Volume 46 Issue 17

Volume 46

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Issue 17

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February 6, 2012

All out Feb 1

Photos by Andrew Tan

in the paper this week

centre: Students demand affordable education p. 3 - Community discusses Have You Seen... • p. 4 - Trent model UN impresses in Montréal p. 5 - Arthur talks to local musician • p. 8 - Reframe Slamba recap p. 9 - Incredibly Nerdy and Extremely Geeky • p.10 - Drugs, a lecture

editorial Volume 46 | Issue 17 | February 6, 2012

Masthead by Jackson Creek Press 751 George Street • Suite 104 Peterborough, ON • K9H 7P5 tel: 705-745-3535

Where’s the editorial?

editors@trentarthur.ca • www.trentarthur.ca

Editor in Chief Business Manager Miranda Rigby

Production News Reporters Assistant Matt Jarvis Heather Scully

Anthony Gulston

Copy Editor

Carmen Meyette

Chelsea Rodrigues

Sara Ostrowska

Proofreader

Cornel Grey

Pat Reddick

Distribution Teigan Sparkes

Ayesha Asghar Elisha May Rubacha Mitchell Powers

Photography Andrew Tan

Board of Directors Chair • Ki Alleyne Secretary • Not yet named, Treasurer • Not yet named Members at Large • Caitlin Currie, Hazel Wheeler, Jacob Bogaard, Jenna Cameron, Maxim Gertler-Jaffe

Contributors Natalie Guttormsson • Wesley Collett-Taylor Chanel Christophe • Brian Lukaszewicz Caileigh Morrison • Zach Ruiter

Submission guidelines Articles Articles should be submitted via email to editors@ trentarthur.ca, in the body of the message, or as an *.rtf, *.doc, or *.txt attachment. The body should be approximately 800 words. Listings, announcements, or briefs should not exceed 100 words. Feature pieces can be up to 1500, but must be arranged in advance with the editors.

Images Hard copies (photographs, original artwork, etc.) should be brought into the office (751 George Street, Suite 104) to be scanned. If submitting files electronically, please save as *.tif, with a dpi of no less than 300 pixels.

Letters Limit letters to the editors to 250 words. Letters longer than 250 words may be published but Arthur reserves the right to edit for length and clarity (but not content).

Conributors are encouraged to attend the weekly story meeting on Tuesday at 1pm in our office in Sadlier House, or to contact the editors if considering submitting to an upcoming issue.

Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of Arthur staff, volunteers or its Board of Directors. Contributors are encouraged to attend the story meetings Tuesday at 1pm or contact the Editors to discuss story ideas. All article submissions are due Monday at noon. Letters, Listings, Classifieds, and Events are due Thursday at 9am and should be sent to listings@trentarthur. ca. Advertisers are encouraged to contact advertising@ trentarthur.ca for ad rates and contracts.

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beefy editorial to be written by a wide range of guests

Tyson Shennett

By Miranda Rigby

This week at Arthur’s story meeting the staff collective in attendance discussed the possibility of having guest editorials for the remainder of the year. I heartily agreed to help coordinate the effort and jumped on the bandwagon.

a bunch of things that sound right, and pass them off as not facts but also as not opinion.” When asked what exactly he meant by “not facts but not opinions”, he replied “that’s life!” in a Tommy Wiseau accent. This is something I wouldn’t put in this editorial, if it wasn’t an example.

It is a difficult job writing weekly editorial; keeping current in a wide range of subjects while attempting to proofread, edit and layout a paper weekly is hard work. However, I do have a few suggestions for those who will be gracing these pages in the upcoming weeks.

Make sure to use personal

Add some facts that keep

If it’s your opinion, state it. Editorials are meant to be personal opinions. Even if you represent a group by way of your business title, it is ultimately going to be your words the readers are after. If you feel like it will affect your job negatively then claim the idea as your own or don’t claim it at all.

your audience interested: Did you know that the odds of being killed falling out of your bed are 1 in 2 million? That Halifax Nova Scotia has the largest amount of bars per capita? That 40% of women have hurled some form of footwear at a man? Neither did I, but it definitely spiced up this editorial.

Write about something you know: Unfortunately there is a tendency in the media to damn anyone who isn’t an expert in the subject they are writing in. This is understandable in some ways, because you don’t want to offend someone that could be truly affected by the issue at hand.

That being said, it is important to be more knowledgable in the subject than the majority of readers, because this is what will make your editorial interesting and informative.

Don’t quote people that don’t know what they are talking about: According to the proofreader of Arthur, “You don’t need real facts if you can’t find them. What you have to do is make up

pronouns; it’s not a damn essay:

Don’t quote inspirational speakers: Use your own voice, seriously.

These are only a few examples of what can make your editorial great. If you have any ideas of who would be an interesting candidate for the guest editorials, if you have any idea what questions we should ask them to respond to/talk about, please send them our way.

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editors(at) trentarthur.ca

Gzowski College keeps Have You Seen . . . dream alive

By Anthony P. Gulston

Have You Seen... was more than a collection, a curator, a business; but a site of community members interacting with a community. On January 26, Gzowski College organized a panel discussion at the Peterborough Public Library between Howard Gibbs, co-owner of Have You Seen...; Zailig Pollock, Director of Trent’s Public Texts MA program; Charlie Foran, writer and President of Pen In Ink Canada; Ray Dart, professor in Trent’s Business Administration department and Peterborough Green Up member; and Tom Phillips, economy professor and Peterborough native. Jordan Pool, Gzowski College Cabinet President, moderated.

“We did purposely have a panel with some economic, some business, some cultural, some English lit and [the] store owner, so we could get a few different perspectives,” says Melanie Bundle, Gzowski College Senior Tutor.

In her role as President Pool aims to “tune into the community and see what kind of issues are coming up,” and the closing of Have You Seen... is an issue that is “important to the community and students.” Jordan set a goal of $1000 in order to buy some of the DVDs from the closing video store.

The DVDs can be checked out from the Alternative Resource Library in Sadleir House in the near future. Lady Eaton College has purchased some of the Nazi-themed DVDs, and Cavan-Monaghan Libraries purchased some of the Canadiana DVDs. Gibbs says that it is “an amazing silver lining that [the DVD collection] is still going to be there in some form.”

The talk was not a nostalgic lament about the loss of

a video store, or public figures gathered to gush over the amazing job Have You Seen... did, but a discussion about the ways consumers of media in Peterborough gather, interact, and explore each other’s experience. Each speaker eloquently brought up unique and overlapping points, to complement one another while bringing their own expertise to bear on a fruitful discussion about what made Have You Seen... work.

Zailig Pollock started by introducing the concept of “the useful conversation going on” at Have You Seen.... It was this “value added” that made the store more than a store, but a place of cultural exchange.

And the movies were not the only topic of conversation.

“Here is a video store without video screens”, said Foran as he made the point that the music, magazines, or books were as likely to be discussed as the movies on the shelf. You went in to be interested.

The loss was not the loss of a collection (because the movies that are not already on the Internet will be one day) it is the loss of the staff and customers who inform and shape your interests, and allow you to explore your own interests in contrast to theirs.

Zailig believes the Internet can use an algorithm to determine what you will like, with astonishing accuracy, but it will always be a closed circuit of your own interests, unless it has someone else’s interests to bump up against.

“It’s only through the communities of other people (their tastes, interests, and passions) that I was able to find this as a distinctive, interesting valuable and wonderful place,” says Ray Dart. And in this way Have You Seen… was “a gesture

letters

I hate to be one who is constantly nagging; however Arthur has once again raised my ire. I am referencing the front cover of Issue 16; further I do have some conflict which I will acknowledge.

I contacted Arthur, past the submission deadline, seeking to have the front page to be a poster for the Student National Day of Action February 1. In my ideal Arthur, it would have said “reduce fees, drop debt, raise funding, increase access” in fancy Helvetica font.

I was told, in more or less words: “Too late to rearrange the front page. So sad.”

Here I find, on this Monday afternoon, that Arthur chose to use the front page not as tool of student organising but instead as a tool for a really bad, and in poor taste, joke about how seventeen people died, while referencing popular concepts about Arthur’s demise. Important to note, the joke in question was regarding the Costa Concordia, which hit a reef 17 days ago (date of when Arthur hit the streets), or in Arthur-time two Issues ago.

This is not the first issue, of this volume, where this type of humour is a central theme.

Arthur needs to stop the negative-self talk, figure out their role in the Trent community, and finally figure out if they are fulfilling said-role. At which point, I suppose, the negative criticism will drop or be centered around debates of perspectives and content, in other words: healthy debate.

against fragmentation” says Foran.

Watching a film can be a very solitary thing, Foran points out, but the store was a knock against that in so far as you had to arrive in public and interact with the interests and tastes of others to select your movie. Without the coherent factor that was the taste of the staff and owners, home movie watchers are “adrift in a sea of choice” when it comes to surfing the Internet in order to catch a cinematic break.

Not only was Have You Seen… a great way to experience both high and low culture, it was a business model that worked for 10 years. And for Phillips and Dart, that was important to note. One of the more obvious lessons of economics is that businesses exist in communities and communities exist around “shared value” (Phillips).

The business was not financially viable, but Phillips is wondering whether the community will be. “Capitalism isn’t given to us or determined for us, it’s a social entity (and to the degree we have influence over it is a question)... it is founded in social relationships,” Phillips said.

Dart also spoke about other local business models that created and maintained communities: “make a business model that thrives because of the communities it creates” because it encourages “participation, not passivity.”

As the project to keep parts of the Have You Seen… collection moves forward, it is interesting to see the conversation move to different venues and it is important to keep Tom Phillips’ question of whether it was the business that was successful, or the community it created.

An audio version of the talk will be broadcast on Trent Radio 92.7 CFFF fm on Tuesday February 28th at 5pm.

Getting off!

local

Sexy Shananigans

By Miranda Rigby

Arthur humour not humorous

campus

The people of PARN know how to party.

As a regular attendee of Drag Bingo, I have been a witness to this on many occasions. PARN events always have a welcoming feeling for those new to attend, and they only ask you to check your sexual sensitivity at the door.

This coming weekend, PARN (Peterborough AIDs Resource Network) will be holding Valentine’s themed events for those so inclined. Both educational and fun, these events will get down with sex education in a way your Phys Ed teacher never did.

The first event will be a +25 women-only affair which explores sexuality in healthy ways. The event is titled the Art of Pleasure, and promises to be very artistic and pleasurable.

Later that same day Sexy Shananigans at the Sapphire Room will entertain a wider audience with games, sexy Q&A,, and door prizes.

The Sapphire Room 137 Hunter St W Doors 6:30P.M. $10 Mink Lake Rd. Band, All Girls Band and Getting Off and Getting Down presenting Tara McKee: 2012 answer to “Sex with Sue” Ages 19+

The Art of Pleasure Kawartha Endodontics 425 Water Street Doors 1:30P.M. $20 Women only space - self love and self care - tips & tricks what’s new in sex now - keeping it interesting negotiations and communication - orgasms for everyone Ages 25+

Brea Hutchinson

Volume 46 | Issue 17 | February 6, 2012

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campus

Trent University ModelUN representsin Montreal

By Chanel Christophe

“

The Trent delegation certainly made its presence felt among the over 1300 students at the January 26-29

conference, with one representative, Sheldon Willerton, receiving an honourable mention at the closing awards ceremony, for his representation of Qatar in the Joint Triple Crisis on Libya Committee.�

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It was the realization of months of hard work and planning when the group of 20 Trent University students made the six hour trek by bus from Peterborough to Montreal to take part in the twenty-first edition of the Model United Nations conference.

McGill’s McMUN drew participants from many of the Ivy League schools in the United States as well as top universities from across Canada. This then, was an ideal backdrop against which to see the revitalization and resurgence of the Model UN group at Trent which was spearheaded by fourth-year students Nejat Abdella and Gemma Edwin.

McMUN 2012 offered the delegates an opportunity to engage in provocative debates and simulations around major world issues. Representing different countries or individuals, the delegates had to argue positions on issues ranging from human rights, religion, development, economics, or even the Libyan crisis. Throughout the process the representatives learnt not only valuable debating and public speaking skills, but also the true nature of diplomacy as they were forced to work with other country or company representatives to draft and pass resolutions. This underscored for most of the delegates the importance of dialogue and diplomacy in an organisation like the UN, which has so many countries with divergent and often conflicting views and positions.

The Trent delegation certainly made its presence felt among the over 1300 students at the January 26-29 conference, with one representative, Sheldon Willerton, receiving an honourable mention at the closing awards ceremony, for his representation of Qatar in the Joint Triple Crisis on Libya Committee.

One other member of the contingent, Sarah Knowles, was part of the team which drafted a resolution that so impressed her Committee that they decided it was worthy of forwarding on to the actual UN committee.

With delegates representing 13 different countries, and the majority of students in first or second year, there is evidently great enthusiasm on the Trent Model UN team. Such diversity certainly augurs well for the continued success of the group here in Peterborough.

While there were some difficulties in funding the effort, with students having to cover some of the costs themselves, the delegates were committed to representing their university well and being proud ambassadors for their school. Their efforts will continue as a representative group has committed to paying their own way to represent Trent Model UN at the University of Toronto conference to be held later this month.

The next major stop after that will be the National Model UN in New York City in April.

Localmusicianreturnshome

By Matt Jarvis

Jonas Bonnetta used to live in Peterborough.

I remember him most for his beard, his energy, and my surprise at his apparent skateboarding prowess.

Jonas’ solokeyboard-guitar-looping-folk musical project “Evening Hymns” began here and has developed into a full ensemble including many notable national artists, touring credits from here to Luxembourg, and a critically acclaimed album on Toronto’s Out Of This Spark Records. He will be playing Friday February 10 at the Gordon Best Theatre (above the Only) with Bry Webb (Constantines), Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky), and Joe Fortin. Jonas spared a few moments to chat with Arthur about a few points of interest.

Arthur: Metaphor seems to be an especially strong aspect of your work; lines such as “lay my lips down to sleep” from your latest single.

Can you craft and explain a metaphor for your time in Peterborough?

J.B.: “Treading water” is maybe a good one but that’s certainly not original. My time in Peterborough was a special one. I was working four days a week at Artspace

and then had three days off to record and wander around. It was actually pretty amazing. I miss it. Wish I could’ve made more of my time there, creatively speaking.

Always thought that Peterborough was a great place to leave and a great place to come home to. I had a pretty cozy thing going for me there. I needed to get out before I got in too deep. It was quicksand hidden under a quilt. Moved there for a girl and then left for a girl. That’s how it always goes.

Arthur: The marketing aspect of your career as an artist focuses pretty strongly on rendering you as some sort of modern woodsman. In some cases this would be pure hyperbole, but in yours the shoe fits. Explain to us how a balance of urban and rural environments has influenced your work.

J.B.: Well I grew up on property in the country. That will always stick with me.

I love the city and the people but I can’t get much work done there. Too many distractions. The country offers me more solitude, isolation, quiet, and that helps calm my mind. It’s tough for me to do.

To write I need to have isolation and no distractions. I feel like when we’re touring we’re in these incredible cities all over the

world and it’s nice to come home from tour and escape to the woods where it’s quiet and there are less people. On the other hand, all our friends are in the city and it’s important to stay connected to Toronto in order to stay in the rat race that is the music biz. I’ll need to reverse my whole marketing scheme soon. I’ll tweet from the woods about how I’m stuck in traffic on the DVP. That way people will think I’m still in Toronto and caring about things.

Arthur: Community has been important to your development as an artist throughout your releases. Your upcoming effort “Spectral Dust” references collaboration with members of The Wooden Sky, Timber Timbre, City in Colour, and more. What is your process for refining so many perspectives into one direction?

J.B.: The people I choose to have play on my records are important. Their opinions are important to me and can help me see things from different perspectives, musically speaking. On the new record I wrote the songs and lyrics but some of the music was still undefined and with these collaborators we were able to refine songs and sew the music together. Sum of the parts I guess...

Everyone checks their ego at the door and

TheWorldisNotEnding

By Carmen Meyette

So here we are, 2012, supposedly the countdown is on to the end of the world. There are some excellently constructed theories and explanations on both sides of the debate. With all the physics-and-astrology babble flying around, I had to sit down and do some research for myself. This is what I’ve found.

At the forefront of the sandwich-board argument there is the ancient Mayan calendar, which ominously ends on December 21 2012. Since it is such a widely popular theory, science has gone ahead and poked a lot of holes in it.

For starters those who study Mayan civilization explain what exactly this calendar was to the Mayans. The Mayans had four calendars which each served specific needs. For example, “The Round Calendar” spanned about 52 years, similar to the approximate life time of an individual. It was used to chronicle day to day life events for people.

However, when the desire to chronicle historical events or mark days which might be more than 52 years in the future arose, a new system was required. Hence, the long count calendar hailed by conspiracy theorists.

Historians tell us the calandar’s end is not likely intended to say “this calendar will end at doomsday,” but it is more likely intended to say “you can’t possibly have wanted to plan something more than 5126 years in the future. When I end, start over”.

Furthermore, it is difficult to translate time events on the ancient calendar into time frames on our modern (Gregorian) calendar.

Still, conspiracy theorists insist the Mayan end date can be trusted because of the Maya’s known obsession with astrology and impressive-for-their-time skill at studying the sky.

Scientists point out that there are concerns that some of their reference points may have been based on mistakes.

For example, the date of a particular battle was set by the position of Venus, which some modern researchers believe may actually have been a meteor. This would mean that while the Maya’s could recognize and usually follow Venus, in terms of this particular event, they got their date mixed up by a misidentification of Venus, throwing off our ability to place this event on their calendar.

I tried to go through a number of theories, including “In December 2012 Earth will be in perfect alignment with a huge black hole in the milky way”, “the Sun’s magnetic shield is weakening, allowing it’s solar flares to escape and reach us” (no I’m not kidding, some people think that), “Our magnetic field is weakening so solar flares will knock out our power grid and a series of natural disasters will be sparked”, and (one of my personal favourites) “The Earth is going to stop spinning, then start spinning the other way, so quickly that enormous earth quakes and tsunami’s will be caused and they will wipe society out.”

I once fancied going through these individually, picking out highlights and debunking them (or supporting them, had science warranted it) on a personal, individual basis, much as I have done with the Mayan Calendar story above.

I was stopped from doing this when scientists (mostly from NASA, as so much of this is astronomically based) responded to each conspiracy in a way too similar to be repeated for each scenario. It all comes down to “science” as a whole collective body saying to the panic-inducing and the panicked alike: Stop being ridiculous.

If that little phrase isn’t comforting enough however, here’s some of the logic that it’s based on.

Geophysicists have a habit of examining rocks, dug up from deep within the Earth, to learn what the atmosphere was like when that particular rock was at the surface. In this process they can examine the metal in the rocks, and the position of that metal, to determine the magnetic atmosphere of the Earth at that time. It is through this process that we have learned the Earth’s poles can flip.

They don’t do so on a whim; usually only once every 200,000 years… except they haven’t actually flipped since about 780,000 years ago. Conclusions to be drawn from this are that yes, we’re sort of due for a pole reversal because it’s happened before but remember, life on Earth went on. It did not destroy the planet or life on the planet.

Ah-ha! So the poles will reverse! Yes. They will. Our magnetic shield today is indeed approximately 10% weaker than it was when we first began measuring it in 1831. We recognize the weakening of the shield as the beginning of a process during which the shield will dissolve into multiple magnetic North and South poles which will all travel sporadically before the shield begins to strengthen again

arts works for the song. I always explain the idea of the song and where I’m hoping it ends up, or how it fits into the overall theme of the record. Then we move from there and find our way through it.

Arthur: Why should we come to your Gordon Best show on the 10th?

J.B.: Well I’m living up in Perth right now writing new music. I have a new record complete and hoping to make another one in the next six months. I’m going to play a bunch of new stuff on the 10th. Oh, and I’m playing solo, which I never do. Come watch me fall apart and mess things up.

More importantly, come early and watch Joe Fortin. I think he is the best songwriter to come out of Peterborough in a really long time. His new record, that I’m helping release on my label Shuffling Feet Records, is a stunner and I can’t wait for people to hear it. Gavin and Bry are two of my favourite writers in the world too. It’s a pretty awesome night. I might just not play and sit at the bar and watch those dudes instead. If you need me I’ll be drinking a growler of Square Nail Pale Ale up in the balcony.

Friday February 10, 9pm, $10 advance/$15 at the door.

More info/music at eveninghymns.com

opinion

and voila! As it strengthens one single North pole and one single South pole will prevail, and they will be in positions opposite to where they are now.

There’s no need for us to be alarmed though, because this process will take thousands of years; we who are living now, without some speedy fantastic miracle medical breakthrough, will not be able to witness the pole switching, or even the period of multiple travelling poles, for that matter. We’re kind of here for the boring part.

So as the Earth’s shield weakens, and problems with our Ozone layer continue, we are at a risk for some solar flare activity. This is not expected to end us though. We should see some increased aurora activity (aka more pretty Northern lights) and be prepared to handle a few power glitches. Again, nothing that should wipe out life on Earth.

Furthermore, various scientists would like the general public to know that the black hole which will reportedly be in line with on December 21 2012 will not affect us; it’s been there for a while, and we’re fine. Being “in line” with it is not expected to change that.

They also inform us that “Planet X” also called “Niburu” does not exist. Plain and simple. It’s not real, so it cannot hit us and thusly will not destroy us.

We should be able to recognize that if there was a planet, meteoroid, asteroid, super nova, black hole or other space thing that was causing us danger, we would see it coming.

We have huge telescopes stationed around the world which are operated by numerous highly educated people, likely more educated than many of the conspiracy theorists, and certainly more educated than I, who dedicate their adult lives to knowing when we are in danger, and figuring out how to get us out of danger. If they’re not panicking, I’m not so sure I need to be.

But just in case you aren’t finding my calm contagious, you can browse Google and find that there are hundreds of websites and ”documentaries” dedicated to explaining why science is wrong or how the truth is being hidden from us.

You can purchase any number of expensive gadgets and lastforever-store-up-a-few-years-worth kind of food. You can also invest in a secret bunker in a remote location which will shield you from any cosmic disaster. You and your family can stay safe, eat fake preserved food, and survive the end of the world, for just a few million dollars.

Volume 46 | Issue 17 | February 6, 2012

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campus

Health and Safety on Campus Minimizing hazards, maximizing awareness

By Cornel Grey

Trent University has been on a campaign for the past couple of weeks to promote health and safety on campus.

The Risk Management office created a competition whereby “all members of the Trent community” can play his/her part in promoting, enacting and applying healthy and safe practices on Trent grounds.

Whether as a team or as an individual, participants are encouraged to assess their surroundings, find a hazard and come up with a plan of mitigating the effects that such a hazard may have on those who are on campus. Entries are due by the February 15 and the competition offers several prizes, some of which include a red parking permit, $250 Gift Certificate for the Trent University Bookstore, and a Kobo eReader.

The Arthur wanted to derive a more complete understanding of the motivations that led to this campaign of sorts so we spoke to Bill Gibson, Occupational

ees at Trent aware of the various steps that aid supplies on request. should be taken to prevent and/or mitigate hazards on campus and what else can be done The movement is a step in the right direction. All of us as students, employees, Arthur (A): What was the motive for to promote safety at Trent University? creating a competition centred around BG: Basic safety training is provided to and community members have a part to health and safety on the Trent cam- all University employees with additional play in creating an environment in which pus? Was it to encourage student in- training for hazards specific to various we all feel safe when going about our daily volvement or to promote an overall types of work. Students receive informa- business and it is always a good thing when awareness of safety practices in general? tion from various sources including course administrators are able to facilitate direct involvement from students on matters Bill Gibson (BG): Both. We are trying to instructors, housing, health services, and such as these. promote overall awareness and encourage risk management, and through websites, However, I would also argue that more all members of the University to work to- e-mails, and posters. Information is also needs to be done. The competition focuses available on the web: www.trentu.ca/riskgether to improve safety on campus. on the three following categories:lab safety, management.

A: The competition encourages applicants office safety, and general safety. I’m curto find a safety concern that exists on Trent A: On a related note, are there adequate rently trying to discern whether or not property, is the office thereby implicitly stat- first aid kits stationed on campus? Our the issue of accessibility comes to play in a ing that there are weaknesses in the safety office received a report of one individual situation such as this. Some students have infrastructure of the institution? having a hard time finding a mere band- expressed concerns about the extent to which the Symons campus is (sufficiently) BG: No. It never hurts to raise awareness aid. and try to find ways of improving safe- BG: Over the past several years we have accessible for wheelchair-bound students. ty. The goal is constant improvement. distributed over 200 first aid kits to various In this case, would an impediment to mobility be considered a hazard worth fixing?

A: To what extent are students and employ- departments on campus and provide first Health and Safety Officer at Trent University.

community

Reframecloses withaSlam[ba]!

Photos by Andrew Tan

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Feb 1

Students fight back for their education

Photos by Andrew Tan

By Pat Reddick

This Wednesday February 1 Arthur was proud to attend the National Day of Action. 200 people were in attendance in Peterborough and 300,000 attended nationwide. Demonstrators marched from City Hall to Jeff Leal’s office where they were met by Jeff himself. The goal of the protest was to highlight problems with the recently implemented tuition credit, among other concerns. Jeff was presented with 24 cupcakes adorned with dollar values indicating how most students are actually losing money. TCSA Vice President of Student Affairs Brea Hutchinson reports “Jeff Leal [stated] that the grant is insufficient and doesn’t address the needs of many, and most importantly, a very large portion of engaged and active first-year students.” Brea also reports that “half of those in attendance were first-year students.”

Volume 46 | Issue 17 | February 6, 2012

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column

Arts

CanadiansforMining Awarenessattendthe Reframefilmfestival

Reframefilmfestival Arthur’s Andrew Tan went

By Natalie Guttormsson

Speed.

Progress is speed.

Oil = progress, therefore oil must be produced faster.

Wait.

Speed is progress?

Whether you’re a tortoise or a hare, moving from here to there, progress is simply progress, don’t get caught in the mess.

And oil is anything but speedy It moves as slow as molasses.

Progress really means: stop being greedy.

So consume less oil and natural gases, and we’ll all be more happy and tweedy.

If there was a main message driven home by the films shown at the Re-Frame film festival it was to consume less, slow down, listen, and love each other. Take the film “On the Line” for example. I cannot count how many conversations I have had with people across this country about the insanely rapid push for Oil Sands expansion. I have shown my friends on maps the planned routes for pipelines. I have had intense discussions about land, consultation processes, risks, the economy, China, whales, and the list goes on.

Sometimes person-to-person conversations just do not get anywhere. But when a film like “On the Line” comes out—mixing adventure travelling, normal conversations, humour, breathtaking scenery and stark facts—sometimes this medium is far more effective than talking.

I can write articles until my finger joints no longer work properly and I will never be able to convince everyone that pipelines are dangerous and not worth the risk in areas of high vulnerability. However, this failure by my words can be remedied with a movie, a documentary. So I am encouraging everyone this year to listen more and to watch more documentaries. Learning is not isolated to a classroom or a textbook.

One of the many local venues: Showplace

Reception after Opening Show

Many volunteers gather to help with merchandise

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Spin by Evelyn Perry

By Brian Lukaszewicz

It’s Oscar season! January is that wonderful time of year when Hollywood takes a break from releasing anything worth watching and allows us to finally catch up on all of the award season favourites from the year before.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of those holdovers, and I have to admit I was a little surprised when I heard about its nomination. Not because I had anything against the film in particular – hell, I hadn’t even seen it yet – it’s just that usually a Best Picture nominee gets nominated in that category in all of the many other awards ceremonies leading up to the big show. Save for a few acting nominations, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close wasn’t. Not even for a Golden Globe, and they split their Best Picture category between comedies and dramas. Long story short: it came pretty much out of left field.

So is it worthy of the honour? Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is told from the point of view of Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), a young New Yorker, whose father

(Tom Hanks) was killed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11. When he finds a key hidden in a vase amongst his father’s things he sets out to find what it unlocks, hoping that it might extend his time with his father a little longer.

The film can sometimes fail to tackle the weight of its subject matter head on. You have to forgive it every now and then for a few convenient aspects of its story. But I’d argue that was a deliberate choice made by the filmmakers.

We’re witnessing this story through the eyes of a child and a certain amount of innocence is to be expected. In fact, it’s often that innocence that makes the film so endearing (and heartbreaking).

Indeed, the real heart of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is in its father/son story. It can feel a little scattered at times the way it jumps back and forth between past and present, but it’s this style that delivers some of its most poignant moments. While the flashbacks to that day can be heart wrenching, director Stephan Daldry does a great job of connecting Oskar’s journey to his own personal growth

arts

ExtremelyLoudandIncrediblyClose aTouchingFather-SonStory

and provides a lot of hope in the process.

The film also benefits from several strong performances from the cast. Thomas Horn proves himself quite capable of carrying the movie. Hanks is likeable as always, despite having a limited amount of screen time. Even Sandra Bullock puts in a good showing in her first film since The Blind Side. And then there’s Max Von Sydow, the lone actor nominated for the film, who does a spectacular job playing a mysterious mute man that Oskar befriends.

While I highly doubt that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has any chance of winning come Oscar night, I also can’t think of too many movies this year that unequivocally deserve the nomination in its place. With 10 possible spots in the Best Picture category there are plenty of movies that could have slid into one of those fringe nominations. Who’s to say this one didn’t deserve one of them?

Nerddayiscoming,don yoursuspenders

By Caileigh Morrison

On February 9, it’s time to sharpen your samurai swords, take the protective plastic off your comic books, dust off your action figure collection, and emerge from your mother’s basement to gather for Trent Radio’s finest annual event: Geek Day! Regular programming will be cancelled for the day to make room for all the geeks to let their geek flags fly and broadcast their geekery to the world. When the on-air antics come to an end, all the geeks and their allies will make their way to Sadleir House for a geeky pub night complete with board games and beer. Yippee!

What exactly is a geek, you ask? Here are some highly scientific definitions I have blatantly copied from Wikipedia: A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person’s smooth operation within society.

A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. Geeks are adept with computers, and use the term hacker in a positive way, though not all are hackers themselves.

A person who relates academic subjects to the real world outside of academic studies; for example, using multivariate calculus to determine how they should

correctly optimize the dimensions of a pan to bake a cake.

A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who passionately pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.

A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest.

This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as "geeky" is heavily debated.

Persons have been labelled as or chosen to identify as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, music geeks, sport geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical re-enactment geeks, video game geeks, and role play geeks.

A more recent school of thought sees nerd as being a derogatory phrase, while geek is simply a description. It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum. It may also describe immersion in a particular mainstream interest to an extreme that is beyond normalcy (e.g. sports

3.5/5

geek). Of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.

Although geek is a term that many shy away from because of its negative connotations, geekery really can be cool.

It’s all about passion, and who doesn’t have something to be passionate about? Embrace your love for Dungeons and Dragons! Rattle on about your rock collection! Join the debate over Who was the best Doctor! Get your geek groove on!

Column If you’re still too shy to proudly proclaim your geekiness, then at least tune in to Trent Radio (92.7 FM in Peterborough or online anywhere in the world) on February 9th.

Although as of press time the line-up has not been confirmed, you can expect some awesome shows, including Text Adventure Call-in, Greying Geeks and, of course, a game of Dungeons and Dragons played live, on-air. May the force be with you, friends.

Volume 46 | Issue 17 | February 6, 2012

9

Culture

WhatDoYouDoWith Yourself? AMisfit VisitsHome A Cultural Studies Lecture Series Review

By Zach Ruiter

Heroin and cocaine may enjoy popular stigma but “I bet there is no real heroin in Peterborough” says Christopher Smith, arguing it is not the drug but the “risks carried in the methods of administration”

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that are problematic.

According to Smith, in Ontario, many addicts use prescription painkillers or methadone. Methadone is a synthetic opioid the government sanctions as treatment, originally developed by Nazis after the Allies cut off their supply of opium.

Smith graduated Trent in 2001, but touched back down to Scott House at Traill College. Smith is between a post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania, and a tenure track position that is on the other side of the world in Australia.

Smith’s lecture “The Intoxication of Narcotic Modernity” was recently published in article form in the Journal of Transgressive Culture. An evening with Smith was a fitting addition to what were known as the Thursday “Meth” Lectures hosted by the Cultural Studies TCP (Theory Culture Politics), the grad program that used to be called ‘Methodologies’.

Smith has excellent punk manners, wearing a t-shirt reading “Hustler of Culture”, the intense blink and stare of his icy blue eyes contrasted his hair - shaved on at the back and both sides save for an orange mane he continually repositions over his forehead to rest behind one of his ears as he speaks.

Smith is the prodigal love child of Cultural Studies bad boys Alan O’Connor and Ian McLachlan. Were it not for access to these professors Smith may have derailed as an undergraduate. He credited and thanked Alan and Ian “for where I am today with a tenure track job”.

“F---, holy s---, I lost my place” said Smith as he fiddled with his Powerpoint presentation. Smith explained how late capitalist urban space makes the human body a “gap-littered space of semiotic disorientation”. For Smith the evidence can be found in expressions; scattered, falling apart, going to pieces, being misfit, out of line, out of shape, all over the place, and carried away.

To Smith, the lines of capitalist consumer culture go in the straight and narrow direction.

Smith argues the everyday experience of modernity is about “transit, speed, and direction” whereas on drugs, or “prosthetic media”, you can “depart the rail lines of capitalism’s conquered frontiers”.

Smith not only reads between these lines of modern expressions but also writes, “tracing the non-linear migration of slippage, the expressions grasping for air and unable to come up for breath signal the alltoo-familiar thrashing beneath the surface of normative capitalist social relations symptomatic of the everyday abstractions subsumed as ‘poverty’, ‘homelessness’ and ‘addiction’”.

Smith has spent a lot of time on the streets studying the social consequence of urban planning and has published articles such as ‘Harm Reduction as Anarchist Practice’ in the Journal of Critical Public Health.

The professors and grad students in the room seemed to be quite pleased that one of their own was on a tenure track.

Listings Rockabilly from The Lorhwoods and indie/ folk with New Nobles Feb 8 Wire Wednesdays “Indie Music’ Showcase 9PM till 11PM at the Red Dog Trent Film Society presents Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967), Wednesday, February 8th, 8pm, Artspace, 378 Aylmer Street, Free. From Criterion: “In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture – with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology – maverick director Jean-Piere Melville’s masterpiece Le Samouraï defines cool.”

The Employment Fair will be held on Wednesday, February 8th in the athletics centre gymnasium at Trent University. This will be one of our largest events yet, with over 45 organizations already registered and hundreds of students planning on attending. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to recruit passionate, educated individuals from Trent. If you wish to register for this event please contact Danielle DeVries at careers@trentu.ca The Spoon is Hiring! The Seasoned Spoon Café is a not-for-profit cooperative that serves locally grown, organic food at Trent University. We are looking to hire OWSP eligible students to work 7 hours/week in our kitchen. Students must be returning to Trent in September. Application deadline is Thursday, February 9th at 5pm. For more information go to www.seasonedspoon.com.

Seasoned Spoon Strategic Planning Sessions We need a plan to revolutionize the food system! Share your best ideas, critiques, and dreams to create a strategic plan that will guide the Seasoned Spoon’s approach to changing the food system. Have some thoughts? Come participate in the discussion. The Spoon is your oyster! Snacks provided. Thursday, Feb. 9th, 2pm-4pm and Tuesday, Feb. 14th, 2pm-4pm in the Spoon.

“Its not easy being green: News from the front-line on Rob Fords war on the environment”: Trent department of political studies educational talk given by Franz Hartmann, PhD, executive director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance. On Thursday February 9th, 2012 from 2-4pm in the Champlain living and learning commons above the seasoned spoon cafe, Trent University, Symons campus. The cost is FREE and there will be food provided. For more information contact Nadine Changfoot, Department of Political Studies at nadinechangfoot@trentu.ca 5th Annual Showcase During Black History Month: “CELEBRATING DIFFERENCE” @ THE VENUE, in Peterborough, ON. On February 11 at 9pm. Presented By: AFRICVILLE PRODUCTIONS and THEBESTHIPHOP.COM Tickets: ONLY $10 ALL AGES and Licensed Alcohol Areas/dance floor. Tickets Available at: The Venue, Flavour Fashion, TRENT U/ TCSA Office, Dreams Of Beans Robyn Cunningham and special guest Dave Bidini Feb 15 Wire Wednesdays “Indie Music’ Showcase 9PM till 11PM at the Red Dog “After the Ball is over…a post valentine’s Gay Nineties Feast” -gourmet beef tenderloin dinner at St Andrew’s United Church, 441 Rubidge St, Peterborough, 705-745-2722, Saturday February 18th, 2012, 6pm, Guest soloist is Bonnie Pegler, with a sing-a-long. Tickets are $25 each, or $30 with a glass of wine.

The Havelock TEACH Centre is hosting its 4th annual Soup And Dessert Competition on Family Day, February 20, 2012 at the Havelock Community Centre. The event will begin at 1pm with FREE skating, followed with a soup and dessert competition and dessert auction. Chefs, both restaurant and hometown, are invited to enter a soup and/or dessert. For more information please call the Havelock

TEACH Centre at (705) 778-7873 or email at brookewrightly@gmail.com Peterborough NDP Riding Association AGM Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 5-7pm Lions’ Centre, 347 Burnham Street (just off Hunter Street East) Our annual general meeting and 2012 Executive Election. If you are interested in running for an Executive position please contact Alissa Paxton (alissa.paxton@gmail.com) or Mike Epp (michaelepp@yahoo.com) for more details. The meeting will be followed by a meet & greet with federal leadership candidates.

NDP Federal Leadership Candidate Meet & Greet Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 7-9pm Lions’ Centre, 347 Burnham Street (just off Hunter Street East) Come out to meet candidates for the NDP Federal Leadership. Everyone welcome! This event will be preceded by the Peterborough Riding Association AGM 5-7pm.

Relay for Life is a 12-hour charity even to raise money for cancer research. The event begins at 7 pm and runs all night until 7 am. Relay for Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones, and fight back against cancer. Trent University will be running our very own Relay for life on March 23rd in the Athletics Complex. For more information about Relay for Life please contact the Relay for Life chair Holly Ottenhof at hollyottenhof@trentu. ca or myself the Survivor chair Brittany Williams at brittanywilliams@trentu.ca.

Also, feel free to stop by at our information booth outside of Wenjack Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays leading up to the event.

We can do it! Everyone is welcome to join and participate in Occupy Peterborough at our General Assembly every Saturday from 2pm-4pm at Sadleir House.

Facebook: OccupyPtbo | Twitter: @OccupyPtbo | Email: occupyptbo@gmail.com.

Let’s build a better world through consensus!

make a one-on-one appointment with an academic skills instructor to brush up on the necessary skills for success at university. Discuss ways to manage your time better, or techniques to improve your listening, note taking, reading, writing and math skills. Bring an essay or lab you are working on for tips to improve it. Call 705-748-1720 to book your appointment or series of appointments.

Mock Interview: Participate in a Mock Interview! Get interview experience, get valuable feedback, network and meet professionals in a range of fields have your resume reviewed and targeted. Your first step is to attend one of our interview workshops happening on 3pm, February 14 at 10am, or March 8 at 10am.

Go to www.trentu.ca/careers to register for the workshops.

The Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre is looking for dedicated volunteers to provide Peer Support for the women and men calling our 24-Hour Crisis Line. Free Crisis Intervention Training will be held in February! For more information please call the Volunteer Service Coordinator 705-748-5901 or ksacvolunteers@ nexicom.net.

HU Song Contemplation Regardless of your beliefs or religion, you can sing HU to become happier and more secure in God’s love. Join us for a 20-30 minute contemplation, every 1st Monday of the month, 7:30pm Sadleir House, 751 George St. N. No charge.

Need $ for your theatre activity? Theatre Trent’s funding proposal deadline this month! Apply @ www.theatretrent. ca. We are welcoming new executive members to write cheques for theatre-makers and gain non-profit Board experience: you are needed.You are welcome to borrow props and costumes from the storage space at Sadleir House - email theatretrent@trentu.ca Students Helping Students: Are you a outstanding academic student? Are you looking for a meaningful volunteer expe-

rience? Are you hoping to build experience and demonstrate skills in leadership and supportive communication? Then look no further, the Peer Mentoring Program hopes that you will become a peer mentor. Check out www.trentu.ca/peermentoring or email peermentor@trent.ca for more information.

Tom Eastland is playing a solo acoustic set of original music as part of the Peterborough Acoustic Showcase at the Garnet, 213 Hunter Street West in Peterborough on Saturday night January 21st. Doors open at 9:30, line up is: Tom Duke with Sybil Herceg-Shanahan, Tom Eastland, then CL McEachern. This will be a show of original music, cost is $5.

On Thursday eve January 26th Tom Eastland will be entertaining at the Stinking Rose pub on Bridge Street in Campbellford. This will be a mix of familiar favourites and original material. Music starts at 8pm, no cover charge.

Send your listings in to listings@trentarthur.ca it’s free!

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Experienced Masters and PhD graduates can help! All subjects and levels, plus resumes, applications, and editing. Nursing, English, Business, Sociology and more! Call toll free 1-888-345-8295 or email customessay@bellnet.ca for a quote today! www. customessay.com

Tuesday Circus Art Jams: Come run away with the circus one night a week. Bring some circus toys or acts: hulahoop, poi, juggling, clown, dance, etc and come practice, share, and learn new circus skills. Don’t have any skills?

Come anyways! There are always extra toys and willing teachers. Takes place at the Sadlier House Dinning Room Tuesdays 7pm-10pm. PWYC Donation. So come and enjoy the fun!

Dance your Bones: Move freely to music from around the world. Every Thursday 6pm-8pm at All Saints Anglican Church Hall, 235 Rubidge St. Peterborough. The cost is $10 ( sliding down to $5). For more information please contact (705) 750-0411 Students - St John Ambulance is Canada’s leader in first aid training - We offer courses every weekend and many weekdays and weeknights. Renew your CPR in 1 evening - most courses include a student discount. If you need to renew your first aid certificate or take a course for the first time contact St John Ambulance 705 745-0331 sjapeterborough@bellnet.ca sja.ca 30 Crafts Market: a nonprofit initiative to support handcrafting and the connection between artisans/craftspersons and the general public in the Kawarthas.

This event is still open to crafters/artisans who would like to sell their goods. The market will be held May 12, 2012 in Peterborough Ontario. Booths are 15 dollars. To apply, visit 30craftsmarket.webs.com.

Need a Mid-Year Academic Skills Intervention? Feeling a little discouraged by your mid-year marks but not sure what to do about it? Satisfied with your marks but wanting to achieve the next level? February is a good time to

Volume 46 | Issue 17 | February 6, 2012

11

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