UThe Ubyssey | October 5th, 2007� Culture

correctionsIn the Sept. 25 issue of the Ubyssey (“Time for an interreligious space on campus?” Culture pg. 8), it was errone-ously reported that the student group Campus for Christ had been “harass-ing students to convert.” This was a result of a miscommunication with sources for the article. The Ubyssey sincerely regrets the error.

On the cover of the Oct. 2 issue of the Ubyssey, photographer Goh Iromoto’s name was misspelled. The Ubyssey regrets the error.

On the centre spread the Oct. 2 issue of the Ubyssey, illustrator Michael Bround’s name was misspelled. The Ubyssey regrets the error.

CalendarOCTOber 5st ThrOUgh OCTOber 11th

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sun7

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thur11

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wed10

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mon8

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Vol. LXXXIX No10October 5th, �007

editorial board

coordinating editor Champagne Choquer coordinating@ubyssey.bc.ca

news editors Brandon adams & Boris KorBy news@ubyssey.bc.ca

culture editor paul BuCCi culture@ubyssey.bc.ca

sports editor Jordan Chittley sports@ubyssey.bc.ca

features/national editor matthew JewKes features@ubyssey.bc.ca

photo editor oKer Chen photos@ubyssey.bc.ca

production manager Kellan higgins production@ubyssey.bc.ca

copy/letters/research levi Barnett feedback@ubyssey.bc.ca

volunteer coordinator humaira hamid volunteers@ubyssey.bc.ca

webmaster Joe rayment webmaster@ubyssey.bc.ca

The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Tuesday and Friday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democrati-cally run student organisation, and all students are encouraged to participate.

Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publica-tions Society.

The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles.

Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publica-tion) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions. ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be done by phone. “Perspec-tives” are opinion pieces over 300 words but under 750 words and are run according to space. “Freestyles” are opinion pieces written by Ubyssey staff members. Priority will be given to letters and perspec-tives over freestyles unless the latter is time sensitive. Opinion pieces will not be run until the identity of the writer has been verified. The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clar-ity. All letters must be received by 12 noon the day before intended publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff.

It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertise-ment or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be respon-sible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.

edITOrIal OFFICeroom 24, student Union building6138 student Union boulevardVancouver, bC V6T 1Z1tel: 604-822-2301fax: 604-822-9279web: www.ubyssey.bc.cae-mail: feedback@ubyssey.bc.ca

bUsIness OFFICeroom 23, student Union buildingadvertising: 604-822-1654 business office: 604-822-6681fax: 604-822-1658e-mail: advertising@ubyssey.bc.ca

business manager Fernie Pereiraad traffic Jesse Marchandad design Michael Bround

Stephanie Taylor initiated the Ubyssey’s first lemon puckering contest along with Ce-lestian Rince. They puckered so much that they turned into Matt Hayles and Sabrina Marchand, respectively. Mike Fuller found this so revolting that he hid behind Chris Craxton, only to have apples shoved into his mouth by none other than Anna Tidlund. This made Anant Prabhakar scream with delight and jump over the entwined bodies of Marie Burgoyne, Jacob McNeil and Eddie Rothschild. Out of nowhere Dan Corbett fell on top of an Easter lily of the subspecies Boris Korby. Brandon Adams came along and skipped among the flowers while serenading Oker Chen and Champagne Choquer with his rendition of “Baby Got Back.” This horrible spectacle interrupted the amour-ous embraces of Levi Barnett and Matthew Jewkes. They smacked each other angrily but accidentally hit Kellan Higgins instead, which inadvertently caused a spontane-ous production of “Much Ado About the Importance of Being Claudia Li.” James John shouted, “serenity now!” before engaging in feats of strength with Trevor Melanson and Goh Iromoto. Jordan Chittley began airing his grievances to Shun Endo, while Paul Bucci mentioned to Isabel Ferreras who attractive he thought David Zhang was look-ing that night. Julia Kang subsequently kidnapped Humaira Hamid and fashioned her a paper dress out of old issues of the Ubyssey.

editorial graphic Michael Bround front cover Oker Chen, Boris Korby, Kellan Higginsimage of Chris Ciezki

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UThe Ubyssey

What: ‘The Host’ film screeningWhere: Norm Theatre (SUB)Time: 9pm, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.

What: UBC visual art faculty exhibitWhere: AMS Art Gallery (SUB)Time: 12-9pmEnjoy some amazing art from UBC’s finest

What: How(e) Sound Where: BC Museum of MiningTime: 2pm

What: The CureWhere: GM PlaceTime: 7:30pmCost: $29.50-69.50

What: Food & Feasting lecture w/ Don Genova and Ira NadelWhere: UBC Robson SquareTime: 6-7pm

by Isabel Ferreras

Culture Staff

What’s better than free beer, a night in the sack with ScarJo, and puppies combined?

Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows.

And no, I don’t mean that the content is fantastic, because I haven’t heard the album. Rather, it’s how you access the music that makes it so amazing. Here’s a brief look at how it’s going to work.

On Wednesday, October 10th, In Rainbows will be

released online, at www.inrainbows.com. You may choose exactly what you want to pay for the al-bum. If you want to pay $350, you are free to. If you are short on cash, you may download it for nothing at all (on top of the imple-mented 91-cent administration charge).

For those looking to pur-chase the album in physical form, Radiohead has made a box set which you can pre-or-der online today, at the price of approximately $85. It con-tains the album on both CD and 2x12 inch heavyweight vinyl. It also comes with an 8 track CD (not available for download) that has digital pho-tos and artwork. The disc box itself contains lyric booklets and more artwork. The entire package is enclosed in a hard-back book and slipcase.

By implementing this method of distribution, refus-ing to hand out advance copies of the album to journalists, and giving such short notice (first announced on October 1st), Radiohead is preventing piracy and leaks. Why leak the album when you can get it for free (if you want) straight from the web?

What does this say about the future of music? This isn’t the first time the world has seen an artist give their music away for free. Take Prince, for example. On July 15th, 2007, he released his album Planet Earth for free along with the

£3 purchase of a popular UK tabloid, The Daily Mail. By cir-culating his album so widely (three million copies picked up on the 15th alone), he garnered many a new fan, and when the time came, he booked 21 sold-out shows in London. It was indeed a brilliant ploy, and perhaps Radiohead is headed in the same direction. Artists are discovering again that the real money from the music in-dustry comes from live shows, and not record sales.

It is indeed an astounding move. What repercussions will this revolution in music distribution entail? Will this spell the end of record stores? What will happen to HMV? Virgin Records? If Radiohead’s briliant marketing strategy becomes successful, and other artists want to cash in on the free music, such stores will become obsolete.

Get your credit card ready: on Wednesday, October 10th, In Rainbows will become avail-able to the masses. Judging by Radiohead’s track record as one of the greatest bands in modern music, this album should blow us all away. U

Radiohead to give away album for free

What: The Band’s Visit—hit movie from Cannes Film Festival about an Egyptian band lost in the Israeli desertWhere: Empire Granville Theatre 7Time: 1pm

What: Perpetual-motion Inventors MeetWhere: Ariel Cafe (73 Kingsway) Time: Sept 8, Midnight Amateur inventors are invited to share ideas

Culture �October 5th, 2007 | UThe Ubyssey

UThe UbysseyNews | sports | Culture | Features

by Stephanie Findlay

Culture Staff

The HeyDJ! event last Tuesday night at the Pit was declared “a raging success”by CiTR promo-tions head Maxwell Maxwell.

DJ Jon Root took away first prize, with Sleepyhead coming in second, and SWAPTION third. Winners were given swag from Beatstreet and gleaming gold t-shirts.

“I’m so happy. I’m too drunk,” slurred winner DJ Jon Root.

Despite taking second, Sleepy-head garnered special praise.

Winner DJ Jon Root acknowl-edged that “if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

“Props to Sachin, he was working with vinyls… amazing, amazing, guy,” said CiTR presi-

dent Victoria Cruz. “All the DJ’s were great. All were nice guys havin’ a ball.”

“This exceeded expecta-tions,” said Maxwell, “I’m still kind of in awe of the fact that we succeeded.”

DJ SWAPTION wasn’t. “I’m not that surprised. There’s lots of DJ’s here and you can get your friends out. It’s a really good idea.”

With two-dollar beers, eight-dollar pitchers, and eight pumped performers the crowd was dancing, clapping, chanting and crowd surfing.

“Every one of these DJs is better than the regular ones on Wednesday,” said one guy to his friend.

“That was sick, you fuckin’ killed it dawg,” bellowed one of DJ Drizzle’s friends, “I was mackin’ on this girl with your music!”

Cruz said, “we just wanted to have a fun piece of shit, student run event. And people were all over it! “

The 400 person turnout at HeyDJ! was nearly double the anticipated number. In the wake of HeyDJ!’s success, CiTR plans

to put more events on at the Pit, an initiative to increase student involvement on campus.

“I think people are really hungry for something to do on campus,” said Maxwell. “Instead of having to do this clubbers com-mute, sit in a bus with a bunch of drunk people an hour each way, in order to have fun.”

Students fund CiTR’s $140, 000 budget through the AMS, with minor contributions from private donations and fundraisers.

“The students are paying for the vast majority of CiTR and so the students really should be en-joying what we have to offer, and we have a lot to offer,” empha-sised Maxwell. “When I pay for something, I want to make sure I get my money’s worth.

“We are going to take what the Pit normally offers, take it a little beyond that, to bring in some new people.”

Next time CiTR envisions hip DJs, cheap beer, and more of the same fresh crowd that came to HeyDJ!.

“One-dollar beers would be great,” said Cruz. “But I think that’s illegal.” U

Even in the depths of the Pit, these four sweaty dancers can find happiness.

DJ Jon Root is That DJ!

Go to raging parties.Write for Culture.

culture@ubyssey.bc.ca

Oker Chen PhOtOS / the UbySSey

“That was sick, you fuckin’ killed it dawg...I was mackin’ on this girl with your music!

dJ drizzle’S FriendS

UThe Ubyssey | October 5th, 2007� Culture

Simply Red

Stay

Listening to Simply Red’s 11th album Stay makes you wonder where they have been for all these years. Old fans will not be disappointed with the album, but the album is also great for new fans. The style of music, as ever, is varied: pop and rock to romantic ballads, though the band is still able to sustain that fine balance between modern pop and classic instrumental music. I was privileged enough to see the band perform earlier this year and songs from Stay were as popular as their old classics. The bands motion is shown through their lyrics. Every word is carefully thought out, making it a truly special album every time.

—Earle Laura

doloReS o’RioRdan aRe you liStening?

O’Riordan from The Cranber-ries released her first album Are You Listening in May of this year. It is a deeply personal album about her experiences, both positive and negative, since she left the band four years ago. These experiences are encapsulated through a series of deep metaphors: O’Riordan as a “Black Widow” after her mother’s death to can-cer, and the birth of her third child, the “Apple of My Eye”. Considering the trademark of The Cranberries is O’Riordan’s clear and striking voice, fans of The Cranberries will not be disappointed!

—Earle Laura

UThe UbysseyNew and relevant to the students of the University of british Columbia

News | sports | Culture | Features

UThe UbysseyNews | sports | Culture | Features

by paul bucci

Culture Editor

Let’s say you’re traipsing about the end of Davie Street, hungry but feeling like it’s about time for a treat. A real meal. Some-thing classy.

You come upon a giant stone-wall building chock full of beau-tiful people drinking expensive wine and think, “this might be a little rich for my blood.”

But you’re adventurous, so you saunter up to the menu posted. The Macaroni Grill, it reads, and boasts pasta plat-ters from about $12. Pretty low. Steaks for less than the Keg. Not Spaghetti Factory low, but you get it to dine in a much nicer setting.

The decision is made. You walk to the doors, passing the valet. A well-dressed young man with thick, dark, greased-back hair comes down the stairs with a cigarette in hand. Che c’è di nuovo, amico!

A prissy young lady greets you at the door and leads you

into the dining room, framed by intricately carved moulding and embossed wallpaper. Pleasant conversation wafts across the high-ceilinged room.

Your server, dressed in a smart shirt with a classy tie, ar-rives and grabs the crayons on your table, writing her name on the edge.

“Hello, my name is Kim, and I’ll be your server today. Let me tell you about our specials...wine list...merlot...”

Perhaps you’re like me. Per-haps a giant smile creeps across your face and you begin giggling like a madman the minute she walks away.

And if you’re like me, you draw your friends as giant Trans-formers, allowing the expensive wine your jackass friend insists on drinking to rest on an angry laser-eyed Megatron.

By the end of the night, you’ll have had a good laugh, a decent meal, and will walk away not-too-heavy in the stomach and not-too-light in the wallet.

Buonissimo, squisito! U

Get your classy derrière to the Macaroni Grill

Kanye WeSt gRaduation

It needs to be said, “Stronger” is an awesome song, but its success must be considered in the context of the zeitgeist Daft Punk became this summer, and that West is lightning rod for at-tention, rather than any musical talent. The rest of the album is pure Kanye: innovative, ironic, a slap in the face to rap music. But with such a downtempo anti-club, anti-rap album, com-plete with cameo from Coldplay, the question worth asking is, does West not care about black people, or is he breaking old, tired stereotypes?

—James Johnson

hi-fidelity

hi-fidelitycoordinated by james johnson

Wil

by decembeR

By December is a stun-ning mix of acoustic folk and rock. The album does what most fail to achieve: provide an array of songs with a different feel to every track. With the combination of Wil’s incred-ible voice and passionate lyrics, there’s not much to hate—un-less, of course, the mainstays on your iPod are Metallica and Radiohead. Don’t miss “Tight Fist” and “Don’t Let Me Down”. They’re perfect for those rainy Sunday mornings or chill nights at home.

—Alesha Porisky

GE T

Y O U R S

* * * *

WRITE!SUB 24

ANYTIME

Culture �October �th, 2007 | UThe Ubyssey

by Kian Mintz-Woo

Culture Writer

JELLYFISH (Meduzot)Empire Granville 7 Theatre 1Monday, Oct 8th 3 pm

Jellyfish is a multilayered film of how its characters, from troubled honeymooners to an actor’s frac-tious mother, find comfort in surprising places.

Debut director Etgar Keret is already a best-selling author

in Israel, but this film shows his (and his partner’s) attention to narrative. The stories comple-ment each other and reinforce the themes of connection and fa-milial non-communication. One story that exemplifies this is the story of Joy. Joy is a caretaker from the Philippines coming to Israel. Joy has several struggles, not the least of which is that she knows only a few words of Hebrew and that her son, when she tells him where she is, pouts and refuses to

believe that Israel exists (political point?). In her story, the difficulty of communication is literal.

The film is technically well-ex-ecuted, and the cinematography is engaging from the foreshadow-ing first frame to moving photo-graphs. Jellyfish won the Camera d’Or at Cannes.

Despite its sudden and some-what saccharine resolution at the film’s end, Jellyfish is an engaging film that draws attention to new filmmaking talent. U

by Jacob Mcneil

Culture Writer

RADIO STARFinished run

Radio Star is about a lot of things, and also about nothing. It follows Choi Gon, a faded Korean rock star reduced to DJing at a com-munity radio station, but this is somewhat incidental to the point. At its core the story might be of Gon’s second chance at stardom, but he seems only marginally in-terested in it himself. Mainly the film just watches its characters as they get along, or fail to get along, in the world.

The film has a number of great moments. Community members, radio station politics, and a band called ‘East River’ all feature prominently, and the results are hilarious even though they don’t go anywhere. It’s like hearing funny stories from your friends—they’re funny because you know and care about the people involved.

Radio Star’s biggest strength is that we care so much about the characters. Choi Gon’s inter-actions with his manager drive the film; their lives, though fairly ordinary, are captivating. The film relies on its actors to make the mundane compelling, and they pull it off with flair. U

AUTHOR TURNS DIRECTOR

by GreG Ursic

Culture Writer

The following shorts are part of the Cloud Seeding series:

Screening Monday, Oct 8th 9pm & Tuesday, Oct 9th 4pm Pacific Cinematheque

Latchkey’s LamentWow! That’s probably the best way to describe Latchkey’s La-ment, Troy Nixey’s stunning melding of live action and CGI. In the brief space of 15 minutes he succeeds in creating a ten-der love story/action-adventure romp/horror film that is more engaging and emotive than most feature length films. The produc-tion values are second to none, the scoring is brilliant and you will be amazed by how much you find yourself rooting for inani-mate objects. The best short I’ve ever seen—period.

Burgeon and FadeAudrey Cummings deftly navi-gates some heavy emotional ter-ritory in Burgeon and Fade, the story of a middle aged woman who attends an anniversary party and suffers in the shadow of her radiant daughter. The au-thenticity of the dialogue and the emotional interaction between the principle actors makes them wholly believable as mother and daughter, lending the subject matter appropriate heft.

No BikiniNo Bikini by Claudia Morgado Escanilla, follows Robin, who, at the age of seven removes her

bikini top and gets to experience the vicarious freedom of being a boy for six glorious weeks of swim class. Short on words and heavy on action, this story hing-es almost completely on Robin. Thankfully the actor is a dynamo of unbridled enthusiasm who captures the very essence of liberation. If only the rest of life remained this simple.

The following shorts are part of the Microbursts series: Screening: Wednesday, Oct 10th 9:15pm & Thursday, Oct 11th 4pm Pacific Cinematheque

Pickled PunkJackie Torrens deserves kudos for the darkly novel short Pick-led Punk, which chronicles the adventures of a fetus in a jar and the lives he touches. The narration carries the weight of a serious documentary and the story is positively dripping with gallows humour. A thoroughly warped and entertaining ride.

White VansIf you’ve lived in Vancouver for any length of time, you’ve prob-ably had a bike stolen or know someone who has (in my case it was a friend’s bike that I had borrowed), and will undoubt-edly feel a kinship with Aren Hansen. White Vans details the traumas suffered by legions of bike theft victims, as well as the trauma they’d like to inflict on the perpetrators. In its 13 min-ute runtime it succeeds in being topical, timely, clever, amusing and emotional. U

VIFFVancouver International Film Festival

UThe UbysseyPRESENTS OUR

REVIEWSERIESCannes. Venice. Toronto. All the big guns

on the festival circuit carry with them a certain cachet which comes in the form

of red carpet fetes attended by a retinue of Hol-lywood royalty, avante-garde arthouse pieces and soon-to-be blockbusters. Beyond the glitz and glamour, usually relegated to the obscure venues is a criminally overlooked genre that features some of the most innovative filmmak-ing taking place today. Just as likely to be shot on cell phones as digicams, shorts exemplify the maxim, “in brevity lies wit” (or drama or horror). I, too, have been guilty of giving them short shrift (no pun intended), so, for this year’s 26th running of the Vancouver Interna-tional Film Festival (VIFF), I was determined to dedicate some time to the concise compi-lation of cinematic shorts and was pleasantly surprised by several gems. Be warned you may find them addictive.

—Greg Ursic

SHORT SHORTS AND MORE

FALL IN LOVE WITH RADIO

MICROBURSTS AND CLOUD SEEDING

Go see movies—write for the culture

section!culture@ubyssey.bc.ca

UThe Ubyssey

“It’s like hearing funny stories from your friends

Feature 76 October 5th, 2007 | UThe Ubyssey Feature

by Sabrina Marchand

PhotoS by Sabrina Marchand and richard Garvin

UBC Okanagan’s Historical Archae-ology summer field school offers arts students an alternative to strict-ly in-class learning. Run by profes-sors Richard Garvin and Maurice Williams, the courses—HIST 495 and ANTH 306—allow students to become actively involved in academic research concerning the Kettle Valley Railway’s historical and economic relevance to British Columbia.

Adjusting to Culture Shock

It was three days into the fieldwork and I had officially been told by a colleague to “suck it up, princess.” I realized it was time to get over the spiders in the bush, the dirt under my fingernails, and the sweat bead-ing down my forehead. Removed from my comfortable suburban existence, passing my days in the bush came as a major culture shock.

I must admit, I knew what I was getting myself into when I applied for the field school. I have been part of an archaeology dig before and it’s an intense experience. But I was happily surprised by the amazing and academically benefi-cial experience that ensued.

Bumpy start aside, six weeks later I felt like I had been in Kelow-na my entire life. I wanted to stay; in fact, I still want to go back. In Kelowna, everyone is so friendly! When I sneezed, someone always said “bless you,” when I passed complete strangers on the street they always said “hello.”

I finally came to terms with the constant dirt under my fingernails

by painting them black because I’d rather look like an angsty emo teen-ager than a lumberjack. My face and shoulders were tanned and my lungs were smog and smoke-free—not only due to a difference in pollution levels between Kelowna and Vancouver but also because the field school doesn’t allow smoking on site and I was finally able to kick the nasty habit.

Adjusting to life in Kelowna meant I had to learn to drive a little slower, wear sunscreen on a daily basis and drink beer out of a can.

Unearthing Remnants of the Past The field school ran from July 9 to August 20, 2007 and will run each summer for the next three years. No, we were not looking for dino-saur bones. Rather, think Indiana Jones but with fewer life-threaten-ing situations and instead of an-cient Mayan ruins we were in the Myra Canyon.

We were looking for artifacts and features that might give clues into what life was like for people constructing the Kettle Valley Rail-way. The dig site was bustling back between 1913 and 1914, and now is filled with artifacts. As archaeol-ogy students our job was to come along, excavate the dirt, map the artifacts, flag them with tags, and help put the pieces of the historical puzzle together. Next summer they will be doing surface excavation at the same site and the following year will be spent at a new site in the same general area.

The two courses run simultane-ously and are headed by archaeol-ogy professor Richard Garvin and history professor Maurice Wil-liams. Six weeks of work is worth 9 credits: 3 history credits and 6 anthropology credits. As a UBC Vancouver student I was surprised to find how easy it is to take a course through UBC Okanagan. The cred-its transfer back to UBC Vancouver as ANTH 306 (the same as the UBC Vancouver field school) and HIST 495 and all that is required is acceptance into the course and a quick interview with an arts advi-sor to ask them to do the necessary paperwork.

There is an application to fill out and prerequisites to fulfill but as someone who had only take half of the necessary courses, as long as you are in third or fourth-year you shouldn’t let the pre requisites keep you from applying.

The joys of field work The field school runs 5 days a week from 9am-4pm and the first week was spent in-class learning background information, listening to a couple of speakers share the information they have gathered concerning the history of the Kettle Valley Railway. Each Monday is spent in-class where the other four

days are in the field. When we ar-rived for the first tour of the site, I couldn’t help but think: “this is it?!” The site is approximately 100 metres away from the main dirt road—what used to be the railway tracks.

After walking what, at first, felt like a mountain of a hill, the thick layer of fireweed growing taller than my waist made it difficult to see the site. But a week of clearing later and we had exposed piles of refuse and cans, fire cracked rock, a couple of wells, a tote road and many human constructed rock features. One of these rock features is where I spent my time dusting rocks, mapping and clearing bush-es with a chainsaw.

Gaining Experience for Grad School

One of the most rewarding aspects of the field school lies in the signifi-cance of the final projects. Williams comments “its not [often] that undergraduates have this opportu-nity to make a contribution which goes beyond the classroom and the university to the larger public audience…the work that students do will serve as a basis for further work by other students, scholars, and interested parties.”

Unlike most final papers, stu-dents’ projects are based mostly out of primary research. Because there hasn’t been extensive research done on the Kettle Valley Railway students can’t simply sift through journal articles or texts books for information; you have to go to the archives, get dust in your nose and look through old hand-written documents and photos. Using en-gineer’s reports, letters and other first-hand accounts for information you get a taste of what it might be like to be a graduate student—try-ing to compile your own research that will someday be used by others as a secondary source.

Students are also given the op-tion to present their research at a local conference which is not only a good learning experience but looks great on an application for gradu-ate school.

Professor Garvin, who’s heading up the archaeological portion of the course, explained why this type of a course is valuable for undergradu-ates, saying “these kinds of courses give students an opportunity to experience what research work is actually like. If you want to go on to graduate school…you should know what will be expected of you.”

It might seem intimidating to do primary research, but it’s much more interesting than relying on secondary resources. Often it might feel like professors just want to hear what they said regurgitated back to them with scholarly research that backs up their ideas, but primary research allows for a freedom of thought that is rare when pursuing an undergraduate degree. U

UBC field school: out of the classroom and into Myra Canyon

Top: UBCO field school student Alexis Beckett carefully exposes the artifacts that lay just under the littermat.Left: Heather Blain excavated a foundation with many different (flagged) artifacts.

Above: This rock oven is an example of how those living in the camp used available resources to construct the neces-sary amenities.Below: One of the major Kettle Valley Railway tressels, photographed in 2002—a year before being destroyed by for-est fires.

The Kettle Valley Railway helped to link British Colum-bia to the rest of the world. It served as an economic outlet for British Columbia’s burgeoning natural resources sector, allowing goods to be moved in a west-east direc-tion. Prior to this, British Columbia’s economy was almost entirely dependent on north-south trade with the American economy.

Employment generated from construction of the Kettle Valley Railway is the reason that many men immigrated to Canada and eventually brought their families from Europe to settle in British Columbia.

The railway ran until 1961, when it was abandoned for bet-ter routes elsewhere. 13 of the 18 tressels of the railway were destroyed in the 2003 Okana-gan Mountain Park Fire.

The Kettle Valley RailwayThe Kettle Valley Railway was built over 20 years in the late 1800s. Built to serve the bur-geoning silver mines that were appearing in the southern Okanagan, its was owned and managed as its own entity until taken over by Canadian Pacific in 1931. The hills and ravines of the Kettle Valley made the railway extremely costly per mile—one of the most expensive ever built in Canada.

2 NN23

MM3Suck it up, princess!

Above: In Alexis Beckett’s final project “A Typol-ogy of Tin Cans”, this sardine can is catalogued un-der “easily opened cans” and identified specifically by its “key wind” opener.Right: The Kettle Valley Railway in its entirety, with sections of rail shared with other corpora-tions dotted.

UThe Ubyssey | October 5th, 2007� News

UThe Ubyssey

by Connie Do

News Staff

Many of us know Robert Gate-man as the flamboyant, some-what bizarre, yet somehow ap-pealing ECON 101 prof we had, or wish we had, in first-year. But how much do we really know about the most talked about UBC instructor on ratemyprofessors.com?

How do you make economics easy?“I have the same attitude I tell my students…if you can’t explain it to your little sister, you don’t get it.”

What are your hobbies?“Doing anything outdoors…like sports…fixing antiques…and be-ing a lawyer.”

What year were you born in?“More than 10 years ago and less than 100.”

What did you want to be when you were a little kid?“I can’t remember being a little kid. I have no recollection of my childhood until I was in grade 5.”

Psychologists say that most people’s memories usually start at age 3.“Well you need to wait until you take abnormal psych, then you get to learn about me.”

People are wondering if you’re married or not.“Keep them wondering.”

Why the chili pepper obsession? “It’s the only way I can get one. It’s the only way I can become hot, is if I give myself one. No one else gave me a chili pepper.”

Have you been to ratemyprofes-sors.com?“No, I’ve never been to it. I’m afraid to go to it.”

Do you still draw?“No, I can’t draw anymore, I think it’s because I’m too stressed

out…but my graphs are a work of art and so are my exams.”

Is there anything you were in-volved in during college that you’re slow to admit?“The varsity swim team.”

Which school?“I’ll think about answering that one.”

Is it true that you were arrested outside an Ikea?“Technically. They said someone who looked like me committed credit fraud in the Ikea but when I asked them the description, it wasn’t me at all.”

Do you have kids?“No, I have no human offspring.”

Are you divorced? “Divorced from what?”

Have you ever shot a hippo?“Yes. 1/250 at f8.”

How bad is your eyesight?“I’m a -6 and a -4.5, so it’s not that bad.”

Why do you play music in class?“…to get everyone in a good mood. It’s like intellectual sorbet, clean-ing out their brain from last class like psychology or accounting.”

Why do you have your own cartoon?“A student made it for me and I thought it would be a good idea to put it on the textbook.”

Do you get tired of teaching lower-level economics?“No, I don’t know why but I think it’s because the students are pret-ty interesting, pretty exciting.”

Are you religious?“I’m a reformed agnostic.”

Why are you so popular?“People asked me that before and it was actually the first time I thought about it. I don’t think I’m popular, infamous maybe, but not popular.” U

Prof Robert Gateman: behind the graphs

Julian Morse Photo / the ubyssey

WRITE FOR THE UBYSSEY:

IT’S LIKE “DIE HARD”,

BUT WITH JOURNALISM.*

*It’s not like “Die Hard”

Open SourceThe Ubyssey Magazine’s new series exploring the

University’s patchwork of people and places.

�

by Justin McElroy

Sports Writer

I’ll be honest with you, when I hear the phrase “UBC Okanagan”, I think the following thing: “That’s in Penticton, isn’t it? No? It’s in Kelowna? Really? My bad.”

Fact is, we aren’t all that close with our brethren to the east. Sure, we’re family—but UBC Okanagan is sort of like that cousin who’s 15 years younger. You know he ex-ists, you make small talk at family reunions, but otherwise, there’s no real personal connection be-tween the two of you.

But, like a cousin, when some-thing important happens at UBC Okanagan (UBCO, for short), we inevitably find out about it here in Vancouver. And sometime later this year UBCO will make a very important decision. A decision so monumental it will impact their humble campus for generations to come. They will be deciding...what to name their

varsity sports teams.Please, no snickering. I mean

it. This is serious business. A var-sity team name means a logo that will be emblazoned on T-shirts, T-shirts that literally hundreds of students may consider buying. A varsity team name means a school mascot, an essential requirement of any respectable institution for higher learning. A varsity team name means...well, that’s about it. To decide on a name, UBCO asked for suggestions.

With such widespread rami-fications, it is imperative that the name chosen be one that will fill Okanagan students with pride and enthusiasm for their university. Fortunately for them, I (humbly) have a few suggestions that they might like to consider:

1. The Ogopogo. Pros: This has to be the frontrun-ner in this competition. The Og-opogo is unique to the Okanagan. It’s a mysterious creature that is

rarely seen. It’s a giant monster that can devour its competition. And the logo would look pretty sweet—how can a sea monster not look cool?

Cons: Well, it’s not all that original. But more importantly, the Ogopogo probably doesn’t ex-ist. It probably never existed. It’s in the same league as unicorns, leprechauns, Bigfoot, Santa Claus, Puff the Magic Dragon, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. And Okanagan students, please, try to explain the Ogopogo to anyone outside of this province. They’ll either think you’re not that bright (there’s an easy joke here, but I’m gonna take the high road), or that you’re trying to rip off the Loch Ness Monster. What I’m trying to say here is that the Ogopogo would be a swell choice!

2. The Ogres Pros: Alludes to the Sasquatch, another BC urban legend, without being too obvious about it. Sounds

fearsome and monstrous, suitable qualities for an athletic program. As a bonus, a campus newspaper could begin stories with, “Over the weekend, the Ogres crossed the Rocky Mountains to devour their competition...”

Cons: It’s still not a real crea-ture. Also, there is one thing I think of when I hear the word Ogre—Shrek. A strange, misun-derstood creature who rather than moving to the big city, pre-fers to live in his swamp. Frankly, I don’t think Okanagan students would enjoy having stereotypes about them reinforced.

3. The O-Town Thunderbirds. Pros: Here’s my thinking: If UBCO is part of the same university as us, logic dictates that they should have the same team name. But “The UBC Okanagan Thunder-birds” is wordy, and lacks a certain zip and pizazz. But the UBCO-Town Thunderbirds? Now that’s gold! It’s cool! It’s hip! It

reminds people of the third most popular boy band at the turn of the century!

Cons: It would remind people of the third most popular boy band at the turn of the century. Also, UBCO students would have to constantly tell people that they don’t go to school in “O-Town”. They go to school in “Kelowna”. And after a while, that would just get depressing.

4. The Ovenbirds. What’s the ovenbird, you ask? Well, it’s a songbird found in British Columbia. They are around 14cm long and weigh 18 grams. They generally don’t fly, preferring to stay on the ground. So to summarize: It’s small, not well known, and doesn’t fly (as opposed to say, a Thunderbird). What a perfect match! To me, it seems obvious: The Ovenbird would be a very truthful and ap-propriate representative of UBC Okanagan. U

Courtside CommentUBC Okanagan is getting a mascot and we’ve got some great suggestions

Up Next:Football:Tomorrow 1pmShrum Bowl @ SFU

Field Hockey:Tomorrow & Sunday, noon@ Calgary

Women’s Soccer:Today, 5pmvs. Trinity WesternTomorrow, 2pmvs. Fraser Valley

Men’s Hockey:Today & Tomorrow, 7:30pmvs. Alberta

Women’s Hockey:Today & Tomorrow, 6pm@ Alberta

Cross-Country:TomorrowPeter Steilberg XC Invitational@ Olympia, Wash.

October 5th, 2007 | UThe Ubyssey SportS

UThe Ubyssey | October 5th, 200710 editorial

I t seems that UBC faculty see un-dergraduate students as naïve, grade-driven children, who con-

sider little more than their marks during their time at this university. Or so it would seem based on the Faculty Association’s recent call for a moratorium on a new UBC Senate initiative.

On May 16th, the UBC Sen-ate approved a policy that would reform student evaluations to ensure a high quality of learning for students. This move was based on the recommendations of a pre-established committee co-chaired by Anna Kindler, UBC vice-provost and associate vice-president academic affairs. In 2005, the University began to explore ways to better assess teaching and learn-ing, increase feedback to profes-sors, and review hiring procedures for professors—all as a means of improving the undergraduate level of learning.

The committee presented a new evaluation system for instructors, including a component to be used by students, “University Module.” It would be based on six criteria: clarity of expectations, fairness of assessment, communication of course objectives, ability to inspire interest, concern for students’ learning, and overall quality.

However, last week the Faculty Association called for an “immedi-ate moratorium” on the Senate’s newly-passed suggestion. In an open letter to president Stephen Toope, the Faculty Association expressed their concerns about the University Module, one component of a multilevel evaluation system. The results of University Module would be open to students. The Faculty Association is concerned that in this module the “questions focus on students’ learning comfort rather than on their professor’s knowledge of the discipline and ability to challenge learners.”

Basically, instructors are con-cerned with students applying fa-vouritism, rather than objectivity, and evaluating based on personal-ity or ideological preferences over academic merit. Ironically, this is something that students often ac-cuse profs of doing.

The letter to Toope continues, “Implementation of this policy will infringe on academic freedom; violate member’s privacy; deny fac-ulty members the right to tenure, promotion and reappointment.”

From this, it appears professors are more concerned with their reputations and promotions than the learning outcomes of students. Students pay thousands of dollars for their education. Do they not have a right to choose what they feel is the best education for them-selves? If professors are confident in their teaching abilities, why should they be afraid to make the already-existing evaluation process transparent?

As students, other outlets are currently available to us if we are interested in researching our professors prior to taking a course. The downside to sites such as ratemyprofessors.com is that the feedback is skewed, polarised, minimally representative, and therefore biased. With the majority of comments coming from students who either despised a prof or loved them immensely, one doesn’t know which opinion to trust, if any. The advantage of having university-administered evaluations is that all students are required to fill out the

forms. Therefore, every student’s voice is heard. Both those with good grades and bad grades, those who liked a professor, those who didn’t, and those who found them entirely average would all have a voice.

The policy itself does not en-sure that student evaluations will become public to students. Instead, the University Module encourages professors to consent to making their evaluations open to students through CoursEval, a web-platform navigated by students.

In the Ubyssey’s article “Instruc-tors oppose change to student evaluations” Oct. 2, Faculty As-sociation member Dr James Tansey noted, “If faculty are evaluated by popularity then there is incentive to give great grades. We don’t want this culture at UBC.”

This statement wholly underes-timates UBC’s undergraduate popu-lation. Many students have had great professors in courses they haven’t excelled in, and vice versa. To associate the two is an insult to students. As members of this post-secondary institution we believe in the holding our professors to highest standards of education and by viewing our own evaluations we intend to do so.

Do you fill out student evaluations? Why?

Alex Li, Undeclared 2

“I don’t really write too many com-ments unless I feel like there’s a need to. Like the prof is really good.”

Sarah Dreyfuss, Arts 3

Kyla Burrill, Env. Science 3

Ryan Lledo, Geography 3

“Yes, like half the time. If I feel it’s necessary to fill out a comment I do, but, I don’t know, but for the most part I just don’t, it doesn’t seem important.”

Dustin Louis, Arts 2

“I don’t actually fill them out, ’cause I have, not better, but things that are more entertaining for me. That and I’m a transfer student, so I haven’t been here that long.”

“Not really. Because I’m too busy. Because it’s pretty much just another email that comes up and you pretty much just put it in your junkmail. It just takes a lot of time, and there’s no reward for it.”

“I just ignore the e-mail. I have other things to do.”

—Coordinated by Jordan Chittley & Goh Iromoto

streeters is a weekly column in which students are asked a question related to UbC events.

Let us look! Let us look!

Ustreeters

Why are cops recruiting athletes?Am I the only one who finds it kind of scary that the VPD is going hunting in the athletics depart-ment for recruits? Certainly it is admirable that working for the VPD requires a higher educa-tion. But really, do we trust people who are here at UBC to be athletes as the people who are carrying guns and pepper spray, who are au-thorized to hold up, search, and seize members of the public, and who must have a thorough understanding of not only the law, but the spirit of justice and peacekeeping?

Keep in mind that UBC Athletics has been pushing for years to reduce enrollment stan-dards for athletes, in order to attract more brawns to their varsity teams. And keep in mind that the things that athletes are trained in through their “athletic careers” include putting the team first, an us-versus-them mentality, play-ing to win, and thinking with your muscles.

I would personally like to see the police as predominantly philosophy or social science or psychology students who are in good shape, rather than athletes who take a 12-week course in “legal studies and police skills enforcing the law”.

Do you really want the captain of the foot-ball team pulling you over and asking for your driver’s licence? Or the hockey team’s enforcer asking to see what is in your backpack? I cer-tainly don’t. And I think the fact that the police department sees these recruits as ideal is in-dicative of a problem in the general focus of law enforcement.

—Mathew Jewkes is the Ubyssey’s features editor.

Sprockettes are more than babes on bikesIt is a shame that Culture Editor Paul Bucci didn’t actually speak to any of the performers before he wrote his article on the recent Ve-loMutations party (“More than bikes: blazing babes of VeloMutations,” Culture [Sept. 25]). If he had, he would realise how superficial his description of the Sprockettes is.

The Sprockettes are an all-female synchro-nised mini-bike dance troupe from Portland, OR. Their mission—besides bringing fun and spectacle to the bike community—involves “promoting positive self image for all body types, offering an alternative to the dangerous mono-culture of what the ideal body type is, promoting a female positive perspective that celebrates women empowerment, and encour-aging exercise, movement, health, and a pro-physical lifestyle.”

Being described as scantily clad, hedonistic, and screaming sex, all work in direct opposition to what these ladies are trying to achieve. Yeah, they are sexy—but it is because they celebrate their own example of strong, empowered wom-en in the male-dominated bike community.

I’m glad Bucci covered this event. The fun, playfulness, support, and creativity of Vancou-ver’s bike scene doesn’t get near enough expo-sure. But hopefully next time he can get beyond seeing just bodies and actually see the strength, dedication and rad-ness of the women inside these “sexy” packages.

Oh, it also would have been nice if he’d ar-rived early enough to see the Brakes and the B:C:Clettes, Vancouver’s own male and female bike dance groups, as well as the Victoria Ve-lovixens. The Sprockettes have inspired these more home-grown talents.

—Keltie Craig,Member of the B:C:Clettes

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SportS 11October 5th, 2007 | UThe Ubyssey

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UThe Ubyssey

The Leafs and the Habs, Ar-senal and Chelsea, the Yankees and the Red Sox, Dick Pound and steroids, the Cubs and World Series rings, Barry Bonds and asterisks.

These are some classic ri-valries where the stands are packed and the games bring out the best in each team. At UBC, we have the Shrum Bowl.

It is one of the biggest ri-valries one can expect during the school year and this year’s match gets underway Saturday at 2pm when the Thunderbirds will take on the Simon Fraser Clan. While most games tend to be blow-outs, including last year when UBC took the trophy with a huge 41-6 win, some are quite close, and the series is dead-locked at 14-14-1.

“The Shrum Bowl always car-ries a lot of weight and a lot of emotion,” said UBC head coach Ted Goveia. “But we’ve also got playoffs on the line, and we’ll be ready to play.”

Although SFU is considered the underdog coming into the game, they still see this as a good opportunity to get their first win of the season.

“Not that it would make our season, but…to have another go

a t [UBC] here...in front of home fans and our university, [a win] would be big for us,” said SFU head coach Dave Johnson.

“[Johnson] told us that we’re not leaving that field until we come out with a win,” said SFU quarterback Jason Marshall. “I hate the [UBC] program, so I’m going to do anything to get a win, especially the first win in three years would be awesome.”

But a word like “hate” is pretty strong, so how did the two teams get to this point? Well, SFU is winless in its last 22 games and the Shrum Bowl has a lot of history.

The game is named after Dr. Gordon Shrum, who was a pro-fessor of physics at UBC from 1925 to 1961 until he packed up and drove his stuff up the closest hill he could find with-out crossing a bridge. Instead of jumping off the hill into the Burrard Inlet, he started Simon Fraser University.

He made athletics a high priority because he felt it would build student loyalty faster than turning out graduates. And two years after he opened the school’s doors in 1965, the first

Shrum Bowl was played. The Clan made quick work of UBC destroying the Thunderbirds 32-13 and jumped out to the early lead in the rivalry, but that was not the exciting part of the game.

Some UBC engineering stu-dents, who apparently had inten-tions of starting ruckus, started a riot shortly before the first half ended. Both coaches seemed excited to continue the rivalry, but that was not the case for one Vancouver Sun columnist.

“I can think of no good rea-son for continuing the game next year,” said Denny Boyd of the Sun. “I think it was lousy foot-ball and the behaviour of both student bodies was juvenile.”

In fairness to Boyd, the game was billed as the most exciting competition in the area in years and completely failed to live up to its expectations.

Not much changed over the next four years as the Clan took three more of the next four games. The best UBC could do was a 6-6 tie in 1969.

They even managed to out-score us 168-32 over the first five years. Not much of a rivalry. In 1969 SFU joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which is an associa-tion comprised of US schools. There-after they would play un-der US football rules.

The rivalry continued in

1978 when the Thunderbirds insisted the game be played under Canadian rules in an attempt to actually win the trophy.

It turned out to be a winning decision as UBC took four out of the five Shrum Bowls between 1978 and 1982.

In 1982, The Canadian Inter-collegiate Athletic Union put a halt on the rivalry thinking that UBC was making too big a deal out of the game. At this point the series was 5-4-1 in favour of the Clan. But that would not be the end.

In 1987, the rivalry was re-born, but this time it would be played under American rules and it stayed that way until 1996. As should be expected SFU did well under the Ameri-can rules and UBC was victori-ous most of the time under the Canadian rules.

In 2002, SFU joined back up with the Canadian system taking the first two games, but since 2004 the Thunderbirds have owned the Clan.

The T-Birds have not scored less than 40 points a game in the last three years and have

outscored them 123-63.

The last game the Thunderbirds lost was

the infamous fog bowl where over 5,000 fans

watched fog settle over the field around the half and really didn’t watch much football after that.

The Ubyssey reported that the “fog was so thick that you couldn’t even see the field dur-ing the second half.” However, this didn’t stop fans from getting involved as the rivalry turned to the stands.

“UBC sucks my ass like a monkey,” yelled one SFU fan. A UBC fan shot back with “We have six bars on campus.”

The T-Birds went into the fourth quarter down 31-3 and despite getting a few points it that quarter, they recorded their fifth loss of the 2003 season.

This year for the first time the game will be played on his-toric Burnaby moutain where a modified field is expected to hold some 3,000 fans.

And if those fans are lucky they may get to see a close game, but they have a better chance of seeing streakers run across the field.

As for playing at home, John-son said, “Playing here, at our place, for the first time in the history of the program, that’s big motivation for us…to get a win.” U

Battle on the hill

SHRUM BOWL

Play with big sticks, kick some big balls

and live to tell the story

write for sportssports@ubyssey.bc.ca

by Jordan Chittley

Sports Editor

kellan higgins illustration / the ubyssey

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