OVER THE EDGE _ March 12 - March a6, 2008 Arts and Culture Poet Roger oui Up UNBC With Sonnets Topics Include Anarchy, Capitalism, and impending Environmental Catastrophe—in Sonnet Form! By ANDREW KURJATA Epiror-in-CHIEF The CNC Caledonia Readings Series/UNBC Just West of Unruly reading series kicked off its 2008 season on February 28 when Vancouver poet Roger Farr gave a reading in Dr. Rob Budde’s Introduction to Canadian Literature class at UNBC. Farr, an English professor at Capilano College, read from his SURPLUS series, a collection of poems “trying to document the effects of the current social and economic order,” primarily neoliberalism and global capitalism. The poems are ostensibly written in a “more or less” sonnet format. Though there is little internal rhyming, Farr tried to stick to conventional 14 lines, 10 syllables, and problem resolution in his writing, though he admits it breaks down towards the end. He cited Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky as a primary inspiration for his work. Burtynsky, said Farr, was a pioneer in documenting the effects of industrialism on the environment and humans, often capturing beauty in scenes of great destruction. A similar theme could be heard in Farr’s reading, which conjured up images of parking lots, box stores, and poverty in a provocative and poetic manner. During the question and answer period that followed, the discussion turned towards the motivation behind Farr’s writ- ing style. He said that he was attracted to the sonnet format in part because it was “very colonial,” and interjecting it with political, almost Marxist language, was a way of undermining its authority. He also spoke about the difficulties of criticizing the capitalist system while operating within it. “Poetry is the only way I know of dealing with it,” he said. One of the more interesting points of the discussion came when Farr talked about the forces of climate change and what it means for modern civilization. He said that while in the past left-leaning thinkers would look towards various social groups and movements as potential forces for overturning the exploit- ive capitalist system, he’s beginning to think it may be an en- vironmental disaster that spurs on the change. Despite the seriousness of the issues discussed, there was a fair amount of humour involved. When asked about the cover of his book, which depicts a sinking ship, he related a story in which someone in his office the same thing. “I told her it rep- resented the sinking of civilization,” he laughed, “that doesn’t make good office chat.” The lecture series continues this semester with David Wah appearing at UNBC and CNC on March 11, and Rita Wong coming on March 31. How To Waste) High-Def. Format War Some Time Party OnesocK CONTRIBUTER [This game is played with 2+ people and a piece of paper. The first person writes one line, then folds the paper over so his or her line is out of view. Without know- ing what the previous person wrote, the next player writes one line. This gets passed around, folded every time, until the paper is full. Then unfold the paper and read the crazy story you wrote!] I Francbis never had many friends. Pomegranate juice will make you immortal. He Hates colouring! “Why?” she cried, “why do you want to pleasure me so hard?” “Godzilla!!” the exclaimed in complete unison. Suddenly, Fran- cois, feeling down about his home life, decided to have a sex change. Shelly Peterson is better than you! And people who get “too drunk.” After her beating she washed her- self clean ‘cause she was dirty. “We’ve got to find the nest!” Bobby screamed into the mega- phone. There weren’t many people that would take after that. Tensions were high. Your mom! Hurray! We have to go to class? IL. There was once a young girl named Tammy. She loved the pie. She was big and fat. Oh! And Hairy! It was her best friend in the world. Sadly, she has no friends because she was so ugly. They never talked to each other that way before. But then all of a sudden her fairy godmother arose. Porky yelled at her. Something had changed. Her god mother screamed. “Why are you so ugly?” Porky didn’t smile anymore. Nothing would ever be the same again. Ill. Larry went there. What a guy. Sheila couldn’t believe her eyes so she fucked him. “Oh Larry.” He had a smile that made all the girls blush. Larry was a nympho- maniac and loved PB & J. “Look! There goes that kid again! Is he Mexican, or some kind of - Spanish?” Look at the back side. Larry al- ways want gold sparkly boots. It was a perfect match to his low-cut gold dress. It was hot. Accompanied by monkey Larry. Then decided to exit in the space pod. But his new breast implants started oozing pussy silicon. “Shite!” he exclaimed.Larry hated it when she hid his toupee and nothing could make it better. Larry screamed “What’s this all about?” and then killed himself samurai- style. IV. “Let’s do it,” he excalimed. My finger is too big. She got up from her chair and started to dance like MJ. And so they all went for a walk through the woods, took off their shirts and compared nipple sizes. The aliens landed, making a crater with their spaceships. People near and far were quivering in fear. The Seven Years’ War lasted from 1756-1763. Uhhhooo. Ummmooo. Uhhhh... Slipp. “Are you going to eat the rest of that?” Then she fell on her butt. Everyone laughed at her, she blushed. The sex was unreal. He had never felt that relaxed afterwards. They laughed, she cried and a ee time was had by all. [If you come up with any hilarious stories like these, please feel free to submit them to Over the Edge.] Comes To an End By AIDAN RANNEY THE Puoenix (UBC Oxanacan) KELOWNA (CUP) -- Well, boys and girls, all of you Next-Gen’ers out there can finally stop your bets and lay down your losses. The so-called “format war” is over. As of Feb. 19, Toshiba has announced that they are discontinuing the production and distribution of their | HD-DVD disc, the main competitor to Sony’s Blu-Ray disc. The technical differences between the two discs are minor, with Blu-Ray having a bit of an advantage in storage capacity and speed. The biggest difference for consumers is that there was no universal player for high-definition content. There are HD-DVD players and Blu-Ray players. Likewise, their best-selling accessory. What this says to me is that Sony saw more clearly that gamers were one of the biggest demographics that bought high-definition tele- visions, and were most likely to show interest and buy into the new format early on. Sony had the added advantage of being a corporation with branches in nearly every entertainment technology market. Being the makers of Blu-Ray, the Playstation, and a variety of high-definition televisions, Sony was in the right position to make it all work together with a good idea of what the future of the market would be like. HD-DVD, on the other hand, was more of a consortium of different companies, all with a vested interest and some with partial ownership of the technology. I can only assume the Hollywood stu: What this says to me is that Sony saw more clearly that cm inter-com- dios and distribu- tion companies gamers were one of the biggest demographics that boug high-definition televisions, and were most likely to show ficult along the interest and buy into the new format early on. went with either one format or the other. If you wanted to own high-definition copies of both The Kingdom (Universal Pictures) and Rush Hour (New Line Cinema), you had to own both disc players. Needless to say, having to own two differ- ent players that perform practically the same way (de- livering high-definition content to your high-definition television) seems pretty ridiculous. And it is! This two-to-three year marketplace battle was some- what inevitable in retrospect. A similar tousle broke out in the 1970s, during the advent of home entertainment, between Sony’s Betamax and JVC’s VHS tapes. Sony didn’t win that time, though they later struck oi! with the CD, and now have come out on top with Blu-Ray, following a partnership with Wal-Mart and most major Hollywood companies to carry only Blu-Ray. One major difference between now and then is that this time video games have complicated matters. Many people may have initially flocked to HD-DVD as their players cost a lot less than Blu-Ray, which sold original- ly for a price tag of $1000. Then the Playstation 3 incor- porated a Blu-Ray player into its functionality. Though it was going for a costly $700 when first released, it’s easy to see which was initially the better deal, especial- ly considering they launched at about the same time. Finally sensing that they perhaps should have caught on to this idea earlier, Microsoft eventually released its own HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360, which became | etition made at Pics more dif- way and, in the end, contributed to the eventual demise of their championed format. I personally do not own a “next-gen” video game con- sole, nor a high-definition television. I watch most of . my media stuffs on an un-flat, cube-shaped CRT tele- vision screen, or on my computer. Most of my gaming is done on an ancient 13-inch bedroom CRT. This is partly because I have no money for such fancy things, though if I did, I still don’t think I’d spring for them. I haven’t been able to take this high-definition “evolu- tion” as seriously as some people. However, when I go to the video store, I see that the section of new high-definition movie rentals is slowly encroaching on the DVDs. At just about every other friend’s house I go to, there’s a big high-definition television wired for digital devices I don’t even recog- nize anymore. Although I have some misgivings about whether or not an increase in visual quality warrants its own “format war” and titles like “the high-definition revolution,” I’m sure that with the fall of HD-DVD, there will at least be less confusion surrounding the whole business. Blu-Ray will, whether I like it or not, eventually surpass DVD, and I can take that seriously. I feel, then, like I can safely call Blu-Ray “the future.” \