As pages in the calendar flip, many students are settling in for another semester. VIU’s gymnasium fills with resolution-motivated students, looking to sweat off the stress. For those looking for a more interesting way to beat the holiday bulge, VIU’s campus rec has just the ticket.
This January, you could find yourself snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or rock climbing. Usually planned for the weekend, these incredible activities won’t interrupt your studies. If January 13 doesn’t work for you, a rock climbing shuttle is offered weekly until March--it looks like your Tuesday ...
By contributor Drew McLachlan
The Gong Show is an annual tradition for the Satyr Players, VIU’s theatre club. The show invites VIU students to take the stage and show their talents. Audience members can cheer or heckle the performers, who will be gonged off the stage if they receive too many boos. Aside from a few unsuspecting non-theatre students, a majority of these acts are either improvised on the spot or designed to irritate the audience. This year’s Gong Show was held on November 28 in the Malaspina Theatre.
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By contributor Jennifer Garceau
The fruits of wandering through secondhand bookstores paid off recently when I found a wonderfully vintage 1976 edition of Margaret Atwood’s The Circle Game.
When I read this seven part poem I was moved in a way I wasn’t the first time I came across it in my youth. Relating it to my life has allowed me to read The Circle Game and see a juxtaposition of individualism vs. altruism, childhood vs. adulthood and the cycle of the indoctrination of gender scripts that I never could have understood then.
Immediately within Part I of the poem there is a ...
Just in time for the holidays, VIU's Art department is having their annual Student Art Sale. Over 20 artists will be selling their artwork on December 3 from 10 am to 5 pm on the second floor of building 325.
Chantelle Delage, President of VIU’s Arts club, says the sale is a good opportunity for the students to promote themselves as an artist and get experience with showcasing.
“People come from all over to support students,” she says. “I highly recommend being a part of it if you’re in any year of the visual arts or graphic design program.”
The variety of works for sale ranges ...
By contributor Drew McLachlan
Melophobia, a fear of music, is exactly what Kentucky five-piece Cage the Elephant needed coming out of their last release. Thank You, Happy Birthday, put out in 2011, transparently borrowed from larger alternative rock acts like The Pixies and Arctic Monkeys. Though Thank You, Happy Birthday had its moments, it was a far cry from the energetic, cacophonous clusterfuck that made fans fall in love with Cage the Elephant’s self-titled debut. It was a well-made album, though it was an album that could have been made just as well by any one of their ...
You do not overlook Valentina Cardinalli in a crowd. Wearing either a faux fur leopard jacket, a bright yellow and purple felt cloak, or at least a feeler headdress, she never just stands in the background or sits in the audience. She is the one painting a canvas or chalking the sidewalk, accompanying live instrumental music with spoken word or announcing the next performer. Ok, maybe when there is no event on, she will sit down at a table in a café, but she will take out her scrapbook and make a collage; write down ideas on film theory; or try to figure out how to support a ...
When I opened the door, there was the rat. I don’t remember why I was going to the mudroom at that moment, but there I was and there it was. For the avoidance of doubt, that rat was dead. I assumed my “little fit” position, tiptoe on one foot with the other drawn up in an awkward sort of crane position, arms drawn to my chest, like the Karate Kid’s cowardly cousin. There may have been vocalizations. Had the rat shown the least sign of animation, the picture would have looked entirely different. Naturally, I fled and my boyfriend stepped in to deal with it. Thankfully, there were no ...
Photos by Chantelle Spicer
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By contributor Philip Gordon
{sequitur} Imagine the following: you’re at home, lying in your bed, propped up slightly on the pillows. You pick up a book that’s lying beside you and open it. But… what’s this? Inside the book there are… words! What’s more, as you begin to look closely, you realize the words are made of… letters? And the letters are made of… lines? And then suddenly you realize that everything in this book is an assemblage of some strange visual system of informational representation—there are things this book is trying to tell you. And so you have no choice but to read. ...
By contributor Shaleeta Harper
I visited Two Chefs Affair on the weekend with a friend, where we enjoyed people-watching at a table overlooking Commercial St. The colourful and eclectic artwork provoked a lengthy conversation, though overall it seemed like a function-over-form establishment. The restaurant was inspired by romance, but isn’t romantic itself. It’s a breakfast and lunch establishment, not at all about candlelit dinners.
Two Chefs Affair occupies a cozy nook, like many of the restaurants downtown. We were both amused at some of the romantic/poetic menu options, but I’m ...
By contributor Jennifer Cox
I love everything about Christmas: the bright lights that my neighbours string along rooflines and in hedges, the nativity scenes and inflatable Santas that fill the yards, the carols in the shopping malls, and the blitz of parties and cookie exchanges around my community. But every year, as I flip my calendar to December, I have to brace myself against the pressure to open up my wallet and swap my limited resources for the elusive perfect gift. As malls ramp up for the season with Black Friday sales and holiday displays, the pressure mounts and my feelings ...
By contributor Drew McLachlan
While VIU’s Sociology Students’ Union (VIUSSU) may have flown under the radar for the past few years, new executive director Carly Eldstrom is bringing the club back on course. Most recently, VIUSSU commissioned their own custom underwear, a first for any club on campus.
“Lots of clubs sell t-shirts,” Eldstrom said, “but just like in everything we do, we wanted to be a little different. We had club meetings and discussed the possibilities of scarves, coffee mugs, and other merchandise. We settled on underwear because it appealed to everyone.”
In ...
“The event started out as a couple people in a living room with a camera taped to a TV. Now, after the eighth event, the group has raised upwards of $2.4 million.”
Victoria-based online sketch-comedy group LoadingReadyRun held their eighth annual Desert Bus for Hope online charity gaming marathon.
The marathon, founded by the group in 2007, consists of volunteers playing the video game Desert Bus for days on end, streaming the action online, while tens of thousands of people watch via live stream.
The marathon raises funds by charging for playing time by the hour. People ...
The Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services has endorsed students’ unions’ request for increased post-secondary funding.
The Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia (CFS-BC), appeared before the committee to make the case for increased government help for student funding in BC.
VIU Students’ Union organizer and advocacy representative Patrick Barbosa said they were asking for tuition fee reduction, the elimination of interest on student loans, increased per-student funding for colleges and universities, and the creation of an upfront needs-based grant ...
By contributor Molly Barrieau
By the New Year, a large patch of land outside VIU’s Shq’apthut: A Gathering Place will have two new towering additions.
Cedar logs donated by Timberwest Forest Corp. arrived from the west coast of Vancouver Island in May 2014. Carving began in the summer months.
The totem poles, as many students can see for themselves, are almost finished the carving process, under a tent near Shq’apthut on Nanaimo’s campus.
However, the anticipated unveiling of the totem poles has been delayed until 2015, while the carvers finish the two totem poles, and the ...
It’s that time of year again: Season of Flavour. As the days grow cold and dark, we’re seized by the compulsion to take a perfectly good flavouring—one that goes hand in hand with traditional revelry and feasting—and blast it all over the floors and ceilings, into our noses, and down our gullets.
Consider the humble pumpkin. It has been on the scene since September. Pumpkin spice to be clear: those spices associated with cooking pumpkin like molasses, allspice, and ginger. Delightful with pumpkin, yes, but now ubiquitous—everywhere you turn, pumpkin spice. Once the nostalgia-invoking ...
“First responders reporting from retail stores all across the nation said the record-breaking post-Thanksgiving shopping spree carnage began as early as midnight on Friday, when 13 million shoppers were reportedly trampled, pummeled, burned, stabbed...”
In the United States this weekend, over 42 million are dead in what’s being called the bloodiest Black Friday weekend on record, according to America’s Finest News Source, The Onio—
Oh darn it. Well, fake news sources aside, American Black Friday has always been notorious for crowds, chaos, and contusions—so much that somebody ...
The VIU men’s volleyball team wrapped up the first half of the 2014-2015 Pacwest season with a weekend sweep over the Columbia Bible College Bearcats on November 28 and 29 in Abbotsford. The Mariners picked the 3-1 victory on Friday, November 28. The two teams met again for a rematch the following day. Tied 2-2 after four sets, the match went to a fifth and deciding set, where the Mariners picked up the victory for the second straight day.
A week earlier, the Mariners split two games against the top team in the Pacwest, the Douglas College Royals. The Mariners picked up the win ...
As the calendar turns over to December and the VIJHL season hovers around the halfway point, there is still plenty of hockey to be played. But it’s starting to look like the Comox Valley Glacier Kings and Nanaimo Buccaneers are likely to meet in the first round of the playoffs.
The two teams sit second and third respectively in the league’s North Division. The Campbell River Storm are well ahead in first place in the division, while the Oceanside Generals sit a massive 20 points out of a playoff spot. But the race between the two clubs for home ice advantage in the playoffs is ...
Every time the Nanaimo Clippers suffer a setback, they bounce back. This setback saw the Clippers drop back-to-back games to the Victoria Grizzlies.
On Wednesday, November 19, the Clippers fell behind early in the second, allowing Victoria to take a 4-2 lead heading into the third period. The Clippers got goals from Jake Jackson and Brendan Taylor in the third period to tie the game at 4-4. But a late power play goal by Zach Dixon allowed the Grizzlies to pick up the 5-4 victory.
The two teams faced off again two nights later in a game that ended in an eerily similar fashion. ...
The VIU Mariners’ women’s basketball team will take a 5-2 record into the holiday break, thanks to back-to-back wins on the team’s last road trip of 2014. The team traveled to the mainland for games November 21 and 22. On Friday, November 21, the Mariners took on the winless Columbia Bible College Bearcats.
The Mariners opened the game strong, taking a 14-7 lead after the first quarter. In the second quarter, VIU continued to take the game to the Bearcats, opening up a 31-22 lead at the half. The Mariners did a good job of not letting the Bearcats come back in the second half, as VIU ...
After a rough start to the PacWest season, the Mariners ended the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule on a high note. The Mariners picked up back-to-back wins against both the Douglas College Royals and the Columbia Bible College Bearcats. The four consecutive victories moved the Mariners’ record to 6-6 on the season. The Mariners lost their first four games of the season due to a league sanction for an ineligible player.
The Mariners hosted the Douglas College Royals November 21 and 22. In the first meeting between the two teams, the Mariners took the lead early, winning the ...
The VIU Mariners’ men’s basketball team has yet to suffer a setback during regular season play. The Mariners enter the winter break with a perfect 7-0 record and have outscored their opponents by 142 points over those seven games. The team’s average margin of victory over the first seven games of the season is 20 points.
The Mariners’ last two games before the winter break were on the road against the Columbia Bible College Bearcats and the Kwantlen Eagles and November 21 and 22. The Mariners picked up their most dominating win of the season against the Bearcats on November 21. ...
By contributor Dr. Gordon Hak
Identity, art, war, history, memorials, memory, and migration are at the heart of a forthcoming Arts and Humanities Colloquium presentation by English professor Terri Doughty and Dr. Justin McGrail.
The VIU professors began taking groups of students to Wrocław, Poland, in 2012. By teaching credit courses in Poland, their goal was to enrich the educational experience of VIU students. “It is a wonderful opportunity for students to learn through hands-on study how literature, art, history, and politics shape identity,” says Doughty. “It’s also a chance ...
