Vol. 21 Issue. 5
www.ufvcascade.ca
February 6 to February 19, 2013
Self-addressing red and pink bouquets since 1993
Living in a dysfunctional world
Greenpeace co-founder and UFV writer-in-residence Rex Weyler tells students to wake up and take a stand. p. 10-11
UFV prof Darren Blakeborough upset p. 3
Paul Esau follows the bouncing ball to Kelowna p. 18
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S ISSUE Opinion
News
Arts & Life
Sports & Health
Tibet, Nunavut, Film
How dating hasn’t changed
Eating out at TTC
Sports and your mind
Michael Dayan, A film professor at UFV, is currently screening a second film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival – he follows the journey of one medical official as he heals others and himself, and also takes a hard look at the effects of globalization. Q&A and screening details within!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, our generation has been dubbed the nail in the coffin of courtship. According to Donna Freita, author of The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, we have begun an era void of romance. Amy Van Veen writes on why this is bullshit and why the exception rules.
Want to dine fine with your Valentine? Maybe you should try the UFV culinary program’s River’s Dining Room. Cascade writer Jess Wind checks out the menu and the little-known UFV culinary program; you might be inspired to try something new.
Your volley shows your deep insecurity. Your cross-over dribble is characteristic of inner melancholy. Michael Scoular delves into the psychology of sport with an interview of resident UFV professor and varsity psychologist Roger Friesen.
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pg. 17
pg. 4
pg. 19
EDITORIAL
Kicking television news NICK UBELS THE CASCADE
On Monday night, I tuned in to CTV BC to watch an investigative story by Mi-Jung Lee about the prominence of study drugs on BC campuses. And frankly, the story was garbage. In the three-minute clip, Lee implies that study drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall are on the rise on BC post-secondary campuses. Her evidence for this claim is a passing reference to “some studies” which indicate that “11 per cent of university students” have used or would consider using these concentration-enhancing stimulants. There are no studies focused on BC students and no indication as to whether the use of study drugs is on the rise or decline. Lee’s other evidence is purely anecdotal: an anonymous interview with a fourth-year UBC student named “Paul” and an undercover conversation between a CTV intern and someone who claims to have used Adderall in the past. The report doesn’t include any follow-up questions enquiring what the drug was used for, whether its intended purpose was an ADHD treatment or a wakefulness enhancer. Rather than offer her drugs himself, he redirected her to the university health centre where he had received a prescription.
These sources do not indicate how widespread the use of study drugs is on BC campuses, nor do they show whether or not use is on the rise. Instead, Lee incites a moral panic about life on university campuses based on no concrete evidence. Adderall abuse is portrayed as a growing trend with little to back up this claim. Stories like these only serve to hurt public opinion surrounding education funding. Finally, Lee fleshed out her story with an interview meant to represent the views of the average student. That student was Samantha Lenz, billed on-air only as a University of the Fraser Valley student. What wasn’t said is that Lenz is also an intern at CTV BC. This is lazy reporting at best and deliberately misleading at worst. It’s a conflict of interest to interview one of your own employees and Lee should know better. The fact that Lenz’ affiliation went unacknowledged onair shows implicit understanding that this information would have ruined the interview’s credibility. Why didn’t Lee interview any other student passerby? The interview took place on UFV’s Abbotsford campus. It wasn’t a breaking story, but a feature, meaning there was plenty of time to secure another interview. Part of my interest in Lee’s story was to see how CTV would handle an issue tackled by The
Volume 21 · Issue 5 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Editor-in-chief nick@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels Managing editor amy@ufvcascade.ca Amy Van Veen Business manager joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson Online editor michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular Production manager stewart@ufvcascade.ca Stewart Seymour Art director anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi Copy editor joel@ufvcascade.ca Joel Smart News editor news@ufvcascade.ca Dessa Bayrock Opinion editor opinion@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt Arts & life editor arts@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt
Image: screenshot from CTVBC Broadcast from Monday, February 4, 2013
CTV investigative reporter Mi-Jung Lee at UBC Cascade’s Ali Siemens in November 2011. After all, we work in different mediums, and CTV is a professional news organization. On Tuesday, I re-read Siemens’ piece for The Cascade. It is better researched, better written and much more substantial than Lee’s featured story. And it was written by a novice journalist, not a TV news veteran. You can find Lee’s story on the CTV website, with the misleading headline “Students turning to ‘campus crack’ to study.” First, “turning” implies that this is a practice that is increasing, which the clip does not provide evidence for. Second, the phrase “campus crack” is not uttered by
anyone interviewed in the piece. It implies that study drugs are addictive, which is not addressed in the story either. This is just one case where I was able to pinpoint a deliberate misrepresentation. But it undermines the organization’s trustworthiness. For years, television news has been derided by people like media critic Noam Chomsky as too focused on brevity to include alternative viewpoints, but this story proves that it’s too focused on drama and sensation to get the reporting fundamentals right either. I don’t know about “campus crack,” but television news is a drug worth kicking.
UPCOMING EVENTS Feb 6
Feb 8
Feb 8
Feb 18-22
Open mic at AfterMath
TSA Cabaret!
SCMS Coffee House: “Wrestling with Identity”
BFA Silent Auction
Have something to share? A poem? A song? A bit of stand-up? CIVL’s Adam Roper will be hosting another open mic at the pub formerly known as AfterMath at 7 p.m. tonight. Come out and share in a collaborative workshop environment or just grab a beer and sit in the back.
The Theatre Student Association will be putting on a variety night to raise funds for their Director’s Festival. Head to the Yale Road campus to watch both current students and alumni dazzle and perform. Tickets will be sold at the door by donation with a $10 minimum.
Ever think discussions about national identity should include more professional wrestling? MACS professor Darren Blakeborough will be speaking at the second department coffee house. Pizza and knowledge will be served at 1 p.m. in UHouse room F125.
Everyone wants to expand their art collection, but not everyone knows where to start. How about the UFV Visual Arts department silent auction where all proceeds go to supporting the BFA grad show and VA scholarships? The event is taking place from February 18 to 21, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and February 22, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in B136.
Sports editor sports@ufvcascade.ca Paul Esau News writer jess@ufvcascade.ca Jess Wind Photojournalist blake@ufvcascade.ca Blake McGuire Staff writer Taylor Johnson Contributors Brittni Brown, Jasper Moedt, Kate Nickelchok, Ashley O’Neill, Beau O’Neill, Adesuwa Okoyomon, Jasmine Proctor, Hailey Rollheiser, Tim Ubels Printed By International Web exPress 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.
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Forgive us our debt and we’re even JESS WIND
Darren Blakeborough talks Canada Student Loans breach
THE CASCADE
The last thing anyone needs is more debt, especially if it comes as a result of identity theft. In January, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) announced a disappearance of one of the department’s portable hard drives. With it, the HRSDC misplaced the personal information of over 583,000 borrowers, all of whom were part of the Canada Student Loans program between 2000 and 2006. Most current UFV students won’t have loans dating back that far, but when media and communications professor Darren Blakeborough heard about the breach, he thought it was worth checking his own student debt. “As a pessimist, my first thought was, ‘well, of course that includes me,’” he said, “because I have loans stretching from 1997 to 2008 or 2009. The law of averages was in my favour at that point.” Blakeborough decided to wait until he received a letter confirming his beliefs, but no letter came. It wasn’t until he called a number that a Facebook friend had posted that he got his answer. “The guy asked if I got a letter, and I said no … I thought, ‘Good, I’m not included,’” he explained. “Then he came back and said, ‘Yeah, your information was included.’” After brief set of instructions to
Image: Univeristy of the Fraser Valley/Flickr
Darren Blakeborough, one of the many former and current students whose information was lost or stolen. call Equifax and get a flag put on his credit file, the phone call ended. Blakeborough’s wife called the number and discovered she was included as well. “She talked to somebody else,” he said. “They just grabbed a script and read an apology to her. Wasn’t I good enough for an apology?” Many reports have come out detailing exactly what information was on the drive. On January 11, the Canada Student Loans website canlearn.ca reported that the drive contained student names,
Variety of talents at CIVL open mic TAYLOR JOHNSON THE CASCADE
Bar patrons at AfterMath last Wednesday were in for a big surprise when CIVL station manager Aaron Levy came out of retirement for his first public performance since leaving Ontario for the West Coast. Armed with only vox and guitar, Levy stormed through a medley of covers including Sinead O’Connor and Bruce Springsteen cuts at the inaugural edition of what CIVL hopes will be monthly open mic nights. From 7 p.m. to a little after 10, the campus lounge was filled with both students and non-students sharing drinks, music and poetry. It was difficult to find a seat among the guitar-toting participants; AfterMath staff were seen bouncing from table to table. CIVL was happy to see a full house. The station plans to host an open mic the second Wednesday of every month. They’re focusing on bringing students together, to share music and draw attention to student events on campus. All
NEWS
performances were recorded and with the permission of the performer, they will be shared on air. CIVL hopes that the event will also draw attention to the musical talent on campus and allow students to enjoy the work of their peers. Last Wednesday’s event consisted of a few unexpected contributions, since there was no requirement to sign up; the signup sheet was passed around AfterMath, allowing anyone to jot down their name or that of a friend. A couple highlights from the night included a comical poem set in Abbotsford Jubilee Park, which advised the audience to avoid romantic encounters in the park’s trees. A peaceful ukulele solo brought the audience to sunny Hawaii. One of the nights biggest hits was a vocals and guitar duet, who were called back up on stage in an encore by the audience to preform again. If you are interesting in attending a CIVL open mic in the future, notifications will be available through the radio station’s Facebook page.
birth dates, contact information and social insurance numbers as well as loan balances. The report indicates that authorities have no reason to believe anything nefarious has been done with the information. “While there is no evidence at this time that any of the information has been accessed or used for fraudulent purposes,” the website states, “this incident is being taken very seriously and the Office of the Minister has engaged the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.” Since the breach, the public has
launched websites and Facebook groups to express their feelings on the situation. Several media sources, including The Globe and Mail, report that a Newfoundland lawyer has filed a class action lawsuit. This suit is one of three that have been launched against the HRSDC, which Blakeborough looked into. “With [the suit] that he filed, it automatically includes everybody whose information was involved,” Blakeborough explained. “So I’ll just sit back and see what’s going on in the meantime.”
The loan department discovered that the drive was missing in November, but failed to announce it until January. There is no confirmation either way as to if the drive was lost or stolen, so the delay in going public was supposedly to avoid unnecessary panic. Blakeborough was not thrilled to learn that for two months the drive was unaccounted for. “As a person whose information was in some netherworld for two months, it really pisses me off,” he said. The HRSDC has purchased a credit protection package from Equifax for all those included in the breach. According to canlearn.ca, it will put a flag on the accounts of those affected for six years, and is designed to alert grantors to the possibility of fraud and request further identifying information before granting loans. Blakeborough still says enough hasn’t been done to rectify the situation. As a doctoral candidate, he had a lot of information connected to the missing hard drive. He knows that loan forgiveness will never happen, but he says he would see it as a fair trade. “If you can’t take care of my personal information, the least you can do is forgive me this debt,” he said. “I will call it even, and I will talk nicely of Canada Student Loans to everybody that I know if they do that for me.”
Uniquely UFV
The goodbye pylon NICK UBELS THE CASCADE
Tucked away in the corner of UFV’s Abbotsford library, there’s an orange traffic pylon that’s just a little different from the rest. Scrawled in black Sharpie across the plastic surface is a heartfelt goodbye note penned by what seems to be a former Australian exchange student. The message seems to be addressed to other international students. “I hope Canada is everything you dreamed it would be!” it reads. “Have the most amazing experience ever!” It’s unclear who exactly wrote the note, or how long ago it was written. But for one international student intent on leaving their mark on campus, their legacy can still be found if you look hard enough, blocking off the latest leak in the ceiling or directing motorists around potholes. Have you noticed anything peculiar or interesting on campus that deserves attention? Drop me a line at nick@ufvcascade.ca. We’ll follow it up.
Interested in writing? Want to get involved with your campus newspaper? Come to our writers’ meeting in room B133 on Monday mornings at 10 a.m.!
Image: Dessa Bayrock/The Cascade
Last known location: tucked in a corner in G, guarding a leak. The unabridged goodbye message: Farewell lovers! I hope Canada is everything you dreamed it would be! Have the most amazing experience ever and I hope that that next semester you get a new Aussie Exchange student and that they’re cool but not cooler than me! Ha ha! Much love to you all! You’re all the most amazing people. You’ve made my time in Canada magical. Buon compleanno!
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NEWS
Filming the healing process in Tibet, Nunavut and the self HAILEY ROLLHEISER CONTRIBUTOR
Michael Dayan, a film professor at UFV, has released a documentary that is now receiving international attention. It was screened at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in the Social Justice category, and also aired on CBC. High Plains Doctor: Healing on the Tibetan Plateau is based on Canadian Dr. Isaac Sobel’s 10th and last year running a medical clinic in Yushu, Tibet. The film was shot in Nunavut and in a remote village in Yushu, which has since been destroyed by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, making Dayan’s footage possibly the only documentation of the village in existence. The documentary explores what happens to indigenous people and their health care in the face of globalization. On March 8, Dayan will be giving a lecture here at UFV and screening the documentary. Tell me a little bit about your film and what it’s all about. My film is about a medical mission into eastern Tibet. The film can be seen from a number of perspectives; it’s a complex story. On one level it’s about how a man goes to help people far away and ends up helping himself, but in other ways it’s about cultural survival in the midst of globalization and modernization – there’s this force of change that is affecting the people in this village that he’s going to. What were your favourite and least favourite parts of the whole process? The easiest part to answer is the least favourite part, because
of the medical mission ... just seeing all of these people in so much pain and not being able to help them – partly because I’m not a physician, and partly because even the physicians were running out of resources and coming up against things they had never seen before. And choosing my favourite things: being in Tibet was just awesome and being in northern Canada was awesome, too. But being in Tibet – I went for a whole month without using telephone and the internet and that was awesome just to get back to the basics. I think some of the best things were just being up at dawn at the top of the monastery and the peace and tranquility – you don’t get that over here. How long did you shoot for? I shot for a month and the film is based on what I shot over that month. I just used one camera and I used one mic. I was very careful about limiting myself in terms of what to bring into the country because it’s not encouraged to shoot in Tibet. I don’t think the Chinese government is that fond of the idea. Where did you get your idea for the film? The medical clinic [in Yushu] has been running for 10 years, and I went on the last one of its medical missions. The person who led the clinic was, at the time, the Chief Medical Officer of Nunavut. Before that he was the director of the division of aboriginal health at the UBC medical school. While he was the head
– public health entails many aspects of how people live, so one of the takeaways of the film is that for people to be healthy they need healthy public policy. Is this your first film that will be shown at a festival? No, my previous film has screened there as well. My previous film is called Glimpses of Heaven and it also screened at Santa Barbara, where it had its U.S. premiere. That film had its Canadian premiere at the Whistler Film Festival.
Image: media.independant.com
Film prof Michael Dayan is unveiling a second documentary. of aboriginal health at UBC, one of the medical students there, a good friend of mine, knew I was looking for a new film project and he advised me to look into this. What do you think is important for your audience to know about your documentary – what is the intended message? Well, there are many messages. I operate with an A story and B story, and on the A story I’d say it’s about healing happens for
oneself when actively engaged in helping others. It’s not just about healing Tibetans; it’s about how Dr. Sobel heals himself. On the other level, it’s about what it means to be healthy in terms of healthy society or healthy culture. Because [Sobel] is a public health officer and not a physician looking at treating the individual, he’s looking at all the aspects of the public health mix. That includes the environment, culture, economic opportunity
Image: Freefoto.com
Image: REUTERS
So I know that you teach here; do you find inspiration from your students? Absolutely, I always learn from my students. The way I approach teaching is an exchange of knowledge. I love the discussions we have in class, I love reading my students’ papers, I always learn and that’s how I teach; I teach by wanting to learn. I’ve studied the materials and I know certain things, but I always find that there’s personal insight and ways of seeing things that the students bring. What are you currently working on? Now I’m working on a film about the descendants of Nazis who have converted to Judaism. It’s been interesting. I’m deep in work on that now. This interview has been edited for length and clarity
NEWS BRIEFS
Image: CUPWire
Image: www.seekingarangement.com
Image: REUTERS
Proposed Trinity Western law school under fire
Ryerson students turn to “sugar daddies” for cash
Canada not ready for major offshore spill: watchdog
Apple to lose iPhone trademark in Brazil: source
Bulgaria blames Hezbollah in bomb attack on Israeli tourists
VANCOUVER (CUP) — Should a Canadian law school be able to turn students away because they’re gay? Langley, BC-based Christian university Trinity Western (TWU) wants to open up a law school. But deans of existing law schools across Canada want the proposed school shut down before it opens because a longstanding rule on the school’s books that threatens expulsion for gay and lesbian students. A document all Trinity Western students sign, called a “Community Covenant,” requires them to be committed Christians. It requires that students adhere to “a Biblical view of sexuality,”meaning “sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman.”
(CUP) He treated her to dinner at the CN Tower’s 360 Restaurant, took her rock climbing last weekend and bought her a puppy — a six-month-old pug, which she named Moose. He may be the perfect man, but Wolfson, a third-year Ryerson University student, isn’t in love; she counts on her “sugar daddy” to ease the financial burden of living as a student in Toronto and she credits SeekingArrangment.com for bringing them together. “You meet businessmen who just want to, like, have a good time with someone younger and attractive, and you get compensated really well,” Wolfson, 21, said. “It’s kind of a win-win.”
OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada’s offshore petroleum boards are not equipped to cope with a major spill, the country’s environmental watchdog warned on Tuesday in a report that also said the booming energy sector needed more oversight. Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan said in a report that unless Canada improved its record on environmental regulation, resource customers might be deterred. His conclusions are sensitive for the ruling pro-business Conservatives, who expect some $650 billion of new investments in natural resource projects over the next decade and want more extraction of oil, gas and metals.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — Brazil’s copyright regulator will strip Apple Inc of the right to use its iPhone trademark in Latin America’s biggest market and granted the trademark to a local company that registered it first, a source familiar with the decision said on Tuesday. Gradiente Eletronica SA, a Brazilian consumer electronics maker, registered the “iphone” name in 2000, seven years before Apple launched its now virally popular smartphone. The Brazilian Institute of Intellectual Property will officially announce its decision on February 13, the source said. Apple could then challenge the ruling in the Brazilian courts.
SOFIA (Reuters) — Bulgaria accused Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah on Tuesday of carrying out a bomb attack on a bus in the Black Sea city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists last year. The conclusions of the Bulgarian investigation, citing a clear connection to an attack on European Union soil, might open the way for the EU to join the United States in branding the Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Three people were involved in the attack, two of whom had genuine passports from Australia and Canada, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told reporters after Sofia’s national security council discussed the investigation.
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SCIENCE ON PURPOSE
Curiosity’s sends back its first images in LED illumination
ASHLEY O’NEILL CONTRIBUTOR
NASA’s latest Mars rover, Curiosity, sparked curiosity of its own when it sent back pictures for the first time on January 23. Curiosity is fitted with a Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera which captures high-definition 13.9 micrometers per pixel resolution images and includes its own LED lighting system. The photos Curiosity sent to Earth last month depict back amazingly clear images of a Martian rock called “Sayunei.” NASA scientists are taking particular interest in this rock and these images; prior to Curiosity snapping the photos, the rover’s wheel scuffed the corner of the rock which caused a fresh, sand-like sample to come loose from the ground. The scientists at NASA are filled with anticipation as to what this sand-like material may be, and think it could take them one step closer to finding out more about our closest planetary neighbour.
Two different LED settings were used for picture-taking that night: white LEDs and ultraviolet LEDs. Each illumination provides a different view. The image lit up by white lighting allows the viewer to see textural detail and surface features cast by shadows. As for the ultraviolet light, Ken Edgett, the MAHLI Principal Investigator of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, explained on the NASA site that the light would pick up any fluorescent minerals. If they find the colours green, yellow, orange or red under the ultraviolet LEDs, there may be traces of fluorescent material on Mars – which would point to the presence of vegetation. NASA is not stopping at just collecting photographs for evidence and observations. When Curiosity was deployed on November 26, in 2011, NASA also intended for the rover to collect soil samples. This will be the first time any rover has attempted to collect a physical sample from a planet. On January 27, the rover just
finished preparing drills and carrying out “pre-load testing” around Sayunei to make sure the ground is secure enough to drill in. “We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity’s first drilling,” said Daniel Limonadi, lead surface sampling and science systems engineer for Curiosity (again quoted on the NASA site). “It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.” Eventually, Curiosity will try to assess the amount of radiation in the environment from the sample. For now, though, Curiosity will just be testing the surface of the planet. This way scientists can observe how the rock reacts to the sudden temperature drop overnight and how the robot’s machinery deals with the stress of drilling. NASA is expecting to start drilling in early February, but it could take weeks or months until Curiosity has anything more than photos to share.
The numbers behind the degree
Clubs, associations and campus happenings
O’Heron on the development of the graduate BEAU O’NEILL
TAYLOR JOHNSON
CONTRIBUTOR
For the last 60 years it has been an accepted fact that those with science degrees will be the first to be hired by employers upon graduation, and that those from the humanities will be looking in the “Help Wanted” section the night of convocation. To counter this belief, Herb O’Heron (director of research and policy analysis at the association of universities and colleges of Canada (AUCC)) provided empirical evidence that any degree is a good degree. His presentation on the afternoon of January 28 was part of the President’s Leadership Lectures, arranged by UFV president Mark Evered. Using figures and charts drawn from Statistics Canada data, O’Heron presented his findings to an audience containing many of the directorial and presidential members of post-secondary institutes of the Lower Mainland. After an introductory speech by Evered, O’Heron began his presentation with an auspicious title: “The Skills and Talents of University Graduates are in High Demand.” O’Heron presented charts that gave factual support to this claim: the number of jobs in Canada for university graduates has doubled since 1980, from 1.9 million to 4.8 million, and the number of women in that category has grown faster than the number of men. To make this data more meaningful, O’Heron showed that the number of jobs for those with a high school education or less has decreased over the same period. Earnings have increased for university graduates as well. Though the cost of study increases with the level of education, the curve of earnings is favourable to graduates of all levels. The highest earning jobs are in the
Image: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/flickr.com
The Curiosity rover will begin drilling for samples this month.
THE CASCADE
O’Heron: numbers prove that an education is worth it. architectural, engineering and technology fields, but even those with visual and performing arts degrees have seen an increase in income since 2000. O’Heron went on to explain that “demography is not destiny.” Although the population of people age 19-21 has decreased as the country’s population ages, enrolment has increased threefold. In addition, the number of aboriginal students in 1981 was a mere two per cent of the total aboriginal population, versus the 8.1 per cent enrolment in the population of non-aboriginals. As of 2006, that percentage has increased to 7.7 per cent, with non-aboriginals jumping to 23.4 per cent. Within a series of facts that shed a positive light on any graduate, O’Heron showed that BC graduates, though only accounting for 25 per cent of the taxable population, contribute towards 40 per cent of the province’s income. Those with a high school degree or less, though making up nine per cent of the population, contribute four per cent of tax revenue. This discussion of financial matters led to a conclusive point by O’Heron. “Canada needs to raise produc-
Image: UFV.ca
tivity to support rising dependency and drive economic growth,” he stated, delving into the mechanics of what makes Canadian institutions successful. He went on to discuss the idea of “connected faculty” within institutions, showing that 40 per cent of faculty members come from abroad. He also discussed institutions’ international and intranational academic partners like India, China and the aboriginal communities. Another important aspect of the Canadian system is agricultural development, an especially significant topic here in the Fraser Valley Finally, O’Heron commented on the benefits of schools like UFV, where smaller class sizes and student-directed seminars can enrich the student experience. Later, in response to a question asked by an audience member, O’Heron also spoke to the benefit Canadian students have in the opportunity for mobility within the system of the nation’s institutions, a feature which is mainly lacking in the United States. Next in the lecture series to speak is former Detroit Red Wing Sheldon Kennedy, who will be at the university Wednesday, February 27.
Ask anyone in the hallways “what’s going on tonight on campus?” and you’re most likely going to get a blank stare and a shoulder shrug. But if you know who to ask and where to go, there are tons of things going on here at UFV. Martin Kelly has worked at UFV for a little over six years, and is currently a programmer at Student Life. In those six years, he says the number of clubs and associations has grown from 15 to a little over 30. For a school of 17,000 full-time students, that’s still pretty low. “Students just don’t know because there is no communication,” Kelly says. Students honestly do not know what is going on at UFV, because clubs and events are not advertised widely, if at all. Kelly states that by about third year, students begin to get involved. That gives them a couple years to settle in, form a club and help it grow. Unfortunately, in such a short time span they typically do not name a student to follow in their footsteps and keep the club running, and this leaves the club up in the air without a single person to structure it. Kelly says that there are 60 groups in writing at UFV, but only 30 of those groups are currently up and actively running. Many groups simply phase out, Kelly says, or the students running them “hit a wall and give up.” Kelly explains the technicalities involved with running a group are quite time-consuming, but Student Life is open to supporting all sorts of groups. To become an official club on campus simply requires a one page document that requests 10 names of students who will be participating in the
group. This insures that the university knows who and what is going on within their facilities. Associations are slightly different. Instead of a simple document, associations are linked with university departments. They require a faculty member’s involvement and students involved with the department are typically members immediately. Looking at the last couple years, Kelly finds the growth at UFV quite impressive, since a large association like BCSA can take up to three years to gain momentum. The main reason for associations and clubs falling apart, Kelly finds, is that students run into a lack of time or effort. “Students really don’t know what they’re in for, the amount of work it takes to run meetings, hold elections and go to school,” he says. In the near future, the management of clubs and associations will become part of SUS’s duties. Kelly is looking forward to this shift and has been promoting the shift for some time. His concern regarding the shift is communication. He does not want the current problems to transfer over, and in order to prevent that he says that he and SUS are hoping to sit down and rule out the problems that keep groups on campus from moving forward. In the meantime, Kelly encourages any student with a passion or a curiosity to get involved on campus, or to start something new. The application for a new club or association can be downloaded from the SUS website, and Student Life reps in U-House are always willing to lend a helping hand.
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NEWS
Money and membership
The latest and greatest from the most recent SUS regular board meeting
DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE
NICK UBELS THE CASCADE
The SUS board of directors meets every two weeks on rotating campuses in public meetings open to all students. What follows is The Cascade’s digest of the important stuff that went down. Most of the time, one or some of our reporters will also be live-tweeting these meetings in real time using the hashtag #thingsSUSdoes. Agenda questioned due to unavailability to membership Last Friday’s meeting almost ended before it began. Veteran representative-at-large Jay Mitchell moved that the agenda be ruled out of order. “It was not distributed to our membership and the room was labelled as ‘mystery room’,” he said, “so even if it was distributed to the membership, they wouldn’t know how to get here.” The agenda was not posted on the SUS website in advance of the meeting. According to general manager Meghan McDonald, this was because of a mix-up during office administrator Megan Zacharias’ recent vacation. Zacharias is usually responsible for posting the agendas. “This isn’t a common procedural issue,” McDonald assured. President Shane Potter suggested skipping the decision items thanks to the error, but Mitchell relinquished his complaint. “We can proceed as normal,” he said. “But don’t do it again. It’s bad form.”
AfterMath stung by fickle clubs Bottom line hurting from cancellations and rescheduling of events While clubs and associations have traditionally held close ties to the campus pub, AfterMath manager Brad Ross said that this semester has put a strain on their relationship. It’s a strain that’s hurting AfterMath’s bottom line. “They are backing out of events.” Ross said. “If we’re going a month and a bit into the semester and these clubs and associations aren’t even being run anymore, it’s hurting us.” Ross said that internal problems and delays in organizations like the Business Administration Students Association (BASA) are causing events to be continually pushed back on the calendar. “[BASA] has put off their EGM and election for two weeks,” he said. “BASA cancelled a function on us again this week.” Financial Aid and SUS join forces Awareness campaign will hopefully help students claim more scholarships The UFV advancement office and financial aid office have approached SUS to ask for funding and cooperation as part of a financial awareness campaign. The new program, dubbed “Moneybags,” hopes to educate students on the many awards that are available to them but remain unclaimed each year. McDonald says she’s worked on similar financial awareness campaign in the past at Queens University. “It just brought forward a lot of the existing options, but created a stronger awareness among the student body with promotional
materials and speakers,” she said. The SUS half of the funding would be pulled from SUS’s scholarship and award budget line, since not all of the funds have been claimed by students. Dvdk cautioned against using the funding for this purpose, worried that there may be overages on other budget lines that this money could be used to cover. “I would caution the board to save this money for other uses,” DvdK said. “We’re likely to need this money in other places.” After debate over the final pledged amount, the motion passed and granted $1000 to go towards this program. Farewell, transcripts; hello, summaries SUS adopts new, simplified minute-taking procedure Meanwhile in governance, VP internal Greg Stickland introduced a motion to simplify SUS’ detailed minute-taking procedure. In recent years, attempts have been made to keep wordfor-word minutes of each board meeting, though this has resulted in errors and delays in posting them to the website. “It goes from a verbatim transcript to a summary,” Stickland explained. “That’s the biggest change.” Stickland noted that because SUS does not currently have a policy in place, the decision could be made without too many complications. “It’s sort of like snapping our fingers,” he said. Jay Mitchell also supported the decision, saying that this new procedure “is how it should be done professionally. Dialogue should be for reporting.” The motion was adopted unanimously with one abstention.
AfterMath manager Brad Ross addresses tensions between pub and student union “Since the semester started, there’s been animosity amongst SUS and AfterMath. On my end and on your end. For the benefit of continuing to run AfterMath, it can’t happen. There are certain people in this room, or not in this room presently today, that are our own worst enemy when it comes to advertising AfterMath. I have heard nothing but negativity from some of the SUS board members and staff that used to support AfterMath now making customers not come there. I’m not going to turn this into a name-calling match. But it’s happening. You guys are the owners. You have to be a little bit more supportive, regardless of the situation. The budgeting situation, and that budgeting group that came forward, regardless of what you all think, I didn’t create. I had never even met Derek until that day. The animosity between SUS and Aftermath, for aftermath to continue to operate properly, has to end. We can’t have board members going around saying “don’t go there.” ~Brad Ross Where’s the Funding? (WTF?) considering name change Deemed “too edgy” by some government representatives The student lobbying group with a provocative acronym Where’s the Funding (WTF?) is considering changing their name in an effort to be taken more seriously by provincial politicians. VP advocacy Dan Van Der Kroon attended a recent meeting of the coalition advocating for stronger post-secondary education funding at the Harbour Centre in Vancouver where the name change and other planning items were discussed. “They have been getting feedback from government representatives that the name is a little bit too edgy to have credibility,” Van
Der Kroon said during his advocacy report. Clubs and associations get their semester funding The International Friendship Club will receive $100 and the Nursing Student Association will receive $527.18, both pending completion of the proper paperwork. The Teaching English As A Second Language Association and the Theatre Student Association were both granted $175 for this semester. The Business Administration Student Association was given $1404.97 as an amalgamation of semester funding.
SUS CHEAT SHEET
WHO THE HELL IS WHO
Image: University of the Fraser Valley/Flickr
Image: Anthony Biondi/The Cascade
Shane Potter President of SUS, previous VP east. Also involved in Humans VS Zombies on campus and looks good in argyle. AKA @shanerpotter
Chris Doyle Image: The Cascade
Image: Ryan Pete/Facebook
Image: Greg Stickland/Facebook
Dan van der Kroon
Ryan Petersen
Greg Stickland
VP academic. Spearheads advocacy on campus, including a steady hand in the Cinema Politica offerings every month. Wears a lot of green. AKA DvdK.
VP finance, former rep-at-large. Five years of experience with SUS and has a penchant for bow ties. Has been known to sport muttonchops.
VP internal. Often wears a Squirtle hat and has a knack for policy. A student of English and TESLA.
VP social and guy around campus. Speaking of around campus, you may or may not see him wearing a tutu and delivering candy grams later this week ...
ALSO IN ATTENDENCE:
Jay Mitchell Seasoned rep-at-large, previous SUS president. Recognizable by his overwhelming common sense, sarcasm and backwards ball cap. AKA @therealb0wser. Image: Jay Mitchell/facebook
Harrison Depnar, Debbie Ellis, Jun Feng, Anika Geurtsen, Ahmed Hussein, Brad Ross, Zack Soderstrom, Sean Webber
SENT REGRETS: Nick Willms
Meghan McDonald SUS general manager. McDonald was hired to replace outgoing communications administrator Jhim Burwell last fall. Handles administration and communication duties.
Image: Tony Biondi/The Cascade
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
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OPINION
Tweets of the Week
#TypicalUFV
Alicia Williams @aliciafriendly Everytime I use the washroom in Building C it auto-flushes too soon and I get sprayed with toilet water... #TypicalUFV #Gross
Ali Siemens @alithemenno No punishment for plagiarizers. #TypicalUFV
Ashley Klaassen @BCAshley Parking? What parking? We don’t have any parking. #typicalUFV
Jessica @WestCoastBelle Note to self: Forward UFV email to personal email address as my ability to log into myUFV is the opposite of reliable. #typicalUFV
Anne @MagicalFish Always getting caught off guard by the fake duck in the pond... #TypicalUFV
Emily Taylor @emlaytaylor Spent longer looking for parking than I did in my class! #typicalufv
Next week’s hashtag is #MyProfSays Tweet your comments using this hashtag and you might end up featured in next week’s paper!
Club fire kills 236, provokes scrutiny of local club safety JASPER MOEDT
CONTRIBUTOR
In a nightlife venue, amidst dancing, live music and drinking, personal safety is often pushed to the back of the mind. Of course there is some sense in us; women know not to leave their drinks unattended, men avoid provocation of physical violence and all tend to travel in groups. But what about the safety codes and regulations of the club itself, and the well-being of the occupants as a whole? This question has been sharply brought to club frequenters’ attention with a vicious club fire in the college town of Santa Maria that left 236 dead and 126 injured last week. The fire—caused by an outdoor flare lit by the performing band—spread quickly through the club, knocking out the power and setting the club into darkness and a state of panic. The flare reportedly lit the noise proofing foam on the ceiling which spread across the club rapidly and set a toxic smoke into the air. Further contributing to the state of chaos was the lack of emergency escapes and that initially security tried to prevent the first escapees from leaving. In this particular club patrons run a tab and pay at the end of the night instead of paying per drink. This led to the club owners setting up measures so that patrons could not leave out emergency doors in an attempt to prevent individuals from skipping their tab. To top everything off, the club was more than 300 people above capacity, with 1000 bodies filling a space that was slated at a 690 person maximum. The above conditions set up a life-sized funnel
Image: Alice Harold/flickr.com
Club safety a major issue after tragedy in Brazil.
for patrons, forcing a stampede toward one exit. As the country mourns this terrible tragedy the Brazilian authorities have already taken steps to identify potential culprits and individuals responsible for the series of safety oversights that led to this fire. The first to be taken into custody were the two owners of the nightclub. In a club that did not have fire alarms, sprinkler systems or effective emergency escapes, there is clearly a huge amount of negligence on the part of the owners. Also in custody are two members of the band playing that night. It has been reported the fire was caused by flares that were designated for outdoor use only, which obviously did not concern the band that proceeded to light them in a packed club anyway. All four of the parties will likely face manslaughter charges. There is also an ongoing investi-
gation into whether local fire and city officials were negligent to their duties in inspection of the club. It is a tragedy that has provoked scrutiny of the safety of our own clubs. As the backlash and mourning continues in Brazil the world begins to take a look at its own safety standards and how it would fare in case of a disaster similar to this. Canadians seem to be largely protected. Stringent fire safety precautions and strict building codes make a disaster on this scale almost impossible. Incidents like these on an international stage force us to appreciate the sometimes ridiculous-seeming regulations that are strictly enforced. Next time you are standing outside your favourite bar or nightclub on a cold northern night, take the time to think before complaining to the bouncer. He may be saving you a lot of grief by following those fire codes and holding the line at the door.
Blue and yellows On part-timing it, corporate sloganism and the death of retail giant Best Buy NICK UBELS THE CASCADE
In grade 12, I got my first real job. As in biweekly paycheque, punch clock, name tag. It was October 2006 and I had been hired as a part-time media specialist at Best Buy after a couple of pretty run-of-the-mill in-person interviews and what amounted to an utterly transparent online lie detector test: You see your supervisor carrying an open box item under his or her arm as they exit the building. What do you do? A) Immediately confront your supervisor. B) Inform the store manager. C) Inform the loss prevention specialist. D) Do nothing. How often do you lie? A) Often. B) Sometimes. C) Never. And so on. For over an hour. Once hired, my task was to both stock shelves and help customers in the catch-all category of media products: video games, DVDs, CDs, stereos, telephones and even musical instruments. Anything not large enough to warrant its own department fell under our care. I got a crisp, blue short-sleeved polo and a bright yellow pin. My name (“Nick U”) was tellingly applied hastily using a label-maker.
I did manage to stick it out for long enough to get an etched pin, carving out a respectable career by big box retail standards. But in the nearly two years that I worked there, 80 per cent of the store’s employees came and went. It was pretty steady work. I met some interesting people with shared pop culture interests, some of whom I still keep up with, and the staff discount helped make my CD and DVD addiction a little less rough on my bank account. But then there were the blinding fluorescents and the ever-present dust cloud that left me feeling like I’d just gotten off an eight-hour flight after every shift. There was the weird, ritualistic company propaganda we’d have to grudgingly chant every morning in a circle before the doors opened to the dealseeking public, champing at the bit. And there were the customers who expected me to know not only what we had in stock in every department, but to be able to provide them with a breakdown of its inner workings despite the fact that my training consisted mostly of motto memorization. Perhaps the most unsettling thing of all was the fundamental corporate philosophy; to get promoted or even to stay on for long, you had to be a true believer. You couldn’t criticize or question, just chant “Best Buy! Best Buy! Best
Buy!” while pushing unnecessary add-ons and product insurance on unwitting customers and spout off about the company’s so-called values. Best Buy didn’t just want my time and hard work and friendly service. It wanted my soul. Much like the Republican Party, Best Buy has quickly become too insular and self-congratulatory to allow for constructive criticism or any sort of innovation from within its ranks. For employees, the only hope for success was to become a sycophant. As for me, I just tried to keep my mouth shut and get out as soon as I could. Those of us who weren’t willing to take that leap of faith found ourselves less motivated than we would have been had our bosses acknowledged and accepted the fact that this, for us, was just a job. I didn’t believe in Best Buy. And I resented its unceasing attempts at conversion. So it’s not without some small sense of devilish joy that I heard the news that Best Buy had closed seven of its locations across the country. I feel for the 800 workers who were laid off so suddenly. That’s a really shitty thing to happen, but it doesn’t exactly surprise me. I hope those people affected will find something more fulfilling beyond the unfeeling corporate re-
Image: Tim Ubels/The Cascade
The old employee tag.
tail giant that is Best Buy. The big blue giant isn’t any good for its employees. Retail is a mixed bag to begin with, but working at Best Buy was particularly soul-killing. The same I imagine also goes for other big-box stores like WalMart, Target, or Future Shop (also owned by Best Buy Canada, Ltd.). They create jobs, yes, but most of those jobs are part-time, no benefits. Barely enough for someone to pay the bills, if that. I use the designation part-time here somewhat loosely; for some of us, part time meant working 30-plus hours for three weeks in a row only to be cut down to 10 or 12 the fourth week. Why? So Best Buy didn’t have to start chipping in for benefits. Stepping back from the employee side of the equation, I have to ask: what does Best Buy really have to offer its customers? Ill-informed sales staff. Complicated and antagonistic return policies. A brutal,
fluorescent, characterless shopping environment plastered with endless sale signs. A cacophony of different kinds of music, advertisements and other noise blasting from sound systems across the store. For records or video games or small ticket items, it’s much better to go to a speciality shop. Finding one that still exists in Best Buy’s wake will be a challenge. As soon as the retail giant debuted north of the 49th, it was only a matter of time before A&B Sound bit the dust. And others followed suit not long after. For big ticket items, like TVs or consoles or computers, it’s easier to do the research yourself and get a better deal online. To see the place where I got my start in the working world, a stop gap of sorts turned obsolete relic of a bygone era, finally get its comeuppance is a mildly satisfying, albeit delayed victory for my 17-year-old self.
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www.ufvcascade.ca
Curtailed commentary on current conditions
SNAPSHOTS
OPINION
DESSA BAYROCK An ode to dad humour My dad was recently bitten by a cat. The extent of the damage was two fairly deep puncture wounds, which he obtained by enthusiastically petting a particularly old and grumpy cat. Twenty minutes after the event, my father was simultaneously putting on a brave face and moping. “How’s it feeling now?” I asked sympathetically. In answer he began licking the back of his hand and vigorously rubbing his ears with it. “I was bitten by a radioactive cat!” he proclaims, brushing nonexistent whiskers. “I am becoming Cat Man!” My father, like many other fathers, has a peculiar sense of hilarity. Pun-reliant, often expectant of a groan or drumroll, usually followed with a wide grin and waggled eyebrows for emphasis. It’s amazing to me that something can be both spectacularly funny and unfunny at the same time. My father fervently pretends that YOLO stands for “You Obviously Like Owls,” no matter how many times I explain it to him. This is dad humour. Sometimes I pretend to hate it, and sometimes it’s so gloriously unfunny that we both kill ourselves laughing. But I think I’ve come to the conclusion that dad humour makes the world a better place. Sometimes we need to take the world a little less seriously, and that’s one of the things my father has taught me – bad puns and all. “Yes, dad,” I replied, with a grin and a sigh. “You are Cat Man.”
Image: photoscott/flickr.com
NICK UBELS Meet
the web’s gatekeepers
new
The early architects of the internet envisioned a radically democratic future for news and information. They hoped broadcasters could be bypassed to give people direct access to unfiltered data and opinion. This more or less happened. And then something else happened. The internet got big. Really big. People were overwhelmed by a sea of digital information. Content creation skyrocketed. Web 2.0’s solution was customized filters to give people exactly (and only) what they want. Facebook’s newsfeed uses a complex series of algorithms based on demographic information and “use habits” to anticipate the sort of content it thinks you want to see. The same goes for Google; two people could search the same keyword and produce wildly different results. In Eli Pariser’s book on the subject, The Filter Bubble, he describes this new model of web use as dangerously personalized. Gatekeeping, the selection of which stories and information people actually see, was once dominated by editors, publishers and producers. One-way broadcasters. New media hasn’t made this process disappear. Instead, the responsibility has been silently shifted from humans to long sequences of computer code. For the sake of convenience, we are less and less likely to encounter things that challenge our worldview or ideology. We have begun to live in a bubble of information plied to our personal likes and dislikes. And that is a precarious place to be.
STEWART SEYMOUR Please
extend hours
AMY VAN VEEN
library
Sorry, my butt wanted to talk to you, not me
It was fall semester; I was in the library one evening working on a research paper. I had just started to get into my work and I was getting things done. I had my focus. It was at that moment a security guard walked up to my table. We had a brief chat and when I thought we were done I went back to my work. He was still standing there for another 10 seconds before I looked up to inquire what the deal was. “Library’s closing.” This couldn’t be, I thought to myself. Was it 10, already? I looked up at the clock and it was just hitting six. It is six o’clock and the library is closing. It was Friday at a point in the semester when academic responsibilities intrude. I felt safe in assuming the library would be open later because this is, after all, a university. I am already thinking ahead to midterms, papers and final exams for this semester. At the very least, heading into exam period, the library should extend its hours. Many of us do study late into the night and I am certain many students would take advantage of extended hours. During the day I find myself running errands or at work; during the day, I find the library a little loud. At night, many students go home and it is quiet. If only it was open later.
The pocket dial. Flip phones kept us from the embarrassment and technically the advent of locking our smart phones should. But sometimes those things fail us—or we fail them—and we’re left scrambling for the “end” button or hoping against hope the other person doesn’t pick up. It’s not always awkward, I suppose. Sometimes it’s good-natured if it’s someone on your recent calls list. You can laugh it off with them in that “we’ve both been there” kind of way that most stand-up comedians base their material on. But sometimes the pocket dial is not funny. Sometimes it’s terrifying. Sometimes you call that person on your contact list you haven’t talked to in five years but, for whatever reason, have never deleted from your phone. You keep them on there, maybe just in case you’re ever caught with no one to call and they pick up or maybe because having a lot of people on your contact list makes you feel important. For whatever reason, they’re still there and they’re being called and as you try to hit the red panic button your heart rate skyrockets and your fingers become useless. You feel like you’re straddling the space between life and death. You accidentally leave a voicemail of fumbling and muffled swearing and your face turns beet red. And you can’t get the muffled voicemail or the out-of-the-blue missed call back. It’s out there. It’s out there forever.
Regulate your own energy drink consumption BRITTNI BROWN
CONTRIBUTOR
Health Canada has recently imposed caffeine restrictions on energy drinks to protect Canada’s youth from potential health risks. Energy drink companies must now limit the amount of caffeine per single serving to 180 mg. Health Canada hopes this will combat many youth-related health risks which have been linked to the overconsumption of caffeine. However, this new limit still more than doubles the 80 mg maximum daily consumption recommended for children up to 12-years-old. Am I the only one seeing a discrepancy here? This restriction isn’t going to protect children from energy drinks at all. Approved caffeine levels are still way too high for children to drink these products safely. What’s the point of making all these companies remodel their drink formulas if they are still go-
ing to have harmful effects? Energy drinks, which were previously labelled as “health food drinks” have now been reclassified as “food” products. Of the 98 reclassified drinks, 28 must now reformulate their product to meet the caffeine, vitamin and mineral requirements of their new classification. It’s a long and expensive process, especially for one that does not protect our health. On top of this, an adult who can maturely decide he wants a caffeine boost will have to buy two energy drinks to get the same effect as a current Full Throttle energy drink – which has more than 250 mg of caffeine per serving. Justin Sherwood, president of Refreshments Canada, reported to the Globe and Mail that this decision reflects a double standard since many beverages—such as coffee—contain equal amounts of caffeine and are equally accessible to children and teens. He argues
Image: Fristle/flickr.com
Health Canada shouldn’t have to hold consumers’ hands. that similar products are not required to slap warning labels on their packaging. Did you know that one grande coffee from Starbucks has 330 mg of caffeine and a venti has 410? Did you know that the maximum recommended amount of caffeine for adults is 400 mg per day? My boss can certainly chug back three venti Starbucks coffees (all with an
extra shot of espresso) in a single workday. Maybe it would be easier to cap caffeine consumption if Health Canada would just limit the amount of coffee breaks Canadian management are entitled to per day. Point being, the energy drink industry is receiving heavy flack in comparison to its competition. Health Canada claims this will
“protect” children from drinking too much caffeine in a single day. Will it really? Is there not a point where parents must take responsibility for the caffeine consumption of their own child? Ten-yearold kids are not legally allowed to work; the money to buy these products is coming from the parents’ pockets. A business is a business, not a parent. Its purpose is to sell a product, not to babysit a child. The responsibility should not fall on energy drink companies to regulate children’s consumption of their product. Further, if new restrictions are not bold and effective enough to make a guaranteed difference, it is unnecessary for these companies take the hit – even if it does benefit the public facade of Health Canada.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
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OPINION
WindRock take on Valentine’s Day
If it’s something I can put off, I will. How do you combat that and remember to do something sweet?
DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE
JESS WIND
THE CASCADE
Wind: I never claimed to be good at the random acts of affection. I just think they say more about love than Hallmark ever could.
Wind: It needs to be stated outright that, even as a married woman, I think Valentine’s Day is pointless and manipulative. It represents everything that is wrong with relationships, consumerism and poetry.
Rock: I think you’re totally right, even if it’s a once-every-threeyears thing instead of an annual celebration.
Rock: Sounds like somebody has some unresolved tension in their relationship with Hallmark Day.
Wind: If you get to that onceevery-three-years point, you must be doing something right. I don’t think we have addressed Hallmark enough. Hallmark is where poetry goes to die. It’s like the commercial industry for actors. Like jingles for musicians. Why do they insist on pumping out such pathetic representations of the written word? Better yet, why do people buy them? You want to show love? Write your own damn love letters.
Wind: We parted ways a long time ago. Not for any heartbreaking Hollywood reason. I realized my money and the money of whoever was buying me presents could be better spent elsewhere. Rock: I agree with “elsewhere.” I don’t actually like chocolate that much. One year, to combat Valentine’s-Day-itis, the plan was to drink beer and watch 300. Up yours, Hallmark! Wind: I spent my first Valentine’s with my now-husband in a sea of Canadians in downtown Vancouver, when Canada won their first gold in the 2010 Olympics. Not exactly romantic when the drunk guy next to you is, well, drunk. Rock: Are you implying “drunk” and “romance” are mutually exclusive? Wind: The goal was not to be romantic with the drunk guy egging us on. Rock: What are some other ways the general population can avoid the sickeningly sweet holiday we all love to hate? Beer. Violent movies. Olympics? Do we really need a day for loving each other? How do you plan to spend the day with now-husband this year, Mrs. Wind?
Love is sweet, my man, a home run and a broken heart: Valentine’s Day. Wind: A Good Day to Die Hard comes out that day. I think we’ll go see it with my dad and drink white Russians. Seriously, the day is just a breeding ground for manipulation in a relationship. You get all stressed out trying to get the perfect gift to say “I love you,” because obviously February 14 is the perfect day to say that – and the other 364 days of the year are just “Yeah, you’re pretty cool” days. Rock: I think I might give out Valentines in April. Just to mess with everyone’s minds. Wind: At least I would know you really care. Rock: Well, not to spoil it or anything, but I will probably get my Valentines out relatively on time. I know it’s just some dumb day that a card company picked out, but I honestly appreciate the excuse to
tell people I care. Friends. Family. I make up my own dumb little cards and let the effort show. By which I mean my stupendous lack of craft skills. It’s the thought that counts. On the other hand, I know I’m in the slim, slim minority; almost everyone I know, including several of my brother’s psychotic exgirlfriends, take Valentine’s Day to the extreme – flowers, chocolates, cupcakes, dinner, large and useless stuffed animals. Wind: Ridiculous. What economy is benefiting from the boom in carnation and heart-shaped chocolate sales in February? Rock: The problem is we live in a world based on buying stuff, just to fit into the roles we think we should. For Valentine’s Day we try to package love and sell that too. Is it even possible for a Valentine’s Day gesture to come from the heart
Image: Sister72/flickr.com
any more? Or would you prefer a random act of appreciation on some other unannounced day? Wind: Random for sure. 100 per cent without a doubt. It take a lot more effort to think about buying something sweet just because, rather than listening to the posters telling me to send a candy gram. My now husband once left a new movie in the passenger seat of my car after a long day of work. Just because. Rock: Was it Die Hard? Wind: No, technically that’s a Christmas movie. Rock: … I think that’s something for us to dive into at Christmas. But although I can agree with the “just because” sentiment, I know myself too well for that. I can barely do anything without a deadline.
Rock: Not everyone can write, that’s the problem. Or they don’t trust themselves to. It’s hard to tell you, “This is what I like about you.” What if that makes you mad? I’d better stick to roses are red and those blue flowers are blue. Open and shut. Wind: Open and shut like the card. No second glance, none of that internalizing the words business. Certainly not the scene from Easy A where she opens the card so much that the song inside dies. At least if you write your own terrible words to your Valentine, they’ll remember. Hopefully. Rock: Maybe. But maybe not. What terrible words are you writing in the card this year? Wind: That suggests that I am writing a card, which would mean I was letting the day win. You? Rock: You’ll have to wait until I give you your Valentine, kid.
Rumours of courtship’s death have been greatly exaggerated AMY VAN VEEN THE CASCADE
Be warned, generation of mine, the stoic New York Times has deemed this era as “the end of courtship.” No more will people get to know each other with the shared understanding of marriage as the light at the end of the tunnel. No more will gifts be exchanged in a mutual contract of, “if you like it then you should probably put a ring on it.” No more will goats be exchanged for a woman’s hand. Wait, that may not be courtship. The only thing is, NYT, I don’t believe you. It may sell papers—or whatever online version they’re trying to distribute to save the trees and themselves—but it’s not like this whole “the end of the dating world as we know it thing” has never happened before. Sam Baldwin faced the same problem 20 years ago. He was panicking with clammy hands and an elevated heart rate when he asked his friend Rob Reiner for dating
advice. He learned that the game had changed in the last 15 years. Women look for pecs and a cute butt and dating no longer exists. First it’s being friends, then it’s a possibly indefinite period of necking and then you get to have sex. You split the bill when you go out for dinner and you have to learn about tiramisu. Okay, fine. That may be lifted from Sleepless in Seattle, but my point still stands. We can’t be Meg Ryan thinking that the best time to be in love was with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. We can’t be Owen Wilson thinking the golden age was the 1920s. Just because the future of dating is this giant cesspool of uncertainty does not mean we’re all doomed to hook up endlessly, not get married and wander around hoping for some kind of attachment that has the semblance of being real. This is the kind of dating doomsday that’s being talked about in Donna Freitas’ new book The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy.
Image: Sleepless in Seattle
Rob Reiner describes the changing landscape of the dating scene to Sam Balwin. The feel-good book of the year. I get it. You see the data. You talk to students. You get results that you publish in a book. But what about every exception to that rule? And every exception to Rob Reiner’s advice? Because as far as I can see, people around me are still dating, still in exclusive relationships
and still getting married. I may be doing the opposite of what He’s Just Not That Into You says and the exact thing it portrays by thinking myself the exception to the rule, but if the rule is a series of mediocre hook-ups that leave people feeling empty because no one knows how to have a real rela-
tionship with dates and exclusivity and labels, then I’ll wait. If there are enough of us who wait and see if we’re the exception, then there will be enough of us who realize we don’t want what’s popular – we want the good stuff. The stuff worth waiting for.
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Open Eyes and Green Hearts
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
ARTS & LIFE
Greenpeace co-founder and UFV writer-in-residence Rex Weyler on making a difference This can’t last. The signs are all around us, and it’s pretty hard to mistake. We’re not treating the environment right. We’ve fallen out of balance. Worst of all, the Canadian government seems hell-bent on maximizing the destruction for cold, hard cash. But, I’m just a university student, I don’t claim to have all the answers. What are we supposed to do? That’s what I wanted to know when I sought out Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Rex Weyler, UFV’s new writer-in-residence. He’s a journalist, a writer and an ecologist. He also co-founded an organization that started in 1971 as a group of activists who sailed a boat up into the heart of danger, attempting to disrupt the devastating U.S. nuclear testing at Amchitka, near Alaska. They became the infamous environmentalists who dared to race alongside the gargantuan whaling ships in their miniature-sized inflatable boats, just for a chance to film the dark deeds taking place. That group Weyler founded, the group he wrote the newsletter for, the group he helped to become one of the world’s most important environmental organizations? Greenpeace. Born in 1947 in Denver, Colorado, Weyler published his first book in 1969; I Took a Walk Today, a book about pacifism, was just the start of his environmental activism. He moved to Vancouver in 1972 and began writing for the North Shore News. He has since gone on to publish a number of books, including his most recent effort in 2004, Greenpeace: How a Group of Journalists, Ecologists and Visionaries Changed the World. He’s still directly involved in a number of activist endeavours, most notably efforts to stop the Enbridge pipeline to Kitimat and the Kinder Morgan pipeline to Vancouver. “There is an enormous risk to the entire coast, to the marine environment, to the coastal economy, to the whole region which we identify as “Beautiful BC” and Vancouver which is supposedly the “greenest city,” Weyler told me when we spoke. “It would all be destroyed by an oil spill.” JOEL SMART
THE CASCADE
Many people agree that these pipelines aren’t for the best of our environment, but they’re not getting involved. Maybe they’re expecting the government to deal with it through summits and meetings. You’ve said before that these don’t have any real effect. Well yeah. For example, there are the pipeline hearings that the federal government is undertaking now. Traditionally, we know what happens with these hearings. They’re a rubber stamp. They don’t ever turn anything down. They make it look like they’ve done their due diligence, and then they approve it. So, it usually comes down to whether the citizens will allow it. We don’t always realize how much power we have, as citizens. But, we only have power if we stand up and exercise it. If you look at this area, they’re planning a major coal export increase in Vancouver harbour. Vancouver has been slated by the international industrial corporate resource community to basically be a shipping core for these major resources. Those involved have a lot of money and can influence
government and buy people off. You saw the way our current Liberal provincial government did the same thing, selling off BC public assets that used to be ours. These used to be our assets, and now they’re being sold off to private hands. It’s also happening federally with the tar sands being sold off. And, with no secondary industry here, it’s the same mistake Canada made with its logging. We had these huge, massive forests – some of the best in the world. We really strip-mined them and shipped all the raw logs off. We destroyed our logging and it’s the same thing we did on the East Coast with the cod. We strip-mined the bottom of the sea. We repeat the same mistake over and over again. We take too much, and we kill the goose that lays the golden egg over and over again. If you fish at a sustainable yield level, you can catch cod forever. If you harvest the forest in a sustainable yield level, you can harvest forever. So, what Canada should have done, for example with logging, is that they should have harvested way slower in an ecological, sustainable manner – preserving all of the riparian zones, streams and rivers. They should have harvested at a rate that the forest could eas-
ily reproduce and used that timber to build secondary industries here to build furniture. We should have built an industry like IKEA here in Canada, rather than shipping off all our logs and then buying furniture from Sweden. What were we thinking? We screwed up. We shipped out the raw logs and Canada got a little bit of royalties and stumpage fees, and now it’s over – instead of building a lasting industry. Now we’re making the same mistake with the tar sands. Canada still imports most of its refined petroleum products, so why are we exporting our raw petroleum products? It just doesn’t make economic sense. It only makes sense to the large corporations that are driving it, because they get all the profits. In some cases, now, China, with its mining and resource extraction in Canada, is even bringing
planet with finite resources. We should have learned from the forests and the cod. We’re over half way through the Earth’s forests; there used to be over six billion hectares, now there’s under three. Sure the trees grow, but only at a natural rate; and you can’t cheat nature. So, the drive to have a growing economy in which everybody is making more and more money, that ideology is driving our culture, and it’s bumping up against the reality of nature. In a way, people know that, but it’s not enough ... It’s not enough to know it. That’s where action and activism comes in. No, it’s not enough to know it. The public actually has to stand up and take back their rights and their resources. They have to say, “Wait a minute. Doesn’t Canada belong to Canadians?”
It’s as if we’re renting the planet from the banks. How did the banks own the planet? How did that work? its own work crews. That’s what they’re doing at Tumbler Ridge. Hello? Does our government care about us at all? Try and do the same thing in China. Try and say, “We’re coming over, we’re going to harvest your resources, and we’re going to bring our own work crews.” See how that goes. It would not happen. It wouldn’t happen almost anywhere in the world, because governments have enough sense to protect their own workforce and their own public. It’s enough of an issue to bring down our current government, and it should. Our government is not working for you or me. They’re not working for the Canadian people or our children. They’re working for the resource extraction corporations. More broadly, though, what is the ideology that is driving the way our culture is going? It’s industrialism and it’s the growth mentality, really. Capitalism is predicated on this idea that we can grow forever. If you have an economic system based on debt, which we do, that debt is a claim on future cash flow, on future resources, on future energy. So, as we pile up this debt, we’re saying that we’re going to pay it off with future development, enterprise and wealth, but, historically, we never get there, do we? It’s as if we’re renting the planet from the banks. How did the banks own the planet? How did that work? When the bankers loan billions of dollars to these industrial companies, that’s not money that you deposited in the bank, that’s not deposits they’re loaning – they get to create that money out of thin air. They create the money, loan it, and collect it back with interest. It’s criminal. It’s robbery. And that is what drives all of this. The idea is that this can grow forever, but we live on a finite
Ninety per cent of the land area in British Columbia is run for profits of corporations. Our crown forests don’t belong to the people of Canada. They belong to the corporations that hold the licenses on them. They can be bought and sold. I’ve had experiences where we’re trying save a tract of land, and they don’t care a hoot about Canadians or the environment. So, we find that our public assets are controlled by somebody else. Our government is passing laws that say we don’t even have the right to intervene. Our government is passing laws saying that China has the right to these resources and they have the right to sue us if our citizens rise up and try to stop them. Our government is actively working against our interests and our right to even stand up for our interests. This is a really scary time. Canadians are losing their rights right and left, and I think for most people, they don’t even notice. They sort of hear something about C-45, or C-38, or locally in BC, Bill 30, but it doesn’t seem to register. They’re being stripped of their assets, of their rights to assets, and so this is where citizen action comes in. This is where people have to stand up. So, you’d push for people to do peaceful protests, or would you
appear cool. But, over consuming resources is not cool. So we need a counter-advertising campaign. In my generation it was the hippies. That fundamental trend of going back to the land, back to basics, and not needing fancy cars and big houses, that’s a good trend. So that’s half of it. The other half is that you have to get politically active, because you’ve got the counterforce on the other side, these corporations, which would love to strip you of all your rights, all your resources. They want to take all the trees, the oil, the fish, and then what are you left with? Nothing. So, you have to fight for that too. How much are we willing as citizens to watch our own government help the corporations steal from us? How much are we willing to take before we strike back? Hopefully not much. Sometimes you think, “If people could just understand ... If people could just see what’s happening, they might change or get more active.” But that doesn’t seem to be the case. I think the pipeline story and the tankers – I think most people get it, and most people in BC are against it. But does it make people active? Not necessarily. It does in some cases. But ... The routines and schedules they’re on keep them busy. Distracted. And that’s part of how the banking and corporate agenda succeeds, is by keeping the population obligated to work for a living, at the discretion of the companies. So people are too busy and not directly engaged in their own communities and their own lives. We need to return to a simpler way of life. We need to return to people living off, as much as possible, the resources in their area. And we can still trade with other regions. But we can’t base our entire economy on having one resource. Like Nigeria has one resource, Canada has one or two resources, and every nation is just shipping off its resources into one big industrialized machine that’s turning them all into cheap crap that you buy at Wal-Mart for those who can actually afford it. It’s only about 15 per cent of humanity that can afford all of the stuff that the industrial world makes. Most of the world is becoming impoverished because they’re losing their resources. What we see happening in Canada with our resources getting sold off – imagine what the people in Nigeria are dealing with. The oil companies
“It’s enough of an issue to bring down our current government, and it should.” say people should just live differently? I’d say do both. Live differently and get active. We have to live in ways that consume fewer resources. Simplifying our lives. We have to make simplicity more of a cultural value. Historically, what advertising has done is to make consumerism
don’t even have to pretend to be graceful there. The public leaders get killed. Communities get destroyed, community leaders get co-opted. It’s just nasty business out there. This is what most of the world deals with. Vandana Shiva, a physicist from India who’s led ecological and human rights movements,
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
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ARTS & LIFE
says the poor people of the world aren’t poor because they’re stupid. They’re poor because they’ve been robbed. They’ve been robbed of their resources. People in Africa, India, Asia, and these regions have had their resources plundered for 200 years – primarily by European nations. That’s why they’re poor. Most of the world is being kept poor in order to supply the wealthy of the world with gadgets and luxuries. That’s not fair. Most of us can accept that’s not fair. Earlier you said living simply was a great idea. I think many would agree, but they don’t really know how to do that within our culture, which has all these regulations and taxes that force us to work. How do you step out of that? Maybe First Nations leaders from each area could play a role in helping people understand how to live simply within specific regions? It’s possible. I think people know how to live simply. I think that we get caught up in consumerism through advertising and cultural pressure. But, we often don’t really think it through. If you have all that stuff, if you want to replace your computer or phone every couple years to have the latest gadgets, fine, but add up the cost. You have to work for that stuff, and so your whole life is spent making money for you to buy it. And what’s life about? Going in to some job 9-5 job every day and sitting there and doing something you may not have much interest in, in order to buy stuff? I think once people have the experience that there’s way more to life than that, then they can start making that change. Otherwise, it’s so easy to get trapped in this culture. Let’s say you graduate from university and now you’ve got student debt, so now you have to pay off the debt, pay your rent and you have to eat, and you want a little fun; suddenly you need to be making $2000 a month. And that’s not to live a luxurious life by our standards, that’s just to pay the bills. So you’re trapped into this debt-driven world. One thing I suggest to people is to get out of debt and to stay out of debt. And if you’re not in debt, don’t get in it. Cut up the credit cards. The more you live in debt, the more you’re paying the bank for your right to live. We’ve got this system where once you get into debt, you’re just paying the banks. It’s ridiculous. I mean, I don’t mind paying taxes because I don’t mind paying for schools and roads and services, but I’d be happier if the schools were better and the transportation system wasn’t so stupid. But, take land taxes. Say you want to get a piece of land and live simply off of it. You can’t necessarily do that, because you have to come up with enough cash to pay your land taxes. So, then you need a job, nice clothes and a car to get there. It goes on and on. So, the system that’s driving all of this craziness is the debt system, the economic system. But, there are ways to pull out of it, and to live more commu-
nity-based lives. I know a lot of people that live very simple, modest lives. Their cash flow may only be a few thousand a year, but they don’t need to make $100,000. They can live on much less. They live in an environment where they can grow food, fish and hunt, and make and repair their things. It can be done. But you have to make a conscious choice to do it. It takes time. If you could go back, knowing what you know now about the lack of real progress in the environmental movements, what would you do differently? How far back could I go? [Laughs]. Maybe knowing what I know now, I would have been more insistent on the clarity around ecological issues. A lot of what I think of as soft-ecology or fake-environmentalism has been allowed to flourish as if it’s the real thing. If I could do it over, I’d be a little less tolerant with myself and my own friends and family. I also think we’d need to be a bit more rigorous on our demands on the power structure and the corporations. We’ve let a lot of “feel good” stuff happen because at least it was better than being totally ignorant. We just wanted peace, so we let a lot of agreements and things occur that are false solutions. You know, we have more environmental groups and more pollution; more protected areas and fewer species; environmental ministers and sustainability talk and yet every critical metric for measuring our progress is worse. So, what the heck is going on? We’re doing something wrong. If I could go back, I’d say we’d have to be way, way more rigorous for what we’re saying, demanding and achieving. Here at UFV, most of us grew up with these storylines. “You have to go to university and then you’ll be able to get a job that’ll make your life fulfilling.” And don’t worry about the Earth, we’ll colonize the stars. A lot of us are half-way along and well-invested into it. But at the same time, there is that nagging side, “That’s not going to be what happens.” You know? Yeah. [laughs]. The story starts to fall apart. You know, I think that happens to an extent with everybody in every age, because we try to protect our children. I tried to avoid misrepresenting the world to my children, but I didn’t tell them everything. I wanted them to have a happy childhood. But, as you get older, you start to realize the world isn’t quite put together the way our parents let us believe. There is no Santa Claus. On the larger scale, simply going to university and getting a degree isn’t going to guarantee us a happy life. It’s not even going to guarantee us a job at this point. So, the world as it was put together for us starts to fall apart. There are a lot of ways to react to that. One is to be really
pissed off and really upset that the adults swindled you a little bit. But, I’m not sure that that’s necessary all the time. Then we go out into the world and see it’s a little tougher than we thought. Then there is a lot of the cultural story that didn’t necessarily come from our parents. Like the idea that going university means you’ll get a nice job and a nice life – maybe nobody said it exactly like that, but that story percolates through the culture around us. Then we realize it’s not entirely true. Secondly, even if you did get a nice life, what does that mean in a collapsing culture and a collapsing economy? As Krishnamurti says, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” So, great, here we are well-adjusted and well-educated and we fit right in to a society that is fundamentally dysfunctional. How does that feel? Not so good. Then we start thinking, how can we engage in changing the society to being more functional and more grown-up itself? And now we’re engaged in a society that’s very complex. We’re in a world that is dysfunctional, and that’s not being pessimistic. In the fall, when the wind is getting chilly and the leaves are falling off the trees, it’s not pessimistic to say that winter is coming. I never set out in this world to be an activist. It was never particularly a goal of mine. I got active because I looked around and saw that the world I lived in was sick. The culture I lived in was contributing to the sickness. There was no way I was going to participate in that without resisting it. I think that’s a natural instinct. There are people among your peers who will. They’ll try to keep this story alive. They’ll go through, get their degrees, they’ll try to find some place to fit into the world – get-
“Most of the world is being kept poor in order to supply the wealthy of the world with gadgets and luxuries. That’s not fair. Most of us can accept that’s not fair.” ting a job and trying to become well adjusted to the world. But, there will be a cost to that. If you live in denial, there is always a cost. So, it’s not particularly healthy to try and keep a delusional story alive. It’s better to accept that the world is not quite as nice as we thought or hoped, and then try to change it. If you had to just narrow it down to just one message for UFV students to leave with, what would it be? The world’s too complex for just one message, but there are ways to sum it up. To me, it’s to be awake. Make sure you’re awake all the time. That means thinking things through. Being skeptical and not believing everything that’s told to you. Believe your own eyes. Go walk through the downt o w n
eastside and see how the outcasts of our society are forced to live. Go to an indigenous community, a native community that’s been dispossessed of their land and culture; see how they’re forced to live. Open your eyes. Be awake. When you’re awake, things start to fall into place. But if you just go along with the conventional version of society, and try to fit into that convention, you can’t do that and be awake. To do that, you have to put part of yourself to sleep. If part of yourself is asleep, you become dysfunctional. You become like the culture that is asleep. So, that is my message. Stay awake. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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www.ufvcascade.ca
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013
OPINION
A visit from the Abby po-po NADINE MOEDT
THE CASCADE
We’ve all been tempted to dial 9-1-1. As children, forced to memorize the number with religious intensity, it’s something everyone secretly wondered about. What happens when you press those three ominous buttons? I found out the hard way. It was a mistake, made at three in the morning while pulling an allnighter with my sister, Sasha and her boyfriend. Someone had lost their phone, so I thought I’d call it. I fumbled with my Blackberry for a moment—it froze so I pressed buttons at random—finally unlocking it. Soon after the lost phone was fished out from the couch cushions, my Blackberry rang. It was the police, returning my call. The operator questioned me vigorously, “Where are you? Who is with you? Why are you up so late? Where do you go to school? What do you study? What does your sister study? And the boyfriend? What does he study?” And, most importantly, “Answer simply yes or no – do you need help?” Then she asked to speak with my sister, who had to answer the same questions. At last she let us go. Exhausted, we finally went to bed. An hour later the phone rang again. It was my parents. My mother was shrill; she just received a call from the Abbotsford police asking if she’s related to Nadine and Sasha Moedt and could she please confirm their address? As I am on the phone, assuring her that everything is all right, that it was just a mistake – the door is kicked in. Not actually. But close enough. They pounded on the door.
The Forever Student By: Anthony Biondi/The Cascade
The police know what they’re doing. “This is the Abbotsford Police! Could you please open the door?” We were all in bed at this point. I jumped up and answered the door in the fuzzy fleece housecoat my Oma made me for Christmas. Three men stood in the hallway: two of them in plain-clothes, one in uniform. I let them in. Our two cats wove in and out of the hallway and adjoining kitchen, looping around ankles with high expectations of being fed. “How many cats do you have?” the first officer asked incredulously. He scanned the apartment nervously. The second officer walked into the bedroom and questioned the boyfriend, who was still in bed, half-asleep. Officer three pulled me aside. “Is there anything you want to tell me here in private?” he asked softly. This must be procedure: separate the occupants so as to ask questions without an audience. He looks concerned and kind. At that
Image: Freefotouk/flickr.com
moment I felt reassured; had there been any trouble I don’t doubt that he would’ve helped me out. Apparently, our answers to the 9-1-1 dispatcher didn’t match up and the officers were sent to make sure everything was okay. After a thorough inspection of the premises, being confident that everyone was safe, the officers left, apologizing for the intrusion. They were very tenacious. We assured both the operator and the police at the door numerous times that all was well, but that didn’t stop them from investigating until there was no doubt we were safe. It was a bit of a nuisance, and we certainly didn’t get much sleep that night, but it was a job well done. The Abbotsford police, thanks to their experience dealing with a turf dispute between two territorial gangs, know what they’re doing. Rest assured, if you need help, you’re going to get it. It feels pretty safe living in the former murder capital of Canada.
Letter to the editor
In response to: “Name dropping” editorial from Jan. 30 Having formerly been an employee The Cascade I, personally, would be sad to see the dawn of a name change for the University of the Fraser Valley student press. I disagree that the name Cascade does not “capture the spirit of the student press”. I believe that The Cascade does resonate with something that is at the heart of the university, the community, and the land the university is on. Ever since UCFV became UFV in 2008, the university has made strides to identify what is the identity of this new university. Having been a student in its formative years I watched a lot of this self-proclamation of self occur. For example, the university’s residence building, “Baker House.” It seemed fitting to me considering if you were one of the lucky ones to have a room on that side of the building you had the most beautiful view of beautiful Mount Baker. The residence could have had a lot of names, but what was ultimately chosen was something relating to nature and cascades. Paying homage to the land and its ancestors is also an evident core value of UFV as at practically every lecture or special event which I attended while at UFV there was an acknowledgement made to the aboriginal people of the land of the university. And, it was aboriginal
representatives who led me and my classmates into our convocation when I graduated. All of this demonstrates the importance of the land and the heritage of that land to the university’s identity, and a name associated to that land is something to be proud of. Furthermore, while I wasn’t a Cascade employee when they picked the current name of the newspaper, it was either a decision they made knowingly, or they just didn’t do their homework because although The Cascade became The Cascade in 1993, the Athletics department chose their name, the Cascades ten years earlier in 1983. Athletics just didn’t really develop quickly or even get a logo until 2006. So, I don’t think it’s fault of the athletics department who has worked so hard in the past couple of years to become a force to be reckoned with, and put themselves on the radar that now The Cascade is somehow confused in their identity. And while we’re on the topic of cascades, the UFV student press is called The Cascade which is defined as a waterfall descending over a steep rocky surface. If you think like an interpretive English major you can extrapolate two things: 1) rushing water cascading down just like the information and news that The Cascade staff diffuse rapidly
and accurately to its readership, and 2) it’s a single cascade, not the Cascades, a single, autonomous, uninfluenced cascade that alone is adding alternative perspective its readership. A student newspaper name doesn’t always have to be literal or easily interpreted. Take the University of Saskatchewan’s student newspaper The Sheaf – it has agricultural significance at its face value and more if you dig deeper. Just like The Cascade relates to our environment on the West Coast. When I’ve lived outside of BC, one of the things I’ve missed most is the nature, and name The Cascade is a reminder of that natural environment, and it signifies even more if you dig deeper. Finally, just because something is getting old doesn’t mean that it has to be replaced or just because some things have similar names means they must be changed. I’m not the only Grace in the world, but I love my name so I’m keeping it. And personally, I’ve never put much stock into manifestos – it’s the actions behind those words – or in this case, the words behind that masthead that counts. ~Grace Romund
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
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ARTS & LIFE Cascade Arcade
League of Legends and the search for a stress-free existence
Image: yxxxx2003/Flickr
Nunu gets destroyed (once again) during an ill-fated League of Legends skirmish.
DESSA BAYROCK
THE CASCADE
League of Legends has been on the scene for a while. I first remember it popping up in the fall of 2011, but I didn’t start playing until last year and didn’t really get into it until this year. Last week, I came to a frightening realization: this
video game is basically an allegory for my life. Let me back up a bit and explain the game. League is, in short, a team battle. It has a defined goal— to take out the other team’s base— which means that games can only last so long. Unlike its predecessor World of Warcraft (which League evolved from over several gen-
erations), there’s less chance of becoming enthralled in the world for 18 hours at a time. League runs on similar principles to many video games: the better you are at killing the members of the other team, the better you are at it. In this case, it allows your team to push towards the enemy base and eventually raze it to the ground. This is League in a nutshell, but back to my startling revelation: how is a video game a representation of my life as a whole? It’s honestly pretty simple, and I’m sure any psychiatrist could have picked it out in an instant. I act exactly the same way in the game as I do in real life. As in many games, dying is bad. The more your character dies, the more points the other team gets and the longer it takes you to come back to life. It’s good to have a healthy helping of caution – for instance, to not run too far into the enemy base, to not try to hide in a bush without first checking to make sure there isn’t already an enemy doing the same, and above all never abandoning the rules of self-preservation in search of valour. This is the reason I will never
be fantastic at League: I play with adrenaline instead of caution. My gamer tag is FOKJA, all caps, the closest you can get to swearing without the profanity filter catching it. The character I play is designed for defence, but that doesn’t stop me from rushing into battle at the slightest scent of a kill. FOKJA! If there’s an enemy at, say, quarter-health, I get the idea into my head that I can kill him. FOKJA! I don’t ask for help, I don’t ask for permission, and there are times when I distinctly ignore the pleas of my teammates to stay the hell back. I run right in, ice attack blazing. FOKJA! Needless to say, this gets me killed a fair amount of the time. And the more I die, the more foolhardy I get. I want to make it up to my team by slaying the next guy; I want to prove dying was a fluke, and in normal circumstances I am a merciless killer. This doesn’t generally work out for me; I usually just keep dying. Then I put two and two together and found myself with the realization that this is how I act in real life. I’m used to charging in, locking onto a target, and destroying it. I can’t be the only student who piles way too much on their
plate – I’ll even take on the entire enemy team if necessary. I could pull back and wait for help, but instead I rush right in. Bull-headed. Stubborn. Always looking for just one more hit on the enemy before I head back to base to heal my wounds. This is basically the opposite of the seven habits of highly-effective people. In a nutshell, this shit needs to stop, both in real life and in video games. League is a simpler world than real life, with straight-forward objectives and a clear goal. There are fewer distractions than real life and a limited number of side-paths to pull you off course. But just like real life, it sucks when the other team beats you. It sucks when your team is mad at you because you spent more time dead than alive. It sucks when you didn’t listen to reason and it got you killed. So here’s the life lesson that League of Legends taught me: don’t be a stubborn idiot. Pull back a little. And for god’s sake, stop trusting that ice attack to be ready in time. It’s going to get you killed.
Film Review
Warm Bodies MICHAEL SCOULAR
THE CASCADE
Referencing such revered classics on the subject as Romeo and Juliet (that puts it the esteemed company of, among others, The Twilight Saga: New Moon), Warm Bodies is a movie all about the changing power of love. Or so it claims. It is certainly a definition of love, but that it is one of change, of revolution against apocalyptic desolation seems suspect from the internally-germinated beginning. That this comes from director Jonathan Levine—of the similarly voiceover-monologued 50/50 and its misguided rerouting of cancer pathos into sex shaming and frat humour—makes any kind of message of love, or even a less self-important play on a familiar story of love, as it might want to be taken, something best rejected. R (Nicholas Hoult) is a misunderstood adolescent male (actual line: “Am I the only one?”) who, if you could only hear his inner thoughts (we can, and will, for the near entirety of the movie), would see what a great, funny (the ironic, detached kind), heroic guy he can be. The genre overlay on this romantic play on romance means our protagonist is a creature of the undead, where undead means a slightly paler shade of skin, visible veins like a flaming neck tattoo, scars ever-so carefully placed, and deep purple lips. Warm Bodies, like trailer accompaniment Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments, is indebted (at least financially) to the Twilight series – the twist with this one being comedic commentary and being uprooted from the banalities of home-school routine. But what was arguably the best thing about the Twilight series in that setting was the utterly mundane conversations and interac-
tions—that this movie series was putting non-starting words and awkward pauses up on the screen and either asking for absorption into Billy Burke’s grounded turn as Bella’s dad and the tension therein or provoking laughter—what is real from a distance becomes absurd. Levine writes self-referential zombie observations into R’s dialogue (joking about how zombies walk slow, R says “Man, we sure walk slow” – Levine’s range of undead imagination suggests a few watches of Shaun of the Dead and I Am Legend) as a sign he’s above it all, but none of it is nearly as gloriously ridiculous as Taylor Lautner de-shirting to dab a wound or Robert Pattinson skulking and mumbling – Warm Bodies tries to be new (conventionally) at something its original imitation already did. What always remains is that Warm Bodies is from a deliberately close-minded point of view – one that sets up love as something gained after conveniently meeting and sticking together through lies, heroic presentation three or so times, and counting on the illogic of a script (introduced as a resistance fighter, it takes all of five minutes before Julie—played by Teresa Palmer—is deprived of all agency). Before Warm Bodies shifts into chase-action partway through, there is the all-important falling in love, but love is here something gained through deceitfully-planned captivity and knowing the way to a heart is through a record collection, alcohol and a convertible – love as Stockholm syndrome and the kind of nausea-inducing objectlike-becomes-love that underpins “romantic” “comedies” like This Means War. If there’s a halfway-redeeming quality of Warm Bodies, it is Javier Aguirresarobe’s cinematography,
smooth, serviceable and clear, it contains echoes of his previous work (not coincidentally, New Moon and 2011’s Fright Night) while also standing as a mark of how, while in projection there is an easily perceptible distinction, the actual use of film versus digital means for movie production is now no longer a question of image quality. With Warm Bodies, and the definitions of love it carries and repeats from other like-minded voices, there is a similar crowding out – when everything about this movie shows love being an awakening force, the great life-giver, but its practice being one of possession, of use and interchangeability, a confusion of love and the meanings worthless directors like Jonathan Levine give the word naturally follows. In one of Levine’s most revealing lines, a leader of a group of men exclaims “bitches, man” as joke relief to console poor, poor R. As Levine mostly shows them, damsels in distress rarely have much to say (certainly not as much as his protagonist). One sure sign of directorial ability is in the shoddy handful of lines and eyerolls given to Analeigh Tipton, capable of more than shown here, as in Whit Stillman’s excellent Damsels in Distress, a clear-eyed response to 20-something lovelessness masquerading as love and its resulting depression. Dancing through fantasy, a (kind of) vampirism, the question of when it’s okay to send drinks over to a table, and dialogue that isn’t regrettable to hear running through a human’s head, Damsels in Distress is everything Warm Bodies is not: concerned with beginning the practice of love, rather than its deformed imitation.
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FILE NAME: 12-HRB-033-BW-SP-E-8
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
ARTS & LIFE
CROSSWORD 1
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Community returns Thursday at 8 p.m. ACROSS
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2. What fast food chain sponsors the abandoned rocket ship that Dean Pelton wants to turn into a flight simulator? (3 letters) 5. Jeff and Shirley bond over making fun of this particularly tiny body part of Britta’s boyfriend Vaughn. (7 letters) 6. Dean Pelton: “What’s Dean got to do with it? Why it’s time to Tina ___ the clocks ahead. Happy Daylight Savings!” (6 letters) 8. What song does Britta sing within each of the six different timelines in “Remedial Chaos Theory”? (7 letters) 11. Betty White guest stars as the ____ professor for two episodes before she gets fired for shooting Jeff with a blowdart. (12 letters) 13. What song does Troy sing while crying cross-legged in the hospital bathroom? (7, 7 letters)
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DOWN
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by AMY VAN VEEN
1. “Donde esta la ____? Me llamo T-Bone, la araña discoteca.” (10 letters) 3. What non-study group character does the group try to make feel better by playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons? (3, 4 letters) 4. Dr. Rich, Jeff’s nemesis and Annie’s crush, dresses up as a ____ at the Halloween party where everyone turns into zombies. (6 letters) 7. Which Star Wars character does Abed embody in the second part of “A Fistful of Paintballs”? (3, 4 letters) 8. Troy: “Oh my god! Joshua was ____. That came out of no where!” (6 letters) 9. What ABC show does Abed appear on as an extra and messes up a scene by pooping his pants? (6, 4 letters) 10. Which elderly student also has a Youtube channel where he reviews storebought food? (7 letters) 12. The name of the village woman 8-bit Abed marries and has dozens of “cool cool cool” babies with who form an Abed army to defeat Pierce’s dad. (5 letters)
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EclipseCrossword.com
LAST WEEK’S Answer Key Across 4. CREATIVITY 7. WHAT 8. PENIS 9. RURALJUROR 11. CANADA 12. DANNY 13. KABLETOWN
Down 1. MEATCAT 2. BITCHHUNTER 3. QUEENOFJORDAN 5. MANDATORY 6. CLEVELAND 10. JACOB
The Weekly Horoscope Star Signs from Swamp Bob Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18
Gemini: May 21 - June 21
Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22
If you want to appear less diminutive best bring a pair of pumps or high heels for your number performing next to Sweetums and Thog.
Dry clean your opera cloak and get yourself some fake blood, you are performing with Uncle Deadly and the ghost of Vincent Price as he reads excerpts from latest work Stories about Cute Bunnies. The afterlife changes people, it would seem.
You have been asked to perform with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Make sure to bring the funk and an outfit borrowed from Elton John’s closet.
Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20
Cancer: June 22 - July 22
Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21
Your dedication to science and invention has garnered the attention of illustrious scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew with your latest creation the nuclear-powered bookmark. The radioactive fallout makes any book glow so it’s impossible to lose not only the page but the book as well.
Break out your maracas and donkey, for you are staring alongside Miss Piggy in her new Latin number, “Cuanto me Gusta.”
You have been called to play alongside Animal as your perform Jacques Offenbach’s great classic “Orpheus in the Underworld.” All goes well until Animal loses control and dropkicks one of the cancan dancing mice into the orchestra pit.
Aries: March 21 - April 19
Leo: July 23 - Aug 22
Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21
Your strong upstanding moral nature has piqued the interest of Moral Majority Sam the Eagle. If his request for you to help him give a speech on moral fibre in modern media does not tickle your fancy, show up dressed as Carman Miranda juggling lemon pies.
Break out your helmet, scrounge up some flame retardant underpants and get a gallon of Bactine, you are now working alongside Beaker in Muppet Labs.
You will find yourself guest staring alongside the Swedish Chef; best to brush up on your knife juggling and cooking with explosives.
Taurus: April 20 - May 20
Virgo: Aug 23 - Sept 22
You will find yourself tempted to put down some serious money on the fight between Gonzo the Great and a tube of low-fat cottage cheese. (Gonzo goes down in the third after slipping on spilt cottage cheese).
Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19
Make sure to make a big impression when you hit the stage with Fozzie Bear with the old joke about the dental hygienist, the law of Swiss cheese as applied to rubber chickens and the fire extinguisher.
Press your best outdated suit and brush up on your stinging zingers, you scored box seats with the original high kings of heckling, Statler and Waldorf.
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This comic was taken from XKCD
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Mini Album Reviews
SoundBites
ARTS & LIFE
Darkstar News From Nowhere
Tegan and Sara Heartthrob
Ducktails The Flower Lane
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
News From Nowhere opens with a melancholic, enveloping piece of dream pop powered by a simple, twinkling melody. “Light Body Clock Starter” finds UK trio Darkstar in a haze of post-dance floor repose. Ghosts of the night’s more kinetic music uncertainly haunt the listener, like noise ringing in your ear as you stumble out into the blinding light of the 2 a.m. streetlamps. All this points back to Darkstar’s overtly dance music background. There are hints of that here amid the psychedelic-tinged electric pianos, drum machines, heavily-processed vocals, sparkling bells and the murky, nebulous coating of the album’s production. Sounds stretch out to fill gaps in the record’s audible spectrum, but in a way that still points inward rather than to the heavens like Explosions in the Sky. Darkstar’s sombre, reflective outlook is arresting at first, but begins to lose its spell towards the final third. Despite occasionally playful arrangements to break up the monotony, their approach doesn’t hold over the course of a 45-minute album. While the crashing wave ambiance is soothing and the melodies are generally inventive and compelling, the group’s restraint soon becomes tedious rather than deepening the album’s spell.
If the last song from a guitar-anddrums-and-nothing-more Tegan and Sara album (and based on their continued morphing into the pop realm, there’s a greater chance it won’t be – they could go anywhere from here) turns out to be “Someday,” then that’s kind of a perfect fit—in that it isn’t that at all—voices electronically modified but still harmonizing, guitars buzzing in a programmed-sounding way, Tegan and Sara as divided between pop and not does not exist. The addition of further synth production means when guitars return on Heartthrob, things can tend a little too close to the sound of Metric (“I’m Not Your Hero”), but Emily Haines doesn’t write like this – though lower in volume of unique lyrics, pace and velocity, Tegan and Sara’s characteristic specificity, the ability to see both sides in the present tense, remains. And what grows is that the desire to avail even in the face of criticism (“I Am [A Fool/Not a Hero/ Not a Friend/Messed Up]”), and the re-clarification of pronominal address (“You” in “Shock to Your System,” “Me/You” in “Goodbye, Goodbye,” “You/I” in “Drove Me Wild,”) don’t die even when touched with digital fingerprints.
Matt Mondanile,best known as the guitarist for New Jersey indie band Real Estate, has started to make use of his side project, Ducktails and in an attempt to fully-flesh out their sound. Although Ducktails have never seemed to lack ambition, they lacked direction. The band’s debut record in 2009 was simply instrumental outtakes of Real Estate’s debut, utilizing the side-project as a means to satisfy diehard fans. The Flower Lane, the fourth album under the name Ducktails, breaks through the label of “Real Estate side-project” and has blossomed into a band that exists on its own merits. With members of Big Troubles filling in the holes, Mondanile extends his reverb-friendly jangle pop to a more polished funk and disco-infused tunes. His most remarkable genre hopping occurs on the lead single, “Letter of Intent,” which features the synthy melodies of Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin, and guest vocals from Jessa Farkas of Future Shuttle. This electro-pop driven track evokes the image of an ominous Ryan Gosling driving by wearing a leather scorpion jacket. While Mondanile sounds confident here, it might serve him well to reign in this scope of this project and re-focus for a more cohesive experience.
The album opens with slightly discordant stringed instruments – is that a sitar I hear, or just a banjo? It keeps from being too crazy with binding elements of a kick drum and the chill vocals of Thao Nguyen. The vocal track is distorted in places to match the vibe of the electric guitar, which is a cool symmetry. In the second track, Nguyen chases after my own heart by taking a break from raucously joyful rhythms to provide a gentle ditty of a hummed and harmonized bridge. The track ends with a chorus of vocals only with the mantra, “Rest and be strong / wash and be clean / start a new life whenever you need.” Inspiring stuff, this, but before the listener gets too mired in their own thoughts, the Get Down Stay Down grip us up and spin us around with jubilant brass and the infallible kick drum/chill vocals combo that this band has practically patented. These are tunes to pick you up and keep you buoyant – just what the doctor ordered, especially with spring in the air.
nICK UBELS
MICHAEL SCOULAR
TIM UBELS
Dessa Bayrock
like it was recorded in an empty gymnasium, or the distorted guitar, coming from what must be a moist, tiled room if not the inside of a computer or Korg machine. The tracks “Five Seconds” and “Beg for the Night” are distinct for being quicker and more active than the others, and faster than the material from his previous, debut album, Forget. Otherwise, Lewis Jr. does not appear to have forgotten anything else from that album’s inspiration. Confess is an evolved, tighter Forget. This is a relieving trait for listeners, as you get two albums for one if you’re a newcomer to the musician. They’re equivalent in the strengths of varied synthetic soundscapes, but Confess has definite advancements in the originality of instrumentation and mixing. Bravado and confessions are not anything original for pop music. On the surface there’s nothing but longings and regets about loves, yet the vocals are enjoyable enough without apparent wit or meaning on first listen. On examination, however, there are discoveries in possibility. “Five Seconds” might be about a love at first sight experience or could be a description of a crack-cocaine high: “She said five seconds and you’re high/ Straight to your heart/ I can’t get to your heart/ Thinking about the right time.” It is one of the most memorable tracks of the
10. “The One” offers an intriguing situation, “I’m in love with the end of a book/ You roll in with the cruel world… I’m in love with my memories/ You’re alone with my stuttering, hard.” There’s a nonchalant poetry in these songs, even if at times Lewis, Jr. must be well aware of how close he approaches pastiche of past decades. The recurring character of the tracks is a pulse and beat that resolve in a Peter Gabriel-like darkness of the synthetic pop, though “I Don’t Care” and “The One” are exceptions in their optimistic sound. This is not to say each track has doesn’t have its own individuality, which they do. If you get the chance, try listening to this album as you cruise through the city on a Saturday night, leather bound hand gripping the steering wheel, driving 10 km/h, ruminating on past flames. You might have fun pretending this is your own soundtrack, if you let it transport you through time.
We The Common
Album Review
Twin Shadow – Confess BEAU O’NEILL
CONTRIBUTOR
A corollary achievement of improving recording devices is that our view into past periods of music widens as the ability to use these devices becomes more widespread. Along with this expanded view comes an ability to accurately emulate past sounds with modern technology. This era-sensitive quality defines Twin Shadow’s 2012 release Confess, though its quality proves some styles transcend the periods of their Genesis, I mean genesis, while still carrying their signatures. The album would have made me believe it was recorded in the 1980s, if I had to go on the portrait on the front cover, upon which George Lewis, Jr. (aka Twin Shadow) is centred, in leather jacket, bathws in red light against a blue background, looking listless, angsty and apathetic all at once, or on the sound, made of synthesizers, drum machine beats, echoing guitars and Lewis, Jr.’s crooning vocals. But it seems that trends in music do not confine the music to the time period, as this album is an interesting and beat driven exploration of love and disregard that appears fresh to the palate, albeit old to the other senses. It’s obvious from the popularity of musicians like Grimes, Purity Ring and from M83’s standout “Mid-
night City,” that synth-driven pop electronica is an adaptable form that allows for much creativity, despite its narrow foundations. Twin Shadow’s success lies in the interesting, exchanging and competing rhythms, which come from various instruments, including his croons, taking turns so as not to crowd the tracks at any given moment. Yet there’s always enough going on to be thoroughly interesting, whether it’s because
of the syncopation or the layering. Two or three channels run at any moment, and now and then a keyboard will trade off for a bass riff, like in “Patient,” which then goes off in an Eddie Van Halen reminiscent guitar solo, thrown in because it fits perfectly, rocks your fucking face, and because Twin Shadow knows what he can do. Every sound is filtered through several modifiers, whether it’s Lewis Jr.’s singing, made to sound
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
ARTS & LIFE
A fashionista’s day off THE FASHION DOCTOR
JASMINE PROCTOR
CONTRIBUTOR
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The Breezes The Breezes
Gold And Shadow are poets are heart, favouring banjo and acoustic guitar with just a subtle amount of lead electric to drive their versatile pop-rock sound.
Ever have one of those days when you want to just roll out of bed and go to school? They come around every semester—usually as a result of those long nights of pre-midterm studying—and you wake up feeling like hell. These are the days when you would much rather put in as little effort as possible, put your hair up, slap on some moisturizer and be good to go. As much as you may love fashion, on these days it is on the lower end of your priorities. When those lazy days come around, I am often stuck as to what to wear. Pajamas are out. That’s not up for discussion, in my opinion. There are just so many other options out there that can make you feel just as, if not more, comfortable than any thermal sleepwear can offer. No, I am not insinuating you should reach into your pockets and buy a pair of God-forsaken pajama jeans (worst invention ever), but rather that you should know your options and how you can put them together to look great without much effort. What’s the first thing that comes to mind, then? More than likely, it’s yoga pants. Not sweats and yet not leggings either, these babies are a both comfortable and figureflattering, making them the most popular choice when it comes to being cozy. Just take a look around campus, and you’ll see how admired these bad boys are, with the dozens of girls sporting them on a daily basis. In my opinion, though, nothing says comfort like leggings. Similar to the yoga pant, these are my go-to piece when I am overtired and hating the world. They are just so versatile and stretchy. Not
Fidlar Fidlar
Atlas Collapses – “Crash Site”
Book Review
CHARTS
Renny Wilson Sugarglider Mac DeMarco Mac Demarco 2 Tom Fun Orchestra Earthworm Heart
LeE HARVeY OsMOND The Folk Sinner
Shuffle AARON LEVY
CIVL DJ/ROUGH RIDER
Bands from Nanaimo are usually pretty lousy. Here are a select few that aren’t, from resident Nanaimo music scene expert Adam Roper, host of Birds Of Canada.
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Olivia Sharpe A Wild Patience Waiting To Break
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Hollerado White Paint
Yacht Club Nonnavera + Flash Classified Classified Fist City It’s 1983 Grow Up
Falcon Punch Falcon Punch Gentleman Reg Leisure Life Anciients Snakebeard Homeshake The Homeshake Tape
Apparatjik & Lowell If You Can, Solve This Jumble??
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D-Sisive Jonestown 3.The Dream Is Over
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The Human Orchestra Lip Service
Cloud Limbs – “Sister Addict” A garagey sounding outfit featuring Patchwork’s brother, with a reasonably appropriate song to listen to on rainy coastal afternoons.
Gold And Shadow – “Thaliana”
Atlas Collapses produce clean sounding melodic-rock, a strong contrast to the hazy incoherence that defined much of the Vancouver Island music community throughout the 2000s.
The Fresh Pots – “University Girls” About the only thing that makes Parksville (a dingy little tourist town just a few miles from Nanaimo) worth visiting is the beach, or The Fresh Pots.
Leggings are where it’s at for no-fuss outfits. only this, but when paired the right way, they can be comfortable and stylish, all at the same time. You just have to know how to wear them. Shirts that do not cover your rear, I am sad to say, are a definite no. Remember: these are not pants, my friends. They are leggings, just a few fibres thicker than tights. Keep this in mind. What are your options then? Well, this is where baggy shirts and sweaters can become your best friend. Throw on a nice, long, cable-knit sweater or loose-fitting t-shirt, some opaque black leggings, a pair of your favourite boots or loafers, and you’re good. As well, they make great pieces
Image: love Maegan
for colder days when you want to layer. You can wear a thermal underneath to keep the cold out – toss on a bulky jacket to add even more warmth. Layering is such a good way to not only keep toasty, but also cozy while you sit through another three-hour lecture. If that doesn’t scream comfort, I don’t know what does. Want to add something a little extra? Throw on a pair of gold studs or a few bracelets, along with a long necklace. The basic pieces of your outfit can virtually work with any type of jewelry, and the versatility of them can definitely work to your advantage.
Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer ADESUWA OKOYOMON
CONTRIBUTOR
The first time I read a Jodi Picoult novel, I had the same chills I got when I first read John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn which might just be one of the best pieces of literature I have ever set my eyes on. Between the Lines brings a fairy tale to life – and surely there is a little part in all of us that wants to believe in happily ever after. Fifteen-year-old Delilah reads books as an escape from her life, but there was something about Between the Lines. It is a children’s fairy tale and although Delilah felt embarrassed about reading it, she admits to herself that she cannot not break away from it: “This must be what an addict feels like, I think, trying to fight the pull of one last, quick read. My fingers itch toward the binding, and finally, with a sigh of regret, I just grab the book and open it, hungrily reading the story.” She believes she shares some kind of bond with the protagonist, Prince Oliver. To Delilah, it is more than just a book – it is where she belonged. Meanwhile Prince Oliver believes he is stuck in his story and wishes
to explore the world outside, but it is beyond his reach. He feels like an intruder in the fairy-tale Between the Lines, and is not quite sure that it is where he should be. Here’s the twist: after Delilah closes this book, a whole new world opens – the world of the characters. Prince Oliver no longer has to pretend to be madly in love with Princess Seraphima, the Pirates no longer have to pretend to be mean, Queen Maureen can explore her passion for cooking, Rapscullio can save his villainy act for later
and become fully engrossed in painting, baking and collecting butterflies. All these characters can finally take off their masks and frolic. They can expose their true selves which may just be a façade because they conceal it so much they could almost pretend it did not exist. Prince Oliver lets on “I can’t remember when I first realized that life, as I knew it, wasn’t real.” These masks represent the palisades to their secrets, shielding the lilt of dementia and the fluid dreams that make up the strangers on the inside, and when the stranger on the outside closes the book, all the characters can take them off. They are free to be themselves because no outsider is watching. It seems like humans never really want what they’ve got; they want what they cannot have, and Picoult’s main characters personify this attribute. By some magical twist of fate, Delilah and Oliver’s worlds stumble into each other. Picoult’s Between the Lines is definitely a wonderful read. After all, “Princes don’t come around every day, and happy endings don’t grow on trees.”
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
www.ufvcascade.ca
17
ARTS & LIFE
UFV offers fine dining: Rivers Dining Room at the TTC
Rivers Dining Room provides training for students and good food for guests JESS WIND
THE CASCADE Thanks to UFV’s culinary arts program, it is possible to enjoy fine dining as a student. If you’re looking for a classy, four-course meal this Valentine’s Day, consider checking out Rivers Dining Room. I went on date night with my husband, Shea; we were seated to our table; the hostess pulled out my chair and ice water was prepoured and waiting for us. This is all due to the fact that they request guests make reservations prior to dinner service. However, they do accommodate take-out orders. First-year culinary arts student Sarah Sandar commented on a large order that came in while we were enjoying our first course. “If you don’t want to put on nice clothes to come in here, you can eat at home in your pajamas,” she said. The dining room serves as practical experience for students in the culinary arts program. They work in the kitchen preparing the food and also rotate as servers. Students in the hospitality program are also employed in the dining room. Sandar explained the benefit of the hands-on experience. “I love the program. I learn a lot from it,” she said. “You learn the art of fine dining, plating, presentation.” It was easy to forget that I was dining in what is essentially their classroom. The servers were professional and efficient – my glass was never empty. We were able to order quickly and our courses were served in a timely fashion. I began with the shrimp cocktail. It was a generous serving of five jumbo shrimp with a tangy cocktail sauce for dipping. They were cooked wonderfully and separated from their tails with ease, allowing me to enjoy every little bit of their shrimpy-ness. My husband’s beef tenderloin and blue cheese sauce was an excellent combination of flavours and the fresh bread allowed the protein to shine. The second course was a fresh-
A table fitted for fine dining at the TTC. ly-made caesar salad. There isn’t much better than a well-dressed caesar with fresh garlic croutons and real bacon. The heart-shaped, parmesan chip garnish served as an adorable prelude to the entree. The mushroom crepes were my choice of indulgence. Three sweet crepes wrapped around healthy portions of mushrooms, onions and white asparagus. For extra vegetables and colour, the dish came stacked high with red peppers and green beans. The glorious combination of sweet and savoury made it very hard to watch Shea clean my plate when I couldn’t finish. He chose the lamb for his entree, which came expertly cooked, medium rare and subtly seasoned with a rosemary jus. Roasted potatoes joined his protein for an all around Greek-flavoured dish. By the time we were finished with our first three courses, the prospect of dessert seemed beyond what our stomachs could handle. Then they brought out my ice cream sandwich and his warm German apple pie. Two chocolate chip cookies, that if I wasn’t at a classy place, I would have wanted to eat with my hands. As it was, they could have been softer, but the effort was well worth it. The German apple pie was spilling large chunks of warm apples and a
Images: Jess Wind/The Cascade
creamy filling. Both our desserts were joined by generous helpings of vanilla bean ice cream. There’s always room for dessert. While $25 for dinner isn’t exactly affordable on most modest budgets, it is an excellent price for the amount and quality of food that Rivers Dining Room offers. They take care to ensure that all the food is cooked and presented at the level expected from fine dining restaurants that would cost twice as much, plus you’re supporting UFV students while you dine. The restaurant, located at the UFV Trades and Technology Centre (TTC) in Chilliwack, is open to the public Tuesdays and Wednesday nights for a 6 p.m. dinner service, as well as between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Fridays for a lunch buffet. The dinner service provides the diner with a choice of appetizer, salad, main entree and dessert for $25 and believe me, it is enough food. The menu changes weekly, so there are always new dishes to indulge in. If you are seeking an excellent meal, with inviting music and a classy atmosphere—the kind where you might wear heels or a tie, but aren’t expected to—then consider Rivers Dining Room at the TTC. Whatever is on the menu that week, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Lamb and roasted potatoes was one of the feature entrees.
A delicious ice cream sandwich.
Student chefs prepare a gourmet meal.
Dine & Dash
Chilies Thai Cuisine 46212 Yale Road, Chiliwack
Prices from $6-$15.50 (Lunch specials are all $9.50) Tuesday-Friday: 11:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
JASMINE PROCTOR
Contributor
For years now, friends and family have been raving about this unique little Thai restaurant cleverly called Chilies. As a Chilliwack native myself, I was quite intrigued to see what all the fuss was about – and as a lover of oriental food, the idea of trying Thai cuisine for the first time was more than alluring, so I took the first chance I could to check it out.
Now if there is one thing that can be said for this place, it’s that the décor definitely sets the mood and the tone for the entire experience. It almost transports you, as cliché as that sounds, with its muted lighting and draped curtains. On one side of the small establishment, floor-to-ceiling mirrors make the room seem a lot larger than it actually is, while on the other side, beautifully handcrafted Thai pictures line the walls. Hypnotic music of the Thai-pop persuasion is on repeat, and every so often one of the waitresses will be singing along. It gives off a very calm, yet sultry feel, which I absolutely loved. As an appetizer, we decided to order the spring rolls, a vegetarianfriendly option that seemed like an easy way to test the waters. Oh, but
they were so much more than that. Crispy and hot, these babies were the right amount of crunch and flake to just melt in your mouth. Not to mention the house dip that went along with them: spicy and light, it blended mouth-wateringly with these deep-fried lovelies. It had a kick to it, like the kind that just lingers in your mouth long after you’ve swallowed. Heaven sent, I kid you not. For our main course, we chose to share the Pad Ga Teim with chicken, as the waitress recommended it for first-timers. Because my dinner companion isn’t a big spice fan, we agreed to have the mild version, and I ordered myself a side of spicy sauce (I like to think I can handle my spice). When it got to our table, the smell was incredible. Unfortunately, though,
the portion was very small, especially considering the price. We got somewhat skimped on the chicken, too; there were barely two ounces in the entire stir-fry, but I kept an open mind. I’m sad to say that it did not live up to my expectations. It was just lacking something. You could barely taste the black pepper that the description highlighted, and the sauce itself was considerably bland. There was array of veggies, like broccoli, celery and carrots, all sautéed to the right consistency, but I would have seriously appreciated more chicken. Upon adding some of the spicy sauce I requested, though, it took things from bland to amazing. A warning, though: do not add the spicy sauce unless completely and utterly prepared. I was not expect-
ing the intensity it brought at all, and I continuously found myself gulping down the water to keep up with each passing bite. It was just so much better with the addition of kick the sauce gave. But not as good as the spring rolls were. Although the service was excellent and the spring rolls are probably my new best friend, the experience at Chilies did not live up to the hype surrounding the establishment. Perhaps the waitress led us astray with her suggestion, or perhaps we should have amped up the spice, I don’t know. But if you are looking for some place to indulge in some kick-ass spring rolls, Chilies is your place.
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SPORTS & HEALTH
Roadtripping with the basketball bros My Kelowna weekend as the “thirteenth man” PAUL ESAU
the cascade
“Don’t worry, you’ll just room with me,” says UFV men’s basketball head coach Adam Friesen as I stand awkwardly in the door of his office. He’s not joking, even though I’ve never heard of a head coach offering to share a room with a reporter. “It would be an honour, coach,” I say, already praying I don’t mess it up. “I look forward to the male bonding.” He gives me an opaque look and I remember that coach Friesen is serious. Serious about life, serious about basketball, serious about victory. His job is to lead his team to success on and off the court, and everything, from his jokes to his shoes, revolve around that goal. As the smooth-shooting son of controversial Yale Secondary basketball coach Al Friesen, he’s a legend in this city. At the moment, he’s coaching a team with only three returning players to top 10 in the country against all odds. “The bus will be leaving Thursday at 6 p.m. or perhaps a little earlier,” Friesen says, and I nod my promise to be ready. He’s got practices to run and places to be, and I slip away to consider the fact that I’m going to be rooming with a CIS head coach. The team is heading up to Kelowna for two nights to play a series against the UBC-O Heat, a second-year expansion team that’s been bumped up from the BC College league (BCAA). Last week the Heat pushed Canada’s number two ranked team, the UBC Thunderbirds to the edge in a one-point loss, and while the Cascades are eager to come away with two wins against the 2-14 bottom-feeders, the team knows it won’t be easy. Not everyone is healthy, and the team has just cut the services of second year guard Jordan Blackman. They need to win to stay a few games ahead of the surging TWU Spartans, and maintain third spot in the Pacific Conference. On Thursday, I arrive in front of the EAC at 5:40 a.m. and then loiter in the lobby as players slowly emerge from the showers. Some shoot me searching looks; fifth-year guard James York sidles over and asks if I play the four or five position. I’m flattered, but I admit that I’m the reporter before anyone asks me to prove my game. Guard Klaus Figueredo is eat-
ing a pulled pork sandwich out of Tupperware with a fork, and Kyle Grewal’s six-foot-six frame is sprawled across a nearby couch. The men’s and women’s teams often travel together, and players of both genders laugh and joke as we board the bus. Many of the women immediately pull out homework in anticipation of the three-and-a-half hour journey; most of the men simply slip on headphones or plead with the coaches to put on a movie. “So I heard on the radio that gingers are going extinct,” says Cascades top scorer Sam Freeman to team trainer (and redhead) Tahira Larson, kicking off an animated conversation. Elsewhere, rookie Luke Morris is being teased for his “Mission swagga” by Grewal, even as the big man tries to persuade Morris to share his chocolate milk. “You gotta drink milk that’s the colour of your skin!” pleads Grewal, but he gleefully changes the subject as a logistical quirk forces Morris and the beautiful Sara Wierks to share a bench. By the time we’ve reached Kelowna, raided the 7-11 for five cent candy and jalapeno taquitos, and settled into hotel rooms, it’s almost 11 p.m. I expect coach Friesen to want to settle into bed almost immediately, but the man surprises me with discussion about current events, the Newtown shooting and the GOP primaries. Eventually (perhaps inevitably) we shift to basketball, and Friesen explains how he took a team that over the summer lost former head coach Barnaby Craddock and starters Joel Friesen and Jasper Moedt, and kept them in the top 10 national rankings. “A lot of teams [in the CIS] think summer is a vacation,” explained Friesen. “We practiced every day Monday to Thursday for the entire summer. If we had tried to come into September and figure it out then, we never would have had been as competitive as we are. This team understands how to play together.” Kyle Grewal is in his fifth and final year of eligibility, but he has actually been with the Cascades for seven years and spent two of them injured. Complications from an infected blister and sprained ankle on the same foot have kept him off the court since before Christmas, and the team has had to adjust to a smaller, faster game without him. How important is Grewal to the Cascades? According to Friesen, he is
Image: Paul Esau/The Cascade
Coach Adam Friesen studying in his Kelowna hotel room. the best player the program has ever produced, and the heart and soul of the UFV team. The next day, game day, becomes gradually more intense as the 8 p.m. tipoff approaches. In the morning the players are relaxed, laughing and bantering. Six-footseven redshirt Hudson Simon mishandles a hot potato question from the coach (How many suicides should a good team run per practise?) with an answer (At least five, coach!) that makes his teammates groan. “You’ve gotta negotiate, man,” I explain to him. “Start at three. Coach will answer eight. Work him down!” Hudson nods, eager to please as only a 19-year-old rookie can be. He takes a second ribbing after he assures coach Friesen that he could stop OKC star Kevin Durant “60 times out of 100,” but the teasing isn’t as harsh as it could be. Simon can touch the top of the square on the backboard, and specializes in a running hook that is almost unstoppable. With another year or two of work, his name is going to be nearly as famous as Grewal’s in the CIS. They spend an hour in the afternoon in a relaxed “shoot around.” Friesen runs a few drills, and ends with a frantic threepointer competition between the big men and the guards. Simon hits two in a row and air-balls the third. James York, point guard and team clown, talks an endless stream of trash as he bumps the big men’s ball across the gym and interferes with their pursuit. I’m laughing, the team is laughing, this is garbage ball at its finest. After a team dinner, we bus back to UBC-O and head to the locker room. Most of the team are lost in their headphones, listen-
ing to an endless playlist of rap and hip-hop. A surprising number have Tahira Larson tape their ankles, after which she moves around the room tapping shoulders, fingers, hips and knees with questioning glances. It’s nearing the end of the season and everyone is being bothered by something. Guard Kevon Parchment has three layers of tape wrapped around his middle finger like the beginnings of mummification. Grewal, who isn’t playing, insists on having his ankle taped anyway. Friesen has already given a speech on the bus. “Don’t take these guys lightly,” he urges. “UBC only beat them by one! You can’t afford to flick a switch half way through, you might not be able to. UBC-O has nothing to play for, their season is over. Yours isn’t.” The Cascades win, barely. Surprisingly, Grewal plays four minutes and scores seven points, showing the Heat a taste of what UFV could be without the injuries. With three minutes left it looks like the team is going to lose, but a steal and a made foul shot from Klaus Figueredo sends it to overtime. Given a second chance to win, Nathan Kendall leads the Cascades to victory. In the locker room, Parchment leads the team in a Victor Cruz inspired salsa celebration, while the coaches and I breathe a collective sigh of relief. Back at the hotel, Friesen will watch the entire game again twice on his laptop. He gets more frustrated each time, noting defensive breakdowns, missed exploitations on offence and the fouling patterns of his team. “We couldn’t shoot threes and we couldn’t get to the rim,” he
mutters finally. “How is it that a 2-14 team could stop one of the top 10 teams in Canada from shooting or driving?” It’s a question I don’t feel qualified to answer. The next day is a repeat of the first, except this time the team neglects to go to dinner together, and this time they trail by 10 at half-time. The Cascades, who have just set a program record by scoring only five points in the second quarter, have trouble articulating what’s wrong in the minutes before the coaches arrive in the locker room. Grewal speaks, his hoarse voice urgent with passion, and others, Ashkenazy and York, join in. The rhythm, the confidence is off. They know it, I know it, but their emotion gets the better of them. In the second half I watch York disappear from the floor, while Freeman drives again and again and forces himself into awkward, low-percentage shots. On defence the zone begins to break down, and even the presence of Grewal can’t turn a stinker of a game around. They lose by 10, and this time there is no salsa. The Cascades shower and trudge to the bus. On Twitter the UBC-O media is already triumphantly tweeting that men’s basketball has beaten a “ranked” team. It all feels unfair somehow, as if in our own gym we would have somehow beaten them easily. It’s three-and-a-half hours back to Abbotsford, and this time my seat is near the front of the bus where the four coaches, two from each team, gather. They talk far into the night about what could have been, what should have been, the difficulty of managing referees and the peculiarity of the UBC-O Heat’s offence. Friesen is intense, disappointed and yet still tugging at the problems, the enigmas of the loss. I know from my experience in our room that he will spend half of tomorrow watching the game over and over. It’s his job, it’s who he is: a great basketball coach first, everything else second. Far behind me I hear Grewal laughing. He understands what all good players must understand if they wish to survive: how to learn, but also how to forget.
Women’s bball raises $4000 at “Shoot for the Cure” fundraiser JASPER MOEDT CONTRIBUTOR
The UFV women’s basketball team was at it again last week, continuing their season-long campaign of putting up impressive numbers – only this time the numbers were put up off the court ... and had a dollar sign in front of them. On January 25, 2013, the team hosted a breast cancer
awareness night at Finnegan’s Pub, which included a variety of prize giveaways, a performance by Fanaticus and a silent auction for the grand prize of a weekend getaway in Harrison. After it was all said and done, the team had raised over $4000 towards the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) Yukon/BC chapter. This night was part of the breast cancer awareness weekend hosted by
the Cascades. The Tuesday before the event Cascades senior Alexa McCarthy manned a booth next to the Tim Horton’s on the Abbotsford campus from 11 a.m to 2 p.m.: “it’s kind of a small part of what we do,” said McCarthy. “We used that booth to sell a few more tickets to the fundraiser on Tuesday nights. We sold wristbands, tshirts and tickets.”
The UFV women’s basketball team is known for having a positive impact on and off the court, their work with youth and charities is the most impressive of any varsity team. “We are obviously trying to be the best we can on the court,” said McCarthy. “Our community stuff is part of what it means to be on the team. It’s part of our identity.” The men’s and women’s teams
sported pink breast cancer awareness t-shirts during warm-up and during the game there was a booth open promoting support for the CBCF. Overall, the weekend highlighted the dedication to our community that our school’s student athletes have.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
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SPORTS & HEALTH
Dance ‘til you drop with the UFV Dance Club KATE NICKELCHOK CONTRIBUTOR
Walking into the U-House late on a Friday afternoon is like stumbling onto a surprise party. Finally, that hidden, fun, campus society you’ve suspected existed somewhere at UFV, but never found, has come together in the UFV Dance Club and its partnerships. Though historically quiet on a Friday night (outside of the varsity games, of course), the Abbotsford campus is getting a much needed Latin infusion. Starting approximately at 4:30 p.m. every Friday, UFV Dance Club begins to hit its stride as the U-House’s vibe increasingly builds with salsa beats, laughter and the smell of fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of International Education’s Tea Time). Although the club is still rather young, having only started last semester, it is already gathering a crowd of approximately 30 students each week. More recently, the dance club events have hosted events drawing in over 50, as was the case when I visited. Perhaps it’s the newness of the club, which is still very much in the development stage, but the atmosphere is infinitely more relaxed than your typical “line up with a partner” community dance lessons. Because UFV Dance Club has teamed up with International Education’s Tea Time, a meet-andgreet service complete with complimentary drinks and snacks, there’s an inviting, casual mood
Club members dancing the night away at the Abbotsford campus U-House. to the whole thing. The pervading attitude is to dance as much or as little as you feel like dancing. There are experienced dancers there to show you a few optional moves, but you may also end up sharing some steps of your own. For example, while I was being taught how to Portuguese polka, others learnt some samba before one student gathered everyone together for a classic hip hop circle. Most attendees alternate between a dance, a game of foosball, and simply mingling. Or (in special cases) a heart-pumping, laughterinducing, dance-themed game on Nintendo Wii.
This beginner-friendly mix of socializing and dance lessons stems from the goals of club executive Usman Shahid, who dreamt up UFV Dance Club from his own desire to learn how to dance. “Before, I didn’t know how to dance at all,” explained Usman. He began to gather UFV friends, such as co-organizer Sam Khamkar, around the idea of creating a space to learn together from more experienced groups of international students they had watched dance at the Abbotsford Multicultural Festival in the fall. “At the time, my intention was to bring all the communities together
Image: Blake McGuire/ The Cascade
and, at the same time, I wanted to learn dance as well. So that’s why I created this club. “It was about providing a common platform for international students to hang out and have a good time. You know, just talk and learn about other cultures,” added Khamkar. Along with Tea Time, the Dance Club has collaborated with the UFV Latin Club, Campus Buzz and International Students’ Association (ISA) with plans to expand to more partnerships outside UFV. “My future intention is to organize events that bring in other communities,” says Usman,
“For instance other colleges and universities ... We would like to start organizing more events but right now we don’t have anything structured. We’ve found some hip hop dancers, salsa and samba, but the core problem is organization and we don’t have a room every single week.” Usman and Khamkar admit that the gym would be “more appropriate,” but have had difficulty booking any space outside the UHouse. “We tried to have an event at the gym, but they gave us the gym at 10 in the morning, which was really inconvenient. Most students aren’t going to wake up and take a bus to the gym at 10 in the morning. You know, it’s salsa, and in the morning it’s kind of difficult.” “You’d need to have [hot] salsa and Tostitos to wake them up!” laughed Khamkar. Despite location setbacks, UFV Dance Club is still growing as a place for students to get together, learn a few skills and shake off the school day with a bit of exercise. How much of a workout you’ll receive really depends on what dance is being taught (and how much you can resist the fresh chocolate chip cookies). “It’s kind of a warm up for me,” laughed Khamkar, who routinely hits the UFV gym right after Dance Club. Usman explains that while salsa and samba are slower paced, hip hop can provide a real challenge. “If you really want a good workout you should come and join!”
Sports Psychology at UFV: Roger Friesen and athletic minds MICHAEL SCOULAR The Cascade
Writing or talking about sports tends to be almost exclusively concerned with goal-scorers, bench bosses and ascribing authorship, but only so far as what shows up on the statistics sheet rather than the process behind the thought, the mind behind each action. Where the real story in sports can often be found is what goes into action, resulting in quantifiable results or not, rather than the arrangement of ideas that forge a better athlete. Roger Friesen, sports psychologist for UFV’s varsity teams and professor at UFV, stands at the point between personal development (learning in the classroom) and their outcomes (what we see on the court, field, water). In a typical week, Friesen holds a classroom-type session, focusing on an aspect of mental preparation and getting to know any number of UFV’s varsity teams. The process of gaining ground and watching student athletes leave after their five years means the experience is one Friesen describes as of “ebbs and flows,” but this constant change, the ability to meet and impact the numbers of recruits and veterans that shift from year to year is also where the job comes to be rewarding. “I love it as much as
Art: Anthony Biondi/The Cascade
I did when I started 25 years ago,” Friesen said. Learning can only be assessed through application, and the tests of the athlete are physical, which is why Friesen is often a presence at practices and an observer at games. At both events Friesen can look for “teachable moments,” challenges and improvable areas different to each athlete that don’t present themself in the classroom through talk, but can be brought forward and worked through
there – the two sides feed into each other. The university brings with it a distinct situation for research and a special setting for those learning from it. Friesen also teaches and has developed sports psychology courses at UFV, and spoke of the openness that he encourages in office hours, in dealing with multiple aspects of learning and in working with the varsity teams. On the athlete side, if there’s anything unique about working and
growing in this environment, “It’s the pride they feel, to be a part of something big, and playing in front of friends and family members,” Friesen said. This pride might be visible to those outside the athletic sphere as coming from wins or when attendance rises, but Friesen holds a different perspective: “Right now women’s basketball is getting media attention, because they’re doing well, but there’s a lot more going on that isn’t, and not neces-
sarily a team as a whole.” Friesen downplayed the importance of media attention, which comes and goes at this level based on success, and spoke for achievements that impact players on a personal scale, stories that may not get told but are no less important. It is not just sports either, as Friesen works on two fronts. In addition to athletes preparing for competition outside of UFV (the Olympic and Pan Am games), he also is involved in a variety of contexts including emergency response. However, Friesen stressed “the thing that’s common to all of them” – psychology here is not beholden to categories, and so whether student, athlete or other performer of duties and actions under pressure, the way the mind works extends beyond organized sports. From his position, Friesen has been able to see enormous change take place – from pre-university to the sports and psychology programs’ current state, but on a personal level, Friesen also spoke to his own initial development in his undergraduate days, changing course from the architecture of spaces to the mind: “I came across it by accident, but once I knew that sports psychology was a real thing I could work with, that was it.”
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SPORTS & HEALTH
Women’s volleyball defends lofty national ranking JASPER MOEDT CONTRIBUTOR
One of the most highly anticipated matchups in UFV women’s volleyball history took place this weekend at the Envision Athletic Center (EAC). Rolling into town was the number two team in the country, the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Mariners to challenge the number one nationally-ranked Cascades. Adding to the excitement was the fact that VIU has been the only team this season to hand the Cascades a loss all year. On the first night of the weekend doubleheader the teams did not disappoint. The match went back and forth and eventually came down to a close fourth set with VIU up 2-1 in sets looking to close out the upset. The fourth set was an exciting back and forth battle between the two teams with some dramatic rallies that left the crowd in amazement several times. Credit to the visiting team, the Mariners, for making some exceptional saves to keep the ball alive and taking the set 25-20 to send the Cascades home for the night with their second loss of the season. On day two of the matchup a different Cascades team came out to play right out of the gates. On the previous night they had dropped the first two sets and immediately had to play from behind for the entirety of the night, and apparently the Cascades did not plan on doing that two nights in a row. The women came out and made no mistake in putting away the visitors in two efficient sets (25-23, 25-15). It seemed at that point as though the Cascades
might just sweep the Mariners away in three sets, but with their backs up against the walls the VIU squad came up big with two quick sets of their own (25-16, 2519). With the momentum shifting again the two teams were forced to play it out in a final and deciding fifth set. Despite the constant cheering and congratulatory atmosphere that comes with most volleyball games there was obvious tension in the air. The Cascades made no mistake in the final frame, taking the set 15-11 and while doing so, justifying their number one national ranking. The Cascades received huge contributions from a variety of sources throughout their squad over the weekend. Most notable was the play of fifth-year vet Katie Bilodeau as well as the stellar play of first-year setter Kira Tome over the two matches. In explaining what the difference between the two nights was for the team, Kayla Bruce, a veteran Cascade in her fifth year, spoke of the pressure of defending a national ranking. “I think there was a lot of pressure put onto our Friday night game which may have heightened nerves,” stated Bruce. On the Saturday game Bruce put it simply in saying that the number one spot was on the line and it was a matter of pride: “We knew what we had to do. We really wanted to defend that number one position.” With this weekend’s effort the Cascades will very likely stay on top of the national rankings for another week, and they will continue extending their legacy in one of the most successful regular seasons UFV volleyball has ever seen.
The Cascades fought VIU to a split over the weekend.
Image:Blake McGuire/The Cascade
Quintin at 33
Laing’s long road to All-Star Classic TIM UBELS
CONTRIBUTOR
It’s every young hockey player’s fantasy to one day pull an NHL team’s sweater over their head and play in front of tens of thousands of roaring supporters. Unfortunately for most young talent primed to one day enter the National Hockey League, that task is easier said than done. Star rookies like Edmonton Oiler’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Montreal Canadians forward Alex Galchenyuk enter the league in their draft year and never look back. But for other players, it can be quite the journey. Enter Quintin Laing – a Harris, Saskatchewan native who was drafted 102 overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 1997. To date, Laing has played just 79 games in the NHL throughout his 13-year professional career. His longest stint with a National Hockey League team was with the Washington Capitals from the 2007-2008 season to the 2009-2010 season, due to his skills as a defensive specialist on the Capital’s checking-line and penalty kill. Described as “a heart-and-soul
Image: Clint Trahan
Quintin Laing wearing the captain’s ‘C’ earlier this season. guy” by teammate Brooks Laich in an interview with The Washington Post, Laing made a name for himself as a utility player that would fill any role to help the team win, included sacrificing his body to make the play. Capitals goaltender Brent Johnson praised Laing’s sacrificial efforts, remark-
ing to Laing after he went down to block a shot with his chest, “Seriously, you keep that up and you’re going to be here.” He made a good impression on his teammates and coaches, which is vital for minor league call-ups, who know that their stay is not always permanent and that a bad shift
may spell the end of their stint in the NHL. His great work ethic, dedication to the team, and reputation as one of the AHL’s top defensive forwards made him a fan favourite in Hersey and caught the attention of the Washington management. Laing made his return to the big leagues on March 19, 2009, after a rash of injuries in the Washington lineup forced coach Bruce Boudreau to call up Laing once again. Unfortunately for Quintin, he began experiencing some abdominal pain after only his first game back. Doctors diagnosed it as a torn spleen, ruling him out for the rest of the season with the Capitals. Laing received one more chance to stick with the Capitals in the 2009-2010 season, but this opportunity was ended abruptly after a slapshot hit him in the jaw on November 17, 2009, in a game against the New York Rangers. With a broken jaw and his second serious injury within a year, Laing was put on long-term injury reserve and not resigned by the Capitals in the summer of 2010. Now three years removed from his last stint in the NHL, Laing, 33, has found a home in the AHL,
wearing the C for the Abbotsford Heat for the past two seasons. Along with teammate Barry Brust, Laing took part in this year’s AHL All-Star Classic, serving as the captain for the Western Conference team, helping them defeat their Eastern Conference rivals 7-6 on January 28. Adjusting to life in the minor leagues can be difficult. Whether it’s the taxing bus rides, or the inconsistent play of young teammates trying to break into the NHL, a team’s stress level can be high. But veteran players like Laing improve this lack of cohesiveness and continuity in their team’s game by providing guidance for younger players, helping them adjust to their new roles in the AHL and letting them know what to expect when they make it to the NHL. If all goes well for Laing, sometime in the near future he could be centering a checking line at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. But for now, Laing continues to lead by example in Abbotsford, rounding out his game and waiting for his next opportunity to demonstrate his defensive abilities at the NHL level.
Published on Feb 6, 2013
The Cascade is the University of the Fraser Valley's autonomous student newspaper, and has been since 1993.
