Bread and circuses raise their ugly heads
In its prime, the Romans achieved a level of political and military efficiency that wouldn’t be equaled in Europe for a thousand years. In its decline the Roman Empire achieved a legendary level of hedonistic decadence which ended in mad slaughtering by scary Germanic tribesmen. The major reason for this decline in the popular imagination (besides their strange and unusual sexual practices) is that of their preoccupation with pleasure.
Vapour
I must admit that with only a couple weeks to go in the semester, I’m beginning to feel a strong sense of familiarity. Not that I’m really tired, or sick, or frantic in the way these times often inspire, I just feel that I am perhaps lost in the Emyn Muil, and Frodo Baggins has just turned to me with his moon-sized baby blues and declared “We’re going in circles!”
Everybody wants your money
The question of finances has been particularly salient in the last few months, stretching from December’s SUB building referendum to the recent tally on the Athletics & Wellness Fee (A&W), with a couple CIVL referendums thrown in for small-change. You, the student body, have been asked to make some significant decisions about the future of UFV, and about the amount of money you are willing to invest into this institution.
Surveys, weasels, and other important matters
Let me first of all say that I am deeply grateful to the 339 of you who filled out our survey on MyUFV. The editors and I here at The Cascade have studied your responses carefully, we have laughed, we have cried, and we have, in certain instances, been very, very confused.
Athletically inclined: a referendum
On March 19, the UFV student body are going to be asked, via a referendum on myUFV, whether or not they support an Athletics and Wellness Fee of three per cent of the cost of tuition. Sports editor Sean Evans has put together a comprehensive article on the topic on page 19 which I believe is an accurate description of the process behind the referendum, so I won’t delve into that here. What I do want to impress upon you, the student body, is the importance of paying attention to this referendum and the fee it represents.
The myth of the individual
We are familiar with, and to a certain extent resonate with, the idea that everyone should be able to believe or do what they want as long as they don’t impose those beliefs and actions on others. Recently in Abbotsford we’ve seen this sentiment expressed in defense of both the cancelled/uncancelled Taboo Sex Show and the new Lingerie Football Team, and frankly I would defend its use in both cases.
Start the bus, Pronghorns!
The ugly truth about basketball is that, for all the rhetoric about passion, skill, and courage, basketball is ultimately decided on quantitative numbers.
Do we really know what killed Taboo?
Last week, Abbotsford was confronted with the surprise cancellation of the Taboo Naughty But Nice Show, a surprise which demanded an explanation. Some reacted with justifiable frustration (see Joel Smart’s article on pg. 6), while others, such as the outspoken Gerda Peachey, experienced a unforeseen victory. The facts were out, the decision had been made, but most observers weren’t satisfied. They wanted narrative, they wanted story, they wanted to know why the Taboo sex show had spent four years visiting the Abbotsford Tradex only to be cancelled a month before its fifth appearance.
Radioactive ploughshares: War, peace, and Goya
Goya, the current exhibit at The Reach claims, was one of the first artists to exchange the glorification of warfare for a portrayal of its destructive realities. His prints have ambiguous titles such as “I saw it (Yo Lo Vi)” or “This is bad (Esto es malo),” and depict hulking soldiers and weeping, diminutive civilians. The prints themselves are two centuries old, but the message is timeless. The Symposium, by contrast, addressed the complicated modern war, and its influence on our pursuit of an increasingly tangible peace.
A² + B² = Snowflake ?
It’s amazing how simple events, in our case, a dump of snow, can spin such profound consequences through our lives.
Kulturkampf: What I didn’t learn in Sunday School
It’s 10:30 on a Thursday night, and the waters of Victoria harbor are a black, cold reflection of a stark sky. The icy streets are rife with chilly homeless persons and bespectacled student journalists, an unlikely juxtaposition explained by BC politics and an ink-stained pilgrimage from across the nation. The Canadian University Press (CUP) conference has engulfed one of the downtown hotels, and the harbor core is positively seething with wispy hipsters in tight jeans.
Eleven days into the future
I realize New Years is a distant memory, but I doubt many of you out there have fully adjusted to the fact that we now live in a year which requires a two at the beginning and end of its cardinal notation.
Eighteen days
It was always coming. You knew it, we knew it, and we were both holding our breath. It’s been in the back of our minds since the beginning of November, and now, finally, it’s here.
Art Attack
I am writing this week about something that’s going to get me in trouble. I know it and I suspect you know it too, just not quite yet… so read on and let’s get this circus on the road.
Water wars
The project is dead, dead, dead – stake through the heart dead. I just doubt that Peary would have had to vacate the throne if he hadn’t linked his campaign to a controversial 291 million-dollar project, and instead pushed the P3 to the back burner and ran on a more conventional platform. In Abbotsford, the debate over Stave Lake tended to usurp the actual campaign, and Peary, being the only mayoral candidate in favour of the project, was just too closely associated.
Busier than thou
It’s “that time of the semester” again, that legendary space between the exuberance of September and the euphoria of mid-December. It’s that time when you’re trying to balance two book reviews, an ethics presentation, and that dreaded second mid-term, knowing you have to clean your kitchen, work two shifts and then fly out to Minnesota for your sister’s wedding over the weekend. It’s “that time of the semester” as the professors call it, and (at least for me) the temptation to hide under the blankets and pray for a velociraptor apocalypse is growing by the hour.
A question of balance
This Friday will be the first Remembrance Day ever to occur on 11/11/11, a notational quirk which will not be repeated for another century. Coincidentally, the year 2011 also marks the end of the first decade of Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, and the beginning of new non-combat role for the Canadian forces in Kabul.
Calling out the whistleblowers
In all my years watching and playing ball I don’t think I’ve ever seen a quarter as poorly officiated as the second ten minutes of our Friday game against Guelph University.
Slouching towards Edmonton
We here at The Cascade work hard to follow leads, scoop stories, drink rum, and generally follow the example of the great journalists who’ve gone before, yet we also continually strive to improve our craft in whatever way possible. It was in pursuit of this noble purpose that myself and three of my colleagues journeyed to Edmonton last weekend for the illustrious WPNCUP (Western, Prairies, and Northern Regions of the Canadian University Press) conference, searching (obviously) for better and more effective ways to serve the UFV student body.*
All power, no purpose
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Occupy Wall Street by now, whether on the news, online or through Facebook babble. You’ve probably also formed your own opinions about its potential influence, credibility and motivation. I’m not going to try to change those opinions, only highlight a couple issues that I find a little troubling about the movement.
No offence, but…
The quest for a successful joke can be dangerous to everyone involved, yet it must be remembered that humour should be closer to a rap on the knuckles than a burst of machine gun fire. Also, for those of you who are part of watchdog activist groups (many of which I whole-heartedly support) remember that every once in a while it’s healthy to laugh at yourself.
Man or monkey: the struggle within
I’d like to inform you all that I made a speling mistake in last week’s paper. To some of you this doesn’t really come as a surprise, as you’ve been writing papers long enough to realize that errors are essentially a fact of life. Others are perhaps more troubled by the implication that I only made “one” error, when, in their opinion, this publication is a joke tabloid being produced by glorified orangutans.
Mass marketing the student body
Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by advertisements. Even those determined to live a cloistered life find they are not completely immune. The library, the recreation centre, the town square: our most treasured public spaces are being overrun by new marketing strategies.
