Ski, Snowboard, and Study in Whistler

DY U T S D N A , D R A KI, SNOWBO

IN

R E L T S I H W S

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FIRST PEEK

It’s my time of the semester again — time for another Editor’s Voice. This would be good news, except that each time around it becomes more difficult to think of a topic to write about, and it is always difficult to find the time to compose it.

So this time, I have decided to write about the most timeless of topics: time itself.

It seems to me that time passes more rapidly with each passing year, and that the older I become, the more my perspective on time changes. I’m sure you can agree that when you were in elementary school, a year felt like an eternity, and even summer break was a huge expanse of time full of possibilities.

Now it seems like each New Year’s Eve comes barreling along on the calendar with little warning. Dr. Seuss expresses this feeling well: “How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness

how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

I’ve accepted that our perception of time is relative to the length of our lives thus far, as many cognitive scientists theorize. The terms we use to describe time can also be relative. It’s hard to imagine being 80 years old from where I sit in my 20s, but to someone in their 80s, I’m basically a kid with their whole life ahead of them. A ‘lifetime’ has a very different definition depending on whom you’re talking to.

All of this thinking about time also has me thinking about our cultural relationship with it, and how different cultures treat and define time differently. In Vancouver, for instance, time is often loosely defined, and more often than not I won’t set a definite time to meet up with someone, but I’ll say “about” or “ish” to signal that we both know the time is flexible.

This brings me to the question of being on time. There are those who view being late as a very serious offense, and those who don’t mind most of the time. As Shakespeare writes in The Merry Wives of

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Windsor, you’re “better three hours too soon than a minute too late,” but as someone who struggles with this aspect of time management and is always trying to squish more into a finite number of hours, I often run into trouble with timing.

Maybe I have an optimistic view of time, but I usually underestimate how long it will take to do something or travel somewhere, while I fill my schedule with unrealistic expectations.

Maybe this stretching of time that many people are prone to is related to the struggle to make ends meet. After all, they say time is money, so theoretically the more you can do in a day, the more valuable your time will be. This also raises the question of quality time, down time, vacation time, alone time, and all the other versions of time we attempt to fit into our lives. Will there ever be enough time? Life is short, time is of the essence, and there’s no time to kill. Whatever you do, try not to get behind the times.

Or perhaps none of this is timely and, as Pink Floyd sings, we’re all just “ticking away the moments that make up a dull day,” as we “fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.”

By the way, what time is it?

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NEWS

November 9, 2015

news editor email

Melissa Roach news@the-peak.ca

associate news editor

Jamal Dumas

Artist-storyteller and academic Kiera James Anderson will lecture on early 2000’s “feminist call-outs around interpersonal violence” and their impact on ‘forest defense’ groups in some regions of the United States.

The event takes place on Thursday, November 19 from 7:30 p.m. to midnight.

Students will be hitting the slopes and hitting the books next semester.

SFU has launched a pilot project in collaboration with a nonprofit organization, the Whistler Education Group, in Whistler to offer five different SFU courses up in the small mountain village for Spring 2016.

Courses will be offered in one-day, two-day, and semesterlong formats, ranging from social media strategy for businesses, to brewing delicious beers.

The day-long courses, or “boot camps,” tackle some more specific social media and digital skills. These include BOOT 520: Social Media for Small Business, BOOT 555: How to Optimize your LinkedIn for Business, and BOOT 715: Visual Leadership: Building Ownership Using Visuals.

The single two-day course offered is VIVA 201: Visual Analytics Workshop: From Theory to Practice. For those wanting a longer stint in the village, BREW 110: Introduction to Brewing will be regularly scheduled all week for the duration of the semester.

All classes are expected to have a capacity of 25 students.

The Whistler Education Group first approached the university about a year ago to pitch the idea of hosting courses in Whistler. Through conversations with the office of the VP Academic and SFU’s Lifelong Learning department, the group has entered into an official partnership with SFU as well as BCIT to make Whistler a destination for post-secondary education.

SFU’s Lifelong Learning office oversees departments such as Continuing Studies, SFU NOW, and the Centre for Online and Distance Education.

Larry White, director of career and professional programs for SFU Lifelong Learning, explained that these classes are meant to draw students to Whistler “to engage in a learning opportunity that could potentially be connected to an adventure activity,” as well as provide educational opportunities for locals.

“Think in terms of attracting someone to Whistler for BREW 110, that might be scheduled Tuesday to Friday, and someone staying the weekend for a mountain adventure experience, or using the weeknights for that experience,” White suggested.

All courses will be hosted by the soon-to-be launched Whistler Learning Centre. Stephen Milstein, head of the Whistler Education Group, expressed that ‘educational tourism’ is a booming market — one that the group is looking to break into.

“Continuing studies is a moneymaker,” said Milstein.

The courses will be held in various spaces around Whistler, like the Spruce Grove Field House, or in hotel conference rooms. Milstein explained, “We plan to use existing spaces, indoor and outdoor, as classrooms and learning spaces.”

“[SFU is] very excited about this partnership and about the prospect of bringing our programs to people in their own community,” said White. “We are excited about the concept of helping to support local economic development through increasing tourism as a result of offering our courses and programs.”

He also expressed the hope that the pilot project will be successful enough to continue on beyond next semester, and that SFU remains Whistler’s “education service provider of choice.”

SFU Lifelong Learning sees the project as beneficial for all involved. The courses are meant to attract more visitors to Whistler, improving tourism in nonpeak seasons, and to expand SFU’s educational offerings into a new market.

As White put it, the partnership “creates a win-win-win situation for learners, for Whistler businesses, and for SFU.” Milstein remarked, “All of a sudden, on a rainy day, there’s lots to do in Whistler.”

United Way will be hosting its annual bake sale in Surrey on Wednesday, November 18. Coffee will cost two dollars, larger baked goods will cost one dollar, and small items will cost between 25 to 75 cents each.

The group encourages bakers to donate their treats, or for those interested to otherwise volunteer or just buy!

The sale can be found in the Mezzanine between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Between 10 and 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 18, New York University professor Zhang Jiawei will discuss the crowdfunding business model. Jaiwei’s presentation will focus on the different approaches towards this model

by China and the United States, as well as the problems and prospects of each. He will be presenting the speech in Mandarin with consecutive English translation. The event is free, but requires online registration.

By Zainah Merani

NEWS

Looking for an easy elective? Try HSCI 181. Course Diggers, a website designed by SFU students, says that 24.5 per cent of the grades for this class are in the ‘A’ range. Students rate the difficulty and workload as 1.0 on a five-point scale.

Course Diggers is a website designed and developed by SFU business students Ryan Tavakol and Preetpaul Sohal. The pair met in a project management class last Spring, where they first developed the idea for the site.

The website takes data that SFU releases on the grade distribution for various classes and aggregates

A recently discovered method of distinguishing between stem cells and normal cells in one’s tonsils could be key in the fight against tonsil cancer.

Conducted by SFU researchers in conjunction with British Columbia Cancer Agency, the study was published last month in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Lead author of the study is SFU student Catherine Kang, a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and

November 9, 2015

that data into easy-to-read graphs.

It also has a user input feature where students can rate difficulty and workload of courses and also add comments. After launch, a ranking feature was added to rank courses based on how much of a “GPA booster” they were.

The website might appear similar to another popular site, Rate My Prof, where students can submit reviews for professors. Said Tavakol, “In a way it is [like Rate My Prof], but we’re not competing at all. It’s a complement. You use Rate My Prof once you know which course you want to take. [. . .] But before you decide on the course, the idea is, you use Course Diggers.”

Tavakol’s own experience registering for classes was an inspiration for the initiative: “I was using SFU’s published grade distribution data in the past and that was [. . .] super messy, but I found it super useful because I could see for example what percentage of A’s and B’s certain classes had.”

The two estimate they spent over 100 hours working on the website, with Sohal handling back-end coding and Tavakol doing HTML coding and layout tasks on the front-end. The website launched in its beta stage on

Kinesiology. She said that stem cell markers have been previously discovered in many types of tissue, but until now there was nothing known about tonsil stem cells.

“The reason why we were interested in finding a way to isolate

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July 11. They began to advertise their project by putting up posters and doing in-class presentations to get the word out.

While the project has gone far beyond the walls of a classroom and the pair are paying out-ofpocket for server costs, they have no plans to turn a profit in the near future. Said Sohal, “The main thing is helping people. [. . .] People are finding it useful and we’re keeping it online.”

Student feedback has been positive, says Tavakol. “Overall the feedback has been really great. [. . .] One person online

told us that the site gave him, so far, two solid A’s.” The site, thus far, has received over 250 reviews for SFU courses, 4,050 grade distributions, and has seen usage by over 6,000 individuals since its launch in July.

Currently, Course Diggers is primarily tailored to SFU, with some information available for UBC as well. However, Sohal mentioned that UBC’s data is much harder to aggregate. In addition, the user base for UBC is small, which they suspect is due to the fact they have not advertised there yet.

Tavakol expressed that faculty and administration support for the project has been helpful.

Associate Dean at the Beedie School of Business, Andrew Gemino, met with Tavakol and expressed interest in referring him to marketing professors who could help reach more students.

“They were giving me ideas of ‘how could you reach more students,’ ‘how could you improve the site’,” said Tavakol.

“What I really like about Beedie in general, is they’re very supportive of student initiatives and projects.”

stem cells from the tonsils was because of the rising incidence of tonsil cancer worldwide,” said Kang.

“What is interesting about tonsil cancer is that 90 per cent of tonsil cancers show the sign of human papillomavirus [HPV] infection.”

She elaborated that, since HPV tends to enter into stem cells to spread its cancer-causing genes, the researchers were curious if the increasing incidence of tonsil cancer might have something to do with the stem cells of the tonsil tissues.

It may be too early in the research to help out those who currently are diagnosed with HPV, but the results are promising in regards to eventually understanding HPV-positive tonsil cancer.

Now that researchers are able to further investigate the disease using the new stem cell isolation technique, they can develop and build upon their existing findings. They hope this can translate into improved patient care.

Before that can happen, more work has to be done to understand how exactly HPV

causes this abnormality in the tonsil stem cells. Kang said that it would also be important to determine how HPV-associated cancer in the tonsil progresses from the early stages immediately after one is infected with the virus to later on developing into cancer.

“Since the stem cells are located deep inside the crypts of the tonsil, often covered with inflammatory cells, it has been very difficult for scientists to identify histological changes that could be used to identify individuals at early stages of the disease,” said Kang.

“We need ways of visualizing changes in situ [on site] to detect such early change.”

Kang believes these findings are an important step towards preventing tonsil cancer and providing better care for sufferers.

6 NEWS

Not only can buying books expand your horizons, but it can also help those in need. This year, the United Way book sale will be held on all SFU campuses between Nov 17 and Dec 3. Proceeds support local programs that focus on vulnerable children and seniors in poverty throughout the lower mainland.

The book sale is part of a larger campaign that follows a tradition of concentrated fundraising and awareness in the month of November. Last year, $137,684 was raised, and the new target for this year is $175,000.

Having run for over 25 years, the book sale in the North Concourse of the AQ is one of the organization’s keystone fundraisers. The three-day sale (Nov 17 to 19) in Burnaby will now be complemented by day-long sales at Harbour Centre (Nov 19), and Surrey (Dec 3).

Last year’s Burnaby sale included 600 boxes of books and relied on about 60 volunteers, many of whom will be returning this year. Jeff Rudd, the Burnaby book sale coordinator, described the book sale as “a community-driven event.

November 16. 2015

For those volunteering, it can be a place to meet up with people they maybe only see once a year, despite working at the same university.”

According to Rudd, the success of the book sale is partially a result of its scale and status as a staple of the SFU community’s fundraising efforts. “With the volume, the large stock of books, history, and word of mouth, it has come to be known reasonably well off-campus.”

The Burnaby sale continues to be popular, drawing in $14,000 in sales last year from low prices of just a loonie or toonie per book.

This is combined with a vast offering of titles across various subjects.

Titles could range from mass-produced paperbacks and even occasional copies of university textbooks that retail for over $100.

Rudd noted that sales and used book donations have remained strong and stable.

Though most donations are received in the leadup to the sale, they’re accepted and encouraged all year round, since “sorting, packing, and storing books prior to the sale is quite a logistical exercise to do all at once.”

After the sale, leftovers are donated to daycares, seniors homes, and, if no alternative can be found, recycled.

Though the book sale is perhaps the most visible aspect of the campaign, it also includes direct donations, bake sales, and other keystone events like the Faculty Smackdown on Nov 25, and Surrey’s Market on the Mezz on Dec 3.

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pertaining especially to young gay men, as well as initiatives launched as a result of Totally Outright. One such initiative is “Think Before You Type,” which addresses sexualized racism common in dating apps such as Grindr.

Jessica Whitesel Peak Associate The 11th Gay Men’s Health Summit welcomed guests to learn about how sexual minorities cope with stigma. The theme of the event, which washosted at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus, was “Undoing Stigma.”

Over two days, the summit hosted numerous panels, workshops, and keynotes that addressed issues specific to the gay, bisexual, trans, and queer men’s community and their health, which encompassed mental, social, and physical health.

Each part of the program provided insight into how the health of LGBTQ+ men faces three different kinds of stigma: personal, which is psychological; interpersonal, which encompasses micro aggressions and hate crimes; and structural, which is created by broad social norms at the societal level.

One initiative that was presented was Totally Outright, which was created to reduce stigma and create strong youth leaders within the community. The goal of Totally Outright is to educate “young guys who like guys” in all aspects of gay men’s health.

There was a panel discussion that focused both on issues

Panelist Vincent Francoeur spoke of the creation of a space for young gay men as a possible initiative: “a place that would be sexy and cool enough to attract all the guys, not just the ones who are living through difficult time. A place that would put education and communication at the top list of its priorities. A place where there [is] no judgement, and that is inclusive.”

The Resist Stigma project, which will launch towards the end of the year, focuses on “[engaging] gay, bi, queer, and trans men from all across the country to work towards resilience, community, and empowerment — a challenge for many queer guys,” according to Francoeur.

“We’re creating space and conversation about race,

colonialism, sexuality, health, and bodies — topics that a lot of queer guys might not feel safe to talk about,” said Brent Saccucci, Education & Research Coordinator for the GenderBased Violence Prevention Project started by the University of Alberta Students’ Union, on the Resist Stigma project.

The summit also featured the work of numerous SFU-affiliated researchers, such as Ben Klassen and Patrick Aubert.

Klassen’s research focused on the effect that Angles — a Vancouver based gay men’s publication — had during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s in reducing the stigma surrounding people who were HIV positive or living with AIDS. Aubert’s research focused on end-of-life planning for older gay men, and the negative effects of stigma on their lives. For these men, stigma could represent health care providers neglecting the importance of their partners, or lacking strong familial connections.

Throughout the summit, it became clear that speaking out and sharing your own story — as well as listening to others’ — is a key step they wanted to share for reducing stigma. Sizwe Inkingni, committee member on the Resist Stigma, remarked, “Our stories have power.”

NEWS

“I’m interested in [. . .] the sincerity and the intensity that [of ] people who have encountered paranormal phenomena,” said Paul Kingsbury, a geography professor at SFU. Kingsbury has accepted a grant for $83,000 to conduct research over the next four years that will focus on those who seek out the paranormal. This includes ghost hunters, UFO hunters, and others who seek out cryptids, mythical animals that have not been proven to exist, such as Sasquatch or the Ogopogo.

Two SFU graduate students, Noel Hawkins and Hilda Fernandez, will be helping Kingsbury on the project, with 82 per cent of the grant going towards training them in the field and giving them the opportunity to co-author articles with the professor.

The grant Kingsbury was awarded is called “Situating the

November 16. 2015

growth of paranormal investigation cultures: a critical study of the lived spaces of the organizations and conferences.” He believes the grant is the result of a “trend which many scholars have noticed in the growth of interest of people spending more time, energy, and money on [paranormal] investigations.”

Kingsbury noted that these shows have taken off with television networks such as the History Channel, Space, and National Geographic, picking up shows about aliens, UFOs, Bigfoot, and other paranormal topics.

He added that the West has been seeing the rise of the “esoteric economy,” wherein more people are commodifying the supernatural or the spiritual.

“You can go out and buy healing crystals at trades fairs or spiritual events, tarot palm reading, so there’s been an economic shift in the past decade as well,” he said.

Kingsbury’s research will focus on the investigation aspect. Studies show that there were 250 ghost hunter groups in the UK about a decade ago, and now there are 2,500. He says the trend in North America is similar. Although most research regarding ghosts has been in the fine arts and liberal arts, Kingsbury notes that there hasn’t been much work done in the “lived” experience of ghost hunting.

UBC seeks out more female engineering students The Faculty of Applied Sciences at UBC is working on increasing enrolment rates of women in engineering programs to 50 per cent.

The faculty aims to achieve this goal by 2020 through creating awareness and increasing supportive learning environments for women. Over two thirds of UBC engineering students are males, and the initiative has been taken to ensure gender balance.

UBC aims to achieve this goal through professional development days with BC teachers as well as student and parent outreach workshops.

His research will include studying how knowledge is shared amongst investigators, how they represent their knowledge, and the disputes that may arise in conferences. Having already attended the The Mutual UFO Network Symposium (organized by the world’s largest UFO organization) in California, and interviewing two local paranormal investigation groups, Kingsbury already has a bit of an idea of how his research will be conducted.

He has immersed himself in the culture to see how ghost hunters conduct their own research first-hand.

“In the focus group interviews we were surprised to learn that none of the groups charge their clients for their services.

“In fact, it’s considered a taboo or uncool if you’re charging for paranormal investigation services,” said Kingsbury.

“Another thing with that is many of these people that spend quite a lot of their spare time doing these investigations noted that a big point is to bring peace of mind, [and] to bring closure for clients.”

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Kingsbury says both of his parents have had ghostly experiences, and that he has been open-minded about whether they exist or don’t exist. However, he isn’t sure if this knowledge early in his life is what piqued his interest for this area of research.

“I’ve always liked sci-fi movies and I have, in my order, anxiety about aliens,” Kingsbury laughs, citing the Japanese horror film Ringu as an example, “So I guess that is [a] pre-disposition for the possibilities of the world.

I’ll put it that way.”

UVic film festival encourages amateur filmmakers UVic students Moiz Karim, Tahir Chatur, and Matt Power have launched their very own film festival. The Shoreline Film Festival is meant to provide student filmmakers with a platform to show their work.

A live audience and a panel of judges will be on hand to view the participating 5–10-minute-long films. The festival will host a gala event at the end of March 2016 which will feature live music and dancing, as well as awards for best cinematography, screenplay, and best short film.

With files from The Martlet

With files from Ubyssey

Nap rooms for de-stressing at U of C The University of Calgary students’ union is setting up nap rooms on campus between November 30 and December 4 to emphasize the importance of sleep in overall well-being.

Students can take a nap while soothing music plays in the background. The nap-takers are encouraged not to use their cellphones or any devices like alarm clocks, as volunteers will wake them up.

With files from The Gauntlet

The School for the Contemporary Arts offers classes open to all in acting, dance, film, music, theatre production and visual arts at SFU Burnaby and Vancouver.

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OPINIONS

November 16. 2015

opinions editor email

Adam Van der Zwan opinions@the-peak.ca

In light of Playboy announcing its transition to non-nude imagery, I feel like we should talk about porn use leading to brain damage. Stick with me for a second. There is logic behind this, and I’m not the one with brain damage.

I’m also not writing this to argue the evils of porn (composed of high STI rates and sexual abuse on-set, among other injustices inflicted upon porn actors), but rather about how it damages its users. No joke.

This is a practical argument for thinking twice about porn use.

Given that 40 million people in America regularly watch porn, with two thirds being men, we should be aware of the effects it has on us.

Let’s start with understanding addiction as a concept.

Drug use overtime leads to higher tolerance of the substance, requiring more to get

‘high’ or even to function normally. Specifically, drugs overload the brain with the pleasure chemical dopamine, and the brain adapts by mitigating the ability to enjoy dopamine.

As tolerance develops, control over drug use degrades and the brain’s neural pathways overwrite previous pleasure pathways. The brain starts changing, addiction forms, and other formerly pleasurable activities become benign.

Changes in the brain occur because of neuroplasticity, the brain’s way of adapting. This adaptation can be taken too far, which can lead to great damage to the brain. For some, healing may take years.

JAMA Psychiatry found that increased porn viewing correlated with less gray matter in the striatum, and a worse connection between this are and the prefontal cortex.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “But Jean-luc, porn is not a drug.” And while this may be true, porn does have the dopamine-flooding effect of a drug.

It’s not a drug, but it can most definitely become an addiction.

If you’re not convinced, then I encourage you to look up scans of a porn-addicted brain compared to a drug-addicted one; you’ll sadly see the same type of brain patterns. And we haven’t even talked about the real-life consequences.

The website High Existence states that as you look at increasing amounts of porn, you rewire your brain to find

pleasure in an image on-screen, and not with a living human.

Real-life attractive people can lose their luster, or become valued just for their image. The pleasure of real sex and beauty can diminish.

Studies suggest that the increased rate of erectile dysfunction amongst men under 40 is in part because of porn. Guys, if you need to pop pills to sleep

with the attractive person next door, you might want to double check your porn intake.

Don’t think it’s a problem for you personally? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but one other statistic should caution those thinking about marriage at some point in life: Psychology Today reports that porn use is cited in 56 per cent of divorce cases. Just some food for thought.

Pulling these facts together, as more of us obtain access to the Internet with time, it seems like we may be heading toward a society rife with greater divorce rates and poorer sex. If guys can’t get aroused or if real-life people aren’t as attractive, overall sexual satisfaction will diminish. I know of one man who can’t sleep with his wife without a porn mag on the pillow. Do we want more instances like this?

Bottom line is that porn isn’t as safe as many think it is. It might be fun, it might be enthralling, but is it safe? I’m doubtful.

I’m only asking you to think twice about porn. Isn’t that worth avoiding a shrinking brain?

One of the most important lessons I ever learned was the difference between enjoying being single, and simply being comfortable on my own. For the majority of my brief life, the idea of being single was incredibly hard.

I watched as some of my friends thrived within the realm of what we call ‘the single life,’ while I gradually came to hate it.

But I completely misjudged my situation. What I hated wasn’t that I wasn’t in a relationship, but rather that I wasn’t comfortable with who I was on my own, and therefore needed the validation of another person to feel whole.

While I’ve read the endless accounts of people claiming the importance of loving yourself

before you love someone else, I’m not making the same argument. In fact, I think learning to love somebody else is a good way to help you learn to love who you are, and a big reason I’ve grown out of my ‘anti-single’ status was because I’d been in a relationship while growing up.

If you don’t have the ability to be comfortable on your own, you can get caught in the trap of relying on another. In short, vulnerability seeks a companion, and people have a general tendency towards not wanting to be alone. But we fail to realize that the hands of others shake just as frequently as our own, and that building a foundation on anybody other than yourself is a sure way for it to come crumbling down.

While vulnerability does seek a companion, confidence can often appear in solitude. Being solitary can do a lot for your own anxiety and self-esteem. Suddenly, there is nobody to rely on but yourself.

And when you take the time to look in the mirror, you’re generally a lot stronger than you ever thought. I mean, you kind of have to be.

I didn’t understand this until I had invested my own self-security within the fragility of another person before it was taken away. I then entered back into the realm of singleness, and my mentality shifted. When you’re used to the presence of another person, it’s not always the case that you’ll feel lost when they’re gone. In some cases, you simply find yourself.

It’s cliche, but for me when my relationship’s foundation

came crashing down I began to build a foundation for myself.

I began to like being alone. My independence fuelled a sense of confidence I had never experienced before, and the thought of another relationship was no longer something I craved but something I completely rejected. There is nothing more motivating than being comfortable with who you are — when your confidence can emerge from only yourself.

You don’t have to like being single, but you do have to be comfortable on your own, and it’s in your best interest to know the difference. I am not advocating against relationships; they’re a definite learning experience. But in order for them to truly thrive, they require the separate independence of two people, and often times that independence has to be found apart from one another.

OPINIONS

Recently, the Legatum Institute in London published the Prosperity Index ranking the world’s top countries within psychosocial categories. Of these, Canada topped the list as most tolerant toward minorities.

As interesting as the attempt to quantify factors like tolerance may be, I am skeptical of how realistic such measures are. I tend to think that these studies only sugarcoat uncomfortable truths within Western societies and further facilitate a passive attitude towards the issues of oppression that still plague them. In an attempt to uphold the validity of statistics like these, people trick themselves into thinking there isn’t a problem.

The Legatum study mentioned that “92 per cent of polled Canadians [say] Canada is a good place for immigrants.”

My question is: Were immigrants asked if Canada is a good place for immigrants? How does such a study account for what is “good” across the masses of immigrant cultures, by asking only certified Canadians?

As a Canadian, wouldn’t it be your duty to paint your country in the most positive light when a poll is conducted?

In addition to this, I have always had a problem with the rhetoric of tolerance. This is due to its propagation of a highly disingenuous and superficial kind of human interaction. People need to work more towards true understanding, rather than to simply tolerate one another.

Globally, however, researchers and authorities somehow

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spun tolerance into a badge of honor, especially for Western countries boasting about their open-mindedness.

In an article I wrote earlier this year called “Racism is still a prominent issue in Vancouver,” I aimed to outline that Vancouver and even Canada itself is not exempt from prejudice just because numerous immigrants live here and it is not because a biased study from some institute says so. Microaggression still often rears its ugly head from my experiences here, but due to the subtlety of prejudice in Canada, the country is still often awarded the sought-after ‘tolerance’ label. This strikes me as dishonest.

This is not to say that Canada is a totally racist and bigoted country, because that too would be dishonest. My issue is that precedence is given to a narrative that serves the interests of those seeking to undermine the struggles of the oppressed.

We must acknowledge that just because people are not openly hurling insults at one another left and right, this does not mean that all Canadians are tolerant and accepting. Silence should be just as scary as excessive noise.

What is to be said of the legions of oppressed Indigenous communities all across Canada?

Are we to ignore that Canada still has major skeletons in its closet because an arbitrary Index says it is tolerant? I think not.

The Legatum Institute paints a rosy picture that feeds into a preexisting narrative of Canada as a safe haven for minorities, without considering how much effort this take to cover up.

To tolerate something means you keep your mouth shut even if you are uncomfortable or hate the idea that it exists. When it comes to dealing with one another as humans, we ought to seek a deeper and more positive connection than that.

There needs to be a change in the ways well-being is measured. Tolerance can’t be measured in the way that this index tries to.

Applying for a student visa is one of most godawful things I’ve ever done. The process is so bogged down by bureaucracy it’s a miracle anyone ever gets to study abroad. And after my exchange to France, my own personal horror story initially attracted me to James Skinner’s advocacy for free movement between Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

But I just can’t get behind this movement — at least not yet.

At first I was enthralled

by Skinner’s proposal. Who wouldn’t be? The idea of free movement between the four countries is particularly attractive to young students. It would let us work, study, or immigrate to foreign lands without constraints. The Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization’s (CFMO) website details economic, personal, health, and criminal conditions that make it seem that this plan would be foolproof — but the truth is that the CFMO seems to have a short-sighted,

underdeveloped idea that, if implemented as is, might fail the countries involved.

While the stated degree of integration between the countries involved is unclear in the CFMO’s proposal, a further investigation led me to unveil another major problem: colonisation. All of these countries were either colonised by the same empire, or in the case of the United Kingdom, were the country responsible for the colonising.

This left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. We should be focusing our efforts of decolonisation rather than strengthening our colonial ties. Basing a freedom of mobility initiative around a common oppressor is a murky political and ethical area to say the least. So while free mobility sounds great, we may only end up reinforcing a shared but shameful part of our nation’s past.

I then perused the website to see how they justified selecting only four of the 53 members of the Commonwealth to participate in such an endeavor. Their reasons seemed to focus heavily on

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a shared language, similar interpretations of the rule of law, and of course, these were the countries in the Commonwealth with ‘strong economies.’

While not stating it outright, they were suggesting that these countries were chosen because they are English-speaking nations whose populations are predominately Caucasian, and who are wealthy. To me, this sounds like prejudice. No matter which way you spin it, other Commonwealth countries such as India and South Africa are getting shafted by such an agreement.

I love the idea of simplifying long and short-term visas between Commonwealth countries. And I wish more people could have the experience of working, living, and studying abroad. But the fact of the matter is that, no matter how appealing the current initiative is, it fails to clearly outline the degree of integration, it uses colonial history to claim a ‘like-minded culture,’ and it discriminates against countries where the dominant ethnic group isn’t white.

I’m not suggesting we say no to a borderless Commonwealth in the future, but the CFMO’s plan, as it stands now, just isn’t ready to be implemented.

10 OPINIONS

To sport Nike shoes, a Bench jacket, and fine denim while holding an iPhone 6 and a Starbucks coffee, but exclaiming in a pouting voice, “I’m so poor,” strikes me as considerably misguided. Is it just me, or do students not understand the difference between true poverty and reckless spending?

About a week ago I stood at the bus loop and overheard a surprising conversation between two students, one of whom complained to the other about his financial ‘crisis.’

While tuition, books, rent, food, and all the other necessities of city life are indeed hellishly expensive, I could not take this person’s complaints seriously because of his outstanding wardrobe. His clothes were all

designer, his phone was brand new, yet he complained about money as if he were homeless.

This may be just an individual case, but I hear this sort of talk all the time.

A lot of students misconstrue necessity for luxury. For example, students often desire a laptop for university, and end up forking over several hundred to a thousand dollars to obtain one. However, SFU has a perfectly well-functioning library in which computers and wifi are provided. How necessary is that $2000 MacBook air?

In my own experience, these notions also go far beyond clothes and tech-gear. Each morning I see hundreds of students line up at Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Renaissance, Blenz, and other coffee shops, forking over as much as six to seven dollars for a coffee. To me, this is absolutely ridiculous, and really demonstrates that you cannot be that financially burdened. I can buy a small tub of coffee from a grocery store for

Why are we so obsessed with dehumanizing our inmates in prison if we expect them to come out of prison as changed people?

As reported by CBC earlier this year, former inmate Haris Naraine and a group of inmates pooled their money together in 2013 to buy a late night, adults-only cable subscription package for the television in Quebec’s Archambault Prison.

However, those channels quickly disappeared when they were taken away by Correctional Services Canada, who requested that all prisons in the country ban X-rated television content. Naraine complained, and became embroiled in a legal battle against the removal of his porn. After

seeing the case go all the way to the federal court, a judge ruled in Naraine’s favour and brought back the entertainment.

It was just last month that Quebec’s Public Safety Minister Lise Theriault found out about the case, and she is now on a dedicated mission to install parental controls in prison so that no one will be able to watch porn in prison again.

Now that you’re all caught up, you’ll understand my original question.

Yes, those in prison have made some wrong, potentially incredibly harmful decisions in their lives, and prisons are designed to restrict their freedoms as a punishment for their actions.

However, at some point, many of them are expected to be released. If they show signs of progress, they can even be released early while on parole. It’s a meritocracy based on whether or not a prisoner is deemed able enough to function in society without posing the same risk they did before.

But they won’t get there if we

November 16. 2015

that much money, and it will last as long as two weeks.

I often hear my own friends who are students claim that, “if I had more money, I wouldn’t be so broke.” But I don’t think that more money would solve any of their problems. I would go so far as to say that a lot of students would simply

take away all their freedoms and treat them like animals. Porn is one of those freedoms, like it or not.

Prisoners are going to have sexual needs and desires. If they are provided a safe outlet for those needs, it can remind them of what they are trying to get back to on the ‘outside.’ Porn is only going to do so much for them, after all.

increase their thoughtless expenditures if they had access to more money. In most cases it’s not even a matter of having or making more money, but an inability to sacrifice needless expenditures. Do you really need those two hundred dollar Nike shoes for the gym?

Could that money not be spent

paying back your student loan or saved for next semester’s textbook costs?

No, not all students are like this. But there are a considerable number of students that sadly live ridiculously far beyond their means — and they could stand to learn better spending habits.

On top of that, access to porn could potentially help decrease the amount of sexual assault that occurs in prisons; maybe it would help relieve some sexual tension that leads to these assaults. Canadian prisons have become an increasingly dangerous place for those on the inside, with instances of assault, sexual

assault, and suicide attempts having risen dramatically between 2004 and 2012.

Inmates are already locked away from the life they’d presumably rather be living, and are subjected to some incredibly depressing conditions which, because they’ve made mistakes in their lives, seem to suggest they are no longer worthy of being ‘human’ and instead exist as a sub-tier.

Case in point: Saginaw County Jail recently changed their uniforms because they were too similar to those on Orange is the New Black. The sheriff was worried the show made the orange jumpsuits too fashionable, and reverted back to black-and-white stripes to reinforce that they were prisoners above everything else.

Yes, some people will be bothered that prisoners want porn. A lot of people get revolted by the thought of porn, and want it banned outright.

But if you would fight for your right to porn, you should also be fighting for porn for inmates as well.

After all, they’re people too.

OPINIONS

Last week’s trending article on CBC featured Essena O’Neill, an Instagram celebrity and model who received widespread praise for her “revolutionary” decision to throw away her Instagram account and say no to the shallow world of social media. This is where I sarcastically slow clap this young lady in mock enthusiasm for her obviously painstaking martyrdom.

Ironically, O’Neill has now gained more popularity on social media than ever. Her countless pictures are not just confined to being plastered on her personal Instagram account, they are now being exponentially blown up in

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countless news articles, Twitter and Facebook feeds, and all other forms of social media; all full of people discussing her ‘bravery.’

This just goes to show that you simply cannot quit social media.

Nobody can. That is, unless you want to be an anachronism, completely irrelevant to our time.

‘Quitting’ social media may feel like a rebellious act, and maybe even an anti-capitalist one. We love to be as critical of social media as we are of capitalism. We argue that it shamelessly reduces the amount of physical contact we have with others; it monitors us, collects our data, and becomes an addiction. We may fundamentally detest it, but it is so ingrained in our everyday life that to effectively withdraw from it is nearly impossible.

Those who try to ‘quit’ social media are usually trying to make a statement by announcing to the world that they are rebelling against

sign at Netflix’s official headquarters. Though, I’ll admit I did see that one coming.

But what bothers me most is that the smug little brats of our generation think we’re geniuses for ‘inventing’ a saying that describes something people have actually been doing since the television was invented. “Hey baby, wanna come back to my place to watch Netflix and chill?” Please. Is it really too rude to just say, “let’s have sex on the couch with a movie in the background, just like my parents probably did to conceive me?”

If you truly quit social media, you only hurt yourself.

Some may argue that they get along just fine without having any social media accounts. However, removing yourself from Facebook and Twitter nowadays is the

equivalent of excommunicating yourself from the church in the 18th century. You will no longer be in the center of our community’s news, ideas, information, networking, and relationships with others, personal and professional. The cost of opting out is simply too high. You will only be leveling yourself to an obvious disadvantage, putting yourself below the threshold of today’s advancing society. You’re effectively putting yourself out of the game!

Although it’s good to challenge the social media system, as we find that it sometimes dominates our world a little too much, it is naive to think we can completely detach ourselves from it. Our obsession with technological advances has us eagerly imagining where we will be in the not-so-distant future, and I can promise you that social media will only become more prevalent, whether you try to escape it or not.

By Levin C. Handy (per http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Is it just me or is this phrase simply everywhere? I log in to Facebook. Netflix and chill.

I open chat messages. Netflix and chill. I even search through the news. Netflix and. . . oh, for god’s sake!

How many times must my eyes be stabbed with this ridiculous phrase describing something we clearly don’t have the guts to actually say? These trending words have run long past their course, and they must now be left to shrivel and die. The trend has even gone so far as to be haphazardly spray-painted on the corporate

the machine. It is clear in the case of Essena O’Neill that ‘quitting’ social media has only further solidified her presence within it. It’s oxymoronic enough to make anyone roll their eyes. And let’s be real, when you leave, you’ll be back.

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You don’t have to sit in school to stand among greatness.

ATHABASCA U

Yesterday, I made a trip to the grocery store.

Amongst the abundance of fruits and vegetables I did not buy was an incredibly rare jar of dill pickles. What can I say? Deep down throbbed an unbearable longing I’d harboured for far too long.

Upon stumbling home in the heat of passion, I flung off my shoes, hastily dropped my shopping list to the floor, and threw myself upon the couch. Panting and sweaty, I caressed the remote control in one hand, and my beautiful jar of pickles in the other. I then popped the tin lid and searched up The X-Files, season two.

That night I made sweet love to my pickle jar while Scully complained in the background that

aliens don’t exist. At least, I think that’s what happened. As I blissfully crunched and munched, I think I recall Mulder being abducted by a UFO. Or maybe it was the cops; I can’t quite remember.

Being caught up in the ecstasy of Netflix and dill was a pleasure like no other. After polishing off the jar, I exhaled with relief and made a mental note to book a future date with my pickles.

Swelling with pride, I had become a man.

So, speaking from experience, if you’re squirming to scratch that itch for pickles, I recommend you relieve yourself by popping open some dill and flipping on the TV. It’ll be a wondrous night filled with excessive dopamine.

› Thomas Edison: The world’s most extraordinary failure never gave up.

Thank goodness.

open. online. everywhere. go.athabascau.ca/online-courses

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ARTS

arts editor email

November 16. 2015

Tessa Perkins arts@the-peak.ca

Air India (redacted) is a 90-minute multidisciplinary performance commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Air India 182 bombing, the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history.

Creating a work of this scale and scope is no easy task. Interdisciplinary approaches to art such as this must reconcile different mediums and combine them together in a way that’s both cohesive and sensitive to the source material. Ambitiously, the creative team brings poetry, music, theatre, opera, and projections together into a performance that tries to capture the “fluidly shifting perspective of [Renée] Saklikar’s poetry, from directly emotional, to formal, to legal nomenclature or forensic reports,”

according to the project’s media artist, John Galvin.

Air India 182 was downed by a bomb placed in its cargo hold, breaking apart mid-air and falling into the Atlantic off the South West Coast of County Cork in Ireland.

The attack resulted in 329 casualties, 268 of whom were Canadian citizens. The tragedy extended through an investigation and prosecution lasting over 20 years that led to a single conviction.

Saklikar’s collection of poetry Children of Air India: unauthorized exhibits and interjections forms the basis of the project, and the creative team included Saklikar, SFU School of Contemporary Arts Professor Owen Underhill, as well as three Irish artists: Galvin, director Tom Creed, and composer Jürgen Simpson. It was performed by Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble and soprano Zorana Sadiq, countertenor Daniel Cabena, and baritone Alexander Dobson.

The project is the culmination of eight years of development between Simpson and Underhill, restarted with the release of Saklikar’s Children of Air India in 2013.

Following the structure of Saklikar’s poetry, Air India (redacted)

sometimes anticipating developments elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the operatic nature of the show occasionally obscured the meaning of the text and prevented some chapters from gaining momentum.

Certain ones became clouded when one medium overpowered another. The waiting was worth it, though, for when the many forms were balanced, resulting in moments of extreme poignancy and emotion.

Reflecting on a national tragedy while bridging distinct art forms is a difficult task. Though Photo courtesy of David Cooper Air India (redacted) occasionOwen Underhill conducts the Turning ally struggled, it succeeded in Point Ensemble.

Simpson’s goal of making a ceris split into a series of distinct who sit, rise, and navigate around tain “meditative space to keep chapters that trace the story of the the space as they sing Saklikar’s po- the memories and questions of Air India incident in an abstract, etry with a sense of operatic scale. Air India alive.” They set out to disjointed way. Simpson charac- Galvin’s projections occupy a vast do something ambitious and terized the performance as alter- screen hanging over the stage where extremely difficult, and though nating from “pointed passages abstract imagery, collage, and video not every moment was a sucthat unfold slowly, to incredible, footage provide a parallel that re- cess, they did it in a sensitive almost violent passages.” This is flects on the tone and atmosphere, and informed way. That’s a very much a journey of discov- aiming for an evocative rather than large part of what it means to ery, through separate but related explicit feeling. be an artist: to take risks and moments that have to be pieced Each constituent part of the open up spaces for dialogue and together and restructured into a performance is excellent. The reflection. In a country often at larger narrative. score reflects the poetry, and odds with our own histories and The stage is commanded by a deftly navigates the narrative arc tragedies, that is exactly what long table occupied by the singers, of each portion, supporting and we need.

At their worst, remakes appeal to popular laziness and an unwillingness to read subtitles, submerge into foreign cultures, or watch older films with slower editing. Although it’s easy to blame Hollywood for this supposed sacrilege, the remake can be effective at commenting on different contexts: old stories seen from new perspectives.

Earlier this year, Poltergeist, which resembled the original in many ways, presented a compelling portrayal of an updated nuclear family. The conscious deviations from the source material changed the meaning by playing off of different contemporary anxieties. The

best remakes hardly remake. They adapt. They alter. They submerge deeper into different but related ideas.

Enter The Secret In Their Eyes, a beloved and riveting Argentinian film that won the Best Foreign Language film Oscar in 2010. After great critical success within its domestic borders, the film broke box-office records and garnered critical acclaim. Nothing solidifies a song’s cultural impact like a Weird Al Yankovic parody, and, similarly, the only thing left to crystallize The Secret In Their Eyes’ reputation was an American mockery.

But, to be fair, the Billy Ray film, which features an all-star cast including Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, is less unintentional parody than shallow imitation, capturing the essence of the plot but doing little to explore its implications.

Secret In Their Eyes is like buying a pie only to eat the crust.

The story, disguised as a whodunit, is actually an examination of cultural hysteria from the past.

Without the gelatin inside, crust isn’t a pie. Without its deeper themes, The Secret In Their Eyes isn’t the same film. Where the original took place during the Dirty War in Argentina, and imagined its effects years later, this remake, set amidst the madness after 9/11, hardly traces the impact on the characters a decade later.

Taking place in two separate timelines and jumping back and forth to fill in gaps as it goes along, the movie traces a group of counter-terrorism investigators who get wrapped up in a homicide case when an investigator’s daughter is found dead in a dumpster near a surveilled mosque. Years later, agent Ray (Ejiofor), who feels partially responsible for the murder, approaches Jess (Roberts), the girl’s mother, and Claire (Kidman), an

old love-interest and the new DA, with a lead.

This story, which plays like a

cliched procedural, is not about the whos, whats, whens, or whys.

In the original film, we’re less concerned with solving the case than with the characters’ hysteria. Evidence may be elusive, but there are reasons behind the characters’ behaviours. To decipher them is to solve the real mystery, one of paranoid human nature.

Certainly, these elements are decipherable in this remake; it is engraved into the very core of the narrative. But judging purely from the performances, cinematography, and production design, there is

hardly a hint of profundity, merely A-list actors (all of whom give strong performances except Julia Roberts, who is awkwardly miscast) naturally reading their lines in bland compositions and spaces.

There is no atmosphere, no lurking dread, and no sense that 9/11 has anything to do with the story. It often plays like a high-production value variant of a mediocre procedural, not an introspection into recent history.

Remakes are not readymades.

You can’t simply take a plot, recast actors and quickly slap it all together. Good remakes consider their alterations; they are conscious of how reimagining context changes meaning. Doing little detective work on its altered setting and time period, the new Secret In Their Eyes is searching for the wrong evidence.

ARTS

This year saw the arrival of something new as part of TEDxVancouver: ID: The Exhibition. Through an exhibition of visual art, TEDxVancouver sought to showcase local artists who explored this year’s theme of identity.

Featuring three artist’s series, 14 individual artists, and three installations, this was a loaded exhibit presented within Postmark Brewing in Vancouver’s Railtown District, situated between SFU Woodwards and SFU’s Visual Arts Studios. A pop-up exhibit lasting only two days — the weekend before the main event — ID: The Exhibition is another step forward in the continued growth of TEDxVancouver. Though, while this ambitious exhibition had great potential, it could have done more

It is could be argued that Quebec’s best contribution to the world is poutine. I would call Cirque du Soleil a close second.

What started off as a two-man group in 1984 has become a global entertainment empire, with shows travelling all around the world.

Kooza and the big top are back in Vancouver this fall, and this latest show offers two hours of incredible entertainment with a perfect mix of humour, finesse, and strength.

You could say that the entertainment begins before the first acrobats hit the stage. Walking up

November 16. 2015

to explore identity from a critical and less corporatized perspective.

The exhibit drew heavily from talented Emily Carr and Capilano University grads, with several selftaught artists also featured. The three artists series, featuring the work Amelia Alcock-White, Drew Young, and Ilya Viryachev, made up over half the artworks. Their focus was on figurative painting carrying over into the rest of the exhibit, which was almost exclusively dominated by paintings with only a few sculptures and installations in between. This focus is largely a result of the background of the artists selected, which tended towards illustration, design, and digital media.

These approaches supported work that was figurative, narrative, cinematic, and accessible.

The creation of an exhibit around ideas of identity as part of TEDxVancouver has great potential. With an extensive pool of talented artists in Vancouver, and the personal, critical, and reflective potential of the visual arts, the exhibit supported the purpose of TEDxVancouver by looking at the issues of identity through a more distinct lens than that used in the main event.

ID: The Exhibition, however, isn’t given this space to breathe.

The theme itself is problematic.

ID: capitalized for impact? Id,

to the grand chapiteau (big top), I was amazed by the massive size of the extravagant tent. I was also greeted with extravagant (read:

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Freud’s psychic apparatus driving our most basic instincts, comes to mind, but neither the works in the exhibit or the main event support this interpretation.

TEDxVancouver 2015 is centred around identity, repackaged for branding as ID. But ID doesn’t bring to mind personal identity, difference, relationships or our own consciousness — rather, it evokes the facelessness of bureaucratic and corporate identification.

ID is not the grassroots, interrelated, introspective, identification of self, but the imposition of identification from on high. This confused thematic environment was a surprising and ultimately misguided choice for the exhibitors.

An exhibit on ideas of identity has the potential to critically engage with its definition, boundaries, and expectations. ID: The Exhibition is first and foremost a commercial showcase, with most of the works priced for sale. The space was co-opted in the style of a commercial gallery with artworks crammed into its confines.

The descriptions of work failed to spark discourse or invite questions, but rather told audiences what to think, and dictated how one should interpret the work.

The work was upstaged in part by the presence of a corporate liquor sponsor, and the loud music was reminiscent of a corporate launch party or a club. For an

exhibit premised around ideas of identity, the prevalence of money and corporatism defeated the potential for critical thinking.

Canadian artists must often work the role of producer, financier, exhibitor, and promoter in a delicate and exhausting balancing act. ID: The Exhibition brings this to the fore in a very troubling way. It provides a space for showing work, supporting local practitioners in finances and promotion, while undercutting their ability to engage critically. Though the potential existed for an exhibit to create a distinct space of discourse around TEDxVancouver’s theme of identity, we were left instead with a window dressing.

extortionate) prices: $30 for parking and $7 for a bottle of pop. This made me weary that the show was nothing more than a cash grab for

some rich Quebecois bigwigs who would use the money to fund the Montreal Canadiens. However, once the show started, all of my worries were put to bed.

I’ve seen Cirque du Soleil shows online and on TV before, but never in the flesh. The stunts always impressed me, but I didn’t truly appreciate how fantastic the acrobats’ athletic ability was until I saw them live at Kooza. Every act had me at the edge of my seat, whether it was juggling an absurd amount of items or performing death-defying backflips 50 feet in the air. Their inventive use of props kept the audience constantly on their toes, as each act was completely unique.

Another fantastic element of Kooza is its sense of humour.

Though many people might think that clowns stopped being funny at the age of five, these ones kept everyone in the tent laughing all night long. Their style is slapstick and physical humour reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin, and it was

delivered perfectly. The performers also integrated the audience into the show excellently, bringing a couple of lucky ticketholders onto the stage to play along with their shenanigans.

The music and costumes at the show were also extremely well done.

The live band was excellent all night long, and the pinnacle of their performance was a Whiplash-like drum solo during a set change, which was so impressive that even Terence Fletcher would say it followed his tempo. The singers were outstanding, too. For most Cirque du Soleil productions, the singing is done in either a made-up or foreign language, and this was the case for Kooza as well. However, this type of singing made the audience feel like they were transported to another country.

The show’s music, along with the outlandish yet wonderful costumes and gravity-defying stunts, gave me and everyone else in the tent a truly out-ofthis-world experience.

14 ARTS

The 24th film of the James Bond saga, Spectre, was unfortunately unable to live up to the hype surrounding it. You could tell that director Sam Mendes had the pieces to build a worthy spy thriller, but was unfortunately unable to bring it all together.

I should clarify one point: on its own, Spectre was not a bad film.

However, when watching a James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, it’s natural to compare it to other Bond movies starring Craig; in this light, Spectre does not distinguish itself. Though it is much more interesting and better executed than Quantum of Solace (let’s be honest, it would be difficult to do worse), it is definitely behind both Skyfall and Casino Royale.

There are certain elements of the film that are without a doubt

FF

November 16. 2015

worthy of a thumbs up. The action throughout was great. This film seemed to have more action scenes compared to the previous three Bond films, and they were executed more effectively than ever. Whether it was a grandiose scene with massive explosions, or simple hand-to-hand combat, each scene was shot well and kept the audience incredibly entertained. As well, Daniel Craig’s portrayal of 007 was spot on. He has clearly matured over the last three films and was able to find a balance between the stereotypical stylishness and suave demeanour of Bond, and the grittier human element that Craig brings to the role.

The villain in Spectre , played by Christoph Waltz, was quite a letdown. The return of Ernst Blofeld as Bond’s main nemesis was a great addition to the movie, as it added a nostalgia factor; however, Mendes was unable to use Waltz to his prime. Both the quantity and the quality of dialogue that Waltz had was less than expected, and most of the verbal jousting between Blofeld and Bond was predictable and uninteresting.

It was a real shame, since both Inglourious Bastards and Django Unchained have shown us that giving Waltz a good script and ample screen time is basically guaranteed to make your movie better.

The Bond girls in this movie also didn’t connect as well with Daniel Craig as ones had in the past. The main love interest for James Bond is Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). Throughout the

film, the romance between them seems forced, with no real flow between the stages of their relationship. This is in stark contrast to James Bond’s courtship with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale. It was clear that they had real chemistry, and their connection seemed far more natural.

Finally, we’re left with Spectre’s official song, “Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith. The song

is an accurate representation of the movie as a whole. On its own, it is a great song. But a Bond song?

Not quite. Parts of the song definitely have that classic Bond feel, but on the whole it doesn’t feel like it matches the franchise, and when compared to recent Bond songs such as Adele’s “Skyfall” or Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name,” the song — like Spectre — just doesn’t cut it.

from the Similkameen Valley and the locally produced Jurassic cheddar, which was aged for eight years and featured a thin ash layer through the middle, and paired with Spanish almonds.

The meat plates included standouts such as the pancetta salami, which had a mild flavour but stood out due to some excellent seasoning and the addition of piquillo peppers. There was also the outstanding pairing of the fatty rich coppa with piccalilli relish, which balanced the fattiness of the meat and allowed its the true flavour to shine through.

Salt also features an exceptional wine list that offers only BC wines, save for a sherry section dominated by Spanish varieties.

Again, much like the meat and cheese selections, the wine list changes frequently, sometimes on a weekly basis. The emphasis on BC wines gives a place for some truly wonderful vineyards to be discovered by the adventurous connoisseur. One such vineyard is Moon Curser, based in Osoyoos. They are known for

producing big, bold reds that pair well with many different foods — surprising, given that bold reds tend to dominate the palate.

A dining experience at Salt Tasting Room should not be

passed up. The secluded location gives a feeling of secrecy and spontaneity, and the food makes it feel like you’ve just discovered one of Vancouver’s best kept secrets.

FOOD FIGHT

Tucked away in the alley just across from Blood Alley Square is a gem of a restaurant, Salt Tasting Room.

While not new on the Vancouver restaurant scene, this hidden location makes it feel like a new discovery when you walk down the alley at night and see the beautifully lit restaurant with a minimalist salt shaker sign out front.

Aside from its beautiful exterior, the inside of the restaurant is a mix of warm wood and cool concrete, and the overall feeling is reminiscent of a warm and inviting modern loft.

This atmosphere lends itself well to the style of menu

featured at Salt. The focus is placed on local and high quality imported cheeses and cured meats, meaning that there is a high rotation in the menu. In place of printing new menus at an alarming rate, the selections of the day are written on chalkboards, one by the open kitchen area and another much larger on the back wall.

The tasting plates that can be created out of the options written on the boards are astounding. You can take control of your experience based on the explanations that the highly knowledgeable staff provide, or you can place your trust in the staff and allow them to make the selections for you. I chose to do a combination of the two, letting the server know which meats and cheeses I was intrigued by, and then allowing the server to fill the rest of the plate with side dishes.

Some highlights from the cheese tasting plates included the Shropshire blue cheese from the UK paired with a local honey

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ARTS

The quebecois duo Eli et Papillon first met in 2008 during a recording session.

Since then, singer/songwriter Elise Larouche and renowned Francophone composer/instrumentalist Marc Papillon-Ferland have been an inseparable pair, releasing their debut album in 2012 and gaining critical acclaim for its refined, elegant pop. Their new album, Colorythmie, deserves similar praise.

Their style can best be described as uplifting, folksy, and sometimes-electro, pop. Papillon-Ferland is impressively versatile and innovative in his composition and instrumentals. Throughout the album he plays the piano, guitar, synth,

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violin, bass, and saxophone, among other instruments. His musical style is simultaneously upbeat and mystical. The effects of his instrument choices are always aligned with each song’s lyrical theme.

Elise Larouche is, as far as my fragmented understanding of French can tell, a remarkable lyricist. Perhaps it is the appeal of a language that feels comparatively exotic to my own, but Larouche’s soft voice combined with her poetics comes off as otherworldly. Her singing style is always quick-tongued and fluid.

The pair works together harmoniously on all 10 tracks, exploring multiple musical fashions. Their song “Cette nuit” features prominent Celtic-sounding violin with an upbeat tempo. The tone of “Bouteille á la mer” slows a bit, setting a literal underwater sound, while still remaining folky. “L’oiseau” takes it even slower, its melody reflecting the spirit of a bird gliding through the air and featuring a more bittersweet tone to the violin that gradually gains momentum.

“Victoire” feels powerful, like a call to arms. The chorus gradually gains power, driving home a message of achieving victory. “Gratte-ciel” is by far the most pop-influenced track on the album, with more electro-based instrumentals, heavier bass, and featuring a rap segment by Sarahmée.

My favourite track off of Colorythmie is “Automne,” which describes my favourite season. It feels elegant and catchy, and doesn’t take long to get stuck in your head.

Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2 is his second re-imagined all-female cover compilation. The idea was reborn from Terrible Thrills, a compilation Antonoff released in 2010 when he was playing with his band Steel Trains.

Bleachers’ debut album Strange Desire has been reimagined as an all-female compilation titled Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2 with vocalists including Charli XCX, Sia, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Tinashe.

I cannot rave enough about this album. It’s a vision by the mastermind leader of Bleachers, Jack Antonoff.

“I hear my songs being sung by females before I change them and make them into my voice.” Jack Antonoff told Billboard in a recent interview. “The whole heart of this idea is for people to hear the album the way I hear it in my head, reinterpreted by the artists who sort of inspired it to be written in the first place.”

Listening to Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2 is even more enjoyable if you’ve already heard Antonoff’s original album.

“Rollercoaster” by Charli XCX is a classic Bleachers anthem, enthusiastically solidifying their modern pop-rock persona. “Like a River Runs” made my eyes run, as the song, delivered beautifully

Musical collaborations have always been popular, and recent triumphs like that of David Byrne and St. Vincent remind us why we love them. But others, like Kanye West and Paul McCartney, make us reevaluate. EL VY, a collaboration between The National frontman Matt Berninger and Menomena/Ramona Falls’ Brent Knopf, lands somewhere in the middle.

Their debut, Return to the Moon, is a somewhat upbeat, dance-y, nostalgic record, filled with moments of self-doubt and melancholy (fans of The National will instantly recognize Berninger’s distinct lyrical style). The album’s title track kicks off with just

by Antonoff, is reprised in a slower, more soulful style by Sia. “Shadow,” sung by Carly Rae Jepsen, is an adorable, lighter version of the original bittersweet melody. Jepson’s voice is clearer than Antonoff’s, and, as sung by her, the beautiful lyrics are much more audible.

“Wake Me” is similar in style, but absolutely gorgeous as sung by Lucius. The tune behind the refrain of “If you’re lonely, lonely / lonely wake me” is timeless songwriting genius.

But my favorite song of the whole album is “I’m Ready to Move On/Wild Heart Reprise.” Susanna Hoffs does an incredible job of renovating this song and its lyrics into more of a hopeful compromise between human and spiritual.

The song that disappointed me a bit was “I Wanna Get Better” by Tinashe.

On Strange Desire, it was my favorite song, a deeply personal expression by Antonoff; I just couldn’t feel that with the cover by Tinashe.

Despite this one fault, gender-bent albums have yet to disappoint me. Great collaborations and creative reimaginings make Strange Desire and Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2 a perfect pair.

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enough force to get a room of apathetic dancers sliding their feet. This theme continues through most of the album’s first half, such as in the Beck-inspired “I’m the Man to Be.” Berninger admits the film Grease influenced the album, and it’s in the moments where this is most apparent that the album finds its stride. The neo-rockabilly “Silent Ivy Hotel” feels comfortable and reassured, and lacks the chaotic jumble of musical ideas that confuse some of the other songs. As the backup vocals harmoniously hum, it’s easy to picture EL VY performing in an offbeat California hotel, with slickedback hair, swishing dresses and all.

The latter half of the album abandons the swaying sounds of the former in favour of something more sombre.

This is where the album sounds the most like The National; but Knopf’s influence is always there, providing that sought-after fresh sound. “Happiness Missouri” kicks things up a notch, while the wholesome piano of “It’s a Game” sets a much-needed subdued tone.

Despite these rare moments, Return to the Moon overall can’t quite find cohesion. Components provided by both Beringer and Knopf are individually great, but when combined feel more like the result of two beautiful jigsaw puzzles trying to fit together, ultimately forming a pile of missing links. When those links miraculously find each other, EL VY stands out.

Here’s hoping they bring fewer puzzles to the next recording session.

Get in the zone and write for arts. arts@the-peak.ca

November 16. 2015

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COMMUNITY PHOTOS June 29, 2015

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SPORTS

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November 16. 2015

At the beginning of the season, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who could predict that the SFU women’s soccer team would have the season that they did. After all, the team was coming off of four straight seasons where they had finished bottom of the GNAC conference.

But this season, the team defied expectations, finishing in fifth place — their best performance in four years.

“As a whole, I think it was a positive season,” said Head Coach Annie Hamel. “It’s a good step forward for us. We cut our losses by ten games, so you can’t really [complain]. We were 2–16 last year, and now we’re 7–6–2.

“I think it was positive on a lot of fronts,” she continued. “I think we were young and [inexperienced]. But [the] experience moving forward [is huge]. It will be a lot better going forward, I think.”

Perhaps the brightest spot of the season was the play of the freshman, especially Christina Dickson. Her seven goals led the team in scoring, and she was unanimously selected as the GNAC freshman of the year.

“I think Christina had a very strong start to the season,” remarked Hamel. “But the season that she had, for her to get Freshman of the Year, that’s something that’s never been done in the program since they joined the NCAA. That’s an incredible accomplishment, and what’s even [better] about it is that she was unanimously voted [in], so all the coaches voted her as number one. They unanimously thought that she was the best freshman in the GNAC. “It’s a good step for our program, it’s incredible for her, and it just shows which direction this program is going.”

The team nearly finished fourth, a spot which would have earned them a chance to compete in the GNAC championships here at SFU.

However, they lost the final game of the season in overtime, leaving them fifth and on the outside looking in. However, coach Hamel is sure that the experience will make the team more motivated heading into next season.

“I think the way this season ended is actually going to be [its] biggest positive [. . .] I think it’s something the kids will remember for a long time. They’ll have a chip on their shoulder, and I think they’ll

It was a poor finish to what was a good season. The Vancouver Whitecaps simply could not break down the Timbers’ defence. There were too many misplaced passes, and not enough urgency with possession, especially after conceding.

You got the sense that after the first goal of the game, scored by Portland’s Fanendo Ali, it would take a monumental offensive effort for the Whitecaps to come back and win.

After all, in the 10 previous matches in all competitions heading into this one, the ‘Caps had only scored six goals. And three of those had come against a Houston Dynamo side that had nothing to play for on the last day of the season.

And therein lies the problem.

The Whitecaps’ main issues that

have to be addressed lie on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, they are set. David Ousted has been nominated for Goalkeeper of the Year, along with Kendall Waston for Defender of the Year. You can easily make a case that both those players are the best at their respective positions within Major League Soccer (MLS).

In the midfield, the ‘Caps need to find some more creative players. They have Pedro Morales, but he by himself is not enough. Yes, he had a poor game against Portland, but at his best, Morales is the one midfielder the team has that can unlock an opposing defence.

They have Matias Laba, Gershon Koffie, Nicolas Mezquida, and Cristian Techera, who all basically play the same role: all are hard-working, defensivelyminded midfielders who are good tacklers, but lack the vision to pick out a pass. Some of these players may need to be sacrificed in order to bring in some more offensive-minded midfielders.

This lack of creative midfielders is showing up front, as often times down the stretch lone striker Octavio Rivero wasn’t getting any service. You could replace Rivero, but I’d argue he should get another chance next season with perhaps a revamped midfield.

What the team should, and need to do, is build their offence more around Kekuta Manneh.

Manneh’s pace throughout the year was a treat to see, not to mention it caused opposing defenders a lot of trouble. At only 20 years old, he still has time to improve, and he could soon become a dominant player in the MLS. Moving him up further on the pitch will create more goal scoring opportunities not only for himself but for the team as a whole.

In all, the Whitecaps season was a success. However, its end will leave a bitter taste in the mouth for many over the offseason. With a focus on bringing in more offensive players, the ‘Caps can hopefully go on to bigger and better things next year.

Nick Bondi Sports Editor

Nick Bondi sports@the-peak.ca

really want to train hard and understand what they’re working toward,” Hamel said.

“I’ve already had a bunch of them tell me ‘I can’t wait for next season.’ And that’s because it ended in such a bad way that you just want to get back out there and do better and fix it and start again, and prove yourself. They know that wasn’t our best performance and they know we could have done better.”

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Hamel has already addressed where this team needs to improve heading into next season. “Everywhere,” she responded. “We’re not where we need to be right now [. . .]

I’m still looking for the best players around. We have our commitments for 2016, and I think we’re definitely addressing our needs.”

Hamel’s side defied expectations this season. Now the trick is to sustain the success, and further the standings next season.

18 SPORTS

November 16. 2015

Adam Jones has been named the GNAC Freshman of the Year. The native of Coquitlam was also named to the First Team All-Conference. Jones led the team with eight goals, and started in every single game for the team. He joins women’s soccer’s Christina Dickson as SFU’s second Freshman of the Year winner this year.

Four women won their weight classes at the Mike Clock Open. Abby Lloyd won the 109 pound weight class, Dominique Parish the 129 pound, Francesco Giorgio the 136 pound, and Kendall Reusing the 170 pound. Junior Jennifer Anderson finished second in the 130 pound weight class.

coach], and the girls on the team seemed very nice. It was the better option, since it was closer to home.

And they have a really good biology program here.”

“I think I would have gone [down] a total different path if I did go to UBC. I think I’d just focus on academics, but I’m a lot happier with my decision [to come] here.”

The SFU volleyball team is approaching the end of its season, which means that some players are facing the end of their time in the program. One such player is Helen Yan. When she first came on the team, it was going through a transitional phase, which meant there were not many wins to come by. But now she can reflect on her time at SFU as a whole, and how her collegiate career is coming to an end.

“I think it’s going to feel very surreal,” said Yan on approaching her last games with the Clan.

“The time here has passed so fast, that it’s going to be weird that it will [eventually] be my last time walking on the court.”

Yan’s collegiate volleyball career almost never happened, as she was not actively recruited coming out of high school. “I was originally coming to come here [just for] school,” explained Yan. “I was actually torn between SFU and UBC for a bit. Then I contacted the coach [Lisa Sulatycki, previous volleyball

The early part of Yan’s career was in the program’s early years in the NCAA. In her first season with the team in 2012, they finished with a 1–17 record in GNAC play, and 4–22 overall. Two years later, the team finished with a 17–9 overall record, enough to place fifth in the GNAC. The team is currently on pace for the same finish this season.

Yan has been around for all the highs and lows, but struggles to describe the rise of the program.

“It’s feels unreal. It’s hard for me to find words to describe it. My first year was really depressing. It took a big emotional toll on me but I didn’t really know any better because I

was a first-year. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. And after we got Gina [Schmidt, Head Coach], the tables have turned. I felt a lot closer to the game after that.

“In my first year I didn’t know if I was going to be able to lose for four years,” she continued. “I didn’t know if I could handle that emotionally.

But ever since we’ve had Gina and the [new] girls coming, it’s been such a different environment. As bad as it is to say, in [my] first year, it almost felt useless to practice.

Now there’s a purpose, and everyone has a common goal in mind.”

Yan went on to explain that when they were playing the top-ranked teams in her first year, “you knew we weren’t going to win.” That all changed when the team hired Schmidt as the new Head Coach.

“She looks at the sport so differently,” Yan noted. “She just knows so much about every position that I never even began to understand. She’s patient, she’s easy to talk to, and you can just tell everything she says makes sense. Whereas before, the coach [Sulatycki], she wasn’t that bad, but sometimes there wasn’t very much trust between the players and the coach, and now there’s so

much trust. [Schmidt] could tell us to run outside in the freezing cold and we would do it, because we knew there [would be] a reason behind it.”

When asked about her favourite moment on the team, she pointed to a game that happened earlier this year. “One of our first home games of the season against Seattle Pacific, we were down [seven points] in the fifth set [. . .] and then Gina looks at me and says ‘You’re going to play back row for so and so,’ and I was freaking out.

We came back to win, and it was unreal to be a part of that.”

So what does Yan think the team’s future will be like once she’s departed? “I think it’s just going to keep going uphill.

[Schmidt’s] got great recruits coming in, she’s got a good base here, the girls obviously love her already. I think the program is going to be one of those nationally ranked teams pretty soon.I think it can be done within the next three to five years.”

Yan may be leaving the team, but she won’t be leaving SFU — she still has two years left of her degree in biology, and then she plans to pursue her masters in marine biology. And she’ll be making it to as many volleyball games as she can. “Now I can start making fun of the other team,” she laughed.

The men’s cross country team is heading to the 2015 NCAA D2 National Championships on Nov. 21.

They were able to qualify for nationals after the team placed three runners in the top 20 at the West Regional tournament. Oliver Jorgensen finished the highest of all the SFU participants, finishing fifth. The men’s team also qualified for the 2014 NCAA D2 National Championships, where they finished 20th.

SPORTS

November 16. 2015

19

The SFU Clan Football team (0–8) suffered a hard-fought 30–24 defeat to the Central Washington Wildcats (4–5) on a cold and rainy Senior’s Day. Playing their last home game of the year, the Clan hoped to avenge a 40–7 defeat earlier in the season to Central Washington. The young SFU squad pulled ahead 7–3 early in the second quarter on a one-yard touchdown from Ante Milanovic-Litre.

The momentum continued when the Clan defence blocked a Central Washington University (CWU) field goal attempt. In an unexpected turn of events, Clan quarterback Ryan Stanford threw an interception on the very next play. In response, defensive back Robin Weathersby decided the Clan needed the ball back and picked off CWU’s Justin Lane on the very next play. Both defences then held firm to close out the half.

CWU then took a 9–7 lead to open the second half scoring on a Quincy Carter two-yard touchdown run with the extra point missing wide left. The Clan responded right away with Stanford connecting with DB Justin Buren on a spectacular 75-yard catch and run for a 14–9 lead. After forcing a punt, the Clan offence had their best drive of the day. The offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage, with Milanovic-Litre busting off huge chunks of yardage. This eventually led to Milanovic-Litre’s second touchdown run of the day. The touchdown was aided by a huge block by Michael Couture as the Clan soared to a 21–9 lead.

The turning point of the game followed as CWU’s dangerous return man Jesse Zalk took the ensuing kickoff 95 yards to the house.

The Clan managed to earn one first down on the ensuing series before punting the ball out of bounds at midfield to give CWU outstanding field position. The Wildcats took advantage by easily marching down the field and scoring on Quincy Carter’s second touchdown of the day. Weathersby then broke up the two-point conversation to keep the score a tight 22–21 for CWU.

On the ensuing drive, the Clan marched down the field and Marcus Johnson connected on a clutch 44 yard field goal attempt. The kick gave SFU a 24–22 lead. Milanovic-Litre scampered for a 27-yard run on the drive, leading Stanford and Buren to connect on a key third down completion. Despite another impressive pass breakup

by Weathersby, CWU moved down the field with ease. Central Washington’s Justin Lane then connected with Justin

Peterson for a 25-yard touchdown and the two-point conversation to take a 30–24 lead with just under 10 minutes left in the ball game.

After two unsuccessful offensive drives and big defensive plays by safety Ben Minaker and defensive back Robin Weathersby, SFU buried CWU deep with a coffin corner kick at the five-yard line with 4:35 remaining. CWU decided to play it safe and ran down the clock. The SFU coaches elected not to use one of

their two remaining timeouts on fourth down and let 40 seconds run off the clock. With 2:10 left, the Wildcats boomed a deep high kick which the SFU returner did not attempt to field. This flipped the field position battle creating a long field for SFU’s dramatic attempt for last-minute glory.

Beginning at their 29 yard line, the SFU offence struggled to put together any big plays. On fourth and fifth from midfield, Stanford threw deep, hoping his receivers would make a play. The ball bounced down the field, but a flag for pass interference extended the game. From the 28 yard line, Stanford delivered two excellent passes downfield that were dropped by his receivers. On fourth down with 38 seconds remaining, the Clan’s last gasp fell short as CWU picked off the ball and subsequently kneeled, ending an intense ball game.

The Clan fought hard, but were undone by big plays and that huge special teams return.

Ante Milanovic-Litre led the offence with 145 tough yards on 21 carries and with two touchdowns.

Stanfield completed 16 passes on 39 attempts for 235 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

referee was forced to issue yellow cards to WWU’s Stark Wesley and SFU’s Pascal Schmidt for physical misconduct in the 24th minute.

SFU continued to dominate the first period, giving up only two total shots compared to 11 shots of their own. The second period played out in similar fashion, as SFU continued to maintain possession of the ball for most of the game. The Clan was able to rally once more and put up an additional score in the 58th minute thanks to a shot by Michael North, assisted

by James Fraser and defenseman Whittaker.

WWU almost brought the game within reach in the 73rd minute with a very close shot on goal; however, Watson was there to make the key save. He finished the season with 44 saves and a save percentage of .786. Tensions rose further as a yellow card was issued only a minute later to WWU’s Derek Zimmerman. Callum Whittaker received a yellow card of his own in the 89th minute.

The men’s soccer program will take a short rest, but will be back preparing for the

challenges of next season “right away,” according to coach Schneider. Despite narrowly

missing a spot in the NCAA tournament, it was another successful season for the program.

The SFU men’s soccer season came to an end Saturday night in a border battle against the Vikings of Western Washington University (WWU). The Vikings made their short trip from Bellingham to play the Clan for their second meeting this season.

However, an eerie fog prevented visibility and postponed the start of the game for a full hour.

Seniors Shane Satar, Callum Whittaker, and Alex Rowley played their final game for SFU, making the team’s victory that much sweeter. All three seniors will walk away from the program with decorated careers.

“Callum, Shane, and Rowley are testament team guys,” said coach Schneider following the 2–0 victory. “They give everything they can for the team. They work

hard in training and really have helped establish a culture for our younger players.”

SFU’s defense dominated the start of the game, as most of the match was played in Vikings territory. Senior defenders Satar and Whittaker made sure the Vikings felt their presences early and often during the first period.

“I think as the season went on we got stronger and stronger on defense,” reflected Schneider.

“This was the first time in a long time that we haven’t conceded a goal at home, so credit to the guys [. . .] they deserved it tonight.”

However, a broken play in the 16th minute allowed for a WWU breakaway in which midfielder Conner Pichette took a close shot goal, but was blocked by Clan goalkeeper Brandon Watson.

The Clan responded in the 21st minute, when Kyle Jones scored on a long shot assisted by both Adam Jones and Mamadi Camara. Jones finished the season leading the Clan in points with a total of 22, followed by Camara and Kyle Jones with 11 points each.

Things remained chippy between the two teams as the

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HUMOUR

November 16. 2015

since we had the same type of humour. We were in The Ryan Steele Show for three years together and then people started getting different jobs and we were all getting older, and Ryan and I decided we wanted to keep doing what we were doing.

We had like-minded ideas of what we thought was funny and where we wanted to be, so we formed The Ryan and Amy Show together.

For over eight years, Amy Goodmurphy and Ryan Steele have been crafting comedy gold together. They were once part of an ensemble sketch show, whose other members all eventually went in other directions; Steele and Goodmurphy were left to collaborate and create as the pair they are today — as The Ryan and Amy Show. When they’re not busy filming and releasing digital shorts online, you can usually find either of them dabbling in one of the city’s other comedic ventures, most notably the prominent sketch comedy monthly The Hero Show. Read on to learn about the pair’s humble beginnings, their experience with a corporate partnership earlier this year, and how these are all just steps along the comedic journey.

How did The Ryan and Amy Show come to be?

Amy Goodmurphy: Well, Ryan and I met eight or nine years ago.

I wasn’t in the comedy scene but I’d always wanted to be; I just never knew if that was a possibility or where to start, and Ryan was doing The Ryan Steele Show, which was a sketch comedy show.

Ryan Steele: I had just started comedy too. I was only six months in.

AG: We just hit it off and he asked me to come to one of his shows,

What was it that drew you to sketch comedy specifically?

AG: I’ve just liked playing characters all my life. I always felt comfortable doing something, or being someone other than myself. It’s really neat getting to play so many characters, instead of something like stand-up where you’re kind of just yourself or you have your shtick. Some stand-up comedians are characters, but they don’t really switch from that. So I like that idea, I like the wigs, I like the makeup, I like being able to put on an entirely different persona.

RS: For me, it’s similar in that it started at a young age, but I’m not much a character guy. I just loved sketch. When I was younger I watched Second City Television, and even though I didn’t totally understand it, I just knew that I loved it. I did acting throughout high school but I just never thought I could do anything with it, and then I took one of those Tony Robbin’s-type of workshops and the woman told me I should do sketch comedy.

Amy and I work well together too, because she’s more of the character person and I’m more of the idea person/straight-man to her zaniness. It works out well.

How would you describe the sketch comedy scene in Vancouver?

AG: It’s a smaller scene, but I think the quality is unlike I’ve ever seen. People are always talking about Toronto, and I get it, because there are some fabulous comedians out there, but there’s this little untapped community here of sketch, of improv, of lots of types of comedy, but sketch for sure. And I’m really happy that we’re a part of it.

RS: There’s so much room for growth though. When I tell people what I do and that I’m a comedian, the first thing is always, “Oh standup! Tell me a joke, where do you perform?” No one ever thinks sketch.

They go right away to you’re a standup comedian, so obviously it has a long way to come in Vancouver. If you say you’re a musician, people ask what kind of music. With comedy, it’s rare. If you say sketch, a lot of people don’t know what you mean.

Earlier this year you did a collaboration with the website Jack’d, and company partnerships are already a mainstay in the music industry.

Could you see the same thing happening in the comedy scene?

RS: I feel like we kept our integrity in that video; it was still a Ryan and Amy Show video, so we did it smart enough that we promoted their app and still shined 100 per cent our sense of humour. It was exactly our type of thing without selling out. We want to do more of that — kudos to anyone who can do similar things, as long as they don’t lose who they are.

AG: Not that it’s necessarily selling out for us. It would be if we only did comedy that had nothing to do with what we really believe in. We’re very thankful for everything we’ve

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ever gotten, but we’ve done some television appearances or other projects where you know it’s not funny. Not that we’re not thankful.

When we did Jack’d, the particular guy found us and said he loved our videos and wanted to work with us, so we did all that ourselves from start to finish. Projects like that are amazing. You get paid, which is fabulous, you get it put on a higher platform, and you get to keep true to yourself. The ultimate goal isn’t to keep doing that, but definitely I’d love to sign up for more projects to get us to where we want to be.

What other projects do The Ryan and Amy Show have on the go?

AG: One thing we’re really excited about is we just signed a contract with a production company out of Los Angeles called World of Wonder. They produce a show called RuPaul’s Drag Race and some other great productions, and we just signed a contract with them to create content. We’ve also been writing a TV show pilot, which is the ultimate goal we should mention. We’ve been writing it for two years with a producer in LA as well, and we’re finally wrapping the bow on it. We’re about to start shopping that around, and that’s what all of this is for.

Portlandia’s the best comparison to our script, because there’s a girl and a guy duo who do sketch.

We’re really excited about that.

Do you dream? Do you dream of holding something bigger than you in your hands? What about giving that dream gift to the world? Do you dream it as big as an elephant baby — as docile, as fragile?

Of course, I refer to the dream of DJing. Do you hold your DJing dream in your arms? Do you nurture it? That dream of spinning such fresh beats that the whole world would stop and listen?

SFU students, today’s writing advice concerns introductions. Essay introductions should always start with the general and hone in towards the specific. Here, for instance, I started with something general (dreaming) then moved to the specific (hands). I then played with the general again (dreaming), and flew back to the specific (baby elephants). I follow the elephant talk with concrete, tangible questions about the meaning of DJing.

This dissertation would be followed with more ideas about the meaning of DJing. I would mention, for instance, the meaning of having a job that creates popularity, centred around sharing the gift of chilling with the world; a career about pressing play and being the dopest supporter of those vying to chill.

The monotony of class is starting to get to me, SFU students. I’m not sure how much longer I can go without DJing, without lighting the lights, chilling the dance, spinning the dopest spins, and flying the flyest ills. I’m not sure how much longer I can stay in classes, with only one delicious Peak page per day to look forward to. (I encourage you to consume more, but any doctor encourages me to consume less.)

Here, I would springboard into more specifics about DJing, while centreing around dreaming to dream.

Dream to dream of your essay coming to fruition, SFU students!

Never put down your pen.

Joel MacKenzie

22 HUMOUR

November 16. 2015

Dear Toyota, The newest model of the infamously precious Corolla has some overwhelming safety issues that simply can no longer be overlooked. This is only true, however, if your goal is to kill pedestrians, passengers, and drivers alike, which would be ridiculous – that’s Ford’s goal.

My first major safety concern is in regards to the Corolla’s seat belts. If the driver and/ or passenger aren’t strapped into these so-called lifesavers, a beeping noise occurs that is not only much too loud, but continues for much too long. The obnoxious sound will actually prevent me from saving my life. It’s much too distracting. Plus, it really bothers the person I’m talking to on my cellphone. In that case, I’m forced to take my phone off of speakerphone and have it clutched between my shoulder and neck, which is annoying, and also illegal. You’re forcing me to do illegal things, Toyota. Think about that.

The 2016 Corolla is also, sadly, not the speediest car on the market. I’ve got places to go and people to see; how am I supposed to speed race? Moreover, how am I supposed to get to Tim Horton’s before it closes? NOT ALL OF THEM ARE OPEN 24/7. If I get pulled over by the cops, they won’t charge me. They’ll understand. Students run on Tim’s, and so do the po-po.

Next up: what’s up with the designated sound limit on the stereo? Why am I unable to crank the volume as high as I want it to be? Do you Toyotans even respect drivers with hearing disorders? Sixty-two is not a viable volume for anyone or anything, especially not for blasting Eminem when I’m feeling like an OG and Drake for those nights when I used to call her on her cell phone when she needed my love, but now she don’t.

Lastly, the lack of cup holders is embarrassing. In what world is eight enough? I got my water bottle, my pumpkin spice latte, my booze from last night, my water bottle from last week, my Iced Capp from a couple days ago, my G-2 from this morning’s workout, my change for the meter and the apple core from breakfast. I need at least a couple more to keep other essentials in. Come on, Toyota!

Look Toyota, you need to check yo’self before you wreck yo’self. Literally.

Signed, A concerned driver

Most people might not notice the hints about their personalities revealed through their texting habits; we have become such an antisocial culture that our texts now contain inflection. We can’t sit in a crowded room anymore and start a conversation with that cute guy, but instead we retreat back to our phones and turn our caps lock on full-blast: OMG HE IS BEAUTIFULLLLLLL I THINK I AM GOING TO DIEEEE. So, what do your little quirks say about you?

For starters, let’s look at the above 20-something femme who

loves her caps lock. She thinks that you can hear how loud the letters are. We can then deduce that in real life, she would be yelling at you. “But that’s pretty basic,” you’re probably saying. Let’s look a little deeper: note her elongation of words. The more L’s she adds to the word ‘beautiful’ makes me want to believe that this guy is Patrick Dempsey or something. The extra E’s at the end of ‘die’? Completely unnecessary, but rest assured that this girl will be saved by Dr. McDreamy if she does go into cardiac arrest.

And what’s up with her runon sentence? My third-grade teacher would cringe at that.

It’s almost like she has one last breath to use, and this lack of punctuation demonstrates that maybe she didn’t learn anything about punctuation as a kid.

While lack of punctuation can make you come off as dense

or crazy-excited, there are some people who take punctuation to a whole other level. Texting is instant, for crying out loud! It’s supposed to be quick snippets that leave you hanging, inviting more conversation to follow. I once dated a guy that would end every one of his texts with a period, the way one would when they finish a sentence in a paper. Even after

Recently the Internet was set a-blaze by people claiming that Starbucks is ruining Christmas: instead of using coffee cups that previously boasted festive symbols like snowmen and all of those reindeer games, patrons wishing to guzzle impossibly-sugary beverages have had to do so out of plain red cups, which are bare except for the company’s signature siren logo. Starbucks claims this was done to “usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories,” but some people are fuming that this is an attempt to rid the Christmas season of the central Christmas component. Sound a little like another green-furred, conniving individual we all know?

Here are six things that both The Grinch and the humbug CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, have in common.

1. Their facial expressions: Both have a wicked grin that simply screams, “I’m up to something.”

Only Schultz’s schemes revolve around charging more than $5 for a cup of coffee.

2. Both sit atop a high peak, where no one else can reach them:

The Grinch hangs out on a literal mountain, but for Starbucks it’s a business mountain that’s built upon ludicrous profits and caffeine addictions. Both mountains are equally lonely.

3. They both tried to take on Christmas, but were thwarted by a small, vocal population: A.k.a. the Whos and Starbucks regulars, both with their high-pitched shrills and group mentality.

5. Both have hearts two sizes too small: This is already common knowledge about The Grinch, but it’s got to be true about Schultz. Who else would condone the discontinuation of Starbucks’ oat fudge bars?

6. Neither was prepared for the immediate reaction they received when taking away Christmas: The Whos all came together for a big ol’ carolling, while Christian customers began a social media crusade. Therefore, protests in animated films from 1966 > protests in real-life 2015.

8. In the end, neither really succeeded in destroying Christmas: Because the holiday is an all-consuming goliath of consumerism that won’t stop until we’re all broke and/or dead.

a smiley face emoji, there would be a period. That period, to me, cancels out your smiley face emoji. You sound passive aggressive, dude! You sound upset and/or bored, and sometimes it seems like you don’t even want to talk to me! If you don’t want to talk to me, just tell me. But don’t pull this “I just love punctuation” garbage on me.

And speaking of punctuation, let’s hear it for those who overuse exclamation points! All! The! Time!! I admire your enthusiasm, but save it for cheering on your favourite team. It gets exhausting to see all those upside down i’s at the end of your sentences. Add that to the Caps lock and it’s like you’re trying to make me deaf.

But in a battle between two evils, I suppose I would rather talk to a hyperactive person than someone that doesn’t really want to talk to me — even if it means getting yelled at over and over.

With that said, I’m sure everyone will now retreat back to their phones and become incredibly self-conscious about their typing.

Take this as a kind of personality checkup that no one will TBH tell you. If you really want to win that guy over, maybe unstick your pinky from the caps lock, okay?

HUMOUR

November 16. 2015

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FU student Danison Buan is working on a new initiative to make a big impact on hunger. “Life is so short that one has to do what you can now, and not wait [. . .] one person can make a difference,” expresses the young entrepreneur.

Three times a week, Buan collects unsold food from grocery stores — food that would otherwise be wasted — and repurposes it as meals for the less fortunate.

He and his organization, Refood, work locally to reduce waste and fight hunger. The food is collected, cooked, and distributed amongst several local charities. Buan collaborates with the Union Gospel Mission, St. Barnabas, and Aunt Leah’s Place to distribute between 750 and 1,000 meals each week.

Food waste is a pressing issue for Canadians: we waste over $31 billion worth of food annually.

“It’s a huge problem,” says Buan.

Buan asks, “With such a rich country with so much food, how do we have so many hungry people?”

Buan saw the amount of food being thrown out by grocery stores as an opportunity to give back. “People see a nick on an apple and see an apple that is perfect right beside it, and they don’t purchase the apple with the nick,” he says.

“It’s about changing perspectives from convenience to reality,” says Buan. He offers eggs as an example. If a carton of eggs has a single egg broken, the entire case becomes unsellable and it will be wasted, even though the other 11 are perfectly edible. Likewise, food that may not be cosmetically perfect is still perfectly usable and delicious, but not as easy to sell.

Refood also saves businesses money. Unsold food must be composted, and businesses must dish out money for organic composting services. Refood solves economic, social, and environmental issues. “We’ve addressed the issues at once,” says Buan.

Buan’s idea for Refood won the One Prize in 2015 from the New West River Market, worth $2,000.

But his endeavors didn’t end there. In addition to Refood, Buan also operates Dani Moon Lending Corporation (DMLC), a microfinance company that provides capital to small- and medium-sized businesses in the Philippines.

The list goes on: Buan founded Skyvox Virtual Assistance, a company that outsources virtual assistance for small businesses. He also founded Vacation Assisted Living, which takes seniors with mild disabilities to exotic locations for an affordable price.

Buan is also the marketing director for Mr. Arancino, a food truck startup that will be launched on November 20. The idea, founded by his business partner, Yannick Cudennec, won a Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize in February of 2015. The truck, located at the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain Station, will serve traditional Italian risotto balls as a healthy alternative to other fast foods.

The Peak : What are you trying to achieve through all of your endeavors?

Danison Buan: I want to support as many people as possible, feed as many people as possible, and add as much value back to everybody I meet. I’m doing these things because I believe it’s right.

P: How do you balance such a busy schedule?

DB: I work very carefully to push as much as I can

Editor-in-Chief email

Max Hill eic@the-peak.ca

out of a day. I have a very systematic approach that allows me to get things done faster. I keep a narrow focus on the task I’m doing. [. . .] I live in the moment. I don’t even have a phone plan.

P: No phone!? How do you manage?

DB: My phone is the most expensive day-planner out there. I reply to emails in the morning and at night, and schedule my meetings. I hate being interrupted. This entire time we’ve been talking I haven’t once looked down at my phone due to a text or email. I stay focused on the task at hand.

It’s important to me to live in the moment. People know that if we talk, I’m dialed in, I’m all there. Everything you say, I’m focused on.

I was sick of people cancelling 15 minutes before a meeting after I’d driven an hour to meet them. This way, people can’t cancel on me, because they know they can’t get a hold of me.

P: What’s your motivation?

DB: I have a sense of urgency. [. . .] Life can end just like that. Things could end right now. You don’t know how soon it’s going to happen. I have to take advantage of the time I’m given.

P: What’s the key to building a successful business?

DB: Organization, systems, and [teamwork]. I build sustainability.

I build things that last. Build fast; talk is cheap.

P: Do you have any advice for SFU students?

DB: Don’t be afraid to take risks.

I love it here. I love how innovative SFU is.

The best part of being at SFU is that everyone has ideas, and they’re willing to take risks with their ideas.

Make good friends with everybody here.

Take advantage of the contacts and networks you make here at SFU. I’m very happy to have built great relationships with people here.

Be open. There have been a lot of great entrepreneurs to come from SFU. If you want to take a risk, this is the school to go to.

November 16. 2015