Vol. 22 Issue 1
www.ufvcascade.ca
January 8, 2013 to January 14, 2014
Doing doughnuts in the parking lot since 1993
Three more years
Mark Evered talks about life as UFV president, having a home on campus, and the contract extension that will see him here until 2017
p. 10-11
Manual for Creating Atheists author to speak at UFV p. 4
Age of Arousal hits UFV’s stage p. 12
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NEWS
Keeping up on
Campus
AfterMath didn’t come back from Christmas As students stumble back into their semesterly routines, your friendly neighbourhood campus pub did not open its doors. SUS says that staff turnaround and restructuring of the management team means more time was needed to focus on training. They’re taking this first week to organize themselves so they will be prepared to open and serve students once the reality of the semester sets in, so hopefully by January 13.
Cuts to ESL funding Late last year it was announced that the provincial government would be cutting funds for English as a second language programs in postsecondary institutions. What does that mean for the future of international students coming to BC to learn? How will this affect ESL students at UFV? We will bring you the details.
It’s AGM season again The date is set. It’s time to gather on January 15 for the rescheduled Student Union Society Annual General Meeting. To be discussed are the changes to their electoral policy, which would take effect this upcoming election season. Also the long-discussed board reform which would see the complete restructuring of the organizational structure of SUS.
Have a news tip? Let us know! Email news@ufvcascade.ca or tweet at @CascadeNews
News
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Opinion
7
Culture
12-14
Arts
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Sports & Health
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Creating atheists: secularist scholar comes to UFV
Members of the Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists (ASH) collective are planning to bring Dr. Peter Boghossian, author of the recent book: A Manual for Creating Atheists, to speak at UFV. Find out about their role in the community and the upcoming event.
First Nations studies should be part of our degrees
Despite the fact that UFV is located on traditional Sto:lo territory, most students graduate with little knowledge of First Nations culture in Canada. Nadine Moedt discusses the importance of including a First Nations studies course as a graduation requirement.
The Cascade goes cultural
Welcome to the paper’s newest section — culture. Think of it as a child of the arts and life section , and where we’ll stick live event coverage, plus some of your favourite columns, including below the belt. Let us know what you think at culture@ufvcascade.ca!
Big end-of-the-year films
The Desolation of Smaug and The Wolf of Wall Street rocked the big screens this winter break. Check out both film reviews in the Arts section.
Kick the coffee
Dreading the caffeine crash after this semester’s all-nighters? Vivienne Beard’s health column proposes a caffeine-free way to keep awake through a few breakfast adjustments, including a smoothie recipe!
Extra, extra, read all about it
Are media groups splitting up territory, and do we care? DESSA BAYROCK
THE CASCADE
Late last year, the Abbotsford Times quickly and quietly shut its doors. Then, earlier this month, the Kamloops Daily News also closed up shop for good. It would be easy to mark both closures down as a sign of a failing print media industry and leave it at that, but to see two community papers close within two months is disquieting for several reasons. What does this mean for the BC community papers that are left, including the now-uncontested papers left in Abbotsford and Kamloops? The Vancouver Sun implies that the Kamloops Daily News closure isn’t something to worry about, quoting Newspapers Canada president and CEO John Hinds describing it as “the first major market paid daily that we’ve seen close in recent memory.” If anything, shouldn’t that make it more worrying, rather than less? To see one close when none have in living memory is an anomaly. To see two close is a trend. Both closures follow a largescale community newspaper swap, in which Glacier Me-
Volume 22 · Issue 1 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 Online editor ashley@ufvcascade.ca Ashley Mussbacher Copy editor katie@ufvcascade.ca Katie Stobbart
dia bought two Black Pressrun papers in return for Black Press taking four Glacier papers. The Abbotsford Times was one of the papers that changed hands, and Black Press cites the fact that editorial staff took a buy-out en masse among the reasons for its closure. But something else to keep in mind is that Black Press also already owned the only competition in town — the Abbotsford News, an older and more respected newspaper to boot. What would you do if your company was bought by the competition? Getting the hell out is a reasonable reaction; closing the paper instead of hiring replacement staff is not. You could assume that the end of the Abbotsford Times is the result of the widely accepted idea that print media — be it books, newspapers, or CDs — is on its deathbed. This is certainly the easiest explanation, but that doesn’t make it the correct one. “Newspapers don’t have an audience problem,” Hinds said in the same Vancouver Sun article. “Our audiences are bigger than ever and actually growing.” The problem, instead, lies with revenue; advertisers are fleeing print publications like rats off a sinking ship, despite
the fact that the ship is still seaworthy. It becomes a matter of economics — ad space, like all things, is worth less when demand is low. To keep up with print and labour costs, more and more of a newspaper turns from content to ads. If an article and an ad fight for space, the ad inevitably wins — after all, the ad is what pays for the space in the first place. The content is just a hitchhiker; the ad is the driver. This is a dangerous relationship at the best of times, in which advertisers hold all the cards. If a newspaper has the choice between breaking a critical story about a company or running that company’s ad, which do you think is going to come out on top? This catch-22 can be combatted, at least in part, when more than one newspaper operates in the same community. The publications will overlap on some stories, sure, but also be able to cover stories the other can’t touch. Theoretically the competition will also encourage staff to reach further, chase stories harder, and get that elusive, exclusive scoop. That competition diminished between the Abbotsford Times and the Abbotsford News when Black Media purchased the former, and disappeared
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
Culture editor (interim) dessa@ufvcascade.ca Dessa Bayrock
Production assistant production@ufvcascade.ca Kaitlyn Gendemann
Arts & life editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt
Photojournalist blake@ufvcascade.ca Blake McGuire
Sports editor (interim) michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular
Contributors Vivienne Beard, Kierra Enns, Remington Fioraso, Jeremy Hannaford, Nathan Hutton, Tim Ubels, and Nathan Zaparilla
News writer katherine@ufvcascade.ca Katherine Gibson
Cover image: Joe Johnson
entirely when the Times closed for good. There are other community news sources — the online-only and communityrun Abbotsford Today comes to mind — but nothing that I would describe as direct competition. Abbotsford Today and The Cascade cover a lot of the same issues as a community newspaper, but neither have the same resources as a fulltime newspaper. At the end of the day, the closures of the Abbotsford Times and the Kamloops Daily Mail leaves two communities with a single newspaper — both owned by Black Press, I might add. There’s no way to tell what effect this will have on the coverage for these communities, but the closures are sending ripples in a pond — not just to the employees of the newspapers who are out of work (the Times) or will be out of work within the next two months (the Daily), but also to the top tiers of Glacier Media and Black Press; depending on how the larger community reacts to, decries, or ignores these closures, we may very well see other papers close, leaving a single media group to be king of the hill in any one community.
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.
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NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Getting new students ready for winter semester
CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS
THE CASCADE
Groggy students filtered into the gym like herds of lost sheep while CIVL radio station manager Aaron Levy switched the music back and forth between underground alternative rock and mainstream top-40 hits. It was too early — 10 a.m. — to get pumped about UFV student life. There was the party music, but where was the coffee? Student Life leader Derek Ward-Hall was able to quickly turn the mood. A natural hype man, Ward-Hall’s bombastic MC style quickly transformed itself from an annoying set of marching orders into a series of slamming motivational messages. “We’re here to get you involved in community issues,” Ward-Hall told the crowd. “There are so many great things to do on campus; all you need to do is ask and we’ll give you the opportunity to get involved.” The message was received as authentic. Excitement among students started to grow. The gym, filled with countless tables representing special interest groups and educational departments for students, provided an almost paralyzing range of choices.
New students embrace the atmosphere that filled the gym at orientation. “I decided to come to UFV because the location is convenient,” said Michelle Giesbrecht, who recently graduated high school in Abbotsford. “I’m thinking of a nursing degree. I’ve done my chemistry and science classes, so I’m prepared for it.” Tiffany Towpich is returning to UFV as a mature student. “I worked in the credit department for CIBC. Both my
mother and I were laid off with hundreds of other workers. We were told, supposedly, that we cost the company too much money and jobs were being moved back to Toronto,” she said. “I’m here to do some English courses and for the free lunch.” The demographics of new students at orientation was diverse. Half were young students fresh out of high school,
Image: UFV flickr
some local and some from as far away as Burnaby. International students had travelled even further, some from Palestine and India, with interests that ranged from business management to aviation. “A former VP academic told me that the average UFV student is age 27 with 1.5 kids,” Levy noted, adding some ‘90s music to his playlist. The other half of the assembly was made
up of mature students of all ages, from 27 to 67. A quick video presentation about the life of a mature student was played, but the dialogue was hard for the audience to hear over the presentation’s motivational music. The video’s main theme: UFV houses both traditional and non-traditional students. The university’s goal is to secure learning outcomes and grant degrees to a diverse group of people. There was no clear popular choice of degree majors for students, but there was a clear distaste for the more hardcore sciences like physics, whose department table saw little traffic. The winter intake at UFV tends to have fewer traditional students because professional degree programs stretch classes across a full year. Most physics courses require students to do the fall semester before jumping in during the winter. After the pie-eating contest was over, students dressed in Student Ambassador t-shirts split the crowd into groups for a tour around campus. Still high from the free iPad and UFV bookstore prize give-aways, the most popular question among students was, “Where do I get my student ID?”
Going paperless
Abbotsford-Mission Times shut down after sale to Black Press Ltd.
KATHERINE GIBSON
THE CASCADE
“I wonder if the Abbotsford News will have an obituary this week for the Abbotsford Times,” Paul Henderson, a reporter with the Chilliwack Times, tweeted on December 2 when news of Black Press Ltd. and its decision to close the aforementioned paper was publically announced. While no obituary was run, the Abbotsford-Mission Times, which had been in circulation for over 30 years, shut its doors early in December. Black Press Ltd. recently purchased the paper from Glacier Media through a trade agreement that gave the company control over the AbbotsfordMission Times and the Chilliwack Times, in addition to the competing local papers, the Abbotsford News and Chilliwack Progress, which the company previously owned. Although Black Press Ltd.
did not confirm any paper closures immediately after the acquisition, Christina Toth, a former reporter with the Abbotsford-Mission Times, told the Vancouver Sun that “the staff believed Black would shut the Times since it owns the Abbotsford News.” Toth also told the Vancouver Sun that “five staff exercised a clause in [a] collective contract that obligated Glacier to offer them a severance package if it sold the newspaper.” Taking to Twitter, Toth expressed her personal view surrounding the situation, tweeting, “It was a great 12 years for me, 30 years for some. No bad feelings for either company, just financial reality of the times.” At press time neither Glacier Media nor Black Press Ltd. could be reached for comment. Image: Abbotsford - Mission Times Facebook
The Abbotsford Mission Times was sold to Black Press Ltd. and consequently closed late last year.
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NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
SCIENCE ON PURPOSE DESSA BAYROCK
The death of the windshield wiper
THE CASCADE
Since the advent of windshield wipers around a century ago, not a lot has changed in the world of removing rain and grit from car windshields. But with their 2015 models, luxury car manufacturer McLaren is hoping to kill the windshield wiper once and for all. It all started with a set of sharp eyes and one question. “It took a lot of effort to get this out of a source in the military,” McLaren design chief Frank Stephenson told The Sunday Times. “I asked why you don’t see wipers on some aircraft when they are coming in at very low levels for landing.” He initially suspected it was a coating on the surface of the glass that made the surface too slick for rain and other particles to hang on — something along the line of high-tech Rain-X, perhaps — but the reality turned out to be much more high tech and much, much cooler. “I was told that it’s not a
Image: David Villarreal Fernández/ Flickr
McLaren borrows airplane technology for windshield wipers. coating on the surface but a high-frequency electronic system that never fails and is constantly active,” Stephenson
told the Times. “Nothing will attach to the windscreen.” With the military device as a jumping-off point, McLaren
replicated the technology and included it in the designs for their 2015 models — deleting the windshield wipers along the way to create a sleeker, cleaner, and more high-tech look for the cars. McLaren won’t reveal all the technical specs, since they hope to keep an edge over the competition for at least a couple of years, but experts can still make a pretty good guess about how the system works. A device attached to an inside corner of the windshield will produce ultrasonic waves, which will pulse through the glass like vibrations pass through a speaker. This will reflect rain, and also keeps anything else from sticking to the windshield — bugs, dirt, and dust included. And depending on whether or not the system is active when the vehicle is off, the ultrasonic waves might also mean an end to morning frost on winter mornings; dew wouldn’t even have a chance to settle, let alone freeze. This also isn’t the first time sonic waves have been used as
cleaning agents — ultrasonic baths have been used to clean jewelry and surgical equipment for decades. For instance, when you leave a ring or bracelet to be cleaned, the jeweller will drop them into a fluid bath. The liquid is pummelled with ultrasonic waves, creating a series of vacuum bubbles that release huge amounts of energy when they collapse, which sends mini high-powered jets of water shooting around. The bubbles produced from ultrasonic waves are so tiny that releasing their energy cleans the surface of the jewellery without coming close to harming the metal itself. Although the $250,000 price tag on a McLaren is enough to make anyone choke on their breakfast, experts suspect lower-budget versions of the device will eventually trickle down to mass market models and become available for any vehicle for about $15 – cheaper than windshield wipers for sure, and probably longer-lasting at that.
Creating atheists
Local advocacy group books popular secularist scholar to speak at UFV CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS
THE CASCADE
Faith is not a virtue for Dr. Peter Boghossian. Nor is faith a virtue for the Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanist collective (ASH) who have invited Boghossian to speak at UFV on January 18. ASH is one of many groups of non-believers that has begun to form as church attendance has dropped in Canada. They describe themselves as “A varied collection of like-minded individuals who are engaged in thoughtful conversation and community in the Fraser Valley.” One thing that ASH has in common with their ideological opposition — the believers — is a sense of communal responsibility. “I don’t label myself an atheist as much as I label myself a humanist” said ASH organizer Jeff Gruban. “The best way for a society with a diverse group of people and cultures to coexist peace-fully is in a secular environment. I think many of us would agree this is the path to getting along.” Nancy Weisz-Gallagher, another ASH member and organizer of the upcoming lecture event, said with warm conviction, “We’re about promoting critical thinking. [Our members] are alike in principle but free thinkers in practice.” Weisz-Gallagher and Gruban are inviting Boghossian, author of the recent book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, to represent the secular side of dialogue in
the community. They are eager to bring the faith debate to the academic heart of the Fraser Valley. Both Weisz-Gallagher and Gruban admit the book title is a little divisive. “Dr. Boghossian is a professional philosopher. The original title was about the epistemology of philosophy. I think the publisher pushed to have it changed,” Weisz-Gallagher said. Gruban echoed the comment. “If you watch his lectures on YouTube or read his work, you’ll see that he’s a professional academic, a great speaker.” Despite the valley being the buckle of BC’s bible belt, ASH is a part of the dynamic exchange of dialogue that happens in the community. “We actually have an open and publicly advertised meeting every Sunday at Legal Grounds Coffee House and are treated very well. There are several religious groups that meet there regularly as well. We all get along great,” Gruban said. “We have supported several initiatives for the homeless including dinners [and] shelter programs, and are working on a permanent housing solution in conjunction with several other community groups.” When non-believer organizations start to grow they tend to be less cohesive in comparison to faith-based groups. Among ASH there is no dogma, doctrine, symbols, holy books, or hierarchical leader.
“Organizing atheists is like herding cats. Most of us are independent thinkers, skeptics: not ones to take things on authority,” Gruban said. Back in September 2012, Chilliwack hosted a special public panel of Christian scholars called “Beyond Secularism.” Theologians spoke about the relationship between secular thought and the state. The panel concluded that secularism is a beneficial for both believers and non-believers, but they also felt there are “good” and “bad” forms of religion. In contrast, Boghossian will be delivering a far more bleak analysis of faith. His “Faith Is Not a Virtue” lecture is an opportunity for the secular community to rally in the public square. For Gruban and WeiszGallagher, the value of critical thinking — logic and reason — is what holds command over the symbolic dialectics of faith.
Image: Blake McGuire
Controversial author of A Manual for Creating Atheists heads to UFV.
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NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Chandigarh campus life
Empowering locals through health promotion
KIERRA ENNS
CONTRIBUTOR
Every student inevitably seeks out opportunities to test what they learn in the classroom. For four UFV students, that test came in the form of a three-month internship in Chandigarh, India. Jessica Tourand, Alyssa Bougie, Ashley Hayes, and Sara Thiessen work in povertystricken slums on the outskirts of the bustling city, gaining experience by working with and administrating a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Developing Indigenous Resources (DIR). Tourand explains the NGO focuses on “empowering local people to solve their own problems.” DIR is heavily involved in community health programs in which community members are educated as health promoters so that they can, in turn, educate their neighbours. Tourand notes that they work in two informal settlements outside Chandigarh and their target groups include pregnant women, women who have just given birth, and children under five. The specific internship was funded for three months, but UFV has been involved with Chandigarh for many years, their role having changed over time. In the past, interns from UFV
Image: Wikimedia commons
Students take part in overseas internships to build their skills. have been involved in a specific initiative: a green roof project, which was in collaboration with Panjab University in Chandigarh. Coming into the NGO, Tourand, Hayes, Thiessen, and Bougie were given specific tasks, but as the internship has gone on and as opportunities have presented themselves, they have all ended up working on other projects. Tourand focuses on grant and proposal writing, as well as coordinating an independent evaluation of DIR’s health program. Hayes works on on-
line marketing strategies, and is the resident photographer/ videographer. Thiessen is involved in DIR’s preschool, School With a Difference. She has been able to renovate the school and improve the teachers’ skill set. Bougie started off doing a survey and evaluation of DIR’s Green Roof project and has since been working on improving the agricultural programs at DIR, as well as creating a rainwater collection system. As a collective team, they’ve all worked on a new initiative
which gives children around the slum the opportunity to participate in games and educational activities, as well as collaborated to produce the 2013 annual report for DIR. Tourand explains that their success is directly related to the support they have found. “It also helps that the people around us have been so welcoming. We’ve certainly been able to develop our communication skills,” she says. “One of the biggest things to adjust to is the respect and attention that we get on a daily basis. It’s very strange to be called ‘ma’am’ and hard to get people to stop, especially our coworkers at DIR. People are so accommodating here — which is wonderful — but it can be strange to interact with.” There are many ways in which UFV students can get involved with DIR, Chandigarh, or similar internships. “DIR is always looking for contributions,” they say. “If someone were interested in interning in India, the best place to look would be the geography department and look for Garry Fehr. The man is a wealth of information and also coordinates the internships.” They go on to describe what it takes to successfully intern in India. “The ideal candidate for an internship in India has to be a lot of things. Mainly, adaptable
and open-minded. So many times you look around and think, ‘What am I doing right now?’ and you sort of just have to accept it and turn it into a good experience. It’s also important to be friendly and willing to try new things. An intern needs to have thick skin.” When they aren’t working, the interns have been able to absorb some of the culture they’ve been exposed to on a daily basis. “The everyday experiences have actually been some of the most amazing. Traffic in India is something that definitely takes getting used to. Driving into oncoming traffic, the absence of lanes, and the mix of [vehicles] makes driving quite the experience,” they say. “Our boss joked that if you stopped thinking of driving as a mode of transportation and, instead, an individual competitive sport, then it can become quite enjoyable. “Being here during the festival season, and especially Diwali, has been amazing. The entire night, there were crackers and fireworks going off. Made conversation difficult! We tried, at first, to yell over the din, but eventually gave up, sat back, and enjoyed the spectacle of it all.”
Student travels to East Asia with Christy Clark on trades missions trip JESS WIND
THE CASCADE
While most students were finishing up final papers and cramming for exams, one student was on a flight to China with Premier Christy Clark. Theresa Coates, a fourth-year bachelor of business administration (BBA) student was offered the opportunity to represent UFV on Clark’s trades missions trip through East Asia after being recommended by UFV president Mark Evered. Coates is an elected student representative on the UFV board of governors and has previously sat on Senate and many of UFV’s sub-committees. She discovered she would be heading to China, South Korea, and Japan after being introduced to the Premier at an October event. With roughly 150 industry professionals involved in the liquified natural gas (LNG) project from BC, Coates travelled from Beijing to Seoul and then on to Tokyo, meeting with local industry professionals
along the way. “By far Beijing was the busiest. At one event there had to be over 500 people present,” she notes. In each city, the group had different events to attend and different people to meet. Coates describes the Canadian Embassy meetings as rewarding. “I found the Canadian Embassy meetings the most interesting because they gave an overview of the country we were in at the time and each sector we represented. It was incredibly informative,” she says. Clark was in private meetings for much of the trip, but Coates was able to chat with her some at the large events, describing her as “personable and very smart.” However, Coates explains that she met many other people involved in the project — everything from top BC trades representatives to TV producers and accountants — some of which she didn’t expect to have anything to do with LNG.
Image: Provincial Government Photos/ flickr
In between trades meetings about the sale of liquified natural gas, Christy Clark posed for this photo. “Sometimes there would be an organization represented that wouldn’t be something that would immediately jump to mind as an obvious choice for a Trade Missions trip,” she says. “It showed that there will always be the easily identifiable choices. Kind of like being a kid and saying you’re going to be a lawyer, doctor, or teach-
er — it’s easy to see those as choices but there are so many more out there.” Overall, Coates describes the trip as a huge learning opportunity, noting the value of bilingualism when it comes to business dealing overseas. The trip provided new experience to take with her into the future as she gears up to graduate and
put her BBA to use. “I really enjoyed meeting everyone and learning so much about the LNG project,” she says. “As a business student it was interesting to see so many different sectors all come together in one large event and experience firsthand how each interact with one another.”
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OPINION
OPINION
www.ufvcascade.ca
SNAPSHOTS
Silence!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Curtailed commentary on current conditions
Abbotsford, wake up!
Mall tribute
Katie Stobbart
Christopher Demarcus
Remington fioraso
According to the Globe and Mail, two activists’ presence at a pro-oil speech by Stephen Harper in Vancouver marked a serious blunder in RCMP security. “It wouldn’t be BC without it,” Harper is quoted saying in the article. The activists held up signs behind the PM encouraging “climate justice.” The two peaceful protesters were allegedly held down on the floor and handcuffed after being escorted from the meeting. A spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department told the press that “charges have yet to be determined.” Charges? For peacefully protesting? As far as I (albeit not an expert) can see, there was no reason to apprehend them — certainly, someone can be politely asked to leave a private event, but to put them in handcuffs is unwarranted. I understand there are security concerns, but the Vancouver Board of Trade president noted their presence was clearly non-threatening. I applaud their efforts. When apathy seems to be so widespread, it is encouraging to see people willing to stand with peaceful conviction for their beliefs. A true leader would have commended them for this, regardless of his own opinion, and wouldn’t have brushed them and their concerns aside.
Those who live outside the Fraser Valley label us the “bible belt,” “criminology college,” or “Mennonite mafia.” We’re seen as that pesky lot who won’t vote for legalized marijuana or an NDP government. And in 2010 we were the murder capital of Canada. But this week I interviewed a dynamic range of movers and shakers that counter our image as BC’s centre for dull conservative thought: humanists, atheists, writers, DJs, musicians, mature and young students, visual artists, and a theatre director. The valley is bursting with hardcore, undeniable talent. What we’re lacking is a good audience. We have become obsessed with creating special interest groups for the sake of our individual vanity. We are becoming a buzzing sea of megaphones pointed at the cloud. Everyone is talking, no one is listening. We need to remember that be good at making stuff we need to study how it’s made. Writers need to read, singers need to listen, and actors need to watch. It’s time that we turn off — or filter out — the silliness on our TV sets and phones. We need to wake up, get out, and start listening!
December 26, 2013. The day after Christmas. A day full of eating leftover turkey dinner and still being in awe over gifts received. Instead of staying in, I braved the malls for the Boxing Day sales, in spite of the pushing and shoving, volunteering as tribute to go into each store to get the desired advertised items. Well, maybe not that dramatic. However, there were significant crowds to shift through. For many stores, line-ups were forming outside so countless minutes were spent waiting. As I was trying to make my way from one end of Sevenoaks Mall to the other, I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this?” For those who just exchanged gifts the day prior, you are essentially getting more the day after. It shows how consumerist and materialistic the society we live in is. Regardless of how much we have, we still want more. What happened to spending time with family instead of spending more money?
New Year’s disillusion NATHAN ZAPARILLA
CONTRIBUTOR
It’s January, the start of a new year, and certainly, a new you. You bought the dri-fit track suit and those funny-looking headphones with the clips on them. You’ve already demonstrated your emerging frugality by draining only half your savings on Boxing Day, and after finding it mixed with the Bakugan cards in the shoebox under your bed, you finally renewed your library card. This is going to be the year you become a better version of yourself — you can feel it. Each year it’s the same story; a month of indulgence has left you bloated, hungover, and exhausted, but the thought of a new year and all its possibilities glimmers in your mind. You crawl out of the pitch-black cavern of a bedroom you quarantined yourself in on New Year’s Day, and expose yourself to the bright light of optimism that has infected the world around
Image: Sally Mahoney/ flickr
New Year’s resolutions have become a tradition of failure. you. Nutritionists and financial planners are on the news sharing secret smoothie recipes and saving strategies, and gym memberships are selling like nicotine lozenges
(hotcakes are loaded with saturated fats). Reinvention is the craze, and you willfully give in. A cynic might ask, why bother? What inspires such false hope?
Go install a light, Abbotsford! Anthony Biondi
The intersection is too dangerous, according to a survey completed by the Abbotsford Police Department. That was what the letter that arrived at my house in late December said. For some diabolical reason the great and illustrious City of Abbotsford council has decided to put a concrete barrier at the end of my street, restricting left-turn access to nil. This has officially limited my access into the city and forces me to take long (and far more dangerous) routes into town. For the record, that intersection is Crossley Drive and Maclure Road. I don’t understand the city’s decision to block left-turn access at this intersection. I don’t see why they can’t put in a light instead to stem the so-called danger. A common traffic light would not only solve the problem, but also appease the issue of limited city access by the residence of this street. I can’t see the cost being much more (if not less) than paving a barrier with trees and crap down the middle of the street. Not only that, apparently, light sensors are already present in the road, making installation easy to do. So what the hell, City of Abbotsford. Who ever thought this was a good idea?!
Why does a new number on the calendar solicit these kinds of delusions of which one is capable? Making New Year’s resolutions has become as big a holiday tradition as excessive drinking, and can leave you just as dejected and nauseated. But perhaps it is just that, the tradition and the comfort we take in it, that keeps us coming back. We try, we fail, and we pat ourselves on the back and go for a consolation Baconator. It’s nice, that feeling of familiarity, of normalcy — exactly what tradition is supposed to bring. So what if that familiarity is of failure? And that is what the vast majority of resolutions will do. They will fail. Well, actually, we will fail, again and again, year after year until our hope runs out. But that’s the thing: our hope that we have the ability to better ourselves is infinite, since striving for selfimprovement is simply part of our nature. Hope is not something that is earned by the hour, saved, traded, or sold. It lies within us,
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and though it may be lost, it is always found this time of year, illuminated by the neon lights of Time Square. By February, my will might already be broken, my new running shoes barely scuffed, and the bottom of my backpack littered with loose papers and Snickers wrappers. I will have failed, along with a large percentage of my fellow resolute life-changers. But I won’t be ashamed, nor should any of us be, as there is no shame in failure, only in giving up. We tried, and that’s really all we can ask of ourselves, and really all we can ask from the world: just a little bit of genuine effort, the only thing that redeems humanity from the abominations of the Kardashians or Rebecca Black. Who knows, maybe your efforts will result in the success of your resolutions this year. Nonetheless, you can always take solace in the fact that you will never fail as miserably in 2014 as the Texas couple who named their kid So’Unique Miracle. Awful.
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OPINION
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
A well-rounded education includes First Nations studies NADINE MOEDT
THE CASCADE
I remember two things from my new student orientation day. First, my assigned orientation leader, or “student ambassador” as they are now loftily named, looked like the closest thing to a leprechaun I’ve ever seen in all his wild pep and green body paint. Next, I remember that UFV VP Eric Davis’s welcome speech began with a short recognition of our presence on traditional Sto:lo territory. I was impressed. This was the first time I had ever heard anyone acknowledge this outside a classroom setting. It’s a loaded statement, and many people who live on land that historically belongs to the Sto:lo people are unaware of their trespass. UFV has generally lived up to its recognition of our indigenous peoples. The Elder-in-Residence program, Aboriginal access services department, various certificates in Sto:lo culture, and efforts to make connections in local aboriginal communities demonstrate UFV’s dedication to both supporting the five per cent of students who identify as aboriginal in their studies and to repairing the damage of historical crimes committed against a vibrant culture and peoples. But what does any of it mean to the average student? A quick word at orientation, a day off for the residential school day of learning,
a congratulatory pat on the back for attending such a politically correct school? Most of us are carefully compassionate but woefully ignorant when it comes to actual knowledge of Sto:lo culture. A quick review of Canadian politics in 2013 demonstrates what this lack of understanding brings. In October, UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights James Anaya reviewed Canada’s treatment of our aboriginal peoples and found it in an unhappy state. According to the CBC, Anaya determined that Canada faces a “crisis” in its conduct towards our indigenous population. The federal government reacted like a defensive fiveyear-old to the judgement. However, the government’s adversarial approach to indigenous concerns in its insistent pushing of pipelines through traditional aboriginal territory demonstrates the disturbing lack of consideration outlined in Anaya’s report. It is clear that a broader appreciation of the struggle facing our indigenous population is necessary for compassionate political decision-making. At UFV, a student can graduate without any understanding of Canada’s relationship with aboriginal peoples. It seems a shame to let students pass through their degree without gaining any appreciation for the culture of our indigenous peoples. This semester only two First Nations studies courses are being offered at UFV.
Image: UFV/ flickr
First Nations studies courses could give students greater context about what it means to live in Canada. An expansion of the First Nations studies program would allow for the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and learning styles in a degree. UFV’s website states that the institution is dedicated to “the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal faculty and staff.” Expanding the First Nations studies program
would allow for a higher number of Aboriginal instructors employed at UFV. If a First Nations studies course was added to the graduation requirements for a bachelor of arts — or any course pertaining to Aboriginal culture, be it in anthropology, history, Halq’eméylem, or current events — students would
graduate with at least some understanding of Canada’s indigenous people. It’s not about being politically correct; rather, it’s about cultivating an empathetic and compassionate graduating class.
Ford more beers! 2013 has been a wild ride for Canadian politics CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS
THE CASCADE
Many people only think about the government during tax time, but this year has been a rollercoaster ride for provincial and federal governments in Canada. At the top of the list is Rob Ford, who has been the butt of every political joke, complaint, and talk show. All the chatter about The Ford and his Nation, which is now campaigning on the slogan “Ford more years,” has made my social life easier at parties. Finally, there is something for me to talk about besides Stephen Harper’s haircut. For that, my dear Ford, we political watchers thank you. However, there is another side to all this silliness. Journalists are getting tired of writing for The Ford’s hype machine. The jokes about his crack, like the Ford himself, are losing traction. The other big issue in 2013 was—and still is— the Senate scandal and the even bigger question: should we have a senate at all? Harper, also known as the “cool robot,” has had a big problem with his party full of thieves and hotheads. Instead of firing the pigs that have been stealing our money, Harper tried to cover up the mess with a couple of transfers from his office. Our PM should have taken the chance to clean up, not cover up.
The Ford Nation promises to keep taxes down and voters entertained. In BC, Christy Clark punched her way into winning an election after asking us to wear pink shirts to protest the evils of bullying. The key lesson to be learned from the election: polls can be wrong, and never underestimate the power of a bully wearing pink. In contrast to the limp-wristed
NDP campaign, Clark and her Liberals went for the voter’s jugular with a clear message: “If you don’t vote for us, the economy will fail. Everything will be expensive.” Despite how highly we think of ourselves as a province, that puts rationality over money, as most of us are afraid of losing our jobs.
Image: Shaun Merritt/ flickr
I thought that by 2014 we were supposed to have flying cars and play cards for a living, but it seems that’s only the deal for one per cent of us. In the spirit of keeping the wealth going to the top, the icy blue Tories penned a monumental trade deal with the European Union. Finally, cheaper cham-
pagne and cheese for the rich. You can always win votes with cheese. Thanks to new cross-border shopping rules between the US and Canada, shoppers can bring back loads of cheddar. Now would be a good time to start a blog about how to buy and store massive amounts of cheese from the Bellingham Costco. And don’t forget the milk and gas cans. While the border traffic stacked up for cheaper gasoline, the BC Liberals pushed for more fracking and the addition of a couple pipelines. We protested in our typical theatrical fashion, but we know that sooner or later more pipelines are coming. Sadly, I fear that we will have to rely on the fortitude and vigour of our First Nations brothers and sisters to stop them. When the bulldozers come it will be the aboriginal people on the frontline. Comedian Rick Mercer has said that Stephen Harper will resign in 2014. My predictions are far more pessimistic. There aren’t enough citizens who want Harper to go. We talk hardball about our morality and our environmentalism, but deep down we are terrified of the one thing that will set us free: a symbiotic relationship with nature. We demand economic growth and Harper is the man to give it to us. And he will, at any cost.
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OPINION
OPINION
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
What are you looking forward to this semester? Feel like sharing your short-andsweet opinion? Keep an eye out for our whiteboard-toting pollsters roaming the halls.
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ARTS & LIFE FEATURE CULTURE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
SUDOKU PUZZLE
CROSSWORD Free money
by Katie Stobbart
ACROSS 2. The reward waiting at the end of every rainbow. (3, 2, 4) 3. Someone went jogging, perhaps, and dropped a twenty on this. (8) 6. The best thing about this money for students is you don’t have to pay it back. (7) 7. You did something amazing, or entered a raffle to get this. (5) 9. This is a morally reprehensible and not advisable way to get cash. (5) 10. Green condolences — it is probably tacky to call it this. (11) 11. When you do this, the banker gives you $200. (4, 2)
DOWN 1. When cash flow is low, it would be nice to see one of these growing in the back yard. (5, 4) 4. In this case, eating cake may accompany financial gain. (8) 5. If you’re lucky, this can be a great source of free money—but it’s also a good way to lose money. (8) 6. If things get really bad, this might be an option: “Please, sir, may I have some more?” (3) 8. Sometimes you have really nice ones who can afford to help you out now and again. (7)
Answer Keys LAST WEEK
sudoku solution
Across 1 HITTHEBOOKS 4 TONGUE 5 SLAP 7 CURIOSITY 8 FINGERS 11 JAYWALK 12 BAKERSDOZEN 13 GRAVEYARD Down 2 BLESSING 3 HOLDYOURHORSES 6 NOCIGAR 9 SHOULDER 10 TANGO
The Weekly Horoscope
Star Signs from January Jones*
Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: Invest in better shelving and paperbacks, because that leather-bound edition of Shakespeare’s complete works is just itching to fall on your head.
Gemini: May 21 - June 21: Don’t let memes dictate your life choices.
Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: If you visit a zoo this week, a kinkajou is going to steal your wallet.
Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: It’s cute when one cat follows you home, but if an octopus follows you home you’re going to have a bad time.
Cancer: June 22 - July 22: If you had taken that other class you were thinking about, you wouldn’t be on a waitlist right now. Damn!
Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: The printer is flashing “error” not because it needs more ink, but because you’re never home and it’s lonely. You never call, you never write — what do you expect?
Aries: March 21 - April 19: When was the last time you went to science world? Seriously, you should go again.
Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: Go to your room. I’m very cross with you.
Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: Stripes look good on you, but only in one direction. Figure out what it is before your mother signs you up for What Not To Wear.
Taurus: April 20 - May 20: Avoid shepherd’s pie for the next three days. You’ll thank me.
Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept22: Just a word to the wise: green onion is rarely a legitimate ingredient in dessert. Use this to pick your recipes wisely.
Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: There is a limit to how much coffee one person can drink, but you are the one destined to find and destroy that line. Godspeed to you. *No, not that January Jones.
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ARTS & LIFE FEATURE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Behind the tie:
an interview with Mark Evered
by Joe Johnson
Photos courtesy of UFV
UFV’s formerly bearded president Mark Evered (preferring just “Mark”) is about to see his tenure at our university extended. Evered has presided over an eventful four years in UFV history, and will now continue to do so until June 2017.
W
hat can you tell me about your background? I started life as a biologist. I did a four-year degree at McMaster University in biology and then three years later I completed a PhD in physiology, specializing in neuroscience. Then [I] went off to Cambridge for a couple of years on a Canadian Medical Research Council fellowship to spend two years working in a laboratory in Cambridge. And then began the teaching part of my academic career. How do the experiences compare between teaching and administrating? I certainly didn’t start my career aspiring to be a university president, or even a head of a department, at any time. As opportunities came along to be the head of a department, to take on various committees and councils, and subsequently more senior administrative positions, I guess I was intrigued by the challenges that those jobs brought. I continue to miss the research work and the teaching very much. I had some successes there, and it was work that I enjoyed a lot, but as my career progressed I saw opportunities to also work even more with people. I think that the unfortunate thing is that the nature of jobs like I have now are very demanding. They often require my attention seven days a week. There will often be events on weekends and evenings that I’m expected to attend, or I believe it’s important for me to attend, on behalf of the university. The days are full, the hours are long, and that unfortunately doesn’t leave time to give the attention to a class or research work that I would like. So you have to make choices. I still carry a few ideas for some research projects around with me that at the end of my term as president, I would like to explore once again — to take the opportunity to return. When did you come to UFV, and how did you get here? I came to UFV in 2009. I was the vice-president academic and provost at Thompson Rivers University, and was not planning to move or to take on a presidency. But the search firm that was working on behalf of UFV invited me to apply — to allow my name to stand as a candidate. And as I went through a very lengthy interview process — as it should be for a president — and as part of that process [learned] more and more about UFV, I became more and more attracted to the position and I was delighted when I got the call
to say that I was being offered the job. And at that point it was a very easy decision. What’s a day in the life of a UFV president? Well, highly variable. It’s not a job that, in any sense, could be called boring. It’s not uncommon that I would start with a breakfast meeting offcampus somewhere. There will be meetings with perhaps my executive team, with members of the Student Union Society, with a faculty council, with any number of committees or structures, or perhaps someone has a concern that they want to bring to me and we’ll schedule that in. It’s pretty rare that I get a chance to pop home for lunch. Surprising when I live right on campus. The afternoons are much like the mornings; they’re often full of meetings. There’s
There’s an atmosphere of commitment and support, an atmosphere of caring — caring for the students, caring for each other,
caring
about
our future, caring about
getting
it
right, that just permeates this place. a lot of paperwork in this job. There are a lot of things that come to the president for a final signature. And often in the evenings, if I’m not sitting and finally getting down to my email, [I’m] still doing my homework. I started university in 1968 and I reflect on the fact that I haven’t left the post-secondary system 45 years later, and I still seem to have a lot of homework. But often the evenings are full with some community function or some university function. Perhaps we’re entertaining. As you know we use my house on campus for entertaining, sometimes visitors from overseas, or functions we hold in the community. We sometimes use it to celebrate the successes of faculty or staff or students on campus. So the
days are full. What do you like to do when you have a couple of days to relax? I must admit it’s quite frequently the case that when I get a bit of a break I’m quite exhausted and I’m very happy to put my feet up and perhaps get a beer out of the fridge and do some reading or watch a little bit of television. I don’t get a lot of time for that. The days are full so it’s very hard to schedule in anything regularly. I have committed to doing more walking than I have in the past. We live in a beautiful area here. I have a bicycle that I don’t use often enough, that I need to use… to take the opportunity to get out and move around a bit; to try to compensate for the long hours sitting in a chair and sitting in close quarters. Now another part of my life that I try to squeeze in whenever I can is time with my children and grandchildren. I have three daughters all married. Now I have six grandchildren. Unfortunately our children and grandchildren are in Saskatoon … so it’s not as much time for family as I’d like, although, we do take advantage of the electronics to stay in touch. Do you have any positions or responsibilities outside of UFV? I do sit on several committees and boards. I’m the chair of the British Columbia Association of Institutes and Universities – which is the organization we created for the five new universities plus BCIT, the Justice Institute, and Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. I’m on the economic advisory committee for the City of Abbotsford and the Abbotsford mayors’ task-
force on economic development. I’ve sat on committees for Mission, I’ve sat on committees for Chilliwack, and other parts of our region. We’re a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. That’s about 100 universities in this country; all of the major universities in this country are members of the AUCC. The role of president at universit i e s over t h e last
decade or so has evolved. Presidents at one time were the Chief Operating Officer of the university. But increasingly the president’s time is spent external to the university because of the need for someone to address the challenges of government relations, community relations, a n d the big one of course is
ARTS & LIFE FEATURE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca building friendships and seeking financial support — not just from government, but from donors. What are some of the rewards of doing all this as president? It’s extremely rewarding. I love what I do. That’s got a lot to do with the fact that I love this place and I love the people I work with. I consider myself very fortunate. I speak with presidents of other Canadian universities who aren’t in such a situation and I see the difficulties they face with challenges I don’t have to worry about. We have our challenges that we face together — financial challenges, challenges that are related to regulations imposed on us that restrict us from doing some of the imaginative things we might like to do. There are areas of concern, and I’m well aware of that, and I’m as frustrated sometimes as I’m sure some faculty or staff members are that we can’t do things that we’d really like to be able to do. The rewards are the achievements that we can all be proud of. As I say to people, you don’t want to graduate from a university that’s not held in high regard — you definitely don’t want to get a degree or a diploma or a certificate from a university that no longer exists because they’ve collapsed; it failed. So in a sense we really are in this together for a lifetime. Once you’ve received a credential from this place the reputation of the institution is important to you. We also have good collegial relations, not with just faculty and staff, but also with student — the students who have been serving on Senate and the Board and other committees I’m working on. That’s one of the joys of the job, to watch young people develop and watch students recognize
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and take some responsibility for the future of the university by stepping in and helping us manage the institution and set the future.
conversations with people there as I’m walking home from work. My commute between this office and my house should b e
I guess it can be tiring as well? It is tiring. It is important… if I were giving advice to others, as I try to do to my vice-presidents and faculty and staff, we urge people to take care of themselves as well because you can’t do these jobs if you don’t take care of yourself. I’m probably better at dispensing that advice than taking it myself. I certainly wouldn’t want to be doing this job at 70 years old. For the record, I’m 63. You live in Friesen house near the gym. What’s it like living on campus — any stories you’d care to share? I love living on campus. The proximity to the student residence, I would say, is one of the things I appreciate. You might think otherwise. They’re our neighbours. So for example when we have events at our house… there are usually leftovers, which we know there are always hungry neighbours next door happy to help us out with that. There’s a little gazebo between my house and the residence and I’ve had some good
no m o re than five minutes, and as my long-suffering wife Maureen has experienced situations where I’ve said, “I’m leaving the office now, I’ll be home in five minutes” and it’s taken me an hour because I got engaged with some really interesting conversations with people who are doing interesting things. Living on campus is an interesting experience. We have lots of windows in the house so we learned very early on it’s important to be properly dressed, to be prepared. You’re never too sure who’s going to walk past a window or be out there in the yard when you dash out to put some garbage out. You think, “Well, I could just pop out, nobody’s going to see me” and there could very well be somebody out there with a camera taking a picture of part of the garden, perhaps, but catching you when you’d rather not be photographed. And I guess with AfterMath open ‘til 10 on Thursday nights, it can get kind of loud? For the most part they’re happy sounds, they’re good sounds. I come from a family of five boys; it was a v e r y noisy
household. I learned to study in a very noisy household. But you’re right; it can get a little noisy. We haven’t actually had a problem. Occasionally when AfterMath closes people will have parked in one of the parking lots and decided to squeal the tires as they take off, or do doughnuts in the parking lot. I do remember hearing, one evening, a loud bang as if someone had run into something, and quickly checked to see if everything was all right. It was some poor fellow in the parking lot with a buddy — perhaps they
had had a couple of drinks — let’s leave i t at that. The fellow had inadvertently put the car into reverse instead of drive and hit the accelerator and the car very quickly reversed into one of those cement blocks supporting the posts out there. So there he was in the parking lot, his car had hit this post square on and his bumper was wrapped around the cement block. But they were fine. An important lesson learned. Any words on what new students can expect? Coincidentally we’ve got some new programs. We’ve got a new bachelor of arts in global development studies … The Minister of Advanced Education has approved our major in economics within the BA program … We are extending our teacher education program to secondary education training, and that will start I think this summer. Of course we’ve the got the development of the BC Centre Excellence in Agriculture. The construction is underway for the plant and animal teaching laboratories, and service laboratories – essentially a barn and a greenhouse going up as well as further developments there. We’re looking forward to opening up the five corners campus in Chilliwack, the downtown campus, which we’re expecting the renovations to be completed ... for a January start, for some Continuing Education programs. Our sport teams have started out well this year. So we’re looking for some exciting times there. I would encourage students to take advantage of the home games. Whether it’s on soccer fields in Chilliwack or basketball or volleyball courts
here. We’ve got a good rowing team and people would be welcomed, I know, to go out early to Fort Langley early in the morning and watch the rowing team get on the water. We’ve got both men’s and women’s golf teams, a new development of a women’s golf team which in the Pacific Western division, essentially the BC division, is already in front leading the pack — both men’s and women’s teams. What makes UFV what it is? What’s special about this place? There’s an atmosphere of commitment and support, an atmosphere of caring — caring for the students, caring for e a c h other, caring
about our future, caring about getting it right, that just permeates this place. Clearly we have troubles. I don’t want to be a Pollyanna about this and pretend we don’t have challenges. I mean, my days would be a lot less full if we didn’t have challenges. But for the most part it’s a remarkable community of people. You know, we very often point to our small classes. And we very often point to certain achievements of our students and our faculty and our staff. We point to the commitment of instructors. We hope we can continue to point to good facilities. But it really is the people because [otherwise] none of that would matter. You could have small classes and it would be a dismal failure if the people who were running those small classes didn’t care, didn’t care about getting to know people’s names. We’re a first-name campus. Nobody calls me Dr. Evered or President Evered except maybe from another institution. I’m Mark. And likewise, so do I feel comfortable calling others by their first name. I guess it suits my personality. [We have] this commitment to working together with care, with compassion, with mutual respect, and an understanding that times are tough and they may get tougher, but we’ve got a history of succeeding. We’ve got a history of change. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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CULTURE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Theatre Preview
Age of Arousal hits Chilliwack stage CHRISTOPHER DEMARCUS THE CASCADE
What happens when sexual equality and old-school romance mix? Written only seven years ago, Age of Arousal by Linda Griffith has become known as an essential Canadian play. The work is an adaptation of English author George Gissing’s The Odd Women, taking old feminist issues and giving them what has been described as a contemporary voice. Set in 1885, the play wrestles with both the economic and cultural upheavals caused by the first wave of feminism. The word “arousal” in the title is as much about questioning sexual roles as it is about sex itself. Back in the 1880s, women in England greatly outnumbered men. With low marriage prospects for the time, many women were forced to question their identities. The UFV production of Age of Arousal features a cast of six student actors and more than 20 students working on its production crew, and is directed by Ian Fenwick, long-time professor and previous department head of theatre at UFV. As Age of Arousal ramped up into final rehearsals, rumour stirred among theatre students that this would be Fenwick’s last play before re-
Fashion
Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize
Image: UFV Theatre
Age of Arousal: six women, one man, and the 1880s. You do the math. tirement. A week before the play was set to open, Fenwick brushed the rumour aside. “I don’t know where that rumour came from. I’ve been doing this a long time, but I plan on continuing as a director,” Fenwick said. Fenwick explained that since the play was set more than a century in the past it allowed students to “explore a different time and different social norms.” This exploration also allows students to uncover different identities of themselves. “This was a well-chosen play for us,” he said. “It’s wonderful for students to take it on.” Despite the strong sexual context of the play and the contrast-
ASHLEY MUSSBACHER THE CASCADE
December through February can be the worst time for your skin’s overall health and appearance. As students, our skin has to combat not only weather conditions but also stress, and by the end of winter it looks like we have aged several years: flaky spots, blotches, cracking lips, acne — oh my. Well, no more! Here are three all-natural and relatively inexpensive oils for keeping your skin hydrated and healthy.
ing Fraser Valley stereotype of a more conservative culture, Fenwick said he didn’t think this production would ruffle any feathers. “During the director ’s festival, when students are asked to direct, one student directed Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” Fenwick said with a smile, noting the sometimes surprising openmindedness of the Fraser Valley. “As far as I know, every show was well attended.” Fenwick noted, however, that there have been some rare times when the traditional theatre audience was not fond of what UFV was putting on. “Every once in a while we get a letter from an audience member that says, ‘I’m not coming
soft and sweetly scented without an oily feeling. It has emollient properties, which means this is one of few oils that can be absorbed by the skin. It is because of this property that spas use almond oil for massages. And even though we don’t need it here on the BC coast during winter, almond oil provides sun protection — something to remember for summer!
back,’ but that’s rare. We are in a progressive community that has open dialogue,” he said. “Different ways can be mutually possible.” As The Cascade reported in October, theatre professor Bruce Kirkley has been working on a proposal for a theatre major. At the same time, the provincial government has made deep cuts to post-secondary education. “It impacts us and will increase class sizes,” explained Fenwick. “Ultimately, the students will have less.” For now, the theatre department continues to utilize some the province’s best facilities at UFV’s performance theatre on the Yale Road campus, despite administration’s attempts to sell the property. “[These are] facilities that any institution would be proud of,” Fenwick concluded. Age of Arousal opens this week at the Yale Road location, and all students should note the new “rush ticket initiative” that lets students get tickets at the door — if the show isn’t sold out — for only $10 with a valid ID. Otherwise, tickets can be ordered in advance by anyone online or through the box office. Opening night is January 10 at 7:30 p.m.
termined whether the refining process removes the nutrients from the cocoa, and whether it is better to use unrefined or not.
Image: wikimedia commons
Imgae: made-in-china.com/
Almond oil Almond oil is my personal favourite, and is great for all skin types. It’s known for its hydrating properties, as well as its ability to remove dark circles. The nice thing about this oil is that it doesn’t leave any residue on the skin, leaving the surface
Cocoa butter Cocoa butter has become a popular addition to moisturizers, and after looking at the benefits of cocoa on the skin, it’s easy to see why. Along with deep hydration and antioxidants, cocoa butter also has the capability to reduce stretch marks and heal skin irritations like eczema and dermatitis. Unrefined organic cocoa butter has a strong chocolate scent, while refined cocoa butter is commonly used in other manufactured products. It is unde-
Events
Jan 17 7 p.m. The Reach takes you to the movies Are you a history nerd? Are you looking for a free date night idea? Are you a sucker for sailing ships, and tales of Ye Olde Exploration? Look no further: The Reach gallery presents a movie night devoted to the highly acclaimed miniseries Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery. Settle on in with your honey for a night in the theatre.
Jan 8-26 7:30 p.m. Arouse your interest If Captain Cook isn’t your style, maybe you’re looking for something a little sexier. Your answer lies in UFV theatre’s latest production, Canadian play Age of Arousal. With student rush tickets available for only $10, it’s never been more affordable to see a quality play.
Jan 16 7 p.m.
Klassen: the prodigal son Fraser Valley darling folk singer Jordan Klassen returns to UFV to play a show in honour of the new semester. CIVL is setting up the show at AfterMath, and admission is absolutely free for UFV students. Come early to get a good seat and a pint of beer.
Image: Liz West/Flickr
Image: Renee Suen/Flickr
Upcoming
Avocado oil Fun fact: avocados are also known as dragon pears, and have more properties than tasting great in guacamole. While a tad more expensive than the other oils I mentioned, avocado oil is famous as a facial moisturizer — it’s light and has anti-aging properties. It is also great for people who suffer from eczema or psoriasis. Regardless of budget, students can still look and feel great from beginning to end of semester. Your skin will thank you for it, no matter what you’re using.
Jan 8-24 It(wa)’s All About Me Chris Janzen also returns to UFV this month after graduating from UFV with a BFA in 2010. His latest autobiographical visual arts show presents “the painful, positive, and often unsettling transformation from self to husband and father.” You can swing by any time during school hours to see his work hanging in the gallery on the Abbotsford campus.
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Discussions below the belt
From self-love to playing doubles
The what and how of the female orgasm
The G-spot is located in different places inside the vastly different vaginas of the world. Most men’s health magazines will tell you to “slip a couple fingers in, palm up and make a come-hither motion.” While this is somewhat accurate and will work for some cookie-cutter vaginas (or fakers), all women are different. Every woman will likely have a differ-
XTINA SEXPERT
Sex should be satisfying for both or all parties involved. I don’t want to stereotype here, but many a man has given his all (or however many minutes of jackhammering) and still had a frustrated partner who is secretly wishing she had watched Glee instead. But one thing this stereotype ignores is that the female orgasm isn’t all the man’s responsibility. A great sexual relationship is a journey filled with random props and silly experiments. A lot has to do with the comfort level of both partners. In a new relationship especially, reaching orgasm can be difficult because of the lack of trust and knowledge of each other ’s bodies. I am consistently horrified when I learn that women into their 20s still don’t know how to please themselves. Lately this has been coming up in conversation almost weekly. I mean, how can a girl expect her partner to ring her bell if she hasn’t even jammed with her own equipment before? So, since I feel well educated on the goings-on down under, I’m going to give the would-be lovers and frustrated gals out there a proverbial hand. I’m going to share my secrets with you, for both those having a solo session and those playing doubles. Let’s start with the breasts — yes, we like to be stimulated everywhere. Generally this is not a honking or a groping, although I’m sure there are some girls out there who really dig that. Breasts are sensitive and need to be treated as such. Start by cupping them and lightly brushing your thumbs across the nipples. Pressure can be increased if your lady prompts you with noises of approval or in the case of selfloving, whatever is working for you. Next, an important fact: the clitoris is very sensitive. This amazing little bud has 8000 sen-
“Since I feel educated on the goings-on down under, I’m going to give would-be lovers and frustrated gals out there a proverbial hand.”
Image: Lies Thru a Lens/Flickr
Finding the female orgasm starts with becoming familiar with the equipment. sory nerve endings! To put this in perspective, the penis only has 4000, and is generally much larger. That’s some concentrated pleasure potential. The clit is truly an amazing
organ and deserves the respect of a knowledgeable suitor, especially if that is its owner. When handling the clit, start out slowly and gently. As with breasts, pressure can be added gradually
according to yea or nay noises (or yea or nay feelings for those going solo). The clitoral orgasm is most common but can be accompanied or replaced by the elusive G-spot orgasm.
ent set-up. Generally, the G-spot can be found about two to four inches inside on the anterior wall of the vagina. Some say it feels like a walnut, others say a sponge. Whatever you decide to label it, just keep exploring it. When massaged with medium to firm pressure women can climax, and even ejaculate or “squirt,” which is not urine as some may think, but fluid secreted by a gland similar to that of the male prostate. This happens to about six per cent of women, according to studies done by Stanislav Kratochvil in 1994. However, I suspect that number is higher. Having a G-spot orgasm is amazing and doesn’t even necessarily require a partner. Anyone who hasn’t experienced it should plan a nice evening with herself and get acquainted with the walnut-sponge. Once you know what and how you like it, you can share this mind-blowing experience with your partner (or keep it all to yourself). So there you have it, female orgasm in a nutshell. Enjoy and have fun exploring.
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Book Review
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE
I don’t remember the first time I stumbled across Allie Brosh’s blog, but I clearly remember my confusion: while her artwork is rendered entirely in MS Paint (in eye-wincing pixellated glory), the comics and stories she tells through the images are both hilarious and heartfelt. It also becomes apparent that there is true skill behind the seemingly quick sketches, no matter how primitive. The caricature she uses to depict herself might look a little like an elongated marshmallow in a pink sac with twigs for legs, but her wide eyes and hooky fingers manage to portray more feeling than some artists capture in photo-realistic works. If you’ve spent a decent amount of time on the internet, you’ll probably recognize her work from the “ALL THE THINGS!” meme in which that same pink-swathed marshmallow figure brandishes a broom — internet fame at its finest. Her self-deprecating humour and unabashed social awkwardness, not to mention her love of dogs and fear of geese, endeared her to an audience spanning the globe. Brosh’s popularity and cozy spot in pop culture remained constant, even when her blog posts grew shorter and shorter
and finally stopped altogether, with no indication of when readers could expect more. Finally, the Hyperbole and a Half radio silence was broken
with one of Brosh’s longest posts to date. Surprisingly, the content didn’t revolve around dogs or embarrassing childhood stories, themes many of her posts accu-
rately and inexplicably captured, but something else entirely. Depression. “Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling arbitrarily sad and helpless,” she wrote. The post follows her journey through depression, from its seemingly random beginning to an even more arbitrary end. It is honest, witty, and absolutely perfectly depicts the random, senseless nature of depression; those who suffer from mental illness can’t always find reasoning behind the way they feel, and definitely aren’t able to control what they’re feeling. She interprets depression for those who have never experienced it, and speaks for those who suffer silently. Her unabashed solid-coloured comic panes, as clever and blunt as always, pull no punches and drag the reader through exactly what it feels like to wake up and be unable to get out of bed without any good reason. After this post, her popularity sprang even further through the roof, resulting in a book version of her now award-winning blog. The two share a fair amount of content as well as the title: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. A lot of the book’s content is directly
pulled from the blog, with posts presented as chapters — all, of course, presented in the same beloved, MS Paint-ed images. This works surprisingly well, even when it leaps off the screen and into a book; the content has become classic internet literature, appealing to new and old readers alike. The stories (with titles such as “Helper Dog is an Asshole,” and “This is Why I’ll Never Be an Adult”) are witty, clever, and hilarious. The book also includes new content — a sort of Easter egg for those already familiar with Hyperbole and a Half — as well as the more thoughtful (but still somehow hilarious and lovely) “Depression.” This nugget of absolute honesty is the anchor for the book; Brosh approaches a heavy topic with trademark stubbornness and clarity, demystifying the taboo of mental health. The only criticism I have is my fault, rather than the book’s: as with many short story collections, the book is better when tackled over time, rather than in a single sitting. After reading more than two or three chapters in a row, both humour and the unrelenting block images begin to grate on the eyes. After all, this is a blog — and a book — designed for an ADD internet generation. Just take the book in bite-sized pieces, and nobody gets hurt.
Do you play live shows? How does that work? I’m trying to put a live show together — it’s kind of difficult, because I recorded all the parts myself.
What’s your favourite track on the album? I’d say it has to be “Room 101,” which is the seventh track. I don’t know, I just sort of like how it all came together. It’s got a certain atmosphere about it that worked out very well as a tangible song compared to what it was in my head.
Q&A
Thru Colorado DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE
UFV English student Wade Findlay is the mastermind behind the electronic and indie music of Thru Colorado. He fills the role of producer, sound technician, and talent. His album Ephemera was released last fall and can be found on Bandcamp. The first thing I wanted to ask you about was the cranes on the cover of your album. Oh, the cranes. The artwork was done by my friend Amanda Field, and she’s a very cool artist. I just said to her, “Do you want to do an album cover?” and she said she’d love to. She just came up with some ideas. I didn’t specify anything. That’s one of the ones she came up with, and I liked it. You’re not just the musician on this album, but the recorder and mixer and producer. What kind of experience do you have producing music and making music? I’ve been playing around with different recording software for as long as I’ve had access to them, so it’s just really by trial and error that I’ve been playing around and recording songs over the years. Even when I started recording Ephemera, what I knew about recording changed so much from the time that I started to the time that I finished that I was tempted to go back
Image: Dessa Bayrock
Wade Findlay makes music, studies English, and loves Grizzly Bear. and re-record some of the songs that I’d recorded first. It’s an ongoing process. Maybe a remix album one day. Maybe! The problem, I thought, was if I went back to re-record it, by the time I’d done that I would have learned so much more that I’d want to go back and do it again. What is your favourite part of the process? It was the first time that I’d really endeavoured to do something by myself, musically, and I just enjoyed the freedom that I was able to record any time. A lot of the songs were written within the recording process, so it was a new experience to do it that way. I had a lot of fun with it. What musical projects have you worked on in the past?
In high school I was in a band called Deep Search, and we played some songs around Vancouver and put out an EP in 2010. And then I played with a few people — not doing anything serious — for a couple of years between that and this. So now the name Thru Colorado — where did that come from? I wanted to go by a different name just because I liked the idea of distancing myself from it. I did a roadtrip with a couple of friends this summer and we met an interesting character who introduced himself as Charlie from Colorado, and they suggested that that should be the name. And I liked the “Colorado” bit but I didn’t the “Charlie From.” So I was searching for something else that could go with it to sound okay, and “Thru” came up one day and just, well, worked.
I’m imagining you in one of those one-man band outfits, with a computer and a guitar and a kick-drum. [Laughs.] No, I’ve been playing with a friend of mine who’s playing drums with me, and he’s a phenomenal musician. I’ve just been having fun jamming with him, but I’m hoping to get more people together and turn it into a full show. Do you see yourself joining or forming a band in the future? Yeah — if whoever I’m playing with, if there’s good chemistry, I’d love to turn it into a full band. But I’m not looking that far ahead, really. [Laughs.] The one thing that really stuck out to me on the album is that the vocals are kind of hiding themselves — I was wondering if you would describe yourself as a shy person. I guess I am shy vocally sometimes, but funnily enough the vocals are actually more prominent than in all the other demos and stuff I’ve recorded — they used to be much further back, so I thought they were more up front, but I’m glad it comes across as evened out.
If you could jam on a track with anyone, musical or nonmusical, who would it be? There’s one musician, Daniel Rosen from Grizzly Bear ... I’ve been really into his music lately. I’d love to jam with him. Probably never going to happen, but I’d love to. And who would you say are your musical influences? Some of my biggest ones are Radiohead, The Smiths, Grizzly Bear. And I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music lately as well — Depeche Mode and Washed Out. How about non-musical influences? I’d have to say — I guess it is kind of a musical influence — but Marcy from The Smiths. I know he’s always described himself as not being a musician, and he considers himself a poet in terms of his lyrics. I’ve always thought that they’ve kind of stood apart from the music, in and of themselves, and I’m quite inspired by that.
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Dine & Dash
ABC Country Restaurant SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE
While ABC Country is a chain restaurant with 16 locations in the lower mainland, the familyowned Abbotsford location has an independent menu of its own. My boyfriend and I went for dinner one night, and the server gave us both the chain menu and their own exclusive one. We decided to pick something from the latter. The place was pretty busy — and most of the other diners were grey- and silver-haired couples. “I guess the seniors know where the deals are,” my boyfriend joked. There is a pretty sweet senior ’s menu. ABC Country is decked out in full kitschy antique décor. Everything from old farming tools to rustic paintings beat you over the head with a “good-oldfashioned-farmhouse-kitchen” feel. The dinner menu is divided into the classic comfort foods
Image: Sasha Moedt
The glorious poutine burger: photos don’t do the curd-y goodness justice. (meatloaf, perogies, roast beef), schnitzels (turkey, Bavarian), and pasta (pomodoro, penne, fettuccine). There is a full menu besides the dinner, includes appies, sandwiches, desserts, and a
gluten-free selection. I opted for the farmer ’s sausage soup, recommended to me by our server. I also got a half order of a pulled pork sandwich. My boyfriend decided to go for
Mini Album Reviews
SoundBites
Stephen Malkmus Burial Wig Out at Jagbags Rival Dealer
the exciting poutine burger — complete with bacon and chipotle sauce. He also upgraded his fries to poutine, because you can’t get enough of poutine, right? Our server was a bit awkward, but friendly, and she never let my coffee cup be empty (I must have had at least five cups with that dinner). The poutine came out first, and my boyfriend shared some with me (though I had to promise to give him some of my soup). The fries were nicely done — not in thick, starchy wedges but crisp and greasy. The gravy and cheese curds were delicious, and I definitely think there should have been more cheese curds. My sandwich came with a boring cup of coleslaw I didn’t bother eating much of. The sandwich itself was tasty. It was soft on the outside, but grilled crispy on the inside-facing bread. They didn’t skimp on the butter to make that bread crispy. The pork was nice and soft, and the sauce had a
complementary tang. I expected bigger portions for the price, but what I did get was nice. My soup definitely rocked. It was creamy, rich, with farmer ’s sausage, potatoes, carrots, celery and onion. I’m a big farmer ’s sausage person, so it was a hit. The poutine burger was “everything I love on one burger,” my boyfriend told me through mouthfuls. I gave it a try, and the poutine was an interesting addition and made for a very full burger. Price-wise, ABC Country is so-so. Dinner prices don’t get lower than $9.99; my meal was 9.99, and like I said, not huge portions. The average full entrée seemed to be about $12.99. Breakfast prices better, with a “7 for $7.99” section. Unless you are a senior, you’re not going to get a discounted meal. But the meals are good and hearty, so don’t wait ‘til you’re 55. Check out ABC Country while you’re young!
James Blunt Moon Landing
One Direction Midnight Memories
Stephen Malkmus has always walked the line between drifting and stability with song structure, whether it was with Pavement in the ‘90s or the Jicks in the 2000s. He inserts false endings, (see “One Percent of One”) and often pulls out his falsetto to add a sense of emotion and vulnerability, which culminates in the odd, yet effective design of Malkmus’ songs. When he can balance this deconstruction of the pop/ rock music genre with infectious guitar lines, all Malkmus needs to worry about are lyrics. Always sly and clever, Malkmus just needs the precise proportion of sneer to seriousness, and here on Wig Out at Jagbags, he hits all his marks, demonstrating the best traits of his songwriting. “We lived on Tennyson and venison and The Grateful Dead / It was Mudhoney summer, Torch of Mystics, Double Bummer” he sings on “Lariat”, with lyrics that are a little too overworked to be labeled as astute, but grounded enough to be dubbed outlook. Now 47 years old, the aging rocker does deal with nostalgia in his lyrics on Wig Out, but don’t indicate that another Pavement reunion is in the cards for Malkmus, who is on quite a roll with his last two releases.
Rival Dealer contains the most dialogue of any Burial (William Bevan) album. Where previously the Londonbased, genre-resistant, mostly private electronic recording artist mostly sampled movies as brief context-less references or final fadeout, Rival Dealer is filled with it. Song titles used to provide a hint at what Burial was making music toward (“Loner,” “Truant”) but with his fourth EP exploring his own definition of what a track is (usually 7+ minutes, often interrupted into segments), Bevan says he made the album to “protect against unkind people, dark times, and self-doubts.” As dramaturgy, it’s pretty weak, with the clips sounding out that “you are not alone” surrounded by the usual mix of scrambled beats and distorted static. That Rival Dealer is sentimental, in the way that Final Fantasy cutscenes are sentimental, is obvious, but welcomed by Bevan, who dubs these “anti-bullying tunes.” Underground cathedral chorus and electric piano summon someone saying “don’t be afraid to step into the light” on “Come Down To Us,” and Bevan, who still possesses a unique sense for the way memory can obsessively play with phrases, clearly doesn’t mind that for long stretches Rival Dealer sounds like backing for religious testimony. He believes in the possibility of every word and pulse of music changing people’s lives.
A decade ago an album appeared from a new British musician with one song in particular gaining mass appeal. It was taken as a soul-bearing ballad with nonstop radio play and used in a broad array of television shows — “You’re Beautiful.” The album was Back to Bedlam, the artist was James Blunt. At the time it meant so much and the album was full of amazing tracks — for a tenyears-younger self. Unfortunately, over time Blunt has taken a lot of flak for his style. His succeeding tracks also lost their magic. But somehow Blunt has managed to stay relevant, albeit mostly in the UK. At first Moon Landing really disappointed. He failed to grab at the same heartstrings from all those years ago. But after accepting that fact, this album is actually fairly decent. “Satellites” is the first song to grab attention. Lyrically, it doesn’t have much to offer, but it’s a perky track with some traditional Blunt feel. “Bonfire Heart,” the first single, really gets its appeal from the instrumentals and the punchy chorus. It is “Bones,” though, that really tries to be the lyrical heavyweight track. It explores what are perhaps the trials Blunt persevered through while gaining his initial success. It starts off ringing true and has its moments throughout, but disappointingly that is lost when the chorus hits and it becomes a shallow attempt to be what is most likely going to be the second single. In the end, the album lies in mediocrity. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not what one would hope Blunt would have produced.
In July 2013, One Direction released the lead single for their end-of-theyear release. Although “Best Song Ever” was a catchy song, it was forgettable amid other chart-toppers from Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke. Upon listening to the album, it turned out to be enjoyable, ranging from heartbreak ballads to straight pop. Not quite the empty stereotype of a boy band, the group’s members contribute to 12 of the 14 tracks — not always the norm. However, it’s not new — there’s some surprising lyrical maturity, but Midnight Memories mostly includes tracks that sound as though they could have been released by other artists. “Little Black Dress” sounds reminiscent of The Cars, and the title track nearly quotes Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Although some of the tracks on the album are quite good, their reliance on old genre standbys makes them forgettable.
TIM UBELS
MICHAEL SCOULAR
Joe Johnson
REMINGTON FIORASO
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Cascade Arcade
2013: A gamer’s review Shuffle
CHARTS
1 2 3
Varsity Girls We Love Each Other
AARON LEVY
CIVL STATION MANAGER
Stiff Valentine Empire of Illusion
CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy welcomes you all back to UFV, and has a few tracks to get you in the mood to break the books back out.
Fiddlin’ Frenzy Biscuit in the Fiddle Case
4 5 6
Moist — “Resurrection”
We Hunt Buffalo Blood From a Stone
Jordan Klassen Repentance
Two Heads Is Twice As Many Teeth Fire Breathing Horses Volume One: Rise of the Nebulart
7
Teen Daze The House On The Mountain
8 9 10 11 12
Speedy Ortiz Major Arcana
Chance the Rapper Acid Rap
Kanye West Yeezus
Los Campesinos! No Blues Haim Days Are Gone Burial Truant/Rough Sleeper Shad Flying Colours
HSY HSY
I never appreciated the George Michael version until I revisited it with this live number when I picked up the Family Values ’98 tour disc. It’s also the record that introduced me to Incubus, then more S.C.I.E.N.C.E than Drive, and to how good Follow The Leader was from Korn. Noice.
It’s one of those songs that I might only get addicted to because of the images that go along with it in the context where I became familiar with it first, in this case the UBC lip-dub; YouTube that if you haven’t already seen the exquisite wonderment put into it.
Another year, another round of hardware refreshes in the videogame industry.
JEREMY HANNAFORD CONTRIBUTOR
In the world of video games, 2013 was clouded in controversy, with the bad often overshadowing the good. Among console announcements and the future of Star Wars gaming, there were many great moments that were unfortunately met with lacklustre responses, hindering the overall discussion. One of the main games to suffer this was Tomb Raider. After years of hype, the fifth game in the series was released on March 5 to very good reviews. Crystal Dynamics did what some thought impossible and revamped the Lara Croft saga. It was thought to be a decent success with over 3 million copies sold. However due to the amount of money spent on advertising by Square Enix, the game needed to sell over $5 million to be considered a success. With an overall budget of $100 million, Tomb Raider was a reminder of how important the budget to sales ratio truly is when mixed with high marketing prices. On the flip side, the indie market continued to succeed. With over quadruple the amount of releases that larger studios put out, many of these games were met with resounding success. Games like Brothers: Tales of Two Sons, Papers Please, Gone Home, and many others stole the show
when it came to games this year. It was a year for creative controls, in depth story and proved once again that indie games can give the same emotional impact that “AAA“ titles do. But that’s not to say that some big name games didn’t step up to the plate. Rockstar ’s GTA V was the best-selling game of the year and with good reason. Surprisingly, the game came with a lack of controversy. All the GTA titles have been plagued with misleading news reports or over exaggerated testimonies. While this game did have a graphic torture simulation that had the player electrocuting and severely beating a presumably innocent man, the amount of bad news it received was minimal in previous years. What did explode in the gaming news community was the new console cycle. Microsoft (Xbox One) and Sony (PS4) were the highlight of gaming news for the second half of the year. This year showed just how much the gaming community can change a company after Microsoft changed several of the controversial features for their Xbox One following its initial unveiling. Sony has switched pricing and places with its rival company and taken the top spot in sales with a better gaming console. While Microsoft’s original ideas for the Xbox One had some interesting features including a seamless switch be-
Image: Derek Law
tween games that were downloaded into the hard drive, the idea of non-reusable games and a constant online function (even if a majority of anything done on gaming consoles requires online already) was too much for gamers to handle and resulted in the original concept’s demise. Speaking of bad years, EA’s image continued to dominate. EA certainly hasn’t been in the favour of many gamers for the past few years, between their constant consuming and spitting out of development studios and pushing out games that are clearly not ready for release. In a 2013 Consumerist survey, responders compared EA’s excessive use of micro-transactions to Bank of America’s shady deals with hospitals and schools — which is absurd. What’s more, in between poor releases of the latest Army of Two, Dead Space, and Battlefield games, all was forgiven with the resurrection of the Star Wars: Battlefront series. 2013 was more a year for gaming news rather than gaming itself. The internet took the reins this year with both software and hardware announcements. 2014 looks to be a year of next gen mastery with many new MMO games coming to these systems. If there is a technical issue among them, you can bet that the internet’s reaction to such things will continue to stake out its portion of control on the gaming development world.
Write for The Cascade!
Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to meet more people, to get involved on campus, or to add texture to your resume. Maybe you just want to share your passions with other students.
Come see what we’re all about.
Tough Age Tough Age
I think this is the first rap-rock song I was ever really interested in. For a band that regularly covers Weezer songs live, this turn is really surprising, given that it sounds like singer, Chino, is literally spitting raps all over the twinkling riffs and bombardment of bass. Good stuff.
Marianas Trench — “Celebrity Status”
Kurt Vile Wakin On A Pretty Daze
Jay Arner Jay Arner
Deftones — “Back at School”
Limp Bizkit — “Faith”
Savages Silence Yourself
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Did you know they reunited in Vancouver this holiday? Who’d have thought!? I didn’t, and I was shocked when I found out. This was probably their biggest hit, since “Leave It Alone” was too much of a power ballad to quite crack the late ‘90s favorites lists. Both rule.
Email michael@ufvcascade.ca for details, or drop in to our writer’s meeting Monday at 8 a.m. in C1421.
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Film Reviews
The Wolf of Wall Street MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE
“We’re face to face with images all the time in a way that we never have been before. And that’s why I believe we need to stress visual literacy... we need to educate [people] to understand the difference between moving images that engage their humanity and their intelligence, and moving images that are just selling them something.” – Martin Scorsese, writing in the New York Review of Books August 15, 2013 issue “Whip their necks off, don’t let ‘em off the phone.” – Jordan Belfort’s motto, quoted in Forbes article “Former meat broker Jordan Belfort now pushes dicey stocks” More than once in The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) breaks from his heedless, controlling voiceover to acknowledge, briefly coming up for air, that he is aware there are other people in the world outside his head, and that he thinks they are, in one way or another, fools. And he loves them for it. Following the lead set by a mentor (Matthew McConaughy), who in a single lunch scene dazzles and demystifies his entire world, at one point comparing, in an attractively wise way, the ephemeral code of the stock exchange with the actual cash brokers can pocket, Belfort breaks from analysis or explanation of IPOs and investment strategies to say some variation on “you have no idea what I’m talking about, but none of that really matters. What matters is that” either “it was fucking illegal” or “we were making a fucking lot of money.” A number of Scorsese’s mov-
ies thrive, in part, by their necessary incoherance. Not only do they open with detailed entrances into complicated, sealed-off worlds (Casino, with its similar emphasis on “keeping people playing” a loser ’s game, is only one of several earlier Scorsese films that expands and echoes within his latest) where names, numbers, and definitions emerge amid thrilling and/or garish displays of human extremes, but Scorsese also folds in multiple narrators, fades and mixes of fitting or offbeat song selections, and digressions into the past. The Wolf of Wall Street is simpler on one count: Belfort commands attention as a guide through his own life, not just narrating but exciting himself through the act of reliving his ascendancy. By the time we’ve caught up to him though, as the head of a frat-house cult-floor of stock-sellers, there’s reason not to trust Belfort’s explanation, whatever it would be, of his business and pleasure. DiCaprio’s charisma, following
his acts in Django Unchained and The Great Gatsby like a connected trail of lit fuses, doesn’t seek to impress but intimidates his audience with words that code as undeniable humanity. He writes a script, attracts a following, and “knows how to spend [money] better” than his clients do. Despite the movie’s threehour running time, Scorsese has focused this toward something, partly involving giving his source material, Belfort’s memoir, enough rope to hang the system that enables it. Forced to consult the classifieds after losing a job, Belfort lands at the type of business that usually leaves a “for lease” sign within a year, selling penny stocks to people with lottery desires. From here, an established order is set: people either find a common purpose with Belfort’s artillery of sales tactics or get talked into submission. Scorsese’s approach is the exact opposite: while he may be a character that deserves nothing but contempt, that scene with McConaughy
shows a person not terribly unlike the victims that end up as voices at the ends of telephones. He favours water for lunch hour, not martinis, defers on a snort of coke, and genuinely believes his job is to bring about the fiduciary benefit of the people whose trust he has been offered. This doesn’t absolve him, but it does make The Wolf of Wall Street about more than just a rich, ugly person’s plentiful choice of drugs and sex. Scorsese could be, and has been, accused of making the violent, exploitive people he depicts too attractive. There is a point to be made that, while the movie’s diversity of tones struck by its many scenes are a virtue, there are some that do not work very well, hedging closer to Belfort’s leering voice when it’s already been well-established. But what Scorsese is capturing, and what makes The Wolf of Wall Street a difficult film to watch at times, is the rise of an actor, performing to larger and larger crowds until, well, he ends up on a screen.
And he’s good. It’s one thing to see Belfort win over his audiences within the film through misreadings of Moby Dick and of a Forbes article intended as a takedown, and it’s another to see him work a script, Scorsese’s and Thelma Schoonmaker ’s editing choices and DiCaprio’s overworked line readings and mock gestures turning him into a screwball phone savant. What he’s doing is horrible, but it’s a funny talent to see at work. And Scorsese shows both sides, observing the rise of someone able to “get ahead in the world,” and what enables him to get there. There is no ambivalent character onscreen as a “way in” and Scorsese doesn’t present this from the remove of journalism. A few times, the picture breaks into commercials made for Belfort’s enterprises, made with the interpolated lines and different aspect ratio of ‘90s video. It mimics, in the way that Belfort is able to mimic believability when he needs to, an acceptable form of sales, only for Scorsese to then, in one instance, blur between what is fact, artifice, and advertisement, by letting the camera roll on, as if to produce an image of justice with the knowledge such a thing is completely inadequate. The Wolf of Wall Street is 179 minutes, probably cannot be completely recalled and made sense of in one viewing, and cannot be relegated to either the pole of condoning debauchery or didacticism against it — it’s a clear vision of a warped point of view from a director whose body of work continues to explore the space between moral guilt and social ecstasy.
The Desolation of Smaug JEREMY HANNAFORD CONTRIBUTOR
With the Hobbit series, something has felt different about Middle Earth from the first frame. The story feels dragged out, stuffed with material made up along the way, and the characters don’t seem as fleshed out as they were in the Lord of the Rings series. Those same issues continue in Desolation of Smaug. Right off the bat, Desolation of Smaug empties out a store of action scenes, unlike its predecessor. Chilling encounters with spiders, constant excitement while riding barrels through water rapids, and a childish game of hide-and-seek with a massive dragon; Desolation of Smaug does its best to keep the audience entertained despite its narrative stalling. It is evident after the first hour that Unexpected Journey, not Desolation of Smaug, was made with character development. Besides Bilbo slowly beginning to see the effect the ring is taking on him, there is little other change in the 13 dwarves accompanying Bilbo. Desolation of Smaug concludes that if you weren’t able
to remember all of the dwarves’ names and faces in the last film, it won’t help to try and spend more film time on the issue. It does, however, introduce new characters like Bard and Tauriel, as well as reintroducing Legolas. Some could say that his excessive use of CGI has Peter Jackson resembling George Lucas. Much like in the previous film, actual actors in orc costume are increasingly rare. Unlike Lucas, whose
CG use stretches out endlessly, Jackson uses it to help mould the world he is bringing to life in ways that would either be too dangerous or impossible in live action. It certainly builds the excitement when Legolas cuts down orcs, standing on top of two dwarves while they hide in their barrels floating down water rapids. Much like his use of it in King Kong — not to say that he doesn’t overdo it from time to
time — Jackson keeps it under control. While it can be said that the film moves with a quicker pace than Unexpected Journey, there are some scenes that are definitely drawn out. Some are acceptable while others are just out of hand. The outlandish barrel sequence is long but very exciting and humorous. The confrontation with Smaug, however, drags on.
When Bilbo encounters Smaug, the scene is very intense at first, as the massive dragon rises from within a den of gold and bellows in Benedict Cumberbatch’s deepened voice, all fear and malevolence. But what follows afterwards resembles a chase scene from Scooby-Doo. The dwarves run throughout the mountain with Smaug in pursuit, foiling him repeatedly. While the Hobbit novel was meant for young children, it certainly didn’t have something so foolish in it. This confrontation, the movie’s climax, is mostly just filler and it doesn’t solidify the film’s ending. Whether Warner Brothers wanted to split The Hobbit into three or Peter Jackson truly believed he could repeat what he did with The Lord of the Rings, the (watered down) magic is still there, and that’s about it. While it may not envelop as it once did, Desolation of Smaug is certainly the more entertaining of the two films so far. It builds up intensity for the third and final film, but also brings up the question of what Jackson will do with only six chapters left of the book to use.
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
Varsity Sports
Men’s basketball struggles with inconsistency NATHAN HUTTON CONTRIBUTOR
2013 opened with the Cascades holding the fourth spot in CIS’s national rankings, trailing only Acadia University, UBC, and Carleton University (the eventual national champs). The next few months would test the team as they struggled to live up to that high ranking. The men faced their first speedbump only three days after that news, losing a close eight-point contest to the then-unranked University of Saskatchewan. The team continued to slide in the month of January as they split games with the University of Alberta and dropped back-toback contests against the University of Calgary Dinos and the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. The men picked up the slack against easier competition from UBC-O and UNBC but were once again forced into a tough position when they narrowly lost to the University of Regina in double overtime to close out the month. An early February doubleheader against Thompson Rivers University showed off the full spectrum of the team’s strengths and weaknesses: dominant one night, but unable to string together successive victories. The Cascades dominated for the first game, crushing the WolfPack 92-66. But the next day the Cascades crumbled, losing to the same TRU squad 63-60 at the buzzer. The 2012-13 Cascades’ season’s struggles were not because of lack of talent, but lack of consistency. The season closed with a split against crosstown rivals Trinity Western. Although the back half of the
Image: University of the Fraser Valley / Flickr
The men’s basketball team found a way to make the playoffs in 2013 despite inconsistency, and look to do the same this year. season was marred with inconsistency and an ability to put up wins against weaker teams, the Cascades still managed to secure a place in the Canada West playoffs with a trip to nationals on the line. Their three-game quarterfinal opponents were the same University of Saskatchewan Huskies to whom they had lost earlier in the season. The teams traded decisive victories, leading to a third and deciding game, with the winner to face UBC in the
semifinals. With fifth-year Sam Freeman on the bench with a rib injury, the rest of the team picked up the slack. Klaus Figueredo took on a starting position and answered with a team high of 22 points, and Manjodh Dulay added 14 from the bench, leading UFV to a 92-76 victory. This was the last challenge UFV was able to overcome, as losses against UBC and the University of Winnipeg resulted in a fourth-place finish. For many teams this would be a
respectable end to the year, but after being considered fourthbest nationally, it wasn’t the result some had dreamed of. The summer brought about lots of change for the men’s basketball program: the interim title was officially removed from coach Adam Friesen, and the team said goodbye to a pair of graduating stars in Kyle Grewal and Sam Freeman following their five years of play. The 2013-2014 campaign has had a similar feel to its prede-
cessor as the inconsistency bug plagues Friesen’s squad. The team has been unable to win more than two games in a row, and as the Cascades begin the 2014 half of their season with a 5-5 record, they will attempt to find their game on the road on a trip through Manitoba, followed by a return for a key four-game homestand that starts January 24.
Women’s volleyball enters new year tied for first
2013 national champions look to continue near-perfection
NATHAN HUTTON CONTRIBUTOR
2013 was a year for the record books for the women’s volleyball team. Just about every night they could be counted on to dominate the competition, finishing their 2012-13 regular season campaign with a record of 22 wins and two losses, which was good for a first round bye in the PACWEST playoffs. Their first playoff game came against the Capilano University Blues and, typically, was an easy win for the Cascades. Next up was the gold medal game, though as both teams had already secured their trips to the CCAA national championship tournament it had almost no meaning save bragging rights, which UFV claimed, winning three sets to none. The Cascades left from the Abbotsford Airport for the CCAA tournament with one goal in mind: return with the coveted national championship banner. Their first contest was against the Mount Saint Vincent Univer-
National champs last year, women’s volleyball continue to dominate. sity Mystics from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Mystics didn’t exactly lay flat for the Cascades, staving off a sweep by winning the third set 25-21, but UFV finished the game in the fourth, taking it three sets to one and securing a spot in the semifinals. The score was the same against Élans De Garneau from the Québec league, with UFV recovering
from a slow start to win three sets in a row. For their first-ever national gold medal game, the Cascades were up against the host Lakeland Rustlers. The Cascades didn’t waste any time, sending the game to its closing ceremony in three straight sets. In a nearperfect season, UFV won everything it could at the CCAA level.
Image: University of the Fraser Valley / Flickr
The most testing part of 2013 for the program came in the summer as the Cascades said goodbye to Kayla Bruce, who collected multiple awards during her five years, including CCAA national player of the year; Kate Bilodeau; and libero Brittany Stewart. As the 2013-14 season began, the biggest question was how
the Cascades would be able to replace Bruce’s statistically dominant offense and defense (third in the league in kills and first in blocks), and the leadership she, Bilodeau, and Stewart provided. The team has answered with a seamless start to the year, going 12-2, with Jenna Evans and Krista Hogewoning taking the lead on offense and Kierra Noot and Emily Carroll in the top 10 in blocks. 2014 will see the Cascades having to react to their first loss in nearly a year to the VIU Mariners, which also dropped them from first to fifth in CCAA’s weekly national rankings. If the team wants to avenge the knock to their previously flawless winloss record, they’ll have to wait until the playoffs. Until then, they have a road trip that takes them to the end of the month. Their first game back at UFV comes January 31 against Capilano, the start to the final sixgame stretch of the season, all taking place in Abbotsford.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca
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SPORTS & HEALTH
Heat Report
Heat stay atop West Division despite recent losses
Midseason point brings Nemisz trade, Byron recall 2013 season with a fractured left hand, Heat forward Paul Byron has been healthy at the right time this year, getting the call at the end of November to fill a Flames roster spot. The Flames organization has a tendency to rotate their young players in and out of their lineup, giving them a week or two at the NHL level, and then sending them back to the Heat to develop at the minor league level. However, Byron is a different story. Dressing for 16 Flames games since November 28, the 5’7” winger has potted a pair of goals, racked up eight points, and looks to be right in his element playing alongside players like Sean Monahan and Matt Stajan.
TIM UBELS
CONTRIBUTOR
Despite winning a rather pedestrian five of their past 10 games, the Abbotsford Heat sit a single point behind Grand Rapids for the top spot in the Western Conference. Their current position in the standings is disappointing, considering the Heat held the distinction of the AHL’s top team back in mid-December. After dropping a pair of games against the Utica Comets before the Christmas break, where they were outscored 7-2 by the league’s worst team, the Heat have shown some bounce back against Hamilton and Oklahoma City, finishing off 2013 with a three-game winning streak. Jon Gillies backstops Team USA Arguably the Flames’ top goaltending prospect playing outside their system, Jon Gillies recently represented his country on the national stage at the World Junior Hockey Championship. After an impressive start to the season playing for Providence College in the Hockey East conference, Gillies got the call to start for the United States national team, and with the glut of goaltenders at the professional level will likely vie for a spot in Abbotsford next season. Gillies played well in the opening game against the Czech
Image: Clint Trahan
Dustin Tokarski proved difficult to beat for Heat forwards, including recent addition Adrian Foster (40). Republic, stopping 23 of 24 shots and holding off the Czech offense. The United States won 5-1. After a solid three games to start the round robin tournament, the team lost their last game to team Canada, forcing the United States to face off against Russia in the quarterfinals. Gillies made 20 saves in the 5-3 loss, as the United States were eliminated and Russia went on to win the bronze medal. Greg Nemisz traded On December 30, the Heat said goodbye to longtime forward Greg Nemisz, who was traded
to the Carolina Hurricanes for journeyman forward Kevin Westgarth. Nemisz, 23, was the Flames’ first-round selection in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, and had suited up for 15 games with the Flames since turning pro. However, with the emergence of offensive wingers Corban Knight, Ben Hanowski, Markus Granlund, and Max Reinhart, Nemisz was made expendable and was dealt by the organization. The news of the Flames acquiring another black-and-blue player doesn’t come as too much of a surprise considering Brian
Energy, without coffee! VIVIENNE BEARD CONTRIBUTOR
One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions Canadians make is to be healthier. Whether it comes in the form of a gym membership, a boot camp video, or a commitment to leafy greens, it seems that we all have the common desire to be a little healthier each year. Last year I made the goal to exercise at least three times a week. Thinking I was fully equipped with weights and memorized yoga moves, I woke up on January 1 eager to begin. In spite of my eagerness, I quickly realized I had no energy to even start! Feeling sluggish and slow after Christmas indulgence, I put off exercising. The truth is, before I could begin working towards my original goal, I needed a new one. How could I increase my energy so that I actually wanted to exercise? With the winter semester beginning, you may be wondering how to re-adjust to the early mornings and long days that come with being a student. When it comes to boosting energy after a few weeks of a lower level of activity, most people lean towards coffee and its much-loved ingredient of caf-
Image: Vivienne Beard
An easy-to-make smoothie is a superior alternative to coffee every day. feine. As much as a cup of coffee may get you through a night of studying, caffeine is merely a temporary solution to drowsiness. Caffeine acts in our bodies as a stimulant, causing us to feel more awake for a while, but will leave us craving cup after cup,
never giving us genuine energy for the day. Acting only as a stimulant, caffeine gives a false impression of energy and often results in a crash similar to one after having a sugar overload. To truly boost energy and yield effective results that will
Burke is momentarily steering the ship after Flames’ GM Jay Feaster was fired. This is the third trade in under a year where the Flames have acquired an enforcer, with Lance McDermid and Brian McGrattan already joining the Heat and Flames respectively. The only way this trade makes sense is if Flames coach Bob Hartley is looking to replace McGrattan with Westgarth, who is both younger and has a Stanley Cup ring from his time in Los Angeles.
Tokarski gets Bulldogs a pair of weekend wins Hamilton Bulldogs netminder Dustin Tokarski was rock solid against the Heat this weekend, as he thwarted 54 of the 56 shots he faced over the weekend set in Abbotsford. Markus Granlund and Sven Baertschi each scored a goal for Abbotsford, as they lost 2-1 on Friday night and 3-1 on Saturday. The Heat begin their six-game road trip in San Antonio on Tuesday, January 7, and don’t return home until January 24 when they face off against the Canucks affiliate, the Utica Comets.
Bryon gets the call After missing half of the 2012-
last long past lunchtime, there are a few simple things we can change. Caffeine may offer momentary “energy,” but these simple changes, after time and dedication, could have you running from class to class with joy, no coffee necessary. If drinking coffee to wake you up is a regular part of your routine, a slow but steady switch is the healthiest way to go. Instead of cutting out caffeine entirely from the start, gradually replace your morning pick-me-up with more stable, nutritious energy. When we begin the day with a breakfast overflowing with health benefits, it makes it much easier to make healthy choices later on. The next time you make breakfast, think about how you’re preparing your body for the day. Are you setting yourself up to crave sugar by eating pancakes smothered in syrup? What we start our day off with is often what we crave as the day moves onwards. To boost your energy, look at your breakfast in three simple parts. First, include a fruit serving, full of antioxidants and flavor. Next, make sure that protein plays a part. Eggs or yogurt are delicious and offer a plentiful amount of protein. Lastly, try to include one healthy fat, such as roasted nuts in granola or seeds. These three components work together to
give you natural, caffeine-free energy for the day. A common cause of low energy levels in women is a lack of proper iron levels. Iron deficiency in men is much less common, as men’s bodies naturally have a greater amount of iron. Iron functions in our bodies to help deliver oxygen to our cells, and without the proper amount of oxygen, our cells can’t function properly. Although iron supplements are found abundantly in pharmacies and drug stores, boosting your iron levels is often as simple as incorporating certain iron-rich plants into your diet. After all, the supplements contain extracts of these plants. Spinach, beans, lentils, and lettuce are excellent sources of plant-based iron. Next time you’re feeling like you could use a cup of coffee, remember that caffeine only offers a temporary energy boost. Instead, arm your body with powerful fatigue fighters by blending together an energyboosting smoothie. A mixture of a half-cup of spinach, one cup of berries, and a splash of almond milk will give you a powerful and healthy dose of energy without a crash of any kind. Don’t let the bright green colour scare you away; this healthy start to your day couldn’t taste less like a health drink.
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SPORTS & HEALTH
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca