famously a bit of a clustered mess. Infinity War cleans itself up by focusing on a single “protagonist” with all the superheroes desperately fighting around him—Thanos, the villain of the entire MCU up to this point, is the closest thing to a lead character in this movie.

Infinity War takes this villain-protagonist cue directly from Jim Starlin’s original Infinity Gauntlet comic book run, which is told largely from Thanos’ perspective as he collects the Stones and brutally murders waves of superheroes in an attempt to woo the Marvel Universe’s personification of death. The secondmost influential comic series is Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity saga, which introduces the Black Order and the focus

‘’Avengers: Infinity War’ movie poster

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on Wakanda. This latest Avengers film blends these two plots almost seamlessly and ties in iconic elements from the legendary Walter Simonson Mighty Thor run and many other comics across Marvel’s long history, plus adds a few incredibly creative twists of its own.

This movie had more expectations on it than any other movie in the MCU. It needed to be a culmination of the last 10 years of Marvel movies, it needed to be a respectful interpretation of one of the most influential comic runs of all time, and it needed to set up the next decade of the MCU—all while being a good standalone film and setup for its sequel. It succeeds enormously in every arena and still manages to fit in its own ideas and iconography. It is not just an adaptation of Marvel characters and story, it’s a daring and meticulously well-constructed movie that knows when to pay homage to the source material and when to do something totally new. Infinity War is a new standard for universe-building and comic book adaptations as a whole.

Reversal, revolution, and retribution öö‘The Power’ novel review Ethan Gibson Contributor

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eminist classics like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale have received new attention in recent years—especially in the wake of a certain election in America. In 2016, a potential successor to The Handmaid’s Tale emerged: The Power

by Naomi Alderman. Part dystopian thriller, part thought experiment, The Power explores a world in which the gender-power dynamic as we know it is totally reversed.

The Power depicts the changes that occur in a world similar to ours when women around the globe suddenly gain the ability to conduct electricity through their fingertips. Suddenly, women rise to more positions of political power, escape from human traffickers, and take back their rights by force.

Saudi Arabia and other nations are overthrown by women. Religions are reshaped to be female-centred.

However, Alderman’s novel is at its most chilling when the corrupting nature of power resurfaces. The positive achievements made after the power-reversal are quickly eclipsed by the emergence of a femaledominated world as fraught with cruelty as our male-dominated world currently is. The outcome is not equality, but rather a world in which the structure of unequal power between sexes has been reversed.

Just as women in our society regularly fear for their safety, men in The Power come to experience that fear as they never have before. The systemic oppression of women, which we ourselves are only beginning to rectify, is dramatically mirrored in Alderman’s speculative nightmare. The bold hypothesis of the novel is that if the present powerdisparity between men and women was reversed, society would fail to progress. It is the power difference itself which engenders oppression.

Men and women who

read this novel will likely come away from it with a renewed horror at the state of our own world, because the novel flips the patriarchy on its head and thereby assists readers in imagining the worst cruelties suffered by women today.

One of The Power’s most poignant sucker-punches is its framing as a manuscript written by a man in a future female-dominated society. Neil, the fictional author of The Power, asks a fictional version of Naomi Alderman for advice, and she replies: “I think I’d rather enjoy this ‘world run by men’ you’ve been talking about. Surely a kinder, more caring, and—dare I say it?—more sexy world than the one we live in.” At the end of the novel, the frame-narrative between Neil and Alderman concludes with her asking whether he has “considered publishing [his] book under a woman’s name.”

Needless to say, this mirrors the male-dominated literary world, which is only now beginning to change. By directly reversing and mirroring the power structures of our world, Alderman has achieved a nuanced, disturbing, and compelling study of gender, power, and human behaviour.

Cover of ‘The Power’

‘Infinity War’ manages the impossible: Cohesiveness Greg Waldock Staff Writer

OO Broadway in your backyard

issue 28 // vol 44

arts // no. 7

Chairman of the Board: With friends like these…

Ed Appleby Senior Columnist

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ho doesn’t want to team up with their friends and do battle against the unspeakable evils making their way across the land? In this age of massive team-up movie blockbusters, it’s the perfect time step into the shoes of the original ragtag band of heroes.

Shadows Over Camelot (2011) is a cooperative game for three to seven people designed by Bruno Cathala and Serge Laget and published by Days of Wonder. In the game, players take turns going on quests and defending Camelot by moving their hero around the board and earning white swords. On each player’s turn, they choose whether to take damage, add a siege engine to the army surrounding Camelot, or draw a card that may move the quests closer to defeat. The game is won by succeeding

in enough quests to have more white swords than black on the Round Table.

Like many cooperative games, there are a lot of different ways to lose—too many siege engines, too many black swords, or everyone simply dying.

However, Shadows Over Camelot has another infamous mechanic in which one of the players might be a secret traitor to the Round Table. Unlike other traitor games like Fury of Dracula or One Night Ultimate Werewolf, the players don’t actually know if there is a traitor among them. This adds to an atmosphere of suspicion in an already tense and complex game.

This game is a blast to play.

Turns are fast, with players only being able to move or act upon a quest, but not both. This can cause a lot of strategic maneuvering and discussion as the game progresses.

The theme of the game is very strong, and the gameplay is challenging.

The one downside to the game is that its complexity can be a bit much for new players. Though the rules are

Illustration by Ed Appleby

öö‘Shadows over Camelot’ board game review

simple, there are plenty of chances for thrilling heroics—as some quests have to be attempted by only one hero at a time—but working together as a team is the key to winning.

I would recommend this game to any group of friends, though it would definitely be advantageous to have more experienced players, or at least those who can guide others through the game.

A circus of magical mysteries in ‘Sleight’ Cheryl Minns Senior Columnist

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uthor Jennifer Sommersby knows very well how much patience and perseverance writing requires. She has tried her hand at journalism, medical transcription, and editing, but her dream of being a young adult novelist wasn’t achieved until this April, when her debut YA fantasy novel, Sleight, finally hit shelves after years in the making.

“It’s taken a long time to get here,” she said in an interview with the Other Press.

Sommersby’s journey to getting published began when she enrolled in The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in 2007. While in the writing-intensive program, she wrote a short story about a 13-year-old girl named Frankie who lives with her aunt and uncle in a traveling circus and has a pet frog named Hamlet.

“The workshop group that I did the story in said, ‘This ends really abruptly. This is more like the beginning of a novel,’” said Sommersby. “Then I thought, ‘Oh! That’s a good idea.’ I started writing the novel in 2009. I knew I needed [the lead girl] to be older to be able to handle the things that would be coming at her.”

Sleight follows 17-year-old Genevieve Flannery, who has grown up in the Cinzio Traveling Players Company with her mother, Delia, and other circus performers. Her story begins during a special New Year’s Eve Gala performance that the players hope will bring in lots of funding for the upcoming year.

But during aerialist Delia’s routine, she becomes distracted by a ghost only she can see and then falls off her aerial hoop to her death. This is a crushing blow to Genevieve, who has a magical healing gift and can repair injuries with the touch of her hand but isn’t able to save her mother.

“I knew I wanted something a little bit different, where there’s magic and unexplainable things happening,” Sommersby said.

While she was researching magic for her novel, she discovered the word Avrakedavra, a healing spell that magicians used in ancient times when they were considered healers.

She decided to use Avrakedavra in Sleight, the first book in the Avra-K duology, but not in the form of a spell.

“I needed something they could chase. You can’t chase down a spell, so I turned it into a book,” she said, referring to a magical book that becomes a vital object in the story.

Sommersby self-published an earlier version of Sleight in 2011, but it was discontinued after HarperCollins Canada purchased the Avra-K duology in 2012. Six years later, a revamped version of Sleight was published in Canada by HarperCollins Canada on April 3, and in the US by Sky Pony Press on April 24.

Sommersby celebrated the Canadian launch of Sleight with a book signing event at Chapters in Coquitlam’s Pinetree Village Shopping Centre on April 3. The signing featured an event banner, cake for the guests, and a table full of Sleight-themed props— including old-fashioned skeleton keys,

Photo of Jennifer Sommersby provided by Jennifer Sommersby

ööLocal author releases long-awaited debut novel

elephant figurines, and circus items.

“I walked in and I saw the banner with my name, my book, and Indigo Chapters on it. I started crying because I had a real banner.

That was pretty great,” she said.

Sommersby’s next book signing event will be at Chapters in Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby on May 18, with Dawkins scheduled to appear.

The author will also be signing books

at Indigo in Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver on June 22.

“It’s good for readers to see writers in the flesh because then they see there’s a person behind the book,” she said.

The second book in the Avra-K duology, Scheme, will be released in 2019.

For more information on Sommersby and her books, check out her official website at JennSommersby.com.

arts // no. 8

theotherpress.ca

Broadway in your backyard ööA look at community theatres in the Lower Mainland Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist

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ne of the most popular things to do in New York is to see a musical or play on Broadway. You probably would want to see one because you’d like to see a musical that everyone is talking about like Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, to sing along to your favourite show tunes, or to see a play that has your favourite actor in it.

However, what if you do not have a lot of money for a trip to New York? The next best thing is to go to your local community theatre. Community theatre is a place where you can see high quality productions made possible by local residents and that encourages people to be involved in the arts community.

There are a lot of community theatres in the Lower Mainland. The most notable community theatre company in the area is the Arts Club

Theatre Company with their three theatres: The Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, the Granville Island Stage, and the Goldcorp Stage. There is also the Gateway Theatre in Richmond, the Touchstone Theatre, Studio 58, the Waterfront Theatre, and youth theatre companies including Theatrix and the Carousel Theatre for Young People.

Before musicals and plays become famous, they begin in these theatres, being developed and tested before they are premiered. If the production is successful, it will be performed in a major city like Broadway in New York, the West End in London, or Toronto.

A few examples of this rise to fame is the hit Canadian musical Come From Away, which was developed in Sheridan College before it opened on Broadway, and Hamilton, which had a test run in The Public Theatre Off-Broadway before everyone was amazed by old school rap making history look cool.

A few productions started out in the

Lower Mainland before they received— or will soon receive—a lot of attention.

There is Onegin, which is considered to be Vancouver’s Hamilton, and the opera Eugene Onegin as a musical; the Mom’s the Word series, which follows the lives of five women and which has been so successful that the shows are being performed around the world; and Nine Dragons, which premiered in the Gateway Theatre recently, written by the theatre’s artistic director Jovanni Sy and starring Kim’s Convenience star John Ng, who you may remember as Mr. Chin.

The Gateway Theatre is a great example of a community theatre because it is right next door to Richmond Hospital, a field, and a church. When I saw Nine Dragons there, I thought that it was the best play performed in the Lower Mainland this year. The quality of it feels like watching a play on Broadway because of how it is presented, and its running time of two hours makes it feel like watching a

film. The play and its potential sequel might just inspire a film or a miniseries involving its lead character Tommy Lam. Productions in community theatres will have local actors and actors in film and TV. For example, Supernatural star Briana Buckmaster was in the Arts Club’s production of The Humans, and Andrew McNee, who was in Onegin and is currently in the Arts Club’s production of Misery, also acts in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series and Adventures in Public School (now released in theaters). Local theatres also do programs to train future actors and develop script-writing skills.

Community theatres have the magic of Broadway at a cheap price and there are a lot of productions to see this summer, including the Arts Club’s productions of Mamma Mia! and the musical version of Once, Bard on the Beach, and Theatre Under the Stars.

Narratives abound in latest Amelia Douglas Gallery exhibit Caroline Ho Arts Editor

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he Amelia Douglas Gallery’s new exhibit brings together unique glass sculptures with rich histories and colourful, evocative abstract paintings overlaid with text.

Titled The Pacific and Other Stories, the exhibit opened on April 26 and features the artwork of realistic and abstract artist Denise Dupre, based in Port Moody, and glassblower Robert Gary Parkes, who runs a studio in Surrey. The two artists were selected by the gallery to create the exhibit together, with their works complementing one another in colour, theme, and narrative potential.

Dupre’s abstract acrylics on canvas are composed of bold areas of colour, predominantly sweeping marine hues and sepia tones across busy compositions full of textures and spaces.

Each painting also contains words and letters strikingly arranged in elegant typefaces. Along the wall of the Laura C. Muir Theatre hang three larger 36” by 60” canvases with vast, mesmerizing expanses of oceanic blues and greens.

The artist told the Other Press at the show’s opening reception that she considers all of her works in this exhibit to form a complete body of work, but that they also all stand individually, with each combination of text and imagery telling its own unique story.

“There are a couple that relate to the West Coast, our Pacific Waters, but the others really are narratives in their own right,” she said.

Dupre does not only do abstract art: She began in the style of realism, and still returns frequently to realistic painting between creating series of

abstract works. While her realistic works are often planned out in advance, based directly on photoshoots she does of the West Coast and its surrounding life, her abstract pieces develop far more fluidly and organically.

With abstract art, Dupre said, “I get to play and alter and shift that composition as I paint from beginning to the end, and even then, I continue painting, altering.

[It’s] a lot more exploratory.”

Parkes’ glass-blown pieces are also full of individual stories. His masterfully-crafted vases and pots, with their dazzlingly intricate swirls, spots, and other vivid textures beneath the smooth glass surfaces, are the result of a lifetime of practicing, making mistakes, and learning from others and from the glass itself, he told the Other Press.

“That’s what I love about this particular field is no two glassblowers are the same. As you learn, [through] the learning process, the glass starts to talk to you or speak to you,” he said. Like with other crafts, the glass is “making an expression through the artist’s hand.”

The pieces in this show, and many of Parkes’ other works, are made partly from scraps and broken pieces of glass from previous creations out of his studio. For example, he said, when he trims the lip of a vase, he will take that little piece of cut-off glass and reuse it for the ornamentation on a new piece.

This repurposing is both economically practical and serves to enrich the artwork’s ornamentation, he said.

“We don’t throw anything away,” said Parkes. “We use as much as we can. It’s kind of neat to be able to take stuff that a factory or something would just throw away, and turn it into a little bit more, enhance the decoration.”

Photos by Analyn Cuarto

ööOcean-themed paintings and glasswork

Parkes also emphasized the centrality of glass in our everyday lives and throughout history, although this importance often goes unacknowledged. Glass was essential for building cities in creating windows, tools, and other utilitarian items.

Today, it’s everywhere—in our homes, in our phones, and in so many other things we largely take for granted.

“I try to remind people to sit for a minute and try and imagine your life doing everything you do everyday without glass,” he said. “If you start

thinking about it, we can’t live like we do without this amazing material.”

In fact, if you go down deeply enough, Parkes explained, it’s at the heart of the Earth itself.

“Our continents are floating on liquid molten rock, which is what glass is. Our whole planet is basically a liquid glass ball, and I get to create stuff with this.”

The Pacific and Other Stories will be open in the Amelia Douglas Gallery, on the fourth floor of the New Westminster campus, until June 23.

Have an idea for a story?  lifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca

Life & Style

OO KupoCon OO A brief history of sandals OO Great Inclinations: Day-trippin’ in and around Vancouver And more!

Single room occupancy C J Sommerfeld Contributor

T

he norms of what define a “Single Room Occupancy” (SRO) have been curated by the finite documentation put forth for the public. I’m here to tell you that there is another side to them. I will start with a short bit of history: These apartments are not bachelor suites, nor studios; they are rooms. They are usually repurposed hotels in what used to be Vancouver’s happening part of town; what we know now as the sinister Downtown East Side (DTES).

SROs are small 100-foot rooms which previously acted as temporary homes for weary travelers , now masked as entire apartments. They were implemented as an attempt to combat the lack of affordable housing, particularly for those on welfare income assistance.

When SROs were first introduced into Vancouver the rent for each room

was $375.00 per month, this was the fiscal amount designated for rent for those living on welfare. Unfortunately, these rooms did not remain livable for long. The designated buildings had not been refurbished prior to their tenants moving in, and the tenants lack of upkeep contributed to the further dilapidation of the buildings. This, along with neglecting management, angered the municipal government and they eventually demanded a revision.

Rental holding agencies took a hold of many of the SRO-designated buildings and re-marketed them as micro-suite living. The cost of rent increased to amounts high above the affordability of the people receiving income assistance, sifting out many of the previous residents.

Here is where I entered. The trickledown effect is now the trickle-up effect.

While the plumbing, electrics, and overall aesthetic in some SROs still reinforce the poor picture that has been

otherplaylist the

Photos of Hotel Canada in 1914 and 2015 via VancouverisAwesome.com

ööAn article written from inside an SRO

published in the media, the reality is that many of them skews greatly from that image, and in a few short years they have undergone a vast evolution. The scarcity of available housing sprawls further than those living in the DTES as many of these micro-suites are not littered with anarchists of society, but with students, artists, and young professionals—people eager for a place of their own, but unable to demand anything larger in Vancouver’s exorbitant housing market.

And, while a mini-fridge and hot plate suffice as our kitchens, and while we have been forced to configure our furniture like a game of Tetris, we’ve still managed to make these spaces our home. The media has curated a collectively tainted perspective on SROs, maneuvering our interest elsewhere, but sometimes we need to explore and experiment for ourselves. Sometimes all that glitters is not gold, but is brighter than gold itself.

#DOUGLIFE Share your photos with us on Instagram using the hashtag #DougLife, for a chance to be featured in the paper!

Photo via the ‘Vancouver Sun’

Brittney MacDonald Life and Style Editor Now I’ve never been one to brag about my musical taste.

I think taking pride in something that is so mercurial is a little strange. What we listen to and what we enjoy is entirely evolutionary and dependent on our state of mind. So, we here at the Other Press would like to share a little piece of ourselves with you. Here’s what we’ve been jamming to this month.

Obvious Heart by Finger Eleven (Caroline) Supermodel (You Better Work) by RuPaul (Jessica Prune, You Talk Funny by Gus Dapperton (Jacey) Coteau Guidry by Lost Bayou Ramblers ft.

Scarlett Johansson (Jerrison) Brother by The Organ (Brittney) Wasteland by 10 Years (Caroline) Man! I Feel Like a Woman! by Shania Twain (Jessica) We Got a Love by Shit Robot and Reggie Watts (Jacey) DNA by Kendrick Lamar (Jerrison) Queer by Garbage (Brittney)

This week’s post is by @douglascollege

Another tank of laughs with ‘Corner Gas Animated’ Beloved Canadian TV series returns to the small screen

By Cheryl Minns, Senior Columnist If you think there’s not a lot going on at Corner Gas, then you need to see what Brent Leroy and his friends are up to in the franchise’s latest series, Corner Gas Animated. The series is a continuation of the live-action series, Corner Gas, and brings back all of the show’s favourite characters in an animated format.

“It’s fun getting back together with everybody, getting into the studio, and doing scenes again,” series creator Brent Butt said in an interview with the Other Press.

Corner Gas began as a 13-episode, liveaction sitcom about rural life in Saskatchewan.

Since its premiere in 2004, the franchise has evolved into six seasons, a theatricallyreleased film, and now an animated series.

“I didn’t think it would last beyond one season. None of us thought anybody was going to watch a show about a gas station in Saskatchewan,” Butt said. “This has all been a surprise from the get-go.”

The series follows the residents of a fictional town called Dog River. The Corner Gas station is run by Brent Leroy (played by Butt) and cashier Wanda Dollard (played by Nancy Robertson, Butt’s wife). Next to the gas station is The Ruby café, owned and operated by former-Torontonian city slicker Lacey Burrows (Gabrielle Miller). In the pilot episode of Corner Gas, Lacey moves to Dog River when she inherits the café from her late aunt, Ruby.

Frequently seen at Corner Gas and The

Ruby are odd-job guy Hank Yarbo (Fred Ewanuick), police officer Davis Quinton (Lorne Cardinal), rookie cop Karen Pelly (Tara Spencer-Nairn), and Brent’s parents: Oscar Leroy (Eric Peterson) and Emma Leroy (who was played by the late Janet Wright).

Each episode features a selfcontained plot, which allows viewers to start watching the series at any point.

“Everybody changes throughout the episode, but they always end up exactly where they started from the beginning of the episode,” Ewanuick said in an interview with the Other Press. “One of the advantages is you’re never locked in to any one thing. It opens you up to all different sorts of things that could happen.”

Corner Gas Animated continues the lives of the Dog River residents in its 13-episode season, which premiered on The Comedy Network on April 2.

“The animation looks really good and it’s true to the show,” Ewanuick said. “It totally works. Almost to the point where I kind of wish it was animated from the get-go because it totally makes sense.”

“I’ve had a few people reach out on social media, saying that they didn’t really watch the original show, but they were curious about the animated show and they really like it,” Butt said. “It seems as though we’ve hit that sweet spot that we were hoping for. People who really enjoyed the original show are liking the new

version, and people who are coming to Corner Gas for the first time are enjoying this version.”

Butt and the creative team wanted to make the animated series recognizably similar to Corner Gas, with the animated characters having many similarities to their real-life counterparts, including expressions, body types, outfits, and hairstyles reflecting that of the original series.

“I play the animated character the same way I played the live-action character,” Butt said. “We’re really trying to make this an extension of the original show, so we don’t want it to feel remarkably different.”

In Corner Gas, Hank was a very visual character, often gesturing while speaking and doing physical comedy to accompany his zany personality.

“Hank knows he’s the coolest guy in the room,” Ewanuick said. “He’s sort of a Norm from Cheers, with a Kramer from Seinfeld mixed in.”

When it came to the animated series, Ewanuick was only able to convey Hank’s vibrant personality through his voice. Having previous experience in voice work—including voicing Click-Clack in the DreamWorks series Dinotrux— he figured out how to alter his performance of Hank to suit the animation medium.

“If I played him the way I played him in the live-action, I don’t know if that would’ve translated to the animation,” Ewanuick said. “You need to amp it up just a touch, just to give it a little more life, and then you

rely on the animators to add to that.”

Butt and the team decided to set Corner Gas Animated earlier in the Corner Gas timeline, at approximately season two.

This change was to give the characters a younger appearance and to avoid any of the relationship plots from Corner Gas: The Movie.

“This way, most of us are trapped in our mid-to-late 30s, and they can animate us that way for years,” Ewanuick said.

Corner Gas was known for its cutaway fantasy sequences, but the series was limited by time, budget, safety restrictions, and reality.

The new series’ animated format has allowed Butt and his team to create lots of fantasy sequences, flashbacks, and physical comedy gags, which would have been impossible to film in the live-action series. For example, the first episode of Corner Gas Animated features Oscar telling Brent that if Corner Gas ran out of fuel it would turn the town into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. The show then cuts to Oscar’s vision of the future.

“We did a scene that was very similar to a Mad Max scene where you have 20 war machines rolling over the dunes,” Butt said, describing Oscar’s vision. “Stuff like that we wouldn’t have been able to do in the liveaction, so we’re having fun with that.”

The animated format has also allowed the team to continue the series with the character Emma. Wright had planned to be part of the animated series and voiced Emma in the series’ first trailer, but sadly

she passed away at age 71 in 2016.

“We were quite a ways down the development road when Janet passed, so I didn’t know what we should do,” Butt said.

“I wanted to make sure that we honoured what we thought Janet might want us to do, so I met with her husband and we talked and he said she would want Emma to live on.”

Wright’s husband, Bruce Davis, suggested that Butt and his team audition an actor named Corinne Koslo for the role of Emma. Koslo was a close of friend of Wright’s, who worked with her in theatre and had a similar-sounding voice.

“We auditioned a few people, one of them being Corinne, and she nailed it. I could really see what Bruce was saying when he said she had a similar timbre to Janet’s voice. She knew Janet so well that she kind of understands Janet’s rhythm and brings that to the table,” Butt said.

“Nobody will ever be Janet, but Corinne does an amazing job of bringing that essence of Emma,” Ewanuick said.

When the cast recorded their voices for the episodes, the team was split across the country. Actors Butt, Cardinal, Ewanuick, Miller, and Robertson recorded in a Vancouver studio, while Koslo, Peterson, and SpencerNairn recorded in a Toronto studio. To make it feel like they were all reading together, the team set up a live link between the two studios so the actors could hear and interact with each other while reading lines.

“We all have the scripts in front of us as we

go through all the dialogue, our reactions, and everything for about four hours,” Ewanuick said.

During the first cast recording, when Koslo read Emma’s lines, she altered her voice to imitate Wright’s distinct, raspy sound, which surprised some of the Vancouver cast, who were listening to Koslo reading in Toronto.

“The first time we heard her voice come through reading the script, I just looked at Nancy and Nancy looked at me because it felt like Janet was still there,” Ewanuick said.

“There were times where she really nailed it,” Butt said. “But it’s kind of nice that there’s also enough of a wrinkle where she brings a bit of her own thing to it.”

With the animation aspect of Corner Gas Animated allowing for new creative directions, Butt and the writing staff have the opportunity to take Corner Gas to new frontiers.

“It’s a mix of people who wrote on the original series and some new writers.

I always like when I get into a room with other writers and sit down and kick around stories. That’s always a lot of fun and a lot of laughs,” Butt said.

“The writing has evolved throughout the series. Every season, the scripts were a bit faster and tighter and we were putting more jokes in and the pacing was a little bit faster than the year before. With the animation, it feels like it’s taken one more step,” he said.

Corner Gas Animated airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. on The Comedy Network.

life & style // no. 12

theotherpress.ca

A brief history of sandals Katie Czenczek Staff Writer

W

ith summer coming in hot, it’s really starting to seem reasonable to return to the beach, whip out your favourite pair of flip-flops, and take in the sun. Sandals are just ready to be worn. Whether you’re rocking $3 flipflops from Old Navy or Fenty’s $100 fur slides, it might do you some good to learn a little about these functional yet fashionable footwear; especially since people have been wearing them for approximately 10,000 years now.

Even the first civilization, Mesopotamia, believed in this solid footwear. Ancient Sumerians crafted sandals out of animal hides and curled their footwear up into a point, like an elf. The curve at the front of the shoe determined a person’s status, where the more upturned a sandal, the higher class you were..

Ancient Egyptians and Greeks followed suit and also used sandals to determine a person’s status. The Greeks even dyed their sandals different colours to show if someone was a part of the aristocracy, a child, or a bride.

For Egyptians, it was the material that determined a person’s place in the world. Pharaohs wore sandals made out

of animal hides and were stitched together with a softer inner sole, harder outer sole. Everyone else wore sandals made out of braided papyrus.

Now, for early Japan, sandals called “getas” were where it was at!

Getas were made out of wood with black thongs to keep the shoes in place.

Japan is the only place where socks and sandals are socially acceptable.

These sandals were paired with Tabi—a fabric made out of cotton and dyed white that was worn up to the ankles. Getas could be the inspiration for modern platform sandals, which is one of my personal favourite sandal trends right now.

Whether you love gladiator sandals or hate them, the Romans were largely responsible for inspiring the trend that emerged a couple of years ago.

They began styling the shoes with elaborate caged-like straps running up their calves, and it is believed by some historians that their sandals helped the Roman Empire expand even further.

This was because while everyone was still shoeless, Roman soldiers wore sandals. The foot protection not only

Photo of vintage sandals from the Phillipines via 1860-1960.com

ööThe shoe that transcends time

improved their style, but also let them travel that much further. Who knew that the secret to world domination was to have the right footwear?

Allegedly, when Christianity became more normalized in Rome, that is when sandals were ditched for a more conservative shoe. Your boy Jesus may have even been wearing Jerusalem 100s before people decided that toes were indecent things to show in public life. The notion that bare feet were inappropriate possibly lasted until the early 20th century in the West.

When hemlines rose, and legs were exposed, that’s when sandals were reintroduced in the Western world.

They did not catch on completely in

the United States until World War II, with most credit for the comeback attributed to the Philippines. Filipinos took the Japanese Getas to the next level and carved ornate designs into the sides of the platforms. When American soldiers came to aid the Philippines against Japan, they came home with these decorated platforms and caused a sandals craze.

Although the styles have (sort of) changed over the centuries, the barelythere footwear has managed to pass the test of time, always returning to the fashion scene. As you dust off your favourite pair of summer shoes, marking their emergence from hibernation, now you at least know where they came from.

KupoCon T

o say that I’ve attended my fair amount of conventions would be an understatement. I’ve been a regular con attendee for over 15 years, attending everything from anime to comic books, video games, and journalism conventions—it’s just something I do and enjoy. So, I was supremely excited to find out that Vancouver would be hosting the travelling KupoCon, a convention dedicated to the Final Fantasy franchise.

If you’re unaware of what Final Fantasy is, it is a massive video game series that began in 1987 as a company’s last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy.

The original game was a critical success and the franchise now spans over 20 games, three movies, and even several television series. To be honest, I am not the best source of information when it comes to Final Fantasy’s history; my journey with the title began in October 2001, when I received Final Fantasy X as a birthday gift from my mom.

It kicked off my love of video games and holds a very special place in my heart as the “one that started it all.”

KupoCon itself began in Newark, New Jersey in 2016 out of a desire to consolidate smaller fan gatherings into something more official. It has since travelled the globe, uniting lovers of the franchise across North America and Europe. April 21 marked the first time

that the event was held in Vancouver.

My first impression of the event was excitement, but as the date drew closer I began to question the event line-up and grew concerned that KupoCon: Pomtropolis—the Vancouver variant of the convention—may be little more than a money grab. Only two guests had been announced, and with yoga as one of only listed activities, I became a little annoyed. However, I persevered, worked tirelessly on my costume and attended with entourage in toe.

Admittedly, the event was small.

It took up only three rooms and one hallway at the Pinnacle Hotel. Quickly I began to realize that the event wasn’t a money grab, but rather a toe in the water. KupoCon seemed ill-equipped for the turn out and surprised by the voracity of Vancouver fans.

That being said, there were many things that I hadn’t seen a convention do that I was extremely pleased to see at the con. KupoCon turned attendance into a game, creating events like scavenger hunts and puzzles that encouraged attendees to interact and share knowledge with one another in order to succeed. These events ranged from putting up wanted posters of certain characters—to get people to find and meet cosplayers of that character—to making word games using the fictional Al Bhed language (a Final Fantasy X staple). Participating in these games earned you “gil” you could then exchange for KupoCon merch. They

also encourage cosplayers by offering a ticket discount to anyone in costume.

I enjoyed these games a lot, and I am proud to say I was pretty successful.

Unfortunately, the prizes, as well as the attendee grab bags, were far too limited, and the staff ran out of them long before the predicted end of the con.

My biggest criticism of KupoCon: Pomtropolis is that it operated on too small of a scale. The choice of venue limited the availability of activities and it made everyone feel crammed, and the fact that they were unable to predict the Vancouver fan response

Photo by Brittney MacDonald; Art by Maxx Merch

Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor

Photo by Caitlin Ryan

ööThe pros and cons of Vancouver’s first ‘Final Fantasy’ convention

when Vancouver is somewhat known for its “nerd” community is problematic.

To put it simply, KupoCon was too scared to be entirely successful, though this fear is not without merit.

Vancouver has its share of dead or dying cons due to curators that overestimate their reach—Cos&Effect comes to mind—but, KupoCon played it a little too safe in this regard.

Iif KupoCon does return to Vancouver, I hope that they will learn from this and plan their future endeavors accordingly. Go big, or go home—except don’t, please come back.

issue 28 // vol 44

life & style // no. 13

Great Inclinations: Day-trippin’ in and around Vancouver ööLonger hikes that you can turn into a day-long adventure

Great Inclinations is your go-to source for diving into the world of casual hiking in and around the Lower Mainland. Because hiking’s not just for assholes anymore.

For me, hiking is a great weekend activity, but rarely something that’s worthy of consuming an entire day.

Weekends are a precious, limited commodity; however, occasionally the mood will strike where it’s acceptable to pile into a vehicle with a few pals, pack some wraps and celebratory Hey Y’alls for the summit, and head out on a longer hike. These are a few of those treks.

Many trails around Vancouver may still be covered in snow, so always check to ensure that trails are safe and in good condition before you go. Leave yourself plenty of time to return, let someone know where you’re going, and never hike alone if you’re unfamiliar with the area.

Lindeman Lake If you’ve been following along, you’ll notice I have an affinity for short hikes with whopping payoffs.

Located in Chilliwack, Lindeman Lake is another example of steep-

ish terrain (for about an hour) that leads you towards a gorgeous, serene, emerald-green lake. The hike’s satisfying enough to end here, or you can shimmy across the boulders located along the west side of the lake—leftover from a rockslide—and continue towards Greendrop Lake. If you’re driving from Vancouver, it takes about two hours each way, and traffic usually slows from about Abbotsford onwards, so plan accordingly.

Norvan Falls You might see the words “five-hour hike” and immediately stop reading, but hear me out: Yes, Norvan Falls is long, but large stretches of the hike are relatively flat, and you get some beautiful snowy scenery the further along you go. Plus, the path is mostly guarded by a thick forest canopy overhead, so you can do this hike in the rainier months and not get drenched. Like most trails in North Van though, Norvan is a soupy mess for most of the year, so make sure you pack your waterproof boots. Another bonus for you vehicle-less folks: Norvan Falls is the only hike on this list that’s accessible by public transit.

Brandywine Meadows Located between Squamish and Whistler, Brandywine Meadows

is impossibly beautiful, but also very challenging. We’re talking four hours of steep incline, up a trail that is only so-so marked and occasionally disintegrates into mud piles. The payoff, though? A meadow with babbling streams and fields full of wild flowers. You can also venture onward into the meadow and even attempt Brandywine Mountain, but stop and have lunch in the meadow before moving on.

Joffre Lakes Everything you’ve heard about this hike in Pemberton is true. Postcardlevel scenery, perfect turquoise lakes, and one of the most packed hiking trails I’ve ever been on. So if you arrive later than 10 a.m., expect to wait for a parking spot. As for the actual hike, there are three lakes accessible along the trail. You reach the first lake almost immediately, the second one is about an hour and a half up a gradual incline— but you should absolutely push on to the third (and least busy) lake, which is about an hour further along. There’s even camping on the south side of the third lake, which gives you a different, equallyspectacular vantage point. If you have the time, Joffre is much better enjoyed as an overnight hike—but more on that in the next edition of Great Inclinations!

Illustration by Cara Seccafien

Jacey Gibb Distribution Manager

Opinions

Have an idea for a story?  opinions@theotherpress.ca

OO It’s okay to not have much going on OO Why do you have such a problem with a friendly, feminine nickname?

And more!

BC voting age should be lowered to 16, possibly younger

ööYounger voices can and should be heard

I

n BC, citizens are old enough to be productive members of our society and have adult responsibilities by age 16.

They can drive, get married, pay taxes, sign up for the military, but they can’t make adult decisions, like voting in elections that will significantly impact their futures, and that absolutely needs to change. With recent news of school walk-outs in the US and the current political climate, it’s obvious that activism and politics are important to the younger generations, and the legal voting age should reflect that.

Recently, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver introduced a bill that would allow people as young as 16 years old to vote in BC. Some have argued that 16 is too immature an age to make major political decisions, or that they don’t care enough, but that’s not a fair assumption to make without research.

Places like Brazil, Scotland,

Argentina, Austria have already allowed 16 and 17-year-olds to vote, and a 2012 electoral study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark has shown that people around this age are already political participants. Voters under 20 had a vastly higher turnout than their older peers, but a lower

turnout was noted with participants between ages 20-25. This shows that 16 and 17-year-olds already have the means of making their own informed political decisions, and I think they should be allowed to make decisions that can and will affect their futures.

Illustration by Cara Seccafien

Jessica Berget Opinions Editor

This turnout compares with BC’s 2013 voting polls, as people aged 1824 had a higher voting turnout than 25-34-year-olds did. Keep in mind that 18-24 only counts for seven different age groups while 25-34 counts for ten, and still had a higher voting turnout.

This illustrates that young adults do understand the importance of participating in major political elections and do take it seriously, they just need to be given the opportunity to do so.

It’s important to get involved in politics at a young age. The younger people are when they become involved and educated in politics, the more informed they will be when their voting time comes, and the more habit-forming voting will be as they navigate adulthood.

Democracy is a vital part of our government, and allowing young adults to participate within a democratic society but not allowing them to have their voices heard within the same society is ridiculous.

Younger adults will feel the same impact on these electoral decisions as people 18 and older do because it’s their future—just as much as it is ours—that we are voting for, so their voices must be heard.

It’s okay to not have much going on ööDespite what the internet tells you Katie Czenczek Staff Writer ith finals being finished for the winter term, you might start to feel like there’s a big rush to get everything that you wanted to do during the semester done right now. Temperatures are rising, as are the number of posts showing people going out, and so too does the pressure to go out and have fun.

I’m not sure why we feel the need to update 600 people about our travel plans, beach days, or concerts, but after seeing what feels like every single person you know—and some you don’t—doing “something,” it’s easy to start feeling like you’re missing out.

That’s not to say people shouldn’t post everything they do online (they shouldn’t), but this is more a suggestion to keep in mind that there are times when the people who post a lot feel the exact same way you do. In fact, I’d even argue that many people post things just to prove that they’re having fun and actually going out.

It becomes a feedback loop:

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

W

Someone posts about all the wonderful adventures they’re having; the person who views it feels like they’re missing out, so they start posting about something, and it goes around again. I don’t think cutting out social media is the solution to this, because it’s more about catching yourself when you start to feel that itch of dissatisfaction with

your life. Ask yourself why you feel that way, and, if it turns out that it’s just because you’re comparing your life to some fitness model online who just went to Bali on a paid sponsorship, then you should know what your problem is.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s totally fine to be doing nothing at all, and we need to stop putting so much

pressure on ourselves and each other to be going out and doing more.

Everyone needs an inside day to just relax, surf the web, and recharge.

Our generation, especially, puts way too much emphasis on going out, and I think a lot of that has to do with us constantly seeing other people’s embellished lives online. Who cares if it’s hot outside and your friends are asking you to hang out? If you aren’t up for it, don’t feel pressured to go out.

Moreover, no one thinks to themselves, “wow, so-and-so never does anything, ever.” People are inherently self-centred and are so busy being insecure about their own stuff that they won’t even notice if you’re going out or not. For all they know, you could be living it up!

At the end of the day—and the end of this article—you just have to do you, whatever that is. Read a book, binge your favourite TV show, eat a ton of junk food and then regret it later. It doesn’t matter what it is, all you need is to be content with yourself. Just remember that it’s completely impossible to do absolutely nothing, and if getting out of bed is all you do for the day, then that’s enough.

issue 28 // vol 44

opinions // no. 15

Homestar Runner: A forgotten relic that should be remembered ööThe originator of modern internet humour deserves a new fanbase

T

he internet was a fundamentally different place in the early 2000s.

Before Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, before being internationally recognized and politically relevant, the internet was structured and programmed much differently.

This is best seen with Adobe Flash, a software no longer supported by modern browsers. It allowed amateur animators, often children or teenagers, to create web shows, minigames, and entire websites completely on their own. So much of the modern internet culture and humour comes from Flash sites, but I would say the most longlasting, important, and hilarious was a site called HomestarRunner.com.

Homestar Runner was a website with games and regular cartoon sketches all built in Flash. It was an interactive experience created and curated almost entirely by the Brothers Chaps; Matt and Mike Chapman—both of whom would end up working on children’s television shows like Yo Gabba Gabba! and Gravity Falls. It stands alone among countless other sites for its clean humour, likeable characters, and endless quotability. Despite the internet being a very different place now, Homestar Runner should be acknowledged and remembered for the important piece of cultural legacy that it is.

The site launched in early 2000 and rocketed to popularity, with its children’s

book aesthetic and surreal comedy. This was one of the very first popular Flash webseries and inspired many animators and programmers, as accessibility of Flash allowed people to make their own Homestar Runner parodies or homages.

The site also allowed viewers to submit emails, which were then read and replied to by Strongbad, one of the characters.

This was their most popular series and all Strongbad Emails are still on YouTube.

As someone who grew up on the internet with Homestar Runner, I can clearly remember its influence. Homestar Runner was quoted constantly, and its naive-yet-surreal humour propagated far across the internet, especially in animator hubs like Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep, who both produced some of the oldest internet videos that are still appreciated today.

I know this sounds silly: These videos came and went in under five years, nearly 20 years ago. It’s all about internet jokes, so how can something so unimportant be taken seriously? Why should an ancient Flash website be “respected and acknowledged?” Well, as we learned over the past two years, the internet matters.

It can swing entire presidential elections and spread movements. That means the culture and history of the internet matters—that means Homestar Runner matters. So, when you have a night off, pour a glass of wine or a mug of tea and go through the old Strongbad Emails playlist, or the Homestar sketches. It will connect you deeper to the internet that now influences so much of the real world, and it’s still hilarious.

Despite the internet being a very different place now, Homestar Runner should be acknowledged and remembered for the important piece of cultural legacy that it is.”

Homestar Runner logo via CommonVision.org

Greg Waldock Staff Writer

Hey, girl!

Janis McMath Contributor

I

f you’ve been to middle school, you know what it’s like to suffer the phase of coloured braces and constantly saying “dude” unironically. “Dude” is a fantastic word, and as you may already know, the term is an extremely common synonym for “friend,” or “buddy.” While originally used in the 1800s to make fun of extravagantly dressed men, the expression has been used indiscriminately of gender since the twentieth century. Everyone (male, female, non-binary, etc.) seems to use the expression “dude” because it’s a damn good expression, dude.

But, personally, I believe that the era of “dude” is over—I much prefer “girl,” so I use the term regularly with all my friends of all varying genders.

“Girl” is a similar expression to “dude” because it is used in friendship and camaraderie. Furthermore, the term has evolved over time to take on a more gender-neutral meaning. To see an example of its neutral meaning, one only

needs to look at the popular use of “girl” in drag culture. Regardless of gender or sex, cisgender male drag queens call each other “girl” in a way that highlights their companionship. The word is gaining traction as a synonym for pal—yet I keep meeting guys who are offended by my friendly use of “girl.”

The reaction I have received from many guys at the use of “girl” is “I’m actually a guy if you didn’t know!” Yes dude, I know—also, how is that relevant?

While it’s totally fair for people to be unaware of language trends and correct me due to their ignorance, guys that respond this way will consistently correct my use of “girl” even if I’ve already explained that I only mean it as friend or pal. Adding to the hypocrisy, these guys will knowingly call me “dude”—yet constantly reject being called “girl.” If you understand that gendered words like “dude” can simply mean “pal,” why keep correcting me when I call you “girl?”

The only difference between “dude” and “girl” is the masculine and feminine implications, and if you are offended by the feminine implication (i.e., you

Illustration by Cara Seccafien

ööWhy do you have such a problem with a friendly, feminine nickname?

think women are lesser than men), then you’re misogynistic! How fragile could your masculinity possibly be?

It seems that everyone has readily accepted “dude,” yet “girl” keeps facing rejection from those who dislike the

feminine implication. “Girl” should be acknowledged and appreciated as a friendly term of endearment—and if you hate it because you’re misogynistic, then I weep for the woman who literally grew you in her “girly” uterus.

Kwiigay

Kwiigay

Kwiigay

Kwiigay

Creative Works

If you would like your own creative work to be featured in our Creative Writing section, send poems, short stories, excerpts (of 1,500 words or less), and original artwork to assistant.otherpress@gmail.com or editor.otherpress@gmail.com.

We publish weekly, and chosen writers/artists will receive $50 for every three pieces they have published.

Humour

Have an idea for a story?  humour@theotherpress.ca

OO City on verge of collapse as sun terrorizes citizens OO Brain games!

OO Comics!

And more!

Top free places to camp in Vancouver ööTake in nature without having to take money out of the bank

I

n Vancouver, summer is the best time of the year. Unfortunately, since you live here, your wallet isn’t having the best time. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Here are the top free camping places in Vancouver that won’t break the bank.

Dude Chilling Park They can’t arrest you for chilling, it’s in the name.

Behind a dumpster Don’t worry, you won’t be breaking new ground or sticking out like a sore thumb by being there. Due to the housing crisis, you won’t be the only one taking advantage of this opportunity!

Under a bridge This is a great option that allows for excellent rain cover, car noises, and the sounds of people finding an isolated location to cry. Nature is beautiful. Why should homeless people and storybook

trolls get all the good spots? Assert your dominance by wearing bright reflective clothing.

A tent store There are thousands of tent stores open for the fat cats who are able to actually afford tents, and all of them are already set up! All you need to bring is yourself and an attitude that screams “I want to speak to your manager.”

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

Klara Woldenga Humour Editor

In a petting zoo Pretend to be a goat. It’s a lot easier than it sounds.

Daniel’s drained pool If none of the above options tickle your fancy for some reason, don’t worry about it. I know a guy who never uses his pool.

All you need to do is climb down it, set up camp, and enjoy the spooky, echo-y chamber. Just email me and I’ll give you his address.

Daniel’s backyard Daniel never uses his pool, and he also

never uses his beautiful, large backyard.

He doesn’t deserve it, but where he fails as a human being you can succeed!

Sneak in from the back alley and though his back gate. His gate password is 1-63-3-0-3-2-8-4-2-6-3-3-8-6, and his 10 Dobermans won’t bite you if you feed them gluten-free dog treats; I think you

can find those in Kitsilano, probably.

Daniel’s car Don’t worry about it, I never see him lock the door. Just make sure that you only camp between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., Monday to Friday.

East Africa solves famine by ordering Endless Shrimp from Red Lobster Klara Woldenga Humour Editor

A

fter years of severe famine, the citizens of East Africa are finally free from hunger thanks to the power of all-you-can-eat-shrimp. The amazing solution was discovered by John Magufuli, the chairman of the East African Community (an organization composed of six countries in Eastern Africa), who flew to Toronto Canada to attend a conference focusing on issues surrounding worldwide famine.

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before,” said Magufuli. “After attending a panel, I found myself in a Red Lobster. I ordered the Endless Shrimp special, and suddenly I realized that I could feed an entire country with the reckless overindulgences I was being offered! It was brilliant.”

Drought, war, and high food prices are to blame for the upwards of 25 million East Africans that are in need of humanitarian services, so Magufuli proceeded to order 25.5 million orders of Endless Shrimp, just to be safe.

“I ordered them to go, of course,” said Magufuli. “And I stayed away from

the breaded shrimp and the linguini shrimp—those fill you up too quickly!”

The server, Jane Dilben, did a doubletake after writing down Magufuli’s order.

“At first, I didn’t think I had heard him correctly,” said Dilben. “I mean, who asks for 25.5 million orders of Endless Shrimp? But that guy did, so I got my answer right away—that was nice!”

Dilben quickly went to the kitchen to put in the order and was met with some hesitation from the kitchen staff.

“They weren’t sure if the kitchen could properly fill that order,” said Dilben.

“But, I’ve always been told that the customer is always right, so I reminded the chefs of that and they started right on it!”

When Kim A. Lopdrup, the CEO of Red Lobster, received word of this shrimp order, he publicly condemned it, stating that: “Red Lobster is not a company that should produce that ridiculous amount of shrimp. When we started this sea-bug restaurant, our intention was to get customers to overindulge to the point of deep selfloathing, not to solve world hunger.”

Magufuli responded to Lopdrup’s remarks, stating that “It sounds like Lopdrup’s scared he can’t create

Photo via ChewBoom.com

ööMillions of African citizens ‘enjoy’ lukewarm sea bugs and stale cheddar biscuits

over three million pounds of shrimp and, therefore, is subject to all of us questioning his masculinity.”

When Lopdrup heard Magufuli’s statement, he responded, “Of course I can make that many shrimp,” and then proceeded to aggressively ask who it was that had told everyone his company couldn’t.

After Lopdrup’s statement, Red Lobster quickly began producing shrimp at an unprecedented rate. Still, the filled orders trickle out of the kitchen slowly,

as Red Lobster seeks to pace out their shrimp servings as to keep costs down, but Magufuli is ready for this tactic.

“I have an entire military team dedicated to sitting in the restaurant’s entrance way, picking up the orders, and packing them onto a plane,” said Magufuli.

“I also have several people in there politely asking for more cheddar biscuits.

They have been in there for four days.”

Marine biologists now estimate that shrimp will become extinct by 2019.

humour // no. 18

theotherpress.ca

Consecutive days of good weather fills city with confusion, fear

ancouver fell under a blanket of panic last week as the sun shone several days in a row, completely unobscured by clouds. This unnatural phenomenon has left residents filled with anxiety and fear for the future.

Without endless rain and overcast skies to complain about, social circles have simply collapsed, weather reporters have been left speechless, and the basic rules of Vancouver conversational etiquette are now rendered completely useless.

Meghan Chan, a Point Grey leader of a local book club, talked with the Other Press’ field reporters.

“We’ve only had one club meeting since the sun started,” she said.

“We just sat around with nothing to make small talk about. One by one, we tried complaining about the weather like usual, but the bright light outside reminded us that there wasn’t the perpetual greyness that we normally hate. We were scared.”

The book club fell apart a few days later.

complain about, don’t let the green grass and warm sun get you down.”

They also reminded us that eventually the dull grey overcast will return, and Vancouverites can go back to being bitter about things that don’t matter and are completely outside of human control.

“The real problems will be easy to

ignore again soon enough,” they tweeted.

This reporter would like to express his support for Vancouverites in this difficult time. The good weather may make you want to smile more—be careful, our faces aren’t used to it. Being in a good mood for days at a time can’t be healthy.

Comic by Nuclear Jackal

V

Weather reporting has also found itself in a tough place as Brad McChinsley, the most-watched weather reporter in Vancouver, was forced to admit on-air that Metro Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland were in for several days of nice weather. By the third day of beautiful sunshine and cool spring breezes, McChinsley was in tears and noticeably shaking.

“I’m sorry to say that we’re entering another period of warmth and brightness,” he told viewers, dabbing at the corner of his eyes. “There’s nothing we can do except actually go outside and enjoy the fresh air. I don’t know when the pleasantness will end. I’m sorry, everyone.”

McChinsley hasn’t been on-air since, though he was photographed glaring at the clear blue sky downtown.

The Vancouver Police Department has had to remind Vancouver citizens that there are many other things to complain about. “Housing is still dangerously expensive,” said the VPD on their Twitter account. “The opioid crisis is still going strong.

Surrey is still planning the Light Rail Transit system. There’s plenty to

Comic by Ed Appleby

Greg Waldock Staff Writer

Photo by Analyn Curato

ööCity on verge of collapse as sun terrorizes citizens

Entertainment

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No. 384

© 2018 Syndicated Puzzles

Monthly crossword: Eco-friendly edition

By Caroline Ho, Arts Editor

SUDOKU

Comic by Rella

Weekly Crossword: Eco-Friendly Edition