Vol. 21 Issue 28
www.ufvcascade.ca
October 30 to November 5, 2013
Aspiring toward a career for CIVIC-TV since 1993
The eternal quest to look like a cover model
Education and aid aren’t enough to combat body issues p. 2, 10
The tale behind UFV’s Writing Awards p. 5
Theatre in the North: the doomed Franklin expedition p. 11
2
NEWS News
4
Opinion
8
Arts & Life
16
Sports & Health
19
Upcoming
Events
Oct 31 Carve a pumpkin! 9 a.m. Are you up for the greatest pumpkin-carving battle of your life? Head over to UHouse first thing on Halloween morn to test your skills against other students, faculty, and staff. Email Martin.Kelly@ufv. ca for more information.
Pub it up! 6 - 10 p.m. Looking for somewhere to show off your kickass costume and tolerance for liquor? AfterMath’s Halloween pub night will be just the ticket. With prizes, live music, and drink specials, the friendly campus pub is ready and willing to welcome you with open arms for Halloween shenanigans.
Nov 1 Girl’s Night at the Reach 7 - 10 p.m. Art, wine, food, live music, and vintage style? What’s not to love! Pick up tickets to the Reach’s fundraiser and enjoy a relaxing browse among vendors, designers and artists while sipping on a cool glass of white and nibbling something delectable. Call the Reach at 604-864-8087 for more information.
Nov 1 Celebrate Diwali 2 - 8 p.m. Join UFV India in U-House for an afternoon and evening of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Celebrations include painting, games, henna, food, dance, and song. Everyone is welcome.
Nov 3 Time to fall back 2 a.m. The mornings are darker than ever and it’s about to get worse: don’t forget to roll back the clock by one hour on November 3 in keeping with Daylight Savings, or risk being early to your 8 a.m. class. The good news is that you’re gaining an hour of sleep. Nice!
www.ufvcascade.ca
Beware: dog hero on campus
Many students fondly recall the puppy room of last exam period. For those that missed it (or those who long for its return), the counselling department has a pilot project therapy dog named Mac, and you can book an appointment with him.
What isn’t bacon good for?
The bacon craze has gone too far. According to the latest in sensational headlines, eating bacon may impact male fertility. Bacon birth control? Katie Stobbart discusses how bacon may be the new wave in male contraceptives.
Writer’s Festival extravaganza!
The Surrey International Writer’s Conference took place last weekend. Crawling with high profile agents, editors and authors, it really was writer’s heaven. Check out went down, and read some tips on how to make it from bestselling authors.
Enough golf coverage to fill your boots
UFV’s golf teams brought home double honours from CCAA Nationals, and Nathan Hutton talked to third-year Darren Whitehouse about what was going through his mind on his way to the 18th...and varsity sports glory.
The pressures of body image DESSA BAYROCK
Youth don’t know how to deal with it, but more worringly, do their peers, mentors, guardians?
THE CASCADE
Oct 31
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013
I was homeschooled for the majority of elementary and middle school. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I dodged a body image bullet. I spent the majority of my time hanging out with my brother, and we ran wild in our rural neighborhood. I didn’t think of my body as an image so much as a tool I could use to dig holes or climb trees or run to the end of the road. I wanted to be stronger, and I wanted to be faster, and I could push my body to do almost anything I wanted it to. By the time I started attending high school, the way I viewed myself entirely depended on my ability; would I win in a wrestling match? Would I win in a foot race? How quickly could I climb the fence, and would I be able to land without hurting myself? I quickly realized that this was not really how other girls thought of themselves. Just as quickly, I realized this wasn’t how other girls thought of me, either. I was teased for all sorts of things: I didn’t shave my legs, I actually pushed myself in P.E., I didn’t wear make-up, I wore baggier clothing and track pants, I was a tomboy. I thought being a tomboy was a good thing: it meant that I was tough, that I wasn’t afraid to pick up worms or go out in the
Volume 21 · Issue 28 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Editor-in-chief dessa@ufvcascade.ca Dessa Bayrock Managing editor michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular Business manager joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson
rain without an umbrella. I remember the exact moment I became unhappy with my body. It was one of the first nice days of spring at the end of grade nine, and we were all wearing shorts. Our bare legs looked like so many saplings growing out of the ground. Glancing at mine, someone made the comment that I “must be pretty athletic.” I’m sure she didn’t even mean it as an insult, but suddenly I was starkly aware of how much thicker my thighs were than everyone else’s. As I played soccer I glanced surreptitiously around, trying to gauge what my body parts would look like to someone else. I was used to them, I liked them, and I had a sort of pride in my muscles and bones and tissues. But now being able to climb a tree or play on the boys’ team in floor hockey paled in comparison to what my limbs actually looked like. I had this realization relatively late in life – I’m sure my classmates had come to the same cold, self-conscious conclusion in middle or even elementary school. I would certainly challenge you to find one woman who doesn’t worry about her body. I would challenge you to find a single human being who doesn’t worry about their body. As high school students, we took classes with optimistic names like “Career and Personal Planning,” which theo-
retically covered topics like sexual health, mental health, and body image. This is an effort, and I recognize there’s only so much an institution (be it high school, be it university) can do to help students. I can attest that we didn’t want the help of our parents, our teachers, or our counsellors. We sneered at the presentations and informational booklets that quietly explained eating disorders, even as we struggled with those issues in real life. One of my closest friends was bulimic, which we all knew about and never acknowledged. I could name four or five other girls I knew who had struggled with eating disorders in the past, or fought with those issues on a daily basis. In my grad year, after a particularly harsh break-up, I struggled with anorexia. Denying myself food helped me feel like I had some measure of control over myself – as though eating was a needless, wasteful hobby. On the scale of anorexia, I fell on the moderate side (After all, I ate half a meal a day, I tell myself, which is perhaps more telling) so I don’t even count myself as one of the one in five women who struggles with an eating disorder in her lifetime. And even if schools and universities and public institutions offer services to help troubled youths deal with body image and mental health,
News editor jess@ufvcascade.ca Jess Wind
Production manager stewart@ufvcascade.ca Stewart Seymour
Opinion editor nadine@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt
Art director anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi
Arts & life editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt
Production assistant Kaitlyn Gendemann
Sports editor esau@ufvcascade.ca Paul Esau
Online editor ashley@ufvcascade.ca Ashley Mussbacher
News writer katherine@ufvcascade.ca Katherine Gibson
Copy editor katie@ufvcascade.ca Katie Stobbart
Staff writer christopher@ufvcascade.ca Christopher DeMarcus
Photojournalist blake@ufvcascade.ca Blake McGuire Contributors Vivienne Beard, Valerie Franklin, Jeremy Hannaford, Nathan Hutton, Nick Ubels, and Tim Ubels Cover image Anthony Biondi Texture Shaire Productions/flickr
this isn’t a case of “if you build it, they will come.” Those dealing with eating disorders or body image anxiety are unlikely to approach an authority figure, either because they don’t believe they need help or because they’re afraid to bare such personal fears and have them ignored or written off. Instead of general-bordering-on-vague information detailing how to spot symptoms and information on rehabilitation programs, there needs to be something in place for those close to youth to be able to help with an eating disorder. We’ve spotted the symptoms; what now? It’s not as simple as telling a parent or guardian— no one wants to be labelled a snitch, assuming the adult pays heed to the information in the first place—and frankly, we’re getting to the point where we’re adults ourselves. If someone came to me to ask for help, I wouldn’t have any idea what to say, let alone do. Unrealistic body expectations and their repercussions are a horrible, horrible reality. But these are issues we’ve been wading around in for well over a decade; surely by now there has to be a way that we can speak about eating disorders openly and without fear, and encourage those who are suffering to do the same.
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 75 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.
3
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Health and dental coverage expands
Now includes online consultation
JESS WIND
THE CASCADE
Next time you feel like you’re coming down with something, skip WebMD. It is now possible to access medical help through your student health care plan. Following an October 21 press conference, Studentcare, the service provider for the Student Union Society (SUS) health and dental plan, announced a partnership with Medeo, a Vancouver-based company that set out to provide doctors with modern technology to erase distance between patient and doctor. Students already signed up for health and dental coverage through SUS are eligible for this service. Doctors can provide prescription renewals and various consultations as well as referrals to specialists. And it’s free. SUS health and dental repre-
Image: Medeo
Studentcare, the service provider for SUS’s health and dental plan, travels into the digital era. sentative Megan Zacharias explained the benefit of the new program.
“Students are able to access doctors outside of the UFV area; for example, there are
specialists as well as provide access for students who do not have their own transportation.” Zacharias went on to note that while this doesn’t affect health and dental costs in any way, the online availability cuts down transportation costs for students. Medeo CEO Ryan Wilson acknowledged that getting medical help for students poses unique challenges. “Many students move to new cities around the province, away from easy access to their family physicians,” he said in a press release. “They are under a lot of new stresses meaning both physical and mental health issues can go unchecked.”
specialists located in Vancouver or Victoria,” she said. “This will decrease wait times for
Are you up to the tech writing challenge?
An opportunity to showcase technical skill and engaging writing
ASHLEY MUSSBACHER
Europe, and Asia with extensive backgrounds in engineering, computing, and sciScience and engineering ence. Articles chosen will be students, or anyone interested published and featured on the in cutting-edge scientific re- Briefing, and the writer will search should take note of this win a prize of $500. year’s tech writing challenge Bains explains how this chalhosted by the Briefing. lenge will benefit students in The Briefing is a science and the long run. technology website featuring “We’re publishing all enarticles on topics like engineer- tries that have merit, whether ing, programming, chemistry, they make it to the final cut or biology, and earth sciences. not: anyone who does a good On June 17, the Briefing called job will ‘win’ by being able to for submissions from people show off their article to future who, according to their web- employers,” she says in a press site, “can explain what’s hap- release. pening in science, technology, According to the National and engineering.” The trick of Post, the unemployment rate the challenge is that writers among post-secondary gradumust not only be able to under- ates was 7.6 per cent this April. stand the scientific topic they Few jobs means higher compeare writing about, but be able tition, and anything a student to write about it in a way that is can do to gain an edge could comprehensive, even to a non- make them more desirable to scientific audience. a potential employer. the Brief“Anyone from any back- ing’s challenge is one of those ground can enopportunities. ter, as long as “I think that every “I think that they meet the every employthese er these days age require- employer ments. But it’s days is looking for is looking for really imporpeople who who can can both anatant that the people way the science both analyze and lyze and comor engineering municate: with is represented communicate” this assignment is done accuyou can demonrately, so people from non- strate your ability to do both,” technical backgrounds should Bains says. make sure to get their facts The challenge is scheduled to checked very carefully,” says close on November 4 at 5 p.m. the Briefing’s editorial director, It is open to contestants from Dr. Sunny Bains. all over the world and it is free The topic chosen must also to submit. Even though it’s a be one that has not been widely writing challenge, the Briefcovered by media or not cov- ing states it is more interested ered at all. in the content and general deSubmissions will be read velopment of ideas through and critiqued by several judges writing than the structure and from all over North America, technical perfections of the THE CASCADE
Image: Schoolpress.co.kr
The contest spans both sides of the equation: interpreting research, and explaining it to others. writing itself. “There is something about explaining things to other people that helps us understand
it better ourselves ... and conversely, we know if we can’t explain a subject well then we’ve not yet got a grip on it. Writing
is about communication, but— for this reason—it’s also about learning,” Bains says.
SummitLearningCentre.ca Serving K-12 & Adult Students
Free High School Courses Prerequisites for Post Secondary Upgrade your Mark on a Prerequisite BC Certified Teachers & Courses
Call Now! 604-820-3333
ible Flex ule. d Sche ytime! t an
Star
1-866-881-1984 Call Now!
4
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
SCIENCE ON PURPOSE It’s a mouse-eat-scorpion world
Keeping up on
Campus
DESSA BAYROCK
THE CASCADE
If you found yourself stung by a bark scorpion, your reaction would probably involve profanity and looking up the number for poison control. In contrast, a grasshopper mouse kills the scorpion and eats it. Considering that the bark scorpion’s sting is extremely painful to most animals, the lack of the grasshopper mouse’s response is both surprising and intriguing to scientists. As it turns out, grasshopper mice don’t even feel the sting, according to a study recently published in Science. The reason behind the lack of response lies in the mouse’s brain chemistry – specifically, in voltage-gated sodium channels. In normal circumstances, a stimulant triggers sodium flow into these channels, alerting the brain that something hurts. When that stimulant is bark scorpion venom, however, the reaction fails to complete: an amino acid binds with the venom to block sodium from the channel and from triggering the feeling of pain. Scorpions aren’t usually on the list of mouse food preferences; the five researchers behind the study speculate grasshopper mice evolved this way because food is scarce in their natural desert environment. By ignoring the scorpion’s sting, the grasshopper mouse renders the scorpion’s main attack useless and makes the scorpion relatively easy prey to be killed and consumed. Dr. Ashlee Rowe, one of the
Transit, transit everywhere!
Image: Anthony Biondi
The grasshopper mouse basically ignores the sting of the venemous bark scorpion, but how? researchers behind the study, told the LA Times that this is an impressive evolutionary feat. “The grasshopper mouse has developed the evolutionary equivalent of martial arts to use the scorpions’ greatest strength against them,” she says. “This venom kills other mammals of similar size.” As part of the study, Rowe and four colleagues injected small amounts of venom into the paws of both grasshopper mice and house mice. In the control group, they injected the paws of mice with a saline solution. By observing the amount the mice licked their paws where the solutions were injected, the researchers could judge which injections bothered the mice more. According to Harold Zakon, another researcher behind the study, the results were “completely ridiculous.” While the house mice licked
their paws more after the injection of venom, the venom didn’t seem to bother the grasshopper mice at all. In fact, the grasshopper mice were more distressed by the saline injection than the venom. “One would think that the venom would at least cause a little more pain than the saline solution,” Zakon said in a prepared statement to the LA Times. The amino acid reaction is so effective at blocking pain in grasshopper mice that the researchers speculate it could be used as a foundation to build “highly selective, nonaddictive analgesics” for human use. While this pain-blocking response seems like it would be a useful adaptation for all species, the researchers note that it may only be a useful automatic response in this specific situation. Bark scorpion
venom aims to produce a reaction of pain to debilitate prey. The attacks of other predators, however, result in actual damage to prey, meaning that pain serves to warn an animal that it’s injured. Without this response, the animal might fail to get itself out of a dangerous situation, or even sustain further damage without realizing it. “Painful venoms are used to deter predators. Pain itself, however, can signal damage and thus serves an important adaptive function,” the researchers state in the introduction to the study. “Evolution to reduce general pain responses, although valuable for preying on venomous species, is rare, likely because it comes with the risk of reduced response to tissue damage.”
Relax with Mac
Counselling department brings in therapy dog for students KATHERINE GIBSON
THE CASCADE
Feeling stressed? Midterms making you want to crawl into a cave and hide? UFV’s counselling department’s registered therapy dog, Mac, and his handler Dawn Holt are available for 15 minute drop-in sessions. It allows students to take part in a fast and easy stress reduction process. Although this initiative is only two weeks old, the dropin slots have seen a 70 per cent fill rate, which Holt believes speaks to the need for this type of program on campus. “It’s a pretty positive response for being such an early stage – so that tells me that there’s a need out there,” she explains. “If [students] are having that time of the semester where things feel overwhelming—exams are coming up, midterms are happening, papers are due, the stress is building up and [they] need 15
minutes to forget about it all – this is a good way to do it.” For Lee Brekstad, a first-year computer information systems (CIS) student, spending time with Mac means decreasing her stress, without having to discuss it – a fact she sees as beneficial to herself and others. “It’s just that unconditional acceptance of all this emotion that you’re carrying,” she notes. “If you don’t feel like talking to somebody or answering questions, come see Mac. He just accepts whatever you’re there for.” This pilot project has no definite end date; its continuation on campus is dependant on the demand of students. “[Mac] has this knack, and it is completely unique to him – I have never seen it in another therapy dog,” Holt concludes. “He’s the only therapy dog that I’ve ever seen that has the unique ability to read what people need from him. He’s very, very special that way.”
Were students willing to pay an extra $11 a semester for increased shuttle service? The shuttle bus referendum closed on October 30, and we should be getting results any day now. We’ll bring you the results of the vote and all the relevant details of what that decision means for the future. Meanwhile, we’re also following the story of the proposed transit line between Langley, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack. After concerns were raised about how much funding each city would pay, the plans have been put on hold. If and when the transit route is reconsidered, we’ll bring you the details.
Humanities room has your back! It’s midterm season, and you know what that means – people are talking in the goddamn library. Need a quiet place to study? Are you a humanities student, or have you taken / are you taking humanities courses? There’s a space just for you on the third floor of D building, tucked away in D3070. It’s a little tricky to find, but that just means you’re more likely to have it to yourself. Imagine planning out that final paper on a whiteboard… imagine spreading your research materials over several tables… just imagine.
Newspaper on the radio? This month, The Cascade debuted its first-ever talk show on your campus radio station CIVL 107.1 fm. You can tune into commentary and explanation behind the latest and greatest pieces of each issue on Thursdays at 5 p.m. We’ll steal your attention for half an hour, but we’ll give it right back, we promise.
Have a news tip? Let us know! Email news@ufvcascade.ca Image: Katherine Gibson / The Cascade
Students can book appointments with therapy dog Mac through the counselling department.
or tweet at @CascadeNews
5
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Back to the SUS board
Election policy remains tabled, student associations request funding
JESS WIND
THE CASCADE
This past Friday, the Student Union Society (SUS) held another scheduled board meeting at UFV’s Abbotsford campus. Governance committee electoral policy motion tabled again Changes to the electoral policy, proposed by VP internal Greg Stickland and the governance committee, were tabled by the board at their last meeting two weeks ago. Stickland explained the governance committee has since worked to address the policy issues the board brought up. “I received some feedback after last meeting, and even more between board meetings to the policy,” he explains. “All the things were accommodated for.” However, during the board’s discussion, representative-atlarge Jay Mitchell expressed concern regarding the policy’s by-election definition. Challenging the policy’s inability to fully address every possible by-election situation, Mitchell explained his worries to the board. “[Sections] 7.1 and 7.2 speak to one instance of how a by-
election may be operated, but I believe there should be something covering a by-election regardless of that and not just in the event of a tie,” he notes. Due to the nature of the change being proposed, Stickland recommended that the board table the motion another time until their next meeting. The motion was subsequently tabled. BCSA, CISSA, and PSA ask for “Casino Royale” event funding Biology and Chemistry Student Association (BCSA) president Jennifer Martel presented a funding request for their annual “Casino Royale” event taking place on campus November 29. Despite being organized primarily by science-based student organizations BCSA, Computer Information Systems Student Association (CISSA), and Physics Student Association (PSA), Martel was adamant that this event is geared for all UFV students. “It’s not really a sciencespecific event – everyone’s welcome,” she explained. With a casino theme, the intention of the event is to bring students together for a night of prizes, raffles, finger food,
drinks, and fake gambling with professional card dealers. The success of last year’s event has led Martel to ask for SUS funding in order to help subsidize the event’s cost and, potentially, make the event free for students. “There were definitely ... at least 150 people who attended and that was with very little time for planning or advertising. We did want to make it a free event,” she adds. “So students don’t have to feel left out just because they can’t necessarily afford a ticket. “ When questioned by the board as to why the associations did not just pool their own funding to support the event, Martel’s explanation was simple: the event requires too much money. “Our own entire year’s funding between the three associations wouldn’t cover [it],” she says. “We just feel like it really … can’t come from our own funding. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do any other events this year.” Martel’s proposal was heard by the board and will be sent through the finance committee before returning to the board for approval. CISSA requests funding for
“Child’s Play” charity event CISSA representative Graham St. Eloi also requested funding for a campus event that welcomes all students. The event, dubbed Child’s Play, will take place in UHouse on November 15 and involves students playing video games in order to raise money for charity. “This event is a 24-hour video gaming event on campus, where students can come and play video games, play tournaments, play card games and board games, or any other form of entertainment that gamers enjoy,” St. Eloi explains. On behalf of CISSA he asked for $725 in SUS funding to help cover a Play Station 4 grand prize, in addition to other smaller prize incentives. The Child’s Play charity, run through Penny Arcade, is an organization that works to bring toys, video games, and books to children’s hospitals around the world. Representative-at-large Jay Mitchell also spoke in support of the event. “It’s not even just that Child’s Play supports with video games, toys, and books,” Mitchell notes. “One hospital, I believe it was in Egypt, asked … if [they could] use [the fund-
ing] to paint [their] hospital because they had no paint on the walls, so it’s actually pretty significant what they can do.” This funding request has also been sent to the finance committee and will return to board in the future for approval. Approval of new petty cash policy Other business of the meeting involved the approval of the finance committee’s new petty cash policy. Stickland explains the policy was previously tabled due to the board’s desire to further review the procedure. “The reason why this was tabled is because the board wanted to view it for an extra two weeks,” Stickland notes. “[The policy] speaks to the process – if you need petty cash for events or for the front office, how it is maintained, signed out and brought back, and tracked.” With the exception of one amendment made to the policy regarding AfterMath’s cash float, this policy was passed unanimously by the board.
Apples to apples
The logic behind UFV’s Writing Awards
DESSA BAYROCK
THE CASCADE
As we reach the middle of semester, students are once again slaving over research, primary sources, and lecture notes with a grim intensity. Their goal? Final papers. After days or weeks of hard work and a brief sojourn on an instructor’s desk, however, the stapled, rumpled pages are often relegated to the closet, the filing cabinet, or the recycling bin. But is that the end of an essay’s life? The faculty at UFV’s Writing Centre say no. They recently hosted their fourth-annual Writing Prize Awards, by which 13 students were honoured for work they wrote for class assignments. Nadeane Trowse, one of the organizers of the awards and an instructor at the Writing Centre, opened the awards ceremony this year. “It’s a delicate and wonderful process,” she told the room of students, parents and faculty. “Each year the papers are different; each year instructors ask students to write different sorts of papers.” These awards honour writing from any discipline, and this year ranged from philosophy to math to nursing. Instructors are encouraged to submit their
Image: Wikicommons
Thirteen writing awards were handed out last month, but a year’s worth of work is behind each one. students’ work whenever they see excellence, reminded in UFV-wide emails three times a year. This year they received over 60 entries representing around 70 students. Perhaps the most unique feature of the Writing Prize Awards is how they divide and judge the work they receive. There are no set categories
from year to year; papers are grouped together according to content, the level of course material, and how much research was decided. From there, organizers choose categories that best suit the way the papers are divided. “The goal is obviously to have categories that are not comparing apples and oranges but apples with apples,” Shurli
Makmillen said, the other organizer. This year some categories included “Upper Level Analysis of Cultural Texts / Authors / Genres” and “Indigenous Issues (All Levels).” “It is some matter of stress, strain, and brain activity to make sure the categories work for everybody,” Trowse said with a laugh.
After the categories are finalized and the papers sorted, two volunteer faculty judges evaluate each category, matched to their areas of expertise. Obviously, a chemistry prof would have less to say about an essay on Victorian poetry than an English instructor who has studied in that field. If the two judges find a clear winner in their category, the winner can be immediately chosen. If they disagree, a third judge is brought in to break the tie. Makmillen says the system works fairly well. “Over the years, about 75 per cent of categories are agreed upon by the initial pair of judges,” she notes. And now the two organizers are hoping that the winning students will use the Writing Awards as a jumping-off point, rather than thinking of it as an end accomplishment. “We are hoping winners and others from the UFV community will consider taking their research one or two steps further,” Makmillen says. “[Either] to UBC’s Arts Undergraduate Humanities and Social Sciences Conference [or] to think about submission to one of the many Canadian and international journals of undergraduate student research.”
6
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013
Ron Dart shares the importance of red tory tradition in Canadian politics
www.ufvcascade.ca
CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS
THE CASCADE
Ron Dart is a prolific writer and thinker, publishing over 20 books and countless articles. He has been part of UFV since 1990, teaching political science and religious studies. Dart’s recent book Keepers of the Flame: Canadian Red Toryism arrives as we approach the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, a moment in time that also marks a distinct change in Canadian and American relations: the 1962 election in Canada was highly inf luenced by the Kennedy administration, and the end result was further assimilation of Canada into the American empire.
Why have you done a book about the red tory tradition? In one sense there is a counter to cultural amnesia in my work. I’m putting the historical pieces of the drama back together again, replaying the play. I was contacted by a press in Quebec and asked to cobble together a variety of essays that tell the red tory tale.
In the manifesto section of the book you lay out an ideal political ideology for the problems we face in modernity. Why don’t more people embrace red toryism as a political view?
Images: Left: Steve Dove, Right: Courtesy of Ron Dart
Ron Dart has explored the world of politics and academics and is a proponent of red toryism, a view neglected in both. confederate poets (Charles Roberts, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campell Scott) who were also profoundly ecological. But many people choose not to study Canadian literature, or if they do, they ignore its politics. Then you get literature reduced to aesthetics. When in fact the geniuses of our literature were poetic, metaphorical, political and profoundly ecological.
I tried to condense the ideas Some students are comin the manifesto because I’m often asked, “can you com- pletely dismissive of red press what this tradition is all toryism. Is that a conseabout?” In doing a manifesto quence of progressive I’m thinning out a very comliberalism? plex tradition by giving people It comes as a threat to the a teaser, an entranceway in. economic, social, and politiThe dominance of the blue cal power elites. If people have tories and the cultural amnesia amnesia they of the past has can’t talk back, resulted in the “There is value they don’t even red tory tradiknow what the tion being scat- in the Protestant story is of a natered like a bro- work ethic, but it tion or western ken Ming vase. civilization. has gotten dumbParties pick And Canada up elements of ed down to only a participates in it; the Greens the much bighave the eco- work ethic” ger story of logical and enwestern civilivironmental elements. zation. If you read high English Looking at how we emerged romantics like Wordsworth, from part English, part French, Coleridge, or Southey, they and part First Nations tradiwere at the forefront of ecology tions; the English were an emand they were all high tories. pire, the French were an emAs poet laureates of England, pire. So Canada participates they had a great impact on Cain a global history as the child nadian thought. of imperial cultures. And our But when people study those First Nations history stretches poets they often only study out, as some argue, from Rustheir literary side, not the posia. There are huge connections litical. between us [and] the world; the French are in Africa and the It seems the voice of English are in India, and we’re the poet has turned into connected to it. The dominant ideology is a whisper in the modern progressive liberalism, which age. Does Canada, be- is history as progress. If we’re ing a newer country, lack somersaulting forward, why the great historical poets would you do back-flips that ask where we are going? When than England had? We have the four great people buy into that without
thoughtful insight, they don’t want to hear about the past. It’s dead to them. But the reason we study these men and women from the past is because they might have seen things that we don’t see. Modernity has revealed, but concealed much. What it has concealed the ancients reveal.
Has red toryism always been with us in the West in different forms?
When you think of the West, it grew out of the great clash between Plato and Aristotle. That agon has always been there. The red tory tradition is deeply grounded in Plato rather than Aristotle. And you find it being worked out by Christian thinkers from both the Catholic and the Orthodox. It begins to fall in the 16th century with the Protestant reformation. That is when you get the spearhead of principles like liberty, individuality, quality, choice, willing, making, and creating. Red toryism is a counter-culture now, but historically it’s always been a polyphonic element in the conversation.
Technology is supposed to enhance our memory, but do you think in some ways it erases the lessons from history? The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt challenged the drift in western civilization towards this driven, active, hyper-rationalism which renders people as victims of their own drivenness. They get put in the cage of rationalism like hamsters on a wheel, running faster and faster, but going nowhere. They become incapable of being attentive. The deeper traditions give
priority to the contemplative; slowing down, being still, listening. Contemplation is the highest quality in Plato, Aristotle, and Christian theology. Classical philosophy is not about playing logical games, it’s contemplative. There is value in the Protestant work ethic, but it has gotten dumbed down to only a work ethic, then to simply work without ethic which becomes the busyness of amusement. From that we get a pop culture which is really a reduction of Protestantism on steroids. Or as T.S. Eliot says, “People are diverted by diversions through diversions.”
what fine capitalists we produce.” But the humanities are able to probe deeper to keep the university healthy. It’s like a toothache – you can take drugs to numb the pain, but the pain is a signal for a deeper problem. The philosophers and the poets are the pain. The pain is a gift, illuminating that something is wrong. Poets are the voice of cultural conscience, but they can be dismissed because they are seen as agony and suffering. They see the problems. Seeing has consequences.
Do you think progressive liberalism will remain the dominant ideology?
Do you think contemplation can be mislaProgressive belled by liberals are pop cul- “Poets are the getting what ture as a voice of cultural they want on their yellow disorder, conscience…They brick road, but that critical they’re not likthinkers are see the problems. ing where they written off Seeing has conse- end up. The intellectual food as depressed quences.” they are being when they given isn’t satare just isfying. [George] Grant called more awake? this “intimations of deprival” I think that the artists and deep philosophers, the people who love wisdom, have the risk of getting marginalized because they don’t conform to the culture of mindless entertainment. Metaphorically speaking, many people are lobotomized: there’s nothing there.
Is that the job of the university, to prevent the removal of memory? I think the arts and humanities are under attack by business on the one hand and a scientific paradigm on the other. Often the way universities survive is by saying, “Look what good scientists we are and look
and [Charles] Taylor called it “a malaise.” Something doesn’t feel right. Sure, we have all the perks, the toys, all the amusements and diversions. But the soul longs for more. We’ve used reason and will to make the world as we want it, and now we’re dealing with nature speaking back: “You pollute me, I’m going to pollute you!” And at some point, you wonder, is this train I’m on really going to take me to the utopia it promised? This doesn’t feel right and I’m being polluted. I’d better get off this train, or maybe we can put some steel in the wheels.
7
OPINION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
SNAPSHOTS
Talking about transit... Katie Stobbart
“I don’t want taxpayers of Abbotsford to be paying for something that would be benefitting Langley,” councillor Braun is quoted in the Abbotsford Times on council’s recent decision (passed by a vote of three) to shut down plans for a rapid transit route connecting Chilliwack and Abbotsford to the GVRD. First of all, first-graders are better at sharing. Second, the transit route would provide improved access to the skytrain, to which Abbotsford taxpayers don’t contribute – why shouldn’t taxpayers from other cities have access to our transit system when we use theirs? As for the estimated cost to Abbotsford taxpayers for the route, it works out to only about $11 per residence – you could probably dig up that change in your couch cushions. That’s not to mention that the council just approved a motion enabling Abbotsford to jump ship if proposed costs escalated. There was really nothing to lose. In that light, protests such as Braun’s come across as petulant – childish, even. And I thought only adults could run for office.
Curtailed commentary on current conditions
Craft beer identity
Footing the bill
Buy me a bitcoin
Christopher Demarcus
NICK UBELS
Anthony Biondi
Craft beer fans are paralyzed by the choice of hops. We can’t move through the malaise of boutique brands and party mingler packs. What if we pick the wrong beer? Is that German Pilsner an inauthentic North American version, hopped up on steroids? Or is it going to be the sweet synthesis of East German style and Colorado mountain innovation? Most likely, it’s going to taste like a bad batch of gin: hops that rip into my tongue like pine needles, forcing me to rationalize my choice, “This Red Racer is good, right?” It must be! It’s hip, popular, and goes well with my hipster Armageddon. There are too many choices, too many bad brews, and quite frankly, too much marketing. Besides, craft beer isn’t about the beer. It’s about who you drink it with. While brew nerds with their craft beer fetish—distorted taste-buds that don’t understand the difference between marketing and taste—sit at home alone chatting it up on their beer blogs, I’ll take a Pabst and the dance floor with my best friend. And okay, I’ll give the new Parallel 49 a shot, but if it tastes like swamp water, I won’t hold my particular tongue.
The death knell of ethical, accurate, investigative journalism resounds from every (remaining) column and Twitter feed across the globe. The culprit, according to these panicstricken missives? The big, bad internet. Digital start-ups come and go seemingly every month, so it’s easy to regard new websites dedicated to serious journalism with skepticism. But among the skeletons of .com era failures, there are a few young news websites that are thriving. The Tyee, an independent “solutionsbased” journalism outfit based in BC, has made it to the ten-year mark, and instead of shuttering the doors, they’re dreaming big: they want to go national. According to a recent editorial, it will take an additional $100,000 in reader subscriptions to be able to expand their coverage across the country and establish an Ottawa bureau to report directly on federal politics. The disappearance of for-profit news organizations may be alarming, but in their wake they leave room for arguably better, more civically-minded news organizations like The Tyee to jump up in their place.
The dark web hath come! Our fairest city, Vancouver has fallen to the underdog. Bitcoin trading is going to be taken to an entirely new level with the installation of the first-ever bitcoin ATM. Soon men and women of all professions and crimes will be able to trade real money for bitcoins at a physical machine for a small fee. To me, bitcoins have always been a product of the “dark web,” a seedy subculture hidden within the internet. They are a digital currency that hold monetary value in the real world, and can be traded for many services, both legal, illegal, and downright scuzzy. I worry that the open acceptance of bitcoins will promote the darker activities that are bought by this digital currency. Before, it was incredibly difficult to obtain even a single coin, but with increased ease it can be manipulated into a means of market play, or an easier way to make untraceable illegal purchases. By accepting the bitcoin, are we moving towards a cleaner use for it, or are we going to fall from grace with it?
Halloween is candy-coated consumerism Peer pressure makes October 31 not just fun and games
JESS WIND
THE CASCADE
People are always shocked to hear that I don’t celebrate Halloween. It’s not for any religious reasons that I steer clear of the day, but because I can’t in good conscience celebrate empty consumerism or a popularity contest that perpetuates bullying. Halloween is scheduled for the last day of October, but, like Christmas, it’s reach extends earlier and earlier in the month. I don’t need to walk into the grocery store and have animatronic zombie heads screaming at me in September. I don’t need to have Value Village’s remix of “Thrift Shop” stuck in my head for two months. I don’t need to drop money on a costume I won’t wear again. I certainly don’t need to eat smaller versions of my favourite candy at an inflated cost simply because it’s October. More and more I hear about parents having to buy the newest costume on the market. Specialty stores have popped up for Halloween to take advantage of the costume- and candy-driven season. Whatever happened to making your own costumes?
Kids are already pressured to fit in, and that pressure is amplified with a costuming hierarchy. Halloween, like many other “holidays” (see Valentine’s Day) is a money pit. And it goes beyond that. On a day that celebrates dressing up as something you’re not, the threat of standing out still hovers over children. A radio announcer on The Peak
told a story about their niece, in which she was teased for dressing up as Shrek for Halloween at school. Now, if you have the confidence to paint your face green and dress in plaid pants, a dirty tunic, and a tattered leather vest, you deserve props. More props if you stick ogre ears to the side
Image: Sxates/ flickr
of your head. Why does it matter that she didn’t dress up like a princess? That she didn’t buy the same mass-produced costume as every other kid? Perhaps in the adult world, a best-dressed competition can work, and you are rewarded for the effort you put into your costume, but for kids in school, on a
day that celebrates “freak,” the kid that puts originality into his or her costume is ostracized for not looking like everyone else. CTV Winnipeg reported that the city’s Hastings School had cancelled its Halloween celebrations. In the segment, the reporter asks, “what’s left?” before cutting to an onsite reporter standing in the middle of the costume aisle at a store. The reporter talks to angry parents about the cancellation, but doesn’t touch on the why’s – doesn’t ask the school administrators why they made the decision. And the resulting comments are backlash about how the kids are having their holidays taken away from them. It’s not a holiday. It is not something children are required to experience in school. Curriculum does not involve cutting a jack-olantern out of construction paper. I applaud Hastings School for avoiding Halloween celebrations. It is one small step toward protecting kids. Editor’s Note: Following the decision’s negative reception, the Hastings School reinstated Halloween events.
8
OPINION
OPINION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Bacon: the new wave in birth control? KATIE STOBBART
THE CASCADE
If bacon wasn’t already the best part of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, its new side effect makes it a must-munch for men worried about overzealous sperm. According to the latest sensational headlines, consistent consumption of processed meat such as bacon has a negative impact on male fertility. Over 150 men undergoing fertility treatments were the subjects of a Harvard university study and were asked critical questions about their eating habits. How often do they eat bacon? Steak? Halibut? Apparently fish are fertility-friendly, but bacon blows a guy’s chances of family-starting out of the water. As reported in the Province, men who said they ate less than a slice of bacon each day had 30 per cent more healthy sperm, as did men who added white fish to their diets. This would appear to confirm the radical notion that lifestyle choices have a direct impact on health, in this case the shape and quality of sperm. So what does this mean for birth control? As the idea of male contraceptives becomes more and more popular, it stands to reason researchers will begin to examine how exactly bacon affects fertility – for example, is there a certain chemical or hormone which could be extracted for the purpose of non-surgical male contraceptive
How do I love thee, bacon? Let me count the ways. For nutritious breakfast. For delicious smell. For a lowered sperm count? measures? Such research would not only mean promising strides for the promiscuous, but could also spell satisfaction for the bacon-addicted without increasing a person’s risk of heart disease or diabetes, provided cholesterol is not the contraceptive extract. It was not specified in the study whether or not women are adversely affected by excessive bacon consumption, or if it is advisable to avoid processed meat during preg-
nancy as with smoking, alcohol, and drug use. But for those who don’t wish to conceive, there seems to be no downside. “Tastes awesome and stops you from having kids? Is there anything bacon can’t do?” one commenter said in response to an article on the subject by the Globe and Mail. Another commenter linked this study to economic success: “Eat more bacon. Have fewer
How important are UN Security Council seats post-Iraq? CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS
THE CASCADE
Saudi Arabia has been one of the West’s key allies in the Middle East. They give us what we want: oil. But geopolitical cracks are starting to form. This week the Saudis rejected a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Both the Saudis and the western powers want a regime change in Syria. But the main reason Saudi Arabia declined the seat was to protest the lack of action after Syria’s government was accused of using chemical weapons on civilians. Perhaps this is a chance for Saudi Arabia to show they doesn’t need the West as a consumer anymore: China may be willing to pay more for Saudi oil. When one country wants to invade another, it is supposed to get permission from the UNSC. The council is comprised of 15 different countries, but only five countries (the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia, and China) have veto power. Veto power is a big a deal. If the UNSC wants to give the green light for international intervention in Syria, any of the big five can veto it. Russia and the United States don’t tend to see eye-to-eye
very often, so most initiatives are vetoed. In the case of Bush’s catastrophic adventure into Iraq, the UNSC didn’t hold an official vote. It was known that there would not be enough “yes” countries – there need to be at least nine of the 15 in favour to pass a resolution. Many times countries don’t vote at all, and keep in mind, one of the big five can always step in with a veto. The UNSC only regulates nations. Obama doesn’t get the United Nations’ permission to send drones into Yemen or Pakistan. He does what he wants. Obama’s rationale is that drones only attack non-state actors that are a direct threat to the sovereignty of his state. Never mind when they miss. When it comes to enforcement of international law, we have an age-old problem with the UNSC. It functions as a platform for international diplomacy, but has little teeth. To be on the council is a matter of prestige among states as much as it’s a matter of security. But the UNSC isn’t just a big party for international bureaucrats. It sets policy standards that do have weight: economic sanctions and investigations into war crimes. There have been many attempts to reform the veto system of the UNSC, but it is feared that tinker-
ing with it may have unintended consequences. If more member seats are added there will be more arguments. If the veto system is removed, the balance of power may shift radically. Overall, the Saudis rejected their seat because they see the UNSC as an extension of the western powers that created it. The West’s support for the Arab spring has been opposed by the Saudis, who rule with a strictly traditionalist form of government. There has also been a cooling between Iran and the United States. Iran is one of Saudi Arabia’s foes in the region. Iran used to be clearly anti-American, but the tone is changing. America still loves Saudi oil, but it feels like the political tectonic plates are shifting. Is Canada on the council? Not anymore. We lost our seat to Portugal, a tiny and economically poor country. The sad fact is, we don’t play nice with the world like we used to. Our national policy has focused on being friendly with key trading partners, pumping out oil, and moving away from our peacekeeping tradition. We’re more like Saudi Arabia than we think.
kids. Can then afford more bacon. Nice!” However, it is unclear whether the effects of bacon on sperm quality are permanent or temporary, so tread carefully. Can eating bacon regularly for a few years damage a man’s fertility forever? Or are the effects reversible – does eating white fish or salmon essentially act as an antidote for bacon-induced infertility? Hamburger, ham, and (ironi-
Image: thalvers/ flickr
cally) sausages are also reportedly among potential contraceptive meats. However, it should be noted that bacon-eating should complement, not replace, condom use, as there is no evidence to suggest snacking on processed meat will prevent contracting sexually transmitted infection.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Re: Don’t medicalize personality It has been over 80 years since Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The marketing and consumption of pharmaceuticals has reached the dystopian level. We’re overdiagnosed and over-prescribed drugs. When you visit a Doctor there are advertisments for medication on the walls. Should we fight this drug dichotomy, or embrace the fact our quality of life has improved from pharmaceuticals. I agree medication is prescribed merrily as bullets are shot in GTA V. However, I cannot deny that millions of lives are living with an improved quality of life from pharmaceuticals. I have lived on both sides of the fence, I have had skepticism about pharmaceuticals. Though, I have also experienced the benefits. Using pharmaceutical drugs does have costs, and we assess these risks compared to benefits. If your benefits are greater than the risk, why not? I worry when I see medicine cabinets compared to an army arsenal. However, I am concerned about maladaptive lifestyles, which can be relieved by specific and precise use of medication. An an example, I’ll use mental health. If someone is diagnosed with depression, a familiar reality in our society. We acknowledge that people with depression have inadequate serotonin to have a stable baseline mood above misery. Then, why wouldn’t we choose treatment which can make
Have an opinion about something? Share it with us.
a difference? I was always against medication, and had paranoid feelings about Big Pharma. I realized the irrationality, after, the joint was put out. In my example, if someone chooses the medication, we have a chance that the quality of can be improved. The individuals baseline mood will be above a level of misery or “depressed,” this person can therefore be enabled to make positive choices which will spiral into a self-fulfilling positive lifestyle. I still diagree by labeling and medicating every last ailment. However, with careful, logical and monitored use of medications we can experience enriched welfare. “The green stuff,” can be fun. Althought in regards to mental health, it’s result is negative and proven to worsen mental health; increasing anxiety and feelings of apathy. Marijuana is a depressant—which makes sense it’s detrimental for people with a predispositon towards depression. If you can handle the consideration of medication, that it can improve quality of life. Why dismiss the idea? However, I like Brave New World and we still need to be weary of: a wakeup pill, eating pill, weightloss pill, energy pill, social pill, ambition pill, a digestive pill and a sleeping pill. The choice is yours. Dylan Much
Comment on our website or email your thoughts to opinion@ufvcascade.ca
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
9
OPINION
What do you think of the new SUS shuttle referendum?
Feel like sharing your short-andsweet opinion? Keep an eye out for our whiteboard-toting pollsters roaming the halls.
10
ARTS & LIFE FEATURE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Help needed for those sufferin By Katherine Gibson Art: Anthony Biondi
“I just remember having the hugest smile on my face and thinking that was the best compliment ever because I was literally bones—I was just bones—I was skin and bones”
The impact of eating disorders
F
or many women, weight is an ongoing struggle. Whether you’re taking part in the latest diet trend or dragging yourself to the gym, we all understand the pressures to maintain a toned physique in order to stay beautiful, or—as we’ve been told—to stay thin. But for some women, the stress to maintain this body standard goes beyond just resisting the temptation to eat a greasy McDonald’s burger – it means resisting the urge to eat at all. Eating disorders, most commonly anorexia and bulimia, have become increasingly common in young women. In fact, eating disorders are now the third most common chronic illness in adolescent girls. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, approximately three per cent of Canadian women will be affected by some form of this illness during their lifetime. And while three per cent may not seem like a large number, in relation to Canada’s entire population, the figure is staggering. For one UFV student*, this illness became a personal struggle after leaving high school. Finding herself overwhelmed by the freedom and uncertainty of post-secondary life, she chose to deal with her feelings by controlling her food intake. “It got really bad after high school, and I got super thin. I got super, super thin,” she explains. “Looking back, I was skin and bone, like I was teetering between maybe 95 and 100 pounds.” Although her controlled eating began as a form of
dealing with a life change, it very quickly became ingrained into her identity – so much so that her intensely thin physique became a symbol of pride. Recalling an instance with an old boyfriend, she reflects on the strong connection she made between the state of her body and her own personal worth. “I asked a guy that I saw for a little while for a back massage one night and he said, ‘Oh my God – you’re all bones!’” she continues. “And I just remember having the hugest smile on my face and thinking that was the best compliment ever because I was literally bones—I was just bones—I was skin and bones.” Eating disorders are primarily seen in females during their youth. However, these eating disorders are an extreme symptom of a female body image issue that begins early on in girls’ lives. The Canadian Mental Health Association estimates that up to 40 per cent of nineyear-old girls have dieted to lose weight, even when they were at a normal weight. Statistics like these reveal the importance of programming in schools to foster healthy body images at an early age. While there are resources and counselling staff available at the high school level for sufferers of eating disorders, the availability of these resources becomes much smaller once students graduate and leave. *Name withheld for privacy reasons
Local resources limited Q
uestioning the available resources outside the school system is well warranted, as there is only one major publicly funded option for eating disorder treatment in Abbotsford and Chilliwack: Fraser Health. Fraser Health’s eating disorder treatment program is comprehensive and works to help every individual, no matter where they are in the recovery process. “The hope of the program is to meet clients where they’re at,” Esther Naayer, Fraser Health’s eating disorder clinician, explains. So if people aren’t ready to make change we can start from there. Like if they’re asking themselves questions like, ‘How can I be in school?’ or, ‘How can I be social and have a part-time job if I’m struggling with an eating disorder?’ we can help them. If they want to work on recovery,” she continues,
“then we work with them moving forward.” This outpatient program, which facilitates individual counselling, group counselling, medical care, and dietitian appointments, gives participants the opportunity to have someone come alongside them and help them through the recovery process. However, as the only large public resource in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, this program is oversaturated, with a waitlist of two to three months for service. Naayer believes the scarcity of public services addressing eating disorders in the area has a lot to do with money. “It comes down to funding. In the bigger cities they will have a full regional program,” she notes. “It’s something we’ve advocated for, but right now, just due to funding it hasn’t happened.”
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
11
ARTS & LIFE FEATURE
ng locally with eating disorders “In the bigger cities they have a full regional [support] program. It’s something we’ve advocated for, but right now, just due to funding it hasn’t happened.”
Long term solutions? W
hile additional funding for programs like Fraser Health’s would help, the issues surrounding body image and eating disorders remain. Currently, most resources are found online in the form of websites designed to provide sufferers with the information and skill sets needed to proactively combat these disorders. Easily brought up with a browser search of “body image,” websites offer free, comprehensive tests for students to take and assess their own sense of body-worth. Other online tests, such as the “Eating Disorder Checklist,” more specifically identify whether or not individuals demonstrate eating disorder tendencies. UFV counsellor Eileen Burkholder also suggests online resources for students who are suffering with an eating disorder. Burkholder recommends going to the websites Heretohelp and Kelty Mental Health. Both sites give extensive fact sheets on body image and self-esteem, as well as link users to other related websites that provide free, accurate body image information. The Canadian Mental Health Association and the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) are also online resources that provide a broad spectrum of information in regards to eating disorder awareness and the help that is available. While local resources are limited, they are still available. Beyond Fraser Health,
there is also Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous (ABA), a group that runs similarly to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), but is specific to eating disorders. This group, like Fraser Health, works with individuals in order to provide personalized support for those looking for help with their personal recovery process. More intensive help, such as the Woodstone Residence’s live-in program on Galiano Island, provides individuals with a more structured approach to recovery. Offering a wide range of programming, from meal support and nutrition education to art therapy and community involvement, this program is geared specifically to the individual needs of each person enrolled. These resources are all effective, but they address women only after they have developed an eating disorder. How do we as a community stop girls from feeling that they need to use eating disorders as a means of maintaining an idealized body? Perhaps the long-term solution is in breaking through the lies eating disorders thrive on. The lies that tell us that we’re alone; that we should be ashamed; that we are in a solitary fight against our society, our friends, our family, ourselves, and even our own bodies. Maybe the solution lies in acknowledging daily that we are worth more than we weigh, that there is power in small steps towards recovery, and that it is never a weakness to reach out for help when you need it.
12
ARTS & LIFE
www.ufvcascade.ca
SUDOKU PUZZLE
CROSSWORD Cold & flu
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013
by Katie Stobbart
ACROSS 1. (7, 4) 5. 9. 10. 11.
Often cited as a natural remedy for illness – especially homemade by Mom. Liquid produced in the respiratory system during illness. (6) You may want one to soothe your sore throat. (7) Some describe this sensation as feeling queasy. (6) This drug blocks common symptoms of allergies and colds. (13)
Answer Keys LAST WEEK
sudoku solution
Across
DOWN 2. This can make it difficult to breathe through the nose, and often increases tissue use. (10) 3. This means illness is everywhere. Everyone’s got it. Don’t go to school. (8) 4. Sometimes colloquially referred to as “catching.” Don’t go to school. (10) 6. The technical name for “the flu.” (9) 7. Flowering plant and an ingredient in many cough drops. (9) 8. This is probably what your doctor will recommend as a remedy for the common cold. Hint: it involves lying down. (3, 4)
3 SNUGGLING 4 SWEET 7 CHROMOSOMES 8 TEA 10 VACANCY 12 PEARL 14 HUMOURS Down 1 CINNAMON 2 CHEMIST 5 CHIMNEY 6 COTTAGE 9 DREAM 11 CRICKET 13 HUSH
The Weekly Horoscope
Star Signs from Sumas Sibyl
Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: You are going to continue to see people on wrecking balls. It’s a parody that will never die. Get used to it.
Gemini: May 21 - June 21: A Big Mac a day keeps the doctors paid!
Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: It’s always about your horoscope – you, you, you. You never ask me about my horoscope. Don’t you care?
Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: Challenge yourself, but most of all love yourself. Try masturbating on a trapeze.
Cancer: June 22 - July 22: Aliens are coming for you. FYI, they’re blue.
Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: You’re gonna be the very best, like no one ever was. You’re going to catch EVERYTHING this cold season.
Aries: March 21 - April 19: Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring. It’s your banana phone.
Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: Interactions with toddlers this week will be loud and fretful. Incidentally, so will all interactions with drunks.
Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: You are destined to be a cat lady. You will have at least 13 cats. Do not be sad. This is awesome.
Taurus: April 20 - May 20: Cette semaine ira bien seulement si vous apprenez le français.
Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept22: Don’t accept Turkish delight from witches. Also, don’t let half-goat men take you home…
Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: It’s time to ask yourself – are you Betty or Veronica in this situation? Or deep down, are you Jughead? You also need to ask yourself why you’re in an Archie comic.
13
ARTS & LIFE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Cascade Arcade
Exploring cultural performance in the search for the Franklin expedition
Video game movie night?
CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS THE CASCADE
JEREMY HANNAFORD CONTRIBUTOR
In terms of storytelling, people constantly look for shortcuts. Instead of reading a book, read the comic. Instead of reading the comic, watch the movie. Instead of the movie, read the spoiler synopsis. And now people who don’t want to play the video game will now just watch the cinematics. At first, I thought this fad was peculiar. Who would watch videos over three hours long willingly? It was only when I sat down and watched all the cinematics from The Last of Us that I understood the craze and saw a different form of late-night movie entertainment in the works. Until the last few years, logged game cinematics were only heard of on Halo.bungie. org. The Halo fan website has provided every single Halo cinematic in downloadable format since the first game. Either for viewing purposes or to make fan-made trailers and montages, this was the only form of video game cinema out there. Then along came YouTube. What started out as random uploads has become a sensation. It’s gotten to the point where you can expect new releases like Assassin’s Creed, Injustice, or Starcraft 2 to have theirs uploaded immediately. Besides taking near days to upload, these compilations of video game cut scenes can go from just under two hours to over six. What is more insane is that people have watched these from beginning to end in one go!
But what is emerging from these contemplations is a display of how video games are becoming a strong cinematic form. After watching the opening of The Last of Us, I felt more impacted and entertained than I was by most films in the last year. Games have two advantages over movies. One is that length is not an issue. For most games, the running time can be around 10 to 20 hours of play time with a ratio of 70:30 for gameplay to cinematics. (Unless you are talking about Metal Gear Solid games where that ratio could very well be the opposite) Unlike films, games can run on as long as they feel necessary. More character development and interaction can be added and certain aspects of the world or story can be further elaborated. While some may say this is too extensive, take a look at the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings. Most LOTR fans will tell you the extended versions are the way to go every time. Second is a mix of production value and visual representation. Games can be pretty limitless with their on-screen glamour as they don’t cost nearly as much as regular film productions. They also never have to worry about bad digital effects because of the medium they are already in. The world the game is placing the viewer in has already asked them to accept the cartoonish look or the surrealist style. What matters now is the story and the execution. After watching the complete running of The Last of Us several times, this game is now a film in my entertainment library. By keep-
ing in certain intense game-play sessions, the uploader of this contemplation gave me nearly the entire story while still keeping the interface nearly gameinfo free. Of course there are certain aspects of games that cannot be explained or displayed in cinematic contemplations. The contents of Joel or Ellie’s bags from The Last of Us are not revealed in the video I have. Certain areas or items like newspapers detailing the origin of the fungal infection are not shown as they would diverge from primarily progressing the game. But this is to be accepted if one wants a cinematic experience rather than a walk-through tutorial. This is the breaking point of game over film. While good editing and swift gameplay can help tie in scenes, there will always be breaks in the story that will prevent viewers from getting the full film experience. The Halo series, for instance, has almost never had any pivotal battle scene or fight sequence occur in their cinematics because the player should experience those moments for themselves. For some things, it’s just better to experience the actual thing rather than view someone rushing through it. While saying that cut-scene compilations will replace home movies is absurd, it can’t be ignored that they are gathering attention. With some videos garnering over a million views each, this is a fad that has only just begun.
It’s -30°C. The sun hasn’t shone for weeks. Your toes are frozen. They will fall off. Beyond the 60 feet of your ship’s open deck is nothing but ice and darkness. There is only the cold and the crew: all lonely men, thinking of mutiny. But there is a play to perform. You’ve worked on it for as long as the sun has disappeared. You could have brought more food and supplies, but instead you chose to bring a printing press on board to make scripts and playbills for the men. You left that extra sheep at home. There wasn’t space for it. You needed to fit all the costumes and props onto the ship. The only thing between your men and mutiny is the performance. It’s time for a musical comedy in the Arctic. A tale from high school history, the Franklin expedition was a mission by the Royal Navy in 1845. Their goal was to find passage in the Arctic, but the expedition—all 128 men—disappeared. The British Navy first sent out ships in 1848 to try to find the lost enterprise, a search that continues to this day. As a part of this past week’s throne speech, the Harper government promised it will “work with renewed determination and an expanded team” to find Franklin and his lost crew, now over 150 years old. At The Reach art gallery, UFV professor Heather Davis-Fisch gave an astonishing lecture about the hunt for Franklin. But her research has a twist. “There were two different plays performed in one evening; one for the officers and one for the crew,” Heather explained, “ensuring that friendships and bonds only developed with men of comparable ranks.” Davis-Fisch has done extensive digging on how the navy maintained social stability in total isolation: the crew performed stagings of the plays Zero and Harlequin Light. She explained how British marine life used the power of theatrical narrative to enforce their social structures, to educate, and to survive. In many ways we use theatre
image: creative commons
Franklin led the expedition to the North, bizarrely packing a printing press and fine china.
the same way today, be it in middle school productions or in prisons. The production provided a recreational activity that still enforces the authority of officers over crew. But it wasn’t all about enforcing social ties. There was respect for performance and theatrical talent, too. “Actors were clearly rewarded for doing their job well with applause and reviews in shipboard newspapers.” she said. The printing press for onboard ship newspapers was vital to maintain civility during the mission. Taking up valuable space, musical instruments and costume trunks took precedence over more essential supplies. The productions were part of the ideology of British imperialism, Davis-Fisch explained. “The [play] showed that the Arctic could become, through the slap of an imperial bat, as familiar and domestic as the British characters in it.” The enthralling and charming lecture was followed by a group discussion of modern experiences in the Arctic. What was made clear was that the story of Franklin’s expedition is a form of observational narrative in itself. History as a play, a theatrical analogy that we use to understand the unknowable world of the vast and lonely Arctic. For a more in-depth exploration about about how performance relates to cultural structures, you can read Davis-Fisch’s book Loss and Cultural Remains in Performance: The Ghosts of the Franklin Expedition.
14
ARTS & LIFE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Haute Stuff
Lessons in fashion from a “time traveller” 1 2 3 4 5 6
Shuffle
CHARTS
AARON LEVY
Shad Flying Colours
CIVL STATION MANAGER
CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy ruminates to you about friendship this week.
Deafheaven Sunbather Jordan Klassen Repentance
The Get-up Kids – “Stay Gold, Ponyboy”
Janelle Monae The Electric Lady
Titled after young adult novel The Outsiders, this song’s lyrics go “I hope you find it / greener ground to bluer skies / If this is what will really make you happy / then I’ll say that we’ll be old enough to know better / young enough to pretend / This is the last of my letters.” SO emo!
Drake Nothing Was The Same
The Koffin Kats Our Way & The Highway
Killer Mike – “Willie Burke Sherwood”
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Sweatshop Union Infinite
“My cousin Jimmy had a breakdown / he ain’t never been the same / And he never will be again / If I could fix his brain / take back the cracks in his mind / give it all back / you could have the racks and fame / I’d give it all back in exchange / Laaaaalaaaaalaaaaalaaaaa.”
The Arcade Fire Reflektor (Single) Okkervil River The Silver Gymnasium
Harry Nilsson – “Best Friend”
Thee Oh Sees Floating Coffin
Just about the most standard television-montage music imaginable for a story of friendship, and most likely, ultimately, for the purpose of story arc and character development, foreshadowing of the conflict to come as well. My favourite usage was That 70s Show. I think it was in Family Guy, too.
The Gertrudes Neighbourhood Gang Signs Remixes The Caravan The Caravan
Randy Newman – “You Got a Friend in Me”
Mayer Hawthorne Where Does This Door Go?
15 16 17 18 19 20
Not only was Toy Story one of the staple films of my childhood, but this man’s voice was so incredible ingrained into my mind, that I think I am now actually him in vocal re-animation, similar to how he was unfettered during Family Guy’s post-apocalyptic run-in with him! Puuuurdy cool ;)
Solids Blame Confusion Zachary Lucky Ballad of Losing You Boreal Sons Threadbare
Ghost Cousin
Scotland
Bolivia Giants
The Bros. Landreth
Let It Lie
Image: mark sebastian/Flickr
Monae is a striking example of how to rock an androgynous style.
NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE
Janelle Monae is cool in black and white. Her style is immaculate, classy, and to the point: crisp high-waisted pants, red lips, tux-style blazers. Everything from her high-necked blouses to the little black bowler perched on her signature hairstyle radiates class. In an interview with the New York Post, Monae describes her preference for tuxedo-style apparel. “The tux is appropriate in all different eras and it’s transcendent. It’s a time traveller ’s outfit.” Monae’s look intentionally avoids the traditional emphasis on sex-heavy styles of many female artists in the music industry. “My thought process when I came into the music industry was to make sure people know there’s no one way to be sexy,” Monae says. Marie Claire fashion market director Courtney Weinblatt remarks to the Post that the androgynous look is not new to the runway. “As we’ve recently seen on the men’s Saint Laurent runway and also Givenchy and Prada, many collections featured clothes that could be worn by both genders.” Monae’s style can be imitated without going for the full-on and hard-to-pull-off black and white. While her skinny ties and smart suspenders have already been on the runway in men’s styles, it can be an interesting and bold addition to women’s fashion. For those of us who are a little less intrepid in our wardrobes, look for more subtle elements to incorporate into your dayto-day style. Consider pairing
high-waisted dress pants with a collared blouse, a hairstyle on high with Monae’s choice of classic red lipstick. Monae’s music adds a broader dimension to her choice of clothing than style alone; on her new album, The Electric Lady, she writes as an android, a marginalized futuristic being. It’s not the first time a singer has made his or her choice of clothing more than a mere fashion statement. While Johnny Cash wore all black for the “poor and beaten down,” Monae sports black and white in
solidarity with marginalized members of society. On “Q.U.E.E.N.” she takes on religious exclusion, asking, “Will your God accept me in my black and white? Will he approve the way I’m made?” Her androgynous black and white look takes inclusiveness to a new level. Female, male, black, white, gay, straight, or simply an android looking for some funky tunes, Monae’s style will suit.
Image: thomyboecker/Flickr
Fashion always circles back to the timeless, formal classics.
15
ARTS & LIFE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Book Review
Ron Dart keeps Canadian tradition alive in Keepers of the Flame CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS THE CASCADE
Mini Album Reviews
SoundBites
The reader has to come to this book with an open mind. The ideas of Dart’s red tory tradition are not familiar to us. Although the writing is accessible, its topics simply are not. Keepers of the Flame is a collection of political philosophy, but it also works as a gateway into understanding the red tory perspective. It is an introduction to a lost form. But Dart isn’t simply speaking to the ghost of George Grant and Stephen Leacock. He lays down his own conclusions on the state of Canadian affairs. The ground covered in the book is immense. To start, red toryism is not what you think it is. It’s not blue. The best way to define red toryism is as a political ideology: a way to look at the world. But unlike more common political views, red toryism holds open and clear dialogue as one of its tenets. All views and ideologies
are required to be debated. It is a political vision that values all political views. The idea of the “common wheel” is at the core of the red tory tradition. The whole is better than the sum of its parts. The commons is as important as the private. These two realms should be balanced with poise. Red toryism isn’t conservative or liberal in the modern sense. It finds value in traditional models as much as progressive ones. For Dart’s toryism, history serves as a literary analysis of the current day. The fondness for tradition, linked with the preservation of the environment and the commons, gives this collection of ideas a classically liberal feel. With red-tinted glasses the conservatism we know today looks shallow and inauthentic – modern conservatism conserves very little. The main ideas that Blue Tories and American Republicans want to preserve are extreme forms of the first wave of liberalism; private property as the public good, less state involvement, and gifts from Ayn
Rand. The essence of red toryism comes from seeds planted in high Anglicism, but don’t let that lead to a drawing of Dart’s work as bible-thumping caricature. His writing is reserved and painstakingly open to the greater good of all. The book’s overarching theme is balance and caution: do not idealize the left or the right. The answer to the pains of a free market society is not communism. Keepers of the Flame is an essential addition to Dart’s bibliography. The essays within are bound together with a much needed, formal edition. Fermentation Press has printed this collection with higher quality than other texts in the genre. There has been recent debate about professors requiring students to read their own books, but that issue aside, I would prescribe this book to all Canadians. The red tory tradition is the Canadian tradition, a crucial part of our country’s DNA.
Best Coast Fade Away
Cults Static
July Talk July Talk (extended version)
#TreeTox Back on the Grind
Despite its 28-minute runtime, Fade Away is far and away the most significant step forward in Bethany Cosentino’s musical evolution. While last year’s sophomore release The Only Place managed to clean up the band’s fuzzy production, Cosentino’s straightforward and sometimes aimless lyrics made her appear uncertain and fragile. However, Fade Away finds the singer-songwriter with a renewed confidence in her music and introspection in her lyrics, demonstrating Cosentino’s maturation as an artist. Although she occasionally pens onedimensional lyrics like, “The rain it falls down / Down onto the ground,” throughout Fade Away Bethany’s spirit consistently matches her lyrical ambition. This change is most noticeable on tracks like “I Don’t Know How,” as she muses, “Born so young / Feel so old / I’ve been through the summer / Stuck around for the cold.” “I Wanna Know” goes, “It’s alarming how charming you can be / And though I know it’s wrong I’ve done it all along / But now it’s time to say / Baby goodbye.” By contemplating failed relationships, and questioning what her experiences have taught her in life, Cosentino has finally begun to shape an identity that goes beyond her musical template. And for the countless critics who bemoan Best Coast’s repetitive musical choices, Cosentino has a response on the album’s title track: “I won’t change, I’ll stay the same.” Fine by me, Bethany. Fine by me.
Two albums in, Cults has proved itself to be an average band, but perfectly so. Where other appointed genre cousins focus on lyrical obscurity or painfully disaffected chord monotony, Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion work from pop hooks out, ensuring their songs are never without an underlying catch, even if Follin’s always partially drowned mezzo soprano can’t always save the duo’s mostly simplistic rhymes. Static does away with the fanatic speech-samples gimmick and most of the xylophone tones of their debut, instead supplying radio channel-switches and fuzz to chart a breakdown, though it’s hardly gloomy stuff. “I Can Hardly Make You Mine” has the band playing the part of a straightedged rock group, while “High Road” opens slightly atonal, but never as a sacrifice to the tunefulness that is their main aim. The lost TV dream that guides Static isn’t despair, but themesong melancholy – confusion captured, rather than spilling out into a setlist. This allows for swinging “feet on the ground” statements like “Keep Your Head Up” and other easily clarified deflections, counters to hollowed-out feelings through the power of a well programmed drumbeat. With Cults, this is basically the point – “No Hope,” which switches up the foreground of a wailing guitar solo with Follin’s maxims, is solid but complacent: not devastation, but a stop-gap.
July Talk has released a new, fuller version of last year’s self-titled album. There are four new songs, and a new track listing. Everyone today seems to be an indie rock band. Thankfully, July Talk is not the shoe-gazer type. Instead, it has plenty of pure rock and roll in the mainline. Every critic from here to Montreal is saying July Talk’s release sounds like Tom Waits, maybe an angry Leonard Cohen. But I think July Talk is a new, gruffer version of Johnny Cash and June Carter. The frontline of the band are singers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay, who exchange parts like switchblades. Leah’s voice isn’t as cute as it is sassy and smart; Peter pounds the lyrical railroad ties right on the downbeat. These alt rockers are not some rip-off of the american status quo: no cock-rock alternative radio drivel. July Talk rolls with the bold and rides heavy with smoke-stained control. Tracks like “Black Lace” and “Summer Dress” go best with a neat bourbon and pack of Du Maurier cigarettes. We’re not supposed to drink and smoke while listening to records, but this one gives you a good excuse. The album sounds like The Heavy playing a wedding reception for Amy Mann and Joe Cocker at a downtown Toronto club. Put this album on iTunes. Repeat.
This EP opens with the background sounds of a riot and voices in the background: “I’m speechless! This is fucking legit!” one says. “It was bound to happen!” another replies. It’s unsurprising (but still cool) when it becomes clear that the opening track is commentary on the Vancouver riots – #TreeTox, after all, hails from the West Coast. After a promising opening, I was sad to see the content devolve into the perfunctory sexual bragging and references to “gettin’ fucked up,” which is made worse by ever-present cheesy synth. However, this matches the cheesiness of the rappers themselves: their redeeming feature is the impression that they don’t take themselves too seriously. The fifth track, “Drink Break,” is wordless except for the repeated chant of “Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!” and the cheesy synths take a minor role in favour of bass, kickdrum, and piano, surprisingly combining into something catchy I could see playing in a Friday night bar. The final track, “Christmas Trees,” however, gets out of the gate with the cheesiest synth imaginable and—get this—jingle bells. My suggestion: stick with “Starewell” and “Drink Break” and forget the rest of the album exists. There are some redeeming qualities in Back on the Grind, but I spent a fair amount of the album shaking my head and wondering why the rappers didn’t run with them further.
TIM UBELS
MICHAEL SCOULAR
CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS
DESSA BAYROCK
16
ARTS & LIFE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Writer’s heaven: a Saturday morning at SiWC el of four literary agents raise their hands to stop the reading if they don’t like it – but if they let Whyte get to the bottom of the page, the writer may have just
ASHLEY MUSSBACHER VALERIE FRANKLIN THE CASCADE / CONTRIBUTOR
You know people are passionate about writing when they discuss sentence structure in the bathroom. If that sounds like your type of crowd, you’d fit right in at the Surrey International Writer ’s Conference (SiWC). The 21st annual conference was held at the Sheraton Hotel last weekend, attended by hundreds of writers of all skill levels, ages, and walks of life. SiWC isn’t about big names reading their work to large audiences. Instead, accomplished authors get together one-onone with attendees to help them strengthen their writing skills and teach them how to navigate the industry. This year ’s impressive lineup of guest presenters included such authors as Diana Gabaldon, Michael Slade, kc dyer, Ivan Coyote, Hallie Ephron, and Susanna Kearsley, as well as many editors and literary agents. As part of the registration package, attendees are offered a blue pencil session where they sit down with one of these authors to have their writing style critiqued and improved. They also receive
“I love meeting the writers and critiquing their work.” – Michael Slade
a pitch session with a literary agent – a real, tangible shot at getting published. The conference runs like a well-oiled machine thanks to the 80 passionate volunteers who give their weekend to help out with the event. It’s easy to see why some of them have been coming back for 10 years. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, and there’s also an undercurrent of giddy excitement. Elated writers rush out of blue pencil sessions clutching their edited manuscripts, or line up for pitch sessions with nervous smiles. Before each meal, the latest “good news” stories from the pitch sessions are announced to the entire conference, celebrating the success of attendees who have had their writing picked up by agents.
“Ivan Coyote said I need to trust my gut on what I’m writing. If I think it’s good, it’s good. If I think it’s bad, then shut up and fix it. She validated my trust in myself.” – Hayley Lavik
Image: Ashley Mussbacher/The Cascade
SiWC Idol was the grand finale of the weekend, involving Jack Whyte blind reading first pages of writers’ novels. But the real magic happens when attendees get the chance to connect with other writers. There’s no sense of ego, celebrity, or competition here. Authors and editors wander the hallways, happy to chat and offer their experience. Michael Slade, a bestselling suspense novelist and a born storyteller, sits with us on a sofa and regales us for a fascinating half-hour with the details of his best writing technique: living out the stories you want to write. He enjoys the conference just as much as the attendees do. “I love meeting the writers and critiquing their work,” he says. “I love getting to know all the people who come here.” For many writers, the workshops are the main attraction. With only a single morning to explore the conference, we can only sample a small selection of the dozens of Saturday workshops – but each one is packed with useful advice, fascinating stories, and hard-won pearls of industry wisdom. In “Marketing Your Book and Traditional Self-Publishing,” well-known indie author Jodi McIsaac imparts the importance of having an online presence to market your book, not just social media pages or a blog. “Every word in your blog is a word not in your book,” she
Image: Ashley Mussbacher/The Cascade
Panels punctuated the weekend with expert advice for budding authors.
warns. In “Staying Alive in Publishing,” writers Mark Zuehlke, Carolyn Swayze, and Roxanne Snopek discuss the pitfalls of the publishing industry. Times are hard for publishing houses, and Snopek tells the audience
Next door in “Queries That Work”, editor Adrienne Kerr is teaching the audience how to catch an agent’s attention with a good pitch letter. One writer is struggling with hers. Several
found an agent for their novel. Miraculously, the first two writing samples make it past the panel. Jack Whyte is taken aback. “It’s extremely unusual to even get to the second paragraph,” he says, laughing. “That was something of an amazing start.” The next few excerpts aren’t as lucky. The panel critiques them one by one: too descriptive, has no hook, lacks character development, unrealistic. Finally another one passes the test. “That’s a great example of setting and pacing,” one of the agents says approvingly over
“I’ll give you Gabaldon’s three rules of writing. One: read. Read lots. Figure out why you like something, or why you don’t like it. It’ll help you figure out the tools of the craft. Two: write. Nothing will teach you to write except the act of putting words on the page. Three: don’t stop.” – Diana Gabaldon that she lost an enormous portion of the royalties from one of her books due to her publishers suddenly going bankrupt. Compared to McIsaac’s selfpublishing workshop, which was crammed wall to wall with attendees, this workshop was almost empty – perhaps a sign that authors are moving away from depending on publishing businesses, wary of experiences like Snopek’s. The next workshop, “Parallel Tracks: Managing Character,” is hosted by novelist Hallie Ephron. Audience members describe their fictional characters’ backstories and Ephron offers advice on how to strengthen them. A running joke soon emerges: in almost all of the audience’s stories, their characters’ parents have died tragic deaths. Ephron also notes the importance of fleshing out a character with believable flaws. “Every virtue has a combined flaw,” she says. “A brave character may also be impulsive. A smart character might overanalyze everything. Someone who’s fearful is also very careful.”
Image: Ashley Mussbacher/The Cascade
Diana Gabaldon was on hand and eager to mentor writers. women in the audience put up their hands with suggestions, and within a few minutes the letter ’s opening hook has become catchy and smooth. Kerr claps her hands together: “Don’t you love writer ’s conferences? This is the best thing that could have happened!” Finally it’s time for the famous (or infamous) SiWC Idol. It’s immediately clear that this workshop is the most popular. Attendees anonymously drop the first pages of their novels into a basket, and author Jack Whyte reads them aloud one by one in his deep Scottish accent. A pan-
the roar of applause. “Send that to me.” Saturday mornings don’t get much more educational than this. If you missed your chance to attend this year, don’t worry – they’re already planning next year ’s conference. And with the wealth of industry wisdom, friendly atmosphere, and opportunities for success that SiWC offers, you can bet we’ll be back. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
17
ARTS & LIFE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Discussions below the belt
Strip-landia: my Portland stripper experience XTINA SEXPERT
Portland is famous for amazing street artists, great bookstores like Powell’s Books, yummy food trucks, and, of course, the people. As a first-timer to Portland, I wanted to see and do everything in the three days I was there. To be sure I had the best shot at this, I polled everyone I knew who had been there. What to do in Portland? “Go to the strippers!” was the consensus. Portland is in fact known as the stripper capital of America. There are more strip clubs per capita than anywhere else in the U.S. Exotic magazine says there are 49 strip clubs inside city limits. According to the locals we asked when deciding where to go for my first stripper experience, there are a few front-runners. Casa Diablo specializes in vegan cuisine and all vegan dancer attire. It reportedly has a “Dusk ‘til Dawn” feel. Or if you’re craving a side of beef with your “ass on tap,” Acropolis Steakhouse is praised for its meat and sultry ladies. I ended up attending only one of the 49 and neither of the aforementioned clubs, but I was
Image: Elizabeth Berkley/Showgirls
Let’s help put these girls through school! told it was the best. Sassy’s was nothing I expected it to be. A lifetime of stereotypes and preconceptions flooded my mind as my gang and I made the short trek across the bridge from
our hotel to Sassy’s Lounge. The building was dumpy-looking from the outside, and wasn’t much better inside. But the atmosphere was electric and staff were friendly. A dozen or so
tables filled a small area 10 feet from the main stage. These were occupied by a group of guys eating chicken wings and drinking $2 beer. Wanting to get the full Sassy’s experience, we sat in the chairs that lined the stage. I quickly learned the rules of sitting stage-side: No touching. Of course this only means you can’t touch them. They have no problem touching you. To remain front and centre, you are required to put down a dollar bill per song. Extra tipping is always accepted enthusiastically. We saw a total of seven girls that night, all of whom attend university and work at least one other job in addition to stripping a few nights a week. The girls were all gorgeous and, in true Portland fashion, heavily tattooed. They were also extremely talented. They showed no signs of fatigue as they climbed the 30-foot pole and gracefully glided down in a style that rivaled Cirque du Soleil performers. A red-haired dancer named Strawberry, whom we nicknamed Dorothy due to the loud heel-clicking of her red platforms, had amazing muscle control and did a ballet-style performance on the pole. She had another unique trick which involved placing matches on
her nipples and allowing a chosen stage-side onlooker to blow them out for her. When I asked her whether she liked her job (as I blew out her flaming nipples), she told me that she loved the workout and the culture of stripping. The girls are like a family and many of them attend school and live together. I should also mention that being a stripper in Portland carries no stigma. It’s considered to be a great job, similar to working in an ultra-trendy coffee shop or a busy bookstore. And it really does take a dedicated lady to put in all the practice it takes to work the pole like these girls do. From what I have been told about Vancouver dancers, one should not expect to get a Portland-style stripper experience north of the border. Portland strippers love women and will climb onto your lap, wrap their long tattooed legs around your neck, and bite your ear. Yes, this was indeed my experience. One I will not soon forget. So if you are planning a trip to Portland, check out Sassy’s or one of the other locally approved joints and let’s help put these girls through school.
Film Review
The Counsellor MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE
Cormac McCarthy’s prose is inimitable, but his words are increasingly making it into the mouths of people on screen. They have before in the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men, their plot markers were taken for John Hillcoat’s The Road, and now they have appeared, without a book to precede them, in The Counsellor, directed by Ridley Scott. Scott, in counterpoint to his brother Tony, often directs inert movies about men moving with power. In contrast to Tony’s painterly abstraction of violence, speed, and work, Ridley has little that sets him apart visually. He is matter-of-fact. Everything he shoots has equal importance, giving his movies, most of them long since the mid-point of his career, a stateliness that carries them into upper realms of regard (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster). At a distance, The Counsellor looks about the same. Most of it is, visually, simply conversation, but McCarthy’s words—their sound, their difference—work in a way that makes Scott’s decorum something to be taken over, rather than informed. Many of McCarthy’s novelwriting tendencies carry over: the setting skips between the two sides of the Mexican-American border, Michael Fassbender ’s main character is referred to only as “Counsellor,” unsparing violence is either completely elided or punctuates sequences,
and dialogue comes as short sentences, but never small talk. What you get with McCarthy is a unique language unsubtitled, but it makes the actors almost afterthoughts. The plot involves drug deals but isn’t about the war on drugs. It might be about how Fassbender ’s character is foolish enough to casually posit that the deal he enters into with Javier Bardem’s character might become obsolete when said war ends. It might be about how Penelope Cruz’s character believes in the magic of not knowing the exact worth of her jewellery, something Cameron Diaz’s character mocks her with until she grows bored. All of it involves a highly-valued truck that is literally filled with shit,
so you can guess at some of the subtext. In case you don’t, Brad Pitt’s character at one point says, “I’ve seen it all. It’s all shit.” McCarthy’s way with characters is strong and succinct, but one question could be how much actor psychology goes into it when it’s all in the words. Among the stars, there’s a variety of ways lines come off as coolly efficient or off-kilter in a dead kind of way that sometimes recalls last year ’s Cosmopolis, based on the work of Don DeLillo, a contemporary with McCarthy. Both authors travel to the end of meaning in their works; with DeLillo, it’s technology, the consumption of art, the removal of bodies from context. McCarthy, in his writing and
here, catalogues so many different ways of killing, ways human bones and flesh can be turned unrecognizable, that it amounts to not, for those left, how rare it is to be alive, but a cautionary tale against it. While this force slices its way through The Counsellor, characters talk and talk about sex and aging and greed and the way their miniscule worlds function. Breezy, wide-windowed houses and Italian cars house most of this, scum forgiven due to their wisdom (in dialogue, though not in practice) gained solely by the virtue of growing old. Most of The Counsellor is spoken in a language of surprise, followed by a cut that says you should not have been surprised.
Words are redefined because popular usage has stripped them of their original meaning. People always ask two or three too many questions, valuing knowledge as a way of getting a step ahead, but here the hierarchy is set from the beginning, and so each question gives an answer that is totally unsavory, is totally unbeneficial to the asker, and is devastating only in terms of how far down the chain the person in question is. This is, in short, a hopeless movie written by an author at 80 who never reserved much hope in the first place, one who sets the world up as a place where things are only ever found, not made, and everything is trending down. But it is also a reminder that, for all his high-minded allusion, McCarthy has a lot in common with other, more popular traditions, as he’s gone between western, science fiction, and crime novels. Here, he occasionally bears a resemblance to some of Elmore Leonard’s work, where prepared criminals match minds against unlikely suspects. It’s pensive dialogue but pulp imagery, which brings the focus back to Scott, who trusts in the complications of narrative, the surprise of a set piece, despite McCarthy’s script’s insistence that there’s nothing to all this, that all action takes place on scorched earth. Either Scott has muddled things, turning this into fashionable people strutting and descending into a maelstrom, or found harmony with McCarthy, making a crumbling empire as palatable as it can get.
18
SPORTS & HEALTH
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Heat Report
The long and winding road of Abbotsford’s scheduling woes TIM UBELS
CONTRIBUTOR
The Abbotsford Heat’s road schedule this season could be described as tough, trying, or even hectic, but I believe the most accurate term is unfair. To illustrate this point, take a look at the Heat’s weekend games from Friday October 18 to Sunday October 20. In case you don’t have a schedule handy, I’ll fill you in. They played three road games in two states over the course of three days. You heard me right: three games over three days with travel in between games two and three. Break that down however you want, it’s impressive that the Heat came back with a 1-1-1 record over the exhausting weekend, which ended in a 9-3 loss to the Texas Stars where the Heat gave up a season high five power play goals in the game. The loss would have been embarrassing if their schedule wasn’t so laughable. After the team’s 4-2 victory over the Lake Erie Monsters Friday night, Heat coach Troy G. Ward spoke about the team’s collapse in the third period against Texas, explaining, “The wheels fell off, the engine fell out, and we ran out of gas” at the end of their road trip. He later added that the guys, “wanted to make a statement, they wanted to say ‘that wasn’t our team.’” After all, can you truly judge a
Photo: Clint Trahan/Abbotsford Heat
Heat goaltender Reto Berra before the game. team’s third-period effort after playing eight periods of professional hockey in about 50 hours? The Heat have consistently come up on the short end of the stick when it comes to the scheduling of road trips during the regular season, and this is mostly due to the franchise’s unfortunate geographical position in the AHL. After the Minnesota Wild moved its AHL affiliate from Houston to Des Moines, Iowa and the Vancouver Canucks moved their prospects east to Utica, New York,
the AHL made some interesting alignments in terms of divisions, which only increased the Heat’s travelling woes. After the dust settled, it was announced that the Heat would be placed in the newly renamed West Division, formerly South Division, with teams from San Antonio, Texas, Oklahoma City, and Charlotte. And when I say Charlotte, I don’t mean the city in Texas. The Charlotte Checkers, the “divisional rivals” of a team from BC, play out of North Carolina. Take a quick look at
the cities where AHL teams play, and you’ll see an imbalance between east and west coast teams as well as travel schedules. Bus and train rides across state lines are much less demanding than the time-zone-crossing plane rides that await the Heat every other weekend. Needless to say, the Heat are situated in no-man’s land, which means the team can’t hold as many practices and have to deal with a disproportionate amount of jet lag compared to other teams in the league. Not only
that, but these conditions put pressure on the team to perform well at home, and pick up more points at the AESC when players are well-rested and the opposing team is forced to travel way out west to Abbotsford. The bulk of Abbotsford’s games come in the form of back-to-back matches, making it more difficult to stick with a starting goalie due to problems of fatigue. The team dealt with this issue last season by employing Barry Brust, Leland Irving, and Danny Taylor to occupy the Abbotsford crease. However, it looks as though Reto Berra will play the lion’s share of games this season, with Laurent Brossoit falling into the back-up role. Although the team will log its fair share of air miles this season, Abbotsford’s geographical position could be a potential deterrent for the Calgary Flames organization. When management attempts to sign depth players and young prospects, who will likely have to spend time in Abbotsford, those players could decide to sign elsewhere. It would be nice if that glut of east coast teams got broken up, making their way west to cities like Portland, Seattle, or even Regina – that way the Heat don’t have to play a “divisional” opponent from Texas nine times in one season.
Photo: Blake McGuire/The Cascade
UFV men’s soccer has qualified for the playoffs with a season record of 6-7-1.
UFV women’s soccer was eliminated from the playoffs last Saturday in a 2-1
This is the first time the men’s team will participate in post-season action since
loss to the University of Alberta Pandas. The game marked the last UFV appear-
joining the CIS eight years ago. UFV will play the second-place team from the
ance for fifth-year veteran Danika Snook.
Prairie Division on Halloween in an elimination game.
19
SPORTS & HEALTH
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
UFV golf’s victory memorable on and off the green
Photo: CCAA website
Darren Whitehouse (far left) and Aaron Pauls (far right) with medals.
Photo: CCAA website
Dani Shap (far left) and Jen Woods (middle right) with medals
NATHAN HUTTON CONTRIBUTOR
This week UFV welcomed the national championship winning men’s and women’s golf teams back home after their impressive showing at nationals in Quebec. Both squads entered the weekend in serious contention for national titles in their respective fields. They were such heavy favorites that Albert Roche, CCAA golf governor, admitted before the first stroke that “They’ve impressed me, and I think both the Fraser Valley men and women are going to medal.” Mr. Roche
gave a speech following the presentation of the coach of the year award to UFV head coach Chris Bertram. Third-year Darren Whitehouse spoke about Bertram’s achievements, and how proud the team was for their coach of almost 10 years, saying: “The team and I were incredibly proud of Chris when he was named coach of the year. It is such an honour to win an award like that and he deserves every bit of it. Chris has always given the team the best opportunity to win any tournament that we enter. It’s about time his efforts were rewarded.”
The Cascades not only dominated the team category at the championships, but they also were extremely dangerous when it came to individual scoring as four UFV golfers medalled in the top three for their respective categories. For the women’s side both Jen Woods and Dani Shap finished in the top three. Woods shot +8 and 225 total strokes which was good enough for a silver medal, and Shap shot +20 and 236 total strokes leading to her bronze medal. For the men, both Whitehouse and fifth year Aaron Pauls picked up individual medals, scoring -4 and -5 respectively.
Whitehouse and the rest of the team look up to fifth year Aaron Pauls, and his performance set a high mark they aspired to. “It was great to be on the podium with Aaron,” Whitehouse said. “Whenever you’re close to him in a golf tournament, you’re doing just fine. He is an elite player and has an incredible future in the sport.” Overall both teams were potent in their offensive attack over the whole tournament. The three-day contest featured a total score of 863 strokes for the men’s team, or -1. The women’s team registered at +29, 461 strokes. While the immediate experience was a new high for UFV golf, Whitehouse’s accomplishment also had a personal connection beyond the golf course. “It was an incredible feeling walking down the 18th fairway with everyone watching, knowing that we were going to win a
national championship...After I tapped in on 18 and it was official that we won, I walked over to my teammates and we all started celebrating and hugging each other,” Whitehouse continued. “Automatically I thought of Connor Richey and how we had won for him. It was great.” Richey died at 21 this past August due to injuries he sustained as part of a devastating accident. He spent the 2011 season with the Cascades squad and was part of the team that won a bronze medal in that year’s national championships, and was preparing to spend his 20132014 season on a scholarship to a university in Texas. This year the team wore his initials C.R on their team shirts as a way to remember their friend and teammate. “He was an incredible golfer and an outstanding person, friend, teammate…he will forever be missed,” Whitehouse said.
Pass the porridge, please! VIVIENNE BEARD CONTRIBUTOR
A steaming bowl of porridge has been served as a breakfast food for centuries. It’s easy to make, inexpensive, and to some, even delicious. Oatmeal is most commonly known for being packed with soluble fibre. Fibre, also found abundantly in foods such as apples and almonds, absorbs water and causes the digestive process to slow down. This means that a belly full of oatmeal will stay full longer than one filled with sugary cereals, and will keep your energy levels going strong long past breakfast. Avoiding a sweet treat is hard when our bodies aren’t fully satisfied with a nutritious breakfast. Incorporating oatmeal into your morning may not completely eliminate those evertempting cravings, but having a belly filled with a satisfying and nutritious breakfast will make it much easier to say “no.” On top of curbing cravings, the fibre found in oatmeal helps to reduce LDL, more commonly known as “bad” cholesterol. Since fibre slows down the digestive process, it also helps to maintain blood-sugar levels throughout the day. Sudden spikes in blood-glucose levels have been linked to type two diabetes, strokes, and heart disease. Being high in fibre isn’t the
Photo: emmadiscovery/Flickr
Oatmeal appreciation day – it should be a thing. only thing this whole grain has going for it. Oatmeal contains plant compounds called lignans. Recent studies have shown that these compounds dramatically lower the risk of heart disease as well as lowering high blood pressure. Keeping our blood pressure at a healthy level isn’t something to only think about once we become more mature – it’s important at all ages. It’s never too early to start protect-
ing our hearts from risk, and small efforts like increasing your oatmeal intake will add up to produce healthy, effective results. Before you put down this newspaper to cook up a pot of oats, listen carefully to one more benefit that will have you eating bowl after bowl. Adding oatmeal to your daily diet has been proven to actually boost the immune system’s response to in-
fection. Researchers at Brown University studied the effect of a compound present in oatmeal called beta-glucan. When placed with infected tissues, beta-glucan caused an increased immune response and helped antibodies fight off infection much more rapidly. Throughout the day we are exposed to many unwanted bugs, and starting off with beta-glucan-rich oatmeal is an effective way to aid our
immune system’s fight against those bugs. All in all, oatmeal has the power to keep our bellies full, our hearts functioning smoothly, and our bodies safe from pestering colds – three big reasons to eat that bowl of oatmeal with a smile. Even after hearing the many benefits oatmeal has to offer, a bowl of porridge may not seem so appetizing to some. To turn your morning porridge from plain to dessert-like, add a generous spoonful of coconut milk while it cooks. This will give your porridge that sweet, coconut flavour as well as added creaminess and nutrients like calcium and magnesium. Top it off with your choice of fresh fruit (blueberries and sliced banana are my favourites) and a sprinkle of cinnamon. If your sweet tooth is feeling extra strong, a little drizzle of maple syrup should do the trick. Apart from being served hot, raw oatmeal can be blended into smoothies for breakfast or baked in a delicious batch of cookies. Cocoa nibs, raw chocolate without added sugar, and dried cranberries are a great option to elevate any simple oatmeal cookie. Remember, the little things we do for our health today will add up to a strong and revitalized tomorrow.
20
SPORTS & HEALTH
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 www.ufvcascade.ca
Cascades look rusty in Honda Way Classic, but emerge (mostly) triumphant NATHAN HUTTON
again turned up their intensity, this time on the defensive end of the floor, leading to many easy fast-break buckets. It was at this point in the game that Rowe, Capilano’s player of the game, shone brightest, coming up with steal after steal after steal, enabling the Blues to strip the UFV lead down to one point. It was apparent fans were in for a good finish with the Cascades hanging on 40-39. The fourth quarter was filled with back-and-forth battles as each side exposed the weakness of the other. UFV came up with some untimely fouls leading to the departure of both Jasper Moedt and Amreet Gill, the two tallest players on the team. However in the end it was the leadership of the Cascades‘ Klaus Figueredo that led to the Cascades win, a final score of 61-57.
CONTRIBUTOR
PAUL ESAU
THE CASCADE
This year’s Honda Way Classic saw the Cascades in action against some of the highest tier of local PACWEST teams, as well as some stiff CIS competition from BC and Ontario. Friday fun The first game of the tournament was a contest between the Cascades women and the visiting UBCO Heat. It turned out to be the fourth straight win for the women’s team as they easily controlled their opponent on both the defensive and offensive sides of the ball, holding the Heat to only 16 first-half points while controlling the offensive end of the court. The women shot 45 per cent from behind the arc in the first half, and the second half went much the same way. The final score was 72-56, with fourth-year Courtney Bartel leading the way for the Cascades, earning herself player of the game honours with 12 points, two rebounds, a steal, and an assist. Compared to the weekend split the Cascades gave up last February against the Heat, this performance revealed a stronger, more confident UFV squad. The Cascades men faced a competitive PACWEST squad from Capilano University that did not give the Cascades an inch all game. The game began with UFV appearing to have a strength and speed advantage over the less experienced Blues team. Capilano struggled to start the game, well missing their first five shots, including two air balls. The Cascades countered with good ball hustle and overall strength on rebounds. When the buzzer signified the end of the first quarter, UFV had a strong 17-7 lead. When the second quarter began the Capilano Blues showed new life, inspired by their backup 5’6” point guard Pagbilao Gino, whose play was reminiscent of a young Muggsy Bogues.
Photo: Blake McGuire/The Cascade
Kevon Parchment evades a reach-in from Falcon guard Elliot Mason. He used his small stature to evade the Cascades defense and create some impressive opportunities on offense. Through the strong play of Gino, Dubois Daniel, and Tony Rowe,
Photo: Blake McGuire/The Cascade
the Blues were spurred into an eight-point run to close the score to 19-15 before UFV forward Jasper Moedt checked back into the game and gave the Cascades some much-needed interior de-
fense. At halftime the Blues had closed the gap to eight points. The third quarter was the weakest of the four for the Cascades, as they only managed to add eight points. The Blues once
Photo: Blake McGuire/The Cascade
Saturday salsa The second day of the Classic began with a low-calibre shootout between the UFV women and the Brock University Badgers. Both teams struggled mightily to score in a contest that UFV narrowly took 49-47 after trailing into the fourth quarter. The Cascades seemed to have the game in hand at halftime, but Brock badgered their way to a game-high 19 points in the third quarter to set UFV on their heels. The Cascades’ second half shooting percentage was a season-low 15 per cent – just enough to squeeze out a win. The men, by contrast, finally succumbed to a stubborn Langara University Falcons squad that was helped by a UFV fourthquarter cold streak. Kevon Parchment stole the show on the Cascades’ side with 27 points, but a 5-34 effort from three-land kept the Falcons around long enough to take advantage. The Cascades will hope to fare better in their November 1 home opener against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns.
Photo: Blake McGuire/The Cascade