Old Sock Drawer

Currently listening to: “Diplomat’s Son” – Vampire Weekend

I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 Arts Career Expo last night: an evening of panel discussions with notable UBC Arts alumni in a myriad of fields ranging from fine art to international affairs, followed by a mix-and-mingle with the panelists (alongside an absolutely delightful array of refreshments).

First, I sat in on “Working for the People: Careers in the Public Sector”. Like the name states, the focus was on public service and government. Panelists Peter Ladner (former Vancouver city councillor), Sasha Hobbes (Provincial Government), Michael Hunter (Health Canada), and Marko Dekovic (Canadian Strategy Group) shared their insights and ideas into transferring skills from theory and university to public service. Aspiring bureaucrats will do well to heed the advice of the panelists. Involvement, passion, adaptability, and resilience were some of the buzzwords of the night; essentially, summing up to “get really, really involved, work bloody hard, keep striving.”

“An Arts degree trains you how to think,” -Ladner, on the value of a liberal arts degree

“Let go of the academic ego and do the right thing,” -Hobbes, on transitioning from academia to the real world

But more specifically, I’d like to comment in more detail on my next panel session, “In the Limelight: Careers in Media and Communications”. With panelists Dean Pelkey (Fraser Institute), Mike Laanela (CBC Vancouver), and Valeria Casselton (The Vancouver Sun), the topics of discussion surrounded the challenges and opportunities in print journalism, rise of online media and social media, the blogosphere and its impact on news (think The Tyee and The Huffington Post) and to a lesser extent, writing for the corporate world.

“There are a lot of creative people, but they cannot express themselves very well…they cannot write very well.” -Casselton

A particularly fascinating point that came up was the idea that journalism has shifted in recent years to keep up with a more demanding and voracious audience which gleans its news from the Internet and blogs, asking more questions, leading to a rise in follow-up articles. This same demographic also is less likely to pay for news in print form, choosing to seek news for free online instead. This also heralded the rise in citizen journalism, where opinion seems to trump well-researched news – in doing so, bringing up several questions on the role of paid and print journalists – which incidentally, reminds me of this story in Maisonneuve last issue on citizen journalism. The panelists remain confident of the relevance of journalism, citing the need for proper training and efforts at neutrality.

“If you want a legitimate story, you need journalists, not just bloggers.” -Casselton

“[In blogs] people tend to find information that supports their own beliefs and they need newspapers to give an alternate perspective.” -Pelkey, on the need for news media outlets

Tags:   Arts Career Expo · mediaComments Off on #096: Arts Career Expo 2010

Currently listening to: “French Navy” – Camera Obscura

AMS election voting starts today and continues through the week (Jan 25-29)! Go out and exercise your democratic rights lest you wish to waive your right to complain about anything else AMS that happens over the next year.

But first, a sprinkling of accolades and snark to hand out, based on the candidates’ performances thus far…

Wit and Words:
I am rather disappointed that puns and wordplay ran few and far in between! What happened to the creative minds at work here? A snappy and intriguing catchphrase always makes a good first impression. While fully understanding some candidates’ preference of staying staid and professional, the sprightly capriciousness of a well-crafted statement which allows personality to shine through never fails to impress. In this case, VP Admin candidate Michael Haack‘s “I’m a Haack!” pun is oh so painful and thus oh so painfully fantastic. Moving on. Following closely behind in terms of unorthodox wordplay, I wouldn’t go quite as far as to call presidential candidate Pak Ho Leung’s platform eloquent (indeed, I have no idea if the fellow’s serious), but the conversational style he’s presented himself in is absolutely hilarious. Thus, bonus points for daring creativity and populist rhetoric. Opportunities passed up: Presidential candidate Natalie Swift officially needs more headdesk-worthy puns based upon her last name.

Colour Me Impressed (And Then Some):
Websites and posters and holy gods of design geekery! The scroll-through user-friendliness of VP Academic candidate Ben Cappellacci’s website is brilliant, as are his posters. Absolutely splendidly designed; almost Lomography-esque in their eye-catching simplicity. Many, many props. VP External candidate Jeremy McElroy’s website is an absolutely breathtaking sight to behold. Splendid mastery of the colour green, not to mention those PDFs. Presidential candidate Bijan Ahmadian’s website is extremely impressive, what with buttons and pop-ups and frames and technological savviness all around. However, FONTS, people! Fonts can make or break any website design, as the fine people over at Clients from Hell can attest. The header with blobby font must go. Other fine examples of design include VP Academic candidate Rodrigo Ferrari-Nunes’ posters. Very effective use of b&w – keeping it classy.

Sweater Vest Incarnation to Rival Stephen Harper’s:
[I apologize in advance for the superficiality of the following paragraph. But by Jove, I am curious!]
What is it about election campaigning that draws out the sweaters, sweater vests, and the argyle? I am no AMS Confidential, so there shan’t be compare-and-contrast pictures of Harper and the candidates, but there has been a good number of sweaters (and not just incumbent VP External Tim Chu’s usual attire of decidedly comfortable-looking fuzzy sweaters). Board of Governors candidate Guillaume Houle was spotted in the AUS office in a green-and-grey argyle sweater; rumour has it that VP External candidate Stas Pavlov has been sporting argyle sweater vests in a myriad of colours, while VP Admin candidate Michael Haack’s website features him in similar attire. An attempt to look more personable, as a certain prime minister attempted, or a serious sartorial consideration (and possible cause for concern)?

A Sublime Example of Parody:
VP External candidate Aaron Palm’s campaign is a stellar example of how satire should be done- bold, in-your-face, accompanied by spiffy .jpgs. This entire section is thus dedicated to Mr. Palm’s excellent parody of the Grand Ole’ Party, Tea Parties, gun-slinging-mud-slinging, Sarah Palin, representing mav’riks all across Amurrika UBC.

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So go VOTE! Even better, vote and then tell nine people, who will tell nine people…

Tags:   apathy is boring · student politicsComments Off on #095: Electiontastic! Accolades and Affrontery

Currently listening to: “Aside” – The Weakerthans

One and a half hours of madcap Broadway spoofs later, my Saturday is officially made. Under the direction of Ryan Mooney, Fighting Chance Productions did an absolutely phenomenal job of this collection of (in my opinion) musical theatre staples – after all, what’s Broadway if you take yourself too seriously? I was positively howling with laughter at the Les Misérables parody (featuring a positively spacey Cosette and a two-minute summary of the three-hour epic), and the Spamalot segment is…quite something. Broadway personalities are definitely not spared either; Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand, and Mandy Patinkin all fall under Gerard Alessandrini’s razor wit and perfect rhymes. My only grouse? The lack of a Spring Awakening parody…now that one’s just absolutely hilarious- and dare I say it, catchier than the original…

Tags:   live theatre1 Comment

Currently listening to: “Shame Is On Your Side” – Terror Bird

It’s time for a rant on manners, folks.

I was going to write about the Michael Ignatieff townhall meeting (with emphasis on the running themes of extended metaphor usage) and the rather heartening level of student engagement. Let it be noted that though all the aforementioned things are of great importance, I feel it much more pressing to address the issue of manners and basic social etiquette, both of which have been demonstrated to be sorely lacking. Let us break it down ever so slightly.

Acceptable: Voicing of opinions in a mature, preferably eloquent, manner. Presumably, educated debate/discussion ensues.

Unacceptable: Voicing of opinions by engaging in disruptive public behaviour involving (but not limited to) a refusal to listen to the guest speaker, shouting (!), thus obstructing fellow audience members from listening and engaging in discussion. All in all a show of general impertinence et cetera.

Greenpeace members involved with the shenanigans at the Ignatieff event, shame on you. As one deeply concerned about environmental policy and climate change issues, I am thoroughly embarrassed by the method by which these views were aired. My own views on tar sands not withstanding, the level of immaturity and rudeness present was staggering. Such boorishness does not lend itself to the open presentation and exchange of ideas, and indeed, has no place in a university.

If I may direct any interested readers to a glorious book on where etiquette and manners have gone in our supposedly enlightened time, Lynne Truss has a splendid treatise on said subject – Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door.

Tags:   manners or lack thereof2 Comments

Currently listening to: “Nowhere with You” – Joel Plaskett

This intriguing article from the New York Times on the gradual Americanization of perceptions on mental disorders is incredibly worth reading. The article presents an interesting take on the effects seen from the spread of Western labels and generalized treatment of mental disorders. In bringing up the Western (American)-dominated field of psychological research, the article discusses its subsequent influence on the spread and development of disorders initially unseen in other parts of the world.

An example mentioned in the article which is particularly fascinating is that of the development of the Chinese understanding of anorexia nervosa, where afflicted individuals shifted away from a culturally-specific set of symptoms to a more “Americanized” set of symptoms after the disorder was popularized in the media. This is especially interesting in considering the fluid and changing nature of human mentality and physicality in accordance with outside thought influences, even on supposedly universal human phenomena such as illness.

And amidst all this, a thinly-veiled layer of skepticism around our efforts at globalizing – or rather, generalizing – medical research across vastly different cultures: fascinating article, really; do check it out.

Tags:   geekery · political psychology for the win4 Comments