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THE APPALACHIAN

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APR.

13 2017

April 13, 2017

THE TEAM Carl Blankenship @carl_r_blank EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITORIAL MULTIMEDIA BUSINESS

Aleah Warner @aleahwarner MANAGING EDITOR Victoria Haynes @victoriahayness CHIEF COPY EDITOR Sammy Hanf @sammyhanf NEWS EDITOR

Jacob Oller @ollerifyouhearme BUSINESS MANAGER Jordan Boles @jorddb MARKETING DIRECTOR

Olivia Wilkes @theappalachian ADVISER

Angelo Errico @angeloerrico821 OPINION EDITOR Lee Sanderlin @lee_sanderlin ENTERPRISE EDITOR

CRIME LOG

CAMPUS APRIL 11

5 a.m. | Vandalism Dauph Blan Street Leads exhausted

APRIL 10 9 p.m. | Larceny Sanford Mall Further investigation

APRIL 9 8:20 a.m. | Drug Violations - Equipment/Paraphernalia - Possessing/Concealing Hill Street Parking Lot Student referral

APRIL 8 1 a.m. | Underage Consumption of Alcohol Bowie Hall Student referral

APRIL 7 8:30 a.m | Larceny Edwin Duncan Octagon Unfounded

APRIL 7 9:44 p.m. | Underage Consumption of Alcohol Belk Hall Cleared by arrest

APRIL 9

APRIL 4

9:40 a.m. | Damage to Property College Street Parking Deck Leads exhausted

12:50 a.m. | Vandalism Owens Field House Leads exhausted

APRIL 9 10 p.m. | Underage Consumption of Alcohol Justice Hall Cleared by arrest

Halle Keighton @halle_keighton PHOTO EDITOR Maleek Loyd @maleekstuff VIDEO EDITOR Braxton Coats @brxcoats22 WEB MANAGER

Katie Murawski @murawskikm A&E EDITOR Jason Huber @_jasonhuber SPORTS EDITOR

Sydney Spann @spannooo VISUAL MANAGING EDITOR

APRIL 3 3:33 p.m. | Larceny Student Recreation Center Further investigation

APRIL 2 2:15 a.m. | Underage Consumption of Alcohol

SUBMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS

App News is a service of the Division of Student Development. Email wilkeso@appstate.edu for submissions with subject line: APP NEWS PAGE. Submissions should not exceed 100 words and must include the event title, date/time, location and cost, and a contact email, phone and/or URL. Announcements will be edited as needed and will run as space allows. Preference is given for events that are free or have a nominal cost.

WHAT TO DO THE PEEL REVIEW LEADERSHIP APPLICATIONS

nations around campus in order to have enough items to sell at our BIG Sale at the beginning of the year. Each time slot is two hours with a meal provided. Please bring closed toed shoes. Sign up for volunteer slots on AppSync at https://orgsync.com/90450/events/1887603/ occurrences/4401183.

Lynne Spriggs - March 30, Al Young - April 6, and Robert Gipe - April 20 in Plemmons Student Union. Admission to all VWS events is free and open to the public. Parking is free on campus after 5 p.m. For further information on the Spring season, please visit english.appstate. edu/events/series/5 or email weinbergsc@ appstate.edu.

AppTV programming is available on campus on Channel 23.3 and off campus on Spectrum Channel 198 and SkyBest Channels 20/1020. Visit the show’s Facebook page to catch the past episodes: https://www.facebook.com/ uplateappstate/. Interested in contributing? Contact Dylan McMurry at mcmurrydk@ appstate.edu.

LEADERSHIP COACH

SPRING FINANCIAL AID FAIR

Leadership Coaching is an opportunity for you to define your current skills and enhance your leadership ability. You will meet one-on-one with your Leadership Coach on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for one hour. Our coaches are professional staff and graduate students from a variety of backgrounds. They are experienced leaders and are passionate about coaching our next generation of great leaders. Leadership can take place in the classroom, in campus clubs and organizations, in the community or in the workplace. Any ASU student who is currently in a leadership role or is interested in enhancing their leadership abilities is eligible! Please complete the AppSync form to express your interest in Leadership Coaching. If you have questions about Leadership Coaching, please contact Dr. Jim Street at streetjl@ appstate.edu.

The Office of Student Financial Aid will be holding its annual Spring Financial Aid Fair Thursday, April 13, 2017 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sanford Mall. Drop by to learn more about Financial Aid, ask any questions you may have, or enjoy a game of corn-hole and free giveaways! Hope to see you there! For more info on this free event, contact Sheila Burleson at burlesonst@appstate.edu.

UP LATE APP STATE

DON’T THROW IT AWAY

“Up Late App State” is an experimental comic playground intended to make us laugh and think about issues, big and small. The show is produced, directed, and hosted by students on AppTV. Watch new episodes Monday through Friday at 10:30 p.m. and every night at 12 a.m.

Don’t Throw It Away is an annual event hosted by ACT that aims at reducing the amount of trash that ends up in our landfills. By recycling our gently used goods, we can make a huge impact in our environment while turning trash into cash. We need YOUR help to collect do-

FRIDAY, APRIL 14

SATURDAY, APRIL 15

SUNDAY, APRIL 16

MONDAY, APRIL 17

TUESDAY, APRIL 18

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19

THURSDAY, APRIL 20

Guided Meditation

LGBT+ Music Therapy Group

Club Officer Transition Workshop

Visiting Writers Series: Robert Gipe

Noon-1 p.m. Rich Mountain Room, PSU

7-8 p.m. Room 407, Broyhill Music Center

5-6 p.m. Tater Hill Room, PSU

LGBTQIA+ Therapy Group

Craft Talk 2-3:15 p.m. Reading 7:30-9:30 p.m. Table Rock Room, PSU free

5:45-7 p.m. Miles Annas Student Services Building

“La La Land” Screening

Gain experience producing award winning publications at The Peel literary arts magazine! Apply to be a part of the 2017-18 The Peel editorial board. Open positions include content editors, designers, public relations, marketing, videographers, photographers and more! View applications at https://orgsync.com/91199/ forms and https://orgsync.com/91200/forms. For questions and concerns, please email Interim Coordinator for Student Media Olivia Wilkes at wilkeso@appstate.edu.

FREE LEGAL ADVICE The Student Legal Clinic, in Suite 324 in Plemmons Student Union, offers confidential advice, information, and referrals provided by a licensed attorney. The attorney can meet with any currently enrolled Appalachian State student and can advise students on any issue that is not directly adverse to the university. Make an appointment by calling (828) 2628284. More information at legalclinic.appstate. edu.

VISITING WRITERS SERIES The Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of Hughlene Bostian Frank (Class of 1968), a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service award recipient, past member of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees, current board member of the ASU Foundation, and generous supporter of Appalachian State University. The spring 2017 schedule of writers includes Rose McLarney - March 2, Bianca

THURSDAY, APRIL 13

CAMPUS WIDE FOOD DRIVE From now until April 14, 2017, Staff Senate and the Office of University Sustainability are partnering for a campus-wide Food Drive to support the Food Pantry in the Sustainability Office. Items collected will benefit the campus and local community by way of this free resource located in the basement of East Hall.

BEYOND VOTING, WHAT’S NEXT Join Democracy Matters for “Beyond Voting, What’s Next”. If you want to stay politically active after election season this event is for you. There will be tables on contacting representatives, navigating government websites, finding unbiased media/news sources, advocating for fair election laws, and how to run for office. The event will take place Thursday, April 13 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Whitewater Lounge, Plemmons Student Union. Find more info on AppSync.

ASNC’S 2ND ANNUAL ARTIST SHOWCASE Autism Society of North Carolina is hosting our 2nd annual Artist Showcase and we would love for you to come join us! This year’s showcase will feature visual art and three-dimensional works, as well as performance art. Refreshments will be provided throughout the event. The artists and club members would love to see you there to help promote awareness and acceptance of these wonderful members of our community. The event will take place Saturday, April 22 from 6-8 p.m. in Parkway Ballroom, Plemmons Student Union.

Spring Financial Aid Fair 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sanford Mall

“Smoke Signals” Screening 7 p.m. Greenbriar $1

Beyond Voting, What’s Next 7:30-9:30 p.m. Whitewater Lounge, PSU

“Batman” Screening 7 p.m. Greenbriar $1

Animal Welfare Club Meeting 7:30-8:30 p.m. Watauga River Room, PSU

7 & 9:40 p.m. I.G. Greer $1 advance/ $2 door

April 13, 2017

CLAYTON/LEE TICKET TAKES SGA ELECTION

SAMMY HANF NEWS EDITOR

fter a voting session with record turnout, the Clayton/Lee ticket won the 2017-18 Student Government Association election with approximately 63 percent of the vote. “Words can’t express how it feels right now,” vice president-elect Alan Lee said. “We’ve put in so many hours of work. We’ve worked so hard, everyone gave 110 percent; it’s just surreal. Our whole campaign team gave everything that they had and it’s a really good feeling.” Almost 560 more votes were cast than in last year’s SGA election, with 3,068 students casting a ballot. “We have so many wonderful people around us to thank. I think we’re just really grateful and we’re really excited about this opportunity,” president-elect Anderson Clayton said. “There were a record number of votes for an SGA election and I think that says it all. The students care, and we’re going to care. We’re going to try to make this the best year for SGA yet.” After the announcement was made in Three Top Mountain in the student union, Clayton and Lee made their way to the hallway where they were greeted with cheers from the students assembled outside, many of whom worked on their campaign. Current SGA president Jalyn Howard said he’s very excited about the results and feels Clayton is the most experienced candidate and will not shy away from speaking the truth no matter who she’s talking to. Naula Ndugga, judicial board chair for the student government elections and chair for student conduct, said she was excited to see such a high student turnout. “I think it says a lot about the Clayton Lee campaign, that so many people were willing to come out for them and show up for them, so I’m excited to see what they do for the school next year and what they do for the students,” Ndugga said. Jeff Cathey, director of student engagement and leadership, said that while the campaigns were fiery and opinionated he felt that drove voter turnout. “I think all the campaigns did the best that they could within the context of the university and politics and everything else to run the campaigns as well as they could, understanding that there are a lot of factors that come in to campaigning on a student campus and being empathetic towards that,” Ndugga said. Clayton thanked the people who helped support the campaign, and acknowledged that it had been a long road. “We’re all just collectively excited and can’t wait to get started,” Lee said.

(Top) Vice president-elect Alan Lee and president-elect Anderson Clayton pose with the SGA election results which shows their win with 1902 total votes. (Bottom) Vice president-elect Alan Lee and president-elect Anderson Clayton pose for a group photo along with other members of SGA in celebration of their win.

Angela McLinton

April 13, 2017

OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY BEGINS EARTH MONTH WITH NO IMPACT WEEK ASHLEY GOODMAN NEWS REPORTER

he Office of Sustainability kicked off its celebration of Earth Month with its first ever No Impact Week, focusing on six themes of sustainability and inviting students to examine their everyday lives and adopt sustainable habits. Events ran from April 3-8 and each day of the week had a different theme, from conserving water and energy to buying less and buying local when you do. The Office of Sustainability held events such as a local foods spotlight with Food Services, a zero waste lunch on Durham Park, and unique takes on shopping with a local goods fair and a free “road show” market. The week culminated in a campus-wide cleanup last Saturday morning. The local goods fair, held last Wednesday, encouraged students to “choose local and organic.” Jewelry,

metalwork, pottery and homemade chocolate were sold in Durham Park, raising awareness of some of the community’s own artists and creators. Melissa Needham, an intern with the Zero Waste Initiative and a senior sustainable development major, said they feel awareness about local businesses is important for the university and the community. “Not only does it create community and sustain those connections that we have with our community, but it also localizes the economy,” Needham said. “It improves the socioeconomic status of everyone in the community. Prices are lower, the market is stronger and our well-being is improved.” Needham said that buying from local craftspeople highlights creativity in Boone and provides a living for those who create homemade goods while bringing awareness to what people are consuming and where they are getting it

from. “No Impact week is important because it gives people the chance to reevaluate their choices and actions and what effects they have, not only on our environment but on our community in general,” Needham said. Leila Jackson, communications specialist with the Office of Sustainability, said local business fairs and farmers markets are very valuable to local artisans. “If I can exchange my money for a product that someone in my community has made, and know that that’s going to support them and allow them to buy food, that makes it such a better value to me,” Jackson said. The Office of Sustainability also organized a free store road show, an event in which students could get access to free clothes, shoes and food. Multiple students passing the event offered to bring clothes of their own. Juan Diego Aguilar, a Zero Waste

Initiative intern helping orchestrate the event, said that he hoped the opportunity to “shop” without spending money would change visitors’ definition of consumption. “The purpose of this event is to show the feasibility of an alternative community, the fact that you do not have to purchase anything,” Aguilar said. University Sustainability Program Specialist Jennifer Maxwell said that as a coordinator, free markets were one of her favorite programs to orchestrate. “It is trying to get back to that sense of community,” Maxwell said. “As people, we used to be a lot more sharing and willing to share resources.” Jackson said the goal is to normalize reusing items that people already have, rather than buying a new one. The event also brought attention to the office’s year-round free store, maintained in the basement of East Hall, where the Office of Sustainability resides.

Apply for a position at The Peel Literature & Arts Review and get paid to celebrate art in the Appalachian community! Positions Available: Poetry Editor | Prose Editor | Visual Editor | Music Editor | Print Designer Web Designer | Director of Public Relations | Editorial Director Apply on Orgsync - The Peel Literature and Arts Review 5

April 13, 2017

CAMPUS CLEANUP

(Top)Dan Stevenson prepares trash bags for volunteers to pick up on their way out to clean the campus.

(Top) A student picks up bits of trash outside of Plemmons Student Union. (Left) Water rushes down Boone Creek on Campus Cleanup day.

Check out our video about the cleanup on our website and YouTube channel: www.theappalachianonline.com.

Maleek Loyd

April 13, 2017

VERNON DOMINATES FOR MOUNTAINEERS

Matt Vernon hitting against Texas State. The Mountaineers lost in all three games to Texas State with the final scores being 6-3, 7-4, and 2-0. BROOKS MAYNARD SPORTS REPORTER

hen App State

baseball infielder Matt Vernon was in high school, he had all the accolades a big-time college recruit could receive. A four-year letterman at Davie County High School in Advance, North Carolina, Vernon received all-conference and all-state honors twice. Taking part in the North Carolina vs. South Carolina All Star Game during his senior year, Vernon was rated as the no. 32 third baseman in the country by major recruiting services. “I played for the Dirtbags, which is a showcase team in North Carolina and they really helped me get exposed,” Vernon said. “I played tournaments at App and all over the place.” Showcase teams are relatively new to the baseball world but are an essential tool in modern recruiting. Players are brought in from programs around a given area, sometimes as large as a state, and play tournaments against other showcase teams. This is specifically for the purpose of showing off their individual skills to college and professional scouts that are in attendance. “I committed to N.C. State going into my junior year of high school,” Vernon said. “I played a year there and it just wasn’t the right fit so I ended up at Florence-Darlington [Tech].” As a freshman for the Wolfpack, Vernon appeared in 19 games and started six, coming to the plate 22 times and collecting three hits, two for extra bases. His fielding was flawless at 1.000 percent fielding percentage, but had only four putouts and one assist. Playing for Florence-Darlington Tech as a sophomore, a junior college in Florence, South Carolina, Vernon developed and improved his game. This time around, he produced 43 hits in 161 at bats for an average of .267, a dramatic increase from his .136 clip from the year before.

Lindsay Vaughn

He went yard six times, scored 32 runs, knocked in 33 runs and struck out just 19 times, only six more than the previous year in over seven times the at bats. He was named second-team all-region for his work. After a year of junior college ball, Vernon was ready to return to the Division I arena, and was drawn to App State. “I had a couple guys on the team who were pretty good buddies,” Vernon said. “Some promises were made and it was a good opportunity so I had to take it.” His beginnings as a Mountaineer were arguably tougher than his time with the Wolfpack. He posted a batting average of just .095 through his first 12 games, going hitless several times and unable to stay in the starting lineup consistently. But before long, Vernon found his groove. After his rough start, he hit over .300 for the rest of the season, as well as hitting over .360 during the ninth inning. He put up 17 multi-hit games and even got it done defensively, recording 101 putouts and finishing with a fielding percentage of .942. At the end of year, he was App State’s best hitter, leading the team in several offensive categories, including batting average, hits, runs, RBI’s and home runs. Vernon also ranked 13th in the Sun Belt Conference in hits, seventh in home runs, tied for seventh in RBI’s and sixth in slugging percentage. He was named second-team All-Sun Belt in 2016 for his efforts. “He kind of just looked terrible for us at the start of the year, I’m not going to lie,” Vernon's roommate and App State outfielder and pitcher, Brian Bauk, said. “But then all of a sudden he starts getting one, two hits a game. He really just fed into this season. He was killing it last season and it never slowed down at all.” So far in 2017, Vernon has posted a team-leading .303 batting average, with 40 hits in 132 at bats. His eight doubles, one triple, 62 total bases and 22 runs scored are all a team best, and his four

home runs, 18 RBI’s and .470 slugging percentage are good for second on the team. He’s improved his defensive play as well, carrying a .944 fielding percentage. From a Sun Belt perspective, Vernon ranks ninth in hits and total bases, tied for 13th in doubles, tied for 14th in triples and fifth in at-bats. With 18 Sun Belt games remaining in the year, Vernon appears poised to make all-conference honors for a second consecutive year.

“Matt’s had a good season, there’s no question he’s a very talented player,” head coach Kermit Smith said. “I think the guys expect for him to come out and be really consistent every day.” Bauk’s final words seemed to really sum up how Mountaineers feel about their slugger. “He’s fun to have around, I think everyone loves him,” Bauk said. “It’s just a bummer that he’s only got two years here instead of four.”

Senior Matt Vernon ready at base during the home game against Wake Forest on March 28. The Mountaineers lost this game with the final score being 5-4. 7

April 13, 2017

Matt Brill continued to help the Mountaineers at the DH spot throughout the weekend.

BATTLING BACK TO THE MOUND JASON HUBER SPORTS EDITOR

ommy John Surgery is the most common and one of the most strenuous operations to go through as a baseball player. For App State redshirt junior Matt Brill, a game against Arkansas-Little Rock on March 29, 2015 is when he felt a pop in his right elbow. Brill had torn his UCL, and opted to go under the knife for Tommy John Surgery. Fast forward two years, and Brill is on the mound facing the Trojans once again. This time, Brill sealed the Mountaineers first road Sun Belt series win ever, throwing four strikeouts and giving up only one hit in the game's final three innings as App made a comeback victory for a 2-1 series win. Three days later, Brill hit his first homerun of the 2017 season, and went two-for-three at the plate with two RBI’s against ETSU, proving that after 19 months of recovery, he is still the same resilient player. But now with a new coaching staff, new teammates, and the new experience of rehab and recovery. “It was the first injury I have ever really battled and it was really a doozy,” Brill said. “It a big turning point in my career and I was pretty devastated. But after doing research, a lot of guys have come back and have been successful. I have been going about it positively with 8

rehab and throwing protocol, and it’s just great to be back out there.” Named to the Southern Conference all-freshman team during his first year at App State, Brill made an immediate impact for the Mountaineers. Brill hit for the team’s longest hitting streaks during his freshman and sophomore year campaign with a .306 and .277 batting average respectively. Performing well on the field is nothing new for Brill. Originally from Coal Valley, Illinois, where he grew up as a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, Brill found a passion in baseball, hoping to follow his grandfather, Lloyd Brill’s footsteps as a professional baseball player. “Baseball has always been a big part of my life,” Brill said. “Baseball became living through my grandpa, who passed away last summer, and he has always been a good baseball influence on me. I like to think I am still playing for him.” During his senior year at Moline High School, where current Mountaineer teammate Dallas DeVrieze also attended, Brill’s dream to become a professional player became a reality when the New York Mets drafted him in the 24th round of the 2013 MLB Draft. “It was a really special experience for me to be considered one of the most professional-ready at that level,” Brill said.

“It was flattering and opened my eyes to how much talent is out there and where I needed to be.” After considering his options, Brill decided that going pro was not the best option at the time for multiple reasons, but also because of his maturity and emotional readiness. One year prior, former App State baseball head coach Billy Jones took notice of Brill at a legion baseball game in Shelby, North Carolina. Being one of the first schools that took interest in Brill, Brill signed with App State, after deciding to put a potential professional career on hold. “I came to college and gained tons of valuable lessons that I wouldn’t trade for the world,” Brill said. “It was special to me, and knowing that a coach really wants you, I bought into that and was excited and thought it would be a good fit for me.” As a freshman, Brill compiled a 15 game hitting streak, and was the Mountaineers’ second leading hitter. Brill held over a .400 batting average for a majority of the season before a hitting slump towards the season's end, but became one of the team’s leaders. “He was a go-getter and was always one of the leaders on the team,” junior catcher Chandler Seagle said. “Even

when I was first here as a freshman, he was one of the guys who just took charge and did all the needed things we had to do, and didn’t fool around.” Through his first two seasons at App, Brill worked on the areas of his game that he knew he could improve on, and got the education that he felt was his best option when he did not go pro. “In coming to college, it shows that education really means a lot to him,” Seagle said. “He knew he was good, but wanted to improve on certain areas and this was the best place to do it. The last three years he just comes in and works hard to improve those points everyday.” When Brill suffered the UCL tear towards the end of his sophomore season, he knew he had to find the best option for surgery. Brill found his top choice when he was fortunate enough to be taken in by Dr. James Andrews, known as the best orthopedist in the country. Andrews has treated and completed surgeries for many professional athletes varying from Michael Jordan to Peyton Manning. “I couldn’t have asked for a better situation. I knew I had to have it, and did research and we decided Dr. Andrews was the one to go to,” Brill said. “It was a great experience to go down to Florida, and I met a bunch of big leaguers and was able to hear their stories about sur-

Courtesy

April 13, 2017

gery. I will be forever thankful for him to allow me to continue playing at this level.” During the first summer of Brill’s recovery, and before he could even throw his first rehab pitch, Justin Aspegren was hired as the Mountaineers new pitching coach and immediately became tasked with helping Brill through his rehab. “I think that the relationship probably started off on a stronger foot than it normally would, the injury notwithstanding,” Aspegren said. “Matt hadn’t even made his first rehab throw yet, and coming in with a pitcher going through a long process, I think it was a pretty strong relationship from the beginning, ‘cause now he has to jump into this process, and I’m the one who is going to help him out.” In addition to Aspegran (Aspo), Mountaineer’s baseball athletic trainer Christina Biddle took on the responsibilities to help Brill go through the recovery process. “There has to be a lot of that trust that it will be me and you, and I can't tell you how many mornings it was us two, a catcher and Christina just throwing and working on recovery exercises,” Aspo said. “We have to trust each other, and it’s not that the relationships didn’t come to past in a good manner, but he was forced to trust me from the get go, and I’m responsible to help him with his elbow coming back.” To be successful in recovery, mentality is key. Aspo said that the key for Brill has been his approach to getting back on the field. With a robotic-type recovery work ethic, Brill dove into the process and trusted it. “He did his process right, but he didn’t really have as much variance on the day by day, and didn’t have those

Courtesy and Lindsay Vaughn

high peaks and super low valleys where you feel crumby for a week or two weeks,” Aspo said. “It was a very consistent approach to his rehab.” A 12-month recovery process is seen as an expedited recovery, and an average recovery time for Tommy John Surgery is anywhere from 14-15 months. From Brill’s last pitch in May 2015 to his first bullpen session in August 2016, Brill’s recovery was right on time. “We didn’t really ease him back into anything, and that is one of those big psychological humps to get over,” Aspo said. “We put him right on that normal catch throw routines and he threw the exact same bullpen volumes as everyone else, and he pitched in our inter squads and we didn’t temper any of his work.” Now playing primarily in a set up reliever role and a designated hitter, Brill has adjusted to being more of a pitcher, a position that his coaching staff and him feel will best suit him at the next level. “He really showed how resilient he is, especially after Tommy John,” Seagle said. “For him to come back, and come back stronger than he was, and bumping up his velocity and improving everyday when he got back, that and his mindset shows just what kind of character he has.” As a redshirt junior, Brill has one more eligible year, and would love to have the opportunity again to play professionally. “I would really love to have another chance to play professionally,” Brill said. “I am working hard to make sure we are as good as possible out here, but to play professional ball is my dream and I am working hard to get another opportunity.” Though unexpected, Brill said that he cherishes every moment of the long

recovery process that he was forced to go through. But now being back on the field, the three qualities he stuck with throughout his process, continue to be on his side. “Work ethic, discipline and perseverance. Those are all qualities I needed to

embrace and to approach my rehab and recovery process,” Brill said. “I had a lot of great support around me. My parents and family have been great. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of awesome people and resources provided around me and I’m fortunate to continue playing.”

Junior Matt Brill pitches the ball during a home game against Wake Forest on March 28. The Mountaineers lost this game with the final score being 4-5. 9

April 13, 2017

IN/VISIBLE THEATRE’S SECOND ANNUAL POP-UP PLAY

Derek Davidson directs the actors Matt Denney, Micheal Navarro and Duvey Rudow for the Pop-Up play rehersal. Matt Denney wrote the play in his playwritting class and it was performed on April 7. MYLES TOE A&E REPORTER

n/Visible Theatre hosted

its second annual pop-up play on April 7. The play was performed at an undisclosed location, but those who wanted to attend met at the Doc Watson statue in downtown Boone. There, an In/Visible guide led audience members to a secret downtown location for the 15-minute play. This year’s play was written by senior theatre arts major Matt Denney, something he thought would never be possible. “I had no idea this could actually be real,” Denney said. “This is the first play I’ve actually written and was produced.” Denney said the idea for the play came to him during a nap after his playwriting class was given the assignment. He said he had one idea and it didn’t work out. So, he took a nap and woke up with a new idea that did work. The play Denney wrote is called “Porcelain Body” and is about a miscommunication between two cockney goons who are put in a comedic situation with a twist ending. “The audience will get it,” Denney said. “It involves a funny twist, a miscommunication, a bidet and a terrible horrible pun.” The play was directed by Derek Davidson, who teaches a playwriting class. He read Denney’s play in the class as part of an assignment. “The play that Matt gave me was so good that I showed it to Karen, my wife, and she thought it was perfect,” Davidson said. “There are no rules for selecting a play, but if someone has a good play then we put it on. And that’s what we did.” Davidson and his wife Karen Sabo, a previous member of three different resident acting companies and now artistic producer of In/Visible Theatre, created In/Visible in 2012. “The In/Visible Theatre’s goal is

to make Boone more of a cultural and artistic hub, like a destination place just for the arts,” Davidson said. “In keeping with that idea is that art can happen anywhere and anytime. This is why we started the pop-up plays.” The locations of the plays are known only by the members of the crew. “Last year we worked with the cultural center in downtown Boone and they had just renovated the downtown post office,” Davidson said. “So, we said ‘hey let’s show off the downtown post office and do a play there.’ The director of cultural affairs said ‘you can’t tell anyone where it’s going to be.’ So that became a part of the thing.” The name In/Visible came about as a way to include voices and artists around Boone that aren’t usually heard from. “The artists are the invisible population and the stories we tell are about their unknown, under-seen stories,” Davidson said. “This pop-up play is kind of invisible because people don’t really know about it.” Davidson said the arts are a service to the community and a necessity. He said the artists of Boone are undervalued, and In/Visible Theatre aims to not only showcase the art being done but also give artists work so they will stay. “There’s this idea that if you’re a theater artist then you have to go to New York or a regional theater, so it’s really hard on local artists,” Davidson said. The actors in the play include engineering physics graduate student Duvey Rudow and longtime Boone resident Michael Navarro. Both got involved with the project through Davidson and said they were grateful for the opportunity. “It just came out of nowhere,” Navarro said. “Karen and Derek just got in touch with me at the grocery store and they were like, ‘hey we’re doing a play you should come audition.’ So, I auditioned. I was the only one there so I

got the part.” Navarro played one of the goons featured in the play. He said his character is more of the comic relief compared to the more irate character Rudow plays. Navarro said he loves the character, thoroughly enjoyed the script and knows audience members would as well. “I loved the script when I saw it,” Navarro said. “I went to the audition and I enjoyed the writing. It wasn’t forced.

Its comedic, the scenario is very realistic. It’s what someone in that exact situation would do if they were put in the character’s place.” In/Visible Theatre hopes to continue the tradition and have more plays featured throughout the year. Anyone can submit a play to be performed, act in a play or just volunteer. Those who want to can get in contact with Davidson and his company at their website.

Two of the actors Micheal Navarro and Duvey Rudow during the Pop-Up play rehearsal. Myles Toe

April 13, 2017

(Left) New restaurant and bar Tank’s Tacos y Tequila is located next to TApp Room. (Top) People can enjoy food and drinks on the patio or inside the dining room of Tank’s Tacos y Tequila. (Bottom) The dining area at Tank’s Tacos y Tequila.

SPICING UP THE HIGH COUNTRY ALEAH WARNER AND HALEY SHELTON MANAGING EDITOR AND A&E REPORTER

ank’s Tacos y Tequila

opened its doors for business in March, joining the Boone restaurant scene to provide top-shelf tequila and specialty tacos made from fresh, local ingredients. Tank’s serves southern California style food and has 10 tacos on its menu, ranging from standard ground beef and shredded chicken to more uncommon options like crab cake, blackened beef tips and pork belly. The restaurant also has over 30 brands of tequila, ranging from their house brand El Toro to Gran Patron Platinum, which runs $35 a shot. The restaurant replaced Parthenon Cafe, but isn’t looking to limit itself to the same clientele. General manager Ben Bowlick, a Boone native, said he wants to go beyond just students to attract locals as well. “I think because I’m a native and I know a lot of people, that’s helped with getting all different sorts of customers to come out,” Bowlick said. “Obviously we want students but I’d like to get a lot of local people here too.” Tank’s is the collaboration of realtors David Welsh and Jeffrey Vanacore, who purchased the space after Parthenon went out of business last summer. The two had never owned a restaurant before, but decided to open Tank’s Tacos y Tequila to respond to a growing trend

Halle Keighton

for southwestern cuisine, and particularly with tacos. Welsh and Vanacore changed the space from the inside out, not just in appearance but with structural changes to the building as well, leveling the floors and adding and removing walls to create an open dining area. Vanacore’s dog, a pitbull named Tank, serves as the restaurant’s mascot and the inspiration for the restaurant’s name. Since the restaurant is locally owned and brand new, staff members have had the freedom to experiment and change menu items behind the bar and in the kitchen. “We built up the drink menu, we built up the kitchen menu, everything has kind of been changing and it’s still changing,” bartender Annabel Butler said. “We’re working on specials that work really well, and it’s the learning experience that makes it a lot of fun and makes it beneficial for everybody here.” One of the first drinks the staff created was the Tankerita, a strawberry margarita with an organic strawberry puree and margarita mix, both made in-house. Cory Rodriguez, a bartender at Tank’s, helped create the rest of the restaurant’s current drink menu. The menu has 10 custom drinks, six of which don’t include tequila, because

Rodriguez said he wants to offer drinks that people aren’t used to seeing. “Our primary focus is tequila, yes, but we also have a full bar aside from that,” Rodriguez said. The kitchen staff has the same goal with their food. The most commonly ordered taco on Tank’s menu is the ACP, because it’s familiar, Butler said, but she urged customers to try the other nine tacos on the menu that are unique to Tank’s, like the crab cake taco, the summer anna or the mahi mahi. “We’ve got tacos that are vegan, you can turn any taco into a salad bowl, we’ve got corn tortillas,” Butler said. “We’ve got a wide variety.” As of now the restaurant doesn’t have a set list of food or drink specials. Instead, the staff collaborates to creates specials based on the ingredients at hand. Taco specials can run for days at a time, until the kitchen staff runs out of a particular ingredient or comes up with a new taco they want to try out. “Every time the kitchen comes together with something they really like and something they’re really proud of we’ll put it on special,” Butler said. “That’s the same thing with the drinks.” Rodriguez, who has been in the restaurant industry for 15 years, said he wants to bring some of his experience from world travel and working in bigger cities to Tank’s by providing

unique food and drink options. He said he wants to bring molecular mixology to the bar, and the kitchen just recently started serving alligator meat. “A lot of people think they have to go to restaurants like Gamekeeper and spend crazy amounts of money and it doesn’t have to be like that,” Rodriguez said. “We can appease them here.” Bowlick wants to continue changing expanding the restaurant in the next few months, adding activities like live music and trivia nights and adding more outdoor seating options. Before the summer begins, Bowlick plans to create a more structured set of daily specials for food and drinks. Even with structured specials, Bowlick wants to continue making changes to the menu and encouraging variety to include more than just tacos. The freedom to experiment with food and drink creations has helped the staff stay passionate and excited to learn and grow in the industry, Butler said. “Everyone in the kitchen really likes what they’re making, they get excited about it and take pride in putting out really good looking and good tasting food, and from behind the bar it’s the same thing,” Butler said. “Maybe it is because we’re really new, but the passion is high from everybody.” Tanks is open every day from 11:302 a.m. Monday through Sunday.

April 13, 2017

IDEXLAB UNVEILS HOW SPACE, TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

Clothing on display in the Activision exhibit. The exhibit is in the brand new HOW Space which has been renovated by Appalachian State University students enrolled in the IDEXlab course over the past year and is located across from The Local at 182 Howard St. ASHLEY GOODMAN A&E REPORTER

n April 7, faculty and

students of the IDEXlab joined student artists and the public to celebrate the unveiling of the HOW Space, a multipurpose collaboration space on Howard Street. The IDEXlab, or the Integral Design Experience Laboratory, is an Appalachian State University program designed to provide students with hands-on experience in the real world. The laboratory “intends to redefine traditional pedagogical approaches to the study of the built environment in higher education,” the program’s website says. The lab allows students to commission, design and build actual products with real clients, with educators serving as facilitators. This year, the cohort consists of 16 students: eight architectural technology and design students, four construction management students, three sustainable building technology students and one interior design student. Technology graduate student Leah Simmerman served as a graduate assistant and advisor for the project. Simmerman said that she felt this experience was so innovative because its lessons were so much different from those in the classroom. “It really prepares you for the job market in a way that no other program does,” Simmerman said. “You learn some of those soft skills that you don’t really learn in a classroom, like how to work through problems, how to adjust measurements while still fitting the constraints of a project and working with and talking to other people.” Simmerman felt that not only were the lessons different, but the weight of what the students were learning and

doing was impactful as well. “The difference between a B- and a B+ is very different from creating something like this, because here, it’s either done or it’s not,” Simmerman said. The tangible reality of a project like this, as well as the strictness of a deadline, provides an experience that Simmerman said students rarely get. The gravity of these deadlines, Simmerman said, had a lot of weight on the students. Many of them were still working at 3 a.m. two nights before the grand opening doing finishing touches, knowing that two nights later more than 200 people would pile into the space to celebrate the HOW Space’s grand opening. Senior construction sciences major Alex Mott, who served as the lead estimator in the construction of the HOW Space, said that the hands-on experience gave him much to learn. “Construction is all about learning through your mistakes,” Mott said. “I’ve learned a lot more through my mistakes than I have sitting in class.” Mott and the rest of his team began designing the space about three weeks into last semester, began demolition in December 2016 and finished the space four days before its grand opening. Finishing the hefty remodel in such a short time involved hard work. “We’ve been putting 20 to 30 hours into this space alone, on top of schoolwork and everything else,” Mott said. “It’s a huge weight off our shoulders and we’re really proud of it.” The experience, however, has been beneficial in more ways than one. Mott said that the project encouraged better communication skills between the groups, hands-on learning about how

design and construction come together and most importantly, room for trial and error. The students have been able to make and fix their own mistakes and test new ideas in the real world. Mott was just as excited about the purposes the new HOW Space will serve, describing the space as “a window for the community to see what students are doing.” The space, commissioned by the College of Fine and Applied Arts, is intended to be function as a studio, gallery, meeting space and whatever else the community of Boone and App State wishes to use it as. Over the last two years, the college has rented out the space for events such as the First Friday art crawls, but the CFAA has decided to formally lease it to make the efforts and ideas of the university more visible to the surrounding community. Associate dean of the CFAA, IlaSahai Prouty, said the creators of HOW Space want to “have it be a place where different populations of people can intersect and do collaborative and interdisciplinary work.” The name combines not only Howard Street, the street on which the studio resides, but also the question, “How?” “We were thinking about the fact that this is a place where we would do things and ask questions,” Prouty said. “The questions were who, what, when, where, why and how, as in HOW Space.” Though the building will showcase student and faculty projects, it will also be open for public use. Members of the community can rent out the space for any number of days to use for anything from a potluck dinner to a class project,

but the inventors of the HOW Space have some ideas about what purposes the space should serve. For starters, Prouty said, the event should be interdisciplinary in some way. It should have the ability to involve the community or multiple communities. Finally, she said, the event should enrich the community in which we live. As the HOW Space comes into being in the Boone community, the committee behind the project hopes to create a sort of operating manual to supplement the space with. It will contain the obvious details, such as where to find fire extinguishers and how to change out panels, but it will also include sections about the building’s purpose and the creators’ vision. Little niceties, like cleaning up after yourself and welcoming others into the space seem like common sense, but Prouty and her colleagues said they hope that setting intentions about how to work and interact with one another will “help to express the spirit with which to operate in the space.” The HOW Space’s grand opening was also an unveiling for App State art exhibit “Activision.” The exhibition, Prouty said, was a call to students of the College of Fine and Applied Arts for works relating to sustainability and social justice. Works broached topics of feminism, domestic violence, slavery, voting rights and other relevant social issues through photography, quilting and sculpture, among other mediums. “It’s a wide-ranging show because there are a lot of different ways in which social justice can be interpreted,” Prouty said. “The work comes from a lot of different places.”

Ashley Goodman

April 13, 2017

D.I.Y SKATE PARK IN JEOPARDY BY ASU PROPERTY PURCHASE A local skater enjoying the D.I.Y. spot while he can, just days after ASU purchased the land. The site is to be demolished in September 2017. KATIE MURAWSKI AND HALEY BROWN A&E EDITOR AND A&E REPORTER

ppalachian pur-

chased the former Watauga High School on Tuesday for $15.5 million. Although this deal marked the beginning of a new era for the university, it simultaneously brought about the end of another for the Boone skate community. The old Watauga High School is home to Boone’s only legal skate site. The park functions as a do-it-yourself spot. This means that it has been funded, planned and constructed solely by the skateboarders themselves. After the high school was demolished in 2013, the spot began to take shape. J.P. Pardy, owner of local skate shop Recess, said it was around this time that people became motivated to add to the site. Pardy said pieces were brought in, little by little, until the spot became what it is today. The site has faced a fair amount of controversy since its beginning. In 2016, skater Patrick Ferris successfully started a petition to stop the demolition of the do-it-yourself site. County manager Deron Geouque allowed the site to

remain. “Deron was one of the first people to listen and nod his head,” Pardy said. “You don’t get these wins in this county.” Their win, however, was short lived. The 2016 deal with the county held that skaters could continue to use the spot until it was sold. While Pardy had an inkling that a sale was on the horizon, other skaters like Appalachian State freshman studio art major Nolan Warner-Sullivan were taken aback when news broke that App State purchased the site. “We have a group message set up about skateboarding in Boone and I heard about it right there,” Warner-Sullivan said. “I just got a text and it was like, ‘ASU is going to buy this.’ So I heard about it two days ago.” Skateboarder and senior building science major at Appalachian State Nick Sizer said the deal is “displacing a whole community.” Pardy said the demolition is slated for September 2017, but in the meantime he said the skaters will remain skating there for as long as they can.

“We all knew it was going to happen and we get that,” Ferris said. “That’s good profit for the county. But the need for skateboarding isn’t going to go away. So really, the demolition just kind of marks the next step, which is getting a skate park.” Statements from the Appalachian State University news webpage said the old high school will most likely be turned into a recreation center with a swimming complex for Watauga High School students. While he agrees that Watauga High School swimmers need a place to practice, Warner-Sullivan argues that WHS skateboarders need a place as well. “I have at least three kids from the high school I know and they rip at skateboarding, but they don’t have anywhere to skate,” Warner-Sullivan said. “It’s an Olympic sport at this point, it’s only getting bigger.” Pardy agreed and said that “in the way of the world now, skateboarding is not this outcasted, niche thing anymore.” If anything, Pardy argues skating helps keep local kids healthy, outside

and out of trouble. Warner-Sullivan said the Boone skate scene was a deciding factor for him while choosing a college. However, when he learned about the no-skateboarding policy on campus during orientation, he was shocked. “[Appalachian State] talk[s] about affordable recreation and skateboarding is 100 percent that,” Pardy said. “The fact that we don’t have that is so behind on the times. The fact that skateboarding on the street is illegal is so behind on the times. It’s sustainable transportation.” Despite the disappointment of losing their only spot, the skaters remain determined. Pardy said that in 1999 the spot to skate was Junaluska Road, in 2003 it was the old Lowes lot on State Farm Road and in 2013 it was the D.I.Y site. Although this chapter of Boone skateboarding is coming to an end, one thing remains clear. The skate community needs somewhere to call home. “We’re still building stuff,” Pardy said. “We have funds to build. Skate parks take a long time to get made. But we don’t mind starting over.”

Broken up skateboards at the new Boone D.I.Y. spot at the old Watauga High School. It is a self-policed area where skating is legal. Haley Brown

April 13, 2017

“Freedom” by Ryan Gaglianese-Woody.

“Balance Partners” by Jameson Midgett.

APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION NAMES WINNERS ADRIENNE FOUTS ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR

he unique beauty,

nature, culture and lifestyle of the southern Appalachian Mountains comes to life through the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition, a Boonebased annual competition that invites both amateur and professional photographers to submit photos that showcase an aspect of the region. A collaboration between ASU Outdoor Programs, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and Virtual Blue Ridge, the AMPC recently closed out its 14th year with the announcement of the winning photographs on March 25. The competition is meant to coincide each year with the Banff Mountain Film Festival, an international film festival focused on outdoor adventure topics. Boone, North Carolina, is one of Banff’s biggest stops on its world tour, and the festival inspired the beginnings of the AMPC. “We wanted to give our local community a tangible way to connect with the themes of the film festival,” Rich Campbell, director of ASU Outdoor Programs, said. “So we still focus on mountain culture, mountain places, mountain pursuits, we just use the Southern Appalachian region as our framework. It provides a local to global connection with the themes related to mountain culture.” Plus, Campbell continued, the High Country is such a beautiful place that they wanted to celebrate it. Campbell has overseen the AMPC since its first year, and works with all of the sponsors, judges and the Turchin Center as well as working to get the word out about the competition and recruit image submissions. This year, over 900 photos were submitted to the AMPC, with the jurors eventually selecting 48 finalists from the bunch. Organizing and managing the competition is nearly a year-long process. Submissions are accepted from May until November. From the end of November until mid-December, the judges work to narrow down the photos and select finalists. Finalists then get their images printed and framed and deliver them to the Turchin Center, where they will be hung in an exhibition open from March

until June. The overall winners of the AMPC are announced over the weekend of the Banff Mountain Film Festival in March, at a reception for the finalists at the Turchin Center. Photographers can enter multiple photographs in six different categories of the competition: Adventure, Culture, Flora/ Fauna, Landscape, Blue Ridge Parkway and Our Ecological Footprint. Each category features an aspect of life in the southern Appalachians, whether it’s the plant and animal life of the region, the opportunities for outdoor recreation, the way of life in the area or humans’ impact on the land. “The most important thing is that the image has to make you feel something,” said Andrew Caldwell, a professor in Appalachian State’s commercial photography department and one of the competition’s jurors this year. “That’s a fairly subjective thing but it also tends to be fairly consistent among the judges. It has to also be beautiful, something that makes you want to look at it and engage with it.” The photos in the landscape and flora/ fauna categories, Caldwell said, tend to show off the beauty of nature in the Appalachian Mountains. However, not all images in the competition have a stereotypical definition of beauty. In the Our Ecological Footprint category this year, an image of tires floating in the lake was one of the finalists, as well as two images depicting vast wildfires in southern Appalachia. “South Mountain Wildfire” by Cathy Anderson won Best in Show. In the Culture category, photographers can interpret what Appalachian culture looks like or what it means to them. Among the finalist photos for Culture this year was a portrait of a Cherokee Indian cultural ambassador, hands forming clay to make pottery, the inside of an old church and the winner: “Granny’s Got a Gun” by Candice Corbin, a portrait that looks down the barrel of a gun to the 95-year-old woman holding it as she sits in her chair at home. “The cultural category allows us to use the experience and opportunity of the show to discuss what our culture actually

looks like, who is included in the culture and how distinct and different that can be from some of the stereotypes of Appalachia,” Caldwell said. “It’s kind of an interesting place to add a contemporary context to our understanding of culture.” Photos are submitted from multiple other states including West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida, from people who live in the Appalachian Mountains or who have taken photographs while visiting. A large number of the finalists this year, though, were from the High Country region or other places in North Carolina. A few current Appalachian State students and recent graduates were among the finalists as well. Ryan Gaglianese-Woody, a junior sustainable development major, entered her photo “Freedom” to the competition last year, and it was chosen as a finalist in the Blue Ridge Parkway category. This category is themed every year, and this year’s theme was “Blue Ridge Parkway: A Place to Play.” Gaglianese-Woody’s photo was of her sister’s dog Sawyer frozen in motion as he sprinted down a trail at a mountain bald off the Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina. “I remember crouching in the field, trying to get the perfect angle and line of him running up and down the field,” Gaglianese-Woody said. “He was so happy, I couldn’t resist. I was in about a half-year obsession of photographing that dog because he is just so photogenic.” Gaglianese-Woody said she was surprised when she found out that her photo was selected as a finalist out of the nearly 1,000 images submitted, and that it felt like she was starting to move forward in her photography. “I think it has gotten me to make more time for taking photos because I have been so busy with other things in my life that I sometimes forget I am in the perfect place to pursue such a fulfilling activity,” she said. Jameson Midgett, who graduated from App State in December 2016 with a commercial photography degree, was also chosen as a finalist in the Blue Ridge Parkway category. His image “Balance Partners” was the result of

a photo shoot in the fall for his senior portfolio, and captured two friends as they practiced handstand poses together at the edge of Rough Ridge in the early morning. Midgett said that he had just finished working a shift at the University Recreation climbing wall when Campbell told him that one of his photos had made it to the finals. He was initially surprised at the image they had chosen (he had submitted eight), but after looking back at the other submitted photos, he felt that “Balance Partners” fit the Blue Ridge Parkway: A Place to Play category the best. “The overall experience was nothing less than a blast,” Midgett said. “It had been some time since I had last entered into a photo competition, and this one just felt like a good conclusion to my time here in the mountains and in the photo program.” At the finalists’ reception in March, the overall winner for each category was announced, as well as the Best in Show and People’s Choice awards. The Best in Show winner receives a $1,000 check; the other winners receive gift cards or checks from various sponsors of the competition, including Mast General Store, Appalachian Voices and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. Finalists are also eligible to win a portfolio review from professional photographers. The finalists’ photos for this year are available to view at the Turchin Center’s exhibition until the beginning of June. All of the final photos since the very beginning of the AMPC are available online at appmtnphotocomp.org. Campbell said that the online archive is one of the most comprehensive archives of juried images that capture the spirit of the Southern Appalachians. “I think regional competitions like this bring about a quality of work that you typically don’t see in nationwide shows,” Caldwell said. “It brings people together, you hear some great stories and I think it’s a really beautiful portrait of not just Boone, but all of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and you just get to see a lot of beautiful work from different corners.”

Courtesy of the 14th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition

April 13, 2017

GOODBYE, MR. WARMTH O

ne comedian bears the title “Master of Insult” as he became known for his demeaning but humbling insults that shook even the most prolific celebrities. As he grew older, he feared becoming irrelevant. The culture has changed, and the jokes are different, but the wit of Don Rickles will never be forgotten. On Wednesday, Rickles died of kidney failure at the young age of 90. “I know it’s crazy to say he was too young,” late night host Jimmy Kimmel said while commemorating his mentor during his Wednesday monologue, “but it was because he was youthful and funny and sharp and generous.” Most millennials have no idea who Rickles was, and still is, as he will always be remembered as one of the most influential stand-up comedians of all time. Howard Stern gave tribute to his idol on Monday, and he had his radio show’s street correspondents go around Manhattan asking young people if they knew about Rickles’ legacy. They were clueless to his existence. One of the most

Angelo Errico is a senior journalism major from Concord, North Carolina wholesome celebrity personalities to have graced our television screens seems mostly forgotten. Rickles lives on through his 52-yearold wife, Barbara. He stayed with this lucky lady the majority of his life as he stayed tremendously faithful not only to her but his many companions. Rickles was close with the Rat Pack, which included the likes of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. Martin would have countless celebrity roasts throughout his and the Pack’s American entertainment reign.

Now, when people talk about celebrity roasts they think of the silly, obscene roasts that Comedy Central puts on for some of the worst, most selfish people in entertainment. Justin Bieber, David Hasselhoff and even Donald Trump are some of the unfortunate names to have insults heaped on by other celebrities. These roasts mostly mock the insufferable, even more than they make mockeries of themselves. The Martin roasts were nothing like these. They included the best of the best in Hollywood at the time. The most beautiful people with the most profound careers, and then there was Don Rickles. He was beady-eyed, short and balding, but his stage presence and show-stealing persona made Martin’s confidence look like a shy little kid acting in his first play. He was shocking, he was captivating, but most importantly, he was loving. Rickles made fun of everyone, “well, except the Jews,” as he would constantly joke, being of Jewish descent. Rickles made fun of you and exaggerated every walk of life’s humorous intricacies. After former President Barack Obama

was elected, Rickles made a politically incorrect joke about the former president, and at Rickles’ “One Night Only” tribute on Spike in 2014, Tracy Morgan defended his hero. “Who are the people to say black people can’t take a joke?” Morgan said, “You know why I love you the most, Don? You never discriminated. I love you man.” But I know this man is unknown to most of this college-aged readership, so this isn’t a tribute to the man loved by all of his generation. This is a plea. Go on YouTube, buy the Dean Martin roast box sets advertised all day on cable, talk to your elders about his prevalence, do whatever you can to know what this man meant to shock-factor comedy. Rickles may have been called the Master of Insult throughout his career, but he went by another nickname because of how he warmed the hearts of all the people who came through his life. His long-time friend, Bob Saget, said, “He did it out of love. But then when he was mean to you, it was like a privilege. It was like a gift.” Goodbye, Mr. Warmth.

X-DISCRIMINATION

omic books, like any other medium, are a powerful tool for expressing various beliefs and ideas. These ideas differ amongst the various intellectual properties owned by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and other smaller companies. For example, Superman is often said to represent “truth, justice and the American way.” Spider-Man is associated with the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility,” and Batman represents what a mentally disturbed man with a lot of money can do. But it would be impossible to talk about the representation of ideas in comics without bringing up the X-Men. Initially created in the sixties by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men have been some of Marvel’s most well-known and successful creations, second only to Spider-Man. The X-Men are a superhero team of mutants, beings who, in the Marvel Universe, are born with superhuman abilities. However, due to fear and a lack of understanding, mutants are feared and hated by the non-powered populace. This dynamic is often said to reflect the real-world conflicts experienced by minority groups in America and other countries.

Q Russell is sophomore journalism major from Charlotte, North Carolina One particular conflict portrayed is anti-semitism and religious intolerance. Many storylines feature mutants being rounded up and forced into “camps,” akin to concentration camps in World War II. In fact, Magneto, the X-Men’s sometimes enemy and ally, is a Holocaust survivor and often likens the plight of mutants to that of the Jewish people in Nazi Germany. That’s why many fans considered it outrageous that a recent X-Men comic contained several hidden anti-Christian and Jewish messages. The comic, X-Men Gold #1, by the creative team Marc Guggenheim and Ardian Syaf, hit the stands last Wednesday. In it, Syaf not-so-subtly hid the numbers “212,” “51” and the symbol

“QS 5:51,” in the background of various scenes in the comic. The “212” refers to a Indonesian protest that occurred back on Dec. 2, where according to CNN, several hundred thousand Indonesians marched in the streets of Jakarta to protest governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. The people were protesting a speech that Purnama, also known as Ahok, gave where he is said to have blasphemed the Quran. For background, according to the Pew Research Center, as of 2010, 88 percent of the population of Indonesia is Muslim, while Ahok is a devout Christian. The blasphemy in question is his interpretation of the verse Al Maidah 5:51, which Syaf alludes to with the “51,” which translates into English as “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are, in fact, allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is one of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.” However, the Indonesian translation goes more along the lines of “Muslims should not appoint the Jews and Christians as their leader.” This quote had been used by many of Ahok’s opponents to prevent the devout from voting for him. So, in a speech last year, Ahok

claimed that the verse was a “lie,” and that the true meaning of the verse did not say that he couldn’t be voted for. This caused a massive outcry amongst Indonesian Muslims, including Syaf who is an Indonesian native. And so, in order to protest Ahok, Syaf decided to insert slightly hidden discriminatory messages in a comic whose entire foundation is anti-discrimination. Does anyone else see the irony in that? Humor aside, the proliferation of this idea by Syaf is highly troubling, and it would be so no matter the culture or religion the quote came from. There is nothing wrong with adhering to one’s religious beliefs, but doing so becomes tricky when it is done in such a way that it infringes on others. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and to divide and discriminate only serves to breed conflict. This sort of attitude is somewhat understandable when it comes to mutants in the Marvel Universe, they’re people born with dangerous abilities such as the controlling minds, having retractable claws and the ability to shoot energy blasts from their eyes. But it’s difficult to comprehend having this attitude when the only difference is the color of someone’s skin or what religion they adhere to.