Here we go. Another bullshit controversy over nothing. Trevor Noah will be taking over the Daily Show, and already people are trying their best to take him down. Apparently he made some “offensive” tweets, years ago, that people have dug up in a sad attempt at investigative journalism.
I’ll keep this short and sweet, who cares? These are jokes. Get over it.
I’m really sick and tired of the constant faux outrage hurled at anyone who tweets even the mildest form of politically incorrect humor. Just leave the guy alone. If he was a genuine racist or sexist then I can see why people would be upset, but he isn’t. He’s not even a comedian I find very funny, but now these bloggers who have too much time on their hands (and who give all of use other bloggers a bad reputation), push me to the point where I’m forced to defend him.
To anyone who genuinely is trying to “protest” him, please leave this planet and never return.
I wrote this for my school paper regarding budget cuts, but I think much of it can apply to any school facing the same thing
The amount of complaints I’ve heard regarding Laurier’s budget cuts over the past few weeks have been frustrating. As a member of the Students’ Union, we have no control what gets cut.
After voicing the concerns many have with the school, I feel extremely sympathetic to anyone who loses their job. But with my sympathy, comes an understanding of the university administration’s actions.
These cutbacks aren’t a villainous act of oppression brought on by an elitist/ corporate hegemony, but instead are fairly reasonable steps that are needed to reduce the looming deficit.
The fact is, 80 percent of the Laurier budget goes towards paying salaries and benefits. And any corporation that’s spending 80 percent of a budget on workers, should not be accused of trying to undermine them. The rhetoric I’ve heard over the past few weeks about how Laurier is somehow trying to hurt our fellow students and teachers is blatantly misleading.
I get that some people hate the idea that schools have budgets. Some profs and students have expressed the view that in the perfect world, schools wouldn’t run like a business, we would all come to engage in critical thought, and leave after 4 years feeling enlightened. But that’s not how the world works.
What I hear is a lot of complaints, and not enough suggestions about how this budgetary crisis can be solved without these cuts. What solutions does the university have? Raising tuition is out of the question for a host of reasons, so what’s the viable alternative?
What bothers me is that most students support budget cuts instead of tuition increases, but then try and demonize Laurier when they realize it’s their programs that might be affected. That only highlights the hypocrisy of this outrage.
I major in both Poli Sci and North American Studies. I love both my programs and all my profs, but if a serious cut was needed, I would understand if it were to come at my expense.
However it’s not really coming at the students’ expense. Sociology for example can still be pursued by students if they want. The faculty workers are the ones suffering, so I’m sympathetic to them, but when I hear these exaggerations about how the students will somehow lose all quality education, I roll my eyes.
The university has gone out of it’s way to target the less popular faculties, and ones that don’t tend to lead to jobs, in order to minimize the pain to students and teachers. And it’s not even cutting until the deficit is whipped out. It’s cutting just to minimize the impact. No tenured professors are getting fired, and it’s likely the most fair deal us students could ask for.
So while the “Outrage Brigade” is in full force, screaming up at the sky that our President Max Blouw is out to ruin our school, they neglect the facts.
Not to mention, I don’t think people understand the money that the profs make. Most of them make $165,000 a year, with a 6% increase annually. If the profs collectively agreed to stop the increase for a couple of years, many of these jobs would be saved.
University students of all people should understand what it’s like to stretch a budget. Sometimes we just don’t have the money to go to a bar, or go watch a movie. I personally had to give up buying more Nicki Minaj posters. (I got that calendar though)! The university is doing the responsible thing and reducing it’s operating costs, and it’s better for us all in the long run.
While Jon Stewart and I would likely differ on 90% of political issues, I can’t say it doesn’t hurt to see him go. After explaining his upcoming retirement to the audience on The Daily Show, news spread quicker than you may expect. It became breaking news for most outlets, and fans like myself couldn’t believe that after 16 years he’s calling it quits.
This was an announcement that many saw coming. His desire to not renew his contract was somewhat obvious, but I think many refused to believe it. He’s the face we grew to trust, and we couldn’t picture an 11:00pm time slot without him.
Political satire is one of the things that saves us from taking each other too seriously. I remember the first time I saw an episode, and I immediately connected with the show. It’s obvious his show is a Liberal one, but before that, came the comedy. Laughing through partisanship was something he managed to achieve every night.
Me like many others enjoyed the times he’d debate Bill O’reilly, or when he picked fights with politicians, and while his point of view was known to everyone who watched, it rarely bothered me. That’s not to say Stewart wasn’t offensive at times, but his standard of comedy was much higher than you’d expect from a late night show on Comedy Central (The Comedy Network here in Canada).
If you were a liberal, you openly adored him. If you were a conservative like me, you secretly watched his show every night, laughing along with imitations he got popular doing.
While it remains unclear when his last day on the show will be, everyone will be counting down the days until his finale. Unlike the sad loss of Stephen Colbert last year, we’re unsure where Stewart will end up. But I’m sure wherever he goes, he’ll stay genuine.
Well there it was folks. Broadcast for the whole world to see. The 2015 Grammy Awards aired, and wouldn’t you know it, it was a total catastrophe.
For 3 and a half hours, I watched in complete horror as award after award was handed off to some of the laziest artists I’ve ever had the displeasure of feeling my ears bleed to.
Out of all the awards shown live, only one truly went to the most deserving of candidates. Pharrell, who’s been working his ass off 2 decades, finally got one of the more relevant awards for his genuinely incredible song “Happy”. But apart from that brief moment of joy, my body crumbled under the weight of mediocrity being fed to me.
And while we’re talking about the positives, Iggy Azalea got squashed pretty hard, hopefully ending her career as a fraud. Us lucky viewers didn’t have to sit through a hair-pullingly awful performance of “Fancy”, where she dawns her fake Brooklyn/ Southern accent and pretends to be a respected rapper.
But with those small victories aside, the glaring problems rang louder than a blow horn.
To be quite honest, I really think it’s time we started calling out the Grammys for it’s blatant racism. Every year incredible black artists are totally snubbed in ridiculous upsets that stun the crowd, and the viewers at home.
Sure there are certain categories like “Best Rap Album” or “Best RnB Album” where most of the nominees and winners are black, but once there’s crossover and artists like Kanye are headed up against U2, the victor is always obvious.
And to really prove my point, this year they didn’t even show “Best Rap Album” during the airing. That award, along with Best Rap Song, collaboration, and performance, were all given out prior. In a show that ran 210 minutes, they couldn’t show some appreciation to one of the most relevant forms of music in the world? Rap was born in the South Bronx, and can be seen in the streets of Japan. But no. That’s not good enough apparently.
While numerous references were made throughout the night to Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin, with performances symbolizing “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and dancers wearing hoodies, artists saying “Black Lives Matter” and even a performance from Common relating to Selma, not one award was given to a black artist in an unconventional category. Half the time, great artists weren’t even nominated, and even then, they lost to mediocre flash-in-the-pan artists.
Now although I may sound this way, I’m not saying awards should be given out on a political bases. Beyoncé shouldn’t win “Album Of The Year” because of racial tension in America, but she should have won because she’s the best in that category, which she clearly was.
But don’t let me fool you into thinking politics doesn’t come into play at the Grammys. There’s plenty of that to go around. However, let’s look at the most egregious example of that. I’m not using hyperbole when I say Sam Smith actually ruined the Grammys.
Full disclaimer: I’m fully aware that in the Western world, the United States is likely the most homophobic country. I get it. But just like I said, politics shouldn’t tell us what makes good music.
When Sam Smith wins 2 of the most prestigious awards for “Stay With Me”, a song that was literally ripped off from another band that then resulted in losing a multimillion dollar lawsuit, the tomfoolery is palpable.
Every time his name was called, you could picture the entire academy patting themselves on the back, for letting an already pretty shallow artist beat out the likes of Sia, Katy Perry, Ed Shareen and Coldplay. Again, the construction of the song was stolen from Tom Pettys “Won’t Back Down”, but somehow it wins best record.
One of his fans wrote an article trying to defend him by listing 16 songs that sound extremely similar to “Stay With Me”. This only highlights the ridiculousness of this cloned song winning “Record of the Year”, when it’s been done over a dozen times before!
I thought we got over this last year when Macklemore’s pathetic songs and album pushed him ahead of Kendrick and Kanye. But leave it to the self-righteousness of the Grammys to beat their message into our heads like the repetitive drum line in their next “Song of the Year” contender for 2016.
It’s even clearer to me now why even Homer Simpson didn’t want his Grammy Award.
Almost exactly 8 years ago, rapper Nas cynically put out an album titled “Hip Hop Is Dead”. While the release of this project didn’t actually symbolize the death of hip hop music, it represented a dramatic shift in the type of sound listeners would begin to hear blaring through their car speakers.
The commercialization of rap music began decades ago, but with every passing year, more and more distance emerges between passionate and dedicated fans, and the mainstream musical institutions.
You don’t have to look further than this past year to witness the sheer outrageous decisions from the two largest music award shows, that are supposed to represent the best in hip hop music.
Just recently, Iggy Azalea beat out both Drake and Eminem to claim the award for “Best Hip Hop Album” at the American Music Awards. For those who don’t know how the AMA’s declare their winners, it’s a process that should immediately eliminate all of their credibility. Their decisions are based on album sales, radio play, and social media buzz. In other words, it comes down to “who’s hot”, and nothing substantial. It’s a contest between marketing teams. That explains why despite poor album reviews and severe denunciation from the hip hop community, she manages to be crowned “the winner”. Congrats.
Or let’s look at the Grammy Awards from early this year, where Macklemore managed to beat out Kanye West, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake to win best rap album. This was an embarrassment, not only because his lame, messy spoken-word debut pales in comparison to the competition, but Macklemore himself admitted he shouldn’t have won.
The Grammy winners are decided by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which summons up images of elitism based purely on the geography alone. This organization is based in the a rich part of California, far from the areas where actual rappers would emerge from.
After Macklemore won the award, I saw a hilarious image that summed up what I’m getting at. The picture read “A look at the voters who gave best rap album to Macklemore”, and it showed the cast of Downton Abbey. Priceless.
Hip hop music was born in the South Bronx, and has always been infused with the spirit of rebellion. In an age before social media, it was hip hop music that helped bring the voices of the black community to the mainstream. But it’s being devalued by these institutions.
The entire music industry, from the record labels to the award shows, are brimming with classism that has taken the musical gifts from the poor and disenfranchised, and altered it beyond recognition.
We’re being propagandized into believing that rappers such as Iggy Azalea and Macklemore are somehow just like Pusha T, Ghostface, and Rakim. Worse actually, because the latter rappers don’t have the sales or awards that the other two do.
So why are artists that the general hip hop community despise winning awards and popularity? It’s because the music industry has realized that marketing to the hip hop community isn’t as profitable as selling to middle-class white America. Even worse, the rappers that were getting signed were talking about class issues and poverty.
Conscious rap music used to be Public Enemy, 2Pac, Common, Nas, and Saigon. But those days are long over. Songs like “Fight The Power” and “Keep Ya Head Up” won’t ever be lead singles again. They’re too politically incorrect and not relatable.
Joe Budden wrote a 16 minute epic titled “Who Killed Hip Hop?”, and while he documents everything that’s wrong with the industry, I disagree with his conclusion. He says it’s the artists’ fault for selling out, but it’s not their fault the labels won’t give them artistic freedom.
Hip hop isn’t dead, but it’s foundations are under attack. What’s made it such a powerful force historically is it’s ability to both inspire poor youth, and tell that story of poverty and hardship to everyone else who otherwise wouldn’t care. So if you’re going to try and change what has made this music so great, and pretend these corny, clichéd new artists are in anyway interesting, then perhaps as Joe Budden says “you shouldn’t be a listener.”
The opening line in this article should already set off alarms in your head. “Many young Canadian designers are expressing outrage that the federal government would ask them to work for free.”
I don’t know how to properly express everything that’s wrong with that statement.
Essentially, the government is holding a contest to find a new logo for Canada’s 150th birthday. This is no different from what any sort of company does, and sometimes, *gasp*, they poll people about different logos or slogans FOR FREE! Oh the humanity!!
As someone who’s gone through school studying political science, I speak with experience when I say there’s no group more pompous than a university arts student. Of course I’m generalizing, but many of this ilk cannot fathom that we live in a world where a degree in “Vegetarian Studies” or “Gender Fluid Mechanics” won’t get you far.
For starters, the government has NOT offered a job to a student and then demanded they work for free. It’s a contest where the winner gets $5,000. You don’t have to compete if you don’t want to. I mean look at this next passage:
“Imagine 500 students enter the contest. Each student spends 10 hours on a design, which totals 5,000 hours of work.”
Wow…I had no idea these young Van Goghs were crafting the next “Starry Night”.
Does anyone believe for a second that 10 hours will be spent on a logo? Maybe there’s one overachiever who’s gonna try and blow everyone’s hair back with an awesome design, but to pretend that 500 different students are going to slave their fingers to the bone is a joke. My old roommate was able to make some great designs in Photoshop…in 30 minutes…while drunk.
I’m all for a reasonable wage for working, but this is a contest! For fun! These people need to grow up.
The Conservative Canadian 