The Nanaimo Museum is now hosting their annual Lantern Tours.
This hour and a half walking tour of downtown Nanaimo introduces people to some of Nanaimo’s darker history.
In its second year, starting at the Museum, the tour will take you from location to location with historical highlights such as axe murders, ghost sightings, and public hangings.
Each stop is supplemented with archival photos showing what these places looked like during the time of historical significance, and in some cases the people involved.
Interpretation Curator Aimee Greenaway said the tours ...
Fall being what it is, the season of change, things ramp down on their cooling path to wintertime. There’s a lot of loss in the season.
The trees lose their leaves. We harvest the last of the garden’s bounty and then prepare the soil to rest until spring. Flowers go to seed and die back, also at rest. Almost overnight it feels like the sun just goes away; it’s either behind a blanket of clouds in the pouring rain, or spends the day tucked inside a pocket of fog that swirls around the harbour, undulating up and down the hill. Sometimes, at the top of campus, it seems to lay right atop ...
Vancouver is now the third city in Canada to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces due to their lack of regulation and research. Though it’s hard to believe that e-cigarettes could be stuffed with more harmful chemicals and carcinogens than a regular cigarette, like anything else that’s new, there’s policy and study hoops to jump through before they’re considered safe for the market.
Personally, I think using e-cigarettes as a tool for quitting smoking is brilliant. For long-term use, only time and analysis will answer questions regarding their safety. In this day and age, we ...
By contributor Johnny Blakeborough
The longest-running short film festival on Vancouver Island, the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival (VISFF), is now accepting submissions for this year’s event—to be screened at Vancouver Island University’s Malaspina Theatre in Nanaimo—for three shows on February 6 and 7, 2015.
The submission deadline is November 1. Films in all genres with a run time of 12 minutes or less (including credits) are accepted. Filmmakers with all levels of experience are encouraged to enter.
The VISFF is an annual event that brings filmmakers and filmgoers ...
Open Mic is the reason for a student pub to stay open their only late night of the week, and fuels a Sunday afternoon of pure blues jamming at an established downtown club. Whether you are drawn to the charming shabbiness of a cast-away bar or prefer the youthful vibe of a hip café, the tradition of sharing live music brings musicians and fans to venues of every kind. You can listen to the line-up of other artists all night while waiting for your turn, or practice and gain your courage for as long as you want in front of a crowd of three. Whatever the drive is for musicians to gather and ...
By contributor Spencer Wilson
This is another one of those films—the kind where they take two well-known, straight actors and put them in a same-sex relationship with each other. On the surface, you’d think a marriage between Alfred Molina and John Lithgow would make for a wonderful romantic story. Molina and Lithgow are close friends off-screen and demonstrate wonderful on-screen chemistry, but the film falls flat and shadows what few good qualities it has.
Ben (Lithgow) and George (Molina) have been in a relationship for 39 years and are finally getting married. We open to a ...
Op-ed by Contributor Philip Gordon
Those who are abreast of the latest in technosocial fervour (which seems to be everyone these days) might have heard of Ello, a new social media site which has recently become available in its beta stage by way of invite only. Ello describes itself as “a simple, beautiful, and ad-free social network created by a small group of artists and designers.” The platform boasts a degree of technological purity that has gotten it a lot of press, asserting that the owners “don’t sell ads” and “[won’t] sell data about [its users] to third parties.” There’s a ...
By Contributor Philip Gordon
Air Carnation, Guadlupe Muro’s debut novel, is a trans-genre work that blurs the lines between creative mediums of all types in its exploration of individuality, love, and what it means to be a creative person. Beginning with diary-entry style non-fiction, and travelling on through song-like verse, allegorical and autobiographical fiction, and always tinted through the lens of emotional prose poetry, Air Carnation is a captivating journey through human growth and the sense of self—it is a book that feels like the womanhood of its author condensed in a ...
Contributor Chantelle Spicer shows Nanaimo's broader vision of sustainability.
Sustainability is a real buzzword right now, flying around many communities, industries, and our own university. It touches everyday life when we look at waste reduction, housing, and timber. It is at the heart of many movements, including one that happened recently in our own city.
The United Nations met on September 23 in New York City to discuss the drastic state of climate trends around the globe. It was not only the leaders of nations converging in New York City though. On September 21, they were ...
Small pulsating areas of green and blue connected by shimmering lines create semi-opaque fields that cover my iPhone screen. Tapping one of the active spots on the map, I bring up details of the nearest portal, The Mountie Rides In. Its resonators must be recharged to support the control field I’ve established. Back at 100 percent after a few injections of Exotic Matter, I set my sights on the portal across the street. The game is all around me—I am in the game. This is Ingress.
There is an epic battle in the streets of Nanaimo—Region NR13-Romeo-04—and it’s happening right under your ...
Contributor Philip Gordon gives us an unconventional walk through Word Vancouver
September 28, 5:45 am; Departure Bay Ferry Terminal, Nanaimo.
My friend, Antony Stevens (The Navigator’s web content editor), and I just paid the cab driver who dropped us off, the first face in our long day’s journey through Word Vancouver, Western Canada’s largest celebration of literacy and reading. As we made our way into the ferry terminal, Antony, who was still fighting off a combination of cold and flu, muffled a cough into his sleeve.
“You okay, man?” I asked. He nodded.
“Yeah, I’m fine, ...
By contributor Elaine Lay. Elaine is a new Canadian, born and raised mostly in the Philippines. She graduated Dalhousie University a year ago with a B.A. in English, minor in Classics, and is now taking Creative Writing at VIU. The poem was originally titled The Truth and was inspired by Audiomachine’s soundtrack of the same name, as well as a vague mishmash of classical music impressions, perhaps most notably Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. It all started when Emily Dickinson’s poem Tell All the Truth started having a dialogue with audiomachine’s The Truth in her head.
Point
Tell ...
By contributor Emery Konst. Emery is an English major focusing on fiction and poetry. Besides reading and writing in her hammock, she enjoys annoying the neighbors with her loud music. Her poem, Fire...,was forged from a dream about mountain rock, dawning sky, and an eternal fire.
Fire...
burning embers crackle upon slabs of cold stone
its fiery pulse stationed at your feet
toes curl and stretch in the glowing warmth
your vision hints hues of scarlet within amber horizons
as rays of a mourning sun shine through your eyes
Read this:
Book review: Motherland ...
By contributor Brennan Hinchsliff
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By contributor Drew McLachlan
Over 40 people joined the horde on September 14 for the Nanaimo Zombie Walk. Clad in undead makeup, the group walked through downtown, from Port Place Mall to Maffeo Sutton park.
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This past summer, thanks to the Seattle Mariners’ new-found success, I became obsessed with baseball. I’ve always enjoyed baseball, but when the team you cheer for is supremely untalented and frustrating, you don’t watch the games very closely for sanity’s sake. As the summer went on, I watched more and more games, and I started to notice something. Baseball has never been the most thrilling sport. With a lot of down time between action and sparse physical contact, it doesn’t exactly appeal to the high-octane sports fan. But this year it seemed like the games were taking longer than they ...
The Nanaimo Clippers started their 2014-2015 British Columbia Hockey League season on a rough note Saturday, September 20. The Clippers got off to a slow start at the Bauer BCHL showcase, losing to the Prince George Spruce Kings by a final score of 6-4.
The game was scoreless until late in the first period when Taylor Allen was able to jam the puck past Clippers goaltender Guilaume Decelles to give the Spruce Kings a 1-0 lead. Prince George expanded their lead at 7:31 in the second period. This time it was Justin Rai who beat Decelles to give the Spruce Kings a 2-0 lead. Six minutes ...
The VI Raiders had a rough weekend, losing to the Langley Rams 53-14 on Saturday, September 20 in Langley. The loss drops the Raiders’ record to 3-5 in the season with just two games remaining.
The game was scoreless through the first half, before a rushing touchdown put the Rams up 7-0 early in the second quarter. Then after a 55 yard Langley punt return, the Rams connected for another touchdown to take a 14-0 lead. The Raiders got on the board with a touchdown of their own with just 3 minutes left in the half to cut the lead to 14-7. But the Raiders just couldn’t stop the Rams’ ...
The VIU Mariners’ women’s soccer team picked up a big win in PacWest action on Saturday, September 20. The Mariners picked up a clutch 2-0 victory on the mainland against the Langara Falcons. The victory improved the Mariners’ record to 4-2 on the season. With the victory, the Mariners avenged their 1-0 defeat to Langara at the Mariners September 6 home opener.
The victory over Langara vaults the Mariners ahead of the Falcons in the standings. The Mariners now sit in sole possession of second place in the six-team PacWest. VIU now has 12 points on the season, 2 points ahead of ...
The VIU Mariners’ men’s soccer team has gotten off to a scorching start to the PacWest soccer season. The team has yet to lose a game during the season and has received some national attention for their strong play.
The latest victory for the Mariners came on the road Saturday, September 20. The Mariners traveled to the mainland and came away with a hard-fought 2-0 win over host team Langara Falcons.
The victory over Langara is the latest win on the team’s current unbeaten streak. The Mariners have won five of six games they’ve played this season. The only game the Mariners haven’t ...
The Nanaimo Buccaneers are off to a solid start in the first month of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League (VIJHL). The team came from behind with a 6-3 win over the Peninsula Panthers on September 19 in North Saanich, which moved Nanaimo to 4-1-0-1 in the young season.
Nanaimo trailed 3-2 going into the third period against the Panthers. But at 8:54, David Osbourne tied the game for Nanaimo at 3-3. Later in the third period, the Buccaneers took the lead 4-3 on a goal by Carter Turnbull, his second goal in as many games. Just a minute later, Nolan Richardson scored a powerplay ...
By contributor Drew McLachlan
VIU’s growing number of clubs offer students a chance to share their interests, spread awareness, and meet new people. A selection of the university’s 50 clubs and unions assembled in the upper cafeteria on September 17 for the VIU Students’ Union’s annual Club Fair, showing students what they have to offer. For those who couldn’t make it, The Navigator was there to speak with some of the new and returning clubs.
One of VIU’s most popular clubs is Solutions, a group that aims to support sustainability projects on campus and in the larger community, ...
VIU ResLife hopes that their new weekly barbecue will keep students safe before drinking and help create ties within the campus community.
The newly implemented project is offering beef and vegetarian burgers every Thursday to coincide with the Students’ Union Pub’s later hours. Organizers for the new event hope that students will take advantage of a nutritious meal before drinking.
“The $20 needed for the project is coming from the Residence Life department’s budget, but I can see it expanding as we add more to the event,” ResLife coordinator Kaleb Woldeamanuel ...
