The Cascade Vol. 22 No. 8

Vol. 22 Issue 8

www.ufvcascade.ca

March 5, 2014 to March 11, 2014

Cooking sushi for Kim Jong-il since 1993

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of

Star-cross’d lovers

Take their life.” p. 10-11

SUS wants to introduce a $10,000 scholarship — but why? p. 2, 3

Writer’s festival hits Mission p. 9

2

NEWS News

4

Opinion

7

Culture

14

Arts

15

Sports & Health

19

News

Briefs Chicken manure documentary It happened in summer 2013, but it sparked a citywide debate that still rages in Abbotsford. Now transformed into a documentary, the chicken manure incident was screened at UFV on March 4. Mayor Bruce Banman, whose city council vote defeated the motion for low-income housing for the homeless, was in attendance and a large panel discussion followed. Find out what was said in our next issue.

SUS election results and AGM The election results are in, with the official results to be ratified on March 7. Will those who ran uncontested be successful? Who will represent the students within the seven UFV faculties at the SUS board level?

Follow @cascadenews on Twitter for the immediate results.

As well, the SUS annual general meeting is coming up on March 12, so brush up on the new budget and find out what your student union is up to.

CASA gets results After lobbying the federal government last fall, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) has heard back on two requests regarding student loan funding. The first allows for re-entry visas for international students. They will now be permitted to return home for Christmas. The second request allows for vehicle exemption, which is good news for students at UFV who require their cars to get around. At a recent board meeting the SUS board voted to reinstate our full membership with CASA, after seeing success with the alliance over the last year.

Have a news tip?

Let us know!

Email news@ufvcascade.ca or tweet at @CascadeNews

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

SUS scholarship to the tune of $10,000

The Student Union Society has approved the creation of a SUS-funded entrance scholarship for new students. Where is the money coming from? What are the requirements to win? Katherine Gibson has the answers.

We’re on to you, health fad followers!

Ever since Wheat Belly came out, gluten-free is the thing to be, apparently, but for those who have to eat that way because of celiac disease, the diet is more than just a weight-loss tip of the week.

Interview with a coastal folk musician

The Cascade talks to with B.C.‘s Brett Wildeman before he hits the road for his province-wide tour, A Rocky Road.

Where the stars dine

Well, sort of. Nadine Moedt tries out Langley’s Hilltop Diner’s breakfast menu, the generic restaurant spot for Supernatural, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Fringe, and possibly you!

Gotta know when to fold ‘em

We tend to look at endings (band breakups, series finales, or in this case, athlete retirements) as a bad thing, but as Tim Ubels says in his look at the Heat’s Lane MacDermid’s decision to leave the ice at 24, sometimes it’s the right thing to let happen.

Scholarship or shenanigans?

SUS proposes borrowing from the pub budget line to create an entrance scholarship, but is that their place? Or even a good idea?

DESSA BAYROCK

THE CASCADE

I believe strongly that students should support one another.

This is why, every year, I’m one of those rare and weird people who is 100 per cent fine with paying the student fees attached to tuition. I happily pay the U-pass fee despite the fact I only use it a few times a month at best. I happily pay the SUB fee despite the fact I will never step inside the completed building while still a student. I happily pay the health and dental fee despite the fact I have never drawn on that reserve for anything, nor do I expect to. I happily pay the SUS fee because it goes toward a variety of services I believe are important, despite the fact I don’t use many of them. Emergency grants. The community food room. Hosting events. Other people need these services, even if I don’t.

But SUS recently decided to do something with their student fee earnings that I vehemently disagree with.

They’ve decided that from this year forward, they’ll award a $10,000 scholarship to a UFV student.

On the surface, this is a really nice thought: students supporting students. But it begs a couple of questions. What is the need for this scholarship?

Where is the money coming from?

There are answers to these questions, which is where SUS and I begin to disagree.

First of all, this scholarship is intended to fill the place of Volume 22 · Issue 8 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

what would be called a “president’s scholarship” or “excellence scholarship” at another university. It’s an entrance scholarship geared toward students with a high grade point average (GPA) and a plethora of leadership and volunteer experience.

You know what? That sounds great. That sounds like something UFV should offer to new students as one of the trappings of a competitive university. This is where the SUS arguments flourish: the recipient of this scholarship is going to be a leader on campus, involved in the community, and supportive of the students around them.

And here’s where the SUS argument falls short — because other universities that offer this type of scholarship fund it themselves. They don’t rely on the student union to do it for them. This might be a wonderful carrot to offer new students, but should it fall on UFV and not SUS. Every time the topic of this scholarship hits the SUS board table, reps like Thomas Davies are quick to defend it; after all, this scholarship is an expression of SUS’s mandate to support students. That’s certainly true. But the bigger question remains: is it the best expression of that mandate? Let’s face it — it’s not exactly original to set scholarship criteria at high GPA and leadership qualities.

The sort of students who qualify aren’t likely to be hurting for cash; there are a plethora of scholarships designed exactly with that demographic in mind.

To put this into another perspective, a little less than eight per cent of SUS’s total budget is allocated to grants and scholarships — about $45,000.

This means, at least in part, that any student in dire financial straits can run to SUS for help. Why not tack the $10,000 onto that budget line, to go toward students in need? Those are the students SUS should be supporting — not students who are receiving all the support they need elsewhere.

But perhaps most interesting to me is where SUS plans to get this scholarship funding from.

AfterMath.

The campus pub has a long history of sucking up funds, and has suffered from optimistic predictions in the past. Last year, then-manager Brad Ross said he only needed $80,000 to keep the pub running smoothly for a year; that funding reached a critical level by November, and the SUS budget was effectively gutted by a student-driven motion in order to keep the pub open at all. That was the third year of unrealistic predictions, and SUS swore it was the last one.

So what the hell are they playing at now?

But this year is different.

This year AfterMath has an operating budget of around $130,000 — plenty of room to play around in. Davies says AfterMath has been running consistently under budget this year and won’t need as large a subsidy next year.

But hold on just a tick. How has AfterMath been running under budget?

They raised their prices, no

News editor jess@ufvcascade.ca Jess Wind

News writer katherine@ufvcascade.ca Katherine Gibson

Opinion editor brittney@ufvcascade.ca Brittney Hensman

Production manager stewart@ufvcascade.ca Stewart Seymour

Culture editor valerie@ufvcascade.ca Valerie Franklin

Art director anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi

Arts editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt

Production assistant production@ufvcascade.ca Kaitlyn Gendemann

Varsity reporter nathan@ufvcascade.ca Nathan Hutton

Photojournalist blake@ufvcascade.ca Blake McGuire

Staff writer nadine@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt

Contributors Vivienne Beard, Martin Castro, Jeremy Hannaford, Aly Sczebel, Kayla St. Louis, Jeffrey Trainor, and Tim Ubels

Staff writer breckles@ufvcascade.ca Taylor Breckles

Cover image Anthony Biondi

longer including tax in the price of alcohol. They’re no longer open on Fridays, despite the fact that closing severely limits the food options on campus. They’ve hired students as managers and assistant managers, paying an hourly wage instead of a salary. Initially starting the school year with weekly pub nights on Thursdays, now the pub closes at the regular hour unless a student group books an event. They’ve started charging student groups — and SUS! — to use the space, quoting staff wages in their reasoning.

That’s a lot of ways to cut costs. Or should I say corners?

Ultimately, SUS predicts they’ll be moving the pub into the Student Union Building next year and saving additional costs that way. This may prove to be true — but what if it’s not? A new space may point to higher revenue, but does not guarantee it.

Yet SUS is comfortable using those predicted savings to start a scholarship program. Those predicted savings may never appear, and while building a scholarship is a nice thought, it isn’t even their responsibility in the first place.

I support students, and I know SUS does too, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

After all, it’s a nice thought.

But that’s all it should be: a thought.

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, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Some assembly required BFA graduate students crowd-fund final show NADINE MOEDT

THE CASCADE

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) graduates may not get the funding they need to put on their grad exhibition this year.

This graduating class is UFV’s largest ever, with over three times the average number of students crossing the stage this June. Generally, six to eight students complete their BFAs every year; this year that number has spiked to 23.

Now, BFA students have decided to take matters into their own hands.

A campaign on GoFundMe launched last month, with hopes of raising $3000 for the exhibition.

According to the site, the money would go toward supplies for creating the works displayed, catering, entertainment, fees associated with presenting the students’ works, and advertising for the show.

According to BFA graduate candidate Jackie Cunard, who started the online campaign, the increase in graduating students is random.

“It’s taken a lot of the graduates a number of years to get the classes they needed to graduate,” Cunard says. “Things just kind of lined up great for everybody this semester.”

Financial complications arise when it comes to putting on a graduate exhibit for so many students. There is uncertainty about whether or not the university will be able to provide

Image: UFV BFA Grad funding video

BFA students are trying almost anything to raise money. the necessary funding for the traditional graduate exhibition.

“With so many students graduating, the cost of the show has gone up exponentially, so we’ve been having to find other funding options,”

Cunard says.

The show, called Some Assembly Required, describes the nature of the exhibition on a number of levels, according to Jason Peters, visual arts students association (VASA) treasurer and graduating BFA stu-

dent.

“It applies to every aspect of our show ... the fact that there’s so many of us, [and] that it’s an assembly of people from various disciplines,” he says.

“It also works with the fact that we have to assemble these

funds [for the show].”

For BFA graduates, the exhibition is a vital part of graduation, Peters says. It gives graduating BFA students the opportunity to consider how their work will be viewed by the public.

“Our work and graduating projects are like our exams,” Peters explains. “Since our exams are actual objects that can be viewed, it’s necessary to exhibit them ... The exhibition is a chance to display the culmination of advancements we’ve made over the years. Our masterpieces, if you will.”

The BFA silent auction, which closed on March 28, it provided another stream of fundraising for the exhibition.

Cunard is worried the auction may not be as lucrative as it has been in past years due to the inclement weather. In previous years the auction has raised up to $3000 for the graduating class.

The Student Union Society has also granted funding in the past for the BFA graduation exhibit, as well as for other final shows, including the theatre department’s Director’s Festival, the fashion design department’s fashion show, and the graphic design department’s final show. The BFA graduate students have yet to approach the Student Union Society for funds and remain unsure about how much the university will be able to contribute.

Students show up to talk; Dion says show up to polls Former Liberal party leader Stéphane Dion would like to see the same enthusiastic, engaged response from youth in election DESSA BAYROCK

THE CASCADE

After speaking to a crowded pub of students, former Liberal party leader Stéphane Dion said he was impressed by both the turnout and the engagement he saw from students.

Dion was brought to campus as part of a new SUS speaker series spearheaded by VP academic Kristianne Hendricks.

Dion is the second speaker to come to UFV and present a lecture to students.

“I was impressed by the number of students and how much they were focusing,” he said after the lecture ended. “It was not difficult for me to reach them. I didn’t have to make jokes to keep them awake. They were very focused on the seriousness of the issue.”

Although Dion came to speak primarily about the issue of climate change, he also counselled students at university to sit up, pay attention to the political world, and most importantly to vote, regardless of party.

“I would like you to vote — to cast your ballot,” he urged, “and [to] consider seriously the content of what politicians are

proposing, not only the image.

“Tuition fees, post-secondary education, the environment, economic growth, social justice, and the role of Canada in the world — it’s what I would like to [bring to students’ minds],” he continued. “So I never miss an opportunity, as a former professor of university, to accept this invitation to speak to students.”

He sees rocky waters ahead for his party in the coming election, but says this encourages him even more to push to earn the Liberal party a stronger foothold in the Canadian caucus.

“I think we have momentum,” he said. “But it’s hard work we have for the coming year. We can’t underestimate the Conservatives. I think they are not governing well — but they’re campaigning well.

That’s an issue for us, especially when the vote is split … the conservatives, with 30 per cent of the vote, might win the next election.”

With files from Eric Skonberg

Image: Blake McGuire

Stéphane Dion visted UFV to speak about climate change last week.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Science on Purpose

Forget Cupid’s arrows, scientists control bug love with laser TAYLOR BRECKLES

THE CASCADE

Ever wanted to control the movement and mating habits of flies? Scientists have discovered the secret — a heat laser.

Using a technique called thermogenetics, the courtship of flies can be controlled with the flip of a mental switch.

“We used a warmth-activated cation channel … to activate [entire circuitries] via a temperature shift,” researchers said in “Turning Males on: Activation of Male Courtship Behaviour in Drosophila Melanogaster.”

Optogenetics — the science of triggering neurons with light — has been successful when tested on mice, and is not used on flies because of their size. The process works by implanting a fibre optic cable in the animal’s brain, and the flies are simply too small.

In addition to their small size, most wavelengths of visible light are unable to penetrate the exoskeleton of a fly, which would impede the cable’s ability to function.

To get around the light inhibition, researchers began using heat, which has no problem getting through the exoskeleton. By adding a heat-activated protein to the neural circuits of flies, behaviours such as mating and decision-making can be controlled, therefore enabling humans to perform a kind of mind control.

Image: Anthony Biondi

Scientists have pretty much literally invented a love ray. The bad news: it only works on flies so far.

Not only can flies be directed to become infatuated with other flies, but with inanimate objects as well. Some were directed toward a small ball of wax, to which they began performing typical courtship gestures.

“Courtship steps observed included unilateral wing extension and vibration, probos-

cis extension, abdomen bending and attempted copulation … and ejaculation,” researchers said.

To deliver the heat in an observable atmosphere, the scientists shone an infrared laser at a fly’s head while using a video camera to track its movement.

The fly could therefore be trig-

gered and its natural courtship behaviours could be monitored without interference.

Even after the laser was shut off, the fly continued to demonstrate the behaviours for another 15 minutes, which suggested to the scientists that the courtship was a complex and lasting behavioural state when

initialized by heat.

By using lasers, it could be possible for researchers to control interactions between multiple flies or activate behaviours such as running backward or forward.

SUS looks to implement $10,000 entrance scholarship for UFV Student union intends to pull money from the AfterMath budget line to fund annual entrance scholarship for students who demonstrate leadership, volunteerism KATHERINE GIBSON

THE CASCADE

UFV students are no stranger to the financial burden of education.

In the hopes of easing this financial burden, the student union society has created a $10,000 entrance scholarship that will cover the tuition and residency cost of campus life for one incoming UFV student each year.

Currently, UFV does not offer any major entrance scholarships, a fact SUS representative-at-large Thomas Davies notes was one of the main reasons behind the fund’s creation.

“We realize that there’s nothing like this [currently] at UFV and it’s something that we feel very strongly that we should be doing,” Davies says. “[SUS] should be supporting students — that’s our mandate.”

But how does SUS plan to support such a large scholarship within their budget?

Davies explains SUS has

progressively been able to decrease its subsidy of AfterMath, freeing up money that would have once gone directly to the student pub.

“Over this past year we’ve become more efficient, so we won’t need as much money to subsidize AfterMath next year,” he says. “Because it’s going to be losing less money, less subsidy is required, which leaves more money available within the SUS budget for other funding areas to support students.”

Davies also notes that SUS expects to see other forms of revenue coming in with the opening of the new SUS building; revenues that could potentially go towards further maintenance of the scholarship.

He declined to elaborate on what, exactly, these forms of revenue would look like.

While allocating $10,000 to one student is the original intention of the board, a motion was recently submitted for the upcoming annual general meeting to split the scholarship

into two $5000 scholarships.

However, Davies maintains that this suggested alteration is in no way the intention of the board, as it would defeat the intended purpose of the scholarship.

“We have not broken [the scholarship] down and we have no intention of splitting the funds into two $5000 scholarships. Doing so would undermine the fundamental goals and benefits of this,” Davies notes.

“This scholarship is intended as the premier entrance scholarship to UFV,” he says. “That includes the cost of tuition, residence, and other associated things, and … that’s just not possible on $5000.”

This scholarship will use $10,000 of student money, each year, to fund one individual’s education.

Davies encourages students to recognize the benefit of bringing leaders, which the scholarship will be designated

for, to UFV’s campus.

“It’s a part of citizenship and being involved, and a part of the community that we’re in.

We really have a duty to support UFV students as a whole and that’s what this comes down to,” Davies says. “[The benefit] is not just for the person receiving the award, it’s everyone who is going to be touched by their leadership involvement and how they improve the campus.”

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

#ThingsSUSdoes

Student apathy at the core of SUS board meeting discussion The next SUS regular board meeting will take place on March 7 on the Mission campus.

KATHERINE GIBSON

THE CASCADE

Proper notice of board meetings for membership?

Rep-at-large Jay Mitchell spoke to his motion, which would call board meetings out of order should students not be given proper notice of the meeting.

“Rather unfortunately, it occasionally happens that [meeting] information is not properly [publicized] to [students],” said Mitchell, “and I don’t think a meeting should be able to continue if the membership has not been properly notified.”

Davies noted that this motion would not change anything, as the board is already able to call meetings out of order when protocol is not followed. However, Mitchell maintained the motion was less about change and more about “reinforcing the idea” of informing the student population.

BCSA president Jennifer Martel also spoke, explaining that she has been confused more than once about when board meetings were occurring. She suggested SUS should post board meetings on their online calendar and use social media, saying that many students search out most of their information online.

“Obviously [using social media] is not going to solve student apathy; we’ll never be able to necessarily solve [that],” Martel said. “But it does show that SUS is working toward that.”

SUS president Shane Potter agreed, expressing that he believed SUS was “a victim of [its] current structure.”

“I believe that within the new structure [and] with our engagement officer,” Potter noted, “this will be a problem that we rectify.”

Potter proposed the motion be tabled to the governance committee and the board agreed.

The board also tabled a motion regarding the use of “to be announced” (TBA) when announcing meeting locations and times. The motion was aimed at encouraging the board to make their meetings more accessible.

Motions concerning student health and appreciation Rep-at-large Jay Mitchell brought forward a motion asking the board to lobby UFV administration for a fall semester reading break.

He noted that some universities have now implemented an additional reading break to address mental health issues facing students, such as stress.

Potter motioned that the issue be tabled to advocacy, to which the board unanimously voted in favour.

As well, Mitchell brought forward a motion asking for bi-monthly student appreciation nights.

“I think that [SUS] should more frequently show [its] appreciation to our membership and I believe that student appreciation nights would do that,” Mitchell explained.

“Whether it be providing coffee for people to get together and just chit-chat, or it be something, like an ‘80s rager neon party — we can leave that up to the events committee, but I think that we should appreciate our students more regularly.”

Davies motioned that the board table the idea to the events committee, and the board agreed.

Motion to extend nomination period Rep-at-large Jay Mitchell proposed a motion to the nomination period for SUS positions was brought forward — the hope being that with an extended amount of time to participate, more students would become engaged with the student government process.

“It is an affront to our democracy,” Mitchell said, “when we have 10,000 to 15,000 students any given semester and we have one person running for a position.”

While Davies acknowledged the benefits of the motion, he also noted that the change would take time and research.

“It’s not something that I will expect governance committee to be doing very quickly — it will take a bit of time,” he said.

Potter agreed with Davies, but also noted that extending the time was more of a “patch solution,” asserting that the core of the problem was more to do with student engagement issues — an assertion that was agreed upon by the board.

After extensive conversation, the motion was defeated, though Mitchell maintained that an important point had been made — low student engagement with SUS is an issue at UFV.

SUS upgrades to full CASA membership The SUS board decided to upgrade to full membership status with the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) when their associate membership status expires after the current board term.

VP internal Greg Stickland spoke in favour of the motion, explaining to the board they would either have to upgrade or leave the organization. Stickland went on to note the benefits of remaining CASA-affiliated, stating that CASA is a powerful tool and ally for the board.

Mitchell also spoke in favour of a full CASA membership, saying, “It [is] quite refreshing to see such a positive and pro-active stance” towards the organization.

The board voted unanimously in favour of this motion, making the student union a full member of CASA once the current board term ends.

Proposed budget for 2014/2015: no discussion Rep-at-large Thomas Davies presented the proposed operational budget for 2014/2015.

Elements included $438,407 being allocated for student services, which is comprised of things like AfterMath, student clubs and associations, Weeks of Welcome events and SUS grants.

Also notable is the change to AfterMath’s operating budget, deceasing from $130,000 to $100,000 this coming year.

With no discussion, the board was unanimously in favour of the budget, carrying it to be voted on at the March 12 annual general meeting.

Funding requests: D-fest, Big Bang, portfolio funding, and conference fees The theatre students association (TSA) submitted a request to fund its annual Director’s Festival. The finance committee recommended partial funding of $1495, despite the theatre student association’s (TSA) request for $7500 to host the event, a fixture of local theatre. Davies addressed the large discrepancy between the funding request and the board’s recommendation, explaining that TSA’s request had included the salaries of UFV faculty members.

“The main reason the finance committee took [the funding] down rather heavily was that included in their budget was salaries for UFV staff members, and this is something which the finance committee does not support putting the money toward,” explains Davies.

“That’s something that we feel UFV needs to figure out.”

During board discussion, many members brought up concerns regarding whether the event would be able to run properly with the reduced funding. Mitchell questioned the time-sensitive nature of the request, explaining to the board that he would rather wait for more information before voting on the amount of funding. Potter echoed this sentiment, motioning the board to table the request until their March 7 meeting.

Also discussed was a funding request for the third annual Big Bang event, hosted by the science student associations. Initial confusion about the request prevented the board from discussing funding during the

February 21 meeting. However, the finance committee came back to recommend granting $3,657 to the event’s organizers.

Davies explained that with the board funding and the three partnering science, physics, and CIS student associations putting in $1,000 of their automatic funding, the event would have enough funding to run properly.

The graphic design department also received funding, albeit reduced from their request. Despite requesting $3000 to help host their grad portfolio exhibition, the SUS board chose to grant $1200 to the event.

Davies said that the partial funding would still help the graphic design department run the event.

The board also granted the graphic design department $790 toward a book-binding seminar.

David Seymour, a student wishing to present a paper at the Quebec University English Undergraduate Conference, requested $850 in funding from the SUS board to help fund his attendance.

Jay Mitchell spoke in favour of supporting this request, thanking the finance committee for “finally heading in the direction of sponsoring individual students.” Mitchell went on to state that, “there have been times in the past where [these requests] have been shot down,” and commended the board for moving towards more support of individual UFV students.

The motion was passed unanimously by the board.

6

OPINION

OPINION

SNAPSHOTS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

This week’s theme: 20 going on 90

Grouchy-pants

Is anti-violence antiquated?

Martin Castro

Taylor Breckles

Katie Stobbart

Dessa Bayrock

More and more I find myself and others using a variation of the phrase, “Wait, what we are talking about?” or “You’re totally going to have to repeat everything you just said.”

It’s not because I have amnesia. I can spout off soliloquies from movies I’ve watched at the drop of a hat and remember pages of dialogue and prose from books I’ve read, or lyrics I’ve heard, but if you put a gun to my head and demand the street name of the UFV Abbotsford campus, nine times out of 10, without quick access to a map app, I’d be dead.

Yet, much like some of our elderly citizens, I have been subject to sudden, vivid bursts of lucidity when it comes to recalling things I’m not even remotely interested in.

Still, without my smart phone calendar and contact list, I would probably end up starving to death in a city full of people, food, and replacement phones. The moral of the story is — and I’m sure many of you can agree — if you lose your phone, death will surely follow.

Being grouchy is one of those unfortunate elderly quirks. What’s less fortunate is that I share this idiosyncrasy, though I am barely considered an adult. The elderly grouch about young people, having nothing to do, and unpleasant textures in their food. If you add the unfavourable endurance of the early morning — that list wraps me up.

Picture it now: a beautiful sunny morning, birds chirping, children laughing, and the rickety wooden door swings open to an 18-year-old girl shouting at the little ones to “get off my lawn!”

The whole concept of growing old and developing those special elderly quirks is becoming increasingly understandable as I age. The elderly are completely right in not wanting strange kids on their lawns or being grouchy about what’s become of the world.

It may sound ridiculous coming from me, but mornings come far too early and I will stubbornly maintain my grumpy old self as long as they persist at such an evil hour.

“I have played a video game!” I protest.

It’s true — I’ve played Mario. He even lasts longer than five seconds before going over a cliff now, which is a vast improvement over my early play.

For the most part, however, I’m not interested in video games — especially violent ones. I don’t, and hopefully never will, understand the so-called pleasure of sitting comfortably on a couch with a controller in my hand, hitting a button and watching someone crumple to the ground.

I don’t care if it is an imaginary person. I don’t care if it is an enemy. There’s nothing comfortable about violence, and I won’t pretend there is.

Some video games I don’t mind — Wii Fit and Mario come to mind. I do understand a need to be distracted. But for me, war is not distracting; it’s disturbing and horrific.

Yet I’m afraid my opinion is not exactly popular in my own generation. When I shrug and confess the limitations on my gaming experience, I often get a look that says, What are you, 90?!

I’m 22. It’s Friday, and most of my age-group is out getting drunk. Good for them. But you know what I’m getting? Tired. It is 9 p.m. and I am tired.

Remember or die

Time for a nap

Popular television has led me to believe that your 20s are supposed to be filled with drinking, partying, and adventure. Where does an early bedtime factor into that image?

Exactly nowhere. But somehow I’ve wrangled it so that my drinking happens before the sun goes down, my partying consists of staying home with Netflix and cheap beer, and my greatest adventure is putting on my pajamas while still in public.

And I love it.

I’ve barely passed the two-decade mark but I feel more like I’ve passed the twocentury mark. I’ve decided I can’t wait to be an old person. Having naps is normal for an old person. Going to bed at 7 p.m. is normal for an old person. Nobody begrudges old people their sleep. Why go to the bar when I could be safely ensconced in a duvet nest?

I think the choice is clear.

If everyone on the internet shows psychopathic traits, what should we do next?

ASHLEY MUSSBACHER

THE CASCADE

Those of us who frequent forums or venture to scroll down and read the comments on a YouTube video know exactly how to pinpoint an internet troll. Trolls keep their identities completely anonymous, and the only comment they leave on a thread is almost always followed by a lengthy chain of heated replies and retorts. They never respond to any of these, and in the bottom of the reply chain the profiles who originally directed their snappy post at the troll have ended up fighting with each other.

Hilarious, right?

If you think so, you may show signs of sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, according to a new study done by Dr. Erin E. Buckels (UBC) called “Trolls just want to have fun.” In her study, she explores internet behaviour of cyber trolls, calling these personality traits a “dark tetrad.”

When I hear words like sadism, narcissism, and psychopathy, I think of a serial killer or a whitepadded room. The scary thing is, there’s a thin line separating a normal individual from an everyday

sadist.

In an interview, Buckels explains the line between the two is sometimes blurred and must be acknowledged.

“Some find it hard to reconcile sadism with the concept of ‘normal’ psychological functioning, but our findings show that sadistic tendencies among otherwise welladjusted people must be acknowledged,” she said. “These people aren’t necessarily serial killers or sexual deviants but they gain some emotional benefit in causing or simply observing others’ suffering.”

In my hopefully-not-too-sadistic mind, there’s a clear difference between a cyber-troll who leaves one baiting post on a controversial forum or YouTube thread, and an internet bully who constantly bombards an individual with abusive comments.

Take, for example, the suicide of Hannah Smith in 2013. Smith hung herself in her bedroom in Leicestershire, because she was being cyber-bullied on a questionand-answer website. According to the press release by The Guardian, anonymous members of the website tormented her with insults and asked, “Can you kill yourself

Image: Oiliver Huffschir/ flickr

“These people aren’t necessarily serial killers or sexual deviants.” already?”

I am not condoning the behaviour of the cyber-bullies, only pointing out that the use of the terms “troll” and “bullies” should not be used interchangeably. Bullying, through the internet or otherwise, is a targeted and sometimes premeditative offence. Trolling is opportunistic and often random.

Cyber-bullying is an increasing problem, but when it comes to the internet we are typically at a loss for a solution. This stems from the fact that most of us don’t under-

stand how the internet works.

In response to the death of Smith, for instance, parents rallied to “tackle websites like Ask.fm,” according to The Guardian. Ask. fm is not the problem. It’s a basic question-and-answer website people sign up with to meet people, like every other social networking environment. The closure of a single social networking site (or many for that matter), only treats the symptom — not the cause.

People are the cause. In a country where free speech is valued and

social networking is abundantly popular, silencing an internet audience would be as easy as trapping smoke in a fist.

I think we’re starting to grasp that idea as we trek into 2014. Unfortunately, we don’t focus our attention on building a strategy to protect victims; instead we point fingers at everyone who we suspect fits Buckels’ everyday sadist model.

On February 18, 2014, the Globe and Mail published a story which recapped the study’s findings.

Pulling a quote from “Trolls just want to have fun,” they ended on a bit of a sour note: “Consequently, antisocial individuals have greater opportunities to connect with similar others, and to pursue their personal brand of ‘self exploration’ than they did before the advent of the internet.”

I’m starting to see flashbacks of the witch-hunts from the Medieval era here. Since when did “antisocial individuals” become the targeted potential everyday sadists?

It’s the ages-old war between extroverts and introverts again. I thought that division was a myth.

Then again, I also thought we were in 2014.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Snowmageddon Bad weather, or bad attitudes?

KAYLA ST. LOUIS

CONTRIBUTOR

It seems like almost every year in the Lower Mainland, we get one good dump of snow late in the winter season. In a fairly mild climate, it’s pretty rare we ever see more than an inch or two accumulated — but when the flakes fly and build up over a few days, there is frantic pandemonium.

After last weekend’s sizeable snowfall, UFV faced a predicament Monday morning: keep campuses open, or shut everything down?

There isn’t really a middle ground on this matter, is there?

We all know what happened from there: UFV kept campuses open and classes running on what could be argued was the worst day of this season’s winter flurry fury.

To the dismay of stressed students who had to commute or write midterms on Monday, Tuesday followed with closed campuses for the entire day when conditions had improved. Like any mature adult would, folks decided to weigh in on social media, commenting on both the school’s Facebook page and the UFV website bulletin.

When I first clicked the UFV bulletin myself, I went there looking for the latest update on weather conditions and what this meant for the

school, but as I read, I stayed for the entertainment. What started as a fleeting glance quickly evolved into periodic breaks from studying to catch the latest updates from students and faculty. I was no longer concerned with the weather or conditions. I was drawn to these posts like on-lookers driving past a bad accident on the highway, those who are intrigued by the damage. The bigger the mess, the longer and harder they look, trying to take in as much of the morbid scene as possible.

And what a mess it was. There was a hell of a scene on the UFV bulletin Monday night. Some students weighed in with concerns of safety, midterms, traffic accidents, and road conditions. Those who braved the commute provided updates of the conditions, and others provided less-than-polite views about UFV’s policies, decisions, and maintenance of parking lots and sidewalks. Then of course, there were those who made claims like, “snow tires are all you need,” and “the weather was not that bad; stop being such babies!”

F-bombs were dropped, people slandered each other and the school, and the issue reflected the weather less and less. Would you seriously speak that way to your professors or administration? How

Image: UFV/ flickr

The snow was bad, the roads were worse, but were we that upset? Or were we just looking to complain? about the dean? I know I wouldn’t, regardless of how strongly I felt.

This behaviour is disrespectful, rude, and only succeeds in making you look inconsiderate. Frankly, not the type of person anyone wants to spend time with. Come on guys, this isn’t high school anymore. Leave your attitudes at the door.

While I didn’t personally understand why UFV stayed open

Gluten-free is more than a trend

on Monday, I kept my bleeding mouth shut and waited for the next update. Yes, I had some strong thoughts on the matter, but expressing my disdain in the heat of the moment wasn’t going to accomplish much. Sure I’d feel better — at least temporarily — but in the long run? I have a hard time believing the posts I read on the UFV bulletins were entirely about the weather or the university’s proto-

col for dealing with weather. What I saw in most of the posts actually reflected the bad attitudes many students have in general, and under dire circumstances as this one those attitudes really show through.

It’s time to grow up, UFV.

Letters to the editor

ALY SCZEBEL

Re: I’ll give you a hand

“I’ll have that gluten-free, dairyfree, egg-free, wheat-free, soyfree, and corn-free please — oh, and did I mention I’m vegan?”

It seems everyone has one of those friends — well, acquaintances — who absolutely love to draw attention to what they are eating, or rather what they are not. They love to shop at overpriced grocery stores like Whole Foods, and turn up their noses at anything that isn’t “local.”

They generally love to overzealously share their opinion — which you didn’t ask for — about your food choices, and they certainly do not hide their disdain when you forget and accidentally offer them a piece of bread to go with their free-range-organic-chickenand-rice-noodle soup.

I know far too many members of this group, and unfortunately get lumped in with them because I have a autoimmune disease called celiac.

It’s not a fad or a trend, and it’s certainly not a lifestyle choice — it’s my life. Before I was diagnosed with celiac disease, some of my most enjoyable meals consisted of a good glass of craft beer and a hearty piece of french bread.

I’ve since learned to live without.

Celiac disease causes my immune system to cross-react with the tissue in my small intestine — I’ll save you the delightful details, but Wikipedia sums it up nicely: “The only known effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.

While the disease is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, it is not the same as wheat allergy.”

So as much as it bothers me, I

Dear Editor, As a former undergraduate overachiever, I empathize with Katie Stobbart’s dream (I’ll give you a hand, but I’m not going to carry you, February 26, 2014).

Her secret fantasy is a classroom where the professor groups students by how engaged they are, rather than lumping strong students with weak students to pull those weak students along.

After almost five years of teaching at the post-secondary level, including over three in the Communications program here at UFV, I have some news for you, Ms. Stobbart. You’re absolutely right.

Perhaps my first experiment with the method of grouping high participation students together and putting low participation students in other groups came as an emotional response to my undergraduate experience, much like the one you’ve expressed. However, I’ve noticed a lot of benefits from taking this approach, both with traditional and online classes.

First, the strong students thrive and receive the intellectual engagement for which they are thirsting. That’s what you’re mostly after, it sounds like.

But there’s a fortunate surprise in this method, too. When low participation students are grouped together, they quickly realize that there’s nobody to lean on. Instead of coasting, they begin with a conversation where their group realizes that none of them are prepared for the task at hand and then they go through the steps of trying to come up with a solution. Even if it’s not imme-

CONTRIBUTOR

Image: GFAF expo/ flickr

“Celiac disease is not a fad, and it’s certainly not a lifestyle choice.” have learned, when I sit there and listen to someone go on and on about how they aren’t “eating gluten,” to take a deep breath and bite my tongue. The reality is, the more obnoxious they are about what they eat, the more obvious it is to someone like me — the crosscontamination queen — that they have no idea what they’re talking about.

It’s the loud ones who go out for sushi and dump soy sauce on their salmon roll — GLUTEN! It’s the loud ones who buy the $6 bag of GF, DF, EF packaged cookies as a “healthy option,” and don’t bother to read the label on the back that says, “may contain gluten,” — or the various other processed ingredients that aren’t good for you — GLUTEN! It’s the loud ones you run into in the lunch room eating a burger — GLUTEN! If you ask me, cutting gluten out of my diet changed my life. It made me feel healthier in almost every area. Would I recommend

minimizing your wheat intake?

Yes. Eating more vegetables, and being aware of and avoiding unnatural ingredients? Yes and yes!

Would I kill you for a doughnut right now? It’s very possible.

I need to eat the way I eat because when I don’t, I’m hurting my body. Celiac disease is not my master status. It is not my soap box, and it is not my anthem. Food is just food, a medium for socialization and community. It can bring people together and comfort us when we’re sad. It’s an outlet for creativity.

But again, unless you have a severe health condition, food is just food. It should not define who you are.

So, for all you obnoxious gluten -free band-wagon jumpers — put down your french fries, they are cross-contaminated. I promise.

Image: bluenews.org/flickr

diately of high quality, they contribute more and learn more than they would have by coasting on the strengths of high participation students.

There’s another benefit of this method, too. Low participation students start participating more.

They start asking questions because they need to and because they start valuing the process of being engaged. Formerly low participation students start pulling up some of the more reluctant in the crowd and I often finish with a classroom where the number of low participation students has dwindled and the number of high participation students has grown.

At first, there are some growing pains in using this process. But more importantly, there’s growing.

Sam Schechter, Instructor Communications Department University of the Fraser Valley

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OPINION

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

What is your favourite Leonardo DeCaprio role?

Feel like sharing your short-andsweet opinion? Keep an eye out for our whiteboard-toting pollsters roaming the halls.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

SUDOKU PUZZLE

CROSSWORD Spring is coming

by KATIE STOBBART 1

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EclipseCrossword.com

ACROSS 2.

4.

6.

7.

8.

10.

A bulbous cousin of the iris, among the first to bloom in spring. (6) Popular symbols of this holiday, and the season, are eggs and rab bits. (6) Time to lose an hour of sleep; hope you don’t have an essay due the next day. (8,7) As the season begins, you might want to write a poem celebrating the rural landscape! (8) To make merriment or gambol about playfully. (6) At the advent of spring, some follow this European folk tradition and dance around this. (7)

Answer keys Last week’s crossword

Sudoku solution

ACROSS 1 DEMONYM 4 DEMOCRACY 6 DEMOSS 7 DEMOISELLE 8 DEMORALIZING

DOWN 1.

2.

3.

5.

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This is a great (usually outdoor) place to buy local produce and wares. Abbotsford has one downtown. (7,6) This festival is a Japanese tradition, but is also celebrated in North America, observing the emergence of sakura trees. (6,7) Essentially plant embryos, and some of these are edible. (5) Pertaining to spring — for example, the equinox. (6) The 15th day of March, May, and July in the ancient Roman calen dar. (4)

DOWN 1 DEMOGRAPHICS 2 DEMONSTRATION 3 DEMOBILIZE 4 DEMON 5 DEMOLITION 6 DEMOTE

The Weekly Horoscope Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: Pretend that every day this week is Friday. Seriously, aren’t you about due for a bender?

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: Purchasing a blender this week will prove a wise choice when your appliances come alive and attack you. Little known fact: blenders are intensely loyal. Yours might just buy you enough time to get away.

Aries: March 21 - April 19: If you plan to go to Europe this summer, practice safe Sussex.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20: If you walk into the SUS office this week, they will give you a job. Seriously. They’re desperate.

Gemini: May 21 - June 21: Your co-curricular record is secretly trying to steal your soul. Act accordingly.

Star Signs from January Jones* Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: Your destiny is to combine the pattern of plaid with those big glasses that hipsters like so much. You stand to make millions, but only if you sell from your basement.

Anything else is too mainstream.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22: The colour heliotrope is your spirit animal.

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: If you hear the phrase “March Madness” more than 20 times this month, your eardrums will burst. That’s one down.

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: Your soulmate will have blue eyes and donate work to next year’s BFA grad auction.

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: You stand to get into at least three grad schools, but only if your thesis revolves around zombies.

Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept22: After a lifetime of honey consumption, the bees are finally coming for you. Construct a bunker.

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: Putin has his eye on you. *No, not that January Jones

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CULTURE FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

“When someone says Romeo and Juliet, you don’t imm

By Jess Wind Photos courtesy UFV Theatre

The green room at UFV’s theatre campus is a smorgasboard of donated items, well-loved and inviting. At first it’s quiet: someone reading, someone cuddled under a blanket on the couch. But before long the room is full. People crowd into the room, introducing themselves by name, role, or responsibility. Geneva Perkins, Nurse; Melissa Harris, lighting design; Luke Stevens, Benvolio; Ron Jackson, sound design. It’s a mixture of current theatre students and alumni, siblings and spouses. In a few months they will take to the stage, but at this point they’re all just family.

“Want some Chinese food?” Stevens offers. “That’s how it works here.” He points to the plates and splits his chow mein.

Before long, we are all ushered into the studio space by stage manager Stephen Wilhite. Tables are arranged in a square and everyone begins to take their seats.

I’m not expecting much out of the first read-through; it’s just a chance to get an idea of who’s whom and how the adapted script feels on the tongue.

“I don’t believe in just reading. Give it all you’ve got,” says director Paul Gélineau. He wastes no time setting the standard for the actors in the room, breaking down my expectations. As it is Gélineau’s first show with UFV, he’s finding challenges in bringing the professional world of theatre and the academic world together. He notes the obstacles posed by student schedules and urges the cast toward industry terminology, correcting “swing roles” to “ensemble cast” and “gender-bending” to “cross-casting.”

In the reading, Liam Archer asserts himself as Lord Capulet, Stevens nearly crawls across the desk as Benvolio, Eli Funk proclaims his instant, undying love for Juliet — each actor will grow far beyond this first impression, but the fabric

UFV Theatre takes Shakespeare to post-apocalypti of the characters we all know is there. It is still Romeo and Juliet.

“Romeo and Juliet and pretty much all the Shakespeares have been done in every context, and every season, and every time frame,” Gélineau says. “What I was looking at was trying to figure out a way to tell the story to make it accessible to a younger audience and to give it a contemporary sensibility.”

The show is set in an ambiguous time frame, after an unmentioned disaster decimates society. The world is rebuilding, relationships are being reconstructed, and social order is being reinvented.

The word “post-apocalyptic” is used liberally, but is never overtly mentioned in the script. Actors are pushed outside their comfort zones to places that feel natural in the world they are creating.

“I never expected to be doing most of the things I’m doing in the show,” says Ashlyn Tegg of her role as Mercutio, laughing. “I’d like to think my character is very different from who I am in real life, let’s put it that way.”

The design presentation meeting is the moment of truth when actors find out how little fabric they will be wearing, and who will be keeping their hair. Tegg gets a faux-hawk, and for Dylan Schroeder ’s Paris — leatherotics.

“I’m going to talk about leatherotics,” says costume designer Catrina Jackson. “I wanted to hint at why Juliet is being sent to be with Paris and we thought maybe he’s doing it as blackmail ... is he wanting her as his sex slave? I don’t know.”

The design for the show has developed over the course of many months, with some starting on their ideas as early as October and spending countless hours looking for inspiration on Pinterest.

“Everything is whimsical. There’s a lot of line work in my design; the Montagues are very swooping and the Capulets are

straight,” says makeup and hair designer Delaney Bergstrom.

Jackson goes on to note the basic elements of her design that distinguish between the two families.

“All the Montagues are the neutrals — greens and browns and dirt. They’re very dirty people. I kind of thought of them as the slum ... Lord Montague and Lady Montague are the slum lords,” she says.

“The Capulets are in control of fabric houses now; [they] have the money and power [for] new clothes.”

Then there’s the scaffolding. Romeo and Juliet is UFV Theatre at its most minimalist. This production uses only five units of scaffolding, either two or three storeys each.

And they’re on wheels.

“We spent two whole rehearsals just going over the scaffolding transitions,” says ensemble member Ally Schuurman.

“My hands were raw.”

Two rehearsals is nothing compared to the week the cast spent learning how to avoid killing each other during the choreographed fight scenes. Gélineau is one of eight certified fight masters in Canada, and with his apprentices, he brings a heightened level of danger to Shakespeare’s text.

Perkins points to a scar.

“This is from an umbrella,” she laughs.

Other weapons include axes, machetes, chains, knives, tonfas, threatening garden tools, and something they call a “hook-chete.”

Noel Funk is responsible for the show’s prop design and was able to sum up his idea into one word: badass.

For the rest of the design team, the goal is to make every moment count. Harris wants the audience to notice the lights in the same way they often notice the set or costumes, something Perkins describes as unsettling.

“I feel like it’s going to be a sensory experience. There’s a lot of really interesting lighting choices that are definitely going to take people a minute — it’s very jarring.”

Jackson wants the sound to complement the set in a way that doesn’t remind us we’re watching a play.

“My goal is to create a very ambient soundscape with non-distracting music that really just melds into the play ... kind of underscores everything that’s going on without distracting from the action,” he says. “I don’t want people to notice specific things as jumping up, but I want them to take the whole and say, ‘Wow, the effects in that show were great.’”

It’s one thing to design a Shakespeare show in a different setting, in a different time with an extreme amount of combat, but Gélineau took it a step further, doing a new adaptation of the script.

“Over the last 400 years people have adapted it and shortened it [or] kept some parts exactly the same,” he says.

“There are so many versions and adaptations to steal from, and I’ve stolen from quite a few.”

Gélineau and the cast and crew worked for months to deconstruct Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, only to put them back together again in a setting more fragmented and threatening than ever before seen on a UFV stage.

“I think it’s important in an academic institution for people to understand that [Shakespeare’s] text, the scripts that we read, are blueprints,” Gélineau says. “We get creative teams, and the artists are the ones that make the building and we ornament it and colour it in a way that we think best tells that story.”

With files from Katherine Gibson.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE FEATURE

11

mediately think dubstep grind-core”

ic heights “Their impending doom is coming. We as an audience know that, we as the artists know that; we know that this is leading to their death.”

Balcony: Wikimedia commons, Texture: M Fortune/Flickr

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

The mystery of the muse Exploring the origins of inspiration at the Mission Readers’ and Writers’ Festival

Image: Ashley Mussbacher

Writer-in-residence Daniela Elza reads beneath a cluster of recycled-plastic snowflakes.

KATIE STOBBART The Cascade

Heavy clouds mustered overhead, promising snow. A huddle of students squinting against the wind made for the front door of UFV’s Mission campus, clutching notebooks and pens. From the outside, the school appeared fittingly vacant for a Saturday morning. Inside, students and community members alike gathered in a bright and warm room to participate in the seventh annual Mission Readers’ and Writers’ Festival.

The festival began at 10 a.m. and ended early at about 3:15 p.m. There were three workshops to choose from in the morning (on creative process, memoir, and song-writing) and three in the afternoon (generating writing through prompts, slam poetry, and chapbookmaking). Daniela Elza, UFV’s writer in residence, was featured as keynote speaker, and shared some of her poems as well as her thoughts on inspiration and writing.

“What is the muse?” she pondered aloud, noting that inspiration does not always come easily. “It is a lot of work to write.”

The intimate audience of about 60 listened attentively as Elza, almost ethereal swathed in a lilac scarf, drew them in with the cadence of her words. Even her speaking voice sounded like poetry.

“Writing,” Elza said, “can be like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing what a needle looks like.”

Above her head, snowflakes made of recycled six-pack yokes swayed gently, foreshadowing the flurries ready to tumble from the sky. Considering the festival’s unofficial theme seemed to be “inspiration,” it seemed fitting that a white storm swelled outside, ready to burst.

While Margaret Evans gave her workshop on memoir and local musician Cathy Hardy spoke of finding voice through poetry and song, I attended UFV English professor John Carroll’s

workshop, “The Big Bang Theory of Creative Writing.”

In the workshop, Carroll shared his own struggles with “the muse” from his early experiences as a writer to the present day. Then he facilitated conversation among workshop attendees on the subjects of inspiration, writing process, and balancing writing projects in a busy lifestyle.

“I don’t know if I have within myself the key to unlock these secrets,” Carroll said. “What I think of this to be is an opportunity for us to talk and to inspire each other.”

Some of the advice that emerged in the workshop was to play with language, to find the joyful element of writing, and to write every day — even if the writing isn’t always brilliant.

“I can think of myself as a writer, but I’m not a writer if I’m not writing,” Carroll said, explaining that he resolved at one point to write one poem per day for one year. He had kids at the time, he was busy, and sometimes he would fall asleep with the pen sliding out of his hand, but he wrote every day. One year turned into eight. He held up some of his notebooks for us to see, paged through them to show sheets filled with poems and prose tightly packed into the space. Much of it is raw and unpolished, Carroll said, but it gave him material to work with.

Lunch was provided as part of the entry fee ($40, or $20 for students), and after everyone had lined up for subway sandwiches, fresh fruit, and beverages, the midday presentations began.

Hardy shared her own brand of Canadian folk music, first gently strumming a ukulele, then allowing her voice to ebb and flow a capella.

The slam poetry workshop saw the return of Zaccheus Jackson, a spoken-word poet from Vancouver, from last year ’s festival. Though I enjoyed his workshop last year and would recommend it again, I decided to attend Elza’s workshop, “Wading into the Swamp: Get-

ting Messy with Writing.”

Elza began by exploring attendees’ reasons for writing.

One woman described her motivation as “to find out who I am and to leave something of myself behind.”

“I write so the thoughts and images in my head don’t drive me crazy. It’s a small head, there’s not enough room,” another attendee laughed.

Helene Littman, who is a member of the festival committee, said she initially began writing to gain a voice, but now she feels compelled to disrupt things.

“It has to feel a little bit risky,” she said.

Elza then dove into the swamp metaphor, eliciting feedback on a place that is messy, vivid, and full of secret life beneath the surface — just like writing. The workshop also centred on two exercises. The first was to write your life story in three sentences. The second was a free-write, after which everyone divided into pairs to share the results of the prompt “getting lost.” The listening partner was to write down what most stood out in the other person’s stream of consciousness. It was often a powerful image or human element that captured the listener ’s interest. UFV student Kodie Kaban shared his free-write with everyone; he had played with the links between “lost” and “loss.”

When the afternoon sessions wrapped up, everyone gathered again for the drawing of door prizes, which included everything from coffee to framed artwork to a free haircut.

Just as the festival came to a close, someone pointed out the windows on the far side of the room. The first fresh specks of snow were drifting down. It could have brought everyone back to the pressures of their busy lives, and the anxiety of having to start the week yet again plagued with poor driving conditions and all the frustrations that accompany snowfall.

Instead, the weather seemed to parallel the fresh, unique flakes of inspiration drifting into the minds of all those who had come to get in touch with the wonder of their own creativity.

Upcoming

Events

March 5-8 Oklahoma!

Singing, dancing cowboys!

Fraser Valley Stage presents Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! at the Abby Arts Centre. Set in the early 20th century, this spirited American musical tells the classic story of a cowboy and a farm girl who fall in love against all odds.

Tickets available online at fraservalleystage.com.

March 5-23 UFV Theatre presents Romeo and Juliet UFV’s theatre department brings Shakespeare’s most famous love story to life for the third time — with a postapocalyptic twist. Featuring the directorial work of awardwinning fight director Paul Gélineau, this unusual adaptation of Romeo and Juliet promises a fresh and thrilling take on the tragic story of star-crossed lovers. Advance tickets available online through UFV’s website.

March 8 Hat-making workshop Learn how to design your own hat in a single day! Join fashion instructor Margaret Blackburn for a millinery workshop in room D105 on the Abbotsford campus. The workshop will run from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A suggested supply sheet can be provided, or interested students can purchase the necessary supplies from the instructor.

Workshop cost is $110. Call 1-888-823-8734 to register.

For more information, contact margaret.blackburn@ufv.ca.

March 10 Film: The Birdcage

Image: Ashley Mussbacher

UFV president Mark Evered and writer in residence Daniela Elza both attended the festival.

UFV’s social work students and the Fraser Valley Youth Society have partnered to present a screening of this important 1996 comedy, which addresses issues of crossdressing and sexuality. The film starts at 6 p.m. in room B101, and will be followed by an open discussion about modern myths surrounding the LGBTQ society. Entrance by donation. Light snacks and refreshments will be sold to raise funds. All proceeds from the event will go to the Fraser Valley Youth Society.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Fetishes, kinks, and paraphilias, oh my!

HAMARTIA JONES Sexpert

My boyfriend likes my feet. A lot.

I’m not saying he wants to fuck them. He doesn’t even need to lick them or rub ice cubes on them or what have you. (I’m so ticklish that he’d probably get kicked in the face if he tried).

He just likes them. It’s not that my wide feet are so irresistibly sexy that no man could keep his hands off them — trust me, they’re not — but there’s just something about feet that really rustles his jimmies.

That’s an example of a mild paraphilia — that is, the sexual objectification of things not usually considered sexual. Paraphilias are mostly divided into kinks and fetishes, and there’s a subtle but important distinction between the two. According to New York’s Museum of Sex, a kink is a paraphilia that heightens the sexual intimacy between partners; a fetish is one that replaces it. My boyfriend’s foot thing? Definitely a kink. A guy who buys a pair of sexy high heels and spends some quality alone-time with them behind locked doors? That’s a fetish.

Foot fetishes are actually considered pretty tame these days. As you probably know if you’ve ever spent any time at all on the internet, the number of paraphilias out there are practically boundless; pretty much anything you can imagine has turned someone on at some point. Cliffs, sneezing, leg-shaving, birthday cakes, amputees, mirrors, balloons, wasps, rubber boots, armpits, and feathers are all well-documented fetishes.

And those aren’t even the tip of the big, sexy iceberg. (Hell,

Image: Creative Commons Attributed

Fetishes and kinks go way, way back. Just ask these ladies. there’s probably a fetish for icebergs out there somewhere, too.)

Thanks to the internet, subcultures and communities have formed around many fetishes and kinks. The most prominent one is probably BDSM, of course — bondage and discipline,

Dominance/submission, sadism and masochism — which has become such a huge movement that some people wrap their entire sexual identities around it. The leather fetish community has also become a popular subculture associated with the

BDSM movement, and even has its own flag. There’s even mechanophilia, the fetishization of automobiles, which has become popular enough that some enterprising soul has even created a soft, fuckable, Fleshlight-like device that plugs into your car ’s fill spout. Filling your tank just took on a whole new meaning.

Food fetishes are also common — and I’m not talking about your typical aphrodisiacs like oysters or chocolates or candied rose petals. One gentleman in my acquaintance can’t get a hard-on unless he eats blue jellybeans, like his own corn-syrupy version of the “little blue pill.”

Another guy I know gets fired up by wasabi. That’s right — the spicy green paste that comes with your bento box gives him a happy.

Then there are diaper fetishes.

Scat. Golden showers. But I can’t write about those without much, much more wine than I have at my disposal. Another time, gentle reader.

Another important thing to note is that most of the research in this area is focused on men’s desires and fetishes. Ladies’ sexuality, as usual, is sadly underrepresented.

So where does this all come from? Why do we find certain objects, body parts, places, and individuals so erotic? Perhaps it has to do with the taboo nature of the fetishized object — for example, feet are usually seen as dirty, untouchable, and nasty, yet according to the International Journal of Impotence Research, they’re also the most fetishized part of the body. Coincidence?

Alternatively, some psychologists surmise that traumatic events such as spankings in early childhood can lead the individual to eroticize the event as

a method of coping. But other researchers, like the Kinsey Institute — the same group that brought you the famous Kinsey scale of hetero- to homosexuality — note that paraphilias can also begin later in life for no apparent reason. No one agrees on one single reason to explain why we find certain things sexy. Fetishes are unpredictable and inexplicable, which is why they’re so fascinating.

Sadly, they’re also taboo.

Plenty of people never speak up about their kinks to their partners out of fear of being seen as a freak or dumped, and lead halfhearted, unfulfilled sex lives as a result. If this is you, I hope you have the courage to speak up. I hope you look in your partner ’s eyes and confess all, and I hope she smiles and says, “Sure, sweetie, you can try putting it in my armpit,” and then you’ll know that it’s true love.

If we were all that relaxed and open-minded about sex, we’d be a much happier society.

But sometimes having a kink or a fetish is something to be concerned about. Is it ruining your ability to have a functional sexual relationship? Is it interrupting your daily life? The DSM-V, the holy bible of psychologists, makes a distinction between paraphilias and paraphilic disorders. According to the DSM-V, a paraphilia only becomes a disorder if it causes the individual distress or impairment, or if it causes harm to others.

I like that definition. As long as it’s not hurting anyone, go to town. Enjoy what you fucking enjoy, fuck what you enjoy fucking, and apologize to no one.

Or, you know, maybe it does involve hurting someone. As long as that’s their kink.

Black currant scones with lemon cream Black currant scones

Image: Annie Mole / Flickr

VALERIE FRANKLIN The Cascade

It’s early March. It’s cold. It’s dark. You’re dreaming of summer: fresh blueberries by the handful, the smell of sunscreen, warm grass between your toes.

Sorry, readers; we still have a few more weeks of winter ahead of us. But if you’re craving a taste of spring, try this recipe for warm black currant scones topped with spoonfuls of custardy lemon cream.

The tart, bright flavours will make you forget all about the slush and frost outside.

Throw a tea party for some friends on a rainy spring day, serve these with a pot of hot Earl Grey tea, and you’ll feel like the Queen of England. Or, you know, King.

2 cup flour ½ cup sugar ½ tsp salt 2 ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda ¼ cup butter 1 cup milk or water 1 cup dried black currants, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained Preheat your oven to 400°F. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and the butter.

Pour your soaked and drained black currants in, then add the milk. Blend the mixture just enough to moisten the flour, but no more. If the dough is still dry, add a teaspoon or two of milk or water, but be careful — a wet dough makes a tough scone.

Moving quickly, use a spoon to drop scone-sized lumps of dough onto the tray, or cut out cylinders of dough with a floured cookie cutter if you prefer a more uniform look.

Drop the biscuits onto a greased or lined baking tray so that the scones aren’t touching. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the scones are lightly golden around the edges.

Makes about a dozen large scones. Best served fresh, but leftovers can be frozen or stored in an airtight bag or Tupperware to keep them from going stale.

Lemon cream Zest of 1 large lemon ½ cup lemon juice 1 egg yolk 3 eggs ¾ cup sugar ¼ tsp salt 1 cup butter Fill the lower half of a double boiler with an inch or two of water. Bring it to a simmer.

In the top of your double boiler, whisk together all ingredients except the butter, and keep whisking as it heats up. As with all custards, this recipe is a bit tricky and requires your full attention. You have to stay with it. Don’t let it sit or get too hot, or the melted sugar will cook the egg and make it lumpy.

Whisk the mixture over the simmering water for 10-12 minutes, or until it thickens to a custard. If you’re worried about the egg being cooked properly, check the temperature with a thermometer; it should be above 180° F. Remove the top half of the double boiler so that it’s no longer being heated. Stir the butter into the custard so that it melts, then allow the mixture to cool to a safe temperature.

You’re done! Spoon the custard onto the warm black currant scones, pour yourself a cup of tea, and enjoy.

Can be stored for four or five days in the fridge... if it lasts that long!

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Fashion Forward

That Thing You Do: taking a fashion cue from the swinging ‘60s BRITTANY HENSMAN

There was a reason why covering your ankles was a requirement for modesty among women in the Renaissance era. Who knew the ankles could be so enticing?

The Cascade

Have you ever watched a period piece movie or TV series from an era you admire? Every now and then, there’s that one actress who, full of grace and poise, steals the eyes of the audience — AKA, me — with her classy look.

Well, this season I’ve found myself admiring the simple but ever-so-chic attire of “Faye”, a character played by Liv Tyler in one of my favorite films, That Thing You Do. The film is set in 1964, but Faye’s outfit would translate to modern times perfectly: skinny black cropped slacks, a hunter-green wool sweater, a simple bangle clasped around one slender wrist, and soft curls folding over her shoulders. To finish it off, she stares into the camera with doe eyes and a smile of pale coral. So simple. So elegant. Oh Faye! I want to be just like you!

But what makes this look so enticing? Why is it so pleasing to the eye? The answer is this: her casual sweater-and-slacks look captures the elegance of the female form without bringing a dress into the equation. It enhances some of the most feminine areas of a woman’s body

Taking a look at the fashionable characters in your favourite films can be a great way to get some new style inspiration. while still being modest.

First, let’s look at Faye’s hunter-green sweater. Now, when I say sweater, I do not mean hoodie, cardigan, or throw-over.

A “sweater” in the ‘60s meant a form-fitting, long-sleeved, crewnecked top in a thicker fabric like angora or light wool. What makes this piece so timeless is the quality of the material and the cropped sleeve, which hits just above the wrist bone. This elongates the arm and gives it

a slender appearance. Also, it accentuates the wrist bone — a very attractive part of the arm.

Next, we have Faye’s skinny cropped slacks. Don’t get scared off by the word “slacks.” I usually envision wide polyester dress pants with the crease down the middle of each leg when I hear this word, but in the ‘60s this was merely a term for what we call “pants” today. Now, the most important aspect of these pants is their ankle-length cut,

sometimes referred to as “flood pants.” Think of your modern skinny jeans or pants, but with a small crop or cuff at the ankle bone — again, a very flattering bone. Hey, there was a reason why covering your ankles was a requirement for modesty among women in the Renaissance era.

Who knew the ankles could be so enticing?

Faye’s bangle is another essential part of her outfit. It really doesn’t take much when it comes to accessories — less is best and gold is better! Generally, the matching trio of earrings, necklace, and bracelet is too much; you can end up with a potpourri of accessories that not only clash with each other, but can distract the eye from the rest of your outfit. And if you want your accessory to pop on its own, choose a metal that corresponds with the shade of

your outfit. If you already have a solid colour on your shoes, top, or lips, stay away from anything too colourful.

Faye’s elegant hair and face add the finishing touches to her perfect ‘60s outfit. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with aspects of her look like the high ponytail, long swooping bangs, and “bump-it” puff at the crown of the head.

The ponytail is easy: just tie it up, add a few curls or waves with your curling iron, and finish it off with a spritz of hair spray. The swooping bang obviously requires an overgrown side-bang. If it can fit behind your ear, it’s the perfect length — just don’t keep it there! The bump-it puff requires lots of backcombing and hairspray to keep it in place, but gives you great volume.

Finally, colouring your lips is the cherry on top. Whether coral, pink, ruby red, or dark plum, a splash of lipstick will make your smile pop! Just dial down the eye makeup if you’re going to be showing off your lips, and be sure your lip colour doesn’t clash with the rest of your outfit.

Brett Wildeman takes raw coastal folk music across B.C. VALERIE FRANKLIN

What themes do you see recurring in your work?

It’s hard to say. My friends say my music is very political. When I look at it, I guess political and environmentalist themes do come up a lot, but it’s just what I felt like writing at the time.

The content of my songs really depends on the kind of people I’m hanging around, too. I’ve travelled around the province and I’ve also spent some time in Wales, and everywhere I go, I meet different people who affect me in different ways. My songs reflect those places and those people.

The Cascade

Musician Brett Wildeman has grown up surrounded by folk music and forests. Hailing from the small Sunshine Coast town of Roberts Creek, his free-spirited acoustic guitar and charmingly rough-aroundthe-edges vocals are inspired by B.C.’s rugged coastal wilderness.

His one-week tour, A Rocky Road, is kicking off in Langley at the Watershed Arts Cafe on March 7, and from there will wend its way through the Kootenays, Fernie, Field, and Kamloops. Tickets will be available at the door for each performance.

His latest album, Mother Earth, was released in July 2013 and is available on Bandcamp or on his website, www.brettwildeman.com.

The Cascade asked Wildeman about the upcoming tour, his unique sound, and the earthy roots of his inspiration.

How would you describe your music for someone who’s never heard it before?

I call it “raw coastal folk.” I don’t want to just say “folk,” because whenever someone sits down with a guitar and starts singing, they call it folk, but that doesn’t really describe it. I can definitely say that I’ve been really influenced by the Sunshine Coast where I grew up, especially the Celtic music. I’m also influenced by the environment around the small town I grew up in, Roberts Creek. I’m definitely not a city person, I know that.

What instruments do you play?

Guitar mostly, sometimes uku-

Image: Courtesy of Brett Wildeman

Wildeman’s most recent album Mother Earth keeps it simple with heartfelt lyrics and an all-natural acoustic sound. lele, and once in a while I play harmonica. I started playing music in third grade, but it’s only been the last couple of years that I’ve gotten serious about it. I usually perform solo, but sometimes I’ll have friends backing me up on other instruments or drums.

What is it you like so much about that folky, acoustic sound?

It’s hard to say. For one thing, with acoustic music, you can tell right away what all the instruments are. You can listen to it and say, “That’s a piano,” or

“That’s a trumpet.” With electric music, you sometimes get these weird sounds that don’t really sound like anything. I’ve been listening to lots of hip-hop recently, but even then, I tend to like the stuff that samples a lot of piano or old jazz tracks.

But you know, I’m warming up to electric. If I had an electric bass player with me, I would love that. I wouldn’t mind getting into a more electric sound.

It depends on what equipment I have, who’s around, what I feel like. We’ll see what comes along.

Who’s coming with you on this tour?

There’s a girl with an amazing voice from Langley named Krystle [Aspenlind]. And there’s another lady called Goodnightmare from the Kootenays who’ll be joining me for some of the tour.

How has your style evolved over the last couple of years?

It’s definitely more melodic.

That’s what I’m hearing from people. I think I would agree with them, especially because it’s easier for other people to notice a difference than it is for me.

What advice would you have for an aspiring musician?

Stop talking about it and do it!

I don’t just want people to talk about how much they want to do something, I would like to see them get up and do it. That’s where I was a couple of years ago. You have to take that first step.

There’s also this great podcast

I listen to called “DIY Daily,” and the guy behind it, Brian Thompson, he said something that stuck with me. He said, “Remember why you started.” When I was organizing this tour, there were a bunch of things that weren’t going right. Remembering what he said helped me keep going.

You have to remember why you started, and why whatever it is you do makes you happy.

What else do you do in your spare time besides making music?

I love taking pictures. I’ve also done some freelance writing for a mountain bike magazine. You know, when you love something you find a way to work it into your writing — music, food, you name it. For me, it’s riding my bike, snowboarding, just being outdoors.

What has your biggest struggle been in your development as a musician?

My voice. Definitely my voice, and developing my ability as a singer.

Are you happy?

Happy making music? Definitely. I’m doing what I was dreaming of. I got up and I’m doing it.

Do you have anything else you’d like to tell the world?

Ride your bike and make music!

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Dine & Dash

Hilltop Diner NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE

23904 Fraser Highway Langley, British Columbia Hours: Prices from $6 to $16 The rowdy table next to us described Hilltop diner as “like Rocko’s, except without all the drunk people.”

It’s an apt description; the Langley restaurant looks so much like your typical smalltown diner that it has been used for scenes in over 20 movies and TV shows. Fringe, The Butterfly Effect, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Robert Redford’s 2012 film The Company You Keep, and Supernatural have all set up in Hilltop.

The restaurant has been open for 67 years, giving it ample time to perfect the pie that has become a bit of a talking point for Langley and Aldergrove residents. Hilltop’s seating area is cozy and the waitresses are always on hand for refills of coffee or tea. It’s the type of place where everyone appreciatively eyes food as it comes out of the kitchen.

To start, I opted for an egg sandwich on sourdough bread — you get a choice of the typical variety of breads — with hash browns. The hash browns are more like fried mashed potatoes and green onions. More of a lunch type of side, but it makes for an interesting change from the limp, butter-saturated fare at places like IHOP.

Sit down for a reasonable lunch or an inexpensive breakfast, served with a side of fried potatoes, nostalgia, and carbohydrates.

The sandwich was pleasantly lathered in mayonnaise, the egg cooked well enough to avoid the gross possibility of a runny white.

Breakfasts range from about $6 to $13, with an interesting variety of combos for meat-lovers and vegetarians alike. Quantity and quality go hand in hand.

Lunch is a little pricier, from about $10 to $16. Those who tackle the scary “Everest burger” — made of three 5 oz. patties,

bacon, baked ham, farmer sausage, cheese, and all the typical toppings — get their picture taken on the Everest wall of fame.

Breakfast ends at 11 a.m., with a small all-day breakfast menu that includes the classics.

The lunch menu has a surprisingly large selection. Burgers, fries, and sandwiches are all there, but if you’re looking for something a little different, they also offer spicy chili, salads, poutine, grilled cheese sandwiches,

and a daily soup made in-house.

The pie is the real draw. We chose a chocolate banana cream out of a giant selection rattled off by the waitress. And it was perfect; the crust was a chocolate graham, the filling divine. A giant slice à la mode is $7.50 and well worth it. Pie for breakfast?

At Hilltop, it’s a must-try.

However, your window of pie opportunity is limited; Hilltop is only open from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Image: Hilltop Diner Cafe/Facebook

Hilltop is certainly not the place to visit if you’re looking for something light; the excess calories are hard to avoid. However, they don’t serve the Denny’s sort of comfort food, where you feel a little guilty after indulging — Hilltop is an experience you won’t regret. If you’re looking to “treat yo’self,” Hilltop is the place to go.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Cascade Arcade

The push and pull of LocoCycle JEREMY HANNAFORD CONTRIBUTOR

Mini Album Reviews

SoundBites

LocoCycle is one game whose development kept my interest over the past two years.

I first saw a small preview at PAX 2012, then got to play a short demo at PAX 2013. The game looked like a great arcade game, but constant delays in production led to the unusual choice of developing the game primarily for the Xbox One. Last week, I saw the game was available on Steam (steampowered. com) and bought it for the cheap price of $9.99.

Now I want my money back.

Before I get into too much detail, I want to make something clear. I really wanted to enjoy this game and tried to stay interested, but a lazy attempt of porting the game over resulted in my distaste for it.

The control layout was still mapped for an Xbox controller.

They could have done a quick image redo in Photoshop and we would have controls for PC. But even that wouldn’t really help because all the button prompts that appear are for an Xbox con-

Unwillingly along for the ride, IRIS’s mechanic Pablo has his pant leg stuck to her chassis and is being dragged behind. When I asked a member of Twisted Pixel at PAX how Pablo wasn’t a tornup piece of human flesh after the first level, he responded, “It’s a secret.” I will keep with the silly tradition, but it’s nothing extravagant.

That’s what you feel throughout LocoCycle. Its gameplay is not very complex and doesn’t give much variation.

On the side of story and character, I found the opening dry but soon the game picked up and became entertaining. The overthe-top action and humorous quips between IRIS and Pablo produce several laughs, and the enemies, while simplistic, are fun to combat.

Despite the game’s relatively short length, most of the appeal wears off quickly. Much like a phone game, LocoCycle was unable to hold my interest for only a short time before I remembered I had better games to play.

LocoCycle definitely tries to catch your attention with wacky antics — whether the somewhat

enjoyable live-action cut-scenes, or the ridiculous idea of a motorcycle hovering over a highway for long periods of time while fighting flying robo-men.

The first boss-fight between IRIS and Spike, the evil chopper voiced by Robert Patrick, is intense and hilarious. The battle’s mix of puzzle-like movements and quick-time events was a moment of exactly what I was looking for in this game. But shortly after, the old control roadblock reared its ugly head again.

I needed to repair IRIS by bringing two wires together. But they needed to be brought together simultaneously, and since hitting both direction keys cancels each out, I could not pass this scene. This brought up my previous feelings about what a lazy porting job this was.

LocoCycle is a game that has big build-up and crummy execution. Most of its stages add up to a game that will lose your interest and become another forgotten game.

troller. It can be confusing during the quick time sequences when ‘A’ means shift key and triggers mean the ‘R’ key.

Aside from terrible controls for a PC port, LocoCycle is rather simple. You play as IRIS, a

supercomputer / motorcycle that has become self-aware and escapes from her makers. The levels consist of driving along various highways and using speed, machine guns, and melee combat to fend off attackers.

Bombay Bicycle Club So Long, See You Tomorrow

New Bums Guided by Voices Motivational Jump- Voices in a Rented Room suit

Hockey Wyeth Is

The British four-piece alternative band Bombay Bicycle Club have been indie darlings since their first release I Had the Blues and I Shook Them Loose in 2008. Their newest release So Long, See You Tomorrow is the group’s fourth studio album and is their most complex and eclectic output to date. The album’s 10 tracks take influence from multiple genres and contain a plethora of sounds, many of which aren’t usually applied to North American music (best heard on the songs “Feel” and “Overdone”). Lead vocalist Jack Steadman plays the role of tour guide through this ever-changing landscape of sound. Steadman’s voice, (occasionally accompanied by fellow British artist Lucy Rose) floats over of each song, tying the varying musical styles together through his soft and subtle vocal delivery. Though So Long, See You Tomorrow can be hard to take in at times due to the incredibly dense musical layers, it’s hard to deny the record contains hooks and rhythms that will be stuck in your head for weeks on end.

The process of transferring a melody or an idea for a tune into an actual song can often times be a long process. For someone like myself, that process can take a few months per song. On the other hand, Robert Pollard, lead singer of the prolific Guided By Voices, has proved time and time again that he can pump out a whole album in that same amount of time. Pollard retains his charming songwriting on Motivational Jumpsuit, with tracks like the tongue-in-cheek “Writer’s Bloc (Psycho all the Time).” He seems to have to no filter when it comes to output, releasing hundreds upon hundreds of songs every decade, leaving it up to the fans to pinpoint their favourite tracks and construct playlists. Motivational Jumpsuit is the fifth studio album released by GBV since their 2011 reunion, and its frenzied pace and short tracks makes it an manageable entry point for anyone who’s curious about the band’s reputation of arena rock tropes with lo-fi production. This 20-song collection (running only 37 minutes from start to finish) is by far their best output since reuniting, and demonstrates the heights this band can achieve.

Unlike all those other bands out there with unique names, there is one that calls itself Hockey. Even if it were just for their name, I would be legitimately interested. Hockey infuses their indie rock sound with tricks from the ‘80s, but too much of a great thing sometimes becomes detrimental, and that’s the case here with their sophomore release, Wyeth Is. This album is a departure from their first release, the sophomore slump common to many indie bands attempting to show their breadth. While Hockey’s first album was excellent with a lot of contemporary pop, Wyeth Is has many similarities to The Police, which should be amazing. But Wyeth Is becomes difficult to continue to listen to after just one play through. To put a finger on it, I would attribute this to a lack of differentiation between songs. On its own though, an individual Hockey song can be great.

The first half contains the majority of those. If I had to choose just one, it’d be “Thought I Was Changing.”

Jeffery Trainor

Tim ubels

Voices In a Rented Room is the finished product of a psych-folk collaboration between Ben Chasny from Six Organs of Admittance and Donovan Quinn from Sykgreen Leopards. Under the moniker New Bums, Chasny and Quinn form a simple Americana style of songwriting, with striking lyrics about the end of the world interwoven with beautifully crooked melodies. The duo opts for a Simon and Garfunkel approach, with Quinn harmonizing over Chasny’s lead vocals on almost every track, instead of trading lead vocals back and forth. It’s disarmingly loose and off-the-cuff with its sparse instrumentation, but has an intricate attention to detail. Voices includes a number of dizzy ballads like “Black Bough” and “Mother’s Favorite Hated Son” but also pays tribute to the acoustic singer/songwriters of late 1970s. Whether it’s the repeated guitar riff of “You’re Bullshit” conjuring the ghost of Marc Bolan or the implosion of “Sometimes You Crash” invoking the disheveled and pristine atmosphere Alex Chilton managed to balance for the entirety of Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers, New Bums have found a relatively untouched niche sound for themselves. Voices is an impressive collaboration, and is hopefully the first of many records from the duo, not just another of Chasny’s many side projects.

Tim Ubels

Joe Johnson

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Film Review

The Wind Rises

Shuffle

CHARTS

1

Yes Men Jr. There Is No Limit To How Poorly I Can Feel

BRANDON GREAVES CIVL DJ

CIVL hotshot and Pacific Trash Vortex host Brandon Greaves isn’t letting midterm stress get to him in the slightest. For those of you who are, here are five songs about dealing with a bad time.

2 3 4 5

Fountain Fountain Broken Bells After the Disco

The Ergs! — “Jazz is Like the New Coke”

Tough Age Tough Age

Jealousy and heartbreak is familiar territory for the pop punk set. Sensitive frontman Mikey Erg’s lyrics capture how hard it is to accept defeat. Hey, winning all the time doesn’t teach you anything. This one is for loser romantics.

The Ketamines Stay Awake b/w Always Small

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Timber Timbre Hot Dreams

Titus Andronicus — “No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future”

Fog Lake Virgo Indigo

This is a rock anthem for not believing in yourself. The line “You will always be a loser” is chanted through the second half, capped with “And that’s okay.” Like The Ergs!, Titus Andronicus hail from New Jersey. Apparently the place breeds a specific mindset.

Cult Babies Cult Babies Helms Alee Sleepwalking Sailors

The Ramones — “The KKK Took My Baby Away”

The Courtneys The Courtneys

Joey Ramone allegedly used the KKK as a metaphor for the notoriously right-wing Johnny Ramone, after Johnny stole his girlfriend.

He could have made himself out to be a victim even without resorting to Godwin-level analogies, but the lyrics work. Shonen Knife’s version is flawless, by the way.

The Pack A.D. Do Not Engage New Vaders Dynamic Trax Vol. 1

Sebadoh — “Punching Myself in the Face Repeatedly, Publicly”

n.213 Rejectamenta

This is an insufferably honest song about crushing hard on someone.

Feeling goofy and nervous, walking around excited with a smile on your face for no reason ... The whole thing sounds doomed, even before you know it’s about bassist Jason Loewenstein’s infatuation with a lesbian.

Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire for No Witness

15

Mac DeMarco Live & Acoustic Vol. 1

16 17 18 19 20

Destroyer — “Canadian Lover / Falcon’s Escape”

OOIOO Gamel The Julie Ruin Run Fast

Dum Dum Girls Too True

HSY HSY

Ghost Beach Miracle

This track starts as encouragement for the downtrodden romantic and concludes as a directive to get your act together and stop acting so confused. There’s only so much of your self-pity that others can take.

MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE

Words do not come easily when sorrow is involved. Most of the great moments in Hayao Miyazaki’s films are silent: the aftermath of human destruction, the passage of an injury, a razor ’s edge escape, a leap and flurry of colour. Take up any Miyazaki film, even the weaker ones, and you’ll get a full spectrum of devastation and idealism, a critique of human neglect, a specific vision of life, more precious because he’s one of the few filmmakers who has never shied away from talking to children about the death and loneliness the world is capable of. To find the words, Miyazaki uses genre, fantasy, and what can be called imagination in the truly surreal sense of the word.

In The Wind Rises, Miyazaki opens with a quote from the French symbolist poet Paul Valéry that becomes a code, a mantra, a goal unmet, and a signal that Miyazaki is doing something strange and different with what might be his final film: making a movie out of the unfixable tragedies and political amnesias of recent history, without the overlay of alternate worlds or myths. It’s early 20th century Japan, and the inspirations that seize upon characters are artists in Europe, technological advancement, and the accelerating exchange of ideas between nations.

The Wind Rises is a movie about Japanese aircraft development before and during WWII that’s haunted by the knowledge of what everything its characters are doing will mean.

But then, The Wind Rises is also a movie about the designer of Japanese aircraft (based on the real-life figure of Jiro Horikoshi), who hears from his mother early on that “violence is never justified” and dreams of beautiful passenger craft with no room for guns. Scenes of Jiro and his team of engineers closely resemble the collaborative atmosphere of an animation studio, and it’s hard not to see how Miyazaki is throwing all of his ideas about art and its responsibility to the world together, mostly leaving them unresolved.

Despite how films and people are always divided between

pro- and anti- war, The Wind Rises resists the utility of being one or the other. There is no scene that visually accounts for the death his creation caused, outside a few flames and clouds of smoke, no personal downward spiral. For a Studio Ghibli film, it’s strange to see a artist’s epic about a man devoted to machinery. The only time green really appears is as a takeoff strip. The studio’s animation gives life to firing pistons, personified cylinders, steel and rivets. Wood is made obsolete halfway through.

And Jiro is unconflicted in this area of his work, calling everything beautiful or wonderful.

He looks, in awe, at German airship designs. “You think we are sharing this dream?” says an Italian designer Jiro idolizes — like a challenge — in one of his dreams, and Jiro believes so.

But Miyazaki does not let this side of the story advance uncontested. Though Jiro’s imagination (with dreams of Europe — mandolin and accordion — providing the main themes of Joe Hisaishi’s score) is the grand gesture Miyazaki details, there’s the clear sense idealism is not enough. Jiro is dead to the world, he’s apolitical, likely to be offended only if someone proposed stunting or sabotaging his work for the sake of life, not art. Some of the controversy in both Japan and the U.S. about The Wind Rises is how it reads as a nation continuing to willfully forget its wrongs. In those cases, Jiro is being read as a stand-in for an entire country.

But Miyazaki is more interested in an individual, not an allegory. Jiro does fight at first, to get his creative voice funded, to see his calculations and sketches put into physical models, and his managing and military overseers allow him these small victories, so long as he continues to be useful to them. It’s a picture of industrialized creativity, a much more grim and unthinking version of the preparation of violence than the more entertaining, more obviously anti-war parts of Howl’s Moving Castle. Still, Jiro is the one who gets the loudest say. Discussion of the situation outside their priviledged engineering posts becomes the pretext for a Schubert-melancholy stroll.

Taking his situation in, Jiro can only say to a friend “We’re not

arms merchants; we just want to build good aircraft.” Jiro’s character might have worries, but never the weight of awareness of having a physical body.

Miyazaki did not arrive making masterpieces. Working out the mix of action and environmentalism he would become known for, he made Nausicaa, before that, TV work. The Wind Rises is something different, another, arguably unfinished, arrival: an attempt to grapple with history by using the most conventional forms there is: the biopic. Chronologically following Jiro’s development, Miyazaki also diverges from one of his attributes as a storyteller. Out of place in the world of children’s animation and filmmaking as a whole, most of his stories show people, female and male, that are capable of love, but where in most movies that word is synonymous with marriage, Miyazaki’s characters are able to form a bond of respect and support, a mature form of friendship, even if they are often children or young adults. In The Wind Rises though, the only break from Jiro’s work is a countryside vacation hotel stay, where he meets a well-cared-for painter. Their courtship, of rhyming gestures, paper airplanes, and a sense of inevitability, is retrograde, dutiful, and lacks the feeling of emotional truth Miyazaki usually works into even his films’ most maligned characters. As the only break from aircraft in the film (and Jiro speeds back to his job the first chance he gets), it’s either a flimsy excuse for romantic imagery (Jiro, again, comments only on how beautiful what he sees is), or a barely considered live-to-work or work-to-live argument.

There’s no shortage of grace notes or fantastic aural sweep in The Wind Rises. It captures a keen sense of the dissatisfaction and energy of creative work. But in aiming at the most significant rupture in history’s last hundred years, Miyazaki’s possible final work is filled with confusion, mistake, and loss, with only a poem to light the way. Where many of his other films end by ecstatically opening a way forward, this one looks back with tarnished pride, regret, and restraint.

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ARTS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Book Review

How to be Interesting by Jessica Hagy SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE

“‘I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say,” Louis CK once said. “I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none per cent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say, ‘I’m bored.’”

Despite these inspiring words, I’m bored a lot — at least twice a day, not counting the times I’m stuck in a boring lecture or a boring workday. Some days go by where I’m bored more than I’m interested.

I’d be ashamed of it, but I know half the people reading this know where I’m coming from. I picked up How To Be Interesting not because I feel like I’m a boring person to others (although I’ve never asked), but sometimes I think I’m a boring person to myself. I rely too much on Facebook and my cat to entertain me, and I want to get more out of life.

Immediately upon opening the book, you’ll see that it’s not written for the sakes of others, but for yourself. It’s not — thank goodness — another book on how to make people like you. It might be the opposite of that; it’s book on how not to care whether

they like you.

Jessica Hagy is a blogger, a writer, a cartoonist, and evidently a doodler. She takes this topic — being interesting — and simplifies it to 10 steps, laying the book out in the same structure.

They seem simple, almost common sense: go exploring, share what you discover, do something (anything), embrace your weirdness, have a cause, minimize the swagger, give it a shot, hop off the bandwagon, grow a pair, and ignore the scolding.

Seems cliché, doesn’t it?

Hagy moves beyond cliché, though admittedly the cheesiness remains. Rather than text, Hagy uses doodling, especially in the form of Venn diagrams, pie charts, and graphs. There isn’t a lot of text on any given page, which is a bonus for any student reading the thousands of words in textbooks every week.

Moving back to the cheesiness: this is a book that can’t really hold up to reading in a stupid voice to your friends. It’s heartfelt, it’s kind, and it’s going to be vulnerable to anyone not taking it seriously.

But give it a shot. When you’re feeling insecure, bored, and boring, this book is a solace. You can either spend an hour hunched over your computer flipping through Facebook memes for entertainment, or you could give

this a read — and actually try the things Hagy suggests.

Not everyone can be energetic, creative, happy, impulsive and joyful all the time. Sometimes I feel I’m expected to be jaded, cynical, and exhausted, because to be otherwise would be ignorant of the problems in the world.

These days, for anyone, it’s difficult to really respect yourself.

It’s difficult to actually do the things you love to do. I’m not blaming any particular aspect of our culture, but it’s true — a lot of people don’t like themselves, or at least part of themselves.

Jessica Hagy concludes this is what happens when you take a passive role in your own life: when other people’s expectations — the powerful ones of friends and family, or even those of strangers — drive you away from being genuine.

Chuck Swindoll said, “I am convinced that life is 10 per cent what happens to me, and 90 per cent how I react to it.” Jessica Hagy is taking that 90 per cent and showing you what to do with it.

How To Be Interesting is a guide book to taking care of yourself.

It’s a guide to no longer rely on other people’s approval, to become comfortable with yourself, and to do cool stuff. Take a break from Facebook and your textbooks to give this one a read.

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Heat Report

Dropping majors Lane MacDermid leaves enforcing and professional hockey TIM UBELS

CONTRIb UTOR

One of the biggest decisions a young adult can make is picking a career, but the path you decide to pursue right away might not be what you want to do for the rest of your life.

And these changes aren’t always due to indecision. Circumstances change. People change.

A lot of students, myself included, have changed their majors at least once during their university career because they’re unhappy. It’s almost impossible to pick the right career path on the first try. No matter how initially successful, no one wants to overcommit to one path.

So when the news broke last week that Abbotsford Heat forward Lane MacDermid had filed his retirement papers at age 24, I really felt for him.

The Abbotsford Heat suspended MacDermid after he failed to report to the team following the AHL All-Star break. It was later revealed that Lane never reported to the team because he had made the difficult decision to quit hockey altogether. Radio host Pat Steinberg at FAN960 confirmed with a tweet: “[Craig] Conroy told us MacDermid [lost] his passion to play, so is moving on from his hockey career.”

Image: Abbotsford Heat/Facebook

MacDermid is giving up what some would call a lucrative career, but punches for pay isn’t much of a living.

It’s always shocking to hear about a hockey player who decides to walk away from the game at such a young age, especially one who grew up in a hockey household and had the potential to bring in a yearly six-figure salary. Lane MacDermid is the son of Paul MacDermid, who suited up for 690 NHL games in the 1980s and

‘90s. Making the choice to hang up the blades after making it so close to the NHL would be almost unimaginable for thousands of young men whose hockey dreams were shattered when they failed to make it to the next level.

But living out of a suitcase and travelling on a bus from hotel to hotel will wear anyone down.

MacDermid may be a young player, but he’s been playing for a long time and understands the amount of sacrifice it takes to get to this level. Quitting the game he grew up loving takes guts. It would have been much easier for MacDermid to continue playing without his heart in it, but the life of a minor league enforcer isn’t for everyone.

MacDermid was playing in a difficult situation in Abbotsford.

After being traded twice in under a year, MacDermid was filling the role of the Heat’s enforcer, which doesn’t offer much of a future for young players besides a potential concussion. An average game for MacDermid would consist of limited ice time, only stepping over the boards when the gloves need to be dropped.

When you know you’re in the wrong spot, it is only natural to step back from life and find a better one. For MacDermid, this meant looking for something outside of hockey.

It was a mature decision for MacDermid to leave the game at this point in his career. His conclusion to leave a sport after almost two decades of dedication must have been a complicated one, considering the sport is all he knew. While it may seem like I’m merely speculating, the situation obviously wasn’t working out for him, and this is where young students can learn from Lane’s example. If you’re unhappy with your career choice, don’t be intimidated by the idea of making a change and finding something you’re passionate about. Best wishes to Lane, and I hope he finds success in his life after hockey.

Small but mighty: the power of seeds VIVIENNE BEARD CONTRIBUTOR

Some say seeds are for birds, but the truth is seeds benefit our bodies just as much as they benefit our chirpy feathered friends. Seeds may be small, but they hold vital nutrients and offer our bodies a vast amount of health benefits.

Let’s start with the familiar sunflower seed. Some shy away from these silvery seeds due to their high fat content, but when taken in moderation, these fats help keep off the pounds, not pack them on. Sunflower seeds contain magnesium, an important mineral in helping fight fatigue and maintaining strong bones. They are also high in vitamin E, a main player in assisting our bodies’ natural antioxidant system. Vitamin E destroys harmful molecules called free radicals. With the right amount of vitamin E, these molecules are given the boot and are prevented from interfering with important cellular function. Because of their high fat content, it is best to buy organic sunflower seeds. It may cost a few more dollars, but is a small price to pay to avoid consuming harmful chemicals used in many production processes.

While many go pumpkincrazy only during autumn, the green seeds found inside deserve year-round attention.

On top of being an excellent

Image: Scott Bauer, USDA/Wikimedia Commons

Pumpkin seeds taste nutritiously great in trail mix, but what’s more, they look cool when you zoom in. source of nutrients, including magnesium, iron, and vitamin K, pumpkin seeds also contain L-tryptophan. L-tryptophan is needed for the body’s production of serotonin and supports healthy sleeping patterns. For this reason, I like to call pumpkin seeds the crown jewels of the seed world.

Similar to sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds also contain vitamin E. Not only are they bursting at the seams with a plethora of good nutrients, pumpkin seeds are flavourful and pair

well with both savoury and sweet foods. Roasted pumpkin seeds with olive oil make a delicious snack, a tasty salad topping, and a healthy companion to an almond and dark chocolate trail mix. Their amazing nutrient content, flavour, and versatility has me fully converted to a pumpkin seed fanatic.

Flax seeds are an excellent way to get your recommended daily intake (RDI) of omega-3 fatty acids in a mere tablespoon.

The omega-3 found in flaxseed works wonders at relieving

conditions such as asthma and arthritis by reducing inflammation. And recent research has found that the power of omega-3 doesn’t stop there — it can also inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.

Other molecules found in flaxseed called lignans have been shown to work toward the same cause. Lignans help fight cancer by inhibiting the enzymes involved in the growth of cancerous tumors. In the same tablespoon of flaxseed you’ll also get three grams of fibre, promoting

a healthy digestive system and keeping your blood sugar at a stable level. Flaxseed’s subtle flavour means that you can sprinkle it over your breakfast cereal and only your body, not your taste buds, will know the difference. Flaxseed can also be found in oil form, and makes a fabulous addition to homemade salad dressing.

Last but not least are the tiny black spheres known as chia seeds. Like pumpkin seeds, chia seeds are packed full of omega-3 fatty acids. They do, however, contain an important mineral pumpkin seeds lack: calcium.

The calcium found in chia seeds supports healthy bones and can lessen the risk of osteoporosis.

Chia seeds have also been shown to keep people full longer, making them ideal meal additions for those wanting to trim off a few pounds in a healthy and nutritious way. Although they are on the pricey side, a packet of chia seeds will last you for months. Soaked in liquid, chia seeds act a lot like quinoa, absorbing the surrounding liquid and puffing up in size.

There’s no doubt our bodies love all that seeds can offer. So the next time you’re packing a nutritious lunch, try to incorporate these health-boosting little guys. You’ll soon see why the birds can’t get enough of them!

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 www.ufvcascade.ca

Women dominate Dinos in first playoff round NATHAN HUTTON THE CASCADE

From the first minute, UFV out-duelled their playoff opponents, riding an early lead to a first-round success, even if it wasn’t the Cascades at their best.

The women’s team got right to work slowing down the streaky University of Calgary Dinos’ offense. Calgary was held to just four points in the opening quarter, and UFV had a comfortable 34-16 lead at halftime, coasting to an eventual 67-48 victory.

But just because the Dinos were losing battles under the rim doesn’t mean UFV was playing flawless basketball.

Head coach Al Tuchscherer saw room for improvement in his team’s play. Though Calgary gave UFV many opportunities to pad their lead, giving up 22 turnovers, the Cascades weren’t far behind at 16.

“I was hoping that we would be better offensively than we were, but we haven’t played in a couple weeks here, so I think that plays into it a little bit,” he said. “We have to be better tomorrow for sure.”

UFV had difficulty achieving consistency offensively, shooting only 36 per cent from the field. This sort of performance might work against the fourthplace Dinos, but would be poor preparation for the challenges ahead in the team’s post-season journey.

Game two was a chance for the Cascades to dispatch Calgary in two games, which would be a sign of strength as a team, and also a chance for an extra day of rest and preparation.

The Dinos, motivated by the threat of seeing their season coming to an end, made things a lot more even, and UFV’s good, but not dominant shooting continued. Three-point attempts were particularly weak. The Cascades struggled to convert on open looks, and would have been completely shut out from beyond the arc if not for the play of Nataliia Gavryliuk.

Gavryliuk, in her first year at UFV, is immediately striking as one of the team’s best players.

A master of ball control, speed, and accuracy as a passer, Gavryliuk was the team’s player of

Image: Anthony Biondi

UFV did battle with Calgary in playoff action. In this artist’s rendition, notice the execution of UFV’s agile passing and crisp layups. the game, taking dead aim and draining threes, going 6-9 to lead all players.

UFV needed that kind of margin. Though it might have been apparent that the Cascades were the more talented team, they got into foul trouble, leaving room for Calgary’s two best scorers in Kristie Sheils and Tamara Jarrett to keep things close.

At halftime UFV led 33-30, the game still in reach, but the Cascades came out of the break a different team, igniting on an 11-2 run leading to a 60-48 win.

“With us I think it is bound to happen,” Tuchscherer said.

“The first half I was just happy that we were up three or four, [because] I know that our depth is going to kick in ... we grind teams down; that is typically what is going to happen for us.”

Tuchscherer saw his team play a tough game against a hardfighting team, and knows they can’t take any team for granted — they were this far last season before a loss to the University of Regina knocked them into bronze medal contention.

“We had to grit one out here and they were fighting hard, it is always tough to knock a team out,” Tuchscherer said. “They

have some veteran players and you know they have a lot of pride. The score isn’t fantastic but we did some good things and made some good adjustments.”

The series victory was not all positives for the Cascades.

Three minutes into the first game, starter Kaitlyn Brink fell awkwardly and was unable to get up under her own power.

She left the game with what looked like an ankle injury and did not return.

“If she’s out for a significant period of time that’s a pretty big loss for us,” Tuchscherer said.

Brink appeared on the sidelines of game two wearing a walking boot, with her availability for next week’s semifinals in question.

The Cascades now face the daunting task of playing the University of Alberta Pandas at their home in Edmonton on Friday. The semifinal goes at 8 p.m., with the victor playing for gold the next day.

With files from Michael Scoular.

Men’s basketball season comes to rough end NATHAN HUTTON CONTRIBUTOR

This weekend saw the Cascades men’s basketball team in the Canada West final four, with a berth to the national tournament on the line.

Fate being what it is, their opponent was the University of Victoria Vikings, the first place to UFV’s second in the Pacific Division, the coach of the year (Craig Beaucamp) to UFV’s underrated upstart (Adam Friesen).

What’s more, the Vikings were able to defeat the Cascades

in back-to-back games on the island back in November. But in between, UFV piled up the wins, carrying a franchise-best 16 straight into their semifinal bout.

Things didn’t look good early on — the Cascades seemed a step slower than their usual selves.

They trailed 15-9 after the first quarter, with little offensive support for Klaus Figueredo’s five points.

The Cascades’ woes continued. As a team, they seemed to possess little of the accuracy that had led them this far, and couldn’t contain their oppo-

nents.

To UFV’s abysmal 1-25 from three-point range, the Vikings spread out an 11-26. The loss (77-57) began to take on the feeling of inevitability long before game’s end. Not even a 19-point fourth quarter could change things.

With no hope for a wildcard berth to nationals, all the Cascades could do was attempt to prove themselves to Canada West basketball fans in the bronze medal game against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

The game between the two

second-place teams from their respective division proved to be a fantastic basketball contest.

Both teams fought hard and the Cascades rebounded extremely well after struggling the day before.

Closely matched, the Cascades led, as they had for most of the game, by three deep into the third quarter.

But it could not last. Aaron McGowan was UFV’s best shooter, hitting three of his six longball attempts, but the rest of the team continued their shooting struggles — regular season expert shooter Manny Dulay,

whose late basket gave UFV a tense quarterfinal game win, went 0-7.

The Cascades had a weak fourth quarter and the Huskies took over, showing their resilience and depth. Saskatchewan, led by American import Stephon Lamar (26 points, 6 assists), took over and hung on, winning the game 79-70. After a promising stretch run and start to the playoffs, the Cascades’ season ended in back-to-back losses.