For those who haven’t picked up on his self-serving hints, let it be known to all that award winning poet* and aov genius Matthew Dorrell is now the Editor-in-Chief of The Cadre, the student newspaper at the University of Prince Edward Island.
I have criticized The Cadre in the past for reading as though it was written by five people with an intended audience of those same five people (I’m in trouble now – those five people are half of the aov readership). Matt’s first two issues have been interesting and point to an awareness of an audience beyond the dingy basement of Main Building where the paper is produced. The second issue also made tasteful use of a stock illustration. This is a remarkable feat in of itself (I’ll post a scan when I get the chance). I’m not surprised, but I am encouraged.
Congratulations Matt.
In semi-related news, watch UPEI’s Alumni Gym (and future site of their new Student Centre) burn to the ground.
I’ve been informed that the cover of the latest issue of the Cadre is not a stock illustration, confirming that there has never been a good use of stock illustrations. As it turns out its an orginal by Bill Matthews. Respect.
how many people is acts of volition written for? two?
as for stock illustrations, the back cover features a picture of humpty dumpty stolen out of a kids menu from joe’s warehouse in sydney (the classiest restaruant/warehouse in the industrial cape breton area). that’s the only stock illustration. bill matthew’s cover design is not only relevant to the issue, but it’s also a cool fucking design.
piss up a rope.
aov, like windom earle world, isn’t a newspaper for a university, so it doesn’t matter who it’s written for.
I was complimenting the illustration and the newspaper, which includes your articles, stephan (if I may use your real name). your Fact & Opinion on breastfeeding was gold.
you rappers are so sensitive.
rappers aren’t sensitive. they’re bad motherfuckers.
you’re compliments seemed kind of backhanded. and i’m sure if you compare issues from this year and last year, you’ll find little difference in terms of content. if we were writing for ourselves last year, we’re still doing it now. and calling someone’s artwork stock illustration sounds like a bit of an insult. even if it is qualified with “tasteful.”
that’s like saying, “he’s pretty fly, for a white guy.” – which is how i would describe kent bruyneel.
and windomearleworld is a newspaper for a university; the university college of coolbreezecity.
that’s UCCB.
and one
I would appear that some clarification is due. Apparently the sarcastic elements of my post were not as clearly distinguishable from the sincere portions as I had intended. Allow me to clarify.
I stand by my criticism that in the past The Cadre has read “as though [it was] written by five people with an intended audience of those same five people”. I will, however, clarify my criticism. I’ve found that The Cadre often felt like a niche or club newsletter with inside jokes, rather than addressing the student population (Which I assume is part of its purpose? Although I’d like to hear opinions on this.).
As for my comment about the “dinginess” of the basement of Main Building, I have to admit that while I have been in the basement of Main Building, I have not actually been inside the offices of The Cadre. One room I have unfortunately visited in the basement of Main Building is the women washroom. This is because the orientation of the men’s and women’s washrooms in the basement is the opposite of every other floor in that building. And it was early. And my glasses were fogged up (seriously, it was winter). A helpful woman explained to me that I should leave and we agree never to discuss it again.
As for my comments about the stock illustration, I was talking about the cover art of the second issue. I thought it was quite good. I assumed it was stock because it was obviously of professional quality and I presumed that The Cadre didn’t have a professional illustrator on staff (this may sound like another backhanded complement, but I think it’s fair to assume that no student newspaper has that kind of budget, nor would any good editor spend large sums on custom cover illustrations). I was wrong. It’s an original. I still like it.
My “Congratulations Matt” comment was not at all sarcastic. I think he’s doing a fine job, he’s deserving of the position, and I look forward to watching The Cadre improve under his leadership.
I’m not a student at UPEI anymore, but even when I was, I didn’t get off my ass and volunteer for The Cadre. However, I think it’s still reasonable to criticize as a reader (especially if my criticisms are to point out perceived subjective improvements). I understand that the staff does an enormous amount of work for little or no compensation.
I’m not sure whether to apologize for my ambiguous and confusing sarcasm or tell people to lighten up. Regardless, here is the sarcasm free version of the post (which I realize is somewhat sarcastic in its very existence):
re: bathroom confusion
Apparently this remains the source for many embarrasing situations on an almost daily level in the main building. It’s the fourth time I’ve heard of it happening (the othere 3 being this year). Though the others were female in the male washroom.
So to re-iterate: Cadre both “interesting” and “aware of an audience beyond the dingy basement of Main Building where the paper is produced.”
It is my solemn vow not to let these compliments expand my already bloated ego.
Also. I have never accidentally been in the women’s washroom.
Emphasis on accidentally.
Crazy twentysomethings.
“to an awareness of an audience beyond the dingy basement of Main Building where the paper is produced”
Shit. I knew we Forgot someone.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
The Cadre is trash.
The Cadre does not condone inside jokes. All humour in The Cadre can be understood within the context of The Cadre.
Actually, I take that back. Two years ago, when I was writing letters to the editor under various aliases, that was kind of inside joke-y. I don’t do things like that anymore, though.
One more thing:
Garrity: “I’ve found that The Cadre often felt like a niche or club newsletter with inside jokes, rather than addressing the student population (Which I assume is part of its purpose? Although I’d like to hear opinions on this.).”
Me: We were addressing the student population. We were saying, “Wake the fuck up!!!”
That’s just the problem Jeff Coll. You condescend to the rest of the student population. You’re telling us to wake the fuck up because that’s what you think we should do. And while I don’t agree with everything everyone on the UPEI campus believes in, who are you fine folks at the Cadre to dictate what they should and should not be doing. You run a great paper and should be commended but it doesn’t give you the right to judge all others who differ in opinion.
we’re talking about last year and this year. same staff (give or take a few people), same creative output, same shitty printer, and same goals.
a lot of people are commenting on some sort of mysterious change in the paper or a miraculous improvement, and i find this frustrating.
yes the paper looks amazing now (that’s because jeff coll is still laying it out). yes matt is a great editor. and yes i am still the king of comedy.
but to dismiss last year as some sort of inside joke, only shows how little you’ve actually read/understood. every issue last year was relevant to everyone on campus. even the “made up” satirical stories focused on campus issues, and targeted student politicians and figures that made decisions affecting campus life.
if you’re referring to the overall sense of humour of the paper as being inside jokes, you’re mistaken. the photo essays of the mole people, jeff and the drag queen, and any self depricating humour used in the paper is accessable to anyone with a sense of humour.
and further, to concentrate only on the humour in the paper is to neglect the overall contributions of the intelligent, and serious writers last year who covered issues like abortion on pei, parking on campus, gay and lesbian issues. no inside jokes there.
lastly, did you not read the christmas issue or the poetry issue? were these written for five people too?
i’m glad you like the latest issues, but you misrepresent everything that was accomplished last year leading up to the current incarnation of the cadre by dismissing them as inside jokes. but again, i’m assuming you didn’t actually read the paper by the fact that you missed all the things mentioned above.
The poetry issue last year was one of the best issues ever. I do not dismiss “everything that was accomplished”. I’m a big fan of KJB’s writing (former editor of The Cadre, now master of the fine ForgetMedia Empire).
I still think I should be able to criticize without getting shit on. For example, the Christmas and Poetry issues were very impressive last year. There was some really excellent poetry in there (Brent MacLean comes to mind, and if my memory serves me, windom earle had a hilarious ode to sweatpants). I liked the poetry.
However, I think that for some time now there has been a feeling among the general student population at UPEI that the newspaper is not written for them. If an audience complains that they don’t feel they are being addressed, I don’t think telling them that they just don’t get it is a good solution.
I have been reading The Cadre for years. I’m telling you what I’ve thought about The Cadre and what I have perceived in others. You can disagree, but suggesting that I haven’t read The Cadre just isn’t true. I’ve read it and these are my opinions.
We clearly disagree, and that’s fine. Perhaps we can have a more productive discussion about what a student newspaper is for. Who does it serve? What purposes does it serve?
geez, “tortured misunderstood artists” make the worst kind of pissant. learn to accept criticism, if aov steve isn’t 100% right, it’s still possible he’s 30% or even 10%. wake up.
criticism is alright as long as its backed up. i haven’t read any actual criticism or suggestions from steve’s posts. he’s just saying we’re whacking off on paper, which as i’ve been trying to argue, is untrue.
island edition is the perfect example of a media outlet that fails to hit its target audience.
This thread is why sophmoric is such a good word in denotation and assonance.
it’s sophomoric, dickweed.
IslandEdition WAS the perfect example of the typical sophomoric newspaper’s editor when he/she is 40. Or it’s humor columnist, or whomever.
It is an attempt to be relevant in a micro-society which will acknowledge their work to the degree in which it does not infringe on the ego’s of the acknowledgers. Much like any other place I suppose.
this isnt fukin engish class!!!!!
Yes it is “sophomoric” – a pedant, too…nice. [Good to see you can use a dictionary.]
The comment is not that there is anything wrong with being sophomoric but that it is inevitable and apparently still a condition to some degree in campus newspaper involvement. That is nice and not unexpected. Earnest folk ought to do the campus newsie thing when finding themselves located in a backwater after the teens in a liberal arts degree. But to claim the place to be rude and accusatory based on that place in life is to lack a little perspective. Well, that is maybe part of the condition and maybe not. Do what you want and do a good job at it but don’t be too defensive when someone else places it in perspective. Everything has that possibility. Not to see that possibility about one’s own interests is to be sfmrk.
On September 18th at Windom Earle World:
“the cadre is best newspaper in the world. but only cool people realize it. the rest can all go to hell.”
i agree wholeheartedly with that statement. who said that again?
Now all we need is a group of bystanders to chant,
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!“
>apparently still a condition to some degree in campus newspaper involvement
You have that much familiarity with all campus newspapers? I’ve read literally 100s, lots of them are decent, lots aren’t, but they are not all sophmoric nor are the people that make them-from my pov they are not sophmoric enough actually. However, sophmoric is a good word and fun to type: sophmoric (everyone try!).
Find a “sophmoric” moment in the Poetry issue/the Christmas issue? What is your definition of a clearly subjective state like “sophmporic” (now that we all know we can use a dictionary?)
If you call humour you don’t like sophmoric, by way of dismissal, then really it is you with the problem. Same thing with the people who think JC is talking down to them. He’s three feet tall, it’s not even possible, shit, I’m the one doing the talking down.
To wit: I am in grad school now, surrounded by hugely talented fellow editors/publishers, and am awed; but no more so than I was in that dingy basement. In short ol’ sport(s), you dont even know how good you(s) had (have) it/got (gonna get )it. I bet that in less than ten years at least four of the people who work/ed at that paper will make a signifigant contribution to art and culture in ways you will all appreciate. They already have (cough, cough).
It’s a great staff making that paperr, be it a student one or one made by angry midgets (it’s both actually). Is that so hard to understand all My Good People?
It’s people who see a student publication as automatically inferior, even if they have no proof, and no decent option (See: The Buzz, See: The Guardian) that make it so: a self-dilluding judgement.
I bet you never read The Cadre, but you use words like assonance, and that makes you seem literate. It’s a cover. Take this test, and be honest: Take the last 22 (including 2 this year which I have not seen but am sure are great) issues of The Cadre and 22 issues of The Buzz and The Guardian, and compare them on how easy and enjoyable they are to read. Take the fucking suirveyor which you wouldnt call sophmoric so much as shitty and boring. Let me know what you decide.
The first year I was the Cadre’s editor it was pretty bad. Last year, b/c of a lot of amazing people it was good, sometimes great, and this year it will be even beter (that is how it is supposed to work).
The implication that it is better is not a backhanded compliment, and the that it needed to expand it’s audience is a good point, and I would not shit on you for saying either of those things; but the assertion that one person makes it so is just wrong. An editor dont make a paper all alone.
I hired Matt, have written a novel with him, and have at least two other continuing projects with him and he will be, maybe already is, a far better editor at The Cadre than I ever was.
And that is good. I think the point here, which is not sophmoric, or worthy of some haute “adult” brush-off is that the paper you are seeing this year, is the same paper you saw last year because of so many good people, except Matt Dorrell, the fucking spectacular Matt Dorrell, is now the Editor, the rest, as the man says is “same as it ever was.”
As for what Stephan said on his website, what would you have him say? AOV geniuses? Forget Empire? Same shit. You should believe in what you publish. right?
And now I suggest, instead of spellchecking, a healthy round of television-where the sophmore is King-for all.
Thank you.
We can conclude with this thread with some agreed points and likely some not. I am an old fart. I have not read the Cadre closely. I did not even comment – or at least mean to comment – at all about the quality of the Cadre. I did not mean to suggest that it is uniquely in a backwater as, really, anyone east of Montreal and north of Boston is. I commented about the qualities of active and earnest liberal arts undergrads who use language harshly and, I think, naturally unskillfully to some degree. This thread started as measured praise but was joined by nasty defensiveness rather than perspective. That is the thing I didn’t like. I foolishly and probably unskillfully myself entered and sought to so comment. Probably looked like the old fart. Doing earnest things in undergrad is good. I would never want to come across as saying that as I would be hypocritical to myself 20 years ago. You will be very surprised, however, who succeeds based on undergrad activities and successes and who doesn’t. Do believe in what you publish. Don’t believe you are a genius. Don’t believe 4 of 10 will change the world. The almost geniuses I have met – real almost ones – now are less happy with their lot in life than they would have imagined – divorced, bored, no longer earnest despite true professional success. Also, such a focus detracts from the words to think of yourself. Be proud of your words and the best you can do to put them together. Unhappy with how I put my foot in here, I went and read some Charles Bruce last night. Little fame, not a genuis but someone who noticed things and shared them with skill.
Before we get upset at this petty insult (which I do not condone, btw), let us all acknowledge its fine execution.
May we end this conversation now.
Being called a misunderstood artist is redundant, not insulting.
Always refer to yourself as a genius. AOV members do, Dave Eggers does, and look at us now! Superstars, all of us.
And speaking of Dave Eggers, you should definitely find Nick Hornby’s new anthology, “Speaking with the Angel.” The whole book is excellent (except for Irvine Welsh), but Eggers’ story, which is titled something like “After I Fell in The Water and Before I Drowned,” is one of the most beautiful things I have read in some time.
NOTE: the element missing from the cadre this year can be found in the University of Victoria’s Martlet. Anyone not getting enough in jokes, petty bickering and blatently gratuitous use of foul language can look there.
Dorrell: Your probably under The Cadre… Make no mistake.
I believe you mean “you’re”. So yes, exactly.
Hey, I’ll even close that italics tag for you. Better, yes?
I’m not so sure about that Matthew
I proved it right years ago.
Man the new Michael Jackson video is distrubing. He has, over the last ten years, removed his own nose (ah..to be rich). Michael Madsen certainly did not cut it off, but he could have got an ear because he plays a generic thug in the video. Also, Marlon Brando plays a leather desk chair.
Here, let me close this tag for you…
</anal>
Better, Yes?
“It’s people who see a student publication as automatically inferior, even if they have no proof, and no decent option (See: The Buzz, See: The Guardian) that make it so: a self-dilluding judgement.”
the buzz is a decent option now that coolbreeze has his own page.
i take that back. if you pick up the buzz just read my page, and take out the that’s entertainment coupon.
Man, does AOV have any cool banners? We could do ours in old school KISS lettering.
Why you should be reading vincentland:
nah, the lettering is metallica, and it’s been done to death.
actually the lettering is Pastor of Muppets and can be downloaded here.
and garrity, don’t worry, I’m already one step ahead of you:
“Why you should be reading vincentland:”
Click that link, the man cannot link. I tells ya.
the editor of old mentors the editor of new.
good call bruyneel, i’ll see if i can flow you a vincentland tee-shit.
Ok. Yeah, I know Vince’s banner is imitating Metallica, I’m just saying when we get our own kickass rock banner, we’ll have KISS lettering. Dig? And no, the link didn’t work, but that ain’t news.
aw, its embarassing when you make a typo in an animated gif. Actss of volition. teehee
Good observation, but it was intended. I thought the extra ‘s’ would more closely resemble the famous ‘Kiss’ logo. Try typing it with only one ‘s’ in that font, it looks kinda dumb.
But I think we’re all missing the point here. The question that’s been bugging me is if Dorell looks sexier with his make-up on or off?
i respect the way the ‘s’es work.
make-up off is sexier.
your best friend
morning chubby
Don’t get my wrong here, I think he looks delicious with his make-up off, but the image of him painted up like Gene Simmons, blood pouring out of his mouth, and writting the cadre editorial is definitely more erotic.
So much good comes of a good hair pulling nail scratching fight. I got my four back issues of the Cadre and enjoyed it very much. Interesting that the issues for undergrads in 2001 are much the same as was the case in 1981: Money, beer, soviet style graphics, money for beer.
We like to kick it old school. Glad you enjoyed it.