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TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 Streeters 6 Reflecting on Toronto’s identity 7 Exploring campus archictecture 11 An interview with rapper John River 14 Student debt in Canada 16 University is not for everyone 18 The future of the TYP 20 Wishing wells of the world 23 Gentrification in the Junction 26 Sitting down with artist Mony Zakhour 29 U of T’s Olympic ice dancer 30 Pursuing a career in eSports 32 Everyone, stop being DJs 34 A music festival for Toronto 36 Who are the futurists? 37 Peace psychology 38 Cult films and aspiration 39 “Expectations,” artwork by Eric Chung The Varsity Magazine has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Masterweb Inc. Content © 2013 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the editors associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity Magazine reserves the right to edit all submissions. Please recycle this issue after you are finished with it. THE Letter from Letter from VARSITY MAGAZINE the Editor Design Vol. VII No. 1 21 SuSSex, Suite 306 I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Aspirations are a hard thing to visualize. toronto, on, M5S 1J6 For as long as I can remember, people have Whether we’re trying to imagine where we’d (416) 946–7600 been asking me what my plans are for the fu- like to be in five hours, what our dream house thevarsity.ca ture, and while I’ve done my best to say some- would look like, or even how we’d like our hair thing convincing, I’ve never really known for cut, picturing the things we desire is difficult. sure. Not all of us have a perfect blueprint for It seems like the things we want become more EDITOR-in-ChiEF our lives laid out, but most of us are overflow- tangible when we can see them, but with that Joshua Oliver [email protected] ing with dreams — fantasies that seem so ab- tangibility come all the anxieties of possible fail- surd that we’re afraid to say them out loud. ure or dissapointment when we are presented MAGAZINE EDITOR For this magazine, we asked what your with the realities. Danielle Klein [email protected] dreams are. Why did you come to U of T, or In designing the cover of this issue, we were PRODUCtion MANAGER to Toronto — what were you longing for that faced with many anxieties about it. Every time Dan Seljak [email protected] brought you to where you are standing right we finalized a concept, we doubted whether now? The narratives in these pages explore or not it was our best work, and whether its MANAging onlinE EDITOR our secret wishes and wildest aspirations. We message would carry to our audience. We pho- Murad Hemmadi [email protected] talked to people who are going for it — wheth- tographed and discarded around five different DEsign EDITOR er trying to make a living playing video games concepts before we finally settled. Shaquilla Singh [email protected] (p. 30), painting (p. 32), rapping (p. 11), or ice The image we finally decided on is one we dancing (p. 29). want to represent those fears and anxieties that PHOTo EDITOR Sometimes, the chances of failure are high. surround our aspirations. The figure on the left Carolyn Levett [email protected] James Flynn investigated student debt and reading a map represents the logical side of our how it can stand in the way of success (p. 14). desires — tactfully planning the best route to SEnior Copy EditOR Samantha Relich talked to students at the success. The figure on the right represents the Catherine Virelli [email protected] Transitional Year Programme who are strug- more emotional side of our hopes — attaching ILLUSTRAtions EditOR gling to keep it from being shut down (p.18). them to sentiments rather than reason. Nancy Ji [email protected] It’s easy to feel like we should keep our aspi- The cycle between these two aspects of our rations quiet, lest we validate the labels being aspirations represents all of us, as well as the bal- ASSOCIATE MaGAZINE EDITOR tossed around about our generation — “en- ance we strike as post-secondary students — at Victoria Banderob titled,” “lazy,” “millennials.” But our greatest once grounded in reason and, at the same time, hopes may not be as ludicrous as they seem. lost on the winds of hopeful emotion. ASSOCIATE DEsign EDITOR When we try to pursue them, when we want Mari Zhou things fervently, we have a shot at realizing — Shaquilla Singh ASSOCIATE SEnior Copy EDITOR them. The age of figuring things out at 18 is Design Editor, 2013-2014 Lucy Genua past — we will all go through different jobs, Copy Editors & FACt CHECKERS change our minds, fail, or triumph. We may Lucy Genua, Elena Gritzan, Jennifer Hurd, not have perfect plans, but we have longings Nicole Sconza, Kelly Turner, Catherine Virelli and dreams that spill out onto the streets of our city like frantic energy, whether we share DESIGNERS them or not. Kawmadie Karunanayake, Emerald Misquitta, For now, you’re here. In a few years, you Dan Seljak, Shaquilla Singh, Mari Zhou could be anything — even exactly what you COVER want to be. Michael Chahley PHOTo & ILLUSTRATION — Danielle Klein Julien Balbotino, Michael Chahley, Eric Magazine Editor, 2013-2014 Chung, Wendy Gu, Courtney Hallink, Trevor Koroll, Jacob Lorinc, Lucinda Ro, Ann Sheng, Jennifer Su, Nicole Regina Wong, Alice Xue, Shijie (Tina) Zhou CONTRIBUTORS Nicholas Carlson, Katherine Dupont, James Flynn, Emma Hansen, Jesse Hildebrand, JP Kaczur, Emma Kikulis, Daniel Konikoff, Sofia Luu, India McAllister, Claudia McNeilly, Ishita Pektar, Corinne Pryzbyslawski, Samantha Relich, Kate Hale Wilkes, Alec Wilson, Theo- dore Yan, Adam Zachary SPECIAL THANKS Michael Chahley, Kerrie McCreadie, Theodore Yan, Wish Cat, Molly McGillis, Cameron Findlater, Shmucks, Squirtle, Fortune cookie donors, Family dinner, Wish Cat again, Danielle’s half mug of wine, India, Future Bakery, Zebra Katz, Drake (kind of) — 4 — — 5 — THE VARSITY MAGAZINE THE VARSITY MAGAZINE Defining the city Is Toronto in a state of cultural limbo, or can the city be understood? By Emma Kikulis | Illustration by Nancy Ji Toronto a.k.a... T.O. Taken from the first two letters of the city’s name — earth-shattering. Hogtown References the once ubiquitous pork process- ing plants in Toronto. Not a comment on the city’s current leadership. The Big Smoke We are slowly killing the earth, but at least we have the decency to make sk 10 people in Toronto ter is not as clear-cut. The lack major global cities, or a pin- light of the situation. where they’re from, and of a collective identity in To- pointed feature to draw peo- Aprepare yourself for 10 ronto inspires nostalgia for the ple to it. The CN Tower, which El Toro different answers. In a city places people come from and is now pretty much irrelevant where you can walk through ambivalence about the future. (thanks Dubai), fails to serve Literally created in a several cultural districts in This ambiguity is particularly this purpose, as do Casa magazine contest. This is only a few blocks, and 50 per frustrating for students who Loma, City Hall, and all the what we’ve come to. You cent of residents were born are desperate to define them- other sights that tourists am- are forgiven your tears. elsewhere, this cosmopoli- selves in a place where there is ble by before hopping back on tanism isn’t surprising. What no mould to do so. their City Sight Seeing Toronto is notable, however, is that Because Toronto is such a bus. What genuinely defines people often don’t directly mosaic of people, places, and Toronto are the little boroughs The Centre of the associate themselves with cultures, we have to work that and neighbourhoods that Universe the city. much harder than a city with make it unique — the distinct Toronto’s identity is a sub- less diversity to establish an corners of the city that appear QED ject of much discussion, but identity. How do we form a disjointed at first glance, but so far no one has been able definition for the most mul- come together to make up an to make a snazzy slogan or ticultural city in the world alluring whole. tion, Baldwin Village, and so singular characteristic stick without excluding anyone or Ironically, Toronto’s iden- on. It’s not the skyline, the mu- to our city and put us on the anything? There is a desire for tity is its constant identity seums, or the lake that make proverbial map. You can visit a clearly defined identity, but crisis — the city refuses to be this city special — though the Big Apple, Sin City, or the it is complicated by the costs defined by one word or single they certainly add to the ambi- City of Love — or you can vis- of attaining one. characteristic because it can- ance — it’s the discord and the it Toronto, period. Toronto wants something not be contained. Toronto’s instability of the neighbour- New York City is the cultural to cling to — an inclusion- diverse constituents animate hoods and the architecture, the capital of the world; Paris is ary definition that will make the streets of Kensington multiplicity of cultures, and teeming with art and historical people feel as if the city is ori- Market, Little Portugal, Greek the difficulty of attempting to significance; Toronto’s charac- ented in the context of other Town, the Annex, the Junc- pin it all down.