vol. 3 issue 15
DESCRIPTION
The variety issueTRANSCRIPT
VOL. 03
ISSUE 15
03.09.2011
THE
THE VARIETY ISSUE
NEWS AND CULTURE FOR THE STUDENTS OF KWANTLEN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
Interview with Kwantlen’s writer in residence, Jeanette Lynes
Basketball season a fl op
EconCafe discusses homelessness
NEWS & POLITICS The Runner | www.runnerrag.ca page two | March 9 2011 | vol. 3 issue 15
UVic takes stand against CFSSTUDENT POLITICS AROUND KWANTLEN
WHAT’S HAPPENING
AT KWANTLEN
Brownbag Lunchtime Philosophy Lecture
WHERE: Surrey Campus - G Building Room 1205B
WHEN: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
WHAT: Lecture on What is Possible? Presented by Kwantlen and the Philosophy department.
KSA Executive Board Meeting
WHERE: Surrey Campus - KSA executive office
WHEN: 12:00 p.m.
WHAT: See your elected officials and democracy in action.
Mar
Mar
09
11
2011
2011
Sheer O’Luck St. Patrick’s Day Event
WHERE: Richmond Conference Centre
WHEN: 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
WHAT: Start celebrating St. Paddy’s day early with festive beverages, cookies, pretzels, snacks and music.
Mar
142011
IKAILEY WILLETTSTHE MARTLETUNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
VICTORIA (CUP) — The University of Victoria students’ society is taking the official stance that they no longer want to be members of the Canadian Federation of Students. The decision came at the board of directors’ Feb. 28 meeting when director-at-large Karina Sangha moved a motion for the board to officially endorse the “no” side in the upcoming refer-endum on CFS membership. However, no financial or other resources have been committed to the referendum, which is tak-ing place from March 29-31. “At this point it doesn’t mean a whole lot,” said society chair-person James Coccola. “When it comes to the cam-paign, if someone was to ask me the stance of the UVSS, I would be able to tell them that we had endorsed a side. We’re not go-ing to be going out there in the next two weeks to talk about it because there’s no point. There’s not a referendum yet; it’s not campaign period.” Sangha emphasized the motion would allow the chairperson to speak about the society’s stance on the referendum. “Basically it allows the UVSS to take a public stance on the CFS issue,” she said. “I know that there’s been problems on the UVSS not maintaining neu-trality, but given the fact that the CFS has been so disrespectful to the UVSS in the past few months and over the years, I feel like
this was necessary.” Sangha feels it’s important that the board endorse the no side so students hear both sides of the issue. “This simply allows us to con-vey the no side a little bit better and show that we are standing against the CFS. The CFS will be bombarding campus with the yes side,” she said. “All UVSS members are also members of the CFS and they’ll be promot-ing one side; we’ll be promoting the other.” Sangha’s motion was dis-cussed at length before finally passing. Some directors sug-gested tabling the motion to give advocacy representatives time to consult their constituency groups. “A majority of the board voted to have it happen. There was some concern by the constituen-cy representatives that it should be postponed,” said Sangha. “Basically this just allows [Coc-cola] and other individuals who want to say that we are taking this stance, and it sends a strong message to the CFS.” Coccola said tabling the mo-tion wouldn’t have had a huge impact on it. “It could’ve been tabled, yes, and I did suggest a couple of times that if someone was going to table it they could have tabled it to the [March 14 board meet-ing],” he said. “But it is clear that most people wanted it to happen.” The motion to endorse the no side passed after an hour of de-bate with nine directors voting in favour, five abstaining and
four opposed. Director-at-large Dylan Sherlock opposed the motion, despite having resigned from his role as society representative to the CFS earlier in the meeting. “It’s very simple,” Sherlock explained. “The board gave me the role of being a rep to the CFS very specifically about these kind of discussions about the referendum, and in my own role I’ve — on behalf of the board which I thought had taken a very firm stance of neutrality — said that we would make sure that in our elections, the UVSS would be a neutral arbiter. “That was a promise that we broke [during the meeting] and I know that the CFS has broken many, many promises too; but myself, I couldn’t break that promise.” Sherlock hopes to act in a neu-tral role throughout the referen-dum process. “I’m going to work with other directors who feel the same way, and with other students to not take the yes or the no side, but to take the side of reason and moderation and neutrality and correct both sides on the mis-takes that they make and try and find some reasonable common ground for students to listen to a very complicated discussion,” he said. “While the CFS does have many problems, which have been very much displayed in our relationship with them … they also do good things for students, and they also represent 600,000 other Canadian students who we need to work with.”
Students’ society votes to endorse “no” side in the upcoming referendum.
Bottled Water Free Day
WHERE: All campuses
WHEN: All day
WHAT: A one-day event designed to bring awareness to the harm that bottled water does to the environment. www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca
Health and Wellness Fair
WHERE: Richmond Campus - Rotunda & Conference Centre
WHEN: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
WHAT: Fun and interactive event to inform about health and wellness.
Mar
102011
Mar
152011
Pro-life club sues Carleton
IALANNA WALLACECUP ONTARIO BUREAU CHIEF
WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP) — The pro-life club at Carleton Uni-versity has launched a lawsuit against the university after five students were arrested at a dem-onstration last Fall. On Oct. 4 of last year, the students were arrested and charged with trespassing when they attempted to erect a acon-troversial display on campus called the Genocide Awareness Project, which compares pictures of aborted fetuses to historical atrocities like the Holocaust. The university says it will “de-fend itself vigorously” against the $225,000 lawsuit. “We’re suing them for the dis-criminatory treatment that we received in the 2010-11 academic year,” said Ruth Lobo, president of the campus pro-life group Lifeline. She also explained that the group is demanding an apology from the university for their con-duct and “openly declare that they violated their own internal policies — specifically the stu-dent’s rights and responsibilities
policies” and the university’s human rights codes.” “The money that Lifeline would receive in this situation is definitely secondary to the behavioural changes that we would like to see,” said Lobo. Carleton’s objection to the group’s usage of graphic images was the main catalyst for the disruption in October when the university tried to get the group to hold their display in a less high-traffic area of cam-pus. When the group refused to move, they were arrested for trespassing. “This lawsuit is very much about freedom of speech in that any student group could be shut down if the university deems their display or their opinion to be not popular and therefore can’t be shown in public,” said Lobo, who was among those arrested in October. However, she believes the group’s use of images is not unique and the issue runs deeper than Carleton Lifeline’s displays. “The definition of discrimina-tion is differential treatment and that is what Lifeline has been
receiving from the university, especially because other orga-nizations that display graphic images have been allowed on campus without complaint,” said Lobo, who cited animal rights groups and a Holocaust awareness group who also use graphic depictions on their post-ers. Carleton’s concern with the group revolves around their use of graphic images. At the time of the original incident, Jason Mac-Donald, a spokesperson for the university, said other jurisdic-tions have deemed the content disturbing or offensive to some people because of its graphic nature. A recent statement by the university assured that “Car-leton remains a marketplace of ideas, a place where members of the community can debate and discuss a full range of issues and ideas.” It’s a statement Lobo disagrees with. “It really does suggest that it’s more about content than it is about the medium by which we choose to express our views,” she said.
STUDENT POLITICS
SPORTS & CULTURE vol. 3 issue 15 | March 09 2011 | page threewww.runnerrag.ca | The Runner
DIVERSITY
FUNDRAISING
HOMELESSNESS
KSA launches Positive
Space campaign
IKRISTI ALEXANDRACULTURE EDITOR
A new flag was hoisted in Kwantlen’s Surrey campus courtyard on Feb. 22.
Beside the mainstay Canadian national flag and the British Columbia provincial flag fluttered one more: the rainbow-striped pride and diversity flag.
This coincided with the Kwantlen Student Association’s Positive Space campaign launch that took place in the Surrey Main building, which aimed to bring awareness to Kwantlen’s LGBTQ community.
Close to 50 people attended the incep-tion of the Positive Space campaign, including local MLAs, students and instructors. Speakers included departing president David Atkinson, criminol-ogy teacher Joan Nesbitt and Matthew DiMera, the KSA’s queer liaison. Each echoed a similar sentiment: this is the first step to creating a queer and ally positive space across all four campuses.
DiMera wanted to be clear in his speech—the buck doesn’t stop here. The lack of acceptance or awareness to mem-bers of the LGBTQ community is not a problem unique to Kwantlen, the Positive Space campaign should be present in all of our communities he said.
Wrapping-up the event, the new Posi-tive Space logo was unveiled. It is a cir-cular rainbow motif, with non-traditional rainbow colours. The rainbow represents the traditional LGBTQ diversity symbol, and the circular shape represents inclu-sivity.
University and student society
join forces against homophobia
START volunteers selling cupcakes for Heart & Stroke
IKYLE BENNINGNEWS EDITOR
Kwantlen’s START volunteers are holding bake sales to raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Volunteers were at Richmond campus today and are holding another sale at Surrey campus tomorrow (Mar. 3).
“I’ve helped out with the heart and stoke foundation in the past but this year we thought it would be a good idea to further that connection,” said Naveen Zafar, a START volunteer mentor.
“A couple of the other volun-teers have been involved with Heart & Stroke as well so we thought it would be a great idea to promote their events.”
The money raised will support two big bike teams, Aorta Squad and Defibrillators, who will ride May 20 at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. at Central City in Surrey.
According to the heart and stoke foundation
Over the past 40 years the rates of heart disease and stroke have steadily declined. The rate has declined:• 25% over the past 10 years • 50% over the past 20 years • 70% between 1956 and 2002 • There are an estimated 70,000 heart attacks each year in Cana-da. That’s one heart attack every 7 minutes.
Nine in 10 Canadians (90%) have at least one risk factor for heart disease or stroke (smok-ing, alcohol, physical inactivity, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes).
For more information about START email: [email protected]
Economics Café: What’s happening in our streets?
IPAUL LICONTRIBUTOR
The Economics Department held another successful EconCafe, on Thurs, Feb. 24. Guest presenter Dr. Krishna Pendakur, of the Simon Fraser University Depart-ment of Economics spoke with an audience of 50 students and faculty members on his research into homelessness.
“Vancouver definitely has a homelessness problem,” said Pendakur. “Despite the rela-tively high levels of economic growth we´ve experienced, the number of homeless has increased to 2,500 in the last few years.”
“We know what the number of homeless in Vancouver is, but there´s no data at provincial or national levels. It really hampers research,” Pendakur explained. “Unfortunately, Canadian shel-ters are not required to maintain strict records of the people they take in.”
Economists do have a good idea of what is driving home-lessness, however. In the U.S., shelters are required by law to maintain a comprehensive da-tabase of users, which are then reported to public entities for aggregation. A study from U.C. Berkeley analyzed data from 19 years and concluded that homelessness was affected by two factors: high rent prices and low incomes.
“Some people think that factors such as family fragmen-tation, crime rates and drug use affect homelessness. The Berkeley research shows that they don´t: which is a good thing!” commented Pendakur, to the surprise of some members of the audience.
“Government, however, is notoriously bad at solving issues such as family fragmentation or drug use. What government can do, however, is solve issues involving money.”
Pendakur said there are several ways in which govern-ment can solve the homelessness issue. In the short term, these include costs such as subsidiz-ing housing; in the longer term, affordable social housing.
“The current problem Van-couver faces is that rent prices have gone up. At the same time, much of the supply of older, lower-priced housing is being rebuilt into modern housing units- pushing these units out of the affordable zone for many.”
On the issue of how to pay for these expenditures, Penda-kur gives a simple response: if society wants to solve the home-lessness problem, it should be willing to pay for the solution.
However, in the past few years, local governments have opted to lower tax rates rather than maintain or increase social expenditure- and the population has supported such moves.
“The problem of home-lessness has solutions,” said Pendakur. “The main problem is that we don´t have the will to do solve it. By continuously electing these officials, we as a society have made the message clear- don´t spend on solving these issues, lower my taxes!”
EDITORIAL The Runner | www.runnerrag.ca page four | March 09 2011 | vol. 3 issue 15
ITHOMAS FALCONECONTRIBUTOR
It hasn’t been a great decade for post-secondary students in British Columbia. For the past ten years, students have had to contend with a provincial government that has allowed tuition fees to skyrocket while simultaneously cutting financial assistance programs that open doors for people who want to invest in their futures. It’s been a tough ride for students (and all other marginalized groups across the province), and Christy Clark is unlikely to make things much better.
A lot of fuss has been made about Clark’s connections to the federal Liberal Party of Canada and her supposedly moderate, centrist political bent. Clark has tried to play this up with a campaign theme focused on the now familiar phrases of ‘change’ and ‘renewal.’ But some simple prodding under the surface reveals that Clark is likely to provide reliable continuity to
the radically pro-big business agenda that has been unleashed on British Columbians for a decade.
A few days before the lacklustre BC Liberal conven-tion that saw Clark inherit the corporate crown, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation released its report card for the prospec-tive leadership candidates. This is an organization that works
tirelessly to ensure that govern-ments do as little as possible to help post-secondary and other people in need – they favour a dog-eats-dog conception of society that most people rightly think should be consigned to the garbage bin of history. But its also an organization that gave Clark the highest grade of all the leadership candidates, beat-ing even more openly pro-busi-
ness candidate Kevin Falcon. What happened to Christy the centrist?
A quick look at some of Clark’s biggest backers also tarnishes her reform image. Real estate kingpin Bob Rennie and big-shot business magnate Peter Legge were some of Clark’s most public endorsers – hardly the kind of folks who are likely to champion governments that play an active role in making life better for average people.
This has been a bad, bad decade for BC. We have seen an explosion in poverty rates, we have seen our cherished public assets sold off faster than the iPhone 4 at midnight on release night, we have seen post-secondary students gradu-ating with unfathomable debts and we have seen an overall destruction of the social fabric congruent to giving everybody a decent shot in life. Christy Clark will give us more of the same – its time for a change in govern-ment, not a whitewashing of free-market radicalism.
JEFF GROAT/THE RUNNER
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITYCAUCUS.COM FLICKR
Opinion: Christy Clark a bad bet for students
IJEFF GROATCOORDINATING EDITOR
Here we are with our first issue produced in our new office on campus. We moved into the third floor of the library build-ing, had elections for a few new editors last week and recently celebrated our second birthday, so it’s a period of excitement for The Runner.
We’re all happy to be so close to everything happening on cam-
pus. Before the move, we were a few blocks away and we found it hard to get people out to meet-ings and to develop the paper.
The office is a wide-open space with huge windows look-ing out over Birch building and some tall evergreens, while out-side our front door in the library, students are (silently) working away.
We try and make the office as inviting as possible. We have a few borrowed couches set up
with a makeshift coffee table, on which copies of the New Yorker and The Runner sit. The goal is to inspire, to inform and to create discussion. Such is the informal motto of the paper itself – we are striving to be the go-to place for everything Kwantlen, whether in print or online.
So if you’re passing by on a production day, feel free to come on up the stairs and knock on our door.
We’d love the help.
The Runner moves in on campus
The Runner is student owned and operated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, published under Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society.
Vol. 3, Issue no. 15March, 09 2011ISSN# 1916-8241
Arbutus 3710/372012666 76 Ave.Surrey, B.C. V3W 2M8www.runnerrag.ca778-565-3801
EDITORIAL DIVISION:
Co-ordinating Editor (interim)Jeff [email protected]
Culture EditorKristi [email protected]
News Editors (interim) Matt DiMeraKyle [email protected]
Production Editor Cat [email protected]
Media Editor Matt [email protected]
BUREAU CHIEFS:
Campus News / (Vacant)
Creative Arts / Chris Yee
Environmental / Catherine Thompson
Graphics / Antonio Su
Health & Lifestyle / (Vacant)
Political Affairs / Paul Li
Sports / (Vacant)
CONTRIBUTORS:
Thomas Falcone, Brendan Tyndall, LLiam Easterbrook, Carlie Auclair, Matthew Bossons, Jared Vaillancourt, Josh Saggau, Lucas Meneses-Skoda
Cover Art: Cat Yelizarov, Matt Law
BUSINESS DIVISION:
Operations Manager, Ads, Classifi eds DJ [email protected]
Offi ce Co-ordinator Victoria Almondoffi [email protected]
Operations AssistantBrittany Tiplady
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NEWS vol. 3 issue 15 | March 09 2011 | page fi vewww.runnerrag.ca | The Runner
AWARENESS
MESSAGE
Global Walk for the Missing Girls
IKYLE BENNINGNEWS EDITOR
On March 5, people from Kwantlen’s Newton community participated in the Global Walk for the Missing Girls.
It is the 100th International Women’s Day this week, and the walk is to educate people on the foeticide and infanticide of girls.
Sukh Dhaliwal, the Member of Parliament for Newton-North Delta took part in the walk. Dhaliwal said that the women in his life have influenced him and
they are a part of his success.Two Kwantlen students pre-
pared the event in under three weeks. Lucky Gill and Garima Kaur hosted the event, which took place in the conference rooms in Surrey.
The walk has grown im-mensely as 15 cities across the globe are hosting a similar event. Among those cities are Dehli, Mumbai, Chandhigarh, Agra, Kolkatta, Dubai, Mel-bourne, Toronto, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
The walk was started by the Sahaita Foundation.
KYLE BENNING/THE RUNNER
Dear students of Kwantlen,
As the new Chairman of the Board, I am pleased to inform you all that the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society (“PIPS”) once again has a fully operation-al Board of General Purposes.
For those that may not be familiar with PIPS, this is the society that publishes The Runner, Kwantlen’s student-run, independent paper. Due to unexpected circumstances the Board ceased functioning last year. However, thanks to the hard work of the Editorial Board and the Business Divi-sion, The Runner continued to be published, providing news and culture for our readers in the months since.
I am also pleased to inform of several developments. First off, The Runner offices are now back on campus, and can be found on the Surrey campus- please feel free to drop in on us at any time! We are also in the final stages of negotiating with the Kwantlen Student Association our au-tonomy agreement, which will provide PIPS with the tools to continue and expand our report-ing in the most independent manner for the benefit of our readers.
As we continue to forge ahead into the upcoming year, my fellow directors and I hope that we can properly acquit our responsibilities to you and the society.
Paul LiChairman, Board of General PurposesPolytechnic Ink Publishing Society
From the Board…
SPORTS The Runner | www.runnerrag.ca page six | March 09 2011 | vol. 3 issue 15
1 in 18 = bust
Hey hey hey, goodbye
I KYLE BENNINGNEWS EDITOR
It’s back to the drawing board for Kwantlen’s men’s basketball team after a tough season.
The Eagles went a miserable 1-17, and have yet to win a game in 2011. Their only win was on Nov. 20.
Their season went from bad to worse after a 13-game losing streak. Coach Bernie Love went out with a whimper rather than a bang.
The Eagles season was summed up in their second-last game of the season when they lost to the Douglas College Royals 97-92 on Feb. 18.
In the high-scoring affair, the Eagles had a 10-point lead in the early stages of the fourth quarter. That lead quickly dropped to four.
Eventually, the Eagles were down by four with a couple of minutes remaining and fi nished the game trying to stop the clock by
fouling their opponents.The inexperienced Kwantlen team wasn’t
able to keep up with the rest of the league and fi nished second from bottom.
Bernie Love’s former team played one good quarter in each half, but the other quar-ter was a defensive meltdown.
There was a silver lining to Love’s fi nal season in charge. Harpreet Randhawa, a fi rst-year out of Williams Lake, was named to the BCCAA Men’s All-Rookie Team.
Randhawa was Kwantlen’s leading scorer and averaged just under 15 points per game. He was also Kwantlen’s second best rebound-er averaging 7.2 rebounds per game.
One thing to note is that eight of the 11 players on the roster are rookies. The other three are sophomores.
All of the fl oor time the rookies picked up will benefi t them in the coming seasons . . . providing they stay at Kwantlen.
IJOSH SAGGAUCONTRIBUTOR
When you’re a young team, like the Kwantlen Eagles’ men’s bas-ketball team was this year, you hope that your inexperience doesn’t cost you. Unfortunately for the Eagles, it hurt them badly this year.
“The problem was we never managed to put a full 40 to-gether,” said Bernie Love, head coach of the team.
“That was young guys trying to fi nish against fourth and fi fth year players.”
The Eagles had just three re-turning players from last year’s team that went 7-11. Guard Doug Myers and forward Ali Bosir were playing their sophomore season with the Eagles. Forward Varinder Singh was in his third year. The other eight members of the team were all rookies and showed their inexperience trying to close out games.
Kwantlen fi nished the season just 1-17. Their only win came against the Columbia Bible Col-lege Bearcats, who also fi nished 1-17.
The frustrating thing from Love’s perspective is that they were close in many of the games and had chances to win but fell short. Kwantlen lost fi ve games by less than six points.
“Sometimes those are tougher to take than if you’re just getting your butt handed to you,” he said.
He also blamed injuries to their experienced players as a contributing factor. Varinder Singh missed most of the season with an injured knee and Doug Myers missed the fi nal half of the year with a strained anterior cruciate ligament. Their other returning player, Bosir, spent
Didar Grewal and Mike Corcoran go up for a block against Northwest Indian College. KYLE BENNING/THE RUNNER
Meet Kyle. He likes writing about sports. He also believes in a no-holds-barred approach when talking about it. Beware, it’s time for Eagles Watch.
Kwantlen’s former men’s basketball coach thinks that things could’ve been different this season if injuries didn’t disrupt his team. Varinder Singh was out for the entire season while Doug Meyers and Ali Bosir were among the walking wounded.
I KYLE BENNINGNEWS EDITOR
Five Kwantlen Eagles are head-ing to New Brunswick for the 2011 CCAA Badminton National Championships as a part of the BC Wildcard Team.
Gurdeep Basran will be par-ticipating in women’s singles, Michelle Simard and Charlette Rosales will be a women’s doubles team, and Ashley Jang and Jensen Ly will be a mixed doubles team.
All fi ve Eagles picked up silver medals in the provincial championships on Feb. 13 at
Douglas College.According to a Kwantlen
news release, both Simard and Jang represented the Eagles at the national championships last year when they returned with the bronze medal in women’s doubles.
For the third consecutive season, the team has fi nished second to the current national champion Douglas College Royals.
The national championships, which is going to be hosted by Mt. Allison University, kicks off on March 3, and runs until March 5.
Badminton nationals
MENS BASKETBALL MENS BASKETBALL
BADMINTON
much of the fi nal two months of the season hobbling around on sore knees and ankles but refused to quit. Still, he wasn’t nearly as effective as he could have been.
“It is what it is. Injuries just decimated us this year. We went fi ve or six weeks in the fi rst semester where we didn’t even have 10 guys at practice. You bring this same team back next year and we’re injury free, it makes a difference. Having Doug play and having Varinder play, I think we’re a playoff team,” Love said.
While it’s hard to know if the two could have contributed enough to put the Eagles over the hump, it is clear that the few players who remained standing needed some help.
Rookie forward Harpreet Randhawa ranked in the top 10 in points per game and rebounds per game this season. His play earned him a spot on the BCCAA All-Rookie Team. The Eagles also had nice con-tributions from forward Mark Dabrowski and guard Dylan Kular.
Coach Love said he was very impressed with Kular’s play toward the end of the year because the coaches had talked before the season about having him red-shirted this year, which means his name would still be on the roster but he wouldn’t be allowed to play. That would have ended his chances at play-ing this season in order to give him another year of eligibility.
Although Love offi cially resigned as head coach of the team in late January, Randha-wa’s and Kular’s performances, along with the hope that some of the veterans will return next year, gives Kwantlen optimism for the future.
SPORTS & CULTURE vol. 3 issue 15 | March 09 2011 | page sevenwww.runnerrag.ca | The Runner
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
TRAVEL
The Nohoch Mul pyramid, shown above in all its brilliance, is one of the major reasons to visit the Pre-Columbian site of Coba. One of the only Mayan pyramids left in the region that you can climb, since they stopped allowing visitors to climb Chitzen Itza a few years back. Situated in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Coba is roughly an hour and a half drive from the tourist hub of Playa Del Carmen. MATTHEW BOSSONS/THE RUNNER
IMATTHEW BOSSONSCONTRIBUTOR
Chichen Itza, a Pre-Columbian era Mayan site, is one of the major attractions in the Yucatan Region
and a common day-trip for all-inclusive vacationers from Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.
In July 2007, it was proclaimed one of the New Seven Wonders of the World on an updated list determined by an Inter-net voting campaign and a call-in voting program. Like other locations on this list, such as the Great Wall of China and Ma-chu Picchu, it shows how architecturally advanced ancient civilizations were.
I had the good luck of going there in 2009 when the world was in a swine flu panic and Mexico was largely empty of tourists. The ruins at Chichen Itza were even more deserted than the beaches, and getting a photo of the ruins without tourists wandering in the foreground was relatively easy. I’ve heard getting a good photo of the ruins during the regular tourist season is almost impossible.
The most famous ruin on the site is the Temple of Kukulkan, the iconic stepped pyramid that has become an emblem of the region. On two separate occasions each year, the Spring and autumn equi-nox, the illusion, created by a shadow, of a serpent slithering down the west side of the northern staircase of the pyramid is visible.
The rising and setting of the sun on these two occasions create a shadow that appears to slither from the top of the pyramid down to its base where it meets a stone serpent head, completing the illusion.
It is apparently very busy at Chichen Itza on these two days.
A few years back you could climb the Temple of Kukulkan to its top. Unfortu-nately this has changed due to several
A trip to Chichen Itza, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World
ILUCAS MENESES-SKODACONTRIBUTOR
It was a bit of a sweet ending to a sour season for the Kwantlen women’s basket-ball team.
Although the Eagles ended their slumping season in eighth place of the BCCAA standings with a record of 4-14, they were able to squeeze out two of those four wins in their last two-game weekend set on Feb. 18 and 19.
Elise Le Brun, Kwantlen’s director of athletics and recreation, said in an e-mail that she is optimistic of the direction the team is heading.
“Overall, I’m proud of the team for battling hard through a challenging season. With eight rookies on the roster, we were one of the youngest teams in the league. However, it was a great learning experience, and we look forward to hav-ing some seasoned players return to next season’s squad.”
Despite the positive finish, which marked the Eagles’ first games won on their home court all year, the season over-all was nothing to cheer about.
The Eagles gave up the third most amount of points in the league with 1,297, and were just eighth in points scored with a mere 927.
The end of the 2010-2011 campaign also marked the departure of two familiar faces on the squad: Taminder Dhaliwal and Ali Randa.
Both fifth-year athletes have complet-
ed their eligibility to play in the league and will not be returning to join the team in the upcoming season.
However, with two girls leaving, the door of opportunity has opened up for two more.
“Having fifth year players on the roster is an asset to any team as it brings experience and leadership,” said Le Brun. “Moving forward, we will be looking to some of our returnees along with some of our new recruits to step into a leadership role and make a difference,” said Le Brun.
Chelsea Church, a transfer student from Douglas College, will be joining the Eagles in her second year of eligibility.
Church, who played high school ball at Langley’s Brookswood Secondary, where she played as team captain, could very well bring the replacing leadership element to the young squad considering both veterans, Dhaliwal and Randa, are leaving.
Also, it has been reported that her younger sister, Brittney Church, has committed to the Eagles for the coming season. Le Brun said although the future goal for Kwantlen is to bring home a title, they need to start by piecing together a more competitive squad.
“The goal for any Kwantlen varsity team is to compete, and ultimately win a provincial or national championship. With that said, our short-term goal is to recruit and develop a team that can hold a competitive place in the league stand-ings.”
Season ends on high noteIKYLE BENNING
NEWS EDITOR
Unlike their male counterparts, the women’s basketball team managed to give a positive send-off to a couple of their members.
Taminder Dhaliwal and Ali Randa played their last games as part of the team; this was their final year of eligibility.
The women’s team finished the year with two huge wins over their local rivals, the Douglas College Royals.
They have had tough times trying to get the ball in the hoop all season and have finished seven games scoring 45 points or less.
Even though they had some pretty bad games, the women showed spirit at Seniors night.
Going into the game on Feb. 18, the Eagles had lost 11 straight. The Royals didn’t have much better of a record, but it showed the home team had a lot of character.
Going on that kind of losing streak brings a lot of negative impact on a team, and the fact that the team was able to put that in the back of their minds and go about their business was inspiring.
It will be interesting to see what happens next year with Matthew McKay’s team, especially with the Church sisters coming in. Maybe they could bring some chemistry to a team that could use it.
deaths involving tourists falling down the long, stone staircase.
The site has much to offer aside from the famous stepped pyramid.
The great ball court is the largest court of its type in Mesoamerica and definitely worth a look. The Mayan people played a game there that involved a bouncy ball, their hips, small stone hoops situ-ated high up on a stonewall and ritual sacrifice.
I found the ball court an awe inspiring area of the ruins, not only because it was very large space surrounded by impres-
sive stone walls, but it also served as a battle ground for life and death for those playing the game. Anyone interested in Mayan culture and history will find this area captivating.
Other striking ruins on the site include the Platform of Eagles and Jaguars, the Temple of Warriors and El Caracol, other-wise called the observatory.
El Caracol was my favourite structure at Chichen Itza, it’s size and unique shape made it a visually pleasing piece of archi-tecture. Featuring a large stone-stepped base, with a series of steps running up the
middle to a large cylinder-shaped room with a stone, dome-like shape room.
It has been theorized by many that El Caracol was used as an observatory to track astrological events through stone doors and windows in its walls and roof.
Chichen Itza is far too large of site to do justice in this small article, but I hope it encourages tourists to the area to check out the Pre-Columbian ruins on the site. They are overwhelming in both their size and architectural styles.
A must see site for anyone visiting the region.
CULTURE The Runner | www.runnerrag.ca page eight | March 09 2011 | vol. 3 issue 15
KWANTLEN WRITERS
A look between the pages
ICARLIE AUCLAIRCONTRIBUTOR
This year, Kwantlen has been looking forward to welcom-ing Jeanette Lynes as its
writer in residence. Lynes is the award winning
author of five collections of poetry, and a novel called The Factory Voice (Coteau Books, 2009), that was long-listed for the Scotia bank Giller prize. Her most recent collection of poetry, called The New Blue Distance (Wolsak and Wynn, 2009) distills Canada into various lyrical mediations on life, as well as many other visceral personal experiences.
The Runner: What books have most influenced you most in your life?
Jeanette Lynes: For starters, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Lives of Girls and Women byAlice Munro, The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence, House of Hate of Percy Janes, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A Book about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedi-tion –I don’t remember who wrote it. Later, Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Jane Austen. Lots of Cana-dian poetry: early on, Al Purdy and Bronwen Wallace. Robert Kroetsch. Don McKay, Margaret Atwood. Then later, Karen Solie, Ken Babstock and American poets like Tony Hoagland, Dean Young, Denise Duhamel, Louise Gluck, Jack Gilbert, James Wright and Larry Levis. But so much more. Biographies, like Johnathan Bate’s biography of John Clare, Diane Middle-brook’s biographies of Sexton and Plath. I love biography and I confess I’m mad for non-fiction these days.
TR: What do you find the most challenging when it comes to sit-ting down and writing a piece of work?
JL: Staying away from email and now, facebook – seriously! It’s very hard for me to unplug.
TR: What key things in life inspire writing?
JL: Just being alive and waking up to see another day inspires writing. Reading and learning new things definitely inspire writing; you have to be a bit of a geek to be a writer. I am. In the past few years I’ve become more and more hooked on history and, specifically ,though not exclusively, Canadian history. There are just so many amazing stories in this country. I wish I had five lifetimes. Biographies of other writers inspire me a lot other people’s lives – e.g. Dusty Springfield, John Clare.
TR: What are you reading right now?
JL: I just finished my friend
Carlie Auclair catches up with Jeanette Lynes, Kwantlen’s upcoming Writer in Residence, on her influences, technique and advice to young writers.
Holly Luhning’s debut novel, Quiver, and it’s great. But mainly, these days I tend to read background material for my own writing projects. I’m working on a suite of poems on the English poet John Clare so I’m re-reading Johnathan Bate’s biography of Clare. Despite what I’ve said about being pretty ‘directed’ about my read-ing, I’d like to read through all of Cormac McCarthy and I’ve had biographies of Raymond Carver and John Keats sitting in my reading queue for ages and none of these is directly related to a writing project.
TR: When you set out to write a novel do you write an outline beforehand or do you start with the character development and go from there?
JL: Oh how I wish I could make an outline for a novel; I just don’t work that way. I have to write many drafts to ‘discover’ the story. But my fiction tends to be very character-driven, so I really try to work on character development and go from there, as you suggest. Writing a novel, for me, seems to be a matter of writing draft after draft and in doing so, peeling back the layers to get down inside the story. I wish there was some more formulaic way to do it, but I haven’t found one yet.
TR: Do you think that being an avid reader affects the quality of an author’s writing?
JL: Yes. Writers absolutely have to read. It’s as important to keep on the field, profession-ally, if you’re a writer, than it is if you’re an engineer or brain surgeon. You have to stay on top of recent developments in your field.
TR: As a published writer, what
would be your advice for a student who aspires to be published one day?
JL: Revise a lot. Don’t send your work out prematurely and network. Go to readings and writing festivals, and such. Try to find mentors all the time, at Banff, for example, and Sage Hill and Booming Ground. Be-lieve in yourself. Listen to what your readers have to say but at the end of the day be true to your own aesthetic vision. Don’t give up. But know that writing is what you love; you have to love it to take rejection and the slow pace at which a writing career can move (though some move very quickly now). Be-lieve in luck, and the generosity of many writers in this country.
TR: Do you think that social media helps the marketing process when you put out a new piece of work?
JL: Despite what I said above in the second question, yes, definitely! I believe social media is key in promoting a writer’s work. I’m slow in this area but I’ve just set up a wordpress blog; I’m still trying to figure out what to do with it, but I can see its potential. We can now not imagine our lives without social media, I don’t think – at least 90 per cent of us.
TR: How do you decide what kind of title to give your work?
JL: Titles are always so difficult. There are some titles I admire so much and I always try to match those, but often I fall short. I usually end up pull-ing something from within the work up into the title. In the case of The Factory Voice, the publisher chose the title, enough said. Sometimes I borrow: The New Blue Distance comes from a line by American poet Karen
Volkmann; I asked and she gave permission. I am green with envy of musicians; their albums and bands have the best titles ever! Broken Social Scene – why couldn’t I have thought of that?
But seriously, titles are very agonizing because you’re stuck with them forever.
TR: In your poems I have noticed various references to the 1960s. What is it about that particular era that seems to act as a muse for you?
JL: The 60s, yes. But also the 70s. I think we are probably naturally drawn to the world in which we grew up. For me, a lot of what draws me about the 60s and 70s is the popular music. But I’m generally drawn to popular culture; we breathe it. We live it from the minute we wake up in the morning. It would seem strange to me for a writer to not be influenced by what’s in the world around us, though I recognize that that influence is more apparent in the work of some writers than others.
I’m drawn to poets who use popular culture such as David McGimpsey, Denise Duhamel, Tony Hoagland, Dean Young, and Elizabeth Bachinsky. That said, fiction has been different for me. My novel is set in the 1940s, and I wasn’t alive then. I still had to immerse in the popu-lar culture of the period, though, so I listened to a lot of big band music and tried to watch movies from the period, and read books on everyday life during the for-ties – recipe books, for example. Writing demands immersion in the world of the writing project, whenever that is. It would be interesting to hear what some-one like Annabel Lyon had to say, here, as she had to immerse in a world so long ago for her novel, The Golden Mean. I’d love
to know how she did it.
TR: In one of your previous poems, “Poem for the Unknown Trucker I tailgated up the Atikokan Highway,” you mention the line “lonely in that uniquely Canadian way.” For some reason that line had a lot of emotional resonance with me and I’m curious by what exactly you meant by it?
JL: Interesting line to pull out. I’ve always been fascinated with Canada as a psychic space – it’s just so vast that that’s got to have an effect on our conscious-nesses – unless we never leave Toronto. But most of us do. I think space and emptiness – and its attendant feelings of isola-tion and loneliness – must be part of who we are as a people so I enjoy exploring that in my writing.
TR: In a few poems from The New Blue Distance I noticed that some of the characters were very realistic and down to earth, you could al-most call them “average.” But they were described in such a beauti-ful, fresh way that it made them extraordinary. Having said that, my question is, do you find inspiration and beauty in the mundane?
JL: Thanks for your kind words. Yes, absolutely – it’s almost like there is no such thing as the mundane, for me. Everyday life is charged with drama. Wherev-er there are people, there won’t be many dull moments. Human beings have a way of churning up drama wherever they go. I’ve always been fascinated with people. I don’t even know if I think there’s such a thing as an “average” person; human beings are extraordinary. To be alive is a feat of courage, a miracle.
TR: Do you think that a university education is an important part in becoming a respected, published author?
JL: As a teacher, I am biased, but I’d say “it sure can’t hurt.” That said, there have been self-taught writers who’ve had marvelous careers right in this country. The poet Alden Nowlan springs to mind. But he read and read. Lots of writers have dropped out of university. But even they have, I am convinced, kept reading to fuel their minds. But I must say I am a strong, strong believer in education. And as a writer, uni-versity taught me to be a critical reader, and it taught me invalu-able research skills and a kind of perspective on things I might not have gained otherwise.
If you are interested in purchas-ing Jeanette Lynes’ The New Blue Distance you can find it in Kwantlen’s bookstore or on Amazon.ca.
Jeanette will be at the Surrey campus for a reading on March 23 and for her talk for March 24.
CARLIE AUCLAIR/THE RUNNER
CULTURE vol. 3 issue 15 | March 09 2011 | page ninewww.runnerrag.ca | The Runner
SONIC ARCHAEOLOGIST
ALBUM REVIEW ALBUM REVIEW
ILLIAM EASTERBROOKCONTRIBUTOR
RATING: 4.5/5 RECORDS
Dig this album: Iggy Pop and co’s second studio al-bum, Fun House, captures
the sound of a young band at its primal best. Hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Stooges were an eccentric band in the beginning: more avant-garde than punk, often using obscure devices such as blenders or vacuum cleaners to achieve their desired sound amidst wail-ing guitars and feedback. Pretty fucking awesome.
But on Fun House we see a radical rawness in musicianship and production, a stripped-down sound that contains minimal overdubbing in hopes to mimic the band’s unhinged live sound. The Stooges cer-tainly accomplished this feat on Fun House; it was recently rated loudest album of all time by Q Magazine. No blenders. It’s a trade off, but a good one.
The Stooges – consisting of Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton
Vinyl Dust-Off: The Stooges’ Fun HouseLliam Easterbrook, sonic archaeologist, brings you his latest finds from excursions into ancient record bins – every week, only on Vinyl Dust-Off.
ICHRIS YEECREATIVE ARTS BUREAU CHIEF
RATING: 4/5 RECORDS
Detroit garage rock/cover band The Dirtbombs love reinterpreting their home-
town’s history of pop music. Making a name for themselves with 2001’s Ultraglide in Black, an album of Motown covers, their latest outing Party Store carries on their tradition of mak-ing cover songs with context.
In Party Store, The Dirtbombs reimagine classic techno in an alternate universe where Parlia-ment and Kraftwerk still existed to inspire the Belleville Three to originate the genre, but where the machines that defined the early techno sound - the Roland TB-303 bass synth and TR-909 drum machine - never saw the light of day.
Taking inspiration from Oblique Strategies cards (“Humanize something that is without error”), The Dirtbombs introduce a human element into the error-less, mechanical strut-ting of the songs they cover, re-vealing the continuity between Detroit techno and Detroit rock and rhythm and blues, dissipat-ing the future shock inherent in the former. Something like that, anyway.
A great example of this is the track “Sharivari” (originally by A Number of Names), which manages to sound like the crisp post-disco/proto-techno banger
the original was, yet also sound like something far earthier and funkier; both tight and sloppy, mechanically-inspired but com-pletely human.
As if a whole album of techno covers played by hu-man beings wasn’t enough, things come full circle with the companion 12-inch remix album released by Toyota’s (oh, the irony!) youth-oriented brand Scion’s record label, ScionAV.
Side A of the companion 12-inch is the Omar S remix of the aforementioned cover of “Sharivari,” which unfortunate-ly makes a weak impression. Omar’s quantized beats seem dead-eyed, the sleazy fun of the Dirtbombs’ garage funk cover or the post-disco charm of A Num-ber of Names’ original lost.
Side B of the companion album does better. Ectomorph’s remix of “Jaguar” (originally by DJ Rolando) does it right: scrap-ing the fuzz off the Dirtbombs’ cover, leaving its crystalline core intact; all the better, since appar-ently the Dirtbombs found it a challenge to cover, if The Guard-ian is any indication.
Kyle Hall’s filtered-to-the-max remix of Innerzone Orchestra’s “Bug” is delight-fully crunchy, and the almost claustrophobic atmospherics of the track seem to reference certain fashionable currents in electronic music; the kid’s got a release on notable not-dubstep label Hyperdub, for one thing. Still, I love it, probably for that reason.
Actually, Party Store itself is pretty ace. Grip it if you can.
The Dirtbombs’ Party Store does remixes
Radiohead’s King Of Limbs will polarize fans
(guitar), Dave Alexander (bass), Scott Asheton (drums), and Steve Mackay (saxophone)– are a quintet to be reckoned with. The sound is punchy, visceral, and manly–like an incessantly brutal tapotement to the ribs. Pop screams and howls in virile freedom, like a junkyard dog loose on the night, roam-ing and frothing wanderlust in lost arroyos and licentious alleyways – all while evoking the Dionysian vitality of Jim Morrison, an obvious influence on the singer. The album’s open-ing track, “Down on the Street,” immediately grabs the listener by the jugular and doesn’t – nay won’t – let go revealing this wild aforementioned sensibil-ity with Pop’s gritty lyrics and Ron Asheton’s screeching lead guitar. On the title track Mack-ey’s saxophone wails like a mad riot over the thumping rhythm section of Alexander’s bass and Scott Asheton’s percussion. Pop screams, “take it down!”
These guys want three-chord romps maximum, two chords are even better: just punch it and see where you end up.
“Now I’m putting it to you straight from hell/ I’ll stick it deep inside/ ‘Cause I’m loose,”
Pop screams, straddling the thin line of male chauvinism and un-adulterated misogyny. But these feral snarls of Pop’s are more playful than macho, more car-nival than strip club, and so his arguably insensitive lyrical ap-proach can be put into perspec-tive this way–the Stooges are just looking for their kicks, and the whole scene is nothing more and nothing less than a twisted, rowdy, riotous fun house of loud. Pop is the ringleader, and you’ve got no choice other than to follow suit into any realm of madness he deems necessary.
This album begs to be listened to as loud as humanly possible: it oozes carnivalesque lunacy, sweats manic testoster-one, and screams bloody cathar-sis directly into your defenseless ear holes. I’m not kidding. The Stooges’ Fun House is one of my most cherished records, and one of my favourite all-time albums. Dig. This. Record.
Listen Loud. Listen Proud.
Notable covers include: Rage Against the Machine “Down on the Street,” Monster Magnet “1970,” The Birthday Party “Loose,” and Depeche Mode “Dirt.”
I BRENDAN TYNDALL
RATING: 4.5/5 RECORDS
As the decade moves on, Radiohead seems more and more committed to de-
constructing the notion of what constitutes the “album.”
Their acclaimed 2007 record, In Rainbows–released in an era when the average music listener is content either to pirate their music from bit torrents, or watch low-resolution recordings of music videos on YouTube for free–tested the boundaries of what music is worth to its listeners with its revolutionary pay-what-you-want marketing ploy.
Then there was Thom Yorke’s proclamation that his band had had it with the process of mak-ing albums, and would con-centrate only on one-offs and singles. Then, without much warning the band unveiled their long-awaited follow up, King of Limbs.
By testing the boundaries of what people are willing to pay for their music by de-valuing the format an album is released, and eliminating the buzz around release dates normally associated with long-awaited albums, the band is staying true to its desire to do away with the album trend that has been the standard for music releases since the mid-60s.
For those committed music fans who actually value what the modern record-stealing public deems worthless, album and artwork and packaging and whatnot, the band will be releasing elaborately packaged CD and vinyl versions of the albums to satisfy their demand for a tangible object.
With all this, Radiohead seems less concerned with how its listeners acquire its product, so long as they do wind up actually getting their hands on the music somehow.
Of course, with all this hubbub regarding the release of Radiohead’s new collection of songs, it is easy to overlook the actual contents of the new album. With its eight songs, and under 40-minute running time, King of Limbs is a more subtle, understated collection than any Radiohead album released yet, and it lacks a song with the im-mediate punch of, say, “15 Step” or “Bodysnatchers” to draw you in upon first listen.
However, after further listens, one comes to appreciate King of Limbs much more. The
album is very atmospheric; live drums mix with loops, samples, and electronic blips and beeps to produce the hypnotic grooves that drive the first half of the album. What little conventional rock instrumentation there is even manages to sound robotic and mechanical.
What works so well about the album is its seamless mixture of real and artificially processed sounds that blend together so well that it becomes hard to decipher exactly what instrument is doing what. This clash between the human and the digital has been the core of Radiohead’s best material for the past decade. The latter part of the album is heavier on atmo-spheric ballads, that while more traditional in instrumentation and melody, are no less compel-ling and sonically sophisticated.
Fans of Radiohead who believe that everything recorded after OK Computer has gotten “too weird” will no doubt be disappointed by this album’s lack of an obvious single, ab-sence of traditionally arranged rock songs, and lack of immedi-ate catchiness.
However, fans who enjoy the hypnotic, mesmerizing quality of Kid A will be pleased with King of Limbs. Also, the band’s deliberate attempt to kill the traditional album format has the unique capability both to provide the band with a great marketing ploy, as well as to strip away distraction and let the music speak for itself.
CREATIVE The Runner | www.runnerrag.ca page ten | March 09 2011 | vol. 3 issue 15
I LLIAM EASTERBROOKCONTRIBUTOR
men will do anything
it is not bad in any good way
misshapen or reformed, you still bleed
walk down a no-way street
an alleyway of television statements
look to what is shown you but
see what you want to see
listen up, listen down to them and
here, my dear, hear what you want to hear
swing pendulum and be swayed
cut the air and stay torn
rock chair but stay grounded
support, yet tip folly when necessary
flip in on-edge dapper, oblivion my oblivion
arouse the queen; befriend her king;
and be the earnest fellow to sun, son, sire, and seer as
men fall like flames to burst blood or
tear the seams at sun’s gleam
television screens grin and reform light
eyes widen—open—dilate—accept sight
intention; stand at attention to the purveyor chameleon
and in all that’s honestly
fuck oblivion
Oblivion My Oblivion
IJARED VAILLANCOURTCONTRIBUTOR
Bethany was an ordinary woman working an extraordinary job. The city below her office window never changed, lights from
streetlamps and cars moving like little specks, barely noticeable below the penthouse suite. Every day she would sit calmly at her desk, a female Buddha in complete control over her domain, filing papers and managing a life that would ultimately culminate in the formation of a dynasty. Soul used her to watch over the city. Bethany was dry at parties, and in spite of her philanthropy couldn’t tell a joke from a dead horse.
Aside from her window, Soul couldn’t expe-rience anything through her. So whenever Beth-any put on her frilly pink pyjamas and cuddled up with the praying mantis of a man she called her husband to go to sleep, Soul would drift and find someone capable of experience.
Rusty was another favourite. He was light on all four of his nimble little feet, always a curly blonde hair ahead of the catcher. His territory covered only four city blocks, and overlapped many other fierce competitors’, but everyone he saw was kind to him.
This one plump man working at the cafe at the corner would shoo him at first; the custom-ers were disinclined to visit a shop that had less class than it advertised. Once back down the alley, however, he would have a little slice of baguette ready in the front of his vintage apron, complete with a pat on the head.
But Rusty slept in a cardboard box near the freeway. Soul preferred Bethany’s bed, with its many memory-foam pillows and always cuddle-ready partner. Sleeping alone was something Soul knew as unpleasant; Kris in the apartment complex near the downtown theatre went to sleep every night with tears in his eyes, the sounds of his roommates copulat-ing too much for his tired brown eyes. He had the wit of a comedian and the intelligence of any computer agency employee – but the same build as Bethany that was somehow forbid-den on a man. That the two women he shared rooms with paid him no heed sang scores to his gentleness, but nonetheless Soul knew him as a source of sorrow.
Soul had experienced all manners of sexual-ity throughout the city. Kris’ roommates had been a pique of interest that led Soul to Mat-thew and Janet, a couple now expecting a little girl. Matthew had turned out to be an exception to what was commonplace in homes but ver-batim at the places of worship. When he kissed Janet, he thought about their first meeting at the parade three years ago in London, England. Meeting another from Vancouver so far from home had been a blessing in disguise; they hit it off, so to speak, and eventually came back to be married. He looked at her and saw a woman whose beauty easily put to shame the plastic models of Hollywood, with eyes he needed to consciously look away from when he realized he was swimming too deeply in them. Through Matthew, Soul knew altruism at its finest. Through Janet, Soul knew good cock when it was presented.
Such binary opposites existed everywhere. Soul would drift for hours sometimes before coming to rest on a couple with no opposi-tion that would lead to parting ways. Fatima working at the pizza parlour near the outskirts taught volumes of hatred and loathing, her burning passions kept barely in check but the reasoning and logic strangely amiss. Through her tormented eyes people were less than she; each one potential mugshots for the next edi-tion of the paper. Her mental bile would never be turned against her kind, however; only the small book hidden so carefully between her mattress and the bed frame knew the truth of her public indifference.
Soul would spend days or even weeks within those whose emotions boiled bright. Eric on the island carved such wonderful sculp-tures with little more than blocks of cedar and a gas-driven chisel, Sing-Li to the north across the river sang each night to her children, afraid
they would never get to sleep unless she did so, and Bill under the bridge prayed as hard as he could each night to a god he wasn’t sure could hear him. Soul was always present when he said his prayers, lamenting his situation of course but, like Matthew, praising those who cast upon him a brief spike of self-deprecation to shed some nickel tears his way. That anyone gave at all renewed Bill’s faith, day after liver-rotting day.
But it was not until Kim that Soul experi-enced something completely different. Kim was a young man, well versed in the code of harsh urban life yet optimistic and full of fantasies of Paris. He would break into parked cars at night, scavenging whatever valuables he could, then wake up early the next day to cook for his sister. Chefs around the city would weep at the beauty of his creations, then vent vehemently at the inked arms that produced them. Kim would take their dislike in stride, his hands placed calmly in his lap and never twitching nor even desiring to slip downwards into his boot for the slender handle of his switchblade. Kim was unique amongst the others, doing what he had to in order to survive. Through him, Soul knew determination. From Kim’s kindred, Soul knew only death.Soul had to experience more of what Kim of-fered.
From the city, Soul would drift into the towns. People there were much more lively, but rarely would one measure up to Kim. Gladys fought the tumours eating her weathered body bravely, though somewhere she knew the battle was already lost; Pete fought each day to master the strange tongue none of his peers could begin to muster, but with the pride of Mandarin and Japanese mastery in the back of his thoughts there was no real struggle to his efforts; and Hugo cradled his precious glass friend close to his chest every night, bravely awaiting the verbal Armageddon the monster he called his wife would rain down upon him, at first chastising his problem before berat-ing his very existence in general. The spark of rebellion held on to the back of his mind like a survivor of the Titanic bobbing in the ocean.
Soul found another one cold night in the for-est off the number 1 highway.
“You had to know this was coming,” a man in a mask said, his black-clad frame invisible against the night. Kara spat at his feet, defi-ant in contrast to the blood oozing from her forehead, nose and mouth. The man shook his head, the grip of his leather gloves tightening around the handle of an old six-shooter. Kara was shivering, her half-naked body begging her to wear more than tassells and a skirt, the warm blood freezing to her chest and neck.
“Man, we got the money back,” another masked man was leaning against a tree, a ciga-rette lit in his hand.
“Boss’ rules,” the gunman replied. “Ain’t no one gets away with stealing, least of all his whores.” Kara stared up into the barrel, willing the bullet to choose sloth over murder and sim-ply plummet to the ground after parting from its casing. The truth that her life was over sim-ply didn’t matter any more; that bullet would not harm her. All she had to do was make sure it knew that. She was leaving Yuri and mak-ing a new life for herself in the city, where she would meet a nice guy and settle down and never dance ever-
Soul drifted next to Kara. She was standing next to her broken body, watching the men as they walked back to their car parked casually next to the trees. She screamed at them, kicked her useless breasts on the ground and eventu-ally broke down in tears. Soul settled down next to her.
“Why?” she finally asked. “Why do people do this?” Soul took her hand and hugged her tight.
“Why did I have to end like this?” The ques-tion hung in the air as her blood seeped into the frosty soil. In a while, her body would follow, but never would Kara be gone. Soul helped her drift up.
“Come help me find out,” Soul whispered, and together they began to drift.
Wanderlust
POETRY
FICTION COMIC
PROCRASTINATION
Suck it, Impark.
www.runnerrag.ca | The Runner vol. 3 issue 15 | March 09 2011 | page eleven
In Soviet Russia, stars read you!
That which you do not understand flies high in the autumn of serenity.
Your brightest ideas count for nothing until they fall upon the ears of others.
Someone in the world is thinking about you. Feel warm and fuzzy.
Animosity breeds mistrust; trust breeds misunderstanding.
The truth is out there. Stop making shit up.
What you see as alpha others know as beta. Try a new angle.
Embrace your true heritage! En Taro Adun!
If there’s a bullet with your name on it, return the engraver.
Defy gods and demons, then go for a beer.
LIBRASept. 23 - Oct. 22
LEOJuly 23 - Aug. 22
VIRGOAug. 23 -Sept. 22
ARIESMar. 21 - Apr. 19
GEMINIMay 21 - June 20
AQUARIUSJan. 20 - Feb. 19PISCES
Feb. 20 - Mar. 20
CAPRICORNDec. 22 - Jan. 19
SCORPIOOct. 23 - Nov. 21
CANCERJune 21 - July 22
TAURUSApr. 20 - May 20
Confucius say, “Three reapers are needed to one-shot a probe.”
Gakstiv-betsu mo geugo wa, jitsuyo-tekima kenridezru.
SAGITTARIUSNov. 22 - Dec. 21
NUMAHNI - JARED VAILLANCOURT
HOROSCOPE
RIP OF KWANTLEN THE SMART ZONE
We pay upwards of $125 per semester to park at our own school, and that’s if we manage to pre-order the parking pass. But most of us know that our credit cards take an unhealthy beating during the semester, paying up to $5 per day to park. And guess what? Half of the pay stations aren’t working anyhow, which is a problem when you’re already dangerously close to being late for class. So how does Impark deal with this dilemma? By slapping us with a $56 fine. Damn. That is one expensive day at Kwantlen.
MATT LAW/THE RUNNER
DOWN
1- Apex; 2- Doc bloc; 3- Beetle juice?; 4- Exclamation of disgust; 5- Kelp; 6- Strongly fragrant sage;
7- Hard to hold; 8- Singer Shannon; 9- Author Umberto; 10- Unprofessional lawyer; 11- “Farewell!”;
12- John Garner; 13- Aborigine of Borneo; 21- Conditions; 23- Hawaiian native dance; 24- Puccini heroine;
25- Betelgeuse’s constellation; 26- Radioactive gas; 27- Hwy.; 28- Ready ...; 29- High-pitched tone;
31- Ages; 33- Actress Scacchi; 34- Brag; 35- Defamation; 36- Exclude, remove; 38- Counterfeiter catcher;
41- Not new; 42- Not strict; 43- Severe; 44- Covering for the head; 46- Directional ending; 47- Four-door;
48- Angry; 49- Drunken; 50- Flower holder; 51- Pluck; 54- Battery size; 55- Mdse.; 57- Conductor __-Pekka
Salonen; 58- “Treasure Island” monogram; 59- Emeritus: Abbr.; 60- Broke bread;
(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.
ACROSS1- Spanish river; 6- Gives up; 11- Besides; 14- Icon; 15- Bloodsucking worm; 16- It breaks daily; 17- Turkish title; 18- Metallic mixture; 19- Actress Balin; 20- Lean and sinewy; 22- Sudden impact; 24- Roast; 28- Dull; 30- Speaks publicly; 31- Staggering; 32- Favored; 33- Capable of being generated; 37- Bill’s partner; 38- Band; 39- Black gold; 40- Revocation; 43- Abu ___; 45- Chairs; 46- Rubbed out; 47- Yellowish brown pigment; 49- Clattering noise; 50- Italian composer; 51- Mil. leaders; 52- Nabokov novel; 53- Large wave caused by tidal flow; 56- Earth; 61- Convened; 62- Low point; 63- Atoll unit; 64- Chemical end-ing; 65- Delicious; 66- Brahmin, e.g.;
CUP Crossword
ADVERTISEMENT The Runner | www.runnerrag.ca page twelve | March 09 2011 | vol. 3 issue 15