Home Blog Page 1363

Musical spoof of Xanadu delivers a silly summer spectacle

By
EIC
-
0

By Monica Miller
Photo by David Cooper

And it just might inspire you to dust off those quad skates from your childhood 

The Arts Club’s parody of the 1980 camp-cult movie Xanadu is a roaring good time. A musical comedy on roller-skates,  the Dean Paul Gibson-directed show opens with an artist in ‘80s cut-offs named Sonny Malone (Gaelan Beatty), who feels artistically depressed. The ancient Greek muses hear Sonny’s plea for help and Clio (Marlie Collins) adopts the persona of Kira — complete with leg warmers, roller skates, and an Australian accent — to descend to earth and inspire Sonny.

When Sonny meets Kira, his life magically begins to change and he decides to open a roller disco in true ‘80s style. Beatty and Collins are dynamic together and the entire cast has strong singing voices — including Collins’s nasal Newton-John impersonation — which makes for a delightful performance and had the audience singing and clapping along.

The supporting cast never stops their tongue-in-cheek comments, which sometimes feels over the top. While Stephanie Liatopoulos and Cailin Stadnyk (as the muses Erato and Euterpe) are funny and talented performers, they are overshadowed by their muse sisters; Thalia (Vincent Tong) and Terpsicore (J. Cameron Barnett) never stop trying to outdo the other with gay sass.

Though the original film bombed at the box office, the soundtrack, with music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, took off. Douglas Carter Beane adapted the film for Broadway and infused it with more Greek mythology, including a nod to 1981’s Clash of the Titans that leads to an interesting subplot.

The muses, Zeus’s daughters, are forbidden to do two things: help create the art they inspire, and fall in love with a mortal. Clio’s jealous older sisters, Callipoe (Bonnie Panych) and Melpomene (Beatrice Zeilinger) decide to put a curse on Clio/Kira to have her fall in love with Sonny and thereby be cast out from Mount Olympus by papa Zeus. Panych and Zeilinger are fantastic, sort of a Pinky-and-the-Brain-esque pairing with perfect comedic timing and a marvelous performance of “Evil Woman”.

The choreography (by Lisa Stevens) is fantastic — especially Vincent Tong during a flashback tribute to Gene Kelly’s signature dance moves. The set design (Kevin McAllister) and costumes (Rebekka Sorensen) are simple and sometimes silly, but anything more complex would be too much.

Unfortunately, the theme of art’s importance is overshadowed by the fromage factor. The show calls attention to double-casting, harps on stereotypes, and nearly ignores the four-piece live band. But Xanadu is a fantastic production, perfect for a bit of summer silliness and sure to leave you laughing.

Rioters receive more than enough punishment

By
EIC
-
0

By Benedict Reiners

Photos by Jhayne

The sentencing of the infamous Stanley Cup rioters has started, and trials have already taken place with varying results. Earlier this year, a young man found guilty of participating in the riots was given jail time, while another who was sentenced last week was given a fine, community service, house arrest, and was forced to write an apology letter to the city.

Both sentences have already taken much criticism. The initial jail sentence that was given out earlier this year was praised for sending a message to would-be rioters in the future: that they would be found and justly punished if they were to attempt anything disorderly. However, many argued that given the number of those who will be tried, giving all found guilty jail time would be not only incredibly costly to the government, but would also put a strain on the prison system. Predictably, the response towards the more recent punishment has been nearly the opposite, with many criticizing it for not sending a strong enough message to would-be rioters, while others praise it for providing a more productive punishment that puts less strain on the system.

The more recent sentence is more beneficial to the city. The fines from those found guilty would help pay for some of the damages done during the riot. If you want to make the punishments more severe, increase the fines. Furthermore, the community service helps the community, and ultimately helps the rioter’s rehabilitation, giving them a better sense of who their actions impact.

The claims that the most recent sentence is too light are simply irrelevant, and in no way true. This sentence is designed for exactly who received it, some middle-class twenty-something who just joined into the mob mentality. If we were actually dealing with a ringleader,  or an instigator, that would be a different case. If you could prove that someone was out with those intentions, then by all means, throw the book at them. But the best way to discourage kids who thought they’d get away with it from reoffending is to send a message by finding the participants and putting them to trial. Jail time is unnecessary, especially when they’d turned themselves in. The other punishments provide more than enough deterrence.

The trials of the Vancouver rioters are important, but we must remember that we’re not dealing with any criminal masterminds here. These aren’t the people who came out looking to start a riot and give our city a bad name; these are just the fools who didn’t think for the two seconds it would have taken to realize what they were doing. Prison isn’t the only thing that can get them to think twice next time. So long as there are cheaper, more efficient ways, we must look to those before we act. If they reoffend, feel free to throw the book at them. But with the more recent punishments, and the Canucks’ recent playoff performance, it doesn’t look like we’ll have to deal with that for some time.

4-Day Weather Forecast

By
EIC
-
0

This week’s Peak Humour took a turn for the Serious. With serious results!

Brave? Not Pixar

By
EIC
-
0

By Esther Tung

Even Pixar has yet to learn that no amount of lush visuals and smooth rendering will make up for lacklustre storytelling

For all the noise made about Pixar coming out with their first female protagonist, praise for Brave so far has been lukewarm. Its box office numbers are nothing to sneeze at,but Brave, like many other movies as of late, focuses too much on gorgeous visuals while coming up short on storytelling.

Joining the ranks of Disney princesses is Merida, voiced by the versatile Kelly MacDonald, a Scottish princess whose unruly ginger locks must have needed its own team of animators dedicated to its follicular detail alone. Merida is a feisty teenager with a taste for solo adventuring and archery, who throws the gears into chaotic motion in her bid to rebel against her arranged marriage.

Pixar may be in the business of children’s films, but they’d do well to remember that a sizeable chunk of their audience today have put on their grown-up pants since the days of Toy Story and  A  Bug’s  Life. Brave  is a dramatic film at heart, but its potential for complexity is emptied out by too much comedy streaking through it (sometimes literally). Too many funnies are sloppily written, lazy jokes for the id.

And is Merida the feminist heroine that so many of us were hoping for? She certainly embraces some alternative roles to the other Disney princesses and female characters in the Pixar kingdom. But Merida is neither ground-breaking nor well written as a strong female character. While she fixes the trouble she creates, her spoiled-child syndrome gets in the way of any maturation or new understandings by the end of the story.

Brave’s saving grace lies in its romantic development, specifically the lack thereof. The movie angles itself squarely on the tense, but well-intentioned relationship between mother and daughter. Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) is a far more dynamic character than Merida. Her physical transformation leads to a psychological one, and it’s not often you see a woman engaged in a serious melee with her bare hands.

From a lesser production team, there would be no complains about Brave. Its opening weekend box office earnings, at $66 million, is definitive evidence that stories about women sell well, and hopefully this gives Pixar the courage to go back to their usual ,  boundary-pushing  formula with future films. And while Pixar has for the most part redeemed themselves after the Cars 2 misfire last year, Brave isn’t worthy of its studio’s classics.

Brent Butt hits the road for stand-up comedy tour

By
EIC
-
0

By Jacquelin Gregoire

EDMONTON (CUP) — While most are more familiar with Brent Butt’s work on TV series such as Corner Gas and Hiccups, Butt himself is more accustomed to life as a “struggling nightclub comic.” With both shows behind him now, Butt is returning to the familiar art of stand-up, with plans to build on his artistic ability through new projects that present fresh challenges but stay true to his comedic persona.

Click here for the original story from The Gateway

With years of writing comedy under his belt, Butt has no trouble coming up with funny material. And despite the contrast between the mediums of television and stand-up comedy, his experience as a lone stand-up writer helped strengthen his skills as a collaborative scriptwriter down the road.

“You develop a sense of what’s funny and what people are going to laugh at because you have to rely on that when you’re writing the show,” Butt says. “You’re writing the jokes and hoping they’re funny because there is no audience.”

When all else fails, Butt resorts to the strategy that got his career rolling in the first place: simply being himself. Since generating stand-up material is derived largely from inner thoughts and personality quirks, Butt used his own natural timing and sense of humour to come up with material for his Corner Gas character, Brent Leroy. In fact, the sole distinguishing characteristic between him and his Corner Gas counterpart is the shape of their timepieces.

“The interesting thing about my character from Corner Gas is that he’s basically identical to me,” Butt muses. “I didn’t know how good of an actor I was so I thought I’d better make this character as close to me as possible — that way I’d know how to react to situations. I always said the biggest difference between Brent Butt and Brent Leroy was that he wears the square watch and I wear a round watch.”

The fact that he relates so closely to his television character is why Butt doesn’t mind being known for the show, even years after its cancellation. But content with its six-year run and the resulting legacy, Butt now prefers to look ahead his future endeavours.

“I had a certain fanbase before Corner Gas and I have a much bigger fanbase now because of the show. I still feel blessed about having the chance to do it; it changed my life completely, so I’m all good with it,” Butt says.

With his higher profile to fall back on, Butt plans to take full advantage by tackling his biggest project yet. A fan of detective movies, he’s now attempting to merge his passion for comedy and mystery into a feature film.

“It is a comedy, but I intentionally wrote it and we’re going to shoot it in a very realistic way so that if it wasn’t funny, it would still work as a mystery and a thriller,” Butt explains. “But a movie’s a big, visual feast and you really have to know what you’re doing, so I thought it was best that I don’t direct.”

Whether the film is successful or not, Butt’s creative side will push him to continue moving forward with his comedy in one form or another. For now, he’s just hoping the audience will be willing to come along for the ride.

“I think if you concentrate on making a good product, that’s all you can really control,” Butt says. “So that’s all I concern myself with: making sure that I’m happy and that I think it’s funny, then cross my fingers and hope people like it.”

TSSU votes to approve strike option

By
EIC
-
2

By David Dyck

SGM this week will decide what form job action will take

Last week, the Teaching Support Staff Union held a vote of its membership to determine whether or not to take job action. The preliminary result, according to the TSSU, is that 90 per cent of voters were in favour of job action. Although representatives have not yet released the full voting numbers at the time of printing, they stated that their turnout was higher than that of any GSS elections.

This does not necessarily mean that a strike will take place, however.

“We essentially have the legal right now to take job action, but the decision to actually do anything always rests with our membership,” said Derek Sahota, a spokesperson from the TSSU. There will be a special general meeting held this week to decide on what course to take. Before any job action takes place, the union has to give 72 hours notice to the employer.

Job action could range from instructors taking several minutes in tutorials to explain the strike, to “full picket lines, which is obviously not anything that anyone ever wants,” said Jeff Zurek, another member of the TSSU contract committee.

Justin Wiltshire, a current SFU graduate student who was a TA several times in his undergraduate career, voiced some concerns he had about the union’s position. He argued that there was a lack of balance in representation as well as the quality of the work that is done by TAs.

“I imagine that graduate students are making up the largest proportion of the membership,” said Wiltshire. “I think that you need to have equal representation of all the groups, otherwise you’re going to see what you see now, which is that the TSSU functions as an agent essentially for the graduate students, whereas really the Graduate Student Society should be fulfilling that role.”

Wiltshire’s concerns about work quality have to do with his personal experience. He said that he has had instructors “come to me after they were supposed to have taught their students certain concepts and asked me to explain them. A number of them have told me that they just don’t give a damn, and that it’s not important to them.”

Wiltshire told The Peak that in his opinion, pay should be linked more intrinsically to merit. “When people don’t do a good job they should not be given another chance . . . and when people do do a good job I think they should be able to be rewarded.”

Overall, he stated that he was satisfied with the level of compensation he received for his work.

Sahota and Zurek addressed these concerns. “I think that as a union we do always think of our sessional members who are not graduate students, and always have them on our mind,” said Sahota. “We understand the issues and we get really good feedback from them. I think that’s generally true of all the parts of our membership.”

Regarding the quality of work, they stated that if TAs are doing a poor job, based on the collective agreement, the onus is on the departments to carry these out. “If they don’t do the mentoring first, followed by the evaluation, it’s a problem within the system, it’s not necessarily the TA’s fault,” said Zurek. “That system has to change and work the way that it’s supposed to work even now.”

Last week there were banners displayed around the AQ during the president’s BBQ for Employee Appreciation Day reading “Mr. President, engage us, save SFU.” Although the TSSU officially denied being involved with putting them up, they displayed pictures of them on their Facebook page. Sahota said it was “a great message to the president, to engage the workers, because that’s what has not happened.”

“This is a really positive opportunity to do exactly what Petter has been advertising,” said Zurek. “There’s so many things we have on the table that we say are not monetary that can make this school so much better, and really that’s been our message all along. Changes don’t actually have to cost a lot of money.”

The university informed The Peak that they do not discuss negotiations outside of the bargaining table.

Board shorts

By
EIC
-
0

By David Dyck

Board moves to a new healthcare provider

The board will be entering negotiations with a new healthcare provider, Desjardins, moving away from the current provider, Sun Life. “We discussed this at [the executive committee] and execs have been looking into this for the past one or two months now,” said member services officer Humza Khan. “We as execs have recommended it to board unanimously that we should go with Desjardins.”

Khan stated that Desjardins was offering a lower rate and more flexible plans for students, though the amount that each student will be paying has been set at $198, due to a referendum. The Peak will have more details in next week’s issue.

 

Max hours for non-execs increased to 60 per month

The hours that faculty and at-large board representatives can charge have gone from 40 per month to 60. The constitution and policy review committee made the recommendation in May, but some executive board members were hesitant to approve the increase.

“I don’t know if that’s necessary in the summer term, I think in the fall and spring semester when your portfolio is more full, and we’re just more busy, then it might make sense then,” said external relations officer Meaghan Wilson, citing the fact that only one representative has requested an hours increase. That was applied sciences representative Moe Kopahi, who made the request several weeks ago. The request was denied at that time with only one board member casting a vote.

“I’m completely for the fact that you guys want an increase in hours, my only concern, however, lies in the fact that it wasn’t even a month ago . . . that we denied Moe an increase in his stipend, and he was already going above 60 hours,” said Khan. “It was us who denied him that, so how do we justify increasing it now?”

“Now that I look back at it I wish that we did give it to him, but at the same time we all went over our hours during that month, so it would kind of be unfair to all the other people that we’re not all getting stipend increases,” responded environment faculty representative Monique Ataei. “We all went over our hours, we continue to do so . . . the job has to get done at the end of the day.”

Sarah Veness, the faculty representative for communication, arts, and technology, also defended the motion. “I just really wanted to remind board too that this wasn’t our motion that we put through, this was a recommendation from last year,” said Veness. “I think           . . . it’s sort of a trend throughout the past years that board members have gone over their hours and that’s where the motion comes from.”

 

URO regrets ratified for July and August

This past May, university relations officer Jeff McCann requested standing regrets be ratified for summer, due to a co-op work term. At the time, the board ratified regrets only until the end of June, when the situation could be reevaluated. Last week, board decided to allow the regrets to stand until the end of August.

“He responds in an extremely timely manner even during a workday to questions, he’s always available by phone, I see him in the office sometimes more than I see other board members who are at this meeting right now,” said at-large representative Ashleigh Girodat. “I think that he is doing his job.”

There was one vote against the motion, by treasurer Kevin Zhang, who had raised concerns in May about accountability and transparency.


University briefs

By
EIC
-
0

By Ariane Madden

Virginia university president reinstated after prior ousting
Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, was given her job back last week after a brief ousting following “philosophical differences of opinion” with members of the board of visitors, the equivalent to SFU’s board of governors. Ms. Sullivan — also the school’s first female president — resigned unexpectedly last month, prompting protests from students, faculty, and staff calling for her restoration to the post. The board eventually heeded the protestors and voted unanimously in favour of rehiring Ms. Sullivan. The ousting and subsequent rehiring brought to light issues of transparency among university governance as well as ongoing internal struggles over rising tuition, falling government subsidies, and the transition to online education methods. Sullivan was respected as the university’s president, having served at the University of Michigan prior to taking the presidency at Virginia.

Sandusky taunted by Pink Floyd lyrics
Fellow inmates of convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky have admitted to taunting the former Pennsylvania State University football coach with lyrics from Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” while he awaited trial. The cellmates described having sung the lyrics “Hey teacher, leave those kids alone” in the dark to taunt Sandusky at night, as they were forbidden from speaking directly to the disgraced coach. Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 out of 48 charges of sexual assault and child abuse relating to numerous incidents involving young boys at the school and at Sandusky’s private home starting in the mid-1990s. Sentencing is expected to take place in September, where Sandusky could face up to 442 years in prison.

Bhullar goes for gold

By
EIC
-
0

By Graham Cook

SFU wrestler Arjan Bhullar will compete for Canada in the Summer Olympics

Heavyweight wrestler and former Clan athlete Arjan Bhullar is headed to the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games to represent Canada in the 120 kg Men’s freestyle division. Bhullar, a Richmond native and lifelong athlete, has spent recent years constructing a lengthy athletic resume.

While wrestling for the Clan, Arjan Bhullar won two National Association of Intercollegiate Associates (NAIA) Championships and went on to become the only wrestler in history to win both the NAIA and CIS National Championships. He was the 2008 SFU Athlete of the Year, 2009 Canadian Wrestler of the Year, and 2011 Sport B.C. University Athlete of the Year.

Bhullar is still working on completing a major in political science; though he is taking time off to focus on wrestling full time, he stated, “My mom wants me to come back and finish after.” At a banquet in his honour, Bhullar spoke with The Peak  about the upcoming Olympic games for which he said he has been preparing for all of his 26 years. He stated that qualifying for the Olympics was always his goal, adding, “I guess you could call it young and naive . . . but life works in mysterious ways and here I am on the cusp of winning a medal for my country.”

“It’s another day, another match,” said Bhullar about the Olympic games in London. “I’m trying to treat it as another tournament,” he added. Bhullar says he has as much of a chance as any other competitor, but “If you ask anyone else, I’m an underdog.”

Canada’s male wrestling team’s head coach Dave McKay, who also served as Arjan Bhullar’s coach during his time on SFU’s squad, also spoke with the The Peak about the upcoming games. He shared Bhullar’s notion of where the training process stood, stating, “There’s still lots of work to do . . . we’re not ready to peak.” McKay went on to describe Arjan Bhullar as “a guy who certainly put himself in a position to be successful. . . .  He worked really hard, he did all the right things.” He added that Bhullar’s greatest attribute as a wrestler is his intelligence.

Also at the event was the former president of B.C. Athletics and a current Richmond city councillor, Bill McNulty. Also known as “Richmond’s man in motion,” McNulty has been involved in track and field for the past six decades both as a competitor and an organizer. While speaking with The Peak, he shared that he has known Arjan Bhullar and his family since he was a young man. “When you start off, everyone has the potential to be an Olympian . . . you have to have the desire to continue to excel and you have to have gentle handling, coaching, and mentorship to get you to the top,” said McNulty,  who described Bhullar’s strengths as leading to a “tremendous honour for the Indo-Canadian Community.” Bill McNulty added a piece of advice for all Olympic athletes: “When you’re at the very top . . . it is one move that is the difference between gold, silver, bronze, and nothing.”

At the time of printing, there are eight other Canadian wrestlers, four male and four female, that will be joining Arjan Bhullar on Team Canada’s slate. David Tremblay, Haislan Garcia, Matt Gentry, Khetag Pliev, Carol Huynh, Tonya Verbeek, Martine Dugrenier, and Leah Callahan will all be making the trip to London this summer.

Scramble crossing could be more efficient: study

By
EIC
-
0

By Graham Cook 

SFU students look into the math behind red lights

A trio of SFU mathematics students have deduced that Vancouver could benefit from what is known as a “scramble crossing” at select intersections to replace the traditional model used now. This new system would stop traffic from all four directions at an intersection and allow pedestrians to cross the street in any direction they choose, as opposed to the current scenario where automobiles and pedestrians move across in the same direction simultaneously.

The students involved, Sam Maggs, Svyatoslav Glazyrin, and Michelle Leung, conducted the research for their course Math 402W: operations research clinic. The class is an upper division requirement for the relatively new Operations Research program offered at the Surrey campus. The group observed the downtown Vancouver intersection of Cambie and Broadway, deciding that this particular crossing would benefit from an upgraded paradigm. The majority of passers-by that they interviewed agreed.

Though one member of the group was not available for comment, Maggs and Leung spoke to The Peak about the project and the Operations Research program.

“Basically, we made up a mathematical model that determined an optimal light cycle . . . and then deemed that a scramble crossing would work and have improvements if the entire light cycle was shorter than the current system,” explained Maggs. He went on to discuss a problem a scramble crossing could solve, stating that during their observations they saw “a lot of cars that wanted to turn right weren’t able to, because pedestrians were constantly crossing the street either perpendicular or parallel to traffic. . . . Also, a lot of the pedestrians were wanting to get from one corner to the opposite diagonal corner.”

The students are arguing that their proposed intersection would benefit crossings that have higher volumes of pedestrians, citing a scramble crossing in Richmond’s Steveston area.

They were so confident in this assertion that they sent their findings to Vancouver City Hall. As of yet, they have not received a response.

The pedestrians passing by that the group interviewed during their research felt that a Scramble Crossing would make the intersection safer. Maggs and Leung explained that this was due to pedestrians having exclusive access to the intersection, eliminating the possibility of being run over. However, concern was raised over confusion for first time users, which Maggs said would “depend on the city and how they properly communicate [how to use the intersection].” This new system, were it implemented, would also increase wait times for vehicle traffic. The group defended this by stating that the city of Vancouver’s official stance is to prioritize pedestrians over vehicles.

The two students also discussed the Operations Research program itself. Leung pointed out that out of the three, she is the only one majoring in the program, having been drawn to it from another field. She entered the program in spring of 2011 and spoke of the low amount of people actually in Operations Research. “It’s a relatively small group, but I would say it’s a group of elites,” said Leung.

“Operations Research is more applicable than traditional math, calculus, and all that boring stuff . . . and we get a lot of students like myself who want to just take O.R. courses because it’s not as technical,” said Maggs.

The instructor of the Operations Research Clinic, Abraham Punnen, also spoke with The Peak about the course and program. He said that typically for this course he would come up with several assignment options for students to choose from, but the students themselves created this particular project. Punnen described Operations Research as “the science of optimal decision making,” and expressed his hopes that the program continues to grow and develop.

The work was an honourable mention at the Canadian Operational Research Society’s undergraduate student paper competition, with the first prize going to their classmates who looked at a TA assignment problem.

1...1,3621,3631,364...1,418Page 1,363 of 1,418

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us:
[email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024