XOXO XX XY: Swollen Members Looking a Little Limp

Last week was kind of heavy, and next week gets even heavier. That’s all right, thinking is good for you. But sometimes, in the midst of all that, we need some comedic relief. That’s why, for shits and giggles, I’m going to talk about Swollen Members. The Vancouver hip hop group have hired three porn stars to appear in a hardcore video to promote their new single, aptly titled, “Porn Star.” There will also be a re-edited non-explicit video, featuring the same three women. I’m not even going to touch on the whole thing about whether or not porn is okay, because, well, I think it’s a played out debate. Much like porn stars appearing in rap videos. 

 

“The idea of leaving the club with a hot girl is age-old,” said Swollen Members co-founder Kiley ‘Prevail’ Hendriks in an interview with The Globe and Mail, “but the fantasy of leaving with a porn star is something brand new.” Really? Really?! Men wanting to sleep with porn stars is new, and not around since, oh, I don’t know, the beginning of porn? Okay fine. I really don’t think I need to touch that one. But what he should be saying is, Eminem got a lot of press for having Jenna Jameson and another adult star in a music video, and long before that was Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, which was the first hardcore video ever listed on the Billboard music video sales chart. Somewhere in all that, there were also hardcore videos by rappers Mystikal, Too Short, Ice-T and Yukmouth. Now it’s Prevail, Mad Child and Rob the Viking’s turn. 

 

The three adult film stars who appear in Swollen Members’ chef d’oeuvre du cinema are Sarah Jessie (Sex in Your City, Tits Ahoy 7), Veronica Rayne (Milfs Lovin Milfs) and Brooke Haven (Fuck Me in the Ass and Say That You Love Me). I will give Swollen Members credit where credit is due; they chose some of the best women in the business, from what I can tell. Veronica Rayne was nominated for this year’s Best Group Sex Scene at the Adult Video News (AVN) awards, and both she and Brooke Haven were both nominated for AVN’s Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year award. Sarah Jessie, meanwhile, is a shoo-in for next years AVNs with her role as Groupie #4 in This Ain't the Partridge Family XXX.

 

From what I can tell, Swollen Members have no real part in the video, except setting up the oh so sexy sex jams. Here's sample from their new song “Warrior”: “I’m a gladiator with the power of substance abuse/Mix some coke and oxycotin just for something to do”. At least Snoop Dogg offered up his Claremont, California mansion as the set for Doggy Style. Swollen Members instead decided to rent a $12 million dollar penthouse for a weekend. Boooooring. I wonder if they’re even going to be at the shoot at all?

If Swollen Members really wanted to get some press out of this - well, okay, they’re doing all right on that front. What I meant to say was, if Swollen Members really wanted to bring their A game, they would drop their drawers and star in the film themselves. Obviously, they find these women attractive, otherwise they wouldn’t choose them or even do the film in the first place. Secondly, and this is said without any judgement, the women are paid to have sex with whoever’s there, so it’s not like Prevail and company have to worry about rejection. And think about the cred - creating the first raporn (pronounced “rap porn”) ever to star the people who are actually taking all the credit for the video already. But I guess instead for Swollen Members, and for the many other men in the world who fantasize about sleeping with porn stars, it’s going to remain a fantasy. 

Megan Drysdale

Columnist

 

Just a Drummer: A Battle Against Burnout

In my last episode of this column I was a bit harsh on the Vancouver music scene, and now it seems that I’ve suffered some bad karma. After five years of writing for this publication, I’ve burnt out. No original ideas, no motivation, and I finally wrote the worst article I’ve ever written. Luckily, you will be spared from ever reading it. In search of inspiration I took to my record collection.

Looking at the dust covered jackets I realize that I have a lot of crap albums hanging around. Quite a few artists tend to release stinkers as the years pass. How does this happen? Do they just get burnt out? Even David Bowie was due to make a shitty record. And I bought it at Value Village the other day - Tonight, from 1984.

What causes an artist or band to burn out? A leading psychologist once defined burnout as: “A phenomenon where individuals spend considerable time in close encounters with others under conditions of chronic tension and stress.” That pretty much describes the confines of a tour bus. Imagine being scheduled on long and arduous tours with the same four faces. When the tour ends and the bus pulls into the garage, it's time to create again, and tensions tend to escalate.

Take Fleetwood Mac as a perfect example of this stress. While writing and recording Rumours, both couples that made up the band―Christine and John McVie with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham―were in the process of breaking up. The album is amazing but what the band went through tore them apart. During an interview for the Classic Albums documentary, Stevie Nicks talks about writing with her ex-husband: “Lindsey had an amazing way of taking my songs and making them wonderful… when he was happy with me.” Despite their tired reunion last year, they haven’t done anything meaningful since Rumours.

Neil Young once said, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” But is that really true? Take Weezer for instance, whose first two albums were so amazing that I will probably listen to them until the day I die. When it came time to record their third album, they really dropped the deuce. Dave Grohl once said that Weezer cursed itself by making the blue album and Pinkerton so good that they would never again be able to measure up to such standards. Such are the pressures of mainstream success.

Emerging around the same time as Weezer in the mid-nineties were Oakland based punks Green Day. Their song “Burnout” describes what would inevitably happen to the band: “I’m not growing up, I’m just burning out and I’ve stepped in line to walk amongst the dead.” Now, five albums since the 1994 release of Dookie, Green Day have become exactly what they wrote about in their song. Okay, Insomniac wasn’t that bad, but it has been a slippery slope into eyeliner since then. Don’t get me wrong, I still love them to bits but tend to do what I do with most groups I loved in the nineties – pretend they died in a terrible plane crash.

In response to criticism of their new material, singer Billie Joe Armstrong said, “We just write the music and whoever wants to come out, come on out.” It’s true that music is subjective, so no one will ever agree if the band has burnt out or not. What is certain is that the burnout is a phenomenon that tends to happen to artists in their late twenties, around the time of many second and third album releases. The website performanceandmedia.com has an entire page dedicated to the burnout where they list the causes of this term, coined in the 1970’s. Those commonly affected are “Late teens and twenties [experiencing] publicity pressure and overload” and the “‘Seven year Itch’: 7 years after college, e.g. 28 [years old] when solo aspirations remain unfulfilled.”

This seems to cement the fact that a lot of late twenty year-olds are burning out due to societal pressure to perform, whether they are a rock star or a Capilano jazz student. What I’ve concluded through my own burning out is that maybe it’s just a figment of our imaginations, a product of our manipulated beliefs about our own talent and worth. The corporate music industry wants us to burn out – by exploiting the artist and creating this quarter life crisis that is plaguing not only the musician, but also the everyman. But what do I know? I’m just a drummer.

Karen J. Lum

Columnist

Hard Light: Anti-Gravity Frogs for Healthy Bones

Holy shit, a levitation chamber! They're floating a mouse!

I'll back up. At the Jet Propulsion Institute in Pasadena, California, they're studying the effects of long-term weightlessness in astronauts. Since humans sure didn't evolve in a zero-gravity environment, our bodies have no innate mechanisms to counter the long-term effects of weightlessness. If you spend more than a few weeks in a space station or shuttle, your bones start to become brittle and weak, unable to support your weight under the tug of normal Earth gravity. The proteins that maintain human bone slow down and stop when there's no work for them to do, until the bones begin to come apart on the cellular level.

Before we get started on a Mars base or any other marathon space adventure, we need to study this bone-loss phenomenon carefully, and figure out how to reverse it. Otherwise, every long-term space trip will be a suicide mission, with astronauts eventually succumbing to extreme osteoporosis. It's not very spacecaptainly to get a disease that's normally reserved for grannies, so NASA is working hard on simulating and studying weightlessness. To that end, they built a machine that reverses gravity for baby mice.

It exploits a principle called diamagnetism: when placed in an extremely strong magnetic field, water molecules begin to produce a charge in opposition to the field. If the principal magnetism is strong enough, the water molecules will manifest enough magnetic charge to counter the original field. To levitate an animal, you need to levitate every water molecule in its body.

This technology has existed for a while, but until recently, they couldn't levitate much besides grasshoppers and frogs. Since the levitation technology works specifically on water, a slippery frog makes an excellent candidate. You can find some pretty amazing Youtube videos of weightless frogs spinning in wild circles, kicking off with their legs and flipping end over end.

Surprisingly, the levitating mice seemed to adapt very well. After a few hours of paddling around clumsily, they settled down to normal mouse behaviour: eating, drinking, sleeping, and going to the mouseroom with what seemed like very little change. Better yet, they seemed unharmed by the massive electromagnetic charge.

This kind of experiment obviously applies to the problem of human survival in zero gravity. If we can study weightless mammals as their bone density drops off, we can attempt various treatments in real time – that's a whole lot better than just patching up astronauts' broken legs and prescribing painful physiotherapy.

Even if you're not a space exploration buff, you ought to be worked up by now. Keep in mind that space technology keeps on making its way into mainstream life – that's where Velcro comes from, and powdered fruit drinks, and memory foam mattresses. I don't think anyone will dispute that levitation's cooler than memory foam mattresses.

Fifty years from now, your grandkids could be hassling you for levitation-park tickets. A gigantic crane will lift them four hundred feet in the air, and drop them while they giggle. A tenth of a second before the ground smashes them to bits, they'll get caught in the electromagnetic field, and float softly to the ground... somebody better invent that, or I'll do it myself.

I'll back up. At the Jet Propulsion Institute in Pasadena, California, they're studying the effects of long-term weightlessness in astronauts. Since humans sure didn't evolve in a zero-gravity environment, our bodies have no innate mechanisms to counter the long-term effects of weightlessness. If you spend more than a few weeks in a space station or shuttle, your bones start to become brittle and weak, unable to support your weight under the tug of normal Earth gravity. The proteins that maintain human bone slow down and stop when there's no work for them to do, until the bones begin to come apart on the cellular level.

Before we get started on a Mars base or any other marathon space adventure, we need to study this bone-loss phenomenon carefully, and figure out how to reverse it. Otherwise, every long-term space trip will be a suicide mission, with astronauts eventually succumbing to extreme osteoporosis. It's not very spacecaptainly to get a disease that's normally reserved for grannies, so NASA is working hard on simulating and studying weightlessness. To that end, they built a machine that reverses gravity for baby mice.

It exploits a principle called diamagnetism: when placed in an extremely strong magnetic field, water molecules begin to produce a charge in opposition to the field. If the principal magnetism is strong enough, the water molecules will manifest enough magnetic charge to counter the original field. To levitate an animal, you need to levitate every water molecule in its body.

This technology has existed for a while, but until recently, they couldn't levitate much besides grasshoppers and frogs. Since the levitation technology works specifically on water, a slippery frog makes an excellent candidate. You can find some pretty amazing Youtube videos of weightless frogs spinning in wild circles, kicking off with their legs and flipping end over end.

Surprisingly, the levitating mice seemed to adapt very well. After a few hours of paddling around clumsily, they settled down to normal mouse behaviour: eating, drinking, sleeping, and going to the mouseroom with what seemed like very little change. Better yet, they seemed unharmed by the massive electromagnetic charge.

This kind of experiment obviously applies to the problem of human survival in zero gravity. If we can study weightless mammals as their bone density drops off, we can attempt various treatments in real time – that's a whole lot better than just patching up astronauts' broken legs and prescribing painful physiotherapy.

Even if you're not a space exploration buff, you ought to be worked up by now. Keep in mind that space technology keeps on making its way into mainstream life – that's where Velcro comes from, and powdered fruit drinks, and memory foam mattresses. I don't think anyone will dispute that levitation's cooler than memory foam mattresses.

Fifty years from now, your grandkids could be hassling you for levitation-park tickets. A gigantic crane will lift them four hundred feet in the air, and drop them while they giggle. A tenth of a second before the ground smashes them to bits, they'll get caught in the electromagnetic field, and float softly to the ground... somebody better invent that, or I'll do it myself.

Don't take my word for it. Check out the video footage:
Here's the frog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1vyB-O5i6E
Here's a grasshopper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVmpOH1jzO4&NR=1
And here's a strawberry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEC9G8JUKW8

Martin Hazelbower

Columnist

Grey Art’s Rally Protests Funding Cuts to BC Arts & Culture

Don’t Torch the Arts – Culture Matters. Such is the slogan adopted by members of the arts and culture community in Vancouver, who rallied on the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery this past Wednesday to raise awareness and protest harsh cuts to the arts and culture sector by the B.C. provincial government. Everyone was asked to dress in grey to symbolize what a world would look like without arts and culture. Protesters formed a silent grey square on the gallery steps while a few prominent figures in Vancouver’s arts community spoke on the importance of resisting the government’s funding cuts.

In an interview before the rally, Brenda Leadlay, Artistic Director of North Vancouver’s Presentation House Theatre, gave some hard facts on the impact these cuts will have: “The B.C. Provincial Government has been investing in the arts sector for many years, and contributed 47.8 million in 2008/09. This is by no means a substantial chunk of resources – arts and culture funding amounts to only 1/20th of 1% of the entire provincial budget. This money goes to everything from festivals, arts education, theatre, music, galleries, museums, and community centres. As of February, the Provincial Government’s budget for the 2009/10 fiscal year included 42.2 million in support to the arts, but in September this funding was cut to 23.1 million, just over 50% of the previously promised funds. But that’s not all. By 2011/12 financial support for arts and culture organizations (including Gaming, BC Arts and Culture Special Endowment) will be reduced to 3.675 million. In a mere two years, the BC Provincial Government will cut over 90% of funding to the province’s entire arts sector.”

When asked what potential effects this could have on the provincial economy, Leadlay was frank: “They’re essentially saying they don’t believe in economic growth. The government’s own statistics say that each dollar invested by the Provincial Government in the arts in BC returns between $1.05 and $1.36 directly to provincial treasuries through tax revenues. The City of Vancouver has also concluded that every dollar spent on arts and culture generates almost twelve dollars in economic activity.”

Amir Ali Alibhai, Executive Director of Alliance for Arts and Culture, when speaking to the crowd, made the point that “BC has the largest percentage of the province’s population employed in the arts in all of Canada. That’s 80,000 jobs that contribute to generating $5.2 billion in annual revenue.” It is a major concern of Leadlay, Alibhai and almost everyone assembled on Wednesday that these funding cuts will result in major job loss and significant drops in potential revenue. The severity of these cuts is immense. For example, the Vancouver Children’s Festival, promised a $95,000 grant earlier this year, is receiving absolutely nothing. Presentation House is also out a $30,000 grant. Since most of the harshest cuts to arts organizations were only announced early this month, most affected groups have not yet gone public on exactly what changes they will be implementing in response to the cuts.

Anyone could scoff and say that the arts should just turn to private funding. That’s much easier said than done. “We already generate funds independently,” noted Leadlay. For many organizations, this happens privately from donations by individuals, companies and through other sources. But the arts as we know them in Vancouver today wouldn’t be the same if everything was privately funded. Most arts organizations in B.C. are not-for-profit organizations, meaning they allocate their resources only to break even each year. Anyone who stayed awake during microeconomics might remember that not-for-profits allow goods and services to be produced below their cost of production, something that a completely private, independent market won’t allow. In other words, the price of tickets at Bard on the Beach or the cost of music or dance classes at a community centre are less than the actual cost of putting them on as a result of funding from both the public and private sector. “We’re not asking for a handout,” said Leadlay, “we just want to create public awareness about an entire sector being completely cut off.”

A common misconception about the arts is that public funding only goes to artists. In an interview about arts funding cuts, Liz Wilton-McMahan, stage manager for A Fighting Change Productions and Box Office Manager at Bard on the Beach put it nicely: “People in the arts aren’t just crazy artists. We are accountants, bookkeepers, marketing managers, designers, receptionists, technicians, the list goes on; and we’re all affected by these cuts.”

The voice of the provincial government in response to the arts community’s outcry has been relatively quiet and representatives are reluctant to comment. In a bizarre attempt to justify cuts to the arts sector, the government has gone so far as arguing that arts funding takes money away from hungry children and poverty reduction. Last week, in response to questions about why arts and culture funding had been cut, B.C. Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman answered: "When you think about a child arriving in school with an empty stomach that isn't going to get the education they require, you have to decide, 'Is that a priority, or some other thing?' You make the decision on behalf of the child."

In an interview with the Globe and Mail on the topic, Minister Coleman stated: “It's not like there's some guaranteed pool that has to go out to everybody every year for some level of entitlement … Sometimes you have to adjust your priorities, and that's what we did.” “At the same time, when you are trying to make that decision and you know the importance of nutrition, you say: This is one year where I think we have to suck it up.”

Kevin Krueger, BC’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts proved equally evasive and cited the same argument as Coleman when in the house by members of the NDP. “This government places a tremendously high value on the contributions of the arts and cultural community to the social fabric of British Columbia as well as to our economy. It is a remarkable achievement that we have been able to fund, through the BC Arts Council, grants to these communities in almost the same amount, at almost the same levels as last year.” When questioned about the Bulkley Valley Fall Fair in Smithers, which was denied their gaming grant of $20,000 in the middle of their run, Krueger answered “Would any member on the opposite side of the House argue that a program to fund nutritional and similar programs in schools for underprivileged children is a lower priority than fall fairs? Not everyone can be funded, and tough decisions have to be made.”
Apart from the strong economic evidence to support investment in the arts, the social benefits that a vibrant arts and culture sector bring to our community is enormous. I could write another entire article describing the ways that the arts and culture affect our daily lives, in everything from education to TV to music, if I had the room in this column. But the economic arguments speak for themselves. Most people understand when governments need to tighten their belts during difficult economic situations, but cutting off entire sectors is unprecedented.

Mo Dhaliwal, founder of the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration and another speaker at Wednesday’s rally summed it up nicely: “The arts and culture is like the input of electricity. No one notices it when it’s there, but when it’s gone we can’t function the same way.”
If you would like more information about the growing opposition to funding cuts to the arts sector, visit the Alliance for Arts and Culture website at www.allianceforarts.com or check out the Facebook group Organizing Against Campbell’s Cuts to the Arts. Also, the entire transcript of the debate cited above between Kevin Kreuger and members of the NDP can be found at http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/39th1st/H90831y.htm.

Claudia Pedrero
Columnist

From the Editor: The Politics of Art and Power

"Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours" can be translated into “a good sketch is better than a long speech," meaning ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ Ever wonder who said that? It was Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the heaviest innovators in Western politics. He disallowed aristocratic privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and made sure government jobs go to the most qualified candidates and not to the most wealthy. He established a strong judicial system with the ‘rule of law’ which has influenced much of the world. The reason I mention his success is to exemplify how one of the most powerful leaders of Western politics also created one of the most clichéd commentaries on art - “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Whether it be comedy or tragedy, the influence of art is recognized by those who hold power. To this day, there is still political censorship on art not because it is art but because of the power it holds. Photographs of Iraq’s scenes of death were banned from mainstream media for a long time after the Iraq war started, and the power the photographs would have had on us were what caused the delay. And who was voted in Times Magazine as today’s most trusted newsman? Jon Stewart, an artist of comedy. Only through comedy can Stewart give the most stinging criticisms on television in our political climate.

The reason I want to establish this relationship between arts and politics is because I want to give perspective on what it means when the arts are being erased from our province. In this issue, Laura Kane’s article writes about how Richard's on Richards, a cornerstone in Vancouver’s music scene, is being replaced by a generic condo. Sarah Hager's article on the Ruby Slippers Theatre shows how an important performance house is struggling for survival, and Claudia Pedrero’s article focuses on how the B.C. government intends to cut 90% of arts funding across the Province. That’s 90% of the arts we find in B.C. That’s 90% of our potential power. Although that power is not always used, its potential is indisputable. From Hitler to Alexander, all the greatest tyrants and leaders of history agreed on the immense worth of the arts. Whether one encourages this outside power or prevents it, it is what separates leaders from tyrants. B.C. is not censoring the arts yet, but we’re no longer cultivating this essential expression of the people. What is it worth to you?


Alamir Novin
Editor

Richard’s on Richards: A Retrospective

Richard’s on Richards, the long-standing nightclub and music venue at 1036 Richard’s street, was reduced to rubble in late July. The demolition of the iconic Vancouver building, which saw everyone from Black Flag to Killing Joke to the New Pornographers in its 40 year history, is a sad loss for the Vancouver music scene.

Fans of the venue will remember how the intimate, circular space with its signature brick interior, open dance floor and balcony offered one of the best settings for live shows in the city. Its closure was an event that had been anticipated for three years, since Aquilini Investment Group, the Vancouver-based investment company that owns the Canucks, bought the building in 2006. When the wrecking ball finally came, the news that yet another cookie-cutter condominium development would be replacing the beloved building did not come as a surprise.
The loss of Richard’s on Richards has music fans and industry professionals in mourning. I spoke with Aaron Chapman, Vancouver writer and musician with Bocephus King and the Town Pants, about the history of Richard’s on Richards and the state of live music in Vancouver.

According to Chapman, the space was originally made up of two buildings, garages for the Leverington Auto Dealership and Sports Car Club in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The buildings were bought by local ballet and drama enthusiast David Y.H. Lui, who opened a theatre under his name in 1975. When this theatre closed in 1979, it re-opened as an all-ages punk club, the Laundromat, in December 1980. Although the Laundromat was only open for a single year, it witnessed a pivotal time in the punk scene, hosting now-legendary hardcore bands Black Flag, 7 Seconds, Subhumans, and local favourites DOA.

Punk veterans remember the year of the Laundromat fondly, but unfortunately, ownership was again transferred in the ‘80s, and the club swiftly transformed from anarchist punk hangout to glossy yuppie nightclub. The venue was christened Richard’s on Richards, and it became a slick cocktail bar that routinely attracted celebrities and athletes. “It was the era of Miami Vice pastel clothing and cocaine,” says Chapman, adding that “rumours abounded that … the Roto-Rooter man had to be called in once a month to clean the coke straws out of the plumbing.”
The bar remained a place for beautiful people, Top 40 cover bands and expensive drinks until the early ‘90s, when tastes changed yet again, and two major Vancouver music clubs closed. The Town Pump shifted from live music to DJ sets, and the Commodore Ballroom shut down for three years. It was during this period that Richard’s made a name for itself as a live music venue.
Throughout the ‘90s and into this decade, it hosted a wide variety of bands, and one would be hard pressed to meet a music fan in Vancouver who didn’t have a good memory of a show at “Dick’s on Dick’s”. Its intimate setting meant that it tended to favour indie groups with smaller audiences, but it also saw the birth of many big names, including Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, The Black Eyed Peas, TV on the Radio, and Sufjan Stevens. The raised stage, upper balcony area and circular layout meant that it provided excellent sight lines, a significant advantage over other venues.

“All of the best shows we played in Vancouver were at Richard’s on Richards,” says Nimish Parekh, former Capilano University student and trombone player for local favourites Five Alarm Funk. The band played the final show at Richard’s on July 19th, which saw the group so energetic that timbales player Carl Julig attempted to crowd-surf on a large inflatable red couch and wound up in the emergency room with a dislocated shoulder. Despite this painful experience, Julig and the rest of Five Alarm Funk are sorry to see the historic club go. “There isn’t any place like it in Vancouver,” Parekh explains. “There’s the Commodore Ballroom, but that’s larger and owned by a big company, Live Nation, so ticket prices are higher.”
Now, all that is left of Richard’s on Richards is a hole in the ground. If you are curious about why the Aquilini Investment Group took three years to demolish the building after purchasing it, the reason is that they still had to secure one other property on the block. According to Chapman, this was a house that had been occupied by an elderly woman and her cats for over 50 years. She repeatedly refused to sell the property, until an Aquilini representative showed up on her doorstep with flowers and an offer of six million dollars. Finally, Aquilini could begin construction.

However, all is not lost. The owners of Richard’s transferred their liquor license to the former A&B sound location on Seymour Street, and construction has already begun on a new venue there. Those who remember the cramped aisles of the record store, with its narrow staircase and small upstairs area, will likely be impressed by the new space. It is going to be a massive 30,000 square feet, with three different floors, a beautiful brick interior, and will contain some decorative details salvaged from Richard’s: a wrought-iron railing from the club’s staircase and balcony, stained glass windows and several chandeliers.

One of the owners of Richard’s, Vince Alvaro, has promised the space will include two large dance floors, two art galleries occupied by the Presentation House from North Vancouver and the Belkin Gallery from UBC, and a large unisex bathroom with its own dance floor and bar (seriously). Renovations have cost $3.7 million to date, and the still-unnamed space is shaping up to be unlike anything else in the city. “It’s a very art-oriented nightclub,” Alvaro has said. Live music will be relegated to weeknights, while the weekends will be devoted to DJ sets and dancing.

It seems that the new space will be nothing like Richard’s. There are a few venues that may be able to replace it as the premiere venue for live music in the city, including The Venue (formerly the Plaza) on Granville, and the Rickshaw Theatre on Hastings, which is a massive converted movie theatre that offers an all-ages ground floor and a balcony area that serves drinks.

However, the future of live music in Vancouver is uncertain. The Cobalt, arguably the major punk venue in the city, has been given notice to evict by the end of the month. The loss of this venue will be a serious blow to the punk scene, which has been repeatedly forced underground due to a lack of legitimate venues. Hoko’s Sushi Karaoke Bar, a small venue run by an endearing couple in the Downtown Eastside, is no longer allowed to host live music as of late August. The city claimed that the restaurant was violating its Food Primary license when inspectors attended a karaoke event at which the patrons did not order food and a beer was found on stage.

Then there came the news last month that the owner of the Biltmore Cabaret, Zak Pashak, was moving to Calgary. “I would say it is a lot harder to run a bar in Vancouver,” he said, as the enforcement of strict safety and capacity regulations repeatedly challenged the Biltmore’s business. In particular, the city shut it down for exceeding maximum capacity in August 2008. As for the future of the Biltmore, Pashak has not stated whether he will sell the bar or continue to oversee its operations at a distance.

Many cite the overcrowding of the “Granville Entertainment District” as part of the problem, as the bulk of the liquor licenses in the city have become concentrated in a small area of downtown. New venues face greater opposition than ever, due to noise, congestion and law enforcement issues that have arisen from the Granville Street project. Liquor licensing continues to be a major problem for new venues, as acquiring a license can take months or even years, and requires cooperation from neighbouring businesses and residences.

According to Aaron Chapman, Vancouver has always had a problem creating and maintaining live music venues. “Had it not been for Chuck Davis and a few level headed people in the 1970s, they would have torn down the Orpheum,” he says. “After Expo 86, there was a lot of land left over to develop … Encouraging residential development downtown seemed like a good idea. [The city] slowly pushed out the clubs.” This trend has limited the growth of the Vancouver music scene. “The closure of Richard’s on Richards, and venues like it, means simply that there are less places to play for musicians in Vancouver. You need these venues to foster a scene.”

Not only do we need spaces for local bands to thrive, but we also need them to attract touring bands. Chapman explains: “In Vancouver, we have small live music clubs with 200-300 capacities like The Media Club, Railway Club, and the Plaza, but then nothing until the Commodore Ballroom, which can hold over 1000 people. A lot of promoters can't afford bringing bands to town and take a chance on filling the Commodore, but they can't make enough money putting the bands in the smaller rooms …Thus, there are a lot of bands that don't even bother coming to our apparent ‘world class city’.”

It can happen anywhere – even CBGB in New York shut down in 2006. Yet Richard’s on Richards joins a long list of nightclubs that have closed in Vancouver in recent years, including the Starfish Room, the Town Pump, the Marine Club, Graceland, and the Savoy. The continuing loss of live music venues is an unfortunate trend in this city. When the debris is cleared and another condominium complex arises at 1036 Richards, a part of Vancouver’s cultural life will have been lost.


Laura Kane
Writer

The Guantanamo Kid

Doesn’t Harper have a teenage son?” Jenn Farr asks me. She’s upset that the words ‘child’ and ‘innocence’ are so far removed from each other under Canada’s justice system. Jenn has helped organize others to write letters to Harper, leave him phone messages, and protest in order to find truth in a story. “He was 15. I mean, when I was that age I also did crazy things...” She can’t specify what “crazy things” the 15 year old boy did, but neither can Harper. No one can. That’s the point. While we’re all trying to figure out the details to this story, a Canadian boy is allegedly being tortured.

It all started with an attack by American soldiers in Ayub Kheyl, Afghanistan. The son of an alleged al Qaeda father watched each member of his household lose their life to a bullet, and may or may not have thrown a grenade that killed an American solider. At least, that’s what the Canadian government thinks happened. They’re guessing that the boy threw the grenade - if there was one - but they’re not sure because some American military officials at the scene say it was thrown by someone else. The only part we do know about this story is that the 15-year-old child was then admitted into the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison without a fair trial on war crimes and terrorism charges. His guilt is based on a guess. It’s not even a guess made by Canadians themselves - it’s one they’re borrowing from America.

The Canadian Federal government sought to give the boy justice. In a ruling of two to one, they ordered him returned to Canada. But then Prime Minister Harper interrupted the process. The entire ordeal stole eight years of the child’s life, still without trial. Despite the Federal Court ruling that this was a violation under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Harper delayed the decision to November of this year. The delay was unnecessary and redundant to many, including William Kuebler, the boy’s former U.S. military lawyer; "It's important to keep in mind that the Canadian government has lost just about every time it's taken the Khadr case in front of the Canadian courts" he remarked to CTV News. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department’s excuse for causing further delay in repatriating Khadr to Canada has been to wait to see what our southern brothers will do: “We will also take our responsibilities when the U.S. government shares its decision on this case.” However, the Liberals, the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois have all strongly disagreed with the Conservatives methods and have demanded for the boy to be returned. In Ignatieff’s words: “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.” For many Canadians, the entire process has been an affront against justice. But Harper isn’t listening to the protests.

Jenn Farr was one of those protesters. At a rally in front of the Human Rights Monument in Ottawa, Jenn and the protesters wore orange jumpsuits similar to the ones Guantanamo Bay prisoners wear. They were trying to raise awareness on the human right violations occurring at Guantanamo. But Jenn soon found that people were walking away and crossing the street to the other side, not wanting to deal with such a heavy issue. Jenn knew she needed a new strategy.

“It’s about getting people to know someone they never met before and don’t have anything in common with,” Jenn explains. Her solution was to turn to social media websites to alert Canadians to the mistreatment of the boy. Using Facebook and Twitter, she cultivated an environment where citizens across Canada could share their sentiments about the youngest prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, also the only Western citizen. “I’ve been doing activism for 20 years ... The Facebook group is just about being a place where people can go and see there are 6200 other Canadians who also think that this guy got a raw deal.” Discussion was encouraged and as friends joined, the group managed to become the largest of its kind. “It’s a place where even journalists go and see proof that not all is lost – there are still Canadians out there who have a heart,” Jenn adds.

In the beginning, creating such a forum was difficult. Many ‘trolls’ – people who purposely disrupt online communities – were derailing the conversations. Jenn and a few others helped to keep the discussions civilized. Those who strongly oppose Khadr’s return to Canada are provided links to information and related groups. Some of the main opposition points deal with complex questions such as whether there was a grenade, whether a 15 year old is a child soldier according to the UN, and whether Canada should wait until Guantanamo is closed down before making a decision. For Jenn, the primary issue is that a Canadian child should not be put in an adult prison notorious for torture; “I find it disheartening that people are trying to find exception to the rule.”

According to an Ipsos poll, the majority of Canadians, 64%, believe that if Guantanamo is shut down Omar should be returned to Canada - a ten percent increase from the year before. With the aid of the Facebook group more Canadians became aware of Khadr’s struggle. Soon even friends of friends were joining the group and learning the name of the 15 year old Canadian boy who never received the fair trial his country promised him: Omar Khadr. Omar Khadr is still in Guantanamo. Omar Khadr still has not been sentenced. Omar Khadr is a Canadian who deserves the right to a fair Canadian trial.

For direct links to the Omar Khadr support network, see our website, capilanocourier.com.

The Omar Khadr Facebook group can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Campaign-for-JUSTICE-for-Omar-Khadr/49663170743 and the Twitter group is at https://twitter.com/Justice4Khadr.

Alamir Novin

Editor

Grey Art’s Rally Protests Funding Cuts to BC Arts & Culture

Don’t Torch the Arts – Culture Matters. Such is the slogan adopted by members of the arts and culture community in Vancouver, who rallied on the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery this past Wednesday to raise awareness and protest harsh cuts to the arts and culture sector by the B.C. provincial government. Everyone was asked to dress in grey to symbolize what a world would look like without arts and culture. Protesters formed a silent grey square on the gallery steps while a few prominent figures in Vancouver’s arts community spoke on the importance of resisting the government’s funding cuts.

In an interview before the rally, Brenda Leadlay, Artistic Director of North Vancouver’s Presentation House Theatre, gave some hard facts on the impact these cuts will have: “The B.C. Provincial Government has been investing in the arts sector for many years, and contributed 47.8 million in 2008/09. This is by no means a substantial chunk of resources – arts and culture funding amounts to only 1/20th of 1% of the entire provincial budget. This money goes to everything from festivals, arts education, theatre, music, galleries, museums, and community centres. As of February, the Provincial Government’s budget for the 2009/10 fiscal year included 42.2 million in support to the arts, but in September this funding was cut to 23.1 million, just over 50% of the previously promised funds. But that’s not all. By 2011/12 financial support for arts and culture organizations (including Gaming, BC Arts and Culture Special Endowment) will be reduced to 3.675 million. In a mere two years, the BC Provincial Government will cut over 90% of funding to the province’s entire arts sector.”

When asked what potential effects this could have on the provincial economy, Leadlay was frank: “They’re essentially saying they don’t believe in economic growth. The government’s own statistics say that each dollar invested by the Provincial Government in the arts in BC returns between $1.05 and $1.36 directly to provincial treasuries through tax revenues. The City of Vancouver has also concluded that every dollar spent on arts and culture generates almost twelve dollars in economic activity.”

Amir Ali Alibhai, Executive Director of Alliance for Arts and Culture, when speaking to the crowd, made the point that “BC has the largest percentage of the province’s population employed in the arts in all of Canada. That’s 80,000 jobs that contribute to generating $5.2 billion in annual revenue.” It is a major concern of Leadlay, Alibhai and almost everyone assembled on Wednesday that these funding cuts will result in major job loss and significant drops in potential revenue. The severity of these cuts is immense. For example, the Vancouver Children’s Festival, promised a $95,000 grant earlier this year, is receiving absolutely nothing. Presentation House is also out a $30,000 grant. Since most of the harshest cuts to arts organizations were only announced early this month, most affected groups have not yet gone public on exactly what changes they will be implementing in response to the cuts.

Anyone could scoff and say that the arts should just turn to private funding. That’s much easier said than done. “We already generate funds independently,” noted Leadlay. For many organizations, this happens privately from donations by individuals, companies and through other sources. But the arts as we know them in Vancouver today wouldn’t be the same if everything was privately funded. Most arts organizations in B.C. are not-for-profit organizations, meaning they allocate their resources only to break even each year. Anyone who stayed awake during microeconomics might remember that not-for-profits allow goods and services to be produced below their cost of production, something that a completely private, independent market won’t allow. In other words, the price of tickets at Bard on the Beach or the cost of music or dance classes at a community centre are less than the actual cost of putting them on as a result of funding from both the public and private sector. “We’re not asking for a handout,” said Leadlay, “we just want to create public awareness about an entire sector being completely cut off.”

A common misconception about the arts is that public funding only goes to artists. In an interview about arts funding cuts, Liz Wilton-McMahan, stage manager for A Fighting Change Productions and Box Office Manager at Bard on the Beach put it nicely: “People in the arts aren’t just crazy artists. We are accountants, bookkeepers, marketing managers, designers, receptionists, technicians, the list goes on; and we’re all affected by these cuts.”

The voice of the provincial government in response to the arts community’s outcry has been relatively quiet and representatives are reluctant to comment. In a bizarre attempt to justify cuts to the arts sector, the government has gone so far as arguing that arts funding takes money away from hungry children and poverty reduction. Last week, in response to questions about why arts and culture funding had been cut, B.C. Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman answered: "When you think about a child arriving in school with an empty stomach that isn't going to get the education they require, you have to decide, 'Is that a priority, or some other thing?' You make the decision on behalf of the child."

In an interview with the Globe and Mail on the topic, Minister Coleman stated: “It's not like there's some guaranteed pool that has to go out to everybody every year for some level of entitlement … Sometimes you have to adjust your priorities, and that's what we did.” “At the same time, when you are trying to make that decision and you know the importance of nutrition, you say: This is one year where I think we have to suck it up.”

Kevin Krueger, BC’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts proved equally evasive and cited the same argument as Coleman when in the house by members of the NDP. “This government places a tremendously high value on the contributions of the arts and cultural community to the social fabric of British Columbia as well as to our economy. It is a remarkable achievement that we have been able to fund, through the BC Arts Council, grants to these communities in almost the same amount, at almost the same levels as last year.” When questioned about the Bulkley Valley Fall Fair in Smithers, which was denied their gaming grant of $20,000 in the middle of their run, Krueger answered “Would any member on the opposite side of the House argue that a program to fund nutritional and similar programs in schools for underprivileged children is a lower priority than fall fairs? Not everyone can be funded, and tough decisions have to be made.”

Apart from the strong economic evidence to support investment in the arts, the social benefits that a vibrant arts and culture sector bring to our community is enormous. I could write another entire article describing the ways that the arts and culture affect our daily lives, in everything from education to TV to music, if I had the room in this column. But the economic arguments speak for themselves. Most people understand when governments need to tighten their belts during difficult economic situations, but cutting off entire sectors is unprecedented.

Mo Dhaliwal, founder of the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration and another speaker at Wednesday’s rally summed it up nicely: “The arts and culture is like the input of electricity. No one notices it when it’s there, but when it’s gone we can’t function the same way.”

If you would like more information about the growing opposition to funding cuts to the arts sector, visit the Alliance for Arts and Culture website at www.allianceforarts.com or check out the Facebook group Organizing Against Campbell’s Cuts to the Arts. Also, the entire transcript of the debate cited above between Kevin Kreuger and members of the NDP can be found at http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/39th1st/H90831y.htm.

Claudia Pedrero

Ruby Slippers, Crumby Funds Local arts group enters the theatre of war on culture

The arts community is under attack. At the beginning of September, the B.C. Government announced its plans to drastically cut the already lean funding it provides to cultural and charity groups within the province. In an attempt to curb the financial deficit heightened by the recent economic crisis, the province began initiating major cuts, which will result in up to a 92% reduction to the core funding for many of these groups by 2012.
Diane Brown, the Artistic Director of Vancouver-based Ruby Slippers Theatre, had what she thought was a legally binding three year agreement with the B.C. Government. It promised $40,000 in funding annually, money that is vital for the operation of the theatre company, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year. This money was provided through Gaming Grants from B.C.’s lottery revenue. Diane was waiting on the 2008/2009 funding when she was informed that it was not coming.
In a response to these cuts, Brown stated the theatre would be forced to cancel most of the 2009/2010 season. Annually providing jobs for sixty members of Vancouver’s creative community, Diane faced the seemingly inevitable future of the company - “We would [have to] cut staff, programming and eventually fold.”
For Capilano University students who hope to find work in the arts after graduation, independent companies like Ruby Slippers Theatre are often the type of organization where they find their first job. These companies offer employment opportunities in acting, musical theatre and technical theatre programs, as well as costume designers, graphic artists, and playwrights. If the B.C. Government continues to reduce its support to arts organization, the arts and entertainment sectors, which have always been known as competitive, will have fewer job opportunities for new graduates.
What the B.C. Government seems to be ignoring is that art is an industry, and has proven throughout the years that it can be a very lucrative one. “Public finding is really a government investment.” Diane notes, “For every dollar that the government invests in arts and culture, they get $1.38 back in direct taxes.”
Diane adds that there are clear reasons besides revenue that should be taken into account as well. “Independent theatre companies offer our community and cultural workers unique and inspiring perspectives on the human condition. Artists historically are the conscience of a society. To silence them is to dehumanize us all.”
Cultural groups also provide something of a support system for those on the fringe. “The arts is often a place where people who feel like outcasts can fit in. At-risk youth frequently find a place in the arts and become more productive and positive members of society.” The Flying Monkey, a newsletter and blog run by Ruby Slippers Theatre, recently published a series of interviews on the importance of mentorship and youth. This reinforces how vital arts organizations are in supporting and training emerging talent.
Surprisingly, A week after the cuts were first announced, the B.C. Government declared that agreements for multi-year Gaming Grant funding would be honoured. Ruby Slippers Theatre's grant for 2008/2009 was reinstated. After being challenged with what seemed to be a worst-case scenario, Ruby Slippers Theatre were able to revisit their plans for their upcoming season, which include two plays and a national tour.
Despite this turnaround, the situation is still dire for B.C. arts. Diane encourages others to speak out about this issue. “Write to your MLA and describe why culture matters to you. Be civil and passionate. Connect with your local arts and culture organizations and offer to volunteer, or make a donation. We are all in this together.”
Ruby Slippers’ Upcoming Season starts December 4th, with a pay-what-you-can performance of A Beautiful View, written and directed by Governor General’s Award-Winner Daniel MacIvor. The show continues from December 5th-19th. Tickets are $20 to $24, with two matinee performances at $15.
For more information about Ruby Slippers Theatre, visit their website at www.rubyslippers.ca.


Sarah Hager
Writer

Capilano University's 5 Best Professors: According to some Webbed Site

With the final withdrawal date crawling closer everyday, many Cap students are asking themselves if their instructors are worth pursuing long-term educational relationships with. But worry not, friend, for you no longer need to be a good judge of character – the Capilano Courier will do that for you.

For those of you who have been living in an iCave the last few years, ratemyprofessor.com allows post-secondary students to anonymously grade their teachers in a number of different facets. The validity of the reviews on the site often come into question, and so they should. After all, there is absolutely nothing barring a bitter student from slandering the reputation of an otherwise upstanding professor, whose only crime may have been giving him a well deserved D-. Nor is there any obstacle standing in the way of an insecure instructor from anonymously inflating their score, either. Take these with a grain of salt.

In hopes of avoiding such caveats, our list of top ranked instructors only includes those with 20 evaluations or more.

Name: Carolyn Beatson

Faculty: Science

Average rank (out of five): 5.0

The verdict: Carolyn is the only instructor at Capilano University to maintain a perfect overall rating after having passed the 20-rating threshold. Most reviewers are sure to mention her cheery demeanaor, easy labs and willingness to help students outside of class time.

Defining quote: “Carolyn Beatson is the Cat’s Meow, hands down. I'm not joking when I say we would hang around after lab to talk with her. Candy after mid-terms, and hands on Bio learning.”

Name: Gerrie Waugh

Faculty: Business

Average rank: 4.9

The verdict: Gerrie’s reviews laud her both for her ability to adequately prepare her students for exams and her great sense of humour. Some of the more blunt evaluators are equally quick to point out that her class was “hard to fail” and an “easy GPA booster”. I’d wager that such concerns won’t raise many red flags among our readership.

Defining quote: “Excellent. What you learn, you use outside of class. It sticks with you.”

Name: Patricia Singer

Faculty: Fine Arts

Average rank: 4.8

The verdict: Singer is an interesting case, as she has managed to keep her absurdly high average intact despite many mentions of her demanding a heavy work load from her students. It seems her captivating lecture style and helpful notes are more than enough to offset the amount of studying that her courses require.

Defining quote: “Tisha is a great teacher: not only because of her in-depth knowledge, but because of her lecturing style, which keeps the class moving and is always engaging. She explains concepts clearly, and doesn't talk in circles.”

Name: Ian Cresswell

Faculty: English

Average rank: 4.7

The verdict: It is hard to get through even one of Ian’s reviews without being bombarded by superlatives. From “unreal” to “amazing” to “dopest prof i ever had”, it isn’t difficult to justify Mr. Cresswell’s place on this list. Students dig his passion and the inclusive nature of his class discussions.

Defining quote: “Pure theatre, and you will be amazed at what you have learned. Clever, funny, helpful. He's slightly hard on the marks, but if you read, listen and attend class, you will be fine. The best instructor I have had - and very easy on the eye. Hot!”

Name: Joseph Fall

Faculty: Computer Science

Average rank: 4.7

The verdict: Joseph’s positive score is reflective of an instructor who is “willing to give up his lunch hour” to assist students and still manages to make his “sometimes boring” subject matter easily digestible.

Defining quote: “He is simply the best teacher I've ever had. He gives up his lunch time to answer your questions even if the question is rather silly and stupid. What's very special about him is he is very organized AND easy going at the same time which is very hard thing to achieve.”

//Jordan Potter

Opinions Editor

4th Hour Power: Less learning is making us dumber

Most of us are well aware of last year's upgrade from a college to a university, but few of us know what that shift really means. Many departments are transforming their curriculum and new degrees are in the works, but one change in particular has proven to be contentious and unpopular: That of the class time cuts from four hours to three. Despite the expressed dissent over the change, the university administration has failed to address the complaints in a timely fashion.
Prior to Fall 2008, Capilano College offered four weekly hours of classroom time to students enrolled in most of the University Transfer programs. As of last September, this fourth hour was cut and contact time with instructors was cut to three hours, with the fourth hour retained as an addendum, to be supplied by supplementary course materials, extra homework, and online learning by way of the Moodle system. The reason presented by the administration was that classrooms were full and prime time scheduling slots needed to be maximized to attract students in a time of declining enrollment. The transition proved difficult.
The Courier reported on these changes last year and the response was overwhelmingly negative. Not a single teacher interviewed was pleased and most found their jobs much harder, trying to cram a full curriculum into a circumcised time slot. Most students found the manner in which their professors were implementing the fourth hour frustrating, as well. Some claimed that their teachers disregarded the extra hour entirely, while others claimed ineptitude at implementing proper supplementary lessons. The consensus from the Courier's research was that the changes were unwelcome and that one of the main attractions of Capilano College, personal contact with professors, had been thrown out. The results of that report can be obtained at www.capcourier.com/2009/01/19/caps-forgone-fourth-hour-misfortune.
The administration created an Ad Hoc Committee on Scheduling Evaluation, formed on January 15th, 2009, to survey the school and to determine what was to be done. “We're starting with anecdotal evidence,” said Jackie Snodgrass, Vice President of Education for the Academic and Arts Program, “Then we'll be designing surveys for faculty and students, as well as enrollment data and room usage.”
An email requesting comments about experiences was sent and the official survey was released to student email accounts on March 10, 2009―that is where the trail goes cold. “The final report including recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee is not yet complete,” says Frank DiPuma, Manager of Institutional Research. It should be noted that despite the surveys completion on March 27, five months have elapsed without any significant address to the results.
When an inquiry was made on the status of the results, Dr. Patrick J. Donahoe, Vice-President of Student & Institutional Support, stated in an email that, in his opinion, the issue was being addressed and that a permanent oversight committee would replace the Ad Hoc committee. Several meetings are scheduled for the end of the month, with the earliest possible change deferred to Winter semester. It appears that there has been thorough consultation over the summer with the scheduling coordinators. In regards to the faculty, Donahoe has made assurances that all important concerns have been respectfully addressed and that the staff has been pleased with the process. I, however, am not.
Respectfully, the students’ input into this matter has been marginalized. Last year, I experienced a twenty-five per cent reduction in the quality of my education. I watched teachers flail around with various gimmicks (mostly YouTube videos and Moodle assignments – hardly an exchange for contact time with a PHD level prof who can personally address my learning concerns) and observed classroom discussions cut short by a stopwatch approach to education. As a returning student who can still remember the old four-hour system, I felt cheated, as the personalized and community oriented aura of Cap College became diluted by the business-oriented boost to Cap University.
The administration survey that was sent out to students to assuage the animosity was also a disappointment, as it failed a 100 level Philosophy and Psychology test, in that it fell prey to volunteer bias.
According to audiencedialogue.org, a site that reviews surveys, volunteer bias is defined as “An error arising from a low response rate, due to the fact that some types of people (usually young, well-educated) are more willing than others to take part in surveys.” This is somewhat ironic, as I once met with Frank DiPuma to discuss the proper way that the Courier should survey the student body, and he impressed upon me the necessity of obtaining a random or at least representative sample of the students for the results to be taken seriously. Once more, in my Critical Thinking class with Mark Battersby, we generally mocked the style of survey that would depend on someone volunteering, especially when that survey was delivered through an email or a website.
The fact is, considering the vitriolic atmosphere that surrounded the cut of the fourth hour, the administration should have taken greater steps to address the concerns of students before Fall session was underway. The steps they did take were not implemented seriously and are bogged down in bureaucracy. And nowhere has there been any mention of the best possible result to all of this confusion: a switch back to four hours of contact time with their teachers. Respectfully, I can understand space limitations and declining enrollment, but from where I'm writing, Cap has simply seen a full quarter of the quality of their education cut up like some sandwich with a stale crust. All for the promise of potential enrollment and to the detriment of those currently enrolled.

//Kevin Murray
Editor-in-Chief

Perfume Plight: The Science of Smelling Terrible

Summer's over, and we all know what that means! Time to throw out your whites – clothes, not people – grab your fave fashion mag and head to the nearest department store for fall fashion! On the way, be sure to flip through that book to find the latest trends. That is, if you can make it through the overwhelming sporifera of parfum idem (read: nasty dust that all smells the same), or actually locate within those hallowed pages a real article about clothing design amongst the ads. Perhaps you'll be lucky and make it to some articles, only to then realize that these, too, are trying to sell you on something. Whether it's mascara or the career of a celebrity, every weekly trend compendium out there is no more than a dealer dangling appetizing opiates over the addicted masses. And as with any other opiate, this one is not a necessary part of a balanced breakfast.

Now don't get me wrong, the women in these magazines are clearly beautiful, the photography is excellent, and the clothes themselves (if you can wade through the toxic cosmetic sludge slung by the rest of the ads) are not terrible. But all that beauty can't escape the ugly truth that trends and advertising do nothing effective apart from chaining otherwise happy people to consumerism and engineered markets. Anyone capable of love doesn't need a $1000 bottle of perfume to be happy.

According to Air Aroma, a scent company that I refused to credit for fear that I might unintentionally be advertising for them (my editor forced me to anyway): “It is the close connection of the olfactory gland, which registers smell, and the limbic system, that governs emotion and memories, that is said to be responsible for the power behind the sense of smell.” In other words, perfume isn't soft, cuddly warm fun-in-a-bottle. It's cold, hard science mixed with a bit of sly marketing all sprayed on the pages of Vanity Fair for your pleasure.

Have you ever visited your grandma's house and felt the faint odour of Virginia Slims and Chanel #5 whisk you off into some long-forgotten memory of childhood? That happens, as many fashion editors know, because scent, memory and emotion are all tied up in the same bag in your noodle. That dusty perfume stuff is in the magazines purely to get you into a trance where you will enter all incoming data into your long-term memory banks.

This is high science, the art of manipulation. Our brains are being hijacked every time we crack open one of those glorified catalogues of mayhem and destruction. That same scent company says “the nose is believed to affect 75% of our daily emotions.” When it comes to manipulating people's emotions just to get them to buy something profane like perfume, you're crossing into the territory of bad manners.

After all, we communicate naturally through our unadulterated aroma. The natural exchange of pheromones through our sweat facilitates communication and attraction between people. One well known example is oxytocin, which is a hormone and neurotransmitter connected intimately with the biological processes related to love, bonding and orgasm. It doesn't make sense that we should mask this natural attracting agent. Let alone the fact that these products are made from and tested on helpless little fuzzy animals.

Of course, perfume isn't all bad. It can help create a fantasy persona just like dressing up and wearing make-up (some of my favourite pastimes). When you want to escape from our dull reality to a world of your own creation, smells can really do the trick. But when I sit down next to a pretty girl on the train or in the theatre and her musk sends me into a seizure, I'm inclined to feel less attraction towards said girl. Is it really worth our time as a society to be investing so much research into something so useless and ultimately counterproductive?

Call me old fashioned, but I like the smell of a human being.

Sky Hester

Calendar Keeper

CSU Interested In Expansion: Preliminary discussions about extended student space underway

The Capilano Students ’ Union (CSU) have expressed an interest in expanding student space on Campus. Trevor Page, chairperson of the CSU executive committee, is currently undergoing discussions with Dr. Greg Lee, President of Capilano University, about the different possibilities of extended, designated student space. “New and improved student space has been identified as a priority for Capilano University,” mentioned Page in his letter to Dr. Greg Lee. This new student space proposal is mostly meant for academic and educational purposes.

The recent announcement about the new film centre to be built has sparked an opportunity for the CSU to recommend an expansion of its presence. The CSU is currently on the north side of campus but also wants to be on the south side of campus to allow more services to be available for students, and for students to be more involved in campus activities. Dr. Greg Lee offered an administrative perspective, saying that “we support more campus activities” and that the CSU being on the south campus is “certainly desirable.” As to how this would be funded, the “costs associated with the new space would not require increasing student fees.

The Students' Union currently collects a building levy for the acquisition and management of space. This levy cannot be used without membership (the student body) approval,” stated Page. There has been very little discussions on how to best utilize the student space on the south campus. It may possibly become a “multi-use space with the possibility of a lounge, meeting, and services configuration,” suggested Page. “I would like to be clear: no discussion about student space can be finalized without input from the student body,” stressed Page. “This discussion is still tentative, as any final decision must be approved by the Union’s membership at a General meeting.”

Lydia Adeli Writer

AGENDAS RULE: Popularity of their cost-increase debatable

The daily planner, a past staple in the arsenal of any well-organized Capilano student, now costs a whopping one-dollar.

That is an estimated one dollar more than the planners’ previous price.

A Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) representative was recently overheard explaining that the new charge is due to the addition of a ruler to each planner. The rulers, which neatly detach and reattach as bookmarks, are made from costly plastic. Despite later disavowals of this explanation by various CSU representatives, there is no denying the coordinated arrival between the addition of these rulers and the new charge.

The rulers are 19 centimetres in length, not accounting for the extra space at each end that contains no distance markers. This is usfeul for measuring small objects such as pens and erasers. The ruler could also be used to measure the accuracy of an even smaller ruler, although one may hard pressed to find such a thing.

It should be noted that the dollar that students are spending on these planners could elsewhere be spent on trinkets and curiosities, including candy, two single cigarettes from someone on the street, three stamps, a sample pack of Nag Champa incense, a Homies action figure, or a can of soda from a non-campus vending machine.

Ironically, on the page following the week of September 14-20 in the planner, “handbook” is listed as one of the free services provided by the CSU. It is unclear whether this “handbook” is, in fact, the planner itself. Whether the CSU still plans on issuing some kind of rulerless edition of the planner to Capilano's more frugal students remains unclear.

Student reaction to the new cost has been generally varied. Some students will undoubtedly find the dollar fee a minor price to pay for the new improvements. Others, who struggle with the organizational arts but naturally excel at geometry, will likely consider these changes superfluous, or even outrageous.

A visibly exasperated student, who wished to remain nameless, commented, “It’s simply ludicrous that I have to pay money for an agenda now. I, Matthew Jolliffe, will not stand for this outrage.” There is no word yet on this student’s apparent plans for revenge - although at this point, he has refused to buy a planner. He has been managing by scribbling assignments and email addresses on the back of his hand “and the occasional napkin,” although his arms have become densely populated with nonsensical ramblings, and his pockets have become filled with indecipherable messes of tissue.

To purchase a planner, visit the CSU lounge in the Maple Building. Condoms remain complimentary.

Giles Roy
Scoop Scooper

NEWS BRIEFS

CAPILANO STUDENTS UNION ELECTIONS Nominations are now open for Capilano Students Union (CSU) executive committee positions, including Educational Issues Coordinator, Environmental Issues Coordinator, First Nations Students' Liaison, Queer Students' Liaison, Students of Colour Liaison, Social Activities Coordinator, Students with Disabilities' Liaison and Women's Liaison. If you are interested in running, drop by the CSU office, or contact Giselle Aiabens at gaiabens@capilanou.ca for more information.

Check out next week’s issue of the Courier for further details on the CSU committees and the election process. STRATEGIC PLANNING INFORMATION SESSION A new Vision, Mission and Values statement is underway, as part of Capilano University’s Strategic Planning initiative. There are two information sessions regarding the strategic planning process for students, the first taking place on Monday, September 21, and the second on Thursday, September 24. Both are in Birch 322 from 11:30 – 1:00pm. The plans to be discussed at the sessions are to affect the general direction Capilano heads in the next five years. All students are welcome to attend.

Natalie Corbo
Occasional Contributor

Musician draws on his Capilano cohorts to make sweet sounds

Some of best times I’ve ever had playing or seeing music have been in living rooms. There is something about a big, open, comfortable space that is conducive to making great music. And when you can stand inches behind a drummer who is really digging in, it makes for an experience unlike any other. A Ghost To Kill Again’s inaugural show at the Vancity Culture Lab was like being on a really sweet sofa, and having your mind blown watching a wicked band.

The Culture Lab is just one result of the 14 million dollar renovation of The Cultch. Once known as the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, The Cultch has been a hub of artistic endeavor for 36 years. Among the many changes is the introduction of the Curators-In-Residence, a program that is “making the Lab available to young artists making waves in Vancouver”.

Aaron Joyce isn’t just making waves, he’s tsunamiing your ass. As the first to helm the new series at the Cultch, Aaron and his band A Ghost To Kill Again really broke in the new room with their modern take on Prog Rock. Although Joyce isn’t consciously trying to channel bands such as King Crimson, Yes, or 70’s Frank Zappa, the result of his “wanting to make a new music record that happened to be in the guise of a rock band” definitely owes much to those caped and bell-bottomed hair farmers. Joyce is drawing from the same pools of inspiration as the progressive rock bands before him, incorporating elements of classical and world music, as well as jazz improvisation.

Accompanying Mr. Joyce were his long time associates and compadres, Alvaro Rojas on lead guitar, Cory Curtis on bass, and Sam Cartwright on drums. The band formed during their tenure at Cap’s jazz program. Aaron’s reasons for choosing Cap were more than just learning to play the guitar: “When I first went to Cap, my only goal was to meet other musicians and start a band.” He found the majority of his musical relationships through the program.

The evening also served as the CD release of AGTKA’s second album, Stockholm Syndrome, a fantastic sounding production recorded at The Hive Studios. Joyce is no stranger to the Hive, having recently produced a new album for singer Jess Hill. “The album has very lush instrumentation, violins, violas, cellos, mandolins, banjo, upright bass. Part of being a good producer is getting the best performance out of the musicians, but it’s also being really organized, booking rehearsals, writing arrangements, making sure people are being paid.”

The set up for the first performance really was like a living room, with the band in the middle of the large performance space facing each other inwards. At one point Aaron asked the audience that surrounded them to move closer, and they happily did. Corbin Murdock is the Youth Coordinator of the Cultch, and he loved the way that Aaron used the space: “It created a totally unique concert experience. You could hear every note and nuance. It was one of the best shows I've seen all year.”

Murdock sees the Culture Lab contributing to Vancouver's emerging cultural community. “As well as boosting the profile of the curators themselves, the program aims to showcase the best of what is happening in Vancouver. It is about exposing The Cultch's existing audience to artists in this city, as well as bringing new audiences to The Cultch.”

On top of the Curator-In-Residence program, Murdock is responsible for creating opportunities for young artists, including mentorships, performances, and the IGNITE! Festival. The Cultch is further committed to making the arts accessible to youth through the TELUS Youth Pass. “It is available free at the box office. It'll get you $2 tickets if you are 12-19 (however, keep in mind, we don't ID).”

Aaron’s next performance is September 27th, and will feature his band Microscopic, an improvising trio in which he plays the Weissenborn guitar, an acoustic lap-steel that is played with a tone bar. That show will be a CD release as well. And to cap off his residency he will be unveiling Spearbeak, a ten-piece atonal Afrobeat project. “It’s highly rhythmic, all the crazy things I don’t get to do in A Ghost To Kill Again I do in this project.”

There is no doubt Aaron Joyce is making waves, and with the Youth Pass available at the Cultch there is no reason to miss the great work of these Cap alumni. Spearbeak will be playing a crazy Halloween show October 30th, so check out Joyce’s blog at http://cultchcurators.wordpress.com, or go to www.thecultch.com for more info.

Mike Kennedy
Arts Editor