Manufacturing crisis

Divide-and-conquer politics against the Canadian Federation of Students

James Clark
Features and Opinions Editor

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

American humorist and writer Mark Twain said this more than a hundred years ago. But in the age of online communication, Twain’s words ring even more true today. As such, they contain a warning for contemporary journalists: wield your craft responsibly. Sadly, too few writers heed Twain’s advice, especially on the Internet.

Nowhere else but in the cyber-world does the concept of “Truth” take such a beating. So much writing that claims to be “objective”—whether online or in print—is actually a confusing mix of opinion, “agenda-positioning” and manipulated fact. But this isn’t always obvious, since writers can disguise their bias as “anecdotes” or “expert opinions”.

The world of student journalism is not exempt from this practice. In fact, busy student journalists can easily fall prey to the spin of more savvy and experienced writers. It also demonstrates how quickly a story can be repeated, re-tweeted and retold. As long as it contains just a shred of truth, accuracy and fact are not so important.

A recent news story from the McGill Daily is a good case in point. In late September, the newspaper confidently asserted that students on 13 campuses across Canada are attempting to de-federate from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). The article seems to suggest that a growing movement of disenfranchised students is leaving the CFS en masse. But it draws this conclusion on weak claims—each one attributed to “many students” or “other organizers.”

Most first-year journalism students learn about the standard journalistic practice of attribution—that is, naming your sources and establishing their credibility. But the author of the McGill Daily piece, Erin Hale, fails to name all her sources, despite the gravity of their claims. Of those she does name, none are subjected to the kind of scrutiny that would test their credibility. Instead, she accepts their words at face value.

For example, Hale quotes only one student at Trent University, James Murphy, as if he represents the broader student population. She fails to mention that Murphy recently came last in a three-way race for president during elections at the Trent Central Student Association. By contrast, Trent’s independent student newspaper, Arthur, had seen no evidence at the time Hale’s article was published to support Murphy’s claim that his fellow-students are clamouring to leave the CFS.

Hale later quotes a student at Guelph University, who is also allegedly collecting signatures to leave the CFS.

But she doesn’t identify her source. As a result, the de facto representative for all students at Guelph is a faceless, anonymous figure. No one can challenge his claims, investigate his political affiliations, or hold him accountable for his comments.

It’s not just these gaffes that undermine the McGill Daily article. Hale commits the cardinal sin of misspelling the name of a publicly identifiable source: CFS Treasurer Dave Molenhuis, the only voice in the piece that defends the CFS. In first-year reporting classes, errors like this guarantee a failing grade.

In April, the Ryerson Free Press reported that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association (OPCCA) had hosted training sessions that explained how conservative students could manipulate the democratic process of student groups. According to a leaked agenda from a session at Laurier, conservative students identified two targets: the CFS and Ontario Public Research Interest Groups (OPIRGs).
While it remains unclear whether rumoured CFS de-federation drives are the product of Progressive Conservative Party directives, enough evidence exists to finger campus conservative clubs. But most articles about this topic either overlook or ignore this connection.

At Carleton, for example, well-known campus conservative Dean Tester recently issued a press release announcing his intention to circulate a petition to quit the CFS. Tester, who ran unsuccessfully in student union elections, has not exactly won widespread support on campus—at least as far as elections are concerned. Nor is he representative of the student body: Tester is a conservative blogger (www.alwaysright.ca), the communications director for a Conservative party hopeful in Ottawa, and part of the “We Want Out” campaign on Facebook.

Carleton’s campus newspaper The Charlatan named Tester and activist Brandon Wallingford, another failed candidate in student union elections, and member of the Carleton Campus Conservatives, as the campaign organisers.

Here’s the irony: a small group of anti-CFS activists has engaged in the same kind of tactics it condemns for the CFS. A common refrain is the complaint that students from other CFS campuses should not be allowed to participate in local debates over CFS membership—even though students have the right to hear why other students and campuses support the CFS.

But this same group is silent when it comes to the activity of anti-CFS campaigners from off campus. Somehow this contradiction has yet to appear in the wider campus press.

Another example: former editor-in-chief of The Concordian Andrew Haig, a Concordia student newspaper, was recently photographed at Carleton while petitioning students to leave the CFS. And another: Former student Devon Monkhouse a former executive member of the conservative Regan-Goldwater Society at Carleton and of the Carleton Campus Conservatives (at least on Facebook), was also on hand to collect signatures.

These extra-campus actions extend well beyond Carleton. On September 25, Adrian Kaats—past-vice-president of the Post-Graduate Student Society of McGill University and a well known critic of the CFS—was spotted at Trent collecting signatures for a referendum over CFS membership.

The McGill Daily article, and most of the ones that have since followed their lead, fails to report any of these facts. If they did, not many students would be left with the impression that a groundswell of anti-CFS sentiment is building on Canadian campuses. Instead, they would see the activity of a small number of conservative dissidents, attempting to rally support for a generally unpopular cause.

To omit this counter-perspective is both misleading and unfair. Unfortunately, it’s all too common.
Instead of finding ways to unite the student movement over issues that affect everyone, some students prefer to pursue internal division and strife—and often over petty personal politics. The student movement is facing far more pressing issues.

In Quebec, where the McGill Daily article first appeared, the Liberal government has announced its plans to introduce tuition fees at provincial colleges (CEGEPs), a move that would radically alter post-secondary education. It would also represent an historic defeat for Quebec’s student movement that, until now, has enjoyed the most accessible post-secondary education in Canada.
In Ontario, this semester represents an unprecedented opportunity for students to influence the government’s tuition fee and funding policies, since the current framework soon expires. But with students internally focused on manufactured divisions, they risk missing their chance to exercise the strength of a united student movement. The only beneficiaries are the politicians, who can more easily dismiss a student movement fighting amongst itself.

It’s unlikely that conservative activists on campus will anytime soon give up their attempts to use the student union for their own ends. That’s fine; it’s their right to try all they want.

But student journalists have a responsibility to expose and report on this activity, in an honest and accountable manner. Their job is not to manufacture a crisis, and then treat it as fact. Their job is to engage and inform students, and to draw their attention to the issues that really matter.

Music Reviews

Stephen Carlick

Jay-Z – Blueprint 3

Nothing stellar, just a solid continuation of Jigga’s legacy this time around
Rating: B -

People whose hopes were sky-high for the Blueprint 3 simply because it completed the trilogy had clearly glossed over the fact that only the original Blueprint was actually great. The second instalment was less-than-stellar. It actually warranted a shortened re-release that attempted to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Blueprint 3 is bad; it just isn’t on a par with the original. For one, Jay-Z doesn’t seem to have anything important left to say. Granted, an important part of Jay’s persona has always been his braggadocio, which in the past served as both an indication of his gangster swagger and as a counterpoint to his more emotional tracks on which he let his mask slip to reveal glimpses of his human weakness.

The Blueprint 3 is seemingly void of any emotion, which makes his arrogance not only tiring, but entirely uninteresting. Also plaguing the album is the oversaturation of guest stars: a whopping 12 of the 15 tracks feature a guest star whose part in the song feels tacked-on, as if Jay was less interested in co-writing than in showcasing how many peoples’ careers he has made.

The best tracks on the Blueprint 3 are the ones on which Jay pays tribute to the influence of others on his career. “A Star is Born” pays tribute to some of the artists Jay has seen succeed in the recent rap game, while the album high point is “Empire State of Mind,” which sees him paying triumphant homage to the city that raised him (New York). In this track he also pays tribute to his neighbouring rapper, Nas, with whom he once had a 4-year feud. In the end, the Blueprint 3 is an enjoyable album worthy of a listen, but it’s hindered by too many nagging issues to be considered one of Jay-Z’s greats.

The Antlers – Hospice
A sombre, emotionally compelling album about the death of a loved one

Rating: B+

While I realize the function and importance of the “if you like _____ you should listen to _____” phrase, it’s always been a pet peeve of mine to be suggested an album like that. Why, I figure, would I want to listen to a watered-down replica of an album or band I already enjoyed?  The answer is that sometimes a band balances their influences so delicately that they create a sound that is classic without sounding like a carbon-copy of something that’s already been done.
They’re equal parts Arcade Fire, the Walkmen and Grizzly Bear. Brooklyn band The Antlers have created an album that blends the raw emotion, arms-to-the-sky gentle melodiousness of those three bands, respectively.
Hospice is a concept album based around the story of a young man watching his lover die of bone cancer from the side of her hospice bed. Musically, the album is absorbing, if not a little bit on the conventional side. There is little to surprise or antagonize the listener, which makes Hospice both accessible and calming. It is a soundtrack to preserve a sombre mood or to enjoy in the solitude of one’s headphones.
The power of Hospice, however, lies in the sheer emotion expressed, which proves ever more compelling as the album progresses. Somewhere between the gently twinkling piano of “Kettering” and the first soaring chorus of “Sylvia,” the power of Antler singer and lyricist Peter Silberman’s grief and sorrow is excruciating palpable. It grips the listener and compels them to feel what the narrator feels, every pang of regret and surge of anger, throughout the album.
Hospice is a captivating album that foregoes musical genius for intense emotional resonance. Sometimes, that’s all a grieving soul needs.

Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary Reissue
Emo, as it was meant to be

Rating: A

Today, the word “emo” is almost derogatory in connotation, and for good reason: the genre has become a dumping ground for bands like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, whose emphasis on sad-boy image and lack of musical sincerity have contributed to the genre’s recent lack of credibility. However, when bands influenced by “emo-core” (a melodic and emotionally impassioned take on late 80’s hard-core music) started infusing it with grunge and indie rock in the early 90s, a genre was born. It was a genre that both maintained the D.I.Y. (do it yourself) ethic of punk music and yet remained intelligent and exciting without resorting to overwrought clichés and impractical hairstyles. This accomplishment can largely be credited to Sunny Day Real Estate, whose debut album Diary was critical in the establishment of the burgeoning genre. However, all historical significance aside, the album stands today as a timeless example of engaging and thoughtful music played with equal amounts gusto and earnestness.

Diary opener “Seven” begins with a straightforward distorted guitar intro before quickly descending into a rhythmic breakdown and staccato guitars that accentuate the weathered tenor of singer Jeremy Enigk. It’s a musical combination that feels as instantly recognizable as it does paradoxically fresh.

It’s as if Diary could have been recorded today even though it was released in 1994. This is an immediately discernable album that it feels like true emo. It makes one realize that every “emo” band since them has been doing it wrong, playing in a genre that peaked 15 years ago. This is what emo was meant to sound like, and if 2009 has to be a new ground zero for the genre so that it can start anew, so be it. If not, at least we have a newly re-mastered Diary to savour and remind us that emo was once more than just skinny boys sporting make-up and swept hair.

Poetry

Sy Spellcheck

Your kind of mountains for me to glide
receipt amused with thoughts of I
Circumscribed with zest devotion
risking all to bend benign

Never will find you low scathed and down a shining leer that guides me
Never going to bring it down on a sheer surprise remember that Missus I alert you

Your kind of lessons from which I can’t hide not a fear to bring me deride
A soul principled notion your kind of feelings makes me inspire

————————————————————————

Anniversary of your existence
first time you and we touched
parents of an existence that sprung out
of a childhood that ended too quick

came down right through a corner
did not see it coming globe away
enamoured engaged the anniversary
of this day when parents found joy

of your lasting presence
circled the globe from Russia to here
Russia misses you
but the whirls we’ll spin in the air on your birthday
shall last at least a year

Opening night of ArtMap at City Hall

A review of the artists’ project during Manifesto

Elizabeth Chiang

You couldn’t miss the wooden map of Toronto sized at 8×17’ that was on display in the Rotunda at City Hall. The collaborative art piece, aptly dubbed ArtMap, was commissioned for the Manifesto Festival of Community and Culture, and was created by artists from each of Toronto’s 44 wards.

“Artmap has 44 different artists or arts organizations coming together,” said Che Kothari, the founder and director of Manifesto. The project brought artists and groups in the city together to create one piece of art that reflects the diversity of Toronto.

The idea of bringing people together through art resonated throughout the exhibit on opening night. Several city councillors were in attendance, including Shelley Carroll from the Don Valley East ward, who said “The initial reaction to the project was art has nothing to do with geography.”

Each of the artists was given a ward shaped piece of the map and asked to create something with the piece. After Thursday night’s unveiling as one whole piece, ArtMap will then be disassembled and displayed in each corresponding councillor’s office as a reminder of the vibrancy and unity of artists across Toronto. “People always think art is a downtown issue,” said Devon Ostrom, the visual arts director of Manifesto, “however the project is also educating artists about local arts councils and introducing artists to councillors.”

ArtMap was funded by Live with Culture and the Toronto Arts Council, a non-profit organization contracted to the city, which provides grants and awards for arts funding.  Members of the council board include city councillors. Many other organizations, including the AGO, Scarborough Arts Council, Lakeshore Arts and UrbanArts also helped to produce the project.

With the word LOVE emblazoned on his chest, Kothari’s graphic t-shirt reiterated the message of unity and togetherness.  “I’m blessed that some councillors made it tonight. Next time, we want to see all 44 councillors,” he said.

Amy Peebles, a Ryerson student and a project coordinator for Manifesto called ArtMap “a labour of love” and she said, “The people you expect to show up, don’t. And the people who you don’t expect to, do.”

Such was the reaction of sculptor Gordon Becker, who designed the pieces for wards 27 and 31. As someone who has been seriously sculpting for over fifty years, he felt that the turnout to the event was spare. “We live in a culture of indifference to the arts. Hopefully we can start turning that indifference around,” he said. There is such a wide range in cultures and age represented here, he said. “There’s 0a false idea that art is only for young people and it’s not true. There are people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s,” he said.

Manifesto hopes to make ArtMap an ongoing yearly event. Ostrom noted that initially it was more difficult to find artists in some wards than others because networks weren’t developed yet, but with the help of arts councils there ended up being more than one artist from every ward who submitted work. “So what does that mean? We have to do this again! This needs to be an annual thing that we do!” affirmed Kothari.
The night ended with a surprise visit by Mayor David Miller, who enthused, “What a fun funky great thing.

This is what Toronto is all about.” He jumped in for a group photo and promptly posted it to Twitter.

With a reaction like that, it seems that ArtMap is already encouraging people to reach out to one another.

From Campus Press to Success!

Two stories from former and current campus writers

Jessica Finch

Ryerson hosts a number of campus papers and publications. From the Ryerson Free Press and the Eyeopener to magazines like McClung’s and the recently launched Perfect Bound. The majority of publications circulating on campus today are student run, focusing on issues and events relevant to the student body.
These seemingly small campus publications at Universities around the world have been the starting point for many successful journalists and writers. For both Mark Abley, a Montreal writer, and Angela Walcott, an up and coming magazine editor, the importance of the campus press can’t be understated.

Mark Abley, former campus press writer

Mark Abley is a successful writer and former journalist living in Montreal. His writing career began at the University of Saskatchewan, where he wrote for his campus paper, The Sheaf.  The experience as he describes it was, “a lot of fun and useful in terms of what I wanted to [do later in life].”
From a young age, Abley was certain that he wanted to write. He wrote for the school paper and year book at his high school but he said he never intended to take up hard journalism. Instead he said he fell into it as a means of financially supporting his creative writing.

He recalls one of the first stories he wrote for The Sheaf. “The federal minister of Justice was [presenting] something about agriculture and [I had to cover it]. This was during the Trudeau Era, and I didn’t know a thing about agriculture but I wrote the story and it was first page of The Sheaf,” said Abley. Abley calls this kind of learning on the job in journalism about a subject - “superficial expertise” – and he said he believes this is a large part of journalism. Covering stories and events often require the writer to become an instant expert on a variety of subjects, he said. Journalism, in many respects, is a tough job, but getting a start at university can prove helpful down the road.

“Writing for the campus press helped [me] be more at ease in writing [professionally],” said Abley. The Sheaf also gave Abley a portfolio to work with, and following university, he went on to freelance for a variety of projects including Maclean’s and the CBC. Over the past two decades Abley has written a dozen books and has worked as a writer and editor at the Montreal Gazette. Today, Abley is an acquisitions editor for McGill-Queens University Press, and he is currently writing a children’s book.

Angela Walcott, current campus press writer

Meanwhile on campus today, Angela Walcott is a student at Ryerson in the magazine publishing certificate program. In 2007 Walcott was introduced to the Ryerson Free Press (RFP). “I wanted to give writing a shot [and writing for the Ryerson Free Press] opened my eyes to journalism as a profession,” said Walcott. Today Walcott has started her own publication, the magazine Perfect Bound.

Launched in early September, Perfect Bound focuses on the accomplishments of Ryerson students and alumni. The magazine grew out of a club Walcott and other publishing students created and The Continuing Education Student’s Association of Ryerson agreed to help fund it. Although the magazine is still in its infancy, Walcott hopes that, “[Perfect Bound] will one day focus not just on Ryerson but on Toronto’s downtown community at large.”

“If it wasn’t for RFP, I never would have had the confidence in my own writing [to pursue this journalistic goal],” said Walcott. Walcott said that writing for campus press supplemented her portfolio and it offered her a view of the inner workings of the journalism world. Just one credit shy of completing her program, Walcott will soon leave Ryerson but she takes with her all of the skills acquired from writing for her campus press.

Fucked Up! Takes The Polaris Prize

Amanda Connon-Unda, Culture Editor

Last August here at the Ryerson Free Press you may remember that we interviewed the band Fucked Up who were then just nominees of the Polaris Music Prize. Well… on September 21 Fucked Up was crowned the official winner at Toronto’s Concert Hall and took away the prize worth $20,000.

The old Masonic Temple and MTV headquarters were done up for the evening with tables and seating for guests on the main floor. The stage had colorful and intense lighting which was good enough for TV broadcast on MuchMusic and on CBC.ca. For the first time in the history of the prize all ten of the nominees played. Elliott Brood, Fucked Up, Great Lake Swimmers, Hey Rosetta!, K’Naan, Malajube, Metric, Joel Plaskett, Chad Vangaalen and Patrick Watson each performed their top songs and wowed the audience. It was a comical award show hosted by Grant Lawrence from CBC Radio 3 and Sarah Taylor, a VJ from MuchMusic.
From the press gallery on the balcony over-looking the ceremony it was evident that in its fourth year the prize is getting bigger since its inception – it’s now broadcast more widely and is becoming better known to media and music fans.

The room was a buzz with chatter in between sets amongst the jury members, music journalists and the bands that gathered to celebrate Canadian music.

Several prominent members of the Polaris jury presented the nominees before they performed. Jian Ghomeshi, host of Q on CBC Radio, introduced K’Naan with great emotion and spoke about K’Naan’s personal story and his journey as an artist. Evelyne Cote of ici in Montreal presented Malajube — one of the two Quebec rock bands who were nominated.

Rob Bowman an author and York University ethnomusicologist introduced a repeat nominee, 2007 Polaris winner, Patrick Watson. Watson and his band did a mobile performance dancing and singing and playing their instruments throughout the concert hall. They were joined by Ghomeshi and the audience appeared thrilled with their performance. Watson said that after they won the prize while they were touring in Europe, music journalists always asked them about the prize and it seemed to raise their profile.
Michael Barclay from Maclean’s introduced Chad Vangaalen with words of praise. Then Barclay noted that it was actually a Polaris long-list nominee’s 75th birthday that evening….none other than Leonard Cohen! “Happy Birthday Leonard,” he said.

Amanda Putz, a CBC Radio journalist in Ottawa introduced Elliott Brood and the band proceeded to play a raucous set which induced much banging on baking sheets with spoons that had been given out at intermission to the audience.

Hey Rosetta! — another band we interviewed here at the RFP — also performed. And then at last, the sort of underdog stars who didn’t quite fit into the general aesthetic style of typical Can-Con indie rock, the hardcore band Fucked Up, closed the show. Their set included a shirtless lead singer, Damian Abraham a.k.a. Pink Eyes. Upon taking the stage to accept his award he gave a kiss to Grant Lawrence.

A look at the shortlist by CBC.Ca/arts revealed that there were four bands from Toronto and six repeat nominees on the list. Meanwhile there was only one band from west of Ontario on the list.
The members of the grand jury who decided on the winner were writers from various media across the country — Herohill, The Province, ELLE, National Post, CBC TV, Hour, Musique Plus, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and Calgary Sun.

All in all a great night was had and the music of Fucked Up will undoubtedly be heard by more people as a result of this award.

Girl Talk returns to campus

Amanda Connon-Unda, Culture Editor

Gregg Gillis a.k.a. Girl Talk is the mastermind behind the sample-based mash-up artistry that many Ryerson students heard at the Welcome Parade this fall.

Over the last few years Girl Talk has been touring non-stop. His fourth sample-based album in 2008 called Feed the Animals, featured nearly 300 samples and earned him more fans and appearances at music festivals this summer. His debut film appearance in the NFB’s documentary RIP: A Remix Manifesto didn’t hurt his growing reputation either.

Currently he is working on material for his live shows. While he’s not quite ready yet to release a new album, when he is, he says he’ll be producing the new material in his signature style. He selects Top 40 samples, usually in the pop and hip-hop genres, and then slices and dices them into an audio collage full of popular samples. His work becomes a re-contextualization of the originals with little repetition. To do this he said he’ll be using Adobe Audition and Audio Mulch software on his computer.

“I never wanted to be a DJ and play other people’s music,” said Gillis on the phone from his home in Pittsburgh.

With the majority of his following being university-aged it is as if Girl Talk has come full circle.

From college & back again

“The college demographic really hunts for new music and tries to be up on new things. That’s the way it has been for along time,” said Gillis.

Gillis remembers starting his own music when he was in college and he said he was heavily influenced by that environment. “I never played in a dance club or with DJs then. I used to play in the basement, at a house party or a rock n’ roll event. I never catered my music to a certain audience, but playing house parties helped me develop what I wanted to do with my music. I provide an alternative style of music for people to party and dance to, and that still fits well with a college demographic,” said Gillis.

Sample-based music culture

Whether he thinks of himself as such or not, for some he has become the poster boy of a younger generation of music fans. And as such he is very aware of a whole new culture that surrounds the music that he makes.

“We are phasing into this era where everyone is very attached to a machine and people are becoming used to the idea that they can manipulate the media that they consume. If you look around at Youtube there are hundreds of MIA covers and remixes. People get into a movie or song and then they want to participate and manipulate things and present it back to the public,” said Gillis. “It becomes transformative…and in the world of art and science that’s how you progress and share ideas,” said Gillis.

“For a long time there was a big divide between the underground and the mainstream, before the internet, but now people find new music online and actively explore and get into weirder forms of music,” theorized Gillis.

“There are a lot of styles and elements that didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago. That’s why I think you see a lot of different bands doing what I do and you see these artists being embraced by a younger generation.

People respond to new things. They don’t need to listen to things as they are presented to them on the TV or radio. That’s the nature of young people and now the internet is making things a lot easier,” said Gillis.

Copyright & artistic license

After the documentary featuring Gillis came out, a spotlight was placed on Girl Talk. He said, “It was a funny thing to be involved in the movie because I did not get into the music to cause a controversy on the legal side. I never pushed the politics of copyright on my audience… Even though what I feel about copyright law is implied in what I do.”

“All art and music are based on previously existing ideas. You can’t have a truly original idea. It has to be based on something, unless you exist in a vacuum and have never seen or heard anything,” said Gillis.
“I am open to the idea that people can take something that exists (a recording, painting, photograph, or whatever) and use elements of that in a new work, in such a way that it becomes something new. And in such a way that it doesn’t create any competition for the source material and it doesn’t deface the source material.”

On the road again

Now that he’s at the preliminary stages of conceiving his fifth album, he is likely going to release it as he has in the past – Online – on a pay-what-you-can system. This means he will need to continue generating revenue primarily through touring, which is not such a problem, since he enjoys touring.

The highlight of his summer was a big show he headlined at home in Pittsburgh, said Gillis.  “I’ve been working on this music for years and everyone I know has heard about it in the press, and many friends and family showed up at this show,” he said.

This summer he said he played at more large music festivals than ever before. “When you’re outside on a big stage and it’s warm, with thousands of people, it’s hard to not love that,” said Gillis.

K’Naan speaks the truth on his recent album Troubadour

Jehangir Saleh

“I’ve been to an Usher concert. They go nuts at just the hint of him undoing a button. So what’s wrong?” K’naan asks the crowd during an encore at the Phoenix, having just stripped off his black vest, leaving him in a white t-shirt, studded jeans and his trademark straw fedora. “This is killing my ego,” he says, as the vest goes back on. He pauses, as if to wink at the crowd, and then takes it off again. Everyone screams.
That’s the closest the show gets to Kanye’s MTV Video Awards disruption. Kanye’s ego ruins award shows and K’naan has to ask the crowd to pretend that he has one.

K’naan was Ryerson’s Parade and Picnic headliner this year. “It was a great day,” he says, “full of passion and high energy, fun from the first moment to the end.” His spirited set on Toronto Island was packed with tracks from his most recent record, Troubadour, which made this year’s Polaris Music Prize shortlist. He also received a Polaris nod in 2006 for his debut record, The Dusty Foot Philosopher. Both discs are highly acclaimed, with critics hailing the conscious, politically charged narratives spun from K’naan’s high-pitched, sinewy vocals.

K’Naan rapped eloquently: “I’ve seen war and some / Survived the slaughter son / Kids play cops and robbers and not with the water guns,” on the Eminem-esque title track of The Dusty Foot Philosopher.

His music is informed by growing up in a Somalia as it was teetering on the edge of civil war. In 1991, after the fall of President/dictator Said Barre, the country erupted into anarchy and warlord infighting. K’naan’s family fled, ending up in a sizable Somali enclave of Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood. His experience of multiple disenfranchisements and moving from a third-world to first-world ghetto, makes him the antithesis to the “hoes and hummers” glam that characterizes much of hip-hop.

Now though he is away from conflict, and as he works with Chubb Rock, Mos Def, KRS One and recently, the UK piano rock trio Keane, his creative energy is still most alive under conditions that mirror the situations of urgency from which he came. “When there is no more you can do but you know you have so much to give, you find yourself standing on the edge. Creative lines blur and circumstance can push you to the edge, at which point you crumble or create,” says K’naan.

“Poems are bullshit unless they are teeth,” writes poet and activist Amiri Baraka. With the influence of gangsta rap acts of the 1980s like N.W.A. and Public Enemy, hip-hop certainly did grow fangs. The sense was that hip-hop must get people angry, to move its listeners to action. K’naan understands this logic.

“Complacency is a disease much more rampant [in] the hip-hop generation and society makes it easy to look the other way,” he says. “Poetry must have teeth. Art must be relevant, or why make it?” he asks.
But K’Naan’s brand of politically conscious hip-hop is carving out a different path: “Anger is not the only emotion that inspires change and dialogue,” he said.

While his music is still charged with the experiences of a war that continues to spill blood, there’s a shift occurring. “Life keeps giving me inspiration and experiences,” says K’naan. “People know about my past but what happens today inspires me to create just as much as anything else,” he said.

He recently re-mixed the anthemic Wavin’ Flag for Coca Cola’s theme song at the World Cup. On the rockabilly inspired Bang Bang (with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine) K’naan appropriates gun metaphors to do what a lot of rappers do: rap about getting with girls. Troubadour is full of lush uplifting piano chords, longer choruses and the occasional choir, creating a gentler, more pop sounding album than the angrier, rhythm-driven Dusty Foot Philosopher record. But the back beats, samples from Alemayehu Eshete (the Somali James Brown) and thoughtful lyrics keep his music far from Taylor Swift territory.

“Can I get the people in the back to shut the fuck up for a minute?” K’naan asks half way through his set at the Phoenix. There’s a hint of anger in his voice. He’s in the middle of a spoken-word rendition of Somalia, a mournful tribute to his homeland. Everyone shuts up. Front and center, bathed in blue stage lighting, beating a simple rhythm on his djembe, he raps: “Do you see why it’s amazing / When someone comes out of such a dire situation / And learns the English language / Just to share his observation?” For a brief moment, for everyone in the room, Kanye doesn’t even exist.

Crackie: Sherry White’s directorial debut

Angela Walcott

Crackie is a coming of age story that depicts life in a small town. An outrageous grandmother named Bride (played by Mary Walsh) takes care of an awkward teen named Mitsy (played by Meghan Greeley). Their relationship is explosive and it becomes even more tumultuous once the pair take in neglected dog named Sparky. Canadian actor and writer Sherry White made her directorial debut with this film. She wanted to explore the dynamic whereby someone who is completely powerless suddenly gains power over something.
Born in Newfoundland, White borrowed scenes from what she observed around her while growing up. “I grew up in a really small town. There were families who lived on the outskirts of town and society. My father had a sawmill and he was a logger so I had to pass by the dump all the time to get to the sawmill,” she reflects. “I would see them in the dump and I remembered thinking, they are people who you wouldn’t speak to but you would know things about them. I thought, what is their story? Why did they have it bad?”

White has acted in films such as Down in the Dirt, Hatching, Matching and Dispatching and she has writing credits for Rabbittown and MVP under her belt. She uses these experiences while directing. “There is a similarity in the jobs … You are trying to get into someone else’s head. As a director you need to empathize with the characters… As an actor I think I was always interested in more than my character’s story and as a director I think I understand how vulnerable the actors have to be in order to give their performance.” She says it only takes a small thing for an actor to shut down, something she was aware of as a director.
Working with her actors Greeley and Walsh was wonderful. The only difficulty was for Greeley’s character to be a passive protagonist. “They always had a good chemistry and they understood what they were doing and they kept good track of who they were in their characters’ arms.”

The biggest obstacle White faced as a director was the $600,000 budget she had to work with. She worked with a small crew but she didn’t regret a thing about the whole process. Shot in 35mm, the characters’ lives were grim and yet she wanted the pictures to look beautiful.

The setting was significant to the film. Shot in Newfoundland, it had many wide vistas. She chose the first possible shooting location she looked at – an abandoned farmhouse. “I always would say … there is beauty under all of that dirt and soot—faded broken things.” This was symbolic of the characters in her film too—they were beautiful underneath their weathered appearance.

With two of her shorts playing at TIFF previously, White said she feels there is a sense that she is stepping into the professional world of directing. It’s something she is proud of. “I have paced myself at the right speed. I was writing this feature since 2001. I knew that I wanted to direct it but I abandoned it until I was ready,” said White. “You need to… feel in charge and feel confident in your ability to do what you are doing as a director. It doesn’t mean I felt that I didn’t doubt myself sometimes, but I felt I knew that I could do it,” she said.

White confesses that there is never a time when she is more happy or satisfied than when she is behind the camera. Although she believes she will make more of a living as a writer she says, “With directing I am fully engaged, I can’t doubt myself or be anxious. You have to be fully present. I live so much in my head all of the time that it [directing] is a great relief.”

Don Argott’s The Art of the Steal at TIFF

A documentary about Dr. Albert C. Barnes, a pharmaceutical giant who mastered the “art” of art collecting

Angela Walcott

Don Argott’s documentary, The Art of the Steal, played at the 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival and literally had the audience perched on the edge of their seats. This may be a documentary but it contains plot devices that make it a great feature.

Described as a whodunit, Don Argott who was in town to promote the film, says he went to great lengths to try to boil the story down to what he thought were the most compelling elements. “There are so many facets to it.” He said he didn’t want to overwhelm the audience with too much detail because the story is already so dense and that runs the risk of making it boring or confusing.

Full of plot twists and turns, the documentary chronicles the life of Dr. Albert C. Barnes a self-made pharmaceutical giant, who single-handedly mastered the “art” of art collecting. Matisses, Monets and Renoirs hung randomly from the walls of his residential gallery. Snubbed by the art world, he refused to loan to other galleries, which drew much criticism. Barnes pitted himself against the establishment. He created an art school within the gallery and his philosophy was to break down barriers in the art world by allowing everyone to embrace, celebrate and appreciate art. After Barnes died in a car crash in 1951, he left his multi-billion dollar collection to Lincoln University and the scramble for control began.

While the story is based partly on John Anderson’s book, Art Held Hostage, the filming involved extensive research. “We used John’s book as kind of a road map, but we dug as deep as we could into other aspects,” Argott says. What sealed the deal for Argott was that the subject matter was current which is important in documentary filmmaking.

In fall of this year, the new location for the Barnes Foundation is set for construction which will be finished in 2011. That’s the same institution that Dr. Barnes had refused to deal with when he was alive. The story came together naturally for the filmmaker Argott, who said there was never any agenda. He had no affiliation or relations with the Barnes Foundation.

“You can’t write a character like Richard Glanton,” says Argott. Glanton was the former president of the Barnes Foundation collection who played a key role in the Barnes collection. “He is an amazing character.

There are so many people who were involved in the story that have amazing personalities. He admits that he wishes he had more from the other side to tell a balanced story. “I am not going to be like Michael Moore and go in and try to make one side look bad. But we had to start somewhere and as with any research, you try to get as many people as you can that were involved, to talk that could give you their point of view or their story.”

“We are very much interested in doing character films rather than artsy films, he says.” And to him, Barnes was the best character. “We were simply trying to tell the story through the eyes of Dr. Barnes. Because it is really his story and his words that were anchored to it,” says Argott. “It is Dr. Barnes point of view and he states very clearly what he wants. The irony is that the people who are supposed to be upholding that are the exact people who are not.”

The most difficult part of making the documentary for Argott was keeping it real and keeping it interesting. “We have always had an air of edginess. We tried very hard to have a rock and roll sensibility and in doing that we have managed to tell a very complicated dense story in a very accessible way.”

Don Argott, admitted this story was a departure from his earlier work, namely Rock School. “Lenny Feinberg, who is the executive producer, approached us with the idea.” I heard of the Barnes Foundation but I knew nothing about the story.” “With us it is never about oh we only do this kind of film, we are interested in telling great stories no matter what the story is. We take it on. If I didn’t feel I could bring something to it, I wouldn’t have done this Barnes film,” said Argott.

Although he is at the editing stage of another documentary about a former rock star’s brush with fame, Argott said he wants to take a break from documentaries. He is making the leap to narrative filmmaking. “Documentary filmmaking takes lots of research and you have no control over a schedule,” he explained.

“It’s life. It happens when it happens,” Argott said.

So when he is ready to return to documentaries, will there be a follow up to The Art of the Steal? “We’ll see,” Argott said. “Let’s get this one out there first.”

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