@prefix edm: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . edm:dataProvider "CONTENTdm"@en ; dcterms:isReferencedBy "http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=1211252"@en ; dcterms:isPartOf "University Publications"@en ; dcterms:issued "2015-08-12"@en, "1987-08-19"@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/Ubysseynews/items/1.0125862/source.json"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note """ Black Wedge lacks edge t. By LAURA BUSHEIKIN Tfwto by Oraf/Courtesy of Ihe Georgia Straight he Black Wedge, a group of performance poets who performed at Graceland last Thursday night, are very bad. Bad enough to be embarrassing. Bad enough so that the audience steadily diminished as the night progressed. Too bad to be considered ^so bad they're funny'. Too bad to excuse, since they undermine the power and credibility of the two elements which they're attempting to unite: art and radical politics;. This is a shame, because the concept behind the Black Wedge is exciting: 5 acts of poets and/or musicians join together to tour. Their political stance is leftist with an anarchist leaning, and supposedly they are angry. They're using their poetry and music as a medium for their radical message, "dedicating language and music to the oppressed", with the intent of "breaking down the barriers between politics and culture, shattering the conventions of normal' music and poetry." Yes, the concept is promising: poetry liberated from the dry classrooms of academia, from the dusty pages of the Norton Anthology; poetry with purpose, not word play subject only to the demands of form, but utterances from the heart, impassioned statements about our lives and society. And couldn't this be an ideal means to communicate political convictions in an engaging form, to temper the alienating didacticism of political extremism? Ideally yes, but with the Black Wedge, no. ....the evening plummeted downhill so fast it would have made Steve Podborski jealous. The evening opened with the most promising act. Rhythm Activism, composed of guitarist Dem Stink and ranter Norman Nawrocki, were by far the lesser of five evils—indeed, at times they were good. They draw much of their material from "actual events...weird things in the newspaper", said Nawrocki. One of their pieces is an "Intelligence-Free" radio show from the USA, complete with a weather report predicting "radioactive drizzle", a sports report covering war news and a station identification type refrain: "Only in America-ca-ca!" This was humorous while it made valid criticisms of both the media and the goings-on of our southern neighbors. Another highlight of this act was an audience participation piece called "Condo-Fever", which inspired the evening's only instance of audience activation: a collective "F-U-C-K...Fuck 'em!" directed at "landlords and scumlords". Later Nawrocki explained that the duo's roots go back to 15th Century Medieval roving ranters, and he performed an appealing song derived from, or at least inspired by, that era. Clearly Nawrocki and Stink have put some serious thought into their work. Their greatest strength is their sense of humour which they used to highlight the seriousness of the issues they addressed. However, they flitted too quickly from issue to issue, resulting in a style similar to those execrable "Stars on 45" records that came out several years ago: 20 snippets of 20 different Beatles songs on one single. After Rhythm Activism, the evening plummeted downhill so fast it would have made Steve Podborski jealous. The next act consisted of Bryan James from Toronto and Carl The Bad Boy from New Zealand. For the first 5-10 minutes they goofed around on stage, falling over, partially undressing, and bantering with the audience—behavior reminiscent of 15 year olds who have just discovered that it's neat to smoke pot and act weird at parties. Their material was hackneyed and more or less content- free. One song played repetitively on the words "work force/work for us", and expressed the far from earth shattering conviction that working for a living is a drag. James used lots of swear words and silly lyrics like, "Molten plastic, it's curling in your lips, falling on the floor...HIGH TECH PUKE!" Later Carl threw and bashed around his saxophone. Sorry, Carl, but The Who fully explored and finally abandoned instrument-smashing in the Sixties. Welcome to the eighties. At the end of the act James admitted the inanity of his work. "If everyone got up and did something like this there wouldn't be...jerks like me on stages like this getting away with shit like this," hesaid. Uh-huh. The stage was then taken by Califomian poet Peter Plate who, unlike the previous act, actually took himself seriously—too seriously. His poetry is prosy, preachy, and longwinded, full of linguistic and political cliches. Plate's first poem started off promisingly, addressing an actual issue: a censorship trial in California involving five people, one of them a 64 year old man. However the poem degenerated into a story of how Peter, as a child, stole another child's toy gun at a party, and wouldn't give it back. The child's parents, in an attempt to teach common courtesy and cooperation, tried to get him to share the toy. When he wouldn't respond, they locked him in the laundry room. Plate called this "the first trial", clearly attempting to create a parallel between his childhood experience and the censorship trial. But the attitude for which he was punished—the desire to steal other people's guns rather than sharing and cooperating-is currently the attitude that prevails, much to all sensible people's horror, among the governments of the world. Surely his companion's parents, whom he describes as hateful authority figures, were right to try to discourage him. Plate's next piece showed that unfortunately he hasn't outgrown his childhood aggression. More than anything it was a garrulous boast about having been arrested in San Francisco for disturbing the peace, punctuated by the embarrassingly cliched refrain of "Rich Pigs Go Home!" Plate's politics are strange—they could perhaps be described as anarcho-fascisL He spouts propaganda, oozes aggression, and loses all credibility with assertions like "AIDS is manufactured by the CIA." Turn to page 2: Wedge _» THE JBYSSEY Volume 6 No. 6 Vancouver, B.C. Wednesday, August 19, 1987 228-2301 Page 2 The Summer Ubyssey, August 19,1987 Audience shrinks to half size From page 1 After Plate there was a musical interlude with Vancouver's own Mecca Normal, comprised of guitarist David Lester and vocalist Jean Smith. Smith's voice is nasal,* monotonous and very annoying. Her songs' 'melodies' all sound the same. Her lyrics are complaints about people who don't like unions, who are anti-abortionist, and, yet again, about the really awful necessity of having to work for a living. Further comment is -difficult because, quite frankly, after the first few songs, Mecca Normal's music is unlistenable. By this point in the evening the audience had thinned out to half of its original size. Your faithful reviewer stayed only out of loyalty to her job. Mourning Sickness, the last act (phew!), are a three-woman band from Toronto, who claim to be "devising a passage beyond the limits of both music and anarcho- feminism". Initially they struck a blow against feminism by displaying their technical incompetence. Their mikes weren't working, although supposedly, "they were plugged in earlier". The band members meandered around the stage looking for the plug and for the thing it plugs into, and appealling to the sound man for help. Mourning Sickness' self- described "violation of the norms of music" is in itself an argument for the existence of such norms. The "band' consisted of one keyboardist, a violinist (or to be more precise, a violin-violator), and a woman banging on a sheet of metal with a gong. They sang songs about such things as the Pre-Murder- Syndrome, which was "dedicated to anyone with PMS and especially anyone who's used it as an excuse for murder". Again, the show was reminiscent of stoned kids at a party playing with their friends' instruments. Puerile, self-indulgent, neither politically stimulating nor artisticaly interesting. Your faithful reviewer, her loyalty exhausted, fled after the third song. The Black Wedge, with the exception of Rhythm Activism, are doing a disservice to both art and politics. Their behavior provides support for the typical criticisms levelled at left-wingers by the righteous right. Often they seemed like spoiled brats, complaining about the need to work for a living, or to cooperate with other members of society. Their anger was rarely directed at specific issues, rather they just seemed to want the chance to rail against anyone with more power and money than themselves. The general tone of the evening was not a bold manifesto, not a rousing challenge, but a self-indulgent whine. It is easy to merely criticise political institutions, and to find fault with society, and this is all the Black Wedge do. They offer no alternative suggestions. They offer no route to a way out. They offer no strategies for change. If you appeal to people's anger, you must also motivate them to fight back. Only once during the evening did a performer do this. Nawrocki, of Rhythm Activism, appealled to the audience: "Who are the big landlords and scumlords in \\&ncouver? The people who are evicting tenants, tearing down apartment buildings to build condos? Do you know their names? Do you know where they live? Have you spoken to them? Are you doing anything?" The other performenrs steered clear of such specifics. It is not enough to bemoan the oppression of being a worker and having a boss. Why not explore and celebrate some alternatives, such as self-employment, or worker-run coops? Tired old anger expressed in tired old language is numbing, not activating. Where is the fresh vision? And where, oh where, is a fresh language in which to express it? Certainly not at a Black Wedge performance. 1 .1 poetry, m us/c and politics First - year ^Lmbc students jpp,v need help during \\m registration week. Call Tim Bird at 228 - 3961 to get involved in the ASK - ME ffi__B * ___HB____> % program Z\\)t -Hfar^sf p Cartoon -Spot /crrv pesi<" CHEER, UP rms eviroz- joih th£ uevssa row// The Uyssey needs: Writers Photographers Reviewers Cartoonists Typists Layout Artists Experience not necessary. Come today to Sub 241 K& talk to some of the friendly staff or phone 228 - 2307. ;,#v 1 a $ I •*t *S_ classifieds PROFESSIONAL TYPIST, 30 years experience. Word processing, IBM typewriter. Student rates. Dorothy Martinson, 228-8346. TYPING, short notice service.Essays, resumes, papers. Research and writing assistance available. Will pick up and/or deliver. John, 327-0425. WORD PROCESSING—essays, resumes, theses, by experienced word processor. Reasonable rates. Quality work. Phone 521-8055. 1 BRM BSMT suite for rent ar 9th and Trimble. Heat, light and cable included. $425. Call 228-9005 or 254-3922, ask for Ron. LARGE HOUSEKEEPING unit, self-contained, ground lvl, Kerrisdale. $375/mo., including utilities. Jeanette, 263-9204. hot flash THE ALMA MATER SOCIETY OF UBC, Food and Beverage Department is now hiring returning UBC students. Experience an asset but not necessary. Apply Rm. 266 in the Student Union Building, 6138 SUB BLVD, UBC. The Summer Ubyssey, August 19,1987 Page 3 Grad students object violently to greedy nepotists [By DEANNE FISHER The UBC graduate student society is determined not tol [let the issue of tuition waivers for faculty dependents die J (quietly. Calling UBC faculty "greedy nepotists?' graduate soci- [ety representative Kurt Preinsperg is asking for a public I [debate on the issue. He said that by publicizing the is-J ■sue die graduate students hope to force the faculty to ad- |mit their "moral lapse" and remove the clause. A letter sent by Preinsperg to faculty association presi-l [dent Joolz Blom says the clause is "discrimination on| (the basis of family background." But Blom said the agreement was "fair and good" and! I said that though some concerns were expressed during | [the negotiations, "the debate has taken place." But the debate may have been influenced by faculty! [apathy and deserves more attention, said Preinsperg.! "Some faculty members are burned out, and out of touch | |with the world around them," he said. Though controversy surrounds the issue, the faculty association is now legally bound to its contract, saidj [Blom. "The agreement must stand," he said. Nothing j [can change until next year when the association "will] [negotiate as our members instruct us to." Some faculty members justify tuition waivers on the| [basis that they are policy in 75 per cent of North] I American universities. Preinsperg said that is a dangerous argument. "There was a time when slavery was common too," hei [said. "Political corruption is rampant all over the world.[ [is that a good excuse for us to do the same?" The practice originated in costly institutions such as [ [Harvard and Yale to encourage professors to join university staff and has led to "widespread social injustice,"} [said Preinsperg. Preinsperg said he expects responses to the graduate! [society's letters and encourages any faculty member! ["who believes the faculty assocation has a right to askj j for this particular perk" to come forward for public de- fbate. Both Preinsperg and Blom said if the tuition waiverl [clause is dropped corresponding salary increases wouldf [be considered a separate issue. Blom said he is not in a position speak in a forum onf [behalf of the faculty association. * '-V *v » *■_ Dodo bird dropped from official bird list [By ROSS McLAREN A serious political issue has dropped into B.C.'s lap. Thcl [government wants to select an official bird and has askedg §B .C. residents to vote. Shortlisted are the varied Thrush, the Trumpeter Swan, the! jStellar's Jay, the Rufous Hummingbird, the Peregrine Falcon,! [the Harlequin Duck, and appropriately for B,C.'s branch plant| [economy, the American Dipper. Environment and Parks Minister Bruce Strachan's press release said, "this is not a popularity contest but an opportunity! |to ... consider seriously what they (birds) mean to us." Other choices that did not make the short list: the cuckoo, [ [the dodo and the ostrich. To vote, drop a line to "Vote for your B.C. bird", c/ol [Ministry of Environment and Parks, Parliament Buildings, [ [ Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X5 * * j U att_£__,'-j&* ^P Student ponders climbing scaffold and jumping after receiving results of summer supplemental. Dan Andrews photo I ru Full Metal Jacket explores "Jungian thing By ROSS McLAREN Stanely Kubrick's latest movie is more an analysis of the military mentality than a Viet Nam horror story. Movie Full Metal Jacket Directed by Stanley Kubrick Denman Place The first half of the movie Kubrick details the life of recruits in a Marine boot camp. Kubrick's approach is important because boot camp is where the most vital training for war takes place. It is there that neurotic boys are transformed into killers. Boot camp is an intense period of psychological conditioning. The civilian mentality is broken and replaced by a soldier's brain. This is the most important period in a soldier's life, and that is why Kubrick spends half his movie detailing life in boot camp. First the hair is cut off and the boys identity stripped; as part of the same process, the boys are abused, stripped of their pride. Women are denigrated as "Suzi v~y-ca*r^vr^:~Z; .;.T*T" f? Rottencrotch.es" to create a sense of bonding among the boys. The boys are taught to love their guns, pray to them and sleep with ttierti. What the Marines create is a machine trained in the art of killing. The soldier's mentality is built in boot camp. Kubrick shows it for what it is, the mentality of a machine, trained not to think, but only to kill. Kubrick, ever the objective reporter, does not say such mentality is good or bad, only that it exists. Kubrick explains the ability to kill as part of man's dual nature. Joker, the movie's protagonist, stands in front of an open grave in Hue. Inside the grave are bodies of government officials, school teachers and nuns, executed by North ■Vietnamese soldiers after they captured the city of Hue. On Joker's helmet is printed Bom to Kill, on his lapel a peace button. Questioned by a stereotypical army colonel about the two statements, Joker says "it is a Jungian thing", the^dual nature of man capable of good and evil. The colonel does not understand Joker's words. The colonel's perception of reality is strictly whatever his superiors tell him to believe. Sad to think that such stereotypical characters could exist, but they do and Kubrick liberally supplies his movie with them, although often not effectively because of these characters two dimensional natures. But Kubrick is not after empathy with his characters. Kubrick's movie is like a newspaper story, impartial and factual. It is not coincidental that the protagonist in the movie, Joker, was a journalist in high school and after boot camp is assigned to Stars and Stripes. Kubrick, like Joker, never lets, the characters interfere with the story. At times this objective attitude is not able to maintain the audience's ihterest because the movie's direction is not clear. In Full Metal Jacket, there is no innocent Charlie Sheen to cheer for (from Platoon), or a complex character like Martin Sheen to analyze (from Apocalypse Now). Instead the audience is given several characters who are interesting and quickly understood but at times ancillary to the plot. The focus of the plot is on soldiers cut loose from authority, surviving on their own. When the battle begins. Joker's officer is quickly killed. The grunts are left to fend for themselves, and soon they find themselves lost in a demolished city pinned down under enemy fire. Kubrick's thesis is that war is an anarchic exercise. Li war, he says, authority breaks down and war assumes a dynamic of its own. This message was especially true in Viet Nam. The grunts and non-commissioned soldiers were virtual kings in the field. Viet Nam's anarchy was compounded by poor leadership. The American government never realized that its policy of containment was doomed in Viet Nam's jungle atmosphere. Under attack on all sides the goal of American soldiers shifted from saving democracy in South East Asia to survival and also for some to joy in mayhem and murder. Leaderless, Kubrick says, the American army reverted to its true state, that of a machine trained to kill. How appropriate then that the final scene of Full Metal Jacket has American soldiers march through the razed city of Hue, singing the Mickey Mouse Fan Club theme song. Viet Nam had become less an exercise in ideals and more of a ridiculous dream. NOVEL CELEBRATES By RICK HIEBERT, Tom Sukanen was indeed different. This Finnish- born Prairies farmer did not fit in with the people around him in the drought-stricken, Depression hit town of Manybones Saskatchewan. Especially when he started building a full size ocean-going cargo steamer in the middle of his back 40... Sukanen's story intrigued local author Andreas Schroeder when he drove by the boat, the Sontianen, which today sits on a fallow wheat field south of Moose Jaw. Schroeder decided to research Sukanen's life, but found that there was many conflicting accounts and much legend about Sukanen's life. \\C0 GENIUS CATHY JONES IS A BIG FAT PLEASH scathing Cathy Jones... this lady has class! By MICHAEL GROBERMAN Cathy Jones' Wedding in Texas is top rate stand-up comedy with a refreshing twist: it is also topical, insightful, and even slightly moving. The first half of this one- woman show sees Jones perform a series of sketches in the guises of outrageously funny characters. Her first is a Nana Mouskouri look-alike "I'm from Sicily-Greece-Peru." "And it is a pleasure to be here," she says with her thick accent, "it's big fatpleash." She sings a number of choruses of her hit, "number one in Europe" called You're My Pajamas. She mambas across the stage, thrusting her bum backwards to the beat. She dedicated a song to her boyfriend, who is kind of dumb "he's a few sandwiches short of a good picnic," she explains. Next we have Cheryl and Rod, played by Jones, in a serious scene of domestic violence. Cheryl's been waiting for Rod all day. He comes home very late and hits her when she asks too many questions. The subsequent song, Rod Don't Love Cheryl, is sombre and Jones returns to the comic bent of most of the evening with her Cathy Jones... this guy has class! Wedding in Texas a one woman show written and performed by Cathy Jones Vancouver East Cultural Centre until August 30 flakey pop-psychology feminist, hosting the T.V. program "Fudegeos and Feminism." She has just written a book on the chocolate box of life: "Say you have a bordeaux, and you want a Brazil: you might have to go to the bottom layer. What of it?" The timing and flakiness are bang on; it is always funny. The first half ends with Jones doing a slimey male lounge singer telling dirty jokes and singing bad songs. Part two is the short play Wedding in Texas about Lindy leaving small town Newfoundland to go to her former female lover's wedding in, that's right, Texas. The play begins cleverly, with Lindy admitting to her mother that she is "not like the other girls," backed up by Twilight Zone music. There is a truly inspired, hysterically funny video which shows Jones, sweet and innocent, working in an outport diner, being cruised by five hard women from the big city. The background song: "I'm an outport lesbian with my short, short lesbian hair." But the story gets complicated, high tech, and boring. The fake smoke and flashing lights turn this into a self-indulgent rock video. Wedding in Texas, however, is of a uniquely high quality, and its problems are born of over-blown creativity. These are problems more Vancouver shows should have. Cathy Jones' show is a refreshing late summer treat. So, Schroeder decided to fictionalize Tom Sukanen's life in his latest novel, Dustship Glory. Dustship Glory looks beyond the life of Sukanen to the nature of small insular farming communities, to the nature of -..go-nfas and insanity and is a study of how a non-conformist copes with a conforming society. Schroeder mows down the stifling attitudes of S;!__nen's contemporaries like a harvester mows down wheat. Schroeder has used his interviews and research to good effect and his recreation of the people and era of this novel is very evocative. Schroeder has . done a good job of creating these composite characters from the irony people involved in Sukanen's life. Schroeder is very good at describing both the land and the people involved in his novel. For uook Dustship Glory By Andreas Schroeder Ballantine example, the first chapter, in which the town rowdies and Sukanen fight over the boat, dhows both fie insolence and the intolerance of the men so that the deader will later come to understand why Sukanen cannot fit in with the society around him. Schroeder does an excellent job in portraying Tom Sukanen, the dreamy, iconoclastic genius at odds with a world that often made less sense than he did. Schroeder's portrayal of Sukanen seems very plausible, and adds a new theme to the book-that of the gifted rebel confronting a society that refuses to understand him. Schroeder succeeds in turning Sukanen into a sort of an anti- hero. By the end of the book, one is rooting for Sukanen to get his boat into the South Saskatchewan river, so he can sail off through Hudson's Bay to the world beyond. The only problem I had with this good book was that I wanted to know whether Sukanen had been really like Schroeder's portrayal. The man and his contemporaries were so interesting that I felt cheated that Schroeder had not tried to write a standard non-fiction biography. Although Dustship Glory does make a good novel, it could be better (and sell mere copies) as a non-fiction work of Canadiana. All in all, however, Dustship Glory is an evocative morsel of Canadian history. Andreas Schroeder uses Sukanen's story to look at the relationship between the outcast and society in a fascinating fashion. AIN'T AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', BUT CLOSE By STEVEN CHESS Though it seemed that Aint Misbehavin' would be forever held over, it wasn't. But The Arts Club, never wont to give up a good thing, is a strong believer in bringing back the dead. Thus, the soul of Aint Misbehavin' has been channelled into a new body and the convergence, though truly harmonic, can't escape coming across as a reincarnation. THE BLACK AND GOLD REVUE at the Arts Club Granville Island The Black a'nd Gold Revue welcomes back the dynamite cast of Aint Misbehavin': Lovie Eli, Lovena Fox, Sibel Thrasher, Denis Simpson, Marcus Mosely and boasts two new, younger additions: Daya Faye and Chuck Perry. Together they croon, hum and roar their way through a survey of black music from the minstrel tunes of Al Jolson to the pop hits of Marvin Gaye. The show takes us on a musical tour of New Orleans' Bourbon Street, where Lovie Eli sings a sizzling rendition of Dirty Dozens, sashaying and writhing her way across the stage, and all the ladies, plus one, band together for a hot little number called Sisters. Miss Eli has style to spare. At New York's Cotton Club Denis Simpson rouses the audience with Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher. Hence, we become Lost in the Fifties, travel to New York's Appollo Theatre and spend two hours listening to real pros resurrect a wide variety of black music hits. The singing is outstanding. When Marcus Mosely croons Ol' Man River from Broadway's Showboat you believe that he actually has 'toted that barge and lifted that bale'. Lovie Eli, Sibel Thrasher and Lovena Fox form a wicked trio. The three of them together create the show's highlights; their rendition of White Boys are So Pretty from the musical Hair is a show stopper. Also of note is Miss Thrasher's And I'm Telling You, I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls, Miss Fox's My Man's Gone Now from Porgy and Bess, and the gospel song Maybe God is Trying to Tell You Something performed by the entire cast. Chuck Perry and Daya Faye are well able to manage their material but lack the polish and poise of the older cast members; though, Mr. Perry proves himself an apt and graceful dancer. The show itself, by no fault of the entertainers, lacks polish. Director and choreographer Dean Reagan too frequently leaves the cast members standing upon the stage, looking uncomfortable and like they don't know what to do with their hands. Despite this last problem, The Black and Gold Revue is a sure thing amidst the lighter than air fare being offered in the city this summer. V t Lovena Fox, Sibel Thrasher and Lovie Eli., sing black music with solid gold voices a p Page 6 editorial The Summer Ubyssey, August 19,1987 Time for refugee reason Canada is a huge country geographically. Our resources, natural and human, are immense. Canadians have always been tolerant people. Canadian aid has helped and will help drought stricken Africans and poor Asians. The Canadian profile around the world is admired for its generosity. With so much in our favor why would we want to deny others the plenty that surrounds us? Of course not everyone should be let into the country. Canada's refugee admission guidelines now admit people who will be persecuted if they return home. That seems fair. How can we return people to face torture or execution. But what should we do about people who take advantage of Canada's justice and sense of fair play? The boatload of Sikh immigrants who landed off Nova Scotia have certainly pushed the limits of Canadian tolerance. It is doubtful that they were escaping persecution and now in Canada it is doubtful whether they will return to India. So some changes to Canada's immigration laws are needed. But the wholesale changes proposed by the federal government in bill C-84 are outrageousness. The thrust of an immigration law should be towards fairness and away from intimidation. The proposed changes that would let immigration officers search homes without warrants and look through lawyers' files without judicial approval are disturbing. Racism has reared its ugly head in the general population and the federal government has overreacted dangerously. A calm appraisal of the situation is needed. Canada must continue to provide a first world beacon to third world people. Let us hope the St. Louis incident does not repeat itself. THE SUMMER UBYSSEY August 19,1987 The Summer Ubyssey is published Wednesdays throughout the summer session by the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia, with the additional funding from the Walter H. Gage Memorial Fund, and the UBC Alumni Association. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and not necessarily those of the university administration, or of the sponsor. The Ubyssey is a member of Canadian University Press. The editorial office is Rm. 241K of the Student Union Building. Editorial Department, phone 228- 2301/228-2305; advertising, 228-3977 It was a sorry sight The late Director of Finance, Don Isaak, lay dead beside the Mac in the Ubyssey office. Above his prone form the Mac flashed the mes- sage:"I can't take working for the loogans at the Ubyssey anymore! Ill have to end it all!" Immediately, the World's Greatest Detective was sent for... A purple surrey (okay, Laura Busheikin, with a fringe on top) pulled up outside SUB. Out stepped "Sherlock" Hiebert and his faithful companion, Dr. Ross McLaren. Quoth McLaren, "Egads, Sherlock, this case appears to be quite a poser, like the famous Hounds of the Basketballs case." "Quite," replied Sherlock, as they entered SUB 241k. Deanne Fisher, having bought the farm, lay on the floor under the victorious computer. Andrew Hicks, Steve Chan, David Ferman, John Richmond and Malcolm Pearson lay by the layout flats in a similar demised condition. "Oh, Sherlock," piped Corinne Bjorge, "How good of you to come. Ubyssey staffers are dropping like flies, and that son of thing plays havoc with recruitment" "Elementary, my dear Corinne, I have already solved the case. The killer, to judge by the modus operandi, is someone familiar with a newspaper office. It must be Michael "Get" Smart!" "He's dead too." "George Oliver!" "Had his drafting table smashed over his head." "Kurt Preinsperg!" "Unwrapped too many sandwiches." "Victor Wong?" "Sunk Barb Waldern's zodiac and fled east.." "Steven Chess or Ian McLaren?" "One entertainment review too many..." "Dan Andrews? Steven Wisenthal? Alar Olljum?" "In the old hacks home in the sky..." "Egads, Sherlock, is looks as if your vaunted record is shot to hell..." said McLaren... "Aaargh, it can't be Kathy Chung, Bryson Young or Celia Henslowe!" cried Sherlock,"They're too new!" Finally, as Jennifer Lyall's dead body, a copy of the White Paper on Defense sticking out of her back, fell at their feet, McLaren realized that he and Sherlock were alone in the room... "Egads, Sherlock, that must mean..." 'Yes, it does...certainly a master detective must think like a criminal and thanks to too much 'seven percent solution', IVe become one myself (Hee Hee Ha). Please be so good as to not run, McLaren. I don't aim so well with my 12 guage and Rebecca will go into conniptions if I mark up her wall..." after feoWu? "Jb#Jf .Ufh kmfc %tea\\err, after fttewMA i^DSES WHLW trptr-fwiUZZ after J]eNRI 1&0S-S6W '^WMrter- Walk down The Ubyssey's memory lane By VICTOR WONG So this is it. The last summer issue. Appropriate, because it's also the last, the very last, absolutely final issue to which this contributor will make some sort of contribution. For five long, crazy, temptuous years I have been associated with The Ubyssey as cartoonist, book and movie reviewer, and reporter. During that time I have interviewed people like Jean Chretien, John Turner, arid Doug Collins, I've been threatened was typeset and pasted up. When I told one of the staffers about a movie I'd seen over the weekend, he suggested I write a film review for the paper. This led to my becoming a reviewer and getting my first byline. It wasn't until my second year that I wound up becoming a serious reporter. Someone had turned in a story about Bill 32 that needed more research and re-writing. As one of the first returning staffers, I was with divine condemnation by mutant Maranathans, I've observed the biweekly bickerings of those airheaded idealists laughingly referred to as the AMS executive. I've found myself at more demonstrations and picket lines than any self respecting conservative would care to admit. And, at least once a week, I've done something to justify the appearance of my name on the masthead of this fine example of student journalism. And now ... it's all over. I remember full well the first time I showed up at SUB 241k. I'd come up with an idea for a comic strip which dealt with student life. The person handling city desk was a dark chap named Shaffin Shariff. He took a look at the drawing I'd handed him and started laughing. And thus did I join what the staff members then lovingly called "the vilest rag west of Blanca." At first I thought I'd limit myself to cartooning, but as I stayed with the paper, I found myself doing other things. Like writing headlines, down at College Printers where the paper asked to take the job. My by-line made the top of page 3 this time, and I was hooked on journalism. My memory of my time here is, for the most part, pleasant. I remember going to Victoria for a meeting of B.C. student papers, running like a wild dog (as did the other staffers) to catch the ferry minutes before it left the dock. Laughing along with the other staffers over dinner at the Candia Tavern, or whatever restaurant we had meal tickets for, prior to arriving at College Printers for the night's work. Driving through the Rocky Mountains in a rickety Datsun station wagon to get to Lethbridge, Alberta for a Western regional conference of student papers* Strolling along the West End beach, in the wee hours of the morning, after putting a summer issue to bed, watching the editors frolic. Teasing a couple of the old hacks—feminists with very strong senses of dignity— by drawing pictures of them with Bob Hope noses. Did I get something out of my association with The Ubyssey? I suppose I did. I'm certainly less right-wing now than I was when I first joined. And I definitely picked;:. up an awareness of journalism and- the publishing field which has influ-; eneed my choice of career goals. Of course there may be some who'd say I haven't picked up enough, since I'm still proud to call myself a chauvinist, but hey, nobody's perfect ;. Has the paper changed during my stay here? Yes, and mostly for the better, though I can't claim credit. The closed-minded political animals that ruled the editorial collective when I first joined have been replaced by more moderate, more . open-minded, more relaxed, and' more weirder folk. There is much more laughter heard around the office than before. And finally, after years of begging, we have modern equipment to work with. Of course there are still some problems, such as lack of autonomy, but the paper f got further along the path to attain- J ing that this year than before, which ?- means this rag will eventually become independent—I'd say probably before the decade is out. Of course I won't be there to see s it. I'll be too busy back east, in - Montreal, to worry about the for- '} tunes of The Ubyssey. But the stu- / dents of UBC, and especially those ■ * just joining fresh out of high school, will be there. And when some of them come into the graffiti-decorated office of SUB 241k and offer to draw cartoons or write news stories, I hope they get as much out of the experience as I did. "Bye now. Victor Wong, Ubyssey cartoonist and reporter, leaves us to go tho McGill to take Library and i Archival studies. i The Summer Ubyssey, August 19,1987 Page 7 Science undergrad society finally given office space in CPAX By RICK HIEBERT "*••*■* The Science Undergraduate Society was finally assured of space for their offices yesterday, preempting the plan of some science students to occupy the Chemistry and Physics ' •*•**' Annex when the demolition of the building began in September. * it The SUS has been having problems with space for the past few years. Two years ago, the SUS had an office beside the Dean of Science, which was turned into a lounge. The ••_■: SUS moved into 3 rooms in CPAX, which has been slated for demolition ,f for seven years. When the Board of Governors announced the construction of a new science building 2 months ago the SUS was asked to vacate its office . on August 20 without being assured of new space. Although the Dean's office was sympathetic and tried to find space for the society, the SUS was worried about being left without space, said SUS president Todd Ablett "We were even thinking of bringing in a portable and plunking it down in an s appropriate' place, if worst came to worst," he said. Ablett is pleased about the room offered in Scarfe, as it is close to the Chemistry and Biology buildings and convenient for science students. "We're not put out on the edge of B Lot in a shed or something," he said. "It's still only one room but we could get more space when they gut organized." Ablett said the SUS, like moist undergrad societies, could use more space. "The successful undergraduate societies seem to have the needed space to organize activities, intramural sports, and society sales. The struggling ones don't, and perhaps they are struggling simply because of lack of space," he said. " Without space you can't do much of anything." The room allocation heads off the plan of the Black Hand, the "clandestine operations group" of the SUS, to have Science students occupy the building when demolition began at the beginning of September. The group had tentative plans to "fortify the building and place it under our occupation, until the SUS is given office space," a representative of the Black Hand told The Ubyssey before the SUS was given new space. "We'll make the bulldozers sit and wait," "We're thinking of emplacing barbed wire and sandbags around the building, so we can't be flushed out," he added. Ablett said that the Black Hand did not officially exist and that he hadn't heard of and couldn't endorse such an action. "However," he said, "I can understand their frustration." Defence propaganda escalates arms race s By JENNIFER LYALL The federal government is selling its new defence policy to the public in a slick piece of propagan- da, entitled Challenge and Committment, which should appeal to Marvel comic book fans. It is based on a dangerously simplistic, us-them world view that will escalate the arms race before it increases anyone's security. Abandoning the understanding that the arms race is a destabilising force and a threat to world peace, the white paper on defence commits Canada to participation in the race, rather than looking for ways to defuse the situation. The basic premise of the white paper is that East and West are irreconcilably opposed on every philosophical, cultural and political issue and therefore the West must regard the U.S.S.R. as an implacable enemy. The Soviets wear the black hats: portrayed as intent on scuttling NATO and overwhelming the free world, they are sneaky opponents "whose explicit long-term aim is to mould the world in its own image." The concept of an enemy is a convenient ghost for a government bent on convincing the public to support a large increase in defence spending. The public understands this simplified vision: it has beer, defined for them in countless superhero movies and cartoons. And the same movies have taught them how to react: kill the buggers with the biggest thing you got. It is a very freestyle clever piece of propaganda and a very irresponsible way to present such a dangerous and sensitive policy to the public. Having established the inherent evil of the Soviet Union, the paper attempts to prove that the evil poses a real danger. The scare tactics continue with accounts of Soviet trigger-happiness, quoting a "proven willingness to use force, both at home and abroad, to achieve political objectives." There is no mention, of course, of the proven American willingness to use force to achieve political objectives, in Central America, the middle East, and Asia. NATO allies wear the white hats. Confident of the uprightness and nobility of NATO countries the white paper self-righteously asserts that "the West would resort to armed force only in its own defence." Even if that statement was not blatantly contradicted by past U.S. activities in the third world, placing such trust in a country where lieutenant-colonels determine foreign policy is naive indeed. Li keeping with the threatening comic-book tone and lack of vision of the entire document, the paper asserts that "the principal direct threat to Canada continues to be a nuclear attack on North America by the Soviet Union." Here again we witness the need of the government to present a tangible enemy as a focus for public fear. In reality, the possibility of a Soviet nuclear attack is no more of a threat than the possibility of an American attack, or a third world attack, or even an accidental attack, any of which would destroy the world equally effectively. This error in determining the nature of the threat Canada faces led to the error in addressing it; instead of a policy dedicated to ending the arms race and reducing nuclear stockpiles we have a policy which considers participation in the arms race an integral part of the country's defence. Canada now has a defence policy that can only perpetuate the international instability created by the arms race. But this is not surprising, for our defence policy originates in the same kind of thinking that is responsible for the continuing escalation of the arms race, namely, that the world can be divided into two camps, and that it is somehow possible to guarantee the security of one side without considering the security of the other. In a nuclear armed world such a position is clearly obsolete, since a threat to the security of any one side is ultimately a threat to the very existence of the planet Faced with the prospect of a nuclear holocaust, it is time we addressed the need for global security; thinking in terms of vus' and "them' has become too dangerous a game. By defining a complex world situation in simple black and white terms the defence paper successfully enforces rifts between East and West when it should be looking for ways to heal them. Jennifer Lyall is a Ubyssey editor whose fear of global destabilization is surpassed only by our fear of hers. WORDPOWER Mon! ri: :- .i.m. u> 1" j- n Telephone: 222-2(*fi 0W.YAT FRUM'S WILD ELEPHANTS FOOT SOUP (WktuavatoMt) _*oc •GREAT SANDWICHES • FABULOUS CHEESECAKES • CAPPUCCINOS • ESPRESSOS • NANAIMO BARS Local*, at tha back of tha Vlllaga on Campua =__MiC____5ac When you need copies quickly and hassle-free, see us at Kinko's. Our self- service copiers are very easy to use and give you the great quality, inexpensive copies you expect. kinkes GREAT COPIES GREAT PEOPLE 5706 University Blvd. 222-1688 MTH 8-9 F 8-6 Sat 10-6 Sun 11-6 Dtt-C 'IMPROVE YOUR MARKS!' *Word Services Clfc EDITING - WORD PROCESSING - CONSULTATION 306 - 1701 W.BROADWAY 737-8111 RED LEAF RESTAURANT LUNCHEON SMORGASBORD AUTHENTIC CHINESE CUISINE LICENSED PREMISES Air conditioned dining room 2142 Western Parkway University Village, UBC (opposite Chevron Station) 10% Discount on cash pick-up orders 228-9114 hair and suntanning co. 5784 University Boulevard Phone 224 -1922 224-9116 ?__-*» '•£&!§? 2-JJO WtST *>rt mi* ufswm* 7S3-66H PLUS Ali A_L-MePtr£RRAN6AW S&fOOQ M£NV Page 8 The Summer Ubyssey, August 19,1987 Students balk on pay to play tennis First free love. Then free tennis. Both are things of the past now that UBC students have to pay to use outdoor courts on campus. Revenue from the courts is being used to pay maintenance and capital costs for the tennis bubble, the grass courts, the armouries and the outdoor courts. "At one point every court on campus was there to use for students' purposes," said university athletics council member Martin Cocking. "It's utterly ridiculous that now there's only the Totem and Vanier courts you can use for free." He added he hopes the university can get out of its 1983 agreement to build a concrete base for and share the costs of maintaining the tennis bubble located at the south end of campus. Physical education and recreation director Robert Morford said Tuesday that maintenance costs on the tennis bubble have turned out to be "more than was bargained for" when the university first acquired the bubble in a 1983 deal with Tennis Canada. And the grass courts (next to the bubble) alone cost $100,000 to install in 1984 and were abandoned this year because revenue from them wasn't covering upkeep costs, he said. These costs combined with the university's new "pay as you go" policy Scientists to move to new cancer research facility Six UBC scientists will be moving into a new research facility next month to open a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical industry, where they will continue their work towards a cure for cancer. The group, headed by biochemist Pieter Cullis, is working to develop pharmaceuticals that will eliminate cancerous tumors without causing serious side effects to undiseased areas of the body. Vancouver peace flame lit By CELIA HENSLOWE Vancouver's new peace flame, lit Thursday, "will remind us day in and day out that we have to maintain that commitment to peace," said mayor Gordon Campbell. Campbell and Hiroshima survivor Kinuko Laskey lit Vancouver's Flame of Peace at a public ceremony in Seaforth Park. "May the flame remind us of our responsibility to future generations," Laskey said. The monument, inspired by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial's vigil flame in Japan, symbolizes Vancouver's efforts toward peace and nuclear disarmament. Campbell praised Vancouver's annual peace march, adding "each man and each woman shares a contribution to peace, each has a small commitment." Laskey presented Campbell with a wreath of oragami cranes, explaining that "in Japan cranes are a symbol of happiness and long life." Volunteers later handed out oragami cranes to the public. The treatment they are developing relies on liposomes, tiny sacs composed of the same fatty acids that make up the membrane of any normal cell, to carry drugs through the body, bypassing healthy areas. Eventually, developers hope to be able to target liposomes to specific sites, but at present they are simply encapsulating drugs before releasing them into the bloodstream. "That by itself appears to reduce some of the toxic side effects," said Cullis. The team is working with the world's largest selling anticancer drug, doxorubicin, which can cause congestive heart failure when injected freely into the bloodstream in doses high enough to kill the cancer. 'We want to extend the same sort of protocol to other anticancer drugs," said Cullis. The new business, called the Canadian Liposome Company, sprung from contract research by UBC for New Jersey's Liposome Company Inc. during the last three years. The parent company is funding the research to the tune of over $1 million annually for the next three years. which made tennis operations an ancillary service have "created an increased burden which is hard to offset," said Morford. He said the armouries are the major area used by students for tennis during the winter and "use has boomed" since P.E. started maintaining those courts in good condition and encouraged creation of a tennis club with a membership fee to use the court "What we are trying to do is have a package (of fees for students and the public) so we can have the courts and keep them in good shape," he said. Morford added all the outdoor courts are deteriorating and the fee revenue will be used to resurface at least half of them before next summer. Alma Mater Society president Rebecca Nevraumont said the university athletic council is addressing the issue of the new fees for student use of the tennis courts. "The tennis centre is a prime example of what can happen when there is no addressing by the administration of the operating costs of a facility," she said. "Someone has got to commit to coming up with the operating costs of the bubble for as long as the agreement with Tennis Canada lasts." .*•■ UBC biochemist Dr. Pieter Cullis bids farewell to his old office Computer Rentals 255 - 7342 hourly weekly monthly rentals When you need copies quickly and hassle-free, see us at Kinko's. Our self- service copiers are very easy to use and give you the great quality, inexpensive copies you expect. kinkcs GREAT COPIES GREAT PEOPLE 5706 University Blvd. 222-1688 MTH 8-9 F 8-6 Sat 10-6 Sun 11-6 a we* hair and suntanning co. 5784 University Boulevard Phone 224 -1922 224-9116 Ou^ss what costs Wednesdays cat Italian Amotfean Rastsurant Broo<_w_ty ort Boyswater Never Mind the Hi-Fi Feel the Music! It ought to be superfluous to point out that the function of stereo equipment is to reproduce music for people to enjoy. Unfortunately, this simple idea has been lost in a deluge of hyperbole in advertising and confusion among consumers. So it may come as a surprise to hear about an audio store that puts the music ahead of the equipment. Music Works! Dedicated to the music lover inside every hi-fi buyer. 4740 Main (at 32nd Ave) Vancouver, 875 - 6364 Stereo Specialists"""@en ; edm:hasType "Newspapers"@en ; dcterms:spatial "Vancouver (B.C.)"@en ; dcterms:identifier "LH3.B7 U4"@en, "LH3_B7_U4_1987_08_19"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0125862"@en ; dcterms:language "English"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "Vancouver : Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from The Ubyssey: http://ubyssey.ca/"@en ; dcterms:source "Original Format: University of British Columbia. Archives"@en ; dcterms:subject "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:title "The Summer Ubyssey"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; dcterms:description ""@en .