The Cascade Vol. 26 Issue 23

OCTOBER 3 TO OCTOBER 10, 2018

VOLUME 26 ISSUE 23

Born at age six without a face since 1993

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Production Manager Caleb Campbell caleb@ufvcascade.ca

Jr. News Editor Edina Balint edina@ufvcascade.ca

Production Assistant Renée Campbell renee@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Jeff Mijo-Burch jeff@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

Features Editor Jen Klassen jen@ufvcascade.ca

Social Media Writer Laurel Logan laurel@ufvcascade.ca Multimedia Editor Mikaela Collins mikaela@ufvcascade.ca Illustrator Kayt Hine kayt@ufvcascade.ca Illustrator Simer Haer simer@ufvcascade.ca

Culture & Events Editor Cassie de Jong cassie@ufvcascade.ca Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca

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6 10-11

Online Editor Jeff Mijo-Burch jeff@ufvcascade.ca Social Media Coordinator Anjuman Grewal anjuman@ufvcascade.ca

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS Emmaline Spencer Rachel Tait Elliott Baye Erin Froese Cover: Kayt Hine Back Cover: Advertisement

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@UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/UFVCASCADE Volume 26 · Issue 23 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 2:00 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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OPINION

News Editor Jessica Barclay jessica@ufvcascade.ca

ARTS

Business Manager Quintin Stamler quintin@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Cat Friesen cat@ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE

Editor-in-Chief Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca

FEATURE

STAFF

NEWS

CONTENTS

19

13 Snapshots.......9

15.......Study Break

Events Calendar.......12

17.......CIVL Shuffle

NEWS School buses added to connector.......3

4.......SUS changes C&A policies

Food and agricultural centre.......4

OPINION Editorial.......5

7.......Chilliwack elections loom

Dorm sweet dorm.......6

8.......The value of mindless entertainment

CULTURE New exhibit at the Reach Gallery.......13

14.......Threthewey House

Art of the Book exhibit at UFV.......16

16.......Orange shirt day

ARTS Doubts about Art of Doubt .......17

18.......Absurd meets the ordinary

Just a spoon of Sweetener.......18

19....... Mandy doesn't know what to think

NEWS

Jessica Barclay — News Editor news@ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Campus Commuter //

NEWS BRIEFS

School buses added to Langley shuttle route

Alumni Open Raises $48,000 for UFV Students The 2018 UFV Alumni Open fundraiser golf tournament, held at the Chilliwack Golf Club on Sept.

14, raised more than $48,000, the most from a single tournament to date. The fourth annual event created great connections between UFV students, alumni and the Fraser Valley community. The money raised will go towards helping UFV students through the Alumni Associations Leadership and Bursary endowments, and three other unnamed scholarship and bursary awards.

“UFV Alumni Chair Nav Bains says the fourth annual event created an incredible connection between UFV students, alumni, and the greater Fraser Valley community,” reported UFV Today.

New shuttle bus outside of SUB. (The Cascade)

-UFV Today

Canada and U.S. Reach Tentative NAFTA Deal Canada and the U.S. reached a tentative deal late Sunday night on Sept.30 to replace the previously existing North American free-trade agreement (NFTA), with the renamed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMC). Canada gave the U.S access to Canada’s protected dairy market in exchange for exemption from auto tariffs. The deal will also maintain protections for Canadian cultural industries and allow Canadian consumers to purchase five times more foreign merchandise online without paying import duty. However, Canada did not succeed with getting steel and aluminum tariffs lifted. The US also gained a significant victory when Canada agreed to increase protections for pharmaceutical patents to 10 years.

“Canada has long resisted increasing protections for pharma in order to keep drug prices low and help its own generic drug industry,” reported the Globe and Mail.

-The Globe and Mail

JESSICA BARCLAY NEWS EDITOR

The Student Union Society (SUS) is looking to address the inadequate shuttle bus capacity on the Langley route with the addition of six highcapacity school buses. The buses will be added during peak hours starting Oct. 1, increasing the route’s capacity by 276 seats.

The school buses have an increased capacity of 56 persons, compared to the traditional shuttle buses with a ca-

pacity of 16 persons. The SUS hopes the additional capacity will “reduce or eliminate” problems with buses becoming full and having to leave students or faculty behind.

Three school buses have replaced the traditional 16-person shuttle buses, and three new routes, with the high-capacity school buses, have also been added to the schedule.

The addition of these new buses and routes has slightly altered the shuttle bus schedule in the morning for the Langley to Abbotsford

bus and the afternoon and evening for the Abbotsford to Langley bus. All Friday schedules will remain the same.

Although it was discussed in the past, the press release stated that the lack of accessibility on the higher capacity school buses was a major reason why they had not previously been brought on.

The problem will be addressed by ensuring school bus runs are always bracketed between the accessible shuttle runs. As previously,

those with accessibility needs will be guaranteed a seat on the accessible shuttle buses.

“Over the past two years, SUS has witnessed tremendous growth in the number of students and staff using the campus connector shuttle,” Gurvir Gill, SUS president, said over the press release.

“As a result of [discussions] and ongoing review, we are proud to announce a significant expansion of the SUS campus connector shuttle service.”

SUS //

SUS changes clubs and associations policies Money only to be given for fundraising initiatives JESSICA BARCLAY NEWS EDITOR

The Student Union Society (SUS) will only be allocating funds to clubs and associations (C&A) at UFV for fundraising events, according to the recently updated C&A fund request policies released late last week.

Additionally, policy changes give C&A more freedom with self governance. C&A will no longer be required

by SUS to hold Annual General Meetings (AGMs) or take minutes in meetings. C&A can also choose their own membership requirements and will have more flexibility in choosing whether to be

designated as a club or as an association.

The SUS has a yearly budget allocated to providing funds for student-run clubs and associations on campus.

Previously, allocated funds could be requested for any event that would “contribute to the community and campus life,” as stated in the 2016

C&A handbook.

Released documents overviewing the updated fund policies claim the spirit of the changes is to aim to promote accountability for both the SUS and C&A, and provide financial freedom for C&A. The document states that multiple requests have been made both for increased financial freedom and for C&A to be able to purchase inventory items, such as books and power bars.

“We are providing C&A CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

'SUS changes clubs and associations policies' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 the opportunity to build selfsustaining organizations while gaining valuable experience in fiscal management and fundraising,” Jaleen MacKay, vice president internal (VPI) of the SUS, said over email.

Changes to the policies will

permit each club and association a total of two approved funding requests per year, although an unlimited number of requests can be submitted. Each request can receive a maximum of $500 for the event, totalling $1,000 in funding per year from the SUS. The funds given can only be

used for fundraising initiatives, though proceeds from the funds may be used at the C&A’s discretion. Over email, Mackay suggested procedes gained through these initiatives could be invested, used to purchase inventory, try new things, or put towards future events.

The SUS executive committee will now be responsible for the approval of all fund requests from C&A, regardless of amount. Previously, only requests exceeding $1,000 were voted on by the committee.

The SUS VPI will also be responsible for reviewing all fund-

ing requests, expense reports, processing requisitions to the financial department, and verifying receipts. Previously, this was done by a C&A commissioner.

UFV purchases //

Food and Agricultural center launched at UFV Center to act as a hub for research in agricultural policy and production agriculture JESSICA BARCLAY NEWS EDITOR

UFVs latest research center, the Food and Agricultural Center (FAI), was approved by senate in May and is beginning its operations. The center will conduct applied research on food and agriculture, looking at sustainable agriculture and food culture in the Fraser Valley and beyond.

The new center will be taking over the research functions of the Center for Food and Farmland Innovation (CFFI) and the Agricultural Center for Excellence (ACE), acting as a ‘one stop shop’ for the food and agricultural research at UFV. Some of ACEs work will continue under the heading, due to the external nature of the research.

“It makes it a lot easier for students and for the community to know where to go for this kind of work,” Dr. Lenore Newman, director of FAI and Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at UFV, said.

Newman was the previous director of CFFI, and serves on the Agricultural Land Commission, recommendations to the BC government on the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

In the short term, Newman said that the goal of the center will to stabilize the ongoing projects that have shifted from

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other centers to FAI, and to connect with contacts and partners about the changes.

After that, Newman said the center will continue expansion, bringing on partners and new projects, and working with UFV professor to develop research projects. The center will also bring on a number of students, either to paid positions of with directed studies projects.

In the long term, Newman sees the center as a flagship in the Fraser Valley, building up the reputation of the center as a place to go for agricultural research. She also will be working to build the center an endowment to support the research long term.

“We really feel that this university has a role to play in the agricultural community,” said Newman. “In Abbotsford, one in five jobs are directly tied to agriculture. We feel our university, to serve its region, which is our mandate, we need a strong agricultural applied research center” The FAI will conduct research in two main areas of focus: policy and production agriculture.

The center will continue looking at government policies concerning agriculture, such as health, farmland use, and farmers markets, previously done by the CFFI. They will also continue to look into the policies surrounding ALR, a topic which has

Dr.Lenore Newman, 2015. (UFV Flickr)

been under discussion recently as many Fraser Valley communities look to rezone ALR lands for other uses.

“We have an emerging project that will look at interface between agricultural land and industrial land,” said Newman.

“As you probably know, there has been some tension about that, but [the project] looks at the history of that and how that has evolved and how we're using land in such a tight space.”

In terms of production agriculture, the FAI will continue to work with the bio pods, previously ran by ACE. The two greenhouses run a number of projects, growing a variety of crops and testing out new and innovative technologies, such as the Affinor Vertical Growing Towers. Field trials for new crops that could work in the Fraser Valley, such as sweet potatoes and okra, are also underway.

Dr. Lisa Powell, postdoctoral

researcher in the Department of Geography at UFV, will continue her work with local Fraser valley chefs and farmers on farm-totable, with a grant from Van City.

“She's talking to chefs and farmers to see how they could work more closely to put more local food into the system, and so if you go into a local restaurant, you could have like local foods,” said Newman.

OPINION

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

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Editorial //

Mass transportation is mass freedom

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I want to see the city bus and the bicycle redefined in the Fraser Valley’s imagination.

Public transit tends to be referred to as a service, which I don’t like. Garbage pickup and park lawn mowing are services.

It’s only an issue of petty semantics, but I find that, in our region, public transit is viewed as the means by which those who aren’t fortunate enough to have a car travel. I happen to think otherwise: a car is a symbol of servitude. A century of marketing established the auto industry as an image of freedom: own the road, control your destiny. The reality is that you drive to get to and from work, to and from school, to and from shopping and the car isn’t much more than an expense or monthly payments.

Public transit is real freedom. A welldesigned system is democratized freedom, like that found in Amsterdam or Copenhagen, as described in a recent Tyee article, “In Amsterdam, Transportation Is Electrifying.”

“In effect, our thinking is as constrained by our car-centred infrastructure as the traffic itself. Spending what it would take to rebuild that infrastructure — tramlines, bike lanes, bike and scooter parkades, wind turbines — is politically impossible. So we prefer that 21,000 other Canadians pay the full price for our present toxic transportation system, year after year,” wrote Crawford Kilian.

North American reliance on personal vehicles is silly and it frustrates efforts to economize transportation. If hundreds to thousands of commuters go the same direction, does it make any sense for each to take a different vehicle? Public transportation needs to be redefined.

The Campus Commuter, the shuttle offered by UFV and the student union society (SUS) is one of the most useful services offered to students, and probably the only program the SUS offers that is growing. It’s funded by students, who pay $27.23 each semester. I don’t take the shuttle, but I’m more than happy to contribute to it.

Right now, campus connector shuttles usually operate at capacity and frequently leave students behind. Every time new runs and shuttles are added, they fill up shortly thereafter. Recently, the SUS replaced three shuttle buses with fullsized school buses, as written about on page three of this week’s The Cascade.

This is a good thing, the shuttles serve a need.

I think UFV and the SUS should measure their shuttle’s success not just by meeting a demand, but as foraging a new conception of transportation. Now that this system has been tried and true, the SUS should not only add more buses to handle the amount of students wanting to ride the shuttle, but should look at establishing new routes. What that means is a slight model framework shift: don’t build to meet demand, build to redirect it.

Is there a need to send a shuttle halfway between UFV Abbotsford and Carvolth station? What about elsewhere in Abbotsford? Perhaps this goes beyond the shuttle’s scope as a campus connector.

At the very least, the SUS should work to remove as many barriers from shuttle use as possible. Last year, in an act that seemingly wasn’t motivated by logic, the shuttle pick-up/drop-off was moved from the city bus stop to the other side of campus, in front of the SUB. The SUS hasn’t put any meaningful research into shuttle use. Considering the overwhelming popularity of the service, that’s discouraging.

Our cities and those who run them still live in the 20th century, where the personal vehicle rules. Fortunately the university is capable of filling a public transit gap.

“Unless we’re willing to study the Dutch and other European transportation systems, and to pay the price of emulating them, no one in a Vancouver bakery is likely to see traffic moving as smoothly and cleanly as it routinely does on Albert Cuypstraat and countless other Amsterdam streets,” Kilian wrote.

Email cat@ufvcascade.ca For info.

JOIN THE REVOLUTION.

I AM SO HAPPY

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Residence //

Dorm sweet dorm The cost of living on campus is a universal predicament

A statue of Sir. John A. Macdonald (Mike McArthur/CBC)

EMMALINE SPENCER CONTRIBUTOR

One of the decisions every student must make after picking a post-secondary institution is whether to live on campus, live nearby in off-campus housing, or live at home. Recently UFV has been gathering opinions about housing from students, in exchange for a little snack — many students flocked to the smell of pizza and gladly exchanged their thoughts for food.

The main concerns students had were cost of living, space, privacy, and safety.

The biggest issue that keeps many of us from living on campus or renting nearby is the cost. Personally, the amount of money it would take for me to live in Abbotsford or Chilliwack is less than the amount of money it would take for me to insure my car and pay for the gas. As it stands, it is more cost efficient to live at home than at school.

Students at UFV presented a good case for living at home, but I wanted to know

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if these thoughts could be considered universal in the B.C. area. I spoke with a student from Trinity Western University (TWU) and a student from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Both students are currently living in dorms at their respective institutions.

When speaking to my source from TWU, I was particularly curious why one would move into dorms there when some students struggle to just pay the university’s tuition.

“I thought it would be a great way to get involved in school events and to bond with other people in the university community,” they explained. “To me, one aspect that would make me not want to live in dorms again could be the expense, especially at TWU. Another aspect would be that there is less privacy. And so, even though I live pretty close to campus, I still chose to move into dorms because it has allowed me to get the full university experience.”

It is a wonder as to why so many people choose to live on campus at TWU con-

sidering many of the students live locally and the cost is so high. Perhaps a community campus life is more desirable than I thought — or maybe there is more to the choice than I considered.

When I asked my UBC source about their thoughts about living on campus, I was given an answer that is becoming more and more familiar: “I decided to dorm because to commute to school was too time consuming and I wanted to get more involved in school life in my first year. The prices are … steep for housing and food.

I [also] lack the emotional support from my family [that I would have at home]. It is more convenient to live in [residence] since it’s a two-hour commute to my house.”

From the UFV, TWU, and UBC communities I have heard one particular statement over and over: the cost is heavy in comparison to living near campus or at home. Something I hear often from our students here at UFV is that there is a lack of community, so paying to spend more time on campus seems absurd. Commu-

nity may be the key to bringing in more students to campus. After all, much of the commuting community tends to only go to class and then go home. If we emphasize the clubs and associations that are on campus and add more housing, the students will move in.

Here at UFV there is in fact a community that needs to be advertised more.

Numerous clubs are small and unknown.

I have been going to events for multiple UFV clubs and associations in the past few weeks. I am convinced that living on campus is where I need to be next fall semester. But what would it take for you to join the UFV residential community? Is it true that the cost is actually what keeps people away?

Housing at UFV will require more development and will hopefully see a future influx in comparison to the recent influx of commuters. UFV has proven they care and are listening; it’s our time to answer them.

How will you answer?

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Municipal Election //

Chilliwack election looms Chilliwack prepares for municipal election ALEISTER GWYNNE CONTRIBUTOR

On Oct. 20, citizens of Chilliwack will go to the polls to choose a mayor, as well as fill positions on the town council. The list of candidates has recently been finalized, and five candidates are running for mayor of Chilliwack.

First is incumbent mayor Sharon Gaetz.

She has been mayor for 10 years now, having won each of the last three municipal elections. Gaetz describes herself as a “fiscal conservative with a strong conscience,” as quoted in an article in the Chilliwack Progress. The same article also quoted her as saying, “I believe in planning ahead, and our 10-year Comprehensive Municipal Plan has ensured that we enjoy first class amenities while maintaining the lowest residential and business taxes in the Lower Mainland.” While her accomplishments as mayor are rarely specified in detail, to borrow from the inscription in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London: “... if you seek [her]

monument, look around you.”

Next in the race is Ken Popove, who was first to announce his intention to run for mayor back in May. Popove has seven years of experience on Chilliwack’s city council.

During this time, he has done much to organize events and provide new amenities for the community. “We’re at a crossroads in Chilliwack,” Popove said. “We are facing big city problems in public safety, in homelessness, in affordability, and in the tragedy of the opioid crisis.” His platform includes more and better relations with local First Nations, providing good community services, keeping taxes low, and ensuring quality of life for all.

Second to announce his candidacy is Sam Waddington, another city councillor, currently in his first term, and owner of local business Mt. Waddington’s Outdoors.

In his time in office, Waddington has been chair of the public engagement and transportation committees. In his capacity as the latter, he oversaw the largest expansion of Chilliwack’s public transit network in

the city’s history. Waddington’s platform has five major “planks”: housing, public safety, economic development, transportation, and community.

Two others, Brigda Crosby and Dave Rowan have also announced their intention to run for mayor. However, due in part to their recent declarations, neither has received much media attention. Neither of them have previously served in Chilliwack’s municipal government. At the moment, Gaetz, Popove, and Waddington appear to be the front runners.

Public comments on the Progress articles announcing the three main candidates are telling. Comments on Gaetz are mostly negative, blaming her administration for the social ills that afflict the city. However, to be fair, some of these problems, like the decaying downtown area, predate her term as mayor. By contrast, comments about Popove are positive and hopeful for the most part. Comments on Waddington provide another contrast by their non-existence. Apparently, Waddington has not

provoked much opinion, positive or negative. Major issues cited include problems with drug abuse and urban decay. Statistics cited by Global News indicate that crime rates in Chilliwack are significantly higher than the provincial average. Widespread dissatisfaction with Gaetz (or at least the status quo in Chilliwack) combined with Popove’s experience and ability to appeal across social divisions would seem to suggest that Popove will likely be the victor in this race.

Concerned residents who wish to know more about the candidates and their platforms may attend two events before the election. The first will be an all-candidates forum held at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Oct. 3, from 6 - 9 p.m. A second forum focusing only on the mayoral candidates will take place at the Cultural Centre on Oct. 11 from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Voting will be held on Oct. 20 at several locations around Chilliwack. Those able and willing to vote should visit the city’s official website at chilliwack.com for further details.

THE CASCADE IS LOOKING FOR A Production Manager Contact: cat@ufvcascade.ca for more details

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Culture //

The value of mindless entertainment

JEFF MIJO-BURCH OPINION EDITOR

You finally arrive home after an 11-hour day of commuting, work, classes, and homework. Your dog shys away from you as you walk through your home, because he can barely remember who you are. You stumble into your living room, taking your shoes off as you walk, leaving them in the middle of the floor before collapsing onto the couch. Grabbing a remote, you try to push all the nagging thoughts about the work left to do out of your head.

You turn on Netflix and see two movies that jump out at you. The first is a challenging, dark psychological drama that will make you question the way you value your relationships with the people closest to you. The second is about giant robots punching each other. Or maybe it’s about a wedding where people just can’t stop singing ‘70s pop songs. Or a guy you’ve seen in a dozen different movies making the same jokes he’s been making for 20 years.

Whatever it is, you pick the second one. Because you don’t want a challenging film. You want to turn your brain off and have fun.

The divide we have created in our popular culture between “art” and “popular” entertainment is everywhere, and infiltrates our media decisions of all kinds. We reference “great films” even as we don’t watch them, and we make fun of the “popcorn movies” as we do. But does one really have more value than the

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other? Does mass media (that is to say, your blockbuster movies, your reality TV, and your pop music) really have any less to say?

While they’re very much commercial products designed to sell to the broadest audiences possible, why is it that we see that as a bad thing? Why is it that films that bring out more sombre emotions are seen as more worthy of praise than those that bring out positive ones? If anything, good popular media manages to juggle two complicated tasks at once, where “high art” may only focus on one.

The first is that, as mentioned earlier, sometimes a person needs a boost, needs to “shut off their brain.” To this end, popular entertainment has to be easy to consume, and that’s why we see so many clichés and conventions repeated over and over — if you already know where the story will likely go, you can relax and enjoy the ride. Creating this kind of entertainment isn’t easy, either!

It takes a considerable talent to keep up a consistent tone and pacing, which is something that almost all the best examples of widely popular media excel at.

The second task that popular media handles is that, in most cases, it does hold up to intellectual criticism. Even the most “mindless” of movies, if you take the time to turn your mind on and watch it, are trying to say something, have nuance and depth beyond the surface, and can be analyzed and interpreted in different ways. That’s not to say they’re all

UFV/SUS Campus Connector. (The Cascade)

masterpieces, by any means, but a good critical analysis of a seemingly simple text can be even more engaging than one about the kind of text you expect to see analyzed. Popular media hides its substance behind a lot of flash, and that makes it all the more interesting when you dig it out.

The classist idea that “high art” is better than mass media seems

rooted in the notion that lowerincome individuals are somehow less intelligent, less capable of enjoying complex stories and themes, and that doesn’t hold up in the real world at all. For sure, fans of “high art” may have created the standard for language used to discuss such topics, but if you apply those same tools to your favourite reality show,

maybe you’ll find some interesting statements being put forward about humanity by the people seen on screen, and the ones behind the cameras.

Then when you’re tired of analyzing, you can turn your brain off and just have fun. And there’s value in that too.

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

S S S N S N N S A h A A h P o P P o t t s s

Illustrations by:

Simer Haer

Take a (bus) number As someone who takes the bus to class, I spend a lot of time thinking about how the city could improve their public transportation. Mostly, I think about those times I’m at a major stop and a bus I don’t need pulls up, and then there’s an awkward moment where I have to wave the driver away. And sometimes I don’t wave in time and the driver open the doors, and I feel obligated to apologize, or turn away and pretend to ignore them, or stare at my phone. Or all of the above.

What if, instead of just standing around a pole or a bench, there was some sort of

light indicator of what bus we need? Like a streetlight, but instead of colours, it shows the bus numbers available to that stop. So if the Number 2 and the Number 3 both stop there, I can just press the “3” button and the Number 2 will know to keep driving.

Realistically, I know it would take a lot of money, people, and resources to commit to an overhaul like that. But it’s nice to dream of a system that makes it easier for commuters and drivers alike.

Elliott Baye

The closure of the Canoe restaurant was announced a couple weeks ago, and it has me thinking: are we FINALLY going to have a Subway restaurant in the Student Union Building? Back in 2015, when the building was near completed, there was a rumour that a Subway would be opening. It obviously never happened, and yet we still see their ad-

vertisements near one of the entrances.

Who wouldn’t want a building smelling of freshly-baked cookies and bread? It’d be pretty enticing, and probably drive more sales if SUS leased the area to a well-known restaurant, rather than making us, the students, pay for another Canoe or Finnegan’s-type menu.

Anjuman Grewal

Balance is a good thing

I’m about to change your life Last fall, I was given some life-altering advice.

Spiders are repelled by chestnuts.

They think that they’re another nest, or something to that effect, and it keeps the creepy-crawly intruders away. You can thank me later.

Last fall, I gathered as many chestnuts as I could fit into my coat pockets, bringing home handfuls each day. I lined the garage, the living room, the bedrooms, with chestnuts like autumnal salt lines to ward off the eight-legged demons that threatened to haunt my every waking moment. The chestnuts shrivelled with

Putting the SUB in Subway

time, but the arachnids, for the most part, went back to the holes from whence they came. We had a shaky peace, the spiders and I. This fall, I am too late.

There’s a spider under my bed. I saw it skitter into the shadows of the years of hoarded junk that I can never be bothered to organize. I could not find it to kill it.

This was three days ago. I’m still sleeping on the couch in the next room. The spider has not shown its eight-eyed face.

Send help, and chestnuts.

Erin Froese

Here at UFV, there are so many things on the go, such as the Cascades varsity teams, CIVL Radio, clubs, associations, yoga, The Cascade newspaper, and more. Joining and being part of a club or team can help bring balance to a crazy class schedule. It’s so easy to get caught up in school work, assignments, work, family, and life in general. Adding some fun into a hectic schedule can help rejuvenate and refresh the mind. Also, one can end up meeting great students at different levels in their study programs, who end up being great support networks. Being a part of the extra curricu-

lar activities at UFV or indulging in fun hobbies and activities can help students destress from all their curricular commitments and also make friends for life.

Writing for The Cascade has helped me balance my life with school and work, because it gives me something to look forward to. Although I have taken a break from writing for the last year, returning to writing has brought a calm into my life that I appreciate. I would encourage other students to find their calm in this storm of educational success and bring a balance to their lives too.

Rachel Tait

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Conversations

with Poets Here’s a statement you don’t hear often: poetry is important.

Let me explain. Poetry has been around for centuries, beginning in 2000 BC with the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and continuing to exist in one form or another into the present day. Often, in less than a page, a poem makes us feel love or repulsion, desire or shame, joy or devastation.

These feelings dig their way under our skin, grab hold of our hearts and our ribs and stay there, immeasurably.

Poetry allows us to experience a wide range of emotions in a short period of time, while never leaving our chair (or bed), and helps us relate, even in a small way, to the poet themselves. We may not know them, may never meet them, but for one poem, we feel a connection to another human when we may never have felt more alone.

But this depends on the poem — there are certain poets that make me feel as though I’m drowning in a sea of feeling every time I read them, and others who elicit no more than a brief wave of confusion. Margaret Atwood and Kayla Czaga are of the first variety; Rupi Kaur is of the second.

In the following article are conversations with six B.C.-based poets who recall their first poems, what’s prompted them to write poetry and keep writing poetry, and advice for both new and seasoned poets.

Now, what about you — do you enjoy reading poetry? Do you write it yourself? Or, perhaps, you’d like to write poetry, but you’re worried you’ll flub your words and write something awful. That’s a valid fear, but it’s important to remember that we all start somewhere.

Andrea MacPherson, creative writing professor at UFV and author of six books, including her most recent poetry book, Ellipses, recalls her first poem in a not-so-positive light.

“The first poem I remember writing was terrible, something about a boy I was involved with at the time, and the workshop for it was rough — deservedly so. But the silver lining was my professor circled three lines smooshed in the middle of the poem and said, ‘This is the poem.

Rewrite it about this.’ And then I was hooked.”

Michael V. Smith, author of six books, most recently his poetry collection titled Bad Ideas, recalls his first poem as being somewhat of a learning experience, even if he didn’t realize it yet.

“The first poem I remember writing was for a girl in grade seven. I compared her to a cat. Which means I was aware of poetry before homosexuality even.”

However, there are some people who find their voice early. Jen Sookfong-Lee, longtime Vancouver resident and author of seven books, seems to have skipped over the awkward phase that’s characteristic of new poets.

“I wrote my first serious poem when I was 16, for a creative writing class in high school. It was about my father’s death actually, and it ended up being published in a student journal.”

Once you get past the mental barriers that are holding you back from actually starting, there’s the problem of where, when, and how to write.

“My professor circled three lines smooshed in the middle of the poem and said, ‘This is the poem. Rewrite it about this.’

And then I was hooked.”

Vancouver poets open up about how poetry has shaped their lives.

By Cat Friesen

Managing Editor

Do you write with a pen and notebook, on your laptop, or a combination of the two; in your bedroom, your favourite coffee shop, outside in nature; when the sun is rising, in mid-afternoon; once the sun has disappeared for the evening?

Billeh Nickerson, author of four poetry collections and former writer in residence of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and the University of the Fraser Valley, is quite specific when it comes to where and how he writes.

“I used to be a night-writer, but I’ve become old and now tend to write in the morning. I like writing in the same café while listening to music on my earphones. My only need stems from my need to slow down. I can’t write with a racing mind. I still do many of my first drafts on pen and paper.”

Like Billeh, Jen requires a routine to get her poems out. “I almost always start with an image that I just can’t shake, that demands to be fleshed out in some way. I almost always write at home, on my laptop, in total silence.

Music or background noise really messes with my head.”

Andrea, on the other hand, isn’t hemmed in by a specific sequence. “I don’t need to be in any specific place, but I always, always write in longhand first. And always in a Moleskine, with a specific pen. I like the physicality of pen to paper, the movement of a pen across a page. The downside for this process, though, is that I am the only one who can actually decipher my writing.”

And Michael is a combination of the two styles, choosing first to write his poetry longhand before moving over to a keyboard. “Poems usually come either from a prompt from some other writing — I think, ‘Oh, what’s my version of this idea or device,’ then the poem begins there. Or an image pops up, that becomes the starting kernel of a poem. I always free-write my first drafts by hand, scratching things out a bit, but mostly trying to let the idea unfurl. I’ll do that for days, until I have what feels like the totality of the poem. Then I put it on the computer and shape it, move things around, rewrite or omit lines, and write more.”

Adrienne Gruber, author of two full-length books of poetry, as well as three chapbooks — a shorter book of poetry, typically running no more than 40 pages — is also somewhere in the middle.

“I don’t want to attach my work to any specific routine or place. I would like to be able to work anywhere and under a variety of conditions. To write new work a coffee shop works well, one that’s not too busy and doesn’t play loud or obnoxious music, and where I don’t have to feel guilty about sitting there for hours and only ordering one coffee.”

Now for the important stuff, the question that burns in every poet’s gut, the thing that keeps us up at night, staring at the ceiling, a continuous wondering that never quite leaves the edges of our minds: what makes a poem extraordinary?

According to Andrea, a great poem has several facets to it. “I want a poem that surprises me, and gives me that gut-punch feeling. I want a poem that uses language in a sharp way, that gives me an emotional connection and response, and that stays with me long after I read it. When I

first read Maggie Smith’s ‘Good Bones,’ I literally had to put it down and step away from the book. That’s what I want from a great poem.”

Although Michael’s answer differs slightly from Andrea’s, it has the same resonance. “I think it’s the balance of surprise and recognition that makes a poem great for me. I love recognizing an idea or a feeling or an insight in a new form. That lovely moment of, ‘Oh, I know that, I’ve never heard it like this before.’ Or the juxtaposition of ideas that make no sense and perfect sense, so that I am reminded again how some knowledge is beyond logic or reckoning. That’s a glimpse at the mystical, isn’t it? Poetry is the magic of language telling us more than the words hold.”

Jen thinks, as do many poets, that a great poem requires a connection to be forged. “When I read poems, I want to feel something. Poetry is really about the manipulation of language, not necessarily emotions, but the reason I read anything at all is to connect to the work, to whatever emotional core exists.”

Billeh’s view of what makes a poem great is simple yet on the nose. “I’m a firm believer that a good poem helps the reader see the world in a new way.

A great poem does that on numerous levels.”

Now we know poetry that sticks in one’s mind makes the reader feel something — oftentimes, something like a combination of infatuation of a new love and your heart being ripped straight out of your chest. A good poem comes from a cavernous pit of emotions from deep inside you. If it can cause such an intense — and often painful — reaction, why do they continue to read and write poetry?

Andrea continues because it helps her understand her place in the world.

“Poetry is like a snapshot, a brief but glittering moment in time, and I like challenging myself with those parameters. I find writing poetry to be a deeply different experience from writing fiction, but they each offer me some-

“Poetry allows us to articulate a better, gentler question, in the face of not having any answers.”

thing essential in organizing the world around me.”

Jen sticks with poetry because it gives her a sense of autonomy. “I think poetry allows me to feel freedom. A poem gives me the space to express thoughts and ideas that I would never otherwise articulate. There is something about poetic obfuscation; I can say anything I want if it’s hidden by images and fancy line breaks!”

Billeh keeps writing because he’s compelled to. “Even when I’ve decided to take a little break or feel unmotivated, it always ends up that I’m compelled to write. I just can’t quit.”

Michael continues because it helps him make sense of and soften the hard edges of the world we reside in. “The world and its people are a fucking mess, and poetry tries to help right both, without forcing any answers. Poetry allows us to articulate a better, gentler question, in the face of not having any answers.”

And Adrienne pursues poetry because “I don’t have a fucking choice.

(The first person to get that reference gets a free book in the mail.)”

Clearly, a good poem makes the reader feel, learn something new, experience an alternate viewpoint. It causes emotion to well up inside you, for a connection to be formed with the poem, for a connection to be formed with the poet themselves. A good poem simultaneously caresses you and clenches your heart so that you’re left feeling both drained and filled.

For Andrea, such a poem shifts over time. “I will give you a handful of dependable favourites: “The Cinnamon Peeler” by Michael Ondaatje, “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith, “Rehearsal” by Sara Peters, “Girl in Checked Dress on a Slum Doorstep, 1912” by Kate Cayley. They are all very muscular poems, assured on the page, and I am taken by the way

each poet uses language to bolster their distinct voices.”

A poem that Jen describes as “the best gut-punch poem” is Addonizio’s “What Do Women Want?” “I first read it when my marriage was dying and it really describes the impulses women feel but rarely express.”

For Billeh, a poem that sticks to him is Lorna Crozier’s sequence of poems “The Sex Lives of Vegetables.” “I think about it each and every time I stroll the produce aisle.”

A poem that strikes Michael is Mark Doty’s “Pipistrelle.” “I don’t know why I love it — or I could say reasons why I love it but they’d all be reductive. The collection of metaphors for the bat he saw, his tone in the poem, his measure and whimsy. But I think I love it because he loves that bat so much, which gives me permission to love greatly and deeply too. There is a kind of love and wonder which young kids have that is shamed out of us through ridicule and ignorance, isn’t there?

People make fun of our vocabulary, our questions, our enthusiasm, so we hide those, until poetry finds us and gives us a place for them.

Doty’s poem reminds me of that love I have for the world, and says, ‘Go ahead, love again, love more, love as much as you can.’”

And, for Adrienne, “The Disc” by Anne Szumigalski is a poem that has deeply affected her. “It is one of the first distinctly feminist poems I ever read and I loved it fiercely from the moment I read it.”

Finally, the most important part: what can you do to be a better poet (or, in some people’s cases, start writing poetry)?

According to Andrea, the most important thing you can do to become a better poet is to read anything you can get your hands on.

“The more you read, the more you will understand the cadences and rhythms of poetry, and the more you will begin to carve out your own voice as a poet. Ask people for their favourite poems, favourite collections, and then read them all greedily.”

And, unsurprisingly, Billeh has similar advice. “Read. Read again.

Write. Write. Write. And make sure that you train your friends and family — and even yourself — to appreciate your writing as something significant. It needs to be prioritized and celebrated.”

Jen’s words of wisdom come from Keith Maillard, her poetry professor at UBC. “Find your voice. I don’t mean style or themes, because they both change over time, but voice. What does your poetic voice sound like? Who are you in words? It seems like an amorphous concept, but when you eventually write a poem in your true voice, you will know. It will feel comfortable and right.”

Michael guides us toward a different yet extremely important way of living as a poet (or anyone). “I’d say to love as much as you possibly can in the time you have, and say, ‘I’m sorry your life is so small and frightened’ to anyone who mocks you for it.”

And Adrienne’s guidance is tongue-in-cheek, yet still important: “Don’t listen to unsolicited advice.”

What we’ve learned from these poets: poetry is an art form we’re all capable of, if we put the effort in. But you’ve got to be willing to write shitty first poems, and be willing to learn and grow from your mistakes. And, most importantly, you have to be willing to feel, to have bad experiences and be willing to come out of those experiences ready to put pen to paper. To feel is to err on the side of human, and really, why would you want anything else?

Poems to read

“The Cinnamon Peeler” by Michael Ondaatje “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith “Rehearsal” by Sara Peters “Girl in Checked Dress on a Slum Doorstep, 1912” by Kate Cayley “What Do Women Want?” by Kim Addonizio “The Sex Lives of Vegetables” by Lorna Crozier “Pipistrelle” by Mark Doty “The Disc” by Anne Szumigalski “Seven Voluntary Labors and One Seditious Act” by Nicanor Parra (translated from Spanish by Liz Werner)

The Cascade Community Events are in UFV Events are in Music Events are in Art Events are in Cultural Events are in

Blue Green Red Purple Yellow

Oct 3

Oct 13

Louisiana Hayride Show @ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium (Abbotsford), 7:30 - 10:30 p.m.

Rainbow Run for Neurodiversity @ Mill Lake Park (Abbotsford) 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Applelooza @ Lepp Farm Market (Abbotsford), 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Oct 4 Chandigarh Student & Alumni Social @ Room F125 (Abbotsford Campus) 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Buckman Coe @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Oct 9 Student Life: Support 101 Workshop @ Room A0006 (Chilliwack Campus) 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

TEDxAbbotsford 2018 @ Room B101 (Abbotsford Campus), 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

MHM Gallery Exhibit Opening Reception: Edith Krause @ Mennonite Heritage Museum (Abbotsford), 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Salt Thief @ Acoustic Emporium (Chilliwack), 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Oct 5

Viper Central @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack), 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Harsh(Calgary), CDP, Like Bears, and more @ Carport Manor (Abbotsford) 7:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Randy Oxford Blues All Star Slam @ The Stage in Mission, 7:00 - 11:59 p.m.

Other Side of the Trax @ The Railyard (Mission), 8:00 p.m. - Midnight

Oct 14

Oct 6

Oct 11

Workshop: Thanksgiving Special - Pumpkin Centerpiece @ Devan Greenhouses Ltd. (Abbotsford), 10:00 a.m. - Noon

Fraser Valley Purple Light Nights Gallery Opening @ The Reach Gallery Museum (Abbotsford), 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Oktoberfest at the Rail District @ Valley Food + Farm Collective (Abbotsford), 1:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Oct 12

Kellen Saip and MarKaren @ The Railyard (Mission), 8:00 - 11:00 p.m.

October Pop Up Shoppe @ Dwtn Abby Pop Up (Abbotsford) 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Cultus Lake Fire Departments Open House @ Cultus Lake Volunteer Fire Department (Chilliwack), 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Applelooza @ Lepp Farm Market (Abbotsford), 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Derby Town and The Unbranded @ Tractorgrease Cafe (Chilliwack) 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Oct 17 UFV Blood Donation Clinic @ Evered Hall (Abbotsford Campus), Noon - 7:00 p.m.

Raven-Making Workshops @ UFV Library (Chilliwack Campus), 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Presidents Leadership Lecture Series presents - Paul K. Chapell @ Room B101 (Abbotsford Campus), 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.

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Ballet Kelowna Masterclass @ Chilliwack Cultural Centre, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Gallery opening //

Achieving a global community through fine art and reflection A thought-provoking new lineup of exhibitions opens at the Reach Gallery Museum CASSIE DE JONG CULTURE & EVENTS EDITOR

The arts and culture community in the Fraser Valley has continuously demonstrated its capacity for diversity. The latest set of exhibitions at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford serve to strengthen that fact, and also to bring our global community closer together. On Thursday, Sept. 27, The Reach held its grand opening reception for its fall/winter exhibitions. These include British Columbia’s War, 1914 – 1918, Ambivalence Boulevard by Dick Averns, and Behind the Lines: Contemporary Syrian Art. Behind the Lines is a collection of work by 20 Syrian contemporary artists. The exhibition was co-curated by Paul Crawford from the Penticton Art Gallery, and is in partnership with the Cyrrus Gallery in Damascus. The Penticton Art Gallery has been responsible for the formulation, organization, and touring of the exhibition, which has already visited many locations across B.C. Crawford began working on making this exhibition a reality in 2015. His goal was to try and reach out to artists and citizens from countries currently affected by war to speak on their own behalf about what is truly going on there.

He eventually happened upon an online gallery space on Facebook, which served to preserve the culture of Syria, and to provide an outlet for artists from the University of Damascus. At that point, there was no one buying art in Syria at the time, and there were no gallery exhibitions to be had.

During his speech, Crawford explained his negotiation process with the gallery, which lasted over a period of six months through Facebook messaging. The most challenging hurdle in getting the exhibition off the ground, both figuratively and literally, was shipping, as there hadn’t been any shipping in Syria for a long while. In the end, they managed to wire $5,000 to Beirut, where the individual

who ran the online gallery would go to pick it up and negotiate with a black-market shipping company to ship the work here to Canada.

At the beginning of the tour of this exhibition, 13 of the artists were still living in Syria. Since then, approximately six have been able to leave the country and find refuge elsewhere. A few still remain in Damascus, where they are still struggling to make ends meet.

In a closing statement about this exhibition’s journey, Crawford said: “One of the most beautiful things about this show was, throughout it all, I learned that as much as we may have very different upbringings and histories, we are more alike than we are different. One of the things about the show which I think is very important, is not only the artwork, but the people behind it.”

A delightful treat which was provided to attendees in the gallery’s foyer, were platters of authentic Syrian cuisine. The cuisine was made possible by the Abbotsford Community Foundation, and Tayybeh, a food company that supports female Syrian chefs who are newcomers to Canada.

Three other exhibitions opened that evening as well, including work by British-born, Calgarybased artist Dick Averns who served in the Canadian Forces artist program in 2009. The program has been a valuable tool in documenting war and conflict zones and has been running in some format since the First World War. Works in this collection were created by Averns while he was stationed in Egypt, near the border of Gaza, Israel. In the grotto gallery space at the front of the museum, Averns’ film Ambivalence Boulevard is currently being screened. This work considers the role of politics and power in more peaceful locales that are no less implicated in the complexities of global conflict.

British Columbia’s War is an exhibition that has been developed and circulated by the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria. Its purpose is

to explore our province’s role in the First World War, and considers the horrors of the battlefield, 100 years after the fact. Kris Foulds, The Reach’s curator of historical collections, selected artifacts and documents from The Reach’s collection to accompany the artifacts on loan, and to provide context for the impact of the war here in Abbotsford. The Abbotsford Legion Branch #15 has been generous enough to sponsor a portion of the costs for this travelling exhibition.

Art on Demand 4.3 also opened this evening. This ongoing initiative is part of the Reach’s Emerge program, which supports aspiring artists and arts professionals in the Fraser Valley. Curated by Kate Petrusa, the works by artist Sarah Wright are a mixed-media project that’s an exploration of how urban spaces are socially constructed, and which maps the experiences of those who are excluded from the systems of power that are established in our cities and towns.

At the beginning of the eve-

ning’s opening statements, Mayor Henry Braun announced that the Reach is officially celebrating its 10th anniversary this month.

He gave thanks to The Reach in a brief statement: “The Reach brings our community together, facilitates dialogue, broadens our understanding of the world, compels us to be inspired by the creative spirit, and supports artists in our local community.”

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations, a unique fundraising campaign in support of the museum’s historical collections, “100 Days of The Reach,” will give local individuals the opportunity to select and sponsor an artifact for one year. The cost of sponsoring an object is $100, which will go towards preserving, researching, and digitizing the treasures currently held in their collections. Inquiries about sponsorship can be answered at their front desk.

Schneider also announced that for the first 50 artifacts that are sponsored, the funds will be matched by Marg and Roy

Warkentin. Up until recently, the couple were The Reach’s neighbours, having previously owned the Esso station across the street.

The station first opened in 1956 as a gas station and coffee shop, and after a few years of economic change, the self-serve station as it stands today was erected in 1976.

An Arabic-English translation was also provided for those in attendance, which covered most of the remarks of the evening.

A catalogue for this exhibition is also available with translated Arabic text for $15 at the gallery’s reception desk.

The event concluded with Schneider inviting the public to attend a more in-depth tour of the exhibition. The Reach will be offering free tours hosted by curator of art & visual culture Adrienne Fast on Oct. 6 and 13.

The tours will be offered in both English and Arabic. These exhibitions will be on display at The Reach until Jan. 6, 2019.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Community //

Trethewey House, harbinger and stepping-stone How Trethewey House anticipates modern Lower Mainland home design ALEISTER GWYNNE STAFF WRITER

Last Friday, a special tour was held at Trethewey House, a heritage house located on the edge of Abbotsford’s Mill Lake Park. In addition to the usual tour of the house itself, special attention was given to the features and architectural style of the building.

Trethewey House was built between 1919 and 1920 by the eponymous family as their private residence. The house is in the Craftsman style, which is similar, but not identical to, the betterknown Arts and Crafts style. The Craftsman style was popular in B.C. between roughly 1910 and 1940, making Trethewey House representative of the era. Craftsman, and its sister style, Arts and Crafts, were a reaction against both the cheap mass production enabled by the industrial revolution, and the ostentatious style of home decoration typical of the Victorian era. Craftsman valued fine handmade craftsmanship, while displaying and emphasising the building’s structural elements. In many ways, Trethewey

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House is a marker of the transition from Victorian embellishment to modernist simplicity, and also the emergence of an architectural style unique to our part of the world.

The Craftsman style originated in Europe in the late 19th century, and from there spread to North America. While Craftsman did not originate in, nor was exclusive to, the Lower Mainland, we soon put our own spin on the style, creating region-specific variations, including Vancouver Craftsman, and Craftsman Bungalow, of which Trethewey House is an example of the latter.

One of the Craftsman style’s core philosophies is use of locally-made materials, and Trethewey House holds to this, even more so than most houses of its type.

Whereas many Craftsman houses would use oak wall panelling and furniture, and floor tiles imported from Italy, the Tretheweys opted to use locally-made tiles, and locally available Douglas fir wood.

In the Lower Mainland, Craftsman would be succeeded by the Vancouver school of architecture,

a.k.a. the Post and Beam style.

This style originated in the late1940s and reached its peak of popularity during the ‘60s and ‘70s. Many of Post and Beam’s distinctive features have their origins in their Craftsman predecessors. In Craftsman, we see the beginning of the trend towards more and larger windows to allow in plenty of natural light, make rooms feel larger and more airy, and to allow a better view of the surrounding scenery. While the general outline of Victorian/ Edwardian style decoration remains, it has become simplified, and effort is made to bring out the natural texture of the materials, such as displaying the grain of the wood in the wall panelling.

Looking at the exterior of Trethewey House, one cannot help but notice similarities with recent styles of residential architecture. On the outer walls, in different sections we see shiplap (overlapping horizontal boards) or river rock painted banana yellow, and stucco or shingle siding painted chocolate brown, separated by wooden beams and eaves painted in stark white. One

sees this same sort of contrasting two-tone or three-tone colouration, and sometimes mixed cladding materials, in the newer buildings going up in and around the cities of the Fraser Valley. This extends to the heart of Vancouver as well, where one may find tower blocks with steel and glass upper storeys, but the lowest floors are clad in brick or masonry.

However, this apparent revival of Craftsman aesthetics may only be skin-deep, if Kate Wagner is to be believed. Wagner is a contributor to several architecture and design periodicals, and is best known for her McMansion Hell blog, which primarily lampoons the tacky design of upscale housing, but also contains educational features on the history and theory of architecture and interior design. According to Wagner in her article “The Case for Rooms,” published on CityLab, modern open concept interiors remain king, and indeed are only becoming more exaggerated. Trethewey House, while it does have distinct rooms with walls and doors between them, shows the beginnings of the open floor plan by

arranging them to allow a clear line of sight from one end of the house to the other. Wagner also points out in the same article that discussions of style such as these mainly concern the dwellings of the upper and middle classes, and do not necessarily reflect the homes that most people would be living in. Trethewey House is a prime example. Its relative simplicity and compact size are deceiving; the Tretheweys were one of the richest families in B.C. at the time they lived there. They owned the lumber mill that gave Mill Lake its name, and which also aided them in sourcing the lumber for building their house.

Trethewey House may not seem so important at first glance, especially since, despite being almost a century old, it wouldn’t look much out of place in a modern Fraser Valley housing subdivision. Yet Trethewey House is important as a milestone in our region’s history and culture. It shows us where we’ve been, and how we got from there to here.

STUDY BREAK Crossword //

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018 Made by Cassie de Jong ACROSS

DOWN

1: A county in northern England that a pudding is named after.

1: Orange-coloured fries that taste great with chipotle mayo are made from a _ _ _.

4: A wardrobe or other movable cabinet.

2: A large German-style beer mug.

6: An establishment where you purchase a membership to use exercise equipment.

7: To be lacking in experience, wisdom, or judgment.

9: A small piece of jewelry, often a necklace, that is used to ward off evil.

11: A Japanese paste that tastes of strong horseradish and is often served beside sushi.

12: A dish consisting of tortilla chips and melted cheese with various other toppings.

14: An international code of extreme distress, often written on beaches for planes to see.

3: Your outermost layer of cells — also known as skin.

4: An annual calendar containing important dates for a particular purpose or group.

5: A person who has broken the law and remains at large; often the anti-hero in a Western movie.

6: A massive island that borders the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and is not green.

8: A narrow-edged tooth at the front of the mouth used for cutting into food.

10: A tuft of threads that are knotted at one end and attached for decoration to furniture or clothing.

13: Band that plays the song Wonderwall.

16: The highest academic degree awarded by most universities. (It still doesn’t guarantee you a job.)

15: A person who purchases large amounts of event tickets in order to resell them for exorbitant prices.

LAST ISSUE’S ANSWERS: 17: A German breed of dog with a long Across: 9: Wager Down: back and tiny legs.

1: Pacemaker 4: Ethos 6: Artemis 7: Era 8: Rotor

BREAD CRUMBS

Horoscopes //

10: Ion 11: Baroque 12: Easel 13: Escalator

7: Equivalent 1: Preservative 8: Renewable 2: Charleston 3: Reservoir 5: Stage Manager

Astrological mysteries interpreted weekly by Morgana the Mystic.

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 A jam-packed schedule is sure to make someone feel overwhelmed. You’re lacking some very important leisure time in that planner of yours, Aries. Pencil in a few minutes for the occasional break.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 Usually people tell you to stop indulging your every whim, but this week you should go wild!

Don’t forget to share your gift for decadence with others; you’ll enjoy a shopping spree more with friends.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 Is life seeming a bit … repetitive, Gemini? It can be hard to break through the monotony of responsibility, but if anyone can, it’s you!

Look for little ways to diversify your days without disrupting the stability you’ve been awarded.

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 Practice level-headedness this week, Cancer.

There’s no need to repress anything, but you’ll find that remaining calm in conflict will result in far better outcomes. Tap into your natural sympathy for others, and the rest will come easy to you.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 Social life getting you down? Does it seem like all your friends are busy? They’re not avoiding you, don’t worry! Sometimes schedules just don’t add up. You’ll see them all soon, but in the meantime try meeting someone new!

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 Shouldn’t you be studying for midterms?

Multitasking isn’t really your specialty and you’d fair far better if you turned all of your focus onto the responsibilities that keep piling up.

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 Have courage, Virgo! You’re being uncharacteristically timid right now but remember that bravery comes at no price, and standing your ground in recent conflicts will benefit you greatly.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 A chronic overthinker, try not to let yourself ruin something before it’s begun. Being realistic doesn’t automatically require you to resign yourself to being disappointed — and you’ll certainly benefit from a more positive outlook.

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 It’s not your fault if someone else can’t be patient. You like to take your time with things and there’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t let anyone push you into making a hasty decision; you know what’s best for yourself.

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 You’ve been avoiding a conversation for quite a while now. Not everyone is content to shove confrontations to the side as you are, Aquarius. It might be horrible in the moment, but you’ll feel lighter once you finally deal with it.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 It’s time for a change, Pisces! It doesn’t have to be anything extreme, but variety is the spice of life. Invest in something new to you, and you’ll find yourself far happier than before.

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 Do you feel like you’ve been put under a microscope? Prone to your secrets, your motives might not be clear to others and it’s making them suspicious. While you don’t owe anyone anything, being upfront with someone might clear up this issue and ease both your minds.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018

Exhibit //

Art of the Book exhibit visits UFV UFV hosts travelling book art exhibition

ALEISTER GWYNNE CONTRIBUTOR

UFV is privileged to host Art of the Book 2018, a collection of art based on the aesthetics of book design, from papermaking to printing, which is being exhibited in UFV’s Abbotsford campus library.

Books are well-known to contain beauty within the meaning of their text. Art of the Book broadens the scope to examine and showcase books as works of art in and of themselves. The exhibit contents are sorted into several catego-

ries, which include fine binding, fine printing, restoration, box making, artist’s books, papermaking, paper decoration, and calligraphy. These encompass many types of art and artisanship, from samples of excellent and beautiful text, binding, and illustrations, to artworks made out of, or in the shape of, books.

The exhibit was organized and sponsored by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG). The collection on display includes works from artists and companies from Canada, the United States, the United King-

dom, France, Spain, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The collection on display was assembled by a panel of four judges, including Betsy Palmer Eldridge, Lang Ingalls, Susan Warner Keene, and UFV’s own Jan Elsted. It is largely thanks to Elsted that UFV was selected as one of the hosts of the exhibition.

Art of the Book will be making its way across Canada over the next two years. UFV is the second stop on the journey after the exhibit’s original opening at the University of Victoria last August. UFV is honoured to be the only in-

stitution in the Lower Mainland, and the only other place in B.C. other than UVic to host the collection. Art of the Book will be hosted by other universities across Canada, including the University of Alberta, McGill University, and others as far east as Newfoundland.

Art of the Book is currently housed in display cases arranged around the ground floor of the Abbotsford campus library. The exhibit will remain at UFV until Dec. 7.

Community //

Orange Shirt Day for Abbotsford students Over 500 students gather to give respect to residential school survivors EMMALINE SPENCER STAFF WRITER

Did you notice a lot of orange shirts this past week? You may have thought to yourself, why orange? Sept. 30 was “Orange Shirt Day,” a day started by Phyllis Webstad. Several years after she had survived residential school she realized that the experience she had during her childhood was wrong and began to share her story.

In the 1973/1974 school year, Phyllis attended a Mission school where she had her first-hand experience with the residential school corruption. “I had just turned 6 years old. I lived with my grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve. We never had very much money, but somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to the Mission school. I remember going to Robinson’s store and picking out a shiny orange shirt. It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exciting – just

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like I felt to be going to school!”

Phyllis had started her residential experience happy and ecstatic, as most of us do on our first day of school. However unlike the majority of us, Phyllis’ experience took a drastic change upon her arrival at the residential school.

“When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”

Phyllis had her self worth taken away from her at a young age and is spending decades trying to heal from the wounds left from her experience.

“I went to a treatment centre for healing when I was 27 and have been on this heal-

ing journey since then.” Phyllis is now a grandmother and tells her story and spreads awareness of the tragedies that occured in the residential schools.

On Sept. 28 multiple Abbotsford schools gathered in Mill Lake Park to respect the 63rd call in the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action (TRCA) set by Canada. The ceremony began with the students taking a short walk through the park, lead by drummers. The ceremony included the telling of stories from survivors, a song from one of the schools that were present, and personal messages that students wrote which were given to the elders present. At the ceremony there, the mayor and chancellor were present along with representation from the Sumas, Metis, and the Stó:lō. During the ceremony the heartbreaking stories of the brave survivors were shared. The importance of bringing this dark past of Canada to light is so that the TRCA will be held true.

The TRCA has only 94 calls to action and so few have been answered. As a nation we need to honour and respect the calls to action. It is vital to realize that the last residential school in Canada did not shut down until 1996. Many people do realize that the stories of residential schools are not our history, but our present. Survivors are still tormented by the tragedies they experienced in the schools.

UFV took its own small step toward spreading awareness by asking students to wear their own orange shirts on Friday, Sept. 28. The university also pays respect by acknowledging the Indigenous land the school is built on. They have set a high priority of doing their part in the reconciliation process, and have also set a standard for other universities in bringing awareness to the Indigenous people.

ARTS

Martin Castro — Arts Editor

arts@ufvcascade.ca

Album Review //

Doubts about Art of Doubt CHARTS 1 JOYFULTALK Plurality Trip 2

DUMB Seeing Green

3 CASINOS People Watching 4 MITSKI Be The Cowboy 5 FRIGS

Basic Behaviour

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ELISAPIE The Ballad of the Runaway Girl

7 ANYBODYS

Necessity Of Contrast

BLERSH 8 TERRY Play It All Day WILSON 9 INNES Seaview EP

SHUFFLE AARON LEVY XPRT HAXOR

CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy’s been havin’ a grand ol’ party time getting funny with Abbotsfordian Alexx Smith since the band he’s recently joined, Deadsoft, has been signed to Arts & Crafts Productions, the record label responsible for the songs I’ll espouse upon here - and this is all predicated by the fact that Frigs, whose LP this year, Basic Behaviour, was put out by said label, played in Abbotsford at the Carport early this week! Huzzah!

The Happiness Project - Vittoria This post honeymoon AC release takes conversations with everyday people about what makes them happy, and mimics the rhythm and phrasing of their speech to make lush, polyrhythmic, expressive instrumental pieces that explore each of our tightly held comfort zones in a beautiful, lively, and musical socalled hug of thunder.

PUORTO BAND 10 SHARI Live at Bogie’s

Constantines - Hard Feelings

SPOON 11 RAE bodiesofwater

If a second release to that just mentioned could be in any more opposition from the same label, I am personally unaware, though I certainly don’t have Hard Feelings for those who’d like to make the argument. The synthetic keys; the muted guitar screeches; the anthemic, plaintiff wail of Webb.

12 IDLES Joy As An Act Of Resistance.

WAR 13 SUNNY With The Sun LALA 14 LALA The Lamb

15 YAEJI One More (Single) WAKAN 16 KAN Phantasmagoria Vol. 1 MATTSON 17 KALLE Youth

18 YUKON BLONDE Critical Hit

19 WATERMELON S/T

20 MOTHERS Render Another Ugly Method

Feist - The Bad in Each Other This one was released on Universal with the 2011 record Metal, but let’s be honest, beyond Lesley herself, or the Scene she Broke out from, Socially, the trail through the legacy of 1234, My Moon My Man, and Mushaboom goes squarely through the AC family, and also By Divine Right.

Broken Social Scene - It’s All Gonna Break The song that spans three songs worth of songs, and closes the self titled, third full length release of the band that bore on it’s shoulders the weight of the entirety, or just the start, of the Torontopia legend that may be unshared beyond our Lake Ontario anchored Lakeshore freeways.

ELLIOT BAYE CONTRIBUTOR

Look, let’s be honest here: nothing Metric does can compare to the excellence of 2009’s Fantasies, though its 2012 follow-up Synthetica did come close. That being said, I still had higher expectations of the synth-pop band I’ve been following for nearly 10 years. And I don’t even mind the genre shift to darker synth rock, either. In fact, I think the instrumentals are the best part of Art of Doubt, actually refreshing after the simpler tones in Pagans in Vegas.

In contrast to the music, however, Art of Doubt is by far the most lyrically disappointing album Metric has released thus far. It seems Metric has decided that “Lie Lie Lie” from Pagans in Vegas was their best song and ran away with the formula. The first single they released off the record, “Dark Saturday,” is in my opinion the worst song they’ve ever written. The word “dark” is used over 50 times in the song, and no, I’m not exaggerating. I counted them all.

The outro alone uses the word 37 times in a span of 45 seconds.

I know songs are supposed to employ repetitive lyrics in order to get people singing along in their first listen, but I’m being nice when I say that in this case,

it seems excessive at best. At worst, it’s just plain lazy. Which is awfully disappointing, considering the rest of the lyrics imply a story of two women whose “bodies intertwine” despite their conflicting statements on life and privilege. It had a great concept, but the execution is, frankly, annoying.

Sadly, “Dark Saturday” is not the only song on the record guilty of this strategy. The second single they released, “Dressed to Suppress,” repeats the title phrase so often it’s the only lyric I can even recall from the song. “Love You Back” also crams itself full of “la la la”s in replacement of actual words, and “Die Happy” and “Seven Rules” run along similar lyrical lines.

That being said, most of these repetitive songs lie in the first quarter of the album. The rest of the songs, including “Art of Doubt,” are fairly solid additions to Metric’s repertoire. Not that they’re particularly incredible compared to some of their older works, but they’re certainly better than the low bar that “Dark Saturday” sets.

Maybe that’s why it’s the song that Art of Doubt opens with, so that you know it can’t get any worse from there. Normally, a band will order its songs so that the album ends on the weaker

entries, but the case seems to be the opposite here. In fact, I’d say “Anticipate” and “No Lights on the Horizon” (which come in last) are the best tracks on the record. In fact, they’re more in tune with Metric’s last few albums than this one, and almost feel out of place. I think fans of a more classic Metric sound will appreciate these two.

I imagine it’s difficult after six albums to not only keep old fans with a similar style, but also create something original enough to bring in new fans. It’s a fine line to balance, and many bands struggle to achieve it.

With the release of this seventh album, Metric certainly misses the mark. With a few exceptions, this is one album in their discography that long-time fans might want to ignore. Actually, new listeners should skip this one as well. If you want some interesting synth and unique lyrics, pick up a copy of Fantasies and Synthetica. If you really want to support Metric, you can even pick up their older albums, such as Old World Underground or Live it Out. “It’s true, I’m flawed,” is the opening line of “No Lights on the Horizon,” and I don’t think Art of Doubt could describe itself better.

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ARTS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Netflix Review //

When the absurd meets the ordinary JEN KLASSEN FEATURES EDITOR

Netflix’s newest short series Maniac has left me scratching my head. The psychedelic world it’s set in combined with the myriad of methodically placed easter eggs has overwhelmed my senses. Add in a thin, depressed Jonah Hill and you’ve got one weird combo that somehow works.

Kind of like ketchup chips, or peanut butter on burgers (à la Shake Shack secret menu).

There are so many quirky things about this show, that to describe them would be to ruin its magic, so read further at your own discretion. I would hate to ruin it for you, because like rereading your favourite

book, you can’t repeat that first, hypnotic experience.

This 10-episode series follows the characters Owen Milgram, played

by Hill, and Annie Landsberg, played by the everendearing Emma Stone.

Hill’s character lives with schizophrenia and delusions of grandeur, and Stone’s character is a grief stricken sister struggling with a drug addiction. The pair undergoes a trial that promises to take away all of their psychological pain, replacing the need for therapy all together. With each “treatment,” we enter into the minds of these characters as they confront their deepest pains, and watch as their individual adventures cross dimensions,

time zones, and storylines.

Set in some alternate ‘80s-esque time, the technology is simultaneously outdated and far ahead of what we know, including DOS-type screens coupled with computers capable of feelings. The landscape reminds us of the cityscape in Blade Runner: cement, stark, and advertising set in neon lights outside of windows.

The background itself is depressing, lending greater impact to the supposed mental state of Owen and Annie.

Stone, while a brilliant actor on her own, is vastly overshadowed by Hill’s talent. Hill, known for his “frat bro” type movies (such as 21 Jump Street, Sausage Party, and the ever-

popular Superbad), shows his true chutzpah as an actor. He stepped into this character so convincingly that it will make every girl with a mothering bone in her body want to reach out and hug him.

In addition to Hill and Stone, the remarkable Sally Field takes her place among this crew of characters.

She plays a popular psychologist who, in many iterations, shows up in every mind adventure Annie and Owen have. To the public, and in every iteration she takes in the mental adventures of our main characters, she’s kind, loving, and a champion of working through the tough stuff. In the real world of the show, she’s a chain-smoking,

overbearing, maker-ofmommy-issues kind of a woman.

Despite all of the weird in this series, what captured me the most was some popcorn. It makes its first appearance during the first episode and shows back up in the last, and is a perfect example of how showrunner Patrick Somerville continued to hide both nuanced and blatant bits of breadcrumbs throughout this bonkers series.

The emphasis of the series is the importance of connections; it’s bookended by this idea, from the starting sequence of how the world began, to the final scenes of Annie and Owen breaking out of a psych hospital to go and defeat

their demons together.

People connect to people, bits of information connect to other bits all coming together to form a cohesive story about life, about love in its many forms, and the need we have to not be alone. The message is so ordinary, so everyday, but it is delivered in a package so absurd, maybe this time we’ll pay attention.

Overall, this is a series I would watch again, even if it is only to pick up on the bits of information I missed the first and second time around. If you are looking for a mind-bending, absolutely round the bend show to binge instead of doing your homework, Maniac is spot on.

Album Review //

Just a spoonful of Sweetener

ERIN FROESE CONTRIBUTOR

Ariana Grande’s newest album is not what I expected of her. In my experience, her music follows a bit of a pattern. It’s catchy, upbeat pop music with good harmonies and those signature high notes that nobody can hit quite like Ariana Grande. It’s the kind of music that is easily recognizable when it plays on the radio, long before anyone announces her name. I’ve never heard a song of hers that didn’t have me dancing and singing along, or at least trying to, and I expected Sweetener to be no exception.

From the very first song, however, it was clear that this album was going to be different.

Grande opens her album with what I would call a brief celebration of her vocal talent. “Raindrops” is a short, haunting melody, featuring nothing besides Grande’s voice and a slight echo on her notes. From there, the al-

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bum is set into motion, the next few songs giving the listener the catchy beats and sweet vocals that we came for, but there’s still something distinctly different from her past work. “Blazed” has a chill, almost reggae vibe; “the light is coming” is more about the beat that will stay in your

head for hours; “R.E.M” is the kind of song that you want to listen to in the morning, still lying in bed while the sun streams in through the window; and then there’s “God is a woman.” It’s the song on the album that, to me, most resembles her previous hits. The lyrics are powerful, the

beat makes you move to it, the instrumentals are lovely, and the harmonies reach that certain part of your soul, you know the one.

“God is a woman” is everything one could want from an Ariana Grande song, celebrating all the best qualities of her music in a way that is perfectly balanced.

“Sweetener” stays true to that upbeat style, but you can already hear the soul starting to slip through. This, for me, is the turning point of the album. After this, Grande’s music begins leaning towards the more emotional, as if she herself is exploring a more raw-sounding form of expression and is taking us with her. By “breathin” we can tell that the carefree pop beats of the first half of the album are behind us, and we feel like we’re seeing a new side of the singer. It’s like she’s developing her style as we listen, and by the time “get well soon” fades out, the listener is in a different place than they were at the beginning of the album.

The slow, heavy beats and soulful vocals of “better off” and “goodnight n go” are very grounding. I felt like I had sat down on heavy stone and stayed there with my eyes closed until everything felt CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Film Review //

Mandy doesn’t know what to think of itself and you won’t either JOEL ROBERTSONTAYLOR

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Director Panos Cosmatos directed one feature film before Mandy, 2010’s Beyond the Black Rainbow. George P. Cosmatos, Panos’ dad, directed Rambo First Blood Part II and Tombstone, among other well-received Hollywood blockbusters.

Currently, Panos’ Wikipedia page is six sentences long. But the 44-year-old son of a successful director appears to be making really strange and exciting movies that will definitely bring on a fervent fan base.

Mandy is many things. The film works intelligently to be convincing, taking time to build itself as something recognizable (in terms of genre and stylistic conventions) before it immediately backs over itself in a way that seems to change the film’s direction a number of times throughout the film. It would take a watching of Beyond the Black Rainbow to try and pin what Cosmatos is actually going for. A viewing of Mandy alone will impress upon the viewer a sense that this film is definitely trying to be something unique.

The first part of the film (decided by chapter titles) is an interaction between otherworldly lighting and long, slow shots with minimal dialogue, creating a sense of impending horror.

Given that tainted LSD is an important (although not prevalent) incitement in Mandy, as well as the attention to light patterns and colours, and prog-rocky

soundscapes, the film is more interested in creating a mood than a story. Even so, Mandy’s narrative, although deranged, is coherent. As the film transitions out of its first act, the horror is realized; shortly thereafter, and after a several minute scene of Nick Cage darn well near freaking himself into anger-induced psychosis, the true madness of the film ensues.

In talking about Mandy, it’s not worth wasting time with a synopsis. If you plan to see the film, you don’t want to know anything about it. And if you don’t, the plot

is really just a vehicle for Cosmatos’ hypnotic and composite revenge flick.

Part of what makes the film captivating is that Cosmatos appears to be drawing from a halfdozen or so of his favourite directors, though it’s not apparent why. Mandy doesn’t try anything particularly new or controversial, but it is stylistically ambiguous.

Is this an homage to his favourite directors? Is it a cover album of others’ best hits? To elaborate: Multiple closeups (inserts) of what appear to be mythical/ magical artifacts (“the horn of

Abraxis,” for one) are framed with intense flashing green light (not in any prior or subsequent shots of the scene) and an ominous rushing wind (suddenly inside a hotel room). These are most likely conditioned out of Cosmatos’ respect for luminary director David Lynch. Additionally, in Mandy, dreams don’t play a plot-influencing role, certainly not as unknowable and unconscious representation like in Mulholland Drive; however, Mandy points to dreams through short comic-style animations that separate very surreal and horrific

new direction. I also think that it’s difficult, if not impossible, heavy but I knew I hadn’t slept. to separate this album from the It is important to note the emoevents surrounding Mac Miller, tional progression of Sweetener, who died not long after its rethe way Grande initially gives us lease. No matter what your stance more or less what we expect, but may be on Grande’s significance then gently steers us in a whole

in these events, it gives some of the later songs on the album an even greater heaviness.

While I love several of the songs on this album individually, and while I appreciate the journey Sweetener takes the listener on as

a whole, I doubt I would listen to the entire thing through again.

It’s not exactly a “feel-good” album, and a bummer song doesn’t float my boat. However, that is not at all to say that you won’t catch me listening to “God is a

‘SWEETENER'

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

sequences from relatively calm ones. But these scenes don’t appear to make a statement about themselves so much as they say, “Look at me, I’m referencing dreams.”

Cosmatos sets the viewer up to interpret some kind of dream world, and it’s not clear why.

Though it could be seen as negligence, it should be taken in context of the film’s aforementioned prioritization of mood. The same explanation would satisfy comparison to the full range of assembled techniques.

I’ve noticed that many reviews of Mandy compare Cosmatos to either Lynch, Tarkovsky, or Cronenberg. Perhaps they mean to imply (by means of referencing the most accessible and popular unconventional filmmakers) that Mandy isn’t a conventional Hollywood film. Or maybe they noticed the very obvious use of techniques made famous by past directors. Either way, comparing Cosmatos to these others isn’t very helpful in analyzing his work.

As mentioned, it will take a reading of Beyond the Black Rainbow and whatever else Cosmatos creates next to really determine what’s going on in Cosmatos’ world.

Mandy attempts so many things it’s difficult to pin it down, but that doesn’t stop it from being a visceral experience. It is enjoyably a proper thriller, regardless of anything else it may or may not be doing.

woman” on repeat at any given time. I think Sweetener represents a risk on Grande’s part, and I respect the developments she has chosen to make. I look forward to seeing how her style continues to grow in the future.

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