The Cascade Vol. 20 No. 22

Vol. 20 Issue. 22

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Nixing the grill since 1993

Burger blues Student Life cuts signature barbecue from flagship event amid funding crisis

p. 3 BC nurses face ultimatum over flu vaccine p 5

How to live with a roommate p 8

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S ISSUE News Aaron Levy Q&A CIVL’s station manager Aaron Levy answers Beau O’Neill’s questions, including what CIVL actually is, the kinds of programs they offer and the presence or absence of censorship at this campus community radio.

Opinion

Arts & Life

Sports & Health

Letters to the Editor Interview with Kevin Chong With a wave of last minute letters to the editor, readers get their voices heard in the pipeline debate and whether or not the U-Pass is worth the fee.

Read more on page 5

Read more on page 10

Blind Soccer

News editor Dessa Bayrock reviews Kevin Chong’s latest work of non-fiction and talks with him about his recent publications, his writing process and how Vancouver shapes his prose.

This summer’s paralympics included that of blind soccer. Jess Wind discusses the complexities of the sport as a whole and her own failed attempt in her hallway.

Read more on page 15

Read more on page 22

Volume 20 · Issue 22 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Editor-in-Chief nick@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels Managing Editor ali@ufvcascade.ca Ali Siemens Business Manager joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson

EDITORIAL

A barbecue by any other name NICK UBELS THE CASCADE

Image:promo-wholesale.com

Dodging lackadaisically-thrown frisbees and foam darts fired from ardent Humans vs. Zombies organizers, amid throngs of incoming new and returning students occupied with plotting beer runs between classes, The Cascade staffed a booth of our own alongside other UFV clubs and associations at last Monday’s Student Life Welcome Back Barbecue.

Student Life’s event on the green promised students one last chance to enjoy the summer’s fleeting warmth before hunkering down for the coming winter and its scholarly demands. Though successful on most counts, the barbecue was missing a key ingredient: a barbecue.

On page 3 of this week’s issue, Dessa Bayrock investigates this absence. According to Student Life, the costs were “prohibitively expensive” and they decided to go in a new direction with the event. The barbecue has long been a staple of Student Life’s welcome back events, so why the sudden change in direction? Just how much does it cost to put on a barbecue for students, anyway?

The University’s funding crunch is certainly a factor. UFV is currently operating at 105 per cent of its funding capacity.

Evidence of cuts is everywhere.

One passerby at the welcome back event pointed towards an aban-

doned table, where a plain white sign labelled “UFV Athletics” dangled carelessly on a piece of twine and joked, “Times must be tough, athletics is hanging on by a single thread.”

Events like the welcome back barbecue are the first to suffer in order to save essential services.

Last year, Student Life hired Sodexo to handle the event’s catering.

Sodexo has a contract with UFV to be the University’s sole provider of “Food Services” according to the Section 3.2 portion of the document obtained by The Cascade last year.

That means that the Roadrunner Café, Tim Horton’s, and the cafeteria are all owned and operated by Sodexo. It also means that events require special permission from the corporation in order to serve food not provided by Sodexo.

For years, Sodexo allowed the welcome back event’s barbecue portion to go ahead without interference, but that all changed in September 2011. Suddenly, the prospect of a single day of diminished profit was unacceptable. Student Life took Sodexo up on their agreement to cater the event last year but apparently this year’s tightened budget made the cost insurmountable.

Today’s economy is making things difficult for universities and students alike. The burger deficiency points to bigger problems with funding, but the question remains whether Student Life would have been able to afford the barbecue if it were not for Sodexo’s exclusive food service contract with the University.

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 Sasha Moedt Arts & Life Editor arts@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels/Amy Van Veen Sports Editor sports@ufvcascade.ca Paul Esau Staff Writers Karen Aney, Paige Hoblak, Taylor Johnson, Nadine Moedt, Alexei Summers

Contributors Kyle Balzar, Karen Esau, Jeremy Hannaford, Beau O’Neill, Ryan Peterson, Alexandra Shuurman, Tim Ubels, Jess Wind

Printed By International WebExpress

UPCOMING EVENTS September 20

September 21

September 21

September 21

What’s new at your U!

BC Job Fair in Abbotsford

Theatresports

Free Film Night in B101

Starting at 2 p.m. at the new CEP campus in Chilliwack, you can come out and learn more about your university with different activities for a range of ages – including a Kids Zone, a Sports Zone and live music.

Also, weather permitting, you can have your mind blown with fireworks!

“Think of it as a housewarming…for a university.”

For those looking to put their foot in the door and network their way to a new job, head downtown to the Clearbrook Centre to attend the BC Job Fair from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. After all, what better way to put a name to a face than to put your face in their face.

The improv team from Vancouver is back again for another day of hilarity and laughter. At 3 p.m. you can attend a workshopping session for $15, or you can attend just the performance at 7:30 p.m.

It’s all taking place at the UFV Chilliwack Theatre, so relish in the old campus and have a laugh.

Friday night can be a night of wonders, and one of those wonders could be yours – for free. The Association of History students are showing Monty Python and the Holy Grail Friday night. The film is for free and a concession funds will go to the AHS. “She turned me into a newt! …I got better.”

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, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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NEWS

Student Life subtracts barbecue from welcome back barbecue

Image:UFV Flickr

dessa bayrock THE CASCADE

What do you call a barbecue when there is no barbecue?

This was the question Student Life struggled with this year at their annual welcome back barbecue. Although this year’s event had the same tents, booths and apple-bobbing spread across the Abbotsford green, the tables of condiments and the smell of grilling meat were notably absent.

Martin Kelly, a programmer at Student Life, said the number of student drawn to the event was approximately halved in comparison to past barbecues.

The numbers were down at the

events in both Abbotsford and Chilliwack,” Kelly stated, noting that about 1000 students came through the Abbotsford event, in contrast to 2500-3000 in years where food was offered.

“The barbecue was prohibitively expensive, and we couldn’t afford it,” Kelly explained, “so we’re moving in another direction.”

The only food on site was one grill’s worth of corn provided by the Louden Singletree, and hot dogs carried tray by tray from AfterMath

by Student Union Society (SUS) representatives.

Although Student Life could theoretically offset the cost of the barbecue by charging for the food, Kelly said a key part of the event is the fact that it’s free.

“The welcome-backs have always been free,” Kelly explained. “It was a community builder to get students to come.”

Other than corn, the only food present on the green was in the form of SUS-supplied hot dogs, which were a last-minute addition to the plan.

“Martin came to us [and said], ‘Oh, dear God – we have no barbecue,” explained SUS’ Vice-President Social, Chris Doyle. “And we said, well, we can’t cater, because that’s one thing that Sodexo has the exclusive right to do. And we can’t really provide food, because we haven’t had time to ask or prepare paperwork.”

SUS’ solution was to give away 375 hot dogs, tray by tray rather than grill by grill. Doyle notes that they

didn’t “give out enough to feed every single person,” but enough to argue that the food giveaways were an avenue to push to new hot dog brand served at AfterMath.

In the future, Kelly and Doyle predict that SUS and Student Life will work together to bring the event to life.

“I envision the day when SUS is going to be a partner in this, instead of just a participant,” Kelly said. “It makes sense to me that SUS develop to the point where they’re happy and capable of taking this event on.”

Meanwhile, Kelly said that some reorganization will be necessary for the annual event in the future. Perhaps the most immediate problem, Kelly noted, will be creating a new title for the event, since it can no lon-

ger be described as a barbecue.

Jody Gordon, UFV’s new VicePresident Students, said that Student Life’s funding crunch is indicative of deeper financial cuts within UFV as an institution.

“My understanding is that it was a temporary fund cobbled together to put the barbecue on [in the past],” Gordon explains. “Most post-secondary institutions in BC have not received increases to their funding.

It makes it hard to find temporary money to fund events like the barbecue.”

Doug Fowler, General Manger of Food Services at UFV, stated that Sodexo had no contact with Student Life and was never asked for a quote on what it would cost to have Sodexo cater the event.

Nominations open for SUS annual by-election dessa bayrock THE CASCADE

Nominations are now officially open for any student interested in running in the Student Union Society’s (SUS) annual by-election.

Jhim Burwell, SUS’ communication officer, explained that this election is largely intended to fill positions left vacant by representatives who have resigned, or to find permanent replacements for representatives who served in interim positions.

First on the list of positions to be filled is the Trades rep, a job description that might be changing after the coming Annual General Meeting (AGM) to include

both UFV’s Trades and Technology Centre, and the new building at Canada Education Park (CEP).

Next on the list is the Clubs and Association rep, which Burwell described as a high-energy profile. “[That position] is based on trying to keep track of and help the clubs and associations and student organizations that we administer and fund,” Burwell explained.

The Aboriginal Representative position is also open to nominations, as is the Accessibility Representative position, which is being vacated by long-time rep Debbie Ellis.

The process from nomination to campaign to final vote is

fast-paced, lasting little over five weeks from start to finish. Burwell said that SUS is eager to fill the empty positions, to lend as many points of view to SUS’ processes as possible.

“The idea is that the more full our board, the better the range

of perspective that’s given in decisions,” Burwell explained, “so we always want to have as many people there as possible.”

Nominations opened September 17, close on the first of October, and the final list of candidates will be announced on October 3.

The campaign period will stretch over the first few weeks of October, and polling will run October 18-24 online at my.ufv.ca.

The new board members will dive into their duties right away at SUS’ board meeting on October 25.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

NEWS

Afterparty at AfterMath wraps up Weeks of Welcome jess wind

CONTRIBUTOR

To round out their two Weeks Of Welcome events, Student Union Society (SUS)’s AfterMath Afterparty provided music, magic, partial nudity and ultimately entertainment. As cords and speakers were checked on the stage, Carlos Vidal, SUS president, took the mic and warmed up the crowd.

Prizes began flowing early on in the evening once Vidal passed the mic over to AfterMath manager (and apparent emcee veteran) Brad Ross. He began by waving two tickets to the upcoming Stone Temple Pilots concert at the Abbotsford Entertainment Sports Centre. Rock and roll trivia was the criteria to win the first set of what would be many tickets and gift certificates passed out over the duration of the evening. Patrons also won for being quick with UFV trivia, AfterMath trivia, movie trivia, and Spongebob Squarepants character knowledge.

The stage was passed over to YouTube sensation Andrew Huang, who came from Toronto for the event. Despite the fact that his common audience consists of the faceless internet millions, he appeared entirely comfortable in front of the crowded restaurant.

It was clear that Huang has fun with what he does, and he knew how to win the attention of his grew-up-in-the-‘90s audience; he rapped to the Tetris theme song, sang about horse-manning and impersonated Bjork.

Following Huang’s performance, Ross and Vidal took up

the mic once again to give away more prizes while magician, Wes Barker, readied his show. As a result, fourth-year English major Lian McIntyre was one of the lucky students who went home with a group paintballing session, and fifth-year business student Mike Wood walked away with free movies for a year.

Barker’s show started out strong with an elaborate math equation, the product of which was clearly a phone number, and Wes’ pocket started ringing. The punchline? “That’s how you get a girl’s phone number.”

He then performed another illusion in which he took an audience member’s $20 bill and magicked it into a lemon.

Unlike most magic showcases, Barker’s show was as much about sexual comedy (making a strip of condoms appear in an unsuspect-

ing volunteer’s purse) as it was about impressive and mystifying illusions. For instance, his last trick was a straightjacket escape, which was made all the more time sensitive by a slowly loading nude picture of himself that was projected on the big screen. He managed to wriggle free from the buckles of the jacket just before the photo bared all.

This is SUS’ first attempt at hosting various events during the first weeks of school, instead of one large event. Barker said that spreading the events out was a big hit.

“What they’re doing this year is really great,” Barker explained.

“Kids can come to some of it or come to all of it, instead of banking on one big concert night when it usually rained.”

“I’m definitely going to come back every year,” the magician

continued. “I love this thing.”

With the entertainment over, it was time to pass out the big three prizes: the ones that everyone in the room had their eyes on.

Fourth-year Fine Arts major Jeff Stackhouse was given the opportunity to choose between the UFV course and the iPad; he chose the iPad. Second-year Kinesiology student Sukhdeep Brar won the UFV course. Finally, the last big prize went to a very excited second-year Bachelor of Science student, Alex Toner, who won the trip to Vegas.

There was no shortage of exciting prizes, entertaining comedy and enjoyable music, all paired with AfterMath eats and beer.

But how did S.U.S. perceive this event, and all the Weeks of Welcome events over the last two weeks?

Vidal was proud to say that

Image: CUP Wire

Image: Reuters

Image: Reuters

they fed more students over the last two weeks than probably ever before. VP East Shane Potter was impressed with the success of their two Chilliwack events and was glad to see so many student clubs and associations come out.

VP Social Chris Doyle sent a big thanks out to all the volunteers and acts that made the events so successful, and to all the students for coming out and having a good time.

After being sufficiently welcomed back to the fall 2012 semester, and seeing such an overall positive response from everyone involved and in attendance, it is fairly safe to gather that although this was SUS’ first trial with Weeks of Welcome, it probably won’t be the last.

NEWS BRIEFS

Image: CUP Wire

Image: www.salzgeber.at

Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film

Fear over securitized campuses lingers on in Quebec

Russia writes off 90 percent of North Korea’s debt

Trial set for butler who hoped to cleanse Vatican “evil”

RIM shares rise on Microsoft file technology license deal

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) Google Inc rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online a controversial YouTube movie clip that has ignited anti-American protests in the Middle East.

The Internet company said it was censoring the video in India and Indonesia after blocking it on Wednesday in Egypt and Libya, where U.S. embassies have been stormed by protestors enraged over depiction of the Prophet Mohammad as a fraud and philanderer.

Over the course of the sevenmonth-long student strike and particularly in it’s final six weeks as the application of the controversial Law 12 loomed, the presence of police on campus and the role of university security services have prompted some to reexamine the principles that define a university.

“Elsewhere is a university still considered a university when arrests occur on its property, when people are taken into custody, trapped and charged by riot police? When students are considered to be dangerous criminals when they attempt to simply respect democratic, collective decisions?” read a letter published in Le Devoir in late August.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it agreed to write off 90 percent of North Korea’s $11 billion debt and would reinvest the balance in the reclusive Asian state, in a sign of closer engagement with Pyongyang under new leader Kim Jong-un.

By writing off most of the sum owed by North Korea, one of the world’s poorest countries, Russia granted a level of forgiveness in line with debt reduction deals it has given to its most impoverished debtors.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican scandal will get an unusually public airing next week when the butler who served the pope’s meals and helped him dress goes on trial for leaking Benedict’s private papers in the hope of cleaning up what he saw as “evil and corruption everywhere in the Church”.

The case, which led to the most serious crisis of Benedict’s papacy, involves the disclosure of sensitive documents alleging corruption in the Vatican and pointing to a power struggle at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

(Reuters) - Research In Motion’s shares jumped on Tuesday after it signed a patent licensing deal with Microsoft Corp to use one of the technology company’s file storage systems.

Microsoft said the patent being licensed by RIM greatly expands the size of files that flash memory devices can handle and increases the speed at which those files can be accessed. The technology also provides the ability to seamlessly transfer data between a variety of different devices.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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NEWS

BC makes vaccination or masks mandatory for health care workers karen aney THE CASCADE

British Columbia is now the first province in the country to mandate the influenza vaccination for all health care professionals.

The decision, introduced by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall, was announced on August 23. It states that any health care employee—a blanket term for anyone who comes in contact with patients, from janitors to surgeons—must either vaccinate against the influenza virus, or wear a mask at all times.

The move is an effort to reduce what the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reports is 2000 to 8000 deaths from influenza and its complications each year.

Dr. Kendall explained that “... influenza causes more deaths annually than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined, and hospitalized patients are more vulnerable to complications from influenza than the general population.” No specific study was cited during this explanation.

British Columbia is the first province to make influenza vaccination mandatory, but there is some Canadian precedent, including North Bay General Hospital in Ontario. In an interview with the National Post, Kim Carter (the hospital’s infection control coordinator) stated that there have been no outbreaks of influenza in the hospital since the vaccinations were made mandatory – an unprecedented statistic within their facility.

In this case, grievances were filed against this mandate and unions argued that a compulsory

Image:Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

vaccination violated their members’ rights. These grievances, however, were overturned by the labour-arbitration board and it was deemed that the compulsory vaccination was not a violation.

This precedent suggests that although the BC Nurse’s union has already declared their intention to protest this change in BC, they may not be successful.

Vaccination rates in hospitals up until this point have been decreasing. Reports vary, but Fraser Health estimates that vaccination rates among health workers have fallen as low as 38 per cent. There are many potential reasons for this, despite the fact that vaccinations are free to all health workers and clinics are often set up on site for employees to be vaccinated while at work.

One possible reason is explained by Doug Manuel, who works with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and also as an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto. He published a study entitled “Health Behaviour Associated with Influenza Vaccination

among Healthcare Workers in Long-Term-Care Facilities.” Cited on the immunize.ca website, his study found that “Few people associated the vaccine with serious side effects, although 36 per cent of all staff believed that vaccination is moderately to extremely likely to cause the flu or flu-like illness.”

Sheila Edwards, of the BSN Program at UFV, teaches fourthyear students about public and community health. She stated that she is vaccinated every year and that she supports the mandate. She also explained that the belief that vaccinations can cause the flu is false.

“The viruses in the influenza vaccine have been killed,” Edwards explained.

“There is no live virus in the vaccine, so it cannot cause influenza. One, it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to work, so [if people experience symptoms] they could have been in contact with the flu and got it before the vaccine worked for them,” she said. “Second thing is, a lot of people confuse influenza with a cold or stomach flu – in actual

fact, symptoms such as fever and body aches which go with influenza are not typical with a cold – also, adults don’t typically have nausea or vomiting with influenza like they would with stomach flu.”

The alternative that nurses have to vaccination is wearing a mask. Edwards was unsure if it would be possible to find an exact percentage of infections that masks will reduce, but she said it could certainly make a difference.

“The influenza virus is actually contagious 24 hours or more before you feel the first symptoms,” Edwards explained. “So that’s the thing, people are spreading it before they feel like they’re sick.

That’s why having the vaccine, or having the mask all the time, is important.”

UFV professors will be speaking to nursing students at greater length about this new policy in the near future, after they’ve had a chance to make sure the policy won’t be changed.

As first-year nursing students begin working with patients in November, they will be required to follow this mandate, which takes effect when the flu season generally starts in October or November.

A recent study by the Provincial Infection Control Network found that nearly one third of hospital employees are not washing their hands with the mandated frequency. When asked if she felt that increased hand sanitation would affect infection control, Edwards stated that it would certainly help.

“It’s not just doing one thing, it’s doing multiple things,” she said. “It’s getting vaccinated and also washing your hands.”

A local nurse at a long-term care facility admitted he was “a little” frustrated that the vaccine is now mandatory, despite the fact he’s always gotten the vaccination. “The thing is, it’s still our bodies, and we know enough [as nurses] that we should get to decide what goes into them.”

One potential reason he suggested for the currently low rate of vaccination is that the vaccine protects against three or four strains per year, and there are more than 80 strands in total. “... I can see why [healthcare workers] may not [get immunized],” he said, “because it’s a drop in the bucket in terms of protection.”

Edwards noted, however, that the strains are carefully chosen.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) scientists do global tracking for changes in the virus and predict which strains are most likely to circulate in a given year.”

Edwards recommended that all students be immunized, “... especially if they have a chronic illness, have a compromised immune system or are in regular contact with individuals who are at higher risk than themselves.”

For those wishing to get immunized, there are public health clinics where the vaccine is offered free of charge, including a church in Chilliwack where UFV student nurses lend their assistance. Those not eligible for the provincially-funded vaccine can pay a small fee to receive it at their local pharmacy or from their physician.

An introduction to CIVL through the eyes of Aaron Levy BEAU O’NEILL

UBC they were around 10–15 per cent for a while.

CONTRIBUTOR

Aaron Levy is the station manager at CIVL, UFV’s student-run radio station currently located on the Abbotsford campus. He has seen CIVL grow from humble beginnings to broadcasting both online and on the FM frequency it calls home today.

What is CIVL? CIVL is a non-profit society based at UFV in Abbotsford with a broadcasting license from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and Industry Canada, which is regulated and mandated such that we serve the Fraser Valley, its communities and UFV. In doing so, we recruit volunteers to produce programming that is meaningful to them and is not already accessible on commercial airwaves in the Fraser Valley. We are the only campus community radio station in the Fraser Valley.

How long has CIVL been around?

CIVL was started by the Student Union Society as a committee in 2003. In 2005 CIVL became its own non-profit corporation.

That’s also the year that students voted to fund us, $3 a semester,

in our referendum. In 2008 we started broadcasting on the internet, and podcasting [on www. civl.ca]. In 2010, in September, we started broadcasting on FM radio for the first time [on 101.7 FM].

And finally, in 2012 we finally received our permanent broadcast certificate, which allowed us to start broadcasting ... and we’ve been broadcasting at 520 watts since February 14, 2012.

How many programs/what types of programming do you have?

We have between 50 and 60 different programs, individual programs. There are four basic classifications we have: music, spoken word, syndicated and multicultural shows.

And that’s all done by volunteers?

Yes. About 50 per cent of our programming is done by students, which is a good average for a station. For example, at

What are the differences between commercial radio and campus community radio, besides the fact that you don’t play what they play?

It’s basically a three-fold answer. One: we’re all volunteerbased except for me, the station manager, and three work studies. So no one is getting paid for what they’re doing on air, whereas everybody at a commercial station is getting paid.

Two: they are focused on advertising. The commercial radio industry, every single station, their entire function is to turn the highest profit from selling advertising. That’s why they’re licensed. From the CRTC’s perspective, they are a GDP developer. The CRTC will not approve a station if it will encroach on another station’s ability to serve a certain demographic and make money that way. They make sure you’re broadcasting a different format, that you’re going after a different demographic, that you’re relying on different resources to make your money.

That’s not to say there aren’t great journalists or DJs who do great radio, but whoever owns those [commercial stations] would not be running those stations if they weren’t running a profit.

The third difference is that we ensure that our funding remains autonomous to the content and programming that we do. On any commercial radio station, if one of your advertisers is McDonald’s, and one of the people working on the air says, “I hate McDonald’s”, that person’s going to get in some trouble. Not the case with us. I don’t tell them what to play. They play what they want to play, because they put the work in and made the proposals.

Is there any censorship?

There are limits to what we are allowed to do. But it’s only regulatory. We can’t broadcast illegal content, we can’t commit slander on the air. We can’t broadcast content that might reasonably offend our listenership.

So no Rush Limbaugh? … It’s about knowing your audience.

Does CIVL do any activities outside of regular broadcasting?

One of our volunteers is a fellow named Steve O’Shea, and he’s in a band called You Say Party. They’re a local Abbotsford band. Steve O’Shea says this: “Support your local scene, ‘cause it’s the only one you have.”

I see this as a very important function of CIVL. Whether it

means doing sound, stage management, or providing sound at [a university event] and playing people’s requests and making announcements, or just organizing and hosting local shows that students and bands and members of the community can enjoy and get out to, that’s an important part of what we do.

It’s just helping people do what they want to do, creating an opportunity for people in the community to find out about music, see local music, and for local musicians to get out there and show their stuff.

Anything coming up?

UFV’s Marketing and Communications department is putting together a concert on the 20th – the Zolas will be playing, and the Matinee will be playing, and that’s in Chilliwack at the CEP campus. It’s free.

Also, every Friday and Saturday night at Cheers bar and grill in Abbotsford, for free, you can come see CIVL DJs and you can get discounts on food – $2 burger and fries.

And on October 13, Arrabio, a hardcore band from the Caribbean, will be playing here.

Thanks, Aaron – it’s been informative.

You’re welcome, but, unfortunately, I can’t say the same.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

NEWS

Vaudeville, aboriginal struggle and kicking it old school ALEXANDRA SCHUURMAN CONTRIBUTOR

While students settle into the rhythm of a new semester, the team that makes up the theatre department at UFV has already been at work for months in preparation for the 2012/2013 production season.

They are now the sole department occupying the Chilliwack Yale Road campus; nevertheless, faculty, students, volunteers and enthusiasts alike have pulled from all sources of creativity to make this season as varied and successful as the last 32.

First to hit the stage is Once in a Lifetime. Ian Fenwick, theatre faculty member and the man in the director’s chair for the first production, believes the 1930sstyle comedy to be the perfect fit to kick off the season.

“I specifically chose it because we knew we were going to be orphaned here this year,” laughed Fenwick. “We wanted to start off with something that was bold and brash and fun that involves a lot of students and audience members who want to come and see a fun play.”

Revolving around the beginning of the talking pictures, the play follows a group of vaudevillian performers who make their way to Hollywood hoping to cash in on the innovation.

Involving 24 actors and over 70 characters all aiming to make it big in the film industry, Fenwick said he expects a high-energy performance (including a threepart harmony from a police man, bell boy and electrician).

The second production of the season is traditionally reserved for slightly more daring pieces, and this year Tompson High-

way’s Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout takes that spot.

This show, though not immediately recognizable to most, promises to be one of the highlights of the year. It is being performed at the tail end of Highway’s artistic residency at UFV, and it is the directorial debut of the theatre department’s newest faculty member, Heather DavisFisch.

The play, in description, is simple. In 1910, four women (each representing a different aboriginal first nation) work to prepare a meal for visiting Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier. But as the play progresses, DavisFisch explained, the storytelling and experimental narrative structures bring to light a part of British Columbian history that we don’t really talk about.

“It’s an awesome, really public way to show the impact of indigenous cultures on Canadian culture. The script is amazing; it’s a little edgier than his other work. I think it pushes audiences a little more.”

Compared to the familiar structures of the other productions this year, Davis-Fisch described the structure of Ernestine Shuswap as “pretty out there.

For audience members outside the department, it’s a good way to see the range of what Canadian theatre is ... without having to drive to Vancouver.”

The desire to appeal to departments outside their own is echoed by Bruce Kirkley, currently the head of the theatre department. While the theatre has always been geographically separated from the bulk of the student body on the Abbotsford campus, Kirkley said, it has never lost track of the desire to appeal to the widest audience

possible.

“As a university program we want to try to choose plays that are meaningful, and hopefully they’re on different course syllabi so that it has a tie in for other departments,” Kirkley said. “But we know it has to have sufficient appeal to find its audience [at the box office] as well.”

Probably the best example of this mantra can be found in Kirkley’s selection for this year’s Shakespearian production of The Merchant of Venice.

As one of the more controversial comedies in Shakespeare’s collection, the main draw of the piece lies in the mysteries the audience is left to ponder when the curtain closes.

“The characters are so compelling and so interesting,” Kirkley said. “It’s a fairy tale motif with a wonderful humanity, and it gets us asking questions.”

While the three main stage productions often share the most publicity, by far the most student-friendly event is the annual Directors’ Festival.

A fringe-styled event showcasing student one-act plays from throughout the semester, Theatre Student Association President Cait Archer explained that it’s not just catered to theatre students.

“Of course we encourage our friends and family to come, and I know most theatre students will recommend plays to their classes as well,” Archer said. “It’s the kind of edgy entertainment students are looking for. And there are certain things you can’t do on [television] that you can do in a theatre!”

More information on specific show times for each production are available online, or by calling the box office at 604-795-2814.

Out with the old, in with the new Advanced Education Minister: John Yap JOE JOHNSON THE CASCADE

Out with the old, in with the new is an accurate description of the governing BC Liberal party.

Given recent announcements from several Liberal MLAs that they will no be seeking re-election in May 2013, it was no surprise Premier Christy Clark announced a reshuffled cabinet on September 5.

In a notable change of ministry positions, and one that has a significant impact on post-secondary students, John Yap has been named the new Minister of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology. Former Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto has been tasked as the Minister of State for Small Business.

Residents of the Fraser Valley may not be entirely familiar with Minister Yap; he comes from the Liberal-friendly riding of Richmond-Steveston and has held office for over seven years. In that time Yap has held the title of Minister of State for Climate Action, and currently holds the title of Minister of State for Multiculturalism.

He was born in Singapore but moved to BC with his parents during his teens. As a graduate from UBC with a Bachelor of Business Administration, his past private sector work has included financial advising.

But now Yap has a new challenge in grappling the issues of advanced education. These include—but are not limited to— core funding for post-secondary institutions, student loans and tuition rates.

This change-up comes at a time when UFV is struggling with running at 105 per cent capacity.

University presidents from across the province have begun to publicly voice their financial concerns, the province has seen the rise of the first ever student-led lobby group “Where’s The Funding?” and interest rates on student loans in BC are the highest in Canada at 2.5 per cent above prime.

The next provincial election is just under eight months away, and Premier Clark has recently announced that there will not be a fall sitting of the legislature.

Instead, the government will resume in February, leaving very little room between that point and the when the writ drops and campaigning begins.

The verdict on our advanced education system in BC remains to be seen. At least for now it’s Minister Yap’s job to see that the system move along the correct course.

B.C. planning ahead for aboriginal post-secondary education Micki cowan

CUP B.C. Bureau Chief VANCOUVER (CUP) — The B.C. government announced in June its plans for increasing aboriginal involvement in postsecondary institutions — a move which is greatly needed, according to one First Nations post-secondary liaison and student.

On June 12, the Liberal government released its Aboriginal Post-Secondary Action Plan, outlining goals and objectives to increase aboriginal involvement at higher education institutes across B.C. until 2020.

The plan includes funding a number of initiatives such as a $16.2 million this year for financial assistance to aboriginal students.

Most of the money goes towards creating partnerships between post-secondary institutions and aboriginal institutes and communities, as well as implementing programs and activities as part of the Aboriginal Service Plan. Some also goes towards emergency financial assistance and awards.

Dolly Reno, First Nations liaison of the Capilano University Students Association, said that she thinks it’s great the gov-

Image: Wayne Perkins/Capilano University

ernment is doing more for aboriginal students, but that there should be more of a focus on reducing red tape.

Though she is from Mi’kmaq First Nations band in Nova Scotia, she is most familiar with West Coast traditions. She organized a pow-wow at Capilano on Sept. 13 as a way to expose the community to First Nations culture.

“Originally I was planning a typical speakers’ series and have people speak about the culture and have some artists come in,” said Reno. “Half way through the planning I thought that was kind of boring. I don’t want to talk about the culture, so why don’t I just bring the culture

here.”

While she believes that her pow-wow was a success, she said that that’s not always the case for those looking to organize First Nations events.

“My university was very supportive. It took a lot, but I know of people that have tried to put other cultural celebrations and then been told ‘No, sorry, you can’t do that,’” said Reno. “We can only go so far and then we hit a wall.”

According to Shirley Hardman, the senior advisor on Indigenous Affairs at the University of the Fraser Valley in Chilliwack, it’s imperative that post-secondary institutions find alternative ways of offering First

Nations education.

That was part of the reason why she got involved in organizing an event held in August called “Indigenizing the Academy.” Teams from 33 colleges and universities across the province gather to discuss how to make sure that indigenous culture and values are integrated across all levels of university and not just confined to specialized classes.

As a Shxwhá:y village band member, Hardman said that over the past ten years, the postsecondary sector has focused on working with the aboriginal community to determine what aboriginal education should look like, as opposed to institutions making curriculum decisions on their own.

But one of the challenges facing both grassroots movements and the Province’s initiatives is getting people to accept new ways of approaching aboriginal education.

“The initiatives have really been gung-ho in the past 15 years,” said Hardman. “But anyone who was educated prior to that [time] wasn’t educated in the same way — the initiatives aren’t fully embraced by all segments of society,” said Hardman.

While there is still a lot of work to do according to Hard-

man, the government programs have been making a difference.

The Ministry of Advanced Education provided $600,000 to build a new long house at UFV’s Chilliwack campus three years ago, as part of a province-wide initiative to create First Nations gathering spaces.

Other numbers show more aboriginal students have been seeking post-secondary education as well.

According to a ministry service plan report, the number of aboriginal students enrolled in post-secondary institutions rose from around 24,000 in 2009-10 to 24,862 in 2011-12. Looking further back, those who were awarded university credentials rose from 2,100 students in 200506 to 2,634 in 2009-10.

Reno hopes others will get involved and the trend continues, due to the increased opportunities for post-secondary aboriginal graduates.

“For aboriginal people, a lot of the doors have been closed before or how to navigate postsecondary is not immediately clear when you don’t have a role model there before you to guide you,” she said.

“Now it’s about opening those doors and securing those places.”

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION

In break with Iran, Canada favours principle over pragmatism NICK UBELS THE CASCADE

What does Canada seek to gain by severing diplomatic ties with Iran?

Last week’s surprise decision was meant as a symbolic gesture to distance Canada from an embattled, potentially hostile state. It was a flashy show of solidarity with the UK who withdrew its diplomats from Iran when an attack on their embassy went undefended by the Iranian government last November.

But in abandoning the Canadian embassy in Tehran and expelling all remaining Iranian diplomats in Canada, with only five days’ notice, the country has much to lose in provoking the Iranian government and surrendering hope of future negotiations.

In his September 7 statement, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called Iran “the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today,” hyperbole designed to induce fear and further damage relations between the two states. He cited a wide range of reasons for the abjuration of diplomacy, from Iran’s nuclear program to its lack of respect for the Vienna Convention’s provisions for the treatment of foreign diplomats. These and other problems should be enough to convince the Canadian government that it is more important now than

ever to pursue diplomatic solutions to a developing crisis rather than remove another barrier to armed conflict.

Dissolving one’s diplomatic ties is a move that leaves little room for foreign policy action other than military intervention. It is rarely done, even in the case of open hostilities. It was months after Canada began its NATO military operations in Libya before Harper closed the Libyan embassy. The soft power benefits of a diplomatic presence far outweigh the impact of any message sent to a belligerent state. In what universe will such action help defuse tensions with Iran or convince the government to change its oppressive policies?

The embassy’s presence was one of our few ways to gain first-hand insight into Iran and communicate with its leaders. How will Canada be able to make informed foreign policy

choices concerning the region without this critical channel? By relying on US intelligence? We all know how well that worked out in Iraq.

As other Western countries withdrew their diplomatic ties with Iran, Canada found itself in an increasingly rare position to serve as a mediator. It was an opportunity to salvage a tarnished international reputation as a middle power squandered by a passive aggressive move that belies the Harper government’s ambition to reshape Canada’s foreign relations in the interventionist policing mould.

Baird laid out more of his vision for Canada’s foreign policy in a speech delivered to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, describing it as “principled” and “values-based.”

If the decision to suspend diplomatic relations with Iran is an example of this philosophy, these statements translate to a pursuit of the illusion of strength through military force instead of real strength through nonviolent measures and negotiation.

Rather than committing to the unglamourous, often frustrating work of collaborating in the interest of peace, Canada has chosen the easy path of brinkmanship.

This is a foolish move on the part of the Harper government. It robs Canada of genuine agency by modelling policy on the expensive, aggressive and unsuccessful cowboy tactics of our neighbours to the south.

Dear Tim Horton’s I think you know what I’m about to say; we both saw this coming.

Let’s face it – the magic just isn’t there anymore. I think we should see other people. We had some good times— even great ones—but it’s time to call it quits.

I’ll always remember the way we started flirting in my second year of university. I saw you lingering in the entrance of the library building; people flocked to you, and you had a way of coaxing people out of their shells as they whiled away the time before class. You had an absolute charm about you, but I could see you were a small-town kid at heart. It was a dichotomy that I loved.

It was the beginning of an amazing time, Tim – you warmed my hands, time and time again, after iceskating and snow days alike. When campus paths became treacherous and icy in the winter, I still stubbornly made the trek to your door. On the way back to class, with you beside me, I knew you were more than just a coffee – you were my best friend.

You were the support that kept me going through countless all-nighter study sessions, and I can’t even begin to count the number of assignments that would never have been completed without your help.

But I’m reaching the end of my degree now, and I think I need my sleep. You’re always fresh, and you’re always energetic and ready for more, but I can’t keep up with you any longer. I just know there’s a first-year student who needs you more than I do, and you’ll be happier with her.

Tim, I just can’t do it anymore. I know that I’m breaking your heart as I say this, but I’ve found myself longing for other coffee. We still spend time together, but I find myself get-

ting bored by you, and before I know what’s happening you’re cold and distant. It’s just a waste of both our time.

Let’s face it: our relationship has been flagging ever since roll up the rim to win. I can’t count the number of hot beverages you talked me into buying, just for that thrill when I thought I might have won. You knew my weakness was that Panasonic camera – you were with me the first time I saw it in stores, and you knew that I wanted it more than any other point-and-shoot. Tim, if you weren’t going to let me win it, then why on earth would you pick it as a top prize?

I could even forgive you for that, but it took me over 25 beverages before I won a measly donut. Tim, I don’t even like donuts. It was a slap in the face, and we both knew it.

Finally, this summer you were always hanging around my office.

Always fresh; always Tim Horton’s.

I just got sick of you, every morning and every afternoon. You know

Welcome Back BBQ Edition This week’s question: If you could have a conversation with any invisible person sitting in a chair, who would it be and why?

Runner ups Edith

“The Invisible Man, just so that there would be somebody actually there.”

Helma

what, Tim? I flirted with a Tassimo beverage station in August, and that opened my eyes to what I’d been putting up with. More often than not, you leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I deserve better than that. There are some things even milk and sugar can’t fix.

We have a lot of mutual friends, and I think we can move on from this without making a big scene about it.

I believe that true love is out there for both of us, Tim – just not with each other. At the end of the day, I need to think about what I want out of life. I can’t ignore how I keep asking myself how I can be with a coffee shop that doesn’t serve Americanos.

There will always be a place in my heart for you, Tim, but there is no longer a place in my travel mug.

I just need a stronger coffee than you can be, and I need more variation in my meals than just bagels.

Yours fondly, Dessa Bayrock

“It would be Clint Eastwood, to express my surprise that he’s so far to the right.”

Nathan

“If I could talk to any invisible person in a chair it would be Stephan Harper and I would ask him what he thinks about environmental issues because the Conservative government has been very lackadaisical about environmental concerns.”

“If I could have to a conversation with Tony Stark. I would like to discuss with him the designs of Iron Man and I would like to build it.”

Brigham

Best Answer Cory

“I would talk to the guy who did “Gangnam Style” and I would really just like to thank him for providing me with an outlet and asserting me in my dancing ability.”

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION

A guide to civil disobedience

The roommate question

NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE

In an attempt to protect our coast from the toxic tar sands industry, a peaceful act of planned civil disobedience is being organized by a group called Defend Our Coast. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is determined to poison our coastline with tar sands diluted bitumen; Defend Our Coast is calling on citizens to stand up for our environment and make it clear that we will not be a doormat for big oil companies and Harper’s personal agenda.

The tar sands question is a huge one for BC and its outcome will affect our coast, our province and our future. Tar sands diluted bitumen is hazardous both to our personal health and the overall health of our environment. If we don’t stand up for these things now, and the pipeline goes through, we will be prisoners of a destructive economy that will be largely dependent on fossil fuels.

This is the first time I have considered engaging in civil disobedience. I am urging you to consider the same. We should realize that now is the time; we are young, most of us without families to support and with flexible schedules. If you are arrested, it’s not a huge deal. I’m sure it would be a great character building experience.

Here are some things you need to know before going into a planned act of civil disobedience.

The definition of civil disobedience, taken from Protesters Guide to the Law of Civil Disobedience, outlines three distinct aspects.

“First, it is always peaceful; second, those who engage in civil disobedience must be prepared to accept the penalty arising from the breach of the law; and thirdly, their purpose must be to expose the law breached to be immoral or unconstitutional, in the hope that it will be repealed or changed; or in the hopes that the law or administrative decision will be repealed or changed.” By following these rules, you can avoid being arrested for any criminal charges.

A successful protest is one that

TAYLOR JOHNSON THE CASCADE

Image: tarsandsaction/Flickr

peacefully raises awareness. In September 2011, a group of protesters were arrested for civil disobedience; 500 people were protesting the tar sands at the House of Commons in Ottawa, 117 were arrested. According to Mongabay news, the protest occurred “without drama” and those arrested were simply given a $65 fine and banned from the House of Commons for a year.

Having participated in some student protests in Montreal, I’ve learned some things from veteran activists; their advice is to come prepared. If there’s any possibility of arrest, there are some things you should bring. A pen and paper to take notes on any incident that might occur during the protest, a recorder or video camera for documentation of your arrest, water for your eyes in case tear gas is used, and some form of identification are all useful.

Valuables should be left at home, and so should anything that might resemble a weapon. Illegal drugs are a definite no.

Useful tips can be gained from

looking at past protests gone wrong.

Some tactics police have used (i.e., at the G20 summit) to disperse a crowd include tear gas, pepper spray and stun guns. If you are tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed, do not rub your eyes. Rinse your eyes (apparently adding baking soda to the water helps) and get to a well-ventilated area. The effects should wear off in around 15 minutes.

A helpful article online, “Protesters Guide to the Law of Civil Disobedience in British Columbia,” reminds readers that there is always a possibility of being arrested while engaging in civil disobedience. A key thing you need to remember is that, aside from the requirement to supply your first and last name, date of birth, and address, you should remain silent. Don’t talk to anyone else in your cell, and don’t speak to the police officers. You can only be held for 24 hours before being taken before a judge, and in that time you should ask to see a lawyer, or if you can’t afford one, get legal aid or talk to the appointed Duty Council.

These people will advise you of your legal rights and walk you through what will happen next.

Often in an organized protest, some form of information or training will precede the protest itself.

Defend our Coast takes place on October 22, but expects that its participants will attend a one-day training session on October 21. This session will provide both information on how to deal with the police in case of an arrest, and details about what the demonstration itself will entail. Take a look at Defendourcoast.ca for more details.

In his “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau wrote “all men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.” Harper’s war on the environment is tyrannical. We need to stand up for ourselves, and now is the time to do so.

Closing in on the silence of suicide PAIGE HOBLAK THE CASCADE

This last year my best friend lost three close family friends due to the silent killer we all know as suicide.

Although she is my best girl, I found these tragedies put up a brick wall between us that I didn’t know how to break.

I started reminding myself to think before I speak; something I never had to do around her before, as she is one of the most liberal people I know. I was often lost for words and the silence became a noise I couldn’t get out of my head. I always felt that if I ignored it we could get through the day as our old selves, but ignoring didn’t always feel right because I wanted her to know that I was there for her, no matter how depressed and hopeless she was feeling.

I came to a medium where I gave her space, reminding her through

cards I wrote alongside flowers, that she wasn’t alone.

It always gets me that we have an infinite supply of textbooks and numerous courses dealing with things so out of our reach, beyond and before our time, but when the real issues hit we are just supposed to roll with the punches, so to speak. We need to find a way to break the silence that comes along with suicide and to find a way to deal with its subsequent effects.

I believe that schools should implement some sort of mandatory class to educate students on issues, such as suicide, which are usually swept under the rug. The class could stress a judgment-free zone where students could share their personal stories (if willing), and discuss the best ways to deal with the issues presented.

Maybe in creating this outlet for students a sense of community would be established, allowing them to feel part of something bigger than themselves.

September is suicide awareness month. I was reminded of this by the notorious Facebook which had me write the word ‘love’ across my wrist to promote awareness on September 10.

When I came to school with ‘love’ boldly written with sharpie across my wrist, I was surprised that I didn’t see much of the same. I thought that with students so consumed with the social media site that everyone would have followed suit, but I was unfortunately wrong.

So what will it take to break the silence?

Facebook launched a new service that allows users to report suicidal comments posted by their friends, triggering an email advising them to call a help-hotline and speak in private with a counsellor online. I cannot say if this will work or not, considering the lack of attention to the September 10 love campaign; however, I am overjoyed to see social media using its

power effectively to create awareness about issues that really matter.

The Counselling department is hosting their annual Depression and Anxiety Education Screening Day (DAESD) on Thursday, October 4, where they will be offering free depression and anxiety screening tests, resources and free snacks.

There is an extensive list of online resources to help those thinking about suicide or those who want to help potential victims: u f v. c a /c o u n s e l l i n g /c r i s i s / whatisacrisis.htm suicideprevention.ca suicidepreventionlifeline.org heretohelp.bc.ca suicideinfo.ca

It is time to leave the nest! It is the time to break free, stay up late with your music way to loud, 24/7 access to the couch and TV and no more hiding any party aftermath. You are ready for the big world out there; nothing can stop you – except maybe your roommate.

First of all you’ve picked where you are going to be living, be it an apartment, a condo, a dorm room, a house or a basement suit. How big is the space? How many people could live there comfortably, meaning you will not be stepping all over each other 24 hours a day? Then there is the rent. Can you afford it if your income suddenly drops (i.e: taking a sick day from work or taking time off for exams) – and how many people will you need to split the rent with?

Roommates are a necessity for students living as cheaply as possible. It’s difficult even to rent a one bedroom place by yourself. But how do you pick the right roommate?

The perfect roommate is obviously someone you know but not someone you are best friends with.

Relationships can be damaged once you are in each other’s space all the time, bad habits can get on nerves and quite possibly ruin the friendship. It is best to choose an acquaintance or a friend of a friend, someone you can be straightforward with about matters like rent and not worry about hurting their feelings.

There is a certain element of trust that goes with a roommate, beyond stealing each other’s stuff. You wouldn’t want to walk in and have your room ransacked with your favourite lotion smeared on the walls or realize you’re always out of milk, yet your roommate specified they do not even drink milk. Your roommate should also understand the boundaries of space and privacy. By living with someone you see them at their best, worst and most embarrassing. Details like illness, love affairs and weird habits are best kept between roommates.

What happens in the house should stay in the house.

Remember to respect your roommate. Everyone likes to go out and have a good time, but you are sharing a space with someone else who might not have the same concept of a good time. Coming home to a full swing party the night before a math final might not be perfectly okay with everyone. Be considerate of work schedules, exams and yes relationships. A basic rule is, if it would make you uncomfortable than it’s best to be avoided.

If you’re concerned you and your roommate are not on the same page., consider a written roommate contract, for everything from who does what for housecleaning to who buys the toilet paper. There are thousands available online with varying terms depending on your situation.

Being open and honest with whoever it is you decide to live with is the easiest way to stress free roommate living, and treat your roommate how you would hope to be treated.

Good luck!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Is Cosmo a feminist mag?

Savoury or sweet:

SASHA MOEDT

when foodies go too far

THE CASCADE

It was the sexual revolution, the second wave of feminism rolling in, when Cosmopolitan revamped its content to match the times.

According to Cosmopolitan, the first issue that transformed the magazine from a tired homemaker’s mag into a daring, provocative and wildly popular source for the modern girl’s discussions on life, work and sex was published in the midsixties.

Cosmo published articles on taboo topics – on the Pill, extra-marital affairs, and on how to enjoy sex. Women were gaining their freedom, and Cosmo talked about things the rest of the world maybe didn’t. Female sexuality, career-oriented women, independent assertive women out for a good time, all over magazine racks.

But today, flipping through an issue of Cosmopolitan, I can only think that it was a start. The article in Cosmo, titled “How Cosmo changed the world,” says that even then, in the sixties, some “hard-core” feminists took issue with the magazine.

The focus on beauty and men didn’t sit well. “What they didn’t seem to realize was, Cosmo’s gentler brand of feminism was more realistic and palatable.”

First, a quick note: If you are a feminist, you are hardcore. If you’re not hardcore, you’re not a feminist. bell hooks, renowned feminist, defines feminism as “the movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”

If you want equal pay to men, but you still shame other women for their sexual behaviour, their body, or the ways they do not conform to expected gender roles, you’re no feminist.

And Cosmo is not feminist, either.

Headlines: “The dirty little secret to looking hot at the gym”? How about “Five new ways you can lose weight”? or “Nine dating rules to get a guy”?

The issue is chock full of traditionally attractive models. It’s got almost every topic available to make women feel lousy – how am I supposed to put on that make-up, buy that dress, do that workout routine (it didn’t make my thighs firmer!)

AMY VAN VEEN THE CASCADE

Image: Cosmopolitan

and then do those sex or relationship “moves” to secure a man? Will I be happier? Can I only love my own body if I do that?

There is such a focus on landing the man that I wonder if the whole point of trying the beauty tips and working out and having a successful career is for solely that purpose: meeting, screwing and marrying Mr. Right.

Cosmo encourages taking control of your own sexuality. Sure, there are career tips for the working girl, but that isn’t enough to be called a feminist in this day and age – even if it was 50 years ago.

Imagine a Cosmo for feminists.

It would embrace sexuality just as much. But there would be honesty and genuine respect. It wouldn’t just be for straight women.

The empowerment would really be there, not just a weak shadow of it. There would be activism and encouragement for everyday women

ploughing on through a sexist society. There would be career tips for women overlooked because of their gender, legal advice for women going through divorce, a focus on talented actresses and intelligent role models.

Because empowerment doesn’t mean the ability to perform bad girl sex for a man, or having tight cheeks, or knowing the secret of confident chicks.

It would be a magazine that any girl could—and should—read, virgin or experienced, single or married, straight, bi or lesbian. It would be a magazine that is focused on empowerment – real, tangible empowerment.

The new iPhone has our undivided attention NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE

Finally, the iPhone 5 has arrived!

Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 this week in all its glory. Pre-orders started September 14 with a September 21 release in select countries, including Canada.

For $199 and a two-year calling-anddata plan, this magnificent work of art can be yours.

It’s made with Apple’s typical flare and care: it’s lighter, thinner, speedier, larger. The half-inch added to the screen allows five rows of apps instead of the previous and obviouslylimited four rows; the “Retina Display” makes the screen nice to look at.

And the headphones that come with it are that much cooler. Reviewers are raving. Michael Liedtke writes in the National Post, among other ravings, that “the iPhone is going to be a case of love at first touch.”

Elsewhere: a spree of executions, torture, and mass detentions in Iraq raise concerns over human rights as

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an “intentional state of terror” is inflicted on the Iraqi people, drawing our attention to the ongoing battle between Sunni and Shia leaders. According to Aljazeera, Amnesty International has voiced fears that Iraq’s government may be using state-sanctioned executions to eliminate political opponents held in prison.

Prisoners are being held in six-byfour-foot cells, with up to 120 cellmates. The cells are so crowded that prisoners are forced to sleep standing up. Prisoners are tortured while being forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.

I begin to wonder how it is that the iPhone 5 and other gadgetry of a similar nature impact our lives more than the “terrorist torture” occurring right now in Iraq. If we looked at the scene objectively, what conclusion would we come to? Possessions have become more important to us than human lives.

It shows in so many ways.

The statement seems dramatic, but when you look through the Facebook

status updates, which topic comes up most often? A debate on whether you should ditch your Blackberry and get the new iPhone, or a concerned update about the goings on in the Middle East?

And even if there is a Facebook status ... well, that person now has a clear conscious. After a shared activist page or a status of righteous anger, we can go back to the phones.

Perhaps we’ve become desensitized. Killings in the Middle East are old news. They happen, and often.

These particular crimes against humanity will fade from memory and new, more gruesome deaths will replace them. Why even bother to keep up with all the atrocities? It’s interesting that by the time the iPhone 6 comes out, there will be another attack on human rights somewhere in the world that will replace the current one, unnoticed or dismissed by consumers.

The torture, the iPhone, why does any of it matter?

Food is a wonderful thing. Mixing together four different spices and suddenly getting a gingerbread flavour is stunning. Putting water, flour and yeast into a bowl and having it turn into bread is a magical process.

Whipping egg whites until you think nothing will happen and suddenly having it turn into meringue is another supernatural transformation worthy of being a sci-fi novel plot point.

However, there are certain things about cooking and baking that I feel need to be addressed.

Desserts are sweet. Entrées are savoury. Let’s keep those two things clear.

However much Pinterest entices me to make a cupcake that looks like a hamburger or a cheesecake that is actually a disguised pesto cheeseball, I do not want to take that bait. I don’t want to bite into a burger and only then realize it’s a cupcake. The whole process of anticipation sets me up for something entirely different.

Here I am expecting that umami flavour of onions and garlic and—what the shit!?—what’s this buttercream frosting doing on my burger? By the time my mind reconvenes with my taste buds, it’s too late. A bad first bite is like tripping on the first step down stairs. The rest of it is ruined.

And why on earth would you turn cheesecake—something fluffy, sweet and creamy—into something that normally requires a cheese knife and a cracker? Why would you put your fellow eaters through that kind of psychological trauma?

Imagine the scene. There your guests are, sitting around your dinner table topped with either handcrocheted place mats or that vinyl tablecloth you got on sale. You’ve completed your amuse-bouche appetizers and brilliant entrée, the recipes for which you’ve retrieved from some obscure foodie blog. Your guests are settling into that post-consumption glow and you set before them a fluffy slice of cheesecake. Their eyes widen.

Their mouths water. They’ve never seen green specks in a cheesecake.

Maybe it’s spearmint, they think. Or some kind of lime zest. And then they bite into it and offer up stiff smiles with the unexpected bite of savoury cheesecake sitting on their tongues. They nod with a mixture of suppressed uncertainty and horror.

Never again will they come over for dinner. Never again will they inquire into what you’re eating for lunch or ask to “grab a bite” lest you take them to some scary savoury dessert place where people force you to eat beef milkshakes and mushroom trifles. Why would you do that to your friends? Why would you scar them like that? You’ve broken the sacred trust between mankind and sweet dessert.

It’s not that I have a problem with food experimentation, but it requires a level of expectation. I’ll be the first one to admit the glory of maple syrup on pretty much anything. Buddy the Image: Live, Love, Cupcakes/Flickr

Elf was right. Maple syrup bacon.

Maple syrup sausage. Maple syrup salmon. On top of that, I have recently made myself open to the idea of fruit and meat. Apple chicken sandwiches, for instance, or the incredibly odd tradition of putting what is essentially cranberry jam onto a helping of Thanksgiving turkey. These kinds of pairings are ones that I am open to because I know it will be weird at first but it’s something I will eventually come around to. Plus, it’s not like something sweet is masquerading as something savoury or vice versa.

The horridness of pitting your eye against your taste buds, however, is something I cannot condone. No matter what social media website tells me otherwise.

10

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor can be sent to nick@ufvcascade.ca by any UFV student or community member and must be less than 500 words.

Cascade’s coverage of pipelines one-sided Sir: I read with interest about your deliberations of holding Gwen O’Mahoney and Megan Mungall to account for their differing facts and figures. It is important to hold those in power to account, and I applaud your efforts.

I was wondering if those efforts extend to the editorial policy and reportage of The Cascade?

I guess I do not understand the finer points of editing a newspaper where the substance of Nadine Moedt’s articles, “Community speaks out against existing pipeline,” and “How oil companies plan to kill you (yes, you).” Is there a reason the same article ran twice?

Activism aside, where is the desire for truth and accountability?

The reporter is correct in reporting that Kinder Morgan’s Trans-mountain Pipeline was indeed built in the ‘50s, however I wonder why she chose not to report that the pipeline has carried heavy oil and/or diluted bitumen in addition to refined products for half of its existence.

This pipeline has never carried natural gas but Moedt suggests that it does or did and that oil companies are shifting to diluted bitumen.

The fact is that bitumen has been part of Alberta’s oil pro-

duction since the days of Peter Lougheed. When you consider the volume of petroleum transmitted through this pipeline and accidents, it is one of the safest in the world - safer than truck or rail over land. Not one barrel has ever been put out over water!

Moedt also fails to mention that, in addition to diluted bitumen, benzene is much readily found in cigarette smoke, gasoline some cosmetics, nail polish remover, lubricants and dozens of products found around the home. Compared to these sources, exposure due to the transmission of diluted bitumen seems very remote indeed.

I must concede that benzene has been linked to leukemia, but doesn’t blood cancer sound oh-so-muchmore dramatic and menacing?

The author continues to deftly represent that oil sands at room temperature is a solid, when in fact it is a viscous liquid and Diluted Bitumen has the consistency of peanut butter and a density of 800kg/m^3 that compares to 1000kg/m^3 for water. Any first year science student can tell you that diluted bitumen will float on water and this fact has been readily acknowledged, even by critics.

What of dredging Burrard Inlet you ask? It happens so frequently to keep the channel clear for cruise ships and freighters

and to build convention centres or seabus terminal maintenance and expansion. The police occasionally dredge the bottom to find dead bodies and contraband, sinister indeed, but hardly a source of concern in those contexts.

Despite the misleading representations to the contrary, British Columbians want both the Northern Gateway and expansion for the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

They want it each time they fill up their cars with benzene laden gasoline, or ride the diesel fuelled busses to and from UFV. They want it each time they shop for produce at their grocery store shipped via truck from California, travel across Canada, North America or the World via airplane or bus or train. They want it with each iPhone shipped from China, fashions from Europe or sinful chocolate or coffee from South or Central America.

They also want the things Canada’s energy industry creates or subsidizes. Things like high paying jobs, equalization payments and social transfers from the Federal Government for things like Healthcare, or Canada Line, the West Coast Express and Skytrain. Dividends from Oil Companies pay the pensions of our private and public sector pensioners and our most needy

seniors through the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security net. UFV students enjoy the benefit of the social transfer that keep Canada’s tuition fees low.

These pipelines provide for all of the above and expanding them secure supply of Alberta’s oil for British Columbia, deliver benefits for decades and also support an emerging middle class in China and India while assisting to stabilize economies like Japan so that people around the world can begin to enjoy a similar standard of living and the benefits that Moedt, Hale and Muxlow take for granted.

Why shouldn’t people in the developing world enjoy the same things we take for granted too?

How can Canada meet the growing demand of its seniors under their pensions, the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security without expanding our energy sector?

The Cascade remains silent on these questions and the truth is thus obscured in the misleading rhetoric of Moedt.

Herman Nilsson - Student at Data Analysis Sources “Trans Mountain Pipeline System,” (n.d). from Kinder Morgan, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://www.kindermorgan.com/business/canada/

transmountain.cfm.

“Background,” (n.d.) from Trans Mountain Pipeline Project, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://www.transmountain.com/project/background/.

Furchtgott-Roth, Diana, “Pipelines are Safest for Transportation of Oil and Gas” from Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ir_17. htm.

“Benzene.” (n.d.). from Wikipedia, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Benzene.

“Unconventional Oil.” (n.d). from Wikipedia, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_oil.

“Dilbit.” (n.d.). from Wikipedia, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Dilbit.

Song, Lisa. “A Dilbit Primer: How It’s Different from Conventional Oil.” from InsideClimate News, retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120626/ dilbit-primer-diluted-bitumenconventional-oil-tar-sands-Alberta-Kalamazoo-Keystone-XLEnbridge?page=2.

If only I could pass on U-Pass This is in reply to Volume 20 - Issue 21’s article from Wednesday September 12 on the article “Don’t take a pass when it comes to U-Pass”.

I picked up the paper and read this article about how great Upass is, and all the access it gives you to great deals. Well, don’t I have the right to avoid paying for something I don’t want or use? Secondly, why should I pay for other peoples benefit?

You see, I live in Langley, and I come to school to get educated.

That means I can’t use the transit portion of the U-pass, and the “great deals” are very limited in Langley. It also means that going to Abby to use the rec. centres doesn’t float my boat. So I want to opt out and save $40 each semester. But do you think I can?

NO!

I take two courses per semester because I live in the real world - the world where people have to work to afford school, where mommy and daddy aren’t helping with school and a world where huge student loan debt is NOT a good thing. I’m already paying $30 for a student union who doesn’t stand up for my rights because I live in Langley, $35 for a building that gets used for other peoples enjoyment, and $3 for a radio station that hardly anybody listens to. I also pay $4.50 for a newspaper that seems to have about 10 per cent of its articles discussing menstrual periods, pornography, and butt plugs.

Then I see a poster on the wall at school saying SUS fees might be on the rise again. Yep, its gonna be over $100 total for

all of these things I can’t opt out of. That’s about 10 per cent of the cost of my tuition (+ another 10 per cent ancillary fees) because I take only two courses. You say, “why not take five courses and get done sooner and limit your fees?” Well that works for those of you who love student loans or whose daddy has deep enough pockets to put you through school. So you say “well why don’t you take advantage of the things SUS offers?” Nice theory but that means driving to Abbotsford even more, and spending time I could be using to make money or study (last time I checked that is what school is about). Yeah, sorry but shooting “zombies” with toy guns so I can end the SUSpocalypse isn’t high on my list of priorities in life.

I’m actually interested in getting

an education so I can get a good job and pay for my families food and health. I’m not in an educational institute to play ping pong, listen to some mediocre concert, and eat pizza provided by the SUS to get me to listen to their “come out and vote spiel”.

“But the U-pass gives you such good deals.” Ya, if I want to booze it up at Baron Bar, sip an overpriced coffee at City Blends or ingest an overpriced pita at Pita Pit. The amazing part is that it is viewed as some great socialist idea. “We all pay into something so that everybody can enjoy it.” The reality of the matter is that the people who really think the $40 is worthwhile are in one of two groups. 1. They ride the bus and live in Abbotsford - that’s great and I support that, but a bus pass would do the

same, and 2. they are students who want to “experience the college life.” A.k.a stay young and avoid responsibility as long as they can. If drinking beer, playing ping-pong, getting free pizza, listening to aspiring musicians, and hanging out at a rec. centre or the SU building with your pals is what college is all about then you have it good my friend - and you should pay for it from your own bank account, not mine! Its the rich getting richer while the poor students who can’t afford full-time school are paying the same amount and are also less able to make use of the product because they are studying or working.

Shawn Meints

Growing pains: there’s no shame in shame SOL KAUFFMAN The Martlet

VICTORIA (CUP) – Shame is a powerful tool.

Our generation flails around a lot trying to figure out who we should be. One of the reasons we do this is because of that line we were told as kids about being an individual. We’re told not to be ashamed of who we are, and that we all have value. But rejecting the benefits of shame is a mistake, because it’s a fundamental part of culture that helps us set a standard for our behaviour.

Kids eventually go through

that phase where they should really start showering regularly, or brushing their teeth twice a day or working on their table manners.

When I was 11 or 12, my parents would wheedle and beg me to cut my nails, wash my hands, blow my nose — all those gross things that start mattering when you turn into a big, disgusting puberty machine. I’d shrug them off because they couldn’t help loving me anyway.

My folks understood shame pretty well, so when asking politely didn’t work, they resorted to stuff like, “You’ll never get a girlfriend that way,” and, “Don’t

your friends think you’re gross?”

This tactic didn’t work very well until I got a little older and started to realize I did care what other people thought. I wanted to make good first impressions and maintain a reputation with people who knew me. It’s kind of an Adam and Eve moment — eating from the Tree of Knowledge and realizing you’re naked before the sneering grins of your contemporaries.

That step is an important part of growing up, because it means you’ve developed enough empathy and emotional awareness to understand how other people are reacting to you.

But there are certainly things that aren’t worth feeling shame about. Some things you can’t change — they aren’t up to you, or aren’t your fault, so marinating in shame soup isn’t productive — it just makes you feel like shit. But you shouldn’t reject the feeling of shame altogether, because it’s a way of getting data on how your actions and choices are received by different people.

It’s the desire to avoid shame that partially motivates us, as we get older, to do things like wear clean clothes and be polite with strangers; we’ve learned from experience and those things have become habits.

You can also use shame as motivation to push yourself towards things you either wish you were doing, or wish you were doing better.

For all the work people do encouraging youth to have confidence and be happy with themselves, we still rely on the power of shame to regulate how people act.

But the interesting thing about shame is that it relies on having some amount of self-worth. You can’t feel embarrassed about something unless you’re worried it’ll do damage to your public image. So if you feel shame, you should feel a little proud, too.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

11

ARTS & LIFE

CROSSWORD

The b is silent

THe cascade

ACROSS

1 2

NICK UBELS

3 4 5 6

2. Shrill sock puppet with her own Emmy-award-winning PBS children’s show (4 letters, 4 letters) 6. Understated (6 letters) 9. Arms and legs are these. (4 letters).

10. Morsel (5 letters) 11. Lara Craft is this (4 letters, 6 letters) 13. Scott Pilgrim’s band are “here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!” (3 letters, 7 letters)

7 8

DOWN

9

10 11

12

13

EclipseCrossword.com

Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18

1. Diminuative Tom from English folklore (5 letters) 3. Another word for self-confidence that will earn you 11-points in Scrabble (6 letters) 4. Men’s hairstyle often used to poorly conceal a receding hairline, famously sported by Donald Trump (8 letters) 5. The Mario brothers’ profession (7 letters) 7. Can mean surrender (7 letters) 8. 58 per cent of Canadian students graduate with this tuition casualty (4 letters) 12. 2008 film set at a Catholic school and starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams (5 letters)

LAST WEEK’S Answer Key Across 1. Jim Henson 8. Sister Sister 9. Seven 10. Hilda 11. Turner 13. Funny

Down 2. Miller 3. Franklin 4. Fred Savage 5. Katsopolis 6. George Foreman 7. Winslow 10. Hanson 12. Raven

The Weekly Horoscope Star Signs from Swamp Bob Gemini: May 21 - June 21

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22

A well-meaning, if unwashed, hippie will tell you to save the environment by washing your hair with apple cider vinegar. Your only option at this point is to blind him with that handy bottle of Purell that you keep in your bag and run like the Dickens.

You will mistakenly shout out to what you think is Johnny Depp at your local Costco.

To save embarrassment you should feign sudden interest at the women serving the tiny cheeses and if all else fails fake and injury … or injure someone else.

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21

You will inspire a down-and-out artist to create his best piece of art. Sadly they are an abstract artist and the piece will be a plate of Spaghetti-o’s thrown at a picture of the Queen entitled, “Joan of Arc and other structures of stability,” but try to look at the bright side … at least you’re not Ke$ha.

You will be skeptical of the legitimacy of this week’s horoscope after it tells you to bring a cake in the shape of Freddie Mercury to a nondescript location near the swamp. Believe it … and don’t forget the napkins.

Your all night kung fu movie marathon will leave you ingesting enough sugar for you to be able to break the time barrier. Remember to steal Lincoln’s hat for me.

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21

You will lose your beloved goldfish Goldie who is eaten by the cat, who in turn chokes on the goldfish. Your dog is fine; however, he is now the head of a secret shadow organization known as “Bark Bark Woof.”

I have no idea what that means but you should probably give him a milk bone to placate him.

Aries: March 21 - April 19 Your romantic interest will present you with a bouquet of Birds of Paradise. Clearly this means that they think you are a loud, overdressed individual better suited to a Ke$ha concert.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20 Beware of bearded geographers.

Your career as a can-can girl will come to a screeching halt after you realize that it has absolutely nothing to do with lobbing cans of Campbell’s soup at dirty old men.

Your weekly trip to the drag races will come to a tragic end when you are crushed by an orca that falls from an overpassing FedEx jet. Sushi will be served at your funeral.

Virgo: Aug 23 - Sept 22

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19

You will feel an unbridled urge for world domination. A good stepping stone might be taking over your local student government.

Be sure to keep watch of your drink when you go clubbing this weekend or you may find yourself waking up in a shipping container headed to your new life.

Visit us at www.monktucky.com!

12

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

Chillpocalypse LIVE!

Left: Layton Keely of Rags to Radio Right: Jake Janzen with Stephen Dahl in the background of Oh Village

BLAKE MCGUIRE as Pardon My Striptease, Oh

THe cascade/PHOTOS

The Student Union Society in conjunction with CIVL and AfterMath continued their Weeks of Welcome events last Thursday at the CEP campus with an evening of hot dogs, prize draws and bands such

Village, Rags to Radio and the creator of Songs To Wear Pants To: Andrew Huang.

This concluded their second day of CHILLpocalypse, and is the last event of Weeks of Welcome apart from “The AfterMath,” where more bands will be playing at Af-

terMath, as well as a magic show and prize draws.

Among prizes given away were a prize pack of band merch including CDs signed by the bands and a trip to Whistler. Vouchers for free beer at a local bar were also handed out to students of age.

30% said they did it to get ahead.

Do it your way.

Having difficulty getting into courses you need?

Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning offers you guaranteed enrolment into transferable courses available online and by distance.

Above: Adam Coleman of Pardon My Striptease

MC116858

www.truopen.ca/yourway

Flexible • Credible • Online and distance

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

13

ARTS & LIFE

Above: Jake Holmes of Rags to Radio Below: Pardon My Striptease performing

Above: Vocalist Andrew Putt and guitarist Brendan Woodroff of Pardon My Striptease Below: Andrew Huang getting into his performance

WIN

MONDAY WINGS &

DRINKS PARTY DAILY DRINK FEATURES INCLUDING:

FOR YOU & 9 FRIENDS!

3.99 DRAFT BEER EVERY MON - THURS

/2 PRICE WINE GLASSES

1

EVERY TUESDAY

25¢ WING NIGHT EVERY MONDAY

SCAN FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN! Above: Brendan Woodroff of Pardon My Striptease (still playing) taking advantage of his wireless set-up

32760 Simon Ave | Abbotsford, BC 604 870 1162

14

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

The Bartender

The Cascade Cookbook Larissa Horne’s Potato Salad

Larissa Horne has been teaching Russian and European history at UFV since 2004. She was born and raised in St.Petersburg, Russia. She is interested in doing Russian political history in field research. Larissa looks to give her students unique educational and cultural opportunities inside and outside of a university setting.

Pink Margarita

“It is an extremely fattening salad that people are sceptical about at first, but later they cannot get enough of it.”

Ingredients: mayonnaise (to taste) 3 large potatoes 2 large pickles 1 carrot 1 can of peas 1/4 of an English cucumber 5 eggs mustard (to taste) a pinch of salt

Directions:

4. Slice cucumber into fine pieces and cut pickles into small cubes.

5. Mix egg, potatoes, carrots, cucumber and pickles together.

6. Add mayonnaise, mustard and salt to taste. Mix well, but be careful not to over-mix.

7. Add peas.

8. Serve cold.

1. In 3 large pots, separately boil eggs, whole potatoes and carrots.

Optional: “Once in a while I like to add canned salmon to give it a ‘Canadian flavour’.”

2. Set eggs, potatoes and carrots aside to cool.

Estimated cost:

3. Once cooled cut eggs, potatoes and carrots into smaller chunks.

This drink came to Juan Juanez as he sipped tequila watching the infamous flamenco dancer Flamingo dancing the Fandango.

Image: UFV.ca

Very high during the “Russian Winter” but very reasonable otherwise.

Mix: With a shaker and ice Glass: Cocktail glass Garnish: Maraschino cherry Type: Evening drink

Dine & Dash Pho Galaxy PAIGE HOBLAK THe cascade

104-45863 Yale Road West Chilliwack, BC (604) 392-1112 Hours: open seven days a week. 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Cost: $6 to $10 Pho Galaxy is the epitome of a dive restaurant and I mean this in the best way possible. When you walk into this little hole in the wall you will most likely want to turn away. It is definitely not what you would call a fine dining experience. Pho Galaxy is a no-frills restaurant that focuses solely on one thing: the food.

Vietnam-born Al Trieu, the owner of this little gem, has taken authentic Vietnamese flavours and ingredients and brought them to us. It’s clear he takes pride in what he does, from the way he personally greets my boyfriend and I every time we come in, to the passion that goes into each masterfullycrafted dish.

The broth to his signature soups, Pho, takes many hours of slow cooking to get just the right fusion of flavours. The broth acts as the foundation for these incredible soups, which are then accompanied by fresh vegetables and your protein of choice. A side plate with fresh sprouts, Thai basil, and lime comes with your soup to dress it up according to your personal taste.

The Pho is definitely the highlight, evident from your first taste.

My personal favourite is the vegetarian hot and sour soup which

1 oz. tequila 1 tbsp. grenadine 2 tsp. raspberry-flavoured liqueur 2 tsp. lemon juice

The Cascade is now hiring an Arts & Life Editor!

Job Summary The Arts and Life editor of The Cascade is responsible for assigning, collecting, editing and laying out the content of the Arts and Life section of The Cascade. The Arts and Life Editor shall ensure that issues relevant to students are presented in his/her section, and allow the UFV arts community to be represented in his/her section. At all times, the Arts and Life editor shall adhere to the Cascade Journalism Society’s bylaws, Code of Conduct and other polices, as well as ensuring that all material in his/her section does not violate the Canadian University Press Code of Ethics.

Duties and Responsibilities

Image:Google+

comes with rice or vermicelli noodles, all for just $6.25. It always blows me away that my boyfriend and I can both eat for under $20 and the best part is that I usually come out with leftovers due to the generous portions.

If you are not a Pho person, you would be surprised at the variety that you still have to choose from.

They have a variety of familiar Chinese dishes, such as mixed veggies and chicken on chow mein for $8.95 or the honey garlic (or sweet and sour) chicken for $9.45. They also have Indian-inspired dishes, such as curried chicken on rice for $8.95.

Pho Galaxy has some of the most delicious food I have ever tasted.

Although their Chinese and Indian dishes are very good, if you are a first timer, the Pho is a must. This is not the kind of place where you go once and forget about. You will find their Pho extremely addictive, which isn’t such a bad thing considering the prices.

If you are ever in the area you have to try this place out. Remember not to get discouraged by the dive-like appearance of the place, because it is truly an authentic Vietnamese eating experience.

1) Ensure that matters of interest to UFV students are covered in the Arts and Life section.

2) Assign, collect, and edit articles for the Arts and Life section of The Cascade.

3) Hold at least two writing workshops per semester for the purpose of training.

4) Coordinate with the Managing Editor entertainment-related promotions and contests.

5) Arrange and distribute media passes and tickets where applicable.

6) Create and maintain working relationships with the UFV Visual Art department, theatre department, publicists and local venue operators.

7) Write a minimum of one full article for the Arts and Life section per week.

8) Must work five hours per publishing week in The Cascade’s office.

9) Perform other duties as required by the Editor-in-Chief.

10) Attend all writers’, editorial board and lay out meetings.

Qualifications 1) Must be a member in good standing of the Cascade Journalism Society.

2) Must be registered in at least one credit course during the fall/winter semesters.

3) Must be available to work varying hours.

4) Must be available to be present in the office for at least five hours per week.

5) Must be able to deal effectively with Society and university staff, students and the general public.

6) Must demonstrate strong command of the English language by passing an editing test, which will be administered during the interview process.

7) Basic literacy is required.

8) Must have knowledge of all relevant laws and journalistic standards concerning libel.

Send resume, cover letter, and sample arts article to Editor-in-Chief Nick Ubels (nick@ufvcascade.ca) by Friday, September 21, 2012

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

15

ARTS & LIFE

Book Review My Year of the Racehorse by Kevin Chong DESSA BAYROCK THe cascade I approach non-fiction with something bordering on reluctance, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I know exactly where this echo of dislike comes from; it’s not that I don’t like non-fiction, but that textbooks are non-fiction. If you hand me anything resembling a textbook and expect me to read it in my spare time, you’re out of luck.

But I tricked myself into picking up non-fiction this summer and I’m glad I did. It was a reminder that all stories stem from real life, and real life is far from boring.

My Year of the Racehorse is Kevin Chong’s fourth book and second work of non-fiction. As the title suggests, the book spans a year of his life, a period in which he cleverly and bluntly lets the reader into his head and tag along on every trip and conversation. He is an unapologetic narrator, one that we gain a liking for almost in spite of ourselves. (On the other hand, this might be because we know we aren’t stuck with him: as the title tells us, we only have to follow him for a year.)

We start the year with Chong in a way that many people start the New Year: drunk and making a list. Facing the items somewhat soberly the next morning, it hits him that he’s reaching a stage in his life where he should probably start checking them off. Become a home owner. Find true love. Settle down and start a family. See the world.

Learn another language. Start a retirement plan. Get a tattoo.

This list ties the book together, even though its first mention comes some 50 pages into the book and Chong mentions it with an off-handed nonchalance. It has a shine of truth to it; these are life goals that almost every person has echoing on a to-do list somewhere, however reluctantly. They’re such normal goals that they’re cliché – and yet every one of them seems like an insurmountable task. Think about it: you can’t just step outside your door one morning and find true love.

None of these goals are going to be completed in an afternoon, so Chong resigns himself to his fate and starts at the top of the list. As he reluctantly admits to the reader, he should see about owning a house. Maybe it’s about time to settle down and stop renting.

So Chong gathers up his modest savings and buys a chunk of property. The kicker? Chong doesn’t buy a house, a condo or even a houseboat – he invests in a racehorse.

“Why make a U-turn in my life,” Chong reasons, “When a couple of left turns around the park would do?”

This roundabout logic leads Chong—and the reader along for the ride—to meet Mocha Time, affectionately known as Blackie, a mare with respectable standings in both speed and profit. This newfound connection to the racetrack leads Chong to a cast of characters, such as Randi, the profane mailcarrier/horse trainer with a heart of gold, and Charlene, a woman who communes with animals

Q&A: Author Kevin Chong

on procrastination, horseracing and the hybridity of Vancouver Kevin Chong is a Vancouver author and has seen two books hit the shelves in the past year and a half: Beauty Plus Pity, a novel, and My Year of the Racehorse, a non-fiction work about horseracing. These books join Baroque-a-nova, Chong’s first and highly-acclaimed novel, as well as Neil Young Nation, an account of a road trip that traces the path of Neil Young. Chong also teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia.

through a spirit named Sean.

The events in the novel are hardly monumental; at the end of the day, it’s a book about a man and a horse. But while we meander through one short year and follow Chong’s haphazard forays into places he really has no reason to be, we see a completely honest narrator showing us how he moved from one stage of life to another. It’s a journey too weird to be anything but true. It’s a journey too true to be anything but weird.

This is the power of non-fiction; although the events of the book are hardly earth-shattering, they remain gripping.

Chong’s narration is abruptly, and sometimes unexpectedly, entertaining. His sarcastic digs are snicker-worthy, and his deer-inthe-headlights description of the world of horseracing is a mix of hilarious and a thank-god-that’snot-me sentiment on the part of the reader.

My hands-down favourite element, however, is Chong’s decision to write two other horse-racethemed self-help books, passages of which he includes in some chapters. The first is titled The Winning Ticket Inside You; the second, What I Learned at the Track: a Manual of Failure. Ultimately, My Year of the Racehorse is a combination of both.

As a narrator, he’s witty, clever, and peppers his account with just enough imagery and self-depreciation to keep himself likeable.

Over the course of the book, the typical life goal list that Chong has set out for himself slowly begins to evolve. He eventually strikes every item off the list, but without completing any of them to the letter – “find true love,” for instance, becomes “visited a breeding shed.”

In short, he leads us through the spirit of the resolutions, rather than falling into the cookie-cutter to-do list that seems to face down an entire generation. Through this process, we begin to see why these things are important and how that changes from person to person – which applies not only to Chong, but to every reader as well.

“I accomplished everything I wanted by not accomplishing these things,” Chong writes, a mere four or five pages left in the book. “Instead, I bought a racehorse. From her example, I learned to see persistence as its own success. You might win some and lose others, but you prove yourself every time you run honestly.”

First of all, what’s this past year been like for you, with Beauty Plus Pity and My Year of the Racehorse?

People think I’m like Joyce Carol Oates, churning out books left, right and centre, but the truth of the matter is Beauty Plus Pity I started writing in 2002 and the racehorse book I started writing in 2009, so it sort of coincided. At one point there was discussion that both books would come out in the same season, and that would have been really crazy.

It’s still been pretty hectic, to be honest. I’ve been teaching, and I’ve also moved in with my girlfriend and her kid, and so my days have gotten really busy. It’s a lot calmer now that it’s fall.

Last year I think there was one day where I did a reading in Seattle, and then drove home and flew to Ottawa for a day, and came back here for the writers’ festival all in the same week. It was pretty amazing. But I don’t think I’m leaving the province this fall, and that’s great.

I’ve read both My Year of the Racehorse and Neil Young Nation, and it seems like you kind of approached both of them as though you felt you were faking your way into writing a book.

[Laughs.] I know how you feel.

There are non-fiction writers who write about their traumatic experiences, like being ill, or surviving an accident or something like that.

Well, for better or for worse—and mostly for the better—I’ve had a pretty untraumatic life.

So I guess I would consider my books as kind of non-essential

books in some ways. They’re books about different interests, and writing about it in a first-person way allows me to delve into that interest, be it internet fandom and digging deeper into my teenage interest in Neil Young or horseracing.

My goal is to get people who aren’t necessarily interested in horseracing or interested in Neil Young to somehow relate to my personal experiences.

I’m sure there are people who think writing from this kind of personal perspective is somewhat self-indulgent, and I can’t argue with that. At the same time, I would say that I find things I’m interested in, and talk people into letting me write books about it. Yes. That’s definitely true.

You mentioned things have slowed down now that it’s fall.

Does that mean you’re working on something new?

As you were calling me, I was actually procrastinating. I’m trying to write an outline of this new novel, which I’ve written 18,000 words of.

Most people write their outline right at the beginning, but at the same time I just need to think things through, so I spent two months writing and this week I decided to write an outline for it.

So to procrastinate I’ve been playing Settlers of Catan on my iPad. I never really understood the appeal until this week, and now I’ve been playing it until, like, two in the morning. My work day involves two parts procrastination for every one part work.

I think that’s fairly normal.

[Laughs.] Oh, I hope so. And you know what, I know some really productive writers, people who write a book a year, and they only spend two or three or four hours a day. And to be honest, if you can have two or three good hours a day, you don’t need to write that much more, because that’s plenty.

And if you can manage your time well, you can do a lot of dithering.

And I think it’s important to the process to be able to walk around.

Sometimes you get an idea while

you’re walking your dog, or in the shower, or just hanging out. And that doesn’t happen when you’re preoccupied with work and trying to cram every hour with meaningful activity. A lot of the time, fiction involves a lot of flailing.

How does living in Vancouver affect your work, and how much does that come into your work?

Vancouver influences me in a couple of ways. I’m mainly here because my family is here and I feel really connected to the city. I’ve been here almost all my life, except for when I was born in Hong Kong and went to grad school in New York.

But I went to high school here, and I run into people all the time.

I really, really like that, to be honest. It’s a very comfortable place for me.

And as someone who’s of Chinese ancestry living in a city that’s a quarter Chinese, it’s really interesting to see how east meets west and west meets east – the hybridity, the cross-pollination that’s forming.

And the novel I’m trying to work on deals with someone who’s a Chinese-born Canadian who’s moving to China. I think being here allows me to explore that, to delve into that. I think if I were a Chinese-Canadian living in a city that didn’t have a large Chinese population, maybe I’d be more preoccupied with my identity in a different way.

So what’s next on your to-do list?

In some ways, I’m not sure what the next thing is on my bucket list, but I’m going to keep writing books and keep doing what I’m doing.

I feel very lucky in some ways because I have a life that I really enjoy and I like my work a lot. I know that’s not the case with everyone. It’s not 100 per cent fun, but a lot of it is.

Image:Used with permission from Kevin Chong

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

Book Review

Batman & Robin Born to Kil Vol. 1 written by Peter J. Tomasi, il ustrated by Patrick Gleason JEREMY HANNAFORD CONTRIBUTOR When DC Comics revamped their universe with the launch of the New 52, so began a new lineage of the Batman comics. Out of all four main comic series, Batman & Robin has proved to be the most prosperous. The first volume, Born to Kill, written by Peter Tomasi and inked by Patrick Gleason, follows Bruce Wayne/Batman as he battles a new danger with his contumacious son, Damian, who fights alongside him as Robin.

The entire story is a battle of nature versus nurture, as Bruce persistently tries to direct his son’s moral compass away from what his assassin mother, Talia Al Ghul, burrowed into his mind since infancy. His son’s brutal techniques and lack of compassion concern Bruce as he fears that Damian will not comprehend why he never takes a life. All the while Mr. Nobody, a threat from Bruce’s past, has appeared in Gotham to slam a wedge between Bruce and Damian, hoping turn the boy to his killer instincts.

Mr. Nobody is not a gang-lord or criminal; he too is a vigilante, but he has no problem with torture and killing. It is his mentality that attracts Damian to him and to his

cause and it is this battle of loyalty and instinct that Peter Tomasi constructs. Mr. Nobody doesn’t want to just beat Batman psychically; he wants to destroy him by making his own son betray him.

This comic’s story arc has been done for many years, but it continues to be very entertaining. Like Anakin Skywalker, torn between choosing the way of the Jedi or that of the Sith, Damian is trapped between his loyalty to his father and the promise of his desire to exact punishment on criminals from Mr. Nobody. In a scene where Damian is easily performing a routine training exercise, Bruce Wayne converses with Alfred as they watch how he wants to “fix” what Talia has done to their son. Alfred responds stating that Damian doesn’t need a mechanic, he needs his father.

The Batman & Robin series was introduced by Grant Morrison and continues its level of quality storytelling and artwork. Patrick Gleason keeps things simple but sleek.

He draws Batman in a way that resembles how David Mazzucchelli drew him many years ago in Frank Miller’s classic, Batman: Year One. However, he still gives a nice new flair to the suit and surrounding detail. It is with Mr. Nobody that Gleason really gets be creative.

With a helmet mask that resem-

bles the eyes of a spider, Gleason plays with reality and nightmare with this villain and presents him as both mysterious and incredibly dangerous.

Mr. Nobody is truly the hallmark of this comic. While his introduction is similarly cliché to that of other spontaneous Batman villains, his mark on Bruce Wayne’s past is unique. It goes all the way back to his days of training with Henry Ducard. Mr. Nobody’s existence in the comic isn’t placed merely as a plot device the way female interest Golden Dawn was used in David Finch’s The Dark Knight series. He is a driving force that draws the reader in and makes them question whether the morality of Batman’s one rule is justified.

While it is commendable that Batman doesn’t kill, this usually only delays their return to crime in Gotham. Nobody’s brand of justice is merciless, but his is also condoned considering some of the criminals in question.

With the second volume nearing completion, the anticipation for it is very high in the DC Universe.

Tomasi and Gleason prove that they are the true contenders for top mantle when it comes to crafting tales about the Dark Knight in this new age.

Author John Boyne explores the contemporary resonance of World War I with The Absolutist WILL JOHNSON THE UBYSSEY VANCOUVER (CUP) — “There’s no point writing about the past unless there’s some sort of contemporary resonance.”

These may seem like strange words coming from Irish novelist John Boyne, who has almost exclusively written about the past and achieved worldwide recognition for his book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was set during the Holocaust. But during a stop in Vancouver to promote his World War I novel The Absolutist, he told The Ubyssey that he’s always looking for parallels between the past and the present.

“I don’t want readers to look at this and go, ‘Oh, he’s writing about the Iraq War,’ because I’m not,” said Boyne. “But I always write with one eye towards what’s happening now.”

The Absolutist tells the story of two teenagers, Will and Tristan, during the war. And though the conflict has already been written about exhaustively, Boyne felt there was more to learn.

“We’re continually told that these memories should be kept alive, and we can’t forget. The point comes when all the people who were there are no longer with us. Are we just supposed to stop?

Have we said everything there is to say? I think if you have something to say, say it.”

Boyne said there were two elements of his story that he feels have been under-represented in past literature. The first was the

Image: Photo Courtesy of Writers’ Centre Norwich/Flickr Creative Commons

role of conscientious objectors, and the effect their actions would have on their families back home.

“Other soldiers from a town would of course be out dying.

How would the parents, or the sister of the boy that laid down his guns, be treated?” said Boyne.

The second element Boyne felt had been overlooked was the gay relationships that must have existed between men fighting in the trenches.

“In the intimacy of war and the horror of the trenches, relationships of one form or another must have formed. And this was some-

thing I’d never read about, so I wanted to explore it,” he said.

Boyne felt this topic was especially relevant, as the United States is currently grappling with the recent overturning of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” During the First World War, homosexuality was illegal.

And though we’ve progressed significantly, Boyne said he was amazed at the level of hatred towards homosexuals that still exists in the military.

“The unsettling thing is that it’s nearly a century later,” he said. “A couple of months ago I was watching the Republican primaries, and

it was one of those meetings where they had three or four candidates on stage. They had a soldier on the screen from Iraq. The audience goes crazy applauding. Then he prefaces what he’s saying by mentioning he’s a gay soldier, and they boo him.”

Boyne was disgusted.

“I found it stunning that the audience would respond that way.

Later that day, that soldier may have been killed,” he said. “The level of hatred is amazing. I mean, it’s one simple fact about who he is.”

Boyne feels conscientious ob-

jectors are equally controversial.

In fact, the title of the book refers to individuals whose beliefs are even more extreme, and rather than serving as stretcher-bearers or helping out beyond the front lines, they refuse to participate in the war effort at all. His character Will is one such person.

And Boyne felt Will’s story was an important one to tell.

“War, simply put, is not a good thing,” he said. “Most people, surely, should be opposed to war.”

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

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ARTS & LIFE

Cheese, wine and gluten freedom at the Fraser Valley Food Show AMY VAN VEEN

KAREN ANEY

THe cascade

THe cascade

The foodies showed up in droves at this year’s Fraser Valley Food Show. Last year, the crowds were slim – although I did go on a Friday last year unlike this year’s Sunday outing. Many of the exhibitors came back once again including the garlic grater salesman with his Sham-

Wow-esque headset microphone and the BC Cranberry ladies with their mini flooded cranberry “field” and overall waders. The Master Chef competition was back, as well as the Celebrity Stage, although this year’s food show diverted a little off the food and drink path and

into home and well-being territory.

For example, Sunday afternoon’s celebrity stage demonstration was a woman explaining the different ways to renovate your kitchen and a stone’s throw away from her end of the exhibition floor were massage chairs and electronic massagers; bed sheets and fitness passes; and vacation packages alongside the BC Cancer Agency and anti-drunk-

driving stands. The one stand I did miss from last year was Hills Foods from Coquitlam, who advertised their speciality meats such as ostrich and kangaroo. I had hopes of purchasing some strange game to sneak onto the plates of my dinner guests as a fun conversation starter, but alas, this year they weren’t on the list. The main difference, though, was the take-home bag of

goodies. Last year’s was filled with brochures, chocolate-covered acai berries and organic rice oil, but this year’s nondescript bags were filled with one soy drink, one almond milk drink and one granola bar. It was a sad little ending that did a disservice to the plethora of stands and foodie options inside.

The wonderful world of cheese This seminar was presented by trainer/consultant Reg Hendrickson on behalf of the Dairy Farmers of Canada. The audience was given seven cheeses to taste, in order of how “aromatic” they were.

The first cheese was mascarpone. This is an Italian cream cheese. The fact that it’s made from cream—not milk—is what makes it so rich. The tasting was presented on a spoon; the mascarpone was at the front, with some honey behind it and a dried cranberry on top. The audience was di-

rected to first taste the cheese on its own, then with the cranberry, then with the honey. This was done to demonstrate how dramatically the flavour profile of this mild cheese changed depending on what it was

paired with – definitely something to try replicating on your own; it was eye-opening.

Next on the list was bocconcini. This is the little white balled cheese served in caprese salad.

Hendrickson explained that this is a great choice for pizzas because of the way it’s prepared – it’s what’s known as pasta filata, which means it’s cooked and stretched.

This means that when it’s cooked it doesn’t melt into a huge, gooey puddle (though there’s nothing wrong with that) – it will re-

tain its shape through the cooking process, meaning you’ll have lovely chunks of cheese dispersed throughout your slice. Hendrickson also explained that the liquid bocconcini comes in isn’t brine, like with feta, but water. Over time, it becomes murky as the proteins in the cheese break down. Because of this, it’s important to always use clean hands or utensils to get your bocconcini out of the water; if you don’t, you’ll end up with a not-solovely slime in your container.

The other cheeses were all

great, but the facts Hendrickson presented were more interesting: first, pregnant women should stay away from raw milk cheeses. You can freeze cheese, but only to cook with – if you try to defrost it, the process will break down the proteins. Finally, cheddar is orange because of a flavourless vegetable dye – why? Tradition. It started in “the old days,” Hendrickson says, when livestock was fed different grain in summer and winter which resulted in different hues of milk.

Now you know.

The world of food and drink is much like any other consumer industry in that it is subject to trends and fads. At this past weekend’s Fraser Valley Food Show held at the TRADEX in Abbotsford, it was hard to walk five steps without passing a sign promising gluten-free options. The difficulty in maintaining a gluten-free diet for those with either Celiac’s or a gluten sensitivity is finding products sans the G word. As anyone who follows this strict diet knows, the options are few, the prices are high and the baking is nightmarish since gluten is the very thing that is most often used to preserve and bind ingredients because of its low cost.

Local companies throughout the food show advertised their glutenfree friendly options in large print

fonts. The Milsean Shoppe located in Aldergrove, BC, promised gluten-free chocolates and candy, as did Xocai Healthy Chocolate.

Grimm’s Fine Foods promised gluten-free meat products with Country Prime Meats offering the same alternative a few stalls down.

Caramoomel—a family company based out of Kelowna that makes flavoured spreads and wine jellies—is proud of their gluten-free labels. Even Gone Nuts, a candied nut company, jumped on the trend by offering a pecan bar made to these specifications. While the prices reflect that gluten-free options are still considered by many to be a speciality alternative, their increasing prevalence is providing new dining opportunities for those with medical or personal preference of a diet without gluten.

Swirl, sniff and sip: Gluten free: a major the pleasures of foodie trend tasting wine

Presented by Kathleen Rake, this seminar included three separate wine tastings – a Riesling, a Garnacha, and a Malbec. More importantly, she went through the steps of “how to taste wine” – here’s quick guide so you can impress your friends.

First, look: what is its colour?

How pale is it? How deeply yellow/purple/burgundy/etc? Does it have bubbles? Does it have “legs” – meaning, does it leave behind swells of liquid up the walls of the glass after swirling?

Next, smell. Smell for fruits, then vegetation, then minerals.

Swirl the wine—look for those legs!—and smell again. Put your nose all the way in the glass, and

really take a big whiff. Don’t be afraid to liken its scent to fresh rain on pavement like Rake did!

Finally, taste. Bring the wine into the mouth, then lean forward with it inside your mouth and suck in small bursts of air. The leaning forward keeps you from choking, and the small bursts of air make slurping noises. More importantly, they cause the wine to coat your entire mouth and palate, meaning you can taste the wine with all your different taste buds.

After that, remember that no one slurps wine and proceed to sip— or gulp—the rest of it like a normal person. Or use the spit bucket provided – if you’re the driver.

Gnome Chomsky says: “Come to our story meeting!”

Every Monday at 10 am in A421

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

Album Review Bob Dylan - Tempest ALEXEI SUMMERS THe cascade

CHARTS

1

Needles//Pins Getting On Home b/w Picture My Face

2

Cousins The Palm At The End Of The Mind

3 4 5 6

Shuffle ALEX GIORDANO

CIVL DJ/Happy-go-lucky Alex Giordano has a show on CIVL called Thrash & Trash on Thursdays at 10 p.m. You should listen to it.

Trust TRST Purity Ring Shrines

Passion Pit Gossamer

Fist City Buried b/w Cryptic Transmission

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Fist City It’s 1983 Grow Up Raygun Cowboys Cowboy Up! The Ballantynes Misery b/w Stay Feel Alright Oahu Ohio

Tweed Funk Love Is Teapot Hill Night Night Rock Old Mare You Deserve More Snowblink Inner Classics

Shad Melancholy and The Infinite Shadness

16 17 18 19

Eternal Summers Correct Behavior PS I Love You Death Dreams Paper Lions At Long Creek Gabrielle Papillon Little Bug

Psychostick – “It’s Just a Movie Stupid” This song is about chick flicks and how they are stupid and bad pieces of cinema. The verses of the song are very stock and generically pop-ish sounding, which is a metaphor for chick flicks themselves; but the chorus is a harsh but honest opinion of the story.

Lemon Demon – “Vanilla” This song is very short and has no real message, but the tune always makes me smile. The song does not make sense but it doesn’t have to. The basis of the song is a guy talking about a person he knows who knows a snowman named Vanilla.

The Urge – “It’s My Turn to Fly” I heard this song in my childhood. It’s in a movie called Titan A.E., and the song just always brings me back to my youth. Something about this song makes me feel like I could fight a bear on fire, and win. A must listen if you feeling down.

A-Ha – “Take on Me” This song is a must play, all the time! I like to bring it out at parties because everyone will get up and dance, and it’s one of those songs where the drunker people are, the more they will enjoy it.

There is also a really good cover of this song by Reel Big Fish.

Tempest marks American music pioneer Bob Dylan’s 35th studio album, and his first in three years.

His voice is a little raspy and aged, his spirit a little rugged and tired, but he’s still the same Bob Dylan we’ve always known. He proves that, as with a fine wine, age has only made him sweeter. Bob’s still a man who knows his way around the fretboard of a guitar.

The style of the album is reminiscent of Blood on the Tracks and Street-Legal, featuring the folky, twangy guitar notes characteristic of Dylan’s mid to late 1970s output.

The album opens with “Duquesne Whistle” a folk song laden with the sounds of steel guitar and bended notes. It should be noted that as a former anti-war protester, Dylan’s music video for this track is a rather violent one, featuring a man having his legs smashed with a baseball bat.

Dylan can be difficult to understand at times, as his voice has become so thick and gravelly that it seems like he’s merely gurgling instead of singing, but the music is enough to make up for that. When understandable, his voice is rich with experience and wisdom.

The lyrics are clever, full of intelligence and emotion. He evokes imagery of campfire-lit nights and the old American frontier. Elsewhere, he contemplates the mem-

ories of loved ones who have left us and brings new life to historical tragedies.

The titular track is a 14-minute song about the sinking of the Titanic. The ballad starts with a classical Irish violin, proceeding to tell the unfortunate tale of the sinking of the ship. Dylan can even be caught dropping references to James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, crooning about an artist who fell in love on the ship, but was doomed to die in the sinking.

The final track of the album is “Roll On John,” a tribute to John

Lennon, who was a friend of Dylan’s. This song is played in a blues-folk style and employs numerous references to The Beatles.

It evokes a certain nostalgia for the old rock n’ roll crowd, and makes one wonder if these are Dylan’s reflective day, if he’s looking back on his early years in the 1960s when he was at the centre of the whole scene.

Tempest is a terrific album that demonstrates that no one is ageless, but Bob Dylan’s work continues to be timeless.

Haute Stuff

Ballet, Mad Men, and motorcycles : New York fashion week!

KAREN ANEY THe cascade “Hot mess.” You’ve probably heard the phrase before – and likely fairly recently. If you have, then you have designer Christian Siriano to thank. It was his catch phrase when he was on season four of Project Runway, and it was terms like that which endeared judges and audiences alike. He not only won the design competition, but he also won the “fan favourite” component of the show, earning himself an extra $10,000 on top of the competition’s core prizes.

For those of you who aren’t reality show junkies, you’ve probably still seen Siriano’s work over the last few years. He’s had a collection on Bluefly, collaborated with everyone from Starbucks to Payless Shoes, and has debuted collections at the last three New York Fashion Weeks. His collection at this year’s NYFW has been widely celebrated, praised by critics and fashionistas for its clean lines and romantic styling.

The show, as Siriano explained to Style.com backstage, was inspired by an American Ballet Theatre performance of The Dream. Siriano, who studied ballet as a young boy, explains his collection as the modern woman’s interpretation of the classical ballerina styling.

Though he cites the ballet as his inspiration, the silhouettes were very expected: peplums, cropped

pants, structured jackets – all this season’s “must-haves” were included. Before hearing Siriano’s description of his inspiration, I figured it was a modern, romantic interpretation of Mad Men. Not Joan, with her voluptuous figure highlighted by skin-tight ensembles, but Betty Draper: pretty, feminine, clean lines with indulgent detailing and classic sixties silhouettes.

The show progressed from its start, with a cropped pant-andtop combo of pale pink with polka dots, to the showpieces. Traditionally, the most impressive piece of a runway show is the one modeled last. However, Siriano’s show ended with three models walking the runway together; their dresses, while different, were all of the same ilk: tulle, silk chiffon, handsewn delicate feathers and exquisitely draped silhouettes, perfectly evocative of the ballerina inspiration, yet completely wearable for today’s woman. Of particular interest was the pseudo-shading effect achieved with the draped fabric; this was done artfully, so it accented the models’ natural waists, evoking a true hourglass even on the expectedly svelte models.

To incorporate this into your wardrobe, look to the silhouettes.

Almost everything in the collection focused on a defined waist – whether it was the natural waist (read: the bottom of your ribcage) or a slightly dropped one (across

the top of your hipbones).

Siriano himself cites jackets as a must-have for fall. His show featured leather motorcycle-esque jackets in pale pink and blue, and a polka-dot jacket with moto detailing. A plain black leather jacket will achieve the same effect and have more staying power for the investment.

For pants, check out clearance racks now. Retailers are currently clearing out cropped jeans and dress pants for the oncoming colder months, but you’ll be able to wear these bottoms (which hit 4-5 inches above the ankle) with flats for the next little while and tucked into boots when the temperature drops.

The peplum top (a form-fitting shirt with a small “skirt” starting at the natural waist and ending above the hips) is one look that perhaps isn’t worth the investment: though it’s hot this season, it seems kind of impractical to have staying power. If you want to hop on board, try H&M: they have peplum tops for less than $20 in a number of colours and patterns (including polka dots). If you want more pairing options, try tucking the shirt into a high-waisted skirt – this will hide the “peplum” part of the top while still staying on-trend by defining your natural waist.

Just don’t wear it with sweatpants and fur boots – or you’ll be the hot mess.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

19

Mini Album Reviews

SoundBites

ARTS & LIFE

Aimee Mann Charmer

The xx Coexist

The Avett Brothers

Animal Collective Centipede Hz

The latest record from New Wavevet Aimee Mann opens strong, with an innocuously-buzzing synth and Mann’s rich, effortlessly-beautiful voice set to dutifully-chugging Tom Petty power chords. While it grabs your attention early, the album’s immaculate fullness seems to sweep each song into the next. On first listen, Charmer breezes by almost too easily. Looking back on my early notes, I seem to have been gearing up to write off Mann’s latest as “overproduced Starbucks-bait.” But then something changed. I listened to it for a second time. Then a third. I slowly realized I couldn’t bring myself to pass the same judgement I’d initially prescribed.

What the album’s dense production and Mann’s casually-delivered vocals at first disguise is a collection of understated, but masterfully-crafted pop songs. Take the chorus hook of “Crazytown,” where a walloping stop-start guitar line is fused together by a series of “oo-oo-oo-oooo-oo”s. Or “Gamma Ray,” a gently rollicking number anchored by the bridge’s declaration of crushing inevitability: “One thing leads to the other / and none of it’s good.” While Charmer’s tension lies in the juxtaposition of Mann’s terse lyrics and impossibly agreeable music, its effectiveness would have been helped by pared-down, dynamic production.

Peering inwards, hung up on happiness, The xx’s plain, evasive directness evolves in Coexist. He (Oliver Sim) fears falling for an image yet fantasizes love into “Fiction,” she (Romy Madley Croft) inverts the storied dream of “Angels,” both “Try,” or at least say they will. Doing lies beyond the reach of these liminal lovers, situations configured differently over time, but they are always either on the cusp or “Missing.”

The age-old queries and directions are near-fossilized here, lyrics eroded past specificity, retaining only the tightly structured question-question, claimcriticism that drives Coexist’s opposite glorification and fixation on what can’t be changed. If there’s one thing that The xx shares with pop music—despite their reticence to celebrate freely or do away with regret—it’s the address of the universal: “Will you miss me.” Sim’s and Madley Croft’s voices never stretch near the point of breaking, either as a visage to hide their internal monologues or as a part of the stream of modern connection and expectation. Producer Jamie Smith, though, varies the approach beyond the curtailed repetends of The xx’s debut, adding soft electronic churns and skitters, weaving in silence as unforgettable possibility, eternal dread.

Lyrically, The Carpenter doesn’t stray from the impressionist poetic lyrics that Scott and Seth Avett have honed over the years, nor does it stray from their favoured topics: growing old, death and self-reflection. North Carolina’s grassroots underdogs Avett Brothers join forces with bearded, superstar producer Rick Rubin for their sixth studio album to build off the commercial success of 2009 predecessor I and Love and You, and the album failed to reach the heights the group had previously climbed. Besides the dreadful Soundgarden inspired “Paul Newman vs. the Demons,” The Avett Brothers stick to monotonously familiar territory. There’s nothing particularly progressive or novel about The Carpenter, it just feels less tender and less personal, despite its recognizable sound and principals. At its best moments, The Carpenter lands somewhere between the laid-back harmonies of Fleet Foxes, the wounded defiance of The Band and the bittersweet wistfulness of Willie Nelson, with sincere ballads like “February Seven,” “Father’s First Spring,” and “Winter in My Heart” placing the band in their comfort zone. The band’s moody Americana.

Faster and more chaotic than their last output, 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion¸ Animal Collective’s Centipede Hz still retains the moody psychedelic/electronic indie-rock sound that has characterized the band’s past. The tracks share a few distinct features: looping drum fills and percussion under a multitude of sounds, musical or not, such as electric organ, radio static, voice samples and dog barks. The album has a density that plays analog against electric, every track buzzing and popping over the amplified guitar, making the levels as crowded as the album art. The vocals, though always sung with much echo, range from the hectic, powerful and messy screaming of “Today’s Supernatural” to the more plaintive pop-like “New Town Burnout.” It takes some patience to see the songs as more than the garbled sums of the individual parts, but after this is done the confusion dissolves and the tracks become overworked experiments in the layering of instruments on simple rhythms. Overall, Centipede Hz is a novel experience for the ears, and although none of the songs offer instant gratification for virgins to Animal Collective, it might convert anyone to the band through its strange, incessant creativity.

NICK UBELS

MICHAEL SCOULAR

The Carpenter

TIM ubels

BEAU O’neill

Discussions Below the Belt TITS MCGEE THe cascade Sex is generally pretty awesome – barring any medical or emotional difficulties you may struggle with. You’re not alone. But that’s a different article for another day – or is it? Today I’d like to talk about yoga, and how it can improve your sex life.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Yoga is essentially stretching.

Stretching will make you more flexible.

Being more flexible allows you to try all sorts of new positions, because let’s face it – the world outside of missionary is a wonderful place. So yeah, yoga can make you have better sex. And it doesn’t hurt if it’s practised whilst donning overpriced gear from Lululemon.

Yes, this includes you boys as well.

Please, for the love of spandex and really nice looking asses, swallow your damn pride and buy a pair of pants for yourself. It’ll let your crown jewels breathe, it’ll let you eat an extra meatball sub with minimal discomfort, and it’ll make all the boy-lovers around you very, very happy.

There’s actually a whole host of ways that yoga can improve your general health—and by extension, your sex life—that go so much deeper than stretching your muscles. There’s a lot of talk about spiritual awakening, which I’m sure is totally relevant in some

Posing your way to a better sex life

circles, but I’m going to go ahead and focus on two scientifically-proven facts instead – they speak loud enough.

The Journal of Sexual Medicine published a study proving that men with erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation both benefited from regular yoga practice: in the case of premature ejaculation, men reported lasting an average of three times longer. Stop snickering, boys – it’s completely common to deal with both these problems at any age. Keep this in mind for when you need to deal with them yourself!

Ladies, if you’re anything like me, you’re way smarter than your partner and thus often have better things to think about than getting “in the mood.”

Yoga spends a bunch of time teaching you to be “centred” – meaning: focus on the stuff going on inside your body rather than in your mind. The American College of Sports Medicine, in a recent study, found that concentration was heightened in yoga participants after two weeks, and more so as the study progressed: “we were surprised by the degree of difference in just eight weeks of practice,” stated Dr. Traci Statler in the study. Some people might see the benefits of this as pertaining to school or work, but let’s face it – it can only mean good things for your sex life.

For those of you who already practice yoga and want some specific moves that will help you in the sack, here’s a

They should be flat against the mat, and stretched as straight as possible.

Image:Relaxing Music/flickr.com

few to try. Please note that I have absolutely no formal training in this area, though I have taken enough classes that I feel comfortable replicating the poses on my own. If you’d like to try these out and haven’t done yoga before, I recommend going to a beginner’s class first.

The teacher will be able to make sure you aren’t hurting yourself, and it’s a nice, low-impact workout. Check out the gyms we get free access to with our U-Pass – they have some classes you can attend.

Here’s three poses, as recommended by my yoga teacher, a few health studies, and a creepy book I found at the thrift store with some sticky stains on the pages – these poses were common recommendations in each source.

Bridge pose – this releases tension in your body and opens your hip flexors up, allowing you to bend easier, spread your legs further, and have overall better mobility.

- Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. They should be slightly spread, and less than a foot away from your butt.

- While inhaling with your hands flat on either side of you, raise your hips up – you should be creating a straight line from your knees down to your shoulder blades. Breathe deeply, in for a count of three, holding for a count of three, and exhaling for a count of three.

- If you’re super in shape and this is easy for you, I hate you, but you can make it more difficult by grasping your hands together underneath your body.

Bound Angle – This is an excellent stretch for the groin area, and also promotes heightened blood flow to your nether regions.

- Sit on the ground. Press the soles of your feet together, and hold your ankles with your hands.

- Slowly relax your knees, letting them sink towards the ground. Simultaneously, lean forward – make sure this lean comes from your hips, and do not curl your back at all.

Cat/Cow Stretch – this strengthens your PC “Kegel” muscles. Yes, boys, you have them too – and the stronger they are, the more powerful your orgasm will be.

- Get on your hands and knees. It’s good practice, anyway.

- While inhaling, arch your back downwards. This is the cow position.

Focus on pushing your tailbone upwards and your chest away from your stomach – this will elongate your spine.

- While exhaling, curve your back upwards. This is cat position. Focus on tightening your stomach muscles.

- While going between the two for six or more repeats, focus on the movement of your tailbone – that movement is what’s working out your Kegels.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

Film Review Resident Evil: Retribution MICHAEL SCOULAR THe cascade Resident Evil: Retribution springs to life about one minute in screentime following the epilogue of 2010’s Afterlife. In this time constraint, rather than jump headlong into whatever chaos of battle awaits, director Paul W.S. Anderson undulates and inverts events, beginning an exegesis of his own style and the entire series. tomandandy’s electro-symphonic dubs and strains return from Afterlife as probably the best Resident Evil musical fit. Within their surrounding noise, Anderson’s shots, all fluid, violent slow motion, enhanced in reverse, collapse into the black hole of the space between the two movies, then emerge as slammed together cuts.

Overwhelming whatever story questions might exist, Anderson’s images do all the explanation, turning the recycled into something new. Calling Retribution a complete reinvention, however, wouldn’t be entirely true.

The series’ checkmarks remain: the overarching premise of viral outbreak, the series’ heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) pitted against the Umbrella Corporation, an entity with its fingers in everything, continuing unchecked following a disaster of its own making, and a time and space constraint, with the series here returning to below surface level. What sets Retribution apart from the other Resident Evils is its engagement with its source.

The series has always drawn on story ideas and character descriptions from the Capcom horror-

shooter, but in Retribution Anderson extracts the relation between artifice and surveillance in video games and allows it to spiral into all its possibilities in the world of sets, digital doubles, and ruling architecture he has created. This feeling has existed in the series for its entire life. Witness the everpresent corporate satellite and wireframe mapping out of landscapes stealing images, tracking movement, and frequently overtaking visual space.

By invoking the mingling of alternate worlds, “real” and synthetic, and combining them, the Resident Evil series is yanked, turned, and careened into itself. The narrative isn’t the first of its kind, it’s one of the most characteristic, and often the best, of the science-fiction genre, but in Anderson’s hands it acquires its own unique bend. Away from the climaxes there are ideas and archetypes reshaping each other constantly, in grand, but also small ways, as in a subway shelter exchange of glances and instructions.

Jovovich, playing multiple roles as in the great A Perfect Getaway, is able to not only execute stunts but also lines and looks that stand out among the constant wreckage.

The Resident Evil series, even in the gaps between action, is visibly conflicted between the visceral and calculating headspaces of its soldiers and victims. Anderson possesses a deftness in visualizing all this, flipping between those ranges and multiple plotlines, crafting a whole with the parts laid bare. His images roar by, so unstoppably kinetic it would be impossible to catalogue the held images and flights of transition that make up Retribution

after just one viewing. The cinema of Paul Anderson when tied to the Resident Evil series is one of exhausted compulsion in response to devitalized horror, visuals spanning earth-cycles yet demanding neither of those two actions. Retribution is not simply a compulsive watch, there is a probing, a messiness to so much of Anderson’s work. It rejects, even as it uses, the form of the franchise. The repeated tests in Tokyo, deliberately replaying memorable scenes, wouldn’t have the effect they do without the prior success of the Resident Evil series. But the way the early scenes that stay with Alice throw out ideas of audience coaxing, and in the contextualization of product placement, there is the strong refusal of monolithic processes. As in Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall the surroundings turn the ludicrous into something properly menacing, setting up their Metropolis end, a transposition with pounding, chaotic emphasis.

For many, the Resident Evil movies represent an easy binary, whether gratuitously violent (yes, you will see zombies shot in the head and bones break), or resembling enough the video games they love to turn viewers off/on. As an entry in the genre, it is a fast and faster excursion into the mad and thrilling. Like all the Resident Evils, it is quick, at around an hour and a half, and to the point, as Anderson rarely uses long streams of dialogue except in cartridges of exposition to catch-up the uninitiated (a previously on segment is a staple of the series now) or set-up an hour’s worth of action (a timer of two

Cascade Arcade JOEL SMART

minutes keeps even that to a minimum). But Retribution is more than and an embrace of its name, it’s a gloriously offensive ballet of worldsaving through sustained uprising

Adventure Time game could be the next Commander Keen

THE CASCADE If you don’t know the television series Adventure Time, it could probably be excused. After all, it is a children’s cartoon that premiered in 2010. However, the show has begun to attract a cult following of older viewers – due in no small part to the fact that it’s hilarious, creative and well-made. The show follows the life of 14-year-old Finn the Human and his Jake the Dog, his magically-stretchy best friend, as they go on adventures in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. And, just because I feel like you probably still need some convincing that the show is awesome, note that Jake the Dog is voiced by John DiMaggio – the voice of Bender on Futurama. So it’s settled. The show is awesome, and thus it is fantastic news that the show is getting an official Adventure Time game, called Adventure Time: Hey Ice King!

Why’d you steal our garbage?! The game is set to release on November 20 for $30 on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. What makes news of the official game so exciting is the fact that the show’s creator, Pendleton Ward, is a huge video game fan. He has included video game references in many parts of the show, and in fact, a video game system is a major character that lives in Finn and Jake’s tree house with them - Beemo! In one episode Beemo actu-

Image:Official Box Art

ally transports Finn and Jake into a video game world. Other episodes, such as “The Enchiridion” don’t specifically mention video games, but follow the logical progression of a video game. (And in fact, the special edition version of the game will come with a steelbook case made to look like the Enchiridion from that episode.) It’s a show that

and a beautifully, classically composed survival of talent in a world overrun by conditions saying that biology is only good for battle.

is made for a video game adaptation, and the fact that Ward is involved in the creation of the game is very promising.

Also boding well for the game is the recently released trailer for the game, which shows gameplay clearly inspired by classics like Commander Keen and Zelda.

Gameplay allows single player or

cooperative play, with both Finn and Jake as playable characters.

Jake will have the ability to change shape, while Finn will be able to use his sword. Both will have an ability called the “Twirling Death Blossom” among others. The storyline seems just like an episode of Adventure Time: the Ice King steals their garbage and uses it to create a

decoy princess that he wants Finn and Jake to try saving; instead they set out to teach him a lesson and learn something themselves in the process.

For those without a DS, or want to play an Adventure Time game in the meantime, there are several officially licensed free-to-play games available at cartoonnetwork.ca/ games/adventure-time/.

The one that has taken up most of my time has been Jake’s Tough Break, a game where you play as Jake the Dog. A magician’s curse has made Jake fall apart. In order to break the spell, players have to navigate levels by breaking apart and reattaching Jake’s legs, arms, body and head, in order to pull hit buttons, offset weights, and navigate small passageways. It’s silly fun at first, but the puzzles quickly ramp up in complexity and timing for a game that is definitely aimed at an older audience.

If that’s not enough, keep an eye out for some of the Adventure Time creations from the Adventure Time Game Jam, where indie game designers got together and designed their own Adventure Time video games in a 48-hour period from September 14 to 16. Ward hosted the game jam, which saw almost 100 submissions. The games can be seen and played at www.adventuretimegamejam.com/submissions. That should keep you busy until November!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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SPORTS & HEALTH

Coach’s Corner UFV cheer team off to a good start MICHAEL SCOULAR

THE CASCADE

Since their official recognition as a varsity sport by UFV in 2011, the UFV cheerleading team has grown in number and presence. The team’s primary local competition will be at the annual Cheer Fest, which occurs February 2 at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre. Until then, preparations and practice go on at the Valley Stars Athletics Gym, a short walk from the Abbotsford campus, where The Cascade talked to co-coach Brooke Ostendorf about the summer and new season of cheerleading at UFV. How has the team’s training been going over the summer?

Good. We didn’t have too many people over, we had nine athletes.

A lot of [the others] were on vacation because it’s really hard with university students. But some of our flyers we trained. And we did get some higher-level skills that we need for this year, so as long as they’re good we can throw bases underneath them.

Is that what you’re you looking to add to the team this year?

Yeah, we started tryouts yesterday and they’re going on today. I had nine new athletes come yesterday and so far two again today. We might have another couple come next week that weren’t able to make it. So [I’m] really excited with the numbers that we’ve got this year.

What competitions will the team be in this year?

We’re looking to be in for sure the Cheer Fest competition, which is the Abbotsford competition, and Sea to Sky, which is in the Vancouver Convention Centre. We did the Vancouver Convention Centre competition last year. We came fourth out of five for our very first compe-

t

t

d image: Blake McGuire/The Cascade

Cheer team members practice at the local gym tition ever as a training team.

How have you seen the team grow since this time last year?

[It’s grown] quite a bit. We didn’t get too many new people last year.

We do a lot of team bonding stuff to make sure everyone gets along, and when we do choreography we get everybody’s input into the dance and stunt sequences. That way it helps the whole team feel that this is a team achievement rather than just somebody telling you what to do.

What varsity games will the cheerleading team be at?

for the women’s and the men’s basketball teams. I think there are twelve in total we will be going to this year.

What expectations do you have for the team this year?

Expectations are huge. If our numbers, if everybody stays that’s come out to tryouts we’ll have 24 people on our team, which is super exciting because we competed with sixteen last year. So we are expecting to get harder skills than we had last year and harder and more intense choreography.

Let’s not forget to stretch

We go to all of the home games

image: Blake McGuire/The Cascade

UFV Women’s basketball team sets sights on National finals The girls need to get into the gym and do that stuff on their own.

Outside of the gym they’re expected to get their shot ups and practice the things we don’t have time in practice for. Through the summer they are hitting conditioning and strengthening programs three to four days a week. Starting last week they’re two to three days in the weight room going through their program there.

TAYLOR JOHNSON THE CASCADE

Al Tuchscherer is starting his ninth year as head coach of the UFV woman’s basketball program. Last year the team partook in the inaugural CIS Regional Tournament in Fredericton, NB. After an improvement by 10 wins last season, Al Tuchscherer and his team are looking forward to what this coming season will bring.

How has training been going over the summer?

Have you had any new acquisitions over the summer? How will they effect the composition of the team?

It’s been going really well, lots of dedication from the girls.

Any special stories to relate?

No nothing out of the ordinary.

We played NCAA [teams] which was a good way to know where we were at. There was lots of hard work and conditioning, nothing too exciting.

Could you describe the team’s training regimen?

Well our practices are pretty technical; we will go over our different systems, our offence and defence systems. We will go over a little bit of drill work, but honestly there’s not a whole lot with that.

Yeah for sure, we had two players that sat out last year because of injury, Tessa Hart and Katie Brink. We’re really looking forward to having them back into the line-up. Katie has really added to our practices which is something we missed last year, she is an intense sort of player. We are excited about her. Tessa Hart took a year

off because of a knee issue but it looks like she’s ready to go again.

She was a huge part of our team a couple years ago. We also have two new high school kids coming in, Shayna Litman and Jessica Collins. They are both super eager to get going. I think Shayna has something we missed a little bit last year, with the grit and power she brings to the team.

What are your expectations for this season?

The core of this team has been together for a number of years now. Four seasons ago we brought them in and there were eight rookies that year. We kind of built the team around that group, so it has been a kind of evolution now moving into our fourth year. We made the Canada West Final the last two years and we made Nationals the last two years as well. Our expectations are that we’re going to be competitive with any team in the

country this year. We expect to be there at the end.

With your core group leaving in the next year what are your plans for the team?

Well they are eligible for five years with the team. So they have one more year after this. We have always been a relatively young team for the last couple years, in their second and third year and that is pretty young in Canada West. We’re moving into our fourth and next year into our fifth year so we are going to be a pretty veteran team these next couple years. I am excited to see how that all comes together. We have 14 girls on our roster so we have a good balance. The fourth-year kids, when they leave, will be a huge change to the team; they are kind of our leadership right now.

We have some nice kids coming in behind them, that’s for sure.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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SPORTS & HEALTH

Blind soccer takes the game to a whole new level JESS WIND

CONTRIBUTOR

On September 8, in London, Brazil’s national men’s visually impaired football team collected the gold medal for five-a-side blind football. France took home the silver medal and Spain defeated Argentina for the bronze. It was awesome and ultimately humbling to watch these athletes compete for Olympic glory. This football variation made its first debut in Athens in 2004 and is played by athletes with visual impairments of varying degrees. This year in London, 94 athletes were looking for the podium.

Five-a-side, or blind soccer, is played much like sighted soccer, with only a few necessary modifications. Players (except the keeper) wear blackout masks to ensure fairness, and there are guides behind each net to direct the opposition. Unlike other soccer fields, the five-a-side field is smaller and has dasher boards along the sidelines to keep the ball in constant play.

Still, to this reporter it seemed like an impossible challenge. As I watched the players maneuver down the field, I wondered how they didn’t simply run over the ball and into each other. The ball itself has been modified with ball bearings to make it audible, and

the three guides (the keeper in the defensive third, the coach on in the middle third and the guide behind the net in the offensive third) communicate constantly as play moves around the field. In the event of a free kick, the opposing guide bangs on the goal posts, so the kicker knows exactly where to place the ball. To put the ball into play, a player lines up with his feet on either side of the ball, and a teammate standing behind him places his foot on the ball. When the whistle blows, the teammate removes his foot and the player standing over the ball takes possession (this method is in line with FIFA official rules and is not unlike the pass used to begin play in sighted soccer). Game play is fastpaced and detailed, with players making more quick movements to dart around their opposition rather than relying on big crosses or lengthy dashes down field. As a player dribbles, he keeps the ball less than a foot in front of him at all times, with each step forward including a slight tap on the ball to move it forward. Players are constantly aware of where the ball is in relation to their feet. The sighted keepers are confined to their own box, making saving the ball harder than if they were allowed to move freely as in regular 11-aside soccer. Without the ability to

France lines up for a free kick against Brazil in the gold medal match see the ball and the field in front of them, players rely far more on their space perception and communication to successfully find the back of the net.

Naturally, after doing my research, I had to test it out. I am

UFV’s second-ranking CCAA golf team hope to win National Championship

no stranger to the sport of soccer, but have always been fortunate enough to see the ball at my feet, and anything that might be in my way. With a blindfold securely over my eyes, sufficiently disorienting me, I attempted to dribble

down the hallway. After bumping into the wall and groping the air with my foot in attempt to find the ball that was always just barely to my right, I can confidently say, blind athletes are incredibly talented.

UFV Scoreboard Results Soccer Men Sept. 14 UFV vs. UBC L 2-4 Sept. 15 UFV vs. Trinity L 1-2 Women Sept. 16 UFV vs. UNBC W 7-0

Volleyball Women Sept. 17. UFV vs. SFU W 3-2

Golf image: ufv.ca

KYLE BALZER CONTRIBUTOR

It has been too long since The Cascade has reported on UFV’s highly-ranked golf team, which competes in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).

For those of you who are unaware of how the golf program works, it’s a team consisting of about seven to eight players, selected to compete in tournaments against other colleges in the PACWEST division. If they finish in the top two or three, they have the chance to compete for the CCAA National Championship.

This past year, coach Chris Bertram led the Cascades to the Provincial Championship and a third place finish at the National Tour-

nament on Prince Edward Island.

Coach Bertram is entering his eighth season at UFV and is looking at another successful season.

“We’ve been fortunate to sustain a high level for the past six or seven years, but this year I see a real opportunity to make some good things happen with the players we have. Time will tell,” said coach Bertram. “Also, this past summer was great for our veteran players. Many of them had success in big tournaments like Aaron Pauls, who finished 21st in the Canadian Amateur Championship.”

The team does have three returning veterans this year—Aaron Pauls, Mitch Lock and Darren Whitehouse—and coach Bertram is expecting them to lead the charge. “Our ‘big three’ are play-

ing really well heading into the season.,” said Bertram. “I’m looking for good things from them, but we also have some new recruits coming in that I’m really excited about as well.”

And like every good sports team, coach Bertram has made it clear on what his goals are for this season.

“We’ve set two goals. First, win the PACWEST conference championship, and second, win the National Championship. I really believe we have the players this year that can get it done.”

The Cascades have already won the Coquihalla Cup in Kamloops and took first place in the first PACWEST Tournament of the year. They are currently ranked second in the CCAA Top Ten.

September 15-16 PACWEST Tournament 2 Third Place

Upcoming games Soccer Men Sept 28. Saskatchewan 7:15 pm.

Sept. 28. Alberta 7:15 pm.

Women Sept. 28 Manitoba 5:00 pm.

Sept. 29 Winnipeg 5:00 pm.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

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SPORTS & HEALTH

Two teams, three twits and a football PAUL ESAU

THE CASCADE

I drove out to Trinity Western University on Saturday with two goals in mind: primarily to watch UFV’s men’s soccer program battle our archrivals, the Spartans, but also to dabble in the dirty bathwater of the social media world.

In other words, I’d been told to begin “twitting,” or “tweeting” or whatever it’s called when men and women relentlessly blast 140 character mixtures of colloquialisms and pound signs into the stratosphere.

For a reporter who had purchased his first smartphone only a week before, it was a formidable task, but as UFV’s squad took the field I dove into the newly installed “Twitter” application and prepared to send my first “twit.”* Yet, staring at an empty text box, I was struck by a sudden (and unforeseen) moment of doubt. What could I, of the several hundred people at the game, possibly add to the global conversation? What

observation could cut through the layers of drivel and banality which so often characterize internet conversation, to reveal the gem of unique insight beneath?

I admit I was stumped, so I decided to instead execute an emergency about-turn and maintain some professionalism (as measured in crippling amount-ofboring per twit). As the 22 players upon the field were announced, I quickly typed the following: “At UFV-TWU men’s soccer game.”

There, I’d located myself, prepared the basis for further conversation. It wasn’t going to net me a Pulitzer, but it wouldn’t get my boss sent any angry emails either.

Still, my twit seemed unfinished (an observation corroborated by my earlier research), so I decided to reference Friday’s 4-2 loss to a powerful UBC side. “Hope [coach] Errington and the boys continue yesterday’s excitement!” I wrote, and pressed “send” before I could begin to doubt myself.

It didn’t have any hashtagged words, and it wasn’t directed “@” anyone in particular, but it seemed

like a promising start. For a while I put my phone away and enjoyed the satisfaction of being part of something larger than myself. The football flew back and forth across the field. I consumed a muffin and some Sodexo curly fries. All was good in the world.

Yet, just as I lowered my defensive scorn of all things social media, disaster struck. UFV’s Sasa Pavsic set up teammate Koby Byrne for a beautiful goal, and (to my horror) I realized it was time to send another twit. As UFV celebrated drawing first blood against a formidable Spartan team, I entered Twitter once again, only to be confronted with this:

Suddenly I remembered seeing UFV’s David Kent and assistant

Junelle Mah on the sideline, armed with powerful smartphones, and (at least Junelle) terrible and arcane Twitter knowledge. Not only had she scooped me, but she also was also using proper Twitter tags, and even (as I perused her other twits) phrases such as “#thinkgreen” and “#greatworklads” in expert fashion. I hadn’t even considered that the UFV players themselves might have had twitter accounts, let alone that the University might have hashtag publicity campaigns in progress (#thinkgreen is an official Athletics Twitter phrase for the coming year).

UFV led for the rest of the half and much of the second, but, like one of the ill east winds that reminds you that Abbotsford is a farming community, a shift in momentum swept over the pitch.

Cascades goalkeeper Mark Village was called upon to make save after save as gaps opened in the UFV defence. Despite Junelle’s brave and consistent twittering, social media alone couldn’t provide the edge, and the Cascades retreated from the field after 95 minutes

with a 2-1 loss.

It would have been appropriate time to send another twit, but instead I shoved my phone into my pocket and wandered aimlessly onto the pitch.

“Hard game,” I thought, “but #goodworklads overall. If you #keepfighting and #thinkgreen next time those @TWUSpartans will end up like that cow in the first Jurassic Park movie. @ goUFV!” It’s 144 characters (four over the limit) so it needs some polishing, but the sports reporter in me would call it a solid second effort.

I will learn, I decided. I’ll improve.

I’ll change the world one twit at a time One day I may even figure out how to attach photos. *My usage of this specific jargon has drawn dire criticism from the loyal Twitter masses, but having been assured by David Kent (UFV Athletics, Information & Marketing) that this is indeed the correct term I am prepared to defend it.

Lockout losers Paul’s Pick

image: bloodeyeballs/Flickr

JOEL SMART THE CASCADE

Here we go again. It’s lockout time. It’s less of a surprise this time around, but it may actually bode worse for the NHL than it did last time. Maybe I’m just buying into empty threats offered online—and a feeling in my gut with little actual substance—but I really believe that this time around the fans aren’t going to rush back when the two selfish sides of the collective bargaining agreement finally find common ground.

Both teams feel they have justified reasons to be stubborn, though. The NHL is arguing that while the last lockout resulted in “remarkable growth and momentum” and “corresponding on-ice benefits” the new system still isn’t “fair” or “sustainable” economically. The players, alternatively, argue they shouldn’t have to give

up more of their salary, since they are the product on the ice being sold to fans. After all, it is the players putting their lives on show and their health on the line – the owners, meanwhile, are merely investors hoping for a bigger piece of the pie.

It’s pretty clear though. What we’re talking about are greedy multi-millionaires squabbling over who gets more. The players are being selfish. The owners are being selfish. It’s a new low for the game of hockey and it’s embarrassing to be a fan right now.

The big question now, though, is whether 2012 will be more like 1992, 1995 or 2004. In 1992, the strike lasted just 11 days and only 30 combined games were lost in the season. In the 1994-1995 season, 468 combined games were lost, with the season officially starting on January 20. Most memorably, though, was the entirely

missed season in 2004, when the NHL made the record of being the first major sports league in North America to cancel a season based on a labour dispute. Classy. Of course, if the current trend holds, the 2012 strike may last even longer.

The worst part, as a fan, is that I’m not so sure we’ll be worse off without the NHL this year. Maybe it’s the chance we need to find the passion in other hockey leagues – to rediscover our love for the game itself.

Maybe it’s time to look into Vancouver Giants tickets, or Abbotsford Heat tickets (especially if you can snag tickets to a Wolves game).

As much as I hope Canucks fans will still seek out some hockey to fill the void, though, there are some major setbacks. For those looking to watch consistentlytelevised games for a particular

league, it’s just not available. It’s hard to follow a season if your only way to watch the majority of games is to buy tickets. If it’s anything like last lockout, most will opt simply to put their love of hockey on hold.

It’s something that fans of the Canucks may struggle with, but more and more, people will simply find other sports and other hobbies that treat them better.

When the NHL returns, will they come running back? Will casual hockey fans in Phoenix and Columbus still remember the sport even exists? Or, will the bitter taste left in everyone’s mouth prove that this lockout was not good for the league, for the game or for the fans?

Time will tell, but I’d suggest that Gary Bettman had better start crossing his fingers, because things aren’t looking good for the league right now.

And now for something completely different All-Star Wrestling Sunday, September 23 7 pm Abby Arts Centre $12 You’re curious and you know it.

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SPORTS & HEALTH

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012