This week’s Peak Humour took a turn for the Serious. With serious results!
Brave? Not Pixar
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
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.
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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.”
Board shorts
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
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.
Scramble crossing could be more efficient: study
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.
Lawmakers in a difficult position with assisted suicide ruling
Recently, a B.C. judge determined that the laws in the province preventing someone from accessing physician-assisted suicide were unconstitutional. This came in the wake of a lengthy court case, initiated by Gloria Taylor, a woman suffering from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in addition to four other plaintiffs. She has claimed that although she is not yet at the point where she wants to end her life, she wants the freedom to be able to end it when her suffering outweighs the benefits of living. However, even those who support this must realize that with the judge’s mandate come some negative possibilities.
One of the primary problems with the state condoning assisted suicide is the potential for the system to be abused. The system will need to have many checks and balances in order to ensure that there are none who die without the proper consent being given, as well as ever-present observation to make sure that such regulations do not get circumvented or ignored. To do this, law makers must take a close look at other jurisdictions around the world where such legislation has already been passed, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, and at how they deal with the potential abuse of the system, and consider how best to apply those to the Canadian system. This will not be a fast process, and should not be rushed. As such, the courts must recognize that law makers need to take proper precautions to ensure that any legislation that is presented is the best possible for the matter, especially considering the potential cost of errors. The court must be somewhat flexible with their deadline if the need arises, provided that lawmakers do what they can to speedily implement the legislation.
However, the court’s ruling also raises major questions over the ethicality in taking one’s life, counseling someone to take theirs, and the right to make such decisions, as well as what constitutes a sound mind capable of such a decision. To complicate matters further, the hospitals enacting this policy will be state run facilities.
These questions are only more prominent considering the health care system in Canada. If this were the United States, or any other state with a lesser health care system, such legislation would be easier. At worst, it would mean that the state would be forced to allow private companies to carry out the assisted suicides, and not carry them out in their own facilities. However, this is different in Canada. Here, the responsibility for such a procedure may come from the government, on both the federal and provincial levels, with healthcare being under provincial jurisdiction, but with the federal government contributing money towards paying for such expenses. This makes the whole matter far more controversial, given the fact that the government would not be able to simply stand back and allow others to carry out the policy and legislation. State-run hospitals mean that the government must take an active roll not only in determining how it’s done, but also in actually carrying it out.
Lawmakers will have many questions to sort out when they attempt to fulfill Justice Lynn Smith’s ruling. They will need to not only allow it, but also endorse it. But even before that point, they will need to address just how it will be done, and how to prevent abuse. They have a year; expect them to use as much of it as they can.
