Hey everybody!
For our last magazine issue of the year, we at The Varsity figured we’d try something a little different. Instead of writing about ideas and bigger pictures, we decided we’d try and give you something a little less predictable, a little more dangerous: we decided we would give you people. Welcome to the profile issue.
The thing that makes an interview-based magazine so challenging—and, we hope, exciting—is precisely what makes it so fun to read: the sheer unpredictability and variability of human beings. Part of our inspiration came from Interview Magazine (whose steez we may or may not have copped for this issue) and the fascinating outcomes of their interview matches made in Hell, but we were also driven by the simple fact that we dig a great profile and that people—from heroes to trainwrecks—never cease to fascinate us.
We’re bringing you a cornucopia of perspectives, from Luke Savage’s thoughtful profile of Bob Rae and Chris Berube’s winsome snapshot of Mercury Prize-winning rapper Speech Debelle, to the not-so-famous. Cristina Diaz-Borda interviews a friend on the brink of deployment to Afghanistan; Sarah Rafson interviews U of T students about their Tupperware lunches; Shoshana Wasser chats with strangers about how they wish other strangers would chat them up.
In the words of the fantastically bizarre Icelandic musician, Bjork, there’s definitely no logic to human behaviour, but it’s so irresistible. I hope you enjoy what we’ve come up with.
Kelli Korducki
Associate Features Editor, 2009-2010
