The Concordian

theconcordian

news music

Crowd protests corruption allegations outside Charest’s office P. 2

POP rocked Montreal for 10th year P. 13

Wake up, students

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011

life Memory: be kind to your brain P. 6

arts Overcome your fears by spilling your secrets P. 11

sports A look at how the Stingers have fared so far P. 19

Volume 29 Issue 5

Editorial P. 20

Judicial board trying to regain CSU’s confidence JB to review code of procedures by October Jacques Gallant Editor-in-chief The Concordia Student Union judicial board is planning an overhaul of its own code of procedures within the the next month amid concerns it has lost the confidence of the CSU’s council.

At the Sept. 21 council meeting, JB chair Cassie Smith expressed her concern that council had lost faith in the board’s ability to do its job after the previous CSU council overturned a JB decision stemming from the contentious March general elections.

The verdict in question revolved around then-chief electoral officer Oliver Cohen’s decision to disqualify both the winning Your Concordia and losing Action slates. In its April 27 decision, the

JB overturned the Your Concordia disqualification, but upheld the disqualification of Action. That decision was ultimately overturned

by CSU council in early May. “They clearly thought we made the wrong decision, as if they didn’t trust us,” said Smith, who has been on the JB since 2009. “What happened last year bothered me. Even if you felt the JB was still too harsh, with our decision we wanted to send a message that all this negative stuff around elections had to stop [...] I understand council’s reasoning to a certain extent, but I still wanted to address it at council.”

Smith also said she felt that JB members had not been given enough time to mull over the alleged electoral violations presented to them last April.

Rather than hold a grudge over a previous CSU council’s decision, Smith decided to attend the Sept. 21 meeting seeking help. She

Continued on p. 5

Council to have the final word on the Faubourg today CSU execs to present student centre report at special meeting

Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo News editor With the deadline to give their answer to the university on the student centre question looming, the Concordia Student Union executive is set to present a series of recommendations on the project to council tonight.

“If council rejects the Faubourg Ste-Catherine proposal for a student centre, the executive will follow council’s decision and the Faubourg Ste-Catherine will not be the site of the student centre,” VP clubs and student space Gonzalo Nieto affirmed.

Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota had previously said the university is prepared to move

forward to purchase the building for use as a student centre as soon as there is a signed agreement.

The university’s option to buy the building expires in April 2012. The administration had let the executives know they had until the end of September to make a decision on whether to accept the Faubourg Ste-Catherine as a student centre.

Concordia Student Union president Keyana Kashfi signed an agreement with Concordia on May 29, 2009, whereby the university “has the right to propose student centre sites to the CSU and the CSU will evaluate those proposals,” Nieto explained.

“Should council reject the offer for the Faubourg Ste-Catherine, [...] the student centre agreement would still stand. It would not be nullified by that decision and the university would retain the right to make any future proposals as to the site for a specific student centre,” said Nieto.

Continued on p. 5

theconcordian.com

news 2

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Got a news tip? news@theconcordian.com

City in brief Alyssa Tremblay

Duchesneau breaks silence Jacques Duchesneau has spoken out as the head of Quebec’s anti-corruption squad in the wake of a leaked anti-collusion report which confirms long-suspected links between Quebec’s construction industry and organized crime. On Friday morning, Duchesneau held a press conference at the Transport Ministry and met in private with Transportation Minister Pierre Moreau to discuss possible solutions to these allegations. Duchesneau also appeared on Sunday’s season opener of Tout le monde en parle, Radio-Canada’s French-language talk show. He said that there should be an inquiry into the allegations, but that it should be closed to the public. Duchesneau also admitted to being a victim of intimidation since becoming head of the unit.

Access denied

Paola Ortiz was deported back to Mexico last Friday after Immigration Canada denied the 31-year old woman’s claims of spousal abuse as grounds for granting refugee status.

Ortiz, who is mother to two Canadian-born children and is married to a Canadian citizen, came to Canada in 2006 to escape an abusive partner in Mexico. Originally scheduled to leave the country last Tuesday, Ortiz’s departure was delayed until Friday after she suffered a panic attack at Trudeau International Airport. A demonstration was held on her behalf outside Immigration Canada offices downtown the day before her deportation.

Bad education?

McGill University professor Michelle Hartmann got into trouble last week after university administration learned that she was holding her undergraduate classes off-campus to avoid crossing picket lines at McGill’s main entrance on Sherbrooke. The university threatened to stop paying Hartmann, stating that students had been complaining about the extra travel required to attend the off-campus classes. The professor had begun teaching her Arabic women’s literature class from both her home and at local coffee shops.

McGill’s support staff has been on strike since classes began at the university on Sept. 1, affecting laboratories and residences.

No Cars Go

Pedestrians ruled the streets last Thursday as Montreal held its ninth annual In Town Without My Car/En Ville Sans Ma Voiture week in accordance with International Car-Free Day. SteCatherine St. between McGill College Ave. and de Bleury St. and part of City Councillors St. were closed from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., while side streets remained open to accommodate the extra traffic. The day culminated with Arcade Fire performing an outdoor concert at Place des Festivals to an estimated crowd of 100,000 people.

protest

Hundreds gather for anti-corruption protest in downtown Montreal The protest is the first of many: citizen organizer Sarah Deshaies Chief copy editor Hundreds of people gathered in front of Premier Jean Charest’s office in downtown Montreal on Sept.

24 to protest loudly but peacefully against allegations of corruption in the construction industry. Similar protests occurred in Quebec City and in Sherbrooke.

Over the last 18 months, a pall has hung over Charest’s government as allegations of corruption have swirled around both the government and the industry. While Charest has pledged to investigate, he has refused to launch a public inquiry. Last November, Charest narrowly defeated a non-confidence vote over his refusal to hold a public inquiry.

Saturday’s event was billed as a non-partisan citizen’s protest to kick off “le mouvement du 24 septembre.”

The idea for the protest came from local historian Patrick Poirier, who noticed on Twitter that anger was building over the corruption allegations.

“The first thing you can do as a citizen is speak, and the place to do that is the street,” he said in French.

“We’re going to plan a protest, and we’ll see what happens. I’m very happy with the results. People have things to say. We had to come together to express our discontent.”

Organizers asked that politicians refrain from addressing the

The protest was billed as non partisan to kick off ‘le mouvement du 24 septembre.’ Photo by Navneet Pall crowd, though a few did attend, like former Parti Québecois MNAs Louise Beaudoin and Pierre Curzi and sole Québec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir.

Labour organization CSN was also present, and put out a statement supporting the event.

Poirier, along with friend Claudine Simon (neither are members of any political parties) organized the rally through Twitter and Facebook with the help of volunteers and community groups. To prove the non-partisan nature of the event, Poirier held up his bill for the stage he was standing on to show the crowd. The total: $159.50.

A call was made for people to contribute to the costs, and members of the crowd came forward to tip money into a hat on the stage. Poirier said any money left over from the contributions would be put towards supporting future rallies.

Le mouvement du 24 septembre will continue, added Poirier, though

they do not have specific plans yet.

He thinks the cause will pick up momentum: “People should bring a friend, and that’s how the movement will grow.”

Many of the protesters expressed frustration over perceived corruption in the provincial government.

Richard Labrie, a geography student at Université de Montréal and member of Québec Solidaire, called the allegations “scandalous” especially as the government is raising tuition fees for university students. “After they come to us saying they have no money for education... well, we know where they’re taking it from.”

Recent graduate Tommy Collin said he considered attending the protest part of his duty as a citizen.

“Charest is a big part of the problem,” he said, adding that he hoped the protest would send a clear message to the premier.

Protester Sol Denot propped up a sign that read in French “Power to the

people: out with the Liberal mafia.”

She said that she felt the government was not listening to people’s concerns.

The protest comes shortly after a report was leaked to the media last week; within it, investigators revealed they had found evidence of widespread collusion and corruption that implicated the construction industry, organized crime and public bureaucracy.

Jacques Duchesneau, a former Montreal police chief and head of the anti-corruption squad that produced the report, spoke publicly after the leak. He also appeared Sunday night as a guest on the popular RadioCanada talk show Tout le monde en parle, revealing that he had been a victim of intimidation since taking on the position.

A Léger Marketing report released after the leak said that 75 per cent of Quebecers want to see a public inquiry into the allegations.

graffiti The borough of Côte-des-Neiges— Notre-Dame-de-Grâce is relaxing the rules of a proposed graffiti bylaw. City councillor Susan Clarke announced on Sept. 23 that owners of small commercial and residential buildings who find their properties defaced by graffiti will not be billed the costs of removal. The initial plan stirred up controversy when it called for all owners in the borough to foot the bill for any graffiti on their property. Now, if you own a residential building with six or fewer dwellings, or a commercial/mixed purpose building smaller than 300 square metres that has been branded with graffiti less than five metres above the ground, you are spared the costs of removing it. The graffiti bylaw is slated for adoption later in 2011. Clarke was not available as of press time to comment on whether Concordia University’s Loyola campus would be impacted by this law.

Photo by Navneet Pall

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

Nation in brief

campus

The search continues for

Concordia’s next president Selection process to remain secret Alyssa Tremblay Assistant news editor After inviting students and staff to voice their opinions over the summer, the next steps in Concordia’s search for a new president and vicechancellor now lie in the hands of the advisory search committee, which will deliberate behind closed doors until a suitable candidate is found.

The committee, established by the Board of Governors last March with the purpose of selecting the next president, is the only group allowed access to the feedback and recommendations that were gathered via online survey.

The committee’s 14 members consist of Board of Governors chair Peter Kruyt and selected representatives from the BoG, the administration and support staff, full-time members of all four academic faculties, and part-time faculty members.

Both graduate and undergraduate students will be represented in the proceedings by their respective student union presidents, Robert Sonin and Lex Gill.

Committee members are not allowed to discuss their deliberations with the public and the university presently has no plans to release any of the information collected in the

feedback surveys.

“The search for the president is a confidential process,” said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota. “The university sees no contradiction between the transparency of the process and the confidentiality required to do the job right.”

Kruyt sent out an email to the Concordia community last August asking for their feedback regarding the selection of a new president. The message included a link to a survey hosted by Canadian executive search firm Laverne Smith & Associates Inc., from which names could be submitted for presidential nomination as well as general comments. The deadline to submit online recommendations was Sept. 16.

The position of

president has been vacant since last December when Judith Woodsworth was ousted by the BoG halfway through her term. Former rector Frederick Lowy then became interim president in February 2011. He will remain in office until August 2012, unless a new president is appointed before then.

Lowy praised the survey in a mass email welcoming the campus community back for the fall 2011 semester, describing the process as “part of our commitment to ensure that the search for our next president will be as transparent and inclusive as possible.”

Jacques Gallant

Is cheap tuition possible?

The advisory search committee consists of these

14 members

Peter Kruyt Annie Tobias Jonathan Wener Bram Freedman Lucie Lequin Norman Ingram Nabil Esmail Masha Salazkina Raafat Saade David Douglas Robert Sonin Lex Gill Joanne Beaudoin Suzanne Downs

campus

ASFA nomination period

extended until Thursday Jacques Gallant Editor-in-chief In a letter recently sent to its council, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations executive extended the application deadline for positions up for grabs in the October byelection.

“We didn’t feel there was enough time to properly train a CEO [chief electoral officer], but also not enough time to spread the word about applying for positions in general,” said ASFA president Alex Gordon.

Council had originally stipulated at its Sept. 15 meeting that the nomination period would run from Sept. 19 to 23, with the polling period taking place between Oct. 5 and 6. The nomination period has now been extended until Sept. 29, while the byelection is scheduled to happen on Oct. 12 and 13.

The three positions that need

“

President Alex Gordon doesn’t think resignations ‘are a trend’

applications in last spring’s general to be filled are VP external and election. sustainability, VP communications, “We’ve learned how to manage and independent councillor. The the website and things like that, so first position only recently became there’s definitely more upkeep on vacant following the departure of Asma Omar. Her letter of resignation that front,” he said.

Before was read by actually proGordon at the We didn’t feel there ceeding with Sept. 15 council was enough time a byelection, meeting.

ASFA needs a “Her to properly train a chief elecreasons didn’t CEO, but also not toral officer. really go inenough time to The position depth; just that became vacant her personal spread the word following last life has to take about applying for year’s general precedence and she didn’t feel positions in general. election when Nick Cuillerier she had the Alex Gordon, ASFA president declined to time necessary return for a to devote to second year, citing a busy academic ASFA,” said Gordon. schedule. Cuillerier, widely praised Gordon explained that no other for his role as CEO last spring, has executive has really stepped in to fill Omar’s role, saying that there is very since become chair of the Concordia Student Union council. little going on at the moment on the ASFA will continue to accept apexternal or sustainability front. He plications until Tuesday, Sept. 27 for did mention however that all memthe position of CEO, as well as for bers of his team have done their the position of CEO for its mempart to fill in for the VP communicaber association elections. Gordon tions, a position that received no

“

3

said some students have expressed interest in the position, while other students have picked up application forms for the three open positions in the October byelection. Gordon said on Sept. 26 that no applications had yet to be returned to the ASFA office.

Resignations of student representatives at the beginning of the school year have proven to be a common occurrence; the Concordia Student Union already lost four councillors before its September meeting. But Gordon said he doesn’t believe resignations at ASFA represent ‘a trend.’

“I think it’s relatively clear to people what they’re getting into when they apply, but we’re going to reiterate it,” he said.

Also on the byelection ballot are two referendum questions: one changes the VP communications title to communications and promotions, and the second adding sponsorship and fundraising initiatives to the VP external portfolio.

Interested applicants can email internal@asfa.ca or pick up an application form at ASFA’s office, 2070 Mackay St., 4th floor.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale said on the campaign trail last week that she not only supports the province’s continued freeze on tuition, but also the gradual phasing out of student loans.

As reported by The Muse, Dunderdale, who is looking to win the Progressive Conservatives their third term as the governing party, said she would eventually like to see loans replaced with needs-based grants. NDP leader Lorraine Michael promised to offer non-repayable grants to students upon taking office. The PC’s plan would have them spending $52 million to maintain the current tuition freeze and replacing the student loan program after a four-year transition period.

Mommy wants money

Ken Anderson, a British Columbia man who was abandoned as a teenager, is now being sued by his elderly mother Shirley for parental support. CBC reported that Shirley is asking Ken as well as his two siblings for $750 per month from each of them, despite the fact that she hasn’t spoken to her children in decades. According to a rarely used section in the province’s Family Relations Act, adults can be held responsible for legally supporting their parents. The mother claims that Ken was 18 when the family moved away and he was not interested in accompanying them.

Her son’s lawyer tried to have the case thrown out last week because the mother hadn’t produced the proper financial documents, but the B.C. Supreme Court judge reserved his decision.

Even Kate couldn’t bring in the tourists

According to recently released numbers, July was a pretty bleak month for tourism on Prince Edward Island, despite the government’s assurances that the July 4 visit by Prince William and his wife Catherine would drive up visitors’ interest in the island. According to a CBC report, the visit did not succeed in causing the same tourism boost that Regis and Kelly did when they broadcast their daily morning talk show live from the island in the summer of 2010.

In July of this year, overnight stays were down 9.3 per cent and inquiries to the government’s tourism website were down 25.2 per cent. When Regis and Kelly announced they were headed to the island, P.E.I. was pushed to the top of Google search rankings and the tourism website ended up crashing. Sorry Kate, next time leave it to the pros, i.e.

Kelly Ripa and Anne of Green Gables.

Jack in bronze

A Canadian artist whose sculptures are featured in front of the National Library in Ottawa and in New York’s Madison Square Garden intends to produce three bronze sculptures of late NDP leader Jack Layton. CBC reported last week that Lea Vivot has not been commissioned to do the sculptures and is not looking to get paid. The artist explained she is looking to honour Layton, who inspired her during his struggle with cancer. One sculpture will feature Layton on his bike, the second with his cane walking up a set of stairs and the third with him sitting on a bench.

4

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

World through student debt in brief Wading Experts suggest education

Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo

E=MC2 put to the test

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) put Einstein’s special theory of relativity to the test last week as they recorded neutrinos travelling at a speed faster than light. According to The Globe and Mail, researchers at CERN fired neutrinos travelling 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 730 kilometres away in Italy.

CERN has asked other labs to independently verify the experiment, and scientists at Chicago’s Fermi lab have promised to do so. CERN theoretical physicist John Ellis, who was not involved in the project, said that these results, if verified, would turn modern physics on its head.

The physicist pointed out that CERN would first have to explain why similar effects were not recorded during the explosion of a star (supernova) which was witnessed in 1987.

Something else to keep me up at night

A coroner has ruled that an Irish senior citizen died of spontaneous combustion in his own home. The Irish Independent reported that Michael Faherty, 76, was found totally burned near an open fire in his living room in Galway, Ireland. There was no other damage to the house, according to the investigation. Spontaneous combustion is caused by an internal chemical reaction that does not necessarily need to stem from a heat source outside of the body. Dr Kieran McLoughlin said it was the first time in his 25 years of working as a coroner that he has judged spontaneous combustion to be the cause of death.

Someone just give the guy a roll of quarters

A Florida man was arrested last week after breaking into a vacant home to do laundry. The Naples News Daily reported that Robert James Luther III used electricity and around 30 gallons of water while washing his clothes. The owner of the property, who was sitting in the truck near the home at the time of the incident, said Luther may have been friends of the previous residents, but did not have permission to use the washer and dryer. The investigation revealed that Luther, 23, is possibly homeless and currently unemployed.

Would-be European gigolos scammed

Job advertisements placed in national Spanish newspapers lured in over 300 men with promises of employment as high-class gigolos, Agence FrancePresse reported. These would-be Deuce Bigalows payed 124,000 euros (US$170,000) in advance registrations fees. Two women suspected of running the scam have been detained by police. One of them has been arrested twice before on similar charges.

Spain’s unemployment rate stands at around 21 per cent, the highest level for industrialized nations.diamondencrusted Soda Stream, an at-home soda maker. Authorities are investigating the circumstances of Foster’s death, and have not ruled out suicide.

steps students can take now to avoid a decadeslong repayment process Mike Lakusiak The Cord (Wilfrid Laurier University)

WATERLOO (CUP) — Anything written on financial planning and debt among university students is likely to be riddled with sound bites that seem to be common sense, as though students intelligent enough to enter a post-secondary institution should be able to budget and manage their money wisely and need only intermittent reminders.

Alas, as studies conducted by various prominent Canadian institutions point out, an assortment of factors conspire to complicate how students pay for their education and stay on track throughout their first four (or five, or six) years of university. And now, with the average debt accrued upon graduation rising to nearly $20,000 among Canadian students according to the latest figures by Statistics Canada, more than ever it is important for students to seriously examine their finances.

That’s not to say that all students share a perspective on this—many are lucky enough to have had their parents save money for their education or help them along the way with some or all of the cost burden. In fact, a full 56 per cent of students in Canada polled by a BMO Financial Group survey this summer said they relied on parental contributions to largely fund their education.

Regardless, awareness of the true financial toll of university education is lacking, according to some.

“Financial literacy is always a problem with first year students,” said Sean Madden, the vice-president of university affairs for the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union (WLUSU) and president of the Ontario Undergraduate Students’ Association (OUSA). “I know I experienced that.”

Students progressing through their university careers need to maintain a level of awareness of all facets of their financial situation. Those responsible for funding their own education and unable to fall back on parental support face the most pressure.

“Students don’t tend to have an idea of what they’re facing,” said Perry Quinton, vice-president of marketing at Investor Education Fund. “Tuition is the tip of the iceberg, there are a lot of other costs involved.”

On average, a year of undergraduate education in Ontario carries a $6,500 price tag for tuition alone, according to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Consider all the other costs students encounter, including rising ancillary fees, rent, food, phone and entertainment and it’s not difficult to see how some manage to incur up to $50,000 in debt of one kind or another over the course of a bachelor’s degree if they are dependent entirely upon student loans. According to Desjardins Funds, the average cost of an education when living alone is

$11,923 if you’re in Quebec, the province with the lowest average full-time undergraduate tuition fees.

Working during university is one option, but in many of cases it can become a balancing act between schoolwork and part-time jobs for students who take this route. In Ontario, the student loan service, the Ontario Student Assistance Program, will “claw back” any earnings students make while they are in school beyond roughly 10 hours a week at minimum wage by decreasing the available loan.

“When you have a part-time job and you’re on OSAP, the job is a complement—it can’t supplement you financially,” said WLUSU president Nick Gibson.

Based on a $24,000 average debt load upon graduation, Quinton said that the stakes are higher than some students realize.

“It’s either people with zero debt who have been able to save or had their parents fund their education or the other extreme is $48,000,” she said. “When you graduate with that kind of debt you’re looking at decades before you’ll be able to pay that off.”

Costs of education in this province have not risen proportionately with income levels, according to the same CCPA study. While from 1990 to 2011 the average after-tax income for middle-class families in Ontario has risen only 12.5 per cent to $54,000, in the same time undergraduate tuition levels jumped from $2,500 annually to $6,500—an increase of 260 per cent.

The result is that while in the past a student may have been able to feasibly pay for their education through a combination of reasonable parental contributions and savings or work, disproportionate cost increases make it more likely that students will struggle financially or accumulate greater debt.

According to a Canadian Council on Learning study, one in four bachelor’s graduates with large loans had a repayment rate at or above 15 per cent of their gross income—high above the 10–12 per cent margin they cited that causes hardship.

For some, debt is unavoidable in light of the realities of paying for education. However, mitigating the amount of debt incurred and having plans to repay the accumulated total upon graduating are the two things students need to keep in mind.

Budgeting is key, according to Brian Smith, a finance professor in the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University.

“Obviously it’s pretty common sense, but students need to budget ahead of time,” he said. “They should also be aware of contingency planning, thinking a little bit about planning for additional spending.”

Madden agreed. “Budgeting is probably the most important exercise we can stress for first-year students,” he said.

“It’s important to have that plan on paper so you know what’s coming,” Quinton said. “Anything you can pay for now and not go into debt for, you will thank yourself 20 years down the road,” she said, imploring students to keep tabs on spending in relation to their budget and adjust accordingly.

The number of students who have actually sat down and budgeted

the average cost of a degree when living alone is

out their semester or year, however, is questionable, especially when they seem assured of the reality of their financial situation. Only 20 per cent of students polled by RBC said that they plan and adhere to a monthly budget.

As students enter first year, with their bank accounts plump from summer savings or freshly acquired student loans, it is all too easy to have an overly optimistic view of the situation.

“In my mind, I was in pretty good financial shape, but after first year it kind of went downhill,” Gibson recalled. “Whether you’re in a good spot or not, you need to realize in a couple of months that could change.”

“There can be a big learning curve, even in the first few months of school that can have a dramatic impact on finances for years to come,” Quinton added.

Many students seem to have come to terms with the realities of debt, as indicated by this year’s RBC Student Spending and Savings Poll. A third of first year students that were approached said that they expect to have significant debt when they graduate.

How readily those graduates will be able to recover from that debt is questionable in some cases, Smith explained.

“The second part of the challenge to affordability is the capacity of students to repay any debt and that’s dependent on the job opportunities,” he said. “Students have to recognize that if they’re going to get a degree with a lower employment rate postgraduation, that’s going to challenge them financially.”

This fact should impact how students monitor and allocate spending during that degree, he added.

“Sadly, students have to […] have a lifestyle that’s consistent with the kind of income they can expect when they graduate.” Asked if this wouldn’t just be common sense among students, he replied, “If you have a strong sense of entitlement, you kind of throw common sense out the window.”

Madden said the perception among students is often that they’re more than likely to find a well-paying job upon graduation from certain programs, and therefore they worry less about the prospects of repaying loans.

“I think they did a survey of BBA students that said, ‘we’re willing to pay more because we’re going to be making $100k when we get out of here’—it’s not necessarily the case,

$11,923 in Quebec.

but a culture has grown around these programs.”

If there’s any lesson to be learned from this, it’s that that loan cheque should not be cashed lightly, especially if you have no plans for applying that degree to a real job after university.

“Something like OSAP has its advantages, but at the same time it’s still debt and you still need to pay it someday,” Quinton said. “While I wouldn’t advocate going cold turkey and not having any fun while you’re at school, there has to be moderation.

“I remember what it’s like—it’s not hard to rack up a $500 bar bill on a weekly basis,” Quinton continued.

“There’s a lot of challenges when you’re first getting into it.”

A convenient option presented to students for such bar bills and less exciting things like haircuts are the credit cards that are thrown like candy at students in hopes that they’ll keep the same cards in their wallet once they enter the working world.

What students need to remember—and what almost every person interviewed for this article mentioned—is that credit cards can be very unforgiving, if not used carefully.

“Students these days have a much easier time getting credit cards than their parents did,” Smith said. “That gives them an ability to borrow money that wasn’t there before and that’s where they get into trouble.”

Quinton noted that the banks and credit card companies target students—she noticed them in droves at the Ontario Universities’ Fair last fall. “It’s a pretty easy decision to use a credit card and what constitutes an emergency is a bit of a gray area,” she said. “What starts out as an emergency plan can quickly turn into debt spiraling out of control.”

Beyond budgeting, finding savings, generally being responsible with your money during university and not blindly relying on loans or other forms of debt by submitting to deal with the repercussions “one day,” there’s not a whole lot else students can do to prepare and cope with the costs of post-secondary education today.

Awareness is the one thing that Quinton said students need to have most, since being responsible for one’s finances for the first time often lends itself more to blind ignorance than active planning. “I think it’s so important to get ahead of the game,” she said.

“Because I meet so many people that wish they knew then what they know now.”

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Continued from cover

Judicial board currently ‘non-functional,’ says chair asked that council’s policy reform committee review the JB’s code of procedures and make recommendations on what items to modify.

Council cannot impose decisions on the JB, but Smith said the board would welcome any suggestions the members of the policy reform committee might have. She is especially looking to include in the rules that a lawyer be hired to train JB members and that members consider past JB decisions when trying to reach a verdict.

“Past decisions are currently not filed anywhere right now,

they’re basically just kept on the chair’s computer. I feel like this is really an issue of accountability.

Students at large need to have access to these documents,” Smith told council. She added she was open to suggestions on a better filing system.

The motion for the policy reform committee to delve into the JB’s code of procedures before the October council meeting was made by the student union’s VP advocacy Morgan Pudwell and passed council without any questions or remarks made about a possible

lack of confidence in the JB. Having just recently become chair, Smith’s main priority at the moment is to get enough members appointed to the board to reach quorum. There are currently two members on JB, including Smith.

Two other members have since graduated, while one resigned in protest when council overturned the JB decision in May. “I really encourage council to take immediate action and appoint as many qualified people to the judicial board as possible. We’re basically non-functional right

now,” Smith told councillors last week.

Ultimately, Smith would like to see a more active judicial board take shape, one that serves as an advisor to the council. In order to accomplish this, Smith said she will ensure that JB members attend council meetings.

“I think having council there as part of the system works, but whether it acted appropriately last year is another question,” she said. “But the JB is also part of the system. If JB loses legitimacy, the CSU loses legitimacy.”

Continued from cover

If the proposal is rejected, it’s back to the drawing board for the CSU The recommendations will be presented in the form of one omnibus motion with five resolutions. “The main recommendation is going to be about the approval or rejection of the project,” he said. Nieto and CSU president Lex Gill will also propose four secondary resolutions for issues such as the way the union will consult students about student space this year, and the way in which the university works with the student union.

Nieto will recommend that a union representative be kept in the loop while the university is drafting things like financial reports to expedite the process when they are presented with reports for review.

Gill and Nieto’s report will be preceded by a 15-minute presentation on the subject of the student centre made by two facilities management representatives, as well as Dean of Students Andrew Woodall and, potentially, Concordia VP services Roger Côté. The presentation will be followed by a 15 to 20 minute question period.

Gill and Nieto will then delve into the student centre portfolio, the sequence of events leading up

When CUSAcorp emerges at the other end of the restructuring process outlined in the bylaw reform package up for adoption at next month’s council meeting, it will be a brand new corporation.

The for-profit arm of the Concordia Student Union is already undergoing changes meant to improve profitability, and increase transparency and accountability, according to a report presented at the Sept. 21 CSU council meeting.

Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo

CSU auditors concerned about improper remittance of taxes

The CSU might be on the hook for approximately $116,300 for improper remittance of taxes for non-Canadian artists, according to VP finance Jordan Lindsay. In his executive report, Lindsay explained that the student union is in the process of undergoing their yearly audit. Auditors are concerned that errors may have been made when paying taxes for non-Canadian artists and speakers in the past. The auditors are looking at the last three fiscal years to see if that is the case, according to Lindsay. The student union will know by November if they will be asked to pay the amount.

Two more councillors resign

Speaker series to kick off on Friday

Nieto and Gill have been meeting with university representatives over the summer. Photo by Navneet Pall to the meeting and overview of the entire plan, before presenting their recommendations.

The union and the university

have had meetings approximately every two weeks throughout the summer for talks with regards to the proposal.

The special council meeting will be held Tuesday, Sept. 27 in H-760 at 6 p.m. Students are welcome to attend.

Major changes coming up for CUSAcorp Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo News editor

CSU in brief

Two more CSU councillors have resigned, bringing the total number of councillors to quit before the first council meeting to four. Erick Ung and Stephanie Laurin ran as Your Concordia and Action candidates respectively. Ung, who was an independent student at the time and is also a full-time graphic designer, chose not to return to university this fall.

Laurin is a student at the John Molson School of Business. In his report to council, chair Nick Cuillerier said Laurin submitted her resignation to concentrate on other responsibilities.

csu

Reform aims to make corporation financially accountable

5

Student union VP finance Jordan Lindsay presented the report and will act as VP finance of CUSACorp’s board of directors under the new bylaws.

CUSACorp has already been given the mandate of supporting “innovative student initiatives and [providing] affordable accessible services and goods to students,” the report stated. The corporation generates revenue through its ownership of Reggie’s and by leasing the space next to the bar to Java U. Under the new reform, the board is made up of five internal and two external positions. The structure of its board of directors will also be re-shuffled, with the position of president removed in favour of that of a chairperson.

The change comes in an effort to limit the board’s power to interfere in the day-to-day operations of the corporation, Lindsay clarified in an interview.

In previous versions of the bylaws, the president had what amounted to absolute authority over the corporation, he said. “[The bylaws stated that] the president is the decision maker in the organization and can assert his authority over all areas of the business, or something to that effect. It can be misconstrued,” Lindsay explained. “It is [the board’s belief] that a director, someone who should be devising the strategy of an organization, should not be meddling in its day to day operations.”

He added that this time

around, the board is looking for a non-student to fill the position of business manager. “[Last year’s bar manager] Marlow Wilson did his job very well but the problem was that the position as it was stated before was a part-time position and was not very well paid,” Lindsay said. “When you are running a bar like this you need to be sometimes there at the oddest hours if problems arise.”

While they have so far interviewed six people, the position remains unfilled. The board is wary of moving too fast in the hiring process, Lindsay said.

Other measures up for approval include hiring an inventory manager and implementing a liquor control system at a cost of $34,000.

The student union’s first speaker series will kick off on Friday, Sept. 30 with guests activist Jaggi Singh and political economist Kari Levitt Polanyi. The event is hosted by QPIRG Concordia in collaboration with the union. VP external Chad Walcott wrote in an email that the CSU is also looking to invite independent journalist Gwynne Dyer and social justice advocate Michelle Dagnino this year, but the confirmation for the speakers was taking longer than previously expected. Walcott added that his concentration on preparing the campaign against tuition increases meant he could not put as much time into preparing the speaker series over the summer. The next event, entitled “Activism and Research in Turbulent Times,” will take place on Oct. 7.

CJLO fee levy question approved

CJLO’s ballot question for a fee levy increase was swiftly approved by council on Wednesday. Students rejected a nine cent fee levy increase for CJLO during last March’s elections, which the station attributes to the fact that their election statement did not appear with the election ballot, despite it having been requested by the chief electoral officer at the time. The wording of the ballot question remains the same as last year and has been approved to be put forward to a referendum in November.

The fee levy would give CJLO a total of 34 cents per credit, as opposed to the current 25 cents. Their fee levy has not changed since 2004.

life 6

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com health

Treat your brain as you would a bicep Keep your memory intact on your body’s most important muscle Marissa Miller Staff writer We need our noggins to eat, sleep, operate our kidneys, tie our shoes and, yes, even breathe so let’s be kind to them and stop bullying our brains with pollutants and poor lifestyle choices.

Memory loss conjures images of looming emptiness, of old, incapacitated individuals in rocking chairs unable to think for themselves.

In reality, it is a painful cognitive disorder that is too often overlooked and under-prevented.

Memory loss does not begin during old age; it begins at birth, when our mental capacities gradually decrease as time moves.

Forgetting how to remember, and only remembering how to forget, can be frustrating.

It results in being unable to find our keys, failing to save an 8,000 word term paper and going through the embarrassment of having the name of someone we just met at the tip of our tongue.

These issues are all symptomatic of a larger problem that goes way beyond the bong.

“It’s tough to maintain conversations because I’ll forget the focus of what I’m talking about,” says Nicholas Czuzoj Shulman, a McGill economics student. “I’ll spend the next while trying to remember, with no luck.”

Nicholas blames his memory lapses on a short attention span, elucidated by the fact that during this very interview, he was watching How I Met Your Mother on television, eating an A&W Teen Burger with onion rings and chatting online, all at once.

Upon first impression, multitasking is the most efficient way to cover a huge ground in a heroic fashion. Unfortunately, performing several tasks at once decreases the quality of your work and even makes you forget what you have just completed.

“Speed is the modern, natural high,” says psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, MD, director of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Your cerebral cortex is designed to focus on one task, so switching gears every few seconds leaves gaps in your brain where memory should have been, he explains.

“I constantly have so many things going on at once that I forget everyday things,” says Nicholas, “like where I put my car keys or what had just transpired on a TV show that ended five minutes earlier, or even the hockey scores.”

Sure, blanking out from time to time is totally normal and a sign of the inevitable human degeneration process. But why let something as valuable as your memory slip away when you could be taking preventative measures now?

Here are a few ways to keep each gear working in the bicycle of your mind.

Kick it up a notch I can’t even count how many times I’ve drilled the fact that exercise is a crucial component of human survival and maintenance, but here is major evidence to support this claim. According to a study published in the September 2011 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings Medical Journal by Dr. Eric Ahlskog, “Aerobic physical activity that

raises the heart rate and increases the body’s need for oxygen reduces the risk for dementia and slow cognitive decline.” In layman’s terms, take a scenic hike up Mount Royal to boost blood flow to your brain. Activating otherwise dormant areas of the brain during early adulthood will reduce brain shrinkage associated with aging.

Butt out Cigarettes are not only the least appealing of the eau de parfum, but they are also your worst memory aid. Smoking constricts the blood vessels in your brain, making it more difficult to store information. “Smoking is especially common among people who are depressed, and depression weakens the memory,” noted the editors of Harvard Health Publications who consulted with Kirk R. Daffner, M.D. Forget your morning Marlboros, and enjoy your latte on its own. Dr. Miia Kivipelto, an associate professor of neurology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, lead a study which demonstrated that subjects who drank three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 per cent less likely to have developed dementia, an acute form of memory loss, compared with those who drank two cups or less.

Write in your diary There are a couple reasons why you should start a daily writing ritual. Firstly, it is important to track the foods you eat, because it is likely that your current diet is impairing your brain. A 25- year long Harvard Medical School study surveyed the diets of 13,000 women and found that those who ate the highest amount of vegetables demonstrated the least amount of cognitive decline. If you can’t bear the thought of eating broccoli to save your brain, write everything down. From homework, to meetings, to when you had your last period, the simple act of writing something down helps you visualize the information, thus engraving it deeper into your memory. Be sure to keep a lock and key on your diary in case the stuff you write is, in colloquial terms, “weird.”

Play games Your brain is a muscle, and just like your butt, it needs a little ass-kicking from time to time. After you’re done reading the Life section, skip to the back of the paper where you’ll find a sudoku.

Word and number games that force you to problem solve keep your mind sharp and alert. Don’t give up your love of guitar playing, beating your friends at chess and writing poetry as you hit old age. A study published by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York discovered that mentally-engaged seniors were 75 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, a severe form of memory loss, compared to those who skipped the smart stuff.

Your brain should be considered your most prized muscle, and a strong one is even more impressive than a buff bicep. “I guess I spend more time at the gym than studying most weeks,” Nicholas admitted.

Now hide this paper under your desk, it’s time for a pop quiz: Name four ways you can prevent memory loss.

Quick notes for a quick mind

Graphic by Katie Brioux

Eat fish once a week for a brain that functions as someone three years younger.

When someone tells you their name, repeat it out loud in conversation.

When you put something down, think of something insane or crazy that you will instantly associate it with next time you have to find it.

Pot is as old-fashioned as Woodstock. Cut the weekend wake n’ bake habit to improve memory, perception and co-ordination.

Get a good night’s sleep for the necessary brain power to retain everything your professors say during (really interesting) lectures.

food

Wine and dine Simple wine tips to spice up your meal Alyssa De Rosa Contributor Tania Schiliro is an ordinary student at Concordia University. Like most 21-year-olds, Tania Schiliro enjoys a glass of wine every once in a while to decompress or to accompany a girl’s night out. But while many of her peers share her love for wine, this Concordia student’s extensive knowledge of the drink sets her apart from everyone else.

Schiliro has been working at SAQ for two years and, as she pours herself a glass of Beringer rosé wine, she explains there is a lot to consider when shopping for the right wine.

“I always ask the customer what they are going to eat,” she says. “Customers that come in looking for a wine to eat with are usually looking for something red because it’s stronger and is generally the type of wine you have with a meal.”

Though people look for that strong flavour, it is important to know when to drink red and when to choose white. Schiliro suggests pairing red wine with red meat, like a meal on the grill or pasta with meat sauce.

According to Schiliro, red wine will taste better if you make it “breathe” before drinking it. “When wine comes into contact with oxygen, that’s when you really experience the flavour,” she explains. She recommends uncorking the wine and letting it breathe before pouring.

Meals for white wine usually include white meat (chicken, turkey, fish), sushi, Asian food, and seafood. If you’re a sushi fiend, grab the Oyster Bay bottle or New Harbor, which are two of the best in their categories.

If you know nothing about wine but are itching for something targeting specific preferences, SAQ’s colour flavour palette is here to help. Each wine is assigned a colour sticker with words like fruity, sweet, acidic, dry and so on, to describe the contents of the bottle.

Unfortunately, you may encounter that bad bottle, where taking a sip from your glass is like drinking red vinegar. To avoid this, smell the wine. If its scent reminds you of the cork used to plug the bottle, it’s time to get rid of it.

Before buying, always know what you’re cooking and keep in mind which spices you will be using because choosing the appropriate wine is all about the flavour it accompanies.

Continued on p. 7

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

7

fashion

Guys, time to embrace bold colours

How to look sleek, unique and gentlemanly Adey Farah Contributor

There was once a time when men and women alike prided themselves on their attire. Today, one sees the masses schlepping themselves around in non-ironed clothing and mismatched socks. Men have surely been at the helm of this more than women, perhaps due to the fact that there are infinitely more retailers geared towards females than males. One young Montreal blogger thinks this could change.

Meet Spencer Edwards, Montreal-based creator of the Proprpostur blog, “[who] encourages its fellow gentlemen to experiment with different aspect of style.”

Spencer is continually mastering different ways of style and not fashion, making this distinction by steering clear of trends but rather timeless style that can be constantly

evolved. Rather than continue on in your sweatsuit this fall, here Spencer doles out advice on how to look like a new era version of yourself.

Firstly, there are five essentials you need to start with to create a substantial wardrobe. You will need “a great pair of well slim fitting jeans, a classic oxford button up, leather belt, leather wing tipped shoes or loafers, and clean socks.” Using this as a basis, Spencer finds that accessories and prints can liven up the basic wardrobe and take it to another level. He suggests paisley print ties and matching pocket squares, duly noting that “not enough men pay much attention to fine details in an outfit [anymore].” Top picks for fall are wool or tweed trousers and blazers, continuing on with the poppy colours of summer 2011, especially colour of the season, orange, which can be worn by women and men just the same.

While most men might shy away from anything beyond neutral territory, he advises that men should “use colour in small doses/details, such as pocket squares,

laces, stitching, buttons, etc.” and from there incorporate it on a grander scale. The

selection of prints is vast, ranging from Navaho for a more Western look to tribal for bohemians and florals and plaids for anyone else. Try and experiment with the

entire range.

Execution is key with style, regardless of the brands or price point. Spencer argues the cost of producing garments and the price they are later sold to the consumer is important to think about. This is something most of us might forget, but as a fashion marketing student, Spencer knows all too well, therefore it is important to remember “to spend carefully...unless if it’s shoes, but then again the quality and fit should be perfect.”

He insists that shoes really do make or break an outfit and that a well tailored suit would be ruined with “a busted pair of shoes.” Look at getting dressed up as parts of a whole, with each part playing an important role for the entirety. In the end, “following trends doesn’t make you well dressed or stylish, do what you feel. Don’t force it, if you do it’ll be a complete utter disaster.”

For more fashion, check out Spencer’s blog at www.proprpostur.com.

Spencer Edwards encourages a tasteful mix of pastel colours and patterns to create the perfect look, and says shoes can make or break an outfit.

Continued from p. 6

Explore an MS in

HUMAN GENETICS

I The best wines under $15

Reds

Laderas De El Seque Poggio del Cardinale

Rosés White Zinfandel Ernest&Julio Gallo White Zinfandel Beringer

Whites Rapitala Sicilia Chardonnay Domaine Le Cep D’Argent Pinot grigio Beringer

Try a glass of red, white or rosé to compliment your meal. Photo by Tiffany Blaise

n 1969, Sarah Lawrence College established the first U.S. Master’s program in Human Genetics. Today, we’re the largest and most influential—having trained almost half the world’s genetic counselors. Come join us for a great education and a fulfilling career in an expanding array of fields!

s 7ORLD CLASS FACULTY s 3MALL CLASSES FOCUSED ON STUDENT FACULTY INTERACTION s /UTSTANDING lELDWORK OPPORTUNITIES IN .EW 9ORK #ITY and surrounding areas s "EAUTIFUL CAMPUS SETTING ONLY MINUTES FROM midtown Manhattan s &INANCIAL AID AVAILABLE OPE N HOUSE

Thursday, November 10, 5:30 – 7:30pm

To learn more, please visit www.slc.edu/human-genetics, call (914) 395-2371, or email us at grad@sarahlawrence.edu

8

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 bar

Baldwin Barmacie: just the right kind of medicine This hipster/pharmacy holds the cure to your boredom Mark Della Posta Contributor It was an ordinary weeknight and I was looking to go somewhere extraordinary.

I was tired of seeing the same kinds of people, in their same old checkered shirts and brand name clothes. I wanted to avoid the usual mind numbing mainstream garbage that almost every bar in the city seems to play nowadays. I wanted to find a place where people of different styles and tastes are celebrated rather than looked down upon.

I turned off my record player and texted a few friends, at the same time wishing they still sold rotary phones. I hopped on my vintage one speed, took to the streets and went on the hunt.

After riding by a few too many hot spots that used to be cool, we came across the place. It was surely one of the most unique spots in the city. You’ve probably never heard of it.

Inspired by pharmacies, Baldwin Barmacie serves many of its drinks and signature cocktails in long metal cups and medicine-like brown bottles.

The soft candlelight gives the split-level bar a comfortable vibe. The white table tops

and bar counter on the first level give it a clean and simplistic look, all the while establishing a modern edge. The second level, meanwhile, provides plenty of seating along a white brick wall in a surprisingly spacious narrow looking room. The sultry decor is complimented well by the mix of electro and indie rock that plays from opening to closing.

What really stands out however, is the crowd.

Everyone seems to give off a really “authentic” vibe. The early to mid-20somethings who packed the bar didn’t shy away from wearing their thick, black square frame glasses of various sizes.

The ladies who were present that night did a good job of hiding their affluent backgrounds with a variety of raggedy dresses that seemed to fit just perfectly imperfectly. The men in the room, meanwhile, all seemed to study poetry or existential philosophy, evident by their one-size-too-small European-cut blazers and sterilizingly tight ankle-length jeans.

Likely due to the sophisticated pallets of its patrons, Baldwin Barmacie offers up a number of delicious house specialties. Wine and porto are used in many of the bar’s specialty drinks, such as the Pharmacien, which is so good that it might help you come to grips with the fact that Arcade Fire is slowly but surely selling out. Their mojito is one of the best in the city and the bottle service is relatively cheap.

If you start getting hungry, and aren’t

Who needs anti-depressants with Baldwin Barmacie? Photo by Navneet Pall afraid to stain your certified child labour-free clothing, Baldwin Barmacie makes, quite possibly, the best grilled cheese sandwich in Montreal. Who would have thought to use moutarde à l’ancienne?

For those of you who don’t care about the environment, or the respiratory well-being of those around you, there is plenty of parking within blocks of the bar.

There also happens to be a lovely New York alley-style terrace at the back for smok-

ers, as well as oil burning heat lamps at the front for those cold winter nights.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. I went back a few weeks later, on a Friday, and the place was packed. What’s worse, I think I saw a guy in a baseball cap.

At least I can tell myself that I went to Baldwin Barmacie before it got cool.

Baldwin Barmacie is located at 115 Laurier Ave. W. It’s open seven nights a week.

Did you know… …that you can apply NOW for the 2011-2012

Undergraduate In-Course Bursary Program!

The online In-Course Bursary application is now available on the MyConcordia Portal.

The Concordia University Foundation, along with various corporations, private individuals, and alumni, contribute funding to the In-Course Bursary program, which is restricted to Undergraduate students in Bachelor’s programs in their second year of studies or higher. All candidates must be in acceptable academic standing with a Last Annual GPA of at least 2.00.

For further information, consult the online In-Course Bursary application which is available through the MyConcordia Portal, or visit the Financial Aid and Awards Office website at http://financialaid.concordia.ca To apply for the Undergraduate In-Course Bursary Program, log on to your MyConcordia Portal account, then follow the Financial > Financial Aid links to the web applications section.

Students already receiving an Entrance Scholarship, Entrance Bursary, In-Course Scholarship, or In-Course Bursary at Concordia University for the 2011-2012 school year are not eligible to apply for the In-Course Bursary program.

Applications will be considered in late November 2011 and candidates will be notified in December by letter.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Sunday October 16 2011 at midnight Apply today! Don’t delay!

arts

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

9

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com

cinema politica

All brick and no mortar Documentary tries to find Marx in today’s world, but lacks focus Brandon Judd Contributor As the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis continues to shape the world, the theories of Karl Marx have seen a resurgence.

They offer both a critique and an alternative to the recklessness blamed for causing the credit crunch. In Marx Reloaded, showing this week at Cinema Politica, director and theorist Jason Barker attempts to re-stage Marx in this context.

Barker has compiled an impressive list of interviewees from both sides of the political spectrum, including heavily-published Smithian Eamonn Butler and radical-left titan Slavoj Žižek. As such, it’s unsurprising the film is full of interesting sound bytes and arguments about the place of Marx in today’s world.

Foremost among these is the idea that we need to radically expand how we view the working class to compensate for changes in our society. No longer is the exploited worker confined to factories or construction sites. Today, the exploited worker can be a movie cameraman, a jewelry store clerk or an accountant.

Unfortunately, this is the type of film in which the sum of its parts is greater than the whole, rather than the other way around. Barker seems content to avoid taking any sort of stand on the issue he’s covering, and while that’s respectable in many documentary contexts, it makes this film disjointed. As a result, Marx Reloaded feels more like a broad and oversimplified compilation piece.

Barker juxtaposes the views of thinkers

Intellectual heavyweights Slavoj Žižek and Eamonn Butler are interviewed about Marx in the documentary. on either side of the spectrum by placing their clips one after the other. But he does nothing to expand on their differences. For instance, in one scene, political philosopher John Gray states the modern media colonizes and mobilizes collective fantasies, turning them into a commodity. Surely Žižek or Butler would have something interesting to say about this, but instead we cut away to a vague voice-over followed by a new topic.

It seems as though Barker was unsure of which direction he would take as a director. The film feels more like a conference on Marxism and it suffers from this because we only get bits and pieces of what each thinker is saying.

Muddling things even further are the animated sequences that punctuate the film. In these, Karl Marx becomes a standin for Neo in The Matrix. These sections add nothing to the film, other than setting the stage for the film’s final question to its interview subjects of “Which pill will you take?” Surely there was a better way to set up that question than having Leon Trotsky, complete with famous armless glasses, asking a befuddled Marx whether he wanted to know the truth or work as a newspaper editor in Cologne.

Marx Reloaded does provide a wealth of insightful and thought-provoking statements because of its interviewees but the

unfocused approach did much damage to the film’s potential. The lack of coherence of the ideas it presents causes the viewer to leave without any sort of compounded impression of what Marxism means in the world today. Rather, we leave with a list of unanswered questions and no framework with which to approach them.

If Barker was trying to dispel confusion or misunderstanding about Marx, he certainly didn’t help the situation with this film.

Marx Reloaded opens at Cinema Politica on Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.. For more information, visit www.cinemapolitica.org/concordia.

THEATRE

Missed the U2 concert? Catch the play Amanda Dafniotis Contributor Whether it be the late Michael Jackson or pop princess Britney Spears, we all behave like total fans at some point in our lives.

Stéfan Cédilot’s band of choice is U2, and he’s probably a lot more hardcore than your average fan. So much so, that he’s dedicated an entire show to his favourite band, and is presenting it at MainLine Theatre.

“All I Want Is U2 is the story of Irish rock band U2, but with a twist,” said Cédilot. “It’s also my story as a U2 fan, so the history is not chronological.”

Viewers get a taste of all that is U2, and follow the evolution of their number one fan, Cédilot, who was 13 when he stum-

bled across the band’s music.

Even music enthusiasts whose iPods have none of U2’s albums will be able to relate to the show.

“I think the fact that the story is told from the point of view of the music fan makes it universal enough for anybody who likes rock and pop music to relate to it,” said Cédilot. “Anyone who’s ever had a favourite band can identify with it because we’re talking about the emotional reaction to the music, which is the same whether you like pop or heavy metal.”

So long as you don’t outright dislike Bono and the gang, this musical is bound to please. (But, I mean, how could you dislike Bono? Just try listening to him talk about humanitarian causes at least once in that sexy Irish accent of his...)

Putting aside my small schoolgirl crush, this emotional reaction to music that Cédilot mentions is universal. Whether it be a particular artist or the lyrics to a song, music speaks to people; some would say

it’s a religious belief.

The one-man show began as part of Cédilot’s theatre thesis at the École supérieure de théâtre de l’UQÀM. “I wanted to work on theatricality in the rock concert and on how a rock band’s concerts evolve conceptually from small clubs to arenas and stadium tours,” said the 37-year-old writer, performer and

“

“

One-man show by the Quebecer who loves U2 most hits MainLine

Anyone who’s ever had a favourite band can identify with [the show] because we’re talking about the emotional reaction to music Stéfan Cédilot, All I Want is U2 writer, producer and star

director. “The show that came out of my research, in 2009, was a real university production in that the content was very academic. I was basically going through the U2 story chronologically, concert by concert.”

Cédilot wasn’t quite ready to introduce Montrealers to the world of U2 through his performance piece; before the show, he also researched the emergence of the band and its effect on kids in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, as well as why 25 years later, fans like him still buy their albums and go to their concerts.

All I Want Is U2 is truly a multimedia show, mixing storytelling, archival footage, theatrical performances, and of course, replicating a little bit of U2’s magic.

All I Want Is U2 runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 at MainLine Theatre.

For more info and tickets check out www.mainlinetheatre.ca

10

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

pop mtl

theconcordian

Phil’s chicks: Just what the doctor ordered Installation featuring the ladies in Dr. Phil’s audiences hit POP Stephanie Mercier Voyer Contributor God knows just how much I love daytime television and how many countless hours I have spent watching the Dr. Phils and Oprahs of this world. They always managed to put a smile on my face during those lonely summer mornings when all I had was a bowl of AllBran cereal and my newly-acquired television.

How sad does that sound?

The Women of Dr. Phil, an installation by Clint Enns and Les Klassen which was presented at POP quarters last week, presented shots of Dr. Phil’s female audience. In order to convey the emotions the artists wanted you to feel, the video was accompanied by Les Mouches’ melancholic cover of The Carpenters’ “Close to You.” The setting for the installation was

spot on. The video was playing on a small television, the kind your grandma had in her kitchen in ‘96, which was located in a quiet closet-sized room on the second floor of the building. The first time you would watch this 1:30 minute video, you would feel the urge to laugh at those women and at how pathetic they look.

By the second time, the setting and the music start to have an effect on you. You are secluded and you feel excruciatingly lonely, as if you had woken up one day and realized you were married with two kids and your life revolved around Dr. Phil.

The idea behind the installation came from another video Enns and Klassen were working on together called Dr. Phil on Dr. Phil. “In that video, Dr. Phil interviews himself about sensational topics such as his prostitution habits and how he exploits his guests,” said Enns.

During the process of creating Dr. Phil on Dr. Phil, the two Manitobans noticed that all the audience shots the Dr. Phil producers would include in the show were of hypno-

For an extra level of cheesiness, music by the Carpenters was played. Photo by writer tized, judgmental women, hence installation’s title.

Watching Dr. Phil, I had never realized how sad daytime television enthusiasts, including me, actually are. The show sucks you in and makes you become one of those

women. The look on those lonely faces tells you that they relate to Dr. Phil’s guests and in addition, you relate to those women.

Even Klassen admits that Dr. Phil is like a drug. “I get pulled into the whole spectacle, complete with crying on cue.”

pop mtl

The wonderful war games of Marcel Short films screened at POP bring artist’s drawings to the screen Alix Wagner-Bernier Contributor Finding a seat in the small projection room crowded with admirers gathered to hear and see Marcel Dzama in person was no easy task.

Though stemming from humble beginnings in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it seems that Dzama now bears a name with the power to draw huge crowds on the art scene. He is a multi-talented artist with a vastly diverse

body of work, which ranges from drawing to dance, ceramics, all the way to film.

Nonetheless, there exists a great consistency in his oeuvre. For all their diversity, his individual artworks are in constant dialogue, informing and influencing one another to form a very thematically coherent body of work.

His short films A Game of Chess and Death Disco Dance, both screened in a loop at POP Montreal, are excellent examples of Dzama’s amazing variety of talents and how he can bring them all together.

The first short to be screened, Death Disco Dance, was shot as a celebratory video.

It depicts ballet dancers performing a short dance while the other characters look on.

This segment is looped, replayed backwards then normally again for a few minutes. It is comical, if not repetitive, and slightly annoying.

A Game of Chess is the main attraction though, as it creates a fascinating and imaginative portrait of war. It interweaves two stories connected by chess, a game that becomes an allegory of war. Scenes from a ballet of chess pieces, performed for an audience of puppets, are intercut by shots of a mysterious young military woman and of two men playing chess in what appears to be a bombed-out square.

The dancers are immediately recognizable as physical embodiments of Dzama’s drawings. He notably made some costumes

himself with ceramics. The theme of war as spectacle is also recurrent in his work and is exemplified in this film.

Reality and fantasy contrast, as the dramatization of war operated in the ballet is confronted with its cold, brutal mechanics. When death occurs in the ballet, it is agonizing and overplayed. When the woman shoots one of the chess players, he silently collapses onto the chessboard, his opponent unfazed.

The audience of puppets, however, only sees the ballet; war becomes entertainment, desensitized and removed. In A Game of Chess, Dzama propels a telling critique of mass entertainment with complex and masterful artistry – a feat to be recognized.

pop mtl

The skeletons in Nick Blinko’s closet POP Montreal exhibits outsider artist’s dark, deeply personal work Alix Wagner-Bernier Contributor Although Nick Blinko is perhaps best known as the enigmatic frontman of the British anarcho-punk/deathrock band Rudimentary Peni, the exhibition Skeleton Scratches allows one to see a different side of his artistry and perhaps a better look at his personality.

Displayed at POP quarters, Blinko’s collection of 25 intricate drawings are of nothing more than skeletons of all shapes and sizes with distorted proportions and twisted movements. Some are imprisoned in their frame, which is too small to contain their outreaching body while others find their heads have fallen to their feet, which they cradle lamely.

Painstakingly detailed, each skeleton seems to have its own personality, expressing complex and often contradictory emotions as playfulness is mixed with hor-

Blinko’s drawings evoke feelings of torment and despair that the artist experienced when he was off meds. Photos by writer ror and pain, with confusion and sadness thrown into the mix.

However, these drawings have a dimension behind them which is very revealing of their meaning. Blinko was previously hospitalized for schizoaffective disorder and his drawings were made within the institution during the time he stopped taking his medication.

The prolific creativity of mentally unstable patients is known as “Outsider Art,” but therapeutic drugs, by inducing a sterile stability, robbed Blinko of his creativity.

This was more than he could bear.

In this light, the many skeletons seem to represent Blinko’s inner demons that must be exorcised through art pinned to paper and encased in glass rather than

suppressed with the help of drugs.

Peering closely at the minute details, it feels as though one could could see into the artist’s soul, as if the viewer was invited to share a portion of his torment.

Colin Rhodes, author of Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives, said it all too well: “In order to make art, Blinko risks total psychological exposure.”

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

11

collective art

Confess yourself, we won’t tell The Courage Project brings communal empathy and sharing to a corner near you Rebecca Ugolini Contributor The human experience is steeped in fear.

Part biological defence mechanism, part social byproduct, fear is something most seek to avoid rather than accept. But what if an obstacle could be transformed into a tool?

What if fear could be fashioned into courage?

That’s the message that the Courage Project hopes to bring to communities across the island. Started by Montrealer Allison Gonsalves as a meditation on coping with life’s successes and disappointments, the Courage Project encourages individuals to share their deepest fears, and receive a little encouragement, in total anonymity.

All you need is a poster, a streetlight, and a couple of Sharpies.

Gonsalves’ posters prompt passersby to finish the phrase “If I only had the nerve, I would... .”

It was intended to foster both community awareness as well as considered self-reflection.

“My goal is to engage people with these kinds of questions,” explained Gonsalves.

“And it turns out that a lot of the things the public identifies as needing courage to carry out are things with which I also struggle.

“One of the things I like most is seeing the interaction between participants that is evident on the posters,” she continued.

One poster bears the phrase “If I only

had the nerve, I would get a job I really love—and leave Montreal for good,” near which is scrawled in ballpoint pen, “Are you crazy?” On another, a passerby used the Sharpie provided to write “Good idea!” atop Gonsalves’s poster.

Humour and tragedy are often found lines apart on the same poster. The phrase “If I only had the nerve, I would (not) kill myself,” finds its place just above “I would ride an ostrich” on a St. Viateur sign. Another poster bears this eclectic arrangement: “fart in the metro,” “eat a banana that was frozen, then microwaved,” and “follow my heart.”

With some posters overwhelmingly humorous, serious, or empty, Gonsalves also believes participants cater their emotional response to the poster’s surroundings. With their sense of anonymity compromised at busy intersections, the project’s posters are testaments to what and where people are willing to share.

“What I started noticing was that the more light-hearted responses came in the much more public areas—say, in front of a café—and more personal responses tended to be written down on posters that were tucked away,” explained Gonsalves.

She often experiments with interfaces for the Courage Project. This July, Gonsalves brought the project to an independent artist exhibit and encouraged gallery-goers to fill a large poster-board with their dreams and fears, which created an interactive exhibit that changed as the afternoon progressed.

Gonsalves brought the Encouragement Exchange to a Mile End street fair Sept. 17.

Attracted by miniature clothing lines bearing tags with encouraging phrases, St. Viateur

The Courage Project lets Montrealers leave secrets for others to see all over town. pedestrians were invited to take a tag, then to leave a message of encouragement for the next participant.

“I’m working on the third phase of the project, and it’s essentially going to be an encouragement letter campaign,” she said. But readers will have to wait and see what new incarnation the project will assume: half the fun of the Courage Project is its disarmingly simple, yet novel approach.

Until then, Gonsalves’ message seems to be: pass it on.

“Many of the phrases I put up to get

the Encouragement Exchange going were encouraging things friends said to me, but I had almost dismissed their words.”

The Courage Project reminds the public that in a city of 3.6 million, individual voices can still be heard—if communities have the courage to listen, share, and accept.

You can find more information on the Courage Project at www.fearsanddreams. wordpress.com. You can also see the project’s gallery at www.flickr.com/photos/ thecourageproject

12

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

COMEDY

Lucky there’s a family guy Sofia Gay Arts editor “If Adopt This! was a child, then Montreal would be its loving, supportive, espressodrinking, alcoholic parent,” declared comedian Dan Bingham.

This is not the kind of statement one casually throws around in daily conversation, but when it’s made by a man who won over Fringe crowds last May wearing just a baby bonnet and a diaper, it’s hard to not believe him.

This week, the Concordia grad and vehemently proud Montrealer is taking the stage for a second run of his comedy show Adopt This!

For those expecting your run of the mill standup offering of race, sex and politics— don’t.

The hilarious show tells Bingham’s story about reuniting with his biological family, an event that defined his life.

“Reuniting with my biological family was easily the greatest thing that ever happened to me. HBO’s production of Game of Thrones is a close second,” he explained.

“But seriously, when I step back and look at my life as a whole, everything leading up to the meeting of my biological mother and her family is an incredible story.

“As a comedian I get on stage every night and tell jokes, but over the last six years I’ve been dying to tell the whole story of what it’s like to grow up adopted, and how it felt to meet the people who gave me up.”

As is the case with autobiographical writing, Bingham had to decide how much of himself he was willing to reveal to the masses. In the end, audiences reacted well

to the story.

“There were many moments along the way where I felt like I was telling too much, but in the end the more I opened up to people, exposing some vulnerable underbelly, the more people seemed to appreciate the story,” he said.

While his adoptive family hasn’t seen the show yet, his biological family was at this year’s Fringe festival, where Bingham performed for sold-out audiences. This latter fact might have had something to do with a little incident at Fringe-for-All (the festival’s preview event).

“I went on stage in front of 200 people, including all the Montreal media, wearing a baby bonnet and a diaper,” Bingham recalled. “A CTV video camera happened to be there. Two minutes in a diaper and next thing you know I was on the six o’clock news.”

The show’s run at Fringe left an apparent impression on the comedian.

“I met so many wonderful people working at the Fringe, who were all so helpful and supportive. I have to say it was one of the best weeks of my life,” he said. “To spend half a year working so hard, with so much doubt, anxiety, excitement, laughter and tears, to see it all pay off was the best experience anyone could ask for.”

While Bingham didn’t have a hard time writing the script for the show, there is still a trick he uses when the words don’t necessarily throw themselves at the page: cleaning.

“I hate it whenever movies or TV shows depict writers as these messy slobs, up to their eyeballs in books and dust and banana peels. Writing is hard, scrubbing the bathtub is easy,” he explained. “When I wrote Adopt This! I treated it like a job. For six months I would wake up, eat breakfast, make a gigantic coffee, and basically lock myself to the computer for the next four hours or so,

FILM

“

Local comedian keeps things close-knit with autobiographical show

All Bingham needs is a bonnet and a diaper to become the most badass baby in town. standing up to practice saying some of the things I just wrote.”

After all the hard work and the show’s success, Bingham’s intentions for Adopt This! remain simple.

“With this show, I want to give people a small glimpse into what it’s like to grow up knowing there’s another family out there somewhere. I hope people can relate to some of the struggles I went through when

I was young, and realize they’re not the only ones,” he said. “I just want people to hear this story, and laugh their asses off the whole way through.”

Adopt This! is running at Theatre Ste. Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.) Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. Student (and adoptee) tickets are $12. For more details, visit www.danbinghamcomedy.com.

Dance dance revolution Documentary follows ballet legend as she teaches teens Adey Farah Contributor Dancing Dreams tells the story of 40 German teenagers who take on Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof (Contact Zone) dance-theatre piece.

As the documentary delves further into each of the lead characters and their progress illuminates the screen, it’s easy to forget that these adolescents have no prior experience with dance, let alone stage work. Through the patience of Jo-Ann Endicott and Bénédicte Billiet, both Bausch dancers themselves, a magic spark is triggered within each character, enveloping the viewer to embark on their journey alongside them.

Filmed in the year before Bausch’s death, her criticism may seem harsh at times. But it becomes clear that to her, the teens are as professional as anyone, and she criticizes every step while still relentlessly admiring their passion.

Directors Anne Linsel and Rainer Hoff-

“

Dedication, burning passion and the emotions of our lives are enough to make anyone dance.

mann follow the group from their timid beginnings until their opening night performance where they glide across the stage as free as any experienced dancers. Generally adolescents are associated with rebellion and awkwardness, but with the guidance of nurturing mentors their ability to blossom is highlighted.

In the teens’ vignettes, their life beyond the stage comes alive as they speak of their first encounters with romance, death and the burgeoning lives they have lived thus far.

A poignant scene involves the lead dancer Jo, describing how her recently deceased father would have been tremendously proud of her. As tears stream down her face, the emotion she conjures up when dancing radiates the emotion much more

intensely.

Along with the presence they summon on stage, the lingering effect is also heartening to see. Each character reveals how their new dancing dreams have allowed them to absorb the challenge and given them the reward of unfolding layers of themselves they did not know existed.

While this film may seem complementary to Bausch’s brilliant career, her vision

for these teenagers and the lasting note she leaves the viewer with is much more than that. At the end, one is left with the feeling that dedication, burning passion and the emotions of our lives are enough to make anyone dance.

Dancing Dreams opens at Cinéma du Parc on Oct. 1. For more information, visit www.cinemaduparc.com.

music

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

13

Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com pop mtl

POP-goer diaries The best, worst and everything in between of POP Montreal 2011 Katelyn Spidle Staff writer POP Montreal’s five-day-long birthday bash has sadly come to an end. It was the festival’s 10th anniversary, and what a party it was.

From the free Arcade Fire show to the various art and fashion events, this year’s edition exceeded expectations.

My own experience of POP was loud, exciting and a bit frustrating, but overall, it was a blast. My back and feet ache, I’m sleep deprived and am fairly certain that my eardrums have suffered some kind of permanent damage. Note for next year: invest in earplugs.

A dear friend and fellow concert fiend bussed in from Hull, Quebec, and we popped around the Plateau from Thursday to Saturday. We managed to squeeze in 15 artists, but considering that more than 300 bands played over the course of the festival, this isn’t much. Alas, life imposes certain time constraints and obligations upon us and since I have not yet discovered how to clone myself, seeing all 300 sets would not have been physically possible. In any case, I saw some bands that I had never heard of before, some that I have seen many times, and some that I had been waiting a long time to check out.

Having missed out on Wednesday night’s performances, the free Arcade Fire show was my first POP stop. Kid Koala, decked in a big, fluffy koala suit, spun, scratched and vibed with the dexterity of someone who has undoubtedly mastered their craft. Some beats were slower and more melodic, bringing the crowd down a few notches, but his more hyped up songs induced some serious dancealongs.

Montreal francophone trio Karkwa, who incidentally brought home last year’s Polaris Prize, took the stage next. Karkwa has been around since 1998, and the band’s maturity is observable in their music - their instrumentation and vocals were flawless.

After deciding early on that the Arcade Fire show ought not to be the only thing we checked out that night, we headed up to Barfly to see B.C. punk quartet Slam Dunk.

Going into it, I thought that the name was awful (and still kind of do), but it is in fact very suited to their musical style. Slam Dunk had the energy of 100 slam dunks in a row, and so did the crowd, which appeared to consist of close friends and faithful followers. Their sound was catchy and accessible, but still heavy and fast enough to leave you spinning like a chicken with its head cut off.

This band was definitely a highlight for me and my friend.

Next, we walked up the street to Divan Orange to check out Quest For Fire. The crowd was sparse, probably because the band was scheduled for a late night performance.

Quest For Fire played heavy-as-shit psychrock. Unfortunately, in spite of their tight musicianship, it felt like the long, drawn-out

instrumental bits dominated their set, and the slow, stoner-esque vocals had sleepy consequences. There were, however, a couple of dudes near the front of the crowd who were passionately head banging using a slow, full-bodied thrusting motion. Not feeling the vibe, we went home to sleep.

We got off to a late start on Friday night, having begun our roaming at around 11 p.m.

The Deep Dark Woods put on a solid, nicely crafted folk-country set at Petit Campus that had the crowd dancing in pairs. We then wandered up to Barfly to check out Dearly Beloved, who played body smashing bassdriven pop-punk. The band’s erratic stage presence had the near-packed audience thrashing and pumping their necks, especially closer to the stage area. Their set was so loud that upon exiting the venue, regular sounds had taken on an almost underwater quality.

We trekked up to Le Belmont for what we expected to be the highlight of the night’s performances, Chicago rapper Kid Sister. We didn’t end up staying for her set, however, because although she was meant to go on at 12:30 a.m., it wasn’t until 12:45 a.m. that rapper Azelia Banks, whose set was scheduled to start at 11:30 p.m., took the stage.

Feeling a bit frustrated, we headed over to O Patro Vys to catch the remainder of Toronto indie group Ohbijou’s set.

Ohbijou are extremely talented musicians. Their music is full-bodied and complex while still retaining a soft, playful vibe. I have seen them a few times over the years and they continually fail to disappoint. For their second-to-last song, they revealed a song off their forthcoming album, Metal Meets, which comes out on Sept. 27.

Saturday night’s performances, we accepted, were going to be wild cards. The only plans that we etched in stone were to see Toronto pop artist Allie Hughes at O Patro Vys at midnight, Montreal indie-grunge trio Parlovr at L’Escogriffe at 12:30 a.m. and Toronto post-punk group Metz at Barfly at 1 a.m., which was very ambitious of us.

We therefore meandered between the three venues from 10 p.m. to midnight to check out the opening bands.

Mausoleum, a Toronto-based post-wave foursome, was playing at Barfly when we peeked in. They had a cool setup: the synth, which was propped up onto two bar stool chairs, gave their set a catchy ‘80s vibe. The guitarist looked spaced out while bobbing about with melodic progressions and the drummer competently set the pace. The only disappointing aspect of their set was that bassist and lead singer couldn’t sing.

Next, we briefly saw an unmemorable set by Montreal light-rock band Montoire at L’Escogriffe before strolling over to O Patro Vys for an equally unmemorable set by By Divine Right. Their music, played live, sounded like boring, generic indie music, and the female bassist played simple riffs.

Although a mic was placed in front of her, she never sang once.

By Divine Right finished late, so Allie Hughes began her set at 12:20 a.m. I had previously seen her play in a small venue

Over 300 musical acts performed at the 10th annual POP Montreal Festival. in southern Ontario a year and a half prior, where her theatrical stage presence and unpredictable songs made for a highly entertaining act. At O Patro Vys, however, Hughes performed much more mature, melodic tunes that highlighted her musical competency rather than her quirkiness. It’s too bad that her mic volume was low, because her vocal range was effortlessly expansive.

After staying for only three songs, we rushed back to L’Escogriffe for four of Parlovr’s songs, among them “Speech Bubble/ Thought Cloud,” off of their debut self-titled album, and a new tune called “Holding On To Something.”

We then booked it down to Barfly to catch the end of Metz’s show. We were stuck way at the back, which was unfortunate because their tightly knit, intensely erratic presence brought the atmosphere to hectic proportions. Moshers emerged from the show drenched in sweat and visibly elated.

While not every show was the greatest, there was certainly no lack of talent and creativity present at this year’s festival. In the festival’s own words, POP “provides a dynamic introduction to the next generation of musical talent and independent art forms.”

For the 10th consecutive year, this mission was a success.

14

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 pop mtl

Meet the real ‘travelling band’ Dark Dark Dark picks up members and sounds along the way Andrew Guilbert Staff writer

Keybored to death of Adele

To many, Adele’s “Someone Like You” is a beautiful piece of piano balladeering. To workers at the Opus ii instrument store in Dublin, however, it’s the worst thing to happen to them since “Chopsticks.” “It’s become the piano equivalent of ‘Stairway To Heaven.’ Everyone thinks they can play it,” an Opus ii shop assistant admitted to The Independent. This sentiment led to the posting of a “Strictly NO Adele” sign in the store’s front window after customers wouldn’t stop plinking out their amateur renditions of the pop ballad. “The sign was a bit of a joke, but the song can drive you mad.” Other songs on the store’s no play list include Beethoven’s “Für Elise” and anything by Michael Nyman (the composer behind The Piano.)

Sabrina Daniel Contributor Dark Dark Dark, a chamber-folk sextet, hails from Minneapolis, New York and New Orleans, and their sound is as varied as their geography; it’s a collaboration of vocals, piano, clarinet, trumpet, bass and drums, with the occasional cello, banjo and accordion.

Nona Marie Invie and Marshall LaCount gave birth to the band after meeting in their hometown of Minneapolis, Minn. Searching for new talent to enrich their sound, the duo hit the road, picking up musicians along the way in their black Volkswagen van.

They’re what Creedence Clearwater Revival might call a real “travellin’ band.”

“It’s great to have so many different ideas come from different places,” said Invie. “Being able to listen to each other, work with each other and have our music come together. It’s really beautiful.”

The eccentric sextet recently performed at Quai des Brumes, a venue so jam-packed that the band could barely fit on stage.

Front and centre, Invie commanded the room

Dark Dark Dark played to a packed packed packed venue on Sept. 23 with her penetrating and mesmerizing voice. Her tall, broad frame was hunched over the piano. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a tight braid and her granny glasses covered most of her face. Though she generally considers herself an introvert, she becomes a new person on stage.

For a woman of few words, her lyrics are loaded with vivid imagery, emotion and simple yet surprising honesty. Her songs express feelings of vulnerability and isolation, yet her sprawling piano pieces and

the soothing chamber orchestration create an oddly comforting dissonance.

Their most recent album Wild Go is a blend of European folk music and melancholy jazz, but the band predicts some changes for their third album, which they’ll begin working on following their tour.

“I want some cooler horn stuff on the next record,” explained Invie. “The trumpet and clarinet duo has been really great and I just want them to shine on the next album.”

Clearly ‘Supporting act’ is a misnomer in this case

Jonathan Pierce, lead singer of Kings Of Leon supporting act The Drums, has recommended the band call it quits. In an interview with Clickmusic.com, the frontman said, “I would advise them to split up and stop making music. I don’t think they’re really helping anybody—they’ve never made a song that’s really touched me in any way.

I think the less bands that are making bad music, the better.” Adding insult to injury, he claimed to have liked Britney Spears’ new record more than his touring partners’ latest effort, Come Around Sundown.

Now that R.E.M. is over maybe they’ll finally get some deep sleep

R.E.M., the band famous for hits such as “Losing My Religion” and “Orange Crush,” have decided to part ways amicably after more than three decades of making music.

In a post addressed to “Fans and Friends” on the band’s official website, the group announced the split and expressed their gratitude: “As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished.

To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” As far as reasons go, vocalist Michael Stipe justified the breakup, saying in his web post, “The skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave. […] I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.”

Forget Queen for a day—you could be Queen for a whole tour!

Roger Taylor, drummer for iconic rock band Queen, says the band is looking for replacement look-alikes to go on tour and keep the music alive. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor said: “I’m quite convinced that there are tens of thousands of kids, of really talented people, in their bedrooms around the world playing drums, guitar, and singing. And I want to find some of those people.” Hopefuls can apply in the open auditions online at queenextravaganza.com until Nov. 7.

Connect with 40 community organizations at the Volunteer and Leadership Fair Oct 6, 10am - 3pm - LB Atrium Join a group event Volunteer at Moisson Montreal, Oct 21 Attend a workshop Launch your Career,Volunteer - Oct 12 Strategic Volunteering – Oct 26 Meet with a Volunteer Ambassador in the Volunteer Resource Centre (H-608-1) ...and much more!

CONNECT WITH YOUR PASSIONS, ENGAGE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY! volunteer.concordia.ca

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

15

pop mtl

Arcade Fire light it up for their hometown

BO 12/ get

Over 100,000 people gathered downtown to see free show by Polaris Prize-winners Katelyn Spidle Staff writer

O

ut of the over three million people considered to be urban dwellers in the city of Montreal, approximately 100,000 of them congregated on Thursday night in the Quartier des spectacles, a space roughly the size of a few city blocks.

Arcade Fire was home and Montreal made sure to give them the warmest of welcomes.

For as far as the eye could see, from the giant UQAM that stood diagonal my position and over to the itsy-bitsy stage to my right-centre to all the way down Jeanne-Mance Street and spread out east-west along Ste-Catherine Street, people filled every bit of available surface.

A group of friends gazed out from their third-story apartment building window on the south side of Ste-Catherine Street. A woman who looked like she was in her mid-20s hung between the flimsy branches of a youthful tree just a few metres to my left. I stood on a grassy hill about three-quarters of the way back to the far left of the main stage.

Even with the help of my weak, cheapframed glasses, the members of Arcade Fire appeared to be but erratically moving amoebas against a backdrop of fuzzy music videos. To actually see the performers onstage was not easy and at least 75 per cent of the monstrous crowd relied on watching the two megascreens that

were mounted on either side of the main stage.

That being said, the sound quality was spectacular. This was not only due to the incredible setup of equipment but to the artists themselves, who were definitely on top of their shit.

Having been my first live Arcade Fire experience, I had expected the delivery to be weak, especially after having played a much more intimate show at Metropolis the night before. As it turns out, this was furthest from the case.

The 17 song set gave a diverse representation of the band’s three albums: 2004’s Funeral, 2007’s Neon Bible and 2010’s The Suburbs. What struck me as impressive was that the songs, when performed live, did not veer too far from how they appeared on the albums. When a band can stay true to the recorded version’s song length, instrumental progressions and vocal exactitude (though to be fair, drummer and vocalist Régine Chassagne and guitarist and vocalist Win Butler had some out-of-breath-sounding moments), it shows that what you hear on the album is the real deal.

In a culture where mainstream music is often a collage of best takes and auto-tune tweaking, it’s comforting to see a band’s fame arise, above all, from their skill and talent.

After a pumped-up delivery of the song “Haiti,” Butler spoke to the crowd about his fierce belief that the city of Montreal has the power and goodwill to play a major role in the rebuilding of the country.

“I really believe that Montreal and Quebec are really going to transform Haiti,” Butler asserted.

“The city of Montreal is just so committed to Haiti that I really believe that it’s possible.”

The band used the free concert as a means of raising funds for French Haiti relief association KANPE. On Aug. 2, the band announced

they were giving away two passes to the VIP section to the first 100 people to donate $200 to the organization. According to KANPE’s website, these passes were completely claimed within three hours.

Chassagne, whose parents are from Haiti, also introduced UN deputy special envoy to Haiti Paul Farmer, whose life and accomplishments are the subject of Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

“The book really changed my life,” Chassagne passionately confessed, adding that Farmer has been a real inspiration for her. Earlier in the day, Chassagne and Farmer participated in a Concordia Homecoming panel on engagement and sustainability in the rebuilding of Haiti.

The performance ended with a two-song encore for which the songs could not have been more sensibly chosen. Arcade Fire came back to pump out “Rebellion (Lies),” and the entire crowd hooed and hawed along. Quite unexpected was that at the end of the song, multi-instrumentalist Will Butler smashed the marchingband style drum that hung around his neck into smithereens. The scene was very Cobain-esque, but extremely cool nonetheless.

For the second song in the encore, and final song of the evening, Arcade Fire played their epic ode to suburbia “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).” Soon after the song began, several glowing red and blue beach balls were released into the crowd, and a giant bounce-a-thon ensued.

“If you guys see us on the street tomorrow,” said Win Butler at the end of the song, “don’t ask us for a photo. Just say, ‘Hey, I saw you at the show last night,’ and I’ll say, ‘I saw you at the show, too.’”

The set list 1. “Ready to Start” 2. “Keep the Car Running” 3. “No Cars Go” 4. “Haiti” 5. “Modern Man” 6. “Rococo” 7. “Speaking in Tongues” 8. “Intervention” 9. “Wake Up” 10. “Neighborhood # 2 (Laika)” 11. “The Suburbs” 12 “Month of May” 13. “Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels)” 14. “We Used To Wait” 15. “Neighborhood # 3 (Power Out)”

Encore 1. “Rebellion (Lies)” 2. “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”

R

A 55, enu 55,

enu 41, S 120

120 bel 120 T 175

175

161

E

C 1,8 1,8 1,8 1,8 C 3,5 3,5 3,5 E 3,7 equ

16

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

mixtape

We’ve all been there: whether you were at a downtown drinking estab-

lishment or at your buddy’s friend’s frat house, you go out and have what feels like the night of your life—but actually, you’re just utterly inebriated.

Then the morning comes and reality hits you like a 18-ton truck. Welcome to Hangover City. Population: you.

But next time you’re enjoying what Montreal’s nightlife has to offer (perhaps a bit excessively), use this mixtape as your soundtrack to your night out and the morning after. Side A represents the insanity of what happens on those oh-so-eventful evenings, whether lyrically or musically. Side B, on the other hand, is meant to complement—and perhaps even cure—the party still happening inside your head the next morning. Next weekend you’ll likely find at least a few of these tracks represent the craziest nights (and most insufferable mornings after) of your school year.

Listen here: 8tracks.com/the_concordian/saturday-night-sunday-morning

Saturday night/ Sunday morning Compiled by David MacIntyre Staff writer

SIDE A: Saturday Night

SIDE B: Sunday Morning

1. “Party Hard” - Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet (2001) 2. “Party and Bullshit” - The Notorious B.I.G. - Who’s the Man? (1993) 3. “Let’s Get Blown” - Snoop Dogg feat.

Pharrell - R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece (2004) 4. “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” - OutKast Aquemini (1998) 5. “Miami 2 Ibiza” - Swedish House Mafia feat. Tinie Tempah - Until One (2010) 6. “1979” - Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) 7. “Hands in the Air” - Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (2008) 8. “Heartbreaker (Laidback Luke Remix)” - MSTRKRFT feat. John Legend - Heartbreaker (single) (2009) 9. “XR2” - M.I.A. - Kala (2007) 10. “Black Steel” - Tricky - Maxinquaye (1995)

1. “Rabbit in Your Headlights” - UNKLE feat. Thom Yorke - Psyence Fiction (1998) 2. “In the Waiting Line” - Zero 7 Simple Things (2001) 3. “The Water” - Feist - The Reminder (2007) 4. “What You Need” - The Weeknd House of Balloons (2011) 5. “Jazz (We’ve Got)” - A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991) 6. “R U Still In 2 It” - Mogwai - Young Team (1997) 7. “Untitled #4 (Njósnavélin)” - Sigur Rós - ( ) (2002) 8. “Stars” - The xx - xx (2009) 9. “Sunday Morning” - The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) 10. “Our Way to Fall” - Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000)

Quick Spins

Retro review

Demi Lovato - Unbroken (Hollywood; 2011)

Blink-182 - Neighborhoods (Interscope Records; 2011)

Thrice – Major/Minor (Vagrant Records; 2011)

Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979)

Following a highly publicized stint in rehab for personal issues, including eating disorders and cutting herself, Demi Lovato opted to show the world her strength through her music. Unbroken, admittedly, isn’t what a longtime “Lovatic” would expect, especially considering her recent ordeals.

Collaborating with hit-makers like Jason Derulo on “Together” and Dev on “Who’s That Boy” gives the album an urban feel, straying from her typcial pop/rock vibe. Some listeners may be disappointed by Lovato’s upbeat outlook on her new album, but the lyrics still speak volumes about the 19-year-old’s emotional journey.

“Skyscraper,” Unbroken’s first single, is a mantra to stand tall against all adversity, while “For the Love of a Daughter” paints a picture of an abusive, alcoholic father. Demi Lovato’s third studio album is a beautifully-crafted symbol of maturity for the young artist.

After a deadly plane crash that left their drummer, Travis Barker, barely alive in 2008, the Californian pop-punk trio is back. The first release since their Blink-182 album in 2003, Neighborhoods is lyrically darker, and full of new found energy. This time around they opted to each use their own sound engineer, and produce as a collective, rather than use their longtime producer Jerry Finn.

The result is their best record yet—a mature sound that brings something fresh to an industry filled with generic hits and indie derivatives. It is a worthwhile change: each element is deliberate and complementary of the lyrical prowess of Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge. A quick listen will take you on a ride through the sounds of Angels & Airwaves, +44, Box Car Racer, Fugazi, and The Cure.

There’s a delicate balancing act being played out on Thrice’s new album. It’s melody-conscious enough to set the band apart from the majority of “hard rock” acts out there, yet too raw and heavy to avoid falling into that category. Their latest release, Major/Minor, walks that line with perfect precision. Parts of the album might make you wonder if this is what Kings of Leon would sound like if someone cranked up the distortion on their guitars, until a track like “Blur” comes along.

With its unusual time signatures, the song spices up what could have easily been another run of the mill track. Dustin Kensrue, the band’s frontman, has straightforward vocal delivery that shines through every song. This album was thoughtfully written. Ballads like “Words in the Water” and “Disarmed” provide a nice change of pace from some of the faster, heavier material.

Anyone who has heard the seemingly mellow vibes of Pink Floyd’s The Wall has probably noticed the harsh undertones emanating from the album’s lyrics and the instrumentals. The Wall is catchy and rhythmic, yet downbeat and melodic.

It’s a narrative album, describing the life of Pink, based on Pink Floyd’s own Roger Waters.

Pink has always struggled against society. He doesn’t see the point in building relationships, as each person he meets ends up being just “Another Brick in the Wall.” Pink has lost faith in humanity and The Wall signifies the mental barricade he builds throughout his life. He has been traumatized by the loss of his father, abuse at the hands of his teachers, and his crumbling marriage; each experience causes him to gradually isolate himself from society. The album is cyclical in nature; the last song ends with “Isn’t this where…” and the first begins “…We came in?”

Trial track: “Lightweight”

Trial track: “Kaleidoscope”

Trial track: “Blur”

Trial track: “Comfortably Numb”

7.5/10

- Erica Commisso

9.5/10

- A. J. Cordeiro

8.0/10

- Robert Flis

- Jordie Yaeger

sports

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

17

Write to the editor: sports@theconcordian.com football

Concordia’s Quest falls short against Sherbooke QB makes first CIS start in 33-26 loss Stefano Mocella Staff writer The Concordia Stingers managed to hang in with one of the top teams in the country on Friday night, but fell just short.

The Sherbooke Vert et Or managed a late comeback against the Stingers, and the fifthranked team in the CIS escaped the Loyola campus with a 33-26 victory.

The defence controlled the game for most of the first two quarters as Sherbrooke took a 10-7 lead into halftime. Concordia’s lone firsthalf touchdown came after Reid Quest led his team 73 yards, and finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown pass to Kris Bastien.

In the second half, though, both teams’ offence awoke and lit up the scoreboard. The last eight minutes of the game, alone, saw four lead changes.

Early in the third quarter, Ismaël Bamba returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown to give Sherbrooke the 17-7 lead, meanwhile drawing the ire of Stingers’ head coach Gerry McGrath.

“I was very disappointed in special teams tonight,” said McGrath. “Special teams can’t be overlooked in terms of importance. It was definitely a factor in this loss.”

A team safety put Sherbrooke ahead 19-7.

However, Concordia kicked two field goals in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter from 37 and 22 yards to cut the deficit to 19-13.

Concordia took their first lead of the game, when Max Caron came up with a pick-six with 7:41 left in the game. Caron returned the interception 65 yards for the major.

The Vert et Or refused to go down easy

Olivier émond (30) attempts to make a leaping catch as stingers’ halfback marc-antoine bedard (29) looks on. Photo by Navneet Pall and responded when quarterback Jérémi Doyon-Roch threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Simon Charbonneau, one of three touchdown receptions he would make this game.

With two and a half minutes left, it was Quest’s chance to lead his team to victory. He responded by throwing three completions, all to Bastien, who accounted for all the yardage on the quick 90-yard drive. Bastien caught passes of 14 and 68 yards, setting up an eightyard touchdown pass to put Concordia ahead 26-25.

“When we got the ball late, I said we’re going to score,” said Quest. “As a quarterback, you need to have that confidence, or you’re already beaten.”

Unfortunately for the Stingers, though, Sherbrooke was also confident in their ability to make big plays late in a close game.

Starting from their 40-yard line, Sherbrooke marched down the field and with just 28 seconds left Doyon-Roch threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Charbonneau. Sherbrooke completed the two-point conversion and with so little time remaining in the game the Stingers were unable to make another miraculous comeback.

Despite the tough loss, there were many positives from the game. Quest made his first start at quarterback, covering for Terrance Morsink, who struggled in the first three games. Quest was called on many times, often successfully, as he completed 34 of 51 passes for 434 yards, two touchdowns and just one interception.

Though Quest’s numbers were impressive for his first start at the CIS level, the offence got off to a slow start in the game, which

Quest believed ultimately cost the team.

“We’ve got to start faster,” he said. “We finally started sustaining drives later on, but we definitely could’ve scored a lot more points.”

Quest’s favourite target of the night was Bastien, who had a monster game with 11 catches, 189 yards and two touchdowns.

Quest’s performance was certainly a welcome sign as Concordia faces perennial powerhouse and defending national champion Laval next week for the second time this season.

Laval beat Concordia 36-8 in the first game of the season. The Stingers (2-2) will need all players to perform well next week if they hope to have any chance against the Rouge et Or (4-0).

Concordia plays in Quebec City against Laval Sunday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m.

rugby

Stingers unable to fend off McGill late in game Concordia gives up 13 points in last 15 minutes Paolo Mingarelli Contributor For most of Sunday afternoon’s game between crosstown rivals Concordia and McGill, it looked like it was going to be a relatively even match. Unfortunately for the Stingers, a late game meltdown saw the Redmen pick up the coveted ‘W.’ McGill would beat the Stingers 21-13, but 13 of the Redmen points came with only 15 minutes remaining in the game.

“It’s frustrating to go into the second half leading and not to have (the lead) taken away, but to give it away,” said Stingers prop Jimmy Bang.

“We gave them the benefit of the doubt and it ended up costing us,” said fly-half Kevin Elliott. “If we stuck to our game plan we could have executed a little bit better and come out on top.”

Elliott would score Concordia’s only try in the first half by taking advantage of a fumbled ball that he picked up on the run. He did so with such a pace that left all defenders trailing in his path to the score.

In the 26th minute of the second half, a scrum was won by the Stingers, but a seemingly routine zone clearing kick simply did not have enough juice on it. As a result, the ball would fall into the hands of a Redmen winger. McGill would maintain possession and eventually extend the ball out to the far winger who ran in for a game-tying try.

“It was a called play, we drove for that penalty on a called play and that was thrown away,” said Stingers’ head coach Clive Gibson.

Soon after conceding the game-tying try, Concordia had taken control of the ball inside the opposition’s 22. Concordia was putting a tremendous amount of pressure on McGill in the zone and eventually caused the Redmen to take a penalty 10 yards outside of the tryzone.

However, rather than kick for points,

the stingers blew a 13-8 lead late against the mcgill redmen. Photo by anthony isabella which would have given Concordia a threepoint lead and possession of the ball, an attempt was made to rush the ball in for a try. But the Stingers would come up short and come away from the possession with no points, leaving the door open for the Redmen comeback.

Just as quickly as the try was denied, the ball was brought into the Stingers’ zone

through a sequence of gaps hit by the McGill offence. The possession was concluded with a try scored by McGill, giving them a lead they would not let go of. McGill would later add a penalty kick putting the game firmly out of reach.

The Stingers will take to the field next on Sept. 30 at 8:15 p.m. at Bishop’s University.

18

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

soccer

Stingers soccer endures another tough weekend Concordia goes 0-for-4 in weekend matches Julian Mei Sports editor It was another losing weekend in what is becoming a very frustrating season for the Concordia men’s and women’s soccer teams.

On Friday night, the men suffered another second half collapse losing 3-1 playing at Université de Montréal.

Sunday for the men went even worse than Friday, even though they were playing back on their home field against the Université de Sherbrooke Vert et Or, a team much less talented than Universite de Montréal.

The Stingers came out flat from the opening minute. On offence, the Stingers’ passes were hitting their intended targets in the back. On defence, the Stingers seemingly couldn’t clear a ball without hitting a Sherbooke player right in the chest. It was an ugly opening 20 minutes to say the least.

“Worst first half I’ve ever been a part of,” said Concordia striker Alfred Moody. “We showed more fight in the second half but it was too little, too late.

We just didn’t show up. We’ve had the problem of not showing up for the last 20 minutes; today we didn’t play the first 20.”

Eighteen minutes into the first half, Stingers keeper Nicholas Giannone made a fantastic diving

save on a free kick that was curling into the top corner of the net.

Sherbrooke would keep pressing, though, and just over a minute later Djibi Diao sent a pass straight through the Concordia defence, springing Sherbrooke’s Pierre-Luc Chiasson.

Giannone charged the ball but couldn’t beat Chiasson there. The forward dribbled around the diving keeper and deposited the ball in the back of the net.

Though Concordia would improve slightly in the second half, they created very few opportunities to tie the match. Eventually the clock would bring the Stingers’ weekend to its merciful end with the 1-0 loss.

After the game, coaches and players were visibly frustrated and at a loss for words to what happened.

“This was arguably our worst game since I can remember,” said Stingers’ assistant coach François Bastien. “Everything went wrong. The game plan wasn’t respected, players [individually and collectively didn’t perform], mistakes, bad decisions.

Anything you can think of that defines a bad game, you witnessed today.”

On the women’s side the situation was equally as bleak.

Concordia played a strong first half on Friday night going into the half tied with Montreal, one of the top teams in the country. However, the wheels blew off for the Stingers in the second half. Montreal opened the floodgates once they scored their first goal, and they eventually defeated Concordia 5-0.

a deflated stingers’ player hangs her head after a frustrating loss. Photo: Navneet Pall On Sunday the Stingers may have done well to take notes from Vert et Or striker Josée Bélanger, who spent time with the Canadian national team before suffering an injury that sent her back to the CIS. Bélanger set up the first Sherbrooke goal in the 28th minute. She toed the goal line with the ball before sending a perfectly placed cross into the box, which was kicked into the back of the net by Chloé Belhumeur-Limoges.

Bélanger would score two goals of her own at the 49th and 74th minute to give Sherbrooke a commanding 3-0.

Concordia played with more flare after falling

down by three goals, but it was obviously much too late for a comeback. Melissa White-Kendro would add Concordia’s lone goal at the 80th minute.

“I guess we played better at the end of the game, but when you’re down 3-0 you don’t really have any choice but to go for it,” said Stingers coach Jorge Sanchez. “We did fairly well in the first half, but we made a mistake that they beat us on. Then we had a couple chances by their net and we couldn’t even get a shot off.”

The women play Friday, Sept. 30 at 4 p.m. on the road against Bishop’s while the men’s next action will be on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. at UQTR.

Architecture Political Management Infrastructure Protection and International Security

Journalism Sustainable Energy

Human-Computer Interaction Chemistry Biomedical Engineering Cultural Mediations

Environmental Engineering

International Affairs Legal Studies

Music and Culture Religion in Public Life

Women’s and Gender Studies

Business Administration Cognitive Science Computer Science Design Biology Earth Science Geography Information and Systems Science Mathematics Neuroscience Physics Social Work Public Administration Electrical and Computer Engineering

WITH OVER 100 GRADUATE PROGRAMS YOU’LL FIND YOURS AT CARLETON Shape your own education based on your research interests.

Work with recognized faculty and industry leaders.

Collaborate with national and international organizations.

Benefit from Canada’s capital resources.

Public Policy Management Civil Engineering

French and Francophone Studies

Materials Engineering Public History

Come be a part of our research team.

Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies Economics Communication Sociology Art History English Philosophy carleton.ca/graduate Geography Political Science Anthropology Canadian Studies Psychology History Film Studies Aerospace Engineering Political Economy Mechanical Engineering Technology Innovation Management

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

,

19

opinions 20

theconcordian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com

EDITORIAL

Let’s seize the opportunity for change We need to wake up to the fact that if we want to shape Concordia for the better this year, we’ve got to be part of the solution

Concordia students can rant about the devilish Board of the Governors and the administration of frustration until the words transparency and accountability parch their throats, but if they truly want change this year on campus, mere words must be transformed into action.

The university is presently in a precarious situation, with senior, highly-paid administrators scrambling to fix a PR disaster and a governance meltdown. There has honestly never been a better time for students, who form the largest faction of the university community, to get involved on campus and show how to really make a difference in difficult times.

It’s no secret that it has often proven difficult to draw students away from their textbooks, cell phones and beer bottles, even for a

few hours, and bring them closer to the associations and campus groups that desperately need their help in paving a new path for Concordia.

This is a scenario that exists on countless campuses throughout the country and that has been around for decades.

But that doesn’t mean things have to remain the same. They can change. All it takes is a student to step forward and contribute their skills to the betterment of their university.

At the moment, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations is gearing up for a byelection to fill three vacant positions: VP sustainability and external, VP communications and promotions, and independent councillor.

As of this writing, no application forms for these positions have yet to be returned to the ASFA office, and the deadline is this Thursday.

At the member association level, there is currently no ASFA representative for physics and journalism students. This is because neither of these programs was able to gather enough executive candidates during the MA elections last spring, and as a result they vanished. Over 10 other MAs who were successful in attracting candidates were still unable

to come out of the election period with a full executive.

Groups such as these are a necessity for students, even if the latter may not always realize it. MA executives can represent students at the faculty level, ensuring that students’ voices are heard loud and clear by professors on a regular basis.

Over at the Concordia Student Union, the judicial board currently has only two members, not enough to reach quorum, therefore rendering this important group “non-functional,” as its chair Cassie Smith made clear at the CSU’s Sept. 21 council meeting. Despite having advertised for the position online and encouraging student representatives to aggressively seek out potential JB candidates, the board has yet to receive enough members to fulfill its crucial mandate.

The JB played a key role following last spring’s general election, but as its chair has already indicated, its role is not just to deal with electoral violations. The JB can serve as a valid recourse for students at large when it comes to a variety of issues, but to first serve as that recourse, it needs a full board. It needs students.

The CSU itself has already lost four councillors, all of whom resigned before the first council meeting of the new academic year.

These are four seats that will have to be filled in the November byelection. Again, students are needed.

The above-mentioned groups are only a few out of the plethora of associations on campus that need resourceful student bodies to fill important positions.

This fall will be an eventful season where campus politics are concerned. The advisory search committee is meeting behind closed doors to discuss potential candidates for the next Concordia president. The CSU is about to present a draft plan for a student centre. The number of members on the Board of Governors may very well be reduced.

Apart from voicing their opinions—also extremely important—students have the opportunity before them to get active and truly transform Concordia into an institution that we may finally be able to all be proud of.

It all depends on you.

So stop the bitching. Get involved (and then bitch some more.) You’ll be thankful you did.

MEETINGS

CSU council meetings desperately need a new home Loyola campus could hold key to room dilemma Myles Dolphin Opinions editor My experience attending the Sept. 21 CSU council meeting was, for lack of a better word, sticky.

The room in question, H(ot)-760, was cramped, overcrowded and felt like an oven.

With more than two dozen councillors and a variety of curious witnesses, I’m happy student Alex Matak suggested the motion to mandate the executives to find a big enough room that meets all of the CSU’s requirements for subsequent CSU council meetings.

Sitting through the meeting became an exercise in patience and an alternative room is quickly becoming a serious requirement.

Matak even described H-760 as “not an atmosphere that encourages student empowerment,” referencing one of the promises of winning slate Your Concordia during last year’s elections.

Unfortunately, and this may come as a surprise, there is a lack of suitable rooms for CSU council meetings on Concordia’s two campuses.

CSU president Lex Gill began discussions with Hospitality Concordia back in June to try and find a more adequate room. The incentive to stay in H-760 is simple, she says.

“This room is provided for free,” she said.

“Other free rooms on the seventh floor are smaller and while there is a larger room that would be available, it would cost around $300 a night.”

While the executives can be mandated to find a more suitable room, it obviously cannot force Hospitality Concordia to find one for them, so patience is of the essence.

Why not bring CSU council meetings to Loyola more often? Because of CUTV’s presence at the meetings, electrical considerations are crucial and thus, finding a room with enough electrical outlets and other technical specifications is apparently not as easy as it sounds.

The Hive Cafe and G-Lounge at Loyola campus are two open spaces that could easily accommodate the number of councillors and onlookers for a CSU Council meeting, provided that CUTV can set up there. They would just require enough chairs and tables.

Aaron Green, former CSU councillor and president of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations, explained in an email that while at least one ASFA council meeting per semester was held at Loyola in the past, usually in the AD building, there are other roadblocks to having them there more often.

“I wholeheartedly agree that more council meetings should be held at Loyola,” he said.

“However, most councillors live downtown and making the trek to Loyola might prove cumbersome considering the shuttle bus’ final departure at 11 p.m.”

Green also went on to say that students in other faculties such as engineering, computer science and commerce may not ever set foot on the Loyola campus, which is a shame because of how beautiful and vibrant it is. Having more meetings at Loyola would make them discover another campus and allow them to get better acquainted with their school and peers.

The argument that the campus is hard

With almost 50 people in H-760, meetings can get pretty crowded. Photo by Navneet Pall to get to is fallacious, as the shuttle bus or a combination of relatively short metro and bus rides can easily take you there. Getting back downtown would be problematic, should the meetings go past 11 p.m., but perhaps a special shuttle bus could come at a later time and bring everyone downtown. Once a month isn’t too much to ask for this special service.

Students from NDG, Côte-des-Neiges and elsewhere in the west end could greatly benefit from attending these meetings, fulfilling the CSU’s hopes of having more student participation in events such as these.

“I think it would be a disservice to them [arts and science students] to not have at least one council meeting per semester at Loyola because after all, one-third of their students have their classes on the Loyola campus,” said Green.

A.J. West, undergrad representative on the Board of Governors, even brought up at last

week’s meeting the fact that according to the CSU bylaws, meetings can be held anywhere in the city of Montreal, not necessarily on campus.

The only perceivable drawback to abandoning the Hall building is not having the opportunity to go to Reggie’s during one of council’s closed sessions, kicking back with a beer and waiting to return to the seventh floor.

In the meantime, it’s reassuring to know that Gill is working hard to remedy the situation.

“Location, cost and facilities all play a role in where we hold meetings—and in the past we’ve tended to rely on H-760 because it’s free to book, accessible and has the electrical specifications that CUTV needs,” she said.

“I’m working to find bigger meeting rooms on both campuses for council to take place.”

As long as it’s not sticky.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

21

INFRASTRUCTURE

Why the Big Owe must go Stadium Love

The Olympic Stadium would fare much better in the hands of private entrepreneurs

- At 175 metres high, the Olympic Stadium’s inclined tower is the tallest of its kind in the world.

- The Big O was originally expected to cost $250 million. The final price tag? $1.47 billion. The debt was finally paid off in November 2006.

Bradley Martin Contributor

- 72,000 people attended the soccer final at the 1976 Olympics, setting a Canadian record.

- It features a 101,600-watt public address system.

- 78,322 people attended a Pink Floyd show there in 1979.

cessation of public funds being poured into the stadium could be put towards infrastructure repairs for those “teetering bridges and caving roadways.” Whatever it may be, it will surely improve general quality of life of Montreal in a sustainable and responsible way.

Being too far away from the downtown core for the convention crowd and not being an attractive piece of land for any kind of real estate, it will prove quite problematic to replace it with anything remotely profitable.

Demolition costs would amount to approximately $700 million, CBC reported, and implosion would be impossible because of the location of the metro line underneath. However daunting it seems, this should not make us fear taking the necessary actions to rectify a historical error.

As for the land, private developers can explore options such as affordable housing which students can greatly benefit from in an area directly over a metro line. Imagine

TECHNOLOGY

Graphic by Sean Kershaw what that would do in terms of expanding the capacities of research and study at our universities. Or perhaps even build a new, more magnificent stadium that pays for itself and serves the needs of Montreal in a practical way. Either of these projects would bring new economic development in terms of construction and continued usage of the area.

While it is difficult to admit a mistake, people must realize that it is not a cause for paralyzing shame. It is time for Montrealers to be courageous and remedy the Big Owe situation.

“

“

The Olympic Stadium is certainly a cause for discussion. Whether one advocates to destroy or preserve it, there is an urgency for alternatives.

Supporters of the Big Owe can now list Peggy Curran of the Gazette as part of their team, due to her Sept. 19 column in defence of preserving the stadium. This is unfortunate for people like me who support its demise, and who wish to see Montreal finally cut its losses and salvage what it can through its demolition.

With all due respect to supporters of the building, their cause is nonsensical.

While I agree with Curran in describing the stadium as “positively mythic” and “otherworldly,” symbolism is hardly reason enough to ignore its status as a white elephant in our city.

Given its history of roof collapses and other structural failings, the likelihood of another disaster during a game or concert is quite high. The predicament of the Olympic Stadium was bound to happen and is a result of misguided priorities, ignorance and faulty incentives.

Designated as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympic Games, this massive structure was certainly built with the needs of a huge international event in mind. It is unfortunate that bigger events cannot be held there on a regular basis, thus making it somewhat economically viable.

Since the departure of the Montreal Expos in 2004, very few large-scale events have taken place at the Olympic Stadium.

By privatizing the facility, it will give a chance for people to use its resources to unleash creative incentive, thus in turn improving the quality of life for Montrealers as a whole.

The possibilities are quite endless. The

Given its history of roof collapses and other structural failings, the likelihood of another disaster during a game or concert is quite high.

- Jean Drapeau, who was the mayor of Montreal in the ‘70s, was quoted as saying that “the Montreal Olympics can no more have a deficit, than a man can have a baby.”

- The Olympic Tower was only completed 10 years after the Stadium.

- The observatory, located at the top of the Tower, is the highest inclined tower in the world.

- In 1997, a Montreal Alouettes game and U2 concert were booked on the same night. The Als’ game was relocated to McGill’s Percival Molson Stadium, a move that reignited Montrealers’ interest in the franchise - they have sold out every game since. U2 has been credited with saving the Alouettes, and Sunday Bloody Sunday now plays before every home game.

- The Expos played their last game there on Sept. 29, 2004. They lost 9-4 to the Florida Marlins.

Are we on stilts or crutches?

Reliance on technology for memory recall is increasing Brandon Judd Contributor I recently upgraded the operating system on my computer, and with it came a fun new tool called “automatic spelling correction.” It took me some time to notice what was happening.

When I would misspell a word, my computer automatically fixed it.

The only evidence was that familiar squiggly line but in dark blue, making it far less conspicuous than the standard red or green.

At first I was elated; no more emails or chat messages where typos had done me the kind favor of placing foot in mouth, like when I said I’d spent my afternoon lunging, rather than lounging, in the park. But then I thought

of the ramifications.

There has been a lot of griping about how spellcheck is ruining our generation’s knowledge of spelling and grammar. While I agree with some of this, I think it’s been overblown.

In the past, if you made spelling errors, you’d have to check words individually and make corrections. Spellcheck just automated the searching process. With this new technology, however, I’m starting to agree that it’s becoming a problem.

When elderly doctors used to criticize their younger colleagues for looking up prescription doses, it’s archaic to expect people not to use new resources at their fingertips.

We say this, however, from the position of having seen this technology develop. What will be the effects on the generation who will learn to write and spell with this technology?

How much proper English will they know?

This is part of a wider trend of relying on tools instead of our brain to remember

things for us. Psychologists call this “technical transactive memory,” and it includes computers and the Internet, but also paper and ink.

Transactive memory has been integral to human development but, with the increasing mobility of the Internet, we’re becoming overdependent on it.

How many of your friends’ phone numbers could you recite off the top of your head?

What would you do if you needed help and you only had access to a land line? Nowadays, if our phone’s not on us (and charged), we’re cut off.

A recent study conducted at Columbia University, published in the Aug. 5 issue of Science, experimented on the recall rate of subjects entering information into a computer.

The group was asked to enter a variety of trivial facts into a computer, and were not told they would be asked to recall this in the future. Half were then told their entries were being deleted after entry, and the other half

were told they were being saved.

The study found that those who were told the computer would save their information fared significantly poorer in recalling information as those told it would be erased.

“Because search engines are continually available to us, we may often be in a state of not feeling we need to encode the information internally,” the study indicated. “When we need it, we will look it up.”

I’m no neurologist, but I do know that your memory is a lot like a muscle - it benefits from exercise. The neural pathways you lay down when you commit things to memory are permanent. But the question remains.

How will not needing to remember things affect us in the next 50 years? Should we be a little more wary about the types of things we defer responsibility for remembering? I think so.

22

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

EDUCATION

theconcordian

Homeschooling has always been a controversial approach to educating children, and a recent study conducted by Concordia and Mount Allison University suggests that if done properly, it can actually be more beneficial than public education. Read on to hear from two students, one with first-hand knowledge of the issue, discuss the validity of this study.

Joseph E. Leger Contributor Homeschooled children “achieved higher standardized scores compared with children attending public school,” according to data published in the report in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.

Having been homeschooled myself until the age of 12, I found these results to be unsurprising. Parents teaching their children at home have a distinct advantage over teachers in a classroom. At home, parents are able to personalize the curriculum to their children’s needs and can offer more one-on-one training than a teacher with a classroom of 30 to 40 children ever can.

But teaching children in a safe, comfortable environment isn’t enough. According to the report, the key factor for parents is having a structured and organized lesson plan.

Parents have to be actively involved in the teaching process and must provide their children with an organized learning experience to be successful.

I grew up on the outskirts of Henryville, a small rural village in southern Quebec. My parents, being Baptists, were very religious and wanted to raise their children in a controlled environment. My mother did all the teaching using a mixture of textbooks, as well as her own material. My siblings and I grew up without realizing how different our education was from most children.

Our entertainment consisted mainly of playing outside or reading. Interaction with other children our age was limited.

I never realized until later what a huge impact this could have on a young child. Interacting with other children on a regular basis is essential for raising a socially, well-adjusted child. How we learn to interact as children determines our ability to interact as adults. I didn’t realize I was missing a vital aspect of my education until my parents sent me to public high school when I was 12 years old.

By the time I graduated, I was still slightly socially awkward but I was accepted and liked by most of my peers.

Education has a variety of forms and neglecting one can have severe consequences; a balance between traditional educational needs of children and their social needs is required. When deciding how to educate your children, it’s important to understand the impact that decision could have.

“Further inquiry is required if parents are to make informed decisions regarding the education of their children,” according to the above mentioned report. “Identifying the best practices associated with different types of education may facilitate teaching in both traditional and homeschool settings.”

Though these findings are not conclusive, they do raise important questions regarding the effectiveness of our public schools.

Shereen Ahmed Rafea Contributor The homeschooling approach to education has been around for decades, and is quickly gaining popularity in both Canada and the United States.

The Concordia and Mount Allison study, while informative, cannot be used as a general statistic. It examined 74 students from ages five to 10. According to lead researcher and Concordia education professor Sandra Martin-Chang, the process itself was self-selective, which is why most of the homeschooled students in the study had high academic performance rates, superior to those in public school. Students who were not performing so highly may have been overlooked, she said.

A small group of students in the study, who were unschooled (a philosophical approach that involves using practical experiences in life rather than a curriculum), were actually behind academically.

While the study indicated that this high academic performance is achieved by following a structured curriculum, that is not necessarily the case for all students. If it is not done carefully, homeschooling can actually hold the child back academically and set them behind their peers.

Parents who choose to homeschool in Canada follow provincial laws, and often those provinces do not require the students to be registered. With different laws and regulations, it is difficult to accurately examine the effects of homeschooling in every household.

With unschooling and all sorts of new methods that can arise, the fundamentals of education are being broken. Sure, playing and social interactions are life methods.

However, without proper curriculum and teaching, we may be damaging our children’s futures instead of helping them, and creating gaps in their knowledge.

Although academic performance is fundamental, education is also not just about grades and test scores. Being in a classroom with other kids and socializing with classmates from different backgrounds is beneficial to students.

When someone is homeschooled, they are exposed to one form of thinking, either their parents’ or their tutors’. At school, they have multiple teachers with diverse opinions and diverse approaches to the syllabus.

According to Brian D. Ray, an educator, researcher and president of the National Home Education Research Institute, one of the reasons parents choose homeschooling, was “to enhance family relationships between children and parents and among siblings.”

Why does one have to homeschool to have a strong relationship with their children, or to have a bigger role in their education? Parents who monitor their child’s progress and get involved by attending PTA meetings contribute just as much to their success.

If done properly, homeschooling may be beneficial; however, without unified laws, qualified teachers, and structure, how can the true effect of homeschooling on a national scale be determined?

In the end, education is too important to experiment with.

The Etcetera Page

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011 Vol. 29 issue 5 Jacques Gallant

Editor-in-Chief editor@theconcordian.com

Kamila Hinkson

Managing editor managing@theconcordian.com

Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo News editor

Alyssa Tremblay

Assistant news editor news@theconcordian.com

Paola Rivas

Life editor life@theconcordian.com

Sofia Gay

Arts editor arts@theconcordian.com

Allison Mason

Music editor music@theconcordian.com

Julian Mei

Sports editor sports@theconcordian.com

Myles Dolphin

Opinions editor opinions@theconcordian.com

Ephram Schofeld

Webmaster webmaster@theconcordian.com

Navneet Pall

Photo editor photo@theconcordian.com

Katie Brioux

Graphics editor graphics@theconcordian.com

Sarah Deshaies

Chief Copy editor copy@theconcordian.com

Elizabeth Tomaras

A child jumps on a trampoline at the pier in Brighton in the United Kingdom. Photo by Sarah Deshaies

Copy editor

Chris Hanna

Saudi women won the right to vote and run for local office within the next four years, but they still can’t drive, leave the country or open a bank account without formal permission; get with the times, King Abdullah! @ThisJustZen: Saudi women celebrate having been given right to vote!...Ladies were quickly arrested as celebration is still a crime. @AHAFoundation: Happy for the steps in the right direction, now all Saudi women need is permission from their guardians to vote and a ride to the polls. @DailyJokeByRanj: NEWS: The Saudi

king has declared that Saudi women will soon be allowed 2 vote.Their voting machines will be manufactured by Fisher-Price. @Inthefade: Women can now vote in Saudi

Arabia but they can’t drive.Tomorrow’s news from Saudi Arabia: You have to show your license to vote. @TarekFatah: The lucky women of Saudia Arabia will be given the right to vote in 2015, but it’s only 1432 in the Islamic calendar. 600 years to go! @JoeDoolittle: Saudi Arabian women are

now legally able to vote, overturning Sheikh Diddy’s centuries-old “Vote and Die!” campaign.

5 1 8 6 4 2 3 3 1 4 2 9 8 6 9 5 3 7 7

Production manager production@theconcordian.com

2 9 1 7 8

4 7 5 6 8

Emily White Lindsay Briscoe Kerry MacKinnon

Production assistants

Editorial Office

7141 Sherbrooke St. W. - CC.431 Montreal, QC H4B 1R6 514.848.2424 x7499 (Editor-in-Chief) 514.848.2424 x7458 (Newsroom)

4 5 3

4 6 8 9

514.848.2424 x7404 (Production)

Mélissa Kate Gagnon

Business manager business@theconcordian.com

Marshall Johnston

Advertising manager advertising@theconcordian.com

Brennan Neill Emily White Cindy Lopez Ruben Bastien

Board of Directors directors@theconcordian.com

What did you think of this paper?

The Concordian welcomes your letters to the editor, and any other feedback.

Letters to the editor must be received by Friday at 4 p.m.

The Concordian reserves the right to edit your letters for length, clarity and style.

Send your letters to opinions@theconcordian. com Your friends at

theconcordian

Business and Advertising

1455 de Maisonneuve W. - H.733-4 Montreal, QC H3G 1M8 514.848.2424 x7420 (Office) 514.848.7427 (Fax)

Staff writers and Contributors Cameron Ahmad, George Menexis, Marissa Miller, Alyssa De Rosa, Adey Farah, Mark Della Posta, Brandon Judd, Stephanie Mercier Voyer, Amanda Dafniotis, Alix Wagner-Bernier, Rebecca Ugolini, Katelyn Spidle, Sabrina Daniel, Andrew Guilbert, David MacIntyre, Rob Flis, A.J. Cordeiro, Erica Commisso, Jordie Yeager, Paolo Mingarelli, Stefano Mocella, Shereen Rafea, Joseph Leger, Tiffany Blaise, Anthony Isabella, Sean Kershaw, Phil Waheed

theconcordian

Concordia’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

Follow us on Twitter: @TheConcordian

EVENTS AT A GLANCE HELP PROMOTE CONCORDIA EVENTS!

ALL EVENT LISTINGS ARE ADVERTISED FOR FREE SEND YOUR IDEAS TO EVENTS@THECONCORDIAN.COM PLEASE LIST NAME OF EVENT, LOCATION, AND TIME

TUES 27

WED 28

Il Motore Casa Del Popolo La Sala Rosa Cabaret du Mile End Jello Martini Lounge (rue Ontario) Loyola Quad Métropolis Royal Phoenix bar

19h00 20h30 20h00 20h00 22h00 12h00-16h00 19h00 20h00

Soiree Ruckus Society with The Zorras + Clara Engel + Ian Ferrier + Stefan Christoff + Vince Tinguely Casa Del Popolo La Sala Rosa Quartetski + Youjsh MainLine Theatre All I want is U2 (Wed+Thur+Fri+Sat) Cabaret du Mile End Wild Beasts + Still Life Still Café Campus The Horrors + The Stepkids Metropolis Deadmau5 + Excision + Mateo Murphy (Wed+Thurs+Fri)

20h30 20h00 20h00 20h30

Club Lambi Theatre Ste-Catherine Le Cagibi

22h00 20h00 19h00

Field TBA L’Envers

12h00 + 14h30 21h00

Mates of State + Suckers + Yawn Steve Brockley Band + Cindy Doire + David Simard Christopher Butterfield + Kaie Kellough Wild Beasts RUCKUS FO’TET Back to School BBQ & Garage Sale presented by CJLO Myths for Profits: Canada’s Role In Industries Of War and Peace The Royal Riot

+MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC +SHOW +BBQ +FILM +COMEDY +MUSIC +MUSIC +THEATRE +MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC

19h30

THURS 29

+PARTY +COMEDY +BOOK LAUNCH

Welcome Back Party presented by CJLO Adopt This! (Thur+Fri+Sat) Cindy Crabb’s Encyclopedia of Doris

FRI 30

+STINGERS +MUSIC

Men’s Baseball Doubleheader vs Carleton Aids Wolf + Black Feelings

SAT 01

+FILM +FILM +MUSIC

Dancing Dreams Anna (1967) Les frères Goyette + Les Appendices

Cinema du Parc Blue Sunshine Cinema La Sala Rosa

17h15 19h15 20h00

SUN 02

+FILM +MUSIC +MUSIC

Dancing Dreams Festival des escalades improbables Women’s Soccer @ Sherbrooke

Cinema du Parc Casa Del Popolo Club Soda

17h15 20h00 21h00

MON 03

+MUSIC +MUSIC +CINEMA POLITICA

The Milk Carton Kids + Gaby Moreno Battles + Walls Marx Reloaded and Heart of Spain

Divan Orange Le National H-110

22h00 20h30 19h00

HEY YOU, HEYYOU, YEAH YOU YOU YEAH WANT TO BE A CONTRIBUTOR? WE’RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND GRAPHIC ARTISTS. IF INTERESTED, EMAIL EDITOR@THECONCORDIAN.COM OR DROP IN ON A STORY MEETING EVERY SUNDAY AT 3 P.M. IN CC-431.