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Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Leaping and soaring to Chopin

by Lucas van Lierop on

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I have only experienced a few perception-altering performances in my life, and Friday night’s National Ballet performance of Marie Chouinard’s 24 Preludes by Chopin and Crystal Pite’s Emergence was one of them.

Prior to the performance, I was certain I was not a person who could enjoy contemporary ballet. I grew up around dancers and always felt I had to hide my dislike of contemporary dance. The problem with the shows I saw growing up was that there was nothing for me to connect to. 24 Preludes by Chopin managed to change my views, helping me to appreciate dance in a way I never have before.

The accessibility stems in part from the tonal accessibilty of Chopin’s preludes. Chouinard’s choreography moved the dancers with the music in a way that can only be described as awe-inspiring. The dancers animated the preludes, giving meaning and emphasis to every subtle turn of the music. Every move looked and felt right, as if satisfying an organic choreography invisible to the human eye. The dancers altered their bodies to emulate animals, pendulums, and fantastic creatures, all dancing to the intrinsic sounds of the preludes. Furthermore, creative lighting added to the tone and mood to the piece, and highlighted specific choreography. For example, one prelude used a strobe light to turn the simple gesture of three swinging arms into a mysterious blur of mechanical flesh. 24 Preludes by Chopin was art at its finest: moving, honest, open, thought-provoking, and unequivocally beautiful.

Crystal Pite’s Emergence was a more difficult piece, but equally rewarding. Pite is a dance genius. Arguably one of Canada’s most valuable dance exports, Pite has been branded a star of modern dance choreography. When legendary dancer Karen Kain became artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada in 2005, Pite was one the first people she called. Kain’s invitation for Pite to work with the NBC was more than just a savvy artistic move; since founding Kidd Pivot, her avant-garde dance troop (in the vein of La La La Human Steps), she has won a plethora of awards, including four Dora awards, the 2006 Alcan Performance Arts Award, and the 2008 Governor General’s Mentorship Award. Her choreography is striking a chord with audiences across the globe, bringing the magic of contemporary ballet to the masses.

Initially, Emergence fit the image that many of us have of contemporary ballet: dancers writhing on the floor, with spastic motions and quivering, alien-like poses—in other words, inaccessible. However, the piece became much more enjoyable as it unfolded, as the performance’s complexity became apparent. That’s not to say that watching the piece is a comforting experience; I had my toes curled in agony and ecstasy for the majority of the 25-minute running time.

It was, however, overwhelmingly original and refreshingly innovative. Dancers emerged from a dark hole at centre stage, and led the audience into a secret world of complex structure with insect-like motions. In one particularly striking moment, a group of male dancers crouched on the ground, arms raised, imitating flying insects. While I initially interpreted the piece as a descent into hell, the opinion of a friend told me to view it as a rare glimpse into the secret life of insects.

With choreography so intriguing, there is hardly an excuse not to see the ballet.   

For information about other National Ballet shows, visit http://www.national.ballet.ca/

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Sufjan Stevens: not half as enslaved

by Ricky Kreitner on

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Sufjan Stevens is a master designer of atmospheres. You would want to be a Jim Carrey-type character in a world of his design, and at the end of the movie you would ultimately choose not to escape through the hidden door. At will, and in bizarre, repeating cycles, he lulls you to sleep, jerks you awake, tussles your hair, and commands you to dance. On his newest release, The Age of Adz, his first since 2005’s phenomenal, folk-oriented concept album Illinois, Stevens again demonstrates this unparalleled creative capacity, only this time against the jarring background of lasers, synthesizers, hip-hop beats, auto-tuned vocals, and what seem to be robot guitar solos.

The album has received generally positive reviews, with some writers claiming it goes too far with the new sound, and others maintaining the artist has reached a new, more mature level of songwriting. However, the reviews I have read miss the essential point of the album and the strikingly new Sufjan Stevens sound: it is at once a philosophical treatise, a meditation, a plea, a call, and l’art pour l’art, all in one. Above all, it is a manual, written with the utmost sincerity, on how to be human in the age of the machine.

The new shtick begins on the second track, “Too Much,” an incredibly catchy tune that opens with what sounds like the staticky digital accompaniment to an underwater earthquake. The beat drops, revealing a Hot Chip-inspired car-chase melody, ripe for Kanye West sampling. A major theme is introduced on this early track: the computerized sounds overwhelm and ultimately take over the song from Stevens and his backing vocalists, and, in a way, the listener, too. The seven-minute song devolves into what seems like an in-studio battle between the musicians and these futuristic sounds, switching back and forth between digital dissonance and analog order—computerized chaos and human harmony.

On “Too Much,” as on other tracks, it often seems as if Stevens wasn’t allowed into a special room in the recording studio until now: the one with all the new-fangled equipment he was denied on his previous folksy albums. Like a kid in a candy shop, he samples various bleepy sounds before abruptly discarding them for other equally piercing noises. On most songs, it seems the musician himself is no longer in control, and the crashing, annoying digital anarchy is supposed to indicate who, or what, is.

Throughout the album, interesting lyrics and melodies are obscured by strange beats, unnecessary laser-like sounds and the frustrating use of reverb, as on “I Walked” and “All for Myself.” One begins to think there is not enough Sufjan Stevens on this newest Sufjan Stevens album, and wishes he would release a pared-down version of the album, as Paul McCartney did with the Beatles’ overly orchestrated Let It Be in 2003.

Indeed, the most aurally pleasing moments of the album come when the dramatic computerized sounds abruptly fall away, and only Stevens is left, picking his guitar and singing his sweet melody. These sections, as in the last minute of the title track, are what we used to listen to Stevens for, and are perhaps even more enjoyable on this album for being surrounded by such a futuristic, mind-blowing, incomprehensible hubbub.

By the end, the whole album appears as a necessary setup for the final track, the 25-minute “Impossible Soul.” This song breaks all the boundaries of the past, for the artist and the listener both. It lyrically parallels the album’s musical novelty, and furthers the theme of a propulsive thrust into the future, insisting repeatedly: “Don’t be distracted / Do you want to be afraid?” Answer: “The scariest things are not half as enslaved.” Freedom is possible despite the machines.

There are aspects of his new album that one cannot help but find annoying and overdone. But in the end, The Age of Adz emerges as more than all that, as something we cannot help but appreciate and be seriously moved by. Because, despite all appearances to the contrary, it is ultimately human, and so are we.

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Beauty and its discontents

by Brahna Siegelberg on

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Adam Scotti

“I like what I got, and I’m gonna protect that. Wouldn’t you?”

After Steph finds out that her boyfriend Greg has just called her face “regular,” she delivers the play’s first monologue, in which she explains why, though still clearly in love with Greg, she had to go through with the breakup. Steph, like the other three characters in Neil Labute’s Tony-nominated play Reasons to Be Pretty, is grappling with society’s simultaneous espousal of the notion that beauty is only skin-deep and yet its promotion of impossible standards of beauty—for which each of us, unwittingly or not, is responsible.

Performed by Players’ Theatre and directed by David Armstrong, Reasons to Be Pretty explores one of the most clichéd—yet also the most ubiquitous and far-reaching—contemporary social issue: our obsession with beauty and physical appearance. The plot centres on four working-class friends and lovers, Steph (Alexandra Montagnese), Greg (Martin Law), Kent (Alex Gravenstein), and Carly (Bea Hutcheson), who each meet dead-ends as they become increasingly absorbed in vanity, jealousy, and insecurity.

When she overhears Greg telling Kent that, unlike the hot new girl at work, Steph’s face is merely “regular,” Kent’s wife Carly immediately tells Steph. Carly, who is more physically attractive than Steph (at least by societal standards) has her own tornado in store when she soon learns that Kent is cheating on her with the new girl. Unsurprisingly, these acts lead to arguments and miscommunication, and the play is riddled with an almost exhausting slew of shrill screaming matches between the friends and couples.

But women aren’t the only victims of society’s arbitrary standards in Labute’s play. In one telling scene, Kent—a somewhat two-dimensional stereotype of a douche bag—tells Greg that he shouldn’t be eating a calorie-ridden Power Bar after he has just eaten an entire meal if he intends to “stay in shape” for the work baseball team. While the dialogue seems overly simplistic, it is not difficult to imagine a similar interaction occurring in real life.  

In one hilarious sequence, Steph gets up on a chair in the middle of a crowded restaurant to enumerate all of Greg’s physical qualities that she detests, from his “mother’s nose” to his “toenails that might as well be fingernails.” Though Steph is merely trying to hurt Greg as much as he hurt her, the very content of the list suggests that she is as much preoccupied with standards of beauty as Greg. As this is the first time Steph has ever bemoaned Greg’s physical attributes, her rampage also emphasizes that, in relationships, much is often left unsaid.

Unlike the plays of, say, Ibsen or O’Neill, the charm of Reasons to Be Pretty lies not in its ability to intellectually engage or challenge its audience. Instead, Labute’s characters speak mostly in crude vernacular. But just as the audience is jarred by their vulgar language, so too do the characters struggle with verbalizing what they really mean, or even deciding what it is they mean in the first place. We can all relate to awkward, stilted conversations with exes that exhibit anything but eloquent dialogue.  

While somebody like Carly is certainly presented more sympathetically than Kent, he remains a sadly realistic depiction of human folly and frivolous preoccupation. In his own monologue he says, “Behind every pretty girl is a guy who’s tired of fucking her. Once you get the pretty girl, all you do is worry about keeping her.” Although he’s the perpetrator of infidelity and classic male faux pas, even he acknowledges the extent to which he is caught up in superficiality and its discontentments.

In a clever move on the part of the director, the four characters stand on what look like mounds on a baseball diamond to deliver their respective monologues. As baseball is a running metaphor throughout the play, it is fitting that the characters’ in-depth exploration of their own consciences are situated within a larger game. Furthermore, the band—though only consisting of a cello, tenor sax, and alto sax—adds an integral comedic effect and cadence to the players’ staggered musings.

Reasons to Be Pretty won’t illuminate anything you didn’t already know, but it’s an experience in itself to recognize aspects of yourself reflected on the stage.

 

Reasons to Be Pretty is playing  at Players’ Theatre, October 20-23. Tickets are $6, and can be reserved at http://ssmu.mcgill.ca/players/

Student Life

Professors you definitely want to run into on campus

by Alison Bailey, Shannon Kimball, & Kailan Leung on

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Professors tend to be known for their intellect: the books and articles they’ve written, the research they’ve conducted, or the number of letters that come after their name (B.A., M.A., M.Sc, PhD, etc.) are important. But profs can be hot, too. Even if they haven’t been endowed with the right physical attributes, the intellect and personality that they exhibit in their teaching gives them a certain je ne sais quoi.  

 

Jason Scott Ferrell

Ferrell is not your classically good-looking guy. He’s balding, wears glasses, and has a heavy southern accent, but he’s got attitude and spunk. He always refers back to the time when he got drunk in (fill in the place) and started shooting at (fill in the target) with his friends. He does his friends the courtesy of keeping them anonymous, although you can’t help but think that they might be profs at McGill. Jason Scott Ferrell had me at “y’all”.  

 

Mark Brawley

Brawly’s angelic voice makes it seem as if he’s addressing you directly. Always. Behind bright blue eyes and a combover, Brawley has mastered the preppy look: he wears chinos and a prim and proper sweater, usually with a polo underneath. Sometimes he’ll rock a turtleneck. The one disappointing thing about Brawley is when he walks past the podium and you see he’s wearing running shoes with his outfit. It’s the only thing that keeps me from jumping him in the middle of class when he’s talking about the end of the British hegemony.

 

Erin Hurley

Hurley combines an incredible intellect and impeccable style with sexy dramatic flair, which makes sense—she’s a theatre prof. As a lecturer, she’s serious and doesn’t tolerate any unnecessary banter, which makes her even more attractive. What’s hotter than a gorgeous professor telling keener first-years their anecdotal commentary is irrelevant, boring, or wrong? Her voice, her look, and her confidence give Hurley amazing stage presence, and make note-taking even harder than usual.  

 

Anthony Mittermaier

Always stylish, with a blazer and an array of perfectly pressed shirts that accent his piercing blue eyes, Mittermaier will make you want to go to office hours. His sarcasm and light-hearted jokes—often at the expense of students—make it possible to wake up for an 8:30 a.m. chemistry class. He’s tall, dark, and handsome, but most importantly, he’s the only general chemistry professor under the age of 60.  

 

Richard Koestner

Curly brown hair, glasses, and a thick New York accent make Koestner a doppelganger for Sex and the City’s Steve Brady. This motivational psychologist’s self-deprecating humour and generally awkward demeanor result in constant giggles and “awws” from the girls in the class. He’s relatable, unintimidating, and just darn cute. Paired with motivational lectures, this combo is hard to beat.

 

Jessica Trisko

Jessica Trisko is the definition of “beauty and brains.” The beauty: Trisko was Miss Earth 2007 and placed in the top 10 at Miss Universe Canada that same year. The brains: she teaches American Foreign Policy in the summer and is currently a PhD candidate at McGill.

Student Life

The ten people you’ll meet in conference

by Nyrie Israelian & Michelle Anthofer on

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Conferences are great: you don’t have to deal with the anonymity of the 200-person lecture hall and you really get to know your fellow students in an intimate setting. But at a certain point, you realize the same characters appear in every conference. Here’s a breakdown of the kids you’re going to hang out with, once a week, for the rest of your McGill career.

The TA: For those with power fetishes, this is the fabulously attractive sex god who is only looking at you when he tells his students to go see him during office hours.

The tangent-pusher: This guy has obviously not done the readings. He hasn’t said a word for the first 35 minutes, then jumps in on the first tangent that comes up and drags it along as far as he can until the end of class. Next thing you know, everyone’s talking about the viability of duck exchanges during a discussion about Hobbes.

The bored-yet-chatty: The person who knows he’s stuck in conference for another 15 minutes, and is going to make it interesting by bringing everything back to The Godfather or Sarah Palin.

The attendance mark seeker: They show up for the 1 per cent attendance grade, but doodle/BBM/play Tetris the whole time.

The hipster/weird guy: Your initial reaction was to label this guy as a hipster because of the handlebar mustache, but as the semester progresses, you realize he’s just weird.  

The girl who comes from the country you are studying: Because of her, you don’t talk. There is no way you are insulting the Mother Land.

The guy who comes from the country you are studying: We get it Comrade, you were born in communist Russia. But the rest of your Russian politics class doesn’t care that you remember when Yelstin got plastered on that flight in 1993.

The ridiculous vocabulary user: “My visceral response, ergo, concurrently, vis a vis the a priori system constraints, per se.” What? Did that sentence even have a verb?

The idiot: This person’s comments are mind blowing. “But like, how does the writer know that God made people equal? Like how can he just write that?”

The guy who hasn’t shown up until the seventh conference: He’ll probably get a better mark than you anyway.

These are just a sampling of the kids you’re going to see over and over in each conference. There’s still the TA’s pet, the foreign exchange student with the crazy accent, and the girl who makes everyone look bad because she does all the readings for every class. Get used to these kids and enjoy how hilarious they are; they’re not going anywhere.

Recipes, Student Life

Peach Salsa

by Monique Evans on

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I have a soft spot for salsa, especially salsa fresca. Fruit is a lovely addition to the popular sauce, adding colour, sweetness, and complexity to the flavour. It’s one of my favourite summer snacks, but it can be enjoyed year round. Because the Ontario peach season is winding down, now is the time to grab some at Jean Talon and make a peach salsa fresca. The combination of sweet peaches and spicy jalapeno is very refreshing. The last time I made this for a group, half of it was gone before I got a chance to sit down. Use this recipe as a guide for ingredient ratios and mix it up with your favourite seasonal fruit. The next time I try something like this, I plan to use yellow heirloom tomatoes, kiwi, red onion, a red chilli, lemon juice, fresh oregano, and mint.

A note on the ingredients: when choosing your produce, aroma is key. I like the tomatoes on the vine, but in any case, pick tomatoes that are the most fragrant. If you aren’t at a market where you can take samples, go for the fruit that smells best since it will have  the most flavour.

Ingredients

2 medium red tomatoes

2 peaches

1 small or half of a medium/large white onion

1 jalapeno pepper

Juice of one lime

Handful of fresh cilantro, coriander, basil, or parsley

Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Dice your tomatoes and peaches into similarly sized pieces. The chunkiness of your salsa is entirely up to you, so dice accordingly.

2. Finely dice the onion.

3. If you like your salsa very spicy, dice the pepper with the seeds.  If you prefer mild salsa, take the seeds and membrane out of your pepper, discard them, and then dice the remaining pepper. Be sure to wash your hands immediately after chopping the pepper.

4. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and squeeze the lime juice into the bowl. Finely chop the cilantro.

5. Add salt and pepper and serve.

Student Life

Eight-inch burgers at Copoli

by Alison Bailey on

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Alison Bailey

There’s a place in Westmount that claims to serve eight-inch burgers. Burgers the size of my hand, a small pizza, or a cabbage. Intrigued, I decided to find out if I was up to this gastronomic challenge. I didn’t eat all day and after going for a run, I was ready for whatever freak show burger was about to land on my plate.

Copoli is a quaint little restaurant located at 4458 West Saint Catherine Street. It’s designed like an old-fashioned diner, complete with booths and old school knick-knacks including a large statue of a knight in armour for character and zeal. So far, so good.

When the legendary piece of meat landed in front of me, I was somewhat disappointed. Maybe I went into the restaurant a little cocky, confident that I was going to be able to tackle the 8-inch monstrosity without a problem, but it seems that the fine people at Copoli weren’t so sure of my capabilities. For starters, they cut my burger into quarters. Furthermore, the burgers aren’t as thick as normal ones. They’re manageable, and I’d even go so far as to say I could probably have finished two. If you had put a time limit on me. it might have started to hurt a little

Taking our time and making small talk, it took me 23 minutes to finish my burger and salad, and 18 for my male friend to finish his.

Size aside, the burger was actually lovely. Despite being a little dry, it was well-seasoned, and was accompanied by a Dijon sauce. On a scale from one to 10, I would give it a seven, despite being a little pricey (around $12 per plate).

Although having eight-inch burgers is a good selling point, I walked away only slightly full, like I had just eaten a small grilled cheese. You never have just one grilled cheese.

If you’re skeptical, I challenge anyone who reads this article to engage in a burger eating competition with me. Maybe I talk a bigger game than I can eat.

Student Life

Canada Post: a failure

by Shannon Kimball on

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This past week, I had to express mail something to South Africa. On my way to the post office in La Cite, past experience made me think that no matter how much I paid, there was no chance in hell my package would arrive by November. I trudged over to the UPS store on de Maisonneuve and Mansfield, and signed away $115 to guarantee delivery within four business days. The next fastest option was to hop on a plane to Cape Town, and even then I’d have to change planes in London.

Canada Post is notorious for its slow mailing and poor customer service. Their domestic and international express services are only slightly faster than standard delivery, but twice as expensive. While you can apply for a refund in the case of late delivery, refunds aren’t helpful if an important package doesn’t arrive when it’s supposed to. Whether it’s an old-fashioned graduate school application on hard copy, a birthday present, or tax returns, it pays to know your quickest, most reliable delivery options.

Fax or PDF

If you’re in a time crunch to send paper documents, see if you can fax or PDF them with the originals to follow in the mail. Originals are usually required for signatures, but faxing or PDFing an original is often acceptable. There are scanners in most libraries on campus, and copy stores usually allow you to use their fax machines for a small fee. As a courtesy, give the tracking number to the recipient so they know when to expect the original.  

Messenger Services

Private messenger services like Planete Courrier and Champion Courier offer same-day delivery in Montreal, or quick out-of-province or international delivery. It’s pricey, but it comes with peace of mind.

Canada Post

Canada Post should only be used for non-urgent packages or letters. Their delivery estimates may be off by a few days. Drop off mail first thing in the morning to ensure that it goes out that same day. Unlike the U.S. Postal Service, Canada Post does not deliver on Saturdays, so be sure to factor this into delivery time. Pay the extra money to receive a tracking number and to have the recipient sign upon delivery.

UPS

If all else fails, send the package by UPS. It’s expensive, but they guarantee delivery, and their tracking system provides the most detailed and accurate updates. In-store packaging sometimes costs as much as shipping, so save money by wrapping the mail yourself. There are UPS stores at de Maisonneuve and Mansfield, as well as at St. Catherine and Atwater.

News

Maclean’s cover story angers Quebecers

by Nick Frid on

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In the weeks since its publication, the Maclean’s magazine cover story that branded Quebec with the title of “Most Corrupt Province in Canada” has aroused strong reactions throughout the province.

In the article, which appeared in the October 4 issue, Martin Patriquin examined Quebec’s political culture, which he called “perpetually rife with scandal.” Patriquin cited  former premier Maurice Duplessis’s allotment of money and contracts to favoured ridings, the uncertaintities surrounding former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s rise to power, and the current scandal over judicial selection as evidence of Quebec’s political failures.

Several organizations and politicians have publicly demanded an apology from the magazine.

“The article itself isn’t so damaging,” said Marc Poisson, a representative of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Quebec. “It’s mostly the culmination that comes along with it and the cover of the magazine.”

Poisson said that the article could discourage investors from coming to Quebec and could have a lasting effect on Quebec’s image both nationally and internationally.

Some groups are also upset over the lack of a complete province by province ranking and any empirical support for giving Quebec the top-ranked spot. Journalists and bloggers for L’actualité, a French magazine owned by the same parent company as Maclean’s, have attacked the article by searching for  the methodology used to determine Quebec’s status as the most corrupt province in the nation.  

“This is xenophobia,” said Jean-François Lisée, a Quebec political analyst who blogs for L’actualité. “This is what Maclean’s salesmanship rides on and perpetuates as we speak.”

Patriquin, the author, said he believes the article has been misconstrued.

“I think it was misunderstood by a lot of people,” he said. “They see the headlines and the cover and they don’t read the story and they make their judgements that way. That’s the way it’s been the whole way through.”   

According to Patriquin, cover articles generally receive lots of feedback, but this article has received a particularly high amount, both good and bad.   

“There has been a ton of positive feedback … from people in the press and letters from people telling us we spoke the truth,” he said.

News, SSMU

SSMU considers switching to kegs for on-campus events

by Maria Flores on

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The Students’ Society is looking into the possibility of substituting kegs for bottles at campus events such as Frosh and OAP. SSMU President Zach Newburgh said that the recently proposed alternative has several benefits over the use of beer bottles, including sustainability, safety, and ease of use.

“By using kegs we are avoiding the process of having to use bottles,” Newburgh said. “They get thrown away and are unfortunately not reusable in the same way. Kegs hold a lot more and the containers in which they are supplied cut down on the transportation cost and the recycling reusability.”  

Switching to kegs will also  make transportation easier and therefore improve safety standards, he said, since their use minimizes the potential for an accident, and therefore the chances of students getting cut or injured.

“We’ve been using bottles for years and it’s been extremely difficult to transport them,” he added. “It has been a safety issue, [and] people have reported injuries. It isn’t as effective as the better alternative that it is offered by the keg.”

Furthermore, the aesthetic benefits stemming from keeping liquid in a single container behind a serving location rather than out in the open makes kegs an appealing option.

“It just simply does not look good on the part of the university to have a pile of empty beer bottles sitting on campus, or to have empty beer bottles scattered across Lower Field,” Newburgh said.

Even though switching from beer bottles is arguably beneficial to the university community, the decision will not be finalized until SSMU receives the university’s approval.

SSMU has determined that the operation of kegs on campus is in accordance with Quebec law as long as the university grants permission for it to do so. McGill has stated that it is receptive to SSMU using kegs as long as such use is legal.

“We raised this point at the Advisory Committee on Alcohol Policy and further to that we have been speaking with legal services and the deputy provost (student life and learning) on this issue,” Newburgh said.

SSMU is in the process of getting the university’s approval, and hopes that by OAP in April the policy will be finalized and implemented.

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