The Cascade Vol. 25 No. 4

JANUARY 25 TO FEBRUARY 1, 2017

VOLUME 25 ISSUE 4

Presenting alternative facts since 1993

When the condom breaks UFV and SUS respond to condom tamperings with some action.

3

Bigotry is nothing new Hate is prevelant because it’s an easy default setting.

6

Dysconnected Dysconnect from technology, don’t be made a fool.

19

Best of 2016 pg. 10-15

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

EDITORIAL

It’s not a race VANESSA BROADBENT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

When I was in grade six one of my best friends was an exchange student from Taiwan. At that age, myself, and the majority of my young and impressionable classmates didn’t see the fact that she was from a different country as something that set her apart in a negative way or made her different from us, but something that was enticing and made us want to know everything about her.

We were inseparable for the entire school year, kept in touch for about another year after that, and then somehow faded out of contact, but I remember thinking that there really wasn’t much that set us apart other than where she was from. And since we had a whole lot of other things in common that didn’t matter anyways.

I wasn’t the only one in my class that thought this way. Being a different ethnicity never got in her way of making friends and being accepted or seen as one of us. The differences we had were not only unimportant but rather almost went unnoticed.

Fast forward a little over a decade, and the university classroom is a very different setting for international students — or students of any racial minority — to enter. It’s not that racism is

“I have yet to meet a student that acknowledges themselves to be a racist, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem on campus or still a common mindset that people hold” rampant and anyone that’s “different” is outcast, but the young and naïve childlike mindset that is “if you’re nice to me I’ll play with you” is no longer prevalent, but instead the differences between us are.

You’d like think that racism would be one of those things that you don’t really hear about all that much anymore and that we, as a society, should be at a point where it’s just something that doesn’t happen all that often. Occasionally you’d be reminded of it, remember people used to actually think that way, and then feel happy that you no longer live in a society where this is still a

prevalent issue and these mindsets are still things that exist and people face them on a regular basis.

But that’s not the case. Racism still obviously exists globally, and is still strong in North America, but in our comfortable bubble in the Fraser Valley where people are just more polite in general, it’s not something that we imagine happening here.

The recent distribution of KKK pamphlets and flyers last week showed that racism is still an issue, even in Abbotsford — and that wasn’t the first time this has happened. Last summer Chilliwack was hit with the same problem when KKK flyers were left of lawns, and Mission was hit with the same problem in October.

These events always gain strong media attention, which is great, they need to be acknowledged, but that also makes it easy to look at what’s happening and think “I’m not as bad as that,” justifying our own prejudices because they don’t seem as bad as others.

Maybe they’re not; distributing hate literature is something most of us just wouldn’t do, because it’s seen as very obvious racism and bigotry, and are an extreme that most of us would never

STAFF

CONTRIUBUTORS

Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Broadbent vanessa@ufvcascade.ca

Culture & Events Editor Jeff Mijo jeff@ufvcascade.ca

Photographer Alexandrah Pahl alexandrah@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca

Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca

Distributor Griffy Vigneron distributor@ufvcascade.ca

Business Manager Quintin Stamler quintin@ufvcascade.ca

Production Manager Brittany Cardinal brittany@ufvcascade.ca

Staff Writer Michael Chutskoff mike@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

Online Editor Tanya Vanpraseuth tanya@ufvcascade.ca

News Editor Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca

Features Editor Bradley Peters brad@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Panku Sharma panku@ufvcascade.ca

Illustrator Amara Gelaude amara@ufvcascade.ca

2

identify with. But racism is deeper than that — it’s not the actions that we carry out, the things we do, but the beliefs we hold.

I have yet to meet a student that acknowledges themselves to hold racist views, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem on campus or still a common mindset that people hold.

Rather than blatant hate speech or literature distributed on campus, it can be as simple as choosing not to acknowledge what an international classmate has to say because trying to understand them is too much of an effort, or viewing classmates’ different ethnicities as a dividing factor between us and them — it’s the mindset that someone’s race makes them in anyway inferior to us or not worth our time.

While it’s important to acknowledge events of blatant racism, it’s just as important to remember that they aren’t what define racism.

What defines racism is the way people talk and think about each other.

Ekanki Chawla Laura Andrés Mike Friesen Lauren Johnston

Cover: Brittany Cardinal Back Cover: Brittany Cardinal

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA @UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/THE.CASCADE

Volume 25 · Issue 3 Room S2111 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529

The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It originated under its current name in 1993, and achieved autonomy from the university and the Student Union Society in 2002. This means that The Cascade is a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published in an entirely student-run setting. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds, and is overseen by the Cascade Journalism Society Board, a body run by a student majority. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a print circulation of 1,250 and is distributed at Abbotsford, Chilliwack (CEP), Clearbrook, and Mission UFV campuses and throughout the surrounding communities.

The Cascade is open to written, photo, and design work from all students; these can come in the form of a pitch to an editor, or an assignment from an editor. Writers meetings are held each Monday at 12:00 p.m. in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus.

In order to be published in the newspaper, all work must first be approved by The Cascade’s editor-in-chief, copy editor, and corresponding section editor. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. Letters to the editor, while held to the same standard, are unedited, and should be under 400 words. As The Cascade is an autonomous student publication, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, The Cascade’s staff and collective, or associated members.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

NEWS

Slipping on condoms

NEWS BRIEFS

Tamper-proof dispensers will be installed despite delays Photo: Mitch Huttema

Women’s rugby sevens

The UFV Cascades women’s sevens rugby club team finished in sixth place at the Canada West tournament in Edmonton last weekend. The tournament was the team’s first, and a loss of every match put them in final place overall. They competed against Calgary (40-0), Victoria (31-5), Alberta (38-5), UBC (40-0), and Lethbridge (43-0).

- UFV Cascades

UFV contracts digital design consultant UFV hired Santec, an engineering, consulting, and design services provider to help plan UFV’s Digital Hub, which will be a facility on the Abbotsford campus specialising in technologically driven learning techniques for students. The space will house multiple platforms and work spaces to facilitate a unique and flexible learning environment. Santec will help with design, space layout, and financial feasibility among other areas of development.

- UFV Today

UCalgary cuts as many as 1,600 journals The University of Calgary has cancelled subscriptions to up to 1,600 in order to cut $1.5 million in costs. According to university faculty and staff, the blame for needing to cut costs rests on the publishers and their rising costs of journal subscriptions. UCalgary head librarian Tom Hickerson said that publishers currently control more than half the market for academic journals, and that these companies raise their prices every year, according to the CBC.

- CBC

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR NEWS EDITOR

After the condom tamperings that occurred at UFV last October, some efforts to provide proper protection to anyone wanting free access to condoms haven’t been followed through with.

Before the tampering incident, condoms were supplied for free in baskets in various public locations around UFV campuses. However, this eventually became problematic.

On Oct. 28, an email warned students, faculty, and staff that condoms in public spaces around UFV may have been tampered with.

The Cascade reported on the story Oct. 30 in an article titled “UFV warns students of pin holes found in condoms,” which said that a student saw another student tamper with the condoms in a women’s washroom in the Student Union Building (SUB) on UFV’s Abbotsford campus.

Responding to the condom tamperings, SUS said they had already ordered dispensers for condom and feminine hygiene products and would be installing them promptly.

However, condom and feminine hygiene dispensers have still not been purchased or installed in the SUB or on UFV campuses, contradicting what was said in the press release SUS sent to the CBC, Global News, Chilliwack Times, Abbotsford News, and The Cascade on Oct. 31.

“Our Student Union Society had ordered condom and feminine hygiene dispensers that were to be installed in the Student Union Building washrooms in January 2017. We are currently fast-tracking this project and hope to have these installed as early as late November,” read the press release.

Despite what was said in the release, at a SUB steering committee meeting the following day, SUS and UFV discussed how they would acquire product dispensers for the SUB and UFV. “SUS is looking into installing feminine hygiene product / condom dispensers in the washrooms; currently obtaining quotes and determining best locations to install dispensers. [SUS president] Sukhi [Brar] asked this committee for advice on where to install and how many.” reads the minutes from the Nov. 1 committee meeting.

Still, no dispensers of any kind have been purchased.

At the Nov. 1 SUB steering committee meeting, it was decided that the SUS and UFV would work together to find and purchase dispensers.

The UFV procurement office was tasked to source out the right kind of units. It was agreed upon that using dispensers made more sense than baskets because it would help to ensure that the condoms could not be tampered with.

With that direction given, it was expected that the dispensers could be purchased and installed by the end of January.

“So the UFV procurement office went and looked at units and pricing and we got an email on Jan. 3,” said Brar.

The email referenced a company that has supplied dispensers to Simon Fraser University, the Vancouver International Airport, and Capilano University. Total cost for the dispensers without product, depending on the particular unit, prices somewhere between $3,450 and $5,000 for all dispensers.

“I don’t know why an email with quotes only found its way to us this semester when this was something that we started talking about Nov. 1,” said Brar.

Much of the delay has come from the difficulty in finding appropriate dispensers. It was noted in the minutes for the Nov. 1 meeting that an important requirement for dispensers would be that they dispense free product. The problem with the dispensers from the recommended company is that they only offer a unit that charges to dispense product. The company has however said they can modify the dispensers to dispense for free but it would void the warranty as they are tampering with their own machines.

Jody Gordon, UFV’s vice president students who is on the SUB steering committee, said that it hasn’t been easy to find a company that sells product dispensers that don’t require payment for dispensing.

“It is a difficult process in that they’re very specific that they want dispensers that are not coin operated. And that apparently has turned out to be a bit of challenge to find,” said Gordon.

Along with the purchasing delays, conflict around who will pay for the dispensers has developed.

“My understanding is that SUS is paying for the dispensers, the PRLC is supplying the condoms at this point, condoms both internal as well as kind of the traditional condoms, if you will,” said Kyle Baillie, director of student life & development.

When UFV first responded to the tampering incident, they agreed to provide funding for the dispensers, according to Brar. Email threads she was apart of suggested that UFV would contribute by assisting in the costs.

“But this was because of all the media attention,” said Brar, referring to the attention the tampered condoms initially received. “What pisses me off, again, and I had been kind of wary of it then too is it’s like ‘yeah, let’s partner,’ and so when Abby News was contacting, when people were contacting it’s like ‘we’re partnering with SUS to do this thing.’”

Brar said that UFV has since suggested that SUS will have to pay for dispensers in the SUB.

As director of student life & development which encompases many initiatives including the Peer Resource and Learning Centre (PRLC), which supplied the condoms before the tampering incident.

“The condoms are currently supplied for free, we’re paying for the shipping to get them here.

What else would we pay for, there isn’t any other costs associated,” said Baillie.

But this doesn’t help the SUS, who can already get 10,000 condoms for free every quarter from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, and was looking to get help with funding for the dispensers in the SUB. Others costs will include purchasing dispensers and the ongoing costs of supplying feminine hygiene products.

Currently, 13 machines are expected to be purchased. As it stands, there will be 10 dual dispensers that dispense both condoms and feminine hygiene products installed in women’s washrooms. Dual dispensers will be installed in the SUB, Baker House (UFV’s student residences) and at the CEP campus in Chilliwack. There will also be three single product dispensers, that will be installed in the SUB. Gordon said that UFV could pay for two dispensers, they would be the ones installed in Baker House, and at the CEP campus. SUS would have to pay for the 11 dispensers for the SUB. “For us it doesn’t really help when we’re putting in dispensers to have someone offer to put money towards getting a thing [condoms] that we can already get for free. And I suspect they can get it for free which is why they offered to do that piece to partner,” said Brar.

“If they’re not paying for it, and they’re not adding any value to us doing this, then why did they say let’s partner on this. Because they’re not contributing to any of the cost,” said Brar.”

Despite delays, Brar promised that dispensers will be installed.

“What I can commit to 100 per cent is there will be dispenser and there will be free product,” she said.

3

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

NEWS

The winter 2016 semester sees curtains rise on new theatre major

UFV represented

in London science forum

EKANKI CHAWLA

MARTIN CASTRO

CONTRIBUTOR

ARTS EDITOR

Each year UFV selects an exceptional science student to go on an all-expenses paid trip to the London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF). The forum invites young promising scientists aged 17 to 21 from over 75 countries across the world. For 13 days, from July 26 to August 9, attendees are immersed in an intensive curriculum of lectures and demonstrations from leading scientists, visits to scientific institutions, world-class laboratories, and research centres such as Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

In its 59th edition, LIYSF’s underlying theme this year is “Science — Making Life Better.”

The application process includes writing a short essay about the vision for science or technology in the future. Short-listed candidates then present on a research topic to a panel comprised of multiple professors, and the dean of science, Dr. Lucy Lee. For the panel presentation, Vivienne Beard, last year’s UFV student representative at the 2016 LIYSF, outlined her research in bioinformatics with Dr. James Bedard.

“I did a comparative gene annotation project on species of Drosophila.

[This is] through the genomics education partnership that has affiliations with lots of schools around the world, but [UFV] is the only one in Canada,” she said.

The conference is also an opportunity to gain cultural enrichment, exposure to different perspectives, and to develop lasting, international friendships.

“It was amazing because it didn’t actually matter what age you were,” Beard reflected. “You connected with everybody because of similar interests, even if you were from different fields of science.”

The two week event is held at Imperial College in London with the primary aim of giving a deeper insight into science and its applications for the benefit of all mankind while developing a greater understanding between young people of all nations.

Applications are open until February 7, 2017. For more information, contact Caroline Majeau at caroline.majeau@ufv.ca.

The proposed theatre major submitted to the Academic Planning and Priorities Committee in June of 2014 with an anticipated start date of September 2015 has officially started as of the Winter 2016 semester.

According to theatre department head Heather DavisFisch, the major was delayed as a result of concerns raised by the Ministry of Advanced Education regarding employment prospects. The Ministry wanted “assurances that students … currently in the theatre minor / extended minor diploma programs were finding work in their fields or … work relevant to their degrees.”

The now-approved theatre major is an addition to the theatre programs currently offered at UFV. “More credits are required [for the major] and that’s typical,” said Davis-Fisch. “Students in the first two years develop foundational skills, stagecraft, acting, and what’s called theatre performance studies, that’s the sort of academic side of theatre.”

Upper-level theatre students, however, have more freedom of choice, according to Davis-Fisch.

“Students have all the foundational skills after the first couple of years that they can go on to do more researchbased work, practice-based work, advanced acting classes,” she said. “It’s really up to our students to choose how to specialize in their last two years.”

The new major came hand-in-hand with a higher demand by UFV students for upper-level theatre courses,

particularly courses in theory, which Davis-Fisch said was a waitlisted course this year.

“It’s a required course for all theatre majors, and it’s only offered every other year,” she said.

Current UFV students who found themselves waiting for the implementation of the major will have found that the courses offered this semester satisfy all the lower-level requirements for the major.

“Our goal in launching the major in January rather than September 2017 was made with an awareness that we had students who had been hanging out for an awful long time waiting for the degree,” said Davis-Fisch.

Theatre courses fall into two categories: creative practice and performance studies. These are normally offered on a rotating basis.

“Over the course of a student’s final two years in the program they’d have the option to take any of those courses. But not all of them are offered every year,” DavisFisch explained.

This year, however, the theatre department “made sure that everything required was being offered.”

“Everyone who has been close to graduating we’ve been able to accommodate,” Davis-Fisch said. “This was the year we were expecting to have [a] crunch on program completion.”

The theatre program at UFV will also start moving to the Abbotsford campus starting September.

“The long-term plan has always been to move theatre to Abbotsford with the other arts department,” DavisFisch explained.

Stories worth paying attention to #Distractedby50K

#SilentGenesUnholyGenes

Clark passes on stipend, may not be enough

GMO apple approved for U.S. market

Critics have suggested that ditching her $50 thousand annual Liberal party stipend won’t be enough for Christy Clark.

The Arctic apple is making its debut in America early next month. The genetically modified fruit has roots in Canada, dating back to 1996 when Neal Carter, founder and president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF), began development.

Clark said the move wasn’t related to a recent ***New York Times article that criticized the party fundraising in B.C. It was also suggested that her decision doesn’t have any relation to the upcoming provincial election.

Clark’s reason for not accepting the stipend is that it was “distracting.”

The Canadian Press writes that “NDP Opposition Leader John Horgan said Clark may only see the stipend as a distraction, but the public sees it as a conflict.”

4

Using science, OSF managed to silence genes related to the browning effect. In turn, producing an apple that appears to last longer.

U.S. consumers will have the opportunity to purchase the product pre-sliced, though it will be without GMO labelling, that information will be available to consumers on the web.

The challenges that the Arctic apple faces include the skepticism surrounding GMOs as well as the production required to justify commercial operation.

#Pockedsizedabortion Abortion pill arrives in Canada Mifegymiso made its debut in Canada last week; the alternative abortion medication is a two-drug combo.

The drug went through a slow application process despite having been already approved in more than 60 countries.

It is difficult to say what kind of traction Mifegymiso will have in Canada; the first establishments to offer the product are abortion clinics.

Prescriptions will be written by doctors who complete a day long course online.

Mifegymiso’s monograph recommends that the product should not be used in pregnancies past seven weeks. The limitations are still unknown, varying with regards to location and the physician’s stance.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

NEWS

Reevaluating racism UFV’s Peter Raabe discusses racism as a mental illness, and how to overcome it VANESSA BROADBENT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Following the distribution of racist flyers in Abbotsford, a Rally Against Racism and Bigotry was held on Sunday. Associate professor in UFV’s philosophy department Peter Raabe opened up about modern racism, why it should be treated as a mental illness, and how race really doesn’t exist.

How would you define what racism today looks like?

Racism today is very well hidden, and I say this for North America, I’m not going to point fingers to any particular country. I think the thing is that people realize that having racist attitudes is not considered to be cool in our society and yet I think a lot of people still believe in racism; they still hold racist beliefs.

How have the racist beliefs people hold changed over time?

I think there are people who still consider other colours to be inferior, and yet there’s this phrase of political correctness where they say “I have to be politically correct so I can’t show the fact that I believe there are inferior races.” Political correctness is just a term for being respectful to people and there are people who really don’t like having to be respectful and having to consider everyone as equal and so they have racist and sexist and homophobic beliefs that they keep to themselves, but they still hold those beliefs.

Would you say there’s different levels of racism?

Yes, I think so. I think there are people who act on those beliefs, and there are people who believe and in a sense don’t associate with people of different colours. They don’t respond to people of different colours, which is not as negative as someone who actually goes out and beats up somebody who is of a different colour.

I think people in the Southern States are much more expressive about their racism than we are in Canada. We are polite people here so we keep that to ourselves but a lot of people still have racist beliefs.

How would you say the kind of racism like the distribution of the KKK pamphlets differs from racist views the average person who might never actually do something like that has?

I think the pamphleting and postering and things like that, the person is reacting from fear. They have racist beliefs, but they certainly wouldn’t come out and say so in public, but they would poster and hand out pamphlets and so on anonymously through the mail. It’s very similar to bullying in social media where the person can use a made up name so that no one can tell who they are. It’s nasty because it is anonymous and so it’s safe. It’s a safe way to express racism overtly, outright, but it’s anonymous so they can get away with it because no one will point a finger and say “There’s that racist.” And they won’t get arrested for doing it because nobody knows who they are.

How would you argue that race doesn’t exist?

One of the strongest arguments is the genetic argument because racism often starts from “they’re genetically different than we are,” whomever you’re pointing at. There’s research in various universities that have said that they’ve studied human families the same way they study animal families and they say that racism is an arbitrary division of family into smaller divisions by skin colour, and it’s an illegitimate form of science. If you look at genetics, people are genetically diverse individually but there’s no group that’s genetically diverse from any other grouping in humanity, so there are no large scale differences in genetics between one group of people and another group of people, and that comes from scientific investigation. But racism doesn’t work on science, racism works on belief. Racism is a mental illness because there is a refusal to correct faulty reasoning. You’ve got good reasoning that’s based on science, but people refuse to accept it and that’s where it starts to become a problem in terms of psychopathology.

Do you think we can eventually get to a point where racism is commonly seen as a mental illness?

I certainly hope so. There’s no mention of racism as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, it doesn’t occur. These disorders are mentioned in the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] and they apply to racism. The whole concept of racism as a mental illness is not being discussed in the literature anywhere, and it’s not in the DSM either because there’s such a

resistance in society to name racism because so many people are racist and it would offend a lot of people who are in high positions.

Why do you think people have such a hard time accepting racism as a mental illness?

The mental disorders in the DSM are put there, it’s a general agreement, and it just tells me that the people on the board, who are mostly white men, haven’t agreed that racism and the connected faulty reasoning should belong in the DSM. That’s the only way that it’s not there, because this board of white guys have not yet agreed that these diagnoses ought to be in the DSM as racism.

That’s how it works, the things that appear in the DSM don’t appear there magically. There are people that make decisions, and the people are older white guys. It’s not surprising that racism is not there.

Why do you think people have such a hard time overlooking race?

Racism is a form of power over others. It’s taught to children and it’s very difficult to unlearn something that you’ve learned as a very young child. You can unlearn racism but it has to then require the person to admit to themselves that they have racist views and that they might be wrong and to listen to other people’s explanation of why racism is wrong. Because it starts at a young age, because parents teach their children how to be racist and peer groups teach their members of their peer group how to be racist, it’s very hard to get over that and it’s not enough sometimes to use logic and argument. It’s an emotional investment that people have in that belief.

Do you think sometimes racism isn’t necessarily a view against a specific skin colour, but against the views a community holds?

Yes, and this is where religion comes in because people are racist against religious groups too. I use the word racism, but racism is just having a biased opinion about a particular group and that’s usually based on stereotypes. There are religious groups that are considered to be inferior, like the Muslims are the target right now — it was the Jews for awhile — that are considered to be inferior people. Racism is generally assumed to refer to colour, but there’s all sorts of biases that have all sorts of “isms” behind them, like sexism. There’s a lot of different biases that people hold that work the same way in terms of logic.

Like the rally that was on the weekend, do you think rallies and protests have an effect on racism?

I don’t think so. I hate to be negative about it, but the thing is rallies attract people who already agree and it’s a show of force, a show of beliefs to people who are racist. But I think what happens is racists look at these rallies and find them threatening, and then they say, “See, those people of colour are threatening.” To me, I think to overcome requires one-on-one connections with people who are racist and sometimes it takes a long time to get someone to overcome their personal racist beliefs. It’s not done overnight and it’s not done by protests. The protests are good in the sense that the general public sees people out there who are concerned and empathetic enough to go out and actually protest, but I don’t think it changes the minds of people at all.

What can students do to combat racism in their community, even as something that’s been taught?

If you’re of the mindset that you’ve learned from your parents and your peers to be accepting and not to be racist, the best thing students can do is to react to someone who says something racist or acts in a racist way. You’re a role model and you have the chance to say something that might convince the racist person that he or she is not acceptable in the group that they’re being racist within.

That takes courage. It takes courage for a student to respond to homophobia, sexism, racism, so on, because the worry is “I’m going to be the odd person out, I’m going to look stupid if I say something.” But that’s the best way to combat racism, one-on-one like that, not attacking the person or calling them names or anything like that, but in a respectful way questioning where these beliefs came from and why they have those beliefs, and showing them a better way to look at humanity that doesn’t involve racism.

The Cascade is hiring a Varsity Writer!

The varsity writer is responsible for writing at least two UFV varsity sports articles per week during the regular season. During the off-season, the varsity reporter will write one varsity sports article and one other article for The Cascade. Because reporters are paid members of the Cascade staff, they are expected to write more comprehensive articles than a contributor.

To apply send a resume, cover letter, and a writing sample to joel@ufvcascade.ca

by Feb 1.

The Cascade is hiring a Production Assistant!

The Production Assistant helps design and lay out sections of The Cascade as directed by the Production Manager. This includes, but won’t always be limited to, managing photos, caption spaces, and insertion of text in sections as assigned.

To apply send a resume, cover letter, and a writing sample to joel@ufvcascade.ca

by Feb 1.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

5

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

OPINION

Will I be able to vote in the SUS election?

JEFF MIJO

CULTURE EDITOR

With the Student Union Society (SUS) election coming up fast, one question is sure to be on a lot of students’ minds: how do I vote?

I had the same question last semester, when, as a new student, I wanted to dip my toes into the water of student government and vote in the fall by-election. Admittedly, the stakes weren’t that high with only one candidate running, but I figured it’d be good practice for the day when there was a contested election to vote in. That is to say, a few weeks from now. I wanted to be a good, proactive, engaged student, and figured it’d be good practice to cast a more or less meaningless vote.

When election day came around, it was all over Facebook, the posters were posted, and of course we’d been talking about it at The Cascade in the preceding weeks, but the topic of how to vote never came up. There seemed to be an assumption that everybody knew what was involved, and I’m sure to the people designing and approving those posters, it seems straightforward enough. But when all they say is to vote online through MyUFV, they neglect to address one issue: MyUFV is a labyrinthian abyss crossed with amnesia-inducing capabilities beyond even that of a videogame plot, lightly glazed with the sirens’ song of ever-sofaint hope that one day, just maybe, an end will be found. That is to say, the tantalizing trails

of links weave through the impossible web of green and white, but every path leads to the same ultimate, tragic conclusion: erasing the user’s memory of how to get to a page almost as soon as they leave it.

I tried. I tried to vote. I wasn’t on campus that day, so I couldn’t just casually ask someone, and I wasn’t about to text a coworker to ask for instructions. I’d like to think I’m a smart, highly computer literate person, and I can usually at least guess at what a designer intended. But that day? That day I met a problem I couldn’t solve.

I logged in and clicked on everything. Campus Life? Has a link to SUS, but no election. Campus News or Services? Nope. MyCampusLife?

The home page? Some random place that didn’t make sense? Nothing.

I don’t know what’s involved behind the scenes, and I don’t know if there’s some bylaw that says this is the place elections have to be held, but I can’t help but think there must be a better way. At the very least, it should be made explicitly clear, with instructions on every announcement and poster, how to vote. Because I wanted to. I tried to be an engaged student in my first semester. And what did I get out of it?

Half an hour of annoyance and the sense that someone felt my vote wasn’t needed. All I’m saying is, maybe the lack of competition in that by-election wasn’t the only reason I could count the total votes on my fingers.

fill a gap in your program

Athabasca University has over 850 courses for you to choose from to meet your needs. Monthly start dates of undergraduate courses fit into your schedule so that you can work at your own pace.

Fill the gap and save a semester.

go.athabascau.ca/online-courses open. online. everywhere.

Bigotry never left PANKU SHARMA OPINON EDITOR

Hate is easy. There’s no shortage of it, and as pointed out by many speakers at this past Sunday’s Rally Against Racism and Bigotry at the Abbotsford Sikh Museum, it’s spreading like a virus — validated by the success of Trump and hardened against an emerging generation that is conscious of the deep historical scars of discrimination.

I love this province and this city, but I didn’t share in the same level of astonishment and surprise as most when white nationalist groups began to reemerge in the past year, spreading pamphlets and intimidating residents. Or when a profane and racist tirade over a parking dispute put us on the media map.

It’s a symptom, but the sickness has always been present, even if the lack of white robes, head taxes, and direct language made it less apparent. We’re a nation still uncomfortable with the discussion, too ready to pat ourselves on the back and sneer at our southern neighbours. It’s unfortunate that we’re living in a climate where a rally like Sunday’s was necessary, but the silver lining might be that it can wake, unite, and compel us into action.

I was proud to see the turnout it got. More than a hundred citizens were concerned with what was happening and ready to band together in solidarity. I saw punks and priests, antifascists

6

and activists, different backgrounds, ethnicities, and beliefs — all with a shared desire to not stand quietly by and let this land slip away.

“We’re a nation still uncomfortable with the discussion, too ready to pat ourselves on the back and sneer at our southern neighbours” They spoke on many issues: the need for self defence and organization, the formation of a B.C. Human Rights Commission, the need to hold our governments accountable (there were representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Mission school board, but no one from Abbotsford School

District, Police Department, or City Hall that made themselves known), to face our own shortfalls and biases, and the need to confront hate with love and as a community, to amplify voices and stand by the oppressed and marginalized.

One speaker also made a point to touch on the danger of divisions, the need for our energy to be directed vertically at the rich and powerful who stand to benefit in the conflict between citizens.

Hate is easy. Love and compassion are harder things to live with. They must be built, learned, repeated, and nurtured. Hate is the easy reaction, often the first one; if you live hatefully, it’ll drag you down in the end.

Some of you out there might be struggling with it now, you might buy into some of what the racist pamphlets and slogans say. I hope one day you can allow love into your life, that you can give people a chance to be more than their skin and background.

That you can allow your own measure and worldview to be based on something more than genetics. Until that day, the people of this community have said in no uncertain terms that they will stand up to any challenge.

I don’t speak for all of them when I say my worldview will never rule out the need for a closed fist, but I hope I do when I affirm that I’ll start first with an open heart.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

OPINION

SNAPSHOTS

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

Vanessa Broadbent

Panku Sharma

Illustrations: Amara Gelaude

Emo-pleas

Early Childhood Education

There are plenty of perks that come with switching to iPhone, and I spent the weekend familiarizing myself with most of them. While it wasn’t a deciding factor in my transition, the extensive amount of emojis that come with Apple is impressive, but also a little daunting.

There’s pretty much everything — couples of every orientation (except for interracial couples, surprisingly), every flag you can think of, and today I learned that if you hold down on a person you can choose between different skin tones as well. But there’s something missing: redheads.

It’s great that Apple is making efforts to be inclusive and represent everyone, but come on, a water polo player (and there are two to choose from) should be a little harder to come by than a redhead. It’s not that I need an emoji that looks like myself, but it’s hard not to feel left out when Apple’s gone above and beyond to make sure that everyone is represented except for you. I mean, I see more redheads around than sets of identical dancing twins donning rabbit ears.

I guess I’ll just have to settle for being happy that at least the hand symbols come in a light enough skin tone to kind of match mine.

Never in a million years would I have imagined working with kids. So imagine my surprise when I started working with them. You see, kids have always scared me for some reason.

They are crafty, smart, and quicker than you attribute them. They know how to push your buttons. I quickly realized that they aren’t so bad, and that the so called “bad kids” are actually the sweetest little things ever, and just need some guidance. Nothing is better than working with a young’un, and seeing how they have progressed, and that you are part of the reason as to why they are smiling. While they still know how to agitate me at times, it still feels good knowing that you can get them back on track and help them along. While they learn a lot from me, I have learnt how to be a kid again, and thoroughly enjoy all the time I get to play with them.

Michael Chutskoff

Clean dreams lean green

RE: I won’t sit for this

From time to time I actually have positive feedback to give about programs run on this campus. With absolutely zero irony I can proudly proclaim that I think initiatives like the UFV Centre for Sustainability, which seeks to bring together different public, private, and nonprofit organizations to share and collaborate on environmental studies and seek partners for sustainable and environmentally sound projects, is damn cool and I’m glad it exists. Did you know there are already solar panels on the Student Union Building roof that pre-heat the water?

And that’s just the start, imagine if we could start collecting the rainwater, like our neighbour the Abbotsford Centre who use it for their hockey ice, for our toilets and greywater?

Not to mention our unclaimed destiny, the pinnacle of prestige that this university strives for: a rooftop garden (that will require us to build stairs for roof access) with plants, pigeons, bees, and maybe even a goat. We can’t stop dreaming fam, even though the future might look bleak and barren we can still turn this whole climate change and environmental degradation around to get a goat on our roof.

In December, I wrote a snapshot complaining about the hypersensitivity of UFV’s automatic toilet flushers. I talked about how one visit to a bathroom stall could lead to three or four flushes, and how it was a waste of water that made stall-neighbours think my diet must consist of handfuls of beans and Shreddies with prune juice instead of milk. This past weekend, however, I encountered the even more guilt-inducing alternative: the under-sensitive flusher. It was on my way down to Tacoma for a quick weekend visit with my girlfriend who lives there. I stopped in at the McDonald’s in Lynden for a milkshake, and popped into the bathroom to prepare myself for the long road ahead.

After attending to my business, I stood up, but the auto-flusher didn’t trigger. I sighed, reached out to push the manual flush, and froze. There wasn’t one. There was no way to set it off other than the sensor, and I think it could sense my lack of American patriotism and chose to ignore me. I searched all over it for a button, tried sitting down and standing back up multiple times, waved my hand frantically in front of it, but nothing worked. ***What do I do now? There was only one stall and I didn’t want to be in it too long, especially if someone else came in and was waiting for me. So for the first time in my life, I left a toilet unflushed. I ran. I fled the city before anyone knew.

So while UFV’s toilets may be a bit wasteful, I have to rescind some of my previous criticisms. I’d much prefer their over-enthusiasm to the kind of shame that will keep me out of that McDonald’s forever.

Jeff Mijo

7

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

OPINION

Paying our share, even while grumbling MICHAEL CHUTSKOFF STAFF WRITER

With the start of a new semester, the age-old tradition of grumbling over student fees has once again started in full swing. After multiple conversations with my friends, and eavesdropping on first-years complaining about the costs, it is easy to see both sides of the equation. Administrators praise what is seen as a “low cost” collection of fees, while many students often struggle having to dish out more money in order to continue their education each semester.

While some fees may seem irrelevant to some students, most of them play an important role in helping many UFV students with their academic careers.

Take SUS’s transit shuttle fee for example: I for one never need to use the shuttle as I have my own vehicle, and have yet to have any classes in Chilliwack. Despite having to pay $27.23 for something I don’t use, I still understand that my

contribution to the shuttle system provides the necessary funds to help keep the shuttles that students rely on running somewhat smoothly.

The same can be said about many taxes I have to pay, and will continue to pay throughout my life. I have no kids, yet I have to pay for education to ensure that the public school system is being properly funded. While it can be frustrating at times to watch your money disappear to places you have no vested interest in, it is the way society works. Considering that Canada itself is a socialist country, we have even higher taxation rates compared to many other countries in the world so we can enjoy benefits such as free healthcare. While the topic of taxation rates based on class is another story for another day, the point is that watching our money get taken away is a rather unfortunate, but necessary function of society. Student fees can be seen as taxation training wheels for many young students that are new to the concept.

Compared to UBC, our little university

The Cascade is hiring a Advertising Representative!

great way to make the most out of the situation. For example, UFV Athletics is now offering free unlimited fitness classes for all students this semester, which was made possible by the Experiential Learning and Wellness fee that students pay based on the number of credits they’re enrolled in. The $36.27 I pay adds up to be a much cheaper alternative for free fitness courses, compared to roughly $50 monthly at Goodlife Fitness in order to attend fitness courses there. It is also important to look at the fees that are listed, and see what fees are eligible to opt-out of, which can ease the financial burden.

While I highly encourage students to opt out of fees that offer this option, I also want to encourage students to research where their money is going, and voice their opinions to change fees accordingly.

does a better job of keeping costs low. Excluding health and dental for both universities, and comparing UBC’s fees with no-opt out provisions, with all of UFV’s fees (ancillary fees, Student Union Building fee, and Student Union fee to name a few), UFV equals out to about $655 per year in fees, compared to UBC’s approximation of $725. Adding in all other fees from both universities (including health and dental) UFV students can pay upwards of $870 compared to UBC’s staggering $1162 in overall fees per year.

Many student fees also help make your years at UFV more enjoyable, even if you don’t see it at the time. It is completely understandable to be frustrated at having to pay more money on top of tuition and other living expenses. Being a student is an expensive endeavor for many of those in the pursuit of academics, and having to dump more money out each semester is no small financial feat. Taking advantage of the programs that fees are being collected for is a

LIVE THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE FIVE-WEEK FRENCH-LANGUAGE BURSARY PROGRAM FOR AGE 16 AND OLDER

www.myexplore.ca

The Advertising Representative is responsible for the marketing of advertising sales. The Advertising Representative works under the supervision of the Business Manager to meet monthly sales targets as set within the annual budget. The

LIVE

THE

CAN

AD

IAN

EXPE

RIEN

CE

Advertising Representative will also seek to foster positive, lasting relationships with advertising clients.

To apply send a resume, cover letter, and a writing sample to joel@ufvcascade.ca by Jan 31st.

8

Application deadline: FEBRUARY 15 Apply for a $2,200 bursary!

FOLLOW US! #myexplore

www.fb.com/jexplore.myexplore

@OLP-PLO

Discover another region of Canada while learning French. Enjoy five weeks of learning and adventure, friendship and discovery.

• MOST EXPENSES ARE COVERED •

www.myexplore.ca · 1-877-866-4242

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

STUDY BREAK v CROSSWORD DOWN 1: A horse’s enclosure 4: Sci-fi author Ray 6: Stereotypically lethargic mollusk that leaves a slime trail 8: “I” point of view in writing (or video games) 10: A wrod that is spelled wrong 12: 1984 film with fuzzy monsters who were not to be fed after midnight 15: Irregular and unpredictable ACROSS 1: An average golf score 2: To assign a name, or apply subtitles 3: Door-unlocking devices 4: Waiterless restaurant, often offering unlimited portions 5: Parts of a week 7: An exceptionally intelligent or otherwise talented person 9: A bun, or what somebody once told Smash Mouth the world was gonna do to them.

11: Folklore giant 13: Graduate degree in business world 14: US television network portrayed in 30 Rock LAST WEEKS ANSWERS Across: 1: Aunt 3: Gabriel 5: Deed 6: Android 9: Tantrum 12: Argo 13: Uranium 14: Tums

Down: 1: Aladdin 2: Trudeau 3: Gaia 4: Roar 7: Nunavut 8: Octopus 10: Twin 11: Maim

Made by Jeff Mijo

v HOROSCOPES

Astrological mysteries interpreted by Mastur Moji

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 They say you swallow an average of 7 or 8 spiders each year while you sleep. Personally, I would be more worried about the ones that crawl back up.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 They say people who read newspapers every week do 12% better on exams, have healthier relationships, receive noticeably more on their tax returns, and give off a subtle yet pleasing cinnamon aroma.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 There’s too much to say about your week to fit in a simple little horoscope. I describe it in great detail here: goo.gl/SsAhv (URL is case sensitive) Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 Captain Planet was SUPPOSED to take pollution down to zero. Some superhero he turned out to be.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 I saw your doppelganger relieving itself somewhere one should not relieve themself... at least, I hope it was your doppelganger.

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 Have your name legally changed to Taargüs Taargüs ASAP. The fate of the world depends on it.

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 Legend has it the that whole world was hatched from a dingus egg.

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 Very soon, a stranger will approach you asking where they can acquire some dank nugs. Don’t be alarmed, they’ve simply misunderstood the term and are seeking chicken nuggets, so point them to the nearest McDonalds.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 Putting onion wedges in your socks while you sleep is supposed to pull out the toxins.

Too bad they can’t deal with the toxic people in your life.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 This week you will have a difficult choice: feed your fish, or feed your crippling Magic: the Gathering addiction

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 Cool tip! You can win arguments with your significant other this week by: 1) having a significant other, and 2) arguing very quietly while they sleep.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 If a genie offers you a wish, ask for an adventurous romp around the world with Alex trebek. Or an Alex TreTREK, if you will.

9

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

MOVIES

FEATURE

THE CASCADE’S BEST OF 2016 These items were curated

by The Cascade's arts editor who compared entries against each other to see how they fit on the list and then once he had them organized he ranked them based on how they are.

10

1

2

Manchester by the Sea

Kubo and the Two Strings

As a rule, I like to think that anything at the top of a “best of” list for any given year is representative of the year or says “thThis is how far we’ve come.” Manchester by the Sea wasn’t technically proficient like Gravity, but it was an odd film to become so popular given how utterly depressing it is. Imagine Old Yeller for adults but the same vibes as the ending for the duration of the film. Manchester by the Sea is the kind of film that many people don’t prefer to see but once they’ve seen it, it sticks with them. In context with the kind of year 2016 was, a sad, super heavy, and powerful film like Manchester by the Sea should be at the top of the list.

Kubo was a movie unlike any other this year. The blend of animation and incredible stop-motion puppetry gave it a dark, beautiful look throughout, and the story hit the right balance between derivative and original so that it felt like a forgotten childhood fable. It’s a masterfully crafted film, with pacing that isn’t afraid to take its time, but never gets slow. This is the only movie I saw this year that I’m already itching to watch again, and that I’ve insisted that I’m going to show to multiple people, and I would strongly suggest you make a point of seeing it too.

Mitch Huttema

6

Jeff Mijo

7

Swiss Army Man

Dr. Strange

If you’ve seen this film, it’s likely the first time you’ve seen Daniel Radcliffe not play Harry Potter. Surprise! Him playing a dead man is more interesting than his whole career in HP. But with all seriousness, Swiss Army Man tops the list of comedies for me this year. It’s weird as can be, but that’s the appeal of it. When the premise of a film is that a man who attempted suicide manages to survive in the wilderness with the help of a corpse that farts like a boat motor, spews water from its mouth like a fountain, and wants to learn about the beauty of life, you know there is some redemption to be found, no matter how absurd and convoluted the journey to finding it is.

Mitch Huttema

Marvel Studios takes viewers on a mind-bending, time-traveling trip of incredible visuals which take full advantage of some the best 3D film technology they’ve shown to date. Though the film’s story contains many of the common themes and devices of other Marvel movies, Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of the witty and clever doctor-turned-superhero is fantastic, and Mads Mikkelsen is ever magnificent in the role of the villain,, playing the part of Kaecilius, a master of the mystic arts. Overall, Dr. Strange is an entertaining magical adventure and a welcome edition to the Marvel universe, and Stephen Strange will surely add an interesting element when he appears in future films.

Kat Marusiak

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

FEATURE 3

4

Moonlight

5

Moana

The Jungle Book

There is a saying in film, “every frame [is] a painting.” Every frame in Moonlight is poetry. Director Barry Jenkins has created a masterpiece, a breathtaking experience that offers only the honest soreness of existence without reprieve: no overt obstacles, dramatization, cheap tricks, or cop-outs. You will not be entertained. This is a direct, deliberate, and sometimes uncomfortably personal submersion into what it means to not only grow up black and gay in rough-side Miami, but what it means to be human. That’s hard for me to say — what it means to be human — cliché that it is, but if one writer was permitted to utter it about one film this year, Moonlight would that film. The cinematography is astonishing. The score is magnificent. The acting is obsessive. Moonlight will win an acAcademy aAward for best film of the year. Period.

While Moana doesn’t seem to have found the same level of pop-culture saturation as Disney achieved with Frozen a few years ago, to me it is unquestionably the better film. This tale of seafaring ancient Polynesian adventure follows many of the classic Disney clichesclichés, but it subverts others — perhaps most noticeably the complete lack of a romantic interest — and it’s stronger for it. The movie is free to focus on the journey and the protagonist’s growth, but also the fantastic soundtrack by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, which stuck with me more than anything else in the film. It deserves additional appreciation, too, for casting actual Pacific Islanders in every single speaking role.

Bradley Peters

Jeff Mijo

9

8

Rogue One

A film that transported me back to childhood,; little Mowgli chumming with a panther, putting himself in a dangerous situation to lift honey for a bear. . Shere Khan’s angry stalking of the Man-Cub motivates the plot — talk about a grudge. While trying to leave the jungle, Mowgli comes across a few memorable characters, of which we have one of my favourite characterss, Baloo. After a sweet jam session of “Bear Necessities” Mowgli gathers the courage to face Shere Khan. The message behind the story is beautiful, — unite against evil, and standing together we can accomplish wonders. Remakes have the potential of devastating childhood memories and tearing down the sentiments surrounding stories. Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book solidified the love for this childhood classic.

Quintin Stamler

10

Divines

Zootopia

Where The Force Awakens relied on lightsabers, Harrison Ford, and familiar plot points to remind viewers of “the good old days” of Star Wars, Rogue One instead relies on the visual aesthetic to convey that feeling, while bringing in themes and a story structure wholly new to the Star Wars films.

Although a few too many gratuitous cameos nod to the original trilogy, this first stand-alone Star Wars movie has a fantastic cast of new characters and does exactly what it needed to do: it feels like something in the Star Wars universe, while clearly setting itself apart from the seven “episodes.”

In doing that, it gives me a new hope for the future spin-offs in the series.

“People tell me I have balls for making this film. Listen, I don’t have balls, I have clitoris!” That’s French director Houda Benyamina during her ferocious acceptance speech for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival Palm D’or.

Benyamina is a second-generation Muslim Moroccan migrant who grew up in the refugee slums near Paris. All of the rage that smoldered during her oppressed upbringing was channeled into this, her directorial debut and breakout feature film, Divines. “I decided it was better to make a film than a bomb,” says Benyamina after receiving her award. Divines follows two teenage girls as they strive to liberate themselves from the Parisian slums.

This is a feminist film in the truest sense of the word, neither demanding respect nor commanding equality, and not condemning the suppression of women, simply breaking the fingers that point down and trampling anyone blocking their way to the top. Benyamina thought making a film was better than a bomb; she may want to re-verify her creation.

Zootopia was an early surprise for me in 2016. While at a surface level the plot seemed typical of modern children’s movies, the setting is built around the discussion of prejudice and discrimination based on factors beyond people’s (or animal’s) control; in this case, predators and prey.

The analogies for racism sometimes don’t land quite right, but that a children’s film tackles them — and not just on an interpersonal level, but in the context of systemic discrimination, including policing — is an excellent step. And putting all of that aside, Zootopia is a straightforward, fun movie that I imagine will be a long-remembered favourite for many children.

Jeff Mijo

Bradley Peters

Jeff Mijo

11

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

ALBUMS

FEATURE

8

2

Bon Iver 22, A Million With 22, A Million, Bon Iver has found the sound that opens the floodgates of his soul: a combination of everything he’s done before, compounded, perfected, and reimagined with experimentation and artistic expression. This album is a heartbreaking howl in the darkness of lost time. What does living mean when confronted with the blaring inevitability of nothingness?

The album will be relatable to anyone questioning whether they will ever feel alright again.

22, A Million is a demanding album; each song seems built directly upon the last so the notion of a “single” is practically destroyed and the listener is forced to undergo the wrenching journey of existential angst and beautiful longing by themselves, abandoned to Justin Vernon’s haunting vocals. But when the final track, “00000 Million” plays, and the weary line “Because the days have no numbers,” signals the end, you’ll feel a satisfaction in the artistic beauty of uncertainty as well as a sadness at the ending of a first experience.

My favourite track on the album was “29 #Strafford APTS,” but you need the build-up to fully appreciate it so just listen from the start.

Bradley Peters

July Talk Touch

Dark and angsty lyrics, heavy guitar, groovy bass licks.

This album features a supergroup lineup of Josh Homme, Matt Helders, Dean Fertita, and Iggy Pop. With so many allstars conducting the same train, there’s a good change of wreckage. In a sense, that’s what happened, and it was great.

Fans of Pop should expect nothing less than a grungy, self-mutilating record. The presence of the younger musicians brings Pop’s now-ancient techniques into relevance. One could argue that screaming profanities for a straight minute after a song isn’t relevant, but I think Pop would disagree. And so would I.

Joel Robertson-Taylor

3

Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker

9

Post Pop Depression Iggy Pop

12

1

The second release by Canada’s alt rock sensation, July Talk’s Touch is a beautifully passionate album about relationships, loneliness, and the desire to feel connected. Lead singers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay continue to perfect their dynamic “Beauty & the Beast” aesthetic, with his rough, guttural, and aggressive vocals like a raging fire, kept in check by her high, silky smooth voice and lovely, dulcet tones. The hard, abrasive elements and more calm, harmonious ones come together in an incredibly powerful manner. Killer bass, hard beats, and electric guitar licks are found throughout, and the implementation of passionate piano, keyboard, and several different percussion instruments makes their incredible music even more fresh and stand-out amid the sea of often generic sounds found on the radio today.

Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool

Oftentimes, works released near an artist’s death are glorified by society, made to be something that they are not. In the case of Leonard Cohen, Canada’s most illustrious and reclusive poet, You Want It Darker lives up to those glorifications. Songs like “Leaving the Table” play as an obvious bowing-out from life on the part of Cohen, but rarely are artists afforded the opportunity to look back on life, as one would a series of distant lovers, pangs of loneliness and thoughts of what could have been accompany a rush of compassion, dare I say love.

On You Want It Darker Cohen wraps his arms around his own dwindling mortality and embraces it with a level of composure usually associated with royalty; acknowledging his mistakes, commiserating missed chances. Above all, though, Cohen’s still what he always was: A lover, completely and absolutely. One that knows he’s dying, but loves just as fiercely regardless.

This album is a breathtaking example of musical intelligence and control. It’s a modern orchestra; combinations of sound into music that manipulates the listener into an extraordinary emotional range. A Moon Shaped Pool will gently take your hand and usher you from the depths of despair into euphoria, from fear to confusion, and remorse to surrender, done with a frightening control and mastery of sound. When a song threatens to engulf you, like a storm, and the music is stretched nearly to collapse under its own complexity, it will dissolve like mist back into its basic beauty. This album deserves headphones or a good sound system and a full listen. It’s hard to recommend one song for a sample, but check out “Daydreaming” for an experience perfectly described by its title, or “Present Tense” for a wraith love dirge that you can sway to.

Martin Castro

Bradley Peters

10

11

PUP The Dream is Over

Car Seat Headrest Teens of Denial

When I reviewed this record last year, I wrote that it was “as honest with itself and its listeners as you could hope for. It’s angst-ridden, earnest, and fun as hell.” That was five months ago. And since it came out, I can more-orless confidently state that I’ve gone back to this record at least once every two weeks. If you’re looking for rock that’s just as full of springy guitar riffs as it is of smalltown references and the kind of teen angst that bleeds over into people’s early to mid-20s, then you’ve come to the right place.

As dissatisfied as it is, the opening track, “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will” is reflective of most of the content that follows on The Dream is Over: over-the-top punk tracks which ground themselves in some of the catchiest hooks this side of pop, and an anger which permeates every track on the record but still manages to be playful.

Highlights include “DVP,” “The Coast,” “Old Wounds,” and “Pine Point.” PUP also gets bonus points for being Canadian.

Kat Marusiak Martin Castro

“So there I was, just another shitbag civilian. Afraid of the cops when I was outside, afraid of my friends when I was inside,” sings Will Toledo on “(Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t a Problem),” a track which epitomizes the harshly introspective reflection of depressive tendencies apparent on most of Toledo’s work, but most of all on Teens of Denial. If he’s not already cemented his potential status as an indie darling, he will soon.

Enchantingly melodic and unflinchingly self-critical, Teens of Denial is the most emotionally vulnerable record I’ve heard all year.

Recommended track: “Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales.”

Martin Castro

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

FEATURE 4

5

David Bowie Blackstar

6

A Tribe Called Quest

We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service

The final album by glam-rock legend David Bowie is an even more emotional and memorable experience due to the tragic fact that he knew he was dying when he recorded it, passing away only two days after its release.

Bowie’s parting gift to the world contains a myriad of different musical styles, from art and experimental rock to folk-pop and hip-hop, with a lot of jazz, including horns, saxophones, and even some jazztronica and a harmonica solo. Blackstar is a unique, intriguing, and powerful album. Thank you, David, you will definitely be missed. “Seeing more and feeling less / Saying no but meaning yes / This is all I ever meant / That's the message that I sent.”

It’s hard to express the hype that surrounded A Tribe Called Quest’s new album. We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your Service is the sixth and decidedly final album by the pioneers of smooth, jazzy hip-hop. It’s been 20 years since the group’s last release. During the production of this album, one of the greatest rappers ever and Tribe member Phife Dawg passed away. His lyrics for the album had already been recorded. The group somehow managed to put the album together, working all through the night for months, completing the record on November 9, two days before its release.

A Tribe Called Quest sounds as fresh as ever, motivated and inspired. The timing of the record, with all of the political chaos and racial turmoil, is impeccable. As well as being a swan song to a great musical crew, We Got It From Here… is a touching send-off to one of rap’s most influential players. Twenty years later and these dudes are still spitting fire. That’s worthy of a salute. For a sample, check out “We the People,” enjoy, then realize these dudes are fringing on 50 and have your mind blown.

Kat Marusiak

7

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Nonagon Infinity

Big Thief Masterpiece

In a rock soundscape whose heyday has long since come and gone, Australian seven-piece psychedelic outfit King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Nonagon Infinity blasts the listener with tight rhythms and fuzzy, intertwined guitar melodies. As far as psychedelic experimental rock goes, Nonagon Infinity is both an accessible record and one of the densest albums of 2016. Tracks like “Wah Wah” and “Gamma Knife” hurtle out of the gate with the energy of a bullet fired out of a gun attached to another speeding bullet. Opener “Robot Stop” ought to give prospective listeners a good teaser for the record. If the unrelenting action sequences of Mad Max had a musical equivalent, Nonagon Infinity would be it.

Not many bands would have been able to get away with naming their debut record Masterpiece. Brooklyn’s Big Thief did. This indie foursome’s debut toes the line between rock and such sweet, sweet folk melodies that it’s eclectic to a fault. Picking a “best song” from the 12 on this record was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do all year. It’s a four-way tie between the dazzling “Real Love,” the heart-wrenching “Paul,” the aptly-named “Velvet Ring,” and “Humans.”

Masterpiece lives up to its name. Songs like “Randy” put Adrienne Lenker’s tender vocals upfront and centre among tender guitars, while the record’s title-track boasts gritty rock aesthetics and a kick-ass guitar solo, only bested by the cathartic second half of “Real Love,” which marries the tenderness of Lenker’s vocals with a no-nonsense guitar solo. It’s an admirably efficient way of dissipating the tension.

I’ll give you $5 to listen to Masterpiece. That’s how much I think your life will benefit from having heard it.

Martin Castro

Martin Castro

Bradley Peters

12

13

14

15

Red Hot Chili Peppers The Getaway

Blink 182 California

Frankie Cosmos Next Thing

Kings of Leon WALLS

The Getaway is the Red Hot Chili Peppers desperate attempt to find a way to stay relevant in a constantly changing industry and to an ever-evolving audience.

Thing is, they do a pretty good job of it. A surprisingly satisfying blend of the funk sound that launched their career and the soulful Southern California crooner rock that is distinctive to them, The Getaway makes you feel nostalgic for the Chili Peppers of yore while providing a fresh sound that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve heard all of this before.

Vanessa Broadbent

Blink-182’s most recent album is very reminiscent of their older work, such as the 1999 release Enema of the State, and 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

Combining a lot of catchy hooks, familiar, punchy beats, and a healthy dose of their trademark absurd humour with an element of the present nostalgic angst of being an aging pop-punk rock band, California is a fun listen for fans both new and old alike. Blink 182 prove that, while they may be getting older, they still have what it takes to be “Kings of the Weekend.”

On Next Thing Frankie Cosmos (Greta Simone Kline) blends an obviously apparent insecurity with an indie folk that makes use of pop sensibilities. I’m wary of touting this record as “one of those albums where you have to pay attention to the lyrics.” But the reason Next Thing was one of the best records of the year is that Kline has the ability to draw compassion from her listeners by painting scenes that are both conversational and intensely poignant. On Next Thing we’re invited to share in Kline’s insecurities (“When you’re young, you’re too young. When you’re old, you’re too old.”) while at the same time being shown the intricacies of everyday life in simple yet starkly beautiful tracks.

Even though Kings of Leon traded the Southern blues rock sound that defined their early success for more of a heavy pop / rock vibe for their latest album, WALLS is still arguably the band’s best yet. A mix of the group’s classic rock ballads, but maybe even more soulful than ever, with songs that sound a little too top 40 but with enough heaviness to make it more than tolerable, makes this album cover a little bit of everything and appeal to pretty much everyone. It’s not traditional Kings of Leon, but it’s a positive progression in the right direction.

Kat Marusiak

Martin Castro

Vanessa Broadbent

13

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

BOOKS

FEATURE 1

This was one of the first books I read in 2016, and it set the bar for the rest of the year. To answer the question you’re already thinking: yes, it is as good as Life of Pi, and maybe even better.

The best books of the year in the exact order of their bestness according to one particularly Canadian literature-loving reviewer, and perhaps you can even trust her, seeing as she has two English degrees and read exactly one hundred books in 2016.

Dessa Bayrock Cascade Alum

We Are All Just Animals & Plants Alex Manley Face it: poetry is good for you, and good poetry is even better for you. The great thing about poetry is that, if you don’t really like it, you can still memorize the best bits to whip out at parties. Here’s a line I particularly liked that you can borrow for free: “This thing is like a video / I saw on YouTube once, / a praying mantis stumbling, / smashed over and over / by a merciful human hand.”

The premise: Alex Manley has a knack for describing weird little details of this era in a way that makes you feel smarter for having thought something similar.

He writes about the awkwardness of first dates, the odd fascination of tiki bars, and the self-flagellation of being hungover.

Read this book if: you’re hungover, if it’s snowed too much to go anywhere, if you feel like reading but a novel seems like too much commitment, or if Alex Manley is a guy you met in an elevator at a conference at 4 a.m. when you were both drunk and you never stopped loving the guts out of him.

14

You may have heard of Andre Alexis after his novel Fifteen Dogs won the Giller Prize — and the hearts of thousands of Canadian readers — last year. So what does an author do after winning the biggest and shiniest trophy in Canadian literature? He writes a quietly wonderful follow-up novel with the same sort of golden heart.

The premise: Three separate stories explore what it means to be caught up in something bigger than yourself, whether that something is grief, religion, or a chimpanzee. At first, these three narratives seem to have nothing to do with one another; by the end, they fit together like a perfectly measured dovetail joint.

The premise: An honest thief, a police officer, a taxidermist, and a heroin addict walk into a Toronto bar; by the time they leave, they’re all utterly caught up in a search for a hidden fortune. This modern — and extremely loose — retelling of Treasure Island is an adventure, a mystery, and a series of philosophical and moral questions all wrapped up together.

Read this book if: you liked Life of Pi, if you liked Cloud Atlas, or if you think the phrase “the high mountains of Portugal” seems shrouded in oldworld mystery and Wordsworth-type romance, because this novel delivers both.

Read this book if: you liked Fifteen Dogs, if you’ve ever been to Toronto, or if you find yourself wondering about things like the crossroads of nationality and homesickness.

The Hidden Keys Andre Alexis

The High Mountains of Portugal Yann Martel

3

2

4

Paper Girls (Vol. 1 & 2) Brian Vaughan & Cliff Chiang Paper Girls is one of the smash-hit graphic novels of 2016, and I know this because it’s on the bestseller list at both of my local, independent comic book shops. It’s zany, and vibrant, and more than a little unsettling.

The premise: Newspaper delivery is traditionally a boy’s job, especially in 1988, but that doesn’t stop the four heroines of this series from getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning to deliver their local paper.

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot more than gender roles are going to hell when futuristic aliens come pouring into the world, bringing some kind of inter-time and inter-generational civil war into the quiet, pre-dawn world of 1988.

Read this book if: you enjoyed Donnie Darko, if you binge-watched Stranger Things, if you want to stick it to the patriarchy, or if you have a driving need to be on the cutting edge of everything hot and sick in graphic novels.

5

Do Not Say We Have Nothing Madeleine Thien This novel won the Giller last year, which is the biggest and shiniest prize in Canadian literature. That said, you’ll notice I’ve placed it behind four other books on this particular best-of list. It’s good; in fact, it’s really good. But it’s also very dense, and has the sort of tangential narrative that requires concentration. This is not the kind of novel you pick up as light reading; prepare for it to take over your life for a while if you decide to pick it up.

The premise: A complicated web of family relationships, friendships, loyalty, music, and betrayal spreads from modern-day Vancouver to Cultural Revolution-era China. What is left to a family — or to a nation — when everything they own is methodically stripped from them, leaving them in abject poverty?

Yet even in the darkest moments, you cannot say they have nothing. (See what I did there.)

Read this book if: you love sprawling historical or intergenerational novels, if you are fascinated with life under totalitarian regimes, or if you feel the urge to have your heart ripped out before your eyes — because this book is going to make you bawl like an infant.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

FEATURE Other notable books published this year which weren’t really this particular reviewer’s jam but which might be yours:

Wenjack Joseph Boyden An exhausted and abused residential school boy escapes and attempts to make his way home, not realizing just how far away the idea of “home” has become. This is an important story for the contemporary Canadian reader, and I would put it on the list of required reading in this age of (attempted) truth and reconciliation. However, it’s a surprisingly quick read, and I would have liked to see it fleshed out into a full-fledged novel; to be honest, the short form feels a little lazy. I also would have liked to see Joseph Boyden steer clear of the #UBCaccountable debacle, but we can’t always get what we want.

The Spawning Grounds Gail Anderson-Dargatz A family navigates the complicated history and mythology of living on unceded territory in the heart of B.C. — something which becomes more difficult with a series of natural disasters and the reappearance of an ancient bodysnatching spirit. This book is wonderful for placing the reader right in the middle of geographical and mythological British Columbia.

At times, however, it reads more like an adolescent novel than full-fledged fiction. (Yes, you read correctly between the lines: I don’t believe young adult fiction is full-fledged fiction.)

The Fireman Joe Hill Joe Hill, who you might recognize as the author of Horns or else as Stephen King’s son, has a great wit and a talent for writing creepy, thrilling narratives.

This novel is no different: a horrifying fungus has spread across the world, causing those affected to spontaneously burst into flame. It’s a fun premise, and suitably creepy, but sullied by Hill’s constant and irritating pop culture references. Look, guys, I’m hip and happening! I understand what’s popular with the kids! Joe seems to be saying. Yes, Joe. We get it.

Other notable books not technically published in 2016 but published late enough in 2015 that they deserve a spot on this list and by golly you should read them:

Radiance Catherynne M. Valente This novel is one of the best books I read last year, which I don’t say lightly, and also one of the weirdest: imagine if a low-budget art film had a baby with a pulpy science fiction novel from the ‘60s, and that baby turned out to be a murder mystery. It’s fantastical and fantastic; this is an especially good novel to listen to as an audiobook, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Fates and Furies Lauren Groff This novel is really two novels stuck together, even though they tell the same story: Lotto and Mathilde are a glamorous, talented couple in the world of theatre. Together they lead a wonderful, natural life — or do they? The first half of the book tells Lotto’s story of events, up until his death; the second tells Mathilde’s, which differs drastically in key places.

What is the weight of a secret? Of a series of secrets?

Add devastatingly beautiful prose to this recipe and you’ve got a humdinger of a heartbreaker — and this from someone who generally loathes the “story of a marriage” plotline.

Martin John Anakana Schofield Martin John was on the Giller shortlist the same year as Fifteen Dogs, which you can add to your store of fun facts that no one will care about but CanLit nerds. But I digress! This novel, I guarantee, is one of the weirdest and creepiest novels you will ever read — creepy in the classic Freudian uncanny sense of the word. Our eponymous narrator at first seems sympathetic, but is this really the case? As he repeats, and repeats, and repeats: harm was done, and further harm will be done. But who, exactly, is harming whom? Shudder.

15

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

CULTURE

Exploring museums around the world with George Jacob Respected museologist speaks to UFV on the value of museums Photos: Alexandrah Pahl

JEFF MIJO CULTURE EDITOR

On January 16, UFV, in partnership with The Reach Gallery, welcomed internationally acclaimed museologist George Jacob to its lecture theatre. Jacob, a man with a long history in the world of museums, started his presentation entitled Creating Cultural Capital: The Museum Industry from a Global Perspective by explaining that his industry is in need of more students to engage with it, study it, and eventually join it.

Jacob began his slideshow by speaking of his most high-profile project in this part of the world: acting as president and CEO of the recently launched Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum near Grande Prairie, Alberta. The high profile museum had one of the fastest builds ever, at exactly 13 months, and hired most of its staff just two weeks before opening. Despite that, it won numerous awards and has drawn new attention to Grande Prairie.

“I got a call from Dan Aykroyd,” Jacob recalled, referring back to when he first became involved with the project. Aykroyd, he explained, had been in Alberta with his wife and daughters digging for dinosaur bones, and the family had been excited to find several. When they spoke to a local and learned of the plans for a museum, he’d asked “How can I help?” and — Jacob emphasized — he has followed through with multiple visits to the site throughout the process.

But the Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum was hardly Jacob’s first project. After extensive schooling ranging from his native India to Toronto to Yale, his first role as a museum

16

director was in Jaipur, India in the ‘80s. After that, the story of his career is a globe-spanning adventure, which he shared through stories and photos of his many projects. “Some of these come together in interesting ways you don’t expect when you go in,” he admitted. His stories included a time when, after being hired, he learned that he was the eighth director of a troubled project in Hawaii, with the previous ones lasting between two months and two days before quitting, or the difficulty of having an immense, intricate carpet woven for Virasat-eKhalsa, a museum of Sikhism (coincidentally located not far from Chandigarh, India — home of UFV’s only international campus).

Jacob also spoke on the modern role and state of museums worldwide. In China, he said, there are plans to open 6,000 museums by 2028, with topics ranging from cartoons to fashion, from urban planning to sea shells. In the Middle East, there is a movement to build clusters of several museums, or even giant mega-museums, spurred on by an “incredible sense of hope and optimism” in the cultural industries. He showed slides of museums around the world, some of which were almost unimaginably massive like Ferrari’s Abu Dhabi island complex, which is visible from space and may be more aptly called a theme park.

There were two similarities that became apparent over the course of Jacob’s talk: one, a vast number of these institutions were designed

by Canadian or American firms and individuals.

Second, while they were all wildly varied in their design, many still had a similar ***feel in their appearance, of smooth glass or metal

curving at sharp angles. “There’s a rise in a set of architecture increasingly called ‘eyegasm,’” Jacob mentioned offhandedly, resulting in quietly stifled chuckles from some audience members.

Size, however, is not a requirement for a notable museum according to Jacob. Museums of local history or even small three room installations like Croatia’s Museum of Broken Hearts have immense value in his eyes. When asked during the question period about how museums create cultural capital, he explained there are tangible and intangible benefits. The tangible benefits result in one of Jacob’s most used phrases of the afternoon, the “galvanization” of communities and economies. He explained how the Guggenheim Foundation building a museum in Bilbao, Spain revitalized the town, and how it can be as simple as updating the look of a building. The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, once an imposing, almost industrial-looking building remodeled itself into a sleek red building wrapped in ribbons of stainless steel, and through that increased its ticket sales by 600 per cent.

The intangible benefit of museums, according to Jacob, can only be measured over time in the ways they make people and societies better.

However, the word museum itself has changed to include less tangible topics in recent years.

In particular, the topic of human rights. From one in Australia that is covered in Braille writing apologizing for the treatment of indigenous peoples, to one in Darfur which “brings theatre into the museum,” they’re using new approaches to tell their stories. Jacob warned that his next slide could be disturbing as he discussed the

Darfur example, and then showed an image of dozens of nearly naked actors lying in a massive pool of blood. The room, and Jacob, went silent at the powerful image representing the devastating history of the region.

There are also both human rights museums and human rights concerns closer to home for us in Canada, Jacob pointed out. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg featured prominently in his discussions, and while he praised some of its successes, he came across as critical of its 12-year build time and focus that ballooned from specifically the Holocaust to a general focus on human rights.

He also spoke about the ethics of museums, saying that just a mile away from the “glass cocoon” of the museum, some of Canada’s poorest people suffer from our own atrocities. He emphasized the massive cost of such institutions, highlighting the complicated issue of balancing the concepts of helping and informing.

Jacob also made a point of highlighting the benefits of museums once again as his conversational question period wound down.

To one inquiry about curation, he expressed the importance of ensuring museum’s stewards understand their responsibilities to pass along cultural artifacts to future generations, everything from languages not spoken anymore to cassette tapes never seen by some of today’s youth to the styles of jewellery his grandmother wore when he was a child. Museums are “not just a place where you have trophies,” he summarized.

“There are stories behind those trophies.”

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

CULTURE SCORE BOARD SCORES Men’s Basketball: Jan 20 UFV Cascades vs. U of A Golden Bears W 73-71 Jan 21 UFV Cascades vs. U of A Golden Bears L 95-78 Women’s Basketball Jan 20 UFV Cascades vs. U of A Pandas L 63-51 Jan 21 UFV Cascades vs. U of A Pandas L 56-53 Men’s Volleyball Jan 20 UFV Cascades vs. Camosun Chargers W 3-2 Jan 21 UFV Cascades vs. Camosun Chargers L 3-1 Women’s Volleyball Jan 20 UFV Cascades vs. Camosun Chargers W 3-2 Jan 21 UFV Cascades vs. Camosun Chargers W 3-1

UPCOMING GAMES Men’s Basketball: Fri, Jan 27 8:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

TRU Wolfpack (home) Sat, Jan 28 7:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.TRU Wolfpack (home) Women’s Basketball Fri, Jan 27 6:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

TRU Wolfpack (home) Sat, Jan 28 5:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

TRU Wolfpack (home)

The mystery of the winter moon’s shadow MIKE FRIESEN PHYSICS STUDENT ASSOCIATION

Over the winter break my family and I flew down to San Diego to bathe in the sun’s rays.

On the flight, down a few hours past sunset, I realized the half moon that was rising into the sky didn’t look right.

Instead of the familiar vertical shadow separating the light side of the moon from the dark, the shadow was more horizontal, making it look like the bottom half of an orange. But white, and bright. And two dimensional. Okay maybe it wasn’t the best metaphor. It looked like a salad bowl from a side view? A protractor, curved side down? A semicircle? Whatever, I’m a physics student, not an English one.

We arrived in LAX, got our rental car, and began the two hour drive down to San Diego around 11:00 p.m.; because I was bored and still relatively awake I decided to figure out why the moon looked all weird and sideways.

Our solar system is pretty much in a flat plane, with planets, moons, and asteroids all roughly sitting in a big disk rotating in the same direction around the sun. The moon was half full, so if I were standing on top of the Earth looking at the sun, the moon would be off to my side. And from my standpoint on top of the Earth, the moon’s shadow would be vertical, not horizontal.

I look out of the sedan’s windows. The moon was still definitely a salad bowl.

Wait. If being on top of the world means that the half moon’s shadow will be vertical, then if I were to walk down to the middle of the Earth (relative to the plane of the solar system, not nec-

essarily the equator — we’ll call this the “solar middle”) then my perspective would shift 90 degrees and so the moon would be horizontal.

But then our current location didn’t make any sense. We were pretty far from the equator, and not only that, but it was winter; we should be tilted away from the sun, putting us closer to the “top” of the Earth, not vice versa. I looked out the window at the half moon. What was going on?

I stopped my current train of thought. The observations must be right. If observation doesn’t agree with theory then it’s time to rethink the theory. Winter would mean that our position would be shifted towards the top of the Earth during the daytime, sure. But that means at night we would swing as close to the solar middle of the Earth as ever. And it was indeed nighttime.

I started filling in my family on my thoughts as I went, trying to keep my dad alert and awake as he drove.

Well, I thought, for the moon to be horizontal, we need to be exactly on the solar middle. One way to get there would be to stand on the tropic of Cancer, in the middle of the night, on the winter solstice, so that instead of having the sun directly overhead, the moon would be up and completely horizontal. Almost as an afterthought, I realize that because each degree latitude is a degree shift in perspective relative to the solar plane, for each degree of latitude above the tropic of Cancer, the moon would be angled exactly one degree above horizontal. Now here’s the thing: I really like mathematical abstractions. But what I like more is when these abstractions become something real. In the passenger seat of the car, half an hour past midnight, I started getting really excited. “It is the middle of the night,” I blurted out. “It is the winter solstice. The moon is 12 degrees above the horizontal. We can calculate our latitude just by using the angle of the shadow across the moon!”

Now I’m no master of star charts, but I am a big fan of unconventional physics, so I was pumped.

We remembered the tropic of Cancer to be about 22 degrees, so we add the about 12 degrees for the moon’s slope, and we get an answer. We’re at 34°N. My dad then jumps in and does his own estimation (and he is a master of estimation); he knows that originally, Canada had a claim for all land on the west coast down to the 45th parallel.

Well, he uses that knowledge and extrapolates a bit to guess that we’re at a latitude of 35°N. Both of our estimations are using kind of haphazard methods — but they line up almost perfectly. I start freaking out a little.

I break out my mom’s phone (which has data), to look up the actual latitude of San Diego. My hands are shaking; I’m super nervous all of a sudden. I really want this to work. I peek at the phone, and it tells me San Diego is at 32.7°N. I’m not ecstatic, but we did pretty good. I tell my dad, and he responds by telling me that we’re not in San Diego yet. We’re still in Irvine, over an hour to San Diego. I look up Irvine. It’s at 33.7°N. My calculation was 34°N. I was stunned. I had managed to figure out our latitude by looking at the shadow that fell across the half moon at the dead of night on the winter solstice just by thinking long and hard — and I was out by three tenths of a degree!

Later I realized that we had gotten the tropic of Cancer wrong; it’s at roughly 23.5°N so we would have been out by about 2°, but our estimate for the moon’s angle wasn’t meant to be super precise.

I guess the life lesson here is to never underestimate the power of a bit of applied knowledge and some mental math. And, of course, to always carry a protractor.

Learning more about learning internationally The Study Abroad Expo will be an opportunity to discover more about exchange programs

Men’s Volleyball Fri, Jan 27 8:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

VIU Mariners (home) Sat, Jan 28 3:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

VIU Mariners (home) Women’s Volleyball Fri, Jan 27 6:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

VIU Mariners (home) Sat, Jan 28 1:00 pm UFV Cascades vs.

VIU Mariners (home)

LAURA ANDRÉS CONTRIBUTOR

Students who have lived the experience of studying abroad agree that an exchange is not only once in a lifetime, but that it is a lifetime in a matter of months. The Study Abroad Expo, which will take place on February 1 at the Student Union Building atrium from 11:00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., will be an opportunity for UFV students to discover more about the options available to them to complete a part of their education in other countries.

“They will learn more about studying abroad, about how it works,” said study abroad coordinator Jag Deol, one of the organizers of the event.

“Sometimes, students have a lot of questions and there’s a lot of misconception as well.”

“We want to clear those misconceptions up, we want to let students know about the wonderful

opportunities they have to study abroad, explain how the program works and how they can gain one full scholarship as well. We have scholarships that go up to $5,000,” Deol stated. “It’s basically giving students options and information about where they can go, the costs, the procedure to apply, and allowing them to connect with students from different countries and universities.”

The event will run with the participation of exchange students from some of UFV’s partner universities, international staff, and with UFV students who have lived this experience.

“I have decided to encourage Canadian people to go to other countries, and to my university in Lille, in France, in particular,” said Solène Gautreau, an exchange student from the university Sciences Po Lille who is at UFV studying political science. “I hope they will learn more about it and they will be motivated to come because it is a really good opportunity.”

For Gautreau, studying abroad has been the best experience of her life.

“There are only positive things: you discover a new culture, you travel, you learn a new language,” she said. “It broadens your perspective, you meet new people from many different backgrounds, and I think it makes you more tolerant.”

In addition, research has proved that students who have done an exchange program are more likely to find a job, to adapt to diverse work environments, and to have higher salaries than those that have not. The Erasmus Impact Study pointed out that the unemployment rate five years after graduation in those who studied or trained abroad is 23 per cent lower.

The Study Abroad Expo will take place in the Student Union Building’s atrium on February 1, offering students the opportunity to learn not only through books and classes, but also through experiences.

17

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

CULTURE

Glowga gets a glowing review

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR NEWS EDITOR

Phosphorescent lights, glow-in-the-dark body paint, and yoga — aptly termed “glowga” — the UFV yoga club hosted its second annual winter semester kickoff event in the Student Union Great Hall last Thursday. It was a highenergy and inclusive affair for anyone of any yoga competence.

Yoga might typically be considered a calming and peaceful practice. But the UFV yoga club wanted to offer something exciting for both yoga enthusiasts and the non-yoga’d alike.

“There were a couple of people doing handstands before we started so they were pretty hardcore,” said Mia Harries, president of the UFV yoga club. “But a lot of people who were here had never tried it before.”

For the first hour of the event, participants

engaged in a socializing mixer of sorts, with food and activities.

“We had a mural of what makes you happy, we had a photo booth. I went around with a Polaroid camera and gave people pictures,” said Harries.

Following the socialization, participants lined up at their mats to be led through a variety of stretches and poses.

The glowga event aimed to create an environment for students to experience different aspects of yoga. This unique class offered instructions in flow yoga — a movementfocused form of yoga with shorter durations between poses — but with a few other unique additions such as the mannequin challenge.

Typically, the yoga club will see six to 12 people at their weekly yoga sessions. Glowga brought in over 80 students.

The yoga club was once offering classes once a week, but because of the importance of the

practice, they now meet twice a week.

“A lot of us on the executive have personal experience with yoga benefiting us in various ways,” said Harries. “For me it helped immensely with stress and anxiety and managing school.”

“We thought, well we love it, we want to practice it, why not provide it to the whole campus and have it during school hours so that you get a break from that high intensity tunnel vision of papers and exams.”

The activity was not only a way to promote a healthy lifestyle, but also an opportunity to strengthen social laces among students.

Irene Basilio, a business student, joined in on the fun and said she enjoyed its social aspect.

“It has unified many different students from the university. It was an easy but fun activity so everyone could feel comfortable. The fact that there were glowing lights and free food made it a very attractive event,” said Basilio.

Germain Murphy, a political sciences

Photos: Alexandrah Pahl

student, was another who attended the event.

“It was a good experience, something different for me since it has been the first time I did yoga,” said Murphy. “It’s definitely something that I plan to keep bringing in my life because it brought stability and calmness that, as students, we sometimes need. Doing yoga brings you back to earth.”

Glowga will likely remain as a January event, but Harries said that the club would like to host something similar in September. They also plan to have pop-up events like last year’s chocolate yoga and the spring equinox event.

Classes this semester are Monday from 3 to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 11:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m.

With Files from Laura Andres

Bell’s Let’s Talk Day mental health campaign hits UFV LAUREN JOHNSTON CONTRIBUTOR

Each January for the past six years, Bell has promoted their Let’s Talk initiative, which is a campaign to help end stigmatization around mental illness. This year, the event falls on January 25.

Since the initiative began, UFV’s counselling department has held an annual interactive event to coincide with it.

Counselling department head Tia Noble, who has been a counsellor at UFV for six years and the department head for three, said the Bell Let’s Talk campaign “is focused on mental health and that is our area of expertise. We’ve been running this event since the initiative was created.”

So what exactly is Bell Let’s Talk day? It’s one day out of each year where Bell focuses on promoting the destigmatization of mental health. This year Bell has promoted the event by offering five simple ways to help: being mindful of your language,

18

being kind, educating yourself, listening and asking, and most importantly, talking about it.

While promoting and educating students on the same ideas, Bell Let’s Talk at UFV is a little different. Bell usually focuses on campaigning all over social media, but at UFV counsellors set up tables to make the day as interactive as possible. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. counsellors and volunteers will set up at both the Abbotsford and Chilliwack campuses with true and false games, chocolate, and “items like bracelets and buttons just to keep some really physical tactile materials for students to take with them to remember about mental health,” Noble explained.

There will be various counsellors as well as volunteers from the Peer Resource and Leadership Centre and peer leaders available to educate students as much as possible, and to offer casual, open conversation about the topic of mental health. The focus of this event is to specifically open up discussion for students about mental health but also “to continue to help each other

and to respect and treat every human being with dignity, also to peel back the layers of judgement, about mental health issues, challenges, or illness,” said Noble.

As far as tips for helping students maintain a healthy lifestyle and healthy state of mind, Noble suggested “reminding ourselves to keep perspective, because when we are under a lot of stress and our mental health is wavering we can go into tunnel vision.”

Along with regular exercise and sleep, Noble also suggested staying connected, whether that be with friends, family, someone close to you, or just anyone you are comfortable with. Even the use of social media can be an effective way to stay connected and interact with others, and that’s what Bell Let’s Talk day is all about: staying connected, utilizing social media, and spreading the word to help make the topic of mental illness comfortable for everyone. That’s also what the UFV counselling department is trying to achieve on January 25: educating, interacting, and “connecting with each other as humans and as equals.”

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017

ARTS IN REVIEW v BOOK REVIEW

CHARTS

1

Loans Self-Loaning

2

Austra Future Politics

3

The Courtneys II

4

Heat Overnight

5

Cheap High Subterranean Suburbia

6

Future Peers Furture Peers

7

Grandaddy Last Place

8

Terrifier Weapons of Thrash Destruction

9 10

The Maras Welcome To Wax Beach Colin James Blue Highways

11

Ravi R.Eal1ze

12

Mugg Shot & RZ Mean Muggin’

13

Lesbo Vrouven Grifff Pifff

14

Jens Lekman Life Will See You Now

15

Manitoba Hal Live in Ghent

16

The Hidden Cameras Home On Native Land

17

Little Sprout Little Spout

18

Tanya Tagaq Retribution

19

Avec le Soleil Sortant de sa bouche Pas Pire Pop

20

Alpha Omega The Outbreak

SHUFFLE

Humans: Dysconnected fools with tools

AARON LEVY

STATION MANAGER

Hot Hot Heat is not a personal favorite, but they have a new album... as of April, so why is this relevant?

Hot Hot Heat Kid Who Stays in the Picture The moments when the theme shifts between ‘Like in the day we used to hide’ and ‘like a deer in the headlights’ and then into ‘I saw you give up the late nights’, for whatever reason, really sticks deep in the back end of my earworm-funny bone, so: this.

Hot Hot Heat Bandages I always found this song most frustrating because of it’s reliance on the grating adolescence of the shrill vocal beset amongst the chorus. For some unknown reason, I do enjoy the fleeting reference leading into the prechorus, to the state of ‘trippin’ from sippin’ the drippin’ dirty water tap’. Bandaged.

Hot Hot Heat Goodnight, Goodnight This one was a real disappointment to a good friend of mine from first year who, prior to this album’s release, would have considered himself a huge Hot Hot Heat fan. Fortunately for him, we were able to catch the band prior to this release with Futureheads and Louis XIV. Hot Snakes Suicide Invoice A band with fewer far mis-steps if perhaps less of a following, though significantly more canonical relevance, at their best, Hot Snakes can be everything a riff-rocking alt-politi, high voltage pop-song lover needs. This particular number leaves a room of punk rockers reciting lyrics in unison.

Nelly Hot in Herre I really hate most everything about this song. From the latently (or acutely?) non-consensual directive ‘give that man what he askin’ fo’’, to the blatant support for public nudity. I can’t stand thinking of myself birthday suited in a group of people, least of all when I am sweating.

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR NEWS EDITOR

The literature of facts can be the scariest literature of all.

There are 7.4 billion people on our planet and more than 7.4 billion cell phones. Right now, more people have access to a cellphone than to a toilet — which is good because no one should have to suffer through a shit without being able to check Facebook or watch porn.

Mobile devices are multiplying five times faster than humans. Fortunately, Samsung has already begun testing artificially intelligent cell phones; the downside is they’ve been committing suicide.

Dysconnected, written by Anton Scamvougeras, a neuropsychiatrist and a Vancouverite, presents us with facts like this. (The prevalence of technology, not suicidal phones.)

Judging from its size and shape, Dysconnected is probably meant to be a coffee table book, the kind that would normally house a collection of waterfall vistas or street art. This one is a compilation of provocative pen and ink drawings, accompanied by quotes about technology. The quotes are by various celebrities, from Adele to Henry David Thoreau.

The drawings depict all sorts of people quite literally attached to their phones in what’s obviously social commentary.

These beings, these people, have no faces. Their heads contort into a funnel towards their phones. The book begins with a brief, single-paged introduction and closes with a brief, two-page fact sheet about phones. The bulk of the book is taken up by the aforementioned quotes and illustrations. Each spread features a quote on the left page and an accompanying illustration on the right.

All of the quotes relate back to the idea of humans being made fools by our tools, of people ironically wasting time on what was billed to be a time-saver. The illustrations’ trend are the distractions that technology facilitates. Painter and poet Jean Arp, quoted in the book, says it beautifully: “Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.”

The stats on phone use are staggering. It shouldn’t come as any surprise if you’ve spent any time with other humans, but the numbers are sobering: One in five people aged 18-34 have used their smartphone during sex.

Fifty per cent of Americans and 80 per cent of 18-24 year olds sleep with their phones next to them. A psychologist might find some kind of correlation between those stats.

Twelve per cent of adults use their phone in the shower.

We get more inventive every day.

Obviously this isn’t a sit-down-and-read book. Or maybe it is, maybe Scamvougeras is anticipating the further reduction of our attention spans and intended this to be a modern day Dostoyevsky novel. If the average human attention span is less than a goldfish’s (and it is according to a Microsoft study, which blames our overly digitized world) then this book might be quite an ambitious undertaking.

Regardless of the required reading habits, it raises questions about the obvious. Are we actually comfortable spending every otherwise unoccupied moment glued to a cell phone?

Editor’s note: this book isn’t offered as an ebook so you will have to buy a physical copy if you’re interested.

19

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017

UPCOMING EVENTS JAN

25

TEA TIME WITH ELDER @ Indigenous Student Centre (UFV Abbotsford) & Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM DROP-IN CRAFTS @ Student Life (UFV Chilliwack) 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

JAN

30

26

TEA TIME WITH ELDER @ Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM INFLUENCES OF METIS WORKSHOP @ U House (UFV Abbotsford) 12:00 - 3:00 PM RAVENS BREWING PAIRING DINNER @ Townhall Public House (Abbotsford) 6:00 PM

JAN

26

TEA TIME WITH ELDER

@ Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

JAN

31 JAN

31

@ Library Rotunda - G102 (UFV Abbotsford) 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

28

@ Abbotsford Arts Council 2:30 - 4:30 PM

LETHAL LUAU MURDER MYSTERY EVENT

@ The Stage (Mission) 6:00 PM

CANADIAN GUITAR QUARTET

@ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium 7:30 PM HALO (PLAY)

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM

CANADIAN GUITAR QUARTET

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

@ Indigenous Student Centre (UFV Abbotsford) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM GAMES NIGHT

@ Global Lounge (B223 - UFV Abbotsford) 4:30 - 6:30 PM @ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM

FEB

3

FRIENDS OF THE CHILLIWACK LIBRARIES SOCIETY ANNUAL PUZZLE SALE

@ Sardis Library 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SEMINAR: DAVE HARDER

@ C1422 (UFV Abbotsford) 12:30 - 2:00 PM HALO (PLAY)

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM

@ Lifetime Learning Centre (Mission) 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM STUDY ABROAD EXPO

DRUMMING & STUDENT LUNCH

HALO (PLAY)

CLIMATE CHANGE: A CHANGE OF WIND

@ Indigenous Student Centre (UFV Abbotsford) & Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

FEB

4

FRIENDS OF THE CHILLIWACK LIBRARIES SOCIETY ANNUAL PUZZLE SALE

@ Sardis Library 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM HALO (PLAY)

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 2:00 PM

10TH WORLD RELIGIONS CONFERENCE

HOW TO WRITE SONGS

@ Kariton Art Gallery (Abbotsford) 2:30 - 4:30 PM

@ Columbia Bible College (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 8:45 PM

@ Townhall Public House (Abbotsford) 6:00 PM

RECORDING MUSIC FEARLESSLY

@ Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

TEA TIME WITH ELDER

RAVENS BREWING PAIRING DINNER

JAN

TEA TIME WITH ELDER

@ SUB atrium (UFV Abbotsford) 11:00 AM - 4:30 PM

@ U House (UFV Abbotsford) 12:00 - 3:00 PM

27

2

@ A1454 (UFV Chilliwack) 12:00 - 3:00 PM

BELL LET’S TALK DAY FOR MENTAL HEALTH

HALO (PLAY) @ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM

TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COMMISSION REPORT READING SESSIONS

FEB

SIGNIFICANCE OF UFV DECLARATION WORKSHOP

INFLUENCES OF METIS WORKSHOP

JAN

@ Indigenous Student Centre (UFV Abbotsford) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

@ B140 (UFV Abbotsford) 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM

CAREER EXPLORATION & LIFE PLANNING WORKSHOP @ G180 (UFV Abbotsford) 4:30 - 7:00 PM

JAN

TEA TIME WITH ELDER

JAN - FEB

HALO (PLAY)

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM

FEB

1

CLIMATE CHANGE: A CHANGE OF WIND

@ Lifetime Learning Centre (Mission) 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

FEB

5

TEA TIME WITH ELDER

@ Indigenous Student Centre (UFV Abbotsford) & Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COMMISSION REPORT READING SESSIONS

STUDY ABROAD EXPO

@ B140 (UFV Abbotsford) 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM

TEA TIME WITH ELDER

CANADIAN FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN MONTHLY MEETING

@ SUB Atrium (UFV Abbotsford) 11:00 AM - 4:30 PM @ Indigenous Student Centre (UFV Abbotsford) & Elders Lounge (UFV Chilliwack) 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM 10TH WORLD RELIGIONS CONFERENCE

@ F124 (UFV Abbotsford) 7:00 - 10:00 PM

WWE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA

@ Abbotsford Centre 7:30 - 11:00 PM

@ Columbia Bible College (Abbotsford) 6:00 - 8:45 PM HALO (PLAY)

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM

HOSTING ANY EVENTS YOURSELF? WANT TO SEE THEM POSTED HERE? Send the date, time, location and any relevant info for the event to: jeff@ufvcascade.ca