The Cascade Vol. 24 No. 1

ufvcascade.ca

Not a prophet or a stone age man / just a mortal since 1993

JANUARY 13. 2016 TO JANUARY 19, 2016 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 1

pages 10 to 11

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016 www.ufvcascade.ca

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

News Culture

08 12 1806

Opinion Arts

Jen Sookfong Lee will mentor students, hold workshops,

and — oh yeah — write

Newbies get a warm welcome to the winter semester

Your how-to guide for getting through the winter

The triumphs and shortcomings

of Tarantino’s latest

Writer-in-residence New Student OrientationSurviving the semester The Hateful Eight

The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published ev-ery Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of over 50 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature.Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only.Articles and letters to the editor must be typed. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cas-cade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition.Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.

Drew BergenSultan JumTerrill Smith

Raynah McIvorRachel Tait

Volume 24 · Issue 1Room S2111

33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC

V2S 7M8 604.854.4529

Cover image: Brittany CardinalPrinted By International Web exPress

STAFFEditor-in-ChiefMichael [email protected]

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Arts in Review EditorMartin [email protected]

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016www.ufvcascade.ca

EDITORIAL

Just before the winter break, on Canada’s east coast, Ron Srigley had his Howard Beale moment. “It is about time we all said ‘enough,’” Srigley wrote in his essay for the LA Review of Books, the last exasperated fist-slamming moment, the end of a marathon checklist of Everything Wrong with Higher Education.

Though Srigley writes like he’s the first to have the epiphany, he is not the first to voice these complaints: slipping grading standards in the classroom; a product-driven spotlight swing from the humanities to professional training; the rise of the administrative, corporate-run institution; and the death, or side-lining, of the professor’s ability to teach advanced material due to the erosion of the K-12 student’s pre-university education, pathetic reaches for relevancy over timeless ideas (“the Disneyfication of course offerings”), or both. Sure, some of these are more prominent now, but some of them show up in the mostly 1930s-set

classic campus novel Stoner: students are pushed through despite not completing coursework, administrative grudges create animosity among faculty, and first-year students, somehow, just aren’t thrilled to take an English requirement that a professor uses to lecture on subjects unrelated to basic essay writing.

But what caught my eye is that Srigley is very specific in his complaints: though a lot of his argument comes with the air of the crank dusting off a manuscript that contains within it the lost golden age of an ideal life-changing education, Srigley also knows a fair amount about the landscape of Canadian education.

“A word about which universities I have in mind, because not all universities are the same,” he writes. “I wish to speak about third- and fourth-tier Canadian schools that are primarily undergraduate institutions. Historically, these schools have had few graduate programs and have focused their curriculum on the liberal arts and sciences. Today they are abandoning this tradition at an alarming rate in favor of professional programs like engineering, nursing, education, and business.”

Srigley speaks generally, so he doesn’t know the history of UFV, which is that it has included professional programs for decades (though the recent emphasis on trades funding linked to specific jobs by the provincial government is undeniable). UFV began as a regional college, built to serve its community, and agriculture, among other subjects, was a large part of that. It has since transitioned to a university, but is very young, lacking a large number of programs beyond the undergraduate level, and so while it has a good reputation in some circles, is not often a young student’s first choice, so long as they’re

dreaming about where their good grades might take them. UFV is also fragmented, with multiple campuses, a very small residence, and schedule-limiting course offerings for some majors — all factors that insulate students from being part of a broader atmosphere of study. In other words, UFV is almost exactly the kind of place Srigley is describing as deeply flawed, on the wrong track.

Srigley’s essay is remarkably ungracious and condescending. He throws his colleagues under the bus, suggests that students are too stupid to possibly know what they’re missing out on, and obviously loathes any intrusion by administrators into academic matters. One episode he recounts has him wheeling around his classroom, admonishing his phone-staring students before delivering a speech that is both despairing and just a little grandiose: “You’re not here to read books! You know as well as I do that that is not the point, not the reason you’re here. You’re here to have fun, to have lots of cool social and personal experiences, to ‘get a degree’ and perhaps acquire a couple of employable skills along the way. But you are not here to learn or to become more intelligent. What’s worse, no one cares if you do or don’t! So why the hell am I wasting my time? Why are you?”

Still, if you can look past the hurt, frustrated-genius style of the whole thing, there’s some points in the essay that are, in a way, valuable and true. Students often don’t read assigned texts; or at least they don’t do so completely and on schedule. Many people care if a student fails or is held back; very few care if they personally develop and mature as a result of a university education, something not even an extra-curricular list can prove happens. And, in a way, the whole essay is a result, a sign, of what happens when a professor feels they can’t communicate within a university community.

On the first two notes, I don’t think a tirade quoting Camus and Sophocles will convince students otherwise that a run through the canon is important. Sean Michael Morris, director of the Digital Pedagogy Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, responded online, saying that, Srigley’s disillusionment and chagrin aside, the difference

between a professor who reaches students and one who can’t is entirely based on the nature of their relationship, not the force of their points or even their freedom from YouTube and PowerPoint and Prezi (though in some cases it might help): “It is when we don’t make learners into colleagues that we falsify the educative process for them and for ourselves. We fail to be Professors and become instead merchants peddling our wares to buyers who have better things to do.” Morris isn’t suggesting that students should, as some have interpreted it, direct the classroom, but that they and the professor are people with equal capacity as thinkers and readers. When that’s recognized (and Srigley’s essay is completely lacking in a spirit of collegiality), a class can become more interesting than a time-killing conversation.

As for the administrative side of things, it’s worth noting Srigley wrote a similar essay (though much shorter, and he doesn’t call the whole operation a big, ugly joke) in 2012 for Education Canada, a quarterly magazine. And nothing changed, so his distaste grew, and he collected more examples to use against the state of the contemporary university.

Based on the reception of the LA Review of Books piece, other professors feel the same way. It isn’t a giant stretch to consider that some at UFV might feel similarly limited, that students are naive, intellectual life is slipping backward, everything has a price attached, and things are generally thin, hope-wise, when faculty are considered just one piece of an ever-growing pie chart.

Morris writes: “Even in the most encouraging conversations with the most enthusiastic teachers, dissatisfaction lies just one rhetorical turn away. I’m certain that my teachers complained about me, your teachers complained about you, and Ron Srigley’s teachers complained about him.” In the same way, it often comes down to something as simple as rhetoric, as openness to real communication that can improve a place of work and learning. Srigley’s example probably isn’t the step forward any university today would want to take. But it exists as an extreme point of reference for how things can get.

A professor opens his window and yellsPEI prof says universities are lost in the woods, intellectually. Are they?

MICHAEL SCOULAREDITOR-IN-CHIEF

UFV IS ALMOST EXACTLY THE KIND OF PLACE SRIGLEY IS DESCRIBING AS

DEEPLY FLAWED, ON THE WRONG TRACK

“

NEWS BRIEFS

UFV restaurant manager resigns

ABBOTSFORD — Cameron Stephen, manager of The Canoe, the Student Union Society-run restaurant in the SUB, resigned from the position Monday afternoon. No immediate reason was given. Stephen’s resignation follows the recent resignation of SUS VP internal Ricky Coppola and the departure of services director Shane Potter (see page four).

Provincial government will not support Trans

Mountain pipeline expansion proposal

VICTORIA (CBC) — Writing to the National Energy Board, the province of British Columbia laid out, over 140 pages, its argument for why it cannot support the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, a project that has been strongly opposed in multiple communities, including a major protest in Burnaby last year. Citing concerns with the proposed standards of leak detection, spill prevention, planning for response to a spill, spill preparedness, and response to a marine spill, the province is clearly adding one reason to oppose the pipeline’s moving forward, a decision that will ultimately be up to the NEB.

The Cascade wins two awards for

student journalism

TORONTO — Two John H. MacDonald awards, given at the annual conference of Canadian University Press member newspapers, were awarded to The Cascade last Saturday. The paper was not in attendance, because it was in production on a new issue of the newspaper. Vanessa Broadbent and Alex Rake won for best Labour Writing for their feature article on sessional instructors at UFV, and Kodie Cherrille won for best Humour Writing for his satire inspired by recent UFV renovations.

Illustration: Sultan Jum

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NEWS

Plans to add a health centre to the Abbotsford campus’ Student Union Building are moving forward, with a tentative opening date of fall 2016. As currently planned, the health centre will open for two days a week to start.

“The health centre is going to be an on-campus health centre / medical centre [and] first point of contact for students on campus,” Student Union Society (SUS) president Thomas Davies explained.

The purpose of the health centre will be to provide a regular clinic for students that don’t have their own.

“Access to family physicians is tough in this region, and many people are using walk-in clinics. And there are wonderful doctors there, but there’s not the same familiarity,” Davies says. “For domestic students, it will provide an easy, accessible place that they can regularly go if they don’t have a family physician, or even if they just need someone on campus when they’re here.”

Domestic students aren’t the only ones that SUS hopes will take advantage of the new centre. Davies explains that international students who don’t have a regular doctor of their own in Canada will benefit from the service as well.

“For international students who are coming, and of course don’t have a resident place to go, it will provide a very easy location to get the base line medical services at no cost — it’s part of the services offered,” he says.

The centre will function as a basic general practice (GP) office, but SUS is working with UFV’s counselling department to bring in psychologists as well. The centre will provide care in six areas of health: psychological and

emotional health, sexual and reproductive health, routine medical care, pre-existing conditions, sports medicine, and vaccination services.

The centre, which will be on the third floor of the Student Union Building, will be structured like a regular health clinic.

“It’ll be like a small doctor’s office,” Davies says. “You’d come in and there’d be a reception area, a desk, some waiting chairs, and two examination rooms.”

The service will be no extra cost to students. All costs will be covered by the province, and students will have access to health care by providing a BC Care Card.

“You see the doctor, and the doctor bills the medical system for seeing you,” Davies says. “When that bill comes back, part of that goes to the doctor, directly paying the doctor, and part of that goes to the clinic, paying for receptionist, the basic equipment supplies. That’s the model followed by all public doctor’s offices, and the same principle will be applied here.”

SUS began the planning process for the health centre in 2014, and had help from a business research class on campus to get student feedback. Over time, Davies notes that the plans for the centre have changed.

“It just wasn’t sustainable, what we were doing at that time, so it went on the back burner,” he said. “It wasn’t working out at that time.”

But with some help from UFV faculty members, including Joanne MacLean, the dean of health sciences, and Dr. Darin Cherniwchan, a local travel doctor, the centre’s plans are now nearly realized.

“[Dr. Cherniwchan] saw how he could help develop this, and that’s how it moved to the proposal that we now have,” Davies says.

While the centre will have registered medical

professionals on-site at all times when it is open, Davies is hoping to work further with the Faculty of Health Sciences to create opportunities for students to complete their practical training.

“[Health science students] have practical training requirements, and we can rotate them through the health clinic to provide them experience and, of course, serve students as well,” he says.

Although SUS will focus on providing training for UFV students, there is potential that the centre could also serve as a training ground for UBC residency students, due to Dr. Cherniwchan’s work with UBC’s medical program.

While a free health centre will be new to UFV, it’s common at other universities. Larger schools, like UBC and McGill, have hospitals on campus, and many smaller universities also provide health care services to students. Each university’s medical practices vary; Davies notes that “Everyone tries something a little different depending on what specifically they need. For us, we’re starting small, just by doing the basic GP style services which are in demand here and people need access to.”

While the centre won’t be nearly as large as UBC’s or McGill’s, Davies can see it expanding in the future based on student demand.

“We’re going to be continually assessing what’s suited here, and then looking [at] how other people have done it successfully and drawing on those experiences,” he said.

With over 6,000 students on UFV’s Abbotsford campus each semester, Davies can see student demand increasing, but he believes that starting small is in the best interest

of students at this time. “We are starting small deliberately; we’re not

trying to build a new medical centre because that would be a risk,” he says. “By starting small and anticipating that the demand will be high for the scope that it is, it’ll be able to expand in the days and times being offered and services, as campus dictates.”

Health centre to open on campus in the fallVANESSA BROADBENTTHE CASCADE

After more than three years with the Student Union Society, Shane Potter is leaving his position as services director for another job, which will take him out of the province. (Potter declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Potter leaves behind a campus changed in two significant ways as a result of his term as president, from 2012-14: he piloted the idea of a campus shuttle connector during his campaign for president, and also realized the long-stagnant, expensive project of a Student Union Building, following negotiations with UFV administration and a revised, more realistic timeline for completion.

Potter was first opposed to aspects of the SUB project. In 2011, he led a “No” campaign against a referendum that would open a $10 million loan to ensure financing on the SUB ahead of

its construction. “I just don’t understand it … You should spend the money we already have and build something simple, not this extravagant project,” he said, at the time a student representative for Senate. In a follow-up op-ed in The Cascade, Potter appealed to the student body. “This isn’t like the little high school political club or yearbook group at grade school or something; these guys are spending your money,” he wrote, before closing with a cynical realization: getting students to vote in SUS elections is often a losing battle. “Ninety-five per cent of you just don’t care and don’t vote.”

The mortgage passed, but when SUS president Carlos Vidal stepped down 10 months later to take a job in Hong Kong, Potter took on the post in an interim position, leaving him with a funded building almost a decade in waiting. At the time of its first proposal in 2007, approved in a student referendum, the SUS claimed “building on the Abbotsford campus is intended

to be finished in two-four years.”The SUB, though it failed to meet Potter’s

original goal of Fall 2014, opened at the beginning of this academic year’s fall semester.

The Abbotsford-Chilliwack connector, meanwhile, has seen two expansions, one to meet to demand, and another to add service to Langley, as well as service during the summer.

During his term as president, Potter also completely re-structured the SUS’s management. “The Student Union Society (SUS) has become stagnant; we have not grown with the university,” he wrote, introducing his ideas in The Cascade two years ago.

After his term completed, Potter was hired as services director, a newly created position that put him in charge of some of the services he introduced, a decision that was met with controversy. Current president Thomas Davies says the hiring process has now begun with Potter’s departure; as of press time there has yet

to be an updated job posting on the SUS website.Before his time as president, Potter was

also a semi-regular contributor to these pages, writing short opinion pieces on topics as wide-ranging as placebo-effect bracelets and a semi-serious primer on roundabouts. “Perception is not something that comes with your car, but something you’ve had the power to do all along, like Dorothy’s ability to return to Kansas,” he wrote.

The decision to make Potter president in the first place almost never happened: after Vidal’s surprise resignation, Potter was voted in on a second-attempt blind-vote, the first attempt ending in a tie. “I know we don’t always agree on everything, but I respect all of your opinions and I’m thankful for the things we’ve been able to accomplish together,” he said at the time.

Shane Potter leaves SUS services director position

MICHAEL SCOULARTHE CASCADE

Former president introduced connector shuttle, oversaw start of SUB construction

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NEWS

UFV is finally getting its own academic journal. Summit: UFV Undergraduate Journal of the Arts will be an annual publication

consisting of essays written by upper-level social science and humanities students.

Like UFV’s other publications, the Louden Singletree and PIPE, it is being

developed and run by students. Unlike those publications, it will focus on academic work from the

College of Arts rather than creative writing and art.

Terrill Smith, co-founder and co-ordinator of Summit, defines the journal as a “student-run publication for arts students at UFV.”

There will be two components: the journal itself, and a conference held before its launch where writers will present their work.

“I think it adds to the community at UFV,” Smith says. “There’s nothing like this. Many other universities have academic publications; UFV has none.” Indeed, UBC has its own undergraduate medical and history journals, among many others, as do UVic and SFU. Even Kwantlen has its own undergraduate journal for political science students.

Smith is confident that Summit will offer a much-needed opportunity for undergraduate students. “It’s difficult as an undergrad to get your work published, to be able to present it in front of your peers,” he says. “And it’s good experience for students if they

want to get into grad school.”Other than “some issues with advertising”

in terms of social media engagement, development of the journal has so far gone well. “The faculty and the College of Arts have been amazing to us,” Smith says, adding, “It’s been surprisingly smooth sailing considering that we don’t sort of have a template to work off of.”

The tentative conference date for Summit is March 16, with the journal’s publication to follow in mid April. The deadline to submit has been extended to January 13, at 11:59 p.m., and submission guidelines can be found on their Facebook page.

During a major trip to China just before the semester break, UFV president Mark Evered and manager of international marketing Betty Wang, on behalf of UFV, entered into new memoranda of understanding (MOU) with five universities: Southwest University, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Liaoning University, Xi’an Fanyi University, and Tsinghua University. An MOU is primarily a verbal agreement that occurs between both parties before a contractual agreement.

UFV’s oldest partnership is with Xi’an Fanyi University. The main goal with this partnership “is to work with social work, bringing students from [Xi’an] over into social work studies,” says David McGuire, executive director of UFV International. The other universities are recent partners, with some of the negotiations of the contracts still under development.

What makes these partnerships in China different for UFV is the

reciprocal nature of these agreements; included in the MOUs are a number of potential opportunities for Canadian students to study abroad, particularly at Southwest University, which has promised three full scholarships.

“A lot of people don’t realize the number of scholarships available for Canadian students wishing to go abroad,” McGuire says. “And with the global economy these days, even smaller businesses are dealing with large countries like India and China.”

Another aspect of these partnerships that differs from some of UFV’s regular exchange programs with China is that the goals that come out of these agreements are not solely based on recruitment, unlike some of the previous exchange partnerships.

“Many of our current binding partnerships with Chinese universities are what we call ‘articulation agreements,’” McGuire says. “So they are in many cases a recruitment tool. We get students from China to come over and transfer into some of the upper years at UFV.”

In contrast, these four developing

partnerships are based on expanding students’ global understanding of the economy and social structures for not only Chinese students, but also for Canadian UFV students.

Given China’s sociopolitical context, UFV is aware of some of the human rights violations that have taken place in the country. China’s universities are not free of censorship — for example, the exclusion of Tibet from history and language studies. But McGuire sees these partnerships as a chance for UFV to improve, in its own way, the kind of education Chinese students receive.

“Particularly with the Xi’an Fanyi University agreement, we’re doing some really good work there that should have an effect on the young Chinese population, the university as a whole, and the region,” McGuire says. “Social work is something that is not nearly as prevalent in China as it is in Canada. There is certainly a positive there in terms of what UFV is doing to help.”

New Chinese partnerships intended to further globalize UFV operations and exchanges

UFV climbs the “legitimate university” mountain with new academic journal

SONJA KLOTZTHE CASCADE

ALEX RAKETHE CASCADE

photo: UFV / Flickr

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NEWS

Cascades women’s soccer team recruits new players

Soccer season may be months away, but the Cascades women’s soccer team is already getting ready. As training began last week, the team announced five new additions for their upcoming 2016 season.

The new athletes include Surrey United players Simi Lehal, Kelsey Mitchell, and Marianne Spring, and Mountain United FC’s Brooke Molby, and Brooke Walton from TSS Academy. Along with the new recruits, the team also has three new transfer students from Kwantlen University, following the university’s withdrawal from competitive league play for its four soccer and basketball teams.

The new recruits couldn’t have come at a better time for coach Rob Giesbrecht.

“We’re graduating three significant players this year and we’re going to graduate a larger number next year, so it’s important that we bring in talent that can fill some big shoes,” he says. “You want to, every year, bring in some talent that can make your program stronger and more balanced from year to year.”

Molby is one of the recruits that has big shoes to fill. “She is a very good keeper, probably the goalkeeper of our future,” Giesbrecht said. “Right now, our goal keepers are going to be in their fourth and fifth years, so we need to have an injection of youth in that position and we’re excited that Brooke Molby is coming for that.”

The other recruits, including Lehal, are also going to bring a strong dynamic to the team. “She’s a forward, and she [has] a potential to be a physical force for us and really impact our team,” Giesbrecht says. “If she can get transitioned well to the university game, she can be a real handful for our opponents.”

The transition from playing on a high school team to a university team is challenging, especially when the team is one of the best in the province. “It’s not easy to step in as a first year player and play on one of the top teams in the CIS,” Giesbrecht says. “They’re going to have the opportunity to play, but it’s going to be tough because we have a lot of talented players that have done well.”

But the players wouldn’t be there if Giesbrecht didn’t think they could carry the team’s success.

“Part of what I’m trying to do here is sustain success,” he says. “We’ve been successful over the last few years with our trip to nationals in 2014, and spent most of 2015 ranked in the top 10 in the CIS.”

Recruitment isn’t always an easy task for coaches, especially when competing with other teams in the area. “It’s competitive,” Giesbrecht says. “I want the same girls that the other CIS elite teams want, and you’re not going to get every player you go after.”

One of the difficulties that UFV’s soccer teams face during recruitment is the disadvantage of not having an on-campus field. “That is the major struggle that I have to get across to these elite players that come to a school that does not have an on-campus field,” Giesbrecht says. “Hopefully in the future that changes, we’re optimistic about that, but the current situation is that we don’t have that.”

While talent is a crucial component when recruiting a new player, character is just as important to Giesbrecht. “I want to get to know the kids, and I want to see what they’re like as people and as students, because to me that’s far more important than how they are as soccer players,” he says. “We want to have a culture on our team that is positive, that is competitive — that’s somewhat like a family.“

Although the team is only beginning their pre-season training, Giesbrecht is already setting goals for the season. “We want to return to the national championship,” he says. “We have a fifth-year class that’s pretty special, a group of girls that came in as first-years, and started as first-years, and have really helped put our program on the map. It’s going to be a special year for that group, and I want those kids to go out as champions.”

But going to nationals is easier said than done. “It’s going to be tough,” Giesbrecht says. “We’re put in the toughest division in the toughest conference in the country, so we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready to go. And it’s the work we do now that’s going to help us in the fall.”

For now, recruitment is finished for the 2016 season and Giesbrecht is confident in his new roster.

“If a talented player comes along and is good enough, we’ll find room,” he said. “But if we don’t, I’m content with what my team will be for next year. We’re going to be a tough team.”

VANESSA BROADBENTTHE CASCADE

photo: UFV Athletics

Last week’s results:

Men’s BasketballFriday: UFV vs MRU - W 89-75Saturday: UFV vs MRU - L 61-87 (OT)

Women’s BasketballFriday: UFV vs MRU - W 73-58Saturday: UFV vs MRU - W 64-52

Men’s VolleyballFriday: UFV vs CAM - L 2-3Saturday: UFV vs CAM - W 3-2

Women’s VolleyballFriday: UFV vs CAM - W 3-0Saturday: UFV vs CAM - W 3-1

7


Election season is almost upon us — the time of the year when UFV students are asked to vote on their next executives, directors, and representatives for the Student Union Society (SUS).

One adjustment this year for SUS’s executives was the mid-semester resignation of VP internal Ricky Coppola.

As this is only the second year since SUS re-organized its executive board to have three elected executives and five hired officers, there is no precedent or established protocol for when one of those three resign from their position. The VP internal handles the society’s finances, in addition to other management responsibilities.

Previously structured around six executives, Davies noticed that the past structure had seen “at least one executive” resign during their term of office, and he noted that the switch to a three-person executive board would be more “conducive to sticking around.”

After Coppola’s resignation, SUS decided not to hold a by-election to fill the position, as required by its elections policy. This decision was made because the by-election would have overlapped with the long process of SUS’s general election — the nomination period opens on January 18. As a result, the VP-internal position will be left vacant until the results from the general election come in.

In the interim, the VP-internal portfolio fell to Davies, who split the workload of the VP-internal position among himself, VP-external Sukhi Brar, and the board of directors (student positions from the different faculties that will

also be up for election during SUS’s general election), as well as clubs and associations officer Sunny Kim and finance officer Anan Islam — the two officers whose work fell within the VP-internal portfolio. “The duties officially get transfered to me, but the board [of directors] empower me to delegate them as I see fit,” Davies says.

This interim solution has allowed SUS’s operations to continue without hiring another student staff member to fill the position on a temporary basis, while also removing the need to run a by-election, the results of which would be over-written by the general election. Until the spring, SUS then will operate with two out of three executive positions filled.

The annual SUS general election opens March 7, with voting closing March 10.

SUS holds off on filling VP-internal position due to upcoming elections

NEWS

Vancouver-based novelist and CBC radio broadcaster Jen Sookfong Lee has been announced as this year’s recipient of the Kuldip Gill Writing Fellowship, and will serve as UFV’s writer-in-residence for the Winter 2016 semester.

Lee is the author of novels The End of East, Shelter, and The Better Mother, which was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Her upcoming novel The Conjoined is set for release in September 2016. A native of East Vancouver, Lee sets many of her written works in local landscapes such as Stanley Park, Chinatown, and the Downtown Eastside.

““I write a lot about Vancouver and B.C. and about race and gender, about sexuality, about poverty in particular,” says Lee.

Beyond writing, Lee is also involved in broadcasting, publishing, teaching, and editing; among other radio projects, she has been the voice

of West Coast Words to CBC Radio One for several years, and is a regular contributor to The Next Chapter, a radio program on literature. She has previously held a writer-in-residence position at the West Vancouver Library, and is set to take on another writer-in-residence position at the Port Moody Library in May following her term at UFV.

UFV’s writer-in-residence position is an annual three-month term funded by the Kuldip Gill Writing Fellowship, and is selected by a committee of faculty from the English department. The position is open to any published Canadian author, and the writer-in-residence’s genre and style can vary widely; former UFV writers-in-residence include young-adult author Emily Pohl-Weary, poet Daniela Elza, and First Nations novelist Richard van Camp.

The writer-in-residence’s duties include providing mentorship to student writers, visiting classes, hosting workshops and readings, and working on their own literary

projects, but Lee says she is most looking forward to helping student writers with their projects during her office hours.

“The best part is the one-on-one conversations that you have with emerging writers. What’s so lovely about it is they’re so enthusiastic,” she says, adding that students are welcome to bring not just completed works, but outlines of future projects.

“What really motivates me is talking to young writers, or new writers, and sort of figuring out what they need to continue on with their projects or writing careers, and helping them find that,” she says. “[The writer-in-residence is] part therapist, part writing teacher, part mentor, which is really rewarding because I was that person 15 years ago. So it’s kind of nice to be able to recognize myself in them and give them what I wanted.”

Lee’s office hours will start at 10:30 a.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays in room D3009, starting January 18.

Jen Sookfong Lee announced as writer-in-residence

GLEN ESSTHE CASCADE

VALERIE FRANKLINTHE CASCADE

THE CASCADE

IS SEEKING A

NEWS EDITOR!

Do you have great editing skills and a nose for news?

Email your resume, writing sample, and

cover letter to [email protected] by January 21, 2016.

Photo: sookfong.com

8


As much as we love school, many students and faculty members were relieved when the school closed down for the holidays and each went their separate way. The semester was complete, and a good rest from the gruelling examination period was in order. However, with the chaos of the Christmas season, only so much time could be afforded for recuperation, as the long-winded traditions unfolded yet again: shopping for presents for relatives you haven’t seen in years, cooking turkey dinner for hours on end, standing in lines at four in the morning so you do not miss the Boxing Day specials, and hosting elaborate dinner parties with family and friends. (Just writing this list makes my head spin!) Now the break is over and we are here once more, and one cannot help but wonder how many days until reading break in February. As a dear friend so quaintly put it, “We need a holiday from the holidays!”

It’s been an issue for a long time, but is just as frustrating as ever: the high price of being a university student. From huge tuition costs to ridiculously expensive textbooks, new online components, and student loans — all on top of the usual costs of living — it’s practically impossible for people of lower incomes to attend post-secondary school. Why isn’t our country doing more to create better-educated citizens? Does it all come down to money? How much potential is lost because higher education is becoming something only for the wealthy? Canada signed the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in 1976, aiming for the progressive introduction of free secondary and post-secondary education — yet tuition fees continue to rise. Perhaps one day Canada will attempt to follow the example of free system models such as those in Germany, Denmark, and several other countries, instead of continuing to treat students as profit centres.

Look, guys, I’m not the most tech-savvy dude on campus. I can’t figure out the wifi on my laptop. It works fine in class while I’m pretending to work (but actually checking out the babes on Instagram), but as soon as I try to do anything in the Student Union Building my computer refuses to talk to me! I thought it might be the browser, so I tried to look up what a browser was, but nothing came up!

I’m very frustrated. How do I use the wifi in the SUB? Is there a secret code I need to type in? I asked the people at the Fairgrounds and they just looked all confused at me, like I had just asked the stupidest question of all time. The ladies of Instagram will never love me. I’m not good enough at anything. I’m going to go to A building and cry about my life.

January is a month full of mixed feelings. It is often seen as a clean slate for new adventures, new goals, and new hope. While many fitness centres make their year’s worth of profits within the first day of this month, there is also a dreariness that hovers over people’s sense of new beginnings. While this is a month of many new hopes and dreams, it can also be the month in which most of these goals become distanced and less significant as people get back into their everyday routines and habits. As people try to make major changes to become a different and better person than they were a few days prior to New Year’s, these expectations also come with a price. There is nothing like setting the bar so high only to watch yourself not meet these goals and suddenly give up altogether. I argue, however, that setting small and achievable goals is reasonable and can take away that dreariness or pressure.

Quick response to those talking about safe space. First, safe space is a concept different from the common definition of safety. If you’re unaware of its meaning I suggest looking it up before criticizing it. To ask whether CIVL can be a safe space is like asking whether CIVL can be a bakery. That’s just not what a radio station is. The question makes very little sense.

Safe space on campus is important though and it has little to do with shielding oneself from opposing viewpoints per

se. Opposing viewpoints are everywhere and marginalized groups like LGBT people get no rest from hearing them. Safe space isn’t intended to create an echo chamber, but a break. It’s a place that we can go to get away from stressful BS for a while. As weird as it might sound, being told you’re going to hell or that your identity isn’t real all the time eventually gets painful.

Safe space (awesomely) provides a different experience as well. Because those oppressive views are unwelcome

the views of the oppressed people are better able to come out. Safe space is in fact a promoter of free speech in the sense that on the outside oppressed voices are censored by social sanction and oppressive behavior whereas inside they are allowed to be heard. This creates a greater diversity of opinions in general rather than remaining in the liberal/conservative echo chamber of mainstream modern discourse.

—Charlie Steele

Letter to the editor - Re: CIVL “unsafe?”

OPINION

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

School, a holiday from the holidays

The poor stay poor, the rich get smarter

HowFi do I WiFi?The bigger the goal, the harder the fail

Rachel Tait Kat Marusiak

Graham Entsa Sonja Klotz

Illustrations: Sultan Jum

Illustration: Danielle Collins

S

9


Many of us have, at least once in our life, given a gift that we were given first. This phenomenon is known as “regifting,” and for the most part, it’s not a very good practice.

Now, to lay this on the table: yes, I have regifted. Just this past Christmas in a $25 gift exchange, my family put a still-wrapped DVD copy of Jurassic World into the mix. It fit the price range, though none of us would ever want to watch it (sue me). The person who ended up getting the gift wasn’t entirely enthused over it — we did get the sense that they were disappointed. After the fact, we threw in a little Starbucks gift card to soften the blow, but the experience still brought some things to light about regifting.

If the giver isn’t really excited in the first place, there’s a decent chance that whoever receives that gift will be roughly as disappointed. Of course, when it comes to “white elephant” gift exchanges, where everyone gives away something they don’t want, disappointment is the name of the game, and that’s what makes it fun. But for gift exchanges that have

a price, the people going into it might be expecting something they’ll actually want, not something that might otherwise be heading off to Value Village.

The other issue is that if people are putting money into this gift exchange, it’s almost like cheating to give something you didn’t even pay for in the first place. Even if it’s a decently nice gift, it is still better to respect the gift exchange and put as much effort and resources into it as everyone else.

A regift typically doesn’t take much thought, and because often the mindset is, “Oh, I’ll give them this, I don’t really want it anyways,” it turns the gift from something thoughtful and meaningful to something akin to another person’s trash or a hand-me-down.

The phrase “It’s the thought that counts” has some merit to it. Especially when it comes to close friends and family, the thought really does count. There will always be situations where the regift in question would be something that the person would really, really like. So, regifting should only be done if it will mean more than a purchased gift would. And in the case of gift exchanges, putting in the expected effort is always the best idea.

Is it ever an ideal time to study? Summer’s too hot and we’d all rather be outside, enjoying the sunshine. So winter must be the ideal study season, right? Well, if you’re like me, then at some point through the winter semester you’ll fall prey to the inevitable and inescapable winter blues. I know I should be writing this essay or studying for that midterm, but it’s just too dreary, just too dark and cold outside to muster up the energy that sifting through 20 pages of rhetoric requires. So, how do you resist the urge to recede into a cocoon of blankets and forego your studies for weeks at a time during the winter months?

Lesson one: fruit is your friend. The first thing you’re going to want to do is take a look at what you’re eating. Just because winter has finally set in doesn’t mean your plate has to mirror the desolate, gray, rainy wasteland that is mid-February Fraser Valley. This is where fruit comes in; not only does a colourful orange or a handful of grapes help to combat all that bland and flavourless grayness during the winter months,

it’s also full of important vitamins and natural sugars that will energize you physically and mentally.

Now, you can’t just eat a shit-tonne of oranges and expect to do well on your midterm. Sooner or later you’re going to have to study. Scheduling is also going to make things indescribably easier this semester, especially when it comes to studying. Pencil in small but consistent periods of time dedicated to schoolwork throughout your week. This way, you circumvent sitting in the library for six hours on a snowy Sunday because you have a midterm on Monday.

The most important thing you can do, however, is to make sure that you don’t completely inundate yourself with schoolwork. Make time to get a coffee and catch up with friends, or read that novel you got for Christmas. A little downtime will give your mind a much-needed reprieve from the stress of classes and allow you to recharge.

Finally, it’s very important to get a solid amount of sleep this semester. After all, when it comes to mental health, nine out of ten doctors say that getting enough sleep is almost as important as getting enough oranges.

The gift that keeps getting gifted

Trade in your winter blues for academic success

OPINION


DREW BERGENCONTRIBUTOR

MARTIN CASTRO

THE CASCADE


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FEATURE

An unofficial guide to UFV, from textbooks to broken websites

Five years ago, UFV’s Student Union Society held the last “Dis-orientation” at UFV to date. While we can never be sure in what exact meeting or office conversation or how the name was dreamed up, one thing is clear: the idea behind the name was not really followed through on. The Dis-orientations that lasted through 2010 were big concerts, food, and drink events on the Abbotsford campus’s green (and, for one year, a five-part $100,000 extravagant display at the Abbotsford Sports & Entertainment Centre). “In short,” Paul Falardeau wrote in these pages in October of 2010, “Dis-O is an opportunity for students of UFV to have

fun.” Following low attendance, “Dis-O” was re-configured into the Weeks of Welcome events that begin this upcoming week.

But back to the name: Disorientation is a term that links to a history of student activism on university campuses in North America. The New Inquiry, compiling a list of the guides in 2014, described their purpose as a collective response to the privilege, laziness, and uncritical attitudes that are often intrinsic to the higher-education experience: “They are designed to communicate a threefold message: 1) Everything is not alright, despite what they’re telling you; 2) If you think everything is not alright, you’re not alone; 3) This is where you can find those of us who refuse to accept the status quo and will work to change it.”

This is “Disorientation” as an alternative

to the “orientation” universities offer (which SUS’s party-like events can be said to be basically a part of), which introduce students to an idea of belonging to programs, school colours, career paths, and various services. It says: there’s more than just this. Some students may be okay with the status quo, but for many, the status quo, and doing something about that, is exactly what brought you to a university in the first place. Now, there is a value to being educated on the resources available to students, and for most, just learning the layout of their first post-secondary campus is the greatest help they can get for their first day: you can’t do much if you get lost getting to class. And UFV is not a campus with a history of student activism; just getting a handful of students together to form a club or party can

require a lot of legwork, so sending out a call for radicalization and transformation now is skipping a few steps.

The guide that follows then, is middle-ground, a collection of stuff they probably didn’t tell you during orientation, some because there wasn’t enough time, some because it isn’t part of the university’s official message.

Basically, just to get through university requires a lot of time catching up on terms and traditions you might still be vague on even if you’re a third year; and to change anything in any environment you enter requires a solid understanding of a place, an historical knowledge of how things work. This guide won’t give you everything, but it might help you in both areas during your time at UFV.

MICHAEL SCOULARTHE CASCADE

There’s an idea circulating in many magazines, journals, and op-ed col-umns that this is the helpless genera-tion. We need more “fun” activities, loosened standards, and dozens of services just to get us through assign-ments. Of course, there’s a difference between services that exist to lead us through an undergrad and groups that give us a chance to bond with other people — people that aren’t just the means to the end of an assignment or a course. UFV has several resources; the large bank-sponsored space in the Student Union Building (SUB) in Ab-botsford behind Student Life’s tables, the “Peer Resource Centre,” which was opened with a ceremony last semester, was intended to make guides like this irrelevant. It would point you, in a friendly way, toward where you need to go. As of press time, it is “open,” but so far without the staff and volunteers that were part of its original plan.

This is the story of most of UFV’s

resources: they are linked to the uni-versity’s administration, but poorly linked together when it comes to stu-dent access, especially online. Setting up a counselling appointment on UFV’s website is currently a dead link. The Academic Success Centre has several peer tutors, but at scattered times, with some subjects unrepresented. The on-line list of Supported Learning Groups appears to have not been updated in a year.

What this means is, as in “the real world,” you need to know people. When people cite the small class sizes and fa-miliarity of UFV as some of its best at-tributes, what this also means is that if you talk to a professor you connect with through a course, or someone at Student Life, or a student in their fourth year (or, knowing UFV, someone who’s been around longer than that), you’ll very likely learn about the entire network of people, resources, and places to go on campus, or at least who else might

know this. UFV, people say, is not an easy place to make friends. Students are often only on campus for their courses, then back to work, home, a long com-mute. But think of it this way: students are always the only reason a university exists. If you want to find something, and you want to talk to somebody, and it’s an honest question, and as long as you aren’t unknowingly asking a person refilling the vending machines, people here are obligated to listen to you.

Between that and the spaces that exist for students to congregate (there aren’t many, but a few notable ones: the Math Centre near the Abbotsford library, the Psychology Resource Room on the first floor of D building, the business floor at the top of C build-ing, the geography floor at the top of A building), it is possible to form a network of people you actually want to study with and talk to on campus.

STUDY SPACES AND PEER MENTORS

11


An unofficial guide to UFV, from textbooks to broken websites

That’s also the reason some people form clubs and associations; combined, there’s over 60 groups on campus, most of them representing study majors, cultural groups, and interests that lend themselves well to events or parties. For people fresh out of high school, it’s the type of thing that makes sense, but there are other ways of creating new, better things on campus (and not in the sense of “getting involved,” which often comes with the idea that it will be good in relation to your transcript or your moral duty or both).

By this I mean: familiarizing yourself with the governmental structures on campus. This is a tall order for many; it’s hard enough to keep track of the federal, provincial, and municipal govern-ments. But, again, because UFV is small, and has only been around for 40 years, if you’ve already chosen to study here, it doesn’t take much to find out where to focus if you’ve noticed something that could use changing. There’s the Student Union Society, which is run mainly by three executives, who tend to run, each year, unopposed, in an elec-tion that’s decided by about 500 votes. There are about 10,000 students paying fees each semester at UFV, which gives SUS an operating budget of over $600,000 a year. A large portion of that goes to services for students, such as the commuter bus be-tween campuses and the food options in the SUB, but as each year has gone by, it is clear that each year, it is part of SUS’s mandate and plans to add or subtract features of student life according to the

executives’ goals — this shapes student life, but is decided by relatively few students, in the end.

On the academic side, UFV’s Senate is the ma-jor body through which degrees, program changes, academic requirements, course offerings, and many conversations about the future of the university first pass before going to the Board of Governors for final approval. There are four seats for students on Senate, and an election for those seats, but it is possible to have an impact without being a vot-ing member, and without being part of a student group — like SUS, most meetings go by without a single student in attendance (to be fair, they are long meetings) and without a single external stu-dent report, presentation, or request, but both are open to submissions.

Not everyone will have an idea that’s actually well-developed enough to make it through Senate on their first day, of course. But there’s no question that: students see things differently than adminis-trators, they notice things that are important that go unaddressed, or are delayed because they are not always at the same level of priorities for admin, staff, or faculty.

Of course, there isn’t much in the way of a his-tory of student activism at UFV. In the past 20 years, students have held marches to support the institution changing from Fraser Valley College to University College of the Fraser Valley, to protest the provincial government’s funding of UFV, and to protest the lack of a Pride parade in Abbotsford.

Most recently, a small protest against the unex-pected closing of a student service (the Writing Centre) coincided with the matter going through a lengthy Senate review. So there isn’t much, and maybe that attitude will just never be a part of this place’s identity. But students, online, in conversa-tions, and on the erasable banners briefly put up as part of the “UFV 2025” planning campaign, clear-ly want changes, on both a minuscule and large scale — this is arguably the most direct way to do it, less ignorable than a pile of petitions or loud-speaker chants, and it remains mostly unexplored by students.

At the very least, for what might be its last semester (the final season!) of activity (unless its anonymous user decides to pass the account on to another worthy student), you should follow @ufvprobs; for whatever reason, where other uni-versities have flourishing “Confessions” pages, UFV students use Twitter to deflate the univer-sity’s brand image with stories of comically empty landscapes, unfilled potholes, and decade out-of-date technology. UFV is not, on most days, a cohe-sive university; the sentiments of students collected by that page (for awhile its description was a per-fect deadpan: “Don’t worry, I ended up here too”) and the sight of the Purdue University OWL cita-tion page might be the most significant tangible connections shared among the majority of students.

HOW TO CHANGE THINGS (IF ANYBODY WANTS TO)

UFV is, as the long lineup stretching outside what isn’t even a full Tim Hortons might tell you, a bit of a food desert. Few students live on campus, and few food options, whether at the Tim Hortons, Sodexo-run cafeteria, Press Cafe in the bookstore, or Canoe restaurant in the SUB, are both affordable and con-tain the kind of nutrients you might need to keep you awake and thinking through a day and night of writing or studying. The SUS’s opening of a free-trade coffee shop in the SUB in Abbotsford, scheduled to be open for most of the day, is the exception to the rule at UFV, which is: convenient, higher prices as a result of that convenience, and lacking in variety. The news, revealed in an interview last year, that UFV is con-sidering the additions of a Booster Juice and Subway in 2017 would not change this. The closest grocery store, the small section at the back of the Abbotsford bookstore aside, is a bus ride away, which means, yes, one more responsibility if you don’t want to feel tired and depleted as you shuffle through your full-time student schedule: bring your own food. The one thing UFV does not lack is microwaves. And in the SUB, next to Student Life and the Aboriginal Resource Centre, is a kitchen, with fridge, stove, utensils, clean-ing supplies, etc. Any student can use it (one excep-tion: if the food is for a large-scale event, you need a permit), though it appears very few people know, possibly because the lights are always out and it is separated from the rest of the space by a metal screen.

FORAGING FOR FOOD

One thing to consider is that UFV does depend, to some extent, on students buying from the book-store and paying for parking as part of its budget planning — both are part of the university’s an-cillary fund, a small but not entirely insignifi-cant amount. Profiting from students’ required presence on campus and in courses is something that requires zero imagination. There really isn’t any way around parking at UFV for most stu-dents, but there are a few alternate options. While the timing isn’t rapid enough for many students’ schedules, the campus connector shuttle between Chilliwack and Abbotsford has basically negated the need to use ride-sharing or car-pool planning apps. The free park-and-ride lots a short walk from the Abbotsford campus (as well as the free park-ing on the King Road hill) tend to have at least a few spots empty throughout the day. And, if you are can afford to be disappointed by the occasional late ride, the city buses in Abbotsford, Mission, and Chilliwack are free to students through the U-Pass. It isn’t perfect, but it’s the sort of minor disappointment (with options) that is part of the UFV experience.

ESCAPING THE FEESTEXTBOOK TYRANNY

Though the world of book publishing is, depending on where you step, not exactly stable, the niche of textbooks is a fortress, a relatively sustainable source of profit. New editions, high publisher-set retail prices, and digital add-ons that set an expiry date for the full use of a textbook — you’re probably familiar with all of these tricks, and pray you don’t end up with the professor who doesn’t seem to factor any of this in, the market conditions and how they contribute to them, when composing a required text list.

The go-to answer here is not a secret: Books2Go, which turns textbook selling into a kind of large com-munal sharing project, the same book handed down, year-to-year, surviving if students, once it becomes an older edition, are okay working with out-of-date page ref-erences and missing chapters. There was talk, but only talk, of the possibility of a used bookstore in the SUB, but, except for the possibility of failed exchanges and never-replied-to requests, Books2Go is arguably superior to that model. And there’s also the library. For brand-new science texts, aside from buying from online retail, with its shipping wait-times and disturbing labour practices, you’ll be out of luck, but for texts used as resources, sec-ondary readings, or, really, most assigned texts in the hu-manities, there’s this thing called the library. If everyone used it, of course the two or three copies at most of books would soon disappear, but between the FVRL system and UFV’s collections, there are a decent number of options before you, if you’re willing to break down an anthology into multiple borrowed items to keep track of.

12


On Monday, January 4, and Tuesday, January 5, UFV hosted its New Student Orientation (NSO), with Monday’s session being designed specifically for students coming to UFV from abroad. This session was hosted by UFV International and its teams of global engagement volunteers (GEV) and global student associates (GSA).

During the course of the eight-hour orientation session, new international students got to know one another, and learned about the academic (and not-so-academic) opportunities available to them at UFV. To help foster a sense of competition and kinship, the students took part in activities including “The Amazing Race,” where they ran about campus attempting to complete tasks such as a scavenger hunt in the bookstore; a trip to the library; and

going live on-air at CIVL to take part in a radio play called Attack of The Killer Mole Rats, as well as taking part in a lip-sync competition.

The next day saw the international students joined by the new domestic students, bringing the majority of students new to UFV this semester into contact with one another. This time they were helped by Student Life ambassadors, a fair amount of whom were also GEVs the day before. The NSO saw students listen to an aboriginal song of welcoming, a speech from UFV president Mark Evered, and SUS president Thomas Davies also helped welcome the fresh meat — I mean new students — to UFV. The bushy-tailed, wide-eyed newbies were taken on campus tours and given as much information as they could at the service fair before lunchtime.

After that the party dissipated, with students having the option to stay longer for other information sessions.

NSO greets new semester, new students

photograph: Glen Ess

GLEN ESSTHE CASCADE

This week, the curtain will rise on a new kind of UFV theatre production: a two-act play entirely crewed, acted, and directed by students, performed in the black-box theatre space at CEP. The Romeo Initiative, a romantic-comedy spy thriller based on the true story of an East German program that targeted West German secretaries in the 1970s, is a pilot project for the students enrolled in Heather Davis-Fisch’s THEA 316D class, who have been working on the project since September 2015.

The 16 students were entrusted with producing an entire show for the special topics course, in comparison to the cross-course, faculty-assisted productions that UFV Theatre has put on in the past. Assistant director Phay Gagnon says the faculty’s influence being kept to a minimum “puts the onus on the students to create … and the responsibilities that UFV staff typically take over.”

While all of the students

involved in The Romeo Initiative have prior experience working with UFV Theatre in various roles such as designing, acting, or directing, for this project they decided to take on roles and responsibilities that each had never attempted before. Gagnon believes this will allow the class to expand and explore their capabilities: “It is an upper level course and we’re there to learn, to make mistakes, and to explore, and to see what we can do in the process and how that reflects in the product.”

Gagnon says her class chose to perform The Romeo Initiative because it fits their mission statement: “Our company seeks to create high-quality and unconventional theatre through a collaborative process that challenges both ourselves and our audiences with works of contemporary relevance.” According to her, the production of The Romeo Initiative allows them to follow that mandate by requiring creative design choices; the play, written by Canadian Trina Davis, features a three-player cast and dual perspectives, which is an unconventional writing choice.

“It’s like any story where you see one side of things, but you see how it can be interpreted by someone else,” says Gagnon.

The Romeo Initiative debuted at Calgary’s 2011 Enbridge playRites Festival, where it was the 100th Canadian play to have its world premiere at the festival. In another landmark, it is also the first time that a UFV production will be held at the CEP campus instead of at Chilliwack North. The upcoming UFV production will also be the first time The Romeo Initiative has been performed by students, as well as the first time UFV will have granted its students complete creative control over a production.

“They are going to see direct proof of how capable UFV theatre students can be,” says Gagnon.

The Romeo Initiative runs from the January 14 to 17 at the CEP campus’ performance studio in room A2106. Tickets are available through [email protected].

CULTURE & EVENTS

“Direct proof of how capable UFV theatre students can be”

photograph: Tony Funk

The Romeo Initiative to be produced by students without faculty assistance

GLEN ESSTHE CASCADE

13


photograph: Glen Ess

CULTURE & EVENTS

So You Think You Can Dance? steps up to Abbotsford

The first soloist of the night was Jes-sica “JJ” Rabone, who danced a hip-hop routine that got the crowd grooving along with her.

The opening act was full of colours and energetic music, and it showcased the fun stage lights and back screen that the arena has to offer. The bass that pulsed through the arena was a sensory bonus that cannot be felt while watching the television.

Before the show even began, there was already a buzz of energy from the audience members.

In the words of the audience member next to me, “That was amazing.”

So You Think You Can Dance, the award-winning dance-competition TV show, came to the Abbotsford Centre on Saturday, January 9. Now in its 12th season, the current iteration of the show is different from others in that the contestants identified as either a member of “Team Stage” or “Team Street” rather than being divided by gender. Team Stage included disciplines such as ballet and tap, and Team Street incorporated styles such as hip-hop and breakdancing.

RAYNAH MCIVORCONTRIBUTOR

photograph: Mitch Huttema

14


Sikh Keertan helps students refocus and de-stress

Kissing is fun; this is a fact. Locking lips with a loved one is an act that can be both passionate and rewarding, as the rush of endorphins f looding the bodies of the kissers stimulates the pleasure centres of the brain and results in a stronger emotional connection. But did you know that kissing can also bring with it more practical, mundane, and pragmatic benefits?

The act of kissing involves the two individuals swapping spit, and if this salivatory switcharoo sounds rather off-putting and more than a little disgusting, don’t sweat it; it’ll also boost your immune system, making it harder for the cruel hold of the common cold to get you. This boost is because by tying each other’s tongues in knots, you’re also introducing each other to your antibodies, which can vary from person to person. And by sharing your antibodies, you’re also increasing the amount of disease a body is able to fight off. In essence, a kissing couple has an antibody spread of greater variety, making it much more likely that the body can fight off an infection with ease.

A recent study by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) set out to study the evolutionary reasons behind the act of kissing, and their

findings (published in the journal Microbiome) point to the bacterial switch-and-swap that occurs during the act of kissing. The study suggests that by sharing microorganisms through kissing, a couple may create a shared microbiological fauna — termed a “microbiota” — within their mouths, which may enable them to ward off similar infections and help them digest the same foodstuffs. As you get to know your partner better, and as you engage in more mouth mashing with them, you may also be helping each other stay healthy.

And if that isn’t enough to get you and your partner to engage one another with tongue twisters more frequently, then think of the other benefits of kissing. According to an article in the Western Journal of Communication by Kory Floyd these range from lowering the levels of cortisol — a hormone related to stress levels — and leaving you more relaxed, to helping increase the f low of saliva in your oral cavity, which has been linked to healthier teeth and gums. It’ll even help you burn calories, which is a godsend if you’re trying to get rid of that pesky holiday weight you may have put on.

Basically, if we want to live longer, we should spend more time making out. What are you waiting for? Hurry up, or you might catch a cold!

Can kissing keep you healthy?

The Keertan is an important aspect of spiritual life in Sikhism. Keertan is a devotional tradition of the Sikh religion which consists of call and response chanting, and the reciting of passages from the Guru Granth Sahib, which is the main religious text in Sikhism. The UFV Sikh Student Alliance (SSA) held their third annual Keertan and langar at the university on Friday, January 8. However, since the Keertan was taking place at UFV, Sukhminder Kar of the SSA noted that the hymns were just posted from the internet and sung off of a projector screen rather than bringing the text, as “It would be disrespectful to bring it here.”

Fellow SSA member Hemant Singh elaborated on this, saying that the Granth

Sahib is treated as a living scripture and the holder of knowledge for the Sikh religion. Therefore, the book is treated with a high amount of reverence, which is why it wouldn’t be appropriate to bring it to the university.

Kar also noted that the primary purpose for holding a Keertan at UFV was to allow students, both Sikh and non-Sikh, an opportunity to slow down, ref lect, and meditate. As he put it, “[Keertan] is meant to slow you down so you can focus your thoughts on the positive things around you … it’s nice to sit down, listen, and de-stress.”

Accompanying the hymns were traditional instruments such as the harmonium; a piano keyboard with a hand pump that is similar to an accordion or a reed organ. The harmoniums were also supported by tablas, which are Indian-style

drums. Though these are the traditional musical elements that are integrated into the Keertan, Kar noted that western instruments such as the guitar have also been used at times.

Following the completion of the Keertan, the langar began. The tradition of langar, which involves the sharing of food, began with the first Sikh Guru in 1491, and seeks to uphold the principle of equality of all peoples.

“If you go to a temple … if a poor man and a king come, they both sit down and eat together,” Kar said. “The idea is we may have different castes … but we’re all the same, so let’s sit on the ground together and eat.”

In light of this, all attendees sat on the ground and ate while seated, remaining so until they were finished. Langar also features vegetarian food and food without eggs, to

follow the customs of Sikhism as well as to further show that everyone is equal, as they are eating the same offerings.

Aside from students from UFV, the Keertan was attended by a large number of students from other local universities, such as Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. Kar noted that this was very common among Sikh students, mentioning that there was a very close relationship between the Sikh Student Alliances at SFU, UBC, and UFV. Furthermore, she elaborated on the closeness of SSAs around the world.

“The Sikh Student Alliance has huge organizations in Toronto, England, Alberta, California, and New York as well,” Kar said. “We’re all connected and we all keep in touch.”

CULTURE & EVENTS

JEFFREY TRAINORTHE CASCADE

PROFESSOR XXXSEXPERT

BELOW THE BELTillustration: Brittany Cardinal

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Running through Friday this week, the S’eliyemetaxwtexw Art Gallery in B136 is hosting the 2016 Bachelor of Fine Arts silent auction. Presented by the UFV visual arts department, the auction features over 40 works of art from UFV students, alumni, local artists, and faculty.

Organized annually by current BFA students, the auction raises funds for the production of the BFA grad exhibition in April. The event allows everyone, from UFV students to the public, to bid on original artworks including sculpture, painting, print media, photography, and more. To ensure that only the best art was made available for purchase, the artworks were carefully selected by a jury.

This year’s auction features an unusual amount of artwork from faculty, including one of the five existing prints of Tetsuomi Anzai’s album cover photograph for punk band You Say Party. Other faculty works available for auction include pieces from Grace Tsurumaru and Melanie Jones.

The auction is “silent” in that the bidders write their bids on a bidding sheet left on a table in the middle of the gallery. Starting amounts range from $10 to $50 and increase by $10 bid increments, making the artworks very affordable, particularly when considering that they are all originals.

The 2016 BFA Silent Auction runs daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for the final day. On Friday, the auction ends at 5 p.m., with the highest bidders being contacted shortly thereafter. So, take this opportunity to show your support for the BFA students by bidding on some affordable original art. With such a wide variety of pieces, one is bound to catch your eye!

CULTURE & EVENTS

Freezing isn’t fashionable. What is fashionable is maintaining your body at a comfortable temperature. To quote the great Donatella Versace, “Fashion is all about happiness,” and what better way to stay joyful in the face of a dull, dreary, wet, and windy winter than by staying abreast of the ever-changing ocean of imagination that we call fashion?

In this, the most rugged of landscapes, where we are forever enticed by the hiking trails and the forests, simplicity is key. Not for us here in B.C. are the airy silks and soft suedes and velvets. Instead we must look to the warm wools and cottons, the corduroys. But just because our climate dictates that we bundle up, doesn’t mean we can’t spruce up our lives with our clothing!

Generally speaking, the more high-faluting, snobby fashionistas will advocate for earthier tones during the winter, maintaining a monochromatic hold on our visual sense, even during these, the most monochromatic months of the year.

Nay, I say, nay to the idea of greys and blacks dominating our winter wardrobes! Let us brighten our lives and days here in the cold, colourless north by brightening our clothes. Let us enjoy the simple pleasures in complex colours.

This is a time where strong colours — teals, maroons, reds, and oranges — should roam free across the landscapes that are our bodies, that are our clothes. Highlight your eyes and hair by wearing a complementary colour. Coordinate your clothing so that two-tone colour variations swirl and shift, encircling one another and ensorcelling any and all around you.

Choosing colours that lie opposite one another on a colour wheel is a time honoured technique used by artists across time and space. Even movies and graphic designers make use of this simple technique, which is why you often see bright blue and orange on posters and in films. And yet … Despite the fact that this is such a commonly used technique across many disciplines and media, we haven’t fully included it in our fashionista repertoire. Despite the fact that by matching you’ll be creating a more visually attractive, more viscerally stunning style, we are, as a majority, still hesitant to do so.

Afraid to take the plunge into the metaphorical paint bucket.

But we should check our fears and step forward courageously into a colourful new world. It’s a whole new world, a vibrant world, one where another avenue of expression awaits us.

After all, colours have always carried with them emotional meanings and themes. Reds are more passionate, more brash and dominant; whereas blues are calmer, more reasoned, and more submissive; yellows are associated with energy, enthusiasm, and optimism. These three plus a host of others, the more out-of-the-box colours such as the regality of purple and the virility of green; can easily be used to establish an emotional aspect in one’s choice of clothing.

Want to show everyone you meet that you’re feeling positive and looking forward to the day? Highlight your clothing with yellows. Want to extend a sense of calm while also subtly establishing yourself as a dominant figure? Use some purples. Want to give off an excited, vivacious, slightly intoxicating vibe of yourself as charismatic and magnetic, “large and in charge?” Reds are your go-to.

As the poet Leigh Hunt once said, “Colours

are the smiles of nature.” So why not get out there and wear those smiles, and through this act encourage others to smile, both physically and stylistically. There’s always colour to describe exactly how you’re feeling.

Complementary colours complement your clothes

2016 BFA Silent Auction exhibits UFV’s creativity

FASHION

DOMINGO FLORESFASHIONISTA EXTRAORDINAIRE

TERRILL SMITHCONTRIBUTOR


illustration: Sultan Jum

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ARTS IN REVIEW

Before its December release, frontman Chris Martin touted A Head Full of Dreams as the last record that the band will be releasing, or at least the band would treat it like their last. This is essential to keep in mind when listening to the record, as it lends explanation as to why the band seems unable to choose a specific genre throughout the album. The record feels like a last-ditch attempt at covering all of the various musical styles they enjoy most.

When observed from a retrospective position, ties to the band’s past albums crop up. The second single off the record, “Everglow,” bears a strong resemblance to their Christmas release from 2010, “Christmas Lights.” And “Adventure of a Lifetime” pairs up with 2011’s Mylo Xyloto. In order to really enjoy A Head Full of Dreams without getting a headache, a pre-existing infatuation with the band is essential; though you’d be hard pressed to find too many fans expecting great things at this point, as the two records preceding this release were equally grand belly flops. Chris Martin’s lyrics are so unsophisticated that the themes of altruism are hard to see around. Coldplay’s sole purpose is seemingly to broadcast a message of simple peace and happiness. Unfortunately, what we have in A Head Full of Dreams is the big-budget version of a megaphone: a lot of noise, but no lasting impression.

David Bowie turned 69 years old this Friday, and to mark his birthday, the British superstar released another full length album, Blackstar, which marks a return to the spacey, progressive, experimental styles of previous albums. This time around, Bowie’s voice undergoes frequent modification, with effects of all sorts being used to alter and change his voice at various times throughout the album. Blackstar is also chock-full of horns, sometimes blaring powerfully, and at other points humming and delicately reserved in the background. While it’s too early to tell if Blackstar will stand up to other Bowie albums like Ziggy Stardust or Station to Station, it is still a compelling experience, sadly made more compelling and more memorable as it was released a mere two days before the glam-rock legend passed away. Blackstar serves as a farewell from a truly inspiring musician, and will live long in the memory — much as David Bowie will always be unforgettable.

“When you get bored of me, I’ll be back on the shelf,” proclaims Claire Boucher (as Grimes) in the song “California,” from her fourth studio album, Art Angels. The unsettling lyrics, seemingly alluding to the media’s fickle relation with pop stars, are sung over an uptempo, off-kilter, pop-country beat. In “California,” the dualistic essence of Art Angels comes to the foreground: dark yet danceable, accessible yet avant-garde. On “Kill V. Maim,” Grimes sings from the perspective of Michael Corleone playing a gender-morphing vampire. “B-E-H-A-V-E, arrest us! / Italiana mobster looking so precious,” she chants, like a demented Toni Basil. As deeply weird as the song is, it’s just as deeply infectious, featuring a chaotic, guitar-heavy, dance-track tempo. Equally as catchy is “Flesh without Blood,” a sort of preemptive kiss-off for the inevitable cries of “Grimes goes Pop,” in which she sings, “It’s nice that you say you like me / But only conditionally.” Perhaps intentionally, Grimes employs an undeniably pop-y hook, using drums as counterpoint. However, through all its dualities, Art Angels is ultimately united by an attitude. In an interview with The FADER, Boucher recounts how infuriated she used to get when pushy male producers asked to work on tracks with her; something Boucher points out is almost unthinkable for male producers, who tend to have their pick of female vocal collaborators. “Just let me do my fucking job. Why else am I here?” she said. Indeed, Art Angels has Grimes aggressively asserting control over her own narrative, with results that are uncompromising, ambitious, and unquestionably hers.

ColdplayA Head Full of Dreams

David BowieBlackstar

GrimesArt Angels

Mitch Huttema Glen Ess Terrill Smith

S undBites Mini album reviews

Congratulations to

Savannah Waite, winner

of The Cascade’s 2015

wrapping paper contest!

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ARTS IN REVIEW

01 Teen DazeMorning World

02 DerrivalDeparture & Arrival

03 David BowieBlackstar

04 Rufus Du SolBloom

05 The Sylvia PlattersMake Glad the Day

06 Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

It’s a Holiday Soul Party

07 MotorheadBad Magic

08 NylithiaHyperthrash

09 GrimesArt Angels

10 YACHT I Thought the Future

Would Be Cooler

11 El VyReturn to the Moon

12 Majical CloudzAre You Alone?

13 Run With the KittensCasio Glue Bomb

14 Tales of the TombVolume One: Morpras

15 New OrderMusic Complete

16 Bear MountainHopeful (single)

17 Iron MaidenThe Book of Souls

CHARTSShuffle

Seu Jorge “Starman”In the 2005 Wes Anderson / Bill Mur-ray film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, there’s a boat crew member who doesn’t seem to touch a single rope, bucket, or mast the entire time they’re at sea. Instead, he’s strumming Bowie covers on a classical guitar, in Portugese. But he’s amazing at it, so none of the other crew seem to mind.

Peter Gabriel “Heroes”Peter Gabriel started his 2010 orches-tral cover album Scratch My Back with his epic take on “Heroes.” On Face-book this week, he had this to say: “‘Heroes,’ for me, was always one of the great Bowie tracks. It is heroism in the face of oppression and despera-tion; it’s something triumphant despite the desperate situation.”

M. Ward“Let’s Dance”“Let’s Dance” had its detractors in 1983 among Bowie fans who preferred his ‘60s and ‘70s output over his New Wave. But they’d forgiven or forgotten that by the time that M. Ward, arguably the better half of the duo She & Him, covered it on his second album, 2003’s The Transfiguration of Vincent.

Langley Schools Music Project“Space Oddity”In the late ‘70s, Langley music teacher Hans Fenger put together four chil-dren’s choruses, recordings of which were released to critical acclaim in 2001. Bowie himself said of “Oddity”: “The backing arrangement is astound-ing. Coupled with the earnest if lugu-brious vocal performance you have a piece of art that I couldn’t have con-ceived of, even with half of Colombia’s finest export products in me.”

Chris Hadfield“Space Oddity”I mean, he was in space.

When we lose anyone we care about, whether we knew them personally or not, it’s like losing a piece of ourselves. David Bowie was woven into the fabric of many of our lives, including these people who have covered his songs over the years.

DAVE CUSICKPROGRAM DIRECTOR / THE PODFATHER

In The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Geralt of Rivia, a “witcher” — a specially trained mutant monster hunter — is searching for his lost protege. The main protagonist can make or break a game, so I was happy to find him to be a very fascinating, likable (and totally badass) character, and a lot of fun to play as. There is a small degree of customization available; players can stick with Geralt’s traditional look, or choose from a small selection of different hair styles and facial hair types. One novel touch is that his facial hair can be shaved off, and will actively grow back over time.

I knew very little about the series going in, having never played the first or second games, but prior knowledge is not necessary to just jump in and enjoy. Tonnes of in-game information, both written and verbal, on the characters and background stories make it easy to catch up with the history and lore of this rich fantasy world.

The Witcher III features great dialogue, story, and absolutely brilliant character and monster designs, on a scale that ranges all the way from gorgeous to grotesque. Beautiful, lush landscapes combined with an orchestral soundtrack create a very enjoyable and absorbing atmosphere. The night / day cycle is done very well, notably the use of light and shadows, as well as the weather system, which creates environmental effects such as wind and rain — all adding to the immersive quality of the game.

One criticism the game received after its release last year was that the main plot is too long, and the world too large. It has become somewhat of a trend for games to push for more and more content, more expansive environments, and as many hours of potential gameplay as possible. However, though

there is a seemingly endless wealth of things to do, I personally didn’t feel overwhelmed or pressured to accomplish everything possible; I found the pacing between the main story and downtime for side quests to be quite comfortable. (Although I do understand how these aspects could be frustrating for completionists.)

Though some of the side missions can eventually start to seem a tad repetitive, one thing that definitely stood out to me about a lot of the secondary quests was just how well-crafted many of the characters and their stories are. In many RPGs, side quests can quickly start to feel like a chore, but while playing The Witcher III I often found myself happily distracted from the main storyline by these interesting offshoots, and actually invested in some of these very minor characters as well.

The game also includes weapon and armour crafting (though this feature is somewhat limited), as well as an alchemy and crafting feature through which ingredients and components for usable items, potions, and explosives can be created.

The combat system can be a bit clunky at times, but becomes more comfortable the more you play. Fast travel and travel by horse are both available, with combat also being possible while on horseback. There’s even a card mini game you can play called “Gwent.” Because as multiple games have taught us, no matter how urgent the situation, you always have time for a round of cards.

The game’s developer, CD Projekt RED, has proven that they can compete in the same league as Bethesda and FromSoftware, and my hopes are high that their next project will be of the same (or higher) calibre as The Witcher III. Overall, this is one of the best fantasy-based RPGs I’ve played in a long time, and whether you’re a huge fan of the genre or not, I would still definitely recommend checking it out and judging for yourself!

KAT MARUSIAKTHE CASCADE

The Witcher III is a seasonally-appropriate mega-RPG

GAME REVIEW

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ARTS IN REVIEW

Director Quentin Tarantino is holding out hope for film stock. His latest film, The Hateful Eight, was released in a special 70mm Roadshow format on Christmas Day in only three Canadian theatres and approximately 100 theatres worldwide, with old film projectors hauled out and retrofitted to project the film how Tarantino intended it.

Thanks to Tarantino, Abrams, Nolan, Apatow, and other directors, Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said to The Hollywood Reporter that film stock production will likely return to profitability by this year.

I was able to see both the digital and 70mm formats of the film, and the difference between the two is surprising. I was unaware of the difference in cutting between the two screening formats until I saw the second and noticed a specific and memorable chicken plucking scene was absent. According to Variety magazine, Tarantino cut each version of the film differently, claiming that he felt certain scenes wouldn’t translate as well from film to digital. The 70mm version of the film had rich, lush colour compared

to digital, and the very faint f licking of the projector could be heard as a pleasant white noise throughout the screening.

Due to the age of many of the projectors used to screen the 70mm version of the film, breakdowns and issues were common. Thirty minutes before the halfway mark of the film, the gate of the projector broke, rendering the entire centre of the frame out of focus. This was unable to be repaired and so the rest of the screening went on despite the issue. Several diehard fans left out of frustration, demanding refunds, but more than 95 per cent stayed. Regardless of the barely decipherable centre of the frame, the film was still immensely enjoyable to watch. Upon the end of the showing each guest was offered a free pass to see the digital version as compensation for the broken projector.

I found that the digital version of the film left a completely different impression on me than the 70mm. The image on the screen was much more crisp, devoid of f laws, and lacked the f licker of the 70mm version. All of this contributed to making the film feel like more of a blockbuster, and less of an art film.

The 70mm version started with an eight-minute overture, and breaks for a 12-minute intermission halfway through, both of which

were lacking in the digital version. These two factors along with Tarantino’s use of chapters made the 70mm version of the film feel more like a play than a movie. The lighting of the film is also reminiscent of stage lighting: harsh, often disregarding any realistic light source. The film is set mainly in one room, just as in Reservoir Dogs. The actors don’t feel trapped, but rather like they are strutting to and fro across a stage. Their acting is over the top, very loud, and well enunciated, very similar to Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight. Half of these characteristics are in both versions of the film, but there is something about having an intermission where everyone can run out, have a smoke break, and speculate together over where the rest of the story is going that is specially related to viewing a play.

In this year’s director roundtable from The Hollywood Reporter, Tarantino talked once again about his old promise of only making 10 films, but with a new twist: he now says that once he is done with films he wants to move on to write plays and direct on Broadway. It’s not surprising that he leans this way, as so many of his films would translate well to the stage.

The Hateful Eight is hard to watch at times; Tarantino has never been one to shy

away from violence and abuse, and this film is no exception. He depicts racism, violence against women, and themes of power, control, and lies.

Despite its grim tone, this is Tarantino’s most majestic-looking work to date. The vistas of a wintery Michigan are painted across the screen, and a marvellous soundtrack by Ennio Morricone drives the visuals home. The characters are all charming and mischievous with some of the best writing of any of his films yet. Tim Roth’s character has the most delightful wit of all, with his most memorable quip being: “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! I know Americans aren’t apt to let a little thing like unconditional surrender to get in the way of a good war, but…”

All things considered, The Hateful Eight is unmistakably a Tarantino film. From the frivolous and cartoony gore to the revisionist history, nothing is left without his signature stamped upon it. Tarantino pushes the traditional journey or progress driven narrative aside, and puts eight personalities together in a sort of test tube to experiment with and investigate the rules of justice, truth, respect, and how far people (mostly men) are willing to travel for power and survival.

The Hateful Eight sets the stage, then hurtles off on a winter roadshow

MOVIE REVIEW

MITCH HUTTEMATHE CASCADE

19


ARTS IN REVIEW

Amber Bain’s solo project, the Japanese House, has been billed as many different things, from electronic pop to avant-garde. But the best way to characterize it is as an interwoven web of inf luences and sounds. It is evident that Bain puts countless hours into the production side of the record, often layering multiple tracks of vocals and synthesizers that each contain various effects, such as vocoders and modulation.

However, though the production is balanced and well put together, Clean, Bain’s second EP release of 2015, presents an often hazy

and light feel to it, mainly due to Bain’s vocal work. Bain wanders, casually speaking in an unfiltered and often repetitive manner. This is most notable on “Sugar Pill,” which contains a heavy barrage of oohhs and ahhs. Those who prefer music with strong vocal presence may not find this record appealing, as for the most part, the lyrics and vocal melodies are used more as a textural element on top of the instruments, rather than being the driving hook.

Though this is the case through much of Clean, it does not take away from the lyrics — though the concept of love is broad, Bain approaches the topic through a lens of bittersweet recollection and self-doubt towards the feeling. Lines

such as “And I knew it wouldn’t last / But in the clean light you cast I was good,” from the title track, “Clean,” and “I thought they knew / I’m fickle and slow and I’ll never do,” from “Cool Blue” capture an awkward uncertainty and anxiety that has connected with listeners — some proclaimed Bain one of 2015’s “overnight successes.”

As mentioned, Clean seemingly is on the more eclectic side of the pop genre, but if you’ve found something to like in acts like Vancouver Sleep Clinic and Bon Iver, The Japanese House should be a welcome addition to your musical library.

With Clean, Amber Bain mixes genres, media, and voices

ALBUM REVIEW

The radio is saturated with trash. This is nothing new, but it’s also nothing to celebrate. Popular music, in order to appeal to as many people as possible, tends to uncritically accept the negative aspects of culture as the way things are or ought to be; materialism becomes a measure of hip-ness, hedonism and escapism become standard for a good time, and the synthetic becomes the only acceptable aesthetic. In other, less fancy words, much of pop music today is over-produced drinking and fucking songs stuffed with references to Twitter. There are always exceptions in the Top 40 — Alessia Cara’s “Here” wonderfully reverses the typical “Party hard!” attitude of many hits, for example — but they are few and far between.

Then Erykah Badu drops something like But U Caint Use My Phone, a masterful deconstruction of the mediocre Drake hit, “Hotline Bling.”

In the Drake song, the singer finds himself forlorn when he realizes his girl won’t call his cell anymore because she’s having more fun going out on the town without him. He feels sad that she’s gone, but he never really addresses the influence of technological dependence and party culture on his current state. Cell phones and clubbing are simply givens, things that people need and are never going to stop needing. Especially in the context of current pop music, these things are normal and good.

Badu’s mixtape counters Drake’s acceptance of materialism and hedonism by homing in on the more spiritual aspects of relationships in technology-dependant times. By “spiritual,”

I don’t mean anything religious, but I mean she has a deeper, more natural, and dynamic grasp on what it means to live today. Whereas “Hotline Bling” features Drake’s voice struggling to get across on top of a produced-to-shit beat with lyrics taking advantage of — rather than drawing attention to — cultural and social conventions, Badu’s re-titled cover, “Cel U Lar Device,” is more complexly arranged and produced, and her singing sounds more human in its timbre and cadence.

The surrounding tracks on the mixtape also contextualize “Cel U Lar Device” in such a way that its lyrics are impossible to hear uncritically. For example, “Dial’Afreaq” pins the sudden decline of bees on the sudden increase in cell phone radiation, lamenting the unlikelihood of this knowledge actually affecting anyone enough to give up the convenience of cellphones; “Phone Down” sees Badu betting the listener that she “can make you put your phone down” with the real, physical things she can do to you; and “Hello” finishes the whole shebang with a surprisingly non-corny rap about the importance of meaningful communication between people to a backdrop of nature sounds. It’s beautiful, not to mention just as catchy and danceable as anything on the radio.

Erykah Badu is a soul singer in the truest sense. Since her 1997 record Baduizm, she has been digging through the vapidity of modern culture to find the human nugget that remains at its centre. With the current context of radio music fattened up with artists like Drake and The Weeknd, Badu is as relevant as ever, giving our spirits the exercise and diet they need after last night’s black-out binges.

Sent from my iPhone

Erykah Badu’s But You Caint Use My Phone unplugs cultural conventions

ALBUM REVIEW

ALEX RAKETHE CASCADE

JEFFREY TRAINORTHE CASCADE



Documents

The Cascade Vol. 24 No. 1