The Cascade Vol. 21 No. 1

Vol. 21 Issue. 1

www.ufvcascade.ca

January 9-16, 2013

Calling to question since 1993

GOOD GRIEF! AfterMath gets emergency funding increase only to receive cease and desist for trademark infringement p. 3

#IdleNoMore p.7

Men’s basketball cancelled at AESC p. 19

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S ISSUE Opinion

News

Arts & Life

Sports & Health

What’s up with the pub?

Timetable: dream-killer

Phone sex 3.0

We left you last semester with a bit of a cliffhanger – AfterMath ran out of funding, and a group of students (including CISSA president Derek Froese) were attempting to pull enough funding from elsewhere to keep it open. We cover the meeting where it was all decided.

You know that awesome course you’ve been waiting to take your entire degree? It may never be offered, having been squeezed out of existence by a narrow and repetitive menu of offerings. Nick Ubels laments the unfulfilled promises of the academic calendar.

Imagine if having sex with strangers was safe. Sex columnist Johnny Roddick writes that we have a step in that direction, with a MedXcom app on smartphones everywhere. Check out Below the Belt to see the pros and cons of using this app to know the STD status of a potential partner.

Karen Aney looks at the repercussions of the end of the lockout among other hockey-related topics. What are the affects of a shortened season? How have similar negotiations affected game attendance in the past?

pg. 16

pg. 19

pg. 5

pg. 7

What the hell, NHL ?!

EDITORIAL

The changing of the guard NICK UBELS THE CASCADE

It’s no secret that journalism is changing. While the obligation of journalism to present the best obtainable version of the truth on newsworthy items and to provide a forum for public discourse remain the same, digital and social media have changed our expectations for how and when news is delivered.

Enter Twitter. As a collection of micro-broadcast networks, Twitter provides instant updates and the opportunity to report news as it happens, with all the inherent risks that entails.

At The Cascade, we’ve begun live-tweeting events that we think are important to students. So far, this has mostly involved varsity and Abbotsford Heat matches as well as high profile SUS meetings.

We’re still feeling it out, deciding what works and what doesn’t, but it’s all part of a process to bring real-time news to the majority of students who can’t make it out to Mission for a 9 a.m. meeting.

Other than our sports-exclusive feed @cascade_sports, which is still run by sports editor Paul Esau, we’ve had individual reporters use their own personal feeds to tweet from these events. This policy has attracted some criticism from a few members of the UFV community, particularly after our coverage of the November 30 SUS EGM concerning the fate of the currently nameless campus pub formerly known as AfterMath SocialHouse.

Volume 21 · Issue 1 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Editor-in-chief nick@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels Managing editor amy@ufvcascade.ca Amy Van Veen Business manager joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson Online editor michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular Production manager stewart@ufvcascade.ca Stewart Seymour Art director anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi Copy editor joel@ufvcascade.ca Joel Smart News editor news@ufvcascade.ca Dessa Bayrock Opinion editor opinion@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt Arts & life editor arts@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt Sports editor sports@ufvcascade.ca Paul Esau

Image: Anthony Biondi

Tweeting when the aliens come.

The argument is that Cascade-endorsed live tweets from other accounts lack the same standard of objectivity they would be held to if sent from @ufvcascade.

Here’s why the editorial board favours our method of livetweeting: on-the-spot coverage is never going to be perfectly factchecked and vetted for objectivity. But that’s part of what makes it worthwhile. What we ask of our reporters is a dedication to relaying essential information and key moments to people who can’t be there. A big part of that is taking the pulse of the room, getting a

feel for the atmosphere and making observations about more intangible things that can’t be captured with just a snappy quote.

Sometimes this misfires, or a tweet isn’t quite worded the right way. But it’s all in the interest of keeping up-to-date as best we can.

You’ll notice that the articles that stem from this sort of coverage are a lot more carefully examined, facts-checked, any biases ferreted out before we commit to print.

What’s valuable about these live tweets is our reporters’ individual take on the situation, which would be lost with a generic Cascade feed.

Somebody’s Twitter handle gives them the freedom to be themselves and to be held accountable for the content they post. Think of it as a byline on an article like this one.

The writer is staking their reputation as a journalist on the line with each tweet.

It’s likely our policy will evolve and grow alongside the medium as we try new things, and more likely than not make a few mistakes along the way. But you can expect digital and new media to make up a bigger and bigger part of what we do in the coming years.

News writer jess@ufvcascade.ca Jess Wind Photojournalist blake@ufvcascade.ca Blake McGuire Staff writers Karen Aney, Taylor Johnson Contributors Kyle Balzer, Brittni Brown, Mike Cadarette, Jeremy Hannaford, Adesuwa Okoyomon, Tim Ubels Printed By International Web exPress

UPCOMING EVENTS Wednesdays

Jan 7-11

Jan 11

Jan 11&12

The Cascade is back!

Books? Who needs books?

Isn’t it about time for some culture?

Ra! Ra! Basketball!

Yes, we know it’s a little narcissistic to plug ourselves, but seriously – didn’t you miss us? Look for a brand new issue of the shiny-bright Cascade on newsstands everywhere on Wednesday afternoons. Just kidding.

We don’t have newsstands. But we ARE everywhere. We are borg.

Unless this is your very first semester, I can nearly guarantee that you have a stack of expensive and unused textbooks sitting on your bedroom floor.

Turn them into beer money at the textbook buyback table in Alumni Hall in B building – as long as they’re recent editions, someone else can probably use them.

You’ve been drinking all winter break and now it’s time to act like a grown-up again. Catch some bittersweet canadian drama at the UFV theatre this week and next with Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, in which four aboriginal women cook for Sir Wilfred Laurier but also encounter a chasm between traditional and contemporary culture.

The sports editor has cut me off from coffee until I endorse UFV’s varsity teams, so here goes: now is a great time to see UFV Cascades do sporty things! Catch the men’s basketball team kick down some prairie teams this weekend – Saskatchewan on Friday at 8 pm, and Alberta at 7 pm on Saturday, both in the Envision Athletic Centre.

Ra! Ra! Can I have my coffee now?

The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of 75 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature.

Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only.

Articles and letters to the editor must be typed.

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. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition.

Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

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NEWS

Students save the pub, but still lose the socialhouse jess wind

THE CASCADE

Students succeeded in keeping the campus pub open for the rest of the year, but it seems the campus will still be waving goodbye to AfterMath Socialhouse. The campus pub will no longer be operating under their former name, due to a trademark infringement.

SUS president Shane Potter received a letter on December 5, 2012, ordering an immediate cease and desist towards any use of the word “socialhouse”.

Accupro Trademark services issued the letter on behalf of their client, Browns Socialhouse, a chain grill house with locations in Port Moody and Surrey.

Potter speculates the trademark violation was brought to the attention of Browns when they began scouting locations for expansion.

“Browns Socialhouse was inquiring about setting up business in the area,” Potter said. “So when they inquired about a liquor li-

cense, someone from the liquor board said to the effect of, ‘Oh are you guys AfterMath Socialhouse, or Browns Socialhouse?’”

SUS general manager Meghan McDonald said that the letter was an act of kindness from Accupro and Browns Socialhouse.

“They were very fair about it.

They could have served us with a court date, but they didn’t . . . even when talking with them on the phone, there were no feelings of negativity,” she explained.

SUS was required to remove all materials using the term socialhouse, or, as stated within the letter, any variation of the word using numbers in place of letters.

This includes any and all banners, posters, menus and advertisements.

“We have kept all the materials just in case we can reuse them,” McDonald said. “We don’t want to spend money trying to rename or rebrand.”

They were asked to send photographic proof that the name was no longer in circulation on cam-

pus and have gone about removing the name from their online presence, but McDonald says the name won’t disappear overnight.

“We understand that the term AfterMath Socialhouse might be in common vernacular around campus . . . we can’t help that,” McDonald explained.

After realizing that at least half of the campus pub’s name was in violation of a registered trademark agreement, McDonald also researched trademarks for the term AfterMath on the Canadian International Property Office’s (CIPO) website to make sure it wasn’t also in violation.

“The only one I could find is in Ottawa,” she explained. “I believe it is a design group. They don’t go in to detail, but they use the term AfterMath in their name and it is trademarked.”

McDonald says that this trademark could spur SUS to change the name of the pub altogether. “[It’s] not good business practice to use a term that has been trademarked and risk our orga-

Image: Anthony Biondi/The Cascade

Copyright infringement forces a AfterMath to change names. nization being opened up to that kind of suit,” she said.

SUS is currently consulting with their legal team to plan their next move. For now, the pub will operate under the generic name Campus Lounge until SUS better understands their position going forward.

Whether or not they have to completely rebrand, McDonald doesn’t expect a quick resolution.

“This is probably going to be [a] long process of can-we-trademark, what-can-we-trademark,

then going [through] the process of trademarking,” she said, speculating that the pub most likely won’t have another name until fall.

The pub is still slated to open with the new semester, and business will operate as usual. McDonald emphasized that the service provided by the previously-named AfterMath Socialhouse staff will not be affected – just the name.

More AfterMath coverage on pg. 5.

Interview with a philosophical counsellor KAREN ANEY

book and distribute it to schools and libraries across the nation.

So I was invited back again this year, and it was the same thing – they had me doing two conferences in a week-and-a-half. In July of this year, they contacted me again, and said they would really like to invite me to a combined conference to do another presentation . . . it was all about education and the humanities.

Just an hour ago, I got an email from a journal that’s being published jointly in the U.S. and China, and they want to have the presentation that I did in Korea in July published.

THE CASCADE

Dr. Peter Raabe is a professor in the department of philosophy. He specializes in philosophical counselling, and is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the subject.

He has recently returned from Asia, where he participated in a conference as a presenter.

To start, can you tell me in your own words what philosophical counselling is?

Very simply, it’s using philosophy to help people with problems . . . I’m talking about emotional or cognitive thinking problems. You have to ask what philosophy is, and philosophy basically is examining the reasons that we have for the values that we think are good, for the things that we believe to be true, so that we don’t end up blindly following tradition or obeying authority figures.

Philosophy has always been historically taught as something you do for yourself, but you can also do philosophy with someone else and help them to examine their reasons for believing what they believe to be true and thinking what they do.

You’re often linked to studies of mental illness. How did that come about?

Well, a philosophical counsellor will offer his or her expertise to a person who is struggling with some kind of issue. That issue can be a life issue, a relationship issue . . . and so quite often it also involves issues that have been declared or diagnosed as actual mental illnesses. So I always promote the idea that philosophical counselling can help cure mental illnesses.

There are a lot of people who are really shocked when I say that, but when you look at psychotherapy, the talk therapy part is basically philosophical. There’s a good reason for that – because in the 1950s, when psychotherapy first broke away from psychoanalysis, the psychotherapists decided there was something good,

So they’re definitely aware of you, then!

I’ve been told that they actually consider me one of the foremost authorities on the subject, which is odd for me – I feel like I’m still [learning].

Image: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr

Peter Raabe has visted Korea several times to lecture about philosophical counselling. something useful in analysis, but . . . it was considered to be really boring and academic. That carried over into the people who were studying philosophy. They were boring people who had an interest in the academics.

So it was basically, “Gee. They’ve got this great stuff that they’re not using to help anybody, so we’re just going to borrow it.”

As I understand it, you came into the field rather serendipitously. Can you speak to that at all?

I’d finished my master’s, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my PhD—my wife didn’t want me to stop at my master’s, you see, but that’s another story—so I had a summer off, basically.

[I ended up volunteering at a recovery center] teaching critical thinking skills to some men there, so that they wouldn’t be making the same bad mistakes in their lives that got them there in the first place. We did the same kind

of stuff I now do in my critical thinking classroom.

After class, some of them would approach me individually and say, “Can I take a minute of your time?” And I’d use my knowledge of philosophy to help them talk through their problems.

I told a former classmate of mine what I was doing, and she said, “Oh, you’re doing philosophical counselling!” and I said, “What’s that?”

She lent me a book [on the subject], and oh my gosh – she was right.

You dedicate much of your time to raising awareness about these methodologies in Canada, as it’s more popular elsewhere in the world – is that right?

In North America—in Canada—we had an association for a short while, and it sort of fizzled out. The problem in North America is that people don’t know what philosophy is. So when I advertised myself as a philosophical counsellor, people didn’t know

what it was . . . they were scared I would convert them religiously, or I’d be talking about things like meditation and so on . . . or that they wouldn’t understand what I was talking about.

You travelled to Asia recently – was that to educate people about philosophical counselling?

Actually, they are very aware of me in Asia. My books are translated to Japanese, Chinese, Korean . . . I was actually invited to Korea for the first time two years ago. They are using my books in the schools there . . . so when I went there, I felt like a rock star. I was autographing my book at the conference!

After I came back earlier this year, I got an email from one of the professors in Korea—actually, he was a translator of my book— [telling me my book] was one of the best books of that year. It won The Korean National Academy of Sciences award, which meant that approximately $15,000 Canadian was allocated to purchase that

Can you tell us about your upcoming publication?

It’s about the role of philosophy in psychotherapy and counselling. What I’m doing is basically making the argument [that] the talk parts of philosophy are basically psychotherapy . . . differentiating between the mind and the brain. Can people change their mind? Of course, but here’s the trickier part – can they change their brain? Of course not.

So I don’t deal with brain diseases, I deal with what’s called mental illness – but the term illness is kind of weird. It’s like saying belief illness or assumption illness, because if that’s what your mind is, how can there be an illness there? That’s why I say philosophy can cure mental illnesses, because of how I define the term.

When you start with that, then you can go onto things like diagnosing and treatment ideas and so on. You have to start with that whole definition.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

NEWS

Candlelight vigil honours fallen women DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE

As part of the new building at UFV’s Canada Education Park campus, the aboriginal gathering place has already hosted a wide variety of events – from conferences to ceremonies, traditional welcomes to potluck dinners. The recycled cedar lends a warm atmosphere to the space, and the oversized steps form gentle tiers for audience members to sit or stand.

This past December, UFV students, faculty, staff and community members gathered on those steps to

pay their respects as part of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Members of both genders and several generations collected together to honour the memories of the women targeted in the 1989 massacre at École Polytechnique in Montréal, as well as those murdered on the Highway of Tears and on Vancouver’s downtown east side.

Several faculty members spoke at the memorial, including Dr. Virginia Cooke of the English department and Dr. Martha Dow of sociology. The night ended with candle-lighting and a moment of silence.

Image: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr.com

Candles accompanied a moment of silence at CEP.

Image: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr.com

Community members, students and faculty honoured the memory of murdered women.

Image: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr.com

Aboriginal music and ceremony were part of the memorial.

NEWS BRIEFS

Image: http://ca.reuters.com/

David Bowie breaks long silence with new music release

LONDON (Reuters) – British singer David Bowie released his first new song in nearly a decade on Tuesday in a surprise launch coinciding with his 66th birthday.

“Where Are We Now?”, produced by long-term collaborator Tony Visconti, is a melancholic look back to the time Bowie spent in Berlin in the 1970s with an accompanying video featuring black-andwhite footage of the city when it was still divided.

The song, available on iTunes and free to view on his re-launched website, was recorded in New York and will be followed by Bowie’s first studio album since 2003, “The Next Day”, due out in the United States on March 12.

Image: http://ca.reuters.com/

Image: http://ca.reuters.com/

Image: http://ca.reuters.com/

Image: http://ca.reuters.com/

Chinese hold anti-censorship protest outside newspaper

Canada meets key aboriginal demand amid blockades

In war against cancer, progress is in the eye of the beholder

Bigger fights loom after “fiscal cliff” deal

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Hundreds of supporters of one of China’s most liberal newspapers demonstrated outside its headquarters on Monday, backing a strike by journalists against interference by the provincial propaganda chief.

The rare anti-censorship protest happened in Guangzhou, capital of wealthy Guangdong, China’s most liberal province and birthplace of the reforms, begun three decades ago, that propelled China to become the world’s second-largest economy.

The outcry began late last week when reporters at the influential Southern Weekly newspaper accused censors of replacing an original New Year’s letter to readers that called for a constitutional government with another piece lauding the party’s achievements.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s prime minister will meet with native leaders next week to discuss social and economic issues, an olive branch to an angry aboriginal movement that has blockaded rail lines and threatened to close Canada’s borders with the United States.

But the meeting is a key demand from native Chief Theresa Spence, who has been on a hunger strike for 25 days on an island within sight of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

Spence’s hunger strike has been one of the most visible signs of a protest movement called Idle No More, which had announced plans for blockades on Saturday all along the U.S.-Canadian border.

(Reuters) – As the United States enters the fifth decade of its “war on cancer,” deaths continue to decline, according to an exhaustive report based on official data released on Monday.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story, say experts not involved in the report.

“We don’t look at this as progress,” said Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. “This is such incremental improvement, when you look at the decades of investments, the cost of treatments, the number of researchers and journals, and then at the number of people who die ... well, we are clearly doing something wrong,” said Visco, who was not involved in the study.

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans face even bigger budget battles in the next two months after a hard-fought “fiscal cliff” deal narrowly averted devastating tax increases and spending cuts.

The agreement was a victory for the president, who had won re-election in November on a promise to address budget woes, partly by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

But it set up potentially bruising showdowns over the next two months on spending cuts and an increase in the nation’s limit on borrowing. Republicans, angry the fiscal cliff deal did little to curb the federal deficit, promised to use the debt-ceiling debate to win deep spending cuts next time.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

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NEWS

The AfterMath decision DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE

This past November saw an Extraordinary General Meeting that was equal parts hubbub and standing room only, as students and SUS members gathered in a second attempt to review and discuss the fate of UFV’s campus pub.

For those that couldn’t make it to all five glorious hours of the meeting, here’s a handy recap.

Sam Broadfoot, VP finance, steps down.

“Due to my involvement in numbers that were published . . . that include a lot of fallacies and a lot of things that we unfortunately overlooked when we first presented them, I feel directly responsible for this,” Broadfoot stated in a surprise announcement before the meeting began.

“Also because of my involvement with the previous board in allowing AfterMath to continue to run the deficits that it has today, I do not feel comfortable continuing as a director.”

Broadfoot explained he would be stepping down at the end of the meeting. The SUS board has since accepted his resignation and Ryan Peterson, long-time rep-at-large, has stepped into the role as VP finance.

Shane Potter sums up SUS’s monetary situation to date

Potter stated that it’s not as simple as running a deficit – as a society, it’s only possible to go into debt if there is reserve funding to cover the loss.

“We’re not like Canada, where we can borrow from China . . . basically, we either have money, or we don’t have money,” Potter explained.

In previous years SUS had a Health and Dental reserve fund, formed out of any extra money left over from Health and Dental fees once student claims were paid for. Potter explained that the SUS board drained this fund in the 2010/2011 fiscal year, since more claims were made than the fees could pay for.

The SUS board in 2005/2006 also formed a capital fund, which generates income for SUS through investment. Although it’s not intended to be used as a reserve fund, Potter explained that it sometimes functions that way.

“Because we can’t run deficits, it can be used as a reserve fund in an emergency,” he stated.

What happened to the pub and other tales from the November EGM Potter went on to explain the SUS board has drained almost $300,000 from the capital fund since 2009, leaving just over $15,000 as of November 2012. This money has gone to pay for a variety of budget overages, from UPASS to the campus pub.

Potter also noted that neither the Health and Dental reserve nor the capital fund has been contributed to in the last five years.

SUS bookkeeper Darlene Turnbull also noted that, for three years running, the SUS board took money from the Health and Dental reserve to cover the costs the campus pub when it went over budget. She described the result as a domino effect.

“We got to the point where we had to pay the Health and Dental [costs], and we didn’t have this money. It’s a self-sustaining fund: money going in, money going out. We ended up going back and ended up finding out that money had been taken out of there,” she explained, noting that this maneuvering hid part of the deficit that the campus pub ran in those years.

Daniel van der Kroon discusses the SUB

January 2008 saw 12 per cent of students vote to create a fee for a Student Union Building. The motion passed with a 52 per cent majority.

“So the question is whether that is a statistically valid representation of the student body. I’m going to argue that it’s not,” van der Kroon stated.

Van der Kroon criticised the wording of this referendum, which packaged together a reduction in a Health and Dental fee and an increase in the form of a SUS building fee.

“I think it’s quite clear those two questions should have been separated,” van der Kroon stated. “Students should have been able to obtain a reduction in the Health and Dental fee even if they did not want to implement the Student Union Building Fund levy – if that reduction in the Health and Dental fee was indeed justified.”

Van der Kroon argued that this referendum (and another in 2011, in which students voted to secure the SUB’s $10 million mortgage) misrepresented both the student body at the time and the current student body. Van der Kroon further suggested that SUS hold a third referendum to form a more

accurate representation of student opinion.

The Froese motion

CISSA president Derek Froese presented a multi-sectioned motion with the intent to keep the campus pub open. In brief, the motion takes the following actions: • Rescinds the October decision to close AfterMath for the year on November 30.

• Adopts a new budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, as constructed and presented by Froese.

• Bars SUS from closing or trying to close AfterMath for the remainder of the fiscal year, unless AfterMath goes over its new budget.

• Instructs SUS to budget for AfterMath in future fiscal years “with historical numbers and future projections in mind.”

• Adjusts SUS board honoraria as described by the new budget.

• States that all costs associated with the Student Union Building (including architectural and legal costs) be paid out of the SUB fund rather than the general fund.

• Describes the construction and implementation of a “financial oversight committee” comprised of executive members from student clubs or associations, which will then oversee and approve any budget line deficit.

• Requires SUS to review and report their budget every month until the end of the fiscal year.

The Froese budget

The new budget first allows for some small adjustments in income – revenue from the sale of handbooks has exceeded expectations, and revenue from ATMs on campus has been below expectations.

Perhaps most notably, the budget cuts the honoraria of SUS board members – resulting in a pay cut for directors, and complete removal of honoraria for community reps (including repsat-large, clubs and associations rep, aboriginal rep, accessibilities rep, etcetera).

Froese also cut from the SUS retreat, SUS members’ cell phone allowance, senate reports, SUS’ accessibility fund, the SUS conference fund.

Funding for associations, student grants, and emergency student grants remain unchanged.

The SUS events budget has been cut, and the advocacy bud-

Image: Blake McGuire/The Cascade

Students crowded to AfterMath to discuss the pub’s fate. get (which would have been used in part to send SUS members to the upcoming CASA conference) was substantially cut from $8000 to just under $200. SUS’ professional development fund was also cut.

Part of the budget, as described in the main motion, moves a set of SUB fees out of the general SUS fund and into the SUB fund.

All in all, the budget reallocates about $40,000 to fund AfterMath for the remainder of the fiscal year, and puts approximately $22,000 more into a deficit contingency fund.

Several failed amendments

There were several proposed amendments that failed to pass.

VP social Chris Doyle proposed that SUS vice-presidents be required to put in fewer hours to match the lowered honoraria. The amendment was overturned.

Rep-at-large Rachel Waslewsky proposed that the advocacy fund be reinstated at $8000 to allow funding to go towards sending SUS members to an upcoming CASA conference. The amendment was overturned.

Shane Potter suggested Froese’s motion be tabled to allow students and SUS board members to examine it more closely. The motion was overturned.

Meeting chair Greg Stickland entertained a motion to vote by secret ballot so no student would feel pressured to vote a certain way – especially considering the EGM was held in AfterMath and most of the AfterMath staff were present. This motion failed.

In conclusion . . .

Froese’s main motion passed with 47 for and 18 opposed.

“I also want to stress this budget is only for the rest of this fiscal year. All of this will be changed again come April, for the 2013/2014 budget,” Froese concluded. “This budget is entirely to get us to the end of March. It’s not presumed that any numbers that were lowered will still be lowered for budgets following. I’m not trying to set any precedents for upcoming budgets – it’s just for this particular year.”

Other business:

In the interest of time, several motions were tabled until next meeting. VP internal Greg Stickland introduced a motion to lower the number of students needed to hold a SUS meeting on the first attempt, as well as a motion to clear up confusion concerning how soon new SUS members can speak at SUS meetings.

Daniel van der Kroon rescinded a motion to adjust SUS board honoraria in light of the honoraria changes introduced as part of the new budget.

Shane Potter motioned to form a SUS budget committee, which would transform the SUS budgeting process from an internal process into one including student associations and UFV community members.

“It’s transparency to the max,” Potter explained, noting that the motion would also help break student fees into understandable pieces, so students will better understand what their student fees are paying for and in what quantity.

“This is essentially to create accessibility about the numbers, and create transparency in the SUS,” Potter concluded.

Cycling4Diversity to add UFV to 2013 route After two years of helping educate kids about diversity, multi-culturalism and anti-racism, UFV alum Ken Herar is coming home.

The founder of Cycling4Diversity met with UFV President Mark Evered, CIVL station manager Aaron Levy, and our own editor-in-chief Nick Ubels to discuss plans to bring the yearly bike ride from Victoria to Abbotsford to UFV this May. Also present at the meeting were Abbotsford Police Deputy Chief Constable Rick Lucy, BC NDP Abbotsford-West Candidate Sukhi Dhami, and Abbotsford School Trustee Preet Rai.

Levy, Ubels, Dhami, Lucy, Rai, Evered and Herar (Left to right) present a t-shirt at UFV.

Image: Blake McGuire/The Cascade

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

Beyond “Beyond Secularism”

NDP MP Bill Blaikie discusses the crossroads of politics and faith

religion . . . that permits a sort of a religious pluralism to exist, and that’s been there for a long time.

But are we getting more pluralistic? Well, we are if plural means many. Our diversity is becoming greater and more diverse.

JOE JOHNSON THE CASCADE

Until his decision to leave Parliament in 2008, Bill Blaikie was the longest serving with 29 consecutive years under the NDP. He was also a 2003 leadership opponent to Jack Layton, and is a United Church ordained minister. In early December, Chilliwack-Hope MLA Gwen O’Mahony hosted Beyond Secularism, an event designed to bring religion and politics to the forefront of discussion. Bill Blaikie was part of the expert panel at that event.

Last night you were on the panel for the Beyond Secularism Q&A event in Chilliwack. Can you give me a brief rundown of how you thought the event went?

I thought it was good – it was very well-attended, and there were a lot of people lined up to make comments and ask questions afterwards. As I found out at other kinds of events across the country, people are interested in the relationship between faith and politics, the place of each, and the practice of each within the secular, pluralist, multicultural context that we all live in.

Just how to get that diversity right in a way that’s constructive and helpful – I think that’s something people know we have to work on.

It was obvious last night that was a concern people had.

As a religious person yourself, are you against or for greater advancement of religious beliefs into policy?

I think everyone brings the things that they believe are fundamentally true about human life or about the universe to any debate. But do I think that policy should be specifically framed in a religious way? No. I’ve been a politician for a long time in the House of Commons and in the legislature. Public policy has to be formed and expressed in a philosophically-neutral way—I say philosophically in order to include atheists, and agnostics, and everything—so policy itself when you arrive at it is neutral, whether

Image: Joe Johnson/The Cascade

Blaikie visited The Cascade on Abby campus to talk politics. you support a particular policy or not. Your own perspective on that policy may well be informed by your faith perspective, no matter who you are.

Do you feel Canada is similar to the United States in terms of where they stand on religion within politics?

No, I think we’ve had a different tradition here, quite a different tradition. That’s in part because we had one part of Canada—Q uebec—predom i nately Catholic, and the rest of the country predominately Protestant.

Our history has been defined in that way. I think it’s one of the reasons why, with the exception of third parties – some of them now major parties – have had a particularly religious strain within them. But the Liberal and the Conservative parties traditionally have understood [and] have been parties that didn’t identify outwardly with any particular religion.

Take, for example, in the United States when John F. Kennedy was running for President in 1960, it was a controversy that he was a Roman Catholic. Well, by 1960

Canada had probably two or three Roman Catholic Prime Ministers and it hadn’t been controversial at all because they had been from Quebec. That’s just one of the differences. Also in the United States . . . the Evangelical Christian community is a much larger percentage of the population there, and you have a large Afro-American Christian community. Their faith and politics mix is much different than ours.

Pluralism: is that what’s beyond secularism?

Well, that was one of the impressions that was created by some of the analysis last night, but secularism and pluralism have actually gone together for a long time. It’s almost in the nature of secularism, or of a secular society, that it’s pluralist with respect to religion unless it’s thrown out altogether. So in my mind it’s not so much that we’re moving from secularism to pluralism. Pluralism is a part of, and has always been a part of, the historically best forms of secularism to begin with. Having a separation of church and state and the state being neutral with respect to

Where there ever any instances where your constituency’s general consensus was different than your beliefs?

There were certainly many times where there were constituents within particular faith communities, within my constituency, that were very much opposed to positions that I was taking as an NDP MP. Issues primarily maybe having to do with sexual orientation, human rights legislation, ultimately same sex marriage, abortion, issues like that – and they made their views known to me. But there were other people in other churches in the riding that had other views.

Even though they would write in and say, “This is the Christian view . . . and if you don’t agree with me you’re not a Christian,” I would have to remind them, “You’re right that there are a lot of people within your faith community that see it that way, but there are other people within the same faith community, broadly speaking, who see it differently. So let’s not judge each other so harshly on these kinds of questions.”

Should economies be designed to achieve the greatest wealth for a nation or should they be designed so that they distribute equitably?

I think that the wealth of a nation is in the quality of the kind of community that it creates. A community in which there are vast and increasing levels of inequality is not a form of wealth – it’s a form of spiritual and social poverty, if you ask me.

And we live in a Canada now that’s vastly more unequal than it was 30 or 40 years ago. The average CEO back in the ‘80s might have made 40 times what the average worker makes. Now they might make 800 [times] . . . as a result of this sort of market funda-

mentalism that kind of took hold of Canada, and the United States and Britain. You know, the Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney years in the early ‘80s. Free trade agreements, deregulation, privatization – a lot of the social equality that we had achieved in the postWorld War II era is being systematically eroded. That might make some people more wealthy, and in fact it has – but whether it means we’re a wealthier society as a result, that depends on how you measure wealth. And I would say that we’re poorer for it.

What do you find to be some of the common misunderstandings of religion and politics?

In recent years I think the most common misunderstanding—the one I found the most bothersome and the one that I speak out most often against—is this sort of conventional wisdom that if you’re religious and you’re political then you must be on the political right, like you’re some kind of rightwinger. I want to remind people that’s not necessarily so. There is, in my view anyway, an older tradition that goes right back to the biblical prophets where, you might say . . . there was no right or left. Biblical prophets were people who were challenging the rulers of their day to have a more just society.

So this perception that you’re religious and you’re political then you must be a right-winger – well, that’s not the case. Certainly in Canada the CCF and the NDP and a lot of people in Canada were motivated to do a lot of centre-left and left wing things in Canadian history, and they were motivated by their faith perspective. That’s still the case, but the media’s come to focus, largely because of events in the United States on the religious right, that you get the perception that the only kind of religious folks around in the public realm are right-wingers. And that’s not true.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Another new UFV campus for Chilliwack DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE

After opening a new building at Canada Education Park just last year, adding another new campus to UFV’s list of locations wasn’t exactly on the to-do list. But the Bank of Montréal (BMO) in Chilliwack had other (and more altruistic) ideas.

After moving the location to a new branch, the Bank of Montréal decided to donate their downtown Chilliwack space to UFV. This new campus—renamed UFV Plaza—will become another location for university classes and workshops.

This donation is valued at $1.5 million – the largest in UFV history.

The Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation (a branch of the

City of Chilliwack) has stepped up to provide funding needed to renovate the building, as part of a plan to revitalize the downtown core. When renovations are complete, the space will be divided into classrooms, meeting rooms and office space.

Harv McCullough, UFV’s vice-president of external relations, said the classes and workshops offered at this location will strengthen the bonds between UFV and the community. The focus of UFV Plaza will be on professional development and continuing studies, as well as workshops formed according to community demand.

“We will be listening to the community to find out what they need in terms of education and training,” McCullough stated in a UFV press release.

Image: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr.com

Chilliwack BMO donated their downtown location to UFV, which will now become UFV Plaza.

Image: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr.com

What opening would be complete without a giant, golden ornamental key?

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

7

www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION

Why looking at the academic calendar is a heartbreaking waste of time NICK UBELS THE CASCADE

It’s my last semester at UFV. I have few regrets about my time here, but I do have my fair share of disappointments. Chief among them? The predictably boring selection of classes available each semester.

UFV’s timetables, reaching back to 2005, are archived on the university website. Looking back, I can begin to see a pattern. Certain classes are repeated ad nauseum, offered at least once a year if not every semester, while a smaller pool of niche courses show up every few years. It’s understandable for lower-level requirements, but a little more frustrating when it comes to upper-level offerings.

What’s most striking, though, is the vastly different picture UFV’s academic calendar paints; there’s no shortage of intriguing and varied courses approved for credit at UFV, yet mysteriously never offered.

Tricky scheduling, strict program requirements and a limited number of credits to go around are unfortunate, but mostly unavoidable obstacles that stand in the way of your typical undergraduate student being able to take all of the courses they would like to.

I can accept that. I can appreciate those necessarily missed opportunities as casualties of, you know, actually graduating with a bachelor’s degree before my 20s start

Excerpt from a script never written. shrinking in my rear-view mirror.

Abundant life exists beyond the pretty pink walls and profoundly handless campus clock of UFV. But I digress.

In total, there are 13 upper-level English courses in the 2012/2013 course calendar that have never been offered once since at least fall 2007. Of these courses, only four were introduced sometime during the last five years, not that that excuses them. In fact, it’s more stupefying to see courses emerge from the tribulations of the rigor-

Image: Profound Whatever/flickr.com

ous approval process only to die before making it to the timetable.

Early in my post-secondary career, I used to browse the academic calendar with a dream in my little teenage heart, hopeful that I’d someday be able to take some of these captivating classes before my time ran out. After all, most course outlines contained that devilish little designation “expected frequency of course offering” followed by a colon and a promise: “annually.”

Now, a jaded senior, I look back

and scoff. I’ve realized that even if I stayed on for another 10 years, it’s unlikely I’d see any of these classes make it to the timetable for reasons unknown, but certain as day.

One of these courses is Film 310: Introduction to Film Theory.

UFV’s lower-level film classes are well-attended, and video production classes are increasingly popular, yet this, the only upper-level film course on the books, has never been offered in my time here.

Similarly, where is English 378: Creative Writing – Advanced Screenwriting or its older cousin English 377: Creative Writing – Film Adaptions of English Literature, both of which have **never been offered since their inception?

The creative writing students I’ve known are always looking for more options to fill out their English degrees with classes that bear some relevance on what they’re actually here for.

The examples of these kinds of classes are endless. Communications 320: Editing Principles and Applications. History 316: Violence and War in the West: A Cultural History. An undergraduate can only do so many Directed Studies, you know.

I could speculate all day as to why these perfectly interesting courses have gone ignored (budget issues, prioritizing “teachable” electives, it’s easier for professors to rehash the same material, elaborate conspiracy, etc), but the bottom line is that students are being

short-changed on the promise of the academic calendar.

Am I ungrateful? I’ve considered it. After all, I’ve managed to scrounge together all the necessary requirements for my major, minor and a couple certificates along the way. And still I remain obsessed with these courses that I’ll never be able to take. I know these stupid little geeky dreams must die, but it’s so hard to let them go. I didn’t want to believe that UFV was such a self-limiting institution with designs on cookie-cutter graduates, but my fears are quickly being realized.

I’m reminded of an anecdote Apple CEO Steve Jobs relayed at a commencement speech a few years ago. (For the record, I’m a PC). He talked about how he accidentally took a calligraphy elective when he attended college. Unconventional, yes. But Jobs described how that single class, a brief emphasis on aesthetic principles rather than the regular rigours of coding became the cornerstone of his minimalist, eye-catching design for home computing devices.

Cookie-cutter degrees make cookie-cutter workers. So take a weird elective if you can, in spite of the timetable’s limitations, and you’ll help make your degree more than the sum of its credits. Isn’t that what university is all about?

Idle No More must win over Canada, not Harper NADINE MOEDT

THE CASCADE

Its Facebook page has nearly 55,000 “likes.” Not bad for a grassroots movement that began less than two months ago. But the Idle No More movement has been criticized throughout as being vague, with broad and unclear goals.

In their mission statement, the group “calls on all people to join in a revolution which honours and fulfills Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water.”

That seems pretty clear to me.

The movement began in response to Bill C-45, an omnibus bill that has now been christened the “Jobs and Growth Act.” Don’t be fooled by the name; the bill is huge and scary, spanning some 400 pages of legislation, and changing 64 acts and regulations. Idle No More is concerned with three of the major changes contained in the act.

First, the Indian Act has been changed to allow an “easier opening of treaty lands and territory,” according to the Idle No More website.

First Nations communities may lease reserve land if a majority votes to do so at any meeting called with the purpose of having such a vote. This change allows for an easier opening for developers and industry in reserve land; previously, the approval of the majority of all eligible voters was required.

The Navigation Protection Act was also dramatically altered. Major pipeline and power line projects are no longer required to even attempt to protect navigable waterways they may cross, unless they appear on the Transportation Minister’s list. Ac-

cording to the CBC, Idle No More states that this alteration removes the protection of almost every lake and river in Canada. Only 62 rivers and 97 lakes are now specifically listed as being protected, a mere fraction of what was protected before the change.

The last major objection Idle No More has with this bill is related to the Environmental Assessment Act. This act promotes the first omnibus budget bill’s goal of eliminating the requirement for many projects to complete an environmental assessment and thus affords the projects a faster approval process.

Other concerns about the living conditions of many First Nations bands, suicide rates among the youth, and overrepresentation of First Nations in prisons have been voiced.

The object of the movement is expressed very eloquently in the mission statement: “Canada has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world by using the land and resources. Canadian mining, logging, oil and fishing companies are the most powerful in the world due to land and resources. Some of the poorest First Nations communities (such as Attawapiskat) have mines or other developments on their land but do not get a share of the profit. The taking of resources has left many lands and waters poisoned – the animals and plants are dying in many areas in Canada. We cannot live without the land and water. We have laws older than this colonial government about how to live with the land.”

The First Nations of Canada have had it with Harper. Their goal--a

Image: The Star

Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat community, began her hunger strike on Dec. 11. simple movement to gain respect they deserve--is unmistakable. Their means of achieving it, however, is flawed. This has been most clearly demonstrated by a prolonged and painful hunger strike on the part of Theresa Spence, Chief of the struggling First Nations community Attawapiskat.

Spence announced that she would begin a hunger strike, surviving on a liquid diet until the Prime Minister agrees to meet with her. Spence has been living in an encampment on Victoria Island in Ottawa ever since.

Stephen Harper has only recently announced that he would see her, setting a meeting date for January 11 after nearly a month of her hunger strike.

Harper’s willingness to ignore Spence, who is practically bang-

ing on his front door, really says it all. According to The Ottawa Citizen, First Nations peoples make up just four per cent of the voting population. With voter turnout “notoriously low,” why should Harper give a damn? Why should anyone in the Government?

Only when the First Nations peoples convince a mass audience of their right to exist with dignity, of their right to protect their traditional lands, and of their worth as a culture can they succeed in convincing the Harper government the same. The movement must gain this mass support, or else resign itself to being the bark that’s worse than its bite. The movement’s objective must remain transparent, and its protests must remain peaceful and diplomatic. Spence’s hunger strike ends this week. Its

main victory was not its ability to draw in Harper for a meeting, but rather to gain the attention of an audience that will continue to grow and at last have some sway with the Harper government.

Adam Goldenberg, in The Ottawa Citizen, writes that there is “more at stake in Idle No More than the protest’s own success.

“A bona fide movement for reconciliation between aboriginal peoples and the Crown should be a meaningful opportunity to teach Canadians that aboriginal rights are constitutionally guaranteed,” Goldenberg writes. “Canada’s success as a multinational society depends on our ability to reckon with the difference and injustice that have always defined us.”

8

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

OPINION

Happy New Year! Now what are you going to do about it?

DESSA BAYROCK and JESS WIND THE CASCADE

In which the power team of Dessa Bayrock and Jess Wind, hereby known as #WINDROCK, tackle the idea, ideals, and ideology of New Year’s Resolutions. In the words of the great poet R. Kelly, “I believe I can fly.” But can we?

DB: New Year’s Eve is kind of like a birthday for a whole year.

Which makes sense, considering how drunk we all got. But you know what doesn’t make sense?

New Year’s resolutions. Does anyone actually follow them through?

JW: Considering the gym is packed in January and then enthusiasm peters out, I would say no.

Hell, I even wrote my resolutions down last year and I still failed to exercise.

DB: I have personally never been to the gym. Ever. But I have a friend who usually exercises regularly, and she says she loves January, because it’s the one month she skips the gym completely. You know why? Because otherwise it is

too much work to deal with all the people who have made resolutions to “go to the gym.” By February things are back to normal.

JW: Empty promises to our muscles aside, do you think there’s a way to make resolutions work? Is it the kind of resolutions? Or how we go about them? Or is the whole idea of deciding to change your life on the most hung-over day of the year just ridiculous?

DB: We have to start looking at the whole resolution deal differently – I don’t know about you, but the resolutions I make towards selfimprovement are the ones that fail.

Exercise more? Yeah, no. Eat more vegetables? Yeah, no. Maybe we should be taking a more whimsical approach to things, or at least a less idealistic approach.

JW: I agree that the less idealistic approach is necessary, but all resolutions need at least some logic behind them. I may not have gone to the gym last year, but my resolutions weren’t a complete waste.

DB: Go on.

JW: I did a bunch of saving, and the guy and I committed to at least one date night a month. Scored a couple Whitecaps games and a trip to Victoria out of that one.

My secret? A paper napkin. We wrote all of our resolutions down and pinned them to the wall. They stared at us for all 365 days of 2012.

DB: Yeah, it’s one of those things that you have to face up to every day or it’s too easy to forget about.

I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll start next week. What were my resolutions again?

Then again, want to know my secret? I didn’t actually make any resolutions last year. Don’t think I missed a thing.

JW: But did anything change?

DB: No. But did it have to?

JW: Maybe not for you, but for us we knew that the wrath of student loans were upon us, so the money thing mattered. If we didn’t have that White Spot napkin reminding us to pay off some debt, we’d be screwed.

DB: See, I have a philosophy that things that need to be taken care of will, eventually, be taken care of one way or the other. So I tend to not stress about it. Which I’m sure will bite me in the ass one day, but for now . . . Hakuna Matata?

JW: If I followed Disney philosophies I would be waiting in a tower for my prince to rescue me. Also, Simba faces his past in the end.

DB: But for now I’m eating bugs and seeing my father in the sky . . .

I think this metaphor may have gotten away from me. But in any case, I feel like I need to recognize that I never, ever follow through on resolutions – be they whimsical or idealistic. I never go to the gym. I never buy a yoga mat, let alone use the damn thing. One year I resolved to go on a train, because I’ve never been on a train. Nope. Still never been on a train. I think it’s pretty key to know thyself. I think it’s something you have to know about yourself – if resolutions are going to work for you or not. You + husband + napkin proved that you can make it work – so what are you

trying to accomplish this year?

JW: Agreed. Knowing yourself is key. There were about 10 resolutions on the napkin. We were crazy to think we’d get them all done.

The beauty of a logical approach is that we can simply roll over to the new year. We have resolved to budget again, among other things.

I know, we’re daredevils. The only person standing in between a successful new year’s resolution and a failure is you.

DB: Or a debilitating sense of Hakuna Matata. I mean, am I really all that unfit? Naw. I’ll just get rid of these freshmen 15 after I graduate . . . that’ll work.

JW: Hop on a train and you’re set.

DB: Touché.

Join us next time when we have another powerhouse discussion (perhaps on the subject of Valentines Day??) that will similarly mix seriousness and Disney references. Will there be trains?

Will there be clichés? Stay tuned! For now, dear reader – #WINDROCK OUT.

Obesity outweighs Voyeurism and Honey Boo Boo: starvation on global scale class tourism at its worst AMY VAN VEEN THE CASCADE

Obesity is now a greater cause of death on a global scale than malnutrition.

And there you have it – the least surprising fact of 2013.

Nutrition-related health news has always seemed to be centred on developing nations. Malnutrition and starvation have been the main topic of discussion because it affects over 1 billion people a year.

But recent reports show that 1.5 billion people suffer from health issues such as strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and heart disease caused by obesity.

While world health organizations have waged a war on malnutrition, another killer has gone on the rise. According to The Telegraph, the death rate of malnutrition has been successfully lowered by two-thirds in the past 10 years.

Certainly it’s notable that this shift from malnutrition to obesity as the major health concern is occurring in nations that have recently experienced economic prosperity, but what about the nations that have had citizens suffering from obesity for years?

Where there’s supposed prosperity, people often look for convenience. And those handy-dandy, pre-packaged, ready-made products give the semblance of a great meal for a great deal.

They litter grocery stores across North America – the boxes offering low-cal, low-carb options that may also be high-sugar, high-salt.

While the bright-coloured, bolded writing may promise a cut of one thing that almost always means a rise in something else. Low fats that don’t specify which kind of fat is lower. One hundred calories on a much lower serving than the average person takes. And yet, these are the convenient options that

successful, well-paid citizens are purchasing.

Why is it, then, that obesity has become noticed only now that it has surpassed malnutrition? Shouldn’t it always be on the minds of major health organizations? What about the educations of millions of North Americans who choose a fried breakfast over fresh fruit?

Does anyone remember Jamie Oliver’s attempt to change American school cafeterias? In his second U.S. season, his attempt to change the way kids look at food was replaced by his attempt to even get into the schools. School district boards shut him down and radio DJs put up brick walls of ignorance to shut down his attempts.

What has been done since?

When will the pandemic of obesity in “developed” nations be enough of a problem to require true change?

Education is the biggest defence when consumers are faced with so many unhealthy options disguised as good for everyone. What may seem like a good idea now could result in detrimental health issues and skyrocketing medical bills in a few years.

Stephen Adams of The Telegraph notes, “[E]ating too much is now a more serious risk to the health of populations than eating poorly.”

However, eating too much and eating poorly are really one in the same. Poor nutrition can easily occur when people choose unbalanced diets and ignore the elementary school lessons of primary food groups, recommended servings and portion sizes. And considering the prevalence of obesity that has been present in North America and other nations for so long, it’s surprising that the discussion is only now taking place.

BRITTINI BROWN

CONTRIBUTOR

Over the past decade reality television has become the highlight of entertainment. It’s an outlet of escape, but it’s also an easily accessible and inexpensive form of class tourism. By providing an otherwise private insight into the lifestyles of others, they offer a temporary break from the boring normalities of the working-class lifestyle. This is true whether the individuals portrayed are rich or poor, admired or derided.

Typically, “reality” television has focused on the elite class.

Programs such as The Simple Life, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Real House Wives, and Gene Simmons: Family Jewels quickly and easily gained a massive following – which made sense. It is understandable that “lower” class citizens would find an escape through watching the lavish lifestyles of others.

However, a new trend in reality TV is much more puzzling. Why is there such a high demand for shows which follow lower-class. down and out individuals? Do we simply enjoy watching the struggles of others? Or do we find them more relatable? Duck Dynasty, Dance Moms, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo are all examples of popular reality television shows introduced during 2012. All of which can be classified as class tourism.

In this form of class tourism viewers obtain pleasure from the customs, mannerisms and behaviour of people from lower social classes, especially when observed from an online multimedia source – essentially it is mockery.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is amongst the most popular and controversial television programs introduced during 2012; it is an extremely potent example of class

Image: frugal-cafe.com

Honey Boo Boo poses graciously for her adoring fans. tourism on television. The show has gained more than 2.4 million viewers since its premier in August but has still managed to top the list of 2012’s worst TV shows.

The show follows Alana (Honey Boo Boo), a six-year-old beauty contestant and her family, in their hometown of Georgia. Each family member has a silly nickname: the mom is referred to as Coupon Queen, the dad as Sugar Bear and the three sisters as Chickadee, Pumpkin and Chubbs. All members of the family are overweight and speak in a thick southern drawl.

Ultimately, the show portrays the family as un-classy, redneck and uneducated. It’s jam-packed with jaw-dropping “did she actually just say that?!” moments; during the opening credits the mom is introduced by farting and interrupting the song. The program gives a definite emphasis on the trashy and the terrible, drawing the viewer in with a sort of morbid curiosity.

The fact that the star of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is only six is also hard to overlook. Had the show portrayed Alana in a positive light it would be a different story. However, when the show is intended to poke fun at the mannerisms and redneck ways of a little girl, is there not something to be said about the network? And further, the viewer? Are we not just as crude and laughable for enjoying this sort of entertainment?

Recent tabloids have only added to the controversy by attacking Honey Boo Boo’s weight. One can only imagine how a six-year-old’s psyche will be affected by having her weight issues debated for the entertainment purposes of an entire nation.

Perhaps there should be stricter rules enforced to restrain networks from producing the crude programs which target little girls and people of lesser fortune. Unfortunately, much like other ugly aspects of society, if it sells, it stays.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

www.ufvcascade.ca

9

ARTS & LIFE

CROSSWORD 1

Spoiler-filled Downton Abbey 3

4 5

6 8

LAST WEEK’S

1. The Dowager Countess believes this to be “another modern brainwave.”

(6, 5 letters) 4. This naive member of the Downton staff married a man going to war to keep

his spirits up. (5 letters) 7. Mr. ____ served as Lord Grantham’s valet in Mr. Bates’ absence. He also

suffered from shell shock. (4 letters) 9. Lady Sybil falls for this man, who is far below her societal status. (7 letters) 10. The Dowager Countess is baffled by this weekly concept of the working class.

(7 letters) 12. The last name of the Turkish gentleman who died in a compromising

position. (5 letters) 13. Jimmy Fallon’s parodied interpretation of the tumultuous world of

comedians and their lowly writers entitled Downton _____. (6 letters)

Answer Key Across

1. THEBOOKOFELI 4. IAMLEGEND 7. ARMAGEDDON 9. THECORE 11. WATERWORLD 13. TOMCRUISE

DOWN

9

10

THe cascade

ACROSS

2

7

AMY VAN VEEN

11

2. This member of the Downton staff attempted to resign after his secret was

revealed that he was a music hall peformer. (6 letters) 3. O’Brien’s brother suffered from this condition. (5, 5 letters) 5. Mrs. _____ had cataracts surgery done at the expense of Lord Grantham.

(7 letters) 6. This ginger love interest of Matthew’s created a much-needed love triangle for

season two. (7 letters) 8. This housemaid took a typing and shorthand correspondence course to

become a secretary. (4 letters) 9. Mr. John Bates served alongside Lord Grantham in the ____ Wars. (4 letters) 11. Lady Edith learns to do this activity, much to the surprise of her family as it is

hardly a lady’s pass time. (5 letters)

12

13 EclipseCrossword.com

Down 2. INDEPENDENCEDAY 3. ZOMBIELAND 5. APES 6. DEEPIMPACT 8. THEROAD 10. MADMAX 12. WALLE

The Weekly Horoscope Star Signs from Lady Oracle Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18

Gemini: May 21 - June 21

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22

If you were born early February, a crab in the home might do you good.

Take this advice to heart this year: chocolate bars and chips aren’t meant to be an everyday snack. They are just marketed that way, but they are really fucking bad for you.

Just to take the suspense away: you’re going to end up alone. Now stop looking for a soul mate, it’s making everyone sick.

Find some other short-cut to happiness.

Maybe the Lotto 649?

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21

It’s time to stop trolling on the internet, otherwise Anonymous might hack you.

They’re like the cowboys of the net.

You are incompatible with Capricorn. Especially the ones born December 25. But don’t worry, Christ was thought to be born in September. Which is a coincidence because you are very compatible with Virgo.

Try getting someone to walk on your back to massage the soreness out. But make it someone you fucking trust or you’re done.

Aries: March 21 - April 19

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21

Start working the night shift. You’ll see the BFG at witching hour. But if you don’t know what I mean you’ll see the Fleshlumpeater.

If you like milk, try a White Russian. If you like lime, do shots of Tequila with salt and lime. You’ll hate milk and lime by the end of it, which will be beneficial for you in the grand scheme of things.

If your neighbour bought themselves a constantly-barking Doberman Pinscher, you should probably just move out. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Virgo: Aug 23 - Sept 22

It’s winter. Take advantage of it. The leaves on the big tree out back have fallen off and you can see right into the window of your neighbour’s place – watch them eat breakfast. It’s very therapeutic.

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19

It is a forgotten truth: cats will sneak up on a sleeping human and suck the breath from he or she. You’ll find you will sleep better with your bedroom door closed, even if you don’t own a cat. You’ll sleep even better if you get a Doberman Pinscher as a pet.

It’s not fair that just because you were born Capricorn you must be one. You were never a big achiever and all that shit they say about Capricorns. You’re more like those lazy Libras. Damn, wouldn’t it be nice to be a Libra?

Book Review The Fault in Our Stars - by John Green Adesuwa Okoyomon

Contributor

Everything in me has decided that The Fault in Our Stars is John Green’s magnum opus. After reading Looking for Alaska, I have patiently waited for every new John Green novel. The writing in a John Green novel makes me fall in love with words all over again. I love the way they fit together and the way they change meanings. If you do not go beyond, you might just miss the beauty of it.

The Fault in Our Stars captures every human emotion and delivers it through a 16-year-old cancer patient who so gravely wants “to not be a grenade, to not be a malevolent force in the lives of people” she loves. This book was captivating. I was wrapped in its hold, unmoving, giving it my solitary gaze.

Despite the tragedy deep-seated in every line, it felt good to read a book about a teenager who was fox-trotting in death’s embrace. It was almost as if I was drowning in Green’s words, and I did not want to be saved.

The Fault in Our Stars does not merely throw you into the world of a cancer patient; it throws you into the world of a person. It felt real, it felt like life and that is what made it completely amazing. It had me blinking happiness from my eyelids and then pain, and happiness again. The main character, Hazel Grace and her boyfriend Augustus Waters, who is also a cancer patient; a victim of osteosarcoma, share a kind of deep love entrenched in maturity which makes it seem recondite and yet so beautiful.

Hazel Grace is entranced by a book called An Imperial Affliction, which ends in mid-sentence. She desperately wanted to communicate with the author, Peter Van Houten because of the questions that incessantly haunted her.

The title of the book was be-

lieved to have been influenced by a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and this is established when the character Van Houten quotes: “‘the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ but in ourselves.’” And continues to say, “easy enough to say when you’re a Roman nobleman (or Shakespeare!) but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars.”

Although John Green vividly makes known that “The world is not a wish-granting factory,” and “We are all victims of the universe’s need to make and unmake all,” he does not paint it in black and white for all to see, but masks it with colours of chaos and all that is life. The book is a work of fiction but it does well to teach that “pain demands to be felt,” though it only lasts as long as you allow it, and life will not hold back its

vicissitudes or trials because “the universe wants to be noticed.”

It upholds the joy of living in its simplest form—happiness can be found in the rarest of places if only one is willing to look.

In the world we live in we are all casualties of some kind, but rather than wait for life to happen, we should do well to write ourselves into our own stories instead of holding onto the bottle of ink and being too afraid to recognize the quill. Everyone has something they are most afraid of and fear of the unknown is much more disturbing than reality – for Hazel Grace it was letting people love her when she was so sure that she would not be around long enough to return their love.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

FEATURE

UFV LEGENDS images courtesy of Tree Frog Imaging

Sasa Plavsic

has played for the UFV men’s soccer team for three seasons as a striker. He has accumulated a total of 20 goals for the Cascades over those seasons and is respected for his accomplishments as a team leader and a student-athlete.

Jersey Number: 8 Middle Name: None Dogs or Cats: Neither.

Favorite Restaurant: Cactus Club Nationality: Half Serbian, half Croatian.

Years playing soccer: 19 Woman of your dreams: I think all women are beautiful, but if I really had to pick one it would be Katherine Heigl.

PAUL ESAU what they have is 64 or 68

THE CASCADE

So who is your favourite professional soccer player?

Mario Mandžukić. He was born in my hometown, and he’s a big Croatian International now and a very big star at Bayern Munich. Before it was David Beckham.

No sorry, [before it was] Savo Milošević.

Besides UFV you’ve also played for some semi-professional clubs. Can you list some of those?

I joined the Abbotsford Mariners in 2009, and that’s where I first met Allan [Errington]. I played for them for three years . . . then I came the following year to play for UFV in January of 2010 . . . this past year I played with the Victoria Highlanders in the PDL. Explain what the PDL is for those of us who are not footballers.

The PDL is the Premier North American Development League, it’s kind of like the WHL of North American soccer. Because the NCAA and CIS only run through the first semester, the PDL was set up by the United soccer leagues as a development league and a gateway to professional soccer. So

teams regionalized across North America, and basically the top college, NIA, NCAA, CIS players put together on teams and then play the course of the season. There are some ex-pros because you are allowed a few over-age players. They usually start around April to the end of June-July, and that’s when players go back to their university teams.

How have you seen the UFV soccer team improve during the three years you’ve been a part of it?

I think over time there have [been] less roster moves, especially over the last one or two years there are more players sticking around in the program, whereas before a lot of players came in for a year and dropped out and there was a big new recruiting class. I haven’t personally been able to experience the benefits of it, but I think that for this generation that’s come in this year a lot of them will be here for the four or five years to play . . . so the team will start having [more] familiar faces each year and there won’t be a lot of roster changes.

So more continuity and more of a team atmosphere?

For sure, because as a new player you’re coming into a team with let’s say 18 returning players and maybe three new players whereas before I think two years ago we had seven or eight new recruits come in . . . definitely there will be a lot more community within the team and it will raise the program up.

Throughout your three years here, what has been your favourite memory with this team?

I would say as a team it was winning the Keg Cup versus Trinity Western last year. My individual memory would be scoring two goals versus Trinity, and beating them 2-1 at Bateman Park two years ago. I think that would be the most memorable game I’ve played.

So not your three-goal adventure in the last game of the season against MRU? I think it was a nice send off, but my most memorable game was the other one.

What, in your opinion,

has been the team’s biggest accomplishment over your time at UFV? I think over the last two years it’s been building a group of leaders. I think we’ve got four or five players who really lead the team and who are going to be here for their full five years and finish their degrees and play. I would say their leadership and our leadership skills are proven, and I think [also] just the camaraderie around the team. It’s a very tight-knit group, especially this year, and I think that’s influenced how we’ve done this season. I know we were a point short of playoffs, but I think if this group continues to stick around, it will improve.

What has kept you playing football throughout your university career, and what do you love about it?

Ironically, I would say what got me started playing at UFV was the fact that they had a kinesiology program. At the time I went from Kwantlen to Douglas cause they had a kines pro-

gram, but they didn’t really offer a degree program . . . so when I decided to come to UFV my first priority was I got to go into the kines program. I think as I started playing and realizing the importance of the CIS, I started to take soccer a little more seriously. So the first couple years were a little bit patchy and stuff, and after that I started to grow more as a student athlete, rather than just an athlete, and my academics definitely picked up . . . I know I started as just an athlete hoping to get into a program and finish it, whereas now I’m trying to look beyond that and be a student athlete who’s looking at a career and professional sports . . . [perhaps] doing a master’s in sports management.

I like the professionalism of the CIS and the standards it has . . . and the other part of it is that I’ve always aspired to play professionally, so this was a good way to do both and in the meantime work towards a career.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

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FEATURE

19% did it multiple times per day.

Do it your way.

Enrol anytime, study where and when you want and transfer credits back to your on-campus program.

MC117213

www.truopen.ca/yourway

Flexible • Credible • Online and Distance

In one sentence, what is the most important piece of advice you have for student athletes at UFV? You’re the wise older kung-fu master at this point, talking to your little padawans, what do you tell them?

It might be more than a sentence, but this one you’ve got to put down. I would say, “you’re a student athlete, so you’re going to have to learn to balance academics and athletics through your schooling. If you’re looking to go farther with your sport you have to be patient . . . I think the best option is finish up your degree and play as much as you can during your university career and then look for other opportunities. Those opportunities might be out there while you’re in school, but I think it’s important to wait and finish out your university career and then move into the professional path because the university is a good stepping stone for that and it helps you have something to fall back on.”

What do you have to say to your coaches after three years of working with them? What do you appreciate about them?

I think what I’ve most appreciated is their pro-

fessionalism for sure, because Alan is always early and always organized and always on the job . . . [and that’s] something I’m really thankful for. And how they do their job and how they run training sessions and everything that comes along with that.

So this year you got to play with your brother [Dalibor Plavsic] for the first time ever. Following you guys on Twitter has been entertaining. What would be your advice to him?

I think it was good playing with my brother because I understand him and a lot of the things he does. Advice for him . . . stay off of social media and get in the gym.

You can write that (laughs).

Last question, where do you go from here?

From here?

I [will attend] a combine in January. If that goes well I’ll be playing in the USL, if it doesn’t I’m going to look for other opportunities overseas. I thought I was going to do the master’s in sports management right away, but I think I’m going to put that on pause for a little bit and just see where I go with sports. I could be doing it a year from now, or I could be doing it five or 10 years down the road.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

ARTS & LIFE

Cascade Arcade

Sportsfriends is a collection of four award-winning multiplayer games JOEL SMART

THE CASCADE

When four indie developers received funding for PS3 versions of their award-winning games— available later this year in a combo pack known as Sportsfriends—it meant that soon gamers would have access to some of the most unique titles being created today.

The four games—Hokra, Super Pole Riders, BaraBariBall and Johann Sebastian Joust—have almost nothing in common, except that they’re all multiplayer games that pit friends against each other. They are sports you can play in your living room – but not like any other sports you’ve ever heard of.

Take J.S. Joust, for example.

Technically, it may not even be a video game, though it does use up to seven PlayStation Move controllers. In this game, two to seven players pick up a Move and hold it upright. J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos then play as players face off against each other – attempting to hold their controller still while attempting to reach out and jostle the controller of another. Often the game winds down to two player circling around like wrestlers, looking for an opportunity to swat at their friend’s hand. Can it be a

video game if it has no graphics?

In fact, it only uses the TV to play music – though this fact is important, because as the music speeds up, the sensors in the controller allow more movement – allowing players to dash at their friends.

However, when the music slows down, the player must move at a snail’s pace, protecting their controller from any movement.

Hokra is a completely different type of game, using a super minimalist box-like approach to focus entirely on the mechanic of “passing a ball.” Here, with two players to a side, players must pass

a ball back and forth in order to keep it away from the opposing side, while attempting to hold it within a specific goal-zone until the points-meter fills up. Because players move faster when they aren’t carrying the ball, the team that can pass the best usually wins.

BaraBariBall is perhaps the most sport-like of the four games, despite playing a lot like Super Smash Brothers. In this game, players pick a character (each with different attacks and techniques), and then attempt to move a white ball into the scoring zone on opponent’s side of the map – which just so happens to

be a pit of water. Fall in the water yourself and lose a point. Adding to the fun arcade-like feel of the game is the fact that players can jump seven times without touching the ground – with an indication on the screen showing how many are used and when those jumps are recharged. Players use stuns, dashes, attacks and ball handling techniques to either score points or knock opponents into the water. It’s a fighting game for two-to-four players that has a lot of elements of both basketball and volleyball in it. It’s perhaps the game that would require the most practice to excel at, but once learned, it also offers the most depth.

Finally, Super Pole Riders, is a game made by famed-developer Bennett Foddy (best known for the free online game QWOP). In Super Pole Riders, two players face off against each other, each armed with pole-vaulting stick. The idea is to vault into the air and kick a suspended red ball along a pully until it reaches the opponent’s

end of the map. The game is quite silly, in principle and in action, but that only adds to the charm of the game. Players will often find themselves whipped into the air by the pole of their opponent, or trapped on the ground in a bid for the ball.

But every so often everything goes just as planned and it feels oh, so right. It’s the game you play when you want to roll on the floor laughing with your friend.

Each game offers a different element of sport, whether it be the ability to protect your defence, the ability to work with a teammate, the ability to perfect your technique, or the ability to make the most of a hectic situation. While they may not seem like sports in the most objective of terms, they are the type of games a group of players can enjoy at a party or with their best friends. They can be enjoyed by those who rarely play (especially in the case of J.S. Joust) or by those who play non-stop (especially in the case of BaraBariBall). Even if you’re not usually into indie games with simple (or no) graphics, if you like to have fun with your friends, you should definitely keep your eye out for the Sportsfriends collection.

Connect With Your SUS Health & Dental Plan Your Benefits for 2012/2013 Health prescription drugs, chiropractor, physiotherapist, ambulance, vaccinations, medical equipment, and more...

Travel travel health coverage for 120 days per trip, up to $5,000,000, trip cancellation and interruption in the event of a medical emergency

Vision eye exam, eyeglasses or contact lenses, laser eye surgery

Dental cleanings, checkups, fillings, root canals, gum treatments, extractions, and more...

Networks Enhance Your Benefits and Save You Money Get even more coverage by visiting members of the Dental, Vision, Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, and Massage Therapy Networks.

Find a health practitioner at www.ihaveaplan.ca.

Change-of-Coverage Dates Only new Winter semester students can enrol themselves and their spouse/dependants between Jan. 3 - 24, 2013 for coverage from Jan. 1 - Aug. 31, 2013.

The Member Services Centre is there to assist you from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays : 1 866 358-4437 Have a smart phone with a QR code reader? Scan the box to the left to be directed to your Plan’s website.

ihaveaplan.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

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ARTS & LIFE

Film Reviews MICHAEL SCOULAR

THE CASCADE

There are countless things done in the name of getting out from under, struggling against, freezing the advance of, hiding the effects of, entropy. Judd Apatow, for all his creative influence over the entire genre, it seems, of American comedies, in his own films, has developed an intense preoccupation with this most unfunny subject – a focus on age and malaise and unhappiness.

Autobiography could be said to find its way into any creative work, however small, but Apatow pushes this to the forefront as well, making the fact that Leslie Mann, Maude and Iris Apatow are both a form of creative inspiration and a creative rearrangement of family for the screen (for the inspiration) unignorable. Apatow’s, then, is currently a deeply personal, physically-fixated cinema – but one still tethered to the comedy that is his calling card, the affluence that is a result of this, and a conservative bend that presents itself as he goes deeper into personal responsibility and its contradictions, and in the way he resolves, or doesn’t, the anxieties and criticisms he himself proposes.

This Is 40 is at least a step forward from Apatow’s previous, Funny People – the business of comedy, an insider self-pity party traded for the business of life, a perspective of growing facets, if still limited to a single house, and still focused on the dissatisfaction of people (Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd) that have “made it” in that they are the managers of their own lives. The fact Apatow refuses to step outside the sphere of upper-middle class privilege (the horror is that the family might have to move into a smaller house, that Rudd might not get the full value of a Lennon artwork in online auction, etc) might hamper any kind of attempt at calling this anything but self-indulgent, but by detailing every aspect of his familiar surroundings, Apatow does get at a number of things that

make a simple dismissal on those grounds work only if most of the film is ignored.

This Is 40 is Apatow’s most diffuse film yet, hardly caring about plot, existing more as a series of anecdotes, arguments, and structured only by a birthday party as its beginning and end. Though this dating means the movie takes place over a strict set of weeks, this is hardly noticeable, as, while Apatow’s movies have always carried a dead-air improvisational quality, lacking form but hanging around long enough to eventually find something to laugh about, this quality, even more than in Funny People, is applied not to plot but detail, not to jokes but drama. But in a sense this works, as This Is 40,

This Is 40 aside from its cameos and broader parts for smaller characters (Megan Fox, Jason Segel), is a comedy where the laughs come from apperception, the ability to see aggravating experience turned into a mixture of reconsideration and ridiculous, foolish strife, found in the way scenes fall apart, end too quickly, grow longer than comfortable.

Though Apatow’s movies and their imitators have regularly revolved around how men can assert themselves, This Is 40 is a movie where this idea is constantly undermined. Where Rudd’s character attempts to stay in a routine, failing to react and adjust and make amends, Mann’s rejects complacency, building not towards financial or cultural capital—as Rudd puts stock in (and fails in growing)—but a personal improvement, though the feasibility of even this is called into question. Some of the comedy of recognition of This Is 40 is in the characters themselves – they are self-aware, and call each other out, and at one point make a list of resolutions. But no matter the reminder of “choose to be happy,” words can’t cut through masks – Apatow’s listing of Cassavettes as an influence on this film is tenuous at the best of times, but it’s possible that through an unintention, by simply reimposing a kind of reality of situation, the natural fronts and breaks that defined Cassavettes’ emotional realism comes through in places.

Apatow does two things that stand out: he shows these characters at their lying, childish, hateful, self-centred worst, and then asks for acceptance all the same. Within the film, Rudd and Mann throw off lines like “it’s not our fault” and “it’s them not us” – a willful blindness as a way to momentary peace, exclusion as way to election, while outside, we are able to see through their statements, comparing them to what’s been done before.

For some incompatibility remains – Mann in the middle of one argument delivers a line that suggests she was, and could have been, fine on her own, and the question (here, and

throughout) is how much of this is an argument strategy, and how true a representation it is. In the variety of relations This Is 40 displays (work, home, friends, strangers) there is the appearance of different appearances for different people – then which is the best, or true, or internally consistent person underneath, and is that the one the film ends on? This is not necessarily what Apatow intends to show, but this is, if anything, a carefully observed movie, and what comes out of that is more than what is said.

The most noticeable organizing principle, imbalanced division of This Is 40 is its music.

Setting up a split between fun but foolish music and real, lived-in artistry, Mann and Rudd sit on either side of the poptimist/ rockist argument, with neither side seemingly willing to even try to listen to the other. Apatow, strangely enough, doesn’t even try to hide the side he takes, as aside from a single scene in a club, the soundtrack of This Is 40 is entirely made up of acoustic, “authentic” songs that, as Mann’s character says, “don’t make people happy,” and according to Rudd’s, are “art that will stand the test of time.” It might seem inconsistent, or an act of giving in, that Mann at the end of the movie, says she likes the song, played sitting down with acoustic guitar and stool, her husband has brought her to. But, like the rest of Mann’s performance, there is a resistance to any neatness in the script (and the rhyming towards the end does deserve that word), an assertiveness Apatow and his male lead lacks, that, like the idea behind pop utopianism, does not exclude, but searches for affirmation in the most unlikeliest of categories. In this separation, there is perhaps the reality of the distance between people, but with that comes the reality of connection – it’s unideal, unalterable, but better, in its own, imperfect, post-romantic way.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey JEREMY HANNAFORD

CONTRIBUTOR

For nearly 10 years, many have wished to return to the wonders and enchantments of Middle Earth. Now, it has returned. Peter Jackson returns to the director’s chair in the film that was squabbled over by production companies for the better part of a decade.

Some feared that with such a length of time, Jackson may have lost his touch with the very world he created. Thankfully, he brings the same magic back to the screen – for the most part anyway.

The Hobbit was Tolkien’s first major novel was aimed for a child audience unlike the more mature Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson keeps Tolkien’s creative wishes in mind as he returns to the realms of Middle Earth.

We travel back in time long before The Fellowship of the Ring to when Bilbo was only a young hobbit. Martin Freeman does an excellent job at making the character his own.

He makes Bilbo a compelling and realistic character with his awkward humour and his reluctance for danger (outweighed by his curiosity for adventure). We find him accustomed to a peaceful lifestyle and he becomes rather perturbed when Gandalf the Grey invites 13 dwarves over to his home. There he is given a contract to help them take back their homeland from the dragon known as Smaug.

We are reintroduced to the low swept hillsides of The Shire and majestic beauty of Rivendell. But he also introduces us to new locals such as the Misty Mountains and halls

of Erebor. Weta Digital provides amazing visuals of the expanding hillsides and mountains as well as the numerous monsters and creatures Bilbo comes across. However it gets to be a bit excessive. Some scenes are pleasing to watch such as the riddle scene between Gollum and Bilbo. Weta Digital has definitely advanced their tech in both lighting and texture with their animated characters and helped make that one scene the stand out part of the film. Other scenes made the CGI feel unnecessary. Rarely were the goblins and orcs ever actual actors in costume. It does present a more childlike persona but it takes away a little of the dread these creatures emitted in the Lord of the Rings series.

Avatar brought a functioning and profitable form of 3D experience, The Hobbit brings the 48 frames per second 3D viewing option.

Twice the speed of traditional film, the film looks to almost be moving in fast forward. It feels uncomfortable at first but once you get used to it, you can see the increased clarity in the visuals and the animations. The quality is beyond comprehension and exceeds that of Avatar.

The Lord of the Rings films were excellent because they orchestrated all aspects of the films to ensure all worked with each other.

The actors, the sets, the costumes, the music are all part of the story and The Hobbit follows a similar path. The supporting cast including Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Richard Armitage as Thorin all excel in their roles by developing their actions and the story around them. The soundtrack follows

the story with familiar tones and rhythms from the Lord of the Rings. There however are only a few original tunes consisting of dwarf songs and a theme song from Howard Shore that appears to be on repeat. The soundtrack really fails to deliver anything new but it is still nice to listen to.

The first issue of concern for any who has read the book is how can the children’s novel be extended into three separate films? It is undeniable that there is a certain amount of filler in this film. Whether it was done for revenue purposes or Jackson firmly believed that the book could be dragged out, the strains of length are very visible in this film.

The film takes too much time establishing characters that are not necessary or giving

backstory that isn’t entirely needed. Sometimes there are moments of CG awe but afterwards, you are left wondering if that had any real purpose if not to extend the film.

In terms of trilogy starters, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey does not stand on the same level as Fellowship but it makes a good attempt for it. Despite dragged out sequences, an overabundance of CGI and rather repetitive soundtrack; it still is a mystical and wonderful adventure full of great characters, amazing locations with added humour and lightheartedness unique to the film.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

ARTS & LIFE

Underwater

Expwy

Expwy in the Sky

HAIM Forever

Unspooled

With his fourth release, Underwater, Joshua Radin turns to the familiar soft spoken sound found in his first two albums, after having strayed some in his third outing.

While I’m glad he’s opted to return to the fold here, there’s mixed feelings to be felt on this album. It is very much Radin in his comfort zone: slow, intimate, reminiscent and romantic. Unfortunately, upon first listen it becomes apparent that much of the album never really peaks on any particular standout song. Instead it progresses along where each is similar and blends into the next. With that, he falls short on delivering anything near on par with what could be considered his best work, 2006’s We Were Here. However, finally after allowing for some time away, an appreciation is found in the whole of the album. This is regardless if any particular song lacks the punch to be a single. And you do, in the process, become encompassed in an atmospheric sound – be it one that maybe not everybody is drawn to. Fortunately I’m one of those that—even when it’s not his finest—find that sound to still be pretty intoxicating.

With five releases between December 2011 and December 2012, Matt LeGrouix has proven himself to be a prolific song-writing machine with his experimentalist project Expwy.

The Montréal based singer-songwriter has released a slew of music spanning a couple different genres, which includes a low-fi boss nova record entitled Little Hand Fighter released in the summer. His latest double EP Expwy in the Sky can be confusing at times, but it can be exhilarating, too. Even with standout pop gems like “Dust will settle in the cracks” and “A militia of anxious eyes,” the band’s moody and dynamic indie-rock sound sustains a tension that extends throughout the record. For those wondering, the reason Expwy in the Sky is called a double EP and not simply an LP is because tracks 1-6 and tracks 7-12 can be played at the same time. Although this exercise initially sounds like a cacophony of wild instrumentation and melody, eventually the fuzz-coated clouds of melody and noise swell to send the listener to a distant dreamlike place. The second EP in this collection serves as a fine companion piece to the first, and however chaotic, the intention of the LeGrouix is understood.

Titling a release (that is all of three songs) Forever might seem a mistake from the start, but rather than fall into one or the other side of a spectrum, the ‘80s-inflected pop/rock of sister group HAIM walks through sincerity and irony, doubling and selecting and working through an unillusioned construction of past/future consciousness. “Go Slow,” “I’m going crazy trying not to forget,” and “Forever” contains the wish “get out of my memory,” and “Better Off ” falls into “flashing back” as a mixture both unavoidable and chosen – but if their songwriting emphasis is familiar and endless in scope, what sets HAIM apart is the way Danielle Haim drags and cuts out sentences, a cadence that sounds like spontaneity and builds on Este and Alana Haim’s backing, synth lines and clapping rhymes. Given this short first release, the tendency might be to say this points to a promising future or better music to come, but taken with the stuttering beat (“T-t-tell me”) of recent single “Don’t Save Me,” HAIM’s collected 2012 is complete – replayable and memorable because of, not in spite of, a sense of finality.

Unspooled is three guys named Connor, Luke, and Marcus from North Van. Since September, they’ve quietly been hacking out three sets of homespun mumblecore via their bandcamp page. Unspooled’s half-whispered, half-spoken vocals feel like shared secrets with deep, personal meaning.

They are cocooned in a constant layer of warm mic noise and bolstered with varied and sad low-key instrumentation. It’s so unadorned, with little concern for fidelity, traditionally good takes, and regular running times that it feels naked. What’s important here is mood, simple melodies and unfiltered feeling. One of Unspooled’s singers dips into a mode that suggests a great debt to Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, particularly on “Sarajevo” and “Paraloga,” but the band also draws on other inspirations from Neutral Milk Hotel (“Peacherine”) to faux waltzing Bal-Musette accordion (“The Cane Family”) to The Velvet Undergroud (“Readles”). So what if it’s imperfect and a little bit derivative? Unspooled is a young band crafting their own world for their own enjoyment. I mean, who has the audacity to write a 38-second number called “Hey Jude” that features the line “Oh, did I mention/ That I worship Satan?”

Joe Johnson

Tim Ubels

Michael scoular

nICK UBELS

crafted pop hooks.

The stage name of 20-something producer/song writer/musician Peter Gene Hernández, Mars is probably best understood as a persona with his own identity crafted at some acknowledged distance from Hernández himself. The singer’s debut album, Doo Wops and Hooligans, was too cloying to gain much traction outside of the top 40 charts, but Mars digs deeper to try to produce something more timeless here.

Listening to Unorthodox Jukebox alongside the impressive roster of hit singles he’s co-written (including Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You” and K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag”) reveals Hernández’/Mars’ stamp on those standout, reach-for-therafters pop anthems. Mars knows exactly what he’s doing, and exactly how to make what he wants to make. He glides convincingly from the MJ-inspired disco-funk of “Treasure,” into the midnight confessional piano ballad “When I Was Your Man” before concluding with the shameless, throwback soul of “If I Knew.” This final track comes as a welcome surprise, bolstered by an affable Sam Cookeesque demeanour that oozes with scrappy charm. It shows off the deep pathos Mars’ can evoke with a simple, raspy falsetto.

Mars has never been one to shy away from his influences

(Elvis Presley, Prince, ‘90s R&B, dub), but the murky water of Unorthodox Jukebox can be difficult to make sense of as a single record.

Some songs, the aforementioned “Locked Out of Heaven” principal among them, shine brightly in the tightly-wound, 10-track sophomore set from the Hawaiian hitmaker. Others suffer from an overcorrection that tries to recast Mars as the bad ass boyfriend your parents most feared. It’s what gives “Locked Out of Heaven” its necessary edge, but more often than not, it’s more embarrassing than convincing (see “Gorilla”, “Money Maker”). Chalk it up to Mars’ musical adolescence.

What’s clear is that Mars is still wrestling with his identity as an artist. His proficiency as a musician and songwriter is a doubleedged sword that allows him to do whatever he wants, seemingly with ease. Yet not having to wrestle with your songs risks making them dangerously hollow and, dare I say, soulless. It’s the same problem that hampered much of Paul McCartney’s solo work in the mid ‘80s: talent to spare, but little to fight for. Bruno Mars consistently sings like he’s got something to prove, but when it comes to writing, it feels more like a 60/40 split.

Mini Album Reviews

SoundBites

Joshua Radin

Demo #1/Kimitro

Album Review Bruno Mars – Unorthodox Jukebox NICK UBELS

THE CASCADE

Unorthodox Jukebox opens with “Young Girls”, a stadium-baiting declaration of intent that doesn’t lack for ambition. There’s a wall of synthesizers, glittering bells, and thundering Phil Spector drums.

When Bruno Mars sings “All these roads steer me wrong/ But still I drive them all night long” it’s an earnest attempt to imbue his weirdly plastic new record with the kind of scope of a Springsteen opening track, minus the thematic weight and underlying heartache.

It’s his “Thunder Road.” And good or bad, this song’s failures and strengths could adequately sum up the varied experience of listening to Unorthodox Jukebox.

Taken just for its stunning high points, Bruno Mars’ sophomore album, the rather, well, orthodox Unorthodox Jukebox, doesn’t want for sweeping grandeur and bold, but adamantly radio-friendly R&B digest. It’s head and shoulders above his debut, the lightweight and saccharine Doo Wops and Hooligans, which spawned a string of monster international hits including “Marry You” and “Grenade” and wooed doe-eyed listeners with his sweet, effortless charm. Mars’ talent as a performer has never been in doubt, but here he makes impressive strides forward towards the kind of universally-appealing

pop he sets out to make by harnessing and streamlining some of his pop fundamentals. That said, there’s also some pretty underwhelming meandering sprinkled throughout that prevents his latest from joining the ranks of Thriller or Purple Rain, the records it most openly aspires to match.

To consider Bruno Mars is to do so on his own terms. His intention

is to entertain, to endear, to charm, and to get people to move. It’s a back-to-basics approach to pop music that risks revealing a hollow centre, particularly if you take Mars’ lyrics seriously. “Locked Out of Heaven”’s groaner of a bridge (“Your sex takes me to paradise”) would be a pretty damning example if it wasn’t assuaged by the Police-inspired groove’s sharply-

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

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ARTS & LIFE

Fresh Winter Fashion FASHION

BRITTNI BROWN

CONTRIBUTOR

1 2 3 4 5

CHARTS

Fist City It’s 1983 Grow Up TRI 5 La Dee Da Diamond Rings Free Dimensional D.O.A. We Come In Peace

The Hellbound Hepcats No.2

6 7

Oh Village Far Side of the Sea

Peace The World Is Too Much With Us

8 9 10 11 12

The Fretless Waterbound Hey Rosetta!

A Cup of Kindness Bison B.C. Lovelessness

Parallels XII D-Sisive Jonestown 3.The Dream Is Over

13 14

Ladyhawk No Can Do

Elaquent The Scenic Route

15 16

The Courtneys K.C. Reeves

Stompin’ Tom Connors The Road of Life

17

Sufjan Stevens Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols.

6-10

18

MNDR Feed Me Diamonds

Shuffle AARON LEVY

CIVL DJ/ROUGH RIDER

CIVL station manager Aaron Levy eats at AfterMath all the time, and you should too! Don’t forget to come out to any of the awesome CIVL sponsored concerts hosted there throughout the semester! In honour of rebranding AfterMath to exclude the term Socialhouse, here is a shuffle of bands who have had similar name changes!

Bush – “Swallowed” Though Glycerine was more angsty, and Comedown had that sweet bass-line, this was always my preferred Bush (Bush X in Canada due to ‘70s band Bush threatening legal action) song. Something about Nirvana-esque whirling and derbying. Also, it was on Big Shiny Tunes 2, the best one.

Minus Matchbox 20.

Each January, Canada bubbles with freshness. The air is crisp and fresh fashion begins to sweep over the market. It’s not uncommon for the new year to leave fashionistas craving a spruced up wardrobe – after all, it really is the perfect time for a makeover.

Although the chilly air may keep us Canadians clinging to our winter jackets and boots longer than other regions, it doesn’t mean we need to lose connection with the latest trends. Many stores are stocking their shelves with spring clothing, leaving Canadian consumers at bay. However, by incorporating pieces you already own with pieces that are up-andcoming for spring fashion, you can remain trendy without breaking the bank.

This season, take into consideration the structure and texture of your clothing when choosing an outfit. The goal is to give your outfit more depth. This means layering, layering and, yep, more layering. It’s a great way to recycle old clothing into new looks without spending too much. Try combining a mixture of chunky knits with other fabrics such as sequins, chiffon or lace.

If you are looking for something new this season, boxy, structured tops are a good investment. Short and boxy tops that showcase your top underneath are a must-have this spring but can also be worn for the remainder of the winter. For the cold weather, wear these tops

Image: Fiorella Rubino, motivifashion/flickr

under a jacket with a scarf or other warm accessories, and as a light top layer during the spring.

If you are looking to stick to your Canadian roots this winter, think cool country and grunge chic. A major trend this winter is pairing plaid button-up tops with a chunky knits or crewneck sweaters (a sweater with no hood). That means we can get a bit more wear out of our beloved plaid clothing.

Not into plaid? Pairing a polkadot, striped or solid button-up tops with other fabrics is another option, or even better, combining two patterns in one look. I know it sounds strange, but pairing polkadots with stripes is a big up-andcoming trend for this spring. For example, try pairing a top with wide horizontal stripes with a chiffon polka-dot skirt.

When it comes to accessories, think chalky pastels as spring approaches. These are a great way to give your outfit some added pop without feeling disconnected to the weather conditions. Chunky, chalky pastels are a definite hit

this spring, so it would be a good investment. For now, try pairing thick pastel bangles with a black outfit to give it a bit more flare, then reuse in the spring to get a bit more bang for your buck.

Leggings are another must have this winter. They will ensure you don’t feel like a giant puffball when wearing chunky knits – and their comfort can’t be denied. The Garage currently sells a thicker style of legging which is a great pair for chilly Canadian winters, for under $20. I would definitely recommend these for all female Canadian students this winter—they will make class that much more enjoyable.

When in doubt, think texture and pattern when choosing an outfit this winter. Remember the goal is give the outfit depth. You don’t have to empty your bank account to remain on top of the latest trends. Be a savvy shopper by recycling old clothing into new looks by layering, and by purchasing new items which will carry over into spring fashion.

Caribou – “Odessa” From the same gestation grounds as UFV president Mark Evered and The Arkells (Hamilton, Ontario region), Dan Snaith originally named his electronically-based solo project Manitoba, but unfortunately in-famous punk rocker Handsome Dick Manitoba didn’t like the sound of that.

Well, Dick, you can’t win a Polaris Prize; Snaith did.

Death From Above – “Dead Womb” This is the best DFA song, from the Heads Up EP, before (LCD Soundsystem) James Murphy’s label lawyers for DFA decided someone had to put a stop to the expanded use of their acronym, requiring Seb to tack on his abridged birth-year (‘79) to the end of their band’s name.

Finger Eleven – Above This was their breakout song, but did you know that some Southern Ontarions, or Burlingtonites in specific (where Ryan Gosling attended high school) consider their selftitled debut album under the name Rainbow Butt Monkeys as their best overall effort? Well now you do! Remember, they played UFV in 2009!

40% off for ladies updo and styles 20% off for seniors Men $59.99 F ro m D e c / 3 1 / 2 0 1 2 - To J a n/ 3 1 / 2 0 13

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

ARTS & LIFE

Dine & Dash Rocko’s 24 Hour Diner 32786 Lougheed Highway, Mission, BC 604-826-7612 Prices: up to $15.00 Hours: 24 hours

BRITTNI BROWN

Contributor

Do you ever wish you could experience the ‘50s for just one day?

Wish you could step into an oldschool diner lined with barstools serving milkshakes and pie?

Well you are in luck. There happens to be one diner nearby that offers a trip down memory lane.

Rocko’s authentic ‘50s diner serves up good old-fashioned burgers, shakes, and pies – and they definitely don’t scant on the portions. The 24-hour diner is the perfect location for anyone with the munchies around 3 a.m., looking for quick meal or simply some pie and coffee.

Their menu is exploding with deluxe and hefty meals, including burgers (one which even includes a

hotdog on the burger), foot-longs, poutines, classic sandwiches, and even deep fried pickles! Equally as delicious and well-known are Rocko’s thick and creamy milkshakes. They are served right from the mixer and come in basically any flavour you can think up. I gave the classic vanilla a try and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

The full menu includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, desserts, milkshakes, and even Italian sodas. And if you’re not a burger person, roast beef, BBQ chicken, salad and steak are just a few alternatives offered.

Prices are fairly low for such a popular location—especially one situated in a city centre. Appetizers are approximately $7 and meals vary from $10-$14 per person; milkshakes are $5 a pop but are large enough to serve two people.

Raving reviews finally convinced me to venture out and give this place a try. I have to admit that all the hype left me with a more picturesque image of what the diner would look like; let’s just say I was a little leery of the building’s

Image: Brittni Brown/The Cascade

Rocko’s diner is a standalone restaurant just off the highway. external appearance. The diner is . . . well, it is an authentic ‘50s diner. It appears to have been built inside a renovated double-wide trailer and is lined with tinkering red, neon lights. However, the full parking lot reassured me that I was at the right place.

Although I had my doubts, my whole experience can be summed

up as a trip down memory lane.

Upon entering I was greeted by a waitress who stood behind a countertop lined with several barstools, behind which was a shelf filled with a variety of pies. To the left was a long line booths—no tables in this place—and the walls were covered in photos of pin-up girls and old-school cars. While the ser-

vice was not the friendliest, it was quick and diligent, and the atmosphere was extremely entertaining. On my way out I noticed one waitress sitting at a booth clearly labelled “staff only” reading a newspaper. Since she appeared to be on shift I figured this was a custom from the ‘50s which managed to stick around.

The restaurant has even gained Hollywood attention. It has served as set location for several films including Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief, The Tortured and Killer Amongst Us. Recently, Daniel Radcliffe was spotted having a quick bite to eat at Rocko’s, while in town filming his latest movie Horns.

Rocko’s originally opened in the 1956, and was called the Hi-Lite drive-in restaurant. It quickly became a town icon. In 1986 the Schiller family took over the operation and renamed the diner Rocko’s.

It was Mission’s first drive-in and 24hr restaurant and has remained a town icon.

Discussions Below the Belt Smartphone app shares STD test results in push for safer sex JOHNNNY RODDICK

THE CASCADE

What if you could know the STD status of any person before you agreed to have sex with them?

That’s the goal of “phone bumping” with the MedXCom smartphone app, which would both encourage regular STD testing and provide reliable, current data on the results for those hoping to get down (and not get dirty in the process).

“If you happen to be out at a bar or a fraternity house, or wherever, and you meet someone, you can then bump phones and exchange contact information and STD status,” co-developer Dr. Michael Nusbaum explained to Daily Mail.

By testing negative on their STD test, patients qualify to have their doctors update their application’s status – however, no updates are made if a patient tests positive. The application could easily include information to prevent it from being faked, including the user’s full name and photo, which could be checked against a driver’s license or other ID to ensure accuracy.

According to a recent CDC report, there are 19 million STD transmissions each year. Almost half of those occur in young adults aged 15-24, according to a report

by ABC News. Worse yet, transmission rates are increasing.

Part of the risk comes from the lack of adequate education these people are receiving. The number of individuals in this age range who get tested regularly is abysmally low. That needs to change.

Many years ago I had the creative—but admittedly flawed— idea for the creation of an STD Clinic ID card that would signify a “clean bill of health” for your genitals. If you had one with your name on it, you might get a discount on cover at a local bar, or some other

perk to entice young adults to pick one up. It would enable interested parties to quickly and easily identify if their sex partner was likely to be STD-free before having sex with them. It’s an idea that makes much more sense in the modern day, when an application for your cell phone can do the same thing, but more effectively.

The MedXCom app could be much more effective than my idea, especially if it included specific information to prevent it from being faked, stolen, lied about or used by friends. For example, it could include the user’s full name and photo, as well as details and electronic signature and date signed

by the specific doctor who updated the application. Admittedly, there would always be some risks of people taking advantage, but the application could offer a significant level of protection that has never been available before.

Critics of the new app indicate that it could also promote unsafe behaviour, especially because many STDs can lurk in the system, able to be transmitted months before they can be detected in current STD tests. HIV is one such virus.

As such, users of the app need to remember that there is no way to be entirely safe when sleeping with new partners. However, along with regular condom use, the ap-

plication could offer a level of protection never before achieved. The risk is that those with the app may forego condom use altogether, under the impression that the app is more than safe enough. If the application properly educates it’s users about the risks, this could hopefully be avoided.

Another risk is that the stigma surrounding STDs could prevent it from gaining steam. Noah Bloom, who created an app with the same “phone bump” technology, told Daily Mail that he remains skeptical that teenagers hoping to “get lucky” would even want to “bring up using such an app.” Admittedly, one risk of an app that tries to

Image: paflip25/flickr

make getting tested cool is that it is branded uncool itself. Most people hooking up for one-night-stands might prefer to act like this is something they never do, instead of acting in the safest way possible.

The application does signify a step forward, however, in the arena of safe sex. Club-goers (and sex aficionados in general) now have the most advanced techniques available to stay protected from the looming dangers of warts and sores on their bits – not to mention the worse side effects. It’ll take some work from sex educators, advertisers and others to make it cool but the fact it even exists is something to be celebrated.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

17

SPORTS & HEALTH

Baertschi ready to go after being sidelined for a month with whiplash MIKE CADARETTE CONTRIBUTOR

Sven Baertschi’s injury hurt a lot more than just him. The Heat have been on a steady decline in the Western Conference standings since his role shifted from one of the Heat’s primary offensive catalysts to an onlooker from the loge section.

Arguably the organization’s most highly-touted prospect, Baertschi’s role with the Heat was simple: score goals, be creative, make plays and don’t be a liability in the defensive zone. The Langenthal, Switzerland native didn’t waste any time following orders. In the Heat’s first two games of the 2012-13 season, Baertschi collected two goals and two assists. In the first month of the season he was doing what many had expected, picking up eight points in the first seven games and having his name show up on the AHL rookie scoring list week after week behind exciting prospects like the Edmonton Oilers’ Justin Schultz and Minnesota Wild’s Mikael Granlund.

Then, in a November 30 game against the Hamilton Bulldogs, Baertschi fell awkwardly into the corner boards with a Bulldogs defender on top of him. The ruling of his injury was whiplash, but the effects were similar to a concussion.

After missing the entire month of December, which included 13 games, Baertschi felt he was ready and so did Troy Ward who inserted him back into the lineup on Friday night. This comes as much to his team’s delight as it does to him.

“Obviously he’s an NHL player,” explained Steve McCarthy. “He gave us a big lift and his first game back I think he played well, generated a lot, [he’s] a very dynamic player . . . He’s a pleasure to play with, that’s for sure.”

Before Baertschi’s injury, the Heat’s record was an outstanding 13-2-2-2, the best in the AHL at that time. Since the absence of Baertschi from the lineup, the Heat have gone 3-8-1-2. If their record doesn’t reflect how much the team has missed the rookie sniper’s ability, consider this: until his injury, Baertschi contributed to 31 per cent of his team’s total offence. Of the Heat’s 55 goals to that point, Baertschi had collected 17 points in 19 games.

What’s more is that the Heat were averaging nearly three goals per game with Baertschi and only 1.38 goals per game without him.

Of course, several variables play into a team struggling to achieve wins. Extensive travel, individual cold streaks, other injuries, and perhaps focus being elsewhere during the busy and exciting holiday season, but Baertschi not being in the lineup certainly didn’t help, especially taking into account his prominence on the score sheet after each game.

Baertschi’s return to the lineup combined with Krys Kolanos’ hot streak of four goals and two assists in his last five games shows a bit of light at the end of the dark tunnel the Heat have been navigating for the last month. Paul Byron is also beginning to heat up, having gathered two goals, one shootout goal and one assist in his last four games.

The most worrisome part about the Heat’s future has yet to come, however. With the NHL CBA negotiations all wrapped up and the season ready to get going, the Abbotsford Heat could find themselves back in that so-called train tunnel again.

If we consider who will be making their first trek over the Rocky Mountains to Calgary, the first thing we’ll notice is that at least two, if not three, of the Heat’s most impactful players will be deleted from the lineup.

Sven Baertschi will be at the top of that list.

Flames GM Jay Feaster has stated on numerous accounts that Baertschi has been penciled into the lineup once NHL play resumes. TJ Brodie will like-

Heat Facts: 88.3%: The Heat’s penalty kill percentage (2nd in the AHL) 2.21: Goals against per game for the Heat (1st in the AHL) 4-0-0-0: Heat record when leading after the first period

“We call him Rudy. He’s the hockey ver-

sion of Rudy, in my opinion” - Troy Ward on Tyler Ruegsegger’s work ethic

left: Baertscri attempts to score on a penalty shot below: Greg Nemisz engages in an altercation bottom right corner: Coming off a recent hot streak, Krys Kolanos is a comforting stalward for the Heat. ly be heading eastward as well and his dynamic ability to extend the play via his smooth and agile skating will be sorely missed on the ice. It’s also possible that the Heat’s leading goal-scorer, Roman Horak, could be on his way out as well. The former Chilliwack Bruin played 61 games with the Flames last year and has developed nicely in a more advanced offensive role with the Heat. His NHL experience combined with being in midseason form could be beneficial to his chances of getting called up.

Another wild card option that could get called up is Leland Irving. Irving started in seven games with the Flames at the end of last season and looked like a legitimate backup option in most of his starts. We shouldn’t count out Barry Brust or Danny Taylor from the equation either as they are currently the first and third best goalies in the AHL, respectively. Look for at least one of the three Heat goaltenders to be given a shot at training camp as Miikka Kiprusoff’s backup.

What this means, then, is the Heat could be without their best offensive defenceman, the player with the highest points-per-game on the team, their leading goal scorer and one of the best goalies. For a team struggling with offence lately, that doesn’t bode well for their future or their position in the standings.

The good news: every AHL team will suffer the loss of their best young players as well.

Until then, the Heat will welcome Baertschi back with open arms. Expect the Heat to snap out of the current funk they’re in as the team has gotten a truckload of scoring chances over the past couple of weeks, but have run into a disadvantageous mixture of bad luck and good goaltending from the opposition.

The Heat’s next home set takes place on Friday, January 11, and Saturday, January 12, when they take on the Chicago Wolves at an expected sold out Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre.

Photos: Karen Aney

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

www.ufvcascade.ca

SPORTS & HEALTH

Varsity Update

by KYLE BALZER

Over the Christmas break, there were many events that occured in the wide world of sports. The World Junior Hockey Championship, the NCAA College Football Championship, the NFL playoffs, and of course (this year) the agonizing dispute known as the NHL lockout. That being said, we, as students of UFV, can now take the time to catch up with our own varsity teams in volleyball and basketball. Here’s what you need to know:

Volleyball

Basketball

Women’s

Women’s

Our women’s volleyball squad has dominated in the 2012-2013 season, holding a record of 11-1 at the end of 2012. Going into the New Year with three straight wins, the Cascades are sitting at the top of the national rankings, claiming the best spot in the CCAA thus far. They are led by veteran middle Kayla Bruce, who currently ranks second in the PACWEST division for Total Offensive Stats, having played 44 sets this season. She also ranks second in the PACWEST for total blocks with 39. Team captain and fifth-year libero Brittany Stewart is ranked third in the PACWEST for total digs with 153, averaging 4.03 digs per game. The ladies are hoping to extend their winning streak as they will take on the Douglas College Royals in New Westminster on January 11-12. They’ll return home the weekend after, playing the Capilano University Blues, who only rank fifth in the PACWEST.

Men’s

Our women’s basketball team has proven that they are one of the teams to look out for in the CIS this year.

With their record sitting at nine wins and only one loss, they currently rank first in the Canada West Pacific division and second in the national rankings.

They’ll kick off 2013 with a fresh start after losing their first game back on December 1 to the University of Regina, who rank third in the CIS. Forwards Sarah and Nicole Wierks are holding the fifth and sixth spots in the Canada West for Field Goal Percentages (54.3 and 53.5 per cent), while fourthyear guard Courtney Bartel sits as the fourth-ranked player in the Canada West for Three-point Percentages (41.9 per cent). The women will start the second half of their season at home, taking on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the University of Alberta Pandas on January 11-12.

Men’s For the men’s volleyball team, it has been a bit of a struggle to find some wins this season. Despite several valiant efforts they have continued coming up short against competition that includes three of the top 10 schools in the national rankings. The men only have one win this season, defeating the Camosun College Chargers 3-2 in a very close match-up. Fifth-year middle Trevor Nickel ranks sixth in the PACWEST division for total blocks with 29.

The Cascades go into 2013 looking for an upset when they play the Douglas College Royals, who rank second in the CCAA, in New Westminster on January 1112. They’ll also return home the next weekend to play the Capilano University Blues.

Just like the women’s team, our men’s basketball squad are a force to be reckoned with in the CIS this season.

After finishing 2012 with five straight wins, the “green men” are currently ranked as the sixth best team in Canada thus far. The men were the only team from UFV to compete in a tournament over the Christmas break, travelling south of the border to play in the annual Cactus Jam Holiday Hoops Classic in Phoenix, Arizona.

Using this tournament as a conditioning camp with exhibition play against three top colleges from the NCAA junior league, the Cascades were up to the challenge of playing by different rules, as opposed to their usual CIS rules. Despite losing all three of their exhibition games to these highly ranked teams, UFV was led by guard Jordan Blackman, who scored a combined three-game total of 47 points. Back here in the Canada West, veteran guard Sam Freeman ranks third in scoring, averaging 19 points a game, second in three-pointers made with 26, and 12th in three-point percentages (41.3 per cent).

Second-year guard Kevon Parchment, a recent Canada West athlete of the week, ranks fourth in scoring, averaging 19 points, as well as third in free-throw percentages (94.5 per cent); he’s also first in offensive rebounds with 30. Looking to move further up in the CIS Top 10 poll, the men will play the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the University of Alberta Golden Bears on January 11-12.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013

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19

SPORTS & HEALTH

Return of the monster: A rebirthed, renegotiated (reanimated) NHL KAREN ANEY THE CASCADE

We hoped, we prayed, we screamed – and it paid off. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, the NHL is back. In typical professional sports fashion, many rumours abound about what the terms of the deal reached was. As of press time, the contracts have not been written, but the main agreed upon points are in the stats box on the right-hand side of this page. The length of the season has also not been determined. It will either be 48 or 50 games long, beginning on January 15 or 19. Either way, the seasons will be played entirely within each team’s conference.

What it means for the Canucks It means good things. Their biggest challenge is the Minnesota Wild, who signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to identical $98 million, 13-year contracts over the summer. The Team USA teammates were arguably the biggest trade stories of the off-season, and are skilled enough to be game changers for the Wild.

The Edmonton Oilers are another threat in our conference, as they have “the kids” – including the AHL’s two top scorers, Jordan Eberle (51 points) and Justin Schultz (48 points). During the last lockout, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and Kevin Bieksa spent their season in the AHL – given the benefit it had for their play individually and as a team, this time spent at the AHL level together can only mean good things for the media darlings of Edmonton.

Age will be a huge factor The 1994-1995 lockout resulted in a 48-game season. In that season, the youngest of the top 10 scorers were 22 and 23 – and they were Eric Lindros and Jaromir Jagr, who tied for first place. Ron Francis, in fifth place at 32, Paul Coffey, in seventh place at 34, and Mark Messier, in 10th place at 34, represent anomalies: their presence in the top 10 rankings indicates that this could very likely be a season for the veterans. The oldest team in the league right now, based on the average age, is the New Jersey Devils at 29.34. The Canucks clock in at ninth, with an average age of 27.961. Granted, the grueling schedule—less travel time but more games—could lead to fatigue and a higher rate of injuries, but this is the time for established players to shine.

Benefits for the East The travel time for teams in the eastern conference, as with regular seasons, is going to be severely reduced. In the 2011-2012 season, the Canucks travelled 75,359 kilometers. The Bruins, in comparison, travelled 54,347 kilometers.

That being said, the Canucks had only two trips where they played a single game – the Boston Bruins had 11. This number is sure to go up for the Canucks this year, given the reduced amount of teams to play. Because the distance between arenas is so much greater in the West, it’s going to be a definite factor. As we all know, the Stanley Cup comes down to the East versus the West – increased travel makes it just a little bit harder to bring the cup back to the west coast.

Attendance in question Based on the 1994-1995 lockout, it means good things. The NHL announced at the end of that season that attendance rose 3.5 per cent. However, the Canucks saw 1388 fewer people at their games.

This could stem from a number of factors: it could be the calibre of team Vancouver saw that year, or it could have been the level of bitterness fans in Vancouver—arguably one of the most passionate markets—felt at the lockout.

The thing to remember is that every single game will count.

There are no post-Christmas games to mail in. If a player gets suspended for calling his ex-girlfriend “sloppy seconds” it will seriously affect a large portion of the season. Each and every game will matter for the rest of the season – as such, we’ll likely continue to see sellouts in Vancouver this year.

The Gary Bettman effect The end of the 1994-1995 lockout—and Bettman’s first year as NHL Commissioner—saw the migration of two Canadian teams south of the border. The original Winnipeg Jets, who moved to Phoenix, are slated to be moved again. The former Quebec Nordiques—now the Colorado Avalanche—have fared much better, but these were drastic moves that beg the question: what’s next?

CBA Highlights - Profits will be split 50/50 between players and management.

- $300 million will be allocated to the NHLPA in order to ease the transition to this profit sharing from the current split.

- Minimum salary is set at $525,000 and will climb to $750,000 at the end of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

- A clause where contracts cannot vary by more than 50 per cent between any two years, eliminated front-loaded 20-year contracts.

- Franchises can buy out contracts. It will cost twothirds of the remaining contract, and does not count towards the team’s salary cap.

- Teams that receive revenue shares—such as the Phoenix Coyotes—will now receive $200 million each season.

- This CBA expires in 10 years, with the potential to revisit it after eight if both sides agree it is necessary.

AESC basketball doubleheader delayed indefinitely PAUL ESAU

THE CASCADE

At this time last year the UFV Cascades men’s and women’s basketball teams were preparing for their first annual doubleheader at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre (AESC); what was supposed to become a yearly grudge-match between the Cascades and local rivals the TWU Spartans. That “annual” is in danger of being changed to “only” as Athletics are no longer sure if the event is in the best interest of the Cascades’ marketing or finances.

While a second annual match was in the plans for much of this year’s preseason, the Cascades’ Feb. 15 match up against the Spartans will be occurring at the Envision Athletic Centre (EAC) instead of the larger (and more expensive, even if the arena costs would be paid by the city) AESC. According to UFV Athletics Director Rocky Olfert, the cancellation of this fledgling tradition can be attributed to several factors.

First of all, the Harlem Globetrotters are performing at the AESC on Saturday, Feb. 15, which means the doubleheader would

have had to be moved to Sunday, Feb. 16. Sunday events aren’t known to provide big crowds.

Secondly, last year the event failed to draw the number of fans both the AESC and UFV organizers were hoping for. Only 649 tickets were purchased out of the nearly 7000 seats available in the arena.

Thirdly, Olfert said the move reflected a renewed focus “to improve our home games here on campus . . . We’re not hurting for space here [at the EAC].” While the doubleheader may be moved back to the AESC at a future point, Olfert said, “I just don’t think we’re at that point yet.”

“The decision was partially based on the feedback from the coaches,” he continued. “If they would have came to me and said ‘we’d be really thrilled to do it again’ then I probably would have, you know, kept that process going.

But why are you doing something when you’re getting feedback from students and from coaches that it was a great idea, but not something we’re quite ready for yet?”

Athletics marketing coordinator David Kent, who spearheaded

last year’s doubleheader was disappointed in the cancellation, but largely understood the reasoning: “For me the goal [of the annual event] was the community buying into the fact that we are the highest level of amateur athletics in the country, and that both our basketball programs [are] top 10 in the country. I still don’t think that the Fraser Valley grasps that yet.”

Kent also said that, had the doubleheader occurred at the AESC this year, last year’s $15 ticket price would have been cut 33 per cent in an attempt to raise attendance. Also, the marketing campaign would have been heavily supported by AESC and Abbotsford Heat sales reps appealing to the Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Hope communities.

“Circumstances dictated that it wasn’t the best thing to do this year,” said Kent, but he continues to have strong hope that the event will return in the future.

AESC general manager Jason Blumenfeld confirmed that the arena is open to the idea of future cooperation with the Cascades despite this year’s cancellation.

Image: Rebecca Groen/ The Cascade

Empty AESC prior to last year’s TWU grudge match.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2013