SFU's Golden Boy

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FIRST PEEK

November 12, 2013 路 Volume 145, Issue 11

LABOUR STUDIES PROGRAM

Spring 2014 Course Offerings

CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2013

FIRST PEEK

On No. 1, 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists were imprisoned in Russia. The “Arctic 30,” as many call them, were documenting and campaigning for a global sanctuary to protect our polar ice cap against Arctic oil drilling. The group — two of whom are Canadian — peacefully protested the Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform, the world’s first offshore Arctic oil platform.

The group was first detained on Sept. 18, on charges hugely disproportionate to their actions. At first they were tried for piracy, but this was later changed to hooliganism — action that could result in imprisonment for seven years.

The Arctic is an incredibly volatile place to drill for oil, due to its ever-shifting, poorly understood, and remote nature. If there is a spill, the likelihood of a proper cleanup is slim to none.

Surrounded by oil disasters every day, is this worth the risk? We are travelling to the ends of the earth and destroying our already threatened ecosystems in the name of profit.

November 12, 2013

Needless to say, the oil that companies like Gazprom are looking to extract is the very reason that the pristine Arctic is at risk of drilling in the first place. It reflects a twisted and dark cycle of climate change and fossil-fuel addiction. The peaceful activists were held at gunpoint, sprayed with water in an Arctic environment, and are still being detained in Russia on disproportionate charges labeling them as dangerous and violent, all in response to peaceful protesting.

As oil and state become as coupled as salt and pepper, we risk the very foundations of democracy. Environmental justice is possible, but it is frowned upon. Unable to create change from within institutions of control, creative activism is necessary to draw attention to the peril our planet and our species are now facing.

I have never felt more fearful than when talking to friends and family about this, and hearing nothing but doubt and reservation about our ability to make the changes necessary for our

children to live on this planet.

If we are capable of destroying this planet, we are sure as hell capable of redesigning our energy reliance.

The notions of change begin and end at our ability to question where the power within our society is being held. Demanding transparency and radical change with our government is not a choice. I am paying Stephen Harper’s bills through my tax dollars — and today I am paying him to demand the release of the “Arctic 30” from illegal detainment. I am demanding for a shift away from oil and gas subsidies, and shaking the status-quo. We deserve better. The “Arctic 30” deserve freedom.

Stewing in public apathy, I am blown away by the idea that Canada will not fight for two of its own citizens to be released in the face of injustice. As the tar sands grow, and Canada reaches a fever-pitch of carbon emissions and human rights violations citizens have to wake from their stupor. We have an obligation to our loved ones and our future children to demand a green and peaceful world — a demand that starts with releasing the “Arctic 30” from Russian jail. We are accountable for the actions of our government, and we must hold our government accountable to us.

Where is justice? It is starting to look like it will just be us.

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NEWS

Maclean’s 2014 University Rankings were published Oct. 31 and, for the first time in six years, SFU is not the number one comprehensive university, beaten out by the University of Victoria (UVic) for the top spot.

SFU has been ranked the top comprehensive university in Canada a total of ten times since Maclean’s started publishing rankings 21 years ago, and was on a five-year streak in the top spot from 2008 to 2012.

Each year, Maclean’s publishes three sets of university rankings under three separate categories: medical doctoral, comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate. Universities in the comprehensive category show a significant amount of research activity and have a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate level.

All three rankings are based on six main categories: students and classes, faculty, resources, student support, library, and reputation. Mount Allison University topped the primarily undergraduate category, and McGill University came in first among institutions under the medical doctoral category.

The Peak spoke to SFU VP Academic, Dr. Jon Driver, about the new rankings and how SFU administration reacts to rankings such as Maclean’s.

“Rankings are interesting, because they are fairly crude attempts to measure very complex institutions,” said Driver. “On the one hand we recognized that what goes on at SFU, both in terms of teaching and in terms of research, is a very complicated story and it really can’t capture them so easily in rankings.”

He continued, “On the other hand, we always pay attention to rankings, because they do influence public opinion about the university, [and] they influence student choices about whether or not to come to a particular university.”

November 12, 2013

news editor email / phone

Alison Roach associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Leah Bjornson

The board discussed the hiring of Paula Boddie of Paula Boddie & Associates Ltd., a human resources and labor relations consulting service, following the Oct. 11 incident between directors Moe Kopahi and Monique Ataei.

President Humza Khan reported that mediation had started that day (last Wednesday), and that Boddie had been given all the resources necessary to investigate the incident, as well as to conduct a full workplace investigation.

Khan also stated that the board had decided to hire Boddie directly, instead of through the Society’s lawyers, so that Boddie’s final report will be given directly to all board members, and then potentially made public. Boddie will be spending two half days per week on campus while she conducts the investigation.

Driver described university rankings as a tool for university administration to focus in on areas of possible concern, and address potential problems. In comparison with last year’s rankings, SFU went up in three of the judged categories and down in three, while UVic had scores go up in two categories and down in four. “That’s a bit of a conundrum for us,” laughed Driver.

Driver explained that SFU administration will be looking into the math and the data supporting the rankings, and checking that all information that was submitted to Maclean’s was accurate. He pointed specifically to a significant drop in SFU’s ranking

under scholarships and bursaries as especially concerning.

Last year SFU was ranked sixth among the 15 comprehensive universities for contributions to student scholarships and bursaries. This year, that ranking has slipped to 12th.

“This appears at first look to be a really strange change, a really significant change. That’s the area that causes me the biggest concern, and I am fairly sure that that change in our ranking is probably what’s driving the move from being first to second position,” said Driver.

He continued, “If this really is a significant change for SFU and it’s not caused by the methodology or something like that, and presuming that the data are correct, we will have to take a hard look at how much we are contributing to scholarships and bursaries.”

When it comes to UVic taking the top spot, Driver had nothing but encouraging things to say.

“I think it’s wonderful that the two comprehensive universities from British Columbia are sitting at one and two,” he said. “I think it says a great deal about

the quality of both of those universities, the quality of the faculty members, the quality of the students, and the attention that both universities pay to trying to create the best educational experience we can.”

In 2012, President Andrew Petter cautiously celebrated the university’s success in international rankings writing: “I’m reluctant to attach too much significance to university rankings given their selective criteria and varied methodologies. But it’s hard not to take some small satisfaction from the recent reports of two leading international ratings,” alluding to the Times Higher Education (THE) and QS rankings.

Last year, in the THE 100 Under 50, SFU placed 26th in the world, and third in Canada.

In the QS Top 50 Under 50, SFU was ranking 30th in the world, and second in Canada.

External Relations Officer Chardaye Bueckert brought the board’s attention to the fact that during the society’s AGM on Oct. 23, the presentation given by Kristen Foster, Pacific and Western director of Studentcare, stated that a referendum to raise the current fund ceiling on the health and dental plan would be taking place in March 2014.

Bueckert raised concerns that that statement was inaccurate, and that the referendum had not been finalized, and no referendum question has yet been drafted. The board concluded that more information needs to be gathered about health and dental plans at other institutions before a referendum question is drafted.

NEWS

November 12, 2013

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The SFSS board discussed the appointment of the chief electoral officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) — the body that regulates the SFSS board of directors elections each year.

It was decided to start the process of appointing the chief electoral officer earlier than usual, beginning the process on the day of the board meeting, with the appointment to be made two weeks later, on Nov. 20. The board also discussed the possibility of the candidate selected consulting with possible candidates on the positions before the election, and being part of the process of training the incoming directors.

In the article “SFU student snaps up international photography award,” published on Nov. 4, we attributed Stefanison’s ease with wildlife photography in part to his experiences hunting, fishing, and trapping.

In reality, Stefanison only hunts and fishes; he does not trap.

Business student Michael Yeung, founder and president of the SFU Bitcoin Club, has put SFU’s name in press outlets across the world with his involvement in promoting and facilitating the transition of Bitcoin into the mainstream.

Since its unveiling one week ago, almost $100,000 in Canadian dollars has been exchanged for bitcoins at the world’s first Bitcoin ATM, located at Waves Coffee House on Howe Street in downtown Vancouver.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency which has been gaining traction as an investment asset and viable alternative to legal tender.

In January this year, one bitcoin was worth about $130. On the heels of several high-profile press stories, including headlines of a Norwegian man who forgot he had purchased $27 in bitcoins a few years ago and found that they were worth nearly $887,000 today, the value of one bitcoin has skyrocketed to $240 today.

He sees Bitcoin as a particularly strong disruptor of money services like Paypal and Western Union (which currently hold monopolies in their respective markets) but also, eventually, for credit cards and others used for many of our daily transactions.

Fees are much lower, at about one per cent compared to 3.5 to five per cent with existing financial services. The fee is returned to the persons who “mined” the bitcoin.

Yeung feels that growing Bitcoin as a mainstream currency

will change the way people, particularly young people, think about money. According to Yeung, because there is only a finite number of bitcoins (21 million in total) that can be mined, “the value of a bitcoin will only grow. This means that people are less likely to spend it unnecessarily.”

Yeung stated that this is the opposite of today’s economy, in which governments stimulate the economy by putting more money into the circulation.

“This means that the money in your bank account loses value, which incentivizes people to spend it before that happens.”

Currently, the goal of the SFU Bitcoin Club is to push for the implementation of Bitcoin infrastructure, such as point of sale systems at campus businesses and Bitcoin ATMs on site. To this end, Yeung has begun approaching members of SFU’s administration.

Beyond simple transactions, Yeung has his sights set on SFU eventually accepting bitcoins as payment for tuition fees, much like Draper

University has recently done.

Draper University is currently the only university in the world that accepts bitcoins, in addition to accepting other nonconventional payments, such as shares in a student’s business or an in-kind donation of skills to the university.

For now, Yeung said, the SFU Bookstore and Chartwell’s would be a good start. “Doing this would put SFU on the world map,” he said. Yeung is also in early talks with the SFSS regarding the acceptance of bitcoins

by SFSS-owned merchants and is teaming up with former SFSS director Kyle Acierno to present the idea to SFSS’s Commercial Services Review Committee.

“So far we have just approached

the chair, Jade Andersen, who is knowledgeable about it, and open [to the idea],” said Acierno.

Barrier of entry to accepting bitcoin payments is extremely low, requiring a merchant to simply register with a service, like Bitpay, and have their unique QR code on hand for customers to scan with their smartphones. A larger concern of merchants who may want to accept bitcoin payments is the volatility of the currency.

There are several methods to reduce seller-side risk by protecting them from any drops in the value of bitcoins — however, this protection also insures them if their value rises. “Low risk, low reward,” said Yeung.

At the end of the month, the SFU Bitcoin Club will also be hosting the first Bitcoin event, where attendees will be able to purchase bitcoins directly from Bitcoin Co-op members and be given a tutorial in sending money, with the option of actually sending money to a charity. Proceeds will go to Schools Building Schools, which currently receives a one dollar levy per semester from each SFU student.

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Rectal pain, discharge and bleeding — these are a few of the possible symptoms of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) known as the “clap,” chlamydia.

But what really makes this STI scary is that oftentimes, it exhibits no symptoms at all. Chlamydia is known as a “silent” infection, and many carriers have no idea that they are infected.

A recent study by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN) reported that only 51 per cent of sexually active university students use condoms, and when they do use them it’s for contraceptive reasons, as opposed to the protection against STIs. In light of this statistic, Fraser Health Authority has launched the awareness campaign “1 in 5,” taking its name from the research discovery that one in five female SFU students will contract chlamydia during their academic career.

November 12, 2013

In order to raise awareness and to promote good sexual health, Fraser Health strung up women’s underwear and set up an information booth in the AQ during the last week of October to give out free condoms and important information. Additionally, they created a social media presence for the campaign over Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about this illusive infection.

Dr. Michelle Murti, medical health officer at Fraser Health, told The Peak that despite being an extremely treatable STI,

chlamydia is probably one of the most common.

“We see about 3,000 cases a year across Fraser Health.

Mostly, the highest numbers are in women between the ages of 20 and 24,” Murti said. However, if the infection is so easily treated

— with only one round of antibiotics — why is it spread so widely amongst the student body?

The answer is simple: lack of awareness. It is a combination of the “silent” nature of the infection and the lack of protection being used by sexually active students. Dr. Murti stated, “about 70 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men won’t even have symptoms so they won’t know they’ve been infected.”

She also stressed the importance of getting tested, which is as easy as peeing into a cup. The

long-term effects of the infection can be severe: if untreated, chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, tissue scarring, and infertility later in life.

In this technological age, and with the surge of sexual health awareness initiatives in recent years, SIECCAN hoped to see improved numbers from those of a similar survey done years ago.

Unfortunately, the results of this new study seem to indicate that students haven’t become more aware of protecting themselves against chlamydia.

Dr. Murti said that even though in the recent survey, “many of the students thought for themselves that they had very good or excellent knowledge in sexual health and in STIs,” the desired level of awareness has yet to be achieved since the number of people using condoms is still low and the frequency of cases of infection is so high.

Dr. Murti considers SFU students in particular to be lucky, as “they have the health and counseling services available at both Vancouver and Burnaby campuses.” Resources can also be found on Fraser Health’s website, including information on STIs, and the locations of sexual health clinics nearest you.

NEWS

Two SFU researchers have contributed to a US-based study that placed the death toll in Iraq related to the Iraq War at approximately 500,000. The study, conducted without funding, looked at the conflict between 2003 and 2011.

Dr. Tim Takaro, health sciences professor, and doctoral student Lindsay Galway were part of a 12-person team who collaborated on the study, published in PLOS Medicine. The team included researchers from the University of Washington, the Iraqi Ministry of Health, and John’s Hopkins University.

The study aimed to estimate direct and indirect deaths attributable to the war. “Several previous Iraq mortality studies have been conducted but this is the only study to cover the entire conflict,” Galway

Molecular biologist, Lynne Quarmby, and doctoral student Laura Hilton, have discovered a mutation that may cause cilia (which exist on all human cells) to grow too long — the result of which can be fatal.

Quarmby and her students have found that CNK2, a regulatory protein, controls the length of cilia, which are microscopic antennae on our cells that communicate signals in our bodies. When these antennae are too long or too short, the signals they capture can be misinterpreted and cause disease or deformities. As these cells determine how we develop, their functionality is vitally important.

Quarmby first became interested in cilia while doing her PhD. “We were investigating whether a certain kind of signal transduction happened in plants, and wanted to know which of the same connections were happening in plants as were happening in animals,” Quarmby told The Peak.

The team was originally

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November 12, 2013

looking at trees, but it was Quarmby’s decision to use pond scum, which grows more easily in a lab, that led them to make an important discovery regarding the role that certain proteins play in regulating the cilia.

For Hilton, Quarmby’s doctoral student and lead author on the paper published in Current Biology, one of the most exciting discoveries of the project was that the rate of cilial disassembly is actively regulated. A crucial part of all cells’ lifecycle is their cilia’s assembly, the speed of which scientists have thought affects cilial length; however, Quarmby and Hilton are among the few scientists globally who have discovered important impact of the second part of the process: disassembly.

“Previous research from other labs focused largely on how regulating assembly contributed to setting the correct length for cilia. It was incredibly exciting to find that there’s a whole other side to the coin

explained. Data was collected from 2,000 randomly selected households across the country’s 18 governorates.

The methodology of the study was more sophisticated than those done in the past, due to the randomness of the sample households (a measure to avoid introducing bias to the study), and an additional set of questions given to each of the adults in the households about their siblings, which allowed the team to learn about an additional 25,000 people.

The study is also unique in that it was the first to attempt to estimate deaths among the huge portion of the Iraqi population who migrated away from the country during the conflict.

For Galway, visiting Iraq and speaking with the team’s Iraqi members was an experience

she won’t soon forget. “This experience was inspiring and certainly an invaluable learning experience for me,” she said.

“I left the country in awe of our Iraqi colleagues who literally risked their lives to do this work.”

Galway hopes that the study will remind people “about the health impacts of armed conflicts and the importance of studying these impacts.” She also hopes to continue working in this field, but points to the lack of funding available for the research as an obstacle.

“It is important work that needs to be done, said Galway.

“Unfortunately there is very limited funding for this kind of work . . . We call on science funding agencies to invest in research to address this large public health problem.”

— it may really open up a whole new avenue of discovery in cilia and disease,” said Hilton.

The BCLIP is an educational six-month opportunity for Canadian university graduates to work in British Columbia’s parliamentary system. Your academic training will be enhanced by exposure to public policy-making and the legislative process by working in both the executive and legislative branches of the provincial government at the Parliament Buildings in Victoria.

B.C. residents are eligible to apply if they have received their first Bachelor’s Degree from a Canadian university within two years of the start of the 2015 program.

Apply online at

This study not only opens new fields for investigation, but may provide treatment paths in the future for diseases caused by abnormal cilia length.

“Every time you discover a new player and how it might interact with other players in the pathway, that is a whole new opportunity for approaching therapy,” explained Quarmby.

“That’s a new place where you can start to understand PKD, and the more you understand a disease, the more options you have for treatment.”

www.leg.bc.ca/bclip Deadline

PROGRAM DIRECTOR Karen L. Aitken Legislative Assembly of B.C. BCLIP@leg.bc.ca

ACADEMIC DIRECTOR Dr. Patrick J. Smith Simon Fraser University psmith@sfu.ca

ACADEMIC ADVISOR Dr. Andrew Heard Simon Fraser University aheard@sfu.ca

January 31, 2014 Location: Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C. Term: January 5 to June 26, 2015 Remuneration: $22,920 for 6 months

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OPINIONS

The Senate scandal continues to be in Canadian news throughout the country. As of the publication of this piece, there has still not been any action taken against the three senators who stand accused of illegally claiming over a quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer money.

The big story of this whole scandal, though, is not the money nor the breach of public trust, but rather the alleged role of the prime minister in orchestrating it for political gain. Despite continual statements that he was unaware of the cheque cut by his then-Chief of Staff Nigel Wright and allegations from Mike Duffy claiming the involvement of Harper in the affair, the prime minister continues to be in the crosshairs of both the media and the opposition parties.

So why are we more willing to believe a disgraced senator over

our own prime minister? Simply put, Canadians, even many Conservative voters, don’t like Stephen Harper. Polls often reflect Canadians polarized in loving or hating him; there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.

Those who can’t stand him want to believe that he has committed some wrongdoing, simply so we can have a new election or see his resignation, and be done with him.

Another reason Canadians are unwilling to accept Harper’s innocence has to do with the continuous allegations — many from opposition parties — that Harper maintains dictatorial control over the Conservative party and caucus.

Members of the party and caucus are, allegedly, unable to do anything without his knowledge or approval. If this is the case, then it would seem logical that he would be aware of a cheque written by his chief of staff. However, some blindsides

November 12, 2013

in the past from MPs, including an attempt last year to reopen the abortion debate against his wishes, suggest he maintains less than this level of control.

Canadian media is also responsible for the view we have of our prime minister. I recall that after winning the last election, Harper was repeatedly asked if this meant that he would be repealing same-sex marriage, the right to abortion, and healthcare. This was asked despite Harper having stated several times that this would not be the case.

Despite the claims of media, Harper has not pushed a religious agenda on Canadians and hasn’t forced Christian ideals on the country. He has upheld laws that the majority of the country accepts, even if he does not personally believe in them.

Even though more Canadians are inclined to believe that Harper orchestrated this affair, we need to keep in mind that, like opposition senators claim about their troubled colleagues, he is innocent until proven guilty. Canadians may just have to face the fact that Stephen Harper may be a victim, betrayed by his chief of staff and by three senators that he appointed.

opinions editor email / phone

Joel MacKenzie opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

No one respects the speed limits in the lower mainland. I feel completely comfortable making that biased generalization because I feel completely uncomfortable 99 per cent of the time driving here. Speed limits on roads are in place for a reason: they are based on studies that set them in order to reduce the risk of injury from a crash. If they’re slower, they represent the fact that the road has a higher risk for an accident to occur. They are not a suggestion, much less a challenge.

So much of driving is left up to chance. We can’t trust

ourselves to be the best drivers on the road. Distractions happen, and accidents can result in fractions of seconds. We certainly can’t trust every other driver to be paying close attention, or to not suffer from a sudden medical condition that makes them unable to drive.

These things happen. Cars don’t make people invincible and it shouldn’t take horrific deaths, like several ones I’ve seen of young acquaintances in the five years since I graduated to prove this.

We need to respect speed limits.

As much as I would love for everyone to do the above, realistically, it is not going to happen.

A compromise is necessary: the limits should change to reflect the way people actually drive. The numbers themselves shouldn’t solely increase, of course. The structure of the roads that make them deserve the slower limits, like distance from houses and sidewalks, lack of concrete lane dividers, narrow roads, etc., should be made safer when roads are being installed.

I admit, certain kinds of limits seem ridiculous and deserve to be re-evaluated.

Construction speed limits littered throughout Highway 1

demand 70 or 80 km/h even when no construction workers are on the road. On certain turns, and off highway exits, limit signs expect one to slow to half of one’s speed to make a turn way ahead in the distance.

Part of the reason why lower mainland drivers are probably so frustrated is because they are caught between driving the posted limits and driving to keep up with the speed of actual traffic. To cure this frustration that surely causes more dangerousness on the road, the speed limits should change, as long as they reflect the environment that allows it.

OPINIONS

With Remembrance Day coming up, several university students in Ottawa, along with the Rideau Institute, plan on handing out white poppies as an alternative to the red poppies we wear to commemorate the day. Promoting his pacifist ideology, Celyn Dufay of the University of Ottawa claims that the red poppy celebrates war.

According to Dufay, rather than doing this, “Young people . . . want to work for peace.”

Dufay and the Rideau Institute are getting confused as to what the red poppy really means.

Bill Maxwell, secretary of the Royal Canadian Legion’s poppy

NEW WESTMINSTER (CUP) — Profanity is a rite of passage. No matter how innocently we begin, at one point or another we all end up saying those socially frowned upon words. Sure, I believe in a more sophisticated form of language — the kind I dress up in for my grandma or bring into a job interview — but those words lack substance.

They feel fake, forced, and pretentious. Like educated grunts from the time of cavemen, swearing brings human interaction back to the ground level. When used properly, it can express honest emotions without any blurred lines.

The pent-up rage we feel can often lead to physical violence, if not for the ability to curse. The freedom to swear

November 12, 2013

remembrance committee, is correct when he says that the poppy is “a symbol of sacrifice.” It’s also a symbol of peace.

It is a way to honour the numerous Canadian soldiers who sacrificed their lives for that peace. Conservative MP Erin O’Toole is correct in saying, “to run a simultaneous (white poppy) campaign that really detracts from the day I think is not only inappropriate, it actually undermines the message.”

The irony in this situation is that the red poppy symbolizes the veterans who sacrificed their lives to allow Canadians like Dufay liberty enough to distribute this message countering it.

White poppies use and insult the freedom that soldiers fought and died for.

However shocking this is, there are positive points to take from it. Sure, these white poppy protesters may be acting grossly

allows us to be verbally confident — and that shouldn’t be limited to adults.

In 2010, a Sociolinguistics Symposium study showed that children are swearing earlier than ever, escalating at around ages three to four. The fingers were quick to point at television, music, and vulgar parents, but perhaps the problem isn’t the parents or the children; perhaps the problem is culture.

Children are intelligent and they are quick to understand irrational rules, such as the “Do as I say, not as I do” rule.

Swearing doesn’t hurt anybody after all; once they realize this they abuse it, especially out of parental earshot.

We often associate swearing with anger and hostility, but most of the time we swear when we are excited. “This food is goddamn delicious,” or “This is the best fucking song ever.” Perhaps we could do without the “goddamn” and the “fuck,” but then it would be a completely different reaction. Inhibiting the ability to express emotion is more crippling than a few innocuous words.

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ignorant, but they also bring our attention to the issue of the poppy’s true meaning. If our beliefs are left dormant for too long, we act simply out of habit without really thinking about or understanding them; we lose the spirit of these actions. They become dead dogma.

The introduction of this opposing view forces us to think about why we wear red poppies on Remembrance Day in the first place. The very astute philosopher John Stuart Mill says that dissent, even if mis-guided, keeps the truth against which it dissents alive. In light of this, opposing opinions should never be suppressed.

Even if they may seem morally wrong, activist organizations like the Rideau Institute remind us of why we do what we do: they invigorate our emotions of remembrance and gratitude for our Canadian soldiers, lest we forget.

Once censorship is removed, swearing becomes the norm and not an urge to be defiant. Without risk, there is no adrenaline, and children will begin to use swear words selectively the way intelligent adults do. For parents, omitting the taboo will also cancel out the hypocrisy of telling a child not to swear.

Communicating with children like they’re adults is not a hindering act; it’s one of respect, showing that the child is just as smart or has the capacity to be as smart as we are.

In an article published by the Association of Psychological Science, a study showed that swearing takes up an insignificant 0.3 per cent to 0.7 per cent of our daily speech.

Profanity is universal and can be found in virtually every language. Although North American culture still uses it to separate high-class from the low-class, there is no proof that people with greater wealth are swearing any less than those in poverty.

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AT ITS VERY BEST

10 OPINIONS

After working a few years in a restaurant, I’ve become all too accustomed to the short fuses of dining customers. I’ve witnessed and played host to some astounding and unnecessary behaviour from displeased customers who unfairly claim they are being “mistreated” who scrutinize over the most minuscule problems or misunderstand how a restaurant is managed entirely.

Treating restaurant or any other servers like they’re secondclass citizens has to change. As is, this treatment reflects our society as being pampered and unsympathetic.

A server’s job is incredibly difficult. The amount of multitasking and time-management it involves, including running back and forth between customers, taking care of payments, and ensuring customer satisfaction is both mentally and physically exhausting. When customers become angry for insignificant issues, this only adds to the stress that servers are already inundated with.

I am personally disappointed and disturbed by the unnecessary aggression, carelessness and self-centered nature that many restaurant-goers do not hesitate to display.

Engulfed in their sense of what good customer service should be, agonizing over food not matching their specific tastes or agonizing over countless other meagre problems with a restaurant, they fail to recognize the weighted stress that servers are under — though they are apparently aware of their own position that allows them to powertrip over servers.

I once had a customer send back a plate of fish after he accused me of over-cooking it.

Once, I distinctly remember a customer physically threaten a couple of my co-servers over a simple miscommunication.

And, in an extreme case, I once had a young dissatisfied couple yell obscenities at me before fleeing the restaurant without paying. We had the police on them in no time.

November 12, 2013

If you have never worked in a restaurant and/or find these reactions justified, then let me enlighten you: servers are the people who serve your food.

They typically do not prepare your food, but are the mediator between you and kitchen. We’ve all heard the phrase “don’t shoot the messenger.” Here, this could not apply more.

I am disgusted to recognize how this restaurant-culture behaviour reflects our society. We are, evidently, one that likes to complain for its own sake. We are so used to being pampered that, if even the smallest thing does not go exactly to our liking, we have no problem in vocalizing our distastes through unnecessary aggression. It’s time for us to lighten up, get over ourselves, and become a little more understanding.

The next time you go to a restaurant for a meal, treat your servers like people. Be extra friendly to them, in light of their job being possibly one of the most difficult customer-service jobs around. Think twice before you complain. If you have a problem with what you’ve been given, take your complaint to those actually deserving, such as the cooks or the restaurant manager. Please, maintain your dignity and don’t be ignorant. Show servers the respect they really deserve.

More than 20 years ago, Naomi Wolf wrote The Beauty Myth, arguing that the main systemic barrier that women face today are the shackles of an unattainable and rigid idea of beauty, which keeps them oppressed — an “Iron Maiden,” perfect, thin, pretty. Today, in 2013, young girls are literally asking the internet whether or not they fit this ideal.

This recent horrifying trend sees pre-teen and teenaged girls, between nine and 14 years-old, taking to Youtube to ask strangers whether they’re “pretty or ugly.” I don’t think I have to tell you that these young girls’ videos are met with disgusting comments, either of a graphically sexual nature or that insult them in ways I could never imagine speaking to a stranger.

This isn’t an isolated trend nor is the internet the only medium through which this attitude is being perpetrated.

I guarantee that most women have experienced an extension of this — in fact, I remember being as young as 11 when I first started having strange men comment on my appearance.

The internet acts as a platform making it frighteningly easy to anonymously communicate these attitudes — and frighteningly difficult for girls to get away from uncomfortable situations. The medium may be changing, but the problem remains the same: girls are learning very early on that their looks dictate their worth, and that they have no control over this. Rather, it is up to others to judge whether they’re “pretty” or “ugly,” and thus what they can contribute to society.

This situation cannot be solved by simply telling a girl that she’s beautiful or

reminding her that, “pretty” or not, it’s her other qualities that will bring her happiness and success. This has been building and it’s only getting worse with the blurring of the line between public and private.

These ideas of “beauty,” of self-esteem, of external recognition are so embedded in our society, in our media, in our communication that I can’t fathom a pragmatic solution. But something needs to change in the environment that girls are growing up in.

I don’t want a world where my little sister and my future children are learning to measure their self-worth based on their looks, in which eating disorders seem like the only way to attain “beauty,” where 11 year olds are put into situations where they are desperately wondering if they’re worthy of praise from strangers hidden behind computer screens and usernames.

Supportive families is one major way to tackle this and other problems, something that is, unfortunately, not happening enough. We need more programs educating parents; parents need to know if their kids are involved in this kind of behaviour and how to address it. Many families also need to be supported with more financial benefits. Not enough money means that the parent(s) or caregiver(s) have to work more, meaning less opportunity to build and strengthen relationships of dialogue, trust, and support with their children.

Thanks for Family Day, Christy, but families are going to need more than one day a year. To mitigate the effects of what kids are exposed to, one needs a familial support system that, not only knows what’s going on in a kid’s life, but that has also built them up from infancy to know their worth and to know it’s impossible to find in the anonymous void of the internet.

We can’t stop the opposite from happening, but we can encourage families to teach their kids how to safely and critically approach the messages being thrown at them daily.

OPINIONS

November 12, 2013

11 ...continued from page 9

Well folks, it’s mid-November and this is my second-to-last column, so I thought I’d make it an especially personal installment. Here’s the story of how I discovered what is rapidly becoming my favourite place in the Vancouver area: MBC 2900, The Peak offices.

I moved to Vancouver for love. That’s not as romantic as it might sound. In fact, this move has been and continues to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m young, independent, and non-committal to a fault — leaving my life in Chicago to follow a guy to a foreign country was never a part of my plan.

He had been in Vancouver for a year before I decided to join him and, when I did make the decision, I made it suddenly and irresponsibly. I was tired of being cautious and afraid and, although I had no plan at all, I jumped into Vancouver.

Almost a year ago, I flew to the city jobless and permit-less.

I moved into my boyfriend’s one bedroom apartment in Kits and the clock started ticking: technically, I was allowed to be in Canada as a visitor for six months.

November and December 2012 were miserable. I couldn’t work without a work permit; I couldn’t obtain a work permit without a job offer; I couldn’t get an interview without already having a work permit . . . it was a vicious cycle.

I started applying to graduate programs but my idleness was driving me insane. I had no friends and no real means of making friends. The weather was dismal, our apartment was tiny, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I felt trapped and angry and terribly alone.

So, I left. It was a test for my relationship, but I needed to figure my shit out. I went home at Christmas and stayed home.

I moved back into my parents’ house in Michigan and got a job as a receptionist at a real estate

office. I thought I’d save some money until I could plan my next move. It was awful — I felt I had taken 10 steps backward. I felt like a failure.

Fortunately, I was accepted into SFU’s French MA program in mid-February and I made another rash decision: I said yes. I asked if I could start that summer and I bought a plane ticket back to Vancouver. I was hopeful. I had a goal; I had a reason to be here outside of my relationship, a reason that was my own. I was ready to meet new people and make new friends and school seemed the perfect solution to my loneliness.

My undergraduate degree is in French but it’s also in journalism. At Clubs Days, I saw The Peak’s table and jotted down my name on their mailing list. I began contributing pieces and, though I didn’t meet my editors face-to-face for a long while, I felt connected to them, connected to Simon Fraser, but most importantly, connected to something.

The Peak offices are almost impossible to find. Embedded in the parking garage, they are windowless and lit by unfriendly fluorescent lights — and it’s in this unlikely space that I found my home away from home.

Bear with me. This column isn’t an ode to The Peak: it’s a student organization with its flaws and weaknesses just like any other student organization.

But, it fits. For me, it fits.

And those offices saved me, in a way. I’ve made friends. I’m able to work and create something each week alongside people that I relate to, people who challenge me. I feel growth, again. A space can be made beautiful; it can take the shape of a haven. It all depends on what you discover there.

IT’S PEAK ELECTION SEASON ONCE AGAIN! DID YOU KNOW THAT THE PEAK IS MADE BY REAL LIVE STUDENTS JUST LIKE YOU? The staff are chosen in elections held once per semester and if you’ve paid your student fees this semester, you’re eligible to run!

To apply, simply fill out the appropriate form at the-peak.ca or visit The Peak offices at MBC 2900.

Applications for two LAYOUT ASSISTANTS and one PROOFREADER are due at 1:00 p.m. this Wednesday, November 13. Layout is paid $150 per week, and proofreaders $100.

See the-peak.ca for more details.

“The Peak pays staff? That’s enough money to keep me in ramen for months!”

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE! If you have submitted something that has been pubished in at least two issues this semester, or if you have appeared in the Peak masthead twice this semester for another reason, you are eligible to vote in the editor elections.

The voting period will continue until 1:00 p.m. this Wednesday, November 13.

Voting for support positions will go from November 13 to 20, and a Collective Representative on the Board of Directors will be elected at 1:00 p.m. on November 13. If you are eligible to vote and have not yet received a ballot, contact coordinating@the-peak.ca as soon as possible.

THE PEAK ALSO NEEDS DIRECTORS! A COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIVE is needed for the Peak board of directors. If you have contributed to The Peak at least twice this semester, you are eligible.

As a Peak Board member, you will attend monthly meetings and participate in major financial decision-making. Elections will take place at the Collective meeting at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 13.

For more information about nominating yourself, contact david@the-peak.ca.

November 12, 2013

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November 12, 2013

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An Industry Divided Five years ago, SFU’s move from analog to digital might have shocked us — today, it feels inevitable. Filmmakers across the globe have traded their analog cameras for state of the art digital models, and some of the most popular films in recent years, such as Avatar, Gravity and The Hobbit, have been shot entirely on digital. The rise in digital filmmaking has been exponential; only one decade ago, three major motion pictures were filmed entirely in digital, whereas in 2013, the number is closer to 40.

Digital distribution has also become commonplace: in 2012, Screen Digest reported that over 91 per cent of theatres in the United Kingdom had made the switch from analog to digital projection.

All of the major movie camera companies — Panavision, ARRI, and Aaton, to name a few — have quietly ceased production of film cameras, citing decreased revenues and a flooded market of used equipment. Fuji has officially stopped producing motion picture film, and Kodak isn’t far behind. It seems that the writing is on the wall for celluloid.

“We wouldn’t survive in the film industry if we weren’t designing a digital camera,” says Jean-Pierre Beauviala, the co-founder of Aaton. “Almost nobody is designing new film cameras. Why buy a new one when there are so many used cameras around the world?”

Still, many of Hollywood’s most revered filmmakers have refused to give up on analog.

In an interview with the Director’s Guild of America, Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight and one of digital’s most outspoken critics, defended his continued use of film: “It’s cheaper to work on film, it’s far better looking, it’s the technology that’s been known and understood for a hundred years, and it’s extremely reliable.”

Quentin Tarantino, the man behind such po-mo flicks as Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, took his passion for analog even further by threatening to stop making movies altogether, should film ever stop being an option. “I’ll probably just be a writer,” he quipped in an Oscar roundtable. “All of this digital stuff, this is not what I signed up for.”

However, many directors have embraced the digitization of filmmaking. In Side

by Side, a 2012 documentary about the digital vs. analog debate, Danny Boyle recalls

shooting one of the first digitally shot films, the zombie flick 28 Days Later: “You could shoot illegally, surreptitiously without people knowing, and you could do unconventional things. The rhythm of film which had been passed on since it began, and crews had learned . . . you interrupted that. And I loved that feeling.”

Six years later, Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire — shot almost entirely on digital cameras — would become the first of its kind to win an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Others have similarly championed the retirement of celluloid: George Lucas, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro and Steven Soderbergh have all been key supporters of the digital revolution. Before the advent of the HD digital cameras used in the big-scale productions of the day, digital was a popular choice for independent filmmakers on a low budget, such as Lena Dunham and Miranda July. Cheaper, lower-definition cameras are still popular with independent filmmakers.

Many students in the SCA’s later years have chosen to use digital cameras to make their films. “For the last probably five or six years, we’ve had students who have been able to make the choice [between analog and digital],” Rob remarks.

“We had all the Super 16 gear here, and people were going out and renting cameras.”

So, what’s the difference between the two? Unlike analog film, which has a certain permanence to it, digital filmmaking is constantly evolving, making this question a difficult one to answer. However, it would be a mistake to call them the same medium: though they bear many similarities, film and digital are separate formats, and thus create separate experiences for the

would never have been possible with analog cameras.

From a financial standpoint, film cameras are relatively inexpensive. “They’re somewhere between cheap and boat anchors,” Rob says. Many can be bought for relatively little, while high-definition digital cameras are expensive and run the risk of obsoletion. Digital filmmaking also requires updated post-

viewer. For example, a magazine of analog film must be switched after filming 10 minutes of footage, whereas digital cameras in general have much more storage capacity.

This has a profound effect on the filmmaking process and the experience of the cast and crew: with fewer breaks between shots, actors are required to spend more time on their feet and directors are able to assess their performances immediately via a small pixelated screen.

Digital filmmaking also affects the way that films are staged: with lighter and more versatile equipment, as well as the boon of computer generated imagery, filmmakers are able to shoot scenes and depict images that

production technology, such as editing software, memory cards and computer applications.

However, developing film stock may become more costly in the future, as labs continue to disappear around the world.

The image itself is another point of contention: some prefer the grainier, more tangible look of analog film, while others consider the crispness of digital cinema to be superior.

Ultimately, the resolution of most modern digital films is about the same as celluloid — depending on the quality of the camera. Analog film produces fuller skin tones and better dynamic range, while digital images are more precise, and tend to perform better in low

light situations. Some prefer the cleanliness and precision of digital imagery, while others hold true to the authenticity and subtleties of analog film.

Founded by Jim Jannard in 2005, The Red Digital Cinema Camera Company has quickly become one of the giants of digital filmmaking. Red Epic, the company’s latest digital camera, is a model that SFU will begin using within the next few years. “There’s no question this is the future,” Jannard said in an LA Times interview. The Epic may be the most sophisticated digital movie camera ever designed: its lightweight structure, resolution and versatility have made it the industry standard, especially when shooting in 3D. However, celluloid still dominates in the realm of archival. The key is simplicity: films made over a century ago can still be viewed today, provided you have a film projector and the patience required to set it up. Film preservation is far from perfect — about 90 per cent of silent films made before 1929, and 50 per cent of sound films made before 1950, are lost — but it’s the best we’ve got. “Digital formats don’t store well; you have to keep transferring it over and over and over,” Rob says.

“They’re now looking at 35 mm primarily as an archival tool.”

According to Rob, the switch from film to digital at the SCA was inevitable. “It’s like a party that’s over, and there’s great memories there, but you move on.” Though he assures me that the program will still be in possession of analog film equipment, he’s doubtful that students will use it — after all, shooting film is a more difficult and time-consuming process.

For his part, Will Ross, a fourth year SFU film student, welcomes the program’s digitized future.

“When I switched from film to digital in third year, it completely solidified me as a pro-digital person,” he says. “There’s a school of thought that film is better to learn on because it instills discipline . . . that it’s a proving ground. I actually feel the opposite of that: I never improved more as a filmmaker than when I had the freedom to make mistakes, digitally. It just gives me so much more creative freedom.

Paradiso, a short film which Will edited, was recently featured at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was shot in — you guessed it — digital. “I no longer see any reason why anyone would work with film at any stage of the process,” he says.

Still, not all film students are celebrating the end of celluloid.

“You have to be a really special kind of crazy to work with film,” Alysha says. When I ask her what the film program will lose when celluloid is eventually phased out, she replies, “It’s the blood, sweat, and tears of analog. It’s wasting away in the Steenbeck room,

looking for the 12 frames that you need in order make a cut. It’s the idea of creating a work ethic, and not having a safety net other than yourself. It’s about learning that process of responsibility.”

Is this the death of film? Not necessarily. Though many have been quick to announce the impending doom of celluloid, it’s likely that the two media will con-

and this rings truer than any argument on either side of the debate. Like any artistic medium, film is first and foremost a tool for personal expression, and the students at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts will doubtlessly continue to make immersive, thought-provoking films — regardless of whether they’re “films” at all.

tinue to coexist, at least for the time being. However, it’s likely that digital and film will have traded places by the end of the decade — film may well become a medium reserved for the artistic, the independent and the alternative, while digital will propel the Hollywood industry into a techno-savvy future.

“I imagine there will always be 35 mm projectors at film festivals and various shrines of cinema,” the late Roger Ebert wrote in a 2011 post on his website. “But my war is over, my side lost, and it’s important to consider this in the real world.”

Ultimately, whether you prefer film or digital, the format used to make movies isn’t nearly as important as the work put into them by people. “The ideas are more important than the tools you use to capture them,” Rob says,

The future of SFU’s film program may be made up of ones and zeroes, but analog-loving students still have a chance to use celluloid when they begin their degree — at least, for now. “It’s a great teaching tool — that’s what I miss about it,” Rob says wistfully. “The idea of being able to hold something in your hands and see the images and become conscious of what a frame is, just to have a tactile connection with what you’re doing, is I think invaluable.

“That’s why we still use it in first year, we continue to shoot films on the Bolexes and we hand-process it ourselves, here.

Then we project it on the wall, film it, and edit digital. We’ll keep doing that just to give students that experience. And in second year, if you’re burning to use the Super 16s, God bless you, they’re there for you.”

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16

ARTS

Presenting Les Grands Ballets Canadiens with their version of Sleeping Beauty, preparing for a four-city BC tour, and dealing with some injuries in the company, it’s no surprise Alberta Ballet’s artistic director, Jean GrandMaître, had a busy week. We finally managed to connect to talk about the ballet’s new Sarah McLachlan ballet, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, playing at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Nov. 14 to 16.

Following their highly successful ballets profiling Joni Mitchell and Elton John, Alberta Ballet has created a ballet inspired by the life and music of Sarah McLachlan. For each of these ballets, Grand-Maître has met with the artist to get a sense of their artistic vision and see what direction and form the ballet might take. “I meet with the singers when they agree to have us do a portrait ballet. I meet with them and talk for a couple of hours.”

These ballets are great for bringing in new audiences and Grand-Maître said that there has been “a wonderful cross-pollination” of dance lovers discovering the music and music lovers discovering the dance.

McLachlan became involved after Grand-Maître choreographed the dance to her song at the 2010 Olympic opening ceremonies. She had also seen the Joni Mitchell ballet and, GrandMaître recalls, “She said she’d be honoured, and I went to see her in North Vancouver.”

They talked for a couple of hours about life, art, and her journey as an artist. “We really work hard to try to capture the essence of the artist and create a truthful portrait. That’s why the initial conversations are so important,” said Grand-Maître.

Grand-Maître and McLachlan talked about her inspirations, and what each song meant to her. “She is very inspired by the elements . . . she loves exotic cultures, and loves the ocean,” he said. Many

arts editor email / phone

November 12, 2013

Daryn Wright arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

of the costumes and sets in the show were inspired by this love of water and the elements, as are the video projections that serve as a backdrop for the show. McLachlan’s ink drawings were also used in the projections.

They also discussed the ethos of women. “They have more choice now and have to find a balance between life and work,” explained Grand-Maître, “I talked to a lot of women I know . . . and the themes of love, betrayal, loss, and death came up a lot.”

This is how the idea to do a psychological portrait of a woman came about, and the ballet became a profile of a woman’s life. There are also metaphors of empowering women and sisterhood in the ballet, which came up a lot in Grand-Maître and McLachlan’s conversations.

McLachlan came to visit the studio often during rehearsals and Grand-Maître says that she was in tears when she saw what they had created. He describes her music as “a balm on pain and suffering” and clearly respects her, saying she is “an extraordinary artist” and an extremely generous person whose career has “survived decades.”

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is one of McLachlan’s most famous albums, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, but the title was chosen because, as Grand-Maître explained, “it describes my choreographic style.” He said his choreography is about trying to move from a contraction or a struggle to graceful movement, and sometimes it’s a struggle to find grace.

The songs in the show span McLachlan’s entire career. “I had the opportunity to study her catalogue, and some of my favourite recordings are live versions — some that have never been heard before,” said Grand-Maître.

Looking ahead, he is thinking about which artist they may profile next. “It’s amazing how many Canadians I’d love to work with.”

Leonard Cohen and Peter Gabriel are at the top of his list. “I have a chance to meet Peter after Christmas, so I’m excited about that.”

You know those rare people who are so down-to-earth and easy to talk to that you feel like you’ve known them a long time after just a few minutes of conversation? Sarah Louise Turner is one of those people. The SFU professor and stage actress is currently starring in Sandi Johnson’s play People Like Us, playing at the Firehall Arts Centre until Nov. 16.

People Like Us is a one-woman play that deals with Gulf War Syndrome and one family’s process of coping. Little discussed, Gulf War Syndrome is something that many people developed when the war was over. Symptoms are incredibly varied — from insomnia, to cancer, to one case where a woman’s bones actually expanded, making her grow larger.

Such variety made it particularly difficult for sufferers to get any of the support they needed from their government.

“The argument in the United States was ‘well, we can’t give you compensation for this because we can’t call it a syndrome until

we can say ‘these are the symptoms that it has resulted in,’” says Turner. “I think it’s really interesting that the play is told from the partner and family’s point of view, and the impact this has not only on the veteran, but on the veteran’s family. It really destroys the entire family.”

The story is not just about one veteran’s struggles with the health and psychological issues that go along with war, it’s also about, “one woman finding her strength and how she maneuvers and finds her way through the challenging blows that life can strike,” Turner says. Having the partner as the primary narrator in the play allows the audience insight into not only her husband’s experience of the war, but also her experience of it when he returns.

During the entire one hour and 15 minute play, Turner is the only person on stage; this is the first time she’s been in a onewoman show. When I ask her about the experience, she tells

me, “It’s a huge learning opportunity. It’s been incredible and very challenging . . . and all of the challenges that I knew it would provide, it has definitely provided.”

She laughs as she says this, and tells me that the hardest thing for her was to learn her lines without the back and forth energy that she is accustomed to when there are other actors on stage.

Another challenge is keeping her own energy up for the full show: “It’s got to come from her [the character’s] fight.” Turner draws on the energy of her character’s struggle of “having to really fight for [her husband’s] life, and fight for the truth, and having to fight for all these things that she expected someone to give her.

And it’s not happening.”

“It’s a cautionary tale. It’s an important political piece, particularly right now, with all of the potential cutbacks in veteran funding. Warfare is changing drastically, and the implications of war are very different now from what they were in the past . . . we never know what we’re going to get in the next war. I also just think it’s a really beautiful story about love and partnership and what it takes.”

ARTS

November 12, 2013

Currently on a cross-Canada tour, The Zolas will be playing with Hollorado at The Commodore Ballroom on Nov. 14. As you might expect, guitarist/vocalist Zach Gray said that playing in their hometown of Vancouver is something they always look forward to: “Every city has its benefits, but it doesn’t really matter . . . where the most Zolas fans are — that’s the most fun.”

It starts as they stick candles into two mini cheesecakes for his 80th birthday. Cutie and the Boxer is a documentary that traces the relationship of husband and wife, Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, who met in SoHo at the respective ages of 41 and 19.

The film begins with Noriko, a young artist recently emigrated from Japan, besotted

by Ushio’s immersion in the art world.

Ushio is a Japanese artist who works in sculpture and, primarily, action-painting.

His canvases are large and he hangs them against a wall built with a lot of give, like the floors of a gymnastics club. He wails on his canvases, wearing boxing gloves with sponges strung onto them, sopping wet with ink and paint. He wears swimming goggles and the sagging layers of his 80 year-old body ripple with every hit.

The film tells the story of their developing relationship; Noriko recalls Ushio bringing her home to his bed with no sheets and no blankets. She obliges, seeing the barrenness as an emblem for the stingy

glamour of the New York she looked forward to knowing.

The bed seems fitting for Ushio too, an important player in the Neo-Dadaist movement which founded itself on an aversion to standardized aesthetics of beauty and living.

Noriko initially saw her connection to Ushio as a channel of influence for her own artmaking but discovered quickly that their relationship would never be equal; he would always be the one with an established name, and she’d always put him first.

At the beginning, we watch Noriko play the role of Ushio’s assistant; she seems pleasant enough but not enthusiastic.

Later, we see Noriko on a trip to sell some of her own work in Japan; we are invited into Noriko’s own artistic practice, where we discover her discomfort about the amicable subjugation she feels in relation to her husband. There is love, but there is loathing too, and she is as detailed about her regrets as a woman on her deathbed.

We are introduced to her new series of works: a semiautobiographical comic of sorts wherein she reconfigures her own alter ego, Cutie, to rise above Ushio, Bullie. The

work chronicles her youthful ambition, his boisterous, alcoholic behaviour and the things she’s given up and lost over the course of their nearly 40-year relationship.

Using a calligraphic painting technique, the often nude figures of Cutie resemble the plumpish and seductive women drawn by the hand of Titian, the 16th century Italian painter.

Cutie and the Boxer, directed

by Zachary Heinzerling, captures Ushio as he works to put together his latest exhibition — one in which the gallery owner has also agreed to showcase Noriko’s new series.

I’ve never seen art manhandled the way it is here. It is clumsy, gorgeous and hilarious, causing us to think about the physical reverence we give to objects according to their perceived value — whether historical, emotional, cultural, and most often economical.

Unlike a lot of visual art documentaries, this film doesn’t feature any interviews about the two main subjects, nor do Ushio or Noriko ever address the camera or the people behind it. They are direct only with each other. It’s at the same time heartwarming and tumultuous — their passion for each other is unfaltering. The narrative blooms out of their everyday life where questions of power, love and success lie somewhere among their collective past and their individual bodies of work.

While on tour, the band has been working on performing new songs that they have never played live, such as “Cold Moon.”

Gray said that they don’t really do much writing while touring because “it’s hard to find time to be creative on the road.”

Their songwriting process is a collaboration between all band members, and Gray’s exgirlfriend also contributed to the chorus of their single “Knot in My Heart.” Gray said that the lines “It’s hard and weird not to know how your day begins though I’m lying next to someone new” are attributed to her, verbatim, from something she said over the phone. “I wrote it down and put it in the chorus.

She gets royalties.”

Gray describes “Ancient Mars,” the title track of their second and most recent album, as being about “a beautiful place you can’t get back to once it’s gone. Mars used to have life and now it’s barren; relationships can work the same way.

Give it time and there can be nothing between you. I find it sad and beautiful.”

When asked which artist or group they’d love to work with, Gray laughed and said André 3000, in a collaboration “where

17

we stay out of his way.” Some other sources of inspiration — whether completely serious or not — that came up during our interview included Liberace, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Chris Angel, and Dave Matthews.

There are a few references to ancient civilisations in their songs, including mention of a pharaoh and the Nile in “You’re Too Cool,” and in the song title “Euphrates and Tigres,” but Gray said that he doesn’t have a particular interest in the subject. “It’s just from being a nerd; it’s not a theme. I have a degree in history, so it percolated in.”

Another influence from his history degree is the band name. The name, chosen last minute because they couldn’t agree, was inspired by Emile Zola, whom Gray learned about in one of his classes. “He committed slander against the president of France which is a pretty badass thing to do.” He also likes the fact that it’s not a name that has to be spelled: “You can make any name cool.”

The Zolas have a great sense of humour and had a lot of fun telling me about the many new, exciting features of their live show. These include an animatronic spider, pyrotechnics, male dancers, and live bears. “If people aren’t excited for that, I don’t know what to do,” said Gray.

He also explained, “I start suspended in a block of ice and the audience has to watch me melt before we start our set. It was too cold in Montreal, so they had to chisel me out. Hopefully Vancouver will be a warm enough audience.” I guess you’ll have to check out their show to see if any of that is true.

18 ARTS

Fame and fortune aside, Lady Gaga’s evolution from fringe freakshow to pop culture queen hasn’t done her any favours. Instead, it’s made her selfreferential theatricality the industry expectation: little monsters like Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus have laid claim to a portion of the songstress’s fan base by aping her dramatic flair and Hollywood-gothic musicality.

Today, Lady Gaga’s claim to the hype machine throne is tenuous at best, and almost entirely dependent on the success her much-awaited comeback to 2011’s Born This Way. This is the album that will make or break her career.

Repetitive, unimaginative and bloated, ARTPOP fails in virtually

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was more ambitious. Stankonia had better singles.

ATLiens had better lyrics, and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik began it all. But OutKast were never better than on their

November 12, 2013

every possible way. Sure, there’s the occasional earworm here and there: the titular track is a capably Madonna-esque ode to Andy Warhol, and “Gypsy” is as catchy as it is vaguely offensive. But for the most part, Gaga’s newest is the work of an old dog who’s run out of new tricks.

Never is this more apparent than in the album’s opener, “Aura,” in which Gaga attempts to show us the real her, the one “behind the aura,” while a computerized voice repeats “dance, sex, art” lifelessly. Is this a straight-faced attempt to introduce the album’s ham-handed themes, or a shallow attempt to be avant-garde?

It doesn’t matter — the song is downright awful, as are the vast majority of the tracks that follow.

Though lyrics were never her strong suit, Gaga’s bon mots throughout ARTPOP are lacklustre and carelessly clichéd. “Dope,” the album’s token piano ballad and a sappy love letter to Gaga’s fans, is particularly misguided: Gaga’s impassioned refrain, “I need you more than dope,” isn’t just bad; it’s embarrassing.

There are moments here where you can almost hear the Lady Gaga we fell in love with five years ago — the unexpectedly moving bridge of “Donatella,” the banshee energy of “Manicure,” the self-parody of “Applause.” All this only makes it more painful to state the obvious: ARTPOP is a completely unmitigated disaster.

third studio record: a portmanteau of Big Boi and André 3000’s astrological signs (Aquarius and Gemini), Aquemini sees the duo at the top of their game as musicians and performers.

Though their differences would eventually lead to their breakup, the balance struck between Big Boi’s dynamic boasts and André 3000’s spitfire stanzas on Aquemini is striking. The pair turn on a dime from solemn observation to bombastic wordplay, sometimes within the same stanza. Their fast-paced Georgian twang contrasts beautifully with the LP’s molasses-thick instrumentation, which includes horns, low register bass and a rip roaring harmonica solo.

The album’s most popular single, “Rosa Parks,” from its civil rights refrain to its syncopated acoustic guitar beat, seems to single-handedly carve out a place for southern hip-hop. The seven minute horn-led “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” is loose and soulful, while the dual anecdotes on the “Da Art of Storytellin’ (Part 1)” are among some of the most poignant rhymes ever put to vinyl.

Now this is what I’m talking about!

Sky Ferreira’s studio debut, Night Time, My Time, is far from game-changing: it’s affable alterna-pop with just the right amount of cheek, and it’s everything a cautiously optimistic music listener like myself expects from a mainstream pop effort. No more, no less. Ferreira’s newest LP is conventional, cohesive and congenial; as it turns out, not every album has to rewrite the rules.

Producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who’s worked with such artists as Vampire Weekend and Haim, gives Ferreira’s songwriting an assembly line simplicity that nods to some of her biggest synth pop influences, such as Duran Duran and Cyndi Lauper. The verse chorus

Each song has its own unique tone and message; at 74 minutes, a lesser album might have seemed bloated, but each cut on Aquemini feels necessary.

The duo experiment, but never lose focus — maybe that’s just a side effect of their Yin and Yang relationship, Dre being the head-in-the-clouds creative and Big the frugal businessman.

The former tends to get the lion’s share of the praise, but OutKast was always a marriage of equals: their

verse structure of such standouts as “24 Hours” and “You’re Not the One” are charmingly familiar, and Ferreira’s decidedly non-threatening pop star sneer helps keep Night Time, My Time from becoming overly repetitive.

By this point, Ferreira’s story is well known: she was signed at age 15, and has been caught in a maelstrom of failed pop experiments and studio squabbles ever since. Last year, she finally got her big break with the John Hughes prom night dance track “Everything Is Embarrassing,” announcing herself as the Lana Del Rey alternative we’d all been waiting for.

Night Time, My Time effectively subverts the one-hit-wonder template Ferreira briefly toyed with: all 12 tracks on the record, in their own way, recreate the unabashed joy and nostalgic haze of her breakout single. The pop rock elasticity of the guitars and the broad stroke synthesizers set the stage perfectly for Ferreira’s teen idol subversion: at no point during the album’s lean 45 minute runtime does any instrument or chord progression feel out of place.

In her own way, Ferreira proves that pop star status doesn’t necessarily equate to vapidity or acquiescence. Night Time, My Time is the sort of album that the FM radio elite have been trying — and failing — to make for decades: catchy, fun escapism that doesn’t insult your intelligence.

music remains the product of two brilliant minds working in sync in a way that calls to mind the greats: Lennon and McCartney, Strummer and Jones, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg.

Aquemini was the first southern hip hop record to get a five mics rating in The Source. In the nineties, the question on everyone’s mind was, east or west? The correct answer was Georgia, and OutKast were more than happy to let everyone know.

ARTS

Big news: Cartems Donuterie has just opened a brick and mortar location at 534 West Pender. Upgrading from their successful pop-up location at Hastings and Carrall, the donut shop is now much more.

They’re serving Matchstick coffee to go along with your donut(s) of choice, and there are beautiful, long wooden tables to gather around with friends — a change from their last place which didn’t have any seating. Good thing, because I can see myself spending lots of time there.

November 12, 2013

Need to dance off those semester blues? Already sick of how dark it gets at 5:00 p.m.? You’re not alone.

The cure: Ice Cream Social at the Biltmore Cabaret.

This only happens once a month, and this just happens to be your lucky week because it’s going down this Friday, Nov. 15. Expect 50s and 60s rock and pop music (lots of Otis Redding and The Temptations), boys in bow ties, and girls in swingy skirts. Doors open at 9:00 p.m. but it goes late night so store up that energy and put your dancing shoes on.

Looking for a different kind of entertainment? Art Battle Canada is live competitive painting where artists are given 20 minutes to create the best work they can using only acrylic paint, canvas, brushes, palette knives, and any other non-mechanical tools. At the end of the round, audience members vote for their favourite painting and are able to bid in a silent auction to take the work home.

On Tuesday, Nov. 12, Art Battle 75: All Stars New Stars will be hosted by current Vancouver champion Olga Rybalko at The Fan Club. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and tickets are $15 or $10 limited advance.

VANCOUVER SPE AKER SERIES

climate wars friday november 22, 7!pm a lecture with gwynne dyer Moderated by Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith Tickets $20 at sfuwoodwards.ca SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema 149 West Hastings Street

S F U ’ S VA NC I T Y OF F IC E OF C OMMUNI T Y E NG A GE ME N T

Renée Sarojini Saklikar, organizer of SFU’s monthly installment of Lunch Poems, is launching her first book of poetry! children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections is a deeply powerful personal account of the bombing of Air India Flight 182 of 1985.

Saklikar was 23 at the time, and her aunt and uncle were among the 329 passengers that were killed that day. The launch will be held at SFU Woodward’s World Art Centre on Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. Admission is free, and Saklikar will be available to discuss her work and sign copies.

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The Eastside Culture Crawl returns, celebrating its 17th anniversary from Nov. 15 to 17. The three-day visual arts, design and crafts festival involves more than 15,000 people visiting artists in their studios in the area between Main St. and Victoria Dr. Over 400 artists are participating in the crawl, dispersed among 83 different buildings. There will also be a studio preview on Thursday, Nov. 14, where several artists will open their studios a day early. The crawl is a great chance for people to get to know artists working in their community and is free and open to the public.

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SPORTS

Over the course of any regular season, in any sport, there are games that have more at stake than others — to SFU’s men’s soccer team — such a game was played last week.

It had all the makings of a classic: the second-last game of the season, and SFU’s final home game of the year, against their bitter Seattle Pacific rivals — the only team to have defeated the Clan this season.

Not to mention, the match was for all the marbles. A Clan victory meant a fourth-straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship, and a spot in the national tournament. A loss, and SFU would’ve

November 12, 2013

needed a lot of luck to earn those honours.

“It was just perfect,” says junior midfielder Jovan Blagojevic, a man who would factor in quite significantly later in the game. “It was like a movie; you couldn’t have written it any better. The rivalry we have between each other is so strong, and them having beat us before, playing for the GNAC title . . . we were excited.”

Few games can live up to that kind of hype. This one did.

It wasn’t a barnburner — far from it, in fact. Instead, it was a close game that kept fans on the edge of their seats, despite being a scoreless affair heading into Golden Goal overtime.

“It was such a tight game,” says Blagojevic. “I think we were carrying the play a little bit, but there were tense moments both ways.” A Seattle Pacific corner kick, pushed just wide with about five minutes to play in regulation, comes to mind.

“Going into overtime, everyone on our team was holding our breath as much as the fans were.

We didn’t think about it too much.

We knew we just had to get it done.”

And that’s where Blagojevic comes in.

Freshman Robert Hyams lined up for a Clan free kick, 30 yards from the Falcons’ goal. He had the option to pass down low to sophomore Ryan Dhillon and potentially take a two-on-one to the net. He didn’t take it.

Instead, he laid a perfect cross into the box — three seconds and a couple of wild bounces later, Blagojevic tapped it in. Clan win.

Another three seconds later, he was at the bottom of a team-wide dog pile.

“It seemed like the longest two, three seconds of my life,” he says. “It was a beautiful cross,

sports editor email / phone

Adam Ovenell-Carter sports@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

[senior forward Carlo] Basso got his head on it and it went off the post — I thought it was going in originally — and eventually popped right back out to me. As Golden Goals go, it was probably the easiest I could imagine.” But he’ll take it.

“The best thing that’s ever happened to me in my career,” he says, with an ear-to-ear grin.

Better than making the Final Four of the the NCAA Division II tournament last year?

“Individually,” he clarifies. “I almost died; I couldn’t breathe at the bottom of the pile. Like, ‘Thanks, but get off me,’” he laughs. “It was pretty cool.”

But Blagojevic knows his work and his team’s, is far from done.

“We’ll call this season a success if we can win the National Championship,” he says. “It’s nice winning the GNAC; we completed one of our goals. And of course we would’ve wanted an undefeated season, but we won the conference, and you’ve got to be happy with that. But every year we have the ambition of winning the National Championship, and that’s our ultimate goal.”

The Clan came close last year, falling short in the Final Four.

“Obviously it was upsetting to get so close and lose. But in a way, it might’ve helped us, it maybe showed we need to push a little harder, do a little more,” says Blagojevic. “We’re ready for whatever’s coming at us.”

So when Nationals begin, for a team that preaches taking things one game at a time, Blagojevic’s goal against the Falcons will matter little.

But for a day, or maybe a week, Blagojevic is SFU’s golden boy, his goal having sent his team to the national competition, as well as earning the Clan a fourth consecutive conference title.

Pretty cool, indeed.

SPORTS

November 12, 2013

The SFU women’s volleyball team has had a rough go over the past two weeks losing their last three consecutive matches, dropping to 4–8 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play. However, their next win, should they find it this season, would mark their highest single-season win total since joining the conference in 2010.

SFU’s inaugural National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) season in 2010 saw its volleyball team beat four conference competitors, and the past few years have seen even fewer wins, so this year’s squad has a chance to make history in the six remaining games of the 2013 campaign.

Two losses on the road did not help as the Clan fell 0–3 to

Northwest Nazarene and 1–3 to Central Washington on a southbound road trip.

The ladies opened slow in the first set against NNU as a pressing Crusaders offence made passing difficult for the Clan’s defence, and an 11–4 run for the home side hindered the SFU’s attack. After dropping the first set 25–10, the women opened the second with more

intensity, falling behind twice but tying the score at 10 and 15.

Unfortunately, the ladies couldn’t hold on to what momentum they had and dropped the second and third sets by scores of 25–17, losing to the third-place team in the conference for the second time this season. Junior Kelsey Robinson had seven kills on the night while setters Tamara Nipp and

Brooklyn Gould-Bradbury each had ten assists.

In the second match of the weekend, the Clan showed better teamwork and pressure as they worked the CWU Wildcats, but ultimately lost in four sets.

After dropping the first 25– 21, they won the second set with a nail-biter score of 26–24, pressing the home side relentlessly for the win. Difficulties

Hume and Cody Coombes both had third place finishes at 61-kg and 78-kg respectively, resulting in many top finishes for the Clan in their first time hitting the mats in 2013.

The Clan women also had strong showings, wrestling in their third tournament of the season and first non-dual of 2013. Jenna McLatchy was the Clan’s sole victor on the weekend as the senior won the college weight of 82-kg besting the other five girls in the field.

Fellow seniors Justina DiStasio and Nikkie Brar both had second place finishes in the open competitions 72-kg and 51-kg respectively. DiStasio suffered her first loss of the season after winning ten matches straight for the Clan side.

“It’s tough losing, but it helps you see where you need to improve,” explained the Burnaby native. “Even at our dual in Oklahoma where we struggled in the final a couple weekends ago; the losses showed us what we need to improve on for the remainder of the season to be just as successful as last year.”

The 2012-13 Clan women were Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA) champions last season in both the team competition and dual championship and, despite losing four winning seniors from that campaign, the new talent in 2013-14 will be looking to equal or better those results.

As most of Clan team’s fall campaigns nears a close, the wrestling teams are just beginning their 2013-14 seasons, which run from early November until late March, with the men’s team being the final winter squad to begin competition for SFU. Kicking off the season with a bang, the men’s and women’s teams hosted the SFU International tournament on Burnaby Mountain, an annual tournament featuring highlevel competitors from across the USA and Canada. Clan athletes had the chance to wrestle many older athletes with international experience at the meet, as they hosted club and collegiate teams alike, starting their 2013-14 seasons with some tough competition.

“The SFU International is always great and brings excellent competition to our athletes,” said senior Justina DiStasio, who placed second in her weight class on the women’s side. “We have freshmen wrestling very experienced adults with years of international and collegiate competition under their belts which is a great learning experience for our teams as they develop.”

On the men’s side, Arjun Gill of Surrey, BC was victorious at 96-kg as he went undefeated in his first tournament of the year, wrestling in the open category. The tournament featured matches in both open and college weights, as Morgan Smith won the college 78-kg weight class and Ryan Yewchin won his match at the college weight of 100-kg. The junior wrestled eight matches in three different weight classes over the weekend placing second at 90-kg and fourth at 96-kg behind his teammate, Gill.

At 55-kg Sukhan Chahal and Skylor Davis placed second and third for the Clan while Dhillon

Freshman Mallory Velte placed third out of 11 competitors at 59-kg at the SFU International, while Laura Anderson and Monika Podgorski had sixth place finishes at 55-kg and 67-kg to round out the Clan contingent.

Meanwhile, across the continent, Clan senior and internationally recognized American wrestler

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converting on offence held the Clan back in the final two sets, though, as they would drop them 25–13 and 25–20 with the loss bringing their conference record to 4–8.

Robinson again led the team in kills with 19 on the night while freshman Devon May added 11 of her own. Alanna Chan had 28 digs in the loss while setters Gould-Bradbury and Nipp added 33 and 10 assists respectively.

With the loss the Clan have dropped to an even overall record of 9–9 (including non-conference play) and will be looking for their record breaking win in the final six matches of the 2013 season.

With no players graduating from this year’s squad, this season will likely be considered one of development. If they cannot convert on the remainder of the season, the experience gained in 2013 will be a great advantage for next year, as the team will return all of its starters for another year of improvement and growth in 2014 and beyond.

Helen Maroulis won her exhibition match against Venezuela’s Marcia Andrades, an opening match to the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic. The WCWA champion and member of Team USA earned an 8–0 victory winning the match in a technical fall with 15 seconds remaining in the first period. She will rejoin the Clan’s schedule moving forward.

With winning results this early in the season, both Clan team’s will be fighting all winter long for wrestling supremacy as the women look to repeat as double national champions. The men will look to improve on their 2013 NCAA campaign which saw two wrestlers compete at their first ever NCAA Division II championships and junior Skylor Davis place third, earning All-American honours. Davis will look for another chance to compete at the championships, and with hard work and determination, the Clan will be able to send a larger contingent to the 2014 championships.

22 SPORTS

Despite an overall frustrating performance at Bill Copeland Arena, the SFU Clan hockey team did what they had to against the University of Victoria to scrape out a 3–2 victory.

The win was SFU’s fifth straight to open the season and put the Burnaby squad in a tie for first place in the BCIHL with Trinity Western and Selkirk College.

The opening twenty minutes featured UVic’s first goal of the season against the SFU when Mark Prest potted a power play tally just 41 seconds into the game. SFU’s Graham Smerek would not allow his team to sit back after surrendering the first goal, as he led by example and began to hit every Victoria player in sight.

November 12, 2013

The intensity brought by the grinder seemed to spark SFU as shortly after, Pavlo Zerebecky put his speed on display, shooting right past a Vikes’ defender, and feathering a fantastic saucer pass across ice to Jesse Mysiorek, who tapped it into the yawning cage.

SFU’s frantic pace continued as Smerek did what he does best, and drew a slashing penalty due to his relentless forecheck. The BCIHL’s number one power play could not capitalize because the Clan couldn’t hit the net, firing plenty of shots towards the net, but wide. SFU was unfortunate to not be leading after one.

Victoria continued to frustrate the Clan in the second period.

Neither team could muster any great chances as UVic continued to collapse to their own net resulting inwas countless SFU shots hitting a body in front, never even making their way to Vikes’ netminder, Robert Simmons.

SFU wasn’t playing its best hockey, but still outshot the visitors 8–4 in the period, though none of which were particularly concerning for Victoria.

SFU head coach Mark Coletta rewarded Smerek’s strong play when he moved him up to the first line to play alongside Nick Sandor and Jono Ceci in the third period. Coletta’s move provided almost immediate dividends as Smerek assisted on a Sandor tally just a minute and three seconds into the final frame to give SFU a 2–1 lead.

SFU’s new look top line added another key goal right after Smerek’s tally when Nick Sandor had the puck bounce right to him for a wide open tap in.

Victoria kept the game interesting by adding a late power play goal, but they would eventually get called for a too many men penalty when trying to pull their goalie late in the third.

The penalty proved costly as SFU controlled the puck with their final man advantage to seal the win.

SFU will now hit the road for games against Eastern Washington and Selkirk College with hopes of continuing their hot start to the season, and to take over sole possession of first place in the BCIHL.

As the 2013-14 season begins for the Clan women’s basketball team, memories of their “Sweet 16” appearance and record-breaking 2012-13 campaign are still on the minds of many fans. But what may be more interesting and, of course, more relevant to this season is the question of reinvention for a team that lost three key seniors, notably Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, the team’s first ever NCAA Division II All-American and GNAC and NCAA leader in numerous statistical categories.

But, after this past weekend’s tour through Portland, it’s clear that the new team dynamic will suit this Clan team just fine.

The Clan traveled to Portland for a two-game weekend of exhibition play with games against Division I Portland State and Division III Lewis and Clark. It quickly became evident that this would be a different team than the 2013 GNAC runner-up squad, but one that will rely less on individual talent, but more teamwork.

“We have people that can work and support each other in all positions this year, everyone just needs to stick to the basics and work as a team. We need to be very together to be successful,” explained co-captain Erin Chambers.

The 6’1” guard/forward combo has certainly emerged as the Clan’s leader in the early moments of the season, as the pre-season All-Conference honouree had 24 and 29 points in the Clan’s two games, leading all players on the floor in both.

Meanwhile, junior guard Katie Lowen, whose breakout season last year did not go unnoticed, had 19 and 14 points in the two games. The returning starter, whose fiery play and raw athleticism balances out her 5’6” frame, also added seven

rebounds, seven steals and six assists on the weekend.

“I don’t ever notice how small I am,” confessed the GNAC Academic All-Conference athlete. “I anticipate and play hard which helps get the ball in and out of my hands when necessary.”

In the Portland State game, the Clan lost by only five points to the Division I institution falling behind in the first half, but outscoring the home side 44–40 in the second half. The second half pressure was not quite enough to overturn the experienced Portland State, but the team’s combined effort over the first 40 minutes of the season was an excellent indicator of the potential the team will have this year, even as they learn their new pairings and style.

“We definitely are a new team this year, but that isn’t a bad thing,” explained Chambers’ cocaptain, Chelsea Reist. “ I think we are going to surprise people, and especially after our play this weekend. People will realize that we aren’t over without Nayo; we are going to be strong together.”

Reist factored largely in the Clan’s second game of the weekend as the 6’2” senior had 10 points and led the team with eight rebounds in the victory. The Clan won 86-66 over Lewis and Clark, leading by 12 points at the half.

Foul trouble kept the home team closer in the game than the Clan would have liked as the visitors sent Lewis and Clark to the freethrow line 43 times. “The rules have changed slightly this year for fouling in women’s basketball,” Chambers explained. “Things and movement that used to be allowed are now being whistled down as fouls which we really have to adjust to.”

The Clan have been known for their competitive and hands on play, so 2013-14 will see a change in movement on the court for the ladies as well as for all the teams in the conference, as adjustments to positioning, picks, and blocks will have to be made.

That being said, if the ladies can show the same teamwork and competitiveness in their upcoming pre-season, continuing to play in a poised and controlled manner, the pre-season will be an obvious display of the season to come. With their new workings on a court and the committed team mantra, the women should have no problem proving that not any one player makes a team, and that 2013-14 will be theirs for the taking.

DIVERSIONS / ETC

Across 1- A retailer’s goal 6- Edge or team 10- Midge 14- Missed by _ __ 15- Not base 16- Corona fruit 17- Actress Zellwegger 18- Director Riefenstahl 19- Slippery __ __ eel 20- Legal term for a bar 22- Most reasonable 24- Singer Braxton 25- Somewhat aged 26- Foolish person 30- Non-rod cornea cell 32- Cain’s victim 33- Actress Sommer 35- Shallow circular dish 40- Willingly 42- Dwell in 44- Elaine’s last name on “Seinfeld” 45- Yoga pant empire, minus the citrus 47- Mongrel dog 48- Arabian Sea gulf 50- Stealthy walk 52- Pertaining to the loin

56- Not fem.

58- Physicist Fermi 59- Lacking humanity 64- Golden 65- Sprite 67- Up and __ __!

68- Fit to _ ___ 69- Curse or enchantment 70- Romantic couple 71- Caustic solutions 72- Warble 73- __ _ a soul

water 8- Racket 9- Prolific inventor 10- Secreting organ 11- Japanese-American 12- Accumulate 13- What comes after the ninth 21- The Hilton, e.g.

23- First letter of the Hebrew alphabet 26- Attire 27- Busy as _ ___ 28- The Tower of Pisa Down does this 1- Reddish-brown gem 29- Shoppe adjective 2- From the U.S. 31- Trompe l’___ 3- Director Wertmuller 34- Singer Lovett 4- Found on the periodic 36- Light source tab.

37- Adjoin 5- Takes care of (two 38- Architect of the secwords) ond Yugoslavia 6- Drawing room 39- Feminine suffix 7- Tool to break solid 41- Sir ___ Newton was

November 12, 2013

23

an English mathematician 43- Covering for an acorn 46- Pure 49- Edema 51- Hosp. section 52- Lawful 53- Togetherness 54- Bruce Lee’s name to you, punk 55- Seizes with teeth 57- Old-womanish 60- Common street name 61- ___ girl!

62- ___-do-well 63- TV award 66- Wall St. debut

Hope to see you there!

24

HUMOUR

humour editor email / phone

November 12, 2013

Brad McLeod humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Rachelle Tjahyana / The Peak

Rachelle Tjahyana / The Peak

YOUR REGION — After toying with the idea for quite some time, a local amateur comic has finally decided to join the popular social network, Twitter, where he believes that his material will finally be able to be ignored by a significant number of people.

Leon Jones, who has been doing comedy every other Thursday in front of very limited crowds for the past seven months, believes that he is finally ready to have his material be unappreciated outside of just the confines of his local bar.

“I love doing stand-up, I mean there’s nothing better than that immediate and personal disappointment you get from a live crowd’s lack of response,” Jones explained, “But with Twitter, now I can get that lack of gratification all the time.”

Jones said that for the past year he’s had to live with having ideas that he thinks are really funny but has never had the outlet to feel them instantly rejected by a large group of people.

“I was so sick of doing all this material on stage that I thought was original and had nothing to prove me otherwise,” Jones told The Peak.

“With Twitter now I can easily see that a thousand other people did exactly the same joke as me and don’t have to wait until my Thursday night set to fall into a depression about what an unoriginal, insignificant being I am . . . it’s great.”

PONTIAC, MI — Suicide rates are on the rise thanks to the increasingly expensive cost of rope experts reported last week. According to new figures, the rates of committing suicide have never been higher, a reality which has led to a significant decrease in the number of recent suicides.

“With rates like these on nooses, people just can’t afford to end their own lives right now,” explained statistician Linda Carlini, who first noticed the correlation between high rope prices and lack of suicides early last week. “If simple items like rope are eventually made unaffordable I think suicide might end for good.”

Carlini went on to explain that this not the first time suicide rates have been affected by the economy. The high price of oil has also been credited with saving the lives of many poor, destitute, depressed people.

“Leaving your car running until you passed out and died used to be a lot more popular before gas prices started to skyrocket,” Carlini said, pointing to one her many confusing charts. “Most suicidal people can hardly afford to get enough gas to drive home, let alone have the cash to fill up their entire car with toxic fumes!”

Although Carlini was adamant that the increase in suicide rates was causing a decrease in the number of suicides, she also stated that the numbers are the opposite when you look specifically at the rope-loving community where suicide numbers have exploded as their prices have risen.

VANCOUVER— As a result of technological innovations and the general advancement of time, the newspaper industry has hit hard times from which it may never recover. However, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Vancouver Times CEO, Warren Isiah, stated in a release last week that the industry was, quote, “Probably going to be okay.”

Isiah cited frankly ridiculous notions such as “good old fashioned hard work” and “customer loyalty” in a document that can only be seen as evidence towards the man’s inability to properly steer a major company.

Even viewed as a desperate appeal to win back customers, this document would surely be used against the aging executive in any talks regarding his future at the helm of the publication.

A long-time friend, who wished to remain anonymous, though admitted that he “didn’t really care if [we] printed his name because who even reads newspapers anymore,” told The Peak that the document’s similarity to the ramblings of a mad man hardly comes as any surprise.

He cited Isaiah’s continued dedication to the failed TV Show Joey and ownership of a Pontiac Aztec as evidence of the aging journalism giant’s failure to attach himself to reality. As of press time, Isiah was unavailable for comment as he had flown to Las Vegas as part of his effort to finally revitalize the XFL.

HUMOUR

VANCOUVER — Police were called to a home in east Vancouver today after receiving several calls from nearby residents who described a “massive gunfight” that erupted on their block.

According to eyewitness testimonies, the situation was the result of a “Flash Paintball” event organized by local teens, Jason Edmunds and Erik Chen.

To their surprise, the plan for a spontaneous paintball battle intended to take onlookers by surprise created more extreme panic than most hit viral videos.

“We just wanted to do, you know, like one of those videos where you see a bunch of people just doing normal stuff and then everybody just starts dancing and everybody’s like, ‘Wooooah!’ But, with paintball” explained a handcuffed Edmunds, after the event.

He explained that it was their friend Carl Smithers’ birthday and since he really likes paintball, the idea came naturally to them. They invited all their friends over, rented more than two dozen paintball guns and waited in Smithers’ driveway after school.

NEW YORK — Exciting news emerged last weekend as an

November 12, 2013

Edmunds said upon Smithers’ arrival home, he was shocked to see so many people sitting in his driveway, apparently just to talk, listen to music and eat sandwiches.

“He seemed excited,” Chen told The Peak recalling that Smithers stated “awww, did you guys throw me a surprise party?

I’ve always wanted a surprise party,” seconds before everyone drew paintball guns and began firing at each other.

It was at this point that onlookers say Smithers’ collapsed into a terrified heap on the ground as his friends stampeded around him yelling and shooting paintballs at each other. “They just started shooting,” recalled a shaken Smithers. “No one even gave me a mask or anything, I just had to lie face down on the ground with my hands over my eyes.”

It was only when Edmunds and Chen heard the police sirens that they say it dawned on them that their idea might have been a little inappropriate.

iMessage leak revealed information on the subject matter of a popular gangsta-rapper’s not-yet-released album. According to sources at The Peak, the new songs carefully describe ways in which the artist is superior to his rivals.

Early reports have also mentioned that the police and the recording industry may also have been said to be deficient in a comparative standing to the artist.

While the news of the braggadocio has been confirmed,

When police arrived on the scene they were greeted by what sounded like automatic gunfire and promptly called for backup which soon surrounded the entire neighbourhood.

It wasn’t until they had an entire S.W.A.T team encircling the house and a helicopter overhead that police say they realized it was just a bunch of dumb kids with paintball guns and delayed to open fire.

Edmunds and Chen were charged with disturbing the peace, fined $500 and tasked with cleaning up the now paint soaked neighborhood. Smithers left the scene unscathed except for a few bruises, and a new deepseated phobia of driveways.

“Carl needs to loosen up, we were just trying to do something really different for his birthday, something that he’d remember,” Edmunds told The Peak, disappointed by his friend’s luke-warm reaction to their surprise, “I mean it wasn’t even that big a deal, we just broke like three windows.”

Smithers isn’t the only one who is less than thrilled about the entire affair. Local resident, Gill McCauley, was stunned upon hearing the news calling the event “truly shocking.”

“The whole incident really shed light on a far greater issue that has been plaguing North America for years . . . kids aren’t allowed to have fun anymore,” McCauley said shaking his head at ‘adults these days’. “I

the exact qualities the artist will boast about are still in question.

Over half of the boastings are rumoured to be related to the confidence the rapper has in his superior ability to rap.

Beyond this, many are speculating that the qualities could be as wide-ranging as his extraordinary accumulation of wealth to how many women were interested in participating in sexual intercourse with him.

Experts say the song’s title, [sic] ‘paPUh FLOodd’ is an allusion to the numerous banknotes that

remember when kids all used to play freely in the streets and now they aren’t even allowed to tear up Mrs. Smithers’ flower garden, shower every house within a two block radius in paint and terrify the entire neighborhood . . . what is the world coming to?”

the artist has in his possession.

The sexual exploits of the rapper have drawn the most interest from those anticipating the release. An excited fan told The Peak “Well, in one of his last albums we found out that ‘[his] bitch sucked [his] dick on [his] fucking private jet’*, so it’ll be fascinating to get an update on their lifestyle.”

The fan also elaborated on the possible evolution of the rapper’s motifs. Speculating that it is very likely the artist will bring some incredibly groundbreaking

25

McCauley concluded his statement by saying that, “it was just a crazy day that almost ended in tragedy” but he remained adamant that “it was just a bit of fun” and also agreed that Carl really does need to loosen up.

improvements to the industry.

“That’s this guy’s thing, man, he changes the whole game up — every, single, time.“ He concluded by posturing that the artist may mention which kind of private jet he receives fellatio on, as well as the altitude of the plane or planes on which said fellatio occurred.

When reached for a comment, the rapper only responded with the message ‘4eva’ which was sent to the press in the form of a diamond-encrusted, fourfinger ring.

26 HUMOUR

TORONTO — Popular cracksmoking, alcoholic mayor, Rob Ford, is in hot water this week after he was spotted not picking up after his poodle on the streets of his neighbourhood in Etobicoke.

“He just let the dog go right there on someone’s lawn” explained Steve Johnson, a neighbour of Ford’s who claims to have witnessed the heinous event.

“And to think, I voted for that guy, you know the guy who goes around and lets his dog do its business on other people’s lawns and doesn’t clean it up . . . it’s just common courtesy.”

These sentiments were echoed across, not only his community but also the entire city of Toronto which is in an uproar over the actions of its believed to be squeaky-clean crack-addict mayor.

“I don’t care what you do on your own time,” explained another neighbour who wished to

remain anonymous, ”but you can’t just do that kind of stuff in public.”

Several council members have already called for Ford’s resignation following the dog-business scandal. “How can there be trust?” exclaimed councilman John Fillion during a media scrum last week. “How can you trust a man who doesn’t clean up after his dog to run a city!”

When reached for comment, Ford initially denied the claims.

Upon being told there was video evidence however, he changed his tune.

“I can’t comment on what I haven’t seen. But, hypothetically, how can we be sure that it was really what they claim it was?” Ford reasoned with reporters. “Maybe it was a leaf. Like I don’t have to pick up leaves do I? Maybe it didn’t come out of the dog’s butt. Maybe it was just the angle, you know?”

The controversy has been a real blow to Ford’s credibility after managing to raise his approval rating by five per cent thanks to the discovery that he had smoked crack.

The crack-move was seen by many as revitalizing Toronto from their stuffy “no-crack city” image and also connected him to local youth through his

November 12, 2013

willingness to seek out new experiences.

While there is a persistent rumour that the “crack video” was not in fact Rob Ford but an impersonator hired by the Ford campaign and also that the popular stories of Ford’s public drunkenness were also fabricated by his

team, without any evidence of his innocence, it may very well help Ford escape this dog clean-up controversy unscathed.

Although it is still unknown how this event will affect his chances for re-election, according to recent polls his supporters are apparently still behind him.

“All these claims are baloney, I’ve seen him around here, trust me I know the real Rob Ford and he’s got my vote” explained one Torontoite and crack-enthusiast, Sleazy Dave, “It was probably just a leaf or something. I know he wouldn’t do something like that.”

HUMOUR

November 12, 2013

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28 LAST WORD

features editor email / phone

Max Hill features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

The common archetypal images are of men with greasy moustaches and trenchcoats, waiting to physically overpower their female victims into submission. As for victims, men can’t get raped because they’re too strong to get physically subdued. That’s just science, right?

This logic builds upon the presumed premise that one must be raped by a member of the opposite sex, and that rape can only happen through physical force — neither of which are true. In reality, the majority of sexual offences are intra-familial, or perpetrated by acquaintances, friends, or partners. In these cases, the perpetrator rarely physically overpowers the victim; they’re more likely to rely on coercion or manipulation, using emotions or verbal threats as weapons.

Sexual assault can happen to anyone. It can happen within relationships, amongst acquaintances, or at the hands of a stranger. It can include any range of non-consensual sexual behavior. Really, the only link is that those who experience it are left filled with shame, and suffer a string of consequences — physical, psychological, emotional. If we cannot pinpoint one scenario or one type of perpetrator, then how can we have a clear idea of what a victim looks like?

I recently started watching Mad Men, thinking it would be filled with so much misogyny and gender stereotypes of the time period that I wouldn’t be able to get past the first season.

Spoiler alert: I just finished the sixth season and it is revealed that Don Draper, the stoic, harddrinking, womanizing protagonist, was raped as a boy. Only it’s not said in so many words: it’s presented as an older woman — a prostitute — taking his virginity against his will.

He grows up to have a drinking problem, an inability to commit to one woman (despite being married twice), and a habit of never sharing his feelings or weaknesses. Yet he is successful in business and pleasure, and is seen as mysterious and suave;

November 12, 2013

women want him, and men want to be him.

Sure, it can be argued that it was a different time. It can also be argued that this is fiction. Yet, the Center for Disease Control’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey in 2010 reported that the rate of male victims of sexual assault was much higher than expected — something that’s been corroborated by many similar studies. One study found that 44 per cent of college men in their sample reported being subjected to a sexually coercive tactic, while another reported similar numbers of 43 per cent of college men reporting being a victim of a coercive incident.

Now, these numbers are only representative of one small aspect of sexual abuse, and the numbers reported by women are

society dictates, women are coyer and have sex only to please their men, and all men want sex all the time, and people only have sex with the opposite gender, then it would logically follow that only men can perpetrate rape upon women. Given that none of these are facts, it’s insulting to all genders and sexual practices that this is the inherent assumption.

With all this as a framework, there’s no surprise that this is the same society that minimizes the impact that non-consensual sex has on males. There’s a belief that men always want sex, that it’s only a matter of collecting the largest number of (female) partners, and that it’s just part of being a man — whatever that even means.

If there is anything we can take from the recent pro-rape FROSH chants, it’s that all of us

still much higher. Nonetheless, these statistics are shockingly high for an issue where men are solely seen as perpetrators, and never victims.

Not only that, but male victimization is grossly underreported because, simply put, our society does not take male sexual assault seriously. I have heard too many people argue that rape is exclusively a women’s issue or that men can’t be raped, and I have seen too many men refuse to show that they’re hurting simply because they’re “being men.”

Every so often, male survivors of sexual victimization speak out, and the stories are as diverse and complex as the issue of rape itself: some were victimized as children, some for their chosen gender or sexuality, some at the hands of partners (both male and female). According to the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, 10 per cent of reported victims are males.

Our society maintains an outdated and heteronormative view of sexuality, which is partly where this idea stems from. If, as

— especially boys and men — are in dire need of education. One must wonder whether the enigmatic “Bro Code,” the Holy Bible for misogynists that commands “bros before hos,” has a subsection that deals with a bro getting raped. I’d imagine the answer is no, that this isn’t seen as something that men should talk about — though I’m hardly a Bro Code scholar.

We need to educate boys and men so that they stop perpetuating rape culture and start spreading respect and mindfulness of the impact of their words and actions. But we also need to educate them so that they are not afraid to step forward when they are the ones victimized.

Rape culture is not a joke, and it shouldn’t be treated as such by anybody. It is constantly being perpetrated in media, in everyday actions and jokes and on our university campuses. The only way that we can hope that our children will live in a better world is if we are ready to be allies and to hear each other’s stories — regardless of gender.