MORE THAN SPOKEN WORD EMOTIONS RUN HIGH IN MOVING STORYTELLING POETRY PERFORMANCE AT THE BARN
Highlander University
Volume 64
of
C a l i f o r n i a , R ive r s i d e
Serving the UCR community since 1954
18 Issue 06
FOR THE WEEK OF TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
ASUCR approves $15,000 in budget cuts, R’Gear program also reduces costs
Fifth Food Truck Festival opens at UCR
IXIA JOHNSON Spooky Skeleton Writer
AARON GRECH Spooky Skeleton Writer
ASUCR Vice President of Finance Shafi Karim proposed approximately $15,000 in budget cuts for what was described as wasteful ASUCR spending. The cuts, which eliminated food costs for meetings, some promotional expenses and reduced student assistants’ work hours were approved by the ASUCR senate by a unanimous vote. Originally, Karim planned to cut a total of $10,000 from the budget, which reduced meeting expenses of many of the executive cabinet members, with the exception of the Vice President of External Affairs, Mohammed “Momo” Hussein, whose position requires travelling outside of the campus. In order to determine wasteful spending, Karim analyzed the past five years of ASUCR budget expenses. Many of the expenses that took up significant amount of money from the budget involved meeting expenses, usually reserved for food and a $1,000 line item in the budget reserved for candy. “All of this is aligned in our effort to be more efficient with student fees so we can actually fund services that directly impacts and returns value to greater number of students,” voiced Karim. According to Karim, much of these expenses are used to serve the student government, rather than the entirety of the student body. By allowing these cuts, Karim hopes to support programs such as R’Gear, which will impact students on a larger scale. Despite the unanimous approval by the senate, some of these cuts raised concerns during the public comment section of the meeting by staff members in the ASUCR front office. In accordance with Shafi’s budget cuts, the hours for students working in the front office were reduced, with student assistants no longer working during summer, spring and winter breaks along with reduced hours during
Admin outnumbers faculty within UC
JIMMY LAI / HIGHLANDER A student picks up an order of fries from the Belly bombz truck during the fifth annual food truck festival.
SHARON LIU-BETTENCOURT Contributing Witch
Hundreds of UCR students flocked around the Bell Tower and the Hub Plaza on Thursday, Oct. 22 to usher in the return of UCR’s bi-annual food truck festival. The series of festivals began in 2012 when a student approached the ASUCR senate with the idea of temporarily bringing large amounts of food trucks onto the UCR campus in order to foster campus spirit and pride, encouraging students to remain after classes and support
small local businesses. The project was then quickly taken up by then UCR Senator Chris Salvador who worked in connection with Hub Dining and Transportation and Parking Services in order to hold the very first Food Truck Festival. The festival was well received and eventually the ASUCR Office of Internal Affairs picked up the idea and committed to hold it again the next school year. Last school year, the event gained so much traction it was scheduled to be held biannually. “I love seeing the variety of cultures and ethnicities
represented at the Food Truck Festival. I think the festival owes its success to its diversity,” said junior political science major Paul Van. Last week’s festival became UCR’s fifth food truck festival and featured 22 food trucks. UCR students once again got the opportunity to taste old favorites such as the crispy, twisted potatoes of the Tornado Potatoes Truck, the Korean Mexican fusions of the Rice Ball of Fire and the mouthwatering lobster rolls from Maine ► SEE FOOD, PAGE 5
HIGHLANDER club CHEFS spotlight
SEE WHAT’S COOKING AT UCR’S PREMIERE CULINARY CLUB
► SEE ASUCR, PAGE 4
NEWS 1 • OPINIONS 7 • FEATURES 13 • A&E 17 • SPORTS 28
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In recent years, the UC system has faced growing criticism regarding the administration-faculty ratios at UC schools. With 10 campuses scattered around the state and a $27 billion operating budget, which exceeds that of 25 other U.S. states. In response, major concern has been raised over whether this money is being well spent. Student enrollment in the statewide school system has increased by 38 percent since the year 2000, with the number of managers and administrators doubling and the amount of tenured and tenure-track faculty members remaining more static. Hiring an increasing number of administrators has been deemed necessary by UC officials in order to keep up with rising technology and information demands. UC data signifies that from 2004 to 2014, the amount of managers and senior professionals has risen by 60 percent, while tenure-track faculty members have only experienced an 8 percent growth in the same decade. Last year, a debate sparked between Governor Jerry Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano on how to make up for lack of funds to pay for payroll and retirement costs, hiring more faculty members and growing the number of students at UC schools. Brown suggested that costcutting efforts be made, such as greater reliance on online courses. Pension plan debt was created in the 1990s when employees no longer were required to pay into their pension plan due to overfunding at the time. The opposite now exists, necessitating the use of $1.3 billion each year toward paying the existing $12 billion unfunded liability, one of the leading and commonly unrecognized UC expenses that takes away from spendable funds. A consensus was reached in May that increased state funding and froze tuition rates for two years, and reestablished the way pension plans were set up in the UC system. Weeks following this agreement, a number of already well-paid ► SEE ADMIN, PAGE 6
PLEASE RECYCLE
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NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/news
VINCENT TA / HIGHLANDER
Professor Marisol Clark-Ibanez was one of many speakers who shared their research endeavors at the conference.
Georgia professor speaks about undocumented students at UCR GUY HOCKER Spooky Writer
Last Thursday evening, Laura Emiko Soltis, a professor of human rights at Freedom University in Georgia, gave her keynote address to a full room at UC Riverside’s Center for Ideas and Society. Soltis kicked off the one day Challenging Borders symposium with an impassioned speech on social justice. With a focus on the rights of undocumented people to have access to higher education, Soltis walked the engaged audience through the obstacles which would-be students in Georgia face in their day-to-day life. The presentation highlighted
the laws in Georgia (policies 4.1.6 and 4.3.4 respectively) which ban undocumented people from attending the top five state universities and from receiving in-state tuition rates. Families in Georgia without legal status face three major hurdles in getting their children to college, one economical, one social and one informational. First, many undocumented families can not afford the steep price tag of the best colleges. Second, they are fearful for their family because of the common perception that applying to college or coming out as undocumented are the first steps to deportation. Therefore, students are often relegated to a less risky and less rewarding
educational path. Finally, many undocumented students do not know that they can or how to apply to college. Estefany Cortes, a political science and law and society and Spanish literature double major believes “The most significant obstacle that undocumented students are facing today to obtain an education is the lack of knowledge about applying to colleges. Like my parents, both of them only had an education to the seventh grade. When I was getting ready to apply both my parents and myself did not have any knowledge of the college process or where to apply. However, we learned because I was involved in the AVID program, which guided me through
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
the college process.” Cortes elaborated, “The most hurtful obstacle I had to overcome being undocumented was when my family was being discriminated against. I remember once an old lady told my dad to go back to Mexico and take his annoying dirty illegal family as well, I was only 7 when this happened.” Cortes was brought to the United States illegally when she was six, and has since faced an uphill climb to attend UC Riverside, attaining her citizenship three days before her 18th birthday. In a state that prides itself on progressive policies, California may seem far removed from the issue of discrimination, yet Soltis warned that creating an un-
derclass of working people who can not attain higher education is a form of discrimination akin to Jim Crow laws in the South. Freedom University seeks out undocumented students and involves them heavily in activism, debate and education. Students from the university often travel across Georgia, engaging with debate teams at the very universities they are barred from entering. Cortes concluded, “Why should students help undocumented students? It’s simple, because we are students who have to overcome different obstacles, but at the end we are here with one sole purpose: to obtain a higher education and a great future.” ■H
QUOTEBOOK “I am proposing that ASUCR stops spending more than $1000 on candy.”
- ASUCR Vice President of Finance Shafi Karim on ASUCR budget cuts
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UPCOMING EVENTS
FALL 2015, WEEK 5
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
10/27
10/28
10/29
10/30
10/31
11/1
11/2
Let’s Talk about Queering Relationships 5 - 6 p.m. Costo Hall 245
Graduate & Professional School Information Day 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Rivera Library
Deloitte Case Workshop 6 - 8 p.m. Student Services Bulding Tartan and Tweed Room
PB&J: Peanut Butter and Jogging! 10 - 11 a.m. HUB 248
Sustainable Landscaping Hallogreen Workshop 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. UCR Palm Desert
First Sundays: Dia de los FBI Information Session 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Muertos Masks HUB 269 1 - 4 p.m. Center for Social Justice
The Rock Crawl 7 - 10 p.m. SRC South
Asian/American Bodies in Anything Goes 4:10 - 6 p.m. ATHD 102
Fright Night Dive-In Movie 7- 11 p.m. SRC South
Ballroom/Latin Dance: Waltz/Cha Cha 6:45 - 8:45 p.m. SRC MPR A
Weekday Carillon Recitals 12 - 1 p.m. Bell Tower
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NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
NEWS IN BRIEF
UCR students receive Global BY JOSEPH AVILA, SPOOKY SKELETON WRITER Food Initiative UC system signs Japan’s Stewardship Code Fellowships On October 21, the UC system became the first U.S. pension plan and endowment fund to sign the Japan Stewardship Code, a nonbinding growth strategy that contains principles to enhance institutional investors’ medium-to-long-term investment by actively engaging shareholders in investment decisions. After meetings in recent years amongst Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other government departments to discuss strategies for Japan’s economic growth, a document was drafted several times and culminated in the Japan Stewardship Code, prefaced by “Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors.” The code aims to suggest “principles considered to be helpful for institutional investors who behave as responsible institutional investors in fulfilling their stewardship responsibilities with due regard both to their clients and beneficiaries and to investee companies.”
Among suggested policies include transparency of stewardship responsibilities, a clear policy on managing conflict of interests, and periodic reports of responsibilities. Specifically, the Office of the Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) plans to “partner with external fund managers, other asset owners and industry initiatives to magnify our voice and influence on shareholders.” Scott Chan, head of UC’s public equities team and the delegation to Japan, explained to UC press, “We feel confident that the Japan Stewardship Code will lead to long-term sustainable corporate growth … Our support for the code sends a message to Japanese corporations and investment managers about the importance we place on constructive engagement.” The UC Japan Stewardship signatory letter can be viewed online at the UC Chief Investment Officer of the Regents website.
UCR professor helps identify Olmec statue’s possible cosmic connection UCR professor of Anthropology Karl Taube — together with Clark University associate professor Jon Garton — plausibly put forth a connection between an ancient Olmec statue cataloged as “Incised Standing Figure” and the image of an Olmec star god at Worcester Art Museum (WAM) in Boston, Massachusetts. The statue was once owned by Miguel Covarrubias, famed Mexican painter, illustrator, archaeologist and friend of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. It is approximately 2,800 years old and made from smooth dark-green stone. The left arm is missing from the statue, most likely due to age, and the star-
like markings around the mouth have perplexed archaeologists since it was entered into WAM’s collection in 1958. “Dr. Taube has now plausibly suggested the pattern of incisions relate to other Olmec glyphs of a star sign, probably the morning star more commonly identified as the planet Venus,” said Garton in a blog post for WAM. They believe that the statue may be the earliest depiction of the star deity in human form. The statue and the professors’ research will make an appearance from November 14, 2015 to April 3, 2016 on WAM’s third floor Jeppson Idea Lab.
Three UCR students – Holly Mayton, Melina Reyes and Claudia Villegas – received $4,000 respectively in grants from UC’s Global Food Initiative for their projects that focus on food issues. “UC Riverside has some of the most exciting and diverse food and agricultural research in the country, and we are fortunate to be located in the state that produces 90 percent of our nation’s food,” Mayton, secondyear Ph.D student in chemical and environmental engineering, told UCR Today. “I am excited for my project because it will give student researchers the opportunity to take advantage of this fact, and to think more broadly about the big picture of the work we do in the isolation of our labs by looking directly at the places, people, and processes that our results will impact.” Mayton’s project funds will be allocated toward facilitating student visits to California farms and processing plants, as well as visits from farmers, processing managers and agricultural community members at UCR to lead round-table discussions with graduate students in an effort to communicate the impacts of the research. Reyes, a fourth-year political science, law and society major, plans to use her fellowship to lead a project called “Food Security Through R’Pantry.” The project will launch educational campaigns that focus on wellness and access to food and will try to alleviate the stigma for students who suffer from food insecurity. “Seed and Trees Parent-Child Program,” spearheaded by undergraduate Villegas, will conduct workshops and activities that focus on promoting sustainable agriculture and healthy eating habits while H also utilizing UCR’s R’Garden. ■
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/news ► FROM ASUCR, PAGE 1
finals week. One of the front office representatives stated “I just want you guys to be mindful of the situation (regarding the cut hours), because we weren’t really told about the situation. It was brought to our attention. It would’ve been better for us to find out about it before you guys agreed to it, and it’s obvious that they told you ‘Oh there’s going to be some big changes, but they didn’t explain to you what those changes meant.” “When people come to your office hours there’s not going to be one of us there. When people come in with check requisitions because receipts do have an expiring date, there’s not going to be anyone there. I’m just making you guys aware that the little things we do take care of aren’t going to get done anymore, and (ASUCR Budget and Payroll Accountant) Amy (Carrizosa) already has a heavy workload, so things aren’t going to get done in the manner you guys are used to,” the representative explained. The front office staff has worked in cutting a deal with Karim in order to allow raises for workers who have worked within the ASUCR office once the minimum wage increases. Karim’s rationale was that many of the workers in the office were not busy during the break times as the majority of students are not on campus and many students were occupied during finals week, reducing the need for a front office representative during those times. In addition, R’Gear was also approved during the budget plan,
with the sweaters costing a total of $30,728.88, approximately $21,000 less than its cost last year. The plan was received positively by more than 89 percent of the students surveyed by ASUCR, who decided to continue the program. Noting criticisms regarding the Class of 2018 logo on the sweaters last year, Karim decided to remove association with a specific freshman class. Despite this, freshmen will be the first to obtain a sweater, with everyone else being able to receive one in the following days. In addition, despite controversy regarding claims by the opposing party PAC: Pride, Action, Change in last years elections that the sweatshirts were not sweatshop-free, Karim received certification by the graphics company, that the sweaters were sweatshop-free. As ASUCR is not allowed to provide scholarships for students using the fees, Karim feels that R’Gear is one of the best ways to boost school pride. In regards to the program as opposed to prior wasteful spending Karim explained, “I would rather spend $10 buying students sweaters, than $10 buying myself food.” Pejae Chai, a fourth-year business major was in support of R’Gear. “I believe that the rgear is extremely beneficial to the student body. We are giving something back to the student body in the form of school spirit. Not everyone can afford a UCR jacket from the student store, so this way everyone will have an opportunity to show their highlander pride,” Chai elucidated. ■H
HIGHLIGHTS:
-Momo Hussein announced that he will attend the UC Regents open forum on Monday, October 26 to address the UC’s Statement of Intolerance. The forum will also be attended by UC Student Regent Designate Marcela Ramirez, who is a UCR graduate student.
Southern Californian committee to reduce nitrogen oxide pollution ADRIAN TRAN Contributing Witch
On Friday, October 16, a Southern Californian regional air district committee met with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to discuss plans concerning nitrogen oxide emission reduction. Both nitrous acid and nitric acid are categorized as nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are a group of highly reactive gases. When left unchecked, these gases can “irritate the lungs” and “lower resistance to respiratory infections such as influenza,” says the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Long-term exposure to nitrogen oxides ultimately hold broader implications, particularly for the environment. According to the EPA, NOx contribute to ozone formation and can have adverse effects on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Immoderate longterm environmental exposure may result in consequences like eutrophication — the fertilization of nitrogen and phosphorous — in coastal waters and ozone depletion in the air. Eutrophication, which has been increasing steadily throughout the 21st century, correlates directly with nitrogen oxide pollution. Increased levels of NOx causes an excess of nutrients within a body of water. Those nutrients subsequently cause intemperate
aquatic plant growth of algae and duckweed. Then, the algae blooms, preventing sunlight from reaching other plants. Gradually, the other plants die, depleting oxygen in the water. Oxygen levels eventually reach a point where no life is possible, killing the organisms within the body of water and destroying the ecosystem, which in turn affect other ecosystems. Excessive NOx may cause ozone depletion, which accounts for major atmospheric catastrophes like acid rain and global warming. Studies conducted by the EPA indicate that the impact of nitrogen oxides on warming the atmosphere is “almost 300 times that of 1 pound of carbon dioxide.” In addition, NOx molecules have been proven to remain in the air for around 114 years before being removed by a sink or destroyed through chemical reactions. Despite this, the EPA still projects emissions to increase by at least 5 percent between 2005 and 2020, driven largely by agricultural and industrial activities. The meeting between the regional air district committee and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) aimed to address one of those activities. On October 16, the SCAQMD proposed a cut of 14 tons of NOx emissions per day, based on the calculation of potential emissions reductions, once state-of-the-art
Riverside County is infamous for having some of the worst air quality in the nation.
regulations are retrofitted into industrial facilities. The plan, estimated to cost between $620 million and $1.09 billion, could be imposed on 275 smokestacks
in the urban parts of the San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties by 2022. However, industry representatives are nonplussed,
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
stating that a cut of 10.3 tons of emissions per day is much more reasonable. Consequently, a hearing to address the SCAQMD’s plans is scheduled for November 6. ■H
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/news
NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
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Food Week gives students a taste of healthy food BETEENA MARCO Contributing Witch
On Tuesday, October 20, the walkway between The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Rivera Library bustled with activity as students lined up for free samples of new products such as roasted agave sriracha brussel sprouts, vegetarian butternut squash sweet pepper tacos, orange flavored ice cream and a variety of fruit infused water. All of the ingredients utilized for these dishes were seasonal and locally-sourced, and were prepared by student workers. The tasting was the second installment in a series of events organized by UCR Dining Services in commemoration of Food Day — an annual UC-wide celebration of healthy foods and sustainability. While other campuses celebrated for only one day and in a single location, UCR Dining Services organized a weeklong program of events that took place throughout the campus. Besides the sampling fair, the week’s festivities included cooking demonstrations in the SRC Kitchen, the HUB and the Market at Glen Mor. Dining halls served speciality burgers made with grass-fed beef and mushrooms, and a Spa Water Challenge invited residents to become more involved in Food Week. The R’Garden was also highlighted by showcasing the
produce grown there and by hosting a screening of the film “Symphony of Soil.” Each event was designed with the intention of promoting social and personal responsibility in students’ food choices. Cooking demonstrations promoted the use of healthy ingredients and showed alternative methods of cooking that reduce the campus carbon footprint, while the food sampling on campus and special dishes at the dining halls introduced students to healthy and sustainable food. The movie screening at the R’Garden reacquainted students with where and how food is grown, and the Spa Water Challenge informed students of the hidden health dangers of consuming sugary beverages while suggesting a more nutritious alternative. Executive Director Cheryl Gardner explained the motivations behind such events, “I think just building awareness about the things we eat is important, but also, getting people to try food that is healthy for them, but also seeing how delicious it can be, is very important. Nobody cares if it is healthy, if it also doesn’t taste memorable and yummy.” Throughout the year, Dining Services applies their “Seeds of Change” initiative, which emphasize the use of healthier oils and prioritize fresh produce in food preparation. More than
VINCENT TA / HIGHLANDER
Dining workers prepare mango and pineapple agua frescas for students to try during food week
20 percent of the food served in on-campus restaurants and residential dining halls are made with local and sustainable ingredients. Fresh orange juice made from UCR oranges are sold at multiple Scotty’s locations, and “no sugar added” beverages are now being served at The Barn and The Market at Glen Mor. Dining Services also
gives back to the community by participating in food donations and collaborations with other UCR organizations to promote student health and wellness. Although Dining Services practices environmental consciousness throughout their daily operations, Garner acknowledges that Food Week is also significant in promoting
unity across campuses and organizations. “Food Week is an opportunity for all UC Campuses to join forces and focus on “Eating Real.” It is an opportunity for multiple groups on campus to share programs and information in the hopes that people will change the way they eat and care for our planet,” she expressed. ■H
Stress coping mechanisms may be ineffective KIMBERLY MILLER Contributing Witch
COURTESY OF UCR TODAY UCR Professor of Psychology Kate Sweeny focuses on stress due to uncertainty.
On October 12, the psychology journal, “Emotion” published associate psychology professor Kate Sweeny’s newest research on stress. Sweeny and her research team have been devoted to studying stress and the effectiveness of certain coping mechanisms for the past few years. Sweeny explained how her research stands to challenge what is previously thought about when dealing with stress. “Surprisingly, we know very little about how people cope with the particular type of stress associated with waiting for uncertain news. My research suggests that unlike coping with other kinds of stress, people are quite ill-equipped to deal with uncertainty. We have lots of psychological resources ready to use when something bad happens to us, but we don’t seem to have the same set of effective coping strategies when we’re waiting to learn our fate.” Her original experiment began with 50 law school graduates whom she examined their stress experience before and after taking the California bar exam. She compared their levels of anxiety at different points of time, evaluating how differ-
ent kinds of people — optimistic versus pessimistic — dealt with the waiting period and how this changed depending on the reception of positive versus negative news. In previous articles that preceded this month’s issue, Sweeny’s research team sought to determine whether waiting is truly the hardest part. Her work has continued to challenge her research as well as delve deeper into other aspects of stress evaluation. In her article “Two Definitions of Waiting Well,” Sweeny hoped to determine whether the graduates taking the bar could reduce their stress levels during the waiting period prior to the release of results. In addition, she also evaluated how the students dealt with good and bad news, as well as the coping mechanisms they used. Through her research, she found that in spite of stresscoping techniques, test takers were not able to change their levels of distress. Additionally, optimistic individuals were better at coping with “waiting” stress but did not cope well with receiving poor news on their exam results. They were also not as satisfied with passing the bar as those individuals with a slightly more pessimistic personality. Participants
with a more pessimistic outlook were also those who felt more burdened by the wait and anticipation. Moreover, the same individuals also coped better with negative news. In light of Sweeny’s research, the stress and chaos can either come during the wait period or later. This work, however, is not limited to law students, as her research team has expanded to conduct a number of studies on other populations. Sweeny is currently working on a study of women undergoing biopsies. In this case, the waiting period to find out their diagnosis is one week. Sweeny explains that previous research displays that a negative diagnosis is actually less stressful than the stress of waiting one’s results. She is interested in finding ways to “intervene to improve their experience.” When asked about future research plans her team has been looking into, Sweeny answered, “The big question still to be answered is how we can help people to wait better. We’ve run one study looking at the effect of mindfulness meditation during waiting periods, which produced some encouraging results, and we’re planning other studies that will try a variety of interventions to reH duce distress as people wait.” ■
Senator Dez’Gillai Jackson. Originally, ASUCR in collaboration with HUB Dining and the Transportation and Parking Services were slated to bring 24 distinct food trucks onto campus, three more than last spring. Two popular food trucks, The Grilled Cheese truck and Waff-N-Roll were unable to attend the festival at the last minute due to technical issues and scheduling conflicts. “I really wanted a waffle sandwich. I tried it for the
first time last year and it was literally the best thing ever. I had to wait like an hour for the sandwich but it was so worth it,” said second-year biology major Haresh Kumar. This year brought about many changes to the Food Truck Festival. For the first time since its inception, the festival was held on a Thursday instead of Wednesday during Nooners. This year’s fall festival also avoided placing food trucks on the pathway leading to Rivera.
These changes were brought about due to the HUB’s regulations on how close food trucks could be to club tents. Through these changes the festival became the main event of the day instead of just another supporting player in the already-bustling frenzy of weekly Nooners. This change allowed the festival to grow and continue as its own entity. “The food truck festival is something that I think has a lot of growth potential. Maybe next time we could partner
with something else and bring live music or an exhibition to the festival. There is even room to incorporate learning, we could teach students about sustainability and food security. I just want to give students something more to take away from this experience than just food. This festival keeps students on campus just a little bit longer and we could have so much more for them,” said Vice President of Campus Internal Affairs Michael Ervin. ■H
► FROM FOOD, PAGE 1
Lobster. Additionally, students were able to discover new favorites and try neverbefore-seen food trucks such as the Rolling BBQ Barn, JoJo’s Grill A Dog, Street Foods Corn and more. “We have a lot of foodies on our campus and this festival really gives them the chance to add a little spice into their dining,” said junior political science and sociology major and CHASS
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NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/news
COURTESY OF UCR TODAY
Solar panels may create emissions harmful to the environment GRACE GU Contributing Witch
Solar panels contribute over 18 percent of renewable electrical energy sources that help power UCR according to statistics taken in 2010, and will grow to 30 percent by 2020. However, a recent study led by on-campus researchers discovered that environmentally harmful effects come with certain utility-scale installations. Lead researcher and Junior Specialist Rebecca R. Hernandez revealed that such large-scale developments “can be a driver of land-use and land-cover change, which is
a source of greenhouse gas emissions itself.” According to this study, places in which panels are situated — such as natural habitats — have negative effects when ecosystems are disrupted to make way for these power plants. This contrasts with the effects that panels placed in already-developed areas such as rooftops, parking structures and other suburban buildings where humans have previously settled and made an impact on wildlife. Places where researchers have measured the environmental impact of sites consisted of 161 utilityscale solar energy (USSE)
installations in the state of California. The sites ranged from planned, under construction and operating, with the majority being situated in natural environments consisting of shrubbard and scrublands (375 square kilometers). This means that solar energy plants have affected the ecosystems negatively compared to those located in croplands and pastures (155 square kilometers), where agricultural lands were being used. Solar energy impacts the environment through construction projects such as ground clearing, excavation, traffic and trenching. Ground clearing, or the removal of
vegetation cover, can have a very large impact, especially in California, where the droughtincreased erosion as vegetation decreased. Disruption of wildlife has the possibility to occur through the depletion of habitat resources such as reduction of water flow, an effect of perennial streams, that can decrease the number of crops. In Central Valley, California, the research team is gathering information on the potential extent to which farmers would replace crops with solar panels. Many landowners “particularly in Central Valley, shift from harvesting crops to harvesting the sun,” Madison K. Hoffacker,
CRIME WATCH
Robberies occur near Lot 30 JOSEPH AVILA Spooky Skeleton Writer
ARCHIVE / HIGHLANDER Lot 30 is one of many parking lots available to students during regular school hours.
Two different robberies occurred at the intersection adjacent to and on Lot 30 on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, respectively. The first robbery happened last Thursday at the intersection of Martin Luther King Blvd and Canyon Crest Drive. The victim was approached by a man armed with a handgun who demanded the victim’s property while he was waiting in his car at a traffic light. After complying, the victim drove off unharmed. According to the UCPD Crime Alert, the suspect was described as a Caucasian male of about 25 years. He had short brown hair, was clean-shaven and was wearing a white t-shirt and dark colored pants. He was also described as having an indiscernible tattoo on his neck. The victim described the suspect as smelling strongly of cigarettes. The Riverside Police Department was first to take the initial crime report after UCPD officers were flagged down at around 10 p.m., as the crime occurred in their jurisdiction. The suspect remains at large.
In a possibly unrelated case, at 9:30 a.m. that day a woman in the Pentland Hills parking lot reported a man who approached her and alerted her that the area was not safe because a man with a gun was in the vicinity. The man offered to walk her to her car and after he did she reported the incident to UCPD. The second robbery happened around 6 p.m. the next day at the bus stop in Lot 30. While the victim was waiting for the bus to arrive, a man approached and demanded their bag. When the victim refused, the suspect brandished a kitchen knife and yelled “give me.” The victim then threw a small amount of his own cash and the suspect fled on foot. The victim described the suspect as being a bald Hispanic male around 30 years of age, 180 lbs, 5’7 or 5’8 and wearing a green and black flannel and gray sweatpants. The suspect appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and seemed to be missing his bottom teeth. The suspect of this robbery has also yet to be apprehended. UCPD Crime Alerts can be accessed online at the UCPD website. ■H
co-author on the study and Center for Conservation of Biology specialist reported. While this is not unwelcome and creates a lot of opportunities as well as saved energy costs, it is important to take note of how further development should reduce or not have an additional negative impact. For example, another study she took part in compares the CO2 emissions replaced or avoided with the benefits of USSE’s environmental benefits. Hoffacker adds a word on the importance of raising the standards, “Whatever we do here, in California, is going to be scrutinized or emulated elsewhere.” ■H ► FROM ADMIN, PAGE 1
following this agreement, a number of already well-paid administrators were granted a 3 percent pay raise. “While it is natural for the universities to expand over time … it is unacceptable that the core purpose, education, has not seen an increase in educators,” voiced Ani Dhruva, a third-year public policy student. “I believe that while administrators are arguably getting paid too much, the real problem is the stagnation of the rate of tenured professors here in the UC system. If both were evened out and adjusted accordingly with the increase in enrollment over the last few years, this would be no problem.” UC officials have also expressed that they feel the need to be able to compete against the faculty of private schools. Faculty compensation is established on the basis of how other schools compare, both in the private and public sectors. Debate has occurred as to whether or not this method of compensation should be used for a university system whose missions include teaching, ■H research and public service.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/opinions
Opinions
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HIGHLANDER HIGHLANDEREERIETORIAL EDITORIAL
To ensure a quality education, we need more professors — not administrators
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O
n October 17, a Los Angeles Times article pointed out a questionable trend in the UC system that has been growing more and more evident. Over the past decade, the number of administrators and managers has risen “38 percent ... but the ranks of tenured and tenure-track faculty have been relatively flat” at a slow rise of 8 percent. In addition to this trend, the number of employees who are paid at least $400,000 a year has risen to 900, “nearly twice as many [employees] in 2010 and more than six times as many as in 2004.” Though these statistics do not tell the whole story, it does call into question the need for all of these administrators at a time when the UC budget previously sought to increase at the expense of increasing students’ tuition and fee costs. (If the yearly 5 percent raise on tuition had actually occurred, would it have went toward supporting this bloated trend?). Citing that many administrators are “IT managers, architects, engineers and fiscal analysts,” UC officials stated that such administrators are necessary “to meet rising information
VINCENT TA / HIGHLANDER
and technology demands, [and] increasingly complex requirements of government funding and regulation...” At UCR, the growing need for administration is understandable with Kim Wilcox’s ambitious campus expansion plan, receiving its first step in funding last September. And, such positions are essential to run the inner workings of a university, such as payroll, academic advising or program planning. In the end, all these positions are meant to go toward sustaining and bettering a college student’s education, yet current practices are not ensuring this. Though administrators are needed to keep the cogs of a university going, the Bain & Co. efficiency experts’ assessments at UC Berkeley (UCB) revealed that the bureaucracy between the chancellor and top UCB employees had about “11 layers of management ... suggesting that the organization had too many bosses.” If the other UC schools are following a similar business model in terms of management, then they are not only misusing manpower, but also have a model that results in “slower decisionmaking, excessive costs and lower employee morale.”
If assessments like the one conducted at UCB occur at the other campuses and prove to have the same results, then changes must be made so that the funding appropriated toward administration is used toward the UC’s initial purpose — educating the public. While the UC’s mission statements specify “teaching, research and public service,” many students feel that their quality of education has slowly been ignored. Though the number of undergraduate students attending the UCs has increased dramatically (UCR went from having a population of about 10,000 students in 2000 to 18,608 undergraduates in fall 2015), many feel that class sizes have not appropriately accommodated the increasing student population. Since the rise in student population exceedingly outpaces the rise in faculty, the student-to-professor ratio has suffered, especially in impacted and popular classes. In larger class sizes, a student cannot receive as much face time with a professor, since teaching has shifted to graduate students or part-time instructors; any face time that can be given to students is also cut due to the responsibilities tenure
professors have to research at a UC. In addition, students’ graduation rates are affected by the limited number of professors teaching classes. At times, students can only take critical major classes only once a year. At UCR, for example, all majors must take critical classes needed to complete their major, but some are only offered once a year. So, if a student fails one such course, they are immediately off track for their major. These issues that students face as they pursue their education can be partly solved with the UCs hiring more professors. Accessible professors are essential to any college students’ education. While the UC system should not immediately start to employ a large amount of professors in one go, steps should be taken to assess the number of administrators. At least then, it can be justified on an economical level as to why the UCs do not need to maintain a high volume of administrators. ■H Highlander editorials reflect the majority view of the Highlander Editorial Board. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Associated Students of UCR or the University of California system.
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OPINIONS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/opinions
Opinion Poll If you were going to go trick or treating, what kind of candy would you want to get? C ompiled
Erik Camarena Undeclared Second-year “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.”
Rosemary Fonseca Plant Biology Second-year “Kit-Kats.”
Matthew Whiles Linguistics Second-year “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Fuck everything else.”
Perry Lau Environmental Science Fourth-year “I would Whoppers.”
want
Breeana Lozano English Third-year “I would say more chocolate bars, Snickers or Twix.”
by
J aspery G oh
Christian Garcia Psychology Third-year “Dark chocolate, chocolate.”
any
► See more at Youtube.com/UCRChannelH
Commentary on the status of American freedom in today’s world JOSH ARAGON Contributing Witch
When we think of the United States of America’s place among all of the many different nations, our initial picture would be that we are the keepers of peace, and the embodiment of freedom. There is some idealistic truth to this statement, but the ideals that are associated with America do not always coincide with the truth. What is motivating me to write this has been going on for a while, but the final straw was the Umpqua community college shooting that happened on October 1 in Rosenburg, Oregon. People getting murdered for religion, for giving a bad grade or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, shows in fact that there is a serious problem with the attitude toward safety in our country. Even the president expressed his disgust, both at this singular event, and at American citizens who are becoming increasingly numb when hearing about tragic news of this magnitude. However, as unbelievable as this singular event was, more like it have happened right under the general public’s nose. The average American is caught up with relatively trivial news that has been propagated by media channels that gain much of their funding through big corporations such as the Republican Governor’s Association for Fox News. When it comes to these kinds of less visible issues, there are bigger problems going on other than the media’s fixation on Donald Trump or Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj having an argument. One problem citizens should be worried about is the loss of privacy. No one has really looked into the files that Edward Snowden released, at the cost
of his freedom. The files are living proof that in our own government, the National Security Agency (NSA) seemingly represents the Big Brother from George Orwell’s “1984” that we were warned about more than half a century ago. These are operatives at the highest level, who keep information even from other agents working on the same case. For the longest time, the government charged steep fees for any person who wanted to look into these written laws, leaving anybody with a lower than average income ignorant when it came to their rights and the amount of jurisdiction authorities have. Even people who tried to fix the problems within the organization, such as Thomas Drake and Bill Biney, ended up having their own lives ruined as result. Yet, no one seems to care about these things. Actions of this severity impede our right to privacy, and the NSA has the capability and drive to collect mass amounts of information from the entire American public via programs like PRISM, which copies the data of users of big companies such as Google, Facebook,and Yahoo. Snowden himself responded to why we should care about privacy by saying “Not caring about privacy because we have nothing to say is like saying we don’t care about our right to free speech because we have nothing to say.” Another case includes the loss of Aaron Swartz’s life because he wanted everyone to have access to all academic journals. But I would be lucky to find someone who knows who he is. Swartz, one of the co-creators of the popular website Reddit, as well as many nonprofit organizations, used the network through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to copy academic journals accessible only
through the Institute’s website, and redistribute them for free via the web. He ended up getting indicted, and was offered bargains to plead guilty to counts of “illegally obtaining information” and wire and computer fraud, as if he did it for reselling purposes. After countless attempts to bully him into pleading guilty for something he was innocent of, he committed suicide days before the trail. These journals are extremely important. When scientists are going through the process of researching, hypothesizing, testing, correcting said hypothesis, the final step would be to publish their findings into academic journals, so that through science, technology, and relation, mankind can better itself. Restricting this access to only those who have the monetary resources to view these findings will make anyone without money unable to view the full picture of what mankind has achieved and is achieving, stopping potential progress and robbing the people a view of what mankind’s legacy consists of. Someone wiser than me said that that the most dangerous thing in the world is ignorance. But combined with apathy, I fear that we are literally going down the path of pure submission to one-sided views without even realizing the true workings of what goes on in the circle of those with power. Similarly to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, it is also true that the rich are receiving all the information, whilst the poorer become more ignorant to the activities maintaining the powerful’s hegemony, almost as if we were living in Orwell’s “1984.” For whoever is reading this: please at the very least learn Edward Snowden’s story, learn Aaron Swartz’s story and ask yourself: is this the H world you want to live in? ■
COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE
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OPINIONS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
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No humor in the Caitlyn Jenner costume VEENA SUBRA Contributing Witch
Halloween is a confusing time of year. For some, the hunt for the perfect costume comes weeks before the big day. Whether it’s to evoke nostalgia like that one guy who dressed up as Justin Timberlake during his N’Sync days, or whether it’s to create a good laugh like that one guy who dressed up as Homer Simpson, costume-wearers alike dress up in order to get a reaction from friends and family. However, one particular costume that came out this past August is bound to get more than a few giggles and laughs. Online retailer, Spirit Halloween, has sparked quite the controversy over their new Caitlyn Jenner costume, as it is seen as a direct attack to the cisgender and LGBTQ communities. To put it bluntly, the costume is not funny, and it trivializes the struggles that the transgender community faces on a daily basis. According to the Daily News, Spirit Halloween’s marketing head, Trisha Lombardo claimed that, “Caitlyn Jenner has proven to be the most important real-life superhero of the year, and Spirit Halloween is proud to carry the costume that celebrates her;” however, not everyone will use this costume in support of what she stands for and will find a
way to abuse her ideals instead. Beyond that, there are a million ways to celebrate Jenner, but dressing up as her during Halloween is distasteful and disrespectful. Celebrate her ideals, and her courage by advocating for LGBTQ rights or by defending her when she is being attacked, not by dressing up as her. Additionally, it’s not only Lombardo that appears to be “in on the joke,” America’s very own Caitlyn Jenner told Matt Lauer of the Today Show, “No, I don’t think it’s offensive at all … I know the community does, and they’ve gotten a lot of criticism for doing it. I think it’s great.” For someone who is seen as an icon to the transgender community, allowing this costume to be produced just spurs the ignorance that already exists in regards to transgender issues, such as acceptance and equality. Jenner is clearly ignoring the fact that this costume is to poke fun at a community of people who have suffered a great deal of humiliation, alienation and marginalization. A cushion of money and fame surrounds her while, “transgender people are four times as likely to be living in extreme poverty (making under $10,000 a year).” Poverty is not the only thing that plagues the LGBTQ community, but also high rates of mur-
der, lack of mental and physical healthcare and discrimination are seen in terms of education, employment and daily life. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the financial security Jenner has and while she has lawyers and the proper means to protect her identity, there are millions who must endure the reality of extreme pain and suffering. This costume reduces Jenner’s identity and makes the plight of the LGBTQ community subject to ridicule and exploitation. So here’s a little advice to you Jenner: by coming out, you exposed yourself to the world, by creating a reality show, you decided to become a spokesperson for the LGBT community and by accepting the prestigious ESPY award, you became a figure people could look up to. In your ESPY speech, you gave powerful insight and accepted the responsibility that came your way. You proclaimed, “I know I’m clear with my responsibility going forward: to tell my story the right way, for me. To keep learning. To do whatever I can to reshape the landscape of how trans issues are viewed, how trans people are treated.” So Jenner, I urge you to use your power to protect those who look up to you and realize that your opinion matters. This costume is not a joke; don’t laugh it off. ■H
COURTESY OF GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY Former olympian Caitlyn Jenner has been under a constant spotlight since transitioning in June.
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Halloween is a time to be someone you’re not, and if it so happens to be “sexy” then let it be.
Halloween: a rightfully sexy, sexy holiday for the millennials DIEGO XOCOYOTZIN ROMERO Contributing Witch
Halloween is just around the corner and we are once again visited by classic costumes such as sexy nurse, sexy schoolgirl and even sexy nun. Along with these revealing outfits come criticisms concerning the decency of the costumes. Some believe that Halloween has become too liberal and prefer the more conservative days of orthodox princess apparel. However, I believe that these promiscuous outfits shouldn’t get such a bad rep. When people say that Halloween has become more liberal they are right, but what they fail to understand is that it has become this way based on the permissive culture that we are now living in. Turn on the TV or radio and you are bombarded with advertisements and songs
about sex. It’s only logical that this sensual theme has leaked into our holidays. Furthermore, Halloween is directly associated with debauchery and mischief. As children, it was egging houses and lighting poop bags on fire that allowed us to get in touch with our inner waywardness, yet we outgrew vandalism and now prefer to show a little skin and drink a little more than we usually do. And why not? This is the time of year for letting loose, for taking on the persona of someone or something else for one night before returning to our normal dreary lives. By way of contrast, some would say that we are exposing the younger generation to depravity and indecency. To this I say that yes we are, but we are doing no more damage than the constant sexual themes they are exposed to day in and day
out. Even in children shows like “SpongeBob Squarepants” there are subtle sensual jokes. Such as when SpongeBob buries himself with only his nose sticking out, Mr. Krabs says him “Please tell me that’s your nose.” Therefore, one night out of the year isn’t going to permanently alter a child’s perspective more than it already has been. However, a few costumes are offensive, such as sexy Native American or sexy geisha. I admit that outfits like these are problematic, but culturally insensitive costumes do not justify getting rid of all the risque attire. Others would argue that people should just naturally dress with more dignity, and some people do. It is the choice of the individual as to what they want wear. We can persecute and criticize all we want, but if someone wants to be a sexy maid for Halloween, I say let
them, it is after all their decision. Another argument is that it goes against the tradition of Halloween, yet keep in mind that this pagan holiday began as a way of warding off demons by wearing masks. Halloween no longer has traditions — it has norms, such as trick-or-treating mischief and now sexy costumes. Scandalous attire isn’t just part of Halloween; it has spread into Christmas as sensual elves and Thanksgiving as a seductive pilgrim. I even saw a provocative Virgin Mary outfit being sold around Easter. However, up to now only Halloween has come under fire for its perverse unwritten law of uninhibited outfits. This is due to the fact that Halloween is a holiday for all ages. Adults throw gatherings,the elderly hand out candy, children collect said candy and us millennials — we
indulge in sensuality. I say let us celebrate one of the most liberating of days as we see fit, it is after all a children’s holiday and even though we are considered adults by the state we still feel like teenagers. So let us be outlandish, let us be rambunctious, let us be sexy. Allow us this night to let ourselves go and lower our inhibitions, because we are on the cusp of adulthood and wish to enjoy this night the way we want to. We have outgrown candy and misdemeanor crimes. I’m sure that in the future we will get tired of wearing tight shirts and fishnet stockings. Yet while we are in our prime, I ask those that are calling for a more conservative Halloween to let us be and keep in mind that we can always go back to egging houses if the destruction of your personal property is what you prefer. ■H
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OPINIONS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/opinions
The truth about representation of minorities in media KYLE OMORI Contributing Witch
COURTESY OF WANRER BROS. PICTURES The lack of proper ethnic and racial represntation in media is still a long uphill battle, even with recent victorious strides in television.
Having recently watched the movie “Pan” with Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, I found myself thinking about the representation of racial minorities in media, or more specifically, television. It feels as if television networks make remarkably little effort when it comes to breaking from the mold of type-casted roles by using varying ethnicities of color in TV. In the show, “Fresh Off The Boat,” whose plot is about a Chinese family adapting to a primarily Caucasian environment, Jessica Huang (Constance Wu) talks to her sons about being actors. She is confused as to why they are getting involved in the school play, since they will only ever be cast as ‘the nerdy friend’ or if there is a scene in China Town. As a Japanese American, I can’t help but agree with this statement. There are typically five stereotypical roles when one thinks of Asian actors and they have been the same for as long as I can remember: martial artists, dragon ladies, geeks, foreigners and prostitutes. One would assume that in this day and age we would have progressed far enough to see a myriad of minorities playing many roles, but, unfortunately, it appears that the television industry has yet to relinquish their grip on cliches that they assume work for their viewers. For every show that is being called progressive in respects to expanding their cast and plot regarding this issue, there are infinitely more that are still reluctant to include minorities. Typically, one sees a “mixed” group dynamic when it comes
to standard television, but the majority of that group will be white with a token minority. “The Mindy Project,” starring Mindy Kaling, seems exactly that — a project. When the show started, I wasn’t sure if viewers would respond well to having a person of color as the star, but if high ratings prove anything, it’s that it works. Hopefully, this will open the door to many other aspiring actors and actresses who attempt to take on being the lead of a show. However, it’s a demanding uphill battle for these eager performers due to the “mixed” group precedent that the industry has established. The statistics regarding the number of white directors and writers for television is staggering, since less than 10 percent have been people of color. It is concerning that so much art by people of color is being outvoted and underrated. But there is a way to change that — us. We as the future generation of writers, actors and creators of art have the power to change the industry. We cannot stand aside and think that this is how it will always be. We need to provide quality work in such great quantities that studio officials will have no choice but to acknowledge it. It’s terribly disappointing to think that there is still this feeling of separation on a media outlet that was meant to bring us closer together as a society. Television has progressed and evolved to allow viewers to look at what can be achieved by everyone. I can only hope that in the near future neither you, dear reader, nor I will have to dwell on such thoughts and that television will truly become a melting pot of American culture as ■H it was meant to be.
Donald Trump’s fascist tendencies NATHAN SWIFT Spooky Skeleton Writer
Donald Trump is no stranger to controversy. He’s always been a highly polarizing figure ever since his rise to national prominence as a business tycoon in the ‘80s. And this year isn’t the first time he’s considered running for president, but hopefully it’s his last. Most people treat Trump’s decisive rhetoric the same way one would treat their racist drunk uncle at Thanksgiving dinner — a roll of the eyes followed by “there he goes again, always saying crazy things.” But when you give that type of voice a national platform, it can’t be taken as a joke anymore. And Trump’s fascist tendencies are more terrifying than funny. According to the famous British sociologist Michael Mann, fascism is marked by “the pursuit of a transcendent and [ethnic and political] cleansing nation-statism through paramilitarism.” Nowadays, it’s usually used as a last-ditch and unoriginal insult toward political opponents, something spoken off the top of one’s head without any hint of hindsight. However, when examining many of Trump’s speeches and gaffes from this year, it’s startling to see how they contain a fascist undercurrent. The game of American politics is well-acquaintanced with dog whistles — the notion that a seemingly innocent phrase is actually coded to speak to or for an unseen audience. And in essence, that’s the game Trump’s been playing while campaigning
for president. His support base is largely white, conservative, traditional and very, very angry at our ever-changing and diverse world. To them, Trump is the answer they’ve been looking for: somebody who’ll return America to the good ol’ days. Whether or not Trump likes it (or is even fully aware of it), his fascist, dog whistle rhetoric is getting the attention of very unlovely people (including the former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke), believing that Trump’s cult of personality will save America , which is fascistic in nature — the idea that a single person will carry the political weight of a group wrongly obsessed with decline, victimhood and reinvigoration. Even when it was reported that a few Bostonian men had beaten a homeless Hispanic man and were quoted as saying, “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” Trump’s initial response was that his followers are very passionate. The tenets of fascism support racial hierarchies and racial and ethnic purity on a national level. Trump’s unwillingness to immediately distance himself from those xenophobic attackers, his willingness to do away with Muslim Americans’ civil liberties by monitoring and closing mosques and his increasingly (and openly) racist supporters fall in line with fascism’s idea of keeping one’s nation pure. Trump’s presidential platform has become the platform for white nationalism — a type of fascism. Trump’s foreign policy reflects this too. Like many in the anti-Obama crowd, Trump will
VINCENT TA / HIGHLANDER Presidential candidate Donald Trump is growing in popularity due to his polarizing personality and controversial stance on popular issues.
criticize any part of Obama’s foreign policy while refusing to give much depth on his own. He believes that global warming is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese (because reasons), and demands Mexico pay for the giant border wall he wants to have built. He also wishes to deport the reportedly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in America, but is pretty okay with invading either Mexico or the Middle East (again). Under a fascist government, the state and the general sense of community, are everything. Anything that isn’t unified with the greater whole — which includes international neighbors — is deemed an enemy. And that’s the effect Trump is having with his words. He’s painting a picture of a hostile and unAmerican globe surrounding a
weakened America that’s eating up its shrinking living space. Trump’s extreme nationalism and fascism go hand-in-hand here. The most frightening aspect of Trump’s fascist tendencies lies in how he carries himself. He’s a multibillionaire who believes himself to be a nonelitist outsider. His businesses have filed for bankruptcy four times, yet he thinks he’ll have a wall along our southern border (to keep out all the “scary brown people,” of course) without any serious economic or human rights consequences. He’s a non-politician who sees himself as presidential material. Like many pro-fascists of the ‘20s and ‘30s, he eschews the graceful art of politics (which is the art of compromise) in favor of a black and white worldview. He
vows to do away with empathy, complex solutions to complex problems and a diverse future in favor of “making America great again.” His words strike a dangerous chord with a fringe section of American politics by giving it an authentic mainstream voice. Trump’s very being is the opposite of rational political discourse. Trump may not be an outright fascist, but his words and policies eerily echo the central tenets of fascism. The extreme nationalism and paramilitarism, the outright racism and xenophobia, the obsession over (white) America being in decline, the apathy for complex politics — it’s all there. If “the American Dream is dead,” it’ll truly die the day Donald Trump is elected president, and then our H American Nightmare begins. ■
OPINIONS
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
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COMICS SOURDOOGLE: PART 2
By Danni Wei
Pt. 2
HALLOWEEN EXPECTATIONS
Ages: 4-12
By Danny Garcia
Ages: 13-17
Ages: 18-27
Afterlife
WRITE FOR THE HIGHLANDER MEETINGS ON MONDAYS AT 5:15PM @ HUB 101
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OPINIONS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
DRONE HOBBY
By Jacqueline Lee
NOMS
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By Matt Hong
Unlike other similar hobby electronics (e.g. DSLR cameras, toy helicopters, ...), the capability of drones to fly poses a much greater threat. Particularly, through the heightened odds of privacy infringement and turning it into a more maneuverable potential terrorist weapon.
COOL GUY HALLOWEEN
By Matt Hong
YOUR COMIC HERE Become a comic artist for the highlander
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Features
Harvest Fest celebrates our local R’Garden Faraz Rizvi, Contributing Wizard // Photos by Jeffrey Chang
O
utdoor Excursions and the Riverside community garden hosted this year’s Harvest Fest at the R’Garden. The event featured festival events as well as a sleepover camping event for those interested in getting more acquainted with the outdoors. The Harvest Fest was oriented around those who weren’t familiar with outdoor activities, and was also a celebration of the R’Garden and its place in the Riverside community. The festival was divided into two different sections, the first one being a carnival with games, booths, snacks and various other activities. One of the more popular games was a corn-hole toss, in which a little ball was tossed into a specified area. The snack booth included various fruits that were grown at the R’Garden, as well as free water bottles. Moreover, guests were given a tour of the entire area, shown the different crops that are grown and taught the composting methods that the R’Garden utilizes so they can possibly cultivate their own garden. Participants were able to leave the garden with fresh produce in hand for their anticipated dishes as well. The activities were also ways to introduce some of the visitors to the various events that Outdoor Excursions hosts, such as a caving simulation. The caving simulation, which was borrowed from Riverside’s caving club, featured two wooden boards, with space in between. The amount of space could be adjusted depending on the preference of the individual, who would then crawl through the space between the boards. This activity simulated the ex-
perience of having to crawl through caves and was one of the most interesting activities on display. The second portion of the event was a sleepover, where guests had the option of camping over night for five dollars at the R’Garden. It began with a cooking demonstration in which staff from Outdoor Excursions taught individuals how to make backcountry lasagna using Dutch ovens. This dish is made using a very old method of cooking, perfect for the outdoors. After the demonstration, there was a discussion over campfire and s’mores of individual experiences and everyone’s relationships with the outdoors. Through storytelling and campfire activities, guests, were able to be revitalized and united with nature by the end of the experience. The turnout for the event was strong, although slightly less than expected by the staff. Overall, the event successfully underlined the importance of agricultural sustainability and the great work that the community garden does. The R’Garden usually hosts about two events per quarter, which often center around social justice issues as well as sustainability. According to Outdoor Excursions member Chris Connors, “We are trying to show the community crops, and that there are organic alternatives for produce.” The sustainability portion was very beneficial for many guests who did not actually know about the local crops that are grown, and how important buying locally grown produce can be for sustainability. The Harvest Fest was a wonderful celebration of the H R’Garden and its contribution to the community. ■
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
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FEATURES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/features
HIGHLANDER club CHEFS spotlight
TIFFANY LIAW, SPOOKY SKELETON WRITER
“I
love cooking; I’ve been cooking ever since I knew what it was!” mused Maria Salazar, a third-year film production major, who’s also the president of Highlander Chefs, UCR’s very own cooking club. Although the club was created two years ago, it never really took off until a year later when Maria decided that she should build the legacy that Highlander Chefs had the potential to create. Without hesitation, she gathered up the old cabinet members, and collectively they began to plan their reintroduction of Highlander Chefs to UCR. With the help of a successful potluck and a delicious recipe for peanut butter and jelly cookies, Maria was able to recruit a publicist and historian to complete their cabinet. Then, they were set
CONTACT marketing. highlander@ gmail.com TO HAVE YOUR CLUB FEATURED ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL! YOUTUBE.COM@CHANNELH
to go. “I noticed that a lot of people in college move out and live on their own, where cooking is essential,” began Maria, “and you can’t always eat ramen, but it happens because students often don’t have the supplies or are too busy to learn how to cook.” This proved true during her second year when she moved out and quickly learned that there really isn’t a lot of time available for students to cook. By making simple and delicious dishes that only take 10 minutes to complete, Maria decided that she wanted to teach her recipes to students through cooking demonstrations held by the Highlander Chefs. The Highlander Chefs allow members to connect with each other through a common love for cooking and food, while sharing tips and recipes with one another. The club inspires each member to improve on and experiment with their individual recipes, since you should never be afraid to try something new. Although, trying new recipes might have their risks too. “Once I ended up substituting Nutella with peanut butter to make brownies and they became rocks! Luckily I was able to remake it but I learned that PB and flour don’t mix …” recalled Maria, emphasizing the importance of experimenting as it leads to learning new lessons. Even though members draw recipes from the Internet, they usually use it for inspiration rather than copying each and
every ingredient. When a recipe calls for an ingredient that isn’t available, chefs are taught to experiment with what they can find around the house and to just be creative. By taking leftovers and adding them into an existing recipe,
kei Student Union, the Taiko Ensemble Club, Origami Club and the Anime club here on campus; we’re preparing for a Japanese cooking demonstration as soon as we can, and with the help of all those clubs I’m sure it will have a great
“you can’t always eat ramen, but it happens because students often don’t have the supplies or are too busy to learn how to cook” -Maria Salazar, President of Highlander Chefs Maria and her club members are able to create a multitude of new dishes. In light of the pre-existing and nerve-wracking cooking competition shows on television, Highlander Chefs also has hopes of creating their own cooking competition as well as a series of blind taste-tests to improve their palates in the near future. The club is currently attempting to borrow the SRC’s kitchen and cooking demonstration room so they would be able to uphold their goal of two demonstrations a quarter, depending on the recipes or theme. “We’ve already reached out to Nik-
turnout. We want to expand to other cultures as well,” exclaimed Maria enthusiastically. With multiple project ideas, the possibilities are truly endless when it comes to food and is the perfect revival for the Highlander Chefs. For aspiring chefs, Maria has some solid pieces of advice: salt and pepper are your essentials, and try new things since the outcome will most likely surprise you by tasting well. And if that doesn’t work out, try again. You’ll never truly succeed if you don’t start trying. Also, flour and peanut butter don’t mix. ■H
FEATURES
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/features
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
15
Restaurant Review:
Starfish Sushi Cody Nguyen, spooky skeleton writer Photos by Vincent Ta, Photography Editor
N
estled in an inconspicuous corner of the Canyon Crest Towne Centre lies Starfish Sushi, an establishment that has the potential to be an afterthought amongst the hustleand-bustle of the nearby Rite Aid and Ralphs’ clientele. “Seat yourselves,” exclaimed a busy, but somewhat apathetic employee at the far side of the restaurant as I made my way through the front door. A slightly vexing departure from the above-average hospitality usually found at many other Japanese eateries. Upon entry, the spacious interior allowed for an all-inclusive view of the restaurant, with its modestlysized sushi bar coupled amongst a sea of generic wooden tables and chairs, two televisions tuned to ESPN on opposite ends of the restaurant — and not much else, disappointingly. The lack of patrons at the dawn of peak dinner time brought about a further tempering of my expectations for Starfish, ostensibly
reminiscent of your run-of-the mill, suburban sushi joint where California rolls and chicken teriyaki are the law of the land. After receiving and browsing the menu for quite some time, the crunch dragon roll and the salmon teriyaki combo ultimately ended up as the items to be put under the microscope. With hunger pangs in full force after a meal-less day, the anticipation mounted with every passing minute between the order and receipt of the food. After about 15 minutes came the first item, the salmon teriyaki combination, which consisted of the named item, a small mound of rice, vegetable and shrimp tempura and a meagerly-portioned side salad slathered with a tart sesame dressing. As a whole, the dish proved to be a solid menu item, with the salmon cooked to near-perfection (just a tad bit overcooked, however) combined with the light, flavorful teriyaki sauce as opposed to many Japanese restaurants with their thick, viscous
THE SCIENCE
BEHIND
I
HAPPINESS
Ashley Chung, Contributing Witch
came to an immediate halt upon passing through the welcoming doors of Hub 302 on a Thursday afternoon after distractedly bumping into many of UCR’s students, faculty and staff gathered by the entrance. The parties of people were patiently waiting to be checked in by Student Wellness Partners and the Staff Wellness Program — a resource that seeks to promote a campus of healthy minds and bodies. Expecting a groggy, postlunch crowd, I was ardently surprised to discover a lively, chatty mass already mingling about. Many eagerly gushed over the long-awaited lecture by UCR’s own professor of psychology, Sonja Lyubomir-
sky, about her research on personal well-being and her book, “The How of Happiness.” It seemed that all of those seeking to enhance their daily spirits and moods at school, work and home were gradually piling in. Rows of tables with assorted items and snacks flanked each side of the spacious room. Upon entering, the left-hand side greeted one with typical self-help pamphlets such as the “Guide to UC Living Well,” as well as the not-sotypical goods of yo-yos, wrist sweatbands and stress balls, all of which were printed with traditional smiley faces. The right-hand side of the wall was occupied by a row of refreshments ranging from chips and salsa to coffee and
teriyaki sauce that holds the consistency of year-old engine oil. The side dishes acted as a polarizing supporting cast. The shrimp and vegetable tempura’s crisp exterior gave way to a perfectly airy intermission followed by a stimulating, flavorful taste on the inside. While on the other hand, the over-seasoned salad was nearly inedible. Much to my chagrin, the dishes arrived in staggered, nearly 10-minute intervals from each other, forcing other members in my party, including myself, to wait nearly 20 minutes from receiving the first dish to finally begin eating. The crunch dragon roll consisted of a shrimp tempura and imitation crab interior topped with fried eel and avocado and an aesthetically pleasing drizzle of a dark-brown, sweet eel sauce. From the first bite, I immediately recanted all my preconceived notions about the restaurant’s quality and repented for my sin of judging a book by its cover. The perfectly cooked shrimp tem-
pura and eel brought a more-thansatisfying crunch, combined with a flavorful burst of the aforementioned ingredients. The imitation crab tasted less like a slab of shredded rubber bands held together by mayonnaise (I’m looking at you, Asahi), and more like a subtle contrast to the eel and shrimp. As an added bonus, the resilience of the wrapped sushi roll was a pleasant surprise, as each piece stayed intact despite the various mishan-
various cookie options. With free goodies came lengthy lines though, which meant that I would inevitably be found lingering while I waited. After cheerfully collecting my fair share of salsa dip and chips, and claiming an extremely satisfying stress ball for myself — now named Squishy — I promptly hastened toward a seat with the other attendees. For those of us who arrived with limited knowledge on the exceptional background of Professor Lyubomirsky, we were informed of her bachelor’s degree and PhD earned at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. Jamie Lee, from human resources, praised Lyubomirsky on how her extensive “research on the possibility of permanently increasing happiness has been honored by fellow stations in three different scientific communities.” Her book, which focuses on developing the desired lifestyle through a scientific approach, has also been translated in 23 countries — just to briefly name a few of her achievements. Professor Lyubomirsky began her lecture by explaining the overall benefits that “happy people” receive through her different topics of research. One of which includes her cold virus study, which presents us with the acknowledgement that those who are happy are able to maintain stronger immune functions. This study consisted of healthy volunteers measuring their positive
emotional style before being administered a rhinovirus through nasal drops. After being quarantined for five days and monitored for a month, results concluded that more cheerful volunteers were less likely to develop a cold and those who did recovered from it at a faster rate. She continued to illustrate her research on happiness to us by offering another compelling study, which proved that being joyful correlates with one’s creativity and productivity. Researchers began by inducing a group of volunteers with happiness by providing them with satchels of chocolates before instructing them to complete a creativity test. These tests consisted of categories of words followed by one blank space, which required participants to provide a word for. An example Lyubomirsky provided was “club, gown, mare” to which the associating answer was “night.” Volunteers in a happier mood were more successful at completing this test than those with a neutral mood. Through a great amount of other research programs, Lyubomirsky was able to come to the conclusion that happiness leads to advantages ranging from superior jobs and higher salaries to maintaining more friends and fulfilling marriages. How does one induce oneself with happiness though? “Implementing positive activities based on one’s own circumstances is the most optimal way,” Lyubomirsky answered.
dlings of chopsticks that occurred throughout the course of the meal. The conclusion of the meal brought an unprecedented satisfaction never before seen in my experience with Japanese cuisine in the city of Riverside. If not for the subpar service and disappointing salad in the salmon teriyaki, Starfish Sushi would be the undisputed holy grail of local Japanese food here. Despite its minute shortcomings, though, Starfish is still a catch. ■H
RATING ★★★★☆ LOCATION 5225 Canyon Crest Dr, Riverside, CA 92507 PRICE $ $ HOURS Sun. - Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
4:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. CATEGORY Japanese, Sushi CREDIT YES WEBSITE http://www.yelp.com/biz/starfish-sushi-riverside She eventually arrived upon what many of her audience members came looking for — actions that directly lead to happier lives. Simple activities such as expressing gratitude, learning to forgive and savoring the moment are strategies to improve happiness. One might also discover a stronger sense of bliss by committing themselves to relationships and significant life goals. More physical practices include engaging in exercises and meditation. Lyubomirsky stressed that the application of these engagements vary from person to person as she explained that it is “crucial that the activity fits with (one’s) personality, goals, strengths, cultures and the source of (one’s) unhappiness.” Those who sought to cure themselves of a negative habit of pessimism, like myself of late, definitely succeeded as the mass of Highlanders left the lecture with smiling faces stretching broadly across their cheeks. First-year psychology major Sarah Guirguis shared that she expected the event “to be less fun, but found it much more enjoyable” and was enlightened by the “many different ways in which people could become happier.” Thus, in hopes of advocating for an increasingly positive UC campus, Professor Lyubomirsky concluded her lecture by leaving everyone with a quote from Aristotle. “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” ■H
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Highlander
R adar ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
EVENTS THIS WEEK 10/29
“Book of Life” film screening 6:30-8:30 p.m @ R’Garden, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Fright Night drive-in movie @ SRC South Pool, 7-11 p.m.
10/30
Floating Pumpkin Patch @ SRC South Pool, 9:30-12 p.m.
VINCENT TA / HIGHLANDER
18
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/arts
More than
spokEN word when truth is told with emotion
Nathan Swift, Spooky Skeleton Writer
T
he Barn at UCR held its first major event this year last Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. Students filled in by the dozens and took their seats for a night of poetry. In the back, there was a table for water and hot cocoa to keep the audience hydrated and warm. Organized by ASPB, the event was scheduled to present three famous contemporary poets and their work. Before that, however, students were encouraged to go up on stage and read their own poetry, which several did. The first student performer, a third-year ethnic studies major who asked the audience “do you guys want to hear a poem about who I am, or about how much I love Nate Dogg?” which got the crowd cheering. Her poem was titled “All Doggs go to Heaven” where she praised Nate Dogg for “the only one who followed behind the steps of Snoop” and for “sparking a new generation of music: G-funk era, soulful gospel … and you chanted ‘hold up’.” Alexander Wilson Jr. read his poem “American Progress,” a blistering dissection of America’s contemporary disregard for black lives. “See, I believe, in American Progress,” Wilson Jr. spoke, “Where despite our varying skin tones and ethnicities we can all succeed / Where all people have the right to choose their own destiny.” After the student performers came the three invited poets, who all brought heavy emotions to the Barn. The first poet was Terisa Tinei Siagatonu. A spoken word artist hailing from San Francisco and a UCSC graduate, she asked how everybody was and
inquired into which week UCR students were trudging through. After giving a deep sigh, she immediately went into her first poem without dropping its title. “I’m still alive because I’m not afraid of what I already know wants to kill me,” she began. “Because I’m first-generation, working class, queer, Samoan woman. Five chapters of a survivor’s story excavated from my bones. The reason: your oppression doesn’t know what to choose first.” She expressed a rage — sometimes controlled, but often explosive — at societal misunderstandings and disregards for her identity. “This stage is both sanctuary and emergency room,” Siagatonu said. “My people are both doctors and patients, but there’s no patience left in them. Just stories with skin too dark for sympathy.” After her first reading, Siagatonu spoke about living in California and brought up the struggles of “working my ass off as a student of color in the UC system.” She loves both her home in the Bay area and Southern California, but expressed fears over its current environmental conditions. “Lately, I’ve been struggling with the drought we’re experiencing here in California. We make fun of it a lot, but I’m really scared.” She then compared the differences between California with Samoa, noting “On the other hand, I come from an island that will probably sink within my lifetime.” It’s a difficult idea for her to reconcile with, which was why putting those thoughts into poetry helped her cope and understand her concerns, while also deconstructing cul-
tural tropes about her identity and background, expressed in another untitled poem. “When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them home is a machete, and that I belong to places that don’t belong to themselves anymore. California: stolen. Samoa: sliced, stolen. But then, I feel like telling people the truth: that I actually come from water. But nobody believes you.” She ended her set on a happy note by speaking of her love for her significant other, for poetry, for survival and for life. “Here, I am a wild heart in the key of life. I am certain that anything can kill me, but because of your smile I am unafraid of what will.” Next up was Aziza Barnes. Born in Los Angeles and currently living in Mississippi, she apologized for her cold, which gave her voice a nasally tone. “I caught something on the plane,” she joked, “because planes are disgusting … I’m not gonna talk anymore. I’m just gonna scream.” Barnes talked about visiting Brooklyn and comparing its cockroach problem with that of Mississippi’s: “if you have roaches in Brooklyn, you gotta clean up your place. But down in Mississippi, it’s like, this is their house. You fucked it up.” She brought up to humorous effect in her first poem while also connecting it to gentrification, with the cockroaches being a stand-in for gentrifiers. Like the poet before her, Barnes spoke of the complexities surrounding societal views of her identity, but related much of her poems to spirituality. “Let’s lay hands on her,’ said the Lord. ‘Let’s lay hands on her,’ said the black
man. ‘Let’s lay hands on her,’ said the roaches that could fly.” Javon Johnson was the last poet to speak on the mic. He set himself apart from the previous two performers due to his laid back and stand up-like routine. His ability to switch between completely serious and funny was a great sight to witness as he delved into similar issues that Siagatonu and Barnes explored. With his first poem, “10 Reasons Why Women Are Like Religion,” he continued the night’s positive reflections of women and relationships and also demonstrated his interwoven style of sentimentality and comedy, with reasons like “both of them assume a portion of my income belongs to them” and “both want to tell me the most important shit during Sunday morning football.” His hardest-hitting poems focused on institutional racism and how it affects him personally. When he learned about the protests following the failed attempt to indict Darren Wilson, he brought up his emotional breakdown in an unnamed and never-read poem. “I chose not to protest,” Johnson said. “Instead, I stayed home, shut down everything and like any good gospel conductor I demanded a better heart … I smiled and danced to Otis Redding and Nina Simone … I cut off all my lights because black was the only God worth praying to.” He ended the night on a happy note, saying “thank you for all being so beautiful.” The Barn never felt more alive. The explosive and fiery poetry spoke truth into the world. It was a great success and hopefully there are many more nights like this to come. ■H
Top to bottom: Terisa Siagatonu recalls the racist and sexist backlash she has to deal with everyday and the stress that comes with it; Aziza Barnes jokes about the cockroach problems in New York City; Javon Johnson cracks jokes about his exes and their hatred toward him.
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/arts
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIE REVIEWS
COMING OUT SOON: BURNT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 THE WONDERS SPECTRE
19
THE PEANUTS MOVIE THEEB
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER // RATING: ☆☆☆☆☆
ROBERT LEES Spooky Skeleton Writer
I feel like I’m suffering from cinematic deja vu. With most of the big budget Hollywood movies released either in summer or around Christmas, seeing a decent movie in autumn has become more the exception than the rule. Vin Diesel’s vanity piece “The Last Witch Hunter” is in the former category, featuring a borrowed plot and borrowed actors in a bythe-numbers mess of a film. A modern setting filled with witches and wizards hiding in plain sight is the same as “Harry Potter.” The main elemental powers being air, water, earth and fire, that’s “Avatar, the Last Airbender.” The prologue when “Kaulder” (Vin Diesel) and his fellow vikings go to destroy an evil witch looks like a gritty reimagining of “Lord of the Rings.” The postapocalyptic New York looks like a borrowed set piece from “I Am Legend.” And Rose Leslie (Ygritte for “Game of Thrones” fans) continues Emilia Clarke’s trend of starring in terrible action movies when the show is offseason. Our film opens 800 years ago, with Kaulder and some of his medieval gym buddies heading to a spooky tree to kill a witch and end the black plague. Besides the fact that the fact that the black plague hit Scandinavia more around 650 years ago, this raises a few alarm bells. If the plague is caused by evil magic, what causes other diseases? Is Louis Pasteur a fraud? Then, after killing all of his friends with surprising efficiency, the witch queen waxes poetic about how she wants to kill everyone, giving Kaulder just enough time to land a fatal blow, shouting his totally badass and not-at-all contrived catchphrase “fire and iron” as he does so. However, she “curses” him with immortality before she dies, making it so he gets to live in an awesome mansion with a staff of servants for 800 years, fighting
witches and partying every week. You would think that if your goal was to kill every human on Earth, giving one of them eternal life would be a step in the wrong direction. It may seem like I’m getting really mired in complaining about small details in this review, but understand that I really don’t have anything else to work with. The film’s entire plot is based on contrived coincidences, with feigned plot points upon feigned plot points tessellating outwards in one mess of a plot. I honestly wonder if there was a read through of the script before filming, because characters suffer from either magical precognition or inexplicable lapses in judgment. Each plot point is either shouted at the audience with little or no context or hastily explained after the fact amidst a chorus of Diesel growls. The film honestly feels like it was written by a staff suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, as I’m sure that anyone who noticed the glaring inaccuracies of the plot probably decided against speaking up, lest Diesel give them “Indian burns” for criticizing his vanity project. Aside from the overall anachronisms and character idiocy in the plot, there are also some traits of truly terrible writing throughout the story. The plot opens with a mystery about who killed Michael Caine, one of Kaulder’s manservants, but within five minutes we’re told who the killer is, where he’s hiding and what his motivations are. It kind of ruins the element of a mystery when us, the characters and everyone else in the known universe knows the identity and whereabouts of the killer. Also, having a protagonist who’s an unstoppable, immortal killing machine leaves little in question about what will happen to the antagonists and builds no tension. The dialogue also suffers heavily, and not just from Vin Diesel’s perfunctory grasp of the English language. Everything in the plot involving witches is
COURTESY OF SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT
named by taking the primary noun and tacking the word “witch” in front of it. An example sentence would be “I went to the witch bar for some witch cocktails but I got a witch DUI and now the witch council wants to send me to witch prison.” And yes, while that is hilarious, even entertainingly bad can become annoyingly bad when it comprises almost every line of spoken dialogue. The supporting characters suffer the most from the surprisingly bad writing, as I know that Rose Leslie, Michael Caine and Elijah Wood are capable actors. You can practically see them rolling their eyes with every line, contemplating firing their agents as soon as they wrap filming. It doesn’t help that they have to share screen time with
Diesel, who is only capable of showing one facial expression in the whole film, which is a mix of grim determination and constipation. I know everything I’ve mentioned thus far sounds bad, but the film managed to hold me until the end. It had an inept charm about it, and I started to appreciate its unintentional hilarity. Some of the visuals were nice as well, so it was at least as entertaining as my parents jangling their keys when I was a toddler. However, the ending showed such ineptitude that it finally lost me, and all my goodwill faded away. After finding out that he’s not actually immortal and the witch queen was simply using him as a vessel to prolong her life, Kaulder hits a vial of glowing semen with
his sword and kills her for good, again. However, right before he destroys her heart and ends his own immortality, he decides not to for some reason, and the film ends. It just seems that a man who curses his eternal life would actually take the opportunity to die, and not stay alive to hang out with Leslie some more. For any of you potential filmmakers out there, your assigned homework is to watch “The Last Witch Hunter” and write an oath, written in your own blood, to never, ever and under no circumstance write or film anything you see during the movie. You see, I’m actually an immortal, angry witch that haunts movie theaters, and if you make anything this bad, I’ll curse you with incurable Diesel face. ■H
with some appropriate rock anthems, and at one point an incredibly awkward and likely alcohol-induced rendition of “Smoke On the Water” performed by Murray himself. Any remnants of an original score is completely forgettable, which is ironic for a movie named after a popular song. Action-oriented scenes, which pop up surprisingly often for a movie advertised as a comedy,
add a sense of grit and realism that grounds the story in the harsh reality in which it’s set. Practical effects, which aren’t so common in this age of sci-fi and superhero blockbusters, fit better here where any over-thetop special effects would have come off as cheesy. Car explosions and gunfights have weight and feel real, which is important to emphasize the contrast of humor and hostility throughout the film.
As a Murray movie, “Rock the Kasbah” is nothing special. In fact, it doesn’t even compare to some of the legendary movies he’s starred in. But as a film of its own merit, “Rock the Kasbah” offers an interesting story filled with references to contrasting cultural norms and a cast that plays well together. It isn’t a must-see, but for diehard fans of Murray, “Rock the Kasbah” isn’t a bad movie to waste an hour and 40 minutes on. ■H
ROCK THE KASBAH // RATING: ★★★☆☆
forced to find a way home, until he finds a reason to stay in the form of a young Pashtun girl with an incredible “Rock the Kasbah” is not about voice. His goal to get her on The Clash. In fact, neither the British Afghanistan’s version of American punk band nor their song “Rock the Idol, Afghan Star, puts both himself Casbah” are mentioned even once and the girl in the crosshairs of a during the film. If that doesn’t peeve group of Afghan Islamic guerilla you, there is some entertainment fighters known as the Mujahideen, a value here, though mostly from risk he’s willing to take. Bill Murray’s interactions with his It feels like it’s been years since supporting cast. While the soundtrack Murray has graced the silver screen is forgettable and a few scenes simply with a notable leading performance, fall flat or are just awkward, the film’s but if “Rock the Kasbah” is any plot manages to stand above any of indication, he’s still got it. This isn’t its shortcomings. his best role by a longshot, but it’s Inspired by the true story of refreshing to see him on screen after Lima Sahar, the first girl to appear so long. His enthusiasm and sarcasm on the singing are clearly c o m p e t i t i o n IT ISN’T A MUST-SEE, BUT FOR present, and show “Afghan as with most Star” in DIEHARD FANS OF MURRAY, of his films he Afghanistan, plays off of “Rock the “ROCK THE KASBAH” ISN’T A his supporting K a s b a h ” BAD MOVIE TO WASTE AN HOUR cast well. follows Richie Bruce Willis’ AND 40 MINUTES ON. Lanz (Bill character, the Murray), a mercenary washed-up old talent manager, Bombay Brian, acts as a dark contrast whose desperation for opportunity to the uppity and sarcastic Lanz, leads him and his star singer Ronnie and their scenes together, though (Zooey Deschanel) to pursue a gig infrequent, are some of the best. in Afghanistan. Unfortunately for Deschanel’s role as Lanz’s singer Lanz, Ronnie quickly abandons him Ronnie is brief and underwhelming, as a result of being overwhelmed but Kate Hudson as the prostitute by the harsh war-torn environment Merci and Arian Moayed as Riza the and strict military presence. Stuck taxi driver and friend of Lanz worked in Afghanistan without his wallet or well in their respective roles. passport (stolen by Ronnie), Lanz is The soundtrack is nothing special, MICHAEL LOCASCIO Contributing Wizard
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/arts
VIDEO GAME REVIEW LIFE IS STRANGE // RATING: ★★★☆☆
ROBERT LEES Spooky Skeleton Writer
If anything, “Life is Strange” showed me the viability of episodic game releases. I tend to have an aversion to paying for things I have to wait for, and my only other experience with episodic game releases was Valve’s “Half Life 2” debacle from 2007. Why yes, I am still bitter after all these years. While this does mean that my review of “Life is Strange” as a whole is rather late, the last episode only came out Tuesday of this past week, and I’m a staunch believer in reviewing things as a whole. I also can recommend “Life is Strange” despite the fact that the score you see up there isn’t a “4” or a “5.” While it is by no means a bad “game,” keep in mind that it does have some glaring issues and certainly isn’t as good as most people say it is. Our story concerns Maxine “Max” Caulfield, an 18-year-old student at the Blackwell Senior Academy, which is considered prestigious despite having only two classrooms and about four faculty members. After a fellow teenager is murdered in the bathroom, Max discovers she can rewind time and sets out to right all the wrongs she can find in her local area while simultaneously getting to the bottom of a sinister mystery concerning the school and the surrounding Oregon town. There’s also some nonsense about an approaching tornado that the game treats like a big deal but most of the characters seem unconcerned about until the end of the game. In fact, most of the murder and mystery subplot takes a back seat in the narrative, as Max spends a majority of the game using her power to impress her classmates and teachers. The game handles world-
building very well, with most of the supporting cast being surprisingly well written and acted. The game avoids painting things as too black-and-white, with even the antagonists being thought out, each with their own wants and desires. The school and surrounding town feel very much alive, and most of the characters and in-game props can be interacted with. While one could easily rush through most of the episodes in about an hour, unskippable cut scenes notwithstanding, I spent hours and hours listening to the radio, reading my diary and interacting with every interactable scrap of trash that littered Max’s floor. One of the most common criticisms of the game that I heard was that “Life is Strange” isn’t a game as much as it is an interactive movie. I don’t think this holds water, however, as the game features a fair amount of puzzles that make good use of the time-rewinding mechanic. This makes the game more than a teenage-girl simulator with unresponsive controls. There are a couple of engaging scenes in the first few episodes that make good use of the established mechanics. The second episode shines the brightest amongst all the others, featuring the best puzzles and a resounding climax that really kept me on the edge of my seat. Where the game begins to fall apart is in its pacing. Most of the genuine tension and investment I felt was in the second episode, and much of the intermittent episodes are dedicated to a bunch of nothing. There’s a deranged murderer on the loose and a cataclysm approaching, and Max and her friend spend a fair amount of their time taking nature walks in the forest and breaking into the school swimming pool. I feel that the narrative could have
TELEVISION REVIEW
been served if more of the high school nonsense was concentrated at the start of the story, with the tension and suspense concentrated at the story’s back end. I know that an engaging hook is needed to captivate an audience, but putting your best plot points and story moments at the start of a narrative makes the plot feel lacking toward its end. I feel that there was much to be desired game play-wise in the later episodes as well. While the earlier episodes make impressive use of the time manipulation mechanics in episodes one and two, the latter episodes start introducing forced stealth sections, their difficulty compounded by the game’s janky controls and animation. One of my least favorite of these was towards the end, when constantly rewinding and moving led to me being simultaneously discovered by four different guards at four different portions of the map. This froze the
game and forced me to perform a hard restart on my computer. There are also large sections of the fourth and fifth episodes that are merely long cut scenes. While this isn’t a problem with other movies and television, having a game with long stretches of no actual game play really starts to wear on my patience. This is exacerbated by much of the dialogue being what adults imagine teen slang sounds like, and the lip-syncing of the dialogue lines and facial animations giving everything the aesthetic of a poorly dubbed anime. Out of everything though, the biggest flaw comes from the game outright lying to the player. It is constantly mentioned that every conceivable choice made in-game has a consequence, but this simply isn’t true. This is akin to saying that walking across a room will have far-reaching consequences in any game, while the only actual consequence is that your character
COURTESY OF SQUARE ENIX
is now on the other side of a room. For example, if you water your plant in episode one, it won’t be dead in episode two. While this makes logical sense, the game treats every minute action as worldchanging, playing a little jingle with an accompanying animation that reads “This action will have consequences.” Without trying to spoil anything, the only choice that actually matters in game is the last one, and it only decides which 15-second closing cutscene you get to watch. This pissed players off when “Mass Effect 3” did it, and it hasn’t gotten any better since. I still like “Life is Strange,” despite its numerous flaws. The overarching narrative shows genuine art and care on behalf of the creators, and I was able to stay drawn in throughout the entirety of my play through. Its uniqueness and wit kept me engaged, and if you can get past its issues you won’t be disappointed. ■H
THE FLASH: FAMILY OF ROGUES // RATING: ★★★☆☆
ADRIAN GARCIA Contributing Wizard
The second season of CW’s “The Flash” opened up with a bang and introduced many new possibilities for the show and its universe. But with that said, the thrilling narrative of Jay Garrick, Zoom and the multiverse came to a halt in the third episode, “Family of Rogues.” Instead of continuing the exciting story arc of the aforementioned, this episode was primarily focused on one of The Flash’s long lasting recurring rivals: Leonard Snart, also known as Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller). We’ve seen Snart in the past season become a recurring threat for the team due to him being a genius at escaping the police and not getting caught by The Flash. Why? Because Snart knows The Flash’s identity, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and threatens to reveal it to Central City if he’s ever stopped. But it seems that Snart may need some actual help from our hero this time around. Leonard is once again up to no good and robs the Central City Racetrack with Golden Glider, his bronze gun wielding femme fatale sister Lisa (Peyton List) as well as Mick, the flame gun-wielding criminal known as Heatwave. In the process, they are ambushed and Leonard is kidnapped, Lisa is knocked unconscious and Mick was able to escape. With no hope, Lisa asks for help from Team Flash, Cisco Ramone (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), to rescue Leonard from whoever he was kidnapped from. The team
finds out that Snart’s abusive father Lewis Snart (Michael Ironside) kidnapped Leonard to do his bidding, and if Leonard doesn’t comply, he will detonate a bomb that was implanted inside Lisa’s head when she was unconscious. What a happy family, huh? While the episode didn’t continue the more exciting arc of the multiverse, it nonetheless was still a solid episode. The focus was on the drama between the Snart family. Michael Ironside as the careless father Lewis Snart brought more beef to the antagonist role than others. His character doesn’t care if someone lives or die, and Ironside displayed this thriving force with his very intimidating character. He made the usual antagonist roles of Leonard and Lisa Snart irrelevant as we actually cared for the two this time around. It’s a reluctant team up for Leonard and his father and a skeptical one with Lisa and Team Flash. The interactions between Lisa and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) is notably one of the strong points of this episode. The constant flirtation and tension between the two was certainly hilarious to watch unfold. On the other side of the spectrum was the more dramaheavy subplot involving Detective Joe (Jesse L. Martin) having to deal with the dilemma of Francine West (Vanessa Williams), the estranged wife of Joe, who came back to Central City to see her daughter Iris West (Candice Patton). Joe reveals that all these years he has been lying about what happened with Francine. Iris always knew that her mother was dead, but Joe reveals that in actuality, she was
a drug addict who abandoned the two. Martin particularly plays his role with strong emotion and showcases once more why he is one of the best actors on the show. It emphasized the more grounded drama that can occur in a world rampant with superpowered humans. Not much is said of this subplot after the scene and I don’t think it was necessary even though Martin showcased a strong performance. Francine is not even seen again and we still don’t know much about her. I felt myself asking, “okay, is that it?” It definitely felt out of place with everything else. An overarching theme of good and bad is seen throughout and it was interesting to see it play out between the Snart Family and the West Family. While he’s certainly a criminal, Captain Cold has a code to live by, unlike his careless father. Deep down, he cares for and protects his sister, and that’s why he has no choice but to work for his father to make sure nothing happens to her. He’s hesitant in letting Allen as The Flash help, knowing that it’s his problem to deal with. It’s an intriguing inner struggle inside a criminal mind such as Leonard’s. Allen sees good in him, and tells him that Leonard can be something more than a criminal. It’s a unique relationship between the good Allen and bad Leonard as they do respect each other even though they are rivals. Even with a campy performance, Miller makes the audience really feel for his morally ambiguous character and it should definitely be applauded. With the West family, it was
the inner conflict in Joe’s mind of knowing if it was good or bad to lie to Iris about her mother that connects it back to this theme. Even the mother’s motive of wanting to see her daughter can be seen as letting the bad past go and beginning a good future with them. It’s ironic actually, as in the episode Allen said to Snart, “the past shouldn’t define [him],” very much tying in with the West situation. It’s certainly interesting, for a show about physically and visually presenting the good and bad forces clashing with each other,
COURTESY OF WARNER BROS TELEVISION
to have a look at the psychological and internal aspect. It’s a great element that was utilized in this episode and brings something new to think about other than the usual fun fare that the show brings. Even though the episode took a different turn than what was expected, it was still a solid outing for “The Flash.” I would’ve loved to see the more exciting multiverse story arc continue but I’ll let it slide as “The Family of Rogues” brought more of an intriguing look at the internal struggle the characters face this time around. ■H
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/arts
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
21
STAFF PICKS: What’s your coping mechanism for midterms?
I drink a lot of coffee.
A nice cup of tea, with Kanye’s discography in the background.
Victoria Nguyen, Production Manager
Aaron Grech, News Editor
Lots of caffeine and ice cream afterward to deal with the damage.
Being distracted by work.
Tiffany Liaw, Features Editor
Cameron Yong, Video Editor
Everyday I’m tumblin’ on Tumblr … and trying to act like midterms just don’t exist. Christal Mims, Editor-in-Chief
Tentacle porn, lots and lots of brutal tentacle porn. And Kingdom Hearts slash fiction. Jessica Baker, Opinions Editor
Alcohol, books and watching Game Grumps to deal with the loneliness.
There is no coping, it’s just finding a way to not be smashed under the pressure of the ever-stomping boot that is testing. Quinn Minten, Asst. Opinions Editor
Procrastination.
Nihilism.
Cody Nguyen, Managing Editor
Robert Lees, Asst. Features Editor
Nathan Swift, A&E editor
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/arts
MUSIC REVIEW VANESSA CARLTON, “LIBERMAN”// RATING: ★★★☆☆
A steady beat accompanied with misty piano tunes summon an effervescent mood that deposits Ask your sister, best friend or the us into the first song on the album kid you just met in geology lab if “Take it Easy,” and straight into they have heard of Vanessa Carlton. Carlton’s mind. As the melody I am willing to put my money on continues, it resonates and her gentle it that they have, but may only vocals begin to flurry softly into the recognize her through her greatest song. Without listening closely to each commercial success, “A Thousand Miles,” after it was intertwined belted out lyric, it is easy for Carlton’s into a movie-long comedic joke in tracks to sound monotonous and the Wayans brothers’ 2003 movie indistinguishable from the others. “White Chicks.” Now in 2015, Careful apprehension exhibits Carlton’s latest album, “Liberman,” the deeper and gentle layers of brings forth a clear demonstration of the haunting lyrical composition. how she has separated herself from A careful ear is key to truly the common sounds of popular understanding the meaningful and artists in the music industry through sentimental words that she has her composition of smoothly so precisely chosen. Throughout distinguishable melodies and the series of tracks, violin arcos devising a unique musical aurora and guitar strums make fleeting, yet powerful fabricated by her vocals and piano- Although this probably will appearances. The heavy style. Carlton has not be the album to resur- distinguished traveled a long face her mainstream music track “Operator” itself way since the career, listeners willing sets apart as one release of her 2002 debut to give her off-the-radar of the album’s highlights. album “Be Not Nobody.” Failure tunes a chance and seeking “Guns ain’t just to comply a unique solace may still for boys / I heard what you said / with the everchanging style experience it as being quite You should say it again, cause of common pop palatable. it’s bold.” A film music quickly helped her fall off the radar to noir style mood, catchy lyrics and a sorrowful tune work together to swarms of her previous listeners. “Liberman” chases Carlton’s sweep the listener into the song and continuous theme of illustrating each hand them a sense of empowerment. “Blue Pool” welcomes listeners dynamic new chapter of her personal life through a series of breezy and in with a “Hedwig’s Theme”dreamy verses accompanied with style track. It starts off feebly colorful, animated piano chords. In and continues with a climb into her vivacious fifth studio project, the glowing first verse “Man, it’s Carlton has returned with a long so nice to you see you again / overdue album in order to offer up You’re the great blue pool in LA.” Throughout the course of the song, her warm heart and soul.
IXIA JOHNSON Spooky Skeleton Writer
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While “808’s” would later gain some critical acclaim as it aged on, a question regarding the future WHY “EARL” WAS NEEDED AND WHY direction of IT SHOULD NEVER COME BACK hip hop was AARON GRECH left hanging. SPOOKY SKELETON WRITER This is why Sweatshirt, despite his vulgarity, was a welcome change to the common hip hop landscape. His illed flow was impeccable, the lyrics with violence, were cleverly offensive and as misogyny and homophobia DatPiff states, Tyler the Creator’s amongst other vitriolic references, production created, “The Dopest Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, known Fucking Beats To Date.” now as Earl Sweatshirt, shocked Introducing the mixtape with and adored critics and audiences a skit entitled “thisniggaugly,” with his debut mixtape “Earl.” The Sweatshirt immediately dominates lyrics were eerily reminiscent of his self titled track, to open up the a late-90s Eminem, settling him audience to the twisted mind of in perfectly with his former crew Odd Future. Introducing himself Odd Future, with the do-it-yourself as a “high and bothered astronaut,” aesthetic and fuck-it attitude which Sweatshirt proceeds to entertain the have been prevalent in hip hop audience with images of murder, since the NWA days. decapitation and rape as he’s This wasn’t the late-90s, “redefinin’ the meanin’ of black however, this was March of 2010. holes.” The beat is accompanied by Young Money was on the rise with a simple drum and bass which seems Drake gaining popularity in the to distort, the more vivid Sweatshirt charts a year before with his debut gets with his descriptions. mixtape “So Far Gone,” and Lil Following afterward is “Couch,” Wayne seemed invincible as “Tha which turns into a rap battle Carter III” dominated the hip hop between Tyler and Sweatshirt who landscape. both deliver clever lyrics for the In other words, it seemed hip hop track’s dominance. Accompanied had become a bit of a joke. Industry by a relaxed beat with calm synths veterans such as Kanye West and and a heavy drum beat, Sweatshirt Eminem both dropped “808’s attempts to show off his chops and Heartbreak” and “Relapse” against an older Tyler. As Sweatshirt respectively that while successful is in the middle of describing a girl commercially, were critical flops. named Heather he “kidnaps,” Tyler
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COURTESY OF DINE ALONE RECORDS
Carlton recognizes the beautiful memories as she glimpses into a past friendship. Finally, “Ascension” presents us with a slow and mellow, but proper sendoff, similar to a balloon being released and sent off to float toward the heavens. “The sky is no separate light / And we watch every day of our life / And we grow.” A scarce handful of words are neatly tossed in and a substantial focus is situated on the closing musical notations and into the dissolution of the 10-track
register. While the springy and emotive choruses work together to paint their own special sound, “Liberman” seems to parallel the similar angelical and mystical verses heard through her last album, “Rabbits on the Run,” perhaps a little too closely. Carlton appears to do an outstanding job of drawing a distinct line between herself and other female artists, but fails to do so with her past works. In retrospect, this work
collectively activates a dreamlike state of mind with each musical stroke that properly reflects Carlton’s artistical genius. Much of her work remains widely unrecognized and underappreciated and this one may follow suit as well. Although this probably will not be the album to resurface her mainstream music career, listeners willing to give her off-the-radar tunes a chance, and seeking a unique solace, may still experience it as being quite palatable. ■H
IT’S PERFECT IN ITS BRIEF 25 MINUTES OF CARTOONISH VIOLENCE AND A REMINDER OF WHAT EARL SWEATSHIRT WAS AND WHY HE NEEDED TO BREAK AWAY FROM IT. interrupts to “back stab” Sweatshirt on his own track in an effort to “kill” him. The rap battle evokes the mixtapes underground style as the art form turns into a competition as the rappers attempt to one up each other on the track. This action results in Sweatshirt’s immediate retaliation of the following track “Kill,” where he vows to not only retaliate against Tyler, but everyone. This track accompanied by another dark beat serves as a message to the hip hop industry as Sweatshirt makes “The hotel switch from heartbreak to Bates quick.” The track seems to call out hip hop songs regarding pop music themes such as love. These had been dominating the charts through rap songs like Drake’s “Best I Ever Had,” which dominated the Billboard Hot 100 a year before. Ironically, the next track, “Luper,” mimics those pop music themes, as Sweatshirt reminisces about wanting to skip school in order to avoid an ex-girlfriend. Yes, it’s childish, but this track perfectly displays a sense of Sweatshirt’s real personality: a young, 16-year-old boy lamenting a loss of an old flame as he has difficulty deciding if he wants a “fam of four” with the girl or if he “fucking hate(s)” her. “Luper” has arguably the hardest beat on the album, with a tight piano loop flowing smoothly with his lyrics and flow. In this, Sweatshirt tries to straddle the persona he created as a murderer and sociopath between his actual feelings as a teenager. As the track closes, he returns to his similar themes in the song’s conclusion by describing his ex’s murder, before going on to the most controversial song on the album,
“Epar.” After repeatedly showing the audience just how many words can rhyme with “T-Rex Cock,” Sweatshirt harks back to rap tracks from the earlier decade such as “99 Problems,” as he is pulled over in the song. Instead of making the song a statement regarding racial prejudice among law enforcement, Sweatshirt simply describes his fantasy to murder the officer and ditch the car. This track is probably among the most problematic. After returning from a boarding school in Samoa for problematic behavior, Sweatshirt disavowed songs such as “Epar,” which vividly describes a rape in Vince Staples’ verse. The issue with these songs display the artists immaturity (granted, he was 16) and while it is begrudgingly a clever track, the misogyny and violence definitely push boundaries and understate the effects of such atrocious behavior. The next song “Moonlight,” quickly descends into a demonic trance, as Sweatshirt contemplates suicide with a voice synthesizer on the track as Hodgy Beats wishes to avoid cuddling after sex. After the eery rhythms fade out, the comical song “Pigion” comes in as it attempts to offend everyone as the hook references Nazis, ADHD and a “letterman” as he joins Odd Future’s varsity class of not giving a fuck. The track perfectly describes the Odd Future aesthetic with the mantra “Kill People, Burn Shit, Fuck School,” playing out in the latter half of the song. “Pigion” asserts the crew’s quest for dominance in the game as they attempt to rise up by talking about the craziest actions possible in
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an industry that was dominated by groups such as Young Money. People like him were more focused on a capitalistic hedonism obsessed with drugs and fashion, rather than a carnal hedonism obsessed with violence. “Stapleton” closes out the mixtape as it recalls all of the actions mentioned in the previous songs to announce his arrival with Odd Future. As the song closes out with “Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All fuck ‘em all / No lube, it’s the crew to get use to, faggot,” a hint of the group’s prominence in the industry is hinted at. Once “Goblin” dropped, Odd Future established itself in the mainstream. However, “Earl” caught the raw essence of the group before it blew up through its production and caustic lyrics. Sweatshirt never got to experience the groups peak due to his “exile” in Samoa, yet the opportunity he missed allowed him to mature. “Earl” was a lot of guilty fun. While its rhythms are still one of the best to this day and for a young rapper, Sweatshirt definitely stood out lyrically, its brief content could only be handled in small doses. Samoa gave him an opportunity to mature and further develop his themes, no longer as a teenager but as a young man. “Earl” was a mixtape that was needed for its time, amongst autotune, fashion, lean and one liners, Sweatshirt broke this tradition and created a punk attitude against mainstream hip hop. Yet it’s perfect in its brief 25 minutes of cartoonish violence and a reminder of what Earl Sweatshirt was and why he needed to break away from it. ■H
SPORTS
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/sports
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
23
Women’s soccer falls to UCSB in double overtime Cody Nguyen Spooky Skeleton Writer OCT. 18, 2015
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Titans 1 - Highlanders 0
JIMMY LAI / HIGHLANDER Amanda Apelian (no. 8) charges towards the goal with the ball.
The UC Riverside women’s soccer team squared off against the Cal State Fullerton Titans last Sunday, hoping to extend a winning streak that spanned three games within the Big West conference. Most of the match proved to be an offensive shootout, with UC Riverside edging out the Titans 28-19 in shot attempts. Despite the attack chugging along on both sides, the match remained scoreless up until the 61st minute — when a Highlander foul inside the box made way for Morgan Batcheller to convert on a penalty kick, putting the Titans up 1-0. Missed opportunities were the name of the game for the Highlanders, as two potential equalizing goals were nullified late in the second half. The first came when an Alexa Bustamante header appeared to cross the goal line, but was not ruled a score. The second came on a Fullerton hand ball that occurred just as time ex-
pired, which would have given the Highlanders a penalty kick. However, the game was ruled over and the win streak was snapped for the Highlanders. OCT. 23, 2015
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Guachos 3 - Highlanders 2
The UCR women’s soccer team followed up last Sunday’s performance with another gutwrenching defeat. This time it came at the hands of the UCSB Gauchos, who ousted the visiting Highlanders in double overtime. It did not take long for the scoring to get underway in the match, as Amanda Ball found Mallory Hromatko for a UCSB goal in the ninth minute of the game. However, thereafter, both teams were able to hold each other scoreless throughout the rest of the first half. Again, UCR was forced to play from behind in the second half, but this time they were able to answer, as Darielle O’Brien knocked one in the back of the net to even the score at 1-1 in the 56th minute. Just three minutes later, O’Brien capitalized off a Danielle Lopez corner kick and scored her second goal of
the game, giving the Highlanders a 2-1 lead. That lead would not last for long, however, as a UCSB corner kick produced an equalizing goal courtesy of Jessica Parque. Both teams remained even throughout the remainder of regulation, sending the game into overtime. The first overtime saw both teams again hold each other scoreless, as a draw began to loom in the horizon. However, just four minutes into the second overtime period, another UCSB corner kick allowed Chace Schomstein to trap the ball in the penalty box and score the game-winning goal, sealing the Highlanders’ fate. With the loss, the Highlanders fell to 3-3 in conference play and 9-8-0 overall. In a vastly competitive Big West, the Highlanders now stand right in the middle of the pack at fifth place. After dropping the last two matches, it will now be an uphill battle for the Highlanders in pursuit of the fourth and final playoff spot in the Big West championship. Next up for the team is the final match of the season at home against the CSU Northridge Matadors on Thursday, October 29. ■H
Men’s soccer team splits week, ends losing streak Christian May-Suzuki Spooky Writer OCT. 21, 2015
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Anteaters 5 - Highlanders 1
The men’s soccer team had trouble getting much momentum going in a tough loss to UC Irvine. The team seemed a step behind the Anteaters for most of the game Wednesday night, and this was a problem head coach Tim Cupello lamented afterward. “Before they (UCI) scored the two goals (in the 11th and 32nd minutes, respectively), there were a few times we missed some opportunities, and that really hurt,” Cupello remarked after the game. “After that, we had to play very aggressively because we were behind, and we had to send a few more people forward than we would have liked.” Those missed opportunities seemed to be the theme of the night for the Highlanders, who had 12 shots total, but only managed four on goal. Meanwhile, UCI ran rampant, taking advantage of the high line to spread the field and run counter attack after counter attack. The Anteaters executed their game plan to perfection, taking advantage of early Highlander miscues to extend their own possessions. The Highlanders scored a goal on a penalty kick by Tyler Miguel in the 51st minute, but that momentum was quickly cut short by three UCI goals over the next 15 minutes, with the next one being exactly three minutes later. The Highlanders lost their head to head edge over the Anteaters, and have lost five straight. When asked if anything different was done to keep players focused during this streak — which is the team’s longest since the 2010 season — coach Cupello had nothing but praise for his players.
“You know, with this group of guys, that’s not really an issue. We had practice this morning and people came to work. I think we as a team understand that there’s nothing we can do about losing results in the past; all we can do is focus on going into Fullerton on Saturday.” OCT. 24, 2015
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Highlanders 2 - Titans 1
Stephen Copley scored a game-tying goal with 10 seconds left in regulation as the Highlanders took down Big West South leader, Cal State Fullerton, in overtime on Saturday night. Fullerton appeared anxious with the ball, taking only two of their 11 shots on goal, and committing four offside penalties. Conversely, the Highlanders displayed great patience, scoring their two goals not even two minutes apart from each other. Aggressive play was the theme of this game, and the refs certainly didn’t swallow their whistles throughout, doling out a total of eight yellow cards and three red cards. For comparison’s sake, there were a total of zero red cards in the game Wednesday night. After Saturday’s victory, the Highlanders stand at 6-101, only trailing the UC Irvine Anteaters in the Big West South by four points, keeping pace with them following the Anteaters 2-0 win against Cal State Northridge. A postseason berth remains alive for the blue and gold, but destiny no longer remains in their hands, as UCI holds both a four point advantage won the head-to-head, meaning another UCI win eliminates the Highlanders. The men’s soccer team’s final two games of the season are at Cal State Northridge on Wednesday, October 28 and a home finale versus Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, October 31. ■H
Mid-fielder, Romario Lomeli (no. 25), dribbles the ball down the field hoping to score a goal.
MATT HONG / HIGHLANDER
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SPORTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/sports
UCR golf tops four Big West teams at the Bill Cullum Invitational JASON AHN Spooky Writer
COURTESY OF UCR ATHLETICS
The UC Riverside men’s golf team visited the Wood Ranch Golf Course over the past week. They placed ninth out of 16 schools at the Bill Cullum Invitational, scoring higher than four other Big West teams including CSUN (16th place), Cal State Fullerton (8th), Hawai’i (13th), and UCI (15th). Only UCSB (6th), and CSULB (5th) scored lower. Loyola Marymount took the tournament altogether with a total score of 842. UCR finished with 875, 33 shots behind first place. The individual leader was Fidel Concepcion from Southern Utah who shot -9 overall. UCR’s leader was Matt Lutz +1 at tied for 25th and Sam Gillis who shot +1 and was tied for 29th. Before the start of the final round, Loyola Marymount lead with -17, while UCR was 22 shots behind. Rather than going up the rankings, UC Riv-
erside ended up having to deal with Cal State Fullerton, who placed fourth on the day but luckily finished one spot shy of the Highlanders. Loyola Marymount ended up winning the tournament, finishing three shots ahead of Seattle University and five shots ahead of third placed Santa Clara. Pepperdine University went from fourth place to second place by shooting under nine on the day. Individually, Highlander Brandon Tsujimoto scored the team-low of the day with a 72 par, while Andrew Spilman shot a 74. Anthony Bonales shot an 81 on the day while Luke Park shot an 80. The Highlanders proved that they could keep up with the competitive nature of division one sports as they continued to show their high level of play at the Bill Cullum Invitational. The Highlanders will compete next on the 29th of October at the Pacific Invitational in Stockton, California. ■H
Volleyball breaks losing streak before falling again over weekend MYLES ANDREWS-DUVE Spooky Skeleton Writer OCT. 23, 2015
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Highlanders 3 - Aggies 2
Prior to Friday’s match against UC Davis, I must say I held my fair share of doubts about UC Riverside volleyball’s ability to pull out a win. I can safely say I was not alone in this thought. After all, the group had won a mere two of their previous 10 matches and entered the UCR gym Friday evening after dropping eight straight. The outlook seemed bleak yet, as is the case with any fanbase, an underlying optimism was prevalent throughout the building Friday night. This was tested early on, however, as after leading early, the Highlanders dropped the first set to the Aggies, 21-25. Another early hole seemed a precursor for UCR’s next crushing loss at this juncture, however, the team — and hopes — prevailed as they rallied for six of seven points in the second set to take a 14-12 lead before ultimately taking the set, 25-21. It should be duly noted that the win in the second came in a fashion more dominant than the box score would attest as after that six-point rally, UC Davis looked to slow the Highlanders’ incoming onslaught with an abrupt timeout. This attempt was countered with another rally from the blue and gold (this time scoring 10 of the next 15), ultimately earning them the set and, more importantly, the momentum.
Whoever held such momentum proved to be a key factor throughout the rest of what become a gut-wrenching match. UCR continued to show steady in the third, in which they handedly won, 23-15 and then subsequently ended their run of dominance after dropping the fourth, 23-25, thanks to four consecutive errors. This all culminated into one, gut-wrenching fifth set between the conference foes in which every mistake proved crucial, momentum swung to pendulumlevel extremities and each point found fans on the edge of the rows. The teams traded blows early in the fifth, eventually tying the set at 7-7. Once the Highlanders rattled off a three-point run to take the 10-7 advantage, the Aggies responded with four consecutive points of their own to make it 11-10. As it seemed, no team was going to hold the true advantage in this one, as this pattern recurred throughout the set. A 14-13 lead for Davis here, followed by a 15-14 lead for UCR just moments later. To little surprise, it was another one-point margin near the end of the match before the Highlanders ultimately closed out with a win. Leading 18-17, while Alex Gresham was serving for the blue and gold, it was her gamesaving dig which proved heroic in the end. After Gresham dived in front of the net to keep the ball in play after a softly-tipped Davis shot, Chelsea Doyle set up Fabian Rosas, whose kill capped off the team’s most exciting game of the
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season on a positive note, earning the Highlanders their first victory since September 25. OCT. 24, 2015
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Anteaters 3 - Highlanders 0
It is often difficult to properly follow an exhausting performance such as Friday’s win. Let alone when your next match is being held just a few hours after such, versus a rival team in UC Irvine. In fact, given these circumstances, it seemed nearly impossible for the UC Riverside women’s volleyball team to play anywhere near the caliber they did on Friday. And despite any remaining momentum, the team failed to pull off another minor miracle after dropping a 3-0 home loss to UCI Saturday evening. Toss it up to a post-victory “hangover” or general fatigue, but the Anteaters flat-out looked like the better — or, at least, more energized — team of the night. The Highlanders failed to hold onto any leads throughout the match as their 21-21 tie in the first set was quickly negated by an eventual 21-25 loss. As was their 6-0 run early in the second which was surpassed by the Anteaters’ 12-3 run of their own and a seemingly stable 16-13 lead in the third that was once again answered by an Anteater rally to take control of the set for good. Needless to say, the Highlanders dropping three straight sets pretty effortlessly is quite disappointing, especially when considering the toughness they
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VINCENT TA / HIGHLANDER Meg Graham (no. 19) and Fabiana Rosas (no. 21) jump up to block a spike.
appeared to display on Friday. It seemed they had turned a new page. In cases such as these, fatigue can certainly play a factor and it will be worth monitoring whether or not the team looks reenergized come their next match, October 30 at Hawai’i (10 p.m.). Nevertheless, for now the Highlanders once again look to put a tough loss behind them, knowing that, at the same time, their record won’t be able to. Currently slotted at 7-15 overall and 2-7 in conference at time of writing, there is little-to-no chance of the team competing for a conference title. Of course, the improbable does not always equate to the impossible, but at this stage, the Highlanders must look to prioritize marginal goals. Building some semblance of consistency as they begin to wrap up what has been an incredibly up-and-down season would be among those. With
seven games remaining on the schedule — all of which are inter-conference — there is a sliver of opportunity for volleyball to end the season with a winning record against Big West opponents and potentially inch their overall record closer to .500. If one had said at the start of the year that this would be UCR’s goal come season’s end, they would be assuming a huge letdown for the team. And perhaps it is. However, it is equally true that accepting their current fate and experiencing such growing pains could potentially lead UCR volleyball to greater success once leaders such as sophomores Alex Gresham and Maddie Hubbell develop down the road. The 2015 season has been a cruel one for UC Riverside volleyball thus far, but ending the remaining games on a positive note can — at the very least — provide the team with optimism going into next season. ■H
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Campus 12-step meetings Tuesday – Step Study Wednesday – Meditation Thursday – Discussion St. Andrew Newman Center 105 W Big Springs Rd, 92507 Noon-1 p.m.
SPORTS
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/sports
The women’s soccer team practices drills out on the field in preparation for the next game.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
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CAMERON YONG / HIGHLANDER
UC Riverside women’s soccer team is a problem for the rest of the league FARAZ RIZVI Contributing Wizard
The heat leaves the women unfazed as they run drills on the turf. This time, they’re asked to run close to the goal and pass to a teammate who is expected to score. As each duo of players moves up to finish the drill, the soccer balls go in, one after another. A few miss, but those are just a tad high, or a tad to the side. The accuracy is astonishing. These women running countless drills in the heat are the UC Riverside women’s soccer team, and they are on a roll right now. The team is 10-8-0, with four wins within the Big West and three losses, good enough for third overall in the conference, and have a good shot at claiming their first Big West title ever, which would be historic for the program. A majority of the players are juniors and seniors who have been with the program for their entire college career. Currently, the team’s top three scorers are midfielder Blanca Barrio, forward Tyler Cunningham and forward Alexa Bustamante, all of whom are seniors or juniors. These girls are going for a legacy, and to prove to the rest of the conference that UC Riverside women’s soccer is a team that has matured into an unstoppable force. Them girls up to something. Barrio was recently named the Big West offensive player of the week, which is a remarkable feat. Her ability to work in tandem with her teammates and keep the pressure is unparalleled, and this shows in her stats: currently, she is leading the blue and gold in assists, with
five under her belt, and is the second highest scorer on the team, with five goals of her own. However, the defensive players have also been a large part of the winning formula, with goalkeeper Elizabeth Silas getting over 57 saves, and was last year one of the defensive leaders of the conference. When asked about being named Offensive Player of the Week, Barrio claimed that, “It comes as a big morale booster for the team and makes us play even harder.” So far the women’s soccer team has been very dominant on the field, with the chemistry between players working to near-perfection. As Cunningham asserted, “our philosophy is control, make sure to control the tempo of the game and always push forward.” This forward mobility could be seen in the early October game against Hawai’i, in which the Highlanders maintained possession of the ball for the majority of the game. They were pushing the pace, and to little surprise, Blanca Barrio was able to score the first goal in the first three minutes of the game. While the Highlanders have been playing incredibly well and have a good shot at winning the conference tournament, their goals are actually much greater than that. This team wants to advance beyond the tournament and actually be seeded in the NCAA rankings, a feat that the women’s soccer team has not accomplished before. However, while they racked up two wins against Hawai’i and UC Davis, their last game against Fullerton did not go their way. Speaking of the loss, Silas stated, “Right now we are really focused. The loss against Fullerton showed us what we need
to work on and the mistakes we can’t afford to make moving forward.” So far, they have taken their losses in stride and used these losses to clear away some of the chinks in their armor. This season’s success has been a long time coming, since the team has been slowly inching up in the conference standings. In 2013, the Highlanders were ranked third, while in 2014 they were in the fourth standing in the conference. This shows how the team has been incrementally getting better, and using their losses to learn the mistakes they are making. While there has not been a major overhaul in their training methods, the key to this season’s success has been finding the right chemistry between the players. As Cunningham said, “the dynamics have changed and it’s all come a long way.” The players are communicating more and have reached a point where they can instinctively read their teammates throughout the course of a match. Head coach Nat Gonzalez suggested that, more than anything, the definitive factor has been time, “as they mature and grow a loyalty and a passion for this school is a big part of what we’re seeing.” The momentum that the UC Riverside women’s soccer team is building continues to grow, and they are slowly overhauling traditional Big West powerhouses such as UC Davis and Long Beach State as they become one of the more dominant teams in the Big West conference. As coach Gonzalez stated, “We are throwing some things at them that are unique, and that these other teams have not seen, and it’s causing trouble for them.” ■H
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HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/sports
THE
COUNTDOWN:
OUR BIG NBA SEASON
PREVIEW AND PREDICTIONS MYLES ANDREWS-DUVE, SPOOKY SKELETON WRITER CHRISTIAN MAY-SUZUKI, SPOOKY WRITER
T
he return of corny Jamie Foxxnarrated commercials can only mean one thing: the NBA season is nigh. And, as always, there are questions galore. Will the Warriors — led by the increasingly dynamic Splash Brothers — keep the Larry O’Brien trophy, or will it find a new home next summer? Can the retooled and revamped San Antonio Spurs add a sixth title to Tim Duncan’s already illustrious career, or will Lebron fi-
nally get his revenge against those dogged Spurs to ascend to his Cleveland throne? Will Kevin Durant reestablish his dominance as the NBA’s most deadly weapon, or is the age of “the Brow” upon us? The NBA season is set to be as competitive as ever and, courtesy of staff writer Christian May-Suzuki and senior staff writer Myles Andrews-Duve, we kick it off with predictions of the top eight seeds in the respective conferences come season’s end.
1. SAN ANTONIO SPURS (64-16) Myles: As a lifelong Lakers fan I hate to in the main man commanding the sidelines: admit it, but the San Antonio Spurs look head coach Gregg Popovich. I have had my incredibly well-bred for another astound- doubts with such gaudy amounts of star ing season. The summer acquisitions of La- power in the past, but the level-headedness Marcus Aldridge and David West have been that exists within this organization is unparcovered to exhaustion, so if you follow the alleled throughout the league. Combine this NBA to any capacity, you do not need me to with the great veteran experience and their tell that they should have an incredible im- flat out ability to play the game of basketball pact on this team. Where my confidence lies and I have little qualms about this seemingly most with this newly-formed super squad is lofty projection.
2. Oklahoma City Christian: Kevin Durant still believes he is the best in the game and his numbers certainly solidify his argument. Despite undergoing three foot surgeries in a little over six-month span, Durant has still proven as effective as he has ever been, averaging 25.4 points on 51 percent shooting. The decrease in pure volume is in part due to his 33.8 minutes per game and his 29 percent usage rate, both the lowest they have been since the franchise’s move to
Thunder (58-24) the Midwest. Meanwhile, point guard Russell Westbrook continues to be nothing short of spectacular and this should allow Durant to readjust as needed, to the rigor of the NBA season.Not to mention, new head coach Billy Donovan has two NCAA championships under his belt from his tenure at Florida and has the chance to reinvigorate this team that was in desperate need of a new voice. Count on the Thunder to remain as dangerous as ever.
3. Golden State Warriors (56-26) Myles: Before you grab your pitchforks, I season. Granted, the need to do so wasn’t must note that Christian (an avid Warriors urgent as Steph Curry and Klay Thompson fan) was also in agreement with this projec- still make for one of the most dynamic oftion. Golden State is highly talented, but a fensive duos in the league and there is a 67-win championship-winning season is legitimate opportunity for an improving taldifficult for any team to match the follow- ent such as Harrison Barnes to emerge from ing year. The West’s other top dogs (OKC, the fold. Nevertheless, the rest of their peers Houston and San Antonio) have seemingly undeniably look undeniably stronger, makgotten a lot stronger while Golden State ing the Warriors’ road significantly tougher made little personnel moves over the off- this season.
4. Houston Rockets (55-27) Christian: Thanks to Lamar Odom’s spurned from his longtime NBA home latest escapade in Vegas, associating in Denver due to alcoholism. Center with a Kardashian is one curse Houston Dwight Howard is starting the year susRockets all-star guard James Harden is pended, but should quickly re-establish officially free of. As for what will take himself as one of the premier big men place on the basketball court, Hard- in the league, giving Houston arguably en should also find himself free from the best (and definitely the floppiest, dominant-ball handling duties as the just watch Harden flap his arms like a MVP runner-up got a new running mate flightless bird on every drive) guard-big in the form of point guard Ty Lawson, tandems in the league.
EAST Honorable Mention: Utah Jazz Myles: I will put my Lakers fandom aside Utah Jazz. Last season’s 19-10 record postfor the sake of this section’s credibility. All Star break, an always-improving GorWhile there are a fair amount of teams in don Hayward and an emerging Rudy — all the West that have an opportunity to take of which is led by my personal coach of the a significant jump from last season, to me, year favorite, Quin Snyder — help validate no team stands out more glaringly than the my love affair with this budding team.
5. Los Angeles Clippers (53-29) Myles: Am I too low on them? We all know their ever-delusional head coach Doc Rivers would scream such. The Clippers undoubtedly have more talent than they did last season after taking the summer to bolster the frontcourt with veterans Paul Pierce and Josh Smith and trading for the mercurial Lance Stephenson. Yet, the lack of depth behind a 30-year-old Chris Paul and a glaring question at the wing position (I will believe in Stephenson returning to form when I see it) give me pause. Color me a nonbeliever. 7. New Orleans Pelicans (46-36) Myles: The Pelicans’ outlook for this sea- ans, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson to son is equally as unsettling as their mas- work with. However, as talented as these cot choices. I give them the benefit of the aforementioned players are, they all have doubt here seeing as Anthony Davis is the rabid injury histories and pose a possible best player in the world (yeah, I said it.) clash of playing styles in the half court; and new head coach Alvin Gentry is an which is why the Pelicans are one of the offensive mastermind with talented pieces more volatile teams to predict in the Westsuch as Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Ev- ern Conference.
6. Memphis Grizzlies (50-32) Christian: Ah, the ever-present Grizzlies. No matter how inferior their talent seems to be on paper, they always find a way to compete in the West. Another year, another 90 or so games under the legs of power forward Zach Randolph and All-Star C Marc Gasol and another year together under quietly-talented third-year head coach Dave Joerger. It’s hard to suggest that the Grizz will improve this year, but I can’t say they’ll fall too far in the West either. 8. Phoenix Suns (44-38) Christian: The Suns’ transition from begin their ascent back to Western Conthe Steve Nash era continues, with point ference dominance. Not to mention the guard Goran Dragic leaving due to unhap- fact that this summer’s key addition of piness with his role and being quickly re- center Tyson Chandler to man the frontplaced by a young and talented guard in court alongside big men Markieff MorBrandon Knight. Meanwhile, lead point ris and Alex Len should pay dividends in guard Eric Bledsoe has proven that he can helping accelerate Phoenix’s progressive be the offensive star that Phoenix needs to rise in the West.
HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/sports
SPORTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
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1. Cleveland Cavaliers (60-22) Christian: What is there to say about the enough talent in the Eastern Conference Cavs? The second incarnation of the “Big to deal with the star power of Cleveland. A 3” is back, immediately making the Cavs healthy Cavs team can be considered an early the best team in the East. There simply isn’t favorite for the title.
2. Atlanta Hawks (54-28) Myles: I would literally rather see any is secure, but with last year’s (should’ve other team slotted here than Atlanta. But been) coach of the year in Mike Budenwith the Eastern Conference being the holzer at the helm, an age-defying Paul continual berth of perilous mediocrity that Millsap and a continually-improving lead it is, they serve as the most logical choice. guard in Jeff Teague, they can once again This by no means implies that their pro- be among the top in the East. For whatjection as the second best team in the East ever that may be worth.
3. Chicago Bulls (49-33) Christian: Chicago has kept the same with Jimmy Butler proving himself as formula going for the better part of the one of the best two way players in the decade, with strong team defense and NBA. The validity of Hoiberg as an a dynamic, wing-lead offense. Despite NBA head coach, the continuation of losing head coach Tom Thibodeau af- Pau Gasol’s discovery of the fountain of ter some tension in the front office and youth and the ever-present possibility of subsequently replacing him with former Derrick Rose’s contribution makes ChiIowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg, the cago a strong, but volatile contender to Bulls should continue to remain strong finish top-three in the East this season...
4. Toronto Raptors (49-33) Myles: This is another case of “who else could has a tendency to make multiple head-scratching we possibly put here?” as, quite honestly, pro- decisions during the course of a game; their ofjecting the East gets quite hazy after the top spot. fense is reliant on a terribly inefficient player in Nevertheless, in being lead by 2015 All-Star Derozan; and they have an alarming lack of expoint guard Kyle Lowry, newly-acquired swing- perience and leadership on their roster. In saying man DeMarre Carroll and former All-Star shoot- that, I do expect this team to start off the season ing guard DeMar Derozan, the Toronto Raptors hot given the talent, but they simply do not have seem like the most logical choice here. Neverthe- the makings of a team that can sustain any such less, my concerns with the Raptors this season run. Let alone one that can legitimately compete are three-fold: their head coach, Dwane Casey, for a conference title come June.
WEST
5. Milwaukee Bucks (45-37) Christian: If you are looking to hop onto on 40 percent shooting from the three on a young team’s bandwagon, look no fur- one end and contributing solid defense ther than … Milwaukee? As unbelievable on the other side. Milwaukee only alas it sounds, the Bucks executed the per- lowed 96 points per 100 possessions with fect rebuild most teams can only dream Middleton on the floor. That would have of (looking at you Sam Hinkie), revamp- finished first in the NBA last year and his ing their roster from a ball-dominant, development — along with the growth no defense guards to a young, balanced of forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and and dangerous team. Swingman Khris newly-acquired big man Greg Monroe — Middleton proved to be a legitimate stud should lead to a prosperous future for this last season, averaging 16 points per game Bucks squad. 6. Miami Heat (44-38) Myles: I must admit, among the many teams I doesn’t account for is the now inevitable injuryappear to be highly skeptical of this season, Mi- plagued season that can be expected from Wade, ami is the skeptical-est. Okay, I get it. The start- Deng’s rapid decline since his arrival in South ing five looks great ... on paper. Goran Dragic Beach and the still highly-relevant question of if and Dwyane Wade man the backcourt, Luol Hassan Whiteside is merely last season’s greatDeng, Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside hone est half-year wonder. These are legitimate questhe front and a bench mob consisting of a hope- tions and it is why I am very down on Miami fully-healthy Josh McRoberts, rookie stud Jus- and expect them to once again be fighting for tise Winslow and the high-flying Gerald Green. a playoff spot this season. In honesty, even this Looks great. I admit it. But, what that paper projection feels a bit too high.
7. Washington Wizards (42-40) Christian: John Wall has developed into a top viability of Bradley Beal and Otto Porter seem five point guard in the league, giving this Wiz- even more glaring. Both Nene and Marcin Gorards team a great deal of potential. However, the tat are also a year older, making it difficult for loss of Paul Pierce without much compensation the Wizards to do little more than compete for a will make the question marks surrounding the playoff spot in the East. 8. Boston Celtics (40- 42) Myles: I must say, I was — and still am prove and potentially an extra year left — quite bullish on the Detroit Pistons in the tank after essentially taking a seaearning this spot next year. But, given son off with the Warriors last season. the well-established pedigree of Celt- Couple this with the development of ics head coach Brad Stevens as one of point guard Marcus Smart and the fiery the best in the league, I give Boston the scoring of sixth man Isaiah Thomas and edge. Not to mention, newly-acquired this has the makings of a playoff team in power forward David Lee has a lot to the Eastern conference. Honorable Mention: Indiana Pacers Christian: The return of Paul George to to the Spurs and Lakers, respectively, will Banker’s Life Fieldhouse along with a new prove to be too much to overcome. Jordan running mate in wing Monta Ellis bodes Hill was a good acquisition, but rookie well for a Pacer offense that only managed Myles Turner will need some time to ad97.3 points per game last season. However, just in order to be truly effective. The Paclosing both David West and Roy Hibbert ers just don’t have that time.
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HIGHLANDER // highlandernews.org/sports
Sports
THE
COUNTDOWN:
OUR BIG NBA SEASON
PREVIEW AND PREDICTIONS OUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE NBA’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS MYLES ANDREWS-DUVE, SPOOKY SKELETON WRITER CHRISTIAN MAY-SUZUKI, SPOOKY WRITER
SEE PAGE 26 FOR MORE ON THE NBA Rookie of the Year
MVP
Myles: Anthony Davis, F, New Orleans Pelicans. I do make this prediction with hesitance given my questions about this Pelicans team as stated above. But, for all their uncertainties, one thing is for sure: Anthony Davis is an unruly force in this league. An already prolific shot-blocker when entering the league, Davis has continually expanded his game on both ends over the span of his three-year career. Now, entering his fourth season, under the reigns of a coach in Gentry who has a proficiency for maximizing a player’s offensive talents. There are very little arrows pointing
away from Davis as this season’s MVP. Christian: LeBron James, F, Cleveland Cavaliers. The voter’s fatigue is gone after Stephen Curry won the award last season, and James has more than enough reasons to be motivated. In addition to losing in the Finals in his first year back in Cleveland, James went mostly unconsidered for the MVP last year. Combined with the fact that his two running mates are incredibly injury prone, it seems time for another historic season from one of the game’s most versatile players ever.
Most Improved Player Myles: Victor Oladipo, PG/SG, Orlando a defensive hound. Magic. Don’t let a rough preseason fool Christian: Mason Plumlee, PF/C, Portland you, Victor Oladipo is a stud. And this is Trail Blazers. The Duke product showed the season I expect him to put the rest of excellent skill and surprising athleticism the league on notice. In increased minutes on both sides of the court filling in for the over his two seasons with the Magic, Ola- Brooklyn Nets last season, putting up 14.8 dipo has seen improved both his points and points and 10.6 boards per 36 minutes last efficiency from the field whilst lowering his season. Now, he lands on a Blazers team turnovers per game from 3.2 to 2.8. I expect that lost four of their five starters from last this trend to continue for the ‘15-’16 season year’s playoff run, putting other role players where he is surrounded by better talent and into more demanding roles. I think Mason has a new head coach in Scott Skiles to help will establish himself as the second option maximize his already-established talents as on offense on his way to a solid season.
Christian: San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs pulled off one of the biggest free agency coups I have ever witnessed, signing power forward David West to a veteran’s minimum contract after signing prized big man LaMarcus Aldridge. This not only gives the Spurs superstar power outside of Tim Duncan — something coach Pop hasn’t had since the Admiral’s last season — but they now hone eight legitimate starters on
Christian: Jahlil Okafor, C, Philadelphia. I can’t help but compare Okafor’s silky smooth post game to Al Jefferson, with immaculate footwork and a soft touch well advanced for his age. In a time where natural back-to-the-basket post players are seemingly being replaced by the dominant athletes like Blake Griffin and Anthony Davis, it will be refreshing to watch the emergence of the league’s next purely fundamental big. Myles: Karl-Anthony Towns, PF/C, Minnesota Timberwolves. For the sake of be-
ing a contrarian, I will give Towns the nod over Okafor here. And, frankly, the two aren’t as far apart in the ROY race as we are led to believe. Okafor is surely talented but in my book, Towns is the better overall player by far. His deft passing touch, outside shooting ability, defensive proficiency and developing ability to score in the low post make Towns an ideal prospect for the modern NBA. If given the opportunity to see time in Minnesota — which I expect he will — he should be the clear favorite for the ROY award come season’s end.
Coach of Myles: Billy Donovan, Oklahoma City Thunder. Another rookie head coach walking away with coach of the year award? I think so. Much like last year’s winner in Golden State Warriors coach, Steve Kerr, Donovan takes on a team ripe with talent and primed for a deep postseason run. The question with OKC, as always, will be health, but barring any major injuries, I expect Donovan to be exactly what this team needs to get them over the proverbial hump. Christian: Jason Kidd, Milwaukee Bucks. As the catalyst of the Bucks turnaround, the former Net has shown excellent preparation and
the Year poise when coaching this young team leading them to a 9.6 defensive rating improvement from the 2013-14 season to the 2014-2015 season (per Basketball-Reference), the best defensive improvement a team has made since the 97-98 Spurs. That season, David Robinson returned from multiple injuries and a stud power forward out of Wake Forest was drafted with the first pick by the Spurs that year. Believe it or not, Milwaukee’s roster was not nearly as talented last season as it is now, and that will translate to accolades for Kidd and the young Bucks.
And your 2016 NBA Champions will be...
the same roster, along with a myriad of solid role players. That kind of immense depth and star power led by the greatest X and O coach of all time seems too good to be true, and will certainly prove too good for the rest of the NBA. Myles: Oklahoma City Thunder. Admittedly, I am a stubborn human being. I picked OKC to win it all after the end of last season (so, before the summer of sov-
ereignty from San Antonio as is mentioned above) and am riding with it. Although, it is indeed for good reason. In case you forgot, Kevin Durant is the most dominant scorer in the NBA and his running mate, Russell Westbrook is by far the most dynamic. Among the many super teams throughout the league, no team hones the two-player firepower that this team puts on the floor on a game-by-game basis. Consider last
season’s additions of solid-to-great contributors in Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin and Kyle Singler as well as the fit of newlynamed head coach Billy Donovan and this team is poised to have a dominant season. Oh yeah, and Serge Ibaka still exists, guys. Perhaps OKC has the most question marks of any perennial contender, but I will continue to tout their chances all year. Of this I am certain. ■H