The season of decomposition
Andrea Sadowski
I appreciate the tree’s changing colours just as much as the next person. Seeing the leaves change from green to yellow to orange to red to brown is truly one of nature’s greatest spectacles and something to be appreciated. One thing I don’t love about pumpkin-spice-season, though, is how messy it is. Blankets of dead leaves cover the ground and begin their decomposition, and this is only pretty if you are not the one who has to clean that shit up. I love to see it on my nature walks, but when it comes to the little patch of patio/yard I have staked out as my own in front of my basement-suite door, it has got to go.
I am a clean person. I take pride in having a tidy and organized home, and the piles of leaves that are lining the driveway, slowly turning into mush, are driving me nuts. The other day, I spent an hour painstakingly raking up each leaf and composting it, and was left with an immaculate front yard. The very next morning, leaves littered the ground again and all my hard work was reversed. Let’s not forget about those pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns that have a way of rotting the second you put them outside. Not such a cute look.
Fall, I love you, but can you please be a little cleaner?
The downside of homemade brews
Sydney Marchand
When we were all in lockdown, my boyfriend decided to take his sudden unemployment as an opportunity to start home brewing wine and cider. I mean, we had to pass the time somehow, right? After some experimenting with recipes and techniques (some good, and some quite terrible), fruit wines seemed to be his niche. This is when you ferment a variety of fruits instead of just the classic grapes and apples. The summer was great because we foraged wild blackberries and picked blueberries for dirt-cheap in order to make dozens and dozens of winter backstock.
Everything was going great; we had a variety of flavours, alcohol levels, and it felt like it was starting to really pay off. That was until this past week when I received a phone call explaining that he accidentally made sparkling wine. Now, at first I was ecstatic. Mimosas? Yes, please. A fruity sangria? Oh, hell yeah. But no. He hesitantly informed me that because of this spontaneous carbonation, each bottle promptly decided to de-cork, spewing litres (yes, litres) of red blueberry wine all over the beige carpets. All over the CARPET! Yes, it is true. All good things must come to an end as our months of foraging fruit now have nothing to show for it expect the stained murder scene of a dozen bottles in the spare room.
Dream on, Spotify
Chandy Dancey
Most people probably can’t relate to my issue with the free-to-use Spotify — I imagine most of the app users justify shelling out their hard-earned cash monthly to this music conglomerate for the “premium” features. And that’s cool. I get why anyone would want to give in, but I think the big brains at Spotify headquarters didn’t anticipate the stubbornness of a Taurus like me. Whenever I get those three to four ads in a row (and what a joy it is when the exact same ad plays for all four), I grit my teeth and refuse to give in. I will not conform to your incessant reminders to give you money that border on harassment. I may not be able to use your app at parties or on car rides with others because of the endless torrent of advertisements, but joke’s on you, because I have crappy taste in music anyway. At the same time, I can understand that Spotify has some business model going on, and annoying users into paying for the ads to stop is likely part of it. Just know, Spotify, that your unstoppable force has met an immovable object — me.
Give me something to believe in
Steve Hartwig
I grew up in the 1980’s when heavy metal, punk, and new wave music battled for number one on charts. Poison emerged as a glam metal band and produced some great hits that are still played today. The popular “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is a love ballad my grad class danced to at prom. Cheesy but fond memories, right?
My son recently played another of Poison’s songs, “Something to Believe In.” I hadn’t heard the song in a long, long time and was surprised at how “current” it was.
The song contains messages about social change, trauma, and corruption that are very relevant today. We still see religious leaders ripping people off and, unfortunately, raping and murdering, too. The Vietnam War has been replaced by the war in Afghanistan and veteran populations are still in crisis. Intersectionality, poverty, homelessness, addiction, and divorce have become more visible than they were in the 1980’s and yet, politicians, governments, religious institutions, and corporate leaders are looking after themselves before those in need.
As Poison ends their song, “Yeah, sometimes I wish I didn’t know now / The things I didn’t know then, yeah / And give me something to believe in.”
40 years later, I’m left knowing society still can’t rely on its religious, political, or corporate leadership to offer more than lip service and a financial pittance to address critical social issues. I need something to believe in, and I just hope and pray it’s not Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. Yikes.
Images: Iryna Presley/The Cascade
Andrea Sadowski is working towards her BA in Global Development Studies, with a minor in anthropology and Mennonite studies. When she's not sitting in front of her computer, Andrea enjoys climbing mountains, sleeping outside, cooking delicious plant-based food, talking to animals, and dismantling the patriarchy.
Sydney is a BA English major, creative writing student, who has been a content contributor for The Cascade and is now the Opinion editor. In 7th grade, she won $100 in a writing contest but hasn’t made an earning from writing since. In the meantime, she is hoping that her half-written novels will write themselves, be published, and help pay the bills.
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
Steve is a third-year BFA creative writing/visual arts student who’s been a contributing writer, staff writer and now an editor at The Cascade. He's always found stories and adventures but now has the joy of capturing and reporting them.
