the newspapertoronto’s student community paper www.thenewspaper.cawww.thenewspaper.ca

November 15 2007

Vol. XXX No. XI

On any given night, you can fi nd some gender-bending joy at Goodhandy’s on Church street. On this particular night, I was lucky enough to be there for the Zaas brother’s inaugural production: Kiss My Zaas! Drag kings

extraordinaire Aidan and Justin Zaas put together an entertaining, engaging and exciting line-up. In what could best be described as a queer variety show, the program ran from pop song lip-syncs to heartfelt acoustic blues to sardonic drag, all anchored by the irrepressible and politically

incorrect Mandy Goodhandy. The show defi nitely catered to the crowd of local dykes that night, but anyone with a half-open mind would have had a blast. I’ve been lucky enough to see the Zaas brothers perform before, and they have been consistently improving. It certainly says

something about their skill and the notoriety they’ve garnered in the local queer community that they had the talent and enough of a following to spawn their own production.

While the Zaas’ are not infallible, I’ve never been disappointed. Case in point: I remember one drag king show where every person up there did a predictable ballad or R&B (like Elvis or Usher etc). But, as the last act of the night, the Zaas brother came out and did a kick-ass performance of “Cowboys from Hell” by Pantera. It’s the fi rst and last time I can ever remember hearing heavy metal at a Toronto drag show.

Criticisms of the show might include a LONG intermission and, most poignantly, a lack of any cohesive theme running throughout the acts. While it was a good queer variety show, there was not enough to defi nitively mark it as the Zass’ variety show.

If you haven’t been out to Goodhandy’s yet, you might want to take a look. If you haven’t met Aidan or Justin Zaas yet, get you Zaas out to a show!

Fiction has long been a useful way of commenting on contem-porary events. Through well-crafted narration and charac-ters, fi ctional writing can add a unique sense of perspective to the discourse on current affairs. It also isn’t subject to the same kind of time-sensitivity as jour-

nalistic writing is; a great novel is great for generations. Author Ian Holding’s fi rst novel Unfeel-ing tells a story of the crisis cur-rently playing itself out in his homeland Zimbabwe. The novel is the story of a boy who lost his parents and home during President Robert Mugabe’s farm seizure program. Mugabe launched the program in the late 90’s with

Ian Holding

Talks With

the newspaper

About His Book

A Degree

In Violence

On Thursday, November 8th at North Albion Collegiate In-stitute a community meeting hosted by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) was held to discuss the possibility of opening "Black focused schools" by fall 2008. The issue of the quality of education within the African and Caribbean commu-nities is not new, and because it has been failing so many Af-

rican-Canadian youths, many have called for an alternative to the current curriculum.

With both TDSB Offi -cials and school Trustees pres-ent, attendees were broken up into groups to discuss the issue. On November 28 the motion will be brought forward to the TDSB as to whether or not such schools will be opened by fall 2008.

BLACK FOCUSED

SCHOOLSARE THEY THE ANSWER FOR

TORONTO’S BLACK YOUTH?

By Steven Borowiec

By Matthew Pope

By Arsheen Devjee By Tamika Royes

See Ian Holding cont. pg. 5 See Schools cont. pg. 5See Toronto 18 cont. pg. 2

Before May of 2007, 12 of the arrested were held in Maple-hurst maximum security prison under strict isolation. Confi ned in a cell no larger than 8’x6’, the accused were meant to spend 23 hours a day locked in some-thing akin to a small public washroom. According to Saima Mohammad, sister of one of the accused, the daily one hour

‘range’ time was frequently not honoured, leaving the accused to endure 24 hour stints of iso-lation. Solitary confi nement continued for virtually 11 months between June 2006-May 2007, during which time the in-mates ate alone and had little social interaction. The allotted time for

Gender Bender !Zaas Brothers Drag Race Through Gay Town

Zaas Brothers take the stage at Goodhandy’s on Church Street.

The Destructive Nature

of Solitary Con" nementPart Three of the newspaper’s

Toronto 18 Follow-up Series

the newspaper Pro" les Coheed and Cambria as Well as Their Guitars

Terri Hatcher Doesn’t Like to Watch Re-Runs Either

2 the newspaper 15 November 2007

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daily showers was also fre-quently neglected leaving prisoners without such ame-nities for sometimes over a week. As Maplehurst prison is not built to house prisoners for more than 60 days, the facility is not equipped with a library, gym, or variety of food. According to another sister of one of the accused, Beenish Gaya, the inmates were served the same food every day, which was either burnt or in some cases raw meat.

According to Sarah Kobsa, an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto in Criminology stud-ies, “a host of social and be-havioral effects present them-selves as a result of prolonged isolation; often dependent on individual and context”. Re-search indicates a relationship between solitary confinement and mental health problems such as depression. In com-parison to the general prison population, prisoners held in solitary confinement are more likely to hold suicidal tenden-cies. After the court found

isolation to be unwarranted, 9 of the accused underwent a change of conditions. Cur-rently, they are two people per prison cell, with much more range time a day. Despite these im-provements three of the ac-cused were taken to the To-ronto Don Jail, where they continue to be isolated. At the Don Jail, the inmates are allowed visits twice a week from approved guests and two phone calls a day. These three prisoners are also al-lowed isolated yard time but according to Mohammad this time is not typically in the

light of day. Fahim Ahmed, is one of the accused being held in the Toronto Don Jail and recently gave an interview with the Toronto Star. In this interview Ahmed exclaimed, “my whole world now is a 6x4x10 room," he says. "It's become normal in a not very good sense. You wake up and know you will be in this room the whole day. There's no hope of anything. ... It gets to you mentally. You don't know where you're going, how long it's going to take. It drives you crazy.”

the newspaperEditor-in-Chief

Sean Liliani

Managing Editor

Joe Zabukovec

News Editor

Steven Borowiec

Arts Editor

Niya Bajaj

Associate Editor

Timothy Ryan

Art Director

Brendan Keen

Copy Editor

Rehaana Manek

Contributors

Stephen Notley, Alan Osadetz, Tamika Royes,

Matthew Pope, Arsheen Devjee, Mike Kuo,

Drew, Nina Manasan, Tia Maryanne Kim,

Victor Rohm,

1 Spadina Crescent,

Suite 245

Toronto, Ontario,

M5S 1A1

editorial:(416) 593-1552

fax: (416) 593-0552

www.thenewspaper.ca

Photo Editor

Evan Jordan

Suspects Struggle With Solitary Con!nement

Is the Pen Mightier Than the Dollar?The Writers’ Strike Continues...

Toronto 18 cont. from pg. 1

Nobody likes reruns. In fact, I can think of few things more annoying than aimlessly flip-ping through the channels only to find that nothing is on. Recent events in Hollywood lead me to believe that I’m probably going to be doing a lot of aimless channel-flipping for the next little while.

I am, of course, re-ferring to the Writer’s Guild of America’ s (WGA) strike against its employer, the Al-liance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). It is a result of con-tract negotiation conflicts be-tween the two groups. Begin-ning on November 5th, the strike immediately sent all late night talk shows (i.e. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Colbert Report etc.) into reruns, and its viewers into a tailspin

of depression. The strike will soon affect several primetime and daytime shows like Des-perate Housewives and Days of our Lives. Reality shows, which are surely unscripted, should not be affected.

The most unnerv-ing long-term implication of the strike is that many shows may not carry through to the end of their season. Even more disconcerting is the fact that the last time the WGA went on strike in 1988, it lasted 22 weeks. The strike also profoundly affects Cana-dian networks like CTV and Global, whose programming consists almost entirely of American shows. For the Ca-nadian viewing public, this could mean having to turn to Canadian programs like Cor-ner Gas or worse –the CBC- for entertainment. The details

are grim and they cause me to ask questions, like “why God why?!” and “what did I ever do to deserve this?!” and even “why did Britney shave her head?!”

The only positive thing about this seemingly hopeless situation is that in addition to putting some of the best shows on hold, the strike also puts some of the worst shows on hold. For ex-ample, what is the world c o m i n g to when a show called Dirty, Sexy, M o n e y makes it to air?

F o r many, the

strike could mean having to face a long, cold winter with-out new episodes of their favourite shows. As for me, I’ll be settling in to watch my new McDreamy –Peter Mans-bridge- on The National.

By Nina Manasan

the newspaper 315 November 2007

Master of Management& Professional AccountingMMPA

Thursday, November 29

Room 127, Rotman School of Management, St. George

Wednesday, December 5

Room 134, Rotman School of Management, St. George

It’s nearing the time of year when the weather is colder than Hilary Clinton’s vagina and al-ready you are looking ahead five months from now. The light at the end of the tunnel: sum-mertime. You cheer yourself up with thoughts of the typical activities we all associate with summertime, such as: trips to the beach, rollerblading in a tank top, street festivals, getting stoned, and purchasing a new set of dumbbells. Suddenly, you are disturbed from your medi-tative state when it hits you: “Holy shit! I need to find a job for the summer.” If you’re in your last year, and if you’re not in Phys. Ed., it’s likely you will be interviewing for a permanent position that will start your ca-reer. In this edition of Jock Talk I will explore simple, proven techniques for nailing that big interview, and if deemed ap-

propriate, the interviewer. Interview skills vary

depending on the type of job you are applying for, but there are some generic tricks of the trade that will put you on top. To start off, I cannot stress the importance of your bench press. The immediate consequences of pumped up pectorals include respect, trust, and admiration. In addition, people will be aware of the fact that you copu-late frequently.

A lot of job hunters are erroneously advised to start off an interview by making a joke, but think about it; do you really want to be laughed at? If you want to stand out, the second you walk in the door make firm eye contact with the interview-er and give them some subtle flexing. While shaking hands, scratch the back of your head with your free hand and give

them a taste of your biceps. If there are multiple in-

terviewers, alternate the hand you use to shake theirs so they can preview your symmetry, in addition to your muscular-ity (these are also the two main categories the judges use in the Mr. Olympia competitions and have been scientifically proven to be the most important hu-man attributes).

Just remember: it’s all about first impressions. The way you look and carry your-self is of much more important than your answers to their ques-tions. Demonstrate your leader-ship abilities by cutting the in-terviewer off in the middle of a question to inquire “How much weight are you putting up on the squat rack these days?”

Show that you are a team player. If the interviewer is attractive (or even somewhat attractive), unbutton your shirt to suggest that the two of you pork. Your newly found em-ployers will anxiously cross off the days on their calendars until you finish school and start work.

Illu

stra

tion

by

Yoo

jin

Gu

ak

the jock talk by Alan Osadetz

A Few Helpful Hints Concerning

Job Interviews

4 the newspaper 15 November 2007

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Formed over a decade ago Co-heed and Cambria have expe-rienced much success despite the hurdles they have had to overcome. A quick scan of this band’s bio might leave you doubtful of their future, even with a new album to promote.

As I sat with Travis Stever, gui-tarist and co-founder, he tried to deny the severity of the past. “There hasn’t been a lot of leaving and coming back. The way that it really was is this: Josh [Eppard] and Mike [Todd] left for their own reasons and neither of them came back

for some time. We did have a couple guys playing with us and one of them actually stuck around for quite awhile –his name is Matt Williams. Then when we hooked up with Chris [Pennie, their current drum-mer] and it just clicked. And so this has been the way it is for

Keeping Your Band

(and Shit) Together

awhile.” Still not convinced and knowing full well that admit-ting there is a problem is the first step to recovery, I questioned him further on the topic. He got a little defensive. “It’s been this way for a bit. It’s not like people just come and go all the time. This band is not like a revolving door! I just thought you should know… this is the way that we are and it’s going to stay like this. We’re very happy and excited about

the way things are going.” Denial. I attempted an-other approach. The members of the band all have side projects and I thought that this might have played a role in weaken-ing the cohesion of Coheed. “No. Absolutely not. We all like different kinds of music and we all understand that about each other. We’re all going to be doing something with music constantly. This [Co-heed and Cambria] comes first obviously; we’ve just released an album and we’re going to be on tour for a long time. It works out. Okay? It works out, and it has never been a problem.” Anyone familiar with Coheed and Cambria is aware that their albums chronicle a sto-ryline of two characters invent-ed in the mind of lyricist and lead vocalist, Claudio Sanchez. Their new album, No World for Tomorrow, is the conclusion to that narrative and it has been said in past interviews that the

next albums will likely take the popular Star Wars route -pre-quels. I thought that there might

have been some pressure to fin-ish the story. “No, it’s not really like that. The story is from Claudio

and he had already decided that it would end. In a way it kind of worked out perfect and it was ideal. With all the shit we’ve been through in the past year it’s the perfect ending to the saga. I don’t know if you’re going to ask me a question later about this [I wasn’t], but there

is a lot of reality to the lyrics. Either from Claudio’s personal life or things that we’ve been through in the past year, espe-cially what we went through with the whole band situa-tion.”He paused as if to choose his next words carefully. “Things got pretty fucked up for a bit I guess.” Denial is extremely un-healthy and I thought that Ste-ver had made a big step with me that day by admitting that the band’s problems were not something invented by the me-dia. With the past behind him, he left with an optimistic view of the future. “This album is a fresh new start and it makes us more excited for the next ones. There will be no hang ups, it’ll just be us working as a team without having to worry about a god-damn thing.”

Coheed and Cambria“Things got pretty

fucked up for a bit

I guess. “

By Joe Zabukovec

band pro!le

Travis Stever of Coheed and Cambria just loving the Les Paul

the newspaper 515 November 2007

Raine Maida is best known as frontman for Our Lady Peace, one of Canada’s biggest bands throughout the 90’s. In the past couple of years he’s been on his own and has just released Hunt-ers Lullaby on November 13th. I sat down with him to discuss other ways in which he passes his time.the newspaper: When I go to your website, it’s very evident that you promote a lot of chari-table organizations. When did this start? Raine Maida: “I think it started early on, maybe high school. I remember seeing U2 do a thing on the coast of Ireland, pro-testing there and through that I learned about Amnesty and joined that, then joined Green-peace. It’s always been there. Now, with the charitable work it just seemed natural to go there. People are much more active and aware. It’s just been a very organic process.”tn: Do you feel that as a some-

By Joe Zabukovec

Sits down with the newspaper to discuss international charities and

how the Canadian identity is being destroyed

Raine Maida

Why did (most) humans lose their body hair? We are the only hair-less primates on the planet (although there are some ex-ceptions, particularly the were-wolf-like creeper at the AC who insists on walking around the men’s change room with his towel on his shoulders). There are a number of theories as to why we lost our hair along the evolutionary path. One sug-gests that around 6-8 million years ago an ancestral species of ours became dependent on hunting in shallow waters. Fur, being a terrible insulator in wa-ter, was thus replaced by fat re-serves, which retains heat more effectively in colder water (see the blubbery mess that is a wal-rus). A newer and more prac-tical theory, states that we lost our fur in order to reduce the prevalence of external parasites that routinely infest fur (again, there are exceptions, such as a former classmate of mine whose hair jumped whenever his lice did). Hair provides a safe living and breeding environment for insects such as ticks, lice, biting flies and other ecto-parasites that can carry bacterial and vi-ral infections with them such as malaria, sleeping sickness and West Nile. Don’t read this and Nair your entire body, simply continue to take daily showers.

Cure my hangover. Hangovers suck, and 25% of college students experi-ence them once a week. So what is the most efficient cure? When you drink (too much), the alcohol enters your blood stream via your stomach and small intestine. The lining of the stomach becomes irritat-ed and prompts the stomach to release hydrochloric acid (HCl), which in high concentrations in your stomach result in nausea and vomiting (as a way to ex-tract the alcohol from your sys-tem). The alcohol, once in your bloodstream, is quite dangerous and is thus broken down into acetaldehyde by enzymes. Acetaldehyde is the Al-Qaeda that terroriz-es your head the morning after. What does this mean? You can re-hydrate yourself; that is the easy and instinctive response. To cure a hangover though, you need to replenish the electrolytes and blood sugars you pissed out the previous night. Blend milk, banan-as, a small amount of chocolate, and an as-

pirin (for obvious reasons) to-gether. The bananas are very high in potassium and choco-late contains a lot of sugars (in addition to tasting great). To counteract that bastard acetal-dehyde, eat a greasy egg break-fast. The eggs contain large amounts of cysteine, a naturally produced amino acid which counteracts the acetaldehyde, assisting in its removal from your system while the fat helps lower the HCl concentration in the stomach. This is the reason why hung-over patrons instinc-tively migrate to all-day break-fast joints on Sunday mornings.

the science

the stated intention of evening out Zimbabwe’s distribution of arable land between the white and black populations. Prior to the redistribution, commercial farming in Zimbabwe was al-most exclusively in the hands of descendents of the colonial British population. Mugabe once stated that he held a “degree in vio-lence” and has built his politi-cal life on his reputation as the leader of the resistance move-ment that achieved the coun-try’s independence, turning it from Southern Rhodesia to Zimbabwe in 1980. In the late 90’s, he claimed that a program of redistribution was needed to provide Black Africans with a

larger share of Zimbabwe’s ag-riculture industry. What would follow were violent seizures of estates where farmers would often receive phone calls in the middle of the night telling them they had a few minutes to va-cate their properties or deal with the angry, gun-toting mob outside their door. The novel is written in powerful prose and tells an en-gaging, yet tragic story. When I sat down with Holding in his publisher’s office on a rainy afternoon, he told me he drew inspiration to tell this story from a student of his who went through experiences similar to the book’s main character. Holding explained that Zimbabwe’s whites recognize the colonial history of the coun-try and have no problem with the concept of land redistribu-tion. Their problem is with the way the program was carried out. “It was violent, it was bar-baric, and it never helped the people it was supposed to help, which were the landless Black peasants. Instead all the farms went to government cronies who now aren’t even cultivat-ing the land. It’s lying barren. We’ve gone from being a coun-try that produced a surplus of food that fed all our neighbors to not even being able to feed ourselves.”

Ian Holding

Discusses

Mugabe’s

“Barbaric” Land

Redistribution

Program

Toronto District

School Board to

Analyze Current

System for

Inequalities

“It was violent, it was

barbaric, and it

never helped the

people it was

supposed to help,

which were the

landless Black

peasants.”

Numerous attendees at the meeting voiced concerns over the need to have a support system in place once a student is suspended or identified as having problems. Many par-ents in attendance felt that the practices of the TDSB were sub-liminally racist and sought to ostracize black youth.

The current Eurocen-tric curriculum was discussed as one of the main reasons why black youths feel misrepresent-ed by what is being taught. Par-ents submitted that they want to see their tax dollars being used in an education system that is benefiting their youth and not further marginalizing them.

There will be continu-ous meetings about "Black fo-cused schools" until the motion is presented to the TDSB on the 28th of this month. The next few weeks will provide the TDSB with a good opportunity to ana-lyze the racial inequalities that exist within the system. While implementing one or two black focused schools will not solve the overwhelming problems that are affecting black youth, changing the Euro-centric cur-riculum would.

Ian Holding cont. from pg. 1

Schools cont. from pg. 1

Timothy Ryan + Questions = Answers

what popular musician it is your responsibility to contrib-ute to these causes?RM: “Noam Chomsky stated that ‘people with a public the-atre should engage themselves actively’ and I don’t agree with that. I think essentially you need to want to do something. If you’re out there politically or socially it’s because you’re breaking through all of the mis-information you’re presented with in the news, and you’re trying to dig deeper and find truth. Not everyone’s built to do that, or has the capacity to do that, or even wants to do that, but I would think as a musician that that kind of stuff would be a part of my life.”

tn: Is there one charity in par-ticular that stands out from the rest?RM: “War Child has been very close to my heart for the past six years, ever since I went to Iraq. Only because they’re very... I don’t want to say oth-er charities are dishonest, but

War Child is very honest. Most charities spend 50-60% of their budget on marketing and buy-ing LCD’s; War Child spends less than 10% [on marketing]. If they tell you your money is going to a project in Afghani-stan to feed kids or to set up a program in Darfur, then that’s what’s going on.”

tn: Does that influence your music?RM: “That stuff is just a part of me as a person and if it’s there then yeah it’s in the music. Po-litically I pay attention. I wake up listening to Democracy Now! instead of watching CNN. All that bullshit clouds your brain …it’s difficult to find the right news.”

tn: Is there something that you find problematic about the way Canada’s government is func-tioning right now?RM: “I look back three years ago where Canada was headed and it’s always a big debate on the issue of our identity, how

we’re different from the U.S., when we end up being so in-fluenced. Three years ago I thought wow we’re really start-ing to distance ourselves from them. The Canadian identity was budding and now I think with the Conservative govern-ment and Harper and us in Af-ghanistan there’s a real prob-lem. I think since the second World War Canada has had this spawned responsibility of being the peacekeepers of the world and that’s a great fit for this country. It kind of simpli-fies the social fabric of Canada, and that’s being destroyed by the Harper government.”

6 the newspaper 15 November 2007

the newspaper reviews new albums

Dissed Discs

It must be tough to follow in the footsteps of Avril Lavi-gne. Her brand of acceptable pop-punk spawned an entire generation of copycat-sk8ter-girl artists, all claiming to be the real thing. It’s a challenge that I’m sure Skye Sweetnam knows all too well. From the second ‘Billy S.’ hit the airwaves in 2003, Sweetnam has fought fight tooth and nail to distin-guish herself as a unique artist.

Her latest album, aptly ti-tled Sound Soldier is yet another attempt to establish individu-ality, and twelve tracks later it becomes painfully obvious that she’s no Avril Lavigne. The mu-sic is heavier, the lyrics are raw-er (in one song alone she talks about S&M) and the packaging is definitely more badass. But despite all this, the album fails to offer anything original. It’s

an awkward blend of high en-ergy instrumentals and crappy pop lyrics about boys and how they like, totally suck and stuff. It’s basically a repackaged ver-sion of what she was selling be-fore, only “edgier”.

The album’s saving grace are the two tracks “Ghosts” and “Into Action” featuring Tim Armstrong. And even then they’re only good because they sound like Rancid tracks. I’ll admit though, she does deserve credit for working with the punk icon. Hell, I’m impressed that she even knew who he was.

In short, any album that makes me long for the days of “Billy S.” needs to be destroyed, or at the very least turned into a really colourful coaster.

By Nina Manasan

Lions for Lambs

Manda Bala

Directed by:Robert Redford

Directed by:Jason Kohn

Starring:Robert Redford Meryl StreepTom Cruise

Disco 4

Sound Soldier

The Pet Shop Boys (PSB), the critically acclaimed Brit-ish electronic music duo, have released the fourth album in their Disco series entitled Disco 4. Like the other Discos this LP is a compilation of remixes de-signed for the dance-floor, and that’s where this album will sound the best: loud and with a powerful subwoofer that will rock you to the beat.

The PSB have been in the music scene since 1987 and have released 18 records and sold more than 50 million cop-ies. Disco 4 revolves around a totally new concept; the remix-es, are made by the PSB them-selves, unlike the other Discos where PSB songs are remixed by other DJs.

The Killers, Madonna, Rammstein and David Bowie all have a song remixed on the album. The diversity of genres

used proves the talent of the PSB, but unfortunately all songs tend to sound the same. Personal favourites include the remixes of ‘Sorry’ by Madonna and ‘Hooked On Radiation’ by Atomizer. With their rapid rhythm, these two may cause immediate addiction.

The central piece of Disco 4 is the ‘Integral’ remix, which also happens to be a PSB song. ‘Integral’ is politically motivated and focuses on the issues surrounding ID cards and their repercussions within society. The PSB believe that ID cards contribute to the deterio-ration of personal freedom and privacy. The music video to the song can be found on Youtube or on the PSB official site: www.petshopboys.co.uk/.

By Victor Rohm

The PetShop Boys

Skye Sweetnam

Squirming in the absolute worst possible seats imagin-able (front row, furthest stage left, last seat in the corner), I ex-pected to see an hour and a half of equally painful images. But despite some nasty reviews on TommyKat's/Robert Redford directed new flick, Lions For Lambs, was actually quite good.

Jason Kohn’s aestheti-cally stunning debut, documen-tary Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), was clearly a labour of love. The film is a shocking presentation of the schism between rich and poor in Sao Paolo. The kaleido-scopic opening: panoramic heli-copter shots over Brazilian sky-scrapers spliced with the swarm of tadpoles in a frog farm sets up the film’s visual allegory. Kohn skillfully juxtaposes the cannibalism of frogs with the remorseless greed and corrup-tion of the Brazilian elite.

reviewsYeah I know, there have

been about five trillion other wartime/Afghanistan/Iraq/military movies, but this one didn't drone and doze on with unnecessary, lagging details. Every scene kept me wondering and served a purpose to build up to the climax and enhance the characters’ backgrounds.

The film intertwines a prestigious university profes-sor (Redford) and two of his brightest students, (also his best friends) who enlist in the U.S Army to prove that they won't become part of the face-less mesh of status quo privi-leged American society. Maybe this sounds a bit cheesy, but the bond between the trio grips your heart; when their plane over Afghanistan is attacked and Ernest (Michael Pena) falls out of the plane, Arian (Derek Luke of Antwon Fisher) jumps

out after to save him.The adjacent storyline

involves Cruise, a rising Repub-lican Senator, revealing his new strategy for war to a prominent journalist, played by Meryl Steep. Her character battles the moral dilemma between her professional and personal viewpoints on the country’s war campaign.

It isn't supposed to be a preachy, epic, hero flick. These films set out to give a basic mes-sage to people to re-think our society and its wars. It did just that. As students who are edu-cating ourselves to better our world, we can definitely relate to the stance and perspective in which the movie firmly foots it-self. So go see it.

By Tia Maryanne Kim

The film is framed by interwoven interviews: a police officer who eagerly shows off his personal gun collection and bullet wounds; a ski-masked kidnapper with a mouthful of braces, who laughingly discuss-es his first murder; a paranoid businessman obsessed with bul-letproofing his Porsche; Brazil’s lackadaisical Attorney General; a corrupt frog farmer; and Jader Barbahlo, a money-laundering politician who named a favela after himself. Finally, an ear-less kidnapping victim and her plastic Surgeon, who sculpts new ears out of the victim’s own rib cartilage.

This is not a documen-tary for journalism students. It’s shot on saturated cinemas-cope stock (1960s meets CSI Mi-ami) and there is a questionable dependence on samba music. Not everyone feels like dancing

when they’re watching a home video of a kidnapped child screaming for his mother. Kohn possesses an abil-ity to capture the essence of his subjects; he films entire discus-sions in Portuguese without subtitles, allowing you to focus on intonation and gesture. And the beauty of his visual symbol-ism is astounding as you watch an extraordinarily lustful cut shot of a socialite in glossy lip-stick chomping off a frog’s leg. Kohn opens a dialogue that catches the audience off guard. Jader is arguably the most pow-erful man in Brazil and he’s caught on tape in a Bill Clinton moment; a kid with his hand in the cookie jar —two billion dol-lars in federal funding gone.

By Evan Jordan

8 the newspaper 15 November 2007 backpage

Where the Fuck is This?

You’ve seen it before, but you just can’t put your finger on it...If you can, e-mail the newspaper at thenewspaper@gmail.com. First correct answer gets a prize. Last week it was Birge-Carnegie Library.

Photo by... we can’t even tell you!

If you could apply yourselfone more time,

it might be worth it.

The Awards of Excellence will once again recognize the achievements

of our most outstanding students. Until Monday, November 26, 2007 at 5:00 p.m.,

the University of Toronto Alumni Association invites students

to apply for these 2008 scholarships and awards.

JON S. DELLANDREA AWARD

FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

JOHN H. MOSS SCHOLARSHIP

ADEL S. SEDRA DISTINGUISHED

GRADUATE AWARD

As many as three scholarships of up to $10,000 each forinternational students in their second, third or fourth year ofan undergraduate program. The award recognizes academicperformance and extra-curricular leadership.

A scholarship of up to $16,650 awarded to a graduating student demonstrating academic achievement and extra-curricular involvement in his or her undergraduate career.

A fellowship of up to $25,000 recognizing a doctoral candidate, insecond or third year, for his or her academic excellence, extra-curricular activities and involvement in university life.

For forms and further information, please visit www.alumni.utoronto.ca or

contact Ruth Zuchter at 416-978-2171 or ruth.zuchter@utoronto.ca

Division of University Advancement

J. Robert S. Prichard Alumni House

21 King's College Circle

Bob the Angry Flower By Stephen Notley

thec o m i c s

I’ll Sudoku You!This Week’s Problem

Last Week’s Solution

TOOTHPASTE FOR DINNER BY DREW

The Zenlightened Ones By Mike Kuo

Hello, my name is Tia and I am an Eco-holic. I am not ad-dicted to stress-relieving shots of Jose Cuervo, nor a casual six rum and cokes a night. Instead, I have an insatiable thirst for saving our kind friend Planet Earth. Yes, I droop my head in shame to say that I was a for-mer enemy of the earth. Did I care about the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle)? No. I tossed those pretty purple Raisin Bran boxes and Styrofoam cartons into the gut of the landfill. Did I care about water conservation? Nope. 35-40 minute showers were my nighttime beauty regi-men. But now, I am proud to admit I’m a green girl and have never felt better. Adria Vasil, an envi-ronmental activist and writer of NOW Magazine’s ‘Eco-holic-

When You’re Addicted to the Planet’ column, spoke at Hart House a couple weeks ago. Her recent national bestseller titled: ‘Eco-Holic- Your Guide To the Most Envi-ronmentally Friendly Informa-tion, Products, and Services in Canada’ is chock-full of valu-able green info. In the words of envi-ronmental guru David Suzuki, “…The small steps cost us little in the way of effort, money or time, but the cumulative effects can be enormous…”

Here are some super-easy ways to do your part:

1) Did you know that cell phone and computer chargers, lamps and DVD players are real- life “Energy Vampires”? They suck up power even if they’re not

technically set to “on”. 2) Ah yes, my former weakness: Take shorter showers! Did you know that for every minute in the shower, you’re coating yourself in 30 litres of water? 3) The R-word. RECYCLE. I just adore seeing people toss their Coke bottles and Starbucks va-nilla non-fat lattes into the gar-bage, when the recycling bin inhabits the area an entire one-inch away.4) Push corporations to use re-cycled materials. Starbucks’ cups are made from 10% post-consumer recycled fibers, which may not sound like much but it saves about 75,000 trees a year! Our other on-the-go coffee pal Tim Horton’s is killing the planet. They use no recycled products. Write them a letter to complain and encourage the switch.

Greener is GooderA Few Tips for Students Who Want to Do Their Part