January 21, 2020

The Concordian.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

LIFE // Green lifestyle swaps / YUM or YIKES / Oscars (still) so white (and male)

ARTS // Best films of the 2010s / Ozone Gleaners / White Cube: Ceramic make-a-thon

SPORTS // 3ICE summer hockey league / Stingers weekend recap / Colour Commentary

MUSIC // Igloofest preview / Quickspins / Sad Music Sad Comedy tour preview

 // theconcordian  @theconcordian  @theconcordian theconcordian.com

OPS // Note to shelf / Romanticizing serial killers / The "cool girl" trope

*news pg. 2 VOLUME 37, ISSUE 19 TUESDAY JAN. 21, 2020

News.

NEWS EDITORS Jad Abukasm /  @JAbukasm Virginie Ann /  @LaVirginieAnn news@theconcordian.com

CAMPUS

Concordia’s first pop-up building now open “Given that its temporary, it's actually pretty good,” said Professor Maggie McDonnell Marissa Ramnanan Assistant News Editor

If you walk along de Maisonneuve Blvd.

W. near Concordia’s downtown campus, you will notice a cube-like building with a large inconspicuous LS plastered at the front entrance. At door number 1535, Concordia’s first pop-up building opened its doors to students on Jan. 6.

The Learning Square is a temporary, two-storey, modular building that has eight classrooms that can accommodate about 80 students per class. The cost of building the structure was estimated at $6.5 million, and Concordia expects to use the building for five years.

The inside of the building is elegant; it is a reflection of what the Webster library looks like, post recent construction. Colourful walls adorn the interior, turquoise, yellow and lime green, juxtaposed against the white.

The temporary structure was built to make up for the loss of classroom space due to renovations in the Hall building. According to Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci, with this new building, the university will be able to complete the renovations faster and on a larger scale, with fewer disruptions to students and faculty.

“Space wise, in the classroom, it’s big, and the teachers are able to actually get their messages across, sound wise,” said sociology student Erin Bleau.

Maestracci said the university expects the renovations of the Hall building to take about 18 months.

WORLD IN BRIEF:

Lebanon protests, Royal

“I think that it's really great that they've given us this space, because from what I understand, what’s going on in the Hall building involves even things like asbestos, and so on, so I’d much rather be over here,” said Professor Maggie McDonnell, lecturer and program coordinator of composition and professional writing.

According to Maestracci, Concordia looked at different options for creating more space for classrooms, but found that modular units are more beneficial and cost less than renting space. The building could also be moved and reused in another location.

“Given that it’s temporary, it's actually pretty good,” said McDonnell. “You don't feel like you’re in a trailer.”

Gender neutral washrooms

The Learning Square is the first Concordia building to have only gender neutral washrooms. The stalls also offer more privacy, as the doors start from the floor and reach up to the ceiling.

“It kind of adds an aspect of (privacy),” said communications student Steph Medalsy. “It could make a person who is maybe not okay with the idea a bit more comfortable, and maybe it will change some people’s opinions that it doesn’t really make a difference who’s using the washroom, considering the stalls are so secluded.”

On December 10, The Concordian published an article titled “Transparency Headlines the CUPFA 2020 elections” that contained factual errors and unsubstantiated accusations against the current Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA) executive.

The Concordian regrets these errors and will rewrite a fair and balanced version of this article, one which includes the voices of everyone involved.

titles and Impeachment Jad Abukasm News Editor More than 150 people were injured in Lebanon’s capital during new riots against the current government.

Police retaliated against protesters who were throwing objects including stones, firecrackers and metal signs last Saturday, according to the Associated Press. The riots have been ongoing for the past three months amidst a dwindling economy and of the government’s reformation following the prime minister’s resignation in October 2019. Saturday’s demonstrations condemned the government’s inaction towards the growing debt of $87 billion US, or 150 per cent of the country’s GDP.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer be members of the royal family, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have their royal titles removed and will no longer receive taxpayer money. "As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments," reads the statement. The decision came after the couple announced in an Instagram post their intentions to resign from their roles, spend more time in North America and become financially independent.

Democratic U.S. lawmakers said on Saturday that President Donald Trump must be removed from office.

The 111-page document marked the first time the Senate was called to convict the President. “The Senate should convict and remove President Trump to avoid serious and long term damage to our democratic values and the nation’s security,” read the document, quoted in an article by Reuters. “The case against the president of the United States is simple, the facts are indisputable, and the evidence is overwhelming.” The Senate trial is expected to start on Jan. 21.

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Graphic by @sundaeghost

HUMAN RIGHTS

What experts think about human rights violations in China Concordia hosted a panel to dive into the topic on Jan. 15 Clara Gepner Contributor

Work Smarter, Not Harder

A panel on China’s human rights violations was held in Concordia University’s Faubourg building on Jan. 15.

The experts, who were invited by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), expressed concerns about the Uyghur Muslim concentration camps in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China.

They also discussed the brutal repression in Hong Kong and Tibet, as well as China’s increasing influence on the Western world and its implication for the future of democracy.

The event took place just days after Human Rights Watch (HRW) executive director Kenneth Roth was denied entry into Hong Kong and HRW’s launch event for its World Report 2020 was disrupted by protestors, according to MIGS executive director Kyle Matthews.

“Human rights issues in China are nothing new,” said speaker Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, Senior Fellow at both the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy and the University of Alberta’s China Institute. She listed historical events such as the Cultural Revolution, the Xidan Democracy Wall, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre which she said “trampled on individual human rights in a myriad of ways.”

McCuaig-Johnston continued to explain that although China has lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty since 1978, this is not the same as ensuring individual human rights.

She described how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses detention as a pressure tactic against dissidents and the abusive conditions under which they are detained, which were revealed by HRW’s interviews with former prisoners. She also explained the social credit system, in place since 2014, and the CCP’s widespread interference in Western countries.

Both McCuaig-Johnston and Benjamin Fung, a Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity and an Action Free Hong Kong Montreal activist, highlighted the CCP’s infiltration in Canadian academics and described the pressure on faculty and Chinese students to self-censor criticism of the Chinese government.

The CCP’s use of technology, such as facial and voice recognition for repression, was also extensively discussed by both experts. Fung additionally focused on Chinese companies’ goal to expand the 5G network––he explained that the CCP controls every large corporation in China and that technology companies are obligated to cooperate with Chinese intelligence units.

“It’s about trust, you trust Apple to update your iPhone because it is a private company,” Fung explained, adding that we cannot trust Chinese companies who would introduce malware into the 5G network if the CCP asked them to.

Fung also spoke in detail about China’s one country, two systems policy and the CCP’s broken promise: its decision to maintain control over Hong Kong’s government instead of allowing universal suffrage, which Fung asserts was promised in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. He described what he called an ongoing humanitarian crisis and a system of police brutality, lengthy prison sentences, sexual assault, and white terror––attacks on pro-democracy

SIMPLY SCIENTIFIC: Vanessa Ippolito Contributor

Is there something you want to accomplish? Something you desperately want to do but cannot seem to achieve?

activists.

The situation in Tibet was discussed by Sherap Therchin, executive director of the CanadaTibet Committee, who explained it has been 70 years since China illegally invaded Tibet, and the Western world seems to have forgotten about it.

He described the CCP’s reflexive control strategy: how they have been feeding manufactured information about Tibet to target groups so consistently that the Western world now believes their narrative that Tibet was historically part of China.

Therchin continued to explain that in the Western world’s eyes, control over Tibet is now an internal issue––a problem for China to deal with without Western influence.

Finally, Dilmurat Mahmut, a Ph.D. candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Education, talked about the Uyghur re-education camps in place since 2017. According to documents obtained through an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, an estimated 1 million Uyghur Muslims are detained in these camps, but Mahmut said these numbers could be as high as 3 million. He explained the history of the region of Xinjiang, originally East Turkistan, and the CCP’s labeling of all Turkic Muslims in the region as potential terrorists or pre-criminals.

Mahmut described the conditions in what the CCP calls vocational training centres, and explained that Uyghur children are being forcibly detained and sent to state-run orphanages where they are forbidden from learning the Uyghur language and, instead, only learn the Chinese culture—he called this cultural genocide. Ma h mut finished his presentation with a warning from Roth on the dangers of not challenging Chinese human rights abuses and worldwide interference.

Photos by Britanny Clarke

We have all been in that funk before. The best way to overcome that is a change in outlook. Develop a goal-oriented mindset—it is that simple! Lucky for us, our brain is programmed to love a good challenge, because we get rewarded by a hormone in the brain called dopamine.

The mesolimbic pathway in the brain carries dopamine to different parts of the brain, including the frontal lobe–– the sector responsible for motivation. To the brain, achieving a goal is considered an extrinsic reward. Say you did not like doing something, but you still pushed through to accomplish it. That reward of completion brings a sense of satisfaction to the brain through the rush of dopamine you get when completing a task.

When dopamine is released, the body releases cortisol and oxytocin which reduces stress. The body also releases serotonin which is the brain’s happy chemical. So goal setting and achieving those goals are very good for the body.

We get it, set goals! But how can we do that? The trick to obtaining a goal-oriented mindset is breaking down goals to make them more manageable.

We need to set our goals “SMARTER.” Dr. Edwin A. Locke, a specialist in motivation with a Ph.D in psychology, invented the SMART acronym rule, which was examined and extended over time. Now, think about your goal and apply these SMARTER principles.

Specific: you need to focus on only one

particular goal.

Measurable: you need to monitor your progress qualitatively or quantitatively.

Achievable: set flexible boundaries that suit you.

Realistic: is it something that you actually can do?

Time: give yourself a time frame to accomplish your goal.

Evaluative: does your goal fall into your personal values?

Rewarding: you obtain your goal and dopamine gives your brain its reward.

Nothing is impossible. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and look at your goals in a different way. So, go out and challenge yourself. You might be surprised at the things you can do.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Hack to the future: Concordia’s hackathon is back

Back, whack, and ready to attack–a week of workshops by HackConcordia provides students with new skills Fern Clair Assistant News Editor

C o n c o r d i a ’s h a c k e r c o l l e c t i v e , HackConcordia, hosted various workshops to teach students and the public hacking skills this past week.

Hack Week is a way for students to prepare for the annual ConUHacks V, a hackathon at Concordia, where students come from all over North America to compete in a 24-hour contest. Participants get to create whatever they can imagine––hackathon projects can have any theme as long as it involves code.

“No one ever leaves a hackathon without learning something new,” said Zach Bys, the co-president of HackConcordia and a software engineering student.

Bys has participated in Hackathons for four years, and decided to help organize them because he wanted to give back to the collective. “[Hackathons] have done a lot for me in my career. Most of the skills I have now, that helped me get jobs, I’ve learnt those at different Hackathons,” he said.

ConUHacks has been taking place since 2014, with its first competition having roughly 300 participants. Bys said this year, there are over 750 participants total, with around 40 per cent being Concordia students.

With the increase in participants, Concordia Hackathon has gained over 38 sponsors, such as EB games, Telus, and Shutter Shock. Some sponsors host their own competitions during the hackathon and hand out various prizes.

Bys explained that his favourite creation by students so far was an app that used augmented reality to create live audio captioning, which creates live text when people talk, usually with the intention of helping people with a hearing impairment. Augmented reality is a technology that allows visual objects to interact with reality, such as the popular Pokemon Go app, where digital creatures interact with reality.

Another creation that stood out to Bys was a smart fridge that catalogued all of its contents, and then suggested recipes that could be made with the available food.

“At Hackathon, you can let your creativity run wild,” said Bys, who explained that

POLI SAVVY:

at work or school, it’s unusual for people to have a chance to be imaginative and innovative. “[At Hackathon], you can build anything you want and use technologies that you never had a chance to use at school, like augmented reality.”

Bys stated that with new advances in technology, new programming has become much more approachable for people. Over 10 years ago, it was incredibly difficult to create things with augmented reality, but now it is possible to create complex projects in less than 24 hours, Bys said.

David Molina, a computer engineering student at Concordia, participated in one of the workshops HackConcordia organized. It was hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Concordia, a student branch of the electronics company, IEEE. The workshop focused on learning how to create an arduino, an open-source electronic platform that takes in information––such as a finger on a button or

Standing in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Virginie Ann News Editor

Colonizers might learn how to pronounce the word reconciliation, but that won’t stop them from resurfacing time and again.

In Jan. 2019, the RCMP raided the setup camps and checkpoints on the traditional lands of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in northern British Columbia. These tensions arose after the land defenders stood against the approved Coastal GasLink pipeline project, which would carry natural gas through unceded ancestral lands.

Now, a year later, the BC Supreme Court ruled in favour of the $6.6 billion project––recognizing Canadian law over Indigenous law on unceded lands––allowing the construction to begin while providing another mandate for the RCMP to enforce the injunction.

January 13

an online message––and uses that information to command actions like turn on a motor, a light, or publish a message. In simple terms, it is a very basic robot.

It was Molina’s first time at a HackConcordia event and, while he specializes in designing and building robots in his program, this was the first time he was able to program one.

“It might seem big, but you just have to start somewhere,” Molina said, explaining that anyone can learn how to hack, and the events that HackConcordia are a great way to dip your toes in. “You just have to start small and take baby steps, and then you’re off to building robots.”

Concordia’s Hackathon is on Jan. 25 and the results will be displayed in JMSB’s atrium on Jan. 26.

Photos by Cecilia Piga

The RCMP set up an exclusion zone. What this means is an access-control checkpoint was set up at the 27-kilometre mark of the forest road, restricting entrance to members of the community that might be carrying food supply, but also to the journalists covering the crisis. This directly violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and the importance of keeping the public informed.

Sending militarized forces to unceded territories taps into the widely damaging colonial-capitalist narrative which Canada has been trying to step away from. It carries the message that Indigenous people are criminals for standing in the way.

Let me put things into perspective for you. If a pipeline was threatening to deteriorate your own backyard––the garden that you’ve spent summers building to greet your dear friends with your fresh strawberry and mint salad––while also threatening to sabotage your water so an industry that has been proven to destroy our planet can continue to fuel a foreign market... Wouldn’t you stand up? Wouldn’t you at least try to have a conversation?

Yet, while BC Premier John Horgan was visiting Kitimat, he refused to meet with hereditary Chiefs of Wet’suwet’en.

Frankly, this is undeniably part of a bigger fight that concerns all Canadians––how we intend to protect our environment.

This is a battle against capitalism and corporations that starts with us respecting Indigenous lands.

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Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Life.

LIFE EDITOR Kayla-Marie Turriciano /  @lifewithk_ay life@theconcordian.com

SUSTAINABILITY

Green lifestyle swaps

What you can do to make an impact towards the fight against the climate crisis Juliette Palin Staff Writer I have changed my lifestyle because I feel like no other significant action to fight the climate crisis has been taken, and I don’t want to be held responsible when it becomes impossible for me to take my kids swimming without their skin burning off.

The angst surrounding the climate crisis makes my blood boil.

There are some things you can do to reduce your waste and fight the climate crisis on an individual level: change your diet, stop buying single-use plastic, stop using chemical cleaning products.

The simple solution is to buy less. No matter how many people go vegetarian or vegan, not everyone will be convinced to do so, nor should that be the only solution to becoming more sustainable. The same goes for fully zero-waste lifestyles. Avoiding waste is nearly impossible if you are like the

average person who has a billion things to do. It is unattainable.

Every morning, I leave my apartment trying to remember if I grabbed my mug—a pasta sauce jar with the sticker still on it that I lugg everywhere I go—an old margarine tupperware for food, and some cutlery I probably stole from my high school cafeteria.

Even when actively trying to avoid single-use plastic, some useless

YUM or YIKES: Lilly Roy Assistant Life Editor

Café Chat L’Heureux

Last week, I paid a visit to Café Chat L’Heureux. Located in the heart of the Plateau, it’s one of two cat cafes in Montreal, where guests can enjoy their cup of coffee in the company of some feline friends. Café Chat L’Heureux opened in 2014, and has since become a popular spot for both locals and tourists.

The first cat cafe can be traced back to Taiwan in the late nineties.

The concept was picked up by Japan shortly after, and spread across the rest of the world throughout the following decade. Now, many major North American cities have opened these cafes, their popularity supported by the growing influence of social media and a growing support for the adopt don’t shop movement.

Café Chat L’Heureux is currently home to roughly 10 cats, some of who were adopted from local shelters, and others who the shop foster. Upon entering the cafe, I was confused: where were all the cats? It took me a few moments to realize that the cats were, well, everywhere. Nestled in between cushions, curled up in corners, and perched on the beams overhead, the cats were camouflaged with their environment. Eventually, a few came out of their nests to say hello and—not to be dramatic—it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

The cafe’s ambiance was homey and mellow, with soft music playing overhead and guests chatting quietly, some of them relaxing on the couches, often with a cat resting beside them. I had the pleasure of enjoying my food while a tiny kitten rested on my lap, so it’s safe to say that I was pretty happy with the atmosphere. Ambience: 7/5

The menu is entirely vegetarian, with a few vegan options as well, 6 offering a selection of sandwich melts, salads, soups and smoothies. I

piece of packaging or junk will find its way into my hands—it doesn’t matter if it’s a plastic wrapping on the candy bar I deny I buy myself every day, or a stress ball I’ll never use from a guest lecturer; wasteful objects are everywhere. The key is recognizing them, knowing how to say no, and finding innovative ways to avoid harming the environment that work for your lifestyle.

In order to help the planet, buying new goodies that are pushed onto you through targeted advertising is not the answer. We need to be finding new and innovative ways to lower our waste, and integrating those habits into our lifestyle, one by one.

There are zero-waste/sustainability influencers like YouTubers Sedona Christina and Sarah Hawkinson that you can look to for inspiration to be able to identify what changes you can realistically make to your lifestyle. Cooking and meal prepping are an amazing example: by making your own food, you can avoid the single-use plastic wrap of the sandwich you might normally buy.

Making your own products like face wash and cleaners can help

reduce the amount of plastic in your household. I was a sucker for buying every new body product. By making my own skincare products, I was able to cut my budget from $100 every two months to the $15 it initially cost me to buy the ingredients. Green tea, aloe vera, hemp seed oil and castile soap are the only ingredients I used— and my skin has never looked better!

Think “what can I do with this?” rather than “how quickly can I get rid of this?” At the end of the day, there’s only so much that individual change can do.

We must hold our government, clothing stores, and even favourite junk food suppliers accountable for their actions.

And it's with collective action that real change will prevail.

Graphics by @sundaeghost

tried their popular menu item dubbed “Cat Lady,” a grilled sandwich with goat cheese, cheddar, caramelized onions, fig jam and honey. The sandwich was delicious and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys rich comfort foods. The cafe also offers a variety of lattes, cappuccinos and espressos, so I enjoyed my sandwich with a super tasty hazelnut latte. This was followed by a piece of cheesecake and a brownie that I shared with a friend. Unfortunately, the desserts didn’t live up to the main course, as I found the cheesecake a bit bland, and the brownie to have a texture closer to cake. Food: 3.5/5

Price wise, the menu was a tad expensive—on average, the sandwich melts cost around $14 each, the coffees around $5, and the desserts about $6.50. However, considering the fact that keeping cats alive is a costly affair, I could understand the need for higher prices and didn’t mind paying a little more than I normally would. Price: 4/5

The employees at Café Chat L’Heureux were really nice, and you could tell that they really loved working with the cats. My only teeny-tiny complaint is that the service was slightly slow, but considering the relaxed atmosphere, I didn’t really think it was a big deal. I was in no rush to leave, that’s for sure! Service: 4.5/5 Photo by Laurence B.D. graphic by @sundaeghost

POP CULTURE

Oscars (still) so white (and male)

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

For every step forward towards inclusion one year, the Academy takes two steps back the next Louis Pavlakos Assistant Music Editor

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is trying to save itself from another #OscarsSoWhite fiasco that’s been plaguing the award show since 2015.

That year, April Reign tweeted out the infamous hashtag after the Academy Awards nominations failed to include people of colour in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.

Granted, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director, but that didn’t make up for the exclusion of other minorities in the biggest categories.

Fast-forward to the 2020 Academy Award nominations: people of colour are nominated, but their inclusion feels more like tokenism than genuine inclusivity.

The Best Actress category includes Scarlett Johansson, Saoirse Ronan, Charlize Theron, Renée Zellweger. Finally, Cynthia Erivo is the only person of colour on the list and, ever so coincidentally, she played Harriet Tubman, a slave. This wouldn’t be such a cause for concern if the movie was, well, good. The movie received mixed reviews and was far from a box office smash, yet the Academy decided Erivo’s performance was Oscar-worthy. It wasn’t—it was simply fine.

Erivo’s inclusion in the category isn’t worth rioting over considering she did do a decent job.

The problem lies in who the Academy chose to include versus who was excluded. Sure Charlize Theron and Renée Zellweger are fine actresses, but their performances in their respective movies ( Bombshell and Judy ) aren’t notable.

Instead, nominations could have gone to Awkwafina, who knocked her performance out of the park in The Farewell or Lupita Nyong’o with her performance in Us, where she took on two polar opposite roles in the same film. Neither actress is white: Awkwafina is Chinese-KoreanAmerican and Lupita Nyong’o is Kenyan, and born in Mexico.

Like every year, a powerful performance will be forgotten. With limited selections, it makes sense that someone we thought was deserving of a nomination would get snubbed—that’s the business. However, this year, Awkwafina and Nyong’o’s exclusion doesn’t seem to be about talent and merit.

Obviously, the Oscars shouldn’t be about forcing inclusion to please non-whites.

Quality should be the driving factor as to who is or isn’t nominated. But when movies like Harriet, Richard Jewell and Bombshell take up precious nominations, at what point do we ask ourselves whether the Academy is actually choosing good movies or if they’re making choices

to please simple moviegoers?

Stephen King tweeted an ideal scenario where films should be judged on their quality and that diversity should not be a factor when the films are being vetted for award shows. He’s right to a certain extent that art should be judged on quality. However, watch Bombshell and The Farewell, and tell me that the former was the better movie. I’ll wait.

The Oscars exist as a vehicle for white male art to take the forefront; and when you have powerful white males defending that stance, it makes this whole situation that much worse.

With every step forward the Academy takes, it seems they also always take two steps back. Moonlight, a film that follows the life of a gay Black man growing up in the U.S., took home the award for Best Picture in 2018. Mahershala Ali and Regina King won Oscars for their performances in Green Book and If Beale Street Could Talk in 2019. After the 2020 nominations, it seems more plausible that those wins were just crowd-pleasers to shut the #OscarsSoWhite crew up.

It’s no secret the biggest film award show in the U.S. favours white films. In February 2019, Indiewire ran a story showing that less than 200 Black people—out of almost 10,000 slots—were nominated across all categories since its inception. For context: four Black men won Best Actor in a Leading Role; one Black actress won Best Actress in a Leading Role; five Black men won Best Actor in a Supporting Role; eight women took home awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Not a single Black director won Best Director, out of only six nominations.

Racism isn’t the only problem the Oscars face. There is blatant sexism in certain categories like Best Director, in which only one woman has ever won: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2009. This year, Greta Gerwig was snubbed after directing Little Women, one of the year’s finest films that required the utmost care to make.

Conversely, the Oscars did do something right this year by adding the Korean sleeper hit of the year, Parasite. Never has a Korean film or director been nominated for Best Picture or Best Director respectively and given the outstanding reception of the film; it would have been criminal to exclude it from the award show.

Unfortunately, that alone does not make up for the rest. Women and people of colour have always been overlooked at film award shows. Even when we try to make things better, things stay the same.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

the art of being single

W/ KAYLA-MARIE TURRICIANO

circumstances

Not the right timing. Not the right feelings. Not part of the plan. Not what I had in mind. Not what I’m looking for. Not in that way. Not in a million years. Maybe in four months. Maybe if things were different.

Whether it’s that cute girl you work with that you have undeniable chemistry with, that cute guy in your class with the dreamiest eyes, that friend you started developing feelings for after spending so much time together, circumstances can make or break any situation.

Everything can go according to plan, you can be ready to shoot your shot, you can be certain of your feelings after spending weeks trying to convince yourself otherwise. You can have an inkling that they might like you too, that everything might work out for once, so you can stop shooting your shot to no avail for the same reason every time.

Maybe this time, things will go right and you don’t have to hear “I like you too but I’m seeing someone else/I don’t want to ruin what we have/I don’t see you in that way.” Or maybe it’s the right person at the wrong time: they’re newly dating, you’re moving away, they’re in a long term relationship.

As I was struggling to come up with an idea for this week, the circumstances changed—literally. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word “circumstances” more in my life than this past week.

Maybe it was a reminder that, no matter how much you plan for things to happen—or for nothing to happen at all—the universe (or God or whatever you believe in) has a funny way of showing you who’s boss.

One of my favourite relationship analogies relates to lines: people can be like parallel lines, spending their whole lives living alongside each other but never intersecting. They can also be like perpendicular lines, that cross paths once and never again. Both of these situations are a blessing and a curse; they depend on the circumstances of each line and how they’re meant to act in relation to another.

You may want to be a perpendicular line with someone but the circumstances are not right so you’re stuck being parallel lines forever.

Sometimes, that’s more of a blessing than a curse because they likely weren’t meant to be in your life the way you’d hoped. While it’s okay to be sad or upset about things not working out according to plan, circumstances can change and your parallel line with one person can turn into a perpendicular line with someone else.

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If you have any topic suggestions or questions for advice, feel free to reach out to life@theconcordian.com

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Arts.

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

ARTS EDITOR Chloë Lalonde arts@theconcordian.com

EXHIBITION

A peek into what the climate crisis has done to us Iranian artist reminds viewers of their humanity

Happening in and around the White Cube this week...

CHLOË LALONDE | ARTS EDITOR

You can find ceramics students nestled in the far corner of the VA building’s basement at all hours of the day. It’s a patient art. Trial and error is to be expected.

Youmna El Halabi Opinions Editor A Canadian lynx missing its paws, a bumblebee with no wings, a wolf-pack howling in the night with no legs to stand on. This is what the climate crisis is leaving us with; endangered species upon endangered species, decaying as the planet is dying.

At least, that is what Shabnam Zeraati wants you to feel and think about in her newest exhibition, Side Effects, at Atelier Circulaire in the Mile End. Side Effects is not only an exhibition concerning wildlife and the dangers climate change poses on it, but what a decaying planet means for human beings as well.

Zeraati’s animal drawings are scattered across the gallery, but the most striking installation is the white plaster hand coming out of a black puddle, positioned in the middle of the room, as if it were drowning and asking for help — exactly what she was going for.

“In all of my projects, I try to invite

the spectator to think and be sensible towards everyday occurrences, and what is happening in the world,” she said.

Zeraati was born in Iran and is now based in Montreal, where she has shown her work in places like MAI, Maison de la culture in Longueuil, Musée historique du Madawaska, Atoll art center in Victoriaville, and Articule. Her works often showcase her desire to cross different techniques in her art, from screen printing, to engraving, to molding.

Her artistic journey led her to leave Iran in 2003, with no intention of going back.

Prior to moving indefinitely to Montreal in 2011, she studied in France, though she admits she didn’t particularly feel quite at ease there.

“It’s hard, living in France as a stranger,” she confessed. “I couldn’t progress artistically like I wanted to. In Canada, there are a lot of opportunities for artists, and it coincided with what I was looking for.”

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“In high school, I knew I didn’t want to continue in sciences, whether it were in biology, human sciences, or physics,” she added. “So my choice was to go in graphics in university.

That’s when I felt that I wanted to go more into drawing, and visual arts.”

Side Effect, she stated, was an idea born out of a migratory mammal encyclopedia she had created in 2017. Zeraati primarily describes her pieces in Side Effect as a narrative. “My prime objective is to make art as comprehensive as possible for everyone, not just for elitists,” she explained.

“Zeraati plunges us into a near future, already clearly perceptible, in which the shift away from our responsibilities is the greatest threat,” said Gauthier Melin, the communciation manager for Atelier Circulaire’s executive board.

Zeraati’s animals, receding into the gallery walls, move from a beige colour to an invisible white. But it is the presence of the plaster hands on the floor, reaching for help, that adds another layer of meaning to her work.

“These outstretched hands cry for help, condensing the stereotypes used in media representations of migratory movements over the past decade, and in particular the treatment of the Syrian refugee crisis,” said Melin. “As a result, the work brings us to another reality of global warming: climate refugees.”

Gripping, disturbing, raw, and, most of all, painfully realistic, Zeraati’s works not only invite the viewer to ponder over the reality of climate change, but call for them to remember their humanity.

Zeraati’s works will be on display at Atelier Circulaire on 5445 de la Gaspé Ave. until Feb. 15.

Photos courtesy of atelier circulaire

Every year, the Concordia Ceramic Student Association (CCSA) hosts a 12-hour make-a-thon where students, faculty and staff are invited to participate in handbuilding and spinning. This year, I joined them for a half hour or so, and had the opportunity to create a weird flower-like bowl, before I decided to crush it and deposit it in the clay buckets to be reused. I don’t have much experience handbuilding, but I do really enjoy the act of making, once I surpass the intense feelings of frustration I associate with the medium.

“Ceramics classes are very hard to get into at Concordia, especially as a non-ceramics student,” said Fiona Charbonneau, who took ceramics in CEGEP, but hasn’t yet at Concordia.

“I came down to talk to people and get to know the medium more by participating in the making, it’s for a good cause.”

The funds raised from the many cups and bowls made during the make-a-thon go towards the department’s participation in the annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference. This year, held from March 25-28 in Richmond, Virginia, students attending the conference will have the opportunity to view demos, share techniques with other ceramicists, attend artist talks, gallery tours and buy special equipment.

According to its website, “the Visual Arts Center of Richmond [...] has helped adults and children explore their creativity and make art since 1963. Each year, the organization touches the lives of more than 33,000 people through its classes, exhibitions, community outreach programs, camps, workshops and special events.”

Rooted in tactility, clay is a very therapeutic medium that teaches balance, stability and how to centre oneself. Even the act of cutting into clay has the serene power to calm me down. As someone who teaches basic handbuilding to children with very limited experience, I’ve learned to not sweat the small stuff, finding freedom within the “rules” (and trying not to blow up all the pieces in the kiln because of a tiny air bubble). Within this, there are techniques that are, overall, pretty helpful in day-to-day life.

To see images from the make-a-thon, and a sneak-peak at what will be available at the CCSA’s sale this winter, read more online.

EXHIBITION

The home, the settlers, and the uninvited

Exploring notions of the “alien” through saturated hues and contrasting textures Lorenza Mezzapelle Assistant Arts Editor Gallery spaces can often feel empty.

Stark white walls and neon lights do not make for an inviting space, leaving the artists’ work to liven the space and instate a narrative. On display at Projet Pangée in downtown Montreal, Ozone Gleaners instantly captures the viewer’s attention, compelling them to engage with the work.

The exhibition unifies the works of artists Tiziana La Melia and geetha thurairajah, as a way of exploring representations of history, settling, and the notion of the unwelcome. The space fully embodies its namesake. Ozone is a colourless gas formed from ultraviolet light, while gleaners refers to someone who gathers or harvests.

These ideas are further depicted in the narratives of the works and the ways in which they are portrayed.

Saturated in deep purples, blues, and pinks, the eye is instantly drawn to La Melia’s work. The Vancouver-based artist plays with texture and materiality to demonstrate the polar differences between depictions of simple, or rural life, and notions of abstraction.

In her 2020 work, Visitors, an illustration of a harvest scene is depicted in rich yellows and greens, contrasting with the pale silk canvas on which it is dyed. La Melia makes a statement about notions of the unwelcome, through a fantastical approach, by depicting a fable-like narrative. She merges contrasting fantasy-like aspects,

seen here as harvesters standing against the delicate background.

The figures wear lingerie-style garments, and seemingly do not belong. The idea of the “alien” lingers in the viewers mind, as they are left thinking about notions of settling and belonging, also left to question the place of the figures against a rural setting.

Brooklyn-based artist

geetha thurairajah uses color and wide brushstrokes to play with the perception of surface and space in her expressive paintings. Her work considers language and histories, exploring these themes in an effort to examine who is left or removed from certain palces and settings.

Her 2019 painting, Convergence, features a sketched figural silhouette against an ultraviolet background. Here, she plays with the idea of alienation and demonstrates this via wide brushstrokes to create an indiscernible plane. This makes the setting abstract and unrecognizable to the viewer, leaving them questioning their relationship to the work.

Together, La Melia and thurairajah’s works consider origin stories, and create a place where one is left to contemplate perceptions of space, who gets to belong, and ultimately, who gets to write these histories.

Ozone Gleaners is on display at Projet Pangée, at 371 Ste-Catherine St. W, suite 412, until February 15, 2020. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m.

Photos by Laurence B.D.

FILM REVIEW

1917 : A beautiful film on the tragedy of war An immersive technical marvel with no shortage of emotion and intensity Lola Cardona Staff Writer The film 1917 is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few months. Everything from the tragedy the characters faced, to the illusion of a longtake left me in astonishment.

It’s a film that is absolutely fantastic on every technical level while also exploring the trauma of war.

I believe that 1917 can credit its emotional effect on audiences to two reasons: the performances by Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay, and the bold choice by director Sam Mendes to make the film look like one single shot. The Film has a very simple concept: two British soldiers are given a mission to deliver a message across enemy territory in order to stop an attack. However, there are rich visual details and emotional tones surrounding the story, which is what really builds the movie.

First, the performances

by Chapman and MacKay were absolutely phenomenal. They inhabited their characters so well, creating people that were perfectly realistic, tragic and beau

tiful. Even though I only knew their characters, Blake and Schofield, for two hours, they offered the audience such an intimate connection during that time that it makes you feel like you’ve known them for a lot longer. For two “unknowns”—which was why Mendes wanted to cast them in the first place—they make themselves not only known, but embedded into your mind and your heart. Their performances will haunt you in the best way possible.

If you’ve already heard a thing or two about 1917, you might have heard the word “seamless.” When describing 1917’s editing and cinematography, that word is used accurately.

Mendes approached his film with the idea of it being in real-time and it was an excellent choice.

Following the characters during every minute of the film made it thrilling, tense and, above all, an immersive experience. You feel like you’re witnessing the lives of these two young soldiers, and

brought along to experience the horrors of war yourself.

The film’s editor, Lee Smith, stitched together every shot seamlessly. Additionally, it had an incredible score by Thomas Newman that only added to the film’s powerful emotional effect. Even listening to the score without the visuals has the power to tell this tragic story. The striking and beautiful cinematography, done by the remarkable Roger Deakins, in addition to the musical score, completely engulfs you.

In the end, I was grief-stricken by the film’s events, but in awe of its technical wonder. I do believe that it deserves the hype it has in terms of its Golden Globe win for Best Drama Motion Picture and Best Director of a Motion Picture, and its 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Cinematography, Original Score, Director and Production Design.

If you can see 1917 in theatres, do it whether it’s in IMAX or a regular theatre.

The experience is worth every penny.

Graphic by@joeybruceart

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Music.

MUSIC EDITOR Jacob Carey /  @jacob_carey music@theconcordian.com

COMEDY

A Swift friendship

Damien Jurado and Nick Thune are Sad Music, Sad Comedy Simon New Staff Writer Singer-songwriter Damien Jurado and comedian Nick Thune are both prominent artists from greater Seattle, but they never met until their mutual friend and collaborator, Richard Swift, died of complications from alcoholism in May, 2018.

Swift was a producer and multi-instrumentalist that worked with groups like the Shins and the Black Keys. Thune and Jurado came together to eulogize Swift at his memorial show, and became friends.

“I had never met him before, my oldest son and I were both big fans of Nick,” said Jurado. The show went so well that the two have decided to tour the east coast together, bringing music, comedy and sadness to L’Astral on Jan. 24. The show has Thune doing new jokes and stories, and Jurado playing cuts off of his newest album, In the Shape of a Storm.

Thune is a veteran comedian and actor whose Comedy Central half-hour debuted in 2008. He’s known for his laid-back and dry style, as well as his sharp wit. He seems like the friend who’s the funniest in the group and is always getting away with something. Thune came up playing acoustic guitar as a bed for his jokes and has always been attracted to music, having originally wanted to become a musician. On stage, he would often open with a line to warm up the crowd: “Can I get more laughter

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in the monitors.”

“Comedians want to be musicians and musicians want to be comedians,” said Thune. “This tour kind of feeds into that idea.”

His last full-length special, Good Guy, premiered in 2016 on Seeso (RIP) and focuses on the birth of his son. Since then, his son has turned five, he and

Photo by Vikesh Kapoor

his wife have separated, and he has gotten sober after the culmination of a serious battle with alcoholism in 2018. After the news of Swift’s death, Thune checked himself into rehab, and has since been feeling more creatively focused.

“The romance of intoxication and drugs producing good art is false,” said Thune. “I don't go running down these paths of a funny idea that I think I have when I'm drunk, then I hear about it when I'm not as drunk and I'm like 'what was I thinking there?'”

While tired tropes of drugs and creativity populate all art forms, Thune noted that for him, sobriety was the clear path forward for not only his life, but his livelihood.

When he was drunk, his thinking was clouded. “You're really missing a lot more than you're hitting. Right now with clarity and sobriety I'm hitting way more,” said Thune.

“Putting that show together, it felt like something that Richard would have loved to watch,” said Thune. Jurado and Swift were longtime collaborators. He produced songs on In The Shape of a Storm, which Jurado says makes up most of his setlist. The record is stripped down to just Jurado and his guitar.

The songs are written intimately with themes of love––they are as vulnerable as they are powerful.

This is sure to be a unique contrast with Thune’s brand of humour. “It's fun because the audience feels like they're getting different drugs,” said Thune.

“It's a sense of laughter and sadness,” said Jurado. “I don't have any expectations. Each individual person's going to get their own experience out of this.”

The two cite influences in musical comedy, but the formula of a musician and a seperate comedian on stage is rarely done. The duo share a bond that transcends art in their friendship with Swift.

“I was on stage and I was thinking to myself this is so crazy that Richard's not here, to witness Nick and I not just being friends now but also going on tour,” said Jurado.

“It's a very strange missing part of the puzzle here.”

The show is sure to be a night of laughter and tragedy, and a common thread of two friends from the Pacific Northwest who shared a close friend.

“Damien goes on first and makes you think about life, then I come on and make you want to end your life,” said Thune.

Speaking to them from their hotel in Pennsylvania, the two clearly share a sense of humour. I asked what Jurado and Thune want people to take away from this tour. "A ton of merch," Thune said.

Sad Music, Sad Comedy plays at L’Astral on Jan. 24, at 8:00 p.m.

Scan the QR code for ticket info:

PREVIEW

Igloofest 2020: 14 years of electric winters

From embracing local hip hop to welcoming new international DJs, the festival slightly reinvents itself this year Olivier du Ruisseau Staff Writer

The biggest music festival of the winter enters the new decade, facing past concerns head-on, from diversifying and expanding its programming, to managing gender diversity and sustainability issues.

Montrealers eager to warm up by dancing on the coldest nights of the year will flock to the Quai Jacques-Cartier in the Old Port for the festival’s 14th edition, spanning over nine nights between four weekends, from Jan. 16 to Feb. 8.

This year, Igloofest seems to have found the right balance in its programming, knowing how to please its loyal festival-goers in an ever-changing electronic music landscape.

“We are aware that people’s tastes evolve, and we have always been trying to dig out future trends

while pleasing our loyal audience,” said Nicolas Cournoyer, co-founder of Igloofest and Piknic Électronik.

The festival’s aspiration for trendiness might explain why they have dedicated an entire night to hip hop for the first time this year. Along with other so-called “Off-Igloo” events, the night of Jan. 30 will feature local hip hop stars, including rappers Loud and White-B, along with DJ Charlie Shulz.

Closer to Igloofest’s roots, some Montreal favourites are also making their comeback this year.

Having just released a very well-received new album, Kaytranada will warm up the Sapporo stage on Feb. 1, along with High K lassif ied.

Kaytranada’s last Igloofest appearance in 2018 broke the attendance record of the festival at that time, likely making his 2020 appearance the most anticipated show at Igloofest this year.

Cournoyer said he is very proud to welcome the two DJs once more.

“It was important for us, since the very beginning, to push for Montreal artists to have a platform here,” he said. “Although at first, when we used to be much smaller, we could almost only have Montreal DJs, we still grew in a way that would allow space for emerging local talent.”

Quickspins MICK JENKINS THE CIRCUS The Circus is Mick Jenkins’ most accessible project since Wave[s]

When a new Mick Jenkins project drops, it’s always expected to be an incredibly dense thematic experience with thoughtful lyricism and wavy beats—most appropriate for a smoking session. The Circus, the newest EP from the Chicago rapper is nothing if not complex, but its short length makes it entirely more digestible and engaging.

The Circus begins with “Same Ol,” where Jenkins raps about walking into a room where he’s virtually unknown but maintains his confidence.

The beat is tight and aggressive, featuring a single synth cord to drive the track home. It’s simple, yet appealing and fits Jenkins’ flows nicely.

The quality of that track is representative of how good the other six songs are as well. Highlights like “The Light” and “Different Scales” are quintessential Jenkins tracks and encapsulate what made him a highly touted MC to begin with.

With that goal in mind, Cournoyer said that in the early 2010s, the festival decided to build a second stage, dedicated strictly to Montreal artists, that would compensate for the

Photos by Youmna El Halabi

arrival of international DJs. Voyage Funktastique and Cri are among the favourite local stars that had participated in the first editions of Igloofest to come back this year.

Igloofest has diversified itself in many ways — its lineup encompasses many genres, from EDM to house, hip hop to techno, but also with guests from all over the world, and a growing presence of women artists.

Cournoyer said that gender equality is a priority for his festival.

“We are flirting with parity in our lineup this year,” he said. “We have been very lucky to find exceptional women artists, such as Nina Kraviz and Charlotte de Witte.” This will be minimal techno DJ de Witte’s second performance in Montreal, following a successful show at Osheaga last summer.

If festival-goers had been complaining about lack of representation of women in music festivals SELENA GOMEZ RARE

The Circus isn’t a reinvention or an innovation in rap music. It’s a step back from Mick Jenkins that allows him to shine his brightest on a tight EP that has barely any cracks in it.

8/10  TRIAL TRACK: THE LIGHT

— LOUIS PAVLAKOS,

ASSISTANT MUSIC EDITOR

Nearly five years since her last album, Selena Gomez has finally returned with her newest project, Rare, her most personal and introspective album so far.

Nearly five years since her last

album, Selena Gomez has finally returned with a new project, Rare; her most personal and introspective album thus far.

Gomez uses extremely powerful lyrics to explain what she’s been through in the past few years.

Struggling with her kidney transplant, lupus, and Justin Bieber drama are all we know. Gomez shows that she’s back and stronger than ever and uses strong bass in multiple songs to emphasize it.

When listening to Rare in order, it does exactly what Gomez wants it to do: it tells her story—loud and clear. There’s a good balance of soft songs, like “Cut You Off” and “A Sweeter Place (feat. Kid Cudi),” and fast-paced upbeat songs like “Look At Her Now” and “Let Me Get Me.” The rawness of songs like “Vulnerable” adds to the authenticity of the story Gomez is telling, with the use of soft, low vocals and slow beats.

recently, they also raised important questions regarding sustainability.

Cournoyer said that Multicolore, the company responsible for Igloofest and Piknic Électronik, will do more this year, as past editions’ efforts might not have been enough to reduce their environmental footprint.

Not only do they claim they will try to compensate for the gas emissions caused by the transportation of their guests by planting hundreds of trees, Igloofest will also ban plastic water bottles and will bring reusable cups and straws this year.

Once the festival comes to an end, Montrealers can measure if these efforts have been successful. Until then, they can fight off winter blues by dancing to their favourite DJs. Scan the QR code for more details about Igloofest

However, 13 songs feels like a lot for this album as the songs get a little repetitive by the tenth track “Kinda Crazy.” A seven-song album would’ve worked just as well, but since Gomez uses the album to share her feelings, and given it’s been so long since her last project, a 13-track album is perfectly understandable.

8/10  TRIAL TRACK: LOOK AT HER NOW

— MARIA BOUABDO,

STAFF WRITER

11

Sports.

SPORTS EDITOR Matthew Ohayon /  @MatthewOhayon sports@theconcordian.com

STINGERS

Weekend Recap: Men’s hockey team dominates Lakers, women’s bounce back against Carabins

Men’s team put up seven goals, women’s team push both games to extra time Matthew Ohayon Sports Editor Matthew Coyte Managing Editor WOMEN'S HOCKEY

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team went into this weekend having to face two of the top five teams in the country. I don’t care what the U Sports rankings say, Concordia, UDEM and McGill are all giants in Canadian university sports.

“It’s a long season and we’re in a tremendous league,” said head coach Julie Chu. “We know that we’re going to be in tight, hard-fought games and we gotta make sure that we continue doing the little things right and staying positive is the number one thing. We have an opportunity tomorrow to go and have a great game too.”

The Stingers first game came against McGill. The Martlets came out flying and worked well to pressure the Stingers into making costly mistakes. After two periods of play, the Martlets were up 3-1. The Stingers then managed to come back to tie the game thanks to the efforts of captain Claudia Dubois, Audrey Belzile and Rosalie Bégin-Cyr who combined to force Concordia’s next two goals. Despite the comeback, the Stingers couldn’t get any momentum through the first overtime, and in the second overtime period, the Martlets capitalized and took the dub. This was the first time all season that the Stingers dropped back-toback games.

The next day against the UDEM Carabins, the Stingers made sure to not make that mistake again.

In what would be a tight, hard-fought and physical battle against Montreal, Concordia managed to outlast their opponent to take the shootout win.

Back-up goalie Madison Oakes got the start against the Carabins to play in her third ever U Sports match, and she did not disappoint. Oakes was calm in the crease, only allowing one goal, including blanking all three Carabins shootout attempts.

“It’s kind of like your first shift back after not playing for a while,” said Chu. “But I think she settled in really well as the game went on. She’s a gamer. I think anytime our goaltenders are able to make big saves, that gives us a boost of energy.”

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Bégin-Cyr continued her torrid scoring pace with a three-goal weekend, moving into a tie for sixth place in U Sports scoring.

MEN'S HOCKEY

The Stingers men’s hockey team put on a show for their fans on Saturday night. Going into their game with Nipissing, Stingers were on a four-game losing streak with their most recent loss coming on Jan. 15 against UQTR, losing by a score of 3-1. The Stingers had their chances in that game but again, it was their lack of ability to put the puck in the back of the net that got the best of them. Special teams were also an issue against the Patriotes as they were 0/5 with the man advantage.

Then came Saturday.

Only two points separated the Stingers and the Nipissing Lakers heading into the game. Having lost four in a row and facing a team trailing them in the standings, this game was critical for the Stingers. Head coach Marc-André Élement said the message going into the game was “leaders lead the way,” and boy, did they ever.

Fourth year player and team captain Philippe Sanche netted a hat-trick while assistant captain Carl Neill added three assists to his point total on the season. The team has shown flashes of brilliance in the past this season but haven’t been able to string together consecutive wins since Nov. 1. Things only get harder for the Stingers as they only have one more home game left on their schedule between now and the end of the regular season.

On top of all that, the special te a m s u n it s re a l ly stepped up in a big way.

The Stingers went 2/8 on the powerplay— which included goals from Jeff de Wit and Alexander Katerinakis.

Meanwhile

their penalty killing unit did a great job for the most part of neutralizing the Lakers’ powerplay, only holding them to a singular goal on eight attempts. On top of that, one of Philippe Sanche’s goals was a short handed marker.

A game like the one against Nipissing can turn into a critical one for the Stingers down the final stretch of the season. Beating a team that is jockeying for playoff position with the Stingers is no small feat. It can boost the confidence of the team which at this point is much needed. It is one thing to say that they can compete with any team in the country, as many of the players have said before. It’s another thing to do it.

That theory will be put to the test this weekend when the team heads to Ottawa to face off against the Ravens and the Gee Gees.

Photos by Cecilia Piga & Britanny Clarke

HOCKEY

“All the best parts of hockey,” 3ICE seeks to deliver an entertainment fuelled product The 3 on 3 summer league will debut in the summer of 2021

R ARY U T O L N CO MME ew h t t O a C w/ Mayon Oh

The allure of college sports

The NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship was last Monday and it was not exactly a game that will be remembered as one of the best matchups. As a Bengals fan it was incredibly exciting to watch Joe Burrow tear up yet another top defence in the Clemson Tigers, throwing for 463 yards and five touchdowns.

But I digress.

Matthew Ohayon Sports Editor Picture this—you’re at a hockey game featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers with players like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The third period is winding down, the game is tied, and you whisper to the person next to you “I hope we’re gonna get to see some overtime.”

What’s not to love about overtime? 3-on-3 play is arguably the best thing in hockey right now—any game that has the extra frame is pretty much must-see-TV for fans. The teams’ coaches throw out their best players on the ice and the excitement commences. When a game heads to overtime, you are bound to see some highlight reel plays.

3ICE is a brand new summer hockey league that will kick off in the summer of 2021. It is strictly 3-on-3 play that CEO E.J. Johnston describes it as the most exciting way to play hockey.

“We’ve got all the best parts of hockey,” said Johnston. “It’s all the speed, dangles, creativity that fans want. It makes the rink that canvas that lets these players that are artists really show their stuff.”

Johnston partnered up with Hockey Hall of Famer, Craig Patrick, to create the new professional league which is totally independent from the NHL.

“[When it comes to creating the league] the wheels started turning legitimately about two and a half to three years ago,” said Johnston. “Going to the three-on-three camps of the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils, and watching the NHL overtime format. At first I felt that threeon-three was a gimmick but it did not take me long to be on board after watching a couple of games.”

In its first season, 3ICE will have eight teams, consisting of six skaters and one goalie with substitutes travelling with the teams in case of injury. The league will play mini tournaments in eight different cities over the summer. Games will be two eight-minute halves of running time, with a four minute intermission to clean the ice. Johnston says the thing that sets them most apart from traditional 3-on-3 hockey is that there will be no penalties — if a player commits an infraction, it will directly result in a penalty shot.

“Our product is going to be very snackable,” Johnston said. “We’re going to pack about seven games in a three and a half hour broadcast. It’s a great way to spend an evening out.”

3ICE has already confirmed that they have television broadcast deals with CBS Sports in the US, while in Canada their games will be broadcasted on TSN and RDS.

What hasn’t been confirmed is who will be playing in this league, as 3ICE has not secured any players yet. However, Johnston says that they do have some names in mind as comparables for the type of players they are aiming to attract as they have been talking to multiple agencies.

“He is an ex-NHLer, that no longer has a contract,” Johnston said. “I like to point to a guy like Conor Sheary. He’s a third liner playing 13-14 minutes a night but is the first guy over the boards when the game goes to overtime. [Our ideal player] has also played for three or five years in the NHL.”

Johnston also said that players nearing the end of their careers in the NHL but would still like to play once out of a contract like Jason Spezza and Corey Perry would also be great fits for 3ICE.

In terms of which eight cities will host the inaugural season of 3ICE, Johnston said that it will be up to the fans. Fan engagement will be a big part of the league, including voting on which cities will host, helping to design jerseys, and will even be able to weigh in on video reviews.

“We genuinely want the fans to be a part of the process,” said Johnston. “We want them on the business side and the on-ice side. We’re trying to create what we call ‘the biggest locker-room in the world.’”

When it comes to which cities will be hosting these mini tournaments, Johnston mentioned four Canadian cities as potential candidates—those being Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Quebec City. However, he said it will come down to wherever they garner the most interest from official votes that they will release to the fans sometime within the next two months.

Johnston said that the league has a lot of potential for expansion depending on how successful their first season goes.

“In our plans are things like expansion into Asia, Europe, the women’s game,” said Johnston.

“We’d like to see our version of the Little League World Series where we’d have [intercontinental play].”

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Forgetting about the evil organization that is the NCAA, the players themselves are so amazing to watch; the sheer emotion and passion being evoked by them.

For most of the players in the final, it was their last chance to play in a primetime sports game with millions upon millions watching them. It’s why the wins are that much sweeter and the losses are that much harder to swallow.

According to the NCAA’s statistics, only two per cent of division one football players get drafted to the NFL. That number does not include actually getting a contract or playing time. The odds of making it as a pro are very slim.

Personally, watching college sports is a reminder of the dedication that so many put into the sports they love. For many players, it is a culmination of the early morning practices, long road trips and heavy enrollment costs to play amateur sports.

Forget the NCAA—the same holds true for university sports across Canada as well. I’ll never forget when the Concordia Stingers were eliminated by the Queen’s Gaels in the 2018-19 OUA East Division playoffs. It was captain Philippe Hudon’s last game as a Stinger.

When the Gaels scored their overtime series clinching goal, Hudon’s tears immediately started to flow. I could only imagine what was going through his head at that moment.

The amount of sacrifice that goes into a student athlete playing for their school is quite astonishing. After the University of Connecticut Huskies won the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, Shabazz Napier, the team’s point guard, said in an interview with Fox Sports that he had had a lot of hungry nights.

This is why so many people love college sports. Yes, the NCAA is a disgusting organization; it cannot be said enough. The players’ stories resonate with so many and show us how much they sacrifice to play a game they love.

Watch some highlights of either college football or basketball national championship finals, and take a look at the players’ faces. That’s how much sports mean to them.

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Opinions.

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

OPINIONS EDITOR Youmna El Halabi / @HalabiYoumna opinions@theconcordian.com

POP CULTURE

Michelle Williams, what do you mean vote in your “self-interest”?

Exercising your right to vote should never come at the expense of a neighbour Fatima Dia Head Copy Editor Michelle Williams first won my heart not too long ago. Her role in The Greatest Showman, more specifically her performance of “Tightrope,” embodied everything a complete hopeless romantic like myself feels when in love: faith, devotion through highs and lows, “mountains and valleys, and all that will come in between.”

portance of choice, and how thankful she was for being acknowledged for the choices she has made as an actress and as a person. She added that she’s grateful to “live in a society where choice exists, because as women and girls, sometimes things happen to our bodies that are not our choice.”

In a way, this is all anyone ever wants—to live where, once you look back, you recognize your own handwriting, as she put it. Now, I think it’s important to note that Wil-

liams was not at all addressing an international audience in her speech. She was specifically speaking to American women, encouraging them to employ their right to vote. Even more so, she urged women to vote in their own self-interest.

“Wait, what,” was my exact reaction. To this day I’m unsure if I misunderstood it, or she really meant it that way, but to me, “self-interest” should never be what fuels a democracy. A modern society is a collection of

Graphic by @sundaeghost

The 2019 Golden Globes honoured Williams with a Best Actress in a Limited Series award for her role in Fosse/Verdon. Although I didn’t watch the show, reviews were great: Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 81 per cent rating, while IMDb had a 7.9/10 rating. Knowing her—loving her—I will say she deserved it and that’s that! Except that it isn’t.

Much like the popular tendency of celebrities to get political at award ceremonies, Williams took the opportunity to emphasize the importance of voting for women.

She spoke beautifully about the im-

different people coexisting in the same place—asking each and every one of them to think of their own self-interest when it comes to matters that will unquestionably and unequivocally affect the other is not only wrong, it’s absurd.

As Williams pointed out in that same sentence she preached for self-interest, “it’s what men have been doing for years.”

Since when do we want to do what men have been doing in matters of democracy and the world? I mean, two World Wars, literally countless acts of colonial violence, and abuse of power historically led by men, why would we ever want to do what they have been doing?

Women, exercise your right to vote. Do it so the world “looks a little more like us,” but also make sure that “us” isn’t just an inverted version of the selfishness and cruelty that a world led by white men has brought us. The world looks so much like men because they’ve chosen so selfishly that there was no room for otherness—instead of self-interest, how about public-interest?

TELEVISION

We have to stop romanticizing serial killers Seriously, there is nothing romantic about murder Camila Caridad Rivas Staff Writer

For decades, serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffree Dahmer and Charles Manson have fascinated the minds of many people, but some take their interest in true crime too far.

Obsessed people often find themselves on Tumblr in a “True Crime Community,” an online space made up of mainly women who venerate killers and school shooters.

They show their obsession by creating collages of serial killers in typical Tumblr style: pictures of these serial killers juxtaposed with flower crowns and transparent stickers that say “fab,” “okay wow” and other sayings that definitely do not go with men who murdered, raped and hurt so many innocent people. These collages were very popular back in 2014-15, and this fandom has only grown and moved across different social media platforms over the years. It has recently invaded Tik Tok with point-of-view videos where someone pretends to “kill” the viewer.

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Last year, as reported by Kelly Weill in The Daily Beast, Brein Basarich, under the taking-lives username, was calling mass murderer Dylann Roof “precious” and threatened to kill bystanders at a club or bar–a public place she described as having a single entrance and exit. She was arrested following her threats, along with two other serial killer fans from Ohio.

This proves how some don’t think of these people as criminals, but as heroes and rockstars. It shows that this extreme obsession is dangerous and harmful; it has to end, for the sake of safety.

If you think that this is awful, not normal or healthy, you’re not wrong. In fact, this sort of behaviour is known as hybristophilia, which is described as an “attraction to those who commit crimes,” according to the APA Dictionary of Psychology. This philia often pushes women specifically to reach out to incarcerated criminals, as it is more common in women than men, according to Mark D. Griffiths on Psychology Today.

Fan mail was sent quite often to Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffree Dahmer and Richard Ramirez, who were all famous killers during the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

There are two types of hybristophilia: passive and aggressive. Passive hybristophili-

acs excuse the horrifying acts that killers commit, believing that they can change these people and that they would never hurt them, despite being murderers. People who exhibit this type of hybristophilia often don’t have a desire to commit crimes. Aggressive hybristophiliacs are likely to commit horrendous acts along with their significant other, who often manipulate them.

One of the biggest issues with this twisted admiration for criminals is that hybristophiliacs forget lives were taken and destroyed during these crimes. Sexualizing these monsters disrespects victims and their mourning families. Family members suffer enough

following the loss of someone they love, and deserve better than seeing people discrediting the wickedness of these men, and sexualizing them.

No, random person on tumblr, you can’t help someone who wants to kill another human-being unless you’re a psychologist, which I doubt you are.

Next time, before sexualizing a serial killer, remember all of the lives they took and how many people they hurt during their lifetime. There’s a reason they went to jail and it wasn’t to receive your love letters.

Graphic by@sundaeghost

FEMINISM

Let’s kill the cool girl trope

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

It’s time to push back against sexist tendencies and learn about real women Callie Giaccone Assistant Opinions Editor She’s pretty! She’s fun! She likes sports and hot dogs but still looks great in a little black dress! You know her well! She is the cool girl.

A trope we see everywhere, whether she’s in the latest action movie, romcom, drama or even manifesting herself in a Jennifer Lawrence’s celebrity persona, trust me when I say —everywhere. But, here’s a little secret—she doesn’t actually exist.

That’s right. The cool girl is not real, sorry boys! This is not to say that women are not cool, because trust me, they are. This is to comment on the fact that the cool girl we see in the media is made up and simply a manifestation of male desires.

To clarify, I am not saying that women are not naturally drawn to stereotypically male interests; that’s ridiculous. Women are complex, making their desires diverse and vast. I am simply referring to a systemic trope; one born from male writers, directors and producers who create a female character solely to fit the male gaze. It’s not just about her liking sports or fixing cars, it’s that above all these characters she must be insanely hot. It’s a

crucial prerequisite; characters have to look like Megan Fox or Sandra Bullock before they are even considered on the cool girl radar. People will say, “she’s not like other girls,” but ha! You’re wrong. Friends, she is like other girls, she just might be better at hiding it.

According to a video

by The Take, many women go through a phase where they want to be seen as the cool girl and honestly, I can relate. After fiddling with my sweaty ponytail in an attempt to look effortlessly windswept when I was playing soccer with my guy friends, or trying time and time again to look cool in a baseball cap, I have given up. Cool girls might

seem effortless, but I can assure you—they’re not.

The Take explains that the cool girl is often juxtaposed with a very uptight and traditionally “girlier” version. This girl is shown to like more stereotypical girly things such as shopping, painting their nails, and does her makeup, a girl who is seen as annoying, superficial or less than by the male characters and audience. The cool girl and the girly girl, are both very demeaning to women and are both portrayed for the sole purpose of living and dying for male attention. These tropes plant deep roots of internalized sexism between women, often turning them against each oth-

er.

To be the cool girl you must renounce your gender, separating yourself from stereotypically feminine characteristics, while also being flawless. How exhausting!

Once we identify these patterns, they are very difficult to miss.

When was the last time that you consumed a movie, television show or book where there was only one redeeming female character? I have a feeling you won’t have to look very far.

All this being said, things are getting better. Jennifer Lawrence has calmed down, and at the same time, we are starting to see representation of many interesting and emotionally intelligent women on screen.

Can you imagine? Female characters that reflect the multidimensional interests, motivations, hobbies, hopes and dreams of real people! Female characters showing each other love and support and not putting each other down to gain credibility. Movies like Bridesmaids and Gone Girl address this stereotype head on, using humor and even fear to explain the ridiculousness and the damage of continuing to write women this way.

So let’s move away from “being one of the guys,” and let her just be. Who knows, maybe you’ll find that real women are pretty cool after all.

Collage by Britanny Clarke.

BOOK REVIEW

Note to Shelf: Our Women on the Ground A young aspiring journalist gets all she has ever asked for Youmna El Halabi Opinions Editor Growing up in Lebanon, my sole sources of inspiration concerning the journalistic world were movies like Almost Famous and Runaway Bride. Mostly because my proficiency in the Arabic language was not fluent enough to read a newspaper—that, and the fact that all news in Lebanon is politically affiliated with a party, and my parents always shielded me from that.

I was never interested in politics in general, but rather what politics inspires people to do—from wars, to art, to literature. I also didn’t see a future for me in journalism, because I didn’t have any female journalists to look up to in Lebanon.

I erroneously thought female news anchors were a joke.

In my opinion, they cared more about showcasing their newest plastic surgery fail and maintaining their perfectly blown hair, eventually making fools of themselves in political debates.

At least that’s what I grew up watching—not knowing there was an entire world out there where female journalists were fearless, brave, and dying for

their cause on battlegrounds.

In comes Zahra Hankir, a London-based British-Lebanese journalist, with a book that would school my judgmental, uneducated behind with Our Women on the Ground.

A collection of essays written by not only women journalists, but Arab women, edited

by Hankir with a foreword by the one and only Christiane Amanpour. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Amanpour, she’s been a badass journalist for the past three decades, and CNN’s chief international anchor. She’s also of Iranian origin.

To put it bluntly, as I always do, there is only one version

of the Middle East everyone gets, be it from Hollywood, or good ol’ classic literature — and that is the repetitive narrative of thrill-seeking Western journalist demanding justice, who then gets kidnapped by Islamic terrorists, tortured or whatnot, released, and what do you know?

A beautiful story about self-discovery is born.

And people wonder why I refused to watch the movie Beirut, but let’s not get into that again.

Suffice it to say, after growing up with countless Western testimonies about the Middle East, and it’s wonderful paradox, Our Women on the

Ground was a breath of the freshest air.

Because I wasn’t reading about strangers judging, and depicting my land. I wasn’t rolling my eyes at how a Western man smelled the heavenly smell of man’oushe, while hiding from the incessant bombing. I wasn’t reading about a fabricated, fetishized (yes, fetishized) Middle East. I was reading about my people by my people. I was reading raw, unedited, unfiltered emotions. I was reading about all the women I wish I had met growing up— because I knew they existed. I just didn’t know where to look.

So you see, we Arabs are classified into two categories: the fun-loving, shisha-smoking belly dancers, and the Islamic suicide bombers. Both columns oppress their women. The exceptions in between always seem so eager to shed their Arab skin, that the world doesn’t have time to place them in either of those columns.

Our Women on the Ground is brilliant because it breaks those classifications completely. It does not fit in either one, and most of all, does not feed into the West’s demonization of the region.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Editorial:

Public transit should be included in tuition Students in Montreal are fortunate enough to pay a reduced fare for their OPUS card. Generally, a Montreal resident finds themselves paying around a $90 monthly fare for public transit — excluding trains, of course. The student fare is about $50, which is actually pretty reasonable, right?

Now, we at The Concordian don’t mean to sound unreasonable by saying “not really,” but hear us out: how cool would it be if public transit were included in your tuition?

At the Algonquin College in Ottawa, for example, students pay an extra $212.71 per term for a U-Pass during their academic year. If you think about it, that’s almost as much as Montreal students pay, but with a reduced monthly fee.

If the STM partnered with Montreal universities and implemented their transitory fees to students by including them in their tuition, a lot of students would be more inclined to take metros and buses. You know what that also means? Less time spent trying to find parking, less cars being driven to campuses, and best of all, less money spent on gas! It not only helps with monetary issues, but environmental ones, too.

So if you really think about it, life would be a whole lot easier for full-time students if our tuition included our means of transportation as well.

Graphic by Zeze Lin

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BUSINESS MANAGER BRANDON TAING business@theconcordian.com BOARD OF DIRECTORS MIA ANHOURY ORENZO PORPORINO MAGGIE HOPE KATELYN THOMAS directors@theconcordian.com

CONTRIBUTORS: Sasha

Teman, Clara Gepner, Vanessa Ippolito, Juliette Palin, Lola Cardona, Maria Bouabdo, Camila Caridad-Rivas

Concordia University’s bi-weekly, independent student newspaper VOL. 37, ISSUE 19 JANUARY 21, 2020.

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