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IN YOUR PAPER

Maggie Benston Centre 2900Simon Fraser University

8888 University DriveBurnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Peak o!ce is located on the second "oor of the Maggie Benston Centre, underneath Higher Grounds co#ee shop.

C A N A D I A NCOMMUNITYNEWSPAPERAWARD 2013

C A N A D I A NCOMMUNITYNEWSPAPERAWARD 2014

Like many a real-life love af-fair, I never meant to fall for philosophy.

We got off to a rocky start. Wasn’t this the discipline for pre-tentious neckbeards who would rather stare blankly at a ceiling than write a research essay? I had heard the jokes — philoso-phy graduates make great bus drivers — and my half-hearted high school philosophy teacher had done little to convince me otherwise.

By the time I began at SFU, I was convinced that philoso-phy was a dusty and worn-out discipline, a pseudoscience that mainly consisted of mindlessly subjective speculation over ques-tions that science would have a much better chance of answering.

This is the part of the roman-tic comedy where the two leads hate each other. But you know where it’s going to end up, right?

I’m not sure when exactly phi-losophy clicked for me. Maybe it was Lewis and his batshit crazy idea that possible worlds are actu-ally real. Or maybe it was Thomp-son’s scathing defense of abor-tion, Baudrillard’s proto-Matrix

simulacrum, or Wittgenstein’s near-impenetrable theories on language and representation. Whatever my gateway drug was, I suddenly found myself head over heels for the witty, wonderful, and unapologetically weird world of western philosophy.

Of course, not everyone else shared my sudden passion for the canon. Vacant stares are still par for the course when I announce that, no, my minor isn’t in Pub-lishing or English. I never knew how much people hated philos-ophy until I decided to study it: everyone seems to have a horror story of that one kid in class who won’t stop referencing Deleuze or Kierkegaard.

To be fair, I understand the hesitation. Philosophy is diffi-cult, and not in the way most of us are accustomed to — it forces you to challenge your most deeply held beliefs, to question each and every way that the world is. It’s led me, a passionate atheist, to seriously consider the idea of God’s ex-istence, and it’s forced me to come up with convincing argu-ments for ideas I never thought I would have to defend: equal-ity, rationality, empathy.

But here’s the thing: That’s what I love about philosophy. It’s tough as nails and takes no

prisoners. I mean, it’s graded on a fucking curve. That’s hardcore.

Studying topics like ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics forces me to constantly reevalu-ate myself and my opinions, and to make damn well sure I can de-fend them. It’s the same reason that I love journalism: it encour-ages me to fight for what I believe is right, and to make sure I really understand and believe what I believe is right.

As I study philosophy, I see more of it everywhere. It’s in every book I’ve read, or at least all the really good ones. It’s be-hind every political decision and every activist march; in every work of art, from Guernica to

Dance Moms. It traces the history of our civilization to the present day, and it offers us a vision of our future.

And whether or not scientists like to admit it — I’m looking at you, Neil DeGrasse Tyson — it forms the backbone of modern science. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that “science” was just an-other word for “philosophy.”

I doubt that philosophy will ever be as popular as it once was. That’s probably a good thing: honestly, a society of philoso-phers probably wouldn’t get too much done. But I’m proud to study something that gives me confidence in my beliefs and the tools to defend them, and I chal-lenge anyone to give me a valid argument against that.

May 19, 2015

4 news editor Melissa Roach associate news editor Samaah Jafferemail news@the-peak.ca NEWS May 19, 2015

SFU opened its doors to the public last Saturday, May 9 and once again celebrated Astronomy Day, with a day of free fun for space enthusiasts of all ages.

The annual event was hosted by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) in conjunction with SFU’s Science Rendezvous. Over 5000 visitors passed through the campus to take part in the day’s happenings.

Tables with exhibits lined the halls of the AQ from late

morning well into the afternoon. There were plenty of crafts and activities for the younger as-tronomy fans, including a sta-tion for making oreo’s that de-picted different phases of the moon and two well-attended science shows in one of SFU’s science theatres.

Guest lecturers gave free talks throughout the day and people lined up all afternoon for tours of SFU’s new observatory. At-tendees could also take a look through one of the solar tele-scopes stationed outside.

One of the first free lectures of the day featured a slideshow of the Northern Lights — the phenomenon that involves charged solar particles hit-ting the earth’s magnetic field, creating dis-plays of co-lourful lights

around the North and South Poles. While the Aurora Borealis that

is typically seen is green, photog-rapher and long time amateur astronomer Ed Hanlon explained that stronger solar storms result in yellow and red colours. Han-lon’s photos showed the varying range of lights he witnessed over

the years while he was stationed as a paramedic in northern Canada.

Another talk explored the seemingly infinite multitude of

galaxies in the universe, how they are identified, and all the interesting and unexpected shapes they take.

A retired physics and astron-omy professor from Capilano University, Stanley Greenspoon, gave a talk on the search for ex-traterrestrial life. He explained that in this search NASA bases their evaluations for habitabil-ity primarily off of the presence of liquid water. “We always ex-pect other solar systems to be like ours. We always do,” he said. “We’re wrong.”

SFU’s own professor of physics, Howard Trottier — also known as Mr. Starry Nights — assisted with the event. The Trottier observa-tory opened on April 17, bringing the stars closer than ever to SFU’s mountaintop campus.

Trottier was quoted in The Peak, commenting on the signifi-cance of astronomy as a focus for scientific outreach. “People

can look at the sky with their eyeballs and see what’s out there without there being anything be-tween them in that experience,” he said. “That makes it very accessible to people.”

Another of the day’s attractions

was a session on the Apollo mis-sions given by astronomer Ted Stroman. He demonstrated the Apollo 11 moon landing with a scaled model of the Saturn V rocket that launched the first hu-mans to the moon in 1969.

Stroman noted the impor-tance of engaging people in learn-ing the facts that science-fiction box office hits don’t provide. “I think that there’s a lot of silly pub-lic information that’s hyped and distorted out there,” he said.

“These events [bring] people to the ground and they get to hear it from people who know what they’re saying, who aren’t here to hype things.

“I think they learn a heck of a lot more from an event like this or from sitting down with a good book and actually reading.”

The Goldcorp Centre for the Arts hosted the “Instru-ments Beyond Borders Ben-efit Gala” on Wednesday, May 13. Hosted by actor Dan Payne and Global TV’s Lynn Colliar, the concert raised money for the Recycled Or-chestra of Cateura, Paraguay and the St. James Music Academy of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which provides free afterschool music lessons for children.

On Tuesday, May 12, students at the Surrey Campus enjoyed coffee, ice cream, and conver-sation for a good cause. For the cost of a toonie, students were invited to the Campus Bursary Coffee Hour, held in the Fac-ulty of Education main office in SFU Surrey. The proceeds of the event went towards the Surrey Campus Bursary Fund, which helps students in finan-cial need fund their university education.

SFU’s Institute for the Humani-ties presented the book launch of Nothing to Lose but Our Fear: Resistance in Dangerous Times on Tuesday, May 12. The book includes conversations with international scholars and activists, and discusses “how can we think critically and act productively in a world awash in fear.” The event also included a panel discussion with the author Fiona Jeffries, Kwantlen criminology faculty member Michael Ma, and Da-vina Bhandar, adjunct profes-sor at SFU and Kwantlen.

5NEWS May 19, 2015

A $1 million donation has en-abled SFU’s Beedie School of Business to launch a program geared towards supporting Ab-original entrepreneurs.

The First Peoples Enterprise Accelerator (FPEA) was made possible by a contribution made from the RBC foundation. It has also funded several scholarships for Aboriginal students interested in entrepreneurship.

The accelerator, which will be run out of RADIUS (RADical Ideas, Useful to Society), a business in-cubator within the Beedie School, will help fledgling ventures get off their feet and assist in the growth of more mature enterprises.

The FPEA was originally con-ceived to be part of the First Peo-ples House, which was proposed in 2012 as a centre for Aboriginal stu-dents, faculty, and staff on Burnaby Campus. Once the First Peoples House project is complete, the two ventures will be linked.

Donovan Woollard, ventures director at RADIUS, spoke to the origin of FPEA: “SFU and the RBC Foundation were in conver-sation around how to have a last-ing impact and the concept of supporting entrepreneurship in First Nations communities came up as an exciting prospect.”

This winter, the Enterprise Accelerator will welcome its first cohort. Over the next six months, RADIUS will be “figuring out what do Aboriginal entrepreneurs need and what are the places where we can help them with those needs.” Woollard added, “[There] are lots of ways to waste $1 million and only a few ways to actually add some real value.”

RADIUS is currently assessing how this particular enterprise ac-celerator will function. “One of the key questions we’re still grappling with is, ‘are we going to work in individual geographic communi-ties, or are we going to focus on certain sectors that serve a number of different Aboriginal communi-ties?’” said Woollard. He suggested renewable energy as a possible sec-tor on which to focus.

The scholarships are being of-fered through the Executive MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership program. RBC will fund $30,000 in

financial awards each year to four students for the next 10 years.

Mark Selman, program direc-tor for this EMBA, explained the benefits of such financial sup-port: “The EMBA program costs over $50,000 to take and so for most people, finding sources of support is important.”

Selman noted that since SFU launched the EMBA program forty years ago, in each cohort

there has only been on average half a dozen A b o r i g i n a l s t u d e n t s . The enrol-ment for the EMBA in Aborigi-nal Business has risen to

25 Aboriginal students out of 30 in the second cohort of the pro-gram. “It’s probably the largest number of Aboriginal students

studying business together in North America.”

A large number of First Na-tions communities have pio-neered economic development including the nation in the Fraser Valley and the West Bank nation in the Okanagan, the latter of which has 400 businesses lo-cated in its reserve territory. Sel-man commented, “Each of those areas and many other communi-ties have programs of one sort or another, but I think it will add to the mix to be able to provide cer-tain university level programs.”

Woollard acknowledged that an integral part of the success of the initiative as a whole will be “recog-nizing that, historically, Aboriginal communities in Canada have been quite purposely marginalized by the settler communities.

“A program like this is very much just one step in coming to a place where we’re starting to undo some of the very gross in-justices of the past.”

6 NEWS May 19, 2015

A study led by SFU researchers has found that sea lice infections are more common among juvenile sock-eye salmon than previously thought, and infections caused by the para-sites are negatively impacting the survival of the fish.

Sean Godwin, a PhD student in SFU’s department of biologi-cal sciences, explained: “Juvenile sockeye salmon that are migrat-ing from the Fraser river, that are highly infected with sea lice, are less able to compete for food.”

Godwin explained, “sea lice are a type of parasite that attach to the outside of fish and feed on the sur-face tissue.” Although the species found on the sockeye during the study are native to BC, there has been rising concern over the past couple decades since the amount of lice on juvenile salmon is much higher than expected.

The study was based at the Salmon Coast Field Station in Port McNeill, and researchers collected the fish from the Johnstone Strait — a corridor along the east side of Vancouver Island used by migrating juvenile salmon to reach their winter

feeding grounds as they travel from the Fraser River to the open ocean.

After collecting the juve-nile sockeye, Godwin originally planned on separating the unin-fected fish from the highly infected fish, but they were hard pressed to find uninfected fish. “Almost every single fish that we caught had sea lice on them,” he said.

Instead, the study focused on comparing the competitive abilities of lightly infected fish versus highly infected fish. Their results found that the highly infected fish were 20 per cent less successful at consuming food compared to the lightly infected fish. Each group was fed the same limited amount of food and con-tained fish of the same sizes.

Fish farms found along migratory routes seem to have played a role in the increase of sea lice found on salmon. These fish farms are “high-density environments for young

Atlantic salmon in net pens, and the net pens do not have any barri-ers,” according to Godwin. Because of this, they serve as reservoirs for sea lice to grow and spread to wild salmon populations.

Godwin hopes that his research will help inform parasite manage-ment on fish farms, because the majority of sea lice species found on the juvenile sockeye he studied were different from the species that fish farmers treat for.

The next step is working to-wards forming a fuller understand-ing of the impact that sea-lice in-fection levels have on the young fish as they continue on their mi-gratory route and age into adults.

“I hope other people can build on my results, we really need to do more research to fig-ure out how and whether the sea lice levels will affect adult return stock,” said Godwin.

A PhD candidate at the University of British Co-lumbia wrote a 52,438 word dissertation, titled “In-digenous Architecture through Indigenous Knowl-edge”, without any punctuation. About the unusual nature of his writing, Patrick Stewart, an architect from the Nisga’a First Nation, said he “wanted to make a point” about the “the blind acceptance of English language conventions in academia.” This deconstructionist approach to the English language led to certain professors find-ing his work unconvincing. At the defence of his thesis, Stewart answered questions for more than two hours, which ulti-mately resulted in his work being approved.

With files from National Post

Kyle Bassett, a PhD student in engineering at the University of Windsor, won a $25,000 prize last week at the Ontario Centres of Ex-cellence annual Discovery Conference in To-ronto. Basset’s innovation won him the David McFadden Energy Entrepreneur Challenge. His idea for a five-volt portable turbine to provide energy for remote communities won the competition against nine other finalists from Ontario. The development of Bassett’s turbines is at an advanced stage and he has already launched his own company, RMRD Technolo-gies, to produce them for commercial usage.

With files from Windsor Star

New research by an SFU professor has shed light on previously overlooked links between environmen-tal exposure and asthma in children.

In the largest study con-ducted of its kind, SFU’s health science department’s Timothy Takaro, along with AllerGen research centre, published the first year of data examining the pre-birth and young environmental ex-posures of over 3,600 babies.

The study spanned from 2008 to 2012 across four major Canadian cities, in-cluding Vancouver, to search for the link between develop-mental diseases like asthma and an infant’s environmen-tal exposures.

Despite it being the most common chronic child-hood disease, the causes of asthma remain unknown. Ta-karo’s research is driven by the question: “What about the early life environment and the interaction between the child’s genes sets up risk for [the development] of asthma?”

Takaro is a physician and scientist with degrees in epi-demiology and toxicology, with a residency in internal medicine. He is part of Al-lerGen’s CHILD (Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development) study, which attempts to find a link be-tween an infant’s exposure to numerous substances — in-cluding mould, dust, pollut-ants, and chemicals — and the development of asthma and other childhood develop-mental diseases.

By finding the root cause of asthma, researchers are looking for a way to eliminate the condition, thus eliminat-ing the need for costly and

emotionally draining physi-cian visits, medication, hos-pitalization, and loss of work time. “If we could prevent asthma, we wouldn’t have to treat it — that’s the goal,” said Takaro.

For the CHILD study, nu-merous environmental expo-sures, ranging from cleaning products to traffic-related air pollution, were measured in the homes of the infants. Both physical samples and questionnaires were used in surveying the 3600 house-holds. The survey asked ques-tions regarding any potential leaks in the household, as well as when and of what ma-terial the house was built.

As the study is only in its preliminary stages, Takaro and AllerGen have not found any definitive links between the environment and these developmental diseases.

However, a paper Takaro worked on, published in the peer-reviewed journal Envi-ronmental Health Perspec-tives, offers data that sug-gests that air pollutants have an adverse effect. Household pets, long believed to be irri-tants of asthma and allergies, may actually prepare infants for future exposures and even make them less susceptible to asthma.

The ultimate goal of his numerous research projects, according to Takaro, is to “design a house that would be allergen free, [by using] carefully monitored mois-ture [and air pollution levels through filtration].”

He continued, saying that future studies “would test babies who lived in those homes, compared to babies who were born in standard homes.” This sort of “inter-vention trial” would bring researchers closer to devel-oping a home that prevents asthma.

Takaro asserted, “The government needs to fund intervention trials and needs to stop subsidizing drug com-pany trials. Big [pharmaceu-tical companies] receive a lot of government money to test all their drugs, but [scientists that try] to prevent disease do not.”

7NEWS May 19, 2015

8 opinions editor Adam Van der Zwanemail opinions@the-peak.ca May 19, 2015OPINIONS

An establishment 42 years in the making has come crashing down, as on May 5 the NDP won a ma-jority in Alberta, pushing the long-standing Progressive Conservatives (PCs) out of office. The NDP, led by Rachel Notley, captured 53 seats in the legislature, dwarfing the official opposition, the Wildrose Party, by more than two fold.

Albertans have resolved that regressive economic and environ-mental policy are not what they wish for their future. Instead, they have elected a bright-eyed new caucus, with only three MLAs hav-ing held office before.

But Notley is the anchor Alberta needs to weather the tumultuous economic hardships that lie ahead. Her pragmatic and progressive tax policies will compensate for the PC’s lack of fiscal stewardship. Moreover, her moderate approach to the oil sector will enforce stron-ger environmental standards with-out compromising the integrity of Alberta’s economy.

This wave of discontentment with the PCs should not shock

anyone. Their budget projects a $5 billion deficit next year due to the collapse in oil prices. The party’s dangerous legacy of over-reliance on oil has caught up to them.

Their anemic solution of mar-ginal tax increases will do nothing to fill the void of once gushing oil revenues. Moreover, the cost to most Albertans is too high. The PC’s have cut $159 million from the health budget and have raised taxes for families, while refusing to touch a startlingly low 10 per cent corporate tax until the end of their leadership.

Notley has promised to use her mandate to raise corporate taxes by two per cent, and end a tax sys-tem which has no income brackets. High-income earners will now face a progressive tax system which re-distributes wealth to ideally offset losses in royalties from oil.

Not only is this a fairer solution to closing the deficit but it also is po-litically advanta-geous in the most populist manner.

Those who got rich off the oil boom will now have to pay for the conse-quences of that industry’s volatility and unsustainability, while average Albertans will be spared the eco-nomic slaughterhouse.

Moreover, Notley has proven that she is committed to the wel-fare of the working class. One of her key campaign promises was to raise the dismal provincial mini-mum wage from $10.20 (among the lowest nationwide) to $15 by

2018. A living wage is essential for families to remain above the pov-erty line, as well as for economies to avoid stagnation; it will also in-crease disposable income for fam-ilies and spur personal spending, stimulating the economy.

It would be, however, a mis-take to characterize Notley as ‘anti-oil.’ In fact, while she is in favour of more stringent environ-mental regulations and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, she is behind multiple pipeline projects and is willing to work together with oil companies.

Notley has also advocated that Alberta’s oil producers need to “upgrade” their oil through added value to processing, rather than simply shipping out unrefined oil to Asia via tankers. She makes a compelling argument: intensify-ing economic activity which adds value to oil resources will not only create more jobs in Canada, but also help shelter Canada from oil price drops worldwide.

Notley has found herself be-tween a rock and a hard place. Al-berta’s veins run thick with black gold and the designated premier will have to walk the line between appeasing the left majority who gave her the mandate to govern, and ensuring that oil producers are kept afloat lest they continue to struggle.

The new premier must use her mandate to reduce the deficit whilst pushing on with a slate of social and environmental legisla-tion that ought to compensate for a laissez-faire PC attitude humoured in Alberta for far too long.

The concept of ‘going viral’ has evolved from being a result of chance to a goal to aim for. As a result, more and more irre-sponsible Internet users aim to garner as many views and likes as possible by creating shock-ing content. I find that social media, be it online or through mobile applications, perpetu-ates viral challenges that gain a bad reputation for promoting irresponsibility.

However, more focus must be placed on the individuals misusing the Internet rather than on the technology itself.

In the Digital Age, many people posting content on-line are under pressure to get as many hits as possible, fear-ing their content will be con-sidered unimportant or virtu-ally non-existent. Nowhere is this concept more salient than when young people par-ticipate in viral challenges for attention — an attention that poses a great threat to society.

Most recently, warnings about the “Game of 72” have emerged in Canada regarding the potential for a new online craze. This game, or chal-lenge, involves young people deliberately disappearing from home for 72 hours. The first case was recorded in France, but with the bound-less nature of the Internet, Ca-nadian authorities preferred not to take any chances.

“Attacks around [the] US probed for link to knockout game,” reads another case of the atrocities caused by viral challenges. In 2013, the knock-out game, which challenges users to render others uncon-scious in public, has caused at least two deaths in the US, as a result of young people who followed the calling to go viral.

Other deadly challenges like the recent ‘Fire Challenge,’ which pressures youngsters to light themselves on fire, have also gained popularity on so-cial media.

At this point, some may be quick to proclaim that so-cial media is to blame for all our problems. However, this thinking is flawed.

Young people tend to ne-gotiate their identity through risk-taking, which is char-acteristic of growing up. Combined with the endless pursuit for views, likes, up-votes, and shares, the flame of irresponsibility thereaf-ter thickens. But the issue here is psychological, not technological.

The current youth of today seem to be going through a crisis in which they look to-ward a screen for an identity, and this is where the problem

lies. Young people are already ir-r e s p o n s i b l e in general. It does not help that so much impor-

tance is now attached to so-cial media and the identities created therein — an attach-ment that is destructive.

Some may believe that social media and other apps such as Vine, in which a cul-ture of competitive showman-ship is prevalent, should be heavily regulated. However, this also misses the point. To heavily regulate apps and so-cial media defeats their demo-cratic purpose and takes away user agency.

Destructive online behav-iour therefore calls for more responsible users and not necessarily the strict policing of the technology itself. It is up to the people to evaluate why we feel the need to par-ticipate in absurd challenges to fit in, and that begins with the individual. There needs to be an overall re-evaluation of our relationship with tech-nology as a whole.

Like anything else in life, the freedom offered via the Internet is a two-sided coin, and can do as much good as bad. It is up to the user to be responsible with the power offered to them via technology.

9OPINIONS May 19, 2015

Canada’s Food Guide is a docu-ment most people in this country are familiar with. After having first been introduced to this guide in el-ementary or middle school, many students learn about it as if it were the sole source of nutritional infor-mation. Students are taught that it should not be disputed, as it is the foundation of a healthy life.

However, this document has been greatly neglected. It hasn’t been updated since 2007, and since 1992 before that. It no longer repre-sents, if it ever did, the nutritional

needs of the Canadian population, and is only a small glimpse into re-quirements for a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, it gives no options for the many people who cannot abide by its unrealistic and often unneces-sary standards.

First of all, by lumping foods into four extremely broad cat-egories — vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk and alter-natives, and meat and alterna-tives — the Food Guide actually

provides little nutritional guid-ance. Just because we read that we “require” two servings of milk and alternatives doesn’t mean we understand the amount of calcium or calcium sources our bodies require on a daily basis. Furthermore, it doesn’t take into

account the disputing informa-tion over whether or not dairy is the healthiest source of calcium.

Additionally, many groups of people are ignored from the equation when it comes to the food guide. It offers little to no alternatives for people who have different dietary needs and con-strictions — from celiac disease to the prominent dairy intoler-ance, from people whose bodies require less calories to people who choose to be vegetarian or vegan, many are excluded from the discussion. If we were to base our eating habits solely on what the Food Guide recommends, there would be few choices for many people.

Likely, there will never be a perfect solution to creating a food guide that can work for everyone. Does that mean we should scrap the idea altogether and instead ed-ucate our children on how to make healthy decisions based on their individual choices and circum-stances? That might be a better al-ternative. A basic infographic such as this Guide cannot accommo-date the diversity of the Canadian population, and it’s time for us to stop pretending that it can.

Canada’s Food Guide needs to adapt to the peo-ple it was sup-posed to repre-sent. If it is going

to be used and respected, it needs to be a realistic representation of the nutrition the Canadian people should consume, and take into account the many other ways in which Canadians can contribute to their own physical and mental well-being.

There is nothing more relaxing than knowing you are steps closer to completing your undergradu-ate degree than the losers out there enjoying the over-hyped summer vacation.

Summer classes get a bad rap because people are wrongfully led to believe that they miss out on a season of excitement. False. Summer classes are amazing because they are the only ones offered in ‘express’ versions, or inter-sessions. They let you finish a course in less than six weeks, because instructors are more willing to get real and cut out all the unnecessary, time-filling crap. Courses become

more concentrated and fun, being more focused on what is important.

On top of this, summer classes give you more energy to read, since you don’t con-stantly want to roll yourself up in multiple blankets and sleep. The warm weather in-vigorates you towards educa-tional triumph.

For the ones who want to succeed in life, take refuge in the fact that you’ll finish your degree faster by taking fun and focused classes while your pa-thetic peers are doing other non-academic, overrated ac-tivities that do not add to their credit counts whatsoever.

Summer is a horrible season. It makes you think about all the fun stuff that people do during their free time. You’re broke and you can’t join them, but turning to a loved one for physical sup-port is no help — they’re sticky and sweaty. You want to leave the balcony door open to let things cool down, but you can’t without giving every bug that sailed on Noah’s Ark a big welcome to your sweltering domain.

The only way summer would be somehow tolerable is if the government gave you free bug spray and air condi-tioning. And for the majority of people who do not own a

vehicle, they’ll have to get used to the intolerable heat levels while aboard public transit.

Summer easily becomes boring. It’s overhyped. There is way too much pressure to enjoy every single second of the season, and make it excit-ing. There is always a stupid group of people who bom-bard social media with all their beach photos, leaving you to wet your screen with tears. And while you look for a shoulder to cry on, you realise that you will not see any of your vacationing friends for an entire four months. Yeah, summer sucks. Big time!

 

10 arts editor Tessa Perkinsemail arts@the-peak.ca ARTS May 19, 2015

The Vancouver Foundation has re-cently reported that Lower Main-land residents feel lonely and iso-lated, resulting in lower happiness overall. In order to address this topic, the Museum of Vancouver is displaying Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show, a vibrant explo-ration into happiness, from April 23–September 7.

The Happy Show is curated by Stefan Sagmeister, a designer known for his unique blend of typography and imagery. “It’s the perfect time and perfect place to engage Vancouver in terms of exploring happiness,” says Gregory Dreicer, Director of Curatorial and Engagement at the Museum of Vancouver. He adds, “It’s a really unique ex-hibition because it’s based on Sagmeister’s ten-year explora-tion of what makes him happy and [what] he learned from it.”

As for the exhibit, Dreicer claims that it really needs to be personally experienced. How-ever, he divulges his favourite pieces in the exhibit. “There are a series of gumball machines that are very tall, and they are in a series of 10. Everyone who comes here has to take one gum-ball according to their level of happiness. So already [. . .], it is forming a kind of [infographic] that lets you see the level of hap-piness of Vancouverites.”

Other than engaging infograph-ics, the exhibit also boasts an array

of video projections and interac-tive installations. For one interac-tive sculpture, Dreicer explains, “when you walk up to it and smile, it causes the projection to create all these beautiful colours.” The exhibit also displays a preview of Sagmeister’s soon-to-be-released documentary, The Happy Film, which depicts his own attempts to increase his happiness through meditation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering pharmaceuticals.

Central to the exploration of happiness, Dreicer advocates the exhibit’s ability to promote

self-exploration into individual happiness. “I think it will encour-age people to think about their own individual happiness,” he says. “Everyone knows whether they are happy or not, but most of us don’t really know [. . .] what really makes us happy.”

He explains that the exhibit itself is a response to how peo-ple are going about their pur-suit of happiness all wrong. “Most people think that making more and more money makes them happier. But in fact, once you have your basic necessi-ties taken care of [. . .] making more money doesn’t increase happiness.” People are striving for things they think will make them happy, Dreicer says, which “are not succeeding. [. . .] On the other hand, the things that do make people happy are sharing, collaborating with others, being generous and giving to others [which] actually helps to en-hance happiness,” and helps the community in general, he says.

Truly, the key theme through this exhibit is the relationship between personal happiness and social connection. “The key to [individual] happiness,” explains Dreicer, “is social connection. And on the community level, urban happiness or well-being is

also related connection between people.” Thus, he says, the rela-tionship between happiness and connection is integral.

In order to continue the con-versation and foster social in-teraction, the Museum of Van-couver will continue to focus on social connection and happi-ness. “We will be hosting Happy Hours where people can come, have a few drinks, and inter-act and mingle with an expert in one area of happiness,” says Dreicer. The group will also be holding a Family Day on May 23, “to encourage families to come and interact and learn a little bit about happiness,” he adds.

Dreicer hopes that people begin their own self-exploration into their personal happiness after visiting the exhibition. “If people come, I think it will be good if they understood better what, as individuals, makes them happy and then what would make their communities happier. On a bigger level, I think it will help us think about how we are con-nected to others — since that is one of the big keys to happiness — how we relate to others, and what that means for ourselves and for our communities,” Dreicer concludes.

“Once people learn a little [and] think a little bit about it, I think it’s possible to make some change.”

For those at Miss Quinzella Thisk-win Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, strange supernatural creatures have

been afoot. Three-eyed foxes are lurking in the night, serpent mon-sters have been spotted in the river,

and a Yeti has been seen wearing a Walkman. But fear not; the Lumber-janes are on the case.

Lumberjanes follows the hilari-ous and action-packed misadven-tures of five best friends at an all-girls summer camp. Taken aback by unexplainable happenings in their campsite, this gang of feisty butt-kickers decides to investigate, much to the displeasure of their in-cessantly irate scout leader. Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley set out on a magical quest tackling everything from secret caves to arm-wrestling

stone golems, all whilst accumulating scout badges as they go.

Noelle Steven-son and Grace Ellis weave an enjoyable tale packed with non-

stop hilarity. Every page is bursting at the seams with jokes and gags, enough to keep a perpetual smile

on your face. This lovable gang of misfits is a

riot from start to finish. While the characters have eccentric personali-ties, they are also jam-packed with heart and soul. Each of the Lum-berjanes is strong on their own, but together this ensemble suc-ceeds where most fail. At its core,

Lumberjanes is a story about friend-ship and comradery, and thankfully this is never forgotten amidst the many calamities they face together.

Brooke Allen knocks it out of the park and plays perfectly off the cre-ative energy of both Stevenson and Ellis. Her bright and colorful panels are a treat for the eyes. The cartoon

style rendering of the world of Lumberjanes is reminiscent of old school Saturday morning cartoons. What the artworks lack in intricate detail, they make up for with a vi-brant panel layout. Rest assured, no page in this series is ever boring to look at or rendered the same twice.

In a time where the outcry for strong female characters has never been louder, Lumberjanes succeeds in introducing audiences to a new cast of leading ladies for the next generation. They have the potential to be strong figures in the pantheon of graphic novels, and I sincerely hope they continue to stock the stands for years to come.

Lumberjanes is a graphic novel that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It’s a wonderful homage to the old school Saturday morning car-toons of the ‘90s and ‘00s. So take a seat and get acquainted with the genre’s new leading ladies. Kick off the summer with a read that packs a

11ARTS May 19, 2015

Someone playing Call of Duty or Halo presses the trigger, and bang, a character dies. But they’re not actually dead — they can respawn and get shot again, and again, and again. Victims of American drone strikes, though, don’t respawn.

Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill concerns one of these grave-piling gamers, Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke), who spends his days working in an air-conditioned room in Las Vegas handling a joystick with the ability to blow-up almost any-thing anywhere in the world. After numerous tours to Iraq, he now serves from his home country and sleeps at home with his family. However, if he were playing Call of Duty there would be little reason for him to struggle with PTSD, or for his boss to recommend “I and I” (intoxication and inter-course) during his downtime.

For Tom and his coworkers, there is enough distance from the victims through the screen and the silence of his office to

ignore what they are actually doing. But Tom tires of being in front of a screen and longs to jump back in a real plane where he will fight outside of the com-fort and safety of a cubicle.

The subtext of America’s war policies (which seem un-compromisingly close to that of the terrorists) is what gives the film its cerebral and vis-ceral vigour. The film centers on this question: Is there such a thing as a good kill?

Tom is unsure. He follows the orders given to him by his commander, but he’s lost the ea-gerness and enthusiasm to kill displayed by younger soldiers around him. Niccol captures the horrors of this attitude by juxta-posing it with Tom’s turmoil.

This theme is what gives the “action scenes” — all done through the poetic distance of a drone surveillance feed — their power. We are never given any per-spective from the ground where the people are being bombed; Niccol keeps a chilly distance from the attacks that makes them all the more terrifying. There are no screams or cries, just pixilated dust on a computer screen, as vir-tual as Halo.

Niccol’s most recent ef-forts, The Host and In Time, demonstrate his ability to in-fuse his films with thoughtful themes, but, unfortunately, he fails to create engaging plots

or characters. Similarly, Good Kill has some very powerful moments, such as when Tom is commanded to kill inno-cent people; however, his strife away from the military seems clichéd and forced.

We’ve seen soldiers in mov-ies struggle with their relation-ships at home between tours, and we’ve seen the strain in marriages because of PTSD, but using such common themes isn’t the major problem with this story; instead, it’s that every character other than Tom is entirely one-dimensional. They are simply present for exposition, spewing out social criticism, or adding conflict to the plot. Although American Sniper lacked Good Kill’s am-biguity, at least it had strong performances that captured the insides of all its characters. Other than Tom, I’m not sure if the characters even have in-sides. Andrew Niccol is a film-maker with strong ideas, but he cannot seem to express them through characters and plot.

First person shooters are gratuitous and unreal in their gun violence. These video games can be enjoyed like inter-active puzzles, but the horror of Good Kill is that similar activity may be used for mass killings by the American military. They are not blowing up pixels, but the flesh of human beings.

Everyone has a need to find a sense of purpose in what can sometimes seem a meaningless world. Alex Gibney’s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Be-lief, an exposé of the sins of the Church of Scientology, displays this point in almost every mo-ment — whether that be through the founder L. Ron Hubbard’s search for wealth in creating a religion or the fact that Dianet-ics (a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical rela-tionship between the mind and body) caught on with so many baby boomers so fast at the time of Scientology’s inception.

For all his wacko ideas, Hub-bard, a pulp sci-fi writer, under-stood the human condition and how he could cash in on our fears and anxieties. The problem is, the film suggests, that no matter how much time and money Scientolo-gists give to the church, they still remain broken and depressed.

Going Clear has an amaz-ingly ironic title. For Scientol-ogists, the term “Clear” is as-signed to the highest members of the church who have walked their way all the way up “The Bridge to Total Freedom” to become an “operating thetan” (OT). At these superlative stages of OT, one is supposed to be free of any engrams — re-occurring bad memories from the past that are the cause of depression and the reason we can’t realize our full potential.

Gibney’s title is impeccably clever because he shows that the more people go up the ladder, the more dysfunctional and less

clear they actually become. The irony is that the only way to fully go clear is to break free from the restrictions of the church entirely.

If you found these last para-graphs dense with lingo, you have little idea what you’re in for. Going Clear is an emotion-ally powered composition that compactly chronicles Scientol-ogy’s origin in the science-fiction of its founder L. Ron Hubbard all the way to the current corruption under Ben Miscavige’s leadership.

High-profile members who have left the church like Crash director Paul Haggis and senior executive Mike Rinder are inter-viewed and poignantly share the deplorable actions that were done to them and that they did to oth-ers. What makes this film more than just cold visual journalism, though, is the regret expressed by the interviewees, and the pain they now experience, as many of them have been disowned and alienated from their families.

Going Clear is not nearly as artful as the recent Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck in its use of documentary form, but what this film offers is more of an emotion-ally-charged journalism. There is nothing inventive with regards to how the film is put together — an assemblage of talking heads, old interviews, news footage, and sim-plistic visual reenactments — but it serves the educational purpose as it neatly and concisely ex-presses Gibney’s messages.

What makes the film ex-ceptional is how coherently it teaches an enormous amount of information in two very short hours to an audience that could know very little about Scientology.

Before seeing Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, I had little knowledge of Scientology. I came out with an understanding of why Hubbard created the religion and why so many people joined him, but I still don’t understand how any Scientologists will be able to leave the film still devout.

   

12 humour editor Jacey Gibbemail humour@the-peak.ca HUMOUR May 19, 2015

With support for the Conserva-tive party waning across Canada, the prime minister is again under fire for a new Conservative initia-tive: during a press conference last Wednesday, Stephen Harper re-vealed that he had been using the last nine years as leader of the coun-try to help establish a new line of ca-sual, heavy-duty jeans for men who are over 50 and have children.

For months, several political an-alysts have speculated that Harper’s nonsensical, seeming tyrannical actions had an ulterior motive be-hind them, but no one could have predicted that his secret agenda

involved denims that are made sur-prisingly comfortable, without sac-rificing style.

“He’s truly found his calling with DadJeans,” Bill McMasters, a spokesperson for the new cloth-ing line, said at a press conference immediately following the prime minister’s announcement. “Harp-er’s really put everything else on the backburner these last couple of years and it shows. The jean world will never be the same again.”

According to McMasters, Harper was largely inspired by fab-rics he encountered during diplo-matic trips to Syria and Egypt, which at the time drew scrutiny for their lack of transparency and tactfulness.

“Harper’s decisions to visit these countries may have been controversial at the time,” con-tinued McMas-ters, “but you know what isn’t controversial? Denims that

are two per cent Egyptian cot-ton. They feel smoother than a Herb Alpert album.”

Aside from the diplomatic trips, McMasters has also confirmed for Harper that the recent Bill C-51

was less about protecting Canadian citizens and more about preventing jean-hating terrorists from hinder-ing potential sales in the near fu-ture. As well, the muzzling of Cana-dian scientists in recent years has been part of a larger plan to keep Harper’s patented cross-stitching and leg-length-to-waist ratio ahead of the industry curve.

Following his initial an-nouncement, Harper said that he hoped Canadians would understand why the actions were necessary, and promised that the global fashion market “would be all the better for it.”

The launch of DadJeans couldn’t come at a better time for the Prime Minister, as the country’s citizens prepare to head to the polls this October for a federal election. Early reports show that Harper will likely join the 6.6 per cent of Canadians who are currently jobless, but the line of denims could be just the life preserver Harper needs to stay afloat after the inevitable crushing defeat.

“I think we should all be happy for Mr. Harper and his undying efforts to remain employed,” Mc-Masters concluded the press con-ference, “much like a pair of boot-cut DadJeans, Mr. Harper is sturdy,

reliable, and made up of 100 per cent Canadian materials.

“I think the moral of this story is that sometimes, we

have to overlook a bit of po-litical misinformation if the end result is a garment as trustwor-thy as this.”

It’s been a little over a month since Apple unleashed their latest wave of emojis — just enough time for people to forget about the good and return to complaining about the bad. While users can appreciate the increased diversity in skin colours and the addition of several same-sex couple emojis, can we please address some of the noticeable gaps still existent in the emoji spectrum? Take note, Apple.

A taco emoji: If you browse any survey about the world’s most pop-ular foods, you’ll undoubtedly find tacos/Mexican food somewhere on that list. Taco Tuesdays have been

without proper emoji represen-tation for long enough, as well as Cinco de Mayo. At this point, it just feels like Apple are trolling us more than anything.

A cupcake emoji: Nothing would be sweeter than for the next set of emojis to include a cupcake emoji. I’m not even asking for a range of cupcakes — although that would certainly be ideal — but at least one type so I can effectively text someone the next time I see the Criminology students holding a bake sale fundraiser in Blusson Hall.

A laughing nun emoji: We have a chapel emoji, we have an angel emoji, and yet we still don’t have an emoji of a nun laughing be-cause you cracked a delightful yet

appropriate joke in Sunday school. Where are the priorities?

A Klingon battle sword (also known as a Bat’leth) emoji: How awkward is it when

you’re texting a friend about Klingon death rituals and you realize there’s no Bat’leth emoji? If Apple’s going to promote diversity with dozens of more

country flags, the least they could do is remain inclusive to all cultures. It would make me very happy — or as they say in Klingon, It   would   make   me  

very  happy.

Your sassy Aunt Sally emoji: Not all middle-aged sassy aunts are created the same, so why does my iPhone represent them as such? The only sassy aunt emoji available now is a brunette that sort of resembles your Aunt Cheryl, so where’s the blonde one that could stand in for your Aunt Sally?!

A customer who’s never sat-isfied emoji: How hard would it be to create an emoji that looks like a consumer that fails to ever be satisfied with what he or she has, always wanting more? After the most recent update I spent a solid five minutes scanning the emoji keyboard, just hoping I’d find an image of a customer

who’s as thankless as I am, but no such luck.

A noose emoji: I mean, come on, Apple! I’m sick of having to type out the word noose when an emoji of rope tied into one would be so much more convenient. I think it could even prove to be one of the most popular emojis of all time, if you gave it a chance.

13May 19, 2015HUMOUR

Fans and all current members of Steph Miller’s family, rejoice! As of June 1, the on-demand entertain-ment juggernaut Netflix is adding all of the Millers’ personal home movies to its already-teeming viewing library.

“Our subscribers have spo-ken and what they want is quality programming that’s enjoyable for viewers of all ages,” read a press release distributed yesterday morn-ing. “Nostalgia is a powerful thing and we’re excited to be a part of that wonderful emotion. Hopefully this is just the first in many acquisi-tions to bring every family in North America closer to the Millers.”

Following in the footsteps of classic late ‘90s/early 2000s televi-sion shows like Gilmore Girls, Ally McBeal, and Friends, all of the Mill-ers’ home videos will be made avail-able in their entirety and exclusively to Netflix users.

If 19-year-old Stephanie Miller’s name doesn’t ring a bell, here’s what you need to know: the Millers are a quirky suburban family from Mission, BC, where the pace of life moves just a bit slower. Through-out the home videos’ duration, viewers get to experience the ups and downs of modern family life, as well as watch the Millers try to bal-ance their lives outside of the house with their responsibilities at home. Comedy, drama, and coming-of-age lessons combine effortlessly in this heartwarming series of vid-eos taken directly from a box in the Millers’ attic.

News of the streaming ser-vice’s interest in every last clip of Steph’s embarrassing childhood surfaced late last year, but a ques-tion of copyright ownership report-edly prevented Netflix from clos-ing any deals. However, because the Miller clan operates under the strict guidelines of Mr. Miller’s “my house, my rules” policy, it was ul-timately decided that because his money paid for the video camera, the device — and all footage re-corded on it — belonged to him, he was free to make the deal.

At the start of next month, all of the Millers’ favourite home videos will be available for instant viewing, including “Baby’s first steps,” “Piano re-cital (Stephy),” and “Mexico vacation ’99.” Even home mov-ies from the family’s less popu-lar/critically successful years, like “New Years 2010,” will be streaming on Netflix.

“Sorry weeknd plans w/ friends #netflix #millermania,” one Twit-ter user tweeted following the an-nouncement, using the hashtag millermania to imply his excite-ment over Netflix’s latest addition.

“Jus finishd daredevil,” another user tweeted, “almost had 2 go out-side but crisis avertd #millermania.”

Netflix has yet to comment on how much the exclusive streaming rights to the Millers’ personal videos cost, but rivals like Hulu and Ama-zon Prime are surely kicking them-selves at the lost opportunity.

In the meantime, HBO GO has announced that they will begin streaming all of Korban Daniels from Barkerville’s family videos as early as this summer.

“It certainly seems like this is where the

market is heading,” said Tony Stanfield, an expert in mar-keting and technology at SFU. “First streaming services were focused on current shows, then on older shows, followed by debuting original content. It wouldn’t surprise me if in five or 10 years, home video footage occupied a large chunk of the world’s streaming content.”

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14 DIVERSIONS / ETC May 19, 2015

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15May 19, 2015HUMOUR

16 LAST WORD editor-in-chief Max Hillemail eic@the-peak.ca May 19, 2015

Nina Rosario (Kate Blackburn) returns to “el barrio” of Washington Heights after her first year at Stanford University, and her family and neighbours greet her with open arms. The only problem is that she has dropped out after losing her scholarship and doesn’t know how to let everyone know.

Full of catchy rap songs, sharp dancing, and plenty of Latino flavour, this Tony Award-winning musical will capture your heart with its soulful story.

Corner store owner Usnavi (Luc Roderique) in-troduces us to the neighbourhood with the opening musical number, and all the characters soon dance in the streets, setting the upbeat tone of this Dominican-American neighbourhood. Roderique captured the audience’s attention right away with his skilful rap-ping, and the whole cast came together with precise, well-defined movements.

Usnavi — whose name comes from his parents seeing “US Navy” on the side of a ship when they im-migrated to America — wants to return to the Domin-ican Republic to visit his homeland, but he is strug-gling financially. Meanwhile, his precocious cousin encourages him to speak to Vanessa (Elena Juatco) who works at the nearby hair salon instead of just giv-ing her free coffee.

The other salon workers provided some laughs as they gossiped about the neighbourhood, and Abuela Claudia (Sharon Crandall) provided the paciencia y fé (patience and faith) that everyone could use a lit-tle more of. Crandall’s portrayal of the lovable neigh-bourhood grandma was nuanced and genuine as she treated everyone as part of her family.

The main love interest in the show is between Nina and Benny (Chris Sams). They were child-hood friends, and when Nina returns, they quickly become much more than that. Nina’s father (Fran-cisco Trujillo) isn’t pleased because, although Benny works for his taxi company, he isn’t Latino. Her father decides to sell his business in order to pay for her to return to Stanford, leaving Benny unemployed, which causes strife among them all. The chemistry between Nina and Benny was very natural, and they both impressed with their strong vocal performances.

Struggling to figure out where she belongs, Ni-na’s character is relatable and sympathetic in an authentic way. This show was brimming with Latino humour, eye-catching dance moves, and characters that I wanted to get to know better.

Nijinsky’s The Rite of Spring is an iconic modern work of art that has been adapted by ballet companies all over the world since its premiere in 1913. Set to Igor Stravinsky’s famously dissonant score, it was a revolutionary work that caused audience riots and still sparks heated discussions.

Ballet BC’s new work, Rite, takes its inspiration from Nijinsky, but aside from a few audience members who left before it was over, the piece received a much warmer re-ception. I can understand why a few people had to excuse themselves from the theatre during the performance — Emily Molnar’s choreography was set to an original score by Jeremy Schmidt of the rock band Black Mountain, and it was a cacophony of high pitched, piercing, industrial sounds that were, frankly, not easy on the ears.

The eyes, however, were treated to a beautiful, mini-malist set by Bocci creative director Omer Arbel that fea-tured a low hill in one back corner, a large branch in the other, and each of the front corners sloping down in front of the stage. The completely white stage was a stark con-trast to the black costumes of the dancers and added to the post-modern feel of the work.

The black costumes, harsh soundscape, and ominous whispers at the start and finish of this work created a dark, almost nihilistic tone that seemed to oppose the original intent of Nijinsky’s work. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a new interpretation of the work, but simply inspired by it. Other than some similarities in cho-reographic form and the creation of a busy, chaotic stage, I found it hard to draw a connection between this and the original Rite.

The program describes the work as taking place after the original ends, “where the body, mind, and spirit transition.” While I found it hard to reconcile that with what I was watching, I enjoyed the original movement vocabulary, which did pay tribute to the inimitable Nijinsky.

The second half of the program was another work in-spired by The Rite of Spring, Consagración, which was set to Stravinsky’s original score. Gustavo Ramirez Sansano’s choreography also paid tribute to Nijinsky, but used that spirit to interpret the transformation and exhilaration of puberty, as described in the program notes.

With large upside-down pyramids of black fabric strips creating unique lighting effects, the dancers began this piece in white tunics and moved in synch with sharp, optimistic energy. They gradually removed the tunics to end the piece in underwear, and two of the male dancers performed an emotionally charged pas de deux which left the house rapt.

Up close and personal on the Cultch stage, the 605 Col-lective danced around, between, over, and under us as we were immersed in their performance.

This experimental work had the dancers wearing head-phones while singing or speaking to us about various top-ics, such as the Milky Way galaxy. It was very interesting to see how audience members reacted to the dancers as they repeated a sequence of movements and we slowly began to mimic them. Throughout the entire show, there seemed to be a collective consciousness at work.

If you weren’t interested in standing on the Cultch stage for most of the performance, there were cheaper bal-cony seats available where you could comfortably watch the action unfold below. While I had been apprehensive about joining the group on the stage, I was glad that I wasn’t stuck in the balcony where I wouldn’t have been able to experience the full effect of this work.

As the dancers moved through us, hands gently touched backs to signal their presence and they gradually came together, moving as a unit and sub-tly carving out an open space in the centre of the stage. They took turns placing their headphones on an audience member who would timidly copy them by singing what they heard.

After we all felt a bit more comfortable on stage, the group began walking over each other, holding audi-ence members’ hands for support. Their choreography was impressive as they climbed over each other mak-ing their way to the back wall where they pressed one dancer straight up and brought a group of us to hold up our hands as she gently laid down on top of the crowd. Another beautiful moment was when she stood on the shoulders of two others and they moved her legs, as if she was walking on air.

After what felt like a very short time, we were guided to stand along the back wall behind the dancers who gradually led us to our seats, where a pair of headphones were waiting for us. Now it was the six dancers’ turn to use the entire space of the stage, performing their sweeping, athletic choreography. A microphone at the front of the stage broadcasted into our headphones as the dancers took turns telling us secrets about each other and talking about sensory experiences.

This collaboration between the 605 Collective and Theatre Replacement is an innovative project exploring the senses and the boundary between audience mem-ber and performer. That relationship was blurred many times throughout the performance, and it was thrilling to be a part of their creation.