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Sports

In conversation with Shireen Ahmed

by Kaja Surborg on

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Shireen Ahmed, a Toronto-based activist and sports journalist, is a powerful voice in Canadian sports journalism. Her work covering stories about equity and inclusivity across various sports has been published in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and SB Nation, among others. Ahmed values the role of social media in building her career and portfolio in sports journalism. 

“The opportunities to publish in those traditional outlets came because of social media,” Ahmed said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “I had no connections in Canadian media whatsoever. I didn’t go to [journalism] school, so I didn’t have those traditional connections [….] I know from being in the industry for almost a decade [that] people really rely on [those connections], and they create shortcuts [….] [But,] I’ve been on Twitter since 2011, it’s not like any of this came overnight [….] [You just have to] engage with people, there’s no secret. I love [Twitter]. I love engaging with people.”

Ahmed’s start in sports writing came in the form of a Tumblr blog. 

“Often, I would pitch stuff and no one would publish it,” Ahmed said. “As opposed to pitching to […] someone who might take my idea, I thought I would self-publish [….] I tried to [write the] stories that were important to me. One of the most important stories, journalistically speaking, was only ever published on my Tumblr blog [….] Everyone loves a feel-good story, […] but there’s ways to use social media as a tool of amplification and of story telling.”

Examining sports and broader social systems critically, while necessary, can sometimes be disheartening. Ahmed points out that it is important to remember that being critical of systemic injustice comes from a place of love for sports and wanting to make the space more inclusive.

“I talk about the issues within the systems in sports,” Ahmed said. “It can be exhausting. I love love love soccer. It is in my blood. I’ve been playing for over three decades. I am very torn about going to Qatar [for the FIFA World Cup] in 2022 because, on the one hand, I have the opportunity to be a part of a media team, […but] I can’t help reading about mega-events and feel sick.”

Ahmed cited Dr. Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin’s writing about the degradation of society, the environmental impact, and the militarization that come as a result of mega-events. Ahmed believes, however, that the balance between loving the sports and teams that we do, and wanting them to make them better does exist. 

“[I love] the World Cup,” Ahmed said. “There is a place for us to be critical of the problems with something and love it at the same time. There has to be [….] We don’t need to let corporations define who we are and how we love sports [….] The biggest part of this is unlearning what we’ve been told, as women in this industry, as marginalized communities, and racialized communities. We’re not ruining the sport by talking about it, it comes from a place of care and a place of concern and a place of love [….] You’re inconveniencing the people in power, that’s the first thing to get over.” 

Positive change is happening in sports, and sometimes it comes in places one would not necessarily expect. 

“People are going to be shocked that I’m going to say this, [but] I feel like the NHL is doing some work here,” Ahmed said. “I see some teams in the NHL doing massive collaborations with Black Girls Hockey Club [….] There’s a movement happening. Not everybody is at the same level, not everybody is going to unlearn at the same time, but I feel like the conversations that I did not expect to happen in my lifetime have begun [….] It’s one thing when people apologize, but there’s another point that shifts the dynamic when people start to understand their accountability piece and they start to go ‘Okay, we know this is bad, but we really need to fix this shit.’”

Ahmed can be found on Twitter (@_shireenahmed_) and on Tumblr (footybedsheets.tumblr.com). 

Science & Technology

Defining the modern hacker

by Zoe Karkossa on

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The hacker has gained a mythic status in modern tech-centric pop culture, simultaneously defining a righteous activist and a chaotic criminal. Despite the mystery shrouding the affairs of hackers and their collectives, Gabriella Coleman has dedicated her life’s research to uncovering and unravelling the real story behind hacker culture. A cultural anthropologist and professor in the Department of Communication Studies at McGill, Coleman’s work is centred on the history of hacktivism, the combinatory term for computer hackers and digital activism. At a recent talk for SUS Academia Week 2020, Coleman presented the website Hack_Curio, a unique effort to share the realities of hacking brought to life by the joint effort of contributors as is hacker custom.

Hack_Curio is, first and foremost, a virtual museum. It features a diverse collection of short videos and accompanying blurbs spanning a wide range of topics from hacktivism to piracy and trolling. 

“We have to think about how we convince people of things, and text is not enough, and reason and logic is never enough,” Coleman said. “You have to add compelling stories, visual material.” 

Hack_Curio is also Coleman’s attempt at breaking down the societal stereotypes and stigmas that have defined hackers and hacker culture. Contrary to the conventional image of a hoodie-wearing ‘lone wolf’ typing away in his mother’s basement, Coleman wants viewers of Hack_Curio to understand that much of hacking and broader tech culture is extremely social and collaborative. 

“Free software projects [for example] are often quite big and quite collaborative,” Coleman said. “You’ll have up to 1,000 people [contributing to] a project.” 

Among her other goals for the project are preserving history, showcasing diversity, and experimenting with platforms.

One piece of history that Coleman highlighted was the intriguing trend of phone phreaking, a 1960s precursor to hacking that was notably practiced by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Coleman’s video featured Josef ‘Joybubbles’ Engressia, born blind but with perfect pitch, whistling a series of notes into a phone receiver. This unconventional technique allowed the so-called phreaker to hack into the telephone system and connect to whichever number they chose, completely free of charge. Despite the technique no longer being viable today, phreaking provides insight into the creative and rule-bending attitude that is an essential part of modern hacking culture. 

In the political sphere, hacking is subject to great scrutiny. Following the revelation that Russian hackers interfered in American elections, Vladimir Putin chose to outrightly deny his country’s involvement. In a featured press conference, he declared that hackers have their own agency, akin to that of an artist who simply wakes up and decides to start a painting. Despite the partial truth of such an assertion, playing into such tropes mainly serves a political agenda which exonerates himself and his government from the affair. In reality, although many hackers and hacker collectives are independent in their political projects, many are also key assets to various powers who often use them for their own advantage with little regard for ethics.

One might wonder whether hacking has lost its edge in the modern era of the tech industry if the golden age of hacking has been given way to sell-outs and corporate culture. Coleman, for one, disagrees. 

“There’s always cycles,” Coleman said. “At the same time, you have some current in hacking that become the establishment, and other currents that are pushing against it. [Hackers] have a very strong sense of history [and] of their past.”

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

A new treatment for Alzheimer’s

by Margaret Wdowiak on

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Alzheimer’s disease currently affects around 44 million people worldwide. The disease destroys cells in the brain, inducing symptoms such as memory loss, mood swings, poor judgement, and a shortened attention span. The number of Canadians suffering from this debilitating illness is rising, but no cure or treatment currently exists to alleviate their suffering. A team of McGill researchers led by Dr. Claudio Cuello, a professor in McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, is attempting to change this grim reality. 

Their research has shown that, in small doses, the metal lithium is capable of reducing Alzheimer’s symptoms and could prevent the emergence of Alzheimer’s in people with a genetic predisposition to the disease.  

Lithium has long been used in the medical field to treat mood disorders such as bipolar depression. However, conventional lithium solutions have a very narrow therapeutic window and carry severe side effects that prevent their long-term use in elderly patients. Side effects include nausea; tremor; weight gain; polyuria, a condition when a person’s body urines more than normal; and polydipsia, or excessive thirst. 

Cuello and former PhD student Edward Wilson instead turned to NP03, a new low-dose lithium formulation created by a French pharmaceutical company that avoids the negative side effects associated with conventional lithium. The NP03 preparation traps a compound called lithium citrate within another material in a process known as nanoencapsulation. NP03 has previously been shown to protect mice from neurological effects associated with Huntington disease.

“Compounds [that] are lipidic in nature pass more readily [through the blood-brain barrier],” Cuello said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “This nanoencapsulation is a […] lipidic trapping formulation […] that allows us to use doses [that] are at least 200 times lower than the conventional lithium.”

Cuello and his team conducted an animal study to test the effectiveness of NP03 against Alzheimer’s. They administered the NP03 formula to genetically-modified rats with the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene. APP is the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. 

“We [reduced the symptoms] at fairly advanced stages [and found that] the cognitive impairments induced by the [lithium] therapy were spectacularly positive,” Cuello said.

Indeed, the NP03 treatments reduced levels of amyloid plaques—aggregated proteins that are thought to disrupt cell connections—and reversed memory deficits in the rats. Yet the treatment cannot remedy the symptoms of Alzheimer’s once severe cognitive decline has set in; it is only effective in low doses over sustained periods before dementia symptoms appear.

“[If a person has] a profile [that] is Alzheimer’s-like and [their] cognition is going down, this is in my view, and in the view of many, a perfect opportunity to start therapy before the structural changes in the brain are such that they will be totally irreversible,” Cuello said.

The next step for Cuello and his team are human trials. 

“[The human trial] opportunity is with Down syndrome [patients],” Cuello said. “We can anticipate in cohorts of Down syndrome [patients] when the Alzheimer’s [symptoms are] activated.”

Individuals with Down syndrome are perfect candidates because they have a triplication of the gene carrying the APP protein. 

“Down syndrome [patients] have trisomy on chromosome 21, which causes the typical syndrome, but […] it means duplication of a protein called amyloid precursor protein,” Cuello said. 

Due to increased levels of APP, Down syndrome patients nearly always develop Alzheimer’s symptoms at an early age, making the onset of the disease more predictable and the importance of the trial succeeding in treating such symptoms even greater. 

Cuello believes that, in the next few years, it will become possible to understand early stages of the disease and successfully treat it. For the first time, there is hope for the millions of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. 

“I’m optimistic,” Cuello said. “I think we are at the verge of great discoveries in Alzheimer’s.”

Sports

Female coaches deserve equal opportunity, too

by Miya Keilin on

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San Francisco 49ers Offensive Assistant Coach San Francisco 49ers Offensive Assistant Coach Katie Sowers made history at Super Bowl LIV when she became the first female coach to ever appear in the competition. Two weeks earlier, the 49ers’ next-door neighbours, the San Francisco Giants, hired Alyssa Nakken, the first female full-time coach in the MLB. Several other women have made headlines throughout the years for breaking into the professional men’s sports scene, including Bernadette Madox, who was the first full-time assistant coach for a men’s NCAA Division I basketball team. Though these breakthroughs represent crucial progress, they also serve as a painful reminder of how unequal the world of sports remains.

Eight of the nine current head coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) are men. More than half of the former head coaches of the Canadian women’s national ice hockey team are men. At McGill, out of 30 men’s and women’s varsity sports, 26 have a male head coach. These numbers don’t make headlines, however, because they are the norm. Throughout every level of women’s sports, men are present, from coaching and administrative roles to officials and media. 

The impact of women’s involvement in sports as more than just athletes is multi-dimensional. Both in and out of athletics, women face discrimination in the workplace. In the US, women actually used to comprise nearly all coaching positions for women’s teams before Title IX—a civil rights law intended to protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal funding—was passed in 1972. The law succeeded in improving women’s sports but attracted men to these coaching positions as they now offered better pay. In this world, once men decide that they want something, they get it, so the 90 per cent of NCAA women’s teams coaches that were female prior to the passing of Title IX has since dropped to just 40 per cent. 

There is nothing about men as a group that inherently makes them better coaches than women, so there is no reason that men should be disproportionately considered for—and subsequently awarded—coaching jobs. Additionally, the double standard presents another barrier to female coaches. Anyone in a position of power, such as a head coach, is subject to criticism, but for women, there is often no way to win. Female coaches are more likely to be faulted for factors outside of their control and given fewer resources than their male counterparts, leading to shorter tenures and less successful careers. Women can have more knowledge and experience and still lose out on a job to a man. Thus, administrators, media, and fans alike must be more cognizant of their implicit biases before they make judgements or decisions that could unfairly damage a female coach’s reputation. They should also keep in mind that the barrier is even higher for women of colour. Among coaches of both men’s and women’s teams, the majority are white, so there needs to be a greater effort to combat prejudicial hiring by implementing better policies for correcting implicit bias. 

Even at the lowest level of competition when girls are just beginning to play a sport, having female coaches can make a difference. As an eager, young athlete, I looked up to national stars like Mia Hamm and Cat Ostermann, but my true role models were the 20-something-year-old college players who spent their summers coaching and inspiring the next generation of female athletes. While famous stars are important for women’s sports, they can’t make a critical in-person connection with a young athlete like her coach can. Creating more opportunities for older players to return to their youth leagues as coaches and mentors will only increase the number of girls playing sports, which will, in turn, help improve the most competitive levels of women’s sports globally. 

Women’s sports matter, and slowly but surely women are levelling the playing field. Parity, however, means more than creating equal opportunity for female athletes—the goal is equal opportunity for all women in sports.  

Arts & Entertainment, Books

Finding the right place to read

by Jonathan Giammaria on

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A university lecture or a book club: By way of discussion, both bring the personal act of reading into an academic or social realm. However, these cultural spaces don’t necessarily motivate the same types of discussion. Barring other factors, like contextual formality or accessibility, an individual moves through these spaces carrying their own reading habits. In having to tailor their individual practices to a group setting, the question remains as to how a given setting influences the reader, and whether or not the reader feels satisfied by its literary provisions.

From a young age, Emily Matuska, U1 Arts, has always loved reading, and she came to McGill to pursue her passion.

“I’m just drawn to the ethereal beauty of language,” Matuska said. “Genuinely, as an art form, I think [that] I resonated with words and language more than anything else.”

Studying English literature at McGill, however, has so far been a double-edged sword for her. On the one hand, Matuska cherishes her classroom for situating her with like-minded students, all as eager to engage in thoughtful discussions about novels and poetry as she is. On the other hand, Matuska notes that the rigour of McGill’s academic atmosphere has demanded most of her readerly attention, often in ways opposite to how she engages with literature in her personal reading life. 

“There is a really huge focus on, ‘Why do you study literature, why is it important, why is it useful for society, how has it affected the world around you?’” Matuska said. “But that doesn’t have much bearing on why I would want to study literature. For me, and I think, for a lot of other literature students, you read because you love to read. […] I kind of get a little fed up with the emphasis [on] making it so didactic.”

In Matuska’s eyes, ascribing value to a text by virtue of its association to scholarly theories and traditions sterilizes literature as an artform. She worries that university, in part, depersonalizes the act of reading; in the classroom, discussions often weigh the importance of a text based on its impact in the canon, not by its capacity to deeply connect with someone, even if only on a personal level. 

Nevertheless, Matuska acknowledged that the serious study of literature requires concentrated discussions on canonized texts. This is especially the case at McGill, which has a highly traditional curriculum.

“You know [that] you miss things [when] just sticking to the canon but then you have to ask, how do you study time periods of literature if you don’t have a canon? How do you gain a certain knowledge of a vast expanse of time?” Matuska said. “I don’t think you really can.”

For those readers who seek community and intellectual stimulation outside of the classroom, the question remains as to where readers can find more diverse, informal spaces to share their love of literature. Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q), a staple of independent bookstores in Montreal since 2008, provides a possible solution to academic stiffling. 

Though the concept of a book club is certainly not exclusive to Librairie D+Q, the bookstore is unique to Montreal because of its sustained commitment to engaging communal literacy. Every month, in addition to author talks and book launches, Librairie D+Q hosts several different public book clubs in the Mile End. With clubs focusing on Indigeneous literature, science fiction, graphic novels, and children’s literature—among many others—each one highlights a diverse selection of contemporary authors across multiple media and genres. 

For Luke Langille, Librairie D+Q’s manager, the bookstore’s strengths come from its hybrid status, both in terms of the cohort of readers it draws in, and of the types of discussions it promotes. 

“The way I like to make my pitch […] to members of the public who have yet come to one of our book clubs is that it’s pretty laid back as an environment,” Langille said. “But it’s also somewhat similar to a studious discussion because of the fact that we have so many smart people who show up and talk about books. It’s really lively and informative. It’s stimulating enough […] but definitely a departure from an academic setting.”

While students do attend the book discussions, D+Q’s accessibility welcomes readers of all walks of life. Without the pressures of specific schools of thought for discussions to adhere to, the book club mediates conversations where opinions stem from personal insights in as much as they do academic ones. Without an evaluative or formal spirit, anecdotes related to the text’s plot bring as much to the conversation as comments about its creative use of form. What often motivates a lively discussion at D+Q, is therefore, a text’s relevance to the lives of the readers discussing it. That a reader can choose which books to read—thus curating their own syllabus for discussion—only adds to the possibility for genuine connection to a text, which often leads to impassioned discussion.

What book clubs have to contend with, and what universities tend to avoid, is the overriding conception that the most productive book discussions occur only within dedicated academic contexts. Taken to an extreme, value judgments about a reader’s connection to a text, improperly assumed based on the context in which they read that text, create a hierarchy of literacy. The notion of “proper reading” dismisses anything that doesn’t align with an institutionally established version of literacy as inferior. It renders the fundamentally democratic act of reading insulated, reserved for an imagined elite. 

Still, many educators recognize the value of less traditional forms of analysis. In an interview with //The McGill Tribune//, Professor Alexander Manshel, who teaches 20th Century and Contemporary American Literature at McGill, spoke about why the segmentation of reading is a fallacy. Invested readers hold an inherent bias to quality, no matter what they read. Rather than a ladder on which different types of readers or genres can be ranked, Manshel contended that all readers generally seek to be rewarded for the attention they devote to a text. 

“Whether you study the pinnacle of a canon […] or you study pulp fiction and best-sellers, both of which you can do in a classroom, close reading undergirds both of those practices,” Manshel said. “But I don’t think the university, while it does emphasize close reading, has a monopoly on close reading. […] It may not sound the same, it may not use the same terms, but close attention to detail is something that committed readers, whether inside the university or outside, employ in different ways.”

Different contexts value different kinds of reading, but that does not need to be seen as limiting to a reader’s connection with a text. It is inevitable that different contexts will stress different priorities as regards literature. Though the way in which discussions manifest may differ from place to place, close readerly attention—across all genres and contexts—will always deepen a reader’s connection with that text. The variety of contexts and genres that a reader will encounter, and the variety of discussions to participate in, are ultimately differences to be treasured.

Off the Board, Opinion

Reflecting on my “Mamma Mia” Years

by Kaja Surborg, Sports Editor on

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I grew up hearing that university would be the best years of my life, where I would figure everything out. I would come out the other end with a better understanding of myself and the world, and after graduating, my friends and I would look back on these years fondly. Now, in my final semester at McGill, I am realizing that while my university experience has not always been smooth sailing, this may well be the time of my life so far.  My time in university is not done yet, but I already find myself missing it. 

Nostalgia is odd: I can’t really find another word to describe the bittersweetness of reminiscing over good memories. Nostalgia for the present, for something that is not finished yet, is even stranger. There is something unsettling about being acutely aware of the fact that the present moment is temporary, making it both beautiful and heartbreaking. I know that I will, in all likelihood, never again have as much freedom as I do now. The ability to work different jobs throughout the year, to take any of the classes I want, and to crash on my friend’s couch when I accidentally stay past the last metro’s run will not last forever. 

A good friend of mine coined the term “Mamma Mia years” to describe this chapter of our lives. Although it started out as a joking reference to the young and carefree attitudes of the characters in the 2018 movie Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, I have come to find that the term perfectly encapsulates how I feel about my time at university. It is easy to mock––and I do––the naïveté that comes with being 20-years-old. We devote hours and hours each week to activities like improv theatre and hackathons. Though they may one day seem inconsequential, there is also something special about the genuine thrill of watching your friends do everything from performing in an adaptation of Medea, to organizing campus labour unions, and climate protests, and knowing that, right now, at 21 years old, all of these things do matter immensely. It is the people that I have surrounded myself with, and the opportunity to see them grow and prosper, that will make this part of my life so hard to leave behind. 

I have done my best to experience the past three years as they happened, but I still find myself obsessing over remembering every detail of a night spent at a birthday party or summer walks up Mont Royal. Pages upon pages of journal entries detail the exact chronological order of events from nights spent watching movies and playing Jenga with people I may never again see after graduation. The awareness of the temporary nature of young adulthood has made me both more appreciative of all of the joyful moments, and more anxious about the change that comes with next steps. I don’t know if I will ever find a resolution to this duality, but I am also learning that maybe it does not need to be resolved. Nostalgia for the present can give an experience an extra layer of significance that I have come to appreciate. 

“The awareness of the temporary nature of young adulthood has made me both more appreciative of all of the joyful moments, and more anxious about the change that comes with next steps.”

With all of this in mind, it is important to remember that my own university experiences, as well as those of many other students, have not always been easy. McGill makes seeking and receiving mental health care difficult and inaccessible, balancing jobs and school is a reality for plenty of us, and institutional barriers to accommodations are something that many marginalized students have to navigate their way around. I believe my “Mamma Mia years” have been in spite of the university, not because of it. 

I have accepted that this may be as good as it gets, but that doesn’t necessarily bother me anymore. I know that the next chapter of my life can still bring me joy, even with the inevitable changes. 

“Standing clearly at the crossroads, no desire to run. There’s no hurry anymore, when all is said and done.” —Andersson, Ulvaeus.

 

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Where do I begin?: Vaporwave

by Miguel Principe on

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Sounds and images from the era of Windows 95 and peak mall culture manipulated to a degree that is both recognizable of its past roots yet remarkably separate from its source material; this is the spirit of the internet-born subculture, vaporwave.  The aesthetics of vaporwave revolve mainly around the popular technologies and media from the late 70s to the early 00s. The genre allows for an anti-consumerist or a nostalgic interpretation of its music through its distortion, which makes it worth a listen. Here are some albums from four subgenres of vaporwave that capture different aspects of their ‘aesthetic.’

Greek Busts and Dolphins  – Classic Vaporwave

Floral Shoppe – Macintosh Plus (2011), Chuck Person – Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010)

Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010) by Chuck Person (a pseudonym of American experimental musician Daniel Lopatin) is allegedly the first vaporwave album. The ‘ecco’ is a double entendre on two aspects of the album that play a defining role in the vaporwave aesthetic: The echo effect that comes from the glitching of 80s mainstream pop songs, and the use of “Ecco the Dolphin,” a video game character from the 90s, who is featured in the album’s surrealist cover art. 

 Eccojams became a major influence for 2011’s  Floral Shoppe  by Macintosh Plus, the alias of American music producer Ramona Xavier. This album would eventually popularize vaporwave, with the track “Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing,” becoming arguably the most well-known song of the genre. Chuck Person is not completely forgotten in this iconic album with Xavier including the song, ‘Chill Divin’ with ECCO’, an homage to Eccojams and the aforementioned dolphin. 

Sailor Moon and Japanese Pop – Future funk

MACROSS 82-99 – SAILORWAVE (2013)

Future funk is the most accessible strain of vaporwave. With heavy influences from 80s Japanese city pop, future funk follows the vaporwave’s nostalgic aesthetic and critique of consumerism from material derided as cheesy and commercial in its time. 2013’s Sailorwave by Macross 82-99, a pseudonym for a Mexican producer known only by their first name, ‘Gerald,’ is a staple of the subgenre, with tracks filled with catchy melodies at a high tempo. Furthermore, the title Sailorwave references the iconic anime character Sailor Moon, emphasizing vaporwave’s fixation of the era. 

Department Stores and Food Courts – Mall Soft

Cat System Corp – Palm Mall (2014), North Shore Memory Gardens – The Orchards (2019)

Focussing on the mall as a defining symbol of consumerism emblematic of the past, mall soft contrasts the energetic nature of future funk. The most well-known album from this subgenre is 2014’s Palm Mall by Dutch vaporwave producer Jornt Elzinga under the alias Cat System Corp. The main piece is its opening 22-minute track, ‘Palm Mall’, which simulates a walk through a mall complete with samples of announcements from department stores and faint conversations to emulate passersby. A more recent addition is The Orchards by North Shore Memory Gardens. The Orchards also samples sound elements of a mall, such as arcade noises and people talking, but forgoes simulation for a more casual electronic and jazz sound; this distances it from the ‘background music’ feel found within Palm Mall. 

Commercials and Weather Channels  – Signalwave / Broken Transmission

New Dreams Unlimited – Fuji Grid TV EX (2011), Blizzard 96 – Blizzard 96 (2019)

Probably one of the most abstract subgenres of vaporwave, Broken Transmission is characterized by the splicing of random and often contrasting samples from retro television—breaking each other’s ‘transmission’—to create the sound that comes from flipping through channels on a television. The hallmark album of this subgenre is Fuji Grid TV EX from 2011, a project by pioneering producer Ramona Xavier under the pseudonym New Dreams Unlimited. Xavier leans into the anti-consumerist philosophy through the album’s heavy use of jarring and haunting distortion of ad tunes that are continuously spliced together. The final product emulates the feeling of an uninterrupted bombardment of commercials. Another approach to Broken Transmission is Blizzard 96’s self-titled project released last year. This album slows down and distorts recordings from the Weather Channel during a monumental blizzard that affected the Northeast in January 1996. As explained in the artist’s bandcamp, this album represents a special childhood memory that can be captured as nostalgia through the distortions of vaporwave.

Out on the Town, Student Life

Café Bloc reaches a new peak of climbing and coffee

by Scott Kennedy on

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Café Bloc opened its doors on Feb. 11, bringing together the warmth and sociability of a café with the fun and creative exercise of a climbing hall. Located at 1209-1211 Boul. Saint-Laurent, this unique space was the brainchild of co-founders Sébastien Aubé and Jean-François Gravel, whose new business has been met with a favourable reception from the local community.

“We feel very grateful [that] we have [received] so many nice comments from our friends, family, and climbers from other gyms,” Aubé said. “Everyone has said […] that the location is nice, the gym is pretty, […that] they love the coffee, [that] they love the food, [and that] the staff are very nice.”

The founders made sure to focus on not only the rock climbing aspect of their business, but also on creating a positive atmosphere and experience for customers.

“I like our vibe,” Aubé said. “We put a lot [into] creating a space where people wouldn’t just climb and leave.”

Having only been open for two weeks, Aubé believes that their goal for the space is being realized.

“So far, it’s really succeeded because I see some people here that stay longer than my staff,” Aubé said. “They arrive at eight or nine in the morning […] they climb, [they] get a coffee and work, they go back to a bit of climbing, they eat, they chill, they go for a sauna. It’s just really nice.”

For Aubé, starting a space for rock climbing allows him to invest more into his personal interest.

“We were very excited with […] the lifestyle of owning a [climbing] gym,” Aubé said. “Our biggest passion [is] climbing, so it’s just so exciting to come in the gym, have a coffee, [see] some friends, talk about climbing, show them around. […] It’s just really fun.”

As long-time rock climbing enthusiasts, the two founders used their experience in climbing to influence the design of their new business.

“I’ve been climbing myself for around 10 years, and [Gravel] for around 15 [years]. It’s our biggest passion,” Aubé said. “We wanted to have some […] good quality climbing, because we wanted to have the place of our dreams.”

Café Bloc is not only a climbing gym for experienced climbers, it’s also welcoming to newcomers to the activity. 

“There’s a lot of beginners and new climbers, [the space] is very [beginner] friendly here,” Aubé said. “[And] even if you’re very [experienced], there’s some nice stuff for you here [too].”

Only a short walk from the Saint-Laurent metro station, the downtown location of the climbing hall is an important part of making this gym accessible during the day.

 “We’re […] close by, so people who study in the universities nearby or work downtown [. . .] can [travel] one metro station or walk, and they can get to our gym, so it’s very accessible,” Aubé said.

The climbing gym itself took around six months to build, but more construction lies ahead for Café Bloc. The owners plan to develop the terrace space on the roof of the building in order to be used during the warmer months.

“As soon as the snow melts, we want to start right away with the construction of the terrasse to have it [ready] as soon as it’s sunny outside,” Aubé said. “We are going to have a 30 or 40 foot wall outside. It’s going to be sick.”

This space provides students, new or experienced, with the opportunity to try a unique activity and become a part of a budding community of rock climbers within the city.

“I think that if they would like to experience a new community that’s very enthusiastic and motivating and [if] they like to practice a new exercise, you should definitely come and give it a go,” Aubé said.

Student Life

Prepping for meal prep

by Miya Keilin on

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Amidst all of the assignments and midterms, students don’t always have the time—or energy—to put together satisfying, homemade meals. Meal prep, however makes cooking quick and easy with the benefits of being a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly option than buying food on or around campus for lunch every day. Furthermore, preparing simple meals for weekly lunches offers students the opportunity to gain confidence in the kitchen while also engaging in a non-academic yet productive task. Here are a few basics to get into the healthy habit of meal prepping.

Pots, pans, and perseverance

A lot of meal prep recipes online require the use of equipment, like a slow cooker or a food processor, that aren’t items found in a typical student’s kitchen. Such equipment is unnecessary: A pot, a pan, a bowl, a cutting board, some knives, and a good attitude are totally sufficient. Even for adventurous meal prep endeavours like roasted chicken or meatballs, just add a cheap sheet pan to your pantry.   

Veggie tales

Vegetables are an important part of our daily nutrition, but getting the right amount, or even eating any at all can seem difficult. In reality, many vegetables are easy to prepare. Some, like carrots and bell peppers, need no cooking, just slicing and packing, while other vegetables like broccoli and asparagus only require some boiling. They can be flavoured differently by topping them with sauces or seasoning, but make for the perfect snack when they’re plain. Vegetables are also ideal for packing into small plastic or glass reusable containers for easy transport to campus. For an extra challenge, drizzle your favourite veggies with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast them in the oven.

Starting from starch (and some protein)

A straightforward way to assemble a complete meal is to pair a starch, like rice or potatoes, with a protein, such as meat, beans, or tofu. There are a million types of rice, such as white, jasmine, and wild, and many ways to cook potatoes, including boiling, roasting, and mashing, so the options for the starch component are nearly endless. While there are more complicated ways to prepare protein, there are simple methods that result in delicious taste. Chicken or tofu cut up into bite-size pieces and sautéd quickly with some salt, pepper, and a mix of spices to season deliver a delicious source of protein in only a few steps. Alternatively, a dish like a pasta salad or a casserole is relatively quick to assemble and satisfies your serving of proteins and vegetables all in one. A more time consuming yet worthwhile dish, is a curry or a stir fry, which may take some practice to get right but once you get a hang of it, can be very flexible dishes that will undoubtedly impress your friends. 

Looking for a snack

Snacks are essential to maintain focus and energy throughout a long day of work. Granola bars, dried fruit, and crackers are all effective power bites to bring to campus. However, homemade muffins can take your snacking to the next level. Muffins are a relatively forgiving baked good, as mistakes in the baking process often don’t ruin a batch, which makes them the ideal starting point for beginning bakers. Plus, they are pretty versatile so you can personalize them with your favourite flavours such as banana chocolate chip or blueberry oat.

No-brainer containers

A bonus of meal prepping is saving the Earth from the single-use containers that come with daily take-out lunches. Plastic or glass reusable containers are cheap and available at a variety of stores, including supermarkets, pharmacies, and the dollar store. You can also reuse yogurt containers, pasta sauce jars, and similar food containers from the grocery store to bring your prepped meals and snacks to campus. 

Meal prepping may seem like a daunting task, but in reality, it is quite simple. An extra half an hour on the weekend to cook your meals for the week is the perfect opportunity to start saving money and eating healthier, and you might even find that you have a knack for it. Happy prepping!

 

Basketball, Martlets, Sports

Martlets fall short against Citadins at Senior Night

by Sarah Farnand on

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The Martlets (7–9) faced off against the UQÀM Citadins (7–8) on Feb. 20, with the hopes of securing a third place finish in the RSEQ. The game ended in a loss for McGill, with a final score of 58–55. 

At the end of the first quarter, UQÀM led, 17–14. There was a scary moment when, with four minutes left in the quarter, a Citadins player pushed McGill’s Sirah Diarra into teammate Kamsi Ogbudibe. Both players remained on the ground for a few minutes before they were escorted to the locker room. Fortunately, both returned in the second half. McGill bounced back to gain a nine-point lead in the second quarter, but UQÀM responded, and by halftime, the Citadins once again had the advantage with a 30–28 lead. 

Despite six free throws off of UQÀM’s eight fouls in the third quarter and a three-pointer from fifth-year guard Geraldine Cabillo-Abante, the Martlets never regained the lead. They entered the final quarter trailing 49–43.

The battle remained close throughout the game. McGill remained behind by one with six minutes left in the final quarter. With one minute left, the home side was down 58–52, but a three-point shot from Cabillo-Abante gave the Martlets some momentum. UQÀM remained strong, however, and although McGill outscored them 12–9 in the final quarter, UQÀM held on, defeating the Martlets 58–55. 

Both Head Coach Ryan Thorne and second-year guard Delphine Robitaille agreed that there was not much to say after the loss. 

“When you [lose] a game, you just don’t want to talk about it,” Robitaille said. 

Thorne emphasized that the team needed to improve their focus moving into the playoffs. The Martlets had 20 turnovers and 12 fouls, which cost them valuable points throughout the game. 

“We [were not] disciplined, and the little mistakes that we made cost us,” Thorne said. “Today’s game came down to fight, came down to effort, came down to discipline, and we didn’t have those. I think tonight’s game was an important one, because we could have either ended up in third or finished in fourth, so it’s not like we were playing for nothing [….] Given that we were playing for something and that was the effort we came out with, that’s kind of disappointing.”

The Senior Night ceremony took place immediately after the game. McGill honoured Diarra, Cabillo-Abante, guard Gladys Hakizimana, forward Ruth Tshikudi-Tshila, and guard Stephanie Mondou. Each graduating player was presented with their framed jersey and flowers. 

During the ceremony, Thorne discussed the impact that the seniors had on the program and the numerous obstacles each had overcome. For example, fifth-year guard Hakizimana endured two hip surgeries.

“Being a senior means that I have a leadership role on the team,” Hakizimana said. “I have to lead by example and [with] communication. It’s my last year to give everything I have to the program.”  

When speaking about the impact the seniors had, Robitaille teared up. 

“The seniors really mean a lot,” Robitaille said. “This is only my second year with them, but I feel bad. I know it’s only a game, but it’s Senior Night, and I think we didn’t play as well as we [could have].”

The Martlets face the first-place Laval in the RSEQ semifinal on Feb. 26 in Laval. Robitaille is excited for the challenge. 

“We have four days to [prepare] for Laval,” Robitaille said. “They are number one, and it is going to be a really good game. We have to follow the game plan and [know] what we are going to do defensively and offensively, and just be ready.”

A semifinal win will move the Martlets on to the RSEQ Final on Feb. 29.

 

Moment of the Game

With less than four minutes left in the game, fifth-year transfer centre Sirah Diarra made a crucial block on UQÀM’s Inga Aleksaite to keep the game close, down 52–50. 

Quotable

“It’s my last year to give everything I have to the program and the team that I love, in order to not regret anything” – Gladys Hakizimana, on what being a senior on the Martlets means to her.

Stat Corner

Fifth-year guard Geraldine Cabillo-Abante led the Martlets with 11 points. She made three three-pointers, had three rebounds, and three steals in her 32 minutes on the court.

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