Sarah O’Connor
Staff Reporter
From Feb. 10 – 14 the Student Health Education Centre ran its first ever SHEC Week, a week dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles for university students. SHEC is offering a wide variety of events for students to participate in and learn something new.
“It’s just a great way to promote our services and do things we’ve never done before,” Kelsey O’Neill, SHEC Coordinator, commented on SHEC Week. “This is the first time it’s been done in our history of being SHEC.”
O’Neill reveals that SHEC Week was SHEC Training Chair executive Tina Cody’s idea. Cody said SHEC Week drew inspiration from the annual Pride Week and thanked Jyssika Russell and the QSCC for their inspiration and dedication.
She hopes that SHEC Week will also work to tackle different stigmas and perspectives on health by providing students with what they believe are most valuable to students.
“What I really wanted to do with SHEC week was… tackle a variety of problems that students face in their daily lives through informative and fun activities,” Cody explained.
“I really want SHEC Week to educate McMaster students with how they can lead a healthy lifestyle through easy and manageable steps.”
Laura Jamieson, Internal Programming executive and next year’s coordinator hopes that SHEC Week will help students learn the importance of health and happiness in their lives.
“I hope that SHEC Week is going to be an opportunity for people to think about and talk about certain things in their own health and their own happiness as students and how to really make that a priority in their lives,” she said.
O’Neill, Cody, and Jamieson all agree that SHEC Week is a great opportunity for SHEC to showcase and make sure students are aware of the many different services SHEC has to offer, as well as recognizing that the events being offered during SHEC Week are valuable to students.
“I know that I would have benefited from these events so much during points in my life throughout university,” Cody admits, not having been an active member of SHEC until more recently.
“I think that… first year when it’s so difficult transitioning… students can attend these events and learn new things or what might be beneficial for them as an individual,” she continued.
SHEC Week is offering a number of ways for students to get involved having a variety of activities including meditation, a movie night, free candy, a relationships roundtable, as well as workshops on busy lives and body image. With the numerous events O’Neill, Cody, Jamieson and all of SHEC’s volunterrs hope for a successful SHEC Week and hope to add more events for next year.
“I think it will most likely be done next year because [Laura Jamieson] is coming back as coordinator, so I would imagine it would continue,” O’Neill said.
She continued, “We’d listen to student’s feedback and try getting an event that we haven’t had before, like the relationship counselor.”
Jamieson said she would like to have more events directed at first year students to make transitioning easier. “I hope to…reach out to first years, doing more outreach with them because they…can get cut off in their little demographic so I’d like to be trying to reach out to them more…the first years are important to me and I think that would be my number one for sure.”
SHEC is an MSU service best known on campus for providing a variety of contraceptive products and anonymous pregnancy testing. But what many Mac students don’t know is that SHEC offers many other resources, not solely related to sexual health. Services like confidential peer support, numerous health pamphlets, a lending library available to students and the community at large, and a huge knowledge of on and off campus referrals are some of the lesser-known support SHEC offers at McMaster.
Located on the second floor of the student centre, room 202, SHEC is open 9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 4:30 p.m. on Friday. SHEC is run by the coordinator, a small group of executives and a few dozen volunteers, all of whom undergo a weekend of training each term, as well as additional monthly training.
In an age obsessed with electronic and synth-oriented music, Cloud Nothings have taken a decidedly different approach. Attack on Memory is a dark record that questions our cultural ideals, creating an almost dystopic sentiment that forces the listener to confront the darkness of our world. Cloud Nothings frontman Dylan Baldi accurately describes the record as a bunch of “depressing songs.”
Attack on Memory represents a sharp contrast from the band’s previous pop sound, and the title of the album is meant to reflect this, as Baldi claims the record is an attack on people’s memory of Cloud Nothings.
With this record, Cloud Nothings has developed Nirvana’s grunge sound and added elements of Japandroids’ fast-paced melodies. This infectious combination forces listeners to embrace their youth, but also accept their lack of societal power. “Stay Useless” and “No Future/No Past” are among the record’s most powerful anthems, driving fans to pump their fists in agreement with Baldi’s words. “Fall In,” on the other hand, upsets the album’s angst by supplying an upbeat and catchy tune. This variety leaves the audience depressed with society’s bleak outlook but also hopeful for a better future.
Attack on Memory has cemented Cloud Nothings as an irrepressible force.
Tina Cody
Halcyon
Ellie Goulding
In 2010, Ellie Goulding burst onto the indie pop scene with her debut album Lights. Garnering both critical and commercial success, she was heralded as one of Britain’s greatest exports. Attempting to surpass a successful first album can be difficult, but Ellie Goulding has met this challenge with expert skill. Halcyon improves on where Lights left off and further cements Goulding’s distinct style.
Halcyon is carefully produced, utilizing orchestral instruments and a bevy of back-up singers. These new elements add tremendous depth and subtlety to the record’s tracks. In just two years it seems that Goulding has matured both technically and emotionally as an artist. With a perfect jumble of electro and techno beats, Halcyon is bursting with catchy tunes. “Figure 8” will prove to be a massive club hit while “Explosions” will have you reaching for a box of tissues. And with the help of Calvin Harris, “I Need Your Love” is one of the record’s most successful songs.
Although Halcyon is distinctly pop, it will be sure to gain approval in both the mainstream and alternative music worlds - a feat that few records have been able to achieve.
By: Tina Cody
Local Business
Titus Andronicus
The most obvious point of comparison for Local Business is undoubtedly The Monitor, Titus Andronicus’ Civil-War themed 2010 LP that somehow found the punk-rock ethos in the writings of Abraham Lincoln. Local Business sees the New Jersey rockers reining in this ambitiousness somewhat, as they forsake both an overarching concept and bagpipe breakdowns.
An even more fitting counterpart for Local Business, however, might be Japandroids’ Celebration Rock from earlier this summer. This album caused a blogosphere sensation with its blitzkrieg riffage and post-adolescent rebelliousness, making it a lock for upcoming best-of-the-year lists. Hopefully Local Business is also so recognized, however, because it surpasses the thematically and sonically similar Celebration Rock in several regards.
While Japandroids’ only dynamics are faster and louder, Titus Andronicus craft epics like “Still Life with Hot Deuce on Silver Platter,” with three-guitars and even more choruses. Moreover, while Japandroids repeat the same fist-pumping slogans, Titus Andronicus lead vocalist Patrick Stickles channels a similar youthful swagger with rap-battle-level wit and wordplay. Celebration Rock gets the blood pumping, but when the best rock albums of 2012 are chosen don’t forget to support your Local Business.
By: Cooper Long
Daughter of Cloud
Of Montreal
Of Montreal is one of those strange new-wave bands, showcasing an amalgam of musical styles that sometimes doesn’t even make sense. Generally speaking, their albums sound like something David Bowie and Prince might come up with if they dropped acid together in the middle of a carnival. Daughter of Cloud, a compilation of rare recordings from 2009-12, is no exception.
I’m going to be honest, I don’t even know what I think of the band, and this is the third album of theirs I’ve listened to. The elements of funk are well placed, and the dreampop feel of the production is nice, but the frequent mid-song genre changes always throw me off. Highlights include the Sgt Pepper-esque “Tender Fax,” the falsetto-powered “Georgie’s Lamnets,” and the lyrically gorgeous “Psychotic Feeling.”
The rest of the songs all have these tiny, 8-bar gems of super tight production and dynamic melody, but the illusion is shattered when – seemingly without cue – the song recedes into atmospheric background music while frontman Kevin Barnes rants about erections (not joking, listen to the hilariously titled “Jan Doesn’t Like It”). Too bad I can’t rate this album “question mark” out of five.
By: Brody Weld
The Soul Station Vol. 1: The Songs of Sam Cooke - A Tribute
Jarvis Church
Jarvis Church is a soul singer! The former frontman for the Philosopher Kings (as Gerald Eaton) has done some outstanding work as a producer for Nellie Furtado but his passion is behind the mic, not the board. Unlike his 2009 release The Long Way Home where he explores his personal musical roots, here he’s channeling Sam Cooke – right down to the tight suit and look.
The release of this CD is very timely. It’s been almost 50 years since the passing of Sam Cooke (Dec. 11, 1964), but his songs are timeless. In fact, Barack Obama used the lead track on this CD, “A Change is Gonna Come” as his theme song in the 2008 election campaign (Seal had a hit with it then). Perhaps Church will get a sales burst this time.
The music was recorded “live and off the floor,” which means that all the musicians played the songs as though they were performing them live – no overdubs or studio tricks. Church has surrounded himself with some fantastic musicians, notably Michael Kaeshammer (who’s worth the price of admission in concert himself).
All-in-all a cool CD, the first in a series that commemorates the soul greats (Otis Redding next?). It’s mainly covers, but the three new songs fit in well, especially “She Keeps Me Up All Night.” If you want to learn more about Sam Cooke, check out the book “Dream Boogie” by Peter Guralnick. I’ll loan you my copy. Meanwhile, check out The Soul Station.
By: Phil Wood
