Sept. 24, 2014

STUDENT FUNDING TRUSU launches campaign addressing university’s perstudent funding, p. 2

Volume 24 – Issue 4

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL A trio of hard rockers plays CJs, and our arts editor was there to take it all in, p. 4

www.truomega.ca Ω @TRU_Omega

DRAGON BOATING TRU rec teams up with Kamloops Dragon Boat Club for a paddle, p. 7

September 24, 2014

YOU ARE

HERE

TRU receives $8,021 per student from the provincial government

Find out why some in student government have an issue with that figure

Rock 'n' roll: alive and well FLASH LIGHTNIN’, THE GLORIOUS SONS AND AIRBOURNE PLAY CJS

2

NEWS

September 24, 2014

TRUSU says B.C. funding doesn’t make the grade Union launches campaign in the face of dwindling government funding to the university Alexis Stockford NEWS EDITOR Ω

TRU gets $1,330 less funding per student than the average post-secondary institution in British Columbia, according to TRUSU. Using data provided by the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education, the student union compared per-student funding of all institutions in B.C. and found that TRU placed in the bottom third.

Additionally, the data was broken down in terms of each institution’s mandate and services it offers.

“When you look at data, you know – we’re not UBC, but we’re also not Selkirk College. We’re a unique institution in our own right,” said Leif Douglass, TRUSU vice-president external. “We wanted to look at mandates and specifically, ‘Okay, what is TRU required to do by government versus other institutions across the province?’”

According to the data, TRU receives 14 per cent less funding than the average institution offering bachelors degrees, 16 per cent less than the average with masters programs and 20 per cent less than the average university mandated to perform research.

“In every category we get, you know, a fair bit less than the average,” Douglass said.

Christopher Seguin, TRU vice-president of advancement, admitted that TRU is funded less than other B.C. institutions. He added, however, that the provincial funding formula is more complicated than TRUSU claims. According to Seguin, TRU’s funding is not determined per

student, but is a base amount calculated by the government. This number does not necessarily account for TRU’s growth over the last decade.

“We’ve grown organically,” Seguin said. “This means we have great faculty, we have great programs and we have great students, and suddenly that masters program becomes stronger, larger and more costly at the same time. Our very evolution is causing cost drives to happen.”

Seguin also pointed to the disconnect between the growth of advanced programs and research and the Thompson Rivers University Act, which created TRU in 2005 as a middle ground between teaching universities and research universities, such as UBC. Because of this unique classification, while the act mandates TRU “to undertake and maintain research and scholarly activities,” TRU is not necessarily seen as a research university when funding is considered.

TRU Faculty Association (TRUFA) president Tom Friedman agreed that the Thompson Rivers University Act sets TRU apart from other institutions.

“Our mandate is a regional mandate, not a provincial mandate, which means that we have to meet the educational needs of the region,” Friedman said.

Friedman added that the administration was enamoured with the idea of becoming a university in 2005, but did not push for increased funding.

The faculty wanted to “be a university not just in name, but in substance.”

“We should be funded at a higher level than two-year community colleges,” he said.

TRUFA has noticed a marked lag in funding at TRU, particularly in undergraduate and graduate research, according to Friedman.

While TRU’s advanced programs have grown exponentially over the last 15 years, Seguin said a tough B.C. economy has made getting more funding a challenge.

“It has been a tough economic time for the last five, even 10 years and we don’t know what the future will bring,” he said. “We hope with a more financially stable economy, we’ll see opportunity to see the funding model change.”

He continued, “We are in constant communication with all our representatives at all levels of government, and they know we have an increasing role in research. I have faith that, when possible, these conversations that I’m having with them will lead to, you know, looking at our funding model, but right now it doesn’t look promising.”

In response to their findings, TRUSU recently launched “Fund the Future”, a campaign focused on educating the public on TRU’s provincial funding. On top of the data, TRUSU is also pushing for a re-evaluation of the university’s funding formula to better reflect its mandate, a link between funding and inflation and a system of needs-based grants. Lower tuition and eliminating interest on student loans are also on the agenda.

TRUSU plans to present their findings and recommendations to the B.C. Standing Committee on Government and Finance on Sept. 30.

Leif Douglass, TRUSU VP external, shows off the campaign brochures. (Alexis Stockford/The Omega)

Former TRUSU president seeking council spot Dustin McIntyre launches campaign to become a Kamloops city councillor Alexis Stockford NEWS EDITOR Ω

Former TRUSU president Dustin McIntyre hopes to make his mark as a city councillor.

(Alexis Stockford/The Omega)

A former TRUSU president is taking his game to a whole new level. Dustin McIntyre announced his bid for city council on Sept. 18.

Prior to his graduation from TRU in 2013, McIntyre served on the student government for three years, first as the arts and sciences representative, then as vice-president internal before finally moving up to the top job in his final year.

During that time, TRUSU tackled projects like the addition of security phones around campus, earlier release for the exam schedule and increased transit hours.

“I’ve never stepped down from a challenge. I’ve fought year after year for students and I’m willing to do the same thing for the great citizens of Kamloops,” McIntyre said.

At 25-years-old and only one year out of university, McIntyre is the youngest candidate looking for a seat at the table this fall. While he admits that he is going into the race as an underdog, he hopes that citizens will be able to see past his

age and focus on his platform.

“I’m not doing this for personal reasons, I’m doing this because I want to represent Kamloops. I think Kamloops needs that new generation of leadership,” he said.

“I’m not saying that the current leadership is bad, I just think that the next generation needs to be young, vibrant and build on what the current city council has done.”

Along with new high-rises, multi-family homes downtown and a new waterpark in Westsyde, McIntyre hopes to attract more family doctors to Kamloops if elected.

Drawing from his experience at TRU, McIntyre pointed out that many students are reliant on clinics, which sometimes require long lines before getting medical attention.

“It would be so much better for everyone’s health and well-being if everyone had a family doctor,” he said. “Everyone deserves that opportunity to be known and be seen by someone that they know and trust.”

McIntyre admitted, however, that getting more physicians into

Kamloops would be a major project that would require co-operation with the provincial government.

McIntyre also spoke against the Ajax mining project, saying that while he is pro-mining, the project’s lack of a federal review makes it a bad fit for Kamloops right now.

He added that he dislikes how, in his view, the issue has polarized Kamloops residents.

“I’m really disappointed that Ajax mine has pitted citizens against each other. It’s the ‘yes’ vote versus the ‘no’ vote, and there’s not a lot of dialogue between the two,” he said.

With only eight seats to fill and 14 candidates in the running, Kamloops residents will have no shortage of choice when they head to the polls on Nov. 15. All seven current city councillors have put in their names for re-election, as well as challengers Mike O’Reilly, Andrew Miller, Annette Glover, Peter Kerek, Bob Dieno, and Dieter Dudy.

“I will not give up,” McIntyre said. “If I don’t get elected, four years down the road you’ll see me the first person out of the gate and ready to go.”

EDITORIAL STAFF

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 4

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The Omega Opportunity missed to prevent textbook piracy TUNE IN/TUNE OUT Thompson Rivers University’s Independent Student Newspaper Published since November 27, 1991

www.truomega.ca /TRUOmega @TRU_Omega /tru_omega

EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sean Brady @iamseanbrady editor@truomega.ca NEWS EDITOR Alexis Stockford @AlexisStockford news@truomega.ca ISSUES EDITOR Ashley Wadhwani @ashwadhwani issues@truomega.ca ARTS EDITOR Kim Anderson @K_AndersonSays arts@truomega.ca SPORTS EDITOR Tayla Scott @taylascott3 sports@truomega.ca COPY EDITOR Rachel Wood @rachelwoood copy@truomega.ca CONTRIBUTORS Steve Leahy Want to contribute?

Email editor@truomega.ca

More and more students are resorting to piracy to get their textbooks, and who can blame them?

Sean Brady

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

Textbook piracy is apparently on the rise, according to the results of an August 2014 study released by the U.S. trade association Book Industry Study Group, but what does that really mean? I think it says a lot more about publishers than it does about students.

When we were all given unfettered Internet access, we all got a chance to learn who we really are, and it turns out a lot of us are pirates.

But I’ve never seen piracy as a problem. It’s just a response to inconvenience, like having to go the store for the physical version of a digital something, or a perceived unfairness, like high prices.

Take music piracy, for example.

When song-downloading program Napster exploded in 1999, it wasn’t filled with illegitimate copies of existing digital products. No. People were ripping their CDs into MP3 files themselves. Why? Because a lot of us enjoyed listening to music on our computers and didn’t want to fuddle with a stack of CDs to do it. It was a solid mix of convenient and accessible, and few of us stopped to consider the ethics of the situation in the face of nearly unlimited access to vast music libraries. Who could stop it, anyway?

In 2003, the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) gave it a shot.

The RIAA took the IP addresses of downloaders, subpoenaed service providers for customer information, and then sought settlement, sometimes claiming damages of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Thankfully that whole mess was avoided in Canada, but that’s another story.

In that same year, Apple opened the iTunes music store, and then five years later, while the RIAA still going after illegal downloaders, Apple staked its claim as the top music retailer in the United States, surpassing Wal-Mart.

But the entertainment revolution didn’t really apply to print in general, let alone textbooks. The rise of e-readers has been somewhat underwhelming in terms of what it’s done for digital book sales, and that’s especially true for digital versions of textbooks. If you can even find the digital version of the textbook you’re looking for, it’s probably not much cheaper, and that’s because textbook publishers don’t want to cut themselves out of the print game. A $200 price tag is a little crazy on a thick and heavy full-colour textbook, but it’s downright absurd on an e-book download.

There’s a saying in tech circles that “information wants to be free.”

This can obviously be interpreted a number of ways, but I think it’s especially appropriate when looking at textbooks.

Well, students want it to be free, too. Paying $1,000 or more per year for books alone is an expense every student would like to drop. With the advent of open textbooks, it looks like that might one day be a possibility, though adoption is slow and the options are still sparse.

The phenomenon of illegal music downloading was a hard knock on the head for the entertainment industry, and while it certainly made some of the people it hit stupider, it also inspired innovators to do two things at once: fill a commercial void and provide a convenient service.

Here’s hoping that textbook publishers receive that same knock on the head.

At any rate, this whole thing happened backwards. The entertainment media revolution shouldn’t have happened before textbooks and learning resources revolution.

We put entertainment before education. That’s our mistake. But wouldn’t you rather hear people complaining about an abundance of free books on their e-reader instead of people complaining about U2’s latest album being forced onto their iPods? I think I would. editor@truomega.ca

You, too, have the new U2 album!

PUBLISHING BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sean Brady INDUSTRY REP Christopher Foulds FACULTY REP Charles Hays STUDENT REP Travis Persaud STUDENT REP Adam Williams STUDENT REP Hugo Yuen

PUBLISHING Cariboo Student Newspaper Society (Publisher of The Omega) TRU Campus House #4 900 McGill Rd, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 0C8 Phone: 250-828-5069 Advertising inquiries: accounts@truomega.ca

LETTERS POLICY Literary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in any section with an “Opinion” label do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

COPYRIGHT All material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright The Omega 2014.

One student’s reaction to Apple teaming up with U2 to release new album Jeff Bulmer

THE PHOENIX (CUP)

Did you know that U2 has a new album out? You should: Songs of Innocence just had the biggest album release of all-time, in which hundreds of millions of people were given the album for free, including you, if you have an iPhone or Apple account.

Innocence’s release was part of a unique partnership between U2 and Apple. The album was announced on September 9th during Apple’s iPhone 6 launch event, and simultaneously uploaded onto every iDevice that happened to be connected to the internet. What’s that? Something happened and you weren’t online during the event? No problem, it’s sitting in your iCloud account, waiting for you download it as we speak.

I enjoy getting free music. When I find out an album is free legally, it could be 10 recordings of Ke$ha flossing and it would be on my hard drive before you can say “Timber.” But Innocence crosses a line. I reiterate that I would have gotten this album upon hearing it’s free (although I hate U2), but the last thing I want is Apple telling me (and 500-million other people) what to listen to be forcing Bono’s latest ramblings on me. What’s worse is that this will go down in the record books as the “largest album release ever,” which is unfair to say about something that the

millions of people responsible for that had no say in.

I’m going to go ahead and say I’m not alone in this opinion. Upon waking up on September 12th and checking his phone, rapper Tyler, the Creator let loose a rather enthusiastic “FUCK YOU BONO!” on Twitter, before going on a daylong rant against Rolling Stone’s 22nd greatest band of all time. He was joined by so many disgruntled iPhone users that Apple – not a week after the album’s release – put out a special tool specifically for the purpose of removing Innocence from an iTunes account.

Isn’t that weird? I repeat: U2 is Rolling Stone’s 22nd greatest band of all time. Think what you will of the magazine, but that means something. This is not only a genuinely good, but also an incredibly popular band with a catalogue full of not just songs, but albums people know by heart: The Joshua Tree and Achtung Babyspring to mind immediately. Even when they put out a “so-so” album (of which there are not many), U2 sells out stadiums, despite charging as much as $250 for tickets (upper pricepoint, but regular tickets aren’t exactly cheap, either).

So the world’s biggest band puts their first new album in five years for free and the reaction is “FUCK YOU BONO!”?

Well, let’s look past that for a moment: how is the album?

Honestly, it’s not bad. Most of the songs are U2’s personal brand

of arena-soft-rock, including sweeping choirs and Bono’s pervasive voice, backed up by catchy hooks (specifically in “The Troubles”) and prevalent keyboards straight-out-of-the-80s. There’s some rock on here, too, with songs like “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” and “Raised by Wolves” injecting some much needed energy into the album.

Honestly, if there’s one bad thing to say about this album, it’s that it’s milquetoast. Bono’s lyrics are nonsense at worst, generic at best.

Case in point, the album’s final – and possibly best – song “The Troubles” (which features the amazing Lykke Li on guest vocals). This song is lyrically ambiguous, but the best information I could find on it was “it’s a survival song.”

Keeping on the theme of the album’s blandness, who is the target audience? When releasing an album to millions of people who don’t want it, the theme should probably be inclusiveness. U2 reaches out to as many different crowds as they can – see the mention of rock songs and classic U2 above – but in doing so they spread themselves too thin.

The album seems directionless, more a collection of songs than an actual album.

But, when I think about it, isn’t that what the modern listener wants? Songs, not albums?

Does Bono know something I don’t?

I guess we’ll find out when U2’s 2015 summer tour sells out.

Steve Leahy

CONTRIBUTOR Ω

Are you people tired of the Top 40 yet? I am. I’ve been tired of it ever since I realized that those are the only 40 songs floating around on all the major music stations.

If you want reprieve from them, you’d better get used to rubbing elbows with hipsters. And, you know what, pretentiousness aside, the hipsters have got something going for them; new media.

While we’re all drooling over the “classics” like Rhianna or Eminem, those annoyingly pretentious people with their noses in the air at least are getting something different.

Different is good, different is change, different brings us new trends or breathes fresh air into old trends. Believe me, the last thing we could want is cultural stagnation, and that’s why the Top 40 angers me so much. I listen to the radio when I’m working, and in an eight hour day, I only hear those forty songs, unless I get to choose the station. Which rarely happens. And in those forty songs all I can hear is the same message; partying is good. Actually listening to a song is the easiest way to grow tired of it, and I have a hard time hearing something without actually listening to it.

How many songs do we need telling us about how great it is to drink a lot and dance hard? Forty, apparently. And I know not all the top songs are about that. But you have to concede that most are. And the ones that aren’t are all about relationship drama. I got nothing against relationships, but these songs just drag me back to high school. Once was enough, thank you. I don’t want to relive those days of nervousness, do you?

If you want someone, tell them.

Maybe they feel the same, maybe they don’t, but acting is better than simply listening to some song that perfectly capture your confused emotions.

I’m not saying music is worthless, far from; I love music. But I love music with actual content.

And by content I mean lyrics that explore emotions, not simply exploit them. Because that’s the Top 40. Why bother thinking about music when you can simply drink to it? Drinking inevitably leads to dancing, and when the dancing already looks like you’re hooking up, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see where that leads. Is this really the full potential of our culture? Getting wasted on the weekends, sleeping with some stranger we’re never going to think about again, and then slogging through the week so we can do it all over again?

If that’s the height of our culture, you can count me out. I don’t even like clubs. Partly it’s because of the music, mostly it’s because I have better things to spend money on than eight dollar drinks. That eight dollars is going to get you four cups of coffee from Timmy’s.

Two from Starbucks. And believe me, you’ll need that coffee to banish your hangover come Monday. leahys112@mytru.ca Stephen Leahy is a third year philosophy student who has been attending TRU since 2011. He has been living in Kamloops for 21 of his 23 years.

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ARTS

September 24, 2014

Rock ‘n’ roll will never die

Flash Lightnin’, The Glorious Sons and Airbourne play Cactus Jacks Kim Anderson ARTS EDITOR Ω

The smell of Jägermeister hit my nostrils immediately.

When I walked into Cactus Jacks on Tuesday, Sept. 16, something was different. Looking around the club I noticed there was a different crowd in that night. CJs was filled with legions of bearded, band t-shirt-sporting rockers. While there was a mix of ages, the overall demographic was a bit older than usual. Why the shift? CJs was hosting a night of good, old-fashioned, dirty rock ‘n’ roll.

Flash Lightnin’ and The Glorious Sons opened for Airbourne in a night filled with head-banging, moshing, “pit-beers,” and one bloody guitar.

FLASH LIGHTNIN’

Toronto group Flash Lightnin’ got the crowd at CJs moving with their fast-paced brand of rock. Vocalist and guitarist Darren Glover, bassist Darcy Yates and producer/drummer Gavin Brown played an energetic set to open the show. The spotlight was on Glover’s powerful and unique voice and his intricate guitar riffs.

Unfortunately I didn’t catch the whole set, but judging by the feedback the audience was giving them, they did their job well.

THE GLORIOUS SONS

The Glorious Sons of Kingston, Ont. took the stage next. Without an introduction or greeting to the crowd, frontman Brett Emmons and company began their set with “Heavy” from their new album The Union. “Heavy” is a call to arms for rockers and commands the audience to “come heavy or

ABOVE: Airbourne bassist Justin Street plays to a crowded mosh pit.

BELOW: The bloody Gibson Explorer of Airbourne frontman Joel O’Keeffe kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

RIGHT: Airbourne’s Joel O’Keeffe takes a moment to spray the fans at Cactus Jacks nightclub with beer as the doorman looks on.

All photos Kim Anderson/The Omega

don’t come at all,” which is exactly what they did.

The Glorious Sons played with an impressive cohesiveness for a band that is only three years old. Brett Emmons has a dominant stage presence and halfway through their set began a dialogue with the fans. He started talking about Gene Simmons and how recently Simmons claimed that rock ‘n’ roll is dead. “Gene Simmons has turned his back on rock ‘n’ roll, HAVE YOU? WHO HAS TURNED THEIR BACK ON ROCK?” Brett bellowed to the audience. The crowd whooped and yelled their approval to him.

Brett then jumped from the stage to the speakers in front of the crowd barrier, inches from the fans as he led the band into the next song.

The Glorious Sons is made up of Chris Huot on bass, Andrew Young on guitar, Jay Emmons on guitar, Adam Paquette on drums and Brett Emmons on lead vocals. They treated the audience to hits with radio recognition like “Mama” and “White Noise,” and also played lesser-known songs like “Ruby.”

The Glorious Sons brought nearly everyone in CJs to their feet and amped them up for the headliners.

AIRBOURNE

The smoke machine started pumping, the bright, bluish white spotlights hit the stage and Australian rockers Airbourne charged out, instruments in hand.

Frontman and lead guitarist Joel O’Keeffe leapt from the stage to the barrier and began shredding his guitar to kick off their set.

The band is made up of frontman O’Keeffe on lead guitar/vocals, David Roads on guitar, Justin

Street on bass, and Ryan O’Keeffe on drums. They strike a glaring resemblance to the ubiquitously known titans of rock: AC/DC. Airbourne’s relentless and heavy guitar riffs, chilling solos, rhythmic and systematic drums paired with Joel’s gritty vocals just begs the comparison.

While Airbourne’s brand of rock continues the legacy that AC/DC started, their delivery style and music are uniquely their own. Airbourne is a classic rock ‘n’ roll band in every sense. They are a band that is totally in-sync with each other, both musically and with their behaviour.

Without warning, shirtless and sweaty frontman Joel ran off the stage, guitar in hand. He darted through the crowd and hoisted himself onto the bar. Shocked, the crowd and bartenders watched in awe as he played the remainder of the song from the bar.

Once he returned to the stage, the antics continued. He grabbed a can of beer that the sound techs had strategically placed on stage ahead of time, jumped to the barrier and bashed it on his head until it exploded, then sprayed everyone in the front row. The fans literally drank it up and screamed for more.

Among many others, Airbourne played “No One Fits Me Better,” “Diamond in the Rough,” “Blonde, Bad and Beautiful,” and arguably their most well known hit, “Live it Up” for the encore.

While they couldn’t rally the mosh pit into a wall of death, Airbourne treated the approximately 350 fans at Cactus Jack’s to a night of good, old-fashioned, head-banging rock ‘n’ roll.

The blood splattered across Joel’s white Gibson Explorer is proof of how hard they rocked.

ARTS

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 4

Q&A THE GLORIOUS SONS with Kingston, Ont. rockers

Kim Anderson ARTS EDITOR Ω

Brett Emmons of The Glorious Sons talks music, mentors and panties.

Kim Anderson: How long have you been playing together?

Brett Emmons: We’ve been playing together for about three years.

K: How did you all get together and form a band?

B: Andrew and Jay knew each other really well. Chris and Jay worked together, they were jamming in another band and weren’t really happy.

Andrew and Adam were jamming in Andrew’s garage, they hooked up with Chris and Jay and the first night they played together they wrote a song and the rest is history.

At the time I was out east going to school, and to say the least it wasn’t going well. My brother called me and offered me a job and a place in the band. So I quit school and moved home a week later. I just woke up one day and quit everything.

K: You guys embrace the “everyman” image. Can you expand on that a little?

B: We all have great parents who worked their entire lives for their

children. It needs to be cherished, thought about and appreciated. The working class is really interesting, just the dynamics of it all. We write about the lives that we’ve had and what we know.

K: That’s a cool idea. You see a lot of bands nowadays that play music that doesn’t reflect the lives their fans have.

B: Yeah, or their own. Some of them aren’t honest.

K: Everything has been happening very quickly for you guys. Did any of you see this coming?

B: No, it was kind of a whirlwind.

We entered a couple contests and ended up winning them. John-Angus of the Trews offered to produce an album for us. We won another contest and other radio stations started picking our music up. All of a sudden from the east coast to the west coast we are getting played on the radio.

K: So John-Angus helped you guys a lot then?

B: Yeah he gave us our first break.

He’s been a mentor to us. He’s a good voice to have in your ear. He can put things in perspective and calm you down. He’s been very helpful. His band won the radio contest that we won, maybe 10 years back. We wouldn’t have entered it if he hadn’t told us we should.

Album review: Goddess

K: So 10 years from now, you guys can go back and mentor some other band?

B: Yeah, hopefully.

K: What’s the craziest thing you guys have seen at one of your shows?

B: Seen? Oh we’ve had a few things. We’ve had panties before.

K: I didn’t know people still did that.

B: Yeah. I’m pretty sure that it was, like, a 40-year-old…

K: Hey, panties are panties!

B: Yeah, panties are panties! We’ve also had mosh pits to “Mama,” which is not a moshing song. The funniest thing is when you get that guy after the show who is wasted and can’t quite express himself: “Dude man, I… uh… I… feel something.” You just start laughing because it’s endearing.

K: What advice would you give to young musicians today?

B: Keep your head down, work hard. Take every opportunity that you get. Keep writing music. Write your music. If it’s not working out, just keep doing it.

K: Anything you’d like to say to your fans?

B: Thank you. Thank you for keeping rock and roll alive.

Rachel Wood

COPY EDITOR Ω

Jillian Banks, better known by her stage name Banks, released her debut album Goddess on Sept. 5 under Harvest Records.

The 26-year-old’s new full-length LP does not skimp out on content.

Containing 14 songs that amount to an hour’s worth of play time, Goddess is a genuine display of Banks’ raw talent. To commend her work even further, Banks co-wrote every song on the album.

While Banks’ music has been compared to that of Adele and Lana Del Rey, she has created a sound that one simply cannot compare to any other high-profile artists. She claims to draw her musical inspiration from the likes of Fiona Apple, an American jazz and soul artist, as well as the late R&B princess Aaliyah. It’s easy to tell these two influences came into play while producing the album.

Banks proves to be very flexible

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when it comes to the type of music she creates.

On one end of the spectrum, “This is What it Feels Like” is a mixture of R&B and chillstep with its heavy beats and sultry tune. Her voice emanates power and demands to be heard, even through the thick background sounds. The melody creates an aura that hangs like dense smoke in the air, sucking the listener in to the atmosphere she is trying to create.

“You Should Know Where I’m Coming From” showcases her wide vocal range and the softer side of her music. Rolling piano chords and pulsing drums accompany her soft-yetstrong voice. Even while belting out emotional lyrics, Banks still manages to keep the delicate mood of the song alive.

Essentially, Banks is a singing paradox.

Arguably her most well-known song, “Waiting Game,” peaked at 99 on the United Kingdom charts when it was released as the first single in August 2013. With over three million views on YouTube, the breathy tune had its 15 minutes of fame in several nationwide Victoria’s Secret commercials. The publicity gained from the campaign greatly helped the song, and Banks herself got more exposure on the mainstream music scene.

Banks’ album “Goddess” provides the listener with a diverse experience of sounds and genres compiled into a single one-hour disc. With each succeeding track, “Goddess” brings forth an increasingly stimulating experience.

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COMICS & PUZZLES

September 24, 2014

Puzzle of the Week #3 – Candy You put your quarter in the candy dispenser, gave a twist, and got some candy to munch on. There were six pieces: two red, two orange, one yellow, and one brown.

1. If you select two of them to eat, what is the probability that the remaining ones are one each of each of the four colours?

2. If you select four of them to eat, what is the probability that the remaining ones are the yellow and brown ones?

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net>. Submissions by others are also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in my blog (http://genew.ca/) and in the Math Centre (HL304). Come visit: we are friendly.

SUDOKU 9

3 6

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1

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Because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re probably not doing enough math

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SPORTS

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 4

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TRU’s first dragon boat voyage a success Kamloops Dragon Boat Club shows TRU students the ropes in rec event Tayla Scott

SPORTS EDITOR Ω

If a friend asked you to go dragon boating, would you know what you were signing up for?

You’d be signing up to paddle 15-meter long, 900-pound canoe with 21 other people.

Originating in China, dragon boating has become an international sport that focuses on teamwork and speed. There are 20 paddlers per boat, as well as a steer-person

at the back and a drummer at the front. The drummer indicates the rate at which the rowers should be rowing.

On the morning of Sept. 20 at Pioneer Park, the Kamloops Dragon Boat Club showed TRU students the basics of dragon boating.

“I was looking at a different experience to offer students here at TRU. It’s something we haven’t planned in the past,” said TRU recreation co-ordinator Pina Russo.

“One of my goals is to work with community. This event is with the

Kamloops Dragon Boating Club. I approached them and they agreed to run this session with us,” Russo said.

The students signed up before the event and paid a $5 fee for access to the equipment and instruction.

Participants donned life jackets and practiced paddling inside beached dragon boats before they hit the river. In all, there were 16 people in the boat, a combination of instructors and students.

“Some people are afraid to try

new things, but you [have to remember] there’s a lot of us who haven’t tried this before and are willing to learn. It’s just about getting over that fear factor. Recreation encompasses fun and learning, so this event specifically is for fun,” Russo said.

Russo also remarked that she would run the event again, provided there was enough student interest.

Kevin Bronnimann, a TRU science graduate who is continuing his studies, showed up to give drag-

on boating a try for the first time.

“I just wanted to try out something new. I kayaked many years ago, but only a little bit. I want to get on the water, and it’s fun.

“They said [the boats] are pretty stable. With kayaking you’d be rolling more,” Bronnimann said.

Corrie Belanger is in her fourth year of a bachelor degree in science.

“I’m interested in trying new things and I saw it advertised, so I decided to try it. I’ve been kayaking but never dragon boating,” Belanger said.

Tayla Scott/The Omega

Free kick-boxing lesson for TRU women Students offered introduction to kick-boxing in program by TRU wellness and recreation Tayla Scott

SPORTS EDITOR Ω

Has school ever made you so stressed that you want to beat something up?

TRU Recreation has organized a free kick-boxing lesson for women on Oct. 4 at Kix 4 Chix Fitness on 953 Laval Crescent.

The lesson is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will end with a nutrition seminar by Chelsea Corsi, TRU wellness co-ordinator.

“It’s a new event for our students. It’s basically like an introduction to kick-boxing for our students that want to try it out but don’t want to commit. If they like it they can commit to a program later,” said TRU recreation co-ordinator Pina Russo.

“It introduces students to a new activity and I think it simulates a little bit of self-defence. It’s good for stress management.

“It’s free and we’re asking that students register with us by Oct. 1, either through TRU wellness or TRU recreation. It’s an event for women only. I believe they use speed bags, punching bags and a stuffed mascot that you can kick and punch,” Russo said.

Angela Veltri owns and instructs at Kix 4 Chix Fitness. She

has been kick-boxing for seven years, and will run the free lesson.

“We are a non-competitive kick-boxing company. That means we hit the bag, not each other. We don’t spar. It’s just for fitness.

“There’s a lot of self-defence, a lot of technique, cardio, flexibility and building up strength. There is lot of empowerment in the class, especially for young women who may have never punched before,” Veltri said.

“A lot of times women… we’re not really socialized to be aggressive like men are. Even if you feel like ‘I’m not really an aggressive person,’ it’s really nice to hit something sometimes.”

Classes start out with stretches and warm up. Then the women pair up and one holds the bag while the other practices different combinations of punching, kicking and elbowing.

“We do one minute on, one minute off the bag. All the equipment is built for women,” Veltri said.

Brittany Langereis is in her first year at TRU taking science courses. She has been teaching at Kix 4 Chix Fitness since June.

“I didn’t really like going to the gym. I couldn’t push myself as hard when it came to working out, but coming here is a lot better of a

work out,” Langereis said.

Langereis hopes to attend the free session to help instruct.

“It’ll bring in a lot more interest and have a lot of people... It’s super fun. It’s a great work out. I just

love it and I feel like other people would, too,” Langereis said.

“So far we only have a few, but everybody signs up at the last minute. We’re hoping for 15 to 20 and we’re hoping that students

will come out and participate,” Russo said.

Instructor Angela Veltri holds the bag for Brittany Langereis at Kix 4 Chix Fitness.

(Tayla Scott/The Omega)

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September 3, 2014