2017: Looking forward

NEWS

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OPINIONS

The biggest SFU news stories of 2016

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Don't feel bad for liking what you like

ARTS

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SPORTS 2016 sucked, but these albums didn't

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What you missed from SFU sports over the break

No heat since 1965

2017

LOOKING FORWARD P.8

2016

LOOKING BACK P.10

News

Ashley Fraser / Print News Editor

January 3, 2017 news@the-peak.ca

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News

Alex Smiciklas SFU Student

Ashley Fraser / Print News Editor

news@the-peak.ca

Opinions

Zach Siddiqui Opinions Editor

Preethi Bokka Staff Writer

Zach Siddiqui / Opinions Editor

January 3, 2017 opinions@the-peak.ca

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Opinions

Kendra Nelson Peak Associate

Zach Siddiqui Opinions Editor

Zach Siddiqui / Opinions Editor

opinions@the-peak.ca

Arts

If 2016 were a movie, it would be a blockbuster disaster movie with a perfectly peculiar soundtrack. Artists ignored the boundaries of genre, creating pieces that showcased their progression and vulnerabilities as artists and people. So I tried to put myself in the shoes of a music director and tried to curate a soundtrack for the year. This is what I came up with: Best Album Named After a Beverage: Lemonade by Beyoncé I might be biased because I’m a Beyoncé fan, but I still think it is fair to say Lemonade is one of the best albums of 2016. The music is wildly diverse, while the lyrics are gonna have you ready to break up with somebody even if you’re incredibly single.

Combined with the incredible visual component, it’s a stunning portrayal and tribute to black femininity as explored through Beyoncé’s personal perspective and vulnerability. It is an experience from beginning to end.

Best Album Featuring Gospel Choirs and Two Chainz: Colouring Book by Chance the Rapper This album is so fun. Chance embraces his church roots in a way that is edgy for hip-hop, but approachable and so infectious. He doesn’t shy away from engaging in themes that explore blackness in 2016, yet he does so with optimism and joy at what’s to come. He’s got me ready for my blessings in 2017!

Jessica Whitesel / Arts Editor

January 3, 2017 arts@the-peak.ca

Best Subtle but Woke Album: A Seat at the Table by Solange Solange’s first album in four years provides a different look into black femininity and the complexities of the African-American experience. Lyrics that explore the challenges and joys of being a black woman are laid against lush string arrangements to create a piece that is both confident and comforting. Plus, I’m pretty sure “Don’t Touch My Hair” is the anthem of many black girls with natural hair (myself included).

Best Album from a Problematic Fave: The Life of Pablo by Kanye West Okay, 2016 Kanye has been a mess. However, The Life of Pablo is without a doubt one of the best rap albums of the year.

The lyrics reveal an emotionally conflicted Kanye who still maintains his ear for musical excellence, as revealed in his orchestrations and samples. It’s messy and chaotic, yet quintessentially Kanye.

Best It’s About Bloody Time Album: Blonde by Frank Ocean Since this has been a year where anything could happen: Leo won an Oscar, Drake and JLo started dating — it only made sense for Frank Ocean to drop an album. A nice progression from

Channel Orange, Blonde plays like one long piece from beginning to end, staying true to Frank’s chillvibes production style.

Best Underrated Pop Album: Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen Known amongst my circle of friends as Carly ‘Slay’ Jepsen, this Mission-born gal quietly put out a part two to one of the most underrated pop albums of 2015 — Emotion. Each song has its own take on the ’80s vibe yet remains current and fun. Plus, it makes mundane things like going to the store seem like a fun time.

Best Album to Inspire the Purchase of a Pink Cowboy Hat: Joanne by Lady Gaga Mother Monster’s first solo album in three years cements her as a musical chameleon. Blending elements of rock and country with a pop sensibility, Gaga reminds us of her songwriting prowess and powerful vocal capability. Plus that key change in Perfect Illusion is singing goals.

Clearly, there are many more incredible albums that were released in 2016. Yet, these few illustrate the uniqueness and breadth of creativity released into the world. Hopefully, 2017 will continue the trend of great music — but with a lot less drama.

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Hurt and healing, dependency and recovery: these were the subjects of my favorite films from 2016, a year where cinema was not simply art or entertainment, but a form of sustenance, a means to keep on keeping on. All of the films on this list, whether American or

foreign, conventional or experimental, comedy or tragedy, wear their deep emotional and spiritual wounds on their sleeves. But if these films are of any value, it’s because they’re more about feelings than answers, less about advocacy than about therapy.

No American narrative filmmaker working in the last decade has expanded the possibilities of cinema more than Terrence Malick. His films Tree of Life, To the Wonder, and this year’s Knight of Cups have

pioneered a whip-whirling montage aesthetic while articulating a vacuity begotten by most mainstream cinema: an isolation from what is true in our materialistic, postmodern hell hole.

A lonely, retired, and divorced man adopts a silly eponymous caricature to sabotage his daughter’s corporate lifestyle, inserting humour and humanity into a one-percenter world completely absolved of those two things.

Defying categorization or even mere description, Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann is familiar in concept but miraculous in execution, schematic in narrative, but inventive in structure. It’s also just really, really funny.

The latest film by Kelly Reichardt — perhaps the most overlooked American filmmaker working today — is a collection of three stories revolving around women in a small Montana town. Each character carries with them an abstracted history only made

visible through gesture. There’s no backstory to any of these characters, no exposition of how they got to this point of estranged melancholy, but without being able to pinpoint exactly why, we feel their plight and we sense their desires and displacement.

Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel of the same name could very well be one of his finest films.

Following a Portuguese priest in a 17th century Japan where

Christianity and its practices are outlawed, Silence is both Christian art and a deconstruction of it, a film to challenge the faithful and the faithless.

Lee Chandler faces Job-level tragedies in Manchester by the Sea, a film which isn’t about endings or resolutions, but intersections and interruptions.

Instances where petty trivialities get in the way of catharsis: a cell phone buzzing at a funeral, a gurney that won’t fold

properly into an ambulance, a conversation about Star Trek immediately following a visit to the morgue. Kenneth Lonergan’s anti-three act structure takes Chandler's grief seriously, denying any simple narrative of recovery, and recognizing that things will never be the same.

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Arts

Jessica Whitesel / Arts Editor

arts@the-peak.ca

Jessica Pickering Peak Associate

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Big Fat Quiz of the Year

This is not a stand-up comedy special; this is better. Six guests (usually comedians) compete on this quiz show that is normally aired around Christmas.

This year they did three special episodes and, honestly, bless

2 Michael Che –

them. While some guests are serious contestants, most have no idea what the fuck is going on.

They’re just there to make jokes and it pays off. Stay tuned for a fun fact about the host, Jimmy Carr, later.

Michael Che Matters

The first time I watched this, I was blown away by how funny Michael Che is. He has great bits for all current events. One of my favourites was about how African Americans’ struggles are constantly forgotten, but we will never

forget 9/11 because #AllBuildingsMatter. Another hit is when he starts talking about how Jesus was probably a shitty carpenter. My only complaint was that he joked about wanting Donald Trump as a best friend. Yikes.

3 Bo Burnham – Make Happy I may be biased because I saw this special live, but it was awesome. His comedy was insightful and hilarious. My favourite bits were about how terrible stadium country is and

a song about Straight White Male problems. While not everyone may be interested in musical, introspective comedy, I would highly recommend this special to anyone.

4 Ali Wong – Baby Cobra Not many comedians would film a special at seven months pregnant. Honestly, that might be a good thing, but something about Ali Wong gyrating on the floor made me feel like everything was going

to be okay for a while. Her big joke is how she doesn’t want to work anymore and I can 100% get behind that.

She will also talk about anything to do with sex. And I mean anything.

5 Iliza Shlesinger – Confirmed Kills

Iliza’s pretty problematic, but try to power through it. She has some feminist jokes hidden in there. She does a brief bit about the party goblin (fans will already be familiar with this term)

and it killed me while simultaneously feeling too real. I also really liked her bit about the ridiculous names we call our grandparents, despite how many people they probably killed in the war.

Worst Comedy Special of the Year: Jimmy Carr – Funny Business The only redeeming part of this comedy special was Jimmy’s ridiculous laugh that is both hilarious and makes it impossible for you to take him seriously.

His jokes are problematic, and not even funny. Stick to what you know Carr. We all know your only talent is being the punching bag on Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

Max James Hill Editor-in-Chief

Sports

Nick Bondi Sports Editor

Nick Bondi / Sports Editor

January 3, 2017 sports@the-peak.ca

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Sports

Nick Bondi / Sports Editor

sports@the-peak.ca

Sports

After a fairly long holiday break, the SFU women’s basketball team was back in action on December 29, taking on the Western Oregon Wolves. With both teams having 1–1 conference records, it was important for the Clan to get a win to start to separate themselves from the pack.

Coming into this game, SFU had won nine of their last ten, and were facing a Western Oregon team that were seventh in both scoring offence and defence. Needless to say, it was a winnable game and they did just that with a convincing 71–57 victory to move SFU’s overall record to 11–2.

Early on, SFU came out to a 15–6 lead. Elisa Homer, who played significant minutes after coming back from a concussion, got the game started with the first points of the night. After that however, the Wolves came roaring back to tie it up at 22.

But senior Ellen Kett and freshman Ozi Nwabuko led the Clan for the rest of the half, with Kett hitting a couple of big threepointers and Nwabuko using her speed on the break.

With an 11-point lead heading into the second half, the Clan never looked back. Kett was excellent in her ball distribution, which allowed for some easy looks for the likes of Elisa Homer and Meg Wilson. Homer finished with a team high twenty

January 4, 2017

points, while Kett finished with 18 points, along with six assists, six rebounds, and three steals.

Meg Wilson had 16 points along with nine rebounds Perhaps the biggest storyline heading into the game was how SFU planned to shut down Shelby Snook. Arguably one of the best shooters in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, she came into the game averaging 16.9 points per game, and shooting over 50% from behind the arc. Nevertheless, the Clan limited her to only six points in 33 minutes of action.

“We wanted to play her fairly tight,” head coach Bruce Langford said afterwards on the team’s strategy. “We had Ozi [Nwabuko] checking her most of the night, and we had her not sag from her too much because she’s very good offensively.”

Nwabuko finished with only 10 points, but was excellent guarding Snook for the majority of the night. Rachel Fradgley started the game, but early foul trouble limited her to only 14 minutes on the night and just one point. Division I transfer Tayla Jackson did not play, suffering the effects of pneumonia according to head coach Bruce Langford.

Next up for SFU is an early game against Concordia University. Although this game was fairly comfortable, Langford is expecting more of a battle come Saturday.

“It’s going to be a much tougher game than today,” he commented. “We need to be more focused. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day, and they’ve got a couple of players that are very good offensively.

We need to be better.”

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FASS CANADA 150 SPRING SPEAKER SERIES Join us for 4 weeks of pizza and polemic fun!

Wednesday

January

18

11:30AM to 12:20PM Backstage at the Diamond Family Auditorium

Getting by or Getting Ahead?

Economic Mobility in Canada Dr. Krishna Pendakur, Economics

Wednesday

11:30AM to 12:20PM

January

25

Backstage at the Diamond Family Auditorium

The Full Monty: Your Evidence Laid Bare in an Inclusive and Diverse Political Science Drs. Genvieve Fuji Johnson and Eline de Rooij, Political Science

Wednesday

February

1

11:30AM to 12:20PM Backstage at the Diamond Family Auditorium

Science’s Secrets to Greater Happiness

11:30AM to 12:20PM Backstage at the Diamond Family Auditorium

Becoming a Kinder Gentler Canada: A Chequered History of Crime Dr. Neil Boyd, Criminology

Open to all students and the general public

Dr. Lara Aknin, Psychology

Wednesday

February

8

14 Humour

Janis McMath / Humour Editor

humour@the-peak.ca

HOT NEW SLANG TO USE IN 2017 the new jargon for the new year written & illustrated by:

janis mcmath

humour editor

layout by:

elena hsu

i'm going to fuck your pomeranian fluff-hole

tru-douche Back in 2016, some of us voted for this pretty boy because for some reason we thought that a boy band member could run our country. Now, with this pipeline full of shit spewing in our faces, we need a word for someone who is a big dickbag to Canada — someone who would punch a beaver in the face and defecate on Canadian hero Avril Lavigne.

Cue tru-douche. This insult is perfect to use against any asshole to attack sweet ol’ Canada.

The easiest way to tell someone off.

Every time a baby-boomer makes a vaguely racist comment and expects you to laugh along, you can now easily silence them with this verbal punch in their problematic ideology.

And now you may be thinking, “fucking Pomeranian fluff-holes is too crude.” But you’re wrong.

If anything, it isn’t crude enough. This culture of ours has basically perverted everything it can get its tentacles on.

We take our dicks out for everything — especially apes. So keep up. It’s the year of the fluff-hole.

The term originated in the Baltic Nations, but since that isn’t a place, you saw it here first.

lemon-sucking fuck-face

pubey It’s the new age, people. It’s a pubey age.

Bae is a lazy acronym for lazy lovers who blow their load before you can even start thinking about having an orgasm. You left that premature motherfucker in 2016 for better dick, and you should leave the term bae along with him.

Lemon-sucking fuck-face is a much better term of endearment.

The term is longer and it takes more commitment to say, showing your significant other exactly how committed you are to them.

Nothing says love like a long, complicated insult involving fruits.

An example of how to use it: “My lemon-sucking fuck-face and I went on a very romantic hike and afterwards we sucked each other’s lemons dry.” Sexual innuendo including lemons is optional, but encouraged.

clit 2016 was lit. 2017 is gonna be clit.

The clit is the perfect mascot for a great time.

No one has a better time than the clit — the clit is the life of the party, and of the female genitalia.

It’s easy to have a clit time. All you have to do is fight the patriarchy while partying. “Me and my boys are going to go out on the town, not give into the pressure society puts on us to be masculine, and we’re going to just have a great time together. It’s going to be clit, mate!

2017 is the year where we’ll all finally be cool with our body hair.

It’s here, people. We can all accept ourselves for having hair on our ass cracks and nipples, and stop shaming our hair follicles. We all, 100% have pulled a very long and very ungodly hair out of a very sensitive area in our lives, and we’re going to stop lying to ourselves about it. It’s time to accept all of our hair. Brush out your moustache and don’t worry, you look beautiful.

Let your hair down, girl — your pubic hair.

It’s going to be a revolutionary year. It’s going to be a pubey year.

Comics

Janis McMath / Humour Editor

January 3, 2017 humour@the-peak.ca

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16 Diversions

Maia Odegaard / Business Manager

maia@the-peak.ca

Crossword by onlinecrosswords.net

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