WWW.WESTERNGAZETTE.
CA
top 10
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The first five in a two
back
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two-part
o-part series of
Mustangs
Western’s best Mustaangs >> pg.7
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2010
UWOMG SNOW! Some students made the best of the torrential snow squall that wrecked havoc on London and caused cancelled classes and exams yesterday. Sledding on cafeteria trays — a favoured pas-
time of Western students for decades — made a return to campus on Monday.
The first in four years
Western closes after immense snowfall
Kaleigh Rogers
NEWS EDITOR
If you’re still used to the GTA’s ver-
sion of winter weather, the last cou-
ple of days in London may have
chilled your expectations.
Yesterday marked this season’s
biggest snow squall and one of the
heaviest in recent memory. The
storm forced the closure of several
operations and services around
London.
After first deciding to keep cam-
pus open yesterday, Western
abruptly cancelled classes and
exams around 10:30 a.m.
After the announcement, ser-
vices and facilities on campus,
including libraries, The Spoke, The
Wave, and the University Students’
Council slowly started following suit.
The decision to cancel classes
was the result of a long consultation
process beginning in the early
morning hours yesterday, accord-
ing to Gitta Kulczycki, vice-presi-
dent resources and operations for
Western.
“At that point in time, the snow-
fall wasn’t quite as heavy as what is
coming down now. Since five
o’clock this morning, we’ve been
continuing to consult as the snow
gets heavier, and as we saw what
our own road conditions were, and
thegazette
Extende
Extended
ed hours at the library are still up
for deba
ate >> pg.3
debate
WESTERN’S DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1906
we then made the decision,” she
said yesterday.
Though classes and exams were
cancelled, the school didn’t official-
ly close — a call that hasn’t been
made since 2006, Kulczycki noted.
“Back in 2006, we had 55 cm of
snow and we closed early that
morning,” she explained. “It’s a
question of the decision-making for
[Tuesday], which is too early right
now to make that call, obviously,
but we’ll be communicating
through the course of today and
tonight and early into tomorrow as
to what our situation is.”
Kulczycki explained an impor-
tant factor influencing the school’s
decision to close is whether or not
the London Transit Commission
continues to run.
Yesterday, Larry Ducharme, gen-
eral manager for the LTC, explained
they work very hard to keep the
buses on the road.
“We appreciate that people
depend on us and that’s why we
have very capable operators, and
inspection and dispatching staff,” he
explained, noting they experienced
some setbacks due to the weather.
“We have a number of buses that
are stuck and we’re trying to get
them unstuck. We’re anywhere from
a half-hour to forty-five minutes
behind schedule, but all the buses
Through rain, hail, sleet or snow since 1906
u The 64
Th 64-year-oldld diva
di makes
enjoyable
in the trite but enjoyabble Burlesque >> pg.6
are out there,” he said, adding the
LTC’s online service Web Watch was
shut down due to volume overload,
which crashed the system.
Ducharme noted the LTC would
likely not pull buses from the road,
unless they could no longer service
safely.
On campus, The Wave and The
Spoke closed in the early afternoon,
explained Jeff Armour, food and
beverage manager for the Universi-
ty Students’ Council.
“When that decision was made,
instead of us bringing more staff in
for our lunch rush, which is really
when the majority of our staff come
in, we made the decision to not
bring them in and to close.”
He noted the safety of their stu-
dent employees was their foremost
concern.
“I knew in my head, just looking
at the snow, when you have 30, 40-
plus student employees that are
coming into work and trying to
make their way up there, it’s just not
safe,” he said.
“The whole focus is just on the
safety of the staff, not just in getting
to work, but also getting home. If
this snow continues, and we were
to stay open until two or until three,
and then the roads got worse and
somebody got hurt, that’s just not
acceptable.”
m k h her bi
big screen comeback
b k
Opinion > Western’s Reaction
UWO snubs campus
Zwellin’ it
like it is
Arden Zwelling
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
arden@westerngazette.ca
It’s Monday — six o’clock in the
morning.
While most students were still
dreaming, second-year law student
Stephanie Bishop was in Woodstock
warming up her Mazda Protégé.
There was a 9 a.m. administra-
tive law exam to write, after all.
“I knew there was a blizzard in
London but I just assumed the uni-
versity would stay open. They have
stayed open on some pretty horrif-
ic days,” Bishop said.
After a nearly two-hour drive
just to get to campus, she was just
able to write it as the university
slowly began to shut down.
Sabrina Van Damme, on the
other hand, wasn’t as lucky.
A first-year law student, Van
Damme had a 2 p.m. exam and left
her house at 10:30 a.m., expecting a
lengthy, unpleasant commute.
“I’m upset because you get up
and you’re all ready to go write this
exam — a lot of people were already
VOLUME 104, ISSUE 49
Arden Zwelling GAZETTE
on campus studying,” Van Damme
said. “We all just ended up going
home.”
Van Damme isn’t unreasonable
— she understood the chilly cir-
cumstances. What she did not
understand was why it took so long
to cancel classes.
It’s a white-collar problem, sure.
But students deserved better from
a university that told them to go to
class Monday morning before flip-
flopping a few hours later.
According to Western, the deci-
sion to cancel classes was made
sometime between 10 a.m. and
10:30 a.m. But the first official word
of the cancellation from the univer-
sity came over twitter at 10:52 a.m.,
while their website wasn’t updated
until 11 a.m.
The worst part? There was never
a mass e-mail sent informing stu-
dents of the cancellation. Students
get campus-wide e-mails advertis-
ing Western’s post-graduate pro-
grams and speaker series all the
time. But when it comes to vital
news like Monday’s cancellation,
inboxes stayed empty.
It was a communications failure
for the university who neglected the
easiest forms of correspondence on
a day seemingly designed to exploit
their usefulness.
>> see WESTERN pg.3
2•
THROUGH SNOW, SLEET, RAIN AND HAIL! Study plans couldn’t be foiled despite
Western libraries closing their doors to students yesterday after campus was shut
down. The University Community Centre remained open, but several operations,
including Tim Hortons, also closed shop.
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thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010
News Briefs
Queen’s student
dies in fall
Months after a Queen’s University
student was found dead outside a
university residence, a second acci-
dent has left first-year arts and sci-
ence undergrad Habib Khan dead
and fellow first-year engineering
and applied sciences student
Stephen Nagy in the hospital.
Khan and Nagy fell 12 metres
through a library skylight at Duncan
McArthur Hall Thursday evening.
There was no indication why the
students were on the roof of the
library, although they did not have
permission to be there.
Safiah Chowdhury, president of
the Alma Mater Society at Queen’s,
said police are doing an investiga-
tion before much information can
be released.
“It was entirely an accident,”
Chowdhury said.
Monica Blaylock GAZETTE The death comes less than three
months after first-year engineering
student Cameron Bruce’s acciden-
tal death on Sept. 13.
“The two accidents are seen as
pretty distinct from each other,
both being exceptional cases.
www.westerngazette.ca There’s just a lot of shock,” Chowd-
bury said.
With shock and grief high, the
University is ensuring students get
the support they need.
“If any student requires any type
of support, that’s the focus of both
Student Harvest Special the AMS as well as the university,”
Chowdhury said.
MEDIUM
4
A memorial service is being
planned for before winter holidays.
Pizzas — Cheryl Madliger
2 toppings on each U of G strips down
Some University of Guelph stu-
only $ 1999 dents took it all off two weeks ago
on campus, filmed it, and put it on
YouTube.
3-169 Wharncliffe Rd. S The students danced to music
For Delivery CALL and stripped down to their under-
519-438-9999 wear at a campus cafeteria in order
to raise awareness about the recent
Delivery hours from 11am daily Senate decision to kill the Climate
Change Accountability Act, which
www.pierospizza.ca was intended to help Canada build
a plan for national climate change.
Yvonne Su, a fourth-year inter-
national development student, par-
ticipated in the demonstration. She
explained Guelph students had
staged two previous “strip mobs” to
raise awareness for climate change,
but neither received the attention
this recent demonstration has.
“It definitely took us by surprise,
because our first video got over
2,000 [hits], because it was the first
one, and the second one got over
6,000, and then this one just hit the
roof,” Su explained.
Su hoped the demonstration
and the buzz it has generated will
encourage other students not only
to get informed, but also to take
action.
“A lot of students were my fellow
friends who are aware but they’ve The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals
never taken any action. [...] For O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give
you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error.
them to come out of it feeling © 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.
empowered to take political action,
I thought that was one of the best
things that came out of this.”
— Kaleigh Rogers N
CANADA GOOSE
O
V
A
Solution to puzzle on page 8
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thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Hours at Weldon Western slip-up costs students
still up for debate
Monica Blaylock
NEWS EDITOR
Even after going 24-hours for
exams, students want more from
Western’s libraries.
After the success of Weldon’s 24-
hour schedule during last April’s
exam period, students demanded a
repeat for this December’s finals —
and got it. But in an attempt to save
money, Western’s libraries had
shorter hours of operation before
Thanksgiving this year, making stu-
dents question whether the adjust-
ed hours were effective.
“I think that more students will
study on weekends and evenings
than use the 24/7 hours,” Pat Sear-
le, senator-at-large for the Univer-
sity Students’ Council, said.
“I study in the [University Com-
munity Centre] regularly and see a
large increase of students at 5:30
p.m. on weekends coming into the
UCC from Weldon. They were hap-
pily studying and were asked to
leave [Weldon], but they weren’t
finished. These are the students we
should not forget about in our pur-
suit for 24/7 study space,” Searle
said.
Meaghan Coker, vice-president
university affairs for the USC, noted
the 24-hour study space being ren-
ovated in the UCC should help
house the influx of unhappy stu-
dents.
“Some people like studying at a
library regardless. They need the
access to books, to computers, to
Quotes [Café]. But some of them
are going to be able to use the study
rooms, and that’s what we’re hop-
ing to provide,” Coker said.
The new UCC study rooms are
expected to near completion in
February according to Ely Rygier,
vice-president finance for the USC.
However, he noted the USC has no
control over the schedule of the
contractors and no official comple-
tion date can be set.
“Whether students prefer longer
hours before Thanksgiving or [the
24-hour library], we philosophical-
ly believe students should have
access to a 24-hour study space,”
Coker said.
While the libraries did not nec-
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essarily cut funding from other
areas in order to provide 24-hour
services, the money used could
have been allocated differently,
according to Coker. She said the
cost of having a 24-hour library is
much less than the cost of extend-
ing hours for the rest of the semes-
ter.
“[If ] you’re going to change
[library hours] before Thanksgiving,
that would require more money
than what’s currently being invest-
ed for 24-hour initiative,” Coker
explained.
She said Western’s librarians are
facing budget cuts. As a result, the
libraries have had to do a lot of cut-
ting back this year.
But, Coker assured, the amount
granted for the 24-hour initiative
was taken from a “separate pot of
funds,” and that “it wasn’t a choice
of reducing hours before Thanks-
giving or beefing them up for
exams.”
Regardless of student com-
plaints about a lack of regular
hours, the extended hours does
have its advantages.
“I’m fully bringing a pillow and
a blanket, especially with snow like
this. I’m actually going to spend
the night [in Weldon]. I’m just
wondering if we’ll get in trouble. If
not, I’m sleeping there,” Stefanie
Farrant, a third-year media, theo-
ry and production student, said.
Farrant also noted she would be
taking full advantage of the 24-hour
study rooms to be opened in the
UCC, but mentioned she was con-
cerned they might not solve the
problem of over-crowded libraries.
“I just hope it’s here before I
graduate. It would be great, but I
feel like it’s just going to be high vol-
ume, like the libraries,” Farrant
continued.
Coker noted the USC would be
looking for student feedback over
the 24-hour library session to deter-
mine whether or not the initiative
will be deemed a success.
“There’s been a lot of movement
around 24/7 [libraries] and since
the university is providing the
money we’re going to support the
initiative one more time and see
what the feedback is like.”
•3
>> continued from pg.1
Gitta Kulczyki, vice-president
“I’m sorry for their inconve-
nience,” Kulczyki said. “We have to
do the best we can in the circum-
ly. Ideally they would do both — but
on Monday students got neither.
Today, the university might have
resources and operations, defend- stances. Mother Nature isn’t always learned their lesson. They con-
ed the university’s actions. entirely reliable or predictable.” vened at four in the morning —
“Our communications folks got Of course, there are a few mete- well after press time — to make a
out to the media. They also got the orologists who would take issue verdict on whether to hold classes
tweet out right away,” Kulczyki said, with Kulczyki’s assessment. Sure, or tell students to stay at home.
apparently unaware of the fact the we’ve all seen days when the weath- “By four o’clock [Tuesday]
tweet was sent more than 20 min- er called for rain or snow that never morning, we’ll be able to make a
utes after the decision. came. But this flurry was widely pretty good assessment about what
A tweet, all 140 characters of it, reported by every news outlet this we’re going to do,” Kulczyki said.
should not take 20 minutes. side of Lake Ontario. We knew this “Turn your radio on.”
Nevertheless, Kulzcyki is right — was going to happen. Of course, that’s what students
the Gazette and other campus The least Western’s administra- like Bishop and Van Damme did on
media were made aware of the tion could have done is communi- Monday. And they were left out in
decision just after 10:30 a.m. and cated their plans early or effective- the cold.
reported on it immediately.
But most students, wary of mis-
information, won’t make any plans
until they see something official
from the university.
Prior to 10:52 a.m., the official
word was that classes would go
ahead as scheduled. Many saw that
and headed into the snowy abyss
that was London on Monday in the
direction of campus.
It was a nightmare of a commute
for classes that ended up being can-
celled anyway.
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4•
Opinions
“Where’s the bus?” whined one
Western girl to another last night.
“I’m freezing.”
I would be too, dear, if I was
wearing nothing but leggings and
Ugg boots in 30 inches of snow —
which is, funny enough, the reason
why buses are late in the first place.
In our entitlement generation, we
expect buses to arrive right on time
— even in snowstorms. We complain
about the cold — while bundled up
in Canada Goose jackets. And we
whine about high student fees — as
if a university education complete
with all the bells and whistles is some
sort of universal right.
The sort of education we receive
nowadays — where much of it is
outside the classroom — is a privi-
lege. Yes, it’s pricey, and some argue
it’s a slippery slope of adding on
fees until the price tag becomes out
of reach.
But for those taking issue with the
extra dollars tacked onto our univer-
sity bills every year, just stop and
consider where that money goes.
At Western, there are around
26,500 undergrads involved in near-
ly 200 clubs. We have the country’s
top cheerleading team among our
list of accredited groups. Plus, our
student council recently approved a
referendum for a great initiative — a
levy of just $0.52 per student to give
a refugee Canadian education.
That’s just a few of the out-of-
classroom experiences and initia-
tives that we prize at Western.
But someone’s got to pay for it.
Why doesn’t Western pony up,
then? Well, the answer is simple:
Western’s priorities are far broader
than our education. Universities
require research and development
to maintain their reputations —
and that requires money, too.
So when it comes to extracurric-
ular student activities, of course
we’re going to be footing the bill —
whether through student fees, club
membership costs or through the
University Students’ Council.
If you think Western is too
pricey, stop and consider all the
opportunities we have here. If it
doesn’t seem worth it to you, trans-
fer to Brock. They probably have
less snow, too.
— Lauren Pelley
thegazette
Volume 104, Issue 49
www.westerngazette.ca
Contact:
Stuart A. Thompson www.westerngazette.ca
Editor-In-Chief
University Community Centre
Rm. 263
Meagan Kashty
The University of Western Ontario
Deputy Editor London, ON, CANADA
Mike Hayes N6A 3K7
Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580
Managing Editor
Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579
The Gazette is owned and published by the
University Students’ Council.
thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010
cartoonistswanted
Although there won’t be any more comics pages in 2010, that
doesn’t mean you can’t spend your winter break drawing us
cartoons. Get out those pens and prepare to become a Funny
Page legend next semester.
>> westerngazette.ca/comics
Allow me to slop a little gravy on my
shirt and quote esteemed money-
saver and Toronto mayor Rob Ford:
“The gravy train has to stop.”
Today’s students face a litany of
absurd and unnecessary expenses
in a brazen attempt to fatten the
university experience to frivolous
levels on the backs of students.
The merits of individual groups
aren’t the issue here. Western’s
refugee program, which provides a
Canadian education for refugees, is
downright heroic and deserves
whatever’s in your wallet.
Student safety first
The problem is where the When “snowmageddon” is trending on Twitter, you In the days of elementary school, bus closures
money comes from. know you’re in for the storm of the year. Despite tem- meant school closures. Western relies heavily on the
Western has learned they can peratures of -12 C, winds over 28 km an hour and over London Transit Commission’s schedule to gauge
pass the buck onto students and 50 cm of anticipated snowfall, Western decided to stay whether school should close. But since the LTC
the University Students’ Council open on Monday. remained operational in the morning, so did campus.
when it comes to greater expenses. It wasn’t until around 10:30 a.m. that Western Western’s decision to keep campus open was sure-
In February, students approved reversed this decision. Some time later, an official press ly motivated by the time of year. Closing the universi-
a referendum to add $25 to their release appeared on Western’s website telling students ty near exams would hurt students and faculty. With-
annual student fees to create a new that exams and classes would be cancelled for the day. out class time, students risk falling behind and being
student lounge. It’s a space Western Unfortunately, this news came too late for many ill-prepared for their December finals. And closing
owns, operates and ultimately ben- Western students who had exams and classes to attend other campus operations like The Spoke and The
efits from, since they’ll use it to early Monday morning. Wave translates to lost revenue for the University Stu-
recruit even more students. Snowstorms are a dangerous affair and cancelling dent’s Council.
In 2006, students broke a Cana- classes is a serious decision to make. Topping the list of But such considerations must be balanced with stu-
dian record by donating $100 mil- Western’s concerns should be the safety of students. dent safety. No matter the time of year, Western should
lion to the university to build the Snowstorms are the root of countless motor vehicle always err on the side of caution when it comes to pro-
Western Student Recreation Centre. accidents that can jeopardize student safety. Whether tecting its students. Forcing them onto campus during
Western should be paying for all those students are driving their cars, on the bus or inclement weather is not acceptable. What’s worse,
of these expenses. And they should walking on the sidewalks, icy roads and whiteout con- Western’s eventual flip-flop took well over half an hour
pay for the refugee program too. ditions decrease reaction time and visibility. between confirming it to the media and releasing an
Critics argue students are With the storm raging Sunday night, delays to bus official statement. In the world of social media and with
inevitably paying for these anyway service were already apparent Monday morning, caus- the immediacy of the internet, there is no excuse for
through ancillary fees. But Western ing unpredictable changes to student schedules. To a such a delay.
also gets operating grants and extra degree, the onus is on students to get to class on time The tardiness of Western’s administration caused
government funding. despite the weather, but a major storm causes severe undue hassle and risk for students. The University
A few years after the $100 mil- delays for everyone. Getting ready an hour early still must act decisively and preventatively to ensure stu-
lion donation, Western got a gov- doesn’t guarantee making it to your exam on time — dents aren’t forced into another snowmageddon.
ernment grant for $50 million. something Western should have considered. —The Gazette Editorial Board
What was it for? A new building.
Western poured all of it into Ivey’s
new home.
The refugee program is asking
students to pay $13,000 per year.
The expense would go unnoticed
dailyquote
among Western’s many philan-
thropic projects. Instead, Western’s I just need one more day to study,
spending $265,000 on a rebranding
study to help reach their $500 mil- Lord. I need your help! [ ... ] A teachers
lion fundraising goal.
As students continue to foot the strike, a power failure, a blizzard... any-
bill for these expenses, the Univer-
sity continues to look at us like thing that’ll cancel school tomorrow.
blank cheques. It’s time we remind
them we’re students instead. — BART SIMPSON
— Stuart A. Thompson
Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising
are written by a member of the editorial board but are not nec- Ian Greaves, Manager Mark Ritchie
News
Gloria Dickie
Opinions
Jesse Tahirali
essarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member.
Maja Anjoli-Bilić Karen Savino Monica Blaylock
All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not nec- Photography
Cheryl Forster Diana Watson Cheryl Stone
essarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors Kaleigh Rogers Corey Stanford
Nyssa Kuwahara
or staff.
Gazette Staff 2010-2011 Arts & Life
To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Con- Editorial Cartoonist
Katherine Atkinson, Alli Aziz, Christian Campbell, Elliott Nicole Gibillini
tact.” Amani Elrofaie
Cohen, Adam Crozier, Angela Easby, Mark Filipowich, Maddie Leznoff
All articles, letters, photographs, graphics, illustrations and car- Anna Paliy
Jennifer Gautier, Jessica Gibbens, James Hall, Katie Amber Garratt
toons published in The Gazette, both in the newspaper and online
versions, are the property of The Gazette. By submitting any such Hetherman, Elton Hobson, Eliot Hong, Jesica Hurst, Grace Davis Creative Director
Lauren Pelley
material to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette Aras Kolya, Jay LaRochelle, Scott Leitch, Colin Lim, Sports
a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to Daniel Da Silva
Jared Lindzon, Alex Mackenzie, Cheryl Madliger, Pat Gazette Creative
publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not Martini, Ora Morison, Nivin Nabeel, Alan Osiovich, Kaitlyn McGrath Sophia Lemon
limited to, The Gazette‘s hard copy and online archives.
Maciej Pawlak, Jonathan Pinkus, Chen Rao, Cali Travis, Associate Richard Goodine
• Please recycle this newspaper • Drew Whitson, Deborah Zhu Arden Zwelling Anders Kravis
thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Arts&Life
Western duo The Dirty Tees head to Hollywood
Narayan Chattergoon
CONTRIBUTOR
Mix together Western students
Ryan Freeman and Grant Peters,
add music, and you’ve got budding
electro/house/rock act The Dirty
Tees. Peters took some time to chat
about the local band and their
musical goals.
What makes your music unique?
Ryan and I were both brought
up listening to rock music and
especially liked the inspirational
songs — groups like U2 and Switch-
foot. We want to take that same
sound we know and love — that
hard-hitting driven rock — and
turn it into dance music, which is
very popular now.
Editor’s Picks > Essentials for your week
On TV
Modern Family
This comedy television series fol-
lows three interconnected families
and their experiences. This week’s
episode focuses on the school
dance causing more anxiety for
the parents than for the kids.
Does your experience in film
affect your creative process in
making music?
Absolutely. I work as a freelance
video artist, and I’m heavily influ-
enced by visual art. It’s been a big
part of my life. Seeing films and
understanding how the technology
works inspires me to write music.
We’re actually coming out with a
video in a couple weeks […] —
Michael Chiang is helping us in the
production.
What would you like to accom-
plish as artists?
We really want to take what we
love, everything about music, and
bring back wholesomeness to
house. We want to make music that
inspires and moves people, turning
On Disc
Wonders of the Younger —
Plain White T’s
Plain White T’s release their
sixth album today titled Won-
ders of the Younger. The band
has said the album is intended
to evoke feelings of the yearning
for adventure remembered from
childhood.
house music into something you
can listen to all the time. We’d also
really like to help people, to give
back. From day one we’ve commit-
ted 10 per cent of our earnings to
charity. It’s all about recognizing
potential and helping others.
How did you find your sound?
We both had a bunch of ideas.
We listened to a lot of electro and
also listened to some Dutch house
and ‘90s house this summer. We
really liked that sound and started
to incorporate that into our music.
A lot of it is basically trial and error
— we figured out what sounds we
liked and made songs based on
what we felt sounded right. By the
time we finished making our first
three remixes, we really started to
On DVD
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The third edition to the Twilight
series was released on DVD Dec.
4. Follow Bella as she is forced to
decide between her relationship
with Edward Cullen and her
friendship with Jacob.
funfact
Katy Perry made a guest appearance The Simpsons this past
Sunday, featuring puppets of the characters. Ironic, given
Sesame Street recently pulled Perry’s duet because parents
thought she was too risqué.
FILE PHOTO
define our electro/rock style of
music. Once we started writing our
first single, we got a bit more emo-
tional with the music and really
tried to make it more profound.
What’s in the future for The
Dirty Tees?
We’re actually going to L.A. in
January to write and produce with
Natasha Bedingfield, as well as
meeting with major labels. We sent
some of our work and they really
liked it, so I’m definitely excited for
that. We’re also producing our lat-
est single, “Flashback,” that we’ll be
giving away in a couple weeks on
our site in addition to a “Speed of
Lights” — a video that we produced
with Michael Chiang.
In Theatres
The Tourist
The Tourist starring Angelina Jolie
and Johnny Depp hits theatres
this Friday. The thriller follows the
two stars in an unexpected Euro-
pean romance and their quest to
avoid the unforseen danger they
are faced with.
•5
London
makes art
for Africa
Nicole Gibillini
ARTS & LIFE EDITOR
Engineers Without Borders wants
to change the way you think about
Africa — through art.
Perspectives of Africa is being
held at The Arts Project in attempt
to raise money through an auction
to send a few volunteers from Engi-
neers Without Borders to Africa.
EWB is a non-governmental,
Canada-wide organization that
currently works on development
projects in four African countries.
“We do work in four different
African countries — Burkina Faso,
Ghana, Zambia, and Malawi,” says
Jessica Baker, a fourth-year civil
engineering and international
development student. “We also do
work in Canada on educating peo-
ple about advocacy.”
Baker says the work EWB does in
these developing countries is not
always what people expect.
“We are not going over there and
building actual bridges or roads. It’s
non-conventional engineering
work [to do with] grassroots prob-
lems and addressing rural liveli-
hoods. In Ghana, for example, they
work with farmers and farming,”
Baker explains.
Baker says the idea for the
exhibit was developed a year and a
half ago, and if this year’s show is
successful, it will become an annu-
al event.
The art for the show comes from
a wide variety of resources includ-
ing professional local artists, West-
ern arts students and even elemen-
tary and high school students. It
focuses on various people’s per-
spectives of Africa to challenge
some of the assumptions made
about Africans.
Perspectives of Africa runs from
Dec. 7 to Dec. 11 at The Arts Project,
which is located at 203 Dundas St.
On the Charts
“The Cave” — Mumford
and Sons
British folk-rock group Mumford
and Sons make use of vocal har-
monies and guitar lines in their
track “The Cave.” It’s the perfect
song to tap your toes and bob
your head to.
6•
Burlesque predictable but still entertaining
AT 64-YEARS-OLD, CHER HAS STILL GOT IT. Burlesque is a fun and girly chick flick, but definitely not Oscar-worthy.
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We may almost be done publishing for
2010, but there’s still plenty of time to
get involved in the Gazette.
Drop by the office during exam season
or email us at arts@westerngazette.ca “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
if you’d like to volunteer and write next — Band Aid
semester. Christmas would just not be the
same without “Do They Know It’s
Christmas?” playing on the airwaves.
This song, written by Bob Geld-
Your Mental Health of and Midge Ure, was produced to
raise money for relief in Ethiopia
is Important. during the 1984 famine and has
since become a Christmas hit.
DO you need help Band Aid consists of a 45 Irish
dealing with stress, depression, and British musicians. Phil Collins,
anxiety, relationships, Bono, Sting, David Bowie and Paul
family problems McCartney are some of the most
and more? notable musicians on the track.
Call:
DEBRA MACRAE Since then two more versions of
the song have been released, most
Psychotherapist
recently being Band Aid 2.0 which
519-670-9991 features some more modern artists.
186 Albert Street London (just off Richmond Row) Unlike most holiday songs, “Do
They Know It’s Christmas” is about
what others do not have that we
take for granted. This is a must-lis-
ten track for the holidays.
— Amber Garratt
thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Taylor Krueger
CONTRIBUTOR
Burlesque
Director: Steve Antin
Starring: Cher, Christina Aguilera
and Alan Cumming
A predictable storyline, some awful
acting, and painful on-screen
chemistry makes Burlesque a tough
film to sit through. But on the bright
side, the plethora of musical num-
bers and elaborate costume make
the film anything but boring.
The movie begins with small
town girl, Ali (Christina Aguilera)
moving from Iowa to make it in the
big city of L.A.
After seeing a burlesque lounge
owned by Tess (Cher) and ex-hus-
band Vince (Peter Gallagher), Ali
does everything she can to prove
she has what it takes to make it on
stage.
In the meantime she meets bar-
tender Jack (Cam Gigandet) who
later becomes her roommate and
love interest. Despite their utterly
awkward romance and lack of
chemistry, the two slowly fall in love
as Ali’s career begins to flourish.
With such a line-up of stars, it’s
hard to believe the film is so disap-
“Shake Up Christmas” — Train
You might recognize Train’s new
Christmas song “Shake Up Christ-
mas” from the latest Coca-Cola
commercial.
The song, recorded this year, is
about spreading joy. It’s catchy and
uplifting, and is sure to get you in
the Christmas spirit — or at least
make you want to buy a can of
coke.
Coca-Cola shifted their advertis-
ing tactics this year with the song,
as their campaigns are best known
for their iconic polar bear. The
company plans to use the song
throughout their entire 2010 holi-
day campaign.
Train is best known for the hits
“Soul Sister” and “Drops of Jupitor.”
“Shake Up Christmas” can be
found on The Golden Gate Edition
of Train’s fifth album Save Me, San
Francisco.
—Nicole Gibillini
pointing. But while Aguilera’s acting
is sub-par, not all the actors are
painful to watch. Stanley Tucci,
who plays Sean, Tess’ trusty best
friend and wardrobe assistant, was
by far the most likeable character. It
was also easy to fall for Eric Dane’s
charm, despite his bad boy per-
sona.
As for the vocal and dance per-
formances, Aguilera’s vocals were
on point, while Cher had one nice,
but slightly bland solo. All of the
dancers were fantastic, especially
Georgia (Julianne Hough) who
seemed to own the stage.
The set design was visually
appealing with glitter and stage
lights, but with the sets being so
dark, the lighting in the daytime
scenes seemed out of place. It made
it very hard to believe that the film
took place in sunny L.A.
Overall, the film was cheesy and
predictable, but was still entertain-
ing. Although the acting left some-
thing to be desired, the song-and-
dance numbers were delivered and
produced well. But you won’t find
yourself with them stuck in your
head after you leave the theatre.
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
— Maeve
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is
probably the oldest Christmas carol
still sung today. Its origins are
unclear, and the author of the
words and composer to the music
is unknown, but some say it dates
as far back as the 8th century.
Maeve’s modern version of the
song showcases clear, beautiful
harmonies and simple acoustic
strumming, with the vocals being
the main highlight of the tune.
Maeve’s version maintains the
traditional lyrics and musicality of
the song, while giving it a fresh style
so that anyone who enjoys music
can appreciate it.
The chorus “Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O
Israel” is powerful, with the major
vocal emphasis on the first “rejoice”
which drawing the attention of the
listener.
Maeve is an acoustic, folk-rock
group based out of Boston and you
can download this song for free on
noisetrade.com
— Grace Davis
Do you have an interest in
books, movies, film and music?
Do you want to pursue a
career in journalism?
Looking to improve your
writing skills?
Come volunteer with the
Arts & Life section!
Just walk up to
Room 263 of the UCC to
ask about volunteering.
thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sports
rundown >> The Mustangs cheerleaders won their 25th title at the National Cheerleading Championships this past weekend | First-year Mustang Dillon Mugridge won
the men’s solo tumbling title | The Mustangs women’s hockey team fell to UOIT 4-3, but rebounded against Queen’s the next day, defeating them 3-2 in the shootout.
Bizarre win good enough
Both goalies pulled in high scoring game
IT’S JUST NOT COOL TO HIT A MAN IN HIS FIVE-HOLE. Mustang forward Steve Reese tried to poke the puck through Bad-
ger goalie Kurt Jory’s legs. Though Jory would make the save, Reese would have the last laugh, scoring two goals and
assisting on one to lead the Mustangs to a 6-4 win.
Daniel Da Silva
SPORTS EDITOR
The Brock Badgers are a low-scor-
ing team that traps well to keep the
puck off their net. Western is a
defence-first team that scores in
bunches.
So it was a surprise to everyone
when the Mustangs took home the
two points in a 6-4 victory on
Thursday night.
“It was an uncharacteristic game
for us. We started poorly in the first
period. But we showed a lot of heart
and emotion, something we haven’t
had in a couple of weeks, so it was
good to get that back,” Mustang
head coach Clarke Singer said.
Uncharacteristic was the best
way to describe the first period.
Western took three penalties and
Brock easily converted all three of
them. Brock would score four power
play goals on six opportunities.
“Our assistant coach spent a lot
of time this week working on [the
power play]. We thought that was
something that would have helped
us a lot this week and it would have
if we were better defensively,” Brock
head coach Murray Nystrom said.
Unfortunately, the Badgers
saywhat?
“Don’t all women love staches? My dad has had one since I’ve
been born. No wonder my mom’s always smiling.”
>> Phoenix Coyotes tweet king Paul Bissonnette
on the beauty of upper lip hair
weren’t able to keep Western’s for-
ward lines at bay. Brock took multi-
ple leads in the first, but Western
answered back each time. The
teams went into the first intermis-
sion tied at three. Mustang goalie
Josh Unice was pulled for allowing
three goals on 13 shots. Backup
Anthony Grieco stopped 11 of the
12 shots he faced.
It was an
“ uncharacteristic
game for us. We
started poorly in
the first period. But
we showed a lot of
heart and emotion,
something we
haven’t had in a
couple of weeks, so
it was good to get
that back.
—Clarke Singer
Men’s Hockey team head coach
The line consisting of Yashar
Farmanara, Kevin Baker and Steve
Reese were crucial to Western’s suc-
•7
Piotr Angiel GAZETTE
cess, amassing three goals. They
were especially important consid-
ering the absence of all-star winger
Aaron Snow. Baker now leads the
team with 24 points while Reese
has 11 goals.
“Since we’ve put them together,
they have been fabulous. Tonight
was a good indication of that. We
are looking forward to them pro-
gressing as a line and getting bet-
ter,” Singer said.
With the game tied at four in the
second period, defenceman Bran-
don Greenside stepped up and
scored the winner. After intercept-
ing a brutal pass just inside the
Badger blue line, Greenside took a
few strides before ripping a slap
shot top corner. The goal stood up
as the winner and chased Badger
starting goalie Kurt Jory.
“I don’t think we got it turned
around until the game was half
over. But we really showed a lot of
character and heart in the last half
of the game and we finished
strong,” Singer said.
The Mustangs now get to enjoy
their holiday break before returning
to action in January when they trav-
el to St. Catharines for a rematch
with the Badgers.
Anders Kravis GAZETTE
8• thegazette • Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Mustangs open
season with a bang
Rookie Diston breaks Western
pole vaulting record for gold
Melanie Lui
GAZETTE STAFF
It should have been called Mustang
Rookie Day.
This past Saturday the Mustang
track and field team hosted the 36th
annual Season’s Opener at Thomp-
son Arena and the rookies had no
problem taking the lead.
Not only did rookie Matt Diston
Nyssa Kuwahara GAZETTE grab the gold medal with his out-
LUCKILY NARCOLEPSY WASN’T A DEALBREAKER FOR THESE RUNNERS. While the men dominated their competition, the standing pole vault of 4.86 m, but
rebuilding women’s team also impressed, particularly Emily Coxhead, who took gold in the 60m hrdles. he also secured a spot at the Cana-
dian Interuniversity Sport champi-
onships happening in March. He
broke the school record for the
event in the process.
“I’m just thrilled about [achiev-
ing] CIS standard,” Diston said
Student Harvest Special about his performance. “To set a
new school record — it’s a good
MEDIUM
4 Pizzas
2 toppings on each
feeling. It’s great to know my name
will go down in history.”
The previous pole vault record
— 4.85 m — was set nine years ago
by Mustang Brad Turner when he
placed first at a meet hosted by the
only $ 1999 University of Findlay in Ohio.
Making the CIS standard was
one of Diston’s goals coming into
3-169 Wharncliffe Rd. S the season. He now plans to raise
For Delivery CALL the bar on his expectations for the
519-438-9999 rest of the season.
“I want to jump over and
Delivery hours from 11am daily beyond 5 m, like 5.10 m. Maybe I’ll
www.pierospizza.ca Anders Kravis GAZETTE
break my record and set another
one,” Diston said.
Another new face at the track
was Drew Welch. This world junior
shot-putter opened up his univer-
thegazette sity competitive season with a first
place finish thanks to a throw of
14.89 m — he beat the second place
finisher by over a metre
“We’re very excited to have him
on the team,” Mustang throws
coach Sylvia Kontra said. “He real-
ized this summer at world [junior
championships] that he’d like to
take it a step further.”
Welch has been working on a
different technique since he start-
ed training with Kontra.
“He’s learning the spin,” Kontra
continued. “We’re still putting the
technique together, but I think he’ll
be a medal contender at CIS come
March.”
Rookie Matt Muldoon also
impressed, winning the 600 m event.
Fellow rookie Caroline Ehrhardt won
the gold in the long jump competi-
tion with a jump of 5.51 m. Ehrhardt
was one of Western’s prized recruits,
joining the team as Canada’s best
junior long and triple jumper.
Determined not to be upstaged,
the veteran Mustangs showed they
could hold their own. Dan Goddard
broke records at the arena and
intrasquad meets last week in the
200 m won the 300 m in 36.13 sec-
onds. He and teammate Elias
Granillo led the 4x200 m relay team
to a gold medal finish. Sophmore
Matthew Morden won the 60 m
hurdles.
On the women’s side, fourth-
year Emily Coxhead defended her
60 m hurdles title, winning the race
with a time of 9.00 seconds.
Now that the Mustang track and
field team has a set roster, they plan
to step up their training to prepare
for the Ontario University Athletics
and CIS championships in the
2011. The men hope to step up the
top of the podium from the bronze
medal position at the two champi-
onships hosted by York and Sher-
brooke respectively.

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HEALTHY PARTICIPANTS NEEDED for research at
UWO examining brain and cognitive processes. In-
volves computer tasks, questionnaires, and MRI. If in- Today’s difficulty level: SOPH
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Nyssa Kuwahara GAZETTE

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