Issuu

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

Faculty, students reflect on what Anti-abortion rent control means for city of A2 group incites Stakeholders propose innovative ideas to address housing affordability

response, draws demonstrators

Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property takes Diag stand MADELINE MCLAUGHIN Daily Staff Reporter

DESIGN BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

JULIA FANZERES & KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporters

In order to address t he housing crisis in A nn A rbor, sta keholders a re proposing innovative solutions to address t he issues of af fordabilit y a nd t he g row ing inf lux of st udents while ma inta ining

t he cit y ’s unique cha racter. Rent cont rol — leg islation t hat sets caps on rents — is one such option t he cit y council is considering. Rent cont rol policy ha s been implemented statew ide in Ca lifornia a nd in a few communities in Ma r yla nd a nd New Jersey to ma inta in t he existing af fordable housing a nd limit disr uptions caused

by dra matic rent increa ses. Under Michiga n law, “A loca l governmenta l unit sha ll not enact, ma inta in, or enforce a n ordina nce or resolution t hat would have t he ef fect of cont rolling t he a mount of rent cha rged for lea sing private residentia l proper t y.” In a n ema il inter v iew, Jennifer Ha ll, executive director of t he A nn A rbor

Housing Commission, told The Da ily rent cont rol had prev iously been proposed in sout hea stern Michiga n decades ago. “ Rent cont rol wa s proposed in A nn A rbor a nd Det roit in t he 1980s a nd t he state enacted leg islation prohibiting it,” Ha ll w rote. See RENT, Page 3

More than a dozen male representatives from the A merican Societ y for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Propert y took to the Diag on Wednesday to oppose abor t ion rights, incit ing responses f rom severa l bysta nders. Members of TFP dist ributed a nt iabor t ion materia l to pa ssersby. The pa mphlets listed “10 Rea sons to Protect t he Unborn,” cla iming t hat “Abor t ion Of fends God,” a nd ca lling t he pract ice “Our Deadliest Wa r.” John R itchie, TFP ’s st udent act ion director a nd one of t he spea kers at t he Diag protest, told The Da ily t he orga nizat ion sta nds up for conser vat ive va lues by protest ing abor t ion on college ca mpuses a round t he count r y. “Today we a re here promot ing t he right to life – ever y huma n

Event talks U-W Madison professor discusses crises in urban-rural divide, role of dialogue Kashmir, The Ford School, CLOSUP host Kathy Cramer as part of lecture series Hong Kong GLOBAL POLITICS

JULIA JOHNSTON

Roundtable discussion highlights the lack of democratic freedoms, humanitarian concerns VARSHA VEDAPUDI For The Daily

The Tricontinental Solidarity Network held an open roundtable discussion on Wednesday evening at Hatcher to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crises in Kashmir and Hong Kong, where the lack of democratic freedom in each region has lead to protests against the Indian and Chinese governments, respectively. Around 30 University of Michigan students and community members attended the event led by five panelists, three of whom concealed their identities with face masks. The event began with the panelists providing background and summary of the current situation in each region and then transitioned into a discussion about imperialism, the importance of grassroots movements and solidarity with oppressed people. Panelists drew connections between the surveillance tactics and mechanisms of control used by both the Chinese and Indian governments in Hong Kong and Kashmir, respectively, and how those practices mimicked patterns reproduced around the world where indigenous voices are overlooked. See KASHMIR, Page 3A

GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

Daily Staff Reporter

About 100 people gathered in Weill Hall on Wednesday afternoon to hear Kathy Cramer, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tell stories from her research on the exclusion of rural voices in political discussions. The event, entitled “Listening to Strengthen Democracy,” was hosted by the Ford School of Public Policy as part of the school’s “Conversations

Across Difference” lecture series. The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), a research center at the Public Policy School, co-hosted the event because they are interested in redefining the ways society views urban and rural populations, according to Sarah Mills, senior project manager at CLOSUP. “We’ve been really looking at what’s conceptualized as an urban-rural divide, but we like to think of it as an urbanrural continuum,” Mills said.

CLOSUP and the Public Policy School invited Cramer to this lecture series because of her work in rural communities with the Local Voices Network, a digital network used to share community conversations. “Given her work trying to understand the rural side of the equation, we thought that sharing that with the U-M community would be helpful to understand what you can learn by listening to people in rural communities,” Mills said.

Cramer’s research involved working with experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog y and Cortico, a nonprofit focused on holding healthy political discussions in communities, to create the Local Voices Network. “We are basically aiming for a way in which we can listen to one another and understand the perspectives of people who are unlike us or don’t live near (us) or who we haven’t had (an) interaction with,” Cramer said. See URBAN , Page 3

being ha s a right to life, whet her t hey a re born or not,” R itchie sa id. “... We a re just v isit ing t he state of Michiga n going f rom ca mpus to ca mpus promot ing a nd defending t he right to life.” According to R itchie, t he orga nizat ion ha s about 200,000 members across t he nat ion. In response to t he a nt iabor t ion demonst rators, multiple students gathered in the Diag to protest the anti-abortion stance. LSA senior Tiahna Pantovich held a sig n that read, “Get out of my womb.” She said she was determined to make an impression on TFP representatives. “I’m going to keep screaming until you get annoyed with (my) voice,” Pantovich yelled at the TFP representatives. “Eventually, you’re going to get annoyed, and you’re going to say, ‘I can’t stand listening to this woman,’ and then you’re going to dip out.” See ABORTION, Page 3

ADMINISTRATION

U-M vice president receives petition Law students demand increased transparency of anti-immgration papers, movements DANIELLE PASEKOFF Daily Staff Reporter

A petition demanding the University of Michigan release the papers of the late Dr. John Tanton, father of the anti-immigration movement, was presented to Tim Lynch, University vice president and general counsel, on Wednesday afternoon. The petition, titled “Tell the University of Michigan: Stop Hiding White Nationalist’s Papers From The Public,” has more than 3,800 signatures. The petition was created by Law student Kerry Martin in an effort to raise awareness about Tanton’s ties to white nationalism, eugenics and anti-immigrant movements. Martin originally requested to meet with University President Mark Schlissel regarding the petition, but was scheduled to meet with Lynch instead. Martin rehashed the events of the hour-long private meeting to The Daily, which included presenting the petition to Lynch and arguing why Tanton’s papers should be released immediately to the public.

MICHAEL BAGAZINSKI/Daily Kathy Cramer, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, lectures on how the ability to understand opposing ideologies influences political opinion as well as the necessity of crucial conversations when discussing politics at Weill Hall Wednesday evening.

Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily

For more stories and coverage, visit

michigandaily.com

INDEX

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................5

See PETITION, Page 3

SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS.................7

News

2 — Thursday, October 24, 2019

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY: By Design

Shey @Sheytown099 Just found my umich application essays from 2015 and I mentioned how I wanted to work for NASA.

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

FRIDAY: Behind the Story

Marlé Edwards @WeirdoMarle My dad said he had a weird dream about doing research on University of Michigan trophies.

Kevin @official_ktran Need a wedding hashtag for a UofM and MSU. @ michiganstatu @UMich. Twitter world. Do ya thing.

Saphira #kenjiarmy #willnearmy @hiddleland Thank you to the person On My Own in squad @UMich

Mary Susan @chadwick_son Having chicken wings and fries with the CFO of UMich what yo broke as up to?

Life has come full circle.

Lex @FriesLoveLexi Still haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to transfer to Wayne State or University of Michigan. SOCIAL RESEARCH

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com

MAYA GOLDMAN

TOMMY DYE

Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 mayagold@michigandaily.com

Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 tomedye@michigandaily.com

NEWS TIPS

news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE

opinion@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

ARTS SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

arts@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM

SPORTS SECTION

734-418-4115 opt. 3

sports@michigandaily.com

CORRECTIONS

ADVERTISING

corrections@michigandaily.com

BeanBerry cafe offers customers capuccinos with selfies drawn on New coffee shop opening provides a selection of novelty beverages, bubble waffles JENNA SITEMAN Daily Staff Reporter

Dow ntow n A nn A rbor ga ined a new cof fee shop when Bea n Berr y Cafe opened on October 15. Bea n Berr y is operated by t wo brot hers, Wes a nd Issa Ba iz, a nd of fers a va riet y of cof fees a nd tea s, including bubble tea a nd bubble waf f les. Their cof fee option include a “Self ieccino,” a cappuccino w it h a photo printed directly into t he foa m on top of it. The image is made by a sma ll printer operated by customers, who sca n t he QRSyndication code on t he machine Sudoku a nd upload t he image t hey

4 2

FINNTAN STORER Managing Editor

frstorer@michigandaily.com

GRACE KAY and ELIZABETH LAWRENCE

Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Sayali Amin, Rachel Cunningham, Remy Farkas, Leah Graham, Amara Shaikh Assistant News Editors: Barbara Collins, Julia Fanzeres, Claire Hao, Alex Harring, Angelina Little, Madeline McLaughlin, Ben Rosenfeld, Emma Stein, Zayna Syed, Liat Weinstein

JOEL DANILEWITZ and MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA

Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Emily Considine, Krystal Hur, Ethan Kessler, Miles Stephenson, Erin White

MAX MARCOVITCH and ETHAN SEARS Managing Sports Editors

sportseditors@michigandaily.com

to int roduce people to a b out prof it . He sa id t he Senior Sports Editors: Anna Marcus, Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Mark Calcagno, Theo Mackie, Tien Le French press cof fee, a s compa ny i s ver y fo c u s e d Assistant Sports Editors: Bailey Johnson, Bennett Bramson, Connor Brennan, well a s cof fee made f rom on t he c u s t omer s . Jacob Kopnick, Jorge Cazares, Rian Ratnavale “ For u s , it ’s not a b out single-orig in bea ns. ARYA NAIDU and VERITY STURM m a r g i n s ,” Ba i z “ We wa nt to g ive people prof it Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com a dif ferent idea of what sa id . “ We h ave t o h ave Senior Arts Editors: Clara Scott, Emma Chang, Cassandra Mansuetti, Sam your t raditiona l cof fee s ome, but we t r u ly b el ieve Della Fera, Trina Pal Arts Beat Editors: John Decker, Sayan Ghosh, Mike Watkins, Ally Owens, ta stes like,” Ba iz sa id. t h at i f we del iver t he Stephen Satarino, Izzy Hasslund, Margaret Sheridan “ People a re t y pica lly used b e s t t h at we c a n , p e ople to t hings in t he packet — w i l l s upp or t u s . We ’re ROSEANNE CHAO and JACK SILBERMAN Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com like you put your cup into a lway s g oi ng t o s t ick t o Senior Design Editor: Sherry Chen t he machine a nd you’re ou r va lue s a nd ou r b el ief done — a nd t hat ’s why s y s t em b e c au s e ye s , we ALEXIS RANKIN and ALEC COHEN t he comp o s t a ble people don’t rea lly like h ave Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com just reg ula r cof fee. So pro duc t s , but we a l s o Senior Photo Editors: Alexandria Pompei, Natalie Stephens, Alice Liu, Allison Engkvist, Danyel Tharakan we wa nt to rea lly bring c a re a b out t he p e ople Assistant Photo Editors: Miles Macklin, Keemya Esmael, Madeline Hinkley, out t he notes a s much a s t o o.” Ryan McLoughlin M a rk M a r si nek , a we ca n, to g ive people a dif ferent ex p er ience t h a n re sident of Oa k Pa rk , ANDREA PÉREZ BALDERRAMA Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com s t opp e d i nt o wh at t hey ’ ve h ad b efore.” M ich ., Deputy Editors: Matthew Harmon, Shannon Ors As wel l as b ei ng B ea n B er r y on a bu si ne s s t r ip t o A n n A rb or. He fo c u s e d on more n at u ra l http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ SILAS LEE and EMILY STILLMAN cof fe e, t hey of fer bubble sa id he love d t he color f u l Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com t ea w it hout f r uc t o s e sig n at u re bubble wa f f le. Senior Copy Editors: Dominick Sokotoff, Olivia Sedlacek, Reece Meyhoefer “ I t h i n k it ’s ex t remely by u si ng pu re s ug a r CASEY TIN and HASSAAN ALI WATTOO c a ne a s a s ubs t it ut e i n novat ive, a nd I t h i n k Managing Online Editors webteam@michigandaily.com i f re que s t e d by t he t h at it ’s g oi ng t o b e Senior Web Developers: Jonathon Liu, Abha Panda, Ryan Siu, David Talbot, Samantha Cohen a big h it b e c au s e it ’s c u s t omer. d i f ferent ,” The shop u s e s s omet h i ng ELI SIDER s u s t a i n a ble s t raw s , M a r si nek sa id . “ Pe ople Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Ryan O’Connor, Joseph Sim even t houg h it co s t s c a n come i n here a nd not fou r t i me s more t o ju s t g et cof fe e, but t hey NA’KIA CHANNEY and CARLY RYAN Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com m a ke ba mb o o s t raw s c a n g et bubble t ea or a Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Samuel So, Ana Maria i n s t ead of pla s t ic . wa f f le w it h ice c rea m , Sanchez-Castillo, Efe Osagie, Danyel Tharakan Ba i z sa id it i s wor t h it a nd t h i s i s rea l ly, rea l ly Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Harnoor Singh, Nada Eldawy, Maya t o fol low B ea n B er r y ’s g o o d . The concept i s Mokh m i s sion of b ei ng pret t y i nc re d i ble.” CATHERINE NOUHAN P ubl ic Pol ic y s en ior env i ron ment a l ly Managing Podcast Editor Kend a l l K a i s er sa id a s a con s c iou s . MADALASA CHAUDHARI and HANNAH MESKIN Managing Social Media Editors All of t he cof fe e f a n at ic , she t h i n k s Senior Social Media Editor: Allie Phillips pro duc t s t hey s el l B ea n B er r y w i l l t h r ive i n a re comp o s t a ble. A n n A rb or. “ I ’m rea l ly exc it e d Ba i z sa id he a nd h i s brot her e s t a bl i she d a a b out it ,” K a i s er sa id . MOLLY WU Creative Director rout e w it h a sp e c ia l “ I s t ud ie d a broad t h i s ZELJKO KOSPIC RYAN KELLY compa ny in order pa s t s eme s t er, a nd I wa s Special Projects Manager Sales Manager t o en s u re t h at a l l v i sit i ng Cop en h a g en , a nd ANITA MICHAUD ROBERT WAGMAN g a rba g e t h at t hey I went t o a cof fe e shop Brand Manager Marketing Consulting Manager pro duce — i nclud i ng w it h my f r iend s , a nd t hey m at er ia l s used by h ad t h at sa me concept , s o employe e s a s wel l a s it ’s rea l ly co ol t o s e e i n The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during t ra sh f rom c u s t omer s A mer ic a .” the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is — i s comp o s t e d . © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the puzzle by sudokusyndication.com Ba i z adde d t he Read more at 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 bu si ne s s i sn’t all MichiganDaily.com

would like to have printed on t heir drinks. The machine only prints in cof fee dust, so t here a re no colors. Wes Ba iz expla ined t hey keep additives out of t he drink. “ You have t he option of buy ing t he machine a nd doing it w it h black a nd white or colored, but t he colored ha s additives a nd a ll t hat, so we didn’t wa nt to go t hat route,” Ba iz sa id. “ We just wa nt t he reg ula r one a nd t he reg ula r one is just cof fee ext ract.” The Ba iz brot hers g rew up in Det roit, a nd a lso ra n cafes in Toledo a nd Bowling Green, Ohio. Ba iz sa id he wa nted

9 3

Editorial Staff

ALISON ROH/Daily

Rackham student Lanora Johnson discusses gender dynamics, marriage rates and relationships in the labor force in Eastern Kentucky at the Institute for Social Research Wednesday afternoon.

dailydisplay@gmail.com

Business Staff

PUMPKIN PIE

3 7

rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

RENT From Page 1 “I don’t know if it is currently on anyone’s radar to further change the state act.” Advocates of rent control argue it can limit the effects of gentrification. A recent analysis by the Chicago Policy Review on the effects of rent control policy on San Francisco found that it allowed older, established residents to stay in their apartments longer. However, the analysis also determined the policy could increase gentrification by incentivizing landlords to push tenants out and increase turnover, which was the only time landlords could raise rent prices. The estimated average savings

URBAN From Page 1 Cramer became interested in rural and urban dialogues as a graduate student at the University of Michigan. While doing research in the South, she came across interesting conversations among locals in public spaces like post offices. “From pretty early on in my career as a political scientist, I knew I was interested in conversations, and I knew that I thought about (rural peoples’) lives and about the way they understand politics from listening to them talk with one another,” Cramer said. In her research, she and her coworkers facilitate conversations about a variety of topics between six community volunteers, which are recorded using a digital hearth, an audio recording technology that has the capacity to play audio from

News

Thursday, October 24, 2019 — 3

for tenants who had rent control were between $2,300 and $6,600 per year from 1995 to 2012. During this time, however, rents in San Francisco rose 5.1 percent, meaning newer, younger tenants shouldered the costs of higher rents. In September, Peter Allen, lecturer at the Taubman College of Architecture, Urban Planning and the Ross School of Business, proposed several studentled development solutions to the housing crisis. From his perspective, rent control is only a limit on the new supply of housing because it does not foster private sector investment, he said. He pointed to tech companies’ recent pledge in California to invest money and ease the inflated housing prices. Allen described

Ann Arbor as a “little version” of Silicon Valley, as it shares characteristics like robust job growth but insufficient addition of housing. Allen emphasized the need for multi-stakeholder solutions in Ann Arbor. “We must connect affordability together with the other difficult public policy issues of climate action, mobility and sense of neighborhood,” Allen said. “We must motivate all public landowners to redevelop all surface parking lots or excess public land in and around Ann Arbor into mixed use, transit oriented, dense retail and housing developments that offer rents for the entire job market, starting from $500 per month for a one bedroom. The city’s analysis of all its excess public land like the former Y site next

to the Blake Transit Center is a grand start.” LSA junior Maya Chamra emphasized the importance of her perspective as a student advocate for general affordability in Ann Arbor. She said she believes rent control could be a good option to address the affordability crisis. “I think that the way the Ann Arbor market is, is that students are always going to be in need of housing,” Chamra said. “Housing is always going to be in demand. At this point I can only see the cost of renting for students to only go up, and there needs to be a way for both the University and the city to get involved such that students don’t have to face another affordability issue while they’re trying to go to college, which is already so expensive.”

other conversations. Cramer aims to place digital hearths in libraries across the country so more conversations can be recorded and shared. “We’re trying to lift up the voices of people who aren’t normally heard, we’re trying to get people to listen and learn across boundaries,” Cramer said. Cramer’s work culminated in a collection of conversations from communities in Massachusetts, New York, Alabama and Wisconsin that are available on the network’s website for online listening. “The conversations are shared across a community, across neighborhoods in a community and across geographic space,” Cramer said. Mills explained the urbanrural divide exists at the University of Michigan. “We are a university that is in an urban environment, a lot of people here are urban, but

we are a public university that represents the whole state, and so I think it’s really important that we recognize what those rural voices care about,” Mills said. Mills said people tend to take an argumentative approach to dialogues, focusing on difference rather than common ground. “A lot of the concerns that we see in rural communities are similar to what we see in urban communities,” Mills said. “We don’t often look for those commonalities and we often talk past each other, or feel, on one side of the equation or the other, that we aren’t being heard.” Cramer said focusing on conflict can prevent groups from making progress towards correcting the issues they care about. “We throw up our hands, we turn away, we don’t engage, we don’t get involved, and the

result is that the policies that are getting us to these places, whether we’re talking about economic policy or otherwise, continue,” Cramer said. The main takeaways from Cramer’s work related to creating productive dialogues. She emphasized the importance of listening to all discussions. “I think the key thing I would say is just giving yourself the luxury to listen as opposed to debate,” Cramer said. “All too often we assume that our role is to defend our point of view and persuade other people, but most of the time it doesn’t work, and there’s so much of a need right now to do the opposite.” In an interview with The Daily after the event, LSA freshman Nina Rosenberg emphasized the importance of listening to different viewpoints.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

ABORTION From Page 1

Speaking to The Daily, Pantovich articulated her frustration at the lack of women present from the organization and explained she was disappointed with the group’s view on abortion. “These are all men, they are not taking the opinions of women or their input,” Pantovich said. “You can come and say ‘I disagree with abortion,’ but when you say it’s a sin, and I’m a bad person for doing what’s best for my life, that doesn’t make sense and that’s not allowed. I am going to let them know that I am not okay with that. The best thing about this campus is the fact that it’s a public campus and I can scream as long as I want to. It’s my freedom of speech.” Ritchie told The Daily while there are women members of TFP, the majority are male. “A lot of out membership is women, but our core group is a men’s group,” Ritchie said. The protest garnered

PETITION From Page 1 “This is an issue of University transparency,” Martin said. “This is a public university trying to keep secret papers of the architect of the antiimmigrant movement, a known white nationalist. I told (Lynch) that keeping it secret is depriving immigrant rights activists and civil rights activists of an opportunity to draw more clearly the line between the University’s current antiadministration policies and the racist xenophobic rhetoric that would be found in those papers.” The petition was written earlier this year and calls on the University to limit “the spread of white supremacist ideology across the country and prevent further erosion of our democracy.” Martin and petition supporters argue that the University is using taxpayer dollars and University resources to keep Tanton’s papers secret from the public. After a legal battle spanning almost three years, the University is bringing the case to the Michigan Supreme Court. Law student Angela Theodoropoulos also attended Wednesday’s meeting. She recalled Lynch could not discuss specific legal matters related to the case, but made it clear his positions were being stated on behalf of his client, which is the University. “It seemed that (Lynch) was trying to convey that he has a duty of zealous advocacy on behalf of his client, the University, and the library,” Theodoropoulos said. “And so, even if his beliefs are different, or the University’s beliefs are different, (there) might be reasons in terms of wanting to acquire excellent papers that could be used later that could fuel one’s hypothetical position.” Martin said that during the meeting, Lynch questioned both him and Theodoropoulos on their own ideological perspectives in regards to the

KASHMIR From Page 1 The lack of autonomy and self-determination in Kashmir concerned panelist Safwaan Mir, a Business graduate student, who said she hopes the issue is not seen as a territorial dispute between the two countries of India and Pakistan, but rather as a war against the Kashmiri people, who are not involved in the decision-making. “Someone small is being trampled by those who are much more powerful and it takes common people caring in order to have any sort of impact on the Kashmir situation,” Mir said. Panelists focused on the treatment of the crises by the governments of India and Pakistan in terms of surveillance and military

attention from students walking by, several of whom stopped to engage in conversation with members of TFP. LSA senior Ben Freund told The Daily he was disappointed by what he saw as the unwillingness of the TFP representatives to engage in discussion. “My friend and I talked with a couple of people around the Diag and they say they are here for a dialogue,” Freund said. “It’s clear that a dialogue assumes two people are willing to not only say their piece but also listen to what other people have to say. They’re not here to listen to what other people have to say.” Freund said he saw the group’s moral argument as biased given the fact that there were no female representatives from TFP present. “We were talking about moral high ground… and how they selectively apply a moral high ground to problems that don’t even affect them – you see it’s all men on this Diag,” Freund said. “For them to have a moral highground opinion on this issue doesn’t seem right to me.”

case and gave hypotheticals as a way to attempt to challenge their view on the case. The sealed Tanton papers and the records of a beloved civil rights activist or a liberal Supreme Court justice, Martin said, are not comparable. “The same reasons for releasing the Tanton papers shouldn’t apply in those circumstances, partly based on the law and the shadiness with which the University has gone about defending the secrecy of these papers, but also partly based on a belief that we have that the law really does take into account public interest,” Martin said. “There’s public interest at question (and) at stake when you’re concealing papers belonging to a racist white nationalist whose biased xenophobic views are currently fueling horrific policies out of Washington. The stakes are different, the interests are different, and that matters.” Theodoropoulos echoed Martin’s sentiment and explained she hopes the University will be more transparent with its stances on similar issues in the future. “The University can’t really speak out of both sides of its mouth very fairly, and I think that that’s something that I think both Kerry and I want to see the University sort of reconcile their position on that, and be held more accountable in terms of being transparent,” Theodoropoulos said. “Of course, there’s a bit of a tension there, because we obviously have different interests at stake.” University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen confirmed the subject of the meeting with The Daily, in an email interview, and also emphasized while this case is pending trial, the University cannot comment on the petition or action steps following the Wednesday meeting. “As you know, this is a legal matter and will be handled in the courts,” Broekhuizen wrote.“...(P)ending trial or other legal developments the closed portions of this collection will remain closed.”

control, the countries’ economic motivations and how each region is considered a pawn in a political game. Rackham student Joshua Kam said the two countries indicate signs of imperialism. “I think I attended the event to see how solidarity can be built between disparate regions,” Kam said. “I care about the fate of Hong Kong and its liberty. I despise imperialism and just want it to not be around anywhere.” Rackham student Amanda Kaminsky related the current geopolitical themes with historical themes of colonialism. “I thought it was interesting to see the linkages drawn between different colonial and post-colonial empires in terms of sur veillance and state violence,” Kaminsk y said.

Opinion

4 — Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NOAH HARRISON | COLUMN

The looming threat of unrepresentative democracy

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

MAYA GOLDMAN Editor in Chief

MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA AND JOEL DANILEWITZ

FINNTAN STORER Managing Editor

Editorial Page Editors

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Alanna Berger Zack Blumberg Emily Considine Emma Chang Joel Danilewitz

Emily Huhman Krystal Hur Ethan Kessler Magdalena Mihaylova Timothy Spurlin

Miles Stephenson Finn Storer Nicholas Tomaino Joel Weiner Erin White

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

DIPRA DEBNATH | COLUMN

Shifting exercise focus away from body image

t’s early October, which means that my summer of waiting for professional basketball to start again is over, and the NBA’s activities for the new season have begun. In the flurry of team media days and preseason games, I came across a Deadspin piece that features five pictures of Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic from a team photo shoot. Some of the captions in the piece, as well as many of the comments, drew attention to Jokic’s body. Jokic, despite standing at 7 feet tall, does not resemble many NBA players in physique – namely, he seems to have more body fat and less muscular definition than his peers. His weight has caused some to doubt his fitness and on-court production capabilities. Jokic, however, is one of the best basketball players in the league. In the 2018-19 season, he ranked third in the NBA in the advanced metric of Value Over Replacement Player and finished fourth in a vote for the league’s Most Valuable Player. In a testament to his fitness, Jokic also logged 65 highly-productive minutes in a quadruple-overtime playoff game in May, the most played in a single game by any NBA player since 1984. Most of us will never play professional basketball, but many of us find other ways to get exercise. There is often a body image aspect to physical activity – that is, the way we believe others view our physique, which is commonly formed from the way we view how others look. Many strive to achieve what is considered the ideal body type for their gender and exercise accordingly. However, as Jokic demonstrates, one does not have to look conventional to be in excellent shape. In order to benefit in the long run, we should focus on exercising for functionality, longevity and fun. Concepts of favorable bodies are often perpetuated by inescapable media-driven ideals, which influence social standards and make shifting one’s focus away from ideal physiques challenging. The checkout line at every other store is decked with magazines with slim women on the covers and bold headlines that promise flatter abs and accentuated curves in a matter of days or weeks, insinuating that these are the results that women should want to achieve. Ideals are also clearly defined for men – Zac Efron in “Baywatch” illustrates an exaggeration of a “desirable” male physique: ripped musculature with impossibly low body fat. Given the ubiquity of these images in American culture, we

often mentally impose these ideals on others and believe others expect them from us. Breaking from this mindset is understandably difficult. The way male and female physiques have changed and vary around the world shows that these ideals are sociallyconstructed rather than innate. The perceived optimal body type in America, in theory, displays good health bred from a wholesome diet and plenty of exercise. The issue with chasing these prototypes in real life is that people often achieve them in a way that is often unhealthy and unsustainable. Diet and exercise regimens that offer timelines of weeks instead of months or years may provide rapid results, but they lead to relapse and do not foster long-term habits that promote good health. To garner truly excellent health, fitness routines should be centered around improving the body’s functionality and longevity, and visible results that are sustainable will inevitably come.

One does not have to look conventional to be in excellent shape A focus on body image also has the potential to harm the self-esteem of those who exercise. A 2005 study of college students showed that a large number of both men and women who exercise place emphasis on body image, and that this focus is associated with reduced self-esteem, particularly in younger and female-identifying participants in the study. One consequence of this emphasis on body image is that many people who exercise focus on performing activities that focus on physique rather than those who contribute to better overall health. There is, however, significant importance in exercising for functional benefits, such as increased strength, flexibility and stamina. The long-term benefits may be even more essential. As young adults, we have the ability to establish not only habits but also physiological changes that can benefit us in the future. A 2014 study on adult men showed that men who regularly participate in high-impact exercise in adolescence and young adulthood had increased bone density when compared

to those who did not, even when neither of these groups participated in significant exercise in later adulthood. Establishing significant bone density in early adulthood helps prevent structural issues in later adulthood, especially the negative effects of osteoporosis. Additionally, maintenance of a healthy body mass index throughout life reduces the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease. We can motivate ourselves to exercise for these purposes by keeping activities enjoyable and setting goals. Those who participate in exercises they enjoy tend to have more positive feelings following these activities and are more likely to repeat them in the near future. As such, we should seek physical activities that make us happy. These activities don’t have to be restricted to using gym equipment: Team sports, hiking and dancing are all excellent ways of establishing and maintaining overall fitness. Conversely, when one’s primary motivator is body image, lack of progress toward an ideal may lead to the development of negative self-concept and discourage continued activity. Setting goals for improvements in fitness and body composition can be great motivators for exercise, but it is best to focus on making progress and setting realistic expectations. If our aim is to lose weight, we should celebrate incremental successes in reaching our goals. It is common to see plateaus in progress in any exercise plan, so it is essential to remember that fitness improvements are made even during plateaus and that we are still benefiting our bodies in the short and long term. The important thing is to maintain happiness. Selfworth and fitness go far beyond one’s physique. By being comfortable in our own bodies, we can focus on exercising for health benefits, keeping activities enjoyable and not getting bogged down by minute issues. This can be challenging when businesses seem to do all they can to push certain ideals to drive consumer behaviors that reinforce these ideals. If we can continue to remember that, ultimately, the shapes of others’ bodies should not matter to us, then we can convince ourselves that what we look like should not matter to the people who care about us most. Once we do this, we can accept that appearance is not the same as fitness and strive to focus on the latter. Dipra Debnath can be reached at dipra@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

he Constitution was ratified 231 years ago, making the United States one of the oldest modern democracies in the world. Along the way, we have tweaked and refined our system by expanding voting rights, delegating more responsibility to the electorate and eliminating unforeseen quirks. The gradual evolution of our institutions has enabled our democracy to endure and thrive for centuries, with our constitutional safeguards affording an enviable degree of stability. But today, our core tenet of fair democratic representation is quietly eroding, and further institutional adaptation is necessary to preserve the vitality of American democracy. The Electoral College is the most obvious area for reform, and the prospect of such reform has been widely debated since former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was defeated in the 2016 presidential election despite winning the popular vote by nearly three million votes. The popular vote winner has lost the Electoral College five times, but two of these were atypical circumstances: the four-way election of 1824, which was decided by Congress, and the corrupt election of 1876. The Electoral College had never awarded victory to the popular vote loser in a clean, two-way race – until recently. Now, two of the past five elections have been won by the popular vote loser, and statisticians predict the trend could continue in future elections. This trend is alarming, but after 2016, many on the right have rushed to the defense of the current system. Conservative commentators have peddled myths that the Electoral College was deliberately created as a anti-majoritarian institution, purposefully designed to ensure small-state voters a voice in the presidential elections. This historical retelling is novel, but grossly inaccurate. The Electoral College was created as a compromise between the direct election of the president and letting Congress choose the president.

The founders were wary of the populace’s ability to rationally choose a president and designed the Electoral College as a mechanism to keep the presidency a safe distance from the passions and whims of the general public – Alexander Hamilton explained the rationale in Federalist 68. The general public would choose electors, and these electors would choose the president. The Founders failed to foresee that electors would preemptively pledge to vote for a certain candidate, and as a result, we are left with an oddly indirect way of electing presidents. Historical inaccuracies aside, the Electoral College is not needed to give small states a voice. On the contrary, the Electoral College currently dilutes the voices of voters who live in larger states and essentially ignores the voices of voters in uncompetitive states. The reality is that the Electoral College is a relic from an era when presidents were intended to be selected, rather than elected, and its continued usage defies the ideal of one person, one vote. If the nation’s leader is to represent the will of the nation, a transition to a popular vote is imperative. Moreover, faithless electors pose a oft-overlooked threat to the integrity of presidential elections. Due to the Electoral College, Election Day technically only determines electors, and the election is not officially determined until the electors vote. In 2016, several of these electors went rogue and refused to vote for the candidate they had promised to vote for. A federal court ruled these “faithless electors” cannot be prevented from going rogue or punished for breaking a pledge, meaning in a close election, the will of the nation can be overturned by a handful of unscrupulous electors. Beyond the Electoral College, a lesser discussed concern is the growing power disparity in the Senate. Each state is represented equally in the Senate, as opposed to the House where representation is proportional to population. At

the time of the Constitution’s ratification, the population of the smallest state, Delaware, was roughly 10 percent of that of the largest state, Virginia using the official representation metric. Today, the gap between the biggest states and the smallest states has widened considerably. The smallest state, Wyoming, is a paltry 1.5 percent of the population of the largest state, California. Combined, Texas and California have the same population as the smallest 28 states put together. This is staggering: two equalsized groups of people, one represented by four senators, and the other represented by 56. This disparity will only grow wider, since the three most populous states – California, Texas and Florida – also accounted for half of population growth nationwide at the time of the last presidential election. If small states were a roughly even mix of partisanleanings, then maybe this trend would be another curious quirk with little impact on legislative outcomes, but the fact is that smaller states tend to be disproportionately conservative, granting the Republican Party a significant institutional advantage. Gridlock in Washington could also be exacerbated if the Senate’s ideological bent becomes permanently out of sync with the House, which will more closely represent the nation’s ideological breakdown due to its proportional representation. Our democratic institutions have adapted before (see the 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 22nd Amendments as examples), but further evolution is necessary to ensure our elected government truly represents the will of the people. Any substantive reform would probably require a constitutional amendment and is therefore unlikely. Nonetheless, as a country we are quickly approaching a point where institutional reform is needed, or we run the risk of our republic becoming an unrepresentative democracy. Noah Harrison can be reached at noahharr@umich.edu.

CHLOE PLESCHER | COLUMN

On support (or lack thereof) for Brooke Nevils

n Oct. 8, 2019, rape allegations against Matt Lauer, a former host for NBC News, were made public. Lauer was fired in 2017 for sexual misconduct, but the details were not publicly shared. Now, the details have come to light. Variety reported that in Ronan Farrow’s new book “Catch and Kill,” former NBC employee Brooke Nevils shares she was raped by Lauer at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Since the report, many news outlets have covered the story. However, prominent social movements have remained silent about the allegations. The #MeToo and the Women’s March movements have not voiced support for Brooke Nevils. As a result, the allegations are not receiving the widespread attention that they deserve. Sexual assault has been a major news topic with the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Harvey Weinstein conviction and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. With the birth of the #MeToo movement, survivors have come forward with their allegations, both anonymously and publicly. As more survivors came forward, social movements worked to support the survivors as the news cycled through their stories, providing resources and publicly supporting the survivors’ statements. It is surprising these social movements have not voiced support for Brooke Nevils. Their actions contradict the purpose of the #MeToo movement and the idea of solidarity in the Women’s March movement. Even after Farrow’s book was released on Oct. 15, #MeToo and the Women’s March have been silent on the allegations. There is no excuse for their behavior.

The #MeToo and Women’s March movements create safe spaces for people to share their stories and traumas. On a national level, the movements help survivors who stand up to the celebrities who assaulted them, such as comedian Bill Cosby and producer Harvey Weinstein. Both were powerful men who used their status to scare their subordinates and get away with rape. Lauer is no different. The story can be construed as complicated and fabricated: Nevils was drunk during the assault and had consensual sex with Lauer after the assault. Many online commenters are using these behaviors against Nevils. The comments on this Facebook video blame Nevils for being drunk, and they discredit her because she had consensual sex with him after the assault. However, the case is not as complicated as some people claim. In fact, it is harrowingly simple: Nevils was drunk, and Lauer took advantage of her. She later had “consensual” sex with him, which she shares in a statement to Variety: “This is the Matt Lauer … who I feared when I continued to engage with him, as many victims of acquaintance rape do, particularly in the workplace.” Nevils’ actions following the assault are not out of the ordinary, and they do not discredit her story. As many sexual assault survivors are, she was afraid of the workplace consequences, especially since Lauer was the host of the Today Show and she was only a staffer. Nevils acknowledges this, remarking that Lauer was the “most powerful asset at NBC News.” Lauer had power over Nevils, especially after he brutally raped her.

When Nevils reported to NBC in 2017, she asked her report be investigated and for Lauer to have the chance to defend himself. She did the same when she shared her story with Farrow. Nevils provided “dates, times, evidence of communications, and corroborating accounts,” and both NBC and Farrow found her allegations to be credible. Yet the public is quick to attack Nevils, and the social movements famed for supporting women and survivors have remained silent. When someone decides to come forward with a sexual assault, they are not doing so for more money or five minutes of fame. Many come forward to relieve the burden of the assault and to continue their personal healing process. Not every survivor feels the need to come forward, but for those who do, it is extremely important. Strong social support is key, especially if the allegations are against a popular or beloved celebrity such as Lauer. News outlets and social media users will victim-blame and discredit the accuser, but support from #MeToo movements can help survivors process through being scrutinized in the public eye. But by remaining silent when Nevils came forward, the #MeToo and Women’s March have failed Nevils and fellow survivors. With no prominent social support, Nevils’ story is diminished to another rape story, a statistic. Her story is kept from being more than a day’s breaking news, allowing criticism of Nevils to build and allowing Lauer’s popular legacy to remain as a former television host. Chloe Plescher can be reached at chloebp@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

Thursday, October 24, 2019 — 5

STYLE COLUMN

Velveteen Dreams: ‘The Politican’ & embodiment

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

SAM KREMKE

Daily Style Columnist

ERSKINE RECORDS LIMITED

Harry Styles ‘Lights Up’ DIANA YASSIN Daily Arts Writer

Harry Styles’s “Lights Up” marks a twoyear gap between the releases of his last two singles. His presence never evaded the public eye, but the tribulations and subtleties of his personal life was never at the forefront. He coasts along in interviews with a sheer cheeky charm that never conveys too much and seldom, if ever, brands the gossip magazines you find at the grocery store. An artist to his very core, he captivates us in grand, eye-catching statements. Blooming from the teen heartthrob image of One Direction, he shed the wrapping but wore the attention on his sleeves. These

Lights Up Harry Styles Columbia Pictures

were the sheer Gucci sleeves he co-hosted the Met Gala with this spring, the unrecognizable fervor he brought to the role of British soldier Alex in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” the melodramatic, spiraling six-minute lucid dream of his 2017 single “Sign of the Times.” “Lights Up” is a move no different. Clocking in at less than three minutes long, it is literally half the length of “Sign of the Times.” The ’70s-inspired rock balladry makes way for a soulful airiness, a melange of synth, guitar, keys and choir music that sparkle with sweat.

The lyrics pour out in abstracts, “I’m sorry by the way / Never coming around / Be so sweet if things just stayed the same,” a seemingly hazy cliche. But with a release on National Coming Out Day, “Lights up and they know who you are / Do you know who you are?” plays out a grander proclamation. Regardless of whether the fan speculations hold true, Styles furthers the idea of a comingout statement in the “Lights Up” music video. No formal narrative or symbol congeals the overall plot; instead, glimpses of a glimmering, sweaty Harry Styles grace the screen. Set completely in the dark, it shines in bursts of green, red and white lights that alternate and illuminate Styles’s journey throughout the video. The images feels otherworldly as Styles traverses through them effortlessly. At the very focal point, he is entangled within a throng of sensuous admirers of all genders. They glisten under a pale neon-green light, pressing their barebodies against Styles’s as he sings. Other images fill in gaps between this scene, namely one of Styles seated back-to-back on a motorcycle with an anonymous chauffeur and one of him partially submerged in water while wearing a sequined suit, ref lected over a version of himself in boxer shorts. The significance behind these images and the video are dubious, but they are imbued in an ether of sensuality. They oscillate between a desire for exploration and a visible frustration on Styles’s face in some cuts, culminating to an unconventional, almost strange aura as we struggle to pinpoint the ramifications of Styles’s situation. But for a song that questions if you know who you are, such imagery seems appropriate.

Since its release at the close of September, Ryan Murphy’s “The Politician” has gotten its shine from six days to Sunday. And rightly so — the writing, while a bit ham-fisted even for the Netflix generation’s answer to “Bonfire of the Vanities,” dives head first into the kinds of topics that can easily veer into trivializing and exploitative landscapes with aplomb. It does so by immediately going for the jugular, hitting you upside the head with the bluntness of its message in the most camped up, almost-derisive fashion, discrediting itself and rendering all defenses null before it actually starts to hit home. The tangled relationship between emotional centeredness and youthful ambition, the ever-climbing bar for achievement cloaked in little more than sheer existential dread, what it means to be your “authentic self,” the simultaneous condemnation and idolization of extreme wealth and all the particulars of loneliness, anxiety and depression (especially in reference to queerness) are baked into a televised sheet cake both indelicately and with great care. The real storytelling jewels, however, lie in the show’s visuals. The dichotomy of reality and the common portrayal is co-signed by an endless cornucopia of truly fabulous backdrops. The makeup of each scene — how every room is decorated and the way the architecture helps inform the space, the personal styling of each character and how it betrays their intentions, while placing them neatly into the overall visual narrative — lifts an immense amount of weight. It’s a classic Ryan Murphy spectacle with every still, but the ideas expressed are so clear and immediate that there isn’t any real margin of error. It serves as a reminder of just how much can be said of oneself when you dress with intention. Not everybody gets to be Gwyneth Paltrow, trimming her hedges in a poppy red Carolina Herrera gown and matching crochet gloves or a downtrodden Lucy Boynton furiously practicing her serve in the middle of the night in tennis whites, complete with a bold-striped cashmere sweater that says TENNIS on it (and neither are necessarily intended as realistic options). Embodying a character can afford the opportunity to escape from the mores of commonly accepted personal styles and the wider norms that

inform them. The characters of “The Politician” succeed so thrillingly in their personal style because they poke fun at their identities, at the pomp and circumstance of getting dressed for a particular role and all that comes with it. The downright comedic drama that comes with their wares doesn’t exist offscreen, but a touch of self-awareness and a willingness to subvert our chosen roles can go a long way. I find gender so interesting because it completely eludes me. When I think of myself in my own private headspace there is no underlying status that feels like home, and I think a very large part of why I, along with many members of the queer community, so prefer to be alone is because that untetheredness becomes real when you’re around other people. To defy something so ingrained in how people conceptualize themselves and go about their life, or even to feel like

To defy something so ingrained in how people conceptualize themselves and go about their life, or even to feel like what you project doesn’t quite fit, is to be forced to think about all of the different places it’s steeped in what you project doesn’t quite fit, is to be forced to think about all of the different places it’s steeped in. It is to be conscious of it, all the time, and every choice in how you represent yourself can quickly feel like a negotiation as a result. As hard as anyone can try, there is no vacuum you can self-actualize in. We are raised through a series of negotiations between who we are and what we’re born with, and pursuing concepts, as opposed to perceptions, is one way to create a home within yourself. It’s a way to put yourself in the driver’s seat, to self-satirize, to navigate the social pressures we inevitably adhere to in some way or another with a little bit more agency.

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

TV NOTEBOOK

‘People Just Do Nothing’: Mockumentary perfected SAYAN GHOSH

Daily New Media Editor

While nothing of the type quite exists, the closest thing to a surefire formula for a successful TV show is following a group of absurd characters with hefty delusions of grandeur. From David Brent and Michael Scott in both versions of “The Office” to Jimmy ShiveOverly in “You’re the Worst,” we love characters whose egos are only eclipsed by their incompetence. BBC Three’s “People Just Do Nothing,” in its five short seasons, perfected this formula yet remains, to this day, criminally underappreciated compared to its inspirations. This “Office”-style mockumentary centers around Kurupt FM, a pathetically small pirate radio station based out of Brentford in West London. Run by “MC Grindah” (Allan Mustafa) and “DJ Beats” (Hugo Chegwin), the illegal setup has an operating radius of about two blocks, but doesn’t stop the pair from deluding themselves that they take over the London airwaves every time they play. Other staff include “Steves,” a stoner who displays infrequent flashes of remarkable intelligence and Decoy, the straight man to Grindah’s overall outrageousness. Despite the fact that each of these characters are noteworthy on their own, they are eclipsed by one of the most absurdly funny characters ever to grace a TV screen: Chabuddy G (Chabuds to his mates, Charlie to his colleagues), portrayed by Asim Chaudhry. Also known as “Brown Casanova” and the “Mayor of Hounslow,” he is a potent combination of Alan Partridge and the aforementioned David Brent/

Michael Scott all rolled into one. A self-proclaimed “entrepreneur,” he provides most of the “resources” to the Kurupt FM crew as well as his own products, including a vodka made of window polish which he markets as “Polish vodka” as a legal loophole. Perhaps the show’s biggest asset is the chemistry that the cast has built up over the years. Before the show even piloted, most of the actors on the show worked together on a YouTube sketch series which parodied the underground radio stations that permeated the grime/garage scene in the UK, a scene which many of the actors were themselves a part of. As Sam Wallaston of The Guardian points out in an interview with the cast, the show is both a parody and a homage to that world, down to the “music samples and trainer [sneaker] brands,” not to mention the glorious array of tracksuits. While the relatively niche aspects of the music are important to the show, the charm comes from the basic fact that most of the characters are blithering idiots, or at least they seem to be. Apart from Chabuddy G, it is difficult to tell just how self-aware the characters are. Grindah tries to convince us that his daughter with his girlfriend Miche (Lily Brazier) appears mixedrace (despite both parents being white) because he is a quarter cypriot, when it is clearly obvious that Decoy (who is Black) is the actual father. Miche, a hairdresser, herself tries to convince herself that it is her destiny to become a celebrity and that her boyfriend (later husband) is actually more than a musically hopeless MC. Yet at the end of the day, don’t we all have our own hopeless delusions about who we are and who we will be? As the Kurupt FM crew show, maybe that’s fine

VICELAND

ISANGO ENSEMBLE

Isango Ensemble’s fresh take on ‘The Magic Flute’ DANA PIERANGELI Daily Arts Writer

With the word “magic” in the title, “The Magic Flute” is bound to be an exciting adventure. The famous tale by composer Amadeus Mozart details the love story of Tamino, a young traveler, and Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night, and the trials Tamino has to endure to rescue Pamina and be together. What made this performance magical was not fairy queens or enchanted trials, but the expert blend of cultures, stories and realities.

Blending cultures, races and experiences, the group presents innovative works that transform a famous classic into a seemingly entirely new story The Isango Ensemble, a collection of South African performers of all ages, is a unique group that reimagines Western theatre classics in a South African context. Blending cultures, races and experiences, the group presents innovative works that transform a famous classic into a seemingly entirely new story. They bring their works of cultural fusion all over the world, including a variety of people into the conversation. Their production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” was one of their many ingenious inventions of taking a while known classic and making it almost unrecognizable in the best possible ways. Milling around the Power Center stage before the

show, the cast chatted with each other, looking out into the growing house, making the audience feel comfortable in their unexpected, un-operatic surroundings. The actors doubled as the musicians, with the music director taking on just as big of a role onstage right next to them. Everything about this performance was exposed: the wings and the roof of the stage were uncovered, there were barely any props, all the trials that Tamino went through were portrayed by actors shaking sheets with Sharpie letters on them. Yes, having the set of an internationally touring show consist of bedsheets was a bit perplexing. But in the context of the show — with dustbins for drums and recycled bottles for sounds — it made perfect sense. The set let the performance speak for itself This version of the famous opera was unexpectedly humorous and playful. Papageno, Tamino’s sidekick, stole the show with his hilarious side comments and facial expressions. The Spirits were portrayed as a version of The Supremes, dancing in different sixties inspired costumes and hyping up the playful, snapping trio image. Papageno even made a reference to Gloria Gaynor and her famous song “I Will Survive.” All of these little quirks made the show accessible and interesting. It drew the audience in and made us feel like we were a part of the show ourselves. The most compelling part of this show was the beautiful blend of cultures. Languages blended together seamlessly, weaving in and out of dialogue and song. But no matter what language scenes were done in, everything was still understandable. If one actor began speaking in a different language, not only would that actor still succeed in getting her point across, but the scene partner would pick up the slack and her reactions would explain the scene. These intercultural conversations that the Isango Ensemble perpetrated are what push theater to progress. Just performing the same shows the same way does nothing to enhance the narrative. Innovation and creativity leads to discovery, all of which is presented in the works of the Isango Ensemble.

Arts

6 — Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

BOOK REVIEW

FILM REVIEW

‘Love(d) Letters’ & more LUKAS TAYLOR Daily Arts Writer

AMAZON VIDEO

Keep ‘Zombieland’ dead

Abigail Breslin’s (“Little Miss Sunshine”) Little Rock ANDREW WARRICK leaves her sister to die for the first man she meets. Even Daily Arts Writer the fiercely independent Wichita, played by Emma Stone (“La La Land”), makes choices that come from a Remember 2009? “Zombieland: Double Tap” does. writer who believes that all women want to do is shack When its predecessor, “Zombieland,” was released, up with the only available man. Tallahassee’s (Woody Harrellson, “The Hunger zombies still felt fresh. “The Walking Dead” hadn’t premiered yet and its deluge of ripoffs were still years Games”) controlling, aggressive attitude isn’t funny away. The early 2000s’ “28 Days Later” and “Dawn of anymore, especially not when women are involved. His the Dead” had just resurrected the genre by introducing love of guns hasn’t aged well and, even in the context sprinting zombies, which “Zombieland” made good use of a zombie apocalypse, rings a little tone deaf. After the violence of the last decade, scenes of Tallahassee of. “Zombieland” was an amusing horror comedy with worshipping automatic weapons just aren’t as funny as just enough bite to raise it above mediocrity. The gory the movie wants them to be. No scenes in “Zombieland: zombie sequences were fun and Jesse Eisenberg (“The Double Tap” are, in fact. Stone and Harrellson’s talent is wasted on an Social Network”), who plays the main character in both films, hadn’t become annoying yet. It was 2009’s best unoriginal script that never reaches even the modest highs “Zombieland” did. Everything effective about Halloween movie. But it’s not 2009. It’s 2019, and “Zombieland: Double the movie was done better in the first — every “Zombie Tap” has lost its edge. Obscenely violent slow motion Rule” and “Zombie Kill of The Week” gimmick just montages, apocalyptic sitcom style humor and meta seems stale now. The film meanders from zombie set piece to zombie set references are a dime a dozen these days. Einsenberg’s voiceovers are also groan-inducingly on the nose. Even piece and from bad joke to bad joke, shambling around the if the occasional joke hits its mark, there is nothing same overworked ground “Zombieland” trod a decade ago. Instead of Bill Murray’s house, it’s Elvis’s. Instead memorable. Practically every character is defined by a simple of a climatic zombie battle at a carnival, it’s at a colorful, carnivalesque characteristic. hippie Characters that commune. exist solely as The only scene stereotypes worth watching (arguably) may is after the have been alright GQT Quality 16. Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX credits, when in 2009, but they Bill Murray aren’t so easy to Sony Pictures returns for a forgive in 2019, wild zombie especially when killing spree these stereotypes that has more lean towards the problematic. There’s the weed-loving hippie and the laughs than the entire movie itself. Check it out on dumb blonde, characters even 2019’s prime time TV Youtube. “Zombieland: Double Tap” is an exhausted, would deem overly simplistic and offensive. Most of the characterization issues involve the film’s forgettable misfire from the eternally churning women. They all are obsessed with finding boyfriends, blockbuster sequel machine. It has just enough frivolous even though society itself has collapsed. Nevada, played violence and juvenile humor to live on through the by Rosario Dawson (“Rent”), is treated as a sexual nighttime TV circuit, buried between “Simpsons” object, argued over and literally compared to a driveway reruns, coming back to yearn for the one thing it doesn’t to be parked in, and she doesn’t seem to mind too much. have: brains.

A few lines from Mount Eerie’s “Distortion” is the most concise way to explain Ames Hawkins’s pilgrimage in her book “These are Love(d) Letters.” “… In the same way that my descendants will squint back through a fog / Trying to see some polluted version of all I meant to be in life / Their recollections pruned by the accidents of time / What got thrown away and what gets talked about at night …” What doesn’t get thrown away are twenty short letters written in the mid ’60s. Hawkins’s father, a closeted gay man at the time, wrote these letters to her mother. After meeting at summer camp, the two kept a correspondence between New York and Michigan. Years later, after a divorce and her father’s fatal battle with AIDS, her mother would hand her these letters in an Ann Arbor coffee shop. She doesn’t know why she kept them. The book annotates these letters with every relevant detail, even when her descriptions must cross massive gaps between genres and subjects. Different colored text, sometimes with no other transition, marks a change in the literary style. It sometimes reads like a literary magazine: True stories are blended with essays on Derrida and Cixous, phone transcripts and drawings. Hawkins pinpoints subjects embedded in the letters that are as complicated and varied as real life should be. Sexuality is one such subject, simultaneously treated analytically and emotionally. In one paragraph, she counts the 49 times her father says he loves Hawkins’s mother in the letters. In the next, she laments it wasn’t 50. Literature is another area of focus. The book is as interested in writing, as you can expect from such a skilled author. The closing chapter stops to reflect on how endings in general should be written. Hawkins attempts to expand the boundaries of what is considered literature to letters. In a list of reasons

Zombieland: Double Tap

DESIGN BY EMMA CHANG

why, she notes the range of uses for letters. Letters can be sent for young love or for declarations of war. And Hawkins intends to include as many as possible. The only whiplash from subject and style changes are from discussions that take some philosophical knowledge for granted. But the academic approach doesn’t filter out the emotion in the book’s hard truths, especially in regard to Hawkins’s father’s health. The love letters ground the book in the mundane. Being reminded of the reality of death or trauma can feel like “waking up” to a world outside the one where you stand in line for the bus or check your email. But Hawkins ties them all together to one linear timeline.

This ambitious experiment in literary forms and ideas might be jarring in many circumstances. The book undertakes the impossible job of showing others how some seemingly small detail reverberates in all parts of life. Everything seems authentically connected. The complex overarching narratives Hawkins draws out are never forced. In the hands of a less skilled writer, such comparisons might have broken down like fever dreams that make sense until recounted to others. For instance, Hawkins finds a few lines in one letter regarding her father’s anxiety about teeth falling out that form a grim foreshadowing of the effects of AIDS on his oral health. This book gives the reader the impression that if they study anything with enough care, they’ll find a fractal — any small detail containing the whole. Her father didn’t mind Hawkins’s previous writings about him. And still, she treats these letters

These are Lov(ed) Letters Ames Hawkins Wayne State University Press Sept. 9, 2019

like sacred text, but it’s hard to feel that way for long. Moreover, some of the most delicate information comes from Hawkins herself. Through these letters, Hawkins maps the roots of herself and her happiest and worst memories. She delves into the hard truths of herself and her trauma’s origins. In this way, Hawkins paints these letters as equally relevant to her life’s context as her birth. Yet, the book can be simultaneously nonchalant. One can almost see the shrug as the author admits she doesn’t know why, for instance, more love letter anthologies have been published recently. These shifts in style don’t hurt the flow. Like the best anthology records or essay collections, the fast transitions keep each page a surprise. Moreover, these complexities reflect the complicated, grey, and conflicting experiences embedded in these letters. One passage, retold here without font changes, breaks the fourth wall to give reader instructors: “And now, Dear Reader, use your breath … Notice where your mind goes as you follow my finger pointing out over the horizon. Recognize me, there: Ah, yes! And now your eyes really find focus: Ah-ha. Look hard. If you do, I am sure that you’ll see yourself there, too.” In “These are Love(d) Letters,” Ames Hawkins doesn’t just squint back to see what her parents meant to be. In the mundane objects of the past’s fog, Hawkins finds a mirror reflecting herself. Many find their reflection in their favorite books or movies. But standing in a different place will bring a unique reflection, even in the same mirror. It takes a writer like Hawkins to make one see reflections of both themselves and the author.

MUSIC SINGLE REVIEW

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

Release Date: Thursday, October 24, 2019

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

FOR RENT

KAITLYN FOX

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Dermatology issue 5 Sources of foreign aid? 12 Learned 14 Sacagawea’s people 16 Aquarium growth 17 “Are we done here?” 19 Rio neighborhood of song 21 “Me Talk Pretty One Day” writer David 22 Takes turns? 24 Coarse cloth 25 When an early voyage may start 28 Metal giant 31 “Tsk tsk” 33 Harsh cry 37 Light touch 38 Chocolate treat 40 Letter before sigma 41 __ song 43 “Might be able to help” 45 “... let’s play two!” ballplayer Banks 47 Set of chromosomes 48 Avalanche 51 Din 53 Traveling tot’s spot 56 Sounded indignant 60 “Not hungry, but not not hungry either” 62 Of service 63 A-ha hit that won six MTV Video Music Awards 64 Assisted through difficulty, with “over” 65 Macy’s logo feature 66 Bottomless buffet acronym spelled out by the ends of 17-, 31-, 43- and 60-Across DOWN 1 Tazo choice 2 App with many pans 3 “Star Wars,” for one

4 Classic Pontiac 5 Malay or Mongol 6 Stammering syllables 7 Kettles and kitties 8 Second AfricanAmerican inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame 9 “There was no other choice” 10 Disintegrate, as old wood 11 Drum kit item 13 Area that’s hard to find while surfing? 15 “A Jew Today” writer Wiesel 18 Trip letters 20 Study on the side 23 Pouring instruction 25 Well of Souls threats in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” 26 Soften 27 Info 29 Actress Anderson 30 Bringing up to speed

32 Formal “It wasn’t me” 34 With the bow, in music 35 “Pow!” relative 36 Fried Dixie bread 39 Just makes 42 Kimono sash ornament 44 Subject of Newton’s first law 46 Nearly fell 48 Poli __

49 Agreement 50 Like a cheering crowd 52 JusSimple juicer maker 54 Foofaraws 55 Camping gear 57 Orderly 58 Power co. output 59 “__ Dinah”: Frankie Avalon hit 61 Doc’s org.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Rex Orange County wears heart on sleeve in ‘Pluto’ Daily Arts Writer

BIOCHEM 212 TUTOR WANTED Text/Call Judy (312)-678-6736

SERVICES Help Elderly w/HshlDTasks WalktoUM, 734.276.6797 $10/hr

Rex Orange County gave fans a taste of his upcoming album Pony, set to release on Oct. 25, with his new single “Pluto Projector.” The singer-songwriter surprised fans a day before dropping the single by tweeting out his phone number, allowing fans to hear a snippet of the tune via his voicemail. Rex released his first single off the new album, 10/10, back in early September, and while he still maintains the level of sincerity he was able to capture in the previous single, “Pluto Projector” is more soulful and organic with its relaxed vocals and clean drum beats. The song starts off with a quiet guitar riff as Rex confesses his love to his significant other and ends each line with a casual vocal scale. Like many of Rex’s songs, the single doesn’t have a clear structure, as it runs start to finish without any repetition of lines; however, the song starts to pick up in the middle with the

introduction of a piano riff laced between the lead vocals and a collection of haunting harmonies lingering in the background. Rex imagines himself in wedlock, singing “I hope the encore lasts forever / now there’s time for us to spend,” a sweet ode to the beauty of a timeless

Pluto Projector Rex Orange County AWAL

love. “Pluto Projector” reminds us of the joy found in sharing life’s journey with someone you love and showcases Rex’s craft for creating heartfelt intimacy through songwriting.

10/24/19

REX ORANGE COUNTY

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, October 24, 2019 — 7

Pushing for a breakthrough year Michigan finishes season strong, with fourth place weekend finish KENT SCHWARTZ Daily Sports Writer

Before every season, two things are always on the mind of the Michigan women’s basketball team: the next steps and the expectations. Six years ago, the next step was simply to get better, to go further than the third round of the WNIT. Three years ago, the Wolverines were given the cold shoulder by the NCAA selection committee – and they won the WNIT instead. The next year, they made the tournament for the first time in four years. Now, for the first time in the program’s history, Michigan is looking for its third straight NCAA Tournament bid. For the first time in the programs history, the Wolverines are shooting for the Sweet Sixteen – or higher. The next steps are steeper than ever. The expectations are taller than ever. “It kind of goes with one of the reasons why I chose Michigan,” said junior forward Hailey Brown. “I chose here to come to a school that we’re

working towards something. We haven’t won a conference championship. My group hasn’t made it to the Sweet Sixteen. So that’s something we’re trying to do, each year do better. I think this year I’m just really excited, looking forward to accomplishing these things and really pushing through the grind with these girls. Unlike other sports, though, it’s not all in Michigan’s hands. Women’s college basketball is incredibly top-heavy, and when playing on the opponents’ courts on the first weekend of the tournament, it’s nearly impossible to advance. The last two years, the Wolverines have been bounced by a two and one seed, respectively. “In women’s basketball, so much is predicated on your seed,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “And getting that seed where you’re going to play a one or two in the first round on their home court is really tough. We’ve got to get ourselves out of those positions. … So the goal for this year’s team is to keep advancing, keep moving forward.”

In the preseason poll, Michigan was picked to come in second in the Big Ten by the media, behind frontrunners Maryland. Sophomore forward Naz Hillmon was one of two players selected preseason all-Big Ten by both the media and coaches. The star sophomore class is a year older, and Barnes Arico keeps bringing in top-notched recruits. The players aren’t as timid as their coach about this season. “We definitely want the Big Ten championships, we want to go there,” Brown said. “I think last year we had a tough one against Maryland when we lost in the Big Ten tournament. I think every year we’re just trying to build and build, and we’ve done that. I’m a junior now, my third year, so we’re trying to make a run to the Sweet Sixteen this year. We need to get a Big Ten Championship, for sure.” For the Wolverines, improvement has been the sole focus under Barnes Arico. Every year, the team’s made a step forward, but this year, reaching the next level is harder than ever.

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily

Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico has set her team’s sights higher than merely making the NCAA Tournament

ROSE CRAMTON For The Daily

After a rocky start to its fall season, the Michigan men’s golf team came to a strong finish. Following last week’s competition at Crooked Stick, where the team ended 10th out of 14 teams, the Wolverines arrived at the Royal Oak Intercollegiate tournament on Monday with a renewed mindset— one focused on putting the past behind them. In the first round of the game, Michigan had already set itself apart from the other 11 teams. After the first 18 holes, junior Charlie Pilon and senior Brent Ito claimed first and second place with 67 and 68 points, respectively. KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily Thanks to the help of the rest of the team, the Wolverines The Michigan men’s golf team finished fourth at the Royal Oak Intercollegiate. were able to finish first overall. its third and final round at hitting bogeys on the 3rd and This strong start proved to be a Royal Oak’s Intercollegiate 10th hole. Regardless of this, welcome change for Michigan. on Tuesday, Pilon was feeling he was able to come out on top, “They’re learning, which is the pressure to maintain his keeping his first-place title and ending the tournament with a good thing. They’re learning winning streak. from their mistakes,” said “I definitely had a bit of 205 points (67-69-69). With these scores, the Michigan coach Zach Barlow. nerves,” Pilon said. “It was “They’re seeing that they don’t probably the different format Wolverines were able to end have to go out there and really for this event— the five of the tournament in fourth place do anything special, they just us grouped together instead overall. While enjoying the feeling of have to play good solid golf. It’s of with other teams— that not about individual honors, it’s helped me calm down a bit and his second collegiate win and a regroup. Obviously I wanted to career-low of 205 (8 under par), all about the team.” In the following rounds, this do a good job individually, but I Pilon was complimentary of his team-centered mindset and also wanted to help the team as team’s overall progress. “We had a bit of a slow start confidence in their game helped much as I could, which helped the Wolverines continue to fight me take my mind off of it a little to the season,” Pilon said, “but we definitely pulled through bit.” towards victory. The third round saw coming out of this week.” Michigan slipped down With a win to end to its fall to fourth place in the second improvement for many of round, mainly due to several Michigan’s players. Brent Ito season, Michigan is ready bogeys from the players. Brent was able to hit his 5th, 6th and to begin preparing for their Ito lost his 2nd place ranking 14th holes under par, leading upcoming season in the spring. The team’s focus while as a result of bogeys on the 1st, him to finish in 13th place 8th, 12th, and 14th holes, ending overall. This gave him his third preparing for the next season the round even par (142) in 17th top-15 individual finish of will be on their short game. “Our short games, chipping, place. Despite this slight drop the season. Additionally, Ben overall, Pilon remained steady Dunne improved in the third putting, they need to get throughout the second round, round, ending two under par better,” Barlow says, “If we’re going to be the team we desire remaining in first place at with 69 points (73-78-69). Pilon faced some slight to be, our short game has to get 6-under-par. As the team geared up for challenges in the third round, better.”

Wolverines learning how to play with a lead After a 13-win season a year ago, often defined by poor starts, Michigan is focused on scoring first as often as possible MOLLY SHEA

Daily Sports Writer

The adrenaline. The desperation. The urgency. Giving everything you have to try and score that tying goal. Playing from behind is a situation Michigan found itself in often last season. When the Wolverines opened regular season play two weeks ago against thenNo. 11 Clarkson, they found themselves back in that familiar spot: hunting to even the score. In Friday’s game, during the closing minutes of the first period, the Golden Knights struck first — converting on the power play in its dying seconds. Michigan mustered a secondperiod goal for a 1-1 tie. Saturday, however, it was unable to overcome the 2-0 hole it had fallen into. Its efforts as the minutes wound down were valiant, but not enough. When the game ended, the Wolverines had lost, 3-1. “Obviously, playing up is what you want to do,” said junior forward Michael Pastujov. “Playing from behind was what we struggled with a lot last year. We started a lot of games down early, so it’s kind of hard to climb back up.” Michigan plays 34 games in a season, so every night — every opportunity to eke out points to help its position in the standings — matters. And through the course of the weekend series with Clarkson, they faced the harsh realities of falling behind early in a game. It’s challenging to come back from being down, as evidenced by the Wolverines’ 13-win season last year. Going into last week against Lake Superior State, Michigan knew it needed to strike first.

It’s the exact momentum It couldn’t afford to give up an game with two goals. But the it. It didn’t need to panic the locker room,” said Lockwood. Lakers) the Wolverines way it had in “(The early goal against a defensive- Wolverines rarely felt the past, when came out minded team like the Lakers. It clung to their it was searching Saturday night last season — had to come ready to play, and one-goal the feeling of advantage with for a last-minute and scored two both nights, it did. tying goal. The goals right away playing with the captain Friday, sophomore forward senior lead. Wolverines in the second. Nolan Moyle was the first of four Will Lockwood just needed to And they didn’t “You’ll have the skaters to rifle the puck into the heading to look at the stick to their take the lead, but back of the net. Just five and a charge. In the locker game plan and I think that just statistics,” half minutes into the game, the Lockwood said. execute. They goes with team Wolverines had the lead. It was room, Lockwood the maintained the talk and trying to “But I think writing a new narrative, and stressed the team that lead, something keep everyone up leaving last season’s in the past. importance positivity. they weren’t and not have that scores first It wasn’t a team that was going of often capable of big momentum wins most of the to play from behind. It was a Michigan didn’t switch, that momentum is games so to get that (first) one is team that was ready to take have the period it wanted, but doing last year. “Positive team talk in the huge.” important, it’s huge.” the scoreboard didn’t reflect control. The Wolverines looked comfortable. They showed glimpses of their potential. The pressure wasn’t on them any more — they were the ones applying it. “Against those teams (Clarkson and Lake Superior), the way their style is, I thought it was important,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “Because they’re so strong defensively and that’s their M.O., you want to get them out of their game. You want to get them to play more of an up and down game.” In even less time than the Wolverines grabbed their lead over the Lakers on Friday, sophomore forward Jimmy Lambert connected with the puck and sent a shot whistling into the netting. Just like that, the lead was theirs. Junior forward Jack Becker followed in Lambert’s footsteps and tallied two early goals in the opening period, and before the first period had ended, Michigan tripled its advantage. The next 20 minutes were much more turbulent. Seemingly as quick as it had earned a ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily three-goal lead, Lake Superior Senior forward Will Lockwood knows the virtues of scoring first and playing with a lead, after last year’s team often struggled to do so and struggled as a result State found its way back in the

Obviously playing up is what you want to do.

(The Lakers) came out Saturday night and scored two.

... the team that scores first wins most of the games...

Sports

8 — Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan football notebook Kwity Paye’s perfection of run defense, Nico Collins’ comments on the offensive pass intereference call and more MAX MARCOVITCH Managing Sports Editor

To Nico Collins, it was as perplexing on the re-watch as in the moment. He saw the ball in the air on Saturday, readjusting to the slightly-underthrown deep ball, hauling in what appeared to be a momentum-shifting 45-yard reception down to the Penn State 10-yard line. Exactly what the doctor ordered for an offense looking to respond to a red-hot Nittany Lions start. Then he saw the flag. Offensive pass interference. Catch nullified. Momentum drained. “Oh yeah, I saw it in slow motion. It was terrible,” Collins said. “ … He was pulling on me. I was kinda pulling on him. We were both competing for it … but (the call) was on me. Can’t complain about it. “It can kinda be hard, cause a play like that is very explosive. If we had got that, we’d be down on the 15-yard line in a position to score. So we gotta go all the way back from where we was.” It was one of two offensive pass interference calls on Michigan during the game, the types of 50/50 plays that are easier to single out in what ended a razor-thin, onepossession game. In the end, the Wolverines were flagged eight times for 48 yards, while Penn State had five penalties for 58 yards. That relatively even distribution did little to quell complaints. “There were some (bad calls), definitely,” said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. “You have the human reaction of what your human reactions are and sometimes it’s not fair. I’ve said for a long time, the only fair is the county fair. Respect it. You

can be disappointed sometimes. “Looked at those, make no excuse and move onward.” Kwity Paye breaking out With any defensive end, the sacks and tackles-for-loss are what catch the casual fan’s eye. Junior Kwity Paye certainly is no exception. His dominant 2.5-sack performance against Iowa laid the foundation for what appears to be a breakout season. And yet, to defensive line coach Shaun Nua, those are hardly the only notable football traits he

possesses. “I don’t know if he can grow even more with how well he plays the run,” Nua said. “He’s confident, and just doesn’t panic with all the RPOs and all the bluff that tight ends will have, the split zone, he just doesn’t panic. He knows exactly when they’re trying to kick him out, and when they’re not trying to kick him out. He’s always in his gap with great pad level and hands inside. So plays with great, phenomenal base. You’ll hardly see him on the ground.

And then when he gets a pass rush, he can convert fast. He’s doing a great job.” Paye and sophomore Aidan Hutchinson — self-nicknamed “salt and pepper” — have entrenched themselves firmly at the end positions, each offering versatility in their skillsets. In addition to his praise for Paye, Nua called Hutchinson a “complete player”, noting the duo’s ability to flip spots at any given time and fill each role. Together, they’ve allowed Michigan’s defense to hardly

skip a beat after the departures of Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich from a season ago. Slow starts persist In the aftermath of last week’s 21-0 blitz in the first half, Michigan has spent the week reflection on the trend of starting slowly in big games. Over the course of eight different top-15 matchups in the last two seasons, the Wolverines have been outscored 117-83 in the first half, including a 21-7 deficit to the Nittany Lions and a 28-0 deficit to Wisconsin, both

this year. The answer to the two questions on everyone’s mind? No, the players don’t have one central rationale for the slow starts. Yes, they know they’ve got to do better. “We can’t keep letting that be a trend,” said senior offensive lineman Ben Bredeson on Monday, “falling behind and having to come back. There (are) times when we got to start fast.” Saturday, No. 8 Notre Dame comes to town. That would seem like an apt time to start fast.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Junior wide receiver Nico Collins caught a 45-yard pass in the second quarter, but it was called back for a questionable offensive pass interference, as the drive ultimately stalled out without a score.

Still plenty to play for, players say Franz Wagner embracing college ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

When the ball hit Ronnie Bell’s hands then dropped harmlessly onto the turf, it symbolized the end of more than just the game. In big-time college football, two losses mean no College Football Playoff. While a Big Ten title is still theoretically possible, it’s now very unlikely. Those were Michigan’s biggest goals coming into the season. No matter how much fight the Wolverines showed Saturday, those goals are essentially gone. Under these kinds of circumstances, there is inevitably a debate about what the rest of the season means, and what there is to play for if there are no accolades on the horizon. For Michigan, those answers seem to lie in the remaining games on the schedule — and a steadfast belief in themselves. “A lot of people saying we have nothing to play for,” said fifthyear senior offensive tackle Jon Runyan on Tuesday. “But we have everything to play for. We got all these guys in the locker room, we got all our coaches, we have our families that we’re playing for.” Universally, players and coaches pointed to the next game on the schedule — a home game, at night, against traditional rival and top-10 opponent in Notre Dame. Win that game, and while it might not mean

anything in the conference race, it’ll mean something to a program that’s been invested in this rivalry for over a century. In his Monday press conference, Jim Harbaugh preached the same thing he does before every game — “this week is the most important game of the season” — and while that may not be literally true anymore in the context of the Playoff, the significance of Saturday, and of upcoming rivalry games against Michigan State and Ohio State, isn’t lost on anyone. On Monday, senior defensive tackle Carlo Kemp faced the scrum as normal, but the way he answered questions seemed like anything but a traditional media session. Instead, his words seemed like an impassioned speech, a plea for everyone to stop treating the season like it was over. “What’s left to play is, we’ve got our whole season left,” Kemp said. “We’re at the midway point. We’ve got five games coming up. … And we’ve got three of the most important rivalries in college football coming up. You’ve got Notre Dame, you’ve got Michigan State and then you’ve got the game at the end of the year. “And those are the games that you play for. Those are the teams that you’re gonna want to play for, and we’re not just gonna sit here and be like, ‘Alright, we’re done,’ and go out there and just coast the

rest of the season.” The Wolverines lost to the Fighting Irish last year. They have yet to beat the Spartans at home in Harbaugh’s tenure. And the Buckeyes? The 0-4 record speaks for itself. Those facts themselves present plenty for Michigan to play for — even if it’s not in the way it originally hoped. Defensive line coach Shaun Nua and sophomore defensive end Aidan Hutchinson both admitted that it was tough to accept Saturday’s loss. But Nua was pleased with the response in Tuesday’s practice and the focus they showed in the face of adversity. Against Notre Dame, the Wolverines will get the chance to prove that the season still means something to them, that there are still things to play for, even if there isn’t a trip to Indianapolis or New Orleans waiting for them at the end. “Yes, we lost, but you’ve gotta remember, this isn’t our last game of the year,” Kemp said. “It’s not like, ‘Alright, we’re done, let’s start packing up and we’ll get ready for next season.’ We have top-10 matchups coming up and the big thing is, we have one this Saturday. And we have another opportunity on the national stage to go out there, play in front of our own fans and go out there and represent Michigan and play on a big stage.”

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Senior defensive lineman Carlo Kemp said that his team still has plenty to play for, starting this weekend..

JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer

For many student athletes, taking the leap to college represents much of the same, if just on a bigger stage with more responsibilities. Wake up. Go to school. Go to practice. Complete homework. Eat a ridiculous amount of calories. Go to sleep. Repeat. Very few incoming college athletes buck this trend in the time between their high school days and their fledgling college careers. COURTESY OF MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Franz Wagner is an Freshman Franz Wagner played for Alba Berlin in the Bundesliga last year. exception. After finishing high school people who are not enmeshed you’re gonna want to see this early, the guard played a year of in the world of basketball. He’s kid play. He’s a guy that you professional ball for Alba Berlin embracing his classes as well come to practice every day and in Germany’s Bundesliga. Now, as expanding on his hobbies you leave and you just scratch he’s back in a classroom, and which include keeping up with your head. To be that age, to be that cerebral, to be that pure. the 6-foot-8 wing couldn’t be politics and the media. “And it’s subtle. It’s like, how It shows a wisdom beyond happier about it. Any high school students his years to recognize a desire did he know to defend there? reading this are almost to develop a well-rounded How did he know to go with the certainly scratching their personality after having tasted right hand? He’s, and I don’t hands at the moment. How life as a professional — an want to put a lot of pressure on could someone ever possibly experience that will perhaps him, but he’s rain man. He’s a elect to go back to school, lend itself handily to his play on rain man in basketball. He’s a savant.” especially after getting a taste the court as well. With such high praise and Coming in as a highly-touted of a professional basketball freshman accompanied by a professional playing experience player’s lifestyle? For Wagner, the answer to metric boatload of praise, many already under his belt, it’s no that question comes in the form in the program are turning wonder the freshman will play of all of the resources Michigan to Wagner to fill the void left at the next level again one day. has to offer, including allowing by last season’s top offensive Whether it be in the NBA like him to become a more well- weapons in Jordan Poole, his brother, former Michigan rounded human being. With Ignas Brazdeikis and Charles standout Moe Wagner, or back overseas, Franz Wagner will be the perspective of having Matthews. The wing’s basketball IQ, a professional basketball player. played professional basketball, So, why come to college in Wagner now appreciates a life passing ability, length and that does not solely focus on the defensive ability have excited the states at all? Surely learning many around Crisler Center, the American game as opposed sport. “(Last year) I played the which makes the news of his to the European style played a whole year of basketball, and recent injury so devastating for role in the decision, but Wagner I felt like it was really for the the program. Wagner fractured strongly asserts that becoming first couple of months, and I his wrist and will now miss the more well-rounded is a priority at this point in his life. enjoyed it,” Wagner said. “Not next four to six weeks. “I came here for a reason, and It’s a crucial blow for the having to go to school because I finished high school a year Wolverines early in what’s it’s not just to play basketball early, and that was really cool sure-to-be a transformative at this time,” Wagner said. “I for the first couple of months. season, but once Wagner steps really want to make the most But after a certain period of back into the lineup, his talents of my time here. I don’t want to time, you feel like, at least I felt will shine through. At least, think too much about the future like, I needed something more. that’s what associate coach Phil and stuff like that, I want to live in the now right now, and I And that’s part of why I came Martelli believes. “I would just suggest that if think that’s the only way to get here.” As a college freshman, anybody’s on the fence, if there better, really. If you think too Wagner enjoys spending time are tickets available, get your much about the future, it’s not in the dorms and meeting new tickets,” Martelli said, “because gonna help you.”