Photos from Silhouette Photo Archives

The month of March is an exciting time for Canadian university sports. Varsity teams across Canada spend most of March battling it out in arduous tournaments to bring national recognition to their university.

Especially during this time of year, it is easy to get swept up in the action, focusing solely on medals won or opportunities squandered, and the human side of the athletic community can be quickly forgotten. While all student-athletes at McMaster grind it out over the school year to bring home another banner, many members of the McMaster athletic community also dedicate their time to another important cause.

McMaster Athletes Care is a volunteer program whose vision is to “utilize sport as a tool to teach valuable life skills and empower youth to believe in their dreams”. In addition to community events such as January’s annual Think Pink Week, the program gives Mac athletes an opportunity to volunteer in the Hamilton community.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuVMUKYFYNv/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

From hospital visits and bringing kids to Marauders home games, MAC hosts weekly volunteer visits to the Living Rock Youth Resources program, the Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton, and the Routes Youth Centre. During these weekly visits, volunteers will utilize gym space to get kids active.

“It’s a really easy way to get volunteer hours to just sign up and go play sports, which is not really volunteering — it's a lot of fun,” said MAC’s Living Rock coordinator Mike Cox. “It’s a productive procrastination where, if you watch two hours of Netflix, I feel like I don't really get anything done and I feel kind of bad about that. But if you go and volunteer, you're giving your time and it's a nice break.”

Mike Cox has been involved with MAC for the last few years, initially volunteering as a member of the men’s lacrosse team to earn volunteer experience in pursuit of a teaching career. Cox eventually found himself making the weekly visits to Living Rock, a program for at-risk youth, and it became more than just a fun way to give back to the community.

“It's a reality check too, to go out and to do all that stuff,” Cox said. “It just kind of makes your bed a little warmer and your food taste a little better and all that stuff, so I know that it puts things into perspective. I started out doing it because I needed volunteer hours but like once you get out there, it kind of sucks you in and obviously I've been there ever since.”

Upon returning to Mac for a master’s degree in mathematics last year, Cox took over as MAC’s Living Rock coordinator. Enthusiastically organized by McMaster’s Coordinator for Community and Alumni Engagement, Nicole Grosel, the executive committee is full of members like Cox, each committed to coordinating the various events of the program.

Living Rock focuses on an older age group compared to the other weekly visits, so while it can be a challenge to get the older kids to participate in physical activity, which is the program’s main focus, the quality time spent with the members of these programs is still important to them.

“It feels good to see these people who stop coming for good reasons, like they don't have to be there because they found an apartment or because they've found a better job or they moved on,” Cox said. “It's a cool feeling to kind of see them through all that stuff and see where they started and see where they ended up.”

In addition to giving kids an outlet and an additional support system, getting varsity athletes to interact with kids in the community serves MAC’s goal of inspiring and motivating kids. In addition to showing them the importance of living a physically active life, student-athletes can share opportunities that can come from playing high-level sports, like scholarships and important relationships.

“Volunteering is always important and all of those kids they appreciate it, and I know they do. It's just good for McMaster and it's good for your soul,” Cox said. “To show that the athletes do have, amongst their busy schedules, that we can give back a little bit and show that McMaster Athletics isn't just about winning championships, it's about showing that we can give back and that we can recognize that we're very fortunate people.”

Not only does MAC help student-athletes appreciate their position, but it also allows some of the lesser-covered sports to gain some recognition as important parts of the Marauders community, such as the women’s lacrosse team who brought in a sizeable donation for a clothing drive and logged the most volunteer minutes for Think Pink Week.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BumYVwLFQuD/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Giving student-athletes from any sport a fun and easily accessible way to give back to the community, MAC continues to be a great service that deserves to be recognized as an invaluable resource for the Hamilton community. While giving student-athletes an opportunity to appreciate their own lives, MAC is helping to inspire a new generation of athletes.

 

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]

By: Inaara Sumar

alt-J has outdone themselves yet again with this beautifully innovative new record. This is All Yours will take you on an anything but ordinary experience of indie rock vibes followed by hints of soft alternative that only alt- J could’ve created.  Somehow the UK-based band has managed to keep their intricate sound that their fans know and love, while still creating something completely different that pushes the indie world to a more radical place.

alt-J’s freshman effort, An Awesome Wave, surprised listeners with its unconventional sound that had them pegged as Radiohead’s torchbearers, and the band has since aimed to continue down that experimental vein.  Having not heard new material from the band since 2012, listeners will be pleased to hear a sense of maturity. Starting with Joe Newman’s vocal range beautifully spotlighted throughout the album, the band seems to be getting more extensive with each release. Newman’s unorthodox sound tapers perfectly to the band’s eccentric style, tying the whole operation together while not acting too dissonantly.

The album picks up with the aptly titled “Intro,” showcasing some of their featured a capella dancing into electronic, vibes and rumbling drums. This is All Yours then moves on to tracks based around the band’s experience in a small town in Japan, Nara, which is where the influences of the track names “Arrival in Nara,” “Nara,” and “Leaving Nara” originated from. The fourth track, “Every other Freckle,” highlights the band’s flair for heavy, dramatic beats that will leave any listener in a trance. The album picks back up with “Left Hand Free,” exhibiting some of the band’s grittiness with newly adopted classic guitar riffs.

“Hunger of the Pine,” a track that features a sample of Miley Cyrus’ “4x4” contributes a deep cohesive melody that really tops off the album’s creative standards. The final track, “Leaving Nara,” sums up every aspect of the multiple dimensions of alt-J, hitting everywhere from soft notes on a piano to the heavy electronic bass featured multiple times throughout the album.

This is All Yours is as progressive as it gets when it comes to modern day alternative. This album was a risk taken with no fear of the mainstream, and I don’t think it could’ve been executed any better. If you’re looking for something beautifully abnormal then it’s definitely worth a listen.

As The Bots walked towards me behind the Rock Stage at Riot Fest, it finally struck me that these guys were my age and touring the world off the back of their burgeoning band. My fleeting existential crisis gone for the moment, I gave Mikaiah and Anaiah Leh daps and immediately struck it off with the two-piece rock act. The pair of brothers hails from L.A. and it shows in their laidback demeanor. Mikaiah, 20, and Anaiah, 18, are of mixed Caribbean-Asian descent and are responsible for guitar/vocals and drums respectively. They jammed together for ten years before deciding to become a full-fledged band seven years ago, and they haven’t looked back since.

Time has proven to be an amicable force working in The Bots’ favour. It has spurred them past the awkward stages of puberty and put them on a fast track to stardom. The fact that they were homeschooled allowed them to spend an ample amount of time on the road, and it shows in the tightness of their performances.

“You do find a comfort zone and get a handle on things and how you want them to sound; everything becomes more streamlined and you can tell,” said Mikaiah, of the experience they’ve gained over the years.

Both of them also attested to the crazy sights they’ve seen at their shows.

“We played in Denmark once and we had a weird crowd who made a wall of death. That wasn’t that out place, since you expect that, but there was a guy in a cow suit and people were throwing wigs on stage and yelling ‘take it’. There was a lot of violence, which we don’t advocate, but they wanted it. We play shows where we perform folk songs and people still crowdsurf and go wild,” said Mikaiah.

The band says they’ve seen a good number of performances that have inspired both the songwriting on their upcoming record and their shows. They agreed that Kanye West’s headlining set in Sweden was fun to watch. Mikaiah gushed about Metronomy who “have five people on keyboards and it still doesn’t sound electronic somehow, which is really nice,” while Anaiah listed off Buddy Rich, Johnny Blackwell, and Brian Chase as major drumming influences.

Their sophomore effort Pink Palms is out on Oct. 13 via Fader Label, and the pair both spoke about how excited they were for others to hear it.

The writing and recording process began in November 2013 and concluded in late May, with Justin Warfield helping with production in a Hollywood studio. They worked close to every other day as Anaiah finished up his schooling. The experience of working closely with a producer was a new one for the band, but one that they enjoyed learning about.

“It made me realize that I want to take it back for the next album like how people in the 60’s and 70’s used to do it in an analog old-school studio. The current album is very produced, not in a sellout way, but it’s something you would hear on the radio because it’s a way to get our foot in the door. Hopefully it will lead people to be more interested to see what we come out with for the next album,” said Mikaiah.

Both Mikaiah and Anaiah praised Damon Albarn for the support he’s shown them, not only by inviting them to tour with him, but also in giving advice when they needed it most.

Anaiah said that Albarn helped alleviate the stress that the two felt after signing with Fader Label and feeling the need to live up to expectations on their second record.

“We talked to him at SXSW not too long ago and he said ‘just keep on writing tunes.’ Writing tunes is what it comes down to, and also what the next album will rely on. It shouldn’t be as much about production value, which is great. The songs need to be good,” said Mikaiah.

“Melodies and tunes, that’s what it’s about,” chimed Anaiah.

The Bots have high aspirations, but if they just keep Albarn’s words close to heart, they’ll have terrific chances of achieving them.

Looking back to older albums, it seems the most memorable aspects of Interpol tracks were the changes in energy and pace. Each song was careful and deliberate in the cumulative buildup, and the climax of individual songs and each album as a whole was strategic. The bass and treble are meticulously crafted to interact and play with one another under vague lyrics about love in deceptively simple layering that leaves interpretation up to the listener.

These familiar themes also exist to some degree on El Pintor. It's more reminiscent of Interpol's hit album Turn On The Bright Lights than the generally disliked Interpol. After a basic start in “All the Rage Back Home”, it becomes apparent that this song merely eases you into the track list, rather than setting the tone for the entire album. The more segmented and clearly defined instrumentals and transitions of this introduction song give way to constantly changing and developing pieces that shift between establishing a familiar presence and expanding new sounds. The memorable opening riffs of “My Desire” change into mere texture by the climax to provide a great listen. This feels like the true beginning to the album. “All the Rage Back Home”, also the opening single to the album, is like the practice and tune-up before the big performance.

Each song then progresses in a similar fashion. A simple riff leads into the full band, which then introduces more and more until the inevitable climax and fall. While this is simple and may seem repetitive throughout El Pintor, Interpol deserves praise not for surprising the listener or providing a large amount of variation in their tracks, but in refining their tried and true nuances.

Because of this familiarity, it is difficult to describe the differences from song to song. The only real variations are what they choose to bring to the forefront, and the listener's own personal enjoyment of the main hook or intensity. The established bass line giving way to the long vocal strands, repetitive guitar, and wildly varied percussion pace changes of “Anywhere” might be more appealing compared to the more laid-back, somber, and consistent “My Blue Supreme”. This similar structure, however, means that there is very little possibility that personal opinion of the album will actually change by listening to more of it.

All in all, listeners should not expect to be completely blown away by the album or for it to like Interpol if they disliked them before. For those that already enjoyed the band, this is a good addition to their discography and worthy of a listen.

Subscribe to our Mailing List

© 2024 The Silhouette. All Rights Reserved. McMaster University's Student Newspaper.
magnifiercrossmenu