The Cascade Vol.26 Issue 18

JUNE 11 TO SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

VOLUME 26 ISSUE 18

Succinct since 1993

SUMMER EDITION DOUBLE FEATURE The

Well Arranged Succulents

Loneliest

inanimate objects at

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International student fees The B.C. federation of students released a report on difficulties faced by international students.

Trans Mountain pipeline Update: It’s still probably not a good idea.

Preview: Mission Folk Fest Lots of bands, good music on the weekend of July 20-22.

Cascade Events Calendar Inside

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

WEDNESDAY, JULY, 11 2018

Editorial //

STAFF Editor-in-Chief Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca Business Manager Quintin Stamler quintin@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Cat Friesen cat@ufvcascade.ca News Editor Jessica Barclay jessica@ufvcascade.ca

Production Manager Caleb Campbell caleb@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Jeff Mijo-Burch jeff@ufvcascade.ca

Production Assistant Renée Campbell renee@ufvcascade.ca

Features Editor Jen Klassen jen@ufvcascade.ca

Multimedia Editor Mikaela Collins mikaela@ufvcascade.ca Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca Illustrator Amara Gelaude amara@ufvcascade.ca Illustrator Simer Haer simer@ufvcascade.ca

International students subsidizing education

Culture & Events Editor Cassie de Jong cassie@ufvcascade.ca Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca Online Editor Jeff Mijo-Burch jeff@ufvcascade.ca Distributor Alena Zheng distributor@ufvcascade.ca

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS Chandanee Dancey Marlena Ashton Kemone Moodley Nela Dabare Daniel Liebe Edina Ballint Cover: Caleb Campbell Back Cover: Caleb Campbell

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

@UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/THE.CASCADE Volume 26 · Issue 18 Room S2111 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It originated under its current name in 1993, and achieved autonomy from the university and the Student Union Society in 2002. This means that The Cascade is a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published in an entirely student-run setting. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley.

The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds, and is overseen by the Cascade Journalism Society Board, a body run by a student majority. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a print circulation of 1,000 and is distributed at Abbotsford, Chilliwack (CEP), Clearbrook, and Mission UFV campuses and throughout the surrounding communities.

The Cascade is open to written, photo, and design work from all students; these can come in the form of a pitch to an editor, or an assignment from an editor. Writers meetings are held every Monday at 2:30 p.m. in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus.

In order to be published in the newspaper, all work must first be approved

by The Cascade’s editor-in-chief, copy editor, and corresponding section editor. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. Letters to the editor, while held to the same standard, are unedited, and should be under 200 words. As The Cascade is an autonomous student publication, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, The Cascade’s staff and collective, or associated members.

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JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

International students pay close to four times more than domestic students for an education at UFV. They pay more than domestic students at all public universities. That’s partly because citizens pay into public education throughout their lives as Canadians. So in a way, increased international rates makes sense, but are they fair?

On Monday, the B.C. Federation of Students released a research document on some of the issues international students face. Among these, the main that it notes are the province’s economic dependence on institutional students, unregulated international tuition fees (for which, universities may increase at will), and the lack of services that see international students through to success.

Public postsecondary institutions rely heavily on international fee income to carry out many of their programs. According to the report, after 16 years of cuts in funding to public postsecondary institutions with replacement funding found in international student tuitions, there’s now a “direct economic dependence” on these fees. Institutions have relied on Canada’s good name in education internationally to recruit students, but there may one day be a tipping point where the costs are too high for international students to justify the educa-

tion. A loss in this part of the student body would quickly defund large portions of university budgets.

The reliance is so great, the report notes, that even small changes in the international student market could adversely affect B.C. citizen education. For context, compared to B.C.’s top exports, international education services in 2015 ranked third, only after wood and mineral exports, and accounted for 9.5 per cent of B.C.’s total value of exported goods.

At UFV, tuition cost for international students for 2018/19 (fall and winter), according to UFV’s website, is $20,841. This includes the flat rate international students pay, the student and ancillary fees all students pay, health and dental fees, and an international administration fee.

The estimated first year costs for domestic students living off-campus, but not at home, is $5,326, taken from tuition fees, semester fees, and health and dental fees.

Neither figure includes personal expenses, books, accommodations, or food.

But is it unlike a private university model? Canadian public universities and colleges are sort of like private universities and colleges for international students.

Trinity Western University, the private Christian university, calculates a year’s costs to be about $22,860 for domestic students. That includes tuition and semester fees.

But with no regulation for international student tuition, fees may go up by any amount, any year. That makes funding an education unnecessarily precarious, and hard to budget for.

The report provides two recommendations: regulate fees for international students so they’re not increased at the whim of a university needing more funding, and establish an “international education strategy” that would offer support for international students.

It makes some sense that international students pay more than domestic students. How much that increased fee should be is debatable. But it’s clearly a contradiction of Canadian values to leave international fees unregulated while domestic fees are capped at two per cent a year.

What’s more, and I think this is the key issue, if B.C. and Canadian postsecondary institutions are happy to take international student money in excess, they better ensure their students have access to every tool for their success.

If an international education strategy focuses on increasing numbers but not improving experiences, as it has, the province and by extension universities and colleges treat international students only as a commodity.

In any case, the system is unfairly favoured against international students.

NEWS

Jessica Barclay — News Editor news@ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Faculty and Staff //

NEWS BRIEFS

Centennial Library repurposed The City of Abbotsford is looking to rezone the currently unused Centennial Library in Jubilee Park to allow for new businesses to use the space.

Planned tenants of the location include Tourism Abbotsford, City Studio Abbotsford, and a coffee shop with a patio. A proposal to allow rezoning of the property was presented before council on July 9.

“The proposed OCP amendment and rezoning text amendment to permit a coffee shop and a variety of civic uses will result in bringing people together and creating a unique people place within Jubilee Park,” staff wrote in a report.

-Abbotsford News

Crashes doubled on Highway 1 over two years According to ICBC statistics, the number of accidents on the stretch of Highway 1 between 232 Street in Langley and Annis Road Chilliwack have doubled over the last two years.

Crashes resulting in injury or death having increased from 210 in 2015 to 470 in 2017. Crashes resulting in only property damage also doubled, from 310 in 2015 to 620 in 2017.

“Rarely a day goes by that there’s not an accident,” Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said. “Something needs to be done. We can’t live like this.”

“I hope the province takes action before the highway becomes gridlock all day, every day,” said Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz.

-The Province

Meet UFV’s new summer appointments and hires JESSICA BARCLAY NEWS EDITOR

UFV has seen a number of new hires, appointments, and changes in staffing over the course of this summer, beginning with Dr. Joanne MacLean taking on her new role as president on May 1.

Dr. Alastair Hodges was appointed to fill the role as dean of the faculty of health sciences left open by MacLean’s new role. Hodges came to UFV in 2011, where he has since held the positions of department head of kinesiology, associate professor, and acting dean of the faculty of health sciences.

Hodges received his PhD from the University of British Columbia and post-doctoral fellowship from the University of Calgary. As a certified exercise physiologist, Hodges has research interests in the area of cardiopulmonary responses to aerobic exercise, and occupational physiology and performance, specifically on jobs in the forestry sector.

In the same month, Dr. Maureen Wideman was promoted to vice president, teaching and learning, having been the director of teaching and learning at UFV for the last four years.

The teaching and learning centre provides a large range of programs, services, and workshops that support learning at UFV. Wideman holds a PhD from the University of Toronto in education, curriculum, teaching and learning/computer applications.

Laura Authier was brought on as UFV’s new director of marketing, bringing with her over 20 years of marketing and communications experience.

Authier was previously the director of marketing at St. Michaels University School for 13 years, and has recently moved out to the Fraser Valley from Victoria.

Dr. David Harper was named as UFV’s interim director of innovation and entrepreneurship.

In this position, Harper will work to reach out to faculty, department, and stakeholders to gather input on the new I&E@ UFV initiative. The initiative will focus on working internally and with the community on developing innovation at UFV, and creating working relationships with government, businesses, and the community.

Marnie Wright joined UFV’s human resources team as associate vice-president of human resources in June. Wright previously served as the associate superintendent of human resources in the Abbotsford School District, and was a faculty member at Thompson Rivers University, where she also served on senate for several years.

Samantha Pattridge was appointed acting dean of students in the college of arts, a position she will hold until Dec. 31. Before coming to UFV in 2007, Pattridge taught at BCIT, and in Alberta at the University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge College, and Athabasca University.

At UFV, Pattridge works as an associate professor of communications. She is involved with many committees at UFV, including the Undergraduate Education Committee, the new International Student Task Force, and the Scheduling and Registration Task Force.

Most recently, Maureen Berlin was named interim executive director of UFV advancement. Berlin brings many years of fundraising and directing experience in the non-profit sector to this position. Before coming to UFV, Berlin worked with the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, SARA for Women, and Big Brothers Fraser Valley.

Information from UFV Today

Community Radio //

CIVL Radio awarded $50,000 in funding

Funding will go to initiating the RECORDING project

CIVL Radio lobby. (Facebook/CIVL)

CAT FRIESEN

MANAGING EDITOR

On July 9, the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) and CIVL Radio, UFV’s campus and community radio station, announced that $50,000 will be used for the RECORDING project at CIVL. RECORDING, in this case, stands for Respectful Entertainment, Creating Open Radio Dialogue, and Impacting New Groups. The funding comes from the Radiometres program, which intends to improve local programming and volunteer participation for Canadian radio.

The $50,000 will go toward bringing high-profile artists in contact with Fraser Valley artists, and performances and interviews centring on intersectionality, local and independent arts, and social

justice will be recorded.

As well, CIVL Radio will be hiring up to four new staffers.

“CIVL is always trying to encourage people of different backgrounds to engage in local arts,” said CIVL station manager Aaron Levy. “This is a great opportunity to bring more groups into the fold.”

This is the fifth time CIVL Radio has received funding from the Radiometres program, bringing their total received funding to $186,993. With funds received from other CRFC programs, CIVL has received over $200,000 in funding to date.

For more information about CIVL Radio and the RECORDING Project, visit http://civl.ca.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JULY, 11 2018

Professor Profile //

Rising from the yeast, settling in the West In Denmark, you’re literally not qualified for anything if you leave with a bachelor’s degree. Pretty much everyone who gets into a bachelor’s program has the notion that they’re getting a master’s. Tuition is free in Europe in general, so that means that the universities set the bar a lot higher for incoming students. I’ve been to finals where 86 per cent of the class failed, and that’s considered normal because you’re here on basically the government's time. You were expected to produce, and only the top of the top were accepted in a specific year to end up getting a particular degree. The rest of the people are better used elsewhere in the workforce so they can maintain the free tuition system. Here, it’s more of a corporate model where students end up being the consumers that come and pay for their degree.

We’re hiring an Arts in Review Editor.

I remember you mentioned you had met Kary Mullis, 1993 Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the polymerase chain reaction. What was he like?

Jesper Johansen, at UFV Abbotsford campus. July 2018. (Chandanee Dancey/Contributor)

CHANDANEE DANCEY CONTRIBUTOR

Although he’s been teaching on and off since 2005, Summer 2018 marks the first semester that yeast geneticist Jesper Johansen has had the chance to teach at UFV. Originally from Europe, he attended the University of Southern Denmark until 2008 to pursue his bachelor’s degree and Master of Biophysics, and later completed his PhD in yeast compensatory endocytosis from Simon Fraser University in 2017. Jesper’s well-versed in working internationally with yeast, and was able to sit down with The Cascade to give us insight into his thoughts and experiences.

What attracted you to work with yeast specifically? Did you ever veer in another direction during your career?

Technically my start was not as a geneticist or anything like that. I’m a biophysicist by training originally, and what I really wanted to study was how certain lipids affect cellular processes. The only lab that did that kind of research was a yeast lab. I happened to stumble upon yeast just from the project that I wanted

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to do, and as time progressed I started learning more and more about yeast and learning more about its inherent genetic capabilities. I wanted to continue working with yeast just because of its simplicity and the things you can achieve in a relatively short time.

How did you become interested in teaching?

I’ve been interested in teaching since day one. I worked at an elementary school teaching before coming here, and before then even during my undergraduate degree I was working as a tutor and a mentor. I have taught at SFU in the past, taught at University of Southern Denmark when I was there, even a couple guest lectures at UBC. It’s always been an ingrained part of what I think the responsibility of the research community is: to pass on the knowledge to upcoming generations. What I find the most rewarding is helping people get to the point where they can decipher the difficulties in a given problem, break it down to small pieces, then start solving it as they go along. That’s ultimately how you end up working in a lab.

How do you find STEM education in Denmark versus in Canada?

Colourful and drunk. He fancies himself a world-renowned surfer and kind of a playboy character. It’s always a good time when he’s around. It’s just a question of when that good time ends, which is usually very late if you’re with Kary. A long time ago Kary Mullis kind of abandoned the scientific pursuit for publications. He was more focused on making a ton of money off his PCR idea.

It went okay for him. PCR is an important technique, but it wasn’t patentable.

Problem is that if you want the Nobel Prize you have to publish it, and as soon as it’s published then the technique’s out there.

If you could give one golden rule about lab safety what would it be?

Do as I say not as I do. I think that’s the golden rule. Nah — think before you do.

It’s common sense what we do in the lab.

Don’t drink it, don’t wash yourself in it, don’t roll in it, don’t stab yourself. It’s all quite logical if you value self-preservation. I mean, that rule is also a subject to change though. My old boss in Denmark used to mouth pipette azide. If you go back and look at some old chemistry papers there’ll be a taste section.

Back in the day it was encouraged that you would sample whatever you synthesized. In some cases it would be a very short career.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

For more info, email cat@ufvcascade.ca

OPINION

Jeff Mijo-Burch — Opinion Editor opinion@ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

New Experiences //

Somewhere down the lines Reflections on a creative writing course from a science student

NELA DABARE CONTRIBUTOR

Attending my first summer morning class after a good four months of the break was really a challenging situation. My biological clock needed some synchronization. While the lecture was going on, my mind was heavy like a nimbostratus cloud we see on a rainy day. Like a heavy rainfall, I started doubting my capabilities and felt that I wasn’t fit to be in the class. And, like a thunderstorm, weird thoughts struck my mind. It wasn’t because of my professor, Dr. Trevor Carolan, nor because of the other students.

Eighty per cent of the classes I took at UFV were based on equations, digits, and chemical formulas, where our knowledge is mainly tested rather than our creativity.

Looking back to my seven-week journey of English 215 (Creative Nonfiction) — a class that wasn’t a required course for science students — I realize that it was one of the best decisions I’ve made lately. I’d suddenly felt that I needed a break from the world of complicated theories, and wanted to enter one of creativity and originality which allows me to explore freely without any restric-

tions.

Writing makes us have our own original style as the lifeless thoughts are brought to life. The inked letters touch our souls very effectively and deeply like a conversation that flows like a waterfall.

Being original and creative at the same time sounds a little tricky, but it’s not as hard as I expected.

Throughout the seven weeks, Dr. Carolan trained us to craft and organize our writing and thoughts in authentic ways.

Moreover, he shared with us the best methods to work on our skills not just for our assignments, but for our future writing.

What I really enjoyed in this class were the assignment topics which made me see beauty in the simplicity of our complex world. Each and every assignment topic was based on people, places, memories, and pictures where we had to use the techniques of writing to bring those feelings, moments, and smiles back

to life. Every breath I take reminds me that writing is something beautiful which makes a real difference in the world.

No matter how bad things get, writing always makes me feel better and reminds me of the fact that nothing is permanent. Perhaps life starts over and over again.

There are two sides to every life story like there are two sides of a coin. We are only working hard, stressing ourselves out in order to discover one side of our life story.

However, the other side of our life story can be a new turning point to make your life story a unique one.

Either side of the coin has the same value, and discovering our second side will make us glow during the day and the night. It helps us to take a stand and helps us fight our own battles by connecting into our innovative thoughts and making changes in our world.

“No matter how bad things get, writing always makes me feel better and reminds me of the fact that nothing is permanent.”

Illustration by Simer Haer

Investments //

Trans Mountain — the hottest deal of them all

MARTIN CASTRO ARTS EDITOR

The Trans Mountain Pipeline project, formerly spearheaded by Kinder Morgan, has been bought out by the Canadian government, in a sweeping decision made to expedite compromise between the governments of Alberta and British Columbia.

According to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, the acquisition cost the Canadian government around $4.5 billion.

Here are a few things to keep in mind: the pipeline is far from complete — in fact, the reason it was bought by the Canadian government was expressly to be able to finish its construction; the Canadian government, could, in theory, spend billions of dollars to negotiate and then build the

pipeline, which will then be sold back to the private sector.

The cost of building the pipeline expansion, according to the CBC, has been estimated by Kinder Morgan to come out to $7.4 billion. So the estimated total cost of expenditures made by the federal government over this pipeline, barring any legal, PR, and oversight costs, tallies in at $11.9 billion, or $11 billion, nine hundred million. Say that number again.

Not only is this unprecedented in the sense that the federal government is stepping in to ensure that the financial stakes of a private-sector company project are guaranteed, but they’re doing so over the heads of two provincial governments. Like a parent taking a toy away from two bickering siblings, there is irony in the fact that Canada’s federal government

is poised to become the kind of overbearing nanny-state that many right-wing politicians deride it for being.

Now, politically-speaking, this move is more telling about just what kind of government Trudeau’s Liberals are: hardly progressive, and neoliberal to the core. Forget that the so-called progressiveness of this government evaporates as soon as the cheque books are on the table, the more pressing problem is this: why are we still taking fossil fuels out of the ground?

Have we all forgotten just how dire our situation was last summer? In case the matter isn’t pressing enough, this year, as of July 8, 2018, there have been 3,333 recorded forest fires in Canada which have burned 421,222 hectares.

Canada has always prided itself on being a green country.

Not green in the sense that it is reliant on renewable energy, but rather that its forests and parklands are so lush and vast. Guys, that’s quickly coming to an end.

Sure, North America is one big forest. Sure, there are enough trees to go around right now, but they’re burning at an alarming rate every year; and on the flip side, our winters have been getting increasingly more dramatic.

Not to be the climate-change version of Chicken Little, but the sky is literally falling around us. The scientific community long ago came to the consensus that the aggravated rate at which climate change is harming our planet (and, oftentimes, those most vulnerable populations among us are those that are harmed first and

most) is due to the effect wreaked on the planet’s systems by greenhouse gases.

How many hectares of forestry burned will that oil be worth?

How many prolonged, severe winters will that oil buy us?

Whether or not you agree with this specific purchase by Canada’s government, I think it’s high-time we stop laying new pipelines.

To the governments of Alberta and British Columbia, I would say, I don’t know dudes, spend all your money re-educating oil workers for professions which they can transition into. Put up wind farms. Subsidize renewable energy start-ups.

For now, at least, start training new firefighters.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Health Care //

National pharmacare, your potential new reality

Illustration by Simer Haer

KEMONE MOODLEY CONTRIBUTOR

The time for a national pharmacare program is now.

There are no ifs or buts about it: in a time where almost one million Canadians will be forced to choose between their heart medication and a roof over their head, the call for a unified drug coverage program becomes more crucial with every passing day. We already have universal healthcare, a system that has generally proved beneficial for Canadian society. So it only makes sense that the next step towards improving the wellbeing of Canadians would be implementing a program that provides affordable and accessible medication.

In an effort to bring affordable drugs to its citizens, the Canadian government has composed a health committee of six members, all with political backgrounds in Canada’s health care system, who are tasked with examining how to unify the drug care programs of each province. The committee will be speaking with the leaders of each province and gaining feedback from their citizens on how the government should go about designing and funding a program that not only works well with Medicare, but also compliments it.

At the moment, each province has their own system of provid-

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ing medication to Canadians that involves third parties, private insurances, and business-minded drug companies. A system that not only serves to frustrate with the effort and time needed to actually complete the administrative work, but also drain a considerable chunk of one’s income.

For those covered by union plans or who are financially well-off, the journey to receiving medication is a problem, true, but perhaps not entirely so grim or desperate. But for low-income families, where the difference between $50 and $60 determines whether they can afford dinner on the table, the mixed system quickly proves to be the difference between life and death.

In fact, according to Dr. Eric Hoskins, the chair of the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare, “Too many Canadians are unable to maintain or achieve a healthy life because they cannot afford needed prescription drugs.”

A national drug care plan would hopefully change that and allow the poorest of Canadians to afford the medication they need.

Furthermore, the program would reduce both the government’s public and private costs of supplying medication to Canadians.

Logically, it would seem that the switch to a single-payer, universal model, would be in everyone’s best interests.

But is it really quite so simple?

Is Canada truly ready for a nationalized drug plan? Or is the road to more accessible medication destined to be more costly than it’s worth?

One of the main problems that the committee will be hardpressed to tackle is the cost of switching the entire country to a single-payer system. Current public provincial programs would rise by an estimated 10 billion dollars per year, while private insurance costs would drastically decrease. As such, while there is strong political support for a national pharmacare program, the opposition is heavy from drug companies and private insurance companies.

Additionally, as evident from the current system that British Columbia has, the pharmacare program would not ensure that the best drugs would be affordable or accessible to the public but rather brands that aren’t quite as costly to dispense. This would mean that Canadians would be limited in what drugs they could afford and that they would still be forced to go through private companies in order to receive medication that might be more beneficial to their health.

Another problem is the issue of privacy. While a national pharmacare program would allow doctors and pharmacists a more cohesive system of finding and administering drugs, it would also be easy for any doctor or pharmacist, regardless of whether you are their patient, to access your medication history.

This would mean that, should the pharmacare program be based off British Columbia’s current model, a pharmacist from Ontario would be able to access the medication history of a patient currently living in Alberta.

I’ll be frank — I agree with the government. As stated above, Canada does need a nationalized drug plan that is not only affordable but easily accessible for all incomes whether that be in the millions or nothing at all. Medication is not a privilege but a necessity, and a nationalized drug plan would ensure that this necessity is supplied for everyone.

However, considering the number of concerns associated with this massive undertaking, I cannot confidently say that the outcome of this project will be truly altruistic in nature. Furthermore, if a national pharmacare program is to happen, the model for it must be better than British Columbia’s program in terms of both privacy and accessibility to drugs beyond simply the cheapest brands to produce.

Internet Anxiety //

Should the internet exist?

DANIEL LIEBE CONTRIBUTOR

Anyone interested in collectively getting rid of the internet? Not gonna lie, I’m not really having high hopes for what it brings for the future of civilization. When we’re forced to stand in the open and physically hold ourselves in front of others, we feel compelled to be on our best behaviour. Our instincts to steal, undermine, shame, ostracize, manipulate, and think in groups are predominately put on shelves in the back of our brains.

The internet, on the other hand, enables us to lose our inhibitions. The societal repercussions are not non-existent, because the internet isn’t a harmless invention or a nontoxic outlet. Granted, the internet has its positive uses primarily when it comes to efficiency and communication, but those are arguably outweighed by the negative factors of the internet in regards to what it has done to us economically, politically, and socially.

Economically, the internet has made a name for itself by transforming the free market, although not necessarily in the direction of the better for the collective. The internet has allowed people to undermine business models, the legitimacy of certain industries, and steal simply because they can. In the process of doing this, we’ve allowed the let down of employment prospects in previously lucrative industries, and made it harder for the creative to establish a livelihood by capitalizing on their creativity in a homogenized sense that is both ideal and realistic. Thanks to the internet, the business models of retail stores have pretty well been undermined and are becoming a thing of the past. The replacement of physical stores by e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay have diluted commerce squares and given people reasons not to go out and shop.

Thanks to the internet, industries like journalism and law have been undermined by pseudo-professional alternatives.

Thanks to streaming/pirating services, artists and entertainers now have a harder time making a living solely on their craft.

The internet has essentially decentralized monetary platforms for the creative to capitalize.

All in, from an economic standpoint, the internet has practically cheapened three major components of the free market by reducing their legitimacy.

Politically, the internet has confused us. When it comes

to polarization, Facebook has without question been one of the greatest perpetrators as it can be easily manipulated and is perhaps the most common source of news on the planet. When it comes to showing how the sausage gets made, the internet has played a significant role in demonstrating how crooked politics can be. Groups like WikiLeaks and Anonymous stir outrage as internet provocateurs. When it comes to allowing foreign governments to undermine democracies, the internet is the greatest outlet. A great example of this would be the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by buying out online ads as hidden forms of propaganda. Needless to say, the internet has disrupted politics in ways the world has never had to deal with.

Socially, the internet has done us in. Hence explaining the social deficit it has left us to deal with. We may be more aware of one another’s lives than ever before, yet that doesn’t mean we’re as involved in one another’s lives as much as we should be. If anything, we’re less involved in one another’s lives. The internet has established a societal ripple effect of turning many of us into shut-ins and socially inept creatures. We’ve largely either grown over-aware or under-aware of ourselves by becoming repulsed by socialization and addicted to insulation. With social media, we justify reasons to no longer be social. With internet shaming, we no longer justify reasons to be civil toward other people we may see as doing wrong (whether or not we have evidence). With hashtags, we become overly tribal and think in groups. All of this has pretty well made us lonelier. Perhaps that explains why Britain has recently appointed a Minister of Loneliness as a call to this social crisis brought on by the internet.

Don’t be surprised if more countries adopt similar measures.

Moreover, don’t be surprised if this epidemic of loneliness continues to grow as long as the internet exists.

In sum, it’s safe to say the internet has brought on significant baggage for civilization to deal with without an owner’s manual. It would not be a stretch to assume that whatever major societal shift comes forward in the future will be brought on by the internet. Sure, the internet is likely the greatest tool ever invented. However, in regards to tools, it could probably be best compared to a double-edged sword. Great uses, great concerns.

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Passionfruit, orange, and guava juice When doing research for papers, and for The Cascade, I often end up down a weird rabbit hole on the internet. The latest one resulted in me ending up on the Wikipedia page for POGS. Now, some of the younger readers may not remember this game. Honestly, I barely do.

I just remember collecting and building a tower out of them. My prized one was shiny with a picture of a unicorn on it.

Apparently the name is owned by the World Pog Federation, after a lawsuit between them and The Universal Pogs Association. The game was originally played with juice bottle caps from POG juice, which stood for, you guessed it, passionfruit, orange, and guava. It started in the 1920s or the 1930s, the author of the page isn’t sure, but the game’s resurgence was thanks to a fifth grade teacher from Hawai’i named Blossom, who re-introduced the game to her class.

I’m sure if I dig through my childhood toys, I still have one. Is it worth anything? Or was it another fab fad from the ‘90s like beanie babies? I’ll hold onto it just in case. Everything comes back again right?

Brief bits of bite-sized brevity

Aching for autumn While most people come alive in summer, I wilt — kind of like the hostas are doing right now in my front yard. I loathe having to wear sunscreen when leaving the house for more than 10 minutes, the mosquitos have a particular affinity for the way my blood tastes, and the heat makes me grouchy. Having said that, being near the lake is a passable way to spend the hot days, but soon enough, I’m ready to move on to better things.

Those better things being autumn — I live for autumn. Cool breezes, crunchy leaves, and clouds? Sign me up. Not to mention classic spooky movie marathons and pumpkin spice everything. (See last October’s snapshot.) As soon as September hits, my fingers are kept firmly crossed that the sun will disappear beyond the horizon, and leave me to sit, cozy and happy, in my oversized sweaters and fluffy socks while the wind carries on outside.

Jen Klassen

SNAPSHOTS

No more boogie wonderland Art vandalism has been committed on our campus! It was just recently that I paid a visit to my favourite hallway connecting A to D building, through B, and as usual I was admiring the art. There’s a lot of photography of UFV students and culture including a woman who appears to be an Aboriginal elder speaking to a blurred person holding a drum. That photo in particular has always stood out to me, and I’m not going to sugar coat the reason why; frankly, you can clearly see snot up her nose.

Now, normally that’s what I’d see, but this time an unknown third party had used Sharpie to cover her nostrils up, and I’m divided on how to feel. Has this woman’s pride been saved, or has a snapshot of gritty realism been compromised? Should people have the right to make changes to art work when it comes to minor “embarrassing” details? Could this be considered art censorship? Does anyone at all care about this but me? Personally, I say let the boogers boogey! If art makes us feel uncomfortable enough to want to make permanent changes to it, maybe we should reflect further on that before acting.

Cat Friesen

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

Inconvenient Convenience The schedule for the campus commuter shuttle in the summer semester is a joke.

You are either leaving at the crack of dawn and arrive ridiculously early, or you are arriving late. If you miss the shuttle, even by two minutes, you are stuck waiting for two and a half hours for the next one.

The infrequency of this service is both inconvenient and infuriating. With drivers who seem to enjoy leaving early from pick-up and lack the understanding of a speed limit, it’s a roll of the dice whether or not you will arrive at the given time.

There are days where exams are scheduled but the shuttles don’t run. (Exams on a Saturday? Who thought of that and why do they hate us?) For a service that is supposed to save students time, money, and stress about commuting, it’s missing the mark. When you don’t drive, you don’t have a choice. At least the drivers are usually nice.

Chandy Dancey

Marlena Ashton Illustrations: Amara Gelaude

7

Well A rranged Succulents

By Joel Robertson-Taylor

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id-morning I arrive at a greenhouse, and though I arrive on time, I’m the last to get here. I stand out, distinctly as someone who isn’t an old lady. Everyone is dressed for a Sunday picnic along the Seine and I look like I came galavanting out of a rodeo.

I don’t garden, but sometimes I think I do. I read books about gardening. I once built a series of vegetable gardens with my dad. Of what I have done, vegetable gardening has been my main interest, primarily for its function. Recently I decided to take a workshop on succulent growing and arranging. Carrots, garlic, and chard are great, but my expectations for each is to produce. Beauty isn’t a purpose, it’s a way of being. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.

We gather at the studio workspace, a hanging basket and a dozen succulents for each.

There’s a box of pink nitrile gloves and I notice I’m the only one barehanded. Looking at my plants I start to bond, to become possessive, considering their details and softening to their flaws.

We begin with an introduction to succulent care, study an example of fine arrangement, then start excavating. One by one we’re taught about the nuances of the plant, then given suggestions on placement.

Quickly I realize that though I can put plants in dirt, there’s more to think about.

“The centre of your arrange-

ment should be highest,” my new friend beside me recommends.

She’s jovial, but that doesn’t make her unique here. “Highest in the centre and smaller plants to surround it.”

I take her advice humbly.

Her short pink hair and adroit movements make me think she’s a frequenter of classes like these.

“Make sure your two centre plants point straight up,” the instructor notes. I comply. “This is for sunlight, but also to draw the eye in.”

It didn’t exactly occur to me that the same rules of aesthetics for all art apply to gardening.

Funny how you notice things from their context.

“For the other plants you use to build around the centre, you can make them point outwards.

People will look right into them,” my friend tells me. She strikes me as someone with either no grandchildren, or many.

The instructor adds, “Especially the echevarria. You want it to open up to whoever will admire it.”

Focused on plants, I’m soon overcome by meditation. There are books that teach you to meditate. They’re no good. Neither are the people who point you down the right path if you’ll humble yourself and part with worldly possessions for their sake.

Working with my hands and focusing with my thoughts, like one does sketching, welding, or lawn mowing, I enter a plane that is good for reflection.

Meanwhile, our meditation tour guide is several plants

ahead. I fuss over plant height and spread, trying to catch up, and immediately I slip out of contemplation. Now I’m in elementary school, panicking, trying not to worry about being, once again, equations, pages, books behind. I make myself a cactus, wax skin and prickly.

I haven’t felt like this for a long time. Out of control. Then I’m reminded of Thomas Merton: “Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity.” Good soil. I wish I knew and comprehended that then. But good soil doesn’t always make a difference. Some succulents, especially cacti, thrive in conditions known for constant 40 degree Celcius sun and an inch of water per year.

We call cacti hardy. By design they pull moisture in quickly and store it well. Most types of plants open their pores during the day, absorbing carbon dioxide for their magic named photosynthesis. To protect themselves against the heat, many succulents do this in the cool of the night. For all their hardiness, they won’t survive half a year outdoors here in the Pacific Northwest. And who would call them inept? he hanging basket I’ve decorated has eight kinds of succulents. Burro’s Tail, with soft green leaves, grows long stems, 50 cm in length. It’s the most laid-back succulent, I think, and prefers lots of sun with little water. Jade Plant has plump, rounded, deep green leaves. I’m told it may one day bloom star-shaped white flowers. These also adore full sun

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but prefer a little more water than the Burro’s Tail. Echeveria is a genus of many, of which I have three. Their leaf growth pattern is circular, from the centre. It’s called a rosette. Not too much water for them, either.

This hanging basket will join several pots of different cacti at home.

A succulent growers guide could be summed up, “Usually lots of sun; some water when soil is parched.” Of course, there’s more to it than that. Some might say succulent care is a lifestyle.

One of my early growers guide drafts read simply, “You haven’t moved to California yet?” efore my interest in cacti, then more broadly, succulents, I could get indignant against growing foreign flowers, though I have nothing against them themselves.

Once, driving from Quesnel to Richmond I picked up a pair of hitchhikers. Jesse from Ontario and Sam, a fire sign. I said I don’t believe in such things but apparently that outed myself as an earth.

Jesse, taking the first shift in the passenger seat, and still partially dressed as Dolly Parton for a Dolly Parton lookalike contest the day before (he came third; some awarded him bonus points for clearly being at the biggest disadvantage) was the kind of ideal company you hope for at parties where you know only the host. We talked about geography, travels, books, and other broad subjects, happily limited by knowledge and not time.

Sam, though with long blonde

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hair and eyes you could swim in, was too organic, too sincere, to play Parton. We talked about her working to start a native landscape and gardening business. In native gardening, one only grows plants indigenous to the region.

“Part of it is getting people to see that local plants are actually beautiful. You don’t need a Japanese garden,” she said. “When you consider the environmental impact of most foreign species, you lose interest in plants from everywhere else.”

I could easily agree.

“So you’ve got a stand-out, imported front yard. I can design a yard that’ll look just as amazing.”

At that moment, I was convinced. There she sat, innocent as a flower, fired about invasive species, and I no longer cared for exotic plants. It was like my DNA rearranged and I darn well near became disgusted with anything imported.

I still agree with Sam but I’m not afraid of succulent roots overcoming their decorative earthenware, ornamental on a plinth, and taking claim of my living room, then Sardis, then Canada. I’m more worried about infatuation, heart in rib prison, overcoming my chest.

Lessons learned.

But if any one of my succulents breaks out in a soulful aria, demanding human flesh (à la Little Shop of Horrors), I’ll resist it. And ostrich ferns are since my favourite outdoor decorative plant.

I imagined that, years later,

I’d run into either Jesse or Sam. I was supposed to email Jesse poems but I lost the Chevron receipt with their emails. I may have thrown it out. Ephemeral friendships are easier to take care of.

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have arranged and occasionally rearranged, sometimes for aesthetics but usually I can’t explain why. Recorded watering cycles, tested soil dampness, moistened soil, fertilized.

Towards the end, realized some baldness, and added small echeverias and string-of-pearls to hide gaps. You arrange with an end in mind, still, sometimes you’re only in the present. Distracted.

Have hung, potted, dug, excavated too much, backfilled a little. Loosened root system, gently. Fussed over unremarkable detail, poking and shifting with a chopstick, sometimes with conviction that an out-of-place leaf will make the difference.

Fought with and willed leaves to turn up or turn out. Lifting, turning, turning back, tilting, surveying, and not sure if beautiful or I’m good at explaining why it’s supposed to look this way.

All to draw in the eye and hold it long enough to inspect and explore this hanging woven basket of succulents.

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till haven’t seen either of them but I did once recognize a familiar dog at a busy gas station outside White River, Ontario, near the end of August.

Sniffs, the dog, sat like a good boy until I came near. I think we recognized each other about the same moment. He stirred, waddling up and down, sniffing the air for confirmation of this extremely unlikely reuniting.

I had picked Sniffs and his owner, Patches, up along that same stretch between Quesnel and Williams Lake several months prior. Would have driven them again had it been the other end of the season. I was Montreal bound. Being good travellers, they were looking West.

“No worries buddy. We’ll be getting back on the train in no time. Had to get into town for some chow.”

Hitchhiking is recreational.

Train hopping is serious travel.

“We’re going to Alaska for a visit before heading south.”

I didn’t stick around long enough to chat with Patches.

Either I figured we’d meet up again or wasn’t worried if we didn’t.

About that time I was working as a welder. My notebook, like me, was spotted with burns.

Voltage and amperage settings, types of metal, and reminders made better poems than most of my poems. There’s a reference to the occurrence in a notebook I kept at the time. Simply: “You are thinking about the next rod.

The next rod is imminent, but never experienced.”

When arc welding, one touches an electrically charged metal rod to the metal to be welded.

Beauty isn't a purpose, it's a way of being.

When you garden as art, you create in faith.

The art of arrangement is in design.

The art of vegetable gardening is in the soul.

The rod is consumed as it melts.

Once spent, the nub is tossed and a new rod is twisted in place. Many days are measured in rods. hen you garden as art, you create in faith. The art of arrangement is in design.

The art of vegetable gardening is in the soul. Vegetable gardening is less of an art than it is a union anyway. Both are in time.

Sometimes growing plants isn’t about what you’re doing but what you’re not doing instead.

So many things I don’t need to think about. I think time is a sanctuary, making us a temple.

Like what Abraham Joshua Heschel writes in, “The Sabbath:” “Even religions are frequently dominated by the notion that the deity resides in space, within particular localities like mountains, forests, trees or stones, which are, therefore, singled out as holy places; the deity is bound to a particular land; holiness a quality associated with things of space, and the primary question is: Where is the god? There is much enthusiasm for the idea that God is present in the universe, but that idea is taken to mean His presence in space rather than in time, in nature rather than in history; as if He were a thing, not a spirit.”

The American rabbi explains

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that technical civilization is humanity’s conquest in space. The triumph is achieved by sacrificing the essential ingredient of existence, time.

“There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.”

The mysteries of the divine.

Found in the architecture of time spent searching. hat a succulent needs is minimal, but is crucial for survival. I’m not sure, but I think the healthiest plants I have are potted with others. I know some people talk to their plants. I don’t know what they say. Some people play music for their plants. I’ve been unable to determine which genres my succulents like. I do know that cacti don’t like being on top of speakers from which any genre plays at a high volume due to moments of vibration-induced levitation and a five-foot-four drop to the floor.

By now I’ve twice and thrice over learned that what I knew as indisputable law was either partial truth or outright misinformation. I’m less radical in my gardener preaching. Many fertilizers lead to a fulfilling crop.

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eaning back to take in my basket of succulents, holding it out at arm’s length, I see how it all fits together. I see where the eschevarias are too crowded. I see where I didn’t dig deep enough for the Jade. I see that my plan for the stringof-pearls to wrap around the others makes them look tangled.

But I remember how each motion is tied to a memory. The succulents themselves are pretty but the arrangement holds the story. This is what I know about the art and purpose of plant arranging: several, maybe more, seperate images of beauty, attached and arranged so that together they become something else. Each is a gift of beauty on its own. Together they create dialogue. By directing your attention one way or another, the pot of plants takes on new meaning.

But no matter how they’re planted, the pot is only a still shot of their creation. They are meditation vignettes.

The

Loneliest

inanimate objects at

ufv g

Number four will make you cry for literally days on end Written by: Jeff Mijo-Burch

Summer on a university campus is a peaceful time. People are around, but they’re scattered, quiet, and unusually relaxed. There are no crowds, and aside from a few peak times, you can see the school in a whole new light.

For someone visiting UFV, it’s a calming environment. But have you ever considered the other side of that calm? For the less animate parts of our campus, the summer can be a lonely time. To raise awareness of the difficulties of this annual isolation, The Cascade presents our list of the lonely objects at UFV.

1. This door that begs for affection When we’re lonely, many of us crawl inward, curling up in our beds to quietly cry to sleep. But for others, that isn’t an option. Take this poor door, for example.

It has no bed, and in fact can neither curl nor cry — but it can cry for help, in its own unique way. It hasn’t been opened for nearly two months, because the few people who pass by take advantage of the always-empty elevators. So it manifested a plea to all passers-by to pay some attention, to give it what it needs more than anything: to feel the impact of panicked, late students’ shoulders ramming into it once more.

2. The most worthless vending machine Maybe when fall comes, and thousands of students fill these halls, this vending machine will be just as filled with money. But for now, the solitary machine selling a small selection of drinks (and no snacks) on the bridge connecting buildings B and D, doesn’t feel the love.

It’s receded into a dark corner, its light meekly calling out, asking for anyone to notice it, but nobody does. It considers spontaneously lowering its prices, but it fears even that won’t make anyone buy its drinks — because that would require someone to even spare it a glance.

3. Book displaced by the juggernaut that is print media Newspapers are dying, they say. “They” have clearly never walked the halls of UFV, where abandoned textbooks litter the halls, discarded, unwanted, and outdated, while issues of The Cascade festoon the doors to the rooms that once cared for them. And we get it — The Cascade is amazing. But your heart can’t help but break as it sees these books which, while not featuring the amazing variety of intelligent and/or hilarious content as The Cascade, still probably took someone a bit of time to put together and are treated as worthless, disposable entertainment.

4. Bucket Corner “Where are the crowds of students that once congregated around me?” cries the mournful landmark, once beloved as the go-to meeting place for countless students. “Why have they abandoned me for the malls and hiking trails? Don’t they know that summer is the best time to hang out at school?” Its pleas go unanswered, save for a few nearby crows who eye it, wondering if it holds something they can eat. But just as Bucket Corner itself feels nothing but the bitter stench of rejection, the crows will find only a solitary cigarette butt.

5. The gravel parking lot we never really liked anyway Okay, so the rest of these entries are tragedies, yes, but it’s hard to feel sorry for this dumb parking lot. I know it keeps saying it misses the hustle and bustle of cars trying to decide whether or not there’s enough space for them between two giant trucks, and the adrenaline rush of near crashes as new drivers try to navigate its lawless wasteland, but who cares. Its dumb gravel just gets stuck in our shoes and all over the carpet of our cars, it’s too far from everything but C building, and the potholes are going to swallow our Canada geese one of these days. This parking lot deserves all the loneliness it gets. Maybe that’ll teach it a lesson.

6. This sign being slowly engulfed by the untamed foliage UFV is proud of its green initiatives, such as the energy efficient SUB, electric car charging stations, and the expanding number of compost bins around the campus. But the newest plan, to let the ravenous plant life run rampant and even consume the man-made signage as fuel for its soon-to-be unstoppable growth, shows real forward thinking. While these plants are barely twice as tall as a person now, if allowed to feast upon nutritious steel like this sign, they will grow larger quickly. A proposal has been put forward to present U-House as an offering for the voracious vegetables so that they may expedite their expansion, but the senate has not yet come to a conclusion on that heated debate.

7. The Canoe Is there anything sadder than seeing a once-flourishing business closed due to low demand? Okay, I say flourishing, I know it supposedly ran a $88,000 deficit this fiscal year, but the food is good. Well, I said it’s good, but I only ever get the fries, because they’re cheap, and I’m trying to watch what I eat somewhat. And honestly I’ve only had them twice. So maybe flourishing is the wrong word. It’s sad to see a onceopen business closed for the summer. That’s better. I’m sure it’ll be happy again in the fall, as long as no competitors — especially a large, recognizable restaurant chain — open up with offerings of not only fries, but also delicious milkshakes.

8. Sasq’ets With convocation over and the sports done for the summer, it’s time for UFV’s beloved mascot to go into its storage cave to hibernate until the fall. Of course, as a mascot, Sasq’ets can neither close its eyes nor sleep, so this lovable and not-at-all creepy face is trapped, tucked away in a safe, secure location to wait for fresh new students to fall under its spell. Until then, it waits, watching, planning, hungering. Actually, about that last one … I wonder if someone should have fed it? Eh, I’m sure starving this creature for the next few months won’t lead to any negative long-term consequences when it gets released for new student orientation.

CULTURE

Cassie de Jong — Culture Editor culture@ufvcascade.ca

Community Events //

Preview: The 29th annual Mission Folk Festival CASSIE DE JONG CULTURE & EVENTS EDITOR

The dedication of Fraser Valley residents to the growing music industry is consistently astounding. Especially during our summer season, there seems to be a local music show on every corner, displaying the natural talent we have to boast. An upcoming opportunity of note for music lovers to celebrate and enjoy a plethora of talent is the 29th annual Mission Folk Festival happening this July 20 to 22.

According to the festival’s website, the Mission Folk Music Festival is produced by the Mission Folk Music Festival Society, who are a registered non-profit organization that presents this festival among other events. The society aims to provide world-class music to the Fraser Valley, to challenge and entertain the Fraser Valley community, and to provide a wonderful community event that residents can enjoy year after year.

The festival’s website also mentions that they will feature “music from across Canada and around the world,” such as Noreum Machi from Korea, and Matt Gordon, who currently resides in Ireland.

The Mission Folk Festival made a few changes in 2016 to present a smaller, more intimate feel to the festival. This year they are bringing back the three-day stages, but intend to retain the intimacy, and they want to encourage interaction between artists and their audiences.

“The 29th annual event will definitely be a departure from past years,” says the festival’s general manager, Michelle DemersShaevitz. “The festival will have a more intimate feel both in terms of size and scope.

We’ll be smaller but with the same commitment to artistic excellence and eclectic

programming, with the heart and passion that has carried this much-loved festival through these many years.”

As a thank you to the community for supporting them over the years, the Mission Folk Music Festival Society has declared that admission to the festival on Friday and Sunday is by donation or “pay what you can.”

The Friday evening will feature a couple of acts in the evening to get attendees riled up for the biggest day of the event. Saturday will offer both a main and side stage, as well as participatory workshops, the art market, and lots of food. The final day has rousing gospel sessions scheduled, and the last of the activities will take place off-site at Mission’s Historic Dewdney Pub. According to Demers-Shaevitz, the festival’s biggest draw for students will include acts such as The Matinée, Pharis & Jason Romero, Twin Bandit, and Braden Gates.

The full festival line-up is currently available on the event’s website. In addition to the musicians, the fun atmosphere and artisan marketplace are indeed worthy attractions. The marketplace this year will feature 20 booths full of beautiful and interesting goods.

Students can get involved behind the scenes by volunteering with the Mission Folk Music Festival Society. The event staff are more than happy to set up volunteers with jobs that align with an individual’s interests, skill sets, or career choice. Organizers are specifically looking for students who can volunteer with production, on-site tasks, and manning the info booth or “Wee Folks” area. Letters confirming volunteer service are available to those who may need them. To learn more about volunteering and other event information contact info@missionfolk.ca

g n i r i h e r ' e W

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he CAscade is accepting appLications for an

Editor-in-Chief

If you are an excellent writer, visionary, and leader (or good at pretending), you might have what it takes to valiantly lead The Cascade to new heights.

Applications can be sent to cat@ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Berry happy to have you!

Abbotsford hosts 37th annual BerryFest

Cherries and blueberries at Berry Fest. (Jen Klassen/The Cascade)

JEN KLASSEN FEATURES EDITOR

This past weekend, on July 7, Abbotsford held its 37th annual BerryFest. Downtown Abbotsford saw its fair share of festival goers, intermingling amongst stalls of coffee, pies, games, and rides. Hosted by Aldergrove Credit Union and the Downtown Abbotsford Business Association, the community celebrated our favourite item to grow; the berry.

The festival ran along the streets of Montrose and Essendene, and smack dab in the middle of the cross streets, under the brightly-coloured ferris wheel, sat the Berry Market, featuring Lepp Farms, and Neufeld Farms, hawking bulbous blueberries, juicy cherries, tart raspberries, and voluptuous blackberries.

Abbotsford is the raspberry and blueberry capital of Canada. Therefore, every year an event is held to celebrate this fact.

The Berry Festival is a time to enjoy historic Downtown Abbotsford with family, friends, and neighbours.

Among the festivities was a petting zoo, put on by Wild Education, featuring creatures such as tortoises and snakes. Children and adults alike were drawn to these odd animals fenced in to pet and enjoy.

Continuing down the street, onlookers saw happy faces peeking out of the “Berry Go Round,” and the ferris wheel.

Food trucks peppered the streets, and the smells of bannock, waffles, and the sweet scent of flavoured syrup from shaved ice wafted to passersby. Once sufficiently filled with berries and baked goods, participation in carnival games was a must, especially when the prizes were blow up swords or inflatable aliens.

The day began with opening remarks, and a pie eating contest, in which Mayor Henry Braun participated with gumption alongside several community members.

As the day progressed, there was a berry gardening demonstration given by Brian Minter, owner of Minter Country Garden Store in Chilliwack, alongside his wife, Faye.

Marina Gibson, who spoke at TEDxChilliwack, spoke on urban gardening.

Gibson is the garden manager of “The Garden Project,” an urban garden which is sponsored by Abbotsford Community Services.

There was sidewalk chalk put on by Little Bean and Co, complete with an adorable painted Boler Trailer, face painting by Rainbow Faces, and a Euro Bungee station distributed amongst the vendor booths of local businesses. Children ran amok with various characters on their cheeks, and hands covered in the colours of their imaginations.

People on stilts towered over the event, magicians intermingled with the public, and the sound of laughter and enjoyment wafted on the cool breeze of the day. While overcast, the day was far from dull.

The main stage saw five bands throughout the afternoon and into the evening, including a Bob Marley-esque band, and an Elvis impersonator. Children danced and enjoyed the groovy beats put out by the visiting musicians.

This year over 6,000 attendees were expected according to Downtown Abbotsford’s website page dedicated to the event.

“BerryFest has become a much-anticipated annual summer tradition in Downtown Abbotsford and it just keeps on growing every year,” said Gerry Palmer, president of the Downtown Abbotsford Business Association in an interview with the Abbotsford News.

If you missed the festivities this year, be sure to mark it on your calendar for next summer. It’s a berry good time — you won’t want to miss.

13

CULTURE

Poetry

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Café Terrace at Night: Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Bridging the Gap

The electric buzz of conversation; words pass between friends like jolly ranchers through open mouths, float past bedroom lighting into thick, hot darkness.

Open windows blaze with light, flung wide to let the breeze seep in but

The seconds spent in the city are only a fraction what’s down the alleys where the lights don’t reach? of the time it takes before flying into a tangent Neon signs above Stygian doorways, from the chaos. The distance between cities are relative, a blouse discarded beneath a street sign, and I become overwhelmed by the way my energy reaches a limit. shadows of bodies moving in time Sometimes, I have to stop to rest on a fallen log to a sybaritic rhythm? in the forest. Here, I allow myself to become divided.

Do you hear the low bass thrum I gaze at the swirled shell of a snail with attention divided the hedonists sway to? between the creature and the veined intricacies of the fractionedoff leaves. A sea of fungi fairy-circled by a hollow log Do you hear the libertine lovers singing echoes the quick chirps of birds whistling off above in a tangent, sweet nothings under the bridge? as they soar up and up until their wings inevitably reach their limit.

Even the distance between the birds and the stars are relative.

-Cat Friesen When you think about species, they’re all just relatives.

Family trees of offspring continuously dividing down the different domains of life. The number of species don’t have a limit, and the creatures we see around us are only a small fraction of our vast ecosystem that scientists explicate in tangents.

Sitting with my ass squishing the moss almost makes me feel sorry for the log that’s decaying beneath me. I jump up before the collapse of the log, as my phone chirps from my pocket. I answer to one of my relatives rambling off a mash of unintelligible words in a tangent, while I think about how phones make our interactions feel somehow more divided.

Family is vast, but the ones you know well are only a fraction; even just a few of them are enough to test my limits.

When I’m out of breath and my lungs reach a certain limit, my legs freeze up and I’m forced to rest on another fallen log.

The space between my lungs and the cold air is only a fraction of the distance it takes before my inhaler hits my lungs where air-pressure is relative.

In the forest, when a tree falls, it breaks apart, becomes divided.

When they fall to the ground, the way they fall upon mounds of dirt is tangent.

Mushroom caps and water droplets: every curve grazes invisible tangents.

In the city I become restricted, yet out here I feel that nothing has a limit.

When the right side of my brain moves the left side of my body, my physiology seems divided.

The hours I have spent beneath the trees are numbers that don’t need to be kept in a log.

After all, ocher, flowers, pine, dew, crickets, and even myself are strictly relative; and if everything said above is wrong, I’m only overestimating by a fraction.

-Laurel Logan

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STUDY BREAK Crossword //

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2018 Made by Cassie de Jong ACROSS 3: A medical practitioner who specifically works with children. (UK Spelling) 4: An arrangement of the chemical elements organized in order of atomic number, usually in rows.

5: Figure from Greek mythology who turned people to stone with her eyes.

6: Italian city near Mount Vesuvius.

LAST ISSUE’S ANSWERS: Across:

Down:

2: Oahu

1: Shirley Temple 2: Oath 3: Hydrophobia 5: Yellowstone 6: Omen 13: Iris 14: Atom

4: Typo 7: Tide 8: Aloe 9: Othello 10: Jeep

7: Northernmost state of America.

11: Wham

8: A white, rectangular, heavy base that supports a statue or vase.

12: Hostess

9: An amusement park ride that consists of a light railroad track with many turns or loops.

15: Ruby 16: Loft 17: Swan 18: Helm

10: A person who was involved in a modernist movement in poetry and painting, such as Wassily Kandinsky or Franz Marc.

DOWN 1: A sudden halt of function of the heart.

2: The fear of spiders.

Horoscopes //

Illustration by: Amara Gelaude Astrological mysteries rudely interpreted by Lady May

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 A thrilling time is in your immediate future.

This may or may not mean that you are destined to ride one too many roller coasters at Playland and lose the overpriced deep-fried Mars bars you regretted eating. A word to the wise: not everything is safe to deep fry.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 Only listen to this horoscope, disregard any other predictions on your future. There is something evil afoot among your peers, and there may be someone trying to steer your path off course. It would be best to ignore all advice until you hear back from me.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 You will take a chance on something this month. Just remember to put a helmet on before you do. Healthcare in Canada may be universal, but that doesn’t mean you’ll particularly enjoy having all of your limbs put in casts for free.

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 Smiling often can make you look younger and happier. It’s good to keep up a happy outward appearance when going through the process of contracting yet another debilitating student loan. Remember that we are here for you.

The Cascade office has couches and an N64.

Please hang out with us.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 Some people dream of fame and fortune, others dream of peanut butter cookies. You’ve been up to some baking recently, haven’t you?

If not, it’s time to get cracking. Seriously, this is a sure-fire way to earn the adoration and respect you deserve from your friends and family.

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 Lately you’ve stepped in to help in a lot of instances when no one else would. Your actions are appreciated, but be careful. Too many of your friends are starting to notice your good deeds. Soon you’ll be volunteered to help this, that, and your other friend, and you’ll have no more time left for yourself!

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 It’s summertime! Which means wedding season is just around the corner. (If you haven’t been swept up by it already.) You will witness a ceremony this summer that will inspire you, and you may discover the love of your life. Pro tip: they’re usually hanging out by the buffet.

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 This week you will be challenged by a big project that may mean a lot for your career.

Be extra wary of distractions, and try not to pick up your phone unless it’s, say, Ryan Reynolds or Meryl Streep calling.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 You will live long enough to read many horoscopes, but this one may be the most important one you’ll ever read. Listen to me very closely when I say to you: … Never listen to anything I tell you. You’ve never met me.

I could be a pineapple-on-pizza-eating cave troll for all you know.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 You have an exciting evening with friends planned in the near future. What a perfect opportunity for things to go south. Bar up your windows and put extra locks on all your doors to prevent a horror-movie-like situation.

Maybe I’ve been watching too many horror films …

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 My advice for Aquarians recently has been “Hard work pays off in the future: Netflix pays off now.” Sure, you could spend tonight working on that paper you’ve got due in two weeks. Or, you could totally re-watch all of Stranger Things. The choice is yours. (But I would go with the latter.)

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 I see that you have been struggling as of late.

Take a break from those pesky papers and assignments you have piling up, and focus on yourself for a moment. Have a bath, light a candle, and remember that this too shall pass.

Student life gives all of us the feels once in a while.

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ARTS

Martin Castro — Arts Editor

arts@ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Movie Review //

CHARTS 1

BERNICE PUFF: IN THE AIR WITHOUT A SHAPE

2

COURTNEY BARNETT NAMELESS, FACELESS

3

SERPENTWITHFEET SOIL

4

LIÉ HOUNDS

5

FROG EYES VIOLET PSALMS

6

SEBASTIAN PLANO PRESERVATION

7

NEKO CASE HELL-ON

8

JO PASSED THEIR PRIME

9

BIG HARP GEORGE UPTOWN COOL

10

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS SPARKLE HARD

11

PEACH KELLI POP GENTLE LEADER

12

FATHER JOHN MISTY GOD’S FAVORITE CUSTOMER

13

PRADA WEST CLOUDED THOUGHTS

14

TONGUE HELMET THE BRAIN ON FIRE EP

15

YUKON BLONDE CRITICAL HIT

16

LOANS SELF-LOANING

17

MERKULES THIS AGAIN

18

THE MYSTERY OF THE BULGARIAN VOICES BOOCHEEMISH

19

MATTY T WALL SIDEWINDER

20

BONJAY LUSH LIFE

16

SHUFFLE

Unlike stormtroopers, Solo hits the mark Solo is more than backstory

AARON LEVY CIVL STATION MANAGER

CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy is excited about the new project just announced by CIVL, and all of the great opportunities for students and other volunteers to participate in studio recordings at the station! More info at www.civl.ca 54-40 — “Lies To Me” An acoustic recording with “new” guitarist Dave Genn, formerly of the Matthew Good Band (who didn’t appear on the original recording of this classic) came out of the band’s April visit to the CIVL studio right here at UFV’s Abbotsford campus, and boy does it ever sound the best.

The Balconies — “Kill Count” In listening to a four-monthold rerun on CIVL this month, I heard this song. Funny thing is it was Neon Brown’s 10th anniversary episode, and 10 years ago the song was performed live in the studio when I was a Guelph, Ontarion at CFRU 93.3 FM. The Mohawk Lodge — “Heart of Lovers” The first song ever performed live in the studio on said radio station mentioned above during my tenure on the 1s and 2s, and it’s actually a band from right here in the Lower Mainland, from a tour they did out east with another VanCity band called Octoberman back in 2007.

Bif Naked — “Moment of Weakness” Bif didn’t play live in the CIVL studio back when she stopped into the C building space a few years back on a speaking tour after being awarded an honorary degree at UFV convocation, though I did catch her in Chilliwack separately with TARL at the excellent Chilliwack Cultural Centre.

MIKAELA COLLINS MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

After December’s controversial The Last Jedi, fans were skeptical about Disney’s ability to produce another Star Wars prequel that would do justice to Han Solo, arguably the most iconic character from its new pet franchise. Solo is a space Western that follows its titular character as he escapes from the hard streets of Corellia and tries to return to save his girlfriend, Qi’ra. After becoming indebted to the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn, he turns to a cast of criminals and hustlers to win their freedom by stealing spaceship fuel. Solo flopped at the box office and has received varied reviews from fans and critics alike, but it has more to offer than it’s gotten credit for.

I really enjoyed Solo — the action was exciting and well-directed, and the new settings made me want to jump in and swim around. The characters were fun with (mostly) clever dialogue and it was a joy to watch them interact. Alden Ehrenreich’s evocation of Harrison Ford reminds viewers of the original Star Wars without being a distracting impersonation, and Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian can only be described as effervescent. My favourite character was Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s L3, a brash, sarcastic droid who rebels against her organic overlords. She doesn’t have a face, but her blunt humour and gangly design is expressive and instantly endearing. Her droid rebellion scene is a moment of raucous joy for both L3 and the audience, who are treated to gleeful mayhem that feels straight out of an 80s kids movie as well as the satisfaction of seeing L3 fulfill her calling.

Solo’s troubled production sometimes peeks through, and while I took fan service as a given going in, it still came across a little stilted. Glaringly, its treatment of female characters is not great, as both Beckett’s no-nonsense partner Val and L3 are fridged — killed to spur their male counterparts’ character development — to no effect. L3’s droid rights storyline is treated as a joke and muddles the movie’s theme instead of reinforcing it, and Qi’ra is a pillbox hat and one shade of lipstick away from being a femme fatale. Despite all this, Solo is still more than just enjoyable; it works with its context in the franchise, and tries to reframe the original Han Solo in a meaningful way.

Stories we remember and internalize are ones that show us a new image of life. Solo does this by refining the familiar virtue of being selfless towards others into, specifically, helping marginalized people, even if it means we ourselves will be pushed to the margins. Early in the film, Han resigns himself to a life of crime and debt for Qi’ra, and at the end, he risks placing a Crimson Dawn bounty on his head to help an oppressed group of strangers. This is a new portrayal of heroism for Star Wars; Luke Skywalker helped others, but he did so by struggling towards victory. In Solo, Han leaps from victory — escaping Corellia first, then winning a fat paycheck from Dryden Voss — into struggle. Han doesn’t get a medal and a kiss, even though it’s clear he does the right thing. Solo succeeds in updating the theme of a Star Wars movie, and does so less abrasively than The Last Jedi, leaving the core of Han Solo’s character — that of a charming, space cowboy / smug-

gler — intact, if not unexamined.

Solo comments on the archetypal action hero by using Han’s criminal mentor, Becket, as a foil.

Han is driven by compassion for Qi’ra and a need for independence (rather than dominance), and is emotionally accessible to other characters and the audience; we’re shown multiple close-ups of Han simply being moved emotionally, by flying over the mountains, jumping to hyperspace, even observing affection between Val and Beckett. Conversely, Beckett is violent, controlling, and dispassionate. These are all traits associated with toxic masculinity, and because of them, Beckett bears more than a passing resemblance to Han in Episode IV. The beginning of Han’s arc towards the Han Solo of old is clear at the end of the climax when, finally, a direct parallel is drawn between the two incarnations, and we see how Solo’s Han has become more like Beckett.

It’s a gutting moment.

Solo is neither a radical treatise on the responsibilities of privileged non-oppressors to the oppressed, nor a feminist opus on positive masculinity. It does, however, paint a striking, timely picture of heroism and reframes the essence of the original Han Solo as a facade, re-contextualizing his cavalier personality as an unfortunate and regrettable consequence of trauma. Which is more interesting a statement than anything I expected.

At its heart, Solo is a flawed but fun and appealing action movie with a great cast that gently tests the moulds of its genre and its franchise. I recommend giving it a fair shake.

ARTS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2018

Album Review //

Ghost’s Prequelle is an echo of their once great narrative portrayed by lead singer Tobias Forge named Papa Emeritus, CULTURE & EVENTS EDITOR who is accompanied by his Since the release of their first anonymous Nameless Ghouls. full studio album Opus Epony- In each album thus far, Papa mous in 2010, Swedish hard has been “reincarnated” and rock band Ghost has been appears with a new image and climbing high on the alterna- slightly different sound. Pretive metal ladder. Albums such quelle marks a turning point, as 2013’s Infestissumam and in which Ghost’s narrative 2015’s Meliora earned them has killed off Papa Emeritus, worldwide success, and even a and Cardinal Copia has taken Grammy for Meliora’s hit single his place. So far, the Cardinal shows promise, but he has yet “Cirice.”

Ghost’s alternative image has to live up to his predecessors.

The band’s identities had reset them apart in the industry as a devilish novelty. Fans of Mer- mained mostly a secret until cyful Fate have found life again the past year. Recently, there in this band. Their lyrics weave have been some unfortunate intricate stories about the oc- legal battles regarding Tobias cult and a fantastical character Forge and the former Name-

CASSIE DE JONG

less Ghouls. In 2017, the ex-Ghouls revealed their identities and filed lawsuits against Forge, claiming he cheated them out of profits between 2011 and 2016. In light of this controversy, fans were shocked and pleasantly surprised when Ghost announced the upcoming release of a new full-fledged studio album, if a little skeptical.

In addition to a new set of ghouls, Prequelle features three singles: “Rats,” “Faith,” and “Dance Macabre.” Metaphorical themes surrounding the black plague are consistent throughout the album, and there seem to be a few moments where the album’s lyrics are clearly pointed at the ex-Ghouls. In the chorus of “See the Light,” Cardinal Copia sings out “Every day that you feed me with hate I grow stronger.”

The transitions in-between major tracks still retain the same theatrical quality as in previous albums. Giant pipe organs sound off after “Faith” and provide the pause needed before transitioning into a slower song like “See the Light.”

Ghost is known for their short,

Album Review //

Father John Misty returns with a stronger Messiah complex EDINA BALLINT CONTRIBUTOR

In God’s Favorite Customer, his most recent album, singer-songwriter Josh Tillman, also known as Father John Misty, elaborates on his tumultuous journey to fame and his repressed childhood growing up in the Christian town of Rockville, Maryland. Carrying over with the religious zeal from Pure Comedy, his preceding album, Tillman explores philosophical questions about humanity and God through a sincere and heartfelt performance.

However, God’s Favorite Customer brings an alternative rock sound to Father John Misty’s music compared to the folk-blues tracks found on Pure Comedy. Nevertheless, most songs on the new album still retain a melodic piano accompaniment, which supplements Tillman’s raspy vocals.

The 10-track LP tells the story of a man in search of spiritual wellness, and how materialistic prosperity does not guarantee happiness. The song “God’s Favorite Customer” after which the album was named reveals Tillman’s personal struggles in choosing a career and in understanding the role of religion in his life. Tillman manages to grab his audience’s attention by posing these universal dilemmas.

Before pursuing music, Tillman considered becoming a pastor, and consequently put all of his energy into following the tenets of his Pentecostal faith.

After listening to the entirety of God’s Favorite Customer I felt as though I had taken an introspective philosophy class. As the trajec-

tory of the album exhibits, Tillman rediscovers his desire for spirituality through music and love. What makes this album unique is Tillman’s excessive narcissism which is displayed through his frank lyrics. One song is even named after himself, “Mr. Tillman,” and it highlights the personal crisis he endured in the middle of producing this album.

After listening to the first couple of tracks I immediately felt drawn into the anxieties and disappointments that Tillman describes in regards to being a songwriter. Despite being gifted with the ability to make music, Tillman feels as though he has lost out on romantic love, which might be the opposite of what his listeners expect. In “Just Dumb Enough To Try” he unpacks how obnoxious being a musician can be when you unsuccessfully try to serenade your lover. Like the majority of Father John Misty’s songs, “Just Dumb Enough To Try” carries with it a sarcastic and witty tone as Tillman reflects on his personal successes and failures.

In a general overview of God’s Favorite Customer, the album reveals Father John Misty’s reflective and wistful aspirations as an artist. Marked by volatile experiences and emotions, Josh Tillman shares his life story through candid lyrics and irregular melodies. Through unpacking each track, it becomes evident that Father John Misty attempts to connect with his listeners on an intimate level, especially as he details his romantic relationships and religious convictions.

atmospheric quips, but this is the first album of theirs to feature two full-length, instrumental-only tracks. Both “Miasma” and “Helvetesfönster” force the listener to take a break from the lyrics and focus on their new sound, which is definitely a departure from previous albums. It incorporates some classic ‘80s rock, including fuzzy synths and even a sassy saxophone solo at the end of “Miasma,” which is one of the album’s few saving graces.

Despite all of the discernible strong points in the album, Prequelle can easily be considered their weakest release since Opus Eponymous. The singles are the only engaging tracks, which leaves the rest of the album feeling dry and forgettable.

Although the decision to include instrumentals “Miasma” and “Helvetesfönster” was a bold one, it may not have been the best move. On Prequelle, Ghost seem too focused on sounding different than they did on previous albums, and forget what made fans fall in

love with them in the first place.

Though present at times, their core concept — the diabolical nature of the band — seems to be lacking here. Instead, we receive an echo of what they’ve already presented to us in previous years.

In the past, Ghost have structured their albums with calculated expertise. They managed to hold a listener’s interest the whole way through. Prequelle wastes all its decent tracks in the first half, dooming the final 20 minutes to straight filler. It is possible that Prequelle may have thrived as an EP. If Ghost had released all the singles of this album as a smaller, stronger collection, it could have been the stepping stone they needed while they waited for the lawsuit controversy to die down.

All in all, Prequelle could have been way worse, but it leaves fans itching for a sequelle that’s a little less style over substance.

Album Review //

NIN’s Bad Witch conjures up a brew of spellbinding darkness KAT MARUSIAK COPY EDITOR

Nine Inch Nails’ new misanthropic masterpiece Bad Witch was officially released on June 22. The highly-anticipated offering is the final instalment of an interconnected trilogy, following 2016’s Not the Actual Events and 2017’s Add Violence. Although all three were originally slated to be EPs, Bad Witch eventually evolved into a full-length album (albeit on the shorter side at 31 minutes) that feels simultaneously rough and yet refined while introducing new experimental elements and angles to the familiar gritty, industrial sounds and bleak, somber tones the band is known for.

Starting off strong with a steady, buzzing beat, introspective opener “Shit Mirror” encourages us to reflect on both ourselves and our world, even though we may not like what we see staring back at us. At one point a sharp and sudden break to near-silence hits like a brick, followed by Reznor repeating “New world / New times / Mutation / Feels alright,” eventually singing in different ways layered together, increasing in urgency as the rhythm builds and creating a slight sense of unease that seems to grow along with the storm.

“Shit Mirror” then sharply transitions to the next song, “Ahead Of Ourselves,” a heavy and belligerent track with a hazy overlay. The lyrics convey a cynical, unimpressed opinion of humanity, with Reznor delivering some lines in a weary or sarcastic way while angrily shouting others in biting bursts

of rage: “Obsolete, insignificant / Antiquated, irrelevant / Celebration of ignorance / Why try to change when you know you can’t?” Electricity crackles almost tangibly.

Exceptional use of the saxophone is made throughout the album, something Reznor hasn’t played around with very much in quite some time. It’s found both weaved into the background as well as coming to the forefront, such as on the instrumental third track, “Play the Goddamned Part,” which integrates some familiar flavours from past pieces and blends them with new ones, incorporating all kinds of different instrumental effects, and on the following “God Break Down The Door,” a haunting piece that feels very Bowie-inspired, both in the music and Reznor’s vocals; the track could be a Bside of Blackstar. The sax howls mournfully as Reznor croons deep and smooth: “You won’t find the answers here / Not the ones you came looking for.” The other instruments come crashing back in full force and his voice lowers. “Remove the pain or push it back in.”

“I’m Not From This World” feels fittingly otherworldly at times. A pulsing base line slowly burns into a chaotic, almost alien cacophony that still holds an obvious method to its madness, dark and hypnotic like a shower of dissonant raindrops beating down and drenching you in their dystopian rhythm.

The practically palpable atmosphere the song creates would certainly provide some suitably unsettling ambience if used as background music in a sci-fi

horror film or video game. (Unsurprising, as Reznor and fellow band member Atticus Ross have also had great success outside of NIN composing often harrowing musical scores.)

This unnerving quality is traded for a more subdued but also surreal one, with more plunky percussion following alongside in the final track, “Over and Out,” awash in white noise. “Time is running out,” Reznor muses, “I don’t know what I’m waiting for.” These lines, joined by others intermingling, echo, soft and subtle, and eventually disappear, followed in a similar manner by the music, intensifying once more before slowly dissipating into the void.

Bad Witch is a raw, aggressive flirtation with nihilism at times and at others a spiraling acid house bass trip through jazzy starfields. The interconnected series as a whole is a culmination of both melancholic personal examination of who they’ve become, as well as a reflection on and of the rest of society around them. “It feels like things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally,” as Reznor described it during an interview with the Guardian. “The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism; the celebration of stupidity. I’m ashamed, on a world stage, at what we must look like as a culture.” Ross also explained that the album is “a reflection on the way we are now in the world we live in now, and the scary things in America. A dark journey.”

Dark, but travelled with a cold determination to keep fighting while moving forward.

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The Cascade Events Calendar Community UFV Events Music Art Culture

JulyAugust

Note: Some of these events require tickets, most are on Facebook.

If something catches your eye, take to the internet for more details.

JULY 11

JULY 14

JULY 15

JULY 19

The 26th Annual Stó:lō Children’s Festival @ 7201 Vedder Road (Chilliwack) 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Mill Lake Cruise In 2018 @ Mill Lake Park (Abbotsford) 8:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m.

Iron Mountain Music Festival @ 29110 Matheson Ave. (Mission) 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Secrets of the Herbal Garden @ Devan Greenhouses (Abbotsford) 10:00 - 11:30 p.m.

Fraser Valley Pride Celebration 2018: Pride Festival & Walk @ Jubilee Park (Abbotsford) Noon - 4:00 p.m.

Molly Gray Art @ Mission Arts Centre, 1:00 p.m.

Fraser Valley Pride Celebration 2018 Dinner and Variety Show @ Abbotsford Arts Centre Arts Addition, 5:30 p.m. Midnight Brian O’Brien @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Knudson & Connaughton Official EP Release featuring Ryan & Ryan @ The Stage in Mission, 8:00 11:00 p.m.

Cat Lover’s Garden Party @ 32331 Dewdney Trunk Rd (Mission) 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Music at the Park @ Kariton Art Gallery (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Iron Mountain Music Festival @ 29110 Matheson Ave (Mission) 9:00 a.m. 11:00 p.m.

The Staggers and Jaggs @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Jam in Jubilee 2018 Week 2 @ Jubilee Park (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Declan O’Donavan @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Opening Night: The Hunchback of Notre Dame @ The Chilliwack Cultural Centre, 7:30 - 10:00 p.m.

Shaun Rawlins & Tyler Bartfai @ Field House Brewing Co. (Abbotsford) 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.

JULY 12 Jam in Jubilee 2018 Week 1 @ Jubilee Park (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Ryan McNally @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

JULY 13 Fraser Valley Pride Celebration 2018: Youth Dance & Drag Show @ Abbotsford Arts Centre, 7:00 - 11:00 p.m.

JULY 20

JULY 16 Publication Launch & Panel Discussion @ The Reach Gallery Museum (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

JULY 17 Sunset Market in the Park @ Fraser River Heritage Park (Mission) 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

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Cat Lover’s Garden Party @ 32331 Dewdney Trunk Rd (Mission) 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Music at the Park @ Kariton Art Gallery (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Iron Mountain Music Festival @ 29110 Matheson Ave (Mission) 9:00 a.m. 11:00 p.m.

The Staggers and Jaggs @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

JULY 21 Cultural Exchange: A Curated Second-Hand Market @ Thunderbird Memorial Square (Abbotsford) 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

31st Annual Mission Folk Music Festival @ Fraser River Heritage Park (Mission) 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Airneanach Traditional Song & Celtic Music Fest @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 3:00 - 11:00 p.m.

JULY 22 31st Annual Mission Folk Music Festival @ Fraser River Heritage Park (Mission) 11:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Ravens Brewing Paint & Sip @ Ravens Brewing Company (Abbotsford) 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Western Family String Band @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 3:00 6:00 p.m.

Rachael Cardiello @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

JULY 23

AUG 3

AUG 11

AUG 17

Ridley Bent @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Abbotsford Agrifair @ Exhibition Park (Abbotsford) 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Stiletto @ Captain’s Cabin Pub (Mission) 8:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.

JULY 26

AUG 4

Paint n Take - Acrylics w/ Nan Newman @ House of Fine Art (Abbotsford) 11:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m.

Skye Wallace with Songwriters Guy Tour @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Jam in Jubilee 2018 Week 3 @ Jubilee Park (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Abbotsford Agrifair @ Exhibition Park (Abbotsford) 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Abbotsford Airshow @ Abbotsford Airport, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

The Chilliwack Fair @ 7590 Lickman Road (Chilliwack) 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

AUG 12

AUG 18

Abbotsford Airshow @ Abbotsford Airport, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

The Chilliwack Fair @ 7590 Lickman Road (Chilliwack) 10:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.

Rock Lovers Roundup @ 32470 Haida Drive (Abbotsford) 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

JULY 31

AUG 5

AUG 14

AUG 28

Mid Summer Mead Fest @ Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm & Meadery (Abbotsford) 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Abbotsford Agrifair @ Exhibition Park (Abbotsford) 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Ah-mazing Race, British Columbia @ Chilliwack Corn Maze, 9:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m.

Sunset Market in the Park @ Fraser River Heritage Park (Mission) 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Stop Drawing w/Your Brush W/Glenn Tait @ House of Fine Art (Abbotsford) 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.

The Cult, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush - Revolution 3 Tour @ Abbotsford Centre, 6:00 p.m.

AUG 2 Jam in Jubilee 2018 Week 4 @ Jubilee Park (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.

AUG 10 The Chilliwack Fair @ 7590 Lickman Road (Chilliwack) 10:00 a.m. 9:00 p.m.

Abbotsford Airshow @ Abbotsford Airport, 3:00 10:30 p.m.

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hey *you’re a Star.