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dcterms:isReferencedBy "http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=1211252"@en ;
dcterms:isPartOf "University Publications"@en ;
dcterms:issued "2015-08-26"@en, "1999-10-01"@en ;
edm:aggregatedCHO "https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/Ubysseynews/items/1.0126249/source.json"@en ;
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skos:note """ no owls since 1918
THE UBYSSEY MAGAZINE Friday, October 1,1999 volume 81 issue 6
UBC Archives Serial
despite losing six family members and a score of friends to an
oppressive south american government nora patrich continues
to mix art and politics.
NORA PATRICH
"Legacy"
at the Simon Patrich Gallery, 2329 Granville St.
runs until Oct. 28
by Daniel Silverman
You probably haven't heard of Nora Patrich, but you'll have
seen her works. Her paintings appear all over the Lower
Mainland, from a mural in Arbutus Village to posters for
International Women's Day. You probably don't know anything about her past, either, which is fraught with peril and
suffering. It may seem trivial this far removed, but it's worth
taking a serious look at her experience and the art it has produced.
Nora Patrich's paintings possess a very distinctive style
that manages to evoke a lifetime and a half of experience.
Colour is used very sparingly, but the emotion is evident, and
if you know her story, the effect is remarkably powerful.
The figures in the paintings are almost exclusively
women, who are all possessed of a sense of calm contemplation. "I do paint men, but the woman figure is much more
sensuous to work with...I paint the reality as a woman. I paint
my reality."
The absence of men from many of her paintings is indicative of her own experience. In Argentina she lost many people who were dear to her, including six members of her own
family, because of their political positions. "There's a lot of
the men that are not there, because in my reality there was
a lot of men that were, and ended up not being. There were
also a lot of women that ended up not being, but the one that
was left behind was me."
Patrich wanted to capture the moment when she and and
others like her decided to take action against injustice. The
action she took, and still takes today, was to get involved
politically, using her art.
"Because of my experience inside that reality, it's much
more vivid than what happened to some men around that
reality. A lot of the women are calm because in that moment
when you realise what it is you want to do, it's a very particular and special moment. That means that you're taking
you're life in your hands, you're going to be deciding."
Patrich's story is tragic and at the same time a testament
to her perseverance. When she was a teenager in the 1960s
she got involved with the Spartacist movement in Buenos
Aires, taking part in a circle of artists trying to speak out
against the oppressive government of the time. There she
met and married her first husband, Horacio. Two days before
they married in 1976, a friend of hers attended a demonstration, was forced into an alley by police, and had a gas
grenade shot into his stomach. The next day, protesting his
death, Patrich and her fiance' were themselves shot at.
CALM CONTEMPLATION: Nora Patrich delves
into the emotional and political experiences
of women.
Despite the obvious risks, they both continued to fight against the government. One day,
in 1977, however, Horacio did not show up to
take Nora and their two-month-old daughter
back home. He became another one of the
thousands who were "disappeared" during that
period. Patrich fled the country with Juan
Sanchez, an artist already prominent when
Patrich was growing up. The two of them ended
up, eventually, in Vancouver, where they live and
work together.
The work on display at the exhibit, she says,
carries the theme of blood which has been so
pervasive in her own life. ""Blood is life," she
says, "blood is death, blood is legacy, what we
pass on to future generations. Blood is what's
spilled sometimes in wars, needlessly, and
blood is what a lot of people give to be able to
struggle for what they believe in."
While she is presenting her own perspective, she is not trying to force her own opinion
on her'viewers. How the viewer reacts, she
says, is up to them, so long as there is a reaction. "All I'm interested in is to make you feel
something, put a question in your head, or
make you feel good or whatever it is, even if
you hate it. What I don't want is to just leave
you what I say.
"I'm not going to force-feed you anything.
I'm going to propose something, and then
it's in you to elaborate it in your head."
To this day she is still active politically.
She has donated many murals to various
organisations as well as producing commission works for such groups as
Amnesty International and International
Women's Day. She points out that she
does not consider this to be acts of
charity.
"I don't think I do charity. 1100 per
cent do not believe in charity." It's an
argument that is galvanised by the
urgency of her own political
activism. Her actions are not
prompted by compassion but by
necessity. She substantiates this by saying:
"When I was working in Argentina I never got
paid for being a militant."
"Whatever I'm going to paint, there's
always going to be a political statement with
it, but the way I think, the way I use the
colour, that's a political statement in itself
also."
Patrich says that while the message is
important, the painting must still be able to
stand on its own. She compares her work
to a child, appropriate since she is also a
foster mother. "Each painting, once I've finished it, has to have a life of its own... The
kid grows up and leaves you, and the
baby's going to survive whether you die or
not, or whether you stay with the kid or
not."
In the end, Patrich wants to promote the
arts as a political vehicle, since to her, so
much of one's life is enriched by the arts.
"I think that the human being cannot be fulfilling itself, or be whole, if the arts are not
a part of their lives because you cannot
expect a human being to develop itself if it
just does one thing with its body. The arts
help create a much more developed human
being, a much more open-minded human
being, and much more sensitive to the things
around them.%> fiber 1, 1999*page friday—the ubyssey magazine-
CLASSIFIEDS
ceo m mod at ion
FURNISHED, CHARMING,
BRIGHT. Loft-BR chalet/apartment
with private entrance and french door
overlooking garden. Carpeted. Prime
locarion. Parking or near bus direct to
UBC. Avail, now. 3750/mo. Util. and
cable inc. N/S, N/P please. Call 261-
7153.
SPACIOUS, FURNISHED 1 BR
SUITE. Quiet, large, cozy, knotty cedar
L/R. Private entrance, overlooking garden. South Granville location near bus
direct to UBC or parking avail.
$700/mo. inc. util., cable and shared
laundry. N/S, N/P please. Couples may
apply. Avail. Sept 1st. Call 261-7153,
mployment
ATTENTION NURSING STUDENTS.
Caregiver/companion position available
immediately caring for elderly lady in
Point Grey area. 4-6 hours, 3 evenings
per week (possibly more). Doug: 224-
1484 or cell 729-7858 ir Glen 683-2925.
EXCEPTIONAL OPPOTUNITY TO
GET PAID TO SURF THE INTERNET. Email manager44@home.com for
free info.
$7/HR SURFING THE NET. Free, no
buying/selling, netcash2000@yahoo.com
HEY INTERNET USERS! Could you
use more money? Spend more time web-
surfing! www.it-pays.com
WE RAY YOU TO LOSE WEIGHT.
Needed: 85 people immediately. Doctor
recommended herbal-based nutritionally
based, all natural. Call 878-4844.
WANTED: STUDENT LIVING IN
RESIDENCE to represent clothing company from their dwelling. Simple tasks,
few hours set around your schedule.
Should be sociable/approachable. Email:
contactcnm@cnmonline.com or 1-888-
400-5455.
LOST: BLUE, FAKE LEATHER TRIM,
5 STAR, ZIP-UP DAYTIMER. Last had
it Thursday night, computer terminals in
SUB. Please return, my life is in there.
Reward.
92 NISSAN STANZA XE. Auto, 4
door, Fully Loaded, A/C, P/W, P/I, PIS.
New timing chain, excellent condition.
$5800 obo. Phone 224-0020 (after
4pm).
FOR SALE: BLACK 1990 HYUNDAI
EXCEL. 154 Tkm, new brakes, fresh
from Aircare. $2500 obo. Call 341-7223.
usiness Opportunity
EARNWHIJ^ YOU LEARN. Put your
ImMMfanuMfti^J^n^
er to work tor you. Start DuiFding a se
ous income before you graduate.
www.nfliCANADA.com
nnouncement
UBC SAILING CLUB AGM
NOTICE. Monday, Oct. 4th at 7pm,
Jericho Sailing Centre.
BZZR GARDEN. Philosophy Students
Association. Fri, Oct. 8th, 4:30-8:30pm.
Buch A200. I drink therefore therefore 1
TROTSKYIST LEAGUE FORUM:
THE FRAUD OF "HUMAN
RIGHTS" IMPERIALISM. Sat., Oct.
2nd, 7pm. Room L4, Brittania
Community Centre.
SPARTACUS YOUTH CLUB CLASS.
National Chauvinism is Poison to Class
Struggle: Independence for Quebec.
12th Oct. 7pm SUB 212.
ENGLISH STUDENTS SOCIETY
GYM NIGHT on Fri, Oct. 8, at
Osborne B. Gym. 9pm-11pm. $2 for
club members. $3 for non-members.
Bring gym clothes and runners.
mployment Cont.
LOOKING FOR: SKETCH/CARICATURE ARTIST for line of t-shirts.
Potential for royalties. Call Lindsay at
536-0864.
FIND GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE IN
YOUR WORK STUDY JOB. Join the
Youth Millenium Project Team! You will
be empowering youth around the world
to enrich their local community. For
more info, contact Hurrian Deyman:
Hurrian@hotmail.com
cademic Services
EXPERIENCED PROOFREADER.
UBC Graduate Student in English. Over
6 years of teaching experience. Help
with papers/alignments. Same day or
overnight service. Student rates. Call
Irina at 686-0804.
ervices
UNIVERSITY DRY CLEANERS. Dry
cleaning, dress making and ALTERATIONS
available. 105 - 5728 University Boulevard
(UBC Village). Ph 228-9414. Special discounts for UBC students.
WANTED: VOCAL TALENT. Work
with us to record original pop songs for
submission to record companies in
Canada and US. Phone: Teal or Michael
at 874-2777.
CHINESE SPEAKING VOCAL TALENT WANTED to work with us to
record original pop songs for submission
to record companies here and abroad.
Phone Mike at 874-2777.
rolunteer Opportunities I miscellaneous
SEXUAL HEALTH EDUCATORS
NEEDED for a school based education
program. Honorarium given. Training
provided. Males are encouraged to apply.
Call Lu at 251-4345.
THE ANXIETY AND FEAR LABORATORY in the Dept. of Psychology at
UBC requires female volunteers who
have experjencd unwanted sexual activity
to participate in a psychological research
project. If you are interested in helping
us or would like more info, please contact Nichole at 822-9028. Your telephone conversation will be kept confidential, and your privacy protected.
WE DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU
N.AKED! Don't get me wrong, the
human body is beautiful and thats why
we make clothes for it. Get it on with
free embroidery for your
Rez/Floor/Team/Faculty, etc...
www.rezwear.com, email:
contactcnm@cnmonline.com or 1-888-
400-5455.
kVWVVWUMMlMMMAMVWWVWWtMVMMAMIUW^^
To run a classified,
please call 822-1654.
CORRECTION
In the September 28th issue of the Ubyssey, we incorrectly
identified the website www.studentcare.net/ubc as an AMS
website about the proposed health and dental plan in the editorial ("Is it a Band-Aid solution?"). It is, in fact, the website of
the proposed healthcare provider, Student Care Networks. The
Ubyssey regrets the error.
UBC Film Society
7:00
9:30
7:00
Film Hotline: 822-3697 Q.^n
www.ams.ubc.ca/social/filmsoc "••Ml
Schedule
SUB Theatre
AH Shows $3.00
October 1-3
The Genrals Daughter
No show Oct 1 (BZZR garden)
South Park
October 4-7
An American in Paris (Oct 4-5)
Singin' in the Rain (Oct 6-7)
Hello, Dolly! (Oct 4-5)
West Side Story (Oct 6-7)
tCM
i
1M
We're looking for team players for
FULL and PART TIME POSITIONS.
If you're a self starter and hardworking, motivated
individual, please apply in person between 2-6pm.
"^ Flexible hours (open 24 hours) •=©-
"^ Fun and busy Environment! <£»
"®" Eligible for benefits after 6 months, ■sa
ks" Starting @ $7.15/hr & up. =en
ATTN: CHRIS GUILLET
MANAGER
BREAD GARDEN
2996 SOUTH GRANVILLE
V6H 3J7
PH: 736-6465
£U0B
=vUB
ssey
IVEAWAY *
• submit the best haiku you
can about Fonzie and Happy
Days. Remember—5,7,5.
• submit a Polaroid of someone in their underwear on
the hood of any muscle car.
• submit the first drawing of
dolphins attacking UBC (stick
figures accepted)
• submit graciously to our
leadership
• submit a funny doodle
.and get this
• 2 tickets to the Canucks game
against the Rangers sat oct 2!
• 2 tickets to the Canucks game
against the Blackhawks wed oct 6!
• A Ubyssey T-shirt (in any one
of four colours!)
• One slightly used game of
Life.
jast winner
the ubyssey
[iveaway
if
• Movie posters!
A person may only win one prize per month. The Ubyssey reserves the right to
| withold prizes. Winners must be members in good standing of the Ubyssey
Publications Society. So there. Also, any submissions may be published.
Ubyssey staffers are ineligible to win.
Just drop by the ubyssey business Office in
room 245 to pick up your stuff strc6tcrs
isHblfit...
we asked you:
The AMS
spent
$15,000 on
a printer.
What would
you have
spent the
money on?
They could put a little more money
into the Fine Arts department—
some studio space would be nice.
Upgrading some of the buildings in
general and adding a few more bike
trails...
—Robyn Drage
3rd year tine arts
CiTR equipment, damnit! Because
we need it.
—Ciprian Gligor
5th year anthropology
or...what's inside tbday
,/-
e
LOAN JAY AND PATRICK
TALK ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM,
THEIR NEW DEMOGRAPHIC AND
THAT DAMNED BEER COMMERCIAL
ninp
GAP
I definitely would not spend it on a
printer! Repair the roads! Going out
on South West [Marine Drive], the
roads are so shitty and I don't enjoy
driving through that way and it hasn't been touched. You don't need to
buy a copier. Copiers are so cheap!
—Juliana Sam
3rd year commerce
The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform plans to sue
UBC. The organisation maintains that the conditions placed on it#6enocide Awareness Project
by UbC have been unfair.
letters:
A new rubber track—I'm into running and the track here is a joke.
—Mika Quinn
2nd year science
Respom
I wasn't sure if I should eteVfcdigntfy
Ted Gerks rantvHti^Tr)3$p«ai«i, but
I can't help it. IJ
by David Jurasek
An expressionless face, running and landing In dirt, choking.on an apple,
sweating, close-ups of two different vaginas—first one dead, second
one exhausted. A little girl is raped and killed. A small town detective
longs for his neighbour, who constantly humps a bus driver. A news article—not ever coming close. If you are ejecting voyeuristic pleasure, knowing who is right and wrong, and a tense
narrative, stay away. You will end up snoring, pretending
to snore, and/or snickering.
You can see England acro$s the channel- Now you
can't. The endless stare is gone. Did you miss something? Pharaon, the main character, Is levitating now. The
boredom, the caress and oppression of the sun, humming
to an electric keyboard, cheering to a soccer match after
being affected by Domino, the factory worker, imagination
isn't the right word. Deep empathy, silent grace, complete
rejection, emptiness. The window is open, birds are chirping,
it could rain. Anything is possible. Did we forget about the
bloody murderer? ' -
The stillness and banality of growing inner rage, inner tension, lust, envy. They are all withheld by difficult, inarticulate,
somewhat sensitive and somewhat coarse people. They don't
belong in a movie. These are the cousins you often wish you
didn't have. If you carry enough curiosity, generosity, understanding, or courage to stand near them for two and half hours
without judgment, you will find more than what any film can ever
offer. Dignity is difficult, bring some subsistence.*
Shh
St is a language that only a
few old women in southern
China still understand. It is Nu
Shu; invented by women and
once punishable by death 1
Um SHU: A HIDDEN
LANGUAGE OF WOMEN
IN CHINA
part of the Vancouver Int'l
Film Fest
Oct. 1 and 3
by Jaime Tong
You hold in your hand a crisp
white paper fan from your sworn
sister. The vellum crackles as
you slide it open to reveal a
ipUm that she has written
|l|l|g the folds. If she were
there with you, she would sing it
|HI|ou to express her support
and friendship. Only you and
your "sworn sisters", a group of
close friends, can read this
HHHt.—it is written in a language called Nu Shu. a language that has been passed on
from one generation of women
to the next in the southern
Chinese province of Hunan. No
one knows for sure, but some
Ullimate that the language is
THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF WOMEN: Nu Shu is kept alive by women,
who sing and write to their "sworn sisters?
THE EM
atfteVa
noremab
by Doretta Lau
Chinese director Chen Kaige's historical epic,
The Emperor and the Assassin, has all the elements of a riveting drama: a beautiful leading
actress, treacherous interpersonal relationships, panoramic camera work, the quest for
nationhood, a tragic romiintic subplot or two
and an astronomical body count.
Set in the 3rd century BC, thc lilm chronicles events arising from tho Qin emperor Ymg
Zheng's desire to unify his kingdom with tlie six
neighbouring ones. The five chapters of the
film are a study in the puritv of political ideals,
the corruption of power and the ultimate consequences; Ying Zheng's promise to unite "ail
people under one heaven" ends in mass
slaughter, widespread suffering and his fall
from grace.
Ignorance of Chinese history does not hinder the viewer; the tale stands on its own as a
work of art, but remains laithful to known historical events. This is not a Hollywood drama
at the expense of verity.
The cinematography is breathtaking;
whether it is a wheat field, the entrance to the
palace or battle ground§|§
Zhao Fei lends the landscape beauty.
The mammoth war sequences, with
thousands of live extras, are unparalleled and keep the audience in rapt
attention. Strange as it may sound, the
Slaughter and destruction are elegantly
choreographed; though grace is not a
word usually applied to war, Chen makes
combat took like an art form.
The visual excellence of the film is
complimented by the strength of its cast
li Xuejian plays the initially benevolent
emperor and powerfully carries off his tragic descent. Zhang Fengyi is the fearless
assassin and the perfect foil to Li's bloodthirsty emperor. Gong Li, formerly the face
of Zhang Yimou's films, turns in a haunting
performance as Lady Zhao, Ying Zheng's
lover turned enemy. Chen himself recreates Prime Minister Lu, reason to the
emperor's passion.
At times, the film did feel an opic 160
minutes long; however, each scene was
necessary to the unfolding action.
Members of the audience were seen to
nod off and squirm uncomfortably in
their big, leather chairs. At the conclusion, many were too sedated to give the
film the applause that it deserved, but
the rest of us put our hands together
in appreciation of this cinematic spectacle.*
almost a thousand
years old.
The first time
local documentary filmmaker Yue-Qing Yang heard about Nu Shu was when she was
in Beijing to attend the fourth United Nations World Conference on Women- She was
at the conference to present a work in progress—-a documentary on foot binding—
when she heard about the existence of the language, now kept alive by only a tiny
group of elderly women in the villages in Hunan.
"Once I heard that women actually have their own writing, their own way of communication, I mean, that was really intriguing," she says. "So I had to know. I had to
find out what it is, what they do, what their secret communication is, what they communicate about.
"The way they 'read' their writing is to sing it. Formally, it is written all in poetic
form, like seven or five characters per line."
Nu Shu, which is Chinese for "women's writing," was once written and sung by
many of the women in Hunan villages of the Jian-yong region, but the number of
women who fluently read and write the language has dwindled . The language and
the women who used it are chronicled in Yue-Qing Yang's documentary, Nu Shu: A
Hidden Language of Women in China.
"These old ladies are beautiful," says Yang. "They are strong and they carry the
strength of the Chinese women as a whole. What can say more than if, for centuries,
for thousands of years, the women don't get an education, yet they invent a writing
for themselves."
Yang made several visits over four years to film the documentary.
"I've lived with them and shared their homes, which was great. J think t developed
a very intimate relationship."
This intimacy is what sets Yang's documentary apart from the rest. Yang's isn't
the only film about Nu Shu. China's Central TV (CCTV) went into the region a few
years ago to document the dying language, but as Yang explains, "Beijing hired a
male director from CCTV to make a documentary about Nu Shu, which only treats Nu
Shu as a tourist attraction."
Her outrage grows as she says, "You know, it was like the producer was thinking
'who is going to see old ladies?' To them, [the Beijing teamf these oid ladles are
ugly." , P
During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, the Red Guard prosecuted women
who used Nu Shu, burning the books and artifacts, and sometimes the women themselves. Nu Shu was thought of as "old culture" by the government, and because only
women were fluent in it, Nu Shu writings were suspected as spy documents.
Nu Shu wasn't always written into books. It was embroidered into handkerchiefs,
woven into cloth, written onto fans. The language itself Is very different from written
Chinese. Each Nu Shu character represents a syllable, so it was more accessible to
women because one only needed to learn about 300 characters to be able to write
it. iiiii^Hiillliliilllllllllill^Miiiiii
On the other hand, in order to read and write fluent Chinese, also known as Nan
Shu, or men's writing, one needs to learn several thousand characters.
Unfortunately, as more women started attending university, less of them were able
to keep Nu Shu alive.
Yang's documentary examines the sub-culture that surrounds N.u Shu as well Nu
Shu's function in the women's lives. Nu Shu was a means of communicating with
other sworn sisters about abusive marriages, the" JsolitlOh'ofarra^gfed'"marriages,
and the liberation in widowhood. A line from a Nu Shu poem reads, "Beside a well,
one won't thirst; beside a sister, one won't despair." Although Ny. $hu i$ very nearly
a dead language, it fostered that sense of sisterhood. And although the language is
dying, the bond it created has been passed on to subesequent generations.* ber t, 1999 • page friday—the ubyssey magazine -
rve been around for a while
by Nicholas Bradley
^■:
This is the first time the band has learned all the songs on an album to
play live, says Patrick Pentland of Sloan, over his lunch. His bandmate Jay
Ferguson hods, and whispers, so Patrick won't^ hear him: "I gotta do some
practising in the soundcheck."
At the end of their concert later that day, it's obvious to everyone that
all four members of Sloan have some woodshedding to do. Their fifth
album, Between the Bridges, has been out for a week, and the Wednesday
night show at the Starfish Room is one of the first chances they've had to
show off the new songs. It doesn't go the way anyone had planned.
Patrick promises that there won't be as many old songs tonight, or during any of their upcoming shows. "I don't know how many times you can
play 'Penpals,'" one of the hits from 1994's Twice Removed.
"i know how many times I can play 'Penpals,' and I'm well past that."
Jay laughs again. Jay—he's the Cute One in the band, the one you want
to take home and hold hands with. Jay's all about wearing suede shoes
with his Orange Tabs, and grinning at the girls in the crowd as if he can't
belive that he's actually onstage and that all these people still want to hear
"Snowsuit Sound" after all these years.
On stage, each Sloan shows a different personality. They take turns
singing. There were four Beatles. There were also four guys in Kiss.
Chris Murphy is the Funny One, the one you probably know. He's all rock
n' roll, at least that's what he's trying to convince you of. He's hoping that
you'll remember the scissor kicks and his swinging hips and that you'll forget the fact that he has to stop in mid-riff to stop his glasses from sliding
off his nose, and that he falls over when he tries to climb onto the drum
kit for another rock star pose.
Andrew Scott is the Cool One, the one who plays—drums, guitar, or
piano—hunched over, his hair flailing. On one hand he's the jock in the
band, the sweatiest man in rock and roll, all
bulging veins and sinewy arms as he sings
about running track, making his. bandmates
seem even skinnier than they are.
("Underwhelmed?" Try 'underfed.') On the
other hand, he's the moody one with the
dark songs who never smiles, or looks out at
the fans.
Patrick just stands off to the side looking
for all the world as if he can't wait to get off
the stage. He trades off most of the lead
vocals with Chris, and maybe he's Chris's
alter ego: the (almost) serious frontman who
wants to get on with the show.
"So no one paid to get in, right?" he
asks, and waits a second before the punchline. "'Cause you're not getting your money's
worth." He's only half-kidding, but he still
laughs his way into the riff that runs through "Money City Maniacs," the last song of the
set. He's having just as much fun as everybody else; he just won't let on.
Jay isn't sure how the new songs will come across live. Some of the songs on Between
the Bridges are more complicated, with more layers of guitar, than on the last album.
The new record was made quickly. Sloan wanted to tour, and they needed an album to
tour behind.
" I think that we work well in that situation," Patrick says. "There was time to think about
it for sure, there was a lot of thought put into it, but at the same time, I think there was a
lot of instinctive, or instinctual, like, you know what I mean."
Jay starts in. "I think some of the songs on Navy Blues were almost written to be played
in the live form. 'Money City Maniacs' being a good example of a song..."
".. .that's essentially written to be played live," Patrick finishes for him. "It's like 'Here's
the hand-clap part, here's where you all scream."'
And they do scream. Audience participation is very important at a Sloan show. By the
last song in the set, everyone knows that the band has had an off night, to put it mildly. But
no one really cares, least of all Chris, who takes the opportunity to invent a new game.
He asks Jay to play a minor chord. When Chris sings "Hey you!" and the crowd answers
back a little too quietly, Jay chimes in with the sour note. When the crowd gets it right, Patrick
hits the major chord and leads into the rest of the song. Chris looks very pleased with himself.
Chris is a pretty funny guy. "He's gotta pack the puns in there sometimes," says Jay,
referring to one of the new songs, "The Marquee and the Moon." The song's about two
clubs in Halifax, the Misty Moon and the Marquee, and Chris couldn't help turning this into
a reference to Television's first album, Marquee Moon.
Songs like this one and "The N.S." are about the band's abandoned hometown, Halifax.
But the local theme running through the album was an accident, according to the band.
"It's not like everything is about Halifax," Jay says. "In a magical world, you could probably reason that everything is a story, but I think you could probably do that with every album
that exists.
" It kind of has the air of a concept record without really being about anything," he laughs.
Patrick admits, though, that this album is more obviously personal than others. "There's
probably more references to Halifax and ourselves than on any other record: frnean I could
be wrong, but..."
Sloan is onstage. They haven't rehearsed for at least two weeks. On the very first song,
some lyrics are forgotten. It goes downhill from here: Chris rattles the hi-hat loose, Jay
spends forever fiddling with the distortion pedal, Patrick misreads the set list and starts to
play the wrong song. The sound is badly mixed and the bouncers keep having to tell people
to stop taking so many photos. Everyone is also having a very good time.
Sloan*is adjusting to the fact that some of their fans, as Patrick explains, don't have the
sense of the band's history that the older fans do, that the kids now didn't exactly grow up
-V
THE CUTE ONE: Jay Ferguson fumbles his way
through a set at the Starfish Room.
NICHOLAS BRADLEY PHOTO
on Peppermint.
"We did an in-store in Halifax
and we were signing autographs
atthe tables, and all these people
were coming up, these kids—like
girls and whatever—were just like,
they ask questions, and we'd be
like, 'How old are you?' or 'What
grade are you in, like Grade 12 or
whatever?' and they're all in like,
Grade 7. They were basically three
when we got together."
-"We fit in there for a while
around '92 or '93 when things
were happening, Seattle of the
East, and all that crap, but then,
we're in our thirties, and those
kids are all in their early twenties
or whatever, mid-twenties. I think
its natural that we're not that big
a part of it," Patrick continues.
"It's probably a drag for other
bands when there's an article written about them to have Sloan
always mentioned in it, 'cause
we're not part of it much anymore." He pauses, and almost
sriiiles. "Now we're part of the
ages," he deadpans as Jay starts
to snicker.
All four members of Sloan live in
Toronto now. They're all in their thirties. They still sing the song about
skipping classes. But Patrick doesn't know what's happening with the East Coast kids anymore.
On the plane, Jay says, Chris was busy listing all the bands in the Halifax pop explosion. _
"Eric's Trip to Jale to Thrush Hermit, Hardship Post—everybody's gone. Thrush Hermit
broke up, just recently, and they were the last of that little.core that was around when we
were starting," he says. a
Patrick chimes in with an explanation.
" If you can't make it you gotta pay the rent, and if you want to do other things with your
life, then it's just natural that the bands end. But we're doing alright, so we keep going."
He adds that he's not interested in branching out to fill any hole in the scene.
"Anything you wanna do, you can do on a Sloan reco»|."
Anything—Patrick suggests that the next one might be all piano, or maybe acoustic
guitar. Then his face lights up—the next record is going to be nothing but drums, he
decides.
They've put out three records in 18 months, so there's going to be a bit of a break
now, while they tour Japan, Australia, the US, and, maybjp starting in February, Canada.
"It's probably the best time to have kids, actually," says Patrick. Jay looks decidedly
unimpressed. t
They both look unimpressed when they talk about haying "Money City Maniacs" in a
beer commercial.
Jay rubs his fingers togther when Patrick starts to explain why Sloan sold the rights
to Labatt's. Sloan had just bought back their publishing rights and needed the cash.
"It's not the coolest move in the world," Patrick adipits, but Jay says that it was a
good move because it let the band get more control over their songs. Besides, they
play bar shows anyway, and their distribution company, Universal, is owned by
Seagram's. "We're working for bootleggers," says Jay.
"Sometimes, I was younger, I'd see a band that ryiight have a song in a commercial, and I said 'Ah hell, what'd they do that for,' but you never know what the real
reason [is], it's like maybe one of the guys in the band has two sick kids...I would
never judge anymore why anybody would do something like that for the money."
Patrick calls this "a different era for us," both musically and thematically. He
says some of the band finds it frustrating to play the same old songs over and over
again. The old ones are too simple, he says, and remind them of things they don't
want to be reminded of. But there's other things to think about.
"You wanna balance it between what you wanna do and what you think the people who are paying 25 bucks to get into the show wanna hear."
Soafter^ long wait.Sloan cornea back onstage, a bit sheepishly, for an
encore, and Jay starts to sing "The Lines You Amend," the first of three songs
from One Chord to Another. Sloan knows these songs well. Chris jumps up and
kicks the air in time with the last riff of "The Good in Everyone," flashing the
Kiss sticker on the back of his bass. He doesn'tfall over this time, and he flashes the crowd a quick smile before he jogs off stage.«> -page friday—the ubyssey magazine*friday, octot
allJAZZUlP b ss
WITH THE KEN ALDCROFT TRIO +1
at the Havana
Sept. 26
by Lawrence Chew
It was a jazz quartet without a bass. That kind
of caught me off guard. I mean, the bass is what keeps the groove going,
right? Well, I was wrong. But, when you've got as talented a songwriter
and arranger as Ken Aldcroft, you don't need a bassist. His exceptional
guitar playing was only improved by Bernie Arai's extremely capable
drumming. Helping the melodies along and providing some fantastic
solos were Brian Harding on trombone and Graham Drd playing both
tenor and soprano saxes. Once collected on stage, these four musicians
took to some avant-garde jazz.
Let's not forget that this was a poetry reading too,
and Kris Elgstrand provided a series of fresh and original poems, as well as stories that allowed both
verse and music to play with one another on a dark,
simple stage. With performers Michael Gordin
Shore and Kwesi Ameyaw assisting him at the
microphone, the poetry came to life through
Aldcroft's perfect complementary score.
It started with a Latin feel played to Elgstrand's
poem, at the show's namesake, "What Goes". A
piece about love, love lost, love being found again
and then love being stalked. "If you hear footsteps—don't worry, they're mine." Unfortunately,
his poetry wasn't always spoken with the same
care and beauty as the words deserved. At times
it even garnered uncalled-for laughter (although it
was from that one guy who always manages to
sit at the front and act like a total dork—come
on, you all know the type).
Other works by such Jazz legends as Duke
Ellington and Charles Mingus
were also read. Mingus' "Scenes in the City"
was spoken to a cool, Harlem sound and the
words were uttered: "Jazz is beautiful, not pretty like girls in magazines." It wasn't until the
author read his own work that I appreciated
the quality and ingenuity of his writing. The
realisation came with the reading of "Ted's
Head". It was like Dr. Seuss, but on psychotropic fungi... and read to jazz. The other
piece he read was entitled "The Big
Purchase". Just as brilliant as the previous
poem, it can be considered the pessimist's
anthem. Elgstrand found a perfectly logical,
and yet philosophical, way to prove that
sadness is far more reliable than fleeting
happiness, which can leave one at any
moment.
The final piece of prose for the night
was incredibly and wonderfully fitting.
"Snake Hips" is Elgstrand's story of a
boy who refuses to use his bones and
grows up never using them, remaining
completely listless. It reaches a point
where both his mother and father
refuse to move as well. That is, until
an old, scratched up
record with the most beautiful
music is able to inspire both parents
to dance. Then the boy discovers that
his undiscovered talent is his ability
to dance like no other because of his
bones. To bring emotion to the
story, Aldcroft wrote a brighter and
more traditional song that had a
rousing feel and an infectious
melody. This last performance was
TRICKY
At the Rage
Monday Sept 27
they do the trick
by Andrea Winkler
An Evening of Quirky and Beautiful Songs feat.
Lee Sun at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre
Pf* Sept. 27th
■ When you go to see Tricky, it is definitely for the atHlOSPheCB. Blue lights made hazy by all
kinds of smoke; bass so loud it arrests your legs. And then, there's Tricky, who played the
i. Rage on Monday.
After opening the set with a rendition of Blondie's "ooo~ : ," he took off his
shirt and for the rest of the show 1 marveled at the energy jolting the man's body. He managed some pretty funky backward
stretches while his head shook spasmodically from side to side. One of
Tricky's live performance trademarks
is to keep his back to the audience;
you basically watch him shake for
two hours and, periodically, have him
seek refuge behind a speaker. His
audience engagement consists of
"thank you very very much" after
every couple of songs. I have talked
to people who get annoyed about
this but I figure, it's Tricky, and he's
a genius. He can do whatever he
wants.
Thankfully, Tricky played quite a
few tracks from his older albums
Maxinqaye and Pre-Millennium
Tension, including "Vent" and Public
Enemy cover "Black Steel"
(always a crowd pleaser). His backup vocalist sang beautifully, complementing Tricky's guttural Brit
laments. Not to mention a VIP rap
interlude by Mad Dog that put the
crowd in motion.
There were times when Tricky
stretched songs for over ten minutes
mostly riding the bass beats inserting the occasional "I'm a bad boy" or
"I'm just passing time." These had a
mixed effects on the crowd. Some
were really into it, like the guy beside
me who was flailing so hard he
almost took out a few people around
him, while others seemed bored and
headed for the bar. The show was
definitely enjoyable' and I've been
humming Tricky tunes ever since.♦
FUNK SOUL SISTER: Tricky's female counterpart shook
up the Rage Monday night, melanie streich photo
Ph
■ "i
by Ron Nurwisah
__ Lee Sun is like that funny, always smiling friend
^J know the one. The one that makes
f-% your day by doing something just a
^■■4 little bit off-kilter. That's the
• pH. impression I got when I watched
^■■4 her show on Monday at the inti-
p.«»«««Hmate confines of the Cultch.
-^|W^Jtollertalading onto the stage in a
You
a perfect way to show how Aldcroft
and Elgstrand achieve a wonderful
marriage between music and the
spoken word.*
pink ballgown, Lee Sun proceeded to charm the audience with
her own brand of unique and
upbeat music.
C There are shades of other
female singer-songwriters in Lee
^-Sun. I'm reminded of Sarah
Jy McLachlan and Tori Amos. But
Lee Sun is much happier than
the fore-mentioned artists. She
manages to keep the amount
Cof tortured, existential angst
to a minimum, preferring
instead to be nostalgic and
ultimately light-hearted.
These are fun songs, the
[ft kind that leaves you with a
—ul smile on your face and tap-
Lj ping your toes. One particu-
—jlar song spoke of "clouds
^J which I painted when I was
mfive" while another reminisced about two young
lovers "playing dumb."
But just like your funny friend isn't
perfect, unfortunately neither was
Lee Sun's show. Her on-stage banter,
while at times entertaining, more
often became lengthy and at times
even annoying. Lee Sun's songs, too,
were somewhat uneven, with some
genuinely interesting but others in
need of a good once over (or even left
out of the show all together).
Still, it would take a curmudgeon
not to like Lee Sun. Her brand of
music is a balance. Catchy, without
becoming pop, and, fortunately, not
infected with a bad case of melodramatic angst, the sort that ruins oh so
many aspiring singer-songwriters.
And Lee Sun herself, kind of like that
quirky, cheery friend simply grows on
you. ♦ >, .October 1, 1999 • page friday—the ubyssey magazine ■
Breast loses raison d'etre
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"7 pm and I'm jogging
through Pacific Spirit park.
A big, scary owl comes
onto my HEAD! I run. I hide
under a tree. I am bleeding.
The owl waits. I wait. It
gets darker. I am scared. I
decide to run for it. I grab a
stick and run to another
tree, yelling:
AAAAAAAAAh! The owl
swoops again. I sprint,
swinging the stick over my
head. I CAN FEEL IT
BEHIND ME, CLOSING IN!
Then, my stick makes contact with the owl's legs,
and it is gone. Running
home, I almost get sprayed
by a skunk."
In the woods
since 1918.
DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A
DIFFERENCE?
BE A CANDIDATE FOR THE
BC YOUTH COALITION
The BCYC is looking for community minded individuals,
aged 18 to 30, to run for municipal public office. Candidate
positions for School Board and Civic Council are available
throughout the Lower Mainland.
Benefits Include:
Salary $10 000-$30 000 per year »i
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community
Contact:
For more information phone Mike Milat at 946-2139 or
686-2048 pgr or email us at youthcoaliton@hotmail.com.
Respond soon. Positions are filling up fast. ^ m mgi w%
IN BLOOM: Deb Pickman plays a woman dealing with cancer in My Left Breast.
MY LEFT BREAST
at the Presentation House Gallery
through Oct. 3
(held over from the Vancouver Fringe
Festival)
by Jesse Boparai
My Left Breast is an autobiographical monologue
about a woman's struggle with breast cancer. As you
may have inferred from the title, Susan Miller's
script deals largely with her mastectomy, although
the play focuses on a number of other things. The
play has won praise and awards since its first staging in 1995. Last week, Deb Pickman was given a
Vancouver Sun People's Choice Award for the Fringe
Festival. Unfortunately, I disagree somewhat with
popular sentiment regarding My Left Breast.
Something was missing in the show I saw on
Sunday. During the performance, I was unable to
keep my attention away from the slow-moving hands
of my wristwatch. Susan Miller originally wrote and
performed this piece as a way of sharing her experiences with breast cancer. Performed by an ordinary
actress, My Left Breast loses its raison d'etre and
becomes another piece of "cod liver oil" theatre,
which we are forced to ingest because it's good for
us. Without the author's presence, this play loses a
vital link to the audience, and as a result it becomes
harder to overlook its weaknesses.
My Left Breast impressed me very little. The
script has a literary structure, so much of the play
sags. I am not saying the script is without merit (it
contains some sharp writing); rather, I think it has
few purely dramatic merits. As for Pickman, a UBC
grad, I cannot agree with those who gave her the
People's Choice Award for best actress. She did a
splendid job as a performer, but not as an actress—
she represented a character without acting a role. I
don't know what to say about this show's director,
Renee laci, as I am not sure what she did with this
production.
I realise this review violates our modern code of
etiquette, in that I have chosen not to praise this
play, even though it addresses several important
issues, including breast cancer. I agree with many of
the views and ideas expressed in this production,
but watching this play was no fun. You may well want
to spend $10 to see My Left Breast, but I'd advise
you to donate that money directly to the Canadian
Breast Cancer Foundation and go watch a real play
instead.**
A little light drama
BABEL RAP AND
PLAYWRITING CLASS
at the Vancouver Little Theatre
runs until Oct. 3
THE ILLEGAL
by George Belliveau
"We're gonna get to Heaven anyway, when we die,
aren't we?" asks one of the characters in Babel Rap.
A new, young Vancouver theatre company stages
two short one-act comedies by well-known local playwright John Lazarus at the Vancouver Little Theatre.
The first play, Babel Rap, features two workmen
debating their purpose in life as they build a tower to
heaven. Their suppositions about God and how we fit
into the grand scheme of things generates some
humorous and philosophical dialogue.
The following play, The Illegal Playwriting Class,
unfolds in a doctor's office. An all-knowing and lusty
doctor/playwright offers lessons to a young woman
when suddenly conflict arises in the presence of her
husband. Both plays are filled with witty dialogue,
and the actors' energy provides reasonable entertainment for its audience in the basement theatre.
While being in between jobs (the life of most
actors), actor Stefano Giulianetti decided to "hire
himself" and create his own theatre company—
Lucky 13 Productions. Not only does this young actor
perform in the two productions, but he also directs,
designs and produces them. Wearing all these hats
makes for a challenging project, but in order to survive financially it had to be done. Actor Darren
Wilson plays opposite Giulianetti in both comedies,
and Eufemia Fantetti creates the role of Madame in
The Illegal Playwriting Class. The acting is energetic
and fast-paced but it lacks clear direction. In Babel
Rap, both actors reached highs and lows yet the
shaping of the piece seemed arbitrary, which failed
to create clear dramatic moments or beats for the
audience.
The film noir acting in The Illegal Playwriting Class
worked well to create melodrama, but once again the
direction could have been more focused. When
actors direct themselves it becomes difficult to be
objective, and what appears to work from the inside
does not always read as well from the outside. The
three actors had some strong moments, although a
great deal of the acting was the facial failing to take
advantage of the rest of the body.
Another character, God, which we never physically see in Babel Rap, is heard and only seen through
some simple, yet effective, lighting and sound
effects. For the most part the technical aspects are
kept to a minimum, and it works well as the plays
are rich in language and do not need a grandiose
setting. The venue is cozy and the plays are short.
So, as light entertainment after dinner, they may suit
your purpose.♦ ■ page friday—the ubyssey magazine*friday, October
Campus wide
strike could be
on the way
Anti-abortionists to sue UBC
by Daliah Merzaban
A campus-wide support staff strike seems increasingly likely as mediation talks between the
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local
116 and UBC fail to achieve any significant
progress.
After a second full day at the BC Labour
Relations Board (LRB) on Tuesday, frustrated_
CUPE negotiators asked mediator Grant
MacArthur to give them leverage to declare strike
notice.
"Things are procpeding very, very slowly," said
John Geppert, president of CUPE local 116. "We,
yesterday [on Tuesday] asked the mediator to
book out, which would entitle us to give strike
notice, but the mediator refused."
Before giving strike notice, CUPE must first ask
the mediator to submit a report to the government, or "book out." The union can then give 72
hours notice that a strike or lockout will be
declared.
Geppert said the mediator's job "is not to
stonewall our ability to go on strike," but added
that there are still two days of mediation are
scheduled for next week.
In August, a strike vote for employees of Local
116—which represents the roughly 1,700 trades,
technical, Food Services, custodial. Bookstore,
and Plant Operations staff on campus- brought
three quarters of the membership out to vote. Over
89.3 per cent favoured serious job action.
Local 116 aimed itself with this strike mandate
after 21 bargaining sessions with UBC to replace
thc contract that expired on March 31 which yielded only four agreed-upon provisions.
CUPE wants to prevent UBC from having an
increased ability to contract-out jobs without first
consulting Ihe union.
Union members are also concerned with tho
university's proposed new sick leave model, which
includes plans for an annual bank ot throe days
with a two-day unpaid wait period for illness.
This proposal angers some long-term employees who enjoy the current model that is premised
on earned time.
Buan Moorluidd, a senior engineering technician in Psychology, labeled thc proposal "punitive"
and "discriminatory" because, he said, management staff and faculty aren't restricted by similar
rules, and it may lorce workers who are unable to
afford a cut in pay to work regardless.
Moorhoad wrote a letter expressing his concerns
||o UBC President Martha Piper earlier this month.
Jim Horn, UBC associate vice-president ot
human resources, defended the proposal in his
reply to Geppert, saying thc model would "close
the gap that now exists between an employee's
accrued sick days and the six-month wart tor the
University's long-term disability plan."
The local would also like to achieve wages and
benefit settlements similar to the rest of the public sector.
BC's Public Sector Employers Council set wage
Increases at O0-2 (zero per cent over the first year,
zero per cent over the second year, and two per
cent over the third year).
Geppert said there's been some discussion in
the university to restrict the increase to 0-1-0. He
said other public sectors, although they've
received the 00-2 settlement, have been granted
other consessions, such as improved working conditions for nurses.
"Wages have been limited, but other improvements and benefits have been significantly more
than the wage guidelines, and that's what we're
looking for," said Geppert.
UBC officials could not be reached for comment by press time.
Meanwhile, Local 2950—which represents the
roughly 1300 clerical and secretarial staff on campus—will be heading to thc LRB on October 7 and
8. Yesterday roughly 275 members of Local 2950
Voted unanimously in favour of a motion to "work
to rule," which means members will do nothing
outside their specific job desciptions.<*
by Nicholas Bradley and Daliah Merzaban
The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) has not yet come to UBC,
but it is making its presence felt nonetheless. The Center for Bio-
Ethical Reform (CBR), which organises GAP, intends to file a lawsuit against UBC over what it perceives as the unfair demands the
university required CBR to fulfill in order to bring GAP to campus.
"It's very troubling to us that Canadians, in significant numbers
on this campus, are having difficulty understanding that there can
be no social reform unless there are rights of free speech that
mean something, not just hypocritical rhetoric," said CBR
Executive Director Gregg Cunningham.
The university has not yet received any notice of legal action,
according to UBC Vice President Students Brian Sullivan.
"The university's position continues to be that the process [it
has] taken here and the conditions that were required were both
reasonable and necessary. And if we can't agree on something
and they wish to petition legally, we have no hesitation on taking
the matter on that basis," said Sullivan.
"In the meantime, we continue to have the possibility of discussing with them the conditions under which that particular display might be on campus."
The GAP display consists of large, graphic pictures that equate
abortion with acts of genocide, including the Holocaust.
The university requested that GAP be held on Maclnnes Reid,
behind the SUB, in order that students who did not want to see the
display would not have to. Cunningham argues that this detracts
from GAP's impact.
"The students on this campus who most need to know what
abortion is and does are certainly not going to go out of their way
to see that message," he said.
In addition, UBC required CBR to pay its own security costs, up
to a maximum of $15,000 a day.
"The conditions [for coming] arise out of our concern for every-
GAP: Gregg Cunningham (left) promises that the Genocide
Awareness Project will eventually come to UBC despite opposition.
On Wednesday UBC students protested against GAP (above).
TARA WESTOVER PHOTOS
body's safety, and to make sure that the presentation is appropriately mounted," said Sullivan
CBR has also implicated the Ubyssey in the matter.
"The lawsuit begins with the lack of journalistic integrity with
[the Ubyssey] reporting scurrilous lies about CBR that cause the
campus to feel threatened by this project in ways that would never
have been possible if the paper wouldn't have uncritically reported
that we were professional agitators," alleged Cunningham.
"All of this scurrilous lying and rumour-mongering that tho paper
fed right into by leaving people under the impression that we were
racist, Nazis and all of that sort of stuff, I think contributed in some
measure to the university then overreacting and saying we're going
to require some pre-payments, an enormous security charge."
Meanwhile, a press release from CBR claims that "this nearly
hysterical security assessment may have been influenced by a
campaign of vilification which smeared CBR in the campus newspaper."
Sullivan denies that media reports played any part in UBC's
decisions. The university had obtained "more than adequate" information from talking with Cunningham, CBR, and other universities,
said Sullivan.
"It would be my view that the university has relied on, if you will,
its own analysis and exploration of things. In no way, would it seem
to me, that the university was relying on media reports in order to
determine the approach here."
CBR also notes that the Alma Mater Society (AMS) is likely to
be named in the lawsuit because it revoked SUB room bookings
made by the Lifeline club to host GAP-related events.
Nathan Allen, AMS coordinator of external affairs, said that the
AMS hasn't done anything wrong.
"I don't see how making a stance for choice warrants a lawsuit
against us," said Nathan Allen, AMS coordinator of external
affairs.
The AMS passed a motion opposing GAP's coming to UBC, but
according to Allen, the motion supported only legal means of opposition.
Cunningham promised that GAP will eventually come to UBC.
"These pictures are going to be displayed on this campus every
day from the point at which the project launches because we want
to say to the students and the administration that we respect your
rights and we expect that you're going to respect ours."
Meanwhile, about 200 people attended an anti-GAP rally on
Wednesday, in front of the Goddess of Democracy.
Speakers at the rally drew attention to women's legal right to
abortion. "We fought long and hard for the right to choose here in
Canada," said Joy McPhail, MLA for Vancouver-Hastings.
Rally organiser Erin Kaiser of Students for Choice, said that
"the issue is to keep [abortion] safe, free, and accessible."
Christine Singh of Medical Students for Choice emphasised the
issue of safety.
"Within the medical community, there are those of us who care
and are going to work really hard to keep abortion safe," she said.
Protesters also attended Wednesday night at a campus lecture
given by Cunningham to a two-thirds full lecture hall. Fifteen
demonstrators picketed outside the entrance to the room, handing
out leaflets and coat hangers.
"The definition of genocide is being expanded all the time,"
Cunningham told his audience.
Both events had a strong security presence. Campus patrollers
monitored the rally, while RCMP and campus patrol were on hand
during Cunningham's lecture:* 1.0 friday, October 1, 1999• page friday—the ubyssey magazine-
n/u
- J «•' - /
S*A
THE AMS —
COMMITTED 70
S?EmiHG> WRi
T^S^
I : \\ffiu dL W/<. V. _A
A printer a sherpa, and some spillage
With referendum time once again rearing its fee-raising head Now, to chalk all that missing beer (bought with your student the people who work on the second floor, directly next to the
and hatting its fee-raisins? evelashes at starvine students dollarsi to sIoddv Dourine assumes that the oourers have all courtvard. That would be...urn...the AMS. Yav for spending!
With referendum time once again rearing its fee-raising head
and batting its fee-raising eyelashes at starving students
everywhere, the financial acumen of our beloved Alma Mater
Society (AMS) is coming under careful scrutiny once again.
When you (the student) pay your tuition fees, the AMS
(your student society) (resume-padding student politicians)
(and hangers-on) takes $58.50 (bastards) and uses the
money (those bastards) to do whatever it is the AMS does
between resume-formatting. So what do they spend their
(your) money on?
(Now, before we get going, don't pile the blame for any of
these at the feet of the Director of Finance, Karen Sonik. She
got the budget in this year roughly seven hundred years
before the usual budget-submission time. It was so early that
it came on the heels of the previous budget: the so-called
"Eisenhower Budget" passed in May.)
So where, oh where, does the money go?
Well, a lot of it goes to "spillage."
"Spillage?" you ask with various dirty, dirty thoughts running
through your mind. Don't bother to pretend otherwise. Sickos.
Anyway, what "spillage" refers to is the amount of beer
that went unaccounted for at the annual AMS Welcome Back
Barbeque. How much, you ask? How does $8,000 sound?
Well, estimates have ranged as high as $10,000. So at
roughly $150 per keg, that makes about...oh...53 kegs.
Now, to chalk all that missing beer (bought with your student
dollars) to sloppy pouring assumes that the pourers have all
the motor control of a geriatric baboon; we probably can't
actually assume that.
Read that again, and as you read, imagine pouring 53
kegs of beer out into the sun-browned grass of Maclnnes
Field. Try not to cry.
All that beer wasn't spilled. It was given to friends and
friends of friends by people who are no friends of yours. And
if they are your friends, and you didn't get free beer—if we
were you, we'd be pissed. Go give them a piece of your mind.
The "fun" with money goes beyond friendliness (nepotism?). The AMS just bought a printer. Have you ever bought
a printer? We have. The printer that the AMS bought cost
about $15,000. For that amount of money, they'd better be
able to print mighty convincing twenty-dollar bills, or at least
three-dimensional posters.
How about the courtyard renovations? Do you know about
them? They're great! The courtyard on the second floor on the
SUB was leaking, and they decided to replace the whole
damned thing. Coming soon: mirrored pools, many benches,
and probably some sort of rollercoaster—after all, they're dropping $120,000 on it. To be fair, the university does chip in
$220,000. Nice to know those tuition fees are working hard,
isn't it? Of course, the courtyard is likely to be used chiefly by
the people who work on the second floor, directly next to the
courtyard. That would be...urn...the AMS. Yay for spending!
Speaking of spending (and let's be honest—we're doing
nothing if we're not speaking of spending), those of you
who've prepared budgets before know the sweetness of the
"Miscellaneous" line item. Well, the AMS has
"Miscellaneous" down to a tee. A very expensive tee.
The accumulated costs of the Miscellaneous money spent
by the AMS amounts to a tidy $9,045.31. Luckily, they'd budgeted $11,944. Last year's AMS president exceeded her
$100 Miscellaneous budget by about $1,070.78. Roughly
speaking. What does that kind of money go towards? Burro
rides all over campus? Your own personal sherpa? Diamond
eyeglasses?
The list goes on. The executive chairs cost somewhere
around $1200 each, according to one comfortable exec. The
executives themselves go for a mere $16,000 per year.
Dollar for dollar, we'll take the chairs.
Mind you, the Ubyssey costs you $5. But that entails a ton
of benefits. Not the least of which are editorials like this one.
Plus, you can win prizes. The AMS doesn't have prizes.
So when you see them AMS suggestion boxes, tell 'em
how you feel. Or rip those suckers off and sell 'em outside
the Ivanhoe Hotel for beer money. We trust you to do the
right thing.*
PAGE FRIDAY
COORDINATING COPY
Bruce Arthur vacant
DESIGN
Todd Silver
SPORTS
Naomi Kim
FEATURES
Tom Peacock
PHOTOS
Tara Westover
CULTURE NEWS
Duncan M. McHugh Nicholas Bradley
Jaime Tong Daliah Merzaban
COORDINATORS
cup Nyranne Martin
web Flora Graham
research vacant
letters vacant
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At once the roof crashed in, bringing Tom Peacock, Todd
Silver and .Jenn Gardy crashing in, with a substantial
amount of alcohol. Bruce Arthur was cutting Nicholas
Bradley's toe hair and yelling at David Jurasek to put Ron
Nuirwisah and George Belliveau onto the front burner.
Tristan Winch walked in with a wrench and fixed Eve
Moreau's tricycle wheel. Laura Blue (when the roof
crashed) was talking to Lisa Denton about the talking
gopher Dan Silverman. Sarah Morrison was drinking tequila with Duncan McHugh and shooting elastics at Lawrence
Chew and Jesse Boparai. Andrea Winkler and Melanie
Streich were singing the klingon opera along with Tara
Westover. Doretta Lau stole Jaime Tong's hula skirt and
made Jeremy Beaulne wear it and dance around Regina
Yung and Mathew Smith. Naomi Kim and Daliah Merzaban
were holding the blender down in the kitchen when the
roof fell.
PAGE FRIDAY » ■ page friday—the ubyssey magazine*friday, October?
SHRUM BOWL XXII
Who: The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds
(3-1 in CIAU Canada West) vs. Simon Fraser University
Clansmen (2-1 in NAIA)
Where: Swangard Stadium
When: Saturday, October 2nd. 7pm.
The Dial: CiTR 101.9
The Skinny: Although this game means nothing in
regular season standings, this annua! grudge-match is
a game of pride, pitting the best football players in
British Columbia in a battle to the finish, at least for a
year at a time.
The Series: 10-10-1. Last year, UBC won 11-9 at
home. Over the past four years, UBC and SFU have
each won a game at home and away.
The Rule Book: This year's Shrum Bowl will feature
American (four-downs) football ruies. The rules alternate according to the venue.
Key Players for UBC: Defensive end Tyson St.
James, who leads the CIAU in sacks and safety Dan
Rootes, who leads the CIAU in tackles, are both worth
watching. Linebacker Stewart Scherk, who has been
out since the beginning of tlie season with a bad knee,
will also be a welcome return in his first game back.
Key Players for SFU: Quarterback Terry Kleinsmith
and linebacker Kent Ring, come with experience, having sent SFU to two Shrum victories in the past three
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Prediction: SFU is sure to want the trophy back
from UBC, but UBC is on a roll. The only question is
how much UBC will win by.
UBC 18 SFU 9
"Charity" Cup is anything but
HARD-FOUGHT ALL THE WAY but UBC's game ended early, tara westover photo
by Naomi Kim
Unlike the name of the game, the 16th annual Charily Cup soccer
match between UBC and the Simon Fraser University Clan promoted
more negative feelings than anything else.
A questionable red card given to midfielder Aaron Keay for a dangerous tackle at only 9:14 into the game marred what could have
been an exciting game at Swangard Stadium on Tuesday evening. The
SFU Clan ended up winning 2-0.
"It pisses me right off that we lost," said visibly upset UBC head
coach Mike Mosher. "The referee ruined the game within the first 10
minutes...[The penally] certainly wasn't a red card."
And except for the referee, the views of the call, in which Keay was
deemed to have intentionally brought up his cleat in the tackle, were
unanimous on both sides of the pitch. SFU head coach Keith Watts
agreed with Mosher.
"From my viewpoint, I'd say it was a yellow card or a caution at
worst. It would have been quite a game had that
not happened."
From the start, UBC pressured the Clan and
owned the first half. Playing to the familiar
sounds of UBC hecklers, provided by the
women's soccer team, UBC kept SFU goalkeeper Steve London busy with several solid
shots. Dangerous up the sides were the speedy
striker David Wong, who led the team with 4
shots, and midfielder Kasra Haghighi.
"They played better than we did. Seriously,"
said Watts. "I told my players that at halftime."
SFU took their time with the ball, executing
sloppily at times, but after intermission, SFU's
patience was rewarded with a free kick just outside the 18 at the 53rd minute which resulted
in the first goal of the game by SFU nrdfielder
Neal Yeung.
SFU picked up their" game from there and
although UBC physically controlled the game
and continued several good plays up the field,
they couldn't quite make it to the net, registering only 7 shots in the second half compared to the 11 by SFU.
"When you score, it settles you down," said Watts.
SFU forward Tomas Ernst made it 2-0 in the 83rd minute off a
rebound from Yeung.
The Charily Cup is the only meeting between SFU and UBC for the
year, a game which means more than just winning and losing.
"[The game] means a lot for pride without a doubt, playing against
crosstown rivals," said Mosher.
The early penalty put a shadow over the game which showcased
"one of our best efforts as a team this season," said Mosher who
made six substitutions throughout the game because the players were
running so hard.
"The only silver lining is that it might have brought us closer together as a team."
The Thunderbirds, 3-1 in Canada West play, continue their regular season play on the road against the University of Victoria
Vikes on Friday.*
Shrum XXII matches Prepchuk's past and present
by Naomi Kim
SFU and UBC. One on the hill, the other on the point. One in
the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
league, the other in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union
(CIAU). One coach in his 17th year, the other—a former SFU
quarterback—in his first. One team uses American rules, one
uses Canadian. One team finished last season 3-6, the other
6-3. Only one annual meeting between these teams, and the
all-time record is deadlocked at 10-10-1. It couldn't be any better—or any closer.
Shrum Bowl '99. Let the action begin.
The 22nd annual grudge match, otherwise known as the
Battle for BC, takes place this Saturday at Swangard Stadium,
the home of SFU football. But this site is not a disadvantage
or unfamiliar territory for the Thunderbirds. Although the rules
change every year depending on the location—American rules
at Swangard, Canadian rules at Thunderbird Stadium—UBC
has fared quite well away from home, winning two of the last
three meetings at Swangard. But history and records mean little—the coveted Shrum Bowl trophy has jumped from one
team to the other regardless of where the game was held.
And this year is no different.
This will be UBC's quarterback Shawn Olson's fourth Shrum
Bowl, and he's not too worried about SFU's home advantage.
"Other than the rule changes, I don't think it's going to be
a big difference where we play. It's still in BC, we're still going
to have a lot of fans there and it's kind of nice to play somewhere different than Thunderbird every single second weekend."
Though this will be UBC head coach Jay Prepchuk's inaugural Shrum Bowl as the head of UBC football, he isn't a rookie with American football rules, SFU football, or even the
Shrum Bowl. Firstly, Prepchuk's high school coaching experience comes as a major asset: high school football uses the
four-down American rules. Secondly, although Prepchuk has
yet to make a mark in UBC football, he is listed several times
in Simon Fraser's football history. He quarterbacked for the
Clan from 1979 to 1982, and nine of his school records,
including the mark for total offence in a single season, still
stand. His many awards include being named a 1982 NAIA All-
Star and the 1980 Shrum Bowl MVP.
On the other side of the gridiron, SFU head coach Chris
Beaton is also prepared for the game. He is entering his 17th
year as head of SFU football and he has been involved in all
but one Shrum Bowl since it started in 1967.
And looking back, Prepchuk isn't unfamiliar to him either.
"I was an assistant coach at Simon Fraser in '79 when he
first came to SFU as a recruit out of high school...I remember
helping to recruit him."
But shared ties have nothing to do with this year's Shrum
Bowl.
"This game is about the players and the teams," said
Beaton. "It's really got nothing to do with Jay or myself. It's the
players and the universities. So that's what it's all about."
Both SFU (2-1) and UBC (3-1) are coming off road wins, but
it should also be noted that both teams still have tougher
teams within their respective regions to face. UBC's next two
Canada West games include the 3-1 University of Manitoba
Bisons and the conference-leading 4-0 University of
Saskatchewan Huskies. These upcoming games for UBC, as
well as tougher games in store for SFU, may serve to moder:
ate the intensity to which the two teams will play. Besides,
both teams insist that despite its grudge match status, this is
just another game.
But this game is not just another game.
"Everybody gets up for this one a little more than any other
game just because it's a crosstown rivalry," says SFU fourth-
year quarterback Terry Kleinsmith.
As for this year's SFU team, they're "looking good so
far...but [UBC] will be our biggest challenge to date," says
Kleinsmith.
Coming off of a huge 43-9 thumping of the University of
Calgary Dinos last weekend, UBC has high expectations.
"We're going to be coming in on a high and it'll hopefully
carry over to the next few games and we'll put some major
points on the board," says Olson, who despite being at four
Shrum Bowls, has yet to play an entire game.
It's been close so far, and it'll likely be close again. In
records, between coaches, between players. And as for the
game...well, see you on Saturday.*
UBYSSEY winter voters: Brace AVrftair;
Todd Silver, Tristan winch,Daliah
Merzaban, Jaime Tong, Tara Westover, Naomi
Kim, Nick Bradley, Duncan McHugh,Tom
Peacock, Eric Jandciu, Cynthia Lee, Julian
Dowling, Melanie Streich, Laura Blue,
Lisa Den-ton, Michelle Mossop
Copies Plus
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tel: 224-6225 U2LI ^October 1, 1999 • page friday—the ubyssey magazine -
Featur
Write
Sub2
s are cool!
one! SeeTom!
I the.g
ubyssey
Over sized?
That's OK.
If you're ripe
and ready
then you're my
main squeeze.
For lemons only.
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lemo
mike shardlemonade. c om
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.ca
The Big Heat
The 200-Year Story of Global Warming
David Suzuki
The author of TTie Sacred Balance and You Are the Earth.
Gale E. Christianson
Author of Greenhouse: The loo-Year Story of Global Warming
Most people today consider global warming a contemporary phenomenon. For Gale Christianson and David
Suzuki, it is not a recent development at all but rather
an absorbing historical and scientific process intertwined with some two centuries of civilization and 300
billion years in the life of the planet. By illuminating
how a scientific idea has gradually taken shape, they
allow readers to make up their own minds as to its
causes and consequences.
Friday, October I5thr 7 pm
Pacific Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut St.
Tickets are $5.00 each. Advance tickets are available at the UBC Bookstore or at the door.
Co-sponsored by:
GREYJTONE BOOKS
^a^
UBC BOOKSTORE
David Suzuki Foundation
student tf1
<*<*<*
you'll
never look at a
can of instant food
ihe same way
again
*-§iliPi
WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION
at the Design Arts Gallery
Sept. 21 Oct. 1
by Regina Yung
Hidden in the newly chartreuse bowels of Main
library, the Design Arts Gallery is currently hosting one tast burst of summer inspiration. The title
constant in a wildly diverse
collection: all projects were
done over the summer that
were free of constraints
imposed by class curricula
or any required references
to Seurat and Gericault.
Everything from paint on
canvas and 3-D pieces to a
website and a 15-minute
installation is present in
the exhibit.
Deciphering someone
else's thought processes
has never been simple, and trying to dig up every
morsel of meaning in each work would be a major
undertaking. Nonetheless, a few pieces stood out
for me. Hyedie Hashimoto's "In Flight", at first
IN FLIGHT: Hyedie Hashimoto does for butterflies
what Hitchcock did for birds.
glance a chaotic jumble of tiny squiggles and thick
curves, resolved suddenly, miraculously, into butterflies. Rocky Huang's installation piece conjured
images of zoos, while Grace Chan's live f.omic
strip made an accessible memoir.
Heather Passmore's crumpled black and white
prints captured the incoherent emotions lying just
beneath the women's expressionless face in
"Making dinner for my ex-fiance"; the connotations in her can of instant food were powerful. Rob
Sunderland's" digitally
rendered playful gods
and political rants, sadly
not side by side for better
comparison, wore a
favourite. I like the layers
of meaning he made
through the juxtaposition-
Wmdi^§t§0eM^^^^j§^
Art cm be difficult tu
express. But from the evidence of these pieces, I
would say the muse is
alive and well somewhere
in West Point Grey. Most
were quixotic and a few were incomparably
strange, but some had power, and long after I left
Main they lingered, deft as butterflies in my
mind.*»
• • •
•a-.
I« •,
» • ••■
••• • « •
«• • •
toofr out, he's got a mile!
poetry, music, and open miire night in the nation's artistic mecca, East Vancouver
TONGUE STOMP
at The Grind Coffeehouse
Sunday Sept. 26th
by Matthew Smith
What do you get when you bring together a group of talented people for an evening
without the restraint of competition, the clash of egos, or the desire to make money? An
eclectic, collective exchange of ideas, that's what. Celebrating their one-year, one-month
anniversary, the Tongue Stomp (on the last Sunday of every month) aims to provide a comfortable space for poets and musicians to come together and share their expression.
The evening began with the poetry of Suzzee, who carried listeners halfway round the world. Each
§||f poem wove together the story of her travels with voyages of self-discoveries. She expressed with herlfl
HI words but equally with the emotions behind them and a stage presence that invited you into her world.
With this, the evening was started on an open note and rolled forward.
Hannah followed by reading some excerpts from her work in progress about the intimacies of male tofj
I male friendships (thereby appropriating the male voice, as she called it), after which a band called Joe played!
f two songs that shook the building with plugged-in acoustic guitar, drum kit, bass, and keyboard. The strong
fvoice of the lead singer sailed clearly over the instruments that sounded like they were playing tag or hide-!
land-go-seek together.
The organiser of the evening, Jen Lamm, took to the stage next, bubbling with excitement that she could
n't contain and released by constantly moving around the stage. She told the crowd that she had just learned §
I to rhyme, which I and everyone there was oh-so-glad to hear. Her poetry rolled off her tongue and to your J§
||ear with its own self-contained beat that made you want to get up and boogie, but then she would break
HI into sweet lullaby.
The band Perpetuem, minus one of their members, followed with an unplugged duo of cello and
acoustic guitar. Their first song was a cover of "Only You," though they didn't know who originally
wrote the song. They performed it beautifully, with Christina plucking her cello and Yaul's incredibly strong voice. They performed three other songs, each combining cello, guitar, and vocal talents.
After a short break the stage was handed over to the open mike. This provided a collage of different styles, ranging from the pain and hope of the Downtown Eastside, to
a tribute poem for Leonard Cohen's 65th birthday (which included the description of a sexual fantasy between the poet and Mr. Cohen). The open mike
poets also ranged in degrees of stage experience, some commanded
the stage while others stuttered with shaking hands. But no
matter who it was on stage, they all felt the warmth of
, the crowd and did what they love to do:
express themselves. ♦"""@en ;
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edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0126249"@en ;
dcterms:language "English"@en ;
edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ;
dcterms:publisher "Vancouver : The Ubyssey Publications Society"@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 Ubyssey"@en ;
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