Pyramid voted Egypt’s favourite polyhedron for 4,000th straight year (Egyptian Shapes Today)
White House interior renovations were an inside job (Daily American Conspirator)
Bowling news not frequent enough to fill weekly magazine (Bowling Monthly Magazine)
Pyongyang voted “world’s ONLY livable city” (North Korean Free Press)
Paul McCartney purchases ‘love’ for 16.8 million dollars (Living Beatles Times)
VIA Rail bombing planner possibly a Quebec university student
Although Ahmed Abassi, 26, is currently arrested in the U.S. for attempting to expedite one of the VIA Rail bomb plots, a man by the same name is registered as a chemical engineering master’s student at Laval University. The university will not confirm whether its student and the offender are the same person, simply stating than someone named Ahmed Abassi is a registered student. Chemical engineering professor Alain Garnier said that he is not permitted to speak to the press about Abassi, who he confirms was not a student in any of his classes.
With files from The Toronto Sun
Swimming dinosaurs will lend insight on present day organisms
After examining 15 feet of claw marks on ancient rocks in China, University of Alberta palaeontologist Scott Persons, has concluded that dinosaurs once swam extended distances with coordinated motion. The fossilized tracks, he suggests, were left by a two-legged carnivorous dinosaur whose feet barely grazed the bottom of the now dry riverbed.
“From dinosaurs, we’ve learned about colour vision in some of today’s animals, and the ancient animals are linked to the evolution of other life we take for granted, like birds and flowering plants,” he says. He will continue to study swimming dinosaurs in order to gain further knowledge on evolution and current life on Earth.
With files from University of Alberta News and Events
King Richard III researchers present at SFU
On May 14, two of the researchers who discovered King Richard III’s remains in a Leicester parking lot visited SFU’s Wosk Center for a public presentation. Turi King and Jo Appleby discussed how they connected King Richard’s DNA to that of a distant living relative.
“[Their] rare fusion of forensics and archaeology analysis in this case yielded a lot of information about the probable cause of this king’s death. He was likely hacked to pieces,” notes Robert Gordon, SFU director and professor of the School of Criminology. King Richard died in 1485 while battling for English throne as the last reigning member of the House of York.
With files from SFU PAMR
Demographic shift causes decline in university enrolment
University of Victoria undergraduate enrolment has fallen short of expectations by 750–800 students for the last two years, hinting at a narrowing youth demographic and soon-to-increase competition between schools for new students. The university’s associate vice-president of student affairs Jim Dunsdon said that Canadian universities outside of immigrant heavy cities like Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary are suffering from the same issue. According to BC Stats, these student decreases are not a temporary problem — they’ve projected a 48,000 person decrease in the 20–24 age range by 2018.
With files from The Martlet
Chantelle Buffie was recognized for her entrepreneurial achievements by Enactus Canada last week
By Alison Roach
Photos by SFU PAMR
Chantelle Buffie, a SFU Beedie School of Business student, was named the 2013 HSBC Woman Leader of Tomorrow at the Enactus Canada national competition in Toronto last week. Enactus Canada is a group of student, academic, and business leaders with chapters throughout the country, including one at SFU.
Buffie spent a week in Toronto, first at the Enactus conference, and then networking with Telus team members — where she currently holds a job back in Surrey as a business analyst. She also continues to take part time classes at SFU, and work on the business she and partner Sonam Swarup founded, Fusion Kitchen.
All these accomplishments led to Buffie being awarded the regional, and then the national title. “I went to Toronto just to support the [Enactus SFU] national competition team that was going, and to see if I won the national award,” said Buffie. “I was against a lot of accomplished females as well, so I was quite surprised that I won.”
The title comes with a $2,500 prize to be used by the Enactus SFU chapter to start a program that targets helping women develop socially and professionally, a concept that Buffie is no stranger to. Fusion Kitchen, which celebrates its second birthday at the end of this month, is a startup social enterprise that offers cultural cooking classes in Vancouver, taught by immigrant women.
Buffie explained that her and Swarup’s backgrounds led them to come up with the idea for Fusion Kitchen, as a way to ease the transition of women who are newcomers to Canada.
“Her parents are from Fiji and my mother comes from the Phillipines,” said Buffie. “We really wanted to ease the transition of immigrant women, or males as well, coming into Canada. A lot of the time they come from very educational backgrounds; a lot of the women we see have masters and PhDs, and it’s sad to see that they’re not getting into the areas they want to get into.”
She continued, “We want to break that cycle, and offer them a work experience that other employers might not provide.”
Initially, Buffie and Swarup intended to focus on recent immigrants, people who had been in the country for less than two years, but found that many applicants to teach the classes were not that new to the country, but still having difficulty transitioning into Canadian life. The two women Buffie and Swarup are currently working with have been in the country for about five years or so.
Fusion Kitchen initially began as a simple school project for a social entrepreneurship class Buffie took in fall 2011, but quickly blossomed into something larger with the support the girls found. “We got a lot of positive feedback from Shawn Smith [a Beedie lecturer], and the SFU Beedie community,” said Buffie. Fusion Kitchen won the first top prize of the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator program and awarded $2,500 to go towards the business.
Fusion Kitchen has now offered six classes, but is having some venue issues now that their previous venue, Save-On-Meats, is currently under renovations. Buffie and Swarup are currently focusing on looking for a suitable space to continue the program. Once classes are up and running again, the team hopes to target more corporate groups who want to do social teambuilding events through the classes.
For now, Buffie continues to divide her attention. “My focus right now is Fusion Kitchen, building up my experience at Telus, and school,” she said with a laugh, “Finishing up school!”
See what some SFU students have to say about unpaid internships and their personal experiences.
We discuss the appropriation and selling of Aboriginal designs and art with George Nicholas, Kristen Dobbin, and Brian Egan of IPinCH, the International Property Issues and Cultural Heritage research project.
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Eats
Nicli Antica Pizzeria is offering up three craft beer and pizza pairing dinners through the month of May, starting with one on May 13. For this first dinner, they’ll be pairing up with local brewery Parallel 49. The hand-crafted Neopolitan-style pizzas will be paired with brews that showcase and compliment the pizza’s flavour profiles. The dinners will start at 8:30 p.m. and will feature four different pizzas plus dessert and a beer from the featured brewery, costing only $45 per person.
Beats
The Astoria is bringing back The Dark Eighties, a night to indulge in your love of The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Siouxie and the Banshees. DJs Nikki Nevver, Virginia Frazer, Szam Findlay will be spinning all night long, unearthing the inner 80s goth in you. There’s no cover, and drinks are named after your favourite heartthrobs, including a shooter called Morrissey’s Tears. There’s also a pool table and pinball games!
Theats
The Troika Collective presents Chernobyl: The Opera, coming to Carousel Theatre Studio and running from May 14–19. The piece for cello, accordion, guitar and voice focuses on the nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in the late 20th century. Composer Elliot Vaughn has created a hauntingly beautiful backdrop for the stories of survivors of the meltdown of the nuclear reactor, as well as those who have chosen to resettle in the region following the disaster, despite the health risks. The text is taken from a collection of interviews and sung by an ensemble of seven vocalists. Tickets are available at brownpapertickets.com or at the door.
Elites
SAD Mag presents MAD MAD WORLD, a tribute to new wave and electro-pop. The dance party is taking place at the Remington Gallery, and will be headed up by local musicians and artists, including The Kingsgate Chorus, City of Glass, and a DJ set by Phil Intile of Mode Moderne. Next door, The Gam will be showing a sneak preview of the artwork from the next issue of SAD Mag. Hint: several bands were given disposable cameras to bring on tour.
Treats
Every Thursday and Saturday Forbidden Vancouver offers a Prohibition City tour, taking guests along a tour of historical Vancouver and mapping out the rise and fall of the prohibition. Part of the tour are respectable hotels that were once illegal drinking dens and the alleyways where the blind pigs once hid. You’ll hear stories about Vancouver’s prohibition-era mayor, L.D. Taylor, showgirls, and the most successful rum runner. The prohibition laws, while short-lived (only lasting until 1921) were so strict that bootlegging and speakeasies stuck around until the 1950s. Sign up for a tour at forbiddenvancouver.ca
By Max Hill
Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
Let me begin this review by admitting that I don’t like Vampire Weekend. No, scratch that — I didn’t like Vampire Weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I love when educated white 20-somethings co-opt African rhythms in order to sell pop records. But lead singer Ezra Koenig and the band’s pretentious post-graduate approach to popular music always struck me as a little anonymous. Despite their unique sound, Vampire Weekend’s music never struck me as anything more than middle-of-the-road fodder for iPad commercials and indie radio stations.
Modern Vampires of the City changed my mind. Maybe it’s the band’s reluctant farewell to its Afrobeat crutch; maybe it’s their new tendency towards experimentation on tracks like harpsichord-sweetened “Step” or pitch-shifted “Diane Young”, but the album feels more varied than any before it.
As he bids farewell to his turbulent 20s, Koenig’s lyrics have shed their Ivy League references in favour of a broader scope of experience. He waxes poetic over adulthood and city life without sacrificing his hyper-literary style, and comes off as more clever and less condescending in the process.
Tracks like “Finger Back” and “Worship You” are as sugary sweet as any of the band’s previous singles, but instead of grating on repeat listens, they seem to deepen and reveal new layers. In particular, drummer Chris Thompson and bassist Chris Baio are in fine form during the album’s faster-paced moments, which come off as more focused and propulsive than ever before.
For a band as popular and well-liked as Vampire Weekend, there are basically two routes from which to choose: either plunge into the mainstream deep end, like Modest Mouse and Interpol before them, or reinvent themselves entirely.
Modern Vampires of the City chooses the road less traveled, and it makes all the difference. The album is both their most experimental and easily their strongest. Vampire Weekend has left behind nearly every aspect of their sound that earned them their initial hype, and for the first time, I feel like I recognize them.
Savages – Silence Yourself
British post-punk quartet Savages aren’t fucking around. The female foursome, characterized by lead vocalist Jehnny Beth’s Siouxsie Sioux wail and Ayse Hannan’s swaggering basslines, sport a sound inextricable from their influences. It’s nearly impossible to listen to the band’s debut LP, Silence Yourself, without hearing the ghosts of Gang of Four and Joy Division.
However, instead of coming off as a spiritless rehash, Savages’ sound is aggressively modern. By employing a style designed to comment on the artificiality and emptiness of society in the 80s, the band manages to say something unique and original — and, arguably, just as compelling — about society today.
Beth’s vocals are deep and unrelenting. Her whispered refrain in “Husbands” and broken balladry in “Waiting For a Sign” speak to her confidence as a performer and conviction as a social commentator. However, much like the post-punk legends of yesteryear, Savages’ greatest asset is its rhythm section.
Acting more often than not as the band’s background vocalist, Hannan’s insistent, Peter Hook-style bass playing pumps blood into Savages’ veins, while Fay Milton’s propulsive drums follow along steadfastly, a percussive call-to-arms. Gemma Thompson’s guitar seems to revolve around her bandmates, choppy and aggressive, almost argumentative. The band’s chemistry is astonishing, considering their short time together. Each member seems to play off of one another, resulting in a compelling, powerful sound that challenges but never overwhelms.
Despite its austere lyrical content, Silence Yourself is an inviting and immersive listen. Savages make their political statements and disillusioned fury seem universal by letting their invigorating musicality speak for itself. By pairing their observant and relentlessly opaque lyrics with jagged, exhilarating post-punk, Savages have made one of the most exceptional debut records in recent memory.
Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
Hounds of Love begins with the sky and ends with the water. Not unlike David Bowie during his Berlin trilogy, Kate Bush split her 1985 masterpiece Hounds of Love into two sides: one is propelled by inventive synth pop, the other submerged in atmospheric ambience.
Having eluded the public eye after the mixed reception of her previous album, The Dreaming, Bush seems to strike back at the commercialization of her image. Though singles like “Cloudbusting” and “Running Up That Hill” are among some of Bush’s best-known and most accessible work, they’re far from the usual radio fare: The former examines the relationship between psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and his son, while the latter explores masculinity and femininity within the confines of a romantic relationship.
On the other hand, Hounds of Love’s more avant-garde passages are always grounded by the emotional honesty of Bush’s lyrics: “Every gull seeking a craft / I can’t keep my eyes open / Wish I had my radio / I’d tune into some friendly voices,” she sings on “And Dream of Sheep,” the tender emotional ballad that opens the album’s second side. Individually credited as The Ninth Wave, the album’s profound part two is permeated by a haunting sense of desperation, given weight by Bush’s uncharacteristically measured vocal delivery. The lack of form and complexity throughout The Ninth Wave complement Bush’s more accessible tracks perfectly — the muted, melancholic yin to Side One’s mellifluous yang.
As much a comment on her own celebrity as an elaborate double concept album, Hounds of Love seems to highlight the duality of Kate Bush as the introverted eccentric and Kate Bush as the theatrical pop star. Both sides are given equal weight, and by closing track “The Morning Fog,” Bush seems to have reconciled the two into a singular, unique identity.
Like the tumultuous decade that spawned it, Hounds of Love is schizophrenic and multi-faceted, but Bush’s skill as a songwriter and tender approach as an artist unite its many themes into a singular work of art that stands among the greatest and most enduring albums of the 80s.
Terrence Malick’s most recent effort is more poetry than narration
By Will Ross
Now that The Tree of Life is well behind us, Terrence Malick’s rep as the most radical director in the mainstream seems to have held firm. That’s a difficult, even paradoxical label to live up to, but I doubt anyone expected the reclusive tastemaker to give a damn about living up to anything but himself, and his follow-up To the Wonder confirms that in abundance.
It is at once the most radical extension of his impressionistic style to date as well as his smallest, most restrained work, a film with near-total confidence in its formal power, largely foregoing dialogue and plotting in favour of narratively disconnected micro-vignettes of characters’ day-to-day lives.
What story there is centres largely on Marina (Olga Gurlyenko), a French mother and divorcee who meets Neil (Ben Affleck), an American environmental surveyor who brings her and her daughter back to America.
Neil is suspicious of strong emotions and commitment, and so his relationships are in flux; after a falling out with Marina, he falls in love with Jane (Rachel McAdams), a quieter rural woman. A subplot that follows a lonely and conflicted priest (Javier Bardem) is mostly-unrelated to Neil’s story on paper, but fits perfectly into the fabric of the film (this is, after all, the director who successfully interpolated the birth of the universe into a suburban coming-of-age story).
All the details of story and emotion — like one character’s feelings of suburban suppression, or a central breakup — are handled with extreme ellipsis; but though major events often occur off-screen, it’s never hard to understand what has happened. But the real emotional heavy lifting is all done by the gentle slashes of the cutting, Emmanuel Lubezki’s light-as-a-feather steadicam cinematography, and perhaps above all else the meticulously expressive sound design by Erik Aadahl.
It’s a risky strategy. Malick is, now more than ever, more poet than narrator, and poetry depends on a near-alchemic mix of abstractions that not all filmgoers are sensitive to. The film is an experience in immersive sensitivity, one that delivers us the characters’ fears and hopes and implacable inner demons. They move through a world that provides lush beauty and tragic degeneration by turn — sometimes both at once — and struggle with how to find constancy through the unseen and oft-unfelt presence of a Christian god.
But the film’s psalmic mode is only one of the ways it interfaces with its themes of the search for constancy in a changing and impermanent life. Most important is Aadahl’s aforementioned sound design, which is surprisingly quiet in To the Wonder. If criticisms can be made of the uniform beauty of the film’s visuals, surely those must be tempered by the way the accompanying sound reconfigures those images.
Those reconfigurations, more than Malick’s famous use of voiceover or classical music, are the key to the film’s impressionistic power. Foreboding tones and sucked-out soundscapes over a beautiful image of a carnival allows us to see that ordinarily joyous vision of life in motion as the character does in that moment: as a harbinger of life’s frightening speed and unforeseeable fractiousness.
Such is Malick’s cautious optimism that when characters pass through these moments of doubt and dilemma, they can still turn their heads and see wonder.
