March 16, 2021

The Concordian.

NEWS // Black Student Union / Dogecoin / Student Success Centre / +

COMMENTARY // Walk and Talk Therapy / Plant Parents / Death of Satire / International Students / +

ARTS // Dancing Contradictions / Minari

MUSIC // Barely Legal Interview / House of Balloons Retrospective / +

VOLUME 38, ISSUE 12 TUESDAY MARCH 16, 2021

// theconcordian @theconcordian @theconcordian theconcordian.com

SPORTS // CF Montreal Signings / Thierry Henry Profile / Video Replays / +

News.

NEWS EDITORS Hadassah Alencar / @Hadassahalencar Juliette Palin / @PalinJuliette news@theconcordian.com

NEWS

Demystifying Dogecoin: The meme cryptocurrency on the rise

Welcome to the doge house Grayson Acri Staff Writer

By now, you may have heard of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency with the face of a dog. Just like what happened with Gamestop last month, this small currency is trying to rocket itself to financial power. Here, we’re going to try to answer all your questions about the budding cryptocurrency.

First off, a quick explanation of what a cryptocurrency is.

A cryptocurrency is a digital form of money that rides the line between a debit card and cash — entirely on the internet. In its most basic form, you exchange cryptocurrencies with participating entities just like any other purchase online, but instead of involving a bank, the money goes to the other person, more or less directly.

Most cryptocurrencies, such as Dogecoin, are built on a technology called the blockchain. Concordia professor and holder of the Industrial Research Chair in Blockchain Technologies at Concordia, Jeremy Clark says “The blockchain is about building something that’s like a database where’s there’s just one copy of the data and everyone agrees on what that copy of the data is, but it’s not held in a single location.”

It’s easiest to think of cryptocurrencies as a universal, digital version of cash.

The most popular cryptocurrency is Bitcoin (BTC), which you probably have heard of since it recently reached the value of $50,000 USD for one single Bitcoin after automaker Tesla announced it would accept Bitcoin as payment for cars.

Here in the explanation is where it gets meta.

Currencies in the world such as the Canadian dollar (CAD) and the US dollar (USD) are backed by the governments that print the bills. Faith in the monetary system the bills represent gives the currency its value.

Cryptocurrencies are backed by nothing but faith in their value. A Bitcoin has value because we all believe it has value. Just like stocks, cryptocurrencies are volatile and change value rapidly, and are influenced by developments around them.

The U.S. classifies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as commodities. That’s the same classification as gold.

Think of people who collect vintage coins. They may have a value printed on them, but they can fetch prices much higher. You wouldn’t spend a rare misprinted 1919 quarter on a pack of gum - even though the coin itself would work - because you can sell it for much higher than its printed value.

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“Currency isn’t meant to be something that gives you a tremendous return on value,” said Clark, “You want people to use it and not hoard it for the possibility that it doubles its price in a month, it’s meant to be a currency.”

Cryptocurrencies currently work much like that rare misprinted 1919 coin. You can use them to purchase things now or hold onto them in the hopes that they can fetch a higher value later. They both only have value because someone out there says so, and both can technically work like cash.

Cryptocurrencies do offer reasons to be used as currency. They are decentralized so no one agency controls the currency, they are easier to manage and send to individuals being a digital native currency, and cryptocurrencies at large are secure with publicly accessible transaction records.

That being said, a currency should only be valuable in what you can trade it for, and a currency that’s worth more than what you’re spending it on isn’t much of a currency is it?

If circulation never occurs because everyone holds onto their crypto-coins, they’re not really coins anymore. Coins are currency to be traded. You’re holding onto ones and zeros that at one point might have been cash should people have used them as such, but now are just code.

Everyone okay? Existential crisis under control for now? Okay good.

Now onto Dogecoin.

Beyond the popular coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum ($ETH), there are literally hundreds of cryptocurrencies. They all function similarly but have different features, advantages, and prices.

Dogecoin is part of a smaller class of cryptocurrencies called altcoins, short for alternate coins.

Basically, Dogecoin is just like other cryptocurrencies except it was created as a joke with a picture of a dog — the doge meme — as its mascot. Well, that and being quoted on the project’s website as the digital cur-

rency “Favoured by Shiba Inus worldwide.”

“I always thought that there would be a sort of winner that would be chosen by the market,” said Clark when referring to the hundreds of smaller coins on the market. Currently, there’s value in many of them and no clear winner.

The Doge in question is an image commonly found in memes. Doge herself is a Shiba Inu named Kabosu from Japan.

So, why should I care?

Dogecoin has had quite the boom as of late.

Just like what happened with Gamestop and other meme stocks, an organized group of Reddit traders all decided to buy into Dogecoin, leading it to achieve a peak value of just under $0.085 USD per Doge on Feb 8.

Eight cents doesn’t sound like much, but this is a massive jump from below one cent per Doge just over a week before.

On top of that, Dogecoin has had lots of support.

Elon Musk, ever the champion of nonsense, tweeted about Dogecoin on Feb. 24 using language reminiscent of r/wallstreetbets and the Gamestop meme stock surge, “Literally, on the actual moon.”

ATM company CoinFlip announced in a tweet on March 1 that it would begin trading Dogecoin at its ATMs across the country.

The Dallas Mavericks basketball team announced on March 4 that they would accept Dogecoin for tickets and merchandise.

“It’s hard to say what the longevity of these things will be if people will continue to prefer having dozens of [currencies] around,” said Clark, “or if eventually, the market will coalesce behind one or two winners.”

For now, all that can be said for the joke-turned cryptocurrency is much coin, such wow.

Graphic by Lily Cowper

POLITICS

Liberals to move ahead with the introduction of assault weapons buy-back program Bill C-21 invites controversy from all sides of the gun debate

Evan Lindsay Staff Writer Following the ban of 1,500 makes and models of firearms in May, the Liberals are proposing new gun restrictions under Bill C-21, which will grandfather out assault weapons currently in circulation with a voluntary buy-back program, should the bill pass.

“Gun violence has had devastating effects on communities across the country, and on too many Canadians who have lost loved ones. According to Statistics Canada, firearms were used in over 40 per cent of homicides in Canada in 2019. This violence must stop,” states a press release from February 16 on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s website.

A two-year amnesty period is in place, which began in May of 2020, to last until April 30, 2022.

The goal of the amnesty period is to “protect lawful owners from criminal liability and to enable them to comply with the law,” according to the press release.

The buy-back program is voluntary; those in possession of weapons eligible for buy-back will be able to keep them past the amnesty period but they won’t be able to fire, transport, or pass them on to a new owner. Canadians could hope a new administration will reverse the ban and allow them to retain possession of their firearms.

If Bill C-21 cannot be passed before the next election, it will have to be dropped and reintroduced after the election by the new administration. Trudeau campaigned on stricter gun control in 2019.

“One Canadian killed by gun violence is one too many. The tragedies we have seen in Sainte-Foy

and Portapique, and more recently in Toronto and Montreal, should never happen. This is why our government has taken some of the strongest action in our country’s history against gun violence,” Trudeau stated in a press release in February.

But some are questioning whether this current policy is a genuine attempt to achieve stronger gun control, and whether the Liberals intend to pass it before the next election.

One such person is James Hanna, one of the founders and president of the Concordia University Sports Shooting Association (CUSSA) and a Concordia Student Union (CSU) councillor. He is opposed to the buy-back program and the May 1 ban.

“They’re basically doing a giant PR stunt before the election. That’s my personal theory ... it allows them to claim victory without actually doing anything on the ground,” said Hanna.

Many people on both sides of the gun debate see the buy-back program as a policy that will be ineffective and simply a piece of electioneering.

For anti-gun advocates, the policy allows too many firearms to remain in circulation.

Meaghan Hennegan was injured in a shooting at Dawson College in 2006. She was recently quoted in a press release by PolySeSouvient, “The reason we applauded the Liberals during the last election and told Canadians they are the best party for gun control is because their promise included a total ban. That is why we endorsed them. We were used and betrayed.”

Even if the guns can’t be operated legally, the concern on both sides of the issue has always been to crack down on illegal gun use. Some people on the pro-gun side think the best way to do this is to

POLISAVVY

Texas lifts all COVID restrictions, causing outrage from the Biden administration

Mask-wearing and gathering limits will no longer be enforced by state law Bogdan Lytvynenko Assistant News Editor Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifted the statewide mask mandate and allowed all businesses to operate at 100 per cent capacity on March 10, while only one-tenth of Texans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Texans are still encouraged to follow all of the necessary health guidelines, including social distancing and wearing a mask in indoor spaces. However, Gov. Abbott explained that his people “no longer need government running their lives.”

U.S. President Joe Biden called the governor’s decision “Neanderthal thinking” on March 3, claiming that such measures are the last thing Americans need at this stage of the pandemic. This situation threatens Biden’s plan to have all Americans wearing a mask for the first 100 days of his presidency.

Mass sporting events and music con-

certs are also allowed to take place in Texas and may welcome over 10,000 spectators.

Despite receiving a green light from the state government, however, American businesses decided to further protect Texas residents from the spread of COVID-19.

Companies including Target, Best Buy, Toyota, and Macy’s will continue to require all of their employees and customers to wear a mask on their premises. The majority of retail stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies will not be cancelling their COVID policies across the state.

Gov. Abbott’s statewide changes have led to a political clash, as the Republican governor was met with resistance from Democrat mayors of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin.

As the cities’ leaders have the authority to implement COVID restrictions on a local level, social distancing and mask-wearing will still be required in all municipal buildings including libraries and convention centres, as well as public transportation.

turn the issue to gangs and gang violence rather than gun control.

“We want to look at the source of all this gun violence, which is gang violence, and if we’re targeting gang violence … this is going to have much more holistic positive effects,” said Hanna.

Bill C-21 will also allow municipalities to regulate handgun usage as they see fit, which is another controversial part of the legislation. Those living in areas where handguns are banned could simply travel to somewhere with looser regulations, purchase a gun and return home with it.

“They’re jettisoning responsibility off to the municipalities. So if gun crime continues to rise, the government can just say, ‘Well, we gave municipalities the power to fix it. They’re not using it, it’s not our fault’ and just absolve themselves of responsibility for any issues,” said Hanna.

Bill C-21 will also increase the maximum penalties for firearms trafficking, and provide $250 million over five years to anti-gang programming in municipalities and Indigenous communities throughout Canada.

“We think that masking is so important.

The doctors and the data all indicate that,” said Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin. “We’re going to stay on that course as long as we can. Now is not the time to take a risk.”

U.S. health officials have warned against lifting such restrictions, emphasizing the highly contagious variants and the lack of vaccination in the state. Despite the recent drop in daily coronavirus cases, Gov. Abbott’s decision directly goes against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

Houston became the first American city to record all the dangerous types of COVID strains, while Texas — a state of 29 million people — currently ranks 47th out of the 50 states in terms of per capita vaccine distribution.

As mask-wearing turns into a Republican-versus-Democrat debate rather than a health precaution, a political divide is inevitable on Texas’ path towards defeating COVID-19.

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News.

NEWS EDITORS Hadassah Alencar / @Hadassahalencar Juliette Palin / @PalinJuliette news@theconcordian.com

News

The Black Student Union utilizes its social media to educate the Concordia student body How four young women started the organization

dents who help run the day-to-day operations, just by asking who wanted to be involved.

Juliette Palin News Editor Concordia students Amaria Phillips, Lorry Joseph, Tanou Bah and Ernithe Edmond were all shocked to see there was no Black club or union at Concordia University.

“We were like, ‘Wait a minute, there’s no actual like, Black club?’

It’s either Caribbean or African? But there’s not one for just Black people,” said Phillips.

For example, McGill, the other anglophone university in Montreal, does have a Black Student Network, which acts similarly to a union. Before the BSU initiative, this overarching support would fall under the Concordia Student Union’s responsibilities.

Phillips said, “We realized that,

“We put something on social media to ask if anyone wants to join the team. And yeah, a lot of people were DM’ing back and saying ‘Yeah, I’m interested,’” said Phillips.

really, there was no Black Student Union period, then we kind of like changed our minds and we said, ‘Okay, let’s just do a Black Student Union’ ... It’s going to be something that’s actually going to advocate for students.”

“We kind of found a good batch of people to help the BSU take off ... We’re so like-minded,” said Phillips.

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The BSU’s main platform is their social media — mainly Instagram.

Run by Kyla Renee Jallow and Beza Getachew, the BSU is able to spread awareness on Black issues and educate their followers on Black Canadian History.

Phillips is excited to see the growth that comes along with the bigger team. She said, “Since we decided to start the executive team, our Instagram grew from, I think five hundred to now nine hundred something in a month.”

The increase in posts also helped grow their following. On the heels of Black History Month, Phillips does not plan to slow down the flow of information shared on the page. She said, “We’ve gotten so many messages of people saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that,’ or ‘I really wish that I would have known that before, that it was taught in schools.’”

The executive team decided to extend Black History Month to Black History Year, in order to educate and highlight Black history and Black people in general, because “Black History is everyone’s history,” said Phillips.

“There’s so many things we didn’t get to cover for the month,” said Phillips, so may as well continue to put an emphasis on reteaching ourselves to our history.

The process of becoming an official student union at Concordia is a complicated one.

“We put a lot of focus in establishing [the BSU],” said Phillips.

Tired of wasting time trying to establish themselves, the BSU decided to create its own path for representation.

Now, almost a year later, they have grown their team to 13 stu- Photos Courtesy of the BSU

CAMPUS RESOURCES

Student Success Centre: How to navigate this helpful student resource Hadassah Alencar News Editor

The Student Success Centre (SSC) boasts an extensive range of school and job search resources that thousands of students use every year.

From first-year students to graduates, the SSC has a lot to offer our Concordia community.

Navigating all the different components can be daunting, so we sat down with Juliet O’Neill Dunphy, the interim associate director and manager of student learning services at the SSC, to talk about the centre, now that all their services are being offered virtually. This guide is organized by listing the services under the five branches of the SSC. To book an appointment or register in a studying or drop-in session, follow the instructions through the links.

New Students. Welcome Crew Mentors are undergraduate and graduate students who have been trained to help new students transition into their academic life. The SSC seeks to represent as many faculties as possible within their mentorship crew. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dunphy said more students are using this service. “It’s become more important for students to have that instantaneous connection with somebody.”

“Because of the isolation that so many students are experiencing now, having somebody to reach out to and talk to is amazingly helpful.”

The centre also has first-year support counselling, provided by councellor Monica Boulos, to help students with issues they may encounter during their first academic year, like homesickness and anxiety with school.

Boulos also hosts interactive workshops throughout the semester, with academic and support topics, such as: “First-year Check-in: Staying focused and productive while dealing with Zoom fatigue.”

Learning Services. Over 50 students work at the SSC as paid study group leaders, tu-

tors, and writing assistants. They organize peer-led academic help sessions for students from different faculties.

The Math & Science-based learning support offers study groups and oneon-one tutoring for prerequisite math, accounting, and economics courses with high enrollment, and study groups for some basic science courses. When organizing their popular math exam review sessions, the SSC works in liaison with the Department of Mathematics & Statistics “To try and make sure we’re providing sample questions that are relevant to whatever might happen in the most recent exam,” said Dunphy.

Over a thousand students attend some of these sessions, which are offered throughout the year.

Additionally, there are 13 writing assistants who offer undergraduate and graduate students writing advice and feedback, through a drop-in session, or by booking a personal appointment. The SSC also provides free writing advice handouts, which provide general guidelines on a variety of topics, for example: “A Brief Guide to Writing a Research Paper” and “A Template For Writing An Essay.”

The learning services also feature academic help beyond the textbooks. Three Learning Specialists support students with academic advice and guidance on topics such as time-management, preparing for exams. and dealing with exam anxiety. Students can either book an appointment, attend a drop-in session, or participate in workshops which are repeatedly hosted throughout the semester. Events include: “Read and Remember Online Readings (Without falling asleep),” “The Way of APA” and “Get Back on Track: How to refocus and finish your semester strong!”

O’Neil Dunphy said these one-on-one sessions for time management have become increasingly popular for students.

“Right now with COVID, students are finding just adding structure to their day is really challenging, because everyday seems kind of seamless and endless, and so we talk about how to do that, and how to build breaks, and build in key study times, so that there’s balance.”

FutureReady originated from “a feeling that students were not really leaving concordia with professional skills,” said O’Neil Dunphy.

Here, students can complete core skill modules that can help to transition into their careers with workshops under topics such as “Career Development” and “Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”

For students looking to take on a leadership role, the SkillXchange helps students develop a workshop themselves. Working alongside a coach and mentors, students work to produce an official skill or information session for the Concordia community.

Career planning offers both career counselling and advising services for students. While career counseling focuses on helping students make decisions about their academic and career path based on their interests, career advising helps students with their job search.

Students can also attend one of the many professional workshops and job fairs available on the website. Under “Networking and Recruitment Events” students can meet recruiters and learn job skills with companies and organizations like RBC, Home Depot, and the Cree School Board.

Students can also find general professional help under “Career Development and Job Search Strategies” which feature workshops on how to write a CV and cover letter, and how to network.

Additionally, for students and alumni looking for job opportunities, the centre posts over 300 job openings each month in their online job bank, which include full and part-time positions.

If you’re a student unsure of what career you’d like to pursue with your degree, you can also visit “What can I do with my degree in…” to look at your options. If you’ve already graduated but still need guidance, alumni can have additional career help as well.

COMMUNITY

The Woodnote gives an update to the CSU Concordia’s housing co-op gives an update Fern Clair Assistant News Editor

An update on Concordia’s housing co-op, The Woodnote, was given at the Concordia Student Union (CSU) meeting According to her update, The Woodnote was on March 10. supposed to open in July 2020, but, because of The Woodnote was first proposed to the COVID-19, there were delays in the building’s conCSU in 2014. According to its website, it is a struction that pushed the official opening to Sepnon-profit organization that aims to facilitate tember 2020.

Since then, over 140 tenants have lived at The access to affordable, inclusive housing for Concordia students. The co-op is the first of its kind Woodnote. It has a mix of studio, two bedroom and four bedroom apartments, and there is one famiin Montreal.

Michèle Le Moëligou, who gave the update ly currently living there, said Le Moëligou during during the CSU meeting, is the director of oper- the meeting.

The update by Le Moëligou showed that 88 ations and marketing at L’Unité de travail pour per cent of the tenants are from Concordia, with the l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), a non-profit that promotes student housing in rest being a mix of students from McGill, UQAM, and other universities. Most of the tenants have a Quebec.

yearly income of less than $12,000, Le Moëligou stated, showing the need for affordable housing.

Le Moëligou said at the meeting that The Woodnote is currently signing contracts with other universities to build similar models of student housing.

“This is the CSU’s baby, it’s been passed down from generation to generation [of CSU councils],” said Isaiah Joyner, the general coordinator of the CSU, at the meeting.

There is a priority leasing period for Concordia students until the end of March, after which leasing will open up to students from other Montreal universities.

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Commentary.

COMMENTARY EDITOR Aviva Majerczyk / @aviva_majerczyk commentary@theconcordian.com

OPINION

All jokes aside, satire’s in danger Satire, the art of lampooning the powerful, is in crisis Simona Rosenfield Assistant Commentary Editor

What do you do when the satire of the past, by definition an exaggerated, lampooning, grotesque imagination of society, looks a lot like society of the present? When actual, critical satire operates like a cheat sheet for the rich and powerful on what to do next, on how to further fortify power, on how to better trick the public?

Our constant exposure to advertising psychology, which is the cognitive research that informs advertising best practices to ensure it will leave a lasting and positive impression, and social media have caused us to unconsciously prioritize narrative over truth: the facts are less important than how you spin them. In this context, satire operates as a form of image-management, where, for example, YouTubers criticized for hateful rants can shield themselves from accountability by retroactive claims that their words were “satirical.”

Satire is meant to tear at the root and face the reader, without relief of tension, with the exposed source of the suffering. It is not meant to dance around symptoms of oppression with deadpan memes printed on T-shirts.

At its ideal, satire is a form of comedy that examines and criticizes the stories, systems, and people that subjugate others.

It uproots carefully planted ideas that hold together harmful ideologies. By its function, satire cannot simply look at the symptoms of the problem, but the source.

It should come as no surprise that the best satire bleeds into political rhetoric, systems of power, and ideology. Did you know that the slogan “Make America Great Again” originates from a line uttered by the totalitarian government in the graphic novel “V for Vendetta?”

Did you know that many gruesome technologies featured in Netflix’s “Black Mirror” either already exist or are in development?

There is a scientific term for the feeling you get when considering a science-fiction horror film come to life, and it’s called the “yuck factor.” The yuck factor is the instinctual resistance you feel to a new idea or technology that violates your sense of morals, sanitation, or safety.

We feel yucky, for example, at the thought of eating lab-grown meat, despite the need for an alternative to our current, over-polluting meat source. The solution, researchers found, was that a generation born into a world where meat is lab-grown won’t feel the same hesitation as those who’ve had lab-grown meat introduced in their lifetime.

This begs the question, what are we putting up with simply because we were born into it?

As a form of comedy, satire is unsettling in how it manipulates tension. In typical comedy, a jokester builds tension with details, with pressure, with delay even, and then relieves it with the punchline. In satire, this “relief” comes when the reader realizes that the author is joking, and that they actually intend the opposite of what their words superficially mean, thus inviting the audience in on the joke.

But how can we click into a relief of tension when satire either gives frightening ideas to frightening and capable people or operates as a convenient alibi for cruel-minded people to create wealth by propelling the very ideas they swear they contest?

Graphic by @the.beta.lab

In order for satire to diffuse tension to make the reading palatable, it needs to sacrifice the honesty and integrity of the work.

As a society, we are fixated on our symptoms and how to mitigate them. Depression and anxiety result in medication, tempers result in anger management training, overconsumption results in rehabilitation, homelessness results in temporary beds.

Late-stage capitalism is structured as a consolidation of wealth at the top of the pyramid built on a foundation of an underclass literally working themselves to death.

The cultural values that facilitate this structure define the worst thing you can be as lazy, unproductive, or degenerate. These are not antisocial traits but symptoms of a deep social suffering from and resistance to our social context.

But how can satire accomplish its goal when the work needs to be done by both the writer and the reader, and one or both parties is unwilling? Really good satire, charismatic and bold, would impose a resizing of all that we have adapted to without knowing it.

Do readers really want to walk through a museum of every yuck their conscious mind suppressed and absorbed into the unconscious?

Do writers want to examine the way their dark parodies of culture can speak themselves into reality? Are writers impelled to depict uncomfortable truths despite the risk of it damaging their publishing potential or “objectivity?”

Are any of us willing to examine the way culture requires our complicity?

Getting to the root of things requires digging. It’s work. The world creates the misery we call comedic tension. Really good satire showcases the tension and never relieves it. It’s up to the reader to decide how willing they are to engage in the discomfort, to examine their assumptions and their self-image, and to create that relief themselves by engaging with the world differently.

Punch? (There, a punch-line.)

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OPINIONS

It’s a sign of the times: how Canadian universities struggle to adapt to changing times

Universities aren’t keeping up with evolving technologies and calls for diversity Elyette Levy Assistant Commentary Editor Following my graduation from high school, I was very vocal about how the education I received was too workplace-driven, with a small proportion of material geared towards self-improvement and general culture. I felt that the growing societal awareness of our lack of diversity had fallen on my school administration’s deaf ears.

But in the few months preceding my graduation from Concordia, I’m noticing quite the opposite effect.

I find that a divide has been growing between the university’s disconnected attempts at promoting diversity and better inclusion, and its ability to properly prepare us for post-graduation life in a rapidly evolving world.

A friend of mine who studies Design at Concordia recently told me about her frustration with the disconnect between the program’s advocacy for a more diverse design industry and its lack of professors of colour. In many of her classes, she also felt the expectations for her work weren’t on par with the demands of the design market, and that it would be difficult to compete in the arts scene with the portfolio she was building through class assignments.

It seems to be a pattern, from hearing other people’s experiences in the arts programs at this school, that the training it provides focuses on a dissociated idea of the knowledge we will need once we enter the

Graphic by @the.beta.lab job market.

In my three years studying Journalism, some of the most important topics — how to find work as a freelancer, or writing an invoice, for example — have been presented to us under the form of optional extracurricular talks to leave space for mandatory courses about the basics of photography and writing local crime stories. Furthermore, despite being promised a course on Indigenous reporting since our first semester in Journalism, it still hasn’t been offered three years later.

Throughout the past year, many of my peers have anecdotally told me about their struggles with keeping up with the department’s expectations because we’ve never learned to produce quality content without using expensive softwares and equipment or $2,000 iMacs. In fact, using an iPhone camera was grounds for docking marks in pretty much every photography class we had to take; our professors preferring we borrowed the 2008 DSLRs provided by the school.

Don’t get me wrong, I cherish a lot of the information I took away from my time in both programs I’m enrolled in. But the truth is, Concordia, just like many other Canadian universities, falls short when it comes to adapting fast enough to rapidly changing times.

In 2015, McGill’s School of Medicine was put on probation for, in part, failing to provide their students with proper instruction on women’s health and domestic violence issues. This was despite the fact that there were calls

to bring the curriculum up to date with the status of social issues in Canada for years prior to the decision.

Yet, even after the faculty went off probation in 2017, many reported an ongoing lack of diversity within the program.

Last semester, Concordia Film Production students wrote a statement demanding their department to address the lack of diversity, and to be held accountable for their responsibility to raise the voices of underrepresented groups.

And just this week, the students at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism issued a public letter calling out its failure to “represent and support its students who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC) and LGBTQ2IA+,” a letter which led to the resignations of the chair and associate chair of the program, Janice Neil and Lisa Taylor.

It’s not a coincidence, it’s a pattern. Canadian universities aren’t equipped to adapt their teaching to the needs of the modern world, just like they aren’t prepared to make the structural changes required by society’s increased sensibility to diversity and social issues.

It’s unbecoming of our schools, which we so often brag about being among the best in the country, to forget about currency and adaptability as part of their commitment to high quality education. Being unable to compete in a technology-reliant, socially aware society isn’t what we thought we were paying tuition for.

STUDENT LIFE

Canada’s costly new mandatory quarantine unfairly punishes international students

Canada’s latest travel restrictions will incur exorbitant costs for those with student visas commented, “[$2,000] equals the tuition of da did, in fact, reassure international students flexiDiane Yeung Contributor Following a slew of winter vacationers to the Caribbean and Mexico, new regulations for passengers entering Canada have been enforced in an effort to discourage non-essential travel.

In effect since Jan. 30, the new restrictions include a suspension of flights to some sunny destinations enforced through April 30, as well mandatory COVID PCR testing at airports for returning travellers. But most notably, mandatory three-day quarantines at government-approved hotels, with packages that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says could cost upwards of $2,000 per returning passenger, have been the subject of complaint.

Among the chatter from Canadian vacationers who have expressed disdain for the new regulations, international students have begun to voice concerns about the financial and logistical impacts these travel restrictions will bear on their plans to return to Canada.

In multiple public posts to Concordia University’s subreddit, international students wonder whether those with student visas may be exempt. One user

a whole semester for a Quebec resident at Concordia. If they would [implement] this, why [issue] new study permits to international students?”

Currently, Concordia’s website lists international student tuition fees as ranging between $21,720 to $28,995 for one academic year. Given that Canadian citizens were responsible for the majority of non-essential travel that inspired these restrictions, legitimate concerns are being raised over the inequities in its effects on international students.

Conversely, since Canadian universities such as Concordia stand to profit broadly from international tuition fees (specifically nearly $6 billion in annual revenue for Canadian universities and nearly $22 billion in expanded economic contributions), candid discussions around the equitable handling of returning international students must be had.

In another Reddit post, one anonymous student remarked, “Concordia has definitely failed us, especially international students as they said last year that we could all go home and that they would adjust consequently…” Concordia and universities across Cana-

bility as they collectively navigated distance learning in the pandemic.

However, the latest Canadian travel measures do not exempt international students from the $2,000 mandatory quarantine, which is evidence of universities’ negligence in advocating for their international students.

It is important to note that international students are not Graphic by @the.beta.lab asking to break public health guidelines. Rather, given that international students are ineligible for emergency financial support like the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) or the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the costly mandatory quarantines exacerbate the already exorbitant costs they face. One anonymous student remarked, “That’s crazy. That’s the equivalent of four months of my rent.” Currently, robust measures to provide equitable travel guidelines for international students are still needed.

Concordia’s international students information page touts Montreal as the “best student city in North America.”

With Canada’s failure to consider the unfair impacts on returning international students, Concordia’s claim that Montreal is an “affordable, student-friendly city” appears to leave out international students amidst a global pandemic.

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Commentary.

COMMENTARY EDITOR Aviva Majerczyk / @aviva_majerczyk commentary@theconcordian.com

MENTAL HEALTH

Being a psychologist: not always a walk in the park… or is it?

Forget about lying down on a couch; it is time for walk-and-talk therapy

Mélanie Lussier Contributor “I don’t have time for therapy.”

I wish I were able to convince myself otherwise. Actually, I wish everyone was able to make time for therapy.

I stopped seeing my psychologist five years ago, thinking I couldn’t afford to spend an hour of my time (and $100 of my mother’s salary) every week just to sit on a couch and complain about my life. It was too late when I realized that I should have kept going, but as someone who later sought and received urgent professional help, I can safely

say that therapy is absolutely worth your time and money.

I am doing way better now (thank you for asking) but I still struggle with the idea of going back to therapy. I must admit that I have always had a teeny-tiny negative bias towards it, and to be quite honest, I am broke and busier than ever.

But I recently learned something that almost convinced me to go back …

Sticking to online therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic was not enough for two private psychologists from the Centre de Psychologie Behaviorale (CPB) in Ahuntsic. That is why they started offering outdoor consultations as an alternative.

One of those two psychologists, Serge Drolet, has been working at CPB for 30 years.

On April 17, 2020, the Quebec government issued an official document instructing mental health service providers to limit their in-person activities and opt for teleconsultation whenever possible. At the time, all of

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CPB’s operations had already shifted online.

Since March 2020, about 25 per cent of Drolet’s clients have consequently abandoned therapy because they were not interested in Zoom consultations.

“Some very good patients left, and sadly, I don’t know what they became,” Drolet explained.

This inspired him to experiment with “walk-and-talk therapy” instead. Since June, about 15 per cent of Drolet’s patients have chosen to bring their therapy sessions outdoors.

During the winter, the Marcelin-Wilson park and the small woods near the clinic are often deserted. On March 2, it might have been -17 C outside, but the most courageous of Dro-

According to Drolet, this new type of consultation also adds a dynamic component to the therapy.

“There’s a small wood not too far away and there are three directions we can take,” Drolet said. “On the right, we can see perfectly well; on the left there are a couple of young people that seem rough; and in the middle, it’s the woods. I don’t decide which way to go. You choose where we go. Just the fact that the person makes decisions like that during the session, somewhere along the way, it helps them make decisions in life,” Drolet said.

Being stuck alone with ourselves can be challenging, and many people’s mental health

let’s patients were able to enjoy the calm and tranquility.

However, since the office is surrounded by many other primary care services like a drugstore, a radiology centre, and a dialysis clinic, there is a lot of traffic on the sidewalks despite the centre being located in a quiet neighbourhood.

problems were exacerbated because of the pandemic. However, Drolet noticed that his patients had become more invested in their therapy; they have more free time to self-examine and to reflect on their patterns. Moreover, now that psychologists are being exposed to the same worries and deprivations as their patients, they can now empathize rather than sympathize with them. In fact, Drolet said that being on an equal footing with his clients in such a way has allowed him to help them better.

In the end, with all of COVID’s difficulties, it has also opened the door for new possibilities for how mental health service providers can treat their patients. Now that many people have more free time to focus on themselves and that it somewhat became easier to find a psychologist we can relate to, combining therapy to the health benefits of getting more fresh air gives us one more reason to consider going to therapy.

“Stuff happens when we find ourselves in these kinds of situations,” Drolet said. “[A patient and I] were walking and an old man tried to shove us aside because we were not walking fast enough for him. There was a lesson of self-assertion management, and that’s great because [this patient] is a person who, when alone, is submissive when it comes to confrontations. I gave this man a piece of my mind — while remaining professional, of course — and I was glad that she [the patient] could see that I, myself, do [what I usually advise her to do].”

Photo by Christine Beaudoin

LIFESTYLE

Plants: filling the void and helping you succeed Plant babies are offering hidden benefits in their new homes, especially during quarantine

Kaitlynn Rodney Contributor Are you a plant parent? No? What are you waiting for? Many see those green leafy items just as some-thing to forget to water. Those ideas are changing.

In recent months, there has been a rise in plant culture. Videos of plant tips and tricks, and some of plant parents just showing off their collections, have been taking the internet by storm.

You can scroll through the vines of Instagram as well as “PlantTok,” the plant side of TikTok, watching plant-filled content for hours.

Odarlyn, the creator of plantiiplants on Instagram and YouTube, started her page in October 2020 and has since grown a community of over 22,000 plant lovers. With her community rapidly growing, she shared her thoughts over Instagram on why plants were suddenly becoming such an interest: “Quarantine! People are in need of feeling responsible for something. In this case, keeping plants alive.”

All throughout quarantine, many nurseries reported soaring plant sales, as people used plants as an outlet for all things they were missing from the pre-COVID world.

“Somewhere amid COVID-19 lockdowns, pandemic plant parents are filling the voids in their social life — and apartments — with an influx of flora,” stated an article by NBC.

Photo by Christine Beaudoin

Plants can actually do more for you than fill the void left from pre-COVID times. Overall, houseplants have countless benefits, especially in your workspace.

When spending all week preparing for an exam, the last thing you want to worry about is the space in which you work. However, your space can have an impact on your studies. Small changes like adding some greenery to your desk can actually improve your concentration. Multiple studies have been conducted over the years demonstrating how having indoor plants can lead to better focus and more productivity overall.

Even for the most focused students, school can be extremely stressful. Getting a plant to put on your desk won’t eliminate all that pressure; however, a study done by the University of Hyogo in Japan proved that having plants in your work environment can lead to less stress in your life. The researchers agreed that stress is a pressing issue in today’s workspaces and felt that adding some greenery is a solution that is often overlooked.

Nature and greenery have been known to reduce stress compared to urban landscapes. By adding a small house plant on your desk and looking at it when you feel stressed, you are providing your brain with a little bit of natural scenery to decompress.

When you have a new plant and it’s thriving, you feel as though you’re thriving too. New leaves can be almost as exciting as passing that course you

have been working so hard for. This is because the answer is also in the interaction: the Hyogo study showed that people who took care of their plant grew a positive attachment, which leads to greater stress relieving benefits.

Don’t worry — there is no need to buy millions of houseplants and turn your office into your own personal forest (although you could if you want). The study shared that even just one small plant reduced the stress of their participants.

Now after all that information, there is only one final step in becoming a plant parent, and that is to buy a plant. This can seem like a daunting task as there are many varieties of houseplants you can choose from. It’s important to take a look at the kind of environment the plants will be living in and use this to guide your decision.

Plants aren’t always easy to take care of, especially if you don’t have the greenest of thumbs (I know I’ve killed quite a few in my time). What’s important is that if you keep trying; eventually, you will find the right plant.

And don’t forget to water it.

Cutting the guilt from the pleasure Aviva Majerczyk Commentary Editor Sometimes it feels as if North American culture revolves around the notion of guilt. Between sex shaming, health food snacks labeled “guiltfree” and Spotify playlists full of early 2000s pop hits under painfully self-aware titles, it’s impossible to escape the idea that we should feel bad for the things we enjoy. Rather than flat-out admitting to liking something deemed unrespectable, it’s more tactful to couch it with the qualifier “guilty pleasure.” Between the popularity of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Carrie Underwood, and John Green novels, it’s obvious that we’re all consuming so-called guilty pleasures, however, the label remains.

In this view, every piece of media we consume reflects directly back on us as people. Now, I’m not here to argue that culture is removed from ideology or immune from criticism, and that we should blindly consume whatever problematic media we want. Because that’s not what people

mean when they discuss guilty pleasures — it’s never an issue of media being harmful (unless you take “brain rot” literally), just media that isn’t up to some arbitrary taste level.

Labeling something a guilty pleasure is a sneaky way of distancing yourself from your enjoyment of it. “Oh sure, I enjoy this but I still know better, unlike some other people.” Somewhere between self-flagellation and self-flattery, designating things guilty pleasures pads our own intellectual insecurities.

Under late-stage capitalism, every action we take must have some goal or purpose in mind.

Leisure for leisure’s sake has been eaten away by a drive to monetize every hobby and capture every moment for the perfect social media post, which in turn monetizes ourselves. Thus, even what we do in our spare time contributes to the easily packageable and brandable version of “you,” not to be muddied by unsavoury choices.

When you ascribe negative moral value judgements onto culture and media, it opens the door for the counter to be true as well. If listening to Bon Jovi and reading Dan Brown makes you worthy of shame and disdain, it would stand to reason that one could Brian Eno and Dostoevsky themselves into righteousness. Now, written out that may sound crazy, but tell me you’ve never met someone with a bookshelf where their social judgement should be.

It’s time we remove taste from its link to morality. The pursuit of a guilt-free media environment can easily force you down a hole of music you don’t like and books that don’t speak to you. And who does that serve but your inner critic? Posturing about your intelligence will only drive you deeper into the shame and guilt of your choices, rather than fully rejecting the notion of guilt in the first place. And come on, there are so many

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Arts.

ARTS EDITORS Lorenza Mezzapelle / @lorenzamezzapelle arts@theconcordian.com

FILM

Minari and the immortalization of one family’s American Dream The 2021 Golden Globes Winner for Best Foreign Language Film is about a Korean-American family in rural Arkansas Diane Yeung Contributor “She’s the reason I made this film,” said Lee Isaac Chung as he held his daughter in his arms.

It was an opening line to an acceptance speech for a bittersweet victory.

Minari (2020) is a semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Denver-born director Lee Isaac Chung. It tells the story of a Korean American family’s relocation from California to rural Arkansas in the 1980s, where its patriarch is determined to start a farm.

Despite its universally relatable storyline, debates over the film’s eligibility to compete amongst other American films persist.

Minari’s Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film has stirred up a complex, painful awareness of rejection and alienation for Asians across America and Canada, like myself.

Minari was written, directed, filmed and produced in America; it tells the story of an American family in the midwest, and stars a predominantly American cast — yet its win for Best Foreign Language Film has punctuated the chasm between what is offered to American families of colour,

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and what is demanded of them.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) rejected Minari’s bid for Best Picture because the film is predominantly in Korean. However, as film journalists have highlighted, the HFPA nominated Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds — which also features foreign languages — in the main category of Best Film in the past. The HFPA’s rejection of Minari as an American film is representative of the open rejection of the Asian diaspora and their place in North America.

Minari stars the Yi family — parents Jacob and Monica are chicken sexers from California who have an opportunity to pay off their debts if they can successfully get their small farm started in Arkansas.

As the family struggles with supporting Jacob’s parents as well as managing the heart condition of their eight-year-old son, David, a decision was made for Monica’s mother to come from South Korea to live with the family.

First and second generation Asian immigrants are all too familiar with the layered complexities of filial piety in the same ways that the Yi family experiences — living in multigenerational

homes while navigating their obligations between the generations before and after them.

David complains throughout the film that his grandmother isn’t “like a real grandma.”

That she “smells like Korea” and should be baking cookies.

Instead, David’s grandmother brings him to a creek deep in the woods near their trailer home, and introduces him to a Korean plant called minari. She tells him that “Minari grow anywhere,” and that “Rich or poor, anyone can enjoy it and be healthy.”

The film’s cultural significance is a universal language of the rooting of our ancestral tapestry — from which every American-born Asian child and grandchild blossom.

Much like David, the young boy in Minari, I grew up with varying degrees of shame and pride for my dual identities as both American and Chinese. As an adult who later immigrated to Canada, learning French and settling into life in Montreal has been a natural extension of my existing immigrant identity. So natural, that when I was interrupted mid-conversation with a friend on the STM to be complimented for my “good English,” I was vilified for calling out this problematic behavior.

Language has been a particularly sore subject for me — I speak English with perfect fluency, and French with a barely detectable accent. But try as I might, every-

where I went, I was reminded that no amount of assimilation would ever be enough.

Minari tells the story of an Asian father, Jacob, who toils away at a piece of cursed land, negotiating his priorities against his dreams throughout the film. It is perverse that this universally relatable story of resilience and perseverance is categorized as foreign.

What Asian Americans heard was a message we’ve heard throughout our lives — you may speak perfect English, know no home other than the United States, be born and raised on American soil, tend to a piece of the American dream, and still be considered an outsider.

Perhaps narratives like the struggling farmer or western cowboy trespasses into the kind of American identity that immigrants and BIPOC are restricted from. We are only allowed to be Americans with a hyphen — because the full American identity isn’t available to us.

Asians born in rural Quebec and densely populated New York alike live a shared reality — a constant interrogation of both our roots and our allegiances, as if our only choices are one or the other. Perhaps the most revealing nuance for immigrants in North America is the silent understanding that as we commit to a lifelong embrace of our western home, its institutions will continuously fail to embrace us.

Nevertheless, Asians in North America will honour films like Minari for the ways it immortalizes our stories — offering a long overdue perspective of ethnic Americans in an otherwise predominantly white western narrative.

EXHIBITION

Dancing

Contradictions:

Exposing sincere messages on delicate materials Ana Lucia Londono Flores Assistant Arts Editor In her newest solo exhibition Dancing Contradictions, presented at Galerie Robertson Arès, Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Marie-Claude Marquis showcases a collection of 97 vintage plates and eight velvet embroideries.

Everyone is experiencing the pandemic differently; it has proven to be the most unsure time of our lives, as the future remains uncertain. To that end, the series depicts the hardships and successes that the world has gone through during this period of time.

Marquis’ artistic practice revolves around porcelain plates and embroideries. She reuses objects to give them a second life. The vintage plates were objects Marquis recycled, giving them a new meaning. Also, every instance of writing was hand-painted or embroidered by herself.

Dancing Contradictions exposes fragility and strength as the pandemic has shown to be a rollercoaster ride of events and emotions.

The collection is set around the gallery. One wall is dedicated to Marquis’ velvet embroideries. Each piece has a different design and message inscribed. The messages are either written in French or in English, and feature familiar expressions that can easily be recognized. Marquis inserted curse words and Quebec expressions that one may hear once in a while, but also quotes that one may have read on the internet, such as in You’re overthinking again (1/3), (2021).

At times, some messages may sound cheesy; some may be funny and relatable. Some of them can also bring a sense of comfort as there are words that may reflect one’s

Marie-Claude Marquis

state of mind, or may simply be words of encouragement. Still, they are honest and are there for the audience to engage with.

For the velvet embroideries, spectators can admire works such as Faut pas croire tout ce qu’on pense (3/3), (2021), Oh, baby baby it’s a fucking wild world (3/3), (2021), Focus on what you can control (3/3), (2021), and more. These velvet embroideries evoke a vintage aesthetic with the different prints and colours Marquis used in her work.

The embroideries are square shaped, inspired by silk squares, also known as silk scarves, that are mostly worn by women, and became popular during the post-war years. According to Rampley & Co, a British clothing company, silk scarves became a symbol of glamour, power and independence during that time. Marquis incorporated the styles of silk scarves, as her embroideries are made with vivid and sharp patterns.

As for the vintage plates, they remind the audience of porcelain plates they may have in their homes, hidden in their kitchen cabinets as they are used less frequently.

It could be hard to pick your favourite vintage plate as they vary in shape, structure, pattern and colour. For example, Riding Dirty, (2021) is a plate depicting Off to School (1920), a painting made by Norman Rockwell. Lots of

things happen for no reason at all, 2021 is a floral plate, like Osti de mélancolie, 2021.

Marquis has found a way to bring comfort, humour and honesty to her work. As there are many art pieces, it seems like there is a message for everyone. While there may be some straightforward words, compared to others that may sound softer, they can depict sentences one may not think out loud, or comforting words one needs to hear.

The pandemic brought uncertainty to everyone. It also brought change into our lives. With new hobbies, new life goals, and unexpected events, the pandemic allowed everyone to grow in a certain way. While Marquis’ main concern is the impact of isolation on mental health, she made sure to expose these expressions that people unconsciously carry with themselves.

Dancing Contradictions encourages spectators to engage with the artwork, express their feelings towards them and remind them that everyone is in the same boat. Hopefully, the exhibition can uplift some in these weird times.

Dancing Contradictions is on display at Galerie Robertson Arès, at 1490 Sherbrooke St. W, until March 27. The gallery is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m Monday to Saturday, and Sunday by appointment. Viewers can check out some of her art pieces here.

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Music.

MUSIC EDITOR Louis Pavlakos / @louispavlakos music@theconcordian.com

INTERVIEW

Barely Legal is piecing it all together

The eight-man, Florida based collective is ready to explode Guillaume Laberge Staff Writer

Hip hop collective Barely Legal sound like they’re performing fresh off a sugar high. Coming out of the Florida music scene strongly, the eight-member collective from Tampa Bay is here to focus on themselves individually — and as a group.

Four of them make the music and the rest are the digital media team and the manager; all of them living together and progressing on a journey towards success. The four musicians are rappers Chowder Band$, JØ, Kid Dre and singer Miguel Morales. The collective are fresh off their first mixtape, Barely Legal Tapes, Vol. 1, which was released in late January.

Barely Legal may be new, but its four artists all have individual singles and solo projects under their belts from before their collaboration. They came together as Barely Legal in the summer of 2019, but only released their first single in November of 2020, with the track “Money Where Your Mouth Is,” showcasing Kid Dre and Miguel Morales, who teamed up to deliver a sweet and catchy tune with a lot of flavour.

The collective received a lot of praise, with some fans even comparing them with groups such as BROCKHAMPTON, and the noto-

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rious rap label Dreamville. Though their high number of members are reminiscent of BROCKHAMPTON, they don’t see themselves as a product of that group’s music.

“We don’t really get a lot of influence from them because we know that the sound we have is different than everyone else’s, so we don’t really like to put ourselves in the same box that they are in, but I can see how a lot of people would think that they crawled so we could run,” said Kid Dre. Although it is their main focus at this time, Barely Legal is not a rap group – it’s a collective — and all members are also focused on their individual projects, said Kid Dre. On Barely Legal Tapes, Vol. 1, Barely Legal exemplifies its members’ abilities by playing with a lot of different sounds and by hopping on different instrumentals, which allows them to show both their smooth and aggressive sides. The four artists work hand in hand to deliver the mixtape’s 18 tracks.

The boys mostly rap on the record while trying to touch every sound possible. They succeed in doing it by hopping on hype songs like “Gawd Dammit Amerikkka” and “Fuck,” and on classic boom bap beats like on “Creep” and “Saturday Morning Cartoons,” or even on chill laid back songs like “Choices” and “Decisions.”

Having a gifted singer like Miguel in the collective adds another dimension to their tracks. From beautifully sung hooks ranging from a variety of genres, like the songs “Too Fast,” where Miguel sings parts in Spanish, to songs like “Take It

Slow,” which is a smooth dancehall track.

“I think the creative process behind the album was trying to get a large body of work that could highlight each artist’s individual skill and try to mix them together to make a masterpiece,” said Kid Dre. The four artists in Barely Legal can hold their own individually, but their talent comes to fruition when they combine forces on songs. They feed off of each other’s energy, motivating themselves to give it their all.

“There are times I came in the studio completely angry and sad, times where I didn’t even wanna be there, but I see Miguel in his zone and it puts me in my zone. There is always someone to pick up where you slack even though there is no slacking allowed,” said JØ.

The third track of the project, “Sugar Rush,” started to catch fire, with a TikTok video promoting the song surging past 100,000 likes, and with 128,000 listens on Spotify. The song is a high energy banger featuring Kid Dre and Chowder Band$, that sees both of them go completely ballistic.

Despite having a small initial buzz surrounding their name with “Sugar Rush,” in their heads, they aren’t remotely close to where they see themselves in the future.

“We want to make music to inspire the youth and to go to work, quit their jobs and start grinding,” said Kid Dre. In a closing thought, JØ pondered the group’s future: “We are working on a lot and we are not gonna stop working on it, and once we finish what we are working on, we are gonna go from there, and start working on a lot more.”

A decade of XO

style, and at its brightest feeling like the high that he’s chasing.

From the outset, this album strikes this balance. Its intro, “High for This,” is dark and eerie, with Tesfaye welcoming the listener to his lifestyle as the song crescendos to its booming, bass-heavy chorus.

It sets the tone perfectly for the drugged-out odyssey that the listener is about to embark on.

And it proved to be just that. of two projects to completely Every song on this album fits shift the tide of the genre at the that journey without ever feeltime, the other being Frank ing like you’re hearing the same Ocean’s nostalgia, ULTRA. song twice. From the airy and It was unlike anything out ethereal “The Morning” to the at the time, defied almost all of popular R&B’s conventions, and changed everything.

Whereas a lot of the popular R&B music of the time was pop-tinged and upbeat, or fit into the genre’s more traditional, romantic and sensual slow jams, Tesfaye was operating in a lane completely his own. House of Balloons is dark and perpetually nihilistic, fueled by drugs and drenched in sadism, and presented a reality that was as far from R&B’s “norm” as possible.

Sonically, this album’s soundscape paired perfectly with the dark themes and content that Tesfaye presented in his lyrics.

On top of that, it was just as far from any pre-existing norms and conventions within the genre.

It was moody, atmospheric and borderline psychedelic at its darkest, matching Tesfaye’s despair and drug-addled party-laden life-

House of Balloons at 10 The Weeknd has been on a historic run for a decade now, and his groundbreaking 2011 mixtape is its origin Wesley McLean Assistant Music Editor In 2021, The Weeknd is inescapable. He’s one of the world’s biggest stars and a bona fide pop culture icon. Fresh off of an explosive Super Bowl halftime show just last month, his hit single “Blinding Lights” just became the only song to spend a whole year in Billboard’s top ten. You can’t go a day without hearing his music or seeing his face on a social feed or TV screen.

This is a stark contrast to where he was just a decade ago.

In 2011, that inescapable name was just the moniker for Abel Tesfaye, a faceless, enigmatic artist from Toronto. Even as he made a home for himself on the front page of many popular music blogs, nobody knew his real name, nobody knew what he looked like, nobody knew who he was. All they knew was that he’d released House of Balloons, and that was enough.

House of Balloons, Tesfaye’s alternative R&B opus, was one

Quickspins

POSTER GIRL ZARA LARSSON RATING: 7/10 TRIAL TRACK: LOVE ME LAND

Zara Larsson’s third studio album is a fun, breezy listen that will surely put you in a good mood Rhea Giuliana Staff Writer Upon listening to the first few tracks on Poster Girl, you can tell that Zara Larsson has departed from her ballad-style songs.

With this being her third studio album, she went for a fully upbeat and lighthearted tone. Some of her most popular songs have been slower ones, and Poster Girl is anything but. Zara Larsson has provided her listeners with an album that is full of tracks that can get anyone up and dancing around their rooms.

Thematically, the album is sound; each song has its rightful place in the tracklist.

Most of the songs are based on love, relationships and feelings overall. The titles of each song, for the most part, give a clear indication of what a listener can expect.

The three singles, “Love Me Land,” “WOW,” and “Talk About Love,” are by far the catchiest songs on the tracklist.

“Love Me Land” has an opening siren that sounds like it’s from a Purge movie,

bleak and depressing “Wicked Games” to the wildly experimental two-part track “House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls,” every song here serves a purpose.

It’s for these reasons that House of Balloons has gone on to be as influential as it has. Everybody from Bryson Tiller, Lil Uzi Vert, and even Drake have been deeply influenced by this project and the other two mixtapes in Tesfaye’s trilogy. It was a gamechanger and has remained one of his best projects to this day, a flawless collection of tracks that, after ten years, not only holds up but is a clear-cut classic.

which, compared to the lightheartedness of the rest of the album, seems quite dark.

However, once the song’s main melody begins, it fits in with the rest of the album.

“WOW” is a bit of a tongue twister to sing along to because of the constant repetition of words with the overall pacing of the song — although it does make the song quite catchy to listen to. It’s one of those songs that you put

talk about love / I don’t got time to be lying like a rug / Hot as Taki, Kawasaki, I ride it, ride it”). The line always offers a laugh, comparing a popular snack to how hot Larsson is, and uses a seemingly popular snack to emulate how hot the speaker is.

Larsson’s songs are constant hits.

They’re not overly complex to understand, and they’re relatable. She is able to convey strong messages about female empowerment across the 12 tracks. Even a song like “Ruin My Life” focuses on the woman’s role within the song and what she wants.

Perhaps the song’s lyrics aren’t positive, as she says “I want you to ruin my life / I want you to fuck up my nights,” however, the woman herself is seemingly in control here. The idea is that what an empowered woman looks like can take on many forms.

While Zara Larsson’s songs do discuss some deeper subject matter, some of that gets lost behind the overproduced and upbeat nature of the songs. There are songs that discuss relationships and have poignant messages, but the focus tends to be on the beat, rather than the lyrics.

That being said, Poster Girl is a great on repeat, and before you know it, you’ve listened to it about ten times. album to put you in a better mood. It’s “Talk About Love” is the only song that unfortunate that the album doesn’t has a featured artist. Young Thug’s appear- have much variety in terms of beat and ance creates a different dynamic to the style, which creates a lack of balance tone of the song, compared to the rest of for the listener. However, if someone the tracks. Larsson proves how sticky her wants a dance-based, upbeat album, lyrics can be on this track (“I don’t wanna then Poster Girl will satisfy them.

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Sports.

SPORTS EDITOR Alec Brideau / @alecbrideau sports@theconcordian.com

SOCCER

The Club de Foot Montreal aims to change its image and find its identity New branding, new head coach and eight new players bring hopes that the upcoming season will be better than the last one The club changed its name and logo, Head Philippe Robin Contributor The Club de Foot (CF) Montreal has signed eight players this off-season, the greatest number of contracts given by the club since 2015. That year, the team made it to the Concacaf Champions League final.

So, what can fans, players, and coaches expect for the upcoming season?

Let’s start by remembering what happened in 2015: the club started its season with seven new players on the starting lineup, and made it to the Champions League final and the Major League Soccer (MLS) quarter-finals. This season was arguably the greatest campaign since the club joined the MLS in 2012.

Compared to 2015, last season is one to forget for CF Montreal fans. Their favourite club was eliminated from the Champions League, finished ninth in the MLS Eastern Conference, and did not play a single game at the Saputo Stadium. Fortunately, the club drastically changed over the winter, in all ways possible.

Coach Thierry Henry left his coaching duties for family reasons and has been replaced by Wilfred Nancy, and eight new players have been signed to the team.

The 2021 season starts on April 17, with the team facing a lot of uncertainty. The lineup that finished last year on the pitch is expected to be very different from the one that will start this season. From the eight new players, four came from free transfers (Zorhan Bassong, Erik Hurtado, Bjørn Johnsen, and Aljaž Struna), two came on loan (Ahmed Hamdi and Joaquín Torres) and two were bought in exchange for allocation sums (Djordje Mihailovic and Kamal Miller).

From all those athletes, two names drew a lot of attention from the media. Mihailovic and Johnsen are the two players raising the most hope for this upcoming season. Mihailovic is a 22-yearold offensive midfielder who played for the Chicago Fire last season. His success will depend on his capacity to work with Samuel Piette and Victor Wanyama to create a solid central midfield.

Johnsen is a tall and muscular striker. Last season, he played for Ulsan Hyundai in South Korea.

He has a game volume similar to Jozy Altidore.

Since Ignacio Piatti left in January 2020,

the club has been searching for a player who is able to regularly create goal opportunities. Mihailovic will probably play as a number 10 behind Johnsen. This offensive duo could become the best attack the club has had since Piatti and Didier Drogba.

So which Montreal FC players can expect to start the season on the field? Clément Diop will surely be the starting keeper, as there is very little competition for his spot. From left to right, the defensive line should be composed of Mustafa Kizza, Luis Binks, Struna, and Zachary Brault-Guillard. MFC should align two defensive midfielders, Piette and Wanyama. The two wingers should be Romell Quioto and Lassi Lappalainen. The offensive midfielder will surely be Mihailovic and the striker should be Johnsen.

Whatever the lineup may be, fans can look forward to an exciting season like they haven’t seen in quite some time.

VIDEO REVIEWS VIDEO REVIEWS

The use of instant replay in sports Are video reviews and instant replays good for sports?

Liam Sharp Assistant Sports Editor The implementation of instant replays in sports has been a subject of debate for fans and the leagues since the technology was first industrialized for sports in the 1960s. Today, every major league uses video reviews to varying degrees, along with coaches’ challenges, to aid officials in making the right calls.

As technology continues to evolve, video replays will only get better at being able to deduce what the human eye cannot, and reduce the number of controversial outcomes in games. Supporters of instant replay will justify the need for review by pointing to key moments in sports where the wrong call stood, and a winner was mistakenly crowned.

The most notable recent example came in the 2018 NFC Championship game in the National Football League (NFL), when the Los Angeles Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints 26-23 in overtime.

While post-game banter should have been focused on the Rams’ achievement in reaching their first Super Bowl final since 2001, the outcome of the match was mired in controversy following an unpenalized pass interfer-

14

ence committed by Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman on Saints wide receiver Tommylee Lewis.

The dramatic play would later be notoriously dubbed the “NOLA No-call,” and the NFL would respond by making pass interference reviewable in its future seasons.

Nowadays, all games are officiated with the extensive use of instant replay reviews, whether it’s the deciding minutes of a championship game or an unassuming regular season matchup.

In theory, minimizing the number of referee-related mistakes is a notion worth supporting, but not all sports fans and athletes are in favour of the current replay system. Gabriel Guindi, who co-hosts CJLO’s sports talk show The Starting Rotation, is one such enthusiast who cannot get behind the excessive use of video reviews in the National Hockey League (NHL).

“Hockey probably does it the best compared to the other major sports leagues,” Guindi said. “But most of the time it does more damage than good. They might review a play for a few minutes and, if anything, I’m left more confused than when I saw it live.”

Louis-Vincent Gauvin, a second-year guard for the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team, is an avid fan of the National Basketball Association (NBA). When the league made the transition towards more reviews by adding coach’s challenges in 2019, Gauvin worried it would have an undesirable effect on the quality of games.

“Basketball is at its best when the play doesn’t stop and there is a constant flow,” Gauvin said. “Stoppages for replay reviews and coaches’ challenges can ruin the natural rhythm of the game.”

Gauvin believes that the intention to review close calls makes sense, so long as they can be accomplished in a timely manner.

“The referees’ mistakes are part of the sport, so I can accept incorrect calls here and there if it means preserving the natural momentum and pace of the game,” Gauvin said.

While instant review can prolong games and make them tough to digest for some spectators, it doesn’t stop the NBA from achieving peak entertainment value, Gauvin believes, thanks in large part to the sheer amount of talent in the league today.

SOCCER

Thierry Henry: The living legend Henry brings his talent on and off the field Thomas Allitt Contributor Filling up trophy cabinets was common for former football player Thierry Henry. Unfortunately, Henry’s time as a head coach of CF Montreal did not reflect his career as a player, and had to come to a premature ending.

The all-time top goal scorer for France with 51 goals, he started his professional career in Monaco, where he spent five years. There, he won his first major trophy during the 1996–97 season, lifting up the Ligue 1 trophy and crowning Monaco as French champions.

Henry’s talents were not left unnoticed, and after an uneventful year playing for Italian giants Juventus for the 1998–99 season, he moved to London, where his career with Arsenal would engrave him forever in not only the history of the club, but also the sport.

While playing for Arsenal, Henry changed his play style and became a central offensive player rather than playing out on the left wing.

This made a huge difference in Henry’s goal scoring record, where his mentality of quickly controlling the ball and shooting on net became evident and ruthless.

Henry played for Arsenal from 1999–2007, and saw his club lift the Premier League Cup twice. During the 2003–04 season, the London-based club won the Premier League without losing a single game, earning them the title of ‘The Invincibles’ and lifting up a golden trophy; the only team in the history of the Premier League to ever do so.

Henry’s time with Arsenal came to an end in 2007, as he joined famous Catalonian club F.C. Barcelona — the club he had lost to in the

Graphic by Sarah Alouani @okaruno

Champions League Final in 2006.

Henry’s time with Barcelona surpassed expectations. The striker became champion of Spain in his second year there, and created history once again as Barcelona won six trophies in a calendar year: the Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup, La Liga, La Copa del Rey, and the most famous Champions League. Henry’s influential career with Barcelona came to an end in 2010, when he shockingly joined Major League Soccer (MLS) team the New York Red Bulls.

His player career in the MLS was different from his European past. Henry became a role model for all his teammates, and his influence was greater than ever, a source of discipline, confidence and rigour. Winning only the Supporters’ Shield with the Red Bulls in the 2012–13 season for having the best record in the league, Henry retired in 2014 and meddled in a managerial career soon after.

He became the head coach of CF Mon-

treal in 2019, but unfortunately left his coaching duties this February 2021. During his time in Montreal, the Frenchman continued to elevate the standards of his team, leading CF Montreal to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, but was eliminated by the New England Revolution. Henry’s record for the Montreal-based club is nine wins, 16 losses and four draws for both the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons. Although these statistics may not seem impressive, Henry’s goal was to build the team from the ground up; a plan which demands time and effort.

Henry had to leave his position last month for family reasons, but his coaching career is nowhere near finished. The Frenchman’s departure has made clubs such as AFC Bournemouth from the England second tier division keen on signing the legend into their coaching spot, whenever he’s ready.

COLOUR COMMENTARY

Tennis players still can’t play in red zones

Despite the resumption of many activities, tennis is still not allowed to take place in the Greater Montreal area

ing videos on Facebook about how safe ing about childrens’ health; their favourite and healthy tennis is for people. They also sport often represents everything to them. shared a photo that compares the number Some school-related sports recently restarted for those in orange zones, but for people With vaccinations for COVID-19 of people in some places currently open, in the Greater Montreal area, it might just versus the number of people that would be accelerating and the spring season be too late when we decide to reopen sports coming up, Quebec is allowing more allowed in a sports centre like theirs. centres and allow back some activities.

Before the curfew was put into place, and more activities to resume, dePeople who hoped to have their favoupending on your location. However, people could play tennis, badminton and rite winter sports back, like hockey, have despite having shopping malls, cine- some other indoor, individual sports in probably already thrown in the towel due Montreal.

We haven’t been given clear reamas and museums open, many sports to the time of the year we find ourselves in. like tennis are still prohibited in the sons as to why these activities have been Fortunately, as spring is coming up, sports prohibited since the curfew’s creation, Greater Montreal area. which is frustrating since they could be tak- like tennis can be played outside shortly.

This has frustrated sports centres such ing place safely in the daytime.

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion Many people are currently worryas Tennis 13 in Laval, which keeps postAlec Brideau Sports Editor

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Editorial:

365 days later: it hasn’t been all bad It’s hard to believe that a year ago this week, we went into lockdown. This time last year, many of us were wondering what the rest of our school year was going to look like, stressing about when our next paycheck would be coming, or making moves to get back to our parents’ houses.

The world has changed a lot since then. Now, we’re all seasoned vets of Zoomniversity — whether we like it or not — and have learned, as best as we can, how to manage life as students in isolation. We also probably all have a favourite mask, even though this time last year we didn’t know where to buy one.

And even in the darkest of days, when our city was the epicentre of the virus in Canada, Montreal showed its true colours; parks full (granted, maybe a little too full) of people enjoying the summer sunshine, mask-wearing crowds collectively admiring

a whale that somehow made its way into our waters, a COVID-friendly version of MURAL Festival, and paper rainbows in So. Many. Windows.

However, we can all agree that there are some positive aspects to this new world we’re living in. We’ve all been handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to slow life down, and take in our surroundings — For some of us, isolation has allowed us to whatever they may be. Whether that means become closer with roommates, to speak to you get outside more than you used to, that our friends and family more often (even if it you’ve turned your apartment into that of is through the screens of our devices), or to your dreams, or that you’re the best Catan have some much-needed downtime. Maybe player in the greater Montreal area, that’s a you used the summer off as an opportunity plus. to get into nature, or the winter as an excuse to pick up that hobby you’ve always So, as the snow melts, and the Tam-Tams been interested in. Maybe you even joined start tapping once again, let’s keep in mind TikTok, and subsequently started parting that it’s not all bad. We have time on our your hair in the middle (sorry Gen Z, I’m hands, a beautiful city, and ultimately, we doing my best!) have each other. Ça va bien aller.

It’s safe to say that it hasn’t been a walk in the park for everyone, and it can be hard to celebrate even life’s small victories while so much is going wrong in the world.

This is The Concordian.

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OUR COVER THIS WEEK “SPRING RENEWAL”

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VOLUME 38 ISSUE 12 DATE MARCH 16 2021

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