What lies before the Other Press?
By Matthew Fraser, Editor in Chief

As the internet makes cross country and cross global connections easier, the Other Press should be enmeshed in as many connections as possible. It is the least we can do given our multicultural city.

Someone told me many years ago that the difference between anxiety and excitement is almost entirely about mindset and that psychologically, the two are near identical. For better or for worse, I have lived my life easily excited and eager for the next challenge. So rather than be daunted by the opportunity to lead The Other Press as Editor in Chief I was excited. Maybe anxiety would be more prudent; maybe a healthy sense of respect for the responsibility that ‘in Chief’ implies would be appropriate, but for me all I could feel was anticipation.

But the purpose of this Lettitor is not to show off my brash confidence and eager self aggrandization, rather, its to outline my goals and vision as the Editor in Chief.

We as Vancouverites have the privilege of living in a city both beautiful and overflowing with talent. Nearly everyone knows someone who is in a band, has a podcast, is involved with the film industry, does theater, writes, or is some other form of creative. Many of us know someone or multiple people who check more than one of those boxes. The local band that you know, your friends podcast, the next school production, if we can get the interview, we can get it into the paper. My goal with the Other Press will be to tie this publication to the legions of up-and-coming creatives in this city.

In fact, as COVID restrictions ease and Douglas college begins to ramp up the talent within the school, I intend to make sure that the Other Press is at the forefront of promoting all school events and the individuals that make this school such an exciting place. Though the Other Press is independent from the college, there is no reason for us not to be the first to promote Douglas musicians and actors. We should be amongst if not the first place to interview and promote college activities. As Douglas is a hotbed for talent, the Other Press will be sure to fan the flames.

However, we need not be confined to one city. If the lockdown world has taught as but one thing, its that the flexibility of distance work should be cherished. That means that events across BC should feature prominently in our paper. This also means the events that challenge Canadians from the Atlantic to the Pacific should be reflected in our paper. As the internet makes cross country and cross global connections easier, the Other Press should be enmeshed in as many connections as possible. It is the least we can do given our multicultural city.

So, what path lies ahead of the Other Press? Well, as this issues feature showcasing the Wings over Water production indicates, the path before us holds more interviews highlighting local talent and events. As last weeks feature with Jagmeet Singh showed, this path includes a deeper focus on politics both locally and Canada wide. After all, our world is political, and a newspaper is meant to lead the war on ignorance, so why not make sure that everyone stays informed?

The path ahead of the Other Press will include everything that the talents of Vancouver can bring it and I’m excited to help it thrive.

Halsey’s album cover needs a response
By, Matthew Fraser, Editor in Chief

Why should someone be so worried that college students will have their eyes/spirits/souls hurt by a picture of just a single breast?

In our last issue here at the Other Press, we featured a review of Halsey’s newest album If I Can’t Have Love, I want Power. The review itself raised no issues, but our featuring of the album cover did. On it, Halsey is seen seated on a throne holding a child with her left breast bare and exposed. This female breast caused concern to some as they felt that it was a sexual image and therefore (potentially) inappropriate for a student newspaper.

It is important to point out that Halsey herself intended for the cover and the entire album itself to be about the: “Joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.” A fact she made clear in the Instagram post debuting the album’s very cover. Later in the same post, Halsey points out that: “We have a long way to go with eradicating the social stigma around bodies & breastfeeding.” Clearly, the artist herself was fully aware of and anticipated the potential for controversy and intended for her art and efforts to advance a non-sexualized image of a women’s body.

But it’s not always up to an artist to determine how the world reacts to their work and their ideas. We live within cultural boundaries and some ideas regarding bodies are outside of those lines. For many people, every image, any hint, even the very thought of a women’s breast is sexual. Now, I’m not personally a feminist, but I agree with the argument that a woman breastfeeding her child is not sexual at all; further still, the image of a women’s breast should not be the sexual taboo that it is here in North America.

Maybe part of the issue is the inherent separate treatment of male nipples and female nipples. There is and has been for a very long time the idea that a topless woman is indecent or inappropriate. This idea and more importantly, the hypocrisy of it reached its zenith in the #Freethenipple movement.

In an Instagram post highlighting this precise hypocrisy, non-binary model Rain Dove plays basketball topless. Their point was simple: if someone who identified as a man did this, it wouldn’t be a problem, why is it a problem when they do it? Surely, it’s not the identity of the individual as that would render Dove’s action inoffensive. It must simply come down to a few standards prevalent in our culture revolving around: “Swinging sacks of potential food providing flesh;” and like many traditional lines, these ideas are arbitrary.

However, the context of Halsey’s album cover was about motherhood and in the artist’s eyes, directly related to breastfeeding. I have yet to find an article that argues that breastfeeding is unnatural or detrimental on a scientific basis. The few that argue against describing breastfeeding as natural do so due to the minority of people who use this language to paint vaccines as unnatural. Suffice to say, a mother feeding her child with breast milk isn’t itself problematic. So why then has our hypersexualized view of a woman’s body invaded the intimate bond between a mother and her child? Why then should someone be so worried that college students will have their eyes/spirits/souls hurt by a picture of just a single breast?

Clearly, I will not win this war by myself; thousands, if not millions of posts on social media have tried long before I wrote this Lettitor. Still, I do think it’s worth pointing out that one female breast, two female breasts, even nipples aren’t inherently sexual. Some pictures are, but it’s not just the body parts that make it so.

Check out the original review here

The freaks listen at night
By Matthew Fraser, Editor in Chief

If anything, listening late at night, ensorcelled in the magic of good headphones, gives you the best and clearest view of what the artist intended.

After years and years, I have conditioned myself to love the late nights. Something about the post 10 pm listening session just does that elusive ‘it’ for me. It’s often the most rewarding part of my day; whether it’s Spotify or a pile of records, the combination of nighttime + headphones can’t be beaten.

Maybe it’s the darkness inside my house and outside of my windows; maybe it’s the cup of tea or the dram—maybe two—of liquor that makes the music sound clearer. Maybe the rest of my brain turns down and I can just focus on the sounds and rhythms that come out of my headphones, but there is a strange and pleasing vividness that music takes on once the rest of the world has gone quiet.

Late nights made me really appreciate a good album. I remember huddling next to my radio as a kid late at night when I should have been asleep listening to The Ongoing History of New Music with Alan Cross. He’d talk about albums and recording studios I’d never heard of. He’d unearth hidden stories and details I never could have known. I’d go to the library after to find those albums and listen to them on my Walkman. That must be where my love for headphones and late-night listening began.

If anything, listening late at night, ensorcelled in the magic of good headphones, gives you the best and clearest view of what the artist intended. When you’re on the bus rubbing shoulders and jostling for space, you miss half the music. When you’re out for a walk you get more, but your attention isn’t devoted to the music. But when the night comes down, when you’re in your chair, when you can dedicate a few hours to the riddles and dreams of someone elses mind, that’s when you get the most from your music.

It’s like the headphones conjure the artist into your mind; it’s like the night removes every distraction. You can wrestle with the power of John Coltrane when midnight abandons you to A Love Supreme. The headphones are like a key, and behind that door, you can be soothed by Sade and A Love Deluxe. If that’s too much love, you’re welcome to a Pretty Hate Machine courtesy of the Nine Inch Nails.

But I have to warn you, there’s plenty of traps along your late-night journey. There’s the path of ‘just one more song’ and its culmination at daybreak. There’s the ‘can I get just an inch more from my system’ brutalization of your wallet. There’s the scourge of ever more obscure and specialized bands that Spotify can dig up, yet no one else has heard of. If you’re not careful, you may not start to live until the sun goes down and your headphones go on.