CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
GOVERNMENT
Snyder keeps 2 deep A ties as election approaches AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
BAMN member Shandira Vaughn speaks about supporting the movement against alleged police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri at the Central Student Government meeting Tuesday in the CSG Chambers.
CSG votes down Ferguson resolution after debate Despite several amendments, assembly decides against proposal By EMMA KERR Daily Staff Reporter
Nearly a month after its initial introduction, Central Student Government voted against the adoption of a resolution that would have formally affirmed
CSG’s support of the people of Ferguson, Mo. and their demonstration efforts following the death of Michael Brown. The resolution received 22 dissenting votes and 11 affirmative votes. After being proposed Sept. 16 and postponed Sept. 23, the assembly was given opportunities to propose amendments, three of which were voted upon and passed. The resolution asked CSG to stand in solidarity with the Ferguson community and against
“increased racist, unjustified police brutality,” while supporting any nonviolent actions of youth against this alleged police brutality. In August, following the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, a protest against police brutality escalated as police responded to the protest, accompanied by incidents of looting. The events spurred national discussion this past summer on the topic of racial stereotyping
by law enforcement and overmilitarized police forces, many voicing the opinion that use of armored vehicles, automatic weapons and body armor was unnecessary for handling the situation. Past approvedamendments included the removal of militarization language, the phrase “local cops are trained and armed to treat local residents like criminals,” and the addition of language that would only ask CSG to consider supporting See FERGUSON, Page 3A
Governor has maintained roots in Ann Arbor area since 1975 By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, one of Michigan’s most popular conservative leaders, resides in Ann Arbor, a city comprised of mostly liberal-leaning citizens. Though the 48th governor spent his childhood in Battle Creek, Mich., he moved to Ann Arbor after being accepted to the University. He currently lives in the city with his wife Sue, with whom he has three children. Snyder entered the University in 1975. By the time he turned 23, the future governor had received a bachelor’s degree, business degree and law degree, and earned his license as a Certified Public Accountant. Snyder left Ann Arbor to work as a tax accountant for Coopers
& Lybrand in Detroit, going on to become one of the firm’s youngest partners after working for only six years. He then moved to Chicago to work at Gateway Computers for six years and eventually became the company’s president. Snyder moved back to Ann Arbor in 1997 to form two Michigan-based venture capital funds worth about $200 million in investment capital. Along with living in the city, Snyder served as the chair of Ann Arbor SPARK, a nonprofit organization dedicated to economic development in the greater Ann Arbor region, and served as an adjuwnct assistant professor of accounting at the University from 1982 to 1984. The governor keeps in close contact with his alma mater, holding talks at the University and sponsoring an internship program in his office that many students participate in. Most recently, he visited the University to speak at the inauguration ceremony for University President Mark Schlissel. “What makes the University of See SNYDER, Page 3A
VIOLA!
ARTS
90 year old builds own backyard ‘Disneyland’ Szylak creates tourist attraction in Hamtramck By PAIGE PFLEGER Daily Detroit Arts Columnist
When I walked into Dmytro Szylak’s backyard, I was greeted by a towering structure com-
prised of wood, carousel horses, windmills, rockets, helicopters and ceiling fans. Everything has been painted with bright colors and connected together in a ramshackle way that makes it look like it could fall down at any moment, which, Szylak assured me, it will not. It’s been standing as is for more than 20 years. For a 90 year old, Szylak
moves quite fast, bustling about his yard, pushing the tail end of an airplane, sending it spinning in a circle. His face is wrinkled, his hat covered in paint and his chin dotted with white whiskers. I ask if we can chat about the project, but before he’ll tell me anything, he gestures over at a box with a hand-painted sign that reads “FREEDONATION”. See DETROIT, Page 6A
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Music, Theatre & Dance freshman Stuart Carlson performs “Nalma” in the String Showcase at the Moore Building Tuesday.
University joins movement to reduce use of disposables ‘Kill the Cup’ takes next step in sustainability effort By JACK TURMAN Daily Staff Reporter
With midterm exams looming and paper deadlines rapidly approaching, it’s no surprise that more students are turning to coffee to get their caffeine fix.
The University is one of 10 colleges participating in the first annual Kill the Cup University Challenge. The initiative is a sustainability effort aiming to have an environmental impact by reducing the number of disposable coffee cups used on campus. The competition began Oct. 6 and will last until Oct. 31. Kill the Cup, a Social Ventures for Sustainability project, is partnered with Net Impact, a nonprofit organization through
the Ross School of Business, and with Kill-A-Watt, which is an energy conservation effort at the University. Social Ventures for Sustainability, which is based in San Diego, is a nonprofit organization that partners with college campuses and communities to promote environmentally responsible behavior. To participate in the competition, coffee shop customers have to bring their own reusable cups See CUPS, Page 3A
the personal statement issue ld ives to ens t a r r a l n e r son nd the first-p h the pen a throug
WEATHER TOMORROW
HI: 61 LO: 32
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM Data: Student opinions on election issues MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS
» INSIDE INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 7 ©2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A SUDOKU.....................2A OPINION.....................4A
ARTS...........................6A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 B
News
2A — Wednesday, October 8, 2014
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
SKETCHY SUBJECT
THURSDAY: Alumni Profiles
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
DORM DILEMMA
Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 pjshahin@michigandaily.com
Fire at Michigan State apartment
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Art & Design Prof. Sherri Smith works with Art & Design sophomore Yilin Tong in the fabrics studio at the School of Art and Design Tuesday.
ON THE WEB... michigandaily.com NEWS
Election data By IAN DILLINGHAM A Michigan Daily survey shows the estimated amount of registered voters, their demographics and important issues among the student body.
SPORTS
Soccer rivalry By JUSTIN MEYER The Michigan- Notre Dame rivalry stretches beyond the football field. The soccer team also strives to beat the Irish any chance they get, making games more compelling for players and fans.
A fire that took place Sunday evening at a Michigan State University apartment complex, The Landings, left many of its residents temporarily out of housing, The State News reported Monday. Though no injuries have been reported, significant damage was done to the building. The Michigan State police were called and arrived on the scene in six minutes and had no reason to suspect foul play. According to Adam Martin, WestPac Campus Communities manager, some apartments on the third f loor were burned. Others were damaged by smoke and water, a result of the firefighters taking action.
Martin added that damage estimates to the building wouldn’t be available until the apartment complex receives a statement from their insurer. Some of the complex’s residents were able to recover their belongings from their apartments without any damage. Penn State to become more energy efficient Pennsylvania State University has became the newest member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, The Daily Collegian reported. They will work to lessen its building portfolio’s
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Royal music of West Africa
Evolution and faith lecture
Goldman Sachs info session
WHAT: Nana Kwadwo Nyantakyi III and Nana Afia Adoma II will discuss royal culture in Africa. WHO: Center for World Performance Studies WHEN: Today from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Ann Arbor District Library
WHAT: This lecture will focus on the relationship between evolution and the Christian faith. WHO: Dr. Deborah Haarsma WHEN: Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Campus Chapel, 1236 Washtenaw Ct.
WHAT: This session will provide students with information regarding career opportunities and summer analyst positions. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: Today from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, Kuenzel Room
Sustainability town hall
Eating disorder Employer worshop lecture
WHAT: A presentation on the University’s efforts to improve sustainability across the campus through reducing food waste and composting. WHO: Leaders for Environmental Awareness and Discussion WHEN: Office of Campus Sustainability WHERE: Today 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
WHAT: This lecture will focus on the symptoms, treatment and the diagnostic criteria of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. WHO: Professor Renee Hoste WHEN: Hatcher Graduate Library WHERE: Today from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
WHAT: This workshop will focus on what employers are looking for in applicants. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: Today from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: The Career Center CORRECTIONS l Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com PETER SHAHIN DOUGLAS SOLOMON
energy use by 20 percent over the next 10 years. Penn State plans to invest $60 million for five years overall of energy efficiency involving its various buildings. Penn State President Eric Barron spoke of his pride for the university in taking this step in ensuring a sustainable future. Penn State will join with the federal government, businesses and academic partners in what Barron refers to as an “ambitious challenge.” George Washington University sees increased number of burglaries, first time in five years. —CARLY NOAH
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
The American journalist being treated for Ebola in Nebraska received an experimental drug Tuesday, ABC News reported. This experimental drug is the same drug used to treat the Liberian patient in Texas.
Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 dougsolo@michigandaily.com
Newsroom
News Tips
734-418-4115 opt. 3
news@michigandaily.com
Corrections
Letters to the Editor
corrections@michigandaily.com
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Arts Section
Editorial Page
arts@michigandaily.com
opinion@michigandaily.com
Sports Section
Photography Section
sports@michigandaily.com
photo@michigandaily.com
Display Sales
Classified Sales
dailydisplay@gmail.com
classified@michigandaily.com
Online Sales
Finance
onlineads@michigandaily.com
finance@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL STAFF Katie Burke Managing Editor Jennifer Calfas Managing News Editor
kgburke@michigandaily.com jcalfas@michigandaily.com
SENIOR NEWS EDITORS: Ian Dillingham, Sam Gringlas, Will Greenberg, Rachel Premack and Stephanie Shenouda ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS: Allana Akhtar, Neala Berkowski, Claire Bryan, Shoham Geva, Amabel Karoub, Emma Kerr, Thomas McBrien, Emilie Plesset, Michael Sugerman and Jack Turman
Megan McDonald and Daniel Wang Editorial Page Editors
opinioneditors@michigandaily.com
SENIOR EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Aarica Marsh and Victoria Noble ASSISTANT EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Matthew Seligman and David Harris
Greg Garno and Alejandro Zúñiga
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com
SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS: Max Cohen, Alexa Dettelbach, Lev Facher, Rajat Khare, Jake Lourim and Jeremy Summitt ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS: Max Bultman, Minh Doan, Daniel Feldman, Simon Kaufman, Erin Lennon, Jake Lourim and Jason Rubinstein
John Lynch and Akshay Seth Managing Arts Editors
jplynch@michigandaily.com akse@michigandaily.com
SENIOR ARTS EDITORS: Giancarlo Buonomo, Natalie Gadbois, Erika Harwood and Alec Stern ASSISTANT ARTS EDITORS: Jamie Bircoll, Jackson Howard, Gillian Jakab and Maddie Thomas
Teresa Mathew and Paul Sherman Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
SENIOR PHOTO EDITORS: Allison Farrand and Ruby Wallau ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS: Katherine Pekela, Virginia Lozano, James Coller, McKenzie Berezin, and Nicholas Williams
Carolyn Gearig and Gabriela Vasquez Managing Design Editors
design@michigandaily.com
SENIOR DESIGN EDITORS: Amy Mackens and Alicia Kovalcheck
Carlina Duan Magazine Editor
2
This week, members of The Daily staff tell their stories in a series of personal narratives exploring a love and fear of sports, 21st birthdays, homesickness and Tinder love affairs. >> FOR MORE, SEE STATEMENT, PG. 1B
3
An American physicist and two Japanese colleagues received the Nobel Prize in physics, NBC News reported Tuesday. The trio created an invention for the spectrum for LEDs by creating diodes that shines in blue wavelengths.
statement@michigandaily.com
DEPUTY MAGAZINE EDITORS: Max Radwin and Amrutha Sivakumar STATEMENT PHOTO EDITOR: Ruby Wallau STATEMENT LEAD DESIGNER: Amy Mackens
Mark Ossolinski and Meaghan Thompson Managing Copy Editors
copydesk@michigandaily.com
SENIOR COPY EDITORS: Mariam Sheikh and Alisha Qiu
Austen Hufford
Online Editor
ahufford@michigandaily.com
VIDEO EDITORS: Paula Friedrich and James Reslier-Wells SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR: Brianne Johnson
BUSINESS STAFF Madeline Lacey University Accounts Manager Ailie Steir Classified Manager Simonne Kapadia Local Accounts Manager Lotus An National Accounts Manager Olivia Jones Production Managers Nolan Loh Special Projects Coordinator Jason Anterasian Finance Manager The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.
Debates in New Mexico US health providers expand prevention programs now conducted in Spanish Ebola Across the nation, Gov. officials embrace southern bilingual trend
swing voters in key races. lator’s words. He then attacked Florida gubernatorial candi- Martinez for her opposition to dates, for example, will meet in raising the state’s minimum a Spanish debate Friday, though wage and for the state’s low both GOP Gov. Rick Scott and ranking on child well-being. former Gov. Charlie Crist, a The New Mexico debate and others like it acknowledge ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Democrat, will use a translator. — The moderator gave New In California, Republican the ability of the growing and NEW YORK (AP) — Public Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Congressman David Valadao increasingly independent vothospitals in New York City are so the nod to start her opening and Democratic challenger ing bloc to swing an election. concerned about Ebola, they’ve statement. She smiled, then Amanda Renteria conducted The overwhelming majorsecretly been sending actors with looked at the camera. a debate entirely in Span- ity of Hispanics in New Mexico mock symptoms into emergency “Welcome. And thank you ish on Saturday in a race for speak English, but the culture of rooms to test how well the triage very much for the opportunity the state’s 21st Congressional bilingualism runs deep. Across staffs identify and isolate possible to talk to the Hispanic people of District in central California. the state, some local governcases. my community,” Martinez said In New Mexico, the debate ment bodies start meetings A small Ohio hospital has hung in Spanish. came as Democratic chal- with the Pledge of Allegiance in up signs imploring patients to let It marked Martinez’s entry lenger Gary King sought to English and Spanish. nurses know immediately if they in an emerging trend as Repub- replace Martinez, a RepubStill, Matt Barreto, cohave traveled recently to West licans and Democrats around lican and the country’s first founder of a nonpartisan LatiAfrica. the U.S. court Hispanic voters. Latina elected governor in no political research firm and And across the U.S., one of the From California to Texas, any state. King, who is white, a University of Washington nation’s largest ambulance comcolleges and Spanish-language is the son of a popular former political science professor, said panies has put together step-bynetworks are hosting similar governor. Hispanic voters see Spanishstep instructions for wrapping Spanish debates regardless of “I appreciate the opportunity language debates as a sign of the interior of a rig with plastic Sudoku Syndication http://www.sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ candidates’ fluency amid the to be here today,” King said as respect and a genuine effort to sheeting. growing influence of Latinos as his voice faded away to a trans- acknowledge their importance. There hasn’t been a single con“The debate is more for symfirmed case of an Ebola infection bolism,” Barreto said. happening on U.S. soil; the case In recent years, other notaconfirmed in Dallas involves a ble Spanish debates included a man who, like several health care 2010 event in California and a workers treated in the U.S., conEASY 2007 Democratic presidential tracted the virus in Liberia. But forum. health care providers are worried The KLUZ-TV Univision enough to take a wide variety of Nuevo Mexico-sponsored precautions. forum for Martinez and King It isn’t yet clear whether these offered few surprises. Both preparations are overkill, or not candidates just repeated prenearly enough. vious talking points, and the But health care experts say debate ran a mere 30 minutes. that at the very least, the scare is However, the debate did providing a chance to reinforce give Spanish-speaking voters a and test infection control procechance to hear the candidates’ dures. views on a state law that allows “The attention has been, in a immigrants in the country illesad way, very helpful,” said Dr. gally to obtain driver’s licenses. Richard Wenzel, an epidemioloKing said he was for it. Martigist at Virginia Commonwealth nez said she was against it for University and a former president safety reasons. of the International Society for “It’s not a problem of immiInfectious Diseases. gration. It’s a problem of secuEven small hospitals far from rity,” Martinez said in Spanish. international travel hubs should Barreto said in 2010 Martibe reviewing protocols and nez took around 38 percent of screening questions, and potenthe Latino vote in New Mexico tially buying protective equip© sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com CONFIDENCE BOOSTER at a time when most GOP canment such as face masks and didates garnered 20 percent protective suits, he said. This will nationwide. help them avoid repeating the Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!
response teams put preemptive protocol in place
SUDOKU
7 4 8
1
1
2
5
9
3
2
2
3
8
8
9
1 7
3
4
8
4
9
2
3
3
6
3
4 1
6
mistakes of Dallas, where a Liberian man with Ebola symptoms was sent away despite telling a hospital staffer he had traveled from Africa, and potentially infected many others before he was readmitted two days later. “The debacle in Texas should stimulate improved awareness and responses,” Wenzel said. A growing number of false alarms are already giving hospitals around the country ample opportunities to test infection control procedures. In New York, 24 patients screened for Ebola have been put into isolation over the past eight weeks in city-owned hospitals, according to Dr. Ross Wilson, the chief medical officer at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. None had the disease (some had malaria and one had typhoid), but Wilson said isolating potential cases as quickly as possible is essential to keep the virus from spreading. “We’re taking this very seriously,” he said. Emergency room staffers have been confronted with actors to test their triage measures, and some have been retrained on how to properly put on and remove protective gear, Wilson said. At the city’s flagship Bellevue Hospital Center, technicians are assembling a lab to exclusively handle Ebola blood tests, keeping samples from contaminating other equipment, and a small number of beds are ready and waiting in an isolation ward for any confirmed cases. New York City’s 911 operators have been told to ask people who describe Ebola-like symptoms and ask for ambulances if they’ve traveled to West Africa recently. That question is also becoming the norm at AMR, which operates private ambulances in 40 states. It has told its staff of 19,000 paramedics and EMTs that if patients with these symptoms answer yes, they must alert other health authorities and put on extra protective gear, including shoe coverings, a mask and gog-
gles. “We don’t want to respond with a presumption that everyone in the field has Ebola,” said Dr. Ed Racht, AMR’s chief medical officer. “The idea is, if the travel question is positive with the symptoms, it gives us a yellow flag ... It doesn’t mean immediately putting on the space suits.” That said, the company has issued step-by-step instructions for using plastic sheeting, garbage bags and duct tape to protect the ambulance and driver from patients with the virus. Step No. 2: “Place sheeting on the floor of the rig and affix to bench seat, jump seat and walls to create a bowl affect in an effort to channel any body fluids toward the center of the floor causing fluids to collect in one area.” A more commonplace precaution is in place at the Mercer County Community Hospital in Coldwater, Ohio, a village of 4,400 people near the Indiana state border. Nicole Pleiman, an infection prevention and control nurse, said the hospital posted signs at entrances a month ago telling patients to notify the staff immediately if they’ve traveled recently to African countries hit by the outbreak. “We will definitely revisit that to see if we need to do anything additional,” she said. And three major hospitals in Dallas have established isolation units and consulted with staff on handling anyone else with Ebola. With eight children sent home from school because they had direct contact with the lone confirmed Ebola victim, Children’s Memorial Hospital in northwest Dallas is preparing for pediatric Ebola patients, and doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital and Baylor University Medical Center have identified teams of doctors and nurses to be ready. As has become commonplace nationwide, the Dallas hospitals are screening incoming patients to see if they’ve traveled to West Africa within the last three weeks.
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.
Invasive Asian carp found in the Kalamazoo River Genetic material from Asian carp has been found in the Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan, but there’s no indication the invasive fish have become established in the river that flows into Lake Michigan, officials said Tuesday. DNA from silver carp was detected in one of 200 water samples taken in July from the river in Allegan County, this one from below the Caulkins Dam about 24 miles from Lake Michigan, the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. The discovery marks the first time so-called environmental DNA for silver carp has been found in Michigan’s Great Lakes waters outside of Maumee Bay in Lake Erie. The term “environmental DNA” refers to genetic markers that fish leave behind as they move through waters, shedding scales, mucous or excrement.
SNYDER From Page 1A Michigan a truly special place is not one area or sectors, it is the humanity of the University, the people,” Snyder said in his speech. In the same month, Snyder also toured the MHacks expo to see projects created by innovative students from all areas of campus, including various mobile apps, a robotic arm and software that analyzes the mood in speeches. The University’s chapter of College Republicans is one of the largest organizations that supports Snyder’s actions in the state and the University and has been working for his reelection this fall. LSA senior Gabriel Leaf, chairman of the University’s chapter of College Republicans, said he believes the biggest reason why students believe in Snyder are because of his job-creating policies. A major platform of Snyder’s 2010 campaign was creating jobs and stimulating Michigan’s economy, earning him the title of “one tough nerd.” Since taking office in January 2011, the state has created approximately 300,000 new private sector
jobs and the administration has overseen the sixth-fastest growing economy in the nation — though there is significant debate about how much Snyder’s policies have contributed to the economic growth. Leaf said the hardest position a student finds themselves in after graduation is the task of actually finding a job and entering the workforce, a problem he believes Snyder understands and wants to simplify. “He understands where they’re coming from, he understands their background,” Leaf said. “He’s been what we’ve been through.” Members of the College Republicans and other students have been helping galvanize voters to support Snyder through the student group Wolverines For Rick. Though Leaf acknowledges the city’s liberal reputation, he fully believes in Snyder’s core issues and is diligently working to “do all he can” for Snyder’s reelection in these final weeks. “It is hard trying to get a Republican basis here in the heart of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw county as it is very liberal,” he said. “So there isn’t as much support as he would like to see here, but there definitely is some here.”
BOISE, Idaho
Appeals court rules same-sex marriage legal in Idaho A federal appeals court declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada on Tuesday, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriage in 30 other states. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down the two states’ bans on gay marriage, ruling they violated equal protection rights. “This is a super sweet victory,” said Sue Latta, who along with Traci Ehlers sued Idaho last year to compel the state to recognize their 2008 marriage in California. Three other couples also joined the lawsuit to invalidate Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban. “Taxes are easier, real estate is easier, parenting is easier, end-of-life planning is easier,” Latta said.
DALLAS
Texas Ebola patient visited by parents, Rev. Jesse Jackson The family of a man diagnosed with the first U.S. case of Ebola again visited him at the hospital Tuesday but declined to view him via video the last time had been too upsetting. Relatives of Thomas Eric Duncan glimpsed him using a video system at Dallas’ Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Monday. But when they returned anew, this time with Rev. Jessie Jackson, they decided such images were too much. “What we saw was very painful. It didn’t look good,” said Duncan’s nephew, Josephus Weeks. Weeks said he and Duncan’s mother were unable to sleep after seeing Duncan’s face.
HONG KONG
Democratic protests calm as talks with government start Crowds of protesters who filled Hong Kong’s streets with demands for more democracy thinned dramatically Tuesday after student leaders and the government agreed to hold talks in the increasingly frustrated city. The government and students leaders announced they will begin talks on political reform on Friday. But while a government representative said negotiations were off to “a good start,” the students expressed anger and disappointment at officials’ unwillingness to address their real demands. —Compiled from Daily wire reports
FERGUSON From Page 1A efforts of students to stop “racist police acts against minority youth.” Assembly members discussed amendments to the resolution extensively and, though each proposed amendment passed, the resolution was still voted down, with dissenting voters noting the language as being generally too extreme and overreaching. The resolution presented to CSG was submitted at 4:54 p.m. Tuesday, two days after the deadline to submit resolutions and did not include previous amendments made and passed by CSG in prior weeks. Those amendments were added and the updated resolution was presented to CSG and voted on. Among those voting yes for this resolution, LSA senior Michael Chrzan, School of Education representative, said though the resolution was flawed, it was his belief that the CSG body should still have supported the amended resolution. “Obviously there were ways that it could have been improved,” Chrzan said, “It did not have to be a perfect resolution and I think that this resolution fit the bill enough that it could have been passed. There were no extreme generalizations or inaccuracies and as a person who has lived experienced like these, I will say it is disappointing.”
Stephen Richards said, as the representative of the School of Social Work, he advocates for social justice and believes in this cause and the values set forth in the resolution. “It is fact that these things do happen to people of color,” Richards said. “I do understand that this assembly is not a majority of people of color and do not have these personal experiences, but all of us do have experiences with these sorts of things. It is hard to reconcile the fact that these things do happen in our communities.” Members from By Any Means Necessary responsible for recent protests on campus this month and earlier this year were in attendance. BAMN Organizer David Douglass asked CSG to consider the opportunity their resolution presented for minority students on campus to be involved in the Ferguson movement as leaders for campuses across the country. “We are in a very important historic window. We can make history tonight and stand against this racist murderer,” Douglass said, referring to Wilson. “Students come here because they expect to be a part of a diverse, integrated student body, but they are met with the reality of a segregated and white student body.” Members who voted for the resolution said they hope to continue to address this issue and develop and present a new resolution in the future.
FOLLOW OUR WRITERS ON TWITTER! @JENCALFAS @WRGREE @PETER_SHAHIN @G_GARNO @JEREMYSUMMITT @REALGABYVASQUEZ @RRPRE
FOLLOW US: @MICHIGANDAILY
CUPS From Page 1A to on-campus coffee shops and upload a picture of their cups to KillTheCup.com. After uploading the pictures, participants are eligible to receive a prize. After calculating the results, KillTheCup.com uses prizes and gift cards as incentives to encourage student participation. After the end of the campaign, the teams who achieve the highest participation will be eligible to receive a $5,000 grant to start and fund their personal sustainability project. Along with this grand prize, four weekly prizes of $50 and one iPad will be awarded for each individual campus. Drew Beal, co-founder of SVS, said he likes to view the organization as a “social enterprise” because of the combination of social and environmental impacts. Beal said he hopes students, faculty and staff will gain a general awareness of the importance of sustainability that can result in a daily habit.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 — 3A “They can learn that little adjustments to daily routine collectively, can have a huge impact on the environment,” Beal said. Along with encouraging consumers to reuse coffee cups as a daily routine, Beal hopes that the Kill the Cup campaign will construct a new norm on college campuses across the country. “If we can really celebrate the fact that more and more people are getting coffee in a reusable cup on a specific campus, then it will help establish a social norm within that university,” Beal said. Beal and Mike Taylor, cofounder of Kill the Cup, started the program while in graduate school at the University of California, San Diego in 2013. They piloted the program last year at UCSD and decided to expand their outreach after an estimated 1,300 disposable coffee cups were saved, which translates to approximately 80 pounds of landfill waste. “Not only were people bringing their own cup more frequently and there was a lot of excitement around sustainability, but the cof-
fee shops we worked with also were more profitable,” Beal said. Beal and Taylor implemented a four-week program at Georgetown University in the fall of 2013 to compare and validate their initial findings. Georgetown’s results were also positive, which resulted in Taylor and Beal pursuing this campaign into SVS. Public Policy senior Kayla Ulrich, co-director of Kill-A-Watt at the University, said Beal contacted her and LSA senior Natalie Stevenson, co-director of Kill-AWatt, and explained the details of the competition and the mission of SVS. Ulrich said this competition would expand the current sustainability movement at the University and “bring something new and fun to campus.” While there are many different sustainability efforts on campus, Ulrich said Kill the Cup is different than others because the results are concrete since Kill the Cup’s focus is waste reduction. “Because we are talking about cups, I think that it is a lot more relevant and more tangible. People will be able to relate to it much better,” Ulrich said.
Islamic State fighters closing in on Syrian town Kurdish troops work to expel extremists along Turkish border MURSITPINAR, Turkey (AP) — Islamic State fighters were poised to capture a strategic Syrian town on the Turkish border, Turkey’s president warned Tuesday, even as Kurdish forces battled to expel the extremists from their footholds on the outskirts. The outgunned Kurdish fighters struggling to defend Kobani got a small boost from a series of U.S.-led airstrikes against the militants that sent huge columns of black smoke into the sky. Limited coalition strikes have done little to blunt the Islamic State group’s three-week offensive, and its fighters have relentlessly shelled the town in preparation for a final assault. Warning that the aerial campaign alone was not enough to halt the Islamic State group’s advance, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. “Kobani is about to fall,” Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, near the border. “We asked for three things: One, for a nofly zone to be created; Two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and
equipped.” Erdogan’s comments did not signal a shift in Turkey’s position: He has said repeatedly that Ankara wants to see a more comprehensive strategy for Syria before it commits to military involvement in the U.S.-led coalition. Turkish tanks and other ground forces have been stationed along the border within a few hundred yards of the fighting in Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, but have not intervened. And while Turkey said just days ago that it wouldn’t let Kobani fall, there’s no indication the government is prepared to make a major move to save it. Since mid-September, the militant onslaught has forced some 200,000 people to flee Kobani and surrounding villages, and activists say more than 400 people have been killed in the fighting. It has also brought the violence of Syria’s civil war to Turkey’s doorstep. Capturing Kobani would give the Islamic State group, which already rules a huge stretch of territory spanning the Syria-Iraq border, a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, to the east. It would also give the group full control of a large stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border. Syrian Kurds scoffed at the rhetoric coming out of Ankara. They say that not only are the Turks not helping, that they are actively hindering the defense of Kobani by preventing Kurdish militiamen in Turkey from crossing the border into the
town to help in the fight. “We are besieged by Turkey, it is not something new,” said Ismet Sheikh Hassan, the Kurdish defense chief for the Kobani region. Relations between Turkey and Syria’s Kurds have long been strained, in large part because Ankara believes the Kurdish Democratic Union, or PYD — the leading Syrian Kurdish political party — is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement that has waged a long and bloody insurgency in southeast Turkey. In towns across Turkey, Kurdish protesters clashed with police Tuesday, while Kurdish demonstrators forced their way into the European Parliament in Brussels — part of Europe-wide demonstrations demanding more help for the besieged Kurdish militiamen struggling to defend Kobani. Turkish news agencies say least at 14 people have died and scores were injured in clashes between Turkish police and Kurdish protesters. Despite Erdogan’s dire assessment of the battle for Kobani, the front lines were largely stable despite heavy clashes Tuesday. Kurdish forces managed to push back Islamic State militants from some neighborhoods on the eastern edges of town, hours after the extremists stormed into the areas, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Still, two black jihadi flags fluttered from a building and a small hill on the eastern
Opinion
Page 4A — Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com PETER SHAHIN EDITOR IN CHIEF
MEGAN MCDONALD and DANIEL WANG EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
KATIE BURKE MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
An alternative application
The problem of student economic homogeneity needs to be targeted
L
ast month, Goucher College in Baltimore announced its decision to implement an alternative application process, where students may submit two pieces of work and a twominute video instead of a high school transcript. Goucher College President José Bowen has said that this change was made in an effort to broaden the applicant base — financially and creatively — to the school. The success of students who elect these different application paths is not currently known and will be traced as they continue their college career. Several other liberal arts colleges have presented similar options. Bard College in New York has introduced an entrance exam consisting of academic essays as a substitute to the traditional transcript. Dozens of colleges like Wake Forest University and Smith College have application processes that don’t require SAT or ACT scores and allow optional videos. Though these strategies are helpful in attracting a more creative applicant base, it fails to address low socioeconomic diversity in higher education. These nonstandard ways to apply for college benefit students who might learn and best present themselves in nontraditional fashions. The conventional college application simply requires a high school transcript, one or more personal essays and standardized test scores, sometimes with a recommended interview. Students that express themselves better visually, or through additional samples of academic writing, may be eager to opt for these alternative processes. Colleges receive a wider range of creative applicants, and potentially diversify the student body with leaders in different avenues. It appears to be a great option for economically disadvantaged students who do not perform as highly in grades and test scores due to a lack of additional educational resources. Goucher’s president suggests that the move will encourage students of lower-income areas to apply to selective schools because they can more easily represent themselves. They can “show” their story instead of telling it through current means that favor classically successful and affluent applicants. It is well known that disparities in financial resources, and thus education, across communities place extreme obstacles on students of lower socioeconomic status as they head toward college. While Goucher’s new policy is well-intentioned, this method does not address the source of a major problem in the college application process. Widening the range of media that students may use does not account for the financial inequalities that pervade the application process each step of the way. Just as with normal applications, well-off students can hire producers or other professionals to help
them create a higher quality video or academic essay. Financially privileged students will continue to have the upper hand in admissions, regardless of the manner in which they are allowed to express themselves. The measures Goucher and other colleges have taken help to even differences in learning and expression, but do not extend beyond that. The University of Michigan currently provides programs to recruit students of lower socioeconomic status. The University’s Center for Education Outreach collaborates with schools in Michigan to provide college awareness and preparation for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Its Michigan College Advising Corps aims to increase the number of underrepresented students in higher education by hiring recent Michigan graduates to work as college advisers in a few high schools throughout the state. Michigan’s Detroit Center specifically focuses on coaching students in schools of the Detroit metropolitan area as well. The University should consider expanding and intensifying its efforts toward poorer areas, and fully commit to the goal of spreading awareness for underprivileged students in a broader context. Comprehensive outreach that includes information about securing financial aid, supplemental after-school curriculums and positive attitudes toward higher education increases success rates of underprivileged students. If universities truly intend on opening their doors to less conventional students, they could start by aiding those of lower socioeconomic status years before applications even begin.
FOLLOW THE DAILY ON TWITTER Keep up with columnists, read Daily editorials, view cartoons and join in the debate. Check out @michigandaily to get updates on Daily content throughout the day.
JAKE ROTHENBERG | VIEWPOINT
The real problem with Dave Brandon
Last year, 50 Michigan students and I, under the leadership of the Student Union of Michigan, marched through the Diag to protest an Athletic Department that cared more about its money than our safety. The protest was in response to something I would assume most people have heard about by now. If you haven’t, I will sum it up as bluntly as I can: In 2009, Brendan Gibbons, who eventually became our football team’s starting kicker, sexually assaulted a girl. In the years following the event, the Athletic Department has all but covered up the incident. Gibbons went on to play for four more years as our school’s beloved kicker. Sitting and studying on the fifth floor of the Hatcher Grad library last week, I was startled to hear 1,000 protesters, marching to do what we had intended to bring about less than a year ago. This protest, though, wasn’t initiated to fire the Athletic Department officials because of their rape-enabling coverup. Indeed, it didn’t have anything to do with justice at all. This protest was a reaction to our team’s losing streak, mixed with the frustration about sophomore quarterback Shane Morris’ concussion and rising ticket prices. If justice had been the reason for last week’s protest, it would have occurred months, if not years ago. Don’t get me wrong — I love our football team, and I too am upset by our losses and
dwindling student attendance at the games. I stopped going to them this year because I, as well as other members of the Big House family, stopped feeling like fans and began feeling like data. To Brandon, we have all become the extension of his reign as Domino’s CEO. The fan base has morphed into a fan market, the importance of student support has been replaced by the importance of student dollars and most importantly, our safety has been compromised for our money. Yet, what we all need to understand is that these issues — the low attendance at games, the exploitation of Shane Morris, the rising prices — are all part of Brandon’s same dehumanizing scheme that became immediately apparent when the Gibbons cover-up was revealed. That is why instead of marching against the Athletic Department for losing games and raising ticket prices, we should be marching for justice for the victim. We should be marching to let our University and Athletic Department know that we will not accept the mere lip service they pay to “our safety.” Until this occurs, and until Dave Brandon steps down for these reasons, we are all complicit in the sexual assault of a fellow student. And until we reassess what we are marching for, we are all committed to making this campus unsafe. Jake Rothenberg is an LSA junior.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Those who stay
L
ast Saturday, the enduring walls of Michigan Stadium reverberated with a new, deafening chant: “Fire Hoke! Fire Brandon!” It was a sad sight to see and an even sadder sound to hear. The spirit of those walls seemed as absent as the upper portions ELI of the student CAHAN section. That spirit, too, seemed absent in the play of the team that day, and it seemed absent in the subsequent press conferences and releases put out by Michigan coach Brady Hoke and Athletic Director Dave Brandon. The burning ember of our football tradition has seen its passion extinguished, replaced by an insidious sense of disgust and shame. The hysteria ubiquitous during the beginning of last week began with an irresponsible call by an ESPN TV announcer. When the replay of sophomore quarterback Shane Morris’ stumble played, he, as is the tendency of the media, immediately resorted to hyperbole. This was an announcer in no position medically, nor organizationally, to make a claim about the health of our quarterback, nor the decisions of our staff. He was completely and utterly unqualified in this regard. He gave an uneducated, superficial opinion and extrapolated that out to a manifestation of a struggling football program. He had no right. I resent the amount of coverage news outlets have given this debacle. It is without a doubt that we should be winning more games in the
fourth year of Hoke’s tenure. It is stay will be champions.” Michigan without a doubt that Morris should football then was most certainly not have been benched, in the context in championship form. Neither is it of his obvious injuries. However we, now. It would have been easy for playas malleable and restless students, ers to quit under the new, authoritarhave perpetuated what were two ian regime Bo was putting in place. It manageable, resolvable situations would have been easier to speak out into a festering sore on the face of a and bow out. He made his rallying previously proud block ‘M.’ crying not in the best of times, but in The calls and petitions for firings the most difficult. What happened? are the impulsive, defensive reac- Bo demanded commitment, his playtions of a cornered fan base. I, too, ers remained committed and they felt this immediately following what became champions. happened and I signed the petition. I We students must show the same wholeheartedly regret it. These acts sense of commitment now as his playhave contributed more to the defac- ers did then. Loyalty is consecrated ing of our through university hardship and than anychallenge. thing else; Naturally, it However we, as malleable is easier to particularly whatever Hoke and restless studenst, have love nonsense after wincame out of ning a Sugar perpetuated what were an announcthan it two manageable, resolvable Bowl er’s mouth. is after losSo, to ing a Little situations into a festering those who Brown Jug. sore on the face of a continue But our job to rally on previously proud block ‘M’. isn’t to love the Diag or the team in front of when it’s University easy. Our President Mark Schlissel’s house, duty is to be there, through thick and on Facebook or on blogs: what do thin: to brave the August heat, the you intend to achieve? Attention or September storms and the November relief? This is not the sort of attention ice, to man our posts in sections 26 to that our school needs or deserves. 33, to cheer for a team that may not Headhunting will achieve little be the best it has ever been, but is still more than rescinded commitments ours. We, the students, ought to be from recruits and more flux and those who stay, no matter what. uncertainty. None of the above I support Hoke and Brandon are long term solutions: they are because I support Michigan Football. myopic forms of satiation for a I think you should, too. Forever and bloodthirsty mob. always, Go Blue. Bo Schembechler must have anticipated these problems long ago — Eli Cahan can be reached when he asserted that, “Those who at emcahan@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Devin Eggert, David Harris, Rachel John, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Linh Vu, Meher Walia, Mary Kate Winn, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
A little bit of ourselves
I
’d like to believe that sports are purely entertainment. That we all watch purely to see athletes run, jump and throw faster, harder and stronger than the average fan could dream of doing. Obviously, this isn’t reality. If you heard about the rally last weekend in Ann Arbor DEREK calling to fire Uni- WOLFE versity Athletic Director Dave Brandon, sports are anything but just entertainment. The thousands of hours I’ve invested in watching and discussing sports would attest to that as well. There’s no denying that sports have the unique ability to rally communities and, in many cases, represent the character of a city. This leads to millions of people regularly relying on well-paid athletes or a bunch of 18- to 22-year-old kids to define their moods. And despite having never met these athletes, we genuinely care about how they perform. Win and it’s ecstasy. Lose and depression sets in. That passion made this past weekend especially tough for fans of Michigan football, the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions. They all lost. But it wasn’t just that they lost; it was that they all lost having failed to meet high expectations. Michigan lost again despite having all the talent in the world. It was supposed to be a great season. The Lions lost because their kicker missed three field goals. It was supposed to be a big win. The Tigers lost because their best players didn’t come through when it counted most. There was supposed to be a World Series celebration. At one point, all of these teams had
“
something to play for — and the Lions my goals. I don’t want to let anyone still do — but because of not meeting down. these high expectations, Michigan And I now realize that I project football and the Tigers’ seasons can those feelings onto my favorite only be looked at as failures. Goals teams. After all, they’re supposed were not met, plain and simple. to be representing me. Therefore, I Now of course, the teams’ expect the players to react the way performances don’t have any tangible I would if I failed: I expect them to effect on my life. Win or lose, I still care as much as I do. have an 8 a.m. class on Tuesdays. “You feel like you let the fans Yet like most fans, I was and still am down. You feel like you let the upset. However, it was in the midst organization down. But there is of this downright disappointment nothing we can do about it now,” that I realized why sports Brad Ausmus, the manager of Tigers, matter and where this emotional said after Sunday’s season-ending dependence originates. loss to the Orioles. It’s because Great. That we all see or sounds about want to see right. That passion made a little bit of On the other this past weekend ourselves in hand, junior wide our favorite especially tough for fans receiver Devin athletes — well, Funchess, after of Michigan football, not the physical losing to Rutgers the Detroit Tigers, and said, “Wins and skills, but the storylines. losses, that’s just Detroit Lions. It’s seeing a statistic.” a player come Seriously? back from injury, Indifference? make a major impact on the team and That’s not me. Well, I guess you can’t then making a connection such as, expect everyone to think like you. “This is kind of like when I failed my Regardless, I’m probably going to first chemistry test, then somehow keep looking to athletes for direction. pulled off an A in the class.” Not because it’s the best idea, but It’s the Detroit Pistons of the late because it’s natural. 1980s and early 1990s where the Sports find a way to simplify the “Bad Boys” symbolized the tough, intricacies and complexities of life underdog nature by which the people and make nearly every scenario — of Detroit identified themselves. the last-second shot, winning after That brings me back to my point being really down in the first half, on expectations. Seeing our favorite etc. — somehow applicable to a real teams lose and fail to meet expecta- life scenario. tions triggers a soft spot, because It wouldn’t be a stretch to say these we’re all dealing with trying to meet athletes embody the human condiexpectations in our own ways. tion: the good, the bad and the ugly. Sure, ours aren’t coming from And that’s something an Introducmillions of fans. They’re coming tory Psychology class can’t teach. from friends, family and ourselves. But that doesn’t make them any less — Derek Wolfe can be reached significant. I despise not meeting at dewolfe@umich.edu.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
I think it’s something that can and will be used on the first mission to Mars.” — NASA-contracted SpaceWorks engineer John Bradford said on the company’s study of hibernation technology that could be used on astronauts traveling to Mars.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Photo
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 — 5A
STEP UP PHOTO STORY BY: Luna Anna Archey
2
1
3
The National Panhellenic Council of the nine historically Black fraternities and sororities on campus took center stage last Thursday night with their Midnight Madness annual step show. Starting at 11:59pm these nine organizations took command of the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library, some students wearing the official apparel of their respective fraternities. Each organization in turn controlled the ‘stage’ for their time to declare what it takes to join these historic groups. The brothers of each fraternity combined steps with chants, representing their respective groups. Students gathered in throngs to watch the show, some dancing and chanting along.
4
5
6
(1) LSA senior Dominique Green performs with Omega Psi Phi. (2) LSA seniors Bree Sullivan and Sunasia Echols sing with Zeta Phi Beta. (3) Students gather on the Diag to watch the show. (4) Nursing senior Brianna Kline shows her sign of Delta Sigma Theta. (5) LSA senior Brian Dickerson of Kappa Alpha Psi performs. (6) Members of fraternities and sororities perform on the Diag.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, October 8, 2014
DETROIT From Page 1A
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
COMMUNITY & CULTURE NOTEBOOK
I left my wallet in the car, I tell him. “I wait here,” he says matter of factly, in a heav y Ukrainian accent. He crosses his arms across his chest, and leans against the multicolored garage. After returning with $2 (which he made sure to say was not enough to buy a bag of chips) he agrees to show me around. Szylak came to the United States back in 1950. He lived in Gettysburg first. “You know history of Gettysburg?” he asks, cracking a smile to reveal his one gold tooth. He moved to Hamtramck in the late ‘50s and worked on the General Motors assembly line for three decades before retiring. Even though he was no longer an autoworker, he still felt the need to work. So he began erecting a massive, light-up sculpture of painted objects spanning across his entire backyard, from one garage to another. “What you see,” Sylvak says, raising his paint-covered hands to the structure looming above him, “my job. I’m 90. Still I work everyday.” The death of his wife motivated him further to keep adding on to Disneyland, spending most of his days inside the multicolored garage in his backyard, painting objects that he used to gather from garage sales and markets. “I need something busy, so I not think about it. So far, I’m OK.” He leads me to the alleyway between Klinger and Sobieski Streets, and stands in front of the green, yellow and blue fence that marks his empire. “You make picture here,” he says. Above him, a hand painted sign reads: OK DISNEYLAND. IM DMYTRO SZYLAK. I ask him why he would want to erect such a crazy sculpture in his backyard, other than to keep himself busy. He looks at me as though I’ve asked the most obvious question in the world, and says f latly, “For
DC COMICS
We takin’ over, one city at a time.
A beginner’s guide to the world of comics Featuring the five comic books you need to read Daily Arts Writer COURTESY OF PAIGE PFLEGER
Dmytro Szylak moved to Hamtramck in the ‘50s.
people. For United States. For country. America Disneyland. That my answer.” He leads me back into his yard, past a slab of wood with multicolored, 6-foot rockets on it. He stands in front of them and launches into an explanation. “Ukraine fight with Russia. I put up rockets. For Putin. He is crazy like Hitler. Or Stalin. He say he want to destroy America. Crazy.” As an immigrant, Szylak especially enjoys when people from different countries pay him a visit. It’s free to look at Disneyland from the alleyway, but from inside the yard it costs a FREEDO-
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
NATION. He said he’s had visitors from as far as Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina. He attributes most of his fame to the Internet. At his age, Szylak is slowing down on construction of Disneyland. He still does some climbing for repairs and painting, and he has several ladders strewn about his yard. I ask him if he is ever worried to climb so high at 90 years old. “People say I old. I say, I’m not afraid.” Pfleger is always scouring Detroit for column material. To help, e-mail pspfleg@umich.edu.
I love comics. I’ve always loved comics and always will love comics. Few popular mediums have had as much impact on the 20th century as comic books, yet despite their influence on popular culture, the actual success of comics and the recognition of its creators are largely unknown. That being said, with the advent of digital comics and e-readers as well as the huge success of Marvel Studios, comics seem more relevant now than ever. As the walls between high and low culture are slowly being torn down, it’s never been a better time to give comics a chance. While there’s always been plenty of content, most people really just don’t know where
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
FOR RENT
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
DOWN 1 Opera villain, often 2 Skirt
3 Poppycock 4 Dutch export 5 Mushy food 6 Absorbed, as lessons 7 Ill-fated Boleyn 8 Ooze 9 “Bloom County” reporter 10 They often adorn city buses 11 Fraud 12 Consequential 13 Prepares for printing 18 Morocco’s capital 22 __ Aviv 25 Filled with rage 26 Relaxing getaway 27 Get too personal 28 Peruvian of yore 29 Big shot in the sky 30 Glasgow gal 31 Least fair, in a way 32 State of seclusion 35 17-, 27-, 43- and 58-Across begin with types of them
1. “Watchmen” by Alan Moore
By DREW MARON
Classifieds ACROSS 1 Subject of a historic 1919 sports deal, with “The” 5 Type of large TV 11 Pre-LCD screen 14 Enthusiastic 15 Virgil epic 16 Informal greeting 17 Rooftop energy generators 19 Hieroglyphics snake 20 Standard deviation symbol 21 Picked-up pickup, perhaps 22 On the level 23 Keats’ “__ to a Nightingale” 24 Hopper 26 Markets 27 Removable denture 31 Marseille menu 33 College Football Playoff gp. 34 Image on a 42Down, briefly 35 TV hillbilly __ May Clampett 36 Looks toward 38 Opening night nightmares 39 Lovey-dovey murmur 40 Surrounding glow 41 Peter or Paul 43 Apollo 11 achievement 46 Latin clarifier 47 Fearful squeal 48 Dr.’s group 51 Medium rare 52 Farrier’s file 55 Restrict 57 Witness 58 Eidetic memory 60 Kin of -trix 61 Geometric figure with equal angles 62 Sicilian rumbler 63 AL and MO 64 Tropical fruit 65 Peters out
to start. Fortunately, I’ve compiled a beginner’s guide to the world of comics.
37 Constellation near Scorpius 38 Oinker 40 Museum filler 42 Common 34Across site 44 Query 45 Position strategically 48 Cremona craftsman 49 “Now We Are Six” author
50 Geography volume 52 Santa __: Sonoma County seat 53 At the apex of 54 The “Star Wars” films, e.g. 56 Like most cupcakes 58 Helpful hint 59 Messenger __
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
! NORTH CAMPUS 1‑2 Bdrm. ! ! Riverfront/Heat/Water/Parking. ! ! www.HRPAA.com ! 5 AND 6 Bdrm Campus houses for 2015‑ 2016, check out Joyce Properties at www.joycea2.com HOUSES AVAILABLE MAY 2015 8 Bdrms – 720 Arbor ‑ $5560 6 Bdrms – 417 N. Thayer ‑ $3900 4 Bdrms – 505 Sauer ‑ $2600 Tenantspayallutilities.ShowingsM‑F10‑ 3 w/ 24 Hr notice required. Call 734‑996‑1991 WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.‑ COM 734‑332‑6000
PARKING
xwordeditor@aol.com
10/08/14
“PRIME” PARKING FOR Sale 721 S. Forest “Forest Place” $1375 Limited Passes Remaining 734‑761‑8000 primesh.com
SERVICES THESIS EDITING. LANGUAGE, organization, format. All Disciplines. 734/996‑0566 or writeon@iserv.net
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
NOW. @michigandaily By Jeff Stillman ©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/08/14
HELP WANTED WONDERFUL/ WELL PAID Job Op‑ portunity ‑ADMIN/CUSTOMER CARE REP. NEEDED. Kindly contact: ricky‑ moore44@outlook.com on how to pro‑ ceed.
The “Citizen Kane of comics,” “the Great American Novel with superheroes;” if there’s a single comic book you should ever read, it’s “Watchmen.” Not so much a comic book as a radical experimentation in narrative, “Watchmen” acts as a hybrid in form, with panels broken up between fictional passages, documents and other works of prose. It also joins “The Great Gatsby” and “The Catcher in The Rye” on the list of Time Magazine’s 100 Greatest English Language Novels since 1923. It’s a watershed, not just for the graphic medium, but in the delineation between high and low culture in general. The greatest comic book of all time? This book might very well be one of the most important stories of the last century. Read it. You might also like: “The Dark Knight Returns” by Frank Miller; “Kingdom Come” by Mark Waid. 2. “The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman A personal favorite. Neil Gaiman creates a Homeric poem and one of the greatest fantasy stories ever written. The story of Morpheus, the personified manifestation of dream, takes place in worlds both real and imagined. In the first volume, “Preludes and Nocturnes,” a crazed magician imprisons Morpheus for the majority of the 20th century. When he escapes, Morpheus finds a world that has moved on without him. With his kingdom in shambles, the Dream King must adapt to a changed world and the people he’s ignored for a millennium. Gaiman’s “Sandman” represents far more than just a fantasy story. It’s a powerful, often moving tragedy of redemption, identity and the power of storytelling. It also acts as a poignant depiction of the marginalized, with an eclectic, diverse cast of characters. A remarkable creation of invention and wit. You might also like: Grant Morrison’s “The Invisibles”; Warren Ellis’s “Planetary”; Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing.” 3. “Maus” by Art Spiegelman Some stories are too powerful to make up. Art Spiegelman’s tragic and beautiful memoir of his father’s struggles during World War II joins both Gaiman’s “Sandman” and Moore’s “Watchmen” as supreme examples of the literate depths comics can reach. His use of animals
as stand-ins for different people turns “Maus” into an Orwellian nightmare and a heart-wrenching fable about the importance of passing stories down from one generation to the next. You might also like: Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”; Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home”; Will Eisner’s “A Contract With God.” 4. “We3” by Grant Morrison One of the most emotional experiences you will have in a long time, “We3” is a perfect starting point for comic book newbies. It’s premise: “Homeward Bound,” if the animals were experimented on and forced to wear giant mechanized robot-suits. “We3” is more than an action tale, however; it’s a minimalistic, often poetic exploration of the arbitrary line between man and animal, in our shared capacity for good and our disturbing potential for savagery. You might also like: Brian K. Vaughn’s “Y: The Last Man,” Grant Morrison’s “Sigil” trilog y: “Flex Mentallo,” “The Invisibles” and “The Filth.” 5. “Transmetropolitan” by Warren Ellis What if Hunter S. Thompson lived in a dystopian future? Warren Ellis’s cyberpunk satire follows the exploits of gonzo journalist of tomorrow Spider Jerusalem, a mix between Bugs Bunny, Hunter S. Thompson and the Joker. In “Transmetropolitan,” Ellis invents a new type of journalism, one where the line between science-fiction and reality shrinks every day. You might also like: Garth Ennis’s “Preacher” and Frank Miller’s “Sin City.” Non-Comic Honorable Mention: “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” by Michael Chabon This Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction possesses just as much visual splendor as any comic. It’s also a great introduction for any literary types looking to lower their brow a centimeter or two and turn to the funny books. Chabon’s magnum opus also happens to be one of the greatest novels written by a living writer. The epic tale of Josef Kavalier, Sammy Clay and their fictional superhero The Escapist takes its reader on a beautiful odyssey into the heart of the American dream and the power of storytelling, uniting high and low culture. A masterpiece of fiction. You might also like: “The Fortress of Solitude” by Jonathan Lethem; “Supergods” by Grant Morrison; “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALBUM REVIEW
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 — 7A
TV REVIEW
GLASSNOTE ENTERTAINMENT
Hip deep in that Pepto.
Childish returns with new tape, EP Donald Glover takes serious turn on ‘STN MTN/Kauai’
he attracts both sides of the spectrum: the greatest fans and the vehement critics. His newest creation, released unexpectedly last Thursday, is a very good example of Gambino’s creatively eccentric By AMELIA ZAK rap music. Reassuming his ChildDaily Arts Writer ish Gambino identity, Glover took some time away from his many Donald Glover must have diffi- other creative engagements — culty generating respect from his screenwriter, actor and recent rap-god peers. Why exactly is he author — to create what he likes considered to call “the first concept mixtape an outsider? B+ ever.” The conceptual uniqueness Buried by the of the mixtape, especially for this great variety STN MTN/ genre, is undeniable. of creative The mixtape, titled STN MTN/ Kauai successes, Kauai, is, according to GambiGlover’s dou- Childish Gambino no, “connected” and transitions ble identity into the simultaneously released Gangsta Grillz as a hip-hop extended play, Kauai. Both carry and Glassnote artist is tar- Entertainment similarities to his 2013 Because the nished; he Internet album, but the mixtape publicly and EP are very conceptually and insults Kendrick and Drake regu- sonically different. Named after larly, he records exclusively on his Georgia suburb hometown, the indie labels, etc. Unsurprisingly, Gangsta Grillz mixtape is pretty his personal shout-out in Tina great. Eclectic but thoughtful, Fey’s award-winning autobiog- Gambino rhymes over samples raphy or his cameo on Lena Dun- of some ATL-bred hits, including ham’s “Girls” leave much to be “Southern Hospitality,” “Move desired in the rap world. In the That Dope” and “Money Baby,” as context of that world, Childish well as Lil Wayne’s “Go DJ” and Gambino is the annoying kid at the Timbaland & Magoo’s “All Y’all.” party who always whips out his His raps reflect on his youth, like guitar. on the eighth track of the tape, Glover recognizes his status as “U Don’t Have To Call,” when he the pariah of rap music. The music intimately describes his experiand lyrics of his 2013 full-length ences with the foster care system. studio album, Because the Inter- “Dreams/ Southern Hospitality/ net, speak intensely, and exces- Partna Dem,” the opening track sively, about the influence of his of the mixtape, describes all the critics or “haters.” Because of the changes he would hypothetically indie nature of Glover’s sound, make if he were mayor of Atlanta.
He spends much of the tape reiterating his Southern identity, a layer of Glover that is usually ignored or unseen by many. Glover described the secondary part of his newest release, the EP titled Kauai, as a musical interpretation of him “walking into a dream.” Gambino the rapper becomes more a soul singer; on the opening track, “Sober,” Gambino’s voice is cool, light and is oddly akin to Michael Jackson. Lost nights on Hawaiian beaches is a repeated situational theme for most of the EP, as are the spoken raps of the Fresh Prince’s eldest, Justin Bieber-approved Jaden Smith. This addition is radical, but the spoken poetry isn’t half bad. Childish Gambino’s raps, once again, are complex and force his true listener to contemplate or at least consider their meaning. He isn’t focusing on the aesthetics of some girl at the club or car door physics. Instead, he is simply presenting his audience, through music, with a personal experience that relates to a larger, more critical topic. The differences on this double release are stark, with great variations in location, sound and attitude on both. The mixtape takes you through the suburbs of Atlanta and the EP walks on a Hawaiian beach with a member of the Smith family dynasty. On the mixtape, the music is angry; on the EP, it’s calm and content. The two are so clearly juxtaposed, and so it becomes clear that Gambino is always better when he’s madder.
FILM NOTEBOOK
My cinematic Judaism By ZAK WITUS Daily Arts Writer
When I was younger, I never thought that my Jewishness would survive the hellfire of adolescence and puberty. My parents forced Judaism upon me. They made me attend worship services at synagogue, take Hebrew school classes, have a bar mitzvah and all the rest. I hated almost all of it, except for the bar mitzvah loot, of course. So, when hair sprouted from my scrotum and the teenage rebellion commenced, I tried very hard to sever ties with Judaism: I refused to attend services, declared my atheism and chose not to participate in many Jewish traditions. But the rebellion failed. See, my rebellion against Judaism focused almost entirely on religious Judaism; I failed to account for Judaism as a culture, particularly Jewish cinema. To simplify the story, my mom was the one trying to raise me Jewish religiously, whereas my dad was the one trying to raise me Jewish cinematically. Of course, Dad didn’t think about it like that, and consequently neither did I, which was probably why his way was more effective; becoming Jewish through film was cooler, less “in-your-face” and overall more enjoyable. By age seven, Dad had my younger brother Noah and I watching Woody Allen’s early comedies — films like “Take the Money and Run,” “Sleeper” and “Love and Death.” There was no way 7-year-old me understood the gist of what was happening in those films — plot-wise and meaning-wise — but nonetheless they shaped my development. For example, in middle school, when I was neither the most athletic nor
UNITED ARTISTS
“You looooove mother Russia, don’t you?!”
the most confident and was struggling to figure out how to talk to girls, I fell back on what I learned from Woody Allen films — how wit, humor and intellect could be used flirtatiously. And when those tactics failed, the leftover wit and humor could be used as coping mechanisms. Humor, I would argue, is the Jewish people’s quintessential coping mechanism: With six million of our people dead, having a good sense of humor becomes all but necessary for maintaining sanity. With Hollywood on the rise, Jewish humor finds an outlet that’s popular and profitable. In “The Gay Science,” Frederick Nietzsche famously declared that God is dead, but that His shadow would continue to flicker on our cave walls for a while before finally vanishing. Traditional forms of religion are dead too, and Judaism is no exception. Yet the shadow of religion continues to flicker on our cave walls. For me, this flickering is the flickering of images from the movie projector. I am not a religious Jew, but I am, whether I like it or not, a cultural
Jew. For me, God is dead and so is religion, but in order to cope with life, I still need the culture built around the religion; and so in a sense I still need religion. While I still can, I want to bask in the flicking shadows. Two things I learned from this introspection: Covertness is key to ideological indoctrination and enjoyment is essential to ideology. If I had noticed how enjoying Woody Allen movies was reinforcing my Jewishness, my teenage rebellion may have also included abstaining from his films. But the fact of the matter is that I still enjoy “Take the Money and Run,” “Sleeper” and “Love and Death,” and no amount of critique or analysis will change that. Likewise, the Jewishness that Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David instilled in me, and continue to instill in me, will probably never go away. When I was younger, I never thought that my Jewishness would survive the hellfire of puberty and adolescence. But, thanks to film, it did.
AMAZON
Modern Family.
‘Transparent’ a study in indentity, discovery Jeffrey Tambor stars in Amazon Prime trans-gender drama By CATHERINE SULPIZIO Daily Arts Writer
In recent years, character likeability is a debate that’s taken on heated and ethical arguments from both A sides. Vulture Transparent magazine declared Amazon Prime this the Streaming age of the streaming TV auteur, and to ask for likeable protagonists seems akin to asking for laugh tracks back or no nudity. It signals you’re unsophisticated, maybe prudish. It’s easy to justify Walter White because he’s so far removed from an everyday selfish person. But in Jill Soloway’s “Transparent,” the lens is a little closer to home — which makes the characters equal parts heartbreaking and redeemable, by the skin of their deft characterization and acting. With light-washed cinematography that casts the show under its signature elegiac gaze, we’re introduced to the Pfeffermans, a secular Los Angeles Jewish family. At its center is Mort/Maura (Jeffrey Tambor, “Arrested Development”), a retired professor who reveals her identity as a trans woman in the stages of single, senior life. The first episodes of “Transparent” are tasked with Maura’s (née Mort’s) attempts to breach the gap between her identity and the world, which most substantially consists of her three children. The gap between self and world is a recurring theme that connects the Pfeffermans: all are struggling to fit their inward identities into a jagged, sometimes uncomprehending outside. But as wise Maura notes, part of that is because they lack the ability to see beyond themselves. Together, the Pfeffermans have rich and warm chemistry. In a pilot scene that evokes “Annie Hall” ’s Easter dinner, the camera restlessly circles around the dining table with Pfefferman chatter trickling (actually, f looding might be a more accurate word) in from all edges. Soloway, especially in the family scenes, has a knack for taking the pulse of Jewish identity and writing it in with all its idiosyncrasy. It also makes for some perfect comic beats: “We come from Shtetl people, your Grandma Rose actually ate lettuce with her bare hands,” Maura says, a gory slash of barbeque sauce on her cheek. For all their loving familiarity, “Transparent” ’s cast is equally selfcentered, though the show neither moralizes nor
sentimentalizes. Rather, it watches the characters under a nonjudgmental gaze, not unlike Maura’s. Her children are difficult and good by different notes, and we come to understand them through a distinctly parental survey. There is Sarah (Amy Lendecker, “A Serious Man”), a suburban mother whose self-assured façade belies a fundamental uncertainty of her life; she’s married to a Len (Rob Huebel, “Human Giant”), whose name explains everything there is to know about him. When old college f lame, Tammy (Melora Hardin, “The Office”), re-enters in a haze of pantsuitrocking, aviator-wearing cool with a career as an interior decorator (“designer, actually,” Tammy interjects), we practically see a lightbulb go off above Sarah’s head. Sarah’s attraction to Tammy represents a complex sexual identity, but also yearning for Tammy’s iron-grip seize on life. In a telling scene with Len, Sarah asks if Tammy and her kids can come over for a play-date. Len responds with the verbal equivalent of a shrug at her sexual identity: “I love lesbians.” We learn Sarah has a habit of harnessing these passive discontents until they tumble into big, abrupt changes. Almost immediately as her affair begins with Tammy, Len is swept out of the picture. These rapid narrative beats mirror Sarah’s own sudden decision-making: she picks up one life and plunks it into another. Part of “Transparent” ’s strength in capturing queer identity is that it isn’t attempting to suggest the universal; it’s concerned with particular character studies. Sarah and Tammy in no way represent the entire gay community, just as Maura isn’t a spokesperson for the trans one. Because of this, “Transparent” gives the characters room to breathe outside of impossible obligations to perfectly define an entire group. “Transparent” also takes the modern view that sexuality is tangled amid gender and sex, but that doesn’t mean it’s all a homogenous knot. Take the terminally drifting Ali, played by lovely Gaby Hoffman (“Girls”), who can’t seem to get unstuck from her own patterns. Both Hoffman and Carrie Brownstein (“Portlandia”), who plays her best friend Syd, gained their acting chops from playing quirky character roles, and in “Transparent,” they f lesh those characters out with adjoining crevices and shadows. Hoffman plays Ali with a precocious intelligence, even as a thirtysomething year-old. In every scene she’s in, Ali imparts a melancholic quality that will feel achingly familiar to every viewer who’s dealt with depression. She is also the most ‘queer’ of the Pfefferman
children, in how she moves between identities freely and uninhibitedly. Throughout Ali’s various relationships, the edge of her undirected intelligence damages most often. In one scene, she swiftly dismantles a sexual relationship with two male friends by suggesting they’re gay. She’s high, they’re high, it might be true, but we get the sense that Ali isn’t new to these situations. Her selfdestructiveness is a growth of her intellect and talent — her potential nervously hangs over Ali’s constant wheelspinning. What Ali lacks in selfawareness, Josh, the sole brother played by indie darling Jay Duplass (“The Mindy Project”), renders with hyper image-consciousness. He’s the successful kid with a high-paying job in music, the hot band girlfriend (in a band named Glitterish, go figure) and the house to go with it. But he also has the childhood babysitter with whom he has a disturbing sexual relationship that’s bred a host of problems. However, by end of season Josh has moved the most of the children, even miraculously self-actualized a little. Josh’s storyline also serves as one of the many entrances into the origins of the Pfefferman family dysfunction. Through f lashback, we learn Shelly (Judith Light, “Law and Order: SVU”) and Mort were too entrenched in marital problems to be the parents the Pfeffermans needed. In present day, Maura’s quiet grace radiates on screen, and how she tolerates her children is almost saint-like. The mostly judicial use of f lashback fills in how her composure was formed. In a way, the f lashbacks cast the young parents of the same type as their present-day children: richly hewed but oh-so-troubled. Tambor brings masterful sophistication to his portrayal of Maura. Seeing her integrate who she always was into the rest of her life is educating, never preachy, her navigation of a world which prefers to neatly bifurcate people, like using the lady’s restroom or bumping into an old colleague, executed exquisitely. We never worry about Maura, and in every episode we see her come more into herself. The show is centered around Maura, but she acts as a springboard for the rest of the Pfefferman family where the real turmoil lies. “Transparent” takes the asymmetrical form of many shows today with its loose plotting and natural dialogue. Its quietness doesn’t hinder its power, and watching the show in its entirety, it’s hard not to feel emotionally overwhelmed at times. Pace yourself with “Transparent” and marvel over its detail — this show stands up to it.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, October 8, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FOOTBALL
Defense refocuses for PSU By ALEXA DETTELBACH Daily Sports Editor
ROBERT DUNNE/Daily
Fifth-year senior midfielder Tyler Arnone led the Wolverines back from a 2-2 tie in the second half of Tuesday’s win.
‘M’ upsets Irish as McAtee nets hat trick By JASON STEINMAN For the Daily
The Fighting Irish hadn’t given up two goals in any game so far this NOTRE DAME 2 season, 3 MICHIGAN but a struggling Michigan offense was able to accomplish that feat in just less than a minute. The Michigan men’s soccer team rode the offensive explosion past the sixth-ranked Fighting Irish in thrilling fashion Tuesday night, as they edged out a 3-2 victory capped off by junior forward Colin McAtee’s gamewinning header in the 82nd minute. It’s just the second time the Wolverines have defeated Notre Dame in the schools’ 14-game history. But more importantly, Michigan was able to ride its momentum from its 2-1 overtime victory against Wisconsin last Saturday. “I think we’ve proven we can play with the best teams in the country,” said Michigan coach Chaka Daley. “But when we have the target on our back, are we mature enough to take care of business? I think that’s the next learning curve that this team needs to evolve through.” The Wolverines (1-1-2 Big Ten, 3-5-2 overall) got off to a hot start when they broke the scoreless tie in the 20th minute. Freshman
midfielder Tyler Anderson crossed in a corner kick that McAtee headed smoothly past the goalie into the right side of the net. Most fans were still out of their seats cheering when McAtee kicked in his second goal of the match 37 seconds later. This time, senior midfielder Tyler Arnone found McAtee on a cross from the wing, which he calmly collected with his chest and scored with a low, clinical finish past Notre Dame’s keeper. Michigan went into the half with a comfortable 2-0 lead, but that dissipated quickly as the Fighting Irish buried two unanswered goals within five minutes of each other. Forward Jeffrey Farina scored for Notre Dame (2-1-1 ACC, 5-32) off a cross in the 63rd minute and, in the 67th, junior midfielder Patrick Hodan hooked in a beautiful, left-footed finesse shot from 20 yards out. But the Wolverines proved their resiliency by continuing to fight and scramble for every loose ball. Just when it seemed Notre Dame would escape Ann Arbor with at least a point, Michigan was awarded one of its 21 corner
kicks with nearly seven minutes to go. Once again, Anderson found McAtee off a perfectly executed set piece. “It was definitely a euphoric feeling, and probably the biggest goal I’ve scored to this point,” McAtee said. “Especially given where we were at as a team this season.” Michigan finished the game strong, as freshman goalie Evan Louro made one last spectacular save off a header in the box with just over a minute to go, one of his three on the night. “At times, they had the ball and we weathered the storm,” Arnone said. “But that’s to be expected against a topfive team; we knew we were going to have to defend.” McAtee recorded the first hat trick for Michigan since 2012. The threegoal outburst represented a quick turnaround after the Wolverines were shut out four straight games earlier in the season. “The scoreless drought has really hampered us in terms of both RPI and confidence,” Daley said, “but I think five goals in two games will help any team in any league with confidence.”
The Michigan football team has plenty to brag about with its defense. That is, until it allowed 476 yards in a meltdown against Rutgers. One of the few bright spots in the 2014 season — the run defense — held its own against NOTEBOOK the Scarlet Knights, allowing 30 carries for 74 yards on the ground. The Wolverines (0-2 Big Ten, 2-4 overall) rank sixth in the Big Ten in total defense and 19th in the country. But one area defensive coordinator Greg Mattison’s unit has struggled with all season is during the possession right before the half. In Michigan’s four losses, the Wolverines have allowed a score in the last minute of the second quarter. “That’s just something we’ve got to work on,” said senior middle linebacker Jake Ryan. “It’s something we practiced today, we did the two-minute drill.” Ryan maintains that the team remains positive in the locker room at halftime following those defensive struggles, but it’s something that Michigan coach Brady Hoke and Mattison have touched upon as areas for improvement. “The defense loves to go back out onto the field and that’s what we did (against Rutgers),” Ryan
said. “We got a three-and-out (after the half ).” BOYCOTT?: It’s no secret Michigan’s disgruntled student body is frustrated with the Athletic Department. A petition to fire Athletic Director Dave Brandon and a last-minute ‘Fire Brandon’ rally were last week’s cover stories. This week, there are movements for not only students, but also other fans, to boycott the Wolverines’ impending nighttime matchup with Penn State. Started last week by MGoBlog.com, select Michigan fans are calling for a boycott of the game’s opening kickoff. During the past two Under the Lights events, the Athletic Department had a panoramic camera take a stadium picture of the record-setting crowds. The goal is to make the stadium’s student section as empty as possible so when the picture is taken this time around, it’s devastatingly empty. While it’s unclear how much traction the movement will get, it’s something the players are fully aware of. “I would say I understand their frustration, I share it,” said junior center Jack Miller on Monday. “We have just as high of expectations of any fan or any critic does. … At the end of the day things are more important than wins and losses. “This experience, and what the atmosphere could be like Saturday night, is special for
everyone involved. To represent the University, to represent Ann Arbor and what a special thing that can be, for that to go to waste would be disappointing.” As of Tuesday, a Facebook event to boycott kickoff was created, with the hashtag, #DownwithDave, but as of 8 p.m. only 48 people were set to “attend.” Ironically, Michigan’s student section struggles to fill up by kickoff even when the student body approves of the Athletic Department and the team is winning, so it may be unclear to the public if the boycott is a planned success. “We understand the frustration in life or on the field, but in the end, we love the fan support,” said senior defensive end Frank Clark. BRIGHT LIGHTS, NEW UNIS: In Michigan’s third-ever home night game, the Wolverines will don new uniforms for the special occasion. Unveiled in August, the uniforms take a step back from the traditional maize bottoms and blue or white tops and take a more “nighttime” approach to the design. “The whole dark night theme has a good little thing going on,” Ryan said. The uniforms are dark blue on top and bottom, with striped maize numbers and maize gloves. Adidas has created an alternate uniform for each of Michigan’s Under the Lights games.
“It was definitely a euphoric feeling.”
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Freshman defenseman Zach Werenski was on the U.S. NTDP just two months ago before he opted to graduate early.
Familiar foe, new team By JASON RUBINSTEIN
ARE YOU A DEGENERATE OR DRUNK?
JOIN DAILY SPORTS. We’ll make you worse!
Daily Sports Writer
Skating through the handshake line after Monday’s game, Zach Werenski could finally take a deep breath. One by one, he embraced his best friends, his former teammates, and when he got to the end of the line, both U.S. National Team Development Program coaches slapped the freshman defenseman on the backside. He didn’t feel relieved because Michigan defeated the U.S. NTDP, a team that’s come into Ann Arbor and won two consecutive years, but rather he didn’t have to play against his best friends any longer. These were his teammates just two months ago. Werenski, a 17 year old, skated in the NTDP last year, and was slated to play with the same team that faced off against the Wolverines Monday night had he not taken the opportunity to graduate high school early. “At first, I didn’t think it was going to be so bad going out there and playing against my friends,” Werenski said Monday. “Once I got out there I was pretty nervous. I’m close with all of them so it’s kind of hard. At first, you couldn’t really treat it like a regular game. I kind of had to tell myself to get out there and play.” Werenski added that he felt more nervous on Monday than he did on Saturday when
Michigan opened its season on the road against Ferris State, Werenski’s first collegiate game. Freshman forward Dylan Larkin, another alumnus of the NTDP program, said he “couldn’t imagine” playing against his best friends or former teammates and that Werenski told him it was difficult to play physical. However, if that’s the case and Werenski was reluctant to be an aggressor, it certainly didn’t show. Through two games, Werenski has paired with sophomore defenseman Kevin Lohan to form one of the Wolverines’ top defensive pairings. The duo skated on Monday, and Werenski and Lohan have added a formidable line to one of Michigan’s most uncertain positions. Against Ferris State, down 4-1 in third period, Werenski made a strong effort to keep the puck in the offensive zone, passed to junior forward Justin Selman, who dished a pass to senior forward Travis Lynch who buried it home. Michigan coach Red Berenson lauded the play after the game, saying the freshman certainly rose to the occasion in a raucous arena. Despite being the youngest
player on the ice, Werenksi’s success doesn’t surprise NTDP coach Don Granato — Werenski’s coach last season — one bit. “He’s (a) heck of a player,” Granato said. “His skills are incredible; it’s almost like he sees the game in slow motion. He can stay calm when other guys are going 100 miles per hour. “He’ll go 100 miles per hour with them as far as speed but it’s smooth as silk. That is why he is so elite: He can do things effortlessly.” Werenski’s temper flared near the end of the third period Monday when he and Michigancommit Brendan Warren found themselves fighting for body position on a puck. Warren shot down any animosity, but noted that it was strange facing off against one of his best friends, and that he would talk to him later in the night. “(Werenski’s) a tough player to play against,” Warren said. “He’s a really good defenseman, going into college a year early. We’re good buddies and he’s not going to give you anything easy.” Werenski proved that to be true Monday night. It just took him a moment to realize he wasn’t donning the same uniform as Warren.
“At first, you couldn’t really treat it like a regular game.”
2B
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
What’s in a name?
DEAR READERS, Welcome to The Personal Statement Issue. This week, we’re featuring intimate stories told through the pen and the lens — illuminating first-person moments that, for our authors, have pushed a flash of significance into their lives. These nonfiction narratives explore details that have made our writers unsettle, question or fall in love. As the poet Nikky Finney writes, “Absorb everything. What you see, hear, and feel will stamp every alphabet of your work.” In this week’s issue, our writers, photographers and videographers unleash the personal “alphabets” of their own work, which have been stamped with basketball hoops, London pavement, birthday hats, baseball diamonds… Flip through the pages. Read their alphabets. Discover your own.
—Carlina Duan, Magazine Editor
Squirrels, art films, Switzerland, oh my! CHECK OUT VIDEO STATEMENTS AT MICHIGAN DAILY.COM
THE
statement
Magazine Editor: Carlina Duan Deputy Editors: Max Radwin
Photo Editor: Ruby Wallau Illustrator: Megan Mulholland
Amrutha Sivakumar Editor in Chief: Design Editor:
Managing Editor: Katie Burke Copy Editors: Mark Ossolinski Meaghan Thompson
Peter Shahin
Amy Mackens
COVER BY AMY MACKENS AND RUBY WALLAU
O
By Giancarlo Buonomo
f all the philosophical hang-ups that can trouble a young person — questions like “How did the universe begin?” or “What does it mean to be a good person?” — the one that troubled me for the longest time was, to put it kindly, solipsistic. The question I often asked myself in quiet moments was this, “Why am I so different from other people?” This is a hard question to answer, for anybody. As you remember from biology class, all Homo sapiens are about 99.8 percent genetically similar, but it’s that stubborn one fifth of one percent that sets the groundwork for our infinite and ever evolving idiosyncrasies. So close, yet so different. Here’s an example of how I felt different as a child. After school, I only wanted to play by myself. I would gather ripe Kousa Dogwood berries and pretend I was an Aztec priest and the berries were my sacrificial victims. Placing them on the top of a fence post already slathered with fermenting berry, I would plunge an old trowel into their squishy flesh and dig out their hard orange hearts, before letting their torn bodies tumble to the ground. I knew — no, I was certain — that I wouldn’t share this game with my peers. Not because it was macabre, but because it was mine. It wasn’t so different than what other little boys were playing; everyone else was blowing up army men and making bows and arrows and having acorn fights. But that slight degree of difference, that touch of the arcane and foreign, stamped it as mine. Barring the possibility that I’m only 99.7 percent similar to other humans, I am forced to look elsewhere. All the usual sources were out: I’m white, cisgender, upper-middle class and straight. For a while I considered that it was due to being a Jew in a somewhat WASPy town. But Concord, Massachusetts was heavy on things like “interfaith dialogue,” and I didn’t feel much closer to Jewish kids anyways. I wasn’t physically remarkable in any way. I was bright, but no prodigy. Think, Giancarlo, think. Oh. As Jim Croce so memorably sang, “Like the singing bird and
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
the croaking toad, I got a name.” I got a name too. It’s really two names put together — Giovanni was my great-uncle, and Carlo is my father, but the combination is so popular in Italy that if you flick an olive pit across a piazza, chances are it will hit a Giancarlo. The name may be common in Italy, but in America, I’m the only Giancarlo I’ve ever met in person. Based on this fact, I assumed that I would write this essay about the annoying realities of having an unusual name. The endless butchering by substitute teachers. Constant questions about whether “John” was my first name and “Carlo” my middle. From fourth through eighth grades, I just went by “G,” because I was so fed up. But it would be wrong of me to just concentrate on these annoyances. Not because they’re trivial, but because my name is not so much annoyance to me as it is an asset, one that has shaped who I am today and how I view myself. When you grow up with an unusual name, you experience, for lack of a better term, a heightened sense of individualism. When you have a name that no one else has, you and your name become connected in such a way as to suggest that you are a person unlike any other. But my name has a more interesting implication. When you break “Giancarlo” down, it’s really not that unusual, at least in the Indo-European sense. The English equivalent would be John Charles, the Spanish Juan Carlos. So if I felt like an outsider because of my name, it was only as a slight outsider. I used to hate this asymptotic existence, mostly because it felt passive, bestowed on me at birth. Eventually, I came to actively pursue it. I realized that being a slight outsider made me recognizable, made me distinctive. In
a large group of people, I could stand out. I have one group of friends who like sports far more than I do, and literature far less. But in another group, I am suddenly the one who likes sports and parties, not punk rock and anime. In the end, I’m not an outsider — these are my closest and most trusted friends. But I always like to be the one who’s a little “off,” because it means that I have something that I can call my own. I often wonder how I would have turned out differently had my parents not named me Giancarlo. Luckily, my mother gave me a pretty good idea. When I asked her how I came to be named Giancarlo, she recounted how my older siblings’ names had been accounted for before they were even conceived. My sister would be Sophie, because my maternal Grandfather had requested that she be named after his mother. My brother would be Anthony, because ItalianAmericans traditionally name their first sons after the paternal grandfather. There were no restrictions on mine, but my father apparently demanded that I either have a very authentic Hebrew name, like Yitzhak or Yakov, or a very authentic Italian one, like Marco or Massimo. They decided on Giancarlo, because it carried some family history, and they also just liked the sound of it. Upon hearing this story, I asked that rarely-useful yet ubiquitous question: “What if?” Had I been named Yitzhak, would I never have tried to learn Italian or study in Italy? Would I have committed myself to Judaism instead of semi-abandoning it? Or even if I had been Marco, would I not have felt so different from others? There’s no benefit in trying to plot out the specifics. But it is useful to recognize what’s in a name.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
Beyond the score, behind the lens By Teresa Mathew
T
hey tell you that college will change you. That you will look independence in the face, with its wide, sharp fangs and intoxicating grin, and you will succumb to vices you had thought yourself immune to. For some, that means getting involved with drugs, sex and alcohol. For me, it meant developing an unlikely preoccupation with sports. And for a brief moment, after I got tackled on national television by a Northwestern running back while shooting football for The Michigan Daily, I wasn’t sure which was more dangerous. I didn’t grow up around Michigan Athletics. I didn’t grow up caring about sports at all, and my brief stint playing basketball in middle school can be best characterized by our every-game losing streak my first year. But then I came here. And suddenly, I was a sports photographer. Perhaps “suddenly” is a little hyperbolic. I was terrified of shooting sports when I first joined the photostaff. But I can remember the exact moment in the fall of my sophomore year, sitting in the Union’s Pond Room and grumpily studying for a Calculus exam, when The Daily’s managing photo editor texted me to ask if I wanted to shoot that Saturday’s football game against Northwestern. I said yes. And just like that, I was hooked. I was hooked even though I didn’t know the first thing about football, even though the length of the game confused me and the running around the sidelines was exhausting and, as my relatives and the staff of The Daily love to remind me, I got tackled. That’s what happens when you have two cameras, three lenses, and a monopod weighing down your 5’5” frame and a football player is charging toward the sidelines at twenty miles an hour. But the atmosphere and being on that field were intoxicating, and I thought it was the coolest assignment in the world. Maybe shooting sports is awesome after all. I remember thinking. And it is. But for all the glory and fame and tradition that surround Michigan football, I soon discovered something far more addictive. I started photographing men’s basketball. Doing so is a privilege for those of us who work at The Michigan Daily. That wasn’t always the case — when I was a freshman, men’s basketball didn’t have the same coveted status that football did. But as the team got better, the assignments did, too. Over the course of the winter semester of my
junior year, I would see Team 98 and The Daily’s basketball beat writers more often than I would see my friends. But, at the end of the day, I just fell in love with the sport. I am atrocious at playing basketball, but I like watching it and I love covering it. I love the sound of the soft swoosh when a perfectly timed shot enters the net, watching the arcs of frantic passes and perfectly executed drives. I love the fast pace, the lines of paint on a scuffed wooden floor. I love leveling my camera to frame a pass, to freeze a dunk, to capture a moment. And, to some (completely professional and unbiased) extent, I also loved the team. I don’t want to speak for the writers, but as a sports photographer, you have an odd connection to a team. I photographed these student-athletes for a semester, through unexpected wins and heart-wrenching losses. Having to go into the locker room after the team’s loss in the fourth round of the NCAA Tournament and photograph their reactions was the worst and most difficult thing I have ever had to do as a photographer. As a journalist, it’s your duty to remain unbiased. We can’t wear maize and blue or any Michigan gear at games; we can never cheer, but it’s impossible not to feel for a team you cover day after day, week after week, for four months. When the team lost in the Elite Eight, I was more heartbroken than I would have ever thought possible. Sitting on that arena floor when the buzzer went down to 0.0 and Kentucky declared victory and advancement to the Final Four was indescribably crushing. Why ever bother breaking up with someone, I angstily thought afterwards, when sports can break your heart just as badly? And when it came to hearts, I never thought I would be able to date anyone
who was a sports fanatic. But after falling into that category myself by accident and through way of a camera lens, I wasn’t sure if I could ever be involved with anyone who wasn’t — at least a little bit. How else could someone understand why I still carry a piece of the net from the Elite Eight game around with me in my wallet? So much of my college career has been defined by press passes and weekends spent with a camera in my hands and my heart in my throat. This is the logic I employed upon realizing I officially had a crush on a boy when, while playing a game of True American, he was the only one who knew not only that Spike Albrecht and Glenn Robinson III played for the team, but that they were both from Indiana (I’m not a complete weirdo, there were other reasons). But that isn’t the point — this is about my love affair with sports. It has branched out some, and I’ve gone from being solely obsessed with shooting games to enjoying reading about and watching them. Experiencing a game as a fan has its perks — you can do so with your friends, you can eat and drink and, most importantly, you can cheer your heart out. As a fan, you can sing “The Victors” and hold up ridiculous handmade signs. You don’t have to worry about whether or not you managed to capture the shot that Caris Levert made — you just have to care that he made it. (Half of the stress of shooting Michigan’s Sweet Sixteen game last year came from the game itself, but the other half came from an unholy terror of not capturing an important moment. It’s the closest I’ve ever coming to throwing up on the court.) I look forward to watching games — basketball, football, soccer and gymnastics — as just a fan. I’m writing this the night after going to a women’s soccer game (for the first time with a student ticket instead of a press pass) and it was awesome. Their student section has some really weird chants. But there is nothing like being on that court, that field, that stadium floor, covering it with every ounce of you focused and
razor-edged under bright lights and surrounded by cheers, chants and color. After a semester spent covering the Michigan men’s basketball team cross-legged and wide-eyed under a hoop in arenas all over the Midwest, I have earned the right to call myself a sports photographer. And when my job ends in December and I hang up my last press pass, I know I’m going to be saying goodbye to one of the best parts of my college career. I used to judge people who loved sports. I just didn’t get it. Why would anyone care so much about a stupid score, a game that in no way affected their day-to-day lives? And it took me coming to Michigan and working for The Daily to finally understand. Even now, I’m not going to pretend that I’m any kind of sports expert. I have no interest in professional football and a limited one in the NBA. College athletics, with all of its controversy, tradition, and heartbreak are where my heart belongs. But shooting sports lead to me reading the sports section of The Daily, which is where I discovered the beauty of sports journalism and longform. Sports longform continues to be one of my favorite genres to read. Through reading but, more importantly, though shooting, I began to learn that sports aren’t just about a score, a ball or a team. Sports are about devotion. About loyalty. About hope. We don’t follow teams because we know they’ll win. We follow them because we tie ourselves so inextricably to them. If you’d told me as a high-school senior that so many of my best memories of college would be tied to sports — from singing along to Broadway musicals on the way to cover a game, to witnessing first-hand a win in the Sweet Sixteen, to dancing on the sidelines during a game against Notre Dame, to being called the “toughest girl on the field” — I would have laughed or stared or wondered. I still wonder. I know that sports may seem trivial in the face of other things. But what sports have taught me about this campus, about human stories and about myself, is not. Sports culture has issues that extend beyond the court, field, or stadium — I understand that. I’m not here to defend what cannot and should not be defended. Loving sports isn’t just about the love of the game. It’s about the love of everything — the team, the emotional investment, the tradition — that goes with it. At the end of the day, at the end of the game, sports don’t have to mean anything. But they do. And the fact that they do, that they can, that they always will — that means everything. ILLUSTRATION BY AMY MACKENS
3B
4B
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
5B
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
Swiping right for ‘The One’ — life and love on Tinder by Zach Shaw
I Little moments in London
I
t was 10 a.m., July, Kingsway Street, Central London. I was on my way to the New Academic Building at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where I had been studying for the summer. I probably looked lost as I glanced around in a sort of amused awe. Despite all of the excitement and beauty of London, I felt like I could have been in any city, anywhere. It was a beautiful day. The sun shone vibrantly in a bright blue sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds. Women and men in fancy suits and store clerks in their uniforms walked briskly past as I meandered toward campus. I couldn’t help but laugh. How did I get here? Nothing really compares to the feeling that I had in finding myself in a situation so different from what I had ever previously experienced. The city — with its tall buildings of shiny pained glass, crowds of people, incredible population, diversity in profession, background and lifestyle — was something that I had not really experienced growing up. I’m from a suburb of Detroit, but growing up, my family and I would spend our summers in a small town in Northern Michigan. There, we would swim, sail and play in lake Michigan with family and friends. The town wasn’t where I was from, yet these experiences helped shape me almost as much as the place where I grew up and went to school. In combination, they provided a stark contrast to the city where I had found myself at the moment — London.
by Victoria Noble
I reached campus and walked through shiny glass doors, touched my LSE student ID to the sensor, and walked into my class on the ground floor. After an hour and a few pages of notes later, I left with a few classmates to get lunch. We walked to a nearby restaurant, got food and took it to a nearby park. The two girls I was with, both Americans, had very different college experiences than I had, yet we shared so much in common. They were from smaller, East Coast private schools, were older, and were studying different things than I was. Yet, we talked about everything from politics to ex-boyfriends as if we shared far more experiences than we really had. I missed my home, family and friends. I missed the familiarity of my own bed, and the easy availability of peanut butter at the grocery store. I wanted to see my parents and brother who were enjoying the summer up north without me. I missed being able to walk five minutes down South University and be at my friend’s dorm. I wanted care packages from my family without having to venture into a distant part of town to pay customs charges to receive them. The support system that family and friends provide is important to me, and was something that I hadn’t previously lived without. For most of my time in Europe, I was pretty much on my own. I made incredible friends that I still keep in contact with, but there is no replacement for the people that that have been there for me my entire life. My study abroad trip, as it probably is for
most people, was a transformative experience. But, unlike most characterizations of these sorts of experiences, it wasn’t one big, momentous event. Most lessons were smaller, gradual and mundane. Having only completed one year of college as an in-state student, the biggest thing I had to learn was how to take care of myself, a lesson that I realized was more difficult than I had imagined. I somehow contracted some sort of stomach flu, with no family members or familiar doctors to take care of me. But the entire experience of being abroad seemed underwhelming. There were, of course, a few dramatic moments. I got the opportunity to see inside Buckingham Palace, looking at some of the most beautiful art and interior decorating I’d ever seen. Classmates and I watched Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. I rode on a big tourist bus that drove us out into the middle of rolling fields so that we could walk around Stonehenge for a while. We listened to an expert legal academic discuss human privacy rights in a period heavily impacted by big data. The gravity of these few places impacted me at the time, but that wasn’t the case for the majority of my trip. The political and historical significance of so many of the places I visited and lived were certainly consequential. I had, in part, come to London to experience a city that had such a pivotal impact on the development of the world, and still plays a driving role in international economics and politics — and
I certainly appreciated these aspects of my trip. Yet despite the consequence and weight of what I was doing and learning in London, the best, most impactful experiences came from little moments. Exploring the city and attending class with the new friends I had made through my program, I felt as though I really could’ve been anywhere. Though I was with entirely different people and in a completely new place, I felt at home. After time passed, though, my real home didn’t end up seeming so far away. Even with the time change, it wasn’t very difficult to call home to my parents. Because London was five hours ahead, I could call once I was back in my room doing homework. I learned to appreciate my family in a different way since we were disconnected by time zones. One of the last things I did in London before I left was visit St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was there that I realized what an incredible summer it had been. The culmination of each day’s events added up to something that was far greater than anything I had expected to experience. I was so extremely lucky — not because of all the things I was able to do and see, but because of the people I met, and the ways in which I was able to grow that I really couldn’t have in Ann Arbor. But that isn’t something that I could’ve known, standing in the middle of a crowded street in Central London, in July. It was too early to know that the places and people I was meeting that day would do so much to shape my college experience.
t was just a joke, really. If I got to know some cool people, maybe even go on a few dates, that would be a bonus, but it wasn’t the goal. That’s what real life is for. I don’t remember what day or even what month my life on Tinder began, but I remember the first night vividly. Following a friend’s tweet questioning the ethicality around Tinder, I got one immediately. It was an impulse decision. I didn’t think about the potential cons of getting the app when it meant a chance to meet girls. I learned more in my first night on Tinder than I did in an average month of school. I learned that, like it or not, Greek Life is an exceptionally photogenic organization; I learned that there are at least six different ways to spell Courtney; I learned that judging people can be way more fun than it looks. I learned that no matter how much stigma surrounds Tinder, the bulk of my female friends had crafted their own profiles, I also learned that girls near me actually find me attractive. Huh. I also learned, quickly, that it’s still a cold world for shy, awkward boys. Even on an app where mutual attraction, location and age are clearly stated, conversations don’t start themselves. I learned that even if a girl is interested in you, she is capable of stopping and giving you a digital cold shoulder simply because the extra y in “hey” or the sideways winking face in your opening message was too forward. But the most important thing that I learned over the course of that year was the saddest one. No matter how stupid I found Tinder to be, I simply couldn’t stay away. They say not to let school get in the way of your education, so I wasn’t going to let my classes get in the way of me refining and mastering my Tinder bio. Day by day, I’d scour every decent photo of myself and look for ones that sent the “right message.” Was my black-and-white photo of me in a cutoff flag football uniform giving the cool and edgy look I wanted? Or would the photo of me coaching and smiling with one of my nineyear old swimmers on my shoulders give off the friendly-guy look that girls might crave? I weeded through my photos while using every marketing and communi-
I ever wanted to
cations lesson I knew to perfect the accompanying 240-character bio. I constantly searched for the right mix of bragging about my accomplishments and being laid back or even ‘cool,’ giving enough information for my readers to understand who they were dealing with, but holding back just enough to pique their interest and make them ask for more. Not too long, not too short. Not too serious, but not too goofy either. My professors — who thought I was merely texting or on Facebook — would’ve been so proud to see the critical thinking that went into every word on Tinder. Clearly having too much free time, I attempted to acquire as many matches and carry as many conversations as possible. I joined Tinder in a state of confusion and boredom, but now I was hooked. The first few days were simple enough; swipe right now, ask questions later. For me, the most desirable trait in a woman on Tinder is mutual interest. That’s it. If you don’t run at my weirdness, neediness, or bad puns, it’s very likely I won’t ever leave. After attaining many matches but with few strong connections to show for it, it became clear that there were too many matches to keep track of on Tinder. So I developed some rules. Like an elite internship, the rules were arbitrary, but something had to be done. Mirror selfies, fishing pictures, being Canadian, having large tattoos or using emojis to describe your lifestyle would result in a leftward flick of my all-powerful thumb. The same could be said for girls who posted too many “moments,” or were named ‘Darlene.’ I realized now that the goofiness of Tinder had faded, and there was an end-goal. Past generations finally decided to settle down after years of exhausting dating, I was ready to settle down on Tinder after three weeks. If
take Tinder past the exploration stage, I needed to streamline my efforts. This didn’t mean looking for love or “the one” per se, just more than the typical small talk that ended somewhere between learning what they studied and what they thought of their hometown. Checking out matches and making small talk aren’t necessarily premium forms of entertainment, but they’re safe and easy to do. Little attachment meant little risk. Once conversations got going though, my lifetime spent avoiding talking to girls started to take its toll. I was in trouble. It seemed no matter how I played my cards, I would’ve been better off folding. There were the times I corrected girls’ grammar, times where I somehow thought insulting the Chicago Blackhawks would increase my chances of a date and the time I thought comparing a girl to a teddy bear would be a sweet compliment. Tinder was designed to make my love life more efficient, not my stupidity. I eventually found success on Tinder. The biggest complaint about Tinder is the horniness of male users. It took the app years to develop a photo-sharing feature, and the report button gets increasingly visible with each successive update. These two trends are not coincidental. Which left me as a weirdo who sucks at small talk but can keep it in his pants. Did I stand a chance after all? The rejections piled up, but so did my determination. I had invested too much time into this game to stop early. Like a gambler glued to the slot machine, I resisted giving up, assuring myself that my luck was bound to turn around at the next swipe. This led to mass messaging, copying and pasting the same lines to dozens of matches and unsuccessfully counting on the law of averages. This all went on for longer than I care to
admit and would probably still be going on, if I hadn’t realized how shallow Tinder was in the most devastating way possible. After roughly 1500 matches and hundreds of mostly meaningless conversations, I had finally found someone I “clicked” with. So much so, that I spent an entire Friday evening in front of my phone, chatting with her about everything. Mercifully, she suggested after hours of conversation that we go grab pizza and talk in person. A DATE! Ecstatic, I put on shoes and real clothes with an enthusiasm that my 8:30 accounting class would’ve killed for. I returned to my phone to see a rather rare message. “Wait hold up … how tall are you?” Without blinking, I responded by explaining I was 5’11.” I’m not wowing anyone with my height, but to me there’s no reason to lie or fudge details. Could I have rounded up, even an inch? Yes. Should I have? Apparently. “Lol,” she replied. Adding a quick “nvm then” a couple minutes later. After a moment of sheer confusion, I found out that she was 5’8,” and considered boys under six-foot “just friends.” Sound weird? Unfair? Moronic? Unfathomably shallow? Welcome to Tinder. Unsurprisingly, that pretty much did it for Tinder and me. I know that isn’t a normal situation, but the fact that I actively engaged in a culture where fortune favors the shallow (and tall, I guess) finally sunk in. I was out. Yes, there were the casual hook-ups Tinder was designed for, but were they worth it? Not once. Sadly, that’s what made me keep coming back for as long as I did. I’d learn later in a psychology class that the potential for “success” kept me swiping, even when the rewards were few and far between. Because in Cupid’s latest, cruelest and shallowest love game yet, I couldn’t stay away. I still have Tinder buried in the apps on my phone, but every time I push the red flame icon, I take it with a grain of salt. Gone are the days of carrying 14 conversations at once, of using Tinder all over the country ‘just in case,’ of obsessing over whether or not I should refer to my academic pursuits as “Michigan Business” or simply “Ross.” At long last, I have returned to the real world, and that isn’t a joke.
6B
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
Ten Going on 21 by Daniel Feldman
ILLUSTRATION BY AMY MACKENS
Y
ou’re lucky I’m not an asshole,” my father said to me on my 21st birthday. “I could have easily blackmailed you by taking some photos.” Birthdays have always been a strange occasion for me. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever had a “bad” one, but it’s difficult to say that I did anything remarkable or memorable. As I neared my 21st birthday in August, the feeling of actually becoming an adult took over. And it was scary. Having a summer birthday usually seemed to take away the stress that came with becoming older and gaining more responsibilities. I always appreciated my birthdate — Aug. 18 — because it acted as a good divider between the other major events in the year. It was also a cushion before the new school year began. The only time I can remember getting emotional on my birthday was when my family visited my aunt and uncle in the Bay Area during the early 2000s. After enjoying an ice cream cake shaped like a watermelon, I went to bed that night deep in thought. Maybe it was because I had too much dairy or because I really felt upset, but I went to the bathroom to let it pass. As I sat there hoping the feeling would subside, I suddenly began to cry. Thoughts of death, getting older and becoming an adult crept in my mind. Perhaps it was triggered by the adolescent thrill of eating a fruit-shaped cake that made tears flow. All I know was that I had stayed in the bathroom for a good 20 minutes, sobbing. Maybe it had to do with me being the baby of the family. I would never complain that my parents looked out for me more than my other siblings and tried extra hard to imprint what was wrong and right in my head. Being the third child, I guess it all came with the territory. Still, as I got older and more birthdays came and went, the momentous day was marked with pretty reserved celebrations: going to the Mets game, seeing David Beckham play in person, going out for sushi, having my first beer (at least according to my parents’ knowledge). For my 21st birthday, my parents suggest-
ed going to a shuffleboard club in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where I lived. Though I wasn’t opposed to the idea, it didn’t exactly make me giddy to hang out with aging hipsters at a place that literally could only exist in Brooklyn. As Aug. 1 neared and my time at home and summer job crept closer to the end, I was reminded that I had been summoned for grand jury duty in Downtown Brooklyn. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I was a student soon returning to Michigan for the fall semester, so why would I ever get picked? The only concerning thought that came across my mind was that I had to wake up before 9 a.m. to get to the building. With my paperwork and phone in hand, I slouched down in a seat at the Kings County Court building, waiting for the moment when I finally got to leave and get along with the rest of the month. As the man in charge asked all students to come up, I assumed I would verify that there would be no way I could stay in Brooklyn long enough for duty, and accordingly, get on with my day. “Are you in classes right now?” he asked. “Well, no, but I’m leaving for Michigan on the 20th,” I replied. “Great, this goes from the fourth to the 15th,” he quipped back. As I sat back down confused as to what just happened, I began to realize that, shit, I might just get selected for grand jury duty. As each name was called, my hopes began to rise again that I would not be called. Then it happened. “Daniel Feldman. Please raise your hand if you’re in the room. Daniel Feldman.” Slowly, my hand rose. I wanted to be angry, but what good would that do? I was later told to report back to the building on Monday for orientation. After never truly experiencing a stressful August day in my life, I suddenly had two weeks full of stress because my weekdays would be spend in court, following by weekends of working at my summer job in a local restaurant. With that, my early entry into adulthood had begun. Each weekday for two weeks
I woke up at 7:30 a.m., prepped my lunch, packed some reading material and workout clothes, then headed to Jay Street to decide whether people should be indicted for a crime. I won’t lie, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world; albeit the courtroom was as cold as an igloo and the vending machines only carried Classic Lays. All things considered, it wasn’t a bad way to make an extra $400 for sitting down in a chair and trying not to fall asleep. As harmless as it turned out to be, my parents still felt guilty that I had to serve jury duty. Even though I was basically being paid to just sit there, my father said he’d give me $100 if I had to sit all 10 days. I don’t think he understood at that moment how grand jury duty worked but I wasn’t going to argue with two crisp $50 bills. As my last day of jury duty came to a close, I felt older for some reason. Maybe it was because of the tragic nature of some cases I saw. Maybe it was because I was among the youngest on the jury, which made me realize I wouldn’t have to do this again for a while. Maybe it was the concept of waking up early, commuting to “work” and riding the train home with the “work crowd.” Or, you know, maybe it was all just leading up to the relief I felt because I was finally free from responsibility. I could act young again, like a soon-to-be 21-year-old. With my last of work at the restaurant Sunday, I made plans to go out with my co-workers to celebrate my last shift and my birthday come midnight. After getting cut around 10 p.m., I rushed home to take a shower and freshen up before hitting the town. As I tied my shoes, my mother walked in half asleep to wish me an early happy birthday. She also gave me the usual “don’t do anything stupid, be safe” speech. While I took the message to heart, I really had no idea what was going to happen in the next five hours. After a brief refuge back at the restaurant, we walked to a bar down Flatbush Avenue. With a SixPoint IPA in my possession and my friends gathered around me, we waited for the clock to reach midnight, signaling the begin-
ning of the next stage in my adult life. As the clock struck double 12s, I immediately yelled out, “Shots!” The next thing I knew a shot glass of whiskey was in my hands with a beer in the other acting as a chaser. I knew this could mark the beginning of a path toward blacking out, but I couldn’t care less. After a month of acting like an adult in some capacity, I was finally ready to act my age and, well, do something I might regret, but surely remember. And so the parade of drinks began, with my coworker Juan floating out the crazy idea of hitching a cab to a strip club in Queens at some point during the point of no return. What did I have to lose? From the combination of kind of knowing I was at a strip bar and being very drunk, I was very scared, despite my new legal ID, to confront the bouncer at the door. But after my friend Drea yelled for all to hear that it was my 21st birthday, the bouncer immediately let us in. “Have fun,” I remember him whispering. So I sat at the bar in front of the stage, drinking a beer and watching the show. I would have enjoyed just sitting there taking in the scene, but I was escorted into the side room for, um, VIP service. I don’t really know how to explain a very drunk lap dance, nor do I care to try. Returning to the bar, I felt pleased but not really sure if I experienced it all the right way. Fortunately, my friends dragged back in there again an hour later, before last call, to go for round two. At the end of it, I wasn’t sure how to handle the payment. When we finally left the club at 4 a.m. to return to Brooklyn, I felt the most drunk I’d ever been. Walking into the building’s lobby, I approached the doorman, who I’d had many serious, deep conversations about life throughout the summer. Finally feeling like an adult, I could have easily had a brief but serious conversation with him. Instead, I have no idea what I said. Just like when I was 10, I found myself back in the bathroom. But this time, it felt good to grow up and embrace what would come next in my life. Oh yeah, I also passed out next to the toilet.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
7B
Back on the diamond by Will Greenberg
N
ever let the fear of striking out keep you from coming up to bat.” – Babe Ruth. My heart dropped when Kevin turned to me in the office and said, “Oh you played baseball in high school? That’s perfect! You’ve got to come play.” Kevin was one of the staff writers at the Chicago Reader, Chicago’s alternative weekly newspaper and the publication I interned at this summer. Kevin was also the captain of the staff softball team, part of a citywide softball “media league.” I tried my best to look excited, forced a smile and said, “Sure, sounds fun!” but inside I was petrified. My stomach ached with nerves; my mind raced with worry; I couldn’t shake the feeling that getting back out on a baseball field would go horribly wrong. It’s true, I did play baseball up through high school, starting from the age of six playing T-ball. As a young boy I fell in love with the game — partly because it’s the best game in the world, and partly because I was good at it. Baseball took up the majority of my identity as a kid. For a short time, I was somewhat of a local legend in my little Chicago Park District house league. Kids on other teams knew who I was and would make sure their teammates prepared themselves for when “that tall kid” would be pitching. I was a star. All of that changed when I finally played at the high school level. Because most of the other kids were really good players, I wasn’t a hot shot anymore. Most of my teammates and opponents played on far more competitive travel leagues. The coaches were critical and if I wanted to keep playing I would have to impress them. I was humbled quickly and felt like I had to constantly prove myself; I had to earn the right to play the game I loved. Baseball wasn’t just for fun anymore; there was constant pressure to prove myself. I didn’t want to lose that star quality from my middle school years, but now I ended up paying more attention to my performance than the experience of the game. I quickly assumed a mentality of self-doubt, a tactic
that aimed to keep me constantly working harder. I was careful not to boast, brag or be over-confident for fear that I might jinx myself. This tactic might have been effective for a reasonable person, but in my already worrisome brain, it manifested as constant nerves and frequent anxiety. When Kevin invited me to play over the summer, I figured it would be a good chance for me to at least get to know the writers — maybe even staff at other papers — but I still felt nervous. The pressure now came from the high expectations from the staff: “He’s good, he played in high school.” I drove out to Seward Park, just north of downtown Chicago, on a Monday night, trying to calm my nerves but finding it hard to get out of my own head the same way I had in high school. What if I stink? Won’t that make them think I’m a loser? I’m supposed to know how to write, too … what if this shows them I was never good at anything? I arrived at the park and found my co-workers, in the dugout opposite our opponent: CHIRP Radio. My palms were sweaty, I was forcing myself to smile and make jokes. Through all this anxiety I was also supposed to show I could relax and be fun. I was able to settle in as more members of the team arrived and the more light-hearted atmosphere of Chicago softball was revealed. Even on a Monday night, 30 racks of beer were brought along, some players smoked a quick cigarette as a warm-up routine and no one looked particularly prepared for a game. Despite my persistent nerves, some of the old feelings from my park-league days came rushing back to me: the feel of the evening breeze, the smell of the all-dirt field and the sight of the Chicago Skyline stood impressively just a few miles away. One of the senior writers came over to me. “Feeling good? You’re a pro, right?” “Yeah, doing good,” I replied back with a small smile. Then it was time to take the field. “Will, take third base,”
Kevin directed. My heart momentarily disintegrated. Third base, the “hot corner,” is where most balls are hit. My mind immediately regressed into the internal cycling of all the possible mistakes I could make. I started recanting my game-mode mantra from high school: “Don’t get too cocky, you don’t want to jinx yourself. Just make the play the way you were taught and try not to think about it.” The game started and, sure enough, the first batter drilled a ground ball right at me. Thankfully, all went as intended. My head cleared momentarily; I scooped the ball up without any issue; and made a solid throw to the first baseman, which was promptly dropped. Of course, the broken play was not at all my fault, but I instinctively began analyzing my throw: was it too high? Too fast? Could I have set my feet better for more even more accuracy? Was that play my fault? The stream of consciousness didn’t cease and I subsequently made a couple more errors that inning, allowing enough base runners for CHIRP to get a sizable lead of six. When three outs were finally made, I trudged back to the dugout, head down. My Reader teammates offered words of encouragement and positivity but I stayed focus on feeling my shame. The game proceeded as softball games typically do, with the lead changing several times until the seventh and final inning rolled around — we were down 11-12. I had had a rough game, hitting poorly and making additional errors in the field. Coming into the dugout from the top of the sev-
enth, Kevin sounded off the upcoming line-up: “Chris, Dell, Mick and then Will.” From behind the chain linked fence I watched the three men ahead of me set up my fate. Chris popped out, Dell got on base and Mick flew out but allowed Dell to advance to second. I was next up to bat with two outs in the bottom of the final inning and the tying runner in scoring position. This was a chance any little leaguer would fantasize about in their backyard, and I’d even imagined it early on, but mostly these pressure situations doused me in anxiety. Frustrated by how little fun I was having at this inconsequential social event, especially in a surrounding I was supposed to love, I couldn’t help but think to myself, was this how I felt playing high school baseball? Was I this miserable the whole time? As I walked out from the dugout to prepare my bat, I had a crazy thought. “Screw it,” I thought. “I’m tying us up right here, right now.” I stepped into the batter’s box and set my feet, eyes glued to the pitcher. Instead of trying and failing to clear my mind, I instead focused my thoughts toward success. The pitcher wound up and heaved a high-flying meatball, a perfect offering. I let the ball drop in to shoulder height before erupting with energy and crushing the pitch. The collision made a boom like a muted
cannon, the ball streaking into the night sky toward left-center field for a textbook-perfect double. I rounded first and landed gently at second base, driving in the tying run. Steve, next up to bat, cracked a double and we won the game with a walk-off. It felt good; it felt powerful; it was fun again. That double may not have been much of an accomplishment at the end of the day, but that small moment really changed how I felt about confidence. I thought about how much I’d allowed anxiety and self-doubt to cloud my judgment, ruining a game for me that I loved so deeply. I realized, too late, that baseball had been taken away from me in high school. Everything I did was because it was what the coaches wanted, not what I wanted. Those distractions made it impossible for me to suppress my fear of failure, and I had suffered for it. So I now have a new motto, nothing too groundbreaking but one used by generations of ballplayers and successful people alike: “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from coming up to bat.” – Babe Ruth.
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
8B
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 // The Statement
P H O T O S TA F F P E R S O N A L S TAT E M E N T S As photographers, we express ourselves through our lenses instead of our words. We remember moments of our lives though the frames of our cameras. You can’t place a word count on the sentiment of a photograph of a loved one or special place. This week, Photostaff presents a collection of moments that tell their personal stories.
VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
Growing up surrounded by adults whose lives were defined by manual labor, I have gained immense admiration and respect for workers who make things with their hands.
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
The unusually stressful events that have punctuated the end of this summer in Ann Arbor have made simple moments in beautiful places with gracious friends even more valuable to me.
TERESA MATHEW/Daily
I took this in North Bend, WA, which I consider to be my favorite place on earth. This photo means so much to me because it sums up what I love most about North Bend and, to some extent, what I love most about life: family, dogs, and an abundance of trees.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
This is my grandmother, Charlotte Charter, at the family brunch where we celebrated her 90th birthday this past May. She is a World War II U.S. Navy veteran and mother of six and has been a great role model and source of support throughout my life. As she turned 90 years old, I realized that I have limited time left with this loving woman, so I cherish any happy memory with her.
KATHERINE PEKALA/Daily
The emotions I have when I look at this picture are indescribable. There is a dimension about this photograph that brings me to this moment and makes it all real again. To me, this photo represents quintessential Copenhagen: a city and a culture that is more alive than anywhere I have ever been, and one of the few places that I can truly call home. I am on Amagerbrogade, a street that will always mean something to me.