The Silhouette

InsideOut holds the secret to post-graduate admission. see page B1

McMASTER UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER / THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

www.thesil.ca

The Silhouette Est. 1930

LRT plans advance at Mac

Isotope bid gains steam

VOLUME 80, NO. 6

CAW reaches tentative deal Local 555, Mac to vote on new deal

SELMA AL-SAMARRAI

SELMA AL-SAMARRAI

The city of Hamilton and members of McMaster University have been discussing the prospects of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) station on campus. Metrolinx, a board created by the province of Ontario to create regional transportation plans, created a draft plan proposing the idea of the LRT in 2008. The LRT is proposed to run from the Eastgate Square to McMaster University.

Gord Arbeau, Associate Director of Public Relations explained that the university has been partnering with the city and utilizing the Campus Master Plan to figure out the appropriate place on campus for an LRT station.

The Campus Master Plan was created in 1992 to help with any campus planning projects and has been updated as recently as Nov. 2008. Section 9.1 of the Campus Master Plan states, “[The McMaster Campus Plan] will assist in identifying the best location and scope for new building, landscape and infrastructure projects, giving guidance to their form and their relationships with the rest of campus.”

“The Campus Master plan was written with input from the city, students, neighbours, and faculty and staff a number of years ago. So we’re working within the campus plan to find an area on campus that will be appropriate and meet needs of the transit user, the university… we take all those factors into consideration,” elaborated Arbeau.

Jill Stephens, Acting Director of Strategic Planning and Rapid Transit for the city of Hamilton, explained the current focus on finding the right areas for the LRT route. “We need a terminal or a similar type facility to signify

Following four days of negotiations on Sep. 16, 17, 18, and 21, representatives of the university and of CAW Local 555 Unit 1 reached a tentative agreement at the bargaining table.

The following step is for the CAW representatives at the bargaining table to bring the tentative agreements back to the membership where a vote which will determine whether the majority agree or disagree with the tentative agreement. The CAW members’ vote will take place on Tuesday Sep. 29.

The university’s bargaining team will be taking the tentative agreement back to remunerations committee, which is a committee of the Board of Governors who, as part of their responsibility, take votes on tentative agreements.

With the recent agreement, when questioned regarding the potential of a strike, Andrea Farquhar, director of public relations said, “It is unlikely because your whole point in bargaining is to come with a new collective agreement so as long as there’s a new agreement, there are no issues to strike on. It’s very good news and we’ve worked very hard on this for a long time.”

Matthew Root, the President of CAW Local 555, released the following statement to the Silhouette, “Well it’s been a very difficult round of negotiations but we’re glad that we’ve come to an agreement, we think it’s good for our membership and their families right now. The terms and conditions of [the agreement] will remain confidential until we take it to our membership for ratifications, which is Tuesday, Sep. 29th [when the vote will take place].”

The results of the vote will be released the night of Tuesday Sep. 29.

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

• PLEASE SEE TRANSIT, A4

WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR

Michael Ignatieff visited Hamilton on Sep. 19 and spoke at the International Brotherhood of Electical Workers conference. Ignatieff said if the Liberal party were elected, they would provide funds for nuclear isotopes.

LILY PANAMSKY

Current practices in cancer treatment use nuclear isotopes for both imaging and treatment The McMaster Nuclear Reactor, in patients. The MNR and the MNR, wants more funding from National Research Universal, NRU, the federal government in order reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, to increase its operating potential, are the only places in Canada that but it does not know if it will be make nuclear isotopes. The MNR receiving it. primarily creates an isotope known ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

as Iodine-125, and the NRU makes the entire North American supply of technetium-99. The NRU, however, was shut down in May 2009 due to technical problems. Chris Heysel, director of Nuclear Operations and Facilities at McMaster estimated • PLEASE SEE NUCLEAR, A3

Hamilton builds biker-friendly lanes SIMON GRANAT THE SILHOUETTE

In an attempt to discourage people from private modes of transportation and to make cycling safer, The City of Hamilton will install bicycle lanes on both the East and West sides of Dundurn Street, between Aberdeen and Main Street.

The city will begin the process of resurfacing and installing the lanes late this September. Construction

will finish in late October but the bicycle lanes may not be in place until Spring 2010.

The stretch of cycling lanes will provide a North to South corridor connecting Dundurn to Herkimer Street, Jackson Street, Charlton Avenue, and the Chedoke Rail trail.

Ward One Councillor Brian McHattie stated that this is a part of the City’s Master Transportation Plan known as

Andy presents you with the fall line-up of shows, from the brand new to those that have been flying under the radar.

Andy, C6

Inside the Sil this week

CIBC Donation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Editorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A6 Swine Flu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A7 Career Choices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A11

the Shifting Gears Program. The program was adopted in 1993 but amendments made in June confirmed Dundurn to be one of the most immediate projects. Shifting Gears aims to, “encourage a cultural shift away from dependency on the private automobile,” said McHattie.

The Shifting Gears program plans to add to Hamilton’s already existing cycle network and to provide a safe and environmentally friendly alternative form of transportation. Since its inception, numerous cycle lanes have been created in the city. While claiming to provide inter-connectivity to the downtown core, the program does not include future plans to add any new cycle lanes to Main or King Street beyond what already exists.

In an interview with the Silhouette, McHattie stressed the importance of trying to shift people away from cars in favour of transit, walking, and cycling.

“We think this is going to provide those who are keen on cycling even more protection on the roads and allow them to link up to other parts of the city.”

With three public schools and McMaster close by, McHattie also stressed the importance

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / THE SILHOUETTE

• PLEASE SEE NEW, A5 The city of Hamilton will be installing bike lanes on Dundust Street.

Speculator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A12 Trevor Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B2 Sex & the Steel City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3 Fall Fashion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3

Football Preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B7 Hamilton Film Fest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Flashmob. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C10 Silver Starlings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C8

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A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Vishal Tiwari President

Andrew Richardson VP Administration

Andrew Caterine

Chris Martin

VP Finance

VP Education

President’s Page STUDENT UNEMPLOYMENT AT ALL TIME HIGH What’s your MP doing about it? Chris Martin travels to Parliament Hill 20.9%.

That’s how high the rate of student unemployment was this past summer.

This stat of 20.9% represents one in five students who wanted a job, but were unable to find one. Especially shocking and even more disastrous is the fact that on average, post-secondary students depend on summer employment to cover more than 40% of their total cost of education (rent, food, academic materials, tuition, etc.).

By the way, every dollar you make per-week over $50, claws back on the amount of OSAP you can receive.

Effectively, you must choose between meaningful employment during the year, or receiving ‘low-interest’ government loans. I think that is a real kick in the teeth. What we have here is a crisis. Involved, dedicated students are being forced out of our colleges and universities due to record high student unemployment rates, literally the highest rates on record, which currently sit at twice the national average.

Numbers make this travesty easier to conceptualize, yet statistics cloud the nation’s view of thousands of students now facing the daunting task of affording post-secondary, whilst in the grips of a terrible job market. As Vice-President (Education), it is one of my responsibilities to hear these stories

on a constant basis and ensure that their importance is articulated to the appropriate levels of government.

In one such example, a Welcome Week rep approached me with a serious dilemma. Unable to find a job this summer, he is now incapable of affording his bills. His parents do not live near enough to the school for a commute to be an option, meaning that rent and tuition must be covered either by student loans, private loans (bank credit), or by seeking full-time employment during the school year. Obviously, full-time employment will take time away from his studies, as well as his ability to get involved in activities such as Welcome Week, intramurals and clubs. He now faces the possibility of not being able to return to school this year, after making a difference in the lives of hundreds of first year students.

Another example is the story of McMaster student Michael Pett. When he ran out of luck applying to his summer jobs of choice – internships at not-forprofit organizations - he began exploring less celebrated options. To his credit, Mr. Pett is a co-founder of a successful and thriving not-for-profit, a theatrical director and a winner of McMaster’s highest student award for extracurricular involvement, the Honour M. Not to mention he’s also a former student politician. With his résumé, one would think he shouldn’t have trouble finding employment for the summer months, even in a competitive summer

job market. What happened instead was that due to a shrinking economy and a lack of jobs at all levels, he did not get any attention from an employer worthy of his qualifications. And on the flip side, due to over-qualification, he was turned away from even mundane summer work.

He went unemployed.

These are but two of the personal anecdotes from Mac students who are currently struggling with the very real predicament that is student unemployment. I have no doubts that similar stories and subsequent fears of increased debt loads are shared among many people on this campus.

Last week, The McMaster Students Union (MSU) and the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations (CASA) received an invitation from the Liberal Party of Canada to discuss student unemployment with MP Justin Trudeau (Papineau). At this meeting, we presented both our long- and short-term solutions to the issue of student unemployment. We suggested eliminating the claw-back on pre-study and in-study income (so students can work to make up the lost funds), increase automobile exemptions from the assessment and temporarily increase the amount a student can receive through the Canada Student Loans program.

Mr. Trudeau pledged to ask a question of the Government of Canada during Question Period on our behalf, in addition to pushing the issue of student unemployment in the Liberal caucus.

Both of these events were incredibly valuable for the following reasons: First, we had a debate about student unemployment and had the attention of the House of Commons during a time when Question Period was being carefully scrutinized due to the possibility of a snap election, not to mention the war in Afghanistan. All eyes were on Parliament Hill the day our question was asked. Second, Mr. Trudeau is one of the most well placed MP’s to assume a leadership role in the future. In addition, he is a powerful voice in Ottawa and across the country.

His interest in student unemployment and youth empowerment is invaluable to our lobbying goals.

Does more need to be done with regards to this issue? Absolutely.

That’s why I am working on your behalf to ensure the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Greens hear the same message: Student unemployment needs to be a bigger priority in Ottawa.

Students start paying back their loans in the fall and currently there are no serious solutions on the docket to make up the $512 million in lost income for students this summer.

Mac students need solutions, and I’ll continue to talk to anyone in government until we have them.

Chris Martin VP (Education) x 24017 vped@msu.mcmaster.ca

Facts or Fiction? Reading beyond the headlines Andrew Caterine asks; why must the good news look so bad?

Last week your student-funded n e w s p a p e r published an editorial that was superficially aimed at supporting the best interests of students. Unfortunately, all it did was attempt to publicly humiliate one of the hardest working individuals within our organization. Chris Martin, your VicePresident (Education), travels around the country to make use of the student voice that is often under-utilized, to discuss issues with the people who can help. Recently, Chris had the incredible opportunity to meet Justin Trudeau, a predominant young politician who carries with him the unique ambition to pursue issues that directly relate to youth.

Chris traveled to Parliament

JUNK IN YO’ TRUNK Garage sale on Sanders Blvd The Ainslie Wood North Group is a collaborative between resident homeowners, students and the City.

This group serves to build strong ties between McMaster and the surrounding neighborhood through community based events.

A Community Garage Sale is happening this Saturday, Sept. 26th between 10am & 2pm on Sanders Blvd. Check-out the website at www.awngroup.com.

Hill with the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations (CASA), to speak with the man who seeks to amplify the voice of Canadian youth. Chris and his two volunteers, Michael Pett and Aaron Wade, spent ten hours on the road.

Contrary to the editorial in question, our membership to CASA paid for their trip in its entirety. Not to mention, Chris worked about 20 hours of overtime for which he was not paid. Thanks to their efforts, our delegation was able to introduce McMaster students into the agenda of a prominent leader in this country and discuss the unemployment crisis plaguing students nationwide.

Chris could have been angry. Mr. Martin could have spent his time venting, complaining and responding to an article that not only attacked his professional ethic, but his personal character as well. Chris

could have demanded a retraction on the editorial citing the use of incorrect information, such as the misquoted $33,000 membership fee to CASA (actually $23,973.00) or the misquoted $42,500 membership fee to the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) (actually $27,732 last year).

Heck, your Vice-President (Education) could be spending his time in the Silhouette office asking your Executive Editor why he did not ask Chris a single question regarding the constructive meeting with Mr. Trudeau, because if he had, perhaps he would have gotten the membership fees correct and would not have omitted the fact that two student volunteers joined and that the trip cost the students of McMaster University nothing. But instead Chris Martin spent his weekend representing the student voice again, this time with our provincial

lobbying group OUSA. In an era where we pay more for classes than most people do for a car and students need to choose between textbooks and rent, why do we insult the ones working to solve the problem in the best way that students can? Perhaps it is easier to write fallacious arguments to support your own agenda than it is to research and write meaningful articles on things students really care about.

If you have any questions, please come talk to Chris. What is often a 60hour workweek is much more rewarding when he can meet some of the faces that he works hard to represent.

Andrew Caterine VP (Finance) x 24109 vpfinance@msu.mcmaster.ca

MAC-LAURIER RIVALRY HEATS UP

CAW JUST ISN’T THAT INTO US - BUT CUPE TOTALLY SHOWED UP TO THE PARTY ON SUNDAY

Marauders vs. Golden Hawks Saturday, Sept. 26, 1p.m. at Mac

McMaster and CAW Local 555 Unit 1 have reached a tentative agreement. The new contract is subject to ratification

by Union membership. Details are still forthcoming, however it is likely that job action on the part of CAW Local 555 will be averted.

CUPE Local 3906 Unit 1, representing TA’s and RA’s is now on tap. Reps from CUPE attended the SRA meeting on Sunday night, at which they fielded questions and outlined their goals for the collective bargaining

‘Our Beaks are Bigger’ shirts can be purchased at

in DBAC, or at Ron Joyce Stadium on game day!

Tailgate party at before the game, with specials on food and drink!

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A D V E R T I S E M E N T

process with the University.

CUPE is looking to address tutorial class sizes, as well as their benefits package. CUPE reps demonstrated a willingness to keep the student body informed and desired future talks with students during their negotiations.

STRIKE WATCH 2009

THE SILHOUETTE • A3

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Newsbites

Compiled By Jennifer Bacher Well, That Was Close!

A Japanese toddler who strayed onto rail got away without a scratch after a train ground to a halt on top of her, police and rescuers say. The driver spotted the girl standing on the tracks and applied the train’s emergency brakes. The train stopped with the girl beneath.

She was alive and trapped in the 50-centimetre gap between the train and the tracks.

Breaking a Pleasing World Record Sep. 19 marked the world’s largest orgy. The world record setting event had 500 participants half men and half women. A warehouse was used for the orgy and it was professionally filmed and photographed. DVDs are now on sale!

Mistaken Identity On Friday, Montrose High School went into lockdown during lunch break when a lunch lady saw a man in a stocking mask lurking outside the school. The masked man was actually Montrose Police Chef Darrell Ellis. A lesson plan for the High School’s Forensic class was to have the Police Chef perform a mock robbery. The mock robberies have been going on for about 12 years but this is the first time it has created panic. After 10 minutes the lockdown ended and the problem was quickly cleared up.

Revenge can be Sticky Last Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 Tracy Hood-Davis and three other women were accused of seeking revenge for Donessa T. Davis for his cheating when they Krazyglued his penis to his stomach.

Hood-Davis appeared in court on Thursday and requested for no jail time.

Naked Man, 91, holds intruder at Gunpoint Authorities say a 91-year-old Southern Florida man jumped out of bed naked and held an intruder at gunpoint until deputies arrived. Robert E. Thompson says he woke up Saturday morning after the would-be burglar climbed his backyard fence and was met by his charging dog, Rett. Thompson heard the commotion, grabbed his .38-caliber revolver and phoned the police without ever getting dressed. Thompson fired a warning shot as 26-year-old Jose Pasqual started to come toward him.

Thompson kept his gun trained on Pasqual until deputies arrived.

Lochness Monster in B.C.?

Researchers are on the move to find a serpent-like creature in Cameron Lake on Vancouver Island.

Brigitte Horvath says she was driving along Highway 7 when she saw a strange semi-circle in the lake.

She was able to take a picture of the “creature” before her camera died. Researchers who specialize in looking for so-called crypto zoological creatures – in other words, monsters – spent last Saturday on the lake probing the depths with a sonar-like fish finder. John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Crypto zoology Club said that they have seen a massive object on the sonar and are quite stunned that there is something living in the lake. “Maybe it’s a sturgeon, maybe it’s a giant sterile eel…. it could be a massive type of salamander,” Kirk said. “Or it could be something that we’re completely unaware of at this point.”

Ontario Takes Sex Out of Address The town of Middlesex has now taken sex out of its e-mail address.

Spam filters have been blocking so many e-mails from the County of Middlesex that the municipality has bought a new domain name.

The sex change now means that the e-mail address will end with @ mdlsx.ca instead of the old @county.middlesex.on.ca. CAO Bill Rayburn became aware of the problem when provincial officials occasionally told him they hadn’t received his e-mail. Rayburn estimates that 15 per cent to 20 per cent of outgoing e-mails has been subject to some glitch because of the address.

Nuclear reactor seeks funds for research

Reactor admins stress medical necessity to create isotopes • CONT’D FROM A1 that the reactor would remain closed until at least March 2010. As a result, there has been a halt in the creation of technetium-99 isotopes.

Chris Heysel, director of Nuclear Operations and Facilities at McMaster stated that McMaster’s nuclear reactor wants to act as a replacement reactor for the NRU in order to create the isotopes.

“We [the MNR] have asked the federal government to give us some operating money, some money to pay for the salaries, and the fuel to operate to make this isotope that Chalk River is no longer producing.”

Nuclear isotopes are unstable components that decay into their stable arrangements and give off energy in the form of light in the process.

While the isotope is decaying, the light shines around the atom in different directions.

This energy that is being released may be harnessed for use in two medicinal practices: imaging and treatments. For imaging purposes, physicians inject an isotope into the bloodstream and track the atom, revealing how the different organs or body parts are functioning. For the latter, therapeutic purposes, the isotopes are placed inside the body to emit light into targeted malignant areas.

Heysel explained that the I-115 isotope the MNR makes is used primarily to treat prostate cancer. The isotopes are placed into small titanium seeds in close proximity to a tumour, so that the tumour is getting the largest dose of the energy emitted, and the healthy tissues nearby remain relatively unaffected.

The recent closure of the NRU has created a shortage of nuclear isotopes, specifically of technetium-99. Technetium-99 is the most widely used radioactive isotope for diagnostic imaging. It is used for viewing images of the

WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR

At the conference on Sep. 19, Ignatieff responded to citizens’ questions and concerns. heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen, and bones.

Heysel revealed that McMaster first made contact with the federal government to discuss the potential creation of technetium-99 at MNU in early 2008, after the Chalk River reactor had been briefly shut down due to management disagreement. “We base the plan on our ability from the 1970s, when the [Chalk River] reactor was shut down before for an extended period of time, they moved all of the production to here at McMaster University. We know how to do it; we’ve done it before.”

Heysel continued, “[The problem is,] right now, we operate at three megawatts, 16 hours a day, five days [a] week. In order to make that isotope, technetium-99m, you [would] have to operate 24 hours a day, and we’d have to go to full power (five megawatts).”

A high-level proposal is presently in review by the federal government, but the final word remains unclear. An expert review

panel has been established, and the university is in regular contact with the government to discuss any potential funding plans.

Leader of the Opposition Michael Ignatieff spoke at a press conference for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Hamilton on Saturday Sep. 19.

Ignatieff stressed the importance of creating nuclear governments and criticized the Conservative funding for not allocating funding: “This [Conservative] government has not been able to provide a reliable supply of nuclear isotopes to the Canadian population or to the world.”

In a statement directly to the Silhouette, Ignatieff maintained that the Liberal government, if elected into office, would give funding for increased manufacturing of nuclear isotopes. “McMaster has a very convincing case that they can produce the nuclear isotopes or make up for most of the shortages of nuclear isotopes…It’s had a nuclear reactor since 1957, they say they

can do it, what they need is a federal partner to step up and come forward and if we were in government we would certainly step forward.”

The McMaster Nuclear Reactor is already planning a 20,000 square foot expansion to increase both research and teaching space, along with purchases of new equipment that enhance isotope production, after receiving a $22 million Cdn Knowledge Infrastructure Award. The federal government funds 50 per cent of this award, and the provincial government funds the other 50 per cent.

Heysel stressed McMaster’s capability of creating technetium-99 isotopes. “We know what it costs to do it, so we’re pretty good on our numbers. What we really need at this point in time is federal buy-in to give us a leadership, to play a leadership role in making this happen.”

A final report by the Conservative government regarding the issue is due in Nov. 2009.

Prominent sociologist speaks at McMaster PAIGE FABER

FEATURES EDITOR

Nathan Glazer, Professor Emeritus of Harvard University was at McMaster on Tuesday Sep. 22 and Wednesday Sep. 23. He gave two separate talks, which were organized by Cyril Levitt and Neil Mclaughlin, professor and assistant professor, respectively, of McMaster’s sociology department.

Both of Glazer’s talks were in filled classrooms in the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery, and were followed by a question and answer periods so that those in attendance could have the opportunity to respond to Glazer’s lecture.

Glazer, a prominent American sociologist, born in 1924 and a well-known public intellectual, was a part of what are referred to by many as the New York intellectuals.

The New York intellectuals are public intellectuals in social sciences and literature.

His colleagues include Daniel Bell, Irving Kristol and Irving Howe.

All four received their undergraduate education at City College in New York City.

Glazer graduated in 1944. After City College, Glazer studied at University of Pennsylvania and then at Columbia University, where he received his PhD in sociology.

All socially-leftist during their undergraduate degrees at City College, the four—Glazer, Kristol, Bell, and Howe—found themselves debating and arguing their way through university. The City College cafeteria was a great hall and around the perimeter were alcoves with tables and benches for smaller groups, which is where Glazer said he spent his time.

In his talk on Tuesday, Glazer talked about his

undergraduate days and the way that New York City was shaped by, and filled with young intellectuals at City College. In his film, Arguing the World, released in 1997, Glazer explained the social and political scene at City College in the thirties and forties.

Glazer talked about the importance of the space on campus, like the alcoves, to talk about issues and the way that the City College cafeteria was organized to fuel the argument and debate.

He also discussed the ways that the concept of the public intellectual has diminished over the years and today there are far fewer people that are considered public intellectuals than in the days of City College.

Glazer said that politics changes everything, referring to those who start out as intellectuals and then enter into the political realm. He talked about public figures like Obama and Ignatieff, who could have once been considered public intellectuals, are now politicians.

Glazer discussed the fact that politicians have to be careful of the things that they say, and must conceal some of their opinions in order to appeal to the public interest.

One of Glazer’s most influential works is a book he wrote with Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1963, called Beyond the Melting Pot, where he explains the persistence of ethnic affiliations in New York City.

In his second talk, on Wednesday, Glazer focused on living with diversity and the ways that society today, in the United States and in Canada, experiences immigration and diversity.

Glazer talked about the history of immigration to the United States and the ways that America’s melting pot system and assimilation programs have been shaped.

TERRY SHAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Nathan Glazer, a former emeritus at Havard University presented at McMaster University Tues. Sept 22 and Wed. Sept. 23.

Also, he discussed the Pledge of Allegiance and the ways that it affected the culture of the American society.

Glazer’s lectures

demonstrated to students the importance of studying with peers and the ways that students and intellectuals, alike, can influence their education through argument.

A4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Cancer Society recognizes McMaster oncologist SANTINO MARINUCCI THE SILHOUETTE

Ronald Barr, professor of pediatrics in the Hematology/Oncology department at McMaster University has recently been presented with the Canadian Cancer Society’s top award for his outstanding work in cancer research.

Known as the O. Harold Warwick Prize, the award is bestowed upon the Canadian researcher who has produced findings that have led to significant advances in cancer control. Upon being asked how he felt on receiving this prestigious award, Barr replied, “It’s a real award, it seldom goes to someone practicing pediatric oncology, so I’m quite honoured.”

Barr’s has participated as an editor on first definitive document on the incidence, survival and mortality of 15 to 29 year-olds with malignant disease. Barr explained his interest in the field: “The interest that resulted in this award is the development, their [the patients] needs are not being met adequately and we need to do better for these people than they have in the past.”

His research interests include international health, particularly cancer in childhood, late effects of cancer treatment, especially on nutritional status and measurement of health-status and healthrelated quality of life. He has also written and contributed to seven other books and has

published over 250 scientific articles.

Barr received his medical degree from the University of Glasgow. He joined the faculty of medicine at the University of Nairobi, where he helped launch the first medical school in Kenya. Barr explained, “The British government committed to helping the Kenyans to set up a medical school because they had none… They (the British) gave responsibility to one university, the University of Glasgow, which began in 1968”. Here he primarily worked as a lecturer of medicine and a hematologist, looking after children with serious blood disorders. After his participation in Kenya, Barr joined the faculty of the University of Aberdeen before moving to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, as a visiting scientist.

He has been on staff at McMaster University since 1977.

The O. Harold Warwick Prize is named after Warwick, a pioneering researcher in cancer control and treatment, who became the first executive director of both the former National Cancer Institute of Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society.

The award comes with a $2,000 prize for the recipient and a $20,000 research grant. Previous McMaster winners of the O. Harold Warwick Prize include George Browman, a professor in the Department Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Mark Levine, professor and chair of the Department of Oncology.

Transit system update

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

• CONT’D FROM A1 this is an area where a lot of people will start their trips and end their trips and provide amenities such as being able to pay for your trip before getting on and telling you when the next vehicle is arriving… a key with transit is making it easy for people to use so they will use it otherwise you can have the best looking vehicles and the most comfortable and the fastest… but then no one’s going to use them.”

When asked about the potential effect that the LRT will have on the city of Hamilton, Stephens explained that they are now observing the facets the LRT could change such as traffic, the structure of some

of the roads and the city’s economy.

Stephens is hopeful that Metrolinx will announce their plans for the LRT around November of this year.

“We don’t have a definite shovel in the ground timeline yet but were getting close and moving forward so that the day we do find out we’re ready to roll,” said Stephens.

Stephens also elaborated that student and community feedback is made easily available through the website which gives citizens the ability to provide their thoughts and opinions electronically.

The city has not decided on a name for the LRT yet. The rough estimate of when the LRT is expected to be fully constructed and ready for use is in 2015.

THE SILHOUETTE • A5

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

New bike lanes on CIBC makes donation to Dundurn Street nursing program at Mac do come with a cost. Parking along the East side of the street will be of providing this commute for removed. students. “To get downtown in a In addition, McHattie safe way,” McHattie said, “[is] sort noted that, “the loss of parking of the key point for students”. will result in decreased business,

Jesse Bauman director of cause more disruption around an MACycle suggests already congested that by adding area around Earl more cycling lanes Bicycle lanes would Kitchener School, Hamilton is taking and disadvantage make all cyclists motorists a step in the right with who need to travel mobility issues.” direction.

“I think that route more “ W e ’ r e that they play an investigating if any integral part in comfortable. There other parking sports improving cycling is peace of mind in can be identified in infrastructure in the knowing they have the area,” McHattie city and making it said. more accessible and their space and you The city will safe,” explained meet with local have yours.”

Bauman. merchants at the

S a f e t y end of September for cyclists may be especially to inform them of the construction important on Dundurn, due to the plans, and allow those concerned to fact that local heavy industry uses help discuss a possible solution. the street as a major route to access There is speculation that other areas of Hamilton. two or three parking spaces may be

“[Bicycle lanes] would added to the West side of the street. make all cyclists who need to travel McHattie suggests that that route more comfortable. A the construction is a part of a larger bike lane doesn’t make the trucks commitment by the city of Hamilton go away, but there is some peace to create a greener Steeltown. of mind in knowing that they have “We’re committed to this shift away their space and you have yours,” from cars.”

Bauman said.

The changes to Dundurn With files from Selma Al-Samarrai • CONT’D FROM A1

LILY PANAMSKY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

McMaster University was bestowed with a $500, 000 CDN dollar donation from CIBC on Sep. 23. The donation goes toward the establishment of the CIBC Undergraduate Bursaries in the Nursing program, targeted specifically toward students with an interest in breast cancer research and education.

Neil Gordon, the vice president of CIBC in Southern Ontario presented the award and gave a short speech, emphasizing CIBC’s commitment to breast cancer research and on the importance of youth education and health throughout the country. The endowment will be matched dollar for dollar by the Ontario Trust for Student Support, bringing the total donation to one million dollars.

Catherine Tompkins, associate dean of the School of Nursing, addressed the audience and expressed her gratitude on behalf of the Nursing program. “This is a merciless disease and beating it will demand the integrated talents of all health care professionals. Nurses are a vital part of that equation, so we thank CIBC for acknowledging and supporting our role.”

“This gift provides recognition, moral support, and

JEFF GREEN / EXECUTIVE EDITOR

The associate dean of the School of Nursing, Catherine Tompkins, pictured above, thanked CIBC during the announcement Sep. 23. vital resources to work that is desperately important, particularly to the 437 Canadian women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this week and every week this year”, continued Tompkins.

“These bursaries can and will be the difference between bright, young nurses leaving school and staying.

These bursaries can and will be the margin of difference in career making success. Make no mistake, this gift is a gift that matters.”

McMaster’s school of Nursing is focused largely on both

research and professional practice.

It has one of the most researchintensive schools of nursing in the country, and prides itself on its many international partnerships.

“In CIBC’s typical smart investor behaviour, this gift builds on strength, it magnifies previous investments, it adds a new dimension and it will have both immediate and long-term benefits,” said Peter George in a short speech during the ceremony. The endowment will be implemented into nursing bursaries as soon as possible.

Mac joins Seneca to create regeneration program SELMA AL-SAMARRAI SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

The Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy at McMaster University and the King Global Restoration Lab and Centre at Seneca College have recently partnered together for the purpose of developing a program for the regeneration of natural and built outdoor environments.

Gail Krantzberg, the director of the Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy explained that there are two chief purposes for this recent joining.

One of them is to develop a program that helps train and educate graduate students, municipal staff, and corporations to restore and redevelop natural and built environments. The other purpose of the program is to bring together engineers, technologists, and the trades so that each division can understand the needs of each other and collaborate with one another.

Krantzberg explained, “We want to be able to advance policies around how to build sustainable communities. This means we have to develop curriculums, workshops, seminars, conferences, and speaker

series; any education tool we can think of to offer.”

When asked why McMaster University chose to join with Seneca College, Krantzberg explained that it is because Seneca is already working in the direction of environmentally friendly projects and sustainability.

“Once we have a partnership in place, we have to make sure we have a good advisory board, a board of directory, one whole thing to roll it out, maybe have some pilot courses this year where we will approach municipality to see if they’re interested. Once

it becomes a good program we will advertise it and anyone can apply for it, as a graduate student or through the municipality or through a corporation,” explained Krantzberg.

The media release regarding this program stated that “the partnership priorities include developing a curriculum with subjects including green economy, community revitalization, urban regeneration, sustainability, and urban design protocols and constructing a design protocol to ensure that regeneration and revitalization is integrated

throughout public or private sector corporations.” Once the program begins, the first project includes the regeneration of the Great Lake communities and watershed.

Currently, the program is seeking organizations that are interested in partnering with the new program and willing to place finances to get the plan started.

Krantzberg elaborated, “We have a lot of interests from a few groups.

We’re in the business development phase right now... we think its going to go very well and we’re going to start putting the curriculum together and delivering it within the year.”

A6 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

EDITORIAL

Letters:

McMaster University’s Student Newspaper

The Silhouette TheSil.ca Editorial Board Executive Editor Jeff Green Managing Editor Bahram Dideban Senior News Editor Selma Al-Samarrai Assistant News Editor Lily Panamsky Features Editor Paige Faber Opinions Editor Peter Goffin Sports Editor Brian Decker Assistant Sports Editor David Koots Insideout Editor Lindsay Jolivet Assistant Insideout Phyllis Tsang Photo Editor Will van Engen Staff Photographer Terry Shan Multimedia Editor Ava Dideban Production Editor Katherine Marsden Web Editor Jason Lamb Health Editor Sarah Levitt Ad Manager Sandro Giordano

Senior Andy Editor Grace Evans Music Editor Corrigan Hammond Entertainment Editor Myles Herod

Silhouette Staff Sam Colbert, Joey Coleman, Jonothan Fairclough

Contact Us Volume 80 2009-10 • McMaster University Student Centre, Room B110 McMaster University 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON L8S 4S4 • Fax: (905) 529–3208 • 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

Saved from himself While Ignatieff was out buying a spine, Harper found two new crutches to ‘prop up’ his government.

As the fall marched in, so did a ‘new coalition’ found on a new EI and the Home Renovation Tax.Apparently in Quebec, if you build someone a deck you forget that they called you a separatist just a few months ago, perhaps all that has been fundamentally brewing between the Bloc, NDP and the Conservatives was all settled over a Molson Dry while the last nails were hammered in.

Or, perhaps, it’s as if Harper, Layton and Duceppe have finally figured out how a minority government works, if only to save what Ignatieff was going to do to himself, and the Liberal Party. One can imagine four preschoolers sitting around a sandbox, with three of them finally figuring out how to use the water, the bucket, and the shovel to make a castle, while poor Iggy is still digging a hole to china.

A Liberal with a spine is almost archaic, and weather you chalk up Ignatieff’s latest move as planned political posturing or political suicide, Gilles Duceppe and Jack Layton have figuratively taken the controller from Ignatieff’s hands and saved him from losing his last life.

After all, the Liberals are continually looking for a new leader, this time the merry-go-round of leadership will have to stop in Quebec.

Yet, this is just one week in the tenured sit-com that is Canadian Politics. One can only imagine that the ‘new coalition’ that exists between the Bloc, NDP and Conservatives is only a fall fling. Jack Layton certainly took a serious blow to his reputation after consistently voting down anything brought forward by Harper; yet now it’s as if he, and Duceppe, are happily riding shotgun in Harper’s motorcycle sidecar, with Ignatieff being left at the last rest stop to find his own way home.

This leaves the Liberal party both ahead and behind in terms of reputation. Surely, this must break the coalition connection that the Liberals shared with the Bloc and NDP in December, yet it leaves the party committed to someone who almost put the Conservatives into a majority position. The aftertaste that Ignatieff has left in the mouths of Canadians, aside from their core supporters, is only reinforced by federally funded partisan ads – highlighted by a recent Globe and Mail article about how the government has spent five times more on partisan budget ads / Harper’s economic action plan, than on raising public awareness on H1N1. They can’t change leaders now, it would only reinforce the ‘just visiting’ image that Canadians have of the Liberal front man; they’ll have to leave their next Jean Chrétien in the bag for the next little while.

Likewise, while Harper may have his chance at a majority, he would have to dig deep to his Conservative roots, perhaps some inspiration from Canada’s 13th Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, who once said in the House of Commons: “I believe there must not be, as has been developing in this nation, first and second class citizens. That has been the trend as a result of all the discussion about associated states and a nation within a nation.”

His majority rests on the vote in Quebec. The Liberal’s next best hope lies within Quebec. Perhaps at the end of an election – whenever that may be – one will say that they were “beat by the minority vote.”

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, university officals, or Ricter Web Printing Ltd.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.

Raccoons and Peter Goffin

Liberals, the real problem

Hey all you wonderful people at the Sil!

I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely loved the cartoon “The Undergraduate Flowchart of Rage”! It is exactly the way things happened during registration! And add to the fact that course registration information (useless tidbits such as the date for MUGSI opening for undergrad registration), was not listed on the registrar’s “important dates” calendar...

I also wanted to applaud Peter Goffin for his article “Guilt and penance and flying rodents”. It made me laugh out loud!

I have a similar story to relate, if you care to continue reading!

My story involves a nonflighted rodent of another sort...

You see, I moved into a house where there is a balcony attached to the 2nd floor bedroom, which coincidentally, happens to be my bedroom.

The previous owner, for reasons which I cannot even begin to fathom, used to feed a family of raccoons on that same balcony. So the family of raccoons, of course, is oblivious to the concept of ‘New Occupant’ and still comes to the balcony expecting to be fed... at all hours of the night, and not just for brief visits either... So after several weeks of getting woken up at 2 in the morning by scratching and banging at the balcony door, a sound that continues for hours, I had finally had enough.

The blasted raccoon had scratched right though the screen and I now had to keep the glass closed, or else wind up with unwanted company. Sweltering hot because of the closed door, sleep deprived and absolutely fed up, I decided to take action! I grabbed a broom, flung open the door and pointed my weapon at the pesky ‘coon. I was prepared for battle!

To my utter surprise, he(or she?) turned and leapt off the balcony! I even heard the poor bastard hit the patio table below! I was mortified!

I ran out to see if the thing was alive after such a dramatic display, but it had vanished! I spent weeks wondering if I had caused a raccoon to commit suicide... To my surprise (and disappointment), the bugger has since re-appeared and visits nightly, but I no longer have the courage to scare it off...I’m sure Goffin can relate!

Anyways, I look forward to reading The Sil in the coming year!

-Emily M

Recently, MSU VP Education Chris Martin, along with CASA representatives, travelled to Parliament Hill to talk about student unemployment with Liberal MP, Justin Trudeau.Their concerns were addressed and JT promptly took them to the House of Commons for Question period criticizing the federal Conservative government saying it has “failed them” with “no short-term plan and no short-term vision to help” young Canadians who have lost their jobs.

While I’m sure the MSU members who had their issues brought to the floor are ecstatic with this statement, the fact is, it will do no good. The federal government isn’t responsible for the 128,000 student jobs lost over the past year. While some of the fault can be attributed to market forces and a weakened economy, the main culprit here is the Liberal government in Queen’s Park.

In August 2008, the general minimum wage rate was $8.75, up from $8.00 in March of that year. This was increased in August 2009 to $9.50, and will continue its unprecedented rise, reaching $10.25 in March 2010.

These increases will continue to be implemented, despite a weakened economy that is seeing companies bankrupted by rising costs and tightening wallets.

Most students find summer work with small businesses. These small businesses simply cannot afford the extravagant generosity of a spend-thrift government, and are forced to make cutbacks.

Where will businesses make their first cutbacks: temporary workers who are on average, less productive than those needing their wage to support a family. A small business would rather pay an adult full-time worker $15-$20 per hour than hire a couple students at an everincreasing minimum wage. With a 28% increase in minimum wage since 2003 that discourages small businesses from hiring student workers, it is no surprise that youth unemployment has reached 20%.

Perhaps McMaster students’ money would have been better spent sending these representatives to Queen’s Park to voice their complaints to the real cause of youth unemployment: the Liberal Ontario government.

Political posturing? Two greats in a chess match with no end in site? Exactly what Harper wants? Tell us your thoughts on who will come out on top in the form of a letter (100-300 words) or an opinion (300-700 words) sent to finding cash on the floor of to thesil@thesil.ca. the go bus. to yiddish, you goyem.

Write to us Opinions: Up to 600 words Letters: 100 to 300 words Submit via email by 5:00 p.m. the Monday before publication.

thesil@thesil.ca

executive editor: extension 22052

to barton street.

Want to get involved? Come attend one of our sectional meetings in the basement of the student center, room b110 News: Wednesdays @ 12:30 pm InsideOut: Mondays @ 1:30 pm Sports: Thursdays @ 1:30 pm Andy: Mondays @ 1:30 pm Photo: Fridays @ 3:30 pm Opinions: Tuesdays @ 1:30 pm all opinions should be mailed to opinions@thesil.ca, keep them 500-700 words

Bryan Vanderkruk, President, McMaster Association of Conservatives

to standing on the go bus. to having 238 photo albums on facebook.

to deli’s.

to getting engaged after only knowing eachother for 2 months.

to the lsat’s being done.

to the lsat’s.

to the hatchet. bury that bitch.

to sinbad. do you know how long i’ve been waiting to do this? you’re terrible.

to a fifth opposable digit. suck it monkeys. to that filth that just won’t come off. it’s comforting. like a blanket on a crisp fall day. you whore. to not being preggos. trojan, thank you. i swear i’ll never do that in frosh week ever again. i know, i say that every year, but i men it. maybe. to fighting a zambonie driver.

to pee-wee herman. what happened to you. and leno? really? to darts. well, mostly to darts and laurels, but thats only because coach never gave any lauarls. pervert. to gingers maybe going extinct. mad men really changed my mind on this one. kinda trinagle-ly though...

THE SILHOUETTE • A7

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

OPINIONS

?

opinions@thesil.ca

Take your best shot, Swine Flu

What do you want to be if you grow up? Too tired to fight it. If it even ever comes back.

Feedback

“A doctor.”

Jessica Lam

How far will you go to stay healthy this fall?

Peter Goffin OPINIONS EDITOR

“Marketing executive.”

Eselina E

Apparently there’s this new deal called the Swine Flu, which is made up of a few hundred trillion germs floating and shimmying and humping around on doorknobs and people and things. And, um, it doesn’t look good for any of us. I mean the government hasn’t

sent us body bags or anything yet, but the university did screw all those hand sanitizer dispensers to walls all over campus and they sent us an e-mail trying to warn without inciting panic. The message was clear: it’s time to start panicking about Swine Flu.

Just as an aside, I’m boycotting the term H1N1.

Thanks to my flair for the romantic, H1N1 will always

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

be “Swine Flu” to me, the way it was introduced to us all those months ago when we were first told it would track us down and find us where we live. Also, if I have to say H1N1 more than three times in a row my head will collapse in on itself from an overdose of self-importance.

Whatever I choose to call it, though, this virus, in the opinion of a whole lot of

authorities that aren’t the faculty, is the mother of all common illnesses.

But, as I recall, darlings, we’ve seen this movie before. Only, it was called Mad Cow disease. And then SARS. And then the Bird Flu. And now the Swine Flu.

And that’s us, I guess, isn’t it? Neurotic, nervy, always finding precipices to lean over, doomsdays to dread. Well, this is where I walk out of the theatre. I’ve seen enough.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist or a creationist. I know that the Swine Flu is real and that medical science should be listened to. And I know that I probably wouldn’t be so flippant if actually got the disease. In fact, thanks to the Pagan gods of irony, I may well be the only person in Ontario who actually gets Swine Flu this fall. But the trouble is that I’m just too busy to properly worry about it. And I’m sure that sounds naive and short sighted, but I have a full course load, and a job and a healthily budding quarter-life crisis to juggle as it is. There are not enough synapses in my brain to take on another worry.

So what are you going to do, Chicken Little? Even if the sky were falling, who has the time and energy to run?

Yes, it would be nice if I could afford to seal myself off in a hypo-allergenic room like Howard Hughes and dedicate myself to staying • PLEASE SEE NO, A11

Methadone furor unfounded Risk assessment ability seems out of whack Bahram Dideban MANAGING EDITOR

“Neurologist.”

Sarah Man

“French teacher.”

Compiled by Peter Goffin and Terry Shan

production office: extension 27117

Danielle Lavoie

Change is a strange thing. It’s one of those things in my life that I’ve had to deal with a lot. I think the weirdest thing about it, and the hardest part for me, is not just the fact that things change, or that we have to deal with it, or any of those typical scenarios, but rather the evolution of change; the fact that change itself changes. It seems really redundant, and pretty hard to put into words, but it’s true. When I look at the things in my life that required me to adapt, it seems that subconsciously I never learn to change in new and better ways. It seems that I always do what’s expected of me, like I have a code for dealing with changing situations, a code that I won’t, or can’t, change.

And it’s not just me.

The recent events that have taken place with the building of a Pain Management Clinic prove that point for me. At a meeting on September 21, over 400 members of the Aldershot community met to oppose the building of the clinic, which will be situated one block down the road from Maplehurst Public School and administer methadone as one of its modes of treatment. The community members are,

Methadone is a painkiller, not a dangerous narcotic. supposedly, not opposed to the clinic itself, but only to its location, but the way the situation has been handled paints a completely different picture.

The whole opposition stance began with a letter distributed to community members which claimed that the new clinic will “treat drug dependent adults with methadone” and that “there will be a

continuous stream of people who require a dose of methadone to control their addictions every day seven days a week all year long.”

From there the situation quickly escalated to a public meeting by the Public School Trustee that was so badly planned, executed, and chaired that Ward 1 councilor Rick Craven called it a disappointment. What followed was a protest rally

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

outside the public school where concerned parents and grandparents carried signs protesting “meth close to our schools.”

Now, what I find disconcerting about this whole situation is how uneducated people can be. I don’t want to so much defend the clinic as to point out the flaw in the concerns of the 400 community members.

• PLEASE SEE CLINIC, A9

A8 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

THE SILHOUETTE • A9

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Clinic not so dangerous Have you met the Campus NDP? • CONT’D FROM A7 First, methamphetamine and methadone are not the same thing. They’re not even in the same ballpark.Alluding to methamphetamines on picketing posters when you’re referring to methadone is fear mongering. Second, while methadone was traditionally used to treat opioid addiction, and still is, physicians now commonly prescribe it as a painkiller for patients with severe chronic pain; pain associated with cancer and nerve diseases.

In fact, it is so effective as a painkiller that medical personnel consider methadone treatment “lifesaving.” Not only that, but every pharmacy in Ontario has the legal right to distribute it and many do, and both the Ontario and Halton Regional governments encourage the establishment of more pain management clinics that use methadone treatment.

In addition to this, the concerned community members have labeled the clinic a “methadone clinic” which it’s not.

The director of the clinic pointed out that methadone will be only one of a variety of treatments that they offer and that “98 per cent of the patients will be chronic pain sufferers who are already prescribed pain medication,” not “450 people lined up outside everyday, looking for a fix” as one community member put it.

This all basically comes down to the psychology of risk. Why is this risk is so unacceptable? We have about a 2 per cent chance of dying in a car accident yet Statistics Canada says that 70 per cent of us drive everywhere that we go. Everywhere! We are even willing to take the risk and drive to buy cigarettes that have even a higher chance of killing us. So why are those risks acceptable and this one isn’t? Why should the clinic have to be built somewhere else? The opinions of the community members seem so baseless in this regard.

When you think about the benefits that such a clinic can have, its location becomes completely irrelevant. Why is it so easy for the community members to ignore these benefits and only cling on to the minor risk that it poses?

This all just seems like another case of mob mentality. It seems like another kangaroo court where they’ve put the clinic owner on trial and things have escalated out of control. It just seems like the community members are scared of progress because they’re afraid to change. It seems like they’d rather step backwards and avoid the problem all together than to find new and better solutions to newer and changing problems.

What they’re doing seems wrong but I don’t blame them. Maybe it’s just human nature.

Take four solutions out of petty cash...

I’m a problem solver, not an an anarchist.

Peter Goffin OPINIONS EDITOR

I believe in opinion articles. I really do. And I love them unconditionally. But they aren’t always hyper-positive. A lot of the time they can denigrate and criticize. And it’s not even necessarily constructive criticism. This sort of writing can have a tendency to tear down the norms and beliefs and values of society without ever rebuilding afterwards, which some people aren’t so keen on. There’s a word for that sort of behaviour, and the word is anarchy. And I don’t want to be called an anarchist, even if I am one. So today I want to try something different from what normally goes on in an opinions section. Instead of suggesting problems, I’m going to suggest solutions.

These solutions come with little explanation and are not intended to be feasible in any realm of reality. But they are solutions, for you to take and mix and match up to the problems of your choice. And maybe, hopefully, together we can bring a little bit of sense and order to this funny old world.

Firearms should be outlawed.And all the defenders of guns should be allowed to go to hell. Because at this point in history, when we do not need to defend ourselves from bears or shoot our own food, the only purpose served by a gun is to put holes into things.

Like people. And although they are proficient at it, perforator of human beings is really not a role we need filled. Outlawing firearms will not stop gun crime, or even gun ownership but it will allow authorities to seize any gun on sight, which can’t possibly be a bad thing.

Medical stem cell research should be allowed to go on without any restrictions whatsoever. And anyone who opposes stem cell research with the phrases “slippery slope” or “creation of God” should be sentenced to

500 hours of community service in a pediatric oncology ward so as to learn the true meanings of those terms. At no time since the Bronze Age has science been so impeded by the moral beliefs of less than half the population, and we do not need to start now.

Canada should return its military focus to peacekeeping and never stray again. It should be put in the constitution: “No assembling of an army with aggressive intentions in mind.” I’m impossibly glad that Canada is planning to pull its troops out of Afghanistan, but no one in charge could ever seem to understand that the problem was less about involvement, and more that we were there trying to make peace instead of keep it. It’s no coincidence that for forty-five years, our army was for peacekeeping purposes only and we didn’t suffer a single casualty, while simultaneously gaining the respect of countries and peoples around the world.Then the first time we engage in military aggression since Korea, we lose over 100 people.

And while we’re here, conversationally, Parliament should pass the newly proposed War Resisters bill.

It’s a legislation thingy which would allow American soldiers to claim sanctuary in Canada when they go AWOL in protest over wars they don’t believe in. Because it should be our foremost goal to at least appear humane and tolerant of people who don’t believe in wars. And because we’ve been the sanctuary for beaten, subjugated, harassed and disobedient Americans since before we were an independent country.

When it comes to refugees we’ve taken all comers and that’s the way it ought to be.

So there. No more anarchy. Just glib and mostly poorly thought out solutions for you to do with what you may. Godspeed. Or something.Somebody buy the anarchist a drink.

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Chris Erl OPINION

Chances are, you’ve heard of the New Democrats. Usually, after the words “New Democrat,” you’ll hear “radical” or “crazy” or “fucking Commies!” Well, the Campus New Democrats have decided to start the year off on the right (or should I say left) foot by letting everyone know what the party is really about.

From Clubsfest to door knocking in the last election, the questions that voters asked C.N.D. campaigners focused on a few widely held misconceptions: that we focus more on working families than on students, that we can’t manage the economy, and that the Greens are more of a progressive voice than we are.

Some students complain that we don’t speak enough about issues pertaining to us. Sure, the party was founded by workers, but we have very strong roots in the student’s rights movement. Here at Mac, our central focus is on the fight against tuition hikes.

The Mike Harris government deregulated tuition during its disastrous provincial reign and the Dalton McGuinty Liberals have done little to correct the mistake.

N.D.P. Provincial Leader Andrea Horwath has called for the universalizing of post-secondary education, but without action on behalf of students, her vision will never be made a reality. We Campus New Democrats are lobbying vigorously against tuition increases, and will continue to do so through petitions, direct action and awareness campaigns throughout the year. Today’s New Democratic Youth are mobilizing to fight unfair hikes because we realize that complaining won’t stop tuition from going up; organizing will!

The spin from the Right is that we social democrats don’t know how to manage

the economy. Ha! Over the past 22 years, New Democratic provincial governments have balanced their budgets 50 per cent of the time, whereas the “fiscally responsible” Conservatives only balanced budgets 35 per cent of the time and the Liberals only made it to 21 per cent. Manitoba’s outgoing New Democratic Premier, Garry Doer, actually cut taxes while maintaining social programs. Our party policy calls for tax cuts for the middle and working classes and large scale tax reductions for small businesses.

And, for the record, the Campus New Democrats always have a year-end surplus.

And finally, what we’ve all been waiting for: the Green Party. People see the Greens as the ‘new’ progressive voice in Canada, whereas the New Democrats are the tired, out-of-touch voice of the unions.

The Greens attacked us as just another “old, white, male dominated” party, but nothing could be further from the truth.

We social democrats stand united against tyranny, injustice and inequality. On the front lines of anti-globalization protests, standing in elections, engaging in civil debate about the future of our country, students have united in solidarity under the banner of the New Democratic Youth of Canada. We in the Campus New Democrats wholeheartedly respect the Greens, but want everyone to know we are equally, if not more, progressive than our environmentalist colleagues.

Your Campus New Democrats are fighting for lower tuition, fiscal responsibility and progressive activism because we’re in this with you. We pay tuition, pay taxes and pay attention to the problems facing Canada today. We’re fighting for today’s students, because we are today’s students. So when they call us radical or crazy or fucking Commies, we hold our heads high, because we have the one thing they don’t: hope.

write for opinions because no one else will opinions@thesil.ca

A8 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

THE SILHOUETTE • A11

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Millions of paths, and no place to go No time What career suits the man who wants to do nothing?

Peter Goffin

OPINIONS EDITOR

But there are so many options. How can I not know what I want to do with my life?

I could be a lawyer. I know I could. And it shall be so. I am a lawyer-to-be. No. Wait. Go back.

What should I want to be a lawyer for? What should anyone want to be a lawyer for? Status? Business cards? Once I’ve said the words, “I am a lawyer,” once I’ve introduced myself, I’ll have accomplished all I set out to do. And then I’ll be bored.

And signing wills and checking over real estate deals. No, no I can’t be a lawyer.

So I’ll be a civil servant, in my cubicle, in my short sleeved shirt, with my rubber stamp, with my red pen, stamping and signing and memo writing, and I need that spreadsheet by this afternoon please and powerpoint presentation in the boardroom please. But I’d be a machine. Just a machine sentenced to be in that cubicle taking the same action in perpetuity with a sign around its neck that reads: “Have an efficient day.” And I’d sweat and scream and cry from it all, which machines aren’t supposed to do. I’d go off my head.

So I’ll go back to the first place I ever worked. Canadian Tire with the high school kids and the middle-aged burnouts. I liked it there. I’ll work in the warehouse and unload trucks a few days a week just like I used to and when it’s time for a break I’ll take a break and when it’s time to go home I’ll go home because that’s how it works down there at the old warehouse, just lift this and move that and we need you to take an extra shift this week thank you, all very simple like that. And I’ll be happy. But I wouldn’t be allowed.You’re not allowed to go

Help me Career Services! I’ve got a case of the ennui and I don’t know what to do. back to the warehouse and unload carton every single day. I’d choke on trucks after four years of university. my tie. Honest.

People wouldn’t hear So what the of it. Waste! they’d hell? What am I say. You’re a waste! and But there are such supposed to do? I’ll they’d look at me and great careers to do nothing, that’s I’d know they were be had. Uh-huh, what. You watch saying it, quietly and and I want no part me. But there’s so to themselves. And I’d of it. Get off ’a me much to do with feel a waste. world. Gimme some your life. Yeah and I

But I’d space. Get away dread it all. To have rather be a shoeshine from me with your the rest of my life boy than a pinstriped jobs and careers measured out for business man. I’d go and opportunities. me in inches and crazy. I swear I would. my path drawn It’s too much.”

Riding in elevators for me in chalk, and sitting in a corner from a desk to the office and trying bathroom and the to fake importance and having a desk again. All anyone can give me is secretary and taking my morning a million options, but none of them coffee with cream from the same is Hermit, none of them Live-er,

TERRY SHAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Breathe-er, Exist-er. I don’t want to be anything. I just want to be. That’s where it’s at.

But there are such great careers to be had. Uh-huh, and I want no part of it. Get off ’a me world.

Gimme some space. Get away from me with your jobs and careers and opportunities. It’s too much.

There’re millions of options. Millions of lives for millions of types. Lives for the grand and lives for the humble and lives for the greedy and lives for the charitable and lives for the thrilled and lives for the dull. And here I am caught up somewhere in between it all, which turns out to be nowhere, post-adolescent angst incarnate, nowhere to go, nothing to do. Aww screw it all.

for health • CONT’D FROM A7 healthy. The stitch is that you have to live your life. And one day, who knows, maybe there will be a Swine Flu epidemic or an outbreak of leprosy, or monkey pox, or the crabs, or whatever else is next on the natural progression chart of blights and plagues. And maybe that epidemic will be as widespread as we keep being told it will be.

But until that happens, I’m taking comfort in the fact that I have lived through at least three epidemics of contagion already in my short life, and I swam in Lake Ontario as a kid, and I don’t get as much vitamin C as I should, and yet I’m still standing. I know how this picture show ends. Quietly. It fades away and we move on, remarking that it wasn’t as serious as anyone thought it would be.

By all means, trust your family hypochondriac. The Swine Flu can be dangerous, precautions should be taken, but like all those other viruses and contaminations, as long as you’re healthy in the first place and don’t go hanging around hospital waiting rooms absorbing other people’s coughs, you probably won’t be affected. Regardless, if I stopped my life to be as vigilant as is suggested against every epidemic that has come along, I would still be working my way through junior high.

So carry on. That’s my uneducated non-medical approach.

I’m going to carry on carrying on.

It’s possible I could catch something.

It’s likely I will not. But the world, or my pocket of it anyway, is going to keep rolling merrily along whether I’m getting shots and taking vitamins and washing my hands and wearing a surgical mask or not. And there are no sick days from daily life.

Martin and the paper are What are your rocks and sand? more alike than they think Learning to determine your priorities MSU payees are just trying to gain experience in their field.

this is a rebuttal...

Phyllis Tsang

ASSISTANT INSIDEOUT EDITOR

First day of class, my professor came into the classroom with a few containers. He put three of the six on the table: one filled with sand, one filled with rocks, and one empty.

“This is your life - waiting to be filled,” said Professor while holding up the empty one.

The class is titled “Worldviews and Spirituality.”

Something metaphysical was expected, but we had no clue what he was up to.

Seeing the blank look on our faces, Professor took the container with sand, slowly pouring the sand into the empty container and began listing, “You make coffee in the morning, check email, read newspaper, walk the dog, go to movies, exercise... “

Sand flowed from one container to the other and it was soon emptied. “We fill our lives with all these

TERRY SHAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

OPINION

I would like to respectfully disagree with the editorial published in last week’s issue of the Silhouette, entitled “Vice President Travel.” The nefarious attack on Vice-President (Education) Chris Martin because Jeff Green is “obviously jealous” is completely unfounded and lacks the integrity to be taken seriously.

The McMaster Students Union employs a host of students to represent their peers and to provide the career experience that students need to propel themselves ahead in life.

The Silhouette is clear evidence of this concept – a staff of over a dozen students, who are earning valuable experience in their fields, that they can use to strengthen their skills and build their resumes. Much like that of Chris Martin, these positions fall under the MSU, and consequently, are paid for by their peers.

This means that students not only pay for the part-time salaries of 17 employees (which comes to just under $60,000 a year), but they also pay the Executive Editor’s full-time salary as well. According to the minutes of a summer SRA meeting, students also paid for the Silhouette to acquire computers and other equipment at a cost of about $15,000, not to mention the actual operating costs that students

pay to have the newspaper printed.

Jeff Green’s attempt to undermine the work of VP (Education) Chris Martin is antithetical to his own organization.

If you are going to question why Martin should be granted the opportunity to travel to Parliament Hill with student money in order further his career, you should also question why the Silhouette staff should be paid to receive career experience in their domain with the very same pool of funds.

Furthermore, the hiring process at the Sil is entirely bureaucratic – employees are hired by a board of pre-selected individuals from the MSU. However meager the voter turnout is at MSU Election time, at least Chris Martin was hired because a group of students elected him. If anything, Silhouette staff have less jurisdiction over student funds than anyone on the board of directors. Students have no agency over who is hired at the Silhouette, and still have to pay their wages, yet they maintain the option to opt out of the voting process during MSU election time.

The article also falsely cites both the OUSA (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance) and CASA (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations) acronyms, and according to MSU representatives, Chris Martin’s trip was not even funded through the MSU at all.

lives with big rocks, and then filled in the gaps with sand,” Professor explained, “what we would realize is that, they all fit!”

Like kids watching magic tricks, we were in awe.

The sand packed nicely between the rocks and filled up the cavity.

“What are the rocks in your life? What is most important? What would you fit in your life first?” Professor asked. Silence.

“What we fill our lives with is our choice. At university, there would be no teachers or parents breathing down your neck to “do the right thing,” or anything for that matter. It is up to us to choose to fill our lives with rocks, rather than sand. It is our choice to invest our time in what is important, than what is not.”

Our assignment for that day was to find out what the rocks are in our lives. I have a feeling that this would be a lifelong assignment instead.

This week, the producer of the AK-47 assault rifle filed for bankruptcy after over 60 years of manufacturing death out of low-cost metal. We can only hope it was a case of supply outweighing demand.

A reader writes in response to a Silhouette editorial.

Kassandra Maxwell

things, they are all good, but -”

He paused; we remained clueless.

Professor then took the third container with rocks and started to pour the rocks into the once-empty-but-now-filled-withsand container. As he poured, he resumed listing all the things we do, but a bit different this time.

“We spend time with people, reach out to those in need, care for our love ones... but we quickly realize our container has already filled up.”

A few large rocks didn’t make it into the preoccupied container.

To make his point further, Professor took out another set of three containers with the same makeup – one with sand, one with rocks, and one empty. This time, however, he started with the rocks first. When the rocks were completely transferred into the empty one, he took the sand and poured it in as well.

“If we first filled our

So long AK. We wish we hardly knew ye.

See ya, Baby. Karma’s a bitter pill to swallow.

A12 • THE SILHOUETTE

SpeculatoR The Hamilton

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

INSIDE THE SPECULATOR

B9: Grooming your man-carpet: myths and truths.

M5: Venereal Disease: What Mom didn’t tell you.

R1: Why don’t you call me anymore?

Thursday, September 24, 2009 F This is not a dick joke.

EVERYBODY Better fed READ than Red NOW! Drop your socks and grab your cocks, it’s time for the Speculator book review!

The Audacity of Grope is an inspirational and provocative political commentary that will inevitably leave the reader with not only an urge, but with a sense of moral obligation, to express their inner pervert. In the book, former United States’ President Bill Clinton makes a plea to citizens to maintain awareness of their perverted intuitions, and act upon them as often as is humanly possible. While many critics have written the book off as somewhat elitist in its tone, it remains abundantly clear that Clinton truly believes each and every citizen is capable of harnessing their impurity and putting it to good use.

In the book, Clinton discusses, in almost unimaginable detail, some of the experiences in his life where being sexually forward and unabashedly grope-y actually yielded great political and personal outcomes. He describes how many of his domestic and foreign policy moves were actually motivated by his urge to grope, and that instead of using logic, mathematics or theory to guide his decisions, during his presidency he relied almost entirely on what his anatomy was telling him to do.

The lesson that readers can draw from the Audacity of Grope – notably, that personal perversion and sexual deviance ought to be traits one should not seek to repress, but actively work to develop – will likely produce a fundamental shift in the global population’s beliefs and behavior. While other politicians have attempted to inspire the populous to believe in fruity and superficial concepts like “hope,” Clinton’s latest work will force the world’s citizens to dig much deeper into their value systems and compel them to question their sexually pure and moral approach to living. **************************** Bestiality, Snuff and Lucky Charms.

By Khuck Closterman Review by Duck Hemsworth After years of entertaining readers in Gentleman’s Biannually and Swatch, Colsterman has put out his first fulllength children’s colouring book in Bestiality, snuff and Lucky Charms. While most kids picked up the book for the obvious chance to find that damn lepricon, most were disappointed when all they found was dogs trying to jump over their owners, with little to no success.

Fans of his original essays will probably find joy in colouring in sections labeled #24, for which a special crayon was included.

Newcomers to Colsterman will be refreshed with his unique take on how Saved by the Bell and the Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out” are tied together. While I don’t want to spoil it, Zach Morris is going to have a tough time getting out of this one.

Four joints out of five. **************************** W.

By George W. Bush, Esquire Review by Mohn Jacain

BUCK HOROWITZ SPECULATOR After a year-long absence from the public eye, former Cuban socialist dictator Fidel Castro has been found operating a French-themed restaurant in Miami. He bought the upscale patisserie in 2008 after resigning as president. For the man who helped keep Communism alive for over five decades, it was a return to his roots.

In 1958, Castro was head chef at the newly opened Chez Guevara’s in Havana. Che Guevara had just come from Colombia where he had organized the busboys’ union and was trying to apply the Marxist manifesto to French cuisine. “It failed mas rapido than the Bay of Pigs invasion,” recalls Castro. “I thought it had staying power, but it turns out people don’t want to eat escargot in Carribean heat.” It was then that Castro and Guevara decided to turn their partnership’s focus to revolution at the urging of Castro’s mother, who had always wanted a dictator in the family.

“President Batista liked Italian food and many of Cuba’s peasants were restless because tomato sauce causes heartburn consumed with rum. It was very typical of that administration’s bourgeois capitalist insensitivity to the needs of the proletariat.”

Although he found great success and exceptional longevity as a world leader, he always felt that he was destined for something

else. “My mother was the one who pushed me into being a dictator and her pressure kept me in it.

‘If you quit now,’ she used to say, ‘what will the other Communists’ mothers think?”’ And through it all, restauranteuring was never far from his heart. “After doodling éclairs on the ‘constitution’ for fifty years I finally said to Raul, ‘Look, unless we have to have another missile crisis I’m doing the restaurant

Drink, Curse, Screw

By Jo-Jo Thornpipe Review by Buck Horowitz Drink, Curse, Screw is a charming and forceful coming-of-age tale of a young man at a crossroads in life. Newly graduated from beauty school with a degree in cuticles, Jo-Jo Thornpipe realizes that he is directionless and doesn’t fully understand himself or the world around him. To remedy this, he sets off on a year-long journey of self-discovery, devoting four months to each of the three pillars of life: drinking, cursing and screwing.

His road to self-realization takes him first to Munich, Germany where he attends Oktoberfest until December and then liver transplant rehab until late January. He then leaves behind his lederhosen and bierstein and heads to Northern India to study obscenity with the Swami Tojham, a guru so offensive, so vile that Bob Saget was unable to finish his 10-week course.

Four mothershitfucking months later, cursing like a goddamasshole marine, Jo-Jo sets off for Bangkok as a sex tourist where he experiences some of the weirdest, wildest, scariest most illegal shit money can buy (Spoiler alert: his final epiphany comes at the height of an orgy with a roaming band of circus freakshow performers whom Jo-Jo stumbled upon in the outskirts of town [Ironic spoiler alert: The bearded dwarf lady with nails in her head is named Epiphany].).

All in all, a delightful tome, and a quick read at 927 pages. There are also crude drawings and scientific diagrams to help explain some of the dirtier parts and all the naughty words have been pre-highlighted for your perverse reading pleasure. **************************** The Audacity of Grope

By Bill Clinton Review by Ariel Sandstorm

thing.’”

Some patrons, while complimenting the food, have expressed surprise at the radical change in the owner’s career path.

But Castro believes that cooking and communism go hand in hand.

“Not a lot of people know this but Karl Marx actually started out to write a cookbook on the many ways to share wienerschnitzel amongst a population before ending up with the Communist Manifesto. And Chairman Mao’s wonton were out of sight until Ho Chi Minh almost choked to death while eating one in 1966. The Chairman never cooked again. And that’s when the purges started.”

Overall, the man who once terrorized America with the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction feels optimistic about his chances as a chef and an entrepreneur. “This is Miami, amigo. There are chicas everywhere you look, and confused elderly tourists will pay $40 for an appetizer. Whoever said capitalism wasn’t beautiful? ”

George W. Bush’s new memoire, W. (named for his favourite letter), is a fascinating and delightful read that the entire family can enjoy – especially the six and under crowd. Divided into 26 chapters, the books explores the forty-third president’s life through his favourite things. In Chapter One we learn that George W. Bush loves America, in chapter two baseball, chapter three Cheney, chapter four Dallas and so on. Although each chapter is beautifully illustrated by the president, the illustrations don’t always suit the content – for example, in Chapter Six, where we learn that freedom is one of George W. Bush’s favourite things, but the picture is of the Statue of Liberty, a unicorn and former first lady Barbara Bush bludgeoning France with baseball bats, or Chapter 26 where, despite claiming to love zebras, the president just draws a picture himself and his brother Jeb playing outside on a sunny day. My personal favourite passage comes at the end of Chapter 2, where the president, famed for his ability to simplify already simple ideas explains that, “B is for baseball. I like baseball because it is fun.”

W. is an essential read for anyone wondering just what was going through George W. Bush’s head during his eight year presidency – evidentially, not much. There have been some speculation that Bush may have employed a Cover art for the Bush memoire W. ghostwriter… six-year-old Crawford, Texas native Joey.

“What Did You Learn This Week, Timmy?”

“I learned that Bodybags are an essential supply for campuses, too.”

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, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

INSIDEOUT

Our beaks are bigger!

production office: extension 27117

insideout@thesil.ca

Graduate school secrets, revealed

Professors tell students the best methods for getting great references LINDSAY JOLIVET INSIDEOUT EDITOR

It’s a perfect world. Your grades are amazing; you have written your GMAT, GRE, LSAT, and MCAT, and aced them all. No problem, right? Wrong. Even in this fantasy, your graduate school applications require an essay and references, and these in turn require that time eating process—research.

Applying to graduate school might well be a test of whether students have the stamina to survive further studies. Kerri Latham, counsellor at Career Services, said students are sometimes surprised at the amount of work and preparation applications require. However, it does not all have to be a guessing game.

Professors are happy to reveal the tactics that will draw a stellar reference from them, and counsellors like Latham can help with the rest.

• PLEASE SEE GRAD, B3 WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR

ThreadCount

CommunityEvents

Matthew Cramp 3rd year Science

How would you describe your personal style? “I’m an urban minimalist...Just kidding.”

Friday Sep 25, 2009 10:00AM to 04:00PM Welcoming Pow Wow JHE Grass Area

Favourite Quote: “It’s only me ...phantom” -Phantom of the Opera

Join McMaster First Nations Students Association (MFNSA) and MSU Diversity Services to celebrate 20 years of indigenous studies at McMaster.

Favourite Band: Broken Social Scene What do you look for in a significant other: “A British Accent.”

Saturday Sep 26, 2009 07:30PM to 11:00PM Red Door Coffeehouse 1140 King St. W., in the hall attached to St. Paul’s Church

Shirt: ? $22.00

Glasses: Gucci $400

The monthly open stage coffeehouse features local performers, raises awareness, and fundraises for social justice groups. Come and meet new people, enjoy local music, spoken word, dance and other performances with no cover charge!

Sunday Sep 27, 2009 11:30AM to 03:30PM The Terry Fox Run DBAC Run for Terry Fox and raise money for cancer research and treatment.

Various distance available. Contact Brennan Reurink at 905-525-9140 ext. 26575 or send email inquiries to fit@msu.mcmaster.ca for details and registration.

Belt: Volcom $11.65

Monday Sep 28, 2009 to Friday Oct 02 Government Career Week Gilmour Hall room 110 - Career Services The Government offers secure employment, a strong continuous professional development culture and the knowledge that the work has a significant influence. Visit http://govcareers.mcmaster.ca/ for a list of events and instructions on how to get involved or register to attend.

Jeans: Cheap Monday $45.65

Tuesday Sep 29, 2009 5PM TO 7PM You Are Your Own Brand: How to follow your passions and succeed in the new era (even with a big nose) DBAC

Shoes: Zorick $40

WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR AND TERRY SHAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

CBC radio host and columnist Jian Ghomshi is coming to speak about how diversity of interests and experience is the key to finding success in the workplace and in life. For more information, visit the Government specific website at: http://govcareers.mcmaster.ca/.

How-to-do-it

Survive a bear attack

JEFF GREEN BAHRAM DIDEBAN WILL VAN ENGEN Okay, so you’ve done it. You and your friends got super stoned and went to Cootes for a good ol’ bush party. Between chugging Old English and spitting out Ludacris lyrics, you found yourself alone.

But then you feel something. It’s warm, fuzzy, and smells like honey. You begin to giggle, only to turn around and find yourself face to face with a husky bosom of a bear.

Oh shit, one might say. But not you.

You’ve read this week’s ‘how-to-do-it;’ this bear doesn’t know what’s coming to it. The first thing to do in an apparent bear attack, is to recognize what kind of bear you’re dealing with. Black bears and Grizzly bears are different beasts, with different techniques.

Grizzly Bears You’re fucked. You play possum on this one, protect the jugular with your arms and let that

big ol’ picnic-basket stealing bastid bat you around till he’s bored. Seriously.

Black Bears Here’s your chance to become a legend.

You thought that Dos Equis guy was awesome? He started off with black bears (he also doesn’t keel to Grizzlies, but that’s another story).

You can’t out run the bear, and there is no downhill in sight. Pull up your sleeves, move like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

You probably only have one chance to take the first swing before the bear is pissed that you punched him, so keep swinging, there will be no bell between rounds.

Once this bear realizes that you’ve got the stones, he’ll probably get scared and run off to drown his sorrows in a bucket of honey. Go to the closest bar, clean your wounds with whiskey, sew yourself up Rambo style and sit at a table for four - they’ll come.

AVA DIDEBAN / MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

B2 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Bringing Journalism into Fiction

Trevor Cole finds drama and highlights the absurd in his writing

PHYLLIS TSANG / ASSISTANT INSIDEOUT EDITOR

Writer-in-residence Trevor Cole shares his niche in writing with the McMaster community.

PHYLLIS TSANG ASSISTANT INSIDEOUT EDITOR

“Each of us is optimistic at the core,” he explained. “Willing to explore the unknown. Willing to embrace the new.”

He puts that in Norman Bray’s mouth, a character from his novel, Norman Bray in the performance of his life, but it is as good as if it came from his own mouth, describing himself. But of course, he is not exactly like his character because according to some reviews, Norman Bray is a monster—but he is not.

Who is he then? He is a writer, a journalist, and a satire columnist. He has a wife who was then a journalist and now a teacher, and a daughter who is active, loves music and drama. He is also our writer-

in-residence for the fall term. He is Trevor Cole.

Cole’s dream is to have his voice heard and published widely.

His exploring with words began in 1982 as a radio copywriter, “typing out 30-second spots for bun shops, furriers and Nissan dealerships,” according to his website. Then, a magazine in Ottawa hired him as an editor. After that, he spent 12 years as a senior or executive editor in Globe and Mail’s magazine division.

In the late 90s, Cole jumped at an opportunity to become a senior writer for Report on Business Magazine. For someone that lacks a business background, it was terrifying. “I was quite convinced that I made a terrible mistake in the first few days,” Cole said.

Not for long, though. He

found his niche in business writing.

Within a couple of years, Cole started winning awards for his work.

“I found a way to write business that interests me–somebody who is not interested in business all that much.” Cole explained, “I tried to find a good drama of it.”

Like any plays of Shakespeare, the drama was found in conflict. According to Cole, someone coined the term “Shakespearean version of business writing” for the way he finds and writes about the conflicts and drama in business.

After two and half years, Cole quit his highly-regarded job writing business to pursue his passion for fiction. He has been sidetracked for 15 years.

“Writing fiction is what I want to do more than anything else,” Cole said, “I was able to sup-

port myself by writing a satire column for Canadian Business.”

Cole’s journalism experience contributes more than just pay cheques, and seven national awards.

His ability to see the absurdity and tragedy in a situation, which he learned from journalism, paved the way for his writing career.

“I’m not afraid to be wry or ironic about a situation others might find tragic.” Cole paused for a moment, “But I try to hold onto what is human about that, and poignant.”

He added, “When I [am] investigating in a world that I don’t know and entering somebody’s world and [writing] about it— whether it is real estate, restaurant, or finance, I try to bring up the absurd and find what is corky, interesting, or odd about it, without being hurtful or positioning myself as a superior.”

While his strength is to highlight the absurd, he learned that he should not and does not judge his own character. Rather, he “sympathizes with it,” even if the character is “arrogant, misguided, and a total narcissist,” like Norman Bray.

“I wrote him being aware of those traits but personally, I love him,” Cole affirmed.

According to Cole, it is a balancing act to portray the character while withholding his own view from the readers.

“I wasn’t writing from a view of “I hate this about Norman,” I was letting Norman live and be, without judgement. I’ll let others to make the judgment.” Cole explained, “That transaction should only happen between readers and the character.”

Characters live beyond his own ideas, Cole has learned. He was shocked to find out that others find Norman Bray to be a monster.

In return, he gave a heads-up to his

readers who would be shocked by the new character in development.

“I decided to write a book with a woman as the main character.” Cole said, “I started to think about ideas that would involve a woman, so I waited until there [was] something which really struck me and worth pursuing. I finally got one that made me sit up straight.”

Cole was reluctant to give further details, except that it is a fairly dark satire.

“Darker than any work I’ve done before,” Cole thought for a moment and concluded, “I am excited about it!”

Aside from finishing up his new novel, Cole is also working with Canadian filmmaker Terrance Odette to turn his book, Norman Bray in the performance of his life, into a film and contributing to his website, AuthorsAloud.com, which is an independent library of literary readings by Canadian authors.

During the term in residence at McMaster, Cole spends time between reading works from students, faculties and other from the community, and meeting them.

“It’s hard for people without any publishing experience to know whether they got anything good, or on the right track,” Cole said, “so when they come to me, I can give them some advice.”

“Every writer has his/her own style, or approach to or work.

I wouldn’t want to impose my own style, but I could tell whether someone is achieving his/her goal.” Cole continued, “I can give encouragement, too!”

With that said, don’t be afraid to send in your writings to our writer-in-residence. Trevor Cole can be reached in his office in Room 212 at Chester New Hall, through email englwir@univmail. cis.mcmaster.ca, or phone 905-5259140 x 23740.

THE SILHOUETTE • B3

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Fashion industry turns risqué this fall The economy is bouncing back, and so are the trends of the eighties JACQUELINE FLAGGIELLO SILHOUETTE STAFF

As the economy slowly pulls it self out of the slumps, it seems that more of the fashion savvy are doing the same. Even if budgets are still tight, many are feeling a little less guilty about splurging on those desirable wardrobe upgrades. They have been put off for far too long.

Ah, and what perfect timing, as this season’s must haves are just far too tempting to resist.

Just in time for fall, fashion has re-awoken from its lethargic coma of wayfarers, plaid shirts and high wasted skirts and shifted into a stronger and bolder take on the modern day, independent individual. Proudly scream goodbye to that play-it–safe wardrobe and say hello hello to a new, risky decade of nostalgia.

This season eighties inspiration runs deep on the runways.

Many prestigious designers such as Rodarte, Yves Saint Laurent and of course Marc Jacobs, are continuing to push the envelope with their trend spotting intuition to showcase everything edgy. From studded

SEX STEEL CITY

AND THE

Spicy sex ed NEILA BAZARACAI SILHOUETTE STAFF

An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away—or so a controversial new approach to sexual education would have you believe. According to a new British government initiative, sex or masturbation twice a week is just as important to maintaining general well-being as a balanced diet and regular exercise. Britain’s National Health Service published a pamphlet, provocatively entitled “Pleasure,” advocating the benefits of an active sex life.

Sexual education in schools is often a touchy subject, with approaches ranging from the United States’ abstinence-only education to more progressive curricula that focus on the biological aspects of reproduction and the importance of contraception. Countries that provide either no sexual education or simply preach abstinence have radically higher rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

The Netherlands, for example, whose citizens are famous for their liberal attitudes towards sex, has the lowest teen pregnancy

biker jackets to slick, second-skin leather leggings, I think it’s safe to say that the eighties have returned with a rebellious vengeance.

Over the top statement pieces ruled the runways this fall.

From precious gems to chunky stones, accessories definitely gave many jaw dropping outfits a run for their money. Think strategically thrown together brass and gold necklaces—do-it-yourself junk jewelry, if you will. Headpieces were also a showstopper, as elaborate bows to bejeweled headbands graced the crowns of almost every other model to strut down the catwalk. However, the head turning essential would have to be the fitted jacket. Starting from the playful cropped jean, to the tough studded leather and even the classic, bold shoulder blazer, no signature looks were off limits. Yet, undeniably, the most provocative extra this season has to be the tapered at your ankle, way above your knees, dangerous thigh high boots. Now that’s hot.

For those not quite ready to join the grungy side, there were also a couple of soft touches on the runway to juxtapose the hard-as-

rate in Europe, while Britain, which previously focused solely on pregnancy prevention through abstinence, ironically had the highest.

Many staunch conservative groups are up in arms over the new syllabus, deeming it deplorable and claiming it encourages underage sex; one particularly deprived individual (who, realistically, probably hasn’t been laid since the Thatcher regime) went so far as to say it was “as good as condoning child abuse.”

I say kudos to Britain.

Jolly good job. The effects of an emphasis on abstinence are clearly visible when we examine those lovable prudes to the south. In recent years, waiting until marriage has become the new adopting a foreign baby—everyone’s doing it (well, technically, not doing it). From Miley Cyrus to the Jonas Brothers, and all the other manufactured Disney stars in between, the popularity of things like purity rings and chastity oaths has skyrocketed.

For all their effort, though, research has proven that teens who take vows of celibacy are significantly more likely to end up with an STD than those who are sexually active (the reasoning here being that they can do everything but and still consider themselves pure as the driven snow, while not taking any precautions to protect themselves).

The evidence shows that no matter how many times you tell teenagers that premarital relations make baby Jesus cry, they are still going to have sex, and lots of it. Not equipping them with the knowledge to make safe decisions is not doing anyone any favours. Which brings me back to those intrepid pioneers, the British. In defending this contentious decision, one youth worker wrote, “not teaching young people that sex should be fun can do more harm than good.

Helping young people to see sex as a positive choice, something to do when they’re ready and not because of peer pressure, helps develop their confidence. This, in turn, equips them to discuss and practice safe sex.”

Sex is a beautiful thing.

Whether you’re saving yourself for marriage or enjoying a healthy, satisfying sex life, it should be a well thoughtout and equally well informed personal choice. School boards everywhere should look to Britain as a model of sexual education for the twenty-first century.

nails chic. Fall’s fresh statement colors are more on the warmer side of things, with hues of gold, rust and indigo. These hues have even warmer fabrics of suede, wool, velvet and the classic, tweed.

Rustic patterns and natural colors are continually fall fundamentals.

They safely repeat themselves each year. Could it be because of their timeless, back to basics allure?

Unsurprisingly, with all these risky trends, there has to be one that’s a controversial hit or miss, and this season, it’s the Snood.

What is it? A circular shaped scarf that gives the illusion of a hood, or a scarf with no end. Seems practical, but will it soar?

No matter your shape, size or sensibility, there is bound to be something on this season’s runway that suits anyone’s personal taste. On a budget? (Aren’t we all!)

Remember, it’s back to the eighties baby.

The back of your parent’s closet is sure to have that authentic vintage piece you’ve been longing after all season. Best piece of fashion advice this fall; think Michael This season goes from grunge to softer statements and elegant dresses.

Jackson meets the Breakfast club.

TERRY SHAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

From references to research Knowing your professors is a key to grad school • CONT’D FROM B1

Latham’s first bit of advice is to assess whether graduate school is the right step to take. Some students, she felt, considered further education because “it seemed like that’s what everyone else was doing.” She cautioned against this because of the required effort, and the fact that graduate school is not necessary for all career paths. She added, “Sometimes people go on to further education just because they just love the subject, and that’s awesome!” The important thing, Latham held, was for students to have an idea where they wanted to end up, and why they wanted more education.

This last insight is important for a major aspect of most applications: statements of intent, or personal statements. Statements of intent, required mostly for further academic studies, rather than professional schools, ask for an in-depth inquiry into what your desired subject means to you. “[Give] them a rational of why your undergrad isn’t enough and you want more. And what you want to do with that more,” Latham stated, “What are your hopes, what do you want to research, and what are your curiosities?”

Statements of intent should be specific, and directed narrowly at the area of study. Latham also recommended that students research professors in the departments to which they are applying, to ensure they have aligned their statement with research that a professor is already conducting. She said that admissions boards will be asking, “Is this going to be a good fit?” and if a student’s interests are easily matched to a faculty member, the answer is more likely to be “yes.”

Students should also contact the faculty member with whom their interests align, to ensure that they are willing to take on a graduate student.

Personal statements, often required for professional schools like Law and Medical School, are a bit broader. In this case, assessors want to get to know the person and their experiences. Still, students should exercise caution when dealing with the “personal.” Latham suggested students constantly ask themselves, “Is this relevant?”

On a practical note, she warned that responses should be insightful. Stating that you want to be a dentist because you have always liked teeth, or because you have always wanted to be a dentist, will not work. This is an obvious example, but the lesson is to avoid superficiality and dig deep in self-reflection. Often application instructions will ask questions, or give clues about what they want.

Students should be conscious of language and willing to ask questions

if their analytical skills are failing them.

Once statements are written and transcripts sent, the teethchattering matter of references is left. Three McMaster professors disclosed their views and experiences regarding reference letters.

All three faculty members stressed that students should give ample notice, from 3 to 6 weeks, for their requests. In their experience, applicants have neglected this consideration, and it has cost some of these students a reference. On the other hand, students should not ask too soon. Professor of Political Science Dr. Tony Porter observed, “It is best not to have the letter written too far in advance if it means that you haven’t completed enough of the course for the professor to know how you will do.”

Each professor indicated that email was an appropriate and often preferable contact method to request references. A quick mention in class prior to the email is also helpful. However, be cautious of informality. DeGroote School of Business Professor Dr. Clarence Kwan revealed, “You may find it amusing (or disturbing) that I have occasionally received e-mail requests for references, starting with something like “hey, i’m wondering if u can ...”

Informality is undoubtedly a poor decision, and can affect the quality of a reference even if it is granted. “As many standardized reference forms for graduate school applications do have items on written communication skills, carelessly written e-mail messages could have negative influences on the professors who have received such messages,” Kwan stated.

Students often wonder how well they need to know a professor to approach them for a reference. While each professor has specific rules, a better student-professor relationship, and a good grade in that professor’s course, will always produce a better reference. Physiology Professor Dr. David Rollo indicated that his class sizes have been between 200-300 students for the past few years, plus thesis and grad students, which makes it difficult to get to know many students. He only writes references for students he knows relatively well, and noted, “It is really unfortunate that most places require letters from a professor you know well when it is increasingly difficult to develop a suitable relationship.”

Dr. Kwan expanded on the dilemma writing references can sometimes present for professors.

“To maintain our credibility in the long run, it is highly important that our assessment is always fair and accurate, although we all are trying our best to help students gain admissions to graduate programs of

their choice.”

Alternatively, Porter said, “I am happy to provide references for any student who has been in one of my classes.” If a student’s class performance was poor, but they ask for a reference anyway, Porter said he would agree to write the reference, but “make clear the student’s shortcomings.” He advised students never to hesitate to ask.

Dr. Kwan prefers to decline students for whom she cannot write helpful references.

For Dr. Rollo, the decision to accept or decline depends on the school and type of graduate studies. He is more inclined to refer students applying to research programs than dentistry, law, or medicine, because he is a primarily a researcher. Furthermore, he will not write references for certain schools because “their process is just too cumbersome and frustrating.”

Professors’ individual preferences vary, meaning students should allot additional time to find new references should they meet technical difficulties, such as a professor who is simply too busy.

When requesting a reference letter, students should be prepared to send relevant information.

Although requirements will depend on the application, Dr. Kwan, Rollo, and Porter indicated similar materials they found helpful. Namely, students should have a CV, transcript, and statement of research interests, if applicable. Submission and mailing information is imperative, because many programs have very specific requirements.

If supplementary documents require so much effort, do they carry an equally substantial influence on admission? Not necessarily. Every program places a different level of importance on grades, standardized test scores, and supplementary information. Some programs, like the McMaster Medical Program, indicate the importance of each.

However, it is difficult to determine the influence of qualitative documents. The solution?

Make sure you look solid across the board, Latham advised. Sometimes making a contact with professors at the school where you are applying can make up for a weak statement, “but I wouldn’t chance it,” stated Latham. If contacts can increase a student’s chances of admission, this means that applying to, say, McMaster Medical School, after attending McMaster for four years, could mean a student’s face is familiar, which never hurts.

According to this counsellor, there may not be a path of least resistance for graduate school applicants. It is a tough pill to swallow, but she held firmly, “The good enough attitude is probably not good enough.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

THE SILHOUETTE • B5

Interactive

BreadBin

Horoscopes

Easy Ham and Cheese Omelette

Readings with Unity for the week ahead

Well, McMaster, we’re about 3 weeks in and the work is building up. It’s time to channel that stress into making a tasty treat for yourself. This week Mac Bread Bin is bringing you the first of our Rez-Friendly recipes. In order to accommodate our happy, on-campus residents, the list of ingredients and cooking steps is short, but we have maintained the delicious integrity of the dish. Embrace your inner chef and make use of your common room kitchenette!

Unity is an Angel Clairvoyant and Vibrational Energy Practitioner. To find out more, you can visit her site at www.ReadingsWithUnity.com.

Omelettes This dish is quick to make and versatile with ingredients. The filling can be made of cheese, your favourite vegetable, sausage, or sandwich meats. Just make sure it’s cut into small pieces. The key to a perfect omelette is a good nonstick frying pan, lower temperatures, and a spatula or something flat and wide to flip it.

Rebecca Ang, Mac Bread Bin Co-Director

Sudoku

9 7 4 5 1 8

6 2 1 4 3 7

1 4 7 8 5 3 9 6 2

9 3 2 4 8 7 6 5 1

5 8 4 1 9 6 2 7 3

7 6 1 5 3 2 8 9 4

4 7 8 3 6 5 1 2 9

2 1 5 7 4 9 3 8 6

3 9 6 2 1 8 7 4 5

Taurus (April 20-May 21)

REBECCA ANG / MAC BREAD BIN CO-DIRECTOR

•

8 5 9

Gain a clearer perspective this week and feel the inner peace. Give yourself time each morning to relax and tune in to the present, this will help you act from a centred space. You are ready for the change.

Honour your feelings and trust your instincts. Do not give into the ‘crowd.’ You know what is right, and as you act independently you achieve immediate victory.

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat until evenly coloured. Add salt and pepper.

2. Cut up the ham into thin slices.

3. On medium-high heat (6/10), heat up the oil or butter, and spread it around the whole surface (important so that the eggs don’t stick).

4. Pour in the eggs and spread by tilting the pan until the eggs cover the bottom.

5. When the eggs are firm on the bottom, but still runny on top, sprinkle the fillings over top.

6. Run your spatula around the edges of the egg and gently loosen it from the pan.

7. Using your spatula, fold half of the egg-sheet over the other half.

8. Slide the omlette onto a plate, and enjoy with a slice of toast!

6 2 3

Affirmation: I AM Awakening.

Affirmation: I AM Independent.

Ingredients: • 3 eggs • 1 ½ tablespoons oil/butter/ margarine • Filling: ¼ cup of grated cheese, 1 slice of ham

Last week’s solution:

Aries (March 20-April 20)

4 8 3 1

2

3 5 3 8 1 2

6

9 4 2 6

9 5 4 7 1

2 1 9

4 6

8 1

6

6 9 8 7 9 2

Gemini (May 21-June 21) Affirmation: I AM Safe.

Integrate your warrior power alongside your gentle nature. Be brave as you are tested now, but do not be so strong that love is cut out from the situation at hand. Envision cougar and unicorn to help you today.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Affirmation: I AM Jolly.

Let go and have some fun! Don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s time for a good laugh and some merriment among friends. Get out there and enjoy yourself!

2 9

Leo (July 22-August 23)

5

You feel the doorway that you want to walk through - just do it! Now is the moment for decision-making and action. Say “yes” and stop delaying yourself. Be bold.

1 3

Affirmation: I AM Decisive.

Virgo (August 23-September 23)

Affirmation: I AM Loved.

Your family is thinking of you this week and sending you their love. Let yourself bask in this comfort and fill up in this nourishment. Forgiveness is essential.

Libra (September 23-October 23) Affirmation: I AM Light.

Release judgment and focus on the light in those around you. As you do, you’ll find yourself attracting more friendships and acquiring a deeper understanding of self. Important relationships are about to take form.

Scorpio (October 23-November 22)

Affirmation: I AM Excited.

You are about to get some amazing news! Pay attention and keep your ‘window’ open to let in this dream-come-true. What you wished for is about to arrive. Remember to give thanks when it does!

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Affirmation: I AM Free.

Take a deep breath in for clarity and then send this breath out for cleansing. It’s essential that you stop taking on the burdens of those around you. You are in charge of your destiny and have no need to wear the baggage of others.

Capricorn (December 21-January 20)

Affirmation: I AM Thankful.

This week is all about reflection and gratitude. Take some time to write some ‘thank-you’ notes and to give those special people a call. Surround yourself with thankfulness and appreciation.

Aquarius (January 20-February 18) Affirmation: I AM Forgiving.

Let go of anger and pointing fingers. To resolve the situation everyone needs to practice forgiveness here. Go for a walk by the shoreline for a brighter perspective.

Pisces (February-18 March 20)

Affirmation: I AM Leading.

Build your team for fast, steady results. This situation requires more than you can handle alone. Enjoy the friendships that are built and let in the abundance arriving.

Come write for InsideOut! Contact us at: insideout@thesil.ca

B6 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Who said Onterrible? More like Onterrific A Vancouverite gives her take on the Hammer’s quirks

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

MANORI RAVINDRAN THE SILHOUETTE

When most people desire a “change of scene,” they sign up for cake-decorating classes or go build houses in Guatemala. I, of course, thought it would be a great adventure to move to Ontario. My family was horrified, primarily because I am the only person they know who wears fleece in August: how would this delicate Vancouverite possibly brave the stupidly cold, Onterrible winter? Paying caution to the easybreezy-beautiful-BC wind, I packed two suitcases of coats, thermal underwear, and balaclavas and set my sights on Hamilton.

It has been roughly a month since I arrived here. Mind you, it was only two weeks ago that I stopped wearing black while listening to Leona Lewis alone in my apartment and decided to explore Hamilton. I thought that getting a handle on the transit system would be a fitting start until I accidentally ended up downtown after falling prey to the one-way streets. While I wandered around Jackson Square Mall looking for The Gap, I encountered a few shady characters, was promptly “squared” off, and have since vowed never to return in this lifetime.

I also find myself seeing double in Ontario. Whenever I enter a restaurant, I am unpleasantly met with yet another door inside. If I want to open a window, there is one more I have to wedge into place.

And, the traffic – oh! The traffic!

That, frankly, is double, if not triple in sheer absurdity.

Let’s talk about milk. And why it is in bags. My first trip to

Fortino’s was rudely punctuated when I asked an elderly gentleman where the dairy was. He gave me the stink-eye and gruffly told me I was looking right at it. Squinting and scratching my head, I had been skimming through the refrigerators looking for brightly-colored cartons with grazing cows on them when all I had to do was look down at the piles of sloshing, wiggling plastic bags at the bottom.

While using 75 per cent less plastic than cartons makes perfect environmental sense, I reckon I am still struggling to think, well, outside the box.

I have to admit, though, that the folks in Ontario have surprised me. Contrary to popular Vancouver opinion, people here are not arrogant blowhards. Even Torontonians were sickeningly sweet as I donned my best confusedtourist expression and asked where Kensington Market was. So, while I admit to chuckling along with the rest of Vancouver when Coors Light claimed its beer was “colder than the people in Toronto” this past summer, I doubt I would laugh now.

Y’all are just too nice.

Occasionally, I will look at my humidity-induced orb of hair (think Robert Smith of The Cure) and wonder what I was thinking coming to a swelteringly hot yet mind-numbingly cold, baggedmilk-selling, and highway-happy province. Let’s face it: I am not going to get a single date with this winter sporting a striped balaclava.

But after all that I have seen in the past month, I figure this is just as whimsical as any adventure. So, bring on the long johns, ‘cause it’s Hammer time.

The view of Lake Ontario and the downtown core from Hamilton mountain.

THE SILHOUETTE • B7

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

SPORTS

production office: extension 27117

email: sports@thesil.ca

Mac football punishes York Lions 49-8 McMaster prepares for playoff rematch with 8th ranked Laurier

WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR

Running back John Hartnett had 55 yards rushing and a receiving touchdown as part of the Marauder’s convincing 49-8 win over the York Lions on Saturday.

DAVID KOOTS as he added a pair of scores in the ON), who combined for 239 yards the country’s best difficult, and the team.

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR third quarter. He would finish the rushing. The three running backs recruiting problems were made The Marauders will be day with 108 yards rushing and 34 and two quarterbacks scored all worse by the three-month work facing much stiffer competition For the second week in a row, yards receiving. of McMaster’s touchdowns and stoppage last year that has cut this Saturday as the Golden Hawks, the McMaster Marauder defence Fantham started accounted for most of the team’s York’s entrance numbers. “It’s been ranked eighth in the country by the surrendered just eight points at quarterback and had 14 massive offensive output. Draft- tough to say the least,” said Lions CIS, come to town. Laurier has against. But unlike last week’s completions on 18 attempts with eligible wide receiver Kevin head coach Mike McLean ahead started the season 2-1 with their 1-point loss to Queen’s, this past one interception, two passing D’Hollander (London, ON) had of Saturday’s game. “Everybody only loss of the year coming against Saturday’s game against the York touchdowns and a score on the another solid outing, catching six in the OUA has [scholarships] the dominant Western Mustangs.

Lions saw the offence explode for ground. Late in the second quarter, passes for 104 yards. Placekicker they can offer students-athletes. The winner of this week’s game 666 yards on the way to a 49-8 with a 21-7 lead and control of Andy Waugh made two field goals, We had probably five or eight turn will be all but guaranteed to be win. With the win, the Marauders the game, Coach Ptaszek pulled added a punt single and converted down our scholarship money to among the top six teams in the improved their record to 2-1, good Fantham in order to give second all six touchdowns to round out the go somewhere else without any OUA and qualify for the postseason enough to tie three other teams for year backup Kyle Quinlan (South scoring. financial incentive, so that’s maybe but the bigger prize up for grabs the second best record in the OUA. Woodslee, ON) some crucial The defence all but shut indicative of the public perception is to be among the top four and One of those teams happens to be playing experience. “I have down the York offence, limiting the [of York University].” host a playoff match. In last year’s the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, complete confidence in Ryan Lions to 138 rushing yards and a York’s problems were playoffs, Mac travelled to Laurier who visit Ron Joyce Stadium this Fantham,” said Ptaszek earlier in feeble 82 yards passing. Defensive further compounded this year and lost by a score of 29-0 in front Saturday in a game that could very the season. “He is one of the better back Daniel Baronas (St Catherines, when after the first game of the of a loud Golden Hawks home well determine who advances to quarterbacks in the CIS and Kyle ON) had an interception for the year, the team self-disclosed that crowd. McMaster has not beaten the OUA playoffs and who will be Quinlan is not far behind and he is second consecutive game while starting quarterback Patrick Hooey Laurier in its past eight attempts, on the outside looking in. going to contribute all year.” defensive linemen Scott Caterine was ineligible to play for the 2009 a streak the Marauders hope to end

Against York, the Quinlan didn’t let his coach (Burlington, ON) and Tanvir season due to violating the CIS’s this weekend.

Marauders opened the scoring in down on Saturday, racking up 203 Bhangoo (Brampton, ON) each had transfer rules. This left the Lions The defence will need to the first quarter when quarterback passing yards and two touchdowns, a sack. without a starting QB and forced find a way to limit Laurier running Ryan Fantham (London, ON) one passing and one rushing.

The York football program second year player Nick Coutu (St. back Mike Montoya (Burlington, connected with running back Jordan His day was made easier by the has had some rough times of late, Catherines, ON) into the role as the ON), who is second in the OUA Kozina (Brantford, ON) for a 14 rotating trio of Mac running backs, having last won a game in 2007 team’s pivot. York will battle it out in rushing. If they are able to slow yard touchdown. This would be the Kozina, Joey Nemet (Burlington, and last beating McMaster in 1997. with the Toronto Varsity Blues for down Montoya it may force the first of Kozina’s three touchdowns, ON) and John Hartnett (Hamilton, A losing program makes recruiting the distinction of the OUA’s worst • PLEASE SEE LAURIER, B8

Marauders shut out Varsity Blues 27-0 MUDASSER ALI THE SILHOUETTE

SARAH PARENT / SILHOUETTE STAFF

The women’s rugby team continued their strong play with a 27-0 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Five players scored as the McMaster women’s rugby team stayed undefeated with a 27-0 drubbing of the Varsity Blues last Saturday in Toronto. The win was Mac’s second straight shutout to open the season, improving their record to 2-0 in dominant fashion.

The No. 7 nationally ranked Marauders’ scorers included Nina Bui (North York, ON), Margaret Cogger-Orr (Thornhill, ON), Kimberly Ngai (Markham, ON), Kirsten Shedden (Barrie, ON) and Natasha Turner (Ottawa, ON).

The Varsity Blues (0-2) have yet to record a win this season, with the loss to Mac following a 27-5 defeat at the hands of the Waterloo Warriors on Sep. 12.

Turner and Bui continued to establish themselves as McMaster’s potent 1-2 punch by providing stellar offensive play.

The game allowed both Turner and Bui to tie for 3rd in CIS rankings behind Guelph’s Brittany Benn and Queen’s Andrea Wadsworth for the scoring crown. Both players have reached the end zone four times this season. Fourth-year Marauder

Allison Morris (Stoney Creek, Ont.) has converted four tries for eight points on the campaign, good for 17th best in the OUA.

The win was significant for the Marauders as it showed their ability to play at a high level in both home and away games.

McMaster has traditionally been one of Canada’s strongest rugby programs, and will look to add to that reputation this year.

Excellent coaching, strong leadership and a talented, hardworking team are all ingredients in what could be another landmark year for the Women’s rugby squad. If play thus far has been any indication, the Women’s rugby program deserves consideration as one of McMaster’s upper echelon varsity squads. Attendance at games is quickly becoming a worthwhile use of time as this team begins to gain momentum.

The victory will set up an exciting matchup against the Queen’s women’s rugby team (2-0) this Saturday, Sep. 26 in Kingston.

The game will leave only one team undefeated while handing the other their first loss of the season. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Laurier visits Ron Joyce Stadium on Saturday • CONT’D FROM B7 Golden Hawks to throw the ball more often. This should be to the Marauders’ advantage as they sport Canada’s top pass defence, only giving up an average of 116 yards per game. The young secondary has been impressive all season long with six interceptions and only three scores against in the first three games.

A large home town crowd could play a crucial role, as it did in week one against Waterloo. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. and without a doubt, this should be the best regular season football game played at Ron Joyce Stadium. Tickets are still available through the Marauders website or can be purchased at the gate. Come out to the game, be loud and propel the Marauders to a victory over one of Ontario’s best teams.

WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR

McMaster fans sold out Ron Joyce Stadium during Welcome Week.

Marauder sports available online SSN membership grows

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

SSN covered the CIS men’s volleyball final, in which Mac finished fourth.

DAVID KOOTS live. Instead of reading about Kyle ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Quinlan’s excellent second half, fans were able to watch him play This weekend, McMaster Marauder each and every down. While the teams played 15 different games play-by-play and camera work are in nine different sports. However, not the same as the professionals of these games, just four were at TSN, The Score and CBC, played on campus. While you can they nevertheless do a great job always read about the games in in covering the essentials and the the Silhouette or on the Marauder quality of feed is as good as any. website, it doesn’t compare to Being at a game live will always actually being able to see the action be the best way to watch sports, as it unfolds. Now, for a few select but SSN is a significant step up sports, being able to watch games from reading about the game after whether they are home or away is the fact or watching a two minute one step closer. If you are a fan of highlight package.

Marauder sports, you need to check McMaster has yet to out the Sports Streaming Network. officially join SSN Canada, so not

The site, www.ssncanada. every game this season is covered. ca, offers games from a variety of But with teams such as York, sports in each Canadian university Ottawa and Guelph signed up, fans sports league. Mac sports available are still able to take advantage of on the network include football, numerous Marauder games. SSN basketball, volleyball, soccer and grew from six members in 2008 to tennis.

15 in 2009, with members paying

Last year’s men’s CIS $750 annually to be part of the volleyball tournament was covered network. Last year, SSN broadcast with all of McMaster’s games nearly 500 games and all team streamed live online. For fans who championships for the CIS and wanted to watch the action live, OUA. SSN Canada offered an alternative In a sports-crazed country to paying hundreds of dollars to like Canada, CIS sports are grossly travel to Edmonton. Personally, it under-covered and SSN is doing an felt right to see the team finish its excellent job in increasing overall season after having followed them coverage. McMaster sports are all year long. scheduled for a short break from

This past weekend, SSN SSN coverage, but should return Canada covered the McMaster vs. in coming weeks, giving hardcore York football game and gave fans Marauder fans a chance to take the chance to see their Marauders advantage of a great free service.

LOVE SPORTS? SILHOUETTE SPORTS NEEDS YOU! WRITE FOR SIL SPORTS sports@thesil.ca

THE SILHOUETTE • B9

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Men’s soccer picks up first win of the 2009 season

Marauders split weekend homestand, beating Laurier and falling to Waterloo BRIAN DECKER SPORTS EDITOR

After starting the season with two losses, the McMaster men’s soccer team split a pair of games last weekend at Ron Joyce Stadium, defeating the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 3-1 after a 2-1 loss to the Waterloo Warriors. The win over Laurier was the first for Mac this season, bumping their record to 1-3 on the campaign.

Though the Mac-Laurier match was between the cellar dwellers of the OUA West division, it was a hotly contested and spirited affair, with 14 yellow cards being handed out between the two teams. A first half goal and two late second half goals pushed the Marauders to victory, with Hadi Behdad (Richmond Hill, ON),

Kyle Grootenboer (Brantford, ON) and Mark Reilly (Hamilton, ON) scoring for Mac. First-year goalkeeper Adrian Denomy (Oshawa, ON) played a key role in the win, making four key stops to preserve the lead.

Andrew Sanzole (Kitchener, ON) scored before halftime for the Hawks’ only goal.

The loss sent Laurier, to last place in the OUA West at 0-2-2 on the season. Ranked no. 8 nationally at the beginning of the season after winning the 2008 OUA Championship, the Golden Hawks have taken a precipitous fall from being the team to beat to the team to beat up on.

The win followed a loss in Mac’s home opener against the Waterloo Warriors. Third year Kinesiology student Omar Nakeeb

(Mississauga, ON) scored for the Marauders in the loss. The goal was not only Nakeeb’s first goal of the season, but the first for the entire Marauder team, who had been shut out against Guelph and York in losses to start the season.

Keeper Matthew Grant (Brampton, ON) made 11 saves in the loss, continuing his solid play after holding no. 2 nationally ranked York to just one goal last week.

Waterloo midfielders Chris Lam (Guelph, ON) and Mohamed Aborig (Tripoli, Libya) scored for the Warriors, who moved into a tie with Guelph atop the OUA West after a two-win weekend.

The Marauders’ next action takes place Saturday on the road against the Windsor Lancers, who upset the aforementioned York Lions 4-3 on Sunday.

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / THE SILHOUETTE

CHRISTOPHER CHANG /THE SILHOUETTE

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / THE SILHOUETTE

The men’s soccer team played a tough back-to-back weekend set, coming away with their first win of the season in a hotly contested 3-0 win over the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.

Women fall short against Hawks, net three against Warriors

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / THE SILHOUETTE

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / THE SILHOUETTE

Mac took the opening game of the weekend 3-0 against Waterloo.

Keeper Michelle Spadafora made the initial save on a Laurier penalty kick but could not stop the rebound.

BRIAN DECKER Marauders’ home opener, which a goal of their own.

SPORTS EDITOR saw fourth year player Samantha Third year player Chantal Batten (Hamilton, ON) score two Malysa (Calgary, AB) scored a The McMaster women’s soccer goals. Rookie Vanessa Greco second half goal for the Marauders, team dropped a tough game 4-2 (Hamilton, ON) also scored in the who dropped to 1-2-1 on the season. against the no. 5 nationally ranked one-sided contest, which marked Laurier’s win pushes the team to Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks the first victory of the season for the 3-0-1, tied atop the OUA West with on Sunday, the second of a back- Marauders.

Brock. to-back set of home games. The The Marauders continued Keeper Michelle Spadafora Marauders entered halftime having their hot play, scoring the first goal (Dundas, ON) made eight saves in played much of the first stanza near of the game against Laurier shortly the loss, but ran into some bad luck the Laurier goal, but were unable after the opening whistle. Rookie in the second half. After Laurier to stop the Golden Hawks from Samantha McLaren (Oakville, ON) was awarded a penalty shot, the scoring three second-half goals and finished a well organized attack second-year Health Studies student taking home the win. to put the Marauders in front. made a brilliant stop, but had the

The loss followed a 3-0 But Laurier proved resilient and rebound go in off the charging rout of the Waterloo Warriors in the responded in the fourth minute with Laurier shooter.

The team rookie has made a number of big plays, but has had some large shoes to fill after taking the role of first team CIS All-Canadian Amy Holt (Hamilton, ON), who recorded an astonishing eight shutouts in going undefeated for the 2008 season.

Laurier players Alyssa Lagonia (Kitchener, ON), Ali McKee (Bracebridge, ON), Heather Malizia (Burlington, ON) and Sarah Houghton (Waterloo, ON) scored for the Golden Hawks.

For the Marauders, it has been a trying start to the regular season. With just one win in four games, Mac will have to turn things around to make the OUA playoffs.

In 2008, the maroon and grey entered the playoffs as the no.

2 seed following an 8-0-6 regular season. The Marauders were bumped out of the playoffs with a heartbreaking 3-1 quarterfinal loss to these same Laurier Golden Hawks.

As the season goes on, the team will look to Biomedical Engineering student and 2008 CIS second team All-Canadian Cheryl Druchok (Palgrave, ON), playing in her fourth season with the team, to lead the way to a playoff berth and OUA playoff success.

The team’s next action takes place Saturday against Windsor, who battled to a 2-2 draw against York last weekend and currently sit at 1-1-2 on the season.

B10 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Mac golf kicks off season at Queen’s Invitational Marauders learning to adapt to loss of graduating veterans

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

The McMaster men’s golf team kicked off their season in Kingston with a 5th-place finish at the Queen’s Invitational. Brian Decker (above) led the team with a 2-under 70.

JEFF GREEN

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Amherstview Golf Club in Kingston, ON played host to the OUA’s first golf tournament of the season that saw McMaster place 5th overall with a combined 16-over 304.

McMaster’s Brian Decker (Oakville, ON) took second place and the silver medal with a 2-under 70, 5 shots behind one of the lowest tournament rounds in recent memory

by Waterloo’s Simon McInnis (Etobicoke, ON).

The maroon and grey faired well considering that they lost 5 players to graduation, including Matt Jacobs (Ancaster, ON), the 2007 OUA champion and 2nd place finisher at the RCGA College/University Nationals, and Mike Britton (Scarbrough, ON) who was the 2008 team MVP. Aside from Decker, Mark Young (Scarborough, ON) shot a 2-over 74, Patrick Thornley (London, ON) came in with a 6-over 78, Jimmy duDomaine (Burlington, ON) shot a 10-over 82, and rookie Chris Lovell (Oshawa, ON) shot a 12over 84.

Waterloo’s McInnis shot a 7-under 65 en route to leading the Warriors to the overall team victory with a combined 7-under 281. McInnis is in his first year of his MBET (Masters in Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology), and finished second at the Ontario Amateur championship this year. The

only one who beat him that week was NCAA regional and national champ Matt Hill, who also went on to win eight more tournaments at NC State.

Much is expected from the Waterloo squad this year, who hold top tier golfers in McInnis, Garret Rank (Elmira, ON) and the 2006 OUA Champion Jimmy Latta (St. Clements, ON).

Course conditions were dry in Kingston, allowing the ball to run quite fast and bringing the hazards into play, in a normally wide-open course. Decker’s silver medal can be attributed to his steady hand with the putter, and consistently keeping the ball in play, draining 5 birdies in the process.

As for the other Marauders, Young opted to keep the driver in the bag, scoring a less aggressive, mostly par round. duDomaine was on pace for a solid round, scoring 1-over on the first 12 holes, but ran into some trouble on the back, running his score up to 10-over.

Thornley dropped an eagle putt on the par-5 ninth, but struggled with his driver and putter for most of the day. Lovell’s first outing wearing the maroon and grey may not have turned out how he wanted it, but it can be safe to say the rookie is looking forward to the rest of the season. The Marauders’ next action kicks off today at the Western Invitational, a two-day tournament at London’s St. Thomas Golf & Country Club and Sunningdale Golf Club.

Semenya under fire for issue beyond control Teen star subject of media witch hunt DORIAN GEIGER

eventually found out after being spotted sporting blatant facial hair at a train station.

So incredibly weird and wrong, I know.

SASKATOON (CUP) - South African female Ratjen later blamed the Nazi Regime for his sprinter Caster Semenya’s gold medal from shameful actions. the 800-metre at the world championships at Meanwhile, South African Berlin last month is in jeopardy – alongside politicians and Semenya’s family have her career – due to allegations that the publicly voiced their disgust for such a 18-year-old phenomenon is a man. humiliating violation of privacy against the

A far cry from steroid and drug use, sprinter. biological components such as testosterone, Lesiba Rammabi, Semenya’s uncle testicles and ovaries (or lack thereof) are told the New Zealand Herald, “I believe apparently also criteria for stripping athletes Caster is normal, inside and out. What does of medals and athletic achievements. it matter whether she can have babies? Many Semenya’s gender has been in people cannot have children. Are those question and accusations have flown since her women not women also? dominating victory in Berlin, accompanied

“We are a normal family who looked by fast race times, masculine appearance and at a child when she was born, saw that she a noticeably deep voice. was a girl and raised her as any other family Results now verify the sprinter has a would do. Are we now being told that we are gender-based medical condition and had three wrong?” said Rammabi. times the testosterone levels in Semenya, who defeated her system than that of a typical her competitors in Berlin by a female athlete. Many media We are a normal fam- commanding 2.45 seconds, is sources are claiming Semenya ily who looked at a under scrutiny for something is a “hermaphrodite,” but she cannot help or control. She testing has only revealed that child when she was is the very opposite of athletes the sprinter has internal testes born, saw that she who consciously choose to and no ovaries. This doesn’t was a girl and raised use anabolic steroids or illicit prove the medical allegations, substances. In fact, she was but doesn’t rule them out her as any other fam- completely unaware of her ily would do. Are we condition. either.

A hermaphrodite is now being told that Semenya’s test results not someone with both ovarian only expose the fact that the we are wrong?” and testicular tissue and such South African will never be a gender disorder is extremely able to bear children due to rare. Further investigation her condition, a disconcerting into the issue along with more official test enough revelation in itself, but stripping her results will likely find Semenya to have what medal will essentially put an immediate halt is known as an inter-sex condition. Inter-sex to her career as well — something utterly conditions refer to a variety of genetic and unjust, unfair and plainly laughable. hormonal disorders and involves incomplete Moreover, if testing was to be sexual development. performed on Semenya to determine any

In 1980, a similar gender-related abnormal biological conditions, it should have case emerged concerning Polish sprinter happened before the world championships in Stella Walsh. After breaking dozens of world Berlin, rather than later. Such a motion would records and capturing two Olympic gold have prevented the needless embarrassment medals throughout the earlier part of the 20th Semenya has undergone and the present century, Walsh was killed in an attempted controversy at hand. robbery of a department store in Cleveland.

By not doing so, the judging panel of Later, an autopsy revealed the female sprinter the world championships should be blamed, had male sex organs, both XX and XY not Semenya. Given the context, stripping chromosomes and has since been referred to such achievements is unethical. Those medals as a gender cheat. are rightfully Semenya’s but salvaging her

Perhaps more nutty, in 1936 a career might pose a more difficult problem.

German man named Hermann Ratjen Tragically, exhaustive media disguised himself as a female by binding his perpetuation of the subject might spell the genitals to his body and managed to compete inevitable demise of Semenya’s career like it in the high-jump competition at the Berlin has for other athletes who have been caught Olympics as a female. “Dora” Ratjen was up in similar controversy.

THE SHEAF

THE SILHOUETTE • B11

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Laurier Golden Hawks vs. McMaster Marauders

The McMaster Marauders (2-1) take on the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (2-1) at 1p.m. at Ron Joyce Stadium on Saturday Sep. 26.

LAURIER OFFENCE

MCMASTER

Mike Montoya 409 57 4 7.2

Running Backs Rushing yards Carries Touchdown Yards per carry

Jordan Kozina 291 43 3 6.8

Anton Bennett 51 8 0 6.38

Running Backs Rushing yards Carries Touchdown Yards per carry

Joey Nemet 190 36 0 5.28

Luke Thompson 350 23/48 2 1 74

Quarterbacks Passing yards Comp. / attmpt.

Touchdown Interceptions Rushing yards

Ryan Fantham 524 39/71 6 3 33

Dillon Heap 131 1 8

Wide Receivers Receiving yards Touchdowns Catches

Kevin D’Hollander 230 2 12

Josh Bishop 141 0 7

Wide Receivers Receiving yards Touchdowns Catches

Matthew Peressini 126 2 11

DEFENCE Giancarlo Rapanaro 19.5 16 2.5 1

Defensive Leaders Tackles Solo Tackles Sacks Interceptions

Ryan Chmielewski 14 13 1 1

Mitchell Bosch 14.5 13 1 1

Defensive Leaders Tackles Solo Tackles Sacks Interceptions

Daniel Baronas 12 11 0 2

TOTAL OFFENCE Laurier McMaster 3 Games 3 594 Rushing yards 643 527 Passing yards 763 192 Plays 196 1121 Total yards 1406 8 Touchdowns 12 373.7 Yards/game 468.7 TOTAL DEFENSE Laurier McMaster 3 Games 3 322 Rush yards 451 649 Pass yards 347 180 Plays 161 971 Yards 798 5 Touchdowns 4 323.7 Yards/game 266.0

B12 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

HEALTH

production office: extension 27117

in partnership with SHEC

Mark your body in a safe way Leaving home elicits mixed emotions LAURA MCGHIE THE SILHOUETTE

Last November, Heidi Plomske impulsively pierced her nose. The fourth year McMaster English student had been toying with the idea of a piercing for a while, before finally taking the plunge.

Looking back, Plomske holds no regrets about her decision. “I had always liked the look of nose rings, so I finally decided to get it done,” explained Plomske. “Getting a piercing isn’t a big deal, as long as you know the risks and are willing to take care of it.”

The increasing popularity of tattoos and piercings in North America indicate that Plomske is not alone in this attitude. A 2001 study conducted at various American universities found that more than 50 percent of students have piercings and nearly 25 percent have tattoos.

Four out of every five American women have their ears pierced, and the number with tattoos has more than quadrupled since the 1960s.

The growing popularity of body art and jewelry is also reflected in the recent dramatic increase of piercing and tattoo parlors across Canada and the United States.

Faced with such choice of where to get your piercing or tattoo, it may be difficult to select the shop that can best accommodate your needs. Before going under the needle, though, students should know what potential complications exist, how to select the right kind of jewelry and how to properly care for their new body art. These general considerations can make the entire piercing or tattoo process easier and lead to a smoother recovery.

Because tattooing and piercing involves penetration of the skin or mucous membrane, these procedures are associated with various health risks. The most common complications include infection, scarring, allergic reaction,

and localized skin irritation known as contact dermatitis.

Although complications are often easily treated, without proper sterilization, equipment and procedures it is possible to transmit very serious bacterial skin infections and viral infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. To avoid cross contamination or infection, make sure that any needles used are new, sterilized for each treatment and properly handled.

The risks that accompany tattoos and piercings range from moderate to severe, but can generally be avoided with appropriate aftercare and common sense. One of the best ways to minimize these risks is to carefully select where you obtain your tattoo or piercing.

According to Health Canada, the work area of the tattoo or piercing artist should be clean and brightly lit with all the equipment properly sterilized. Be sure that the surfaces are continuously wiped down with a solution of bleach and water.

Practitioners should have clean working habits, such as washing their hands prior to handling sterile equipment and after touching contaminated items. They should also wear medical gloves throughout the procedure and be able to respond to any questions or concerns a client may have. Students can double check that a practitioner is suitable by choosing one who follows the Canadian Government’s Infection Control Guidelines for Tattooing and Piercing.

In terms of undergoing a body piercing, selecting the right type of jewelry can also minimize irritation and ensure a better recovery. The Canadian Medical Association suggests that all jewelry be smoothly polished; shaped to fit the body; and made from 14 to 18-carat gold, titanium, surgical steel or niobium. Any pieces coated in brass or containing nickel alloy should be avoided due to a

heightened risk of allergic reaction.

Remember to always double check with the retailer or piercer that a piece of jewelry is made out of a suitable material.

Finally, proper aftercare is very important when avoiding infection.

Although healing times range from weeks to years depending on the size, nature and location of the work, generally those areas consisting of cartilage or subject to constant motion require more time. Piercings normally take longer to heal than tattoos and proper piercing aftercare involves rotating and cleaning the jewelry daily with an antibiotic soap or saltwater solution to ensure a fast and smooth recovery.

For tattoos, bandages should remain in place for six to 24 hours after the procedure.

Following its removal the area should be soaked in hot water and cleaned with a gentle soap. This cleansing should only happen once during the healing process, and consequent showers should be as brief as possible to avoid prolonging the recovery process.

Each piercing and tattoo is unique so you should receive oral or written aftercare instructions from your practitioners following the procedure. Should complications arise don’t be afraid to contact your tattoo or piercing artist or visit your doctor.

When asked what advice she’d pass on to students interested in tattoos or piercings, Plomske’s answer is simple: “Find a piercing practitioner you feel safe and comfortable with. Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” she said. “A good piercer will give you the information you need and make you feel at ease.” The same advice applies to those considering a tattoo.

Ultimately, piercings and tattoos are a way of expressing ourselves, but it is important to also stay safe and healthy in the process.

LAUREN JEWETT / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Make sure you thoroughly investigate the parlor and practitioner you choose to obtain your body art.

JESSIE CHAU / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Getting involved in your university is a great way to make friends and combat homesickness.

LINDSAY FLEMMING your environment, and feeling SILHOUETTE STAFF like university is not meeting your expectations. Homesickness It is the end of your Grade 12 is accompanied by feelings of summer. You have been counting depression, anxiety, obsessive down the days until the infamous thoughts, and minor physical frosh week begins. You cannot wait ailments. to have total freedom. No longer Getting involved in your will have you have to tell your new environment is one way parents where you’re going, with to combat this type of anxiety. whom, and when you will be back. By joining clubs and intramural No, at university you will become teams, you will meet a variety of a whole new, more fun, version of students who share your interests yourself. and begin to form new friendships.

After the excitement and These activities will also give more initial rush from Welcome Week structure to your daily routine and dies down, however, many students will ensure that you balance your begin to feel overwhelmed and lost academic responsibilities with in their new school environment. leisure activities.

As classes being, you might feel Even while immersing frustrated at your inability to locate yourself in your new school buildings like T-13, BSB and CNH. atmosphere, it is important to You miss the familiar faces you maintain contact with home. saw in your high school hallways Students must determine their during class changes. At university, optimal balance between immersing it feels easy to get lost in the crowd, themselves in school life and as, you might know only twenty keeping in touch with those back of the 23,000 faces on campus. In home. Some find it easiest to talk lecture, you are crammed among to their parents on the phone briefly 300 students, trying to listen to a at the end of each day, others call lecture given by a professor that you once a week, and some go home do not know and will likely never every weekend. Although returning meet personally. home may be comforting, try to

For these reasons, start tapering off the number of university can seem quite daunting weekends you go home as the and, for many, the beginning of the semester progresses. For example, year is accompanied by feelings alternate the weekends you spend of homesickness and anxiety. at home and at McMaster so that Homesickness is experience by you begin to build a life at school many, if not the majority of first without giving up your old one. year students. Suddenly, instead of Another way to cope with being an important member of their homesickness is to talk to someone small family unit, students become about your feelings. You may be an anonymous member of a large surprised to find out that others are community of strangers. Home then experiencing the same thing that you becomes idealized as a place where are. If you do not feel comfortable everything is easy, comfortable, and discussing your anxiety with any familiar. of your newfound friends, try the

Causes of homesickness confidential counseling services include: the distance you are that McMaster University provides. from home, a lack of control over SHEC is an MSU service that offers peer supporting on a walk-in basis.

If you want to talk to a professional, book an appointment at the Centre for Student Development (CSD) where experienced counselors can help you develop strategies to cope with homesickness.

Homesickness is a normal feeling that many students experience at some-point in their university career. University can be overwhelming and scary at times, but if you stay open-minded and positive about new experiences it can be a rewarding and enriching time in your life. At the end of four years, you may even come to view McMaster as your home.

my winnipeg • love happens • silver starling andy’s fall television preview • climate change flashmob • guitar hero

index

C2 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

thursday, september 24, 2009

Senior Editor: Grace Evans Entertainment Editor: Myles Herod Music Editor: Corrigan Hammond Contributors: Harrison Cruikshank, Ayda Askari, Julie Compton, Dalia Appolloni, Chris Hoy, Michael Clemens, Catherine Brasch

Cover: From a 1961 Silhouette

this week

what’s inside

in the hammer

music

p.15

feature Fall TV: Andy looks at this fall’s hot new TV series.

oct.15 oct. 17 oct. 24

theatre The Diary of Ann Frank

By Stuart Ross Theatre Aquarius 190 King William St. 1-800-465-7529 boxoffice@theatreaquarius.org

Dragonette Casbah 8:00 p.m.

Skulls Casbah 10:00 p.m.

Said The Whale Casbah 8:00 p.m.

andy’s pick

Two Hours Traffic Casbah 9:00 p.m.

why are you reading this when you can...

p.6-7

Hamilton 365 Art Gallery of Hamilton 123 King St., Hamilton 905-577-6610 info@artgalleryofhamilton. com

sept.12-nov.8

Tragically Hip Hamilton Place 8:00 p.m.

art

now

Love Happens: “Love Happens has a few emotive and tender moments but is mostly trite. There are some standout performances but the acting is mediocre overall. The soundtrack is top notch but that’s about it”

p.4

sept.30-oct.3

My Winnipeg: “Director Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World) revisits his boyhood days in Winnipeg in this pseudo-reality ‘docu-fantasia.’”

Blind Witness Casbah 7:00 p.m.

oct. 5

film

Silver Starling Casbah 9:00 p.m.

Metric Convention Centre 8:00 p.m.

oct. 10

p.12

sept. 30 sept. 26

music

Marble Index Absinthe 8:00 p.m.

oct. 12

Guitar Hero & Rock Band “With the new release of The Beatles: Rock Band , the argument over whether Rock Band or Guitar Hero, two of the most immensely popular “rhythm-based” video games, is better than the other, was again brought into the spotlight.”

Westdale Theatre Julie & Julia Fri-Sun 7:00, 9:15 Tue 7:30

Cuff The Duke Casbah 8:00 p.m.

write for andy. musc b110.

sept. 5-oct.10

culture

opening

p.8

Surrogates Fame Pandorum Coco avant Chanel

sept. 17

film

oct. 14

Silver Starling: “Marcus Paquin’s new band, Silver Starling, seeks to revive the spirit of 2005. The group is made up of former and current members of The Arcade Fire, Stars, and Young Galaxy

neon green. faux-facism. one percent choclate milk. free bagels. waren zevon.

write for andy please meetings are mondays @ 1:30 MUSC b110

andy@ thesil.ca

column

thursday, september 24, 2009

f.u.b.a.r.

and press conferences have become agonizingly typical, Toronto and its reputation have only grown finer with age. editorial column Why? Because Oscar myles herod begins in Toronto. Well, let me rephrase. TIFF kick Is it me, or does the TIFF seem starts the fall film season, a period strangely elusive? I’m reminded of a in which critics consider to be the time when some friends and I were best months of cinema. While the walking back to Union Station after death rattle of summer blockbusters a concert. Coming across a gathering tend to whimper into Labour Day, of people we realized the group was their remnants soon subside, all waiting for some celebrities outside. beginning here in Canada during “Should we wait?” I remember the second week of September.

Although an avid film asking. “Of course,” replied my friend. An anxious adrenaline admirer, I regrettably say that I have rushed through us as the excitement never been. For many who have no built. Then the moment of truth. As idea how the process works let me the door opened there was Brad Pitt briefly explain. Directors and actors and Angelina, swept into their cars are sent by production companies almost immediately, waving to the to promote their projects while on the business side, buyers and crowd as they sped away.

Celebrities have it great. distributors, bid to obtain the rights When you’ve made it, you’ve made to ones that haven’t been bought. it. Fans waiting for a glimpse of your Some films sell, others sadly fade wonderful life. The manipulation of into obscurity. What I forgot to it all is pathetic really. They’re just mention is that the public is allowed people. Some good at what they do, to attend everything that is shown, many not. The notion of seeing one that’s if you’re lucky enough to grab lost its appeal soon after that brief tickets.

Regular gala events sold encounter. After all, isn’t TIFF all for 35 dollars while all-access passes, about the movies anyways?

While parties, paparazzi, which allowed entrance into every

screening apparently went for 800 dollars. Excessive maybe? For many it’s highly necessary. Allowing close proximity within the same screening as your favourite actor could indeed be very worthwhile. The criticism that many have though is why spend 35 dollars for a film when it’s going to be released a few months later anyways? The Informant starring Matt Damon for example. Shown at TIFF, it opened later that week, nationwide.

What about the actual films though? The buzzes around many were highly favourable. Let me throw a few at you. Anti-Christ, which actually premiered at Cannes back in May, had its North American screening in Toronto. Telling the tale of a grief stricken couple that recently lost their infant, William Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsburg retreat to their log cabin only to succumb to the nightmare of talking wildlife, violent hailstorms and the inner breakdown of the human psyche. Lambasted for its treatment of women, violence and graphic nudity -- it sold out instantly to an eager audience.

George Clooney had not one, but two films at the festival.

Men Who Stare at Goats looked like the more eccentric fair out the two

the big tickle compiled by terry shan &

“Trailer Park Boys.” dave malett

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • C3 – revolving around a reporter who discovers a mysterious military unit claiming to have psychic powers.

His other, more introspective piece titled Up in the Air teams him with Juno director Jason Rietman (son of famous director Ivan Rietman who went to McMaster). Its trailer presents a character driven picture as a man oscillates between the realities of travel and domesticated home life. Both look very interesting.

On the fringe side of things two acclaimed artists baffled and awed. Legendary German auteur Werner Hertzog unveiled his Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans starring Nicolas Cage. A team up of epic portions, Cage neurotically channels the hedonistic addiction of cocaine while Herzog vividly captures his journey through wacked out visuals, vivid colours and a recurring motif of iguanas. Looks wild. Harmony Korine is another filmmaker whose worked must be discussed. Coming to the festival almost unexpectedly, his new outing Trash Humpers puts a whole new spin on the term surreal.

From what I gathered, and I’ve only seen the trailer, Korine shot this thing using archaic equipment and transferred it onto VHS to even

lower the resolution. The images presented are that of three burn victims who terrorize a town, killing and force-feeding “soapy pancakes”.

I saw Korine give a lecture once at Ryerson University. Halfway through he randomly jumped off stage running to the hallway. He claimed to have used the washroom but from what I heard he was snorting coke in the midst of onlookers. Whatever the case, he’s a true talent of the bizarre.

The top prize of the festival went to Precious, a tale of a neglected inner city black girl.

Although it looks riveting I had to role my eyes when I heard that Oprah had signed on to be its executive producer. Rounding the other highly talked about films, the Cohen’s brothers A Serious Man centers on an adult misfit struggling with his Jewish faith while Drew Barrymore made her directorial debut with Whip It – an all-girl power roller derby comedy.

Founded in 1976, the festival initially served as platform for films from around the world.

Although its initial intentions still hold true, its commerical appeal has propelled Toronto to the elite.

Oh how proud we must be. Yet, then again, they’re just movies.

q: what film are you looking forward to this fall?

lauren jewett

“New Moon.” mimoza dedinca

“A Serious Man.” morgen rea

“Trailer Park Boys.” mat ketchesan

“Couple’s Retreat.” daniel cumerlato

C4 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

film

canadian nostalgia

thursday, september 24, 2009

Winnipeg’s resident surrealist reimagines his childhood

My Winnipeg Starring: Darcy Fuhr Directed by: Guy Maddin

a eulogy?) to his hometown is directed with his usual aesthetic flair and sharp wit. Maddin has a nostalgic eye for movies, and often assembles his films in ways reminiscent of early 1920s cinema.

The film stock is grainy, the acting thin, and the photography is oft kilter and fragmented. This particular style is well suited for Maddin’s neurotic fantasy. My Winnipeg also benefits from its stream of conscious narrative.

Maddin’s distorted travelogue is a kaleidoscope of idiosyncratic affairs, Freudian traumas, sleepy actors, and suppressed desires.

Director Guy Maddin (The Saddest Trapped between the Music in the World) revisits his intermediate world of sleep and boyhood days in Winnipeg in consciousness, a character named this pseudo-reality ‘docu-fantasia.’ after the director himself, Guy The film is an intensely personal Maddin (Darcy Fuhr) is unable to experience and drifts unconsciously escape Winnipeg and the memories between Maddin’s own dream of his childhood. Maddin’s world and the Manitoba city he narration is a twisted and surreal grew up in. The tribute (or is it incantation which sounds more

HHHH

like Kerouac than Ken Burns.

Mumbling in his sleep, Maddin connects his distant youth and bleak adulthood with the town’s decline into mediocrity.

Department stores and hockey arenas of bygone eras are demolished and replaced by impersonal monstrosities (demolition, ironically, is the city’s only growth industry).

In order to understand his bizarre childhood and its relationship to the city, Maddin casts lookalikes to re-enact family vignettes. He soon discovers that is his mother (played by Ann Savage, a former femme fatale star) is the cause of his hyper Freudian anxieties. She terrifies Maddin and his sister with diatribes on the evils of rampant sexuality and juvenile delinquency.

Indeed, “everything that happens in the city is a euphemism,” concedes Maddin, and so he too has come to see sexual possibility in every curve, contour, and backstreet in the city.

Of course Maddin’s film is not historical at all but rather anecdotal. Rather than relying on the traditional methods of interviews and research, Maddin uses hearsay and his childlike imagination to create a mythical portrait of the once great city.

For example, in Winnipeg Somnambulists (sleepwalkers) carry keys to every place they’ve ever occupied, and are legally allowed to enter any home they unlock. It is a city where vagrants are required by civic law to stay off the streets and live on the rooftops while aged mayors officiate at contests where a muscleman in swimsuits pose for the city’s bourgeois.

In a highly innovative and entertaining film, Maddin takes us on a sleepwalkers tour through his own psyche. Sexual embarrassments, family traumas, and sleepy ruminations are all explored with tongue firmly

planted in cheek. Guy Maddin fans will certainly enjoy this film, but for those who have never heard of the director, My Winnipeg is a film to seek out.

My Winnipeg is one of eleven independent films playing from Sept. 23 to the 27 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s International Film Festival. Screenings will be taking place at Empire Jackson Square 6 cinemas and Westdale Theatre respectively. The AGH is hosting a mix of North American, European and Middle Eastern cinema for the viewing public; including works by such noted filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Matteo Garrone, Chris Smith, Guy Maddin, and Richie Mehta, these are some of the most critically acclaimed films of the past few years. Ticket run 10 dollars per screening. For more information contact AGH’s website.

• Michael Clemens

thursday, september 24, 2009

film

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • C5

death happens?

andy looks at hollywood’s latest date flick Love Happens Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston Directed by: Brandon Camp

Eckhart is Burke Ryan, a self-help writer whose book “A-Okay” aids people through their grief over the death of loved ones, a situation he is all too familiar with after losing his wife in a car accident. While conducting one of his self-help Love Happens is a grossly mis-titled seminars in a Seattle, he encounters film. In fact, the third thought I Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), a goodhad about the film after seeing it looking yet mean spirited florist. was that it really should’ve been Eckhart’s charm and classic smile called Death Happens (which gets exudes through Burke as he asks funnier the more I think about it). Eloise out for a coffee. The film’s My first thought was how much I sexual tension mounts in a scene enjoyed the film’s music, and the where she turns him down and he second concerned my admiration responds with the middle finger. for Aaron Eckhart, but I’ll get to You see, there really isn’t that much those soon enough. romance here after all.

The film is not a romantic The problem is, while comedy. It’s a depressing drama Burke preaches healing and helps interspersed with mildly comedic others through their pain and fears, bits and concludes with what he has not yet conquered his own I suppose would technically be pain and fear that has resulted from considered a romance, although his wife’s death. He disapproves of I think infatuation, not love, best drinking as a grieving tool, yet is describes the characters’ feelings. a closet drunk. His hypocrisy and Cleft-chinned Aaron Dr. Phil-like façade are clichéd, and

HH

the film itself can’t decide whether to mock or sympathize for him.

Eckhart does what he can with the material, and gives a decent performance, proving once again how good of an actor he really is.

It’s the facial expressions and body language he does best, especially with highly troubled characters.

Eloise, although upfront about her feelings for Burke from the start (or near-start, if you include their bickering over her fake impairment), nevertheless spends the bulk of the film as his friend, assisting him while he tries to deal with his agony. The film is therefore, at the very least, able to avoid many of the sillier banalities of romance flicks. Eventually, of course, Burke is able to fight off his demons, and the film ends with Eloise accepting a more sincere date proposal from him.

Jennifer Aniston does a competent job but, then again, this role is not outside of her comfort

zone. Why Aniston is always wearing a tuque, scarf, and winter jacket throughout the film when it clearly isn’t cold outside is beyond me.

Some of the best moments occur within a sub-plot about one of Burke’s self-help seminar attendees. John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac, Fargo) delivers a powerful performance as a man who lost his son in a construction-site accident, and his scenes with Eckhart really are touching. The rest of the supporting cast is meant to be the comedic relief, but Dan Fogler as Burke’s manager isn’t funny enough, and Judy Greer as Eloise’s friend isn’t funny at all, just downright annoying. Martin Sheen is Burke’s father-in-law and gives a Martin Sheen-like performance in his ten minutes of screen time, neither redeeming the film nor hindering it further; he’s just… there.

Oddly, I was most impressed

by the music and the score. There are delightful and fitting songs from indie rock vets The Postal Service, Rogue Wave, and Eels that fit the tone perfectly, and awardwinning composer Christopher Young has conducted both upbeat and melancholic compositions that really stand out.

So Love Happens has a few emotive and tender moments but is mostly trite. There are some standout performances but the acting is mediocre overall.

The soundtrack is top notch but that’s about it, unless I wanted to compliment the film’s producers and location scouts for the beautiful Vancouver scenery that poses as Seattle, but that seems to be going out of my way to commend an otherwise bad movie with an even worse title. Save your money and download the soundtrack instead.

•Kevin Elliott

feature

C6 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

thursday, september 24, 2009 • C7

disBAND

big bang theory The Big Bang Theory has just started its third season with an episode that stays rather true to the show as it has been so far; funny, cute, awkward, nerdy and above all else, laced with the worst laugh track on good television today. The show is about two nerdy roommates, their two nerdy best friends, and their stereotypically blonde and sexy neighbour, who is not a nerd.

Leonard is the standard nerd. He’s a comic and sci-fi loving experimental physicist who, other than being an awkward nerd, is normal. Leonard’s conventional nerd is essential as a counterpoint to Sheldon, who is a bit less than conventional. By far the best part of the show, Sheldon is an incredibly neurotic theoretical physicist who loves all things nerd and must have everything just so. This includes what he eats for dinner each night. what he does each night and above all else where he sits. Sheldon will systematically find the “best” seat in a room with a series of rigorous criteria (including air flow) and then refuse to sit anywhere else.

The other two primary characters are Rajesh and Howard. Rajesh is a standard nerd with one quirk that makes him the source of some great moments in the show; he can’t speak to women unless he’s drunk. Howard on the other hand won’t stop speaking to women, even though he’s as much of a Casanova as Kanye West is a King of Pop. Rajesh being a first generation immigrant from India and Howard a thirty-year-old Jewish man who still lives with his mother also gives the show an avenue for some great jokes.

The nerds don’t just argue the virtues of Star Wars vs. Star Trek, or discuss who would win in a race, The Flash or Superman, like nerds written by non nerds might, but talk about things that modern nerds enjoy, Battlestar Galactica, Joss Whedon programs, and the like. This small gesture really increases the show’s level of quality, because the nerds feel that much more real, and that much more loveable.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned a laugh track, and believe me it is horrendous. But it doesn’t stop me from watching this show Mondays at 8:30pm on CBS, but it might stop you.

• Harrison Cruikshank

bored to death

Bored to Death premiered Sunday on HBO. Starring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover).

Schwartzman plays Jonathon Ames, a writer whose girlfriend has recently left him due to his excessive drinking and pot smoking. In the midst of his heartbreak and unable to write his second novel, he abruptly decides to moonlight as an amateur detective.

Presumably this is where the show’s title comes from; it is out a lack of ideas and boredom that he decides to attempt detective work and posts an ad on craigslist.

Surprisingly, for a noir-fiction based detective show, after watching the first episode I wasn’t hooked.

While the premise is interesting enough, the show didn’t measure up to my expectations of HBO, or of Schwartzman. The dialogue is appropriately noiresque and the atmosphere of the show is somewhat dark and indulgent to Ames’ dejected self-absorption.

The cinematography showcases New York beautifully, and much of the criticism of the show compares it to Woody Allen.

I’m thinking that one of the key words here is that Ames is supposed to be an amateur detective.

Ames’ detective tactics are absurd and uninformed.

Perhaps it is because I have already followed a detective series that is smart and complex that I was unimpressed with the mystery part of the show. Ames doesn’t know what he is doing so the mystery part of the episode is lacking complexity and intrigue. Schwartzman is simultaneously obtuse and endearingly naïve. In the episode an ex-boyfriend ties up his ex-girlfriend in hopes that she will develop feelings for him again due to Stockholm Syndrome, to which Ames says, “Now why didn’t I think of that.” Schwartzman is good; it’s just not that interesting to watch. The show isn’t serious, but it isn’t exactly light-hearted either. It’s humourous, but only enough to elicit mild laughter once in a while.

Ted Danson was very good as Ames’ magazine editor boss who continually falls to his vices begging for pot from Ames. Taking all of this into consideration, it was only the pilot. The show has potential. It’s almost too easy, but so far watching Bored to Death, I was bored.

If you’re lucky enough to have HBO, you can catch Bored to Death on Sundays at 9:30 pm.

•Grace Evans

So far MuchMusic’s reality TV show disBAND has tested and criticized twenty musical acts looking at their style, direction, attitude, and most importantly sound.

The show has seen a wide range of musicians spanning all the way from rappers to rockers, relaxed acoustic acts to fully charged rock shows. Each band is given an amazing opportunity to either capitalize or capsize, and MuchMusic has done a good job of showing both sides of the story, as nine out of twenty featured bands have gotten the thumbs up. Yet, whether or not the band gets the thumbs up or thumbs down, disBAND acts as a great way for any band to get some free publicity.

The host of the show and mentor for bands Finally something new and fresh has exploded onto is the blunt and brutally honest Grieg Nori, former the television horizon. Glee, created by Ryan Murphy, front man of pop punk band Treble Charger. Nori Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, is a bright, new musical relentlessly and aggressively guides each band through comedy drama that takes place in an American high a series of tasks and challenges ultimately preparing school. The pilot premiered last May, a smart move in the eager musicians to perform for and impress the terms of ratings since it meant that all summer long judges. The judges are fairly reputable agents and people talked about the show and watched it for free producers and are usually picked according to that online, which, combined with the quality of the show, week’s musical style. Whether you like the band or not, the surprise interviews, photo shoots, and other guaranteed great ratings in September.

Much of the cast has been handpicked from random tasks forced upon the musicians by Grieg Nori Broadway, and the quality of talent is obvious. The make the show pretty entertaining to watch. The most show follows Will, played by Matthew Morrison, notable bands featured on disBAND are the rockin’ a high school Spanish teacher who takes on the job Dean Lickyer and doo-wopin’ Stereos.

You can watch disBAND on MuchMusic of supervising the school’s glee club. Glee club is comprised of misfits who take their leadership from Fridays at 6 pm.

•Trevor Roach Will, much to the aggravation of cheerleading coach Susan, played by the hilarious Jane Lynch. Will struggles to maintain glee club, while attempting to hold together his marriage and indulging in some mild flirting with the shy, neurotic guidance counselor. The highlight of the show for me is the hilarity of Jane Lynch (Role Models). You can see her in the promos for Glee barking at her cheerleading squad during practice: “You think this is hard, try living with hepatitis!”

As with many musicals, the show ends up being a bit on the light and fluffy side, but this is a willing concession for the big, choreographed musical numbers. Songs that have been used in episodes so far include: “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, Kanye West’s “Gold Digger,” and Chic’s “Le Freak.”

The acting is stylized, and I’m reluctant to call it a drama because the issues aren’t necessarily delved into in deeply, but the presence of these issues: unrequited love, a failing marriage, career difficulties, ostracism, bullying makes it relevant for both teenagers and adults alike.

The show has spirit, talent and a big budget. If you’re not turned off by the cheese factor of musicals, you’ll probably love it.

You can watch Glee on Wednesday nights at 9 pm. on Fox.

glee

•Grace Evans

californication Hank Moody hates you all. Frankly, he couldn’t care less about attaining your approval. He’s too busy riding the financial and ego-boosting waves conjured up by his bestselling novels, employing charming skirmish tactics to keep his ex-girlfriend on the same page and falling in love for ten minutes at a time with the modelesque women who comprise Venice Beach Intrigued? You’re not the only one.

Since its inception in the fall of 07, Californication has blossomed into an underground sensation. Airing exclusively on the premium/pay television network Showtime without any conceivable censoring, the program, relentless in its candidness of explicit material has struck a chord with audiences seeking a refreshing getaway from formulistic, contrived network comedy/dramas. And the established academics are taking note; the program already has both an Emmy and a Golden Globe under its belt.

But the hype is about much more than merely shock value. Moody is one of the most fascinating characters ever to grace the small screen. He’s a man of many layers. On the surface he’s cool, charismatic and unnaturally confident — but beneath it he is struggling to grow as a human being and over come his flawed self.

The highly anticipated third season kicks off with its premiere on September 27, which should give new comers just enough time to frantically cram in the first two seasons. Starting from season one, episode one is essential for comprehension and enjoyment, given the show’s strict linear narrative and the writers tendency to constantly reference previous episodes. So if you’re ready to leave behind the comfortable conventions of network television and dive into a world of sex, drugs and published writing, give Californication the time of day, even if Hank Moody wouldn’t do the same for you.

Starting September 27, you can catch Californication on Showtime Sundays at 10 pm.

• Ryan Acker

how i met your mother How I Met Your Mother first aired in 2005 and centers around the main character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) narrating to his son and daughter in 2030 just how he met their mother. The show then consists through a series of flashbacks that actually take place in present day. The season starts when Ted’s best friend from college, Marshall (Jason Segel) proposes to his girlfriend Lily (Alyson Hannigan) who he’s been dating for nine years. Their engagement gets Ted thinking about finding his own soul mate while his other “best” friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) will have none of that.

Barney, the womanizing single male, claims that being uncommitted is the best thing ever. He really contrasts with Marshall and Lily but although each character has very different traits and personalities, they still have a solid friendship. Ted is soon introduced to Robin (Cobie Smulders), an ambitious news reporter from Canada who he instantly develops a crush on.

The show is great because it’s actually funny.

There has been numerous times where I have literally laughed out loud while watching it on my own. The jokes are always fresh and smart, not to mention ongoing. After watching the episodes you catch on to the jokes and references that have been previously mentioned weeks prior. One of the best running gags was when Marshall and Barney had a bet going on in which Barney loses. His punishment involved the choice of getting slapped here and there or have five slaps carried out whenever Marshall wishes. He ends up going with the surprise slaps that occur sporadically throughout episodes, and let me tell you it is hilarious.

Marshall even goes so far as to make a website counting down to the moment of a slap, which if googled now, brings you to a fan site. The Bro Code is another reference that reoccurs, a rulebook for guys, which has actually been published due to its popularity.

How I Met Your Mother is on Mondays at 8:00 pm on CBS. • Dalia Appolloni

mad men The first thing that hits you while watching Mad Men, is an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. The clothes, the sets, the props; everything about the series is placed perfectly to bring you back to 1960’s New York. The smoking, drinking, adultery, sexism; everything fits so well together that after watching a couple of minutes, you can’t help but be taken in by the series. Even the title sequence of a man in a suit, falling down through a mass of skyscrapers and sixties advertisements is stylized to perfection and reflects exactly the mood of the series. As wonderful and enthralling the atmosphere of Mad Men is it doesn’t take away from the writing, which is smart, complex and loaded with wonderfully deep and well thought out characters.

As Mad Men makes its way into its third season things are looking promising. The issues of homophobia and civil rights have already been hinted at this season and it looks as though the 60’s may be about to change. (Although it is sure that many of the episodes to come will be packed with alarming and amusing politically incorrect tidbits of the other seasons, which help to cement the fact that although this series is set a mere forty-five years ago, it feels like far more than a lifetime ago.)

Now when can you tune into Mad Men? Well that is a difficult question to answer. After parting ways with CTV after last season, Man Men appears to not have deals with any Canadian basic cable channels.

If you have digital cable you may be able to catch it on American channel AMC, 10 pm on Sundays. If you are not so fortunate, it appears that the only way to catch this show will be by download.

If you do manage to come across Mad Men, be sure to watch. Racked with critical acclaim for its amazing cinematography, writing and acting, it is sure to impress.

• Caitlin McKitrick

C8 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

music

thursday, september 24, 2009

learning to push the edit button andy catches up with montreal indie rockers silver starling in anticipation of their casbah show this weekend 2005 was the year that Canadian ‘indie’ musical really exploded onto the international stage. From Broken Social Scene’s self-titled follow up to their 2002 slow-burner classic, You Forgot It In People, to the unexpected sudden commercial success of groups like The New Pornographers, Feist and The Arcade Fire, Canadian music suddenly achieved the type of global acclaim that was previously unfathomable. Four years on, Montreal native and Canadian ‘indie’ rock veteran, Marcus Paquin’s new band, Silver Starling, seeks to revive the spirit of 2005. The group is made up of former and current members of The Arcade Fire, Matathon, Stars, Young Galaxy and We Are Star 69.

Silver Starling, whose self-titled début disc dropped earlier this week, channels through their music the sounds and styles of groups like The Beatles and The Arcade Fire. “Abbey Road I would probably say is my greatest influence from when I was a kid,” Paquin told me. “That’s the first record I ever listened to. And The White Album,” he continued, “is something I got into later. I’m still digesting that one. It’s very eclectic. “

“I think that’s the sign of musicians who are truly stepping up to the plate and really writing songs as they come to them and not really pushing the edit button too much. We definitely, Silver Starling, as a band definitely relate to that way of writing.”

Over his 15 year career, which has included mastering the 2006 re-release of the Arcade Fire’s first EP, Paquin has developed complex and sometimes contradictory views regarding the editing process. “I suppose it’s been a process to get to this point.”

“Part of the process was going through all the stages of being very selfcritical, going through stages of editing a lot, of editing not at all and finding the place where what makes music good and realizing that what makes music good is that it moves the listener and ultimately trying to find the way to organize your emotions so that they come across to a listener.” He paused. “I think we’ve hit that nail on the head with this record, and we’re just getting started.”

A strange result of the band’s songwriting and recording process, is that the music, which emphasizes honesty and emotion in a more subtle and less atmospheric way than many of their Canadian ‘indie’ rock

peers, has developed a number of accidental similarities to American alt-country giants Wilco. “I’ve heard the Wilco comparison before, but I’ve never [really] listened to them,” Paquin told me.

“I don’t own any of their music,” he stated with the sort of characteristic modesty that Canadian music demands of its rising heroes, “but [I like] everything I hear [from] those guys — I’ve heard a track or two and I might have caught them when they were on Saturday Night Live or something, and… I think they’re great.” He paused. “I see why some people would compare us to them, and,” he laughed, “I’m fine with that comparison.”

“[We were] just trying to get sounds that complement the music and get the emotion of the particular track to come through,” Paquin explained. “‘Ghost’,” the albums first single, “was mixed by Peter Katis in the States who also mixed the National’s Boxer record, the last Tokyo Police Club and also did a bunch of Interpol stuff. We love the sounds he got on this record.” Although Paquin told me that “the band [and I] produced [this] record ourselves.”

“Having worked with Peter as the mixer on this record was wonderful because he was very quick to suggestion and he had some ideas of where he wanted to go, but was still really open to our suggestions and ultimately the final product of the mixes that he did were great,” Paquin explained. “We’re super stoked,” he laughed, “[the] experience was really awesome.”

He has good reason to be excited – “I think everyone can agree that that big, as you say, ‘explosion’ [of bands in 2005] kind of raised the bar in Montreal and opened up peoples’ eyes to the possibility of coming out of Montreal and not just being a local band.

You could put your best foot forward and break out on a global scale. When something like that happens around you, and it’s your peers who achieve that success, it really motivates you to push harder because you know that the possibility is there. So I think it definitely a good thing, and I think as a consequence the music scene in Montreal is— and it’s an incredible community to be part of.”

•Corrigan Hammond

film

thursday, september 24, 2009

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • C9

off the rack

Spring Breakdown Starring: Parker Posey, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler

HHHH Co- written by Rachel Dratch, of SNL fame, Spring Breakdown is a laugh out loud comedy about three women who attend spring break fifteen years late. The film went straight to DVD in June, but this flick deserved to be seen on the big screen.

Spring Breakdown follows the friendship of three women played by funny women Rachel Dratch, Parker Posey and Amy Poehler. The women frequently spend their Friday nights making personal pizzas together and watching movies. Finally they attempt to break out of their routine when Posey’s boss assigns her the job of covertly chaperoning her daughter’s spring break. Amy Poehler is fantastic as a butch-girl dog trainer gone wild, while Rachel Dratch is awkwardly hilarious as she fabricates a romance between herself and a tanned, chiseled young spring breaker.

Parker Posey comically portrays an anxious, uptight woman trying to find herself, fit in with her friends as they try on new identities and further her career, having to weigh her priorities against her values. Jane Lynch, one of my favourite funny women, plays Parker’s boss and the young, talented Amber Tamblyn plays her daughter. Taking advantage of the wild, young things in their wake, Poehler,

Dratch and Posey try to liven their lives up with keg stands, hook-ups, wet t-shirt contests and jello wrestling. Seth Meyers and Will Arnett are fantastic supporting cast members; Meyers is especially funny as Dratch’s character’s boyfriend — a high maintenance guy with a vague sexual persuasion and proclivity to obsessively shorten words.

With an all-star female cast, Spring Breakdown backs a feminist message through each of the character’s personal challenges.

The women work to accept themselves while attempting to be fun and embracing the ‘girls gone wild’ mentality. Tamblyn’s character attends spring break with her dorky friends and as they attempt to party and branch out from their guarded group, a process of selfconsciousness develops that other films about young women lack. It is this self-consciousness and resistance to the mainstream status quo that sets this movie apart from other films.

The film not only satirizes cultural institutions like spring break, but is a true celebration of female dorkiness. The film looks at female success in the pubic sphere, gender roles, the strength of female friendships and the struggle to find ones self. This movie is a very positive depiction of womanhood and it is a shame that it won’t be seen by more people due to its limited release.

In the film, Missi Pyle plays a long time repeat spring breaker, a thirty-something that is always up for a party and never leaves the beach. Pyle is quoted as saying before the

release of the movie “As of yet, it hasn’t gotten a release date from Warner Bros. They’re afraid to release an all-female comedy, which drives me insane. When I got it, they were like, ‘This movie will be the determining factor as to whether there will be more female-driven comedies,’ and it can’t even get a release date. But, I hope Baby Mama will do well, and they’ll choose to release it.”

Unfortunately, Baby Mama was a bust so Spring Breakdown never received the attention it deserved. The movie had a decent budget, was starred in by relatively

big named funny women, so why didn’t it enjoy a wide release? Especially since it far surpasses Baby Mama in terms of the funny factor. Pyle continued, “There’s the whole idea that women aren’t funny. I don’t know.

It’s ridiculous.” All-women productions are still being deprived of the same privileges that male productions are. Really, Warner Bros, really? This movie is quality comedy. Dratch, Poehler and Parker should to go all Lilith Fair on their ass.

•Grace Evans

michael moore wants to know what you think about capitalism... send your favourite quips and one-liners to opinions@thesil.ca and win tickets to an advance screening of capitalism: a love story all submissions must be less than 75 words.

C10 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

feature

flashmob for climate change

international climate change protest takes place downtown hamilton in the form of a flashmob On Monday, Sep 22, 2009, over 2300 rallies were staged in over 88 different countries worldwide as a part of the global wake-up call to climate change. Organizers in Hamilton decided to stage their protest in the form of a flashmob. These are events wherein participants descend upon a public space to spontaneously perform an action for a brief period of time, before quickly dispersing into the crowd. Participants are notified about upcoming flashmobs by e-mail, social networking sites, text messages and wordof-mouth. Often organizers will keep the location hidden even from participants until the day of the event to ensure that passer-bys are taken by surprise.

The first recorded flashmob happened in 2003 in New York City.

However, flashmobs have only recently gained intense popularity thanks to some extremely publicised events. Last winter, for example, T-mobile filmed a flashmob in Liverpool Street Station as a part of their Life’s for Sharing advertising campaign. Over 350 people spontaneously broke out into a choreographed dance in the middle of the station, with cameras rolling to catch spectator’s reactions. The result was a fantastic commercial, which I have watched more than I’d like to admit on YouTube.

Earlier this month, the biggest recorded flashmob to date occurred in Chicago. Leave it to Oprah Winfrey to inspire such an impressive event. With the help of the Black Eyed Peas, the massive crowd slowly broke out into a dance during a performance of “I Gotta Feeling” on the premiere of Oprah’s 24th season. One girl began a solo dance at the start of the song, and gradually more and more people joined in until all 21,000 people were performing an impressively choreographed dance. Oprah was dancing along too, her dancing however, was not quite as impressive. With the help of Oprah’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, and 20 professional dancers, producers were able to rally up 800 fans to teach the dance to before the actual performance.

Those 800 people then dispersed themselves throughout the crowd to teach the remaining 20,000 the dance just before the taping. The performance was truly remarkable, and an exceptional example of how thousands of strangers can collectively produce something beautiful.

Flashmobs are not limited to dancing in public spaces however. Some wellknown flashmobs have included massive public pillow fights and no-pants subway rides. It’s no surprise that what once started as a form of performance art, has quickly become a form of protest. The degree of collective action that is required to form

a flashmob easily lends itself to political causes, which is why Lisbie Rae, the coordinator of Hamilton’s contribution to the global wake-up call to climate change decided to stage her rally in this way. She stated: “Personally, I think Flashmobs are a perfect method of raising society’s awareness of an issue because they happen in very public spaces, suddenly and surprisingly, so they attract lots of attention, and they’re over almost as soon as they begin, leaving people wondering what the heck happened. The key for me is that they give the impression that individuals spontaneously come together, make their point and disappear”.

Participants were all asked to set the alarms on their phones to 12:18 P.M, to signify Dec 18, the date of COP 15 – the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. When the alarms went off, participants walked to the staircase in front of Jackson Square and assembled on the stairs while moving their arms clockwise, and making a ticking noise to symbolize how time is running out. Participants then phoned local politicians and left messages for them. Rae continues: “Too often people are cynical about politicians and the political process. When something as important and as potentially catastrophic as climate change is not receiving the attention needed, then it’s time for us to give our politicians a ‘wake up call.’ We want them to make plans now so that by Dec 18 (12:18) when the climate change meeting wraps up in Copenhagen, we will have a FABulous agreement – Fair, Ambitious and Binding.”

The coordinators of the global wakeup call to climate change used the website www.avaaz.org to co-ordinate the rallies; I would advise checking it out to find out about a host of other events aimed at raising awareness about many major social, political, and environmental issues. On that note, I would also highly recommend watching some flashmobs on YouTube.

• Zarena Cassar

thursday, september 24, 2009

thursday, september 24, 2009

classic review

in stereo

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • C11

featured review

Of all the music to emerge during the late eighties, Fugazi’s 13 Songs is perhaps the most definitive, yet vastly overlooked album outside alternative circles. Released in 1989, this compilation of their first two EP’s owes itself to the collaboration between D.C.’s hardcore-punk pioneers Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, both of whom honed their songwriting chops in the now legendary bands Minor Threat and Rites of Spring. While live shows at the time featured MacKaye on vocals and guitar, Picciotto served as a sort of hype man, infamously wild on stage, sharing vocal duties.

The key to 13 Songs is the way Fugazi manages to

combine various influences with the DIY punk style, marrying explosive guitar tracks to a firm, dub influenced rhythm section, fulfilling MacKaye’s fantasy of becoming “like the Stooges with reggae.” Songs like “Waiting room” and “Suggestion” highlight his unmistakable howl but reveal a more subtle and artful approach to the lyrics as opposed to his typically didactic content. Many songs contain lyrics laced with poetic imagery and messages championing the power of the individual, bringing about a level of emotion and awareness nearly unseen in alternative genres prior to that point.

The impact of Fugazi’s 13 Songs can be traced through the 90’s and into today, both in their musical and ethical considerations.

It seems that the band’s refusal to sign with a major label, their legendarily cheap live gigs and no-tolerance policy regarding

Rancid Let The Dominoes Fall

Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle Let’s Just Stay Here

Farewell Run it up the Flagpole

MXPX On The Cover II

Rancid’s album Let the Dominoes Fall nostalgically hints at a sound that made them famous on Lets Go and …And Out Come the Wolves, which in theory should make for a solid album. However, many of these songs fall flat and lack the snarl of previous work.

Vocalist Tim Armstrong’s trademark slur sounds tired and stale while co-lead vocalist Lars Frederikson is notably absent. He largely seems to be replaced with the grating howl of bassist Matt Freeman. There are a few gems on here, and Rancid proves that they are still capable of writing great hooks and a few bouncy little ska numbers. However, predictable song structures falter in their more experimental moments dragging this album down. Overall, Rancid sounds like an aging band trying to mimic their former punk glory, but despite the dulled edges this album is not a complete let down.

•Chris Hoy

The first two songs of this album are really the only ones worth listening to. It seems as though this band has chosen to put their two good songs at the beginning of the track list as to entice listeners.

However, it doesn’t take long for the songs to fall apart. While the talent vocally of this band is unmistakable with good harmonies and a great contrast of raspy and soft vocals, it falls short in the melodic department. The genre of this band could be classified as folk/indie/country but the lines seem to be blurred when they bring in electric guitars on one track and the mandolin on another. The songs “All Time Low” and “Officer Down” have bizarre yet beautiful lyrics that encompass the meaning of the songs, and are defiantely worth listening to.

•Catherine Brasch

Run it up the Flagpole, the sophomore album by North Carolina’s poppunk rockers Farewell, is sweet, sugary, and completely unoriginal.

From the very first song, listeners are blasted with peppy harmonies and cheery power chords reminiscent of Relient K. What begins as unfalteringly optimistic soon becomes annoying, each song sounding as predictable as the last.

Relief from the upbeat tedium is offered halfway through the album in the form of the customary sloweddown song, “Catch-as-catch-can.”

While Farewell succeeds at getting toes tapping in an All American Rejects sort of way, the clichéd lyrics and concepts weigh Run it up the Flagpole down. The lead singer’s unremarkable voice ploughs through memories of his time “back in high school,” taking listeners through the classic fodder of V-cards, smoking pot, and the importance of rock and roll.

Fourteen-year-old girls, eat your hearts out. Otherwise, ignore.

•Jemma Wolfe

Novelty is the word that springs to mind when assessing cover albums.

While there are a few artists that garner legitimate attention through the songs they choose to cover, this is not entirely the case with MXPX’s newest offer.

Above all, the songs on this album could be described as… boring. Better artists could have arguably produced more capable renditions of the material here.

Nothing on this disc is exactly innovative. With questionable choices that fall into bland convention - “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” features typical female guest vocals from Agent M, while “Linda Linda” originally by Japanese punk-rockers The Blue Hearts, is translated into English, which questions why MXPX chose to cover this song in the first place.

One could argue for it being mindless background party music, but why drag any party down with music so unbelievably dull?

•Derek Hung

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Fugazi 13 Songs (1989)

merchandising precedes their music in the scope of pop music history. Yet it’s 13 Songs that propelled Fugazi into relevance, influencing countless bands over the past twenty years to question the practices of the industry and make music for music’s sake once again.

•Josh Parsons

Muse The Resistance

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If Freddie Mercury and Mozart had adopted an Arabian child, it would sound like Muse’s fifth release, The Resistance. Fans will love it, others might like it, but it will not catapult the band into the North American superstardom they so desperately seek.

The Resistance can be divided into two parts, the first classic and catchy; the second symphonic and experimental.

The first part is Muse through and through as Matt Bellamy’s falsetto intertwines with the band’s classic guitar effects, grounded by a good backbeat. The album is mixed well and many of the tracks are catchy and addictive.

Songs like “Guiding Light” carry a Queen influence while others have a Middle Eastern vibe.

The album finishes with a symphony in three parts.

This is perhaps Muse’s most experimental work to date. Sounds of intertwining classical piano solos meet well-tempered melodic guitar riffs. Muse fans will appreciate the change, but newcomers may be put off.

Muse has traded some of their tried and true rock for a more symphonic, Queen-like sound. They pull it off well with only a few small bumps along the way. If anything, The Resistance proves Muse to be a progressive band, not just a one trick pony (Did someone say Nickelback?). While The Resistance comes up short of their previous work, the music is catchy, addictive and fans will find it oh so Muse.

•Simon Granat

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review

keeping it unreal C12 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

how rhythm-based games squander their classic tunes

With the new release of The Beatles: Rock Band , the argument over whether Rock Band or Guitar Hero, two of the most immensely popular “rhythm-based” video games, is better than the other, was once again brought into the spotlight without a clear consensus.

Many would not even know the difference between the two had the ‘drum set’ for Rock Band not existed (and thus provided a reason for the game’s entire existence). Even at that, Activision, Guitar Hero‘s distributor, is releasing Band Hero, which would include gameplay accessories for vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar and... drums.

The point is they’re essentially clones of each other – marketed as either serious and ambitious endeavours for players bent on achieving the highest scores possible for the songs featured in the games; or as fun distractions for study breaks; or for party situations where everyone plays a song at least once. As they exist, as massively popular games, they are only “OK” games. They aren’t particularly

innovative, or even great. All they do is take popular songs and make players push buttons in a predetermined sequence. They’re fun timewasters, to be sure, but what keeps them from being great, or even good games, is not what their gameplay entails, or the fact that each game sequel provides no substantial expansion to the last – it’s how Guitar Hero and Rock Band are made, and how they operate.

If someone had told me around six years ago that a large variety of music that could be classified as “classic rock” and/ or “indie rock” would become massively popular through a series of video games produced by two rival video game franchises, I would have been immensely impressed. However, I would not have expected a series of games that would basically act as interactive jukeboxes and reduce the meaning of the music to a mapped out series of dictated button-mashing patterns that suck them dry of the potentially great experience of hearing a good song for the first

time.

Why Rock Band and Guitar Hero present such a perplexing conundrum concerning the music they are licensed to contain is because of the way that the music gains exposure to entire generations of players who may or may not have already heard these songs. I myself have no problem with music gaining exposure through other media such as movies and video games. Martin Scorsese uses music in such a way in his films that his idiosyncratic technique often provides a thrilling and devastating experience for audiences. Take2’s massively popular Bioshock (2007) used music ranging from the 1930’s-1950’s (most notably Bobby Darin’s “Beyond The Sea”) to accent its chilling atmosphere. The point is that Bioshock used music to help provide context, and to add to the experience of the game in a creative and ambitious manner.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero both take massively popular songs, some of which are commonly regarded as rock classics, and turn them into

ultra-commoditized packages.

Much of the art of songmaking comes from extracting what your soul has swallowed, and making it comprehensible through sound. It is a gruelling and uncompromising process, and more often than not transforms the one who goes through it. So why cheapen that by selling the creation to be used in a video game, not creatively, but at the best, blandly, and the worst, dictatorial? After all, that is how Rock Band and Guitar Hero use their songs. Unlike a CD, which could be popped in and listened to anywhere or even effective background music to a video game like the ones in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise, where it could be used to enhance the gameplay, Rock Band and Guitar Hero force players to remain relatively still, having one stare at a bunch of patterns falling down the screen while frantically trying to hit the corresponding buttons on their controllers. One could make the argument that the two games are all made in good fun, but then why

thursday, september 24, 2009

wouldn’t they provide something more for players to do with these songs? Why aren’t there options to create an original pattern layout for the songs? Why do they have to use already famous (and somewhat overplayed) songs, instead of giving players the opportunity to use their own musical creations, and eventually trade amongst themselves?

To be sure, both Rock Band and Guitar Hero are fun games in their own right, and I myself enjoy playing them once in a while. But one has to ask why they use the songs they do, and to that extent, why the artists would give them permission to do so. The idea of playing along to your favourite songs is undeniably attractive, but once you get going, and you think about how much money is being spent by you and made by the companies responsible for the games, not to mention the artists behind the tracks used, the idea of just how plastic the whole experience is starts to ring, hard.

•Derek Hung