Around campus

Fourteen days of fun for Post-Graduate Students' Society

Owen Egan

What do brewery tours, boat cruises, trivia contests and speed dating have in common? They all are featured activities of the Post-Graduate Students' Society's Welcome Week. In fact, Welcome Week actually spans 14 days, running from September 2-16, which begs the question, shouldn't a post-grad have caught the misnomer?

Regardless, September 2 kicks off with orientation sessions for new grad students presented by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in the Thomson House Ballroom. Festivities begin in earnest on the 6th, with at least one activity daily (or nightly) until the 16th. Events include guided tours of Mount Royal, biking along the Lachine Canal, the PGSS version of The Amazing Race, a trivia contest and the customary wine-and-cheese get-together.

While most events are designed as fun ways for returning post-grads to meet new ones, others are more serious. During the Special Recruitment Meeting on September 14, the PGSS Council will seek over 100 representatives to serve on internal committees and as PGSS external representatives to university policy and academic committees. Last year, more than 7,800 graduate students attended McGill, making this type of representation crucial for the PGSS and its members.

For more info on the PGSS and Welcome Week, go to www.pgss.mcgill.ca. Thomson House, of which all graduate students are members, is at 3650 McTavish St.

Love Machine rumbles into town

COURTESY OF SAT

Nothing says "good times" like a night of beautiful people, funky music and great art — unless, of course, it's a night of beautiful people, funky music, great art and interactive installations. On September 3, Arscenique Productions will host a multi-disciplinary event called "Love & the Machine" that will include, among other things, a vernissage, a fashion show and a marathon concert.

Christine La Fontaine, a cultural studies and music technology student at McGill, is one of the event's organizers. Understandably, she is pretty pumped for the big day. "We've been planning this show for a year," she says. "A lot of what people will see and hear has been created specifically with this theme of love and the machine in mind." Part of the proceeds will go to support the campus and community radio station CKUT.

The evening kicks off with a cinq-à-sept vernissage displaying the work of a host of local and international artists. One of the highlights promises to be award-winning artist Scott MacLeod's Sacred Feminine and Masculine, an interactive installation representing the cycle of life and death of men and women.

At 9:30 pm, the crowd will be treated to a fashion show by Montreal's Ritual Designs, an outfit specializing in corsets and vinyl clothing. The catwalk will then give way to the dance floor as such notables as Sick Puppy, Wayback Machine, Quadraceptor and Vitaminsforyou will get patrons shaking their corseted moneymakers well into the night.

"Love & the Machine," Saturday, September 3, at the Society for Arts and Technology, 1195 Saint-Laurent Blvd. Admission: $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Vernissage begins at 5 pm. Visit www.arscenique.org for more information.

Fighting cancer all year round

Calendar to End Breast Cancer cover
PBL PHOTOGRAPHY

As PhD students doing cancer research at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH), Randy Levitt and Sabrina Perri know first-hand how devastating the disease can be. And, while both signed up for the upcoming Weekend to End Breast Cancer walkathon (August 26-28), they wanted to do something more.

Levitt proposed creating the "Calendar to End Breast Cancer." Picturing some of the women who work at the JGH — posed in lab coats, not lingerie — the calendar also contains information about breast cancer and a diagram on how to perform a breast self-examination.

The calendar can be purchased for $10 at various locations around Montreal, including the JGH. For each calendar sold, $9 goes directly to the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. Proceeds from the weekend will benefit the JGH's Segal Cancer Centre.

For more information or to order the calendar online, go to www.endcancercalendar.ca. For more information regarding the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, go to www.endcancer.ca.

Summer sloth? Fall back into shape

Keeping active during the lazy days of summer isn't always easy and, as a result, some of us have a little too much behind behind us. Put down that pork chop and pick up your pilates mat! Beer belly? Whip it into shape with a little belly dancing.

ISTOCK PHOTO

Beginning on September 12, lunch-hour fitness classes ranging from Aqua Fitness and Latin Aerobics to Hatha Yoga and Tai Chi will be offered to staff members with a valid ID.

However, if you've missed registration — August 25 is the last day — you still have no excuse. The Fitness Centre is in the last phases of renovations and when it reopens on September 6, it will have doubled in size and will be stocked with new cardio equipment and weight training machines. If that isn't enough, the centre will also boast a 2,200 square foot mind/body room that caters to the growing number of yoga and pilates enthusiasts.

For more information call 398-7000 or see www.athletics.mcgill.ca.