WIZARD ROCK Fans, wands and rock and roll

“Harry Potter used to dominate my days, before Deathly Hallows. I remember after I read about [Spoiler alert! -Ed.] Dumbledore's death, I was in true mourning for three straight days,” says Julie Webster, Vancouver resident. “I kept thinking, 'How is the world supposed to keep spinning after such a great man has died?'” Indeed. Dumbledore was a great man. His death affected us all. But it seems to have affected some of us more than others.

Julie is, in her own words, “ on some small level, a musical star in the Harry Potter world.” She parodies popular songs by making them about Harry Potter (these are called “filks”), and has performed at dances, on podcasts, and elsewhere on the Internet. She even has the distinction of being a searchable result on Youtube.

But the fandom doesn't stop there. In 2007, she attemped to go live in London england. Her goals for her time abroad (before she was denied entry to the country and generally fucked over by government officials) included seeing the Order of the Phoenix film in London; attending Sectus, an unofficial Harry Potter conference; and securing a private room at said conference to enjoy the seventh book in the series, spoiler-free.

Julie is simply a wonderfully approachable example of a hardcore Harry Potter fanatic. One of an apparent nation of millions, including authors (of fan fiction), collectors, and performers of Wizard Rock.

Wizard Rock, or as it is sometimes known on the Internet, WRock, is a sub-genre of rock and roll that focuses primarily on Hogwarts-style witchcraft and wizardry. Note that I called it a genre. There are seriously enough bands playing this music that it qualifies as such. Even more remarkably, there are enough people listening to it that these bands can do regular band things, like release albums and go on tour.

The most famous Wizard Rock outfit, Harry and the Potters, are largely credited with pioneering the whole thing. After recording their first full-length album (they have three), the band started touring outside of their home state of Massechussets in 2004. Since then, they've been all over: the United Kingdom, the rest of North America, even Vancouver. And with the rising fame of these... keeners, other acts have followed suit. The aforementioned band, Draco and the Malfoys, and The Whomping Willows have all enjoyed what could be considered generous success in North America.

And, like their fictional counterparts, these Wizard Rockers and their fans are nearer to us than we may think. One of Harry and the Potters' most notable gigs so far has reportedly been playing for free outside the Vancouver Public Library in 2005, but many Vancouver Harry Potter fanatics were probably unaware of the impending “magic” (sorry) that was “brewing” (sorry) right under their noses.

The 2nd annual Vancouver Yule Ball was held on December 27th at the Grandview Legion Auditorium in East Vancouver, and was attended by over 200 people.

22 year-old Elektra Torgersen-Williams, who is one of the four organizers of the ball, an employee of the wizard-themed Imagine That clothing shop, and future Wizard Rock front-woman, called organization of the event “tedious and complex,” but said that it pays off.

“The attendees were absolutely delightful,” she said. “They were respectful of eachother, cleaned up after themselves and participated in games and contests with humility and good sportsmanship. We also had a great bar staff, serving up non-alcoholic concoctions such as Butterbeer and Voldemortinis.” I don't know what's in a Voldemortini, but it sounds delicious.

“We were actually able to make double the profit this year that we made last year, a total of $2600.” said Kate Streifel, another of the Ball's promoters, and owner of an online “sorting” forum, where users can fill out a questionnaire and be sorted into one of Hogwarts' four houses. “$1000 of that has gone to the food bank, $500 will go to each of two school libraries, and the remaining $600 we are keeping in the bank to go towards the initial stages of next year's event.”

The ball offered an oppurtunity for Vancouver's most fantatical Harry Potter fans to soberly dance, amongst their own, to the sweet, soothing sounds of local Wizard Rockers Charlie and Dragon Tamers.

The lack of judgement could very well be the main appeal of Wizard Rock. Sure, it's easy to get behind the politics (pro-magic, pro-literacy), but what's more valuable is the sense of community. As with other cultish phenomena, the appeal lies in belonging to something bigger. Just as full-on communities have developed around fan fiction, cosplaying, and punk rock, a full on community has evolved here. Which sort of makes sense, as Wizard Rock is more or less a combination of those three things.

Like Harry Potter and his fictional chums exist in their own secret world, parallel but  isolated from the muggle public, Wizard Rock has become a niche form of expression in an already seemingly segregated cultural world. Except that instead of verging experimental or outspoken, Wizard Rock simply verges on nerdy.

Incredibly nerdy.

Not that there's anything wrong with that -- at all. Nothing that makes people this happy has any business being ridiculed. It's just that, unfortunately, as with those other phenomena, Harry Potter nerdiness isn't necessarily understood or condoned by the outside world.

“There has been the odd negative comment towards us and our event,” Kate says, “mainly that it is 'lame.' But for the most part, the only people who respond are Potter fans, and they tend to be very excited.”

“People who would see me reading one of the books and they felt compelled to insult me by asking, 'Why are you reading that? It's a kids book.' I always felt bad for them because they're the kind of people who choose stories not based on their interests, but based on another's opinion.”

It's hard to say, then, what exactly about Harry Potter (and other multi-million dollar earning fantasies) inspires such obsession on behalf of such sensible adults.

It could be that children's literature, by nature, encourages a sort of rebellion against reality. Or that books like Harry Potter offer an escape from a world that is cold, unforgiving, and seemingly irreparable.

“I know the reason Harry Potter fascinates me,” she says. “[It's] for the same reason stories such as The Last Unicorn, The Neverending Story and Legend interest me. It's the belief and hope that this world isn't as mundane and boring as it actually is. Maybe I'll never get to be witness to it but 'knowing' that mermaids swim around in the oceans, fairies flit around the forests, and wizards and witches are performing magic just makes me feel a little better.”

That small belief pervades the consciousness of all of these people, and there's no reason that they shouldn't come together because of it. Yule balls and bands are certainly valid expressions of community, and, at their best, of art. Speaking on WRocking out, Elektra put it best: “Music connects people, and stories like Harry Potter touch the hearts of people of all ages and walks of life. So to take a story as powerful as this one, and set it to life through music, creates a powerful emotional connection shared by people of all age groups and lifestyles that might otherwise never have touched paths at all. The result is magical.”

It's true. I can't even think of a joke.

// Giles Roy

writer

Possible explanation #1

They're addicted to escapism...

J.R.R. Tolkien famously highlighted the ever-present element of emancipation in escapist fiction in his 1938 essay “On Fairy Stories”. The aspect of escapism seems to be the most obvious reason that someone would develop a fascination with the fantastic. But given the long-form nature of these pieces of fiction, as well as their expanded universes and fan-generated content, it's possible for this escape to become less an obsession than an addiction.

Possible explanation #2

They've all got the P.P.S...

Sure, Michael Jackson probably had it, but his was an exaggerated case. True Peter Pan Syndrome comes from the latin Puer aeturnus (“eternal child”) and has been an unofficially recognized psychological phenomenon since 1983. In its different forms (and varying severities) Peter Pan Syndrome can manifest as a series of childlike habits or characteristics, or as a full-blown rejection of adult reality. These things couldn't necessarily be attributed to fantasy literature, but they could certainly support its success.

Possible explanation #3

Children's literature is subversive by nature.

In her book Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature, Alison Lurie says that the genre is continually appealing because it subverts the norms of the adults world. Potter books attack our humorous institutions like the church or the marketplace. They also applaud the act of making your real-life parents look stupid by claiming that your fictional family is smarter and more magical.

Children's lit supports the lifestyle of kids. It reinforces their creative, willful, and disobedient nature by propping up an antagonist, like a Voldemort or a Goliath. When the child grows up, their adult palate for such fare is driven by a new antagonist – reality.

Possible explanation #4

The hero myth is ingrained...

Harry Potter is a classic hero myth, the most mass-marketed and cliched crackerjack ever levied upon the public. The oldest written version was also perhaps one of the oldest recorded instances of writing, ever. It was a Sumerian tale entitled “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” written on clay tablets during the Third Dynasty of Ur (2150-2000 BCE), in what is now known as Iraq. The overlapping similarities between old King Gilgamesh, Harry Potter, and Jesus Christ are overwhelming.

This obvious pattern helped lead Carl Jung to his theories on the collective unconscious, which posit that patterns in our psyches, called archetypes, actually organize our lives according to their motifs. So Harry Potter fan insanity is a compulsion we cannot avoid. It's science.

FROM THE EDITOR: ODE TO THE COLUMNIST

There’s a part of the Courier that I haven’t yet addressed. As you read through the News, Arts, and Opinions sections of the Courier (or the Caboose and Sports sections if you read the paper in reverse) you’ll come to the most consistent area of the paper: the columns. For the past five years, this section of the paper has made some vast improvements, and this year we have one of the strongest column sections this paper has ever published. We try to cover as wide a range of column topics as we can, and this year we’re going from politics to sex, ergonomics to marijuana, and so on.

Shining among these columns is the work by long-term columnist JJ Brewis. This week’s column is probably one of the best he’s written for us. Brewis writes for us weekly on the many gauche dates he has encountered. Last semester, he focused on the awkwardness of the dates, and this semester he has focused on a more intimate side of gay dating. With each column, Brewis has managed to collect a following of readers. His fans write us in or comment online and engage with Brewis. Fans even suggested we set up a dating contest between our readers and JJ. We obliged and set up a contest for him and decided that we should open up the contest to our sex columnist as well, Sarah Vitet. Potential date candidates have been applying and it looks like we’ll have interesting updates to provide readers on how the dates work out.

Our other columnists are newer, but with that, they bring an appropriate freshness. With every issue, like Brewis, they too are accumulating fans. Their topics are explored more in depth and the boundaries are pushed further. Take, for example, Natalie Corbo. Her initial columns moved from the urban landscape but soon she’ll dig deeper as she moves into the tunnels burrowed below our public space. The same can easily be said about our other fresh columnists.

So keep an eye out for the progression, pay a bit more attention to our dear columnists, and join the discussion online. Why? Because it’s fun to live vicariously through journalists willing to experiment and explore Vancouver’s city and society... Yeah, I said it.

// Alamir Novin

Editor

CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE We look into the souls of the new CSU nominees

It's student union election time again, when the student population of Capilano University gets to decide who will lead the various campus committees, and represent students to the CSU Executive Board.

This semester, there are only two positions open for voting: the International Students' Liaison and Social Justice Coordinator. Even though the Social Justice Coordinator only has one candidate running, they still require a majority of “yes” votes in order to be elected.

The Courier asked the three candidates a few questions about their plans for the upcoming year.

Polling dates are Monday, February1 until Wednesday, February 3 in the Birch Cafeteria.

The candidates were asked:

1. What is the activity or event you are most excited about putting on, if you are elected?

2. Why should students be interested in this committee?

3. What sets you apart from the other candidates? Or, if there are no other candidates, why should people vote for you?

4. If you could be anywhere in the world with only one electrical device, where would you be and what would you bring?

Jianzhi “Gary” Guo

1. I would like to have events for all ethnic groups, so they can get connected.

2. Because if we can all stay together we can get a stronger voice. It helps get more interaction between students of all different backgrounds.

3. I would like to have a language exchange program, where students could pair up and start to learn languages other than their own.

4. Himalayas with a camera.

Shanky Gondal

1. This semester we would like to go paintballing. An event at the CSU to get people talking about what they would like to do. Get connections made between the students. After the Olympics we can see in the meetings what people want.

2. People should be interested [because] there are a lot of international students and they should get to know people from all over the world. Some are from Europe, some are from Asia, and it’s nice to come out and meet others.

3. I have been working in this position before and it really takes time to get settled in. I now know how it works.

4. This morning I would like to be in bed sleeping with my TV.

Richard McCrae

1. Five days for the homeless. It’s a national campaign where students will lay homeless on campus for five days with only a pillow and a sleeping bag. They will have no access to their disposable income with all the food they need donated by other students. All money given to students goes to the charity. Students will blog on a website on a daily basis about their experience. There will also be a kickoff event. Though we lost our first location, we have three bands lined up. It will be a party -- get some beer and help raise awareness.

2. Throughout history, students are the main catalizers of social movement and most prominent activists. It is a very untapped resource at Capilano University. People at the meetings can meet other like minded students and get involved in something that can have a very positive effect on their university experience.

3. There aren’t any other candidates. People should vote for me because I am very passionate about this. I have really big hopes and I am a very hard worker. I have also had a very large success in the community so far. I also want to get a health and dental plan at the school by contacting other student unions and talking with the administration about what is needed to get that in the works.

4. Vanuatu with a translator.

// Ben Drake

writer

LET’S GO FLY A KITE FOR JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY The winds of change hit the CFS-BC, hard

Four days in Nanaimo for their Annual General Meeting left the CFS-BC (Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia) a slightly different society.

Of particular note is the motion that came out of the AGM regarding outstanding CFS-BC delegation fees. The motion, which passed, states that if a member has outstanding delegate fees older than 180 days, the delegate is then unable to attend the next AGM.

“The motion would require that a local union pay any delegate fees outstanding from previous general meetings, before that local may register delegates for a subsequent general meeting,” says Shamus Reid, CFS-BC Chairperson.

“It would make sense and put it [the CFS] in line with a lot of organizations,” says Gurpreet Kambo, the Capilano Student Union’s CFS representative, of the motion. “But we tried to move an amendment…that unfortunately didn’t pass.”

The amendment would have required the CFS to deliver prior written notice to locals with outstanding fees, so they were aware of their situation.

Derek Robertson, CFS representative for the Kwantlen Students’ Association, says that his local pushed for such provisions to be put in place – something that is currently absent in CFS-BC policy.

Elections also took place at the AGM, for the CFS-BC Executive. Reid, who has been re-elected as the CFS-BC Chairperson four times, decided not to run again this year.

“Being elected four times has been a huge honour and a privilege,” he says. “It has also been an extraordinary challenge and has required spending a great deal of time away from family and friends.”

He plans to spend more time with his partner, and to turn his focus onto completing his degree.

“I have absolute confidence that Nimmi Takkar (Chairperson-elect) and others who were elected…will be strong leaders on behalf of BC’s university and college students, and will hold the government’s feet to the fire to make education more affordable,” says Reid.

Chelsea Berry, Lansdowne Director-at-Large for Camosun College, found it strange that Takkar had told her “that she had only decided the day prior to the Election Forum that she was going to be running for the position.”

“I have come to learn,” says Berry, “that the Chairperson works a sixteen-hour day…clearly, deciding to run [for the position] and put aside your life is a big decision and one that students would not take lightly.”

The incoming Chairperson was placed under scrutiny during the candidates’ forum, in particular when she was asked a question about a feeling of alienation some school locals were experiencing within the CFS-BC.

She said she knew nothing about member locals feeling alienated, according to Kailey Willetts’ report in The Martlet. 

“She has been with her board for nearly two years, not knowing what the issues are is totally unacceptable,” says Berry, who confronted Takkar  about her response after the forum.

Despite her criticisms of Takkar, “I feel that the CFS is a valuable lobbying organization and does provide students with valuable benefits,” says Berry. “I enjoyed the AGM a lot. I’ve shown to the delegates that I will speak my mind even if it goes against the status quo of the CFS.”

“In comparison to the national one [CFS AGM], it was a cakewalk,” says Kambo. “There was less tension, there were less emotions…it was certainly easier than the national one. There wasn’t a lot of really controversial things happening.”

//Samantha Thompson

Assistant News Editor

COURT RULING ‘NOT IN THE BEST INTERESTS’ OF THE CFS-BC Who knew that student reps want to represent…students?

The CFS-BC had its hands full over the past couple of weeks.

Derek Robertson, Director of External Affairs for the Kwantlen Students’  Association (KSA) and newly-recognized KSA CFS representative, has been in an ongoing battle with the CFS-BC for a couple of years – most recently in the Supreme Court of BC.

He was elected Director of External Affairs of the KSA in April 2008, which is synonymous in that organization with becoming their student association’s representative at the CFS. There was a period of time when Robertson stepped down from representing Kwantlen at the CFS, so that he could work on a CFS defederation campaign for the KSA without a conflict of interest.

Following the conclusion of the campaign, the CFS-BC has refused to allow Robertson back on their board of directors. The board of directors for the CFS-BC is comprised of enough seats to allow for a representative from each member local.

There is a ratification process that is to be followed in order to recognize members of the executive. Shamus Reid, Chairperson of the CFS-BC, says that the court ruling “ignored that a super-majority of members at a general meeting of the CFS-BC voted against the ratification of Mr. Robertson to the Executive Committee because he could not represent their interests.”

Robertson, however, says that the ratification process is in place “as merely a mechanism to make sure that proper process was followed in the appointment of that representative, not to allow or disallow that representative from serving.”

The case was in court at the beginning of January, and the CFS-BC and the KSA received the ruling on January 20. Madame Justice Brown, who presided over the trial, ruled that by refusing to acknowledge Derek Robertson as the CFS representative for the KSA, they were in violation of Section 24 of the Society Act for BC.

The section reads, “The members of a society may, in accordance with the bylaws, nominate, elect, or appoint directors”. The Act also states that directors are responsible for handling the affairs of the society, subject to the Society Act and the constitution and bylaws for the society.

The Act does not, however, allow directors to refuse to recognize a fellow director who has been duly elected.

“We’re certainly perplexed by the ruling,” says Reid. “The BC Society Act provides that directors of a society are legally responsible for protecting from harm. Despite this legal responsibility, Justice Brown’s ruling denies directors the legal power to do so.”

“A court ruling that would overturn the democratic will of the overwhelming majority of voting members is not in the best interests of a society,” he added.

Justice Brown awarded the KSA with costs, as well as re-establishing Robertson on the CFS-BC Executive Committee.

The ruling further set a precedent that deems societies in B.C. unable to create qualifications for the appointment of society directors outside that of what is outlined in the Society Act-BC. 

“We believe this ruling was made in error,” says Reid, “and will have profoundly negative consequences for societies in BC.”

Robertson, who is pleased with the victory, disagrees. “Kwantlen students have been without a representative for almost two years because the CFS-BC Executive has seen fit on multiple occasions to disallow Kwantlen’s duly elected representative ... from serving as a representative of Kwantlen. It’s absolutely preposterous.”

Robertson says he is thrilled with the outcome of the court ruling.

“If you cannot speak critically of an organization, how can you make it a better organization? It’s just impossible.”

//Samantha Thompson

Assistant News Editor

PEROGIES SATISFY A CRAVING FOR DEMOCRACY Rally Challenges Stephen Harper’s Prorogation of Parliament

The streets of Vancouver were filled with protesters on January 23, when over a thousand of the city’s residents met to oppose the recent prorogation of Parliament. The protesters marched from the Vancouver Art Gallery to Victory Square, halting traffic in downtown Vancouver and chanting “Get back to work!”

The rally was organized by Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, with help from the BC Young Liberals, and was coordinated largely through the Facebook group joined by over 200,000 Canadians. It was one of sixty demonstrations held across Canada and around the world to protest the Prime Minister’s unilateral decision to suspend Parliament from December 30 to March 3.

Harper’s second prorogation in two years means that Members of Parliament will not be able to represent their constituents in Ottawa for over sixty days. It also means that all thirty-five bills currently in discussion in the House, including bills aimed at reforming climate change regulations, human trafficking, and white collar crime, are thrown out and must start from scratch when Parliament reconvenes.

The Prime Minister has stated his reasons for proroguing Parliament were to give MPs some time off to enjoy the Winter Olympics, as well as to complete his Economic Action Plan.

However, many of the protest’s speakers, including Jason Gratl of the BC Civil Liberties Association, believe Harper is evading questions about Canadian complicity in the torture of Afghan prisoners. When faced with a lawsuit which showed that “Canada has ignored reports of torture in Afghan prisons… [the government] responded by attacking the institutions of democracy,” Gratl said.

Yet while there was a decidedly anti-Harper tone, politicians from all backgrounds attended the rally, including MPs Joyce Murray and Hedy Fry from the Liberal party and Peter Julian and Libby Davies from the NDP. One of the bills thrown out due to the prorogation was Davies’ National Housing Act, intended to help her constituents in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

Peter Julian, MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, responded to Harper’s defence that previous governments have also used prorogation. “Prorogation has been used very, very selectively. It’s been used for short time periods, and often it’s been used with the approval of Parliament. In this case… it was used to shut down the Afghan prisoner inquiries. That’s really the only reason why Stephen Harper has locked Canadians out of their own elected democratic Parliament.”

Students have also become closely involved in the public outcry resulting from the prorogation. Members of the Young Liberals of BC helped to organize the protest, and students from across Vancouver were in attendance. Kendra Ashton, a first year Arts student at UBC, said, “Harper just doesn’t have this right. He needs the whole House to agree with him. We can’t let the Prime Minister do this.”

Protesters were greeted at Victory Square with perogies, a delicious twist to Stephen Harper’s actions. Some of the rally’s attendees even carried signs that said, “More Perogies, Less Prorogue”. But while the protesters joked about the situation, they also made it clear how seriously they feel about the issue.

“When Stephen Harper decided to shut down Parliament during the Christmas holidays, I guess he thought that Canadians would not notice and would not care,” one speaker said. “Well, guess what, Mr. Harper, hundreds of thousands of Canadians did notice and did care.”

// Laura Kane

Writer

GLOVES OFF The fight for Canadian content

WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP) – The future of Canadian content in the media is looking bleak. As cable companies and networks continue to prefer American programming for its assured profit, both parties fight for revenue.

In the future, the cost of producing Canadian programs will likely be placed on the consumers or the shows themselves.

"It’s a problem right now and there's a great fear that we're going to see the disappearance of local television in particular,” explained Anne-Marie Kinahan, assistant professor of communication studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, adding that distinctly Canadian content will also be impacted by this trend.

The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has held ongoing hearings to develop new regulations to protect local television and Canadian content. Public hearings in December 2009 opened the platform to consumers after previous private meetings were held during the year.

Although the CRTC has considered posing a 1:1 ratio for American to Canadian content, there is a concern about imposing such regulations. Currently, the CRTC puts the onus on the networks and providers to follow their guidelines.

“They are very reluctant to use that power because they don't want the perception of government interference in our industries or in our media,” explained Kinahan.

Without stricter regulation, corporate entities – such as cable provider Rogers Communications and networks including CTV – continue to hold the power in the media that is available to Canadians.

Steve Dotto, executive producer, writer and host of the informational show *Dotto Tech*, which aired on CityTV until its cancellation last fall, expressed his concerns about the current climate. 

“Now all these greedy large corporate entities are not happy with just making good profit, they want to make outrageous profit and with us paying for it,” said Dotto. 

Dotto, who experienced the changes first hand when his show was offered the ultimatum to pay the network or be canceled, explained that it’s the small, locally-produced shows that are getting cut as networks remain profit-conscious.

“I refused to do the show for them and then pay them money to be on the air like an infomercial,” said Dotto.

As networks charge increasing amounts to air shows, the landscape becomes difficult for independent producers to break into the industry, while already-existing stations across the country are closing, including CTV’s station CKNX-TV in Wingham, Ont.

With the cancellation of his show, Dotto found a new medium to provide his information: on the Internet.

"If people are consuming their local news on handheld devices, streaming into a Blackberry or into an iPhone or even online at the website as opposed to turning on channel 37 on their television, we should be honouring that,” said Dotto.

Although the Internet offers new possibilities to provide content, Kinahan explained that it will not completely resolve the debate in the industry. 

"There's still tremendous numbers of people that want to watch television on television in (their) living rooms,” said Kinahan.

The undying popularity of television requires that networks and providers reach an agreement on how to fund local content.

“It’s interesting that there has not been much talk of a way forward or a compromise or a solution,” Kinahan noted.

The CRTC hearings, the next of which will be held on Feb. 22, have thus far proved to be unproductive.

“What we see as consumers is a very routine standardizing of content,” said Kinahan. “The power lies with the broadcasters and the cable companies.”

// Linda Givetash

The Cord

VERY NICE, I LIKE, AND SO FORTH Documentary film illuminates the dark side of Borat

In a Romanian village where girls are married at the age of fifteen, Carmen, an unmarried virgin at the age of seventeen, is considered a granny. She has taught herself to speak fluent Spanish by watching daytime soap operas, and dreams of living in Spain with her correspondent boyfriend. Contrary to her desires, Carmen’s father is forcing her to marry a man from the village.

As the documentary progresses, it’s revealed that this man is not only a womanizer who is obsessed with Carmen’s virginity, but he is a thief who steals money from her father’s business. In distress, Carmen runs away from home. The crew is left to watch the mental deterioration of her father, who has an emotional breakdown on camera.

At the same time that Carmen’s family turmoil is happening, their town is in an uproar. Sasha Baron Cohen’s film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, used their village of Glod as Borat’s home town. The townspeople are portrayed as uneducated and barbaric. Borat’s crew did not tell them what they were participating in, and paid them an insultingly low sum in compensation. As they couldn’t speak English, the town thought that Borat was another documentary and went along without question.

When they see Borat on TV, however, the town realizes that they were lied to. As Carmen’s family is the richest in town, they decide to sue Sasha Baron Cohen for defamation. In a series of misunderstandings and accusations, the town begins to turn on Carmen’s family. They resent them for their money, and are angry when the lawsuit does not come to fruition.

Throughout the film, Carmen realizes that her dreams of moving to Spain are unlikely to become reality, as she is so tangled in the town’s drama. In an effort to salvage what she can of her happiness, she settles for a different townsman. The documentary ends with her married with a child on the way.

The film was initially inspired when director Mercedes Stalenhoef met Carmen in a Romanian bar. She told Stalenhoef of her dreams of escaping to Spain, and the director was so enraptured by Carmen’s passion that she decided to film a documentary about her life. At first the film was going to be about Carmen’s escapist dreams and her struggle to leave Romania, but during the three years of filming in the town of Glod, their story shifted focus.

Carmen Meets Borat is a very intimate drama with bursts of dark comedy and intense human insight. The only downfall to the film is the initially slow setup and pacing. The film picks up as it progresses, particularly when the lawsuit over Borat becomes an intriguing plot point to compliment to the human relationships. Carmen Meets Borat is a riveting real-life story that certainly puts Sasha Baron Cohen’s Borat to shame.

// Harrison Pratt
Writer

FUCK YOU, DREW CAREY Improvisation doesn't have to be terrible

At the age of eleven, fed up with other clarinet players who would not practice, Sara Schoenbeck picked up the bassoon. She was attracted to the instrument’s beautiful deep tone, and its strange and mysterious allure. From that day forth, Sara has been expanding the capabilities, tone, and technique of “the quiet beast” that she plays. Not only is Sara changing the way the bassoon is played, she is part of the changing face of contemporary music in general.

It is common for Sara to pack up her bassoon and go off to practice music. For those of you who are picturing the inside of an opera house, complete with an orchestra dressed in tuxedoes and long dresses, performing classical music, stop; you couldn’t be further from actuality. This week, you can catch her performing on bassoon in an eight piece band featuring bass, electric guitar, drums, trumpet, viola, cello, and zheng (a Chinese stringed instrument). I know many of you may be thinking that you have been transported into a musical twilight zone; welcome to the world of improvised music. Sara describes it as “music that is spontaneously composed, without pre-conceived structures other than the musical language that each musician brings.” With such varying instrumentation, let alone the unique musical background of each player, this musical twilight zone is in fact a whole new world of musical opportunity.

Sara got her start in improvised music after realizing that she “wasn’t always getting personal artistic satisfaction” when she played the music of other composers. She turned to improvising, and was catapulted off the written page, championing music from her own creative centre. To an improvised musician this is appealing, as is the interaction required to successfully play improvised music with other musicians. New techniques are often required for the tones of multiple instruments to resonate together. “I often try to hear things texturally and try to blend and bend my sound beyond traditional bassoon practices,” says Schoenbeck of her technique.

Improvised music walks a tight-rope with concert-goers – some are attracted to the innovations performers make, others are put off from the departure from traditional musical practices. Schoenbeck tells her listenership to simply enjoy. “Go in with an open mind. Try to be a synesthete, involve your other senses.” Improvised music is often as visual an art form as it is aural. One may see instrumentalists physically manipulating their instruments in weird and wonderful ways. But one can also have the music literally send shivers down their spine.

For the full experience of improvised music, a compact disc will not suffice; “I think improvised music is best experienced in person,” offers Schoenbeck. “I really love a more intimate setting for improvising...[the] bassoon is a bit of an albatross. It’s big, difficult to mic, has thirteen keys for your thumbs alone, and is mercilessly quiet. I could be blowing my brains out and not be heard.” Luckily for music aficionados, Sara, along with some of North America’s most respected improvisers are performing as part of the Time Flies Improvised Music Festival; this takes place from February fourth through sixth at the Ironworks studio on Granville Island. If you have any desire to have your mind blown, you should definitely check it out.

// Colin May

Writer

FOUNDATION OF FAMILY Tuesday night hip hop on Main Street

Tucked between an aptly named curtain store (Window Fashion) and an aptly named vietnamese restaurant (Restaurant Vietnamese), Nyala is a popular ethiopian restaurant in the trendy “Soma” neighbourhood of Main street. Diners have enjoyed their award-winning African cuisine for over 20 years, and every Tuesday night, the patrons line up for a night of jazz influenced, soul drenched hip hop.

God knows how all these people found out about this night – Nyala's website (Nyala.com) is less than informative, with no mention of the events at all. Foundationradio.ca is just as dusty, with updates spaced a year apart, and while I found a poster for the Nyala music night halfway down their front page, the last “event” listed there is for June 2009.

Regardless of all apparent attempts to keep this night a secret, the word of mouth has Nyala filling up on a weekly basis. The Tuesdays alternate between the Foundation Radio night and a slightly lower-key open mic style jam night. I spoke with Randy Ponzio, an engineer, producer and musician who plays a big part in the Foundation Radio group.

“I've been doing the Foundation night since it's inception. We're all family, man. [Foundation Radio] Is more than a website, man, it's more than a name. This is the first time I've come across people that are, like, the true embodiment of community and family. They said it, 'Foundation Family' and I was like, cool, but you get to know them more and you see that these cats are truly about family. So much so that they've embraced me. And I know no one here, no literal family here other than my three children, but these cats have become my true family.”

Randy is one of three singer, rapper and multi-instrumentalists in the group Questpoetics. Featuring saxophone, piano, guitar, beatboxing and as many vocal loops as a sampler pedal can handle, Questpoetics had the crowd head bobbing and hand-clapping through their night-long set featuring a revolving door of unique performers.

“It's a DIY world these days. You've really got to do it yourself. Our goal is to sell 6000 records, that's a modest goal. We have a huge online presence, I have a Youtube page that has generated in the past year 1.5 million views, I have 50 000 subscribers to my podcasts and on questpoetics.com I give free video guitar lessons. And people will go on for the free guitar lessons, and through that they get to know me and our music. We give, give, give and in return, they buy, buy, buy. If you give, you get. I've given 30 000 people lessons in the last year.”

Through a grassroots approach, the Foundation Radio group has brought music to thousands of people all over the world, yet the feeling of a close family and community is at forefront of everything they do.

“I grew up in El Paso, Texas. In the desert.” Randy says, as the server brings us our lentil stew. “I've been in Vancouver for three years, man. I'm here for life.”

// Tim Clapp
Writer

LIFE ACCORDING TO JAN WONG “You’ll be shocked by how far this will take you”

 
She took box cutters on airplanes after 9/11 to see how tight security really was, and worked a minimum wage job just to see what it would be like to live with the tight budget that many single parents in Canada deal with every month. Above all, she battles to have the truth known, even when it could impact her career and credibility.

Jan Wong is the author of four books, with a fifth on the way, and worked for the Globe and Mail, serving as Beijing correspondent from 1988 to 1994, covering the Tienanmen Square massacre. She addressed the Canadian University Press (CUP) National Conference's attendants with ten rules to live by, but they could be mantras for anyone at all.

Rule #1: Get out of your comfort zone

“Everyone has a boldness bone. You just have to flex it… Do something that scares you every day. What’s the worst that can happen?” Wong asked. The obvious answer: Failure.

Take us university students; sometimes the hardest thing we can do is put ourselves into what could potentially become an uncomfortable or even difficult situation. Try something new, especially if it scares you.

Rule #2: Try not to break the law, but question authority

It wasn’t a joke that Wong took box cutters onto an airplane after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She didn’t do it for an adrenaline rush, but rather to experiment with how potentially harmful items could pass through security onto a plane.

“They were confiscating people's poppies,” Wong told us, when prompted to explain why she brought “twenty sharp things” onto a plane. “I got on the flight from Toronto to Vancouver … I got through with 18 out of the twenty items I originally brought with me. My editor told me not to bring out the box cutters, but I did.”

It goes to show that there are times in our lives when rules are just begging to be broken. “Question authority.” There are times in life when pushing the envelope may be one of the most important things one can do.

Rule #3: Push people to talk to you

“Everything is negotiable.” Wong says.

What Wong meant by this was to use every available opportunity you are given, and not back down just because someone may say no to you the first time you apply for a job or interview. She is also speaking about working your hardest to network and get out there.

This doesn’t mean you need to go out and say hello to every person you meet on the street and then punch every person who doesn’t immediately respond. This is about persevering when it seems like no one will listen to you.

Rule #4: Always ask something that seems stupid or trivial

“What’s the last book you read?” It's a question that Wong asked one of the men she was doing an investigative profile on. When he gave her an answer that seemed a little unorthodox, she dug deeper and found out he was a fraud.

Now, don’t go out and ask your new boss whether he wears tighty-whities or boxers. But use this whenever you are trying to figure out if someone is hiding something from you. When done correctly, it can defuse a situation.

Rule #5: “Always ask a question for which there is no good answer”

Want to know how to learn some interesting facts about the subject you are taking? (And by interesting, I mean things you could totally use on your final exam, long answer portion.) Follow this rule: Ask a question that doesn’t seem like it would have an easy answer. Wong explained, “you aren’t always looking to find the answer; you’re trying to reveal something.” It may seem easier to just get the point blank answer and move forward, but the wider context is often more revealing.

Rule #6: Everything is a story

“No matter where you are. Things are going to unfold.” When Wong was talking to the student journalists about this, she talked about the time that she ran into Jean Chretien outside of her psychiatrist’s office. While talking to him, she got a great quote for her upcoming book. Pay attention to the opportunities around you and “Always be on.”

Rule #7: Break down barriers any way you can

“Dress the way [potential employers] dress; don’t stick out,” but know when to “reveal yourself to them, so they will reveal things about themselves to you.”

Barriers occur in every single relationship we have with people. Dressing in a particular way seems to be a pretty standard rule for trying to get a job, whereas revealing yourself is about getting to know other people. Here is an equation to help you remember it:

Being genuine+gaining trust from others = Anything you want.

Rule #8: Don’t turn off your tape recorder

“It’s not over until it’s over.” Wong says, and while this may be a cliché, in life there are situations where things are going to be lost in translation, miscommunicated or even twisted, so be smart about what you say and who you say it to. A solid comment caught on record is like having a solid alibi when the cops are after you for a crime you never committed. Dramatic? Yes. But it’s true; imagine your brain to be a tape recorder, keep yourself plugged in, and just remember rule six: Everything is a story.

Rule #9: Fight for time and resources

“Be nice, and be helpful. But if you have to be tough, be tough. The more time you have, and the more resources you have, the better.”

This applies for school, work, and even relationships. You can, in fact, petition your professor about the deadline they have given you for that million word essay due on a Sunday night. You can also negotiate for some one-on-one time with them to help you get that essay done.

Rule #10: Consciously write for the front page

“Approach every story like it could make or break your career.” This translates, in non-journalism speak, to “do your best all the time.” Every time that you submit something with your name on it, every day that you walk into a classroom or onto a stage, you have the opportunity to be a better, stronger, brighter person than you were the day before. In the wise words of Wong: “Push yourself, because no one else will.”

// Nicole Mucci

Columnist

FREE SPEECH AND FREE SPENDING US Supreme Court uncaps corporate political spending

There was a time when I went to SFU and a time when I served as head of elections for the student union they have over there. It’s a big school, and hence, according to the ambitious hopes of the student union constitution, which declares every SFU student to be one of its “members,” I had over 25,000 potential voters to worry about. That same constitution, however, imposed a rather dated $50 campaign spending limit for all potential candidates, a frustrating restraint on the sort of far-reaching populism most student politicians want their elections to become.

Because their campaign budgets were so small, the candidates understandably became very touchy and defensive towards any perceived signs of over-spending on the part of their opponents. If a candidate tried to cut photocopying expenses by making his posters with felt pens and flattened shoe boxes then shouldn’t I, as elections director, force him to record the estimated cash value of such products in his campaign budget? Conversely, if the other guy is lucky enough to have his own car and can drive down to Kinkos to get his flyers done, shouldn’t he be forced to budget his gas money? Or how about the car itself, while we’re at it? I tried to impose order as best I could, but the more convoluted and obsessive the candidates’ desires for “fairness” got, more arbitrary my decisions became.

That such questions are so exceedingly tricky to answer at even the most micro, small-time level should give some insight into the challenges that have been facing the United States Supreme Court in its recent deliberations over American campaign financing laws, and some context into their decision last week to just throw out the whole mess of ‘em altogether.

The trigger case in question, Citizens United V. Federal Election Commission arose out of exactly the sort of cranky and paranoid hair-splitting that inevitably arises from laws that seek to regulate an idea as amorphous and indefinable as “campaigning.” Some conservative director made an anti-Hillary Clinton documentary, and wanted to show it on TV. This was back in the days when Hillary Clinton was still running for something, so angry liberals quickly claimed that the evil right-wing director had produced little more than a 90-minute Republican commercial, a critique which the US electoral commission eventually bought. This put the director’s firm, Citizen’s United, in a tough place. As they maintained that they were merely making a movie about Hillary Clinton, a legitimate public figure with a story worth documenting, no laws governing how political advertisements should be crafted were followed, lest of all the ones limiting financing.

During the case itself, the Citizens United people predictably played the where-does-it-all-end card. At what point does the expression of political opinion during election season evolve into something the government has an obligation to control and regulate? When does an opinion, be it in a magazine article, book, talk show, or blog post, become partisan to the point that it constitutes outright “campaigning?” If campaigning itself becomes impossible to define, it becomes much easier to segue into the related argument that state-imposed limits on the funding of campaign activities are fundamentally illegitimate. And that’s more or less what the US high court said in Citizens, throwing out America’s once strict limitations on just how much cash big corporations and unions are permitted to spend helping candidates get elected (in one way or another). Donating money is a form of free expression, the majority faction declared, and despite the best arguments of some, they could find no justifiable argument for limiting the speech of the wealthy simply because they are unpopular.

This matter is one that unnerves a great deal of people because it evokes so many ubiquitous middle class fears regarding the secret manipulative power of the capitalist plutocracy, a theme that looms so constantly large in our popular culture. President Obama, a man in dire need of some populist cred, has been doing his best to monger these fears himself, characterizing the court’s ruling as giving even “more voice to the powerful interests that already drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

Yet the fact remains that money, corporate donated or otherwise, actually plays a much less significant role in democratic elections than is fashionable to realize. The Freakonomics guys, in their study of the phenomenon found that even the most extravagant of spending, like, say, doubling your campaign budget from one election to the next, will, at most, win you a measly extra 1% of the popular vote. We voters are a great deal smarter than we give ourselves credit for, and rich blowhards who think they can buy their way to power are usually a lot less cunning. The fact that you are probably barely aware of who Steve Forbes and Ross Perot are is probably some indicator of that.

Campaign finance regulations fall into that ample void of ideas that sound agreeable enough on a gut level, but become quite incoherent when tried to implement in practice. In a free society, our elections should be among the most unregulated and unrestrained periods of free expression and activism, a time when citizens of all interests, opinions, and yes, wealth, can freely organize to make their voices heard within our democratic system. Mucking about with this simple principle, and arbitrarily setting limits on how much expression this-or-that group can make based on vague instincts about what “seems fair” is ultimately an arbitrary game, no more principled than telling some uppity student that he has to document how much hair gel he’s using during his run for the library board.

// JJ McCullough

Writer

BEAUTIFULPEOPLE.COM Not actually very beautiful

KELOWNA, B.C. (CUP) — If you have already read about BeautifulPeople.com, what you’ve heard probably isn’t very positive.

While a relatively new networking and dating website, BeautifulPeople.com stands out from the hoards of other social sites by their controversial method of filtering applicants. The website markets itself as social networking site filled strictly with beautiful people  – no more filtering through "ugly" profiles on websites to find a good match for yourself.

In order to keep BeautifulPeople.com filled only with ‘beautiful’ people, they have a rather brutal screening process. BeautifulPeople.com utilizes its community to define what beauty actually is. In order to become a member, all applicants submit their full name, personal information and a profile picture online. Their picture is posted instantly on the site and judged over a 48-hour period by members of the opposite sex. Male members, for example, will vote on potential new female members as to whether or not they are ‘beautiful’ enough to join on a scale of 1 to 4.

The shallowness of society has been taken to a whole new level.

This screening process is flawed in so many obvious ways. Anyone skilled with Photoshop has a substantially higher chance at getting in. You could submit a picture of someone else entirely. If you want to be taken seriously, you also have to submit a specific type of picture – not just a picture of you, of course, but your good side. Your sexy side. The side where women wear a tonne of makeup and emphasize their cleavage. I don’t think any woman should have to do this to gain the advantage against other women just to join an online society.

I tried making a profile (strictly for research purposes of course) and the entire site was riddled in coding errors and annoying broken links at every third click. Members need to pay for the service upon acceptance into the society, which is almost a given, but is still a big turn off. But it gets worse. Much worse.

This month, beautifulpeople.com relieved around 5,000 users of their memberships. The users had apparently gained too much weight over the holidays and were not deemed ‘beautiful’ enough to be kept on the servers. According to the BBC, BeautifulPeople.com co-founder Robert Hintze said that “As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld.”

“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

The stunt resulted in thousands of bruised egos and major media attention, raising the number of visits to their site dramatically. It is totally plausible to speculate that they might have done it for the attention. I must have missed the memo that said beautiful people who have gained a few pounds are instantly ugly. Shame on you, BeautifulPeople.com. Shame.

// Amber Choo

The Phoenix

HITZ FROM THE BONG Bill C-15: The conservative choice for corporate crime

Jason shows up at my door twenty minutes after the call, bleary eyed and sporting an Alice in Chains cut off t-shirt, sweat pants, and rank greasy hair. We get in his mom’s car and take off toward the nearest McDonalds. He fills me in on what's going on over egg McMuffins. His landlord is coming to inspect his basement suite this week, and Jason is worried his grow operation will be discovered. He needs help making the place presentable while he dismantles his hydroponic gear. I reluctantly acquiesce. Jason isn't as careful as he should be. A smart grower will keep to himself, his paranoia secluding him to a life of botany and Call of Duty. However, because I work at Puff, Jason insists on confiding in me and enlisting my help... like I'm some kind of weed-guru or something.

We arrive at his basement suite where he reveals his classic 'One-Light Wonder' set-up. The room is walled in reflective film and in the centre, a single ballast dangles a 1000-watt High Pressure Sodium grow light over eighteen, four-foot seedlings. The structure housing the plants is equipped with a nutrients injection manifold that supplies the plants with supplements as well as water. He has also cleverly used the dryer vent to install an industrial quality exhaust blower to control air temperature. It looks like Star Trek; I’m impressed. Jason explains that the equipment is worth roughly two grand. The operation should net him roughly 20 ounces a cycle, which he could sell for about $2500. It is a pretty low rent neighbourhood, so he hasn't worried too much about getting caught – until now.

Jason has never been a big time drug dealer. At worst, he's trying to figure out what to do with himself. He isn't dangerous, he doesn't have a gun. He is just young, confused and underpaid. But he unwittingly represents the difference between centralized, mega-profit crime syndicates (and all the violence that they come with), and the old school, hippie farmer.

Proposed Bill C-15 is an attempt to target BC's $5-7 Billion gang-run marijuana industry, and will inevitably hurt small time growers like Jason. By instituting mandatory minimum sentences for drug infractions, growing a single marijuana plant in a residential area would net you nine months in prison, no exceptions. Bill C-15 was put forward by the Conservatives last year, and with the support of the Liberal party, passed through to Senate. Now that Harper has prorogued Parliament, the bill will have to wait until March, where it will run the gamut of bureaucracy again.

The bill fails in discerning organized crime syndicates from small time criminals. By introducing minimum sentencing, we take the power of discretion out of the hands of the judge, who will no longer be able to discern a low level thug from a king-pin. In fact, it actually enables organized crime to perpetuate their violent monopoly. By sentencing the likes of Jason to nine months in jail we may put great financial strain on the prison system, as is currently the situation in the United States. In 2008, the US had one out of one-hundred adults in prison. Those numbers cost the state and federal government $55 billion a year.

These highly profitable grow ops are organized, violently defended, and are far removed from Jason's ‘One-Light-Wonder,’ which really just supports his own stash. For example, Vietnamese gangs make up 95% of police raided grow operations in Vancouver, according to Det. Jim Fisher (VPD intelligence coordinator for Asian crime). These gangs utilize newly immigrated Vietnamese who may find few other job opportunities, employing them as low-level guards, cultivators or covers. Who, then, is really taking a hit when the grow operation gets busted? Certainly not the king pins. They also can’t be expected to suffer much when one of their pawns gets bumped from the game. The independent farmer is in a much different situation than a low level gang lackey, but Bill-C-15 puts them in the same cross-hair. So who does this Bill really affect? Who wins and who loses? From where I’m standing, it looks like we’re about to cut organized crime’s competition and help the blood in the bong water keep flowing.

//Marco Ferreira

Columnist

LOVE, DANGEROUSLY Episode IV: Fully Coded

Greetings, loyal readers. I am writing to you, for the first time ever, from vacation. This is the first trip I’ve ever taken by myself. Presently, I am perched at a café in downtown Seattle over a one-day layover. Tomorrow, I am getting on a plane to Indianapolis, Indiana, to meet (you guessed it)a boy I met on the internet through my Tumblr blog. While we have not committed to anything, I feel pretty good about it, and will be spending the next week with him and his friends. This is the first time I’ve ever gone this far out on a limb based on my feelings for someone. I’m nervous as hell, and have no clue what will happen, but I’ll let you know about it in next week’s issue.

While I’m here, I am reminded about a trip I took to Seattle in the summer a few years ago. This was pretty fresh off my break up with The Ex, and I took my sister for a shopping trip over the summer for her birthday. We stayed at The Moore Hotel in downtown Seattle, a location I had stayed previously with The Ex. The last time I had been there, the man working at the front desk, Bob, was obviously gay. I didn’t bank on it, but I had hoped that Bob would validate ‘the code.’  For those of you who are unaware, ‘the code’ is a relatively universal unwritten rule that gays have.

‘The Code’ is something that my straight friends resent. And as someone who doesn’t really have gay friends at all really, it comes up often. Essentially, as a ‘minority’ (I use the term loosely), some gay people look out for each other when convenient, as an unwritten rule. For example, the lovely lesbian at the coffee shop near my work charges me a mere 45 cents no matter what I order. Last night over dinner, the waiter treated my friends and I to a round of drinks ‘on the house’ before winking at me. I’m all about free shit, so I have no qualms with this type of behaviour.

The first time I stayed at The Moore, Bob gave us the nicest room at the cheapest rate. It was pretty great. The time I went with my sister, we had spent a long day shopping when I went down to the lobby to check my email. Bob was there, and started chatting me up, and told me he was off work in half an hour, and asked if I wanted to go for drinks with him next door.

I returned to my room to freshen up as my sister egged me on, telling me to let loose. I met Bob at the pub beside the hotel where we drank for free for a couple of hours. There was definitely a lot of flirting going on, over stories of him telling me how he’d slept with hotel guests in their rooms and laughing about it. He asked me to walk him home, which is, of course, a whole different type of ‘code’ for asking something else. He warned me that the walk was long, And it was, especially since we were both a bit tipsy.

We walked all the way up to his apartment, which was located far up Capitol Hill, about a 40 minute walk. He invited me up and gave me a tour of his apartment, which was very tidy and well organized. Just as I thought he was going to make a move, he looked at his watch in a very rehearsed manner and said “Oh god it’s late. I should probably go to bed. You’re safe to walk home?” Bam. I don’t know what I did ‘wrong,’ but somewhere along the way, I must have offended him., Or maybe something in his own head clicked that made him feel wrong about the situation?. Surely he wouldn't just use me to walk him home for forty minutes? All night he had given me every indication that would stereotypically suggest a hook up was in order.

Two days later, when we were checking out of the hotel, I discovered that this time I was charged the regular room rate, not a cheaper one. Bob stared at me and spoke in a monotone drawl during the transaction, giving off a cold feeling. Somehow, a small piece of me was violated. He had broken the code, and I couldn’t even say or do anything about it, based on the code’s unspoken and unwritten nature. I wasn’t even disappointed about the rejection the other evening. But the fact that he had passed an opportunity to give me a deal, well, that was my own personal code for '“never staying there again.' “

// JJ Brewis
Writer

THE WORD JERK The linguistics of love

“One word frees us from all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”

-Sophocles

Logic and the dictionary are inextricably linked, and yet the most valuable definitions are often intuitive. Intuition, which is antithetical to logic, is the most valuable tool for understanding what is signified by language. So then isn’t it strange that our best hope at understanding words - the dictionary - relies on a thought device in direct opposition to this most valuable resource?


No word more exemplifies this divide between intuitive and official definitions more than the word ‘does love’.. To lexicographers, love is polysemic, which is to say that it has many meanings. Most dictionary entries for love contain around 20 alternative definitions as both noun and verb, and sometimes one or two essays. This is because no definition is adequate – love is a lexicographical anomaly.


Love is often wrongly assumed to be synonymic to copulation or sexual attraction. This is a misconception, though this definition is common to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, The Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary.com and various other lexica.

Love is a verb, but not a particular one (hence its myriad dictionary definitions), and an action must be a particular verb, so love is not an action. If X loves Y, then X is not doing any one particular thing to Y, but X does associate Y with a particular quality of experience.

It is this quality of experience that is intimated by the use of the word ‘love’ in the context of physical intimacy, rather than the act. The material and metaphysical aspects of intercourse are no doubt associated with (and perhaps insoluble from) one another, but to say that they are identical is absurd. And yet this is what the dictionary suggests we believe.


If the dictionary didn’t confuse us enough, don’t forget that we also have the history of language to contend with. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes three different expressions of love used by the ancient Greeks: Eros, philia and agape. Eros is the expression of romantic love, and the root of the word erotic. Philia is the sort of love between people that does not involve romance, like friendship or kinship (this is why Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love). Agape is the divine love that one can have for nature or for thought or for the universe.

For the Greeks, it would seem that the meaning of love is different depending upon who participates in it. But the modern English word is representative of the transcendent concept common to all three expressions, and in that way it is actually very versatile.

In Knee 5 of Phillip Glass’ opera, Einstein on the Beach, the following lines are uttered: (Two Lovers on a Park Bench) has one character, John, say to the woman next to him, “My love for you is higher than the heavens, deeper than Hades, and broader than the earth. It has no limits, no bounds. Everything must have an ending except my love for you." Here, the modern word expresses something common to both eros and agape. This particular usage shows that loving someone can mean a lot more than getting off with them.

However, high versatility comes at a price, which increases the potential for misunderstanding. And with all of its subtleties of use, the word love is often, if not always, misunderstood.

Here is an instance where language fails to express our ideas and instead confounds us and obscures meaning. If useful definitions of intuitive concepts are what you’re looking for, a dictionary is not the place to look. Poets, composers and artists do a much better job of defining loving than do lexicographers.

John Lennon wrote a short song wherein he spoke the words “Love is real, real is love. Love is feeling, feeling love. Love is wanting to be loved.” This is a purely intuitive definition. His mantra-like repetitions and inversions may be sickeningly mystic to the academic mind, but as far as a working definition is concerned, it’s a lot more enlightening than Dictionary.com’s “Love (luhv): verb- to have sexual intercourse with.”


Sky Hester
// Lama of Love

STAT CAT PROWLS CAP Survey #2: Are you aware of the CSU's servives?

I took the liberty of asking the students at Cap, those willing to do my survey, of course, what they wanted to see from the Capilano Students Union (CSU) in the future. And boy, were there some fun responses. Three out of the forty-eight that I surveyed this week felt happy with the services offered to them by the CSU. Few students felt like their voices were being heard in regards to what they wanted from the CSU.

Still feeling slightly jaded by the apathy that I’ve witnessed in some students' responses, I reviewed the results with some cynicism. In the aftermath of an overwhelmingly positive response to an optional extended dental plan (in a previous column, I found that 84% of the students I surveyed would be in favour of the dental plan, if the CSU actually goes through with it) I found that even though the students from this survey were different from before, few had any knowledge of the proposed dental plan.

The most positive of all survey responses, was “They are perfect”! But it was quickly counter argued by 17% of survey responses that were either left blank or filled with comments such as, “does the CSU even do anything? If they do, they should find a way to keep us better informed instead of us having to go to meetings.”

In defense of the CSU, I would like to remind students that if they want to learn more about what services the CSU provides, they only have to walk up to the building and ask for some information (or these students could always check the posters up around the school, or even grab a handbook).

That said, I can see where  survey respondents are coming from. Last year, as a first year at Capilano and new to the Vancouver region in general, I had no idea what the CSU even did. The only time I went in there was to receive the free agenda they offered, and to check out the couches that, as I rightly suspected, would be perfect for napping.

As for my own personal discovery of the CSU, it was only after I nearly got evicted from my apartment, after my landlord did something illegal, that I found out the CSU offered services to help figure out my rights as a tenant. So perhaps the Students' Union should work a little harder to inform students of the vast range of services they offer. But this is also a call to you students, who don’t know much about your union, to go in and ask any questions you may have.

13.25% of cap students think the CSU
should review the clubs available and cut
the ones that no one is going to
 

15% want the CSU to hurry up and get
us an optional medical/dental plan
 

2% would like Cyprus Passes (to compli-
ment the Seymour and Grouse passes
they probably already have)

2% would like the CSU to advocate for 

cheaper options (in general)

2% say stop spending money on services
that could be free (i.e. the website)
 

8% say the CSU should work towards
change in food at the cafeteria and advo-
cate more for healthier options

4% of you would like to have vending
machines in the horticulture building

// Nicole Mucci

Stat Cat