Why Us Young Nomads Need to Give a Darned About Municipal Elections

* Note this entry pertains to the upcoming political elections in the province of Ontario, Canada. If you are not in this region, you might still find some information of interest, but you may find it less relevant.

As late as two weeks ago I was sitting in the living room of my childhood home arguing with my mother that there was absolutely no point in voting in the upcoming election. My mother, actively involved in the local separate school board and a passionate advocate for improvement in education, was insistent that even if I didn’t care about who was going to be regional councillor, alderman or even mayor, I needed to care about who was running for the school board. My response, “What does it matter if I care? It’s not going to change anything. The people who are going to win the trustee elections are going to be those whose names come first alphabetically. My vote won’t matter.” I followed this up with the fact that I am currently in a partly nomadic state – though I have lived in Ottawa for the past 3 years, I really do not think at this point that I will be here 12 months from now let alone 4 years down the road. I only get down my parents way a few times a year, so I don’t personally have an individual stake in what goes on in St. Catharines either (beyond the well being of my family). I don’t really have a home-home, so not only would registering be a bit tricky, but the results, whatever they are wouldn’t affect me. And all of this was coming from someone who was out blazing the municipal campaign trails at the tender age of 9 and who ALWAYS was badgering my parents to get out and vote in any and every election. I think my mother was shocked, but remained calm and heard me out. After all I’m now 22 years old and I live 7 hours away from her. There isn’t much she could do even if she wanted to.

But I was wrong and my mother was right. Not that this doesn’t happen frequently, but I mean this time I was REALLY wrong. It is important to vote. In fact it might be just as important to get out and vote for your school board trustee as it is to go out and vote for federal elections (if only we could directly elect our Prime Minister in Canada and get to keep the royal back-up plan at the same time). Even if you do not have children of your own, even if you do not have any young cousins, nieces/nephews, family friends etc. it is still important for you to do everything in your power to elect the most capable school board trustees available – leaders and visionaries passionate about creating the best possible learning environment for the children in your community. It is your duty to vote because you live in a society where those people who would are most impacted by the decisions made do not have this power. You have been entrusted with the futures of the children where you live and whether you plan on living in this community for the next 50 years or the next 15 days your decision to vote, or not to vote, will leave a permanent legacy for the children in the school system today.

School board trustees have enormous power to shape the vision of a board of education, to create positive learning environments, to decrease educational inequality by putting pressure on administrators and to empower board administrators to make the radical reforms needed to bring schools into the 21^st century. But just as easily they can block change, use reforms as political pawns and manipulate the system to ensure that even if the rest of the community is failing, their district is safe and sound. These are the only individuals in this system, this system that holds the future of our children (because all of the children in our community are our collective children) in the palm of its hand, that we can hold directly accountable.

And if these arguments alone do not captivate you – remember my fellow upper Gen-Y members it is today’s kindergartners that will be responsible for paying the bill for our pensions (and likely a good chunk of the baby boomers’ as well because heavens knows my generation won’t be able to bear that burden alone). If they don’t have the education system that will allow them to compete in the global economy – that won’t allow enough of them to become doctors, nurses, medics, gerontologists, entrepreneurs – what sort of retirement do you see for yourself? When so many of us will be lucky if we can pay off our student loans before we hit 65, we’re going to need their help like our parents needed us.

It is a shame however that because for so many years they have been faced with an overwhelmingly apathetic electorate, so many of those running for trustee positions have failed to provide the electorate with enough information to make a responsible and informed choice. This is not acceptable. We would not allow any one of the major political parties in this country to elect a leader to contest for Prime Minister without a substantial biography and history of involvement.

This puts the electorate in a difficult position where if we do take the effort to try to learn about the candidates, we essentially have to choose between those candidates who have made the effort to tell us who they are and what they stand for, even if they may not be the most qualified candidates for the job. If you care enough about our schools to put your name forward, you should care enough to stage a campaign, but it is also up to us to tell our candidates that this is unacceptable.

The Ask

So what is it exactly that I am asking you to do?

1. Determine which school board you would want to show your support for. The default is the public school system. If you would like to cast a vote for separate (Catholic) schools, you will need to register as a separate school supporter.
2. Learn who the candidates are. Some have websites, many have emails and some you might have to call. Who seems willing to champion the type of changes you want to see? Who has the best interests of the community’s children (not their own résumés or future political prospects) at heart?
3. Show up at the polls on election day and cast a ballot.
4. Stay in contact and ensure that the trustee you elect continues to exhibit the qualities and pursues the ideas for which you elected them in the first place. Hold them accountable. The real work for a trustee doesn’t end on election day, that is the day on which it begins.

An End to Our Era

Tonight my bandmates and I made the difficult decision to dissolve our musical partnership. The following is our official statement.

Dear friends, champions and supporters of Carbine Copy,

This afternoon we made the difficult decision to dissolve our musical partnership. It was not an easy decision to make, it was one made with heavy hearts but also with a sense of excitement about the future. Over the past two years we have not only changed as individuals, but we have changed musically as well. All three of us feel that in order to grow as musicians and artists we must part ways at this time and pursue different projects. We part with nothing but good will for one another and we look forward to jamming together and working together informally in the future.

To our families, friends, fans and supporters we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. The past two years have shown us so many opportunities, none of which would have been possible without your generosity and support. You really have helped us to grow up. We only hope that you have received half as much from listening to us as we received from you.

Sincerely,

Derek, Martin and Nikki

We are All Failed by Failing Schools

If you think that what you have seen above is only an American problem, think again. I wish I could say that I live in a country where all young people regardless of the social, economic or educational status of their parents are able to receive the same educational opportunities but I do not. Neither do my friends in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland.

I wish that all kindergarten children could see their future as a blank canvas and that the educational system could give them every colour of the rainbow to paint their lives with. I wish that every child could see their school as a refuge and a place of hope rather than a prison, locking them into the circumstances assigned to them at birth. I wish that all schools, all school administrators and teachers were equipped with the resources to provide students with a student-centred education that would allow our young people to find and pursue their talents. I wish that we lived in a country where no parent or teacher ever had to tell a child that they are setting their sights too high and that their dreams are impossible because of their family’s economic resources. I wish that in our low-income communities and working class neighbourhoods success was the rule and not the exception, just as it is in middle and upper class Canada.

These wishes can never become realities in a country that is content with a failing school system in dire need of not just minor repairs but radical reforms. But sadly those who would most greatly benefit from a new way of thinking about education in Canada (and the United States, and the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland…) are currently unable and/or unwilling to demand change. Even sadder, those elected officials who have been given the tremendous power to not just demand but create these changes on their behalf are not doing so. Perhaps if children of our politicians had to attend failing schools this would change, but what could ever convince a parent to place educational limitations on his or her own child when other options are available to them?

Whether someone on the campaign trail is able to appeal to Joe the plumber or not, when would they ever choose to walk not just a mile but 14 years (the time from the beginning of Junior Kindergarten in Ontario to high-school graduation) in the shoes of an unemployed dockworker or a single mother with a family of four?

Have our politicians looked at Canada’s economic picture? Joe the plumber may as well be Bill Gates in comparison to Joyce the Wal-Mart Greeter. My guess would be that Joe wouldn’t let his children go to the school that Joyce’s children go to – and if he did he would probably feel pretty bad about it. Not that Joyce doesn’t know that her children’s school is failing them but when she is working 60 hours a week and still fighting to keep the electricity company at bay, she doesn’t have much time to research her other options now does she? And even if she makes the effort to make the time she just can’t make the money needed to pay the round trip bus fair to send her kids to the better school 3 miles away because that is too far for her 8 and 11 year-old to walk on their own.

My mother has recently written on the issue of fundraising in schools, one that has been in the news over the past month in Ontario. But really fundraising is only the tip of the iceberg. Limiting or eliminating fundraising for essential items (textbooks, science equipment etc.) alone is not going to lead to educational equality. Stopping fundraising all together is still not going to lead to educational equality, even though that would mean that per-student levels of funding would be equal across schools. It can’t be enough, not in a country where some schools are already so far ahead of the pack that it would take decades and decades of equal financial input for other schools to catch up. And, I’m pretty positive that even when the catch up would occur it wouldn’t be because the other schools would have been getting that much better, but because the former leading schools would be getting that much worse. What is the value of equality when it means that all children would be getting an equally terrible education?

What we need is a revolution across the province, the country and much of the English-speaking developed world (I do not know enough about the education systems in other countries to be able to comment on them). And this revolution needs to start with us. All of us. We need to stand up and stand together for real change in education because even if we are no longer in school, our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are or will be. We need to join this revolution because every day we ignore the problem we lose another person who could cure cancer, bring peace to the nations, write the great Canadian novel or become the greatest Prime Minister we’ve ever seen to a failing school.

For those parents whose children are in fantastic schools, with high standardized testing results, wonderful fulfilled teachers and textbooks younger than the teaching staff, you may be concerned that taking part in this revolution will devalue the advantages that you too have worked so hard to give your children. But I promise you that it will not.

Making all schools good schools will allow all parents, rich and poor, to regain agency in the rat race that is education. It will mean better schools for all children, including your own, schools that will better prepare children for the world that they will be living and working in rather than the one in which your grandparents existed.

Not a day goes by where I do not think about and am not completely humbled by the tremendous sacrifices (and I really do mean tremendous) that my father and mother have made to allow me to obtain a university education, and the significant sacrifices that I have had to make towards the same ends. It is because of this gratitude that I will not rest until no father ever has to take a second job to send his daughter to a different public (state) school with the hope that this change might one day land a full scholarship to allow for progression to post-secondary education. But even with their support (which was more emotional rather than financial as I started university) and a full scholarship I graduated with a debt load so high that the thought of ever owning a car, let alone a house, is merely a pipe dream.

The time is now to write to our elected officials expressing our concerns, to write letters to the editor and to diligently expose the inequalities of our school systems. The time is now to not only demand change at a governmental level, but to create it from the grassroots up – transforming the spirit of our schools and, by extension, the spirits of our students.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be providing you with more concrete opportunities to make a difference. Please help where you can.

When it Comes to Video Production it’s the Heart of the Matter that Matters

When talking both to potential clients and to other commercial filmmakers/video producers the first questions asked are: What camera will you be shooting with (more so that they can find out the dollar value of the camera rather than the actual quality of the images produced)? What is the resolution of the final product? What editing software are you using?

These are the wrong first questions. Though I realize that clients want to know where their money is going, why is it that they care more about the technical parameters of their projects than the creative ones. I can often leave a whole initial meeting without having the client ask me once, “What is your vision for the project?” or telling me what sort of feel they want their project to have. Really though, how can one think that the camera used matters more than the content – The Back-Up Plan was shot in HD, but that certainly doesn’t mean that it was tolerable. Meanwhile films like Once that were shot on handicams have gone on to critical acclaim.

While I would hope that other filmmakers would understand that it’s content over equipment, there are so many that do not. I don’t mind the camera question as much from this group when it’s good-natured – a genuine interest shared between film geeks who love to get their hands dirty and who recognize that the equipment used is a tool not an ends upon itself. This is usually the case when I’m talking to friends who have worked in broadcasting and live-to-air material. However amongst the general filmmaking population this is occurring less and less often as camera battles become a cold-war style arms race with certain players convinced the latest equipment can cover up a lack of vision, style and story. It’s getting to the point that sometimes when visiting others on set it feels like I’m in a VW Rabbit at a Hummer rally (and we all know the saying about men who drive Hummers). Oddly enough these are often the same individuals who decry the rise of the lay videographer and YouTube sensation, but at a certain point you have to wonder whether their fear of Freddie W has less to do with the quality of his shorts (they’re quite fun if nothing else) than the loss of power that these outlets represent. If anyone can upload to YouTube then anyone has the chance to make somebody’s favourite short film. What does it say about the filmmaking community’s love of film if we go out into the world and actively discourage other people from sharing the love so that our own failings won’t be exposed?

It’s time that myself and my fellow filmmakers who also value ideas over imaging, scripts over surround sound and heart over HD band together. We need to show the world that we care about the qualitative quality of film not only the numbers. If this means taking a step back or two and simplifying our production to give emphasis to the more creative aspects of our vocation so be it. Not everything needs to be IMAX-ready. We need to show our openness to new ideas and new community members, not try to hold on to fanciful and outdated notions of expressional exclusivity.

For those of you who find yourselves in need of a re-centering and for anyone interested in looking at some fantastic videos with low production values check out:

The Escapist (music video for The Streets)

Life in a Day (by Christiaan Van Vuuren – also check out his other Fully Sick Rapper videos) – Made in a isolation hospital room with a camcorder and a MacBook.

Keeping it Realist: Shane Meadows’ This is England ’86 is the Best Kind of Gritty

My last couple of posts (on Ping and The American) were rather harsh, so this time instead I am going to write about something that I have fallen in love with – Shane Meadow’s 4-part drama This is England ’86 broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK. This series, which follows a group of friends making the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood in Thatcherite Britain, is a continuation of the characters first introduced in Meadow’s breakthrough 2006 film This is England. Using the same actors playing the same characters, the series picks up 3 years after the film ended. Whereas in the film the gang of friends were proud skinheads, they have grown up a bit and are less fully devoted to the subculture that defined their youth. Despite these superficial changes, they maintain their fun-loving, strength through adversity attitudes. Furthermore, while the film tended to focus on racial issues (specifically the division between the original style skinheads and racist skinheads), the series really branches out and looks into a range social issues of the mid-1980s.

Only three-quarters of the way through the series Meadows has already explored issues as varied as marriage, love, death, poverty, loss, rape, unemployment, infidelity, domestic violence and child molestation. Yet, the fact that characters deal with these issues simultaneously is believable – not only possible, but fully plausible. The lives of the characters in This is England/This is England ’86 are not full of sunshine and tulips – they are anything but. Their prospects are bleak, their pasts are dark and like the generations that came before them they are searching for ways to cope. Sometimes they do the wrong thing, but surprisingly frequently they try to do the right one. Refreshingly, unlike so much of so-called realist television and film this coping (at least at this point) hasn’t involved drug addiction (because not every single person with a difficult life becomes a drug addict). Most of the time they are able to find solace in each other – in football games, impromptu parties, watching television at the pub – and when they can’t they have the good sense to realize they need to find it in themselves.

This is not pretty television. It isn’t Degrassi or Coronation Street. The problems that these characters face will not be wrapped up by the end of the series. They may never be wrapped up. This is a snapshot more than a narrative – like all things there is a beginning, but there isn’t a clear-cut middle or end. This is real life – loose ends, abrupt changes, driftings apart and coalescences. These characters don’t ask for your sympathy not because they are afraid of vulnerability but because they don’t want it. They are not victims of their circumstances but humans with agency and autonomy. They do not define themselves by the craziness that surrounds them but by their response to it.

What I particularly love about This is England ’86 is that it has been able to really explore the whole core gang of friends, rather than follow a single character, as the film did with Shaun. In fact, as we find out at the beginning of the first installment, Shaun hasn’t been part of the group since the end of the film and it is only as the series develops does he rejoin the fold. But, just as in real life, the fit is never quite as it had been before. Where the film constructs Shaun as a character worthy of sympathy above and beyond the others, the series knocks Shaun right off that pedestal by revealing that his life is really no worse, nor any better, than those of the rest of the gang. Everyone is in the same leaky boat, and they all need to work equally hard to keep it afloat.

I know that Meadows has been attacked by some film critics and individuals who see themselves as cultural connoisseurs for following up his critically acclaimed film on television screens. They imply that he is lowering himself (because in their world television is film’s cheap and broken younger sibling) and polluting the form among other things, though their thinly veiled core complaint is that he is making excellent film material which is accessible to the masses. There is a certain irony in their criticism, and this is part of the reason why I am so supportive of Meadows decision to follow up with Channel 4.

This is England is a film about the populous, the working class. It is a film about those people for whom going to the cinema (even without getting popcorn) is a treat not a routine. It is about the type of people who in the 1980s would have been watching the excellent films being made by and aired on Channel 4 – films like My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985) and Distant Voices Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988) which have gone on to become cult classics the world over. In a way, the only logical next step for Meadows was to bring This is England to television, to where its characters would have lived and to where those who identify with them still do. Though I like a good piece of cinema as much as the next former film student, I like a good story more and this is what Meadows is working with here – a story too good not to be told to everyone. I only hope that more filmmakers will follow his footsteps and reinvigorate the substance of filmmaking over coming years, even if it might mean a few minor sacrifices in form.

That I highly recommend watching this series is likely quite obvious by now, but I would also recommend that you watch the film before the series as it really does give you the overview of who everyone is and how they relate to one another (it is also a fantastic film in its own right). Great job Shane Meadows, cast, crew and Channel 4. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for the finale next week.

Film Trailer:

This is England ’86 Promo:

Pedestal Displacement: Corbijn’s The American Falls Short

Anton Corbijn became my favourite photographer the day I first saw his band shots of iconic English post-punk rockers Joy Division. It was 1998 and I was only 9 or 10 at the time. I don’t remember the specific date, but I do remember that once I saw the video for Joy Dvision’s “Atmosphere” about 4 years later when I was 14, it was more than just playing favourites. It was love.

I didn’t fall in love with Anton Corbijn, the man, but I fell in love with his imagery. I fell in love with the way he used shadows and light. I loved that he shot in mostly black and white. I loved the way he places subjects in his frames in a way that drew out not only the best of the humans, but the power of their surroundings. But most of all I loved the way that he seemed to be able to capture ‘cool’. Of course, it was his music photography that my younger self was almost exclusively interested in, with all of its broodiness and confident insecurities.

It took an additional 5 years before Corbijn could legitimately claim the title of my favourite director. It was fall 2007, I was 19 and had just started in my first year of the film program at Carleton University in Ottawa when Control, Corbijn’s first feature film, came to a theatre near me. There was nothing about it I couldn’t love. It was a biopic, and one about another one of my artistic heroes (Joy Division’s late lyricist Ian Curtis) at that. It was shot beautifully and all in black and white. The whole film has the same feel as not just Corbijn’s early music photography, but seems to capture the essence of what Joy Division was. It wasn’t just lauded by me, but by critics the English-speaking world over. It won BAFTAs, there were Oscar rumours and it was making top 10 lists everywhere.

As I walked out of the theatre on that cold fall night, I knew that Anton Corbijn was now my favourite director. That’s right, with just one actual film under his belt, Corbijn surpassed all others in my mind. It was perfect. He was perfect. He was rock photography royalty who shot in black and white, I had to go to the Bytowne* to see his film and, best of all, he was foreign. Anton Corbijn is tailor-made to be a keen first year film student’s response to the oft-asked “Who’s your favourite director?” question and better than many of my other one-time favourite people, Corbijn was able to retain this position for years (if you don’t count a 2 month affair with equally-film student friendly Werner Herzog).

At least that was until I saw Corbijn’s second film, The American, last night. Sorry Mr. Corbijn, but I just don’t think that there is a place for you in my film hero circle anymore.

This isn’t to say that The American is a horrible, or even a poor film. It isn’t. It just simply is not up to snuff. This also isn’t to say that I’ve written off Corbijn completely. I haven’t and I am eagerly anticipating the day he knocks my socks off with his next film so that I can justify that pedestal that I had placed him on for the last 3 years.

The American is a beautifully shot film, but it’s beauty isn’t so great that it is able to overshadow the agonizing (and not in a good way) slowness of the pace of the story. The actors involved (including George Clooney) performed excellently, but the acting could not cancel out the staleness of the plot. I like assassin/spy films as much as the next person (actually probably a whole lot more), but there are only so many scenarios that can, or have been, explored. Unfortunately a tall, gorgeous, mysterious American/British man on the run in Europe, hiding out while on his final mission, just doesn’t do anything for me anymore.

This underwhelming assessment of the film doesn’t even take into consideration the gratuitous nudity. I prefer to think of myself as gymnophobic* rather than a prude, but either way you spin it, I’m not a fan of naked people. It’s not as though I would discount or rate poorly a film just because it has nudity in it, but when I see a film with nakedness, I do like to be warned. I’m sorry, but when the sign outside the theatre gives the film a PG rating and even the ticket only says 14A, I shouldn’t have to be prepared for full frontal female nudity. Leaving aside the fact that full frontal male nudity is an automatic 18A, constituting a pretty significant double standard (something I may discuss more at length in another post), this is pretty peculiar.

Even if there had been warning, the nudity in this film is over-the-top, gratuitous to the point of distracting from what little plot actually existed. I understand that given that there is a romantic plot line between Clooney’s character and a prostitute, and that according to film industry standards, because of this some nudity would be necessary. But, the amount of naked lady that could have been considered necessary is far less than the (what seemed like) at least 10 minutes of boobs and more in the film.

In the end, The American failed not because it was bad but because it simply wasn’t extremely good. It’s unfortunate, but when a director’s first film is amazing, as Control undoubtedly was, this first film becomes the standard by which that director will be judged for the remainder of their career. In this case with a recycled plot, poor pacing and an overall lack of originality, Corbijn fell flat. I really wish it wasn’t so, but all I can do is hope it was just an example of the dreaded sophomore slump.

A final note for Mr. Corbijn: Though I can’t possibly call you my favourite director at this moment, I really am rooting for you. That top spot is open and all yours for the re-taking.

* Bytowne is the name of one of two independent theatres in Ottawa and tends to screen limited release and foreign films. For more information please visit http://www.bytowne.ca/.

* Gymnophobia – An abnormal and persistent fear of nudity, not, as would be suggested by it’s looks, a fear of going to the gym. I like the gym, hate the changing rooms. Simply another one of my totally irrational fears.

Two Weeks on Apple’s Ping OR “Is Anybody Out There?”

When it comes to technology, I am under the firm belief that it is important to give something a real go before judging it. I’ve been on Apple’s Ping music-based social network for 2 weeks now and I finally feel like I am ready to make a ruling. Unfortunately for Jobs and co., it’s not one they are going to like – Ping is bad. Really bad. Terrible in fact. So bad that I would rather listen to a two hour recital for the local beginner’s Suzuki violin-based music program than spend another hour messing around with Ping.

The worst part might be that there are so many different bad parts, that I have no idea where to start. But here goes my attempt. The five reasons why Apple’s Ping needs to meet the fate of Google Wave (at best) but should really disappear all together in order to facilitate quick un-remembering.

Five Major Ping Fails:

1. Population – Apple billed Ping as its very own music-based social network, the final nail in MySpace’s coffin capable of rivalling and even surpassing the social aspects of Last FM (though without the all important streaming function). However, for either of these predictions to come true, large numbers of people would actually need to be using Ping, which they are not currently doing.
2. Sign-Up – To be able to get a Ping account, it is necessary to go through an iTunes store account. This isn’t a problem in and of itself except for the major issue that in most countries outside of the United States it is necessary to use a credit card to create an account. Do you think nearly as many people would be on Facebook if it required a credit card to sign up? Definitely not. Yes, there is a work around (by going through the App Store) to be able to get an account, but it is cumbersome and few but the most keen and most savvy potential Ping users would be willing/able to follow through. There are lots of people who do not have and do not want a credit card (I being one of them). Apple needs to stop pretending like we don’t exist.
3. Search – Those few people (especially interesting people) that are actually on Ping are next to impossible to find. Without being able to easily connect to friends on other social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, or even being able to find people via an email contact book, building a network is very difficult. Add to that ridiculous suggestions from Apple on people/artists to follow (no Apple I do not want to follow Miley Cyrus!) and this alone is a recipe for disaster.
4. Personalization – Considering that Apple is the largest online music retailer, it should certainly know better than to suggest that a person can only like three different genres of music. Furthermore, that Apple would force Ping members to choose from such a limited list is downright embarrassing. Where is folk on the list? Or blues? Can’t jazz music be inspirational? When has someone ever responded “soundtrack” when asked what kind of music they like to listen to?
5. Like – Ping only allows users (at time of posting) to like music they have purchased or are purchasing from the iTunes store. For someone like me who prefers to buy CDs, this means that my commitment to purchasing music in local record stores or at concert venues doesn’t count for anything. I understand that Apple is a company and wants to make money, and quite possibly thinks that this constraint will encourage people to buy more music from the iTunes store. But, at the same time Apple needs to recognize, if it is truly serious about becoming the network for music lovers, that none of the major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. – grew within a highly commercialized network model and there is no reason to suggest that Ping could be the exception. Even where social networks, Last FM being a prime example, have developed a highly commercial model, they have done so after generating a wide user base who is familiar with the services offered and is excited about the great value that they will be getting for any dollars spent.

Now I’m not doing anything as drastic as shutting my Ping account down completely. I hope that Apple goes back to the drawing board, and does so quickly, to be able to work out all of the major kinks in Ping. But, I remain cynical. Apple, at least lately, seems to have forgotten what it is to be cool. Bullies and control freaks may seem cool in high school, but in the real world it is the carefree, the open, the useful and the fun that are cool, just like it was when we were children. Apple it’s time to grow up.*

* Note in interest of fairness, this was written from a MacBook (though using open source software).

Unpaid Internships and the Exclusion of Low-Income Students

Over the past six months, the Obama administration in the United States has been more carefully considering the nature of unpaid internships in our southern neighbour. There is concern from the administration that increasingly competitive unpaid internships are exploiting college students for whom the completion of an internship is becoming a more and more essential part of the college experience. With so few jobs available for both students and recent-graduates during these lean economic times, the completion of an (or multiple) unpaid internship(s) has become, in some cases, the only work experience a young person is able to gain in their chosen field.

Though there are a number of types of unpaid internships, by far the most common in the United States are the summer internship (whereby students work full-time hours for 3-4 months during the summer), the semester internship (where students work full-time hours during a single semester) and the post-graduate internship (where students work full-time for the organization for 3,6 or 12 months). Though there is not similar data available for Canada, listings on popular job sites, indicate that a similar trend can be found north of the 49^th parallel. There are also part-time internships, often organized through university field work or practicum courses, which are strictly regulated, limiting the number of hours that can be devoted to internship activities and thus are not a major concern.

The Obama administration in its consideration of unpaid internships in America has primarily concerned itself with the amount of benefit and meaningful experience that interns receive in exchange for their labour. Essentially they are looking into whether interns are actually learning anything or if they are simply spending 40-60 hours a week (though sometimes less) fetching coffee, picking up dry-cleaning and photocopying. For an unpaid internship to be legal in the United States, it is necessary that the intern receive some credit. Because unpaid internships have only recently exploded in popularity in Canada, the legal issues surrounding them are less cut-and-dry.

While ensuring that interns are not being exploited in this way is important, there are a number of other issues surrounding the rise of unpaid internships in both the United States and Canada as well, that have yet to be adequately addressed. In particular, the way in which a reliance on unpaid internships for early work experience leads to the exclusion of students from families on the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder from future employment in many of the potentially highest paying fields is worthy of serious investigation.

There are a number of factors that render full-time unpaid internships not just unfeasible, but impossible for students from lower-income families. While the most significant barriers are financial, there are also social barriers that often are not considered by advocates for internships. For example, it can be more difficult to land that ‘dream internship’, especially in the most competitive industries such as music, internet development, marketing, filmmaking and publishing, without key social connections, often forged through family relationships and ‘old boys/girls clubs’. Though most internship programs purport to be non-biased in their selection process, as anyone who has ever been on the job market knows, landing your dream job (regardless of how neutral it advertises itself as being) can be based more on who you know than what you know.

Even if a low-income student would stand a reasonable chance of success in the application process, the financial realities of unpaid work present an enormous challenge for low-income students. For those whose families are either unable or unwilling to financially support a college/university student, survival requires financial remuneration. For students who have no choice but to be financially self-sufficient the long-term benefits of completing an unpaid internship are no competition for the short-term necessity of financial sustenance and the ability of any paid job (often a minimum-wage service job) to provide basic shelter and food.

That there is no shortage of qualified applicants who are able and willing, to work unpaid internships, is undeniable. But, by not providing remuneration, these organizations are potentially cutting themselves off from the very best candidates, candidates who, by virtue of not just their excellence in university or college, but their very presence in higher education, have defied the odds. These are young people who keenly understand the importance of hard work. They know how to provide high-quality work consistently with the least amount of resources. These young men and women are flexible and creative not by choice, but as a matter of necessity. They are exactly the kind of future employees today’s companies need, especially in the wake of a global recession, but may never find under current recruiting practices.

Though the appeal of unpaid internships for companies is certainly understandable (after all who would turn down more or less *free* labour), it is time that companies begin to make the same short term sacrifices for long term benefits that they have been asking from students for so many years.

5 Times Not to Approach the A&R Rep…

Generally people in A&R (artists and repertoire for those of my readers not coming from the world of music) try to keep a low profile. That being said, generally people in bands work to prevent A&R reps from keeping a low profile. Though generally always on the lookout for fantastic music, there ARE (believe it or not) times when labels are unable to bring on any additional bands and it IS possible that even during these times a label A&R person can be found at a music venue. Let me let you in on a little secret – A&R reps are generally A&R reps because they LOVE music. Therefore it is only reasonable that even in their ‘downtime’ these individuals would be partaking in music-related activities. Because it can be difficult to tell whether they are actually on duty or not, there are five general times (and possibly quite more) when you should NEVER approach an A&R person if your band would EVER (and I mean EVER) like to be signed. All examples have come from actual horror stories.

1. The Bathroom – This seems like a no brainer, but anyone who has ever worked A&R has at least one story of being approached by an eager musician while trying to go about their, umm ‘personal business’. This applies for both men and women. While there seems to be more of a tendency to confuse the urinals with an office (despite – from what I can gather – a strict unspoken code about urinal conduct), it is equally as unacceptable as trying to slip your new EP through the crack in the stall door. The bathroom is quite possibly the only place an A&R rep would never think of music – creating the perfect toilet paper protective seat buffer requires all the concentration a human being can muster. Word to the wise – if you ignore this advice not only do you not stand a chance with the person you’ve been trying to court, you may also wake up with a restraining order.
2. When the A&R Rep is Intoxicated – I know that a lot of people who have worked/are working in the industry (including myself) keep a policy of not drinking at shows, whether on-duty or not. (because you sometimes find good music where you least expect it, it is quite important to keep a level head). That being said there are also a fair number A&R reps who do not keep this policy. If you run into an A&R rep at a show and they are unable to stand, form complete sentences or are dancing on the bar there is an exceptionally high likelihood that they are off-duty and even if they are not, they WILL NOT remember you come the morning.
3. At a Children’s Birthday Party – This applies whether the child whose birthday is being celebrated is the A&R rep’s or not. Everyone likes to let loose a little bit – maybe make some balloon animals, maybe see a magician pull a rabbit out of his hat – and a birthday party is a great environment to do that. Generally if at a children’s birthday party, the A&R rep is consciously trying to be “in the moment” and demonstrate to family/friends that they do have their priorities in order. Spending 30 minutes trying to get you to go away impedes upon their ability to do this. Accosting someone at a children’s party is tacky in general and it goes double if you try to sing that new song about you’re girlfriend leaving you for “the Puma*” in front of a crowd of starry-eyed 6 year-olds.
4. In a Courthouse – Whether it be to fight a parking ticket or because of a custody hearing no one wants to talk shop before facing the law. Plus, you likely will not know the reason for the A&R rep’s presence at the courthouse – while it is possible they are there to support a friend, it is also possible that they are there to file another restraining order (maybe even against you) or to face assault charges after punching an aggressive bassist in a club bathroom. This rule is just as much for your personal safety as it is for career success.

1. 5. At a Funeral – This is quite possibly the tackiest place to try to slip your new LP into the right hands. It is extremely hard to gauge how bereaved a person is at a funeral (body language and emotional state are not necessarily aligned) so even if you are willing to brave tackiness for your shot at fame and stardom, there is a 99.9% chance that even broaching the topic will leave a sour taste in any A&R rep’s mouth. Do you want to be included in “The Dirt-Bag Hall of Fame”? No. Then don’t even think about it.

Though these are some extreme cases of poor decision making, a good general rule to follow is to let the A&R rep approach you. Publicize your gigs well, make sure you have the support of at least a few really good bands also on the cusp of of being signed and most importantly let your music not your ego do the talking.

*If you don’t understand the reference watch 500 Days of Summer