Editorial The Twenty Fifth

by Jon Andrew // October 12 2009

So this is it.

The very last CANTA of the year.

I think the most important news for this issue is that the Cake Reviewer has used his real name for the first time.

I still remember my very first day at the CANTA office. It was a Monday. Previous editor Matt Maguire was sitting at what is now my desk, a look of concentration (or was that constipation) tattooed upon his face. It was deadline day for O-mag. He looked frazzled and tired. Things were not going smoothly. “Yo,” he said, because that’s what he says in those sorts of situations.

The now former publications manager, Brigette, welcomed me in her own indomitable way with the phrase: “Hello, young man”; a phrase that has since taken on a rather amusing life of its own.

“Oooooh, it’s the new man,” said a voice from the right hand side of the office. And then from just outside the doorframe slowly appeared a smiling face.

“This is Ana,” said Brigette.

“Heeheeheeheehee,” said Ana, because that’s what she says in those sorts of situations. (Either that or because she thinks I’m funny lookin’; I never did figure out which was correct.)

The door directly opposite to the editor’s has a white laminated sign attached to it. It was shut. Written in a big friendly blue, one atop the other sits the emboldened words “GRAPHIC DESIGNER”; directly below, the name “Gabby Borland”. Later, and on closer inspection of the sign, I would notice an orange heart drawn in vivid just below and a little to the right of the “d” in Borland.

Brigette opened Gabby’s door after having said that I should met the designer.

“WHAT!?!?” said a highly peeved voice, which was quickly followed up with the slightly more appropriate and still quite peeved, “FUCK!!!!”

Walking into the room I could only assume that both the “what” and the “fuck” had emanated from the young, raven-haired woman sitting in front of her computer. Using my oft suppressed powers of deduction I hypothesised that she was perhaps the graphic designer, that maybe her name was Gabby, and that she could have been the one who had spoke in an irritated fashion. Having adequately scanned the room for others I came to the irrefutable conclusion that, yes, she had been the irritated party.

Later that same first day a man rambled into the office, sat behind his desk and started typing furiously. His name was Sebastian and he was the master of webs. He didn’t say much. Although what he did say was always polite…

It was an…interesting day. In amongst the running around, the last minute changes, the endless use of the word “fuuuuuuck” and the phrase “hurrythefuckup” (which was mostly Gabby expressing contempt for her computer), I realised that most days in the CANTA office were going to be interesting. What I didn’t realise was just how interesting the days in the UCSA would be…

Slowly and surely I got to know most of the major players in the UCSA. Stephen Brinkhurst I already knew from my days as a part of the Law Revue. The others I came to know over time. And then there were the laughs. From Pauline Morgan and Ann Gray’s hilariously inappropriate “getting his leg over” conversation to Leslie’s amazing ability to make anyone laugh with her bubbly disposition, I was truly amongst some truly great, amazingly knowledgeable, and extraordinarily funny people.

And so the year marched on unabated, as years tend to. Long hours were worked. Long, long, long hours. Editorials were written. Some of them were good, some of them were average to middling, and one or two were, well, not so great. People who had already been contributors came to talk. Just as people who wanted to be contributors did. Articles were written. News was written. Reviews were written. Letters were received and printed.

And then Ana decided to leave for pastures green. Nicki, her amazing replacement, came on board, took the advertising bull by it’s horns and wrestled it to the ground (no, seriously, she did; I’m scared of her and her bull wrestling ways). Former editor Matt Maguire resigned his position as news editor mid year only to be replaced by no one at all. And then more recently Brigette left.

And then today came. The final editorial of the year and I started to think of all those things written above. And then, after, I began to think about those things, those instances I regret; there are a couple, but only a couple (an email during the middle of the year for instance – a message that I shall keep a mystery for now, because sometimes everyone needs a little mystery). And then the pointless recriminations that follow such things. And then the thoughts about those things that could/should be done to fix all of those problems.

CANTA is a small magazine when compared to some of the other “big three” student magazines. Critic, Salient, Craccum all have a vibrant volunteer contributor base, but are also backed up with arts editors, features editors, news editors, etc. They put out some amazingly well researched and balanced features, news, and articles. But that’s almost beside the point, CANTA just isn’t well supported by the Journalism students here on campus, which, to me, makes very little in the way of sense. And while I’m sure they have their own valid reasons for this (submitting work to bigger community papers is obviously a contributing factor), I think it would be of no small benefit to students to have active and tenacious journalists working toward uncovering important news throughout the year. It hasn’t happened yet, but I am hopeful that CANTA in the future will make moves toward becoming more like those “big three” student magazines.

But at the end of the day its done. CANTA for another year is over. So on to the Oscar speech part of the editorial. Feel free to skip it, you’re probably not thanked after all. (You’re not the target market, after all)

To all the contributors: thank you, you’re the ones who really make this magazine. Without you, its nothing. It just wouldn’t have been possible without your tireless time and effort. To Joe and Ncog and Deborah and The Hippy and Giles Reid and Sharon McIver, thanks for always being on time with your deadlines. To Lexie, who basically wrote the majority of the Maori issue, thank you. To Lucy-Jane Walsh who came in on the back of Matt Maguire to write news, thank you. To Hayden Munro, to “Denis Glover”, to BA and to all the reviewers, Hugh, Hayden, Mike, Norville, and to everyone I’m forgetting: thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks to Matt and Mark who have always been around to listen when I needed to vent and rant and rave.

And I suppose I should thank the CANTA team too, shouldn’t I. So thank you Gabby for your amazing patience, your incessant giggling, terrible taste in music and the amazing design work you’ve put in over the year. Thank you to Nicki for your advertising prowess and laughing at all my lame ass jokes. Thank you Sebastian for cup-cakes, webmastery and always, always being able to make me laugh. And to those who left: Ana, thank you for The Beatles and laughing; and to Brigette, thank you for kicking my arse when it needed to be kicked and for all the support and encouragement throughout the year.

And finally (and because I’m contractually obliged to included one knob gag in at least one of my editorials) I’d like to thank my hand for keeping me warm during the long and lonely nights throughout the year. You are a true champion.

Be seeing you…