Artichoke Vol.3 No.1

FROSH 2013: WINTERS NATIONS MY OCEAN OF MY MEMORIES

SEPTEMBER 2013 VOL. 03 NO. 1

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WINTERS

EWAG Elanor Winters Art Gallery Update Betty Zhang, Curator

Hi everybody, welcome to Winters College! We are located at WC 129 and we welcome all kinds of artistic expression (visual, music, dance and theater performances). If you are interested in exhibiting your artwork, email us at ewag@yorku.ca for more information.

Keep checking Artichoke for updates on EWAG! You can Also visit our facebook page www.facebook.com/EWAGYU and facebook group www.facebook.com groups/ 409362955785187/ follow us on twitter @EWAGyu and tumblr ewagyu.tumblr.com/

For September, we have two York Alumni shows: September 2 - 13: Miles Forrester - Sound and Video Show Miles Forrester is an conceptual artist and writer located in Toronto Ontatrio whose mediums combine performance, video, sound, and installation. A recent graduate of York University, Forrester’s work ecstatically explores the latitudes of chaos with arbitrary systems to yield significant fiascos.

September 16 - 27: Donald Au, Gary Babcock, and Lenny Cohen - Collaborative Alumni Show This show combines almost all elements of visual arts, it integrated drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and installation aspects to create a well rounded show amongst three high school art teachers. It seeks to destroy the stereotype that art teachers are failed artists.

CONTENTS VOL 3 NO. 1 SEPTEMBER 2013

FEATURE

10 FROSH 2013

WINTERS NATIONS

16 MY OCEAN

OF MEMORIES

ENTERTAINMENT

26

FASHION

Wear and Care

28

TIFF REVIEW

Picks for TIFF 2013

30

ART REVIEW

David Bowie Exhibit

32

LOCAL HAUNTS

So Close You Can Feel Them

MAJOR SPEAK

HEALTH

18

THEATRE

33

RES RECIPE

A Blurred End in Sight

Buttered Chicken

20

VISUAL ARTS

34

PSYCHOLOGY

Art Inspired by Life

Psychology of Breakups

22 MUSIC

36

PHILOSOPHY

Music Polaris

Navigating the Maize

24

THEATRE

38

BEAUTY

Ten Rules for Attending my Teenage Thetre Program

Social Grooming

Contributors EDITOR IN CHIEF

EMMA BECKETT

ART DIRECTORS

JACOB COLOSI JENNIFER ZHANG

WRITERS

Alex Millington Camellia De Castro Curtis te Brinke Diana Edelhauser Joy Wong Laura Speare Lindsay Presswell Maddy Patton Megan Rooney Nicole Waxman Nigel D’Souza Peter Ellman Sarah Ellison Stefan Jablonski Tanner Ferris

DESIGNERS

Amanda Hoff Amy Chiu Anna Campbell Chelsie Grant Emily Munro Erika Sternberg Karen Keung Karen Vertierra Kristine Planche Michelle Fok Sarah El Sherbini Scott Osbourne

PHOTOGRAPHY

Haley Walton Steph Raposo

ARTICHOKE

Hi everyone, It’s my pleasure to welcome you all to York and especially to your home college, Winters. As Master of the College I am responsible for the community as a whole - the cultural activities, the workshops, the nuts and bolts of running the building itself, and your safety and well being. I also work closely with College Council, the Absinthe Pub, EWAG (the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery), the clubs, the residence and of course, with the Artichoke, your own local newspaper. Please consider contributing to the paper, no matter how big or small your contribution might be. Our previous editor, Lindsay, worked tirelessly to give the Artichoke its present very modern look which we all love, and with our new editor, Emma, now at the helm we want to keep moving forward. Inclusivity is one of our key words. We wantto see the paper

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continue to grow as a periodical that represents everyone at Winters!! So speak up,and let’s hear from you.

It is also my pleasure to share the news that the Fine Art Faculty has a new Dean, Dr.Shawn Brixey. He is warm and approachable and we all look forward to working with him this year. Watch for announcements regarding Dean’s Lunches which will be held in the Senior Common Room. These will be great informal opportunities for you to share ideas and thoughts with the Dean and myself, and of course, to enjoy free food!!

And by the way, if anyone just wants to drop by my office to say hi, please do so.

All the best, Marie

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WINTERS

WIN– TERS council

update

Tanner Ferris

Breathe in.

Count to three.

Exhale.

You have applied. You have auditioned.

You have been accepted and in turn accepted. Now, you are a student at York University. It seems as though everything is in order, yet you still feel flustered.

What can I do next? Are there any clubs?

How do I get involved? Where are my classes? Who do I talk to about‌? Where do I get my York Card? Who are the crazy people in red? All of which are questions you are probably asking yourself.

First off, if you have bought a frosh kit you are in for the ride of your life. If not, no worries, getting involved is still a simple task. There is an awesome place in the bowels of Winters College, The council office (room 003). The council office is home to some of the friendliest, most personable people you will ever meet.

Members of Winters College Council will always be readily available to answer any quizzical questions you may have. Starting with, of course, what the hell is Winters College Council?

Winters College Council is a collective of students elected by the students of

Winters College to represent their voices in the university. Each member of the council has a role that targets a specific demographic of the student population.

Winters College Council (WCC) plans three major events throughout the year.

The first being Frosh week, the second being our Montreal trip and the third being our Winters Formal. Sporadically throughout the year are a plethora of events that you can immerse yourself in, such as Pub nights, Karaoke nights, Acoustic nights, Frost Week, Ski Trip, Spoken Word nights, Hockey, Volleyball, Rage Dodge ball, Soccer, Commuter Nights, and so much more. one upcoming event to keep your eye on is frosh. This year is going to be such a blast, there are some awesome events planned. Just remember it is a dry frosh, so keep sober, meet people and have a crazy amount of fun. Also, Winters Council has have openings for two commuter representatives, two first year representatives and a residence representative. We are also hiring a new speaker, so

keep your eyes out for more news about that following frosh week.

In each edition of the Artichoke this year, this column will be present giving you information about upcoming events that council has to offer, news on clubs, sports and most importantly ways you can get involved. Council has an open door policy, if you need to talk, have a question, want to sit in for a meeting or just want to hang out drop by the council office we will always be glad to see you.

For more information visit winterscouncil.com or like our facebook page facebook.com/winterscouncil or follow us on Twitter at @winterscouncil

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Editors Letter Artichoke magazine is in its third year as the Winters College free press publication. For the past two years Lindsay Presswell has been doing an outstanding job as Editor in Cheif, ultimately building this magazine from the ground up with help from her head designer, Brian Cass. This year, both Lindsay and Brian have opted to move on and use the experience they gained developing the Artichoke to take on even more ambitious projects. As a result, myself and the two new head designers Jennifer Zhang and Jacob Colosi will be building on their foundations to create a publication that is representative of Winters College and its many talented students.

I look forward to sharing the events and opinions of Winters students with the rest of the college and York University.

- Emma Beckett

WINTERS 8

ART DIRECTOR’S LETTER With fresh eyes and thoughts, many of us are waking up from summer hibernation. In a ritualistic way we begin to store away the snapshots of the cottage and summer musical festivals, some of us looking forward to the challenges of the coming year, and some wishing time wouldn’t move at all. As such, the Artichoke has been passed down to new hands for a new year. We would like to thank Brian Cass for all his hard work in establishing the Artichoke’s unique style, and we hope to do him justice in our work

with the publication. Just many of us begin to think about our goals for the coming year, we on the editorial team have begun to think of what we hope to achieve with the magazine. We look forward to refining the style of the publication to become representative of the skill and creativity of the students of Winter’s College, and visually representing the diversity and explosive energy of the fine arts community by showing off the talented students we have here!

ABOUT US Jacob Colosi

Jennifer Zhang

Interests: Typography, print production, graphic zines and novels, anchorage (semiology), design studies, printmaking

Interests: Information design, communication design, pondering the meaning of life, bunnies, charlie brown

Second Year Design Student

Third Year Design Student

Favourite music: CBC Radio 2 - The Signal

Favourite bands: Bombay Bicycle Club, Daughter, Angus and Julia Stone

Favourite book: The Alchemist

Favourite book: Into the Wild

Favourite hobby: Collecting souls

Favourite hobby: Attending concerts

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WINTERS NATIONS

b

Winters

N

By Emma Beckett

Frosh Week is a chance for Frosh, Frosh bosses, and even O-Chairs to make new friends and break out of their comfort zones. This year Rochelle Grandmont and Liam Barstow, fellow O-Chairs and 4th year Theatre Production students, talk about how frosh week has influenced them to become who they are and its role in the student community. Both of them have been involved in Winters frosh week every year that they have attended York, and they have been working all summer to make this year the best one yet.

Artichoke: When you were in first year, did you ever see yourself becoming an O-Chair?

Rochelle: Oh yeah. I remember my O-Chairs, and I just loved the energy they had and I loved the environment they created, and I saw how important it was for the students to

Re-uniting the World �rough Artistic Collaboration. feel comfortable and feel excited about starting university after feeling so scared and nervous about it for months. I realize that this position is so essential to a positive university experience, and I really wanted to be a part of that.

Liam: You know, I didn’t actually. When I was in first year I was just so excited to be at university meeting all these new people. Then when the time came for me to become a frosh boss that was all I was thinking about, and then the next year the time came for me to be a head boss and that was just unbelievable, so much fun and it just sort of made sense to me to try and step up to be an O-Chair. And now I’m here.

A: What are your individual strengths as leaders?

L: I’m really loud. I can project my voice so far that speaking to people at a

distance is not an issue to me at all.

R: I know one thing that we both are, and that’s hyper passionate people. Almost to a fault.

L: Almost.

R: Almost. Almost to a fault. We really, really care about winters, we care about the community and the people and I think as leaders, especially for frosh week, it’s really important to remember why we are doing what we’re doing.

A: Tell me about the WN theme. How did you decide on it, and why it is the best choice for this year?

R: Well last year, as we all know, the world ended because it was 2012. This year we decided that we need to rebuild that world. Now at Winters we are not so much about the details, specifics, and politics, we’re more about the artistic. All of our teams are made

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w up of artistic movements through the ages, because I feel like that’s how we would want to run the world.

We are also putting an emphasis on the nations coming together, and this is echoed in our trying to facilitate interdepartmental relationships and projects throughout the year.

A: What are three things that you consider to be essential to the Winters frosh experience?

R: Open-mindedness.

L: I’m all about spirit. Big spirit.

R: Bravery. Just get out of your shell, try something new for the first time, I bet you’ll like it.

L: Dancing. And red.

A: Do you have a piece of advice for first year bosses?

L: Say yes to everything. Just take every opportunity that comes your way during the week, help out wherever you can, get to know as many people as you possibly can, and you will not be sorry for it.

R: Have the courage to go up to the frosh and speak to them genuinely.

L: Like a person to a person.

R: It’s hard sometimes when you’re shy or more of an introvert to be introducing yourself to so many people, but you need to remember you aren’t just introducing yourself to a bunch of people, you are introducing yourself to your next best friend, your

“

Now at Winters we are not so much about the details, specifics, and politics, we’re more about the artistic.

”



Pho to B y Ha ley to n Wal

f PHOTO BY Steph Raposo

“ Frosh is the biggest,

loudest, most intense white-knuckle ride you’ll ever experience.”



next coworker, your next project collaborator. You need to remember that these people are an essential part of your future.

A: What is your favorite memory from your own frosh week?

R: I was throwing a bit of a tantrum in the quad because I couldn’t find the office that puts the little sticker on the back of your student card so everything is tax free, and in the middle of this tantrum I see this tall, straggly, skinny jean wearing, donkey holding man. He approached me and told me to take a deep breath, and that he could take me to the office straight away, and that’s the

moment when I realized that everyone here was here to help and to make sure that my transition into university was as smooth as possible.

L: My favorite frosh week memory was our cabaret that we held, and my group did a poetry slam of a lot of really popular youtube videos. My particular poem was: She’s my mother.

No, She’s mine. Meow. Ow. Meow ow. Woooooow.

A: In your opinion, does the relationship between first years and frosh bosses during frosh week make it more difficult to become friends after frosh week is over?

L: I don’t think it does. I think the

entire point of having frosh bosses who are current students or just recent graduates of York University is so that you can introduce first year incoming students to the people who have been here however long, and make those relationships last.

R: We are really working on breaking down the walls. I know sometimes coming in as a first year student you can feel intimidated, and we really want to make sure that no one feels that way and that everyone just feels welcomed and loved, and straight away a part of winters.

A: How would you explain frosh week to a student who has never participated in it?

L: Frosh is the biggest, loudest, most intense white-knuckle ride you’ll ever experience. It’s seven days of absolute madness, waking up really early in the morning, and going to bed late at night so tired that you literally cannot think about anything other than going to sleep. But then you wake up the next day, and you do it all again.

A: What do you think makes it worth it?

L: Absolutely everything makes it worth it. Being at the college, meeting new people, getting to know people you already know a lot better.

R: It’s one of those experiences that you look back on and you remember as being one of the greatest. I’m in my 4th year and every time I think about my frosh week I still get that rush of energy. It’s something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

A: Why are there so many Winters college traditions that have lasted for as long as they have, and why are they still such an important part of frosh week?

L: Winters is full of traditions. What makes Winters Winters is the fact

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RO

CK

HANDS

UP!

c that and told me about winters, and said this is the place that I belong.

Little did I know, she was very right.

A: Where is your favourite place to study/relax on campus?

R: Well, I really like the nature around the college, the gardens, the shrubbery, those little nooks, or I guess you could call them holes… where you just get to enjoy the outdoors. The nature. The greenery.

L: Yeah.

A: Can you name something special that you are planning that makes this frosh week different than any other?

R: Winters is planning a carnival this year! Normally we go to the Glendon carnival, but this year they’re not having it so Winters decided to take this opportunity to make our own. We are basically highlighting everything Winters. We are going to have painting, and music, and dancing, we have a hoop dancer coming in to teach



PHOTO BY Steph Raposo

that we can bring in 500 completely brand new incoming first year students and welcome them to the school with one simple tradition that may have been around for five, maybe ten years, maybe even sixty years.

Who knows how long some of these traditions have been around for. But in the end, that brings them in and it welcomes them to what winters is.

R: Winters is known for their traditions. It gives us the atmosphere that we like. All the other colleges kind of see us as this sort of mysterious entity, and that’s really fun.

A: What was it about York that made you decide to apply and study here?

L: Funny story. I applied to a few schools,

right now I am earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre production at the theatre program here at York and I applied to numerous schools to get into a similar degree path, but a friend of mine was already at York, and suggested to me during the time that I was applying to schools that I should apply to York and come to Winters. No joke.

R: That is funny because my story is sort of similar. I applied to a bunch of really different programs, I applied to queens for history, Ryerson for psychology, and then York for theatre just out of no where. And my theatre teacher had graduated from York, and when I was researching where I was going to live she noticed

“ Winters is

known for their traditions.

It gives us the atmosphere that we like.

”

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WINTERS NATIONS

q 

dancing, jugglers teaching how to juggle, and of course the Quidditch team is going to come and show us how to play Quidditch.

L: It really highlights everyone’s specific talent within the arts, and allows for everybody to show who they really are.

A: How was your experience working with Winters council this summer, and how are they an important part of the college?

R: Addie, our council president, is always full of energy and passion for everything to do with Winters. He really reminds us of why we are here and makes sure that we are doing everything we can to make Winters the best place that it can be.

The rest of council has been so supportive of our ideas, our kookiness, our craziness, and so patient with us learning the process of council.

They have really been there for us.

L: We have also been working in very close collaboration with the Master’s office, and

Marie Rickard is one heck of a woman.

R: If you ever need anything, she will put down whatever she’s doing and she will make you a priority, and that is really important to us.

A: How does the Winters frosh week community prepare students for life outside of school?

R: We have a really strong focus on interdepartmental projects this year. As a fine arts student, we really want to ensure that our students know that one of the most important things is who you know, and frosh week is a great place to start making those connections.

L: When you get out into the workplace, especially in the fine arts, it becomes very apparent that collaboration with others is key in the creation of new work, regardless of area of study or practice.

A: Tell me about some events that are happening throughout the year to promote school spirit even after frosh week has ended.

“

collaboration with others is key in the creation of new work, regardless of area of study or practice.

”

Photo By Haley Walton

L: This year, York is trying something new and welcoming all of the first year incoming students with one big event hosted in the commons, and it’s called the Lions Pride. It’s a bit of an experiment so we will see how it goes.

A: What is your favourite winters frosh week cheer?

R & L: Jellyfish, ah jellyfish, ah jellyfish, ah jellyfish…

A: What do you think is the best quality about your fellow O-Chair?

R: Oh! Liam has been my rock, when I am feeling overwhelmed he is the one who knows how to bring me back which is really important to me. I know during the week he is going to be the one who reminds me of how much fun we are having, and how much we love what we are doing.

L: Rochelle is incredibly passionate and will literally do anything to make sure that this is the best that it can be, and I can only do my very best to make sure that that happens for her, and I would do anything to make sure that Rochelle’s dreams come true with frosh week.

A: Is there anything else you want to say that hasn’t been brought up?

R & L: THE SUMMIT.

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CREATIVE SUBMISSION

What if

?ave

the sea had an eternal memory

w

Would it feel every lap and every That stretched from shore to shore;

d

d

Would it hold the soul of ever a man

That lived and d i e

in it’s body, or more; Would it br eathe with the creatures that called it a home, And breathe for the creatures whose lives it had known;

Would it feel every BEAT of the hearts that touched its waters And would it feel the keeper of the hearts that loved; Each and every sailor and every sailor’s daughter, Each and every fisherman and each and every son;

Would it AN

GU Is H for all of the lives that it took,

n a e c O  f Memories o by step

h rapo

so

For all the storms that it gave ( and all the boats that it ( Sh Oo k

?

((

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le w

Would it recall all of the winds that b right on through The gentle summer breezes and the trememdous winter gales; Or all of the rains that p

ou r ed down and added to the blue -

w e rr and the ghastly autumn hails;

The fresh spring ss h oo w e s w sh o h e rss Would it recall every sun, every moon and every

star,

Would it, for every cloud that blew, hold a place within it’s heart;

ED

Would it watch for every bird that s oAR high above it’s surface, Dream of every city it’s flown with, and long to fly beside it;

cry

Would it reach out to the toes of those it wished to kiss, And for the toes that walked to the land and never returned to it; Would it yearn to be a part of something bigger than itself, To be a part of the sand, or a part of the land, or a part of anything else?

How sad it would be, And how lonely, it seems,

If the sea had an

eternal

memory.

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MAJOR SPEAK

By Megan Rooney My introduction to the theatre program at York began with a noted professor remarking, “If you’re crazy enough to want to do what we do, we’ll give you the keys to the asylum.”

As it turns out, I was crazy enough. And to be clear, I do not use that term lightly.

Making the decision to become and remain a theatre student for at least four years requires a person to be hardwired a certain way. Why else would a student sacrifice a normal course load for a combination of standard classes, carp shop work, lighting tutorials, long rehearsal hours and stacks of paperwork? Not to mention the tight deadlines, high stress levels, lack of sleep and the harsh, inevitable reality that if a piece of technology chooses to malfunction, it will do so right before the curtain rises. Earning a B.F.A in theatre has so many strings attached that one simply loses count. Hence the crazy participant prerequisite.

Organized chaos aside, choosing to study theatre in university has proven to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. Being involved in the program offers participants the opportunity to plot, in detail, the path they intend to travel during their time as an undergraduate student. With the option of streaming into a specific division of the department, including production, devised performance and theatre studies, students can take courses tailored to their individual interests. Most people wouldn’t believe how many remarkable things a young person can accomplish when they have the opportunity to study the subjects that matter to them. The dynamic shows and performances created, produced and presented by the theatre students at York serve as a prime example of this.

I was lucky enough to earn access to those asylum keys and I have spent the last three years opening some pretty interesting doors. This September, I will be entering into the fourth and final year of my undergraduate studies. With the achievement of my B.F.A, a significant chapter of my life will be coming to an end and to be truthful, I am not sure what awaits me with the turning of the page.

Familiarity breeds comfort and after

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 “ Most people

wouldn’t believe how many remarkable things a young person can accomplish when they have the opportunity to study the subjects that matter to them.

”

three years at university, I have fallen into a comfortable routine. The end of my time as an undergraduate means the end of this form of familiarity and that is a little scary. On the bright side, there is comfort to be found in the knowledge that I am not alone in my insecurity. I had a recent conversation with two close theatre friends, both of whom are also entering their final year, and we trade thoughts about moving on and moving away from all that we had grown accustomed to.

We agreed that four years is a significant portion of time in the life of a young adult. Four years can be enough time for a person to discover who they are, to re-invent themselves entirely or to begin to understand who they might become.

Each one of us had had at least a brush with every one of those experiences. With three years down, I have one year left as an undergraduate theatre student. Up to this point, I have performed as an actor, planned as a manager and created as a

designer. I have worked alongside some of the most driven and passionate young professionals to create, produce and present works of art. I have discovered who I am, re-invented myself and begun to understand who I want to be. The end is in sight and I just need to remind myself that the skills I have gained along this journey will see me through, regardless of what happens after the curtain falls.

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MAJOR SPEAK

art inspired by

LIFE

BY CAMELLIA DE CASTRO

Every song we listen to, every painting we gaze at, every performance we watch is brought to life by an artist. Art does not merely exist. Art is thoughtfully constructed by a creative and imaginative soul.

Although art may have multiple purposes, I have always believed that art is created with the intention of self-expression. We are constantly overwhelmed with our own emotions and experiences, so it is inevitable that an artist subconsciously sheds a layer of themselves in their work. Yet, this process is different for every artist.

Some believe that the greatest art comes from the greatest suffering. Artist or not, we all have wounds that are too scarring to speak about. However, it is the artist who utilizes their craft in order to heal their wounds. Any artist would agree that channeling sufferings into a song or a painting is liberating because it allows you to expel your pain in a manner that is healing and harmless. Besides pain, artists also wish to express their happiest and proudest moments through their craft because art can reveal the beauty of life in such a way that words cannot.

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As an avid writer, I believe that facets of my own life trail off into my work. The feelings I have, the people I meet, the experiences I endure, the place I grew up – all contribute to my own unique and individual perspective of the world. And, it is my unique and individual perspective that allows me to write in a way that is different from another writer who lives a life with feelings, people, experiences, and places that I have never known. For instance, think about the timeless saying, “write what you know”. It implies writing with the emotions and experiences that are most personal to you. Hence, this saying applies to all the arts. You create music with the emotions and experiences you know. You paint with the emotions and experiences you know. You perform with the emotions and experiences you know.

Now, I’m not saying art is always about being autobiographical. In fact, some of the greatest art comes from idealizing the mundane in life or even turning the mundane into something extraordinary. The artist is the filter, as it is he or she who decides which snippets of their life should be included and which should not. Furthermore, many say that art imitates life. Well, “imitation” is a restrictive

word – it implies that something is a carbon copy of something else. So, does art really imitate life? Not necessarily. Perhaps, the word “inspired” is more fitting. Hence, art is inspired by life.

Saying that art is inspired by life is a more realistic statement. Because although many artists use their craft to express fragments of who they are, there are also many cases where art is so remote, so abstract and so far removed from the artist’s own life that the audience questions how the artist could have possibly con-

life. Take The Hunger Games for example – author Suzanne Collins definitely never fought to the death in an arena with 24 other children when she was a teenager. I would turn the novel’s pages over and over, trying to imagine how Collins could have possibly come up with some of the unique events within the story. Collins stated that her novel was inspired by Greek mythology among many other things, but what leaves us wondering is which aspects of the novel are symbols of Collins’s own life. Neither Collins nor any of us readers have ever experienced the type of dystopia that the characters did in The Hunger Games. But, every piece of art encompasses an extent of life. Perhaps, a particular character embodies a similar personality trait to Collins or maybe a scene in the novel is particularly nostalgic for Collins.

In many pieces of art, we may never know just how strictly or loosely the art is inspired by life.

But, perhaps the most beautiful part of art is that it is not an exact imitation of the artist’s life, that art is not an individual forum solely for the artist who created it but rather, art is a shared, universal experience that can unite and provoke all people. To say that art is inspired by life is to say that life offers us many muses, but ultimately, the way life is infused in the process of creation and invention is left in the hands of the artist.

“The feelings I have, the people I meet, the experiences I endure, the place I grew up – all contribute to my own unique and individual perspective of the world.” cocted such a piece. For instance, many musicians speak about writing lyrics that they do not necessarily identify with and thus, they created the song by putting themselves in “another person’s shoes.”

In addition, being the literature enthusiast that I am, I have read many books where authors invent a crazy fictional story that could not possibly be an emblem from their own life or anyone else’s

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Major speak

PROBLEMS AND POSIBILITIES FOR THE

PETER ELLMAN

Of the many music news articles, editorials, and columns on the Polaris music prize, Alan Cross’ 2010 piece for Metro Canada has stuck with me the most since I read it.

In his piece, Alan Cross argues that despite the debatable shortcomings of this prize (issues of race, language, genre, or mainstream popularity), it generates discussion and exposure for new Canadian music that is of utmost importance. This July Steve Jordan, founder and executive director for the Polaris prize, wrote a similar piece for Q music magazine extolling the virtues of his prize without even mentioning the flaws that Alan Cross touched on. The problem here is that those flaws are not only still pres-

ent, but are becoming even more apparent and risk becoming inextricable from the identity of this budding institution.

The structure and methods for determining the winner of this prize naturally raise a few questions. Polaris is supposed to be awarded to the best Canadian album of the year based solely on ‘artistic merit’, but who determines that? The jurors, tasked with judging ‘artistic merit’, are chosen by a board of directors for their involvement with new Canadian music, but are not given any criteria

other than whatever their own personal tastes dictate. While some might choose to base their judgments of ‘artistic merit’ on originality or innovation, without any impetus to do so, this supposedly complex and intricate voting process can devolve into a slight variation of a popularity contest. Are these jurors accurate gauges of ‘artistic merit’ or are they more disposed to dealing with popularity and trends? Brand name winners like Feist and Arcade Fire, though deserving, point more towards the latter.

Artichoke

“

The jurors, tasked with judging ‘artistic merit,’ are chosen by a board of directors for their involvement with new Canadian music, but are not given any criteria other than whatever their own personal tastes dictate.

”

Since Polaris began, most of the nominees have had ties or deals with large ‘indie’ labels like Merge, Sub Pop, City Slang, Arts & Crafts, or Outside Music.

Why the focus on a few already successful labels? What about smaller labels and independent artists? Also, why focus mainly on the ‘artistic merit’ of indie rock?

Most of the nominated musicians have also been in their 20’s or 30’s; why the demographic focus? Is there an age limit on ‘artistic merit’? (Leonard Cohen not making it farther than the long list might answer ‘yes’). Perhaps most controversially, every year since the prize began, only one or two short list-ers have been of aboriginal or African-Canadian heritage.

In contrast to the above flaws, one positive trait of Polaris is the representation on francophone artists. The long list is usually friendlier to the French, while

it is unfortunately still a rarity for more than one francophone artist to squeak through to the shortlist. Then again, 2010 winners, Karkwa, illustrate that it is possible for French-speaking acts to break through the largely Anglophonic jury.

Similarly, having at least a few Aboriginal and African-Canadian acts is a step in the right direction. A more diverse jury might help with this. Additionally, while the popularity of winners like Feist and Arcade Fire might raise a few eyebrows, the majority of the artists are still well outside the Nickel-Bieber’d mainstream of Canadian popular music. Past winners like Caribou and Final Fantasy, and current short list-ers like Colin Stetson and Metz exemplify the prize’s leanings towards innovation and experimentation.

The problems outlined here are not meant to discredit or malign the Polaris Prize, but rather should be taken as constructive criticism for fans, jurors, and organizers of this burgeoning institution.

A clear awareness of these shortcomings may help with progression and improvement for all those involved. Perhaps once these issues are dealt with, we will be able to spend less time talking about them and more time talking about the music this prize is intended to promote.

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My 3 Favourites from the 2013 Polaris Short List Metz – s/t These noise rockers sound fresh, pounding, and are not stuck in lazy, shoegaze-worship mode. They draw from familiar influences like Sonic Youth and Nirvana but come up sounding original.

Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light This innovative solo-saxophonist is helping to make the instrument cool again, with the raw physicality of his circular breathing and overblowing, and his atmospheric compositional talent. Big name collaborations like Justin Vernon don’t hurt either.

Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob These inimitable singer-songwriters constantly reinvent themselves, making great hooks from heartache and heartbreak, no matter which instruments or textures they play with. Diving straight into dancey, synth-pop is a risk that pays off, with fun, memorable, story-telling songs.

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MAJOR SPEAK

Ten rules for attending my teenage theatre program.

BY, CURTIS TE BRINKE Autumn is upon us, and with it all the wonderful things about being back at school. Lining up in the campus bookstore, excitedly handing over our arms and/or legs for those new textbooks, avoiding getting dive bombed by the roving gangs of geese that run York from behind the curtain, realizing you need to drop that one class, and probably should have taken another one. But I digress.

This one is for those of us who have yet to become embittered about the system: the first years. So here are some words for the theatre majors out there: 1. The less preconceived notions you have, the better. Not to say I am an exception to the rule, but I walked into Frosh week and first year without much in the way of preconceived ideas of how the whole thing was going to play out. I knew it was going to be a lot of work, I was going to meet some new people, and do some stuff. Had you asked me to be more

specific, I would have come up blank. I did, however come across this situation a lot among other first years. More often than not what first year can actually entail and what you had planned out back in senior year won’t match up, and it can lead to some mild disappointment.

2. Your program isn’t going to hand you anything. The fact is, your program is only going to give you so much. The program is designed to teach you how to do, not give you things to do. Yes, you may be doing monologues come second year acting, but don’t expect auditions for anything to come your way. Everything else falls under extracurriculars in first year, and its up to you to seek these out if you feel so inclined.

3. Collaborating is awesome. Creating your own work, be it be through playGround or just a small workshop with some fellow theatre students can be a

great idea. You are in an arts program, and your fellow students have something to offer that you may not. So take notice of the awesome things your peers and friends can do. Because when you are suddenly in need of a sound designer or stage manager, those friends with backstage and design experience are going to come in handy. Not only do you benefit from their experience, but there is also a lot to learn from them.

4. That being said, some people are bad at it. Working with other students won’t always be an eighties style getting stuff done montage, and last I checked York doesn’t keep the robot from Rocky 4 on staff. Nor is aggressive Kevin Bacon style warehouse dancing conducive to putting a piece together. When working with people, you need to be aware of the fact that you might not always be on the same wavelength. Don’t assume everyone wants to be involved for the same

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reasons you do, or that they treat it as professionally as you might be.

5. Remember what you are good at, and why you are here. Being a part of a general first year is great, and I am very glad I got to do it. That being said, it can make you forget what it is you have to offer and the reason you wanted to be in the program in the first place. It can at times be a little disheartening, so just remind yourself that you deserve to be here, and what it is you have to offer.

6. Figure out what else you are good at. The general first year will force you to get your hands on tech, performance, history and theatre studies. And if you are smart about it, you will allow yourself to be open to it all. Word of advice, take all theatre classes both semesters.

It is well worth your time. Through this you can allow yourself to see what else you can do. Some of my friends came in wanting the acting program, and changed their minds as soon as they saw how great theatre production was. I learned how much I like being an assistant stage manager when I got the chance to work as on on a playGround show. So keep your eyes open for possible chances to expand your theatrical repertoire.

7. Don’t let streaming rule your first year. Everyone will tell you from day one not to worry about streaming until you

need to, and they are entirely correct on that one. Putting too much emphasis on where you are going to be next year can distract you from the things you can be learning right now. Have an idea of where you want to be come second year, but don’t let it be your reason for what you do.

8. This is the beginning of your career, treat it as such. I value professionalism and a drive to work when it comes to theatre, and beginning to cultivate that in

first year is going to help you down the line. The people around you, both peers and instructors are going to be the people populating the workforce you are trying to get into at the end of fourth year. Having them know you as not only capable, but also mature and professional is a good basis to build upon. In first year you are going to encounter group work continuously, not to mention playground, Crew Calls or work with any independent student companies. Treat it with as much respect as you would treat your job, because if you are lucky enough, in a few years it just might be.

9. But really, try and have fun. As serious as you are going to be taking this based on the awesome advice you just read in point 8, let yourself have fun with this. There are going to be a lot of people treating things with a tad more severity

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than the situation may call for, but try and remember that theatre is a fairly ridiculous thing when you really think about it. Try not to be that pretentious guy taking things too seriously.

10.Origins is important. Origins of theatre can sometimes be seen as the dryest class, and with the most book/ writing work in the theatre classes, its easy to see where that idea comes from.

But this is a university program, and Origins can teach you so much if you let it.

It exposes you to important plays, ideas, people, and at the very least interesting facts to drag out at parties from now and then. So give the class the respect it deserves, because if you pay attention you are going to walk away from it having gained a lot.

ENTERTAINMENT 26

BY DIANA EDELHAUSER back in 1979, Nick Lowe let us know with his hit single “Cruel to be Kind” that, well, you have to be cruel to be kind. Mr. Lowe, I’m going to reword that a little: it’s cool to be kind. It’s cool to show you care.

Supporting a serious cause such as HIV/ AIDS, has become a trend but unfortunately has turned some of our world’s most devastating issues into temporary fads. Luckily, as humans we’ve never stopped being completely materialistic despite our faux-offended pleas we’re not. I consider materialism to be quite beneficial on a global spectrum. See, our constant thirst to embody the latest look is one of those few factors that can always be relied upon by individuals and organizations that actually have something noble in mind. Remember TOMS? Those oddly shaped canvas shoes have been selling like hot cakes since founder Blake Mycoskie brought the “pair for a pair” idea to light back in 2006. Most of us are still wearing ours, if they haven’t already torn. But if you really stare at the original version of TOMS, it hits you that it’s not a good looking shoe! It’s no Prada loafer and it doesn’t even begin to match the durability of a pair of Nike Free Runs. So why does everyone in sight rock

these so proudly? Because they make a statement that inside, you do care. And hey, if not, at least you look like you do.

After all, we are most commonly judged on our appearances. Miley Cyrus could probably tell you a lot about that. As a continuous supporter of Miss Hannah Montana, I couldn’t necessarily say where she went wrong. If you ask me, I’d say she’s doing it all right. But somewhere between her bleached pixie cut and her twerking, Miley has lost tons of supporters. Something really gets people riled up when it comes to a Disney star growing up, which, might I add, is not an elegant part of anybody’s life. Get mad if you must, but Miley could not care less. Another thing she has less and less of is clothing, but this time critics love it- her latest nude is for charity! If supporting a cause wasn’t sexy before, Miley Cyrus, Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy erase any doubts with their latest “Protect the Skin You’re In” t-shirt, featuring the ridiculously fit Miley flaunting her naked bod. The $35 tee promises that all proceeds collected are donated to the NYU Cancer Institute and NYU Langone Medical Center, and help provide funding for melanoma research. It’s common knowledge that skin cancer is a

relevant risk. It can happen to you. And I also know that I can’t be the only one on campus who would love to rock this shirt. But why? Personally, I’d consider myself a fashion elitist in the sense that I loathe pieces that show off a logo or label. Don’t rub my face in your white and multi-colour Luis Vuitton logo wallet.

This Marc Jacobs shirt, however, although it screams Marc Jacobs, to me feels like a must-have. I’m conflicted as to whether I want it because it’s for a very admirable cause or because it would simply make me look like I care. Or neither. Maybe I want it because it’s the “it thing” right now.

I’ll tell you one thing, Miley and Marc don’t care why I buy the shirt. Neither do the researchers at the NYU Cancer Institute, or the millions around the world who will benefit from my purchase. Since the consumer inside all of us will prevail regardless of motive, I have to be frank and ask, so what? We want to look great and we want our outfits to be worthy of that #ootd tag on social media, and if the cost of the garment includes a small dose of humanitarianism, more power to it! For those of you that have a charity or issue closer to your heart and still want to make a statement via your threads (or maybe

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“

I’m conflicted as to whether I want it because it’s for a very admirable cause or because it would simply make me look like I care.

”

twerking with Miley just isn’t your thing), Sevenly.org can help you out. This is a relatively new organization, developed in 2011 by Dale Partridge and Aaron Chavez.

The concept is fresh and kind hearted: a new campaign is selected each week toward which customers could donate $7 through the purchase of a wide array of online products. In addition, Sevenly has a combination of weekly goals including social media awareness in the form of Facebook “likes” and Pinterest “pins”. Do not be mistaken. Sevenly donates seven dollars but their products cost considerably more than that. With that said, what they offer is so darn cute! These charity shirts, bags, accessories and more are far from the lame giveaways you might have associated with donations in the past.

On a Wednesday night as I am checking out their current campaign, they have already passed the halfway mark of their weekly goal!This site is alive and poppin’ and spreading the warm fuzziness that tags along with doing something selfless.

Except you get an amazing item out of it. Some of their past campaigns include LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), Polaris Project (addressing modern-day slavery), Reece’s Rainbow (in support

ILLUSTRATION BY DIANA EDELHAUSER

of orphans with Down Syndrome) and TWLOHA (To Write Love On Her Arms, dedicated to the struggle with depression). I strongly encourage you to visit www.sevenly.org and make a contribution that will never go out of style.

On a personal note, this is a new beginning for me in every way. I am in my first year here at YorkU and I am cherishing this chance at a fresh start. I like to keep my heels high and my standards higher, and cannot wait to experience the flair of this campus. If you’re wearing a killer pair of shoes, I will find you.

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ENTERTAINMENT

PICKS FOR

2013

By Stef Jablonski

Once again it’s the time of year where our Toronto silver screens get graced with the sloppy seconds from Cannes and begin the cinematic foreplay before Oscar season.

This year the Toronto International Film we take you all downtown. If you like Festival (TIFF) will be held from Septem- movies, these are the ones you should ber 5th to the 15th. Be sure to pick up your spend your money on. tickets on the last day of frosh week when

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12 YEARS A SLAVE Steve McQueen

If anyone could release another slave era western following last years hugely anticipated and successful Django Unchained, it’s my man Steve McQueen and his boyfriend/muse Michael Fassbender. The two are teaming up again to give us the story of Solomon Northup, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor (from Amistad, and Four Brothers), a free man who is kidnapped and brought back into American plantation captivity. Penned by the author of Undercover Brother, Red Tails and Three Kings

it’ll probably pale in the inevitable comparisons to Django. It wont be as funny, violent or entertaining. In fact, it will probably be mostly boring. But it will be beautiful. No doubt about it. And Fassbender will be incredible under McQueen’s direction if Hunger and Shame are any indicator. Fassbender will likely sweep all the same awards Leo never got playing the same role last year, and rightly so because it’s about time Fassbender got the props he’s never asked for.

DALLAS BUYER’S CLUB

Jean Marc Vallé

I first found out about Dallas Buyer’s Club when I saw those creepy pictures of Jared Leto with a pony tail and no eyebrows sucking in his stomach and pouting in what I thought was the new American Apparel ad campaign. The film’s going to follow an HIV positive Matthew McConaughey and a transsexual Jared Leto as they smuggle some sweet, sweet AIDS medicine across the border into the states. I’m thinking it’s going to be some where in between Kids,

Argo and Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

It’s directed by the Quebecois Director Jean Marc Vallé who’s responsible for those French Canadian classics like the hilarious C.R.A.Z.Y and the euro-chic Café de Flore.

If you’re only 17 dollars rich when buying your TIFF tickets, show a Canadian director some love and make Dallas Buyer’s Club the one film you see.

DON JON

Joseph Gordon Levitt Don Jon is Joseph Gordon Levitt... or at least who Gordon Levitt wishes he was if he didn’t wear make up and remember words for a living. He wrote, directed and stars in this romantic comedy about a porn addicted, ladies’ man, gym rat who reminds me exactly of this friend I have from high school. I’m convinced Levitt is getting some personal exhibitionist, guilt-ridden fetish out of the way about his own porn addiction with Don Jon. Opposite Levitt in Don John

is Scarlet Johanssen, who usually demonstrates the acting range of a mayonnaise sandwich, but I know we’re all still holding out hope that she’s going to knock it out of the park one of these days. I want her to be great in this.

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30 ENTERTAINMENT

By Alex Millington

★ This is not a review, but mere speculation –

On September 25, David Bowie Is shall be open to the public. This upcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario will feature a wide variety of Bowie paraphernalia: from a tremendous collection of original costumes and outfits worn onstage, to handwritten lyrics on pages torn out from notebooks, to stage designs and photographs and album artwork and instruments and music videos.

But instead of being all welled up like a good 70s and 80s enthusiast, the question “What does this mean for the future of art?” arises in my unfortunate head.

David Bowie is, of course, an incredibly prominent artist of our time. His performances and lifestyle have not only changed the face of music and fashion, but have hit a much deeper facet of social intercourse, and that is the vitalization of free and boundless human love and sexuality. He is an androgynous poster-child for creativity in the broadest sense of the term. But while his performances were and will forever be considered works of art, a slight uneasiness is caused by what I shall refer to as the “museumization” of these past performances - the process by which the memories of Ziggy Stardust waltzing across stage in high heels are condensed into the inanimate corpse of his uniform.

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★

★

When a work of art loses its context, its value is diminished. For example, early on in the colonization of Canada the federal government introduced a potlatch ban — potlatches being a particular type of Aboriginal celebration in which gifts and masks were prosperously exchanged.

The ban resulted in the confiscation of many spiritually significant articles that had been deemed immoral as they propagated non-Christian and “anti-motherland” values. Strangely enough, many of these articles were not disposed of, but gathered in collections (much like the one I write about now) and were marked as the art of a dying culture. These masks, separated from their intended contexts, ceased to hold the message they had been born with. Likewise, except with nylon and poly-ester instead of wood, David Bowie’s costumes were designed with the sole intention of that particular artist donning that particular persona. When the artist is removed from under the suit, and the suit is removed from the stage, and the audience has left and aged thirty years, how much of that work of art remains embodied in clothing? The Aboriginal masks, like David Bowie’s boots are merely one aspect of an artistic and symbolic exhibition and become memories of the event after it has ended. A saved wedding dress is not the wedding.

Earlier in the year, Susan Talbott curated an exhibition of Patti Smith’s photography and personal belongings at the AGO that produced a similar effect. These personal belongings (Pope Benedict’s slippers, keepsakes from Robert Mapplethorpe, her father’s teacup, etc.) had no palpable intrinsic value aside from the fact that they were owned by the

prominent figures of Smith’s life and that they comforted her while they were in her possession. These were mere memories of loved ones embodied in the things they had touched, but nothing more.

And unfortunately, this had everything to do with the exhibition’s capacity to invoke any sort of visceral effect. One critic for Canadian Art Magazine reflects on whether or not the exhibit was egotistical, and contrary to his conclusion I will have to suggest that yes, the Patti Smith show invariably was, and the

★ Some of these people would never come to AGO at all lest there be some sort of pop culture attraction for them to dig into.

Perhaps, as some psychoanalysts might suggest about the healthy human state of mind, a little sacrifice isn’t such a downfall. These types of exhibits, these usages of pop icons like Smith and Bowie as a sort of luring mechanism for patrons who wouldn’t usually come to see paintings and sculpture, have their benefits. For instance, the profits provided to the AGO by way of ticket sales have given them the opportunity to put on some artistic marvels such as Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s Lost in the Memory Palace, Ai Weiwei’s historic According to What?, and the current collection of Sorel Etrog sculptures.

It’s all a process of self-support. In order to exhibit fine art the likes of the Guggenheim or the MoMA, the AGO must find methods to consistently increase the number of patrons that will participate in the gallery’s events. Logically, this results in shows like David Bowie Is. This is the handsome fellow the world fell in love with in the 70s, and here he is now…revived! Likewise, exhibits like Bowie’s are dependent on the public success of the other fine art the AGO has at its disposal.

Regardless of how one perceives this upcoming exhibit, whether it is with loathing toward idea of museumization or otherwise, so long as the show performs its biological function: draws in the crowd, provides an open dialogue between individuals and advances in some way or other the future of art, then it is welcome.

“His performances and lifestyle have not only changed the face of music and fashion, but have hit a much deeper facet of social intercourse,” Bowie exhibit may be just the same.

There is a resemblance between the Smith and Bowie exhibits in that both take advantage of aged second-hand material displayed out of context as a proposed art form. Both are not strictly visual artists, but pop culture musicians who dabbled. This is not to say that one must devote themself to any one chosen medium, dabbling is indeed encouraged, but rather that one ought to be skeptical in the judgment of interdisciplinary artists. When it comes to authorship, the signature comes to mean a lot. Were the photos and collected items provided by some unknown artist, I highly doubt the sans-Patti Smith show would have stirred up as large an audience as it did. Consider the vehement fans of Smith’s first album Horses having the opportunity to get a book signed and see her personal possessions. And consider the Torontonian fanatics going raving mad about the David Bowie Is North American debut.

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ENTERTAINMENT

LOCAL HAUNTS

SO CLOSE YOU CAN FEEL THEM

BY NIKKY WAXMAN Spreading all across the television and movie screens like a virus, the horror genre is a historic favorite that recently seems to be recently revving up its engine. Every few months there is a new scary movie out, claiming to be the best one yet. Shows like American Horror Story and Supernatural are sweeping the ratings boards. Surprisingly, some of the scariest stories are being noticed around Ontario, spreading from London to Kingston. Here are a few that can out fright any local blockbuster.

Boldt Castle, Heart Island, Thousand Islands, Ontario For years, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City was the most luxurious and revered hotel in North America, even grander than even the Hilton. But its towering stature was hiding a tragic secret: the life of its owner, George C. Boldt. Frequently summering in the Thousand Islands for years, in 1900 George decided to create a heroic declaration of love for his wife Louise by building a six story, 120 room castle.

George spared no expense for his castle of love: tunnels, a powerhouse, a drawbridge, children’s playhouse, and even a dovecote. The Boldt castle crest became a historic symbol for his love: hearts adorned with ribbons, carved into the stones of the robust walls. But his love doesn’t end there. Hearts are etched into every detail of the castle. From the shape of the gardens to the tiles on the floors in the tearoom, hearts are everywhere! That’s definitely why they call it Heart Island.

But in January 1904, tragedy strikes: Boldt telegraphed the workers on the

island to immediately stop all construction because Louise had suddenly died.

From that day forward, Boldt never returned to the island, leaving his declaration of love behind in a state of progress that was never to finish. To this day, most of the enormous castle remains unfinished, with bare walls and creaky floors.

Many years later, it became a tourist attraction to the public (as well as a boating border crossing between Canada and the United States), which opened the rusty doors to the spirit of Louise, long trapped in the upper floors of the house. People have claimed to hear footsteps or growls, all coming from what sounds like a woman, yet there are never any to be found. Apparently some testaments to love will never die.

Rockwood Insane Asylum, Kingston, Ontario Rockwood Insane Asylum was built for the purpose of being Upper Canada’s first institution for the criminally insane.

Patients began to be admitted in 1862 in what were then considered uninhabitable environments. The institution, run by Dr. John Litchfield, relied on inhumane treatments such as bloodletting, enemas, blistering, and leeching. He also used alcohol and sedatives to control all of his patients. In 1997, the facility was closed.

For years, even while the asylum was open, people have seen ghostly visions of former patients, phantom screams, and other unexplained phenomena such as light anomalies and feelings of intense melancholia. It is considered to be one of the most haunted asylums in Canada, and visitors are not even allowed inside its musty doors.

Fort York, Toronto, Ontario Built as the city’s primary harbor defense in 1793, Fort York is best known as the location where the Battle of York met its climactic end in violent horror during the war of 1812. With over a hundred people killed, it is one of the most haunted local sites, getting the most annual reports.

People have reported seeing someone sitting at the benches near the cannon, as well as dozens of other visions of individual soldiers walking the grounds. One of the most unusual stories that is known centers around a young member of the Royal Regiment of Canada during the 1980’s.

One day, as he was jogging, he was pulled into the fort with a considerable amount of force, but when he turned to confront his attacker, there was nobody there.

There are so many undiscovered local haunts that continue to appear on the supernatural radar, and yet the stories in Hollywood never seem to change.

Perhaps they need a real, old-fashioned scare from the Great White North.

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RES RECIPE

By Nigel D’Souza

If you’ve taken a tour of York already, you can see that we have a lot of food choices around here. However, if you like to take control of your ingredients and what you eat, then look no further. Here is an awesome recipe for you to check out!

1 ½ cups of lentils 1 large onion (chopped) 1 tomatoes (diced) 3 cloves of garlic (chopped) ¼ tsp of ginger 3 spicy green chillies ¼ pinches of turmeric powder ½ tsp of cumin powder Chili powder (Optional: if you like extra spice) Butter (However much your heart desires)

I ate a lot of this growing up. I mean a lot. My mom would always make this for me and it would last for days, so I couldn’t resist asking her for the recipe.

It is like a curried lentil soup, and it is

also 100% vegetarian. If you’re looking to buy ingredients and spices without going off campus, there is a small market on the corner of Four Winds Drive and Sentinel Road called Food Cents

Wash the lentils out a couple of times and thenletitsoakinabowlforabout30minutes.

Add however much butter you want.

You can use salt and pepper for seasoning as well.

Transfer the lentils to a large pot. Fill the large pot with water until it is about 2 inches from the top of the lentils. Let the lentils boil until they are soft to the bite. Set it aside and don’t drain the leftover water!

In a separate pan, sauté the onions and tomatoes together with some vegetable oil. When the onions look translucent, add the ginger, garlic, green chillies, turmeric powder, cumin powder, and chilli.

Fry it for about two minutes while stirring.

Add the vegetable and spice mixture to the already boiled lentils and cook it for about another 15 minutes, or until the it’s achieved a good consistency for your personal taste.

Enjoy your meal!

As I said, this meal could last me for days if you cook enough of it. It’s simple, tasty, and pretty good on your credit/debit card. Enjoy cooking the meal and stay tuned for another recipe in month.

Until then: Happy eating!

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HEALTH

an open let ter to the recently dumped:

the psychology of

by maddy patton

Breakups suck - it’s just a fact of life.

They can reduce the best of us to a blubbering mess of tears and ice cream, cocooned in a blanket like the world’s saddest caterpillar. When your bloodstream slowly begins to transform into pure Ben & Jerry’s, and you’re up at all hours mercilessly Facebook stalking your ex, you can feel pretty pathetic. Chin up though, your old pal Science and I have some good news. Your behavior after a breakup isn’t your fault - it’s your brain’s. Your brain is just a gigantic lovejunkie.

Paranoia, depression, exhaustion, anxiety, mood swings, irritability, fatigue, insomnia and an intense craving for what was lost. What are all of these symptoms of? You guessed it! Cocaine withdrawal.

That didn’t go how you thought it would go, did it? They do seem suspiciously similar to the post-breakup blues. Well, hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, that’s because the way your brain reacts to a breakup is in fact, the exact same way it reacts to cocaine withdrawal.

That’s right, what you’re experiencing is the same goddamn thing people go to rehab for.

Back in 2010, an anthropologist named Helen Fisher performed a study where she asked university students bring in pictures of an ex they weren’t over. She had them talk about their ex and stare at the pictures until they were totally emotionally distraught, and then popped them in MRI machines like little

horribly depressed pizza pockets. When the brain scans were cooked to perfection, Fisher found some interesting results, (presumably whilst sipping coffee brewed from recently shed co-ed tears).

She found that their brains were behaving in a lot of the same ways as people in mutually loving relationships. Also, cocaine addictions. Multiple studies have shown cocaine consumption and love are pretty much synonymous as far as your brain is concerned, as they light up the same pathways and release the same chemicals.

A big effect of a mutually loving relationship is this chemical called dopamine being produced like crazy, and your brain

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just gobbling that shit up like popcorn.

Dopamine is the most delicious thing ever to your brain; it creates feelings of euphoria, attachment, and is the go-to “good job, have a cookie” chemical that is released whenever you do something right. The reward-seeking neurons in your prefrontal cortex get fat and happy on the stuff when you’re in love. Now when you break up, things tend to get a little sticky with the aforementioned reward-seeking neurons, because they continue to act the same as they would if you were in love, only there isn’t any dopamine to be found. They tend to get irate about this, go into overdrive, and make you crave your lost dopamine way more intensely. That might be why you feel like you love your ex even more after they’ve dumped you. It’s your junkie brain tricking you because it really wants you to get back together so it can get its dopamine fix. The sneaky bastard.

That’s also where the Facebook stalking comes into play – your brain wants to look at pictures of your ex because they used to produce dopamine, but after rejection they’re empty which gets those reward-seeking neurons even more pissed off. That’s also one of the reasons it’s really not recommended to be friends immediately after a breakup. You may be completely cool with a platonic relationship, but your brain wants its dopamine, and hanging out will be difficult, painful and delay your progress in getting over

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“The way your brain reacts to a breakup is in fact, the exact same way it reacts to cocaine withdrawal.”

them significantly. You’ll be craving more than friendship the whole time and no fun will be had by anybody.

Speaking of which, what makes you “get over” someone? It’s actually just time. You simply need to wean yourself off of them. Eventually, those reward-seeking neurons will get the message and chill out, at which point you’ll be fine. And you will be fine, remember, this is all just a temporary chemical imbalance in your brain. There isn’t a specific time limit – you can tell people who think you should be over it in a week to go fall down a well, because you’re actually recovering from an addiction comparable to some pretty serious drugs, and that shouldn’t be taken lightly. There are ways to distract yourself though; exercise is a great one because it will release dopamine of its own in a positive way and can make

you feel much better long term. Another thing that might help is reading this article. After Helen Fisher finished up her MRI scans, she actually reported that almost everyone who had been scanned came back to tell her it helped put things into perspective and that they were feeling much better. Just knowing that you’re not really at the wheel when it comes to your eccentric post-breakup antics is oddly empowering, and it can do wonders for your morale.

Knowledge is power, kids.

NAVIGATING THE MAIZE

BY LAURA SPEARE

It’s a beautiful time of year. The late summer sun is shining as we all pack up and head back off to school and work and reality. As we look out the car window during the drive to our place of study, it’s comforting to see those vast yellow fields next to farm houses reminding us of the people who work to provide us all with sustenance and reinforcing our respect for the hardworking species to which we belong. Right?

Wrong.

If you read on you will learn to feel as much terror when driving past a cornfield as I do. That quiet little grain, that delicious kernel-covered rod that has

made our every movie night and barbecue for as long as anyone can remember, has been through things that most of us can’t even imagine. Why is this something you should concern yourself with? Well, I suppose it isn’t.

But if you’re like me and you love an excuse to be angry at, disappointed in, or horrified about the state of the world, you’ll want to listen up.

Corn is something we humans take for granted. Like any other grain, we just buy it in the store, cook it and eat it, feed it to our livestock, whatever. Don’t get me wrong - many people are aware of how much this plant invades our everyday lives, being as it is an ingredient in just about everything from syrup to fuel to

booze, and many are just as keen to point fingers blindly at government agencies, muttering half-formed accusations about how the corn industry is dragging North America into the pits of hell. However, I’m not here to poke any blame at anyone living or dead, or wail about the deplorable direction government and industries are headed (although a google search of “corn conspiracy” yields some fun results). All I want to do is underscore some points about the cultivation process that I find have horrific implications.

Modern-day agriculture is truly a wonder: it seems a natural process, this cultivation of domestic plants, and it’s something that is going on all the time in order to keep up with the demands

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of this rapidly expanding population of ours. But farming wasn’t always a thing.

Ten thousand years ago, when populations were a whole heck of a lot smaller and hunter-gatherers had their run of the place, a cultivated field was completely unheard of. They were used to a nomadic lifestyle, roaming from place to place and enjoying what nature gave them. But over time, living off the land turned into settling down and cultivating a field for sustenance in one convenient location, and from these new settled groups societies and classes emerged, and so on. And this is where, being a person who feels vaguely unnerved by man’s increasingly heavy influence on everything that was doing just fine on its own, I tend to start getting scared.

Which brings me back to corn, or maize as it’s otherwise known. That lovely gift of nature, that beautiful, nutritious and ubiquitous bounty from God, has been selectively bred to the point that it does not even resemble the noble plant it once was. It is descended from a Mexican wild grass known as teosinte, an ear of which is about the size of a cigarette and looks very little like modern maize. In fact, it only took a few genetic mutations propagated by people just like us - to make corn into the botanical travesty it is today.

The first mutation took care of the tough outer casings or glumes that can be found on the kernels of teosinte - on corn today, they appear only as a tiny film on the outside of each kernel. Of course, this mutation would have dreadful consequences

for the plant in the wild - without the tough shell, seeds would not come out of carrier animals’ digestive systems intact, so the plant would be unable to reproduce. However, early farmers thought this was just a lovely little thing that happened that would now allow them to harvest the corn with much greater ease, so they sowed the deformed seeds.

Another mutation drastically changed the structure of the plant: teosinte has a branched structure with male parts and female parts (pollen-producing bits and ears respectively) evenly spread out throughout the plant, whereas modern-day corn has one great stalk, a single pollen-producing tassel at the top, and a few large ears near the top rather than a bunch of smaller ones all over.

Giant ears are very bad things for the plant, because it makes fertilization difficult. But humans saw a convenient source of food - less picking and more eating! so they just kept on using those plants. If the propagation of desirable plants was unintentional at first, it certainly wasn’t as time went on - pretty soon farmers were looking for more ways in which the plant could be morphed to suit their needs.

And this, finally, is where we get to the meat and potatoes of the elusive horror I’m trying to convey here. This plant - this heavily subsidized, highly influential little cereal grain - cannot survive on its own.

If every farmer were to abandon hir or her fields, every field of maize would turn brown and shrivel up. The plants would die off and none would be able to lift its feeble loins and produce another generation.

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Corn has become our bastard pet that we keep in the attic so the neighbors won’t see; it completely relies on us for its survival, and what is more - we completely rely on it. Back when we were Stone Age hunter-gatherers, our population was pretty miniscule compared to what it is now. When we got to settling down and being farmers, we started to feel safe and started doing what we do best more and more freely, resulting in a lot more births.

As more people came into the world, we started relying more heavily on our traitorous crops, and as we started relying on them so did they on us.

So we get down to this weird little dynamic we’ve got going, this codependent relationship we have with this innocent little tortured plant. Consider it! I’m all for strong foundations in professional relationships, growing and advancing together and all that, but it’s the complete one-sidedness of this particular pairing - this Stockholm Syndrome dependence of the plant on us, and our twisted need for it in return - that really gets me. Corn has infiltrated every facet of our lives, but it’s not the evil one here. By this feat of agriculture we have given rise to incredible civilizations, and also hobbled ourselves in myriad ways. Or maybe we haven’t. You decide.

HEALTH 38

Social Grooming

BY SARAH ELLISON Why do we often find it so easy to confide in beauty specialists? I’m talking, of course, about industry professionals such as hair dressers, nail stylists, and wax technicians. How is it that I can visit one for the first time, and find myself confiding personal stories that some of my close friends don’t even know? Unlike doctors, these people don’t work under patient confidentiality laws, so where does this ease to spill my secrets come from? It really only takes one question: How are you doing? And like a burst dam, the words just pour out. I talk about my family, school, my dreams for the future. It’s like everything was bottled up inside me and just waiting for the right moment.

People often say that it is easier to tell a stranger something that is bothering you over a friend, because the pressure is taken off - there’s no fear that this person you don’t know will judge you, and you likely will never see them again. Is it because I don’t know these people that I feel inclined to speak freely with them?

While that may be considered a contributing factor, it seems unlikely. I don’t feel so comfortable with anyone I meet that I can start telling them about how my ailing grandmother is doing, or how well I did on my last exam. No, this is deeper, and I believe it has to do with the precise reason why we visit these specialists.

We go there to be pampered - to be groomed. The act of grooming is a highly social event, whereby individuals clean or maintain each other’s body and appearance. Social animals, such as humans, rely heavily on grooming to reinforce social structures, family links, and build relationships. It is an exercise in trust, to allow someone the care of your body and physical appearance, and promotes satisfaction with a relationship. Grooming is more commonly shared between partners and family members, people who already share a common bond, and it has been shown to strengthen these relationships. In a study done by Holly Nelson, women have been noted to think that a couple who grooms each other are romantically involved, suggesting that a deep level of commitment and trust is associated with the aspect of grooming. This instinctual feeling of trust that we feel while being treated is why, I believe, it seems so easy to confide in beauty technicians.

A lot of the information we have on social grooming comes from the study of primates, who, like humans, use grooming to bond and build trust. It makes sense that we share these grooming habits with primates, as they are our closest genetic relative. Primatologists have witnessed grooming in moments of boredom, and the act has been shown to reduce

tension and stress. Primates have even been known to fall asleep while being grooming.

This is because the act of grooming stimulates the part of your brain that releases beta-endorphins, which specifically reduces pain and allows the body to relax.

That great feeling of lethargy felt during and after a visit to the salon is your body’s natural response to being preened, and no doubt aids in the feelings of calmness and trust that allow us to feel secure when confiding in our hair dressers.

It is rather stereotypical that people, or more specifically women, feel comfortable talking with our nail stylists and hair dressers, but it is truly a unique relationship that is only possible because of the level of trust that is built through tending each other. The relaxed atmosphere, the release of stress, the feeling of being pampered, all allow for the confidence we feel to confide in those who groom us.