WHO: United Nations Development Program at UofT

WHAT: Their first general meeting

WHEN: Thursday, January 26, 2012 from 3-5pm

WHERE: Hart House South Dining Hall

For more information go to: http://www.facebook.com/events/212639118825261/

And so, my New Year’s Resolutions of a U
of T student:

Optimistically:

1. Get Straight A’s – Do all readings, study all the
   time, and get essays done well before due dates for maximum editing.
2. Be Super Healthy – Go to Hart House or the A.C. every
   day to work out and stop eating at food trucks/fast food places on campus.
3. Be a Tourist – Experience all the amazing attractions
   Toronto has to offer that you keep putting off because of school.
4. Have a Social Life – Go out on weekends and enjoy this
   wonderful city you may have only seen through the windows at Robart’s last
   semester.
5. But Not Too Much of a Social Life – Because you’ll be
   super busy with resolution #1, that is, getting straight A’s by studying all
   the time.
6. Stop Bad Habits – And replace them with all of these
   amazing habits immediately and without struggle.

Realistically:

1. Don’t Fail – This is definitely doable.
2. Start off Super Healthy – Then let it go once midterms
   roll around, because who has the time?
3. Be a Tourist – For the first weekend back, and then go
   back to being too busy.
4. Have a Social Life – Thursday through Saturday.
5. But Study on Sunday – Now you’ll definitely achieve
   resolution #1.
6. Continue Bad Habits – But have the intention to stop
   them and pride yourself in that!

Bombgirls
Starting January 4
Following in the nostalgic-historic vein of Mad Men, Pan-Am and the now-cancelled Playboy Club, Bombgirls is a six part miniseries depciting the lives of several Canadian women who work at a munitions factory during World War II.  Though billed as a drama that will explore discrimination and societal problems, advertisements and teasers show there will likely be a substantial presence of music, fashion, passion, and the like to appeal to an audience eager to romanticize about the past. Oscar nominee Meg Tilly will lead the program as one of the bomb girls.

Smash
Starting February 6
The long-anticipated Spielberg-produced TV musical Smash is about the cast and production team of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, set to music by Marc Shaiman (Hairspray) and starring Debra Messing (Will and Grace). Though production began years ago, its premiere will come just a few short months after Glee’s extended hiatus began, scooping up a dedicated fanbase eager for musical television melodrama. Smash‘s original music and lyrics and grown-up cast are likely to give it a very different vibe from Glee, however, so don’t expect it to be more of the same.

Apartment 23
Starting January 16
Originally called Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23, this ABC sitcom centers around two contentious young women (roommates) and their quirky friends and neighbours. Currently airing programs that are more or less identical: 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, and I Hate my Teenage Daughter, which is to say nothing of the dozens of odd-couple sitcoms that have passed through the airways over the years. Perhaps Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars, 27 Dresses) can make the show stand out in the slew of otherwise similar sitcoms.

The River
Movies like The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Cloverfield, and Apollo 18 have popularized the found-footage genre of mock home videos in recent years and shown just how effective they can be for supernatural horror-thrillers. The River capitlizes on this idea as it purportedly shows the actual footage taken by a family and rescue crew searching for a lost father deep in the Amazon. Created by Oren Peli of Paranormal Activity fame and starring Joe Anderson from Across the Universe, The River has the distinct possibility of creating a new genre of found footage television.

Arctic Air
Starting January 10
Good Canadian television airs so infrequently that it is a rare treat that two such promising shows should be debuting in the mid-season. Like Bombgirls, Arctic Air is an hour-long Canadian drama. It focuses on the lives and missions of pilots flying supplies to remote communities across the north, and is centred in Yellowknife. Based on the stories of real pilots and adventures, Arctic Air will star TV veteran Adam Beach (Law & Order: SVU, Flags of Our Fathers) and promises to offer excitement and thrills or, at the very least, mild patriotic enthusiasm.

Other shows debuting this winter:

• An animated TV series of Napoleon Dynamite
• a suspenseful drama by J.J. Abrams called Alcatraz
• a Texan comedy called GCB (Good Christian Bitches)
• a quasi-supernatural thriller called Touch, starring Kiefer Sutherland
• a spin-off of Bones called The Finder
• an action-drama called Missing
• a legal thriller based on a John Grisham novel called The Firm

Factory Theatre
Location: 125 Bathurst Street (at Queen)
Cost: Pay-what-you-can
Caveat: Only on Sunday matinees, only certain shows, available only one hour before curtain, not guaranteed
The first company in Toronto dedicated exclusively to Canadian pieces, many a play premiered at Factory has gone on to enter the Canadian canon. 2011’s highlights included Ronnie Burkett’s breathtaking puppet show Billy Twinkle and a revival of the classic The Rez Sisters, one of many in a series of ‘colour-blind’ productions by director Ken Gass. Pay-what-you-can tickets are sold one hour before curtain, but are only for certain shows and only ever on Sunday. It’s always a good idea to call ahead to see if there are tickets still available and, if there are, to buy them: you may witness the birth of the next Canadian classic.

Theatre Passe Muraille
Location: 16 Ryerson Avenue (At Bathurst and Queen)
Cost: Pay-what-you-can
Caveat: Only Saturday matinees, only certain shows, available only at box office, not guaranteed
One of Toronto’s oldest and most innovative theatre companies, Passe Muraille often appeals to students due to their productions’ willingness to take risks and stray from tradition. Sunday matinees are pay-what-you-can at the box office, but get there early before they’re sold out. In 2012, be sure to check out the premiere of the theatrical adaptation of Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran.

TOtix / hiptix
Location: Yonge-Dundas Square / online
Cost: Varies
Caveat: Varies
TOtix is Toronto’s answer to New York’s TKTS, a service that offers discounted tickets to plays throughout many of the city’s theatre companies. Their website is updated weekly with new discounts, but many are for one date only and sell fast, so be sure to check regularly. Some discounted tickets are available only in person at their box office at Yonge-Dundas Square.
Hiptix is a service for students aged 15 – 29 that can be accessed through TOtix. It offers severely discounted tickets for shows across the city – usually $5 plus tax, but occasionally up to $15. This is the cheapest way to get tickets to plays at companies that do not otherwise offer student prices or more accessible tickets, and should be taken advantage of in the fullest. The sales record or receipt of any purchase made through TOtix should be printed out and brought with you to the theatre, along with the credit card with which you paid for them and valid ID.

Soulpepper Theatre Company
Location: Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District
Cost: $5
Caveat: Available only one hour before curtain, not guaranteed, requires ID (21 and younger)
Soulpepper is one of Toronto’s fastest growing theatre companies, and for good reason: their productions are consistently excellent. 2011’s highlights included a brilliant production of Death of a Salesman and the world premiere of Double Bill: e.e. cummings in Song / Window on Toronto, as well as setting a Canadian record by mounting nine simultaneous shows in June. Rush tickets are only $5 for students (compared to $60 prepaid full price tickets) and require presentation of a valid student ID. Most shows will not be sold out, but some, such as 2010’s A Christmas Carol, are sold out for their duration. Productions to check out in 2012: Kim’s Convenience, Speed-the-Plow, Endgame, and the triumphant return of Death of a Salesman.

Hart House Theatre
Location: Hart House
Cost: $10
Caveat: Requires valid student ID, only Wednesday evenings, not guaranteed unless purchased online through uofttix
Located in the centre of our fair St. George campus, Hart House Theatre’s annual mix of Shakespeare, contemporary drama, and Broadway musicals draws in a nice crowd of students, alumni, and the theatre-going public at large. Student tickets are $10 on Wednesdays, but only $15 on other days of the week if you can’t make it for the full discount. 2011 hits included Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Macbeth; 2012 will see Cabaret and The Night of the Iguana.

Tarragon Theatre
Location: 30 Bridgman Avenue (at Bathurst & Dupont)
Cost: $12
Caveat: Only on Sunday matinees and Friday evenings, only certain shows, available only one hour before curtain at box office, not guaranteed
Fans of the Oscar-nominated Incendies might be fascinated to know that its English-language premiere occurred at our very own Tarragon Theatre, located in a renovated cribbage-board factory just north of the old midtown rail-road tracks. Tarragon mounts about as many original plays as it does established, so don’t be surprised to see experimental pieces nestled in among the classics on its calendar. $12 rush tickets are available for most shows on Fridays and Sundays one hour before curtain, but they go quickly. In 2012, look for the English-language premiere of The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs.

Canadian Stage Company (CanStage)
Location: 27 Front Street East / 26 Berkeley Street
Cost: $12.50
Caveat: Requires ID (29 and younger), not guaranteed unless purchased online
The only company on this list that offers guaranteed student-discount tickets for pre-order, CanStage is also one of the largest theatre companies in Toronto. Their two locations – the massive Bluma Appel Theatre on Front Street and the smaller Berkeley Street Theatre – offer shows simultaneously, so there’s always a selection. When ordering online, simply enter the code you receive upon registration in the promotional codes box and all prices will be reduced to $12.50. 2011 highlights included Another Africa and Red; 2012 will bring, among others, Beckett: Feck It! and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park.
CanStage also offers pay-what-you-can tickets to Monday performances beginning at 10:00 AM on the day of. Availability of these tickets is subject to change.

In a city as large, diverse, and artistic as Toronto, naming every theatre company is a nearly-impossible task. Those mentioned above are some of the city’s largest (excluding DanCap and Mirvish, which are notoriously student-unfriendly) but there are many more: Obsidian Theatre Company, Clay and Paper Theatre Company, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, Acting Up Theatre Company, Studio 180 Theatre Company, Second City Comedy Club, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Company, Nightwood Theatre Company, and many more. Some of them offer student discounts to select shows and some do not, but all offer exceptional programming and are worth checking out if you are able.

Reflections

My brother got a turtle wall calendar and an anthology of H. P Lovecraft, my mother got a high-quality retro-style kitchen timer, my best friend got an irreverent guide to –isms, and my cousin got a flip calendar of 365 words to make her sound smarter. Of the gifts I gave this season these were the highlights, or at the very least the presents that were best-received. I was very aware when I gave them, having spent the past little while writing and thinking about the act of gift-giving. I paid close attention to my recipients’ reactions and what their first thoughts on their gifts were. As predicted, the newspaper wrapping did little to impress but a lot to conceal and titillate, the cards were meager but heartfelt, and the knowledge that these gifts represented a shared pleasure among me and my friends. Is my soul liberated? I don’t know. Did I feel just as warm and fuzzy as my recipients when sharing the moments with my friends and family? Absolutely.

Miscellanea (AKA Qs I Wish Were FA)

Q: Are there any gifts I should never buy?

A: Candles seem to be very popular as presents even though they’re a poor choice 99.99% of the time; they come off looking very last-minute and poorly thought-out. Scented candles may also be implying something about your recipient’s home. Seriously.

Q: I am exchanging gifts with someone for the first time this year, and I don’t know the value of what they’re going to get me. What do I do?

A: Remember that your recipient is in the same boat you are, and come up with your closest ballpark guess. Then, once you’ve opened the gift they’ve gotten you, make sure to gush about it and compliment as much as possible: if it’s more expensive than the one you’ve bought you’ll be letting the giver know you truly appreciate the extra dollar they’ve put in; if it’s less expensive than the one you’ve bought they’ll feel better knowing that you don’t feel their gift is inadequate.

Q: I notice a disturbing omission of home-made gifts in your posts. What’s up with that, you consumerist monster?

A: I haven’t bothered to write about home-made presents because there is very little I can say about them. What you make is a reflection of you and what you want to express, and I can’t really evaluate if what you’re expressing is right or not. When in doubt, a store-bought gift is the way to go, but if you’re certain of your ability to make a gift that meets rules 1 and 2 from Part 2, go for it.

Q: What are your thoughts on gift receipts?

A: Always include a gift receipt for clothing and electronics, in case they need to be returned because they don’t fit or are defective. In other cases, gift receipts make it seem as though you want or expect your recipient to exchange your gift and that you doubt the quality of the gift you’ve bought. Part of the joy of getting a present is the knowledge that is was chosen for you, but a gift receipt makes it seem as though you are choosing for yourself.

Q: What are your thoughts on gift cards?

A: Gift cards are excellent presents for people you don’t know very well. Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Cineplex, and Indigo! are almost guaranteed hits because of their popularity and/or large selections. Do not give a gift card to someone you know well for the same reason you shouldn’t give them an arbitrary present with a gift receipt: it’s lazy and impersonal.

Q: Do I get gifts for my professors or TAs?

A: Uh, no. It may seem like a nice gesture, and I hazard one in every 5 professors and TAs would genuinely appreciate it, but the rest would likely interpret a holiday present as an attempt at apple-polishing. If you feel you have a truly special relationship with your TA or professor you could give it a shot, but it’s risky. People for whom you should buy (small) presents: peer mentors, FLC leaders, advisors, academic dons, and other staff in your residence you see frequently. Good small gift ideas include small boxes of chocolate or candy from Shoppers and low-value gift cards to coffee shops.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this series on student holiday gift-giving as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Have a merry rest of the holidays, a happy (and safe) New Year, and enjoy the rest of your winter break. You’ve earned it.

Gift Wrapping

Though it may seem like an old-fashioned redundancy to some, gift-wrapping can make your present that much more appealing and exciting. Wrapping should be reserved to six-sided gifts and presents that won’t look awkward covered in paper. For gifts of other shapes and sizes, try putting them at the bottom of a gift bag stuffed with tissue paper or in an appropriate-sized box that you can then wrap. Stores like Indigo!, Dollarama, and Shoppers Drug Mart sell a wide variety of solid-coloured and patterned wrappings, but there are plenty of cheaper or free options for us cash-strapped students:

• Newspaper – There are literally dozens of free newspapers circulated on campus, all of which can become free and nifty gift wrap. For UofT students, try using the official newspaper from your recipient’s college. Foreign-language newspapers are especially cool.
• Maps – Who uses maps when we have the internet? Exactly! Paper maps are things of the past, so people shouldn’t mind parting with them. Ask your friends if you don’t have any of your own.
• Comic books – For $2 you can pick up a comic book from a nearby retailer and surprise your friends and family by wrapping their gifts in comic book pages. Just gently remove the staples – no tearing – and you’ll have 16 sheets of bold-coloured, eye-catching, onomatopoeia-blaring wrapping paper. For smaller gifts only.
• Potato Chip Bag – Credit for this one goes to the brilliant minds at Martha Stewart Living. Buy one of those foil bags of potato chips, cut it open along the seem, clean it thoroughly with a damp cloth and dish soap, and wrap with the silver side down. Works with other food packaging as well. For smaller gifts only.

To learn the basics of gift-wrapping, check out this tutorial.

Cards

So you’ve got the perfect gift and it looks – if you’ll pardon my language – dope; now all you need is the adjoining card. Cards are a good way of letting your recipient know the gift is from you even if you’re not handing it to them in person, but they’re also a nice memento to keep even after the wrapping is torn and gone. The trick with writing a gift card is that simplicity is key; don’t get too mushy or poetic. Never buy a mass-produced drug store-type card – they’re tacky and impersonal, and even scrawling “Merry Christmas” in magic marker on printer paper is preferable. Special cards that are produced in limited quantity, however, such as those sold at Kelly Library made by St Michael’s College’s antique printers, can be a beautiful addition to your gift.

Etiquette

While many of the rituals considered within the realm of etiquette are no longer practised due to their apparent obsolescence, it’s okay to check the book every now and again to figure out exactly what the best way to go about something like this is. For me, that book is The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette, the best-selling guide by American etiquette expert Amy Vanderbilt. The 1995 edition I picked up at a used book store has paid for itself time and again, such as when I hosted a dinner party with between 7 and 12 guest and only one maid, or when I had to give that toast at an engagement party in which most of the guests were on the bride’s side and I on the groom’s. In regards to gift-giving, Amy offers these wonderful tips:

1. Keep a record of every gift you’re given and every gift you give and by whom. This will allow you to take note of who gave you gifts last year, which will allow you to determine to whom you will give this years’.
2. Re-gifting is perfectly acceptable, so long as you completely rewrap the gift and remove any evidence it was intended for you, and give it someone the recipient does not know.
3. At a party, put the gifts you’ve brought with the others already there and do not present them to their recipients until everyone else does. If you find that you’re the only one who’s brought gifts, try to hide them as best as you can until you can discreetly give them away.
4. Giving a gift in person is always preferable to sending your assistant or valet [or friend].
5. It is presumptuous to assume that a gift to be used by more than one person (i.e.: tickets to an event) given by you to someone else will be shared with you. It is also rude to directly request this. If you would like to join your guest, ask with whom they were planning to share the present and mention how exciting it sounds.
6. Bringing up a gift someone’s given you in the past in conversation (i.e.: “oh, I was just reading that book you got me…”) is a good way to build a connection. However, mentioning a gift that someone else has given you can be alienating.

Holiday Shopping Near Campus

1. BMV Books - 471 Bloor Street West

Most UofT students are already familiar the gigantic and glorious BMV bookstore. Its proximity to campus and wide selection of academic and literary books at reasonable prices makes it a popular spot for students to pick up textbooks and stimulating reads. What many students don’t realize, however, is that BMV is also an excellent source for holiday shopping on a budget. Their selection is enormous and includes graphic novels, beautiful hardcover art books, cookbooks, popular fiction, and a strong international selection including classics in other languages and translations from all over the world. Remember the first guideline from Part Two: a gift should reflect your relationship with the recipient? Well, there’s always a book for that. If you two are in the same club or class, you can get a book on that topic. If your recipient has expressed interest in taking up knitting or sewing or cooking or yoga or sketching or interpretive dance, there’s a book for that. If your beneficiary has a particular sense of humour or appreciation for a certain type of poetry or style, you’re sure to find a novel or anthology that they’ll appreciate – you just need to do a little digging first. BMV salespeople know the store well, but with the sheer volume of texts available it’s unlikely that they can recommend anything to exact specifications. Just take your time, soak up the literary atmosphere, and flip through books like crazy until you’ve found the right one.

2. Blue Banana Market - 250 Augusta Avenue (Kensington Market)

Blue Banana is a marketplace that rents out space to a variety of different vendors throughout the store, creating an interesting and eclectic mix of goods for sale. At times it’s possible to find a beautiful watercolour, an hilarious fridge magnet, vintage candy, and awesome winter hats within a few metres of each other. Blue Banana tends to run a little pricey, but with the amount of one-of-a-kind and hard-to-find gifts there, it’s worth it. The great variation of items for sale makes the BB a great source of inspiration if you’re unsure of what to buy; something’s bound to pop out at you. And if not, you can at the very least enjoy a Double Decker Bar.

Apparently, some people don't find this as awesome as I do. Weird, right?

3. The Eaton’s Centre - 220 Yonge Street

Probably the most conventional location on this list, the Eaton’s Centre is by far the best reason to ever risk running into a Ryerson student out there in the wild southeast. An enormous shopping mall the likes of which many have never seen, The Eaton’s Centre covers an entire city block in the heart of downtown with a wide variety of fashion stores and other typical mall-y stuff. They also have an Indigo! bookstore and some other stuff, but clothing is the largest draw. Popular chain stores in the EC include H&M, Lululemon, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, and so much more.

Remember: only buy clothing for someone if you are absolutely certain of their size.

4. The Internet - Everywhere!

With the number of online stores growing by the minute, the internet has become a great place to shop for gifts. Search bars allow you to enter keywords to find gifts to your specifications, and the variety is unparalleled. Here is a breakdown of some major shopping sites:

• Amazon

Cheap and with a huge selection, Amazon connects to major stores and individual sellers to bring you competitive pricing on just about everything. There are also fewer scams circulating through Amazon than at other sites, and they can deliver straight to your door within days of ordering.

• eBay

eBay allows individuals to sell their good online directly to others without a middleman. This means cheap prices and oddly specific items you might not find elsewhere, but it also means the possibility of scams, misrepresented items, and odious sellers trying to rip you off. Always check the feedback percentage of the seller; if it’s less than 90% you can forget it.

• Craig’s List

Offering free, anonymous personals and listings in an extensive range of topics, Craig’s List is often coveted by students as the holy grail of free, cheap dorm stuff. The elimination of shipping costs makes it cheaper than eBay, but the limitation of your mobility means the selection can be lousy. Beware of scams, frauds, predators, and the like, and always meet in a public place. Seriously.

• Threadless

What? You’ve never heard of Threadless? That’s too bad. Threadless.com prints shirts designed by enterprising young artists and sells them for reasonable prices across North America. You always know what you’re going to get, and you’re always going to get it. The shirts are brilliant and beautiful and often hilarious, and the selection is enormous.

"Spoilt" T-Shirt Design by Olly Moss. My Absolute Favourite.

And there you have it: how to get started buying gifts for the holidays. Of course, there are plenty of other places in our fine city to shop, but if you were stumped these are great places to start.

Stay tuned for part four: “Wrapping, Cards, and Presentation”

• My brother: “That’s awesome!”
• My best friend: “I don’t know what to say!”
• My mother: “Don’t you have school work you could be doing?”

So you see, I’m not just making this stuff up. In my years of gift picking, buying, wrapping, and presenting, I’ve learnt a thing or two and now, for the first time ever, I’m going to share them with the world.

I have condensed my giving theory down to three main principles. The gift you get for any given recipient should be:

1. Reflective of your specific relationship with the recipient
2. Usable but not needed; fun but not superfluous
3. In the same price range as their present for you

With these three rules it’s easy to pick out the perfect gift. Now, let’s go into some further depth in each:

1. Reflective of your specific relationship with the recipient

This rule is the backbone of the emotional aspect of giving. It’s true that you could give someone a present just for them to enjoy that item, but the bond created between giver and recipient by the gift is in many cases just as enjoyable. When one of my dear friends headed off to Halifax over the summer to begin her education, I gave her a gossip magazine with a Subway restaurant gift card in it; the gossip magazine because we used to read them together and the Subway card because she introduced me to the wonders of fast food sandwiches so many years ago. The presents have an emotional attachment to them, which makes them that much more meaningful. When picking out a gift for your friend/partner/sibling/parent/etc. try to think of something that only you, of everyone they know, would have known they’d be likely to enjoy. Consider inside jokes, clubs that you two are members of, conversations you’ve had, etc.

2. Usable but not needed; fun but not superfluous

This one can get tricky. There’s a school of thought that says a gift should be purely fun and whimsical, and if it’s practical it’s boring. This is true of the occasional present, but the problem is that people end up with dozens of trinkets and knick-knacks and whatnots that, though cute, take up room and lose their appeal very quickly. When my mother went to Disney World last year she brought me home a hockey-puck sized device with a button that, when pushed, plays an audio recording of the Scar character from the Lion King saying “I’m surrounded by idiots!” Yes, it’s cute and fun and all that, but now I have a hockey-puck sized device that does nothing but shout at me in Jeremy Irons’ voice lying around and taking up space on my bookshelf.

"Oh, and it goes with everything!"

On the inverse, it’s important to remember that gifting is supposed to be joyful and not practical. My birthday is September 1st (hint, hint) so I would often get school supplies for the upcoming year from friends. True, I used them, and they never went to waste, but I didn’t really enjoy playing with that pencil sharpener from Russell H. in grade four. Yes, I remembered.

In the above example of the Subway card and the magazine, the gift card is very practical: my friend is a picky eater who probably won’t adapt quickly to dorm food, and I found out a la Google Maps that there was a Subway right by her residence. She doesn’t need the card, but, by George, she’s going to appreciate it.

3. In the same price range as their present for you

Remember when we talked about reciprocity and the will to power and all that? Well, this is your chance to avoid it as much as possible. If you’re getting a gift for a friend, you must consider their price range and what they might get for you. If there is an economic disparity between the two of you, one of you may be put in an awkward situation when the present you receive is much more expensive than the one you’ve bought. The person with more money should always be the one to adjust the value of their gift, as they can obviously afford to go cheaper but the person with less money cannot get something more expensive. Carefully consider how much you think someone else will be willing to spend on you to avoid this fiscal faux pas.

Exception: Parents and May-December romances with Barons and Earls. In these cases, the relationship itself is contingent on wealth, so you don’t need to worry as much. Do not try to match the value of the gift; it’s led to way too many problems between Archie, Betty, and Veronica.

So, there you have it: the theoretical outlines for gift choosing and giving. Stay tuned for part three: “Practical Options and Where to Shop”!

One of the first hits on my Google search of “philosophy gift giving” was a quote by American memoirist Maya Angelou: “giving liberates the soul of the giver”. It’s a lovely phrase and it underscores the Christian message that Angelou is conveying, that gifting is an inherently holy act. Even though I may not accept the spiritual aspect of it, I definitely concede to believing in the warm, comforting feeling of having just given a gift. But then I have to wonder: am I just giving for my own benefit?

A Google search of “psychology gift giving” brings up the social psychological notion of reciprocity, which states that people feel the desire to respond to a positive action – such as a gift – with another positive action. In other words, people know that recipients are likely to give another gift in return, and so gifters may in fact have ulterior motives. And before I have time to get offended, I remember the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and his beliefs on the unconscious will to power. Nietzsche claimed the desire to control other people is so closely hard-wired in our brains that actions such as gift-giving, praise, and even love are ways of getting people to respond in turn, thereby controlling their actions.

By this point, I am completely bummed. One of the greatest sources of joy in my life has just been shown to be a self-indulgent sham; I guess I won’t be doing any Christmas shopping, after all. But just as I am about to leave the room, a thought jumps into my head. It’s the memory of a story a friend once told me about people who go into drive-through lines at Starbucks coffee stores in the US and hand the cashier money for the drink of the person behind them. When that person drives up and discovers that their order’s been paid for, they pay for the person behind them. And so on and so forth, sometimes up to 40 people in a row before someone grabs their drink and drives off without paying it forward. In this scenario, people are reciprocating positive actions, but not necessarily back to the person who started them; they’re passing the giving along to someone else. If this phenomenon is true of Starbucks drive-throughs, it must be true of humanity in general. When I give to someone, they will feel the need to give back – not necessarily to me, but to the world.

In my renewed faith in humanity, I quickly did a little more research and came across Drive Thru Difference: an awesome initiative that empowers people to start a chain of giving wherever they are. It also inspired me to do a little more research on the psychology of gift giving and reciprocity. Another Google search and I’ve stumbled upon a quote by Carolyn Costley of the University of Waikato. She says that“gift exchange creates and reinforces emotional bonds between givers and receivers” and adds that “people who spent money on others were happier than people who spent it on themselves”. Not only is gifting good for the world, it’s good for me too.

As I finish typing this, I’m grabbing my jacket and about to head out the door; I have class soon. Maybe on my way there I’ll start to compile my Holiday shopping list.

Stay tuned for part two: “Thoughtful Gifting”!

To learn more about Maya Angelou, check out her official website. The above quote is taken from Part 3 of Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now.

To learn more about reciprocity in social psychology, check out this eNotes summary.

To learn more about Nietzsche and the will to power, check out his entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

To learn more about the Drive Thru Difference and how you can start one of your very own, check out the movement’s Facebook page.

To learn more about Carolyn Costley and the psychology of gift-giving, check out this editorial.

Songs we like to listen to include:

• The Long Way Home, by Norah Jones
• Banquet, by Bloc Party
• Levels, by Avicii
• Ghost Division, Into the Fire, and Talvisota, by Sabaton
• Marchin’ On, by OneRepublic
• One Step At A Time, by Jordin Sparks
• Animal, Miike Snow
• Where You’re Coming From, Matt & Kim
• Comme des enfant, Cœur de pirate

Some of us like to listen to certain artists too:

• Yiruma
• Bon Iver
• The Pogues (This UTnian said that you can’t get better than drunk Brits singing!)
• Drake, but only when he mentions Toronto.
• Joe Hisaishi
• Daft Punk
• Epik High
• Chris Botti

If you want previews of any of these songs, you can go look them up on Youtube. Personally, I like to use Grooveshark. It’s a site where you can listen to songs, artists and playlists that are completely customizable or sorted by genre. For those of us that don’t download (which is all of us right? *cough*), this is a better alternative to streaming Youtube videos, since streaming and buffering times are much faster.

We also have our very own CIUT 89.5FM, which features “alternative radio and interesting music.” It’s been on air since 1966, so give it a listen and support our U of T DJs and talk show hosts. Broadcasting out of Hart House, they aim to provide an alternative to mainstream radio and try to reflect the diversity of our community.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. I’m pretty sure our student body has a much more diverse and exotic playlist than what I have here. What do you listen to when you study? Tell us below!

If you listen to music while you study, and you don't jam on your computer... Well, I don't believe you.