The Cascade Vol. 23 No. 4

Vol. 23 Issue 4

January 28, 2015 to February 3, 2015

Straight on ‘til morning since 1993

Welcoming our new writer in residence p.10-11

Knives on campus

How fine is the line between tool and weapon? p.3

Repression past and present Film series on slavery hosted by UFV history profs raises local, contemporary issues

p.14

Men’s wrestling top-ranked A year ago, it was a club; now UFV wrestling is first among CIS teams

p.20

ufvcascade.ca

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NEWS

News

Briefs Abbotsford plans new synthetic turf ABBOTSFORD — The City of Abbotsford approved a $6.8 million project to convert the fields between Colleen and Gordie Howe middle school and the Matsqui Recreation Centre (MRC) from natural lawn to synthetic turf. The City explains that the new fields will require less maintenance and will prevent weather-related sports game cancellations. The turf’s expected completion is Fall 2015.

UNBC faculty prepare for potential strike PRINCE GEORGE — The University of Northern BC Faculty Association (UNBCFA) is working with the university to reach an agreement regarding labour relations. The faculty is addressing issues such as a stronger research facility, salary, and coverage after benefits.

According to their website, faculty will strike depending on if “the employer proposes an agreement that addresses the top priorities of UNBC’s faculty.”

UFV plans peer support centre in new building ABBOTSFORD — In the Student Union Building, UFV is planning to have a peer support centre — run by students in a practicum or working in co-op. The centre is focused on greeting new students and directing them to services, answering questions and providing information about extra-curricular activities. The Cascade will cover this story in the following weeks.

UFV plans Peer Support Centre in new building ABBOTSFORD — The City of Abbotsford ‘s city planning committee Abbotsforward is working with UFV geography students in neighbourhood analysis projects. The students will evaluate the city space and how citizens use it. The Cascade will cover this story in the following weeks.

Have a news tip?

Let us know! news@ufvcascade.ca @CascadeNews

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Bringing TV to class

News

4

Opinion

7

Dancing or pedophilia?

Culture

13

Abbotsford reads as a community

Arts in Review

15

Sports & Health

18

UFV and Quizam have partnered to give students two parts lecture, one part television videos in place of class time.

Does Sia’s new music video turn a 12-year-old girl into a sexual object? Mitch Huttema wonders how far artists can go.

Clearbrook library’s ninth annual Family Literacy Day celebration was a hit with young bookworms. Valerie Franklin has the story.

Zombies on the bus!

A radio play might seem like an odd way to entertain yourself on those long commutes to school — but one with zombies? Now we’re talking. Contributor Daniel Holmberg reviews 50-hour radio play We’re Alive.

Basketball, basketball, basketball

Take a peek at the team’s record, get to know one of the star players, and read all about coach Adam Friesen and his plans to make the team even better.

Moving forward from disappointing survey results KATIE STOBBART

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

“STOP WRITING.” The danger in posing questions is you may not like the answers you’re given. So it is with our survey, which ran on myUFV between December 17 and January 18. The lack of respondents itself was disheartening; despite emails, social media posts, and advertising in multiple issues of the paper, only 218 students participated, or less than one per cent of UFV students in total.

Of those respondents, 170 said they had never used our website. There was a near even split between students who felt and did not feel we represent their experiences at UFV. Many said they don’t read the paper at all; we’re wasting our time; we should publish a column about the dissolution of The Cascade.

Maybe the results we got don’t accurately represent the opinions of all students, but they still show many students who don’t feel the paper is a good use of their time or fees. That doesn’t mean we should stop printing, but it does mean there’s room for us to improve. Clearly, we aren’t telling you enough about our online presence. We’re failing to fully deliver what at least some of you want. So let’s run Volume 23 · Issue 4 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529

Editor-in-Chief katie@ufvcascade.ca Katie Stobbart Managing Editor valerie@ufvcascade.ca Valerie Franklin Director of Business Development joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson Production and Design Editor anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi Copy Editor kodie@ufvcascade.ca Kodie Cherrille

diagnostics: Representing all students Many respondents suggested we aren’t doing enough to represent cross-disciplinary studies (not just arts). Granted, it’s mostly arts students who show up to our writers’ meetings, but we plan to reach out to more students, especially in science and business programs. We are also currently planning class visits to encourage would-be writers to contribute, which would enable us to cover more topics and events.

Fostering a conversation space A few people said they want a space where students can write in regularly, like a column about everyday student life or a page dedicated to letters to the editor. The former, we can deliver.

The latter, however, is a dream; I would love to see a page of letters. However, short of fabricating the content myself, there’s little I can do except ask (beg, implore) you to write in.

Did you agree with our stance in an opinion article? Want to weigh in on the UFV Speaks topic, or give your response to our news coverage? Was our news not newsy enough? Throw in your two cents on current events. Do you love or hate the class you were required to take News Editors megan@ufvcascade.ca Megan Lambert michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular Opinion Editor alex@ufvcascade.ca Alex Rake Culture Editor nadine@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt

this semester? Generally the limit is 250 words, but we’ve been known to give leeway.

Type it out. Send me an email.

That’s all it takes.

Where and how you read the paper Where other student newspapers have estimated their readership to be roughly 80 per cent online and 20 per cent print, I think I can safely say ours is almost completely print. I also see people on campus and on the bus picking it up and reading it all the time. However, just because we’re not going onlineonly anytime soon doesn’t mean we shouldn’t promote our website more so you know it exists.

A few people have also expressed concerns that we print too many copies of the paper.

We can look again at how many copies we’re putting out and where, but keep in mind that often people will read an issue but not take it with them, meaning that copies still linger in distribution locations. These are picked up and recycled each week when we distribute again.

Comics, columns, and new ideas One of the best parts of the survey is finding out what columns you would add or remove if it was your call. A handful said News Writer vanessa@ufvcascade.ca Vanessa Broadbent Varsity Writer nathan@ufvcascade.ca Nathan Hutton Production Assistants shyanne@ufvcascade.ca Shyanne Schedel eugene@ufvcascade.ca Eugene Kulaga

Arts in Review Editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt

Advertising Representative jennifer@ufvcascade.ca Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts

Sports Editor catherine@ufvcascade.ca Catherine Stewart

Contributors Anish Bahri, Martin Castro, Daniel Holmberg, and Jasmin Sprangers.

Video Editor mitch@ufvcascade.ca Mitch Huttema Webmaster ashley@ufvcascade.ca Ashley Mussbacher

Cover image: Anthony Biondi

the entire sports section should be cut, some said reviews should get the axe, and there’s always a dedicated group of Below the Belt abolitionists. (If you’ve been reading the paper recently, you may have noticed we have been trying out a relationship advice column instead.)

Some of the things students said they wanted are things we’re already working on. Professor interviews, for example, are currently running weekly in News; we’ve done a couple articles so far featuring specific UFV clubs; and we do have a long-standing upcoming events list in Culture each week. One idea I would like to implement is a regular culture and/or travel column. We have a lot of international students and many students who study outside Canada, so there are plenty of stories to share that we haven’t even touched.

Last words Just because the survey is over doesn’t mean you can’t let us know what you think. Seriously: send me an email, write a letter, come to a writers meeting (they’re on Mondays at 2 p.m. in room B133 this semester), or drop by our office in C1027 on the Abbotsford campus.

Printed By International Web exPress The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of over 50 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature.

Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only.

Articles and letters to the editor must be typed. 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. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition.

Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Tool or weapon?

Security and students stand on opposite sides of a fine line regarding knives on campus NADINE MOEDT

THE CASCADE

Should UFV students be allowed to openly carry hunting knives on campus? It’s a question UFV security recently grappled with when a student complained after spotting someone with a blade on their belt.

Both Michael Martin and Daniel Holmberg carry knives as tools used to “trim loose threads, eat, and [open] packaging.” Both of the knives carried by Martin and Holmberg are hunting knives designed for slicing — Holmberg uses his to skin moose in the fall.

According to Martin and Holmberg, hunting knives should be seen as “multi-purpose tools,” and not weapons. Holmberg explains that his is “not designed for stabbing,” as the knife has a curved point. He also suggests a knife might be an heirloom and a source of familial pride.

While Martin and Holmberg use their knives for harmless tasks, not all students are comfortable with the sight of a knife on the belt of a fellow student.

Head of UFV security Mike Twolan says Section 86 of Canada’s Criminal Code states that only specific knives are illegal to carry.

“Carrying a knife on you is not against the law. Certain knives are against the law: switchblades, stilettos, blades that retract and protract automatically, springloaded,” he says.

Twolan has extensive experience dealing with citizens carrying knives during his career in the RCMP and as head of an airport security team. Twolan notes the line between using a knife as a tool and using it as a weapon is relatively clear: if you mean to use it as a weapon, it will be treated as a weapon. He says while he worked in the police force, a man was using a machete to trim brushes. However, after being teased by some children, the man raised the machete over his head in a threatening manner.

“Even though that was a tool of his trade, he used it as a weapon.

He was arrested, charged, and convicted,” Twolan explains.

In another situation, a man was seen carrying a three-foot sword down the street in Surrey.

The police seized the sword, but because the man did not use it in a threatening manner, charges were dropped and the sword was returned.

Even if others were uncomfortable looking at the sword, the man was not breaking the law.

Image: Megan Lambert

Some students such as Daniel Holmberg, above, carry knives as tools, but UFV security advises students to leave them at home and use scissors instead.

According to Twolan, the situation is different on campus. “If [a student] is intimidated by you carrying a knife, then you are not allowed to carry it,” he says.

He notes that if a student is making others uncomfortable, they are technically violating student policy by harassing other students. Because of this, the university has the authority to ask students not to bring their knives to campus as sanctions can be imposed — any complaint would be dealt with through student

services.

However, Martin and Holmberg argue that because the university policy doesn’t specifically mention knives, they have the right to continue carrying them.

Holmberg says if a student is made uncomfortable, they might simply “attempt to open a dialogue about the legality of carrying knives and the way [they] use the knives.”

Holmberg had been carrying a knife for two years before he was approached by a member of

UFV’s security team, who asked him to remove the knife from his belt and keep it out of sight.

Holmberg did not comply, concerned about breaking the law by hiding the knife.

“The law regarding knives is that they cannot be concealed,” Holmberg says. “In a pocket, it counts as a concealed weapon.”

According to Twolan, the legality concerning concealed knives is a grey area, as Canadian law focuses on the ability to prove intent.

“There are mixed reviews on that,” he says.

“To be successful with a case in court,” he continues, “there are two things that need to be proved. One is called Actus reus and the other is mens rea. Actus reus is Latin for ‘the guilty act.’

Mens rea is ‘the guilty mind.’ Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have the other.”

So in order for a student to be doing something illegal, the court would have to prove that they intentionally concealed the weapon, rather than being asked by security to conceal it.

While it’s not against the law, Twolan doesn’t support students bringing knives to campus.

“At an institution like this you’d have to ask yourself: would a reasonable person really carry a knife here if they didn’t have a purpose for it?”

Specifically mentioning knives in the policy could be discriminatory for some students. For some, knives have religious significance. The kirpan, for example, is a ceremonial sword carried by some members of the Sikh religion, and is one of the five articles of faith that must be worn at all times.

“The policy would have to be very careful not to discriminate against religious groups,” Twolan says. “It’s a fine line.”

Security is currently dealing with situations involving knives on a case-by-case basis, while a policy is being drafted.

Since Twolan started at UFV 15 months ago, he has dealt with two incidents concerning students carrying knives. One was relatively banal: a student put his knife on the desk in class and was asked to put it away with no further incident. In another, a student actually threatened another student by pulling out the knife. This was handled very quickly by the RCMP. According to Twolan, that student is “no longer on campus.”

“I think it’s time we [had] something in place,” says Twolan, noting that UFV is “overdue” on making its policy clear.

Twolan says a knife should not be present in a learning environment like UFV unless it is required for your trade. For students, this means not using a knife where a pair of scissors can do the trick.

“You don’t want to be sitting behind a student who you know is carrying a knife,” Twolan says.

With files from Sasha Moedt.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

UFV School of Business first to offer course with televised lectures VANESSA BROADBENT

THE CASCADE

“The future” has finally arrived at UFV — but not with hoverboards and flying cars like Back to the Future promised us.

Instead, marketing and media professor Cindy Stewart’s BUS329 course, Brand Identity Management, is the first at UFV to offer televised lectures. The class is like any other third year class — except one out of the three lecture hours are TV episodes students can watch outside of class time.

BUS329 aims to teach students the theory of brand management, as well as how to use software to create brand images. UFV has collaborated with ontrackTV, a local Vancouver company that specializes in computer training and study skills technology, to add a different learning medium.

This semester is the first for the videos, but Stewart has already noticed the benefit of having “watch at home” lectures.

“Having the instructor sit in a classroom, basically stand at a computer, and show you how to navigate through software, to me, is not the best use of my time,” she says. “The vignettes are designed to do that in a very quick, engaging way so that the students not only learn, but they have the ability to go back and replay it.”

Image: UFV/ Flickr

UFV partnered with Quizam Media Corporation to offer instructional videos for business students.

Students are finding it different from their regular classes, but have mostly positive feedback.

Business student Carissa Greenlees has noticed that her learning has improved because of the course’s different teaching style.

“You have the theory part with the lectures and then you have the hands-on part with the tutorials, so you’re getting two different parts of how to learn,” she says.

The partnership between UFV and ontrackTV, a branch of Quizam Media Corporation,

is coming at no apparent cost to UFV. However, Stewart has helped develop their program.

“In exchange for that free access, I have helped align their face-to-face course delivery with the online tools,” she says. “When this is over it’s a win-win for both of us because they’ll be able to take my work, and package that, and sell it to clients in the business community.”

The partnership also comes with a condition. Because online lectures are a new form of learning, UFV has agreed to help on-

trackTV by conducting research to test if this learning style is beneficial to students.

Director of the School of Business Frank Ulbrich noted that the partnership does not necessarily mean influenced research results.

“As in all research there is a risk of bias but we will do all we can to control for it,” he says in an email.

The success of students taking BUS329 with the online lecture component will be compared to the success of students taking the same course with only in-class

lectures. Stewart hopes to publish a paper in an academic journal about the results.

“They’re giving it to us for free and the exchange is we’re going to do this research and learn if there’s an added value depending on the learning style,” she says.

Students are aware they are the first class to try the TV videos and be the subject of research.

“It’s exciting, because you’re kind of playing the guinea pig,” Greenlees says.

If the research shows that the online lecture component is successful, which Ulbrich thinks it will be, other business classes could be taught in the same manner in the future.

“Our hypothesis is it will be a more effective learning experience for our students, resulting in better student performance,” he said in an email. “If BUS329 proves to effectively support students in their learning, the School of Business will further investigate whether this style of learning might be transferrable into other business courses in the future, and whether it might lead to a more formal partnership with Quizam in the future.”

Quizam’s services are tailored for computer skills and training, so there is no foreseeable possibility of online lecture spreading into other areas of study.

Target closing puts UFV students out of work MEGAN LAMBERT

THE CASCADE

Of the 133 closing Target stores across Canada, three are in the Lower Mainland, putting some UFV students out of work.

Having started up operations in Abbotsford two years ago, Target is now beginning the liquidation process. Shipments from trucks are slowing down, products are moving from back rooms to clearance aisles, and in-store Starbucks cafés are leaving the locations.

CEO of Target Canada Brian Cornell suggested in the company’s January 15 press release that the main reasons for its departure were fiscal.

“We were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021,” Cornell said.

Consequently, about 17,600 employees in Canada will be out of work. Target is ensuring pay and benefits for its employees over the next 16 weeks, even if they are laid off sooner than that.

However, they stated they cannot

guarantee severance.

Sam*, a UFV student who works as a human resources team leader at a Target location in the Fraser Valley, has been working part-time since July 2012 to help pay for her education and living costs.

She says her store was meeting daily sales goals and functioning smoothly, so the closure came as a shock.

“I thought if they were to start closing down, they would close down the stores that weren’t doing well from the get-go,” she says, adding that her location had received good ratings within the company for guest service and inventory. “So the complete withdrawal was a huge shock.”

Sam says her manager called a team meeting the morning of the announcement, having heard the news on the radio rather than from Target itself.

There are other accounts of employees first hearing the news of Target’s closing from the media.

The CBC reports that a similar situation occurred in Ontario, where employees heard about

Image: wikipedia.org

Target employees have 16 weeks left of pay and benefits.

Target’s closure from news outlets and customers, rather than from Target corporately. A Target spokesperson told CBC that they told workers “at about the same time” as they gave details to the media.

Sam and her coworkers received letters from Target with information about paycheques, benefits, and the liquidation process, but notes there was a lack of immediate communication. “It just seems immature,” she says.

“I’m sure there [were] many warning signs before this and they could have had a bigger and better, more secure plan [that] would have better communication for people in the store.”

As part-time retail jobs are a common source of income for many students, Target’s termination affects many UFV students like Sam. However, she explains that although she has concerns about maintaining her costs as a student, there are others who rely

on their jobs to make a living.

“The first people I thought of were people with families to support,” she says.

She adds that because approximately 150 people from her store are also going back out into the job market, finding part-time work with flexible hours in her area will be more difficult compared to when she began jobhunting two years ago.

Despite this, Sam says the morale in her store is positive. Employees are arranging lunchtime games, taking pictures, and signing T-shirts from previous volunteering events. “I don’t think we’ve ever had such a positive vibe in our store. People have really come together,” she says.

As the product in her store dwindles, Sam says, “Every truck is one more week. That’s kind of how it feels.

“It’ll be a sad day when we see our last truck, that’s for sure.”

Name changed to protect anonymity of the source.

With files from Kier-Christer Junos.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Prof Talk

Games, logic, and a passion for puzzles: Susan Milner on how she teaches math VANESSA BROADBENT

THE CASCADE

Susan Milner has been a math professor at UFV for 26 years. She has taught finance, statistics, and calculus, and now teaches courses like Math for Elementary School Teachers and the History of Math.

Did you have to move to teach at UFV? Yes. I was teaching in Kelowna at the time.

What kind of a change was that for you?

It’s not as hot here — that was nice. The environment was similar because [Okanagan] was a college and it was a college here, and I really enjoyed that atmosphere.

When Okanagan turned into a university, there was a lot of nastiness, and we haven’t had that here.

How would you describe the culture when you first started teaching at UFV? It was clearly a place that was interested in teaching. My department was all about teaching and that was important. I really enjoyed them — they were funny, they were smart, but they cared about teaching, and it seemed to be a really nice fit.

What kind of courses did you start out teaching?

I taught business math, so financial math, at first-year level. I taught intro stats to all kinds of people, including business students. I did some pre-calculus, and eventually they let me teach calculus.

What was it like?

It was fun. Statistics was remarkably practical, and the business math was even more so. Often, students say, “I don’t understand why I’m doing this, because it doesn’t have anything to do with the real world.” Business math has a lot to do with the real world, so we never had that problem. Statistics was interesting because people often had negative ideas about it and yet it’s something that they’re going to end up using a lot. It was a lot more interesting than I had thought it might be — coming as I do from an algebraic, logical kind of background.

Classes were smaller, so it was really cool to get to know the students well. We still try to do that. Those are my strongest impressions from that time. I like working with adults a lot and there were a lot of them here. We had a higher-than-average age of students here. We have a lot of people coming back as adults and I really like that. It’s a nice atmosphere.

Does that differ from the courses you are teaching now?

Well, we now have statisticians that teach statistics. Now, of course, we have thirdand fourth-year courses. I do get to teach the occasional third- or fourth-year course, which is nice. I have a History of Math course that I’m very fond of, that I never could have done before. Because students stay here for four years, I get to see them grow up and change over four years, and that’s different because before we kept

them for two years at the longest.

What kind of changes have you noticed while teaching at UFV, in terms of UFV’s place in the surrounding geography and community?

Originally it was a college. The communities fought hard to get the college here and it was respected as a college, and then there was a hard fight to get it to become a university college and then a university. I live in Chilliwack, but the level of support in Chilliwack has always been very high. I don’t think that’s changed; I think it’s still very high. I’m much more involved in the community than I used to be because I do a lot of mathematic outreach things.

What kind of changes have you made in your teaching approaches or methods over time, or have you found one style that works?

I keep trying different things. My goals have not changed. Probably I lecture less, because I have a better idea of how to structure activities. I teach math for elementary teachers, and it’s really important that they experience a variety of activities. Overall, I probably do lecture less, and I have more effective ways of getting students to do things. And because I teach a course, History of Math, that isn’t a prerequisite for anything, I have way more freedom to do what I want. So we have lots of student presentations and seminars and things like that.

Have there been any colleagues or students who have been particularly helpful or influential in what you do as a teacher?

Yes. Jane Cannon, now retired, is one of the best teachers I’ve ever known. She taught math for teachers among other things.

She’s an excellent teacher and I learned a lot from her. [There was also] Doug McDowell — ­ he was an excellent teacher and very good at interacting with students, and Linda Riva, who supported all students.

She made a point of going to help students that found things difficult. I learned a lot from them. We used to spend a lot of time talking.

I’ve had some fantastic students and it’s been wonderful to watch them. If you think about influencing what I do, when I ask students to do something like a presentation and they go way above and beyond what I imagined, then I think okay, that’s what students are capable of, so I start expecting more. I think that’s partly why my teaching style, as far as I have the freedom in certain classes, has been to ask more and more of them because they produce way above what I expect.

In math there’s a big difference. We teach a lot of surface courses. Most of our stats, most of our calculus, math for teachers, those are courses for other people in other disciplines. Many of them don’t necessarily want to be there. That atmosphere is totally different from a classroom where people want to be. What I can do in that second-year classroom is very different from what I can do in the first. I try to generate as much excitement as I can but there

Image: Vanessa Broadbent/ The Cascade

Milner uses math toys and games to enhance student comprehension. are people who just don’t want to be there.

They’re thinking still like high school.

That’s pretty hard to work with ... you can’t turn everyone around.

What kind of projects have you worked on at UFV? Lately I’ve been very involved in math puzzles and games. On my sabbatical I visited 200 classrooms from K-12 [and] did puzzles and games in the classroom. I had no idea that that many people would want it. I had thought three or four. I gave almost 20 workshops to teachers about this.

There’s a lot of interest. I love my puzzles and games and doing logic things. It’s amazing what people can show that they can do ... it doesn’t feel like math [but] it is mathematical thinking. So I’ve been doing a lot of that.

I’ve been also doing a lot of what we call mathematical outreach. I run something called Math Mania where we go into elementary schools. I take a bunch of volunteers from here — we’re going next week to Yarrow Community School — about 20 volunteers, mostly students, some faculty.

We invite the students and their parents and we play games. They go like, “This is math?” because most people have some odd ideas about what math is and I think that’s a problem in our society. A lot of what I do is trying to break down those false notions about what it is and who can do it and how it’s valuable. I spend a lot of time doing that.

While we often talk of UFV as a single entity, each student or teacher will take something different out of UFV — how would you describe what you’ve taken out of UFV, and how you’re still changing it?

It’s been 26 years of my life, so it’s certainly had an influence. It’s absorbed most of my life because I’m passionate about teaching and because it really has been teachingoriented. I can’t imagine doing anything else really, than working with students and colleagues.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

SNAPSHOTS

Tim Hortons lids are evil

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

Online and off-focus

The vegetarian conversation

Students need to show up at games

Joe Johnson

Vanessa Broadbent

Megan Lambert

Aaron Levy

What is up with Tim Hortons’ lids? This is the only negative aspect of the coffee-drinking experience (granted, the actual Tim Hortons coffee might be a close second). These lids are truly the mark of El Diablo.

I’m not talking about the lids that come with lattés or the like. I mean the lids that come with the plain old coffee — or tea, if that’s your thing.

I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

These lids have the perforated tear-away that you pull back and it locks in place. At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Far, far too frequently I have pulled back, only to have the flip tear sideways. Another issue is when the flip doesn’t lock and instead sticks in a perennial 90-degree vertical state. And how about when coffee spills everywhere, because the lid and the cup’s seam don’t make a proper seal.

These things happen far too frequently and I for one will not stand for it. Tim Hortons, you’d better correct this lid issue or I will not be pleased the next time I’m drinking a steeped tea, double double.

We’ve all been in a class with that one person that can’t seem to live without their beloved internet connection for more than five minutes. Only about 10 per cent of the class is actually spent taking notes. The rest is spent on Facebook, Twitter, online shopping, or pretty much anything else unrelated to class. I understand that three hours can feel pretty long, and we all check our phones occasionally, but sometimes it gets a little over the top. If you really can’t pry yourself away from the internet and focus for a mere three hours, why even bother coming to university? You clearly have better things to do than sit in a room with people who want to learn.

Please don’t sit directly in front of me, either. I’m not interested in your friend’s baby photos or in watching entire World Cup games with you (yes, that’s actually happened). If you’re not ready to be detached from the internet sometimes, maybe you’re not ready for university.

Watching gravy dripping down their chin across from my mac and cheese, I spot the familiar gleam in their eyes. Wiping their mouth, they ask, “So, why are you a vegetarian?” However, the following conversation doesn’t go as smoothly as either of us intend. I look down at my hands and mumble, “I don’t really want to talk about it; it’s just a personal choice.” For some, that’s good enough and we change the subject.

But in my experience, my response is often followed by, “Don’t you think it’s natural to eat meat?” “If you eat meat, do you spit it out?” Or even, “Don’t worry. I make great fried chicken. I’ll convert you!” In a world where people eat meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it’s pretty difficult to be a vegetarian. Granted, there are great options for herbivores and some wonderful, accepting people in this world — but there are lots of people who try to argue with me about my dietary choices like we’re arguing about the existence of a deity or the ethics of abortion. Meat is not a religion — but if you see it as one, I ask that you respect mine.

I want to see you at the last pair of UFV Cascades basketball games at 6 and 5 p.m. on February 13 and 14 respectively.

Why? So you don’t wish you’d been there, like Woodstock, or when the Pope visited Toronto. Sarah Wierks is projected to collect more rebounds per game this season than anyone in any season since records were published. UFV’s men are preparing before our eyes for one of the most classic Cinderella post-seasons in the history of Canada West competition across all sports.

Both teams are up against barriers put in place exclusively to make it more difficult for non-powerhouse (UBC, U of A) teams to compete.

Not only is it your chance to be here for that watershed moment, it’s your chance to show that UFV has world-class athletes and students supporting each other in the face of nearly universal, almost insurmountable obstacles: money, privilege, and geography.

Humour

Goodbye Target, goodbye everything NINA DE L’APARCAMIENTA

CONTRIBUTOR

Hello, excuse me, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight in the opinion section of your paper, especially since I am not, nor have I ever been, a student of UFV. My name is Nina and I live undetected beneath the parking lot outside the Target building and the other fine but useless shops surrounding it. I have lived here since Target was Zellers, which was ages ago so I understand if some of the younger students at your school cannot remember such a time. Anyways, I am writing to say that I think the closing of Target is an outrage.

Every night after closing time, I crawl through the plumbing beneath the concrete to get into the Target building. This is where

I collect all my meals and other necessities like T-shirts and craft supplies. I can do this with my conscience intact because nobody else is buying the junk I steal anyways. My entire home in the system beneath the parking lot is furnished with Zellers and Target products and I am rightfully proud of this fact.

A friend of mine once asked why I insist on doing this. Why not give up the subterranean life and try to do something meaningful? And if I’m not willing to give the underground up, why not compromise and take stuff from other shops? This rude person isn’t my friend anymore, but the answers are as follows: A) The subterranean is all I know, and B) I was conceived on the spot where the building in question stands, and so it holds certain sentimental value for me. I refuse to do anything non-sentimental.

When I was young, I would not wear underwear unless it had a picture of a cow on it because cows reminded me of my absent mother because that’s how my father always referred to her. No cow? No deal. I was a righteous child, and I like to think I have retained that righteousness. No Target? No Nina.

What I mean to say is that somebody needs to move another big retailer in after Target leaves ASAP or I will die. I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die. I live a completely self-sufficient lifestyle and that alone should move you enough to have a little sympathy for me. If any of you kind students at UFV run a big-name retail business, please consider those beneath the lot and give us what we need: another huge store.

Image: Eugene Kulaga/ The Cascade

www.ufvcascade.ca

Debate around “Elastic Heart” video raises questions about how far art can go MITCH HUTTEMA

THE CASCADE

Sia recently released her music video for “Elastic Heart,” a song she wrote for 2013’s Catching Fire soundtrack. The video features Maddie Ziegler, who also appeared in Sia’s previous hit music video for “Chandelier,” starring alongside Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf. Similar to Sia’s previous video, this video is populated largely by flowing footage of interpretive dance.

The video’s content has stirred controversy across social media platforms and elsewhere.

Commenters claim that it conveys a pro-pedophilia message and that the exchange between LaBeouf and Ziegler encourages child-predation. I disagree.

For the duration of the video, LaBeouf and Ziegler engage in a close-quarters interpretive dance within a cage. LaBeouf is outfitted in skintight nude short shorts and scuffed all over with dirt. Ziegler is equally dirty and wearing a nude leotard similar to her costume in the “Chandelier” video. The dance involves close interaction between its two participants, with Ziegler entertaining child-like temper tantrums and wolfish snarls. At one point, LaBeouf pulls him-

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

self up the side of the approximately 10-foot-high dome cage and drops down just overtop of Ziegler, who lies prone on the ground.

In a documentary interview for DanceOn’s “The Edge” series, Sia expresses that in the music video, LaBeouf “is working with Maddie as if she is one of his self-states, maybe an inner child, or maybe like one of his demons.” In the same documentary, choreographer Ryan Heffington says that the cage in which they dance “is kind of the skull — you beat yourself up, you’re loving to yourself.”

Regardless of her original intentions, Sia made a public apology over Twitter, claiming that her “intention was to create some emotional content, not to upset anybody.”

As Sia says, this video has nothing to do with pedophilia and does nothing to encourage it. The closeness between LaBeouf and Ziegler taken out of the context of the dance seems questionable of course, but their actual interaction has no sexual innuendo.

The dance speaks to the psychological tension between the two participants. Ziegler acts as a sort of primal being, snarling and chasing LaBeouf around

the cage with LaBeouf in turn trying to calm and befriend the “beast.” From an interpretive standpoint, Ziegler’s character is much too aggressive and vicious to represent a child in the dance.

The accusations of pedophilia can only be on a strictly physical plane as the psychological one is too chock-full of struggle and depth to even allude to the issue.

It could be argued that directors Sia and Dan Askill could have found two actors with a smaller age-gap for these roles.

The debate about the video raises important questions: How far can art go to portray its meaning while pushing regular societal boundaries? Is it okay to raise potential pedophilia issues in the name of seeing that meaning come through?

There are definitely limits that artists should adhere to, simply so that they dwell within the limit of the law. However, art has always been a field for pushing boundaries and really getting to the human soul. In this case, I would say forget the critics; the video is aesthetically pleasing and an incredibly visual way of representing Sia’s own psychological warfare.

Letter to the editor

RE: Best of 2014 ranking of Lucy

Dear Editor, I think it is fantastic that The Cascade will sneak in the occasional practical joke but I must express my concern that the gag presented in last week’s issue went too far. LUCY IS NOT A GOOD MOVIE YOU GUYS! This is Cloud Atlas all over again and while I could forgive that instance of a bad movie being on the list this is just too far.

I know you all probably had a good laugh when you wrote down the absurd statement that Lucy is the seventh best movie of 2014 but what you failed to realize is that some people might take you seriously and actually watch Lucy. It’s all fun and games until someone gets their eyes burned out from watching Lucy. Trust me, this is not a guilt you want to carry. I once tricked

someone into seeing Transformers 2 and it has weighed on me ever since. Just imagine some poor unfortunate soul putting on Lucy, expecting a good time but then they get to the dolphins and the breast milk and the flash drive and oh my god the flash drive!

But I digress. Please, while there is still time, release a retraction and public apology to save anymore naïve film goers from what can only be described as a glimpse into the mad never-ending world of Luc Besson’s nightmares.

Sincerely, Zack Soderstrom P.S. Still better than Limitless.

Racism is still a prominent issue in Vancouver Our city hides its prejudice behind notions of diversity

WILLIE KAMAWE

THE PEAK

BURNABY (SFU) — “Is today a black day or something?” asked a cashier at a downtown convenience store. The man directed the question to my girlfriend and I as we checked out our items one summer day. It was hard to hide the disbelief from our faces as he casually let the words flow freely.

Why would he ask such a question? Well, he mentioned that he had noticed a number of black people that day, so there had to be a reason why. Because black people don’t just walk around Vancouver unless it’s a special occasion, right?

As an African international student, racially charged interactions are not new to me, and only reinforce how far away I am from home. Vancouver is often celebrated as a universally inclusive place — however, in reality this is not always the case. After numerous other troubling encounters, I have accepted that it may not be the perfect bubble of unity many believe it to be.

Image: Brandon Hillier

I remember during my first year, I explained to a Canadian coworker of mine that I intended to transfer from college to university in Vancouver. His advice to me was that I should avoid certain schools, due to their high Chinese population. As a then-newcomer to Vancouver, I sobered up to the possibility of ethnic prejudice even in beautiful British Columbia.

Browsing web forums, the

title of a certain thread jumped out at me: “Too many Asians in Vancouver!” Beneath it, various responses proceed, with prejudiced remarks such as “Canada should stop catering to foreigners (for what? for some foreign cash? for stupidity?)” Numerous other threads like this exist online, and add to the deadly fire that is unfounded prejudice. The issue may not seem prevalent, because it is usually not as overt

as it was during the colonial era; however, I am here to tell you that it does exist.

In a country built on colonial rule and the efforts of generations of immigrants, it is utterly asinine for people to denigrate others based on their ethnicity. It is highly regressive, especially in Canada, to hold these prejudices, yet many still do.

The diversity of Vancouver is often celebrated, but often this is

used as a safety net that allows people to ignore the possibility of prejudice. Some may say, “Look at how many immigrants there are; we are so accepting of foreigners!”

Sorry to burst your bubble, but no. It means your government is open to the foreign investment, and you have to deal with the consequences. However, we can still work towards fostering a genuine community where we truly accept each other even if we are uncomfortable at first.

We need to face this issue head-on instead of hiding behind the notion of “tolerance” in an attempt to seem agreeable. I feel as though “tolerance” maintains that we don’t like the idea, but will put on a smile and fake it. In my view, all this does is provide an excuse to further dodge the problem.

It may be naive to believe we can do better as a society, but there is surely space for us to build a more inclusive community in Vancouver, rather than a complacent population full of hidden tensions.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Remembering a forgotten story Exhibition commemorates the individual stories of Canadian Sikh soldiers in WWI

Upcoming

Events

ANISH BAHRI

CONTRIBUTOR

The Sikh Heritage Museum celebrated the launch of its seventh official exhibition on January 17, with over 120 attendees. The exhibition, titled Canadian Sikhs in WW1: The Forgotten Story, explores the individual stories of 10 Canadian Sikh soldiers serving in the Great War. The Gur Sikh Gurdwara The Gur Sikh Gurdwara (temple), where the Sikh Heritage museum is located, is a unique Canadian national heritage site. The temple was built by the first Sikhs who arrived in Canada from Punjab in 1905 — farmers and foresters under the auspices of the Khalsa Diwan Society. The heritage community allowed new immigrants to congregate, provide assistance to each other, practice their religion, and provide food and shelter to the needy.

When the Gur Sikh Temple turned 100 years old in 2011, the ground floor was converted to the Sikh Heritage Museum.

Canadian Sikhs in WWI: The Forgotten Story 2014 marked the centennial of World War I, which resulted in an estimated loss of 37,466,904 human lives. Rather than looking at this figure as a whole to come to terms with the massive losses, it is more effective to look at the role of the individual soldiers within such a mass of narratives and stories. By looking at the individual human lives, we can gain an understanding of the immense sacrifice these people were forced to make.

This exhibition is an attempt to

January 29 UFV went to Russia: study tour info session Interested in taking part in a study tour? Come out to UFV’s Global Lounge for discussion with students who took part in a history study tour to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novgorod last summer. Students will share stories and tips for future study tour students, as well as pictures from their trip. The presentation will run from 4-5p.m.

January 29 Open mic night at AfterMath Images: Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies / flickr

Canadian Sikhs in WW1: The Forgotten Story is hosted at the 105-year-old Gur Sikh Gurdwara. shed light on the invisible stories of the 10 known Canadian Sikh soldiers who served in WWI. Reminders of past mistakes The time period when WWI broke out was a period of great racial tension in Canadian history. Incidents such as the 1907 anti-Asian riots led by the thenmayor of Vancouver, the disenfranchisement of Indians in 1907, the “continuous journey” regulation of 1910, or the turning away of the Komagata Maru ship in 1914 are just the larger examples that demonstrate the ways racism was institutionalized within the Canadian ethos at the time.

Despite such immense and intense discrimination, soldiers like

Bukham Singh, Harnam Singh, Lashman Singh, and John Baboo decided that they still wanted to serve the country that refused to accept them as voting citizens.

Certainly then, these stories are important for understanding the nature and range of these 10 soldiers’ roles in WWI. Powerful speeches The chief guest for the exhibition was Lt. Col. Harjit Singh Sajjan, who provided the keynote address. Other attendees included Mayor Henry Braun, Lt. Gen. Alexander Leslie, and UFV Provost and VP Academic Eric Davis, whose speech was particularly moving.

“Without exhibits like this one,

this story and their individual stories would be lost to us,” Davis said. “And then there would be no understanding, no recognition, that would stop us from making the same mistakes that led our ancestors to hate, exclude, and marginalize entire groups of people or, as we did a century ago, to stumble into war.”

The Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies advisory committee members, Abbotsford City Counsellors, and many local BC veterans also attended the launch.

The exhibition is open for the general public until December 2015. All UFV students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to visit.

Want to win $100 to UFV’s bookstore? Get the band back together — AfterMath is hosting an open mic. Admission is a donation of non-perishable food for the Abbotsford food bank.

Those interested in performing can sign up at the event (why not be spontaneous?) or at foodbank@ufvsus.ca. Performances run from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.

February 2 A reading — for SCIENCE! Join the Louden Singletree and new writer-in-residence Emily Pohl-Weary for a night celebrating poetry, prose and the scientific mind. Bring your sciencethemed poetry and prose to read at the open mic, or bring your Biology 101 textbook and do a dramatic reading! The night of free entertainment begins at 7p.m. at AfterMath. Wear your best lab coat.

February 3 Winter wellness workshop UFV’s health, safety & wellness and human resources departments are offering a winter wellness program to all UFV students, faculty and staff. The series begins on Tuesday, February 3 with a workshop on “Creating a Great Family Life.” The series requires pre-registration, so email Amanda.vanTilborg@ufv.ca to sign up. The workshop runs from 12-1 p.m. in A225.

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STUDY BREAK CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

CROSSWORD

Welcome, Emily Pohl-Weary!

by VALERIE FRANKLIN

ACROSS 1.

6.

8.

11.

13.

14.

A guy in a romantic relationship with you is your _______. (9) Scary creatures often found under the bed or in the closet. (8) A person older than 12 and younger than 20. (8) Genre of literature for the 12 to 19 age range. (5, 5) Emily Pohl­-Weary’s grandfather Frederik Pohl was a well­-known writer in this genre. (3, 2) Scary genre of books or films often involving monsters.

DOWN 2.

3.

4.

5.

7.

9.

10.

12.

Round object in the sky once a month. (4, 4) Emily Pohl­-Weary’s female protagonist plays in a _______. (4) Genre that often takes place in an imaginary world. (7) Creature that gets hairy once a month. (8) Place where teenagers attend class. (4, 6) Fanged bloodsuckers. (8) Supernatural force manipulated by wizards. (5) The state of having returned from the grave, like a zombie. (6)

SUDOKU ACROSS 1. JOUST 2. JAZZ 3. JERKY 4. JUICE 6. JUGULAR 8. JUGHEAD

2 2 7 4 3 2 7

3 1

8 1

2

DOWN 1. JELLYFISH 2. JULEP 4. JURYDUTY 5. JUDO 6. JAPAN 7. JOGGING 8. JAM

5 9

8 2 9 6 4 8

The Weekly Horoscope

Sudoku solution

4 6 3 2 9 8 1 5 7 1 5 8 7 6 4 3 9 2 7 9 2 3 1 5 6 4 8

Last issue’s crossword

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5 1 4 9 8 2 7 6 3 3 7 6 5 4 1 8 2 9 2 8 9 6 3 7 5 1 4

4 3

9 4 7 8 5 6 2 3 1 8 3 5 1 2 9 4 7 6 6 2 1 4 7 3 9 8 5

3 2 1 5 8 4

Star Signs from Moira Mysteriosa

Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: Finger-painting skills will get you out of a tight spot this week. Crack your knuckles and start practicing!

Gemini: May 21 - June 21: Keep a handful of coffee beans in your pocket for caffeine emergencies. You’ll need them this week.

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: Whatever you do, don’t make eye contact with the owl outside your window.

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: Your Libra friend knows what you’re up to. Either involve them in your plans, or be more careful keeping things under wraps.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22: Watch the skies for moving lights — but get inside if they approach.

You’re probably standing on the runway.

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: Eat more chocolate, and try not to cry yourself to sleep for the sixth time this week.

Aries: March 21 - April 19: Cap’n Crunch is your spirit animal.

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: Classical music is lucky for you this month. Stock up on Schubert and Beethoven albums especially.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20: This week, a stranger will give you a gift that seems worthless — and you know what? It probably is. Don’t keep stuff you don’t need just to be polite.

Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept 22: Beware of pine trees this week — and what lies beneath them.

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: Your favourite hobby will lead you into peril. Time to take up knitting instead?

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: Something will go terrible for you this week. Back up your novel manuscript!

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FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Introducing UFV’s new writer in residence: Emily Pohl-Weary

By Vanessa Broadbent

Every winter semester, the English department at UFV welcomes a Canadian author to be writer in residence.

The writer in residence works on her writing during her stay at UFV, as well as helps students with their own.

She provides inspiration and guidance by visiting creative writing classrooms, as well as working one-on-one with students.

This year’s writer in residence is young adult (YA) author and poet, Emily Pohl-Weary. Emily has written

six books and a comic book series, and has published her own literary magazine. Some of her most popular works include Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl and A Girl Like Sugar, and Ghost Sick, her newest collection of poetry, will be released in February.

The Toronto native has just finished a writer in residence position with the Toronto Public Library and has travelled across Canada to share her writing wisdom with UFV students.

What’s your writing process or method like?

I’m a big believer in outlining. I tend to do a certain amount of writing on a new project when I get inspired, then as soon as it starts to feel like I have too much in my brain I revert to the outlining process, go back and look at what I’ve written and then figure out where I need to go. I don’t feel locked into the outline, because I can always change it, but it really helps me get where I need to go.

Where do you do your writing?

I’ll write anywhere. I’ll write at home, I’ll write at a café. I’ve been known to write at the public library and at the mall, or on the bus. It always just depends on when I have time and where I can grab some space in my head.

Why UFV? What appealed to you about this school in particular?

I was really interested in this area, BC, and frankly, last winter in Toronto felt like it lasted a million years, so I wanted to try living out here. I’ve heard the area is beautiful and I’m so excited to be able to explore it. It felt like a good fit when I read about the residency and I found out more about it. It feels like the right place for me. The day I got on the airplane it was really early in the morning and -16° C. The wind was blowing, it was snowy, and I thought, I am going to the right place.

What do you hope to bring to students that is unique?

I love working with young people. I feel as if it’s a real opportunity for me to get inspired, and a lot of what I write is aimed at younger readers, so it’s exciting to me to work with people who are closer to the age of the characters that are in my books.

I hope that I can share a bit of a — well, I think of myself as a Jackie-of-all-trades in terms of writing. I’ve written biography, poetry, and novels and edited a superhero anthology and wrote a screenplay, so I feel like I can bring some degree of authority to discussions about any of those genres. I’ve actually written graphic novels as well. I think pretty much anything that students are into writing, I may have had some experience writing or editing in the past. I’ve also worked on textbooks. My experience is broad and could cover a lot of different interests.

How would you define the young adult genre?

Let’s see. Well, it’s usually aimed at readers between the ages of 12 and 19. The narrator, the main character, has to be from that same age group. It can’t be an adult talking about the teenage years, so if an adult is narrating in flashbacks, it’s usually not a teen novel.

A teen novel is actually through the eyes of teenagers, so the world they inhabit is the world a teenager would inhabit and the action has to be driven by young adults. It has to be driven by young characters.

There may be some other, more or less arbitrary rules about what makes YA, but people are always breaking them, so I’d say those are the ones that really have to stand.

I think the line is really blurry. It’s hard to know because you can read a book that’s

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

FEATURE

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Image: emilypohlweary.tumblr.com

for adults narrated by a kid. It happens occasionally. I guess the common wisdom is there might be less swearing, less sex; the world would be one of teens. All the action, all the plot movement is driven by teenagers, not by adults and their lives.

Sometimes thematically there are things that teens wouldn’t be as interested in.

I wrote one novel for adults called A Girl Like Sugar but that, I think, would now fall into the whole new category of new adult, which is essentially 18 to 25. Those were the people who were reading A Girl Like Sugar, and I guess also the ages of students here at UFV. That’s the oldest novel I’ve written. I think my reading tends to stay fairly young, and it has a kind of simplicity to it. I would guess that also distinguishes a YA novel from an adult novel — the vocabulary. Editors tend to take out words with too many syllables. There’s a kind of drive to de-complexify the language in YA novels that you don’t see in adult novels.

What made you want to write YA fiction?

It’s funny you should ask that. I feel like I write YA fictions in a large part because I have some kind of drive to rewrite my teenage years. I had a hard time in high school and I feel like I almost became the anti-me.

I think this is my chance to write girl heroes and guy heroes who are the kinds of teenagers I wish I could have been, and are the kind of people who are a little more self-assured, a little more knowledgeable about what they believe, and a little more confident.

If you couldn’t be a writer what would you be?

A reader. I think becoming a writer was a

process of elimination for me. I kept looking around and thinking maybe I would be this or I would be that, and I kept coming back to writer. For a long time I wanted to be Jane Goodall — I wanted to be an anthropologist who went off and lived with the monkeys. I felt that I could do that. I wanted to be a private detective. These are all things that I think really brought me back to writing. Studying other people, trying to learn new secrets, and ultimately writing allowed me to be all of those things at once.

Have you ever written anything you are not proud of?

All the time. I think as I become older, it’s actually harder for me to let go of things. I have to strive for perfection, but it’s important to be able to let go. It’s important to say, that’s where I was at that time and it’s okay. So if you spend too much time kind of writing and rewriting you end up not getting anything finished.

Sometimes you just don’t have the ability to make it better so you let it go. You just say, that’s where I’m at, that’s where this piece of writing has to be. I think the beautiful thing about being a writer is you can never attain that sense of “I finished, I got where I want to be, I don’t have to ever work on it again.” There’s always another space you can reach for in terms of your skill and your ability and your interest.

Young adult fiction and poetry often don’t seem as read in a university audience.

How will you engage students at UFV in your writing?

I feel like I’ve always been a bit of an outsider saying, “Hey, pay attention to this. It’s

just as exciting, it’s just as literary, it’s just as beautiful in terms of the writing.”

My maternal grandparents both wrote science fiction, so I can see them and how they related to the literary world, as science fiction writers are never considered as real writers in the same way that a literary fiction writer would be.

To me, there’s an ability to play with form and genre and words in the less selfconscious genres.Each project has its own form that it needs to be in, so if I can figure out what that form is, whether it’s a graphic novel or a novel or a collection of poetry, I just have to go with that. I think the main thing is to have fun, right? Have fun with what you’re doing, and to feel creatively inspired or terrified or whatever it is that makes you write.

I hope people might be able to see that there are very different kinds of writing. If you feel like you’re not drawn to Hemingway or Shakespeare or even Alice Munro’s short fiction, which we’re often reading, then look beyond those and try to write things that do speak to your daily life, and that do move you in a way to feel capable of finishing a book or project.

I’ve noticed that some of your writing has werewolves and other fantastic characters.

Why did you choose to take that route?

I read a lot of teen fiction as part of my job and I feel like often monsters are male.

They continue to be male to this day, so when I was writing my female werewolf, I was really conscious of things like how frowned-on teen girl rage, teen girl anger or aggressiveness is, and I thought, werewolves are the ultimate epitome of this kind of internal rage bursting out of us.

So, what would happen if you took this cute little 18-year-old girl and gave her inner issues, her inner rage, a furry, physical manifestation? It was really fun to figure that out, to make her go from a shy kind of reclusive musician to someone who wants to be in the spotlight and is about to eat her boyfriend unless someone intercedes. It was a lot of fun to play with the metaphor and the whole werewolf mythology.

I heard you’re teaching a class. How is it going so far?

I’m teaching Intro to Creative Writing [ENGL104]. I’m having fun already. I really love working with young writers and there’s this moment when they’re really into something you’re teaching where their faces just light up and you think, yes, I managed to bring something in or talk about something that will light up their minds.

It’s one of my favourite things to do. I just finished a residency in Toronto through the Toronto Public Library System where I was working exclusively with writers between 12 and 19. It’s so much fun because you’re catching people at an age where they’re just starting to figure out what it is they love about writing and why they want to write and what’s important to them separate from, say, their families or from their peers. To me, it’s just a great opportunity to open people’s minds a little bit.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Peer Pleasure

Don’t wait for graduation: how to ask out your classroom cutie YOURS TRULY

when done tactfully, is only ever a compliment, even if the askee isn’t interested.

If things do go south, continue being friendly and keep up your conversations. As difficult as it might be at first, it’ll significantly lessen any awkwardness for you.

You might want to question whether you want to pursue this as a romantic relationship. If you’re not itching to jump into bed with him, why not consider this as an opportunity to gain an opposite sex confidant and genuine friend? Your call.

I wish you good luck, and I hope you get married and name all your children and pets after esoteric historical figures!

THE CASCADE

There’s this guy in my history class that I’m really hitting it off with. At least I think so. We’ve been assigned the same discussion group. I want to show him I’m interested, or ask him out, but I’m worried that if he’s not into it or things go south, it’ll make things incredibly awkward in class.

Please advise!

—Awkward Historian Dear Awkward Historian, It becomes difficult in situations like this to discern whether someone is genuinely interested in you or is just trying to be polite. This guy is obligated to talk to you, and whether he genuinely likes you or not is for him to know and for you to find out. The difficult part is doing so without making you want to skip out on the rest of the semester’s history class.

According to self-described dating expert, romance coach, and blogger Evan Marc Katz, a woman should never ask a guy straight-up if he wants to go out with her — rather, she should use her “feminine wiles” to get him to ask her out. He suggests a man might be scared off by a woman being too “masculine.” I call sexist bullshit. Since when is being assertive a masculine quality? If you know what you want, go get it in a considerate manner.

First off, be light in your approach. Don’t flirt heavily, or ask him off the bat for the whole din-

Next week with Yours Truly: My partner views a lot of porn and it makes me uncomfortable. He doesn’t try to hide it from me, and it’s not hardcore or anything, so should I be weirded out by it? I read that it’s normal. Should I be concerned?

—Porn Doesn’t Please Image: healheartbreak.com

Forget using your “feminine wiles” to get a guy to ask you out — just ask him yourself. ner-and-movie thing. Start with asking him if he wants to join you for coffee during the break. Make sure the rest of your discussion group is out of earshot, unless you want a Timmys entourage. If you haven’t already, try steering the conversation away from history.

What are his likes, his dislikes, his

passions, and life goals? View this as an opportunity to screen him as a potential boyfriend. Outside of class, how aligned are your interests?

If things keep progressing, try asking him to have lunch before class — something on-campus and convenient. If he’s up for

that, and you’re still getting along well, take the plunge. Be candid and straightforward. Do it while walking or finishing up coffee; this way you’re not trapped with him for another half-hour while finishing lunch or, worse, about to sit through a whole class together.

Remember that being asked out,

Do you have a similar experience you’d like to share? Want to contribute with your own advice?

Feel free to write in and be published alongside my advice in the next issue of The Cascade.

Send your questions, scenarios, or responses to: peerpleasure@ufvcascade.ca

The Cascade wants illustrators!

If you like to draw or have a knack for illustration, The Cascade is looking for illustrators to contribute to the publication.

All submissions must be digital. However, pictures or scans of traditional work are also okay.

If you are interested, send a brief description of your method and preferred medium, as well as a small portfolio to: Anthony@ufvcascade.ca

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Family Literacy Day Celebration brings hundreds of young readers to the library VALERIE FRANKLIN THE CASCADE

The library is a good place to spend any rainy Saturday, but it’s even better when there’s free pizza and balloon animals involved.

On January 24, hundreds of families attended the ninth Abbotsford Family Literacy Day Celebration at the Fraser Valley Regional Library — a celebration which has become so popular that this year it was co-hosted by the Reach Gallery Museum for the first time.

As well as enjoying a free pancake breakfast cooked by firefighters, live music from solo musician Will Stroet, and balloon animals made to order, kids had the chance to clamber in and out of police cars and fire trucks parked outside the library and gallery — and, of course, to check out books from the library’s well-stocked children’s section. A face painting booth was also a hit, and several arts and crafts tables offered kids the chance to decorate their own bookmarks or fill in colouring pages with markers and crayons.

Cynthia Churchill, library services assistant and organizer of the Family Literacy Day Celebration, estimated that there were between 800 and 1000 people in attendance this year.

“Because it’s grown so much, we have the Reach on board this year as well,” she said, noting that many of the day’s activities were taking place at the gallery across the parking lot from the library.

To encourage visitors to explore all the event’s booths and exhibits at both venues, “passports” were issued to each visitor featuring a list of the event’s community partners. Each booth stamped visitors’ passports to show they’d visited, and kids who collected enough stamps could enter to win a prize, including a trip to a children’s art camp at the Reach.

Hilary Russell, who manages the three public libraries in Abbotsford, noted that the partnership with the Reach isn’t just about needing more space — by extending the celebration to the gallery and museum, the event encourages children to learn about local history and art as well as literature. “[Holding the celebration at the Reach] is important as well in a cultural literacy sense,” she said.

“Literacy is so fundamental to every person’s success in life. It’s a broader concept than just reading.

Literacy, numeracy, understanding the world we live in —- these

Image: Valerie Franklin

Kids had the opportunity to customize their own bookmarks at one of several arts and crafts tables set up in the library. things all connect us together. ” Several of the community partners, such as Abbotsford Community Services, Abbotsford Early Childhood Committee, and the Fraser Valley Child Development Centre, were on hand to connect struggling families with social and educational resources. Abbotsford’s thriving multicultural population was also well-represented at the event, and several of the tables offered resources tailored to their needs: Abbots-

ford Community Services offered settlement services for immigrant families adapting to Canadian life as well as diversity education resources, and UFV’s ESL and university preparation departments also had tables set up, offering information to parents and children alike.

Although the kids who were clutching balloon animals and climbing around in police cars might disagree, the annual celebration is about more than just

having fun — it’s about fostering a love of reading from an early age. Representatives from school district 34 were on hand to connect parents with information about preschool literacy initiatives such as Ready, Set, Learn and StrongStart. Allyson Robinson, who runs the Sweeney StrongStart Centre, supervised an arts and crafts table where kids personalized door hangers with sparkly stickers, foam letters, and pipe cleaners, while curriculum

helping teacher Maria Limpright offered parents information about how to get their children involved in literacy programs at an early age.

“What we’re doing is providing information about reading strategies,” said Limpright, who has volunteered at the celebration for the last six years running.

“We’re working to give kids a stronger start as readers, which really gives them a stronger start in every way.”

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Film series elicits discussion on evolution of slavery KODIE CHERRILLE THE CASCADE

Approximately 30 people filled B121 on Thursday, January 22, to watch the documentary Slavery

By Another Name as part of the ongoing Slavery, Race, and Civil Rights in the Americas film series.

The series, which started with 12 Years a Slave in November, is put on by UFV history professors Ian Rocksborough-Smith and Geoffrey Spurling. This year marks the 50th anniversary of landmark civil rights legislation being passed in the US. Before the movie began, Rocksborough-Smith and Spurling remarked that, although slavery had been abolished in the US in 1863, there was a high degree of “unfreedom” that kept AfricanAmericans from being truly liberated until well past World War II. Slavery By Another Name — a PBS documentary based on the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book with the same name — shows the ever-changing form of repression that continued to keep AfricanAmericans subordinated in white America well after the Emancipation Proclamation, when slavery was officially “abolished.”

The aristocracy of the Deep South — one of the wealthiest in the world before the American Civil War — would not easily let go of the resource of forced human labour with which they built their wealth. After 1874, new laws in the southern states made it very easy to arrest African-Americans on a whim. So while the country

in theory “abolished slavery,” in reality it remained epidemic.

Once arrested, convicts could be leased to mines and cotton fields for as little as $9 a month. Given the persecution and forced labour, convict leasing was precisely the kind of unfreedom AfricanAmericans experienced as slaves.

Repression remained unchecked until the Second World War, when President Roosevelt was pushed to find ways to unify the nation.

Parallels to contemporary forms of repression were drawn in the discussion following the documentary. The racialized population in the prison system; wage disparity; the position of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada; the temporary foreign worker system: unfreedom, in its many forms, is still perverse in our society. Though Rocksborough-Smith expected the discussion to include links to our time and place, he was surprised at how close to home the issue of unfreedom is.

“The connections people made to migrant labour issues was really interesting,” he noted. “I wasn’t expecting that. Clearly there’s a currency for this kind of subject matter with local issues, like farm labour in the Fraser Valley. I found that really interesting.”

The Slavery, Race, and Civil Rights in the Americas film series continues this semester, with Brazil in Black and White screening February 26, and The Black Power Mixtape on March 19; both screenings will start at 3 p.m. in B121.

Image: Wikipedia

Following the abolition of slavery, many African-Americans were kept in varying states of “unfreedom.”

Crash course: how to write for The Cascade If you want to write for the paper but aren’t sure where to start, or are already writing for us but want to brush up on the basics, you should come to this crash course. Editor-in-Chief Katie Stobbart and Managing Editor Valerie Franklin will take you through the process of composing an article step by step, and cover basics like setting up interviews, article structure, and proper quoting and research. Attendance is not required to write for the paper, but we highly recommend you join us!

If you have any questions or topics you want us to cover, drop by the office or email katie@ufvcascade.ca.

Workshop dates: Wednesday, February 4 at 1:00 p.m. in A203B Thursday, February 5 at 10:00 a.m. in C1429

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Podcast

We’re Alive: zombie story revives the radio play genre DANIEL HOLMBERG CONTRIBUTOR

The radio play is a charming form of media that are uncommon in the modern age. To find a radio play in the zombie genre is somewhat of an anomaly, and so it is difficult to compare to anything else.

The first thing I will say is that I quite enjoyed We’re Alive.

It filled a niche that I hardly knew existed. We’re Alive is a survival story, following a group of Americans trying to make their way in the aftermath of a global apocalypse that has spawned the walking dead. The story runs about 50 hours, and managed to keep me enthralled throughout. I listened to the story mostly on the bus, and on more than one occasion I was tempted to keep listening while in class just to find out what happened.

The characters were interesting, although several were cliché. The different voices were mostly distinguishable, helping to keep track of the wealth of characters talking throughout the story. Being an audio medium, it was not always clear what was going on in an action scene. The crew did well with their sound effects, and quickly learned that most action scenes

Image: Ma_Co2013 / Flickr

Interesting characters and a strong plot put a fresh spin on the zombie apocalypse story. did better with narration to guide the listener through what was happening.

The true strength of the series was in the plot rather than the believability of the story. With any zombie story, there must be some suspension of disbelief to allow the idea of zombies to work out “scientifically.” I

don’t want to spoil the story, but suffice it to say that the suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the story becomes more and more difficult as it goes on.

Something that often frustrates me with stories in general is the abruptness of their endings. We’re Alive was a real treat for me in that it had an excel-

lent epilogue to give the listener some insight into the future of the characters they had come to know over 50 hours of listening.

It was relatively short, but gave the story a sweet ending, rather than the usual explosion just before credits roll.

We’re Alive is an enjoyable listen, something to keep you

awake on long bus rides to and from class, or something to plug in and listen to while you drive.

Just be careful how loud you crank it — people tend to freak out if there are gunshots and screams coming from your car as you drive past.

A $10 bill will get you far at Marty’s Grill JASMIN SPRANGERS CONTRIBUTOR

As university students, we are always on the hunt for a good, cheap place to eat. Sure, McDonald’s and all those other fast food places may offer the cheap prices, but honestly, is the food ever that great? I think not. But here’s a solution to your problem — Marty’s Grill, located on Vedder Road in Chilliwack, is an excellent option for a cheap place to dine, and is not even a five-minute drive from the Chilliwack campus. (Here comes lunch, you guys! They do dine in or take out.)

Marty’s is a little gem most people wouldn’t even notice.

The outside is a bit worn-down, but that’s okay: sometimes the best places are the ones you least expect. But once you walk through the door you see its

Image: marty’sgrill.com

Among Marty’s offerings is a beer-and-chicken package, including a pound of wings, for $20. full potential. With 11 tables, it’s a small, cozy place. It’s not a diner, but the décor gives it a

vintage sort of vibe: old hockey jerseys on the wall, and some really cool “license plates” with

different team names on them.

It’s funky. The service is good, and the atmosphere is pleas-

ant. It’s a great destination for a meal, or for a simple coffee date.

The food is amazing! I tried the Thai chicken bites and would recommend them to anybody who enjoys a crispy, sweet, and spicy dish. Marty’s offers all-day breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as a game night beer-and-wings package for $20. There are various menu options — schnitzels, waffles, soups, salads, greasy appetizers, and their all-you-can-eat fish and chips for $8.99, one cannot go wrong. Their whole menu is under $10 (except three platters and one specialty sandwich) so it’s definitely within a student’s budget, and the portions are generous. Highly recommendable, and a place worth visiting, Marty’s Grill is a true hidden gem.

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Cascade Arcade

A brief preview of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate ANTHONY BIONDI THE CASCADE

There’s something thrilling about strapping on a load of heavy equipment, wielding giant weapons bigger than a cow, and fighting monsters so fearsome they can tear the landscape to pieces. Monster Hunter has always been a series of big ideas and big battles. They took the concept of cool boss fights and made a game that is always hitting the high notes.

Next month, February 13 to be exact, the fourth iteration of the series hits Western shores with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Nintendo has been randomly distributing demo codes to 3DS owners and I was lucky enough to experience the preview of the new title.

For those who are familiar with the previous titles, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate brings two new weapons to the series, the Insect Glaive and the Charge Blade, alongside all other previously released weapons. Both weapons are a dynamic change from the previous weapons’ play styles. The Glaive allows players to control a separate entity called a Kinsect to attack monsters and grant the player boons.

Image: noelshack.com

Gore Magala is the new flagship monster in MH4.

Interestingly, the Kinsect and the Glaive upgrade separately, allowing for better player customization. The Charge Blade is similar to the previously added Switch Axe in style, though only moderately in form. Instead of favouring one mode or the other in play style (axe or sword), the Charge Blade requires switching from one mode to the other to complete combos. It also requires recharging of energy and

allows for blocking as well as heavy hitting.

Though the demo only has three quests and limited equipment (one set for each weapon type), I can already see the improvements to the system. Moving about the world is much smoother. The ability to climb nearly any wall and hop up small ledges makes the game feel less clunky than previous games in regards to zone travel.

Because of this, there has also been a great improvement in the diversity of terrains on the map. There was only one map available, but it was evident that the designers took into account the movement availability when designing. There are numerous ledges, crags, hidden paths, slopes, and cliffs, much more than previous versions. It makes the environment of Monster Hunter more lively and var-

ied. This is a vast improvement over previous editions, where the battlefields were flat, characterless plains designed to be open so that players could fight the large monsters in arena-like combat.

Battles are now designed to be fought in three dimensions.

Even with the reduction of the underwater fights from Tri and 3 Ultimate, the on-land battles feel livelier and the environment can be utilized more freely. This allows for great strategy changes when fighting monsters, giving that added variety so that not every battle feels like just another grind. Sure, there will be common strategies and techniques to easily grind monster parts, but at least now there are options.

Even though it is still early, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is looking like the best game in the series to date. With great new mechanics including portable online and monster riding, as well as customizable cat helpers, it may become the staple in the series. I am eagerly awaiting the fast-approaching release date, and hope that all of you hunters out there are ready for the greatest hunt of all.

Joey Bada$$ displays growth, introspection, and skill on B4.Da.$$ MARTIN CASTRO CONTRIBUTOR

Coming off his release of his highly acclaimed mixtape 1999, as well as numerous guest appearances on various songs over the past two years, Joey’s debut album B4.Da.$$ (pronounced “before the money”) proves to be a solid project that doesn’t disappoint.

Joey kicks the record off with quality rhymes and wordplay on “Save the Children,” which includes nostalgic production and sampled horns. The song does an adequate job of setting up the record as an intro. Then “Paper Trails” sees Joey kick it into high gear with tightly constructed rhymes and a catchy hook. His lyrical ability shines especially on tracks like “Piece of Mind,” in which Joey rhymes with a consistency that’s rare nowadays, while not sounding stressed throughout.

Cue “Big Dusty,” the first single on the record, in which Joey

Image: facebook / Joey Badass

treats the listener with a beast of a verse delivered over heavy percussion and a piano riff. His rhymes are always on-point, and Joey uses consonance and alliteration to his benefit: “I stand juxtaposed to all my pros, realest illest niggas I know / see

these foes biting the flows, they even jux the pose.”

“Like Me” features some really laid-back production by J Dilla and the Roots, and really vibrant imagery courtesy of Joey, as well as some great verses: “I’m pretty sure — like

nice beaches — that even at my weakest, I still leave ‘em speechless / How you like those peaches?” As well as rhyming flawlessly throughout the track, Joey seems really at home in a production style that’s quite reminiscent of late ‘90s and early 2000s R&B. “Belly of the Beast” (which features vocals and a verse by Chronixx) proved to be one of my favourite tracks off this record. The track is quite heavily influenced by the Caribbean dub aesthetic. One of the things that struck me, apart from it being really infectious and relaxed, was Joey’s ability to shift his tone and cadence to suit the different style of this track, without sacrificing any technical aspects of his rapping.

“No. 99” is probably the track that’s most influenced by ’90s hip-hop (think Wu-Tang Clan); however, there is some amazing wordplay all over this track.

Joey also treats the listener to high-intensity rhyming which displays the skills he has honed

over the years. “Christ Conscious” also sees Joey deliver intricate rhymes during one well-crafted two-minute verse, over production that’s all bass, kick-drum, and an echoing, muted trumpet.

The distinctly funky “On & On” is much more influenced

by R&B in contrast to its predecessor, though Joey again delivers. There’s a lot of groove in this thing: I dare you to listen without bobbing your head up and down.

Other tracks that deserve recognition on this 17-track-long LP are the jazzy “Curry Chicken,” and the more contemporary bonus track “Teach Me.” Overall, Joey Bada$$’s debut LP proves to be everything I hoped it would be, and if Joey keeps growing and improving his craft, there’s not much he won’t be able to accomplish throughout his career.

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Albums

She & Him’s Classics falls flat JOE JOHNSON THE CASCADE

CHARTS 1

Viet Cong Viet Cong

Pink 2 Ariel pom pom Bee & the Buzz3 Queen kills

4

Stalk to Me Death Grips Fashion Week

5 Nots We Are Nots High 6 Cheap Idle

7 8

Various Mint Records Presents: Hot Heroes Energy Slime New Dimensional

de Courcy 9 Johnny Alien Lake

10 Alvvays Alvvays B-Lines 11 The Opening Band

12 MALK Prehistoric Welsh 13 John On The Road Ring 14 Purity Another Eternity and Weird 15 Old What I Saw

16 Monomyth Saturnalia Regalia 17

Death From Above 1979 The Physical World

18 Royksopp The Innevitable End

songs from different decades, M. Ward — who also produced the album — crafted the arrangements and ties them all together. It’s just unfortunate that they’re tied together with a bland drone that removes these songs from the original artists, and yet does little to provide any hook that She & Him are extremely well-suited to do.

There really are no tracks to single out and mention.

However, there are some interesting facts about this album.

It’s the band’s first release after leaving the independent Merge Records. The album was also recorded live with a 20-piece orchestra set.

While the album may not live up to the band’s potential, there can be no denying the effort. And perhaps that will be appreciated by different tastes.

Three Doors Down “Loser” I liked this song way more than “Superman” when it came out.

Slower, broodier, ploddier, and even catchier if you ask me. Sure, it wasn’t the prime trailer song for an American Pie-style tweenaged comedy, but it made me feel like much more of a winner in high school.

Nearly seven years after the indie duo She & Him, otherwise known as Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, released their first album, we now have Classics.

Five albums in seven years — now that’s commendable. But it always raises skepticism when a band releases music at that rate. Fortunately, up until now She & Him have found a way to remain fresh, partly helped by their ability to appreciate and modernize music from decades of the past. It’s too bad that Classics has fallen flat.

Don’t get me wrong — this band is always looking to progress. And I’ve been a fan for years. But that’s why it hurts so much to see such an eagerly awaited album taken down by bland arrangements.

It is a bold album and deserves to be recognized as one.

Matthew Good Band “Flashdance II” He never recorded a “Flashdance I”, though I’m led to believe such a song does exist from other artists. This song, the centrepiece of MGB’s 2000 EP Loser Anthems, is all about a stripper who Matt supposedly loves, April Springs. But apparently her mother had originally “called her Judy.”

Sleater-Kinney’s talent is untarnished after 10-year hiatus

Shuffle

AARON LEVY

CIVL MANAGER/ SOUNDLORD

Though The Cascade was snubbed at the annual Canadian University Press’ Johnny Awards two weeks ago, they’re still winners in my heart, with their two nominations. Here are some songs related to losing.

Beck “Loser” Likely the most popular and wellregarded song of this title, Beck reconstructed himself anew with this lead track from the breakout album, Mellow Gold. Before “Where It’s At,” “Devil’s Haircut,” and “The New Pollution,” Beck stopped being a country guy with one of the biggest of ‘90s songs, “Loser.”

Sloan “Losing California” I may have shuffled this in previous editions. A decent revisitation of the California surf sound the Beach Boys and co. perfected, only to be brought back with bands like the Thrills, Everclear on So Much for the Afterglow, and Weezer’s Green. Ain’t no “Lines You Amend,” but it works.

Austra “Lose It” Toronto indie-new wave darlings Austra, featuring solo chanteuse Katie Stelmanis, never were or will be my favourite. They are, however, a must-know in terms of scene bands that made a splash and got a lot of recognition for a decently original album, perhaps incredibly well-deserved. Backtrack much?

KODIE CHERRILLE THE CASCADE

The best kinds of comebacks are those that don’t feel like comebacks. They’re more like opportunities for musicians to prove they have what made them special in the first place.

When a band like Sleater-Kinney returns to the musical fray, it is easy to say, “Of course they’ll be great,” since so much of what made them wonderful (talent) was there from the start. But there’s always doubt that the years between outputs eroded the greatness in an act’s DNA. No Cities to Love is the first Sleater-Kinney album in 10 years. Apart from a new depth in Carrie Brownstein’s voice that implies passing time (or chain-smoking), it’s hard to know that if you just dove into the album. Janet Weiss’s huge percussive presence; political commentary with a side of tongue-in-cheek references to rock’n’roll lore; the perfect synthesis of singers / guitarists Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, lyrically, vocally, and instrumentally — all the staples are

Classics is a conceptual compilation consisting of covers of classic songs from primarily between the ‘30s and ‘70s, and expands over 13 tracks. It’s an interesting selection for the band to revise as none of the songs, outside of “Unchained Melody,” are familiar. But because of the arrangements, even “Unchained Melody” has been stripped of its distinctiveness.

It’s also worth mentioning that while they’ve taken these

there in spades. This makes No Cities the best kind of comeback: they’re back, and they’re still awesome.

With their previous album, 2005’s classic-rock-meets-punk masterpiece The Woods, Sleater-Kinney proved to have an uncanny ability to capture in their orbit what might seem incompatible to their musical and political stance. This trend continues, 10 years later.

No Cities is Sleater-Kinney at their most compartmentalized and accessible: it’s their “pop” album that straddles the political discontent of One Beat with the show(wo)manship of The Woods; a chart-topper in a world where Gang of Four ’s dancefloor-Marxism classic Entertainment! reigns supreme.

Though there’s no direct explication of heartbreaking intimacy or desperation like older jams “One More Hour” or “Jumpers,” the band’s aggression remains intact in more streamlined forms, though still with those bouncy, angular guitar lines that sound like they’re doing gymnastics with a twig for a balance beam (“Price Tag,” “No Cities

to Love”). And as the album unfolds, some sludge starts pouring in: “No Anthems” is a delicious metal-inflected romp with an array of sonic palettes in the guitar tone , and “Fade” closes the fast-paced album with a slow, heavy dirge.

Given how No Cities to Love captures the essence of SleaterKinney with brevity, the album is poised to be the gateway album, offering a good introduction to a band that was, and continues to be, a thrill to listen to. Of course Sleater-Kinney’s new album was going to be great. It’s in their DNA.

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Coach’s Corner

Adam Friesen on the path that led him to coach the Cascades NATHAN HUTTON THE CASCADE

Adam Friesen ascended to the position of men’s basketball’s head coach at UFV on a permanent basis at the beginning of last year. It was the culmination of a long record-breaking Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) career, recordbreaking high school performances, and finally being equal with his father, Al Friesen — himself an Abbotsford basketball coaching legend.

Coach Adam Friesen was born in Winnipeg, where he lived until he moved to BC the summer before grade 11. His dad got the opportunity to coach at Yale in Abbotsford. Later, they would be partly responsible for transforming Yale to the powerhouse of BC high school basketball for the better part of the decade.

It wasn’t long before Friesen made name for himself on his own at Yale, scoring 61 points in a single game — a school record that was only broken two months ago.

“It was good,” he reflected on his early experiences playing at Yale. “I played for my dad. It wasn’t my first year playing for him. I played for him in grade 10 in Winnipeg — he was my coach already so I kind of knew what to expect that way. The program had to grow, and it was a good challenge to take on something like that.”

Friesen won the Fraser Valley regional championships in grade 12, along with a berth at the provincial tournament.

He was starting to make a real name for himself as a player, and drawing the eyes of some lower-tier CIS schools.

His split CIS career started at the school that would become his cross-town rival when he became a head coach — Trinity Western University.

“When I was at Trinity, I played with a lot of guys who were really good friends of mine. Whether it be a big loss or a big win, going through it with them was nice,” Friesen said.

Image: UFV/ Flickr

One of the youngest coaches in the CIS, Friesen is making a name for himself.

His experience at Trinity, while a bit rocky at points, is marked by his consistency on the court. In the 2004-2005 season, he registered the second highest minutes-per-game mark in Canada West history for the Spartans, when he played a whopping 37-and-a-half minutes per game. He is also one of three players in Canada West history to play 50 minutes in a single game, which he did as a member of the Spartans in 2005.

Friesen’s university career would also see him play at UBC for the 2006-2007 season.

His path to coaching the Cascades was relatively easy after making a mark on local collegiate basketball.

He also reflected on his relationship with former UFV head coach Barnaby Craddock, and his time as assistant coach.

“Once I finished playing, I was fortunate enough to get on the coaching staff here with Barnaby Craddock, and was the assistant coach for five years, I believe. I got to see how to build and run a program. The opportunity came up to run the program here. All the lessons I learned there [as an assistant coach] prepared me well.”

For Friesen, after a lengthy collegiate career and five years as an assistant coach, the call finally came in the summer of 2013 for him to become the head coach of his own CIS program with an already wide array of talent.

“I was very fortunate — it was something that I was very interested in doing, and there were not many jobs, not a lot of schools around the country, so the fact that I was able to find a situation here at home was a blessing,” said Friesen.

It was finally his opportunity to show the local basketball fanatics that, just like his father, a provincial championship winner at the high school level, Friesen could coach basketball, and do it well.

Image: UFV / Flickr

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

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SPORTS & HEALTH

UFV Legends

Kadeem Willis wants to give back, play ball

I think it’s about getting more into the community — I know the women’s team, they do their fundraising, they do their stuff in the community, but for the guys it would be good for us to hit the schools, and get the kids out. Because they’re going to be the ones bringing their friends and parents out. And just being more community-involved, that would help.

SASHA MOEDT

THE CASCADE

Major: Business Height: 6‘4 Hometown: Toronto Kadeem Willis transferred to UFV from Lakeland College in 2012. After two years at UFV, Willis will be done his five years of post-secondary basketball.

Willis is a power forward who leads by example and brings energy to the court. Hedsy down with The Cascade to talk about his experience at UFV and his team’s impressive season — the men’s team has kept up a Canada West regular season 28-game streak. Not only that, but last weekend in their game against the MacEwan Griffins, UFV reached a 123-point high.

Let’s talk about your career as a student and an athlete — how do you keep a balance?

My time management skills are not the best, but over the years I’ve learned that school comes first. We practice every day, so I’ve got to set aside time in my schedule. I make sure my schedule plays into my practice schedule. I don’t want to be ending practice to go to class, and I don’t want to be leaving class early to go to practice. So I make sure I have time to do homework and get myself organized in between. I have a two-hour window between all my classes and basketball so that I can make sure I’m on track and not falling behind on assignments. I’m taking three courses and I don’t want to [fall] behind [in case] we get somewhere far and then I can’t make it because of something academic. I feel like if I fall behind, I’m letting down my team, so I try to make sure I balance it where I’m a student first, and then I’m an athlete.

Every week we have [games], and it’s tiring — it is pretty intense when you have a full schedule.

You played at Lakeland College before transferring here — what made you choose UFV? I saw UFV play at Sask in the playoffs, and I just saw that they were playing as a team. I knew two of the guys who’d previously played at Lakeland, Kevon [Parchment] and Mac [Aaron McGowan], so that made my decision better, because we had chemistry on the court from Lakeland, so coming here would be a good decision for me — we’d just keep the battle going. And the coach, too, he’s pretty down-to-earth.

How’s playing for Adam Friesen?

Our relationship has grown. We’ll talk about things: my position on the team as well as just me as a student at UFV. He’s very helpful ... If I need help in classes or if I need something administrationwise, he’s there to help.

What are some highs and lows of playing at UFV? I would say the biggest low is not having a crowd here. I wish this was more of a fan-base school. I know it’s a commuter school, so not everybody’s into the sports spirit, but I think that’s definitely one of my lows. One of my highs is playing with these guys and winning 26 games straight! That’s definitely an awesome high!

Tell me a bit about how your team kept the momentum up this season.

Image: Dan Kinvig

“If it’s in the classroom or on the court, we’re pushing hard to become successful.”

We push each other in practice every day, and we know what our goal is. This team has been to the nationals in previous years, and some of the guys that played there push us to do what we have to do in practice. We just try to keep each other level-headed, humble, and we try to make each other better every day — if it’s in the classroom or on the court, we’re pushing hard to become success-

ful. We’re really looking forward to ending the season on a good note, with the streak still alive. We want to let the other teams know that we’re here, we’re coming for that spot, and we’re trying to win it all.

You talked about having a weak fanbase at UFV — how would you go about improving the crowd?

What’s next for you, basketball-wise, after the Cascades?

I’ll do what I can to keep playing basketball. I like the personal training, keeping fit. So I’d like to do those things on my downtime. I like helping people, so I’d like to help kids, giving back to high schools — not really as a coach but more as a mentor. More giving back and helping out — like my brother, he’s 16, [and I want to show] him that if you work hard, you can get out of Toronto. Basketball definitely opens up a lot of doors for you.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Image: UFV / Flickr

20

SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

“We are hungry for that opportunity” As they look forward to the playoffs, the men’s basketball team continues to shine with a 28-win streak NATHAN HUTTON THE CASCADE

It takes a talented team to even have a playoff record, let alone be dominant at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) level, which is the highest platform for collegiate sports teams in the country. But the Cascades men’s basketball team is certainly dominating.

So far this season the Cascades are currently undefeated in league play, with a record of 12 wins and no losses. The impressive part, however, is that they have knocked down 28 consecutive contests dating back to 2013.

A big part in any winning streak is mental fortitude on and off the court, and it’s a quality the Cascades will have to demonstrate when they face teams they haven’t been able to play yet this year. Back in fall 2013, Canada West (a region of CIS) split the league in two divisions: the pioneer division which includes 11 teams from universities which have been part of CIS longer, and the explorer division which includes the Cascades and the five other

Image: brent_nashville/flickr

teams which are newest to the league. The new divisions are the reason UFV’s men haven’t played against all the teams yet — but they will, and graduating forward Jasper Moedt says the upcoming face-off means a lot to the team.

“The only way to kill any doubt that we are just pretenders as opposed to contenders is to win on the big stage in the playoffs,” he says. “That is where real respect is earned, and as a team, we are hungry for that opportunity.”

Moedt also notes that the perception of the winning streak is different for the team than it might be for spectators.

“From the outside looking in, that 20-something wins in a row is significant,” Moedt says. “But for the guys inside

this program, we know that it doesn’t mean anything unless we perform come playoff time.”

Coach Adam Friesen, one of the younger basketball coaches in Canada West and in CIS as a whole, has managed to keep the team level-headed during this historic run. Back in March last year, the Cascades were gearing up for their playoff action in Edmonton with a 14-win streak which was already setting a UFV records. This year, the team has doubled that number. But Friesen says winning isn’t the be-all and end-all.

“It’s a little interesting that we have this win streak. I probably care the least about the regular season,” Friesen says. “It’s great for the kids.

From a coach’s perspective, we don’t want to lose, but a loss wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

Friesen adds that even in light of the streak, the team won’t be satisfied until they come home from Toronto, where CIS nationals are being hosted this year, with the national recognition they’ve been working toward.

With files from Paul Esau.

UFV wrestling team ranks number one in Canada CATHERINE STEWART THE CASCADE

In the 2013-2014 season, UFV’s wrestling team was still just considered a club. Now, only one year later, wrestling is the seventh varsity team at UFV, and the team has just been ranked number one in the Canadian University Sport (CIS) national rankings.

After knocking out their competition at the Golden Bear Open in Edmonton, the wrestling team’s combined points put them ahead of teams such as the University of Alberta Golden Bears, Winnipeg Wesmen, and Calgary Dinos.

Upon the CIS rankings being released, head coach Arjan Bhullar told The Cascade that he and the team played down their victory. They addressed it, but made sure to understand it was just a ranking.

“We’ve still got work to do,” Bhullar said. “We’ve still got to go out and get the job done. We

Image: UFVCascades

“We’ve still got work to do. We’ve still got to go out and get the job done.” need to keep the kids hungry.”

Right from the beginning, the goal for the wrestling team has been to win the national title.

Coach Arjan says that they’re training on campus three times a week, and they even train with team Canada athletes. “[The biggest challenge] is staying healthy,” said Bhullar.

“We don’t see other individuals as challenges; we look at ourselves as individuals and see what we can improve.”

The team won’t have to travel far for the very first Canada West home meet at the Envision Athletic Centre on February 1 at 9 a.m. But before then, you can check them out in action on

January 31st at the Abbotsford Exhibition Park, where they will be facing fellow in-town teams.

The team is very grateful for all the support they’ve received from the community, and couldn’t have gotten this far without it.

“Our program is self-fund-

ed,” Bhullar said. “We’re volunteer coaches who targeted certain kids who had a chip on their shoulder, or were tossed aside. We believed in them and gave them another chance.

We’re passionate about this sport, and we believe in these kids.”