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THE ARTS
December 8, 2011
A Canadian Christmas “Christmas has received pretty good press over the last few hundred years. Time to knock it down a peg or two.” - Arrogant Worms bassist Chris Patterson
A recent poll commissioned by Canada Post, showed that almost 90% of Canadian youth prefer physical rather than electronic greeting cards, and about three quarters of Canadians of all ages will send an average of twenty Christmas cards each this month. Of course, many of those may very well be addressed to the North Pole, H0H 0H0, as Canada Post’s campaign to get kids to write to Santa (actually retirees and post employees) enters its 29th year. We caught up with Chris Patterson, bassist and vocalist of the Canadian parody band The Arrogant Worms. The Worms’ successful holiday album, Christmas Turkey, featured darkly festive ditties like “Santa’s Gonna Kick Your Ass,” and the astute number “Christmas Hangover” over a decade ago. The band’s slightly macabre sense of mischief at Christmas is perhaps more necessary than ever in a world responsible for
a Bieber and Bublé Christmas. the newspaper: What is the importance of the holiday-themed novelty song? Chris Patterson: It's nice to have alternatives to the regular Christmas songs. Christmas can be funny so that should be reflected in the music. Christmas songs also let us know that Hallowe'en is over and it's time to start shopping. tn: What, to you, makes your Christmas 'Canadian'? CP: Freezing my face off on Christmas morning when I get a new toboggan. Temperature doesn't matter to kids with new toboggans. I remember spending a few winters in Saskatchewan and the temperature on Christmas Eve was minus 56 with windchill. Anyone who went out that night left their cars running so they didn't freeze. And not one car was stolen. That's pretty Canadian. tn: Any Christmas traditions you could do without? CP: Mariah Carey's Christmas album. tn: Christmas Turkey was very dark in many re-
spects; what's the value in adding this sort of material to the cultural cannon of cheesy holiday music? cp: Not everyone likes Mariah Carey. We made the album for those people. Christmas has received pretty good press over the last few hundred years. Time to knock it down a peg or two. tn: Christmas in Toronto: What do you like to do? cp: Besides seeing The Arrogant Worms at Hugh's Room on December 21, I must say that the Santa Clause parade is pretty great. Finding Christmas gravy at City Hall is fun too. tn: Deep down inside, do you believe in Santa Claus? CP: Absolutely. I've seen him a few times this year so far. tn: Any comment on the Christmas Shoes song? CP: I have friends who love that song and they are mocked accordingly. Not so much a fan of that one. And "shoes" and "please" don't rhyme. Whether it be listening to Stuart McLean’s Christmas
turkey story, watching the Queen’s Christmas speech from the throne, or singing the only really Canadian Christmas carol (the Huron Carol) there’s something special about Christmas in Canada.
This year, it’s unlikely we will see a repeat of the first recorded nation-wide white Christmas of 2008, but Canadians are nonetheless united by a sense of fun and tradition that is uniquely Canadian.
ABERDEEN BERRY
Vanessa Purdy
All eyes on Eyeball Student exhibition sets sights on bringing art to wider U of T community Vanessa Purdy Thursday December 8, the Gothic Revival building at 1 Spadina Crescent will once again host a University of Toronto hidden treasures, Eyeball. Organized by the Fine Arts Student Union, the annual showcase features work from the undergraduate Visual Arts program, and aims to expose the students’ accomplishments to the general University population. This is not an easy feat. “Among the wider university community here, it is a bit of a challenge to expose the visual arts,” said Shannon Garden-Smith, Co-
President of FASU this year. Visual Arts students face the task of creating meaningful art in the environment of a heavily academic institution that is rarely reputed for its cultivation of creativity or priority on artistic value. Fortunately, this does not diminish their passion. Given the academic focus of visual arts students here, there is the potential for art that tends toward the conceptual, and perhaps rooted in a more theoretical than experimental approach. This sets the stage for a showcase that reveals the intentions of its artists more explicitly than the average gallery. We’ve all stared at
a piece--perhaps a blank wall entitled “The Love of a Woman,” or perchance a spinning baby mobile made entirely of dolls’ heads, hanging from a ceiling over a giant black spot on the floor, aptly named “Georgia 1981”--and wondered, “But, what does it mean?” At Eyeball, the people who have the answers will be there, and they will be your peers. The exhibit’s unusual name pays homage to the history of the building at 1 Spadina Crescent. Its basement is the former home of the Eye Bank of Canada, which housed thousands of disembodied eyes prepped for transplant.
The coincidence of drawing that connection to a Visual Arts showcase was a pun too perfect to pass up. Visitors will be able to explore much of the space, including the studios of graduate students who choose to open their doors for the first time this year. New this year is the addition of guided tours. “We really wanted to have students play a larger role, and allow them to show the guests what they’ve been working on, and really represent the supportive community we have here,” Garden-Smith said. “We think that with the addition of student dossiers this year, it
will really help enhance the Eyeball experience and its public enjoyment overall.” The exhibit is a pleasant reminder of the presence of artists among us, toiling to create and share physical reflections of the student-and human--experience that we all can appreciate. Between computer glare, textbook induced myopia and lack of sleep, Eyeball is a much needed break for your strained eyes. Eyeball takes place Thursday December 8th, from 6 to 9 p.m. throughout 1 Spadina Crescent. The event is free and open to the public.