Tag: Featured

Categories
Student Life

Is your laptop failing you?

Pen and paper is as outdated as quill and ink. Class begins and, like a game of Guess Who, laptops flip open. Portable computers are an easy and efficient way to take notes, especially when lectures run at the speed of light. However, laptops mean quick access to millions of online and social media distractions and a second spent checking the latest tweets or the person outbidding you on eBay never really lasts a second. Before you know it, you are packing up your things and saying farewell to another class that has you more updated on who’s doing what this weekend.

A recent study published in Computers & Education suggests that using computers during lectures could be doing more harm than good and can have a direct effect on a student’s grades and could potentially be lowering their classmates’ marks. Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

A recent study published in Computers & Education suggests that using computers during lectures could be doing more harm than good and can have a direct effect on a student’s grades and could potentially be lowering their classmates’ marks. The study conducted two experiments designed to gauge how laptops lead to multitasking and how multitasking leads to distraction.

“We found that, lo and behold, the students who multitasked performed much worse on the final test,” Faria Sana, co-author of the study, said in an interview with the Globe and Mail published Aug. 14. Checking emails, updating statuses, playing games and watching movies is all something students have seen other students do during lectures. “Seeing dozens of laptops in a class is now common,” said Sana and leads to “a lot of students spending a chunk of their time in class doing things that are not related to the academic environment.”

“Having internet access is what distracts me. I know it’s there so it becomes easy to get carried away,” said Natasha Reda, an English literature student at Concordia University. “If I didn’t have access, I would probably listen more and take better notes.”

For students who go the old-fashioned way with pen and paper, laptops are as much of a distraction because spying on your classmates Pinterest page or Facebook news feed is inevitable.

Paying attention can be challenging, especially after a long summer. “We’re hoping that based on the results, students will take responsibility for their actions,” Sana told the Globe and Mail.

Concordia Counselling and Development offers learning services that give students tips on improving concentration and note-taking strategies. Laptops may seem like the most productive tool to have during lectures but unless you have the willpower to keep from unrelated websites and tasks, your laptop may literally be failing you. Multitasking is never a good idea, so start the semester off right and reevaluate how you spend your time in class.

For more tips, attend the Counselling and Development’s workshop on Wednesday Sept. 18 at 4:30 p.m. in H-440, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd W.

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Categories
Arts

Why rest, O wicked? There’s more to Concordia than classes and Reggie’s

Graphic Jenny Kwan

What will your university experience look like? As most of us are just starting to recover from Frosh-week debaucheries, we may find ourselves with some time to make sure advisors are met with, classes registered for and (sinfully priced) textbooks bought. And now that that’s over with, this is the time to choose the ways with which you can foster your creativity, the assortment of families to be a member of and how to supplement your overall time spent here at Concordia.

* For the visually-inclined amongst you, Concordia University Television (CUTV) is an obvious outlet. CUTV is the oldest student-run TV station in the country and is fully stocked with editing equipment and a production studio. As a member they will train you during production workshops or send you out to cover campus events, depending on what you’re into.

If you’re interested in participating in something bigger, Art Matters is Concordia’s annual student-run festival that celebrates the university’s diverse art forms. Graphic by Jenny Kwan.

* If, instead, your interests lie in the auditory arts, then you may consider joining the award-winning CJLO, Concordia’s official radio station. From rock ‘n’ roll to sports talk, this station offers content for all students, and you can join its staff of volunteers to make it happen.

* Concordia’s Fine Arts Student Alliance (FASA) also offers students the chance to showcase their artistic talents: FASA-run Café X and Gallery X— marking their spot in the EV and VA buildings, respectively, — accept artwork in various mediums.

* Placing their own mark in universities and colleges across North America and Europe is Montreal-based Cinema Politica, a film series focused on bringing world issues and global problems to campuses. Volunteering opportunities are plenty and their screenings are always free and are held each week in the Hall building at 7 p.m.

* Each year faculty members, staff, and students (Music majors and non-Music majors alike) bring their singing voices together for the University Choir — also known as MPER 231A in the Undergraduate Calendar. Yes, you are reading this correctly, this is for university credit. Auditions are held on the first day of class, and a year of rehearsals culminates in a solid ensemble ready for concert performances.

* In case you are interested in participating in something bigger, Art Matters is Concordia’s annual student-run festival that celebrates the university’s diverse art forms. Running for over a decade, the festival relies on volunteers to set up exhibitions, run screenings, and organize concerts and workshops — all created exclusively by Concordia students. For information on how to get involved or submission criteria visit artmattersfestival.org

Categories
News

Students to pay more, receive less

Photo from jasonparis on flickr

In an effort to reduce the university’s costs, Chief Financial Officer Patrick Kelley told members of Concordia’s Board of Governors that there needs to be fewer courses and sections offered to students. Kelley explained at the June 7 meeting that this is a necessary measure for the university to meet its deficit targets.

Photograph from JasonParis on Flickr.

A significant part of Concordia’s recent financial troubles stem from the 2012-13 provincial government’s funding slash of $13.2 million that caused the university to declare a deficit of $7.5 million.

Concordia’s academic side will take a 2.5 per cent budget cut while all other university sectors will see a 6.6 per cent cut. Decisions on what services, programs and personnel will need to be reduced in order to meet the new budget will be up to individual departments. Although some cuts will be phased in gradually, students arriving for the fall semester will be directly affected by a reduced number of courses, and part-time faculty, as well as an increase in residence fees.

As graduate student representative Erik Chevrier pointed out in session, Concordia residence rates have increased to an amount he claims is unaffordable for the majority of the student population.

“I probably wouldn’t be able to afford to live in dorms, because the rent seems extremely high for single dwellings… some of them have increased as much as four per cent.”

However, it should be noted that included in the cost of the dormitory is telephone and Internet. Small single rooms in the downtown Grey Nuns residence have increased from $690.23 to $700.58 and $733.21 to 744.21. While large single rooms have increased from $763.90 to 775.36. This amounts to an increase of around $10.

It remains to be seen how students will be affected by cuts to other sectors of the university, but it looks as though students will be paying more for less.

As of the 2013/2014 academic year, students will be paying a tuition increase set by the provincial government of 2.6 per cent, which works out to approximately $52 per student. And yet, because of the university’s deficit, students won’t be gaining anything other than lighter wallets.

Professors are likely to be among the things students will lose as budget cuts force departments to let go of some part-time faculty with lower seniority.

It seems student opinion takes a backseat when cost reduction is the issue. Even winner of the award for Excellence in Teaching, Matthew Hays, has not been given courses for the upcoming fall semester.

“It certainly felt ironic or bittersweet when I received my award and then within 48 hours was informed that I wasn’t getting classes in the fall semester,” said Hays.

When asked what Concordia can still offer students, President Alan Shepard had this to say: “We offer them a whole world, a whole environment. We are one of the most urban universities in the country, with that comes incredible energy, commitment, innovation, and a kind of a grittiness to education where we’re right in the middle, right in the thick of things, we have world class programs and they’re still world class. We have a lot of offer.”

For more information on Concordia’s 2013-2014 budget visit http://www.concordia.ca/about/administration-and-governance/office-of-the-chief-financial-officer/2013_2014

 

 

Categories
Music

A bloody good time

Photo Matteo Montanari
Photo Matteo Montanari

There are two types of Bloody Beetroots concertgoers in this world: those who flock to a local venue to bump to their DJ set, and those who are able to witness the magnitude of a raw, thrashing, deafening, honest-to-God instrumental live show – an experience denoted by the addition of the phrase “Death Crew 77” to the trademark Beetroots name.

On Thursday night, the Telus Theatre was fortunate enough to be hosting the latter type of performance. Even before the Italian electronica superpower took the stage, the air was thick with the crowd’s contagious enthusiasm, as well as enough body heat to power a small village. Stepping onto the dance floor just shy of 11:30 p.m., I caught the last hour of Los Angeles-based Valentino Khan’s set, who proved within a matter of moments to be a prolific table-turner and hypeman. After generating a reasonable amount of perspiration, the curtains closed on Khan and feverish anticipation started to build.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the stage revealed itself once again, the headliners storming the scene with a shred of the electric guitar and a blinding flash of pure white light radiating from the Bloody Beetroots logo covering the back wall, signature jagged font and all. As if a switch had gone off in every attendee’s brain, the crowd went from zero to 60 in no time. With every seismic release of high-powered bass and screeching instrumentals, the concertgoers responded by going positively ballistic, creating a mosh pit that would make any punk show tuck its tail between its legs and saunter away defeated. Attendees were knocking each other around like ragdolls and limbs flew every which way, with so much sweat being exchanged that it could have been used as currency. Next time I see these guys, I’ll be donning a football helmet and steel-toed boots.

A horizon of bobbing heads and migrating crowd surfers split the scene between the DJ’s and their worshippers below, as the Beetroots bounded across the stage slamming keyboards, commanding guitars and dominating the mic. The show was one long raunchy ribbon of seamless, endless, sublime noise, punctuated by crowd-pleasers like “Warp 1.9” (Steve Aoki was there in spirit), “Cornelius,” and “Dimmakmmunication,” the namesake of which gives a nod to their record label Dim Mak.

An hour and a half and a suburban above-ground pool’s worth of perspiration later, the curtains fell once again and the mob made its exasperated exodus to coat check.

Categories
Sports

Concordia athlete chosen to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Kris Robertson was selected as the first defensive back in the CFL Draft (Photo by Dom Bernier)

On Monday May 7, TSN aired the first two rounds of the Canadian Football League Draft and live streamed the final five rounds on their website.

Kris Robertson sat in front of his television to catch the first two rounds, perhaps more curious than anything to see who he might be competing against in the near future.

While Robertson knew he was going to get selected at some point, he was definitely not anticipating hearing CFL Commissioner, Mark Cohon, announce his name as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers second-round selection (11th overall) on national television.

“I didn’t expect to get drafted on TV. I was completely, completely, completely shocked,” said Robertson. “I was expecting to go in the third or fourth round, but to be drafted in the second round was like…whoa. It threw me off. It was

Kris Robertson was selected as the first defensive back in the CFL Draft (Photo by Dom Bernier)

very humbling.”

A native of Pickering, Ont., Robertson spent four seasons with the Concordia Stingers football team, becoming a force in the defensive backfield and in the kick return game. Robertson averaged 115.8 all-purpose yards per game last season as the team’s primary return man, while picking up four interceptions and returning two of them for touchdowns.

Robertson was one of three Stingers selected in the draft. Former Stingers punter Dumitru Ionita was selected 59th overall by the Calgary Stampeders, and defensive back/linebacker Paul Spencer was selected one pick later (the last one of the draft) by the defending Grey Cup champions the Toronto Argonauts.

Robertson’s name shot up the draft boards after an impressive showing at the national CFL Scouting Combine where he ran the fastest 40-yard dash (4.42 seconds), had the highest vertical leap (43 inches), and recorded the longest broad jump (10 feet, 5.5 inches).

Robertson credits the environment at Concordia, as well as people who moulded him, for teaching him valuable lessons during his four years as a Stinger.

“I would say the values of hard work,” he said. “You’ve got to work hard if you want something in life. Being at Concordia, there were numerous pro athletes around from the school, and they all worked hard. I was just following in the footsteps of other guys from the school that made it to the pro level.”

“All my coaches and my trainers, they prepared me for this point. My last year I had a really great defensive back coach in Mike White, and he pretty much got us ready for the pro level.”

The roads to one’s dreams are never without obstacles. Robertson fought through the adversity of having to watch from the sidelines for most of his first two seasons as a second-string player, but once he was given the opportunity to show his worth as a starter he never looked back.

Now he has a chance to establish himself as a professional athlete, and while the high selection represents the culmination of his life’s work, Robertson knows that it’s only going to get harder from here.

“I came from humble beginnings,” said Robertson, “I feel it’s a great accomplishment, but there’s still work to be done. I still have to make the squad; I still have to prove myself at the pro ranks.

“Getting drafted is a very nice feeling, and knowing that [Winnipeg] believed in me, but I know I still have a lot to prove.”

Categories
Opinions

Uncovering the bare truth

Image via Flickr
Image via Flickr

In the 1920s, Edward Bernays lifted the taboo on women smoking in public. The “father of public relations” achieved this by advertising cigarettes as “torches of freedom.” He was working for the American Tobacco Company.

Then as now, some projects carried under the banner of feminism have little to do with women’s rights. So it is important to analyze any claim, action, or individual that purports to be feminist. For example, what to make of groups like Femen and young women like Amina Tyler who use nudity as a tool to protest gender discrimination?

Of Tunisian descent, Tyler has posted nude self-portraits online with the following messages written across her chest: “Fuck your morals,” and “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour.” Apparently, these statements are aimed at the religious and conservative segments of her society. Likewise, Femen activists have held nude protests with anti-religious slogans written across bodies of protesters. Admittedly, many oppressive methods of control are practiced on women under the cover of religion. However, conservative values cannot be reduced to “bad,“ nor liberal values to “good.“ Most societies are a mix of both; because, pushed to the extreme, either set of values becomes undesirable.

For example, liberal dress codes can be just as oppressive for women as conservative ones. In theory, those of us living in liberal societies are free to wear what we want. But, implicitly, we are pushed to uncover, flaunt our figures, and compete for the attention of men. However, ads invariably remind us that we are not good enough. So, we are expected to spend much of our time, energy, and resources on perfecting our appearance. But reaching the unrealistic standards created through surgeries and Photoshop manipulations is impossible. Yet, we are expected to keep trying and spending.

A reasonable level of concern for our appearance is natural. But imposing this excessive, obsessive regimen on women is just as extreme as imposing an ultra-conservative dress code on us. Our bodies may not be “the source of anyone’s honour” but they have certainly become the source of corporate wealth.

The “I can do what I want with my body” argument, taken to its extreme, isn’t limited to dress code. For some, it has turned into a depressing cycle of loveless promiscuity, selfish individualism, emotional indifference, and a culture of loneliness. The ultra-conservative alternative, obsessed with virginity and built on the subservience of women, isn’t appealing either. It stifles diversity, leaves little room for personal agency, and leads to loveless marriages. But, as much as they need freedom to explore and nurture their unique qualities, individuals need the comfort and support of family and community. Whatever happened to meaningful relationships, complicity, true friendship? Liberalism, taken too far, has left people drifting in solitary states and filling the emotional void with antidepressants and excess consumerism.

These women’s obstinately one-sided interpretation of freedom equals their opponent’s obstinately one-sided interpretation of virtue. And the lack of nuance in their slogans is made worse by the lack of substance in their method. It’s not that there is something inherently wrong with nudity: if everyone walked around naked, it would cease to be controversial. Femen activists capitalizing on the controversy argue that their performances attract more attention than serious, academic work on feminism. But getting attention and offering a real understanding of gender discrimination is not the same. The latter can only be achieved through genuine conversation and substantive political work.

As it stands, public discourse brought on by these women’s activities is limited to the shallow issue of nudity. They claim that their body is a weapon, but a lecture by Gail Dines or Jean Kilbourne is much more threatening to the establishment than Femen’s marketing schemes.

Unlike Bernays who openly supported corporate power, these women claim to have social and political motivations. But their slogans and methods, perhaps unwittingly, serve the establishment Bernays worked for more than they serve women.

Categories
News

A change in tactics from the SPVM

Photo by Keith Race
Photo by Keith Race

The Montreal Police are enacting mass arrests through a municipal bylaw in an effort to stifle protests in the downtown core over the last few weeks.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal has come under fire from some demonstrators who feel the police are stifling their right to protest.

“The exercise of democracy has to be done without disruption to ensure that no unfortunate event take place. Those who cause disruptions have to be excluded from demonstrations, so that individuals who want to be heard can do so peacefully,” municipal bylaw P-6 states.

A few hundred people set out from Place Émilie-Gamelin last Friday night for a demonstration meant to remember the one-year anniversary of the massive March 22 student protest that took place last spring. The protest ended with 294 arrests including journalists from The Concordian and The Link.

Police officers kettled demonstrators at the intersection of de Maisonneuve Blvd. and St-Timothée St. before announcing the protest was over. Kettling is a riot tactic employed during protests to control crowds; police section off demonstrators from all sides before containing individuals to a limited area with only one exit in order to swiftly end the protest.

“I’m still trying to understand why journalists would be fined,” Hera Chan, the photo editor at The McGill Daily said. “We’re all members of community, however I don’t think it’s a correct method, I don’t believe police should use this method — at the end of the day who is going to write the story?”

Chan explains that even though she identified herself as a member of the press, she was still arrested and fined last Tuesday night during a student protest.

“I do see a change in enforcing the law, in much stricter fashion, trying to do mass arrests of entire protests,” Chan said. “As you can see by numbers, people who come out to the streets has gone down drastically but numbers arrested have not.”

Many people who were arrested received a fine of $637 under the violation of municipal bylaw P-6 according to the media relations of the SPVM. According to bylaw P-6, protesters must “provide by writing, eight hours in advance, the date, time, the duration, location, and if applicable, the route of the demonstration.” However none of the protests did so and so were declared illegal.

The law also states that individuals are prohibited to participate in a demonstration assembly, parade or group with your face covered, such as by a scarf, hood or a mask. The municipal bylaw was simultaneously passed at the same time as Bill 78 last year in order to limit demonstrations.

However, while the municipal bylaw was not quick to be applied last year, there has been a noticeable change in the last few weeks.

“I thought the protest was really disgraceful and disgusting how they arrested more than 250 people after five minutes of the protest,” said Université du Québec à Montréal student Camila Martinez-Lisle. “No disrupting activity had been made apart from walking in the street and chanting slogans.”

Martinez-Lisle believes that the SPVM has “been more and more aggressive and violent against protesters.”

Similarly, Montreal’s annual anti-police brutality march this year led to many arrests. More than 250 people were detained and ticketed the night of March 15.

Christopher Curtis, a former Concordia student and current reporter for The Gazette, was also kettled and detained during demonstrations for hours.

“For better or worse, the police will be deciding who is a legitimate media source and who eats a $600 ticket,” Curtis said. “And I think that means student media and some lesser known media outlets can’t be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Curtis explained that while in the kettle he asked protesters why they came and many said that some of their friends didn’t come because they weren’t willing to pay another $600 fine.

Several thousand protesters also took to the streets on March 5 for the education summit where Premier Pauline Marois announced the indexation of tuition fees by approximately three per cent per year indefinitely. The protest resulted in 72 people being detained, 62 protesters being ticketed for unlawful assembly and 10 arrested during clashes police officers.

The SPVM was unavailable to comment by press time.

With files from Kalina Laframboise

Categories
Music

Parenthetical Girls is all about the nitty gritty details

Press photo
Press photo

As the frontman of the audacious, theatrical, and visually striking Parenthetical Girls, Zac Pennington was refreshingly humble and grounded. Rattling off answers about his band, in which he plays alongside Amber W. Smith and Paul Alcott, Pennington managed to stay mentally afloat while wandering his surroundings looking for a store – a fuse had just blown during sound check.

“It’s always weird having these conversations because obviously, right now, I’m distracted in every capacity,” he said lightheartedly. “We have these 10 minutes to talk about stuff, and it’s very difficult to get to a place where it’s like we’re having a conversation rather than you asking me questions and me really awkwardly trying to answer.”

If it sounds like Pennington is familiar with the ins and outs of the ever-unpredictable interview process, it’s because he has now been on both sides of the telephone line: coinciding with the dawn of Parenthetical Girls was his stint as a music reporter.

“I got into writing largely because I had a relationship with music to begin with,” he said. “It was an easy thing to do as an offshoot of being involved with putting on shows and working on music.”

Having viewed the music world through a variety of artistic lenses, Pennington and his bandmates have confidently taken their image into their own hands. Based in Portland, the trio’s music videos supply eye-popping colours, sharp patterns, rich textures and a dash of the surreal. The final package digs its claws into the roots of the mind.

“The idea is for a vision of grandeur that’s maybe a little bit out of our reach,” said Pennington. “The concepts that we have created are supposed to work on their own, rather than to just comment on the concept of the [accompanying] song. They were supposed to be statements in and of themselves.”

While the videos are intended to be viewed and experienced from an artistic point of view, the lyrics supply the personal touches. More often than not, Pennington takes care of the songwriting, drawing inspiration from personal events and personal points of view. The rest of the music, of course, is collaboratively conceived.

As a precursor to their latest record, Privilege, Parenthetical Girls released the album in its entirety during a 15-month span in the form of five limited edition – think 500 copies per release – EPs. It was a rolling process, with each microcosm hitting the shelves as it was completed.

“The idea of a release series was as much a pragmatic decision as it was a creative one,” said Pennington. Typically slow and meticulous when making music, the prospect of having a couple of years to work on an album appealed to the band. “We were more comfortable working on the sort of tangents we might not otherwise consider were we working on a full length—and many of these experiments turned out to be some of the most gratifying pieces of the series.”

Following suit with their attention to aesthetic detail, each EP donned tailor-made artwork by Swedish artist Jenny Mörtsell. Aside from that, a series of short “commercial” videos as precursors to the Privilege releases. Directly inspired by Calvin Klein’s ‘80s campaign featuring Brooke Shields, they spoke to Pennington’s fascination with “the weirdly fetishized way they’ve been preserved for posterity—from distant televisions, to VHS, to transcodes onto the internet.”

Having released four albums and endless EPs and singles in the past 10 years, Parenthetical Girls boasts some steady output that has made for a progressive musical experience.

“The total lack of consistency in the band over course of its history has made for a fairly constant re-evaluation of what actually even constitutes ‘Parenthetical Girls’—every record that we’ve recorded has more or less been an entirely new band.”

Categories
Student Life

The speakeasy behind the red door

Big in Japan is located on 4175 St-Laurent Blvd. (Photo Sophia Loffreda)

Step behind the inconspicuous industrial red door and you will find yourself in an intimate, candlelit lair. Big in Japan, the speakeasy sister of the Japanese restaurant down the street, is one of Montreal’s best local gems.

In authentic speakeasy fashion, if you aren’t privy to the knowledge that Big in Japan lies nestled away next to Patati Patata, you would walk right past it.

Once inside, patrons are greeted with a rush of the prohibition era. Tea candles provide the only lighting, giving the room a dim and warm glow. Overhead, Japanese whiskey bottles hang from the ceiling, occasionally plucked one by one by the staff to serve anticipating mouths.

Seating is provided by barstools at the long glass tables that sit along the periphery of the room, so that when full, the bar becomes a sort of communal dining—aka drinking—room. The setting is intimate and you will seldom find the place empty. In fact, it is often busiest on weeknights.

Patrons range from nonchalant hipsters in plaid to the after-work, suit-clad crowd. Ambient music is just quiet enough to sit and read a book while sipping on your umeshu or Chu-Hi (Japanese plum liqueur and Japanese grapefruit yuzu, respectively.)

On a Friday during happy hour, the place was at quarter-capacity and my friend and I were able to actually have a conversation at an appropriate decibel level, though towards 7 p.m. people started to flock in in groups of two and threes.

The menu, having been recently revamped, features about a dozen signature cocktails, as well as perhaps the city’s most expansive list of Japanese wines, beers and whiskeys.

For groups, the punch bowl gets you quite a lot of bang for your buck. Changing the recipe every season, the punch bowl serves 22 saucers of alcohol for $65. The recipe of the moment is a concoction of gin, Pimm’s, mint, lemon and pomegranate. The fruit and mint merge together to disguise the taste of alcohol, to the point where I didn’t realize I was tipsy until I inevitably stood up and couldn’t feel my feet. The old menu used to include a half-size punch bowl for $35, which was ideal for two people to share. Just one fan’s opinion: bring that back!

The Yorkshire Lemonade, another new menu item, has been introduced to much acclaim. Made with gin, lemon, strawberry and cucumber, it is remarkably smooth and refreshing.

The Jamaican Mule is a medley of rum, mint, ginger syrup, tonic soda and lime. The drink tasted like summertime with a zesty ginger kick. The Abbé was definitely tequila-heavy, with a nuance of the other ingredients, being Benedictine, rhubarb and lemon.

The bar, which sits behind a glass semi-partition, also mixes up all the regular crowd-pleasers like whiskey sours and gin and tonic, although with such an interesting cocktail list, it would be foolish to get something so pedestrian.

Big in Japan offers some of the same Japanese snacks as the restaurant does, though it’s infinitely more wallet-friendly to satiate your hunger at one of the burger joints next door.

Cocktails range in price from $10 to $14 and the whiskeys and wines are available at just about every price point, to suit both the students and high-rollers who drink at this trendy watering hole.

 

Big in Japan is located on 4175 St-Laurent Blvd.

 

 

Categories
News

Protesting police brutality

Photo by Keith Race
Photo by Keith Race

Montreal’s 17th annual anti-police brutality march was a disjointed and hectic affair that led to the arrest of more than 250 people.

Service de police de la Ville de Montréal officers descended on the Friday evening protest early, separating groups of demonstrators and making arrests moments before the event began.

Officers clashed with small groups of protesters on Ste-Catherine St. near Place-des-Arts several times between 5 and 7 p.m.. The busy area was crowded with police, demonstrators and bystanders as officers used tear gas and concussion grenades to disperse crowds and form perimeters.

The protest informally ended when more than 200 people were placed under mass arrest on Ste-Catherine St. near Sanguinet St. where two large groups were surrounded by police, handcuffed and taken away in city buses. Kettling, a police tactic often used during last spring’s demonstrations against tuition fee increases and Bill 78, sees protesters contained within a limited area and provides only a single option of exiting. Journalists from several media outlets, including The Concordian and The Link, were also detained but released shortly after.

According to the SPVM, the majority of those arrested were in violation of municipal bylaw P-6. The controversial law, which was passed in the midst of last year’s student protests, forbids the covering of one’s face during a demonstration and demands that authorities be provided with a protest itinerary lest participation be declared illegal.

Those detained were given tickets and released before midnight.

The historically violent march began on a tense note with several hundred people gathered at the corners of Ontario St. and St. Urbain St. amidst a heavy police presence. Cavalry and riot squads attempted to block off the roads leading out of the square while other units moved through the crowd, searching protestors and making preventive arrests.

“You can see from the police here that the SPVM are becoming more efficient as a paramilitary force, and the problem is that this is exactly what people are protesting against,” said demonstrator Marc-Antoine Bergeron. “Evidently, the police don’t want this protest to even take place.”

The march was declared illegal minutes after 5 p.m. on the basis that a planned itinerary was not provided to police, and demonstrators were ordered to disperse.

At that point the march began to make its way south on St. Urbain St., but did not reach the end of the block. Police charged the group, breaking it into smaller factions that were then forced to flee a Sûreté du Quebec riot squad that materialized out of an underground parking garage.

The tactic disorganized the demonstrators, and they did not manage to re-form as a large collective. Smaller, splintered groups were confronted by police for the rest of the evening.

Twenty-two of the arrested face criminal charges that include obstruction of justice, disturbing the peace, outstanding arrest warrants and possession of incendiary objects. Two police officers were injured during the evening’s events.

The anti-brutality march has traditionally been notorious for violence. More than 200 people were arrested at last year’s event, at which a police cruiser was overturned and windows of businesses along the march’s route were smashed.

Police prepared for the worst Friday morning, going so far as to hand out flyers downtown warning the public to avoid the protest. By the march’s end, a few patrol cars that had been damaged with bricks were the only acts of vandalism reported.

Categories
Music

Nightlands uses midnight musings as musical fuel

Nightlands (Photo Catharine Maloney)
Nightlands (Photo Catharine Maloney)

Every night for two years, Dave Hartley, who plays music as Nightlands, would periodically rise from his slumber and sing, muse, or hum into a tape recorder. Suffering from “crippling writer’s block,” it was the only way that the musician was able to properly articulate any ideas that he considered valuable. The only issue was that these strokes of genius almost always made appearances in the dead of night.

“I would often hear songs while I was falling asleep or in the middle of the night when I was dreaming,” said Hartley. Unsatisfied with the material he was producing in his waking hours, he turned to unconventional measures.

“It took a lot of practice and was hard to do, but I started waking myself up and singing into a tape recorder,” he said. “A lot of it is just hilarious gibberish, real tongue-twisters and weird stuff that doesn’t make any sense. But occasionally, there are these little melodies and lyrical stuff.”

While Hartley currently has everything under control, from his sleep patterns to his musical career, it was not always the case: the Nightlands project owes its existence to a job layoff. “There was a three-year period where I was basically unemployed, and recording with [my other band] The War on Drugs,” he said. “I had a lot of time to be creative and experiment a bit, which is a luxury that not many people have, so I was lucky. The project was born out of that.”

As someone whose musical beginnings are rooted in playing the trumpet in elementary school, the bass guitar in high school and as a member of multiple bands over the years, it comes as no surprise that Hartley evolved into a multi-instrumentalist.

“By virtue of being musical and being around it, you pick things up.” His true musical awakening, however, happened in sunny Philadelphia.

“I feel like I came of age in Philly,” he said. “When you’re living in the suburbs and at college, you think you know what it’s like to be musical, but really, you’re just trying to get laid by playing music onstage. Then you meet people who are really doing something profound and it crushes what you thought you knew. I met a ton of really creative people who were dedicated to trying to do something that was pure.”

Since then, Nightlands has taken off, producing Forget the Mantra, his debut record, and Oak Island, which was released in late January. For those curious about the contents of the dream tapes, some of the tracks on the first record have samples lifted straight from them: “Fly, Neanderthal” starts off with a direct pull from one of the twilight recordings.

Oak Island sees less of such transposition, as Hartley shifted his attention towards other details.

“It was more about the recording process and writing songs in a more conventional way,” he said. “Not super conventional – I don’t sit down and write them on a guitar or anything, I just record and build these sound structures. I didn’t use any of the dream stuff, although I think the music is dreamy in its own way.”

Indeed, the sound that Nightlands possesses dances a line of haunting and comforting, undeniably dream-like and celestial. To Hartley, however, this does not dictate the omission of elements of weight and groundedness.

“I use a lot of major seventh chords,” he said. “You can describe those chords as being comforting, but not completely comforting – it’s kind of twisted. I tend to gravitate towards those sounds, and I don’t exactly know how to get them, but I’ll just mess around until I do.”

Similar concepts can be found on some of Hartley’s favourite albums, such as The Beach Boys’ Friends.

“The kind of music I like is the kind of music that rewards extended attention,” he said. “I know that if I overdub less vocals and mixed a single vocal much more forward, [my music] would be easier to listen to, and you could listen to it without having to lean in as much.”

But that’s not the Nightlands way. “Maybe someday, I’ll want to make a record that smacks [listeners] right in the face, but for now I’m more interested in the geeks and the nerds like me.”

 

Nightlands plays Il Motore with Efterklang on Friday, Mar. 22 at 8 p.m.. Tickets are $15.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Sports

The world’s ‘underground’ sport continues to gain popularity

La Racaille waits for the MTL Roller Derby round robin to start at the TAZ arena. (Photo Natasha Taggart)

Most wouldn’t consider roller derby to be a popular sport in Montreal but the few hundred people who showed up to watch MTL Roller Derby kick off their seventh season might beg to differ.

People from all over the city packed the TAZ Arena on Saturday to watch the round robin between the three Montreal home teams La Racaille, Les Contrabanditas and Les Filles du Roi.

Roller derby is by no means a new sport; it was popular back in the 1960’s and 70’s and has since had a bit of a revival.

La Racaille waits for the MTL Roller Derby round robin to start at the TAZ arena. (Photo Natasha Taggart)

Unlike many other sports, it doesn’t involve a ball or a net but has players from two five-person teams skating around a track. Each team chooses a scoring player, known as the jammer, who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams try to help their own jammer get around the track while trying to stop the other teams’ player from getting through.  The winning team must have the most points at the end of the 30-minute halves.

Despite the sport’s relatively recent growth in popularity, it still remains a somewhat secret to those who aren’t involved in the community.

“It’s not known in the public and in the mainstream,” said Smack Daddy, a player on the New Skids on the Block all-star team. “So these kinds of communities end up really close, since it’s an underground thing.”

In addition to playing on the all-star team, Smack Daddy is involved in the boot camp session that takes place after the season ends in August.

The girls are put through a series of tests where wannabe players learn different aspects of the sport, including how to skate.

“We start off with about 80 girls, and then about 40 girls who have passed the levels and are ready to be on a smash squad or join one of the home teams,” explained Smack Daddy.

She says while many girls who go through boot camp have previous experience playing contact sports, it isn’t a requirement to try out.

“People come into it with never having played a sport before, and there’s room in the league for them, too,” she said.

Gunmoll Mindy, captain of Les Contrabanditas, has been playing derby for six years and says the sport has come a long way since she first started playing.

“At first they would strap skates to you, throw you out there and tell you ‘try not to hurt yourself’,” she said. “Now, it’s an organized sport that draws huge crowds and is highly professional.”

For the players and organizers of MTL Roller Derby, the sport is something much more than just a game.

“There is a serious sisterhood in terms of derby,” said Smack Daddy. “The whole community is such a hodgepodge of diversity of different [sexual orientations], interests, body shapes and sizes, regardless we’re all together with this love of roller derby which makes a really intense bond.”

Gunmoll Mindy agrees, and likens the derby community to a family.

“To be able to walk into this and have 80 people who are your family is amazing. These guys will do anything for you,” she said. “We really have a tight-knit group.”

Though the rules have changed slightly since the ‘60s – now, there’s no punching allowed – derby is still a physically demanding contact sport.

When it comes to playing against friends in such a physical sport, once the whistle blows it’s important to remember that you’re all there for fun, says Smack Daddy.

“At the end of every jam you’ve got to give them a hug or high five because it’s so intense.”

“It’s hard here, we all skate together in practice and then we all have to hit each other in the games,” said Gunmoll Mindy. “You just have to turn it off and say ‘this person is my enemy and I will knock them down’.”

The Montreal Sexpos will play the Lumbersmacks on April 6 at the TAZ arena located at 8931 Papineau. Tickets can be purchased at mtlrollerderby.com.

 

Photos by Natasha Taggart

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