News
Mahdi Dialden News Writer
Mahdi Dialden News Writer
Michelle Young / News Editor Mahdi Dialden and Karissa Ketter / News Writers
November 2, 2020 news@the-peak.ca
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News
Michelle Young / News Editor Mahdi Dialden and Karissa Ketter / News Writers
news@the-peak.ca
Kelly Chia Peak Associate
Mahdi Dialden News Writer
Opinions
Madeleine Chan Opinions Editor
Madeleine Chan / Opinions Editor
November 2, 2020 opinions@the-peak.ca
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Opinions
Madeleine Chan / Opinions Editor
opinions@the-peak.ca
Marco Ovies Editor-in-Chief
F E ATURES
10 Arts & Culture
Michelle Young News Editor
Meera Eragoda / Arts & Culture Editor
arts@the-peak.ca
Arts & Culture
November 2, 2020
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STRANGER THAN FICTION
This Sounds Serious: Grand Casino bets on a pitchperfect parody podcast This self-reflexive satire podcast pokes fun at true crime tropes while keeping you hooked Emma Jean Staff Writer If you’ve stumbled onto any podcast streaming service in the last five years, you’re bound to have seen a variety of podcasts with ominous names investigating true crime cases. With the abundance of nervous journalists questioning reluctant sources in series like Serial or Someone Knows Something, it’s easy to pick apart the cliches of the genre. This Sounds Serious, produced by Vancouver podcast studio Kelly&Kelly, concentrates those tropes to create a tremendously accurate parody of investigative podcasts while combining laughout-loud humour with genuinely gripping storytelling. Each season concentrates on a different mystery being investigated by Gwen Radford, a dedicated investigative journalist played impeccably by Carly Pope. Full disclosure, I loved the first two seasons of This Sounds Serious. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the third
since I binge-listened to the second, Missing Melissa, and found it one of the most creative and compelling pieces of narrative fiction I’d ever heard. That season featured the mysteriously and hilariously intertwined cases of a chronically missing person, the longest recorded hostage situation, and a small-town mayor. Before I knew it, I was yelling questions at my earbuds. Needless to say, I had high expectations for the third season. Subtitled Grand Casino, with the eighth and final episode released digitally on October 20, the latest installment feels different from the first two. Rather than having Gwen dig into unsolved cases, she’s working to unravel a seemingly closed case from nearly 30 years ago involving now-imprisoned con-man Kirk Todd, voiced by cocreator Pat Kelly. Allegedly, Kirk frauded Hollywood executives
into funding and premiering a movie, the titular Grand Casino, that he never actually made — and which the industry tried to bury all record of. The more Gwen starts to investigate, however, the more questions emerge around what really happened. Grand Casino doesn’t try to achieve the ambitious feat of tying
prior seasons, but it still wraps up the season in an unexpected and interesting way that had me saying “WHAT?” until the last second. The show also shines in its production, edited to a perfect pastiche of all of the quirks and techniques used in narrative podcasts. The meta of it all is taken to another level when Gwen consults the goofy hosts of a fictional film The series is highly researched in its comedy podcast parody, and it shows. Throughout the who make fun of third season, references to real-life cons what they know of Grand Casino, and the podcasts based on them are and a satiresprinkled throughout — subtle enough to sound like smart details to newcomers w i t h i n - a - s a t i r e is born. For fans and knowing nods to experts. of the Vancouver comedy scene, three stories together the way there will be no shortage of Missing Melissa does, but it does recognizable voices in Grand string together events separated Casino. One of those will likely be by time. As always, it’s fascinating the standout performance from to hear Gwen work out the case Caitlin Howden, whose excellent and her thought process, but the work as a naïve French actress is case’s generally distant nature played with earnestness and welldoesn’t create the same urgency. timed camp, and is cleverly utilized As a result, the ending doesn’t live as her seemingly smaller role grows up to the incredible pay-off of the as the plot thickens.
The series is highly researched in its parody, and it shows. Throughout the third season, references to reallife cons and the podcasts based on them are sprinkled throughout — subtle enough to sound like smart details to newcomers and knowing nods to experts. The plot twists and devices used occasionally seem too elaborate to be plausible, but, as cowriter and director Dave Shumka’s Twitter source thread proves, they are often identical to real-life cons. A mark of good satire is that it highlights the absurdity of its source material, and Grand Casino knocks that out of the park. The premise of This Sounds Serious revolves around true crime and those invested in the genre will get a kick out of those details, but anyone who listens can get something out of the latest season. Just be open to a good story and let Gwen take it away. This Sounds Serious: Grand Casino can be bought ad-free for $4.99 on their website and all three seasons can be streamed for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever podcasts are found.
SENSING ART
SFU’s Katayoon Yousefbigloo awarded the Audain Travel Award The MFA student plans on exploring the possibilities of virtual reality in her art Charlene Aviles Peak Associate Intrigued by the adaptation of technology to create interactive art, multi-talented artist, musician, and MFA student Katayoon Yousefbigloo hopes to use the $7,500 Audain Travel Award she recently received to do just that. The award, which normally funds art students’ excursions to see art, will instead fund full-time students' art projects to adhere to travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. During an interview with The Peak , Yousefbigloo expressed her gratitude for her award and her excitement for SFU’s MFA program. Due to the program's interdisciplinary nature, she has the opportunity to explore different mediums and collaborate with other artists. Yousefbigloo mentioned that she would like to learn more about virtual reality and adapt it to a gallery setting. She explained the innovative and interactive virtual reality project proposed in her application. “I proposed a multi-channel video installation made up of
four isolated videos that will be collaged together to make one immersive, augmented reality that can be viewed with a headset or on your phone.” Yousefbigloo’s project, while impressive, requires flexibility. She admitted that the project entails addressing and reducing the technological barriers of creating and experiencing the installation. “The installation looks at how we historicize events through media by recreating an event pulled from John Brunner's novel The Sheep Look Up in an immersive video experience. I'm exploring themes of transparency, digital authority, and how the fragmentation of time as a result of a constant access to a disembodied past has hindered our ability to clearly situate our current experience in historical terms.” Yousefbigloo contrasted virtual reality with other forms of traditional media and acknowledged virtual reality's potential for the live performance component she is planning for her installation.
In contrast to traditional media that has “no sensory elements [and] no agency in it,” virtual reality is not confined to the same limits, enhancing artists’ creative freedom and audience interaction. “The cool thing about augmented reality and immersive video is that there’s some kind of movement and some kind of interaction. That appeals more broadly in my practice [ . . . ] Having some kind of audience participation and having some kind of agency in the audience member [will help them] create a narrative and to create something of their own out of the art.” Yousefbigloo takes a unique approach to art because she prefers to follow her interests by exploring different mediums. While she understands that there can be pressure for artists to pigeonhole themselves into one medium in order to corner a niche, she rejects the need for categories in her own work. “I don’t see myself as someone who fits into those institutional or the normal categories [ . . . ] that are made for artists [ . . . ] I think that if I want to leave one mark, it would be to [encourage others to] ‘Just [make] what you want and not what people want you to make.’”
Yousefbigloo aims to create art that engages her audience.
Courtesy of Nima Gholamipour
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Arts & Culture
Meera Eragoda / Arts & Culture Editor
arts@the-peak.ca
Humour
Paige Riding / Humour Editor
November 2, 2020 humour@the-peak.ca
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Humour
Paige Riding / Humour Editor
humour@the-peak.ca
Humour
November 2, 2020
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16 Diversions
Yuri Zhou / Business Manager
business@the-peak.ca
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