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statement CAMPUS LIFE

‘U’ students address high cost of living on campus Over a year after CSG’s 2018 Affordability Guide controversy, campus reflects

DARBY STIPE/DAILY University President Mark Schlissel answers questions about future emmisions reductions and climate change solutions from the University community at Rackham Auditorium Tuesday.

Schlissel responds to concerns at carbon neutrality public session

After arrests during climate strike, University president holds open dialogue ATTICUS RAASCH Daily Staff Reporter

Approximately 150 students, faculty and community members attended a special public session with the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality Tuesday in Rackham Auditorium.

Featuring University President Mark Schlissel as the main speaker, the event was moderated by three commission members: Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability; Engineering junior Logan Vear; and Rackham student

Austin Glass. The public session followed the arrest of 10 people during a climate strike in March, during which students requested an open dialogue with Schlissel and other administrative members. All members of the commission were present at the event. The

event started with opening remarks before moving into a question and answer format, where attendees could directly ask Schlissel questions or submit cards with questions to be read by the moderators. See CARBON, Page 3A

MADELINE MCLAUGHLIN & CALLIE TEITELBAUM Daily Staff Reporters

When LSA sophomore Aidan Sova transferred from Michigan State University this school year, he didn’t expect an increase in his cost of living. Sova, who self-identifies as a student of low socioeconomic status, said upon his arrival to campus, the major economic disparities between students at University of Michigan became abundantly clear to him. Sova is an associate director of the Association of Big Ten Students, a forum for student representatives from each Big Ten college to address student needs and concerns. He served on student government at

Michigan State and was on Michigan’s Central Student Government Executive Team as a policy adviser last semester. See AFFORDABILITY, Page 3A

Journalists discuss representation, Shaking it Residence up: Shake inclusion of Latinx voices in reporting Halls Assoc.

BUSINESS

Shack set to open in A2 Burger chain recieves approval from city to move into new location REMY FARKAS Daily News Editor

Shake Shack is set to shake up the fast food scene in Ann Arbor. The company will be opening an Ann Arbor location in fall 2019, according to an email statement from the burger chain. This will be Shake Shack’s third location in Michigan, joining one in downtown Detroit and another in Troy. The New York-based burger and shake restaurant will be located at 3030 Washtenaw Ave. #107 in the Arbor Hills shopping center, replacing Brooks Brothers. The restaurant will occupy more than 3,000 square feet of Arbor Hills including outdoor seating, Shake Shack said. The city of Ann Arbor approved the permits for the space, which will include structural, plumbing, electric and mechanical alterations which is estimated to cost $575,000, according to city records. In an email to The Daily, Shake Shack spokeswoman Meg Castranova said the menu will consist of “Shack classics” like the ShackBurger, crinkle-cut fries, shakes and frozen custard concretes. See SHAKE, Page 3A

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CAMPUS LIFE

Panel focuses on how diversity in newsrooms impacts coverage, storytelling NIKKI KIM

Daily Staff Reporter

Journalists convened in Haven Hall Tuesday afternoon for a panel to discuss the representation of Latinx issues, perspectives and voices in American journalism. More than 50 students and faculty attended the event, which featured two KnightWallace fellows, Luis Trelles and Aaron Nelsen, and two local journalists from Detroit, Serena Maria Daniels and Sarah Alvarez. The University of Michigan Latina/o Studies Program hosted the panel, in

collaboration with Wallace House and the Department of American Culture. Larry La Fountain-Stokes, the interim director of the Latina/o Studies Program in the Department of American Culture, was the main organizer behind the event. “This event came about as a collaboration with the Wallace House to take advantage of the fact that so many of the fellows this year were either Latino or Latina, or covering topics pertaining to Latinos or Latinas in the United States,” La Fountain-Stokes said. With President Donald Trump’s administration’s

focus on immigration laws and the president’s often generalized negative remarks towards the Mexican population, La FountainStokes noted the relevance of this panel in the current political climate. “This is a complex, historical moment to be covering Latino/a people and Latin America,” La Fountain-Stokes said. “You could argue that it is a hostile environment.” The panel opened with a discussion of the term “Latino.” According to Trelles, despite its common usage by media outlets and in news articles, it generalizes the

diversity of Latin America and glosses over the cultural and regional differences. “Latino issues — It can be a very convenient label for politicians and for marketing, but very often the issues that affect a third generation Puerto Rican from the Bronx are very different from the issues that affect Cubanos in South Florida,” Trelles said. Kinesiology sophomore Kim Morales is a member of La Casa and identifies as Latinx. She said she found the panel to be a fresh take on the modern discourse surrounding the Latinx identity. See LATINX, Page 3A

MICHAEL BAGAZINSKI/ DAILY

Panelists discuss the current representation of Latinx identity in journalism at the “Representing Latinx Voices in American Journalism” event in Haven Hall Tuesday.

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asks for pay for officers

Resolution calls for more than $20,000 allotment for salaries for executives ALEX HARRING Daily Staff Reporter

A Residence Halls Association’s assembly resolution to compensate its executive board has prompted criticism from the executive branch of the LSA Student Government. The resolution was approved by RHA on April 4 with 27 out of 30 members in favor. If approved by the director of housing, $20,700 of RHA funds will be earmarked as compensation for its seven-member executive board. An April 8 executive statement from LSA SG affirmed the organization supports the goal behind compensating executive board members as the proposal removes financial barriers for students interested in joining the board. However, LSA SG executives feel the problem lies with the fact that the compensation would come from the RHA funds, which are largely collected through student fees. LSA SG President Brian Wang, an LSA junior, said students pay $24.75 in student fees that are allocated to the RHA. See RHA, Page 3A

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News

2A — Wednesday, April 10, 2019

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY: By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: REGENTS MAY REFUSE HONORARY DEGREE TO MANDELA committee, who refused to be identified, said the regents, in a closed session in January, rejected the panel’s recommendation that Raoul Wallenberg be given an honorary degree, because Wallenberg would be unable to accept the honor in person. Wallenberg, a former University student, who saved the lives of hundreds of

April 9, 1986 Jailed South African leader Nelson Mandela will probably not receive an honorary degree at the University’s commencement ceremony next month because a Board of Regents bylaw prohibits giving an honorary degree “in absentia.” In addition, a member of the University’s honorary degree

thousands of Hungarian Jews in Nazi Germany, disappeared shortly after World War II. He is believed to be dead. Mandela, a black South African, has been in prison since 1962, serving a life sentence for leading the revolution against the nation’s white regime. He is recognized as a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement in his

country. A group of University students called the Free South Africa Coordinating Committe (FSACC) has been urging the University to give Mandela the degree. One of the reasons the group constructed a shanty on the Diag was to draw attention to its request that Mandela be honored.

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KELSEY PEASE/Daily Rackham students Ari Patel and Courtney VinHouzen enjoy their free cones from Ben & Jerry’s after waiting in linewith hundreds of other students for Free Cone Day Tuesday afternoon.

ON THE DAILY: U-M TO PURCHASE RENEWABLE ENERGY FROM DTE ENERGY ZAYNA SYED

Arbor campus. This will offer a significant step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to the University. The University will purchase approximately 200,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy annually from the company. University officials say this move will contribute to the University’s

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan will purchase renewable energy annually from DTE Energy, a Detroit-based firm, starting in 2021. University officials say DTE will provide about half of the purchased electricity on the Ann

2025 greenhouse gas reduction goal of reducing GHG emissions 25 percent below 2006 levels. Climate change activists have raised concerns regarding the placement of DTE’s vice president of corporate strategy Camilo Serna on University President Mark Schlissel’s commission to develop recommendations for

achieving sustainability. The purchase follows the Global Climate Strike and a number of sit-ins by climate activists at the Fleming Administration Building, which houses a number of administration offices. Activists aim to get Schlissel to agree to a public, unfiltered and studentmoderated town hall.

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‘Capable Guardian’ program offers training on active shooter response DPSS provides optional instruction to students, faculty on ‘run, hide, fight’ will work to address the information. The University was planned more than a year BARBARA COLLINS “in-between” area that often utilizes the “run, hide, fight” prior. Daily Staff Reporter The program will primarily occurs as a result of active mantra as active attacker focus on one’s position in protocol. The University of Michigan attacker protocol. After unfounded reports of an active attacker situation, will begin offering optional “What we do, or what we’re said. DPSS will active attacker training to going to begin doing, is that an active shooter in Mason Hall Overton students, faculty, staff and in-between — what is the role surfaced on March 16, many also include a new module community members through of the staff member at the community members expressed in the program that focuses a program called “Capable University, with a classroom of concern regarding the clarity of specifically on the safety of Guardian: Instruct, Evacuate, staff?” Overton said. “We started the “run, hide, fight” protocol. people with disabilities in the Shelter, Defend.” The training with the areas of concern based LSA senior Brad Ebenhoeh, event of an active attacker. This is provided through the safety on experience and educating who uses a wheelchair, said he area does not currently exist in and security company Threat the community that require was not previously informed of the Capable Guardian program. “Our community members protocol in an active attacker Suppression Incorporated and attention.” will be implemented by the According to the Threat situation, nor was he informed of are in a role, either by their job Division of Public Safety and Suppression website, the “run, how individuals with disabilities title or personal conviction, where they would be unable to Security. hide, fight” mantra employed by should approach the protocol. “It has been three weeks since leave a vulnerable population or Melissa Overton, deputy chief the Department of Homeland of police and public information Security as active attacker the active shooter false claim, those which they are charged officer, said Capable Guardian protocol has been found to cause and I still don’t know what to with leading or protecting, do,” Ebenhoeh said. “That is and also community members not yet have an estimated uncertainty that may lead to the http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Sudokudoes Syndication that have a disability or how to start date. She said the program spread of inaccurate or vague unacceptable in my eyes.” However, Overton said this better prepare them within the situation did not factor into framework of the ‘run, hide, the decision to implement the fight’ model,” Overton said. “So Capable Guardian program at these are both two areas that the University. DPSS Officer we’re going to be working on Matt Butzky, who brought the community with, and it’s EASY the program to the attention basically just training, educating of DPSS, said he first became and exercising so that they know aware of Threat Suppression what to do and how to respond to and Mike Clumpner, its an active attacker.” Threat Suppression defines president and CEO, after attending a one-day training capable guardians as “people session on joint public safety within organizations to which response to active shooter others would immediately look to for guidance during an active events in early 2016. “Dr. Clumpner was shooter event.” According to the particularly impressive in that Threat Suppression website, the session because so much of his presentation will focus on many information was supported by important components of the data and he was on the leading capable guardian concept. “To understand how to manage edge of the joint response concept to active shooter people during times of duress, incidents,” Butzky said. “Later, the participants are taught about I sought him out after we the concepts of mass hysteria and identified a couple areas in crowd contagion,” the site reads. which we wanted to provide “The participants are also taught more specific information about research-based findings on active attacker response, of human behavior during building on the ‘run, hide, fight’ times of crises. The behavior is often dependent on several model already in place.” © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. EASE. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com Overton said DPSS hosted a factors. One mitigating factor three-day training by Clumpner is the presence of a competent, March 6-8 of this year, which identified, capable guardian.”

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University Of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.

Capable Guardian participants will learn about crisis theories that help explain how crisis events follow similar and predictable paths. The program will also include active attacker training and focus on the participant’s role in a situation as a capable guardian. Butzky said DPSS hopes to incorporate the Capable Guardian concept as a supplemental module to the “run, hide, fight” information already being shared on campus for those who may want more information on what actions they can take. “It’s important for those that are willing to take on that additional risk to have confidence in their knowledge, ability, and authority,” Butzky said. “The presentation (by Clumpner) was also valuable to DPSS administration as it clarified the role of security personnel in active attacker incidents. Similarly, we hope to build out another module that provides

more specific information for those with disabilities.” According to Overton, students, staff, faculty and community members will be able to sign up for the program through the DPSS website. A community outreach officer will then make contact with the interested individual and set up the training. Overton said she believes offering Capable Guardian is moving the University in the right direction. Ebenhoeh said he is in support of the implementation of the program. He said he hopes the University will properly address the safety of people with disabilities in the program, as he has still not been informed of protocol following the false reports. “If people do it, I am for it,” Ebenhoeh said. “I would sincerely hope that the University would handle where a person with a disability is supposed to go in shelter (during an active shooter situation).”

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CARBON From Page 1A In the wake of the University’s announcement of their intention to purchase renewable energy from Michigan-based company DTE Energy, Overpeck referenced the importance of making lasting efforts to promote carbon neutrality beyond campus. “We’re really all in this together,” Overpeck said. “Not just trying to find ways to make the University carbon neutral as fast as we can, we just got out first big wind purchase announced today, but finding ways to help society, other universities, our community we live in, the state of Michigan, the nation, go carbon neutral much faster than anybody has really been thinking. It’s our job to make that happen.” Before taking questions from the audience, Schlissel said he was excited to receive feedback from students regarding the effort towards carbon neutrality. “I’ve been hearing from students and faculty, so I really welcome the opportunity to hear from you directly to tell you a bit about what I’m thinking and get your advice as we move forward,” Schlissel said. “I can certainly say the advocacy significantly by students around the effects of greenhouse gases on global climate change is coming through loud and clear, and I want to spend this hour really listening to you and hearing directly from you.” Schlissel said community input is key to his understanding of the issue of climate change and achieving carbon neutrality on campus and beyond. “I do not pretend to be an expert on climate change and global warming and greenhouse gases — I’m a biologist and a medical doctor and I’m responsible

LATINX From Page 1A “The Latinx community is very diverse and the stories that are told are often not ref lective of our community,” Morales said. “And that’s ref lective of American society in general.” But at the same time, according to Trelles, there are shared identities, histories and sometimes problems that affect these communities on a national level. And it is this reason, Trelles said, that it is important to recognize the nuances behind it. “Beyond country of origin or geographic placement, the different factors that form this broad community has to do with language, ethnicity, race, et cetera,” Trelles said. Alvarez is the founder and executive editor of Outlier Media and through her focus on a localized perspective, she believes journalism should be responsive to the needs of the

RHA From Page 1A Wang echoed the executive statement, saying it would be better for RHA to provide events and services to the students they serve rather than to pay its members. He said elected representatives should serve because they feel a calling to the role with no expectation of pay. “We do it because we love it and we have the opportunity to do it,” Wang said. “We recognize that we have an opportunity to make change on campus and that our time that we put into this is purely volunteer work and it’s not something that we feel needs to be compensated for.” Wang cited a 2017 Central Student Government resolution to pay members that was vetoed by then-CSG president Anushka Sarkar. The veto came on the heels of the creation of the Leadership Engagement Scholarship, a CSG and Office of Student Life award that offers a small group of students financial support for the cost of membership dues as well as providing compensation for the unpaid time devoted to their student organizations. In a statement released following

News

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 — 3A

for making the best decisions I can on behalf of our community,” Schlissel said. “When I don’t have expertise, I rely on people that really do, so I really welcome everybody’s input.” Though appreciative of the event, Climate Action Movement member Jonathan Morris, an Environment and Sustainability graduate student, said he was disappointed it took prolonged student activism for the dialogue to take place. “A lot was talked about,” Morris said. “I appreciate that we were able to have this event and it’s pretty unfortunate that it took people sitting it at Fleming for seven hours and 10 students getting arrested for him to agree to this event, because that’s what people were asking for.” When asked about legitimacy of using natural gas in attaining carbon neutrality, as well as the effectiveness of the new Central Power Plant expansion, Schlissel said it would be valuable to look at the University’s immediate needs while keeping in mind longer term goals. “I think it is important to account honestly for the contributions that this new combined power turbine make to our efforts around carbon neutrality,” Schlissel said. “The situation we’re in is we remain dependent, for at least the short intermediate term, to make the steam that is necessary on our campus.” When asked about the University’s progress on carbon neutrality in comparison to other big schools such as Stanford University and Ohio State University, Schlissel said every place is different, and that comparable universities are not necessarily as far ahead. “Every university is different than every other,” Schlissel said. “Every university, as they advertise their effort for accounting greenhouse gases, uses a

different set of definitions. We count everything: We have a very large health system, we have thousands of residence hall beds, we have steam as a source of heating. The situation here isn’t the same as it is in California. It isn’t sunny as much and the wind doesn’t blow all the time.” Audience members immediately interjected, interrupting Schlissel and calling out questions, in which Schlissel attempted to calm the crowd before continuing to explain his commitment to carbon neutrality on campus. “I’m committed to get us to neutrality,” Schlissel said. “I’m asking this group to help us figure out how to do it and do it as quickly as possible. The example is brought up pretty often of Ohio State University, who is just down the road sort of, who is given a lot of credibility in this community — surprisingly. I don’t think they’re ahead of us in their efforts around carbon neutrality. I think you have to look at the data.” Tegwyn John, LSA senior and CAM member, categorized the atmosphere during the question and answer session as disorganized and combative. “I think people were clapping to the questioners, and nobody applauded Schlissel’s answers,” John said. “I don’t think anybody in the room today felt like they were actually being listened to or getting genuine answers to their questions.” Alice Elliott, an Environment and Sustainability alum, said she felt the event led to some conf licting statements from Schlissel regarding practices and expectations for achieving carbon neutrality. “He talks about the University being the leader and the University setting the stage for carbon neutrality and for climate action, but then immediately says, ‘Oh, it has to be everybody,’” Elliott

said. “It’s confusing to me why he seems to want to have the University be both the leader and the best in climate action, but then says that you need to do more, and recycle, and be lobbying and register to vote. If we’re here, if we sat in the (Fleming) office and we got arrested, we’ve done all those things already.” Schlissel was asked repeatedly whether the University would divest from companies that produce fossil fuels. Schlissel said divestment lowers the value of the University’s endowment, which is necessary to fund beneficial activities and supplies on campus. “Essentially, we don’t divest,” Schlissel said. “It’s not this cause, it’s essentially all causes … We get more payout from our endowment here than we get money from the state of Michigan, so it’s really critical for us as a robust university… If we begin the process of narrowing what the endowment can invest in, based on very valid arguments and concerns from sincere people, the ability to invest shrinks, the value of the endowment goes down and the institution suffers. We’re just not going to divest.” Morris said the refusal to divest represents a severe conf lict between the University’s carbon goals and their desire to retain the value of the endowment, criticizing Schlissel for refusing to divest. “This is the most egregious thing the University is doing,” Morris said. “He says this is an existential threat, that young people’s lives are at stake, that he believes the science, he believes the gravity and the unique existential challenge of this issue, and yet this university has a billion dollars directly invested in the fossil fuel industry.”

people, rather than the needs of a big institutional newspaper. According to Alvarez, the difficulty of finding the proper language to describe such a range of communities is the reason that coverage is so poor. “Even for those who do have an identity that is rooted in Latinx, we’re not necessarily going to do a good job representing this community because it is so big,” Alvarez said. “We can see it’s being poorly done in American journalism. People are too far away from it, the coverage is too far away.” According to Nelsen, who was a former Time Magazine correspondent and New York Times contributor in Chile, the way Latin America is covered by the international community is very distinct. And due to a lack of diversity and imagination in newsrooms, there is a limited view of stories. “You can see it with the caravan stories — they all focus on tragedy and misery,”

Nelsen said. “The way the United States views Latino communities is that they try to put everybody into a couple of boxes.” Trelles explained how the way journalists contextualize their stories has a bigger impact on the world as demographic shifts provide more opportunities. When Trelles was covering Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, he witnessed the particular ways the story was framed on TV and newspaper articles. “Trump isn’t the story, ” Trelles said. “It has to do with Trump, but it also has to do with the negligence of local authorities, and that was lost because people focused on the bigger Trump story.” According to Nelsen, elitism in bigger media outlets often makes it difficult for stories to be told with a focus on local politics or the narratives of community members. “The opportunity to storytell continues to grow as we

convince our editors and the world as to why a story is important,” Nelsen said. Storytelling was a common theme throughout the panel. Many panelists said it is one of their values as writers and journalists, as well as one of their inspirations. “The deepest connection that can be made through journalism is storytelling,” Trelles said. “It’s the best way of learning how to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes without having to travel to that indigenous community of Mexico.” Trelles concluded by emphasizing journalists’ duty to dive into stories and bring to light the diversity within the Latinx community. “Latin America is united by language and the shared history, but divided by the kinds of beans they eat,” Trelles said. “The moral is that there’s a lot more than the surface, and it is our responsibility to recognize that.”

her veto, Sarkar expressed concerns of potential power dynamics created by intergovernmental payment systems as well as the public release of student financial records. RHA brands itself as the University’s residence hall governance. On its website, RHA advertises its Pre-Class Bash, the Plants in the Hall! initiative and Siblings Weekend as recent accomplishments. The association has been criticized in the past for an “extremely difficult” work environment leading one former executive board member to resign in 2018, and for its use of funds to send North Quad Multicultural Council members on a service trip to Peru in 2011. In an email to The Daily, RHA President Brianna Marble, LSA junior, declined an interview on behalf of the executive board, but wrote the board is looking forward to further discussion about their decision. “As of right now, the Executive Board will not be taking any interviews,” Marble wrote. “We are excited to continue the conversation on this topic with Housing and the future Executive Board.” In the resolution, the RHA

stated its executive board works 10 to 12 hours each week while working without receiving compensation, whereas RAs work 20 hours per week and receive full room and board plus additional compensation, totaling $11,020 on average. The RHA wrote the compensation available through being an RA could potentially encourage low-income residents to first seek out an RA position before an RHA position. Ultimately, the RHA wrote the resolution would encourage lowincome students to apply to and join the executive board as well as students currently on the board to serve more terms. The association wrote this will allow for a greater ability to enact change within the halls because of the learning curve associated with serving on the board, sometimes hindering progress for members in their first term. Business freshman Fallon Renehan, a current Bursley Residence Hall resident, acknowledged the RHA’s and resident advisers’ hard work, but said she feels using the money for dorm activities should take priority over compensating the RHA executive board.

“Personally, I feel like dorm activities are really important for kids who don’t have other opportunities and I feel like although the RHA board does a good job, they are there for the kids,” Renehan said. “Paying them and taking away from the ability to do their job well — which would be to put on dorm activities like that for kids — would be more important.” One RA, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution, said compensation for the position would encourage more students to seek out these roles, which would ultimately make the organization better. He also noted RHA’s failure in the past to do meaningful work and said keeping the money for student activities would not make those events any more effective. “Having a paid position in RHA and LSA Student Government — which they don’t have, but some parties have pushed for in the past — will naturally make the positions more competitive,” the RA said. “They’ll put added pressure on them to do more. The RHA hasn’t been especially effective. They haven’t really added to campus very much, and I think being on the executive board is work and work should be compensated.”

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4A — Wednesday, April 10, 2019

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NOAH ENTE | COLUMN

Russia and China bring a cold reality to Venezuela

ate philosopher and novelist George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In recent weeks, this sentiment has showed itself to be true in regards to the ever-escalating governmental crisis in Venezuela. As he is prone to do, Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to extend the tentacles of his foreign policy into places it doesn’t belong. This time he has chosen South America, and has acted by providing military aid to the embattled president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro, under immense protest and pressure from the Venezuelan people to abdicate his premiership after potentially fraudulent elections last May, has sought to remain in power at all costs. One particularly extreme measure to preserve his power was his blocking of international humanitarian aid to relieve people who have been crushed by a crumbling economy, viewing such aid as an imperialistic American Trojan horse. In the fight to decide Venezuela’s future, the United States and most Latin American and European Union countries have decided to support Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, as interim head of state. If he becomes the provisional president of Venezuela, Guaidó says he will call for new elections to determine democratically who will rule his country, after leading the charge against Maduro and his corrupt election last year. Along with their packages of material aid, the U.S. and its allies in the Venezuela crisis have tried to bring international legitimacy to Guaidó’s efforts to restore democracy. Their biggest challenge in doing so, however, has been gaining the support of the Venezuelan military. In an interview published in The Washington Post on Feb. 7, Antonio Rivero, a former Venezuelan general who was exiled in 2014, noted that challenges in this regard mainly come from the military allegiances to late President Hugo Chávez and his ideas. Some Venezuelans see Maduro as the “son” of Chavez and his legacy. Rivero also noted that military personnel are concerned that their illegal activities, such as black market drug trafficking, will be punished under Guaidó or another future president’s rule. As such, it has proven difficult for those who support an interim Guaidó presidency to convince the military leadership in Venezuela to join the cause and abandon Maduro. Moscow has made this task even more difficult in

the last month, after planes carrying 100 Russian troops landed in Venezuela. Putin hopes to bolster the staying power of Maduro and fortify his military support with his own forces. For quite some time, Russia has provided aid and other resources to the Maduro regime, which, unlike aid coordinated by Guaido, was accepted by the military government. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump scolded Putin, telling him to “get out” of Venezuela, and his national security adviser John Bolton warned against external interference in the Western hemisphere by states seeking to prop up Maduro. The Russian president responded by promising to continue arming Caracas and to keep troops there. This pattern of involvement from Russia is eerily similar to its actions in Syria shortly after the breakout of the Syrian Civil War. In the cases of both Venezuela and Syria, two authoritarian leaders have acted against their own people in order to maintain power. The U.S. placed a plethora of sanctions against the offending regimes. Then, Russia came in to support the regimes and keep the tyrannical leader in power against the will of the people. Both Damascus and Caracas have had historic ties with Russia, and Putin likely hopes to assure that these governments remain firmly allied with Moscow in the foreseeable future. The thought of Venezuela — a member of OPEC and a longtime Russian ally — growing closer to the West is likely a deep concern of Putin’s. Further, Russia is not the only state with which the U.S. and Europe have had frosty relations that is growing more involved in the situation in Venezuela. China, also a supporter of both the Assad and Maduro regimes, has come out in support of Russian efforts to maintain Maduro’s rule. This February, China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have spoken out against the fraudulent elections in which Maduro claims to have been re-elected and called for another round of elections. On March 26, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang took a shot at U.S. efforts to halt Russia’s interference by stating that “Latin America (is not) a certain country’s backyard.” Beijing’s intent to again support Russia, as well as their own agenda in Venezuela, is not a surprise. China has also worked to maintain strong relations with Caracas since the turn of the century, eyeing Venezuela’s chief resource: oil. When Venezuela was ruled by Chavez,

the two countries cooperated on oil trade on a large scale. Though it has stressed a policy of non-interference in international affairs, China has subtly been active within Latin America, quietly advancing its own goals. A prime example was in 2011, when China financed and built Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional soccer stadium as a supposed gift to the country. The gift came with a price, however: Costa Rica soon cut its trade with Taiwan, a longtime adversary to Beijing. It also opened a large free trade agreement with China. Though China’s government claims it avoids interfering with the affairs of sovereign governments, even in Latin America, it is on record for having used bribes to get what it wants from other states. So much for respecting another nation’s independent will. Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo should remember the past and realize that they must escalate their efforts to see Guaidó peacefully take the role of interim president in Venezuela. Though Trump’s resistance to sending troops to Venezuela or elsewhere abroad may be justified, his administration’s lack of concrete action in response to Russia’s and China’s efforts will lead to a bad outcome for the United States and the Venezuelan people. Former President Barack Obama waited too long when Putin entrenched his forces in the Syria conflict and China aided Assad on the world stage. Though the Venezuelan crisis presents different challenges, the same must not be allowed to happen. If prior mistakes are repeated, then with or without U.S. sanctions against the Maduro regime, the people of Venezuela will continue to starve and suffer, and their economy will be run further into the ground. Hyperinflation has risen to a historic rate, and citizens are already forced to make drastic choices such as whether to eat stray dogs and cats or let their families go hungry. In the face of this mounting regional threat, Washington should also remember the foundational U.S. foreign policy established by the Monroe Doctrine. Hostile states consolidating their military power with a regional adversary has proven frighteningly dangerous to America in the not-too-distant past. Though the Cold War may be over, Trump should remember that a threat to freedom and democracy abroad — especially within our hemisphere — is a threat to us. Noah Ente can be reached at noahente@umich.edu.

SUBMIT TO SURVIVORS SPEAK The Opinion section has created a space in The Michigan Daily for first-person accounts of sexual assault and its corresponding personal, academic and legal implications. Submission information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/survivorsspeak2019.

The technology that is slowly taking over our lives

nternet of things. It’s a Inevitably, the move back term that most everyone toward a decentralized system has heard about, but is forthcoming, and it seems highly likely that also one that the IoT might just nobody actually be the movement understands. The that will pull it reality is, the off. As connected internet of things, devices become IoT for short, is more and more a revolutionary complex, it becomes technology that tougher to solely has real potential rely on the cloud, to shake up the when future of integrated ADITHYA especially intricate decisions technology. It is a SANJAY and output are gateway to artificial intelligence and the direct needed in very short periods of time. Expect to see a trend pathway to business success. But what exactly is it? IoT is toward this in the near future. Perhaps on a more negative pretty much everything it says it is. It is the huge network of note, however, is the problem objects and everyday devices of security. The moment that are connected to the we increase the numbers internet. While we are used of devices connected to the to the traditional smartphone, network, the more exposed and laptop and tablet as the only readily accessible our personal entryway to the internet, IoT information and preferences has managed to really shake become. As such, the IoT things up by introducing movement does pose quite a potential for connectivity for significant risk in this sense. other objects like refrigerators, This is perhaps validated by pillows and even umbrellas. the Mirai botnet attack in Such technology creates 2016 that led many to fear an the avenue for artificial apocalypse of the internet. intelligence and inherently While perpetrated by a few “smart” devices that can better teenagers with intentions far cater to personalization and less grand than the ensuing attack, the malware was specific function. The fact of the matter is successfully able to hack that the number of connected into various IoT devices and devices is expected to nearly leverage them to create a triple by 2025 to an expected malicious network of internetdevices called number of 75 billion devices. connected Not only this, but the worth of botnets to complete a task the IoT industry is expected that managed to render much to grow to a whopping $6.2 of the internet unavailable on trillion, greatly increasing the East Coast for a day. And the projected maximums for even though IoT security has health care and manufacturing. arguably advanced quite a bit Evidently, the growth is since then, there still is a lot of ground to be made, especially indicative of changing times. How might it affect us? when reports show only “48 For one, IoT is seemingly percent of businesses can turning around the traditional even detect whether they’ve cloud-based computing model suffered an IoT breach” and that has reigned supreme for “only 59 percent of companies the past decade or so. Cloud encrypt all their IoT-related computing is a fairly new trend data.” Nevertheless, IoT in a back-and-forth history of computing. While the first maintains its transformative computer was centralized, the benefits, much of which lie introduction of servers created in the arena of sustainability. a more distributed model. As such devices begin to

be implemented more and more, it is easier for wasteful appliances and products to become more cost and energy efficient. Take, for example, Cree SmartCast Technology, a new application of smart lighting. The application of IoT technology allows for increased savings in energy and other costs while creating an integrated lighting system that offers more personalization than other technologically-lacking alternatives. A massive future uptrend in big data comes as a result of this. Many of these technologies rely on maintaining vast directories of data and monitoring them in order to create increased personalization. For example, as cities begin to adopt IoT solutions to make their operations efficient, a natural byproduct is the collection of massive amounts of user data and preferences. But in order to create intelligent and innovative systems, this data must be sorted through. Big data offers this solution by combining volume, variety, velocity, veracity and value to create f lexible and smart programs. It isn’t a coincidence that “data scientist” is being called the sexiest job of the 21st century. And while naysayers claim that big data doesn’t have a future in the face of “fast data,” the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning simply becomes an impossible task if efficient big data solutions don’t exist. To get to the point, IoT is where the future is. So, if you haven’t chosen your major yet, consider data science as a possibility. And if you have decided your major, learn some data science anyway. Because before you know it, IoT will have taken over your life.

Adithya Sanjay can be reached at asanjay@umich.edu.

REED ROSENBACHER | COLUMN

The cultural logic of the gruesome injury

nyone who has ever played or watched sports has experienced this feeling: When everyone’s heart drops, the game stops and we all stand still. No, I am not talking about hitting the game winning shot that leaves you breathless. I am talking about the only true moment of communal tragedy in sports: a serious injury. Jusuf Nurkić, an NBA player for the Portland Trail Blazers, experienced an injury March 26 that made many Reddit users “feel like crying.” The injury happened on a routine basketball play when Nurkić went up for a rebound and, on his way down, landed on an opposing players foot, causing his leg to bend and snap in half just above his ankle. Nurkić is out indefinitely with compound fractures to his left tibia and fibula. As I put my hand in front of my eyes and tried to look away from the video clip of Nurkić’s gruesome injury, another feeling began to swell over me: a feeling of shame and guilt. In reality, when I clicked on a NSFW injury video, I knew that it would be gruesome. In fact, I even let the video play over a few times to make sure that I had really seen what happened to him. I made sure to really soak in how horrifying the whole thing was. Why did I choose to watch something I knew would send shivers down my spine? Why was I trying to look away from something I chose to watch? More importantly, why were other people doing this exact same thing? I think the best way to get at these questions is to start with a much larger question about the logic of sports fandom: Why do people watch sports? As I see it, sports fans are compelled by one

driving desire: the desire for the spectacle. We lust for a window into the unimaginable and the unbelievable. In the most spectacular sports moments, our sense of self can drift away and we can become entranced by the miraculous movements of the human body. It is this fading away from the personal that allows for fan bases to turn into pseudo-religious institutions and for people to yell at their TV screens and jump for joy. Our bodies and minds become so mesmerized by sporting spectacles that we cease to have the ability to control ourselves.

As I see it, sports fans are compelled by one driving desire: the desire for the spectacle But what makes a sporting spectacle different from other spectacles like movies and art exhibitions? As I see it, one common thread that ties all sports together is an emphasis on the athletic capabilities of bodies. The Olympics are a perfect example of this idea. The Olympics are a place where the strengths and weakness of every body type are put on full display — where the limits of the human body are tested in the labs we call stadiums. It seems fitting, then, that sports, a fusion of the spectacle and the body, are a place where the beautiful accomplishments of the body and the body’s grotesque failures are displayed and enjoyed by sports fans. What I have been calling

the “grotesque” refers to injuries in which the body gets crushed and cracked in ways we never thought imaginable, but it is worth considering how the “grotesque” might also be thought of as a form of violence. In both instances of violence and grotesque injuries, we find wounded bodies screaming out for help. Put simply, we see people in pain. In modern sports fandom, we often like to pretend that our lust for violence does not pull us closer in. For example, most football fans, like myself, pretend that we watch the game for clever strategies and teamwork. Yet, it is quite obvious that football is structured around the idea of bodies violently crashing into each other. A quick genealog y of sports further shows how we have sublimated our values when we claim to hate violence but love sports like football. Some of the first Western sports were built around honoring violent acts like limb dislocation and eyegouging. Every time we f lip on a game, like the one where Nurkić cracked his leg in half, we tell ourselves that we hope to see graceful athletic plays, cutting edge strategy, and our team win; however, deep down, we also want to see violence, mental lapses and the other team lose. The virality of injuries like Nurkić’s shows that our drive to watch sports is powered by success and failure, by bodily spectacles of both grace and violence. In short, the reason that I chose to click on the Nurkić injury video is the same reason I choose to click on a LeBron James highlight: I want to see a bodily spectacle. Reed Rosenbacher can be reached at rrosenb@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 — 5A

ALBUM REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Circa Waves and nostalgia Scottoline’s latest is tropey SAMANTHA CANTIE Daily Arts Writer

As part of the human condition, there are universal moments that will always leave us wistful and dewy-eyed, longing for a picturesque moment that no longer exists and can never exist again. These ubiquitous moments that invade human emotion include late night drives with the windows down in the backseat of your best friend’s car, or your lover bringing you coffee in bed or, most notably, the grandeur of the feeling of the beach. Circa Waves, an indie rock band from Liverpool (kind of like The Strokes if they were pop), captures the art of reminiscing through their essence of romantic, summertime guitar pop rock. Their junior album, What’s It Like Over There?, exhibits their knack for playing into sentimentality, digging into spaces that pluck on the human heartstrings and operate on nostalgia. In 2015, Circa Waves released their debut album, Young Chasers, which launched the wild success of their hit single “T-shirt Weather.” The comparisons between “T-shirt Weather” and the single that drives their junior album, “Movies,” are endless. Both singles feature Circa Waves’s niche of extremely catchy, melodic and guitar-driven reminiscing. “T-shirt Weather” came from an album which interrogated life among the clouds, with summertime lyrics: “I remember T-shirt weather, I remember some

days, we were singing out lungs in the backseat together.” “Movies, ”which carries What’s It Like Over There?, operates in the same manner, banking on the emotional state created when driving around: “Remember when we drove your car down the road? It was just like in the movies.”

What’s It Like Over There? Circa Waves Transgressive Records

While What’s It Like Over There? regresses in some areas to the symbolism and romantic emotions of their debut album and at the same time relying heavily on the pre-released singles which carry the album, What’s It Like Over There? exhibits development in exploring spaces that are authentic versus spaces that are insincere. Circa Waves impresses with their extension into darker moments, weaving between guitar driven, upbeat energy into dark and soft moments which cross-examine the link between our environment and our integrity. The opening song, “What’s It like Over There,” starts with the stark removal of the listener from a genuine environment. The beginning of the

song creates an auditory heaven, the sounds of crashing waves and the soft chirping of seagulls in the distance. Swiftly, this paradise is cut, with the sound of heavy footsteps and a garage door closing, removing the listeners from the nirvana of the beach. The cover art for the album, shot at Greatstone Beach, includes a man and woman in the ocean, one covering the eyes of the other. This art, paired with the opening track, immediately links self-reflection with one’s physical surroundings. Circa Waves plays into the common trope of indie-rock: questioning authenticity. Circa Waves then makes multiple references to morality. The song “Me, Myself, and Hollywood” darkens the mood with a savage bass line and a metronomeesque drum sequence, with questioning lyrics: “Have I been sad like I thought I would? And have I been bad? Or have I been good? In Hollywood.” Good versus evil intent is contemplated throughout, interlacing between spaces that question a humans’ rectitude (Hollywood) and pure, honest spaces that are “just like in the movies” (from track “Movies”). The dark twists into self-doubt paired with the airy, buoyancy of guitar pop-rock that one comes to expect from Circa Waves makes this album a strong candidate for summer time drives, with the windows down, in the backseat of your best friend’s car.

SARAH SALMAN Daily Arts Writer

Twenty years after a high school clique was involved in an incident that led to the gruesome death of one of their members, a series of mysterious deaths — suicide, accident or otherwise — threatens to reduce their circle to zero. One thing is clear: Someone knows. Allie Garvey was the odd one out in the group. At 15, her sister died of cystic fibrosis and her mother was depressed. She wasn’t pretty like Sasha Barrow, athletic like David Hybrinski or even as rich as Julian Browne. Allie was linked to the popular kids by a secret. After Allie twisted her ankle while running, Allie happens upon Sasha then Julian and David, innocuously fiddling with something under a tree. It was a .38 revolver. By all rights, a gun incites fear. How could it not? For Allie, who was still grieving the premature death of her sister, it did. With Julian and Sasha — two privileged teens — it was an object that elicited excitement. For them, it was a toy. When a new kid, Kyle Gallagher, moves to this upscale Philadelphia suburb, the clique decides to play a game of Russian Roulette using their newfound toy. It was supposed to be a prank — the gun wasn’t supposed to be loaded — but it goes horribly wrong. Two decades later, Allie Garvey returns to her childhood home to mourn

the death of a childhood friend and unearth the truth of what really happened that horrific night so long ago. In her investigations of the past, she uncovers a gutwrenching secret. A secret that could jeopardize her own life. Lisa Scottoline’s “Someone Knows” is split into two parts. The first half is set in the 1990s

Someone Knows Lisa Scottoline G.P. Putnam’s Sons Apr. 9, 2019

and the second is in present-day. For close to 200 hundred pages, the readers are immersed in the minds of five 15-year-olds. While I find the idea of kids doing bad things shockingly delicious, the juvenile tone and their weighty issues don’t quite align. On one hand, each teenager is dealing with something heavy, from child molestation to a philandering father. The rotating perspectives functions to add depth to each character. Still, the issues are interspersed with stereotypical generalizations. For example, Allie Garvey claims she’s different because she doesn’t fit with any of the “cliques” like “pretty princesses, the field-hockey jocks, the fast girls who smoked, the Goths, druggies, mathletes,

or Ecology-Club hippies.” It’s a superficial insight that’s more apt for a young-adult novel than a dark thriller. In spite of that, it was hard to abandon “Someone Knows.” It was like watching a car-crash in action. You know that it would end terribly, yet you still can’t peel your eyes away. I was gripping the edges of the novel, hoping that all the characters would be OK yet knowing they won’t. The second half forgoes the wonderful slow-tension that the first built up. The readers are still offered alternating perspectives, but it relies heavily on the point-ofview of a new character, Larry Rucci, Allie’s husband. Unfortunately, the new perspective squeezes unnecessary background information that wasn’t relevant to the first half. Once again, the readers are reintroduced to another internal conflict and backstory at the expense of the plot. The effect results in a rushed and dramatic ending. Instead of dropping my mouth open in astonishment, I’m left wondering if I just watched a Lifetime movie special. If you’re looking to read a cheap thriller on your next domestic flight, Lisa Scottoline’s “Someone Knows” includes all the typical tropes: suspense, murder, marital problems and twists. If you’re seeking an intricate mystery that blows your mind weeks after, look elsewhere.

FILM REVIEW

‘The Mustang’ isn’t just about horses, and it’s stunning SAMANTHA NELSON Daily Arts Writer

I’m a sucker for a horse movie. Growing up, classics like “Black Beauty” and “Spirit” and low-budget family flicks like “Virginia’s Run” and “Dreamer” were staples in my cinematic diet. In my preteen years, I was one of those “horse girls.” I took riding lessons after school, begged my parents for a pony and, admittedly, even had a few pieces of horse-themed clothing in my closet. Though I’ve since sworn off ever pulling on another pair of riding breeches and I no longer dream of having a pet horse named Stormy or Star, I’m almost always up for a horse movie. While a bit heavier than the lighthearted, inspiring films from my childhood, “The Mustang” was a pleasant surprise with its impressive acting and unimposing, quietly profound story. For the past 12 years, Roman Coleman’s (Matthias Schoenaerts “Far from the Madding Crowd”) life has been suspended in the soul-crushing limbo of prison. Existing in a state of blankness and solitude, as he puts it himself, Coleman is far from the man he used to be. His emotionless daze is interrupted, however, when he gets an opportunity to join a government rehabilitation program to curb the overpopulation of wild mustangs by training them and readying them for resale. Despite his lack of experience, Coleman slowly forms a connection with an especially wild mustang, Marcus. Through his relationship with Marcus and the other inmates in the program, Coleman rediscovers a slice of the purpose formerly lost within the void of the hopeless and hostile prison environment. Matthias Schoenaerts was 100 percent made for this role. There are few actors who can give a masterful performance without relying on the crutch of dialogue and Schoenaerts proves he is one of

them. Fully embodying Coleman’s disinterest in human interaction, outbreaks of aggression and complicated relationship with his daughter, Schoenaerts expertly conveys both his character’s quiet, subdued exterior and emotionally heated and broken interior. We would guess that the interactions between Coleman and Marcus would look more like soliloquies than dialogues. But

The Mustang Canal+ State Theatre

they aren’t. Instead of sharing words, Coleman and Marcus share movement. Through the way Marcus positions himself away or toward Coleman and the sounds of annoyance or gestures of affection he makes, we don’t miss the dialogue because we realize we don’t need it. This synchronized body language established between Coleman and the mustang is a form of communication in itself, and it allows us to perceive Marcus as an actual character, with feelings and an attitude, rather than as just an animal. What’s more, the relationship is refreshing, straying from the

over-affectionate and cheesy characteristics that are typically highlighted on screen between horses and humans. Aside from Schoenaerts’s acting, in tune with the low-key vibe of the film, the use of setting to showcase an unseen side of prison life is especially impressive. Throughout the film, there is a tug of war of sorts between sweet and bitter. We follow the pivotal friendship between Coleman and Marcus, contrasted with the bleak reality of the prison system. In one moment, we are witnessing a tender or humorous exchange between Coleman and Marcus, and in the next we are sobered up through clips of an anger management session, where close up shots of prisoners solemnly revealing the contrast between the mere seconds it took to decide to commit their crimes with the years they now face as punishment. The juxtaposition between these two sequences builds on the larger theme of confinement that encompasses the film. Outside on Marcus’s back, Coleman literally holds the reins in his hands. He is in control. But, back within the prison walls, Coleman is incapacitated, with his hands tied behind his back. This later image is one that emerges again and again in prison films, a vision of handcuffs, convicts in orange jumpsuits, dismal living conditions and knifings in the yard. Though still including these conventional elements, “The Mustang” presents an unfamiliar twist to the prison narrative, painting a picture that is far more dynamic and, by extension, more humanizing. Maybe it’s the former horse-girl in me talking, but this is, quite simply, a beautiful film. Though it revolves around the bond between Coleman and Marcus, at the center are deeper topics of broken families, the desolation of the criminal justice system and the human necessity for purpose. Delivering quality acting, powerful visuals and an untold story, “The Mustang” is not your average horse movie and it’s well worth the watch.

MUSIC: WHAT I’M LISTENING TO

What I’m Listening To: Willie Nelson, aren’t you? MADELEINE GANNON Daily Arts Writer

On a cold night in Oak Hill, West Virginia, I sat with my father by the glow of a Christmas tree, waiting for the New Year’s Eve ball to drop in Times Square, NYC. A quiet house, a quiet night, the howl of a coal train echoing through the mountains — a timeless longing that descends when the moon rises over the hills of West Virginia. And as we sat there, a familiar twang suddenly filtered through the radio — it was Willie Nelson. But not Willie Nelson as my father and I had heard him before. I pride myself on knowing the works of Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, Hank Williams and, of course, Willie Nelson, by heart. But on that quiet New Year’s Eve, to our surprise, we were confronted with a song that was new and unfamiliar. “Look around you / Look down the bar from you / At the faces that you see / Are you sure this is where you’re meant to be?” That question hung heavy in the air. Our trip out west had been last minute and ramshackle. It had been a fight to corral my family together to celebrate the holiday, full of coercion, a few tears, and blatant bribes. The mournful, slow guitar of Willie Nelson’s “Are You Sure” penetrated somewhere deep in my soul. For a moment, I wondered — was I sure this is where I was meant to be? Yes, it was. And then the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve. Later, I tracked down the album from “Are You Sure,” to find the Holy Grail

of Willie Nelson’s The Demos Project, Vol. One. The original album, Things to Remember: The Pamper Demos is a collection of some of Willie Nelson’s earliest recordings. For digital streaming, The Pamper Demos was released as The Demos Project (Vol. one & two) in 2016. It is a wonder, for fans new and old, to find this goldmine of Nelson material. The album has the same familiar lonesome cry of Nelson’s best known works, but is more bare-bones and minimalist in the instrumentation. Everything about the album is softer, more vulnerable; Willie Nelson’s song-writing and woeful lyrics are on full display. While “Are You Sure” is a personal favorite — the song is a haunting echo that strikes the soul — every track on the album is fantastic. “Hello Walls” opens with the whine of the guitar imitating an answering “Hello, hello,” making for a somber, yet fun experience.

“A Moment Isn’t Very Long” also has the same brand of lonesome country that Willie Nelson is known for. While “Things to Remember” is a self-deprecating — even sarcastic — spin on pining heartbreak. In the song, Nelson makes an amusing list, “Things to remember/ Plans that were set/ Things didn’t work out/ Things to forget,” the lament all too relatable. I was also surprised to find a rendition of Patsy Cline’s hit “Crazy” — only to find later Nelson himself originally that “Crazy.” But what’s most striking about the album isn’t solely that the songs are good — which they are — or its hidden gem status (due to criminal under-promotion by the label). Rather, that the album acts as a time capsule for the start of Willie Nelson’s career. These songs symbolize the beginning of a musical career that would define the country and rock ‘n’ roll genres. Here, it’s a man, his guitar, and a dream to make it big. And Nelson, like maybe country artists before him, game “late” to the game, a family man with some life experience already under his belt. Despite the youth and vibrancy of his voice, the pain and regret eternalized in all country songs is ever-present. Willie Nelson has been a well-loved friend for many. His music is there for heartbreak, for the lonesome cowboys, and the travelling friends “On the Road Again.” In the end, though, listening to The Demos Project feels like a proper introduction. Willie Nelson with his trusty guitar and rockin’ pigtail-braids seems like a constant fixture in the industry and the country genre. As his career stretched into what may be the last home run, it is all too fitting to go back to the beginning, at least one more time.

These songs symbolize the beginning of a musical career that would define the country and rock ‘n’ roll genres

Arts

6A — Wednesday, April 10, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

‘Flint’ is an ambitious play ‘Intersections’ impresses that does not hit the mark with original choreograpy SAMMY SUSSMAN Daily Arts Writer

Before attending Assistant Professor José Casas’s “Flint,” I had already decided that I really wanted to like it. The premise of the play — a “call to action,” as the author describes it, meant to inform audience members of the Flint water crisis — seemed noble and highly important. While the play did have its poignant, powerful moments, it lacked the focus and clarity to bring them home. The disparity of the many narratives in the play all but eliminated any overarching themes that might be drawn from the crisis, reducing a complex crisis into a series of heart-wrenching individual problems. To understand these problems, one must first understand the basic structure of the play. It consisted of a series of monologues and duets in which people affected by the Flint water crisis spoke to the audience about their experiences. Over the course of the evening, we heard from various concerned stakeholders: a professor, an Autoworld worker, a deliver guy, an attorney and a nurse. Though this technique was interesting at first, it eventually became cumbersome. I found myself wishing that characters would interact with each other at some point — that some character evolution or continuity between scenes and characters would begin to develop. Furthermore, at many points, the dialogue resulting

from this narrative structure began to feel awkward and preachy. The play began to feel as though it were a series of interviews with unrelated subjects, each one addressing the audience to detail the horrible effects that the crisis had on their life. The great disparity between the messages of these characters, however, diluted any central narrative or take away that might have developed. Despite this, the acting talent on display was impressive. Any scene requiring a monologue usually becomes a staple of an actor’s repertoire; in this instance, the cast was required to perform two or three quasimonologues each. Each member of the cast excelled in this regard, consistently breaking the fourth wall and speaking seemingly extemporaneously to the audience without losing the audience’s attention. The opening and closing ensemble numbers, for example, were absolutely stunning. In the opening, various members of the ensemble doubled each other‘s dialogues about the crisis. These were short, powerful statements meant to capture the lasting effects of this crisis. And near the end, as water flowed out of the pipes on the edges of the stage, the cast’s violent motions and groaning noises were truly horrifying; of everything in the play, this is the moment that stuck with me as I left the theater. The set was very impressive: A chain-link fence stuffed full of dirtied water bottles framed the stage while dark brown pipes flanked the back left and

right portions of the stage. During the intermission, these pipes were uncapped — in the ensemble scene, a slow trickle of water dripped from them into giant oil barrels. A few of the narratives were particularly moving. The Attorney’s complaints about potentially moving trials to majority-white counties, for example, was particularly captivating. The Gardener and Socialist were also quite powerful, as the Gardener spoke of the peace that gardening brought him, the Socialist spoke of the damages that lead and other foreign substances can have to plants grown in contaminated soil. The last minutes of the play, however, were its most powerful. In this monologue, a woman of color speaks to the audience about the cultural expectations that mothers (and mothers of color) face in speaking about this crisis. At one point, she tells the audience that “this play is over.” As the house lights abruptly turned on, she admonished us to listen to these stories and respond to them — to act on what we had heard and help be part of the solution. In the end, I found myself wishing that the whole play had been this commanding. And while I applaud Prof. Casas’s ambitions on this project, I cannot say that it entirely lived up to what I had hoped for. Ultimately, it was a lengthy, slightly-disorganized rumination on the hazardous effects of the Flint water crisis — an incredibly important play, though not the most wellexecuted attempt.

BEN VASSAR

Daily Arts Writer

Megan Bascom and Nicole Reehort’s “Intersections” MFA Dance Thesis Concert explored themes of isolation, empathy and personal aspiration in the groups we find ourselves in on a daily basis. In Reehorst’s “Playing Dead,” a female protagonist navigates the practice of classical ballet, a journey that forces her to be both gentle and aggressive, fragile yet enduring. Bascom’s “ReGuarding,” on the other hand, has no protagonist. Instead, a group of dancers move around an obstacle course of abstracted sculptures, with relationships among the dancers and their environment constantly in flux. Drawing from their distinct backgrounds, the two Masters candidates made very different choreographic decisions. Reehort’s piece began with her protagonist standing still at stage center, lights slowly illuminating her face and then her body. As a classical piano began to play, two dancers rolled across from either sides of the stage, unfurling fabric that would eventually entangle the protagonist as she slowly began to move. Bascom’s piece, by contrast, began with a bright red screen suddenly providing back-lighting for five dancers standing tall across stage center. As distorted electric guitar began playing over an electronic beat, the dancers energetically ran about the stage until they suddenly all stomped the music and screen to a halt. These beginnings

placed the audience in two very different places from the start: Reehorst’s piece demanded attention to subtlety, while Bacom’s simply had us along for the ride. The stage design acted as an early indicator of the different approaches. Reehorst’s set was comprised of ropes made of beige-colored ballerina lingerie knotted together, Bascom’s set employed eight abstracted containers of wood and metal. While the lingerie referenced a long history of lingerie in ballet and represented the established norms that literally entangle the main dancer, the containers seem to symbolize the immaterial obstacles of urban life, as the cast continuously fights to overthrow them. The biggest difference between the performances, however, seemed to be the use or omission of music and dialogue. Reehorst’s piece used music sparingly, allowing us to be intimately connected with the protagonist for most of the time. When music did play, it was classical piano that indicated the start of a performance within the performance itself. This omission of music when the ballerinas were “offstage” gave the piece a self-aware objectivity that wouldn’t have been communicated otherwise. Bascom, on the other hand, made use of high octane music and dialogue throughout. If all five dancers seemed to be acting as a group — playing off each other in any number of ways — fast-paced music would serve to accentuate the frenzy. During moments when only one or two dancers acted

as others watched on, slower, more atmospheric music would support this intimacy. In this way, the use rather than the omission of music supported much of the social commentary Bascom seemed to be making. Despite these differences, the performances had a great deal of thematic overlap (hence, “Intersections”). Reehorst’s focused on the plight of a woman trying to establish herself in a ballet company, hence its more muted, introspective nature. This protagonist fails to integrate herself throughout, only finally noticing the web of lingerie at the end after a great deal of strenuous, inward-looking solo performance. It is only then that she joins the other dancers as they synchronously roll offstage to conclude the performance. The dancers in Bascom’s performance seem equally aloof to the obstacles before them. They move the metal containers around throughout the show, at times using them as protective barriers but at others involuntarily being bound to their control. After much quarrel, the five original dancers, aided by a curious new group of three others, come to a collective understanding that these containers are the source of their angst. The show ends on much the same note as Reehort’s with the group coming together to aggressively abolish these obstacles offstage. Regardless of their differences, “Playing Dead” and “ReGuarding” offer cohesive individualistic and collective insights into our intricately intersecting lives.

ALBUM REVIEW

Bryce Dessner plays with Classifieds composition on ‘El Chan’ EMILY YANG

Daily Arts Writer

Concertos for two pianos and orchestra are somewhat rare, maybe because it seems like such overkill. The conventional piano concerto stages a dialogue (or a competition, or a fight) between the orchestra and the soloist, which can usually nearly match, or at least analogize, the orchestra in power and scope. It’s less clear what a concerto for two pianos is really accomplishing by the addition of the third character — a piano duet, by itself, can accommodate nearly any piece of orchestral music. Many pre20th-century examples of the form simply trade the role of the soloist between the two pianists, leaving whichever player not playing the prominent role to fill in gaps in the texture or mirror the orchestra. One recent example of the form, Philip Glass’s double concerto, works in part because Glass’s style tends to be more planar than dialogic — the piece plays interlocking masses of sound off each other. Glass uses the piano not as an analogue for an orchestra, but something like mallet percussion. A younger composer

who borrows heavily from the minimalist tradition that Glass helped create is Bryce Dessner, whose latest set of Bryce Dessner recordings includes a Brassland Records concerto for two pianos played by the French duo Katia and Marielle Labèque. This piece splits the difference between Glass’s similarity to the earlier, pulsestatic, rhythmically inflected driven form of minimalism style and the more narrative from the late 1960s. Like much concerto tradition, balancing a minimalist music before it, it sense of thematic development establishes a basic, repeated with a bright, clear harmonic shape that then accumulates language and motoric rhythms. and disperses dissonance, like Dessner doesn’t shy away from a river flowing over rocks. the intricate, nearly overloaded “Haven” doesn’t have the textures that are possible monomaniacal intensity of with the instrumentation, and early Glass and Reich, though the spontaneity with which — it’s rather sectional, and can he combines themes and be read as following an overall gestures is thrilling. Phrases A-B-A structure, like a sonata. ricochet around the orchestra, Similar to the piano concerto, woodwinds scribble around the Dessner uses minimalism edges of phrases, abrupt shifts as a stylistic resource that in texture and color abound. It’s can be channeled into more like a liquid minimalism, just as conventional forms. “El Chan” is the final piece on likely to disperse into skittering phrases as it is to condense into the album, for piano duet. The set of miniatures are dedicated a stampeding rush. The second to Alejandro González Iñárritu, piece on the who Dessner worked with on album, “Haven,” the expansive score for The is scored for Revenant. Dessner’s language piano duet and acquires a slightly more two guitars, ominous, but still luminous, played here by cast: dissonances accumulate in the Labèques, clouds above triads and seventh Dessner and chords, frenetic gestures are the guitarist cut short by bass hammerDavid Chalmin. strokes. The music feels more “Haven” is a differentiated, a jagged, misty much more landscape. The final piece, restrained form subtitled “Mountain,” ends of music than the with a series of slow, widely piano concerto, spaced chords, not suggesting and carries tension or resolution but simply a superficial hanging, suspended.

Dessner doesn’t shy away from the intricate, nearly overloaded textures that are possible with the instrumentation

El Chan

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DOWN 1 Cybermoney 2 Chinese gambling mecca 3 Forebodings 4 Sprint Cup org. 5 Utah ski resort 6 Break open 7 Word for word? 8 Tiber River capital 9 Center starter 10 Cincinnati player 11 “Happy Days” actress 12 Inhabitant of ancient Palestine 13 NCO rank 19 Work at, as a trade 21 Reason-based faith 25 Easter liturgy 27 One-piece dresses 28 Go through 29 Floored it 30 On __ with 31 Constitution section that creates the executive branch

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Sports

Michigan falls in extra innings KENT SCHWARTZ Daily Sports Writer

Willie Weiss stood on the mound with two outs. The freshman right-hander was close to finishing the top of the tenth inning and giving the Michigan baseball team another chance to beat Indiana State. Instead, he let Jake Means grab a hold of his pitch and launch the ball over the left field fence to create an 8-7 lead. They couldn’t come back, and Michigan dropped its second home game of the season, losing 8-7 to the Sycamores due to the lack of a response in the last three innings. For the first three innings, though, the same couldn’t be said. For every run Indiana State scored, the Wolverines had one of their own. Despite freshman righthander Isaiah Paige letting in a patchwork run score via a single to go down one early, the Michigan offense had the young pitcher’s back. Two solo home runs to left field — one that scooped over the fence by leadoff sophomore designated hitter Jordan Nwogu and another by senior outfielder Miles Lewis that left the bat at 105 miles per hour — paved the way to put the Wolverines back on top. “We’re capable,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “We have a really good slugging percentage, we have a lot of capable hitters. We’re not a bunt type team, it’s hard to put on a bunt when we’ve got guys who can tie the game in one swing.” But the Sycamore offense quickly caught up to Paige’s pitches. Starting the inning by hitting Chris Ayers — Indiana State’s No. 9 hitter — Paige subsequently allowed a long double to Clay Dungan, the ball bouncing off a diving sophomore center-fielder Jesse Franklin’s glove, to put runners on second and third. One out later Paige’s day was

over. On came freshman lefthander Walker Cleveland who gave up an intentional walk, hit the second batter of the inning and allow a second double to center-field — this time leading to three runs to grab a 5-2 lead. Michigan’s offense, again, had an answer. After Blomgren’s four-pitch walk to load the bases, sophomore catcher Joe Donovan hit a single through left field to score two runs and bring the game within one run. After a walk from senior second baseman Ako Thomas to load the bases once again, up came Nwogu — who had already launched a home run on the day and was on a hot streak. He walked to score the tying run — it was 5-5. “Someone scores four, we put up three,” Bakich said. “Psychologically, just to tie it back up again and when you’re playing from a deficit… To get that twoout rally after giving up a four spot, that was huge. Huge in that moment.” In the sixth inning, the Wolverines’ turn struck first. Thomas hit his second double of the day, this one a leadoff double

to left center field, putting him in position to trot home after Franklin launched a homer into center field. Then, run by run, Indiana State grew back into the game. A leadoff double from CJ Huntley and a ground ball put a runner on third, afterward junior lefthander Ben Keizer threw a wild pitch to score Huntley. In the eighth inning, the Sycamores manufactured another. “We just came up short tonight,” Bakich said. “And I trust those guys that are pitching there at the end of the game, just some bad bounces, some balls that squeak through, some balls that got by and allowed them to move up and advance on the bases — the little things that cost us.” The Wolverines had no response. And Indiana State was just getting started before leveling the go-ahead run in the 10th inning. “It comes down to a swing, a pitch, a play,” Bakich said. “They just made one more better pitch and had one better swing and did everything just one bit better than us tonight.”

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 — 7A

Cheer earns two national titles LANEY BYLER

Daily Sports Writer

Lis Tyzo-Depaulis stood near warm-ups at nationals, surrounded by Michigan’s Coed IA cheer team. The head assistant coach was streaming the Game Day IA award ceremony on her phone, waiting to see if the other half of the Wolverines’ team would be taking home a title from the NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship. The Game Day team was in second place after the previous ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily day’s preliminary round, 4.45 The Michigan cheer team earned two national titles this past weekend. points behind a Southern Methodist team that topped preliminary and the final. In the want to jinx yourself, but we — I the charts with a 97.53. But a preliminary, a fall or a bobble think we did,” Mesojedec said. “We pristine routine on Friday left means a point deduction that can just knew we put the best routine the squad questioning if they’d creep back in the final round. The out there that we could have, and closed the gap for their first title past few years, that’s been the so we were just so excited at that in program history, while the scenario for Michigan’s Coed IA point to get through awards and hear where we were. We were so Coed team huddled around Tyzo- team. Not this year. happy with what we put out there Depaulis’ phone waiting for the announcement. “This year, at prelims, the entire that we thought it couldn’t be any Meghan Mesojedec, a routine hit,” Mesojedec said. “We less than a winning routine.” The Coed’s final score of 98.0917 co-captain for the Coed IA team were able to finish it with a clean along with Deontay Walker, said hit, and we were just so excited earned the collective Michigan it felt like it took about 30 seconds to go out there and do it again on unit its second championship trophy of the night, marking for the announcer to reveal the Friday.” runner-up — which might seem The Wolverines posted the best a historical moment for the score in their team. After splitting into the like an eternity category on two categories early in the year, when you’re waiting on a Thursday with a the squads began working on 97.57, edging out choreography and collaborating potential national East Carolina. with the band and dance team championship. Another hit on to work out a Game Day routine. “You had Friday wouldn’t After the Peach Bowl, it had been to wait for the ‘s’,” Mesojedec just mean a win full throttle, with each team in their category, practicing four days a week with said. “Once they either. It’d give lifts tacked on. said ‘Southern,’ Both had been working Michigan its everyone was freaking out, they second national intensely for month, and the titles title in less than were the payoff. were so excited “It was so special for us to do a few hours. that they won.” A flawless routine of this for us, and for Michigan,” That national title for the Game Day team, captained by Alex tumbling passes, pyramids and Mesojedec said. “You love going Bourdeau, Paige Pichel and Joey choreography left the team to this school that you do, so to do Solomon, left the Coed squad celebrating louder than it had all it and to just have our school be so pumped up as they headed into night. It was exactly what it needed excited for us and our friends and other students be so excited for us their second round. They couldn’t to cap off a lead over the Pirates. The Coed squad didn’t want to — and our programs even, like the have been more ready for their final routine in Daytona, for more presume they’d won — but there School of Information, the School was no doubt they’d just had one of of Kinesiology. reasons than one. “It’s so cool to go to a school that There are two rounds in the the best performances of the night. “You don’t want to assume appreciates us so much and we NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships — the necessarily, because you don’t were so happy to win for them.”

It was so special for us to do this... and for Michigan.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore center fielder Jesse Franklin hit one of Michigan’s three homers.

Is this offense ready for the postseason?

resence. It’s what Michigan coach Carol Hutchins credits for the No. 21 Michigan softball team’s stark pivot after a rough start to the season. It’s LANE what has KIZZIAH allowed the Wolverines to slowly claw their way back from falling out of the rankings for the first time in almost 20 years. It’s what has propelled Michigan to a 15-game win streak. But, there’s still one major test left to pass: Whether the Wolverines’ offense has the staying power for a serious postseason run. Michigan dug itself into a tough spot as the season began.

By the third week, it was on an unprecedented five-game losing streak. While consistent pitching by sophomore left-hander Meghan Beaubien and strong defense kept the Wolverines in most games, Michigan struggled at the plate. In the 23 games before coming home, the Wolverines averaged less than four runs per game with a collective batting average of .210. When asked what accounted for the lack of offensive production, Hutchins and the players have cited everything from a poor mentality to a lack of patience at the plate. Whatever the cause, their offensive struggles didn’t follow them home. But the presence did. When the Wolverines returned to Alumni Field for their home opener on March 14, the bats started swinging. Michigan has faced weaker competition in the past month, not facing a ranked opponent

since March 7. Still, the Wolverines’ offense is inarguably stronger. Their hot-streak started with an 8-0 run-rule against Kent State in the home opener and hasn’t stopped since. Michigan has racked up almost nine runs per game on average — more than double that of the beginning of the season — and is batting .370 in the 15 games since being home. Offensive standouts have emerged in the Wolverines’ lineup. Senior outfielder Natalie Peters’s batting average has soared from a .250 average to its current .340, and junior third baseman Madison Uden’s on-base percentage has been steadily climbing since her batting average also took a dip early in the season. They’ve been present at the plate, and they’re just a few of many examples. “(Power hitting) means we’re swinging with better confi-

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Senior first baseman Alex Sobczak has added a punch to the middle of the lineup in her resurgent senior season.

dence,” Hutchins said on March 17. “If there’s anything that’s improved, it’s our presence and our confidence. We’ve been a talented team all along, but now we’re playing with the confidence we need.” Almost every player’s batting average has improved — even those who were hitting relatively well early on in the season. Freshman outfielder Lexie Blair and senior first baseman Alex Sobczak have become integral to Michigan’s offense, adding power to the lineup as the season has progressed with four and seven home runs respectively. While home runs were few and far between early in the season, the Wolverines have hit at least one ball out of the park in each of the past 10 games, largely due to Blair and Sobczak. But there are shortcomings. Throughout the season,

Michigan’s offense has often fallen into a pattern: score several runs in one or two innings and leave the others scoreless. This was true in the Wolverines’ matchup against No. 5 Washington on March 3 and remained true in all three of Michigan’s games the Hoosiers this weekend, to name a few. The Wolverines have made it clear they’ve found the offensive power to carry them through the rest of Big Ten play — a conference in a historic downturn — but with the postseason less than a month away, that might not be enough. The offense has left runs on the table in each contest so far. This weekend alone, Michigan left 19 runners stranded on base against Indiana. They struggled to bring home runners in scoring position, faltering on at-bats that could have solidified a stronger lead. This problem isn’t new.

“We’ve been very inconsistent, and especially in our RBI production,” Hutchins said on March 9. “We need to get better. We need to have a productive set in those at-bats.” Success in the postseason could hinge on response to adversity. In the face of strong pitching in the seventh inning of the Sunday’s game against Indiana, the Wolverines stayed locked in at the plate with three consecutive producing at-bats that allowed Michigan to edge out the Hoosiers in a walk-off double. “We’re playing for May — and I don’t mean the beginning of May,” Hutchins said. “We’re playing to get to the end of May. It’s going to be hard but the only chance we have is with a team like the seventh inning.” Kizziah can be reached via email at Lkizziah@umich.edu or on Twitter @kizziahlane

Sports

8A — Wednesday, April 10, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Brazdeikis, Poole and Matthews to hire agents, enter NBA Draft ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

Ignas Brazdeikis will attempt to become John Beilein’s first ever one-anddone. The freshman forward told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony on Tuesday afternoon that he will hire an agent and enter the NBA Draft. And he’ll be followed by Jordan Poole and Charles Matthews. All three intend to sign with agents, per a release from the program. “Charles, Jordan and Iggy have all decided to take the next steps in pursuing their dreams of playing in the NBA,” said Michigan coach John Beilein, per the release. “The new process is a unique experience and one that my staff and I will assist in every way we can. We want each of them to utilize this opportunity to get more feedback so they can make the best decision possible for themselves and their families. All three are remarkable young

men with amazing futures in front on them.” After Michigan’s loss in the Sweet Sixteen to Texas Tech, Matthews was widely expected to declare for the draft and stay in it. Those inside the program openly acknowledged that it would be his last year in Ann Arbor, and Matthews was even honored on senior night despite having a year of eligibility left. “Many people have known about my desire to play professionally, and my family and I are blessed to begin that process again,” Matthews said, per the release. Brazdeikis and Poole, on the other hand, were both expected to at least test the waters. Based on ESPN’s report, it seems that Brazdeikis is gone for good. “My intent is to be drafted this year as high as I can be,” Brazdeikis told ESPN. The freshman was Michigan’s leading scorer and Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Per ESPN, he will be represented by YouFirst Sports.

As of publication, Brazdeikis has not responded to a text from The Daily. The Wolverines have had players good enough to leave after one year during the Beilein era, namely Trey Burke, but none have. At least until now. After Michigan lost to Texas Tech in the Sweet Sixteen, Brazdeikis and Poole were mum about a potential decision, but this will come as no surprise. It’s less clear whether Poole will stay in the draft than the other two. Thanks to new rules changes, players can now hire agents and still withdraw from the draft if they so decide. “Being able to play in the NBA has always been my dream since I was young,” Poole said in the release. “I am confident that with my faith in God and hard work that I, and my family, are prepared to look at all options and make the right decision for the next step of my playing career.”

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

TIght ends coach Sherrone Moore went through a transition to a spread offense during his time at Central Michigan.

What’s the role of the tight end in Gattis’ “speed in space” offense MAX MARCOVITCH Managing Sports Editor

In 2017, Sherrone Moore — then an assistant coach at Central Michigan — helped facilitate an offensive overhaul. The Chippewas’ hiring of Chris Ostrowsky as offensive coordinator prompted a schematic shift, from a traditional pro-style offense to a spread. Moore, who coached the tight ends as part of his duties, had to make the requisite adjustments. Sound familiar? Two years later, the hiring of Josh Gattis as Michigan’s offensive coordinator has put Moore in a similar position. Talk of Gattis’ “speed in space” mantra has enveloped much of the spring oxygen, implicitly and explicitly promising more. Faster tempo. More big plays. More opportunities for skill guys. Production against the best. Maybe, oh maybe, some big wins. So, how does the tight end — a hallmark position in Michigan’s pro-style offenses under Harbaugh — fit into that equation? That’s the question Gattis and Moore are tasked with answering, ahead of a summer filled with intrigue and uncertainty aplenty regarding the offense as a whole. Moore believes his experience making a similar transition at Central Michigan in 2017 can help instruct his parallel task in 2019. “When I was at Central we went from a pro offense to a true spread offense,” Moore said. “So I’ve been through

the adjustments and making the kinks of having to coach this position and having to go from, you’re always doing one thing to switching up and doing different things.” That year, the Chippewas went from the 84th-best offense in the country to the 64th. They won eight games for the first time in eight years. And, pertinent to Moore, their tight end Tyler Conklin posted 504 yards and five touchdowns, parlaying that season into a fifth-round NFL Draft selection. (An aside: Central Michigan’s quarterback that season? Shane Morris). That past experience is only part of the equation informing Moore’s task of transitioning the tight end group to Gattis’ “pro spread” offense. Moore said Tuesday that he spent the offseason studying Alabama’s offense. Regular collaboration with Gattis also has been integral toward smoothing out kinks thus far. “He didn’t really come in and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this,’ ” Moore recalled. “He said ‘this is not my offense, this is our offense.’ ” That ultimate product, as with any scheme, will be beholden to its personnel. Visions of Alabama All-American tight end Irv Smith Jr. shredding defenses as a mismatch tight

end out wide are inevitably restricted by the fact that junior Nick Eubanks, for all his merits, is not there yet. Perception that junior Sean McKeon can slot into the Conklin role ignores the reality that McKeon doesn’t have Conklin’s versatility. Still, despite losing Zach Gentry to the draft, the Wolverines have the depth and talent to meld the group into a strength. Eubanks, who has just 10 career catches, has the athletic potential to thrive in a more spread out scheme. Moore singled out McKeon as an improved receiver, noting he “hasn’t dropped a pass in practice.” Early-enrollee Eric All has turned heads in the early going, highlighting Saturday’s open practice with a 30-yard catch along the sideline after beating the corner. “It’s all about your personnel and what you can do with the guys you have,” Moore said. “So it’s been really helpful that I know the guys — from a physical standpoint what they can do on the field. And then from a personal standpoint, getting to know them a little more, since I’ve been here a year, it’s helped.” Coaches and players have already noted some growing pains within the scheme change. The tight ends, Eubanks said, are no different. “Knowing all the assignments (has been the biggest adjustment), as in lining up outside and inside and knowing all the concepts on offense,” Eubanks said. “It’s been a big lesson for me to do that, and I’m taking advantage of that right now.” In terms of specifics, his answer implies the tight ends will play a more versatile role. Eubanks, for example, could more frequently line up out wide. Presumably, the spread scheme will de-emphasize the two-tight end sets that heavily populated prior offenses. Still, until real gamesettings arive, it will all remain speculation. Through all the anticipation, uncertainty and semblance of collaboration, Eubanks distilled the platonic ideal of Michigan’s offense — and, by proxy, the role of the tight end — down to two short sentences last week. “Coaches are giving an opportunity for the playmakers to make plays,” he said. “That’s what (Gattis) is emphasizing on offense.”

He said ‘This is not my offense, this is our offense.’

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Charles Matthews, Ignas Brazdeikis and Jordan Poole, who all entered the draft, were Michigan’s top three scorers.

McKeon, others stepping up THEO MACKIE

Daily Sports Writer

Amid the deepest receiving group Jim Harbaugh has had at Michigan, McKeon’s ability to follow through on such praise will be critical in Shea Patterson’s ability to follow through on his senior-year expectations. “If you want to try to stop Sean, then you’re gonna have to deal with Donovan,” Moore said. “If you stop Donovan, you’re gonna have to deal with Nico. Then you’re gonna have to deal with Nick, then you’re gonna have to deal with all the other guys that we’ve got. So Sean’s really taken the part of trying to be that security blanket for (Patterson).” The competition to replace Gentry’s targets, though, goes past McKeon and further into that talented receiving group. Eubanks, always a downfield threat with a career average of 21.8 yards per reception, has seen limited playing time over his first three years thanks to limited blocking skills. That has become a focus for Moore this offseason. “Eubanks is really coming into his own as a blocker,” Runyan said. “And that’s really something that we need with him and Sean in our tight end sets and that’s gonna be really beneficial down the road.” Redshirt freshman Mustapha Muhammad, a four-star recruit in 2017, has shown Moore flashes akin to his high school film after not being able to practice much a year ago. Luke Schoonmaker, a

three-star in the same class, was also mentioned by Moore when asked about the Wolverines’ young tight ends. But no matter to whom that question was posed, Erick All’s name was the prevailing response. All, a four-star early enrollee from Fairfield, Ohio, possesses many of the pass-catching skills that Michigan lost in Gentry, regularly practicing with the Wolverines’ wide receivers. When freshman quarterback Cade McNamara wooed Michigan Stadium with a perfect deep ball at Saturday’s open practice, it was All on the receiving end. And Tuesday afternoon, when asked about the tight ends’ role in a crowded receiving corps, Moore tossed out a comparison to freshman receiver Mike Sainstrill, the star of spring ball. “The young guys, young receivers, people talked about Mikey (Sainstrill), people talked about (sophomore) Ronnie Bell,” Moore said. “But especially Mikey and Erick (All), those guys have really stepped up for being kids fresh out of high school.” Of course, all of this is just talk shrouded in the reputation that is Michigan’s signature offseason optimism, and the extent to which the public has seen Shea Patterson without Gentry came in a handful of 7-on-7 drills on Saturday. But with five months until kickoff, it sure beats the alternative.

After completing a drill in practice earlier this spring, senior linebacker Khaleke Hudson went up to Sherrone Moore with one thought to share. “Man, (Sean McKeon)’s gotten so much better,” Hudson told Moore. Just six months ago, the senior tight end hit a low as he let a 25-yard pass against Northwestern slip through his hands, continuing his early-season troubles and giving the Wildcats — already up 10-0 — possession at midfield. When the Wolverines got the ball back, Nick Eubanks lined up as their second tight end, behind Zach Gentry. Over the rest of the season, McKeon managed just eight receptions for 60 yards, falling well short of the expectations he set for himself after a 31-reception, 301yard sophomore season in 2017. Gentry, meanwhile, finished his final season third on the team with 541 yards. On Jan. 2, though, Gentry declared for the NFL Draft, opening the door for competition to fill his void, though the tight ends’ role could decrease in Michigan’s spread offense under new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. Whatever the role, McKeon has taken full advantage. “Sean as a blocker’s been really good as he’s always been,” Moore said. “But his receiving ability (has improved), catching the ball in traffic, making the competitive catches. … It’s a credit to him and what he’s done this offseason. He hasn’t had any drops, he’s gonna catch the ball, he’s gonna make the competitive catches. I’m really proud of him as a receiver.” McKeon’s impact has been felt far beyond the tight ends room this offseason. Tuesday afternoon, redshirt senior left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. was asked which of the tight ends has been most impressive in Gentry’s absence. His response came without hesitation: “Definitely Sean McKeon. “He’s kinda just like the EVAN AARON/Daily stalwart of the tight ends, just does Junior tight end Sean McKeon will be counted on to help replace Zach Gentry. everything right.”

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | A PR I L 1 0, 2019

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 // The Statement

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | A PR I L 3 , 2019

Managing Statement Editor Andrea Pérez Balderrama Deputy Editors Matthew Harmon Shannon Ors

Sister, sister “W

e parked in front of that pristine white building with Roman columns surrounded by trees where all the kids were lounging on blankets and blasting Jack Johnson. Somewhere over that way past the cute coffee shop,” I claimed to my mom as we tried to find our way back to the car after moving into my dorm and taking a stroll downtown. “It was two buildings down, a right, another right, and 15 feet forward,” my sister Clara countered. I really want to scream in her face and walk away when she argues like this. It exemplifies perfectly what polar opposites we are. I see the world in colors, sounds and emotion (I even cry in the first few minutes of “Frozen” every time). Meanwhile, she’s meticulous, practical and painfully literal. She’s very straight edge and sees an answer to everything. I’ve always been the creative one who loves reading and writing, and she’s always been the science and math whiz. I’m the social one, or as she would say, the loud one. I take laps around rooms to talk to everyone and laugh so loudly I can be heard across the room. She’s extremely shy and introverted, usually waiting to be approached but becoming extremely close to a select few. If we could combine our powers and fuse into one body, we’d be a superhuman. The problem isn’t that we don’t get along, but that we simply don’t speak to each other. Growing up, we rarely interacted because we had absolutely nothing in common. We live our own lives, and because our brains are wired differently, it’s hard to converse. This isn’t what I expected when I was told I was going to be an older sister. I thought having a sister meant slumber parties and a built-in movie night buddy, and that’s why it frustrates me so much when I say it’s 2:00 p.m. and she corrects me that it’s 2:07 p.m. Similarly, she can’t understand why I’m always singing at the top of my lungs in the house or talking nonstop in the car. Her penchant for preciseness and her reserved personality contradicts everything I stand for. And because we don’t understand each other, we silently agree to simply ignore each other. This has been our mutual understanding for years. She doesn’t often come up in conver-

Designers Liz Bigham Kate Glad

Photo Editor Annie Klusendorf

Copy Editors Miriam Francisco Madeline Turner

Editor in Chief Maya Goldman Managing Editor Finntan Storer

BY MICHELLE KIM, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

sation, so people in college are often surprised to learn I have a sister. They’re more surprised when they see a picture of her and realize we don’t even look like we’re from the same family. I explain that our relationship has always been a bit icy. Growing up, my teachers and family members kept swearing we would become best friends one day and that we would look back and laugh at our younger selves. I was told over and over again that sisters, even if their relationship starts off rocky or they fight until they pull each other’s hairs out, always become inseparable... eventually.

summer. I would drive her to the mall and draw out of her a couple stories about her friends and her new job at the ice cream shop. The longer I was away from home, the more we seemed to communicate. During my senior year, she finally visited me on campus. We did the usual rounds of tailgates, Blank Slate, introductions to friends and Frita Batidos. We did everything we could possibly do on campus, expended all our energy and by Sunday afternoon, she was gone. The crazy thing was that when she left, I really missed her. I returned to my apartment and I could see she had left her hair

PHOTO COURTESEY OF MICHELLE KIM

Yet during college, we still only gave each other quick waves whenever I came home for break. I didn’t feel the overwhelming inseparability we were told we would develop as we matured. We didn’t text each other about our personal lives, share secrets and bond like sister soulmates should. I felt like something was wrong with me. Who doesn’t miss their own sister? Then came the first update about something annoying our mom was doing. I would chuckle, send a text back, maybe even share a funny joke I had heard earlier that week. She would send me videos of our baby cousins, and bake maize and blue sugar cookies when I came home for the

tie on my desk, just like I do everywhere I go. My room felt a little empty and I realized how much I had liked having her around. She had a reassuring presence, as she would sit quietly and keep me company as I panicked to do the homework I hadn’t done while hanging out with her all day. She had a cheerful disposition, always happy to meet my friends and nod along as I tried to brainwash her for hours on why she should go here for college. It was the little things that gave me comfort. I liked knowing that when we ordered food, we’d be picking two different things and automatically sharing — that I would probably get something sweet and she would get something

savory and we’d be excited to try both. I remembered that when I ate the chocolate part of a black and white cookie she would eat the white part, which I didn’t like. We had scarfed down a large feta bread and I had felt no judgment from her. When she entered the apartment, she had immediately taken her shoes off because our mom would have killed us otherwise. I opened up my laptop to catch up on all the studying I hadn’t done when she was visiting and when I went to turn music on, I remembered fondly how much we had obsessed over One Direction growing up. Unknowingly, the weekend with her had been one of my favorites of all my time in college. I now recognize that no matter where I live in the world my sister will be my home base — the person I know to regularly check in with. I might have more in common with my friends, but they aren’t my roots. My sister is. I believe that my sister, the straight edge girl who’s always certain there’s a right and wrong answer, was brought into this world the way she is so we could balance each other out. She shines brightly through her strengths and softens the blow of my weaknesses. My expectation of having a sister who would be exactly what I wanted her to be was never fair. She needed to contrast me because two of the same puzzle pieces don’t fit just right. Our differences truly complement each other. And honestly, two of me sounds absolutely exhausting and dangerous. Maybe one day we’ll be those inseparable and adorable sisters. Or maybe we’ll flourish and go our own ways. But no matter what, I know that she’ll always be there for me, and I will always be there for her. I feel for both the pains and successes she will experience in life. I hope she knows how much she has to look forward to, and how excited I am for her. I wonder how she will change throughout her college years and beyond. All of these sentiments I have whirling through my head. Meanwhile, we still remain fairly distant, living out our own separate lives while silently understanding that even if we don’t speak every day, and no matter how different we are, we will always be there when we need each other the most. Ultimately, it’s this unspoken trust that defines sisterhood.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 // The Statement

Extreme Weather at the ‘U’

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BY SOPHIE HOFFMAN, DAILY WEB DEVELOPER

ALL VISUALIZATIONS BY ROBERT LESSER AND WILLA HUA

fter classes were canceled in January this semester, I wondered just how extreme weather conditions must be in order for an extreme decision like this to be made by the University. Though there is no official record of school closings, The Daily archives show the University has only canceled classes for extreme weather five times for a total span of seven days since it was founded in 1817. The first time the University closed was during the winter of 1945, and though no specific date could be found, we know it was only for one day. The second closing on Dec. Minimum Daily Temperature (°F)

2, 1974, was caused by extreme snowfall from the previous day. The third happened Jan. 27 and 28, 1978, and it was the first time the University canceled classes for more than one day. Between 1978 and 2014, the University changed its definition for canceling classes due to weather from “Closure for Weather” to “Reduction of Operations for Weather.” The reason for this change seems to be that the closure of some University facilities, such as dorms and dining halls, would leave students stranded in a time of extreme weather. Therefore, some University

operations such as classes and academic buildings would be shut down for extreme weather, but not integral operations relating to students’ safety and well-being on campus like operations providing access to University grounds and communications. This change was first exhibited on Jan. 28, 2014, when the University reduced operations by canceling classes, making this the first cancellation due to weather in 36 years. Most recently, on Jan. 30 and 31, 2019, the University reduced operations by canceling classes for two days.

This research, and the cancellations that occurred this semester, prompted me to collect weather data for the four winters where the University canceled class from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I wanted to know why these cancellations were so few and far between. This scatterplot shows the most extreme weather days from 1960 to 2019, and displays where the exact days of school closures have fallen over this time. In order to contextualize the conditions of each individual winter, I created this graph, which shows temperatures and snow depth for each of the four winters during which the University canceled classes, with the red line indicating when the University canceled classes. The data shows that the reduced operations on Jan. 28, 2014 and Jan. 30 and 31, 2019, happened due to extreme cold weather, with extreme low temperatures falling to minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit during 2014, and minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit during 2019. The closures on Dec. 2, 1974 and Jan. 26 and 27, 1978 were due to extreme snow accumulation. Overall, according to NOAA data from weather stations in the Ann Arbor area, there have only been 25 days since 1960 where minimum temperatures reached below minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In that same time, there have been seven days where the daily snowfall was greater than 10 inches. After evaluating winter weather data in conjunction with University closures, it is still unclear how the University makes such monumental decisions to reduce its operations due to extreme weather. This decision-making process will have to continue to evolve with our changing climate and technology, as is reflected in this weather data analysis.

View the interactive version at MichiganDaily.com Daily Snowfall (inches)

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 // The Statement

Over the past month, The Statement worked with three 826michigan students to produce the articles on this page. The students pitched and wrote their own stories, drew their illustrations, and helped lay out their page for print. Please take your time reading these works by promising young writers, the vanguard of narrative journalism.

Thinking about green technology from my school bus BY OGI VASSILEV D

ear Humanoid Beings of The Universe,

Okay, before I start, I want you to think — should we make green technology to prepare for a world with no oil, or make green technology after there is no oil? On March 11, 2019, I was reading an article about green energy technology and how we could transform the world into a much healthier one for my generation. Lately, I have been looking out from the window of my school bus at the world outside and seeing that our cars, trucks and other vehicles are making our happy blue world into a depressingly dark one. It scares me to think that I could encounter really bad catastrophes, live with unhealthy animals, or have to breathe through a gas mask, knowing that the past generation did this to me and future generations. I don’t believe it’s too late to change the vision of a depressing dark world into a blue one. We could create new materials that are soft and cheap, but still really strong. We could create new plants, and maybe even new creatures! I know, it sounds like something that is too far into the future, but we’re so far with using technology that, when you think about, it’s not an impossible dream. I’m that typical fantasy nerd who’s always sitting in the corner thinking about new fantasy things. Some things that I’ve thought of are exoskeletons for people who maybe don’t have certain limbs, robots that could work similar to the Hulkbuster from Infinity War and other weird science fiction things. Anyway, as I was saying, we could use the sun’s energy to power the sonic thrusters in rockets and propel them to new galaxies, or even new parallel worlds. Worlds that have never had a single war. Worlds where there is always peace and dinosaurs were never extinct. Like the Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a climate change activist who inspired me to ILLUSTRATION BY LANCE MCLAIN

stand up for the environment, I will hopefully live on this planet for 85 years. It will be my parents and elders who will decide how my generation will live in the future. Finding out about Greta was a great moment because she motivated me to fully open my jar of thoughts. The first time I saw Greta was on screen while watching CNN 10 in school, and I felt like that typical superhero who discovered their superpower. I felt this way because I knew I wasn’t the only one with a desire to want to skip school and go in front of the White House to yell, “BUILD GREEN TECHNOLOGY NOW!” Anyway back on track, let’s talk green technology — you know that cheesy Sprint Wi-Fi ad with the giant robot telling you only the good things about Sprint? I’m not doing that. What I am doing is telling both bad and good things about green technology. So, some bad things about green technology is that it is too expensive. It uses so much money that maybe taxes will be raised and famine may start to occur in unexpected places, and that might cause some problems with the government. Also, the thing that most bugs me about renewable technology is the question of it just shutting down. What if all the technology shutdown and we stopped having energy? We would have no fridge, no stove, and most of all, the car you drive to get that amazing bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos you wanted to get would not work. Green technology is good…and bad, but hey, what’s to lose when we are running out of oil? This means I won’t have gas to cook that secret recipe my mom’s been telling me about. You know, lets come back to the question in the beginning: Should we make green technology and prepare before there is no oil, or make green technology after there is no oil? In the meantime, let’s think about how we’re going to save the future generations from the biggest villains like famine, disease, loss of respect, global warming, polarization and most of people’s ignorance to this fatal problem that might conclude the human race. So before you finish reading this article and start playing on the Doodle Jump app, just think that one simple change in the industry world could change the world. Sincerely, The Future Generation

Writing with Ashley

BY ASHLEY REYES HERRERA

few days ago, when I woke up, I went to the kitchen and my mom was there with the radio playing “The Middle.” I took a peek through the gate, and there I saw my dog Sully. Sully is small and has light fur, big eyes and a cute little nose. She also does not like getting flipped on her belly. I saw her dancing. She was shaking her head and tail up, down, right and left. Then, I went to the kitchen and turned off the radio. Then she saw me and stared at me. When she was staring at me, I felt like she was a little nervous because I was watching her. I also felt like she was mad because she kept on staring at me for a long time. I like to dance, too, but not in front of people. I opened the gate. Then, I picked up her blue ball and threw it. She went to get it, and when she came to me, I put my hand in front of her. She dropped the ball in my hand. After this happened, I took a nap and I dreamed about Sully’s talent and that she would be a good avi dog. She could be an avi dog that lives in the mountains and protects people from avalanches.

Avi dog

George Washington

ne day, when I was at school, my teacher handed me a Scholastic News because we were picking partners and doing our work with each other. I choose my best friend, Jasmine. When we opened the Scholastic News to the first page, we saw some facts about George Washington. We both read one, and I read that George Washington did not actually want to be president. He did it anyway, even though he did not want to. The next fact that Jasmine read was that he got really sick a lot. He had lots of diseases so that is how he died.

t was the day of Halloween, and my teacher told me and my class that we could dress up as what we would be wearing on Halloween. After school, I put on my costume and went out trick or treating. Outside, it was very dark and the houses were spooky. Lots of people were dressed up in different costumes. I saw a man in a creepy clown costume. He was wearing a hat on his head that was all black, a red suit, and googly eyes on his glasses like a creepy mad scientist clown. I was on the sidewalk, and there were fog machines so I couldn’t see anything. It made me feel like someone was coming after me. I like Halloween because I like getting the chance to dress up.

Halloween ILLUSTRATIONS BY ASHLEY REYES HERRERA

The young rapper: rapping to sucess BY JOE JUAREZ

back home and started writing them. The song was called “Manifesto” and it was about some of the things I do to make the bad things go away. The next one I wrote was inspired by the song by Roddy Ricch and Marshmello called “Project Dreams.” One of the lines I heard was “got 25 thousand on me” I think. I started thinking about how I would get more money if I worked harder. Sometimes, I would work so hard that I would need a break, and I took breaks by trying something new or doing a hobby. One of those times was when I was in my room on a Thursday o, wassup folks!!! It’s $KingJ$ (rapper name) and I’m night, studying for a test for history that I was anxious about. gonna write about how and why I started rapping. I would be worried about studying all the information or getBack in 7th grade, I met a new teacher. The class- ting a bad grade on the test. I would go take a break in the livroom was filled with 31 students, and I wasn’t familiar with ing room, hang out with the family, or take a walk outside and any of them except for two friends. I was anxious about not feel the fresh air. Here are the lyrics: knowing anyone, so I kept away from most conversations. However, the teacher was nice and supportive about students’ writing, and she made us do easy homework. During third quarter, the entire class had to do a presentation about huge events that happened around the world. There were a few options to present. One that I chose was rap lyrics because it was one of the easiest to do. Since I was nervous and thought people would judge me, the teacher let me present it to her privately after school. The topic of my rap was Hurricane Katrina. Talking about something sad and serious made me feel like I was showing empathy. She told me the lyrics were good and gave me a C or a B, but I don’t remember exactly what grade I got. This kinda motivated me to do more lyrics like this. In the summer, I made some more rap lyrics and posted some of them on Instagram. I got a couple more likes than I expected. I also showed my online friends and they said, “Yo These were two of my song lyrics that express my feelings in that’s fire bruh.” I started listening to other artists such as Lil a way. I like rapping because it’s basically poetry and poetry Skies, Logic, Juice WRLD, XXXTentacion, Tekashi69 and rhymes. Marshmello, and they motivated me to be more positive, so I Put a beat over it, and there’s straight bars. started writing lyrics with positivity. I grew up being Catholic and knowing God would protect me from the bad things that could happen in my life or to the people I love. These rappers and my religion inspired me to make better lyrics. I also rap in Spanish because I’m learning it, and if I try to make lyrics in Spanish I’ll learn it faster. My parents are Mexican and always speak Spanish to me. I talk to them in English, but if I talk in Spanish, they’ll be proud of me. After a trip from Canada, they bought a CD filled with songs that were in Spanish, and I thought it was cool when they had rap mixed with Spanish lyrics. It had a happy-mood type beat and the song was in fluent Spanish. The song was talking about forgetting the people who hate you, and starting to live life the way you want to. This was the first song I heard from the rapper Farruko. From this moment, I started including Spanish lyrics in some of my other songs. The way I make my lyrics is by giving myself more energy. This one time, I was in a boxing class and I was thinking of some topics to rap about. Instead, I started thinking of some lyrics, and it was like freestyling in my mind. I then realized that if I have adrenaline flowing faster, I have more energy to ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE JUAREZ think of words and rhymes. I memorized the lines and went

Wednesday, April 10, 2019// The Statement

Truth through text BY MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

ecently, during my 2 a.m. postlibrary attempt to fall asleep, I was scrolling through Twitter and fell upon a video by The Atlantic titled “Bulgaria: The World’s FastestShrinking Country.” I clicked, intrigued. As the child of two Bulgarian immigrants, I am bilingual and culturally tuned to my ethnic background. But because I was born and raised in the United States, I am always curious to learn and understand more about Bulgaria. While I gossip in Bulgarian with my grandmother over обяд (lunch), cook леща (lentils) in my messy college house kitchen and scour Spotify for any new album releases by Bulgarian showman and musician Slavi Trifonov, I also feel misplaced whenever I return to visit family in Sofia. I sense this divide, daily: In my core, I am an American girl, but I am also different because of the different rituals I have practiced for my whole life. That’s why, after 20 minutes of watching The Atlantic’s reportage on Altimir, a rural Bulgarian village, I was both irritated and confused. The title of the piece implied that it would explore the rising rates of emigration from Bulgaria as a whole, and the description noted that “that the story of globalization is often told from the perspective of those who leave” and boasted it would show what life was like for those who remained. Yet the entire 17-minute piece focused on one village, one man and one generalized story. The coverage was no more than a simplified, one-dimensional pity piece made for cinematographic effect rather than accurate, important journalism. It lacked narration as it made sweeping dramatic shots over dilapidated buildings and factories. It faulted any historical context as it paused on old Soviet billboards. It showed clips of the elders reminiscing on Communism without describing exactly how such political ideology functioned. It made no effort to explain the profound issues in the country while following an old man, Yordan, as he biked about the town, with camera shots that seemed to focus more on aesthetic angles than substantive interviews and dialogue. And judging by the title of their documentary, the piece unfairly synthesized every different Bulgarian region, dialect, culture and community into one rural town, into one story. How could this be representative of an entire country? This form of reporting is nothing new, though. From films to newspapers to literature, Western publications love to romanticize countries they deem as lesser and pitiful. For example, in what is supposed to be an informative video, a travel channel’s YouTube pegs Bulgaria

as a good destination for “tripsters” to go to when in search of the “bleakest, most obscure regions of the planet.” It seems to me that the Western media maintains a certain allure for the formerly oppressed, for places where people had to adapt in the most curious of ways to survive. In the famous book FrancoCzech author Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” the narrator muses on how Western Europeans find the “spirit dissidents show during repression and revolution” attractive. The Swiss character Franz regards the regime and rebellion in Czechoslovakia with admiration and jealousy, deeming the drama a representation of “real life” — one that he yearns to experience. This ultimately makes his Slovakian lover, Sabina, hate him — she cannot believe he views oppression as anything other than ugly and traumatic. The reality of oppression and revolution is not as pretty as Franz or The Atlantic tries to make it out to be. My parents often reminisce on their lives in the Eastern Bloc with creased eyes and furrowed brows, musing on the limits of opportunity under the suffocating regime with both disdain and nostalgia. Their feelings toward their home country are conflicted, but are theirs to make. My mother sees no romance in my grandmother’s cancer, an illness my mother believes was partially brought on by the constant state of anxiety and oppression the regime produced. My father does not tell of beauty when he reflects on empty grocery stores and how he smuggled CDs through the airport to give to friends. But they do see hope in the birth of a new generation. They do encourage my desire to live in Sofia and cheer on the activists we read about on local news sites. That’s why they bring me back almost every year: to see joy in the rising sun of a new Bulgaria, the only one I know and the one The Atlantic can’t seem to see. The Bulgaria my parents left was one of economic and political instability following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through the United States diversity visa program, they had an opportunity for a more promising future and took it. The Bulgaria I got to know came much later, when the country was achieving fiscal stability and corruption was relatively low. I remember spending the equivalent of a dime for popcorn in Sofia’s South Park and hiking the Vitosha mountain for free. I smile at the memory of picking figs off of trees with my grandmother and exploring rivers by my grandfather’s villa. I laugh at the time I went to Bulgaria as a teenager, excited by the $1 a shot deals

at each bar lining the coast of the Black Sea. These are images I fail to see represented in the media, perhaps because they are too reminiscent of the more elite and expensive life on the Western side of the continent. While my memories of summers in Bulgaria are little sunbeams on the landscape of my Eastern European heritage, they are also admittedly immature and slightly uninformed. The previously stabilizing economy is shaky once again, and issues of corruptionare increasingly present. But there is a difference between recognizing a country’s troublesome history and present lack of leadership and labeling it as a failed state. In our globalizing world, there is a gap between countries with years of independence and stability, and those who are playing catch-up to reach what is accepted as a first-world standard of living. My issue with reporting on former Communist countries is they narrow the diversity and trauma of the Balkan region into one politically convenient image: a cautionary tale of what happens in countries without capitalism. They present a stereotype of a backward place where the average citizen is a villager who does no more than bike about their deserted town and drink ракия (rakia, or fruit brandy) in a cottage with other elders. As someone born and raised in the United States, I acknowledge that my understanding of Bulgaria and the Balkan region is limited and biased. However, through this cultural duality of my upbringing and frequent visits to Bulgaria, I have a more refined and holistic view on what life there actually looks like. This is why I stress the importance of consuming films, books or even music about Eastern Europe by Eastern Europeans.

Not only are they artful and entertaining, but they present reality in an honest and effective way. Storytelling is an interesting craft, one of great importance in our globalizing world. As someone who wants to learn more about where I am from, I am frequently disappointed by the biased representations of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe that I find when searching the web. I believe storytellers have a responsibility to balance their portrayal of political upheaval and economic instability with the rawest, sweetest and most tragic of memories. For me, these deep memories and connections manifest in the simplest of ways. I have learned to understand my Bulgarian identity through learning how to make пълнени чушки (stuffed bell pepper) with my mom, celebrating the holiday Baba Marta in the springtime and playing soccer with all of my male relatives. So I urge anyone, “tripster” or true curious traveler, to search beyond the Western media to create their own image of these less known but still culturally rich places. As rates of emigration rise, and subsequent opinions are formulated on why this is, I suggest informing yourself comprehensively. There are infinite corners to a country — nooks where numbers cannot exist. There are stories that cannot be told through percentages and data. Sometimes, the sun and tradition are the strongest truth. ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN KUZEE

Wednesday, April 16, 10, 2019 2019 // // The The Statement Statement Wednesday, January

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Fictional characters, real life lessons BY ANDIE HOROWITZ, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

hroughout my life, I have been called many different things — a loud and little extrovert as a child to a loud and liberal feminist throughout my teenage years. With my high-volumed voice, which I can thank my dad’s side of the family for — I’m mute compared to them — I never stopped talking. Teenage angst may be a cliché, but it’s one that I embraced to the fullest — I was the middle-schooler who was infuriated by everything around her. Cliques were forming, girls were turning on each other, boys channeled their immaturity into mistreatment. I was making my way through the awkward stage with a tunnel-sized gap between my teeth, glasses that didn’t quite fit my face and extremely sensitive levels of confidence. My friends were ever-changing, with useless drama constantly pitting people against one another. With this constant lack of stability, I struggled to find my identity. Every emotion was confused with endless anxiety, a feeling so great that it often trumped my ability to adequately express myself. Words failed me — nothing I said had the power strong enough to convey what I meant and what I felt. It was all too overbearing. I needed to find a way around it. I had one guaranteed spot of refuge from the war zone of adolescence: books. The advice of fictional characters is often overlooked. As people grow up, they

gravitate toward the idea that made-up stories and characters are childish, and instead of reaching for a fantasy novel about a dystopian society, adults are expected to read works like eloquent dissertations of the history of yarn. I’m not saying non-fiction books aren’t important — because of course they are — however, it’s essential that people do not dismiss the power of fiction. Fictitious characters living in fictitious towns going to fictitious schools experiencing fictitious problems that to me, somehow felt real. Problems that weren’t my own, being solved by people who I aspired to be. Made-up scenarios constructed by an author to emanate universal truths. I needed these fake realities. I read books like “Looking for Alaska,” a John Green mystery novel with an enigmatic female character, or “Nineteen Minutes,” a multi-perspective account of a school shooting by Jodi Picoult. Novels that had characters with traits that went below surface level, offering complex, layered personalities that I thought I couldn’t find in the people around me. Novels with female protagonists who weren’t afraid to unapologetically be themselves and male protagonists who not only respected this factor, but admired it as well. Novels that broke the boundaries of the toxic masculinity that most middle school boys were

victims of. Novels that praised the bold and the different. And with these novels, I found a way to both quiet myself down, yet finally open myself up. In these imaginary worlds, I was no longer the girl who couldn’t stop talking — the content of the novels spoke to me. Instead of accidentally interrupting the authors mid-sentence, I listened to each tale as if they were commandments sent from God. I dog-eared pages I thought were insightful and highlighted lines I thought were important. Each memorable quote became personal advice I could always come back to when I needed it. Because my teen angst pushed me to neglect the middle school guidance counselor I actually had, books took over the role. One of the first books I found myself devoted to was centered on a girl who was dying. Despite its inherently morbid content, the story spoke to me. “The Fault in Our Stars,” another John Green novel, which, at the time, was not yet an international teen favorite, summoned my complete attention. Though it may sound hyperbolic, the infatuation I had with Augustus, Hazel and Isaac was unparalleled to anything I’d read before. My emotional investment was so powerful that my everyday routine took a backseat to the book. On a specific weekday, with just 150 pages left of the novel, I decided I couldn’t read in school anymore.

I went to the nurse, pretended to have a migraine and cried my eyes out because “I needed to go home.” An hour later, I was in my bed, worshipping the plot page by page. Until the end. My world came crashing down at the conclusion of this “heartwarming” story of teenage romance. I apologize for any spoilers, but Augustus’ death felt like a crime against humanity to me — an ending created just to cause me pain. I cried to the point where I actually got sick — my sensitivity levels permanently affected, my feelings no longer held within. The novel gave me a sense of validation regarding my whirlwind of emotions in the life events that surrounded me. In my world of teenage angst, any sign of sensitivity in response to catty drama was deemed and exposed as a weakness. A lack of confidence was noticed and taken advantage of. On the contrary, empathy and understanding was discouraged. “The Fault in Our Stars” sparked a level of emotional depth that allowed me to see that these norms were not only immature but toxic. I was shown that feeling deeply for yourself and others is not a weakness, but instead a beautiful part of the human experience. This takeaway carries a legacy that I still find important today, This particular story further supported my view of reading as a cheaper form of therapy, and encouraged me to seek out books as a way to find peace. I catch myself inserting my personality into the plots of books, most recently by becoming an onlooker in the Mitch Albom novel “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto.” Read in a span of two days while on vacation, I alienated myself from the rest of the world in the process. Despite it being afamily vacation to Mexico, I certainly wasn’t in Mexico, but instead comfortably trapped inside Albom’s creation. Whatever problems plagued me at the time were irrelevant when I was reading. The countless escapes provided by the books of my past have shaped me into the person I am today. Some of the adjectives people attribute to me may be accurate — I may be loud, and yes, I may be liberal, and, of course, I’m a feminist — but because of books, I’m so much more than that. I’m strong-willed like Hermione (“Harry Potter”), brave like Tris (“Divergent”) witty like Hazel (“The Fault in Our Stars”). Just like Alaska (“Looking for Alaska”), I act as if I am a hurricane, as impactful and bold as I feel I could be. I am a combination of each significant literary character that has deeply changed my life. I am the books I love.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 // The Statement

STATEMENT

VISUAL

ALEXIS RANKIN

FROM BRIGHT, MULTICOLORED “ROCKS” STRATEGICALLY PLACED ON THE WALLS TO PUFFS OF WHITE CHALK LINGERING IN THE AIR TO CLIMBERS DANGLING FIFTY FEET IN THE AIR, THERE WAS NO SHORTAGE OF VISUALLY INTERESTING THINGS TO PHOTOGRAPH AT PLANET ROCK IN ANN ARBOR. ACCOMPANIED BY TWO EXPERIENCED CLIMBERS, I WAS ABLE TO SHOOT AS THEY TACKLED BOULDERING PROBLEMS AND TOP-ROPING ROUTES. EVENTUALLY, I TOOK A BREAK FROM SHOOTING TO GET MY BELAY CERTIFICATION SO I COULD TRY OUT THE TOP-ROPE ROUTES MYSELF. NEXT TIME I MAKE IT TO PLANET ROCK, I’M PLANNING TO EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT ANGLES AND PERSPECTIVES — MAYBE EVEN CLIMBING AHEAD TO TAKE PHOTOS AS THE CLIMBERS SCALE THEIR PROJECTS.