44

NEWS

OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER.

JANUARY 10, 2007

Standing for Ceremony
Diary of a Judge for UNBC's Battle of the Bands #8

ANDREW KURJATA
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Judges suck.

That has often been my opinion
when it comes to things like the Battle
of the Bands, as I’ve been shocked, an-
gered, and dismayed at some
of the choices that are made.
So when Jillian Merrick, él
Presidente of NUGSS stops by
the newspaper office to ask if
anyone would be interested in
being a judge for January fifth’s
Battle of the Bands at UNBC,
I jump at the opportunity, I'm
informed that I will be given
more details later.

I'm pretty happy about
this opportunity. It’s been a
few years since I’ve been able
to make it to a Battle of the
Bands, and to actually be one
of the people deciding who
wins seems like a great op-
portunity. I have decided that
I will judge the competitors |
harshly yet fairly, picking out
the créme de la créme, the Un-
disputed Winner. No one will
dispute my choice.

Later that day I am instruct-
ed by NUGSS VP Social and
Battle of the Bands organ-
izer Fergil Mills about how the
judging is to take place. Five of
us are to judge the competitors
on talent, entertainment factor,
and overall performance. I sug-
gest adding more detailed cat-

egories such as “awesomeness”

and “Ie-factor,’ but it seems the Ceremony Rock Their Way to a win at the battle of the bands

score sheets have already been
made and cannot be altered. The judges
are to mingle with the audience and de-
liberate after the performances are over.
First to play are Urca Process, a band
T’ve never heard of. Apparently, no one
else has either, because despite U.P. play-
ing some pretty good heavy rock and roll
in the vein of Audioslave, the audience
huddles to the sides and back of the
Wintergarden, where the competition is
taking place. All, that is, save for lone a
figure who I can only call the True Hero
of the night: one man with one ponytail
that he keeps concealed under his hat,
to be pulled out for some Head Banging
Action. I later find out that Urea Pro-
cess formed a mere four days before the
application deadline for the Battle of the

Bands closed, making them less than a
month old,

Next up are Union Way. They have a
keyboard and tube amps, and they will
not settle for a single headbanger. Be-

fore their set starts, the singer runs out

into the audience and forces people to
come up to the stage. They end their set
by pulling as many people as they can
ONTO the stage. The crowd loves it.

Then we have ChronicAmbition. They
quite obviously draw from classic rock in
the vein of the Who and AC/DC as an
influence. I'm not sure whether wearing
their influences on their sleeve warrants
plus or minus points. By far the best
part of their show is the guitarist, who
moves around like an uncoordinated
Angus Young. This is going to be harder
than I thought.

Fourth is Pox Eclipse, and they already
have fans in the audience if the numer-
ous t-shirts reading” Pox Eclipse” are any
indication, They perform around town a

lot and this shows in the professionalism
of their stage presence, They success-
fully get the whole floor jumping up and
down to their heavy-metal riddims.

Last are Ceremony, More than any
other group, these guys look like rock
stars, from the lead
singer's purple pants to
the boa on the micro-
phone. They build on the
momentum that’s been
built up by the previous
bands, and play what was
probably the tightest set
of the night. As they exit
the stage with a shout out
for their MySpace site
(decidedly un-metal), I
realize that it is now time
to decide who did the
best job. This will not be
easy, as every group had
# its own distinct merits
and, more importantly,
none of them sucked.
; As it turns out, the other
§ judges feel the same way
and when the scores ate
tallied it’s very close,
B with Pox Eclipse and
Ceremony edging out
# the others to take the
top spot. It is decided
the only way to choose a
winner is to listen to the
crowd,

stage and ask the crowd
(= to cheer if they want Pox
MITCH GRANT Eclipse to win, they roar
winners. But then we ask
about Ceremony, and an equally riotous
roar ensues. We have to ask again, This
time, Ceremony just barely takes it.

They deserve it, But so do Pox Eclipse.
These are both experienced groups
who've payed their dues and deserve
a boost. But then again, maybe those
newer bands could use the help more,
to build up a bigger fanbase thany they
have now. And they did do a really good
job. No, Ceremony definitely took it, Or
did they...?

As the winners take the stage, I shuffle
back into the audience, I feel dirty and
exhausted. I no longer want to make de-
cisions like this.

Judges suck.

UNBC Says Goodbye to Max Blouw

Blouw Named President Wilfrid Laurier University

CAMERGN GRR
NEWS EDITOR

Max Blouw, formerly UNBC's Vice-
President Research, is now the Pres-
ident at Wilfrid Laurier University in
Ontario. This move comes at the end of
a decade of service to UNBC.

Blouw’s impacts to UNBC research
is immense. Since his appointment to
his position in 1997 UNBC research
as gone from $3 million to $18 million,
UNBC is now a recognized tember of
the research community and ‘provides
important research into forestry and re-
source topics, among others.

“This is a terrific opportunity for me
but bittersweet at the same time,’ says
Blouw, regarding having to leave UNBC
after 10 years of service. “It has been a
personal and professional highlight for
me to bea part of UNBC’s development
for more than a dozen years.’

Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario
was founded in 1911. It has an esti-
mated 11,000 students enrolled in its
programs, which makes it larger than
UNBC yet still maintains its image as
a small univetsity. Campuses are located
in Waterloo and in Brantford Ontario.

“UNBC has achieved beyond what

would been expected for a small and
young university, says newly installed
UNBC President Don Cozzetto. “On
behalf of UNBC and the northern re-
gion, thank you Max. You are truly one
of UNBC’s greatest founders and a true
friend of this university and the North”

Max Blouw will continue acting as
Vice-President Research until his term
in complete June 30, 2007.

As yet there is no word on who will
be his replacement when he leaves this
summer,

When we take .the

ack and seem to be clear |

good 2s they should be ee it comes to a

entertainment and the internet.

Kurjatas article starts out with talking

about CBS. covering News Stories CNN

were too afraid to cover. The truth in

the matter is that this is simply a very
beginning as opposed to the extent, [
know from personal experience thar the
best grasp the major media outlets have
on, say, file-sharing is that of the user
experience on a client that connects to
the Fast Track network known as‘Kazaa’
(the armpit of the file-sharing commun-

ity); Essentially, ir is loaded with viruses:

and Trojans as well as monitored by the
major record labels thoroughly. In my
opinion (and the opinion of a number of
people I talk to online about the issue),

only an idiot would use Kazaa in this
day and age. Plus, there's che hyped up
story of personal information leaking
onto the internet thanks to file-sharing
which can only be accomplished if the
user manually sets the shared directory

to the root hard drive, Such an action

takes time and effort for someone. who

doesn’t know. what they are doing. Of
a watery set).

course, the much appraised major media

outlets also keep saying that if you aren't
for funding “artists. Alright, 1. “Artists”

downloading from Apple iTunes, you
are downloading illegally. This is com-
plete bullshit. Irs called Creative Com-

mons, eMusic, Artist Server, and literally

hundreds of other sites that would take
an too much space to list off and explain.
Do I even need to go on about my past
column entries in the first place? Bot-
tom line is that, at lease on the internet,
news stories simply arent anywhere near
as censored a as they ate on — nedia
outlets,

Kurjata then goes on about bee

hyped Snakes on a Plane was in the blog
sphere, I will not dispute the fact that
it was hyped. J will, however, poinc out
why ‘Snakes on a Plane’ was hyped up
in the first place. On a forum known as
Fark.com, known for its comedic twists
to news stories, there were jokes on how:
bad and out of touch the movie industry
has become (and to a major extent, still
is). So someone posts that the industry
has gotten so bad, that the next thing
they'll do is make a movie with snakes
ona plane. ‘The punch-line? A movie
was made called “Snakes on a Plane. It
was hyped up because it was probably
one of the biggest jokes the internet
has seen from the movie industry. So
what about other movies the internet
has severely influenced? Try Elephants
Dream, Star Wreck ~ in the Pirkinning,
"The Piracy Documentary’ (which was
made in Canada by the way), or even
‘Steal ‘This Film: Want major influence?
‘Try the face thar all of these movies were
influenced by the internet and distrib-
uted for free for users to download and
share (under popular licensing scheme
Creative Commons)

I was particularly disgusted when

Kurjata writes as if the Arctic Monkeys

are the only band to hit the internet.
Again, it seems as though this. review

e in Ree opinion, therefore, Bi Music

on the internet sucks: In my opinion,
if you follow this line of reasoning, you

dont understand music on the internet.
Fine, you dont like the Arctic Monkeys,

find a band you do like on the internet

instead. Look on CNET's music ar-

chive or Magnatunes music store (or the

~ other sites I've mentioned already). The

internet is about discovery of bands you
don't know that you actually would have
liked in the first place. Not finding out
what the most hyped up name is avail-
able online.

Kurjata then compares the power of
the masses to directors cuts of movies.
‘This part I don’t know how the compati-
son could be made. As far as I know, dir-
ectors cuts are decisions made by, well,
the director (and not the masses) in the

_ first place. How that connects to power

to the masses, Im nor sure. It might
connect better if the Directors cut of a
movie was made by everyone in the en-
tire film crew (including extras, the piz-
Za delivery guy, and the guy responsible
for retrieving lost keys in the bottom of

He then praises major record labels

like Brittany Spears. 2, Did he miss the
news story where the major tecord labels
were caught lobbying the government to
lower artist royalties in 2006? 3. Major

labels are more concerned about suing

the dead person that still somehow man-
ages to file-share. 4. 90% of all Canadian
music comes from independent labels
(including Avril Lavigne — Yes, Nett-
werk Label which is indeed indie, Sum
41, Bare Naked Ladies ~ same as Avril,
ete, etc) and 5. Major record labels have
been signing fewer and fewer artists in

“recent years and blaming profit loss on
- file-sharing.

I'm also under the impression that
Kurjata probably thinks that if a band
isn't on the radio and on the “top of the
charts’, then they are nobody worth lis-
tening to. This theory works if you are
only into media that has been forced
down consumers throats. Music based
on quality was played on major tadio sta-
tions back when they were considered a
new form of piracy. Since then, it’s only

“the companies with the biggest wallets

getting them to play the music. Got a
crappy song? No problem, it’s playing
anyway on the station because the label
is willing to drop money onto it. Dont
worty about the money though, after
your major “hic” falls off the chart, we'll
put you into bankruptcy, say you owe us
millions of dollars, and hope you enjoy
flipping burgers like before! -

Kurjata ends with the editorial from
Henry Ford that reads “If T had asked
my customers what they wanted, they
would have said faster horses.” 1, Ford
sucks. 2. How's this for a quote? “Come
mothers and: fathers, throughout che
land, And don't criticize what you dont
understand” ~ Bob ies