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THE
VARSITY
MAGAZINE C ties
VOL. V
ISSUE 3
EST.
1880
19 MARCH
2012

Guerrilla
marketing 101
18
Pie in the
sky 7
Streeters
27
Mike Parson’s
metropolis
6
ZED.TO comes
to Toronto
9
Around the
world in 20 facts
14
International
City miscellany
Top fives
Toronto profiles
Why Toronto
sports suck
22
Where does
your food
come from?
13
How and
where to pee
on the street
23
Fort McMurray:
boom or bust?
10
Gentrification
along
King East
16
A squirrel stole
a sandwich 7
Degrassi
actress Judy
Jiao on Toronto
12
Five cities in
fiction 6
Rana Dasgupta
on Delhi
17
The Varsity’s
postcard
project
4
Spacing editor
Shawn Micallef
on psychogeography
The Varsity
Magazine
Cities
Toronto’s
biggest cultural
movements
20
8
Toronto’s
abandoned
spaces
5 Managing
Toronto’s solid
waste
Free shit
on the street
25
5
On location
in Toronto
9

THE VARSITY
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
THE VarsiTy
MaGaZiNE
VOL. V No. 3
ContaCt
21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306
Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6
Phone: 416-946-7600
thevarsity.ca
EDItoR-In-ChIEf
Tom Cardoso
editor@thevarsity.ca
MaGaZInE EDItoR
Erene Stergiopoulos
magazine@thevarsity.ca
SEnIoR CoPY EDItoR
Maayan Adar
copy@thevarsity.ca
DESIGn EDItoRS
Matthew D.H. Gray
Mushfiq Ul Huq
design@thevarsity.ca
Photo EDItoR
Bernarda Gospic
photo@thevarsity.ca
onLInE EDItoR
Sam Bowman
online@thevarsity.ca
ILLUStRatIonS EDItoR
Jenny Kim
illustration@thevarsity.ca
vIDEo EDItoR
Wyatt Clough
video@thevarsity.ca
Letter from
the editor
People who live in cities think that people who don’t live in cities have city envy. They actually don’t. To
some, the suburbs are sublime. Small towns are where it’s at. Cars are king, and Rob Ford is amazing.
Cities aren’t always what we want them to be. But whether you ride a fixed-gear bike
or a car that runs on fried chicken grease, we all have some common ground when it
comes to thinking about the place we live in, and the way we interact with it.
That’s what the final instalment of The Varsity Magazine is all about, and we’ve talked to some pretty
cool people in the process. Assunta Alegiani joined Toronto artist Mike Parsons in his studio to get his
thoughts on the metropolis through his iconic black-and-white artwork. Jade Colbert sat down with
Commonwealth-winning author Rana Dasgupta to chat about Delhi as a model for the 21 st -century city.
On the local end, we caught up with Degrassi actress Judy Jiao, the city’s expert in Solid
Waste Management, Vincent Sferrazza, the famous Wanda (of Wanda’s Pie in the Sky
fame), and Spacing magazine editor Shawn Micallef. And while our city tends to get a bad
rap, these people all think Toronto is pretty great — maybe you should too.
We’ve also imparted some of our own wisdom and, inevitably, a dash of tomfoolery. Ankit Bhardwaj
recounts the mishaps he’s had in his global quest to find places to pee in the street — and you’ll also
learn of the evil sandwich-stealing squirrels of Washington, DC. Chongwong Shakur imparts the five
best things she’s found on city sidewalks for free (hint: her list includes a penis-shaped water bottle).
On the more serious side, Angela Brock describes what it was like growing up on the nowgentrified
King Street East, while Matthew D.H. Gray visits the Albertan boomtown of
Fort McMurray, land of oil and high rent. Murad Hemmadi traces the effects of guerrilla
marketing from his hometown of Bombay to the sidewalks of Yonge–Dundas square.
There’s a lot to say about cities, and we haven’t said it all. And while our perspectives are
diverse, we’re certainly missing voices from the suburbs, from the small towns, or from the
places that we as city snobs don’t even realize exist. (I’m writing this from my smartphone
on my fixed-gear bike in Parkdale, with a cappuccino in hand.) (Not actually, at all.)
Happy reading,
Erene Stergiopoulos
Magazine Editor (2011–2012)
The Varsity Magazine team signs off on the final mag of the year. Bernarda Gospic/THe VarsiTy
aSSIStant MaGaZInE EDItoR
Murad Hemmadi
aSSoCIatE MaGaZInE
EDItoR
Simon Frank
aSSoCIatE CoPY EDItoR
Jasmine Pauk
aSSoCIatE DESIGn EDItoRS
Suzy Nevins & Dan Seljak
aSSoCIatE Photo EDItoR
Vacant
aSSoCIatE onLInE EDItoRS
Mimoza Haque & Patrick Love
CovER
Mushfiq Ul Huq
DESIGnERS
Yasi Eftekhari
Simon Frank
Matthew D.H. Gray
Jenny Kim
Suzy Nevins
Anne Rucchetto
Dan Seljak
Mushfiq Ul Huq
Nathan Watson
Michelle Yuan
CoPY EDItoRS
Tina Hui
Laura Mitchell
Joshua Oliver
Jasmine Pauk
faCt ChECKERS
Tina Hui
Laura Mitchell
Joshua Oliver
Jasmine Pauk
Photo & ILLUStRatIon
William Ahn
Michael Bedford
Rémi Carreiro
Wyatt Clough
Bernarda Gospic
Matthew D.H. Gray
Jenny Kim
Ariel Lewis
Jessica Muraca
Suzy Nevins
Dan Seljak
Steve Tan
Stephanie Travassos
Mushfiq Ul Huq
About the Cover
We have to confess, this magazine’s cover idea isn’t entirely
original — but then again, these days, what is?
Back in 1989, a peculiar anthology film was released in
the US. The film, New York Stories, was split into three segments,
each with its own director (hence the “anthology
film” moniker). All three were cinematic heavyweights
at the time: Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and
Woody Allen, who had taken home an Academy Award
for his screenplay for Hannah and Her Sisters two years
previous. Though not an especially memorable film —
Scorsese and Allen’s pieces were positively received by
critics, and Coppola’s was torn to pieces — New York Stories
has become iconic for its poster, depicting a simplified
illustration of a classic New York City brownstone, with
the World Trade Center towering above.
Using the poster as inspiration, The Varsity’s design
team got to work on transplanting the idea and giving
it a Toronto spin. Though several buildings were given
up as options (City Hall? Robarts? the Manulife Centre?),
the Gooderham Building at the intersection of
Wellington and Front ultimately won out. One of the
few classic “flatirons” in North America, the Gooderham
Building has been an iconic landmark for Toronto
for over 120 years — that’s just twelve years after The
Varsity was founded!
ContRIbUtoRS
Tom Adamson, Assunta Alegiani, Brandon Bastaldo,
Ankit Bhardwaj, Angela Brock, Ethan Chiel, Jade
Colbert, Simon Frank, Catherine Friedman, Matthew
D.H. Gray, Murad Hemmadi, Patrick Love, Laura
Mitchell, Joshua Oliver, Stephan Petar, Alex Ross,
Dan Seljak, Chongwong Shakur, Jamie Shilton, Erene
Stergiopoulos, Steve Tan, Michael “Angel” Vu
aD InQUIRIES
416-946-7604
ads@thevarsity.ca
bUSInESS ManaGER
Arlene Lu
business@thevarsity.ca
aDvERtISInG
EXECUtIvES
Jamie C. Liu
Kalam Poon
Ivana Strajin
MARCH 19, 2012
SPECIaL thanKS
Steve Tan,
Gooderham
Building, Tiago
Oliveira, Kettle
Chips, Nathan
Watson, Suzy
Nevins, Ahmed
Aljumaa, Rémi
Carreiro, Justin
Timberlake, Rob
Ford for never
getting back to us.
3

Where have
you been?
We asked for your postcards, and you delivered.
1 2 3
4
7
10
1. “My friend wrote this while listening to a speech by the Director-General of UNESCO in Paris.”
2. “You can often get a sense for life in a new city by wandering through grocery stores. This card
takes the journey back to Bangkok shelves a few decades ago.”
3. “Capuchin catacombs, Palermo.”
4. “My Mexican pal Eddie sent this to me; it’s the most beautiful postcard I’ve ever received.”
5. “I picked this up at the MOMA in New York City. I got distracted by pretzels and hotties on the
street so I forgot to mail it.”
6. + 12. “I spotted these while roaming the streets of Barcelona looking for a café and sangria.”
4 the VARSItY magazine
8
11
5
9
12
7. “Frogs: no idea. I think I picked this card up in Portland, Oregon.”
8. “This is a photo of Thailand’s king and his wife in the 1960s.”
9. “The energy, passion, and patriotism was out of this world — I have never felt so proud to be
Canadian as I did in Vancouver.”
10. “I visited California and bought this because it represents how much I hate highways.”
11. “I picked up this deadstock postcard at a photoshop/café in New York. A cool concept, but
unfortunately the scent of photo chemicals doesn’t mesh well with coffee.”
6

Cleaning up
Toronto’s expert in Solid Waste Management
Services gives us the scoop on city garbage
by Simon Frank, photo by miCHaEL BEDForD
It’s easy to crack jokes about the “dirty business”
of Solid Waste Management Services, but once you
meet Vincent Sferrazza, the city’s general manager of
the department, and you’ll learn it’s no trifling matter.
Full of vigour and enthusiasm, Sferrazza sketches out
the city’s plans for improving recycling and reducing
waste. Having previously worked for the City of Hamilton
and Ontario’s provincial government, Sferrazza has
been in City Hall since 2008.
The Varsity: What goes into each day of work for
you? What does your daily schedule look like?
Vincent Sferrazza: Honestly, I can say each day is different…
It can [involve] me meeting with my senior
management team, meeting with politicians. It [can
also involve] specific projects, issues affecting solid
waste management, whether it be an operational issue
like collection or disposal, or on our policies, on our
strategy to get to 70 per cent diversion and how we’re
doing…
TV: I saw that you have a Masters in Public Administration,
but what path did you follow to get here? Did
you ever set out for a position like this?
VS: When I was at university, I did in fact enjoy politics,
and I did take an interest in municipal politics and municipal
government. There was an opportunity to do
that with my graduate program at Western, where the
MPA program is dedicated to municipal government... I
never had, at that time, really, a sense that I would end
up in waste management. An opportunity presented
itself where I worked on a specific file. This was my
first job that I worked on in the City of Hamilton: I was
given a file that pertained to waste management, and I
found it interesting.
TV: The past few years have brought changes to Solid
Waste Management Services, through more recycling
Toronto’s top 5
abandoned spaces
by STEPHan PETar, photo by
BErnarDa goSPiC
Abandoned buildings are beautiful
but — let’s face it — kind of
scary. In Toronto, you’ll find abandoned
places at ground level, high
in the sky, and right below your
feet. Recently, Maple Leaf Gardens
re-opened after being abandoned
since the late ‘90s, while the old
Bank of Commerce on Yonge will
be restored and incorporated into a
new condominium complex in the
coming years after sitting gated up
for decades.
The Crystal Ballroom on top of
the King Edward Hotel
The Crystal Ballroom opened in 1921
on the top floor of the luxurious
King Edward Hotel and was closed
in the 1970s. The Ballroom was
named after its three large, sparkling
chandeliers and was famous
for its floor-to-ceiling windows.
Today, even though the ballroom
has been neglected, it still has that
charm that made it the place to be in
the 1920s. The ballroom eventually
became a place where fly fishermen
could practise their cast-offs.
The Old Bank of Toronto at 205
Yonge Street
Built in 1905 by Toronto architect E.
J. Lennox, the bank is an example
of neo-classical architecture and
is most notable for its Corinthian
columns and large domed roof. It’s
unknown when the Bank of Toronto
vacated the building, but it
wasn’t abandoned until 2003 when
its then-occupants, the Toronto
Historical Board, relocated. Today,
the building is owned by an Irish
businessman who hangs an Irish
flag from the building but leaves it
vacant. The building’s interior features
a partial glass ceiling, unique
light fixtures, and walls that look as
though they are covered in vines, all
of which go unseen today.
The Old Loblaws Warehouse at
Lakeshore and Bathurst
With a bowling alley and a stage
where employees could put on
shows, the old Loblaws Warehouse
was not your average workplace.
Built in 1927, the Warehouse was a
wonder with its electric tram railway,
oversized ovens, and 22,000
feet of refrigerating piping. The
warehouse closed in the ‘70s, and
the Daily Bread Food Bank called
it home until 2000. Today it is neglected
as seen in the discolouration
of the façade and the broken win-
and the growth of the green bin. What does the future
hold?
VS: Wow, okay! The future holds more challenges. In
the last 20 years or so, what we’ve done is, as we like
to say, we’ve captured the low-hanging fruit. By that
we mean we’ve been recycling the newspapers, the pop
cans, the aluminum. Recently we started collecting
electronics at the curbside… Another thing is a concept
called extended producer responsibility. Essentially it’s
where the producer of a product, ultimately, is financially
and operationally responsible for their product,
as we say, from cradle to grave.
TV: In 2009, there was the city workers’ strike. The
lack of garbage collection was a visible part of that.
What sort of contingency plan do you have for the
next time a strike might occur?
VS: Back then, what we did was we set up temporary
depots or temporary waste sites across the city. People
would have to bring their garbage to sites. We had some
lessons learned though, in terms of where the sites may
be located, how they would be operated… So yes I’m
preparing, [but] I can’t reveal that information at this
time because it may never happen, and we certainly
hope that there won’t be another labour disruption.
TV: What do you enjoy most about working for the
City of Toronto?
VS: Great people, lots of support. For instance, education:
there’s a lot of support for staff to continue their
education. I come into work and I drive through the
city and see the positive impacts of our programs,
whether it be garbage being properly collected, the aesthetics
of the city, how clean it is. All that you see on a
regular basis. We have some great successes, but we’re
constantly looking for ways of improving, and that’s
great. And that’s on every level of staff. I find that the
people that work in solid waste management, they stay.
dows that Toronto’s urban wildlife
use to sneak in. It’s a sad sight for a
building that was once an art-deco
masterpiece.
The Prison Chapel at
Liberty Village
The Prison Chapel was built by the
inmates of the Ontario Central Prison,
which operated on the grounds
of Liberty Village from 1877 to 1915.
The chapel was intended as a place
of worship for the prisoners but instead
was where they got drunk off
Lightning round
Styrofoam or plastic?
In the city of Toronto, you can
recycle both!
Greatest innovation for solid
waste management?
Since I’ve been here, the
implementation of our 70 per
cent Waste Diversion Plan.
communion wine, which is ironic
considering most inmates were
there for alcohol-related crimes.
Once the prison closed, it became
a training ground for the Canadian
Army during WWI and today is one
of the few historical buildings in
the area that has yet to be restored
and redeveloped.
Lower Bay Station
The tiles in the middle of Bay Station
display a colour inconsistency
because those green-coloured
If you’re weren’t general
manager of solid waste…
Management for a sports team or
management in music.
Bicycle or streetcar?
Bicycle.
Favourite city?
Toronto.
bricks were used to close off the
lower platform. Lower Bay was a
1966 TTC experiment that failed;
the lower platform connected the
Yonge and Bloor–Danforth lines.
On rare occasions you can actually
go into the station, which is so old
that the yellow line says “Mind The
Gap” on it (a previous incarnation
of today’s plain yellow line). Today
the station is mostly used by TTC
employees or for film shoots when
it gets transformed to look like a
NYC subway station.
MARCH 19, 2012
5

Mike Parsons’ guide to “Sound of the City”
by ASSUNTA ALEGIANI
You might know Toronto artist
Mike Parsons, AKA, Hey Apathy!
from his street artwork
on Queen West. Whether his
distinct black-and-white drawings
are on pavement, canvas,
or paper, they generally revolve
around the city. His 2008
drawing entitled “Sound of the
City” is Parsons’ most intricate
piece to date. We asked Mike
Parsons himself to bring some
order to the chaos.
2
Five cities in fiction
Stonepalm
(Overside, Evan Dahm)
There are a bunch of cities
in Overside, the world where
webcomic artist Evan Dahm’s
lovingly crafted tales are set,
but none are as audaciously literal
as Stonepalm. The city sits
in the shadow of a set of stone
fingers, and it is populated
by orangey-brown creatures
called Hornèd, whose names
all stem from grammatical
terms. What more could you
want from a city?
—Ethan Chiel
1. Sax Player
That’s the very first thing I
drew, a saxophone player.
There’s the music coming out
because I picked the theme
to be music in the city. It also
gives you a real sense of how
much work goes into a piece
like that.
6 the VARSItY magazine
5
Berlin
(Berlin, Jason Lutes)
There’s a lot to see in Berlin,
Jason Lutes’s fictional chronicle
of the waning days of
the Weimar Republic in the
eponymous city. Complicated
events and equally complicated
characters cover the pages,
creating a somewhat idealized,
but nonetheless captivating,
story of a city on the
verge of a precipice.
—EC
2. End of Trumpet
This is where the music is
blasting into all the apartments,
as if [the dragon]
played too early in the morning
and knocked all these people
out… I was thinking about
all the places people use music
in the city to make their lives
better… When I was drawing
this apartment with all the
people flying out, I had the
idea of a next-door neighbour
playing the horn too loud, and
that’s when I got the idea to do
the whole trumpet city.
4
3. Face of the City
In the centre I gave the city a
face. It’s got two eyeballs and a
little dragon horn and it’s playing
a giant trumpet. I just had
that shape before I even knew
it was a trumpet. The player is
kind of a dragon, so this really
powerful creature, but he’s also
the one who brings the music.
That has to do with both sides
of the city. It can be a terrible as
well as an exciting place. Even
the whole theme of using black
and white is sort of that idea:
contrast, yin and yang, good and
bad. Everything is in balance.
Washington, DC
(Idiocracy, Mike Judge)
Mike Judge’s 2006 film Idiocracy
presents a dystopian version of
Washington, DC, where human
intelligence has devolved to levels
both ridiculously low and eerily
familiar. The degenerating city
features a metropolis-sized Costco
with an internal subway system, a
dustbowl fruitlessly irrigated with
sports drink, a landfill mountain
range, fast-food vending machines,
and a self-serve hospital.
—Tom Adamson
3
4. Poodle
1
When I made this, it took
over one month. Each day I
went into one area, and any
strange idea that popped into
my head, I added, keeping
with the theme of the city,
music, and chaos. So when I
saw a lot of people walking
their funny dogs, that’s probably
how [the face of a poodle]
ended up in there.
Los Angeles
(Blade Runner, Ridley Scott)
One of the details that makes
the world of Ridley Scott’s Blade
Runner so rich is Cityspeak, the
language spoken by the working
class of Los Angeles in 2019. The
language was constructed for
the film by actor Edward James
Olmos, and includes elements of
Chinese, Spanish, and Hungarian,
among other languages.
—Jamie Shilton
5. Billboards
I always have the billboards,
which tend to be blank because
there’s never anything
of interest being advertised.
Interzone
(Naked Lunch, William Burroughs)
Interzone, the setting for much
of William Burroughs’ Naked
Lunch, is based on the international
zone of Tangiers in the
1950s. Tangiers was probably an
intense, chaotic, and amazing
place then, but Burroughs takes
things just a few steps further.
Interzone is a hallucination of
junkies, secret agents, crazed
doctors, and giant black aquatic
centipedes with addictive, vomit-inducing
flesh.
—Simon Frank

Let them eat pie
Wanda Beaver of Wanda’s
Pie in the Sky says quality and
location is everything
by PATRICK LOVE, photos by WYATT CLOUGH
When Wanda Beaver decided to open a pie shop, she insisted
on two components in the hunt for the perfect
spot for her “Pie in the Sky”: the facilities to produce enough
pies for wholesale and a retail space to allow her to set up a
sit-down café. She found the perfect home in Kensington
Market at the corner of Augusta Street and Oxford Avenue.
“You have everybody in the market; there’s students,
there’s residents, there’s a lot of businesses. The hospital
nearby has 3,000 employees. There’s a lot of retirement
homes and condos, lots of tourists,” she says.
“[Kensington Market] is not just somewhere you go to
shop … It’s a place you go for the experience.”
Finding a niche
To celebrate Pi Day (March 14 or 3/14), Wanda and her team
produce a batch of square pies. This may sound strange at
first; the number π is probably best known for its application
in solving the area of a circle using the formula πr².
Wanda’s take on the formula? The standard “Pi R Squared”
became “Our Pies Are Squared.”
While those who formally observe Pi Day might represent
a small slice of clientele, one thing is certain: Wanda is Toronto’s
pie specialist, catering to every whim of Toronto’s
pie enthusiast community.
When it comes to marketing, Wanda is totally old-school.
She’s far more concerned with the quality of the product
than anything else, and she counts on word of mouth and
a little media coverage to take care of the rest. Last year, her
Pi Day pies got her coverage from Global Television and the
Toronto Star.
Gentrification
The development of Kensington is a beast unto itself;
while higher-end lofts have snuck into the mix, the Market’s
residents and business owners have been success-
ful in keeping out corporate interests, such as overpriced
chain cafés. For Wanda, it’s a matter of keeping the ongoing
change in the community in check, with a focus on
the Market’s pedestrian heritage.
“Our Business Improvement Association is working towards
more street [closures] on Sundays,” she explains.
“Some of it is for a festival kind of thing, with bands and circus
acts, but we don’t want things to get out of hand either,
because the residents wouldn’t want that. So it’s a balancing
act. Certainly we want more people to come to the market.”
Too many cafés?
While selling pie is how Wanda’s eponymous shop made
its name, there’s a lot more going on in “the Sky.” To
the left of the pie display is a table with Wanda’s official
cookbook; on the other side sit a number of tastylooking
vegetarian savouries, including quiches, lasagna,
and sandwiches. As with her pies, Wanda takes great
pride in the quality of her coffee. Her café features local
artisan-roasted coffee that’s fully organic and made
from fair trade beans. It’s this café–storefront presence
that Wanda wants.
A recent article in The Grid claimed that in the past four
years, over 100 new cafés have opened their doors in downtown
Toronto. The rise of the so-called “barista café” raises
the question: how many is too many? Despite the rise of this
café culture cannibalism, Wanda is optimistic.
“I can’t think of a café that’s closed its doors if the quality’s
been there,” she says. “The emphasis, I think, is more
on independent coffee shops with fair trade that sell organic
products and use small-batch roasters.
“If you’ve got a good quality product, you can survive.”
Wanda’s Pie in the Sky is located at 287 Augusta Ave. and is
open daily from 8 to 8.
The killer squirrels of Washington, DC
by JEANETTE CHIPETTE
Washington, DC has the highest concentration of squirrels in the United States. Folks even call
it the “Squirrel Capital” of the world. Averaging three pounds, these furry rats are to DC what
the killer rabbit was to the Knights of the Holy Grail.
I spent a summer there when I was 15 and was used to Canadian squirrels, the sort that said
“please” and “thank you” when collecting their nuts. So I thought nothing of it when, one day,
while enjoying a scrumptious bacon and avocado sandwich on a park bench, an American
squirrel joined me.
As I ate, I became more and more aware of this squirrel’s presence. His glowing, red gaze
was unnerving. From the corner of my eye, I could see him rubbing his paws and scratching
his hind legs against the surface of the bench. Nervously, I moved to another spot, where I
hoped to finish the rest of my sandwich in peace.
I hadn’t been sitting for two minutes when a shrill chirp pierced the air. Before I knew it, a
flurry of fur flashed across my face, snatching my sandwich from my hands.
All I remember are his cold, cruel eyes, and that feeling of despair as I realized that my bacon
and avocado sandwich was gone for good. The killer squirrels of DC had gotten to me;
there was no going back.
MARCH 19, 2012
7

A
psychogeography
of the city
A walk through Toronto with Stroll author and
Spacing magazine editor Shawn Micallef
text and photo by DAN SELJAK
I’ve heard it’s frowned upon to begin an
article with a cliché, but in the case of
Shawn Micallef, an exception must be
made — the man has literally written
the book on walking around Toronto.
Two years ago, Micallef published Stroll, a
collection of essays on what one learns and
observes by travelling through Toronto neighbourhoods
at walking speed. Today, he’s a
journalism fellow at Massey College, and a
senior editor and owner of Spacing magazine.
From the Massey College quad on the first
real spring-like day of March, Micallef sips
his coffee and recounts the beginnings of his
career as a writer.
He half-jokingly refers to himself as a flâneur
— the French term describes a character
who explores and observes cities. In his intro
to Stroll, Micallef calls the flâneur a “perfect
idler” and a “passionate observer,” referring
to the definition originally coined by 19 th -
century poet Charles Baudelaire. Essentially,
the moniker is a tongue-in-cheek reference
to the most basic distilled version of what
Micallef does: he walks around cities (mostly
Toronto) and then writes about what he sees
and learns in the process.
After moving to Toronto from Windsor, Micallef
became interested in the parts of Toronto
that were outside of the typical out-of-towner’s
reach — the places outside of the main stretch
of Yonge, the CN tower, and the Eaton’s Centre.
“I found there were dark places on my mental
map of the city, so I just started wandering
from where I lived at the time, Yonge and St.
Clair, kind of just drifting through the city.”
On his travels, Micaleff met others who were
into the same thing, so he began writing about
his strolls for Toronto websites. Eventually, the
observations made on his walks became a recurring
column in Eye Weekly, which had two
iterations — one called “Stroll” and the other
called “Psychogeography.”
8 the VARSItY magazine
“Cities can be very utilitarian
— we’re busy, trying to get
to our work, or to our lover, or
to wherever it is, so we’re not really
paying attention to spaces. Writing
about cities forces people to stop a
bit and think about the places
they go through and spend
so much of their life in. And
maybe if we think about and
appreciate that, life is better —
but then again, that might be a stretch.”
He also notes that the fresh perspective
of an outside observer can make an
often seen or visited place new.
“Sometimes it isn’t until you read something
about the place you live from someone
else that you notice the things around you.
There are a lot of things we overlook. I overlook
things and it takes someone else to point
out things they’re totally into, and then suddenly
that’s part of your life.”
While he was working at Eye Weekly, Micallef
also joined a small magazine devoted
to urban living in Toronto called Spacing. He
came aboard after the first issue, and since
he knew several people who had started the
publication, he was able to, along with five
others, become an owner when the magazine
was incorporated.
His work for these publications became fodder
for what would eventually become Stroll.
“Each chapter started as either a little piece in
Eye, or a piece in Spacing, or articles from a few
other places, like The Star, and then I was able
to expand on them.”
Noting the finished product ended up being
more than three hundred pages, Micallef
laughs, “When it was done, I was like, I don’t
remember writing this.”
After publishing Stroll in 2010, Micallef continued
with Spacing and Eye Weekly (until Eye
shuttered in the spring of 2011), and became
a Massey journalism fellow in June 2011. Offered
to four mid-career journalists or writers,
with an additional two international
journalism fellows, the Massey Journalism
Fellowship gives writers a chance
to take a sabbatical and to study freely
for one academic year at U of T.
“It’s nice because there never is any time
to pause and think when you’re out there
doing stuff, jumping from one thing to another.
It was really wonderful, that first
week, to remember
what aca-
speed feels like.
It’s a much
more humane
sane speed.”
Micallef
smiles wryly,
demic
“My analogy
of it is when
the Millenium
Falcon comes
out of warp or
whatever it is,
and the blur of the
stars all slow down.
So to kind of slow down
and be humane for a while
was nice. Of course, now it’s
speeding up again and the anxiety is coming
back.”
Micallef sees studying cities as almost
something that enables their progression
and growth. “When you study the past and
present of a city, this worry that people have
about change, and this anxiety about change
can be mitigated a bit.
“This idea we have of a single historic view
of the city doesn’t exist. There was a series of
historic moments in the past, not a city in the
past in some sort of monolithic way. That isn’t
to say we shouldn’t save old stuff; we should
save it, old good stuff, that is, but we should
be a little more sanguine about change. If
there is any common defining thing about a
city is that they are always changing … which
makes them extremely exciting.”
This attitude, along with his own research,
has given Micallef perhaps a more optimistic
view on the future of Toronto than
we’ve seen in the recent combat-
“This idea
we have of a
single historic view of
the city doesn’t exist.
There were a series of
historic moments in the
past, not a city in the
past in some sort of
monolithic way.”
ive language from City Hall
on issues like LRT and the
Harbourfront.
“It’s a little hard to
talk about right now
really. We’re in a
funk, but there is
no other time in
history I’d rather
live in Toronto
than now. It is
the most exciting
time for Toronto
… because of all
the new elements
coming in: new Canadians,
new buildings,
new infrastructure.
I compare Toronto to these
mythic places like Paris or
Berlin in the ‘20s, New York in the
‘50s… The momentum of the city is way
more powerful than whatever political
leaders are in City Hall. The city is going to
be fine, if that’s what one is worried about.”
Micallef sums up his thoughts on the future
of Toronto succinctly. “Physically, the
city will be certainly recognizable, but it
will be thicker, taller, and — I think —
more fun.”

The only game
in town
How ZED.TO, a new Toronto-based alternate
reality game, hopes to reinvent the genre
by ALEX ROSS, illustration by JESSicA MuRAcA
It’s Tuesday morning and you’re waiting beside
a phone booth. An email from an unknown
person has instructed you to wait for a
special call that will give you further instructions.
Someone gets into the phone booth to
make a call of their own. You’re anxious. If the
line is busy, you might miss out.
Eventually, the person steps out and gestures
for you to go ahead and enter, completely
ignorant to your real intentions. Finally, the
phone rings. You pick it up and hear a voice
read out a series of code words. You scramble
to scribble them down on a small piece of paper.
After the call is finished you rush home
and share the code words with others. They’re
members of an Internet forum and they’re
participating in the same experience of solving
the obscure and difficult puzzle.
Such is the popular image of alternate reality
games, or ARGs, cemented by the success of
games like The Beast, which was used to promote
the movie A.I., and I Love Bees, which was
used by Microsoft to promote Halo 2.
However, David Fono, lead designer for the
upcoming Toronto-based ARG, ZED.TO, wants
to get away from that term, especially since
ARGs are no longer just fun promotional tools.
“They tend to be more about stories… The
puzzle aspect has become a lot less of an essential
component over the years,” he says.
“When you say ‘game,’ people think about
challenges, about winning and losing, about
objectives. ZED.TO doesn’t really have those;
it has interactivity, but it’s not about winning
or overcoming things.
“It’s about story and making choices within
YONGE STREET
STREET
Before David Cronenberg made any
promises to the East, he was better
known as the Canadian director
with an affinity for blood and guts
and an unapologetic love for his
home city. His Toronto city symphony
Videodrome shows a classic
Cronenbergian descent into insanity,
framed by TTC cars and visits to
Spadina storefronts circa 1980.
that story.”
In that way, ZED.TO sounds a bit like the
game Myst, a popular PC game adventure series
from the ‘90s where players could only experience
the story by solving different sets of
challenging puzzles. However, for Fono, ARGs
— or as he prefers to think of them, “live interactive
performative narratives” — offer many
more possibilities for storytelling than a traditional
game does.
“A well-done ARG with money behind it
[will] have all the same kinds of roles that you
would see in something like a major film,” he
explains. “What defines an ARG is its use of
so many different things, so it’s kind of unlimited
in terms of what’s involved. An ARG
designer is a generalist, a person who does a
whole bunch of different things. I’m a developer
by trade, so I do a lot of that myself. ”
Fono and his team hope to bring that ambition
to ZED.TO, which revolves around the story
of a Toronto-based company, ByoLogyc, which
inadvertently ushers in the apocalypse. In addition
to the current online campaign (where you
can even see a “promotional video” from fictional
ByoLogyc CEO Chet Gertram), the game will
include some major live theatre events.
“There’s going to be a show at the Fringe
Festival, we’re going to have an installation at
Nuit Blanche, and then we have a finale show
running between mid-October and early November,”
Fono explains. “And all of these are
not going to be traditional theatre shows;
they’re going to be highly interactive. We’re
taking the ARG philosophy and putting it into
a theatre show.”
Top five
TO movies
YONGE STREET
Videodrome (1983) Resident Evil: Half Baked (1998)
Apocalypse (2004)
After cringing at the unresolved plot
of the first Resident Evil film, I was
very surprised to see the making
of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Still,
Apocalypse gets points for parading
Central Tech, the Gardiner Expressway,
and essentially every nook and
cranny of Toronto as the zombie-ridden
Raccoon City. With its climactic
fight sequence at City Hall, Apocalypse
is Torontonian in all its efforts.
The goofy stoner bro comedy Half
Baked is remembered by many as
a good introduction to scriptwriter
Sir Smoke-a-lot’s (Dave Chappelle)
comedic flare. Still, any Torontonian,
stoned or sober, couldn’t
miss the iconic Sam the Record
Man sign or the Yonge street Pizza
Pizza shop that serves as the backdrop
for a police horse’s death by
junk food.
YONGE STREET
Goin’ Down the
Road (1970)
Don Shebib’s Goin’ Down the Road
is an oldie but a goodie — and the
best thing about this Canadian
landscape film is that it proudly
grounds itself in our city. With a
distinct Toronto flair, Goin’ Down
also goes to show that Yonge Street
had a hell of a lot more strip clubs
in the ‘70s.
by BRAndOn BAStALdO
illustrations by dAn SELJAK
YONGE STREET
Scott Pilgrim vs.
the World (2010)
One of the best things about the
screen adaptation of Bryan Lee
O’Malley’s graphic novel Scott Pilgrim
vs. the World is that, like its
source material, it doesn’t use Toronto
to represent bigger or bolder
cities than our own. The beauty of
the film lies in its visits to the likes
of Lee’s Palace and Casa Loma, all of
which confirm its status as an endearingly
Torontonian movie.
MARCH 19, 2012
9

The anatomy of
an oil boom
Thousands have flocked to Fort McMurray
to work in the oil sands, but will
they put down roots?
text and photos by MATTHEW D.H. GRAY
Tommy Jardine, 61, is about to arrive
in a new city for a new job.
Tommy is from Miramichi, New
Brunswick, where he lives with his
wife on the homestead his grandfather
built in 1920 after emigrating
from Boston.
For 30 years, Tommy worked in
an iron ore mine in northern New
Brunswick until it closed in 2000.
To support himself and his wife, he
has spent his summers working in
construction and his winters plowing
snow. Today, he will land in Fort
McMurray, Alberta. He’s boarded a
bus at the airport, along with a dozen
other men, which will take him to
an oil sands worker’s camp where he
will live and work for the next four
weeks. He doesn’t yet know what his
job will entail.
“When the mills and mines closed,
a lot of families sold their homes and
left town,” Tommy explains through
his thick northern New Brunswick
accent. “A bunch of the younger guys
have gone to work in the Alberta oil
patch. We keep losing industry, and
they’re gonna have to leave. People
are hurting.”
Miramichi was hard-hit by the recent
recession, but the local economy
had been in decline since the 1970s.
The search for employment has driven
Miramichi-dwellers elsewhere,
10 the VARSItY magazine
and many of them are choosing Fort
McMurray. A 2011 survey found that
more than a quarter of travellers
leaving from the nearby Bathurst
airport were headed there. The total
income earned by migrant workers
from New Brunswick alone in the
oil sands boom is estimated to be between
$230 and $350 million.
“When the boom word comes up,
there’s an opposite cycle that says
‘bust,’” says Melissa Blake, the mayor
of Wood Buffalo, the regional municipality
into which Fort McMurray
was amalgamated in 1995. Sitting in
her newly renovated office on the
seventh floor of the municipal government
building overlooking downtown
Fort McMurray, she explains,
“The difference that I see between a
boomtown and sustainable growth
is that we’ve been experiencing
this growth since about 1996, and it
doesn’t look to end in the future.”
The municipality’s population
growth projections are based on this
assumption of sustained long-term
growth, a forecast of increases in oil
sands output. By 2030, the population
is projected to more than double
to 225,000, over 85 per cent of which
will reside in Fort McMurray.
The cost of housing in Fort McMurray
is astronomically high. Almost
every parcel of available land has
been developed, and the outskirts of
the city are densely packed by cheaply
built pre-fabricated homes, lowrise
apartments, and motels. Cars are
the preferred mode of transport in
Fort McMurray, and it shows. Public
transit, recently expanded, sees little
use. Most of the city’s population
lives several kilometres from downtown
in communities branching off
from the arterial Highway 63.
At all hours of the day, the highway,
which runs through downtown
Fort McMurray, is abuzz with dirtcaked
buses and trucks carrying
workers and equipment to and from
the oil sands. Driving along the highway,
you can see the signs of industry,
with sales offices for manufacturers
of heavy equipment lining either
side.
Further north, before reaching the
main extraction and processing sites,
the smell of gasoline and sulphur
permeate the air. Depending on wind
patterns, the smell can blow into the
city, some 30 kilometres to the south.
The scale of industrial change is
difficult to assess until the highway
splits in two, when the boreal forest
gives way to the barren, windswept
landscape of the tailings ponds. The
skyline is illuminated by a four kilometre-wide
Suncor processing facility
with a gas flare tower topped by a
Housing costs in
Fort McMurray, AB...
(population 65,565)
$1,406
Bachelor (monthly rent)
$1,694
One BR (monthly rent)
$2,049
Two BR (monthly rent)
$479
Bachelor (monthly rent)
$591
One BR (monthly rent)
$715
Two BR (monthly rent)
$729,092
Single family (to buy)
$387,244
Multiple family (to buy)
$436,993
Mobile home + land (to buy)
...compared to Moncton, NB
(population 69,074)
$201,200
Single family (to buy)
$157,700
Multiple family (to buy)
Sources: CMHC, Fort McMurray Real Estate Board, Royal LePage

Shortages in the
Albertan labour market
have driven wages
up — the average
household income in
Fort McMurray rose to
$177,634 last year.
Photos, from top to bottom
• Flames from a Suncor gas flare tower illuminate the skyline and workers’ camps.
• Melissa Blake, mayor of the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo, home to 104,338 people,
works in her office in downtown Fort McMurray.
• Pre-fabricated houses like these in Gregoire, a neighbourhood in Fort McMurray, regularly sell
for over $500,000.
huge flame that burns off excess gas
from the production process. The vapour
plumes from the site are visible
for miles.
Around the base of this installation,
and others in the area, are the
lodgings of over 30,000 workers. Like
Tommy Jardine, they will work rotating
shifts around the clock to ensure
the uninterrupted extraction and
production of bitumen.
A standard 158-litre barrel of crude
oil takes two metric tons of extracted
and processed bituminous sand.
As of late last year, the total output
of the Athabasca oil sands was over
1,700,000 barrels of oil per day, and
is projected to triple by 2030.
This explosion in production will
doubtlessly bring new waves of migrant
labour to Fort McMurray. In
the next eight years, over 13,000 new
workers will be needed in the oil
sands alone. Shortages in the Albertan
labour market have driven wages
up — the average household income
in Fort McMurray rose to $177,634
last year.
The high wages have attracted
thousands of temporary labourers.
A sharp drop in the price of oil, like
the one experienced in the 2008 recession,
would lead to the cancellation
or postponement of many capi-
tal projects. Many migrant workers
would find themselves out of work,
forcing them to return home.
One of the biggest challenges
Fort McMurray faces is the integration
of these transient workers into
the community. Still, Mayor Blake
doesn’t agree with observers who
say the city’s population is largely
transient.
“A lot of people would be rumoured
to come with a two-year
plan, make some money, and then
vacate,” says Blake. “But they become
so enamoured by the community
and the lifestyles they’ve
been afforded here.”
Fort McMurray’s community has
had substantial support from the
oil companies operating in the region,
she argues. “You’re going to
find [oil] industry names across a
number of different community
projects, but that’s not where [their
involvement] ends. They’re also
great contributors to the non-profit
sector.”
When asked whether he’d stay
in Fort McMurray, Tommy is not so
certain he would.
“If there was an economy back
home, I’d be there. I grew up in Miramichi.
My grandkids grew up
there. It’s home.”
MARCH 19, 2012
11

12 the VARSItY magazine
The
Degrassi
kids are
alright
We sat down with former
Degrassi actor and
Mississauga native Judy Jiao
to talk all things Toronto
by Stephan petar
photo by Stephanie travaSSoS
Degrassi is a cornerstone of any Canadian educational curriculum.
Whether you watched it or not, the 33-year-old franchise (it
started in 1979, seriously!) has become a cultural phenomenon.
The latest chapter in the franchise, Degrassi: The Next Generation,
began in 2001 and is in its 11 th season on MuchMusic.
The show, which is shot in Toronto, features actors from all
over Canada. One of those actors is Judy Jiao, who played Leia
Chang from seasons 8 to 10. Introduced as a transfer student
from a ballet school, Leia immediately became friends with
Mia (Nina Dobrev). Their relationship came to an end thanks
to Mia’s party-animal ways, but in the meantime, Leia had a romance
with Danny (Dalmar Abuzied).
Judy herself was born in Winnipeg but grew up close by in
Mississauga. Today, Judy attends Harvard University in Cambridge,
Massachusetts but still holds Toronto dear to her heart.
The Varsity: What type of high school did you go to? Did it
focus more on arts or on sports? Was it similar to Degrassi?
Judy Jiao: My school couldn’t be any more different than Degrassi.
My high school was a mid-sized public high school in a
very wealthy area of Mississauga with a huge focus on athletics.
In comparison, Degrassi had a lot of diversity. It was diverse in
terms of being multicultural as well as having students from different
socioeconomic backgrounds and upbringings. It was very
representative of Canadian multiculturalism. Also, Degrassi was
very dramatic and dealt with very heavy issues — something my
high school didn’t.
TV: Degrassi is shot in Toronto like so many other shows. Why
do you think people enjoy and get so excited to see Toronto
on TV?
JJ: I like to watch Life With Derek, and in that show they make
Canadian references to places, schools, and other things. I think
people like it because they feel a strong tie to where they have
been brought up and it is always amazing to have it featured in
popular culture. I still enjoy American shows but, [they don’t]
have the same hold that shows shot in Canada have on you.
TV: Do you have a favourite building in Toronto?
JJ: Hart House. It is so historical, beautiful, and very rustic-looking.
I don’t know how to describe it, but it shows an older and
beautiful Toronto. I love the ROM too, even though I don’t really
like modern architecture that much. I find it sometimes doesn’t
make sense. There is a very awkward juxtaposition between old
and the new, but I still love the ROM — I like the rotunda. It’s
beautiful.
TV: Modern architecture can really go either way.
JJ: I agree. Modern architecture just wants to be talk-worthy and
such.
TV: I feel as though Toronto is moving towards a more heritage
and restoration movement as opposed to modernization.
JJ: That’s excellent. I love old buildings. It’s always sad when they
tear down old buildings because there’s so much history and culture
attached to them.
TV: How about your favourite Toronto neighbourhood?
JJ: Queen West. It has great shopping, and they have a really nice
mix of modern chains and little boutiques. I feel like those Toronto
neighbourhoods are distinct with certain ethnicities and
cultures, but it’s experienced by everyone in the city.
TV: Do you have an earliest memory of Toronto?

JJ: Going to Chinatown. My mom
worked at U of T and occasionally,
when I went with my mom to her office,
we would end up going to Chinatown
to do grocery shopping and to
have lunch. I was about four or five,
and I have such fond memories of
that time.
TV: And how about your favourite
restaurant?
JJ: Joey at the Toronto Eaton Centre.
I love the elegance, and it feels really
classy.
TV: Nowadays, where is your favourite
place to hang out or to
have a relaxing day in the city?
JJ: Kensington Market or St. Lawrence
Market with friends. I just love
marketplaces, they’re fun and a great
place to spend a weekend afternoon
when it’s nice outside.
TV: Let’s talk about your experience
on Degrassi. Why do you think
Toronto teens in particular love the
show?
JJ: It is very representative of Toronto;
it shows how Toronto embraces
multiculturalism. It’s something
Degrassi does amazingly. Canada is
unique. If you look at Canada and
America culturally, they are very
similar but very different in terms of
multiculturalism. The concept has a
Canada is unique. If you look at
Canada and America culturally, they
are very similar but very different
in terms of multiculturalism. The
concept has a different connotation in
the States than in Canada. Here we
embrace it, and Degrassi shows that.
different connotation in the States
than in Canada. Here we embrace it,
and Degrassi shows that.
TV: Out of the episodes you worked
on, do you have any favourites?
JJ: My first two episodes, just because
it was my first experience being
on set and meeting everyone. It
was a mix of excitement and terror.
My first block of episodes was this
big party scene. They made this
gorgeous set; it was a bachelor padesque
set. It was just a really fun
atmosphere and fun working with
everyone.
TV: If you could have played any
other character, who would you
have liked to play and why?
JJ: Holly J, played by Charlotte Arnold.
It’s remarkable to see her character
development. She started as a
mean girl who was superficial, but
there were always undertones to her
character, deeper issues to Holly J. It
was interesting watching Charlotte
and the writers tap into her character
as she evolved, and watching her
character’s transformation. I can understand
her character’s pressure to
succeed, that drive and ambition. I
think we are similar because we are
motivated individuals, and Holly J’s
dream was to go to Yale or another
Ivy League school — and I understand
that as well. I really liked her
character a lot.
TV: You must’ve been very busy
with the show. What was it like balancing
Degrassi and school?
JJ: I was really focused on school.
There was an overlap between Degrassi
and school, and it was difficult
to balance the two. Degrassi was
great because it was an ensemble
cast, so I could balance school and
normal life. We’d film for a week or
two and then take a break. It was difficult,
but I always had my priorities
well-established. It’s about balancing
and managing your time and making
it work.
TV: When your character “graduates”
from Degrassi High, do you
plan to continue acting in Toronto
or do you see yourself starting
something different?
JJ: I love acting, but realistically, it is
very competitive and cut-throat. I
might audition part-time, but I want
to make sure I have a degree. I may
want to work on the business side of
the industry, maybe corporate strategy
or on the production side.
A short history of food in cities
by JOSHUA OLIVER
illustrations by JENNY KIM
and MUSHFIQ UL HUQ
Cities have always depended on food. The development of
the first major urban areas, which occurred in the near East
about 10,000 years ago, coincided with the development
of grain farming.
Fast-forward to the industrial revolution and its less wellknow
cousin, the agricultural revolution. Advances in farming
methods produced greater yields and less demand for
manual labour on farms. These surplus farm labourers
found new industrial jobs in growing cities. Urban growth
was facilitated both by the increased food production and
by new technologies, such as railways, which could bring
enough food into cities to feed their increasing populations.
Further advances in agricultural and transport technology
— think cars, trucks, and refrigeration — now allow us to
feed huge groups of people in geographically improbable
location with food from around the world.
And so we’ve arrived at the modern food system, a system
that many people now are increasingly worried about.
Here’s some food for thought:
FOOD PRODUCTION
• 33 per cent of global greenhouse gas production
comes from the production and transport
of food.
• Agriculture accounts for 75 per cent of the
world’s fresh water use
• Farming and ranching use 40 per cent of the
earth’s land mass.
• Food travels an average of 1500 miles to reach
your plate.
HOW MUCH
WE EAT
• In London, England (with a population of about 7.8 million), 30 million meals are consumed
every day.
• This means that Toronto (with a population of roughly 2.6 million) should consume about 10
million meals a day.
• By 2050 twice as many people are expected to be living in cities.
• Half of the food in the US is thrown away.
Lightning round
In character!
TV: What’s the one thing a person
could do to commit social suicide
at Degrassi?
JJ: Mess with Holly J.
TV: Do you have Bieber Fever?
JJ: Yes.
TV: Assuming you were to return
to the show for a reunion, who
would you be most excited to see
and who would you be least excited
to see?
JJ: I would be excited to see Mia
[played by Nina Dobrev] to see
what direction she took and not
excited to see Chantay [played by
Jajube Madiela].
TV: If you could have a romantic
storyline with one character, who
would it be?
JJ: Sav [played by Raymond
Ablack]. I need a nice guy, a guiding
force to show me the ropes.
TV: What about if you got to have
one with a celebrity?
JJ: Jake Gyllenhaal or Ryan Gosling.
Stephan Petar blogs for whyilovetoronto. Follow him at whyilovetoronto.tumblr.com.
MONEY MATTERS
• Fifty years ago, 45–60 per cent of the money
consumers spent on food went to farmers
• In the US today, it’s 3.5 per cent.
• A wheat farmer gets as much money from
the sale of a loaf of bread commercially as the
manufacturer of the packaging.
• Five corporations control 80 per cent of global
trade in food.
ORGANIC FOOD
• 1 per cent of America’s agricultural land is organic.
• Sales of organic products make up 4 per cent of
the American food market.
• From 1990–2009, sales of organic products increased
by 25-fold.
MARCH 19, 2012
13

Oh, the places
you’ll go
Lonely Planet travel writer and photojournalist
STEVE TAN takes us through the best cities he’s
visited. He’s been to a few.
Rome, Italy
I made a wish at Trevi Fountain for my return
to Rome to be ensured and realized
the bottom of it was glistening with gold,
silver, and bronze. Being the most famous
Baroque fountain in the world, this fountain
receives €5,000 per day. The money
collected is used to feed Rome’s needy.
LiSBon
Portugal
Jakarta, Indonesia
Huge malls such as Grand Indonesia
are scattered across the city, and you
can find street food everywhere. Prices
range depending on how much food
you take or how hungry you are. It’s
sold by hawkers peddling their goods,
such as mixed rice, satay, cakes, or
tempeh, on bicycles or carts, notably
around the Kemang Raya area.
The Galerias Romanas in Lisbon is an underground Roman gallery,
said to be a portico crypt from the reign of Augustus, and is
located at Lisbon’s downtown area. It’s open only once every September.
Since much of the area is flooded, it takes up to a month
to prepare this monument for public access. Waiting time can be
up to 3.5 hours, and access is via a hole in the ground located in
the middle of the street.
Salzburg, Austria
There are Mozart impersonators everywhere.
And they want money. They
also do many things Mozart wasn’t famous
for — breakdancing, rapping,
acrobatics, balloon twisting, fire eating,
magic, you name it. On the bright
side, you will see some Mozarts playing
piano or violin on the streets.
Gweynedd, Wales
Gweynedd has Europe’s longest town
name in Welsh: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
58 letters in length, it translates into
English as St. Mary’s Church in The Hollow
of The White Hazel near to the
Rapid Whirlpool of Llantysilio of the
Red Cave. Seeing this made my day.
ChiAng mAi
Thailand
Talk to any locals outside
Chiang Mai and they will ask
if you’ve been here. This city
is a keystone of any journey
to Thailand. I played with tiger
cubs, kissed king cobras
(non-venomous ones), had
snake wines, watched elephants
playing football, and
had a monkey attack me.
I did what I had to do. I’ve
lived here!
Kolkata, India
Called the “city of furious creative energy,”
Kolkata is known among its people as the
birthplace of modern Indian literary and
artistic thought. I had a chance to visit the
National Library of India and learned about
Bengali literature and was lucky enough
to sample some machher jhol, a local dish
of rice and fish curry. That was the most
productive flight transit time ever spent.
Bruges, Belgium
Bruges boasts some of the worlds’ finest
chocolates and chocolatiers — and they
all come in different packaging, flavours,
decorations… and human body parts.
If those tiny truffles, marzipan, or tarts
can’t satisfy your palate, you can try
eating their two top-sellers: penis and
breast-shape chocolates. I decided to buy
a pair of DD-sized chocolate breasts for
my relatives in London.
BordeAux
On June 21, the entire city turns into a nightclub to celebrate Fête de
la Musique, an all-night music celebration of the summer solstice.
Thousands flock around the city to display their musical talent,
from street performance at its iconic Place de la Bourse, to dancing
along its ancient Rue Fernand Philippart.
San Francisco, USA
In San Francisco, I chatted with the
friendliest homeless guy I’d ever met.
We talked for nearly an hour on Christmas
Eve before I treated him to Burger
King and Starbucks at 12 am. The homeless
people of San Fran aren’t just the
friendliest — they also have the most
creative signs I’ve ever seen. “I slept with
Lindsay Lohan last week — please help.”
Nairobi, Kenya
Most people stay for a night or two
in transit, coming in and out as soon
as they can. Southeastern Africa is,
to me, the best place to do parachuting.
If you dare, go up 20,000 feet and
jump down at 200 km/h while enjoying
the view across the African savannah!
AmSTerdAm
FuSSen
There were over 5,000 prostitutes in Amsterdam five years ago. Today, there are only 1,100. They
come from all parts of the world, as young as 18 and as old as 83. They pay taxes, have their own
hospital and church (which you can only enter through a hotel), and a strong union that managed to
shut down four blue windows operated by male gigolos.
Neuschwanstein Castle lies just 5km away from the Austrian border,
and is located on a very high rugged hill. Standing from there
looking below at all the trees and mountains made me feel like I
was a king living in Lord of The Rings’ Minas Tirith or at Hogwarts.
Check out the rest of
Steve Tan’s favourite
cities in our new online
series, “Around the
world in 80 cities.”
var.st/aroundworld
14 the VARSItY magazine MARCH 19, 2012 15
France
Xi’an, China
Xi’an is a stop you cannot miss. It’s old and
mysterious. Here, the first emperor of China,
Qin Shi Huang, was buried amongst thousands
of terracotta warriors. He started building
a grandiose mausoleum at age 13, and its
secrets and legends were lost with him over
the years. Seeing the terracotta army and
Mountain Li where the tomb is gave me an
eerie sensation of how the world was once
upon a time.
Phuket Islands, Thailand
Soft drinks served in a plastic bag,
toilet paper used as a napkins on restaurant
tables, gasoline in whisky bottles,
and beach chairs made of plastic
blue pipes — Thailand’s largest and
most popular island has all it takes to
amaze me. Phuket is famous for its
surfing, so don’t forget your speedos!
the NetherlaNds
Oxford, England
Germany
As you walk around the colleges of Oxford
University, be sure to look up once
in a while. All over Oxford’s buildings
are gargoyles (technically “grotesques”
as these don’t spout water): some in the
shape of faces, some animals, and some
entire people. The keenest of eyes will
spot the funnier ones — the one picking
his nose, the one relieving itself…
Tokyo, Japan
When I visited Tokyo, I got tired while wandering
the streets and did a back squat outside
a building while opening a white-powdered
mochi bits caramel candy. Long story
short, they thought I was begging for money
and doing heroin. As the police dragged
me away to the police station, I realized
I was squatting behind the Bank of Japan.

An ode to King Street East, before
(and after) the condos
What overnight gentrification did to a neighbourhood
When much of the zoning
around King East switched
from industrial to commercial a few
years ago, it kicked off the developments
and revitalization the area is
famous for today. Growing up there
was like a Trudeauian wet dream.
Elementary school classes were populated
by a whole assortment of skin
tones and socio-economic statuses,
just like the diversity-themed mosaic
at the school’s entrance doors.
I grew up on King East. The residential
alcove where I lived — steps
away from the downtown core
— incited a good deal of jealousy
in peers whose curfews wouldn’t
allow for their commutes and so
had to stomach their parents’ Paul
Simon albums on the drive back
home to suburbia.
But the neighbourhood hasn’t
16 the VARSItY magazine
always been the site of fashionable
condos, urbane furniture stores, and
organic pet boutiques. The Distillery
District was an abandoned eyesore
you glimpsed beyond the waste filtration
plant on your way toward
Cherry Beach. There were distinct
drop-offs into shady territory, which
were just a few TTC stops from a pregentrified
Regent Park, the disrepair
on Sherbourne south of Bloor, or
the hostels of Moss Park — where
two new condos have just broken
ground. This is the area Michael
Moore epitomized as a representative
Canadian ghetto in Bowling for
Columbine. Unbeknownst to Mr.
Moore, this area was also the blueprint
for a successful integration of
community and private housing.
Today, the cultural nucleus that
was once exclusive to King West is
crawling eastward. The Distillery
District is now touted as a historic
site and developers are jumping
on opportunities to expand the
district. The once decrepit plot is
now a cosmopolitan oasis, with its
array of galleries, studios, and live
theatre attracting culture-seekers.
It’s home to Toronto’s first commercial
brewery and a few independent
bakeries, cafes, and restaurants
producing fare that could
make any bologna-eating schmuck
feel like a gourmand.
Some, however, are less optimistic
about this district, which seems to
have materialized overnight. There’s
something about Toronto’s new and
beloved hotspot that leaves an artificial
aftertaste in their mouths. After
all, the site was created not out
of altruistic responsibility for arts
by ANGELA BROCK, photos by SUZY NEVINS
and culture but for the sake of commerce
and condo-building.
The Distillery and the few trendy
niches cropping up around it do
seem to come out of nowhere. It’s a
kind of Potemkin village catering to
yuppies and tourists on rented Segways.
A block north, a new Porsche
dealership has opened up, though
one wonders if the clientele would
be comfortable parking outside it. A
block south, tags spray-painted on a
basketball court are hidden under a
fresh coat of paint.
We have to ask how much this
really does for the community
that actually lives here. Does it
just whitewash the heterogeneity
and everything else the neighbourhood
was once known for?
The landmark Canary Restaurant
at Front and Cherry was forced to
close its doors when the plot was
sold to developers.
Some are resisting the change. On
the corner of King and Sherbourne
someone has spray-painted “fuck
gentrification” on the stoop of a
real estate firm. With the revitalization
of Regent Park we saw the
displacement of many low-income
families whose previous homes
were given to those willing to pay
market rent. The Real Jerk restaurant
will be packing up soon, joining
other less-known mom-andpop
shops who’ve faced extinction
by gentrification.
The way of life for most here
hasn’t been threatened in the same
ways yet. My own has only been improved
by the recent changes, and
let’s face it, I’ll continue to sip on
overpriced coffee while it lasts.

Psychoanalyzing the city
Writer and Commonwealth Prize winner Rana Dasgupta explains his fascination
with Delhi and reads the future of the world’s cities
by JADE COLBERT, photo by ARIEL LEWIS
lived in Delhi for 11 years, and I find
that when people who come through
“I’ve
say, ‘What’s it like to live here?’ I have
never been able to give an answer to that question
that measures up to the intensity of the
way I feel about living in the city.”
In October the acclaimed fiction writer
Rana Dasgupta, best known for his 2009 novel
Solo, which won the Commonwealth Writers’
Prize, gave a talk at the University of Toronto
on the book he is currently working on, a nonfiction
piece on Delhi. It’s the city where he’s
written for over a decade, where he lives with
his wife and daughter, and a city that, without
this book, he says, would continue to confound
him.
“I feel that the city I’m living in hasn’t actually
been discovered yet. It’s all around me
and 16 million other people. We inhabit it every
day and we are bombarded by stimuli, but
we haven’t actually imagined it.”
While the book is a work of non-fiction, Dasgupta
says it will use the techniques of fiction
to tell the stories of the extreme, outlandish,
and compelling personalities that Delhi seems
to produce.
That is not to say that the Delhi he is writing
is “hidden” or “exotic.” He’s not looking to
sensationalize.
“It is the unknown in a more philosophical
understanding of the city, which is to say,
‘How do we invent a city out of these things
that we already know?’ We know that there
are very rich people and very poor people,
but how do we make this into a city in a literary
sense?”
The project in part arises out of Dasgupta’s
desire to codify the city, to make it known to
himself and his fellow Delhiites in the way
that the highly codified cities — like Paris and
New York — are known to us, even if we have
never been there. We know them through
stories, through literature and film, television
and song, and these stories form a code
through which we read the city — even when
we do visit there.
That’s not so for Delhi, Dasgupta says.
“I feel that we’re reading Delhi raw. It’s
just raw stimulus that we’re not able to
code. That’s partly why it feels so overwhelming
and tiring.”
His current non-fiction undertaking is what
Dasgupta calls a “project of imagination.”
“I think it’s important because we — we
being the people who live in that country —
don’t know who we are, really. We don’t know
the first thing about who we share the country
with, what those people must think about,
how different issues connect together.”
Connect: the word comes up often in his
talk. With his Delhi book he is trying to do
what “serious” (his word) writers of Indian
fiction are now trying to do with the novel.
The post-colonial project no longer motivates.
The new question: “How do we connect everything
in this economic and political reality?”
When I meet with Dasgupta after his lecture,
I put to him the question of why not fiction if
what he is trying to do is the same as his novelist
peers. He replies that he wants this book to
be more direct than his last book — direct both
in its purpose and its style. The raw material he
is working with includes 18 months of interviews.
The result he is aiming for sounds like
reportage — “This is the person I met and this
is what he said and this is how he lived” — all
filtered through Dasgupta’s unfolding relationship
with the city.
Throwback
to King
East in the
‘90s
He also doesn’t want to give his readers the
alibi of fiction: “This guy may be entertaining,”
he explains, referring to one of the people
whose stories he tells. “And maybe you would
have enjoyed reading about him in a fictional
format, but that’s not why I’m telling you about
him. I’m telling you about him because he’s in
your world and he wishes to make claims on
your world, and somehow your picture of your
world has to accommodate him.”
The specifics of how Dasgupta will codify
Delhi will have to be examined once the
book is complete. In the process of writing,
he has come to see Delhi as an emblem of the
21 st century. He makes a compelling case for
that position and its implications, which he
has begun to share.
India, much like Russia, came to capitalism
late, though they are two of the four BRIC economies
(along with Brazil and China) outpacing
the former industrialized heavyweights and
expected to overtake the G7 by 2027.
“So the book is interested partly in the new
persona of the emerging economy.” The other
part? “A meditation on the 21 st century.”
If Delhi is unlike the highly codified New
York, it did initially remind Dasgupta of a
former version of the Empire City, that of the
1920s with its robber barons and sudden, illegitimate
wealth, the Vanderbilts and the
Rockefellers who built New York as a way to
legitimize the capital they had accumulated.
You build the Met so that you can be seen in
your box in the “golden horseshoe,” whether
you like opera or not.
Success in Gilded Age New York was also
understood to be in competition with the cities
of Europe: buy Europe’s art treasures and
bring over the best European orchestras and
soloists. The status of the robber baron was
tied to the status of his city.
“I thought that’s a natural future for this
place: Asia is taking over from the West, and
we’re going to have these kinds of amazing
buildings and all this kind of stuff. None of
this has happened. So the question is: Has it
not happened because Delhi remains completely
immature and still hasn’t caught up,
and it’s that whole thing of the West being
the vanguard and everyone else doing the
same thing but a bit later? Or is it that this
is a hypermodern state already, it’s a fully
mature 21 st -century city, in which case, what
does that mean?
CONTINUED ON P21
MARCH 19, 2012
17

18 the VARSItY magazine
Smoke
&
mirrors
How companies use
guerilla marketing to
get in your head
by murad Hemmadi
photos by rÉmi Carreiro

Yo, can
I have a
cigarette?
It’s a familiar refrain in Bombay social circles. I don’t — can’t —
smoke, so I make my apologies and the questioner moves on in
search of someone else with a cigarette to spare.
It was the summer of 2011, and I was back home in Bombay.
That summer, if you asked certain people for a cigarette, their
answer would immediately be “yes.” It was something I noticed
at a succession of social gatherings in the city during my trip
home: young people giving out cigarettes at a rate that would
have bankrupted the ordinary student, even in India where a
pack costs about a dollar and not 10 bucks like it does in Toronto.
There’s a reason those people were able to be so free with
their smokes. They’d been hired by a company, Enbisaze Solutions,
to distribute — or “sample,” in their terminology — Marlboro
cigarettes to young people at social events.
“It was a three-month campaign, where I had to sample cigarettes
to legal-age smokers — that’s the ages of 18 and above,”
explains Vanessa, who was hired as a “Marlboro Red Connector.”
“At any parties or any chilling-out scenes where a group of
more than six people were present, I had to sample.”
It wasn’t as simple as just handing out cigarettes to friends,
though. “You had to take pictures — that was very important
— to show the number of people you had sampled to,” says Vanessa.
“Every time you sampled, you needed to take pictures and
give [the company] an estimate as to how many people you had
sampled to and how many packs of Marlboro you used to sample
to those people.”
Advertising is certainly not a new concept. The ancient Egyptians
featured their wares on papyrus posters, and billboards
have existed since at least the late 17 th century.
Rewind to New York in the 1890s, and you’d see a kind of
guerilla marketing similar to what I saw last summer in Bombay.
If you were walking along the street in those days, you’d be
accosted by a man in the street, engaging you in lively discus-
sion about the wonders of the commercial establishment
behind you. Swayed by his argument, you’d
find yourself stepping inside to peruse the wares
for sale.
It’s one of the earliest examples of the “promoter.”
Product placement and guerrilla marketing all
seem like fairly modern concepts — far removed
from the ‘60s Mad Men era of big advertising. But
store-owners in late-19 th century New York understood
the same basic concept that drives product
promotion today: the personal touch sells. The
man who talked you into entering that shop was
hired by its proprietor to do just that.
He wasn’t the only person in the city being used
to drive up business. The owners of the stale-beer
dives that filled the tenements of New York’s urban
poor would permit tramps to temporarily inhabit
their establishments on cold nights. The shivering
“sitters” attracted the sympathy of passers-by, who
could be counted upon to buy the tramps some
of the dive-bar’s particular brand of alcohol. The
tramps were “hired” on cycles, and owners made
them move out of the beer bars at intervals to ensure
fresh faces for the walking public to pity.
Just like the beer bar owners of New York City, the
Marlboro Connectors made sure they “sampled” to as
wide a spectrum of people as possible.
“I would see to it that I wasn’t oversampling, because
you need to keep a count on how much you’re sampling,”
notes Vanessa. “You can’t oversample, and you
can’t sample to the same person a million times.”
Still, there was certainly no shortage of cigarettes.
“They would give me two cartons a month, and whenever
my stock was over, I had to go ask for more,” says
Vanessa.
But the Connectors did have to meet certain minimum
goals. “In a month we had to reach a certain target,
which was 100 cigarettes, and in December, it was 150.
“If you met your target for the month, you would get
the entire salary,” explains Vanessa. “If you sampled to [fewer]
people, they would cut it accordingly, according to the number
of people you’d missed out on.”
The promoters themselves had to meet certain criteria.
“You have to be a smoker,” explains Gaurav, an old acquaintance
whose free hand with the cigarettes first brought this promotional
scheme to my attention. “The clause is that once you
start working you cannot be seen in public smoking any other
brand except for Marlboros — that’s a serious violation.”
But within those boundaries, the Connectors were given the
freedom to choose exactly how and when they would work.
“We were allowed to take cigarettes as and when we wanted,
when we partied,” says Gaurav. “Whenever we went to parties,
when we went to clubs — basically anywhere with more than
10 people.”
Places where large groups of people congregate are ideal targets
for guerrilla marketing. Yonge–Dundas Square in Toronto
is one such place. Rain, snow, or shine, Toronto’s answer to the
Big Apple’s Times Square is always buzzing. Another constant
of the square is that there’s always someone trying to give you
something for free.
A week’s worth of trips to Dundas Square can save you a lot of
money on toiletries and snacks. I’ve picked up a straight razor,
lemons, ice cream, and tennis balls among other things, just by
sauntering by on my way to and from the Eaton Centre.
The people who haunt Dundas Square to give you free stuff
aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re doing
it because of that other great principle of marketing: give
people things for free, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll like what
they get enough to pay for it the next time.
That’s particularly true for young people, those aged 18–34,
the target audience of most advertising efforts. The campaign
I witnessed in Bombay was no different. The Connectors were
selected as much for their age as for their smoking status.
“They look for young smokers, not exactly 18 but 19, 20, 21, up
to 24 — basically below 25 years old,” notes Gaurav.
Despite not being a smoker, I fit the target demographic and
still ended up being a part of the “campaign.” My face appeared
in a number of the pictures taken by the Connectors in an effort
to show the company that they were doing their jobs. “We
Give people things for
free, and maybe, just
maybe, they’ll like what
they get enough to pay
for it the next time.
had to take pictures with their faces, because that’s how [the
company] knew whether they were legal-age smokers or not,”
explains Vanessa.
But here’s the funny part: most people don’t think advertising
works, at least not on them. Sure, they see the TV ads and
they take the free swag, but they assume the product choices
they make have nothing to do with marketing or promotion.
The marketers behind Red Bull certainly don’t agree. If there’s
one company that’s associated with marketing in the modern
age, it’s the Austrian energy drink manufacturer, whose logo
adorns everything from Formula One cars to soccer jerseys and
extreme sports events. Celebrities and athletes including rapper
Eminem and NFL player Reggie Bush have endorsed the brand.
But Red Bull’s most effective strategy is probably the personal
touch: Red Bull cars and Red Bull girls.
CONTINUED ON P21
MARCH 19, 2012
19

What makes a city move?
A history of Toronto
by its most influential
movements
by MICHAEL “ANGEL” VU
and CHONGWONG SHAKUR
The recipe is simple: friends meet over food, satisfying
their biological urges while talking, ambitions and
insecurities are thrown into the mix, and by some magic, the
inertia that often dampens human imagination is overcome.
The place can be any place, as long as it is one — cyberspace
will not do. You need physical proximity for the ideas to flow.
Toronto has its share of legendary nooks and crannies, where
quintessentially Canadian narratives have emerged.
1 1908: The Group of Seven
36½ King St. East
The room above the Brown Betty Restaurant
Suppertime
“Toronto has arts, but no Art,” says a man in a little room of
yesteryear, above the Brown Betty Restaurant on King Street.
Others listen on over their steak-and-pancake portions. Art
and patriotism spew out between mouthfuls as they encourage
each other to speak against the artistic constraints of
European naturalism. In attendance are J.E.H. MacDonald,
Arthur Lismer, and Tom Thomson, who met as commercial
artists working at the design firm Grip Ltd. They share a
vision: Canadian artists should organize and find their own
direction to express the unique territory of this young country.
From here they begin taking weekend trips to Algonquin,
Algoma, along the Georgian Bay, developing a style that will
mark their future fame as founders of the Group of Seven.
Great Careers don’t just happen
– they’re
planned.
My Plan Worked.
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Loyalist’s post-grad Sports Journalism
program helped me develop the academic writing skills
I’d learned while completing my English degree into a
professional journalistic style. My plan worked. I’m now in
New York studying at Syracuse
University – thank you Loyalist.
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Sports Journalism 2011
What’s your plan?
For information on how Loyalist’s post-graduate
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loyalistcollege.com/postgrad
Jane Harrison
jharrison@loyalistc.on.ca
1-888-LOYALIST ext. 2437
TTY: (613) 962-0633
Wallbridge-Loyalist Road, Belleville
20 the VARSItY magazine
2 1952: The Toronto School of Communications
100 Queens Park
Basement coffee shop in the Royal Ontario Museum
Most weekdays, 4 pm
A group of friends gathers most weekdays at the coffee shop
in the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum. Among the
regulars are the anthropologist and filmmaker Ted Carpenter,
the artist and curator Harley Parker, the political economists
Harold Innis and Tom Easterbrook, and the then little-known
English professor Marshall McLuhan.
They converse freely and throw around theories about
radio and television. They suspect that these disruptive new
media technologies are having an effect on society as well as
the psychology of individuals.
This decade-long interdisciplinary exchange of ideas culminates
in the publication of The Gutenberg Galaxy by McLuhan
in 1962, which popularizes what comes to be known as the
Toronto School of Communications. In The Gutenberg Galaxy,
McLuhan follows the work of Innis in positing that not only
radio and television but all forms of media — especially
print media — influence how we view the world through our
senses.
3 1963: Centre for Technology and Culture
39A Queens Park
Coach House, St. Michael’s College
Mondays, 7 pm
The coffee shop group receives an official home with the
establishment of the Centre for Technology and Culture.
Students flock there every Monday night as McLuhan hosts
a seminar in “open mic” format, where ideas bounce around
an increasingly star-studded crowd: the likes of John Lennon,
Pierre Trudeau, Woody Allen, and Buckminster Fuller. McLuhan
offers up koan-like “probe” statements (“The medium
is the message!”) designed to provoke discussion and expose
the role of electronic media in everyday existence.
Overdue international recognition is given to Toronto’s
intellectual community, long populated by luminaries such
Look for more Toronto
movements online at
var.st/mindsmeet
as Northrop Frye, McLuhan’s long-standing rival. After his
popularity wanes in the 1970s, McLuhan’s work is rediscovered
with the advent of the Internet, a development which he
had anticipated decades in advance.
4 1965: Hippie-filled Yorkville
134 Yorkville Ave.
The Riverboat Coffeehouse
Nighttime
In the 1960s, Canadian musicians hailing from places like Orillia
and Regina — many of whom would later achieve international
fame — were incubating in cheap-to-rent row houses in
Yorkville. Bohemian types formed a lively artistic community,
and folk-singers were hosted at the numerous coffeehouses (one
popular spot being The Riverboat) and art galleries that lined
Yorkville Avenue.
If you knew what you were looking for, you could catch a
pre-fame Joni Mitchell busking in the street, Gordon Lightfoot
playing to customers at Fran’s, or perhaps even The Mynah
Birds, featuring both Neil Young and Rick James. These future
singer-songwriters would also gather to the south on Yonge
Street, where blues and rock bands — such as the future
members of The Band — were playing in taverns like Le Coq
D’Or and The Zanzibar.
In 1965, the musicians in Yorkville did not have a sense of
being a “movement” in Canadian music. They were simply
perfecting their craft together, making ends meet, and nursing
their grand ambitions.
By the 1970s, the low rents which had attracted coffee shop
owners to Yorkville in the first place began to rise as developers
bought up housing on Yorkville Avenue. As the Yorkville
scene disintegrated, musicians sought better opportunities in
America. It is during this period that Canadian folk and rock
music broke into the American market for the first time,
beginning with The Guess Who (with “These Eyes” in 1969)
and Gordon Lightfoot (“If You Could Read My Mind” in
1970), followed by Neil Young (as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash
& Young) and Joni Mitchell (culminating with her critically
acclaimed album Blue in 1971).
2
3
4
1

“Dasgupta” CONtINuED FrOm p17
There is no Delhi Opera House,
nor does Dasgupta believe there will
be one in the near future.
“I think the Delhi elite are not going
to build an opera house in Delhi,
partly because they’re not very
interested in opera, but they can go
to the Met themselves anytime they
want. ‘It’s already been built. We
don’t have to do it again. Our kids
go to Harvard.’ There is this sense
that the infrastructure of their lives
already exists.”
Equally, “If Americans were to
build New York now, they wouldn’t
do it. We are in a different cycle in
the global economy, which is of
much faster returns on investment.”
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Who today starts digging with a
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“One of the reasons I feel
Delhi exposes the 21 st century better
than Europe or America is that in a
place like Europe, you’re drawing on
those older temporalities a lot.”
After his talk, as we are finishing
our coffees, Dasgupta admits that
had he been living in Bangalore, he
might be writing a book about Bangalore
— though he does believe
that Delhi is especially suited to a
discussion of our age.
“The image I have in my head is
it’s a kind of place where the surface
of the earth has broken open, and
“smOKE & mIrrOrs” CONtINuED FrOm p19
They’re everywhere: hatchbacks and so on. Does it make a difference
with giant Red Bull cans on the back, that the targets of guerrilla market-
whizzing through cities from Vaning can’t help but know that they’re
couver to Hong Kong. Out of them being promoted to?
pour attractive young women carry- What struck me particularly about
ing (smaller) cans of the energy drink. the Marlboro campaign I saw in Bom-
The combination of extreme sports, bay was that everyone around me
fast cars, and sex appeal makes per- seemed completely aware of the fact
fect sense considering who Red Bull is that the cigarettes they were getting
trying to target: young men.
were part of a promotional campaign.
And on the whole, it works. We’re “Most of my friends knew, 90 per cent
so used to getting free stuff from of my friends knew,” admits Gaurav.
guerrilla marketers, it’s faded into By and large, the guerrilla promo-
the background. Most of us wouldn’t tion of a particular brand of cigarettes
think twice about taking a Red Bull didn’t seem to evoke any kind of
can from a beautiful girl. It helps that response from the young people the
the labour force that promotion cam- campaign targeted. As for Gaurav’s
paigns tap are young and social, just friends, “they didn’t exactly react
like the campaign’s intended targets. much; I didn’t get any hard core reac-
The illusion people retain that tions. They were mostly okay with it.”
advertising “doesn’t work” on them Maybe it’s the “free” angle. After
seems to apply mainly to “big” adver- all, my reaction to someone handing
tising 13565 — Fashion billboards, Mgmt TV & commercials,
Promotions - Campus me a free Plus energy 1/30/12 drink 4:13 is PM vastly Page differ- 1
one can see the precise churn of the
21 st century.”
As we get up to leave and put on
our scarves and jackets, we begin to
chat about how he has enjoyed interviewing
his subjects. He compares
the role of an interviewer to that of
an analyst. As much of our discussion
has been given over to financial
and economic matters, I make the
wrong connection.
“Like a financial analyst?” I ask.
“No,” he laughs, “like a psychoanalyst.”
That may be the most apt description
of his current project: to
psychoanalyze his city, and
through it, his time.
ent from the way I act when someone
trying to talk to me about, say, the
importance of educating girls in the
developing world. Maybe we’ve just
become so accustomed to being targeted
by companies that we don’t see
any harm in being given something
to affect our purchasing choices.
As Vanessa points out, free stuff —
in this case, smokes — isn’t exactly
going to be greeted by howls of protest.
“[My friends] were happy about
the fact, because anyway, they’re getting
cigarettes to smoke.”
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MARCH 19, 2012
21

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22 the VARSItY magazine
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Why do
Toronto sports
teams suck?
A meditation on the
longest losing streak in
North America
by Laura MitcheLL
f you cannot be good at what
“Iyou do, then you should try to
be pleasant while you’re screwing it
up.” According to Cathal Kelly of the
Toronto Star, this is the sole rule for
Toronto’s sports teams.
Toronto has a self-defeating mentality
when it comes to sports; we
seem to be convinced that we are
the underdogs. We believe that
we are the downtrodden, the long
shots, the-little-city-that-couldn’t.
Is it our lack of confidence in our
teams that causes the losing streak?
Or is it the losing streak that inspires
our lack of confidence?
For many of us, disenchantment
with the Leafs started in childhood.
Each season we continue to delude
ourselves that this will be “the year”
— and each season since 1966–67,
we’ve been wrong. The lack of skill
with which the Leafs continually fail
is particularly embarrassing because
we’re Canadian. And one of the fundamental
stereotypes about those of
us who are up here in the Great White
North is that not only are we supposed
to be nuts about hockey, we’re
supposed to be good at it too. To add
insult to injury, if the Maple Leafs
don’t make the playoffs this season
(they won’t) and the Florida Panthers
steal their spot, we will officially be
the team with longest drought of playoff
appearances in the league.
So much for hockey. Steven Spielberg
would have us believe that
raptors are among the scariest creatures
to ever have walked the Earth,
but much in the way that you felt let
down and injured when you found
out that a velociraptor was about as
big as a full-grown cocker spaniel,
you’ve been duped and disappointed
by the Toronto Raptors: duped
into believing that they’ll succeed
and disappointed when they don’t.
Teams who have an approaching
game with the Raptors must feel a
lot like teams who played my old
high school’s football team did: they
would have to seriously screw up in
order to lose.
And the Blue Jays? They’re not terrible,
but they’re not that good, either.
And frankly, I don’t know that
many people who care either way.
I’m not the only one who’s noticed
that our sports teams are less than
glorious; other people have taken
note of our poor performance. For example,
in June 2011, ESPN: The Magazine
awarded us the title of “Worst
Sports City in North America” based
on the performance of all of our professional
teams. With that kind of
press, it’s not surprising that our
teams and our morale aren’t so hot.

A hitchhiker’s
guide to peeing
in the street
by Ankit BhArdwAj,
photo by dAn SELjAk
Public urination is a rite of passage
in any city. The tribulations,
and eventual catharsis,
speak a lot to the place you’re in: its
culture, its infrastructure, and its
cleanliness. Though the reason and
location of one’s public peeing may
differ on every occasion, they are
normally coupled with a hilarity
that is characteristic of the activity.
These are some of my experiences.
Tokyo, 2010
Finding a place to relieve yourself
on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo is quite
the undertaking. Bars are packed
and the streets are brimming with
police trying to maintain order. We
somehow found our way onto an
abandoned rooftop and proceeded
to break our seals. Yet our streams
of ecstasy were met with shouts
of anger and confusion. Under the
seemingly nondescript pile of cardboard
where we were emptying
our tanks was one of Tokyo’s many
homeless men. The relaxing waterfall-esque
soundscape of our coordinated
streams struck a sharp contrast
to his bellows of fury. There is
little you can do when you’re drunk
with your pants down and a man
starts chasing you, so we apologized
profusely, bowed (it’s Japan
after all), and ran.
Toronto, 2011
It was that time of year when everyone
was running around campus
doing things that can only be described
as stupid. Ah yes, Frosh
Week. It was an average enough
night, but it became a night forever
committed to my memory when
my friend said he had to urinate
near Trinity. I can’t explain it — it
might have been the Frosh mentality,
divine intervention, or just similar
minds — but a smirk took hold
of all our faces. We had to (before
the sun came up) pee on all the colleges.
It was a night when we drank
not to get drunk, but to pee.
Other urination
milestones
• Across provincial, national, or
continental borders such as
Ottawa-Gatineau, Paso del
Norte, or Istanbul
• After a pilgrimage, if such a
thing exists, to Mannenken
Pis, Brussels
• Off Mt. Everest
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MARCH 19, 2012
23

Like the magazine?
Email features@thevarsity.ca Know your
way around
a dSLR?
Hart House Theatre presents
7:30pm CurTain
canada’s largest university
dance festival
Box office:
adults $12
students / seniors $10
general admission
416.978.8849 / www.uofttix.ca
www.H arTHouseTHeaT re.C a
24 the VARSItY magazine
http://broadcast.thevarsity.ca/
Join our video
team today!
video@thevarsity.ca
Avoid
BrAin Freeze
Heat things up this summer at McGill
www.mcgill.ca/summer
summer.studies@mcgill.ca
Design for The Varsity
design@thevarsity.ca

Five things I found on the street for free
Toronto’s streets are full of junk, and
what’s more fun than scavenging for
things you may or may not need? Here
are my five favourite finds from the
Toronto sidewalk.
by CHONGwONG SHAKUR
illustrations by williAm AHN
A black plastic water bottle in the shape of a
veiny, uncircumcised penis, 1L.
A pumpkin labelled “steal this pumpkin,”
paying homage to Abbie Hoffman.
A bidet, 3.8L.
A pile of puke with a half-digested chocolate
bar wrapper in it, Wednesday afternoon.
A dirty backpack spread open smack in the middle of Huron,
bearing two latex gloves, a bottle of lube, and a knife.
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REAL
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MARCH 19, 2012
25

School of Law
Start your LLB in September 2012
Join the 216 Canadians studying law at the University of Leicester
The School of Law is now accepting applications for its 2-year and 3-year LLB.
• No prior degree required for 3-year LLB
• Students with any University degree can apply for the accelerated 2-year LLB
• No LSAT/LNAT
A representative of the School of Law will be giving a presentation on the
following dates:
• Saturday 24th March, University of Toronto, Bahen Centre,
40 St. George Street, Room 1180, 2pm
• Monday 26th March, University of Toronto, Bahen Centre,
40 St. George Street, Room 1180, 7pm
Details of how to apply can be found at www.le.ac.uk/law/canada
There are special scholarships for £3,000 available to applicants from Canada.
Leicester is located in the picturesque Midlands, with easy access to London and is one of the most innovative and successful Universities
in England. The UK system includes lectures and small group tutorials (example 8 per class). All first year students are guaranteed housing.
Contact: Beth Astington, School of Law,
University of Leicester, University Road,
Leicester, UK, LE1 7RH
T: 011 44 116 252 5187
E: law@le.ac.uk Ref: Canada
26 the VARSItY magazine

compiled and photographed by MICHAEL BEDFORD
2nd year, English and political science
“Distillery District on a sunny summer day.”
4th year, biological anthropology
“The Toronto Islands.”
4th year, psychology and health & disease
“Chocolates and Cream on Harbourfront.”
1st year, life science
“Queen Street.”
2nd year, physiology
“Science Centre.”
What’s your favourite
Toronto hangout spot?
Liz Niloo Kubota
Graduate student, OISE
“Kensington.”
3rd year, political science
“Bathurst and Bloor.”
Andrew Adeel
Melissa
1st year, history
“Yorkville.”
Chris Thi-Ut Andrew
2nd year, forestry
“High Park and Bloor West Village.”
MARCH 19, 2012
27

Around the world by Catherine Friedman
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
14
17
33
52
56
Across
20 21 22
23 24
28
46
61
66
35
49
Former Japan capital
Massachusetts town
Neck piercing
River in Flanders
SeaWorld star
Donkey, in Düsseldorf
Home of the Little Mermaid
28 the VARSItY magazine
41
30 31 32
37
62
67
69 70
71
1.
5.
10.
14.
15.
16.
17.
47
48
29
18
36
15
57
25
34
58
26 27
42
63
38
64
9 10 11 12
50
53
59
54
16
19
39
43
51
60
68
19. American Science & Engineering, Inc.
20. Stuck
21. Indianapolis nickname
23. Bach’s “Mass Minor”
24. Sludge
27. Correo
28. Unescorted
30. Cimino picture (with “The”)
33. Gulp
11-123 i_yusummer_univUTRY4x7.5_Layout 1 12-03-09 10:29 AM Page 1
THIS SUMMER
CHOOSE YORK TO FAST TRACK YOUR DEGREE
More than 1,000 courses available at York’s
two campuses.
Take advantage of the summer term
with a Letter of Permission from your
home university.
Reduce your tuition by as much as $800 if
you qualify for an Ontario Tuition Grant.
chooseyork.ca
40
55
44
Write for The Varsity!
recruitment@thevarsity.ca
13
45
65
34.
35.
38.
41.
43.
46.
51.
52.
53.
55.
56.
59.
61.
62.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
DoWN
1. US capital in 1790
2. Currently
3. China, for example
4. Son of Zeus
5. One of the oldest cities in the world
6. Lil Wayne’s Carter III
7. Crone
8. Warning
9. Cannon’s Stella
10. Trim
11. Group together
12. Herman or Reese
13. Poet Wylie
18. Paleo- opposite
22. Break
23. Magazine no.
25. Acme
26. Sushi choice
29. pogo
31. Iterate
32. Timecard abbr.
36. Kind of dialysis
37. Fed. Tax
39. Link letters
40. Dissent
42. German article
44. Sicilian city
45. crossroads
46. Out of this world
47. ‘98 Masters champ
48. Gorge
49. “ animal with my car!”
50. Aspirin and naproxen
54. Barrie’s arena, abbr.
57. Some TVs
58. British noble
63. Wee prov.
64. Grammy category
65. Diego
2012 Varsity
Board of
Directors Elections
April 9, 10, 11, 2012
Interested in providing direction for one
of Canada’s oldest student newspaper?
Nominations due: March 28, 2012
Positions Available:
One (1) Director elected by and
from members at University of
Toronto at Mississauga
One (1) Director elected by and
from members at University of
Toronto at Scarborough
Mets and others
Welsh breed
Pretentious type
Lauder
Costa
Column style
Exam for an atty.-to-be
Cornhusker city
Airline investigators, Abbr.
glance
’92 World’s Fair city
Spanish gal
University in New Dehli
Rigid types, so it’s said
“The Mother of Soap Operas,”
Phillips
Intense fear
Sci-fi princess
Normandy city
Missteps
Like llamas
Four (4) Directors elected by and
from members from the Faculty
of Arts and Science of the St.
George campus
Three (3) Directors elected by
and from members from the
Professional Faculties
Eligibility: Any F/T undergraduate student
at the University of Toronto
Visit var.st/agm2012 to print off your nomination form today.
See where the Board of Directors has taken The Varsity this year at the
Annual General Meeting on Tuesday April 10, 2012.
Weekly
Horoscopes
by Destiny Starr
Aries
March 21 – April 19
Interference in the court of celestial
heaven will cause you to lose control
of your inner magnetism. Focus to
maintain control but stay clear of
household pets.
Taurus
April 20 – May 20
Amethyst is your most amenable
spirit stone at the moment. Seize the
opportunity and unleash your earth
child.
Gemini
May 21 – June 20
Anoint yourself with luscious oils to
prevent the ill omens brought by the
rain clouds of spring.
cancer
June 21 – July 22
Your energy will lull due to a
decrease in solar activity. Chew khat
to revitalize yourself.
Leo
July 23 – August 22
In a time of great instability and
difficulty, seek an oak tree as a
center in your life. But the morning
dew may find you far from home…
Virgo
August 23 – September 22
Do not resist: a fruit and bread
based–food related substance will
capture your fancy, and it is best to
dive in.
Libra
September 23 – October 22
Only you can liberate yourself from
the mental control of pants. Feel the
breeze. Run free.
scorpio
October 23 – November 21
In a dream, a large crustacean will
guide you along the ice beaches of
Europa. Take this knowledge into
your daily life, and scuttle towards
contentment.
sagittarius
November 22 – December 21
A stone pyramid arranged in the
order of the cosmos calls to you, a
muffled chant repeating your name.
Orient your life to the South Sea
islands.
capricorn
December 22 – January 19
Changes run through your life.
Increase the circumference of your
bosom for enlightenment.
Aquarius
January 20 – February 18
Your dolphin friends splash in the
water with an urgent message for
you. Evolve, my friend, evolve.
Pisces
February 19 – March 20
You were born from a rock, and
greatness is your destiny. Join a
holy man on a quest for the esoteric
scriptures.