The Concordian Fall 2014 Issue 08

theconcordian

October 21, 2014. | Independent student newspaper at Concordia University. Since 1983. | issue 8 | Volume 32

Opinions p.17

University compressions:

who is to blame?

In this issue

NEWS

p.4

Greenwald at Concordia

LIFE

p.6

Mim’s hunt for Halloween

ARTS

p.9

Sex, power and gender politics

MUSIC

p.12

together PANGEA jams

We tell your stories. Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

SPORTS

p.14

Playing host to Harvard

theconcordian.com

news //

2

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

write to the editor: news@theconcordian.com

CITY MiLOS KOVACEViC news editor

>> biTing ladYbUg inVasion

An invasion of Asian ladybugs prompted by unusually warm temperatures has seen swarms of the bugs popping up across the city, seeking out warm homes for a place to mate and hibernate over the winter. The CBC reported the insects were brought over to North America a decade ago to help combat aphid infestations ruining crops and gardens and have since exploded in population, working their way north as temperatures have risen, and largely displacing the native 9-spotted species.

Aside from a propensity to bite, the pests also secrete a strongsmelling odor when crushed and tend to swarm.

>> PoinTe claire bans ash Trees To fighT beeTles Pointe Claire has enacted a bylaw ban on the plantings of any new ash trees across the municipality to combat the spread of the destructive emerald ash borer beetles that has devastated the population of ash trees in the city. Additionally, anybody with a dead ash tree or a tree with over 30 per cent dead branches must cut it down, but only between October and March, where low temperatures mean infestation is less likely.

Fines for individuals not respecting the law will be as high as $1,000, and double that for businesses, according to CBC.

>>

sTUdenTs fined for iMProPer garbage bags

Two McGill roommates are challenging a $177 fine they received last month for throwing out their recycling in bags of the wrong colour. CTV reported that the pair, who consider themselves environmentally conscious, threw out their recyclables in white bags as opposed to the blue bags mandated by the law to better differentiate between garbage and other throwaways.

They claim poor language and imprecise wording over recycling protocol is to blame for the mixup.

Research // nEwS

This synthetic bio conference is all natural Concordia continues focus on cutting-edge discipline by hosting workshop KATE SHERiDAn Contributor

A

n upcoming workshop at the Loyola campus will bring together scientists, policy makers, and industry leaders later this month to discuss synthetic biology.

The UK-Canada Synthetic Biology Workshop will be taking place on Oct. 27 and 28, with the first day comparing the synthetic biology landscapes in the United Kingdom, Quebec, and Canada. The second day will discuss why industry and public institutions should invest in synthetic biology.

Speakers will include executives from Genome Quebec and Genome Canada as well as professors from the Université de Montréal, Concordia, McGill, and the University of Toronto.

The workshop’s goals are to inform people—especially policy makers—about how synthetic biology can change our world and foster international partnerships, according to the workshop’s website.

Canadian biologists should find

plenty of opportunities for transatlantic collaborations with their British counterparts.

“The UK has a huge, multi-million dollar program to fund synthetic biology,” said Dr. Vincent Martin, the co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology.

Concordia has also been investing in synthetic biology. The centre was Canada’s first dedicated synthetic biology research site.

“The university itself, all the way up to the president’s office, has made it a priority,” Martin said. “They’ve realized that this is a place where Concordia can make an impact and are dedicating resources to it.”

Synthetic biology makes biology work for us by altering an organism’s genetic code—Martin likes to use the term “industrializing biology.”

“If you look at what synthetic biology is about, it’s the next logical step in the research and development of biology,” Martin said.

One group of Concordia students wants to use algae to make protein shakes and fuels. Other groups are working to synthetically produce an anti-Malaria drug. Another group from Taipei has made an E. coli bac-

teria to prevent colony collapse disorder, an issue that has decimated bee colonies around the world.

In each case, an organism is being changed at a genetic level to turn it into an extraordinary natural factory, something that scientists couldn’t do without the cheap and easy genome sequencing techniques developed in the last few decades.

“We’re sequencing genomes like we’re making toast now,” Martin said.

Bringing these innovations to the public will require cooperation between academia and industry.

Biotech companies don’t have the resources to tinker with dozens of potential projects that may fail, and academics cannot bring their projects to a large scale.

“There’s always going to be tinkering,” Martin said, “but especially in an industrial process, it doesn’t need to be your focus.”

In addition to international and industrial collaborations, the ethical and legal aspects surrounding synthetic biology will also be discussed at the workshop.

Unintentional exposure to synthetic bacteria or toxins could pose new dangers to scientists, according

to a 2009 review paper published in the Journal of Systems and Synthetic Biology. People could use synthetic biology to create new bioweapons.

As in any scientific field, amateur scientists could hurt themselves or others if they are not taught proper safety protocols.

Some groups are also concerned about ethical and moral issues as scientists create new forms of life.

“There has to be a dialogue between academics, industry, and users,” Martin said. “You can develop the best technology on this planet, but if you end up creating something that nobody wants or everybody is afraid of, you haven’t gained anything.”

The workshop is not geared for the general public, but the discussions are important and could affect everyone. Martin thinks synthetic biology discoveries could be felt throughout society, particularly in health care fields and the pharmaceutical industry. “It’s a bit of a lens into the future,” Martin said. “Years from now, lives are going to change because of this.”

More information about the workshop is available online uk-canadasyntheticbiology.yolasite.com.

Human rights // nEwS

JHR Concordia hosts Speak4Rights Professor Emeritus talks Hungarian democracy MiLOS KOVACEViC news editor

Concordia’s Journalists for Human rights group will be hosting their first speaker series of the year on Thursday, Oct. 23 by Concordia Political Science Professor Emeritus András B. Göllner.

Entitled “Rules for Civil Rights Activism”, the talk will look at what it takes to be a human rights activist and the dangers of the role by drawing largely from Göllner’s experiences as a campaigner for Hungarian democracy.

A Hungarian by birth, he briefly returned to the small landlocked country of 10 million people in the ‘90s after the Soviet collapse allowed him to participate in its nascent democratic institutions. Instead, what he saw was a steady drift towards political cronyism and authoritarianism by a government cleverly renewing the traditional pillars of Hungarian nationalism—anti-communism, Ca-

tholicism, social and political conservatism—for its own cynical uses.

“Hungary never had a democratic tradition, and as soon as the communist system collapsed people came into power without any democratic experience,” he said.

Finding himself increasingly unwanted by the authorities due to his outspoken views, he returned to Canada and formed the CanadianHungarian Democratic Charter, a civil rights activist group campaigning for democracy in the country. Göllner says the current regime under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has reached new heights of corruption and rights violations.

Because emigration remains easy in Hungary, those who do not agree with the situation and want to leave can and often do, but this makes it difficult for them to participate in matters back home.

“You must understand that of the 300,000 [Canadian] Hungarians, a very small percentage are organized on a community level,” he said on the importance organizations such as his give to dissidents.

“We are basically a civil rights group trying to limit the expansion to [the Canadian Hungarian community] by this anti-democratic revolu-

tion happening in Hungary,” said would make for instant international Göllner on the rise of the neo-fascist, news elsewhere.

By speaking about his work, Göllanti-semitic radical right who’ve sent him death threats, harassment, and ner hopes to get across the idea of the difficulties involved as much as the political obstruction.

Like most European countries strategies one can use to fight for imsuffering economically during the provement, and the role Canada and past few years, Hungary has had a the larger international democratic tough time recovering. According community has to play in fostering to the Budapest Business Journal, this change.

Hungary has a poverty rate of over 45 per cent of the population, and The event takes place Oct. 23, 2014 this has made the political fringe at- at 5 p.m. at N sur Mackay. tractive. The neo-Nazi Jobbik political party won 20 per cent of the vote in the 2014 elections; meanwhile, ruling party officials have openly referred to Roma as animals fit to be stamped out, and Orban has been quoted by the Independent as determined to adopt a system of ‘illiberal democracy’ modeled on Russia and China.

He attributed the smallness of the country, relative obscurity in the minds of the international community, and the limited reach of its language— Hungarian is highly localized and completely unintelligible to other European languages— with limiting international coverage of the bizarre politics that photo oF eMeritus andrÁs b. Göllner.

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

//

3

Lecture // nEwS

Short on time, but full of contribution 2014 MicroTalks fit Concordia professors’ contributions in 6-minute talks

NATION MiLOS KOVACEViC news editor

MiLOS KOVACEViC news editor

>> Malala To geT honoUrarY ciTiZenshiP

T

he second annual Concordia MicroTalks event is about to get underway and bring together a whole array of Concordia’s part-time faculty to discuss their research by way of short, individual 6-minute presentations.

Run by the Concordia University’s Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA), MicroTalks will once again draw from the the PechaKucha method. Developed in Japan, PechaKucha is a presentation style where 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, leading to a concise, purposeful experience that avoids the perils of lengthy powerpoint presentations. The brevity of the talks encourages fast-paced and energetic discussion periods.

“It’s good for speaking to a non-specialist community,” said Alison Reiko Loader, a presenter at this year’s event with a project using forest tent caterpillars to create living paintings, and one of last year’s organizers.

“If you get ten people talking in a row, you can cover this huge diverse area where [you’re] much more likely for someone to find something they’re interested in.”

This year’s theme, Equity and Engagement, was chosen to coincide with Campus Equity Week, which seeks to highlight part-time faculty contributions. As CUPFA Vice President and MicroTalks organizer Lorraine Oades explains, part-time or not, members are heavily involved in making the

The CBC has reported the 17-year-old 2014 Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai is set to receive honourary Canadian citizenship, making her only the sixth person to gain the rare honour. The Afghan teenager has been an outspoken supporter of girls’ education and human rights, something that has earned her plenty of enemies from the traditional and religious establishment of her home country. The Taliban critically injured her in a foiled assassination attempt last year, but she recovered.

>> dollar aT 5-Year-loW

an exaMple oF what awaits attendants FroM last year’s Microtalks. photo courtesy oF lorraine oades.

university what it is. This is one way of getting the word out there.

“Everything the association does essentially helps to create greater visibility for our members in order to have our voices heard at every level of the university,” said Oades.

Though part-time faculty operates under a reduced load, they represent Concordia nationally and internationally at all manner of conferences, exhibitions, performance events, and workshops.

“We hold positions on admin-

istrative committees, on every hiring committee, on the Board of Governors, Senate, on faculty councils and departmental councils,” she continued.

There will be 10 lecturers at this year’s event, with such titles as “Cinderella and Chinese Footbinding” and “Real-time MotionBased Graphics on Stage with the ISS.” “Part-time faculty teach in every area of the university, so this means there is a lot of ground to cover in terms of ideas. While six

minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, you’d be surprised at just how much can be done in such a short period of time,” said Oades. “Being integrated into the fabric of the university allows us to share our ideas and experiences, which overlap but are also distinct from full-time faculty.”

Concordia’s 2014 MicroTalks will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 1515 Ste. Catherine St. West, EV 6.720.

The event is free.

Campus // nEwS

Students petition for anti-Israel stance if petition garners 500 votes students will vote on position at by-election nATHALiE LAfLAMME Editor-in-chief

O

n Friday, Oct. 17, a meeting held by the CSU confirmed that a petition concerning a referendum on Concordia’s stance on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) can now be brought to students’ attention.

The movement is seeking to increase international pressure on Israel, both politically and economically. According the bdsmovement.org, “The signatories to this call represent the three major components of the Palestinian people: the refugees in exile, Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the discriminated Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state.”

Three Concordians brought forward their desire to distribute this petition, one of whom is CSU

Councillor Rami Yahia.

According to Benjamin Prunty, CSU president, the meeting which was held last week was just a formality, as any group of three people or more have the right to collect signatures for a petition.

“The right to petition and ask for a referendum on a given topic is the right of all our members, but they have to come before council prior to circulating the petition,” Prunty said.

He said that the meeting only lasted 15 minutes, “which is indicative of the CSU’s desire to allow the membership to have this sensitive conversation amongst themselves. We will, of course, respect the result of any referendum as the will of our membership trumps the desire of the elected representatives,” Prunty said.

The meeting was held at 6 p.m. on a Friday. Israel on Campus: Concordia University expressed in a statement their dis-

contentment with the fact that this meeting was held on the day of Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday, as well as after sundown, when Sabbath begins.

“I would like to express regret that we held a meeting on a Jewish holiday, and hope that our Jewish community members, which we will of course continue to support in the same way that we support any of our other community members, regardless of the outcome of this referendum, understand that it was not our intention to take a position on an issue during a period in which the Jewish community is sacredly unavailable,” Prunty said.

He also noted that the meeting was purely a formality, and it was not intended for an official stance to be taken on the spot at this meeting. He also said that, should anyone wish to speak to him on the subject, that his door is open during office hours— from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mon-

days at the CSU’s downtown office, located in H-711.

At a CSU special council meeting which took place on July 23, the CSU agreed that they were, “against the disproportionate use of force, the use of chemical weapons, the illegal settlements in Palestine and the blockade on Gaza all caused by the state of Israel.”

“The position of the CSU … is to stand against the illegal occupation in Palestine and the question suggests a tactic for the CSU to endorse alongside our current position,” Prunty said.

Now that the petition has been approved, it will be possible for the students involved to start collecting signatures. For the question to be put on the ballot at by-elections, 500 signatures will be needed. Although the official question has not yet been decided, it will ask for the support of the BDS movement from Concordians.

The Canadian dollar dropped to a 5-year low this week as compared to the U.S. dollar, ending at 88 cents U.S.. The CBC reported the reason isn’t so much a weak Canadian currency but a strong economic rebound by the United States, leading to a stronger American dollar. A steep drop in the price of oil -- a drop of 22 per cent in a quarter of a year -- is to blame.

>> aValanche

kills canadians A Nepalese avalanche occurring in a popular Himalayan hiking area is thought to have killed at least four Canadians. The CBC reported that over 20 people have been killed from bad weather last week, and although authorities haven’t confirmed the toll, it’s feared to be higher as many people remain missing. Though poor weather will hamper search efforts. October is Nepal’s most popular hiking season, and it’s thought that rising temperatures are to blame for increasingly bad storms in the area, which have killed scores of hikers and locals this year.

>> Police inVasion cosTs $66,000 A pair of Halifax siblings who hosted a 2008 Halloween house party which led to a police invasion and $66,000 in legal bills against charges of police obstruction have broken their years-long silence over their ordeal. The event occurred when noise complaints brought police to illegally break into the house after all but a handful of partygoers had retreated to an upstairs bedroom. When the police burst through, the CBC reported the brother was tasered in the face for trying to protect his sister.

4

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

Lecture // nEwS

WORLD MiLOS KOVACEViC news editor

>> kiM Jong-Un is back

After six weeks of continuous theories over Kim Jong-Un’s absence from the public, North Korea’s leader returned last week to the spotlight, seemingly in good health. Last Tuesday Kim Jong-Un was out visiting a new residential district and the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences. Kim’s mysterious absence after a bodily injury fueled speculation about a potential coup.

>> soUTh koreaʼs neW inTerneT Meanwhile in neighbouring South Korea an announcement by major carriers is set to introduce fiber Internet speeds of 10GB per second, a hundred times faster than its national average of 100MPS and lightyears ahead of America, which is arguing over an FCC proposal designating 10MPS as the minimum speed to be considered broadband, according to stopthecap.com. At that speed, a file of one gigabyte could be downloaded in 0.8 seconds.

>> senegal ebola oUTbreak ends

CTV has reported that the United Nations health agency announced the end of the Ebola outbreak in Senegal. Thus far, this is the only positive development in the spread of the deadly disease that has seen it kill thousands of people on the continent. The UN commended the country’s response, which involved closely tracking cases, a heightened testing of suspected cases, and a concerted public awareness campaign, as something to be emulated. While Senegal has escaped Ebola’s deadly grip, the disease continues to ravage neighbouring Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

>> Poles offered a slice of Ukraine

Reuters has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine an ‘artificial country’ in a 2008 meeting with Poland’s thenPrime Minister Donald Tusk and proposed they divide Ukraine between themselves. The allegations were made by Poland’s parliamentary speaker and former Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who said his government firmly turned down the offer to reclaim certain parts of Poland that have been within Ukrainian borders since the end of the Second World War.

Glenn Greenwald on state surveillance Man behind Snowden’s leak to reveal extent of the modern surveillance state KEiTH RACE Photo editor

On Friday, Oct. 24, Glenn Greenwald is coming to Concordia.

For the uninitiated—or those living under a rock for the last year and a bit—Greenwald is one of the two journalists who brought the Edward Snowden leaks to the world and proved that America’s NSA was engaged in a massive, worldwide data-dragnet, scooping up every bit of information they could eavesdrop, buy, coerce, wiretap, or hack their way into.

Though there were a handful of leaks and even some class action lawsuits against the NSA’s operations before Greenwald published a single document, the American political and judicial system was doing a pretty good job at denying and suppressing the scope of its espionage industry.

A perfect example of the preSnowden environment lies with Mark Klein. In 2006, Klein blew the whistle on AT&T and their secret backdoor into customers and many other’s data. In a secret room the NSA had installed splitters to the backbone of the internet and was vacuuming up troves of data. The unclassified documents he supplied to a class action lawsuit against AT&T were undeniable proof of a wiretap unprecedented in scope, yet the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2012, upheld the immunity granted to the corporation by an appeals court, refusing to even hear the case.

The world had not yet tuned into the abuses by national security apparatus, and government officials were still considered honest and reliable sources.

Some argued that Greenwald revealed very little that was not already known, at least in the early days of the leaks, but the true power of his revelations were in the government documents he could hold out as proof of the government’s perfidy.

The story of how Greenwald actually came into possession of NSA’s secrets unfolded like a spy novel full of clandestine meetings and intrigue.

Snowden flew to Hong Kong in late May and met with Greenwald and Laura Poitras in secret on June 1, 2013. Poitras was actually the first journalist to receive any documents from Snowden and was crucial to bringing Greenwald on board, as he had failed to take previous attempts at communication by Snowden seriously. Greenwald hadn’t taken the time to learn and install encrypted communication software that was a pre-

condition for Snowden to talk about anything substantial, but Poitras did and she arranged the initial rendezvous.

The meeting itself took place in a high-end hotel in downtown Hong Kong where the trepidatious team of two—three if you include the producer that The Guardian foisted onto Greenwald and Poitras as a condition for their support though he was mostly kept in the dark—met with Snowden for the first time.

They were shocked to meet, not the old and disenchanted bureaucrat of their imagination, but a 29-year-old man with access to America’s most secretive organization.

Four days later, after a battle with their publisher against the traditional restraint in reporting national security leaks, Greenwald published the first of his pieces on the surreptitious activities of the unrelenting agency known as the NSA. Since that first article, Greenwald has started his own publication called The Intercept (theintercept.org). The project

is funded by Pierre Omidyar, cofounder and chairman of eBay, and its founding editors are Poitras, Jeremy Scahill, and Greenwald.

Greenwald’s book, No Place To Hide, chronicles the complete odyssey of Greenwald obtaining, discovering the true depths of the documents, and fighting to publish his articles at a practically unprecedented speed. Not to mention the retribution by the government, who, according to his book, broke into his Rio de Janeiro home to steal laptops they believed to hold the leaked documents.

In all, Greenwald’s visit to Concordia should be, at very least, interesting if not altogether edifying.

Hosted by the Concordia Student Union, Greenwald’s speech, entitled “State Surveillance and the Assault on Civil Liberties,” will take place Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in the H-110 auditorium. Tickets are $5 to $10 and can be purchased at the CSU offices. For more information, visit the CSU’s Facebook page.

Event // nEwS

Holy blooming botanics, Batman!

Botanical gardens get bookish with conference JESSiCA KEnwOOD Assistant news editor

Concordia is organizing a conference on sustainability and botanical garden biodiversity in partnership with the Montreal Botanical Gardens on Oct. 23-25.

“Leaders in Conservation: Botanic Gardens and Biodiversity in the 21st Century” by the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre will feature local and international scholars, experts and leaders in the field of botanic garden biodiversity conservation to discuss the role that botanic gardens, zoos and natural science museums play in the socio-environmental governance of biodiversity.

The conference claims to be the first international scholarly event on botanical gardens, eco-citizenry

and socio-environmental governance and is run by principal conference organizer Dr. Katja Neves and coorganizer and director of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, Dr. Peter Stoett.

Dr. Neves has been researching and working in biodiversity for over 20 years, spending much of the ‘90s on the transition from whale hunting to whale watching.

This will be the first time that a biodiversity conference brings the social sciences and humanities together to discuss the issues surrounding biodiversity.

“Botanics have their own conferences, but they are very specific to botanics,” Neves said. “What we’re hoping to do is to bridge the world of scholars and botanics.”

The conference is just the beginning for Neves, who is looking at long-term goals for sustainability and biodiversity.

“I have three goals,” said Neves, “An immediate goal, the conference—here scholars and botanic workers start a productive dialogue;

a medium goal—to produce a website and create a sort of webinar so the public who didn’t attend the conference can have access and create a greater depth of conversation; and a long term goal—a forum for access to ideas, debate and resources for scholars, botanic workers and citizens alike.”

This conference has been two years in the making and started with Neves researching biodiversity and sustainability. Once she presented the idea of a conference, she spoke with the Botanical Gardens and met with Stoett, who supplied her with the resources to make it possible.

“It’s a collaborative effort and it is quite unorthodox,” explained Neves. “Botanic workers must trust scholars, and scholars must be humble enough to take it in. I’m hoping this changes the relations between the two.”

The conference will be in three different locations during its run; Thursday Oct. 23 will be on the seventh floor of the Hall building, Friday Oct. 24 will feature at the Botanical

Gardens and Saturday Oct. 25 will be at Loyola Campus. Although registration is filled in some cases, there are still tickets to the gala dinner at $25 for students and around $50 for professionals.

Day one will consist of a panel discussion about the meaning of biodiversity and finding practical solutions. Day two will have presentations from representatives of Botanical Gardens around the world, what dilemmas they’ve encountered and how they’ve dealt with them. Day three will be a more hands-on debate. The audience is encouraged to join in on the discussion on a variety of topics including eco-citizenship and gardening.

“Citizens don’t need to be passive to biodiversity, they can be actively engaged. You don’t have to be a millionaire to make a significant contribution, it’s about empowerment, about learning how [biodiversity] should be done and how it should be legislated.”

Register and find our locations at leadersinconservation.eventbrite.ca

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

life

//

5

write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com Exhibit // LifE

Telling immigrants’ stories with fashion native immigrant iV weaves the fabric of immigrants’ lives PAULinE nESBiTT Staff writer

N

ative Immigrant IV is more than just a sartorial-themed art exhibit; it’s a collective project that invites immigrants to come and weave their personal stories into a dressmaking representation of our multicultural society. The project’s curator, Carolina Echeverria, who emigrated from Chile 30 years ago, constructs dresses that tell the stories of immigrants.

“All immigrants have things from their culture that they want to retain and sometimes this can be difficult, but they all have one thing in common which is that they are all different,” said Echeverria. With the creation of her dresses she is offering immigrants an opportunity to tell stories of their respective cultures that are unique and personal.

Her fourth dress will pay homage to her friend, Myriam, who succumbed to leukemia this summer. The families of Myriam and her husband are immigrant, from Jewish and Arab religious backgrounds, respectively. Their union created much tension within their families during their three short years together.

Echeverria has completed the skeletal frame for Myriam’s dress. It will be planted in a large pot of indigenous

soil. The storytelling for this dress has started: Myriam’s husband and other family members have draped its frame with items that are meaningful to them.

Donated items that tell stories about immigration, migration or identity will craft the rest of the dress. These could be made of fabric, paper or metal. “[I hope] that the dress will be 10 metres long,” she said.

Over the next week, Echeverria invites the public to come to her studio and incorporate their own stories into the dress.

Echeverria will be on hand to weave the flow of the dress, but not to influence its structure. In addition, five other artists will collaborate with the public to assist in the storytelling aspect of this artform and to maximize the impact of the objects on the dress.

These will include two musicians, a musical composer from Chile, a writer, a dancer, and a choreographer.

As a fibre and textile artist, Echeverria said that her work focuses on social themes within a political context. Her art aims “to bridge immigrants to First Nations because they know the land and are about colour,” she said.

Echeverria said she drew inspiration for this project from Norval Morrisseau, an Aboriginal Canadian artist.

“His art makes me feel happy,” she said. Speaking about First Nations, Echeverria added, “You find all the vibrancy of colour in their imagery, in the paintings of Morrisseau, in their clothing, in everything.”

She said that Morrisseau realized that the First Nations lacked a visual repre-

sentation of themselves, which was needed for them to feel a sense of empowerment. She draws a similar parallel with immigrants here.

Echeverria said that her art provides a visual update on how immigrants relate to the dominant culture. “[I’m] committed to offering immigrants a visual interpretation of themselves,” she said, so that they, too, can feel a sense of empowerment, and not feel like an isolated minority. She accomplishes this with the dresses she constructs.

Participatory dressmaking workshops will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Oct. 22 to 25 at Echeverria’s studio at 4710 Ste. Ambroise, Studio 336, Montreal.

If you would like to contribute something to the dress, but cannot attend a workshop please use the contact information that appears on Echeverria’s website, carolinaecheverria.ca.

The finished dress will be displayed at Café l’Artère, at 7000 Parc Ave. as of Dec. 4.

the Finished product FroM a ForMer dressMakinG proJect.

Let’s talk about sex it’s not about getting there, it’s about enjoying the ride SELinA GARD Staff writer

The elusive female orgasm has always been a topic of fascination.

Articles about “how to have the best one,” and “what’s wrong with you or your partner if you can’t achieve it” have found their way into almost every magazine targeted at women.

But the thing about female orgasms

is that they are not the be all, end all of sex. And there is nothing wrong with you if it takes you more time to get there, or if you cannot get there at all.

Many men feel that intercourse is not over until they have climaxed, and while it would be ideal for both parties to have an orgasm, sometimes it’s just not in the cards. They are definitely appreciated but are not necessary for a sexual experience to be pleasurable.

Many women can enjoy sex without orgasms. Some women are incapable of reaching orgasm at all; in fact, anorgasmia occurs in around 10 per cent of women, according to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC).

Others simply need different stimulation—there isn’t something wrong with your partner, and you’re not “frigid,” if you cannot achieve orgasm simply through intercourse. Only one third of women climax through penetrative intercourse alone, according to SOGC. The remaining women either need extra stimulation during intercourse or can only achieve it through manual or oral stimulation.

The bottom line is, there is no right or wrong way to climax. If it takes you an hour, so be it; if it takes you five minutes, that’s okay too.

The other myth that often gets thrown around is that if a woman cannot climax it is her partner’s fault. This is hurtful to

Sex // LifE

both parties, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop trying if your partner is having trouble getting there quickly.

It could just be that the wrong stimulation is being used and for not enough time. Since achieving orgasm can prove to be a bit trickier for some women, sometimes the key is simply to relax.

We’ve all heard that the female orgasm is a mental phenomenon as much as a physical one, so overthinking it can actually make it harder to climax. Fantasizing can also help by focusing the mind on something else and by aiding with arousal.

There are various ways to get there, but if you still can’t, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

6

//

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

Literature // Life

From writer to author: how words bloom Flower Publishing Press will get your name in print Roa Abdel-Gawad Contributor

Almost all members of the KardashianJenner household have one. Snookie’s got four. Lauren Conrad, inexplicably, has eight of them. A counterintuitive trend is clear: celebrity begets book deals.

If you’ve ever had hopes of publishing a book, you must have heard that you should make yourself at least somewhat famous. Start a blog and gather a following, pull a public stunt, or just do something newsworthy. First create your celebrity, and publications—with guaranteed sales from your fan-base—will follow.

This makes sense to publishers; not all publishers are created equal, however.

Flower Publishing Press operates with a refreshing, almost idealistic, philosophy.

“It’s not about how much you will be paid, it’s about people reading your art,” explained Maryann Hayatian. A Concordia creative writing graduate, Hayatian grew frustrated with publishing houses and the typical wave of rejections that first-time authors usually ride.

“I’m a Montrealer; imagine being rejected from the place you were born and

raised in. I [even] wanted to work at a publishing company. They didn’t hire me, even [though] I have the education and experience. So I told myself ‘who needs people that are like this. I will open my own publishing company.’”

Hayatian did just that. In 2011 she started Flower Publishing Press, and started printing. “[The] first book I published ... I stayed up late at nights ... It was a children’s Christmas book and ready for Christmas. It was successful. The authors [Pierre Fiset and Damiano Ferraro] were on CTV with Mitsumi Takahashi. They were at Chapters, at school readings ...

Everyone wanted to know who Flower Publishing was.”

This publishing house doesn’t concern itself with who the writer is, nor what language they write in, just as long as they believe in their art. Additionally, Hayatian’s arms are open to any writer that wants to hone their craft. “[As a] writer myself, I understand what we go through to publish our writing ... I opened my publishing company because I want to help writers out there get their writings published. I want to mentor them.”

Hayatian has taken it upon herself to do her utmost to see things through from beginning to end. She reiterates, impassioned with conviction: “I want to mentor my writers ... They need support ...

[I want] to show them the right way to [evolve] from a writer to an author.”

Flower Publishing doesn’t turn firsttime, inexperienced authors away, for Hayatian does not believe that any writer’s voice should be quelled. Instead, she fosters their talents. “When I see a ... manuscript [with] so much potential but still needs more work to publish, I don’t reject them. I tell them what ... to cor-

rect,” said Hayatian. “I make sure they learn ... and when their manuscript is ready, I publish. I don’t reject ... I know how it feels.”

To know more about Flower Publishing Press, visit flowerpublishing.com or facebook.com/flowerpublishing.

A Flower Publishing Press workshop. photo by Maryann Hayatian, from Flower Press Publishing’s Facebook page.

Culture // Life

Mim meets Montreal Episode 4: In which Mim searches for the true meaning of Halloween Mim Kempson Staff writer

So, Halloween is on the horizon and pumpkins are everywhere. Back in Australia we love pumpkin, but we don’t carve faces into them: Halloween isn’t really a “thing.” Why, though? Mystified, I did some investigative research.

This weekend I went to the Jean Talon market with some friends for the pumpkin festival. The moment that I saw the pumpkin stalls I was flabbergasted. “Holy moly!” I exclaimed a little too loudly, a couple of people looking towards me.

“Uhhh, it’s just an ordinary vegetable…” they were probably thinking.

Yes, true, but in Australia I had only really seen the humble butternut squash or Japanese pumpkin. As for those cartoon-esque Halloween pumpkins, they’re just a day-to-day occurrence here, lining Montreal’s commercial streets and supermarkets. They’re everywhere in October, yet the jack o’ lantern is still, to me, a novelty.

According to Celtic history, Halloween is based on the rituals commemorating tasks demanded by the passing of autumn into winter. As each day gets darker and more foreboding in North America, we

are reminded that winter is on its way, as apparently are ghosts. Oct. 31 marked the division between the light and dark halves of the year. It marked the rift between the lands of the living and dead, whereby wandering souls could visit the living.

I’m sure this information has left you fearing for your life and you’re wondering how you could possibly ward off these evil spirits. With costumes, of course. Over yonder in Australia it’s currently almost 30 degrees: wintery ghosts are nowhere to be seen. Surely that’s a legit explanation for why Australians don’t dress up for Halloween, right?

Clearly this wasn’t a sufficient answer, so I looked further. Apparently only two percent of Australians consider Halloween to be “very important,” according to McCrindle Research, an Australian social research company. This might explain the time when my five friends and I dressed up for Halloween, strolled the streets of Melbourne and were stopped by two giggling Japanese girls who wanted to take our picture because they thought we’d come straight from a cosplay. People looked at us oddly, me dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and another friend as a skeleton. Perhaps it was the fact that we were twenty-something-year-olds (and not “trick-or-treating” children) dressed in ridiculous costumes that confounded them.

Now at the end of my search, it appears that I cannot offer many answers as to why Halloween is not as widely celebrated in Australia. That just makes a better reason to join in with all the festivities while I’m here! Someone get me a pumpkin.

Mim visits the Jean Talon market pumpkin patch. photo by Sara Baron-Goodman.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

//

7

Food // Life

You are what you eat, literally Explore relationships between food, nature, and the human body Sara Baron-Goodman Life editor

I

magine an exhibit where you’re not only encouraged to touch the artifacts on display, but to actually smell and taste them too.

Such is the case at the Poetic Food Centre exhibition, part of the In The Mouth event for the next two weeks at the Phi Centre.

The exhibition plays with the relationships between food, nature, and the human body. Guided by a trail of plant votives suspended from the industrial ceiling, visitors follow biology PhD Brigitte Hough on her journey to discover the rare cases of people who literally became what they ate.

Hough has made her living studying curious incidents throughout history when humans had food and plants growing inside of them, after having ingested the item in question.

Each of the case studies is beautifully illustrated with a watercolour drawing of the organ where the plant is taking root.

A counter towards the centre of the exhibition beckons visitors over with a plate full of what look like gummy candies. Being the glutton for free food that I am, I didn’t think twice before picking one up and popping it in my mouth.

Instead of a gummy, I was surprised to bite into a gelatinous, plasticky feeling dome, which exploded with a piney flavour as I chewed.

The plaque next to the dish explained that I had just eaten a living thing, being in this case a plant seed, and that I should begin to feel a new life taking form within me. Essentially, if I am to take this literally, I may have become pregnant with a tree. Or, as I’m hoping the case may be, I was just supposed to feel naturally invigorated after eating this live matter.

Next to the counter was a small wooden chamber, where visitors were invited to step inside and be pollinated, accompanied by the sounds and smells of nature. Upon entering the small wooden box, I was enveloped in darkness as floral scents were piped through the air and sounds of crickets and whistling winds played around me. It was a strangely relaxing experience, sort of like an aromatherapy session, but not to be recommended to the claustrophobic.

Further into the exhibition, visitors were encouraged to open up and smell (or taste if they dared) from mason jars that hung from the rafters. Each one was labelled with an identifiable smell, but filled with unidentifiable substances. The smells ranged from places to people to food to nature, for example, “Montreal,” “roses,” “grass,” “tuna,” and “rockstar.”

None of the scents were especially pleasant, and all were extremely pungent, but it was an interesting exercise on how certain smell-associations can be broken apart and put back together using different materials such as the spices, herbs, and food particles that were found in the jars.

The main event, however, centres on the case of Chef Nuno, who is affected by the rare condition of dysgeusia. Essentially, this means that he has a mixed-up sense of taste, and cannot identify flavours the way the average individual can. From the description, this condition is the taste-equivalent of being colour blind—instead of a sardine, his brain tastes an artichoke.

Patrons are invited to dine for a night in Chef Nuno’s world, during nine Food Nights over the course of the exhibition’s stay at the Phi Centre.

During these Food Nights, each guest will be offered an experimental and tailor-made three-course meal. The meals will be prepared in order to evoke psychological responses from each diner, based on a questionnaire that must be filled out prior to the event.

Because of Chef Nuno’s garbled sense of taste, no dietary restrictions can be implemented for the dinners, so picky eaters or people with allergies be-

ware.

The Poetic Food Centre exhibit runs from Oct. 15 to 31 at the Phi Centre, and is free to enter.

Reservations for the Food Nights inspired by Chef Nuno must be made

in advance for specific dates, and cost $75.

The Phi Centre is located at 407 SaintPierre St., in Old Montreal. For more information, visit inthemouth.ca.

The Poetic Food Centre as part of the In The Mouth exhibit. Photos by Mim Kempson.

Tech // Life

Apple a day breaks the bank Apple computers may be sleek and stylish, but are they really better?

Jocelyn Beaudet Online editor

M

acs are taking over campus!

This isn’t a conspiracy theory, so you can keep your tinfoil hats safely stashed away, I promise. If you’ve taken courses on campus that allowed laptops, then you’ve probably noticed that the majority of students are using Apple products. To that my only question is why?

Mac laptops cost about $1,000 from the get-go. They tout security, privacy and top-of-the-line hardware. But how much of that is actually true? Very little of it, it turns out. Let’s take things one step at a time to drive the point home.

For starters, for that thousand-dollar investment you get an i5 processor, 4GB of ram and 128GB of flash storage. A $500 PC laptop more than matches those statistics (for example, the Toshiba C55D series), and even triples the 128GB of storage you find on a Mac. “But Jocelyn,” you tell me, “Macs are secure, they don’t get viruses like PCs do.”

This was probably true back in the ‘90s when Apple computers were used by graphic designers only, but even Apple

now admits that viruses are a common problem for its users too, so no, Macs aren’t really that much safer. A computer is as safe as its user. What’s more, Safari (Macs’ default browser) was hacked in a remarkable five seconds by French company Vupen, making even the terribly flawed (and often ridiculed) Internet Explorer look like a champion.

So is it that Macs don’t break as often?

Are cheaper to repair? Not quite. Mac components are more expensive, and can only be serviced by technicians that charge more than the average IT professional to fix. Why is this? Most Macs now require special tools to open up and service, and don’t take third party hardware very well at all. So what gives?

Macs are pretty, I get it. They’re easy

to use and are fairly streamlined in how they function. At the end of the day, it’s your money and you can do what you like with it.

But when I overhear someone on campus complain about how broke they are, while they’re hanging on to their $800 iPhone and $1,000 Macbook, a part of me dies a little. A Nexus 5 will cost you $250 straight from Google, without a contract, unlocked to every carrier, and an HP or Toshiba laptop will cost you between $500 and $700.

I suppose this raises another interesting question: Why are Macs the only computers sold on campus? Regardless of the answer, I have to congratulate Apple on their successful marketing, no matter how deceptive it actually is.

arts

8

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com film // ARTS

A look into a strange and broken mind

Concordia graduate’s metaphysical short movie will make you wonder what is going on ELiJAH BUKREEV Contributor

increasingly claustrophobic aura. Many shots of buildings and glass structures are narratively irrelevant, but stylistically vital.

Is Beauty worth your time? Maybe. A lot of it comes down to personal taste, and while

Racicot should be lauded for his qualities as an editor and stylist, his film is decidedly uneven.

It would have benefitted from a sense of place. Montrealers will recognize that Beauty

Kickstarter has been a massive help to independent filmmakers worldwide. The funding platform, designed to connect entrepreneurs to a potential clientele, has brought crowdfunding to its full potential. Got an original vision, massive willpower and force of conviction? Then head over to the website and try your luck. That worked out pretty well for Colin L. Racicot, a Concordia graduate who has been able to finance Beauty, his fifth short-length film.

Racicot is the director, writer, co-producer and editor of the 24-minute mystery story, which will start playing at international festivals later this month. The story is a bit too abstract or “metaphysical,” as the director put it, to describe. An emotionally distant bourgeois man starts to obsess over strange visions after visiting a secret floor at his workplace. His married and professional life are then deeply affected by this change.

Racicot cited science-fiction directors, such as Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan, as his inspiration, and visually it shows. The editing is elaborate throughout, especially in the opening credits sequence. The colour palette, composed of mostly metallics, dark blue and orange, gives the film a mysterious and

is set in their city, yet it is never used as an asset. 2006’s Paris, je t’aime featured several stories with themes comparable to Beauty, and the use of the city elevated the stories immensely. Perhaps Racicot’s intention was to have his story set inside the main character’s mind, therefore excluding all possible distraction, but that is somewhat ungenerous towards the viewer.

Daniel Brochu, a voice-actor known for his role as Buster Baxter in the Arthur cartoon series, plays the main character in an intense way that is not echoed by his two co-stars.

This contributes to the feeling of emotional isolation, but also lessens the viewer’s connection with the character. The dinner scene that opens the film is tonally out of place and several other scenes unnecessarily stretch the running time.

The conclusion of the film feels calculated, breaking the spontaneity that preceded it. After 20 minutes of uncertainty and mystery, it suddenly loses its special touch and becomes just another one of “that kind of movie.” Which is not to say that Beauty is entirely without interest. Like a cold metal surface, it is smooth to the touch, but ultimately distancing. There are many images of broken glass, but never any blood. That’s what Beauty ultimately lacks: a sign of life.

For more information on Beauty, visit cinesthetique.ca.

Literature // ARTS

Break-ups, family tension and trying to deal with it Christopher DiRadd’s The Geography of Pluto is about emotional torment and moving on GREGORY TODARO Copy editor

After working on this book for 14 years, Christopher DiRaddo’s debut novel, The Geography of Pluto, tells the story of 28-yearold high school teacher Will Ambrose and his desperate attempt to hold on to something lasting as his world rapidly begins to change.

Will, born and raised in Montreal, is trying to figure out how to move on from his ex-boyfriend and come to terms with his mother’s colon cancer.

The book opens on Will returning home from a night out, drinking to forget his ex.

He turns on the lights in the apartment, and everything is “exactly as [he] had left it earlier that evening.” Even though his apartment remains the same throughout the duration of the book, it highlights that the familiarity Will is looking for does not come from his physical possessions. He craves his boyfriend and he wants to return to a time before his mother had cancer, but despite being in the same surroundings as back then, all they do is serve as a reminder of how much he misses a time when things

were going well in his life. This is brought up several times in the book, reminding us how something as simple as a pillow or a kitchen table can evoke memories that have stuck with us over the years.

The book draws heavily on the city, which allows Montreal readers to feel truly immersed in this novel. While this book takes place in the ‘90s and the nightlife scene has changed quite a bit since then, all Montrealers can relate to going out on cold, snowy nights.

Will’s life in this novel is centred around three different people — his ex boyfriend Max, his mother, and his best friend Angie.

Although Max broke up with him, Will is finding it impossible to move on. He tries to go out and meet new men, but through bad luck (and sometimes self-sabotage) he doesn’t connect with them the same way he did with his ex. This is another aspect of this novel that readers can quickly connect to — we either have gone through this ourselves, or have seen someone close to us go through this. We can also connect to having someone close to us with an illness as serious as cancer. His mother’s silence on the subject of her cancer, much like her silence about his sexuality, creates tension between the two. And Angie, his best friend

for years, acts as both a motivator to move on with his life and a reminder of a time and lifestyle that Will has tried to leave behind, highlighting the complexity of dealing with changes in both your own being and the world around you.

This book was an emotional read, with a few steamy sex scenes thrown in. DiRaddo’s writing has you sympathizing with Will’s struggles right off the bat, and he creates many avenues by which readers can connect to the character. While I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found its portrayal honest and genuine, I found it lacked a certain something to keep me hooked; even though I wanted to know what happened, I felt no urgency to rush through the pages.

Rating: 8/10

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

//

9

Theatre // arts

Venus in Fur has gender roles all tied up Centaur’s newest play is a spectacle of sado-masochism Sara Baron-Goodman Life editor

S

ex and power: the two are inextricably linked. Sex and relationships may always boil down to power games, though never quite so obviously as when there are gags, whips, and consensual sexual humiliation involved.

Venus in Fur, the Tony-nominated play

by David Ives, currently at the Centaur Theatre until Nov. 9, uses the subtext of sadomasochism to reveal the politics of gender roles and fluidity of power in sex play.

The story, which is a self-aware and very meta adaptation of the 1870 novella Venus in Furs, by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. And yes, as the character of Thomas in the play reveals, Sacher-Masoch gave his name to what we now know as masochism, a theme that prevails throughout his novel.

In Sacher-Masoch’s original version, he tells the story of the relationship and power play between characters Severin and Wanda. He is infatuated with her, though more so with the idea of a dominant and unforgiving embodiment of Venus, and he offers himself as her slave.

Thus ensue scenes of female-dominant sexual humiliation, which encounters a blip when Wanda meets a handsome and

ruthless Greek man to whom she wants to submit. At this juncture, Severin loses his submissive kink and we see the power return to his hands.

The play opens with director Thomas auditioning an actress for a role in his upcoming adaptation of Venus in Furs. Vanda (not-so-coincidentally sharing almost the same name as the play’s titular character) is a rough-around-the-edges modern-day Venus who comes to audition for the role of Wanda. Thomas, the on-stage writerdirector, reads the part of Severin for the audition.

As they go through the scenes as Wanda and Severin, their own power struggle develops, and the audience becomes increasingly aware of just how much each of them mirrors the characters they are portraying—much to Thomas’ objections.

Wanda/Vanda, played flawlessly by Carly Street, dashes seamlessly between the two Venus types: the regal and majestic Wanda, and the flighty, down-to-earth, rough-speaking Vanda.

Rick Miller injects stoicism into his portrayal of the submissive Severin, and of Thomas, who is reluctant to admit he shares the same desires.

Spoiler Alert: In the final, pivotal scene where Wanda and Severin fall out over her desire to submit to the Greek man, as their established power dynamic comes crashing down and becomes reversed, Ives interestingly has Thomas and Vanda switch roles, at her request. This makes it so that when Severin finally becomes the dominant party, his character is being played by a woman, while the submissive

Wanda, played by Thomas, gets tied to a heating pole and begs for forgiveness.

It is here that not only the gender roles, but the character roles of Wanda/Vanda and Severin/Thomas become exceedingly blurred. As the director of the play Vanda is auditioning for, Thomas holds the power, though she surprises him at every turn in her portrayal. In suggesting edits and improvising his scripted dialogue, it is perhaps she who is really in control.

On the other hand, Wanda is dominant throughout her relationship on-stage with Severin, though by the fact that he is the one who requested the contractual arrangement of being her slave and effectively convincing her to agree, the audi-

ence wonders, as Vanda does, if perhaps he was always the one in control.

The emotional finale does not, as one might expect, culminate in Thomas and Vanda finally succumbing to their desires and having sex. Instead, she takes full Venus-form and makes him join her in a chorus of “Hail Aphrodite,” accompanied by sounds of thunder booming.

Venus in Fur is an intelligent and provocative investigation into sex and gender politics, infused with feminist wit and a lot of kink.

Tickets are available online through centaurtheatre.com/venusinfur or in person at the Centaur.

Thigh high boots, crops, binds and gender politics are all part of Venus in Fur.

Dance // arts

Montreal teams up with Paris for spectacular show Paris Opera Ballet returns to Montreal after 47 years of absence to perform spellbinding Paquita Karen Massey Contributor

Paquita, by the Paris Opera Ballet, was a distinct and beautiful jewel that stood out in the line of this fall’s cultural programming. It was remarkable on many levels.

The dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet had not set foot in Quebec since Expo 67, nearly 50 years ago. It was also the first time that Paquita was presented in Quebec. This passage in Montreal marks the last tour of Brigitte Lefèvre, director of dance of the Paris Opera Ballet, who will be retiring in November.

Joseph Mazilier first created Paquita for the Royal Academy of Music of France in 1846. A piece of history, Paquita is an example of a French-style ballet that was exported to Russia. Pierre Lacotte adapted and choreographed Paquita for the Paris Opera Ballet back in 2001 at the request of Brigitte Lefèvre. The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest classical academic dance company, but also one of the youngest with the average dancer being 25 years old.

“To host the Paris Opera Ballet in Montreal was at the top of the list of things I wanted to accomplish in my career,” said Gradimir Pankov, artistic director of the Grands Ballets Canadiens. Pankov had been working on inviting the Paris Opera Ballet for the past 12 years.

The star dancers of Paquita were Amandine Albisson, Alice Renavand, Josua

Hoffalt and Karl Paquette. Guest conductor Fayçal Karoui directed the music with the Grands Ballets orchestra. Edouard-Marie-Ernest Deldevez and Ludwig Minkus conceived the music, with an adaptation and orchestration by David Coleman. Luisa Spinatelli designed the decor and costumes.

This classical ballet is set in the valley of the bulls in the province of Saragossa, Spain, under the occupation of Napoleon in the 19th century. Gypsies had kidnapped a young girl named Paquita from a noble family. Later, she saves a young French officer, Lucien d’Hervilly, from a criminal

conspiracy. The story ends at a ball given by Governor Don Lopez of Mendosa, where the kidnapping culprits are arrested, and then Paquita can marry her handsome officer after discovering the secret of her birth.

The first act started with a foggy and veiled scene set in the mountains, which then transformed into a fluid and vaporous dance. The tapping of the dancers’ ballet slippers echoed from the stage. The women’s costumes varied from dresses of ochre tones to light pink and blue ball gowns, whereas the officers sported toreador costumes in blue or raspberry colours. Spanish

Colourful costumes, talented dancers and a 47 years awaited comeback for Paquita.

gypsies and villagers mingled while Spanish women drummed on their tambourines, children in yellow costumes dancing in circles.

The second scene was set in a gypsy abode where Paquita played a game of hide and seek with the men. The second act took place in a ballroom in the residence of the French general where count and countess presided. The dancers’ tutus at the ball were reminiscent of sparkling sunshades.

Paquita was a visual feast for spectators.

The dancers were well rehearsed and synchronized to perfection; the premiere on Oct. 16 celebrated their 89th performance.

The ballet respected a particular hierarchy of dancers, from the star to the first dancers, to the subjects and the coryphées, to the quadrilles. It blended drama with some humour on the part of the clumsy Paquita character. Spectators in the theatre were bewitched, warmly applauding on multiple occasions throughout the presentation.

The almost flawless performance received a standing ovation. The major downside of Paquita was that the unfolding of the story is not easy to follow, when one is not already entirely acquainted with the plot.

The Grands Ballets Canadiens presented only five shows of Paquita at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of the Place des Arts, from Oct. 16 to 19.

For more information on the upcoming shows of the Grands Ballets Canadiens, visit grandsballets.com.

10

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

Cabaret // ARTS

When a by-gone culture gets its revival Café Cleopatra’s burlesque extravaganza brings back vaudeville with the Candyass Cabaret The corner of Ste. Catherine and St. Laurent on Friday night was a scene depicting a pseudo David and Goliath struggle.

On one side, Club Soda, with its bright

HAnnA-JOY fAROOQ Contributor

candyass cabaret oFFers a revaMped version oF classic vaudeville perForMances. photo by hanna-Joy Farooq.

white lights and bold, black letters promoted the closing night of the highly anticipated Montreal Burlesque Festival. Right across, Café Cleopatra, its trademark black sign hidden under construction and its secondary sign outlined by many a dead or missing light bulb, had a mock police officer and an associate distributing flyers that promoted the night’s offering: the Candyass Cabaret.

To the untrained eye, it looked like a case of poor timing. The patrons of the smaller show know otherwise.

“Other burlesque shows will only have one or two variety acts. When you come to Candyass, you don’t know what to expect,” said Marianne Trenka, one of the performers, otherwise known as Lady Hoops.

Among the variety of acts that explored the theme of b-movies were burlesque, belly dancing, hula-hoop dance and singing. “I look for people who can bring the show a vaudeville flavour,” said Velma Candyass, the show’s producer.

In the spirit of Halloween, dismembered plastic limbs decorated the edge of the stage, skulls hung from the stage curtains embellished with spider webs, and the DJ dressed up as Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street. Candyass performed an act inspired by the prom scene in Carrie, the 1976 movie adaptation of Stephen King’s titular novel. Instead of pig’s blood and mass murder, Candyass opted for red confetti and a unique death, but not before using her telekinetic powers to strip her victim down to her underwear.

The Candyass Cabaret has been showcasing vaudeville, burlesque and drag inspired acts for almost three years as a completely

independent production. “I’m ambivalent about government funding because I believe that you should be able to produce a show and have people want to come and pay money to see it, rather than needing it subsidized in order to run it,” said Candyass, who knows first-hand that it’s easier said than done. Unlike the stories bartenders tell of crowded venues week after week, people today have YouTube, T.V. and the Internet—they are no longer used to seeing live shows and spending money to support local artists, letting them explore their acts, said Candyass.

As the production has a role in preserving by-gone vaudeville entertainment, so does the venue in preserving a by-gone culture. Café Cleopatra is important for Candyass, who was involved in saving it from the city and developers, because it’s a testament to Montreal’s vibrant history. “Now, it’s not the same street life as that seen up to the 1960s, but [St. Laurent Street] is really the heart of Montreal, and there’s a lot of significance to keeping the flavour of the street.” In 1996, the street was granted historical status by the federal government.

For upcoming shows, Candyass said that there would be more experimental cabaret and challenging themes for the artists.

The Candyass Cabaret is scheduled every third Friday of the month.

For more information on Café Cleopatra shows, visit cleopatramontreal.com.

CUPFA Photo: Ryan Mullins

JOANABBEY SACK

Six minute talks by part-time faculty members.

EQUiT Y & ENGAGEMENT Equity and Engagement celebrates part-time faculty members as part of Campus Equity Week 2014, by bringing together socially engaged research, critical theory and performative based creative practices. professional development

ALISON REIKO LOADER

Creative Arts Therapies

Design & Computation Arts

CATHERINE CALOGEROPOULOS

ELAINE PIGEON

Biology

English

ANNA BARRAFATO

JONATHAN SCHACTER

Education

ERIK GOULET

Animation

DONATO TOTARO

Film Studies

Accountancy

MIAO SONG

Computer Science & Software Engineering

TRACY ZHANG

Simone de Beauvoir Institute

Oct. 29, 2014

Wednesday, 6:30-8:30 pm 1515 St. Catherine St. West, EV6.720, 6th floor

tease and Farooq.

6 x 6 ad_microtalks-equity-concordian.indd 1

14-10-07 4:45 PM

huMor are on

caFÉ cleopatra’s

Menu.

photo

by

hanna-Joy

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

//

11

Film // arts

Festival du Nouveau Cinema’s up and downs The second part of our coverage of one of Montreal’s most ambitious film festivals The Festival du Nouveau Cinema (FNC) just ended and brought with it an impressive selection of movies. Even if a film festival is always around the corner in Montreal, we should all aim to see as many film as possible. Although The Concordian was not able to see every film shown at the FNC, here are some of our favourite--and least favourite-picks from the second week of screenings.

Next to her Have you ever taken care of someone?

For informal caregivers, helping is a very demanding way of life. Next to her, Asaf Korman’s first feature film, smartly tackles this touching issue. It is the story of Chelli and her mentally challenged little sister Gabby; it is also the tale of two young women ultimately looking for some love and comfort.

Following mostly Chelli, Korman gives us a peek into the inner conflict of this caring young woman. This portrayal of her love/hate relationship with her sister is both troubling and touching. She tries to protect Gabby from the world. Still, she seems to long for a normal life in which she only had herself to care for. Who could blame her? The courage and hardships of informal caregivers are thoughtfully portrayed in the repeating of mundane moments between these two codependent sisters. One of Chelli’s most interesting facets is that she actually needs Gabby as much as Gabby needs her. Even with a boyfriend who is at first very understanding and kind to the intimate duo, Chelli seems incapable of letting her go. Korman’s wife Liron Ben-Shlush, who wrote the screenplay for Next to her, beautifully plays this nuanced character.

Korman’s movie prevails in the little details; in the subtle smiles and furtive looks, in a polished portrayal of a close relationship

not only between two sisters, but also of love and hate itself--emotions that are often closely related.

-Frédéric T. Muckle

movie needed more than this unsatisfactory ending. What could have been a really good movie sadly ended up being average.

-Frédéric T. Muckle

She’s lost control Having sex for money: not so respectable in our traditional society, right? Still, a movement that started in the ‘70s created what is now known as “sexual surrogates.” This job, that should not be described by the judgmental puritans who still exist in today’s modern world, is actually a serious and compassionate occupation. These people, mostly women, act as a professional partner and therapist to people in need of sexual therapy. These people are usually not able to have what most people would consider a normal relationship with someone.

Anja Marquardt tackles this controversial and complex topic in She’s Lost Control, starring the talented Brooke Bloom as Ronah, the main protagonist who happens to be a sexual surrogate. This subject could have been painted crudely in broad strokes, but luckily She’s Lost Control effectively focuses on more than Ronah’s unusual occupation.

The movie makes you feel Bloom’s character’s array of nuanced emotions while accompanying her in her everyday tasks, some dramatic and unexpected events, and also her uncommon work. As the title suggests, everything finally ends up being too much for the caring sensitive Ronah who, in the end, just wants to help people. The descent is brutal and swift. The one thing that disappoints in She’s Lost Control is its actual conclusion.

During the whole movie you are following this interesting character and emotionally watching as her life unfolds, but the ending simply leaves you with a feeling of emptiness. This

The Price We Pay Last Wednesday, director Harold Crooks’ newest work, The Price We Pay was shown at Concordia University. The screening was held at the H-110 auditorium, and was a joint operation between Cinema Politica and the FNC. Crooks’ newest film covers the global financial sector, tackling big-business tax avoidance and offshore finance. Like his last film, Surviving Progress, The Price We Pay is based on a thick, content-laden novel.

The substantial breadth of the source text, combined with the dense, technical nature of the topic, created what would seem a daunting task for a documentarian. However, the film handled a difficult topic with surprising clarity, utilizing helpful graphics and clever, often comedic voice-overs to make what has become an insider trade accessible to a wider audience.

Beginning at the economic boom of the Reagan administration, the film walks the viewer through the development of the laws that are currently depriving governments of trillions of dollars every year. The Price We Pay pulls aside the curtains of technical jargon and insider information on one of the most daunting aspects of global finance today, being at once a harsh indictment of not only corporations, but the governments that harbour them. Crooks’ new film has only further solidified him as one of the great documentarians of our time, firmly placing him amongst the likes of Michael Moore and Josh Fox. -Zach Goldberg

The Price We Pay

La Sapienza

She’s Lost Control

Next to Her

La Sapienza Eugène Green’s drama La Sapienza explores withered love, harbored feelings and the struggles of midlife crisis. The dialogueheavy film included unexpected, offbeat quips that had the audience in good humour.

Alexandre Schmidt who admires 17th century Roman architect Francesco Borromini, leaves his day-to-day life in France and travels to Switzerland and Italy to revive his dormant project on Borromini. He travels with his wife, Aliénor, to Stressa where they meet a young architect student Goffredo and his sister Lavinia. Between the four of them and their interactions with each other, they find answers that they did not know they were looking for.

Throughout the movie you see a change in the way the characters relate to one another. At the beginning, the lack of physical interaction and the minimal, rigid conversations reflect the state of the relationships. The addition of Lavinia and Goffredo has a surprising effect on both Alexandre and Aliénor, as they both rediscover the meaning of life.

The natural curiosity and the naivety of the young siblings has them reflecting on their lives and recounting stories from past.

Some parts of the film are quite drab with the endless talks and slow pace, but the stellar performances by Fabrizio Rongione (Alexandre), Christelle Prot Landman (Aliénor) and the rest of the cast ultimately bring you back to the film.

Green has done a fine job of writing provoking dialogues and creating an aesthetically beautiful film. It may not be for everyone, but at the end you are sure to come out with something to think about and reflecting on your own life.

-Erdene Batzorig

12

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

music write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com

Profile // MUSiC

together PANGEA’s Bubble Grunge POPS The trio makes music to match their nights of hitting up every party on the block MiA PEARSOn Music editor

D

emerged among fans to get a heart with the name of their song, “Too Drunk To Cum,” tattooed on their bum.

“Actually, The Orwells just took a photo of a kid with a ‘Too Drunk To Cum’ tattoo the other day,” Bengston said. “I think we’re a little more concerned about what his girlfriend might think, but she was like super stoked about it. There’s a few kids with the heart and the “Too Drunk to Cum” [written] in it. It’s all started by kids. It’s cool—I have a lot of tattoos that people might think are shitty, so I’m all for it.”

Jumping from Living Dummy’s lofi songs about wild nights, impotency, and love lost, the sultry songs that come crashing out of their third album, Badillac, are more polished, and maybe more tamed.

“When we did Living Dummy, [Keegan] and I were both in long-term relationships, and we had been playing house parties rather than actual venues,” Bengston said. “When Badillac happened, William and his girl at the time broke up; my girlfriend and I broke up. Badillac’s overall a much darker, heavier record. I think that sort of reflects what we were going through when we were writing it.”

The trio saddled down among the drained beer cans in Bengston’s L.A. home to pour their souls into the new songs; some written from behind the angry eyes of a heartbroken lover boy.

Others about the musicians’ lives; partying like full-time punks and diving into drunk and drugged days and nights.

Badillac is a coming together of confusion and clarity, raunchiness and sweetness, all sung in Keegan’s highpitched screeches blazing throughout the record.

“It’s fun to play pop-y pop songs, but we try to move and always make a different record... experiment with new sounds and ways of making songs,” Bengston said.

‘Badillac’ is a madeup word by the band that doesn’t really mean anything, but “later [Keegan] found out if you google ‘Badillac’, it’s really souped-up Cadillacs or low-rider Cadillacs,” Bengston said. When asked if together PANGEA feels they relate to pimpedout Cadillacs in any capacity, Bengston replied: “I don’t know if we relate to cool Cadillacs... maybe like cool Ford Pintos!”

In a less decked-out van, the band is bumping around North America, Bengston staying sane on tour by “playing FIFA and eating sunflower seeds.”

The ancient supercontinent doesn’t exist anymore, but luckily, together PANGEA’s a super band, and if you don’t check them out: get. bent.

benGston ponderinG liFe on a rooFtop. press photo by alice baxley.

together PANGEA plays La Sala Rossa Oct. 28.

So the band plays Bubble Grunge, “mixed with a smooth Skronk,” Bengston adds. Their Bubble Grunge music is something of a musical marvel. It’s as if the trio managed to bottle the energy buzzing from their party scene, while on a song like “The River,” also hitting listeners with a heated nostalgia in their chords.

Living Dummy, their second album, has been the anthem of so many sweaty kids in the together PANGEA crowd who’ve yelled the lyrics back to the band night after rowdy night. A trend even

anny Bengston smokes a fat spliff next to his bandmates, William Keegan and Erik Jimenez, who are making-out passionately under a gushing showerhead. In other words: together PANGEA is closer together than ever.

That’s one shot from their new official video for the song “Offer,” which follows the band and their equally wild-streaked friends around drummer Jimenez’s 25th birthday party.

“That was just a pretty typical party. We had our friends coaching us—having us do things that we might not necessarily do, but we might also do…”

Bengston laughs.

These SoCal, so cool, pop-punks operate on a level of debauchery your wildest night can’t compare to. Between their infamous all-ages shows at DIY L.A. venues where kids barely remain right-side-up, together PANGEA live a lifestyle of hooliganry within the grimy and glamourous neo-Southern California music scene.

“Especially in the last year, so many of our friends who were in the bay area moved down to L.A. for various reasons,” Bengston said. “L.A.’s a huge city, but everyone who plays music—at least all of our friends—are within a 10 mile radius. There are just so many people in so many bands. We’ll go to a party and mostly just be hanging out with bands we’d be touring with anyway. Everyone’s really supportive; it’s really fun.”

Under L.A.’s blazing sun and oscillating waves of heat, a thriving web of innovative bands is squeezing out some of today’s best music. together PANGEA has followed suit — they’ve torn-up the scene enough to have a name given to their style of music; just like The Black Lips’ “Flower Punk” and The Growlers’ “Beach Goth.” (Two bands, moreover, with whom Together FroM leFt: JiMenez, keeGan, PANGEA are friends).

and

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Preview // music

Ben Frost explores new realms

//

13

Quick Spins

The artist’s ambient and eerie soundscapes will chill you to the bone Sam Haughton Staff writer

F

rom behind the mast of a U.S. Naval aircraft carrier, an X-47B drone drifts like a slow blade through the clear blue sky. It is unmanned and unfeeling, a stark and minimalist act of geometry coming in for landing. It is the paragon of modern death, and comes accompanied by the vicious, unearthly sound of engines and steel piercing through the cold November wind.

Death Is Elsewhere is an entirely wordless eight-and-a-half minute documentary film hosted on Vimeo, depicting the aforementioned aircraft touching down in slow motion aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Nov. 10, 2013. It was created by director/producer, Richard Mosse, cinematographer/editor, Trevor Tweeten, and sound recordist, composer, and designer Ben Frost.

Your level of enchantment with the awful sound the drone makes as it descends

and, in general, with the theme and emotional impact of the video is probably a good indicator of the potential enjoyment you’ll derive from the artistic efforts of this last.

Broadly, Frost’s music can be defined as “fearsome,” much like the prospect of a computer-operated killing machine hovering noisily outside your window.

His soundscapes are dense and dynamic, rolling seamlessly from stark, minimalist landscapes to towering, jagged symphonies of abrasive catharta.

Most songs find their logical centre only at the far bottom of the mix, coalescing around a warped, broken rhythm, or otherwise at the very top, driven—or rather kept stationary—by a calculated metallic blink in the middle distance. It is ambient music at its very best; moody and hypnotic when it wants to be but more than able to lever your soul into a state of sustained chthonic euphoria when the sounds at work seem to come to that consensus.

Because that’s just it, Ben Frost possesses that rare genius for letting the tools he operates make decisions; apparently

at their own volition. This is especially evident on his newest LP. A U R O R A is a consistently phenomenal work that feels less like an album and more like a tour through an icy industrial wasteland on some as-yet unknown deliriant drug.

“Nolan,” the second track on the album, kicks open the door with all the reckless animosity we might expect from a hyperconscious cyborg of that name. It settles down or flourishes like the whims of a diseased and ambitious psyche confronted with the insurmountable laws of nature. We are filled with dread but also with a strange hope, derived from an inescapable emotional and physical sympathy.

The beat works on our muscle memory as the spirals of beautiful noise turn our gaze toward the conditional worlds of the dream.

Frost’s live shows usually consist of him behind a set of laptops and keyboards with two full-kit drummers on either side and extensive lighting. That alone is enough to foretell an insane evening.

He plays Wednesday, Oct. 22 at La Sala Rossa.

Stars - No One Is Lost (ATO Records; 2014) When you’ve been making music for over a decade, your sound is bound to change along the way. Since their last record, The North, Stars have been slowly shifting from their signature brand of dark orchestral indie, to disco-infused indie pop. For their latest album, No One Is Lost, the Montreal-based band recorded above the now closed St-Laurent St. club staple, The Royal Phoenix. The album is laced with catchy, electronic and synth tunes, more than likely influenced by their downstairs neighbours.

Stars fans might be skeptical upon first listen, though: the record is like night and day compared to their break-out album, Set Yourself On Fire, a darker cinematic experience. But in true Stars fashion, they manage to intertwine upbeat melodies with more sombre, existential lyrics: “Put your hands up/because everybody dies” is at the core of the title track, and of the album. No One Is Lost is a celebration of life and an acknowledgement of mortality wrapped-up in pop and disco lights.

Trial track: “From The Night”

7/10

- Jessica Romera

Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter (Roadrunner; 2014) Slipknot has been at it for nearly 20 years, yet you could count the number of studio albums they have released on one hand. The band takes their time between each release and the wait usually pays off for their fans, or ‘Maggots,’ as the band calls them. Their newest work, .5: The Gray Chapter, named in honour of their late bassist, Paul Gray, does not disappoint. From the build-up of the intro track, “XIX,” to the fade-out of the last track, the album is almost non-stop energy, with the exception of an odd two-minute interlude titled “Be Prepared for Hell” which uses some of the same sounds as the intro but with whispered, nearly unrecognizable, words spoken over it.

Musically, the band does not stray far from its previous work but chooses to refine the formula, meaning that if you like what Slipknot has done in the past, you will probably like the new album. The biggest problem with this release is certainly the cover art—one expects more than a cheap Halloween costume from a band that puts such an emphasis on appearances.

Trial Track: “The Negative One” Ben Frost’s newest LP, A U R O R A, revisits Frost’s talent for making ambient music with odd soundscapes. Press photo by Börkur Sigthorsson.

8/10

- Justinas Staskevicius

sports

14

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

write to the editor: sports@theconcordian.com Men’s Hockey // SPORTS

Patriotes top Stingers with a commanding win Concordia couldn’t keep up with one of the nation’s best teams for the game’s whole 60 minutes PEGGY KABEYA Staff wirter

With a sloppy performance on Friday, Oct.17, the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team ultimately fell short against the Université de Québec a Trois-Rivères (UQTR) Patriotes in a 7-4 rout. Costly penalties, questionable defensive plays and missed opportunities were all contributing factors in the Stingers’ home loss.

In an attempt to put the loss in a more favourable light, Stingers head coach Kevin Figsby explained how the scoreboard did not reflect his team’s effort.

“It was a 7-4 score, not a 7-4 game,” said Figsby. “I thought we showed a lot of character ... we were in it for 51 minutes, and we had a couple of guys who didn’t bring their A-performance.”

The Stingers kept the Patriotes in check through the first period—not an easy task considering UQTR was the fourth-ranked team in the nation heading into Friday’s game. Thanks to a highlight-reel powerplay goal from Concordia’s forward Dany Potvin, the game was tied 1-1 heading into the second period. However, the

Stingers’ mental mistakes would prove to be detrimental in the late going.

Lack of discipline and shaky play by Concordia’s blue-liners proved to be the difference in the second period as the Patriotes scored three unanswered goals, to which the Stingers were never able to bounce back from. Tallies from Patriotes forwards Billy Lacasse, Tommy Giroux and Tommy Tremblay all came within seven minutes of each other. The Stingers were able to respond by a lone Antoine Houde-Caron goal with 15 seconds left in the second period.

The Stingers’ lack of discipline in the period was evident in a critical lapse of judgment by first year forward Victor Provencher. Provencher was ejected with a five-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting an opponent from behind, leaving his team down a man for the remainder of the game.

Things didn’t get much better for Concordia in the third period. The unrelenting Patriotes team continued to pour it on, adding another three scores to complete the blowout.

The lone bright spot in the final period came off the stick of Stingers captain Olivier Hinse. Midway through the period,

Hinse stormed his way end-to-end, weaving past Patriotes defenders, and fired his first shorthanded goal of the season past the bewildered Patriotes goaltender, Guillaume Nadeau. Hinse’s fantastic individual effort could have changed momentum, but there was simply no stopping the Patriotes in this game.

“We got beatten by a better team.

We’re still not [at] the point in our learning curve to beat a team like that,” said Figsby.

Following the tough home loss, the Stingers had a busy weekend schedule, as they headed to Kingston the next day to confront the Queen’s Gaels, and then hosted the Harvard Crimson in an exhibition match on Sunday Oct. 19 at home.

the stiinGers were outplayed FroM start to Finish on oct.17. photo by evGenia choros.

Men’s Hockey // SPORTS

Stingers play a game for the history books first match-up against the Harvard Crimson ends with a loss GREGORY TODARO Copy editor

For the first time in history, the Stingers men’s hockey team took on the Harvard Crimson in a hard-fought battle ending in a home loss for Concordia.

The exhibition game, while it did not count on the teams’ records for the season, was still a competitive match-up.

This was the third game in three days for the Stingers, a feat that is “just not done” at this level, according to head coach Kevin Figsby. “[This was] an opportunity now for us to create an annual event with Harvard,” he said. “If we had said no to the game we’d never be able to get that back on our schedule, so we took our third game in three days.”

Despite arriving back at Concordia at 1:30 a.m. the night before, the Stingers had a lot of energy when the puck dropped at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 19 at the Ed Meagher Arena.

However, that energy was matched by the Crimson who spent the first five minutes pinning the Stingers in their own zone. Seven and a half minutes in, the Stingers iced the puck, and on the ensuing play, Harvard forward Brayden Jaw put the puck in the back of the net.

Two minutes later, Stingers forward Victor Provencher was denied on a breakaway by the Crimson’s goaltender.

Halfway through the first, a Stingers player was sent to the sin bin for holding,

and Harvard made them pay, putting it past Concordia’s netminder Robin Billingham with 30 seconds left on the penalty kill.

At the end of the first, Concordia only had three shots on goal, compared to 11 for Harvard.

The Stingers’ woes followed them into the second period, and two and a half minutes in, Harvard’s Wiley Sherman managed to sneak around Concordia’s defence, but was brought down with a hook. On the en-

concordia hosted an ivy leaGue opponent on oct. 19. photo by nikolas litzenberGer.

suing penalty shot, Sherman put the puck past Billingham, making the score 3-0.

Just over four minutes later the Stingers showed signs of life. After firing a shot wide of the net, Charles-Alexander Plaisir picked up his own rebound from behind Harvard’s net. Moments later, he tucked the puck behind Harvard’s goalie to notch Concordia’s first goal of the game.

Despite some big saves from Billingham during the period, the Crimson managed to sneak two more past the Stingers’ netminder. However, the Stingers were quick to respond; about 20 seconds later, a shot from the right wing made its way into the back of Harvard’s net, making the score 5-2 with just over four minutes left in the period. That goal gave the Stingers the energy to push the pace of the game at the end of the period, but to no avail.

The beginning of the third spelled trouble for the Stingers. Despite starting the period with a powerplay, Concordia didn’t get a single shot on goal, and ninety seconds into the period, Sherman scored another goal for the Crimson. That marked the end for the Stingers, who conceded one more goal before the end of the game, making the final score 7-2. “[The] guys gave more than they had today. That’s a tremendous sign of character,” said Figsby.

Tuesday, october 21, 2014

//

15

Men’s Basketball // sports

Stingers basketball prep for season Men’s team hosted Queen’s University in their preseason game Casey Dulson Staff writer

On Friday, Oct. 17, the Concordia Stingers hosted the Queen’s Gaels in a preseason match. The Stingers entered the game with a preseason record of 3-3 and play their first regular season game on Nov. 6.

The Stingers prevailed on Friday, beating the Gaels 73-61.

The team won the opening tipoff and veteran guard Mukiya Post quickly scored the first basket of the game. It was a sign of good things to come as Post scored a total of 20 points in the game.

The Stingers played great defence for most of the first half and held Queen’s to six points in the first quarter. Concordia had a big lead early as the offence exploded for 26 points in the first quarter.

Concordia looked to be already in midseason form as they controlled the tempo early in the game. They got the first points of the second quarter on a layup by centre Jean-Louis Wanya. The Stingers continued playing solid defence, with Wanya making a big block preventing the Gaels from getting a basket for five minutes. The Stingers led 37-19 at halftime.

The Gaels scored the first basket of the second half. The Stingers committed a lot of fouls in the second half which allowed the Gaels to outscore them and gave the Gaels a chance to mount a comeback.

Luckily for the home crowd, the Stingers came out strong in the final quarter and outscored the Gaels 20-17 to preserve the win.

“We were hot and cold today. We executed on some plays but on others we had trouble,” said Stingers Head Coach John Dore.

Last year, the Stingers finished in third place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du

Québec (RSEQ) division with a record of 8-8 and then lost to Bishop’s in the semifinals.

This year’s team will rely heavily on Post who led the RSEQ in scoring last season. On defence, Concordia’s new 6’10” centre Wanya will be counted on to grab rebounds and block shots.

Dore stated that his team’s goal is simple: go undefeated and win the RSEQ championship.

The Stingers added a lot of new players this year including point guard Ricar-

do Monge, who described the difference between playing college basketball and university basketball.

“I have to make some improvements and learn quickly so that I can adapt to the new pace of the university game,” he said.

Concordia’s starting forward and captain Mike Fosu explained how the team is looking to forge their new identity every time they take to the court.

“Toughness. We want teams to know that Concordia is tough to play against.”

>> Tied for first

Hoops season is almost here and the men’s squad is ready. Photo by Nikolas Litzenberger.

Soccer // sports

Both the men and women’s squads failed to gain momentum this season

Women’s soccer The Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins visited Loyola on Friday to square off against the Stingers.

The women’s squad entered the game with a 3-3-4 record, but they have been playing consistently for the past month.

Heading into Friday’s matchup, in their previous four games, the Stingers were 1-0-3. Although they have yet to lose in the past month, all their ties have hurt the Stingers in the standings.

>> Worlds Series The stage is set and an underdog will be crowned king. On Tuesday at 8 p.m. the Kansas City Royals will host the San Francisco Giants in game one of the World Series. Every postseason, regardless of what sport, a team comes out of no where and goes on a fairy-tale playoff run that no one thought was possible.

This year, baseball has two. Both the Giants and the Royals squeaked into the playoffs as wildcards and both had fewer than 90 regular season victories. The Royals have stepped up and become everyone’s favorite bandwagon team as they have yet to lose a game this postseason. After a comeback-win in the wildcard round over the Oakland Athletics, the Royals unimaginably swept the Los Angeles Angels and the Baltimore Orioles. As for the Giants they earned their spot in the Fall Classic by knocking off the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Nearing the end of soccer season

Since sweater weather is here, and it’s getting harder and harder to endure Concordia’s cold bleachers, it’s only fitting that the Concordia Stingers soccer regular season is coming to an end. On Friday, both the men and women squads had their final home games of the season.

tim lazier Sports editor

showdown

Tim Lazier Sports editor

Sports in the News

Concordia is currently tied for the last playoff position with the McGill Redmen in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) division. Both teams have 14 points, but the Redmen have the advantage with one more regular season win than the Stingers. If it comes down to a tiebreaker, the Redmen would go on to the playoffs, while Concordia’s season would be finished.

Appropriately, the Stingers tied on Friday against the Citadins, 1-1. After the game, the senior members of the team were presented with flowers and scarves as small tokens of appreciation for all their hard work. However, with playoff implications on the line next weekend, their work in a Stingers uniform is not over yet.

Men’s soccer Like the women’s team, the men’s side also hosted the Citadins at Loyola on Friday night’s double-header. The men’s team has had a frustrating season this year and Friday was no different. The

Stingers lost 3-0 to the Citadins and have yet to record a win this season. After Friday’s match, their record stood at 0-4-5.

You have to be lucky to be good, and this year it seemed that the Stingers always got the short end of the stick. On multiple occasions this season, close games have come down to the final minutes where a bad bounce or an unlucky break went against Concordia. Officiating is never an excuse, but even untimely calls have led to penalty shots and red cards going against the Stingers.

On the pitch, offence has been an obvious problem for Concordia. While their defence has been the backbone of their team all year, the offence has only been able to score five goals all season.

This coming weekend will be the final weekend and road trip for both squads.

The two teams travel to l’Université de Montréal on Friday night to play against the Carabins, and then they both make the long trip up to Quebec City to play against the Laval Rouge et Or. Both the men and women’s teams for Laval are first in the RSEQ.

No one could have seen this coming. After starting the season 1-7, the Montreal Alouettes are 7-8 having defeated the Toronto Argonauts 20-12 on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Als are now tied with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for first place in the East Division. On Saturday, quarterback Jonathan Crompton continued to show why he is Montreal’s go-to quarterback.

Crompton threw for 218 yards and a touchdown. The Als defence was the difference in the game as they pressured Argos quarterback Ricky Ray in the pocket and kept Toronto from scoring a touchdown. Although the Als have won four straight games and are 6-1 in their last seven games, with just three games left in their season, every point is crucial. No doubt the postseason race will come down to the wire when the Als head to Hamilton on Nov. 8.

>> Manning breaks record

In perfect Peyton Manning fashion, with an imperfect spiral that landed softly in the hands of Demaryius Thomas, the future hall-of-fame quarterback broke the all-time record for most touchdown passes. On Sunday’s blowout win against the San Francisco 49ers, the Broncos quarterback recorded his 509th career touchdown, surpassing Brett Favre’s record. His journey to number one began 17 years ago, as the number one overall draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts. Now, at 38, theres no telling how many more he’s got left in him. Not including the rest of this season, Manning has two more years left on his current contract. Assuming he stays healthy and the Broncos offence continues to operate like a well-oiled machine, there’s no telling how many more fluttery touchdown passes Manning will rack up.

opinions 16

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com Editorial // OPiniOnS

Step up or step off: if you want our space, pay for it An open letter from The Concordian to everyone who dumps on our turf Every week, it’s the same story. The Concordian comes out, and just a few days later, it starts: different pamphlets and ads begin to cover the print edition of the paper. Sometimes, people even throw their trash in our distribution booths, or consider our booths to be some sort of lost and found bin.

Our booths are very clearly identified.

They say the name of our publication on them. Our smaller ones, which are metal, are the perfect size for our publication, and nothing more.

When it is so obvious that our booths are made for the distribution of our publi-

cation, it is therefore shocking to us how often, and how many, ads are thrown onto it. The people distributing these ads clearly know what they are doing, there is no way not to.

The same goes for those people who throw their trash on top of our publication; there is no way that you don’t know what you are doing, the same way that you notice when you throw litter on the street. Although it is wrong, you do it anyway.

The worst part of this is that these pamphlets and ads are all coming mostly from Concordia groups. For example, the distribution booth in the entrance of the SP building at Loyola campus has had tons of Concordia bookstore flyers thrown onto it, as well as over 20 copies of Concordia’s Bridge magazine—a

magazine for new students. As Concordia initiatives, shouldn’t members of the community all respect The Concordian’s space?

And this is not just the case for our publication—all of Concordia’s booths face the same issue: a total disregard for reserved space. Not to mention the fact that student publications offer inexpensive ad space where campus causes can get the word out to students easily and respectfully.

The booths are not there for everyone to use. Please, respect the space of Concordia’s different publications. Use the allotted spaces to distribute pamphlets, ads, and announcements. As for your trash, it goes without saying that everyone should take those extra three steps and put trash in recycling or garbage.

bins.

the lower shelF oF the concorDIan’s booth in the sp buldinG.

Politics // OPiniOnS

Hate breeds hate: Israel and Palestine have to stop The issue isn’t black and white: it’s history that can’t repeat MATTHA BUSBY Contributor

T

he Arab-Israeli conflict, as ever, divided world opinion this past summer. As the proverbial dust settles, as Gaza is rebuilt, and as Western legislatures debate recognizing the state of Palestine (if they have not already done so), the two warring parties must learn the lessons of this latest battle.

Complete, unbiased takes on the topic are rarely found. In Western media, various outlets are often either pro-Israel, or proPalestine—a product of a conflict which has produced countless dichotomies.

I, without any personal affinity to either Israel or Palestine, have been profoundly influenced by my research and by my friends who are both Arab and Israeli. Undoubtedly, they both present reasonable cases for the existence of their respective states.

As far back as Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe were subject to pogroms and isolated from the societies who believed them to be too resistant to assimilation or whatever the case may be.

Similarly, the history of the Palestinian people has not been particularly rosy either. The Mongols dominated the region for several centuries during the Middle Ages until the expansion of the Ottoman Empire reached Palestine in 1516.

The Sikes-Picot agreement of 1916 sought to chop up the soon-to-be defunct Ottoman Empire into spheres of British and

French influence under the facade of League of Nations mandates. This was despite the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, which had promised an Arab homeland for revolters against the Ottoman Empire (watch Lawrence of Arabia if you haven’t already).

The British Mandate of Palestine, as it became known, experienced massive Jewish migration, particularly after the Balfour Declaration which promised a Jewish national home. Arabs and Jews throughout the Mandate both fought and lived in

peace, as contradictory European (mainly British) promises began to have fatal consequences.

When 1945 came along and the Allies found themselves with even more parts of the world to award to whoever they preferred, it seemed logical to go along with the UN partition plan which would allow for both Arabs and Israelis to share the historic lands of the region. (Particularly considering the horrors of the Holocaust, Eastern European pogroms, and the reluc-

a Man holds a baby aGainst his chest in Gaza, noveMber 20, 2012. photo by GiGi ibrahiM on Flickr.

tance of European states to accept Jewish immigration.)

Brief history lesson over, we are in 2014 and the Israelis and Arabs still don’t seem to be able to peacefully coexist. The Palestinian Arabs are increasingly being pushed to the margins of society as much as they are geographically.

As long as the U.S.A exercises its veto power at the United Nations, continuing to afford Israel practically unconditional support for their actions—which have recently included further annexation and settlement of occupied territories—the legitimate aims of the Palestinians will be ignored.

Perhaps they have gone past a point of no return, which will see Israel eventually swallow the remainder of the lands which are not theirs to claim. Or, perhaps Palestine will continue to rally support and international opinion condemning these acts which would make further Israeli expansion politically untenable.

It is a tragic story that is still being written. A consequence of religion, of European power politics, of circumstance and of war.

I don’t think anyone has any answers, but the recent conflict where Hamas fired rockets at Israel from civilian locations for Israel to happily return fire, will surely not solve anything.

Indeed, it is a religiously charged struggle for land and power, which goes back several millennia and is still being settled.

A strange notion today, in our world with fixed nation-state borders.

I hasten to not exhibit bias to either side, for I hope that I understand the bewildering historic complexities which have led us to today, where two people continue to wage an unsettled feud of the past.

All I know is that la haine attire la haine.

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

//

17

PRO/COn // OPiniOnS

Are tuition hikes the answer to austerity measures?

PRO: why increasing tuition would have made a difference nATHALiE LAfLAMME Editor-in-chief

University budget compressions in Montreal - 2013-2015

In 2012, tens of thousands of students marched in the streets to protest the Liberal party’s increased tuition fee plan. The rest, as we say, is history. Or is it?

The Parti Québécois’ promise not to increase tuition fees led to them to 2012 victory. During their (very short) time in office, they indexed tuition fees at 2.6 per cent for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, and 2.2 per cent for 2014-2015, and lowered student tax credits from 20 per cent to 8 per cent. Together, these changes represent a major indirect tuition increase.

We must also keep in mind that, on average, costs at the university increase by four to five per cent in Canada. “So lets say that inflation is four per cent and you have two per cent, you’re already losing ground,” Concordia President Alan Shepard told The Concordian in March.

Today, the Liberal Party is back in office. Severe budgetary cuts have been made across the spectrum of public sector institutions. Tuition fees have not increased under the sitting government, but record-breaking cuts to post-secondary education were made this year, totalling $173 million. Concordia alone has had to cut $15.7 million for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, meaning a total of $29 million in two years.

Concordia was the first university to announce how they would deal with the cuts this year: with a voluntary departure program (VDP). This will mean that 180 staff and administrative positions will be cut this year.

Obviously, cutting 180 positions will have a significant impact on how the university runs. The school did their best in order not to impact the student experience while still making the cuts they had

to make.

Still, the VDP does not cover all the cuts that need to be made, and the departments are currently working to find anything that could save the school some cash.

Concordia will, for example, save $1 million by postponing the replacement of office equipment, like computers.

All of this begs the question: would things be different had the original tuition hike plan been implemented?

Had the original tuition increase plan gone forward, universities would have received a projected additional $190 million in 2014-2015 from tuition increases alone, according to a budget released by the provincial Ministry of Finance in 2010.

Therefore, it would not have been necessary to make cuts to education funding at all had tuition rates increased; in fact, schools would have received substantially more funding.

Of course, this is just a projection.

There is no way of really knowing where today’s universities would stand. After all, Quebec has one of the highest deficits in the country. At the time of writing, Quebec’s debt has totaled over $270 billion, according to the Fraser Institute. For all we know, the same cuts would have been made.

Still, the fact remains that universities were underfunded before the government’s budgetary cuts were even announced.

Students don’t want tuition to increase, but is it realistic to expect tuition to be this low forever, when every year, the cost of living increases? Is it time to store away the ideal of free post-secondary education for Quebecers? These are questions worth asking.

For every year that tuition remains this low, universities lose money. We need to remember that, with education, we are getting what we pay for.

CON: Tuition hikes: student’s can’t afford it, but Concordia admins sure can LAURA MARCHAnD Opinions editor

Quebec is in desperate need of austerity, I won’t deny that. The compressions are hitting everyone in the public sector, and it would be naive to assume that the universities would (or could) be kept out of the firing range. Obviously, Concordia will need to find the money somewhere to continue its operations.

But that place isn’t the pockets of its students—it’s with the administrators.

Let’s start with the obvious: university students simply can’t afford a higher tuition.

Students are consistently the poorest bracket amongst Canadians, in part due to the combined cost of tuition, the loss of viable work hours, and the cost of housing and food, among other things. In fact, a 2012 Globe and Mail article states that tuition has been rising at a rate of 6.2 per cent annually—almost three times the rate of inflation, and hence, our paychecks.

As it is, many Canadian students owe about $37,000 in combined public and private debt by the time they finish their education— and 60 per cent of recent graduates have at least $27,000 in debt by the time they enter the workforce.

Frankly, we’re between a rock and a hard place. We can choose not to go to school at all, but in an economic climate where 75 per cent of new jobs in the next decade will require a university degree, being “uneducated” means you’re flat-out unemployed. However, the meat of the argument doesn’t lie with the circumstances of students. In fact, it lies with Concordia itself.

How often have you tried to find an advisor, or tried to speak to someone in your department, only to be lost in a maze the minotaur would be proud of? You’ll find yourself faceto-face with vaguely-titled administrators and advisors, and will leave feeling bewildered and no closer to finding answers to your queries.

In fact, the VP of Development and External Relations, who also acts as our Secretary General, has nine people reporting directly to him—and all but one of them has an entire office that reports to them, in turn. Combine this with the mind-boggling amount of people we see crammed into each department’s office quarters, and it becomes shockingly clear: Concordia University is top-heavy.

According to Concordia’s own Financial Report to the Government of Quebec, $53,028,000 was spent on “Administration”—not to be confused with “Operational services,” which is its own category, and is awarded approximately $34 million.

Our beloved President and Vice-Chancellor Alan Shepard, in 2012 (the year he joined Concordia), earned a staggering $357,000—which is amazing, considering that was only for nine months of work.

I think it’s safe to assume that, in the years since, that figure may have gone up—not to mention the potential bonuses and expense account that go with it. In the case of McGill’s former principal, Heather Munroe-Blum, over $200k was added to her base salary in the form of “other compensation”—and she’s not the only one, according to Maclean’s.

It’s a bit odd that this isn’t anywhere on Concordia’s website, isn’t it? The fact that the only way to find such information is to dig through a 98-page document hidden deep in the archives of the Government of Quebec is, to put it mildly, suspicious.

Why not post this information on your website, Concordia? It’s interesting, because you actually do have a Financial Statements document posted for everyone to see—but it’s a mere 30 pages long. Where did the information on your salaries go? They seem to be omitted from the version proudly posted online.

Yes, the Government of Quebec is compressing our school. But the government should only touch the tuition of its students as a last resort, and not until it has done a little introspection of its own—especially where university administration is concerned.

ÉTS

HEC

McGill University

UQAM

$3.5

$3.6

$43.5

$6.2

for 2014-2015

for 2013-2014

for 2013-2014

for 2013-2014

$3.3

$3.3

$15

for 2013-2014

for 2014-2015

for 2014-2015

million

million

million

million

million

million

$6

Over million

million

for 2014-2015

Polytechnique

Université de Montréal

Concordia University

$3.8

$24.6

$16

for 2014-2015

for 2013-2014

million

for 2013-2014

not yet published for 2014-2015

million

$19.4 million

for 2013-2014

million

$15.7 million

for 2014-2015

18

//

Tuesday, OcTOber 21, 2014

Letter to the editor // OPiniOnS To the council members of the Concordia Student Union,

Jewish students on Campus to attend, given the restrictions of a religious Jewish holiday and of the observance of the Sabbath.

The sponsors who brought forward this motion, namely Rami Yahia, Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis and John Talbot, and Charles Bourassa (VP of Student life) were notified about Israel on Campus’ concerns of being misrepresented. After politely reaching out to the sponsors, expressing our concern and asking them to move the council meeting to a later time — given that Jewish students would not be able to represent themselves due to their religious convictions, the councillors ignored this fair and reasonable request.

The purpose of this statement is to point out the disrespect with which a sensitive and important issue was approached, especially since the group of students that would be directly affected by this motion could not come to defend themselves and to have their voice heard on the matter.

Please try to understand the reason of our unhappiness towards the CSU council. These kinds of unacceptable behaviours should not be tolerated on campus, especially since the principle goal of the student union is to represent all of the students of Concordia University.

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO WORK FOR THE CONCORDIAN ?

Israel on Campus: Concordia University is an initiative geared to educate others on Israel’s commitment to democracy in the Middle East, Israel’s humanitarian efforts, demographics, history, culture, and environmental initiatives. We strive to create a platform where students can discuss, debate, and work together to understand the challenges and accomplishments of peaceful progress in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, Oct. 15 it was brought to the attention of IOC that a meeting was called for Friday, Oct. 17 in order to discuss and vote upon the possibility of holding a referendum regarding the BDS movement at Concordia in the upcoming General Elections.

The members of the student club Israel on Campus: Concordia University would like to express their feelings of discontent with the CSU’s choice to conduct a council meeting regarding a referendum of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement) on Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 at 6 p.m. Please note that this last-minute meeting was called on the day of Simchat Torah, a Jewish Holiday, and at the time when the Sabbath begins—an interesting coincidence. The chosen timing for this meeting conflicts with the ability for

Regards, Israel on Campus: Concordia University

Something on your mind? Tell us about it!

Submit your own letter to the editor by emailing editor@theconcordian.com Letters must be submited no later than the Friday before publication. Letters must be signed with the author’s full name.

New writers,

ź6 -/2Ŵ78;/ /6679 $-4) +65, _

Here’s how you can get involved : 8(2+ < (Ŵ$

1 2 3

Send an email with your name, some details about yourself, and your story idea to editor@theconcordian.com or to the editor whose section you’re interested in contributing to.

Come meet us in person and share your ideas at one of our weekly story meetings held every Sunday at 3 p.m. in our office (room CC-431) at Loyola Campus.

Want to write for one (or many) of our six sections? Email the editor with your email and ask to be added to their weekly story list. For their email addresses, check out our masthead on the last page.

theconcordian.com

Halloween is just around the corner, everyone. As you build up your candy tolerance and try to figure out the perfect consistency for fake blood, keep in mind these terrifying tales from Halloween past. From the deep, dark depths of Twitter, it rises... #HalloweenFail.

@ErinDonahoe One year I didn’t know what I was going to be so I wore a shirt that said “Life” and handed lemons to people. #HalloweenFail @NoWayCj I decided to throw cooked spaghetti noodles at people and call it “noodling.” I noodled a kid in a fat suit but he ate them. #HalloweenFail @AprilLucky13 Took my 5 year old trick or treating at a nursing home. He thought the residents were zombies. #halloweenfail @jasramos24 Some house thought it’d be funny to give out caramel covered onions instead of apples to 6 year olds. #halloweenfail @teamgrimmierulz I ordered special contacts for a wolf costume, slept with them on, and I had to go to the hospital to remove them. #halloweenfail @PeterJohnson I dressed up as a Pizza and every time I saw the dominos guy drive by I chased him while I yelled “you killed my family” #HalloweenFail @ARoseRois My dad and I were both Cinderella for Halloween when I was 3 and he was 33.

According to the pictures, he wore it best. #HalloweenFail @eric_ashbrook I once went as Frankenstein and people mistook me for Michael Jackson. #HalloweenFail @T_Dwyer I’m a redhead. Carried around a loaf of bread as my costume. Ginger breadman. #HalloweenFail @Kristinaj_76 One year for my Halloween costume, my mom dressed me in a garbage bag and told me I was a raisin. #HALLOWEENFAIL @lynnjay My sisters boyfriend put a big EMPTY bowl on the doorstep then put a big note above saying, “Help yourself until it’s gone” #HALLOWEENFAIL @hkranch Grandpa liked to answer the door on Halloween. He’d call kids beggars and offer them hot pennies from the oven. #HalloweenFail @AshleyGork My dog has plans for three separate Halloween parties. I have zero. #dogmom #HalloweenFail

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 Vol. 32 Issue 8 Nathalie Laflamme Editor-in-Chief editor@theconcordian.com Michelle Gamage Production manager production@theconcordian.com Milos Kovacevic News editor news@theconcordian.com

One man’s mission to conquer Concordia’s finest porcelain throne Stephen ho Contributor

A foul descent

T

hey say third time’s the charm. Well, if your idea of charm is something like Dante’s third circle of hell then this bathroom definitely fits the bill! It’s located on the second floor of the dilapidated Faubourg building, whose only population seems to be students, crazy old people, and a single aging security guard.

This hell hole is located at the far end of the food court, which should already give you a fine foreshadowing of what it smells like in there. It is accessed through a narrow corridor whose entrance is flanked to one side by public telephone booths, except the actual telephones have been inexplicably—and quite savagely I might add—torn out of the wall.

Once you journey down the corridor, past the disheveled old man leaning against the wall and mumbling incoherencies to himself, you take a sharp right and walk straight into the mouth of hell.

As I did this, a foul wind of maddening odours poured forth from this yawning abyss and assaulted every reasonable sense I had. The sick stench of decay twisted my face into a perfect picture of disgust which I maintained throughout my entire time there. And it is for you, dear reader, and against all odds, that I have braved these indescribable and haunting horrors to bring you this harrowing tale and review.

There is a saying that goes “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Well, here I was in the eye of the somewhat literal shit-storm and so I, as any good Roman would, let it rip.

While in the throes of my dastardly defecation, amid the eye watering fumes of this maelstrom of maleficence, I caught a glimpse, through the space between the hinges, of a man utterly in the nude except for his undergarments standing over the sink!

At this point, completely delirious, I began to question my sanity. I looked harder, while avoiding eye contact at all costs lest he glance in my direction. This was no mirage caused by the shimmering heat waves oft compounded fecal matter. This was reality.

He was washing himself from head to toe with soap and sink!

I realized, around this time, that I was no longer disturbed by the awful stench of the place, in fact it began to smell a lot like flowers. I inhaled deeply through my nose and was rewarded with the pleasant but not overpowering scent of lilacs and lavender. Only my facial expression, still twisted in revulsion, indicated to me that something was amiss. Whether this was the result of some sick form of Stockholm syndrome, to this day I still do not know.

I decided it was high time I kicked this popsicle stand over and burned it to the ground so I summarily got up, flushed, washed my hands and zoomed out of there. Do I even need to mention that the hand dryers were crap? I give this atrocious washroom (apparently literally) a 2/10 for the sole reason that there were actually toilets.

Jess Kenwood Assistant news editor Sara Baron-Goodman Life editor life@theconcordian.com Frederic T. Muckle Arts editor arts@theconcordian.com Mia Pearson Music editor music@theconcordian.com Tim Lazier Sports editor sports@theconcordian.com Laura Marchand Opinions editor opinions@theconcordian.com Keith Race Photo editor photo@theconcordian.com Andrej Ivanov Assistant photo editor Jocelyn Beaudet Online editor online@theconcordian.com Marie-Pier LaRose Graphics editor graphics@theconcordian.com Gregory Todaro Emily Gaudet Marilla Steuter-Martin Copy editors copy@theconcordian.com Christina Rowan Natasha Taggart Marilla Steuter-Martin Production assistants Editorial office 7141 Sherbrooke St. Building CC-Rm 431 Montreal, QC H4B 1R6 514-848-2424 ext. 7499 (Editor-in-Chief) Marc-Antoine Cardin Business manager business@theconcordian.com William Atsaidis Advertising manager advertising@theconcordian.com Tyson Lowrie Jacob Serebin Ruben Bastien Board of directors directors@theconcordian.com

Contributors

Kate Sheridan, Selina Guard, Mim Kempson, Pauline Nesbitt, Roa Abdel-Gawad, Karen Massey, Elijah Bukreev, Hanna-Joy Farooq, Jessica Romera, Justinas Staskevicius, Sam Haughton, Casey Dulsun, Peggy Kabeya, Mattha Busby, Stephen Ho.

theconcordian

Porcelain Pilgrim

Concordia’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

EVENTS

Film

Have a good week !

Cinema Politica : Everyday Rebellion, Concordia University - Oct. 27

Dance Red Bull Flying Bach, Theatre Maisonneuve - Oct. 23-26

Other Glam-o-ween, The Wiggle Room - Oct. 25

Music Ben Frost, La Sala Rossa - Oct. 22 Steph Cameron, Petit Campus - Oct. 23 Together Pangea, Cherry Glazerr, AJ Davila Y Terror Amor, La Sala Rossa - Oct. 28 Royal Canoe, La Sala Rossa - Oct. 30 Line and Circle, La Vitrola - Oct. 30

Exhibition L’avenir (looking forward), Musée d’art contemporain - Oct. 22 - Jan. 4 Beyond the Frame, VAV gallery - Oct. 27 - Nov. 7 Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la mélancolie, Leonard and Bina Ellen art gallery - Oct. 24 - Nov. 1