The McMaster Association of Part-time Students (MAPS) Executive Director's seat is occupied once again – but not by Sam Minniti. His replacement, Kyle Johansen, is a corporate crisis professional who has been brought in to pick up the pieces and get the organization back on its feet. His mandate is simple: to expedite the implementation of solid governance, operational transparency and financial accountability. It's the execution that's going to be complex.

“The current board – who are exceptionally dedicated individuals – were put in the difficult position of learning about a problem while simultaneously trying to solve it,” Johansen explained. “My objective is to look at what was missing that allowed the problems to occur, and using my experience and current best practice evidence, create a new approach that attends to the original issues, and proactively protects the organization going forward.”

In light of the allegations of financial mismanagement of MAPS, the mandate of financial accountability is perhaps the most pressing. Johansen addressed two major goals in terms of addressing this issue. He emphasized how important it is “that the reporting of quarterly and annual financial statements should be intuitive to a non-finance person and show how money was spent in relation to the organization’s mandate.”

He also identified the second element of financial accountability as “placing reasonable limits on any one person’s authority to spend money, as well as implementing changes that would require increasing support by the board – and in some cases the membership – for significant spending decisions.” This comes as no surprise following the allegations regarding personal spending of Association funds that MAPS came under fire for earlier this year.

One project that will directly affect student experience is Johansen's aim to connect the organization with the part-time students that feel alienated from it. “The Board and I are looking at ways to increase the level of engagement with part-time students. My work with local health integration networks showed me how necessary it is to understand the issues and concerns of those you serve,” Johansen said. “And as much as I will enjoy helping the Board make MAPS a leader in student government best practices, I will get the most satisfaction from knowing that MAPS will continue for another 35 years as a valuable, relevant, and responsive advocate.”

Johansen, a Mac alumnus, has been hired on to achieve these goals during a three-month temporary term. Any potential extension to Johansen's contract would be limited to getting the organization back on track, not leading it long-term.

It remains to be seen who the permanent face of MAPS will be. As Johansen explained, “My skills and experience are best suited to bringing organizations into alignment with members’ expectations, public policy requirements, and building the mechanisms that will ensure the organization maintains that alignment. Whoever assumes the permanent role of Executive Director will be responsible for using those mechanisms and being accountable based on them. To use an analogy… I am really good at building the ship, but not very interested in sailing it.”

 

The Sterling Street to Paisley Avenue block along King Street West hasn’t had much luck lately. A string of rapid store openings and closures – Westdale Café, The Green Grocers, DLR’s second storefront, to name a few – has left me with a sense of trepidation whenever a new business sets up shop.

 

The Express Italian Eatery is one such restaurant to recently make an appearance on the block and try its chances. The casual dining house is the second location for the Hamilton business, which opened a branch in Westdale this spring following success at the Stoney Creek location.

 

On my Tuesday evening visit with a friend, the restaurant was very quiet - we were the only customers for the majority of our meal. This led to awkward hovering by well-meaning but slightly too present servers. While attentive service is desired compared to restaurants where you have to practically chase down your waiter or waitress to get what you need, the Express experience was a little uncomfortable and stifling.

 

The food, however, made the visit worthwhile.

 

We started with the Arugala Pizza. With a garlic and oil base instead of tomato sauce, and toppings that included pancetta, red onions, Asiago cheese and of course, arugala, it was bursting with full-bodied flavour. What really stood out was the crust. Sweet and savoury and paper thin, the crust has the look and feel more of pastry than dough. At $14 it’s The Express’ priciest pizza - but it’s worth it.

 

We followed the pizza with its other traditional sibling, the calzone. The Margherita Calzone, which will run you $13, was less impressive. The dough was fluffy and flavourless – a far cry from the light, crisp pizza crust that we’d just enjoyed. The insides, a mix of tomatoes, onions, cheese and garlic, weren’t bad. But they weren’t remarkably good, either. And the tomato dipping sauce that accompanied it was lacklustre.

 

The atmosphere of the restaurant was a strong point, however. The open concept set up, dark wood furnishings and comfortable-chic interiors made for a relaxed setting. It was a nice change from the Westdale standbys – the Bean Bar and Snooty Fox, etc. – that I frequent but have tired of.

 

Go for the pizza and stay for the ambiance. It’s definitely worth a try. Yet I still can’t help but wonder how long it’ll last.

 

3/5 STARS

Come September of 2015, McMaster students are in for a treat. Thanks to a $45 million dollar grant from the provincial government and a $10 million dollar donation from retiring Chancellor Lynton (Red) Wilson, the L.R. Wilson Hall for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences is finally breaking ground and is set to open in time for the 2015-16 academic year.

Although the building currently on site, Wentworth House, has yet to be demolished, at a project launch ceremony on Friday May 31, University faculty and government administration donned hard hats and wielded shovels to formally break ground for the building. Construction is scheduled to be in full swing by early July.

The proposed 62,000 square foot building has an extensive list of attributes, including an Indigenous Studies space and ceremonial area, a joint Social Sciences-Humanities student lounge, a 400 seat lecture hall and underground parking. Music and theatre students will be particularly enthused by the 350-seat concert hall and a versatile black box theatre that can be configured in a variety of ways to suit performance needs.

“We build a space not just for today or tomorrow, but to still be innovative 15 years from now,” said Dr. Charlotte Yates, Dean of Social Sciences at a community open house regarding the building on Monday May 27.

At only five floors tall, the Hall will still manage to encompass departmental office spaces, graduate research areas, seminar rooms and classrooms while being 100 per cent accessible and featuring transgender washrooms on every floor.

The structure itself is also going to be groundbreaking in its design. “We wanted this to be a green building, not only from a sustainability perspective, but also in terms of landscape,” explained Paul Cravit, President of CS&P Architects, and Project Lead on the Wilson building. This commitment involves tree preservation along Sterling and Forsyth Avenue, a garden level on the top floor of the building and a green roof.

In an effort to receive gold certification in the environmental LEED scoring system, the building will be equipped with low pressure plumbing, have bright windows to capitalize on sunlight, and be dimly lit at night.

The liberal arts centered space is the result of an initial letter writing campaign to lobby the government for arts funding. Joe Finkle, MSU VP Education 2010-2011, spearheaded the successful letter-writing campaign during his tenure. In 483 original, unique letters, liberal arts students expressed the need for a new academic and performance space dedicated to their specific needs, and sent them to local MPP Ted McMeekin. Years later, the fruits of Finkle’s and the arts students’ labour are finally becoming a reality.

The building represents the largest liberal arts donation McMaster has ever seen, and is the only arts-focused infrastructure to be funded by the provincial government in this round of financial allocations. Dean of Humanities, Dr. Ken Cruikshank, knows this investment to be worthwhile. “This building is going to change the way we learn,” Cruikshank promised.

It was second time’s a charm for David Campbell. In a landslide victory, the Arts & Science graduate beat out six other candidates to win the election for MSU President.

At about 10 p.m. on Thursday night, he got the good news in a phone call from current MSU president Siobhan Stewart.

David was speechless when we contacted him at home after the announcement was made.

"I don't know," he said when asked how he was feeling. "That's tough. Pretty excited."

"My phone just started ringing off the hook."

In an above-average turnout, 29.3 per cent of the student body voted, with 5972 votes total. Campbell won with 3146 first-place votes.

Jacob Brodka came in second with 1338 votes. James Dowdall had 360, Adrian Emmanuel had 343, Dan Fahey had 332, Haman Man had 77 and Rory Yendt had 58. There were 318 abstentions.

With Campbell winning a majority of the first-place votes, only one round of counting was needed.

Campbell, who is currently serving as the MSU’s Vice President (Administration), campaigned last year but lost the title to Siobhan Stewart by a narrow margin of 47 votes.

This year, his campaign focused on a series of straightforward and feasible goals to improve student experience at McMaster. Major platform points include eliminating unnecessary summer student fees, extending library hours, implementing a shuttle bus service, and training teaching assistants.

The referendum question to decrease the CFMU fee to $12.50 per student from $17.29 passed easily. The McMaster Marching Band was granted its $0.90 per student fee by only a narrow margin.

Campbell will begin his term in office on May 1.

 

We live in an unusual age. It wasn’t so very long ago that to make it in the music world – to make it big – typically required several prerequisite years of unacknowledged shows in local bars and a few mediocre albums out of the way before a record label paved the path to fortune and fame. Nowadays, all it takes is one song to make a star, and two up-and-coming DJs set to hit Hamilton on Thursday night, are a testament to this phenomenon.

Sak Noel and DJ Rhiannon, despite division by their gender, nationality, style, and intent, share the necessary keys to the world of stardom: a few songs apiece that have garnered enough attention to have them touring around the world. In an interview on Sunday, Sak Noel and DJ Rhiannon opened up about their surprising musical intentions.

If you’ve been to Hess over the past few months, then you’ve probably heard Sak Noel’s popular dance hit “Loca People,” which is one of only three original tracks the Spanish artist has released. This trio, found on Sak Noel’s Crazy Society Trilogy LP, has rocketed the club-owner-turned-DJ to the international stage.

While these songs may be familiar to you, the Spanish artist’s political intent behind them probably isn’t. “The economic crisis [in Spain] is really hard right now and people are unemployed, and there are a lot of sad things going on. So my Crazy Society Trilogy is about that. I try and use that context to make dancefloor songs to make the people forget about that, but at the same time make them aware of what’s going on in Spain,” he explained. Sak Noel believes that there is room in electronic music for communicating messages of substance. “If you want, you can add some subtext to the music. Why not use dance music to share your opinions with the world?”

Fans of Sak Noel can expect more material to be released over the course of this year as a follow-up to Crazy Society Trilogy. “I have three or four projects [on the go]. I want to start to show my music more regularly… I want to spread my music throughout 2013,” he enthused, and hinted that an album is on the way.

DJ Rhiannon also has an album in the works, to be released some time this year. A well-established DJ who has spun with heavyweights such as Tiesto and Deadmau5 (as well as celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg), this University of British Columbia graduate has begun recording her own tracks. Her rap music, which marks a departure from the EDM that she DJ’s in clubs, is aggressively provocative. The three original songs she has released so far – “Like a Slut,” “Nasty Bitch” and “All the Girls Do It” – are extremely sexually explicit. With lyrics like “Eat that shit, grind that clit / Don’t fuckin stop until she spits across the room / Pussy go boom!” it’s unsurprising that Rhiannon has been garnering attention.

In a rap scene dominated by arguably misogynistic male voices, Rhiannon hopes to offer an alternative female voice. “Whenever women talk about explicit subjects, it’s considered more shocking than when men talk about. If you listen to lyrics by Tyga or Lil Wayne, or name a male rapper, they’re usually talking about crazy explicit things,” she said. “I can’t really relate to drugs, I can’t relate to wanting to drive flashy cars, I can’t relate to violence… People talk about what they know. I’d be posing if I talked about anything other than [sex].”

Unlike her colleague Sak Noel’s politicized motivations, Rhiannon is markedly nonpolitical in her approach to the issue of female presence in rap music. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m doing it to feel empowered. I just feel inclined to do it,” she explained. “Ever since I was a kid, I loved getting reactions out of people. I was a jokester, I liked to shock people and do crazy things to get people to laugh or just react. [Producing this kind of music] seemed like the next natural thing to do.”

Both Sak Noel and DJ Rhiannon are eagerly awaiting their upcoming performance and the chance to spread their unique sounds in Southern Ontario. “I’ve never been to Hamilton before but I’m very excited,” Sak Noel professed.

Sak Noel and DJ Rhiannon are performing on Thursday, Jan. 24 at Sizzle in Hess Village as part of VOLV’s BIG ROOM EDM SERIES, which aims to bring big names in the scene to an eager Hamilton audience. Tickets are available from VOLV online at http://volvsaknoel.eventbrite.com/ and at the door, starting at 10 p.m.

Sak Noel's popular hit "Loca People":

[youtube id="-d6b1yn-YhQ" width="620" height="360"]

DJ Rhiannon's song "All the Girls Do It":

[youtube id="rHH-hMSGGjc" width="620" height="360"]

By Jemma Wolfe

It has become par for the course that any large artistic event that one attends is “made possible” by corporate sponsorship and that we can expect the corporation’s logo, name and brand to have a prominent presence. Recall the Skydome being renamed to the Rogers Centre or “Virgin Mobile Presents Osheaga” Montreal music festival.

On a local level, think Theatre Aquarius’s transition to Theatre Aquarius Dofasco Centre for the Arts, the TD Festival of Friends, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton BMO Financial Group World Film Festival. What a commercial mouthful.

Most recently, the commercialization of an artistic event or space was witnessed in McMaster’s win of the TD Pump It Up contest. Last Thursday, Nov. 22, approximately 2,500 McMaster students had the opportunity to attend a free concert at Hamilton Place’s Wentworth Room.

The show opened with Young Empires, then Dragonette performed, and Steve Aoki closed the night. These popular musicians’ performances however were completely overshadowed by the corporate presence of TD.

Walking into the venue, one had to move through a green-curtained TD tunnel of sorts, plastered with the TD logo and lined with TD representatives.

Once inside the concert space, the logo was projected in larger-than-life forms on multiple walls, TD representatives milled around the space, the stage was framed with TD banners and slogans, and all the columns were wrapped in posters. Even the lighting was usually green.

Throughout the night, the excessive presence of TD’s logos, colours and signage was oppressive, distracting and incredibly distasteful. Future corporations sponsoring events – by TD or otherwise – should pay more careful attention to the fine line that separates tasteful advertising presence of a corporation’s positive support of arts and culture, from the overwhelming corporate atmosphere that detracts from the artistic purpose of the event.

Welcome to Unity, Saskatchewan, where kissing, spitting, going to school and even opening the mail are banned. The year is 1918, and the small prairie town is in lockdown as WWI, the Spanish Influenza and the prophesy of an impending apocalypse wreak havoc on the terrified civilians.

This year’s Theatre & Film Studies Fall Major is an intense staging of Canadian playwright Kevin Kerr’s 2002 play, Unity (1918). This morbidly funny show revolves around the experiences of Beatrice Wilde and her two sisters, Mary and Sissy, as they come of age in such a complicated and perilous time. While they mourn the absence and loss of their young men – and love interests – to a violent war overseas, their lives are irrevocably interrupted by the contagious and lethal Spanish flu. One by one they receive notice of men being killed in Europe; one by one the people of their town fall in an equally devastating slaughter. This frightening moment for Unity and greater Canada was a significant – albeit overlooked – moment in Canadian history.

“In McMaster’s anniversary year, I wanted to find a play about Canadian history. Kerr’s play was attractive because it takes such an interesting perspective on a key period of Canada’s development as a nation,” said Theatre & Film professor and program director Peter Cockett.

Indeed, one in six people are believed to have fallen ill with the Spanish flu during the fall and winter of 1918-19 in Canada, and over 50,000 of them died. This made the period a devastating one in Canadian history – a topic tackled by the many classes involved with putting this show together.

The production process involved substantial research on the period, an extensive rehearsal process and the collaboration of summer class T&F 3PR3 Research and Planning, as well as fall classes T&F 3S03 Major Production Workshop and T&F 3PC3 Community Outreach, along with volunteers.

“The level of engagement from the students this year has been exemplary. They have come to the work with a passion to learn and a desire to understand the play, the characters and how it connects to our country’s history and our current historical moment,” Cockett commented. This history, as the audience will quickly realize, is much more heart-wrenching and violent than perhaps assumed.

Such dire circumstances leads some town youth, spearheaded by Sissy Wilde (played with distinction by the edgy Zoe Blenkinsop), to become convinced that the end of the world is coming – and soon. Her excitement about an impending apocalypse parallels the fuss surrounding contemporary predictions about December 2012, and creates a thematic thread that links old-fashioned characters with a modern audience. “I think these perennial apocalypses are always a good excuse to look at ourselves and our world and reflect on what we have achieved and what we would like to achieve,” Cockett observed.

With a two-and-a-half-hour running time, this black comedy is a tad wearing on audiences and not for the casual, commercial theatre-goer. However, strong performances by an emotionally dedicated cast keep the heavy material engaging. Special praise should be directed to Hannah Wayne for portraying the lead role of Beatrice Wilde with grace, sympathy and passion, and to Devin France for embodying the blind soldier Hart with respect, humour and emotional flexibility. The consistent presence of choreographed ghosts throughout the show also adds interest to a minimalist set.

Continuing the tradition of recent years, the Fall Major features a talkback sequence immediately following all performances. While most nights are student-directed talks with the audience about responses to questions the show raises, some nights this year are themed and feature input from specialized members of the McMaster community. Wednesday, Nov. 14 asked the question “Who Makes History?” Thursday, Nov. 15 focuses on healthcare issues, and Friday, Nov. 16 considers the “View from Anthropology.” These sessions provide a forum for unpacking the complicated material explored in the play and then making connections to our present-day lives.

“As always with our work in Theatre and Film Studies, we want our production to be the beginning of a dialogue rather than the end of a story,” Cockett said.

After a successful opening weekend, Unity (1918) continues this week at 7:30 p.m. until Saturday, Nov. 17. Tickets are $12 for students, $20 for regular admission and are available at the School of the Arts office (TSH 414 or by calling 905-525-9140 x24246) or at the door.

 

 

For Mac’s star quarterback Kyle Quinlan, the Oct. 13 football game against Windsor was something special.

“Homecoming is a pretty unique time because it allows us current players to connect with former Marauders who have laid the groundwork for this program. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate the success of our collective efforts,” Quinlan said.

For former McMaster Marauder running back John Hartnett – now an MBA candidate at the DeGroote School of Business – the weekend was an important opportunity to return to the field. Hartnett, who played from 2007 to 2010, is nostalgic about times past.

“Homecoming is a great opportunity to bring alumni together to share memories and to see how far the team has come from when head coach Stefan Ptaszek first took over. When I first started playing for Mac, we had no stadium on campus – we didn’t even have a locker room. Now, we have sold out games in the heart of campus, one of the best facilities around, and a tonne of student support,” he enthused.

Players can take pride in playing for a mixed crowd of students, alumni and people closely associated with the football legacy. But one might expect the average student to feel differently.
The parties that line Sterling Street and the club culture that has developed seem to indicate that Homecoming is more about the drink and less about the football. I, for one, am not a big fan of the sport. I never have been, and I’d confidently wager that I never will be. But whether it’s the free chili luncheon outside DBAC, the chance for maroon-bedecked students to see and be seen or a genuine love of the game, campus is swarmed with people every autumn for the Homecoming game.

Football fans or otherwise, too dedicated (or drunk) to care about the weather on Saturday, stuck out the rainy afternoon to see the Marauders through to their inevitable victory.
I, too, found myself panicked over purchasing Homecoming football game tickets, excitedly awaiting the afternoon of Oct. 13 and clapping and cheering with the rest of the crowd for the entirety of the game. It’s people like me – with no great interest or knowledge of the sport – that fill the stadium year after year.

So perhaps it does come back to football after all, and the celebration of what the Marauders – past and present – have accomplished for McMaster athletics and consequently, community pride.
Perhaps I’ll never grow to love the game. Football isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. What matters is that even those still on the fence about the sport come out year after year to watch the Homecoming game and celebrate everything that McMaster Homecoming means to them.