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Page 1: November 18 2010

page 6 page 4Be free, Weezy. Be free. Local Motion loses no steam

the insidethe rap

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Campus bookstores lobby to lower pricesGroup says copyright regulations driving up cost of textbooks

Text books are expensive. Ev-ery student is painfully aware of this. Now campus bookstores are acknowledging this and try-ing to do something about it.

This past Monday, Campus Stores Canada (CSC) went to Ottawa to lobby for the end to current copyright regulations that is pumping up the cost of books by up to 15%. CSC esti-mates that the total impact of this interpretation of the copy-right legislation is costing Ca-nadian students $30 million annually.

“We know for certain that students at University of To-ronto are very concerned about the cost of text books and are in favour of anything that can be done to reduce their costs,” said Chad Saunders, vice president

retail, U of T, which is a mem-ber of CSC.

“Naturally some books are impacted by this and if a change took place it would benefi t stu-dents.”

The issue is that publishers are allowed to grant exclusivity to Canadian agents, which may

be either a text book publisher or a book distributor. If a Cana-dian agent has exclusive rights, charges no more than 15% over what other agencies offer and can deliver the book in a “timely” fash-ion, a Canadian bookseller must or-

martín waldman

Take 5 takes fi ve?CIUT’s fl agship current aff airs program

faces major change under new direction

For four and a half years, Take 5 has been a fi xture on the weekly schedule at CIUT 89.5 FM, Uni-versity of Toronto Radio. Oc-cupying the 8 to 10 a.m. time slot from Monday to Friday, the show aims to provide a fresh take on news, current affairs, and the arts in Toronto, and over the years has attracted not only a huge roster of eager and talented volunteers, but a series of widely respected, high-pro-fi le guests, among them Roméo Dallaire, former Prime Minister Paul Martin, and author Roddy Doyle.

It came as a shock to many lis-teners and community members when, on this week’s Tuesday show, host and senior producer David Peterson announced that the current incarnation of Take 5 would be cancelled as of Janu-ary 1st, 2011. Within minutes, listener e-mails began arriving in Peterson’s inbox, expressing support.

Peterson struggles to hide his own frustration at the decision, particularly being of the opin-ion that the show had come a long way, and was just starting to hit a stride.

“We had gotten to the point where we were being ap-proached by well-known, re-spected guests and authors,” he says. “For a long time we were the ones that had to run after people and take what we could get. We helped get the message out that this was more than just an on-campus station, and this

was more than a small-time col-lege show.”

The importance of alternative spoken word programming and current affairs coverage is not lost on CIUT program direc-tor and acting station manager Ken Stowar. He explains that while Take 5 had contributed immensely to CIUT’s line up, the show was due for major changes.

“Changes are always ongoing, it’s a constant part of radio sta-tions and programming. When it comes to Take 5, it’s not being eliminated, it’s being revamped and upgraded.”

Stowar’s vision for an im-proved show entails trimming its length from two hours to one, beginning at 9 a.m. instead of 8. Much of the time would be saved by cutting out regular traffi c and weather updates, as well as news reports on the half hour, and live music guests. Stowar says the leaner version of the program would be more “focused, powerful and compel-ling.”

“We gave the show an op-portunity to grow and build an audience, but I don’t think we had the opportunity to grow be-tween 8 and 9 a.m. when Metro Morning and other mainstream morning shows are on the air. We just do not have the re-sources to compete.”

Stowar stresses that he be-lieves in the importance of the topics covered, but that listen-ership was not where it needed to be.

Cara SaBatInI

Harper did what?!This March, Stephen Harper

announced he would freeze foreign aid at the current 2010 level for the next fi ve years. Ox-fam U of T reacted by hosting a fl ash stunt, requesting students to sign a petition to “Take Off the Freeze.”

Oxfam members of the St. George campus called for stu-dent involvement outside Sid-ney Smith Hall, Wednesday November 17. The participants geared up in excessive win-ter attire to spread awareness of Harper’s chilly decision to implement a freeze on foreign aid. This fl ash-stunt – or per-haps more appropriately, fl ash-freeze – involved music con-taining “freeze-related” lyrics, such as beloved classic, “Ice Ice Baby,” and dancers rejoicing as

each student signed their name in support of continuing the current foreign aid promise of .7% of Canada’s GDP.

Why should students care about Harper’s cool move? Ox-

fam Ontario’s Regional Youth Liaison, Anda Petro, respond-ed: “U of T students care about Education, Maternal and Child Health, Environmental Sus-

Continued on page 3

Oxfam U of T stunt calls out Harper’s cold treatment

Students: freeze on foreign aid will bring us short on Millenium Development Goals

Continued on page 3

KELV

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Dave Peterson, Take host and senior producer, at Hart House with Paul Martin.

Price tags prove to be a real pain in the ass on the student wallet.

Stoked about our new hip hop column

Continued on page 3

November 18, 2010University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly Vol. XXXIII N0. 10

Be free, Weezy. Be free.the rap

Stoked about our new hip hop column

the newspaper

Page 2: November 18 2010

the newspaper

creating special

moments

since 1978.

Arts EditorCara Sabatini

2 November 18, 2010

the newspaperEditor-in-Chief

Helene Goderis

Web EditorAndrew Gyorkos

ContributorsKelvin Abong, Dave Bell, Dan Christensen, Andrew Gyorkos,

Stephanie Kervin, Rose Palmieri, Jess Stokes

the newspaper1 Spadina Crescent, Suite 245

Toronto, ON M5S 1A1Editorial: 416-593-1552

[email protected]

the newspaper is U of T’s independent weekly paper, published by Planet Publications Inc.,

a non-profi t corporation.

All U of T community members, including students, staff and faculty, are encouraged to contribute to the newspaper.

Business ManagerTaylor Ramsay

[email protected]

the news

Illustrations EditorDave Bell

News EditorMartín Waldman

Contributing EditorDiana Wilson

The Life Raft

Marcel DanesiA Semiotic “Papyrus” for the New World Order

Picture this: civilization as we know it has crumbled. The few survivors are boarding a vessel that will carry them to the new world - where they will rebuild - and only one seat re-mains. All of academia must vie for it using their most deadly weapon: reasoned discourse.

This week’s candidate is Marcel Danesi, professor of Se-miotics and Linguistic Anthropology. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1998, and throughout his distinguished career, he has authored many books including Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives and Language, Society, and Culture: Introducing Anthropological Linguis-tics. He is the editor in chief of Semiotica, and edits both the Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Signs and Semaphors book series.

-Diana Wilson

My fellow travelers, I plead not to be taken with you, for I am just one life form among an in-fi nitude of them. On your way to making your new society, I am asking you simply to listen to my plea for taking into account the fundamental principles that undergird the discipline I have espoused all my career and which has made me into a more understanding person than I probably would have otherwise been, aware of who I am, of what my limitations are, and of the importance of understand-ing others—indeed, of the im-portance of getting close to oth-ers, no matter who they are, so that I can understand myself.

So, I have written this “papy-rus” (allow me to take liberty

are as much descendants of his-torical forces as we are of bio-logical ones. Each word, each symbol, each text carries with it the “meaning DNA” of a certain group of individuals living at a certain period of time. These signs, as they are called, allow us paradoxically to go forward by connecting with the past. Each sign is a “historical gene,” connecting us to the wisdom of the past and guiding us in our knowledge-making quests.

3. Particular signs are the cultural resources used to solve universal problems. As the great anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski pointed out, culture is the human ve-hicle invented to solve universal problems of survival (gathering

with words, since they are only signs anyhow), the seven axioms by which semioticians live—ax-ioms I have constructed from the writings and thoughts of the great semioticians across time, from the ancient Greek physi-cian Hippocrates to the contem-porary semiotician and writer (also a good friend of the semi-otics program at my university), Umberto Eco. I give you this pa-pyrus to take with you to keep, treasure, and hopefully use as the basis for founding your new world order. It is best that you take it along without me, so that no subjective interference from its maker can be imposed on its use—which, by the way, is itself an indirect principle of semiotic practice.

1. Sign systems across the world are built with the same psychic need to repro-duce the world on our own terms. We cannot survive with-out producing meaningful forms (words, symbols, rituals, and so on)—forms that allow us to re-fl ect upon reality on our own terms. These are as important to psychic survival as food is to biological survival. We hunt for meaning (excuse my metaphor) with the same compulsion as we hunt for food. Imagine a human world without language, music, art, science, mathematics, and so on. Not possible, right? Well, you see what I mean.

2. These systems are con-strained only by the force of history and tradition. We

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food, cooperating, understand-ing the world, and so on). Semi-otics teaches us that we do this with the same kinds of sign-making strategies, that is, with words to name the surround-ing environment, with musical sounds to allow for communal bonding, with symbols that en-shrine identity, and so on.

4. Differences in sign sys-tems result from differ-ences in human variability and contextual-historical factors. This is a corollary to axiom number 3 and thus needs no further comment.

5. Sign systems entail cul-ture-specifi c classifi cations and thus explanations of the world. Again, this is a cor-ollary to axiom number 3. Just keep it always in mind when you build your new society because, as the next axiom states:

6. These classifi cations infl uence the way people think, behave, and act, and therefore:

7. Perceptions of “natural-ness” and models of “com-mon sense” are really prod-ucts of historical meaning systems, not of Nature. This axiom is probably the most im-portant one, implying that we should always, absolutely al-ways, respect diversity and dif-ferences in people, since all sign systems spring from the same need to understand the world and ourselves. The results differ because they are tied to time, place, and individual creativ-ity, but the need is universal. We are literally in this all to-gether, as the original Star Trek series constantly reminded us. Signs inform us of this and re-mind us that we all seek to give meaning to life, even if, as the writer Henry Miller once put it, we might be doing this because life has no obvious meaning. I hope that Miller is wrong and that you will take this papyrus with you to create a new “semi-osphere” (as semioticians call it) to match and give meaning to the conditions presented to you by the new biosphere.

Page 3: November 18 2010

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3November 18, 2010 the news

GSU ANNUAL

GENERAL MEETING Graduate Students’ Union

University of Toronto TUESDAY, NOV. 23, 2010

6:10 p.m. SHARP Koffler Institute Auditorium

569 Spadina Avenue beside the GSU

_______________________

Agenda: 2009-10 Financial Statement & Audit

Appointment of the Auditor Approval of Minutes

All graduate students have voice & vote

[email protected] www.utgsu.ca

however disagree.“Look at the experience of New

Zealand, a good comparator with Canada,” said Wayne Amundson, CSC executive director, in an in-terview with the newspaper. “They went the exact opposite way of Canada. Since they’ve opened up their market internationally, chil-dren’s book publishing in New Zea-land has increased. Further, profi ts have gone up. Certainly, they didn’t go down as all the doomsayers in Canada predict that they would.”

In general, Amundson says that his group has received a good hear-ing from Canada’s lawmakers. “Ev-eryone we spoke with comes to see the logic of our position.” At the same time, the government has not moved to change the current re-gime. “We’ve been working on this for four years and have yet to hear an explanation as to why there has been no movement on this.”

Campus bookstores are an asset to universities, often providing a revenue stream for other things. At the University of Toronto, campus bookstores have traditionally been linked to the University of Toron-to Press, helping the university to publish worthy works that other-wise may never see the light of day. Which is, of course and not a little ironically, the same justifi cation for the current copyright enforcement.

“We have been doing everything possible to save the students money on textbooks,” Saunders adds. “In fact, for the term starting in Janu-ary, we are making some important changes to improve our rental text-book program.”

der the book from the agent. Book-sellers have never agreed with this aspect of copyright.

One of the justifi cations for the current regime is that it allows Canadian publishers access to a revenue stream to produce made-in-Canada content. Booksellers

tainability, and other Millen-nium Development Goals, but [Harper’s decision] seems to have gone under the radar.” The government is currently provid-ing .3% of Canada’s GDP, rather than the promised .7%. A freeze on foreign aid would stall prog-ress towards achieving Millen-nium Development objectives by 2015.

Reports from the Interna-tional Institute for Sustainable Development, Greenpeace, and the Climate Action Network re-veal that the Canadian govern-ment continues to support the oil industry with billions of dol-lars in subsidies. “It is hard to understand why we would give billion-dollar breaks to dirty industries,” said Oxfam Can-ada Policy Coordinator, Mark Fried. The poorest people in the world are “reeling from climate change, which is playing havoc with planting seasons and caus-ing fl oods and droughts,” claims Fried, calling for a reduction in Canada’s emissions and for the government to provide direct assistance to “help [the people] cope” with such devastating ef-fects.

Canada has committed to contribute $400 million to help developing countries deal with climate change, yet recently disclosed the government will provide the money in the form of loans, mostly for mitigation projects rather than for adapta-tion. “Money lost to oil and gas tax breaks could easily fund this commitment, and turn loans into much-needed grants,” Fried said.

“We have a responsibility to take action,” stated Petro. Sign-ing a petition lets MPs know that “providing billions of dol-lars to dirty industries” is a cold and consequential decision. Producing just shy of 200 sig-natures, the fl ash stunt orga-nized by Oxfam U of T “proved that U of T students care about social justice and are willing to demand action,” says Petro.

Further plans to break the ice include encouraging other On-tario and Canadian universities to host similar events, as part of Oxfam’s coordinated action to raise awareness about the issue on campuses nationwide. Says Petro, “it is appalling just how little coverage [the decision] has received.”

Oxfamcont’d from page 1

Bookstorescont’d from page 1

rOSE PalmIErI

TEA Seeks Lighter Transit Solutions

Mayor-elect Rob Ford favors the expansion of the subway system as a solution to our growing transit needs, but are more subways the right choice?

The Toronto Environmental Al-liance (TEA) and commuter lobby group TTCriders released a report suggesting Light Rail Transit (LRT) as a far better option for Toronto than building more subways.

Published this past Monday, Clearing the Air on the TTC, exam-ines the economic and environmen-tal implications of expanding our current subway system compared to constructing Light Rail Transit.

The report proposes LRT as a better choice for Toronto, given our need for immediate action. Toron-to’s suburban dwellers are rightly fed up with absurdly long wait times while taking the TTC. The poor quality of our transit system has provided many Torontonians with no choice but to resort to us-ing their vehicles to travel around the city, producing increases in greenhouse gas emissions and traf-fi c congestion.

Compared to subways, LRT can be built much more quickly and

emits far less green house gasses in the atmosphere when costs are factored into the equation. Con-sidering the recent heavy fog cover that hit the city, reducing emissions should be top priority. LRT also costs three times less than it would to expand the subway system. With a scarcity of tax dollars, more LRT can be built for less, providing more Torontonians access to transit.

However, Rob Ford’s electoral campaign focused on the construc-tion of more subways. Ford has pledged to extend the Sheppard subway line to Scarborough Town Centre, connecting with the Bloor-Danforth SRT extension. Addition-ally, Ford proposed funding road repairs to improve traffi c fl ow and to replace streetcars with buses.

TEA and TTCriders are urging Toronto’s City Council to act now and consider their suggestions, rec-ommending to continue the imple-mentation of the 2007 Transit City Plan. The groups advocate the plan offers the greatest reduction in greenhouse gases per dollar spent and overall better transit service. The plan involves the construction of eight light rail lines along priori-ty streets. However, the postponing of funding has delayed the project, which means Toronto transit riders can expect to see its completion in the next 10 years.

“It’s not about content, we’re just not making headway.”

Since its inception, Take 5 has relied on volunteer partici-pation for nearly every aspect of its production, with volunteers learning about how to put a show on the air through direct participation, and under Peter-son’s guidance.

While his own contract with the university is set to end in the new year, Peterson has been ap-proached with the offer of stay-ing on as host of the new show, on a volunteer basis. While his formal response is still pending, Peterson is not convinced that sort of arrangement is sustainable.

“Even for a volunteer to put 8 hours on the air a week, the collateral hours spent chasing down features and researching interviews would amount to about 4 times what any other volunteer gives to the station,” he says. “It shows a lack of com-prehension for what goes into putting this kind of show on the air.”

Despite his time at CIUT like-ly drawing to a close, Peterson remains proud of what he, and Take 5, managed to accom-plish.

“Besides the fact that we were able to put on a remarkable, rel-evant radio show with very lit-tle resources, the part that has meant the most to me has been watching young journalists and young reporters come in here, and leave better-equipped to go into their fi eld...I’m pretty sure they’re going to remember me as the gruff guy who taught them how to write better, or in-terview better, or about context in news stories. That makes me happy.”

Take 5cont’d from page 1

Page 4: November 18 2010

4 November 18, 2010the inside

Local Motion loses no momentumMunicipal elections over, Local Motion reflects on

the questions that matter to Torontonians

Local Motion is a veritable who’s who of talking heads on Toronto municipal affairs

Despite the miserable weather, Lula Lounge was packed on Tuesday night during Coach House Books’ release party for Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto.The latest book in the uTO-pia series published by Coach House in 2005, Local Motion is a collection of essays from prominent Torontonians about getting involved in communities and local politics. The enthusi-astic response from local citi-zens at the event suggests that Local Motion is a particularly timely release, and editors Dave Meslin, Christina Palassio, and Alana Wilcox were visibly en-couraged during a brief address to kick off the evening.

The night’s main event was a panel discussion on civic en-gagement featuring three con-tributors to the book, Kelly Grant, Jennifer Lewington and Mike Smith, as well as Toronto-ist contributor, former City Idol winner and local activist Des-mond Cole, and Che Kathami, founder of Manifesto Commu-nity Projects. The discussion was moderated by CBC Radio veteran and former city hall reporter David Michael Lamb, who launched immediately into the topic of the recent municipal election, and its implications.

To start, Cole pointed to the fact that many new faces have entered city council, and the chance they now have to pres-ent their own fresh ideas. Grant was quick to add that despite generalized concerns about Rob Ford’s impending mayor-alty, his vote is one out of 45 on council, and that he will be forced to work within the exist-ing system and towards some kind of consensus.

The topic of civic engage-ment was often discussed as an

incremental process that must be sustained, and Mike Smith raised the important point that upon the election of David Mill-er’s “progressive administra-tion,” much of the responsibil-ity for change was downloaded onto the mayor’s and council’s shoulders, which eventually led to less action than before.

Despite some brief forays into these and other topics such as funding for the arts, the discus-sion seemed to consistently re-turn to the recent victory of Rob Ford as mayor, and references to the “culture war” that led to such marked differences in vot-ing patterns between the urban city core, and the former bor-oughs of Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke.

A moment of clarity that stood out over the course of the eve-ning was Jennifer Lewington’s open question: “Does anyone in the audience live north of Eglin-ton Avenue?” The near-silence that followed was significant, and seemed to show that there is yet some distance to go in bridging gaps among the differ-ent political perspectives in the

city.Even so, the overarching

theme of the night’s panel dis-cussion is echoed in Local Mo-tion itself: that Torontonians need to take the extra step to meet people within their com-munity, engage City Hall and its seemingly impenetrable bu-reaucracy, and find the com-mon ground that exists among the city’s disparate neighbour-hoods and communities.

Local Motion is not limited to an account of interesting lo-cal stories or encouraging role models - it aims to provide read-ers with the toolbox they need to take action in their community immediately, and explain which avenues to pursue.

In her essay, for example, The Toronto Star’s Catherine Porter provides not one but three dif-ferent strategies for tackling To-ronto’s bureaucracy, explained through interviews with the peo-ple who put them into practice. Editor Dave Meslin even pro-vides illustrations in his contri-

martín waldman

Change can happen.

It just takes work. -Catherine Porter

Plant your own damn flowers, paint your own

damn bike lanes and paper over

the detritus strewnabout your city by

ad companiesthat have neither

your forgiveness nor your permission.

-Jonathan Goldsbie

Civic engagement doesn’t end.

It takes breaks, but it’s a way of life.

- Dave Meslin

The creative city exists,

but for now it sits empty.

-Mike Smith

bution, and a step-by-step guide of how to turn an idea for local change into a reality. National Post writer Jonathan Goldsbie relates his own experience as a guerrilla activist to show us how we can exert an influence from outside the political system, while Spacing contributor John Lorinc explains how youth can gradually carve out their own public spaces.

These are of course only a few examples from a talented group of essayists that include Eye Weekly Senior Editor Edward Keenan, or Globe and Mail re-porter and former MuchMusic presenter Hannah Sung. Local Motion provides a broad, bal-anced, and diverse picture of what civic engagement means in the city of Toronto. Perhaps most significantly, each chap-ter ends with a short section under the heading, “Get In-volved,” which includes links and important information for interested readers to check out. Those two words certainly sum-marize the thoughts expressed at Tuesday’s panel discussion, and the philosophy behind Lo-cal Motion itself.

Fresh ideas, vision,solving real

problems, building an excellent city

– these things ought to be interesting. -Edward Keenan

Page 5: November 18 2010

5November 18, 2010 the inside

How can creative outlets like music play a role in re-integrating at-risk youth?

Tamara Dawit’s work at the 411 Initiative for Change is focused on educating young people. It works because her presentations and programs are always informed by the kind of music young people are listening to. Music engages them, enlivens them, speaks their language. It’s important to be able to connect with young people, validate their concerns and fears and questions, and I think that music, especially hip hop, the music of youth, is a great way to connect.

The Q & A, with...

Why is there a degree of cynicism within Toronto about making important changes to a community?

In part because many of the decision-making processes are impenetrable - it simply isn’t clear how changes are made or who is driving the changes - and in part because the changes which tend to get publicised are the controversial, head-line-grabbing ones. Usually when we read about changes, let’s say a new condo tower going up, it’s because someone is protesting or there is an OMB challenge or the community disapproves. This creates an impression that change is most often imposed upon a community, and that it is largely unstoppable.

How can citizens best get involved in To-ronto’s urban planning process?

First, start talking to your neighbours, local resi-dents associations, and community groups - a collective voice is always more powerful than an individual one. And second, learn as much as you can about what developers are planning *before* their plans are fi nalized. Talk to your city counsellor, look at notices that are posted up on building sites, attend community meetings. Developers are much more likely to modify their proposals if you engage with them before they’ve invested time and money into fi ne-tuning those proposals.

Hannah Sung

Hamutal Dotan

What progress have we seen towards creating a city coun-cil that more accurately represents our city?

We’re doing a lot better with the gender thing and worse on the eth-nicity thing, this council. Why? I’m not really sure. But I do think one barrier is that it’s more expensive to run as a megacity council-lor than it was in the old cities. The wards are bigger, so campaign materials are more expensive. I think this is a real shame, because it would be nice to get lower-income voice on council, or more peo-ple who, like my dad, don’t have “higher educations.”

There is a lot of talk about whether council salaries should stay high, or even rise, to attract people who otherwise would stay in the private sector making more money. I wish we also discussed the other end, some way of helping people who don’t make a lot of money get a toe-hold into campaigning, which can be very pricey. Yes, you’re reimbursed if you win. But, if you don’t, well, then you aren’t reimbursed. That’s way too risky of a proposition for people middle or lower income people. My dad had worked for Bell for about 18 years when he ran, so he was able to get a leave of absence. There is no way people would actually quit their jobs to run, espe-cially if they were possible going to lose, and have a huge campaign debt.

This sounds like something Dave Meslin would say, but maybe there should be a higher-government law that people be allowed an eight-week unpaid leave to run for political offi ce, or something.

DeniseBalkissoon

Freelance writer with Toronto Life magazine, Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail.

Contributing editor, Flare Magazine, Globe and Mail columnist

Senior Editor, Torontoist

Three Local Motion contributors answer a few questions from the newspaper.

Illustrations by Stephanie Kervin

Page 6: November 18 2010

6 November 18, 2010the artsThe rap

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably won-dering, what will I fi ght for now that Lil’ Wayne is out of the big house? Earlier this month, Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (a.k.a. Lil’ Wayne) was fi nally released from Riker’s Island Prison after serving 8 months of his yearlong sentence for attempted criminal possession of a weapon. How someone attempts to criminally possess a weapon is beyond me, but it might have something to do with the fact that his tour bus is perpetually fi lled with drugs and guns while crossing state lines. They had to get him on something, right?

During his time at Riker’s, Lil’ Wayne kept in con-tact with his fans through the website “Weezy Thanx You,” where letters written by him were posted to keep us all up to speed. Check out the most recent video post where Weezy ‘thanx’ his fans. Personal-ly, I’m glad to see prison hasn’t changed this Young Money rapper. If the video is any indication, I’m betting the fi rst thing he did once free was smoke a joint and record that sh*t.

But back to fi ghting the good fi ght. Sure we could take up causes like that of Lil’ Boosie (incarcerated on similar charges), or Mumia Abu-Jamal. But I feel like the former pales in comparison to our love for Lil’ Wayne and the latter is far too intense. I’m

going to talk to you about a cause we should really be concerned about.

If you were following Kanye’s twitter feed in July, then you know he has replaced his entire front row of bottom teeth with solid diamonds, tweeting, “Teeth real diamonds... what’s the cause of the frontin.” I know what you’re thinking: “that’s amazing”. But with awesome teeth bling could come some se-rious dental issues, people. My suspicion is that diamonds are slightly heavier than bone and that his gums might not appreci-ate the change in material.

A more current cause to take up is Kanye’s banned album cover. His latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is set to drop on November 22. Originally, the album cover depicted a cartoon version of himself, naked and boozing it up with a voluptuous, white angel-demon creature (apparently a much less attractive version of the phoenix in his recent Runaway short fi lm). Person-ally, I dug the cover and think that the label needs to chill. Think back (if you’re that old) to Jimi Hendrix’s original cover for Electric Ladyland, which featured a bunch of naked real women hanging out. For those of you who just can’t wait for MBDTF to hit stores, hit up Kanye’s websites for free weekly songs and his twitter for a solid dose of crazy talk.

JESS StOKES

So what now that Weezy’s free?Stokes delivers recent rundown in world of hip hop with her fi rst edition of The Rap

Across2. Slender4. “Be that __ __ may...”8. ___ Croft (video game heroine)9. Algerian port city10. Required11. Kicks out13. Friendly boxing bout16. Coated with snow19. Cut20. Invigorate the troops21. Mistake24. Set up for another attempt26. American jazz rock/fusion band27. Host28. Entwined31. Presto!34. Blueprint36. Ninth month37. Crucifi x acronym38. TV award39. On the ocean40. Swagger

Down1. Information2. Soaks up the sun3. Bring upon oneself5. Spread the love6. Playthings7. Elemental essence11. Foundation12. “Don’t even worry about it...”14. Regarding the government15. Beams of light16. Cargo17. Pastry dishes18. Recruited22. Aired on TV again23. Name for a dalmation25. Vanilla, coffee, or kidney29. Microsoft rival30. Arm joint32. Frank or Boleyn33. Largest continent34. Targets35. Weapons

DAV

E BE

LL

FIRST PERSON TO FILL THIS OUTand deliver to our offi ces

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Page 7: November 18 2010

7November 18, 2010 the arts

dan CHrIStEnSEn

Upon hearing that Danny Boyle was to make 127 Hours, a fea-ture fi lm based on the story of Aron Ralston’s 2003 hiking accident, I felt the desperate need to warn him: I know one man movies have been done before, but this isn’t like Cast Away where he can roam about a tropical island, searching for drinking water and learning to fi sh with his friendly volleyball. Your protagonist is stuck in a cavern only a few feet wide, with his arm crushed behind a rock. He can’t go anywhere, Danny. Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?

As it turns out, yes. Yes he did.

Boyle and co-writer Simon Beaufoy initially present us with Ralston’s trip from home to Blue John Canyon, a brief encounter with a pair of girls he meets upon his arrival, and his tumble down the narrow rift in the rock face, which seals his fate for the next fi ve days.

With 75 or so minutes left in the movie, we’re fi rst led upon a journey of method: his failed at-tempts to extricate his arm from

behind the boulder, his expert survival tactics, and hopeless pleas for rescue.

Much more captivating, how-ever, is the accompanying jour-ney of psyche. We watch Ral-ston chart his course through shock, anger, denial, determi-

nation, acceptance, self-hatred, and regret.

Boyle doesn’t simply touch on each emotion, he delves into the heart of Ralston’s every psycho-logical moment, witnessing it from each possible angle. The depth of this investigation is

127 Hours: bolder than you would expectWatch this movie twice? You don’t have to twist this reviewer’s rubber arm.

also where Boyle’s directorial creativity shines brightest.

To say that Boyle utilizes fl ashback would be a sore un-derstatement, as he practically reinvents the device. We see memories of family and past loved ones, terrifying halluci-

nations, dream sequences, seg-ments taped on his camcorder, as well as his experiences we witnessed earlier in the fi lm.

All of these are blended with deft skill into an interlock-ing stream of consciousness and story. Boyle uses complex frame compositions and varia-tions in picture quality format, among countless other fi lmic techniques to create the shifting textures that describe and pull us into Ralston’s experience.

I could happily devote an en-tirely separate review to James Franco’s nuanced performance as Aron Ralston, if it weren’t for Boyle’s stealing the stage. The weight of the fi lm is rested upon Franco’s shoulders, and he com-mands it with charm, sensibil-ity, and a breathtaking gravity. Meanwhile, his full palette as an actor is exhibited as he mir-rors Ralston’s physical descent into the cavern with his mental descent through life refl ection, and into desperate delirium.

Boyle has gone far beyond the inspiration inherent in Ralston’s story of terror and triumph. In 127 Hours he has created a new benchmark for ingenuity in fi lmmaking.

Being a group that is typical-ly under represented, under served, and virtually absent in the world of the arts, people diagnosed with developmental and intellectual disabilities gen-erally have a tough time when it comes to artistic expression. Such a fact has not gone un-noticed by Keys to the Studio,an initiative focused on creat-ing and promoting music from those with disabilities, who have worked together with Hart House to create Arts! Ability! Access!, an evening of events in support of artistic expression.

“Arts! Ability! Access! is in-tended to re-imagine how we view arts and disability,” says Zoe Dille, Program Coordinator at Hart House. “It demonstrates Hart House’s commitment to working in partnership and within a collaborative frame-work to create events that are accessible, educational and so-cially responsible.” The events’

focus on accessibility “really enlivens Hart House’s new vi-sion as a ‘living laboratory of so-cial, artistic, cultural and recre-ational experiences,” says Dille, “where all voices, rhythms and traditions converge.’”

The events kick off with the screening of an Academy Award nominated, animated short doc-umentary entitled Tying Your Own Shoes, directed by Shira Avni, which explores the lives of four adult artists living with Down Syndrome. Following the fi lm is a conversation on access to artistic expression with Avni herself, as well as actor Jason Melville of Dramaways, dancer Rebecca Till from Spirit Mov-ers, and artist Petra Tolley, one of the subjects of Avni’s fi lm. Moderated by U of T PhD stu-dent and Disability Studies TA, Anne McGuire, the panel is set to examine the impact of the “disability” label on artists and their work.

After the discussion, guests are encouraged to explore the

Unlocking Minds exhibit lo-cated in Hart House’s Main Hallway, which includes visual art by Lance Brown, André Ol-iveira, and Risa Sie. Finally, everyone is invited down to the Arbor Room for a Keys to the Studio concert, which features group and solo performances

of original music from people diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities in collaboration with professional musicians.

Arts! Ability! Access! is jointly presented by Keys to the Studio, New College Service Learning, Equity Studies and its Student

Union, Students for Barrier-free Access, Accessibility Stud-ies, Coffee Shed, and the Com-mon Ground Coop. All events take place on November 18 at Hart House, and the Unlocking Minds exhibit will be displayed until November 20.

andrEw GYOrKOS

Arts! Ability! Action!Hart House and Keys to the Studio present a series of events in support of artistic expression

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Page 8: November 18 2010

8 November 18, 2010the backpage

Attention: Recruitment

writersphotographers

illustrators

Come to our open meetingsevery Thursday at 6pm at

1 Spadina Cresent, Suite 245

ATTEND OUR OPEN MEETINGS!HELD MONDAYS AT 12:30 AT THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE:

1 SPADINA CRESCENT, SUITE 245.1 SPADINA CRESCENT, SUITE 245.

On a dreary November day, the newspaper asked: what would you rather be doing right now?

“ the campus comment ”

Kristy, 4th year, Geology“I’d rather be a millionaire.”

Karissa, 3rd year, SociologyJasim, 4th year, Encironmental Biology“If it wasn’t for school, I’d be pursuing music.”

Nic, Campus Mailroom“I’d be doing drugs and women. I’d be chilling and playing guitar.”

Lucas, Master’s, Urban Planning“I want to be right here.”

“Going on a hike. It’s nice weather

for hiking.”

Hal, U.T.M. shuttle driver“I’d rather be golfi ng in Bermuda.”

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