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Forget Star Wars: A starter guide to independent science-fiction films COLE CHRETIEN
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Coffee contraptions: The Sheaf’s guide to easy coffee-making You don’t have to spend loads of money or time to get your caffeine fix — there are a number of cheap ways to make coffee.
TANNER BAYNE CULTURE EDITOR
As the school term trudges on, many students will turn to coffee for respite. However, this increased consumption can put an economic strain on those who don’t have the time or equipment to make coffee at home — but it doesn’t have to be that way. We are currently living in a coffee renaissance — no longer do you have to satiate your caffeine cravings with that barely functioning drip coffee maker in your cupboard or the burnt coffee you get from Tims. Here is a quick rundown of some of the easiest and most affordable coffee-making technologies available. French press: After automatic-drip coffee makers, the french press is one of the more common methods to make coffee. This may be due to its simplicity — all you do is add your grounds to the cylindrical pot, pour hot water into it, wait 3-5 minutes for the coffee to brew and then plunge the grounds to the bottom. The French-press method produces a luscious, viscous and flavourful cup of joe. Standard-sized pots usually yield 4-8 cups. However, French presses do leave some resid-
ual coffee grit in your cup, so watch out for that. The Bodum Brazil French Press is one of the best-rated coffee presses on Amazon and costs $23.99. Percolator: If you’re itching to feel like you’re straight out of a steampunk story while you make your morning java, the percolator is your best bet. Percolators are large-ish metal contraptions that use steam pressure created on your stovetop to make an espresso-style coffee shot. It takes around 5 minutes to to use. As with any espresso-like coffee, the taste is bitter and strong — so water it down if you need to. At $18.99, the Argon Tableware 6-Cup Italian Style percolator is one of the highest-rated percolators on Amazon. Pour-over: Pour-over coffee makers employ the same mechanisms as typical drip machines to make your coffee. The grounds sit in a chamber above the pot — usually in a paper filter, although metal filters are popular, too — and after you wet the grounds, gravity does the rest. This results in a smooth and tasty cup of coffee, with little grit. What’s more, this method is the cheapest on this list, as the Hario V60 02 Plastic Coffee Dripper from — you guessed it — Amazon costs $10.60. AeroPress: This is perhaps
the newest and trendiest coffee-making contraption on the list. The AeroPress has three components: a filter, a coffee basket and a brew chamber. Similar to the French press, this method plunges hot water through the grounds to produce your coffee. It only takes 2 minutes to make a cup of coffee this way — so the AeroPress is perfect when you need that fix in a rush. The Aerobie 83R01 AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker runs for $37.95 on Amazon, making it the priciest option on this list. However, 40 bucks is about the amount that you would spend on just a week or two’s worth of Tims coffee, or like three lattes from Starbucks, so it’s worth it in the long run. And, unlike the other options listed, an AeroPress will fit nicely in your backpack, meaning that you can make a cup of coffee wherever you go. With any of these methods, it’s crucial that you use good beans — beans, not grounds. Grinding your own beans makes a world of difference when it comes to making coffee. I would recommend investing in a good coffee grinder as well. Krups Electric Spice and Coffee Grinder is a compact option that will only set you back $19.97. Cheers to a cheap cup of delicious coffee!
While many people are familiar with massive sciencefiction franchises like Blade Runner or The Matrix, fewer are acquainted with the genre’s low-budget gems. Indie sc i-fi classics — like the two in this article — prove you don’t need lots of money to tell interesting new stories in the genre. Shane Carruth’s 2004 film, Primer, tells a story of two engineers who discover time travel as an unintended consequence of an electromagnetic experiment. The film’s uniqueness comes from it’s implementation of time travel, which is done through a convoluted — but intriguing — cloning process. It’s a ridiculously complicated concept, and the film’s emphasis on authentic engineering jargon and experimental editing can make it disorienting. Primer is a puzzle box that only the most dedicated viewers will be able to make sense of. However, it works as a commendable example of indie drama. As the characters develop differing ethical understandings of the technology, they grow to resent each other, creating an endless loop of murder and revenge in which neither of them is safe. Another excellent indie sci-fi film to watch is Duncan Jones’s 2009 film, Moon. Produced with a relatively small $5-million budget, Moon is carried by photorealistic miniature work, an excellent score and a double performance by Sam Rockwell. The narrative follows Sam Bell, the only man living on the moon in 2035. However, when he discovers an unconscious astronaut — who looks exactly like him — he learns that he’s not as alone as he previously believed. With interiors that surpass those in movies with 10 times the budget, Moon tells an emotionally ambitious story, while managing to look and sound better than most major studio films. The decision to use miniatures instead of CGI also pays off by giving the movie a unique analog feel. Though most household names in the science-fiction genre are created in behemoth studios, Primer and Moon are great introductions to the exciting world of minimalist and independent science-fiction film.
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