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Figure skating, undressed

FS Jana Sergei

As December rears its ugly head, some people diligently prepare for their upcoming exams. Others, resigned to their inevitable fate of  abysmal grades,  procrastinate instead. I unfortunately count myself among the latter camp, having whittled much of my time away by watching figure skating. After all, it is an Olympic year: the one time every four years in which the mainstream media gives an indication that figure skating does indeed exist.

My opinion on figure skating is rather mixed. On one hand, I love the sport sincerely–at best, it is a sport that blends athleticism with artistry, the triumph of the human will over the constraints of gravity. On the other hand,  the idiosyncrasies and the sheer ridiculousness of figure skating brings forth a steady stream of snark on my part. Today, it is the latter half of figure skating I focus on, a part of figure skating that lends itself to a substantial amount of (perhaps not completely unwarranted) ridicule and dismissal: the costumes.

Costumes are a fundamental part of figure skating. Most figure skaters regard themselves as artistes, wringing out their souls on the ice in the form of angsty expressions, overly-dramatic gestures and costumes that appropriately reflect the character of the arty masterpiece they are attempting to pull off.  However, as in life,  good taste is more often than not a rare commodity in the figure skating world.  Which, of course, spurs me to pass judgment on a bunch of hard-working athletes not by the content of their character but by their choice of attire and my completely subjective sense of aesthetics. Ah, internet, my never-ending outlet for catharsis.

And so, without further ado–the best and worst dressed figure skatings of this season (so far):

Continue reading “Figure skating, undressed”

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Canada’s Olympic Figure Skating Hopefuls

2009 Homesense Skate Canada medalists

After going to Homesense Skate Canada International 2009 this weekend, I figured I should write something about the competition. However being a Grand Prix event in which most of the skaters are barely known, I thought that it would be more helpful if I wrote about the athletes most people would cheer for by default – in other words, the athletes from Canada. Being in Canada, the competition featured the country’s best figure skaters in all 4 disciplines: men, ladies, pairs and ice dance; as a result Skate Canada is perfect for seeing how each skater does against the international competition, as well as taking a glimpse of the results of the backstage politicking that, unfortunately, goes on in this subjective sport. As subjectivity is fundamental to figure skating, I cannot promise a completely objective post; instead, what I can offer is a less nationalistic alternative to the blind pro-Canada garbage that CBC tends to spout. Continue reading “Canada’s Olympic Figure Skating Hopefuls”

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Extra-curriculars in My First Semester (or Lack Thereof)

Just three weeks before the end of the fall semester, I have come to the realization that I haven’t done any productive work outside of school since the start of classes.

As a first-year student, I naturally had many plans to do extra-curricular activities over the summer. French Club. The Varsity newspaper. Engineering Toastmasters. Engineers Without Borders. The Blue & Gold Committee (a spirit group for engineers). The Engineering Society, Academic Committee. The Engineering LEGO Club.

Tons of plans, but they’ve fallen through due to:

  1. Time commitments. Toastmasters ends at 10pm on Thursdays, when I am often staying up late completing PHY180 lab write-ups. I also have limited time to begin with because the commute eats up 3 hours each day. LEGO Club… well, meetings are also on Thursdays, and I guess doing error analysis calculations is more feasible than constructing a house made of LEGO bricks.
  2. Lack of response from group executives. I’m serious – I signed up for a gazillion clubs during the UTSU and Engineering Clubs’ Fairs, but have only been e-mailed by a handful. And some have only e-mailed once, and never again. The only French Club meeting I’ve been to was their introductory brunch, which, incidentally, was delicious.
  3. Laziness. I signed up for blogUT, knew I was going to blog the second I had something to say, and… kind of forgot about it.
  4. In my defence, it was partly also due to shyness and decision-making. I was trying to come up with something interesting to talk about. Whatever was remotely related to engineering, I stuck the blog entry into the Online Design Journal I’m required to keep in preparation for one of my final exams.

Considering that all of my friends here at U of T are first-years in engineering, I haven’t been doing non-scientifically-related writing for a while now, and I am slowly losing my French skills, my inactivity is clearly something I should deal with.

Fortunately, I kept the last e-mail I got from blogUT, in my Inbox where I could easily see it. And I discovered that not only was the founder a former EngSci graduate, but there were posts, personal ones (i.e. not just artsy reviews or school events!) that could resemble what I’d write in any blog.

I decided not to write for the Arts section of the Varsity when I realized that they didn’t publish book reviews (plus my  reviews are generally outdated – a few months after the book’s release), and didn’t write for the Science section because they seem to expect up-to-date news from research conducted right at the U of T. The Cannon, the engineering newspaper, has never e-mailed me since I wrote my contact information on the sign-up sheet.

So much for trying to be connected to student life. I guess that’s how blogUT started, because it sure feels good to be blogging and just… doing something aside from problem sets and whatnot.

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#Tweetsgiving: Social Media for Social Good

Last week my fellow blogUT writer, Julia, wrote a great piece dispelling the alleged evils of social media. This week, I’m continuing that thought.

As Julia mentioned, social media has given us all the opportunity to keep in touch with our friends, reconnect with lost ones, and even share relevant (and well, sometimes not so relevant) information with each other with a simple 140 character tweet. More than anything else, Twitter and other social media tools lets us “learn about and interact with the world in real time, and in a way we never imagined”.

I’d like to take this one step further. Not only has social media given us this chance to connect with each other on a one-on-one basis, but it has also opened the way for a much more far-reaching and collective purpose. Case in point? Tweetsgiving. Never heard of it? Let me give you the low down.

tweetsgiving

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U of T Film Festival – Call For Submissions!

U of T 2010 Film Fest

The U of T Film Festival celebrates the University of Toronto’s rich contribution to the arts through its student and alumni film and video makers. Now in its ninth year, the festival also welcomes films and videos from all emerging and established filmmakers, through we have not lost our focus on student work. For the 2010 edition our special guest will be Babak Payami.

The types of submissions the festival is looking for are:

  • short films and videos of any length, genre and topic
  • “Super 8” films that are silent and played with live music
  • 1-minute long “Shitty Films” for the annual Shitty Film Contest
  • installation art, including site-specific proposals
  • film and videos of any length that address social justice issues, especially social entrepreneurialism, providing innovative solutions to social problems.

The deadline is February 8th, and the festival takes place March 13 but early submissions encouraged. For a submission form and details, go to www.uoftfilmfest.ca or send an e-mail to .

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The All Knowing Bob

This past Friday I bore witness to this year’s iteration of Victoria College’s long running sketch comedy revue: The All Knowing Bob. It was a night of laughter, jeers, death panels, and hanging rednecks (read: basically my childhood) and well worth the $5 admission price.

Having seen last year’s Bob, A Bob Divided (based on the theme of two directors at war), I can’t help but draw comparisons between the two. While this year’s show was strong, its central theme was only really present in the introduction and conclusion sketches of the show, whereas the theme of the two warring camps of Bob actors reappeared throughout last year’s, which gave the show more of a sense of structure. In any case, The All Knowing Bob was very strong with some very well-written and well-acted sketches. There was not one sketch that didn’t elicit at least one laugh from me, which was a welcome break with the past tradition of some headache inducing acts that I have seen (please see my reviews of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival).

Timing is an elusive thing to master in sketch comedy, and when designing a sketch one always runs the risk of thinking that (lots of good jokes) + (even more jokes) = funnier. Unless every single one of those jokes is about land-stealing Prussian nobles, then there is such a thing as reaching the tipping point in a sketch where additional length serves to make funny jokes less funny. As always, less is more: some of the longer sketches in The Bob would have been 100% funnier if they had been 50% longer. Also, some sketches didn’t build towards a central punch line or narrative conclusion, which made a few of them seem static.  But those small critiques aside (and they are very minor, compared to the wealth of great sketches in this two-hour long revue), it was a very well made piece of comedy. The Mad Hatter sketches made me laugh till I peed (just a little bit), and the songs were catchy and original.

The acting was strong, and hopefully many of this year’s newcomers to The Bob –and those still involved that aren’t geriatric fourth years like me that have to hobble across campus to catch the Early Bird™ special at Denny’s – will stick around to crack jokes about death panels for years to come. A hearty round of applause should be given to long-time Bob actors/writers/co-directors Brandon Hackett and Chris Berube, along with their very talented cast.

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Documentary Screening of Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear


A classroom at the Afghan-Canadian Community Center.

Teachers Without Borders and War Child U of T present a documentary
screening of

Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear (2008, CBC)

Beyond the news headlines, this documentary surveys the state of a
wartorn nation, challenging the question: is Afghanistan advancing
towards stability?
Writer-Director Julian Sher (author of several bestselling non-fiction books such as One Child at a Time: the Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators (2007) and “Until You Are Dead” : Steven Truscott’s Long Ride into History (2001) ) will be in attendance.
Webchat with The Afghan School Project, featured in the documentary. Refreshments will be served.

When: Wednesday, November 25th, 6PM – 9PM
Where: Woodsworth College, Room 120. 119 St. George Street
Price: Free, donations accepted to support The Afghan School Project (http://www.theafghanschool.org)
More Information: Facebook Event Page 1, Facebook Event Page 2, Teachers Without Borders – U of T, War Child @ U of T