Latest News

a, Opinion

The Legacy of Alexei Simakov

by Albert Park on

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The resignation of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) Internal Lola Baraldi in October came with a silver lining for the ever-eroding world of McGill politics. In the midst of the confusion came the return of Alexei Simakov—known for running a close election against current SSMU President Kareem Ibrahim in March. He rose like a phoenix out of the ashes, this time campaigning to fill the vacant VP Internal position. His campaign, while ultimately unsuccessful and overshadowed by scandal, brought to light the urgent needs for reform of SSMU’s electoral process as well as the importance of competitive elections with multiple candidates.

SSMU has announced yet another byelection, with polling to beginning this Thursday, Nov. 26 and results announced on Friday, Nov. 27. Simakov did not pursue a second nomination; instead, six fresh candidates are making their bid.

While this marks an end to Simakov’s controversial ventures for SSMU candidacy, the impact he has left on student politics of McGill will live on. In his campaign for the VP Internal position, Simakov brought forward admirable—albeit unrealistic—proposals in his platform. One such recommendation was electoral reform; Simakov proposed to establish enforced rules about campaigning and set up clear guidelines for candidates. While both the McGill Daily and the Tribune expressed that this fell outside the portfolio of the VP Internal position, it is an appealing proposition. While it may not be advisable for the new candidates for the position to make similar promises, they may put pressure on SSMU to lay the groundwork for reform; SSMU must establish clear rules around electoral practices to prevent the drama from overshadowing the platform again. The lesson is most potent in the aftermath of an election marred by accusations, scandal, and extensive online drama from all sides; all candidates must be conscious of how to prevent similar degeneration in the future.

In light of an unsuccessful election and a hastily announced second byelection, the importance of having more than one candidate for a SSMU executive position has also become very evident. Regardless of the reason behind it, the result of an uncompetitive election with no winner was evident: A prolonged election period hindered the SSMU and further entrenched students’ feelings of disillusionment. Interestingly, the second byelection is a drastic change to the trend of sparsely populated ballots in SSMU elections. Only time will tell if this is a positive step towards electoral processes that are more effectively able to present a variety of platforms that better appeal to the wide array of voices on campus.

In regards to representing the student body of McGill, Simakov’s campaigns embodied the value of a contrarian candidate. Simakov was quick to voice his displeasure with the perceived one-sided left-leaning makeup of SSMU, which is a clear concern for a significant portion of McGill’s student body. While his platform ultimately failed to win him the election, it is hard to deny that he has built up a strong following based on his overarching goal to bring changes to SSMU and speak out on behalf of students whose voices aren’t heard.

The candidates of the upcoming byelection should consider Simakov’s legacy as they commence their campaigns. Perhaps they will not incorporate his campaign, but they may take heed of the lesson—be realistic, focus on the portfolio at hand, and play a clean game. Until Elections SSMU and Council are able to entrench reform, candidates can be the starting point of building a stronger relationship between the McGill community and their government.

Do you have thoughts on the representativeness of SSMU, or elections to SSMU? Send a message to [email protected].

 

Albert Park is a U2 student in Microbiology and Immunology. He is passionate about world issues and has been a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross for 5 years.

 

@McGillTribOp | [email protected]

 

 

 

 

 
David Ortiz
a, Baseball, Sports

Big Papi prepares to walk off for good

by Sason Ross on

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Big Papi. The nickname captures the ‘substantial’ meaning of not only the boisterous charisma of David Ortiz, but also his illustrious history of hitting in the clutch.

Last week, Ortiz announced that this would be his final season in the MLB. After 19 years in the league—13 spent in Boston—he will retire as one of this generation’s most iconic power hitters.

Here are the facts: He is a nine-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger, 500 home run club member, three-time World Series champion, and two-time World Series MVP. Clearly, the facts show the immense impact he has had on the Red Sox over the past decade and a half.

Ortiz, however, was never content to let his actions speak louder than his words. After the Boston Marathon Bombings, the Big Papi rallied the city, grabbing the mic at the pre-game ceremonies at Fenway to shout, “This is our fucking town!” Furthermore, he also supports and organizes around six charities, including The David Ortiz Children’s Fund and the Josh Beckett Foundation.

Ortiz was an unstoppable force in the prime of his career, but the closest he ever came to winning an MVP was a second place finish in 2005. He did put up some insane regular season numbers, averaging 141 RBI from 2004-2006, but the post-season was where Big Papi truly cemented his place in baseball history.

One of the most important games in Red Sox history was game four of the 2004 American League Championship Series. After Boston’s Dave Roberts stole second, and Bill Mueller knocked him in to tie the game in the ninth, David Ortiz stole the show by knocking a ‘no doubter’ in the bottom of the 12th inning to walk-off the game. This would eventually rally the Red Sox to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the series, the only time this ever had occurred in baseball history. For Ortiz, this was simply business as usual.

More amazingly, Ortiz is still efficient in the twilight of his career. At 40 years old, Ortiz is still producing at an elite rate, and most importantly, the homers are still there. Just last year he hit .273, with 108 runs batted in and 37 home runs. To do this at his age is as remarkable as it is unprecedented.

Big Papi’s legend will live on after he retires. Not only in Boston, but also in the hallowed chambers of Cooperstown.

AUS McGill Lounge
a, McGill, News

AUS endorses Divest McGill petition to BoG

by Alexia Martel-Desjardins on

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On Wednesday Nov. 18, the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) endorsed Divest McGill’s petition to remove McGill’s investments in fossil fuel companies and discussed future renovations to the Arts Lounge and McLennan Library.

 

Divest McGill endorsement

 

Council approved a motion of support regarding Divest McGill’s petition to the Board of Governors (BoG). The petition, which was submitted last February to the BoG’s Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR), asked  the university to cease its investments in the fossil fuel industry, and to invest in other environmentally responsible funds.

Some representatives were  concerned about the petition reducing the internships available for McGill students in fossil fuel companies, especially for students in the Faculty of Engineering. Andrew Stein, U2  Environment and a representative of Divest McGill, explained that fossil fuel  industries do not represent a significant proportion of the university’s investment.

“Out of our 1.3 billion dollar endowment fund, somewhere between five and eight per cent in the range of 70 million dollars is invested in fossil fuel companies,” he said.

Nevertheless, Stein elaborated on the importance of ensuring that internships in fields other than those relating to fossil fuels are made accessible to engineering students.

“What we can do is we can diversify so that when industry takes a hit, then the Faculty [of Engineering] as whole is not as strongly affected,” Stein said. “It’s not the money itself; it’s about the symbolic message of saying that we’re not interested profiting from a company that’s doing such environmental harm and social harm.”

 

Arts Lounge

 

Council then moved on to a discussion about renovating the Arts Lounge. 

“[This] is something that is planned nearly every year, it gets discussed all the time,” AUS President Jacob Greenspon said. “The Arts Lounge is not as great of a place as it could be, and as we want it to be, and there are really a lot of ideas out there.”

 Renovation ideas presented at the meeting included repairing walls and increasing study space.   

“We could get rid of some of the computers [in the computer lab] and put [in] more study space,” Greenspon said. “The use of the computer lab in the Arts Lounge has […] really decreased a lot in the past year,” 

The discussion also focused on a framework for allowing student involvement in the decision making process. 

“The first way that this [student] consultation should happen is […] with idea generations outlets to [get] the word out that this lounge redesign is happening and get students to suggest […] different ideas,” Greenspon said.

 He also mentioned potential ideas for getting students involved in the redesign process.     

 “We can do a survey,” Greenspon said.  “A lot of people have been using whiteboards when they want to redesign a space [… and], we can put a table in the lounge.

 AUS Vice-President (VP) Academic Gabriel Gilling stated in his report that he will meet on Friday Nov. 20 with the AUS Library Partnership Committee (LPC) to discuss improvements to  the design of the McLennan Library’s upper floors. 

“There [are] a lot of really funky ideas,” said Gilling. “We are going to focus on the landings of [the] second, third, fifth, and sixth floors of McLennan [….] There [are] a bunch of things that we are looking at, especially the colours, and the carpet that we would like to change.” 

 

Mental health on campus

 

Gilling met with the Committee on Student Affairs on Nov. 11 and discussed mental health issues on campus and the new Early Alert system, which is an online system allowing professors to communicate and engage more directly with their students’ wellbeing by sending them a message via MyCourses. 

“Most professors are increasingly aware of [mental health] and we discussed the role of the faculty, that professors would play in mental health,” said Gilling. “It provides a venue for [professors] to show their students that they actually care.”

This project is not finalized yet, and will be put into place sometime during the following month. Council members additionally discussed the difficulty in identifying mental health issues in very large classes. 

“For the moment, they are really looking at those 300-level, 400-level, 500-level courses where there is a much higher relationship between the students and the [professor],” said Gilling. “But it is a very good question.” 

 

SNAX

 

AUS VP Finance Mirza Ali Shakir explained in his report that SNAX is currently not running a profit according to its most recent financial inventory. According to Shakir, the focus of financial measures would be on adapting inventory management and decrease losses in order to keep the prices as low as possible. 

“The idea behind this is to pinpoint each product, how much profit we are making per product, which products are selling more […] so instead of raising prices, we are compensating for losses,” he said.

Moreover, Shakir mentioned that he received a letter from the provincial government concerning the Annual Declaration in Respect of Pay Equity for SNAX employees. 

“It requires AUS that it pays its females employees as much as we pay our male employees,” said Shakir. “It is funny because we only have female employees at SNAX.”

a, Men's Varsity, Sports

Basketball: Redmen stay unbeaten, dismantle Stingers before Winter break

by Aaron Rose on

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McGill Redmen
75

 

 

Concordia Stingers
53

 

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere and our kids want to play on a night like that,” Redmen Basketball Head Coach David DeAveiro said. “We need this crowd to feed off of and succeed.”

In front of over 600 rambunctious fans, the McGill Redmen (3-0) put on a basketball clinic, downing the Concordia Stingers (2-1) in a 75-53 victory on Thursday night.

The Redmen jumped out to a 15-11 lead after the first quarter before extending the margin to 34-26 at halftime. Junior forward François Bourque led the squad in the first half, scoring nine of his 13 points in the early frames. McGill maintained control after halftime, outscoring the Stingers 41-27 on 50 per cent second-half shooting.

“It was a total team effort, and our depth really made the difference,” DeAveiro said. “Today was a good challenge for us because it was a close game throughout, [but] the fourth quarter, I just thought that we were mentally tougher [and] imposed our will on them.”

Coming off a career high 29-point game against the Bishop’s Gaiters (0-3), starting point guard Jenning Leung once again led the way for the Redmen with a game-high 15 points. Junior guard Dele Ogundokun stuffed the stat sheet, recording seven points, along with a game-high nine boards and four assists.

The win marked McGill’s eighth victory in the last 11 games against the rival Stingers, and reaffirmed that the Redmen are the team to beat in the RSEQ. After a tough pre-season that included a 74-70 victory over the No. 1 ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees (5-0), the Redmen emerged as the No. 3-ranked team in the country.

“When you have some early success, you become a target,” DeAverio said. “Everyone is going to give you their best game and we can’t let up.”

On Saturday night, sophomore centre Noah Daoust led the Redmen to a 74-58 dismantling of the UQÀM Citadins (1-2). Coming off the bench, Daoust dropped a game-high 18 points, including four buckets from beyond the arc. Leung struggled with his shooting in the first half, but came through in the second half, scoring nine of his 14 points after the break.

The Redmen return to Love Competition Hall on Dec. 5 in a showdown with the Laval Rouge et Or (1-1). Look for McGill to improve to 4-0 on the season before the winter break.

Quotable:

“If you look at our team you look at depth. I think [after] two [or] three quarters, we started to wear them down and just put our foot on the pedal.– DeAverio on McGill’s ability to punish opponents late in games

Stat corner: 

McGill’s ranked in the top three in the CIS for the first time since Nov. 27, 2012

Moment of the game:

Daoust scored nine consecutive points in the first half against the Citadins

 

a, Science & Technology

Disclosing medical information in the work place

by Andy Wang on

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On Nov. 19, the Comparative Health Systems Program (CHSP), a non-profit organization within McGill, hosted a lecture on medical information privacy and its implications in the workplace. The evening’s lecture began with an image of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 1976 year-end report. Among the many issues the WHO addressed, including female genital mutilation and infectious diseases, the privacy and protection of medical information was highlighted as an emerging problem due to the various technological, medical, and human rights advancements made in the last 50 years. The pace of scientific discoveries today is faster than ever before, yet privacy of medical information continues to be a problem that both individuals and corporations address on a daily basis. 

Guest speaker and McGill Law Professor Derek Jones spoke to the audience about concerns dealing with privacy. In practicing law, balancing individual rights with the moral and social values of society can be difficult.

“The question I hope to address tonight is: To what extent do human rights balance against disclosure of medical information in a work setting.” Jones said.

Jones explained that ‘the law of humans rights’ is absolute and is given the highest priority in a court of law—violations to human rights will always be prosecuted. But the issues of privacy and medical information in the corporate world has not been as straightforward, and its evolution can be summarized in three parts. 

“[First,] the HIV/AIDS emergence in the ’80s [brought] medical information privacy into the spotlight,” said Jones. “Then, in the late ’90s and early 2000s it was the disclosure and release of genetic information. And in the last five years or so, the disclosure of depression and mental health information has begun to emerge the central issue where privacy is concerned.” 

It is estimated that more than $50 billion worth of corporate income is lost annually in Canada due to mental health issues, including depression. Up until the early 20th century, laws existed in Canada in which individuals could be forcefully committed, without a proper diagnosis or form of legal protection. Mental health issues, however, continue to be stigmatized in society. It is therefore not surprising that around 71 per cent of employees conceal issues concerning depression for fear of discrimination. Yet around one in five individuals, of every age and ethnicity, are afflicted with some form of mental health issue, and with it being such so opaque and widespread, the question now becomes: Aside from the individual and their physician, who else needs to know?

The answer is perhaps not as clear-cut as one might think. While laws exist in Canada to protect against discrimination based on mental disability, certain issues occasionally arise wherein the disclosure of mental health information is essential for the daily functions and duties of a job. For example, a professional struggling with depression or anxiety may not be able to provide services to their clients at the expected standard.  

To conclude the talk, Jones stressed the importance of considering opposing viewpoints in this issue; however, Jones also stated that there will never be a definitive or decisive answer to the problem of medical information privacy. 

“Problems associated with mental health arise from both its concealment as well as its over-focus,” said Jones. 

The answer lies somewhere in the middle. 

“The Quebec Bar exam for law school graduates has five questions concerning mental health,” Jones explained. “After a thorough review by human rights professionals, these questions have been cut down to two.”

Just as the symbol of law—the scales of Madam Justice—never really stop teetering, the solution to disclosure and privacy must always be a dynamic one. 

a, News, SSMU

SSMU moves for electoral reforms in light of recent election

by Garima Karia on

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On Nov. 19, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) voted in favour of establishing an ad-hoc electoral reform committee, institutionalizing support for indigenous communities, and creating a committee to initiate and propose changes to the student health and dental plan.

 

Electoral Reform Committee

 

In response to recent and prolonged SSMU election disarray, Arts Representative to SSMU, Adam Templer, spoke in favour of passing a motion to create an ad-hoc electoral reform committee.

“In the aftermath of the elections this Fall, last [Winter, and] elections before that […] SSMU elections have really gotten a bad reputation from the way [they] have been run,” Templer said. “[This motion is about] bringing forward a committee to investigate avenues for electoral reform, to make it less personal, more functional, [and] more sustainable.”

Vice-President (VP) Clubs and Services Kimber Bialik cited a need to reform online campaigning.

“What was left out [of the previous revision were] any guidelines […] on online campaigning, which has been a primary issue in past campaigns,” Bialik said.

Council looks to address online campaigning alongside strategies for faster responses to issues during the election period. Consultation from the student body on desired changes to the current electoral format will also be prioritized. Visiting former Council member Omar El-Sharawy described student consultation as a step in the right direction.

“I believe the biggest problem for the larger student body is just feeling that SSMU isn’t listening to them,” El-Sharawy said. “The fact that we’re trying to involve students, and trying to have students engaged, and trying to have student consultation is literally what students have been begging SSMU to do.”

The motion passed unanimously, with an amendment to include six councillors and six members-at-large, as opposed to the four of each proposed originally.

 

Institutionalization of support for indigenous communities

 

Council voted unanimously in favour of renewing the motion to adopt the Traditional Territory Acknowledgment for another year.

This motion calls for the practice of indigenous solidarity by SSMU and the student body as a whole by resolving to state the Traditional Territory Acknowledgment at all major SSMU-affiliated events. This motion also gives access to room bookings through the VP University Affairs to indigenous students and groups that organize events aiming to bring greater support and visibility for indigenous communities. Bialik brought up a concern with the room bookings clause, relating to existing space capacity issues on campus.

“We have a pretty serious space constraint issue, and it isn’t possible for us to support all our current clubs and services right now,” explained Bialik. “If we keep offering free room bookings to everyone, we’re less and less able [to accommodate].”

SSMU President Kareem Ibrahim reminded the Council that they had passed a similar motion on mental health space.

“Indigenous groups are 0.006 per cent of the population at McGill,” said Ibrahim. “The visibility of that community is so minute, that to add this to what they can access is not going to [disadvantage other groups], but speak volumes to what [SSMU] is doing to make sure that [the ingidenous] voice is heard throughout this campus and in our country.”

 

Improving mental health and legal services for students

 

Councillors voted in favour of creating a subcommittee to propose changes to the existing student health and dental plan, with a focus on improving mental health and legal services.

Templer referenced a March 2014 survey conducted by Alliance Pour La Santé Étudiante au Quebec (ASÉQ), a Quebec insurance company, in which McGill students requested better mental health coverage, as a reason for developing this committee.

“McGill Mental Health Services has a wait time of two weeks for initial appointment, followed by an additional two weeks to see a psychiatrist, and a three-to-four month wait for regular psychotherapy,” Templer said. “It’s completely strained [….] This committee will allow for investigating options to get students the help that they need.”

On the legal front, Templer explained that the McGill Legal Information Clinic only provides free, confidential advice and representation to students seeking legal advice in matters involving the university. Reforms would allow coverage for students in need of representation in cases such as a dispute with a landlord, or an underpaying employer.

“We need better support systems for [students] in those instances,” Templer said.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

McGill English department’s “In the Next Room” flicks back to a complicated era

by April Barrett on

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The McGill Department of English’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) is all about electricity. The play takes the audience to early 20th century Saratoga Springs, New York, a time when on-off switches were a technological marvel, a Victorian-level of propriety was imposed on every conversation, and women suffered from elusive bouts of ‘hysteria.’ Dr. Givings (Anurag Choudhury), a man of science and a Thomas Edison fan-boy, has just the thing to treat such an illness. He sees patients in his home ‘operating theatre,; and the electric vibrator he employs clears ‘congestion of the womb’ that hysteria patients were thought to have suffered from. To Dr. Givings, the female orgasm is a clinical treatment.

Things are not so simple for his young wife, the vivacious Catherine (Sophia Metcalf), who is physically unable to breastfeed their new baby, and spends her days in the parlour feeling guilty and neglected by her husband. When her insatiable curiosity is heightened by boredom, Catherine makes it her mission to find out what exactly is going on in the next room. The cast of characters that stroll in and out of her living room—urse Anna (Jacqueline Geday), impassioned artist Leo Irving (Nathaniel Hanula-James), wet nurse Elizabeth (Sandrine Jaumard), and the loveless couple Mr. and Mrs. Daldry (Tom Gould and Clara Nizard)—begin to elucidate Catherine’s understanding of her husband’s practice. As the characters’ lives interweave and complicate, each one begins to feel the connective, arousing power of electricity, both externally and bodily. 

The Vibrator Play provides a charming critique of Victorian notions of female desire, modernity, and motherhood. Although Ruhl’s writing is light and entertaining, there aren’t as many laugh out loud moments as might be expected in a play focused on such subject matter. Still, the The McGill Department Of English’s cast acts superbly. Most notable performances are Nizard’s gentle, discerning Mrs. Daldry, a fragile woman slowly learning herself, as well as Hanula-James’ Leo, a desperately romantic, physically unrestrained painter. Metcalf does an enthralling job bringing life and poignancy to some of Ruhl’s more complicated and philosophical monologues, and in scenes between Metcalf and Choudhury viewers can almost feel the aching between Mrs. and Dr. Givings’ experience.

The costumes, designed by Catherine Bradley and the McGill Costume Class, were impeccable—perfectly evocative of the Gilded Age era of the play, from the intricate, braided coifs, right down to the bloomers and corsets. On top of this, the props (crewed by Linna Nam, Tutu Cheng, and Yasmin Bitar)—specifically the overstated switches, buttons, and levers flipped and pushed in the operating theatre—create an interesting juxtaposition to the ornate Victorian parlour designed by Corinne Deeley. The set conveys the strange encounter of modernity and antiquity, found in the turn-of-the-century home.

In Director Myrna Wyatt Selkirk’s program note, she states that the production process has been one of “allowing our fingers to wrap around the corset laces of daily life and find the strength to break free of the cords that once bound us.” This is certainly what /In the Next Room/ achieves; it is a play that gets right to the underclothes of Victorian decency, and is a reminder that innovation always starts with breaking the rules.

The Vibrator Play runs from Nov. 26 – Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Moyse Hall. Tickets are $10.

One Direction
a, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: Made in the A.M. – One Direction

by April Barrett on

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After a glistening and highly successful five years of ultra fame, One Direction are now officially on hiatus. 2015 was full of tabloid-worthy escapades for the British-Irish boyband. Most notably Louis Tomlinson became a baby daddy, and token brooder Zayn Malik ditched the gang for good. Their hotly anticipated fifth album Made in the A.M. is here to finish the year off, interpreted by their adoring fan base as a goodbye-for-now.

The album continues with the conscious stride away from bubblegum pop established with 2014’s Four. Under the careful watch of longtime Producer Julian Bunetta, the album imitates folk rock greats such as Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon. It’s even evoked a couple, ever-blasphemous Beatles comparisons from publications like Rolling Stone due to its more whimsical numbers. One Direction has finally attained the soul sound that it had been hinted at in their previous work; however, despite the interesting homages paid to the classics, Made in the A.M. can’t help but sound like the glossy commodity it is. The band remains not so much musically impressive as it is socioeconomically, and it proves that the now-foursome have not quite escaped Simon Cowell’s million-dollar pop machine.

The singles “Drag Me Down” and “Perfect” are typical 1D—if a little more biting and mischievous—with the latter making references to post-adolescent ‘badness’ like, “Causing trouble up in hotel rooms.” Many songs like the mid-album “Long Way Down,” are pleasant, but otherwise empty and sonically reminiscent of early 2000s Britpop. There are clean, pretty guitar loops, and sentimental gushes about falling love, described with picture-book clear imagery: “We had a mountain, but took it for granted / we had a spaceship, but we couldn’t land it.”

Things do get more interesting during the album’s second half. “Never Enough” experiments with acapella doo-wops and snaps—a dead ringer for the Tokens classic, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Then there’s Harry Styles’ “Olivia.” Initially, the boys skip through assonance playfully, as horns and strings build the little ditty to a Beatles-level of soaring in the bridge. At that point, Styles coos about summertime and butterflies and his imagination, sounding uncannily similar to Gene Wilder’s “Pure Imaginations” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1974). “What a Feeling” combines echo-y harmonies and moody guitar riffs to evoke a kind of polished, pop version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” while the Graceland-era Paul Simon influence is especially notable in the hopeful, strolling song, “Walking in the Wind.”

The final track “A.M.” is the perfect outro, both for the album, and for the band. It’s a gentle coming-of-age meditation on late nights of recording, touring and youthful camaraderie. “A.M.” suggests that having big dreams for the future doesn’t mean forgetting about the past. It’s a benign conclusion for One Direction, especially pleasant in that, although a bit weary, it doesn’t sound bitter. One can only hope that the boys find their voices in solo projects, emerging from the whole affair as adults.

Standout tracks:

“What A Feeling,” “History,” & “Olivia”

Best line:

“If you’re looking for someone to write your break-up songs about / Baby, I’m perfect.”

Sounds like:

The Verve, Coldplay, and a more mature One Direction

Enya Dark Sky Island
a, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: Dark Sky Island – Enya

by Jack Neal on

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Irish singer-songwriter, Enya, is all alone. In a music industry filled with electronic, pop, and alternative sounds, each battling for their right to be heard by an audience intent on new, it’s a breath of fresh air when recording artists who sound like absolutely nothing else are still making music. It’s amazing how timeless Enya’s sound is: Above a whimsical mix of Celtic and New Age-revival, her ethereal vocals float through the songs like clouds through the skies.

Enya’s new album, Dark Sky Island, is her first album in almost seven years. After the trainwreck that was And Winter Came (2008)—a collection of unconnected songs that sounded only vaguely like Christmas—Dark Sky Island is a return to form for Enya. The album is a seemingly intentional attempt at recreating her previous sound on albums such as A Day Without Rain (2000), or the brilliantly mesmerizing Paint the Sky With Stars (1997). The inclusion of elements such as the piano-driven chorus during “Echoes in Rain” or the staggered drums on “The Loxian Gate” feel almost directly taken from her 1997 song, “On My Way Home.” But by doing so, Enya has placed Dark Sky Island in exact alignment with her earlier albums. Against such stiff competition, this latest album simply pales in comparison.

As a standalone project, this album is about as ‘Enya’ as an Enya album can be. As always, the natural world and its general phenomena are her lyrical inspiration. Drawing from the water—oceans, to be exact—the sky, and the moon, Dark Sky Island drifts through its 11 songs effortlessly; however, while Enya has always provided the airiest of melodies, the perceived ease of the album’s tracks could be taken as a lack of originality as Enya runs out of ideas. After all, there’s only so much one can sing about when it comes to the sea, and on Dark Sky Island it seems that she’s hit the ocean floor.

Nonetheless, the songs, while a tad restrained, are meticulously crafted—as are her vocals—and the general vibe of the album is, as always, other-wordly. But the nagging issue with the Dark Sky Island as a whole is its tendency to float along the easy road instead of Enya pushing herself in any new musical or lyrical direction. And while already regrettably using such a common phrase for an album this out-of-touch with modernity, it is a classic case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

She’s aware of that, though: With aptly-titled songs such as “I Could Never Say Goodbye” and “The Humming…,” Dark Sky Island is Enya returning to claim her territory in the music industry. The problem, though, is that with no one there to compete with, she’s allowed to go along uncontested—overshadowed only by her sole competitor: Herself.

Standout Tracks:

“The Humming…,” “Even In the Shadows,” & “Echoes in Rain”

Best Line:

“Even when I whisper / The winds will come / To steal the words I say.”

Sounds like:

An uninspired Enya; defined by self-imposed limitations of her previous self.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Horror and hilarity converge on TNC stage in Blue Heart

by Stefan Zajdler on

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Strange and elusive energies crackle with abandon on the Tuesday Night Café (TNC) stage in Caryl Churchill’s unnerving Blue Heart, a production of two one-act plays performed as a set. Teasing apart cruel dimensions of language and longing in a theatrical experiment in form, the self-sabotaging construction of the play suggests dark avenues of fear and confusion, and watching it conjures the inconceivable giddiness of absurd hilarity.

If there is connective tissue between the two acts, it’s dark and anguished. The first act, “Heart’s Desire,” is a shifting, swirling melodrama where a family is unlatched from time and sent swinging along its own track, careening into countless futures with each buzz of an offstage buzzer. The light falls, and the scene resets,drafting versions the play might take up sometimes sped up, sometimes in halting phrases, and discards each in turn.

The first act tells the unraveling story of a married couple–Brian (Max Katz) and Alice (Amalea Ruffett)—as they wait with Brian’s sister, Maisie (Sasha Blakeley), for the return of their daughter, Susy (Natalie Liconti). Almost at once the marriage seems on the point of collapse, as the play retreads the same scene countless times, to dizzyingly different results. All of this occurs in a perpetually melodramatic arena: The kitchen. Set Designer Chip Limeburner’s spare set conjures abstractions of unrest.

Visitors arrive to disrupt the scene. An alcoholic son (Martin Seal) emerges from a drunken stupor to terrorize the family, ski-masked and gun-toting thugs arrive to assassinate everyone, and a giant bird unfolds from the doorway. The gaze of the characters intrudes as well; a sudden hush gives way to unsettling stares turned towards the audience. An unmistakable strain of absurdity endures throughout. Thus the spirit of this act is one of preoccupied horror, braced by the unmistakable need to laugh out loud.

If there is a moment that most clearly treads the thin line between hilarity and horror, it’s the sudden fantasy that Brian unleashes on his shocked sister and wife. Katz is appropriately intense in this sequence, confessing his desire to eat himself up, bit by bit, body part by body part, leaving nothing but a mouth. He then questions whether the mouth can consume itself. The language-cannibalizing second act may offer answers.

In “Blue Kettle,” the second act, a confused young man witnesses language becoming suddenly, irrevocably unhinged. As though revealing the mutative influence of an inexpressible core, the words of the title, “Blue Kettle,” begin to infiltrate speech, substituting nouns, verbs, adjectives, until a final, wrenching scene where two characters speak haltingly in the shattered syllables of the title.

The confused man is Derek (Seal), a 40-something-year-old con man playing a strange and inscrutable game—tricking women into believing he is their long-lost son. To what end? Be it money, or a substitute for his own ailing mother, it seems not even Derek is sure. Limeburner splits the stage into three smaller sets, isolating the players within pools of light. It pulls the frenetic energy of the first half into a far more contemplative place.

Director Johanna Ring creates a more static second act as well, mostly consigning itself to calmer two-person scenes. Derek is paired his presumptive mothers, or his girlfriend Enid (Liconti), allowing subtler performances to emerge. The women are drawn into Derek’s odd orbit, but it is clear that each possesses an odd core of their own. Derek’s real mother (Kelly Lopes) delivers a quivering, fractured performance, and Blakeley forms her Mrs. Oliver at the converging vectors of shame and anxiety.

Churchill is a veteran playwright of prodigious talents and roving insight, possessing an imagination that seems both at once capricious, and laser-focused. She has written an extensive catalogue of experimental productions that hint at a restless and unsatisfied mind. In Blue Heart, this restlessness catalyzes in strange devices fixed to plot and language, causing these to become unstuck and free flowing, unraveling even as they reveal their construction.

There is a sense of pervasive dread to Blue Heart, a subtle violence that lingers in the brain long after leaving the theatre. And yet, the play’s vibrancy is unmistakable; this is not a sinkhole of doom and gloom. The aura of unease is palpable in the lobby, and yet so is the fierce glow of anarchic exhilaration. Blue Heart sticks.

Blue Heart runs from Nov. 18-21 and 25-28 at 8 p.m. at TNC Theatre in Morrice Hall.Tickets are $6 for students.

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