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Friday, April 6, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Rocker joins El-Sayed for rally to kick off summer Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros frontman gives candidate his support KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporter
ALICE LIU/Daily
Take Back the Night Ann Arbor holds its 40th anniversary rally and march at the Union Thursday night.
Annual Take Back the Night rally calls for end to sexual violence
Protest units students, community members to take a stand against sexual assault ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Daily Staff Reporter
Nicole Denson, the associate director at Wayne County Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner’s program, inspired the audience of Ann Arbor’s 40th annual Take Back the Night rally — a march taking a stand against sexual violence — with an empowering call. “Let’s not make this a sad
night, let’s make this a happy night,” Denson said. “Let’s take back the night!” The event, hosted by Michigan Takes Back the Night and a team of volunteers, aimed to support and empower survivors, provide resources, and collectively take a stand against sexual assault. The night began with attendees interacting with different organizations tabling at the event, such as Women and Gender in Public Policy,
Planned Parenthood and #StandWithTheseGirls. All the while, inspiring songs like Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” played on the speakers, culminating in the projection of the music video of Kesha’s “Praying,” a song of healing, hope and forgiveness. This theme of healing was emphasized in singersongwriter Jena Irene Asciutto’s performances as well. Asciutto, the 2014 runnerup of “American Idol,” sang her
songs “Numb,” “Innocence” and “Unbreakable” between the different speeches. Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor spoke first, expressing his support of Take Back the Night’s message, as well as organizations across Ann Arbor combating sexual violence. He recognized the gravity of this issue and the great deal of work which needs to be done, but said he remained optimistic. See RALLY, Page 3
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a University of Michigan alum, held his final rally of the semester in Lorch Hall Thursday night, featuring Alex Ebert, the lead singer of rock band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. About 100 students attended the “Start of Summer Rally” to launch the campaign’s “People’s Summer”, which that focuses on mobilizing young people to vote in the Democratic gubernatorial primary August 7. Intended to draw participants from across the state, the event was livestreamed to several other universities including Grand Valley State University, Central Michigan University, Oakland University and more. El-Sayed graduated from
the University in 2007 and then went on to receive a doctorate degree from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and later a medical degree from Columbia University. El-Sayed served as health officer for the city of Detroit from 2015 to 2016, and became youngest health official of a major U.S. city at age 30 when he served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department. He said he was called to public service through his experience with various positions in the Detroit area as well as his desire to see systematic change on a local level. “Every single responsibility we took on led to the closed door of a politician –– people whose doors don’t open for people like you and I, that only open for the moneyed folks,” El-Sayed said. “And I realized that I was done waiting at that closed door.” See ABDUL, Page 2
The Name Remains: ‘U’ responds to ‘U’ debate Man runs team third CC Little bus stop after Regents vote shirtless on
CAMPUS LIFE
CRIME
to go to the Final Four
Students call on admin to denounce Little’s legacy, address cultural namesake
Program joins hockey, basketball in getting to tournament semifinals
Last week, the University of Michigan Board of Regents unanimously voted to remove the name of the former Clarence Cook Little Science Building. Since the decision late last week, the University has taken steps in clearing the building’s name from usage. Less than one hour after the decision was made, the old building sign was removed and changed to “1100 North University Building.” Given the short notice, departments across campus are continuing to remove the name from f lyers and other campus resources. During the Regents meeting last week, Regent Andrea Newman, R, addressed the University’s important role in “changing the student vernacular,” claiming members of the U-M community will continue to identify the building, as well as the Central Campus Transit Center, as C.C. Little. Students and faculty alike are still ref lecting on the University’s duty in mediating
REMY FARKAS
Daily Staff Reporter
This year, all three of the University of Michigan men’s basketball, men’s hockey and debate teams have made it to their respective Final Four tournaments. The National Debate Tournament took place last weekend at Wichita State University in Kansas, where the U-M team eventually lost to Georgetown University in the semifinals. Founded in 1890, the Michigan Debate Team is one of the oldest debate programs in the country. It has reached the semifinals in the National Debate Tournament five times since 2008. This year’s team, consisting of LSA juniors Caitlin Walrath and Jacob Goldschlag, was led by Director of Debate Aaron Kall. Thrilled See DEBATE, Page 3
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how C.C. Little’s name and history will be remembered in campus culture. Little, the University president of during the first half of the 20th century, was a strong supporter of the eugenics movement and a proponent of the tobacco
industry. Many students, faculty and administrators on campus believe Little’s legacy does not deserve commemoration and a named building. According to University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen, U-M Logistics,
Transportation & Parking is working to change the bus announcements that currently refer to the Central Campus Transit Center as the C.C. Little Transit Station. Earlier this week, the University Athletics See LITTLE, Page 3
Diag before his arrest
Witnesses say individual appeared to be on drugs, was “being disruptive” REMY FARKAS
Daily Staff Reporter
ROSEANNE CHAO/Daily
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At approximately 3:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon Division of Public Safety and Security officers arrested a shirtless white male on the northwest portion of the University of Michigan Diag, between Mason Hall and the E.H. Kraus Building. Officers from the Ann Arbor Police Department were also on the scene. Engineering freshman Jim Walrad witnessed the arrest while handing out flyers for the Men’s Glee Club Spring Concert. “(After hearing noise) I eventually looked at that section of the Diag and saw two police vehicles and I saw a man lying face down on the ground,” Walrad said. “He had pants on but no shirt –– looked like sweatpants and running shoes See DIAG, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7
News
2— Friday, April 6, 2018
MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
TUESDAY: By Design
WEDNESDAY: This Week in History
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BE HIND THE STORY Every Friday, one Daily news staffer will give a behind the scenes look at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA freshman Leah Graham wrote about the Lecturers’ Employee Organization’s decision to authorize a strike. “One of the interesting things about this is LEO’s current contract has a no-strike clause, and there’s also a state law that prohibits public employees from striking. And when I asked LEO about this, I don’t wanna say that they brushed it aside, but it seemed kind of inconsequential in their grand scheme of things. Ian Robinson, the president of LEO, he said that three years ago, when they negotiated the contract that they’re operating on right now, he tried to get it to end sooner, so that way this strike wouldn’t go against that contract, but they didn’t get that clause. And he essentially said ‘We’re not gonna let a few days from the end of this contract stop us from getting a fair contract for the future. For the most part, he talked about the teacher strikes in Oklahoma and West Virginia, and he said sometimes you have to break laws that are unjust to get something that you think is just. So, for the most part he kind of dismissed the importance of that law and also the no-strike clause, in terms of getting what he thinks is a fair contract for members of LEO.” LSA freshman Leah Graham, “Lecturers authorize strike pending University salary proposal” ALEXIS RANKIN/DAILY
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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Race and Ethnicity is not the forefront purpose of the course. Right now, Race and Ethnicity, it’s like the second addition, or the add-on. It’s a bonus. You don’t take Race and Ethnicity courses with the intention of thinking deeply about race and ethnicity. You take it for the subject, and it just so happens that it gets qualified as being a Race and Ethnicity course.
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ABDUL From Page 1
El-Sayed’s platform focuses on various issues, ranging from gun reform to affordable public education and health care. At the rally, the campaign highlighted the need for policy change by including personal testimonies from Aarica Marsh, a University alum who graduated in 2016, and current Skyline high school senior Aisha Soofi. Marsh focused on her experience coming from a lower income household in Michigan public schooling and as a first-generation college student. Marsh explained she and many of her peers came from unstable households and were not provided the resources to graduate high school. Though she wexpressed gratitude Sudoku Syndication for the opportunities in her life, her problems did
not end upon coming to the University, and her financial struggles were a constant difficulty throughout her college experience. Marsh expressed her support for El-Sayed, having worked on his campaign for more than a year. “I know that Abdul is incredibly empathetic — he actually understands the problems that people like me and my family face,” Marsh said. “He knows that standardized tests don’t often measure the successes of our schools, but rather where poor and disadvantaged families are located” Soofi focused on El-Sayed’s pro-gun control policy, saying she, her peers and teachers at school should not feel they are in danger of gun violence. “There is only one candidate in the state who is saying enough is enough,” Soofi said. “Only one candidate who is standing up against the NRA, who is standing for reasonable gun reform, and
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who is fighting for an assault weapons ban.” As a younger candidate, a Muslim and a person of color, El-Sayed said, he is disadvantaged in popular discourse and often not taken seriously by other politicians.
her confidence in his track record as a public servant through his work as health officer. She specifically cited his partnership with Vision To Learn, a program which administers free eye exams and glasses to elementary school students in Detroit. “I’m volunteering with him because from what I’ve seen out of all the democratic candidates in the primary, he is really the most progressive and the one with the most track record of actually getting things done,” she said. “I think that there are other candidates that have been less willing to really have progressive agendas, and be aggressive about things like gun laws, whereas he has really come out in the extreme. I feel the most confident in him actually being able to get He added, those factors those progressive agendas also play into his strengths, accomplished.” principally his ability to On the other side of http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ mobilize young people the spectrum, Republican and otherwise overlooked candidate Bill Schuette has communities. He asked the garnered attention for his audience to think about work as Michigan attorney the world they want their general on issues such as future children to live in, anti-bullying campaigns alluding to the birth of his and human trafficking. first child in November. In a previous interview, “When you have a child, University of Michigan the set of questions that lecturer Rusty Hills, director you want to ask about the of public affairs for Schuette, world changes. Because said he believes Schuette’s the sense of your longevity current work as attorney extends beyond your life, general prepares him in and you see in another fields El-Sayed does not have human being what it is experience in. that you want to leave in “I think he’s doing an the world,” El-Sayed said. outstanding job as attorney “So when you ask yourself general, and the most what you’re working for, important thing you can do I hope that you extend for future office is a good beyond the arc of what job in the office you hold,” you can see right now, Hills said. “So on a wide and ask yourself: What range of issues, I feel like Bill will the world have been Schuette’s done a great job as because you decided to get attorney general. I think that up and in 2018, make the will help him in this race for difference, and make the governor.” future that you wanted to The event closed with live?” an interactive musical LSA freshman Celia performance by Alex Frey works as a volunteer Ebert and local Ann Arbor on the Abdul for Michigan musicians. campaign and expressed
“I know that Abdul is incredibly empatheic — he actually understands the problems.”
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ME AND MY GIRL DIAG From Page 1
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily UM Productions load in the set for the SMTD musical “Me and My Girl” at the Power Center Thursday.
RALLY From Page 1 “Sexual harassment and assault and violence burdens and degrades the lives of women and girls every day,” Taylor said. “It is the expression and instrument of male dominance. But it is not inevitable. Cultural change, even in problems as deepseeded as this, can happen. It does come slowly, but it can happen.” Keynote speaker Margaret Tallet, the COO of Michigan Women’s Foundation, discussed her work as the leader of Enough Said, a campaign to remove the accumulation of untested rape kits in Detroit. She said some of these kits contained the information of women whose rapes had occurred as far as 25 years ago. Tallet highlighted the immense support she garnered from community members, including DeAndre Levy of the Detroit Lions, and how the hard work of constituents in fundraising eventually garnerd the attention of local politicians. “It’s been grassroots,” Tallet said. “It’s been people like you who create a difference.” Tallet was proud to report the last of the untested rape
LITTLE From Page 1 Department sent an email f lyer for the Final Four Championship Watch Party transportation service, incorrectly referring to the Central Campus Transit Center as “C.C. Little.” Broekhuizen said the announcement “was written and teed up before the vote on Thursday” and the department promptly made the correction on their website. “Our assessment after consulting with Student Life is that there isn’t much ongoing concern on this topic,” Broekhuizen wrote in an email. Prior to the President’s Advisory Committee on University History’s investigation into the historical significance of C.C. Little’s name, students and faculty submitted official requests and staged protests in support of removing the name. Broekhuizen said the University hosted town hall meetings for students to learn about renaming the building, provided public information and released University President Mark Schlissel’s committee reports. While the University claims progress has been made to remove C.C Little’s name in public areas across campus, many students and faculty ask what the University’s role is in ref lecting how C.C. Little’s name is remembered. LSA senior Madison Jones has dedicated time to advocating for the removal of C.C. Little’s name, participating in the protest during the LSA Student Government meeting last
kits in Detroit were mailed to a lab two weeks ago. She again acknowledged the community’s efforts and urged the ralliers to come together in the chant, “Enough said!” “It truly is an act of an entire community of people who care and because this is a rally, I want to end with all of you saying enough said,”
“Sexual harassment and assault and violence burdens and degrades the lives of women and girls every day. It is the expression and instrument of male dominance.” Tallet said. The organizers also brought the ralliers together through activities like the men’s pledge, when all the men at the rally walked to the stage to sign a commitment to work to
September. Though her initial goal has been accomplished, Jones said there is still much to learn. Jones believes the University has the power to inf luence U-M culture by continuing to educate students on the importance of the name removal. “I think if they were more heavy-handed and a little bit stronger in their responses, that would help,” she said. “If they actually came out and had denounced the things C.C. Little did and framed it as, ‘We really understand why this building name is unacceptable, and that’s why we are changing it,’ rather than framing it as some sort of intellectual debate, I think that would help with more people and more students understanding, ‘Oh this isn’t an okay thing.’” Jones also expressed her concern on the University’s delayed response. “With any of these incidents and any of these problems, the University’s response is always not only too slow, but too kind of calm, too kind of attached, too kind of disregarding and invalidating the sense of urgency and the feelings these students have,” she said. As a senior, Jones empathizes with student activists who are not able to witness the fruits of their labor. “Everything people are doing on this campus is to better it for future generations,” Jones said. “But still, people want to see tangible results to their organizing and activism within their own student cycle.” An LSA sophomore, who requested to remain anonymous due to his involvement in CSG, said he didn’t think changing
fight sexual violence. Student speakers also provided information on SafeHouse and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center as resources for survivors of sexual violence. Engineering sophomore Alex Backus said he attended Take Back the Night to support the organization and empower other survivors, being a survivor himself. He also applauded the event’s ability to raise awareness and make change. “I think these kinds of events open people’s eyes,” Backus said. “A lot of people don’t realize that things like this happen all the time. So, I think these events make people aware and make people understand that we need to change things.” Before the ralliers went off to march the streets of Ann Arbor, Denson and other organizers read their list of demands detailing action, they believe, must be taken to end sexual violence. Each demand was punctuated by attendees stomping their feet or cheering. The last one, promising to continue their activism to end sexual violence after the event, ended with an eruption of applause.
the name of the building was going to make a measurable difference on campus because the University is not addressing the lingering cultural impact of C.C. Little’s name. “I really don’t think there’s a purpose in changing it, in that it doesn’t erase the fact that the person who it was named after was racist,” the student said. “Just because you change a name of a building, that doesn’t change the culture of the University.” In an email interview, Angela Dillard, the associate dean for Undergraduate Education, echoed the student’s sentiments and said simply removing the name does not change history books or the cultural impact C. C. Little had on campus. “Removing CC Little’s name from the building does not erase him from history,” Dillard wrote. “He was (still) president of the UM from 1925 to 1929; there has been no move to expunge him from the history books -- even if such a thing were even possible … Names change all the time for various reasons.” Peter McIsaac, an associate professor of German and museum studies, said he believes the University has a great responsibility in inf luencing how members of the community will remember C.C. Little. “I think it’s too simple to think, ‘We take the name down, this means we’re free and clear. We never had people like that on our faculty, we never had a President who was a eugenist,’” McIsaac said. “(Little’s) not the only one. So I think it’s a good thing to take the name off the building, but I think it’s too
–– and the police were standing around him, and I didn’t notice any (handcuffs). I turned back and the guy was sitting upright on the ground, sitting pretzelstyle, then I looked away again and the next time I looked there was one police vehicle there.” A member of the Mason Hall custodial staff said he heard the man was roaming with a large pole hitting cars and other objects before being taken into custody. He said the man seemed mentally unstable, as if he were “on drugs or something of that nature.” Melissa Overton, University deputy chief of police, said officers took the individual into “protective custody” and the situation was a medical emergency, but could not give any further information. “He took off and ... ran on foot and there was a short foot
pursuit and he was yelling and screaming,” Overton said. “He did comply with our officer’s orders when we asked him to stop and get on the ground. He was being disruptive.” A woman on the scene identified herself to DPSS officers as the individual’s mother, and
“He did comply with our officier’s orders when we asked him to stop and get on the ground ” two men approached the woman and DPSS officers, identifying themselves as fraternity brothers of the arrested individual.
for the debate team, Kall said it was “an honor to follow the lead” of the basketball and hockey teams. “We’ve accomplished this milestone in four of the last five seasons, but remain eager to bring home the first debate national championship to Ann Arbor next year,” Kall said. “Caitlin and Jacob are only juniors and will have an excellent opportunity to make this happen.” Goldschlag emphasized the amount of work he and the team put into preparing for the debate. He believed the team will ride the momentum of this season’s overall success into next year. “We have not yet had a tournament as successful this season,” Goldschlag wrote in an email interview. “I think ending the season on a high note will bring us some momentum going into next year as we compete for a national title. We are excited about the possibility of bringing the first National Debate Tournament championship in the school’s history home to Ann Arbor.” Goldschlag said being a member of the debate team has been a large part of his time at
the University. “The debate team has been integral to my Michigan experience from the very beginning,” he wrote. “The only reason I even heard of the school, being a southern California native, was because of the summer debate camp for high school students, which I attended several times. Since I have been here, I’ve made a number of lifelong friends on the team as well as with college students all over the country.” Walrath attributed the team’s success to three things: pre-college debate summer programs, the University’s fulltime coaches, staff and alumni, and the hard work and strategy of their team. Goldschlag agreed with Walrath on the reasons the U-M team is so competitive in addition to the fact they all work toward the greater goal of the team rather than their individual selves. Walrath said she enjoys debate because of her teammates. “My favorite part of debate is honestly the people I get to be around,” Walrath wrote in an email interview. “I also just love competing in an academic activity because it keeps me engaged with politics, international relations, etc. as well as it definitely helps in the academic department.” Walrath described the National Debate Tournament
as a surreal experience, saying the impact of their national ranking did not hit her until afterwards. “It was also weird because I was so locked into just winning every round that it didn’t really hit me that we made semifinals of a national tournament until after it was all over,” Walrath
simple to say, ‘Oh, that solves the issue.’” McIsaac suggested ways in which the University could provide a learning opportunity from the recent decision, from introducing the building’s history on campus to new students during orientation to an installation that could be placed near the building, explaining its history and why the name was changed. McIsaac also said he recognized the name removal as an opportunity to ref lect on the University’s past and how the University can move forward. “Rather than simply saying, ‘Okay we want to manage consciousness by saying, “Don’t call it that anymore,”’ there’s sort of a moment to learn,” McIsaac said. Terrence McDonald, a history professor and chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on University History, spoke at last week’s meeting prior to the vote to present the Committee’s findings about Little. The Committee debated the issue for months and officially submitted the request for Schlissel to recommend the building’s renaming in January. McDonald said he encourages community members to celebrate the University’s decision. “I think it’s important to point out that the University has done something significant already,” he said. “By saying to the community and to the world that we are not going to commemorate people who were involved in this national movement. The decision can feel kind of routine, but it
wasn’t. It actually was quite remarkable that the regents decided to vote and that Schlissel decided to accept the recommendation.” In an interview with The Daily last week, Schlissel reiterated McDonald’s comments on the rarity of the decision, saying he didn’t “want the names of things to be changing as fashions change.” According to McDonald, the Committee found Little was an immigration restrictionist during his time, and was in favor of restrictions that would be complementary to today’s rhetoric from President Donald Trump against illegal immigration from Latin America. “I don’t know how many people realize that we are repeating some of the same themes and that those themes were repudiated,” he said. “People at the time in the ’20s were saying, ‘This is not the right way to think about immigrants.’ And yet we’re repeating some of the same things.” McDonald said the original naming decision was made without much thought or consideration, following a basic argument that there should be a building named after every president. McDonald believes the recent change will create exciting and novel conversation about how the University wants to think about a building that has yet to be renamed. “One of the opportunities for us, pedagogically, is to think about what we can learn about the conversation from the ’20s that Little lead,” McDonald said. “He was actually the leader of this organization,
and what’s the role of that conversation today and why are we revisiting these themes in contemporary America.” In the wake of the regents’ decision, McDonald said several University classes are already including this conversation in their material. Next year, McDonald believes science courses, as well as those on American history, have much to gain from paying attention to C.C. Little, his problematic history and how the University is moving forward. As professors who study the past, both McDonald and McIsaac said they value the importance of learning from history to avoid repeating it again. However, Jones commented on the current conversations around Little’s name and its usage on campus, saying those who continue to use Little’s name on campus to signify spaces such as the Transit Center is a constant reminder to students of color who were directly persecuted by Little’s ideals. She also said history cannot be ignored and the University should do more to denounce Little’s ideals and inf luence Little’s continued cultural identity on campus past a name change. “C.C. Little, because he’s this historical figure, we can’t see him, we can’t talk to him right now. It’s easy to just be desensitized to that history and think it doesn’t matter,” Jones said. “You can’t ignore that history and it’s no longer sanitized.”
DEBATE From Page 1
“The debate team has been integral to my Michigan experience from the very beginning ”
wrote. “I think that is the attitude that I want to carry into next year though: pure focus. I believe if we keep our hard work up (both in terms of producing research and practicing constantly) in combination with that focus, we will win it all. We have an amazing coaching staff and group of teammates so the sky’s the limit. We are ready to finally bring home a national championship title.”
Opinion
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I
When things get hairy
was 17 when I cut my hair hair to look a certain way is into a pixie cut. It was my that it doesn’t take into account junior year of high school, differences of hair texture, and it had been an cultural styles, ongoing internal battle etc. It doesn’t care as I tried to decide if what is possible I was ready to make for your hair; the chop. With the society wants exception of a brief straight and shiny. stint my freshman year This, besides of college, my hair has being arbitrary remained short. In fact, and ridiculous, it’s gotten progressively is actively toxic, shorter, culminating for DANIELLE especially in a buzz cut when I women of color. COLBURN And while the lived in the woods for six weeks one summer. Now, standards of beauty are toxic at 22, I keep my hair clipped in many ways that go beyond pretty close to my head. I don’t haircare, looking strictly at put product in it; I describe hair is enough to show how it, affectionately, as “fuzzy,” problematic the expectations — and I (involuntarily) give my and the lengths to which they numerous cowlicks free reign. drive women — are. Something I’ve noticed is the way women compliment my hair. They lament about not being able to “pull off” the short hair look. They tell me they wish they were brave enough to cut their hair like I did. Some women feel it’s really important that I know I shouldn’t let people tell me my hair doesn’t look good. When I cut my hair, it wasn’t to make a statement. It was because my hair was big and I wanted to sleep more. In my mind, there were two A study by Perception options: sleep less and spend Institute, titled “The ‘Good the time styling my hair or chop Hair’ Survey”, found Black my hair and reap the benefits of women feel more anxiety than an alarm set forty-five minutes white women regarding their later. I didn’t know then that hair. It states, “One in five black there was a third option: just women feel social pressure leave it alone. Sleep in, forget to straighten their hair for about my hair and let it frizz. work — twice as many as white I know why I didn’t see women,” and that this pressure that as an option. It’s the same came from biases; white reason the women who like women ranked Black women’s my hair use words like “brave” textured hair as “less beautiful, and tell me they wish they less sexy/attractive, and less could cut their hair while never professional than smooth hair.” considering that they could In spring 2017, a Massachusetts any time. Hair symbolizes public charter school punished femininity. There’s nothing two girls for their braided more conventionally beautiful hair, claiming the style was an than long, straight and silky infraction against their uniform hair. Feeling like others might policy, which prohibited “hair see you as attractive is wound extensions.” up in having pretty hair. The This is just a small women on the street who are sampling of attitudes, and the insistent I shouldn’t let people issue is prevalent. Women of make me believe anything color are fired from jobs and negative about my hair are discriminated against based doing so because they’ve on the hair styles they choose; internalized this standard; hair styles that, because they even while they’re defying the are culturally significant notion that it takes long hair and particular to textured to look good, they’re assuming hair not conventional in that it is just accepted, that I Western beauty standards, might need to be reassured the are seen as unprofessional and choice I made is acceptable. unattractive. Natural hair is Don’t get me wrong, I often erased from the public think this is kind of them. I’ve eye; the Victoria’s Secret internalized the standard too, Fashion Show has gone on and it often takes effort to look for 22 years, and only in the at myself and others outside last three years has it include the lens of what is portrayed models with natural hair. as beautiful. I’ve been pretty In November 2017, Lupita lucky, too; by being white, I’m Nyong’o used Instagram to already ahead of the game in call out the magazine Grazia terms of what is considered UK for editing and smoothing acceptable by society. Ankita her hair without her consent Rao writes there are “societal when it featured her on the pressures to adhere to beauty front page. standards that typically In response to all of these embody a white, European factors, women of color often aesthetic” that are especially feel pressure to use heat or harmful to women of color. chemicals to straighten their The thing about expecting hair, meaning “compared
I support whatever a woman wants to do with her hair.
with white women, women of color have higher levels of beauty product–related environmental chemicals in their bodies,” according to a Vice magazine article. Not only are the attitudes surrounding hair and beauty expectations toxic, but these expectations are literally, physically toxic. There are women, too, who may lose their hair because of treatment for an illness, or because of a condition like alopecia. These women then have to grapple with their notion of femininity and their own self-image because of the pervasive standards of beauty. The pressures to conform to a certain standard are both internal and external, and all they do is cause trouble. People took to the internet to praise the movie “Black Panther” for (among many other things) the female characters and their natural hairstyles. Patrice Williams, in an article or Hello Giggles, questions whether her own journey to accepting natural hair might have been made easier if there were more representation like that in “Black Panther”. From braids, to curls, to bald heads, the women in the movie are strong, powerful and rocking natural hairstyles. Representation like this allows women (and men!) to see that there is beauty outside enforced societal standards. Beauty standards are largely arbitrary, and highlighting women who don’t fit these molds is important for young girls growing up and figuring out how they feel about themselves. I support whatever a woman wants to do with her hair. Cut it off, wear it long, straighten it, let it curl; whatever makes sowwmeone comfortable is what she should go for. What I don’t like is the pressures that make us feel like there’s a right option for us, and that the option should be pursued, even if it’s not in our best interest. Every time a woman tells me she wishes she could cut her hair, I want to tell her, “But you can!” I want to tell her it’s worth it to take the leap, even if she isn’t doing it to make a statement or liberate herself, she might find these things happen anyway. But I know it’s hard; it’s scary to know people might stare, to know you’re deliberately going against w h a t t he world t el l s you t o do t o b e b e a ut i f u l . But when I ca n, I t r y to gent ly encourage t hem to t hin k about what t hey ’re a f ra id of, why t hey couldn’t go a head a nd chop it a ll of f. P ulling it of f isn’t rea l; what is rea l is follow ing your hea r t a nd rejoicing in t he f irst sha mpoo w it h inches of ha ir gone. Danielle Colburn can be reached at decol@umich.edu.
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D
Victory Royale for Esports
rake recently rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with his latest hit, “God’s Plan,” and its heartwarming music video in which the rapper gives out nearly $1 million (the budget for the video shoot) in the form of groceries, gifts and donations to lucky recipients across the Miami area. But the Grammy-nominated artist has stayed in the news not only for his music, but for another endeavor that has captured the attention of celebrities, athletes and college students alike — “Fortnite Battle Royale, “ the video game that is sweeping the nation and only gaining more momentum. “Fortnite,” as both a pop culture phenomenon and a revenue-generating stream, seemingly came out of nowhere in the past six months. But a closer read reveals “Fortnite” is just one of the many games that make up the booming eSports industry, a market that has been steadily growing and grasping more and more opportunities for mainstream sponsorship and advertising deals. eSports are defined as any multiplayer video game played competitively, oftentimes for spectators both live in arenas and via the internet. These games are beginning to take the classic form of traditional sports — a series of competitions that accumulate points for the players, ending with a final tournament hosted in a national stadium or streamed live on TV. With viewership of professional sports like the NFL dwindling, it might be time to consider eSports a real threat to the status quo in American media. On March 15, Drake, fellow rapper Travis Scott, NFL superstar JuJu Smith-Schuster and “Fortnite” guru Tyler “Ninja” Blevins came together to play a few hours of the popular game in what quickly became the most watched Twitch stream of all time, gaining over 600,000 simultaneous viewers at its peak. Twitch is a live viewing platform that was acquired by Amazon for close to $1 billion in 2014. Blevins, who is slowly but surely becoming the Michael Jordan of “Fortnite”, claims he makes more than $500,000 per
month from YouTube subscribers and Twitch streamers. His expected annual salary, which would amount to about $6 million, is greater than those of NFL and MLB players. Though such success from a man who sits in his basement and wears pajamas may seem shocking, the eSports following is nothing new. In 2017, the global eSports industry was valued at $493 million, with some sources projecting market revenue to reach $1.65 billion by 2020. Originally a phenomenon originating in Asia and gaining the most viewership in China and South Korea, the industry is transitioning to the United States through games like “League of Legends” and “Fortnite.”
All of this is to reinforce the idea that eSports are much more than a traditional video game What makes the eSports industry such a captivating market is its ability to take video games — ideally played on a couch with a bag of chips and soft drink — to an arena suited for basketball or hockey. In fact, the 2017 “League of Legends” World Championship was played in Beijing National Stadium, otherwise known as the Bird’s Nest, or the same place that held the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies. That same event in 2016 garnered 400 million viewers, whereas the 2018 Super Bowl saw only a little more than 100 million tune in. Other eSports statistics are even more shocking: 100 million “League of Legends” players per month, 600 sponsorship deals with companies like Red Bull and Coca Cola and 2.7 billion videos streamed last year in North America. The facts don’t lie. eSports are tapping into global markets in ways traditional sports cannot, and it is finding
innovative methods to grow its revenue and sponsorship streams around the world. The newest development is a proposal to build an eSports arena in a Las Vegas casino, a move that would completely transform the landscape of gaming culture in the United States. It helps, too, that the NFL has faced controversies over player protests and concussions that have altered the landscape of the league and slashed viewership to a recent low. These factors together have converged on the newest craze, “Fortnite,” and aided its rise to popularity. Though there is no way to tell whether or not it is just a phase, the status of “Fortnite” in pop culture is such that a wide array of stars have hopped onto the bandwagon — rapper Lil Yachty, NBA all-star Gordon Hayward and Boston Red Sox phenom Xander Bogaerts, to name a few in addition to the star-studded, “Ninja”-led squad mentioned before. Unsurprisingly, the game has found a home across university campuses and high schools as well. It is practically everywhere — a walk through any college dorm will reveal a slew of students glued to their TVs, more concerned with finding a chest or rare gun than completing their homework. Recently, “Fortnite” had to launch an update on its mobile version in which the loading screen reminds the user to stop playing in class. All of this is to reinforce the idea that eSports are much more than the traditional video game our parents think turn us into lifeless, computer-addicted zombies. Games like “Fortnite” are a revenue-generating, pop culture phenomenon that will soon be the next mainstay on ESPN or Fox Sports. Until then, we can sit back, turn on the Xbox and play “Battle Royale” until our thumbs start to cramp. And if we’re lucky, maybe Drake will be online to play a round of Duos. Ben Charlson can be reached at bencharl@umich.edu
JOEL DANILEWITZ | COLUMN
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The reality of privilege
ver the summer, I interned at a health care lobby in Washington, D.C. Or at least, that’s what I tell people. In reality, I worked for the government affairs office of my dad’s company. My mom always says that the door of opportunity is open, I just have to walk through it. This was how I continually justified taking this internship at his office – pretending like walking through that particular door was so difficult. I sometimes take embarrassment in the fact that I interned at my dad’s company because I know I probably took the position from someone who was actually dedicated to the cause with which I was affiliated but of which I knew so little about. Someone who also had the skills and experiences to do this type of work. During this experience, I began to think, “Do talent, life skills or merit really matter?” If you’re privileged, no. I am constantly trying to grasp the concept of privilege, especially considering how I am in possession of a disproportionate amount when compared to the rest of the world. At the University of Michigan, the median yearly of income students’ families is $154,000. The median income of the average American is $50,039 I, like so many others, was and continue to be blithely unaware of such disparities. But as I become more and more aware of how little I’ll have to think or do to gain economic success, I want more and more to understand what it means to have to persevere and gain success. From a racial standpoint,
I understood that being white endowed me with an inordinate amount of opportunity that is simply not relegated to people of color. As a cisgender man, I try to be acutely aware of how much easier it is to carry out tasks and daily excursions that most cisgender women find difficult. It could be the incontrovertible fact that I’ll never feel the need to go to the bathroom with friends, or the understanding that my body doesn’t lie on the desk of some old, white legislator. This may be in the form of gutting Planned Parenthood or prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom that correlates to their gender identity.
Those with life skills far exceeding mine will still traverse obstscles When I came to the University, I believed my outsized wit, intellectual capacity and passion for knowledge undoubtedly unlocked the gates of one of the most selective public institutions in America. I didn’t consider the fact that I had an ACT tutor my parents dutifully sent checks to once a week, I came from a Caucasian family with an impressive yearly income, was born as a cisgender man and had grown up with the idea that going to college is a given. These are the elemental components of privilege that,
as someone who is progressive attending a University with a diverse student body, I have decided to refuse to ignore. In college, I have met students who come from vastly different socioeconomic backgrounds, ones which have not afforded them these conveniences that existing in the upper echelon of American society provides. Yet these students are undoubtedly smarter, more hardworking and passionate about any assortment of causes than I ever considered myself to be. I can only be presumptuous about students who grew up in different circumstances than me. However, I can work as little as I want at the University and have an infinitesimal impact on this institution. I can accomplish the bare minimum and still come out being able to find work that allows me to continue existing within the stratosphere I currently inhabit. Meanwhile, those with life skills far exceeding mine will still traverse a landscape of obstacles that are sometimes insurmountable because systems in place oppress many and give power to few. Those who have exhibited passion in facets and means that I can’t even fathom will still be rungs down a ladder that was built only for people with hands and feet like mine. This indicates that social mobility is a myth in the United States. This is a statement that I have become well-versed in yet have only really seen as an abstraction.
Joel Danilewitz can be reached at joeldan@umich.edu.
Arts
5 — Friday, April 6, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MUSIC ALBUM REVIEW
The Wonder Years cinch the gaps in ‘Sister Cities’ DOMINIC POLSINELLI Senior Arts Editor
It was a chilly day on Mar. 30 in Wicker Park, one I was thoroughly unprepared for after a four-hour drive into Chicago earlier in the morning. I clutched a copy of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” reading and shivering with my hands in my sleeves, waiting in a line that circled around the back of a storefront. Upon finally entering the shop — a pop-up put on by a band known as The Wonder Years in preparation for the release of their newest record Sister Cities — I approached a copy of the record’s accompanying poetry/photo book. Flipping through, I encountered an image spanning two of the book’s massive pages that immediately caught my eye: a photo of lead singer Dan Campbell crying in the rain on his knees in front of a shrine. I was forced to take a moment to recompose myself, blindsided by the visceral sorrow of the photograph. I’ve spent the last five years of my life trying to explain to everyone around me why The Wonder Years are the best band to have ever existed. Five years that began with “‘Dismantling Summer’ is pure poetry, you need to listen to this,” which transitioned to “OK, so when ‘Cigarettes and Saints’ dropped I literally shut down for 24 hours,” and finally to, “Yes, I drove
six hours to a small town in Illinois on a whim to see them play, it’s not that big of a deal.” After five years of this, I’ll be absolutely damned if The Wonder Years doesn’t shatter the punk ceiling with Sister Cities. Accompanying the release of their sixth album is an intricate rollout comprised of the aforementioned pop-up shops in both Chicago and Philadelphia, and in-store acoustic performances across the East and Midwest. The hard work and detail of their efforts shows a band full of passion,
Sister Cities The Wonder Years Hopeless Records earnestly giving their fans an intimate opportunity to experience their art through these curated mediums. Along with copies of the poetry/photo books, the shop space also included framed photos from the extensive traveling that largely inspired Sister Cities and unique merchandise. I was fortunate enough to attend both days of the pop-up shop in Chicago, and during a Q&A midway through the second evening’s performance, frontman Dan Campbell gave a simple explanation for their intricate promotional efforts as a way for the band to reach out to their fans: “Please, please come listen to this; come be a part of this.”
On Sister Cities we find a band shedding the introspection of their past records, looking out into a world they’ve toured twice over, the title itself suggesting a breakdown of cultural divisions. They’re moving beyond the sadness, guilt and frustration that mark most of their previous material, writing songs that appeal to human sensibility rather than their signature cathartic emotionality that might seem more niche. They’ve taken immense risks with their writing on Sister Cities, risks that more than exceed what has come to be expected of a punk-rooted band with indie-rock heart. Second single “Pyramids of Salt” reveals a newfound control over tension and volume, with some of the highest highs and lowest lows on the record; Campbell’s soft notes grace the verses while bellowing vocals burst from the chorus. The band takes this a step further on the closing song “The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me,” an epic, six-minute track that swells and crashes as intensely as its namesake. “What strikes me most is the symmetry,” Campbell sings softly on “Flowers Where Your Face Should Be,” a song that tenderly reveals its gorgeous lyrical and compositional layers as it progresses. Campbell is referring to the symmetrical nature of the human experience — language, culture and race aside, we all share this common ground. Love, in all of
FILM REVIEW
‘Paradox’ feels like parody MEGHAN CHOU Daily Arts Writer
Recently, music video short films have blossomed in quality. Take Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” visual album or her protégés, Chloe x Halle, and their video for “The Kids Are Alright.” These short films mix strong music with striking visuals, combining different artforms to create an elevated final product. Netf lix’s new film “Paradox” does not meet this new standard. Not even a little. In her directorial debut, Daryl Hannah (“Kill Bill”) teams up with musician Neil Young to make, as she puts it, a “more pot than plot” film. Let’s just say, the inf luences of medicinals are present. If I didn’t know any better, I would assume “Paradox” was actually a student-made parody of a Neil Young music video. It’s that bad. Where to start? The majority of the film follows men dressed in shabby costumes, improvising lines people would only find funny after a concentrated dose of THC. These men are Neil Young and his backup band Promise of the Real. The legendary Willie Nelson also makes a brief appearance. In other words, these are all amateur actors. At times, I wondered if the cameraman forgot he hit record since the feet of the actors often made unexplained cameos. Then there were the poorly
timed, unfortunate angles that captured many crotch shots and rear ends all in horribly lit scenes. It’s a shame some of the most well-lit moments included watching a man take a piss in the woods. What was the relevance of this moment to the film? Absolutely nothing. The cinematographer of “Paradox” also decided to
“Paradox” Netflix switch nonsensically from digital to 16mm. The scenes shot on film must have been an attempt to appear alternative and hipster. This need for a vintage vibe might explain the long time lapses of clouds and the Northern lights. I can’t help but wish the filmmakers had spent less time switching cameras and more time planning the point of the film. Instead, “Paradox” boils down to a bored musician’s attempt to satisfy a desire to be on camera. For fans of Neil Young’s music, never watch this film. Not even the trailer. “Paradox” will ruin his music forever. The rich vocals, instrumentals and behindthe-scenes shots of Young rehearsing are the only bright side of the film. However, those songs have been around for quite some time, and this just might ruin their legacy. The only part of “Paradox” worth watching is when the
musicians gather around the campfire to sing Willie Nelson’s song “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.” Promise of the Real, a band led by Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah, play an acoustic, soulful cover with bongos, a double bass ( because cowboys on the run carry 30-pound instruments) and various guitars. The camera pans around the musicians and the microphone rings with the crackle of sparks from the fire. This serene and breathtaking moment should have been the template for the whole film. If “Paradox” were structured as a concert film with occasional, silent f lashes of Western scenes, it would thrive. However, this is not the case. In the end, the ghastly visuals eviscerate the tenderness and rawness of the music. Anything wonderful about the campfire sequence is forgotten when the following scenes include someone watching a magnified caterpillar crawl by — greeting it with a “Hey there, big fellow” — before proceeding to take a dump with his buddy in an outhouse. But hey, give the filmmakers credit for shooting the outhouse from several angles and on film; nothing screams dreamy and nostalgic than two grown men having a conversation while on the can. If I were Neil Young, I would buy back the rights to “Paradox” from Netf lix and bury the footage where no one would ever find it.
NETFLIX
Courtesy of Janelle Santacruz
its forms, is the symmetry of being human, and this is the underlying basis for Sister Cities. Because of love we feel loss; because of love we feel comfort; because of love we are the same. The Wonder Years slowly revealed this theme even before the album was officially announced. A website was posted in late Jan. listing coordinates throughout the globe that lead to clues to unlock the album’s trailer. I happened to be in Manhattan when these arrived, and met a complete stranger also looking for the elusive poster in Chinatown. A small amount of mysterious seven inch records — one side containing “We Looked Like Lightning” and the other a poem in many languages — were sent across the globe to lucky fans.
I watched, literally in real time, as fans frantically tried to translate the poem together over social media, a little shocked but more awe-inspired by how easily we are connected in today’s world. On the seven inch’s single, Campbell sings, “Sew the world together tightly / Cinch the gaps with pins and string,” something the band was able to accomplish with their fans all within a few days’ time. And this is exactly what makes Sister Cities a one-of-a-kind album, a collection of songs cinching the gaps between me, you and everyone else. I mention this not out of grandiosity, but rather out of exactly what I have observed, emotionally and physically, throughout my years as a fan of this band. The Wonder Years,
like the human experience, have connected people not just across state lines, but across borders and oceans. The Wonder Years have written a record so universally resonant, so globally-minded, it’d be misguided to try and ignore it. With Sister Cities, the band has shattered the thematic expectations of their roots, reaching out to the world from their interior rather than focusing on it. I feel fortunate to exist in a world where, beneath political tensions, a constant stream of trauma and tragedy and a world that feels constantly on the brink of collapse, we have a band like The Wonder Years cutting through the divisive chaos to uncover a common, human heartbeat.
FILM REVIEW
A new mediocre rom-com WESLEY NASS Daily Arts Writer
Some films seem destined to succeed. Look at any Marvel movie, complete with a star director, superstar cast and a plot as uninteresting as it is easily digestible. The same could be said of Netf lix’s “Happy Anniversary.” Director Jared Stern (“The Internship”) is an established comedy writer with a number of films under his belt. The film’s leads Ben Schwartz (“Parks and Recreation”) and Noël Wells (“Master of None”) are energetic, young and have turned in good performances before. The plot is a unique twist on the usual rom-com, chronicling a couple stuck in a rut and struggling to decide whether their relationship is worth the middle-aged decay sure to follow. It’s a strange feeling, then, to leave “Happy Anniversary” and wonder what exactly the point was. First, the acting is fantastic. Sam (Schwartz) and Mollie (Wells) have a palpable chemistry, replete with their own inside jokes, little quirks and a marked dislike for other people. Much of the story is told in f lashback, with perfume bottles or certain store signs triggering memories of the past as the couple search for a reason to stay together. We learn about their funny traditions, like escaping to a mountain retreat and pretending to be a wealthy hedge fund manager and accompanying hooker. It’s particularly rewarding to see a different side of the actors — especially Ben Schwartz, who played the brash, reckless
and f lirtatious Jean-Ralphio in “Parks and Rec.” In “Happy Anniversary,” he turns in an unexpectedly sweet, caring and composed performance. In one scene, Sam tries to f lirt with another girl but realizes he really cares about Mollie, an attachment Jean-Ralphio would never understand. Unfortunately, that’s the
“Happy Anniversary” Netflix only redeeming feature of the film. The central conf lict, Mollie’s unhappiness, fails to be convincing. While her f lightiness in the face of an uncertain future is understandable, it feels like she blows everything out of proportion by calling Sam unromantic and running to her parents on their anniversary. Since there’s never truly a falling out, their reunion is inevitable. Everything in the middle is an unrelenting trudge through rom-com staples en route to the happily ever after both Mollie and Sam keep saying is impossible. There’s Mollie’s parents, who barely speak to each other but are trapped in a marriage without a spark, and eventually they reignite Mollie’s love for Sam by warning her not to end up like them. There’s Sam’s all-knowing confidante, who instantly tells him to leave Mollie but later helps them get back together. And then there’s Mollie’s old f lame Arik, who precipitates the worst of their fight by texting her to come back to him. The writing does little to allay the cliché factor, with
moments of remembering the good times undone by overthe-top lines like, “It doesn’t feel the same without her.” The subtlety and unexpectedness of these tender episodes are totally ruined by a grandiose, wannabe romantic script, which threatens to sound like Anakin and Padme’s Shakespearean dialogue in “Attack of the Clones” if not for the authenticity of the acting. Even the humor is often a beat too late, the punchline exposed by an entrance too early, a pause too long, a character too f lat. Eventually, Sam and Mollie realize that they’re happy together and one can never really know if they’ve found the one. But these are epiphanies already documented by hundreds of other films and beaten to death over the course of the movie, well before the romantic kiss on the balcony and heart-toheart where they tell each other as much. Most disappointing is that after slogging through the whirlwind day of breakups, misadventures and a cycling cast of people determined to kill what spark is left in the relationship, nothing seems to have changed. Mollie is still bossy; Sam is still indecisive. They have no new ideas on how to keep from ending up like Mollie’s parents. In the end, “Happy Anniversary” is a watereddown collection of easy answers and unadventurous writing, focused more on commercial appeal than an intimate, powerful journey from happiness to hurt and back again. The result? A love story for the masses.
NETFLIX
Arts
6 — Friday, April 6, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
GENDER & MEDIA COLUMN
Contouring, thoughts and prayers “I don’t know if you’re supposed to put your contour on before the rest of your makeup, or after the rest of your makeup. But it doesn’t matter. Because men are stupid. As long as you look like a newborn baby, they are willing to mate with you,” YouTube guru Sailor J announces in a video titled “Contouring 101.” “Makeup is for women who want husbands,” she continues. “Contouring is for women who want to leech the souls of their dead lovers and collect the inheritance of their ex-boyfriends who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.” “Beautiful women don’t have foreheads ... if you have too big of a brain, it means you have ugly things, like opinions, and thoughts of your own,” she says, while dabbing a contouring stick around her nose. Incidentally, she speaks in an exaggerated British accent the entire time, and her makeup looks are incredible, but that is beside my point. “Contouring 101” isn’t new; it went viral a few months ago (and admittedly, I did bully all of my friends into watching it several times). Sailor J is currently in the military, as well as an aspiring writer; her comedic timing is impeccable and her satirical take-downs are flawless. This particular video is colored by an awareness of what many women know: Guys often have no idea what a “natural look” of makeup actually looks like or takes to achieve. It’s also a subtle tonguein-cheek call-out of the whole “take her swimming on the first date” joke. Beyond that subtle framework, I love that she’s giving wildly funny feminist satire while doing her makeup, but she is completely uninterested in defending her choice to spend money on makeup, or make videos about it, or enjoy using it. Whether or not makeup — producing it, packaging it in a “self-love” / “self-care” vein, selling it, applying it or wearing it — can be a feminist act feels almost irrelevant now, at least in terms of practical priorities. There are just more important things to worry about right now. Sailor J does some makeup looks and videos — “Harry Potter” houses, astrological signs and
drunk book reviews — that subtly convey her political commentary. In others, her point is much more
SOPHIA KAUFMAN straightforward, such as “How to Do Thanksgiving Makeup That Has Nothing to Do with the 566 Federally Recognized Tribes,” in which she addresses cultural appropriation with a blend of sensitivity, grace and humor that is often difficult to accomplish
Sailor J often uses makeup as a vehicle to make other points, but her points have nothing to do with whether makeup itself is a feminist action or product, which is refreshing
even for experienced TV anchors and writers. The reason I haven’t been able to stop about thinking Sailor J recently (aside from her hilarious Twitter presence) is one of her most recent videos: “T & P Makeup Look.” In other words,
“Thoughts and Prayers.” In it, she uses makeup as a satirical vehicle with which to address the government’s response to the Parkland shooting. “Thoughts and Prayers Makeup look … it isn’t a new line, it’s been out for a while, you’ve probably seen a lot of rich indifferent people in Congress tweeting about it very often, usually after a national tragedy like the Parkland shooting … We have highlighters right here, contour kits, mascara, eyeliner, blush,” she says, pointing in turn to empty patches of her carpet on which the makeup products are said to be. “The foundation is called, ‘If you’re white, it’s a mental illness, and if you’re brown you’re a terrorist … if you can’t see it, it’s probably because you’re not strong enough in the spirit.” she then proceeds to take a brush, dab it on her face, and say, peering straight into the camera, “Wow, I can really see the change, happening right here.” “This mascara is called bulletproof black. It’s supposed to match the vests that we’ll have to start putting on our children if we want them to make it past the sixth f—king grade.” “Next we’re gonna do a highlighter … it’s called ‘money’ because that’s all our country cares about.” “Blush. I’m gonna go with, ‘the blood of our children,’ because it’s what we’re bathing in these days.” Her eyes glint as she delivers the last line of the bit: “Just embrace the line, because nothing stops a bullet like thoughts and prayers.” It’s a very “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” moment. Sailor J often uses makeup as a vehicle to make other points, but her points have nothing to do with whether makeup itself is a feminist action or product, which is refreshing. Her commentary is witty, blunt and unflinchingly honest. Recently, she tweeted about her upcoming profile that will run in The New York Times in April. She wants SNL to hire her as a writer, and they should; she would be incredible. Her voice stands out against the cacophony of social justice voices ping-ponging off each other on the Internet.
As writers, we sometimes need to be reminded of why we do what we do. Why we write. It can get exhausting — putting all your faith and passion into the ink of a pen which turns to words, words that turn to sentences, sentences that turn into a memoir. And then there’s a reality I confront at least 10 times a day: Why do I do this? Why do I want to do this? When the writer’s block has made home in the front of my skull with the agonizing reality that people everywhere have stories that they are sitting down and just writing, when I envy and lust after the idea, or perhaps just the thought, of a straightforward path — of business school and medical school and any other more conventional “school” — when I face the fear that maybe, just maybe, nobody will ever walk into a bookstore with my name burning at the tip of their tongue, that’s when I need “The Opposite of Loneliness” by Marina Keegan. My senior year of high school, I considered my future plan with a head on my
her with tears on my cheeks and search desperately for the words I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find, to thank her for this piece of literature, these stories, this gift — something that gave me a reason to fall head over heels in love with
I can’t quite explain my attraction to ‘The Opposite of Loneliness,’ but in terms of literary affairs, this one is hot, quick and intense
words again after years spent struggling to break away from them. It’s so difficult to wrap my head around the fact that there will never be a
Classifieds
way to thank her — not even a fan email that winds up in her junk mail somewhere in cyberspace. At least then, I could have hope. I think sometimes we lose or misplace who we are. We get wrapped up in this world of SAT tutors and adolescence and hormones and everything else that leads to the dangerous cocktail that had me doubting the most genuine, authentic me. Pushing away books because they’re fiction and not reality, or putting down my pen because someone somewhere with some irrelevant opinion once told me that art cannot pay the bills. But when I misplaced myself and lied through my teeth to guidance counselors with good intentions and parents with better ones, I thought for a moment that maybe I’d really be a lawyer or a psychologist or a therapist. “The Opposite of Loneliness” has done more than build me. It has re-built me. It has reconstructed me and reinvigorated me and fed me with a desire to do the only thing I really can. I’m eternally indebted to Marina Keegan for shining a light on life, reaching between the pages of a book and shaking me until I saw the truth: You are a writer. You always will be. A real one. With your life.
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
RELEASE DATE– Friday, April 6, 2018
Marina Keegan and ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’ Daily Arts Writer
over. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We can’t, we must not lose this sense of possibility because in the end it’s all we have.” And most importantly: “We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lie alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out — that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.” It’s “The Opposite of Loneliness” that has me here — hunched over my laptop in a corner of Ann Arbor with tears in my eyes and a large iced coffee with two splendas next to me, wishing my hands would just write the words I wish I could articulate: I am so goddamned lucky to be here, to be actively pursuing a world of creation and make believe, to be doing the one and only thing my heart has always known it was meant for. I wish for a day I could sit across from Marina Keegan at a table in a coffee shop, look at
FOR RENT
BOOKS THAT BUILT US
ELI RALLO
Courtesy of Marina Keegan
shoulders that I sometimes think my parents wished I had back then. I would put the writing and theatre on the back burner, and take a more predictable path: psychology, or perhaps political science. I’d be pre-law, and I would successfully ignore the 3:00 a.m. itches at the tips of my fingers to pick up my notebook and jot down thoughts of an early morning poem. But then I read “The Opposite of Loneliness” by Marina Keegan, which I found in the Yale University bookstore, tucked into the inner elbow of a city that I once thought was my destiny, but instead was simply not meant to be. I am envious of my 15 year old self, sitting in my room with my book light and my favorite mug reading the words that have become my constitution, my Hail Mary, paving the way for my future. Little did I know then, that I’d finish it in one warm New Jersey, Sept. evening, walk downstairs to our breakfast table the next morning and declare the same words that Keegan did in her years as an exhausted and passionate undergrad: I want to be a writer. Like, a real one. With my life.
I can’t quite explain my attraction to “The Opposite of Loneliness,” but in terms of literary affairs, this one is hot, quick and intense. It is everything I’ve ever thought about love, and it is everything I’ve ever thought about pain. It has made me feel in so many capacities, with each read more different than the last. It is also a love that ends in heartbreak. Keegan died at 23, only days after her graduation from Yale as an undergraduate, and never lived to see the publication of her collection of short stories, poetry and narrative nonfiction. Instead, she caught fame and stature only after tragedy struck behind the wheel, taking her life. It’s strange and desolate to think that the words that changed my life came from a mind that can no longer imagine, and that the stories that reminded me of my place on this earth came from a heart that no longer beats. It was “The Opposite of Loneliness” that told me, “I want enough time to be in love with everything … because everything is so beautiful and so short.” “We can change our minds,” Keegan writes. “We can start
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Disagreement 5 Her first speaking role was in MGM’s “Anna Christie” 10 Unlikely 14 Fashion designer Rabanne 15 Cold shoulder or hot corner 16 Elizabeth of “Jacob’s Ladder” 17 Wee bit 18 It might be uncured 19 Plant with hips 20 Salute in an old orbiter? 23 Arizona neighbor 24 Former SETI funder 25 Pokémon Go finder: Abbr. 28 Spa supplies 30 African megalopolis 32 Nonstick kitchen product 35 Stadium scene after a big win? 39 Normandy river 40 Foil firm 41 It borders both the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers 42 Fishing parties? 44 Early Disney productions 45 __ del Carmen, Mexico 46 Distant beginning? 48 Photog’s choice 49 Org. offering shelter for some homeless 53 It merged with Chevron in 2005 57 Edward Scissorhands’ syndrome? 59 Chain part 62 1975 Pulitzer winner for criticism 63 Old film dog 64 Catty reply 65 __ attack 66 Flit 67 Cat catchers 68 Seriously reduce
69 Prizes in los Juegos Olímpicos DOWN 1 Bombards with e-junk 2 Deck alternative 3 Nut with a cap 4 Nonsense 5 Iberian peninsula territory 6 Economist Smith 7 Puerto __ 8 Half an Ivy cheer 9 Dodges of old 10 Agile 11 Uncle on “Seinfeld” 12 Advantages for job seekers 13 Novelist Rita __ Brown 21 “He’s mine, __ am his”: “Coriolanus” 22 Stand snack 25 Boy toy? 26 Lurk 27 Milk sources 29 Prairie skyline feature 31 Buff 32 Name on collectible cards
33 Bell or whistle? 34 At hand, poetically 36 Old French coin 37 It’s often skipped 38 Cryptozoologist’s quarry 43 Wicked slice 47 Conjunction in a German article 50 Buds, slangily 51 Band of intrigants 52 Concert setting
54 Romero who played The Joker 55 Dog in Orbit City 56 Exams for future attys. 57 Susie-shirts tongue-twister link 58 Hosp. tests 59 Little demon 60 Sells-shells tongue-twister link 61 Bit of cowspeak
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NOW.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, April 6, 2018 — 7
Ruiz set to become ‘quarterback of the O-Line’ MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor
After an 8-5 season, fingers get pointed every which way. And in the case of Michigan in 2017, many of those fingers aimed squarely at the offensive line. “I think they took a lot of blame for a lot of things on the outside. A lot of fingers pointed at that direction, but not always are the fingers accurate,” said new offensive line coach Ed Warriner, a beneficiary of some of that finger pointing. Warriner was hired as an offensive coach in January and later assigned to the offensive line to replace the departed Tim Drevno. “There’s a lot of pieces in all things,” Warriner told media on Thursday afternoon. “Short yardage, there’s tight ends and fullbacks. Protections, there’s tight ends, fullbacks running backs and quarterbacks involved in that. My perception is, the group was a solid group when I got it.”
That much-maligned group returns three starters from a season ago, juniors Ben Bredeson and Michael Onwenu, and sophomore center Cesar Ruiz. With those three penciled in along the interior of the line, the tackle spots remain up for grabs — likely between sophomores Chuck Filiaga and James Hudson, junior Stephen Spinellis and seniors Juwann Bushell-Beatty and Jon Runyan Jr. As of now, your guess is as good as Warriner’s as to who emerges for those spots. “Eventually (we’ll) sort through the five best and get them where they need to go.” But one thing’s for certain: Cesar Ruiz is one of those best five. Based off early praise, he might be the best one. “He understands football
very well,” Warriner said. “But he is very powerful, plays with a good base, loves football, quick feet for a center, too. He kinda has the whole package.” And Warriner knows what that package looks like. He coached for three years at Ohio State, following two years at Notre Dame — both places he eagerly anticipates visiting this year on the opposite sideline. He has produced enough NFL talent to know how that appears in a college sophomore. Ruiz has it. “I have two starting centers in the National Football League, both started as rookies,” Warriner said, referring to Minnesota Vikings center Pat Elf lein and Green Bay Packers center Corey Linsley. “He has that
“He understands football very well.”
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Sophomore center Cesar Ruiz looks poised to take over as “the quarterback of the O-Line,” according to Ed Warriner.
kind of ability some day to get to that point. Not yet, I mean he’s just a young kid. But if he keeps going, I know what they look like. … He can be the quarterback of the O-Line.” Added Runyan Jr.: “He’s one of the most athletic centers I’ve ever seen. He’s big, strong, powerful. I’m looking forward to what he can do, even though he’s only a sophomore, so that’s really really exciting to see his development.” For Warriner, though, being an effective center extends far beyond the physical toolset. The “quarterback of the O-Line” means what it sounds like — being a vocal leader and decision-maker. That’s something that Ruiz has taken hold of with his command. Ruiz was recruited to Michigan as a center but played in 10 games last year as a guard. He became the starter midway through the season, as a stopgap at guard. This season, he’ll head back to his natural position. “Your center makes a lot of calls in there that set your protections, and if he sets them wrong then you’ve got problems,” Warriner said. “If he sets them right, then you can account for everybody. He’s been very good at that this spring. Very good.” Warriner will say he thinks this group could develop into a “very solid Big Ten offensive line.” There’s no guaranteeing any offensive line renaissance. Words are just words, coated in a uniquely positive light in spring practice, when nothing is open to public criticism and there’s no opponent just yet. But Ruiz emerging into the full potential his 4-star recruit status indicated would be a step. Every offensive line needs an anchor. Ruiz appears headed firmly in that direction.
WOMEN’S LACROSSE
‘M’ concedes 14 goals, loses to Fighting Irish DYLAN CHUNG Daily Sports Writer
Michigan freshman attacker Caitlin Muir wrapped around the back of the net, deftly throwing a pass to sophomore attacker Lilly Grass, who put the ball in the net with ease. Soon after, sophomore midfielder Chandler Kirby earned a free position shot, which she converted by calmly slotting the ball into the right side of the goal. In an instant, Notre Dame (2-4 ACC, 7-6 overall) saw its lead cut down to just three. And for a second, the Michigan women’s lacrosse team (1-2 Big Ten, 5-8 Overall) looked like it had some momentum. But seconds later, it was gone. Irish sophomore attacker Jessi Masinko drove from behind the net and deftly placed the ball in the bottom right corner of the goal. Thirty seconds later, midfielder Maddie Howe sprinted straight down the field and scored once more for Notre Dame. Following another goal, the Irish took a commanding 11-5 lead into halftime. They would never relinquish that lead, winning the match, 14-8. Notre Dame’s offense was extremely effective in the first half, notching 11 goals and controlling possession. “Of all our games this season, they probably move the ball around the quickest,” said Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen. “They change the plan of attack really quickly, and every one of their seven players was an offensive threat.” After halftime, the Wolverines appeared to settle in and play more comfortably at the game’s up-tempo pace. “From top to bottom, in
every aspect of it, it was just a really fast-paced game,” Nielsen said. “Notre Dame is an extremely athletic team; they were riding us hard, clearing the ball very fast, and they were really pushing the tempo. Once we settled in and realized it was just like any other game or any other practice, we started playing better.” It was readily apparent that Michigan started executing better in the second half. Its offense was much more efficient, converting three of its seven shots. The goals came from junior attacker Adriana Pendino, fifth-year senior attacker Bianca Brueckner and Chandler Kirby. The Wolverine defense showed improvement as well; it took the Irish nearly 18 minutes to score their first goal of the second half. Notre Dame’s failure to convert scoring opportunities occurred in large part because of stellar goalkeeping by junior goalkeeper Alli Kothari. At halftime, Kothari replaced struggling junior goalkeeper Mira Shane, who was coming off a career-high 14-save performance against Maryland. “Unfortunately, Mira saw some really up-close shots in the first half and wasn’t getting her stick on them,” Nielsen said. “She had a tough day in the first half and we just needed to make a change. Fortunately for us, Alli came in and played great.” Although Michigan’s second half improvements allowed it to keep up with the pace of the Irish — with a second-half score of 3-3 — the adjustments came too late. “Unfortunately for us, it took a while for us to get used to that speed,” Nielsen said.
Season in Review: The Michigan women’s basketball team ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women’s basketball team started the season by raising a banner and ended it by earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament, where it fell to Baylor in the second round. The Wolverines won the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in 2017, but disappointment over being left out of the tournament field carried over to this season. From the first day of this season, Michigan’s goal was to go dancing for the first time since 2013 — and it did. After tearing through the non-conference portion of the schedule — just losing to eventual champion Notre Dame and a Louisville team whose season ended in the Final Four — the Wolverines seemed to cement a tournament bid with a road win at then-No. 8 Ohio State on Jan. 16. But Michigan went on to drop five of six games over the first two weeks of February, setting off alarm bells at Crisler Center. On Senior Night though, with the potential of missing the tournament hanging in the air, the Wolverines upset then-No. 13 Maryland, finishing the regular season 22-9 with a 10-6 mark in the Big Ten, good for sixth place in the conference. After exiting the Big Ten Tournament with a loss to Nebraska in the quarterfinals, Michigan was selected as a No. 7 seed for the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines beat Northern Colorado in the first round, but ended their season quietly with a 22-point loss at Baylor in the second. The Daily looks back on the season that was. Best game: Michigan 84, Ohio State 75 The Wolverines came into Columbus without a signature win, having dropped an overtime heartbreaker to the Buckeyes nine days earlier in Ann Arbor. They left with their first win over Ohio State since 2015, ending a streak that lasted three years and five days. After going into the half
down five points, Michigan battled back. Junior center Hallie Thome scored 21 of her 27 points and grabbed 10 of her 11 rebounds in the second half. Senior guard Katelynn Flaherty put up 18 of her own in the latter period, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with two minutes to go in the third quarter. Unlike the prior contest against Ohio State, which saw Flaherty miss a potential game-winner at the buzzer, the Wolverines left nothing to chance. They outscored the Buckeyes by 14 in the second half, sealing a rivalry win and a resume booster. Worst game: Purdue 81, Michigan 79 (OT) This was well on its way to being an easy win. The Wolverines held a 16-point lead with just under seven minutes to go in the game. It would have been their seventh straight victory — a domineering performance over a conference foe — but Michigan simply collapsed, going without a point for the last 6:48 of regulation. The Wolverines coughed up turnover after turnover. Flaherty had a chance to stop the bleeding with a layup once Michigan’s lead was cut to two. It was blocked away, then freshman forward Hailey Brown
turned it over on the ensuing inbounds pass. Boilermakers’ guard Dominique Oden tied it at 72, hitting a baseline floater with just under one second to go. Sophomore forward Kayla Robbins managed to get to the line with a chance to win it, even after all that, but clanked both free throws. In overtime, the Wolverines were down one with just over a minute to go and couldn’t find a bucket. It was as tough a loss as you could imagine — and it sent Michigan on a tailspin. It lost three of its next four — all games in which the Wolverines were ranked and their opponents were not — jeopardizing its chances at an NCAA Tournament bid. Best individual performance: Katelynn Flaherty against Northwestern When Flaherty got it going this season, it was truly mesmerizing to watch. She hit the 30-point mark three times — including a 33-point game against Penn State in which the senior hit 10 3-pointers — but even that comes in second. When the Wildcats visited Crisler on Feb. 8, Flaherty almost singlehandedly demolished them. She scored 36 on 12-of21 shooting, dropping 3-pointer
after 3-pointer, finishing 9-of16 from beyond the arc. It was a shooting performance for the ages, one of those nights when Flaherty was simply unstoppable. The Wolverines easily pulled away in the game, winning 84-63, but that almost became a sideshow in the face of the sheer absurdity of Flaherty. To add onto what was already an incredible game, Flaherty sustained a foot injury midgame. It didn’t slow her down though, as she scored 16 of her points in the second half, playing all 20 minutes of the latter period. Flaherty is undoubtedly the best player in program history. This will go among her best games ever in a Michigan uniform. Most important game: Michigan 71, Maryland 65 Though coach Kim Barnes Arico didn’t tell the team in the lead-up, the Wolverines’ season could have hinged on this game. They came in having lost five of the last six, their chances for a tournament bid having gone from set-in-stone to shaky. They needed an upset over the 13th-ranked Terrapins to put fears of repeating the heartbreak of 2017 to rest. And they got it.
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
The Michigan women’s basketball team started its season raising a WNIT banner and ended it in the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore forward Akienreh Johnson, who had averaged just 2.5 points per game on the season up to that point, played the hero. She scored 17 points, including a dagger 3-pointer with just under two minutes left, on 8-of-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds. To put it simply, it’s quite possible Michigan wouldn’t have made the tournament without winning that game, without that out-of-nowhere performance from Johnson. It needed to pull an upset win out of the sky to do it, and when the chance came, the Wolverines took it. Most improved player: Hailey Brown The freshman started her career quietly, hitting doubledigit scoring just six times in the season’s first 17 games. She did so as many times in her next eight games, breaking out with a 23-point, eight-rebound performance on Jan. 10 against Indiana and sprinting through the rest of her season. Brown was well on her way to establishing herself as a go-to scorer for the Wolverines at that point, but her season ended early. She suffered a leg injury at Michigan State just over a month after that breakout performance and never came back. Despite a disappointing end to her season, Brown established herself as a potential star for the Wolverines come next year. Assuming a full recovery, her production will likely go up in the wake of Flaherty’s departure. Most valuable player: Katelynn Flaherty This one didn’t take much thinking. Flaherty came into the season with a chance to cement herself as an all-time great. She did that, and more, breezing past Diane Dietz for the program’s all-time scoring record early in the year before smashing Glen Rice’s men’s scoring record in January, becoming Michigan’s all-time leading scorer in either category. Flaherty, to no one’s surprise, led the Wolverines in scoring with 22.9 points per game,
shooting 44.3 percent from outside. Even when teams continually face-guarded her through Big Ten play, even when she suffered injuries to her back and foot, Flaherty continued to score at an absurd clip. More than that, she averaged 36.8 minutes per game, never sitting out a game, and played 40 or more minutes nine times. Flaherty exits Michigan as the program’s best player ever, bar none. Unless there’s some sort of baffling oversight, she will become the first ever women’s basketball player to see her number retired — and with good reason. Up next: The Wolverines will have to deal with the losses of Flaherty and senior forward Jillian Dunston, whose rebounding and defense helped anchor them throughout the year. In all likelihood, junior guard Nicole Munger will see an uptick in shot attempts as a result. Thome, Michigan’s secondleading scorer this season, will become even more important to the Wolverines’ success as well. Freshman guard Deja Church will be expected to take over point-guard duties from Flaherty after a strong defensive campaign. Her offensive output — just seven points per game on 43.9 percent shooting from the field — will have to get better, though. Brown and Johnson — both of whom have been hampered by injury in the past — will be expected to put it all together. Barnes Arico’s recruiting class — which ranks 12th in the country, per HoopGurlz — will be key in bringing Michigan back to the NCAA Tournament. Five-star point guard Amy Dilk could challenge Church for the starting job. Naz Hillmon and Emily Kiser, both four-star forwards, could see playing time along with fellow four-star guard Ariel Young. Even with the Wolverines losing the program’s best ever player in Flaherty, they should be fairly optimistic about making it back to the tournament in 2019.
Sports
8 — Friday, April 6, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The one that got away Wolverines fall, 4-3, to Notre Dame in heartbreaking Frozen Four semifinal ROBERT HEFTER Daily Sports Editor
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mel Pearson has said throughout the season that the name of the game is speed and grit. The Michigan hockey team lived up to Pearson’s image for the team, but it would be Notre Dame that would emerge on top, as forward Jake Evans found the back of the net with 3.7 seconds remaining to send the Fighting Irish to the National Championship with a 4-3 victory. Even before puck drop, it was clear that the second-seeded Wolveirnes’ high-output, shifty offense would clash with No. 1 Notre Dame’s (17-6-1 Big Ten, 27-92 overall) juggernaut of a back line. And Ohio State’s unpredicted loss at the hands of Minnesota-Duluth in the other semifinal matchup just an hour prior proved that playoff hockey is anyone’s game. At the outset of Michigan’s (1110-3, 22-14-3) 25th Frozen Four appearance, junior forward Cooper Marody drew a whistle 34 seconds
in for hooking to send the early momentum in the Fighting Irish’s favor. After some dangerous looks at sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne that yielded no fruit, it was evident that the Fighting Irish’s plethora of two-way players — exemplified by Evans, who had 11 goals and a team-high 31 assists prior to the semifinal — were giving the Wolverine skaters considerable trouble. But Michigan didn’t hold back either. Freshman defenseman Quinn Hughes drove down the ice with electric dangles and delivered a pass through the crease that just missed its mark. But the Wolverines’ speed was the first to take the upper hand, as senior forward Tony Calderone drove into the slot to fire a shot past Cale Morris — who has a nation leading save-percentage at .945 — for the first tally of the game 8:19 into the first period. While Michigan continued to beat the Notre Dame defensemen with an aggressive forecheck and speed down the left side of the ice,
the Fighting Irish kept generating odd-man rushes that all ended in acrobatic saves from Lavigne. With Morris and Lavigne both notching nine saves in the first, there wasn’t much that differentiated both teams, only further securing the fact that the game would be won with sweat and, for one team, tears. However, 17 seconds into the second period, senior forward Dexter Dancs disturbed that equality by firing a shot that ricocheted off Fighting Irish defenseman Dennis Gilbert up and over Morris’ glove to give the Wolverines a two-goal lead. Notre Dame quickly retaliated twice, once on the man-advantage. After a holding penalty from junior defenseman Joseph Cecconi, Fighting Irish center Andrew Oglevie let one fly from near the blue line that snuck past Lavigne to cut the Notre Dame deficit to one. Evans subsequently found the equalizer at two apiece on a four-on-four one-timer off a dish from defenseman Jordan Gross. The Fighting Irish’s pressure —
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
The Michigan hockey team gave up a late goal to Notre Dame to fall in the semifinals of the Frozen Four.
highlighted by its nine shots less than eight minutes into the second — was bound to yield something, and its best offensive performer simply lit the fuse. “I think our game plan was to keep them off the power play,” Calderone said. “ … They played really well throughout the whole thing. I can’t say if we relaxed too much, they made some big plays.” Outshooting Michigan, 15-7, in the second that returned two tallies, the Fighting Irish unmistakably won the second frame. But at the same time, the Wolverines dominated the first. With the contest tied at two heading into the third period, it would be Notre Dame that would take the initial upper hand in the third, as forward Cal Burke drove down the left flank and snuck the puck past Lavigne’s left skate to give the Fighting Irish their first lead of the night, 3-2. “Once we got behind, you saw the desperation that we needed to play with right from the start,” Pearson said. But Michigan had its chance to reclaim the deficit on a power play 8:15 into the period on a hooking call on Notre Dame forward Jack Jenkins but couldn’t seem to find its way past Morris on multiple dangerous chances. And just as hopes began to dwindle, freshman forward Michael Pastujov answered the Wolverines’ prayers, as he punched the puck in off a scrum in front of the net with 5:22 remaining in regulation. “Yeah, it shows our depth,” Calderone said. “I think a lot of people, when they talk about us, talk about how we lack that depth, but a goal coming from Mike Pastujov like that just shows that … in the second half of the year we had all four lines going and that’s what got us here.” In the end, though, just as postseason hockey games go, all it takes is one slim chance. Evans just happened to be the one to get that chance.
Season-long inconsistencies plague Michigan BENJAMIN KATZ Daily Sports Writer
ST PAUL, Minn. — It could be called “The Luck of the Irish.” With 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation, Notre Dame forward Jake Evans pushed the puck five-hole past sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne to end the Michigan hockey team’s unexpected NCAA Tournament run right then and there. But more than luck were inconsistencies in play throughout the national semifinal game that led to a 4-3 heartbreaking loss for the Wolverines on Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center. Michigan reached the Frozen Four on Lavigne’s solid goaltending, timely scoring from secondary players and an explosive first line of senior forwards Dexter Dancs and Tony Calderone and junior forward Cooper Marody. However, the story of the year for the Wolverines has been an inability to capitalize on the power play and step up on the penalty kill — ranked fourthworst in the country, stopping just 75.33 percent of opponent’s man advantages. Michigan was unable to reverse the trends, leading to costly miscues and missed opportunities to put the game away for good. With an extra week of preparation before the Frozen Four, Michigan coach Mel Pearson slowed down practice to specifically focus on special teams. Against a Fighting Irish power play that was successful on 22.83 percent of their opportunities, the Wolverines needed to be the aggressors to stifle chances. After quickly killing a penalty just 34 seconds into the first period, it appeared Michigan’s Achilles heel was solved. After scoring two unanswered goals early, one from Dancs and
another from Calderone, it appeared the Wolverines were in complete control. But that was when Notre Dame began to strike. After a two-minute holding penalty to junior defenseman Joseph Cecconi, Fighting Irish forward Andrew Oglevie unloaded a slapshot from the point that passed Lavigne to cut Michigan’s lead in half and breathe life into a dormant Notre Dame offense. Minutes later, with both teams down a man and four-onfour play, Evans found open space between the circles with no maize and blue sweaters in sight and fired a one-timer into the back of the net to knot the game at two goals apiece. “We’ve been much better lately,” Pearson said. “(Senior defenseman Sam) Piazza blocked that shot, so we had to recover because he on the ice. That opened some things up and they had a seeing-eye shot there.”
“(Sam) Piazza blocked that shot, so we had to recover.”
After relinquishing a third straight Fighting Irish tally at the beginning of the third period, the Wolverines found themselves in a do-ordie situation, pressing to tie the game and keep their tournament journey afloat. With 8:15 to go in the final frame, Michigan had its opening. Handed their third power play opportunity of the evening, following a Notre Dame hooking penalty, the Wolverines had a chance to respond. But for a team that has struggled mightily with the man advantage all season long, ranked 33rd in the nation with an 18.37 percent success rate, Michigan couldn’t answer. A forceful Fighting Irish penalty kill squashed all the Wolverines’ chances to advance to the national championship game against Minnesota-Duluth. “We’ve got to get better with that next year, there’s no doubt about it,” Pearson said. “And we will.”
Michigan may get better on special teams next season, but at this point, it doesn’t really matter. Goals from Calderone and Dancs helped the Wolverines take the lead early, just as the “DMC” line has done all season. Twenty-five saves on 29 shots from Lavigne kept Michigan in the game late. A goal from freshman forward Michael Pastujov with 5:22 remaining gave the Wolverines a last chance. But Thursday night, it wasn’t enough to propel Michigan to the national championship game. Seasonlong problems again haunted the Wolverines and this time, it ended their season for good. What looked like a game Michigan had for the taking slowly turned into a repeat of the struggles seen all year. The lucky bounce at the game’s end wasn’t the deciding factor. It was what came before that.
“We’ve got to get better with that next year. ... and we will.”
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne got beat five-hole withfive seconds remaining in the Frozen Four semifinal.
The good, the bad and the unlucky
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Senior forward Dexter Dancs scored a goal in Michigan’s loss to Notre Dame.
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T. PAUL, Minn. — The adage goes, “You have to be good to be lucky.”
It’s unclear where it originated from, but that’s not really the point. Wherever JACOB it was first uttered, it SHAMES might as well have come about specifically to describe the Michigan hockey team’s 2017-2018 season. On Nov. 10, the Wolverines capped off their biggest win of the nascent Mel Pearson era by erasing a three-goal deficit to take down Minnesota in overtime. The winning goal was a Will Lockwood laser that deflected off of senior forward Alex Roos’ helmet and into the net — a “good” rally with a “lucky” ending. On Feb. 18, Michigan led No. 1 Notre Dame, 1-0, at Yost Ice Arena. With under a minute to play, Fighting Irish forward Andrew Oglevie pushed a shot behind sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne. The hockey gods themselves seemed to ensure the puck didn’t find twine, instead sending it all the way across the goalmouth and past the left post. Lavigne made 35 mostly tremendous saves that day. If not for that lucky break, they might not have mattered at all. But he earned his good fortune, if you will. The same thing happened in the NCAA Tournament Northeast Regional final. Boston’s Brandon Hickey whiffed at the puck in his zone, sophomore forward Jake Slaker snatched the loose change and rifled home a game-winning goal off a Terrier’s leg to send the Wolverines to the Frozen Four. Of course, Slaker’s hardnosed forecheck at the end of a shift made it all possible. No team gets to the Frozen Four entirely by sheer luck. On the flip side, no team gets to the Frozen Four without any of it. Michigan exemplified that all season. But so did Notre Dame. Coming into the Frozen Four, the Fighting Irish had won four straight games by scoring in the final minute or overtime. Sure, they were ranked No. 1 or No. 2 for basically the entire season. But those kind of runs don’t just happen. Something was going to have to give, though. There were going to be bounces and bloopers Thursday night, and they were going to go one way or the other. At first, it was the Wolverines that profited from them. Mere moments into the second period, senior forward Dexter Dancs skated into the circle and threw a puck at the net. It hit off Notre Dame defenseman Dennis Gilbert and into the net for a two-goal Michigan lead. Probably not the way Dancs drew it up. But as anyone and everyone involved in hockey will tell you: get pucks to the net and good things will happen. “(Assistant) coach (Bill) Muckalt says if the puck’s in the net — I don’t even know what it went off of,” Dancs said. “I was just trying to get a shot off … luckily it went in.” But it didn’t do much to change the fact that the Fighting Irish were in total control. They had outshot the Wolverines, 7-4, to close the
first period, and scored a powerplay goal in response just two minutes later. It didn’t help that the bounces that had gone Michigan’s way at first had stopped coming. But Notre Dame thoroughly controlled the second period regardless. “Our game plan was keep them off the power play,” Dancs said. “And we gave them a power play, and they scored off of it.” Single-elimination postseason hockey is a crapshoot, due in no small part to goaltending. As the Wolverines began to seize momentum midway through the third period, Morris was simply everywhere for the Fighting Irish, spreading out all across the crease and denying waves of grade-A chances. Even an average goaltender can catch fire and carry his team through a game. But Morris is no average goaltender. He’s the Big Ten Player of the Year and a Hobey Baker Award finalist, and Thursday was just another night at the office. With five minutes to play, freshman forward Mike Pastujov slashed one past Morris to tie the game at three. Pastujov had two golden opportunities denied in the previous 30 seconds alone. At that moment, it almost seemed inevitable — Michigan had to break through at some point. The Wolverines had to obtain a fortunate rebound somewhere. Pearson and his team were well aware of Notre Dame’s unbelievable success in the clutch. They had seen Dylan Malmquist’s overtime winner against Michigan Tech, were familiar with Jack Jenkins’ clincher against Providence. But how do you prepare to stop the luck of the Irish, even if you can sense it coming? Michigan had one last chance to win it in regulation, but the puck was knocked away with 11 seconds to go. Fighting Irish forward Cam Morrison took the stretch pass from his own zone, flew down the left flank and laced a pass into the middle. Jake Evans was on the receiving end, tied to Quinn Hughes’ hip. “Just a bad bounce there at the end,” Pearson said. Evans got his stick on the puck, and it trickled under Lavigne’s pads. Twenty players in blue hung their heads. On the bench, Pearson had already been thinking ahead to overtime. “Last goal we weren’t too concerned,” he said. “Just a basic two-on-two. I give them credit, they made a good play, drove it wide and threw it in the crease. “Tough way to lose… I don’t know if there’s any easy way to lose.” Notre Dame was the better team on Thursday night. It controlled the flow for longer stretches, and Morris outplayed Lavigne. And in the end, the Fighting Irish got the break they needed to advance to the national championship. Dancs joined Pearson and senior forward Tony Calderone in the bowels of the Xcel Energy Center, cheeks painted scarlet by tears. As he choked out some final words about his senior season, this much was clear: Good, lucky — at this point, none of it mattered. Shames can be reached at jacosham@umich.edu or on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.