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FIRST PEEK
June 3, 2013 · Volume 144, Issue 5
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2013
FIRST PEEK
After the horrific fire of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, I ruffled through my wardrobe and looked at the labels enclosed with each garment. The results weren’t shocking or unexpected, but a sweeping sense of guilt washed over me. Aside from some jeans, some sweaters and a few jackets which touted a “Made in USA” label, the majority of my clothes were made in China, Vietnam and India. I also found one item that was made in Bangladesh — my favourite pair of boots. I suddenly felt dirty for buying them. It’s no secret that most companies outsource labour to foreign countries. It’s also no secret that many companies exploit these foreign workers, forcing them to work in unsafe conditions, and often for meagre wages. The term “sweat shop” is part of our vernacular and we all know what it means, yet we do little to stop it; foreign exploitation is proclaimed on many labels, but we turn a blind eye. When we shop, we look at the price tag, but not the label enclosed. We often don’t stop to think about where the products we enjoy
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come from or how they are made. I think it’s about time we did. It’s time to stop this intentional denial, and finally help others in less fortunate circumstances. To accomplish this, citizens must stand up against the sociopathic nature of multinational corporations. The current free enterprise system needs to change, and regulations must be brought in. Without regulation, multinational companies will continue to exploit everything from human life to the environment. I am not advocating that capitalism needs to be abolished or that outsourcing cannot occur. I am, however, advocating for adjustments in our system to happen. While companies should be able to enjoy a profit, the bottom line should not be more important than human life, human dignity and the environment.
As consumers, we may feel that it is not our responsibility to oppose multinational corporations, but it is. Everything that we buy supports the current system. This support is akin to a direct vote that allows exploitation to continue. As consumers, we seem to
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forget that we have an immense amount of power: if we collectively demanded change, companies would be forced to adapt their means of production to suit the demand. Demanding change won’t be easy. It would involve coordinating, planning, petitions and boycotts. It would mean giving up some of your time. It may also mean having a little less, so that others have a little more. Although life in Canada is hard for many of us, are lucky to live here. As students, many of us are drowning in debt and struggling to make ends meet, but the difference in our society is that we have options to better our lives and to enjoy a decent standard of living. For the many factory workers producing our goods, these options are not available; instead, these workers are forced to accept work in dangerous conditions for an unlivable wage. The poverty that many of these workers face is incomparable to us even at out poorest. Aren’t we willing to help others with far less opportunity? Although it won’t be easy, I truly believe that it is possible for far more people to have a decent standard of living. As a privileged nation, it’s time that we took a hard look at ourselves in the mirror, past our trendy clothes and iPhones. While we may enjoy all of our stuff, is it really worth the real price tag?
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NEWS
A recent SFU graduate and his crew, called “Beyond Boarding,” are travelling across BC to investigate the myriad of industrial projects proposed in the province. According to the crew, a project like Enbridge is only one of many which are destroying BC’s natural playgrounds. Beyond Boarding was initially created by a group of BC snowboarders who hoped to spread awareness of environmental and social issues in the snowboard community while trying to activate their fellow peers to make positive, green lifestyle choices. Led by Tamo Campos, Lewis Muirhead, and SFU grad David MacKinnon, the organization uses video and photos to educate the community. The
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thought is that while not everyone may want to watch an environmental video, you can watch an exciting snowboard video while still learning about industrial projects and how they might affect BC. “Snowboarders have an innate love for these natural places,” commented Campos, who is in the Global Stewardship program at Capilano University. “They play in them all the time, so they should be the ones on the front line defending them. I think it’s almost like our duty. We’re so fortunate to be able to play in these pristine mountains every day, and we need to take that and consider bigger issues.” The crew’s plan was to load up a school bus powered by used veggie oil and travel around the province to investigate the various industrial projects and speak with the local communities affected. Additionally, the crew would surf and snowboard as much as possible, all the while getting footage that would hopefully make others want to check out their initiative. “Its been an insane trip in the sense of how big [the province] is and how much development is being proposed in BC,” said
news editor email / phone
Campos. “It’s hard to see that every single community we’ve been to during this trip is being affected by some sort of industrial project.”
Campos and MacKinnon were especially affected by their experiences at the Sacred Headwaters, a vast alpine basin that is the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers. These three are some of the largest salmon bearing rivers in North America that remain undammed, and have supported the Haida people for 13,000 years. However, they were recently declared the most endangered rivers in our province by the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC. Although a proposal by Shell Canada to to drill for coalbed methane has been finally quashed, there remains 26 proposed mines in the area with
Alison Roach associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
tailing ponds (pollution left over from the mining process) in the Headwaters. “It’s too easy to become depressed about these issues,” said Campos. “You have to spend half the time you do researching the tar sands and find out what is happening around the rest of the world, what solutions are there in place . . . it’s really kept us going.” During their travel through the province, Beyond Boarding found several alternatives that give hope for BC’s greener future. Such alternatives include the following: wind power turbines on northern Vancouver Island; a sustainable mining company in the Sacred Headwaters which would provide jobs through environmentally conscious mining, not mountaintop removal; and offthe-grid farms in Smithers, where a day’s power could be created by using the exhaust from burning a 1-foot-by-1-foot bucket of wood chips. Campos exalted these alternatives, saying, “The best thing we can do to arm ourselves against these projects is to educate ourselves about the solutions . . . In the sacred headwaters, every day the valley was filled with smoke as the forests were being clear cut to make way for the transmission lines. [The company was] burning the stackpiles because they’re not a logging company, they’re a transmission company. It should be mandatory that we do something with that wood, and you think about how that biomass could actually power all these other communities.” Nevertheless, the boarders don’t feel that a solution can be achieved by individuals acting alone; calling instead for a complete change of mindset, one which might be difficult for many to accept. “What climate change actually means is we have to totally rethink the way we’re doing things.” said Campos. “Our free market, resource extraction system is not working . . . we’re not going to have the same world 50 years from now. Accepting climate change is accepting that everything we have done up until now isn’t working, and that’s a really hard psychological issue to accept. “50 years from now when we don’t have the tar sands, what is our country? That’s in our life span.”
Leah Bjornson
Beyond Boarding will be wrapping shooting on their Northern BC project this September, and hope to take their movies on tour, as well as have them available for download on their website, [beyondboarding. org.] While they do have volunteer opportunities available for the right people, MacKinnon says involvement “starts at home.” As an SFU student who made the decision in his own life to adapt a greener lifestyle, MacKinnon added positively that, “Canadians are as capable as anybody, and if we get people thinking that there is a better way of living, the sky is the limit.”
BOARD SHORTS
Members of the new SFSS board were appointed to committees in the Build SFU project, a Build SFU Joint Steering Committee and a Build SFU Building Committee. External relations officer Chardaye Bueckert and treasurer Emad Shahid were voted into the joint steering committee, while Bueckert, president Humza Khan, and business faculty representative Brandon Chapman were named to the building committee. Fontaine also recommended that the newly formed Build SFU Project Committee be downsized and made to have less board representation with more members of the student community at large to take seats. The project committee will be discussing the large scale communication and consultation process that will be put in motion in the fall. continued next page . . .
NEWS
June 3, 2013
SFSS President Humza Khan gave a report on a Studentcare stakeholder conference attended by himself and several other board members recently, where they spoke to the SFSS healthcare provider about issues around privacy, timeliness, and accessibility. Khan announced the release of a mobile app by the healthcare provider that has been developed through the suggestion of SFSS members who attended the conference the previous year. The app is currently only available for iPhones, and allows students to file claims, check their claim history, get information on their coverage, and receive refunds through direct deposit. The app allows quick processing, with claims going through within five business days. With the current physical mailing system, claims can take from two weeks to a month the process. The app is available for free on iTunes under the name “ihaveaplan mobile.” genome research. While Birol says that in the
A group of Canadian scientists, including Steve Jones and Inanc Birol from SFU, have developed genome maps for the white spruce tree, a tree that is very common in British Columbia and important to the BC forestry industry. Genome maps are orders of the genetic makeup of living beings. They assign DNA fragments to chromosomes, allowing researchers to identify specific traits that plants or animals have. The maps would greatly help by speeding up the process of selective breeding for the trees. Jones, an SFU molecular biology and biochemistry professor, spent several years with the research team developing the software to find this information, and spent the last year and a half sequencing the spruce genome. Jones said that those in the forestry industry will be able to identify the genes responsible for the certain traits a tree has, and therefore can ensure that “the trees they plant are the most suited to that particular region and will be more likely to develop into mature trees.”
Selective breeding has been used “for the last 10,000 years,” explained Birol, a computing science adjunct professor at SFU. “Before this research, breeders had to make educated guesses for the properties of the seedlings, then they would have to wait a number of years to measure the results on mature trees, and repeat. “This research cuts down the waiting time between breeding cycles considerably, perhaps from 25 years to 5 years.” This information could be used to solve major environmental problems as well, specifically the destruction caused
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The Financial and Administrative Services Committee (FASC) of the SFSS recommended to the board to increase the Out on Campus student administrator wages by $5,300, and the EI / CPP / WCB expenses by $450. These increases are to be taken from the unrestricted surplus. The motion was easily approved by almost all board members, with only one abstention. -Alison Roach
by the Mountain Pine beetle in BC over the last few years. According to a report by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, in 2001, the Mountain Pine beetle damaged almost 800,000 hectares of forest in BC. This amount continued to increase yearly, reaching over 18 million hectares of damaged forest by 2011; which included a substantial amount of commercially valuable pine, and was
combated with a multi-million dollar Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan implemented in 2001. “The white spruce represents a significant percentage of the trees in those forests and across Canada,” noted Birol.“That’s why understanding the spruce biology at the genomic level will allow us to protect them against changing conditions and their effects.” The Mountain pine beetle has become more prevalent in
Canada in recent years due to the fact that the BC interior has recently not experienced the extreme winter weather which killed vast amounts of the beetles in the past; the last such weather event occurred in 1995 / 96. There is also a dramatically higher amount of healthy trees in BC, as a result of BC’s wildfire management program being established in the last century. The research team’s hopes to combat this epidemic with this new
very competitive field in which this research is taking place, their Canadian project “has the most bang for the buck!” as it is “the first to report a genome at this level of construction.” He added, “We are not done yet . . . just like the human genome, it will take several more years to ‘complete’ the spruce genome. And, it is a worthy effort, where competitors have to — and will — work together to accomplish.”
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June 3, 2013
NEWS
Last Tuesday, in a press conference regarding the Supreme Court case to legalize the sex trade in Canada, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter and EVE (formerly Exploited Voices now Educating) openly called for the decriminalization of prostitution for the women involved. A coalition of women’s groups under the name of The Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution is preparing to argue a case against legalization of sex trade in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. The coalition was given intervener status last month in the charter challenge of Canada’s prostitution laws, and the case will be heard by the Supreme Court next month. The Women’s Coalition argues that the laws that criminalize women involved in prostitution should be abolished, but “laws that prevent men from buying, selling, and profiting from prostituted women are important protections that must be retained.� Under the current laws against prostitution in Canada, 362 girls were charged in 2008. In the same year, six men were charged, leading to only two convictions. The hearing has arisen after a case in Ontario saw the Ontario Appeal Court rule against the Criminal Code ban on bawdy houses, based on the logic that the ban increases the dangers prostitutes face when they are forced to work on the streets. However, the Women’s Coalition hopes to challenge the idea of sex as work, and sees it rather as violence against women. Trisha Baptie, who was prostituted from the age of 13 to 28, is founder of the group EVE and spoke at the press conference on the Women’s Coalition position of prostitution as abuse. “The violence women suffer from prostitution will not go away if we remove the laws surrounding prostitution,� Baptie
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stated and continued, “In fact, violence will increase as the men who perpetrate the violence will face no legal barriers to their abusive behaviour . . . We need the laws to stand up to this abusive behaviour, and not excuse it.� Janine Benedet, a lawyer and law professor, is acting as council for the Women’s Coalition and spoke about the argument the Women’s Coalition will be presenting next month, something she called a “third way,� in between criminalization and complete legalization.
The model is one of asymmetrical criminalization, which does not penalize the women in prostitution, but comes down harshly on the johns and pimps involved. The system is currently in place in Norway,
Sweden, and Iceland, and is known as the Nordic model. Benedet referred to the model as “veTry effective,� seeing a decrease in the amount of street prostitution and making those countries unattractive destinations for pimps and sex traffickers. Benedet said she feels hopeful about the case, and pointed to the extreme differences in the two groups involved in prostitution as the reasoning behind the asymmetrical laws. Benedet contrasted the asymmetrical criminalization model to the complete abolition in Netherlands and Germany, where she described the legalized industry as a “smokescreen� for the illegal activities still underway. Some have spoken out against the use of Nordic model, including SFU criminology professor John Lowman, who said enforcing the Nordic system in Canada would essentially amount to “institutionalized entrapment,� according to 24 Hours. “The Nordic model helps women as long as they want to get out of prostitution,� he
said. “But if they don’t want to get out of prostitution, it essentially sacrifices them to a form of a radical feminist ideology.�
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There are currently no funded programs for helping women exit prostitution in Vancouver. “We need all [of these things],� said Bentham, “Not just one will fix the issue.�
MOTOR  VEHICLE  ACCIDENT November  12,  2012  at  12:30  p.m.
Beyond legalization of prostitution for sex workers, the speakers at the press conference mentioned the need for more support for women attempting to exit the sex trade. Summer-Rain Bentham, a front-line worker at Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, spoke about the need for adequate day care, education opportunities, transition housing, detox beds, and treatment programs for these women.
We now have video of the above white Mercedes SUV forcing a black Nissan into the centre median westbound on University Drive, west of Tower Road. The Nissan knocked down a road sign before ending up in the ditch on the southside of the road. Would the driver of the Mercedes, or anyone with knowledge of this person, contact Chris Leck at 604 UH ÀOH QR
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OPINIONS
Walking into the Pacific Cinematheque theatre, it’s clear the people attending this film are of a different sort than those filling the lobby of large, chain theatres. We are all here to see Sunset Boulevard, a film by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. The film made its debut in 1950 and has since stunned audiences with its macabre and hilarious plot and cast of characters. I won’t go on about the film much more — after all, this isn’t the arts section, and you should go see it for yourself — but what I do want to go on about the difference between independent, local theatres, and the ones
reeling off blockbuster hits on giant-sized screens. Pacific Cinematheque is one of Vancouver’s last vestiges of independent theatre, a place where you can expect to see a combination of film noir, Japanese horror, and the entire ouvre of Jean-Luc Godard. The theatre is tiny, with only one screen and a respectable amount of small, red-cushioned seats. The concession offers the necessary popcorn, sans faux butter, done home-style, which I appreciate, and a few select choices of rich chocolate bars or saran-wrapped toffee bars. It’s simple: no flashy menu boards or endlessly rotating trays of nachos. Posters of the classics line the walls: Hitchcock’s profile, Hayao Miyazaki’s illustrations. These details give you an idea what kind of theatre the Cinematheque is. These people really care about films. Not too long ago, I tried to see a film at a large chain theatre in downtown Vancouver, which I will leave unnamed.
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The movie was Cloud Atlas, and it was, regrettably, only being shown in one of the larger, special theatres that require a seating reservation in advance. My friends and I had planned to meet at the movies and stuff our faces with our favourite movie goodies (sour bubble-gum flavoured bottles and cherry bon bons, please and thank you), but this was rendered impossible by this new feature. The tickets would all have had to be bought by the same person, far in advance, in order for us to even be able to sit together.
I felt robbed of the moviegoing experience I remember having as a child and adolescent — which, relatively speaking, was not that long ago. Isn’t
opinions editor email / phone
Tara Nykyforiak opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
this what going to the movies was supposed to be about? Isn’t the whole appeal the ability to meet with friends out in the social world rather than remain holed up alone in a dark basement suite? Isn’t it an excuse to chuckle jovially with friends at Keanu Reeve’s terrible and inconsistent British accent? (My example is dated, but I think you all know what I’m talking about.) But oh, right, I forgot that most people would rather have as little social contact as possible, preferring to be plugged in at all times. But I digress. What I love about the Cinematheque, and most other independent theatres in general (I’ll include the ill-fated Fifth Avenue Cinemas, which has recently been acquired by Cineplex), is that this social experience has been maintained, despite the changes taking place in larger theatres. You can meet up with friends beforehand without making advance seating reservations, and the theatres actually care about this experience. They
also care about films, and this is perhaps most important of all. This is why I won’t be going to a large chain movie theatre any time soon. Give me Cinematheque or give me death.
OPINIONS
One of my favourite clichés in televised news is the way they present stories not as complete sentences, but as questions: “Could eating carrots be slowly killing your children? Details at 11.” It doesn’t matter whether the answer is “yes” or “no.” Simply by asking the question, the reporter has planted the idea, “carrots equals dead children” into your mind. Contrary to our intuitions, questions can be, in a sense, wrong. They can be misleading, if
Dear David Dyck, Re: “Letter to the Editor – May 20, 2013” I am still away for a few more weeks, but my semesters abroad have not made me forget my time on the board. Stepping away from politics at SFU has given me time to reflect on my mistakes and determine methods to improve my university before I graduate. I strongly believe in the intellect and ability of the students at SFU. I do not believe that you, David, or any member of the board, believe our fellow students are incompetent and unable to resolve “real problems.” Anyone starting a new job faces a steep learning curve, and a departmental representative elected to forum cannot learn the ins and outs of student governance in one semester, just as no member of the board can do so in four months. The first solution is not to ask uniformed or disorganized
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not downright incorrect. The first kind of “wrong question” is the kind that doesn’t need to be asked in the first place. By asking a question, you are implicitly expressing the belief that the question needs to be asked. In other words, you are saying the answer to the question is probably surprising, in the sense that it might justify something something. Often, news outlets ask questions, not because they’re worth asking, but because they present the illusion of a nice, marketable controversy. In the words of Doug Henwood, “we can’t tell people what to think, but we can tell them what to think about.” A concrete example from the past few years would be the question repeated by the Birthers in the United States: “Was the
students to answer difficult questions, but instead to have students elected to Forum for a one year period and empower them via a comprehensive training process, just like the board of directors receives. The result will be a Forum of engaged students. This type of student government would call for a much larger election and incorporate more students into making real decisions at SFU. Forum would not be made of a small cadre of students elected from each department, but would be organized in a representation by population of faculty body election. Ideally, these students would already have previous experience in their faculty. The recent special general meeting formally recognizing faculty student unions is an amazing example of how determined our students are for a new form of politics at SFU. The creation of faculty student unions will allow
President of the United States really born on American soil?” This kind of misleading question was infamously parodied in an internet meme, asking: “Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a young girl in 1990?”
The second kind of wrong question is the kind that makes assumptions which might not be true. The classic example is an old joke, where the joke teller asks a married man, “do you still beat
newer students to get a taste of student politics and provide a stepping stone for them to gain experience of how larger forums and student governance work. Bringing reform to the SFSS will require work and cooperation, but is absolutely necessary and our students are definitely able. SFU is rated number two in the top 50 universities under 50 years old in Canada. As a young institution with a great reputation, we must do our part to fix our broken system. If you ask me, reform is not only practical and possible, but must happen to reach the democratic benchmark and organizational capacity that most of the student societies of our size have already achieved.
Sincerely, Kyle Acierno
your spouse?” — the assumption in the question being that the man has ever beaten his spouse. A more realistic example of this occurs in false dichotomies, where the question gives an incomplete set of choices, as with the question “are you with us, or are you with the terrorists?” A question can also contain a framework of background assumptions. If you ask, “what should Canada’s official languages be?” you are assuming that Canada needs official languages to begin with. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for a question to contain an assumption, provided that it’s asked in the proper context. If everybody has explicitly agreed that Canada should have official languages, it makes sense to ask which languages they should be.
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In that case, the question is the result of previous knowledge. The problem is when such questions are used to influence the audience’s beliefs, to introduce an idea into our minds without reason, or to narrow the discourse to an oversimplified set of options. Questions can be used to influence an audience’s beliefs under the guise of innocent skepticism. Upon hearing a question, our tendency is to try to come up with an answer. But often it is helpful to step back and ask, “Why is this question being asked in the first place? What assumptions does it make, and how much of my time should I devote to its consideration?” This allows us to avoid useless questions and focus on thinking about what’s important.
Cheese motherfucker, do you eat it? I know you do, and that means you are intimately familiar with the lactococcus bacteria. Lactococcus is used in the cheese-making process, meaning it is deliciously awesome. But cheesy goodness is not all it can be used for. It’s been in the spotlight recently as the first genetically modified organism to be used while alive in the treatment
of Crohn’s disease. It can also be used as an oral vaccine, in foreign protein production, and as a metabolite in genetic engineering. Most people say “ew” and run the other way when bacteria are mentioned, but the FDA has labelled lactococcus as generally safe. With nothing to fear but fear itself, all that’s left for you to do is cut the cheese!
This bacteria packs a punch, and not in a good way. It’s associated with an array of disgusting diseases such as botulism, tetanus, and gangrene. And not just your run of the mill gangrene, but gas gangrene. This means that the clostridium bacteria produces gas in its victim’s affected tissues, and was a huge problem for soldiers fighting in the first
and second world wars. Talk about gross and scary! What’s more is that this bacteria produces spores that can withstand extreme conditions, and six ounces alone of a botulism toxin is enough to kill the entire human population! While being the stuff of a sci-fi nerd’s wet dream, clostridium is very dangerous and is not a bacteria to mess with.
12 OPINIONS
We’ve all experienced the frustration of being forced to read things for class that we didn’t want to. As students, we’ve suffered through lessons of Robert Frost and Shakespeare and afterward, never thought twice of returning to poetry. But why is that? Because of the way it is taught. Outside, and even inside of university English classrooms, it is regarded as “inaccessible” and “pretentious” and is generally left alone. One merely has to say the word “poetry” and images of finger snapping hipsters is conjured up in the minds of almost anyone. But if poetry has played such a substantial role in our human history — through songs and story-telling and a great chunk of our printed legacy — why is it treated as alien? Here are some numbers that showcase poetry’s position in our society. BookNet Canada tracked poetry sales in Canada at a mere 73,000 books in 2010, accounting for just 0.12% of total market sales. In comparison, Apple Insider reported iTunes music sales at nearly $1.4 billion in its first quarter of 2011. This is very disheartening because it proves that an interest in poetry exists in the hearts of many, but this interest isn’t shining through. Lyricists are themselves poets, but this message isn’t conveyed in middle and high school classrooms. It never dawned on me at 15, for example, that Jimi Hendrix was a poet, but I worshipped him as one of my idols. The problem as I see it begins when it is formally introduced in the school setting. Poetry is presented in a very objective fashion, with attention to devices such as similes, metaphors, and alliteration. Sound familiar? Four to seven years is spent on repetitive matching games that involve pairing lines
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of poetry with their appropriate devices. I acknowledge that a high school curriculum needs to be accessible, and that worksheets make this possible. What frustrates me is the outcome. By structuring these lessons like science assignments, more artminded students become bored and uninspired, and math and science-minded students are annoyed at having to continually match up definitions that don’t interest them. At the same time, the personal interpretation and selfdiscovery that poetry awards is ignored in favour of this “poetic mapping out.” It is this personal interpretation and self discovery that should be lauded by English teachers, because it directly aligns with the critical thinking skills that high school curriculums endeavour to imbue students with.
But critical thinking doesn’t just end in high school — it continues at the post-secondary level and branches outward into our artistic culture at large. This means music, story-telling, film, theatre, and many more areas demanding thoughtful and critical analysis. And what does this do for poetry itself? With free verse and avant-garde approaches dominating the contemporary scene, it doesn’t make sense that such a great emphasis should be placed on mere definitions. English itself is a subject characterized by discussion and debate, so shouldn’t poetry be taught in a much more open-ended way? It would attract more students to enjoy it, that’s for sure, and not leave them running the other way the instant the word “poetry” is uttered. If I was a high school English teacher, I would hope to pique the interest of my students by making poetry a more
intimate and personally involved subject. I would invite them to bring in poetry in any form to the classroom (song
lyrics, movie dialogues, poetic prose from a novel, etc.) and encourage them to tell me what it means to them. This should
be the case for any ninth grade English class, and would be a very foundational and engaging way of introducing poetry.
ARTS
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Through his solo project Dirty Beaches, electronic artist Alex Zhang Hungtai, expresses his experiences as a world traveler, exploring the globe without a place to call home. Born in Taiwan and raised in Montreal, Hungtai’s music is impressionistic, atmospheric and laden with nostalgia for an indeterminate time and place. After two prolific years and a wide variety of genre experiments, Hungtai has distilled his approach into the brilliant, sprawling double album Drifters / Love is the Devil. Where his previous full-length as Dirty Beaches, 2011’s Badlands, seemed to evoke a parallel 1950s universe of hazy, film noir longing, Hungtai’s latest release is an intensely personal and impressionistic work of self-reflection. Drifters is the more accessible of
It’s all you need, according to The Beatles. Joy Division told you it’d tear us
the two albums: each track is built around a sparse, lo-fi structure of tinny drum machine beats and throbbing bass lines, texturized by Hungtai’s melancholic synths and throaty Ian Curtis-style vocal delivery. The tracks here range from the airy synth pop of “ELLI” to the dark, computerized post-punk of “Night Walk.” The theme throughout both albums is heartbreak, and Hungtai’s no-holdsbarred performances seem therapeutic: On “Au Revoir Mon Visage”, he yells intermittently in French over a tribal drum machine loop, exorcising identity crisis demons in hauntingly direct fashion. Where Drifters is expressive and pulsating, Love is the Devil is fragile and directionless, abandoning the former’s rigid song structures for ambient genre experiments. It’s on this second album that Hungtai excels. The weeping orchestration of title track “Love is the Devil” and the sparse piano chords framed by electronic oscillations on “Woman” are among the most beautiful music Hungtai has ever written, and seem to convey his longing and heartbreak more subtly and more effectively than Drifters’ trembling electronica. Though Drifters / Love is the Devil is far from easy listening, Hungtai’s knack for experimentation and harrowingly beautiful instrumentals will reward attentive listeners. By finding common ground between introversion and extroversion, left brain and right brain, body and mind, Hungtai has made two of the strongest albums released so far this year.
apart, but the Captain and Tennille assured you it would keep us together. Karen O knows they don’t feel it like she does, and Whitney Houston knows she’ll always feel it. Where so many artists see the archetypical love song as a tired cliché, Stephin Merritt sees a motif. He mines the potential of what a love song can be by incorporating a wide variety of genres and points of view. “I had nothing qualitatively new to say,” he quipped in a 2000 interview following the album’s release. “Hence the idea of saying something quantitatively new.” 69 Love Songs features everything from the blushing beginnings of romance (“Absolutely Cuckoo”) to yearning better to have loved and lost ballads (“Busby Berkeley Dreams”) to anti-love beat poetry (“How Fucking Romantic”). Merritt’s thin baritone and verbose, often hilarious lyrics make the album an enjoyable listen, despite its daunting tally of tracks and its monumental 172-minute runtime.
arts editor email / phone
Daryn Wright arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
For aspiring music fans during the grunge explosion of Seattle in the 90s, Alice in Chains was the heaviest option: Eddie Vedder’s leathery croon had nothing on Layne Staley’s raspy roar, and the guitar solo on Soundgarden’s wildly popular “Black Hole Sun” seemed tame when compared to Jerry Cantrell’s visceral guitar work on 1992’s “Them Bones.” Naturally, when Alice in Chains was exhumed in 2005, many wondered if the band would be able to recapture the musical musculature of its glory days. But rather than softening their sound, the zombified Alice in Chains became heavier, shedding its alternative rock sensibilities for churning sludge metal: 2009’s Black Gives Way
However, not every song on the album is perfect: Tracks like “Love is Like Jazz” and “Experimental Music Love” seem deliberately added, as though Merritt had a self-imposed rule to include every musical genre. But these occasional missteps don’t detract from the overall experience. Apart from being an impressive feat of obsessive-compulsive songwriting, The Magnetic Fields’ collection of 69 Love Songs happens to contain some of the best ever written, from the stripped-down beauty of “The Book of Love” to the electro-pop ecstasy of “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side.” Though there are few among us who can claim to have listened to the entire album from start to finish, it’s a challenge that any music lover should be required to undertake. 69 Love Songs is an audacious experiment that will test your patience and your iPod’s battery life, but few albums are as worthy of your time as this one.
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to Blue was heavier than anything the band wrote in the 90s, and re-casted the band as an alternative metal act who might feel more comfortable sharing a stage with Tool than with Nirvana. The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, the band’s second album with its new lineup, sees them settling into a similar sound as their seminal 1992 album Dirt. But where the latter’s release seemed to reflect the musical tone of the era, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here seems aurally out-of-place: grungy, capable rock songs drained of the potency and immediacy that so defined the band’s earlier output. Fans of Alice in Chains will find little to complain about here. Tracks like album opener “Hollow” and the tongue-in-cheek “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” are mistaken as belonging to the band’s 90s catalogue, and heavier numbers like “Stone” and “Breath on a Window” continue the band’s gradual metal metamorphosis. But like its predecessor, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here comes off feeling empty: the songs are catchy and sturdy, but whatever quality that made Alice in Chains so relevant during the days of grunge is missing. Maybe it’s too late for these men, who are almost 50, to be making hard rock that stimulates the 20-something audience it caters to. In any case, the music on The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is as dusty and anachronistic as the Cretaceous skeleton on its record sleeve.
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The Portside Pub will be hosting Riverboat Throwdown as part of Vancouver’s Craft Beer Week celebrations this week on June 6. The pub, already decked out like the interior of a big wooden ship, will be transformed into a riverboat casino, complete with chance games and professional dealers. There will be a 10-keg “cask off” where brewers will show off their one-of-a-kind crafted beers, brewed specially for the event, and compete for the title of “Cask Maverick.” Servers will be dressed in saloon-style costume, and there will be a performance by live swing band Sweetpea Quintet. Tickets are $25 and include game tokens and one tasting ticket.
out
Music Waste is back! The Music Waste Festival runs from June 6–9, with performances by various local groups including Waters, Dead Soft, The New Values, Crystal Swells, Watermelon, and many many more. Performances are going on at several venues around the city, including the Anza Club, The Rickshaw, and Artbank. On June 8 the Biltmore Cabaret and Music Waste Festival presents Go Your Own Waste, featuring Inherent Vices, Hermetic and Diane.There are also comedic performances and art events around the city. Check out the full schedule at musicwaste2013.com.
Check out the Rio Theatre on June 6 for a screening of The Piano Has Been Drinking: A Tribute to Tom Waits. Tom Waits songs will be performed live on stage as part of a fundraiser for Battered Women’s Support Services Charity. Waits’ unique blend of jazz, theatricals, grizzled blues, and whiskey has earned him a long cult following. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. The show begins at 8 p.m.
Seeing as the forecast doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon, why not spend the night inside a bowling alley? Grandview Lanes on Commerical Drive only costs $5 per person for five pin bowling, or $5.25 per person for 10 pin, so it’s a cheap night out and a great excuse to get a bunch of friends together. Plus, there’s cheapass cans of beer, those nachos with the nasty neon cheese, and a few hot dogs forever rotating in a hot food display. It’s a fun time for all, I will promise you that. Hint: wear white and go glow bowling.
The Chinatown Experiment, a storefront offering its space to up and coming entrepreneurs, will have its space occupied by Citizen Grace, an online boutique offering goods from local Vancouver designers. The designers and curators of the shop will be bringing their collection of unique jewelry, clothing, and accessories to the Chinatown space, running from June 8–9. Expect to find things like the thin gold kitten ring by Foe and Dear, anchor stud earrings by Wolf Circus, and floral leggings from B.B. Revised Vintage Clothing.
ARTS
Daniela Elza is a Vancouver poet with not one, not two, but three books coming out this year. Elza doesn’t write with a specific publication or purpose in mind. “I write because I have to,” she says, explaining that sometimes the poetry pours out, and other times the poem
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builds on a philosophical idea or concept that is too dry or academic. As her mind circles around these queries, images arrive and fit together, “maybe a week, day, or even month later.” Her recent poetry book, milk tooth bane bone (Leaf Press, April 2013) is still a bit of
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Ayelet Tsabari’s first language is not English, yet her manuscript You and What Army won the First Book Competition, and her new novel The Best Place On Earth has received glowing reviews in national newspapers. Tsabari is an Israeli of Yemeni descent, grew up outside of Tel Aviv, and served mandatory time in the military as a young adult. In Israel, Tsabari worked as a journalist writing non-fiction but when she moved to Canada in 1998 she found these skills non-transferable from Hebrew to English. She took a break from writing because it felt debilitating being unable to express herself properly, and explored other forms of storytelling. She studied film and photography at Capilano University and one of her documentary films won the grand prize in the Palm Spring International Short Film Festival. In 2006 she returned to writing, but this time in her second
language. “I was often resorting to cliches,” laments Tsabari. She enrolled in The Writers’ Studio at SFU where she “found [her] voice and childhood dream.” Learning many practical skills and a business knack was important, but it was the community of like-minded people that made the experience notable for Tsabari. Her life in Israel is a big inspiration for Tsabari, who says that “writing keeps [Israel] close to my heart.” She had initially resisted the urge to write about Israel, but realized that she needed to. “The subject chose me, I had to let go and let it happen.” The details, smells, and sounds are a catalogue of her home, and part of the sensory experience in her writing. The Best Place On Earth gathers these elements and follows Mizrahi characters — Jewish people of Middle Eastern and North African descent who are not considered Arab. The novel
examines identities inherent in our cultures and how we navigate the crossroads of nationality and religion. These themes also echo Tsabari’s personal essays in You and What Army, which she describes as “nonfiction stories about my life that document leaving my home and finding my way back.” Through her own story, Tsabari explores the idea of “home and questioning what determines home. Is it your family, the physical landscape, where you grew up, or something undefinable?” Writing in English is still a challenge for Tsabari, but it is both “motivating and inspiring.” Although her vocabulary and grammar skills are less in English than in Hebrew, she said it has kept her humble. “It is an exercise in constraint. Hebrew is a lot more flowery, and so I have to write a lot simpler, which I like.”
a puzzle which Elza describes as “one of [her] more mysterious works.” Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems is a collaboration published by Ooligan Press with poetry editors from Vancouver, BC, Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA. The idea came out of the Pacific Poetry Project, publishing contemporary poems from the Pacific Northwest. Daniela Elza was approached by John Sibley Williams, a poet from Portland who helped generate the idea of the book while working at Ooligan Press. Elza then brought two other Vancouver co-editors on board, Bonnie Nish and Robin Susanto. They worked for two years on the Vancouver edition of Alive at the Centre, gathering poems of the “voices of Vancouver.” They made a list of 125 poets and those creating a poetry community, and narrowed it down from there. Elza explains why she chose to participate, even though it was unpaid. “It has to be exciting for you,” she explains, gushing about the concept of crossing borders and working with Nish and Susanto, two people she already knew. “Crossing borders has beautiful side effects . . . a cross-pollination of the cultural, poetic, and social.”
The other anthology Daniela Elza has been a part of is a collection of poetry from the Planet Earth Reading Series in Victoria. The open mic reading series is named after a P.K. Page poem featuring the line: “launching pad for the energies of writers and poets established and not.” The anthology, Poems from Planet Earth, features writers from 18 years of events, and was published this spring by Leaf Press. Following the idea of crossing boundaries, Elza completed her PhD at SFU in Education and received the Dean’s Convocation Medal. Her doctoral dissertation — due to unforeseen circumstances — had to
be completed in a mere four days. She ended up creating poems that were philosophical musings on metaphor research. “I wanted my work to be valid in both literary and academic journals, again crossing these boundaries.” Elza recently discovered the term “Lyric Philosophy” which fits this style of poetic inquiry. Elza has also been collaborating with artists in other mediums such as dance and visual art, having their work inspire her poetry, and vice versa. She describes it as a “scary, intimate experience” where you have to “depend and trust the other person” and “really let go, especially of [your] ego.”
16 DIVERSIONS / ETC Across 1- Swedish pop band whose hits include “Waterloo” 5- Switch’s partner 9- Concordes, e.g. 13- Thing; 14- ___-ski 16- Writer Wiesel 17- Sterile hybrid 18- ___ Island 19- “Give that ____ cigar!” 20- Redbreast 22- Concerning Comanches, e.g. 24- Sequestered 27- Take ___ from me 28- Drew forth 29- Most lucid 33- Savage 34- Prison 35- Above 36- Before, once 37- Hand woven wall hanging 38- ___ de cologne 39- 1963 role for Liz 41- Ballot choice 42- Viscounts’ superiors 44- Largest of the Canary Islands 46- Group of six 47- Curses! 48- Indonesian resort island 49- One who enjoys inflicting pain 52- Bandleader Brown 53- Neighbor of Cambodia 57- On 58- 1936 Olympics star 60- ___ majeste 61- 1492 vessel 62- Actress Taylor 63- Commedia dell’___ 64- Ship stabilizer 65- Breaks bread 66- Nothing, in Nice
Down 1- Intent 2- Heat meas. 3- ___ canto 4- “A Horse With No Name” band 5- Kind of wire 6- Plant pest 7- Golf club which can be numbered 1 to 9 8- A Kennedy 9- Part-time player 10- Thick slice
11- Ike’s ex 12- Authenticating mark 15- Lounges 21- Pitcher Hershiser 23- Narrow inlet 24- Refresh 25- English Channel swimmer Gertrude 26- Large soup dish 27- Pond scum 29- Menu 30- Tennis champ
Chris 31- Bobby of the Black Panthers 32- Confidence 34- Lara of “Tomb Raider” 37- Pilot 40- Like a certain complex 42- It’s a moray 43- Pertaining to an armpit 45- Monopoly quartet
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Abbr. 46- Talks back to 48- “John Brown’s Body” poet 49- Went under 50- End in ___ (draw) 51- Completed 52- Singer Horne 54- Ethereal Prefix 55- Bone: Prefix 56- Spotted 59- Minuscule
HUMOUR
humour editor email / phone
June 3, 2013
The latest instalment in the Hangover movie poster series, The Hangover III poster might not be as good as the original but it’s still a lot of fun and a great way to spend 30 seconds. Personally, I was a huge fan of The Hangover I poster and it’s was great to see our three favorite hungover-looking guys back in an upright pose. Although this final poster in the series isn’t as laugh-out loud funny as the previous two (all three guys have all
their teeth and there’s no baby or even monkey wearing any funny accessories), I still think this one has all the humour and heart we’ve come to expect from these posters. I don’t want to give away too much for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet but they are going to be dressed a lot differently than we’ve seen before. So, if you’re a fan of photos of three guys with a big title placed below them you should definitely check out The Hangover III poster!
While I may have been sceptical when I first heard they were turning my favorite book cover into a movie poster, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by The Great Gatsby. It’s a little more complicated looking than the book, which I wasn’t exactly a fan of, but at least the guy in the tuxedo is more handsome than just a disembodied pair of lips
and eyes. Overall, I thought this movie poster captured the spirit of the book cover nicely even if its second half (the right side) might drag a little.
Released in 1941, the Citizen Kane poster is still one of the most acclaimed and top selling movie posters in the world but in my opinion it just doesn’t hold up to today’s glossy, nonillustrated posters. The poster not only looks extremely dated but it has little intrigue or suspense to it all. There’s practically no plot (SPOILER), just three
people looking in different directions. All in all Citizen Kane is just another overrated top-selling movie poster that has no substance or style.
Brad McLeod humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
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“thunderbirds”, “We’re definitely more rad than UBC, who’d have a stick shoved too far up their nether-regions to consider the graceful majesty of a raccoon mascot.” Others have also joined Bergeron in support of the raccoon symbol movement, including environmental studies grad student Duncan Clark who explained just how appropriate the new name would be.
BURNABY— As many students are probably aware, SFU has for quite some time been inundated with raccoons living on campus. Although they’re pretty fat and not very sneaky as far as raccoons go (or maybe they’re just friendly), these raccoons have quickly found their way into the hearts of a significant amount of the student population. “We should probably stop feeding them... but they’re cute, in a grungy kind of way,” explained one racoon-sympathiser, third year Jill Stevens. “Plus they hang out in trees, which I guess is cool.”
Recently SFU has even started promoting the raccoons as a potential new school symbol. If all goes to plan, by this
time next year, SFU students will no longer have to cheer for the current outdated and frankly racist-sounding Clan nickname but will instead be rooting on the SFU ‘Coons. “Now before you dismiss racoons as sneaky, thieving, disease ridden vermin, remember that our current mascot is apparently ‘McFogg the Dog’” reasoned Tom Bergeron, a supporter for the new mascot. “I did
not make that up, first off, has anyone else heard about this supposed dog? I haven’t, however these raccoons are chillin’ in convo mall EVERY DAY.” “The raccoons are here to support us, what has McFogg ever done?” a bewildered Bergeron continued. “Also, are we Scottish? Is that our thing, because seriously if it is, someone needs to get more bagpipes and kilts involved in our
website, maybe then I’ll buy into this McFogg character.” Unless the amount of tartans on sfu.ca increases exponentially, Bergeron believes that the raccoons are the right direction to go. “I’m thinking the SFU ‘Rad Raccoons’, because we may or may not be Scottish, but I definitely think we’re rad,” Bergeron suggested before taking a shot at SFU’s mythical rival
“I think the raccoon symbolizes the meeting of nature and development, as an animal that thrives in an urban world,” Clark rationalized, attempting to get quoted in this article. “I believe that not only as students, but as members of our community that we could glean a great deal from their example and I fully support the growing movement to adopt the raccoons as our new school mascot. . . feel free to steal that for your press release SFU.” Finally, Duncan offered up the most important component of any modern social movement with his “#RadRaccoons” hashtag idea which is already much more popular than SFU’s original hashtag idea “#LetsMakeACoonOurMascot.”
HUMOUR
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20 LAST WORD
Let’s be honest right off the bat: I embody the textbook definition of a “Type-A” personality. Now, I don’t believe in compartmentalizing or labeling people, but one of the definitive qualities of my personality is that I take on too many things at the same time: I haven’t taken a single semester off in my university career; I have had at least one job since I was in highschool; and I am a compulsive list-maker. The amount of times I have been confused at the question “but when do you relax?” is frightening. As for “me time,” that’s when I’m doing a class reading I’m enjoying, right? If you’re cringing and shaking your head at me, fear not, because I recently found myself unemployed. Not only was I not juggling multiple jobs, I didn’t even have one. This neatly coincided with my decision to finally take a summer off from classes. Suddenly, not only did I not need post-it notes to supplement my agenda (stop judging me, ye technology users), I had entire days with absolutely no pencil or highlighter on them. To top off my new-found funemployed status, I moved back in with my parents for the summer, which meant that I now resembled Will Farrell in Wedding Crashers; in fact, I literally found myself in situations where I was on the couch, wearing a bath robe, and yelling to my mom about goulash (the Serbian equivalent of meatloaf, I’d say). But I digress. My point here is not that I suddenly went from an overly ambitious, workaholic anxiety case to being society’s leech; I was now an anxiety case that watched a lot more Netflix with my parents’ cats. In my case, this is a positive thing. You see — and I think there are many Type-A folks that will agree — as much I scoffed at the idea that I needed to relax, the life of the workaholic is genuinely exhausting. I would tell myself that I’m happier when I’m busy, that it gives my life fulfillment. This is true, but there is also a fine line between doing it all and overdoing it, and from
features editor email / phone
Rachel Braeuer features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
where I was standing, I couldn’t even see that line anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t entirely idle and I was still doing things, but by my own distorted standards, it was next to nothing. At first, I was anxious and restless, then I slowly began to enjoy having less on my plate. I caught up with old friends, I spent time with my family, and I read books that weren’t assigned to me. I began to see that things happen for a reason — whether it’s a predetermined one or just up to me to find that reason — and I got time to think about where I wanted to take my life from there. And now, I finally come to my point: sometimes life gets shitty. Sometimes we find ourselves in life situations that make us uncomfortable and that make us anxious. And yet, sometimes these aren’t the situations we should fear — in my case, it was the comfortable rut of overwork that was really the bad situation. My story may not relate to everyone, as personal narratives usually go. You may not have that much on your plate, you may not have the support system to accommodate soul-searching, or you may still think I’m crazy (but just more of a hippie now). The point is not that you need to relate to any aspect of my story personally; rather, it’s to take life events with a grain of salt and to not take things at face value. Life has a mysterious way of working. You’re not going to get anywhere bitching about why this happened to you. Embrace it and use it to become a better version of yourself. This is also not a feel-good Hollywood film (on which I am now an expert thanks to my extensive Netflix viewing). I did not go from being an unhappy and angry workaholic to being a yoga instructor to forest animals, or whatever it is really relaxed people do with their time. In fact, I rolled my eyes at a yoga instructor for telling me I
should take this opportunity to master meditation. I may be challenging my personality, but let’s not get excessive here. No, in the meantime, I found a job. In fact, I found two. I was the bossy girl in Kindergarten that got all the stickers for being a know-it-all. Hopefully I have better social skills now, but I’m still a version of that girl. I haven’t changed because that’s who I am. But I did learn that sometimes we have to take a step back from our hectic lives — be that for an hour, a day, or a month — and we have to evaluate if this is what we want to be doing. I’ve learned that you cannot change who you are and you cannot force a different personality upon yourself: if you’re like me, you will never be content with a life of Doritos and Anna Faris movies, and if you’re naturally a
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more relaxed and easygoing person, you cannot be happy if you’re overwhelmed. But you can be aware of what you need and you should never ignore an opportunity to make a change in your life. As a bit of a cynic, it pains me that my words are shaping into a combination of a Dr. Phil episode and an inspirational mug, but there you have it. At a recent job interview, I was asked what I do for self-care. For better or for worse, I am still who I’ve always been, but this time, I actually had a truthful answer.