Paranormal student body activity

Douglas College’s campus shows signs of life

 
    

Jacey Gibb

opinions editor

t feels unusual to write an article
[oss our school for the amount of

recent activity that has been witnessed
in Douglas’ concourse. For the last couple
of weeks, there has been a constant
presence of clubs and campaigns, offering
a glimpse of the campus life we’ ve seen
portrayed so prominently in pop culture,
yet have somehow managed to evade our
own school.

Similar feelings are not uncommon
here at Douglas. Seemingly every
candidate running for student government
brought up the issue of how most people
enrolled here treat it as just a pit stop
before they transfer to somewhere else. I
hope whoever is elected makes good on
these promises to change this attitude.

Election propaganda wasn’t the
only thing invading the concourse. There
was the petition against bottled water, a
fundraiser for the earthquake in Japan

and my personal favourite, the Saint
Patrick’s Day booth on the seventeenth. I
would like to add that I have an enormous
amount of respect for these agents of

the DSU who promptly appear on every
holiday in the concourse and admire their
efforts to liven our otherwise apathetic
student body. I stopped by to make an
obligatory guess at how many chocolate
gold coins were in the jar (still waiting
for my phone call guys) and took the time
to colour in a blank leprechaun hat. The
girl manning the pencil crayons admitted
that not a lot of students had stopped by
to indulge in some drawing’and I have

no idea why. During this maelstrom of
research essays and upcoming finals,
someone offers a temporary relief in the
form of blank colouring sheets and few
accept? For shame!

One way Douglas might be able to
keep up this kind of bustling beehive
mentality is if more clubs emerge. The
DSU has made it very clear that they are
willing to support students who would
like to organize themed groups around
campus and I suggest that some people

start taking advantage of this. There aren’t
too many options around Douglas, if
you’ re not interested in playing athletics
on a college level that is. For me, the only
other option seemed to be to join The
Other Press and it has easily become one
of my favourite things about this school.

I met new people, got to do something I
love and enjoyed a few perks that came
with it. Now if only more clubs existed at
Douglas so that everyone else could enjoy

 

     

experiences like this.
I supposed it’s easy for me to suggest
someone else initiate this change instead
of doing it myself. But I’ve already found
my club, so this article is meant for the
rest of you. The quiet summer semester
is approaching so now is the time to start
brainstorming ideas for new, exciting
groups to bolster the ranks of clubs at
Douglas College. If you organize it, they
will come.

 

The arrival of music video Black ‘Friday’

A brilliant satire or total bullsh*t?
By Jacey Gibb

s if you’re not already sick
of hearing about this auto-
tune abusing monstrosity,

here’s yet another viewpoint of
Rebecca Black’s huge (hit?) single
‘Friday’, whose video has been
assaulting any willing ears and
eyes.

Now I’m not digging for indie
cred or anything here, but I first
heard this piece of musical diarrhea
on Saturday morning when it only
had a couple thousand views. I
was confused at first: was this
some form of back to school at
Zellers campaign or perhaps a viral
fuelled prank looking to get a head
start on April Fools? The meagre
amount of views and absence of a
prominent music label fuelled my
speculation that Rebecca Black
was just another internet creation
waiting to make it big.

At this point I started to
admire what the video represented.
Similar to efforts before it, such as Robin
Sparkles on How I met your Mother, this
video’s creator had collected enough
details on what makes something awful
and had incorporated enough of them
to make something hilarious. I told my
roommate about how enjoyable this satire

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rebecca Black

of postmodern pop music videos was and
commended the creator for making such a
believably bad imitation.

Unfortunately the Rebecca Black
train had only begun gaining speed as
suddenly my Facebook newsfeed became
littered with posts ‘lol’ing the atrocity and
some form of legitimacy became more

 

prominent. I investigated the Youtube
channel and was greeted with videos
displaying the same cookie-cutter teen
pop formula ‘Friday’ had featured so
prominently. Though none can compare to
the crown jewel performed by Ms. Black,
they represent a new genre that threatens
the very integrity of music.

I know I’m being
condescending when it comes to
musical preferences and perhaps
some folks out there even enjoy
the crap being peddled by the

| Ark Music Factory (if there are,
| they’re probably tweens who
ren’t necessarily reading a
ollege newspaper like this) but
| the existence of such ‘talent’ is
| unsettling.
I’m still not a hundred
percent convinced this isn’t some
| elaborate joke from Collegehumor
or some form of social experiment
examining how rapidly our society
can become exposed to garbage on
the internet. But with every million
views the ‘Friday’ video gets, I
become more concerned that it
_jisn’t.

The only way I know how
to deal with this new sensation is
the same way I’ve been handling
Sheen fever: by completely
ignoring it. I’ve been avoiding the
internet, radio and Metro; I politely
tune out when someone begins a joke on
the topic; I’ve even started to focus more
on global, more relevant news. Hopefully
by the time I run out of emergency rations
and emerge from my pop culture bomb
shelter, the ‘Friday’ pandemic will have
passed.

  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 

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