PSE Stakeholders: their demands in word clouds

This year, the funding framework that sets out how colleges and universities will be funded, is expiring. Student, faculty and administrative groups have all submitted their recommendations for how to move forward. To save you time, we’ve condensed their reports into word clouds, so you can see a snapshot of how these groups advocate for change within the post-secondary sector (in alpha order).

‘Zinesters are zany for Canzine

Jennifer Tse

Ask Richard Rosenbaum about ‘zine culture in Toronto and he’ll put it simply: “There’s a lot of it.”

Rosenbaum would know. The 30-year-old Ryerson student, currently working on his Communication and Culture master’s degree, is also the associate fiction editor and online fiction editor of Broken Pencil magazine, Canada’s authority on ‘zine culture.

Broken Pencil hosted Canzine, the largest festival of alternative arts in the country, on Nov. 1, 2009 at the historic Gladstone Hotel. And the 2009 iteration of Canzine was its most successful yet.

“We had about 170 creators set up at the fair. We had to turn people away because of space,” said Rosenbaum.

Located in the heart of the Queen West art scene, the Gladstone became Toronto’s alternative culture Mecca for the afternoon. Many even found it difficult to move around, so jam-packed was the space with small press creators, or ‘zinesters,’ and visitors browsing their wares. Evident from the tables piled high with screen-printed t-shirts, CDs, and buttons, the colourful array of homegrown creation extended far beyond just mini magazines.

“‘Zines are low-tech, self-published, creator-created publications that go through genres,” said Rosenbaum. “Lately they’ve also been a supplement to other creative endeavors like comics and music, but ‘zines tie this do-it-yourself culture all together.”

Among those tabling at Canzine were editors from McClung’s Magazine, Ryerson’s feminist magazine; and Ian Daffern, a 2001 Ryerson Radio and Television Arts alumnus.

Dressed in a suit and tie, Daffern was a stark contrast with the sea of skinny jeans and vintage sunglasses tabling around him. Daffern was promoting Freelance Blues, a comic book series he created with friends Mike Leone and Vicki Tierney. The series highlights one man’s struggle with the perils of work and is a self-described “adventure in underemployment.”

“This suit reflects the hero of the story,” said Daffern, who first heard about Canzine from at a Book TV internship he started while at Ryerson. “It’s my first self-published book.”

Neither Daffern nor Rosenbaum would have been a part of the ‘zine scene if it weren’t for Hal Niedzviecki, Broken Pencil’s fiction editor. In true grassroots fashion, it was Niedzviecki who had reached out and encouraged both writers to become involved.

“I met him while taking a short story class at George Brown,” said Rosenbaum. “He told me that a story I’d written was Broken Pencil’s type of work, so we got it published, and kept in touch.”

Now an established member of the Broken Pencil team, Rosenbaum organized Canzine’s Can’tLit, a collection of readings featuring some of Broken Pencil’s most celebrated contributors. A play on CanLit or Canadian Literature, a quarterly devoted to the criticism and review of Canadian writing, Can’tLit’s goal was to be everything CanLit wasn’t.

“A lot of people perceive CanLit as something that has a preconception and standard for writers,” said Rosenbaum. “CanLit is also a catch-all term for Canadian literature. Boring, rural, historical. Can’tLit is modern, urban, and young. It’s all over the map, with varied and broad interests.”

The anthology featured Joey Comeau, Greg Kearney, Jessica Faulds, and Zoe Whittall. All guests were handpicked by Rosenbaum, who tried to find local, Toronto-based authors in an attempt to nurture ‘zine culture close to home.

“I think the Toronto ‘zine scene is helping a lot of people communicate very directly and very personally, which is something that’s not as easy to do in a more mediated form, like traditional publishing and music,” said Rosenbaum.

To Rosenbaum, ‘zine culture is special because of its grassroots nature and lack of intermediate stages between the ‘zinester and the audience.

“The personal touch—that’s important, because that’s really what art is about,” said Rosenbaum. “Communicating and connecting.”

The body: A world of its own

Gunther von Hagens’ plastination exhibit demonstrates the beauty of the human body

Angela Walcott

Science and art, art and science—either way you look at it, they are two different worlds and when you put them together they create something magical. Back in 1995, Dr. Gunther von Hagens first presented Body Worlds to the general public and the response was immense. Seen by a record 29 million people around the world, the exhibit has managed to unite people from different backgrounds on common ground—their appreciation for anatomical art.

BODY WORLDS & The Story of the Heart is the second presentation of the world-reknowned exhibit by Dr. Gunther von Hagens in Toronto. The figures in the exhibit perform complex poses—exposing tendons, blood vessels and lean muscle and displaying the strength, athleticism and beauty of the human body.

BODY WORLDS & The Story of the Heart is different than the previous exhibit—“It is a more personal/intimate approach to our bodies. It offers visitors the means to explore and reconcile their considerations about the mind, the heart, the body, and the human condition,” said Dr. Angelina Whalley, the curator and conceptual designer for the exhibition.

Many visitors have commented that the special feature of The Story of the Heart has given them a reason to think more specifically about how they can improve their heart health, how serious heart problems can be and how amazing the pump in our bodies is.

Some skeptics argue that a human body should be respected after death and not put on display for our viewing pleasure. But this could not be further from the truth. The pieces aren’t disrespectful since Hagens successfully melded science with art. Given the fact that these bodies were donated to science for teaching purposes, the ethical question of whether science should be displayed as art continues.

The Javelin Thrower is statuesque and graceful, yet painstakingly positioned, to fully display how the muscles work in unison to execute a single fluid movement. All of the plastinates that make up the exhibit are made from people who have donated their bodies to science. In turn, science celebrates the human body.

Dr. von Hagens’ exhibit, presents what we take for granted. We do not see the physiological aspects, the inner workings of the human form beneath the skin, aside from computer graphic representations, but Hagens gives us that rare opportunity.

The exaggerated articulation of muscles at the exhibit is incredible to see. While these cadavers are only display for the public to see, a distance and respect is maintained. Carefully placed signs ask that patrons abstain from touching the plastinate figures at all times.

The exhibit is part of The Human Saga—a series that shows the workings of the brain, the heart and other findings about the human body. The discoveries stem from the latest advances in the fields of neuroscience, cardiology, biology, genetics, gerontology, psychiatry and physiology.

Interlaced throughout the exhibit are a series of snapshots showcasing healthy vs. unhealthy organs and cross-sections that illustrate abnormalities in the body. The ill-effects of smoking (blackened lungs enrobed in nicotine versus the healthy lungs of a non-smoker), as well as enlarged and diseased hearts. Cross sections show abnormalities of the brain while another shows the effects of obesity. A red web of capillaries and veins is featured in another figure displaying the intricate detail of the heart.

The Ontario Science Centre was the first Canadian venue that invited Dr. Gunther von Hagens to bring the first BODY WORLDS exhibition to Canada.

It all started in July of 1977, with an idea of Dr. Gunther von Hagens got, while he was working as a scientist at the University of Heidelberg’s Institute of Pathology and Anatomy. He said, “I was looking at a collection of specimens embedded in plastic. It was the most advanced preservation technique then, where the specimens rested deep inside a transparent plastic block. I wondered why the plastic was poured and then cured around the specimens, rather than pushed into the cells, which would stabilize the specimens from within and literally allow you to grasp it.”

The notion was an epiphany for Dr. von Hagens, and the genesis of Plastination—his groundbreaking invention where all bodily fluids from anatomical specimens are extracted to stop decomposition, and replaced through vacuum-forced impregnation with silicon rubber and epoxy. The specimens are then hardened with gas, light, or heat curing, which gives the specimens their rigidity and permanence. The Institute for Plastination was founded in 1993 to meet demands for plastination once the science world saw the value of plastinates as a teaching tool.

Before BODY WORLDS only people studying anatomy could enjoy this, and now it is available for everyone to appreciate. Visitors include people from all walks of life who are interested in learning more about the human body.

“More plastinates are set to come in December, including a polar bear,” said the communications manager at the The Ontario Science Centre, Mavis Harris.

The exhibit is on display at the Ontario Science Centre until February 2010.

Mommy’s at the Hairdresser

Lian Novak

Is mommy really at the hairdresser?  When that’s the title of the film, one is inclined to think, probably not.  The mommy in question is Simone, a woman who is beautiful, intelligent and seems to have it all: a successful career, good-looking husband and three loving children.  However, as the title has tipped us off, not all is as it seems.

The film, by Genie-nominated and two time TIFF award-winning director Lea Poole, is set in a pastoral Quebec town in the 1960s.  It begins at the most anticipated time for children: summer vacation.  The chanting of “school’s out” is heard throughout and one is transported back to that magical carefree time.  We first meet Elise, a teenager and the eldest of the three children who is wise beyond her years and Benoit, her younger brother and the youngest of the three children.  He is around 5 or 6 years of age and lives mostly in his own world. They decide to kick off their summer vacation with a trip to the river to go fishing.  It is here where they meet “Mr. Fly,” an unusual character that lives on the fringe of society.  This is the first hint that this town isn’t as picture perfect as it seems.

On arriving home from the fishing trip, Elise runs into her father with his golfing partner.  They are returning from a golf trip and she starts to feel uneasy when she notices they are a little too affectionate with one another.  It is also at this time that we meet the middle child, Coco, a boy on the cusp of adolescence who spends most of his time in the garage building his racecar.

From this point on, we see how the breakdown of their nuclear family begins with seemingly benign and harmless incidents.  We see how this family copes when one parent leaves. That is the most interesting aspect of this film.

Elise and Coco handle their mother leaving by becoming almost parent-like themselves as their father is clearly not equipped to handle the challenges of raising three children. This is especially the case when it becomes apparent that Benoit is slightly developmentally delayed.

This film is also an interesting look at the insular town of the 1960s where everyone is warm and caring - As long as one fulfills certain stereotypical roles.  When that does not happen, the support of the community leaves and isolation and alienation set in.

It is heartbreaking to see the effect on little Benoit when his mother, who truly seemed to understand him, leaves.  Elise and Coco, still being children themselves, can only do so much to help and protect him.  Benoit does not understand why this is happening and almost immediately starts to regress.  We see him sucking his thumb, curling up in the fetal position and becoming very destructive toward himself and to all of his toys (he chops off their heads.)

The reversal of natural roles is a recurring theme.  We get to know a few other families through the children’s friends that are also dealing with mental illness.  Again, we see children having to act as parents to their parents.  One can only imagine the effect this will have on them later on.

Lest one begins to think that this film is all doom and gloom, there are some lighthearted and comical moments that brighten the film. For example, when Elise and her friends play a kissing game in the barn with a great soundtrack in the background, it provides a needed relief to the darker, more serious moments in the film.   The cinematography is gorgeous.  There are many beautiful shots of summer in its full glory and one can almost feel the warm breeze floating by.  The shots of Benoit are interesting.  He is mostly framed alone in close-ups, emphasizing his aloneness in a world that does not fully understand him.

Mommy’s at the Hairdresser is not an easy film as it raises more questions than it answers.  It doesn’t tidy up neatly at the end, but then neither does real life.

A note about the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival:

Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival was started 17 years ago by Lisa Brown, Artistic Director, while she was working as an archivist and found hundreds of films about mental health issues.  She decided it was important that these films see the light of day. The festival started small, but has grown to a 10 day festival which receives over 300 submissions a year (at least 50 of which are chosen to screen.)

Matthew Hogue, Program Director, believes that the festival is incredibly important because mental health issues are marginalized in our society. Furthermore the mainstream media tends to reinforce the stereotypes or simplify issues of mental health . This festival deals specifically with mental health issues in a complex and non-judgmental way. The festival also informs its programming through the involvement filmmakers, doctors and people who have had personal experiences with mental illness.  Hogue notes that the film festival is a “great equalizer, where all viewers are on equal playing field with the doctors.”

The Zolas on tour with their debut heartache-filled album Tic Toc Tic

Priya Jain

Canada’s indie music scene continues to be the stage for more down-to-earth artists, as the Zolas make their debut release - the heartache-filled album Tic Toc Tic.

Band-duo Tom Dobrzanski (keyboardist/producer) and Zachary Gray (singer/guitarist) are from Vancouver. Together they create bouncy rock music with catchy melodies, romantic flare and subtle echoes of frustration toward the pretentious hipsters that lurk about their city.

Having met as “wee lads,” they have been jamming together for years and have evolved with more charm and wanderlust since their former band days in Lotus Child.

Aaron Mariash from Will Currie & The Country French joins Dobrzanski and Gray as drummer for their current tour across Canada.

“It’s like having one big extended family,” says Mariash, who also shares the band’s quirky tradition of sharing Cherry Blossom candy at every provincial border.

They made their mark in Toronto at Lee’s Palace and The Drake Hotel, and were greeted by warm crowds.

The Zolas will end their tour back in Vancouver at the Vogue Theatre in mid-December with Hey Ocean and Current Swell. It will be their first time performing in their home city.

SoJin Chun’s urban lullaby

Ryerson alumna and artist examines big city living

Michelle Owusu

South Korean-born artist SoJin Chun has called both tropical Bolivia and snowy Canada home in her 31 years. She speaks English, Spanish and Korean fluently, visits Korea regularly and is active in Toronto’s Latino community. And it all shows in her body of work, including her most recent photo animation project, An Urban Lullaby.

“A lot of my work deals with identity, and portraiture, and about place,” explains Chun. Academically, Chun’s experience was enriched by Ryerson and York University’s joint communication and culture master’s program. Chun’s undergrad is a bachelor of applied arts from Ryerson.

The self in big, bustling cities such as Toronto—Chun’s home since the age of 13—is the focus of An Urban Lullaby. Produced over a five-month period this year, in collaboration with songwriter and musician Vanessa John (also a Ryerson alumna), the two-minute animation begins with a disturbing and mind-numbing hum that is soon replaced by footsteps on pavement, the ringing of bike bells and the obtrusive sounds of urban traffic. While replete with the usual audio cues of many an urban soundtrack, An Urban Lullaby surprises with a few unexpected sounds, such as the chattering of scorpions.

Chun balances the peaceful, dismembered, black-and-white cutout of herself with an ever-changing milieu. At first, the viewer sees a baby blue sky filled with fluffy clouds, but the landscape soon transforms into a motley of graffiti, skyscrapers and lots of stubby wood and brick buildings. For the majority of the piece, the dark haired, bespectacled Chun gently tumbles down from the sky, floating and somersaulting through the city. Chun’s eyes are sometimes open and sometimes closed, but her expression is always calm and content. “Somehow in the chaos of the city,” says Chun, “I find peace.”

In 2004 and 2005, Chun captured residents of Toronto’s Scarborough district, where she now lives, on black-and-white film. She spent time in Bolivia last year to document life in Santa Cruz, the city where she spent five years of her childhood. Showcasing and exploring her own cultural fluency or, as Chun calls it, her “cultural hybridity,” appears to be central to her identity as a photographer and photo-based artist.

An Urban Lullaby is part of the tenth annual aluCine Toronto Latin Media Festival, which celebrates film, video and media arts by Latin artists living in Canada and abroad. aluCine runs from November 12-28.

To check out SoJin Chun’s work, visit:

www.sojinchun.com/gallery

Top ten albums of 2009

Music critic Stephen Carlick divulges his top picks of the year.

1. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

It was a photo finish, but it’s the Flaming Lips’ gigantic twelth album that deserves the 2009 crown for best album of the year. From the jolting chords and mesmerizing stomp of opener “Convinced of the Hex” to the gentle sway of “Powerless,” the Oklahoma veterans prove themselves as musically fearless as they’ve been in a decade without sacrificing an iota of cohesion or flow. At a whopping eighteen tracks, the album is meant to be split as a double-album. Embryonic paints an intimidating picture, but the equal mix of power and melodic nuance make for an album that, rather than alienating the listener, challenges them to fully invest themselves in order to grasp the thing as a whole. The Lips match lyric to music here flawlessly, painting a picture of humanity informed equally by the pointedness of realism and the optimism of existentialism. “People are evil, it’s true,” singer Wayne Coyne sings, “but on the other side, they can be gentle too—they decide.” It’s a thoughtful musing, as challenging, humane and endlessly engaging as the music surrounding it. No other band dared be as musically adventurous, or as thought-provoking as the Flaming Lips did on Embryonic. So why should album of the year go to anybody else?

2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Intended as a tribute to the cherished venue of the same name, Merriweather Post Pavilion was too musical, too unabashedly euphoric to compare to the rest of this year’s releases. It struck a perfect balance by being soul-rattling and intricate enough to captivate, but groovy and honeyed enough to suit any mood. The fact that it stood up to nearly a full year of frequent listening is a testament to both Merriweather’s universality and its versatility: I can now comfortably validate the claim I made in February that the album is as resonant in the summer as in the winter. It is as much a personal album, ideal for headphone listening, as it is a unifying album that transcends musical taste. Don’t let its rank diminish its quality: In any other year, Merriweather Post Pavilion could have been a safe bet for best album. Thus, it remains Animal Collective’s best and most accomplished work to date.

3. Mos Def – The Ecstatic

After years of half-hearted musical experiments and phoned-in albums that had many thinking he might never recapture the magic he created nearly a decade ago with his classic Black Star collaboration or his solo masterpiece Black on Both Sides, Mos has finally returned to his first love—Hip-Hop. Granted, The Ecstatic doesn’t consistently reach the lyrical or thematic heights he reached in the late ’90s but musically and emotionally, The Ecstatic comes consistently close. Mos sounds outright invigorated on the timpani-driven “Quiet Dog Bite Hard.” Meanwhile he sounds completely invested on the album’s emotional highlight with the song called “Auditorium.” Both of these songs are as stylishly minimalist and expertly executed as anything from Black on Both Sides. The Ecstatic is a definite reflection of Mos’ recent globetrotting. He seems to have soaked up enough inspiration during his travels in order to record an album so good that you can stop holding your breath. The Boogey Man is back, and The Ecstatic was worth the wait.

4. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Principal songwriter Dave Longstreth studied music at Yale, and it’s obvious. The fractured rhythmic structures, multi-layered harmonies and technical flourishes throughout Bitte Orca all point to the influence of years of musical study. Most impressive, though, is how Longstreth manages to effortlessly marry such musical complexity with the accessibility of pop music. While the album oozes technical ability and intelligence, it never conveys an aura of exclusivity. Sweetly melodic, subtly romantic and endlessly enthusiastic, Bitte Orca embodies all the trademarks of a great pop album. It’s somehow the most inventive and the catchiest pop album of 2009.

5. Why? – Eskimo Snow

On 2008’s Alopecia, Why?’s front-man, Jonathon “Yoni” Wolf’s intensely intimate, confessional lyrical style and spiky, agitated rhyming style were enough to affront the average listener on first encounter. A year later, Wolf sounds just as witty and acutely perceptive, but where he once sounded coolly detached from his neuroses, he now seems more contemplative and emotionally invested. He imbues each song with the kind of sincerity and emotional nuance not often heard in pop music. More inhibited, conventional and melodic than their previous work, Eskimo Snow is Why?’s prettiest collection of songs—and a damn captivating one, too.

6. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

Labyrinthine and sublime, Dragonslayer is a compelling listen. Spencer Krug’s caterwaul is unsettlingly emotive and here (crowded by guitar feedback, piano reverb and a haunting female vocal counterpart) it’s as affective as ever. Krug weaves a fine narrative tapestry throughout the album, complete with spikes of climactic bombast and valleys of quiet piano tinkling. But while Dragonslayer twists and turns in dramatic fashion, it never threatens to lose the listener. Each rhythm and key change feels like a part of the plan, making Dragonslayer a decidedly cohesive and infinitely enthralling addition to the year’s musical yield.

7. The Antlers – Hospice

You’d think by now the ‘album as diary’ archetype would have gotten old, but there’s still something very captivating about it, especially when it’s imbued with as much sincerity and truth as Hospice is. Conceptualized as an account of watching a loved one passing away in a hospice, the Antlers’ fourth full-length is stunningly dynamic, alternating between epic, shoe-gazing moments of bombast and gently ambient verses to suit each lyrical mood. Singer Peter Silberman’s fragile tenor is so wrought with emotion it sounds like it could give out at any moment, but then again, so could your heart.

8. St. Vincent – Actor

There are few pop performers as dedicated to their craft as Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent. She wrote her second album completely on her computer, had it transcribed to sheet music, printed it out and forced herself to learn to play it. To do so, she believed, forced her to reach beyond her musical capability to perform something that she created unencumbered by her physical limitations. The result was Actor, a bittersweet collection of dramatic, pseudo-orchestral songs punctuated by Clark’s mellifluous alto wherein Clark is merely the actor. Here she performs her mind’s creation in the most expressive and human way.

9. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

There’s any number of reasons why Farm is an essential album of 2009. The most important is that it’s an album of masterful song-writing based around the all-but-forgotten rock instrument of the last five years—the electric guitar. No contemporary band has embraced the versatility of the guitar like Dinosaur Jr. does and on Farm the band sounds as coolly energetic as they do irresistibly tuneful. While the rest of the indie world shies away from the electric guitar, these veterans continue to prove that a good (albeit long) rock album can still be solidly built thereupon.

Away From Everywhere

A new novel about two brothers, love and infidelity

Kate Spencer

Chad Pelley’s debut novel, Away from Everywhere, begins with a car crash. It opens with a scream of metal and the scream of the main character, Owen, as he fights to stay alive and to keep his loved one alive.

Pelley’s great talent lies with his descriptions. In this opening scene, the reader finds that they are in the crash. They can hear the rain on the roof, feel the cold of the air and the warmth of the blood on the seats. Flashes of color—black and beige and red—look and feel so real that the pages of the book appear to change color.

It can be a little difficult to read on after the first few pages. You get hit with such an emotional knock to the head that you almost don’t want to know what will happen next. But if the reader ventures on, they will find a novel that is worth reading.

The story revolves around the lives of two brothers, Owen and Alex. It follows them from childhood to adulthood, and examines the factors in their lives that define who they will become. They are bonded together by the mental illness of their father, and torn apart by Owen’s love for Alex’s wife, Hannah.

The author, Chad Pelley, has been celebrated for his works of short fiction, but he said he sees his shorter stories as a way to “ramp up” to novels.  His goal in writing Away From Everywhere was to explore why the two brothers became different men, and use the affair to explore the flip side of love. He asked, “What happens if you fall in love with the wrong person?” The answer, as presented in the novel, seems to be ambiguous, and that ambiguity is what makes it so good to write about. Pelley also delves into the primal urges of love versus social morality.

If this novel has a fault, it is its character development and dialogue. Pelley said he feels like the kind of writer who would write nothing but heart-wrenching descriptions all day, if he was given the chance. In particular, the character of Hannah, who is told mainly through her journal entries, does not feel like a living, breathing woman, but rather very much like the idealized version that Owen would like to see her as. The characters can also at times feel like they belong in the short story format that Pelley might be more comfortable with. They tend towards clichés: the neglected wife, the obsessively “normal” husband, and the alcoholic writer.  They also gravitate to a certain kind of intellectual snobbery; the ten-year-old brothers laughing over a botched reading of Mice and Men, for example, or the references to vaguely obscure Independent music.

References to music choices are made slightly more forgivable, however, when the reader is able to take into account the fact that Pelley himself finds a deep connection between music and writing. He says, “I certainly always have the right moody music on while writing. Music really encapsulates the feel of the novel.”

Readers who are interested in what music Pelley listened to while he wrote, or wonder which band Owen and Hannah listened to, are in luck. Pelley created a soundtrack to the novel, which is available on his website, along with the “trailer” for the novel.  Pelley says he decided to create these multimedia add-ons because readers and writers take marketing for granted.  He says, “Those features are tacked on to the novel to get attention, to get interest, to get word-of-mouth advertising.”

Whatever reason Pelley had for choosing to make a soundtrack for the book, it is strongly recommended by this reviewer that readers play it while they read. The novel and the music very clearly go together, and listening to the music while reading adds a whole new level of depth and meaning to the novel and its events.

Away From Everywhere raises some very interesting questions about life. How do we get to be the people that we become? If you love the person, is adultery still wrong? What makes life and love meaningful? Pelley doesn’t answer any of these questions in the novel, which is all for the better. It’s thinking about these questions that enable a reader to join in on the discussion. Readers can examine the relationship between light and dark, which pervades in many of the novel’s characters.

The attention to detail continues throughout the novel. Pelley elucidates textiles, smells, hot and cold sensations and more. The aim really seems to be to shove the reader down into the trenches of the story—to affect you and to garner a reaction. If the reader is anything like this reviewer, they will find themselves beginning to cry halfway through the plot, and unable to stop for another fifty pages. This power of connection comes from feeling that the characters are real people who the reader has come to know and care about.

Away From Everywhere is a book that requires a lot of pauses. Pauses to think, reflect, discuss, and most importantly, breathe, before you are ready to dive back in for the next disastrous event. But it is also a book that will continue to call you back to it, and call you on to the next page and the next chapter. It is a book you could read many times over. Maybe just have some happy books on hand to read in between.

Jonna’s Body debuts at BreastFest

A surreal film about battling breast cancer

Tracy Chen

At age 19 Jonna Tamases is a student and aspiring stage performer. She has oversized breasts that she wants to reduce. During her checkup with the doctor for a breast reduction she discovers she has cancer.

In Canada, an estimated 22,700 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer. That is 437 women diagnosed every week. One in nine Canadian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. One-third of these women will die.

Jonna Tamases’ experience with cancer was presented on the big screen in her film Jonna’s Body, Please Hold. It was showcased at the second annual BreastFest in Toronto.

When Tamases was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at age 19, she recalls, “I was pretty angry…I couldn’t conceive what it meant to be facing death.” The next year, she found out she had large cell lymphoma. “Luckily in my case, the chemotherapy worked and the cancer died before I did,” she said.

During her battle with cancer, she didn’t have enough physical strength to go to school or perform on stage. “It’s so easy to feel reduced to be just a cancer patient that you lose sense of all that you are,” said Tamases. “But it’s not all that we are. We’re so much bigger than our tumors.”

Twelve years later, she found out she had breast cancer. “I suspect it was due to the radiation that I had in the area to treat the first cancer,” she said. Often secondary cancers appear in areas that were previously radiated.

She opted for double mastectomy instead of chemotherapy. “Chemotherapy was really hard for me, it was very intense and I was not looking forward to having to go through that again,” said Tamases. She also didn’t like the idea of waiting and seeing, and wanted to move on with her life.

“I thought, I had twelve good years with my perfect little breasts and if I have to say goodbye to them that’s alright for me,” said Tamases. “Luckily I had a very loving husband, who assured me that my boobs were not the reason he married me and so we sort of faced it together.”

Tamases’ story and others are featured as part of Breastfest—the world’s first film festival dedicated to breast cancer awareness. It took place in November at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum.  Breastfest explores the spectrum of issues surrounding breast cancer through films, panels, workshops and speakers.

The festival raised awareness and aimed to educate people who have not experienced breast cancer. This year’s theme was storytelling. “For the people who have experienced [breast cancer] when they see the stories up on the big screen, they’re able to sort of validate their own story and understand they’re not alone,” said Alison Gordon, BreastFest Film Festival’s director and a vice-president at Rethink Breast Cancer. Rethink Breast Cancer is an organization that helps young people who are concerned about and affected by breast cancer. Proceeds from this year’s BreastFest go towards Rethink Breast Cancer and next year’s festival.

The mission of BreastFest is to open dialogue and to share stories together in a creative way, “Through all the different facets of how different people approach it creatively,” explained Tamases.

Tamases’ idea of turning her own experience into a film, Jonna’s Body, Please Hold, began in 1994. It started out as a script for a one-woman show. Her first version was completely comedic, until a director forced her to write about the darker aspects. “Oh boy, did I fight that tooth and nail because I was so afraid of being too serious,” said Tamases. But she was happy with her final product. “There are comedic moments, and there are serious moments - Really a roller coaster ride, which is kind of what life is like,” she said.

Jonna’s Body, Please Hold is based on her theatrical version. “It was always a dream to take that same and story and fully realize it on screen so that we could create the visuals that I had always imagined with it.”

Jonna’s Body, Please Hold is a bizarre journey in her body. Pearl is Jonna’s internal receptionist that fields calls from each of her body parts. Each body part is a character. “It had occurred to me that there had been so many side effects, that all my different body parts had a slightly different experience of having cancer,” said Tamases. For instance, her upper back loved it. “If you ask my upper back what it thought of chemo, it would be like oh it’s awesome, we can have more!” said Tamases. “If you ask my mouth, I’d be like I’d rather die than have to eat a bowl of apple sauce.”

Jonna’s Body, Please Hold has been praised by critics and has won numerous awards such as the award for Best Cinematography in the 2009 Show Off Your Shorts Film Fest. “People tell me that the humour makes the story less fearsome and more accessible,” said Tamases. “I really wanted to make the movie entertaining so people would want to watch it and not go: ‘oh it’s a cancer movie.’”

Tamases hopes the people watching the movie lighten up. “I want people to leave with a feeling of lightness and joy … How neat it is to be together in this life on this planet,” she said.

New US climate target means Canada’s won’t budge

Brett Throop

The Conservative government has one thing to celebrate going into next week’s climate talks in Copenhagen: Obama’s emissions reduction offer.

Last week, along with announcing he would make a brief appearance in Copenhagen, President Obama made an offer to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, was likely pleased to note how close that target is to Canada’s own goal of 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020.

“If we do more than the US, we will suffer economic pain for no real environmental gain,” Prentice said earlier this month. “But if we do less, we will risk facing new border barriers into the American market.”

That means if the US adopts a more ambitious target, Canada will likely follow. On the other hand, with a comparable target in the US, Canada could more easily stick to its current target.

That is, if the Conservative government continues to ignore pressure from both at home and abroad to make deeper emissions cuts.

That pressure mounted last week as climate change activists occupied Prentice’s Calgary office and Parliament passed a motion calling for the Conservatives to make deeper cuts. There were also calls for Canada’s membership in the Commonwealth to be suspended for its climate change policy.

“Countries that fail to help [tackle global warming] should be suspended from membership, as are those that breach human rights,” said UK MP and former international development secretary Clare Short.

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