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FIRST PEEK
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» » CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2013
January 20, 2014
Want a job? Clean yourself up online. Over the past few years, I’ve read through numerous articles on how employers must straighten up and stop internet-profiling their potential employees. Employers should draw solely from the information presented directly to them when determining who to hire. Those seeking jobs have the right to keep their private lives separate from their work lives! Right? Not necessarily. The Internet is ubiquitous. It’s much too easy to access, and employers feel that it’s an effective tool for discovering who you “truly” are. This ease of access only feeds the burning temptation employers have to find out more about their prospective employees. So, it’s time for us to face the truth: employers are not going to stop Face-creeping us any time soon, therefore it’s our job to comply with this notion and maintain positive images of ourselves online. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networking sites present to the world various glimpses of our lives outside of work. Selfies, careless Facebook
statuses, accidental party photos, embarrassing videos and the like, are all shamelessly posted online without any regard for the people really viewing this information. In a sense, any argument for our “right to privacy” is empty if we continually violate this right by publicly posting such unflattering, personal visuals. For some reason, many employers correlate the things we do in our spare time with our time spent working, regardless of how they actually affect work performance. Put simply, I have yet to know an employer who is against profiling prospective workers online.
I once asked a previous employer, who was sorting through a small stack of resumés, whether or not the hiring process would stop at the cover-letter stage. The hasty reply was: “Are you kidding? We have to check them out online first.” This was unsurprising to me; his second comment, however, was: “I’ll make sure to get my daughters to Facebook them and tell me who they think is best.”
This shows not only employers’ intent for undercover examination, but also the extent to which carelessness and unprofessionalism can play a role in doing so. While we may disagree with employers’ reasoning, the fact of the matter is there is no way we can stop this from happening. We are confident individuals who are conscious of our rights, but cannot force employers to stop defacing proper hiring technique. Some would say we are completely powerless to stopping them. But we are not. We do have power over ourselves in controlling how we look online. And this, I can safely state, is the only way to avoid the judgmental eyes of employers. I understand that we want to make ourselves look popular, that party photos with all our friends are of utmost importance, that videos of us doing embarrassing things convey the cool “rebellion” that is so dear to our young adult society. But at what cost? Would you rather look good, or have an actual job? While employers may be in the wrong, we can be as well. So if you want to find work, delete all of your unflattering photos, heavily monitor your privacy settings, and make yourself respectable to the eyes of the public. Save the videos and stories for somewhere else, as your income could seriously be at stake.
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NEWS
Say goodbye and good riddance to that bumpy ride up the hill; SFU’s Burnaby campus roads will be seeing various upgrades by the end of this calendar year. The Burnaby Campus Roadway Improvement Project is set to start Feb. 3, 2014 and to be completed sometime in November; it will affect Gaglardi Way and University Drive West. The improvements will result in twoway traffic throughout campus as well as what the project’s webpage is calling “a multi-use pathway for cyclists and pedestrians”. The poor conditions of roads on the west side of campus are a natural consequence of nearly 50 years of traffic – the roads are as old as the institution itself. Aside from the pavement’s sorry state, these routes are lacking in pedestrian and cyclist accessibility. David Agosti, parking services director, cited first impressions of the university as another reason to improve the roadways: “People’s first interaction with campus is the drive up the road, either in a bus or [some other] vehicle.”
He continued, “When you ride the bus down the hill, if you have fillings in your teeth you probably don’t have them by the time you get to the bottom.” While the roads undergo these improvements, staff and students will have to cope with a few minor transportation inconveniences. There will be road
January 20, 2014
closures, some permanent – for the duration of the project – and some temporary. Vehicle traffic will be redirected and bus routes will be altered. Though the roadwork will affect different parts of campus at different times, the adjusted transit route will remain in effect for the duration of the project. On arrival to the campus, all buses will proceed first to the bus loop at Cornerstone and will then pick up at the Transportation Centre on the way down the hill. The bus stop by residences on University Drive West will be out of service for the entire project. New road construction will be split into three phases: the first phase, which should be completed in May or June, will close northbound Gaglardi Way up until South Campus Road, redirecting all traffic along University Drive East. Agosti explains that since the incoming lanes into campus will be reduced from four to two, “Everybody, whether they’re taking transit or driving, can expect a little more congestion.” Since most students arrive on campus via transit, Agosti stresses the importance of students’ awareness of travel delays, saying, “Students can expect it to take anywhere from five to thirty minutes longer for them to get to class.” Buses leaving campus should not be as affected. Agosti uses the 145 bus route as an example, assuring that students are “looking at an extra five minutes at most” to reach Production skytrain station. Drivers are asked to follow the detours outlined in the project’s online maps and to avoid University High Street as it is already busy with elementary school traffic. Parking services also affirmed that all parking areas will be accessible throughout the entire project. The project aims to not only provide a smoother drive and a better walking or cycling experience, but the two-way streets should prove more navigationally friendly for visitors to the school. In addition, the project website mentions that these improvements will provide more opportunity for development on the west side of campus.
news editor email / phone
Students were all atwitter on Burnaby Mountain as the RCMP flooded the campus on Wed. Jan 8, responding to a threat made against the university. On their website and Facebook page, the university stated at 1:31p.m., “There is a police incident at SFU’s
Leah Bjornson associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
Burnaby campus. The university remains opens.” The intersection at Gaglardi and South Campus Road was shut down for approximately one hour as police interviewed persons on the scene. Several students tweeted SFU for information as the incident unfolded, which had begun prior to SFU’s Facebook announcement. Helen Crofts, a member of the SFU track and field team, tweeted at 1:12p.m., “Police everywhere @SFU and asking to see peoples id. Hope everything is ok!” Students waiting at the transportation centre bus
Melissa Roach
loop were left stranded for approximately 45 minutes until the university announced that the police incident was over and began letting buses proceed through the intersection. The SFU website and Facebook page later confirmed that the police incident had been resolved “without issue,” but students questioned why the university had not employed their recently implemented emergency system, SFU Alerts. The university replied that “this incident did not warrant its use.”
...continued on page 5
NEWS
January 20, 2014
The lead singer of local band Bend Sinister lent his talents to SFU’s newest campaign, the Zero Waste Initiative, which is looking to greatly reduce the university’s environmental footprint by 2015. Dan Moxon, an SFU alumni and singer from Bend Sinister, joined up with SFU Creative Services in early January to make a music video that explains the initiative to students. The video features Moxon singing about how to further separate waste into four new recycling streams: landfill waste, compostables, paper, and recyclables. The Zero Waste Initiative is a joint project between the Sustainability Office and Facilities Services that aims to double the amount of waste SFU will divert from landfills over the next year by encouraging recycling and composting alternatives. “2014 is the best possible time to implement this program because it’s now, and now is far better than later,” Rachel Telling told The Peak. Telling, the Zero Waste coordinator, explained that Metro Vancouver is implementing zero waste goals, which include a ban on organic wastes from its landfills by 2015. “SFU is leading in this changeover . . . so members of our community not only have time to become familiar with it, but so they can themselves be leaders in this major change in how waste is managed in BC,” Telling explained.
...continued from page 4 SFU and campus security have refused to comment on the nature of the threat, as the matter is currently under police investigation. However, in a update on their website and Facebook page, Simon Fraser released the following statement on Thurs, Jan 9: “On Wednesday January 8, 2014, the Burnaby RCMP and SFU Campus Security responded to a threat made by unknown persons against the University. Access to the Burnaby campus was briefly restricted by the RCMP as an initial
However, with a new system comes the challenge of making recycling exciting for SFU students. After brainstorming the best medium through which to connect with students, the Sustainability Office and Creative Services settled on the idea of a “playful and catchy video.” Enter Moxon. As a member of SFU Creative Services by day and musician by night, Moxon offered to lend his songwriting talents and personality to the Zero Waste video. “It’s pretty easy to get behind green initiatives and recycling and doing that sort of thing in general, and it sounded like a fun project,” Moxon said. “Alex [Konyves], the key creative director, was the one who approached me about being involved and he just had this idea to do a sort of musical-esque video to promote it and it just sounded like an interesting way to approach it and raise awareness around it.” Moxon has been composing music for SFU Creative Services since 2006, but this video was a new experience for the entire team.
precautionary measure; the police quickly determined there was no threat to the campus community. University operations were not affected by this incident and the University is operating as normal.” “What I can say is, the incident was not a threat to SFU students,” Steven Maclean, director of campus security, commented. “As an initial precautionary measure police closed Gaglardi Way at South Campus Road, however the investigation quickly determined that there was no threat to the community and the road was reopened. There was no impact to University operations.”
“This was the first time they asked me to act in something, so that’s a little out of my element, but I sort of said I’d give it a whirl and try,” said Moxon. “At first they
were talking about having a chorus line with people dancing, and I said I don’t mind singing the song and doing my thing, but I don’t know if I’m going to jump
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around and dance . . . it’s a little bit out of my element, but I was happy to do it for an interesting and good cause.” Although Bend Sinister’s new album is coming out this March, Moxon does not feel like he needs to choose between being frontman of the band and the face of the Zero Waste Campaign. “I think I can probably do both at the same time,” he said. “I don’t think they have any further campaign schedules for me to go from campus to campus promoting being green and recycling . . . I’d be happy to do both.” SFU hopes to divert 70% of its waste from landfills by 2015, but for Telling this is only the first step in a grander environmental initiative: “Our vision is that, by the end of 2015, the only people not understanding and accepting as natural how to use the new bins will be people arriving at SFU from beyond the Lower Mainland.”
NOTICE OF STUDENT ELECTION – SPRING 2014
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Students have an opportunity to become involved in the governance of SFU by submitting a nomination form for positions on Senate, the Board of Governors, the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, and/or SFU Community Trust. COMMITTEE
POSITIONS
TERM OF OFFICE
INFORMATION
Senate
SIXTEEN STUDENTS, elected by and from the student body, with at least one student elected from each faculty and at least three undergraduate and three graduate students.
June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015
Senate meets once a month and is responsible for the academic governance (all matters that bear on teaching and research) of the University. www.sfu.ca/senate.html
Board of Governors
ONE UNDERGRADUATE June 1, 2014 STUDENT, elected by to and from the undergrad- May 31, 2015 uate student body. ONE GRADUATE STUDENT, elected by and from the graduate student body.
Senate Graduate FOUR GRADUATE June 1, 2014 Studies Commit- STUDENTS (2 regular, 2 to tee (SGSC) alternate), elected by and May 31, 2015 from graduate students.
The Board of Governors meets six times a year and is responsible for the business (property, revenue and policies) of the University. www.sfu.ca/bog.html
SGSC meets once a month and is responsible for making recommendations to Senate concerning graduate programs, courses, regulations and policies. www.sfu.ca/senate/ senate-committees/sgsc. html
Nomination Deadline: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 @ 4:00 pm Campaign Period: January 23, 2014 to February 5, 2014 Online Voting: February 3, 2014 to February 5, 2014 Nomination Forms and Candidate Info: http://students.sfu.ca/elections/students.html Questions may be directed to the Electoral Officer, Senate & Academic Services at 778-782-3168 or kristofer_nordgren@sfu.ca.
6 NEWS
A recent study conducted by researchers from SFU’s faculty of education suggests that online courses may not be the easy A’s that students bank on. SFU researcher Alyssa Weiss, whose work involves improving online collaborative learning, warns students against existing misconceptions about the online learning method. She explained that these can extend from the belief that online courses are easier and that they require less work, when in fact they demand the same types of work effort, deadlines, and exams as face-toface courses. Weiss feels that it is this type of misguided assumption that causes students to struggle and fail. “Student engagement in online discussions is hugely varied . . . there are important differences in how students
January 20, 2014
pace and distribute their online learning time,” said Weiss. According to the SFU Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE) website, SFU is considered to have one of the largest programs in Canada for
online learning. It offers university credit courses in undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as non-credit continuing studies. Building on this new wealth of learning, Weiss’ research,
published in Assessment and Evaluation of Time Factors in Online Teaching and Learning, examines how time management affects online learning. She and her team have demonstrated that during online discussions,
both students and educators need to be aware of the amount of time students are putting into the course. In her research, Weiss outlines four important factors that determine the value of the type of learning that is occurring: duration, salience, pace, and sequence. These involve students’ awareness of time spent, their rate of learning, and the order in which they are completing their tasks. In spite of the challenges, Weiss feels that an enjoyable and successful online learning experience can be obtained. Since these courses provide all the resources and information from the start of the semester, students can plan out their work and know that there are no hidden surprises. Weiss advises that students should set up an uninterrupted, scheduled time slot to work on an online course, thereby not falling behind. Weiss’ opinion is that starting these courses on time, staying consistent, investing energy and effort, and asking for help from online instructors and TA’s are key to successful online learning.
NEWS
January 20, 2014
Students taking the beginners’ astronomy course can expect to learn about the operation of the telescope: how to process its data as well as the physics behind it. Assignments may include looking for exoplanets around other stars and using information from previous discoveries to conduct analyses. Watch out, koi pond. There’s a bigger fish planning to make its home on the AQ lawn, and it’s a $4.4 million observatory. With financial support from the Trottier Foundation, headed by Lorne and Louise Trottier, SFU Burnaby will become home to the Trottier Observatory and Courtyard, set to be completed August, 2014. The observatory will offer a range of programs including beginners’ astronomy courses for both SFU science and social science students in addition to permanent community outreach programs. Courses such as these may be offered within the next two years. “[The observatory] is in part for science geeks, but it’s much broader than that. Everyone is curious about the universe,” said Howard Trottier.
An amateur astronomer and SFU professor of physics, Trottier has been working on the observatory project for over seven years. The project lay dormant, until Trottier was able to involve his brother and sister-in-law who are now providing funding for the institution. The observatory will be located near Strand Hall on the AQ lawn and will feature a 0.7-metre diameter reflector telescope within a six-metre-diameter dome. The mandate of the observatory is threefold: public outreach,
undergraduate education, and allowing outside schools to use the observatory remotely. Not only will visitors to the Burnaby campus be able to use its telescope to view and capture photos of distant galaxies billions of years old, but its remote capabilities will allow interested parties across the country to access it. “SFU, as a community-oriented university, really plugs into that very well, and so we’re going to reach the entire province, and even beyond eventually,” said Trottier. The building itself may spread beyond the AQ lawn, penetrating the concrete walls of the AQ itself. “The proposal is to actually extend [a cosmic timeline] into the AQ and have it line up with one of the stairways,” explained Trottier. “We would have a connection into the heartland of the campus, and that would be really exciting.” The observatory and accompanying science plaza will be open in September. “It sounds ridiculous, but the architects say it’s a small building so it’s easy,” Trottier explained. “It’s going to be a destination place to hangout.”
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READ THE PEAK’S NEW DRAFT CONSTITUTION! Change is coming to your student newspaper: we want to replace our Constitution, and we want your input on the new document. We’ve placed the full text of the current and draft constitutions on our web site with a simple explanation of the changes, and we want your thoughts. Leave your mark on this organization for the coming decades at: Be like James Madison!
the-peak.ca/constitution
8 NEWS
Speaking out against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, SFU student, Mia Nissen, underwent a week-long fast to protest the pipeline at the end of last year. Nissen made the decision to go on a hunger strike over winter break as a way to take an immediate and noticeable stance on the issue. During the week of Christmas up until New Year’s Eve, Nissen subsisted only on Gatorade and multivitamins. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline has been a hot button topic in the news since it was announced in 2006. The line would carry distilled crude oil from Alberta’s oilsands to the coastal city of Kitimat, BC. Nissen began her strike in response to the approval of Enbridge’s latest project by the National Energy Board Joint Review Panel on Dec. 19. The Panel cited it as being an important key in boosting the Canadian economy, and the federal government has been given 180 days to decide the pipeline’s fate. However, this decision has also been strongly contested by First Nations and environmental advocacy groups who worry about the catastrophic effects
January 20, 2014
that a potential oil spill from the pipeline could have on the environment. Adding her own voice to the fray, Nissen got creative during her week-long strike with her campaign by making a video of her lip syncing to “Electric Avenue�. The video was a means
of voicing her opposition to the government’s use of crude oil by promoting an electricitybased society. Nissen, who is finishing her liberal and business studies degree, explained the inspiration to give up food for a week: “I can’t just be a passive observer and
WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE IN THE WORLD?
watch companies like Enbridge continue committing their environmental crimes. It’s not just about this pipeline project — I am looking at the bigger picture. This is about the environment, about social justice.� The young activist has also organized other events that
protest the building of the pipeline, including a gathering in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery as an effort to get signatures in opposition to the project. She has also participated in several protest marches against Harper. Even though her efforts have gone mostly unnoticed by politicians thus far, Nissen is still hopeful for a sustainable environmental future by forgoing the use of oil entirely in favour of eco-friendly alternatives. Nissen says there could be long term economic effects in the event of an oil spill. Fishing and community interests could be wiped out, and the government would have to spend millions of dollars to clean up a spill, she explained. Despite Enbridge’s promises, Nissen, referencing the work of SFU researcher Tom Gunton, says there is simply no guarantee that would safeguard such a vast structure against a spill. She continued, “The transportation of oil is not the issue, but rather the weaning of our society off of the oil addiction.� As for what the strike taught her, Nissen says she has taken away more from the experience than just an empty stomach. “I learned that there is fierce opposition to this project, and that I am not alone anymore. I’ve learned also that the spirit needs nourishment as much as the body. This is about humanity; we are fighting for the future.�
(CC) BY image by Mario Luca Giordano http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeyfunky/5970205094/
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OPINIONS
Political ads may be sharp criticisms of a candidate or party, but they tell an incomplete story, often leaving out inconvenient details. They claim to be informing the people, but they should be seen as nothing more than political propaganda, distorting and subverting the truth. While every political group is guilty of this, my investigation for this article hinged on an online image that makes four claims about the prime minister, allegedly Canada’s “worst economist ever” (see above). The first two claims stem from blog posts written last fall by Ralph Goodale, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party and former Minister of Finance under Paul Martin. In the original blogs, Goodale does not provide sources for his information, so readers cannot check the facts for themselves. In fact, I could not find any evidence to support the first claim. While I will concede that Goodale may have had greater access to Canadian economic records in his position as finance minister, the information available to the majority of Canadians does not cover the period of time during which R. B. Bennett served as prime minister, — the Great Depression. Without
January 20, 2014
any accessible evidence on which to base this claim, we, as critical thinkers, cannot readily accept it. The second claim, that the Harper administration has added $169 billion to the national debt, also requires some examination. While the national debt has increased since the Conservatives first came to power in 2006, the figures here have been slightly exaggerated. According to figures retrieved from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which runs a debt clock to show the per-second increase in debt, less than $100 billion had been added to the debt at the time Goodale wrote his blog. Currently, Conservative debt is just above $123 billion, which is still not great, but is better than the $169 billion claimed both by Goodale and the attack ad.
The third claim is true, the last six Conservative budgets have all been deficits. What this claim fails to point out, though, is that each of these deficit budgets has come after the Great Recession, the worst global economic crisis since the end of the Second World War.
opinions editor email / phone
While the Conservative government could have taken an easier road by raising taxes and cutting some of their financial initiatives, such as the Universal Childcare Benefit Plan, they made the choice to remain true to promises that had been made prior to forming the government, such as keeping taxes low. As the Canadian economy continues to recover and the deficit in each budget since the Great Recession decreases, barring another crisis, it is likely that the government will be able to start tackling this problem in the foreseeable future. Finally, concerning the fourth claim, while some elements of taxation have increased, such as Canada Pension Plan, federal taxes have not increased under the Conservative government. According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance’s website, “The federal tax burden is now the lowest it has been in 50 years,” and the government since 2006 has “cut taxes for an average family of four by $3,220.” I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use an extra three thousand dollars in my bank account. I mean, that’s a full-time semester! So as we move into next year’s election and more ads like this begin to appear, I only ask that we think critically about what we are reading and hearing. Don’t be sheep. Be critical thinkers and look into both the information and its source, lest you become a tool in a political propaganda machine.
Joel MacKenzie opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
Over this past winter break, I felt like all my social media news feeds were clogged with complaints of travel troubles. Whether it was cars turned around by shut down roads, cancelled flights or delayed busses, the time of the year when everyone wants to get around coincides, of course, with the most impossible time to do so. I empathize with my fellow student traveller; we are all trying to get to family that most of us don’t see any other time of year. I cannot even begin to imagine how bad things have been for those trapped in eastern Canada trying to get back in time for the new semester. When considering travelling, I think about the dayto-day travelling we do in Vancouver. I actually don’t find the transit in Vancouver to be all that bad, at least for me in the city and getting to SFU. Coming from a substantially smaller city, I am used to buses that come every 45 minutes — if they bother to come at all — with many major neighbourhoods not being connected to public transit lines at all because they are “too new” and not developed enough to expand bus lines. Although, last time I checked, a tenyear-old development isn’t really all that new. On winter break, considering the chaos of Canadian
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winter weather and transit, I feel my sour transit expectations in Vancouver changed. The city is trying, at the very least. The new Evergreen line is expected to go in sometime in 2016. If I miss my bus, there is another one in 15 minutes. If the lines for the 145 are super clogged at Production, they send extras. Consider Greyhound: they won’t even call ahead to your connecting city to see if you’ll make your next bus if your current one is running four hours late! But I digress. There are definitely problems with Vancouver transit, but there always will be. We all want to get somewhere, preferably faster than what is possible.
I have a long list of resolutions this New Year, and one of them is to be a little more patient. To maybe leave my house a little earlier to account for possible transit delays, to give transit police the benefit of the doubt — being just normal people doing a crappy job — and to accept that, overall, the transit in Vancouver isn’t that bad. We get to transit in fairer weather than most of Canada, and we have a city that is actively trying to encourage its occupants to travel greener. Let’s make the best of what we have.
10 OPINIONS
January 20, 2014
Maggie Benston Centre 2220 Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 Tel 778-782-3870
December 11, 2013 To the Members of the Simon Fraser Student Society and the SFU Community, Over the summer of 2013, the SFSS Food Bank Working Group met with various stakeholders regarding SFU Student Services’ decision to close the SFU Food Bank and move to an informa-‐ tion and referral model. On October 1, 2013, we launched the SFSS Emergency Food Bank ϐ ǯ Ǥ Ǧ ϐ ϐ ǡ ̈́ʹͷǡ Ǥ ϐ Ǧ without referring students to distant, off-‐campus resources. Undergraduate students are ϐ a websurvey. More information is available at www.sfss.ca/foodbank. The SFSS Board of Directors passed a motion to renew the SFSS Emergency Food Bank ϐ ʹͲͳͶ Ǥ ϐ ǡ have a wider access to fresh food and various dietary options previously unavailable through Ǥ ϐ measure for undergraduate individuals or families as a means of supplementing their food availability during pressing situations. We are pleased that SFU Student Services has matched ϐ ʹͲͳ͵ together collaboratively. We recognize the concerns regarding affordability, access and stigma around needs-‐based food services and are continuing to work with the university and other stakeholders in ϐ Ǥ program does not address all food concerns and campuses. However, we truly look forward to continuing work and dialogue in order to implement the most effective and inclusive system possible to meet all forms of student food access needs. Your feedback and involvement are appreciated and will help shape the direction of this pro-‐ Ǥ ʹǡ ʹͲͳͶ ͷǣ͵Ͳ ǣͲͲ ʹʹͻͲǤ Ǥ ϐ engage in dialogue about how we can further serve student food access needs. Sincerely, Simon Fraser Student Society Board of Directors
Last week, students representing post-secondary newspapers across Canada participated in NASH, the Canadian University Press’s annual event for networking, education, and celebration of Canadian student journalists. I was lucky enough to go with The Peak to the event. On our third night, I saw key-note speaker Aliya-Jasmine Sovani, of MTV fame, give a speech predominantly about her career in journalism and body image in mainstream media. This seemed like a promising topic. She seemed to want to address the problem of the strict definition of beauty in media as a journalist, and a model who has scars on her body from a terrible accident in her past. Her speech served to perpetuate that same problem, though. She contradicted herself creating confusion about the meaning of beauty, confusion that perpetuates negative gender stereotypes, and that is apparently prominent in North American mainstream media.
I’m disappointed now that I walked out of her speech halfway through, as I missed some highlights that others pointed out afterwards, such as this very conventionally beautiful woman calling herself a poster child for unconventional beauty, and her asking an audience of journalism students whether or not they keep up with the news. But, a couple of parts from the portion of her speech that I saw stood out to me: her story about her breast-cancer awareness commercial, and an off-hand comment about straight men. Her sentiments about the commercial perhaps best exemplify the problem with her
speech. The commercial features a woman in a bikini — a role Sovani took on short notice — walking along a pool-side, at whom every person in the pool stares at or gestures towards. It ends with the statement: “You know you like them, now it’s time to save the boobs.” It’s supposed to be a fun, sexy, and fresh way to look at breast cancer. Of course, there are inherent problems with the commercial itself. As several other students at NASH brought up to me, hopefully we’re more concerned about losing women to cancer, rather than just their boobs. Hopefully our society sees women as more than boobs, and hopefully we can see a variety of body types as sexy. Hopefully. But aside from this, Sovani also introduced the video by saying in an offhand comment that she wished she had taken a laxative and done sit-ups beforehand. Albeit in a joking manner, she effectively suggested not only the extreme importance of trying to achieve one strict type of beauty, but also justifyied adopting a disease to achieve it. Later in her speech, she said, in another off-hand comment, that all straight men lie, mostly because they look at other girls while with their own girlfriends. In saying this, she effectively separates straight men from women and homosexual men, and underhandedly inserts into the public subconscious the idea that proud women consider men liars, and that to be a straight man is to be a liar. Beyond these comments being offensive in themselves, they’re complicated in these circumstances. The fact that these sentiments are paired with a speech on respecting positive body images is what creates the confusion resulting in negative stereotypes being swallowed easily, being almost equated with positive ones. Am I taking Sovani’s fun, off-handed comments too seriously? Maybe. But I can’t ignore what appear to be the symptoms of the deep-set problems of mainstream gender images. We need to ask questions when people with media power make uninformed comments such as these without blinking an eye. Sovani has her heart in the right place. But her speech is a reminder that perpetuation of gender stereotypes is not okay, even and especially when done in a casual way by a person with influence in the media.
OPINIONS
January 20, 2014
I respect the crap out of people who stand up for their principles. To do so is, at its deepest level, to justify living. It’s what gets you up in the morning, it gives life meaning outside of merely existing. I don’t think standing up for your principles means trying to be perfect, though. For instance, some people who want to support a cause put a small financial amount towards it yearly. If that’s all they can do, then that’s awesome.
Some people who support vegetarianism choose to only cut out red meat from their diet, while some choose to cut out everything but fish, and others choose to be vegan. If these are steps in a direction that someone wants to go, they’re awesome, no matter where they fall on a scale of intensity. Even the smallest movements are adding to that something greater. In lieu of perfection, a step in a direction is worthwhile, regardless of its size.
Apathy, while its roots are often understandable, garners less respect from me. I often hear apathetic responses to vegetarianism. Some say it’s useless because almost every product has animal by-products in it. It’s true, tires, cleaning products, condoms, fabric softeners, roads, insulin, etc. can or do have such ingredients. On the other hand, I’ve been insulted for not being vegan when I eat vegetarian, for not going all the way. However, it does not follow to argue that if we can’t
be perfect we should give up. People aren’t perfect, but there’s nothing wrong with trying to solve or at least draw attention to problems. Do you think voting matters? I sincerely hope you do, and sincerely hope you wouldn’t abstain from voting if it didn’t look like your party would win. Apathy can achieve a perfection of correctness: if you don’t try, you can’t fail. While I appreciate this concern, pursuit of perfection isn’t an excuse to roll-over and give up.
No matter how anarchist advocates try to sugarcoat it, anarchism is definitely not a solution for humanity’s problems. The biggest problem with anarchism is the assumption that all humans are born saints — morally perfect without one single glitch. These perfect humans always talk things out and find the best “solutions that meet the needs of everyone,” in the words of Joseph Levidal’s article “Finding Sense in Anarchy.” Unfortunately, that’s hardly the case, even in the most ideal situations. The majority tends to bull-doze or even stampede over the minority rather than coming up with solutions that meet the needs of both. This happens even in the most democratic societies of humanity. For example, in November 2009, the majority of Swiss citizens made a controversial decision through a constitutional amendment referendum that no more minarets — towers in mosques — could be built in Switzerland.
On the other hand, certain people from the minority would do anything just to make themselves heard, for example, Occupy Vancouver protesters would rudely interrupt any speaker or any discussion just to make themselves heard. The objectives of anarchism are not only to eliminate all forms of governance, but also to eliminate all forms of laws and to replace them with morals. While morals certainly play a vital role in stopping bad actions before they happen, how much can they control a person without the existence of laws?
Do anarchists honestly believe that people can always keep their desires under control, taking only their fair share from society, without the consequences provided by laws and law enforcement? I’m not saying that anarchists are inherently violent, or that law enforcement is without its own problems, but there’s only one George Washington for every billion people. Also, there are certain anarchists who equate anarchism and direct
11
democracy. This is very misleading. Wherever there’s entrusting of power, there’s a de-facto government. While it’s great that these anarchists are advocating that everyone should have a say in decision-making processes, do they think that everyone has the skills and knowledge required to turn decisions into reality? To make this idea concrete, let’s say the SFSS is now building a new student union building under anarchism. Do we have the knowledge to design such a building, the physical strength to carry and install the bricks, glass, etc., and the knowledge required to operate building machinery? Didn’t think so. That’s why we appoint architects to help us design the student union building that integrates students’ opinions about the building, and why we hire a team of workers to do the construction work. When we can’t do everything on our own, we entrust some people to do the work for us. I’m in no way satisfied with the status quo. Like many anarchists, I’ve been involved with direct actions trying to make this world a better place. However, the imperfectness of humanity has already determined that anarchism is simply not a solution for humanity’s problems.
t was -25 degrees Celsius on December 23, 2013 when Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the punk rock advocacy group Pussy Riot, was granted amnesty. She stepped out of the prison gate wearing a thin coat with no hat or scarf. In the bitter cold of the afternoon, Tolokonnikova walked proudly towards reporters, flashing the V sign at the cameras and smiling. “How do you like our Siberian weather here?” she asked. It was the first time she had walked free in 21 months. 3800 kilometres away in the town of Nizhny Novgorod, Maria Alyokhina — a fellow band member and political dissident — was far less pleased with her sudden freedom. “I don’t think it’s an amnesty, it’s a profanation,” she told reporters. “It’s a PR move.” Shoved into a car and quickly escorted from her cell to downtown Nizhny Novgorod, Alyokhina was given no time to say goodbye to her fellow inmates. Before reuniting with her friends and family, Alyokhina met with local human rights activists. Having served almost all of her sentence, which was set to end in March, she was critical of the Russian government’s choice to grant her amnesty mere months away from the Olympic Games in Sochi. “If I had a chance to turn it down,” she said, “I would have done it.” Both women have since publicly committed the rest of their lives to the fight for human rights in Russia. But for them and other political activists in Russia, there’s no easy road ahead. Pussy Riot’s public demonstration on February 21, 2012 in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour only lasted two minutes, and began innocuously — the five members involved in the performance entered the church in modest clothing and bare faces, only to put on their trademark multicoloured balaclavas and strip off their clothing for an impromptu protest against the ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and, at that time, recentlyelected President Vladimir Putin. Within hours, the show, which the group dubbed a “punk prayer,” was uploaded to YouTube. Three of the performers were arrested several days later on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Six months later, Alyokhina, Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in a penal colony on the grounds that they had blasphemed and “crudely undermined social order” with their performance, as Russian women are not allowed at the altar of a church. The women refused to ask President Putin for a pardon; Tolokonnikova called the verdict “a clear and unambiguous sign that freedom is being taken away from the entire country.” Though she and many more political prisoners in Russia may be free today as a result of Putin’s amnesty, Tolokonnikova’s views on the Russian government have not softened. On December 27, she and Alyokhina announced on the Moscow news conference their plans to shed the Pussy Riot moniker, create a human rights organization and “keep the system in tune.” Meanwhile, construction continues in preparation for the Sochi Olympics, devastating the local ecosystem and leaving those in the nearby town of Akhshtyr without a reliable source of water for the fifth year in a row. ladimir Putin’s decision to grant amnesty to over 20,000 Russian political prisoners is not without precedent. In fact, offering amnesty to mark important dates — in this case, the 20th anniversary of Russia’s 1993 constitution — is a time-honoured Russian tradition, dating all the way
back to tsarist rule. However, Putin’s presidential pardon is hardly a harbinger for a change of heart in terms of dissidence or democracy. On the contrary, the move is a carefully calculated political strategy; an attempt to sweep Russia’s substandard human rights record under the rug.
Khodorkovsky used his vast wealth to support social programs and fund political parties opposed to Putin’s regime. In 2003, he was arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion. His assets frozen by the government, Khodorkovsky was formally charged in May 2005. By this time, most of
To be clear, Putin’s amnesty avoided targeting any political prisoners directly; instead, pardons were given to those with young children or minor sentences, such as hooliganism. In an interview, Putin assured the media that the amnesty was “not a revision of the court’s decision” towards Pussy Riot, nor towards the group of Greenpeace activists arrested months before. The pre-holiday amnesty was preceded by his decision to free Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arguably his most prominent political rival, on December 20. Once the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky rose to prominence during Russia’s period of post-Soviet privatization. His company, Yukos Oil, quickly secured a monopoly on Russia’s oil reserves in Siberia. Openly critical of President Putin and what he viewed as the corruption of the Russian government,
his fortune had evaporated, and Yukos Oil had capsized. Khodorkovsky was set to be released in 2017, 12 years after his original sentencing. This elicited controversy from many international heavyweights, such as Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague. The European Court of Human Rights spoke out against Khodorkovsky’s arrest, arguing that his lawyers were pressured by the authorities and his witnesses were denied medical treatment. Khodorkovsky walked free for the first time in almost a decade on December 20, 2013. Putin cited his mother’s declining health as reason for his release, and assured the Russian people that nine years in prison amounted to “a significant punishment.” At Berlin’s Checkpoint Charlie, a location rife
with Soviet history, Khodorkovsky made his first public appearance since his arrest. “I am happy about this decision,” he told reporters, a smile forming on his lips. “That would be the most precise.” When asked about Putin’s motivations, he replied, “I think it’s a sign that the Russian government, and Putin personally, are worried about the country’s image.” Though Khodorkovsky, Pussy Riot, and 20,000 other political prisoners now walk free, their status as political dissidents in Russia is hardly a desirable one. One of Putin’s first actions in his third term was the application of a foreign agent law, which requires any advocacy group with international funding to register officially as a “foreign agent.” In Russia, the term has connections to Soviet-era espionage, and its attempts to vilify and dehumanize Putin’s opposition are all but transparent. NGOs who refuse to register as such are ordered to suspend their activities and provide confidential files and documents to the Russian authorities. Among the organizations targeted are Amnesty International, Transparency International, and Human Rights Watch. “The [law] violates Russia’s national and international obligations to safeguard the rights of association, assembly and expression,” an Amnesty International representative said. “It should be repealed immediately.” t isn’t hard to see why the Sochi Olympics carry such weight for Putin and Russia; the games mark the nation’s second time
been met with violent reaction — often from Russian law enforcement. The Pride House, a temporary location which accepts LGBT athletes, spectators, and organizers, will also be missing from Sochi’s Games. The tradition of the House began when Vancouver hosted the Games just four years ago, and has been carried on by London and during the UEFA Euro 2012 competition in Poland and Ukraine. “Russia is trying very hard to make discrimination look respectable by calling it tradition,” Graeme Reid, LGBT Rights Program Director, told reporters. “It remains a discrimination, and a violation of the basic human rights of LGBT people.” In a private meeting with opposition leaders on November 20, Putin denounced the homophobic behaviour his country had seen since the propaganda laws were enacted. “Xenophobia should not be fostered in society, no matter on what criterion it is based, including sexual orientation,” he said. “I have heard a lot of criticism in my own address, but everything we did at the government and legislative level – all of this was connected to limitations on promotion among the underage.”
as host, and its first for the Winter Games. The previous Russian games in 1980 were also host to controversy, as they were held during the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan — many nations, including Canada, Japan, China, Israel, Egypt, Argentina, and the United States, refused to take part due to Russia’s involvement in the conflict. With Sochi, Putin has been given a chance to absolve Russia of its Olympic embarrassment, and to solidify Russia as the economic and political power it once was. The Sochi Games also carry a heavy burden for Putin’s presidential legacy. The President is preoccupied with preserving his image as a strong-willed ruler of men, and an Olympic bungle might collapse his carefully constructed public persona. His tactful turn towards human rights advocacy is not only
To be blunt, it’s also a chance for Russia to show off. The Games are already the most expensive ever, and they haven’t even begun; over $50 billion has gone into constructing the most elaborate showpiece in Olympic history, with business magnates such as Vladimir Potanin building metal skyscrapers and ski resorts from the ground up. What was once an unadorned subtropical Sochi slope has become a carnivalesque display of excess, and one that Putin hopes will dispel misgivings about Russia’s finances and perceived political unrest. President Putin’s strategy to transform Sochi into a thriving international hub has been plagued with controversy and turmoil since day one. Six lane highways have led to flooded houses and demolished roadways for the locals. Industrial waste litters the town’s
a move to soften relations with western powers, such as Germany and the United States; it’s an extension of his performance as Russia’s fearless leader, a man willing to swallow his pride on the international stage for the sake of the Motherland.
forests and hills, leading to erosion and sinkage in Sochi homes. In Akhshtyr, a small village which borders Sochi to the east, locals have had their water supply contaminated by the waste dumps of Sochi construction teams. According to the
Human Rights Watch, the village has been denied access to clean water since 2008. Authorities deliver drinking water in trucks once per week — sometimes less. Across the mountains on which snowboarders and skiers will compete, war rages on between Russia and the Caucasus Emirate, a militant Islamist group with connections to al-Qaeda and whose December 2013 suicide bombings in Volgograd killed 32 people in two days. Plans set forth by the Kremlin to increase surveillance on athletes and spectators have done little to silence the skeptics: recently, the US bureau of diplomatic security released a statement warning Sochi travelers that “sensitive information may be taken and shared with . . . Russian regulatory and legal entities.” Perhaps the most pressing question of safety, though, surrounds Russia’s puzzling June 2013 anti-gay legislation, which bans the distribution of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors. This includes any expression or support of nonheterosexual behaviour or relationships in public, in films, through conversation, or on the web — the latter of which will net you an increased fine and, unless you’re a local, an immediate deportation from Russia. The passage of the law has resulted in a surge of homophobic violence, from public humiliation to private torture. Hundreds have been publicly beaten, insulted, harassed and, in some cases, murdered. Meanwhile, LGBT protests against the law have
s of this article’s publication, world leaders from Canada, the United States, Germany, France, and Switzerland have refused to attend the Olympic Games as a result of the nation’s human rights record. Putin’s attempt to blanket his government’s problematic relationship with NGOs and advocates has done little to dissuade the tension and bitter controversy that has come to define the Sochi Games, which draw nearer every day. In Putin’s eyes, Russia is the world power it is today because of his own iron fisted rule. It’s his gumption that revitalized the Russian economy, his commitment that has solidified Russia’s political stability and resolved its disputes with Chechnyan rebel forces. But it’s an illusion — one that Putin himself almost certainly believes, and one that the Sochi Olympics are meant to reflect on the world stage. Whether the Games succeed or not, Putin’s legacy will ultimately be defined by their outcome. He has a lot to gain, and even more to lose. For Russia’s LGBT community, its dissidents, opposition leaders, political prisoners, and for Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina, the Sochi Olympics are part of an unfortunately time honoured tradition of devaluing human rights in Russia. Long after the last foreign diplomat has caught the plane home from the Games, these struggles will continue — in Russia’s homes, streets, offices, churches, and prisons, activists will continue to fight for those less fortunate than them. For their part, the former Pussy Rioters have vowed not to take part in the Games, and have urged the rest of the world to join them. “I’m calling for a boycott,” Tolokonnikova told reporters in the blistering Siberian cold. “For honesty.”
14 OPINIONS
January 20, 2014
Dear editor, Re: PQ Spoof Issue
Learn from the Harper security team: don’t underestimate busboys. This was exactly what allowed for an alarmingly close encounter between two environmental protesters and Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday, January 6. Harper was in town for a Q&A with the Vancouver Board of Trade at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel; as soon as he had gotten comfortable in his chair awaiting his introduction, two protesters, Sean Devlin and Shireen Soofi, calmly walked on the stage dressed as wait staff. They held up signs, one reading “Climate Justice Now,” and the
other with the phrase “Conservatives Take Climate Change Seriously” crossed out with a thick black line. The prime minister’s security acted quickly removing the two from the stage; Devlin fell down the short set of stairs and was briskly ushered to the kitchen. Witty Stephen Harper then chirped, “It wouldn’t be BC without it!” The two protesters were arrested, and have been released without charges. In a CBC interview, Devlin said, “People are shocked that a citizen can access one of their leaders,” and brushed off any security concerns by adding, “I wasn’t there to hurt the prime minister.” Well, we know that now. All of this has raised concerns about the adequacy of security around our country’s leader. The solution to this particular incident would not be
hiring more security for Harper, but rather improving the work being done by his existing team.
The $20 million spent on Harper’s security is double what it was in 2006, yet a situation such as this can occur? The individual efforts at every smaller press conference and meeting need to be improved. In this case, the hotel wait staff were not screened, showing the security’s naively trusting assumption that outside visitors are the only threats. Security was a little too relaxed for a situation in which
the prime minister is in a crowded room — screening everyone in the room is absolutely necessary. This close encounter with the PM could have been worse or even deadly because of such leniency. If our prime minister simply hires excessive amounts of security, he is only a law-making figure rather than a representative that listens to the people, reflective of Delvin’s comment that “this government is really closing itself off.” A happy middle ground needs to be found in the PM’s security, one in which he can interact with the public and be protected from sudden violence. Yet, considering that Harper’s $20 million security still has some wrinkles, we as Canadians should be thankful for the predominantly safe country we live in that allows for security slips that don’t end in disaster.
First, I want to acknowledge the time and effort that goes into making a weekly publication like the Peak happen. Obviously the staff work hard and in all likelihood get little commendation and heaps of criticism from smartasses who feel certain they could do a better job. So getting to do the annual spoof issue is probably kind of a fun break and a chance to do something a little bit challenging and different. That being said, I can’t say that I understand the necessity of this whole spoof issue tradition. Do other professional publications do this? Does anybody need to read a thousand-word piece about a fake ping pong player? There actually is an International Table Tennis Federation, and there actually are professional athletes from places like China and India who dedicate their lives to professional ping pong. That the parodic foundation of this piece seems to rest more or less entirely on the apparent absurdity of professional ping pong *could* be read as a little bit ignorant and culturally insensitive. With respect, the Peak’s spoof issue tradition seems like a wasteful, privileged indulgence and a misuse of the incredible responsibility Peak staff have as makers of a print publication in a nationstate that - ostensibly - allows and encourages free speech.
Sincerely, Andrew Reeves SFU Student
ARTS
Considering Quentin Tarantino’s affinity for powerful female characters, it’s fitting that the vivacious ladies of Vancouver’s burlesque scene would shake their tassels in a salute to the genre-bending director. In burlesque, confidence is everything. A great backdrop story also helps, and Tarantino’s imagination offers the perfect sharpshooting and sword-wielding femme fatales to emulate. If you couple this with a bit of cinematic history, a Tarantino-inspired burlesque show was inevitable. A grindhouse is a (mainly defunct) theatre that showcases the B movies and exploitation films that Quentin is so fond of echoing. Due to their graphic nature, grindhouses were named after the burlesque theatres in New York City where stripteases and bump ‘n grind dances were performed. Following on the heels of Beatles Burlesque and Dirty Dancing Burlesque, Tarantino Burlesque featured some of Vancouver’s best known burlesque dancers, backed by the Blue Morris Band: Voodoo Pixie, Little Miss Risk, Sparkle Plenty, Mama Fortuna and Ariel Helvetica. It’s Friday night and the lineup for the show stretches far past the front doors of Fanclub on Granville Street. Show-goers huddle under umbrellas, but some may be disappointed — the venue is already packed and the show is scheduled to start in two minutes. Every seat is full, bodies line the staircase and faces peak over the wrought-iron balcony. A few fans wear Tarantino-inspired costumes and red wine is ubiquitous. The Blue Morris Band steps out, beginning the show with one of the most quintessential tracks — really, it couldn’t have started any other way — the opening number from Pulp Fiction, “Miserlou.” The crowd cheers in anticipation. First up is Voodoo Pixie, the choreographer of the show, but the other dancers quickly hit the stage, expressing a Tarantino-like penchant for violence; they pull off Voodoo Pixie’s shirt, and the first of the nipple tassels are exposed.
arts editor email / phone
January 20, 2014
Little Miss Risk took the stage as Jackie Brown. More show-goers are let in, and the place is filling to the brim as Little Miss Risk takes the stage. Sauntering around as Jackie Brown, Little Miss Risk is skilled as a dancer, but strangely has a distressed look throughout her performance. One act quickly melds into the next, rotating between the dancers and the band performing solo. The band is fronted by Red Heartbreaker, and her soulful crooning definitely begins to steal the show.
Perhaps fuelled by the everflowing red wine, the crowd begins to bump ‘n grind amongst themselves as Mama Fortuna takes the stage as the highly anticipated Mia Wallace. “You Never Can Tell” plays as she dances to her
Photo courtesy of Ed Araquel
moderately-nude version of the Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest. Red Heartbreaker, slowly losing clothes herself, sings a fantastic rendition of “Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon.” One excited fan, obviously lost in a Tarantino reverie, runs to the stage and begins to dance as close to the spotlight as possible. Tarantino Burlesque finishes strongly with Voodoo Pixie showing the crowd that one doesn’t need to be a vibrant vixen to be sexy. Instead, Voodoo Pixie plays Marvin Nash from Reservoir Dogs, and dances to “Stuck in the Middle With You” before throwing a cutoff ear into the crowd. With killer tunes and a powerful performance from the Blue Morris Band, Tarantino Burlesque was a huge success. The crowd was pleased, the place was packed and every performer sauntered with overwhelming confidence. With this amount of popularity, these performers may have to start looking for a bigger venue. Or perhaps a grindhouse of their very own.
Daryn Wright arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
In Her, Spike Jonze’s latest film set in the not too distant future, the colour blue almost never appears. The men dress in 30’s style high-waisted pants with no belts, and no scenes take place in a car or within view of a street. No one uses keyboards or cords, and the film’s love interest — a hyper intelligent OS who names herself Samantha — is never seen. Yet the film’s greatest strengths are in its subtractions; in what it hides from us as viewers, and the images and conceptions it forces us to create for ourselves. Our protagonist is Theodore Twombly, a lonely, recently divorced writer who pens incredibly personal letters for other people. Beautifully portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, Theodore has a knack for understanding other people’s desires but has trouble pinning down his own — he spends his nights aimlessly surfing the web, playing high tech video games, and browsing chat rooms for anonymous phone sex. However, Theodore meets his match in Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), the first artificially intelligent operating system. With the help of an earpiece and a vintage chic iPhone equivalent, Theodore and Samantha quickly bond. She questions whether her feelings are even real, while he questions whether he’ll ever feel the same way he did with his ex-wife, Catherine (Rooney Mara). When an ill-advised blind date set up by best friend Amy (Amy Adams) falls flat, Theodore retreats to his Art Deco loft to consummate his budding relationship with Samantha — we’re left to imagine what this might look like, just as they do. Scarlett Johansson’s tender performance as Samantha is at the heart of Her’s success
15
— she makes us feel the way Theodore does, as though she is right there in the room, and her chemistry with Phoenix more than makes up for their lack of physical intimacy. There are many moments of tenderness, argument, and heartbreaking honesty between the two, made no less powerful by Samantha’s lack of human form. Jonze never shows his hand — the unnerving subtext of Theodore and Samantha’s union is never far from the surface, and Catherine’s scorn towards Theodore’s perceived solipsism proves just as persuasive as Amy’s wholehearted support.
But Theodore is no different from the rest of us, and his romantic notions no more unrealistic; the unconventionality of his love for Samantha only highlights the same fears and insecurities that we all share. In one scene, Samantha writes a piece of music to capture a beautiful afternoon shared between her and Theodore. “We don’t really have any photographs of us,” she tells him. “I thought this song could be like a photo, that captures us in this moment of our life together.” Samantha is expressing the film’s key theme: the need to connect and share one’s life with others — be they human, or artificially intelligent. Like Theodore and Samantha, Jonze has found a way to capture that sentiment, and to share it with the world. Her is a beautifully shot and impeccably crafted film that, like the best science fiction, tells us more about our present than its future. It asks nuanced, complicated questions about what it means to live and to love, and offers the answers through the story of two souls who undertake the journey together — and like all the best relationships, both parties better themselves in the process. It isn’t just Her. It’s Them.
16 ARTS
January 20, 2014
ARTS
Vancouver’s Hot Art Wet City is known for its thought-provoking and insightful art exhibits which mesh pop culture with fine art. The opening reception for the gallery’s new display, Typo, took place Friday, Jan. 10 and proved to be an incredibly crowded affair. Running until Jan. 25, the exhibit provides an intriguing look at typography as an art form. The exhibit features the work of three artists, each of whom has taken a distinctive approach to their work in an attempt to help viewers understand how typography can have substantial artistic meaning on its own terms. The gallery is not a large room, but in the midst of a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and an uproar of voices, I managed to snag an interview with artist Frazer Adams on the forms and meanings of his
January 20, 2014
work. His exhibit pieces feature a detailed mingling of letters, geometric shapes, lighting, and outer space. “I want to spark people’s interest in the natural world,” said Adams. “Almost all of my work incorporates images of the cosmos and I hope to share a taste of the wonder I get from learning about it.”
Having first received an education in graphic design, Adams soon realized that he leaned more towards traditional typography and signpainting: “I started out in graffiti and became interested in typography as its own art form, [which] is where a lot of my work comes from.” When asked about the use of typography in his exhibit pieces, he said, “The fun part of typography is designing the letters
and the hard part is coming up with the content. I really enjoy creating type by hand and I get a lot of satisfaction out of making crisp type that consistently follows its own rules.” Typo also displays the works of artist Bennet Slater, who claims his goal is to “have the pop culture and the fine art world be one world that we all live under.” In catching snippets of attendees’ conversations, I could tell that viewers were particularly interested in his clean, refined technique. Slater’s work employs ambiguity through painted typography, which is interwoven with depictions of plants and other organic objects. Artist Scott Sueme takes a different turn in his work, using an array of cut-outs, paint, and graphic design. Sueme’s interests involve more gritty, urbanlooking typography, similar to that of street graffiti. By the swarm of art critics I had to wade through to exit the building, it’s clear that more than just the artists themselves believe that typography is an art form worthy of note.
Promoted to principal dancer in 2012, Amanda Green has danced many coveted roles with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. Dancing as Juliet tops off her list of great Royal Winnipeg Ballet roles: “We only have a select few fulllength ballets, and this is the last one I haven’t done.” Green follows in the footsteps of previous well-known RWB principals who have danced this role, such as Evelyn Hart, Tara Birtwhistle, and Vanessa Lawson. The Romeo to her Juliet is Liang Xing, a guest artist from the National Ballet of China, where he has been a principal dancer since 2011. Although Green has only been dancing with Xing since the start of this season, she said things are going very well. “I have an amazing partner; it’s been great to work with Liang. We’ve been together only a couple of months, but [have] connected really well.” With many impressive credits and a couple of silver medals from international ballet competitions, Xing will be a worthy Romeo. Preparing for a role of this magnitude requires many hours of background work as well as lengthy discussions with one’s partner to make sure everything is comfortable. Green said that among her research methods are watching YouTube videos of other dancers, and breaking things down
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step-by-step to figure out how she wants to feel or what she wants to be thinking at a particular moment. Even after opening night, she is always working on her performance and dancing in front of an audience adds another aspect to the role. “There’s an evolution on stage; a development of the character. It won’t be the same each time I perform it,” she said. Shakespeare’s classic play is an intense emotional journey for the main characters, and Green said that while this role requires a great deal of endurance, the emotional aspect is the most tiring. “I’ve learned to pace myself a bit better; I’m not as hyper at the beginning,” said Green. She also described the difficulty of getting into character during the rehearsal process, as the ballet is danced in segments; when rehearsing the death scene, for instance, it’s hard to conjure up the same emotion as when she’s danced the whole ballet. The choreography is by Rudi van Dantzig of the Dutch National Ballet, who was friends with RWB artistic director André Lewis before he passed away in 2012. “I think he’s a genius,” said Green, “his choreography is extremely organic.” Along with the grand Prokofiev score, gorgeous sets, and stunning costumes that set the scene for 16th century Verona, Amanda Green and Liang Xing will show audiences why this remains one of the most popular classical ballets.
18 DIVERSIONS / ETC
January 20, 2014
Across 1- Off-ramp 5- Juice of the rubber tree 10- Smoke and fog 14- Actress Sofer 15- Related on the mother’s side 16- Acquire through merit 17- Sick as ___ 18- Most southerly continent 20- Spanish river 22- Lawless person 23- Wretched 25- Jump on the ice 26- Branched 27- Definite article 28- Harper’s Bazaar illustrator 32- City near Provo 33- Ascends 35- Lively dance 36- Part of ETA 37- Bleat of a sheep 38- Cribbage marker 39- Devices for fishing 41- Dweebish 43- Daddy 44- Ginger cookie 45- Small batteries 46- More creepy 48- Injure 50- Excrement used as
fertilizer 51- One-dimensional 54- Made a hole 55- Mental lapse 57- Son of Rebekah 61- Magma 62- Fluff, as bangs 63- Bottle part 64- Asian sea 65- Relaxed
66- It transforms carbon dioxide into oxygen Down
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1- Baseball stat 2- Crossed (out) 3- Daughter of Cadmus 4- Two wrestlers on the same side 5- Member of a sports organization 6- Cancel 7- Makes lace 8- Journey’s end time 9- Copies 10- Pioneer 11- Letters, e.g. 12- Killer whale 13- Chew on 19- White ball, in pool 21- Sternward 23- Hare hole 24- Code of silence 25- In the lead 26- Some horses 27- Autocratic Russian rulers 29- Mend
30- Home on the range 31- “Enigma Variations” composer 34- Steel girder 40- Like an orb 41- Give an account 42- Longed for 43- Cautious 47- Vane dir. 49- Swiss river 50- Bullwinkle, e.g. 51- In ___ land 52- Support beam 53- St. Petersburg’s river 54- Prejudice 56- Leaves in a bag 58- Determined by your SEO 59- Pet detective 60- Luau instrument
SPORTS
sports editor email / phone
January 20, 2014
Adam Ovenell-Carter sports@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
If there are two people in hockey that Canadian fans can trust, they’re Steve Yzerman and Mike Babcock. The two were, and are, instrumental in instilling unprecedented playoff success with the Detroit Red Wings, and Yzerman, most recently, has built a surprisingly formidable Tampa Bay Lightning squad. The two, Babcock as head coach and Yzerman as executive director, were tasked with picking 25 names out of the richest talent pool in international hockey to represent Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. As much as the two men, and a litany of others, deserve Canada’s trust, the selection of Team Canada has many Canadians scratching their heads, and rightfully so. Selecting Canada’s top six forwards, top four defensemen and goaltender probably only took about four minutes. Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Toews, John Tavares, Corey Perry and, to a lesser extent, Matt Duchene, were inked onto this roster before this year’s NHL season even began.
Despite sitting 0–5 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, the Clan men’s basketball team is showing signs of life in 2014. Opening the calendar year with three back-to-back losses was disappointing, but the team is finally starting to come together and show composure in big games against top-ranked teams. The Clan opened the year with losses against Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Anchorage, but the team’s game against the GNAC third-place Nanooks showcased some of their
unachieved potential. The men fell 58–67, but Taylor Dunn and Sango Niang led the campaign with 15 and 10 points each. Later that weekend, against the Seawolves, it was Justin Cole who led the team with 24 points, proving the importance of his addition this season, while Dunn added 16 and David Gebru had 15. On an individual level, the team has some great talent and their best games have seen the five men on the floor come together for a great team effort both on offence and defence. However, they have suffered from slow starts and disjointed play. That wasn’t the case one week later when the men travelled to Bellingham, WA to face GNAC leaders Western Washington, who are also ranked 20th in NCAA Div. II. This game saw one of the most notable team
performances of the season and the Clan headed into the second half with a two-point lead. Dunn led the scoring with 18 followed by Ibrahim Appiah with 17, Cole with 14 and Niang with 11, proving that when the big players get together, there is a lot of potential for this underrated team. Unfortunately, WWU proved their mettle and their ranking in the second half, as they came back with a vengeance to take the game 82–69, but the Clan’s performance against a very tough competitor proves that they have the ability to play in this league, they just need to tighten up their game. The team lost in its return to the friendly confines of West Gym, 100–70 against Montana State-Billings, but another committed team effort may be enough to secure their first GNAC victory of the season sooner than later.
The same goes for defensemen Shea Weber, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo and Duncan Keith. Returning gold-medalist goaltender Roberto Luongo was also always going to be the starter, despite national media outlets suggesting otherwise. Any country would be lucky to boast even close to the same amount of talent as Canada’s top 11 players provide, but depth reigns supreme in hockey and that is where Yzerman obviously had trouble.
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Filling out a couple of spots on the bottom half of the roster was easy. For example, forwards Patrick Sharp and Jamie Benn forced Yzerman’s hand with their strong play over the first half of the season. Further down, however, questions seemed to arise. Yzerman’s strategy in picking this team was based on preexisting chemistry and balance. Chris Kunitz does not make this team playing anywhere else other than on Pittsburgh’s first line along with Crosby. The same goes for Jay Bouwmeester, as he logs his minutes alongside Pietrangelo in St. Louis. The case can be made for the inclusion of Kuntiz and Bouwmeester, along with a couple of other fringe player’s; Dan Hamhuis makes this team because Canada’s management wants four left-handed and four righthanded defenseman in order to keep the back end balanced (Hamhuis plays the left side), but his play this season has been very up and down. Then there are a couple of selections that just do not make sense, especially when compared to players Yzerman left out. The biggest question mark is Rick Nash as opposed to Martin St. Louis. Playing in Russia means a bigger ice surface therefore speed is needed; Nash possesses an incredible combination of skill and size, but his production in New York leaves much to be desired. On the flip side, St. Louis is small, nimble, and has been putting up monster numbers all season. Also, James Neal in ten fewer games has seven more points than Jeff Carter, and Neal possesses an incredible shot, which would mesh incredibly well with the number of playmakers on Team Canada. Even after those mentioned, questions still exist. No Joe Thornton? No Claude Giroux? Mike Smith over Corey Crawford? The sheer number of questions only arises when a talent pool is as deep as Canada’s, and critiquing a team with this amount of skill is a problem most countries would love to have. But if Canada can win gold, there won’t be much to argue.
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As the Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball season heats up, the Simon Fraser University women’s team is in the race for conference supremacy. The very competitive conference that started the 2013-14 season with three nationally ranked teams is as tight as ever heading into week four of play. SFU saw a split weekend at home to wrap up week three, proving without a doubt that the GNAC is still anyone’s for the taking. The Clan earned an upset victory over No. 18 Northwest Nazarene on Thursday before falling to
January 20, 2014
the 10th place team in the conference, Central Washington, moving to a 3–2 conference record. The split is a perfect example of the battle for a conference title; any team to win on any given day. The story of the weekend, however, was the play of junior captain Erin Chambers who led her team and all athletes on the floor in both contests. Against the Crusaders the fiery guard/forward combo tallied 25 points, leading her team to a 75–66 victory over the visitors. Assisting her in the victory was Rebecca Langmead, as the senior had her first double-double of the season. The 6’5” forward used her height to her advantage tallying 15 points and 12 rebounds in the contest to lead all players on the boards. Katie Lowen and Kia Van Laare each added 11 points as well. It was Van Laare’s sharp-shooting from off the bench that gave the Clan a
mid-game rush, as the senior netted back-to-back three-pointers to give the Clan the much needed lead heading into the second half. After a one day break, the team took to the court Saturday evening against the Wildcats but a lackluster Clan side was only able to hang in during a 63–54 loss, thanks to Chambers’ 32 points — over half of the team’s total. The captain was able to keep her team in the running throughout the game, bringing them within as few as two points. The Clan women were plagued by the flu, as starters Marie-Line Petit and Langmead saw limited minutes due to illness. Despite playing only 16 minutes, Petit was the Clan’s second highest scorer, but only put up eight points, as the home team fell to the previously 0-5 visitors. Now moving further along into conference play the team will face
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AT ITS VERY BEST
It was almost a repeat of 2013 for the SFU Clan women’s wrestling team when they travelled to Des Moines, IA for the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association ( WCWA) National Duals last weekend. They finished in second place after two days of competition; though they were just one win away from repeating as WCWA Dual Champions, the second place success is still an excellent showing for the dual team. The Clan women started the tournament against University of the Cumberlands winning nine of the 10 matches, beating the Patriots 38–6 overall. The following day the Clan took on second-ranked Oklahoma City University in the semi-finals where they would bounce the 2013 runner-ups out of the
the final four competitors in the conference rotation before a rematch with all nine GNAC teams to wrap up the season. Their next match will be against conference leaders, the Saint Martin’s Saints,
finals. SFU saw more intense competition from the highly ranked OCU Stars, taking the dual 27–17 on the second day of competition. In the final, SFU fell to King College by two points, losing 21–19 in the last dual of the meet. The Tornado would finish first, matching their ranking entering the competition, taking the title for the first time in school history.
SFU’s dual team included Darby Huckle, Victoria Anthony, Laura Anderson, Helen Maroulis, Maegan Kuruvita, Monika Podgorski, Justina DiStasio, Jenna McLatchy, Nikkie Brar, Mallory Velte, and Michiko Araki. Seniors Anthony, Maroulis, DiStasio and McLatchy were all undefeated throughout the tournament, closing out their
who are currently 4–1 after an upset over former GNAC leaders, Alaska Anchorage. SFU will face the Seawolves the following weekend as they round out the first set of games.
dual careers with the Clan in winning style and leading their team to their second top-two finish at the championships in as many years. Velte, Kuruvita and Anderson all won matches in their first championships as the three freshmen were able to earn points for the Clan in the first two duals of the meet. Huckle won the Clan’s first match in the final against King before Maroulis, DiStasio and McLatchy finished it off for SFU. The Clan will get another shot at a first-place finish when they head to St. Louis, MO, beginning January 24, where they will attempt to defend their 2013 WCWA National Championship in the non-dual portion of their championship season. The Clan lost seniors Danielle Lappage and Sidney Morrison who were champions in their weight-classes in 2013, but retain many members of the winning squad heading into this year’s tournament. McLatchey, DiStasio and Maroulis are all returning champions, and Brar and Huckle are returning bronze medalists.
SPORTS
After a lengthy break over the holidays, the Simon Fraser University men’s hockey team welcomed the University of Princeton, University of North Dakota and cross town rivals University of British Columbia to Bill Copeland Arena for the second annual Great Northwest Showcase (GNS). SFU had an up and down weekend as they were trounced by Princeton 8-1, but narrowly lost to powerhouse North Dakota, 4-3. Princeton and North Dakota, two NCAA Division I schools, are premier colleges for developing NHL talent. Princeton has had 23 players since 1963 drafted by NHL teams, while this year’s North Dakota squad boasts 15 NHL draft picks, highlighted by USA’s 2012-13 World Juniors hero Rocco Grimaldi and St. Louis Blues’ first rounder Jordan Schmaltz. Simon Fraser played Princeton for their opening game of the GNS. In the first period, Princeton’s Andrew Calof, the eventual player of the game, put the visitors ahead early. Despite being heavily outshot, SFU found itself level when Graham Smerek forced a turnover in Princeton’s zone and found Clan leading scorer Nick Sandor, who buried the equalizer. Sandor’s goal was SFU’s lone bright spot of the night. Calof led the Princeton onslaught with four points over the course of the game, which featured six third-period Princeton goals. The Clan was no match for Princeton’s obvious talent level. SFU’s strategy in the second game of the showcase, against North Dakota, was to play a five man neutral zone trap: keep five men in front of the puck, absorb as much heat as North Dakota could bring, and capitalize
January 20, 2014
on chances in transition. For most of the night, the strategy worked perfectly. The first period came and went without any scoring, but North Dakota carried the play, peppering Clan netminder Graham Gordon with a multitude of shots. North Dakota’s relentless fore-check finally paid off, as in the second, they drew a Clan penalty, and on the ensuing powerplay Grimaldi put his team ahead 1-0. SFU’s newest member Scott Brkich answered with a power play blast of his own, leveling the game at one goal apiece. The third period featured as much drama as a hockey game could provide. SFU took a surprising one from a great individual effort by Trevor Piller, whose cross-ice pass hit a ND defenseman and went in. After the go ahead goal, North Dakota did what great teams do and picked up their game, eventually replying to SFU’s goal with two of their own, taking a 3–2 lead. The seesaw period continued when Jono Ceci found Sandor cross-crease for the tap-in equalizer. North Dakota’s Dillon Simpson eventually put the Fighting Sioux ahead for good off of a mad scramble in the SFU crease. Ceci later had a glorious opportunity all alone at the side of the net, but was denied by Sioux netminder Zane Gothberg, securing North Dakota’s 4–3 victory.
SFU only had 17 shots in the game compared to North Dakota’s 51, but despite what the stat sheet may say, SFU did a great job of limiting North Dakota’s chances, as most of the 51 shots were from low percentage areas on the ice. UBC eventually went on to win the GNS, with two victories out of two games played, but SFU’s valiant effort against North Dakota wrapped up a great weekend of high-level hockey.
For all the disappointment the Clan football team’s 2013 season brought, two players are well on their way to an exceptional new year. Offensive lineman Matthias Goossen and linebacker Casey Chin have both improved their CFL draft ranking, following outstanding individual seasons. Goossen was ranked 15th in the first edition of the rankings, which came out in September.
“It was exciting for sure to be recognized,” he said at the time. “I have put in a lot of hard work during my time here, but nothing is set in stone.” His ranking certainly wasn’t. He’s climbed all the way to fifth in the newest edition of the prospects list. Goossen started all 10 games for the Clan in 2013, and was the anchor on a muchimproved offensive line that gave up the second fewest sacks in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). Chin, meanwhile, put together his best-ever season and one of the best statistical seasons the GNAC has seen. After being ranked 12th back in September, Chin racked up 119 total tackles, second in the conference (by one), while his 68 solo tackles were a GNAC record. He also finished with three interceptions on the year, good
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for third in the conference. His performance in 2013 pushed his ranking up to 11th. “I work hard and try to do the right things on and off the field,” said Chin after the September ranking. Cliché as it may sound, his — and Goossen’s — hard work has paid off, and both find themselves just a few months away from hearing their names at the Canadian Football League draft in May. Despite the team’s underwhelming performance this past season, the Clan football program continues to churn out quality football players. Four Clan athletes were drafted in the 2012 CFL draft, and now Goossen and Chin are ready to follow suit. With the two stars prepping for the pros, it’s a testament to the program and the fact that no matter who the new head coach is, there will be plenty of talent to work with.
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HUMOUR
January 20, 2014
This week’s Peak Humour
Mark Burnham / The Peak
“I got a Dark Knight poster to show that I love films, a Bob Marley one because I’m a huge music-nerd, and this Che Guevara one because I’m a really into t-shirts,” Watson explained, going through his $89.99 receipt. “If anyone ever came to my dorm, I think they’d really have a good sense of who I am.”
BURNABY — With SFU’s semesterly Imaginus Poster Sale in full swing, a local first-year student believes that he has found the perfect selection of decorations to liven up the dorm room that only he has ever seen. According to his own testimony, Harry Watson, who lives in a tiny, awful room in Towers purchased the “perfect collection” of posters that represent all his hobbies and interests, and can’t wait for them to be enjoyed by himself, the only one who ever spends any time there.
While Watson still hasn’t finished mounting them all to the wall, he says the posters have really made his place look a lot nicer and believes they’ll inspire a fair number of conversation starters he
imagines while lying there alone. “I used to just stay in that room by myself all night, depressed, staring at the walls,” he told The Peak solemnly. “That’s all behind me now . . . now I can stare, depressed, at a life-sized image of Lebron James instead!” While Watson is very impressed by the selection of posters he was able to acquire at the Imaginus sale, he doesn’t think that he is done decorating. “Now that I see how it looks with a couple things up on the wall, I just want to keep adding stuff to really give it a cool vibe that will attract me to stay here at all times,” he said, flashing a huge grin. “Soon you won’t even be able to see the walls . . . well not you, but I won’t be able to see the walls.” When asked at press time what accessories he was considering adding to the dorm, Watson didn’t know for sure but mentioned the possibility of either getting a cactus, a lava lamp or a decorative noose.
humour editor email / phone
Brad McLeod humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
HUMOUR
BURNABY — SFU’s long discussed and fully supported $4.4 trillion Rigel 6 satellite campus, which was officially announced last week, is set to be accompanied by an observatory whose $4.4 million price tag has set off a large number of angry SFU students. While few are against the planned billions-of-light-years away satellite campus located in the far-off Rigel universe and set to be complete in August 3045, concerned students say they feel ‘blindsided’ by the new Trottier Observatory and Plaza. “Are we really going to spend a few million dollars on a building that just magnifies space a little?” questioned Jill Stevens, a third year communications major. “I can totally understand the practicality of keeping some connection with the new Rigel 6 campus, but can’t we just trust that its getting built and not have to spy on them?” Stevens’ sentiments have been echoed by many students at SFU who say that $4.4 million seems excessive just for an earth-building. “In this economy we really need to think about what is absolutely necessary, and this observatory just seems a little excessive,” SFU biology alum, Tyler Deroche, told The Peak. “Hopefully the people in charge of our
January 20, 2014
Rigel 6 campus will be a little more level headed.” Deroche went on to say that he felt it wasn’t really the observatory that had students so riled up but that they were simply unhappy about the way it was implemented.
“Well, the Starry Nights stargazing program has been around
since 2007 so I think we all knew that a satellite campus located in another universe was coming for sure,” he explained, thinking back. “But an observatory? Where the fuck did that come from? Don’t even get me started on the plaza they’ve been saying is going to be built with it . . . this school is getting down-right reckless with its spending!” While Deroche has said they will fight hard to prevent the bservatory, he also stated that he still hasn’t soured on the Rigel 6 campus. “I’ve supported that from the beginning and I think it has a lot of potential” he said, trying to remain optimistic. “There could be so much great stuff there, it could have it’s own academic quadrangle, it’s own SUB building . . . oooh they could even build an observatory — that would be pretty cool!”
When I first came across Pet Sounds, it was quite a relieving moment. I used to think that I was the only one who loved to listen to sounds of dogs barking, cats meowing, roosters roosting and chimpanzees making whatever sounds monkeys make. But when I saw this album at my local record store, I thought not only was I not alone, but men — boys, actually — thought to make an entire album of them. That’s what I thought, at least. I popped in the album and heard an instrument, not an animal, but a musical
instrument. Well, I listened a few seconds further — perhaps it was an intro, and then I would hear a few oinks — but next I heard melody, beautiful melody. Here I was expecting disorganized, dissonant pet sounds, and instead I’m hearing well crafted songs that are catchy and make you feel upbeat! I wanted music to rage to, music to make me wonder why I live in a barn (without actually living in a barn), not pleasant sixties surf-rock! If the misleading title wasn’t enough, the cover shows these “beach boys” feeding
ST. LOUIS — According to a press release from Major League Baseball, a prematurely born baby has been permanently banned from playing the sport after finding evidence of steroid usage. The baby, who as of yet has not been named, had allegedly been given steroids before birth to help his lungs function normally and allow him to live. Major League Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, stated that he wants to set an example with this suspension. “I want kids to know if you use steroids, there will be punishment,” Selig explained in a press conference in Saint Louis. “I don’t care if your doctor talked you into it, I don’t care if you’re a baby, I don’t even care if you‘re not born yet. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” Tim and Rose Geridanos, the baby’s parents, were understandably unhappy and shocked after hearing Selig’s decision on TV. “This is just a routine procedure when a baby is born prematurely,”
animals. I assumed this was one of those behind the scenes shots of them preparing the animals for recording. I mean, maybe I should have known better, because why would “beach boys” make an album with pet sounds? You would expect a name like . . . “The Pet Shop Boys” or something, but I thought that maybe they were just being ironic. Certainly, they aren’t going to the beach in those clothes and they clearly appear to be well above the age of boyhood. Listening to the whole album, I did hear some pet
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explained a clearly shaken Rose. “I don’t even think that they’re the same kind of steroids the MLB is trying to get rid of.” Despite the severe allegations and steep punishment set against him, Major League Baseball’s Player Association did not offer its support to the baby.
“Well at least it’s not one of our players. Maybe the baby should have thought about the consequences before taking performance enhancing drugs,” said representative Hal Bors, “Maybe this will serve as a wakeup call for babies everywhere to take responsibility for their actions, this isn’t the incubator anymore.” The Geridanos, although angry at the damage of reputation that this suspension might bring upon their son, will not attempt to overturn the suspension stating: “It’s not worth our time and energy . . . besides, we’re more cricket fans anyways.”
sounds but was still disappointed that the pet noises were not at the forefront of the project. Unless you are a fan of well-done vocal harmonies and interesting arrangements, I cannot honestly recommend this album.
24 LAST WORD
features editor email / phone
Max Hill features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
his is the main argument I get from those who have never before experienced what we North Americans call “real sushi”. But really, what makes for real sushi over here? If we can’t even get the terminology straight, how can we truly enjoy another culture’s cuisine to its fullest? It’s time to set the record straight on the edible work of art that North America loves to blindly indulge in: sushi. But what exactly is sushi, anyway? Well, in plain terms, sushi is cooked rice with rice vinegar. It’s the sweet, sticky rice that holds the food you’re eating — and the whole restaurant — together. Like sushi, sashimi is often used incorrectly; it refers to a thin slice of unadorned raw meat which is, more often than not, fish. Slap some sashimi on top of a ball of sushi rice with a pinch of wasabi and, presto: nigiri sushi. This is what usually gives sushi newbies the “ick” factor. However, most of the sushi eaten in North America is in roll form — the Japanese call this makizushi. Rolls are made up of rice and nori (seaweed), with pretty much anything inside. Raw fish, crab and roe (fish eggs) are popular in Japan, but up north our rolls can include avocado, cucumber, cream cheese, or even mushrooms. There are also plenty of variations on the standard roll model. Maki with rice on the outside is called yukiwa-maki, while
hand-made cones are deemed temaki. Futomaki are large rolls with two layers of nori, while gunkanmaki is a sort of roll/nigiri hybrid that features slices of raw meat wrapped in nori and sushi rice. It’s enough to make your head spin! This next bit is for all you health nuts. In 2011, Japan earned the distinction of having the highest life expectancy in the entire world at 83 years of age. Apart from their cozy island lifestyle and high tech gadgets, what do they have that we don’t? Well, for one, their cuisine! Though Japanese folks tend to eat sushi a lot less frequently than we do, it certainly doesn’t seem to be making them unhealthy. Some students may be hesitant to eat that extra slice of ebi between classes, but it turns out that sushi has a ton of health benefits for us, too. For starters, all you celiacs will have no trouble with most things served at a sushi bar — sushi rice is gluten free, and sushi is easy on the digestive tract because of this. The other main upside is that fish is very low in calories: most white fish has less than 100 calories per 100 grams, while chicken breast clocks in at 172. Because almost all sushi is raw, there is no oil or deep fried gunk to worry about clogging your arteries and lower bowels. On the other hand, if you’re craving a little more grease in your life, you’re in luck: on this side of the Pacific, deep fried maki is a popular option.
When looking for the best sushi in town, the key is freshness. Japan is great at this: their fish markets are teeming with live fish being carted around in barrels waiting to be purchased and served that day, raw or cooked. The fish used for sushi should be so fresh and well-cut that it melts in your mouth. Believe it or not, by putting those well-trained googling fingers to work, making maki sushi at home could be a reality tonight — and, since most recipes don’t require cooking, it’s also dorm-friendly. You’re going to want to chop some long, thin strips of your veggie of choice. I suggest cucumber or carrot because they’re cheap and easy. Add some faux crab meat or fish to complete the package. Your shopping list should also include sushi rice, rice vinegar, nori, and a bamboo mat to roll your delicacy. The latter should be the fanciest of the bunch — after all, you want it to last you for years of homemade sushi dinners. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then cook it according to the brand’s instructions. Transfer it to a bowl and add some rice vinegar, along with salt and a little sugar to taste. Put down a piece of nori on your bamboo mat, and layer it with some rice. Leave a strip of nori bare of rice on one side and dampen it with rice vinegar so the roll will seal up. Add your fillings, roll it up and, tada! A tasty and healthy maki roll that’s all your own. Mom would be so proud.
January 20, 2014