Volume 58, Issue 8

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER VOLUME 58, ISSUE 8 - FEBRUARY 2, 2016

Good Kid

Mad City

the strand interviews THE uoFt band that shot up the spotify charts

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page 14

vic club seeks to alleviate student debt leaf it to broadleaf: theatrE group focuses on environmental issues Alternative oscar categories

News • The Strand

Illustration | Natasha Rosslein

Strangers sharing strange spaces

A look at Vic residence life and pub nights Erin Calhoun | Staff Reporter For many, living in residence is a rite of passage for living out the full university experience. Many of those admitted to residence are from overseas, from other provinces, or merely an hour’s drive away—but they all seek the unique experience that comes from living on campus. At Victoria College, there are five different residence buildings that students are able to choose from: Annesley, Margaret Addison, Rowell Jackman, and Upper and Lower Burwash.

Each of these buildings provide a different experience, but there still remains a common factor that links these different communities together.

A larger community exists outside of the internal workings of each residence. The residents of buildings on campus create neighbourly relations with each other, thus forming larger, external relationships on campus. This inside community is turned inside out at events that are hosted by residence buildings, like open mic nights and pub nights outside of campus.

On January 21, Middle House from Upper Burwash and Bowles-

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Gandier from Lower Burwash hosted the first Vic pub night of 2016 at O’Grady’s Tap and Grill on 171 College St. Residence students at Vic, representing their houses, independently host these events throughout the year.

Pub nights like this one gain popularity through social media, banners, and word of mouth in residence buildings and the dining hall.

Pub nights allow for a break in the tension and stress of school and residence life At pub nights, residence and commuter students alike thrive in a social and inclusive atmosphere. First-year student Maia Kachan, who attended the “Welcome Back” pub night on Jan-

uary 21, stated, “I think people come out to these events because it’s a chance to relax and loosen up after stressful time in school. People enjoy this more organized social activity, and it gives people the opportunity to meet others that they would not normally interact with.” Pub nights allow for a break in the tension and stress of school and residence life, as individuals split and come together. Pub nights typically occur once a month.

Residence is a fascinating concept.

There are hundreds of students housed in old- and new-styled buildings, each building new to each student (minus the few returning students). In their new spaces, students collaborate or clash with their roommates and personalize their new abodes. With new spaces and new situations, difficulties arise. Regarding her new learning and living experience, Kachan said, “I’m learning to share personal space and balance each others’ wants and needs.”

Roommates, although often a friend by default, can sometimes negatively affect the way a student lives and grows

in their residence communities. A student who wishes to remain anonymous stated, “My relationship with my roommate isn’t what I thought it would be. I sometimes feel uncomfortable in my own room. It has definitely impacted how I have alone time—at home it was in my room by myself, [but] now I have to share this alone space with a stranger.” On the other hand, living in a small community allows for quicker and more accessible friendships.

The strange normalcy of living with such a new and large group of people can be helpful when trying to find a place as a Vic resident. Pub nights do an excellent job of creating larger communities that branch off from the smaller communities existing within residence buildings. At these events, club members, commuters, and residents of Victoria College all mingle and converse, creating a small community inside a large city.

News • The Strand

CIUT 89.5 FM Campus radio and breaking down the status quo

Vic’s newest club helps students navigate difficult scholarship market The Scholarship and Grant Writing Club meets every two weeks to help students access a host of funds Erik Preston | Staff Reporter

Illustration | Seolim Hong

Adele Keyes | Contributor CIUT 89.5 FM has been the broadcasted voice of the University of Toronto for over 50 years. Started by students in 1965, today CIUT is one of the only community radio stations in the downtown Toronto region, providing a truly diverse range of programming that reflects the community it speaks to. With over 75 different programs produced by students and community members not affiliated with the university, CIUT broadcasts in five different languages to over 128,000 listeners every week, reaching from Kitchener to Cobourg and from Barrie to Buffalo. The programming is an eclectic mix of all genres of music and spoken word that sets it apart from private radio. Station manager and program director Ken Stowar stresses that his mission is to keep the station moving by allowing the programming to change and including students and faculty in their campus’s radio station.

When Stowar started in his role as program director and station manager at CIUT, only 3% of the volunteers were students at the University of Toronto, whereas today undergrad and graduate students comprise 40-50% of the volunteer base. Today, CIUT operates with two full-time and four part-time staff, backed by over 200 volunteers.

With the ever-increasing presence of the Internet in our daily lives, Stowar is frequently asked if radio is a dying medium. To this he adamantly replies no, adding that, “Our ratings are the highest they’ve ever been.” Radio has always been an adaptable medium; it successfully evolved in the wake of television, and is doing so again today. CIUT’s studios are situated at the core of the University of Toronto, in Hart House.

Hart House has been home to the station since 2009, and Stowar confirms that recent rumours of a potential relocation have been laid to rest after talks

between the station and the Hart House administration.

CIUT has a very loyal and supportive network of listeners; through membership drives and other fundraising efforts, the station raises over $120,000 each year. In August of 2014, the station amassed $150,000 to put towards a new hybrid digital transmitter, ensuring higher-quality sound for their listeners to appreciate. By this upcoming summer, CIUT will be entirely debt-free.

Stowar is eager to draw more students into the public radio community, and is in the beginning stages of a student-produced podcast initiative. “Podcasts are the fastest growing part of our website,” says Stowar. “It would be foolish not to invest in podcasts.” Stowar is calling for students to experiment with podcasts and produce the content they and their peers are missing from the FM dial today. “The private sector of radio has failed young people for the past two decades. It used to be more diverse, and today they just don’t give them what they want.” Stowar urges students to take advantage of this opportunity to use their voice and break the status quo.

Students run 26 of CIUT’s programs, and the podcast initiative would provide a platform for more UofT content. Selected podcasts would be broadcast between the hours of 12 and 6 AM, when certain CRTC requirements are lifted, allowing more freedom for innovative content. “Students are gold. More so than ever, it’s important that they are here and a part of the programming at this moment and for the future,” says Stowar.

If students are interested in being part of this initiative, they are encouraged to fill out a volunteer application form on the CIUT website and become a part of their local radio community (ciut.fm).

New this year to Victoria College, the Scholarship and Grant Writing Club aims to help students navigate the broad market for supplemental funding.

Founder Spencer McMurray, a Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies student from Victoria College, received official club recognition in November and has just recently begun operations, having held only one meeting so far.

“We deal with anything related to student funding, whether that be bursary applications, research funding applications, or even applications for internships and student projects.”

Currently, the only effective resource when it comes to scholarship and bursary funding is the registrar office of each college. “They’re really knowledgeable about their own scholarships, whereas I help people access other things such as external scholarships, grants, and other funding outside of the university.”

According to Victoria College registrar Susan McDonald, “Vic provided over $2 million in awards to Vic students this past year. Most of the merit-based scholarships at Vic happen automatically, as per the Senate awards policy—students don’t apply for them.” However, there are also many application-based scholarships and bursaries given away each year.

The Canadian Federation of Students reported that the average debt upon graduation for students receiving federal student loans reached $28,000 in 2014. On the other side of the equation, at the time of writing, the Scholarships Canada website homepage indicates that there are

The Scholarships Canada homepage indicates that there are currently 80,927 awards available, worth $177,092,640 currently 80,927 awards available, worth $177,092,640 collectively.

Knowing how to navigate this vast market of available funding is a daunting task, something that McMurray has mastered through a great deal of practice. “Once you know the keywords to sourcing scholarships, the process becomes somewhat easier, which is where my expertise comes in.”

McMurray says a big part of the club’s goal is to help students appropriately market themselves on their applications. A large part of receiving funding, he insists, is the ability to effectively sell yourself as the best candidate. He uses his background in sales to help other students effectively market their credentials in their applications.

The club meets every second and fourth Thursday of each month at Caffiends in Old Vic, between 12 and 1 PM. Spencer can be reached by email at spencer936@hotmail.com or directly by phone 647-529-7984.

Illustration | Seolim Hong

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Opinions • The Strand

Illustration | Seolim Hong

When “healthy” really means “thin” Structuring a mindful diet Rebecca Ostroff | Contributor A few years ago, I started eating a gluten-free diet due to an allergy that manifested itself in my skin. I trusted health food stores and packaging thoughtlessly, and I never read ingredient lists once I saw the trusted “glutenfree” label because I wanted a “quick fix.” Although my complexion improved, I did not experience any of the other benefits that the popular glutenfree diet promises. In fact, I felt generally lethargic and bloated, and, most worrying to me, I gained weight.

Once my weight gain became something that other people noticed I couldn’t ignore it anymore, so I turned to the Internet. There were so many diets out there, and the common thread amongst them was, of course, the coveted promise of drastic weight loss.

Even diets that seemed fundamentally in opposition to one another, like the Paleo and vegan diets, promised the same results.

Looking back now, I can see how what I wanted most was a rigid set of “rules” to impose on myself. I figured going to a restaurant and simply saying “I’m gluten-free” would be easier than actually looking through the in-

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gredients in every item on the menu. was going to pass on dessert because I focused on counting calories on pre- my specific dietary restrictions did not packaged foods instead of buying fresh allow for it, and I could even expect ingredients. I did not bother to notice sympathy because I was “missing out.” that most store-bought gluten-free Most times, skipping dessert might products contained not have been a bad tons of highly-prohealth choice anycessed ingredients For me, words like way, but in reality I that were definitely was thrilled to keep “healthy” and “clean harming my body drinking my water more than the glu- lifestyle” were more while everyone else ten had. Instead of like socially accept- indulged—because finding myself in able codes for “losing I was so fueled by a healthy mindset, my “thin goal.” It I became obsessed weight” felt like every choice with eliminating I made not to eat whole food groups, something was and then stepping on the scale up to bringing me closer. And it is this mindthree times a day to confirm that my set that retrospectively scares me. hard work had paid off. I did not care With “diets” there is often no balwhether I lacked energy, so long as I ance. There is eating a ton of one thing, felt that I had gotten thinner. eating nothing, and/or splurging to an For me, words like “healthy” and unhealthy degree on the thing of which “clean lifestyle” were more like socially you’ve deprived yourself. There is an acceptable codes for “losing weight.” obsession with numbers on the scale, I always felt awkward turning down as though they will dictate to us whethfood when the reason was that I didn’t er our hard work has paid off. There feel like it was what my body needed is stress surrounding how to find apin that moment. However, it was much propriate food to eat when you are too easier to explain to my friends that I busy to cook every meal for yourself.

And, of course, stress itself can lead to negative side effects bloating and weight gain, to name a few. Personally, I have definitely noticed that my attitude towards food more directly affects my body than my choice of what to eliminate from my diet. This has led me to embrace everything in moderation, focusing more on what I should eat as opposed to what I cannot.

In these cold winter months, we are all looking for “quick fixes” to get ourselves in shape when we naturally lack motivation. Before immediately turning to the plethora of available multivitamins, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting to know your own body. Specifically, what foods do and do not make you feel good, at what times of day, and paired with which other foods? Make being healthy its own satisfying goal, and remind yourself that weight loss is not the ultimate thing to strive for. Without stress, you can make good health and conscientious consumption a habit. I truly believe that is what it means to be “healthy” from the inside out.

Opinions • The Strand

Five common fitness myths debunked Stacey Taylor | Contributor, The Brunswickian It wouldn’t be a new year without resolutions. Many of us are determined to make positive changes in our lives, like prying ourselves off of the couch and becoming more physically active and fit. This is a good thing—but don’t believe everything you hear.

The fitness industry is loaded with snake-oil salesmen selling empty promises and providing misguided advice that preys on those who know what their fitness goals are, but have no idea how to achieve them. What’s worse is that the world of fitness is filled with the proverbial cornucopia of equipment, programs, at-home DVDs, famous TV personal trainers and a whole wonderland of gyms.

Many of these gimmicks promise that if you “stick-with-this-you-willlook-and-feel-like-the-famous-and/orphoto-shopped-person-endorsing-thisproduct-does.” Don’t fall for it! Alina Cress, program coordinator of University of New Brunswick recreation services, debunks some common fitness myths to help us make positive choices on our way to improving personal wellness.

Myth #1: Doing sit-ups will flatten my belly.

Sorry—spot treating exercises will not help you lose weight in a targeted area.

Weight loss occurs systemically—simply put, it occurs throughout the entire body. Therefore, losing weight in specific areas of your body does not happen by doing exercises that only use one part of your body. Stick to a wellrounded program that encourages you to use all your major muscle groups.

Myth #2: Exercising in the “Fat Burning” zone defined on cardio equipment burns fat.

Wrong! Without getting too much into the nitty-gritty about exercise physiology, fat—in partnership with other sources—is used as energy; it’s

Myth #4: “No Pain, No Gain.”

Smarten up, people! If it hurts, don’t do it! Exercise should not be a physically painful experience. Sure there are times when it is difficult and uncomfortable, but it is important to know the difference between pain and discomfort. Pain is when your body is telling you that an injury is occurring or reoccurring and that’s not good.

Discomfort, however, is when you are aware that whatever you are doing is not particularly enjoyable, but it is safe for you to keep going.

Know that burning sensation you get in your muscles when working hard?

That’s uncomfortable, right? But guess what? It’s normal and it’s safe to experience. On the other hand, that sharp, ripping feeling you feel when stretching deeply? Stop! That’s bad! Therefore listen to your body and don’t be a hero, because pain is not there to bring you any gain (other than to tell you to STOP.) Myth #5: One machine can do it all.

UofT’s Hart House gym, Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, and Athletic Centre are all fully equipped for your workout needs Photography by Genevieve Wakutz “burned” when we are working at a lesser intensity, i.e. in an aerobic state.

However, working at higher intensities requires more energy expenditure, and higher energy expenditures equal more calories burned. Therefore think about adding some higher intensity intervals to your work out rather than a lowerintensity steady state.

Myth #3: If you want to lose weight, do cardio.

While cardiovascular training is certainly important for your overall health, keep in mind that most energy metab-

olism (caloric burning) takes place in your muscles. Do you remember high school biology when you learned about the cell and its various components?

What about the mitochondrion? Hint, we all know it as the “powerhouse of the cell” or the cell’s “furnace.”

What I’m getting at is that the more muscle you have and/or the better quality your muscle is, you will have an increased number and more efficient little powerhouses that will be burning calories. Therefore be sure to incorporate resistance (weight) training into your regular exercise routine.

Nope! There are a lot of fancy machines out there, most of which are backed by pretty convincing testimonials, but we have to remember the old adage “if it’s too good to be true…” So perhaps the “MuscleFlex-5000” isn’t what it is cracked up to be. To be perfectly honest, there is only one machine that can—for the most part—do it all… your body. Therefore chose a variety of movements, exercises, environments and equipment (or perhaps no equipment) to achieve your desired goals.

Not sure where to start? Check out some of the fitness and wellness programs available right here on campus at: http://www.athletics.utoronto.ca/ recreation.htm Check out some of the fitness and wellness programs available right here at: athletics.utoronto.ca/recreation.htm

Let’s talk about Let’s Talk Emily Pollock | Design Editor

Last Wednesday was Bell Let’s Talk Day, a marketing campaign where Bell encouraged people to talk about mental health and promised they would donate five cents for each use of #BellLetsTalk on social media. If your Facebook feed was anything like mine, it was filled with post after post about the importance of acknowledging mental health. And, like almost any event that gets that kind of market saturation, there was a parallel backlash. Some of the criticism can be set aside. People critiquing the fact that it was a marketing campaign for Bell are missing the point—it doesn’t really claim to be anything else. But some critiques are more damning.

One of the articles circulating Facebook on Let’s Talk Day was a piece written by a former Bell employee Karen Ho. Ho’s job ruined her physical and mental health, and because she was a contract worker, she was cut out of Bell’s much-touted employee health support. Ironically, Ho knew people involved in creating the Let’s Talk promotional material who didn’t have

proper mental healthcare coverage.

The situation points at one of the most serious problems of our current mental health climate—the exclusive focus on “awareness” often masks unaddressed systematic issues. Don’t get me wrong: people knowing more about mental illness is important, especially when we’re looking at highly-stigmatised illnesses like schizophrenia. In a year when Suicide Squad’s trailer used auditory hallucinations as a punchline, we still have a long way to go. But so much of the campaigning around mental health focuses on awareness as the be-all end-all of mental healthcare, when the reality is much more complicated.

I used to volunteer screening calls for a psychologist’s office. In the short time I worked there, almost every call asked if we accepted OHIP insurance.

I couldn’t stand my job there because almost all of it was turning people away because they didn’t have the money to pay for treatment. The reality is that a lot of psychological healthcare is expensive, but access to mental health-

care isn’t a buzzword in the same way that awareness is.

The reason this is true is because awareness is relatively easy to change, and it doesn’t ask much of our governments and institutions. My favourite example of this is how Steven Harper used to tweet about Let’s Talk Day when he was the PM, which always filled me with a kind of primal rage.

For context, this man spent the other 364 days of the year cutting benefits for disabled veterans, defending laws that made it more likely that mentally ill offenders would be jailed, and quietly decreasing healthcare funding. It’s transparently dishonest for this man to represent himself as a champion of mental health for sending a few tweets.

Making awareness the top priority makes mental health an individual responsibility that can be solved with a few tweets, rather than a systematic problem that needs our society to invest serious time and effort. While I’m thrilled at how much of the current campaign’s money is going to initiatives to improve access, I’m still not

over the fact that in a country where we pride ourselves on universal healthcare, we still need corporate donations to fund lifesaving care.

We need to look at the issue of mental health more systematically. We need to look at how punishingly hard it is to access care, especially when you’re below the middle class. We need to look at how marginalisation impacts mental health, and how it simultaneously makes accessing care more difficult. We need to look at the morality of a two-tier healthcare system that’s literally killing people.

Let’s be clear: I’m not saying that a day dedicated to mental health awareness is a bad idea. As someone who plans to work in mental healthcare, seeing people share their stories about mental illness has been really lovely and encouraging. But awareness doesn’t go far enough, and when we act as though it does, people suffer. Let’s talk, for sure, but let’s also do.

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OUR MASTHEAD Editors-in-Chief editor@thestrand.ca

Anthony Burton Rhianna Jackson-Kelso Holly McKenzie-Sutter

News

Nicole Paroyan

Stress, silence, and mental health in academia

news@thestrand.ca

Opinions

Olivia Dziwak

opinions@thestrand.ca

Features features@thestrand.ca

Geoff Baillie Claire Wilkins

Arts & Culture

Clarrie Feinstein

Why we need to be more comfortable talking about mental health on campus

artsandculture@thestrand.ca

Film & Music

Bronwyn Nisbet-Gray

filmandmusic@thestrand.ca

Stranded

Rhianna Jackson-Kelso | Editor-in-Chief Neil MacIsaac

stranded@thestrand.ca

Copy Editing

Jake McNair

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Design design@thestrand.ca

Emily Pollock Grace Quinsey

Photo

Genevieve Wakutz

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Art

Seolim Hong

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Web

Kasra Koushan

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Editorial Assistants

Joshua Kim Tanuj Kumar Ainsley MacDougall Tristan McGrath-Waugh Tamilore Oshodi Alison Zhou

Contributors Jenna Borisevich, Erin Calhoun, Ariana Douglas, Katie Elder, Molly Kay, Adele Keyes, Rebecca Ostroff, Erik Preston, Alexandra Scandolo, Stacey Taylor, Sara Truuvert, Lauren Van Klavaren

Please don‛t ask me about my mental health!!!

Copy Editors Alexandra Jones, Sabrina Papas, Arjun Sawhney Illustrations Seolim Hong, Rhianna Jackson-Kelso, Emily Pollock, Natasha Rosslein Photos Rusaba Alam, Genevieve Wakutz, Emma Workman Cover Photography Emma Workman The Strand has been the newspaper of record for Victoria University since 1953. It is published 12 times a year with a circulation of 2000 and is distributed in Victoria University buildings and across the University of Toronto’s St. George campus.

The Strand flagrantly enjoys its editorial autonomy and is committed to acting as an agent of constructive social change. As such, we will not publish material deemed to exhibit racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, ableism, or other oppressive language.

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One of the most pertinent issues plaguing the discussion of mental health in our society is its lack of normalisation. As Bell’s annual “Let’s Talk Day,” which occurred on January 27 this year, implies, talking about mental health and the stigma surrounding it is key to increasing awareness and decreasing stigmatization. While there was certainly no shortage of detailed and encouraging posts on the topic on social media that day and in the few days following, this is unfortunately one of the only times of year where it’s an open topic of discussion.

On university campuses, especially at a university as large and academically competitive as the University of Toronto, a continuous and open conversation on the topic of mental health is incredibly important. While it’s common for students to trade stories—in person and on social media—about how little sleep they’ve gotten, how many essays they have due at the end of the week, or how far over the recommended daily dose of caffeine they currently are, there is much less open discourse about mental health and how it affects student life. While it’s evident that not everyone is breezing through their courses, it can be difficult to express or acknowledge problems that might go beyond typical academic challenges if no one talks about them.

To speak from personal experience, it took me until November of my fourth year of undergrad to seek out medical and academic assistance regarding my depression and anxiety. Now that I’ve done so, I realize how much easier these four years could have been if I had asked for help sooner. In an environment that tells you that you could always be working harder, it’s all too easy to attribute academic struggles to laziness or some other personal fault.

However, mental health issues are unsettlingly common among Canadian university students: in a 2013 study published by the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services, 40% of post-secondary students in Ontario reported feeling severely depressed at some point in the preceding 12 months, while 58% reported overwhelming anxiety. A disheartening 89% reported that they felt overwhelmed by their responsibilities.

It’s a given that university students are stressed out at least some of the time, but when everyone seems to be just as stressed out and busy as you are, it can be difficult to justify asking for help—or even acknowledging that you need it in the first place. It’s important to remember that while certain levels of stress are part of the package of academia, you’re not weak or unequipped just because you feel overwhelmed or hopeless.

Illustration | Emily Pollock

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Editorial • The Strand

Creation and consumption in the Internet age The cultural price when artists don’t expect to get paid Holly McKenzie-Sutter | Editor-in-Chief

Photography | Mohammad Janga, flickr

Last week, comedian Chris Rock published an essay inThe Hollywood Reporter addressing Hollywood’s race problem. At one point, Rock discusses his college years, when he tried to “create an equivalent to The Harvard Lampoon at Howard University, to give young black comedy writers the same opportunity that white comedy writers had.” The project failed, according to Rock, because “the kids at Howard need money. It’s that simple. Kids at Harvard come from money. They can afford to work at a newspaper and make no money. The kids at Howard are like, ‘Dude, I love comedy, but I’ve got a f—ing tuition I’ve got to pay for here.’ But that was 15 years ago. It might be easier to do it now because of the Internet. I don’t know.”

Rock articulates an essential factor behind the lack of diversity in the entertainment industry: in addition to the basic racial prejudices he discusses, the lack of access to artistic platforms is often rooted in a lack of economic mobility. Rock is correct to point out that before the Internet age, the financial stipulations attached to selfpublishing and self-promoting were so high that many creative voices were shut down when the various expenses of life interfered.

The Internet has certainly introduced a new, accessible place for people to build portfolios and selfpromote their work. Anyone can run a blog or stream their album on Bandcamp. Promoting shows and events or pitching for freelance work has undeniably become easier. However, the ease of self-promotion and publication offered by the Internet has its economic downsides—in the low expectation of income from your work, and in the value we place on the arts we consume and take for granted.

Recently, a friend of mine shared a single from her band’s recording on Facebook. I had heard their music before, knew I was a fan, and planned

to listen to the piece, so I bought the $1 single. Later she texted me and said “Thanks for being our first purchase!”

When I expressed that it was the least I could do, she responded, “We really didn’t expect anyone to buy it. Lol.” Previously, the same friend confided in me that at a bar show with no cover, some of her friends told her they “couldn’t afford” to buy a $10 copy of the recording—a slightly hypocritical statement, considering an average pint at the bar costs approximately the same amount. The assumption that your friends aren’t going to buy your music, because they’ve already streamed it online for free, says something about the value we place on the creative work of our peers in the current age. There isn’t a dollar amount attached to a like or a share. As much as shared enjoyment of your art is the invaluable desired response to creative work, many would argue that a little bit of money as compensation for the gratification you bring people wouldn’t hurt.

Speaking on a panel at the Canadian University Press’s NASH conference a few weeks ago, Toronto-based freelancer Anupa Mistry advised young writers not to tweet their best ideas, as in her experience, people will steal and write those ideas before you can. With this in mind, it is off-putting to consider publishing a piece you care about on a personal blog, or expressing the idea on twitter, if you run the risk of someone else capitalizing on your idea.

Plagiarism laws haven’t yet caught up to Twitter, and maybe they eventually will, but at the moment it’s a decidedly grey area in relation to intellectual property.

There’s an overwhelming attitude amongst young creatives that the work you put online isn’t going to get you paid. Which is, I guess, a logical assumption to make—nobody really expects to make money off a personal Twitter account or blog. But the idea that none of your ideas or legitimate

artistic work are worth something of value if they go up on the Internet first is undoubtedly harmful to young talents who are considering a career in the arts. With technology constantly evolving, each generation of young artists will have had it “easier” than the last, but the factor of the discourse that remains consistent is that compensation for art is laughable, even in the minds of the creators themselves.

Chris Rock raises an important point in suggesting that it is now easier for disadvantaged people to get exposure, and find their audience, through the Internet. But the fact remains that people have to work and be compensated for that work. The economic valuation we place on people’s work when so much is immediately available doesn’t do a whole lot to help people get paid for their output. While there are success stories resulting from In-

ternet self-promotion—local legend Biebs and his initial YouTube videos come to mind, or the popular comedy show, Broad City, which started as a web series. The question remains, however, as to what stories are lost out of fear of plagiarism, or lack of time available to commit towards your artistic pursuits when nobody is going to buy it anyway. In the 15 years since Chris Rock’s failed Howard Lampoon experiment, college kids, especially from disadvantaged economic and racial backgrounds, still have bills to pay.

All artists would agree that they love what they do; that is why so many people put time and energy into their craft for free. But as Chris Rock argues in his piece, love doesn’t always create opportunity, and neither does diversity create the stage.

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Rock climbing rocks Jenna Borisevich | Staff Writer

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Features • The Strand

...the mental side of climbing is often overlooked Illustration | Emily Pollock

If you happen to know me, there’s a fairly good chance I’ve tried to recruit you into rock climbing. On second thought, if you happen to know me, I’m certain that I have.

“Hey, I’m Jenna. Nice to meet you. Do you rock climb? Would you want to?” The words are out of my mouth seconds after a formal introduction.

The first time I climbed a rock wall, I was addicted. I wanted more. I inhaled mountaineering books, watched mountaineering documentaries, daydreamed about climbs when I should have been paying attention to other things, and of course, I climbed.

Now, I should mention that I’m not actually a very impressive rock climber, despite how badly I want to be. But the thing is, I love it. I love the way it makes me feel physically, I love the way it makes me feel mentally, and I love that there’s an artistry in the climb itself.

I caught the climbing bug. What’s done is done. So let me attempt to summarise the many benefits of this spectacular sport. Maybe by the end, you’ll want to take up rock climbing yourself. Maybe you’ll catch the bug too.

A lot of people are intimidated by the physicality that appears necessary to rock climb, and they have a point. Rock climbing is a physically demanding sport, whether it’s done indoors or outdoors. If you’re into the idea of climbing, get ready to test your strength, agility, endurance, balance, and flexibility. However, contrary to popular belief, rock climbing is not just about upperbody strength. If it was, I’d still be standing at the bottom of the rock wall, attempting to scramble up the holds without any success.

Climbing requires a lot of intricate footwork and lower body strength. It’s a lot of balance and technique and shifting your body in just the right manner. It’s a lot of twisting your limbs in ways you didn’t know you could.

Rock climbing is a sport where your progress is evident and trackable. You will feel yourself becoming stronger with every climb. You will feel the improvement of your own coor-

dination on the wall. You will feel your heart rate elevate, your stamina increasing, your muscles building. Before rock climbing came into my life, I lacked the forearm strength necessary to open troublesome jars. Now— well, pass me a jar: I dare you. The physical benefits of rock climbing are acknowledged by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, which lists the physical activity as one known for reducing the risk of chronic and cardiovascular diseases. All of this without even stepping into the mental benefits of rock climbing.

Climbing a rock wall is a bit of a puzzle.

You need problem solving abilities to be any good. You have to navigate your routes by calculating the necessary moves required to complete the climb. All this while factoring your own personal strength and energy into the equation. Alex Johnson, a climber with many accomplished first-female ascents, tells the Huffington Post, “I think the mental side of climbing is often overlooked … The movement in climbing up a route often demands body awareness and problem-solving … The way to the top is not as direct as you might assume … it takes laser focus.”

Furthermore, rock climbing is a fantastic stress reliever. It increases the levels of norepinephrine in the brain that help relieve stress. Some studies suggest that climbing can be used to treat a variety of mental illnesses, including addiction, anxiety and depression.

For me, it’s been an extremely effective way of shedding anxieties. It’s been an environment where my mind is entirely focused on the task at hand without any competing worries.

In addition to the physical and mental benefits of the sport, I think there’s an artistry to rock climbing that can be under-appreciated. An inherent creativity that is required to traverse the aesthetic expanse of mountain terrain.

You need imagination to see the holds.

The holds of a rock face, the cracks in the slab. There’s a need for observation, a need for an experience, a need to establish an intelligent relationship with nature. It’s this com-

bination of acute attention to the task with a simultaneous attentiveness to the sounds of feet scraping against rock, the movement of clouds across the sky and the sound of heavy breathing.

American rock climber and writer, Pat Ament, analyzes the relationship between climbing and artistry in his book Climber’s Choice: The Best Climbing Writers Present Their Best Work. In his book, Ament explains that, “Like poets, climbing writers notice the position of the stars or the direction of the wind. They hear a waterfall. They hear the sound of a piece of equipment in the eerie acoustical silence of a deserted canyon … They bring mythical significance out of what might seem to be normal spheres of language.” According to Jon Krakauer, mountaineer and writer, “Most climbers aren’t in fact deranged, they’re just infected with a particularly virulent strain of the Human Condition.” Call me sentimental, but I think that’s beautiful, and I think it’s true.

There are four elements that summarize what rock climbing means to me: physical prowess, mental calculation, relaxation, and imagination. I can only hope that I’ve done the sport justice with my summary. Maybe some of you reading this might start to crave your own experience on the rock wall. I hope that some of you might go and try it out.

Seek a partner and head on out there! Seek me out—didn’t I say that I’m always looking for a belayer?

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Arts & Culture • The Strand

Has school made the joy of reading obsolete?

Molly Kay | Associate Arts & Culture Editor There is no doubt that university makes us better readers. It provides us with the skillset to analyze texts more efficiently and to become better critics in general. However, considering the quick pace at which we are expected to finish readings at the university level, one might argue that we actually miss out on the entire literary experience. Students are rarely told to read slowly and just enjoy the text for our own pleasure. Furthermore, once we finally manage to get through our seemingly never-ending list of readings, many students cringe at the prospect of cracking open a book for fun. So, is pleasure reading a dying art?

As a humanities student, one of the things I look forward to most about breaks from school is the opportunity to finally read for my own enjoyment. As much as I enjoy several of my assigned readings, what

I really enjoy is being able to read a novel at my own pace, without the stress of an upcoming assignment or a test on its content weighing over me the entire time.

Perhaps the overwhelming pressure to complete our readings and assignments for a strict deadline can be blamed for taking the joy out of reading. Or maybe, after having dissected a novel or text for weeks, it seems impossible to enjoy literature ever again because it is so intellectually draining. It is unfortunate that so many university students often associate the act of reading with stress and school-related anxiety.

This shouldn’t always be the case. To me, the most wonderful thing about reading is that there is a book for everything, no matter how diverse or obscure your interests are. The concept of reading is conventionally associated with sitting down to read an en-

tire novel. However, as far as I’m concerned, anything that consists of words on a page counts.

In this day and age, online magazines and blogging platforms have become increasingly popular among younger generations. Although digital media are often not considered literature, their accessibility and topical nature are very appealing to young people. What a lot of us fail to recognise is that almost everyone indulges in this form of pleasure reading on a daily basis.

Further, many people tend to discount the value of contemporary novels that modern society can actually connect with, in favour of reading the classics or the critically acclaimed. For many, this can suck the pleasure out of reading. The pressure to read what is considered to be “good literature” makes reading seem much more pretentious

than it has to be.

Although as students we may feel frustrated about the high volume we are expected to read week after week, it is important that we remember academic reading is not the only valid type of reading. The joy of reading is not necessarily a dying art; it has simply evolved to fit in with the fast-paced, online era that we live in. I do, however, believe that there is still something to be said for the feeling of turning over the pages of an exciting new novel. I think that a lot of students who claim to dislike reading simply hate the intensive university environment in which they are required to read and analyze texts that are not necessarily appealing in the first place. That being said, I simply do not think it is fair to reject other less recognised or acclaimed forms of writing as acceptable subjects of pleasure reading.

Choir!

Choir!

Choir!

Co-founder Nobu Adilman talks about the initiative’s success Lauren Van Klaveren | Staff Writer Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman are very busy these days. The community choir they founded in 2011, aptly (and enthusiastically) named “Choir! Choir! Choir!,” is amassing viral attention for their recent performance of the late, great David Bowie’s Space Oddity. The video of the event has been watched more than 500,000 times.

Fortunately, I was able to speak to Nobu over the phone.

“Who is this? How did you get my number?” he asked monotonously. I balked for a moment, and then he gently laughed.

“I’m just kidding, don’t worry.”

I was relieved. I can sense that Nobu and Daveed (who refer to themselves jointly as “DaBu”) are warm, light-hearted, and humorous guys, at least if their online interactions are good indicators. The choir members can follow their posts and announcements on the Choir! Choir! Choir!

Facebook groups. Members can post song suggestions and vote on which songs they want to sing at upcoming meetings, or can do so using their website choirchoirchoir. com. The site specifically includes easy directions for how to sign up. The group meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Clinton’s Tavern (693 Bloor St West) for a modest cover of $5. Nobu and Daveed teach their unique song arrangements on the night of the performance, which is then rehearsed until it is ready to be filmed. No formal singing training is required, and all are welcome to join.

I was curious to know how their choir project began, and Nobu was glad to fill me in.

“We had zero strategy on any level. It was originally a night so our friends could

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Photography | Choir! Choir! Choir!, flickr

get together and we could lead our friends singing. Somehow the message got out and there were strangers at the first practice, and Eye Weekly came out and took a photo of us,” he explained.

“This idea took off before we had time to think about what it was. At the end of the session we said we’d do it again next month, and people wanted to do it again the next day. So for four years we’ve been meeting twice weekly. It’s actually our fifth birthday on February 2.”

I asked Nobu to tell me about how he booked the AGO for the Space Oddity performance.

“I called Sean O’Neill, who is the Associate Director of Programming and Partnerships at the AGO. We had organized a [performance] with Patti Smith a few years ago, so they knew us. I sent him a message on Monday, and by the end of the day he had us booked in the building for Saturday night,” Nobu explained.

The Choir! Choir! Choir! “Tribute to David Bowie” at the AGO was a success, at-

tracting an audience of over 500 eager singers.

“The collective feeling about Bowie dying was that it felt to people like they had lost someone they knew. Originally, we had plans to do a Bieber song, but when you’re running a music choir and members are so tuned in to what’s going on, it felt like it would have been wrong not to sing Bowie.

So we switched our whole week and we announced we would sing Bowie instead of Bieber, and everyone was really happy.”

He also told me his own personal Bowie story: “Space Oddity was a song in particular I obsessed over as a kid. I went to the Uptown Theatre in Toronto as a kid with some friends, and we saw the Ziggy Stardust concert film. We actually had to find an adult to buy us tickets because of the PG rating.”

I told him that Choir! Choir! Choir! has a lot of appeal due to its relaxed atmosphere and inclusive environment.

“We had a tagline when we started: ‘Choir is Not a Democracy,’” he told me.

“As leaders of a large group, we listen to people and we anticipate what the members want. We as a choir have grown largely because of this passionate group of people that are part of it. Once momentum picked up, people shared the idea knowing anyone could show up, and it became interesting to see who would come.”

I asked him if Choir! Choir! Choir! ever feels overwhelming or difficult to manage.

“When you have 300 to 500 people singing back to you, it is an overwhelming sensation, and it’s very beautiful. Daveed and I get the best seat in the house. I get overwhelmed that people want to come out, and that people are passionate about what we’re doing. At times, in the moment things can get chaotic, but we thrive on chaos…we don’t want to lose that sense of chaos, ‘cause it would feel boring otherwise.”

There appears to be only one rule of Choir! Choir! Choir!: “Listen to the fucking songs.” Daveed and Nobu will guide you through the rest.

Arts & Culture • The Strand

Environmental issues and theatre intersect Broadleaf Theatre brings environmental consciousness to centre stage with student talent

Photography | Rusaba Alam

Clarrie Feinstein | Arts & Culture Editor There is nothing more inspiring than seeing UofT students take their school-based initiatives and present said initiatives to the “real world.” University allows students the time and space to invent and create, as people are surrounded by hundreds of peers engaged with similar interests also wishing to make some sort of socially positive impression on our often troubling world.

A student initiative that embodies this ideal student practice is Broadleaf Theatre, founded in 2014 by UofT drama students Nathaniel Rose and Kevin Matthew Wong.

The company “creates devised works based on Canadian perspectives on local, national, and global environmental issues.” Impressively, all the content—including music, script, characters, and more—is original and written by members of the company, which comprises mostly UofT students.

In 2014, The Broadleaf Plays, their debut show, took place at the UofT Drama Festival, winning the President’s Award for Best Production and the Viewer’s Choice Award.

The Strand sat down with co-creator Kevin Matthew Wong and outreach coordinator Mirka Loiselle to discuss the mandate of Broadleaf Theatre, the future of the company, and the creative process of composing these topically important plays.

Firstly, can you discuss why you decided to focus on environmental issues?

Broadleaf Theatre [Wong]: Nate and I have been working with environmental groups for sometime. In acting class the stories we were telling were not deep-seated in our hearts, and the works we study in class are not typically about Canadian issues that resonate with modern-day audiences. The creator of Toronto350, Bill McKibben, says there is no leader in the environmental movement, and that’s why it works. It’s a great point and we bring that practice into our company—collaboration is central.

Can you discuss the interesting intersection of drama and politics? In this sense, the politics focuses on the environment.

How effective is drama to promote an issue, or at least to get the dialogue going?

Firstly, what is different with us, is that typical theatre creators often ask, “Is this going to be a good show and will audiences like the show?” For our theatre, it goes beyond that…we ask, “Will [the audience] enjoy the content? Does it speak to them?” It’s difficult to measure the impact of what we’re creating and putting out there. For example, if someone cries during the show, is that a measurable impact? We ask ourselves, what are the long-term effects and the short-term effects?

In terms of short-term, it’s immediacy and making these topics engaging and relatable, which we do through humour, [that matter]. Also, the sheer fact that we exist and are engaging with other theatre artists, letting them know we are here and involved with environmental issues, is great.

Regarding long-term effects, it’s ultimately making people aware of issues they didn’t know before. In our Broadleaf show, one scene is based off a true story of a boy in Sarnia, where there was a petrochemical leak which caused the boy to contract leukemia, resulting in his death. These issues are happening a short car ride away and no one knows about it.

What are some other issues?

There are so many; the boil water advisory [on] Indigenous reserves, the huge dam breaks in Brazil that leaked toxic sludge into the Atlantic Ocean. We do try and focus most of the issues within Canada, as it can really bring these problems closer to home for the audience. It’s also important to provoke and enrage the audience, but in a positive way…we don’t want to make them out to be the enemy. It’s difficult turning the

mirror on people and [showing them] they are both part of the problem and solution.

new, innovative theatre, but also theatre particularly on environmental issues?

Is it difficult to strike a balance between artistic expression and pure dramatic dialogue with a political or environmental agenda that needs to be conveyed?

The Drama Fest was a good place to start the shows. The drama coalition looks for theatre that pushes the boundaries, and we’re very aware that our material resonates with the younger generation of students; it’s theatre for millennials. But we do also have a concern or pressure about modern day audiences. A very small percentage of Torontonians see theatre regularly, and it’s our obligation as an indie theatre company to be that one company you will see every one or five years.

So it’s important we grab our audience from the get-go, to provide content that speaks to your intelligence and makes an engaging and impactful experience in order to support independent companies. We can see people are considering plays about environmental issues on their own accord, but it is a slow process.

Often, people think theatre is comprised of individuals wanting to be stars, but the theatre scene is different than this public perception. In the theatre community, we rely very heavily on collaboration and support, which is a nice parallel observation to make about the environmental movement—it does something very similar.

When you stray away from naturalistic theatre, you get new structures for new narratives and it opens people up to experiencing different things. For The Broadleaf Plays, we engaged with an environmental issue every few minutes, as each scene covered a different topic. So if you didn’t enjoy one of the mini-plays, then you could enjoy the next one, or find that one thing that interests you, which could slowly lead to more engagement. We also like to have a little bit of whimsy and play. In theatre training they say “Take a moment to play,” and we believe the audience should also have that sense of freedom.

Can you discuss UofT’s role in the creation of Broadleaf Theatre?

We would not exist without the generous, inviting, and ambitious types of students here. If people hadn’t taken a risk on me or given me the opportunity to direct, I would not be in this position now. As a company we are very indebted to UofT, and we want to include the informed and intelligent community of UofT in our company. Also, the academic environment of UofT allows for a different type of audience and participants, meaning we can really compose content on an intellectual level.

Check out Broadleaf’s next production, Abandoned City, which will be at the Fringe Festival June 29-July 10, 2016. You can also browse their Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and website at http://www.broadleaftheatre.com.

There was a lot of success with The Broadleaf Plays at the UofT Drama Fest. What do you think this says about the current, younger audiences—is there a difference with older vs. younger audiences?—and the readiness that is there for not only 11

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Film & Music • The Strand

Violence in film is a problem, I guarantee it Clarrie Feinstein | Arts & Culture Editor Trigger warning: sexual assault mention Two years ago, I was flying back to Toronto on Air Canada, ready to watch Kill Bill Vol. 1. This movie, like many Quentin Tarantino films, has hit cult-classic status, so I felt that I should incorporate it into my film repertoire. About ten minutes into the film, I had already witnessed a knife-fight scene, a wedding massacre, and been told straight out that Uma Thurman’s character was repeatedly raped in a hospital (while in a coma from the wedding massacre). Okay, can we really let that information sink in for a minute? I had to pause the movie, because I physically could not digest any more of what I was seeing. How was this film a classic? And not just a classic, but revered by so many critics? Were people truly desensitised to this gratuitous physical and sexual violence? Ever since seeing the first few scenes of Kill Bill, I have had to re-evaluate our culture’s relationship to violence and the ways that media depict acts of horror—making violence not only digestible but also enjoyable.

There have been countless psychological studies researching the correlation between media violence and the effects it has on human behaviour. However, I am not here to try and persuade readers that if you watch a Tarantino film you will become a vicious murderer. There is no proven scientific research to show a causal relationship between consumption of violent media and real-life acts of crime. However, there have been multiple studies which prove consumers can be desensitised to graphic violence or violent images.

According to the Psychiatric Times, the average American citizen watches five hours of video every day, and nearly two thirds of TV shows aired contain physical violence. Because of the constant bombardment of violence in all forms of media—from the Internet, to news, to television—consumers have become emotionally detached from the events they are witnessing. Some cases have shown that children who actively engage with violent video games are more likely to display aggressive behaviour. There have also been cognitive studies which show a dampening in neurological emotional response to violence in media.

CBC News stated in an article from 2013 that the rate of gun violence sequences in film increased four times from 1950-2010. Specifically, gun violence sequences increased in films rated PG-13, surpassing the violence depicted in Rrated movies. This indicates a specific targeting of a younger demographic; many films make violence appear attractive or exciting, which in large part appeals to young adults and teenagers. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rates films in order to inform parents and guardians about the content in films, cautioning what is appropriate for children to see. However, the rating system is extremely subjective and, as Kate Bedingfield, the spokesperson for the MPAA, stated, “Societal standards change over time and the rating system is built to change with them.”

What, then, are the current societal standards? Statistics have shown that violence in films has increased dramatically since 1950. A cause for this could be globalization, which has allowed for interconnection, making access to world events instantly attainable. We now know when a violent act occurs thousands of miles away. We can see a horrific conflict or crime on our media platforms, minutes after the occurrence: this is our reality.

The content in film must progress with the times we live in. Unfortunately, the media tends to sensationalize violence, and films often do the same.

Now, I know film is entertainment. Cinema does not need to make a political or social statement—many films do not. However, I firmly believe that the director does have some responsibility in the content they wish to display to the world. Millions of people watch movies every year, and a large portion see their world reflected on screen. Violence and sex are acceptable in film if they have a specific artistic purpose. Gratuitous sex and violence is where I draw the line, yet many directors and filmmakers cross this line.

The violence in Kill Bill, and many of Tarantino’s films, is definitely gratuitous. By now, most people accept this in his features; violence is his muse. When Reservoir Dogs hit screens in 1992 it was revelatory, and the subsequent Tarantino films made gratuitous violence mainstream, entertain-

ing the masses. What concerns me is the idea that people could watch Kill Bill without stopping to think about what was occurring on screen, and even dismiss it by saying, “It’s make-believe, so it’s alright!”

Tarantino has frequently voiced his annoyance with the idea that his films could cause real-life acts of violence, and I agree with him. However, he is accountable for the content he is producing, and when millions of people watch a woman be repeatedly assaulted while unconscious and not even blink an eye, it’s a cause for concern. It shows a society desensitized to acts of violence, which are constantly exploited by the media. The next time you’re watching a film with excessive violence, at least take a moment and ask yourself, “Is this necessary?” You’ll surprise yourself with how often you respond in the negative.

Photography | Miramax Films

Mozart in the Jungle Review

Holly McKenzie-Sutter | Editor-in-Chief Many Golden Globe viewers were surprised when favourite-to-win Jeffrey Tambor was unseated in the Best Actor in a Comedy Series category by Gael García Bernal for Mozart in the Jungle. Amazon’s comedy series centres on a transitional period for the New York Symphony Orchestra, when new conductor Rodrigo De Souza (García Bernal) replaces the old maestro Thomas Pembridge (Malcolm McDowell). After watching Mozart’s first season, García Bernal’s performance stands out as the glue that holds together an optimistic show about the empowering nature of the arts. García Bernal’s win over comedy heavyweight Tambor speaks to a larger theme of Mozart in the Jungle—the series’ first season overall is a meditation on the victory and rise of the “underdog” in the arts, while simultaneously dismissing the idea of the underdog altogether.

The idea of García Bernal as an underdog is fairly disingenuous, given his long film career. The Mexican actor has displayed his considerable range after appearing in works by a remarkably high number of modern auteurs—Alfonso Cuarón, Walter

Salles, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Michel Gondry, and Pedro Almodóvar, to name a few. Audience members’ reaction to him as a new, exciting, “exotic” figure is essentially illogical for such an established actor, an idea that is addressed in Mozart. After he is introduced as a new, young-blooded conductor, other characters discuss his backstory—although Rodrigo is young, he has been winning conducting awards and accolades since he was 12 years old, and is considered one of the best violin players in the world.

Recognizable old talent like Malcolm McDowell, Bernadette Peters, and Wallace Shawn appear in strong supporting performances, but Bernal is undeniably the “maestro” of Mozart. His fully realized performance as Rodrigo keeps him from becoming a stereotype or a caricature—his passion for music is always believable, and while he is quirky (as most geniuses are), Rodrigo is always endearing in how funny he is, and how kind to the people he interacts with. The archetype of the artistic genius who is also a terrible person is picked up elsewhere—McDowell is more of a cranky genius, whereas Rodrigo is scatterbrained,

at times dramatic, but always pleasant and likable. Rodrigo also strongly opposes the orchestra’s attempt to “other” him for the promotional material. After seeing a poster based on the appeal of his signature long hair, Rodrigo argues against the nonsensical nature of “hear the hair” as a tagline, and promptly shears his locks.

Rodrigo, from humble beginnings himself, goes out of his way to take risks on the underdogs. The first episode sees him hire young oboist Hailey Ruttelidge because she “plays with blood.” Even after Hailey naturally messes up her first rehearsal, Rodrigo keeps her on as his assistant because he respects her talent and sees her potential as a person and a musician. In a later episode, Peters and McDowell work themselves into a dither because Rodrigo is late for a fundraiser—he gets sidetracked after realizing his Mexican limo driver is also a musician and fan, and goes to his family restaurant to perform for the driver’s sister.

In one particularly strong episode, Rodrigo busses the orchestra to a private lot in a residential area, where they perform Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. The event turns into

a block party, the most old-school classical musicians loosen up, and the energy of a community united around music is infectious. However, Mozart does not shy away from the risks involved with attempting to integrate the classical arts with the public.

The police break up the party and Rodrigo is arrested for disturbing the peace. Peters later tells him in the bluntest possible terms that his arrest could get him deported. This episode stands out as a reminder that there are often conditions attached to being a model minority in the arts—Rodrigo is respected as a musician and a genius, but only if he plays by the rules of the game. If not, there may not be a place for him in the symphony, or in America.

Mozart, overall, argues that the underdog is a myth, and talent is talent. Its strength lies in its respect for its characters, for the music, and, of course, in García Bernal’s deservedly award-winning performance. The message left ringing in your ears is that there is no high or low culture, only culture. The New York Symphony Orchestra could play a private lot for free, start a party with locals, and it will still feel right to everyone.

What’s on for February

1 Hey Marseilles Drake Underground $14.50 (19+) February 3, 8 PM

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2

Michael Rault The Silver Dollar $10.00 (19+) February 6, 9 PM

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4

Shake, Rattle, and Roll Dance Party Clinton’s $5 (19+) February 6 & 13, 10 PM

Wavves/Best Coast Danforth Music Hall $31.50 February 22, 7 PM

Film & Music • The Strand

TIFF Review: Les démons Katie Elder | Staff Writer With choices such as Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant and Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster, several of the films at this year’s Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival took audiences on a tour of the Canadian suburbs, highlighting the struggles of the children and adolescents growing up in them. Philippe Lesage’s Les démons was among this selection of Canada’s coming of age stories, illustrating nine-year-old Félix’s thoughts, relationships, and, most prominently, his fears while growing up in 1980s Montréal.

Félix’s experiences are relatable to viewers and recognizable as common childhood encounters: Félix develops a crush on his physical education teacher, is doted on by his two older siblings, and spends large amounts of time at the playground and the community pool with the other children in his class. However, what controls Félix and pushes him to feel like an outsider next to his peers are his countless fears and anxieties.

Many of Félix’s concerns are rooted in his innocence and naivety and can be soothed by crawling into bed with his parents af-

ter a nightmare. In a touching scene, Félix becomes convinced that he has contracted HIV after a classmate’s presentation on the topic, and returns home to hide in his closet until his older sister can coax him out. Other causes of Félix’s uneasiness turn out to be quite real, however, as he matures enough to observe strains in his parents’ relationship, and starts to understand the reports of child abductions in the area that circulate on the news.

Lesage expertly weaves each of these elements of the film together, allowing the story to meander between emotions and events. He treats Félix’s innocent and more serious fears with equal sincerity and, in this way, accurately portrays a complex and messy childhood experience. Les démons does not follow a polished or particularly straightforward narrative, but it is precisely this approach that makes the film so immersive and charming. The film unfolds in the way life usually does: cluttered with a whole host of intertwining adventures.

Adding to this sense of immersion and

realism is Lesage’s use of a wide-angle lens and long, watchful shots, which patiently observe the events in the film as they unravel. Lesage’s previous experience lies in documentary filmmaking, and this is beautifully evident in Les démons, his first narrative feature film to be released. Many events of the film’s story and aspects of Félix’s personality are autobiographical for Lesage, and he uses locations from his own childhood for many of the film’s scenes.

Lesage appropriately purposes a variety of horror movie techniques and atmospheric elements to motivate the audience to share in Félix’s worries and fear. Félix dreams of a ghostly boy crouching in the corner of his bedroom at night, and later a mysterious car with bright headlights and a loud engine chases him and his brother down a darkened street. Where <i>Les démons</i> becomes most compelling, however, is when Lesage subverts these tactics, allowing the viewer to be surprised and experience something new. Midway through the film, an abrupt and unexpected shift in perspective to fo-

cus on a different character unlocks a much more sinister and shocking plot arc. Lesage also finds a unique way to manipulate the music of the film, overlaying shots of children stretching and dancing in gym class with dramatic symphonies, and leaving the music out entirely in more emotional or sensational moments, allowing the breathing and performances of the actors to speak for themselves. These unexpected scoring choices play out over a lengthy shot, prompting audiences to observe and question these moments in unconventional ways.

As a whole, Philippe Lesage’s Les démons fills a well-deserved spot among the top Canadian films of the year, expressing an accurate and complex childhood experience through exceptional and refreshing techniques. Les démons articulates the fears and demons internalized in many of us, combining the innocence of childhood with a variety of new and much more adult concerns—from bullying and schoolyard friendships to sexuality, abuse, and crime.

We need to talk about ZAYN Photography | Vevo

Bronwyn Nisbet-Gray | Film & Music Editor Boy bands are dependent on staying the same. Part of their appeal is remaining static throughout their career, and this can lead to personality-free products. One Direction is perhaps the strongest contemporary example of this phenomenon. (As we monitor the band’s rumoured disintegration over the next few months, it’s going to be interesting to see the stories and personalities that emerge.) 1D’s newest video for “History” speaks to this desire to stay the same, as images of the four remaining members mingle with early, black-and-white toned footage from the band’s early career—with emphasis, of course, on the cutesy antics of each member.

But ZAYN’s new single, “Pillowtalk,” released January 28, is a wholly new development for the former band member.

“Pillowtalk” presents a move away from a cookie-cutter approach to music, with both the song and its video allowing for a greater exploration of ZAYN’s identity beyond 1D. “Pillowtalk” benefits from a video with

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Free Friday Films Innis Town Hall, every Friday at 7 PM Free We Were Children (2012), February 5; Amélie (2002), February 12; Shion Sono Cult Night Triple Bill, February 19

strong artistic direction. Not to get too auteurist-film-theory-major, but Bouha Kazmi’s video crafts a distinct feel for the song.

Kazmi’s surrealist approach takes what is otherwise a song about the duality of love (a rather overdone theme in current pop music) and gets to questions of what ZAYN is trying to do with this single, besides make money. In opposition to many of 1D’s videos, which focus heavily on who fans want the stars to be, “Pillowtalk” is far more about how ZAYN wants to portray his music moving forward.

While the song’s lyrical content is pretty unoriginal, the video develops a surprisingly different direction. While the track is evidently about sex, the video does not depict the act, instead opting for free associations to be made. From undulating filtering effects, to images of people bleeding from their eyes, the video emphasizes aesthetic effect over meaning, placing this video within a line of recent art-house-esque music videos. And, honestly, “Pillowtalk” is a pretty good vid-

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eo—while a little inconsistent, its construction does a lot of things well, and differentiates ZAYN from many other artists within the same genre. While “Pillowtalk” doesn’t escape the objectification unavoidable in most music videos, it does take a slightly less obvious stance on its placement of women as objects—often obscuring the view of the body, morphing its positioning, and otherwise suggesting a distinctive shift in how the video even conceptualizes the physical body. Kazmi manages to get the dual feelings of sensuality and sexuality across in a way that allows for critical engagement with the video. With emphasis on a bright, pure aesthetic, Kazmi’s video appeals to not only a distinct artistic sensibility, but also a different audience from the one that knows ZAYN’s previous work.

The video, with its explicit flower-assex-organ symbolism, is not for the tweenage fans 1D has relied on for the past five years. It is instead a movement towards an older audience, as well as a new artistic

The LOOP Collective Screening and Book Launch Innis Town Hall, February 4, 7 PM Free Screening of recent works by members of the Toronto-based avant-garde filmmaking collective as well as retrospective works from the past 20 years

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Janis: Little Girl Blue Bloor Cinema Throughout February $9.73

goal—no longer is ZAYN interested in being a simple heartthrob. His single speaks to a desire to provide a more mature sound, and find a new niche within the pop market. He wants to be more like Drake, The Weeknd, and other artists who have found a fanbase that doesn’t fit neatly into any one demographic, but spans the 20-something decade. I suggest, however, that I don’t think ZAYN is so much seeking wholly new fans, just the original fans who have aged a few years and are ready for some change.

While critics have called “Hotline Bling” an exploration of postmodernism, “Pillowtalk” instead develops as a response to identity politics. “Pillowtalk” is about growing up. ZAYN’s development is about creating space between his past persona and the personality he wishes to craft moving forward. The single and its accompanying video epitomize the struggle to break out of the boy band stasis that has defined Zayn Malik since 2010.

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TIFF Next Wave Film Festival TIFF Bell Lightbox February 12-14 Individual tickets vary in price Includes screenings of Bottle Rocket, Mustang, The Idol, and The Basketball Diaries

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Film & Music • The Strand

Good Kid, Mad City Alexandra Scandolo Associate Film & Music Editor

I meet the five members of Good Kid at The Starving Artist on College Street. Michael, who plays bass, tells me as we wait for our table that he bought some balloons earlier since their single hit 100,000 plays on Spotify. “We’re using them for a video on our Facebook page later today.”

Good Kid is a Toronto-based band comprised of UofT students and graduates. Their first single, “Nomu,” has taken off over the last few months. The band is comprised of Nick Frosst on lead vocals, Jacob Tsafantinos and David Wood on guitar, Jon Kereliuk on drums, and Michael Kozakov on bass. Jacob describes “Nomu” as an “angry pop song,” but the band’s sound is a balanced mixture of energetic, upbeat, and dynamic.

We spend the next hour talking about their music, while discussing Serial, travel stories, and horror movies in between. You can tell all five members are passionate about their music, humbled by their success thus far, and excited to continue working together.

The Strand: I think almost everyone loves an origin story. What were the beginnings of Good Kid? How did you all end up making music together?

Michael: Nick and I both figured out we played music a few years ago, and it just worked when we started jamming together.

Jacob: We were also Bahenwolf for a while.

My favourite that didn’t make the cut is Spaceship Dinosaurs.

Where did the name Good Kid come from?

Michael: Jacob’s previous band wrote a song with the name actually.

Jacob: Good Kid is actually a reference to a scene in The Mask. Jim Carrey’s character shoots someone and he’s smoking a cigar; it’s referencing mafia movies and he says, “You’re a good kid, you’re real good. But, as long as I’m around you’ll always be second best, see?”

Michael: We were with our producer and we didn’t have a name yet. He told Jacob, “It’s cool that your old band was called Good Kid.” And Jacob said, “Well, it wasn’t, but that actually is a good band name.”

How have your backgrounds at U of T influenced your music?

Jacob: I’m not sure it influenced us too heavily aside from meeting each other.

Nick: I don’t know about that, we did spend a whole bunch of time together because of it. We all programed together at U of T, except for David.

David: I’m starting to learn!

Jacob: I used to be in a band with David at the time and I was in German class with Michael. We would talk about music after class and Michael said he had jammed with Nick before, who was a really good singer. One day, we got together in Michael’s residence and had an acoustic practice. We ordered pizza and covered “Get Lucky.” It worked really well and then it was the three of us for about a year. Eventually we said, ‘This is fun, let’s be more serious’ and then decided to look for another guitarist and drummer.

Michael: We did a big trip this summer because of U of T and Computer Science through a competition called UofTHacks.

All of us did this Hack-a-Thon together and won, so the prize for that was a trip to Korea for another Hack-a-Thon. We planned to go altogether but the event was cancelled due to the MERs virus outbreak at the time.

We still had our flights booked, so we decided to go anyways.

So it was kind of serendipitous in a way?

Different elements seem to have brought all of you together for this project.

Jacob: Our music was actually all written before that trip and the song was recorded before we left. I think it was great in terms of band dynamics, it brought us closer together and we got really comfortable with each other since we lived together for a month and a half.

David: I think our dynamic worked best together; we have a really good writing relationship together, especially in terms of guitar parts.

Jacob: At first, we only practiced a few times with Jon before we got David on board.

Pretty much, Nick can’t play and sing guitar at the same time.

Nick: It’s true! I do both pretty well separately but not together.

Jacob: [laughs] Yeah, so we decided to add on another guitarist.

Did you cycle through different names before you became Good Kid? Nick: We’ve had so many names; we were Lyon Lay at a point – which is my cousin’s name. We had a show coming up and when they asked for a name, Lyon was just sitting there so we went with that idea.

Did the trip have an effect on your music?

2015 was a big year for you, your single “Nomu” was in the top ten of Spotify’s Viral Hits playlist and it was just featured on the radio. How did “Nomu” become the first single? Was it one of the first songs you recorded?

Nick: At the time, it was the only song we had recorded. We chose that one because it was our strongest and most completed song.

Jon: It was our producer Chris’ recommendation to use “Nomu.” We sent him a bunch of demo recordings of songs and he seemed the most excited about that one.

David: We have something to draw with having “Nomu” released first. In terms of sound consistency, “Nomu” gives Good Kid a theme and a focus.

Listeners have said “Nomu” sounds like a mixture of Panic! at the Disco and Two Door Cinema Club. How do you feel about the comparisons “Nomu” has drawn?

Michael: We didn’t realize that until we released it and received comments mentioning those comparisons.

Jacob: When I sent demos of that song to the other members, I named the file, “Two Door/Strokes.” I didn’t expect the Panic!

At The Disco comparison, I think that’s all Nick’s vocals.

David: I think with Panic! At The Disco, the music plays around the vocals. We have vocals that stand out like that, but we also have this wall of sound.

Michael: When you start a band and think about writing music, the only way to get a sense of direction is to reference a band you were in before or just a band you really admire. We don’t want to be exactly like Two Door, but they’re a huge influence.

Did you anticipate the online popularity with its release?

initely fun. I think part of our process is that we come at it from all angles and figuring it out how to merge those.

David: I think we’re getting better at mixing our styles and working together.

Nick: We’re all influencing each other in different ways musically.

David: Jon has the most unique background out of all of us; it’s like jazz metal.

Jacob: I’m always grappling between punk and indie rock. I want all of our songs to be three times faster than what they are now.

It’s the end of January, so what is 2016 looking like for Good Kid right now?

Michael: We came out of the studio recently and we’re booking shows right now to support an upcoming release in February. The plan is to play a lot of shows, have a new song out, and keeping working on new projects.

Any plans for a music video in the future?

All: Yeah!

All: [laughs] No, no.

David: That’s the plan, but that one is tricky.

Jacob: I thought just my friends would listen to it.

Nick: We’ve definitely been floating around ideas; it’s definitely something we want to put out eventually.

Jon: When we put it up on YouTube, it got to a thousand views in a day and we were like, “Holy shit, what do we do?”

Jacob: We were so unprepared because we didn’t have a Facebook or a Twitter; the song wasn’t even available to listen to outside of YouTube.

Nick: We learned a lot from that release and how to prepare, but I think we just didn’t expect it to happen like that.

Michael: All we did is post it on our personal Facebook pages and some mysterious cousin of ours posted it on Reddit.

Jon: It was posted on r/listentothis, which is a decently popular subreddit.

Michael: From there, thousands of people went to YouTube to watch it. One of the comments was asking the person who posted it how they found it and they said, “Oh, I’m one of the band member’s cousin.” The post was later pulled down because you can’t promote things on Reddit.

Jacob: The coolest thing about “Nomu” is that we have done nothing in terms of traditional promotion. We haven’t paid anyone or contacted press, we didn’t do anything we were supposed to do but it still has gotten 100,000 streams on Spotify. I think what’s cool is that it’s gained popularity based on the strength of the song itself.

What is the songwriting process for all of you when working in a group as diverse in styles and tastes?

Nick: [laughs] It’s pretty chaotic, but it’s def-

What are your recommendations for anyone reading The Strand’s Film & Music section looking for new music?

Michael: Day Wave.

Nick: Owen Pallet and Stan Rogers.

Jacob: Wait, what are you currently listening to? Stan Rogers is dead!

Nick: That is what I’m listening to! For what came out this year, there’s a really good Joanna Newsom album.

Jacob: Definitely for punk music, Pup. Other than that, I just listening to this band Hop Along, they remind me of Land of Talk. And if you don’t know Land of Talk, you should also listen to them.

Jon: Patrick Watson, who’s from Montreal. I recently got into him, he’s super cool.

David: I have an obsession with rediscovering bands that have broken up. So for me, it’s Foxtrot and there’s this old, country band called The Everybodyfields.

Anything else you guys want to add for readers?

Nick: We’re going to have shows coming up; our Facebook page is the best place to get updates about Good Kid. Michael: And anytime you want to find us, make sure you look up “Good Kid Toronto” because it turns out, there’s this guy named Kendrick who made a really awesome album of a similar name.

Photography | Emma Workman

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Stranded • The Strand

Caution: Word Crossing Ariana Douglas | Crossword Queen

Down

1. Burns’s catchphrase 2. _______ Ferrara 3. Golf equipment 4. L__OP 5. Ramp opposite 6. ____ Alone 2 7. King __ Pride Rock 8. “You will ___ this day!”

Illustration | 9. Game Boy Advance __ 10. Anakin’s origins 14. Fo ___ 16. Advertisement 18. With 56 across, a term of high praise 21. Gold, to Mendeleev 22. Vinyl variant 24. E__ time 26. Prescription bottle instruction 28. Orchestra feature 30. Living decorations 32. “__ George!”

34. Malls, sorta 35. Gooey Pokémon 36. The 6ix locale 37. Affirmation 40. “_____ be sorry” 41. Dairy-free Kelis single 43. Former minister of foreign affairs 46. One who is pwned 48. Biblical musical, abbrv.

51. Des Moines state, abbrv.

52. da bomb dot __

Across

1. Simpsons imp catchphrase 11. The best Marvel team 12. Soybean final form 13. ___, whatevs 15. ___Lo Green 16. Dunder-Mifflin receptionist 17. Stereo dial 19. “Drag __” 20. Hospital division

21. Shakespearean airbender?

23. Type of noodle 25. “Beer before _____, never sicker” 27. Beat ____ 29. Type of TV 31. To __ or not 32. Derek or Burnham 33. Strand masthead position 34. Where I work out

37. __;DR 38. Street, in Laval 39. She was rooting for you (we were all rooting for you) 42. Sixteenth US prez 44. Gross liquor* 45. Drake’s province 47. __/a 48. Problematic apostle

Rhianna Jackson-Kelso

49. Estefan or Gaynor 50. Timeless 53. Two thirds of Bond’s digits 54. Type of toy car 55. Popular seasoning, sans vowel 56. With 18 down, a term of high praise 57. This doesn’t ____ well

*The views, opinions, and positions expressed by the author are hers alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of The Strand.

The Sidewalk Ambler Sara Truuvert | Staff Writer Morning dawns grey and grainy like the dregs at the bottom of my coffee mug. I wipe my hand across my brow, with the prospect of another daily commute staring me down like the impassive face of a fare inspector when you’re a nickel short of that sweet $3.25 mark.

I glance at the file, limply laid open on my desk, the smoke from my cigarette creating a dull haze over the paper. A new case came in late last night and it’s a real doozy.

They want me to catch the city’s most notorious scoundrel: the Sidewalk Ambler. Even seeing his name printed on that folder sends waves of an all-too-familiar mild frustration pulsing through my veins.

Photography | gato-gato-gato, flickr

The hard truth is, you can’t live in this God-forsaken concrete jungle and not know who I’m talking about. He’s a tough-as-nails sonuvabitch who’d sooner stop to check his phone in the middle of a crowded sidewalk than look at you. I shudder and grind my cigarette into my coffee dregs.

Those soggy grains and ashes leer up at me, daring me to fail.

Not today, shmucks. I pop the collar of my trench coat, jam on my hat, and step into the street.

I stride through the persistent drizzle, my shoes slapping pathetically on damp cement. I’m heading for the downtown core: the heart of his territory, where he wreaks the most inconveniences. I find him almost immediately.

He looms, central and sluggish, smack in the middle of the crowded sidewalk. While the morning commuters move with purpose, he winds a slow and meandering path. Stopping every now and then, he gazes up at a building. Always open-mouthed and aloof. The commuters slow down, sidestepping him and bumping into each other. You could hear those poor saps’ sighs a mile away.

I follow him down into the grim depths of the subway, where I watch him pull out his classic move: looking for his token once he’s already inserted himself into a turnstile.

The commuters pile up behind him. Slight annoyance fills the air like a noxious gas. These shenanigans sure make my blood boil.

In the subway car, the Sidewalk Ambler takes a seat, spreading his legs so he takes up two, staring down into his phone screen. People shuffle into the train, including this dog-tired looking dame and her little kid. Kid’s got a blue backpack, red shoes, and absolutely no balance whatsoever on this moving train. We slow to a halt at the next stop and this kid practically flies the length of the subway car like a squishy little sneakered cannon ball. The Sidewalk Ambler sits in his two seats, impassive.

That rotten bastard.

I decide it’s time to strike when we get out of the subway. I stride up behind the good-for-nothing brute and lay my hand on his shoulder.

“You oughta watch where you’re going, pal,” I growl.

The Sidewalk Ambler turns towards me. I raise my eyes to stare into the face of—myself!

Next thing I know, I’m thrashing in my tangled bed sheets, sweating and shaking. A dream—it was all a goddamn dream. I sit up and put my head in my hands, breathing hard. Truth is, the nightmare doesn’t even surprise me.

Because I have been the Sidewalk Ambler. Shoot, haven’t we all? I smile grimly and light a cigarette. All we gotta do to get him off the streets is remember that we oughta watch where we’re going, after all. I take a drag. Case closed.

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Stranded • The Strand

Alternative Oscar Categories Bronwyn Nisbet-Gray | Film & Music Editor

It’s that time of year where people get really into the outcome of award shows. But in their current incarnation, the Oscars and Golden Globes lack some integral categories. So, take note when watching in February for these newly-added yet vital awards.

Actor Least Likely To Win “Best Actor” Despite Numerous Past Nominations: Leonardo DiCaprio Peter O’Toole Edward Norton Johnny Depp Favourite To Win: Peter O’Toole. He’ll probably get a honourary award when he dies. Sorry Leo, you can’t even win this one.

Presenter Most Likely to Screw Up the Pronunciation of Someone’s Name: Ryan Gosling Drunk Ricky Gervais Leonardo DiCaprio Lady Gaga

“Bad Film” Most Likely to Become an “Oscar-Winning Movie” This Year: Fifty Shades of Grey for Best Original Song The Hateful Eight for Best Original Score and/or Best Actress in a Supporting Role Cinderella for Costume Design The Revenant for, like, most categories Favourite To Win: The Revenant. Despite its cool-looking naturalistic aesthetic, it’s a pretty “bad” movie. With few women, practically no actors of colour with dialogue, and a pretty spectacle-heavy story that hides many of these faults, I personally have a hard time calling it a great film. I’m personally rooting for Fifty Shades here.

Gaudiest Suit Worn By an Actor on the Red Carpet:

Favourite To Win: Drunk Ricky Gervais. He gets invited to everything.

Actress Most Likely to Be Demeaned By a Male Presenter: Jennifer Lawrence, for her role in Joy. Jokes will make reference to her just because.

Rooney Mara, for her role in Carol. Possible jokes will make reference to her ambiguous sexuality in Carol and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Alicia Vikander, for her role in Ex Machina.

Possible jokes will make reference to her role as a sentient sex doll.

Amy Schumer, for her role in Trainwreck. Possible jokes will make reference to her being an outspoken female comedian.

Charlotte Rampling, for her role in 45 Years.

Possible jokes will reference her recent, very racist comments.

Favourite To Win: Tie for Amy Schumer and J-Law. Both are pretty polarizing, and oftentimes shitty, people but they remain the fodder for inappropriate, demeaning, personal attacks based on physical appearance, weight, and just being women.

Hardest-to-Place Localized American Accent: Cate Blanchett in Carol Tom Hardy in The Revenant Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight Favourite To Win: Cate Blanchett, for the overly-affective speech patterns in Carol.

Best Franchise Film: Minions Jurassic World Star Wars: The Force Awakens Mad Max: Fury Road Avengers: Age of Ultron Pitch Perfect 2 Favourite To Win: Minions, obviously.

Jared Leto Matthew McConaughey Sylvester Stallone Michael Fassbender Favourite To Win: Matthew McConaughey. The ruler of bright, audacious, and sometimes hideous suits.

Perhaps Leto or Stallone could pull a surprise win, but given McConaughey’s track record it’s unlikely.

Best Films Academy Voters Didn’t See: Phoenix—Christian Petzold Timbuktu—Abderrahmane Sissako The Assassin—Hou Hsiao-Hsien Straight Outta Compton—F. Gary Gray Creed—Ryan Coogler Tangerine—Sean Baker A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence— Ray Andersson Favourite To Win: In the case of these films, many of which don’t have any nominations, I’m not going to rank them. Instead, I’m just going to suggest you watch and enjoy them.

Illustration | A sinner who has strayed from God’s light

“A podcast would be awesome,” exasperated student journalists claim Neil MacIsaac | Stranded Editor Members of The Strand masthead have unanimously agreed that a podcast would be a great endeavour to undertake, despite the obvious toll this will take on their mental well-being. At a recent meeting, many segment ideas were tossed around with social, political, and cultural themes, exciting the student journalists who would have to give up substantial free time to actually make this thing a thing. Features

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Co-Editor Geoff Baillie commented that he “[has] decent microphones for recording and [he’s] learning how to edit,” foolishly assigning himself leadership of the project.

Various positive attributes of the podcast idea were noted: the opportunity to get more people involved in The Strand, to facilitate debate over campus issues more easily than in print, to explore what it means to be a student at UofT, etc. The final reason surely tempted fate most, as anyone could attest that the meaning of being a UofT

student is pain and stress about excessive work and responsibilities, which management of a podcast could only exacerbate.

Perhaps such folly has merit, however. Surely the podcast is beginning to mature as a medium, and during such periods the time is most ripe for an intersection of success and innovation. Outsiders and junior figures have always found ways to reshape the mainstream and revolutionize fields they tread into, unaware and unassuming. With podcasting, this could be The

Strand’s moment. Yes. YES. Late to the newspaper form, The Strand is pregnant with opportunity in podcasting.

Our sounds shall be a reckoning unto all bold enough to listen. A blood red dawn crests over a new era, and it is the blood of The Strand that shall colour the skies.

Please listen to The Strand’s podcast when it is available online.