Home Blog Page 857

After two years We Are The City returns to Vancouver

By
EIC
-
0
We Are the City hits Vancouver in support of its latest release Above Club.

Minutes after Justin Bieber got off stage in Rogers Arena, We Are The City’s show began at the Imperial, a few blocks down the road. The experimental pop group, made up of Cayne Mckenzie (vocals, synths), David Menzel (guitar), and Andrew Huculiak (percussion), had a certain expectation for their audience: that we all came together to discover something, to find meaning in chaos, to search for purpose in a dark club. Throughout the show, Cayne “shhshhd” the audience, called out an idiotic crowd surfer and mocked a pocket of disruptive jerks close to the front. There was a contract between the audience and performers: that we understood their art and that they would help us find what we came searching for.

We Are The City’s most recent record Above Club walks a subversive line between fleeting escapism and nihilistic tragedy; it’s an album to put on when you want to lose yourself, but one that is constantly questioning this mindset. The Vancouver-based trio, who haven’t played a hometown show in two years, deconstructed the experience of pop music, stripping its form to chaotic discords and philosophically examining the implications of club culture. My favorite track from the recent EP is Club Music, a satire of EDM with an experimental barrage of dance loops and chaotic rhythms. The chorus shouts “Please, let dance music start after we have time to get messed up.”

At one point in between songs, Cayne looked out at the audience and spoke into the mic, “Sometimes there’s nothing to say.” Although they hardly interacted with the audience the eccentric band maintained a level of masterful control throughout their set, subtly rearranging the timing of certain tracks to emphasize certain beats, emotions or lyrics. In Lovers In All Things, Cayne faced the audience and spoke with his hands, as if performing a sermon. “Read the Bible, believe the Bible, need the Bible, believe the Spirit,” he sung gently.  

“Friends Hurt,” from their album Violent, begins with the lyric “my home videos won’t mean a thing in fifty years that day will come and all I’ve done is rendered forgotten.” Before playing the song, Andrew Huculiak, the acrobatic drummer, reminded the audience that this moment will happen only once, this singular instance where we’re all gathered together with these particular songs played in this particular way. It’s fleeting.

As a band that subverts expectations, demands the attention of their audience and doesn’t even play their biggest local hit to date, “Happy New Year,” it’s perhaps a little odd that We Are The City finished their set with “Kiss Me, Honey,” by far the most radio-friendly track from Above Club. But this closing track pulled the band’s entire thematic palette into a coherent picture — the feelings of dislocation, the deconstruction of pop music, the desire to seek God and maybe find Him through these chaotic sounds.

During this closing dance track, with the instruments drowning out Cayne’s vocals and our own singing, we were all in another place, including the idiotic crowd surfer, the intoxicated jerks, and everyone I was brushing shoulders with close to the stage. Had we all found what we were looking for?

“Here and now. I can’t figure it out. Here and now. I can’t figure it out. Kiss me honey like you mean it, and repeat it, and repeat it.”

CENTRE STAGE: In Review: Tu te souviendras de moi, Gallim Dance, Ga Ting (Family), Memory Wax/Danza Teatro Retazos at VIDF, and Reclaiming Hope

By
EIC
-
0
Wonderland put on by Gallim Dance might not have had a singular narrative thread but it was excellent none the less.

Tu te souviendras de moi – Theatre la seizieme

March 8–12; Studio 16

Last fall, I saw a play presented by Ruby Slippers Theatre at The Cultch called You Will Remember Me. The play was presented in translation from the original by Francois Archambault, and this past week I had the pleasure of seeing that original at Theatre la Seizieme. I had immensely enjoyed the Ruby Slippers production, but seeing it in French was even better — it made the references to Renee Levesque make more sense and seemed to fit better with the characters personalities and idiosyncrasies.

The protagonist is Édouard (Guy Nadon), a retired professor who has a razor sharp memory for dates and events, but he is losing his short term memory. He doesn’t remember what he had for breakfast, or the name of his daughter’s boyfriend, but he can tell you anything you want to know about important historical events, and he has an opinion about everything. Nadon gave a nuanced, honest performance as he slips further into Alzheimer’s.

  Édouard’s wife, Madeleine (Johanne-Marie Tremblay), decides she’s had enough and drops her husband off at her daughter’s house for the weekend. Isabelle’s boyfriend, Patrick (Claude Despins), ends up taking care of him because Isabelle (Marie-Hélène Thibault) has to work, and the two of them develop a special relationship with Édouard constantly asking Patrick what his name is, who he is, and what he does for a living.

When Patrick decides to go play poker, he hires his 19-year-old daughter, Bérénice (Emmanuelle Lussier Martinez), to look after Édouard. The chemistry between the two of them was brilliant as Édouard keeps thinking Bérénice must be one of his students, and she keeps up her indifferent attitude. That is until Édouard begins thinking she might be his daughter who committed suicide at 19, whose middle name was Bérénice. She decides to go along with this story and the scene where she tells him it wasn’t his fault that she took her life almost brought me to tears. They share another beautiful moment in the final scene where Bérénice reads one of Édouard’s diary entries to him, and the lesson we take away is that sometimes the present moment is enough to keep you going.   

 

Wonderland – Gallim Dance

Chutzpah! Festival

March 10–13; Norman and Annettte Rothstein Theatre

This multi-faceted work by Gallim Dance’s artistic director, Andrea Miller, was a unique exploration of pack mentality. Through various interpretations of what it means to be part of a pack, the eight dancers, dressed in minimal fitted costumes, followed each other’s lead and formed pyramids, dogpiles, and herds to depict the effects of this mentality.

The work moved through various scenes, and there was never a dull moment: the dancers breaking into song a few times, including singing the Mickey Mouse song. About halfway through the show, they stood at the front of the stage and each took a bow as if it was the finale, but then the show shifted gears from whimsical and fantastical to dark and aggressive.

Cartoon-like depictions and impressive leaps, lifts, and formations made the work exciting to watch, and I enjoyed some of their symbolic moments such as each dancer running and jumping head first into another who was standing strong as a wall at the side of the stage. In another scene they each ran and slid onto the stage, the dancer before them moving out of the way just in time for them not to collide.

While this work didn’t have one narrative thread to follow, the theme was very clear and each scene contributed to it by depicting a different aspect that the choreographer was exploring. It’s another solid performance to add to the list of inspiring dance at Chutzpah!.  

 

Ga Ting (Family) – The Frank Theatre Company

March 8–19; Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch

A Chinese couple have lost their son, and after his funeral they finally invite his partner over for dinner. Matt has never met Kevin’s parents, though he talked about them often, but they chose to ignore the fact that he was gay, and he never brought it up. After Kevin moved to Vancouver from Toronto, they spoke less often and his parents didn’t have to witness his lifestyle that they didn’t approve of.

Matt (Brian J. Sutton) is in Toronto for business and visits the Lees to deliver a painting that Kevin made for them. They never thought being an artist was a good idea for their son either. The conversation is awkward at the best of times, and once Matt tries to explain to them that Kevin was unhappy and could have used their support, Mr. Lee (BC Lee) loses his temper, they accuse each other of being racist, and Mr. Lee tells Matt to leave. Mrs. Lee (Alannah Ong) isn’t done with him though — she wants answers about what happened the night her son died.

This wonderfully balanced exchange between Matt and the Lees is riveting as we learn more about that night and their relationship. The Lees speak in Chinese to say things they don’t want Matt to hear (there were surtitles above the stage), and these moments add some humour to the heavy subject matter. All three actors worked beautifully together, and the themes of family communication and acceptance will resonate with anyone.  

 

Possible Impossible and Crisalida — Memory Wax/Danza Teatro Retazos

Vancouver International Dance Festival

March 11 and 12; Vancouver Playhouse

The only thing that disappointed me about this show was that the house wasn’t full. Such a stunning work of art deserved a full audience, but the ones who were there thoroughly enjoyed this collaboration between Memory Wax of Sweeden and Danza Teatro Retazos of Cuba.

The first half, Possible Impossible, featured fantastical animal head masks and took place somewhere that the laws of time and space are no longer valid. The dancers began the piece in simple black and white outfits, dancing around a table, banging out an infectious rhythm on it and walking through doorways to alternate realities. They returned to the stage each wearing a different animal head mask, one of them with a caricature style woman’s head that seems disconnected from the rest of her body as she moved beneath it.

With the show progressively becoming more uncanny, the dancers wore plain white masks on the back of their heads and different coloured wigs covering their faces, dancing with their backs to the audience and making it difficult to determine which side was their front or back. In another scene they danced over, around, and with a square black table, using the prop for clever moves and impressive group formations. Finally, they donned red outfits, white masks, and large blond curly wigs to become to create a carnival mood.

The second half, Crisalida, was much different. It began with one woman sitting low on a chair, her back to us and her legs straight up in the air. Her legs danced in the spotlight, and then a male dancer joined her on stage and danced with her legs until a group of dancers joined her, all in nude outfits and paired up to perform a beautiful, lyrical sequence.

One of the most innovative segments had the dancers lying flat on the stage, a bird’s eye view projected onto the back wall of the stage. The dancers moved as if they were vertical, standing on each other and making it look like they were resisting gravity. It was very clever, and I’m sure not easy. Another scene had the dancers using chairs as props, playing musical chairs as they each moved to an empty chair as one dancer tried to sit in it.

This show was such a treat to watch and had a bit of everything: comedy, innovation, drama, emotion, and beauty. I was thoroughly impressed at the skill of these dancers and the creative minds of the choreographers.

 

Reclaiming Hope – Theatre for Living

March 10–April 2; various venues in Vancouver

I wasn’t sure what I signed up for when I went to see this show billed as “theatre without a play,” but it sounded like an interesting concept. The audience would show up and a theatrical experience would be co-created before our eyes. The theme of turning fears into hope also sounded very appealing, so I thought what the hell, let’s see what this will be like.

David Diamond, Artistic and Managing Director of Theatre for Living, was the host of the event, and he confirmed for us that there wasn’t a troupe of actors waiting to take the stage. Instead, three members from the audience would share a story about a time they had to make a difficult decision and had to contend with voices of fear in their heads, and we would vote on the one we wanted to see expanded theatrically.

That, of course, is a risky proposition, and you never know what people are going to offer up or if it will turn out well. The night I attended we had to choose among a story about deciding whether or not to move back to South Africa, deciding whether to invest retirement money in unethical funds, and whether or not to sell your car. We overwhelmingly voted for the story about how to invest wisely while making sure to uphold your beliefs and be assured the funds aren’t being used by corporations that harm the planet.

At this point, the evening seemed quite promising and there was a good energy in the room. But as things progressed, it was hard to maintain interest. The woman who told the story we chose remained onstage and was joined by three others who took the shape of three different voices of fear that she had been experiencing. Then, in what felt like group therapy or a strange high school drama class, we worked on pulling apart each voice of fear, analyzing it, and trying to connect it to other situations and broader themes.

I commend Diamond for his work to further social progress through theatre, but I’m not sure that this production was successful. Although he did mention at the outset that the goal was not to psychoanalyze the storyteller, it seemed like we spent our time analyzing her individual story of personal financial struggle while letting the major issues like environmental degradation fall to the wayside.

This was a unique experience that will provide different insights each time and maybe another night would have been a completely different experience. As a theatrical experience, this wasn’t my cup of tea: I didn’t find it very entertaining or compelling. As an exploration of societal fears and how we can turn those into hopes, though, it may prove very valuable. In the end, each participant will take something different away with them.  

Junior Boys play a memorable show at The Imperial

By
EIC
-
0
Canadian electro-pop duo Junior Boys wow crowd during show promoting its latest release.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to have a friend bestow upon me the opportunity to go see a music show at the exotic Imperial Theatre. The band that was playing was a Canadian Electro-pop duo named Junior Boys. Being your archetypal alt-electro-pop introvert, I could not help myself to the free ticket made available from an uncle’s sudden decision to not attend.

I was fairly nervous on the way to the show — it’s been a while since I have attended the show of a band whose demographic is primarily that of the mid-adolescent to late-adolescent, East Van-hipster crowd. I’ve never quite felt like I fit in, and this would always be emphasized in the weed-scented-septum-piercing-all-black-wearing crowds that dominated these shows. Needless to say, although the crowd was exactly as I imagined it would be — The Imperial is literally a block from the Rickshaw; what did I expect? The music of Junior Boys would inevitably eclipse this irrational sense of debasement and re-introduce me to all of the qualities of the concert experience that I fell in love with.

The duo began this tour in order to promote the recent release of their 2016 album Big Black Coat. They started off with a track off their newest album which was well-received but, like all new albums, was treated as a warm-up for the crowd. I could immediately tell that at least 95 percent of the crowd consisted of dedicated fans that have grown up with Junior Boys since their critically acclaimed debut Last Exit (2004), and So This Is Goodbye (2006), because the crowd would react so strongly at the intro of certain songs and lesser to others that I could pretty much guess the entire tracklist of their most respected works. Beautiful-drunk-hipsters would sway so hard to the beat of “Teach Me How To Fight,” “Double Shadow,” and “So This is Goodbye” that I began to notice groups of people synchronized to each other’s ‘sways’ — as if the whole Chinese-themed theatre were overtaken by glossy, colourful jellyfish.

The show would contain a couple of memorable highlights that would stick in my head as I left the sweaty venue — memorable moments such as the heavily welcomed guitar-improvisations and over-stretched synth codas, that really attractive-hipster girl crowd surfing three times in a row during the craziness of “In The Morning” — by far the best performance of the night — and the moment when a drunken crowd member was supported onto the front of the stage and Matt Didemus (lead member of the band) would just phlegmatically stare at her in fear that she did not charge into the drum set.

Along with these memories, I left with a newfound joy and affection for both live-music shows and the alternative demographic that plagued these shows. Perhaps what defines a good live-show is simply the show, but rather an ability to create a sense of familial unity between the insiders and the outsiders — and tonight, I definitely felt like an insider.

Bury your gays

By
EIC
-
0
After thinking that there might be a happy ending between Clarke (L) and Lexa (R) The 100 fell intro the trap of TV tropes.

Warning: The 100 spoilers ahead

In “Thirteen,” everyone said goodbye to Lexa kom Tri Kru, Heda (commander) of the 12 clans. People then took to the internet to voice their pain at such a thorough betrayal. Why? Because in a show that promotes itself by saying that they refuse to fall prey to clichés and TV tropes, they used one of the most tired and harmful tropes of all: bury your gays.

Yes, mere seconds after a tender and loving scene between Lexa and protagonist Clarke Griffin, Lexa is accidentally shot and bleeds out. I, and many others, have several issues with this upsetting development.

Firstly, showrunner Jason Rothenberg knew about this outcome before the show even aired in January. He spent his time from “Wanheda” to “Thirteen” building up a relationship between Clarke and Lexa, and selling it on Twitter. “Maybe someday” became the beacon of hope to the fan-base, and we were naïve enough to believe that it could actually happen — a loving, respectful, happy LGBTQ+ relationship on cable.

That hope evaporated the moment that bullet hit Lexa. Once again, a show had linked a happy LGBTQ+ scene with an LGBTQ+ character death, providing the subtext that these relationships are wrong and negative and that LGBTQ+ people deserve the same end on- and off-screen. The entire writing team at The 100 knew that they were looked up to mostly by LGBTQ+ youth, since, in the post-nuclear apocalypse world of The 100, sexuality doesn’t matter. Survival is everyone’s number one priority. Then they kill Lexa off seconds after showing her happily in bed with Clarke, killing any hope these youth had.

There are four confirmed women who love women on this show: Clarke, Lexa, Niylah, and Costia. Three of them have faced violence for loving a woman. Lexa was killed after sleeping with Clarke. Niylah was brutally beaten after sleeping with Clarke. Costia was decapitated for loving Lexa. So maybe we should have seen it coming, but we shouldn’t have to fear an LGBTQ+ death just because the character is happy.

Secondly, Rothenberg said in an interview with AccessHollywood.com that killing Lexa off was necessary because of scheduling conflicts. Offhand, that’s fair. If you can’t get an actress, she can’t be on-screen. But these conflicts only dealt with this season. It might have been possible to get Alycia Debnam-Carey (Lexa) back next season. The point is that killing her off was in no way necessary. Clarke was leaving Lexa in the city of Polis to return to Arkadia. Lexa could have been out of the picture without killing off such a complex, interesting character.

Rothenberg also stated in the same interview that killing Lexa gave him the opportunity to bring together the storylines surrounding the Grounders’ religion and Jaha’s City of Light. The computer AI that makes the City of Light possible is the predecessor of the AI implanted in the back of Lexa’s neck (and every commander pre-Lexa), which gets passed on to the new commander when the old one dies. With Lexa’s death, we got to watch how the two stories connected. It just didn’t need to happen this way.

If only there had been a scene before Lexa was shot, where Clarke asks about Lexa’s back tattoos. . . Oh wait, there was. That would’ve been a great opportunity to show the implant scar on the back of Lexa’s neck and have the storylines combine that way.

Lastly, okay, let’s say Lexa’s death was necessary to the plot development. Why kill her off with a stray bullet? That isn’t a fitting death for the woman who united the 12 Grounder clans under one banner, the commander who always puts her people first. How is a stray bullet a worthy death? More than that, Clarke Griffin is right there beside her. Clarke who is basically a doctor. Clarke who saved Jasper when he had a spear through his chest. How is Clarke not saving Lexa in any way true to her character?

Now I understand if this upsets you, because it upsets me. By all means, contact some of the writers and make your voices heard.

The reaction from writers like Kim Shumway and Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who have taken the time to listen to the overall disappointment of fans, is an encouraging step in the healing process. We can only hope that moving forward, they and Rothenberg can recognize another mistake before it happens to someone else.

Sea of Red to take Vancouver by Storm

By
EIC
-
0
A near record crowd of 50,00 is expected for Friday night’s game.

With the Vancouver Whitecaps season underway and the inaugural Rugby Sevens tournament coming to a close after an extremely successful weekend, the focus of the city shifts towards one of the biggest sporting events of the year. On Friday March 25, the Canadian men’s soccer team will take on powerhouse Mexico at BC Place. The game marks the next step of the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

Canada currently sits second in Group A of CONCACAF qualifying with four points through two games. They captured a 1–0 win against Honduras back in November at BC Place, followed by a hard fought 0–0 draw on the road against El Salvador. Mexico sits above them in the four team group with six points. A result against Mexico would put Canada in excellent shape to advance into the fifth and final round of CONCACAF, qualifying them for the 2018 World Cup. Back in 2012 while attempting to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil Canada, the team only needed a draw on the road against Honduras to advance past the fourth round, however they were embarrassed 8–1 in the decisive game.

When the draw was made up for the qualifying tournament back in August of 2014, Canada sat at 122 in the FIFA world rankings, the lowest in the team’s history. Now just a year and a half later they have climbed to 86th and are continuing to impress. In 2015 the team finished the year with six wins, six draws, and only two losses. They only conceded three goals in their final 12 games of the year.

A result against Mexico would put Canada in excellent shape to advance into the fifth and final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

Newcomers to the team, such as MLS 2015 Rookie of the Year Cyle Larin of Orlando City, are one of the main reasons for the newfound success. After scoring 17 goals in his first season of MLS play, Larin has added four more in international play for Canada as he finds his scoring touch. Other players that have made the jump from MLS to the National team include a number of Vancouver Whitecaps: Russell Teibert, Sam Adekugbe, Marco Bustos, Fraser Aird, and Kianz Froese have all see time with the senior team over the last year. Several of them could see playing time in the upcoming games against Mexico.

Last November, the men’s team returned to Vancouver for the first time in over a decade. Usually playing at BMO Field in Toronto, the game was moved to Vancouver due to renovations. With a raucous home crowd of 20,108 cheering on the boys in red (over double average crowd in Toronto over the last two years), Canada was able to claim a 1–0 victory over Honduras. The success and enthusiasm of the crowd made it an easy decision to bring the team back to Vancouver for their next game.

The current record for a National team soccer game attendance in Canada is 54,027, which was set in the semi-final match between Canada and England at the 2015 Women’s World Cup. The record for a men’s national team game is 51,936 set back in 1994. With over 50,000 tickets already sold for the game on the 25th and a large walk-up crowd expected on game day, there is a chance that a new record could be set. The sea of red will be a huge piece in helping our team to victory. With a sellout capacity of 54,500 and the entire stadium open, BC Place will be rocking when Canada takes on Mexico.

Young Women in Business break boundaries at 2016 conference

By
EIC
-
0
Nicolle Hodges from CTV speaks as the host of the conference.

Young Women in Business (YWiB), a club on campus devoted to creating a supportive network of women who wish to grow professionally, hosted their fifth International Women’s Day Conference on March 12, 2016 at the Sandman Hotel.

“The International Women’s Day Conference is our pillar event, and it’s a day where like-minded individuals come together to celebrate what women have achieved,” said Bailey Wong, Chair of the IWD 2016 Organizing Committee. “It not only helps us celebrate our current achievements but equips us to achieve more in the future.”

This year’s theme was “Breaking Boundaries.” The intention was to equip women for tackling challenges that will undoubtedly come up in their professional lives, all the while being conscious of their societal impacts. The speakers worked around the general theme of leveraging strengths and using them as tools to master weaknesses.

“The theme of the conference changes each year, and we base our speakers and our philanthropy aspect around it,” Wong said. “This year we decided to work with a non-profit charity called Covenant House Vancouver.”

YWiB asked for donations such as clothing and comfort items from participating delegates in order to partake in The Shoebox Project in partnership with Covenant House Vancouver.

The host of the conference was Nicolle Hodges, a news anchor at CTV. She opened the event with a personal story of how her career started by “breaking boundaries” and reaching out to a job she hardly fit the qualifications for — in doing so, she got hired to a job that kick-started her journalism career and helped her get to CTV.

Workshops were led by professionals such as entrepreneur Danielle Van Zanten, and focused on a specific topic such as “Establishing your presence: personal branding” and “Managing yourself upwards.” Van Zanten expressed the importance of remembering that you as a person are a brand, and how you present yourself will have a powerful influence to your professional brand whether it be positively or negatively.

During the breaks between workshops, delegates were encouraged to network with the professional speakers and the various vendors such as Blossom Box Jewelry, Brain Station, and Giving Gifts & Company.

Wong explained that her favorite part of the conference each year is “Executive for a Day”; a draw where a delegate is given the opportunity to choose a professional from the conference and shadow them for a day. “It’s a game changer from the typical networking event and much more personal being able to just spend a day with them or have coffee with them one on one,” Wong said.

Excluding the executive team, approximately 100 members attend the IWD conference each year.

Alice Joel, IWD 2015’s engagement coordinator and next year’s co-president of YWiB alongside Bailey Wong, expressed her excitement for the upcoming year. “The thing I love most about YWiB is how much they have challenged me to grow,” she said.

“It’s nice surrounding yourself with an ambitious and egoless team who are not only passionate about pursuing their own goals, but also take a genuine interest in helping others build themselves as well.”

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY

By
Peak Web
-
0

By: Sarah Finley, Courtney Miller, Zach Siddiqui, and Jessica Whitesel

Follow The Peak on Spotify to stay up to date on New Music Friday.

“Small Voices” – Matt Gresham

Jessica Whitesel: I really like this song. It is still upbeat while managing to be chill. It has a really fun beat, and I like the usage of a different percussion sound.

Sarah Finley: Soft, gentle, slightly melancholic vocals combine with sad lyrics to juxtapose against upbeat instrumentals in the background. I can’t tell if the song is about an old lover, or a child he doesn’t get to see anymore, but either way, I can dig it.

Courtney Miller: I’m loving this. The bass fills out the song, his voice is gold. A really good sounding, chill tune with a powerful chorus.

Zach Siddiqui: Whimsical and almost childish until a dramatic chorus. I’m totally digging the dichotomy they’re playing with here, and I bet you will too. This one gets my endorsement!

“Paranoia” – A Day to Remember

JW: NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. I’m not a fan of whatever this is. I might have been when I was younger and full of unfounded rage, but now nope. I listened to about 12 seconds before I pushed skip. I too can yell over guitars, you are not special Mr. Lead “Singer.”

SF:  A Day to Remember is not really my cup of tea. While I can see the appeal to a kind of catchy chorus, I couldn’t even finish the song. It just reminds me of the kids who never left their middle school scene phase.

CM: Oh this takes me back to angsty high school days, walking through school in head to toe black and identifying strongly with Avenged Sevenfold. Harder rock with a hit of screamo — I’ve grown out of my screamo phase, but the chorus and parts without screaming were good, and the quick tempo makes it a good head-banger.

ZS: Not entirely my style admittedly, but for some reason I’m envisioning a sort of combat-heavy video in an urban fantasy setting set to this track. Forceful and intriguing. To be honest, it could definitely beat out some of my problematic musical faves depending on my mood.

“A Minor Life” – sir Was

JW: The video game sounding synth plinks in the background make for an interesting undercurrent with the mournful vocals. When it picks up pace halfway through it keeps it from getting monotonous. I would probably listen to this again, but as background music only.

SF:  Did this track really begin with bagpipes? This soothing track only gets better from there, although the bagpipes admittedly do persist. Not containing much in the way of lyrical content, this song makes up for it with calming and mystical instrumentals.

CM: Sounds like a carnival video game’s soundtrack. The vocals seem to clash with the music and are weak and unenjoyable. Doesn’t seem to go anywhere either.

ZS: A little grating at times, a little boring at others, but somehow it kept me listening for the best parts and I’m so glad about that — it’s a chilling and softly spellbinding song. It definitely created a mournful atmosphere for me, but like, an enjoyable mournful atmosphere. Go for it, fam.

“Fragile” – Kygo feat. Labrinth

JW: I really like this one. The vocals could be a little stronger, but I love when the hand-claps and layered vocals come in about two-thirds of the way through and the slow build again after. This is going into my regular rotation.

SF: While this isn’t a song I would save to listen to later, I did enjoy the singer’s powerful voice and impressive range. If you’re going through a breakup, this might not be the song for you.

CM: Love the soulful crooning over melodic piano and guitar. It builds powerfully to climax in falsetto, then mellows out before picking back up. Never a dull moment.

ZS: Soulful and thrumming with life, it builds up well and really commits to conveying a basic but universal feeling to the audience. Things break, people break, and while it’s a little cliché, you might like it.

“All Four Walls” – Gorgon City feat. Vaults

JW: It is a generic club track. I recall getting too drunk and dancing to songs that sound exactly like this one. It is a solid generic club track, but it is forgettable.

SF: This is the type of track that if you’re tipsy enough, you would definitely dance to in a sleazy club. It reminds me of a collab between Flume and Disclosure, despite neither of those groups being present. I’m a fan.

CM: I could see this as like one of the songs you play when you’re trying to turn your kitchen into a club with your friends. I mean, it’s got a decent beat and vocals, but other than that it blends into the rest of the pop scene.

ZS: It’s corybantic and emotional, but at the same time, I personally find it a little difficult to see what exactly makes it stand out from the rest of its genre. Not bad by any means though — definitely worth a listen!

“Arcadia” – White Sea

JW: You know it’s going to be a great song when it starts with lyrics that seem slightly reminiscent of occult teenage angst. The occultiness of the song aside, it is a pretty okay track. It’s sounds sort of like Fleetwood Mac, but crossed with modern musical sensibilities and electronica undertones.  

SF: Dreamy soft vocals and distinct percussion carry the track to its end. While entirely repetitive, “Arcadia” is still a song worth listening to.

CM: Alternative style track with haunting vocals and groovy bass. It’s unobtrusively mellow, has a steady beat, and would make great study music.

ZS: I found this eerily eerie (I think that made sense without being superfluous). It’s a piece to which I could definitely find the inspiration to write a devastating horror story. Check it out, unless you’re worried it might be #2spooky4u.

“Temple” – Baauer feat. M.I.A. and G-Dragon

JW: I’m not a fan. M.I.A. is on point but this song as a whole sounds like a really bad Missy Elliott track. It doesn’t really seem to make that much sense as a whole and just leaves me wondering why this is even a song right now.

SF: The beginning of this track had me confused, thinking a strange ad for a yoga subscription had popped up on Spotify. M.I.A. shatters this with her distinct, badass, perfectly sassy voice, and lyrics to the table. I’m sure the other artists in this track are cool too, but M.I.A. is really all I care about.

CM: The intro is super weird, like a robot telling you what to do with your life. Then the rap starts and I mean, the song itself is inoffensive but it’s also boring, monotonous, and frankly not worth the time.

ZS: A fast-paced song with an engaging beat. I was a little confused at points about what was going on on the lyrical end of things, but that doesn’t harm the song for me. Go wild with this at your next crazy event.

“Soft Like Clay” – Beaty Heart

JW: This is like a The 1975-sort of sounding song. I am really getting tired of saying this, but try new things. This is just another in a long line of knock-off sounding songs. Just because one band was successful with it doesn’t mean yours will. Try new things, if not for yourself for us poor unfortunate souls who are inundated with the same songs day in a day out. ~end rant~

SF: Don’t be fooled by the cheery sound of the lead singer’s voice in this track; the lyrics are about someone attempting to change him. Yikes.

CM: If this was a little better executed I think it’d be great, fun, chill song to have on the backburner for any occasion. As it is, it’s stilted and doesn’t seem to settle on a sound.

ZS: It makes crazy swings between minimal and low-stakes and sudden bursts of power, often enough to keep things fun. Instrumentally, it feels like a warm and cheery piece, and it definitely fits the recent sun. I’d sit in the AQ on a bright afternoon and have this as background.

“Woman Is A Word” – Empress Of

JW: I’m not really sure what these lyrics are, but the song has a really good beat — even if it generic. I just wish that the vocalist would push just a little bit more to explore their capabilities and what their proper range is.

SF: The song is essentially sliced into one minute chunks in each of which a lyric is repeated over and over again. Somehow, though, this track makes it work. Maybe it’s the delicate chord plunking in the background, or the unique percussion that’s intermittently dispersed, but whatever it is, I can appreciate it.

CM: If you need to get your friends in a fever of equality for women, this might be the ticket. It’s not terribly upbeat though — it’s actually pretty mellow — follow it up with Fall Out Boy’s “The Phoenix” at 1.5 speed. You’re welcome.

ZS: For a leftover from an album, it’s lovely. I’m a total sucker for songs that make an effort to address social issues through their lyrics, and the music felt mild but effective. I’d rank this decently high on my personal scale.

“When We were Young” – The Wild Wild

JW: This song reminds of 2011. I don’t know what exactly about it makes me say that but it does. I like that is kind of wistfully looking back, but it doesn’t really strike me as a unique or long lasting song.

SF: This song, as the title would suggest, made me more nostalgic than I was hoping to be on a Friday morning. Directed toward the singer’s beau, this made me reminiscent over all my middle school and high school loves. Don’t listen if you’re an over-emotional sap like me.

CM: It has a pop/alt/rock feel to it. Fun tune, optimistic yet nostalgic. Perfect for the average university student.

ZS: Adventurous and a call to my inner child, this song makes me regret becoming a reclusive, outdoor-hating, old-man 18-year old. It’s uplifting to the max and super adorable! Give it a listen on your next summertime morning jog.

“Once Forward, Twice Back” – Say Yes

JW: More like say no. This song is like peak Nickelback, Hinder, Thornley, Theory of a Deadman, and all related bands. It is not the mid-’00s anymore. This does not work. It doesn’t even pretend to be dad rock, which at this point will be better.

SF: The vocalist on this track sort of reminds me of Nickelback? And my opinion of the song doesn’t improve from there.

CM: Music-wise, I get a Riot-era Paramore feel. Vocally it’s more of a Three Days Grace kind of sound? It has that pop/punk style and is good for when you’re frustrated at life and midterms.

ZS: A dynamic intro and overall quite good. It doesn’t click with me especially strongly, but I’d call it a decent piece!

“The Last of Our Kind” – Rykka

JW: This seems like a cross between the ’80s, Disney, and current pop. It is doing to many things at once. I’m not a huge fan, but if it gets picked up by the right outlets I could see this being a successful song.

SF: The lyrics may be boring, but at least Rykka has a unique voice. Unfortunately, something was off about the chord changes between the verses and the chorus. Rykka has a lot of potential, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

CM: Her voice is flawless and the entire song has a hopeful feel in every aspect. Blast this once finals are over to feel majestic and untouchable.  

ZS: The lyrics touch on some high-stakes stuff but ultimately fall inherently flat for me — similarly, I wasn’t too impressed with the music. Not in the sense of being bad, but in the sense that it wasn’t what it could’ve been. It’s a bit vanilla, but not terrible by any means.

Trigger warnings are not an excuse to censor free speech

By
EIC
-
0

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]normally write for The Peak’s humour section, so something really has to bug me to put me in the den of seriousness. Lately that thing has been the overly-politically correct (PC) culture developing on college campuses.

Now, before I start raving on the topic, I’ll say that I consider myself a very progressive, left-leaning individual. I am an ardent supporter of Black Lives Matter, pro-Syrian refugees to a fault, and I’m a feminist. But unfortunately, a lot of the overly PC attitudes I see developing lately don’t feel all too progressive in my eyes.

What specifically bothers me is the notion of trigger warnings — that is, online warnings provided before content that could possibly trigger a traumatic feeling or memory — which I believe to be completely flawed and unnecessary in the university environment.

A trigger warning that irked me in particular was one provided before an English class that looked at the horrors the First Nations peoples had to face. Wow, if fragile students can’t face content that informs them of the evils committed against First Nations peoples by the Canadian government, then how can they possibly properly understand the issue properly? How can they fully understand Canadian history? How can we de-stigmatize ourselves from any potential real-life uncomfortable experiences we may encounter?

Safety is an illusion created in the mind. It’s reassuring, but not reflective of reality.

These ideas, combined with reading excellent coverage of free speech erosion on American college campuses by writer Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic, gave me a reason to speak out on the issue of trigger warnings. By potentially deterring people from viewing, listening, or reading important content, trigger warnings ultimately hinder the creator’s free speech.

As a part of the ‘bubble-wrap generation,’ coined due to how closely we’re mollycoddled by our parents and the rest of society, I can’t think of a generation that has been exposed to more warnings for content that divulges the cruel realities of the world. Instead of preparing us to deal with reality, they encourage us to create personal, safe, sheltered spaces for ourselves so we can avoid all around us.

The fact of the matter is the world is not a safe place; traumatic experiences happen every day. You could become seriously injured or die at any moment in an accident, contract a deadly disease or be mugged by a stranger on the street. Moreover, people both on our continent and overseas are being treated terribly under the conditions they live in today, not just conditions described in history books. Safety is an illusion created in the mind. It’s reassuring, but it’s not reflective of reality.

If your only means of dealing with your fears is to avoid them, how will you ever overcome any obstacle thrown your way? Any psychiatrist will tell you the only way to face your fears is to confront them directly. So instead of demanding to be coddled and sheltered by trigger warnings, we should work towards strengthening our emotional fortitude by facing harsh realities without throwing up a warning beforehand.

If words break bones, then how do you expect to survive reality’s sticks and stones?

Why doesn’t mainstream feminism embrace women of colour?

By
EIC
-
1

Today’s feminist problem is that mainstream feminism often attempts to speak on behalf of the struggles of women of colour, while silencing them in the process.

A striking example was Patricia Arquette’s “feminist” Oscar speech in 2015, where she proclaimed that it’s time for “all the women in America,” “all the men who love women,” “all the gay people” and “all the people of colour that we’ve fought for to fight for us now.”

Even as we celebrated International Women’s Day a couple weeks ago, we celebrated achievements of women worldwide. The problem? Many women of colour are left out of the discussion because their voices, and their past and present struggles, are often silenced by mainstream feminism.

In society, the hierarchy of privilege tends to place men at the top, followed by men of colour. Subsequently come white women, and lastly, women of colour. If we celebrate strides for some women, we cannot celebrate this as a stride to equality if we do not recognize the struggles of women of colour, who are fighting to be equal with men, but are even still fighting to be equal to white women.

The gender parity cannot be solved by putting a woman on a board of directors, or on the prime minister’s cabinet — the multifaceted issues faced by women of colour are simply too great. In implementing gender quotas, racial bias is still prevalent, and we can’t solely focus on gender without racial diversity as well. If we advocate for more women in leadership positions, and fight for gender and pay equality, we must ensure that our feminism is intersectional. A white woman’s equality is not equality for all.

As a girl of Indian descent, for wearing a bindis, or having thick eyebrows, I would have been made fun of growing up.

Women run 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 Companies, and only a small percentage are women of colour. Having women in such roles is rare, but we need to recognize that these opportunities are lacking in number, and even more for women of colour, due to histories of colonialism, inequality, and marginalization.

Further, if we are going to promote body positivity, and the right for women to make choices with their body, we must also support the right of women to wear hijabs or niqabs, to wear their hair in box braids or dreadlocks, and for all to celebrate their cultural traditions freely.

As we fight back against unrealistic definitions of beauty for all women, we must also recognize that on top of this women of colour are subject to colourism — where their beauty, and even their worth, is decided by the closeness of their skin to the white standard.

Women of colour are subject to ridicule for things white women are praised for. For example, as a girl of Indian descent, for wearing henna or bindis, or having thick eyebrows, I would have been made fun of growing up. Now that it is adopted and encouraged in fashion magazines by famous white women, I no longer have to feel ashamed. This is ridiculous.

If we celebrate International Women’s Day, we need to ensure we are not just celebrating white ,middle class, cisgender women, but also the diverse women of colour with struggles that deserve our honour and respect. I hope to live in a world where having an Aboriginal female CEO or prime minister isn’t unheard of. In order for this to be a real possibility we must break this cycle of ‘one voice’ feminism and speak to the struggles of women of colour, and not on their behalf.

Dangling modifiers are more important than the US election

By
EIC
-
0

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]angling modifiers are more important than the US election, because I can change dangling modifiers. Modifiers are clauses that precede a sentence. They define the subject in the sentence that is to come. A modifier is dangling when it modifies a subject that it isn’t intended to. Here’s an example: “Being so fit, the 50 km run was easy for Manpreet.” This sentence says that the 50 km run is what is fit.

What we probably want to say, though, is this: “Being so fit, Manpreet ran the 50 km run with ease.” In this case, Manpreet, the sentence subject, is fit.

Dangling modifiers can be hard to understand, but they can be changed by Canadians. The US election is hard to understand, but can’t be changed by Canadians.

If I can control my grammar, I can avoid misinterpretations, and needn’t be afraid.

One odd thing about grammar, though, is that it’s inherently forceful. It’s tempting to force people to follow the rules according to a specific grammar rule book, of which there are many. I follow the Canadian Press style, because it makes sense to me. It’s also my job as Copy Editor to make decisions about these sorts of things, and I think it’s okay to enforce this to make a newspaper cohesive.

But this can be a problem when we marginalize and punish for people not following difficult rules that often don’t really make sense. Doing so lends itself to judging people who don’t follow specific grammar rules, but who can probably get a point across just fine regardless.

Doing so can be kind of racist — like a prominent US presidential candidate.

Fortunately, grammar can still be fun to discuss, because we can change it. If we look at it from an open point of view, we can discuss what does and doesn’t make sense, and we can change the way we speak. This, in turn, affects the way we shape the stories of our lives. It’s not like the United States’ inevitable demand for Canadian fresh water in the coming years, which we can’t control.

It’s like we’re France in 1920, and we’re watching Mussolini in Italy.

Grammar really can shape lives. Think, for instance, about being mad. If you’re mad, are you mad? Or do you feel mad?

Now, if you tell yourself every time that you feel an emotion, rather than you are an emotion, how might those words affect your thinking? You might be more inclined to think of your emotions as a passing experience, rather than a consuming identity. It might make emotions feel a bit less important, and sometimes we need that.

Clearly, grammar is fun. And important. Unlike the United States election.

The election is important, of course, but not to Canadians, because we can’t affect it. We can’t control, for instance, that a frontrunner openly promotes the violence that occurs at his rallies.

Remember last summer when we thought he was just a joke candidate? That he’ll probably just drop out, and we’ll all be like, “well, that was weird! We learned a lot!” And we didn’t have to worry. But we can’t worry, because we’re Canadians, and that’s fine. We can control other things.

Even if every Canadian moved down there and voted for Bernie, we’d only make up about nine percent of the population. Nine percent.

But then if any of us did move there, we’d have to worry about a potential president who promises “worse than waterboarding.” It’s like he has no idea what he’s saying.

It’s like we’re France in 1920, and we’re watching Mussolini in Italy, and we’re like, “hey, guys, just stop it, look hard at him, he’s evil,” and Italy is all, “we need a strong leader, and all that racist stuff was just sarcasm.”

But we can control what we have. I have my grammar. I can control my grammar. And also American is an entire country, and they’ll probably figure it out.

We’ll be fine.

1...856857858...1,415Page 857 of 1,415

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