By Gary Lim
Record renaissance
Vinyl — archaic or classic? Sales trends in the last five years have been tipping in favour of the gramophone
It’s 1991, the embarrassing ‘80s are behind us, and on the horizon is a new world of plaid shirts and grunge music. Our favourite songs are recorded off the radio onto cassette tapes and our albums are stacked up next to our turntables, but rumour has it that there’s a new way of listening to music. Music takes to the CD, and the vinyl record gets pushed out of the spotlight along with the cassette tape.
By the new millennium, BitTorrent and file sharing has yet again revolutionized the shape of music. Sales of physical albums fall gradually over the next decade and never recover, while vinyl sales increase overall.
While vinyl sales still comprise a small percentage of physical album sales, they have gained popularity in recent years.
In 2008, vinyl sales jumped 90 per cent from the previous year, and have been steadily increasing since. And perhaps not so coincidentally, this was the inaugural year of Record Store Day, which is now ingrained onto the calendars of music fans. Record Store Day happens every third Saturday of April.
Many artists have special vinyl releases for Record Store Day as well. Music shops across the continent as well as internationally, including those stationed at music festivals like Coachella, put on special festivities to celebrate the occasion, and would see up to a 50 per cent spike in vinyl sales the week of.
According to Nick Bragg, manager of Zulu Records, he noticed about a 20 to 30 per cent jump in sales at their store over the last few years. The sudden trendiness of record collecting has helped record sales. However, it isn’t simply the younger generations gaining interest — many older consumers are avid record collectors as well.
Many artists consider the vinyl record to be the purest representation of their album. So it isn’t surprising for artists to add on incentives for fans to purchase vinyl instead of their CD. Radiohead’s latest release, The King of Limbs, had a vinyl album package including a Radiohead newspaper, collectible art pieces, and access to a digital format as well. Almost any album purchased today comes with a digital download, which is what Bragg attributes to the decline of CDs and resurgence of vinyl.
For local prog-rock band We Are The City, vinyl is the preferred release for an album. The band released their High School EP on a 12-inch, and a later single on a 7-inch record.
For fans, it seems to have more to do with the smaller motions of putting on a record. The experience of listening to a vinyl record, like the dropping of the needle on the record, can’t be downloaded, says Cayne MacKenzie of We Are The City. In Nick Legasse’s case, it’s a different way to listen to music.
Legasse, host of CJSF world music radio show Wandering Rhythms, says that vinyl is synonymous with discovering something new. Record labels like Finder’s Keepers and Now Again have taken to repressing old music from around the world on vinyl form.
The vinyl record is rising in the music world and doesn’t show signs of stopping. While many people will argue that it is a simple fad, the resilience of the vinyl record over the decades shows that even in the digital age, the vinyl record is an important staple in music.
Record Store Day is April 21.
SFU receives financing for HIV/AIDS research
By Alison Roach
National Institutes of Health grants $2.7 million for vaccine reserach
The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S.’s largest government-funded medical research agency, has recently granted $2.7 million to four researchers working to further develop an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine. One of these researchers is Jamie Scott, an SFU professor and Canada Research Chair in molecular immunity.
Scott is the principle investigator and the main contact on two grants going towards the project; she, along with Dr. Naveed Gulzar, wrote grant applications to both the NIH and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), with both institutes granting funding. Thanks to the NIH grant, the team working on this research has been expanded to now consist of Scott, Dr. Jose Nieva of the University of the Basque Country, Dr. Bill Degrado of the University of California in San Francisco, and Dr. Shan Lu of the University of Massachusetts.
The series of vaccines the team is working on are based on an original vaccine conceived of by Dr. Marinieve Montera, a former student of Scott’s, which is how Scott came to be involved in the project. These vaccines being developed are meant to induce the immune system to produce antibodies that will bind to and block infectivity of HIV.
Of the science behind the vaccines, Scott explains, “The site those antibodies are targeted against is the MPER, a sub-region of HIV’s envelope protein located on the virus’s surface, and mediates infection by binding to special receptors on immune cells. That is the first step in the entry of the viral genome into the cell.” The MPER provides a potentially accessible site that does not vary from virus to virus and that antibodies can focus on. This is important since the challenge to creating antibodies to fight HIV has been that it’s a constantly mutating virus. The idea is to focus on the MPER site on infectious virus as a conserved region that is necessary for infection, and to stop this process from taking place.
The crucial step forward that has been made in this project is the closer copying of the basic MPER structure than has been accomplished before. “We have shown that the basic MPER structure we’re using in our vaccines is very similar to the viral MPER; so we think we’re mimicking it better than other groups that are trying to do the same thing,” said Scott. The group of researchers now hopes to build on this work by producing the vaccine in various different formats with the new funding.
Scott’s lab’s role in the upcoming stages of the project includes making a DNA vaccine that will facilitate the synthesis of the MPER and the presentation of it to the immune system. In the larger scope, the team is now looking to work on engineering the MPER as a better vaccine, with the different vaccine formats helping to immunize with the MPER in a larger amount.
For the practical trials, Scott says, “[Dr. Lu’s] lab and my lab will test the antibodies the animals make for their ability to block the infectivity of HIV. We’ll be so happy if that works. It will be a first, very important step!” The potential implications of the project are huge. If the team develops an effective vaccine that produces positive results in test subjects in the lab, it could prove to be a crucial step towards creating a preventative vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
MBA grads win NASA contract
By Graham Cook
Water treatment technology for decalcification to be used on the International Space Station
A company founded by SFU MBA graduates Joshua Zoshi and Ben Sparrow won a contract to provide water treatment technology to NASA. Saltworks, which was created in 2008, will provide the Ames Research Centre with a pilot system, which has the intention of effectively removing calcium from water.
Zoshi and Sparrow met at SFU in the Master of Technology MBA program in the mid 2000’s. The company they founded together is described as “providing sustainable and economic solutions for desalination and brine treatment.” In its first year, Saltworks won the B.C. New Ventures Award which recognizes entrepreneurship B.C.’s technology sector. In addition, the company is currently ranked number two on B.C. Business Magazine’s of the province’s 20 most innovative businesses.
The NASA Ames Research Centre, located in Silicon Valley in California, is described on its website as being “involved with many high-tech projects, ranging from developing small spacecraft to managing some of the world’s largest supercomputers, and conducting astrobiology research.” They discovered Saltworks design by putting out a public message that they were looking for a device which matched up with one of the technology platforms that the company produces. The International Space Station, which could utilize this technology, contains a water recycling system, which needs to process higher levels of calcium.
Co-founder Joshua Zoshi, who received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 2001 and graduated from the MBA program in 2005, spoke with The Peak about his company’s recent success. He explained that they had been working on the unit for about the past month, calling it a “fast-tracked project” which would be delivered to NASA relatively soon.
The water treatment system will receive an initial look at the research centre to determine whether or not it will end up on the International Space Station, and Zoshi said it is still too early to tell if it will end up in space. He explained that every water treatment application has a unique chemistry and that the ISS has requirements that involve the fact that they have to recycle as much water as possible due to the extremely limited supply. While he was unaware of what the unit would be used for on the station, his understanding was that one of its uses could be recycling urine.
Saltworks was originally founded on technology that cuts electronic use by half for desalinizing water and now contains a variety of different platforms and holds a number of complete and pending patents.
Social networking for comedians
Sin Bin owner Chris Hall has launched a website that promotes local comedians and comedy shows
It’s not a big secret. Yuk Yuk’s are not just noises made by Ewoks, but also a central stand-up venue to Vancouver, and Russell Peters is not our sole Canadian comedy export. Despite having a lively comedy scene and talented stand-up comedians, Vancouverites seem to know very little about comedy in the country and the city. The problem is simple: those looking for a few good laughs have no idea when comedy gigs are happening, and who’s in them.
“There’s probably 20 to 25 comedy shows a week in Vancouver,” said Chris Hall, owner of The Sin Bin, “but people just don’t know about [the shows] or don’t know how to find them.”
After observing friends in the industry and their frustrations with getting audiences together, Hall founded My ComedyBook. The new networking platform is a hybrid between a catalogue like IMDb, and a promotion platform like MySpace or Facebook. “I found it weird that there was no centralized database for comedy and comedians. Even burlesque has more out there online than comedy does!” said Hall.
Designed to eliminate the void between fan, comedy booker, and comedian, My ComedyBook’s homepage lists upcoming comedy shows in your region and displays a reel of featured local comedians that have received the most ‘laughs’, similar to a ‘like’ on Facebook. Events can be clicked on to reveal performers who have individualized profiles with a ‘Book Me’ button for event organizers. The profiles provide a user-friendly experience and allow visitors to find comedians and their future events, read a biography, and watch high-quality performance videos.
This is essential for comedians because it provides fans with a place to learn about them and pass fair judgment on their sense of humour (or lack thereof). My ComedyBook may also ease the booking struggles faced by comedy venues like Yuk Yuks, benefiting both performer and entrepreneur. “[Comedy] is not like work experience, where you can look at a piece of paper and see that you’ve performed here and here. You really have to know if they’re funny or not in order to put them in a show,” said Hall.
Some have argued that Facebook has the same basic video-sharing and event-creating functions while being even more accessible, but My ComedyBook addresses an entirely new demographic. “Rather than just advertising to their friends on Facebook, they can reach a wider demographic of people that are actively searching for comedy shows,” said Hall.
“It’s a specialized thing. If you went on Facebook right now, you would have trouble finding a comedy show tonight in Vancouver. Unless you’re friends with a comedian on Facebook, and unless you’re one of his 400 friends, other people have no way to find out about the shows that he’s doing at pubs and bars around Vancouver.”
Ideally, My ComedyBook will also function for regions outside of Vancouver. “We’re starting with North America to see how that goes, and branch out if that goes well,” said Hall. “There’s a lot in Europe as well, but I think the main demographic is in North America, with the big cities being Vancouver, Montreal, L.A, and New York. We’ll start with that.”
Sin Bin owner Chris Hall has launched a website that promotes local comedians and comedy shows
Cheese specialist arrives to judge record-breaking wheel
Cameron Bere, a world-renowned cheese connoisseur hailing from Switzerland arrived at SFU last Friday to huge fanfare and applause. His reason for flying halfway around the world: to examine the authenticity of claims that the Cheese Whizzes, a campus club, had successfully created the world’s largest wheel of parmesan-reggiano cheese.
The enormous cheese measures at over 50 feet across and weighs a muenster-ous 550 pounds. If the cheese meets all the standards and regulations of the European Dairy Union, it will officially be recognized as the world’s largest wheel.
The Peak caught up with the Swiss cheese expert. “Let’s brie serious, the EDU gets hundreds of these claims a year, and only a handful ever paneer out. Frankly, I’m more than a little feta up with it, I’d even go as far to as saying drives me emmental, the things people will do just to get into that edam book of world records. I mean, we’ve seen everything, from illegal food dyes to sawdust used as filler.”
“Not to mention the rampant bribery, it’s gotten to the point where we cheese inspectors have to wall ourselves off in the proverbial roquefort just to stay impartial. But in gouda faith we still fly out to each supposedly ‘world’s largest cheese’. Hopefully this won’t be the queso this time.”
In a press release, club president Jack Colby assured the community of the veritablity of their record-breaking wheel. “Now we know a mozza things have been said about the authenticity of Parman Sandiego (the nickname given to the world-record contending cheese), mainly by the Lactosetmasters, our rival organization at UBC. But we’ve been over our methodology time and again and we can assure you the work is Gouda. Futhermo—
“We’ve already done that one.”
“What?”
“We’ve already used the ‘in Gouda faith’ pun. Pick another.”
“Um, alright . . . we . . . are certain that after all the Gruyère-ling work we’ve put in on Parmen, the weeks of waking up in a curd sweat in of the night, that the EDU will have no choice but to recognize that our cheese is the world’s largest.”
The record-breaking attempt comes at the same time as the club’s annual mixer, which organizers describe the event as a real “double cheddar”
Breaking into music journalism
By Demi Begin (The Link — Concordia University)
Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson’s words on breaking into the industry ring true for any collegiate chasing more than a 9-to-5er
MONTREAL (CUP) — In a world where even the red, flowing Rolling Stone emblem is having trouble moving magazine copies off the rack, Mark Richardson is feeling optimistic about the future of music journalism.
Editor-in-chief of the world’s best-visited independent music writing website, Richardson’s at the helm of a ship that is retaining many tricks of the old media’s trade, while succeeding in the new. In many ways, it’s still a magazine, rather than a website.
Pitchfork maintains tight editorial control, doesn’t have comment sections on its articles, and doesn’t tweet back at its followers. Yet it’s the de facto taste-making music site of the 21st century. A Pitchfork review can make — or break — a musical career. Pitchfork is at the top of its game.
Even though it now all seems rosy, it has not always been that way for Richardson. When he started out as a freelance writer, the Brooklyn resident couldn’t afford to be picky. “I would write about whatever I could for money,” he admitted.
Despite living and breathing music and music journalism, it took him several years to refine his writing style. Then, in 1998, he went from odd writing jobs to writing steadily for the then-three-year-old website. When Richardson talks about it, it seems as if he can’t believe himself how much time has passed. “You know it was very, very small back then, it was just this tiny thing,” he stressed. “So when I talk about writing for Pitchfork in the ‘90s, it was just a really different world.”
Fast-forward through the last decade and newspapers and magazines are now in precarious financial positions, while the Internet has taken over. Pitchfork itself is getting more than four million unique visitors a month. Still, for the head of such a depended-on news source, the cultural addiction to a no-cost, 24-hour news cycle has some drawbacks.
“I don’t really love the second-by-second, chit chat commentary. If someone is a reporter, they might be excited at 10:00 p.m. that something happened, and they have to sit down and write a story. I get a message at 10:00 p.m. when something happens and I’m like, ‘Huhhhh.’”
Richardson added that having to be constantly connected is probably the element he dislikes the most about his job. Pitchfork, for its part, doesn’t update on weekends. As much as the site has become a staple of the web for many media-minded netizens, its social media cousins Twitter and Facebook are not on his list of favourites.
“I don’t crave the 24-hour cycle stuff. I would rather sit and stare at the window for an hour,” he admitted. “In my dream life, I’m in a quiet study, thinking and writing and undisturbed. I don’t really love having to be plugged in all the time.”
Although the non-stop flux of information can be overwhelming for some, it’s also undeniably affecting the way print journalism is perceived. In a society where information is instantaneously updated and accessible, print media slowly losing its relevance.
“I think print still has some advantages visually, with tactile experiences and longer pieces and those type of things,” Richardson said. Still, he acknowledged that the newspaper’s heyday is unlikely to return, but he held out hope for the industry, explaining that it simply has yet to figure out a new, more profitable, business model.
“I feel like there’s a possibility that there’s something looming that we haven’t quite envisioned yet that will be of higher quality than things are now. At least, I hope so.”
Whatever the situation for the publications themselves, the reality for the people who are hoping to break into them is something else entirely. It can be difficult to hold out faith in your craft when you can’t seem to find any work.
Journalists are the new actors; many people want to do it, but only a few, either the hardest-working or most talented, will make it. Pitchfork’s success story is certainly refreshing to journalists hoping to find some work — preferably paid — in an industry of temporary gigs and unpaid internships.
To them, Richardson has only one bit of advice: patience.“If you love to write, and especially if you love writing about art and culture, there’s nothing wrong with doing that part-time, for months or years,” he said, pointing out that publications will be willing to pay writers money for their writing when they’re good enough to get noticed.
That being said, the one question every journalist is asking is simple; what does one have to do to get a job in the business? The answer, according to Richardson, isn’t all that surprising.
Every year, Pitchfork, like countless other publications, puts out a call for interns. And, putting things simply, those interns who succeed and stand out will eventually move up the ladder, paving the way for the Mark Richardsons of the future.
“It’s not too much of a mysterious process, other than we’re looking for people that want nothing more than to be involved in the world of music journalism, and also seem like they are going to work really hard,” he noted.
“Making it clear that you want to do whatever you can to help is the best thing. Those are the interns you tend to notice more, pay attention to, and then eventually want to help out.”
With Texty Results!
A brother and sister spin puns with surprising e-fish-ciency, with texty results!
