Opinions

“There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known. Nothing you can see that isn’t shown. Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.” (Lennon & McCartney, 1967)

Have you ever felt like you’re being expected to uncover something—perhaps as you’re working on a paper or research project—and there’s pressure to perform? There’s a competitive way about our society where our sense of value is intimately attached to how we measure up to others. On the flip side, have you ever been with someone who can make you feel special, worthy, happy, just for being yourself? That is so opposite to the way we’re encouraged to live. What’s the point if we’re not being productive? Why be appreciated just for being?

In September, a vanload of us went to Vancouver for the weekend, and we visited the Down-Town East-Side, and also a man living in sanctuary in a church because of a deportation order by Immigration Canada. We interacted—albeit relatively briefly—with people who were dealing with lives where finding meaning was a struggle. Feeling worthy and special could be a far cry from their reality, as poverty and drugs surrounded them, or they were confined to the four walls of one building day in and day out.

If there’s one thing that is common in the human experience, I believe it is to feel accepted fully by at least one other person in life. Hopefully, one grows up in a home where parents are loving and accepting—but there’s no guarantee. And, hopefully, one can find a partner in life who fully accepts them and loves them. Our culture certainly engrains all kinds of dis-ease with our self-image: live large (but remain in debt), be beautiful (but never satisfied with your looks), share (but only if you get something back). It’s hard to be a person of integrity; it’s hard to show love, especially when we’re not feeling the love!

If we could shed the notion that we only need others for what we can get out of them, and move towards an ideal where we all need each other because we all have unique gifts to share with humanity, I think we would be well on our way to a peace-filled world. We need to see the common life we share, as well as the unique lives each of us are, in each other! We need to work at changing our society from one of valuing primarily production and consumption to one where we value life and freedom to be. As I see it, love is about life and being.

John Lennon said his art was dedicated to change. I like that the sentiment in “All You Need Is Love” is about how nothing is new, and so it’s easy; yet love, itself, keeps things feeling new. When we genuinely care—or love—life is pristine, and fresh!

Opinions

[Editor’s note: This is an unedited copy of a post that was made on the UBCSUO’s Facebook page on Feb. 1st in response to the National Day of Action event that day. The post was removed soon after.]

I am a frustrated student.

I am frustrated that the Dean apparently made the (not publicly announced) decision that absence from class today was excusable because of the “Day of Action”. I am frustrated that Professors who care enough about their class receiving the same information wasted today’s class time instead of moving forward without the students who decided to take the day off to “be heard”. I am frustrated that because the Student Union decided to do another useless “Fee Drop” event (the “Banner Drop”) that my tuition for today’s classes was wasted. That’s $12 per course that is held for one hour three-times a week. Today you wasted $36 of my tuition. You should multiply that for all the students who actually showed up to learn today who were not provided a worthwhile class. (Based on tuition of $460.83 per course divided by 13 weeks divided by 3 hours per week.) My money was wasted and my time was wasted for a “Fee Drop” event that totally missed the mark.

The problem runs deeper than tuition rates being too high. There would need to be a province-wide, probably country-wide change in the way we fund post-secondary education. We as a country need to decide that it is in everyone’s best interests for the employed to pay higher taxes in order to fund the next generation’s education (our future doctors, caretakers, policy makers, etc.) rather than forcing students to fund their own way and enter the workplace in debt. We as a country need to decide that we want to “pay-it-forward” instead of being so self-serving.

No amount of whining at the institutional level about how much we can’t afford the educations we’re buying is going to make that change.

I encourage raising awareness, but this flash-mob song choice missed the mark by so much that it just made me angry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEc5E9RrLs

It is ALL about the money. We need to provide ways to change WHERE the money is coming from and WHO is paying the money. We can’t just dance happily about how we all want to be educated for free like we haven’t made this choice in order to get better paying jobs in the end. It’s going to require social change. It’s going to require country-wide change. Let’s at least be honest about why we’re attending post-secondary institutions. Of course it’s about the money. (Let me know when love will buy me a degree. I’ll be the most loving person you know.) The Student Union seemed to spend a lot of our precious money on printing off posters that didn’t even portray what “Day of Action” was about. Sometimes vague marketing works.

Sometimes that poster with few words and a website to visit pique the interest of the people passing. But for most of us who are sick of seeing the words “Education is a Right” plastered all over the school, we’d rather not see you waste money on vague advertising, and we’d love to see you try to win us over with some realistic goals for change.

The Student Union seemed to spend a lot of money on other costs to turn today into an “event” as well. I’m sure I speak for a lot of the student population when I say that as your funders, we’d love to see where our student fees are being spent. You might not consider that Student Union Fee as “tuition”, but it comes out of my account at the same time as my tuition; it’s money I don’t get to spend on textbooks, food, or rent, and unlike my tuition fees, it doesn’t eventually pay me back in degree credits. I would like to see the Student Union be more transparent on what you’re spending on events that seem to be more about putting on a show than the change they claim to be supporting.

I did finally check out the Education is a Right site (http://educationisaright.ca/), which I put off for a long time because the site’s name starts me off on a muttering, rambling rant all on its own. The website, which is promoting a country-wide reassessment of how we’re paying for education seems to have better addressed the issue than the Student Union has. Which is a relief. I’d hate to see schools all across the country “drop the ball” on the actual message of the campaign as badly as we have. (Pun so intended.)

UBC Okanagan’s campus Student Union has once-again missed the mark by focusing on the “Fees Drop.” I am SO TIRED of the “Drop stuff for Fee Dropping awareness.” Let’s throw pumpkins off scaffolding, and “Drop a banner” over the highway, and that will successfully rally our students into realizing tuition is too high without actually putting forward any useful methods of change! Newsflash: We all know tuition is high. We know we can’t afford it. We know we’ll be in debt once we graduate. We do wish University was accessible for everyone but it is going to require social change nation wide.

Being in University is about developing ways to make society better, and making the future better for those who follow in our footsteps. Our Student Union needs to start fostering DOABLE IDEAS and stop dropping crap in order to create campus unity.

Next time you put on a “Tuition Fees are Too High” event, please don’t leave out half the message: that the money actually does need to come from somewhere. Start asking the student body for ideas about how we can start social change to make education more affordable for everyone. And try to spend less while you’re doing it. I’d rather have my $126.23 Student Union Fee back in my pocket than see you renting an inflatable castle and putting on a BBQ. And don’t get the Dean to approve an unannounced day off without refunding the student population for a day of classes.

Thank you, Amanda Davison

Opinions

After flying high over campus all of last week, the Pride flag has been lowered and Outweek celebrations have concluded for another year. The annual celebration raises awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, transexual, two-spirit, and intersex (LGBTQTTI) issues, and it promotes—among other things—tolerance, inclusivity, diversity, and acceptance. The events are meant to create an atmosphere on campus of belonging and freedom for all students.

There’s a problem, though. Outweek isn’t inclusive. It’s exclusive. It isn’t a neutral celebration that includes everybody. Rather, Outweek is a celebration of a specific view of human sexuality that not everyone shares or agrees with. In fact, not everyone thinks that the view of sexuality celebrated by Outweek is good, and some might even go so far as to say that it is morally wrong.

This puts us in a bit of a contradiction, it would seem. On one hand, Outweek is supposed to be a celebration of diversity, inclusivity, and tolerance, but on the other hand, it excludes all of those students, faculty, and staff who don’t agree with the view of sexuality being celebrated. We might be tempted to label those people who don’t agree with Outweek as intolerant, as if to say, “We don’t need to tolerate intolerance or include intolerant people.” But what makes those people intolerant for disagreeing with the view of sexuality celebrated during Outweek, provided they do so respectfully? If we say they are intolerant for disagreeing with us, aren’t we intolerant for disagreeing with them? And if we say that they are intolerant for judging others, aren’t we intolerant for judging them?

Somehow the word “tolerance” has come to mean something akin to accepting other people’s moral beliefs—especially accepting other people’s views of sexuality. As a result, we label as intolerant people who believe, for instance, that gay sex is morally wrong. But by this definition of tolerance, we are just as intolerant as them (only we don’t think we are). We believe A. They believe B. We think they’re wrong to believe B. They think we’re wrong to believe A. We reject their view as much as they reject ours.

The sad irony is that when we start calling others intolerant for having a different view of morality or sexuality than our own, we begin to justify trampling all over them, and treating them with contempt and disrespect. This false view of tolerance leads to real intolerance. A fitting example of this is the case of Dan Savage and Rick Santorum.

In 2003, Savage, a well-known sex advice columnist from Washington, took issue when an American politician named Rick Santorum said in an interview that the state has the right to regulate homosexual acts in the same way that it regulates other sexual acts such as adultery, polygamy, incest, and bestiality. “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home,” he said, “then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” How did Savage react to these comments? He held a contest to redefine the Senator’s name, “Santorum,” as a gay sex act. In the end “santorum” was defined, not as a sex act, but as something I’ll politely leave out of print. The message from Dan Savage is clear: if you don’t agree with his view of sexuality, he doesn’t need to respect you. In fact, he’ll drag your name through the mud.

True tolerance cannot be, as we seem to assume, accepting everyone’s moral beliefs. People will always disagree. If we all agreed then there would be no need to tolerate each other (notice that the very word “tolerance” implies disagreement). Instead, we need to understand tolerance as it was traditionally meant: respecting other people despite disagreement. No matter how strongly you disagree with someone’s ideas, you respect the person. You don’t agree with my view of sexuality? Fine. But let’s respect each other. The real test of tolerance is how we treat those we disagree with.

When we claim that others are being exclusive and intolerant simply because they don’t hold to our view of sexuality, we are hypocrites. Instead, let’s show true tolerance by respecting each other—regardless of sexual orientation or beliefs about sexuality.

Arts

House of Lies, which debuted in January, is Showtime’s new hit television program. The Showtime network is home to such monster successes as Dexter, Weeds, Californication, The Borgias, and Shameless, to name a few. Even though it is only in its debut season, House of Lies brings in approximately 3.98 million viewers per week, earning it an early renewal from the network for season two.

The half-hour dramedy centers on a fast moving group of marketing consultants led by Marty Kaan, played by Oscar nominee Don Cheadle. Cheadle, who is best known for his roles in Hotel Rwanda, the Ocean’s movies, and Crash, is marvelous as the fast-talking and womanizing leader of the team. He is joined by always-likeable Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Kristen Bell, who was eager to return to television as a main star after Veronica Mars ended in 2007. Bell has had a guest character in Heroes in the past, and is currently the narrator for the hit CW show Gossip Girl. House of Lies allows her to do what she does best as the character Jeannie. She spews off witty dialogue filled with dry humor and competitive banter while trying to climb the ladder of success. She is the only female in the group, but fits in well as the marketing consulting team travels around the country snagging clients for millions of dollars.

House of Lies also stars Ben Schwartz as the character Clyde. He is best known for playing—brilliantly—Jean-Ralphio on Parks and Recreation. Schwartz adds to the already superb cast with his one-night-stand escapades and continuous teasing of Josh Lawson’s nerdy character Doug. The cast has incredible chemistry, and the script calls for rude shenanigans and back stabbings. Each character is completely different and conniving in his or her own way, making the thirty minutes of the show very enjoyable for viewers. The team of marketing consultants work for Galweather and Stearn, a highly successful consulting firm that only employs the best and most cut-throat workers.

Marty is a master of manipulation, and will do anything to secure a client. This involves sleeping with people’s wives, blackmail, and bribing the clients. When he’s not traveling around the country making enemies, hitting on Jeannie, and frequenting strip clubs, he has moments of weakness and often sleeps with his equally conniving marketing consultant ex-wife Monica, played vigorously by Dawn Olivieri. Monica is a horrible mother to their cross-dressing son Roscoe, and frequently sleeps with painfully rich married men. One of the funniest parts of House of Lies is Clyde and Doug’s consistent competitiveness and pranking, usually ending with Doug on the short end of the stick. Their relationship is a little like Jim and Dwight’s on The Office, only much more cut-throat and crude.

Showtime has once again brought their A-game with House of Lies. While it may not be for everyone, with its sometimes confusing corporate talk and financial jibber-jabber, it is a smart show with equal amounts of drama and comedy.

The show has an interesting style, as Marty often freezes the scene the viewer is following in order to talk directly to the camera and explain what is going on. House of Lies is never slow, and features a truly interesting plot and surprising character twists. It is definitely worth the time, and may be around for quite some time.

Arts

Mindy Kaling, who plays Kelly Kapour on NBC’s The Office, is one of those writers who has worked her way up the New York entertainment ladder, and continues to become more and more successful. Her comic memoir, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns shares her journey from chubby nerd to a writer, actress, director, and producer on a highly successful Emmy-winning television show. Kaling shares her misadventures and fond memories from childhood all the way up to her career today, including her battle with weight, friend mishaps, rejections, and her comedic inspirations.

Kaling grew up with supportive parents. Kaling says in her book that the best advice she can give people who want to be as or more successful as she is, is to do well in school, go to a good college, and work hard. She tells her readers not to peak in high school, which she saw many of her peers do. Kaling stresses that they end up with boring jobs, while she, a nerdy Indian girl who stayed home and read, ended up with an exciting and successful career and now lives in LA. After graduating from Dartmouth and moving to New York with her two best friends, Kaling worked as an intern on, her comedy hero, Conan O’Brian’s late night show. But her real success began when she and her roommate Brenda Withers wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the play Matt & Ben, a comedic and highly-acclaimed parody of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s friendship.

Since many fans of The Office think she is like her character Kelly Kapour, Kaling makes sure to set the record straight in her book.

“Things Kelly Would Do That I Would Not: Fake a pregnancy for attention.”

“Things Kelly and I Would Both Do: Spend hours following a difficult recipe, hate the way it tastes, and throw it out to go to McDonald’s.”

Kaling is witty and honest, and not afraid to mock herself or criticize her past behaviors. One particularly amusing excerpt from the novel is when she addresses her favorite album, Blue by Joni Mitchell, and one of her favorite songs, Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide.”

“I find it extremely impossible not to cry…I think a good test to see if a human is actually a robot/android/cylon is to have them listen to this [song] and study their reaction. If they don’t cry, you should stab them through the heart. You will find a fusebox.”

Kaling hints at writing another book at the end of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? which will no doubt happen in the future. Those who are fans of Chelsea Handler and Tina Fey’s novels will love this book, even though Kaling’s style is all her own. Unlike Handler’s novels, like Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea and Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, Kaling’s book is appropriate for younger readers as well as adults. She is very down to her earth, and her experiences, aside from the television and award success, will hit home with many readers. This memoir is a light but amusing read, and will definitely put a smile on your face.

Arts

How wonderful it is to see, among the usual Friday fare, two films like The Artist and Hugo unabashedly flaunt their undying love for early silent cinema and the movies in general. There is something so magical and touching about Michel Hazanavicius’ ode to silent cinema that trumps its competition at the Oscars this year. A few audience members walked out of the screening attended and several audience members in London have asked for refunds. It seems that a purely silent film like this is an unusual oddity for some, but as George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) cannily proclaims “I WON’T TALK!” right at the beginning, and that is just how sly this gem of a film is.

Certainly, the critics have fallen in love with the film, but us of the younger ilk may wonder whether it will truly appeal to us. The answer: Definitely! The film is a complete love letter to a time before witty banter and explosions came along, and when an actor’s expressive face was all we needed. The film has its heart in the right place and it is beautiful to see this daring little film trudge an unorthodox route. Set between 1927-33, it focuses on the relationship of narcissistic movie star George Valentin and Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a perky actress. The story is quite the pastiche of many others like Singin’ In The Rain and A Star Is Born, with an established star on the wane falling for the ingénue on the rise. Despite this, the film uses these homages and various other references as a building point, and these gimmicks do not deter from the love story at centre.

The period details like the 1.33:1 ratio and melodramatic touches of reaction shots from nearly everyone in the frame are just so lovingly crafted. Even when the talkies come to prominence, Valentin refuses to accept this trend and finances his own films. As we might conclude, this is a perfect time for Peppy to rise up in the ranks. There is a symbolic scene when George catches Peppy on the stairs as she is ascending to meet the studio head, as he is on his way down from being fired. The film balances the elements of tragedy and comedy so finely and there’s no sense of inconsistency, as the film does not take itself too seriously.

To console those hoping for some sound, the musical score by Ludovic Bource is so swooningly romantic and matches the tone of the scenes so well as a good silent score should. The film breaks the silence twice (I’ll never tell!) in two of the most clever and gratifying scenes ever. With a film like this, the exuberance level in every aspect of directing, music, and acting matches any musical that it tries to reference.

Jean Dujardin and Michel Hazanavicius have worked together on the OSS 117 spy spoof films, and it makes sense that the director would use his muse for a more serious film. Dujardin is splendid as George Valentin, and he such an expressive face that would be completely at home in this era. He makes George, a lovable narcissist that you completely root for, conjuring up Douglas Fairbanks in his swashbuckling onscreen roles, and the pathos of John Gilbert’s situation. Gilbert was a dashing silent actor who just could not make a smooth transition into the talkies and drank himself to death, which is echoed in Valentin’s breakdown scene. Even with these two great reference points, Dujardin makes George an indelible presence in the film.

His partner Bérénice Bejo matches Dujardin step for step with her energetic portrayal of the selfless Peppy who still holds the flame for the man who helped her become a star. Echoing Clara Bow, the It Girl of that age, Bejo shines and the camera just loves her with the adoring close-ups of her anguish. Her chemistry with Dujardin is so passionate and sweet at the same time, and they make a couple worth rooting for.

You certainly will not be disappointed by this old soul of a film if you give it a chance. Chances are that you’ll come out of the cinema with a spring in your step and a smile or an overblown set of silent expressions on your face!

Arts

Trolling is one of the most glorious forms of escape on the Internet for bitter and jaded people. Frustrated with the crap you read online or the people you meet in general? Troll ‘em. “Cool story, bro!” “You’re so smart!!!!11111oneone” and posting links to Rick Astley videos. After a couple years, I personally got tired of the trolling game online. Why? Because you can’t share your talents with people face-to-face and the people you love and/or hate the most. Some people consider the real life version of trolling to be bullying, but I’m here to demonstrate this isn’t true. I present to you: how to troll in academia.

1) Rick Roll on VISTA.

I pulled off this gem in first year. Simply post a link stating, “Hey guys, I found this video that really helps with our course subject matter,” and bam! You’re responsible for a minimum of a dozen Rick Rolls. Angry posts on VISTA will be served to you. Luckily, you have the satisfaction of knowing they were the ones who got served.

Fast forward to third year. The professor has a Google Doc on a projector for us all to see and edit. What did I do? Snag the laptop of the person beside me and start typing the lyrics for Rick Astley’s music. The professor now has a rule banning all Rick Rolling in the classroom. This stunt was a 65-person insta-troll which has trolls everywhere feeling proud.

2) When in a heated class discussion...

ALWAYS agree with the student who is receiving the most criticism. If they make a statement that is controversial and pisses off the rest of the class, your responsibility as a troll is to jump in there and support them unconditionally. An opinion becomes valid once multiple people agree, right? Make sure what you say doesn’t land you in hot water with the faculty, though. You should have a subtle enough profile in class that you can add in a few points that fuels the confidence of the controversial figure. Then withdraw your forces and watch classroom magic occur. If you’re getting concerned that you’re pushing the line, you can go with the little league approach and opt to befriend and compliment the controversial figure so they are willing to vocalize their opinions.

This can work outside the classroom, too. “Why yes, Vin Diesel is right. He absolutely deserved an Oscar for his compelling performance in Fast Five.”

3) Casual troll talk.

Ever met someone in the hallways who wanted to strike a conversation about a subject that you didn’t care about, or found annoying? Well next time, you don’t have to brush them off. How so? Counter their stance with complete BS. Er, not complete BS I should say. About 75% BS.

In order for your stance to be convincing, you must mix in just enough legitimate facts or reasoning with your ridiculously asinine claims. You can also use this approach if you want to agree with their stance. This way, you can discover if they’ll accept anyone’s stance as long as you agree with them or if they’ll attempt to counter a stance seriously that you fabricated. It’s absolute gold for when you hit up Facebook and need to post a status update.

Another disclaimer. Don’t use #3 as a way to write papers. I’ve heard that’s a baaaaaad idea.

You have completed your tutorial on how to troll in real life. Now get out.

Arts

Eyes narrowed, teeth barred, gnashing, roaring, no sleep tonight.

I don’t trust you, and you don’t trust me.

So what are we still doing here?

Our hearts are breaking, shattering in unison, but my sharp, stabbing shards belong wholly to you, and likewise, yours to me.

But I can’t trust you, and you can’t trust me.

So what are we still doing here?

We’re building up our cement walls, topping them with barbed wire. No one’s getting in again, and we’ll never let ourselves out.

I won’t trust you, and you won’t trust me.

So what are we still doing here?

We’ve barricaded ourselves deep in the dark caves of our misery. So far from the light of day, not a streetlight in sight. Not a singular solace.

Only then do we feel. The pangs of aloneness ring out, their hollow tones lingering in our ears.

I want to trust you, but will you trust me?

What are we still doing here?

Have creative writing you would like to publish? Email us at: ubcocrwrcu@live.com

Arts

Kevin Jesuino is a performance artist/ theatre deviser/ media designer. He was the Artist Director of New City Collective (2007-10), a Bangkok-based multi-disciplinary art collective dedicated to physically devising theatre pieces for non-traditional theatre spaces. Kevin was the recipient of the Bangkok Bob Best Director Award presented by the Bangkok Theatre Society in 2010 for his directing of “Savage/Love” (Sheppard/Chaikin) and also won for Best Performance at the Alternator Art Gallery’s Wearable Art Gala 2011. Kevin has been published with NeWest Press for his devised theatre piece “Grumplestock’s” collaboratively created by Jon Stewart, Trish Lorenz and himself. He presented his piece “Dee/Dum” (Jesuino/Mendonca) at the Mad Hatter in 2010 and spent this past summer touring with Inner Fish Performance Co. throughout Europe with the Sound Can Tour. Kevin is currently completing the Interdisciplinary Performance program at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus where his research interests lie in questioning how a physical body, within a performance, both as performer and viewer, reacts, interacts, and is effected by technology, and how this translates into ordinary life. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Kevin about his work.

AE: What is it about Performance Art that invites you to consider it your choice of study and practice? What is it about Performance that interests you?

KJ: Since I was a kid, my parents put me in Portuguese Cultural Dancing, for like…sixteen years (chuckles). I ended up teaching it. At that point it was me being part of my cultural roots and cultural community, and my parents’ cultural community as well. Through that, I developed this sense of kinesthetic connection to my body, which transferred into drama class in high school, being a performer, and then that developed into college and other theatre work. For me, my interest comes from the body, and I’ve been dealing with that connection of bodies in relation to my work and the actors and the spectators. We all want to make “smart art”, but I really do believe in “the media is the message,” and having some sort of consideration for what you’re producing.

AE: What kinds of concepts are you into right now? How are they blending with your interests?

KJ: At the moment I’m really interested in the body’s connection to technology. I know, body again, but we live in a world where artists are now using the internet and social media to advertise themselves and market themselves, artists have websites. I want to incorporate technology into my art. How does technology relate to myself? What sort of addictions come from that and how do they develop into natural, ordinary life? Screens are everywhere, ipods, MP3s, computers, screens are everywhere. I’m fascinated with technology because it’s like our baby, we made it, and now we rely so heavily on it, because it’s all grown up.

AE: Could you relate where you’ve lived, here, in Thailand, and in Edmonton, to how it effects your work? What kind of things does your location do for you?

KJ: I think that every community is its own network and every network has its own way of working and what’s new and fresh in that scene. Coming from Edmonton there was a real classical theatre and musical theatre training institutions that have been teaching for years and years, so there’s the act of storytelling there. I learned the beginnings of devised theatre through Ken Brown, who’s a well-known playwright, director and performer, he taught me a lot about non-linearity but having that through-line.

Moving to Thailand, I was confronted with the conflict of, y’know, how do I storytell not just to English people but to Thai people, or people who don’t speak either of those languages! You get on a subway in Bangkok and it’s like in New York City, so many different languages all going at once. So I had to delve into the world of physically created theatre and devising pieces without using words, which helped me question how language fits into my performances. Kelowna really expanded my head as to what performance is, performativity being something that we just do, y’know, standing in line at Tim Horton’s, or walking down a hallway on campus. Once I realize that it’s like theatre is this space where it can happen at any time, you can call it art, you can call it theatre, and it can happen anywhere. So yeah, the three places I’ve lived in have drastically affected my performance work.

Kevin’s next project will be again investigating the relationship of technology to humanity, and you can check it out on Friday, February 17th at the Mad Hatter: In the Land of Odd show on Industrial ave. in downtown Kelowna. However, even the audience has expectations of interaction with the actors to re-evaluate how they relate to the performance.

Arts

The Oscar nominations were revealed on January 24th holding the industry with bated breath. In the end, it is a mixed bag of surprises, snubs, and some gratifying recognition. Award season is in full swing, and judging by the varied wins, come Oscar Night on February 26th there may be a few shocks in store. Yet the average age of Academy voters is 57, which may account for some of the shocking brushoffs and general spot on surprises! So get your fantasy pools in order, and look at who’s likely to take home gold with this list of who’s likely to win, who should win, and who was sorely left out.

Best Film

The Artist Hugo The Descendants Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close The Help Midnight in Paris Moneyball The Tree of Life War Horse

Will Win - The Producer’s Guild Awards are usually a key indicator of the winner. It would have to be The Artist, but with The Descendants picking up awards here and there, it will be a tough fight for that one.

Should Win - My money is definitely on The Artist, as it has that nostalgia that would totally work with the Academy’s older voters. Hugo also has the nostalgia factor on its favour, along with a prestigious director like Scorsese at the helm.

Snubs - Again, Extremely Close was the unexpected choice and hampered the chances of crowd pleasers like Bridesmaids and Harry Potter. The Academy in recent years has overlooked the popular choice films while in the past previous nominees and winners were Jaws, The Godfather, and Forrest Gump. However, where’s the love for Shame, Drive, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?

Best Actor

Demián Bichir – A Better Life Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Jean Dujardin – The Artist George Clooney – The Descendants Brad Pitt – Moneyball

Will Win – As much as this writer loves The Artist, it looks to be a triumphant year for George Clooney, but again he has stiff competition from Dujardin, and if vote splitting goes on then here’s hoping for Oldman!

Should Win – Jean Dujardin all the way! Need we say more?

Snubs – Despite the gratifying recognition for Bichir, and Oldman, there were some glaring omissions especially Michael Fassbender for his minimalist and saddening performance in Shame. Quite honestly, he could have taken Brad Pitt’s boring turn in Moneyball. Unusually Pitt’s better performance in ‘The Tree of Life’ was not nominated. Forever to be commemorated by internet memes worldwide, poor Leo was left off the list too.

Best Actress

Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady Viola Davis – The Help Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Will Win – Meryl Streep, simply because she is Meryl and she mastered that Thatcher accent and it’s been 30 years since her last one so they just have to.

Should Win – It would be so inspiring to see Viola Davis win, especially if her acceptance speech is as powerful as her one for the SAG Awards. Her performance was the soul of that problematic film and it would be gratifying to see an African American actress finally win.

Snubs – Mara’s spot perhaps should have gone to Tilda Swinton, for her amazing performance in the controversial ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’. Charlize Theron was equally brilliant in her delusional role in ‘Young Adult.’

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn Nick Nolte – Warrior Max Von Syndow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Jonah Hill – Moneyball Christopher Plummer – Beginners

Should Win/Will Win – Of all the injustices over the years, omitting Christopher Plummer just will not do, and thankfully he’s been sweeping up all the trophies for his powerful role as the recently-out-of-the-closet gay man in Beginners .

Snubs - Nick Nolte’s role in Warrior, though engaging, was not really a stretch for him, and his slot should have gone to Albert Brooks’ psychotic surprise turn in Drive. Alternatively, what about Alan Rickman for stealing our hearts and making cry buckets in the final Harry Potter? No mention for Andy Serkis with his motion-capture work in The Rise of Planet of Apes, especially when he was tasked to carry that dud!

Best Supporting Actress

Octavia Spencer – The Help Jessica Chastain – The Help Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs Bérénice Bejo – The Artist

Will Win – Octavia Spencer looks to be the complete lock for this one alongside Christopher Plummer; she’s been sweeping up the awards for a lovely performance in The Help.

Should Win – Though Spencer’s likely win is deserving, how unexpectedly brilliant would it be for Melissa McCarthy to win for her fabulous scene-stealing role in Bridesmaids?

Snubs – none really, it has been a fabulous year for these women and each of the nominations are very worthy.

Best Director

Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris Terence Malick – Tree of Life Martin Scorsese – Hugo Alexander Payne – The Descendants Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist

Will Win/Should Win – It seems to be a lock for Michel Hazanavicius to come home with the gold, with both a Director’s Guild and Critics Choice Awards in the bag. However, favourite Alexander Payne could pull an upset win here too. As much as the Academy has overlooked Malick, we hope he makes more movies and then he’ll grab it eventually!

Snubs – The lacking presence of Steven Spielberg for the cheesy but lovely War Horse is quite a surprise as he’s usually a favourite each year. I simply cannot play down my disappointment with no Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive. It may have been the NC-17 rating that hurt his chances, but Steve McQueen’s assured and sympathetic direction in Shame was cut off the list. Both directors are the new kids with radical films that definitely polarized the audience, but the omissions do sting.

With the remaining awards here are some of the predictions we hope come true: Best Original Screenplay – It’s most likely going to be Woody Allen for his terrific homage to 1920’s Paris in ‘Midnight in Paris’. It would be even better if the surprise nominee Asghar Farhadi wins for his searing look at modern Iran in ‘A Separation’ or our fingers-crossed hope for ‘Bridesmaids’.

Best Adapted Screenplay – This is likely to be a lock for the team for ‘The Descendants’. Yet the complex storytelling and faithfulness in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ would be a favourite hope to win!

Best Animated Feature – With the glaring omission of ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ missing out in this category and Best Picture due to its motion-capture provenance, Rango looks to be the one to capitalize on the lack of an annual Pixar flick in this category.

Best Foreign Film – Expect a triumphant win for Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’.

Best Musical Score – Despite the lack of love for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ rollicking score for ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” this looks like a surefire win for Ludovic Bource’s exuberant score for ‘The Artist’.

Sports

Each issue come back to check out By the Numbers for interesting stats and numbers relating to your favourite Heat teams! These stats are current as of Feb. 5th and are subject to change. Stats are constantly accumulated throughout the season, so be sure to check out canadawest.org for more regular updates.

84 days ...that the Men’s Volleyball team went without a win, stretching between a November 4th win at home against the UBC Thunderbirds, to the January 27th win, also at home, versus the Regina Cougars

75 blocks ...that rookie Middle Katy Klomps had after road victories over the Saskatchewan Huskies to lead her team (Jill Festival’s 42 coming second).

41.6 hitting percentage ...of Myrte Schön’s in the team’s win against the Huskies on Feb 3rd when she recorded 15 kills.

17 aces ...Nate Speijer recorded after notching five against the Saskatchewan Huskies on February 4th, good for fourth overall in the conference.

12 shots ...Guard Bret MacDonald took in the Heat’s loss to Victoria at home on February 4th- he didn’t make a single one. The team shot 15-60 on the night.

10 points scored ...by 5th year post-player Steve Morrison of men’s basketball against the Vikes on February 3rd. It was a season high for Morrison.

7.6 points per game ...scored by rookie guard Emily Kanester of the women’s basketball team, the most of any rookie.

6 times ...that Roslyn Huber has led her team in scoring in a game. She and fellow veteran Madison Kaneda are the only two players on their roster averaging double digit scoring.

.796 free-throw percentage ...of Madison Kaneda through to Feb 5th, tops on her team (of players who have attempted at least twenty free-throws this season).

.526 three-point percentage ...of women’s basketball rookie Whitney Hamilton. She has connected on 10-19 from beyond the arc through February 5th.

Sports

Your Sports Editor brings you a new column every issue in which we take a brief look at multiple stories, tidbits, snapshots, and things your favourite Heat players and coaches have said in the ‘Furnace.’ It’s an inside look at anything Heat.

This issue’s pilot edition brings you lots of great insider news and updates on varsity athletics at UBC’s Okanagan campus. If you have questions for an athlete, coach, or something you’d like to know about anything related to Athletics or Recreation here on campus, send your queries to sports@thephoenixnews.com, and you might just get your answers in a future edition of ‘Inside the Furnace’.

Update: Melissa Irish’s knee

Last season, veteran and starting point-guard Melissa Irish went down with a torn ACL. There were hopes she was going to be good at the start of this year, but her knee was not ready to go. Things look bright for the near future, though, as she details her injury and road back to health:

“It wasn’t good after the ACL surgery in April. I thought it would be and I played one weekend and it was so fun, but then it just wouldn’t get better. There was a staple that was moving around in there; it got loose, so if I tried to do anything it would swell up and whatnot.” On January 30th she had surgery to get the staple removed, and “it was a really easy procedure… they went in and took it out. So I can walk… it’s a bit stiff, but if all goes well it should heal up in about a week and then start hardcore rehab.”

Despite injury, she has been there for her team on the sidelines at practice and at games: “I’ve been to every game but three. It’s a bit tricky being on the sidelines, because you can’t step in and help the team out so that was really frustrating at first, but now I try and stay engaged the whole game and put in my two bits at halftime and keep them motivated. I think the girls have done a good job.”

Personal goals

Ben Hindson: “Personally, just trying to build my personal game for next year. Big minutes for me right now aren’t realistic, just going to be on the bench for my team, and work my butt off in practice.”

Bret MacDonald: “Personally I just want to compete, night in and night out. I just want to be one of the hardest working guys on the floor. Everything else will reflect on that. And as a team, everyone wants to do the same, and when we do that, we’ve shown that we can compete, even with the top teams.”

The difficulties of building a fanbase

Women’s volleyball coach Steve Manuel puts it plainly: “In a lot of ways it’s difficult to build a fan base with having such a huge gap in between our home matches. We started with two games at home, played back to back, and then went basically two-plus months without playing a match at home.”

However, both he and women’s basketball coach Heather Semeniuk have hopes for the future, as Heather adds that she thinks “It will come in time. The [players] get their friends out, and they get their parents and their family, but… that general UBCO community, to get them to come out and cheer for us, that would be great.”

Leaving a legacy

5th year libero Spencer Brown of men’s volleyball has been a workhorse not just for Greg Poitras for several years, but also for the men’s soccer program at UBC’s Okanagan campus. He expressed his happiness at making the PACWEST playoffs this year with the soccer team, and going on to secure the Bronze Medal—a big accomplishment for a program that has stood at the door of the playoffs for several years.

A perfect ending for his career in a Heat uniform for him would be to make the Canada West playoffs in their inaugural season: “It would be awesome. It would be a great way to end off my time here, and it would be a great state for the school as well.”

Here’s to hoping that by press time you guys accomplish that ending. And here’s to a phenomenal athlete, as both a libero and keeper, who, in my opinion, should leave one of the larger legacies at UBC’s Okanagan campus.

What does it mean to be a leader on a team?

Is it the person who, in the locker room before a game, leads the pre-game chant to energize the troops? Is it the person who is always vocal and, whenever he/she speaks, everyone else listens? How about the person who calls the plays and coordinates on offense and defense? Veterans on young teams tend to take the role of leaders, but being a veteran does not necessarily make one a leader. Furthermore, sometimes the veterans themselves need a leader amongst themselves as well.

One can make the argument that Yassine Ghomari of men’s basketball has been the true leader on his team this year, and assistant coach Kelly Broderick backs up the claim: “The thing with Yassine is he can pick his times to be vocal. He’s not always the cheery guy, running around and smacking people’s hands. But when he speaks, people listen. As he’s developed as a leader, he’s put his trust in other guys so that he feels that he doesn’t have to carry the load as much, and that relieves pressure on him.”

Features

Kitimat, British Columbia doesn’t get national news coverage very often. The coastal town, planned and crafted by the aluminum smelting company then called Alcan, is quite literally at the end of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. It’s the place where that black bear walked into a Subway restaurant in a video shown nationwide on comedy programs. Recently, a much more serious issue has thrust the smelter town of 8,000 or so into the spotlight.

The Enbridge Northern Gateway project is picking up on an element of the planned town’s infrastructure: Kitimat has a port. To the west of Kitimat is the Douglas Channel, an inlet chock-full of water, wildlife, and important benefits to the town, including a power station used to generate electricity needed to power the smelter—to which the town owes its very existence. Also among those benefits is the shipping—alumina in, aluminum out—required by the smelter in order for it to operate. Enbridge has targeted Kitimat’s port as the ending point of the pipeline that they want to use to move crude oil from the Alberta oil sands onto super tankers, and out into the global market.

With federal, provincial, and local incentives and consequences all accounted for, great debate and division has arisen amongst those for and against the implementation of this pipeline. But how did we get to this point? What are the pressures facing Kitimat, B.C., and Canada both environmentally and economically, and will Enbridge’s proposal relieve those pressures?

The project

Two pipelines, approximately 1,150 kilometers long, will be built from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat; one carrying approximately 525,000 barrels of crude oil to the port per day, and the other carrying 150,000 barrels of condensate to Alberta per day, required to dilute the oil from the sands so that it can be sent via pipeline in the first place. About 220 or so oil tankers, including large super tankers, would make the trip to and from wherever the oil is sent per year.

The project is currently in the midst of a review that is gaining feedback from various communities in B.C., seeing whether or not the Northern Gateway project is in the public interest.

Greasing the wheels

There are strong economic forces driving Enbridge’s proposal. There’s the creation of jobs both short- and long-term that matter, especially to Kitimat: a town facing decline for many years after two major job centres, the Eurocan pulp and paper mill and the Methanex methanol plant, closed their doors. There’s also the national issue of making Canadian oil sell more competitively, and relying less on the United States as a partner.

Enbridge outlines the numbers pretty clearly. During the construction of this pipeline, approximately 3,000 jobs would be created, with that number petering out to 560 long-term. The term “person-years” is used far more often on their website, as this tends to be a bigger number. One of the goals laid out by Enbridge is to engage with the communities involved with the project and create local opportunities and jobs. Kitimat fits right in the middle of it, and one of the biggest building projects would be Kitimat’s marine terminal.

However, Alcan—now Rio Tinto Alcan—initiated a plant modernization of the Kitimat smelter, a task that requires many hands in the construction phase. While any community would benefit from more jobs being created in it, Kitimat already has a surplus of construction jobs, and the long-term jobs are few in comparison, so the pipeline itself doesn’t do too much to support a town that already sinks or swims with its smelter.

What may be more important to note is that the United States currently gets 97% of Canada’s exports of crude oil, which does not do particularly great things for getting a competitive market price for one’s product. Indeed, there is an issue with oversupply that is hurting the price of Candian crude oil. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently made a trip out to China, and if he can successfully push the Northern Gateway pipeline into play and have a port to access the Pacific Rim countries, suddenly the market prices could go up. Harper has all but endorsed the project himself. Enbridge itself claims that nearly $3 a barrel would be added to the price of crude oil.

Not everyone is convinced that’s a good thing, though. According to a study done by economist Robyn Allan, former President and CEO of ICBC, the projected net benefit of $270 billion to the Canadian economy as estimated by Enbridge doesn’t account for enough factors and the pipeline could cause the reverse effect, “an oil price shock to the economy.” Allan identifies Northern Gateway as a potential inflationary threat, as oil prices go up, so will the costs elsewhere.

An Oily Smear

While the pipeline does have its supporters, what’s come out of Kitimat is far more concern than excitement. In particular, Enbridge is being questioned over the environmental risks and feasibility of driving oil super tankers through the Douglas Channel. Dieter Wagner, a resident of Kitimat for 47 years, represents “Douglas Channel Watch”, a group united for the cause of protecting the inlet from the potential environmental dangers of tanker traffic that the pipeline would cause.

“The passages are not fit for these super tankers,” said Wagner, “They are difficult to navigate, with the waves and the weather. Both passages out of the channel are not good for use all year long.”

Enbridge has responded to concerns raised about tanker safety by ensuring that it will employ state of the art technology and environmental safety measures to eliminate as much of the risk as possible. In particular, double-hulled super tankers and escort tugboats for them were two safety precautions.

Wagner took issue with the claim that there will be tugboats, saying that “I have read the regulations and nowhere within the regulations does it say that they have to have tugboats for a shipping project such as this one.” What Douglas Channel Watch and other groups are strongly pushing is the fact that no one can guarantee that a mistake will never, ever happen, and the consequences for the Douglas Channel, if there’s an oil spill, would be severely damaging, basically wiping out the habitats for fish and wildlife for generations. They reference the Exxon Valdez incident, in which a tanker spilled—depending on whom you ask—between 260,000 to well over 700,000 barrels of oil into the water at Prince William Sound, Alaska. The effects of that tanker spill are still present today, despite billions of dollars in relief efforts by Exxon, not to mention other organizations. While Enbridge’s tankers would no doubt be state of the art, the risk is undeniable that a spill could happen there.

Douglas Channel notwithstanding, there is also the issue of the pipeline itself and the rivers and other wildlife habitat that it crosses. Enbridge insists that oil companies have learned from spills and other accidents, and have marched on in environmental safety issues, but when evaluating any corporation or employee to do a job, one must consider the past. In May 2010, the Polaris Institute documented 804 spills occurring on Enbridge pipelines from 1999 to 2010, dumping 169,000 barrels of hydrocarbons into the environment. Enbridge currently manages 24,600 km of crude oil pipeline in total, moving over 2 million barrels per day.

Wagner pointed out that if a pipeline were to leak the crude oil into the Kitimat River, for example, the salmon and steelhead fish habitat would be destroyed. “The oil would seep into the ground, and the only way to get it out after that is to dredge the river, and if you do that, the breeding grounds and habitat of five different kinds of salmon, and the steelhead, they are gone.” A crude oil spill would leave a lasting smear environmentally and, it turns out, economically, on some of the small communities Enbridge is trying to help.

“The money we make from tourism, from fishing and other activities related to the Douglas Channel would be lost if there was a spill,” Wagner explained. “That loss would make us worse off, even with the jobs Enbridge would generate for us.”

Forging an Alliance

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Enbridge in the pipeline debate is trying to secure support from the different bands of the First Nations. Enbridge is offering financial incentives, but concern remains over the environment and what a spill could do to the First Nations’ lands. Enbridge, as mentioned, has taken it upon themselves to incorporate the First Nations into their economic pitch. They’re offering a ten percent share of the $5.5 billion project, and promise that Aboriginals will make up at least 15% of the workers hired on to do the jobs generated by the project. The money is definitely there, but thus far there’s been less support than Enbridge would like to see.

Environmental concerns come to the fore once again, and many First Nations bands are speaking out in opposition of Northern Gateway. However, in an article by the Financial Post, Ellis Ross, Chief of the Haisla First Nation which resides in the Kitimaat Village, was critical of Enbridge.

“They can’t guarantee they are not going to spill oil and they are not going to guarantee they can pick it up,” said Ross. “Of course these people in Ottawa, Alberta, Saskatchewan, [they] are willing to take the risk because they don’t live here.”

It all comes back to this idea of risk versus reward. Kitimat hasn’t seen the brightest days over the last decade, and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project could generate an economic stimulus that will, if nothing else, give the community a small shot in the arm as far as short-term employment goes. Long term, every Canadian is banking on Enbridge’s plan for more competitive oil prices.

The question that opponents of the pipeline are raising during the public hearings is loud and clear. Is the risk of the devastation of the environment in Kitimat, or any part of the pipeline route’s communities, worth the economic incentives that are being promised? The answer could decide the fate of this controversial project.

News

Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour is currently awaiting his execution after being charged by the Iranian government of attempting to spread pornography through the Internet. “Iran has become a killing machine. In the first 18 days of this year at least 53 people have been killed. That is about three killed, deliberately, by the state each day. Saeed Malekpour finds himself trapped in that horrible reality,” said Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada secretary-general. “His death sentence was reinstated and he lives each day with the prospect of imminent execution,” said Sen. Linda Frum who led a debate of the topic on Monday.

Olivia Ward of the Toronto Star wrote, “Ten political prisoners in Evin prison wrote an open letter condemning Malekpour’s brutal treatment, and detailing some of the torture to which he has been subjected. After Malekpour wrote in 2010 that he had been severely tortured to extract a confession, and his wife declared that his case was a political one, he was transferred to the control of the Revolutionary Guard, the prisoners said. The prisoners have expressed that “based on the laws [of] the Islamic Republic all stages of interrogation, detention, investigation and trial for Saeed Malekpour have been illegal. He was stripped and threatened with rape. His teeth were pulled with pliers, he was subjected to electrical shock by stun guns, he was lashed with cable and wires, [and] he was kept in solitary confinement for nearly one year.”

At the meeting in Ottawa, senators also expressed concerns about other prisoners held captive in Iran. A former shoe salesman in Toronto, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall is also awaiting execution after being accused of engaging in espionage. “He has endured 18 months of solitary confinement and has been subjected to physical and psychological torture,” said Frum. Moreover, the Canadian blogger Hossein Derakshan is also experiencing torture and is sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years.

News

It has long been recognized that the three great powers of Europe are France, Germany, and Russia. Along with Britain, these three powers call the shots in continental affairs. With a year of upcoming elections and the austerity package for the European Union in question, there are significant worries that the main power brokers are going to be replaced, and the one thing markets both love and despise is uncertainty.

France

The Fifth Republic is seeing a period of political turmoil unprecedented in its modern history. President Nicholas Sarkozy is sitting middle of the pack at 30% in a three way popularity poll behind Socialist candidate François Hollande and only four points ahead of Front National candidate Marie Le Pen. Many commentators are speculating that Sarkozy will be edged off of the first round presidential ballot at the end of April by the hard right Le Pen, if that happens France will have to choose between the untested Hollande and his Socialists and Le Pen who represents the rising tide of anti-immigration anti-islamic rhetoric in much of France. Either choice will have a significant effect on the policies implemented under Sarkozy through the course of the Euro crisis and the relationship with Germany and its Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany

Merkel, who has made the unprecedented choice to endorse Sarkozy as the best candidate for the French Presidency, highlighted the growing integration of French and German politics. No one twenty years ago could have guessed that a German Chancellor would involve themselves in French politics. In doing so Merkel has exposed herself to European politics in general and may experience a backlash in German state elections over the coming months. Merkel already heads a relatively unstable coalition and for the first time since reunification the Christian Democrats look to lose several of their seats in core political strongholds.

Russia

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is the outside man when it comes to EU Politics and the debt crisis as a whole. However, Russia is a major player in the stability of the region. Just this month Gazprom cut gas supplies too much of Eastern Europe due to a shortage of stock as some of the coldest temperatures on record pummeled the continent. Putin meanwhile has faced steady public opposition to his government in the wake of parliamentary elections in which his party United Russia was reduced to its lowest seat count since its formation.

The opposition have rallied together in opposition of Putin’s autocratic style of leadership and persistent suppression of the press and opposition parties. Despite the many ideological differences between the liberal-democrats, communists, and tsarists, all have mobilized in opposition of Mr. Putin’s continuous tenure as first two term President and then Prime Minister of Russia, with plans to run for the Presidency again on March 4th, of this year.

Europe as a Whole

With Romania having gone through two governments in the first week of February and the Greeks facing the collapse of their second government in as many months the European Union is looking increasingly unstable. Austerity measures have resulted in the collapse of these two dependent economies, but the new governments, which have negotiated lighter austerity measures have faced similar if not greater backlash to their policies. With the smaller economies of Europe looking to Germany and France for economic and political leadership and Russia in a state of flux, the economic and political future of the continent is looking direr with each passing day. In the midst of chaos, three of Europe’s most capable leader’s are under siege, without their guidance going forward the plans and stability of the world’s largest economy may be scuttled long before austerity measures have a chance to take effect.

News

The Canadian prime minister is a currently on a visit to China in order to foster increased economic cooperation. According to the Toronto Star, “Harper took credit for a ‘historic’ deal, saying it is Canada’s first comprehensive trade agreement with China, one that eluded previous governments for nearly 20 years, and would one day make a ‘very practical difference’ for Canadian companies seeking to invest here.” The agreement would help small- to medium-sized businesses understand local Chinese laws in taxation as well as dispute settlements.

Harper was greeted at the Great Hall of the People and was welcomed by the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. “I would describe our last meeting as opening a new page in our bilateral relationship,” said Wen. Harper announced that he would like to discuss a wide variety of issues ranging from economic development to international peace and security, and also references to human rights. In addition, nine deals were signed encompassing the areas of energy, natural resources, agriculture, and scientific research and technology. Even though the government did not achieve their objective of negotiating free trades deal with China, the prime minister still considers the visit significant and that increased cooperation may serve as a milestone for broader economic collaborations in the future.

In his visit, the prime minister also mentioned consular cases and human rights. For instance, Harper raised concern regarding China’s recent UN veto against a resolution that will force Syrian president Bashar Assad step down from power. “We would hope to see in the future action from the Security Council on this matter, and I was pretty clear on that,” said Harper. Furthermore, the prime minister claims that previous governments were wrong with their approach on China in that “there was a view when we took office that you either had to deal with the Chinese on economics or to deal with them on human rights and consular matters but you couldn’t do both and we refused to accept that view. We thought that view was driven frankly out of a weak approach to foreign policy. As long as you’re frank and respectful it is, in fact, necessary to engage China as we would engage every other country on the entire range of issues. I think the Chinese have gotten more comfortable with that position, and I think we are beginning to achieve things,” Harper concluded.

News

Western Canada is experiencing a population boom, according to a new Canadian census. As reported by CTV, the country’s population increased 5.9 per cent between 2006 and 2011, to 33,476,688 people. Western Canada—which includes British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba—is now more populated than the East. In the census, Ontario was not considered part of either West or Eastern Canada. The information illustrates that 30.7 per cent of Canadians live in Western Canada as compared to the 30.6 per cent of citizens in the East. CTV reports that “the western migration may be due in part to the job market.

Forestry and mining in eastern Canada has been impacted by the recession, while economic opportunities in the energy-rich west continue to draw people at a faster rate than in past census periods.” Statistics Canada census manager Marc Hamel said that “we can probably make some of those associations. We have seen the population increase higher in places where people believe there are jobs.”

Another factor for this change in demographics may be because of the aging population in the East when compared the West. This may imply that Western Canada have higher fertility rates that contribute to the population growth in the region. The cities with the fastest growing population are Calgary and Edmonton. The census shows that Calgary increased its inhabitants by 12.6 per cent from 2006 to 2011 while Edmonton grew by 12.1 per cent. Saskatoon is the third fastest growing city at 11.4 per cent increase. A new census regarding Canadian demography is conducted every five years, which includes all Canadian citizens. The present data was collected last May of 2011 and encompasses 98 per cent of Canadians. Canada’s population growth rate was faster than that of all the other countries of the G8 between the same five-year period.

News

WestJet has announced that the company will expand its market by making its service available to smaller Canadian destinations. The move will be in competition with Air Canada which has previously dominated the markets of small metropolitan areas. “In terms of where they’re headed it’s something that’s certainly not surprising. We’re simply going to have to step up our game in markets where we haven’t faced their competition before” said Duncan Dee, Air Canada Chief Operating Officer.

According to Reuters, “Dee said it was too early to speculate what effect the WestJet move would have on the bottom line at Air Canada, which is beset with labor problems. Shortly after Dee spoke to Reuters, Air Canada reported a fourth-quarter net loss as higher maintenance and fuel costs overshadowed the gains from increased passenger traffic.” In addition, Air Canada is currently involved in a variety of different disputes involving unions associated with the company’s pilots, crew members, and staff. “We’re continuing to talk to our unions. There are several balls in the air in terms of the negotiations. As a positive note, all of those talks continue, none of them have broken off,” said Dee.

Air Canada is also considering purchasing a low-cost carrier that would lower the price of maintenance and oil management. However, the plan would not be in effect until conciliations are made between the firm and its staff members. “The key there is the fact that carriers like WestJet continue to evolve their business plans, the fact that Air Canada continues to face strengthening competition from airlines that are able to compete at a much lower cost base. Those are things that any business ... has to keep mindful of so that they’re able to assure the future of their company. Suffice it to say that we continue to evaluate the various options we have and if and when something transpires we’ll be able to make those options known and discuss them with our unions,” Dee continued.

News

The Conservative government has been accused of condoning torture, which is a breach of federal law and its international commitment. Stuart Hendin, a specialist in the law of armed conflicts and human rights at the University of Ottawa, says, “we’re signatory to the UN Convention against Torture and there is an absolute prohibition against torture.” This is in response to the recent accusations of the Harper government approving the use of information extracted from torture. “Torture is also prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada; also, if we rely on information that has been obtained by torture then we are breaching our obligations under the Convention against Torture. We have a history of receiving torture-acquired information,” Hendin continues.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service had already been previously accused of accepting information through the means of torture. According to the Toronto Star, “A copy of the two-page December 2010 directive was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. And opposition parties were quick to jump on the news Tuesday. It shows Public Safety Minister Vic Toews quietly reversed the Canadian government’s policy on using intelligence derived from torture or mistreatment. It expands upon a May 2009 ministerial order stating CSIS must not knowingly rely upon information derived from torture, and have measures in place to identify such tainted information.”

Toews said, “Information obtained by torture is always discounted. But the problem is, can one safely ignore it when Canadian lives and property are at stake?” Another spokesperson for the government policy Mike Patton said, “we do not condone and certainly do not engage in torture. However, when we have information that Canadian lives are at risk, we will act without delay. Should CSIS have information that a plane is going to explode, should they decline to act if they are unsure about the source? It is a difficult decision but we have chosen to put the safety and security of Canadians first.”

Sports

Myrte Schön

3rd year Outside Hitter Myrte Schön makes her first appearance in the AOTW column this year after a dominating outing two weekends ago that saw the Heat women’s volleyball team crush the Saskatchewan Huskies in a weekend sweep. This was the first time the Heat secured back-to-back victories in league play this season.

On the first night in Saskatchewan, Myrte notched a match-high 15 kills and six digs for her team. She followed that the next night with another 15 kills to go along with her three service aces for the night.

“Myrte was all but unstoppable again tonight,” her coach Steve Manuel said after the Saturday night match. She was the top gun for starting setter Chandler Proch that night.

Myrte had been battling injury the last few weeks, but coach Manuel thinks that she is recovering nicely: “Myrte’s been injured and playing the last few weeks with a pulled abdominal. She’s been taped up and she hasn’t been able to reach back and swing at the ball. She’s feeling a lot better, she’s worked through it and I think she’s pretty much over it. She’s able to get that extra five or ten per cent jump in her swing and that’s the difference.”

Nate Speijer

Fan favourite Nate makes his sophomore appearance in AOTW after managing to find his groove on the road and help his team dispatch the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on the road two weekends ago in order to put their playoff ambitions into their own hands (hopefully by the time you read this, the Heat have dispatched the TRU WolfPack and are heading to their first Canada West playoffs appearance).

After dropping the Friday night matchup with the Huskies, the Heat battled an intensely contested five-set match that the Heat won 18-16 to keep them alive in the playoff race the next night. Nate led the match with 22 kills and 5 big service aces en route to the team’s victory. Through to the weekend against the Huskies, Nate led his team with 235 kills (Riley McFarland follows at 196) and 17 service aces (Greg Niemantsverdriet follows at 11).

With hopes that the boys made it to the playoffs, it looks like UBCO’s heavy hitters in Nate and Riley may finally have found their stride on the road in time.

News

On Wednesday February 1st, the UBCO students' union participated in the Canadian Federation of Students' “National Day of Action”, a nationwide event that protested against high tuition rates and student debt. Several notable provincial politicians, such as BC NDP leader Adrian Dix, have lent their support to the cause. UBCO student union Executive Chair Kirk Chavarie explains that the event is geared towards students as well as the community. “When you look at this university, it's growing fast. It [holds] a lot of interest for students out of province and out of country but we want to make sure the community is aware that we have a university up here and we should be making sure it's accessible not only for people out of the country or province, but in our own backyard," said Chavarie. “What we’re trying to do is involve students in the process of understanding [the politics of] tuition fees, student loans, and day to day living costs.”

Adrian Dix said in his speech to the room full of students, “we have to bring change now, because it’s true that people go to post-secondary to have an average debt of twenty-seven thousand dollars […] and it’s true that people pay the highest interest rates on student loans […] and that it’s true that tuition has doubled.” The opposition leader also expressed his concern that high tuition rates are preventing people from getting the necessary credentials to apply for certain jobs. “There are people that need to go to post-secondary [school] who aren’t going at all, because of these policies [of reducing access to education]. […] I think students don’t just want access to post-secondary education, they want and need excellent post-secondary education. […] I think that these questions of people getting access to education they need for their jobs in the future, are THE key questions for our economy, our education system and for our society,” Adrian continues.

In addition to the speeches, free food was also provided during the event, along with games and music. Students' Unions across the country are participating in the event, which is associated with their slogan that education is a right and not a privilege.

News

Be a Part of UBC’s Future: Name Our New Learning Management System!

The University of British Columbia will transition from WebCT Vista to a new learning management system (LMS) in 2012. Students use WebCT Vista in concert with their campus-based and distance courses for a wide range of course activities: discussing course topics with their colleagues and their instructor, accessing notes and other course resources, submitting assignments and taking online tests. The new system has the same features as WebCT Vista - and many more! The new LMS will be UBC’s integrated, collaborative online learning space into the future.

We’d like to brand the new LMS with a name that represents UBC. And that’s where you come in! Because the LMS will be such an integral part of the University teaching and learning experience, we want YOU to help us name the new system.

How Do I Enter? Just visit the LMS website at http://pilot.lms.ubc.ca/name-ubcs-new-lms and type in your suggestion. Your entry should be in the form of a name that somehow conveys the notion of learning ecosystem, learning community and/or links to content “beyond the classroom”. Be creative and provocative!

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS FEBRUARY 10, 2012.

You’ll be notified if your selection is one of the top three. The winning entry will be announced at the end of February. The person who submits the winning entry will receive a $50.00 gift certificate for the UBC Book Store.

Opinions

Greetings Mayor Gray and Kelowna City Council,

I am a fourth-year student at UBC Okanagan. For the past four years I have relied on the Kelowna Regional Transit System not only to get to campus, but also to get around the city for work, groceries, social outings, and life in general. As a UBCO student I pay $45 per semester for a bus pass ($50 less a 10% subsidy). The Kelowna Regional Transit Authority and UBC Okanagan recently held a referendum on transit fees, resulting in the 2012-2013 student transit fee increasing to $54 per semester ($60 less a 10% subsidy). Transit fees are also increasing for monthly passes and regular fares. Along with this fee increase came a promise of better bus service.

It took many years for the Kelowna Regional Transit System to get to where it is today. Your decision to drastically reduce funding to such a vital service will mean that years of effort, time, and money will have been in vain. This move is also detrimental to the environment, the economy, and the community as a whole.

Tourist companies and city council like to tout Kelowna as a world-class city—but world-class cities need world-class transit systems. Yes, transit costs are rising. But that’s no reason to make such extreme cuts to vital services.

Bussing to campus last semester was like being squished into a can of sardines. There are too few buses that run too infrequently to serve the growing student population in Kelowna. The students who voted to pay more for the same U-Pass, and the citizens who are now paying higher fees for the same bus passes, expect you to honour your obligations to us and improve transit. In fact, during the U-Pass referendum, it was suggested by the City of Kelowna (through their Facebook page) that if the referendum failed, the City of Kelowna would cancel the U-Pass altogether. The referendum literature also promised more frequent buses and more routes if the referendum passed. Well... we listened. We passed the referendum. Now we, the students of UBC Okanagan, demand the higher service we were promised.

Why should Kelownites pay more money for less service?

Yes, this means you will have to look elsewhere for budget cuts to keep your promise to not increase the budget.

Economically speaking, when looking to save money, it’s most intelligent to start by trimming what’s not necessary rather than what is necessary. Public transit is not a luxury. In fact, investing in public infrastructure is the best type of investment during and after a recession. I’m interested to know: when you decided to eliminate the #9 Shopper’s Shuttle, did you seek input from people who take the #9 bus every day? What about when you decided to reduce morning service on the #97 Express bus, Kelowna Transit’s flagship? Did you consult with the bus drivers on these routes to gain an understanding of what actually happens on the ground? Either way, these transit cuts cannot bode well for future election prospects for any council members.

I would like to issue a challenge to the mayor and to all council members. I challenge you all to use Kelowna Transit as your ONLY source of motor vehicle transportation for exactly one month. Perhaps then you will see how necessary this service is.

Good day, Mike Straus

Opinions

OutWeek is February 6th to 10th at UBCO this year!

I look forward to this annual occasion because it celebrates diversity—something we need to celebrate, especially in Kelowna. I’m honoured to be a part of it for my fifth year.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” We depend on those who are not the majority to reflect back to us who we are so that we might listen and become better people. Since last year’s OutWeek, we’ve had a federal election and a municipal election (and, for that matter, a change in provincial premier) and it could be said that the moves we’ve made, as a society, through those elections threaten the rights of those with a minority voice. I’ve said it before: if your needs are met, you must work to help others have their needs met, or you may be perpetuating injustice.

I am the pastor at a progressive Christian community in the Glenmore area of Kelowna, All Saints Lutheran. We do not have a church building, but we meet in a house. We ask questions, and invite conversation, about all aspects of what we practice; for example, we don’t expect people even to think of “God” in the same way as those sitting next to them on Sundays. We respect faith traditions, and non-faith traditions, of others. We find most of our activity urges us outside of our doors into the community. In all of it, we are rooted in good liturgical practice, and we work at being able to articulate what we believe and how we live it.

Another thing that makes us unique is that we are the first Christian community in Kelowna to openly welcome LGBTQ people—we are on a public list of communities (as is the Peace Seekers campus club) that is clear in its welcome of all people, including those of various sexual orientations and gender identities. We joined this ‘Reconciling In Christ’ roster in 2008. This past Summer, our national church-body, the “Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada” (the largest and most progressive Lutheran body in Canada) took the step to vote in a policy where ordination of lesbian or gay pastors and same-sex marriage would be allowed in its congregations (of course, as with the United Church of Canada, the option to be welcoming and inclusive in this way falls to the local congregation to choose).

In light of our Reconciling In Christ (RIC) status, and OutWeek, our local All Saints Lutheran congregation will be observing “RIC Sunday” on Sunday, February 5th. Consider coming to see who we are and what we’re about at 10am at our church-house that day. I’ll be wearing a rainbow-coloured stole!

OutWeek is not simply a week-long party with rainbow flags everywhere. It is a statement to say that we hold up all people as valuable in our society. We care about the needs of those around us. We seek to affirm the lives of all, and work at living justly. Join in the events during OutWeek.Come to the opening ceremony at noon in the administration building on Monday, February 6th. And, more than that, speak out for justice in your daily life!

Opinions

Every month, there’s an event that happens at the Okanagan Rainbow Coalition Centre on Water St, in downtown Kelowna. “Souper Sunday” is a simple supper, followed by a thought-provoking program that invites conversation about values. On January 15th, Lutheran pastor Rev. Curtis Aguirre spoke on the Early Church Fathers. I was intrigued by what he said about Origen (185-253 CE).

Origen shared with many of the Greek Fathers a sophisticated, non-literal approach to interpreting the Bible. Listen to this diatribe against people who interpret the Bible literally: “Now what man of intelligence will believe that the first and the second and the third day, and the evening and the morning existed without the sun and the moon and the stars? And that the first day, if we may so call it, was even without a heaven? And who is so silly as to believe that God, after the manner of a farmer, ‘planted a paradise eastward in Eden’… I do not think that anyone will doubt that these are figurative expressions which indicate certain mysteries through a semblance of history and not through actual events” (On First Principles, Book IV, Chapter III, 1).

This was written by someone who was living in the third century of the common era! Say nothing of the fundamentalism movement which sought to entrench inerrancy of the Bible. We do a disservice to the text when we deny ourselves the beauty of the poetry intended by those who were trying to make sense of things that were hard to describe.

A debate happened on campus on the evening of January 25th—“Be it resolved that the genetic and fossil evidence supports the evolution model and refutes the biblical creation model.” I’ve been told that there was significant advertising of this debate ahead of time in churches in Kelowna.

The University of British Columbia Okanagan struggles with how it should be a place that is ‘open’ to different perspectives. It is, certainly, a struggle to be a place of openness and diversity in a region like. It surprises me that such a debate takes place on campus (after all, wouldn’t the university subscribe to one view to the exclusion of the other—what is the accepted teaching of UBC-O on this matter?), and yet there is no acknowledged forum, class, or campus service where students might be directed by the administration for questions like this when they arise.

Worthy of note: Darwin Day is coming up – February 12th is the 202nd anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. He was a man who struggled with what he’d been taught in church and what he was discovering in his scientific research (oh yeah—and he wrote a best-selling book!).

Opinions

In October of 2011 Melinda Pederson wrote an opinion piece for The Phoenix ironically titled “Solving the UBC-Okanagan parking problem”. Ironic because the article did not solve the parking problem. While the article was useful, it was fundamentally wrong in providing its six alternate options for students to get to the University. Some of the primary problems students face in terms of to-and-from UBCO transportation and on-campus parking are:

Location. Due to the university’s location, the most convenient form of transportation is by personal vehicle. If the University were at the end of calm suburban streets there wouldn’t be much of an issue, but as it stands the University is on the side of Kelowna’s main highway. As much as the “beware of biker” sign on the overpass is appreciated, it does not provide comfortable space for walking and biking, along the narrow shoulders of the highway. This, of course, is a city issue, but it doesn’t make non-vehicular travel any more of a viable option for students. The majority of classes also take place in the winter months, and therefore both daylight and weather also become a hindrance, and UBCO isn’t very close to many of the densely populated areas of Kelowna.

Buses. Having grown up in Kelowna and visited a few university cities in my time, it’s easy to see that Kelowna’s bus system is severely lacking, given the number of people who utilize it. Frequency, stop location, capacity, and operational time are terrible. It only makes driving a better option.

The parking. Half of F lot isn’t even paved. Granted the fees at UBCO seem pale in comparison to some larger city campuses, but from what I’ve heard those campuses don’t have vehicles haphazardly parked along road shoulders. This problem hasn’t gone away since UBCO introduced its lot-specific parking scheme and I wonder at how they plan on fixing it seeing as they said no more outward lots would be built. Parking passes consistently sell out and yet there are always parking spaces available. I understand there are only passes sold for the amount of physical spaces, but look: not every student is on campus at the same time. UBCO has no shortage of reasons to charge people for parking violations, including the ridiculous $100 fee to replace a stolen 8 month piece-of-plastic pass. Can’t that sort of “extra” revenue go to developing a system that accommodates everyone? It’s hard to take pride in your university with cars getting stuck in the mud because the campus doesn’t provide adequate parking. This is a university—no one can figure out a solution to parking?

Dwelling on the last point: students pay the University for an education. Contrary to Melinda’s article, it shouldn’t be up to the student to compromise/risk safety/risk fines just to get to class. It should be up to the University to provide adequate facilities to all its paying students, and Melinda pointed out that this is currently not the case. The student population has grown in leaps and bounds since I began my degree 4 years ago, and with the addition of new buildings that provide additional room for students to learn as well as providing additional topics to study, there’s only going to be more bodies around campus, and they’ll all need a way to get there. As mentioned, UBCO has stated it does not intend to use any more land for parking purposes. So build up. A $30 million facility is nothing if the students can’t get there to use it.

Maybe it’s time to adjust priorities and spend a portion of that price on building a parkade. Not only will no additional space be needed, but costs are cut on having to plough snowfall, and with the right system it would be easy to monitor who is entering/leaving in order to maximize useable space. If the university’s coffers are looking a little dry (I can’t imagine how, given what we pay), at the very least they should attempt to persuade the city into spending their money in order to help the situation.

This issue is not going to resolve itself, this much is clear already. Why wait until every road on campus is lined with cars? My ideas are only two basic ones, I’m sure if serious time is spent on this something innovative will arise to solve this issue and make the campus a more convenient place to study.

Arts

It’s been a while since Tim Allen’s departure from television. The highly acclaimed Home Improvement in which Allen acted ran for eight seasons and ended in 1999. It launched the acting careers of Allen, who had previously been a stand-up comedian; Pamela Anderson; and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Home Improvement centred on a middle class couple with three sons. Allen played Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, a television show host, who was most known for his know-it-all attitude and jokes. Home Improvement was one of the most-watched shows of the nineties, and continues to be rerun on numerous channels. Allen has recently returned to stand-up comedy performances, between Santa Clause and Toy Story films. However, Allen fans are in for a treat now that he has also decided to return to television in Last Man Standing.

Last Man Standing is the logical next step for Allen as it is essentially Home Improvement for the 2000s. One might think that this would make it tiring, old, and unoriginal. But while not all the reviews have been positive, there may still be hope for the sitcom as it continues to pick up pace. Allen makes his return to television as Mike Baxter, a man’s man with three daughters, rather than the three sons he had on Home Improvement. Both of his sitcoms have been with the ABC network, and Last Man Standing’s most recent audience ratings have been decent. The show stars Nancy Travis as wife Vanessa Baxter, and seasoned actor Hector Elizondo as Allen’s boss Ed Alzate. Mike Baxter is the director of marketing at an outdoor sporting goods store in Colorado where he hosts an online web show showcasing “manly” things such as hunting, hiking, and camping.

Last Man Standing lets Allen be as silly and opinionated as he wants, something that Home Improvement fans will be used to. What is refreshing about the show, in comparison to the other sitcom, is the battle of the sexes. Baxter is outnumbered in his own home, amidst bras, makeup, boyfriend drama, teenaged angst, and PMS. The women in his life are not afraid to challenge his often sexist points of view, but also appreciate his fatherly and protective qualities. The three daughters are all very different, but agree that Baxter is obsessed with “the manly life.” The eldest Baxter daughter was a teenage mother, allowing the show plotline to visit the topics of teen sex and young mothers. Kristin Baxter’s toddler son, whom she was pregnant with in her senior year of high school, is played by the Kruntchev twins. The reason why this is interesting is because these boys also play Harrison Morgan, a serial killer’s son on the hit Showtime program Dexter.

Each episode of Last Man Standing follows Baxter as he, much to their horror, intervenes in his daughters’ lives, terrorizes their boyfriends, and tries to teach the women in his home “manly” pastimes. For those children of the 90’s like myself, Last Man Standing will appeal to their nostalgic nature, and to those who are new to Tim Allen, he has a comedic style all his own. It is very easy to find this show entertaining, but only time will tell, as the bad reviews keep coming in. Last Man Standing will be hit or miss for most viewers; the show will most likely be canceled if it does not attract more viewers this season.

Arts

1) I resolve to eat properly.

Nothing to accompany university like stress eating prior to exams or the due date of an essay worth a significant portion of my grade. At the end of last semester, I thought I would revise this by chopping up veggies and chow them down as I study. Unfortunately my first big assignment was due today and I found myself eating two cinnamon buns in one sitting. Luckily my body refuses to not be skinny despite my high intake of Breyer’s ice cream.

2) I resolve to exercise.

I jump on a mini trampoline for fifteen minutes before I head to the nearest bus stop in Vernon. It’s the only way to blow off steam before I get in a terrible mood when I am downtown at 6:45 AM and see I might be standing on a bus until arriving on campus at eight. Granted I could learn to play a winter or indoor sport, but who wants to hit the gym after spending ten hours on campus? Certainly not me. I need to check in with my laptop and make sure it’s not lonely.

3) I resolve to be kinder to others.

When my mom asked me, “Hey Logan, are there any timbits left?” and I said, “No.” Well, what I meant was is that there was only enough left for me. I’ll have to send that as a lyrics to Usher when he makes part three of his confessions.

4) I resolve to spend less time on Facebook.

What was I smoking when I thought of this? We’ve all done it. “I won’t check Facebook until I’ve caught up on all my schoolwork—wait gotta ‘like’ this status first.” Yeah, I logged on approximately January 2nd. Surprisingly, my mock Soulja Boy Facebook account from the tenth grade lasted longer than this resolution. I’m going to give myself half a point for not logging onto Tumblr and not caving into the creation of a Twitter. In my five years of being on Facebook, I have built a reputation for never writing less than the allotted 440 characters unless I’m sharing a video. I would slam my head on a desk if I had to condense what I wanted to express in 140 characters or less. I don’t Twitterstand that concept.

5) I resolve to not play first-person shooters or pure fighting games.

Nothing has mainstreamed in video games more than FP shooters. Their success has prevented many original and unique games from Japan come to America because executives don’t think it will sell well. I blame you all for the Phoenix Wright coming to a halt because Capcom thinks only Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom (2 versions of it in one year? C’mon!) should be their primary focus of promotion. Nineties RPGs like Live A Live, Earthbound, Terranigma, and the sequel to Secret of Mana fail to see the light of day. I’ve been blowing into my cartridges and firing up Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, and Super Mario World.

6) I resolve to finally watch one of the following substance lacking movies:

Twilight, Avatar, Country Strong, or Tekken. By watching these films, I can be in a position to properly make fun of them. I still have another eleven months to reach my goal. No need to input that statistic yet.

7) I resolve to get my hair cut.

I was for this until I saw my hair matched Rick James from his “Give it to Me Baby” music video. My head complains that my amazing hair is a helluva tug. c wut i did thar? That’s a 3.5 out of 6 success rate (excluding number 6 and giving myself a point for weaseling out of number 7.) Does anyone truly expect to really follow through with these things? I feel foolish. Not as foolish as those who watch Cougartown, though. I can be thankful for that.

Arts

Over the years there have been many ladies of young Hollywood chosen as faces for numerous fashion and beauty campaigns. From Vera Wang to Neutrogena, fresh faces have always been the craze in our society. However, a new trend has risen in the fashion world: hiring actresses under sixteen to promote designer clothing. What is most interesting about this is the fact that these clothes are also intended for grown women. Essentially, these talented starlets are changing the fashion world as we know it. Perhaps the most influential and awe-inspiring of all these are up and coming actresses Chloë Grace Moretz, Hailee Steinfeld, and Elle Fanning.

Moretz is quite the talented actress with an already hefty fan following. She is known for her charming role with Zooey Deshanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer, and her eerie performance in the horror film Let Me In. But her most popular role to date is as Hit-Girl in the critically acclaimed hero comedy Kick Ass. Her foul-mouthed and violent character charmed her way into the hearts of viewers and critics alike, instantly catapulting her to stardom. She seems to be mature beyond her years, and stars in the newest Martin Scorsese film Hugo. Moretz has recently signed on to play the lead role in Dark Horse comic-turned-film Emily the Strange. Her offbeat characteristics and intensely focused performance style is perfect for the role, and most fans of the series couldn’t be happier.

Along with her refreshing acting style, Moretz is known for the outfits she wears to premieres and interviews, as well as her hair and makeup style. Moretz has been most recently seen wearing Stella McCartney, Dolce and Gabbana, and Valentino. She is the perfect actress to showcase these creations as more and more people are beginning to notice and recognize her talent and influence. Moretz has a very 1920s-esque style that is communicated through her carefully sculpted blonde bob hairdo that screams The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan.

Steinfeld was a big breakout star of 2011. Her portrayal of Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers’ remake of John Wayne’s True Grit earned her nominations for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, and for a Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award. Steinfeld has a lovely innocence about her, but does not appear to be naïve. Her instantaneous star power and elegance attracted the likes of Miu Miu, a brand from the Prada fashion house. Miu Miu is an adorable line with a lot of soft pinks and browns incorporated into its outfits. Its style is elegant, but lighter than Prada and Chanel. In May 2011, Miu Miu announced that Steinfeld would be its new face. Ever since, the ads have attracted controversy. Organizations claim that using the fourteen-year-old is inappropriate. Most recently, a picture of Steinfeld sitting on a railways track has come under fire for being “irresponsible,” because of her young age. Steinfeld, who is the right age for the part, has recently been cast as Juliet in an upcoming adaptation of Romeo and Juliet by director Carlo Carlei.

Fanning, the younger sister of accomplished actress Dakota Fanning has a booming career of her own. She has most recently appeared in The Virgin Suicides director Sophia Coppola’s film Somewhere, and Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film Super 8. Fanning is a lovely and confident fashion icon with maturity well beyond her years. Marc Jacobs, who has hired her sister in the past for his perfume Lola, used Fanning as a model for his Fall 2011 collection. These photographs were shot by his favorite photographer, Juergen Teller, and feature the younger Fanning sister modeling 70’s style clothes and accessories. Both Fanning sisters have received criticism for their modeling, the argument being that they are too young to appear in such “mature” photos. But this has not fazed either of them, and from the looks of it, the duo is on their way to being the new Mary-Kate and Ashley of the fashion world.

It is nice to see the fashion world become more diverse. As long as the pictures of the starlets stay appropriate, criticism should not hinder the labels’ style and aspirations. All successful and memorable creative game-changers have been victims of criticism at some point.

Arts

When you learn that Amber Dawn is the current director of programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival it comes as no surprise that she is well known for tackling issues of sexuality and identity. And when you read Sub Rosa it comes as no surprise that she’s also a feminist—or that Sub Rosa won the Lambda Literary award last year for Debut Lesbian Ficiton. Dawn bills Sub Rosa as a “combination of speculative fiction and magic realism,” blending the borders between the two into something that I am tempted to describe as being akin to urban fantasy. I hesitate to use that label, though, because Sub Rosa is far more than a simple fantasy.

Sub Rosa is a street, a magic place slightly removed from reality where the Glories (magical prostitutes) live. The protagonist, Little, a teenage runaway from the city, gets introduced by a man named Arsen to the street and its residents. In Sub Rosa, Little finds a home among the other prostitutes as well as fame for her Glory power—a phantom hand. But Sub Rosa’s shine quickly wears off as Little becomes aware of just how much she doesn’t know about her new home, and just how little Arsen wants to tell her.

The complexity of the characters and their roles was highly gratifying: there are no white knights in Sub Rosa, just as there is no real antagonist. The evil of the Dark—the forbidden place at the end of the street where light never shines—may actually provide the key to Little’s past, because the only way to escape Sub Rosa is to remember your birth name, and Little cannot remember hers. The bigger question, however, is whether or not she wants to escape. I was not expecting was the balanced and detailed account of power relationships that Dawn provides. A former sex-trade worker herself, I expected a dark and harsh condemnation of prostitution, but the world of Sub Rosa is rosy and insular. The concerns of the “skid hos” don’t touch the Glories, but the Glories still are not free, confined to Sub Rosa despite its apparent luxury.

The variety of characters—from the baby-like Dearest to the mothering First—provides a refreshing look at how different people come to inhabit the same space. Society has a tendency to paint all sex trade workers with the same brush, yet Dawn makes her girls vibrant and distinct. While she does include male prostitutes, I found them to be peripheral, and felt that their characters could have been more developed.

Overall, Sub Rosa is weird and wonderful and walks the line between reality and fantasy, lingering just long enough for the layers and complexities to be visible, yet still remaining a quick read that is well paced.

For those of you who are not squeamish about sex, magic, and the seamier side of life, and if you don’t mind a good dose of reality with your fantasy, Amber Dawn will be reading at the Okanagan Regional Library in downtown Kelowna at 7:00 PM on Thursday, February 9th.

Arts

David Cronenberg seemed the least likely director to take up this debatably stuffy British period film material about the relationship between Freud, Jung, and the woman who divided them. However, don’t underestimate the handling of the film. As much as he loves killer bugs, Cronenberg is just as adept with the romance and psychoanalysis here.

The new stock character of the year, Michael Fassbender stars as the young Carl Jung fleshing out his own theories under the tutelage of his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) who is also creating his own methods for the new field of psychology. The film is quite a history lesson, but you feel as if you’re learning rather than being taught down to.

The film is based on a play by Christopher Hampton, and certainly, some sections of the film have the slow and verbose style, but in interactions between Freud and Jung, the dialogues are sparkling and fascinating.

Jung idolizes Freud, but he is also developing his theories, favouring mysticism and the supernatural, which his mentor crustily puts down. There is an interesting sense of ambivalence from both as they perfect and improvise their divergent schools of thought. There is a crackling animosity between the two, as Jung critiques Freud’s preoccupancy with sex framing all his solutions and terms. The chemistry between Fassbender and Mortensen is fabulous. There are more than a little of the Oedipal references in this film!

However, the film retains its sense of Cronenbergisms with the mix of sex and thrills when Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) enters the picture. Played with ferocious intensity by Knightley who shows us the gradual change from the hysterical and quite laughably nutty Sabina—there are moments when you wonder if Keira’s jutting chin might just fall out!—to her keen intelligence under Jung’s teaching. The central performances are especially good, with Mortensen standing out as he puts on that silky and odd Derek Jacobi English accent for his German icon. His performance is precise and brilliant in the way he shows Freud as a cold and staunchly analytical mind, who can’t grapple with his pupil’s questionable ethics and disagreement. Fassbender is equally good, as he highlights Jung’s more sensitive side and his growing guilt complex and breakdown.

Spielrein equally shows a prowess for psychology and sex, as she urges Jung to initiate something more than a patient-doctor relationship, and some spanking, which Jung obliges. The film integrates the emerging psychology into their subjects’ lives, and as Jung analyzes rationally all the guilt he feels by the end of their spanking sessions. This could be off-putting and unintentionally hilarious, but it makes sense with tone of the film, as Freud theorizes that his pupil is the Oedipus who needs to kill off his relic father in order to make his mark in the field too.

A Dangerous Method is a very thoughtful look at the two icons of psychology and their growing differences, which continue to diverge now. It is also a nice change of pace for Cronenberg, attempting a new genre that begs some exploration for later. Check this one out!

Arts

You could call her Queen Lear or the Old Lady in this stolid biopic of Margaret Thatcher. Phyllida Lloyd’s treatment of one of the most polarizing and fascinating Prime Ministers of Britain during her 11-year tenure, is a trite and laborious effort.

The film reeks of what Variety magazine coins as ‘the quarter year biopic’. A standard biopic punctuated by award-worthy performances just in time for Oscar season. It bears a bit of resemblance to My Week with Marilyn, which examines another famous figure, but in that film Michelle Williams located a soul within such a famous figure like Marilyn Monroe. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, manages to make us empathize for only the older Margaret as she struggles against dementia. One cannot fault her entirely as she makes use of the patchy script by Abi Morgan (who also wrote the far more nuanced Shame).

Streep’s performance is quite brilliant and full of zest, but her shining moments are usually when she is the older Margaret. She does get the voice, the hair, and creates a vivid impression of Margaret Thatcher, yet Streep does not really go beyond the impression. Something feels missing when Streep plays Margaret during her years as Prime Minister, it becomes an extremely mannered performance in these parts. Streep may just go home with the gold this February, but it is her brilliance as an older Margaret that is worth all the hype.

The film uses a King Lear-esque structure, with a dementia-ridden Margaret as she remembers key moments in her life and shares tea with her ghost husband Dennis (Jim Broadbent playing it very broad). Like most biopics during this crucial season, the film is held up by a strong central performance while the structure and script let the overall film down. Just don’t expect Phyllida Lloyd and Abi Morgan to come away with nominations for best director and best original screenplay. The film glosses over key moments in Thatcher’s reign during the 80s, which makes it feel rushed and like a quick History Channel documentary. Key moments in her reign like the Falklands War, the huge unemployment wave, and the 1990 leadership crisis are quickly mentioned and glossed over. This is a depoliticized and tame look at the many controversial decisions of her terms as PM, and the script reduces these to rapid montages almost all ending with Margaret in shadow looking tense!

Where the film shines is the sparkling entry of Alexandra Roach as the younger Margaret as she fights prejudice during her rise to the power. Roach locates Margaret’s sense of urgency to prove herself against her male counterparts, and her love for politics. There’s a fabulous scene early on, where she belittles male politicians and impresses her new love Dennis at a dinner party. It is in this small scene where we witness a deep-rooted contempt for her male peers, which later faulted her in her second election bid.

The Iron Lady offers a brilliant scene where Margaret disparages and admonishes her all-male staff, and as they all leave in horror her eyes cloud over and she looks at her shaking hands. That little hint of illness during the height of her time is another dashed opportunity of investigation that the filmmaker declines to take up. The film is worth a watch for a Streep’s performance, but don’t expect an informative and layered look at the Iron Lady.

Arts

Tenuous essence like a geosmin perfume; wet rock and cucumber threads through the brittle air on supple back of charging breath.

Then the bruised, rolling shelf consumes azure flesh with lapping tongue. Such sharp shapes of Balke grey so sharp it hurts, exquisite ache engulfed. Swallow.

Strike. White-flushed brilliance. Sublime, sudden connection in the slim link the blinding pulse burst outward. Vivid then gone again.

In.

Out.

The growl and earth-shattering quake.

The rippling tempest, though fleeting, heaves before the exhale, before the sleep. Swell now, geosmin, as the body weeps.

Arts

Ricky Gervais, English comedian and actor, started the night off with a fabulous quip: “So, where was I?” to get the celebrity crowd and the audience waiting with bated breath. Yet, Gervais played it safe this year with his monologue, which was hardly the stuff of raging controversy. Making two jokes about the Kardashians, two about NBC, one about Bieber, and a naughty one about Jodie Foster’s beaver, Gervais’ harshness was certainly quashed and stifled on this night. His jokes ranged from the random, calling Colin Firth a ‘racist’ to the humdrum, by name-dropping songs when introducing Madonna.

The whole night was very underwhelming even if the winners were spot-on at times. The speeches, as usual, were long and rambling, punctuated by politeness by thanking the other nominees in good spirit. It looked as if no one had heard William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman’s song, which ended with the zinger, “It’s an honour to be nominated blah blah blah!” By far one of the most embarrassing speeches was Madonna’s acceptance speech for Best Original Song. In her clipped British American accent, she thanked Harvey Weinstein and everyone for taking her movie seriously—which has been hammered in the press—adding that the song was simply an addendum to her wonderful film!

The categories of the Golden Globes, grouping musicals and comedies together, and separating drama, has always been very exclusive and exasperating. As Seth Rogen pointed out, saying winner Michelle Williams was in the ‘hysterical comedy’ My Week with Marilyn, the question of what is considered drama and comedy is always under fire. Trade pundits and critics who look to the Golden Globes as an indicator for the upcoming Oscars may be confused with the results of yesterday’s awards. The Artist was the obvious clean sweep in the comedy/musical category with Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Score. Yet on the other end of the spectrum is the ‘dramedy’ The Descendants that took home gold for Best Picture and Best Actor for George Clooney. Clooney’s hilarious speech mocked fellow nominee Michael Fassbender for taking the ‘full frontal nudity’ duties and urging him to play golf with his schlong, making a pelvis motion that brought the house down.

For the leading ladies, Michelle Williams won for her great performance in My Week With Marilyn and Meryl Streep won in the drama category for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Streep is gaining momentum in her Oscar race with this win, but it does feel like these award shows just have to give her the award simply because she is the ‘great Meryl Streep’. Variety coins The Iron Lady as prime ‘fourth quarter biopic’ which means a film released near the Oscar due date to ensure gong friendliness. It seems to be that way as the crowd favourite The Help was released during the summer, and it is Meryl after all. Yet she does have tough competition with Viola Davis who won the Critic’s Choice Award for her beautiful performance in The Help. The other nominees seem to be a shoo-in for the Oscars: Glenn Close, Michelle Williams, and the last one could go to either Rooney Mara or Tilda Swinton.

Martin Scorsese pulled a surprise win for best director for Hugo, quashing some of the buzz around the younger upstart Michel Hazanavicus for The Artist. Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer won for best actress and actor, which looks to be a sure-fire win for later on.

The TV categories brought a shocking win for Kelsey Grammar for Boss, which was quite undeserving next to Steve Buscemi and Bryan Cranston’s great year with Boardwalk Empire and Breaking Bad. Another deserving surprise was Idris Elba’s win for the British psychlogical drama Luther as best actor for a mini-series, beating out the obvious fave Hugh Bonneville for Downton Abbey. Homeland and Modern Family won for best drama and comedy respectively. The Modern Family cast had one of the best speeches of the night with Sofia Vergara speaking Spanish and their producer Steve Levitan translating phrases like “Ladies, give our writers your phone numbers. They may look pasty but they are the best lovers I’ve ever had!”

In the end, the Golden Globes were a very boring affair. The expectations for a smashing show were immense, considering Ricky Gervais had been hyping up his sarcastic and mean stance in interviews everywhere. There really wasn’t enough bite this year, and it turned into the usual exhaustive awards show that becomes unfortunately less and less relevant for the public to tune into. Here’s hoping that the Oscars with Billy Crystal are scathing and surprising.

Features

On Saturday January 28th, the Visual Arts Course Union hosted UBCO’s ninth annual Art on the Line show. Art on the Line is an event showcasing art by UBCO students, professors, and alumni. A hundred tickets are sold in the community, and when ticketholders’ numbers are drawn at the show, they each select one piece of art from the showcase, with prized pieces being snatched up quickly. The event has consistently been a major success, raising thousands of dollars for VACU and giving UBCO artists valuable exposure.

“For many years we did auctions,” began Associate Professor Briar Craig, the event’s academic liason, explaining the origin of AotL. “20 years ago the student art auction was the only one in Kelowna, but auctions became in vogue and people would start to come here just to try to get cheap deals. [Nine years ago] Mark Bovey brought the [AotL] idea over from Queens university.”

‘”For the first couple years we had to work hard to sell 100 tickets—now we don’t. We just sent out the e-mail and within 4 days we had sold 80 tickets.”

The event itself is organized by VACU students, with the help of Craig. Each year, two Fine Arts students are selected for a practicum course centred around setting up and putting on AotL. Those two organize subcommittees of volunteers from VACU and solicit submissions from students, alumni, and faculty.

“It takes a lot of time and a lot of amazing volunteers,” said VACU president Lacia Vogel, “I had to get in touch with so many people who work on campus, from security to public relations to facilities to caterers, to make sure that all aspects were taken care of.”

Students work to make the AotL catalogue, set up for the show, arrange the art, complete the appropriate paperwork, and help out at the event by photographing or fetching the art. Beyond generating funds, Art on the Line is an important way for students to become familiar with the practical elements of working as an artist or in an arts-related career. Main organizer Brittany Falk explained that AotL shows students “exactly what it takes to work in the curatorial and event planning side of the Fine Arts community.”

Vogel added that AotL “[teaches] a wide variety of skills and experience that relate to many different careers. You learn about event coordination and planning, submitting artwork to juried shows, volunteering, community engagement, curatorial work, and so on.

“This event gives students a chance to practice applying for juried shows […] so that when you graduate it’s a familiar process that you can simply carry on with, instead of a daunting, seemingly-impossible task. It’s a foot in the door to becoming a practicing artist.”

AotL is somewhat catered toward the local market, with much of the showcased art more suited to hanging in a home or office than the majority of work produced on campus would be. Fine Arts student Emily Geen explained that paintings tend to be the most sought-after items, since they are most suited to home/office display and seem like more of a bargain at $175 than prints or photography. Meanwhile, the structure of the event, where attendees settle on particular art pieces they want to take on, creates a demand for the artists’ work that often results in more pieces being bought after the event ends by ticket holders who saw their favourite art snatched up before their tickets were drawn.

While these post-event sales go into the artists’ pockets, the proceeds from the show itself are used by VACU to fund various Fine Arts-related services for its members, from conferences to art shipment costs.

The event traditionally occurs in late January in order to provide up-front money for the annual VACU spring break trips and 4h-year show in April. However, in recent years the funding has been diversified to support various initiatives.

“Now with the cost of education and people having jobs, spring break is not necessarily a time when they want to spend money and go away,” Craig said, “so field trip numbers have been down, and the same amount of [AotL] funding was going to fewer people.”

Under former VACU president Cory Dixon, the funding system was changed to allow any Fine Arts students to apply for VACU funding for art-related needs, and this year the annual trip has been replaced by a series of guest speakers selected by the students.

“One guest speaker talked about how to run a gallery. She was passionate and had good, self-explanatory messages, like if you want to make a living selling art you have to make a lot of art. [Faculty] talk about that type of professionalization stuff, particularly in advanced classes, but a new person has an extra lot of power to cement it, [especially] because they are living that life.”

Both Art on the Line and the speakers it funds ultimately teach students about the practical side of working in the fine arts.

“People are fond of telling us how hard it will be to actually succeed as artists in the real world,” Vogel said. “Sometimes it can be very depressing, but for me, making art is what I do. Someone once told me to figure out what it is I would do for free and make that my career, so right now that’s what I’m doing. There are different levels of success depending on who you are and what you want to do […] whether it’s being a practicing, exhibiting artist, or a curator, or a children’s book illustrator.”

“Without a doubt it can be tough to be an artist and get work,” Craig said. “But it can be tough to have an undergrad in History and get work. It comes down to whether that’s a goal for you, and if it is there are opportunities. That’s not to say you won’t have to struggle and need another job, but it’s doable. Eventually you can get more and bigger and better galleries representing your work and it becomes a full time job.”

‘There’re very few jobs, especially in Kelowna,” said 4th-year Fine Arts student Heather Leier, “It’s up to us having the drive to get out there into the community and do shows and get exhibited […] and for that, Art on the Line is a good stepping stone.”

Sports

Heat winter sports are winding down their seasons, with only a select few more home games left on the schedule. Your Heat athletes have always performed well and given their all when on their home court, and they do it for you, the fans. Whether you are a friend, family member, or someone from the community who wants to show your support, your presence at games does not go unnoticed. The following coaches and players weigh in on how your support influences them:

Steve Manuel (Coach, WVB): “It simply makes it a much more enjoyable atmosphere to play in. It makes a special event for our student athletes, our coaching staff, and everyone else involved.”

Jill Festival (Player, WVB): “Sometimes that’s the ‘TSN Turning Point’: the fans. If they’re there the whole game cheering you on, that’s the extra push.”

Krystal Schouten (Player, WBB): “For myself, it’s absolutely huge. My mom lives in another province, but even to know she’s watching online, you feel so good about it.”

Heather Semeniuk (Coach, WBB): “These are UBCO students pursuing their dreams. They’re hardworking, they’re juggling a lot of things right now and they’re representative of the student life here.”

Greg Poitras (Coach, MVB): “We’ve played our best volleyball on our home court, and that’s a good thing. We don’t want teams coming in here relaxed and thinking they’re going to beat us on our home floor.”

Bret MacDonald (Player, MBB): “We’re used to our gym and we like shooting here. We like how they’re behind us, and we’re going to continue showing the home crowd some good stuff.”

Kelly Broderick (Coach, MBB): “I’ll tell you, we’ve had some struggles throughout time. I remember the Regina game, you’d think we won a championship when they stormed the floor and everything; it was unbelievable.”

Sports

Katy Klomps

This rookie middle has continually worked on her game and stepped up for her team throughout the season. As of the time of this writing, Katy ranks sixth in the conference in blocks per game at 1.11, and second overall in solo blocks with 15. She is also, as of this writing, second on her team in hitting percentage behind fellow first year outside hitter Brianna Beamish, putting down 24% of her hits, though recently she put up numbers like 42.9% and 28.6% in matches against the Alberta Pandas two weekends ago.

“Katy certainly is coming along very well and is doing a great job for us in the middle,” puts in Coach Steve Manuel. “She is a leader in the country as far as her blocking, and she’s doing great in her hitting percentage as well.”

Katy is one bright spot amongst many this season, though, as Steve went on to add, “I think what you’re seeing is a huge progression with all of our players. Early in the season, it’s everyone’s first go around with CIS competiton, it’s our first go around with the grind that CIS and Canada West brings. So we’re really happy with how everyone is coming along.”

Riley McFarland

Riley really likes his home-cooking. The fourth year outside hitter averaged 4.27 kills per set (23.8 hitting percentage) in six home games excluding last weekend against the Regina Cougars—but I am willing to bet that he put down a beating. On the road so far, he has averaged a mere 1.86 kps at a 2.7% hitting percentage.

No, his performance did not translate into a win in either match against the Alberta Golden Bears back on January 27th and 28th. Still, this should be taken as a sign of life that is finally re-emerging in one of the team’s top hitters who has been struggling since the team’s last win back on November 4th against the Thunderbirds (which, coincidentally, was at home).

Hopefully, McFarland is getting into a groove again for the last couple weekends of play. McFarland’s play at home may become critical to the Heat’s chances at the playoffs two weekends from now when they host TRU on their court—a match that might determine either team nabbing the seventh seed from Winnipeg.

Sports

There are only two more weekends of Heat basketball, and only three more home games in “The Furnace” at UBC Okanagan. In this week’s column I look at some of the positives of the season and the upside of a couple players.

By the time this issue hits the sands, the basketball teams’ chances at an appearance in the playoffs during their first Canada West tour may be diminished. However, that does not mean that the season was not a success. To the contrary, men’s assistant coach Kelly Broderick thinks that it was a “great success.”

“When people look at success they look at wins, but there have been so many measureable things in positive ways. Our growth as a team is unbelievable. The guys keep coming, they keep working, they’re fun to be around … this season is a success.”

As a goal for the remainder of the season, he adds that “Our number one thing every day—and we write it on the board—is ‘compete’. As soon as you put the jersey on, it’s time to go to work. You have to compete every possession.”

For a team with a lot of young legs on it, there are a few players who have really stepped up at times to compete, and one of those people has been Bret MacDonald. Bret has been dangerous off the bench for the Heat this season, especially from the three-point line. Everyone should still remember his game-winning three that sealed Regina’s fate last semester.

Bret opens up about his play: “Personally I just want to compete, night in and night out. I just want to be on of the hardest-working guys on the floor. Everything else will reflect on that. And as a team, everyone wants to do the same, and when we do that, we’ve shown that we can compete, even with the top teams.”

Starting post player Krystal Schouten, a 6’1’’ second-year transfer, has made a big impact for her team this year, and will be a central piece to the Heat’s growth over the next few years. She leads her team in rebounding, grabbing 5.0 boards per game, blocking out well on offense and defense, where she has gotten nearly 30 of each so far this season. She is also among the best free-throw shooters on her team, having made 19 of 26 to date.

She is only one of two players (including Ashley Briker) to play and start in each game so far this season (4th year forward Roslyn Huber has missed one game so far this season, but has started them all). It is often things that she does that do not appear in the stat line that make a difference for her team: smart passes, smart positioning and little hustle plays.

Coach Heather Semeniuk on Krystal: “Krystal Schouten is very definitely capable of playing at the CIS level, and doing well. Her good size, and her good game knowledge, her basketball IQ, it’s strong.”

Sports

One of the most glaring similarities and biggest stories shared by both Heat teams this season has been a hot start followed by a long winless streak. So, where did it all go wrong for the men and women of UBCO? This week we dissect what went wrong for both teams following what seemed like a promising 2011/2012 season.

Men

Without a doubt, Canada West is the strongest conference in the CIS. Currently, six of the top ten teams call Canada West home, all of which the Heat have had the pleasure of facing. However, strength of schedule alone cannot be the scapegoat for what has been a disappointing season for the Heat. After all, the Heat did split a weekend series with UBC (then ranked fourth in the nation) in the second weekend of the season. With that being said, the Heat woes of 2011/2012 can be simply boiled down to:

-Lack of a dominating middle -Lack of production from the outside hitters such as Niemantsverdriet -Lack of experience

Uniat has been a consistent player for the Heat, and has been a true trooper at the net. With that being said, the Heat have really suffered offensively from having one of the smallest middles in the country. At 6’4, Uniat does not command the court like many middles, which is a problem on offense because it forces the Heat to become more one-dimensional in their attack. This creates a domino-like effect of allowing opposing defenses to focus more on the outside hitters of the Heat, thus making the attack from the outside less effective as well. We have seen Poitras try to combat this with “pipe” balls to the back-row players, but this is only a short-term solution to a large problem.

Remember when Greg Niemantsverdriet was tearing up opposing defenses in the BCAA? I do, and I remember thinking what a great tandem the Heat had in Speijer and Nemo going into the inaugural CIS season. Fast forward almost a year, and Niemanstverdriet does not look like the same player. His offensive production has fallen off completely, which makes me wonder if he is still suffering from a leg injury he suffered before the season. Regardless, the Heat have desperately needed his offensive skills to bring balance to the offense, and have suffered behind his lack of production.

I know I harp on the Heat men quite a bit in this column, but that’s only because I genuinely believed this team could do great things in their first year of CIS action. However, as the games go on, I have come to the realization that experience is indeed a substantial variable when considering success on the court. The Heat are still learning how to play with the powerhouses of Canada West, and the growing pains are just part of the process.

Women

The women have also struggled in the fold of Canada West this season, and like the Heat men, the problem runs deeper than schedule strength. For the Heat women, the main areas of concern this season have been:

-Lack of offensive production from all outside hitters -Errors, errors, errors

The hitting percentages for the Heat’s veteran outside hitters Basso, Schon, and Festival—respectively .105, .085, and .044 so far this year—are simply not good enough for this level of volleyball. When the top outside hitter is successfully killing one out of every ten attempts, there are going to be offensive woes, and it has shown this season. Production from the outside is the bread and butter of a volleyball offense; it is a proven offensive strategy that brings kills to the stat sheet. Unfortunately for the Heat, the production from the outside has been seemingly non-existent this year, and the offense has suffered immensely because of that.

Then there is the issue of errors, which must be taken with a grain of salt with a team as young as the Heat. With that being said, I still believe the Heat have committed too many errors beyond the realm of “acceptability”. The Heat currently rank 7th in errors with 266, and 4th in reception errors with 94. The margin for error is so small in Canada West, in which the Heat are constantly bombarded by powerhouses such as UBC and Alberta. Every point counts, and when a team commits as many errors as the Heat, it becomes a glaring issue. It no longer becomes a game of “us vs. them”, it becomes a game wherein a team begins to beat itself with unfocused play and lack of cohesiveness.

However, just as it is with the men, these are the types of growing pains a young team like the Heat has to endure and overcome.

Sports

What would you be willing to do to help a child with a severe disability or life-threatening illness have at least one day to live, laugh, and just be happy? Well, four varsity teams from the UBC’s Okanagan campus were willing to volunteer some of their time to work at three local Wendy’s restaurants during the company’s annual “Wendy’s DreamLift Day.”

“It was really fun,” commented women’s volleyball player Jill Festival. “All the volunteers are here to help out and have a good time, and I get to hang out with my teammates and volunteer.”

The fundraiser raises money each year by contributing sales revenue and staff wages (including managers’ and owners’ shares) to the Sunshine Foundation, which sends children with severe disabilities and illnesses on a single-day trip to Disneyland.

Castanet first reported that the “one day fundraiser at Wendy’s restaurants brought in $114,276.35 for a total of $1,109,356.99.”

“I think it’s a great program,” Jill went on. “Wendy’s raises millions of dollars every year for this DreamLift day, and it’s so busy, so many people come out and help, and I think it’s really great for the kids to have a day out like that and enjoy being a kid.”

This is Jill’s third year volunteering at the event, and each time around she feels that it is just as great. “In my first year I was a Frosty girl—I got to make frosties for everyone. In my second year I was on drive-thru, which was a little more stressful. This year I’m in the dining room, greeting people, cleaning trays, that sort of thing.”

The women’s volleyball and men’s basketball teams volunteered at the Rutland location, but athletes travelled also to the location on Highway 97 near Orchard Park Mall, as well as the location on the Westside.

Working with the staff, according to Jill, is a blast. “It’s great coming in here. They’re really positive and really want to help out. They’re really great, and donating a lot of their time and wages. They’re the ones making the real sacrifice.”

Other local ‘celebrities’ were volunteering, including representatives from SUN FM and the Kelowna Rockets, to name a couple. Having familiar names in the community appear at such events makes it a more fun and interesting experience for the public who come to the restaurants. Jill is always thrilled to be around the people saying that she likes “being out here and interacting with people. They’re interested, asking ‘How’s volleyball?’ and whatnot when they see I’m a [UBCO] athlete.”