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Ron Weiser gives $10 million to fund construction of new real estate center
Regent donates funds to support academic expansion, fellowship MICHAL RUPRECHT Daily Staff Reporter
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily Denis McDonough, former White House Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama, discusses labor, immigration and foreign policy in the Annenberg Auditorium Wednesday afternoon.
Former Obama Chief of Staff talks U.S. labor policy at Ford school event
Denis McDonough talks labor, immigration and foreign policy to over 100 attendees JONAS GOMES For The Daily
More than 100 students had the opportunity to listen to current public policy thoughts from Denis McDonough, former White House Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama, during the event “New Frontiers: Labor, Immigration and Foreign Policy.” In the conversational event, McDonough and John
Ciorciari, director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center and associate professor of Ford School of Public Policy, discussed the state of labor markets in association with the U.S. economy and international affairs, as well as reflections on McDonough’s time at the White House. When asked what changes he believed would be needed to promote a more fair labor
market and include the strengths of individuals, McDonough responded with his hopes for the future of the market. “I’d like to see higher education become more affordable,” McDonough said. “Also, I’d like just to figure out a way for us to have a more nimble training and education opportunity over the course of an individual’s lifetime … So the question is
how do we make the rest of the training infrastructure more accessible, flexible and agile to respond to people’s lives, rather than making people drop their lives to try to get into the system.” Public Policy graduate student Kellen Datta was in attendance to learn more about McDonough’s role in the Obama administration and hear his thoughts on the labor market. See LABOR, Page 3A
University of Michigan administrators recently announced the Ross School of Business would launch a comprehensive real estate center during last week’s University Board of Regents meeting. The news came after the University received a $10 million gift from Regent Ron Weiser (R). LSA senior Kate Walker has taken three upper-level real estate courses offered to undergraduates. She said students like her will soon be able to take even more courses in real estate with the new center. “My first initial reaction was that I wouldn’t be here for that (because I’m graduating this semester),” Walker said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for those students coming in. ... I mean real estate is all around us. It’s not like life or death and being a doctor but it’s something that’s always going to be needed.”
Change at U of Arizona professor gives lecture on Michigan replacement for Hubble telescope joins CSG Marcia Rieke explained the updated version is more complex, powerful election STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CARTER HOWE For the Daily
New CSG campaign announces candidacy, platform emphasizes advocating for students ALEX HARRING Daily News Editor
Change At Michigan, a Central Student Government campaign focused on increasing the organization’s connection to students, announced its candidacy for the March election Wednesday night. In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Austin Glass, presidential candidate of Change At Michigan, said CSG has done work to better the experiences of students on campus. However, he said the organization should do more in the realm of advocating the needs of students to the University of Michigan administration. “In our best moments as an organization, we do really great things on behalf of students: we advocate for changes to policies that the University is promulgating that do not have the students’ best interests in mind and, in particular, not the best interests of students who don’t traditionally have a voice in administrative structures,” Glass said. See CSG, Page 2A
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Marcia Rieke, regents’ professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, spoke about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the upcoming successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, in a talk in the Michigan League on Wednesday. The lecture was part of Rieke’s reception of the department of astronomy’s Mohler Prize, which is awarded for excellence
in research on astronomy and astrophysics, and named after Orren Mohler, former head of University of Michigan observatories. Approximately 70 people were in attendance. Rieke began by talking about the current Hubble and explaining why a new space telescope was being developed. According to Rieke, the Hubble is not big or powerful enough to see the most distant galaxies. This is because it can only see a small part of the infrared spectrum. Rieke explained infrared light
is important for seeing distant objects because of a phenomenon called “redshift.” “The more distant an object, the more its light output is shifted to red wavelengths and it gets to the point where you can’t just rely on visible light, you have to go to longer wavelengths to the part of the spectrum beyond the red, called infrared,” Rieke said. Because of redshift and the discovery that the rate at which a galaxy moves away from earth is proportional to how far away it is from the earth, scientists
can figure out the age of galaxies from light. “So if we measure a spectrum … we know the velocity and therefore we know how far away the galaxy is and we know what its age was when the light was made,” Rieke said. While the Hubble in its current form can see objects formed up to 13.4 billion years ago, the new JWST, with its advanced infrared capabilities, will allow scientists to see even further into the past, giving them greater See HUBBLE, Page 3A See STEM, Page 3
In an email to The Daily, Engineering senior Daniel Banooni wrote that many Ross alumni have gone into real estate, including Stephen Ross, a billionaire businessman who recently announced plans to donate $100 million towards the construction of the University’s Detroit Center for Innovation. Banooni said he’s excited the program is being created, but it has been long overdue. “I think that Ross has been in need of a Real Estate program for a very long time,” Banooni wrote. “Stephen Ross himself is a guru of real estate, and the school for me almost represents success in the field. I am very jealous of the students that will have access to the resources that the new center will provide.” According to the Business School’s website, the new Weiser Center for Real Estate will offer “a suite of practiceoriented courses focused at the intersection of business and real estate.” See CENTER, Page 3A
DINING
Changes to budget cut dining hall hours Students struggle with restrictions, lack of alternative options for eating ISABELLA PREISSLE Daily Staff Reporter
Earlier this month, the Martha Cook Residence Hall’s Board of Governors sent out a revised 2020-2021 dining hall schedule to residents. The new dining plan will include a 17-meal plan Sunday through Friday, with no dining hall access on Saturdays. It will also continue to provide Deluxe Tea on Friday, and special dining events throughout the year. Currently, the Martha Cook dining hall is open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and has limited hours on weekends, while other dining halls on campus are open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays and on weekends from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for brunch and 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for dinner. With the current plan, Martha Cook residents aren’t able to swipe into other dining halls, except on Saturday nights when the Martha Cook dining hall isn’t serving dinner. With the new plan, residents wouldn’t be able to swipe into other dining halls at all.
HANNAH YOO/Daily Dr. Marcia Rieke discusses the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope for Mohler Prize Lecture at the Michigan League Wednesday evening.
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Vol. CXXIX, No. 79 ©2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A CLASSIFIEDS..............6A
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Annemarie Navar-Gill, Ph @annienavar The university has canceled my 3pm class today because there might be snow this evening. I always thought our class-in-any-weather policies at Umich were a lil’ over the top but this might be weirder?
also for if i ever die, I’m going to carry around a note to blame UMICH dual-factor authentication for my death
Kiara @kiaralchurch going to umich is not a personality trait but the only personality trait of every umich student is that they go to umich
annie fletcher @fletchabird my favorite part of going to umich is how often people mix up jordan peele and jordan poole
jenny siegel @ jennysiegel2 the only reason I want AirPods is so I’m not embarrassed in Ross anymore. seriously I feel like I’m being shamed #umich
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PAULINE RAJSKI/Daily Dr. Earl Lewis, Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies and Public Policy, discusses history, reparations and policy at the Ford School of Public Policy Wednesday afternoon.
Ann Arbor campaign office for Bloomberg vandalized
Spray paint reading ‘Corporate Pig’ not the first time billionaire former NYC mayor’s presence has been subject of backlash in city LIAT WEINSTEIN & HANNAH MACKAY Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter
The Ann Arbor campaign office of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was vandalized on Feb 13. The office said the words “corporate pig” were spraypainted on the window. The event was reported to the Ann Arbor Police Department shortly afterward. This is not an isolated incident, as various Bloomberg campaign offices across the country have been vandalized in the past several weeks, including some in Ohio, Utah, Tennessee and Illinois. On Feb. 16, the campaign reported that a sign reading “Eat the Rich” was put outside their office in Flint. Campaign manager Kevin Sheekey responded to vandalism at a Bloomberg office in Knoxville, Tenn., on Feb. 20 and other related incidents, including those in Michigan, in a statement
CSG From Page 1A “We need to be doing a whole heck of a lot more of that, and I think that we have the capacity to do a lot more of that.” Glass previously served as the CSG Speaker of the Assembly. He is currently a Rackham representative and chair of the
issued on Feb. 21. “Over the past week, we’ve seen similar attacks against Mike Bloomberg 2020 offices in multiple states,” Sheekey said. “Fortunately, no one has been injured. But this needs to end before someone gets hurt.” The Bloomberg Chicago office had the words “racist,” “sexist,” “GOP” and “oligarch” spray-painted across the front window on Sunday night. Sheekey issued another statement on Monday in response. “Yet again, one of our campaign offices has been vandalized with derogatory language — using the word ‘oligarch’ — in an act of hate,” Sheekey said. “We cannot, and will not, tolerate these acts. While we do not know who is directly responsible, we do know Senator Bernie Sanders and his campaign have repeatedly invoked this language, and the word ‘oligarch’ specifically when discussing Mike Bloomberg and his campaign.” Freeland Ellis, the Midwest regional press secretary
Rules Committee. Change At Michigan’s platform will center around combating sexual misconduct on campus and achieving carbon neutrality; increasing diversity, equity and inclusion; wellness; and student engagement. In the same vein, LSA sophomore Megha Jain, vicepresidential candidate of Change at Michigan, said one of
for the Sanders campaign, declined to comment on the vandalism in an email to The Daily. “No comment at this time but I’ll keep you posted,” Ellis wrote. Bloomberg has visited Michigan twice since he began his presidential campaign in November, holding a rally on Feb. 4 in Detroit. Having already opened offices in Flint, Ann Arbor, Warren and Bloomfield Hills, Bloomberg has made it clear that he intends to focus heavily on Michigan given its status as a swing state. This is not the first time Bloomberg has faced backlash in Ann Arbor. When the former New York City mayor delivered the University of Michigan Spring Commencement address in 2016, the crowd booed his criticism of safe spaces and microaggressions. “The fact that some university boards and administrations now bow to pressure and shield students from these ideas through ‘safe spaces,’ ‘code words’
the party’s goals over the course of the campaign is to engage as many students as possible, which will hopefully improve voter turnout. Voter turnout in the March CSG election has historically hovered at approximately 19 percent of the student body. Jain said she is hopeful students will share their opinions with the party so they
and ‘trigger warnings’ is, in my view, a terrible mistake,” Bloomberg said in 2016. “The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations — not run away from them. A microaggression is exactly that: micro.” Bloomberg took shots at Sanders in 2016 as well. During his speech in the Big House, Bloomberg told graduating students they shouldn’t trust people who promise to give them things for free. “When a populist candidate promises free college, free health care and a pony, or another candidate promises to make other countries pay for our needs, remember: those who promise you a free lunch will invariably eat you for breakfast,” Bloomberg said. “If there were simple solutions to complex problems, we wouldn’t have those problems.” Reporter Hannah Mackay can be reached at mackayh@ umich.edu. Daily News Editor Liat Weinstein can be reached at weinsl@umich.edu.
feel like they have a voice and are compelled to vote. “People are not going to vote for a government they don’t feel like is representing them, they don’t feel like is doing anything for them, so I will feel like our campaign did something successfully if that voter turnout rate goes up,” Jain said. See CSG, Page 3A
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LABOR From Page 1A “I think that the market itself is insufficiently transparent,” Datta said. “It leaves out a lot of people who may have the skills but are not able to advertise those skills because we advertise the job on credentials that two-thirds of the country does not have.” Datta said the discussion piqued her interest in the policies of the Obama presidency. “For the first part of the Obama administration, I was really young, so I didn’t know a lot about it,” Datta said. “Now, looking at it retrospectively, I feel like I have a lot more to learn.” When asked what she was excited about most with the event, Julia Schwarz, events and outreach manager at the Public Policy School, said she was looking forward to listening to the political criticisms proposed by McDonough. “I think just the breadth of the conversation. He’s not someone that’s just done one thing. He’s done many, many things and I think they’re going to cover a really wide range of topics which will be very interesting,” Schwarz said. Since the end of his term in 2017, McDonough has been involved at the Markle Foundation, where he is a senior adviser working to create a skills-based market that will allow all Americans to succeed in the digital economy. He is also an Executive Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. Retired diplomat John Fogarasi and Richard Corson, former director of the East Michigan U.S. Export Assistance Center
HUBBLE From Page 1A ability to figure out when the first stars were formed. Besides aiding scientists in figuring out when the first stars were formed, the increased infrared abilities of the JWST will also help scientists analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets, which are planets orbiting other stars, to see if they contain water and other important chemicals and could support life. Rieke then described the technical specifications of the telescope. It is designed for a five-year timeline but will carry enough supplies to last up to 14 years. Additionally, the
CENTER From Page 1A Students will have the opportunity to work directly with real estate firms through action-based learning programs like the Multidisciplinary Action Projects. The initiative will help develop the current real estate certificate program for graduate students and add a new undergraduate minor in real estate. In addition to courses and projects, the center will fund the Weiser Scholars Fellowship, through which six students will be offered access to student support
CSG From Page 2A “That means that we engaged with students. We engaged with organizations that felt like they had some skin in the game when they were looking at our campaign. They saw a policy that really spoke to them and that affected them and they felt like they had the ability to have a voice.” Jain does not have previous experience with student government on campus, though she pointed to her work with the Roosevelt Institute, Camp Kesem, Michigan Community
with the U.S. Commerce Department, were also in attendance. Fogarasi said he wanted to hear McDonough’s perspective as someone who worked closely with Obama as Chief of Staff to the President. “Both Richard and I have worked in careers in the U.S. government. Listening to an individual who has had a significant role in government is particularly interesting, but we’re both interested in international affairs,” Fogarasi said. When asked if they were looking for anything specific to hear, Fogarasi was eager to answer, given his past in the public sector. “He’s got such experience. And of course, there’s controversy today about how the White House operates,” Fogarasi said. “So it’s interesting to get his viewpoints on that and perhaps any suggestions and insights he has on going forward.” To conclude the event, McDonough gave some advice to students aspiring to work in public service. “President Obama sought me out particularly because of my view and oftentimes because he knew it was different than his,” he said. “So my expectation isn’t that I’ll win every argument. Who gets to work at a job where you get to win every argument? And if you do, you’re probably working in the wrong place.” McDonough urged students to be outspoken and ambitious. “My advice is to speak your mind,” McDonough said. “Be as smart as you can be. Be as passionate as you can be. Don’t put your light under the bushel. Put your light on top of the bushel.” Contributor Jonas Gomes can be reached at jaygomes@ umich.edu.
telescope will be cooled to the “low” temperature of 388 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooling the telescope this low is necessary to prevent the radiation from the telescope’s own heat from damaging the images it produces. Besides cooling the equipment, another engineering challenge in producing the telescope was fitting it into a rocket. The telescope could not fit into a rocket the way it was meant to operate so it will be folded up and then get into position, Rieke explained. “You can see the cutaway of a nose cone of a rocket,” Rieke said “You can kind of see that there’s a telescope…(it) doesn’t fit in very well. Well, how do you solve this problem? You turn your telescope into a piece of origami and you
and fellowship activities. Additional scholarships and paid internships will also be available. Peter Allen, lecturer at the Business School and adjunct lecturer at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, said the new real estate center is an important step to emphasize the field and attract prospective students. “I was very elated because this is something that I felt was really important and something that I’ve been working on for some ways for over 20 years,” Allen said. “It took (Dean) Scott DeRue and his relationship with Ron Weiser to make it happen. I give them all the credit Scholars Program and Graceedu. In marketing for Change At Michigan, the party has branded itself as a group of CSG “outsiders and insiders” committed to reorienting the organization’s role. Both Glass and Jain noted their experience working with the University on policy. Glass serves on the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, which is creating a list of recommendations for the University concerning climate change, and Jain noted her work on sexual misconduct policies. Jain said she hopes CSG can elevate student voices to ensure the University is working in their best
News
Thursday, February 27, 2020 — 3A
University subject of suit claiming racial discrimination Former senior administrative assistant alleges hiring practices denied her interview for position as research office administrator JULIA RUBIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Kertina Kimbrough, former senior administrative assistant at the University of Michigan, filed a lawsuit Feb. 19 alleging the University denied her a second interview for a position as research office administrator in the Department of Psychiatry due to racial discrimination. According to the lawsuit, the University posted the position in September 2018 and Kimbrough applied for the job that month. The research office administrator position required two to four years of experience performing general administrative work.
BUDGET From Page 1A The new plan would offer a 25-meal supplemental plan for $338.50, so each meal in the supplemental plan would average out to about $13.50 per swipe. This plan has prompted a negative response from some residents currently living in the building. One of them, LSA sophomore Salisha Baranwal, said she thinks this change further restricts an alreadyconstrained dining hall plan. “Usually the dining hall is open to suggestions but next year, they are cutting back their already super short hours to absolutely nothing on Saturdays
Kimbrough had worked for the University since 2015 and held a position as a senior administrative assistant. Four people interviewed for the position –– one other Black candidate and two white candidates. Of the interviewees, Kimbrough alleges she had the most education and administrative experience. The position also required at least a bachelor’s degree, and at the time of the interview, Kimbrough held both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The candidate hired for the position, who is white, does not hold a college degree. Kimbrough alleges her greater educational and administrative experience
made her more qualified for the position than the four other candidates yet she was denied a second interview based on race. Kayce Newcomb, administrator of the Department of Psychiatry and the named defendant in the case, awarded the position to the other candidate because she was a “better fit,” according to MLive. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the University had no further comment regarding the pending lawsuit. This is not the first time the University has faced a discrimination lawsuit. Professor Emily Lawsin and former Professor Scott Kurashige filed a lawsuit in
2016 against the University under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which included claims such as disparate treatment, discriminatory hiring practices and sex discrimination. In December 2019, a jury sided in favor of the University, saying it did not discriminate against Lawsin and Kurashige. Earlier this month, U-M Flint employee Heather Johnson filed a separate lawsuit against U-M Flint, claiming the university fired her after she advocated for better resources for the LGBTQ+ community on campus. Reporter Julia Rubin can be reached at julrubin@umich.edu.
— the dining hall won’t even be open at all,” Baranwal said. “Already so many people are complaining about hours being super short.” In an email to The Daily, Deborah Jansen, a member of the Martha Cook Board of Governors, referenced the budget in discussing the cut in hours. “We are not providing meal service on Saturdays as the budget from Dining to provide that service exceeds the amount received in room and board fees,” Jansen wrote.
in Martha Cook. The single rooms will all be moved to the deluxe single room rate, and the rates for double rooms will be reduced. LSA freshman Emilia O’Brien, another Martha Cook resident, commented on the financial burden of living in Martha Cook and potentially having to buy food from other places every Saturday. “I think the goal, in general, is to not have anyone turned away from Martha Cook because they cannot afford to buy food on Saturdays or they cannot afford the increase in the price of living here versus another dorm,” O’Brien said. “I think that is just another challenge for residents who want to live here but don’t
have the financial means.” The residents The Daily spoke to have suggested alternatives such as swipes into other dining halls included in the basic plan, meals on Saturday game days and basic unprepared food such as cereal or salad being available for students on Saturdays. According to Baranwal, the Martha Cook dining hall is already limited, and this new dining hall plan could be an issue for more than just lowerincome students. “I know one of my friends has to UberEat or Grubhub her meal every Saturday because her foot is broken and she can’t walk anywhere,” Baranwal said. Reporter Isabella Preissle can be reached at ivp@umich.edu.
According to Martha Cook residents, flyers sent out said changing the dining hall plan will adjust rates for rooms
fold it up so it will fit inside the nose cone and that is part of what makes this mission challenging.” Another difference between the Hubble and the JWST is the JWST will not be repairable like the Hubble was since it will be orbiting the sun about one million miles from the earth. Rieke said this isn’t a problem but just requires the team to conduct many tests to ensure the equipment functions properly. “It’s not really a big problem if you take the appropriate steps,” Rieke said. “Appropriate steps mean you need to design for a long lifetime and test it thoroughly. I have spent a lot of my recent lifetime testing part of this, testing some of that — (it) was exciting and fun, some of it was
scary, some of it was boring.” After tests in three different locations, the JWST will be launched into orbit from a rocket in French Guinea. Rieke asserted the rocket is one of the most reliable large rockets around and underscored that it will be the right kind for a mission of this gravity. “Nearly $9 billion worth of stuff will be going on a reliable controlled explosion,” Rieke said. “It’ll all work.” Though the tests occurred here on Earth, they involved extensive processes and were not without their own complications. A portion of testing in Houston happened during Hurricane Harvey, and though the telescope was safely secured, the hurricane
almost caused the team to run out the liquid nitrogen they were using to cool the telescope. If all goes to schedule, the JWST is set to be launched into orbit by the end of this year. Rackham student Matt Patrick, who studies gamma-ray detection, regularly attends talks from the Department of Astronomy. He said another thrill of the JWST coming into operation is the bold investment in science and research that it represents. “The engineering is really exciting (and so is) the willingness of the government and the science institutions to place a bet on these huge technologies — some of them not really proven yet,” Patrick said. LSA student Rhiannon Singer,
who majors in astronomy and extensively discussed the JWST in her astrophysics class, was excited to come to the event to hear about the new capabilities of this telescope.
for pulling off something so valuable for the students and especially for the future to beef up the real estate agenda at the University of Michigan.” Business School spokeswoman Bridget Vis wrote in an email to The Daily that the center will be housed in the Business School building in collaboration with other schools across campus, including Taubman College and the Ford School of Public Policy. Vis wrote a start date hasn’t been set because it will take time to hire new faculty and develop programs. More details will be announced in the coming months. Though the program
is still being developed, Allen said he believes some equivalent graduate courses may become available to undergraduates through the center. Allen teaches a real estate development course in which students develop project proposals that emphasize new transportation and green construction. He said incorporating climate change-based ideas into the program would be important. “The rebuilding of our growing cities and neighborhoods to deal with climate change, new means of mobility, new construction methods and sustainable, timeless architecture are
critical,” Allen said. Walker is in Allen’s real estate development class this semester and works at a commercial real estate firm. Walker said she was able to enroll in a graduate-level course this semester after she realized there weren’t any other undergraduatelevel courses in real estate. She said the center will make it easier for undergraduates to explore their passions in real estate. “Overall, I think it’s going to be a great opportunity,” Walker said. “I think it’s something that we needed for a while. You don’t realize how important real estate is until you get in it.” Banooni is also in Allen’s
course. He wrote the program could open more opportunities to students so they don’t have to rely entirely on internships and personal experiences. “There is zero doubt in my mind that more students will be getting involved in the real estate sector here at Michigan,” Banooni wrote. “If the administration of the center plays (its) cards right and markets the program to students all over the University, it could become one of the most coveted programs at Michigan.” Reporter Michal Ruprecht can be reached at mrup@ michigandaily.com.
really get the representation that they need at the University?” Glass said he is optimistic that Change at Michigan will bring in students who understand the potential impact CSG can have and are prepared to leverage that power in favor of students. He also noted the importance of having students with this mindset in the executive branch. “There are a lot of students who have come through CSG in the last two years who don’t take students seriously, who don’t take our role on campus seriously and don’t take the privilege that we have of being able to meet with
administrators and speak on behalf of students seriously,” Glass said. “We aim to change that.” With the announcement, Change At Michigan joins Mobilize, which announced its candidacy last week, in the race for control of CSG. Parties vying for CSG seats will campaign on campus and participate in a debate leading up to the election on March 25-26. LSA sophomore Sujin Kim, party chair of Change At Michigan and current representative of CSG, said the strength of Change’s members is what sets them apart from other parties in the race.
“We have deep experience, we have people from within the Assembly who are quality people who know what they’re doing, who have a record of advocating to the administration in a way that is appropriate, and we also have a lot of people from different organizations, even from outside of CSG,” Kim said. “It speaks to our team, our policy and it speaks to what we are here to do that we are surrounded by such quality people. And I think that really is something that people should think about.” News Editor Alex Harring can be reached at harring@ umich.edu.
interest. She highlighted the importance of this for communities whose voices are normally overlooked. “In this last year, I’ve seen that I’m not happy with a lot of the things that the University is doing, and I’ve looked for a lot of opportunities to be involved in changing that,” Jain said. “There are so many things that students have the power to be doing and to be changing, but it’s really just how do we actually make that connection between the administration and between Central Student Government, and how does CSG represent the entire campus? How does it in actuality and in policy represent groups that don’t
“I think that the biggest thing is … that we will be able to look back farther in time so we will be able to get more detailed information about the earliest galaxies, the earliest formed structures of our universe,” Singer said. “We may be able to see some of these early structures we’ve never seen before and that will give us a lot of information about how the universe actually came to be the way it is.” Contributor Carter Howe can be reached at tcbhowe@umich.edu
Opinion
4A — Thursday, February 27, 2020
SAM FOGEL | COLUMN
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MARY ROLFES | COLUMN
Examining the monopoly of The Vagina Monologues
O
ne of my biggest transitions from high school to my first college experience at Boston University was the change from a small, conservative Midwestern town to a large, liberal East Coast city. No longer limited by small-town resources or conventions, I felt free to embrace progressive ideas and discover ways to express them. As a high school theater kid, my expression often came through performances that were unfortunately limited to ensemble roles in family-friendly musicals. But in college, I had the opportunity to tell stories far outside the conventional realm — for example, my chance to share the importance of perseverance against all odds while playing a talking chicken from Brooklyn. But throughout my time onstage, I never took on what I then considered to be the pièce de résistance of unconventional theater — The Vagina Monologues. Written in 1996 by feminist Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues (TVM) is an episodic play based on interviews with hundreds of women about — you guessed it — vaginas. The play has since become a household name, and performing it is an unofficial right-of-passage for many college feminists. Fittingly, there are many opportunities to complete this ritual. The play is performed by organizations around the world during the annual V-Season, which is sponsored by a global non-profit called V-Day — founded by Ensler to end violence against women and girls. The University of Michigan group Students for Choice performed TVM annually up until 2018. U-M Dearborn staged a performance in 2019 and both Michigan State University and Ohio State University’s College of Medicine are participating in the current V-Season. Our neighbors in Ypsilanti, however, will not be taking part anytime soon. The Women’s Resource Center at Eastern Michigan University announced in 2018 it will no longer host productions of TVM, citing the exclusive nature of the play’s version of feminism: “Not all women have vaginas.” Mount Holyoke, an all-women’s college in Massachusetts, made a similar decision in 2015. After seeing the play for the first time in 2019 — at Boston University, my former institution — I was equally disappointed by the exclusive nature of the play, along with a litany of other issues. EMU
and Mount Holyoke have set examples other college and community organizations should consider following. While TVM was a monumental step forward in its time, its content is now outdated, no longer matching the messages or goals of modern feminism that embraces inclusion and intersectionality. In many ways, TVM is actually working against the modern progressive movement. We should focus on telling new stories that empower all women and reflect the ways class, race, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and many other identities intersect with womanhood. (It’s important to note that Students for Choice later preformed a spin-off of TVM in the Rackham Auditorium called Patchwork, a version that improved the representation of TVM’s outdated and narrow definition of womanhood.) The issues with the script are apparent. First, consider the title of the play. The centering of womanhood on vaginas is reductionist and minimizes women down to their reproductive organs. Vaginaessentialism is a major issue as well — the centrality of vaginas is exclusionary to women without vaginas and inconsiderate of nonwomen with vaginas. Within the monologues, there are problems as well. The play’s response to the sexual repression of the era tries to overcompensate by portraying women as perpetually hypersexualized. And for a play supposedly about vaginas, female desire within the script is often phallocentric. Moreover, with V-Day claiming to fight against sexual violence, it is absolutely hypocritical that the play continues to include a scene titled “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could” which glorifies the grooming and rape of a 16-year-old girl by a 24-year-old woman. This is even more reprehensible when considering one of the only mentions of a same-sex relationship between women in the entire play is predatory and non-consensual. Finally, while the play is lacking in representation of race and ethnicity, any scenes that do come from international perspectives often pander to racist American stereotypes. The play and the organization, V-Day, have been criticized for colonialism, and the script’s correlation of international perspectives with violence — compared to the U.S. perspective with pleasure — supports this criticism.
The play might be more of a fit for modern feminism if this content could be revised or cut entirely at the discretion of the performers. However, staging a performance of TVM means adhering to all of V-Day’s rules and guidelines — one of which is that no edits can be made to either the monologues or their introductions, “AT ALL.” This rule, along with the fact that the script has scarcely changed since 1996, reflects a stubbornness on the part of Ensler and the organization. While another guideline states the importance of striving for diversity, it’s impossible to praise this effort when the organization refuses to redress issues within the play itself. If V-Day were truly committed to diversity and representation, they would alter the script to reduce exclusivity, colonialism and vagina-essentialism. Better yet, they would sponsor the performance of new plays from new perspectives every year. They have already taken a step in the right direction by offering other event options — unfortunately, TVM continues to be the primary production. Although Ensler acknowledges the play’s original message does not reflect modern feminism, she defends the continued performance of the play, claiming, “one play can’t be everything.” Ensler is right: It’s impossible to expect any one piece of media to encompass the whole of the human experience. But if one play can’t be everything, then one play shouldn’t be allowed to take up so much space. We need to make room for a greater variety of perspectives, ensuring no one perspective overpowers the others — especially not an exclusive one. TVM is a relic of a former era. It debuted at a time when it was nearly impossible to talk about vaginas publicly, and for that, it deserves its due credit. But today, its prevalence occupies space that could be better served sharing stories of those who have long been underrepresented. We can still be inspired by TVM to create and perform artwork that flies in the face of convention and allows for genuine selfexpression. But V-Day should use its platform to give a voice to the voiceless, rather than telling the same outdated story again and again. It’s time to nix the monologues — womanhood is a story worth being told in stereo. Mary Rolfes can be reached at morolfes@umich.edu.
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
One half of a two-leg race
he rat race continues. The Democratic primaries are as chaotic as when they started, despite candidates like Andrew Yang and Deval Patrick dropping out and congealing the vote. Michael Bloomberg, despite missing the deadline for the first four states, has paid his way into double digit polls and is determined to unseat his longtime friend and golf partner, Donald Trump. Understandably, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding this election cycle. It’s almost excessive, with the divide between moderates and progressives of the Democratic Party and its rabid infighting causing even more coverage. But I think much of the media, especially those who lean left, are focusing too much on the wrong election. Of course, the Democratic nominee is an important aspect of the 2020 race, but many people are forgetting the bigger picture amid the selection process. People seem to think that running against the orange man will be a cakewalk. After all, he’s an incredibly flawed candidate with plenty of skeletons in his closet. But don’t be too sure. Winning against Trump will not be easy, as much as you may want it to be. The Republican primaries are looking to be an easy sweep for Trump, despite former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld vying for the nomination as well. It’s not too common for an incumbent president to be challenged within their own party, but don’t let a small wing of dissidents persuade you that they’ll vote blue instead. Trump’s turnout in New Hampshire was at an astounding 129,696 votes, nearly doubling Obama and Bush’s numbers as incumbents. Trump manages to stir up an energetic base that’s unrivaled by many candidates across the aisle. Joe Biden, who was thought to be the frontrunner for the first months of the primary race, pales in comparison when it comes to passionate voters. It’s utterly pathetic. Rising star Pete Buttigieg, who shocked the nation with his turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire, can’t meet the numbers the incumbent has. His 4,500 attendees in Utah doesn’t match Trump’s 11,000 attendees (not 50,000 like he claims) in New Hampshire. Amy Klobuchar’s campaign, despite its growing momentum, only has crowds that number about 1,000 people. The only candidate to truly
have the energy to rival Trump seems to be Bernie Sanders, with over 17,000 people showing up at his rally in Washington state. It’s not entirely fair to compare crowd sizes from states with vastly different demographics, but 11,000 in a state as small as New Hampshire should set off alarms for the Democrats. In the 2016 primary, Sanders drew larger crowds than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but she still won the nomination. Rallies can be misleading. But, one can still evaluate the enthusiasm and energy behind a candidate’s campaign, and many of the competitive Democrats simply can’t gather crowds. The impression that the election will be easy is an intuition formed by unfavorable polls and nonstop criticisms of him and his policies. Trump has been consistently unpopular for most of his four years, but things are starting to shift. Against all odds, even through his impeachment in the House, the president’s approval is at the highest it’s been since his election. His approval is now in the margin of many other two-term presidents before their re-election. One of the “strengths” of his campaign is economic growth. Even if the economic voter is becoming less of a factor, I’d imagine many people still weigh their vote heavily on how they think the economy is doing. The stock market has been on a perpetual rise since 2013, hitting all-time highs consistently. Trump loves to take credit for a better economy, citing the stock market and job creation. The validity of his claims is, of course, questionable. A similar period of 30 months under Obama’s presidency actually saw more jobs created than Trump, 6.5 million compared to 5.8 million. The stock market is doing well, yes, but it’s almost delusional to believe that it has any real impact on working people. The stock market has seen a growth of 42 percent under Trump’s presidency, but wages have only increased by 9 percent. But despite the facts, Trump has seen increased support due to his trickle-down policies. In a recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, 56 percent of people looked favorably upon his economy. It’s a tall order convincing people to vote for limits on an economy they think is doing well, and Democrats need to find a way to combat his claims. Trump is still viewed as unfavorable by women and people
of color, just like in 2016. But it would be a foolish assumption to think their votes are guaranteed. Despite his egregious sexism, he managed to receive 52 percent of white women’s votes in 2016. Only white women, mind you, but that’s higher than one would expect. The same goes for Latinos, surprisingly. Black voters consistently dislike Trump, but Latino voters have been polling at 30 percent favorable for the incumbent president. It doesn’t sound like much — a majority still unwilling to vote for him — but the Democrats should be more concerned. It’s a bad habit for the Democrats to take the votes of women and people of color for granted. Despite their claims to represent the interests of marginalized groups, there is an element of racism that lets people believe the voting bloc is just a homogenous and guaranteed vote. But with the margins of victory for presidential elections in recent years getting smaller and smaller, every vote counts. Some of the frontrunners in the 2020 primaries are not doing well with people of color, specifically Buttigieg and Klobuchar. If the nomination goes to a candidate that can’t inspire non-whites to come out and vote, it could prove to be an Achilles heel for Democrats. It worries me that so many people are taking this election for granted. It’s not hard to imagine Trump losing, but we said the same thing in 2016. Contemporary politics has proven to be the era of political upsets. Polls can be egregiously misleading and predictions can be horribly incorrect. Even within this election cycle, we’ve seen Biden slide from the frontrunner to a position in which his odds now seem insurmountable. This election needs to be taken seriously, and Trump needs to be taken seriously. Even though Trump may be playing tic-tac-toe rather than 4-D chess, even if he seems like an incompetent fool, even in the likelihood that his win was a f luke — a demagogue is still a demagogue. And if there’s one thing fearmongers do best, it’s persisting in the face of reality. Take at least this with you: Don’t get comfortable. Sam Fogel can be reached at samfogel@umich.edu.
KIANNA MARQUEZ | COLUMN
Ann Arbor should prioritize its transit development
L
ast fall, Ann Arbor’s development in these proposed Planning Commission was ways. We need to recognize how pursuing these met with enthusiasm from advantageous developments could be residents to establish for the overall future of more high-density Ann Arbor. zoning outside the In general, the downtown area. In integration of public essence, this ordinance transportation into a would enable more city’s infrastructure is infrastructure to be beneficial to the city’s constructed both environmental quality. inside and outside In improving air quality, the downtown area. reducing greenhouse In particular, the KIANNA gas emissions and commission expressed MARQUEZ saving energy, the use its intention to increase density along Ann Arbor’s transit of public transportation causes less corridors. Community members damage to the environment than have approved of this for the individual transportation methods. constructing environmental benefits of public Simultaneously, transportation. Others have also felt various types of public transportation reluctant to proceed with the city’s promotes more compact urban desultory transit system, advocating development, decreasing the overall for the improvement of Ann Arbor’s demand for individual travel and current transit system before promoting green development. building infrastructure tailored to it. Considering that Ann Arbor has In the past several months, the contributed more than 2.21 metric Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tons of carbon emissions since 2010, of Southeast Michigan and other the city should consider reforming municipal organizations involved infrastructure around mobility and in Detroit have been pushing for mass transit for the environmental the city of Ann Arbor to upgrade compensation it owes. By designing and constructing its transit. Ann Arbor has been asked to join them in pursuing a accessible transit corridors, the regional mobility testing corridor city government could promote the that runs along Michigan Avenue development of more affordable from Washtenaw County to Wayne housing in Ann Arbor. In making County. However, the Ann Arbor transit corridors accessible to City Council has avoided addressing more portions of Washtenaw the topic and removed it from the County, the city could encourage agenda for their January meeting. widespread usage of public In an effort to gather feedback on the transportation and ultimately RTA’s ideas for transit development connect a greater proportion from Ann Arbor to Detroit, regional of residential communities. At transit leaders even outlined the $10 the same time, residential areas billion plan to Ann Arbor community may see an increase in housing members this past summer — a plan opportunities as the city expands that the council appears to have high-density zoning in anticipation of attracting a large number ignored. Given the council’s reluctance to of residents to our city and the consider the development of new Detroit Metropolitan Area. The mass public transit systems, it’s act of constructing reliable and necessary to consider the benefits extensive transit corridors in and consequences of introducing Ann Arbor seems to mirror the them. More importantly, we must massive cultural development reach a consensus about what to do. of the modern community here. There are numerous advantages and Thus, the city government could disadvantages to pursuing transit ultimately improve its population’s
overall satisfaction by installing these developments in Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit. Despite the advantages of transit developments and the subsequent infrastructural developments that could follow, it’s critical to question if this type of urban development is even capable of benefitting Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit as these regions stand today. Given the history of Detroit’s public transportation shortcomings, many seem reluctant to skip fixing the public transportation system before beginning to implement it throughout the region. Others feel that developing public transportation in Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit is not the solution that our communities need to make these cities better. Instead, people are prioritizing their focus on more pressing issues, such as education and public safety. In the same way, some lament that the scope of public transit developments is counterintuitive to the preservation of Ann Arbor’s integrity, a small city whose connection to homegrown culture and local history could take priority over developments for the future. Even considering some of these drawbacks, it’s important to understand that times are changing and the way the Ann Arbor community could put our city in a position to withstand the test of time is to invest in its future, which comes with plans on how to improve and develop its infrastructure. It’s important to reminisce on the past to understand how we got to where we are today, but it’s altogether more realistic that we facilitate Ann Arbor’s transition toward being a city of the future. Thus, with the proper considerations and projected outcomes, we should be working to establish and normalize these modes of mass transportation that have been an object of advancement by city and regional leaders for years. Kianna Marquez can be reached at kmarquez@umich.edu.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 27, 2020 — 5A
Defense helping inconsistent offense RISP struggles plaguing Michigan BRENDAN ROOSE
JARED GREENSPAN
It had been nearly eight minutes since Michigan’s last field goal. Early in the fourth quarter against Michigan State on Sunday, the Wolverines’ offense looked completely dysfunctional. They made just one field goal the entire second half up to that point, and turned the ball over 10 times in the third quarter alone. They drew fouls, but only made one free throw each trip to the line. Then, with 6:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, sophomore forward Naz Hillmon drove to the hoop, hit a layup, drew a foul and hit the resulting free throw to finally end the drought. The threepoint play was necessary to get the offense going again in Michigan’s 65-57 win over the Spartans. But even more important was what happened on the other side of the floor during those eight minutes. A minor scoring drought can quickly turn into a disaster or cost a team the game if the defense can’t get stops. And although Michigan State did score 13 points during that drought, the Wolverines’ defense made enough key plays to still emerge ahead at the end of it. To be clear, Michigan isn’t a bad offensive team. Its 71 points per game put it at sixth in the Big Ten — not great, but adequate enough to win games. It just has a tendency to go through long scoring droughts like against Michigan State, and that’s where its strong defense becomes even more crucial. “(We focused on) going on defense and just really trying to get those stops,” Hillmon said. “Really just taking pride in our defense, making sure we had our rotations, and just taking away what they were doing, because of course that run there was something that we weren’t looking forward to.” Nobody exemplified that defensive prowess more than
Across the first six innings of Saturday’s game against Iowa State, the Michigan softball team’s offense was largely invisible, mustering only one run on five hits. And yet the Wolverines were staring down the last of the seventh inning, attempting to mount a furious comeback. The first three batters of the inning reached base. Down 5-1, the next hitter would both represent the tying run and signal the return to the top of the batting order. Any cautious optimism that such a situation accrued, though, soon gave way to disappointment. Three consecutive baserunners were followed by three consecutive outs. Ballgame. The fateful final inning against Iowa State was a microcosm of Michigan’s weekend failures at the dish. It painted an all too familiar scene of stranding baserunners on a weekend where the Wolverines hit at a lowly .214 (6-for-28) clip with runners in scoring position. In prime scoring opportunities, the bats were failing, making the lack of runs no surprise. Michigan was held to one run or less in three of its four games. These struggles have little to do with ability. Across the season’s first ten games, the Wolverines hit .300 (30-for-100) in the same situations — a far more respectable figure. Rather, according to Michigan coach Carol Hutchins, it’s an issue rooted in mental inconsistencies. “I think it had to do a lot with too much being in their head, whatever was in their head,” she said. Added sophomore catcher Hannah Carson: “We may have been thinking about too many things.” Admissions like these are not atypical of a scuffling softball team. Individual slumps have a tendency to spiral, snowballing into a greater problem. Players will often place added pressure on themselves to perform and send themselves into
Daily Sports Writer
Daily Sports Writer
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Michigan’s defense has stepped up when its offense hits scoring droughts.
senior guard Akienreh Johnson. Coming off a strong defensive performance against Illinois where she tallied six steals, a block and two defensive rebounds, she was given the unenviable task of defending Spartan guard Taryn McCutcheon — the team’s best passer and second-leading scorer. During those eight scoreless minutes for Michigan, Johnson locked down McCutcheon, holding her to just four points and one assist. Like in her six-steal performance against the Illini, Johnson used her 6-foot frame to suffocate 5-foot5 McCutcheon. “Akienreh is just an amazing defender,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “And she was on McCutcheon all day and just did an incredible job.” Beyond Johnson’s lockdown one-on-one defense, the Wolverines have gotten a boost from their consistent ability to rebound the ball. Their average rebound margin of plus-7.3 is second-best in the Big Ten and 28th in the country. This level of rebounding limits opponents’ possessions and keeps them from getting second-chance opportunities. That showed in a big way
Sunday, when Michigan outrebounded Michigan State 49-29 and allowed just 10 offensive rebounds all game. Once again, that was a continuation of the Wolverines’ effort against Illinois, where Michigan won the rebounding battle, 35-27. Hillmon, of course, has been most effective off the glass with 10 and 13 rebounds in the last two games, but freshman center Izabel Varejão has also lent a hand. In just 17 minutes Sunday, she pulled in 7 rebounds — 16.8 percent of all missed shots while she was on the floor. “Hillmon was beating us up and down the floor,” Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant said. “We worked on that. We know what the kid can do. The shot goes up, you better have two or three people around her. She would just go and get the rebound, even in the second half.” Those eight minutes without a field goal are a problem in their own right. As Michigan enters the Big Ten Tournament and likely the NCAA Tournament, it will only get harder for it to survive if it can’t avoid massive scoring droughts. But if it can’t avoid them, at least it has a defense that can help withstand them.
(We focused on) ... just really trying to get those stops.
prolonged funks, estranged from their traditional approach at the plate. “Hitting is contagious,” Hutchins said. “When nobody hits, when people swing at bad pitches, it’s amazing. They catch it like they catch the flu.” The first step of breaking out of a slump is diagnosing its cause. The Wolverines are confident they’ve done that. Figuring out how to tackle it is a different beast, but they believe they’ve found a solution to that too. “Just keeping the game simple,” Carson said. “Not worrying about who our competitor is and just focusing on one pitch at a time. Just using that will help to get the job done.” One-pitch softball is a mantra that Michigan has embraced since the offseason. Its message stresses staying in the moment and places an emphasis on focusing on what the batter can control — the next pitch. The batter can’t control the situation she encounters. With the focus of one-pitch softball, situations like batting with runners in scoring position are meant to be ignored. It’s served as both a calling card and a crutch throughout the early portion of the season. Now, onepitch softball is an approach the Wolverines are making a concerted effort to rediscover. “I don’t think there’s onepitch focus,” Hutchins said of the weekend. “Because what’s the difference between having runners on base and having no runners on
base? The ball doesn’t know, the bat doesn’t know, well who knows? Well, the hitter knows.” In practice this week, Hutchins had her players partake in what she calls a competitive hunting pitches drill. The players took turns batting and registered points when they hit the ball well; the ones who accumulated the most points would win. It’s a drill that embraces the basics — no situations, no outside noise. All the batter had to do was focus on hitting the ball. During bats with runners in scoring position, the batter’s attention might stray away from the single pitch, other thoughts clouding their head. The drill helps the Wolverines blot out these thoughts, better preparing them to hit with runners in scoring position. This simplicity to hitting is something Hutchins feels the team lost track of in stretches over the weekend. After a five-run outburst in the opening inning against Liberty on Sunday, for instance, Michigan seemed to have fixed its woes, only for nine straight Wolverines to be retired to close the game. “All of a sudden, we have several innings in a row of poor at-bats, of out, out, out,” Hutchins said. “Getting ourselves out.” A repeat of last weekend’s offensive doldrums is something Michigan can ill-afford, especially against the steeper competition that awaits in the Judi Garman Classic. It’ll soon be seen whether a re-emphasis on the basics of hitting pays any dividends.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan softball team hit .214 with RISP in its four games last weekend.
Freshman Burton embracing cold weather ‘M’ wins fourth-straight WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
AIDAN WOUTAS Daily Sports Writer
On a frigid winter day earlier this month, the Wilpon Complex came back to life after nearly eight months of dormancy. Through the steadily falling snow, the Michigan baseball team dashed back and forth between its locker room and the Oosterbaan Field House where it was holding a scrimmage. It was northern baseball at its finest. But in a sport dominated by teams from the South and West, it’s rare for a team running inside to practice to be nationally ranked at all, let alone No. 1 — where the Wolverines were ranked last week. Indeed, in the 40 years before Michigan’s run last season, teams from north of the 40th parallel only qualified for the College World Series 27 times out of a potential 328. Many recruits from baseball hotbeds are hesitant to leave their home regions and take the risk of playing in the cold. Freshman third baseman Ted Burton, who hails from Huntington Beach, Calif., wasn’t one of them. “I wanted something new, and I wanted to step out of that California bubble that I have been part of my whole life,” Burton said. “I was looking for a different kind of people or even just a different experience and different setting, so I could see something new that not everyone gets to see.” Michigan coach Erik Bakich, a California native himself, has an interesting tendency when talking about his players. He often goes out of his way to note that a player is from his home state. “Our California guys have always been able to get a lot of reps in,” he commented earlier this month when talking about Michigan’s characteristically chilly winter weather. Bakich has been effective in drawing non-northern players like Burton to Ann Arbor. Eight
members of the Wolverines’ roster are from the Golden State, more than any other except for Michigan. He’s passionate about breaking the mold. “It’s not just Michigan baseball but cold weather baseball, northern baseball in general where sometimes the perception is your program has been hidden under a rock or just hasn’t been relevant,” Bakich said. “It can be relevant … Sometimes you just need something magical to happen.” Burton, for his part, has bought into Bakich’s mindset. It’s evident in the way he avoids talking about himself and always defers to the team’s needs — a common trait for this group of players. “I just want to be someone who will compete, play for the team and find a way to win, whether that’s laying down a bunt or putting a ball in for extra-base hits,” Burton said. “I’ll just do whatever is necessary to put us on top in the
end.” It was notable he specifically pointed to notching extra-base hits for his team, since doing so has been a challenge for the Wolverines this season. In its 8-5 win over Cal Poly on February 15 — a matchup the team will relive this weekend — Michigan didn’t have a single extra-base hit. In light of that, Burton noted the team needs to be more aggressive with its hitting. That means making contact with good pitches with less than two strikes and remaining effective with two strikes. At times, the Wolverines’ batters have struggled by letting those early pitches go to waste and then having to find any way possible to get the ball in play. Once again, he was of the same mind as his coach. Bakich diagnosed the problem similarly after last weekend’s series loss. The two have worked quite well together since Burton arrived in Ann Arbor.
I wanted to step out of that California bubble.
“He’s a great person … and he’s taught us a lot of life lessons along the way that I don’t think many people can,” Burton said. “He’s turning young boys into men. “On the field he knows what he’s doing and you know damn well he’s going to bring out the best in you.” Burton’s performance so far indicates he intends to be a presence at the plate. He knocked his first collegiate career home run in Saturday’s 14-2 win over the Huskies. On the infield, too, he has proven to be reliable. He’s worked well with the defense’s anchor, junior shortstop Jack Blomgren, as well as sophomore second baseman Riley Bertram to give the pitching staff adequate backup. Burton will have a chance to build on his strong start as the Wolverines head west to his home state for the next eight games. He sees the trip as just another chance to prove himself and validate his choice to play for Michigan. “I’m excited and I’ll be seeing some old friends,” Burton said, “but I’m ready to compete and show them what Northern baseball is all about.”
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
The Michigan baseball team has to internally embrace the cold weather that many believe puts them at a disadvantage.
Big Ten conference title SHIRA ZISHOLTZ Daily Sports Writer
Exactly a year ago, things were looking pretty great for Michigan’s women’s gymnastics team. The Wolverines had taken the Elevate the Stage meet by storm, winning a third-consecutive regular season Big Ten title, earning the second best overall bars score in program history and then-freshman Natalie Wojcik scoring her first ever perfect 10 with a Yurchenko 1.5 vault performance, the first given to Michigan on the event since 2011. You would think, logistically, nothing could top that weekend. You would be wrong. Fast forward to this year’s Elevate the Stage, where No. 9 Michigan was not favored to win the meet against No. 7 Minnesota, No. 24 Maryland, Penn State and Michigan State. What they proceeded to do was nothing short of absolutely electric. “It was incredible,” said freshman Nicoletta Koulous. “We just felt that this was going to be a good meet for us.” Michigan took the floor first, with Koulos in the leadoff spot scoring a career-high 9.850. The Wolverines continued to execute, with all scores in the event being at least a 9.850. Sophomore Natalie Wojcik (9.900) and freshman Gabby Wilson (9.925) both started streaks of four straight scores of 9.900 or higher. Michigan finished the floor event with a season-high 49.525. The dominance continued on vault, where three Wolverines earned career-high scores. Sophomore Abby Heiskell scored a 9.925, Koulos landed a 9.900 and sophomore Abby Brenner had a 9.950. Wojcik scored a 9.950, as well, leading Michigan
to another season-high with 49.600. A huge bars rotation extended the Wolverines’ lead and earned them their third season-high score this meet with a 49.400. Senior Maggie O’Hara scored a career-high 9.875 and Wojcik tied a career high to close off the rotation with a 9.950. Michigan finished the meet on beam. With the first three scores in the low 9.8s, Funk stepped up with a 9.900, and Wojcik and Heiskell both earned careerhighs with a 9.975 and a 9.925, respectively. “(Michigan coach) Bev (Plocki) told us to come in here and be sisters and have each others’ backs,” Koulos said. “And I think that’s exactly what we did. “I just play my role on the team, and I do what I can to help. After my floor and vault, my job was to be the loudest I could be for the team.” With an allaround score of 197.950, Michigan clinched its fourth straight Big Ten regular season championship, and Team 44 wrote its name in the record books with a program-high score. “This meet just shows we’re definitely a team to be reckoned with,” Koulos said. Wojcik finished the night with a 39.775, which is the seventh highest all-around score in program history and her personal career-high. “Going into this meet, we knew it was the biggest meet of our season so far and we knew we were going to need to be one cohesive unit so we really focused on that,” Wojcik said. “We are a strong team no matter who is in the lineup. “Today is everybody’s win – everyone who cheered for us and everyone who helped us along the way.”
This meet shows we’re ... a team to be reckoned with.
Sports
6A — Thursday, February 27, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘M’ prepping for Badgers’ shooting Morgan helping replace Lambert MOLLY SHEA
CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer
Daily Sports Writer
On Thursday night, styles and strengths will clash. The Wolverines welcome Wisconsin to Crisler Center in the two teams’ one and only meeting this season. While the Badgers may lack a top-25 ranking and household name, they are currently tied for third in the Big Ten — a game ahead of Michigan in the crowded race for a double-bye in next month’s conference tournament. One of the keys to Wisconsin’s success this year has been its 3-point shooting. The Badgers rank second in the conference, behind only the Buckeyes, in 3-point field goals per game and 3-point shooting percentage. And, over its last five games, Wisconsin is shooting 39.3 percent beyond the arc. “It’s challenging,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “They spread you out. They have guys who can make 3-pointers not just from a step behind the line but like two to four steps behind the three. It’s gonna be important that we guard the 3-point line and expect long rebounds.” Guarding the 3-point line is something the Wolverines have specialized in this season. Howard’s extensive NBA background has unsurprisingly taught him the importance of limiting opponents’ opportunities behind the arc. He’s instilled that defensive thinking into his players this season — so much so that through the first half of the season, Howard refused to send help on opposing post players for fear of leaving open looks on the perimeter. So far it’s worked, as Michigan has allowed the 10th-fewest 3-point field goals in the county and is holding opponents to just 30.3 percent from deep. “Our guys are able to adapt with whatever the philosophy was before to this year,”
Jimmy Lambert’s season was peaking at the perfect time. When the second half of the Michigan hockey team’s season started, he was ready to put the past behind him. Lambert’s two years with the team have had their fair share of highs and lows. Last season, he led all freshmen in points despite not scoring his first goal until Jan. 11. His sophomore campaign started differently. Lambert netted a goal in just the second weekend series of the year. Then he hit a slump. Three weekends ago, Lambert broke the floodgates open. With the Big Ten playoffs just around the corner, the timing of his upswing was critical. He tallied six points in the series against Wisconsin — five assists and one goal. But he also suffered an injury that caused him to miss the next weekend against Michigan State. “He just started to find his groove,” Michigan coach Mel Pearson said. “Obviously had the big weekend against Wisconsin, the big numbers, and then he gets hurt. And it’s just been a struggle for him to get back since then.” Now with Lambert out for the season after getting injured again in Saturday’s game against Notre Dame, Pearson is staring face to face with a question that haunted him in the first half of the season. Who’s going to step up in the absence of an injured player? Pearson already knows the answer: redshirt junior forward Luke Morgan. When Lambert missed the series against the Spartans, Morgan slotted into center with forwards Jake Slaker and Nick Granowicz on the wings. Throughout the season, Morgan has rotated between both of the forward positions. In this situation, his versatility is his strength. It means the responsibilities that come with
EMMA MATI/Daily
Michigan coach Juwan Howard is wary of Wisconsin’s offensive patience.
Howard said. “We have smart players who have high IQ’s. But it takes a lot of reps and a lot of practice and film in order to grasp the defensive philosophy that I have. “Our thing is we just want to make sure we get a hand-ball contest on every shot whether its inside the arc or outside the arc.” Wisconsin will undoubtedly test the Wolverines’ competence in this regard. The Badgers don’t have one or two prolific sharpshooters, but rather a handful of capable ones. Five Wisconsin players have hit at least 25 threes this season, meaning Michigan’s defenders will have to be on their toes at all times. “They do a great job of sharing the basketball,” Howard said. “They’re very patient when it comes to getting into their sets and running their offense. They want the defense to make a mistake. It’s important for us to be very disciplined defensively.” The two teams also differ greatly from a tempo perspective. While Howard has encouraged his team to push the ball offensively and play a fast-paced brand of basketball, the Badgers
are quite the opposite, ranking 342nd in the country in adjusted tempo according to KenPom. “Their pace of play stands out,” senior center Jon Teske said. “They play really slow. But they’re very efficient with what they do. They use the whole shot clock. They like to throw the ball down low and have very good bigs who are capable scorers. And if they don’t have anything they’ll throw it out to their 3-point shooters.” In what could easily be considered a trap game for Michigan ahead of its trip to Ohio State on Sunday, expect Wisconsin to try to lull the Wolverines to sleep before striking from beyond the arc. Thursday night will be a clash of strengths and styles — a clash Michigan isn’t overlooking. “When the ball moves, we all move,” Teske said. “We know if someone makes a mistake, the next guy will be right there to step up. We trust each other to be in the right spots so we can get that defensive rebound and get out in transition and run. “They’re very balanced on offense. It’ll be a challenge for us, but we’ll be ready for them.”
They’re very balanced on offense. It’ll be a challenge.
playing center opposed to the wing aren’t foreign to him, and the position switch is much easier and more seamless. “It’s not too difficult,” Morgan said. “I do it a lot. It’s just making sure you’re back defensively more. Like in the corners of the D zone, winning battles there instead of staying up at your point. It’s just a small adjustment that you have to think about a little bit.” But more than Morgan’s ability to easily fill the void at center left by Lambert, is how well his play compliments that of his new linemates. Slaker’s a shooter. He can put pucks on net and generate scoring chances. Granowicz is gritty; he works hard in front of the net and he’s not afraid of playing physically. Morgan brings speed. “You’ve got all the things you’re looking for to have a successful line,” Pearson said. “You’ve got some experience, you’ve got some youth. (You’ve) got everything.” Two weekends ago, the line proved itself against Michigan State in its debut. Slaker scored a goal assisted by his linemates. And Pearson knew the combination he’d thrown together was a suitable replacement for Lambert in his absence. Besides Morgan’s quick adjustment to playing at the
role of center, there are other aspects that have helped make the transition easier. Namely, familiarity with his linemates. This isn’t Morgan’s first time playing alongside Slaker or Granowicz. And with Lambert done for the season, it won’t be the last. In the upcoming series against No. 18 Minnesota, Morgan’s line will take the ice. Pearson’s confident in their chemistry. He’s also confident that the line playing on the big ice will be a benefit. Big ice means a bigger space to work with when moving the puck, especially in the offensive zone. More space means it’s harder for defenders to judge the angle at which to approach an offensive skater. This makes quick players like Morgan, Slaker and Granowicz harder to defend. After scoring only one goal last weekend against Notre Dame, the Wolverines need to find an answer on offense if they want to have home ice in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Pearson’s confident that Morgan, Granowicz and Slaker can help with that. “I thought they played well at Michigan State together,” Pearson said. “They’ve been together before so they’ve got some continuity with them. I think the big ice, those guys all skate pretty well, that’ll be an advantage for them.”
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Redshirt junior forward Luke Morgan has filled Jimmy Lambert’s absence.
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Release Date: Thursday, February 27, 2020
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Ottoman bigwigs 5 Wildly 9 Peaks 14 At hand 15 Animated explorer 16 Patterned fabric 17 Authentic piece of a holy relic? 19 Comedian Izzard 20 Sound investments? 21 Like some deliveries 23 Indy guide 25 She walked into Rick’s gin joint 26 Disastrous 29 Comedian Garofalo 31 Folk legend Phil 32 __ Jose 33 Connects with 36 Arles article 37 __ West Records: Nashville label 38 Rosy-fingered goddess who rises in the east 39 AirPod spot 40 Get back in business 42 Product prefix that evokes winter 43 Die down 44 Herbie, in Disney films 46 Outset 47 They don’t last 49 Part of Curaçao 51 Rather 53 Apparel brand with a spinnaker logo 57 Mesh 58 Biblical pronouns read by James Earl Jones? 60 Red-pencil 61 December 24 and 31 62 “At Last” singer James 63 Georgia team, in sports headlines 64 Take a chance 65 Hoarse laugh DOWN 1 Tiny colonists 2 Structural engineering piece
3 Chills and fever 4 Tibetan leaders 5 Specially formed 6 Saskatchewan city with a 34-foot animal statue named Mac at its tourist info center 7 NHL great Bobby 8 Dodge City native 9 “Up and __!” 10 Cough medicine ingredient 11 Place reserved for one reconciling a dispute? 12 Inventor Howe 13 “Peace out” 18 Marsh duck 22 Schoolyard retort 24 U.S. neighbor to the north 26 One of two in Hank Aaron’s uniform number 27 Proactiv+ target 28 Unwelcome leftovers? 30 First words in an alphabet book
32 Largest of New York’s Finger Lakes 34 Tart taste 35 Mega Stuf cookie 37 Great Basin st. 38 One may be civil 41 Message board item 42 South, in Avignon 43 Local news segment
45 Settled in for the night, with “down” 46 Surfeit 47 Fluted on the march 48 Jungian inner self 50 Momentary error 52 Fades to black 54 Bit 55 Stops shooting 56 “Stat!” 59 Gabor of “Green Acres”
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b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
B-SIDE: TV
Thirty years later, ‘Twin Peaks’ is still damn fine ANDREW WARRICK Daily Arts Writer
“Diane, 11:30 am, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks,” FBI Agent Dale Cooper says into his tape recorder as fir trees f lick past his car window. Twin Peaks is a peaceful town. Quiet houses line the streets, lawns trimmed and protected by white picket fences. For those not working at the town’s massive lumber mill, there’s not much to do except have a beer at The Roadhouse or eat cherry pie at the Double R Diner alongside what Cooper celebrates as “damn fine” cups of coffee. The town has a picturesque sense of natural tranquility, conjured by tall trees, winding rivers and jagged mountain peaks. It’s, as Agent Cooper calls it, “where a yellow light still means slow down, not go faster.” Cooper is in Twin Peaks because a teenage girl was murdered. Laura Palmer was the homecoming queen, an English tutor, a Meals on Wheels and Special Education volunteer and beloved by everyone in town. Who could have possibly wanted her dead? This is the driving question of the show, a terrifying secret that unearths a thousand more. The first episode is 90 minutes, practically a feature film. For what initially seems like a murder mystery, most of the genre’s conventions are absent — the pilot focuses on introducing the small town and its citizens as the news of Laura’s murder rocks Twin Peaks. In the first scene, Pete Martell, an old man out fishing, stumbles upon Laura’s dead body washed up on a pebbled beach. As he calls the police, he breaks down in tears. “She’s dead… Wrapped in plastic…” From this first chilling scene, it’s clear that this sleepy hamlet is not prepared for the horror about to be unearthed. Laura’s two best friends, James and Donna, learn about her death in school; their small town’s sense of safety crumbles right in their homeroom. As they weep, a girl runs past the classroom window with her head in her hands, screaming. Soon, the halls are empty. In 2020, when American schools haven’t been safe for decades, this is even more disconcerting. The worst grief comes from Laura’s mother who, throughout the first few episodes, is either weeping hysterically, staring off into space or, most horrifically, shrieking in the throes of surreal visions, like a visiting Donna’s face morphing into Laura’s and a ghostly man crouching under Laura’s bed, snarling. In the midst of this horror, however, there are surprising, offkilter moments of levity. In one scene, Agent Cooper and Harry Truman, the town’s sheriff, go to a bank to look at Laura’s safety deposit box. A gigantic, taxidermied deer head sits on the table, one eye looking right at the camera. Cooper and Truman stare down at it, intrigued. “Oh,” the bank clerk says, smiling as she enters the room. “It fell down.” Neither Cooper nor Truman respond and get back to work. As Agent Cooper investigates, it becomes clear that Laura’s murder is just the tip of something vast, looming above the small town like the dark mountains that surround it. As if the murder mystery and quirky humor weren’t enough, there are also signs that something otherworldly haunts Twin Peaks. There are lights in the sky at night and dreams resurrect the dead, who have some dark secrets to share. We’re never given any sort of explanation about these paranormal events, with each hint only leading to more questions. What secrets lurk in the dark woods, under the towering fir trees? Nevertheless, the most horrific moments in the show are completely human, and they’re found in the domestic violence, teenage drug use and even sex trafficking that may be occuring in the small town.
In the show’s most piercing moments, the comedy and horror mix. In episode three, Leland, Laura’s father, spins around to a 1920s swing song, clutching a picture of Laura, swirling faster and faster as he wails in grief. “We have to dance here,” he says in between deep, wheezing breaths as his wife tries to wrench the picture from his hands. “We have to dance for Laura!” They grapple with the picture and end up smashing it as the upbeat swing continues to blare. It’s completely heart wrenching, but also hilarious in an bleakly absurd, “laugh or cry” way that’s only found in “Twin Peaks.” The show took the cop drama, the sitcom, the soap opera, a dollop of horrific surrealism and a hunk of “damn fine” Americana and blended it all together. It’s what a TV executive before its release called “Norman Rockwell meets Salvador Dali.”
“Twin Peaks” is about America’s crushing dark side and the flickering light that rises to meet it, told through the lens of a small town in northern Washington
Something this complex was unheard of in the early ’90s, an era that also saw the premiere of “The Simpsons,” “Seinfeld,” “Law and Order” and “Beverly Hills 90210.” While these other shows left their mark, none of them had anything as audacious as the first few episodes of “Twin Peaks.” They told either selfcontained or serialized stories with clearly defined plots, without any of the ambiguity that makes “Twin Peaks” so enthralling. Most of those shows also dealt with fairly archetypal characters, while “Peaks” gave everyone, no matter how apparently minor, a complicated individuality. This is especially apparent in the show’s women, who shine with strength, independence and wit even by today’s standards. Characters like Audrey Horne, a teenage femme fatale, and the Log Lady, an elderly woman who carries (and converses with) a log, constantly play off of the viewers’ expectations and remain some of television’s most complex, fascinating and unique female characters. The show’s creators, Mark Frost and David Lynch, brought a cinematic touch to every aspect of the production that still rings with quality. It wasn’t just that the writing was complex.
CREATIVE COMMONS
Everything about “Twin Peaks,” from the cinematography to the set design, was constructed with care and bravery, creating an utterly believable and unique world. The soundtrack, by composer Angelo Badalamenti, is also superb, able to conjure both airy ease and deep, gnawing horror with an equal amount of power. Notwithstanding its wild surrealism, “Twin Peaks” feels more true to life than conventional ’90s fare like “Roseanne,” “Cheers” or “Full House,” depicting American life in all its hilarious, horrific extremes with characters that leap from the screen. Cooper agonizes over a potential serial killer while simultaneously gorging on a donut buffet that covers an entire table. Bobby, a teenage football star, goes from f lirting with waitresses at the Double R to participating in a cocaine deal in the dark woods, where someone pulls a shotgun. Audrey rebels against her father by playing loud jazz but also infiltrates a nearby sex ring in the hopes of finding Laura’s killer. While admittedly exaggerated, this contrast mirrors the highs and lows of the ’80s, still fresh in the minds of the show’s 1990 audience. It was a decade of both horrific and joyful excess, an era of both Pac-Man and the War on Drugs, “The Breakfast Club” and the AIDS crisis. As the ’90s played out, this depiction only became more topical in the era of both Desert Storm and Powerpuff Girls, the end of apartheid and the O.J. trial. 30 years later, “Twin Peaks” is still more wild and captivating than most shows currently on television. Plus, after “Peaks” ended in 1991, Lynch and Frost were far from finished. There was 1992’s film, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” which told the story of Laura’s death, going all in on surrealistic horror. Then, miraculously, Frost and Lynch brought “Peaks” back for a third season in 2017 with almost every single cast member returning. “Twin Peaks” is about America’s crushing dark side and the f lickering light that rises to meet it, told through the lens of a small town in northern Washington. It’s about unanswered questions, both hilarious and horrific. It’s about the love found between people trying to do the right thing, and the terror that arises when some inevitably don’t. It’s about the wonder in the everyday, and the chilling thrill of things beyond reality. It really is, as Agent Cooper says, “damn fine.”
B-SIDE: BOOKS
Tim O’Brien and the ’90s postmodern patient zero ELIZABETH YOON For The Daily
Turn back the clock to the most unironic ironies, to halcyon days: a distant landscape populated with plaid and Dr. Martens-donning teens and tweens. Blockbuster stores are thriving, proudly located on Main Street. Simultaneously colorful and grungy, the ’90s represented a new counterculture rebellion, a relentless repudiation of the establishment and a universal truth. Emerging out of the hyper-consumerist ’80s and post-Watergate eras, young adults in the ’90s re-examined their relationship to their government, their corporations and their ideologies, morphing and adjusting their personal creeds accordingly. Feelings and emotions took precedence over fact in describing the new, increasingly gray, morally suspect world. The vaulted American Dream became less of an aspiration and more of an imposition. The ’90s marked the advent of accepting “truth” as subjective. One can use O’Brien’s seminal work on Vietnam to observe a transition in American thought and belief. His work best encapsulates the ’90s disillusionment and ill ease with the establishment and mainstream narratives. No other written work holds government and ideology suspect like Tim O’Brien’s classic “The Things They Carried” (1990). The novel interrogates the notion of a universal “truth” and questions the institutions that claim to know what is “true.” His novel functions as a postmodern patient zero, a template by which secondary school teachers teach subjectivity. After documenting and following a series of soldiers, giving insight into their personal narratives and war experiences, Tim
The vaulted American Dream became less of an aspiration and more of an imposition. The ’90s marked the advent of accepting “truth” as subjective
O’Brien undermines his own “truth” with a legendary chapter titled “How to Write a True War Story.” Within that chapter, Tim O’Brien effectively promotes false truths and fiction as the best way to transmit experiences that cannot be put into words. He writes, “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness. In other cases you can’t even tell a true war story. Sometimes it’s just beyond telling … True war stories do not generalize. They do not indulge in abstraction or analysis ... It comes down to gut instinct. A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe.” O’Brien’s insistence on sensory perception, claiming “the stomach” as the best truth receptacle, prioritizes feeling over fact.
By manipulating and mixing fact and fiction in his novel, O’Brien establishes fact as fiction. The “crazy” truth requires the fictitious “normal stuff” to “make you believe.” There are no true facts in the same way that there is no truthful fiction. Everything and everyone is subject to subjectivity. O’Brien’s treatise on subjective truth would echo through America over the next three decades. The postmodern emphasis on feeling in “The Things They
By the 2000s, cable news focused on emotional resonance as a more real and more representative “truth” than the “real” objective truth
Carried” foreshadows 2020’s complete rejection of reality and objectivity. After the disruption of Vietnam, the emergence of video news and rampant financial uncertainty, the American public lost faith in objective truth. Objective truth, or the attempt to evoke truth as an unshakable, immutable value comes off as naive and shortsighted. As a patient zero, a taught template for understanding subjectivity, O’Brien’s work forecasted the success of fictitious truth and popularized it. The American public no longer finds the concepts of truth and facts persuasive. The erosion of objective truth is also in part due to the increase of news options available to the American public. In the ’90s, new television stations and news outlets emerged, changing the way “truth” and fact were projected to the American people. Originally, Americans received their news from a trifecta of three large media outlets: NBC, ABC and CBS. All news sources reported the same information. By the mid-1990s, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC fully emerged onto the scene, facilitated by an overhaul of telecommunication laws called the Telecommunications Act of 1996. With the cable industry deregulated, news channels became more targeted, laying down the architecture for the 21st century’s diverse and hyper-saturated news market. By the 2000s, cable news focused on emotional resonance as a more real and more representative “truth” than the “real” objective truth, manipulating interviews and statistics to provoke audience reactions. Starting officially in 1996, Fox News radically changed the landscape of cable news. The network was created with the intent to present
news with a specific narrative; a digestible, targeted analysis of headlines. One of its first shows, The O’Reilly Factor, was pre-taped, unlike previous live news programs. The producers were able to edit and preview the content. The show was ahead of its peers in tactically curating Fox’s nightly news for its audience, choosing provocative stories that promoted the network’s agenda. The channel’s nightly news concentrates on aggregating and sorting news, choosing which headlines and world events to highlight. This process of selected news cycles became more heightened in the 21st century, in which the rise of the internet and social media allows for a more rigorous and specialized curation of news. Now, in 2020, algorithms calculate an individual’s interest in content and news, providing the individual with more of their chosen poison. Individuals can easily and unintentionally self-segregate themselves. The Pew Center reports that 20 percent of Americans receive their news often from social media in 2018, a 2 percent uptick from 2016. This statistic is worrying, considering the subjective (and often untrue) reporting of modern platforms that prioritize their own specific “truth” and mission over any vague concept of what’s fair and objective. The ’90s has a rocky relationship to objective “truth” as shown in Tim O’Brien’s novel. Though his investigation of subjectivity only explicitly applies to inexplicable concepts, such as war, the suppositions of his argument remain. Does an embracement of “gut feeling” best uphold authenticity? Does an objective truth exist? Does a subjective truth exist? Can our understanding of truth further deteriorate into uncertainty? These questions, raised in the 1990s, linger in the new age of American media that is heralded by technological innovation and ideological exhaustion.
CREATIVE COMMONS
b-side
3B —Thursday, February 27, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
B-SIDE: STYLE
B-SIDE: FILM
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Realistic representations Tracking the British royal of high school life? As if! influence in reverse order KARI ANDERSON & SABRIYA IMAMI Daily Arts Writers
Who could forget high school? The most glorious four years of any teen’s life, right? Full of perfectly tailored clothes, raging parties with choreographed dance numbers and the happiest endings to any and all love stories … Wait, is that not what your high school experience was like? Because all the high school romantic comedies of the ’90s sure set up those expectations for their teen viewers. In case you didn’t realize, high school isn’t exactly what these films say it’s like. There aren’t really jerks that turn over a new leaf once they fall head over heels in love with the first girl who rebuffs them. There aren’t perfect proms where Usher (yes, Usher) is the DJ. There aren’t bets to see if someone can make someone else fall in love with them. And there certainly isn’t valet everywhere you go. But, for some reason, all of the high school movie staples like “10 Things I Hate About You,” “She’s All That” and “Clueless” have all of these unrealistic archetypes. Each character fits into one of these tropes; each movie has the mean Prom Queen, like Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, “She’s All That”), or the Lovable Brat, like Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone, “Clueless”) and Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik, “10 Things I Hate About You”), or the Innocent Virgin, like Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon, “Cruel Intentions”) and of course the Benevolent Jock, like Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr., “She’s All That”). Maybe you knew people like the Rich Asshole, like Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan, “10 Things I Hate About You”), or the Outcast, like Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook, “She’s All That”) or Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles, “10 Things I Hate About You”), but most of these tropes aren’t ref lective of people you see in real life. And don’t forget the Token Black Friend, with countless examples throughout ’90s teen movies, like Preston (Dulé Hill, “She’s All That”) or Chastity (Gabrielle Union, “10 Things I Hate About You”). People are placed into simple categories that make them onedimensional. Many of these characters are reduced to one or two main character traits that define their entire personality like their wealth, their race or even their sexuality in the case of Christian Stovitz (Justin Walker, “Clueless”), who
quickly becomes Cher’s Gay Best Friend … after she stops trying to seduce him. Along with these archetypes, there are token themes and moments in all of these movies, ranging from ‘The Iconic Makeover’ to ‘The Heartbreaking Bet Reveal Scene’ to ‘The More Than A Little Disturbing Step Sibling Relationship’ (we’re looking at you, “Cruel Intentions”). While they might be entertaining to watch, they’re not exactly realistic. We don’t know about you, but things were much tamer in our high schools. And while these scenes and characters are so lovable onscreen, to say they haven’t
landed teen movies like “Drive Me Crazy” because of her TV fame. Prinze Jr. had a string of teen movies before “She’s All That,” which he is probably best known for. Silverstone went on to play Batgirl in “Batman & Robin” after “Clueless,” and Union followed up her stint on “She’s All That” with similar roles in “10 Things” and “Bring It On” in 2000 and beyond. Some of these actors’ legacies extended far beyond the ’90s. Paul Rudd (who, miraculously, looks the same as he did in 1995) has won over hearts for 25 years, whether by fighting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as “Ant-Man,” playing the recurring character Bobby Newport in “Parks and Rec” or being nominated for a Golden Globe for “Living With Yourself.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt has taken his adorable charm to films like “(500) Days of Summer” and even starred in “Snowden,” playing a version of Edward Snowden that was far too likable to be truly realistic. Heath Ledger went on to act in more sophisticated films like “Brokeback Mountain” and even won an Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” which was received posthumously after his tragic overdose. And let’s take a moment to acknowledge Reese Witherspoon, who quickly rose to fame after her role as innocent Annette in “Cruel Intentions” and is now one of the highest paid actresses in the world, with an Oscar and countless major films. It’s incredible to look back at these films and realize the talent that was lurking beneath layers of baggy clothes and heavy eyeliner. Teen movies in the ’90s were essential to the era, setting the tone through vibrant colors, playful plots and iconic characters. Most importantly, their reach has extended beyond the ’90s into our own generation as cult films and slumber party staples. We aren’t here to judge your love of these movies; in fact, we love them all just as much as anyone. There’s something about the cheesy plots and goofy lines, something charming and timeless, that has appealed to audiences for 30 years. Just remember as you’re watching these films that you’ve entered a new kind of high school experience, a fantasy land where teachers don’t assign homework if you couple them up and red solo cup parties in mansions never end with any real consequences. It’s a place where you can find your one true love in high school, as long as you take your glasses off first. But still, if you ever invite us to watch one of these films with you … well, let’s just say we’ll bring the popcorn.
In case you didn’t realize, high school isn’t exactly what these films say it’s like. There aren’t really jerks that turn over a new leaf once they fall head over heels in love with the first girl who rebuffs them. There aren’t perfect proms where Usher (yes, Usher) is the DJ. There aren’t bets to see if someone can make someone else fall in love with them. And there certainly isn’t valet everywhere you go.
aged well is an understatement. We’re primarily talking about the ‘Bet’ trope. While we will always love Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”) and his rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” we can’t quite condone his behavior in 2020. He and Kat may be a perfect couple to us, but the fact that he accepted a deal to try to get her to date him doesn’t ref lect very well on his character. It may have been seen differently in the ’90s, especially considering the fact that “10 Things I Hate About You” was not the only film to feature a bet (see: “She’s All That” and “Cruel Intentions”), but 30 years later, it’s not okay anymore. Still, you can’t deny the talent that graced screens in the ’90s. Some stars in ’90s movies made their way because of their status as ’90s staples. Sarah Michelle Geller (“Cruel Intentions”) was a big pull for creepy ’90s teen movies because of her role as Buffy in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and Melissa Joan Hart (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch”)
ZOE PHILLIPS Senior Arts Editor
On Apr. 29, 2011, Catherine Middleton floated out of a retired Rolls-Royce Phantom VI parked directly in front of the main entrance of London’s Westminster Abbey. The morning wind caught her delicate veil as she rose to stand on the red carpet laid before her. Gracefully, she switched the hand holding her spring bouquet to adjust the flying lace. As she stood poised for her royal entrance, her sister calmly adjusted the dress’s seven-foot train. Crowds roared in response to the scene and the BBC announcers literally squealed. This wasn’t just the wedding of a future king — it was the launch of Britain’s 21st-century monarchy. She entered the church at 11 a.m., the sun barely offset from the top of the sky. In my California hometown, however, it was three in the morning. The sun hid quietly on the other side of the world and the night air rested silently in my backyard, but my TV whirred as it broadcast the event live from my family’s living room. I was certainly not the only preteen girl to pull an all-nighter that day in an effort to watch the Cambridge couple say “I do,” but nevertheless, popularity does not diminish impact. The new Duchess’s dress made my young heart melt. The layers of satin and lace and British poise composed a smooth cocktail of perfection that launched my continuing love for the Duchess of Cambridge. Two years later, Kate and Will stepped out of St. Mary’s hospital with newborn Prince George wrapped in a delicate white cloth. Kate wore a blue polka-dotted dress and the world applauded her for not trying to hide her postpartum body … but also wearing heels. Even through the small screen of a YouTube video, her mellow smile and long-fingered wave encapsulated the timeless elegance of the monarchy’s newest mother. I was hooked. I could go on. Her long winter coats on Christmas mornings. Her gowns at BAFTA awards and state dinners. Her sundresses on summer afternoons spent watching Will play polo (which is just about the most British phrase I’ll ever write). Her hats (actually, this one might be
more British). Kate’s fashion is no doubt the strongest influence on my own wardrobe to this day, but not just for her clean lines of buttons, pleated skirts and sensible heels. Through it all, her character shines through as a thoughtful mother and future queen. Her style is not avant-garde, but her activism is. She wears elegant coat-dresses while delivering poised speeches on mental health advocacy. She dons timeless evening gowns while pledging support for children’s physical education and classic blazers when promoting outdoor education. In essence, she is a picture of traditional beauty and a promoter of new causes. As my teenage mind formed this appreciation, however, I did not realize that Kate was not actually operating on her own. I did not recognize that her style was not completely hers, and her support for the underdog was not original. From the moment that her wedding veil caught the morning wind at
Palace balcony kisses. After the birth of Prince George, the world spent weeks ogling the fact that both women had left the hospital in polka dots after their first born child. When Kate pulled on a red dress after welcoming her youngest child, fans lost their minds at the similarities to Diana’s reveal of Prince Harry in 1984. People point to gold accents on evening gowns and similar hat shapes at garden parties. They find shared fabric styles and color schemes. Sometimes the connections feel exaggerated, but the basis of them is not; Kate’s style is clearly influenced by Diana’s, and the world clearly loves it. This, of course, only encourages the Cambridge team to continue working under these influences, in and out of wardrobe. Princess Diana was the first royal to act as a non-royal mother. She took her kids to amusement parks and rode with them down the log flumes. Kate’s work with children today promotes those same values: love and nurturing. Princess Diana was the first British royal to touch an AIDS patient without gloves. She showed the world how to separate fear of an illness from fear of a person. Today, Kate visits hospitals and shelters to support those same values. She is a princess fulfilling the legacy of a woman whose potential was cut short. She is the re-launch of a show that was tragically cancelled and the sequel to a movie with a vicious cliffhanger. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder what this must feel like to her. Kate never met Diana, and yet the world often sees the two women as one. Does she enjoy the legacy, or does she ache for a moment that is entirely her own? I see myself in this question, too. Born in 1998, at the tail end of such a celebrated decade, I don’t know how to classify myself. Do I call myself a ’90s child — do I associate myself with President Bill Clinton and MTV and do I take Cher’s “Clueless” yellow suit as my own? Or do I learn about those years through the backward method of legacy as I did with Kate’s mother-in-law? What belongs to me, and what belongs to my predecessors? Frankly, I don’t have an answer. All I know is I find comfort in the fact that maybe, just maybe, this predicament makes me more similar to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Kate never met Diana, and yet the world often sees the two women as one. Does she enjoy the legacy, or does she ache for a moment that is entirely her own? I see myself in this question, too. Westminster Abbey, her existence fell under a melancholic cloud of royal legacy. I was not alive when Princess Diana died. I was born almost exactly a year after the fatal car crash that took her life in 1997 — still comfortably within the final decade of the 20th century but far enough toward the end to leave me questioning where I belong. There are many events that I’m told ended the ’90s — the loss of Princess Diana seems to be one of them. In my retroactive learning of her impact on England and the world, I see Kate’s story in a brand new light. The two women share far more than an engagement ring. Across the internet, fans place the two princess’s wedding attire side-by-side, pointing to similarities in their ivory color scheme and exaggerated dress trains. They talk about both couples’ use of a carriage after the ceremony and their equally iconic Buckingham
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Thursday, February 27, 2020 — 4B
B-SIDE: DIGITAL CULTURE
DAILY STYLE COLUMN
A look back at the ’90s in gaming Velveteen Dream: Heaven & Hell 2 SEJJAD ALKHALBY Daily Arts Writer
On this day in 1996, the very first pair of Pokémon games was released, kicking off what is now one of the most iconic video game franchises. The series was an essential part of my childhood. I remember being in the third grade and pestering my parents for weeks to buy me a copy of Pokémon Diamond because all my friends had it. There are few moments in my life that match the sheer excitement of starting the game for the first time, watching my mute, 8-bit avatar wake up and knowing that just outside his little bedroom, a world of adventure and endless possibility awaited. In that moment, I was at a new beginning. I felt this despite knowing that the game I was playing was just one iteration of a series older than myself. Though I’ve played most of the games since then, I never experienced the place where it all started, the foundation upon which an integral part of my childhood was built: Pokémon Red and Blue. Two weeks ago I decided to change that. I fired up a Game Boy emulator on my laptop, downloaded a copy of Pokémon Red from a shady website and began my Pokémon journey one more time. The rattle of a drumline punctuated by the immediately recognizable first notes of a trumpet that played over the opening cutscene sounded different in my mind than they did in real life. The tiny speakers on a Game Boy could not be expected to perfectly reproduce the sounds of these instruments, yet there is no way to listen to the music on the title screen and not hear a live marching band ready to follow you every step of the way. In that opening, there’s both a reserved humility and an understated promise
of more to come — a promise Professor Oak confirms as he welcomes you to the world of Pokémon. I picked Charmander as my starter, turned my back to Pallet Town and embarked on my journey through Kanto. Knowing what the game could look like with today’s advanced graphics didn’t makewalking through Viridian Forest any less daunting or battling monochromatic sprites any less exciting. I was ready to immerse myself in such
There is no way to listen to the music on the title screen and not hear a live marching band ready to follow you every step of the way
dated graphics despite being able to turn on my Nintendo Switch and play an almost photo-realistic version of essentially the same game. I battled through all eight g ym leaders, and, after some hard work, reached the Champion, my life-long rival, Blue. A subdued version of the opening music played as I waited to begin the final battle, a reminder of where it all began.
Why am I able to feel such intense nostalgia for a game that I never played? Part of it may just be my nostalgia for the Pokémon series itself, but I think there’s more to it. There’s something special about playing an old game like Pokémon Red or Blue. Though the technolog y available by the time I started playing video games had theoretically rendered the 8-bit aesthetic obsolete, that same aesthetic became the basis for hundreds of contemporary games. Stardew Valley, Terraria, Undertale and the like all play on our shared nostalgia for the 8-bit roleplay game. The same aesthetic that was a limitation for the developers of Pokémon Red and Blue is now a worthwhile style in its own right. 8-bit games persisted and remained competitive with A A A titles whose scenes looked like they came out of a film. While one might be in awe at a screenshot from a cinematic moment in Grand Theft Auto V, no image from Pokémon Red and Blue in isolation will produce such an emotional response. Yet somehow countless people still feel a genuine sense of triumph when they finally get to wipe the smug look off their rival’s face as they claim the title of Champion. Games like Pokémon do so much with so little. A pixelated dark splotch may look nothing like a tree, but let yourself think it does and see how easily you’ll be lost in a forest of them. Pikachu’s thunderbolt may just be a f lashing screen, but when it deals the final blow in a tightly contested battle, it feels explosive. It’s our imaginations that elevate these scenes to where we feel they are. The ’90s have thus produced, perhaps by accident, an ethos around video games that allows for an unlimited potential for emotional investment. Pokémon and its modern counterparts offer us the permission to imagine.
B-SIDE: MUSIC
The Cranberries as the ’90s heroes KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer
When we think of American culture in the ’90s, we don’t often think of Ireland. In fact, the origin of the most beloved music from the ’90s is often traced back to Seattle, Washington. Grunge pioneers were born below the city’s rainy skies — Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana — all of whom went on to shape the ’90s with their f lannels and oversized jean jackets. While these bands have made major contributions to the music of the ’90s, the
We laughed when Andy yodeled his rendition of “Zombie” in “The Office” and hummed along to “Dreams” as Meg Ryan babbled about online romance in “You’ve Got Mail.”
sounds we attribute to ’90s alternative music were largely inf luenced by Irish groups producing music amid political turmoil. Though these music groups are often overlooked in the grunge and alternative music narratives, they have helped shape our understanding of ’90s culture in major ways. One of the most well-known and inf luential groups from the Irish music scene is The Cranberries, an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland. The group broke into American alternative music with their hit single “Dreams,” an eccentric, hopeful tune that introduced the world to the band’s unique twist on the Celtic rock tradition. Unlike other bands of its time, The Cranberries fused alternative music with their Irish roots, marked by the bellows from lead singer Dolores O’Riordan in her Irish brogue. “Linger,” a dreamy haze of a song, also topped the charts in the ’90s, again featuring O’Riordan’s superior vocal trills and accentuating the band’s nimble guitar performance. “Dreams” and “Linger” were pleasant introductions to The Cranberries, but the band later proved they were more
ISLAND
than just a bunch of twenty-somethings chasing fame. In fact, their 1994 release of “Zombie” shattered the band’s mellowness and sparked much controversy in Ireland. The song, a seething protest against the IRA and the deaths of nearly two thousand civilians (including two young boys), is set to a raging, heavy drum part as O’Riordan almost pleads for the violence to stop. Over crunchy, distorted guitars, O’Riordan wails “what’s in your head, zombie?” and gets in touch with her raw emotions with a series of primal howls at the end of the song. Shortly following the release of “Zombie,” the band set out to create a music video, sending director Samuel Bayer to Northern Ireland to capture footage of the horrors of The Troubles. Naturally, both the BBC and the RTE rejected the video, opting to broadcast an edited version that mainly featured the band in a live performance. Despite their efforts to keep the original video out of view from the public, the initial footage prevailed and was watched more than 660 million times. On top of that, just a few weeks after the release
of the song, the IRA declared a ceasefire after nearly 25 years of conf lict. The Cranberries were musical revolutionaries, but their legacy spans far and wide, embedded into the pop culture we know today. We laughed when Andy yodeled his rendition of “Zombie” in “The Office” and we hummed along to “Dreams” as Meg Ryan babbled about online romance in “You’ve Got Mail.” My mom introduced me to the band when I was young, telling me stories of her beloved patent leather Dr. Martens and how Dolores O’Riordan inspired the women of her time to embrace their individuality and showed that women can do grunge just as well as men. Today, The Cranberries still make appearances in my playlists, and I’m taken by surprise every time I hear the roar of O’Riordan as she lays bare her edgy but open heart. The Cranberries have crossed oceans and reached audiences around the world with their radical spirit, and through their courage they’ve added an element of rebellion to the ’90s era, the kind that sparks change and inspires generations to come.
SAM KREMKE
Daily Style Columnist
Pierre et Gilles’ Le Diable (Marc Almond) is one of the most piercing in their vast collection of homoerotic surrealist photographs. The landscape-style image portrays a conversation between two poles — to the left, a cherub cut out of marble looks down from his perch. His hair is fine and tousled as he reclines against the bed of heterochromatic flowers separating him and the devil to his right. His gaze flirts with his seemingly forbidden compatriot as he holds his finger up to his mouth in a shushing motion. A glib smirk, barely noticeable, sets the tone for the scene — these two know each other well, but they ought not to. The devil is separated from the cherub by the suspended sea of blooms, filled with what appear to be sprigs of sage and bouquets of peonies, which respectively signify protection, romance and death. He splays his outstretched fingers, extended by a set of black acrylics, across opposite sides of his chest, effectively covering what would be his modesty. The nails’ shape offset his razorsharp eyebrows and his quiffed, seemingly lacquered on hair (complete with a widow’s peak and the most cartoonish pair of sideburns one could possibly lay eyes on), while their brilliant sheen parallel his glossy red horns and the sparse smattering of emotionless tears. His gaze accepts that of the cherub, but he is not the aggressor in this scene. Rather, the work taps into and subverts the longstanding queer-coding of villains in art and popular culture. What’s implicit in Le Diable is a veiled, theism-tinged reference to both the dichotomy between the presumptive homosociality and homorotecism portrayed in modern culture and devalued forms of identitarian queerness, as well as the forms of desire that cannot be bound by those same identitarian lines, regardless of how many digitized plants are placed in between them. The Cherub, on the whole, encompasses all that comes with a privileged station. His colorless, marble-esque appearance harkens the kinds of saintly and angelic figures commissioned by those affiliated with the Papacy during the Renaissance. Though cherubs
maintain their child-like appearance throughout their existence, this is not to suggest that they are perpetually young or that they are truly innocent or unknowing creatures, but rather that they maintain the illusion of an untainted youth due to their position within the celestial hierarchy. The effect of choosing the Cherub in this work to be the aggressor is not in the service of furthering notions of infantilization, a cultural practice that has the power to advance pederastic stereotypes that have been hurled against the gay community for as long as it has been established as a politicized category, but rather in reifying the power dynamic of this exchange. The cherub not only enjoys the power afforded to him by his association with a power much stronger than that of the (C.S. Lewis coined) lowerarchy, he maintains his superficial air of innocence as well. He is free to gaze and engage as he pleases, while those who share his likeness would be none the wiser. He is placed in a literal position of power as well, he is placed higher than the devil, and the casual, confident nature of both his body language and his expression is a confirmation of his agency. The devil in this image accepts not only the gaze of his aggressor, but his devalued status as well. He flirts back, but in such a way that shows a sense of meekness we would not expect from the agent of all evil. Despite his extreme features, he covers himself and lowers his chin, so as to appear more demure. The juxtaposition of the signifiers of his namesake and his outwardly demure, and subversively queercoded appearance. He is not what he seems, and neither is the Cherub. This landscape entails a symbolic attraction, not between youth and maturity, but in between those that enjoy the privilege of purity, of normativeness and those that must wear their sin on their sleeve. Through careful use of divine imagery, Pierre et Gilles create a language of attraction, even of love, that can be spoken between those who have barriers placed before them, while acknowledging dynamics of power that cannot be done away with in a flawed world.
What’s implicit in Le Diable is a veiled, theism-tinged reference to both the dichotomy between the presumptive homosociality and homorotecism portrayed in modern culture and devalued forms of identitarian queerness
Dolores O’Riordan inspired the women of her time to embrace individuality, showing that women can do grunge just as well as men can
PIERRE ET GILLES
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B-SIDE: BOOKS
The perks of being a ’90s kid: Chbosky’s timeless novel TATE LAFRENIER Daily Arts Writer
They populate hallways of high schools across the country, sauntering to class in their flannels and flared jeans. They cry “like this if you’re a ’90s kid,” while bopping out to hip hop music on a vintage Walkman. These lost souls were “born in the wrong generation” and yearn for days gone by. Fixating on any time period from the 1960s to the 1990s, these angsty teenagers often proclaim that the times in question were “better days” and that these past eras produced the last truly “good” music. Oftentimes, such individuals are dismissed by their peers as those kids who can’t stop talking about “My So-Called Life” or “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” Of course, the ’90s saw events like Y2K, the OJ trial and a presidential impeachment. But we also have this decade to thank for beanie baby hoards, those slap bracelets that got banned and “Space Jam.” What if these displaced dreamers really were born in the wrong generation, and the past, particularly the ’90s, truly was a better time? Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” made me consider this question. Published in 1999, the epistolary tale takes the reader on a journey with Charlie through his first year of high school and “the world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends,” as stated in the novel. “Perks” is quintessentially ’90s, filled with grunge, angst
and feeling infinite. I am not a ’90s kid, but Charlie’s experience truly resonated with me and brought me back to my own high school years. In many ways, his journey was my journey, and reading Chbosky’s novel reminded me of the loneliness, vulnerability and love that characterized my life. The story is transcendent and universal, “both happy and sad” and written from the perspective of a boy who is “still trying to figure out how that could be.” You could say I was lonely in the ninth grade. Following the dissolution of a close friendship, and overwhelmed by my own nervousness, I had a difficult time making friends. I was quiet and shy, terrified by the prospect of talking to new people but racked with a yearning for human connection. It wasn’t a great phase of my life, but it was a formative one nonetheless. And Chbosky captures the essence of this period nearly perfectly. Early in the book, Charlie timidly befriends Patrick and Sam, both seniors, and becomes close friends with them. But before this connection is made, and after conflicts arise between the friends, Charlie’s isolation takes center stage. The hopelessness and rumination that characterized many of
my days trapped alone in my head are depicted with a scary accuracy. At one point, Charlie is promised a call from his friend Patrick after a mishap, but Charlie doesn’t receive one. This one event begins to taint the rest of his thoughts, and he becomes increasingly distressed the more he stews in his own worries. That sort of poisonous anxiety, the kind that paralyzes you and seeps into the rest of your existence, is not new to me. That Chbosky is able to capture this inimitable feeling of nervous isolation only speaks more to the universality of his book. Thankfully, much like Charlie, I was able to find truly life-saving friends during the ninth grade, and coincidentally, the friends I made as a ninth grader were all older than me as well. Emotional insecurity and anxiety don’t go away overnight, though, even with new friends, and growing into appreciating these friends is a process in and of itself. It’s a process of teenage growth that I haven’t seen depicted often. Here, “Perks” once again captures an aspect of my adolescence with precision and grace. Charlie’s quiet sentimentality is both beautiful and familiar. When Charlie is first invited to hang out with Sam and Patrick’s
It is inevitable, necessary, even, to move beyond the past, but there is also value in what has been lost
SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT
friends, I saw a part of myself in him. He passively intakes his surroundings, absorbing the presence of new, strange and wonderful people just existing. “That was me once,” I thought. I remember when I was invited to a house party for the first time, and though I wasn’t fed any pot brownies and we only listened to “Kidz Bop” while we face painted, my emotional state in those moments was similar to Charlie’s. Anything felt possible, and the depths of love ripped my chest open, baring my soul for whatever pain or joy might come. But I got much more time with my friends than Charlie does with his: My friends were only a year older than me, whereas Charlie’s are three years older. But this doesn’t matter, because even though Charlie’s journey of friendship with Patrick and Sam moved to a new stage much sooner than my journey did, both Charlie and I hold an acute awareness of the rarity and beauty of friendship. Our explicit acknowledgement and tranquil acceptance of the impermanence of these times amplified the highs of love and companionship.
There were times when I became so acutely aware of how great it was to have friends that I simply cried out of joy and thankfulness. Such sentimentality is familiar to Charlie, and on this level I connected with him. I distinctly remember a moment driving home from my friend’s house in the eleventh grade. It was the last year everyone in our friend group would all be in high school, and graduation was approaching quickly. I came to a stoplight and considered this fact for the thousandth time, but while I was thinking, a pretty song came on. I don’t remember the song, only that it was one I recommended to one of my friends. But I remember that I just started laughing. Then crying. Love washed over me, and I reflected on all the times I felt infinite with them. I still reminisce on these times, but coming to terms with the passage of time helped me grow beyond who I was before I met these people. I am still awkward and shy, and sometimes I avoid going to the same hair stylist more than once because I have already asked them every question in my arsenal
B-SIDE: TV
the first time they cut my hair. But I am not afraid anymore. I carry on with the memories of those I love in my heart. Steven Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is transcendent, and it spoke to me and my experiences over two decades after it was originally published. Each generation is defined by the culture in which they grew up in. The hippies of the ’60s, the angsty adolescents of the ’90s, the political revolutionaries of the 2010s. It is inevitable, necessary, even, to move beyond the past, but there is also value in what has been lost. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” reminded me of this. So slip into those Dr. Martens and that flannel and jam out to some Salt-N-Pepa, and embrace being born in the wrong generation. Embrace the ability to look back on remnants of times gone by while still being able to appreciate what made those times special. The wisdom to be found in them is timeless. “Perks” in particular reminds us all to be aware of limitless joy and opportunity, and, most of all, helps us to remember to feel infinite.
TV REVIEW
The ’90s sitcoms weren’t ‘Last Week Tonight’ makes great, but we needed them sense of the political chaos SOHPIA YOON Daily TV Editor
The World Wide Web. Scrunchies. Y2K. Pogs. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Sitcoms. Need I say more? It’s the ’90s. Many of my contemporaries and I were either unborn or too young to soak in the iconic ’90s culture that oozed out of every fleeting moment, but that doesn’t seem to matter too much. The ’90s, while we may never truly relive it, is still so culturally relevant nearly two decades later that it doesn’t feel like we missed out on anything. Scrunchies came back in full force, Dr. Martens might never go away and you can hear iterations of “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” in nearly any reality TV show or celebrity scandal today. The unambiguous nature of the ’90s makes it easily imitated today and many aspects of pop culture take advantage of this fact. Shows like “Bojack Horseman” have created picture-perfect parodies of the classic ’90s situation comedy format through “Horsin’ Around,” a template for what these shows used to offer to the community. Through its simple yet precise usage of “live” studio audiences, cheesy catchphrases and limited filming sets, the essence of iconic sitcoms like “Full House” and “Family Matters” are flawlessly captured. For those who grew up with them, this combination of features elicits warm feelings of nostalgia and coziness. You’re bundled up on the couch with your preferred sitcom on, humming along to the theme song, knowing that no matter what conflict arises in this episode, everything’s going to be okay in about half an hour. And yet, there’s a level of harsh reality that simmers beneath the feel-good appearance of sitcoms. This optimistic facade is the illusion that modern television has tried to take down. We’ve entered a phase in our culture where mindless consumption is frequent yet frowned upon, and many new shows have tried to
incorporate social commentary into their plot lines to make television consumption a little more meaningful. Shows like “Bojack” centered their entire plot on how unrealistic the idea of quick conflict resolution is in real life. Hardly anything in real life is ever resolved within a half-hour time span, and these shows know this. A lot of us do too. Yet sitcoms, especially those made in the ’90s,
These shows transport us to a world we wish we could live in, where our most difficult problems are having two dates to the prom or not having a jacuzzi
gained so much traction and are held close to the hearts of many to this day. Why is this? Simply put, sitcoms are comforting for the very reason that makes them criticized by modern audiences. Their lack of realism, in the wake of decades of war and uncertainty, provided a source of repetition and structure that people lacked in their day-to-day lives. Superficially, most people only remember the positives when it comes to the ’90s. That is, the Spice Girls, barrettes and “Clueless.” We often ignore the negative things — like war, genocide and the Los Angeles riots — that likely brought about the necessity of these positives. There’s a reason why people needed sitcoms to distract them.
Reality television plays a similar role in modern society. When it comes down to it, nothing that happens in either genre is necessarily groundbreaking or surprising. They both take place on someone’s couch, kitchen island or bar down the street. Most of the episodes are predictable and the plotlines are shallow. If there is any deeper meaning, it’s subtle and hidden under layers of petty drama and clever quips. It’s this consistency we often look for when we’re in times of distress — similar to how I crave shows that I’ve already seen when life becomes just a little too much. Distraction is a coping mechanism, and “woke culture” tries to make us feel guilty about this very natural phenomenon. To a certain extent, there’s not much we can do about the macro, uncontrollable dangers we face at every waking moment. We can tote around our reusable straws and take shorter showers, but what is there to do about nuclear war? About natural disasters? In recent decades, we have been faced with so much change and imminent doom (which I know aren’t exactly new) that we’re left with two options: choose to remain blissfully ignorant, or take on large-scale burdens like they’re our own. Most people, understandably, choose the former. These shows transport us to a world we wish we could live in, where our most difficult problems are having two dates to the dance or not having a jacuzzi. And change, whether positive or negative, is constant and difficult for anyone to endure too much of. I’m certainly not suggesting that you hole up and mindlessly consume until your brain melts, but don’t feel so guilty about ignoring the tick tick ticking of the Doomsday clock by watching a bit of brainless television. Sometimes all we need to cope is a halfhour episode of television where likeable and predictable characters chat around the dinner table and, no matter what, no matter how nasty things get, everything’s going to be okay.
MAXWELL BARNES For The Daily
“Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!” John Oliver exclaims with his signature opener as he introduces his newest season as host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.” Over the past seven years, the late-night comedy program has become known for its savvy political satire, cementing itself as a staple of latenight comedy. In its first show of the new decade, Oliver was quick to note what global events transpired during the show’s nearly two-month hiatus: “We nearly went to war with Iran, the UK elected ‘BOJO’ Prime Minister and the Coronavirus has started spreading around the world, and if you happen to feel like you’re getting sick right now you DO have it and you only have hours to live.” “Last Week Tonight,” more so than other late-night programs, has been able to maintain a steady, high-quality production of informational comedy through formatted segments that debut every Sunday. The show’s noticeably consistent strengths are its larger segments, those which tend to grapple with relevant issues without sacrificing comedic material. In a late-night landscape
where seemingly every comedian has a Trump impression, Oliver and his writing staff lay off the easy dunks in order to make an even greater political statement. While the show’s segments can be bleak in topic, each weekly piece intends to expand upon a political issue that may be unknown to the general public. In past seasons, segments have created social action that has ranged from harassing FCC commissioner Ajit Pai over net neutrality to a highlypublicized legal battle with a West Virginia coal CEO. From the vantage point of February 2020, there is still no guarantee that HBO will renew “Last Week Tonight” for additional seasons. HBO has been generous to give “Last Week Tonight’s” creators expanded agency in the show’s production. Oliver has expressed that he has “full creative freedom, including free reign to criticize corporations.” After all, HBO is owned by AT&T. Whereas conflict of interest could present an issue when discussing the prevalence of matters like robocalls or joking about the demise of “Game of Thrones,” (which also aired on HBO), “Last Week Tonight” maintains its “No B.S.” slant. In particular, his new season represents a turn for the series as John Oliver recently obtained dual
citizenship with the United States and the United Kingdom. While the question of Oliver’s citizenship was never an important factor in his expertise as a host, his backstory as an immigrant sets his comedic backstory apart. His new American identity grants a more personal, caring tone than in seasons past. Despite the inherently depressing flaws of American society which he carefully lays out every week, John Oliver believes he is a patriot, holding a soft spot for the ideals and pursuits of a more perfect union. “It was a big deal,” he stated in a recent interview with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show,” “not just choosing America, but choosing America NOW.” The landscape for this year’s season of “Last Week Tonight” should present many ripe prospects with the inevitable fallouts from Brexit, the summer Olympics in Tokyo, the upcoming Democratic National Convention and, of course, the Presidential Election. How Oliver intends to use his new perspectives from U.S. citizenship in order to engage audiences is sure to be provocative and hilarious, culminating in the continuation of the finest that satire television currently offers. That’s just so long as Ajit Pai and the FCC have nothing else to say about it.
Last Week Tonight
b-side
6B —Thursday, Febrauary 27, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
B-SIDE: BOOKS
‘Harry Potter’ and the late ’90s fantasy series craze EMMA DOETTLING Daily Arts Writer
On July 3, 2011, I anxiously awaited my letter from Hogwarts. I had been preparing for this fateful day for years. I had already procured my coveted rosewood wand from a website promising “one-of-a-kind” custom wands and a shining black robe that was admittedly a bit too small, having purchased it years ago for my fourth grade Ginny Weasley Halloween costume. But on my 11th birthday, the time for my Hogwarts letter had finally arrived. To my bitter disappointment, that letter wasn’t in the mail on my birthday, but I didn’t lose hope. They must have made a mistake, I thought. It wasn’t until September 1 when I dreamed sadly of the train leaving the station on Platform 9 ¾ and accepted my mundane Muggle existence. I wasn’t alone. Countless kids experienced heartbreak when the heavy, yellowing envelope didn’t appear like magic on their doorsteps come their 11th birthdays. For many, the “Harry Potter” world stretched far beyond the pages of the books and enchanted kids of all ages to believe in the hidden Hogwarts castle, nestled in the rolling hills of the Scottish highlands. I grew up in a generation where it was rare to meet someone who hadn’t read the “Harry Potter” books or at least seen the movies. I, like many of my friends, experienced the joy of
this magical literary world in my elementary school years and spent much of my youth seeking out similar magical adventures in other fantasy series like “Divergent,” “The Hunger Games,” “Percy Jackson” and “Twilight.” The fantasy series was the core of my early reading career and dominated the young adult literary community at the turn of the century. This literary culture shaped my experiences growing up in the 2000s, but its roots trace back to the ’90s — to
to London’s King’s Cross and over the next five years, she wrote this soon-to-be wildly popular series on scraps of paper and in long-form writing. When she tried to get it published, however, she was turned down again and again. Publishers told her no one would be interested in reading books about a magical make-believe world. After finally finding a receptive publisher, Rowling’s fantasy series took the world by storm, and it was immediately clear that
This literary culture shaped my experiences growing up in the 2000s, but its roots trace back to the ’90s — to a changing American culture that opened doors for more fantastical novels like “Harry Potter.” a changing American culture that opened doors for more fantastical novels like “Harry Potter.” The first in the seven-book series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (or “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” as the most devoted “Harry Potter” fans know it was originally called), was released in 1997. The story behind its release is legendary: the idea came to J.K. Rowling during a train ride
the doubtful publishers could not have been more wrong. The books were so wildly popular that in 1998, before books three through seven had even been published, Rowling sold the film rights for the first four “Harry Potter” books to Warners Bros for almost 2 billion dollars. Evidently, the public was ready for a new wave of fantasy novel mania. For many of us, their initial hesitation seems unthinkable.
B-SIDE: B-SIDE: FOOD FOOD NOTEBOOK
ALLISON ENGKVIST/DAILY
On Pacific Rim’s roots in Asian cuisine, the ’90s BRENDON CHO
Daily Food Columnist
It might be on a somewhat warmer winter day, with the miraculous force of the bright, warm winter sun, that you question the concept of home at perhaps the most unlikeliest of places: the intersection of Main and Liberty Streets — the heart of the fine dining restaurant scene in Ann Arbor. Regional cooking, especially for those not native to Ann Arbor, may very well serve as the baseline, idyllic conception of home. A non-fussy yuxiang eggplant could be the hallmark comforter for those displaced from Flushing, New York or cities such as Chengdu within Sichuan province proper. The simple pupusa might make you pine for the comfort and hospitality of an El Salvadorian cafe most common across pupuserias abundant at Pico Boulevard of Los Angeles. Regional cooking, while not entirely well represented across Ann Arbor, are commonplace enough to satisfy your cravings for what you’ve been missing while you are away from home. But there is a case to be made for the variety of restaurants that might not reflect the cooking endemic to a specific
region. These restaurants may not blast radioactive amounts of Scoville units that miracuously bring balance to their dishes. They may not serve waterfalls of intestine soup that can only be described as “dank of the highest quality.” Some of these establishments might be ones
supposedly sacred, regional cuisines. Residents of the ’90s may remember that Pacific Rim was once a Korean restaurant called Kana, well known for its signature strong ginger tea and dak bokkeum — a spicy Korean braised chicken dish analogous
Regional cooking, while not entirely well represented across Ann Arbor, are commonplace enough to satisfy your cravings for what you’ve been missing while you are away from home. But there is a case to be made for the variety of restaurants that might not reflect the cooking endemic to a specific region. which you simply dismiss as “fusion.” Pacific Rim by Kana is among the latter of these restaurants — one that captivates some with its Pan-Asian theme while disgusting others who abhor the amalgamation of different,
to the warming, comforting powers of a chicken paprikash. Kana, named after the Korean word meaning “to go” or “are you going,” was once a small stand near the U-M Medical Campus before moving to their current location at Liberty
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
The idea that such a cherished series of books, one that shaped much of my life growing up, might not exist today if Rowling had heeded the initial negative feedback and abandoned the idea, quite honestly terrifies me. Why did a book series that has now generated over 7.7 billion dollars in revenue and captured the hearts of people of all ages worldwide inspire so little confidence in publishers in the late 1990s? In truth, fantasy novels were less than popular in the ’90s. Books about real life prevailed over fantasy novels, and most people lost interest in stories not rooted in reality. Discussion of fantasy books brought to mind older books like “The Chronicles of Narnia” (published between 1950 and 1956) and “Lord of the Rings” (published between 1954 and 1955), but few contemporary varieties found their way to the top of reading lists. These books had seen their glory days, but by the 1990s they were simply viewed as old-fashioned. In short, the fantasy novel genre remained mostly stagnant over the course of the ’90s. Meanwhile, American culture flourished and happiness levels
were at an all-time high. After the fall of the Berlin wall, life felt electric, like anything was possible. Maybe this is a clue as to why fantasy novels had fallen so out of style. Fantasy novels provide an escape from the mundane world, a way to detach from reality. The most successful fantasy books are an immersive experience where, for a short time, the real world fades away, and an illusion of magic and adventure takes over. Maybe in the early ’90s people felt no desire to depart from reality. Why should they, when they had a unique culture of music, TV and arts at the tips of their fingers in the real world? We can only speculate. Nevertheless, as the decade drew to a close, anxieties surrounding the beginning of the 21st century took hold. With an explosion of technological innovations came fears about what uncertainties the future held. The world was changing, and for many, this fact fostered unease. This could explain why “Harry Potter” blew up the way it did. People were scared, and they needed an escape. The series was already genius to begin with, but the receptive minds of people in
the late ’90s, young and old alike, offered the perfect conditions for an explosion of popularity that no one could have foreseen. After “Harry Potter,” people were hooked. No one could get enough of the enticing escape into a fantasy world, hence the skyrocketing demand for fantasy novels in the early 2000s. Within the next ten years, writers caught on to the trends, and countless fantasy books graced the shelves, ready to be devoured by the eager public. The turn of the century kicked off a new literary era defined by the fantasy series, and its effects are still felt. Every few years, like clockwork, a new story joins the long line of fantasy powerhouses. This development transcended the realm of books, influencing other media forms in recent years as well. Most recently, the TV show “Game of Thrones” swept the United States up into the latest craze. The show had people of all ages staying up into the late hours of the night, putting their lives on hold to blow through eight seasons of thrill and uncertainty. Evidently, the escape from reality remains a welcome comfort in people’s lives.
Street. Owners Byung Dok and Kun Hi Ko ultimately passed their restaurant to their son Y.B. Ko, who partnered with now chef-owner Duc Tang to reinvent Kana into Pacific Rim. The reinvention of Kana into Pacific Rim was a transformation from that of a Korean dineresque eatery into that of fine dining. “Pan-Asian” consists primarily of East and Southeast Asian dishes prepared and plated with French techniques. Tang’s dishes superficially resemble popular dishes of the ’90s and 2000s — though the influences from and ties to Kana are unmistakable. A cursory glance at Pacific Rim’s Japanese-style sablefish immediately identifies one of the dish’s roots — sablefish, or black cod, was popularized by Nobu Matsuhisa during the ’90s, a variation of a Japanese marinating technique utilizing sake lees. A sablefish is an ugly fish unrelated to the cod that is commonly found in braised Korean or Japanese dishes. Sablefish is quite similar to the Chilean sea bass; both share an incredibly soft, tender yet flaky meat that seems to be near impossible to overcook. Thankfully, unlike the Chilean sea bass that has been overfished due to the popularity of that one Jurassic Park scene, sablefish is a sustainable alternative, though still relatively pricey. Ordering Pacific Rim’s sablefish will get you a sweet, heavily browned piece of moist fish — the bare whispers of bitterness from some portions of the over-caramelized skin provides a much needed relief from the sweet-savory marinade that coats the gushing flakes of sablefish. The light tang provided by the tamarind within the soy glaze provides an excellent foil to what could otherwise be a stolidly sweet and savory dish. Nobu’s dishes are well-known to be showstoppers due to his Nikkei Peruvian roots — and Tang’s version of the sablefish might very well be a sexy black-tie version of a ’90s classic. But when you order the sablefish, the fish is complemented with a coiled pile of japchae — glassy Korean noodles stir-fried with a medley of napa cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. You’ll find that unlike many renditions of japchae you may find across Ann Arbor’s Korean restaurants, the japchae served alongside your
sablefish is neither soggy nor mushy. Your vermicelli noodles possess the al-dente bite coveted by Italians and Italian Americans — yet possesses a vivacious spring. You’ll find that napa cabbage and the noodles provide a necessary textural contrast to your fish. The japchae tells as poignant of a story as the fish. The fish might provide you the context of Tang’s worldly experiences and skills, but the japchae proves Tang as a worthy successor to Kana’s rich history as one of Ann Arbor’s local providers of Korean cuisine.
exciting tartness to an otherwise somewhat monotonously sweet dish. Eating Tang’s chocolate lava cake is a reminder of how innovative and genius the dish was in the ’90s — a delicious trio of string players whose performance is best seen live as opposed to experiencing the dreadful butchered renditions found at every chain restaurant and diner littering the Midwest. But the ginger tea — unaltered from the drink found at the original Kana — might provide a lingering conclusion to your meal compared to the
The reinvention of Kana into Pacific Rim was a transformation from that of a Korean diner-esque eatery into that of fine dining. “Pan-Asian” consists primarily of East and Southeast Asian dishes prepared and plated with French techniques. Tang’s dishes superficially resemble popular dishes of the ’90s and 2000s — though the influences from and ties to Kana are unmistakable.
Tang doesn’t fixate himself on the label of authenticity: his coconut-curry soup defies judgment as the soup lends itself equal characteristic of a hearty American root/squash soup as it does to a somewhat muddled Thai green curry. Is it heartwarming because of the innate resonance of consuming winter squashes and root vegetables during the winter, or because of the dry whispers of a herbal curry paste slivering past the impassive squash/sweet potato puree? It’s hard to tell, but you find yourself ignoring it — the soup is heartwarming. You have two choices to round out your meal: a well-executed chocolate lava cake that is warm and fluffy on its exterior as it is piping hot and luscious in its interior. The coconut ice cream provides a nutty quality to your overall experience while the macerated cherries provide
lava cake. Pungent through the spicy tartness of the ginger, the inclusion of the apples and jujubes brings a fruitiness that ever so gently tempers the ginger. A drink such as this is the perfect nasal-busting beverage for the wintery outdoors. Drinking the tea passed down to Pacific Rim from its predecessor Kana is as much a nostalgic conclusion to your meal as it is a curative drink that prepares you for the cold weather outside. The hospitality of Kana fills you in one last time before you have to leave. Is it possible that Pacific Rim’s dishes might not speak to your conceptions of home after you finish dining? Perhaps not; your past life experiences may vastly differ from mine or Tang’s. But it’s decidedly Ann Arbor. Welcome home. Pacific Rim by Kana is located at 114 W Liberty St.