The Sheaf 24/11/11 - Volume 103 Issue 16

volume 103 • issue 16 • thesheaf.com

Sheaf the

Bull Riding Finals in Saskatoon Page

10-11 Jason Mewes talks life as Jay Tattoos have Chatting with one half of the Jay and Silent Bob duo lost their taboo November 24, 2011

The University of Saskatchewan student newspaper since 1912

Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

Once makeshift prison markings, tattoos are now works of art.

How getting inked hit the mainstream Kendra Schreiner COLIN GIBBINGS Jason Mewes, best known as Jay from the comedies Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy, and his long-time partner-in-crime Kevin Smith are heading to Saskatoon on Dec. 10 to perform their live show Jay and Silent Bob Get Old. The show promises to be a fun experience for fans, but after a 20-minute conversation with Mewes, I’m convinced the show will have plenty for newcomers to enjoy too.

After answering the telephone call, a boisterous “Jason Mewes here!” greeted me on the other end of the line. Already, my nervousness was melting away.

Mewes spoke with genuine interest and enthusiasm. He didn’t seem

Brianna Whitmore/Graphics Editor

disinterested or bored at all, although he must do countless interviews.

After I let him know that I was conducting the interview instead of arts editor Aren Bergstrom, Mewes jokingly asked, “Is Aren mad at me?” I laughed and muttered a lame response that I refuse to repeat. He chuckled and the interview began.

I told him about all the snow in Saskatoon and he immediately

replied with, “Wheat? I hear there’s wheat there.” I mentioned that we had potash as well. He pretended to know what I was talking about and we moved on.

Mewes said he didn’t remember ever visiting the city before.

16

Jay and Silent Bob cont. on

At the age of 17, Mike ThompsonHill dropped out of high school and began a career in tattooing. Sixteen years later he says he has seen the industry relocate from the fringes of society to the mainstream.

A couple of decades ago, tattoos were still largely the domain of sailors, bikers and prisoners. But from the hugely successful television series Miami Ink (and its spinoffs LA Ink, London Ink and NY Ink) to the recently released “Tattoo Barbie,” tattoos are now undeniably widespread.

“I don’t know what is making everyone go tattoo crazy,” said Thompson-Hill, who owns and operates Saskatoon’s Tantrix Body Art. “There has to be more to it than pop culture.”

Thompson-Hill has a theory

as to why tattoos are growing in popularity, albeit a slightly morbid one.

He doesn’t think people are spending five hours getting injected with needles to be trendy, but rather doing it for the thrill. Years ago, he explained, people got hurt on a regular basis in their day-to-day lives.

Now, people are so safety-conscious that they basically walk around with padding on. Pain from tattooing releases chemical endorphins in the body and he thinks people may just need that excitement.

Joel Hryniuk, manager of Ink Addiction, has a more optimistic take on the increasing popularity of tattoos.

“Hopefully we’re growing to a more accepting society where people don’t judge people for the way they might look, but accept them for who they might be,” he said.

Ink

cont. on

5

“My instructor had a genuine interest in individual students.”

Agree Disagree

Speak up.

Tell your professors what you think.

Your feedback helps improve teaching and lets professors know what they’re doing well. Watch your inbox for your SEEQ invitation and your chance to win 1 of 25 campus gift cards worth $60.

For more information on Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ), visit www.usask.ca/seeq.

www.usask.ca/seeq

2• News

thesheaf.com/news • the sheaf •November 24, 2011

USSU takes control of student council elections Amendment to section 29 ensures online, standardized elections St. Thomas More

Vetrinary Medicine

Medicine

Agriculture & Bioresources

Arts & Science

Associated Residence Committee (absent)

Nursing

Education

University Studentsʼ Council

Indigenous Students

Engineering

Edwards School of Business

Pharmacy & Nutrition

Dentistry

Law

Kinesiology

International Students

Members of Studentsʼ Council represent their individual collegesʼ student societies. The International Studentsʼ Association and Indigenous Studentsʼ Council, though not representing colleges, also have seats on council.

Brianna Whitmore/Graphics Editor

DARYL HOFMANN Associate News Editor Elections for Members of Student Council will now be regulated by the students’ union, administered through PAWS and held in conjunction with the springtime executive election, following a majority vote at the Nov. 17

Editor-in-Chief: Ishmael N. Daro, editor@thesheaf.com Production Manager: Matthew Stefanson, layout@thesheaf.com Senior News Editor: Tannara Yelland, news@thesheaf.com Associate News Editor: Daryl Hofmann, news@thesheaf.com Photography Editor: Raisa Pezderic, photo@thesheaf.com Graphics Editor: Brianna Whitmore, graphics@thesheaf. com

Arts Editor: Aren Bergstrom, arts@thesheaf.com Sports Editor: Kevin Menz, sports@thesheaf.com Opinions Editor: Michael Cuthbertson, opinions@thesheaf. com Copy Editor: Holly Culp, copy@thesheaf.com Web Editor: Bryn Becker, web@thesheaf.com Ad & Business Manager: Shantelle Hrytsak, ads@thesheaf.com

Board of Directors: Victoria Martinez, Andrew Roebuck, Peter Yee, Chantal Stehwien, Blair Woynarski, Jared Beattie, Ashleigh Mattern

Office Numbers: General 966-8688 Advertising 966-8688 Editorial 966-8689

Corporation Number #204724 GST Registration Number 104824891 Second Class Mailing Registration. #330336 The Sheaf is printed at Transcontinental Printing Ltd. 838 56th St. Saskatoon, SK Circulation this issue: 6,000

The Sheaf is a non-profit incorporated and student-body funded by way of a direct levy paid by all part- and full-time undergraduate students at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). Membership in the Society is open to undergraduate students at the U of S, but all members of the U of S community are encouraged to contribute to the newpaper. Opinions expressed in The Sheaf do not necessarily reflect those of The Sheaf Publishing Society Inc. The Sheaf reserves the right to refuse to accept or print any material deemed unfit for publication, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. The Sheaf is published weekly during the academic year and monthly from May through August. The Editor-in-Chief has the right to veto any submission deemed unfit for the Society newspaper. In determining this, he/she will decide if the article or artwork would be of interest to a significant portion of the Society and benefit the welfare of Sheaf readers.

The Sheaf will not publish any racist, sexist, homophobic, or libelous material.

University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union annual general meeting.

University Students’ Council is composed of representatives from the student societies on campus, most of which represent the colleges. Societies representing more than 1,000 members —for example, the Education Students’ Society and the Indigenous Students Council — are allotted two seats.

“We wanted to make sure that every single member of University

Students’ Council was elected in a proper way, and was actually elected,” said USSU President Scott Hitchings.

In past years, the responsibility of hosting MSC elections has fallen to each individual student society.

However, voter turnout has often been extremely low and in some cases, elections were not held and representatives were simply appointed instead.

“We’ve run into that problem every year since I have been

involved with the USSU,” Hitchings said. “We wanted to make sure that it never happens again, so we took over the elections.”

Now, according to Hitchings, the USSU will ensure candidates are registered students in the corresponding college or society, and will require nomination papers to be submitted, including a list of recommendation signatures.

He also feels that by using the current avenues that the USSU

already has to advertise and sanction elections, more students will be informed and inclined to vote for their MSCs. “The call for nominations will go out at the beginning of February, all within the same time period as the executive elections,” said Hitchings.

Occupy Saskatoon calls attention to housing Protesters’ camp provided temporary shelter for city’s homeless TANNARA YELLAND Senior News Editor When Saskatoon’s branch of the Occupy Wall Street protests set up camp in Friendship Park on Oct. 15, it quickly became a home for the homeless in town.

Since the first protesters took to the streets of New York’s financial district on Sept. 17, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to more than 1,500 cities worldwide. About 1,000 cities with active Occupy protests are much farther south, in the United States, allowing the Saskatoon protesters to develop distinctly local priorities.

Chief among these were the homelessness and housing issues that have long plagued the city. Since 2007, rental rates have increased by 16.2 per cent, and rentboard.ca places the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment in the city at $1,119 per month. For a single-bedroom apartment the cost is $879.

High rent could be a bigger factor in homelessness than employment. A 2008 study of Saskatoon’s homeless found that more than two thirds of homeless people in town were employed, and of those, 70 per cent were employed full time.

“If anything, that number has increased since 2008,” said DeeAnn

Jordan/Flickr

Occupy Saskatoon offered homeless people safety, food.

Mercier. Mercier works at the Lighthouse, a local non-profit that provides both transitional and longterm housing for the city’s homeless and poor populations.

“Housing has become much more expensive, rent has increased and vacancy rates are very low.”

The Occupy Saskatoon camp, like many others in the movement, was open to everyone who wanted to be there. In a matter of days, some of the city’s homeless population had migrated there in lieu of sleeping alone as the weather turned cool.

With a community of tenters and food being served, the camp offered homeless people a safer, warmer place to stay.

Ryan Desjarlais told the CBC earlier this week that he originally took up staying at the Occupy Saskatoon camp because of the fire and food, but that he supports their protest as well.

Following the appearance of several homeless people at their camp, the Occupy Saskatoon protesters seem to have taken on their plight as a central issue. On Nov. 12, Occupy Saskatoon organized a march against homelessness to raise awareness.

“I’d say it became an issue because it was one thing that touched us directly at the camp, feeding and housing homeless people that came through,” said protester Graham Goff.

However, while Goff was willing to discuss the importance of homelessness to Occupy Saskatoon, he stressed the fact that homelessness and poverty are connected to the larger themes the global Occupy movement has honed in on.

Goff said homelessness was indeed “a focus, but it needs to be kept in the context of the larger global system.”

“It’s the end result of a system that distributes wealth unequally,” Goff said. “It really comes down to the systems of power we have in our society, the concentrations of economic power.”

The camp, which moved from Friendship Park to Gabriel Dumont Park earlier this month, broke up on Nov. 14. City officials served an eviction notice despite the fact that the campers had already made public their intention to vacate the park.

Nonetheless, the evacuation took place peacefully.

Goff said the group has decided to continue meeting on a weekly basis.

“Out of that camp came very good bonds and friendships,” said Goff, who did not sleep at the camp due to work constraints. “The community that was built there will help us keep going.”

News

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/news

•3

Taking the pulse of Saskatchewan New U of S survey lab to gauge political attitudes in the province Ishmael Daro Editor-in-chief

in brief Peaceful protesters at UC Davis attacked

Video of a group of University of California at Davis students being pepper-sprayed Nov.18 by campus police while peacefully protesting has sparked widespread anger and controversy.

As part of ongoing Occupy protests taking place on campuses across California, the students set up a human blockade on a campus roadway and refused to leave.

Within hours, video of the incident was reposted by most major American news outlets and broadcast on television. The footage shows a campus police officer in full riot gear confronting the group of roughly 15 students and brandishing a large can of pepper spray while hundreds of spectators scream, “Protect yourself” and, “Close your eyes.”

As the students sat in a line on the ground, the officer casually passes by while unloading the can of powerful bright-red spray. Seconds later, a handful of additional officers begin dragging the students away while the large crowd watches.

Spectators can be heard screaming, “What’s wrong with you?” and, “Who do you protect?”

After a minute of panic, the entire crowd joined together, chanting, “Shame on you!”

Glenn Greenwald, columnist for salon.com called the the assault sadistic and said it shows “a police state in its pure form.”

The chancellor of UC Davis, Linda Katehi, addressed a crowd of thousands in the campus

Students poll residents from the new SRRL research facility. important issues.

Additionally, the results will be used by the spatial analysis lab — another part of the SSRL — to create a detailed map of Saskatchewan’s political and economic attitudes.

“It’s basically meant to be a snapshot of who we are as a province,” said Disano. quad on Monday, Nov. 21, to express her regrets.

“If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had on Friday,” Katehi said, “I’m just telling you I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday.”

UC Davis police chief Annette Spicuzza, as well as two unnamed officers, have been placed on administrative leave as a result of the incident.

Requests for Katehi’s resignation have also been made by the UC Davis faculty association saying in a Nov. 19 letter there had been a “gross failure of leadership.”

She has publicly taken responsibility, but resisted the call to quit.

“I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place.”

Penn State loses millions from sex scandal fallout

The Associated Press reports that sales of Penn State clothing have dropped about 40 per cent since the child molestation scandal erupted there earlier this month.

The university is known for its rabid football fans and strong school spirit, but the indictment of Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, on 40 counts of sex crimes against young boys has seemingly made the Penn State name radioactive.

The loss of revenue could cause deep

Margie de Jager

The initial results of the study will be released later this month.

There are several advantages to doing this type of research in-house as opposed to contracting a private firm to do it. For one, Disano estimates the university can conduct surveys like this for as little as half the cost. economic wounds to the university, which rakes in about US $80 million a year in clothing and merchandise sales.

Sandusky, who could face life in prison if convicted, admitted in a television interview that he had “horsed around with kids” and showered with them, but denied being a pedophile.

When pressed by the reporter, he conceded, “I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.”

Concealed weapons now allowed at Liberty University

Reversing a long-standing weapons ban on campus, the board of trustees at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. will soon allow students to carry concealed weapons at school.

The private Christian college was founded in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell and does not allow students to attend dances, swear or watch R-rated movies. But guns? Well, what’s the worst that could happen?

“It adds to the security and safety of the campus, and it’s a good thing,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty chancellor and son of the late school founder. “If something, God forbid, ever happened like what happened at Virginia Tech, there would be more than just our police officers who would be able to deal with it.”

The 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, of course, was an instance of a student bringing weapons on campus.

BILL WAISER & STUART HOUSTON

®

UPCOMING EVENTS

The day after the Nov. 7 election was a day of rest for many people, but for a University of Saskatchewan research team, the work was just beginning. That day, the first calls went out from the newly established Social Responsibility Research Laboratory to ask over a thousand Saskatchewan residents why they had voted the way they did.

Housed in Arts 277, the SRRL comprises 20 phone stations and an adjacent room for conducting focus groups. It is part of the much larger Social Sciences Research Laboratories, a multi-disciplinary complex meant to tackle some of the pressing issues affecting society in a rigorous way. If humanities have a reputation for being too theoretical and lacking hard evidence, the SSRL is a testament to how empirical social science research can be.

“People working in the natural sciences have had their laboratories and beakers and their test tubes... but people doing social science research haven’t had access to the infrastructure or the tools they need to collect the data they need to do their research,” said Jason Disano, survey manager for the election study. “These labs, the larger SSRL complex, is a movement toward building that sort of infrastructure for people to do that kind of research.”

Disano has previous experience in public opinion firms and moved back from Ottawa to run the survey lab. His partners for the project are professors Loleen Berdahl and Joe Garcea of the Department of Political Studies, and Maureen Bourassa of the Edwards School of Business.

The survey questions cover predictable territory, such as asking who people voted for and how engaged they are in politics.

However, some of the questions are bound to yield interesting results. Gauging attitudes about the Canadian Wheat Board, immigrants, aboriginal people and unions will help provide a glimpse of residents’ feelings on a whole host of

Also, the data will be more quickly and more transparently collected, allowing U of S experts to be involved at every step of the way rather than having to react to polling results once they hit the press.

“It would more directly involve the academics and the researchers in the polling process,” said Disano.

He acknowledged that “even though it’s called an election study, there’s only a handful of questions related to the election itself.”

The Nov. 7 election was a convenient time to kick off the research lab, however, since the date was known for years. Now that the lab is operational, though, all sorts of public polling can be done, potentially even as part of students’ graduate work.

In fact, one political studies grad student, Kirk Clavelle, is already using the experience gained from the election study toward his thesis.

“I’m really committed to this entire thing, not only for my thesis needs, but also for my future work goals,” Clavelle said.

The public opinion lab was built with help from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which invested the rather arbitrary amount of $169,839. Researchers have enough funding for five years of work, but the lab and the rest of the SSRL look set to become a permanent part of the social sciences on campus.

“It’s a brand new facility so we’ve got researchers and faculty at the university who are just recognizing now that this is here, it’s available,” said Disano. “Folks who have been exposed to the lab think it’s fantastic that they have access to such a state-of-the-art facility.”

Signing Saskatchewan: A New History, Tommy's Team and others Saturday, December 3, 1:00 PM

NANCY SENIOR

Speaking & Signing The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas: The Natural History of the New World Tuesday, December 6, 7:30 PM

11/14/11 FLOCK & GATHER CRAFT COLLECTIVE PRESENTS

run November 24, 11.indd 1

2:32:05 PM

s r e d n o W t e r e ark t m n e i d a Wa handm

ST. JOSEPH’S PARISH HALL

535 8TH ST. EAST

(CORNER OF BROADWAY + 8TH)

DECEMBER 9TH & 10TH Friday 6PM -9 PM Saturday 10AM -5 PM

f l o c k a n d g a t h e r. b l o g s p o t . c o m

4• News

thesheaf.com/news • the Sheaf • November 24, 2011

Aboriginal education key to economic growth: professor Closing the education gap could generate $90 billion for Saskatchewan TANNARA YELLAND Senior News Editor Aboriginal students are one of Saskatchewan’s largest untapped economic assets, according to a new study done for the Gabriel Dumont Institute.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada’s website claims that only eight per cent of aboriginal people in Canada between ages 25 and 64 have university degrees, while 23 per cent of non-aboriginal people in that same age group have university degrees.

Eric Howe, a University of Saskatchewan economics professor, was asked by the Gabriel Dumont Institute to do a study on the economic benefits of aboriginal education in Saskatchewan. In addition to the societal advantages of a more highly educated and affluent population — reduced crime, better health, higher tax revenue — there are substantial economic benefits for both individuals and society at large.

After studying 24 “massive” spreadsheets covering the lifetime earnings of males and females of aboriginal, non-aboriginal and Métis descent who had received several levels of education, from dropping out of high school to finishing university degrees, Howe combined individual monetary and non-monetary benefits with societal benefits to calculate the economic benefit to Saskatchewan if more aboriginal people were to get university degrees.

The number he reached was $90 billion.

To put this into context, Howe said the prosperous and booming industry of potash sales has brought $70 billion into the province throughout Saskatchewan’s 106-year history. And according to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan’s 2009 GDP was just over $56 billion.

In regards to educating more aboriginal youth, “one of the questions was, ‘Is this going to be difficult?’ ” Howe said. “And some of the things you can do are very straightforward and inexpensive.”

Howe added that while some of the measures that can be undertaken are more costly than others, aboriginal education promises significant returns on that investment. As an example he again cited potash, which is expensive to extract, but which more than makes up for that cost when it is sold.

The economic potential of the aboriginal population will increase dramatically in coming years, as well. Based on current population projections, aboriginal youths will make up 40 per cent of Saskatchewan’s school-aged youth by 2020.

“We’re paid largely on the basis of what we know, as opposed to in the industrial age,” Howe said. “People really are in the situation of ‘the more you learn, the more you earn.’ ” This is especially true for Métis and First Nations people in Saskatchewan, Howe found.

A Métis woman who goes on to finish a university degree will earn 149 per cent more than she would have if she had not finished high school. For First Nations women this figure is 188 per cent, and for non-aboriginal women it is 143 per cent.

For Métis and First Nations women this means earning $1,256,369 and $1,180,579 more, respectively, over their lifetimes.

Meanwhile, aboriginal males who finish a university degree will make $1,107,733 more than their counterparts who drop out of high school. And Métis males will make $1,119,361 more.

These numbers highlight what Howe found significant: the higher returns on education for women and for Métis people.

By finishing university, aboriginal women and Métis people see a greater increase in their earnings than do aboriginal men and nonaboriginal people with degrees.

“Métis [people] are going to be the superstars of Western Canada,” Howe said. “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.”

There are several strategies to mitigate the education gap between aboriginal and nonaboriginal people, Howe said. These range from

Classifieds Announcements

Bread, wine, and a good meal: You are invited to the Lutheran Campus Centre - at the southeast corner of College and Wiggins – every Tuesday at 5:00 for a service followed by supper. We sing, we pray, we speak and listen, we share communion, and when worship is over we gather for a good warm meal. It’s free, everyone’s welcome, and we’d be glad to see you there!

Grosvenor Park United Church and the Ecumenical Chaplaincy on campus are hosting a new DVD series, “The Challenge of Jesus”. Series runs to December 1. 7-8:30 pm (no series on the 17th). No cost. All welcome. For more information, contact Chaplain Nancy @ 9668500 or ecum.chap@usask.ca The University of Saskatchewan’s History Department and the History Graduate Students Committee are proud to host the fourth annual Dave De Brou Memorial Lecture. This annual lecture is a tribute to

956-7777 FOR RESERVATIONS

Across from Campus at the corner of College and Cumberland "Every menu item is made fresh in our kitchen" Daily Soups, Lettuce Wraps, Viet Rolls, Calamari, Wings, Nachos, Quesadillas, Hot Spinach Dip, Appetizer Platter, Thai Chicken & Teriyaki Salads, Clubhouse, Beefdip & Hot Beef Sandwiches, Wraps, Poulet du Chef, Chili, Fish & Chips, 1/2 lb AAA Burgers, Veggie Wraps & Burgers, Stir Frys, Pastas, Curry Chicken, Jambalaya, Thai & Ginger Beef Noodles, Meatloaf with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Enchiladas, Steaks, HAPPY HOUR Maple-Glazed Salmon, California Gourmet Pizzas, daily 2-8 pm Milkshakes, Cappuccinos, Wines by the Glass Alexander's Own Famous Delectable Desserts and

SO MUCH MORE!

Lunch & Dinner Specials Daily

~~~ Daily Drink SPECIALS

the relatively inexpensive, like making high school equivalency tests available on or near reserves, to larger, more financially significant commitments.

Among the pricier investments, Howe mentioned the planned U of S Gordon OakesRedbear Student Centre, which is expected to provide aboriginal students a place to congregate and feel more welcome on the U of S campus.

The centre is expected to cost $14 million and to be a focal point on campus for aboriginal students. “$14 million is a lot of money,” Howe said, “but in the cost benefit analysis, depending on the parameters you set, you pay that off in the first year of operation.”

The one thing Howe feels is the most important will not cost any money, though it may require a concerted effort.

“The most important thing we should do is have a change in the verb tenses we use in our discussion” about aboriginal education and conditions, Howe said. “If you talk to a lot of aboriginal people, they will explain why they are where they are using past tense: residential schools, being lied to on treaties, being economically marginalized. It’s hard to talk about how we’re going to go forward when we’re talking in the past tense.

“Likewise, a lot of non-aboriginal people will confine themselves to talking about the present tense: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, crime rates, all sorts of social pathologies in the aboriginal community.

“Just like we can’t do anything about the past, we can’t do anything about the present either.

So we need to switch to the future tense and learn to talk about what kind of Canada, what kind of Saskatchewan we’re going to bequeath our children.”

the late Professor Dave De Brou, who was the head of the History Department. Our speaker this year will be award winning professor Simonne Horwitz. Dr. Horwitz will be giving the lecture: “Apartheid in a Parka?: A Historical Analysis of the links between Canadian and South African Racial Policy.”

Her stimulating talk will be given in the Library Theatre at Frances Morrison Library on Tuesday November 29, 2011. Doors open at 6:30pm and the lecture will begin at 7:00pm. This event is free and open to any students, staff, faculty or member of the public who would be interested in attending.

Beverages and refreshments will be shared following the lecture.

Writers and non-writers are invited to Open Mike Night. Come to Frances Morrison Library on Thursday, December 8 at 7 p.m., Room 3, lower level, for an informal evening of homegrown talent and share in Saskatoon’s legacy of literature. Whether you write for fun or aspire to professional endeavours, you’ll meet a community of friendly, supportive, like-minded people with whom to share and develop your craft. Come out and read your work, or just listen. Register to read by e-mailing openmike@writerscoop.org or call Jo Oliver at 665-5609 one week in advance of the next event.

Wanted Veterinary Student wanted; to supplement a fourth year clinical trial, using a drug called Sodium Salinomycin, to test on dogs that have breast cancer. Please download and read the following scientific

15 % 38 % 50 % 15 % 40 $90 %

25-64

year-old

non-aboriginals

with no high school diploma.

25-64

year-old

off-reserve aboriginals with

no high school diploma.

25-64 year-old

on-reserve aboriginals

with no high school diploma.

Amount of Saskatchewan population that is aboriginal.

Portion of Saskatchewan

school age youth that will be aboriginal in

2020.

Billion

Estimated benefit of Aboriginal population in Saskatchewan getting university degrees.

paper before replying to this ad: The Scientific Journal Cell #138, Identification of Selective Inhibitors of Cancer Stem Cells by High-Throughput Screening, pages 645 to 659, August 21 2009.

The lead author is Piyush B. Gupta. If unable to get this paper free of charge. contact the email below for a copy. If you are still interested, after reading this paper email bob.moar@globalserve.net and more information will be provided.

Volunteer Opportunities

Canadian Blood Services With every blood donation you make, you save lives.

By donating, you share your health and vitality with someone who needs it. To make an appointment for any blood donor clinic, or for more information, donors can contact Canadian Blood Services, toll-free at 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) Do you love to talk about anything or everything? Then we have an opportunity for you! The Saskatoon Open Door Society is currently recruiting English speaking volunteers to help new immigrants and refugees practice speaking English. Please contact Julie at juliefj@sods.sk.ca for a detailed list of volunteer opportunities, or visit www.sods.sk.ca The Kenderdine Art Gallery, University Art Collection & College Building Art Galleries are seeking volunteers interested in the visual arts. Gain valuable experience and expand your knowledge of contemporary and historical art! Contact: 966-4571 for more info.

News

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/news

•5

University should be about jobs: CEO Gwyn Morgan, former head of Encana, points to medicine’s brain drain ‘travesty’ and more

Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

Illustrations of tattoos past adorn the walls at Tantrix.

Gwyn Morgan advocates profit-driven education.

Andrew Jeffrey The Gateway (University of Alberta) EDMONTON (CUP) —Despite the warning he jokingly put forward, the emergency exits weren’t needed and riots did not start following Gwyn Morgan’s polarizing lecture at the University of Alberta earlier this month.

Morgan spoke about running universities more like a business, for profitable benefit.

In the U of A’s first edition of the 2011–12 Innovative Leaders Lecture Series, Morgan gave a nearly hour-long presentation that cast a critical light on current practices in Canadian universities.

Morgan, a columnist for The Globe and Mail and former CEO of natural gas company Encana Corporation, has written two hotlycontested articles for the paper that have outlined his position on the role of Canadian universities.

“The number one challenge facing universities in the 21st century is developing higher-level education with the knowledge and skills needed by our country at a lower cost,” Morgan said during his lecture.

The declining quality of education in Canada is a major factor in this challenge, according to Morgan. A key issue he cited: professors who are more focused on research than teaching and lecture on material students could find from other sources.

Morgan related these concerns to the education of his nephew — a second-year engineering student at the University of British Columbia — who argued that students aren’t getting their money’s worth from professors.

“The problem is the one-way lecture style produces boring and repeat course content,” Morgan quoted his nephew as saying.

“The time it takes a professor to transpose a textbook onto the chalkboard serves absolutely no purpose.”

According to Morgan, universities are producing a large number of graduates who aren’t

supplied

contributing to valuable areas of the workforce. He believes problems negatively affecting the Canadian workforce and economy could be prevented if students enrolled in programs that best support Canada’s economy.

“It’s clear that Canadian universities are turning out large numbers of graduates while failing to graduate nearly enough professionals critical directly to our future,” Morgan said. “More than twice as many students are accepted into programs with low job prospects, such as visual and performing arts, humanities and social work,” as are accepted into professional colleges like engineering.

“Many [medicine] applicants leave Canada to pursue their dreams elsewhere,” he added.

“This, in a country where many citizens have no access to a doctor.

This is a travesty that gravitates motivated, capable students to menial jobs out of university, when they could be helping our country succeed in a competitive world.”

But many in the audience weren’t convinced by the lecture.

Some disagreed with the assertion that universities should focus more on preparing students for the workforce than providing general knowledge offered in degrees with “lower job prospects.”

“There’s this expectation that businesses should be able to count on the education being received in universities in order to feed the labour force, and there’s this devolution of responsibility downwards in terms of accountability,” said Cory Dawson, a graduate student in education.

Businesses “don’t want to put in that extra two thirds of the funding in order to pay for the education....

They like the publicly-funded infrastructure to create their workers,” Dawson said.

“My thoughts are that if they’re so dissatisfied, why don’t they do it themselves? It’s pretty obvious why they’re not doing it themselves. It’s because the incentives are pretty low financially.”

Except for the needles, the tattooing room looks rather comfortable.

Ink

1

cont. from

However, Thompson-Hill and Hryniuk both admitted, a bit grudgingly perhaps, that pop culture played a role in people opening their eyes to the culture of tattooing.

Although Thompson-Hill had less than kind words to say about tattooing television shows, he said that because “they put the tattooer in everybody’s living room for an hour a week,” the shows allow people to see that it is not all blood, gore and drugs, but actually a legitimate art form.

Whether or not this new societal acceptance and even obsession with getting inked is positive or negative depends on whom you ask. Some artists who have been around since before the craze might not be as happy about it as the younger ones.

Because tattooing has become so trendy, people are not taking it seriously enough anymore, says Thompson-Hill. Kids younger than 16 are rushing in to get inked because they think it looks cool and they don’t understand the concept of permanency. He thinks people should wait until they are much older to get a tattoo.

“This is actually more serious than getting married. It’s more painful to get rid of a tattoo than it is to get a divorce these days. So treat it as such.

But they don’t.”

Thompson-Hill relates this new trendiness to the once-popular armband. When Pamela Anderson starred in the 1996 film Barb Wire, she got her now-iconic barbed wire armband tattoo. People rushed to get armbands of their own and soon

regretted it.

Today he sees the same thing happening, but with the latest trend: script. Many people are getting song lyrics, quotes or names marked into their skin, but Thompson-Hill thinks this too will become a source of regret when the trend is over.

Hryniuk, on the other hand, doesn’t think that trends are a problem anymore with new advances.

“Everything’s a possibility now with tattooing,” he said. People can get whatever design they want to express who they are as a person. He believes the public is now seeing the art behind tattooing and understands it more than in years prior.

This new understanding of tattoos has certainly made it easier to get a good job after getting inked.

Although there are still places of business that frown on visible tattoos, they are becoming few and far between. But in spite of that, face and hand tattoos can still cause some difficulty as they are the hardest to hide.

Tattoos are now so popular, even older people are getting their first tattoos. Thompson-Hill knows people as old as 83 getting tattooed who, years ago, would have feared public perception, but now there is little to worry about.

The art of tattooing has definitely become something to admire. Long gone are the days of gang symbols and hearts with a name inside.

Today’s artists create portraits that look incredibly realistic and are designed to fit each individual body.

Steve Moore of Get Moore Tattoos in Nanaimo, B.C. and James Tex from Deadly Tattoos in Calgary are among the prominent artists Hryniuk says are pushing the tattoo world forward. As they put out better and

Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

better work, other artists are striving to do the same.

But sadly, these artists don’t always get the recognition they deserve. Thompson-Hill says that too much focus is being put on celebrity artists who aren’t really that good and are in it for the money.

Because tattoos are so permanent, he says it isn’t right to focus on the money. Rather, artists should concentrate on doing the best they can do on each person.

The worst thing about celebrity tattoo artists these days is the beards, says Thompson-Hill. It has become trendy for tattooers to have a big beard to get that biker look, even though it is grossly unsanitary.

Since the outbreak of mainstream tattoo popularity, doctors have become involved in making the process sanitary and safe. In the 1970s, the ink used was so toxic it is surprising people did not get seriously sick. Advances have now been made to make the ink much less harmful.

New machines and models come out often, each promising to be just a little bit better than the last. The ink is able to be injected more smoothly and with less damage to the skin than ever before, helping tattooers create exceptional realism in their art.

Laser removal hasn’t become any easier, however; in fact, it is even worse. As the quality of the ink has improved, it has become more permanent. While this ensures tattoos won’t fade as quickly as they used to, removing one is as painful as ever.

The fear of permanency isn’t slowing people down, though.

Society seems to have officially moved past old stereotypes and is embracing a new culture.

6• Opinions

thesheaf.com/opinions • the sheaf •November 24, 2011

More reasonable debate was needed at last week’s USSU meeting

Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

The Sheaf Editorial Board As editors at the Sheaf, we struggle each week with what merits coverage within our pages and on our website. There is no worse feeling than sending an issue off to the printers with the feeling that important stories were neglected, or that unimportant stories were given undue attention. Yet, this is the balancing act we face each week.

One of the decisions we made early in the term was that we would strictly limit our coverage of student politics and the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union. This was not done out of spite, but rather out of a sense that we had privileged student politics at the expense of other, more significant stories over the last few years.

To be blunt, student politics can be a trivial and often petty affair.

We ask undergraduate students to take on the responsibility of running a complex, multi-million dollar organization but give them almost no real power to effect change. And because of this impotence — and general lack of professional experience — minor differences of opinion flare into much more severe confrontations in which civility and reason fly out the window.

This is precisely what took place at the USSU annual general meeting on Nov. 17.

Of the 26 proposed amendments

to the USSU bylaw debated at the meeting, one concerned how Members of Student Council are chosen.

The amendment was to change the wording in the bylaw for international and indigenous students, which calls for the International Students’ Association and Indigenous Students’ Council to each elect members to the University Students’ Council. The USSU was pushing for these representatives to simply be international or indigenous students without necessarily being tied to those two external groups. Obviously a member of council could still confer with the ISA or the ISC, but the association would be voluntary.

USSU President Scott Hitchings repeatedly insisted that this was merely a semantic change, that indigenous and international students would have representation guaranteed on council.

The rather hostile crowd assembled at the meeting, however, disagreed. Speaker after outraged speaker stood at the microphone and argued that this was willful disenfranchisement and delegitimization of two minority groups on campus.

If the fact that students were passionate about such a trivial change was surprising, the racially infused rhetoric was disturbing.

As the four members of the USSU

executive absorbed the verbal abuse, they were denigrated for singling out “people of colour” and for daring to propose changes while not one of them was an international or indigenous student — in effect, it seemed as though they were attacked for being white.

While it is true that Canada’s indigenous peoples have certain cultural and historical practices, the most outraged speakers repeatedly framed the disagreement in terms of “us vs. you.” It was the people who disagreed with the amendment on grounds that it was unfair to people of colour who introduced this racially-charged language and thereby poisoned the whole atmosphere.

Again, this was done over the simplest of proposed amendments.

The USSU bylaw was in need of streamlining and greater flexibility to ensure that international and indigenous students would always have seats at the table regardless of what other groups on campus exist. Indeed, because there is currently no International Students’ Association, two recently elected international students likely can’t take their seats on council. The amendment was worded to prevent exactly this type of problem.

Needless to say, the amendment failed to win approval as the majority voted it down following a passionate and, we

“

Everyone is permitted the odd lapse in judgement. The tenor of the debate at the AGM, however, exceeded the bounds of reasonable debate.

believe, noxious debate. The racial language did not further the discussion in the slightest, and only worked to raise the temperature on what should have been a tepid meeting. Also, once it became apparent that opponents of the wording change clearly outnumbered its supporters, the continued invective against the four mild-mannered USSU executive members made even less sense.

Perhaps most tellingly, the majority of people who angrily denounced the proposed change promptly left the meeting after having successfully voted down the amendment, with the majority of other amendments still to be voted on.

Student government is a sphere in which future leaders hone their critical and rhetorical skills, and everyone is permitted the odd lapse in judgement. The tenor of the debate at the AGM, however, exceeded the bounds of reasonable debate. People went from disagreeing to being disagreeable, and perfectly illustrated that in student politics, the smaller the stakes are, the greater the noise.

Opinions

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/opinions

•7

The Seductive Scoundrel Plastic money is overdue

Cashiers rejoice as Canada moves away from paper bills

with Jack Penworthy Though native to Cambridge, England and Harvard’s dean of Arts and Sciences, Jack is delighted to be serving a residency as The Sheaf’s “Cultural Correspondent.”

Additionally, Jack will be teaching at our university’s Department of Literature. Within, students will be treated to his famously “libidinous lectures.”

F

aculty here wish to dismiss me of professorship for my “dishonourable actions.” What laughable nonsense.

Every professor worth his salt knows, a teacher assistant is there to provide services not only of the academic variety. Who here amongst us hasn’t wet his beak in the pool of fleshly delight? Why, this behavior is synonymous with professorship!

I’ll admit my teaching methods are a bit renegade. Without shame, I failed every student in my class Alcoholic Authors of the Mid-to Late-20th Century.

“Well, Penworthy,” you grin. “What’s this I hear of your recent, boisterous public intoxication?”

Oh that? T’was my finest hour!

For there I was, wildly imbibed, trapped in my dismal office at the Arts Tower.

Drunk, not on whiskey, but indignation at this scandal.

I sipped Oban, ever-so slowly, letting him dance upon my palette.

“Ahh! Oakey, smokey, a gustatory delight,” I whispered into the bottle, “Dear, sweet Oban: my one true friend.”

Beneath my ivory tower, blundering undergraduates hurled insults at my window — catechizing not only my academic prowess but even my profound heterosexuality. Now, I shan’t deny, The Bard and I share very intimate relations.

But our love is literary, not carnal!

Draining my Oban, I defenestrated his vessel, thereby shattering the window.

Then fuelled by a fire within, I poked my head through the broken panes. “Silence, you philistines!” A hush fell over the mob,

like a forest made silent by those electric winds of a coming storm.

I leered upon my students, setting forth an unstoppable soliloquy, “While I claim to teach your class, I use the term loosely. For today’s unscrupulous scholar no more spots class from trash than discerns an Orwellian work from one that’s Kafkaesque!”

My words flowed smooth as heavenly nectar.

“But it’s your decorum I most abhor. Pupils in China, now they know true propriety: attentive eyes, faultless posture, arms folded neatly on desks. A far cry from you slack-jaws! Why, your class is more a motley of ignorant internauts than eager schoolboys. And do I hear critical questions from your drooling labials? Expositions on your assigned reading? Not on your nelly!

The only sounds spewed from your desks are of cell phones, murmering away.

Then I listened: soaking in the golden voice of silence — watching the mob, tongue-tied, appearing to have relieved themselves in their trousers.

“Oh Jack,” I congratulated myself, “ne’er were you more worthy of the pen.”

Just then, a knock-knock on the door, as my voluptuous assistant entered.

“You wanted to see me professor?”

“Ah yes, Alexandra,” I kissed her on the cheek. “Always a charming surprise beholding your fine physique.”

“You said there were exams that need grading?” she nervously inquired.

“Oh hush, my darling.” I slid my arm around her waist. “How about Jack gives you a little examination of his own?” We commenced necking.

“Oh Mr. Penworthy,” she moaned, “Now I know why they call you the seductive scoundrel!”

illustration by Brianna Whitmore/ Graphics Editor

“You’re in university?! Dude you must be all smart and shit.”

“Shyeah guy-man!”

“You should write opinions shit for the paper.”

“Duh, that’d be crazy.”

“Yeah. Come by The Sheaf at noon this Friday. Come, fuck!” opinions@thesheaf.com

Stay protected: use plastic!

Bethany Godhe The Bank of Canada is getting rid of its paper money, and I couldn’t be more excited.

I can’t wait until its replacement, plastic polymer money, starts getting fully phased in and I don’t have to worry about sending my bills through the washing machine and losing $20.

Don’t worry; the plastic ones won’t melt in the dryer either.

Of course, that’s not the only reason I’m excited. I worked in retail for six years, and now make a good chunk of change hawking my wares at craft shows and nerd conventions, and paper currency has its problems. Polymer money is being introduced to counteract all the annoyances of paper currency.

The new polymer notes will be more durable, and won’t rip or tear in half like paper money.

Ripped money is a pain, especially if you are a cashier. No one wants the bills and they have to be set aside so whoever does cash-out can remember to return it to the bank. It also won’t crumple and resist lying flat, although you can still fold the polymer notes if you try.

This all means that the polymer bills will be able to stay in circulation longer. The current average lifespan of a $10 bill is only six months.

Polymer bills will save the government an estimated $200 million dollars a year just by lasting longer — money that will hopefully go toward a better use in the future.

Polymer bills are also a lot harder to counterfeit. Currently, the Bank of Canada measures that there are about 470 counterfeit

Bank of Canada

bills for every million legal bills in circulation.

This has a very adverse effect on Canadians because many businesses no longer accept $100 or even $50 bills.

But new security features of polymer bills will make it easier to confirm their legitimacy.

Cashiers are generally too rushed to do a full check on bills (which gets them into trouble later). When I’m at a craft show, the lighting isn’t usually good enough to check for the hidden image on a paper bill. This won’t be a problem with the new polymer bills, which have many, easy-to-check security features including two clear windows, raised ink in several places, and metallic ink that changes colour when you change the angle at which you view the bill.

To avoid mass panic and confusion, the new polymers are being phased in slowly, starting with the most counterfeited, the $100 bill, this November. The new $50 polymer bill will be introduced in March of 2012, and the $20, $10 and $5 bills will be introduced over the course of 2013.

Canada is hardly pioneering the phasing out of cotton paper bills. Australia has been using them since 1988, and Mexican peso bills are also made of plastics.

I’m hoping that by being plastic, these bills are not only more secure but also cleaner — since the plastic has fewer pores to absorb all the germs that usually accompany handling money.

At the same time, I’m also going to be setting aside a few paper bills for collection purposes.

They might be worth some money someday.

8• Opinions

thesheaf.com/opinions • the Sheaf • November 24, 2011

Should legal drinking ages be lowered?

Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

Teenage alcoholism: a liquid sensation sweeping the nation!

18-year-olds can’t hold their liquor Jaclyn Lytle The Fulcrum (University of Ottawa) OTTAWA (CUP) —Throughout Canada, there is a plethora of things a person can do before they can chug back their first legal drink. You can drive, you can smoke and you can even vote in most provinces and all territories before a bartender will permit you to order your preferred poison without having your ID confiscated. And that’s the way it should be.

Beer, booze, liquor, spirits. Call it what you will, alcohol is one substance that is easily enjoyed, but even more effortlessly abused.

Blackouts, injury, alcohol poisoning, unprotected sex, increased instances of violence and impaired driving are all common consequences of binge drinking — a habit underage drinkers partake in far more often than their of-age counterparts according to the American National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as well as Health Canada.

Youth are getting their hands on alcohol whether we like it or not, but that’s no reason to make it any easier for them. Study after study illustrates

the inability of drinkers under 19 to make responsible choices not only about the amount of alcohol they consume, but also about what to do once they’ve consumed it. Lowering the legal drinking age to the point at which many youth actually start drinking, around 16 years old, would do nothing but exacerbate an already out-of-control issue.

If provincial governments are willing to band together to do something to actually improve the way alcohol is consumed in our country, then their focus should be education, not legalization. Alcohol is a mind-altering substance with major impairment capabilities, and youth need to understand that. What we need is a consumption education program with updated statistics that reflect the serious alcohol-related consequences of today.

It would be naive to expect a lowered drinking age to have any positive impact on rates of responsible alcohol consumption. The only thing that is going to influence the nature of youth drinking is giving people the information they need to make knowledgeable choices.

Lowering the legal drinking age would be taking the easy way out; putting time and monetary resources into modernizing and standardizing alcohol education is the responsible choice.

If they can kill in battle, let ’em have a brew Graham Briggs The Martlet (University of Victoria) VICTORIA (CUP) — Canada’s provinces should follow the lead of Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec and lower the legal drinking age to 18.

Eighteen-year-olds can vote in elections. They are deemed old and responsible enough to be accorded full democratic rights as citizens of a free country. And they are responsible for bearing the duties and consequences that come with those democratic rights. Politically, 18-year-olds are adults.

Eighteen-year-olds can also join the military. They can be trained to fight and kill in the name of their country. They can be sent to war. In the eyes of the military and the state that commands it, 18-year-olds are adults.

Eighteen-year-olds also contribute to the Canada Pension Plan. They are deemed old enough to give part of their earnings to an institution that makes up part of Canada’s social safety net,

because one day, they will rely on it. According to one of the basic institutions of our welfare state, 18-year-olds are adults.

“

It’s astoundingly absurd that, in most of Canada, 18-year-olds are not deemed mature enough to legally purchase and consume alcohol.

absurd that, in most of Canada, 18-year-olds are not deemed mature enough to legally purchase and consume alcohol.

Now, there are of course serious dangers related to alcohol consumption, like drunk driving, addiction, increased risk of serious trauma injury, organ damage from binge drinking and long-term chronic use, and increased risk of a litany of diseases.

Governments should act to dissuade all age groups from drinking, not just young drinkers.

Public education campaigns targeting alcohol, much like those targeting tobacco and illegal drugs, should be stepped up. Like tobacco packaging, alcohol packaging should include warnings about the serious dangers and health risks that alcohol consumption poses.

If 18-year-olds are old enough to vote, to be tried as adults in court, to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan, to kill and die in war, surely they are old enough to legally purchase and consume alcohol.

Most importantly, 18-year-olds are tried as adults in criminal court.

When convicted, they are sentenced and punished as adults. In matters of justice, crime and punishment, 18-year-olds are adults.

Given all these serious political, economic and legal rights and responsibilities, it’s astoundingly

Visit the Sheaf online!

We have photos and videos and words and stuff. Plus, full colour! thesheaf.com on Twitter @TheSheaf1912 and on Facebook as The Sheaf Publishing Society

Opinions

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/opinions

Why Saskatoon is awesome

•9

The City of Bridges: home of chlamydia, gang-related stabbings and fun!

Michael Cuthbertson Opinions Editor When you graduate high school in Saskatoon, you make a big decision: leave this hick town, or sink deeper into a cold, comfortable rut.

When it came to my high school clique of nerdy drama kids, most of them left for Ontario — the Promised Land. Some of them seem different when they come back. It’s as if living in a big city erased the personality a prairie upbringing gave them. My friend at McGill calls these people “Montreal snobs” — former Saskatonians who, after partying and studying in Montreal, develop a sense of superiority to the people of Saskatoon. Variants include the Vancouver snob and the Toronto snob.

One day last summer, this McGill friend and I were biking around town when I confessed, “I love this little hick town.” But being a Montreal snob himself, he mocked, “Why is everyone here so proud of Saskatoon?”

Well there are a million reasons. And no, The Sheepdogs are not one of them.

For starters, no place deals with temperature change like we do. Living in our prairie landscape is comparable to menopause — a colorful mix of hot flashes and icy chills.

Saskatoon even boasts a wider temperature range than Siberia!

And during that “fucking cold” part of winter, Saskatonians can’t help but feel a reverence

toward nature. I remember after the Blizzard of ’07, roads like Preston Ave. had massive walls of snow at the sides. You couldn’t even see traffic behind these snowbanks!

Stuff like that makes it pretty hard for us to ignore the natural world. But in a big city, all you see is the human artifice. In a world of skyscrapers and traffic jams, a person can pretend nature doesn’t even exist.

And oh how I treasure our local dialect. I s’pose folks down in suddern U.S. use ’er just uh same. Perhaps it’s a hick thing. We all know the smaller a S’katchewan town you hail from, the more apparent your drawl is. In fact, our people are famous for prolonging vowels — or simply screwing them up, as in “a glass of melk.”

But my favourite part of local speech is use of the suffix “er.” Just giv’er on the gas. I better head’er home. It’s a good’er alright.

In a lot ways Saskatoon is the world’s biggest small town. Walk through Sutherland and you’d swear you were in some remote village. Central Avenue is just like the main street of a small town — with a railroad that runs through it, and plenty of dilapidated bars. It’s trashy but one can drink at every licensed place on Central in one night.

Ughh, never again.

Being an outdoorsy person, I’ve always adored the riverbank paths running from one edge of town to the other. I doubt there’s

another town this big that lets you stumble into such untamed nature without leaving city limits.

In Saskatoon, you can be in the synchrotron one second, and grasslands the next. One minute you’re stuck in downtown traffic, the next you’re driving 80 past a field of cows.

Actually, that smell of cow shit in the summer air isn’t our best selling feature.

“

I fear Saskatoon will become another gear in the homogenous cultural machine of modernity.

But for all its hickish appearance, Saskatoon breeds a lot of success. I dare say we put out more world-class talent per capita than anywhere else. With 231,900 people, we’ve raised countless greats — the NHLers, the musician, the writers.

Some people say our success stems from the “prairie work ethic” but I speculate it’s more a result of being stuck in such a remote, frozen

Brianna Whitmore/Graphics Editor

wasteland. In our winter, parts of life shut down.

So you have a lot of time to get drunk and watch TV — a worthy pursuit — or go shoot pucks at a net, or make music in a basement.

With so many wide-open spaces and old-time places, I can’t help but feel a deep affinity for good ol’ Saskatoon. But I worry you kids will abandon your roots — much like the Montreal snobs who left us. I fear Saskatoon will become another gear in the homogenous cultural machine of modernity.

To be honest, the new world is already ruining local culture.

There’s nothing true to Saskatoon in Wired 96.3 or trendy nightclubs or suburbs or “fresh” urban lingo. All this shit is just handed down to us from a few rich businessmen living in warmer places, deciding what culture should be.

It’s just ridiculous to speak in pseudo-ebonics when we basically live in a glorified farm town.

It’s utterly stupid to pretend “da club life” has anything to do with Saskatoon. When I stroll through the bucolic calm of prairie fields, I wonder why the hell we try modernizing ourselves and this town.

I wish we could all just eat our humble Saskatoon berry pie and admit, “Yep, I live in a hick town, but g’all darnit, she’s ah finest hick town out there!”

10•Sports

thesheaf.com/sports • the sheaf • November 24, 2011

T

oughest athletes on eart

national title after a p

all photos by Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

KEVIN MENZ Sports Editor Jared Farley lay motionless on the dirt after his face smashed flat against Bombs Away’s horn. Thousands of fans held their breath as paramedics rushed to assess the damage. After several agonizing minutes, the dazed bull rider got to his feet and walked safely out of the fenced arena.

He wasn’t the only rider to take a beating Nov. 19 as the bulls were angry for the last night of the 2011 Professional Bull Riders Canadian Finals at Credit Union Centre.

Josh Faircloth was temporarily knocked unconscious after Ring My Bell rang his bell. Scott Schiffner was charged at and trampled by Kicking Stones and Zane Lambert’s shoulder popped out of its socket when Tree Shaker’s back legs landed hard on his chest.

The statement that bull riders are the toughest athletes on Earth was reiterated over and over again as

competitor after injured competitor managed to stand on his own two feet, battered but not broken.

“I’ve never seen a day this bad to start with. I don’t know how many guys got knocked out and run over,” said Tyler Thomson, a rider out of Black Diamond, Alta.

“That’s just how things go and it’s great to have the best bull fighters in all of Canada to stick up for us.”

The bull fighters, whose sole job is to distract the bull from charging a fallen rider, found their toughest match in the bull Serendipity.

After nearly jumping out of the chute before his run, Serendipity threw his rider off and attacked everything in the ring. He tossed one fighter into the air with a flick of his horns and rammed the outrider Lee Trach and his horse, George, into the fence.

While George was unharmed, Trach broke his ankle.

Trach, whose job is to guide the bull out of the ring once a competitor has finished his run, kept working for the remaining two hours of the event.

“If you don’t finish you don’t get paid,” he joked

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/sports

th

Alberta

bull rider secures

punishing weekend in

when asked if there was someone who could have replaced him after the injury. “I kind of blocked it out and tried to do my job. It was a long two hours.”

Dusty Ephrom from Kenosee Lake, Sask., put up three strong runs and a total score of 257 to win the event and finish third in the season’s standings. He said he was unaffected by the second night’s aggressive bulls.

“We deal with that all the time. I try to just keep my focus on riding the bull and not let it bother me. I had to win this event to get close [to a national title] but Tyler [Thomson] was right in there too.”

Thomson’s third-place finish at the event kept him atop the regular season standings and secured his firstever Canadian national championship.

“I didn’t get the finals’ championship because Dusty was better than me this weekend,” said Thomson, but “It was a long season and I got the better of him throughout the year.”

Thomson, who put up 255.5 points in his three runs,

Saskatoon

stole the show with the weekend’s best single-run performance.

On Unabomber, the 2009 bull of the finals and Canadian champion bucking bull, Thomson scored 91.5.

“He went one way and back the other and I stayed with him, which was pretty awesome,” he said. “He’s a great bull. I had him when he was young and he bucked me off.”

Harve Stewart from Stephenville, Texas took second place at the event while Lambert finished second on the season.

A riding score is determined by how strong the bull bucks, how controlled the rider is and if the rider stays on for eight seconds. A rider who is bucked off before eight seconds receives no score. A rider’s total event score is the accumulated score after all runs.

Sports

•11

12• Sports

thesheaf.com/sports • the Sheaf • November 24, 2011

McMaster, Laval to clash in Vanier Cup Marauders look to upset reigning champs in first title appearance since 1967

R

ouge et Or Dynasty Laval’s Vanier Cup dominance

2010 L

29 Calgary 0 aval

2008 L

44 Western 21 aval

McMaster celebrating after their Uteck Bowl victory over the Acadia Axemen Nov. 18.

Dan MacDonald/Canadian Interuniversity Sport

2006 L

13 Saskatchewan 8 aval

2003 L

14 Saskatchewan 7 aval

1999 L

Laval defeated the Calgary Dinos in the Vanier Cup last year.

14 St Mary’s 10 aval

Laval has never lost when playing in the

Vanier Cup final

Laval’s first season in the CIS was in 1996

Justin Fauteux CUP Sports Bureau Chief WATERLOO (CUP) — Kyle Quinlan has seen just about everything this season.

Since late August, the star McMaster Marauders quarterback has dealt with lofty expectations for his team, a crushing early-season loss to Ontario powerhouse Western and a three-game suspension after an altercation involving an undercover police officer.

But in the Uteck Bowl Nov. 18, all that mattered was what Quinlan saw on the scoreboard: his team trailing the Acadia Axemen 14-0 late in the first quarter. That was when the Ontario University Athletics first-team all-star and the rest of the Marauders sprang into action.

Mac would rattle off 38 consecutive points, including 24 in the second quarter alone, on their way to a 45-21 win over the Axemen and a berth in the Vanier Cup final — the team’s first since 1967.

“I didn’t have to say much after we fell behind early,” McMaster head coach Stefan Ptaszek told reporters after the game. “The

guys are proud. And they knew that if they didn’t start playing like they’re capable of, the game would be over quickly.”

Quinlan — once he and the Marauders found their stride — was, in a word, brilliant.

He completed 23 of his 35 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns, adding another 65 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Rookie running back Chris Pezzetta ran for 147 yards, while fourth-year receiver Brad Fochesato caught five passes for 159 and two touchdowns.

The win brings the Marauders’ winning streak, dating back to the regular season, to nine; all but one of those wins have been by margins of more than 15 points. But no win was more impressive than the upset of the No. 3 Western Mustangs in last weekend’s Yates Cup. The Marauders shocked the Mustangs 4019, avenging their only loss of the season, which came at Western in week two.

Now the Marauders will need that momentum to carry them to another upset — waiting for them in the Vanier Cup final is the Laval Rouge et Or, a team that has won three of the last five national titles.

flie photo Yan Doublet/Université Laval

Much like the Marauders, the Rouge et Or fell behind early in their national semifinal and found themselves trailing the Calgary Dinos in a rematch of last year’s Vanier Cup. It was 10-3 for Calgary after the opening quarter but Laval came back with a 24-point second quarter of their own. Once the Dinos’ Chris Dobko fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half and the Rouge et Or’s Jérémie Chrétien scooped it up for a touchdown, the game was essentially over.

Calgary wouldn’t score another point after the 10 they put up in the first quarter and Laval punched their ticket to the national title game with a convincing 41-10 Mitchell Bowl win.

The Vanier Cup matchup will actually mark the second meeting of the season for the Rouge et Or and the Maruaders as the teams played an exhibition game at Laval’s PEPS stadium on Aug. 24. The Rouge et Or took that contest 24-10.

Sports

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/sports

•13

huskies in brief KEVIN MENZ Sports Editor

the women’s team will travel to B.C. to face the ‘Birds.

Huskies hockey falls to Calgary

Dogs basketball sweeps Pronghorns

A huge weight was lifted off the Huskies women’s basketball team Nov. 18 as they tallied their first win of the season against the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns.

The Dogs, who had lost their previous three games, downed the Horns 62-55.

Leading by just two points after both the first and second quarters, the Huskies took a 17-point lead in the third frame.

While Lethbridge would battle back in the fourth, the clock ran out on the comeback attempt.

On the following night, the Huskies kept Lethbridge silent and played with much more composure. They destroyed the Pronghorns 81-59 after scoring 49 points in the second half.

Katie Miyazaki led Saskatchewan with 39 points on the weekend.

The Huskies men’s team was also perfect at home against the Horns, winning 83-67 and 74-65.

Michael Lieffers led the Dogs in the first game with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 8 steals while Duncan Jones stepped up in the second game with a career-high 26 points.

The Huskies men’s and women’s basketball teams will host the University of Fraser Valley Cascades on Nov. 25 and the Trinity Western University Spartans on Nov. 26 at the Physical Activity Complex.

Hayley Wickenheiser was too much for the Huskies women’s hockey team as the Calgary Dinos got the last laugh Nov. 19 in Saskatoon’s Rutherford Rink.

After falling 5-3 to Saskatchewan on Nov. 18, the Dinos downed the Dogs 6-2 in the final match of the weekend.

Wickenheiser, who had not played since Oct. 29, did not suit up for the first game of the series. The Olympic gold medalist’s absence allowed Huskies Breanne George and Julie Paetsch to each score twice in the Dogs’ win.

Her return in the second game, however, was too much for Saskatchewan. She put up one goal and three assists to lead the Dinos’ victory.

On the men’s side, the Dinos managed to stop the red hot Huskies team.

The Dogs had only lost one game this season and came into the weekend with a 7-1-1 record. Calgary got the best of them in both games.

Teigan Zahn scored two to lead a 3-2 Dinos win on Nov. 18 while captain Reid Jorgenson scored Calgary’s 4-3 overtime winner the following night.

Derek Hulak was the most successful Dog as he put up three assists. He continues to lead the Canada West with 18 points on the season — only one ahead of teammate Kyle Bortis, who potted one goal and one assist against the Dinos.

The Huskies men’s hockey team will host the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at home Nov. 25 and 26 while

Dogs volleyball continues to lose

The Huskies men’s volleyball team dropped to 1-7 last weekend as they were crushed by the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

Despite winning the first set, the Dogs were unable to keep up with the fourth-placed team in the Canada West.

Led by Brett Ireland, who had seven blocks and eight kills, the T-Birds took the first game 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-23).

On the second night, Robert Bennett’s 15 kills and 14 digs were too much for Saskatchewan. UBC, again, took the game 3-1 (25-17, 2520, 19-25, 25-14).

Matthew Busse led the Huskies with 24 kills in the series.

On the women’s side, the results were even worse for the Dogs as undefeated UBC swept each game 3-0.

With the Huskies held to just a .105 average hitting percentage in the first game — as opposed to the T-Birds’ .386 percentage — UBC cruised easily to the win (25-13, 25-19, 25-12).

Though the second game was stronger for Saskatchewan as the Dogs led early in each set, the Thunderbirds didn’t lose focus and, once again, took it in three sets (25-22, 25-16, 25-18).

With the loss, the Huskies fall to 0-8 this season. UBC sits in first in the Canada West with a 6-0 record.

Canada West Standings Men’s basketball Standings

East

1. Alberta 2. Saskatchewan 3. Lethbridge 4. Regina 5. Brandon 6. Manitoba 7. Winnipeg 8. Calgary

4-2 3-2 3-3 2-3 2-4 2-4 2-4 2-4

6-0 5-0 4-2 3-3 2-3 2-4 2-4 0-6

6-0 4-0 5-1 2-4 2-4 0-4

3-1 4-2 4-2 2-4 2-4 0-4

1. UBC 2. Victoria 3. UFV 4. TWU 5. TRU 6. UBC Okanagan

League Leaders

League Leaders GP 6 6 6

Rebounds 1. Jordan Baker - AB 2. Justin King - TRU 3. Kamar Burke - UBC

GP 6 6 4

Assists 1. Nathan Yu - UBC 2. I. Bonhomme - BRAN Zac Andrus - UVIC

GP 4 6 6

Steals 1. Daryl Cooper - LETH 2. Jordan Baker - AB T3. Tristan Smith - TWU

GP 6 6 6

Blocked Shots 1. Balraj Bains - UBC 2. D. Coward - LETH 3. Connor Burns - REG

GP 4 6 5

FG 50 50 49

3FG 4 6 24

FT 40 29 11

Points 144 135 133

Scoring 1. Diane Schuetze - TRU 2. Katie Miyazaki - SASK 3. Kristjana Young - UBC

GP 6 5 4

FG 27 34 29

Rebounds 1. Sarah Wierks - UFV 2. Diane Schuetze - TRU 3. A. Vieweg - UBC

GP 6 6 4

Assists 1. Joanna Zalesiak - REG 2. C. Goodis - UVIC 3. Jenna Kaye - CGY

GP 5 6 6

No. 24 16 15

Steals 1. Jenna Kaye - CGY 2. Joanna Zalesiak - REG Katie Miyazaki - SASK

GP 6 5 5

No. 26 17 17

No. 8 11 6

Blocked Shots 1. Zara Huntley - UBC 2. Andria Carlyon - AB T3. Amy Ogidan - WPG

GP 4 6 6

No. 7 9 8

Off. 22 11 11 No. 26 30 30

Def. 52 56 32

Total 74 67 43

Off. 30 20 11 No. 34 37 33

Standings 1. UBC 2. Alberta 3. Manitoba 4. Winnipeg 5. TWU 6. Calgary 7. TRU 8. UBC Okanagan 9. Brandon 10. Regina 11. Saskatchewan

3FG 2 2 2 Def. 30 37 22

FT 49 17 9

Points 105 87 69 Total 60 57 33

Blocks 1. Mariah Bruinsma - UBC 2. A. Keeping - UBC 3. Jordana Milne - MAN

GP 14 15 31

Solo 0 0 5

Kills 1. Krista Zubick - AB 2. M. Robertson - BRAN 3. Kristi Hunter - MAN

GP 21 27 32

No. Avg. 71 3.38 91 3.37 105 3.28

Digs

GP 17 33 31

No. Avg. 85 5.00 138 4.18 124 4.00

1. Erin Walsh - AB 2. Sara Petterson - TRU 3. Nicole Hall - MAN

Ast. 25 22 38

Total 25.0 22.0 43.0

Men’s volleyball Standings 1. Manitoba 2. Alberta 3. TWU 4. UBC 5. Calgary 6. UBC Okanagan 7. Regina 8. Brandon 9. Saskatchewan 10. TRU 11. Winnipeg

8-0 6-0 6-0 5-1 4-4 3-3 3-5 2-6 1-7 1-7 1-7

Men’s volleyball

Men’s hockey Plus/Minus

League Leaders

6-0 5-1 6-2 6-2 4-2 4-4 3-5 2-4 2-6 2-6 0-8

League Leaders

West

1. Victoria 2. UBC 3. UFV 4. TRU 5. TWU 6. UBC Okanagan

Scoring 1. Justin King - TRU 2. Jordan Baker - AB 3. Ryan Mackinnon - UVIC

East

1. Alberta 2. Regina 3. Calgary 4. Manitoba 5. Saskatchewan 6. Winnipeg 7. Lethbridge 8. Brandon

West

WOMen’s volleyball

woMen’s basketball Standings

Raisa Pezderic/Photo Editor

Lethbridge was no match for Trisha Carriere and the Huskies.

1. Sean Ringrose - AB

Blocks 1. Brett Uniat - UBCO 2. C. Kauenhowen - MAN 3. Yari Kozel - UBC

GP 21 28 21

Kills 1. Nate Speijer - UBCO 2. Mitch Irvine - AB 3. Ben Glue - BRAN

GP 21 24 31

No. 93 103 123

Avg. 4.43 4.29 3.97

Digs 1. Ian Perry - UBC 2. J. Offereins - TWU 3. S. Waldie - WPG

GP 22 18 30

No. 83 58 92

Avg. 3.77 3.22 3.07

Solo 7 5 3

Ast. 28 41 25

Total 35.0 46.0 28.0

Men’s hockey Standings

League Leaders Points 1. Derek Hulak - SASK 2. Kyle Bortis - SASK 3. Sean Ringrose - AB

GP 12 12 12

Goals 4 6 8

Goals 1. Blair Macaulay - MAN 2. Sean Ringrose - AB T3. Taylor Stefishen - CGY

GP 12 12 11

No. 10 8 7

Assists 1. Derek Hulak - SASK 2. Kyle Bortis - SASK T3. Jordan Hickmott - AB

GP 12 12 12

No. 14 11 9

Ast. 14 11 7

Penalty Minutes 1. Chad Erb - MAN 2. Ryan Pottruff - LETH 3. Dane Crowley - MAN

Total +14 +10 +10

GP 12 14 12

Total 67 53 46

WoMen’s Hockey Standings 1. Lethbridge 2. Calgary 3. Alberta 4. Manitoba 5. Saskatchewan 6. Regina 7. UBC

8-4-0 8-2-0 4-1-5 5-3-2 6-4-0 4-6-0 1-7-2

League Leaders

9-5-0 8-2-2 7-3-2 7-2-2 5-5-2 4-7-1 3-8-2

1. Calgary 2. Alberta 3. Manitoba 4. Saskatchewan 5. UBC 6. Regina 7. Lethbridge

Jordan Hickmott - AB Derek Hulak - SASK

GP 12 12 12

Totals 18 17 15

Points 1. Elana Lovell - CGY 2. Iya Gavrilova - CGY 3. Julie Paetsch - SASK

GP 10 10 10

Goals 11 8 4

Goals 1. Elana Lovell - CGY 2. Iya Gavrilova - CGY T3. M. L-Medd - MAN

GP 10 10 10

No. 11 8 7

Assists

3. J. Durnin - LETH

GP 10 10 12

No. 9 8 7

Plus/Minus 1. Elana Lovell - CGY 2. Iya Gavrilova - CGY S. Ramsay - CGY

GP 10 10 10

Total +11 +10 +10

Penalty Minutes 1. N. Brown-John - UBC 2. H. Wickenheiser - CGY 3. Nicole Pratt - AB

GP 10 3 10

Total 38 30 28

1. Julie Paetsch - SASK 2. S. Ramsay - CGY

Ast. 6 6 9

Totals 17 14 13

14•Arts

thesheaf.com/arts • the sheaf •November 24, 2011

Twilight hits new lows Immortals packs

punch, forgets plot

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is simply terrible

Greek epic is visually striking and with lots of interesting hats

Theseus (Henry Cavill) wields his sword like a Greek!

BLAIR WOYNARSKI

Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) honeymooning in Rio. AREN BERGSTROM Arts Editor

Whenever a new Twilight movie comes out, I see it on opening night. This isn’t because I think they’re good movies. It’s because I know they’re bad, and hilariously so.

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is the fourth film in the much-loved, much-reviled teen vampire romance series based on novels by Stephenie Meyer. Like with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Breaking Dawn was split into two movies in order to double box office grosses. Unlike with Harry Potter, however, Breaking Dawn hardly merits the added length as the entirety of Part 1 can be described in one line: Edward and Bella get married, have sex on their wedding night and Bella gets pregnant. That’s it. Anything in the film beyond these basic plot points is just unpardonable fan service.

For the odd person who doesn’t follow the films or who has deliberately avoided any knowledge of the Twilight series, it follows the romance of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), an immortal vampire, and Bella Swan, a generic, emotionally confused teenager played by Kristen Stewart. After three films of Bella moping about deciding whether she loves Edward more than her best friend, werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella has finally decided to marry Edward. That’s where Breaking Dawn: Part 1 picks up the story.

To put it lightly, the Twilight novels are poorly written and so the fact that the movies are extremely faithful to the novels is their biggest weakness. To be fair, there is something appealing about Twilight. They are romantic stories, a compelling

mix of supernatural elements with the most ideal teen romance imaginable. But the dialogue is horrendous, the plots are nonexistent and for anyone incapable of surrendering to the hyperemotional absurdity of it all, the stories have no appeal beyond being hilarious catastrophes.

The Twilight films have mostly been competently executed versions of terrible stories. The actors have tried their best with the poor material they were given to work with (and they really can’t be blamed for being involved in these movies given the eightfigure salaries and guaranteed superstardom). The directors have tried to add interesting flourishes here and there, but the final products were doomed by their fidelity to the source material.

With Breaking Dawn: Part 1, its failure can’t even be blamed on the book anymore.

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is simply a horrendous movie.

Every moment in the film is depicted in excruciating detail — except for the wedding night, unfortunately. The wedding scene is around half an hour long. The honeymoon seems around the same length. The pregnancy goes on far too long. Yet for a film with so much extra time available, lots of exposition goes unexplained or clumsily so. For example, the notion of werewolf imprinting, the idea that werewolves can “imprint” their soul mates and assure love forever (apparently a large component of being a werewolf), is raised out of nowhere so that Jacob can be given a creepy future love interest in the form of Bella and Edward’s vampire baby.

The tone bizarrely wavers between silly inside jokes and twisted Cronenberg-esque body horror. One minute the film makes a joke that only fans who have read the series dozens of times

supplied

will get, and the next Bella looks like a concentration camp victim, tortured by the strain of her unborn vampire baby.

The actors behave awkwardly, no longer even trying for a good performance. The film’s score, a highlight for previous films of the series, is an almost non-stop accompaniment of trite piano music and overblown emotional cues. I can’t think of a moment in the film when the music isn’t blaring, holding your hand from plot point to plot point like you’re an idiotic child.

All parties involved should be embarrassed. I have given a slide to the filmmakers behind Twilight in the past, if only because their intentions seemed earnest and working on one of these films could be a big break. With Breaking Dawn: Part 1, it’s just sad to see so much effort go into this kind of travesty.

At least the film is so ludicrous that it serves as one of the better comedies you will see this year.

A scene in which the werewolves have a telepathic argument, complete with the actors doing growly wolf voices, is one of the funniest scenes ever put on film.

Unless you are the most ardent of Twilight fans, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 will leave you flabbergasted with its incompetence. If you’re not a Twi-hard, you will either have to watch it as a comedy or seriously fight your better impulses not to break out in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is currently playing at Galaxy Cinemas.

I shall start by addressing the most important question about Immortals. Yes, it is better than Clash of the Titans. However, not by a lot.

Tarsem Singh’s sword-andsandals epic plays fast and loose with traditional mythology, but exhibits an astounding artistic style. The story centres around King Hyperion (who is not actually a mythical figure), embarking on a conquest of all of Greece. He plans to do this by obtaining the most powerful weapon known to humanity, the mystical Epirus Bow, which can then be used to free the Titans from the depths of Tartarus.

Titans are stripped of their individual characters in this incarnation and are portrayed as mud-caked zombie creatures chilling in a cage. The gods on Olympus are a rag-tag bunch, the handful of survivors of the eons-past war with the Titans.

Zeus is adamant that the gods not interfere with the war on Earth, and puts his faith in Theseus, the standard reluctant hero who takes up arms against Hyperion after his mother is murdered. He is also the only one who can uncover the Epirus Bow. Naturally.

The plot gets away from itself frequently, and things happen seemingly for no reason. We do not know why Zeus is so strict about non-interference when it seems that it is okay for him to interfere, as long as he does it disguised as John Hurt. Even though possession of the Epirus Bow is demonstrably enough to win Hyperion the war, he still insists on freeing the Titans, who give him absolutely no reason to believe that they won’t totally kill him the second they are free.

The virgin oracle whom Theseus frees from captivity surrenders herself to him for no other reason than that he is the main character.

And the whole movie concludes with an ending that can only be described as puzzling.

Henry Cavill is not quite at

supplied

the top of his game as Theseus.

His traditional light-hearted charisma and subtle intensity do not serve him well in this script, but he pulls off the character and proves to be a capable action hero (which will serve him well as Superman in Man of Steel). A lot of the film’s strength comes from Mickey Rourke as Hyperion.

He is physically intimidating and emotionally intense. His performance is very low-key, never stepping into “raving bad guy” territory, yet he has an incredibly menacing presence.

Immortals is an action movie and that is clearly where most of the focus lay. It follows 300 in its hyper-stylised, dream-like quality.

Everything is awash with gold and draped in shadow, lending it a mythical feel. Hyperion’s palace is dark and nightmarish, filled with unsettling sounds and deformed, sub-human figures.

Fight scenes utilize a combination of fast-motion and slow-motion, sometimes simultaneously, and exaggerated blood effects to create a comic book feel. Action scenes are exhilarating and quickpaced, but never cross the line into disorienting. The sweeping action and the set designs all combine to make the atmosphere very epic.

The Olympus scenes are some of the most interesting. Olympus is portrayed as a remote and desolate place — very white and misty. The gods wear elaborate golden costumes that do not suit any historical period and they sport hats that I cannot adequately describe in my allotted word count. There is a sombre mystique to the god scenes that make me wish more of the movie were about them.

Immortals satisfies as a visually creative action epic, but its impact ultimately suffers from abounding inconsistencies in plot.

Immortals is currently playing at Galaxy Cinemas.

Arts

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/arts

•15

J. Edgar is convincing, but safe entertainment Biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio explores the former director of the FBI NICOLE BARRINGTON

Clint Eastwood’s latest biopic, J. Edgar, narrows in on the life of the first FBI director who led the agency from 1935 to 1972. Starring a beady-eyed Leonardo DiCaprio (who excels in playing these unorthodox characters) one can’t help but form expectations for a bulletladen historical thriller. However, Eastwood takes an unforeseen direction and guides the film with a top-secret romantic plot that touches on Hoover’s alleged homosexuality.

The story is slightly confusing, as the movie kicks off right in the office of a close-toretirement-or-death J. Edgar Hoover. Apart from the Elmer Fudd accent, DiCaprio successfully embodies Hoover in both his younger and older days. Through obvious layers of age-inducing foundation, DiCaprio recites the chronology of his life (and disdain for communists) to various typists. Even though including both first- and third-person perspectives, there is an undeniable sense of coherence for the film’s duration — which is only muddled by the lack of detail and excitement.

However, for some incomprehensible reason, the film doesn’t completely delve into Hoover’s personal life or scandalous secrets enough to fully capture us. Either this was done because of the already daunting task of depicting Hoover’s accomplishments and major life events, or simply because it was assumed the audience wouldn’t care about these crucial details or an explicitly homosexual love story. There were many opportunities to elaborate on characters — especially Hoover’s racist, homophobic, doting mother — that could have made the film more engaging. In any case, it would have been helpful to expose more of Hoover’s youth, thus giving some method to the madness that DiCaprio illustrates with ease.

Then again, when has DiCaprio ever not embodied that full-frontal shocking intelligence, which has undoubtedly enhanced his career?

While it may just be the actor, it appears that Hoover is the Howard Hughes of the FBI. Watching him robotically explain the importance of keeping tabs on citizens and other Big Brother-esque schemes, the audience gets a glimpse into the mania that wracked Hoover’s brain. It’s both impressive and terrifying.

Even stranger is the lack of events featured

between Hoover and his handpicked associate director and rumoured lover, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer.) It’s clear in the movie that Eastwood isn’t afraid of exposing the scandalous escapades of politicians (duly noted: Eleanor Roosevelt’s saucy lesbian affairs) but there aren’t enough scenes where Hoover and Tolson are physically romantic or engage in extensive romantic dialogue.

Despite the movie shying away from the implied amorous relationship between the two, there are a few powerful moments where emotion is purely conveyed. Perhaps this was the intention, so as not to stray from the biographical focus on Hoover’s life. Although this is a noble, privacy-respecting tactic on Eastwood’s part, the movie could have benefited from some form of action.

In addition to the disappointment of potential intimacy, the movie is largely deficient in the violence department. For a story that illustrates Hoover’s involvement in highprofile assassinations, murders and kidnapping, there are depressingly few moments that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Even the foreshadowing of John F. Kennedy’s assassination is hardly remarkable — perhaps something that could have been slightly exaggerated to bring the whole thing to life.

There are countless instances throughout the movie with unfulfilled climactic promise.

Thankfully, other elements such as cinematography were spot-on and created the perfect tone for the time period and subject matter. Also, DiCaprio’s realistic emotional responses are authentic and touching, despite

Editor’s Pick of the Week Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

In a time when the video game industry and the first-person shooter genre in particular are over-saturated with Call of Duty and Battlefield games, it’s refreshing to take a step back in time and revisit one of the classics of the genre. While Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is merely a fancy high-definition 10-year anniversary version of the first Halo title, it’s a great opportunity to experience a polished, online multiplayer version of the original game that launched the Xbox.

Aside from updated HD graphics, Halo: CE Anniversary has an option to toggle back and forth between the current graphical upgrades and the way the game looked back in 2001 by using the Xbox 360 controller’s back button. The online multiplayer uses the Halo: Reach engine and brings back classic maps like Beaver Creek and Hang ’Em High. Firefight mode is also added. The update also adds achievements, terminals and an online

supplied

J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) put in the hot seat by Congress.

supplied

co-op campaign. Like The Orange Box back in 2007, Halo: CE Anniversary is an opportunity for the uninitiated to experience a first-person shooter classic and a way for hardcore fans to bide their time before Halo 4.

Regional Director

(306) 653-3207 (306) 653-2035 darryl.gossen@investorsgroup.com or check out www.darrylgossen.com and apply online

the out-of-place, cheesy line “Love is the greatest force on earth.”

Overall, J. Edgar is a convincing story, but only because it’s very safe. Eastwood doesn’t surprise or shock — the alleged homosexual affairs of a closeted Hoover as well as the Lindbergh Trial are monotonous. The one unnerving aspect of the whole movie is the makeup job on an aged Tolson, which was so bizarre that I had to suppress my laughter.

J. Edgar is currently playing at Galaxy Cinemas.

16• Arts

thesheaf.com/arts • the Sheaf • November 24, 2011

1

Jay and Silent Bob cont. from

“I may have swung by there on a trip with a friend of mine named Natalie, but I think I would have remembered staying there for a bit,” he said. “I love me some Canada after all.

“I’m excited to be there, and take in some Saskatoon,” he continued.

At this point I realized that he was essentially leading the interview.

On the Jay and Silent Bob Get Old podcasts, Mewes reveals that he initially had difficulty coming out of his shell and found acting tough, a strange fact considering how natural an actor he is. Apparently the natural, fast-talking Jason Mewes who pretty much had to carry Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back by himself was initially camera shy.

“Kevin used to make fun of me because he said when he met me that someone should put me in a movie,” he said. “But when I got on camera, man, I just froze and needed everyone out of there. I warmed up to it eventually but that wasn’t really until Mallrats.”

He was so shy, in fact, that the studio was worried about him when Smith made Mallrats, and initially thought of replacing him with Seth Green.

“They actually had him on hold because they were so nervous, and he was the best available person to play the Jay character.”

Thankfully, however, Mewes pulled it off and got more comfortable with acting until his career reached a point where he was playing more varied characters than just Jay. He happily reminisced about finishing the second season of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil on the Comedy Network and was excited about his upcoming roles in the movies noobz and Zombie Hamlet.

Of course, to many people he is always going to be part of the Jay and Silent Bob duo. He has a wonderful chemistry with his best friend, which is showcased in their SModcasts and their live show, particularly when the two of them got into a 10-minute chat about different types of poop. Mewes

Mark H. Anbinder/Flickr

Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes on stage for their Jay and Silent Bob Get Old live show. says Smith and the podcasts have helped him recover from his long drug addiction, improve his acting and just be himself.

“They’ve evolved from us discussing our beginnings and how we met to big moments in our lives like, ‘Hey! Remember my first threesome?’ and stuff like that,” he said. It was at this point that his filter

turned off and I proceeded to conduct the rest of the interview trying not to roll on the floor laughing.

He ran down a few of the stories with such a casual attitude it was hard not to laugh.

“There’s this comic convention I go to every year,” he started. “And sometimes I tell stories about going there like ‘That time I shit my pants’

or when this girl showed me her pussy and I was kind of tempted, but I didn’t and blah blah blah blah.”

He somehow managed to make a point in all of this by saying that he and Smith like to keep the stories relevant to the areas they visit.

Audience response to the live show has been great so far. Mewes reiterated how excited he is to visit

Canada — but somehow he got lost telling me about one time in San Francisco when he saw three men walking around naked. With the enthusiasm of a professor he described the different types of naked people he saw around the town.

“I saw a girl wearing see-through panties and a wife beater and you could see her vagina, and then like 10 minutes later there was a guy with a feather taped to his dick. And he had fishnet stockings and a little wife beater. It was really interesting. So, my point is, the show is awesome and we’re really excited to take it up to Canada.”

Mewes said that for him getting old means more responsibility. Mewes married in 2009 and beyond the duties of being a husband, he takes care of his mom and expects a day when he can hopefully have a kid.

Gone for him are the days when he would film a movie and sleep with the extras and party all the time. Most of all though, he feels healthier and happier than he’s ever been. You can hear it in his voice.

Mewes had some advice specifically for college students.

“Of course you’re gonna be nervous about your future and definitely have ambition, but things are gonna happen for you when they happen, if you work and have commitment. Things fall into place if they’re meant to be. I know some kids know what they wanna do, but you never know what’s gonna come your way.”

What can people expect from the Jay and Silent Bob Get Old live show besides stories and some eloquent rundowns on poop? Well, they have a thing called “let us act” for which Smith directs Mewes and audience volunteers in a scene from a famous movie, which has been unpredictable and a ton of fun, according to Mewes.

They also like to hang out afterwards and sign posters, then jet off to some bar or coffee place and just hang with the fans.

Jay and Silent Bob Get Old is Mewes’ new source of income so be sure to check it out and fill his coffers.

Jay and Silent Bob Get Old takes place Dec. 10 at the Odeon Events Centre.

Are you Team Edward? Team Jacob?

Are you a Twi-hard who yearns for the day a vampire will love you or a werewolf will imprint you?

Are you really pissed off that arts editor Aren Bergstrom completely panned Breaking Dawn: Part 1?

Let your critical voice be heard!

Write for the Arts Section.

Store Hours: Mon to Wed 10-6, Thurs 10-9, Fri & Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5

manhattan casuals Fashion for Men and Women

124 - 21st Street E - Saskatoon

664-6686

arts@thesheaf.com

Arts

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com/arts

Jill Barber’s Mischievous Moon

•17

Ricky Gervais returns to the Golden Globes

Canada’s chanteuse speaks to the Sheaf about Why the media has blown this her musical accomplishments out of proportion

Sorry, Ricky. Jill’s married to Grant Lawrence.

COLIN GIBBINGS

Jill Barber looking seductive in a fine silky robe.

AREN BERGSTROM Arts Editor When the lights go down and Jill Barber glides onto the stage of the Broadway Theatre, you could be excused for thinking you’re in a more glamorous place than Saskatoon in November.

Barber cuts a striking figure. There is something both sensual and playful to her. She wears a delicate dress. She seems to have a sparkle in her eyes.

But it’s her voice that really shines.

Having written songs since she was a teenager and being little sister to another Canadian musician, Matthew Barber, Jill Barber began her musical career in the indie-folk scene. During this period she put out the EP Oh Heart in 2004, a full-length album For All Time in 2006 and won some East Coast Music Awards before making a surprising transition into jazz — or something akin to jazz.

Although her latest album Mischievous Moon debuted back in April at No. 1 on the Canadian jazz charts and held that spot for 13 weeks straight, Barber disagrees with that labelling.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t totally consider myself a jazz artist,” Barber said in the dining room of D’reen’s Catering and Eatery on Second Ave. on a very snowy Friday afternoon. “But I definitely have appreciated that the jazz community has come on board with my music.

I know first and foremost I’m a songwriter and a singer. I’m not a great improviser and I don’t really sing the traditional jazz standards. If I am a jazz artist, I’m probably not a typical jazz artist.”

Barber made the transition into new musical territory on her second full-length album, Chances in 2008.

Gone were the solo acoustic guitar and pared-down songs. Instead the record took a number from Ella Fitzgerald, whom Barber considers to be “the best singer that has ever lived,” adding the lounge music elements of saxophone, violin, bass, drums, piano and classical guitar to Barber’s throaty, delicate contralto.

Although she didn’t expect the transition, she does speculate about

what contributed to her musical change.

“With Chances a lot of the songs were co-writes,” she said. “Prior to that I’d write songs all by myself, and so bringing in other musicians and instruments kind of allowed me to play with more colours and textures in my music.”

Both Chances and Mischievous Moon were born out of collaboration.

They have also been labelled as having an old-world quality to them, but Barber tries not to make her music a relic of the past.

“I’m not trying to emulate any one era,” she said. “I’m just trying to build on the tradition of great music that’s come before me.... I love older music from all different eras and that really comes out and is reflected in my music, but I like that my music sounds like it’s from a different era.

But it’s not any one in particular.”

Mischievous Moon has more influences than timeless tunes of the past. It was influenced by the 1960s James Bond films — the video for the album’s first single, “Tell Me,” is styled as a James Bond film — and oddly enough, the Muppets.

“The Muppets have always been a big influence on me,” Barber said after a brief laugh. “There’s a certain aesthetic on The Muppet Show that I try to apply to my music. It’s hard to describe but it’s playful, classic — kind of fun. I’m a big fan of the Muppets.”

Barber got her start touring in coffee houses and eventually with bigger performers like Ron Sexsmith, getting to Saskatoon numerous times over the years, a city she has a certain fondness for.

“Every time I’ve played Saskatoon I’ve felt a lot of warmth from the audience,” she said. “It’s one of my favourite cities to play. I remember the very first time I played here was at the Broadway Theatre. I was opening for Ron Sexsmith and that was one of the best shows I had on that tour and so I had a very good first impression of Saskatoon and it’s always lived up to it. I love the prairies and I love people from the prairies, and I have a deep respect for people here.”

Ivan Otis

Barber has also toured with Stuart McLean of The Vinyl Café, whom she credits with teaching her a lot about entertainment and providing a greater venue for people to learn about her music.

On her tours, Barber has made it to Europe and Australia, but she thinks Dawson City in the Yukon was one of the most interesting venues she has played.

“That’s a magical place,” she said. “I kind of fell in love with my husband in Dawson City.”

In 2010, Barber married author and CBC Radio 3 personality Grant Lawrence. Her romance with her husband has inspired many of her recent love tunes. But Barber had to say goodbye to her husband this fall as she embarked on her biggest tour yet.

“This is the most extensive tour that we’ve done, myself and my band,” she said. “It’s the biggest and the longest. It’s 38 shows across the country this fall.”

After her tour finishes, Barber will take a much needed rest over Christmas before heading to France in January where she’s taking French language courses.

“I love French music and the French culture and it’s a musical kind of place so it comes out a lot in my music.”

After returning to Canada, she will go back to the drawing board in order to come up with a new album.

“This spring will be my time that I set aside to write it. I’m hoping to go back and do another artist’s residency at the Banff Centre. I hope to have it all written this spring and record it in the summer.”

While her current ideas for a new album are mere seedlings, Barber expects inspiration will present itself over the coming months.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be yet. There’s a lot more to explore on the subject of love.”

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association stunned the world Nov. 16 by announcing that Ricky Gervais is coming back for a third time to host the Golden Globes.

Shocked? Excited? Wondering who the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is?

Join the club on that third one.

You have every right to be excited. Gervais is a funny man.

But the fact that this is being built up as a chance to see him once again roast those thin-skinned celebrities who can’t take a joke and should totally get over their selfish selves is, in fact, rather pointless considering nobody was offended last year.

For those of you who don’t know (count your blessings), last year Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for the second time in two years. As in the previous year he turned up the heat and made some hilarious observations about things like how the not-a-comedy Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie stinker The Tourist got three nominations in the comedy category, Mel Gibson’s drunk/racist outbursts, Charlie Sheen’s insanity, gay Scientologists — every celebrity, basically. The celebrities he was ribbing went along with the joke and ribbed him right back, like Robert Downey Jr. and Tim Allen.

Everyone had a great time and celebs were shaking Ricky’s hand at the end of the night thanking him for a fun show.

Which the critics of course took as “Ricky Gervais stuns world, insults people’s messiahs: celebrities offended and consider lives in exile!”

The day after the Globes last year, critics and Gervais’ fans flocked to their computers to declare the celebrities too full of themselves and that they should learn to take a joke. Yet, nobody could offer one report of any celebrity present at the ceremony last year who was actually offended.

There’s a reason for this. They all know and many have worked with Ricky Gervais. They know

Supplied

what he’s like. So they played along with him and it made for a nice, fun show.

Take his exchange with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, for example.

Gervais introduced the two presenters: “One is an actor, producer, writer and director whose movies have grossed over 3.5 billion dollars. He’s won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes. And the other one is Tim Allen.”

Tom Hanks rose to the occasion by saying, “Like many of you we remember Ricky Gervais when he was a slightly chubby but very kind comedian.”

“Neither of which is he now,” added Allen.

You likely have one of two reactions to this exchange. The first might be: “What a funny bit of banter between three comedians. I’m glad they can have the opportunity to showcase their comedic gifts on the same stage like that. I bet they had a nice laugh backstage.”

The second reaction might be: “Man, I can’t believe Tim Allen said that to Ricky! Tim Allen should learn to take a joke! And Tom Hanks, call me when you’re relevant again!”

I’ve been bored and irritated by this story being blown way out of proportion. Some people were offended, yes, but they were mostly the older generation.

Gervais’ style of humour is probably just not their thing.

Once we all realize that it’s okay if some people don’t find Ricky Gervais funny, we can all be happier in general. We must also remember that if Ricky Gervais ribs an actor, it’s okay for that actor to rib him back. It’s called humour.

18• Comics

thesheaf.com• the Sheaf • November 24, 2011

Across

1- Love affair 8- A chewy candy 15- High-spirited horse 16- Function 17- One of the Furies 18- Cornmeal mush 19- Enzyme ending 20- Comply 22- Syrian leader 23- Small hand drum 25- Westernmost of the Aleutians 26- HI hi 29- French school 31- Dash lengths 34- Majestic 36- Boater or bowler 37- “South Park” kid 38- Floating mass 40- Ecstasy 42- “Judith” composer 43- Cycle starter 45- Person with a paper, perhaps

46- O.T. book 47- African wader 49- Summit 50- Slippery _ eel 52- Plumber’s tool 54- Carries on 56- 3:00 57- French possessive 60- Listener 62- Hard to define 65- Kitchen gadgets 66- Narc 67- Cooked but still firm 68- Wrap with bandages

Down

1- Avatar of Vishnu 2- Metal containers 3- Merlin, e.g.

4- Attorney’s org.

5- Never, in Nuremberg 6- Chocolate substitute

7- Allow 8- Reproduction 9- GI mail drop 10- Narrate 11- Give it _ !

12- Gentleness 13- Blues singer James 14- Be in front 21- “From _ according to his abilities…”

23- Monetary unit of Botswana 24- Bern’s river 25- Communion table 26- Continental identity of a Chinese person 27- “Filthy” money 28- Liberal 30- Boat propeller 32- Nostrils 33- Hagar the Horrible’s dog 35- Boston hockey

player 37- Blank look 39- Econ. indicator 41- Quarter bushel 44- Res _ loquitur 47- Hurry 48- Beginnings 51- Subway turner 53- Attorney follower 54- _ Nui (Easter Island) 55- “The Clan of the Cave Bear” author 56- Celtic tongue 57- Immature herring 58- Daredevil Knievel 59- Parched 61- Leftover 63- “Respect for Acting” author Hagen 64- Avg.

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

xkcd.org

smbc-comics.com

Misc

November 24, 2011 • the sheaf • thesheaf.com

CAMPUS CHAT

•19

If you could have one thing for Christmas, what would it be?

“Audi R8 V10.”

“A pool with a waterslide.”

“A horse.”

“Poland.”

Devon McClart

Mitch Walls

Laura Johnson

Der Fürher

Fake News of the Week Pathetic man refused service at 7-Eleven

In what is surely a new lowpoint in Frank Whitaker’s already miserable life, the 38-year-old web developer was denied service at a 24-hour convenience store.

The cashier at a 7-Eleven outlet, Sinead Bradley, says Whitaker entered the store late on a Wednesday night wearing sweatpants with several mysterious stains on them.

“I don’t know if it was chocolate or something else, but it was obvious he hadn’t changed in a long time just by the smell,” said Bradley.

Although she says she initially tried to be helpful, she ultimately refused to sell Whitaker anything because “I’m pretty

sure he was buying groceries, and no one should be grocery shopping at a gas station that late.”

She added, “Especially when you have to buy Cheetos because you’re out of cheese.”

Whitaker defends his generally slovenly lifestyle and lack of ambition by claiming, “It is what it is.”

Whitaker was last seen hovering uncomfortably next to a trash can containing a half-eaten sandwich.

Unemployed hippie wins Nobel Peace Prize A jobless hippie known only as “Donovan Sunshine” is on the short list to receive the Nobel Peace Prize — despite his lack of pragmatic, large-scale

contributions to world peace.

The revelation came in a document leaked to the press earlier this week.

“Love. It’s that simple,” uttered a blissed-out Sunshine when reached for comment.

“You know, a lot of people say peacekeeping and diplomacy is the key to peace. But that’s a lie perpetrated by The Establishment. All those peacekeepers are just jerking off the Military Industrial Complex, you dig?”

The hippie was as surprised as any that he should be considered for the award, having spent most his life tight-rope walking, doing yoga and following The Grateful Dead on tour.

“But that’s real peace,” he argued.

“Everything I do is an act of non-

resistance” the man said, rationalizing a life of sloth and misguided idealism.

Critics maintain that giving the prize to a man whose brain is fried could in fact be a dangerous step away from world peace. Indeed, North Korea’s recent threat to attack the United States with nuclear weapons was met with indifference by Sunshine, declaring, “We must not retaliate. We must lay down our arms and let the bombs fly. It’s what Buddha would do.

“Buddha, man. He was really chill,” Sunshine continued. “Like, he would’ve never worked for the Man, man.”

The Peace Prize nominee rambled on this way until reporters simply walked away.

20•

thesheaf.com• the Sheaf • November 24, 2011