The Silhouette

McMASTER UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

www.thesil.ca

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

EST. 1930

FROM CAMPUS TO YOU AND BACK AGAIN

VOLUME 81, NO. 17

CHOOSE

PHOTOS BY JONATHON FAIRCLOUGH, CHRIS ERL AND MICHELLE NG

Their campaigns already in full swing, MSU presidential contenders Alicia Ali, Matthew Dillon-Leitch, James Lim, Steve Running and Matt Wright vied for students’ support at the Jan. 25 debate. For candidate profiles see pgs. A4- A5.

SAM COLBERT SENIOR NEWS EDITOR In the days leading up to the MSU Presidential Debate, students may have only heard of the three most visible candidates: Alicia Ali, Matthew Dillon-Leitch and Matt Wright. Five names, though, appeared on the placards at the table in front of the fireplace in the MUSC atrium.

James Lim and Steve Running, the other two, quickly set to work on turning the debate into a mockery while Wright, who sat immediately to their left, looked annoyed each time he had to bring the discussion back to a more serious tone.

Despite the distractions, the three-hour event on Jan. 25 offered plenty of opportunity for candidates to make their arguments.

There was some backand-forth between Dillon-Leitch and Wright, who both currently sit on the SRA. The pair quibbled over Wright’s idea of incentivebased student surveys, as well as

the possibility of short-term gains in getting more quiet study space on campus.

As the debate went on, a clear difference in ideology emerged between the two candidates. DillonLeitch expressed a passion for the MSU’s role in funding student ideas, while Wright warned that his plan wasn’t reasonable.

“I would like to make all students aware of the financial downfall the MSU had last year, where we had close to a one-million dollar loss, and I just want to ask the student body if they think it’s wise to be allocating one-million dollars toward student body projects,” said Wright, in reference to his opponent’s enthusiasm to spend reserves on student ideas.

Wright stressed the importance of a pragmatic approach to leadership, free of “fluff” and naive ambitions. He wishes to do what’s realistic while restoring financial stability to the MSU, which will include consolidation of some services.

By using one of his seven

allocated rebuttals for the first half of the debate, Dillon-Leitch argued that his allocation of resources would be more strategic than Wright made it seem. He was the first of the five to run out of rebuttals close to the half’s conclusion.

Dillon-Leitch opted for a more inspiring and emotive approach than Wright. “We can’t be okay with the status-quo. Whether it’s me or whether it’s no one as the MSU president, the MSU is going to get better because they’ve started to fix the underlying problems. What we need to do is focus on the things that you [students] care about, and you need a president who’s going to do that.”

At one point, Running asked Dillon-Leitch to stop yelling.

Though Ali didn’t stand out by getting involved in some of the debate’s moments of contention, she spoke clearly about her priorities. By reaching out to all areas of campus life, she hopes to connect students through the MSU.

“There are so many pockets, so many crevasses of campus

that remain untapped.”

One of her main platform points is a campus-wide mentorship program for incoming students, which she hopes will contribute to this goal. “It engages the unengaged and it reaches out to those students who may not normally take up a leadership role within the organization.”

She was pleased about the work already being done on campus, and eager to further some of its areas of strength.

She, along with the other candidates, made multiple references to the MSU State of the Union, recently published by the Union’s current Board of Directors.

No one presented any significant challenges to the document, which outlines much of the work done so far this year by the MSU, as well as plans for the future.

Though Lim and Running worked in tandem for much of the debate, they did distinguish themselves from one another. On the subject of community engagement, Lim broke character to offer a more

thoughtful perspective.

“I think too many of our students take such an elitist view of some of the townies here, and I don’t mean that in a pejorative way,” he said. “There’s so much more going on in Hamilton than Jackson Square and Lime Ridge Mall.”

True to form, Running followed with an opposing sentiment about his “terrifying” experiences with downtown Hamilton. Looking for an audience reaction at other points during the afternoon, Running paid similar disrespect to a former psychology professor of his, and was at one point reminded by the moderator of the difference between humour and decorum after saying Lim looked like he was “looking into the sun.”

Running had the chance to mention some of his many platform points, which included bringing an NHL team to Hamilton, turning the arts quad basements into a paintball facility and permitting the killing of deer on campus, provided that all • PLEASE SEE KEY, A3

[This Week in the Sil] Women End 7 Game Slide Women’s basketball team snaps seven-game losing streak with 67-48 win over Waterloo.

Pg. B3

A Wealth of Experience

Oscar Night Preview

Simon Granat talks to Dean Bates about his newly released, best selling business book.

Pg. C10

ANDY highlights the highs and lows from Tuesday’s Oscar nominations.

Pg. D2

This is a paid advertisement from the MSU.

the

PRESIDENT’S PAGE Nick Shorten VP (Finance)

Mary Koziol President

Joe Finkle VP (Education)

John McIntyre VP (Administration)

MSU PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS HAVE ARRIVED In addition to electing a new MSU President & CEO, students will vote on five referenda that will dramatically affect student fees in the next year and onwards.

Mary Koziol President president@msu.mcmaster.ca ext. 23885

This past week, campaigning began for candidates interested in becoming the next president of the MSU (though I will still be in the role until April 30, 2011).

The question of who I am “supporting” or who do I “endorse” comes up quite often.

In reality, I remain completely impartial during presidentials.

It is very important for students to take the time to make an informed choice, to evaluate the candidates and decide who is best for them, rather than having someone like myself dictate that choice. However, my position lends itself to insight that can help students make their decision. To be clear, this list is not intended to favour any particular candidate, but rather provide an approach to evaluating candidates. We are fortunate this year to have several strong candidates, and the challenge of choosing a student leader is ultimately left up to you.

What to look for in a Presidential candidate Sincere interest in students and student issues Though the president acts as both a decision maker and a representative, at times he or she will speak on behalf of students without the chance to engage in direct consultation with students. Look for someone who you trust to have your best interests at heart. In addition, what some may call the “glamour” or the “perks” of the job tend to wear off fairly quickly - it is a job at the end of the day. It is a job that entails waking up early, doing paperwork, very long days, even longer weeks and lots of criticism. A president that loves what they do will take all of that in stride.

Evidence of a well-researched platform I am a firm believer that platforms should be wellresearched and realistic. There is nothing that inspires apathy more than politicians who do not deliver on their promises.

If you feel that certain points have not been researched, ask questions. Candidates should welcome questions as it gives them a chance to further explain their reasoning and the process behind different points.

Leadership style This is something that is highly subjective. What do you think makes an effective leader?

Someone who is assertive?

Thoughtful?

Persuasive?

Argumentative?

Consensusbuilding? Every leader brings a slightly different approach to their management and communication style. Think about what kind of a leadership style you value.

Prioritization In an organization the magnitude of the MSU, priorities are essential. There are limited resources and personnel, as well as a high-turnover rate and limited time. Do the priorities of the candidate align with your own?

Call me a nerd, but I maintain that engaging in

the political process can be extremely fun. Trying to figure out who you want to vote for in MSU presidentials allows you the opportunity to learn more about issues on campus, as well as a greater understanding of what you seek in a leader. It is a highly subjective process, and completely dependent on you.

So have fun in the next few days as you ask questions and make an informed decision about who you will elect as MSU president for 2011/2012.

What else you’ll be voting on this election There are five referenda that students will be voting on this term. Broadly, they are: i. Constitutional Amendments A number of proposed changes to the official document. ii. Dental Plan An increase to the Dental Plan fee to $119 to a maximum coverage of $750, or increase the fee to $115 to a maximum coverage of $600, or discontinue the Dental Plan altogether.

iii. EWB Fee An ancillary fee of 35c per student towards Engineers Without Borders. iv. Health Plan An increase of the fee to $55 to maintain current coverage of 80% of prescription drug care, or maintain the current fee of $45 and decrease current coverage of prescription drug care to 55%, or discontinue the Health Plan altogether. v. HSR Renewal Renewal of the University Transit Pass with a mandatory fee of 145% of one adult monthly pass for eight months of service (rejecting this renewal means a subsidized student pass will no longer be available).

A thorough explanation of these referenda, as well as information about the candidates is available at http://elections. msumcmaster.ca. Voting for 2011 Presidentials and for the five aforementioned referenda will take place on February 2nd and 3rd. Voting will take place online through MacVote, at https://elections.mcmaster.ca.

Teaching Awards Ceremony McMaster University students nominate the institution’s most esteemed educators for the 2010-2011 academic year Joe Finkle VP (Education) vped@msu.mcmaster.ca ext. 24017

The Teaching Awards Committee is a service funded and run by the McMaster Students Union. Though it may sound like a service meant for professors and not students, it gives MSU members an uncomplicated avenue to recognize the people that shape the education and degree with which they will leave McMaster.

This year’s MSU Teaching Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, March 24th, 2011 from 1-3PM in Council Chambers (Gilmour Hall 111). Light refreshments will be available. Awards will be presented and, upon acceptance, winners will have the opportunity to say a few words on their experience one can only expect to witness a multitude of jokes and tears.

There will be speeches from past recipients and an address

by McMaster President Patrick Deane. Student attendees will be invited to write their personal thanks on postcards to be delivered by the committee to the indicated instructors.

An Excellence in Teaching Award will be presented to a faculty member teaching a course in each of Arts & Science, Business, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Social Science, Nursing, Kinesiology and Science. A Lifetime Achievement Award will recognize a past nominee that has taught at McMaster for over ten years. The Merit Award will go to a new instructor that has demonstrated dedication and excellence despite teaching without years of experience from which to draw.

The Term 2 nomination form opens Monday, January 31st and will close Friday, February 18th at 11:59PM. It

The President’s Page is sponsored by the McMaster Students Union.

It is a space used to communicate with the student body about the projects, goals and agenda of the MSU Board of Directors.

www.msu.mcmaster.ca

will be available at www.msu. mcmaster.ca, on the Teaching Awards Committee page, under Services and Businesses. Top nominees are chosen from each category based on the ratio of submitted nominations to class size, so if you feel your instructor is deserving of an award, encourage your peers to also submit a nomination.

Four nominees per category will be selected for a class evaluation, administered by a committee member or volunteer. In addition to ranking professors, the comment portion gives students an opportunity to describe the impact the professor has made and allows the committee to personalize the presentation of each award.

For volunteer opportunities in advertising, administering evaluations or event-planning, or more information, email Constance at tac@msu. mcmaster.ca.

THE SILHOUETTE • A3

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

MSU seeking full CASA membership SRA votes in favour of new role in federal student lobbying agency FARZEEN FODA

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

As of March 2011, McMaster students can finally look forward to full representation at all levels of Canadian government.

Since 2009, the MSU has been an associate member of CASA (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations). Associate membership entitles the MSU to essentially half membership with partial federal representation, according to Joe Finkle, MSU Vice President (Education), which means that McMaster pays half the membership fees, can attend all conferences and has speaking rights, but cannot vote or lead any committees within CASA.

In May 2011, this associate membership is set to expire, leaving the MSU to decide how to continue its involvement with CASA, if at all.

On Jan. 23, members of the SRA voted to become full members of CASA. The MSU’s full membership is pending approval and a decision is expected to be reached by mid-March.

The decision to become full members of CASA has been supported for many different reasons. Finkle, along with Huzaifa Saeed, External Affairs Commissioner and the External Affairs

Committee, conducted an in-depth analysis of how the MSU might benefit from full membership with CASA.

Currently the MSU is an active member of OUSA (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance) and has been for over ten years.

Finkle highlighted that McMaster is one of the largest schools with OUSA at this time, and is very well respected with the provincial student lobby group.

The MSU’s involvement with OUSA has certainly been beneficial and successful in advocating for McMaster undergraduate students at the provincial level, and thus representation at the federal government would only be a natural step forward for the MSU.

“We are a big school. We have 20,000 students here. We are a well-respected school, we receive millions, tens of millions of dollars in federal money for research and buildings and all sorts of stuff.

We need this representation,” said Finkle, stressing that the most cost effective way to obtain this level of representation would be through CASA.

“It would cost $47,000 a year in membership dues. Right now we’re paying $23,000,” said Finkle. The cost for the MSU to independently lobby the federal government would cost $150,000

per year based on an estimate by the students union. This sum far exceeds the yearly CASA membership fee, making a strong affiliation with CASA the most feasible solution.

Full membership with CASA would mean full federal representation for McMaster students.

We are advocating at all levels for students, ensuring that student needs and concerns are being addressed to those in power and being relayed to those who make the changes.”

Finkle noted that although it is not formally stated in the constitution that the federal government should be involved in education, it is in fact heavily involved with post-secondary issues.

The federal government has the strongest influence over regulations on textbooks, copyright legislations, and educational provisions affecting international and aboriginal students. These are all issues close to McMaster and thus,

“it would be a much more of a detriment not to lobby the federal government,” said Finkle.

Promoting post-secondary education for aboriginal students has been a challenge for every university, and funding for related initiatives is primarily regulated by the federal government. International students meanwhile face many obstacles related to visa provisions enforced by the federal government.

Upon entry into the country under student visas, international students are usually given single entry visas, which make it difficult for students to return to school after a visit home. Finkle noted that the MSU aims to address some of these key issues upon representation at the federal level.

In March 2011, several significant changes are expected to be underway within the federal student lobby organization and the MSU is eager to be a part of the change to be set in motion at this time.

“The MSU, with our expertise, our professionalism, our leadership capabilities, and our ideas, we can go in there and help fix the problem. Instead of being the person on the side lines yelling, let’s go in the game and change the way this is done and make sure our voice is heard, add our 20,000 students’ voice too, and make sure we

get everything we want out of this organization,” said Finkle.

CASA was organized in 1995 and has since been a powerful voice in the federal government, advocating for post-secondary students across Canada, providing valuable insight and practical solutions.

The MSU’s decision to engage in full membership with CASA was one that has been under consideration for quite some time, and although the MSU is optimistic about its involvement with CASA, Finkle strongly urges a look into the status of the MSU within CASA next year to better evaluate the cost and benefit of this decision and take appropriate measures.

“We are advocating at all levels for students, ensuring that student needs and concerns are being addressed to those in power and being relayed to those who make the changes.

“For students at McMaster, it means full, holistic representation at all levels,” said Finkle, noting that the MSU is active in advocacy at the university level, municipal and provincial level and can now be a strong voice at the federal level.

Finkle further maintained that, “the length and breadth of advocacy is being taken care of for MSU students.”

Key ideologies divide presidential candidates Differing opinions emerge on what qualities a student leader should have • CONT’D FROM A1 parts of the deer are used.

“I’m actually more serious than Steven Running, I would actually like to be president,” said Lim.

Lim, who grimaced with each sip from the contents of his Tim Hortons coffee cup, promised to be the “pretty face” atop the MSU’s leadership. “The president

needs to be a meaningless figure- more than a hope, and my opponhead,” he said. ents have something less than a

After three hours of debate, chance,” he concluded. the candidates tried to capture their “You should look for positions in closing statements. someone who isn’t okay with just

“Make sure the leader that doing the job ... someone who you elect, you know will be truth- wants to stand up for issues that you ful with you, they’ll communi- care about,” said Dillon Leitch. He cate with you and added, “We need they’ll make sure you to believe in your concerns are ‘I spent most of the this MSU, but the at the forefront, only way we can do debate drawing,’ that is by actually and if they’ve admitted Running, providing results on failed, they will be willing to admit who went on to talk things that you care they’ve failed,” about.” about putting trap “ M y said Wright.

“I spent competitors have doors in the most of the debate Student Centre and spoken about drawing,” admitted electing an MSU introducing ‘house president that is real, Running, who went on to talk about put- hippos’ to campus.” about someone who ting trap doors in stands up for student the Student Centre issues,” said Ali. and introducing “house hippos” to “Why not elect somebody who encampus. compasses both of these things and

Lim stood up. “Two years more? … Elect me as your MSU ago, when I ran, I had a hope. I had president, I can offer you a support a hope that I could make things a network, an organization that really little more fun, that I could brighten stands for what you believe in and up your life, just a little tiny bit; that not just what I believe in.”

I could maybe change people’s at- More posters and media on titudes just a little bit – maybe make each candidate have appeared, and them think that student government each has either a website or Facedoesn’t have to be so fucking boring book page with more information. all the time and just do something Voting will run online from 8:30 fun. a.m. on Feb. 2 until 4:30 p.m. on The debate lasted three hours in the MUSC atrium.

“This year, I have something Feb. 3.

MICHELLE NG / SILHOUETTE STAFF

A4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

DECISION

2011 MSU PRESIDENTIALS

Presidential season is upon us once more. This year, five candidates are vying for the hearts, minds and votes of McMaster’s undergrad population.

To help students cast an informed ballot, the Sil asked each candidate: • What experience do you have that you feel qualifies you to be MSU President?

• What would the MSU look like at the end of your term in office?

• What are the most important issues facing students and how will you address them?

• What key platform points define your candidacy?

Compiled by Chris Erl and Sam Colbert Photos by Chris Chang

“Having been involved with the MSU for quite some time, I’ve gotten to see the organization from every perspective.”

In interviews, debates and classroom visits, Ali tells the story of her journey from being a “particularly unengaged” first-year to her run for presidency. Her first experience with the Union came in the summer of 2008, when her employment with Ted McMeekin, the AncasterDundas-Flamborough-Westdale member of provincial parliament, led her to a seat at a post-secondary advisory roundtable on education. “I remember being completely overwhelmed, but amazed at the power of the MSU and how strongly it could affect change,” she said.

Ali went on to run for a Student Representative Assembly (SRA) seat, which she held during her third year. Though she chose not to run for re-election, she is currently the OUSA (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance) Campus Coordinator and sits on the SRA External Affairs committee.

Her experience as a conference support team member for both the Horizons and CLAY leadership conferences furthered her interest in student engagement.

“Right after Welcome Week [of 2010], it was almost solidified in my mind that I had to run for this position because I knew I had the quality experience, but I am also dedicated and passionate, and I wanted to be part of something so much bigger and provide that same thing to other students.”

Her slogan, “Connecting the dots,” refers to her plan to better connect the various student groups and organizations on campus. Not only will this benefit the groups themselves, she explained, but it will give students a more unified voice in approaching the university with concerns.

One of her pet projects will be to start a unionwide student mentorship program. All incoming firstyears will be offered the chance to have a mentor, who they will be in contact with even before arriving on campus in September. “I think that’s really essential to making them feel at home before they even get here,” she said.

Though she has ideas of her own, she appreciates the work already being done by current student leadership. “The only way [the MSU] is going to succeed is if we follow a certain direction. I may come in with my own direction, but I really want to continue what the current president has started.”

1.Bus Pass In addition to selecting a new President, students will pass judgement on five referendum questions: 1. Are you in favour of renewing the University Transit Pass with a mandatory fee of 145% of one adult monthly pass for the next three year period?

2. Are you in favour of implementing a mandatory fee of 35c per student to support the overseas volunteer work of McMaster students through Engineers Without Borders?

3. Do you support the continuation of the MSU Health Plan?

4. Do you support the continuation of the MSU Dental Plan?

5. Are you in favour of the proposed amendments to the MSU Constitution?

Included in tuition fees, among many other things, is an HSR Bus Pass valid from September to April. The current fee is $121.80, and will rise to $126.15 pending the vote outcome. The fee of 145 per cent of one monthly bus pass covers the entire eight-month school year, which means that students are paying significantly less than they would be if they were to buy monthly passes through the HSR directly.

Accepting the fee increase would continue the agreement between the MSU and the HSR, allowing students to continue using the transit system in the next academic year without paying individual fare prices. The passes would still be valid from September to April and would remain mandatory for all full-time undergraduate students.

If students were able to opt out of the pass, the cost would be significantly higher. The discounted rate depends on the volume of students paying and not making full use of the system. The MSU deal also accounts for a significant portion of HSR revenue.

•

Farzeen Foda

Normally, a lack of MSU experience is a major shortfall for a presidential candidate. Candidates usually fall back on outside advocacy experience to fill their resumes and present a strong foundation in leadership to voters.

Steve Running’s response to his lack of MSU experience? A simple shrug. Despite having no prior experience in the students union he seeks to lead, Running does admit to some qualifications. “I ran a small federal office over the summer for two years,” he noted.

At the end of a Running administration, the MSU would have a more student-focused orientation, as he believes the organization is too concerned with internal issues.

“It seems like the MSU is mostly interested in itself,” he said, before mentioning he would also increase awareness about the organization and what it does for students.

A startling lack of dogs on campus is one of Running’s main campaign points, as he plans to utilize canine power to help solve the looming energy crisis.

His campaign’s slogan, “Unity Through Dogs,” emphasizes this point, while also pointing to the uncanny bonding powers dogs possess. A giant tarp over campus to protect students from rain is a key platform point, though it is the instillation of more benches across campus that Running maintains is the cornerstone of his campaign.

“There is never anywhere to sit down outside.

Even inside, sometimes,” he maintained.

The entirety of Running’s campaign is not as formulaic as his key points, though, as he developed a plan to improve the student’s centre as well.

“That big open area? It’s usually pretty boring and they’re selling ugly hats there all the time,” he lamented, before explaining he would combat the blandness of MUSC in a rather unique way.

“Adult sized McDonalds playplace.” Running has planned for everything, and he attempted to quell fears about injuries.

“Insurance concerns? Instead of a floor, we put a ball pit there. If you fall 15 feet and land in a ball pit, you’ll be fine.”

When Running’s campaign is stripped to the core, casting canine excess, an abundance of benches and visions of tarp aside, the reason he is running is simple.

“To improve the lives of students everywhere,” he asserted with a straight face.

2.

Engineers Without Borders

The McMaster Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is seeking to fund the four-month overseas portion of a 16-month volunteer commitment to the EWB’s Junior Fellowship (JF) Program for either one or two students.

EWB is a non-governmental organization that carries out sustainable programs to eradicate extreme poverty, particularly in Africa. Its chapters also participate in outreach programs, advocacy activities and fundraising for meaningful opportunities for service.

Successful candidates of the JF program work on development projects in one of four African countries (Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Burkina Faso), where they help local municipality leaders and district governments on their respective paths to self-sufficiency.

The JF Program volunteers make their main difference upon their return. As part of their commitment, they must utilize their experiences to deliver informative presentations, aid in curriculum enhancement and implement innovative chapter events that are open to all.

•

Madiha Khan

THE SILHOUETTE • A5

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Matt Wright, a three-year veteran of the SRA’s Engineering caucus and current member of the executive board has an array of experience with the students union and the services it provides. Wright sits on the Student Centre’s Board of Management, and has volunteered with a wide array of MSU funded organizations.

“I feel like I understand the voice of McMaster, I feel like I understand the vibe on campus, I feel like I can relate to students better in a professional and an entertainment capacity,” Wright asserts.

A hypothetical Wright administration would work on increasing student engagement and improving student pride in their school and union. “I think students would feel represented and I feel like all McMaster students would want to get more involved,” Wright noted when discussing how students would view the MSU at the end of his term.

“I think students would actively seek out volunteer opportunities or employment positions within the MSU because they would be proud to know that it is a group that is representing them and providing them with a holistic university experience,” Wright mentioned. He asserts that awareness about the MSU and what its purpose is stands among the top issues facing students.

“Knowledge about how the MSU advocates for them, because a lot of student concerns are trickle-down effect problems, whether it’s tuition costs or the cost of textbooks or access to university or the quality of their education,” Wright said. “It all comes from above and I think that, if we strengthen our advocacy efforts and really focus our attention at the university level, provincially and federally, we can start addressing some student concerns.”

Utilizing different SRA committees to address student issues is a central campaign point for Wright.

“Directing both the External Affairs Commissioner and the Vice President (Education) to allow students to talk about what their biggest concerns are and help determine our lobbying priorities,” he said. This will help students connect with the MSU and feel as if they are being better represented.

“The main priorities are reaching out to students to understand what their concerns are, regain their interest by showing them that their priorities are being met and restructuring the organization such that the president can decide more effectively what their lobbying priorities are,” he maintained.

Matt Dillon-Leitch’s involvement in the MSU predates his first election in October of 2009, serving as both a residence and a faculty representative during welcome week for the past two years. From his election as a Humanities representative in a by-election, he has worked his way up through the ranks of the SRA to become Humanities caucus leader, member of the executive board and University Affairs Commissioner. It was in that capacity that Dillon-Leitch secured what he considers one of his greatest victories.

“I really became involved with the email project,” he said, making note of the process that went into the formulation of a policy for the MSU on the issue. This was only the first step in a long process, as the school and popular opinion were in opposition when it came to the preferred email host to use.

“When the university wanted to go towards Microsoft, we wanted to do a survey,” Dillon-Leitch said. He continued, saying, “I knew that students wanted Google but the only way you can prove that is by showing results.”

Outside the SRA, Dillon-Leitch has worked closely with other organizations. “I’ve helped out with my own faculty society, the Humanities society, to sort of help them come up with a new constitution and structure,” he said.

At the end of a hypothetical Dillon-Leitch presidency, students would be proud of the MSU. “That is why I have certain projects that focus on things students care about,” he asserted, also noting that he would strengthen the MSU in the process.

Dillon-Leitch is putting a considerable emphasis on eliciting student opinion during this campaign. “One point I want to focus on is investing in student ideas,” he said, highlighting this as one of his personal passions. “I think the students union could invest in students’s ideas and give you opportunities to differentiate yourself from everybody else in Ontario,” he maintained, while noting that the initiative students develop could end up benefiting the community as well as the school. “Maybe in a few years, McMaster will become known as the school where students come up with great ideas.”

An increased focus on study space, a greater environmental emphasis and allowing students to provide input on their education comprise the remainder of Dillon-Leitch’s platform, all drawing off his MSU experience and personal passions.

The stern, soft-spoken and shifty-eyed James Lim has more experience with MSU presidential elections than his opponents. He ran for the Union’s top stop two years ago, finishing sixth out of nine candidates on an embittered platform of contempt for student politics.

Now, he’s back for another race, this time in a smaller pool of candidates with more opportunity for exposure.

Lim was asked by the Silhouette to share his vision of what the MSU will look like at the end of his time in office. “Four years is a long time, so I’m not sure,” he said.

A quick clarification confirmed that Lim had ambitions beyond the usual one-year term beginning in May. His platform spanned four years as MSU President.

“Year one is going to be re-evaluation and deconstruction,” he explained. “Year two will be a rebuild year. Year three is going to be another deconstruction year, and year four, I predict some sort of Dark Age.

“It’s very grim,” he admitted.

He did, though, leave his constituents with some hope. “It’s okay, because my second four-year term is going to be known as ‘the space years,’ so it’s going to be very good.”

His platform consists, more or less, of one point: destroy the MSU, “which is going to be bad at first because everyone is going to be like, ‘Hey, where did all the stuff go?’ ” he said.

“Then, after that, we’re going to decide what really needed to stay and what needed to go.”

Though he demonstrated little experience or knowledge of his school and union, he was careful to suggest that he’s in the race for a reason: to make the MSU “more fun.”

“The most important issue for me is that the MSU is really boring and no one gives a shit about it.

That’s a problem because the MSU does a lot of things.”

In speaking with Lim, one finds that these flickers of genuine concern for student apathy appear between his dry, quirky humour.

His hope was that students would “come on the MSU website, say some things, even if it’s complete garbage, which it probably will be because they don’t know what they’re talking about. But I want them to be there anyway and I want them to be part of it.”

Constitutional 3.Health Plan 4.Dental Plan 5.Changes Students will be asked to make a number of decisions that will determine the amount of health and dental coverage they receive from the MSU. Looking into the Health Care Plan, students will choose between receiving 80 per cent of coverage on prescription drugs by paying $55, pay $45 and receive 55 percent coverage, or students can choose to cancel the health care plan altogether.

The current plan covers only undergraduate students taking 18 credits or more. This current plan does not cover part-time or graduate students, allows for eligible students to opt out, and runs from Sept. 1, 2010 to Aug. 31, 2011.

The reason for a referendum on this particular program is due to the fact that, in 2009, the health plan lost a total of $678,192. Contributing to this budgetary shortfall is the fact that the MSU had to pay $100,000 for seven years worth of PST payments that had not been paid. By paying more for this particular program, the plan will become more financially secure and will increase the amount of money in the MSU reserves.

• Jon Falcone

The Dental Plan is also included in the upcoming referendum, facing the same issues. Students will have a choice to pay $119 and receive $750 worth of coverage, or pay $115 and receive $150 less in dental coverage, or students can choose not to support this dental plan at all.

Each of the options to support continuing the plan will have to be indexed to inflation and each will have an opt-out option as the plan currently has.

Similar to the Health Plan, the program covers only undergraduate students taking 18 credits or more.

This current plan does not cover part-time or graduate students, allows for eligible students to opt out, costs $95, and runs from Sept. 1 2010 to Aug. 31, 2011.

Part of the reasoning for this referendum was that in the previous year the plan cost the MSU $50,000.

Also similar to the Health Plan, paying more for this particular program will help the plan become more financially secure and will increase the amount of money in the MSU reserves.

• Jon Falcone

The MSU Constitution hasn’t been updated in 14 years.

In addition to some minor tweaking of officer titles and grammar, two significant changes are being proposed.

The new amendments will open up the position of Vice President (Administration) to all students rather than only SRA (Student Representative Assembly) members, and will also codify the office of Vice President (Education) within the Constitution.

The VP (Administration) is responsible for managing the services that the MSU provides, and addressing the concerns of the managers of each service. Additionally, the VP has the authority to assume the role of MSU President should the elected President be absent or resign from office.

The VP (Education) is concerned with lobbying and advocacy on behalf of the McMaster student body.

The position has only existed for around eight years. The inclusion of this office in the Constitution under the new amendments is a reflection of the MSU’s recognition of the portfolio’s growing importance.

•

Charles Yin

A6 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

EDITORIAL The Silhouette McMaster University’s Student Newspaper

TheSil.ca

Editorial Board

Peter Goffin Executive Editor

David Koots Managing Editor Katherine Marsden Copy Editor Sam Colbert Senior News Editor Chris Erl Asst. News Editor Farzeen Foda Asst. News Editor Cassandra Jeffery Opinions Editor Brian Decker Sports Editor Fraser Caldwell Asst. Sports Editor Natalie Timperio InsideOut Editor Kaitlin Peters Asst. InsideOut Editor Roxanne Hathway-Baxter Senior ANDY Editor Dan Hawie ANDY Music Editor Myles Herod ANDY Ent. Editor Christopher Chang Senior Photo Editor Joy Santiago Multimedia Editor Jonathon Fairclough Asst. Photo Editor Simon Granat Business Editor Santino Marinucci Asst. Business Editor Jason Lamb Web Editor

Silhouette Staff Kevin Elliott ANDY

Trevor Roach ANDY Victor Pek Sports Ben Orr Sports Julia Empey Sports Maggie Cogger-Orr Sports Sandro Giordano Ad Manager

Contact Us McMaster University Student Centre, Room B110 McMaster University 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON L8S 4S4 E–Mail: thesil@thesil.ca Production Office (905) 525-9140, extension 27117 Advertising (905) 525-9140, extension 27557 10,000 circulation Published by the McMaster Students Union

Legal

The Silhouette welcomes letters to the editor in person at MUSC B110, or by email at thesil@thesil. ca. Please include name, address, and telephone number for verification only. We reserve the right to edit, condense, or reject letters and opinion articles.

Opinions expressed in The Silhouette are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, the publishers, or university officials. The Silhouette is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the McMaster Students Union. The Silhouette board of publications acts as an intermediary between the editorial board, the McMaster community, and the McMaster Students Union. Grievances regarding The Silhouette may be forwarded in writing to: McMaster Students Union, McMaster University Student Centre, Room 201, L8S 4S4, Attn: The Silhouette Board of Publications.

The board will consider all submissions and make recommendations accordingly.

editor’s extension: 22052 letters: thesil@thesil.ca

MSU Presidentials are here again Yes, it’s that time of year again. And I’m sure that will have caused some of you out there to have evaporated into a gaseous state of wonderment and glee days ago. Of course others amongst you care considerably less about campus politics. And that’s okay too.

But whether you have been tracking this race as diligently as Rooster Cogburn or, conversely, you only found out there was a president of the MSU while reading this editorial, we at the Sil have got you covered.

This year we’ve striven to be your go-to guide to the MSU Presidentials. In addition to full coverage of the candidates’ debate on page A1, you can read about profiles on all five of the hopefuls on pages A4 and A5. You might also want to leaf to pages A8 and A9 in the Opinions section for to be hustled by the candidates themselves in their campaign articles.

And if that still isn’t enough, Solomon Ostero is making his third consecutive bid for MSU Presidency in The Speculator, page A12.

That’s what the Sil is doing for you this election season. As for choosing who to vote for, that’s up to you. You’re on your own. We give you no endorsements, no hints or suggestions. We respect your intelligence too much, not to mention the integrity of free and unbiased choice.

As Executive Editor of this publication, however, I will present you with one piece of advice from a broken down, young-ish man:

This is a student election. It is for the purpose of choosing a student president.

Yes, it’s important, but it is also to be taken with a heaping hunk o’ salt. Like so many events at university, this election is best treated as a bit of fun.

And so I strongly encourage you not to write-off so-called joke candidates James Lim and Steve Running. They may not win, but they have best embodied the true spirit of campus politics as our forefathers meant for it to be: irreverent, snide and possibly drunk.

If there is any danger in these types of elections it is the danger of becoming too self-serious. Because as much as student leadership and advocacy matter, ego does not. Ever.

And now for something in a lighter tone...

SEX DEATH

&

They are closing the store where I buy my condoms, and one day I will die. Those are two separate revelations, but I arrived at them about the same time, or rather, first one then the other in quick succession. Okay, hold on. I’ll explain.

There’s a convenience store that I once lived very close to. And even though I went other places for milk and bread, I always went to this variety joint for contraception. Why I did isn’t really the point, but I did have my reasons. It opened earlier and closed later than the Shoppers Drug Mart. It wasn’t too expensive. But the biggest, best reason I ever had for buying prophylactics at this variety store is that the couple who ran it never judged me. They never laid the same ultraviolet glares on me as the ladies at the drug store. They were very cool, very professional.

I always imagined you could go into their store, buy a tarp, a length of rope, a carving knife and a bottle of bleach and they would sing you the same spiel as ever: “Hel-lo. How’s the wea-ther? Thank you, have a nice day.” I don’t think they ever even looked at anything I bought, they just rang things through by reflex. It was a very relaxing alternative to an ordinarily unnerving process.

But, as ever, things changed. I moved. Now neither I nor the person I use my condoms with live anywhere near that convenience store anymore. So despite its many advantages I haven’t been back in months. Or, at least, I hadn’t. Then last week I found out the store was closing. And one day I will die.

Seeing the “Closing Clearance Sale” sign in the variety store’s window raised a lot of questions for me. Questions about my life, about my future, about my own mortality. Of course I went in and bought two packs, for old times’ sake. But I was distracted.

I already knew this was the last time I would buy condoms here at my favourite store. But that had me wondering, when is the last time I will ever buy condoms at all? When is the last time I will ever have sex? How long a gap will there be between the last time I have sex and the last time I draw breath?

There’s no telling. Hugh Hefner still has orgies, but I read an article that said the 84-year-old can only finish alone, and the smell of baby oil nauseates his partners.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the closure of this variety store signals just one of many endings to come, the final one of which will be my own. And as intertwined as sex and death are, my trouble here really has little to do with the condoms.

I don’t like change. And yet the changes keep coming down the pipe. I moved, the store closed, I’ll leave university soon. And then I’ll move away and meet new people and get married and stop buying contraception, and start a family and live my life. And one day I will die. And then it won’t matter what stores are open or closed at all.

So for now I’ll find a new store, I’ll adapt. I don’t want to but that’s life, right?

The writing, though, is on the wall. Nothing lasts forever. Not stores, not people not anything. I do, however, have the here and now. Might as well use it well. Now if only I could find another variety store.

•

PETER GOFFIN EXECUTIVE EDITOR

to the stellar work of rick zazulak.

to “hello, i’m interesting.“

to the return of glasses.

to grimy prom dates. i’ve cut all my pictures in half.

to cake for dinner. to coke for dinner. to group photos. to free haircuts. to the warriors. come out and play-ay. to the best of seal. to a news editor with firearms training.

to baby lungs. to the ’90s at 9. my least favourite hour and/or decade. to acoustic night. how do you ruin the beatles? to nudes on my floor. i have to walk on that shit.

to licking canoes.

to the absence of the seal of approval.

to being two degrees cooler.

to stupid fucking blurbs.

to heavy d. election edition.

to all things fucking stupid.

to coming out of your shell.

to facebook hackers.

to having a recognizeable musk. how you like me now?

to richard dreyfuss. who do you think you are?

Section Meeting Times Photo Fridays at 3:30 p.m. photo@thesil.ca News Fridays at 1:30 p.m. news@thesil.ca Business Tuesdays at 12 p.m. business@thesil.ca Sports Fridays at 11:30 a.m. sports@thesil.ca InsideOut Mondays at 1:00 p.m. insideout@thesil.ca ANDY Mondays at 2:00 p.m. andy@thesil.ca Opinions Mondays at 1:15 p.m. opinions@thesil.ca

For everything in these pages, as well as content published exclusively on-line, visit

TheSil.ca Actually, the site is a Flickr for my family photo albums.

Enjoy my terrible twos.

AND ALSO...

Tune in to the Sil’s radio show every Friday at 2 p.m. on CFMU, 93.3 on your dial, cfmu.msumcmaster.ca on the web.

CLARIFICATION In the Jan. 20 issue of the Silhouette, Blake McCall wrote an Opinion article entitled “Mac’s priorities need to be changed.” In the piece, he wrote that McMaster had awarded its SEIU negotiators a $40,000 raise.

His intended message was that Mac awarded a raise to members of its own staff who had represented the Univeristy in negotiations with SEIU Local 2. This information was obtained at the December 2010 McMaster Board of Governors meeting.

-Ed.

THE SILHOUETTE • A7

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

OPINIONS

production office extension: 27117 opinions@thesil.ca

Happy to be nicheless CASSANDRA JEFFERY OPINIONS EDITOR

Who am I? The question seems obvious enough, a question which is seemingly simple and easy to answer. I am a brunette who enjoys watching The Office, reading books, and eating pasta, that’s me in ten words or less. As incomplex as the notion of defining oneself seems, I have to admit I have never thought about how I would describe my individual personality aside from my love of food and Margaret Atwood. I am a regular, typical university student and yet lately, I’ve been struggling with one particular issue: finding my niche.

If university has taught me one thing, it is that every individual belongs to some sort of categorized group. Everyone has a niche, which is adamantly portrayed through what they do, what they wear, and what they say.

We have the hipsters, who fall into some category of pretentiousness and thrift store clothing. Although I enjoy the originality of a good VV boutique sweater, am I a hipster?

Then again, simply classifying thrift store shopping as original creates the aura that thrift store shopping is in fact, not original—everyone has a used article of clothing these days.

Plus I’ve used the word pretentious, so am I über hipster for my choice of lingo?

The process of defining my very self, my core being, my

niche is a lot more complicated than I thought. Perhaps I could classify myself as an athlete, I’ve taken the odd run around the block and have recently committed an hour of my Monday’s to beginners’ Yoga. Am I a yogaist? Or perhaps I can fit right in with the artsy kids; I’m not much of a painter but I enjoy fine wine and abstract art. If all else fails, I can always associate myself with the hippies.

I’ve recently taken an interest in environmental issues and I own an American Apparel tie dye T-shirt. Although, I do enjoy a good burger so I guess that’s out. What’s the big deal with finding your niche anyways? I’m nicheless, is that a serious problem in this day and age?

I’ve never had an issue with my identity. I’ve usually always been confident in my nicheless-ness, however, I recently overheard a conversation between a, we’ll call him a stuck up artsy kid, and a, we’ll call him a gamer (as in video games, he look a tad nerdy). The two classified individuals were discussing their discontentment with clubs and everything associated with such: strobe lights, short dresses, drunk girls, hair gel, guidos, it was a pretty heated conversation.

Either way, the main gist of the conversation went something like this: “I hate going to clubs, it’s always full of drunk, stupid, young girls and guidos who try and take advantage of said young, drunk

girls.” The conversation sparked a thought, why do we insist on affiliating names for different types of people? Do we give people a niche by judging them on their appearance?

I myself am a culprit of the constant classifying of individuals, the giving of niches. I almost always use words such as bro to describe someone who drinks creatine by the gallon. I often use the word hipster to describe someone who wears Ray Bans and anyone who utters the words World of Warcraft is automatically a gamer. However, in my recent revelation of personal nicheness, I’ve come to realize that I have been completely ignorant.

The gym goer may be a poetry lover, the hipster could play football, and the feminist most likely secretly loves buying into consumer goods, in other words, shopping.

I’ve faced a hint of discouragement from not having a type, for not finding my niche, but I’ve come to realize that your clothes and the use of hair products one decides to use, does not define who you are.

I enjoy being nicheless.

I don’t need a niche in order to describe myself or to feel like I belong. Maybe I’m a feminist for my crazy ideas of equality between women and men or perhaps I am a hipster for wearing thickframed glasses, but despite any classifications I still enjoy The Office with a big plate of spaghetti in front of me.

There’s more to defining someone than simply what they wear.

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

MSU Pres. should strive for More opportunities for arts students realistic goals BRIAN DECKER SPORTS EDITOR

The MSU President is a tough job.

Everyone outside your campaign team and group of friends is waiting for you to screw up. You have to defeat a large group of challengers by engaging an exceptionally unengaged electorate. And if it’s been over the last few years, you’ve had to inherit the brutal cash-eater that is Quarters/1280.

So when candidates make campaign promises they don’t end up keeping, I don’t blame them too much. There’s a lot to take care of. I do mind, however, when they make campaign promises they can’t possibly keep.

New campus cafeterias.

More study space. A second reading week.

These are all good ideas, and they’ve all appeared in candidates’ platforms since I’ve been at McMaster. I’d like all three to happen, and would gladly throw my support behind someone who could make it happen.

The problem is there isn’t anyone who can. And that’s not the fault of any of the people who have or are making a presidential run. It’s simply a matter of what anyone can realistically do as MSU President.

The MSU President is the head representative of the student body, and as such, their job is to represent them as best they can in a one-year period.

They don’t run the University, its academics or its construction ambitions. It’s a nice title and a tough job to do, but it doesn’t mean they take over McMaster as benevolent dictator for a year.

This isn’t to say the Pres can’t represent what the students want. If people on campus want a new place to eat or study, no one can make it clearer than the one person who is supposed to represent them all. But that also shouldn’t be their main job, and especially shouldn’t be their campaign promise.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve overheard someone say they want to vote for the candidate whose platform will actually affect them.

It’s fine that people want change out of their university; I know it’s frustrating to go to the library and not be able to find a place to plug in your laptop; I know it sucks that those jerks at Trent get a week off in November while we have midterms.

But if you want the MSU President to change those things,

you’re simply barking up the wrong tree.

Think of it like this; Bob Bratina doesn’t get elected by promising to make Hamilton the capital city of Canada.

He can lobby the provincial or federal government to build infrastructure and invest in Hamilton, but his job is to serve his local constituents – the people who he works for.

Like the Mayor who fixes public transit and cleans up the waterfront, a good MSU President is one who does a good job at what they can actually do. Candidates who promise things they can actually do, like building a local produce farm stand or restructuring how the MSU spends its student fees understand it.

Candidates who want to do something their government simply doesn’t have the ability to do don’t get it. A year as President doesn’t grant anyone the power or the resources to do things like constructing a new building or changing entire academic calendars.

I just want a candidate who knows what they can actually do. And if someone who does gets elected, I think it will help them make a tough job a whole bunch easier.

ASHLEY MARSHALL OPINIONS

To get a perfect Republic, first get rid of all the poets. Maybe Plato was onto something. Those damn arts kids add nothing to the advancement of the world. McMaster would certainly agree.

As an upper year Honours English and Cultural Studies student, I have been vehemently looking into career opportunities and grad school possibilities.

I know the demand is out there, but it doesn’t seem as though McMaster is equipping me properly to be a Pulitzer Prize or International Best Selling author, or more realistically, the CEO of a literature company or head of a publishing house.

Instead, I’m learning about how awesome already canonized authors are, how to cite properly, and what makes a good thesis.

Unfortunately, I find that the arts teach us how to be students more than artists, and how to remain small birds in a big nest.

Yes, creativity is internal and cannot be taught. I just feel my talent is bound within a very expensive cage, barring me from tasting any semblance of success.

I refuse to believe I’m in

the wrong program. I love what I study.

It hurts, however, to see how much talent is left unexpressed because of McMaster’s neglect of humanities students. It’s about time we mobilize our resources and create our own windows to soar from.

I love McMaster. I love the energetic people, the antique buildings, the inspiring professors and the amazing athletes.

I just wish there were more opportunities for writers to see themselves published, artists to compete with people in their disciplines, showcases of musical and theatrical aptitude (with audiences of more than 50 people) and displays of visual artists’ expressions.

No, this isn’t a school for the arts, but that shouldn’t mean artistic students studying here should be cooped up.

Harper Lee’s point was that to kill a mockingbird would be the end of peace and harmony, a silencing of beauty.

Being reminded constantly that my ambition is a Phoenix on fire only inspires me to soar higher, sing louder and paint prettier horizons to explore.

[This Week in Opinions] In preparation for the upcoming MSU Presidential Election, each of the five candidates have written an opinion article for the Silhouette. Presented over the next two pages, the pieces are meant to inform you of the candidates’ platforms in their own words and give you a better idea of what each candidate stands for. –Ed.

A8 • THE SILHOUETTE

?

Who are you voting for and why?

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

MSU presidential election candidates “Matt Wright because he’s the most involved with the student body.”

John Vrbesnky

Steve Running STEVE RUNNING CANDIDATE

Feedback

“Matt Wright because he’s very approachable.”

Umer Qureshi

“I don’t know because I don’t know much about the presidential campaigns.”

How are you? I’m good. I’m Steve Running. Check me out on Facebook, just type in Running MSU that should take you there.

I have a few ideas on there and a website that I got for free. There’s ads on it so support my sponsors I guess.

I’m going to see what I can do about more study space. We also need more outlets for study spots.

The new Thode is a good start. I don’t think we need it to be really quiet, we just need a place to sit down that has power mostly. The Thode main floor is always more packed than the downstairs study area. What’s that tell ya?

Also we just found out we have too much classroom space.

Maybe we can keep classrooms open to study in, or even convert a few small ones into a study space.

Just a thought.

About me? My name is Steve Running. I wanted my colours to be deep blue so we can be the Crips but Mr. MDL took blue already and it might get confusing.

Instead I’m not gonna have any colours because gangs just divide people and I’m here to bring us all together. Stop labelling yourself and follow your heart.

My first order of business is to shorten student card numbers.

They’re too hard to remember and they don’t need to be that long. I’ve done the math.

You know how dogs used to be wolves? Chihuahuas are the

descendents of dogs. Think about it. And it only took a few thousand years, and it was done by people who had no idea what was up with evolution. If we start now we can literally get ourselves some house hippos in a few hundred years, tops.

Get yourself a little hippo pet that makes nests out of lint and eats peanut butter crumbs. Imagine the attention that would bring Mac, not to mention money. Everyone would want a house hippo and would be willing to pay for it. I just solved all of McMaster’s financial troubles.

I am better than Jim Balsillie. I promise to bring an NHL team to Hamilton. The first step is to build a new rink. We can raise money for it with bake sales, 50/50 tickets, and making people guess how many pennies are in a big jar.

I hate Gary Bettman, ever see when he argues with Ron McLean and you can see him actually shaking he gets so mad? On the upside, the Coyotes are doing great. Second order of business is to name the hockey team, because the rest will fall right into place. I like “Hamilton Workhards” because we might not be the best team but we work hard and have fun and that’s what matters in the end.

We have a campus radio station but nobody ever listens to it. Maybe we can get more speakers around campus and play the radio over it. Other schools do it, I’ve been to them. Right now I think it only plays in the basement of the Student Centre. How much time do you spend down there? Not much.

Also, if a child gets lost on campus

we have a system in place right there for Amber Alerts. And what if McMaster was threatened by bombs or natural disasters? We don’t have anything in place to let everyone know. My plan would save lives, help children, and let you rock out basically whenever you want.

I’m pretty good at trivia.

If I can get onto a game show, I’m almost positive I’d win a lot of money. Not Deal or No Deal cause that’s just luck, but like Jeopardy or Million Dollar Money Drop or even Cash Cab, I could tear that up. All the money would go right back to the university, I promise. I’ll take like five per cent, or just have the university pay for my expenses.

Whichever’s better for you guys, I don’t mind.

How many people want to kill themselves? If even one of you says yes, that’s too many.

Other universities have fall reading weeks. We should too. Also, why was our Christmas break so short?

Other schools got way more time than we did. What’s that all about?

Fall reading weeks drastically drop the suicide rate at other schools.

Don’t the other candidates care about saving lives?

Everyone’s got an iPhone or BlackBerry right? Why don’t we try to get some of our school stuff on those? I’ll see what we can do.

I don’t think it’d be that hard and it would make everyone’s life a lot easier.

I have to go to the debate now. See ya.

Vote Steve Running 2012.

Screw Flanders.

Samantha Lee

James Lim JAMES LIM CANDIDATE

“MDL because he’s been in our classes the most often.”

Katarina Kozlovacki

“Myself [hysterical laughter].”

Vishal Tiwari

Compiled by Cassandra Jeffery and Jonathon Fairclough

“Keep cool, but care.” – Thomas Pynchon, V.

Hi, my name is James Lim and I’m running for MSU President.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably not the vote I’m trying to win. That’s because I’m trying to win the vote of the majority of students who don’t pick up and read a copy of the Silhouette. But you’re here, and I’ve been asked to write this opinion piece, so I might as well spit a few things at you.

One reason I think the majority of students are so apathetic about the whole MSU elections process is that they believe there is little at stake. And for the most part, they are right. That’s not to say that the MSU is irrelevant or ineffective, anyone who has a cursory knowledge of what the MSU does knows that the MSU does a lot for and on the behalf of students. What I mean when I say there is little at stake for students is that whoever wins, the MSU will continue to be pretty much the same year after year.

There really isn’t much distinction from the best and worst candidate in any given MSU Presidential Election. That’s

because all presidential candidates are all coming from the same place.

We are all undergraduate students just like you and want the same thing you want: to make the university a little bit better for undergraduate students. If you watched the debate yesterday this is something that would’ve been abundantly clear.

All the candidates were on the same side on all the real issues. There wasn’t and never will be a candidate who’s just going to go out there and say they support increasing tuitions and class sizes, lobby to hire more research-focused professors, and is against diversity or same sex rights.

As diverse as we like to think we are, we’re still mostly 17-23 year old middle-class students and from the perspective of that (relatively) narrow demographic there’s just a right and wrong side to all of the big questions. So where does that leave the candidates? Quibbling over trivialities like the efficacy of incentive-based surveys.

And so what about me?

If you’ve read my posters or saw the candidates debate you may be wondering what exactly my platform is, so let me explicate that shit right here, right now. I’m going to re-evaluate every single part of the MSU to determine whether we need it or not. If we don’t, I’ll take

steps to discontinue it. If we do, I’ll see whether it’s doing what we need as well as we want it. If it is, great, I’ll see to it that it continues on its merry way. If not, I’ll have to talk to all those people who are much better versed in the specifics and try to fix it. I don’t have any plans for additions to the MSU. I believe the MSU is already doing too much.

So I promise you a year of reduced spending and a balanced budget, if not a surplus.

That’s the boring part.

Now the fun part is that when I’m not dealing with the nuts and bolts of the MSU I’m going to try my best to make the school more fun for undergraduates year round.

Welcome Week is great and all but I find that after that first week of fun and games the bottom just drops out, and for those of us who don’t give two shits about Thursday nights at 1280 there’s not much to look forward to.

What exactly am I going to be doing? I don’t know, I haven’t planned anything yet. But if anything I’ve done this week has made you laugh or smile, expect more of the same for the next four years. And yes, I’m totally serious about running on a four-year platform. So win or lose, you’ll be hearing from me this time next year.

THE SILHOUETTE • A9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Alicia Ali ALICIA ALI CANDIDATE

To me, the MSU is all about connecting the dots. This means bringing together the various parts of campus to collaborate and work towards a common goal, with the MSU as an equal partner in the process. My platform encompasses this approach by attempting to uphold what works, upgrade what doesn’t, and uplift each other.

My name is Alicia Ali and I am running to be your next MSU President. I am a fourth year political science student with a passion for student-led initiatives. Being involved with the MSU for the past few years, I have had the unique opportunity to see the organization from many perspectives - whether that be as an unengaged first year, a member of the SRA or a part-time manager.

In spite of my involvement and dedication to student life and student-led initiatives, one thing that has always stood out to me is

the lack of MSU presence in various parts of campus life. One way I intend to address this problem is by creating a mentorship program that is designed to reach out to students who may not usually take up a leadership role within the MSU. I strongly believe in the capacity of the MSU to become a support network for students, an area which we have not capitalized on for quite some time.

To me, the MSU is about creating a network of student leaders. It’s about recognizing what we’re good at, and what we’re not.

We need fresh ideas, like my plan to create a program to record student extracurriculars, or my push for posted nutritional information for on-campus food services. It’s about ensuring that your student dollars are used wisely, by holding regular “Q&A” sessions in the MUSC Atrium and keeping the MSU visible.

As MSU President, my job is to represent you, your ideas and your concerns – and I plan

Matt Wright MATT WRIGHT CANDIDATE

When I was in my third year at McMaster, I started to realize that I was doing a lot of complaining and not a lot of action, so I decided to put my money where my mouth was. I joined the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) with the hopes of addressing, at least, engineering concerns and quickly realized that the MSU was an area of opportunity for students.

Three years later and after two successive terms on the Executive Board, MUSC Board of Management, and the Silhouette Board of Publication I feel qualified to lead this organization back in the right direction. The MSU has lost its way in reaching out to students.

It needs a leader who understands how to communicate to students and who wants to regain interest in MSU operations. It needs a leader who has been critical enough to realize that there needs to be a restructuring in order to effectively address

student concerns and continue to create a holistic university experience. I have always been a confident and motivated leader that is committed to voicing concerns others would not. The MSU needs to be assertive and motivated when proposing ideas to the University Administration. The MSU mission statement says that “it will seek to facilitate communication between the student body, the university, and other organizations and will organize and regulate student selfgovernment.” I want to make this true again and redefine the strategy and goals of an already established organization.

Why vote? This has been the most reoccurring question that I have been asked through my campaign period thus far. To vote for your MSU President means that you are voting for someone that you trust to be the voice for students at the highest levels of this university. Moreover, your president will be a strong voice in the Hamilton community. To vote

to do that by listening to you. In any organization, the consultation process is endless, and the MSU is no exception. So tell me, what bothers you? Is it addressed in my platform? If not, what can I do as your MSU President to ensure that your idea comes to fruition?

Consulting with you, the students, is merely the first step to what I hope will become a continuous process within the MSU to address student concerns. I fully understand there are things that need changing in the MSU, but I also understand that there are also many things that bring value to students. An area that lacks considerable attention in this organization is continuity, and by upgrading the old, upholding the new and uplifting ourselves, we can ensure that the MSU is being driven by strong and positive leadership. I aim to provide that leadership. It is our job to create a strong ownership of not only the MSU, but the entire university. Help me connect the dots. Vote Alicia Ali as your next MSU president.

Matt DillonLeitch MATT DILLON-LEITCH CANDIDATE

Just a quick introduction - my name is Matt Dillon-Leitch, but you can call me MDL. I am in my fifth year of a history/classics double major and I love this school. I’ve gone from being completely uninvolved to totally immersed in student life and now I am running to be your MSU president for 2011-2012.

I wanted to take this opportunity to better explain one of my more complicated platform points: funding student ideas. Over the years, the MSU has generated a substantial surplus that is currently sitting in the bank. This surplus is kept in reserve to act as a safety net for the MSU in the long-term. In recent years we have had to dip into this safety net due to unprofitable MSU services and a few unpaid debts. However, this lack of fiscal stability is about to become a thing of the past with the MSU closing one failed business (Undercovers), and selling another (Short-Stop). These closures, coupled with the success of the new TwelvEighty have led to the MSU becoming a much more financially healthy institution than it was two years ago.

As a result of this I believe that it is time to start for an MSU President also means budgeting with student needs in that you are voting for someone to be in charge of a multi-million mind, and build off the surplus. I dollar corporation that oversees a want to promote student ideas and number of services that students use create growth at McMaster that daily. Many students have heard my students can be proud of and call classroom speech, and advocating their own.

All we need to do is to for better spending of the $400 you pay a small portion of the operating pay to the MSU. budget from this surplus into a new

In an economy that is “Idea Fund” that supports student struggling and with tuition and success and leaves enough room for textbook costs on the rise, money is something that is very important the MSU’s business needs. The end to students. Students of McMaster result is we still grow as a business, University – the time is right to actively participate in your student government. The MSU should be reaching out to students, regaining interest by tackling large-scale student issues and restructuring the operations to best represent student needs. Elect an MSU President that understands your concerns, and has the necessary experience to follow through on their promises. Check out www.timesiswright.com to learn more about my campaign, and feel free to agree or disagree with my ideas. After all, it’s your MSU.

and we help fund important student initiatives.

The best part is that the MSU has already been doing this on a very small scale for years.

The MSU has a Sponsorships and Donations committee that gives to various student groups for their initiatives, events and activities. I want to capitalize on the success of our students and this committee by expanding the scale of the project in terms of dollars, in turn creating more student opportunities.

I also want to put the selection process in the hands of our current students as well as our alumni. Mac alumni are part of our heritage as students, and can bring their objective, professional, qualified view to a panel of overseers. Our alumni are proven intellectuals, business moguls, and creative visionaries who can help guide our current students into becoming the same kinds of influential leaders they are.

Current students also need to be represented in this selection process and the combination of both current students and alumni will safeguard against any direct conflicts of interest.

This is my vision. Could you benefit from a student ideas fund? Do you have an initiative that needs a boost? Let me ask you, what’s your idea?

If this is what you want to see from your MSU and you want to hear more of my ideas then check out my website, MDL2011.com.

If you have any ideas or questions email me at matt@mdl2011. com. Other than that, I hope to see you around campus while I’m campaigning because if I want to be your voice, I need to hear your opinions.

I elect you to write for opinions Section meetings: Mondays at 1:15 p.m.

MUSC b110 opinions@thesil.ca

A10 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

There is no winner, except when there is CHRISOPHER CHANG SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Smell that fresh, strike-free air. Isn’t it great? Sure is, but you know what doesn’t smell great? Rotten eggs, but that’s not the point here. The point is, the strike is over, it’s time to reflect on what the strike has done to us, and how it’s affected everyone.

Not only McMaster students, but Hamilton as a whole.

Let’s simplify this into three basic components: the winners, the losers, and the folks that didn’t really gain anything.

The folks who really didn’t benefit are, in truth, the striking workers. If you think about it, all we know is that they’ve settled on an agreement. I’m guessing that means that the university worked out how to keep the workers happy enough and thus restoring the status quo. As far as I’ve heard, there’s never been a strike in which workers really got anything other than status quo back. This makes sense. A strike is an action used when a balance in the work place is compromised, not because they want three more weeks vacation pay, because that’s awesome. There is no gain here, and no loss. Well, almost no gain.

I guess the workers did get an appreciation for the winter weather and car horns. The losers?

That’d be us, the students. If you think really hard, we did lose out.

First the strike caused buses to re-route causing students delays, late starts to classes, and more congestion on Main Street. Aside from delays, students had to cross that god-forsaken intersection at Main and Emerson.

I know what you’re thinking, “oh but the bus re-routing affects Hamilton’s non-McMaster populous.” NO you are simply wrong. Buses were only re-routed around McMaster into Westdale.

That means anyone in Westdale got the shaft if they wanted a bus to McMaster, which is honestly just students. Anyone in Westdale who is not a McMaster student does not need to take the bus. That is a fact.

If they can own a house there, they

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

When you really think about it, the recent strike didn’t benefit anyone except for the City of Hamilton. have a car and could have relied on that.

Furthermore, students at McMaster who dared to drive dared wrong. Putting up with blockades and lengthy wait times, sitting in their cars while their classes passed by, must have been pretty fun.

Thus, effectively making their very expensive parking passes a very expensive “look at me I’m idling for 45 minutes and moving slower than molasses” pass, not memorable but it’ll catch on. Alternatively, many students who did not have the patience, decided to park in the streets and risk being ticketed during the strike just to make it to class, costing us what little cash we have as students.

Lastly, let’s not forget that students had to burn more time getting off campus to buy food, or they’d have to do something extra

dastardly: cook food. It was pure madness, to think having to actually cook for ourselves instead of trading cash for tasty food.

The winners were the City of Hamilton, Ontario!

Congratulations you’ve won the strike! The city has likely benefited the most from this less than ideal situation. And no, I have not been smoking something special today.

It’s all very true.

Everyone engage your thinking caps. After the strike started and people had figured out that the blockade was a blockade, most people still had classes to go to, but no place to put their big fancy cars. Or did they? During my bus rides to the campus area, I noticed a large number of people parking on the streets in Hamilton. When I arrived on campus, my friends had told me that they’d opted to risk a

parking ticket to come to school.

I’m guessing, that was a popular idea. Now, I’m not saying that they wanted tickets, but walking across campus usually is a 10 minute battle and with 50 minute classes, you can see how a one hour parking limit would be tight.

Now I’m not saying the Hamilton traffic cops are incredibly good when it comes to finding cars over the limit but, no wait that’s exactly what I’m saying. Those guys have a sixth sense for seeking and ticketing cars. Now add up the number of people who drive with the scary traffic enforcement ticketing powers, the length of the strike and that’s sizable chunk of change for Hamilton in parking tickets.

I’ve already said that student’s who would have normally eaten on campus would have

had to eat elsewhere or cook for themselves.

Either way, that would mean spending money directly into the Hamilton economy eating at off campus locations, or buying additional groceries during the strike. By eating off campus and not on campus, the university doesn’t take a cut of the money spent on food and thus a direct injection of cash into the Hamilton economy.

Just to be clear, I just want to say that Hamilton may have won, but it was a relative victory, students lose because they lost time and arguably money, the strikers have no real net gain, and Hamilton gets extra change in its coffers.

That’s not to say it’s a lot of change, but relatively speaking, it was better than anything the students or union got. So the moral here is that strikes suck.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Hamilton bands together to support local workers CAITLIN CRAVEN

This little tale is only a part of bigger and bolder tales of global economic (dis)orders.

And let’s be clear, ‘little’ here is certainly If you stop and ask students at McMaster a relative term. We’re talking about 900 what they think of the situation with US Steel, workers and 9,000 pensioners, and a vital you’ll probably get most, though not all, means of livelihood within the Hamilton asking ‘what situation’? If you ask them about community. the rise of corporate power and the increased But we’re also talking about casualization of labour, you might get some decisions that are going to set a precedent for generalized responses about neoliberalism future investment practices, and our ability to and the global political economy. set and enforce labour, manufacturing, and

But how many would point to trade standards. It’s about the capacity of what’s happening out at the Hamilton Steel some form of democratic political authority Works as a clear example of the kinds of to trump corporate power whose only concern neoliberal corporate practices and their is profits. attendant destruction and injustices that are It’s about job and pension security so characteristic of our age? across the board and about the ability of

We don’t know, but we at the unions to negotiate fair terms. It’s about Political Action Committee ensuring that people in the of CUPE 3906 want to future can access stable, encourage everyone to pay fair-paying jobs with secure They are asking attention to what is unfolding benefits. around us and to take part for our support, as And hey, aren’t those the in shaping the outcome. We kind of jobs we all want to members of this can start by showing our have access to, whether we community and as are thinking about graduation, support this Saturday at the “Hamilton Day of Action”. people dissatisfied or upon our careers here at McMaster or at other

This is a story that living by the goes back a ways, and cannot institutions? be recounted in full here. But corporate terms of So what can we do? Local the bare bones of our little 1005, the Canadian Labour employment.” (big?) tale are that back in Council, and others have 2007 US Steel purchased organized a “Hamilton Day the Canadian steel company of Action” this Saturday, Stelco, located here in the heart of Hamilton, Jan. 29 outside City Hall (71 Main St West with a legally binding guarantee to the in Downtown Hamilton). A rally starting at government not to reduce production and to 1 p.m. will be followed by a march through maintain current pension benefits. And then, downtown. They are asking for our support, in 2010, they went ahead and demanded just as members of this community and as people the opposite – major concessions on pension dissatisfied living by the corporate terms of benefits. employment. We know that many of us never

The United Steelworkers Local venture over the 403, but it is high time we 1005, adamant in their opposition and realized what’s there and how our concerns demanding a fair deal for their members, may not be so different from the rest of the refused to bow to these concessions and so, city’s. in November, US Steel halted production at Over the years, Local 1005 has the Hamilton Works and locked the workers supported the struggles of workers and out. Since then, Local 1005 members have students at McMaster, and they are asking us been out at the picket lines, while US Steel now to stand in solidarity with them. has been working hard to deflect attention Several groups at McMaster are away from the real issues at stake with several already mobilized around this event and the suspect court actions. more of us out there, the stronger the message,

There’s more to it, there always is. so all you have to do is show up!

OPINION

THE SILHOUETTE • A11

A12 • THE SILHOUETTE

SpeculatoR The Hamilton

Thursday, January 27, 2011 F

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

INSIDE THE SPECULATOR F10: Fetishes My Father Showed Me: A Memoir G3: The Rottenest Crotch in the Room: Another Memoir E43: I Can’t Get No Cure for These Sores: The Final Memoir

Supporting morality-based cannibalism since 1930.

The many sides of

SSolomon Ostero

oretsO nomolo

In what might be his last year of eligibility, perennial MSU presidential contendah Solomon Ostero dishes on politics, loss, fascism and necrophilia SOLOMON OSTERO CANDIDATE

I was not given much. Looks, brains, charisma, sure. But other than that, nothing. But he did give me the visionaryism of a true leader, and the leadership ability of a visionary.

Yes, from the time I was a wee lad, I knew one day I would be great. A gypsy once even told my mother so. Of course my mother then refused to pay the old woman the two pieces of silver she had requested and the gypsy claimed to set a curse on my entire family, so I guess not everything that came out of that encounter was positive.

But, ugh, right, so MSU President. So for the third consecutive year I am running for MSU President. It’s been a long and gritty road to get here. I first burst on the scene way back in 2009, my first year of candidacy. I was just an average workaday student running on a simple platform of fascism and

necrophilia. I lost soundly.

But that was big growth year for me. After losing I didn’t sulk, I didn’t cry. I quit school and fled to Mexico where I waged a war of attrition against the Federales in an attempt to form a breakaway student union at the Guadalajara Polytechnical University. I found some success there, though I think the language barrier prevented my cronies from truly appreciating my definition of fascism. I was also at a sever disadvantage with the Federales once they realized that most of my guerilla band was comprised of corpses. Such very handsome corpses.

One more MSU Presidential loss, in 2010, as well as a loss in the Hamilton mayoral race that same year and here I am, still determined, still going, still so very lonely. Still so very, very lonely. And those locks on the hospital morgue are still so very strong.

And so today I ask you

one simple question. Do you like cats? Because they’re killing cats in Gore Park. Ritual animal sacrifices, beating them, hanging them, it’s disgusting. It’s a systematic killing of pussycats. And I’m against it.

Unless you want me to be in favour of it. In which case I can change. I tell you I can change. And that is the message I want to leave you with: I’m flexible. And I will bend over backwards for you. Bend like rotting flesh, glistening supplely in the pale moonlight, crackling ever so slightly in those fleeting moments before full release, just a squeeze away from bliss, when you can almost taste the leakage, trying to be gentle against all your intuitions, just trying not to damage such beauty. Such bendy beauty…

Anyway, my final speaking point is, I guess, what do you consider to be a hero? I think so as well.

Thank you and God bless you.

VOTE OSTERO FOR MSU PREZ! This page can be torn out and used as a poster. That poster can be posted on walls around the Student Centre. Not that doing something like that would be REALLY, REALLY GREAT. And not that WE ARE ENCOURAGING YOU TO DO SO. We just thought you should know it was possible.

“What Did You Learn This Week, Timmy?”

“I learned that they can’t tell me what not to do with my ballot pencil.”

Disclaimer: Stories printed in The Hamilton Speculator are fact. Any resemblance to persons real or dead is likely intentional and done out of spite. Opinions expressed are those of The Speculator and if you disagree with them you are wrong. And stupid. Possibly ugly as well.

THE SILHOUETTE • B1

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

SPORTS Women’s Volleyball

Bashing the Badgers McMaster handles Brock in five sets, narrowly misses CIS Top Ten FRASER CALDWELL

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Brock Badgers have prided themselves on defending their home court against the Marauders for the past two seasons, but they would prove unable to repeat that feat this year.

Instead, McMaster overcame a mid-match letdown to clinch a five-set victory over Brock in St. Catherines this past Friday (25-14, 25-19, 23-25, 25-27, 15-9). The win gives the Marauders a sweep of the season series with the Badgers, and extends the maroon and grey’s impressive winning streak to 11 games.

Friday’s victory also keeps McMaster atop the OUA West standings with a record of 12-1, and garnered the squad a season-high of 20 votes for a spot in the CIS national rankings.

Unfortunately, this placed the Marauders a single vote behind tenth-seeded Regina, guaranteeing the OUA remains unrepresented in the Top Ten for yet another week.

The Marauders’ win in St. Catherines was well deserved, but they will wonder how it took five sets to accomplish it. After an exemplary first set, and an inspiring second set comeback, the Marauders allowed Brock to edge the next two games and set up a nerve-racking fifth set finish.

McMaster opened well in the first, breaking the game open mid-set when a deflected kill from

sophomore hitter Kailee Stock and a solo block from veteran middle Sarah Kiernan brought the score to 15-11 in the visitors’ favour.

The maroon and grey would cruise to the finish line from there, clinching the first set after an ugly Brock set found the floor on their side of the net.

The second set would also fall in the Marauders’ favour, albeit in an entirely different way.

With the hosts beginning to find their range, and McMaster suddenly losing their own, Brock raced out to an early lead, and would stretch it as far as eight points at the coming of the second technical timeout.

However, after the break in the action, it was the Marauders that emerged with greater purpose, and the visitors would stage an incredible comeback to steal the second set.

The McMaster turnaround began with some typically strong hitting from veteran outside Larissa Puhach, whose deflected kill at 11-16 forced the scrambling Badgers to call a timeout.

But try as they might, Brock could not recover their momentum, and after a pair of clutch aces from second-year setter Amanda Weldon, Kaila Janssen produced a solo block on set point to put the finishing touches on an astounding comeback.

All in all, McMaster won 17 of the last 20 points of the set, • PLEASE SEE PUHACH, B3

JEFF TAM / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Women’s Football

Men’s Volleyball

Girls take the field at Ron Joyce Bye week gives Mac rest, FRASER CALDWELL

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

They’re not a varsity team. There are no tryouts, no intensive training sessions or holiday exhibition trips.

No one is being recruited.

That’s because the McMaster woman’s football club is an entirely voluntary organization, and one that’s rapidly growing in popularity.

“It started with one team of 40 girls but now we’re up to five teams, we have 175 girls, and 50 coaches,” said Lauren Jewett, the club’s Vice-President.

Those coaches consist largely of members of the varsity men’s squad, who take great pleasure in being able to be involved in football in the midst of their offseason.

Said Jewett of the myriad of coaches her club is mentored by, “they love it, we’re their little fantasy football league.”

“Because this is their offseason, and they get to be a part of football without having coaches breathing down their necks and running insane drills.”

Their assistance is vital, as

the majority of the girls involved in the burgeoning club know very little of the positions and tactics inherent in football.

“We’re really fortunate that we have enough coaches that we can have a coach [for each position],” said linebacker and tournament organizer Christine Corso.

She added that when she started with the club, she was completely ignorant about the game. “I knew nothing, I didn’t know what a position was.”

Such ignorance of the game begs the question of why Corso and other such competitors pursued involvement with the club.

For her part, the linebacker argued that her choice to become involved had less to do with the sport itself, and much more to do with a general desire to play a team sport on campus.

“This seemed like the type of sport that I could enter, and all of the girls would be on the same page, and not that many girls had heard of women’s football,” said Corso.

“I thought it would be great to get involved with a sport that would be cheap, but also one where I could start on ground zero

with everyone else.”

For others, like cornerback and fellow tournament organizer Erin Trinier, the full-contact nature of the McMaster club marks an interesting departure from years of experience with flag football.

Said Trinier, “I grew up playing flag football in school, so when I found out that we had a club here I was stoked. It’s more contact [here], so this is obviously more intense. But I love it.”

This past weekend, the members of the McMaster women’s football club got their first taste of competition, as they welcomed entries from across Ontario to a tournament at Ron Joyce on Saturday.

Of McMaster’s five teams, two would advance to the semifinals in Saturday’s event, before the so-called ‘Inside Releasers’ managed to snag the weekend title.

But the importance of the event goes far beyond inter-university bragging rights.

Simply by being held, it is allowing a group of students who would otherwise be uninvolved in sport to enjoy a team environment, entirely separate from the strains of the varsity environment.

chance to prepare FRASER CALDWELL

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

After a valuable mid-season byeweek, the McMaster Marauders look forward to another weekend of volleyball at the Burridge Gym.

The maroon and grey are still basking in the glow of their momentous victory over the Western Mustangs last weekend, which vaulted them back into contention in the OUA, and garnered them the tenth seed in the CIS national rankings.

Coach Dave Preston had signaled in an interview before the critical match-up that the home contest against the division-leading Mustangs stood as a defining moment for his Marauder team.

In the wake of his squad’s victory, Preston stands by that evaluation.

“It was a defining moment, absolutely. The guys responding exactly as I thought that they would.

We’ve been working our tails off for four and a half months, and that was really the first match where we just started to go, to just play,” said Preston.

[This Week in Sports] Tiger’s Trail Our Sports Editorial looks at the season debut of golf’s biggest star as Tiger Woods prepares to kick off his 2011 PGA Tour season.

Pg. B2

“Being 11-3 in league play, we’ve had some wins that have a statement to them, but most of them have been a grind. The Western match was one of the first times all season long where our guys just started to roll a little bit.”

While he was reluctant to pinpoint one particular area in which the Marauders managed to win the pivotal match against the Mustangs, Preston did isolate the defensive side of the ball as perhaps the hosts’ most dominant.

“I thought we out-defended Western, and that’s a tough thing to do. And I think our numbers validated it. For us to register 60 digs against a top-five team in the country is very, very good.”

The return of Kevin Stevens from a nagging hamstring injury, which freed Josh Lichty to return to his dominant position at libero, was also a critical aspect of the Marauders’ success on home court.

Addressing the return of his star left side, Preston commented that, “whether or not it was • PLEASE SEE PRESTON, B5

Victory at last

Crunch time crew

Losers of seven straight, the women’s basketball team gets off the schnide, beating Waterloo for just their fourth victory of the season Pg. B4

With their two leading scorers unavailable, Kenan Etale and Scott Laws shine in leading McMaster to a road win in Waterloo

Pg. B5

B2 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

THE SKINNY

What You Need To Know This Week In Sports Sports Editorial

Male Performance of the Week

New year, fresh start for Tiger BRIAN DECKER SPORTS EDITOR

Tiger Woods and treadmills have a lot in common. And before you try to come up with some awful joke about getting run over by half-dressed women, get your mind out of the gutter.

What Tiger and treadmills really have in common is a propensity to reappear from hiding around January after a long, dark hiatus.

For the exercise equipment, it’s about New Year’s Resolutions being tackled, at least for a short time anyway.

And for Tiger? It seems now that January is the time when Woods returns amid a myriad of questions about his ability to continue what was once the most untouchable legacy in modern sports.

For the third year in a row, Woods is making his much-ballyhooed return to the world of competitive golf, something that seems like an annual tradition now. In 2009 it was after knee surgery. In 2010 it was after going to rehab for sex addiction and a self-imposed ban from the game.

Of course, along with Tiger comes the scrambling of the sports world to either warn of his imminent domination of the sport or declare his era to be over, his reign usurped by a list of unassuming challengers.

For so long, Woods was such a dominant figure that his unrivalled success was simply a given. And while many tried for years to pump up a list of successive would-be challengers – Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh come to mind – none would ever really challenge the throne held by the man in red and black.

The game is different now, however, with Woods coming off the worst year of his professional career.

He didn’t win once. He hardly even contended. He missed cuts and putts and looked completely out of sync. And while he showed flashes of brilliance in spurts, it was clear to anyone who has watched Tiger’s career that there was just something missing.

It seems now that the hype around his return isn’t about whether he’ll continue his dominance or if some dark horse could break free from the pack to challenge him. It seems more like people are starting to ask the unthinkable; is the Tiger Woods era done?

That seems a little foolish to me.

Last year has to be considered an anomaly. To be clear, the guy doesn’t deserve any sympathy for the ridiculous scandal he thrust upon himself. But to expect him to have played at his usual level of dominance through the whole mess just doesn’t make sense.

Look at what was stacked against him; Woods was going through a high-profile divorce; he was losing tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals; he was coming back after skipping the first quarter of his season; he was under more intense media scrutiny than ever before, though at least that’s something he’s used to.

And then there’s the swing. Tiger struggled with his usually impeccable swing like never before last year. Instead of the graceful and powerful strike everyone is used to, his follow through often looked like he was trying to fight a snake inside a telephone booth.

It all adds up to a season that simply wasn’t Tiger. Not the one we’re used to, anyway.

The stats from Tiger’s nightmare season don’t paint a pretty picture. He was 167th in Greens in Regulation, a stat he dominated in the early 2000s and from 2006-2008. He was 192nd in Total Driving, 58th in Putts per Round and 125th in Final Round Scoring Average – all categories that Woods has traditionally dominated.

So why should 2011 be any different? Doesn’t it all seem like, at 36 years old, all signs point to a decline in his era?

For one, he’s taking a new technical approach to the game with Canadian wonder teacher Sean Foley, who has turned a few players like Hunter Mahan and Justin Rose into ball-striking, cash-making machines. It seems like Woods is finally ready to address his chronically wayward driving, snake-fighting follow throughs aside.

But that might not even matter.

What’s always made Tiger Woods the best golfer in the world has never been his technique, nor his skills or even his intimidating persona. It’s the uncanny resolve to dominate, his dedication to a disciplined approach, his ability to mentally control his game like no one in the history of the sport ever has. It’s the same steely resolve that won him the US Open on a broken leg and torn ACL, and the same determination that has let him produce highlight-reel shot after highlight-reel shot.

Now, with a fresh start from his ugly divorce and a new season beckoning, that determination has a chance to reappear. Woods tees off in his first event of the year today at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, a place he’s won eight times.

Bearing that in mind, can we call off the decline or the prediction of dominance? Can we just watch him and see what happens? Can we stop with the commentary and the prediction of the future and just let Tiger try to return to doing what Tiger does best?

Kenan Etale - Basketball Rookie guard Kenan Etale, a transfer from NAIA’s Houghton College, made a masterful impact over the past week, leading the Marauders with 19 points in a close loss to Lakehead last Saturday and scoring a game-high 26 points in a 93-90 road win over the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday.

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Female Performance of the Week

Sarah Taylor - Swimming The Marauder swimmer, who won CIS silver last year as a rookie, continues her torrid medal pace this season. Most recently, Taylor has won both the 50m free and 50m fly golds in consecutive ‘duel meets’ against Toronto a week ago and the University of Ottawa this past weekend. Up next, a meet at Laurier.

Photo of the Week PHOTO C/O MCMASTER ATHLETICS AND RECREATION

Top 5

Top 5 Fascinating Tiger Woods moments 5. Winning 1997 Masters by 12 shots at age 21 4. Winning 2008 US Open on broken leg 3. 2009/10 sex scandal/divorce 2. Winning 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach by 15 1. 2005 Masters “Nike logo” chip in JEFF TAM / SILHOUETTE STAFF

A member of the McMaster women’s football team runs with the ball during the Mac club’s tournament at Ron Joyce. The event on Saturday drew competitors from across Ontario, and included five homegrown teams.

Come Write For Us! - Sports meeting every Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

Follow us on Twitter - @Decker_Brian @fraser_caldwell @theSilhouette

THE SILHOUETTE • B3

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Women’s Basketball

Mac breaks seven-game slide

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Point guard Vanessa Bonomo returned to the lineup this weekend as the Marauders fell twice to the Lakehead Thunderwolves but beat the Waterloo Warriors.

BRIAN DECKER SPORTS EDITOR

Needing a win in the worst of ways, the McMaster Marauders found exactly the cure for what ailed them in a trip to Waterloo and a match-up with the 0-15 Waterloo Warriors.

Mac toppled Waterloo 67-48 Wednesday night to earn their first win of 2011 and break a seven-game losing streak, giving a glimmer of light in a season that has seen very few.

“Every game’s critical for us. In terms of our season, we need to get a [win] under our belt and have these girls feel like they’re doing something,” said Mac coach Theresa Burns after the team lost their seventh straight to Lakehead last weekend.

After numerous injuries to key players, McMaster’s season has quickly faded and left them struggling to compete each night. At 4-10 on the season, the Marauders were only above one team in the highly competitive OUA West division – those same Waterloo Warriors they beat Wednesday night.

Jackie Nimec led Mac with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while McMaster won the rebounding battle 41-27. Rookie Caitlin Croley grabbed a career-high nine rebounds in the win.

For Burns and her team, it’s a relieving win after the mounting losses had begun to take their toll on the young squad.

“I think the team is very cohesive and very supportive of one another, but collectively feeling the pressure of the season,”

said the coach after Lakehead’s 60-57 win on Saturday, their second in a row over Mac.

That game saw Mac go on a lategame run, turning a 57-48 deficit into just a 57-56 margin with 50 seconds remaining. A win was not to be, however, as Taylor Chiarot missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime.

McMaster got a balanced effort that saw Chiarot score 15 points and add 13 rebounds and three other Marauders top double digits in scoring, but were undone by 23 turnovers and 33.9 per cent shooting.

A night earlier, the Marauders were much more efficient on the offensive end, shooting 47.4 per cent, but couldn’t stop Lakehead’s Tasia McKenna, who poured in 35 points in a 71-66 Lakehead win.

Mac held a lead late in that game at 61-60 with just over three minutes to go. But the Thunderwolves would go on to score the next seven points and put the seal on the win.

Despite the win over Waterloo, playoff hopes are quickly fading for the Marauders. The next team above them in the OUA West standings is 8-7 Guelph, and five teams have ten wins or more.

Mac will play Guelph, who are in the final division playoff seed, this weekend at Burridge Gym.

The team’s main priority, according to Burns, however, is improving individual players and getting more competitive each game.

“Every game we’re going to work at it.”

Men’s Basketball

Etale, Laws lead McMaster to win BRIAN DECKER SPORTS EDITOR

With Scott Brittain injured and Cam Michaud in foul trouble, the McMaster Marauders needed someone to step into a scoring role in their Wednesday night matchup with the Waterloo Warriors.

They got exactly that – and then some – from Kenan Etale and Scott Laws, who led Mac to a 93-90 win Wednesday night in Waterloo.

Etale scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Laws scored 23, helping the Marauders rebound from a two-loss weekend against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

The win, McMaster’s fifth in seven games in 2011, improved Mac to 8-7 on the season. Reserve forward Nate Pelech pitched in with 19 points off the bench, hitting three of the nine three-pointers on the night for the maroon and grey.

It’s also a good sign for Marauder fans that the team is finding enough depth to survive – at least for the time being – with its most dangerous scorer on the sidelines.

Brittain, who has suffered multiple concussions over his career, hit his head on the floor during last Friday’s loss to Lakehead, and will be out of the lineup for at least the near future. He’s been a big part of Mac’s resurgence in the OUA West, leading them from 3-5 and tied for last in the division to 7-5 and fourth place before last weekend.

Their winning streak ended last weekend, however, as the Thunderwolves showed why they are tied for the division lead with Windsor at 11-3.

Friday’s 78-76 loss was almost avoided, as Laws had two free throws to tie the game with 1.4 seconds left. He missed both, however, and Mac was left to ponder the future after both the loss of the game and Brittain to injury, as well as Victor Raso, who sprained his ankle in the fourth quarter.

The next night was more of the same story, as Satar Wahidi and Laws once again missed crucial free throws – this time four in a row with five seconds to go. The misses, coupled with a crucial Mac turnover just earlier, led to an 81-77 win for the Thunderwolves.

It’s not known exactly how long Brittain will be out – anywhere from a couple of weeks to the rest of the season, according to head coach Amos Connolly – but in the meantime, the Marauders will depend heavily on third-year forward Cam Michaud.

“I’ve been happy with Cam since [we played] Ottawa. I think Cam’s realized he can do some things, and he’s made a decision to capitalize on that. I couldn’t be more happy with Cam and I think he deserves so much credit,” said Connolly on the weekend.

Michaud was limited by foul trouble on Wednesday, but has been strong as Mac’s leading scorer this season. He’s averaging just under 15 points per game, the only Marauder in the top-20 of OUA scoring.

“It’s clear as day he’s the guy. That’s a lot of pressure, and to realize that pressure and to take it on is awesome,” said Connolly.

McMaster will take the court against the Guelph Gryphons this Saturday as part of the Marauder Weekend. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Sports are awesome.

Writing for Sil Sports is awesome.

Be awesome. Write for us.

Meetings: Thursdays at 11:30 a.m.

Do it.

B4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2011

THE SILHOUETTE • B5

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Women’s Volleyball

Men’s Volleyball

Puhach’s defence Preston looking for progression leads Mac to victory

While she managed only 11 points in the victory, the fifthovercoming a seemingly safe Brock year campaigner proved to be her lead to win the second frame by a team’s most stout defender, posting score of 25-19.

22 digs on the night.

However, rather than In the wake of her team’s crumble in the wake of their second victory, Puhach was quick to point set disappointment, the Badgers out that the Marauders’ inability to would buckle down and raise their close out the contest in the third level to ensure some respectability set was less a product of their own on home court. game, and much more of a testa The result was immediate ment to the perseverance of the and dramatic, as the hosts grabbed Badgers. early leads in both the third and “I think they definitely fourth sets on route to narrow, two- picked up their game, but we only point wins. lost by two points each time. I think

Particularly impressive they had some key points, some was Brock’s delucky plays, and fence, which saw they stepped up the Badgers win when they needed several crucial ex- We have such a bal- to,” remarked tended rallies on the Puhach. “Good for way to leveling the anced offence that them.” match.

W i t h if I don’t get the set,

Suddenregards to her own I know someone ly, the Marauders performance, the found themselves else is going to get outside hitter inin a sudden death sisted that defence it anyways.” situation, having has always been a watched their twopriority of hers. set lead evaporate

“I think in the rowdy conI’ve always had big defensive numfines of Brock’s Bob Davis Gym. bers. That’s my go-to part of my

To their credit, the visitors game.” showed resolve of their own in the “We have such a balanced fifth set, and secured a surprisingly offence that if I don’t get the set, I easy victory in the abbreviated final know someone else is going to get it frame. anyways.”

McMaster would lead by That offensive balance has as many as eight points in the fifth, been a constant for the Marauders and sealed their road victory when this season, and they will be hoping outside hitter Lauren Skelly rolled to demonstrate it again this weekan attack off the net and found the end as they return home for a two floor beyond the outstretched Badg- game stint at Burridge Gym. ers.

McMaster opens the week Shannon McRobert once end against the OUA East leading again dominated the score sheet for York Lions on Friday night, before the Marauders, tallying 22 points on hosting the lowly Ryerson Rams the an efficient 11 of 20 hitting. following night.

However, it would be the Both games are slated veteran outside Puhach who would to begin at 6 p.m. as part of Mcsecure player of the game honours. Master’s Marauder weekend.

• CONT’D FROM B1

JEFF TAM / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Rookie hitter Marcin Jedzejewski filled in admirably during Kevin valuable time on the medical front, • CONT’D FROM B1 where several players are nursing Kevin back on the left, or Lichty injuries. back in the libero spot, both of those Rookie setter Chris Spack, changes occurred, and we were very who had surgery on his ankle in late happy with both of them.”

December, has returned to practice

When asked to evaluate during the layoff, and Preston is his team’s bye-week, the coach hopeful of his being available for responded by cautioning that the full duty in the near future. effect of the layoff could not be Entering another full properly identified until the team weekend of action on court at the returned to action.

Burridge Gym, the coach indicated

“I can’t answer that ques- that the Marauders are simply fotion yet because I don’t know cused on continuing their seasonwhat’s come of it yet,” said Preston. long progression.

What he did acknowledge “I can’t tell you how imwas that the Marauders gained portant it is that these guys have

Stevens’ absence. maintained focus for four and a half months,” said Preston.

“We are really working hard at playing the kind of game we want to play at, and we’re not there yet.”

The Marauders will have ample opportunity to demonstrate their progress this weekend, as they welcome two Toronto outfits to the Burridge Gym.

The maroon and grey kick off their two-game series against the York Lions on Friday night, before the Ryerson Rams visit on Saturday.

Both games are scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

B6 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

MAC initiates 'Round Up for Ronald McDonald' House Outlets all across the McMaster community are participating in this initiative by giving you, the customer, the opportunity to Round Up your purchases to the nearest dollar, show your support and give what you can. Participating outlets will have donation boxes for you to make your generous donations.

Participating Outlets: Union Market, COMPASS, TwelvEighty, Underground Media and Design, Ginos, Basilique

Collecting Donations Between:

Jan. 21st - Jan. 31st

THE SILHOUETTE • C1

INSIDEOUT THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

production office extension: 27117 insideout@thesil.ca

Can you keep a secret?

MacSecret debuts as a stress release for students

AMANDA MONACO SILHOUETTE STAFF

“Got a secret, can you keep it?

Swear this one you’ll save. Better lock it in your pocket, taking this one to the grave.” The Pierces may have said it best: it sometimes seems like secrets are better left untold. Everyone has those secrets that cause fear and anxiety. Secrets can even haunt our every waking moment on a day-to-day basis. So, need to get those secrets off your chest but don’t know how? Well, don’t take your secrets six feet under. Instead, keep those peepers on the prowl for MacSecret boxes.

It’s no secret: the McMaster Campus Health Centre has launched a new initiative to fight the psychological stress that can result from keeping secrets.

This program, coined MacSecret, acts as an outlet for the student community to reveal their secrets in the hopes of relieving stress and anxiety as well as providing some relief and comfort. After all, secrets can easily become burdensome baggage, which is the last worry we need in our already bustling lives. In fact, according to the

government of Canada, 12 percent of people suffer from severe anxiety that inhibits daily activities, which works out to about 4 million Canadians in total.

MacSecret allows the McMaster community to design postcards to anonymously reveal their secrets by submitting them to various boxes around campus. These postcards can be picked up at the Campus Health and Wellness Centre located at MUSC B106. And, they can be designed to your liking.

Box locations around campus are plenty to ensure that postcard drop off is easily accessible.

Locations include the MSU office, House of Games, QSCC, SHEC, OPIRG, Chaplaincy, Centre for Student Success, Clubspace, CSD and International Student Centre.

McMaster’s Mental Health Team hopes that “students and staff will read these secrets and come to the realization that many of their secrets are actually shared with other members of the community”.

The Team most importantly wants students to realize that they are not alone with their fears. Rather, the Team believes that “many people are too silent about certain

issues that bother them and we hope this program is one means by which people can form a community of support.”

The Mental Health Team is planning an artistic display to showcase the various postcards they have been receiving, which is currently in the works during second semester. In the meantime, postcards can be seen on the MacSecret Facebook page, which is open to the community.

Additionally, the Team feels as though students will be able to recognize aspects of themselves in these postcards and realize that they are not alone with their thoughts and feelings.

Launched in October 2010, this initiative is actually modeled after the popular PostSecret campaign, a project based off a concept from the blog postsecret.com where anyone can anonymously mail in a secret of his or her own on a postcard.

So don’t save but instead rave about those secrets on your personalized postcard with MacSecret and relieve some of that psychological stress through a healthy outlet.

JOY SANTIAGO / MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

The culture of being vegan HAGOP TERZIAN THE SILHOUETTE

Betty White is a vegan. Are you?

Is veganism an individual lifestyle choice or simply a bandwagon trend? Recently, there has been an increase in people choosing to stay away from animal products—including both food and clothes—and follow a new way of life by being a vegan. However, what factors influence such a decision?

In my third year religion class, my professor asked us to mimic the lifestyle of Ghandi. Our assignment gave us three options: to

abstain from sex, to be a vegan or to refrain from anger. So, I decided to choose what I though was the easiest choice on the list, to become a vegan. Little did I know!

The assignment asked us to keep a journal for a week and document everything that we ate. I started my first two days without a hitch and when the third day rolled by, things were not as easy as they seemed.

With the stress of school, running from class-to-class, work and volunteering, things on my todo list piled up and my diet became a secondary thought. I found myself eating things I should not have

been without realizing it. I quickly learned that it was not easy being a vegan.

Fourth year Psychology and Anthropology student Melissa Mrmak said, “people who choose to be vegan for a fad will not remain vegan for long because it’s not an easy thing to do.”

I found reading labels on bags and finding the right type of food to eat was very time consuming.

The limitations that come with being a vegan are tremendous.

This discouraged the idea that people would actually want to be vegan strictly for fad purposes.

Mrmak added, “It’s time consuming and takes a lot of energy.” Aside from time constraints, being a vegan is expensive! A student budget that needs to be stretched over a week seemed to lose its elasticity very quickly.

However, we cannot forget that there is an ethical or spiritual reasoning behind being a vegan.

For some people, being a vegan is all they know.

But for some, veganism has become another accessory that people are picking up for all the wrong reasons.

This might not be an infamous Chihuahua in a bag type of

trend, rather more like a Chihuahua in your shopping cart.

According to Mrmak, “there are a lot of people who are vegan because they think it is cool or want to get attention so they take on a fad.”

However, reader beware!

It is dangerous to wake up one day and choose to be a vegan.

You need to do your research and make sure you are able to follow through with such a lifestyle choice or else you will surely put your body at risk.

So, is veganism a lifestyle or is it a trend? The only answer to this question is: to each their own.

[This Week in InsideOut] The bliss of a kiss

Gym intimidation

Marshmallow haven

Kiss and tell? Most definitely.

Let your senses guide you with the ultimate of sexual allures.

The gym can be the last of places you want to be out of sheer fear. But this can be easily overcome. Learn how.

Reminisce about childhood with homemade mallows.

Mmm, mmm, good.

Pg. C2

Pg. C3

Pg. C4

C2 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

SEX and the STEEL CITY NATALIE TIMPERIO

SENIOR INSIDEOUT EDITOR

“It was only a kiss, how did it end up like this?”

The Killers couldn’t have said it better. Every sort of sexual encounter between any two people generally begins with “only a kiss”.

The kiss is, in fact, one of the most sensual acts, but how exactly did it come to be thought of as such a sexual gesture? After all, there are many different types of kisses, and we obviously don’t go around kissing our parents, siblings, and friends in the same sexual manner we would our partners or hook-ups.

In The Kiss and its History, author Christopher Nyrop categorizes five types of kisses: kisses of love, affection, peace, respect, and friendship. Although there is often overlap between these types of kisses, it’s obvious as to which type of kiss we use for different people in our lives.

There is no known moment in history in which the kiss came to be. Some anthropologists speculate that kissing first came about during the era of Alexander the Great, however kiss-like signs of affections most likely existed long existed before Alexander’s time. Chances are the kiss was devised around the same time as humankind learned to stand on its own two feet.

Anthropologists have also hypothesized that the kiss is most

It was only a kiss

obviously a universal cultural practice, and may be one of the first learned behaviours in our early years.

But the kiss is also part of our instinctive nature. Even in the animal kingdom, animals may kiss by licking, either within or without species groups.

Let’s be honest: the kiss can be the ultimate indicator of a person’s character, and an even better way to tell us when to take a realtionship that much further, or get the heck out.”

Possibly nothing is more basic than the kiss as a form of sexual expression. Let’s be honest: the kiss can be the ultimate indicator of a person’s character, and an even better way to tell us when to take a relationship that much further, or when to get the heck out.

When someone is a poor kisser, it’s more than likely an obvious sign to make a speedy exit.

Spare yourself the sexual dissatisfaction and tell a little white lie about a scheduling error. “Oops, looks like that midterm really is tomorrow morning.”

Although unique to each

person, commonly accepted indicators of a bad kiss include sloppiness and the suck-face factor. No one likes their lip area marinated in another person’s salvia, but an even worse fate is being suffocated while kissing. The second you feel your partner’s mouth pulling you in like a black hole in some sci-fi flick or get the sudden urge to vomit as you feel a tongue that is not your own tickling your uvula, then you know the kiss has taken a turn for the worse.

Unless of course you enjoy the aggressiveness, then by all means feel free to re-enact your adult film fantasies. Also, overzealous biting can also be a red light when kissing, especially if it takes place during a Frenchie.

So that’s what ruins a liplock. But what makes for a good kiss? Well, there’s no definitive answer, but if you’re looking for directions, pay attention to your lip movements.

Start slow and respond to cues from your partner. You should be able to discern what they like and what they don’t, depending on whether they pull away or indulge even further.

Although the kiss is as ancient as Great Aunt Gretel’s supersecret schnitzel recipe, it is neither outdated nor dried up like Great Aunt Gretel.

So, don’t underestimate what the power of the kiss can do for you and your love life.

Every great relationship begins with that initial kiss

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

ThreadCount

Cooking with

Fourth Year Anthropology

Curried Lentil Soup

Kaitlin Peters

Sarah Timmons

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1.5 cups chopped onion (approx 1 medium onion) 1 large carrot, chopped 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 celery stalk, chopped (optional) 1.5-2 tablespoons curry powder 1 cup uncooked green lentils, rinsed and picked over 4 cups water 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice Kosher salt & black pepper, to taste 2 green onions, thinly sliced 1 lemon, cut into 6 wedges

Favourite quote: "The dress isn't important, it's the woman that's wearing it." -Yves Saint Laurent Favourite Artist: Black Keys

Directions: 1. Heat olive oil in heavy large skillet or pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion, optional celery, and carrot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or so.

Style: edgy and feminine What do you look for in a significant other?: good sense of humour & likes to have fun

2. Add finely chopped garlic and stir until vegetables are soft but not brown, about five minutes longer. Reduce heat if necessary to avoid burning.

3. Add curry powder. I started with 1.5 tablespoons. Now, add the rinsed uncooked lentils and four cups water. Season with a sprinkle of kosher salt and pepper, add in lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

4. When lentils are tender, I poured about half of the soup into my blender and I blended the soup for a minute. I did this to create a very thick texture. After blending, stir the soup back into the skillet/pot and you will have a very thick soup with some chunky pieces left from the soup you did not process.

5. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional curry powder, if desired.

Sprinkle with thinly sliced green onions and serve with lemon wedges.

Cardigan: River Island - $50 T-shirt: H&M - $10 Skirt: New Look - $25 Shoes: Spring - $50

Borrowed from ohsheglows.com

THE SILHOUETTE • C3

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

How-todo-it CHRISTOPHER CHANG SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Learning is fun, but what’s better than learning? Teaching. It’s a good way to feel good while doing good, unless you’re teaching criminals how to rob banks, but that’s not what I’m getting at.

What I’m going to do is surpass that idea today by teaching you to teach. That’s right, this is a “How-to-Do-It” on how to make a “How-to-Do-It”.

Let’s get to it. The first step would be to do a bit of reflecting. You need to ask yourself some questions; the big question being “Is this topic worth making a ‘Howto-Do-It’ on?”

An example of a good “how to” would be one that adds to a skill your readers would find useful; a skill which would apply to a broad spectrum of people and might actually be put to use.

A skill such as baking a cake; cake baking is great because it’s vastly useful and the need for them occurs often enough that one day, even you may need to make one. Also they are tasty, which is just like bonus points.

A useless “how to” would be something where the idea is either plain bad, or does not apply to a broad enough spectrum of people.

A fine example of this would be a “how to” on picking your nose, which is a bad one for many reasons.

The first being that it’s a skill that most would reluctantly agree they know how to do, thus having a small target of readers.

Second the invention of the tissue

How to write a how-to (that’s right the tissue, not Kleenex) has made nose picking a moot point. However I think a good “how to” would be one on stealth nose picking.

Now you may be thinking, “Wait a second, I don’t think your “How-to-Do-It” applies to a broad spectrum of people at all.” I’d argue that it does, because I know who I’m targeting. It’s not a big target, but it’s big enough to peak my interest.

What I’m saying is the term ‘big’ is relative here, your ‘big’ and mine may be different. I’m targeting people who are likely to volunteer to do some writing or people who wish to write in the future.

I figure that if you’re reading the Silhouette, there’s a good chance you’d like to contribute to it and this may be the gateway to get you started. That being said, did you know you too can volunteer and write at the Silhouette? The more you know.

So now that we’ve got the topic down, let’s get to brass tacks.

First you’re going to want to define a few things that are key to your topic. This will let the reader know exactly what you mean, thus leading to a article that people will be less likely to misinterpret.

This is especially important for an article which pretty well presents instructions. Notice above I defined and gave examples of quite a few things.

The third thing to do is to figure out the order your article is going to flow in. Don’t ever write down a step, and then refer back to another step because you forgot a step.

Got that? I know it was a lot of steps. Just in case that wasn’t clear, a good example of this would be if you were writing a “Howto-Do-It” on how to disable timed bombs and you wrote “Okay, first clip the green wire, then the red one, oh but before you do that press the orange button or it’ll explode.” See how that might be an issue?

Now, just before the final step I’d just like to throw out some writing tips in general. Despite the fact that a “How-to-Do-It” is pretty well an instruction manual, you should not write it like one.

Break up facts and long winded information with something. My personal preference is to use some sort of device that makes people laugh. I believe the modern name for that is “comedy.” I’m not sure though, you’d have to look it up.

If you have something else to break up the direct injection of information then use it. These things should be fun and interesting to read and most definitely not like a 1980’s computer manual.

You are now ready good sir or madam to write a “How-toDo-It”. The last step is to pick your favourite topic on which to impart your worldly knowledge and go forth!

My personal choice is the computer; it’s pretty neat this thing.

You can type and it corrects spelling and everything.

For those of you who don’t like computers I suggest a typewriter or pen and paper, hell use crayon and paper if you want. I don’t judge, just get out there and spread your knowledge.

JOY SANTIAGO / MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Sooner or later you’re sure to get the hang of writing.

Steer clear of the gym jitters this year SONYA KHANNA SILHOUETTE STAFF

With many weight loss goals intact for the New Year, many individuals are scrambling to purchase gym memberships. Heading to the gym this time of the year can be a daunting task for more reasons than one.

The post-holiday gym congestion as well as the frustrating, endless waits for equipment may be enough to have many pulling their hair out; however, there are a variety of reasons aside from these that may leave gym-goers in a panic.

Some individuals may feel intimidated by the mere thought of stepping into the gym, whether it may be due to the unfamiliar territory, or even due to the sheer intimidation of exercising in an open space with the obvious lack of privacy.

Although many fitness clubs set up an orientation upon purchasing a gym membership, it is often far too speedy to effec-

tively grasp the functions of the equipment. As such, confusion may prevail; this can prevent new gymgoers from attempting to use the equipment.

Fourth-year Economics student, Deanna Pan said, “I’ll go to the gym and I’m too shy to use some of the machines because I don’t want to be using them the wrong way; I basically just stick to what I already know.

“I feel like no one really teaches you how to use the equipment properly so it can be really intimidating. I think personal trainers or gym workers should show first timers how to use the equipment; there should be an assessment period where they do a little training.”

This form of gym intimidation negatively impacts individuals by potentially lowering self-esteem, as well as limiting the workout potential of gym clients due to the lack of knowledge regarding equipment usage.

Individuals are not gaining

the full benefits of their gym membership and in the long run this may discourage as well as lower gym attendance in said gym-goers.

Another form of gym intimidation includes the hardcore gym-goers. Although there are various different individuals who attend the gym, it can be disheartening to be surrounded by individuals with rock hard abs in tight, revealing clothing. Image seems to be a prevalent factor within the gym, which is why some fitness establishments, including David Bradley Athletic Centre have enforced strict fitness attire guidelines.

Fourth-year English major, Rachael Ramos stated, “some people are already so fit and you feel like they might be judging you. But gym intimidation does not affect me in a negative way; instead it pushes me to workout harder. I don’t think about those around me, I just concentrate on me and my workout.”

Although it is intimidating being surrounded by individuals

Feb. 12 Hamilton Bulldogs vs Rochester Americans Hockey Game 7 p.m. @ Copps Coliseum Feb. 13 Heritage Day Celebration @ Dundurn Castle Two for one admission Visit www.hamilton.ca for more info

with seemingly “perfect” bodies, there are gym-goers from all walks of life, and it is essential to know that everyone attending the gym was a newbie at some point and everyone is there to achieve their own personal fitness goals.

Don’t hide behind your hands when it comes to asking for help with equipment. You’re investing your money as well as time into the gym and you’re entitled to be provided with all the information necessary to make your gym experience positive.

If you are uncertain about how to use a particular piece of equipment ask an employee for a tutorial.

Although private training sessions can be costly, especially for those on a low student budget, there may be other means of overcoming potential discouragement and gym intimidation. Going to the gym with a friend will help to ease nerves and offers moral support and positive encouragement.

Your friends can help fill in the gaps when it comes to learning how to use various pieces of equipment.

If you are shy within large crowds and discouraged by the minimal privacy evident in some gyms, choose a gym that is suitable for you. Some individuals feel more comfortable working out in smaller gyms or women’s only fitness clubs.

This environment can be advantageous to gym-goers by creating a positive, stress-free environment to work out it. It also might be beneficial to choose less busy hours to attend the gym, rather than heading down during peak hours and facing the tedious crowds.

The gym should be a fun, positive environment free from discouraging externalities.

Next time you’re feeling a little uneasy about working out at the gym try to let go of your inhibitions and implement some of these tips to ensure an effective, worryfree workout.

Feb. 13 Valens Ice Fest Valens Conservation Area and Campground, includes winter family events, such as ice skating, pick-up hockey, games, wagon rides, ice cutting, and ice fishing demos www.conservationhamilton.ca

C4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

The joy of the perfect marshmallow GRACE EVANS

texture.

While store-bought marshmallows can have an unpleasantly chalky taste, and spongy and foamy texture when “raw,” the homemade version doesn’t even compare.

Make some for yourself, and impress everyone you know.

A couple of things to be aware of: this will be extremely difficult if you don’t have an electric mixer, or better yet a stand mixer, because the mixture will need to be whipped for at least ten minutes. A candy thermometer is a good idea too.

THE SILHOUETTE

Any reasonable person will know that homemade chocolate chip cookies will always taste better than their hard, crumbly store-bought counterparts.

Any reasonably confident amateur cook will attempt to make all of their meals at home, to avoid the packaged, preservative-laden store-bought concoctions, frozen, canned or otherwise. Because homemade tastes better than storebought, period.

But there are some edibles that remain largely mysterious, and reserved on a pedestal for in-store purchase. The kind of thing that you might never think to make at home.

Like marshmallows.

Remember that monthsold bag of them in your pantry, the plastic bag sticky around the edges and the marshmallows themselves chalky and stiff? You can do better than that. And you should, because homemade marshmallows are surprisingly simple to make.

Marshmallows are a deeply ingrained part of North American cultural heritage. Americans buy 90 million pounds of marshmallows every year, and spend $125 million dollars on them, according to the National Confectioners Association.

Between rocky road bars, various chocolate-smothered confections, and festive Easter Peeps, North Americans have twisted the soft, pillowy candy into countless delicious combinations.

They are intimately connected to social rituals, like the traditional toasted marshmallow around the campfire. Marshmallows are an integral ingredient to the decadent “S’more,” first cited in the Girl Scouts of America handbook, “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts” in 1927.

Originally marshmallows were made from whipping sap from the marsh mallow plant. The marsh mallow, or Althaea officinalis, is native to northern Africa and Eastern Europe. Found in marshes, the stalks are about six feet tall with

Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows 1 cup of cold water 3 tbsp powdered unflavoured gelatin (3 ½ oz packets) 2 cups granulated sugar ½ cup of corn syrup 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract icing sugar butter for greasing pan

GRACE EVANS / THE SILHOUETTE

Not only are marshmallows an important part of our social fabric, they are also a tasty treat. heart-shaped leaves and pinkish where the solidified mixture could to the quirkier Toasty Coconut and flowers. Ancient Egyptians used the be pulled out of the tubing and cut Luscious Lemony Meringue.

Their catalogue of flavours root to treat sore throats, and made into sections.

This technology was what takes an unexpected and creative candy by mixing the sap with nuts made it cost-efficient to mass-pro- turn when you discover their speand honey.

Later in the 19th century, duce marshmallows, and took them cial edition flavours: Orange Honey, French candy makers sweetened the from an expensive confection to an Strawberry Hibiscus, Gingerbread Spice and, I kid you not, Maple Basap and whipped it before forming affordable, everyday candy. it into a candy that resembles the Not only does that dated, con. powdery bag of marshmallows con- For vegetarians pining for modern marshmallow.

By the early 20th century, tain all of that history, but it is only the soft white candies of their youth, instead of using the sap, which was the beginning to the contemporary a multitude of vegetarian marshlabour intensive and difficult to ob- marshmallow scene. There is a vi- mallow companies have sprung up tain, candy makers began to use egg brant gourmet marshmallow indus- since gelatin is made from boiling try blooming. the skin, bones and tendons of aniwhites or gelatin.

While egg whites tend to Williams-Sonoma, the mals. give marshmallows a gooey texture, high-end American kitchen and New York based candy the candy makers found that gelatin houseware retailer, seasonally of- company Sweet and Sara came was able to stay spongier for longer. fers handcrafted marshmallows to about exclusively to fill the sticky

The revolution in marsh- great acclaim. void in vegetarians lives. mallow production came about in California based marsh- It might be surprising, but 1948. American Alex Doumakes mallow artisan Plush Puffs offers homemade marshmallows are not developed and patented a method to the confection in a variety of fla- that difficult to achieve. And they mass produce the confection by run- vours, from the more traditional are worth it; they taste more strongning the ingredients through tubing, Caramel Swirl and Vanilla Bean ly of vanilla with a softer, smoother

A prescribed addiction NEEPA PARIKH SHEC MEDIA

When considering drug abuse, we often think of classically illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin and crystal meth. We forget to think about drugs that are legal to possess but require a prescription. Prescription drugs are often the drug of choice due to the fact that they are easier to acquire than street drugs. However, abusing prescription drugs is just as illegal as taking street drugs.

Adolescents and young adults often take prescription drugs prescribed for their peers. In fact, a 2009 survey from the American Centers for Disease Control Prevention shows that about two out of ten teenagers have taken a prescription drug for non-medicinal purposes. This sort of drug abuse is often continued on through young adulthood and further.

The three categories of the most abused drugs are opioids (normally used to treat pain, coughs or diarrhoea), central nervous system depressants (normally used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders) and stimulants (normally used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy). Stimulants are often used by university students in the form of Ritalin and Adderall.

Stimulants work by increasing the levels of dopamine (a neurotransmitter) in your brain.

The overall effect is to create greater alertness, attention and energy. The dosage of these drugs

is usually gradually increased in order to create a therapeutic effect.

However, when not taken as prescribed by a doctor, the stimulants can have a very different effect.

The dopamine levels will increase rapidly resulting in euphoria, disruption of neural communication and an increased risk of addiction.

In colleges and universities, the abuse of Ritalin and Adderall is on the rise. The primary motive for illicit use, according to a study conducted by Professor Christian Teter of Northeastern University and his team, is to enhance academic performance. Less than a third of college and university abusers intended to get high.

The same study found that most lifetime users of the drug began using the drug while in college or university. Most users that began abuse of stimulants before college or university reported using it to get high, lose weight or to experiment.

Abusing stimulants can also result in a plethora of dangerous side-effects including heart failure and seizures. Taking large amounts of these stimulants can result in a higher body temperature and irregular heart beat. Taking repeated high dosages can result in a person feeling aggressive or paranoid.

Overdosing isn’t the only way that stimulant abuse can hurt your body. Basic science has taught us that the ingredients in these drugs can react with ingredients in other drugs and with compounds

in our bodies. Therefore, it can be incredibly risky taking multiple drugs at a time (even over-thecounter medicines such as cough medicine) or taking a drug without the proper prescription.

Before prescribing certain drugs, doctors check your medical history to ensure they are prescribing the right drug and the right dosage for you. They try to monitor you and warn you of frequent sideeffects and keep an eye on your general health. Taking these drugs without the proper medical care can be dangerous, so beware when taking drugs that are not meant for you.

Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with butter and dust it lightly with icing sugar.

Combine in 3 packets of unflavoured gelatin with ¾ cup of cold water. Let bloom for ten minutes.

In a saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and ¼ cup of water. Over medium heat bring to a boil. Boil until bubbles are large (firm-ball stage).

Use a candy thermometer to make sure that it reaches 244-246 degrees Fahrenheit. The marshmallows will be tough if it gets any hotter. Remove from heat.

In a stand mixer, mix the gelatin at medium speed, and add the syrup mixture by pouring it in a thin and steady stream.

Beat for about 10 minutes, until it is fluffy but still warm and thin enough to pour. Add the vanilla and pour into the prepared pan. Let cool completely, and cover with plastic wrap. Let dry overnight.

Dust with icing sugar and cut with a pizza cutter (or scissors) into squares. Store in an airtight container for up to one week at room temperature.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!

Practice your love poem and ballad writing skills by writing for Insideout!

Email us at insideout@thesil.ca Or come to a volunteer meeting every Monday at 2 p.m.

This is a paid advertisement from MSU Elections.

This is a paid advertisement from MSU Elections.

This is a paid advertisement from MSU Elections.

This is a paid advertisement from MSU Elections.

THE SILHOUETTE • C9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

BUSINESS

production office extension: 27117 business@thesil.ca

SIMON GRANAT BUSINESS EDITOR

In order to survive on the public market, a business needs to know a few things. They need to know who their customers are, how many customers they have, the product that they’re selling, and what that product is worth. We know that Facebook has over 500 million users, half of which login daily, and people spend a collective 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

But Facebook Inc. has a problem; no one really knows what Facebook is worth.

Sure, we can guess. We can contrive credit ratings, like the US banks or the firms who evaluated them, or just falsify records, like Enron.

But if Facebook ever seeks an initial public offering, investors will want to know: what’s Facebook worth?

The answer is around US$24 billion, according to Business Week but TechCrunch, a technology news agency, reports that the company has US$70 billion worth of shares invested in Second Market. The fact is that no one in the public knows what Facebook is worth

But what people do know is that the company’s value is growing. Just earlier this month Facebook raised US$1.5 billion from Goldman Sachs on a US$50 billion evaluation. Hidden deep within the press release for that deal, Facebook showed its hand.

“Even before the investment from Goldman Sachs, Facebook had expected to pass 500 shareholders at some point in 2011, and therefore expects to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012,” said the report.

Currently, Facebook is a private company, but rumours and speculation about a possible IPO have been circulating. An IPO would mean that the company is public and would be listed on a stock exchange index. When companies initiate an IPO they state that they are willing to give up full, private ownership of the company, in order to have the company owned or part owned by any investor who chooses to buy in.

IPOs are often used to raise money for a corporation, something that at present Facebook does not need. Often they are used for expansion, or raising funds to improve the business. But, one of the requirements the Securities and Economics Commission would demand from any company trying to initiate an IPO is a financial statement. Without such a statement the SEC is unable to put together a “red herring” or a financial prospectus and almost fully complete IPO package.

The Goldman Sachs deal may warrant raising both eyebrows. The reputations of the banks on Wall Street have been tarnished after the 2007 financial crash, especially agencies like Goldman. In addition, after the meltdown the United States government has been hesitant to administer any sort of improved financial regulation to ensure that the crash doesn’t happen again.

Second, pooled funds and joint ventures, like the money given to Facebook from Goldman, could just be one way to help skirt the requirements for an IPO by the SEC.

If and when Facebook goes public, investors should remember to keep their eyebrows raised. It may go too far to call the deal crooked, but it may be worth looking into the intricacies of Facebook’s finances, when they go public, to see how solid the company’s foundations really are, and to avoid getting burned by Wall Street.

PHOTO EDIT BY CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

MARS Apprentice kicks off seventh year SIMON GRANAT BUSINESS EDITOR

The mood was upbeat and celebratory. At 5:15 p.m. caterers busily rushed about refilling buffet stations and clearing five-inch plates.

People in skirts, suits and ties mingled amongst one another. At 6 p.m. students, faculty, alumni and parents scuttled into CIBC Hall. The festivities were about to begin.

To much fanfare and applause, the seventh season of MARS Apprentice formally kicked off with a celebration on Jan. 24, 2011. A formal reception was held before hand, and the event demonstrated the drive of students of the DeGroote School of Business.

MARS Apprentice is a student organized competition at McMaster University that pits two teams of six students head-to-head

as they go through six rounds of marketing challenges provided by corporate sponsors. This year the sponsors for the event are Pepsi, Bell, Jan Kelly Marketing and Canadian Tire.

The second challenge of this year’s competition was unveiled at the celebration. This round is sponsored by Bell Canada and the teams must design an interactive marketing approach for the line-up of Bell’s newest smart phones. In addition to offering the challenge and sponsoring the event, Bell Canada provided all 12 apprentices with a complimentary HTC Desire Z, proclaimed “the fastest smart phone yet.”

Former student Kate Morrissey conceived MARS Apprentice after watching the television show The Apprentice. She took the idea to business professor Mandeep Malik,

who turned the idea into reality.

Morrissey took in the opening celebration and explained how she came up with the idea. “So with laying awake all night thinking about this, and of course the idea was growing and growing and growing in my head, the next day I went to go see professor Malik with the idea and he immediately took the seed that I had given him and turned it into something amazing,” she said.

Professor Malik immediately fell in love with the idea and ran with it. He was driven to make MARS Apprentice something that DeGroote could hang their hat on.

He called some of his business contacts in the business community in the hopes of garnering corporate sponsorship.

“So that summer, we visited lots of offices in downtown To-

ronto pitching this idea. Being back here today seven years later I’m just floored with what it turned into,” Morissey recalled.

Flashforward seven years and Malik is still heading up MARS but he’s doing it for the students.

“It’s really what the students get out of it and the value that it creates,” said Malik. “You want them to believe in their education, you want them to know that its relevant to their futures and I think that’s what’s MARS Apprentice delivers.”

The results from the Bell Challenge will be announced at the next boardroom, the moment when the teams are adjudicated on their performance on that week’s challenge.

Boardrooms will be held on Tuesdays in the atrium of the DeGroote School of Business.

Economic Eight Ball

Analysts have predicted that China will not be doing so well financially in about five years time due to a looming economic crisis. Forty-five per cent of world economic analysts predict that lowered foreign investment will lead to a meltdown similar to the US sub prime mortgage crisis.

Sweden’s economic prowess is flying under the radar. The Swedish krona also hit a two-year high against the US dollar on Wednesday and closed in on a 10-year peak against the Euro.

[This Week in Business] A word with Paul Bates

Westdale Barber Shop

Chinese metal exports

We take a talk to Paul Bates about his recently published book,

An in depth look at one of Westdale’s top spots to take a little off the top.

Check out the Gould Trading Floor’s look at the decline of China’s main export.

Pg. C10

Pg. C11

Pg. C12

C10 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Life’s lessons learned

Raging Bull

How much is your Bates’ book gives insight to life experiences internet worth?

Cogeco’s prices too high SANTINO MARINUCCI

ASSISTANT BUSINESS EDITOR

As a student in my third year of living in student housing I have come to realize why our parents hate dealing with utility companies so much: because they are just plain awful.

Now with such a broad sweeping statement said, let me clarify which company has given myself and many others grief over the past few years. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with a C and ends in ogeco. That’s right – Cogeco.

Why have I grown to hate this company on such a massive level? Well, what originally started as a loving relationship has turned into a toxic love-hate situation, which I cannot escape from.

It all began last year when I received the paper copy of my billing statement in the mail. It stated that they will start charging a dollar for every gigabyte of bandwidth that we use over the course of one month.

Before this moment, me and Cogeco were best buddies, I had a nice internet and cable package that was reasonable and we could use as much bandwidth as we wanted without having to worry about paying a cent over the monthly price.

This is when it all began; the next month to my astonishment I saw more numbers at the end of my billing statement, $160 more, and on top of the $105 I already pay.

If your math skills are not rusty, that’s a $265 bill for one month.

Needless to say, Cogeco and I never got along much after that, and then it hit me, this is now becoming the realization of all my fellow students and all who use the internet.

This metering of internet usage will not only hit those in the student houses who have upwards of seven people using the same IP address; but also, small businesses that require larger quantities of bandwidth will be continuously gouged by cable companies who find new ways to burden us every year.

Apparently I’m not the

only one who has been lamenting over the metering of internet usage fees. Online there is a website called Open Media which is for the advancement of an open and innovative communications industry within Canada.

This advocacy group has a petition online, which is already 41,000 people strong, for the removal of these fees by cable companies.

One of the issues that they are advocating against is internet usage billing, and they are trying to influence The Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to help eliminate these fees by cable companies.

However it seems that 41,000 pissed off customers was not enough to stop such a profitable enterprise.

On Jan. 25 there was a renewal of a ruling to allow large incumbent Internet service providers (ISPs) to force usage-based billing (overage fees) onto independent competitors and Canadians.

So what does this mean exactly? Well it means that other cable conglomerates like Bell, Rogers, and Shaw have been given the green light to determine how we pay for Internet.

So this means that we Canadians should be prepared to pay even more for our internet service which we were already dissatisfied with.

As for my beef with Cogeco, it would be easy as an outsider reading this to just say, “Why doesn’t this guy just use less internet so his bandwidth is lower?”

That’s just the thing – as a student who has a heavy reliance on internet and bandwidth, who shares with 5 other people this makes about as much sense as Communism.

This method of metering internet usage not only hinders many Canadians’ ability to access affordable internet, but it’s a slippery slope that will only get slicker as time progresses.

I hope that the CRTC knocks some sense into Cogeco and all other cable companies, because it’s not like these businesses are hurting for cash.

JONATHAN FAIRCLOUGH / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Dean Bates’ book is available in Titles, as well as being on Amazon.ca and Chapters.ca.

SIMON GRANAT BUSINESS EDITOR

Life is a learning experience and nowhere is this more apparent than in What I’ve Learned So Far… and How it Can Help You: Clues to Succeeding from 50 Graduates of the School of Hard Knocks written by Dean Paul Bates and Al Emid.

The book is an anthology of 50 people and 50 stories of how these people faced, and overcame hardships in their lives. McMaster professors Nick Bontis, Mandeep Malik, and Yassar Haddar opened up and contributed their own personal stories to the collection.

Bates was inspired to write the book by his experiences teaching at the Rotman School of Business. There he found that students learned well when they were faced with guest speakers talking about their experiences in business.

“Frankly, it wasn’t just about sitting there and telling war stories, but to tell detail. What happened, how they [students] analysed what happened, what happened after as a result, all those things.”

Bates then toyed with the idea of taking these experiences out of the classroom to a larger

audience. He conceived the book, but sometimes life gets in the way.

Work, family and other commitments meant that the book took a back seat. That’s when he called up long term friend and journalist Al Emid. The two brought editor Tesed Wilmont on board to bridge the gap between the two authors’ own, unique writing styles.

A diploma from the school of hard knocks comes with its scars.

“There are stories in the book about people losing a significant number of loved ones in a short period of time, there are others suffering from depression or addiction or deep debt. In some cases they’re just tough decisions.

“You’ve got a business, in fact, I’ve experienced it, you have a payroll coming, and you’re sitting on the edge of the bed thinking, I have a payroll coming up and I don’t have enough money in the bank to make the payroll what am I going to do?” Bates said.

But in as much as the book has been about discovering the strength of others, when speaking to Bates one can’t help but feel as though the writing of the book has been a discovery of the importance of reflection.

“It’s the ability to find time on a daily basis, to be quiet and listen to the day, listen to what unfolded and listen to your own conscious to think about whether you handled the situation in a way that you liked, what you didn’t like, and what you can learn from the situation.”

Bates also stressed the importance of two other lessons he believes are important for everyone to listen to. “Even people who look as though they’ve had a really great life, when you peel back the cover there has been some big challenges.”

In as much as leaders are surrounded by a group of people, they are isolated from them. This is one of the important lessons that the book conveys to readers. “We think that leadership means that everybody is always with us, but quite often it means the reverse,” Bates said.

An important thread throughout the book is that of forgiveness. “In fact you hear this a lot in Haddar’s story, he endured severe hardship, from a professional point of view, but you know when it’s all done he says, I feel no malice. And you know, just being able to turn the page and move on.”

THE SILHOUETTE • C11

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Small Business Report

Getting a trim with the Westdale Barber Westdale has many great things to offer its residents, and a good haircut is one of them SANTINO MARINUCCI

T

ASSISTANT BUSINESS EDITOR

here are many advantages to owning a small business: you can do things the way you want to do them, and you do not have to conform to constraints that larger corporations usually have. This is especially true when you have control over your own Barber Shop.

My first impression of the shop was a very positive one; its retro feel emitted an old school style, while the welcoming vibe I got from Phil and Damian, the other barber, made me feel right at home.

The Westdale Barber Shop is one of the many gems on the Westdale strip. I had the pleasure of getting my hair cut by Phil Angemi, the owner of the shop, who gave me a detailed account of their history in Westdale.

He explained that the shop had been around since 1959 and had been under his ownership since 1999.

After I had given Phil the details of what kind of haircut I wanted he was already a step ahead of me, with him suggesting what buzzer size would be better, and why the use of clippers is a more precise way of cutting your hair.

Phil then told me about how he came to own the barbershop, “There is a hair salon upstairs, I used to apprentice at, it was called the Westside Hair Company and my boss was the owner of the building.

When the barbershop went up for sale there was only one owner from 1959-1999 and he had sold the shop before I had started apprenticing to another person. I was in the right place at the right time, just finishing hair school when my boss was nice enough to offer me the barbershop.”

Phil explained that this was a large risk on his part because he was only 22-years-old at the time and had just finished his apprenticeship. However, things seem to be going well for Phil, as he is going on his 10th year of business in the shop.

Now, about halfway through my haircut, I asked the entrepreneurial barber if the Westdale community has been good to him over the years.

“Yeah we have been very lucky, and every day we are opening our doors, 5 days a week and the community has been great. The McMaster community has changed over the years, but it has always

been there, along with the Westdale residents that live around here. They have been really loyal, making this a great place to work.”

When I asked if he ever thought of expanding the shop from its cozy size to something bigger, Phil explained, “I have thought about it, but I don’t think that it is really the right thing to do here because it takes away from the character of the shop. Also, once we break a wall down or something like that, it immediately changes the integrity.”

After asking about expansion of the shop, Phil went on to mention that the shop historically has been a two barber operation with only two chairs going at one time. Needing another chair or an expansion has never really worked in the past so they generally stick to what works.

The Westdale Barbershop takes pride not only in being a great place to get your hair cut, but also a hangout for guys to sit, shoot the shit, and relax in the man cave-like atmosphere while you get your trim.

“We kept it a barbershop, so we primarily do men’s hair, this has kind of turned into a man cave where guys can come and just talk about nothing.”

Nearing the end of my haircut, we began to discuss the importance of having barbers today and how misconceptions have shaped many places like his, alienating them from hair salons.

“I guess there are stereotypes that go along with barbers, like they are going to cut your hair too short, they are going to pull out the clippers no matter what, but we like to keep some of the old traditions like the shaves, and all the cool stuff. Also Damian [the other barber] has a talent for hair tattooing and can do all these crazy designs; there is really nothing we cannot do.”

Phil made it clear that barbers should not all be painted with one bold stroke and that they are multi-talented, like many of the stylists at salons are.

As I exited my chair, satisfied with my haircut I realized that there is so much more to just getting my hair cut than looking great. It is the atmosphere and individuals you get to have work on your hair that make all the difference.

We all cannot be as lucky to have a barber like Phil, but if you have the chance you would be crazy not to take it.

JOY SANTIAGO / MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Bull:

General Electric

(NYSE: GE)

It looks like more people are buying refrigerators and jet engines. After a series of dismally disappointing quarterly reports, General Electric gave investors good news this past week. The company reported a 51 per cent jump in profit to US$4.53 billion. The following day, investors responded by bumping up the share price just over seven per cent from about US$18.50 to US$20 per share.

Bear:

Starbucks

(NYSE:SBUX) First the price of my trenta, half whip, 140 degree, triple-frothed, half-sweet skinny mochachino goes up in price, the company changes their logo and now the company announces that their full year profit may be lower than expected, despite stores that have been open longer than 13 months having an average sale increase of five per cent. Shares in the Union Market might be a little less volatile.

C12 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011

Gould Trading Floor

The dirt on Chinese exports

Mid- Week Chinese raw metal exports may see a decline in 2011 Market Summary International Indices The world’s major equity indices ended the week largely down, with America’s Dow Industrial Average and the Chinese Shanghai Composite Index were the only gainers, having risen 0.29 and 0.32 per cent respectively. Last week’s principal laggers were the NASDAQ Composite Index and Mexico’s Bolsa Index, which lost 2.76 and 2.04 per cent respectively.

North America North American markets sank on disappointing earnings from major American financial services firms.

Goldman Sachs, the country’s largest investment bank and long the Chinese exports of rare earth metals are forecasted to be on the most profitable firm on Wall Street the world that rely on these rare saw profits fall by half on decreased JAGAN SHARMA THE SILHOUETTE earth metals to perform their core profits from fixed income trading, business functions could face huge one of the firm’s specialties The slow decline and eventual challenges.

Some of these challenstandstill of some of China’s rare Oil earth metal exports is a rough way ges include huge price increases as supply decreases, lack of parts to Crude oil futures fell from its 52- to ring in the new year.

The Chinese economy acuse in innovative initiatives, and a week high of US$91.86 to US$89.11 per barrel, while gold continued its counts for over 95 per cent of rare potential halt in production, which slide, falling to US$1348.65/troy earth metal production in the world. can be disastrous to some organizaounce as of close on Friday, Jan. 21. Halting could deal a severe blow to tions. the world economy, which could be The development of green potentially lethal with so many fraenergy, as well as other technoloPonzi Trial gile economies around the world. gies, may be slowed. Consequently, These rare earth metals are this steep decline in rare earth metal The trial of Allen Stanford began used in the production of flat screen exports affects many other induson Jan. 24. Mr. Stanford is accused TV’s, cell phones, wind turbines, tries apart from mining. of having run a US$7 billion Ponzi and many other luxuries that Can- Luckily, there are two scheme through his bank in Anadians enjoy. sides to every coin. Though China’s tigua.

Therefore, a significant actions will leave a large void to fill number of manufacturers around in the earth metal trade, there are

The Personal Injury Lawyers

Our Team... On Your Side.

STEPHANIE WERNER

PAT LENNON

ROB FINDLAY

SARA JONES

KATIE SANDFORD

Operating an Uninsured Car: If a driver suffers injuries in an accident in which he knowingly was driving a car that was not insured under a liability policy, he cannot sue anyone for recovery of his personal injury damages. That driver would also be excluded from recovering important No-Fault Benefits, including, if he was working, Income Replacement Benefits. All this would be in addition to penalties and fines for violations of the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act.

CAR ACCIDENTS & OTHER INJURIES

TRUTH • JUSTICE • SAFETY

www.FindlayLaw.ca

decline in 2011. also some positive opportunities that may arise. Companies such as Toyota are already adapting to this new market and are beginning to phase out the use of rare earth metals in their products. Also, this leaves room for the smaller companies in the industry to pick up some of the slack and perhaps gain market share.

Lynas Corporation, a rare earth metal miner based in Australia, is projected to start production in the second half of the year.

North American projects will take a little more time, and intense preparation will be on the agenda for them this year.

The Japanese, who imported 30 per cent of these metals, are said to hold a large stockpile

of rare earth metals that can potentially allow them to wait out this steep decline. However, the same cannot be said about American companies, which supposedly keep very small supplies stockpiled.

Many people believe that the decline in rare earth metal is a retaliation to the U.S. claim that the Chinese have breached World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing their exports and limiting their imports.

This may be a display by the Chinese to showcase their new economic power and the pull that they have in the global economy.

What remains to be seen is how long the implications of this bold move will continue to reverberate.

the yellow wallpaper • the golden dogs mother of invention • oscar predictions

andex

thursday, january 27, 2011

Senior Editor: Roxanne Hathway-Baxter Entertainment Editor: Myles Herod Music Editor: Dan Hawie Contributors: Chris Hoy, Mike Gallant, Eric Williams, Aaron Joo, Ariel Fisher, Colin Leggett, Melissa Lang, John Pendlton, Jonathon Fairclough

Cover: Jonathon Fairclough

in the hammer jan.27

The Golden Dogs The Casbah 8:00 p.m.

jan.28

The Orphans This Ain’t Hollywood 9:00 p.m.

jan.29

Das Racist This Ain’t Hollywood 9:00 p.m.

feb. 3

Run With The Kittens Corktown Pub 8:00 p.m.

feb.7

Jim Bryson The Casbah 8:00 p.m.

feb.8

Julie Doiron The Casbah 8:00 p.m.

feb. 9

music

Heart Hamilton Place Studio 7:30 p.m.

theatre opening

a million notifications, the good old days, beating conjuctivitus, gunter, the handsome and the useless, drumsticks, frozen eatmores, running chairman, santino’s free haircut, family’s best, stimulating students, frankenstein hawie, rose petals everywhere, erection day, the subpar purple skittle, breaking, harvest burger: you’ve been schooled

this week

An Evening With Vincent Van Gogh McMaster University Kenneth Taylor Hall B135 1280 Main Street West (905) 525-9140

film opening

now

andy’s ticks

The Mechanic The Rite Biutiful

the right thing is to write things

preferably in this publication

meetings are held on mondays at 2:00pm in musc b110 e-mail your submissions to andy@thesil.ca

did you know that some female penguins trade sexual acts for pebbles to build their nests? fly me to the moon, pingu. musc b110.

column

thursday, january 27, 2011

f.u.b.a.r.

a truly spirited performance. Too bad, because he’ll be starring next as Peter Parker in the newly rebooted Spidereditorial column Man franchise. Let’s myles herod hope his career doesn’t go the same way as Toby Amongst a groundswell of anticipa- McGuire’s.

Leading the Oscar pack tion, the 83rd annual Oscar nomi- nations arrived on Tuesday morn- with 12 nominations, including ing with the conventional mixture three acting categories, is The King’s Speech – a seemingly stuffy British of predictability and surprises.

David Fincher’s The Social bore from the exterior. To actually Network was awarded eight nomi- watch it though, you’d find a sunations, with screenwriter Aaron perb tale of inspiration.

It’s interesting to recall Sorkin and composer Trent Reznor receiving their expected dues, but Colin Firth from before, and his astonishingly only picked-up one progression to now. Once relegated acting nod for Jesse Eisenberg’s por- to Jane Austin adaptations and sectrayal of Facebook founder, Mark ond banana to Hugh Grant, he has quietly become America’s new BritZuckerberg.

No surprise there though, ish darling, supplemented with his first Oscar nomination in 2009’s he was a shoe-in from day one.

The glaring omissions A Single Man. Now, with his role stem from not only long-shot hope- as stammering King George VI, fuls such as Justin Timberlake and Firth has fully arrived, lending his Armie Hammer, but more notably talents to a character of dismay and Andrew Garfield, playing website redemption. If I were a betting man, co-founder Eduardo Saverin, along- I’d put money on him to win.

Equally, if not more strikside Eisenberg’s conniving anti-he- ing, is Geoffrey Rush, nominated ro.

In fact, one could argue for Best Supporting Actor as King that Garfield’s role embodied the George’s speech therapist, Lionel heart of the film, with his misfor- Logue.

A chameleon-like thespitunes earning sympathies through

an, he slips into his role with passion and gusto, guiding us with the King as we too find confidence and voice from our theatre seats. A win won’t come easy though, as Christian Bale from The Fighter remains the one to beat.

Speaking of that particular film, its infamous director David O. Russell (known for an on-set scuffle with George Clooney during Three Kings) is back in full form, and first ever nomination, constructing a loose and quirky sport’s biography.

Christian Bale’s depiction of factual fighter turned crack addict, Dicky Ecklund, is a tour de force of twitchy realism. His presence, which is not The Fighter’s focal point per say, is at least its foundation. Also nominated, and quite good, are Amy Adams and Mellissa Leo, two street savvy women that mother the men of this boxing universe.

The remaining nominations for best picture, now encompassing the ten best, opposed to five, are perceptive, albeit anticipated choices in the realm of American filmmaking.

127 Hours is more James Franco’s picture than anything else.

His acknowledgment for Best Actor was very deserving, yet virtually squashed in terms of chances since

the big tickle

the silhouette’s art & culture magazine • D3 accepting hosting duties come February’s televised broadcast.

Perhaps they should have him read the envelope for his competitive category?

The Kids are Alright was simply … alright. A good first half that loses its edge upon the arrival of the womanizing sperm donor, Mark Ruffalo. With that said, Annette Bening as family patriarch is excellent. She stands as Natalie Portman’s only obstacle in winning Best Actress for Black Swan – truly the only award I see Darren Aronofsky’s ballet mind trip conquering.

Let’s talk upsets though.

Firstly, Ryan Gosling was criminally overlooked for Blue Valentine; a travesty almost. While Michelle Williams was rewarded as one half of the film’s on screen marriage, both Gosling and Derek Cianfrance’s screenplay demanded better. It’s a film I’ll never forget.

A personal favourite, but neglected choice, was Vincent Cassel in Black Swan – whose serpentine manipulation pulsated through the film with a grounded urgency.

Another omission was Christopher Nolan, whose great Inception was given best picture approval, but shafted for his visionary precision. When will they give this guy a break?

While some scoffed at the lack of attention given to Paul Giamatti in the Canadian produced Barney’s Version, I feel what we received in return was a befitting alternative: a foreign language nomination for the gripping Incendies out of Quebec. A slow and potent burn.

The Academy Awards greatest achievement for 2010 was actually in its compilation of documentaries, shedding light on two invaluable pieces of work.

In Restrepo, we follow a platoon of American soldiers to what is dubbed “the most dangerous place on earth,” Afghanistan’s Korangal Valley. Capturing a year of duty with these men, we watch them both triumph and die before our eyes. It’s the best war film I’ve ever seen.

More lighthearted, but equally impressive is Exit Through the Gift Shop, directed by the reclusive artist Banksy. A huge proponent of the film and its playfully deceptive qualities, I’m overly ecstatic with its inclusion to the Academy’s shortlist. And if it’s to win, who knows what Banksy has planned?

In any case, it’s sure to be a highlight amongst the traditional formalities of Feb. 27, 2011.

what do you think should win best picture?

compiled by tyler hayward & myles herod

“inception”

“inception” natasha fieger

“the fighter”

“toy story 3” jordan perry

francis jun

“the social network” aemal akhtar

victoria mcclure

D4 • the silhouette’s art & culture magazine

film

thursday, january 27, 2011

3D technology: friend or foe?

One of the issues surrounding cinema today is the misuse of certain technological advancements. 3D films have become rampant, a growing trend that is both loved and loathed in equal measure. Such cinephiles as Roger Ebert have described the gratuitous use of 3D in cinema, as well as the conversion of non-3D films in postproduction, as “a waste of a perfectly good dimension.” However, when certain auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog are beginning to venture into the third dimension, its credibility must be called into question.

When such technology falls into the wrong hands, it no longer serves as an aesthetic means of furthering the plot, but rather becomes a smokescreen. The cleverest, and easily the most expensive example of this to date is James Cameron’s Avatar. A beautiful, visually stunning movie, Cameron did things with CGI and 3D technology that had never been done before. However, the plot behind Avatar is as prosaic as they come.

Whether deliberately or accidentally, it blatantly rips off aspects of Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas, and Fern Gully, to name a few.

When Oscar time came around, so few people picked at the lack of originality of the plot, or the shoddy writing of the script.

The creativity behind Avatar stopped with the visual aesthetics of the film, which served

to disguise the film’s shortcomings.

The conversion of 2D films into the third dimension in postproduction is further emphasis on the trend’s lack of credibility.

The act itself reads as a sloppy attempt to keep up with the trends as opposed to a genuine creative decision. The go-to example of one of the ultimate 3D failures is the Clash of the Titans from 2010. The script was terrible, the acting mediocre, and the graphics (pre3D) were flashy and empty. By converting it to 3D they accomplished nothing other than making the terrible film jump off the screen.

This new trend is also beginning to leech onto films of the past. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have together managed to simultaneously titillate and enrage their fans by deciding to rerelease the entire Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises in 3D.

Lucas has come to be regarded as a bit misguided in the past decade, with his decisions to hack away at the original Star Wars trilogy and add in digitally rendered scenes.

Just because the technology is available does not merit tampering with an iconic series.

Lucas is first and foremost a boy playing with very expensive toys.

However, Spielberg should have known better, both with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and this newest bout of insanity. Indiana was beloved when he was simply two-

dimensional, he doesn’t need to have a third dimension thrust upon him.

However, in spite of the negative aspects, the third dimension of cinema is not always used poorly, and can add impact to certain genres. TRON (1982), for instance, was made with the best technology that was available at the time, as it is a science fiction film based in a world of technology.

Twenty-eight years later TRON: Legacy utilized the newest technology in order to create more convincing fantasy around the original premise. Though neither film is particularly intellectually stimulating, given their action and science fiction roots, they benefitted from using the most technologically advanced options available.

Werner Herzog is taking his foray into documentary film to an entirely different plane. With Caves of Forgotten Dreams, which premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, Herzog gets full access to Chauvet caves of Southern France, the home of the worlds oldest pictorial drawings.

The trailer for the film heightens expectations, as Herzog intends to fully submerse his audience in a way that 3D may amplify.

Asides from Herzog’s expedition, Martin Scorsese has embraced the trend, and will be releasing Hugo Cabret in 3D in December of 2011. Stating that “It’s only

natural that we’d be going in that direction,” regarding the shift to 3D cinema, he states his only concern is the maneuverability of the camera, a valid concern for such an esteemed auteur.

In spite of all the pros and the cons, the judgment calls and the experimentation, Roger Ebert may yet be vindicated. Having received a letter from film editor Walter Murch, the man who invented the term Sound Designer, and won Oscars for editing such films as Apocalypse Now and The English Patient, it seems the debate may be over with.

Murch proves with a solid explanation that 3D cinema simply does not work with the human brain. Based on the way we filter information and register distance, along with the expectations of 3D films, he describes the process as akin to “tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult.” This is in part why so many people suffer motion sickness and headaches from watching 3D films.

As Murch himself says, “So: dark, small, stroby, headache inducing, alienating.

And expensive. The question is: how long will it take people to realize and get fed up?”

How long, indeed.

• Ariel Fisher

feature

thursday, january 27, 2011

the silhouette’s art & culture magazine • D5

not so silent

director kevin smith explores a new medium with podcasts For director Kevin Smith, everything started with the decision to drop out of the Vancouver film school.

Upon returning to his home in New Jersey, Smith began work on a pet project. It cost $28,000 and was shot on location in a convenience store, in black and white because it was cheaper. That project was Smith’s first film, Clerks, and its success allowed him to continue making films and making waves in Hollywood.

Smith may be a filmmaker by trade, but he is not limited by his occupational title in the least. Other than writing and directing films, Smith also finds time to write comics, hold Q & As in venues such as Roy Thomson Hall and Carnegie Hall, and host a wildly popular podcast.

The program, known as SModcast, is hosted by Kevin Smith and his longtime friend and producer Scott Mosier.

The podcast is sometimes thoughtprovoking and always hilarious, with Mosier

serving as a low-key Yin to Smith’s enthusiastic Yang. Together the two have conversations that cover everything from movies to music to whether you would have a threesome with yourself and your wife if you had access to a time machine.

Smith has said that the podcast started out as an excuse to get together with Mosier and just talk, but it has since become something much bigger.

SModcast has grown from one show into an entire podcast network, paving the way for other podcast networks to follow.

The SModcast network currently has seven shows running regularly, including Tell ’Em Steve Dave!, Hollywood Babble-on, Malcolm Ingram: Blow Hard, and Jay and Silent Bob Get Old.

The shows are all free for download, and earn money from sponsors such as Audible, adamandeve.com, and Fleshlight, who were so happy to be mentioned in Zack and Miri Make A Porno that, in the summer of

2010, they offered to be the first SModcast’s first sponsor.

Smith has a following of loyal fans but, like all filmmakers, he also has his critics. After the release of his last film, Cop Out, Smith was lambasted by the entertainment media for making such a terrible movie.

Recently he told Marc Maron in an interview on the WTF podcast that he was so sick of the shallow nature of entertainment reporting that he planned to make only one more film after his upcoming Red State before retiring from filmmaking and focusing solely on running the SModcast empire.

Podcasting isn’t the final frontier for the SModcast name, though. Smith plans to self-finance and promote Red State and release it independently as the first film under the SModcast Pictures banner.

Whether this move will garner success remains to be seen, but it is true to Smith’s independent roots and his desire to create new media for his fans.

When SModcast was on a live tour in several cities across the United States, Smith realized that doing the podcast live was a completely different experience.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Smith bought and opened a small theatre and dubbed it the “SModcastle.” Several podcasts are recorded live at the SModcastle, including Tom Green’s podcast and many of the shows in the SModcast network.

Smith may be tired of the entertainment industry, but he hasn’t grown bored with his fans or the support they give him.

Despite having been deemed “too fat to fly”

by Southwest Airlines, he is showing no sign of slowing down, and his optimism and enthusiasm is unmatched.

SModcast is available on iTunes and updates weekly on Sunday nights. If you like your humour conversational and off-thecuff, then it’s definitely worth checking out.

•

Colin Leggett

D6 • the silhouette’s art & culture magazine

film

invent

thursday, january 27, 2011

destiny

andy chats with the director and lead of faux-documentary, the mother of invention The Mother of Invention, a faux-documentary on the trials and tribulations of Vincent Dooly, an aspiring and quirky inventor, has taken both the indie film world and online viral community by storm. Operating on a modest budget (even by indie film standards) and including notable actors such as Jimmi Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Kevin Corrigan (The Departed), and Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes), this extremely spontaneous comedy has all the ingredients for a soon-to-be cult film.

Last week, ANDY chatted with director Joseph Petrick, as well as the star of the film Andrew Bowser (playing Dooly) to ask them about their success, as well as how the original idea for the film came about.

He explained, “We initially met in film school in New York City. After that was done we began to collaborate together in the Washington, DC area … where we ended up making our first short film. We brought it to California, hoping to get picked up at the Sundance festival. It was around this time that Joseph starte writing The Mother of Invention, our first full-length feature film.”

The indie film industry has taken

a massive turn in the last couple of years.

Though submitting films into festivals to build exposure was the norm, Bowser and Petrick explained that the “old way” wasn’t the most effective in getting attention for the film.

Petrick explained, “Once we realized that getting into Sundance was nearly impossible for someone who didn’t have many connections for getting into that sort of microcosm we realized we needed another option.

“So when people started to get interested in the clips we were putting online, that ending up being one of the main ways of how we connected to a large fan base of any kind.

It’s been wonderful to have that.”

The Mother of Invention has the interweb, namely viral video marketing to thank for its newfound success. Beginning with only a sparse audience, Petrick and Bowser turned to the use of viral video sites to gain a larger fan base and cult following.

“Our goal was to try and get some kind of grassroots following on some level.

We didn’t know what to expect, or what sort of direction we were going in. We posted clips online and based our next move on the reac-

tion that those clips got in terms of marketing.”

He continued, “We had a friend who worked in marketing, promoting websites and blogs, he pushed it to a few sites and that’s when break.com, digg.com caught onto the clips. The major difference was when ebaumsworld.com picked it up and posted it. They weren’t sure if they knew the Dooly character was real, and because of that it went viral.”

Petrick attributed the burst in appeal over the online videos to Bowser’s performance. Playing a bizarre, socially awkward, underachieving inventor, Bowser is the central figure of The Mother of Invention – his acting skills melding all aspects of the film into one congruent, hilarious, and extremely believable “faux documentary.”

Bowser explained the development of his character and how many people were fooled by his acting performance. “Many people think that this was a character that had been in the works for a long time. I just started acting it out, based on the dialogue.

It took five months, but I was pretty obsessed with working on it. Since then we made

a pilot after MTV got in contact with us.

They thought Dooly was a real person, and thought he would be a good host for a television show.”

To finish the interview I asked Petrick what his inspiration was for creating the film and if there was a personal aspect to its creation. He emphasized the running allegory behind the script about artists, especially filmmakers attempting to make it in the industry.

“We came out here with a short film that we made, with a bunch of dreams and misconceptions about the way the film industry worked, especially concerning taking the ‘Sundance route’ to getting our films made.

Dooly represents guys like us, who don’t have a lot of money but have a lot of passion in their industry.”

He added, “Our generation grew up thinking, ‘if you don’t succeed in this way, you’re nothing.’ I really think it’s important for people to grow up and figure out a new way to define success in which we don’t all end up as failures.”

•

Jonathon Fairclough

theatre

thursday, january 27, 2011 Thursday, Jan. 20 saw the premiere of the Theatre & Film Program’s Honours Performance Series, launching with an adaptation of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The directors Emiliano BadilloBravin, Matt Bandura and Kristi Boulton had a considerable challenge in expanding a fifteen-page story to just over an hour of stage time. They are to be commended for adapting the original story of a female ostracized and marginalized by society and its preconceived notions of women’s mental health.

The confrontation of this task is compounded when we consider that it is Gilman’s unreliable narrator who frames the story through a series of journal entries, with only fleeting mentions of other characters. Within the narrative, Charlotte’s husband John, a physician — played by Jimmy Skembaris — has opted to relocate the family to a rented colonial mansion for the betterment of Charlotte’s mental health.

Alongside John is the family doctor, Henry (Justin Nusca), his wife Rachel (Carly Pokoradi) and the housekeeper Jenny (Samantha Curtin). As the story progresses, Charlotte plunges deeper and deeper into her paranoid delusions and obsessions about the yellow wallpaper in her room. Its appearance smells, and slowly conjures in Charlotte’s mind vivid hallucinations that ultimately manifest as a woman’s figure (Sarah Granger).

Zoë Godfrey-Davies starred as Charlotte, a role that she portrayed with excellence. Godfrey-Davies was consistent in her performance, enhancing the part with idiosyncratic elements that made the role believable and realistic. However, the only critique that I can express (and this is obviously nit-picking) is that Godfrey-Davies occasionally threw in a slight “head-shake” that proved to be a distraction at moments of expository monologue.

Nit-picking aside, Godfrey-Davies is to be applauded for rendering a compelling portrait of an individual plagued by an era where women were expected to be the perfect housewives. However, when a play is a critique of antiquated ideology, an actress is not required to imbue a performance with distinctive and contemporary personal movements. The issues at hand — patriarchal dominance and ignorance — are obvious and I feel as though they would be better suited to being unleashed on a more submissive, “culturally obedient” Charlotte.

The supporting actresses — Samantha Curtin as the maid Jenny and Carly Pokoradi as Rachel — performed well as women confined to the expected roles of the time period. Epitomizing their respective purposes was a scene in which Charlotte struggles to pay attention or take seriously the overly-domesticated banter

between Jenny and Rachel. Aided with non-diegetic sound effects, an illusion was created where both of their dialogue was replaced with muffled dross, an anomalous moment of comic relief in an otherwise serious play.

Jimmy Skembaris depicted an overbearing husband easily dissuaded from following his own experience as a physician.

He did an excellent job with a difficult part to play — the character of John is reprehensible in his indifference and unwillingness to disobey the advice of his colleague Henry (Justin Nusca). What struck me as perplexing about Skembaris’s interpretation was the general lack of affection toward his wife. In the performance, I was hard pressed to find any moment of emotional tenderness until the hopelessness of Charlotte’s condition was apparent. Only in the denouement did I find Henry attempting to embrace Charlotte in a last-ditch effort to retain their relationship.

Skembaris’s performance could have used more variety in the depiction of a husband who is pragmatic and loving simultaneously: obviously, John is a man who wanted to “fix” his wife, but any evidence of affection was masked until the later moments of the play when Charlotte is shown to be a completely lost cause.

Justin Nusca’s performance as Henry, the scrutinizing physician, was well played. With dialogue that could easily be over-performed, he achieved a delicate balance between stereotypical villainy and subtle pragmatism. The hypocrisy of the male figurehead became fairly obvious in the way his character was written. Not only is Henry a physician who over-prescribes medicinal cures, he also has a reputation to maintain. Nusca was able to take on the role of a close-minded egotist with believability, entertaining the audience from start to finish with an excellent performance.

Near the conclusion, a remarkable and effective depiction of Charlotte’s hopelessness occurred when the flat — bound with the wallpaper — pivoted on a downward angle as she forfeits all remnants of her sanity. It was this sudden and unexpected reduction of space in combination with eerie soundtrack that resulted in a perfect moment of cosmic horror. In fact, I didn’t want it to end.

As I understand, the Honours Performance Series plays are restricted to a running length of just over one hour, which is unfortunate because what was happening was deserved of a running time of at least two hours.

•

the silhouette’s art & culture magazine • D7

jaundice is no laughing matter honours performance series launches with “the yellow wallpaper”

Parker Martin farhang ghajar/ the silhouette

D8 • the silhouette’s art & culture magazine

television

thursday, january 27, 2011

seasoned to perfection

the simpsons series hasn’t passed its expiration date The Simpsons’ general decline has been stated so often that it can be considered pop culture fact, but this season things have really been rejuvenated. So here’s the scoop.

Someone must have said something like, “Ok, we’ve got this mythic franchise here, but it’s sick. We should either kill it off or give it steroids.”

Thankfully, they chose option two.

First of all, the opening sequences have gotten a huge boost with all sorts of new and rotating features. Having reviewed every single couch gag and episode, this season has greatly improved this aspect of the show. In particular, the one from season 22 episode three is one of the most amazing ones ever.

Less familiar characters are getting larger roles, while old favourites like Apu are developing new features. Celebrities are often worked into episodes, and one of the best all time examples happened in this season with guest stars from Flight of the Conchords. Un-

like many cameo appearances, it’s obvious they took part in helping to develop and write their roles in the episode and the results were sublime. Usually the musical episodes are weak and shallow, but this one is truly excellent.

If it feels like the show has lost its edge, it’s only because the ground has shifted.

Recall that when the show came out, it was a biting satire of popular culture that really pushed the limits. It may not be as political as South Park, and it doesn’t have Stewie, but when it came out, there was nothing else like it on TV. Parents were actually sincerely concerned about their kids watching it.

Even today there are kids at least as old as seven who are forbidden to watch it for fear it may provoke subversive thoughts and behaviour. It seems laughable in the context of contemporary entertainment, but that just shows you how far the ball has moved since this entertainment vanguard broke out in

1989. Bart Simpson is the only fictional character on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most important people for the 20th century.

The first couple seasons were the most trying to watch, but at the time it was still the best thing on TV. While the characters have stayed the same age, their world has grown and changed with ours. While early animation is poor in comparison to later seasons, the quality of writing was better. The show is often said to have peaked at season nine, but in every season there are certainly a few gems.

The decline in quality was gradual. It’s hard to pick a particular moment where Homer jumped the shark, but in general, a massive turning point came in 1998 with the tragic death of Saturday Night Live legend Phil Hartman. “The man of a thousand voices” was a real backbone in the first 10 seasons who surely would have gone on to entertain for decades had he not been murdered by his

wife. With his death, the show lost a lot of much-loved characters like Troy McLure and Lionel Hutz, not to mention dozens of oneoff rolls like the Monorail Guy.

On the whole, seasons 17 through 21 lacked a certain something; there were probably a dozen good episodes in that stretch. By now, feeling betrayed by lazy writers, many have come to the conclusion that the show has explored every possible avenue.

They think that the concept is tired. But they are wrong!

Season 22 proves that there are still passionate writers with new ideas expanding the enormous boundaries of the Simpsons mythology. If this were an early season, it would be hailed as the best of all time. While the show’s popularity has certainly peaked in terms of ratings, perhaps creatively speaking, the best is yet to come.

•

Eric Williams

under the radar

thursday, january 27, 2011

off the web

futureale futureale.com

Futureale is an online Toronto-based magazine that centres on the arts, culture and lifestyles of the bustling Torontonian metropolis. It’s a great place for local artists to gain recognition for their hard-earned work. The website layout is worthy of high repute and my life is bro is visually appetizing. However don’t take my mylifeisbro.com word for it, take a look for yourself, support “Yo, dude, bro, guy. You gotta check out this your local community and become cultured. website. It’s kind of like FML but not all emo • Melissa Lang and shit.” In all seriousness, mylifeisbro.com presents humourous musings that may or may not be true involving the misadventures of the collar-popping, weight-lifting, womanizing subset of humans known affectionately as ‘bros’. “For real, this site is more chill than a tall boy of natty ice, yo.”

•

the silhouette’s art & culture magazine • D9

this guy’s pet peeves thisguyspetpeeves.com

zoomdoggle zoomdoggle.com

We’ve all got beef, it’s just that a lot of us can’t articulate our beef properly in a blog format. Luckily, there are some internet-savvy individuals who can turn the mundane and annoying aspects of life into a website for you to peruse. That’s exactly what this blog is, it’s just a guy’s pet peeves. Be warned, there are several obscure examples of pet peeves on this website and when you read them, you’re going to start noticing them, and then you’re never going to be the same easy-going person again.

This website’s masthead proclaims that it is more fun than work, which isn’t a really tough designation to achieve. However, it succeeds in providing the bored employee or student with more procrastinations than you could possibly know what to do with. These procrastinations come in the form of games, videos, and articles. If you need a break from endlessly lurking the popular girl from high school’s tagged photos on Facebook, check out zoomdoggle.

• Roxanne Hathway-Baxter

• Roxanne Hathway-Baxter

Colin Leggett

the beat get your scene points!

it tastes like chicken Bedazzled has-been rapper Flavor Flav is going to open his own line of fried chicken restaurants in the most bedazzled and opulent state, Iowa. He will use the culinary degree that he received over 30 years ago and inject his apparently delicious, and slightly curious, special recipe into every breast and thigh. Move over Colonel Sanders, there’s a new poultry magnate on the scene.

ciao jersey shore

reality, i’m listening

lucy in the sky with a master’s degree

Just like a rash that one of the cast members surely has, Jersey Shore is spreading. A fourth season of the reality show set to film in the spring has been announced and will be taking the gang to Italy. This will surely open the door to The Situation likening a certain appendage to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Snooki will almost certainly throw up every type of pasta the country has to offer.

Kelsey Grammer is going through a messy divorce from his wife, Camille Grammer, who appears on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Nasty names and terrible rumours are being thrown around. Apparently Dr. Frasier Crane likes to dress up as a lady in the bedroom, who knew? Grammer is taking the most logical step to dealing with a bad breakup and making a reality show. Kelsey Grammer Eye For The Straight Guy? A Shot at Love with Kelsey Grammer? I know I’m excited.

In conjunction with the infectious reincarnation of Beatles mania spreading through just about any social media outlet these days, the academic circles have jumped in the wankpile by providing master’s degrees for any superfan to undertake. If you’re willing to sink thousands of pounds into substantiating your expertise on obscure B-sides and whatever’s in Ringo’s medicine cabinet, then Liverpool Hope University’s MA program, “The Beatles, Popular Music and Society” is right up your alley. Best of all, its first graduate is Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy, a former Miss Canada finalist, who insists that it’s absolutely academic. Absolutely. Be proud, fellow Canucks.

• Dan Hawie & Roxanne Hathway-Baxter

D10 • the silhouette’s art & culture magazine

come on, feel the noise

andy explores the noise genre’s burgeoning appeal through today’s music

music The classification of noise is a near impossibility. It exists in a variety of forms, taking and sharing elements with many other genres. Generally it can be identified by music that uses cacophony or dissonance, distortion and feedback, and occasionally electronic sounds with digital instruments.

But take my word; you’ll know true noise when you hear it.

Just think of the word noise and what it suggests. Still, it is the purest form of expression in music, a diverse and expansive genre of many subdivisions, and as such, it primarily remains unscathed by the mainstream music industry today. At the bottom of everything noise is about disorder and unconventional creativity, and its innovative, yet deliberate “unpleasantness,” which makes it particularly difficult to sell as a commodity to a majority of consumers.

Short history lesson: early 19th and 20th century classical music is where noise really started. Many composers, like Claude Debussy and John Cage who were actively involved in the avant-garde, composed musical interpretations of the ideologies behind the cultural movements of their time. Their radical accomplishments then carried over to subsequent generations.

For example, Cage’s music style involved using random items to create sounds (from conch shells to plants), a technique I’m sure many of you recognize since it was adopted by numerous musicians thereafter. Musicians embraced the creative process as a whole and noise became a lifestyle, which is echoed in the punk movement. Consequently, it wasn’t uncommon to see performance and visual art encompassed into noise music.

The genre then expanded into very different realms with experimental projects set by many significant people from the ’60s-’80s stretch – Frank Zappa, Lou Reed, Thurston Moore, and even John Lennon and Yoko Ono, to mention a few.

Most of these projects pushed noise to its boundaries, which garnered critical responses from the likes of journalist Billy Altman, who once called Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music “ear-wrecking electronic sludge.” With such prominent figures dabbling in it, it wasn’t long until Japan picked up after the movement.

And indeed for the last 30 years, bands based in The Land of the Rising Sun have been major contributors to the noise scene. Culturally, Japan is a place of a syncretic nature, or in other words it takes elements from other countries and homogenizes them within their own.

Take for evidence the Japanese rendition of the American comic book: manga. The same holds true for their music, and the 1980s was the prime time for inspirational models such as Merzbow,

thursday, january 27, 2011 Ruins, and Boredoms, who revolutionized the noise genre.

Boredoms would be the best place to start when it comes to “Japanoise.” Being grounded in ambient and tribal music, Boredoms are relatively easier to approach than most noise groups. In their early steps, they were distinctly recognized as noise/trash/punk until, through consistent changes in their lineup, they began to diversify their style. Their pliable nature allowed them to transcend their own limitations, so over the years, Boredoms now holds a respectable and extensive discography covering krautrock to electronica. By the release of their critically acclaimed album, Vision Creation Newsun, they had developed a sound entirely their own, which can be described as a psychedelic symphony of awesomeness. Listen to the album as a whole to get the full effect.

Now, compared to Boredoms, Ruins are much more minimalist. A drum and bass duo for the majority of their career, the only permanent member is the drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida who currently plays alone. Their style is incredibly technical, as the band constantly changes time signatures without sacrificing perfect rhythm. Their primary influence comes from a genre called “zeuhl,” a once exclusive term for a very specific strand of French prog rock from the ’70s. Zeuhl includes singing in a diverse invented language, which Yoshida imitates. Check out their 2002 release Tzomborgha.

Finally, there’s Masami Akita who performs under the title Merzbow.

Akita’s music is something one shouldn’t be exposed to right away. Although considered one of the most important figures of the noise scene, having produced over 200 studio albums, Merzbow’s material is difficult to grasp outside the circles of noise appreciators. I’d describe Merzbow as nearly incomprehensible, a medley of acidic disorientation on the musical palate. His jarring compositions of static and feedback are definitely some of the most abstract noise experiments out there. If you feel like licking a battery, check out Animal Magnetism.

And still, these are only a few major contenders of a specific time and place.

Noise has existed for years under our polished noses and it doesn’t end here. North American bands like Lightning Bolt, AIDS Wolf, and An Albatross, have stapled the noise culture to their backs and dragged it through the dust and spit of the scorning onlookers, those adamant fans of Karl Wolf or Ke$ha.

It’s completely fair if you can’t appreciate noise, but at least take something from their ethics: wake up, be creative, and start following the voice in your head. It’s dying.

•

Aaron Joo

in stereo

thursday, january 27, 2011

the silhouette’s art & culture magazine • D11

featured review Iron & Wine Kiss Each Other Clean

HHHHH On his fourth studio release, Iron & Wine mastermind Sam Beam continues to flirt with new instrumentations and styles.

Showing audacity in his major label debut, Beam trades in intimate acoustic lullabies for synthesizers and blues elements. Kiss Each Other Clean is perhaps most successful in its emphasis on contrast: analog slide guitars swim effortlessly alongside digital synthesizers and filtered vocals. This vivid contrast of organic and synthetic elements removes the focus of the album from Beam’s songwriting, which is not his best. These eclectic influences are subtly integrated in such a way that makes Kiss play more like a pop record than any of his previous releases. And although the album is extremely listenable in that sense, it’s the moments where it departs from the normalcy of pop music where Kiss truly shines.

•

Mike Gallant

The Decemberists The King is Dead

Smith Westerns Dye it Blonde

The Carrier Blind To What Is Right

HHHH

HHHH

HHH

Portland’s indie rockers are back with their sixth full-length studio release, and although it differs from a lot of their previous work, it still possesses much of the charm that The Decemberists have come to exude over their decade-long career. The King is Dead deviates from the traditional story-telling quality that The Decemberists often inject into their albums and goes towards a more disjointed tracklist. That being said, the songs are all beautifully produced, with nods towards rock and bluegrass genres, producing an album that covers a wide spectrum of emotions and instrumentals. The melancholy of “January Hymn” and “Dear Avery” are matched by the upbeat “This is Why We Fight” and the single, “Down by the Water.” The King is Dead, is a compelling and stunning work of art that listeners will enjoy whether they are longtime fans of the band, or are Decemberists virgins. There is definitely life in The King is Dead.

For the most part, that tiny red “best new music” label slotted beside new releases on Pitchfork is often taken with a grain of salt, especially when past critical picks have tended to wank off anything that’s excessively shoe-gazed and stripped down to the shoddy quality of a Fisher Price recording.

In the case of Smith Westerns’ sophomore LP release, Dye it Blonde, that red label has proven worthy of rewarding the Chicago quartet’s refreshing substance behind the lo-fi, glam buzz guiding most acts currently. Whether it’s their recent marriage with the artist-stacked Fat Possum Records, or the studio budget dowry that followed, there’s a discernibly cleaner, grandiose narrative that shines from front to back on the album. Notable tracks like “Imagine Pt. 3” and "Weekend" and cleverly mingle the band’s classic fuzz leads with a jaunty organ melody, while “All Die Young” serves as a focal point to empasizing (perhaps inadvertently) the band’s new M.O: “I want to grow before I grow up.”

After two highly regarded releases, The Carrier from Boston can be considered the torchbearers of a new wave of hardcore, eschewing traditional hardcore values, for a darkly introspective demeanour. From the first notes, Blind To What Is Right pummels the listener with a wall of dense instrumentation and throat shredding screams, lacking the bursting dynamics of previous work. This may be off-putting at first, however repeated listens reward the listener with subtle nuances, displaying intelligent composition and musicianship. While this album offers a solid example of modern hardcore, it ultimately fails to be groundbreaking. Anticipation for this album was monumental, and The Carrier may have become crushed under the weight of expectation. Perhaps unfairly shoved onto a pedestal too early in this young band’s career, they failed to live up to the hype that surrounded them, but nonetheless still prove that they are on top of the heap in the hardcore world.

•

Roxanne Hathway-Baxter

•

Dan Hawie

•

Chris Hoy

D12 • the silhouette’s art & culture magazine

new tricks

All too often the ambitious idiom of “keeping your nose to the ground” gets lumped in with the idea of staying the course for the sake of uniformity. But in its more positive connotation, it is also the best explanation for the heap of appeal chasing The Golden Dogs lately.

Granted, the quintet’s knack for high-strung performances has contributed to their reputation as one of Toronto’s must-see acts over the years, but they’ve also learned that such a distinction comes knocking when you simply stick to basics.

This past year saw the band’s third full-length release, Coat of Arms, strike a quieter note in press circles compared to musical scene-mates Zeus and Bahamas. Consider that alongside some membership turnovers, a label switch, and minimal road time, and The Golden Dogs seem to have made more of a whimper than a bang in the midst of their musical community’s growing exposure.

For bandleader and primary songwriter Dave Azzolini, however, staying the creative course of churning out and performing new material has, and always will, open new avenues of opportunity and inspiration.

music

Following a series of critically heralded shows in Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal last week, Azzolini explained the recent surge in energy for the band. “Since adding new members to the core lineup we’re starting to realize our potential as a unified fivestringed instrument,” he said. “And I think that comes with refining and progressing our usual tasks of writing, rewriting, and tightening things up.

“If anything, this past year has been based more on reaching this point of creative unity,” he continued. “For Coat of Arms, we didn’t really go on a big Canadian tour, and though it gathered some great reviews here and there, it didn’t translate to getting the right guarantees for extended road time. We were more concerned with putting our heads down and moving forward despite the business side of things.”

This workhorse attitude has yielded an impressive output. Along with the online release of a Home Video series showcasing a unique performance of the band’s material inside of Azzolini’s living-room-turned-psychedelic-jam-space, confirming a spot and follow-up tour across the pond for this Spring’s

thursday, january 27, 2011

a chat with the golden dogs Liverpool festival, and getting airtime for the melody-driven “Travel Times” on Hockey Night in Canada, they’ve also taken the initiative of whipping up an entirely new album slotted for studio time in the coming months.

Azzolini believes the band’s current writing habits mark a significant departure from their earlier work, saying, “There was about a two-year lead up behind writing and recording Coat of Arms and, for the most part, it involved us and the guys from Zeus in the studio just creating music for the sake of doing so. It was at a time when both bands had begun to reassess what they were doing, so we all ended up collaborating as a giant group of friends.”

He continued, “Now it’s a whole new phase of going off in our own directions with each band’s core members. With all of the [Golden Dogs’] previous albums, right before we recorded there’s always been some sort of member shift before the studio, so now I’m hoping to capture that moment in time of a band finally headed in the same direction with this next record.”

Since most critics have tagged the band’s sound as diverse to mixing the upbeat

timbre of Wings, the psychedelic mod pop of Super Furry Animals, and the rootsy croon of Tom Waits, Azzolini accordingly hopes to continue pulling from various influences at a time when writing is foremost to a band on its toes.

“The mixed musical bag of different colours has always been our thing,” Azzolini said. “And I think that in the sea of artists recently gaining success for that standard roots rock approach of writing a song with a melody, chords, and words, it’s important to keep pushing that alternate envelope with a distinguishable sound and reputation, which we’re really starting to hone in on.”

He continued, “This next album is going to be completely different from what we’ve done before in terms of stretching our musical muscles. Of course we’re going to continue putting out that pop stuff because that’s what we love to do, but we’re also at a perfect stage of pushing ourselves as musicians into some experimental realms. We honestly can’t wait to make more and more music.”  Dan Howdie