Instead I went to the much smaller and seperately chartered University of King's College where I got a combined honours degree in journalism and philosophy (known in the biz as the Dying Industry Special).
Because King's is right next to Dal and they share credits, people often say to me "Oh, isn't King's just part of Dalhousie?" to which I usually reply with some combination of the words "off" and "fuck."
King's students have the stereotype of being Nietzsche-quoting-drum-circle-participating-stoned-NDP-voting snobs who rarely wash. I accept this. I accept this because it is still better than being forced to associate with Dal, and I'd like to thank the Dalhousie Student Union for once again illustrating why.
It started last year when students at l'Université du Québec à Montréal made a big lip sync video to the awful Black Eyed Peas song I Gotta Feeling (sample lyrics include listing the days of the week and repeating "tonight's gonna be a good night" 26 times.)
But it seems they were the first university to do it and they got a ton of media coverage so good on them, I guess. But then Dalhousie (real slogan: Inspiring Minds) decided to one-up their Quebecois counterparts by doing the exact same thing only a year later and with an even worse song.
The result: Dalifornia Girls. I'm sure that somewhere out there the UQAM students are bowing their heads and muttering "touché."
If you haven't figured it out by now,they're not doing the Beach Boys one.
Fun Fact: They cleverly titled the video "Dalhousie Student Union - California Girls - Lip Dub" so that it is impossible to find it by searching "Dalifornia Girls" in either google or Youtube.
OK, so credit to the DSU for finding one of the rare plays on the word California not already taken by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but did picking a song celebrating the polar opposite corner of the continent not raise any red flags?
Sure all the references to sunshine and beaches and bikinis still could apply to Halifax. They just happen to apply to the only four months of the year students are not here.
Most baffling of all is that according to this Dal News piece the organizers narrowly picked the Katy Perry song over... Joel Plaskett.
So Joel Plaskett, one of Nova Scotia's most famous musicians whose songs continually references his love for his home and would stand distinct from the pop music of previous videos, was beaten out by a tune about palm trees and short shorts.
I'd like to stop here and reiterate that at no point was I registered as a Dalhousie student. I did take a few courses there but they were mandatory credits, I swear.
Except for History of Russian Film, which admittedly was awesome.
Anyway, how did this happen? That's like like Memorial University in Newfoundland passing over Great Big Sea to lipdub the Insane Clown Posse. (On further consideration, that would be awesome. MUN students: please do this one.)
It's curious that the university's official news organ chose to rev up the hype machine rather than quietly face palm. The story interprets the video's almost 9,000 hits as "quickly becoming a Facebook and Twitter sensation" and "going viral."
Farbeit from me to point out when something smacks of desperation, but as of this writing there's a little over 10,000 views, which is still less than the student population of Dal. On the Going Viral scale that barely merits a sneeze compared to the Double Rainbow guy who's on his deathbed clinging for life (On the Going Viral scale, being on the deathbed is good.)
Now it appears some commentors are complaining about the video sending the wrong message.
"Female scholars here work hard & deserve better from you," says one commentor on twitter.
"'I'm saddened that in 2010, Dalhousie is proud to be promoting it's university as a place to meet women. Wrong message. Incredibly embarassing for students, faculty, staff and the community at large," reads a comment on DalNews.
Typical politically correct nilly-nannying. Young women today just choose to express their liberation by flocking behind men wearing pimp apparel in videos made to welcome incoming students. Get over it, grandmas.
Progress.And to be fair, most of Joel Plaskett's songs include lyrics worse than "we freak in my jeap" and "kiss her/ touch her/ squeeze her buns". I'm pretty sure all his references to "the Khyber" are just filthy metaphors.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for Dal, but it's not something I will personally be following because - and I cannot stress this enough - I did not go there.
6 comments:
I went to Dal, and was actively involved in the DSU as Vice-President as well as a member of the Frosh Week Organizing Committee for four years. Do I think the video is corny and annoying? Absolutely. However, do I applaud these folks for trying to market to a new generation of students coming to Dalhousie? Even more absolutely.
Dalhousie is thought of as the snobby school in Nova Scotia. Everyone thinks the school spirit is at X, or Acadia. I know, I took the ribbings from my friends when I decided to do my BSc there. These students are trying to change that, so we should applaud them. They didn't pick Joel Plaskett, but who cares? Nova Scotia picked Jesus Jones' "Right Here Right Now" to market our province. Not Joel Plaskett, not Matt Mays, not whoever else we have.
If this happened at St.FX with an Xzibit song about "X", Nova Scotia would be celebrating their creativity and spirit.
Doesn't make me any more likely to go to Dalhousie.
But as a SMU alum and a King's alum, I already had it in me to not want to go there.
Cheesy,but at least it's kinda fun. Cut out the girls who can't walk in heels, but the male mermaid can stay.
Forget the song choice, the kinda-skanky outfits, etc. The real travesty is how poorly choreographed, lip-synced the video is, with equally weak camera work. If you're going to do it, do it right. Ohio State University did a great one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNOB6TnHSI
It looked like it was a fun thing to put together... pretty harmless.
I have to disagree with Jill, I don't think that the point was an expensive, polished marketing strategy... I think the deal was that the kids showed up on a Sunday morning and had the video wrapped up by dinner. A long, one-shot thing like that isn't easy under the best conditions, I think they did a great job putting that together.
At this point, I'd usually take a cheap-shot at Kings, but hell, I was in the Music Department at Dal and we might as well of had a seperate charter for the amount of University integration we had... so I'll pass on that.
End of day, we're talking about it, other people are talking about it, and for the most part the reactions seem to be on the side of "oh isn't that neat" so I can't say this was a mistake on the SU's part.
As I write this, Katy Perry just posted a tweet... wonder what she would think of the video?
Also, I have to change my user name... haven't used this thing in a few years it seems.
Jason
Fact: Most of the other University lip dub videos (that I've seen) are much better choreographed, more complex and have better camera work than this one. As far as quality goes, this is on the bottom end of the bunch.
Fact: California Girls really has no connection whatsoever to the East Coast and very little to university life, apart from the "gin and juice" line and the sexual innuendo.
Fact: None of that matters. It's a cute video that had a fair amount of work put into it and is serving the purpose it was meant to serve. Apart from the skanky outfits, those involved should be pleased with the result.
I don't agree that Dalhousie should get "points" for marketing their university to "a younger generation." At least I don't think universities should encourage the younger generation to be more sexy-hyped than they already are. Just another way to dumb down the university.
Perhaps they should take some "marketing" tips from Trent U, and build some three-year programs. That leaves a whole extra year for partying, right?
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