Photo by Cole Breiland

Can a community claim copyright on their culture?

Amy Szybalski

News Writer

Should Thunder Bay be able to copyright the Sleeping Giant? On January 15^th, Dr. Wanda George brought that particular question and others regarding cultural copyright to Lakehead via videoconference.

George dealt with the ramifications of tourism on local culture, and how some communities are choosing to deal with this particular issue. George raised the questions of whether or not a community can copyright its own cultural expressions and icons, traditional folk art and music, local folklore, myths, stories, language, landscapes, landmarks, and unique architecture.

George said that as tourism expands into more rural communities, such issues are becoming more significant to the tourism industry.

According to George, some local communities are worried that their cultural assets are being exploited. Various outside businesses are “increasingly appropriating and exploiting local intangible culture and heritage for their own commercial purposes and profit gain.”

George argued that businesses frequently use local heritage icons without giving any monetary compensation to the local businesses for using their culture. She suggested that perhaps setting up funds in local towns that charge fees to use their particular icons in advertising and merchandise could help deal with this issue.

George took questions at the end of her lecture from the various students present. Most questions dealt with the practicality of setting up such a fund, and how such a fund would be regulated.

George replied that “individual communities would have to govern their particular fund, and these are all factors that would have to be ironed out.”

She went on to say, “I am merely suggesting that something must be done to preserve the culture.”

George is the author of a newly published book titled “World Tourism Development Localism and Cultural Change.” She is also a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia, and the director of The World Heritage Tourism Research Network.

This collaborative group of international researchers study and compare research on tourism policy and management issues at world heritage sites around the world.

Local youth host Valentine’s gala to build accessible playground

Mike Connor

Many folks look back on their childhood and remember swingsets, slides, monkey bars and sand pits. A local youth club wants every child to have those memories.

The Rotaract Club of Thunder Bay, which is a youth subsidiary of Rotary International, was established in 2002. The club has been active in community service projects throughout Thunder Bay such as canned food drives, Christmas boxes of hope, and other volunteer projects.

Brandon Otway, a 4^th year Lakehead University education student, got the idea for a playground for physically disabled children in 2007.

“I visited Los Angeles, CA for the Rotary International convention and got to see a massive $1 million universally accessible playground called Shane’s Inspiration and I decided we needed something like this in town.”

Otway found out about the new George Jeffrey Children’s Centre being built and decided to propose the idea to the centre’s executive director, Eiji Tsubouchi.

“[H]e he loved the idea. I pitched it to the club and they loved it.”

The playground, which promises to be 100% wheelchair accessible, also comes with a hefty price tag.

The club is looking at a cost of roughly $50,000 in making the playground a reality for local kids. They hope to have the work completed by this summer.

The roughly ten-member club is hoping the upcoming “An Affair of the Heart” Valentine’s Gala will pull in enough money to make the playground a reality.

The group has been fairly successful in getting corporate support for the event, but hopes love-struck couples will turn out to support the cause.

The gala, which promises to be an “evening of elegance” will include both dinner and dance portions. Guests will be graced with live music and have the option to bid on items in a silent auction.

The group is selling tickets for the event at their venue, the Valhalla Inn, as well as the George Jeffrey Children’s Centre.

Tickets run $80 per person with all proceeds going toward the playground.

Photo by Cole Breiland

BOD meeting short but not sweet

Stacey Goyan

News Editor

Board approves Strategic Plan Committee

Months after committing to drafting a strategic plan, board was presented with an outline of how the committee will be formed.

Kolic announced that the committee would consist of the three LUSU executives, two members of the board of directors, two students at large, and one Orillia representative.

The LUSU general manager, the sustainability coordinator, the Orillia office person, and the Argus were granted non-voting status.

Questions were raised about whether the centres would be included in the decision making process. Kolic said centres would be involved through an advisory role.

As well, Kolic said committee meetings would be open to students to attend.

Only director Louise Hawkeness opposed the motion.

CUPE gets office space back

After a presentation from CUPE, the board decided the union would share office space with the Graduate Student Commissioner.

Director Mary Chang said she felt the shared space was appropriate due to the number of graduate students that are members of CUPE.

Vice president finance Josh Kolic, said he would look into where specifically that office space would be.

Executive abroad

Thursday’s meeting saw none of the three LUSU executives physically present for the meeting.

President Dave Grad was attending a Canadian Federation of Students conference this weekend, while VP finance Josh Kolic was on a week-long visit to the Orillia campus. Vice president of student issues Trevor Cava could not attend due to surgery.

Despite his absence, Grad was able to phone in to the first portion of the meeting, while Kolic was present via teleconference.

Help for Haiti

Kolic suggested LUSU make a $2500 donation to help victims of the crisis in Haiti. The board generally supported the suggestion and decided to consult the Multicultural Centre on to which organization the money should be donated.

Tempers flare during board break

After losing quorum due to departures from president Grad and director Chris Vaillant, the board went into recess.

During the break, a dispute erupted between director Louise Hawkeness and VP finance Josh Kolic. While board members speculated on what was exactly said, Kolic later referred to it during the CUPE discussion.

“After last meeting, at the end there was a group hug and everyone made nice. So tonight’s comments, they were pretty ugly and they hurt, so I hope going forward we can not have to listen to things like that anymore.”

In a statement emailed to the Argus, Hawkeness said her comments were not addressed to Kolic. She went on to discuss her opinions regarding executive positions.

“It is my opinion that the executive positions are a waste of the corporation’s money because of the inconsistency in actions by changing executive members.”

“It appears that they do what they want with no regard to policies and this should not be allowed.”

Bob Saget started it all, we dreadfully admit

Derek Wall

A&E Editor

Back in 1989, the world was exposed to entertaining 30-second clips on network television when America’s Funniest Home Videos was unveiled. Television viewers could tune in and get their fill of graphic depictions of brides falling on their way to the alter, animals falling off of an assortment of ledges, and (the Holy Grail of the series) a fellow getting maimed in the family jewels. We can scoff all we want at the relatively brainless material featured in early episodes, but the reality is, back in the 1990’s, the show pulled in more that 38 million viewers a week.

And let’s face it, the series acted as an accurate premonition of things to come in the world of comedy.

Fast-forward 10 years to late 1998, and Fox airs a new animated show after Super-Bowl XXXIII, Family Guy. There is no shortage of discussion around the Family Guy franchise these days, and one of the most popular topics is whether or not the series contains any actual comedic merit. In earlier episodes, the series contained and thrived off of plot devices billed as “cutaway segments.”

One of the most famous cutaway segments from an early episode is the notorious “chicken fight.” In Episode 2.3, Peter informs a man in a chicken costume handing out coupons that he does not accept coupons from chickens. The show then cuts away to a flashback of Peter receiving an expired coupon from a huge chicken and an epic fistfight ensues involving helicopters, semi-trucks, and a sinking barge. The scene lasted more than two minutes.

In the beginning, the use of the cutaway made for a usually humourous divergence only to return to the plot once the goofiness was out of the way. It certainly helped establish the essence of Family Guy. A common complaint of Family Guy’s later years, however, is that the cutaway gag has become so used and abused that a running plot for an episode does not have a chance to set itself; the cutaways are just inane, floating gags made usually at the expense of a celebrity.

But again, though many call the brand of factoid humour found in Family Guy very lowbrow, the viewership average hovered around 8 million regular viewers from 2004 to 2009.

Finally, in February 15^th of 2005, the domain youtube.com was activated. Youtube quickly became the online headquarters of user-uploaded videos from across the globe. And of course, with this kind of power at the user’s fingertips videos of brides falling on their way to the alter, animals falling off of an assortment of ledges, and fellows getting maimed in the family jewels begin to flood the site.

It would be very unfair to say no good has come from this website. With the ability to publicize their own videos, many users began sharing interesting material worth conversation like short films, including documentaries. Some individuals grabbed the opportunity to start regular series and capitalize on internet fame, like The Angry Video Game Nerd and Philip DeFranco.

It seems to be a legitimate concern for many that this popularizing of factoid comedy is causing us to veer away from a more traditional and, frankly, better-conceived version of comedy. Little Miss Sunshine, a film released in 2006, was heralded by many reviews as a high-brow and sophisticated comedy, but to many viewers their didn’t seem to be much featured within the film that seemed especially “sophisticated” except for the fact that every punch-line delivered was relevant to the overall arc of the story.

Criticism for this brand of humour is nothing new either. Evidently, Johnny Carson (then the host of The Tonight Show) used to suggest new names for America’s Funniest Home Videos like “Fluffy Falls Into the Food Processor, Hosted by Bob ‘Where’s My Career’ Sagat.”

To the dismay of many, the factoid brand of comedy doesn’t appear to be going away. Fox has already started airing the third series by Seth McFarlane, The Cleveland Show. The amount of ‘vloggers’ (video bloggers) offering online series is growing exponentially.

It seems the critics of “Factoid Comedy” are going to have wait a few more years (hopefully not another 10) for the fad to wear off.

Derek Wall

A&E Editor

It isn’t often that a stage in Thunder Bay unveils of a brand new play, but fortunately, Drew Hayden Taylor’s latest play is set to premier at Magnus Theatre.

Dead White Writer on the Floor is the story of six stereotypical Native Americans that come to life to discover a dead white writer on the floor. The list of characters includes Tonto, Injun Joe, Billy Black, Old Lodgeskins, Pocahontas, and Kills Many Enemies. Now that these stereotypes have come to life, they journey to abandon the personas forced onto them by their literary creators, and take part in “the real world.”

Drew Hayden Taylor, who refers to himself as “The Blue-Eyed Ojibway,” is the author of 20-plus books including novels, short stories, screenplays, and plays, and has a very impressive resume of extra-curriculars. Taylor has done stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C., written for many Canadian magazines and newspapers, and has acted as artistic director for Native Earth Performing Arts.

Taylor has also worked on 17 documentaries that explore and to define the Native Experience. One of Taylor’s most publicised works is a collection of articles he wrote for newspapers entitled the ‘Funny, You Don’t Look Like One” series which dealt with many potentially controversial topics in a humourous light. The idea was to shed light on discrimination from both sides of the racial coin, supporting Taylor’s passionate argument that all are infinitely complex human beings, and that “type-casting” is extremely problematic for all involved.

In his “Funny, You Don’t Look Like One” series, Taylor wrote on one occasion, “I’ve spent too many years explaining who and what I am repeatedly, so as of this moment, I officially secede from both races. I plan to start my own separate nation. Because I am half Ojibway, and half Caucasian, we will be called the Occasions. And of course, since I’m founding the new nation, I will be a Special Occasion.”

Taylor has received a slew of awards in the past, and most recently he was honoured with the 2009 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award. The award is given to, “Canadian artists who are in mid-career. These awards pay tribute to outstanding work done in the areas of dance, integrated arts, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts, writing and publishing-disciplines.”

Thursday will see the first production of this play ever performed in a professional setting. This may be an opportunity to see a piece of Canadian history in the making that allow you to someday say, “I saw the very first production of that classic!”

Art of Time Ensemble – Abbey Road

Derek Wall

A&E Editor

This week’s Canadian CD is a slightly unorthodox choice because it isn’t actually a CD… yet.

Last summer, at Toronto’s Enwave Theatre, many representatives of Canada’s musical talent helped the Beatles celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Beatles iconic album, Abbey Road.

Among the musicians were Sarah Slean, Raine Maida, Steven Page, John Southworth and many others.

The Art of Time ensemble is a Toronto-based orchestra fronted by Andrew Burashko. Experimentation and creative, new approaches to music are the purposes behind the Art of Time ensemble; the orchestra regularly collaborates with Canadian musicians.

The creativity is certainly apparent in the orchestra’s approach to Abbey Road. This is not your typical recycled tribute album—a very good thing, as there is no shortage of albums dedicated to the Beatles.

Abbey Road is transformed into something truly contemporary, engaging, and unique. There are no weak links in this recording; the instrumentation is great, the vocalists commit wholeheartedly to the project, and the combined product is delivered with urgency.

The recording is creative enough that even Beatles naysayers might consider giving it a listen, especially if you have an ear to the rail of Canada’s music scene.

Because the recording is not yet an album, there is only one place it can be listened to. The album can be streamed off of CBC Radio 2’s webpage under their Concerts on Demand link.

This is a perfect recording to listen to next time you’re stuck sitting at a computer for an extended period of time and want to liven things up a bit.

Full Link: www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20090927abbey