Distraction Magazine Winter 2023

the

magazine of the students of

the university of miami

winter 2023

Bleu The color’s role in modern fine art UP MY SLEEVE Covering your body in creative ink

BLUE JEAN BABY Doing denim like never before

DISTRACTION BLUE This issue’s special section

the

magazine of the students of

the university of miami

winter 2023

BLUE This issue’s special section to cure your blues

the

magazine of the students of

the university of miami

winter 2023

UP MY SLEEVE Covering your body in creative ink

BLEU

The color’s role in modern fine art

DISTRACTION BLUE This issue’s special section

Doing denim like never before

the

magazine of the students of

the university of miami

winter 2023

DISTRACTION BLUE

This issue’s special section

BLEU The color’s role in modern fine art

UP MY

SLEEVE Covering your body in creative ink

BLUE JEAN BABY Doing denim like never before

the

magazine of the students of

the university of miami

winter 2023

Bleu The color’s role in modern fine art UP MY SLEEVE Covering your body in creative ink

BLUE JEAN BABY Doing denim like never before

DISTRACTION BLUE This issue’s special section

winter 2023

IF YOU HAD ACCESS TO A SPACESHIP, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

THE TEAM I’d stay on Earth

Editor-in-Chief_Lizzie Kristal Managing Editor_Sal Puma Executive Editors_Matt Jiménez & Andrew McCleskey Photo Directors_ Valeria Barbaglio & Sharron Lou Creative Director_Marita Gavioti Assistant Photo Directors_Ethan Dosa & Cecilia Intriago The Moon to Assistant Creative Directors_ Julia Gomez & Aden LaLonde do a backflip Illustration Director_Rachel Farinas Public Relations Director_Lex Kondratenko Business Director_Jordan Browning Fashion Directors_Chloe Hatcher & Paris Friefeld The Guide Editor_Caleigh Russo Happening Editor_Tamia McLean What the Fork Editor_Julia Hecht Health & Wellness Editor_Veronika Valia Barbieland Fashion_Victoria Fondeur Faculty Adviser_Randy Stano Supporting Faculty_Tsitsi Wakhisi

Saturn or Jupiter cuz it rains diamonds on those mfs and yk I’m a bag chaser, interplanetary or not.

DISTRACTIONMAGAZINE.COM Executive Digital Editor_Amanda Mohamad

CONTRIBUTERS

Tatooine to have a private lunch with Anakin Skywalker

Ariella Green_writer Brendan Ernst_writer Carter Richardson_writer Darby Steininger_writer The Milky Way Dylan Davis_writer Drew Trodden_writer Gigi Rettew_writer Jamie Moses_writer Jasmyne Roberts_writer Juliana Warnock_writer Katie Palmer_writer Lauren Ferrer_writer I would like to witness Liam Brandt_writer a star’s death, the Mary Gorski_writer supernova, in person.

Mariana Apostolatos_writer Melanie Lowe_writer Nicole Vedder_writer Remi Turner_writer Sidney Roberts_writer Elle Haymond_writer & designer Saidy Burch_writer & designer Charlotte DeAngelis_designer Constanza Ardiles_designer Drew Morris_designer The Great Red Spot Gaelle Charlet_designer on Jupiter Melanie Bergunker_designer Savannah Villegas_designer David Kronman_photographer Reese Putnam_photographer Sophie Pallman_photographer

magazine is produced four times per year, ABOUT US The twice a semester. City Graphics and Bellack

Miami printed 2,000 copies of the magazine on 8.5 x 11 inch, 60-pound coated text paper 4/4. The entire magazine is printed four-color and perfect bound.

Most text is nine-point Minion Pro with 9.8 points of leading set ragged with a combination of bold, medium and italic. All pages were designed using Adobe Creative Suite CC software InDesign with photographs and artwork handled in Photoshop and Illustrator. For additional information, visit distractionmagazine. com. Questions and comments can be sent to 1330 Miller Drive, Student Media Suite 202A, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, dropped into SSC Student Media Suite Suite 200 or emailed to distraction305@gmail.com. All articles, photographs and illustrations are copyrighted by the University of Miami.

it comes to contributors, we’re not WE LIKE YOU When picky. Whether you’ve found your niche

in a biology book, you’re notorious for doing “nothing” at the comm or business school or you’re halfway into your college career and still wave that “undeclared major” flag, we want to hear what you have to say. Distraction is an extracurricular/volunteer operation made for students, by students, and covers the full spectrum of student life here at The U. If you want to get involved or have any questions, comments or concerns email us at distraction305@gmail.com.

LETTER FROM THE

EDITOR I

had to make my exit in my own element — guns blazing. And yes, every gym-rat story in the past six issues were my doing.

Blue — what better way to describe how I’m feeling?

Sad, because my Distraction family will be an ocean away. Serene, because I get a fuzzy feeling when looking at the issues we’ve produced. Cold, because I won’t have the mile-long blanket in the suite to wrap myself in during deadline — we still don’t know if it’s ever been washed. Tranquil, because my release of Distraction means a new chapter ahead. And calm, because I’m confident the magazine is in worthy hands.

I’m struggling to fit my thoughts in this letter because my years on staff can’t be confined to a page. Distraction immediately drew me in during my freshman year, and becoming editor-in-chief as a sophomore was a curveball. As a psychology major with an interest in exercise physiology, it’s safe to say I was underqualified.

And yet, as our entire core staff graduated, the role was mine. I became the youngest lasting EIC in Distraction’s history.

To my staff, I’m so proud of you. I see so much intelligence and creativity in you, maybe more than you realize.

Distraction holds some of the best minds on campus. The cackles we’ve shared behind the blue, orange and gray computers will forever be etched into my memory. Watching you grow has been inspiring, to say the least.

To Stano, whose first words to me were a dreadful, “Why do you want to do this?” I thank you. Your criticism morphed me into a better designer, leader and teammate. Whenever I see a Hawaiian shirt paired with a baseball cap, I will think of you.

My time at UM is far from over, but I’m signing off for now. Never stop getting distracted. lizzie_kristal has logged off. sal_puma is now active.

EDITOR’S PICKS For an honest look at Florida’s growing extremism

Extremist Page_15 Silver Linings Page_34

For insights on growing from hardships

Blue Jean Baby Page_60

For the stitch on trendy denim

“Bleu” examines the connotations and emotions of using the color blue in fine art.

Denim never goes out of style, but level up your game with “Blue Jean Baby.”

This issue’s special section, “Blue,” is guaranteed to cure your seasonal blues.

“Up Your Sleeve” is not parent approved, but it’ll guide you through an arm of tattoos.

photo_lizzie kristal.

photo_sharron lou.

illustration_lizzie kristal & charlotte deangelis.

photo_sharron lou.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION

1

CONTENTS 03

The Guide

11

Happening

23

What the Fork

33

Special Section: Blue

49

Health & Wellness

59

Fashion

04 06 08

12 15 18 20

24 26 28 30

34 37 38 40 43 46 48

50 52 54 56

Silver Linings See No Evil Bleu Into the Unknown Kind of Blue: All That Jazz Blue Balls Why so Blue?

You Ate (Too Much) 26.2 Blemished Home is Where the Grind Is

nah v i l le gas.

Blue Jean Baby BTS Pierced Fan Behavior Thematic

avan

DISTRACTION

Umami: The 5th Taste Redfarm Be Our Guest Tea Time

s on_

2

Save Our Schools Extremist Poem Submission: Lilies Lot 11

ti stra illu

60 67 68 70 72

Checkmate Campus Curios Up My Sleeve

Welcome to your roadmap — from the how-tos to the bestofs, The Guide covers it all. Live out a Queen’s Gambit fantasy and rule the chess board.

Or maybe you’re thinking about getting a swanky tattoo sleeve. And for the wanderous, we have a list of campus curios you might’ve missed.

Whatever you’re looking for, let us guide you. photo_valeria barbaglio.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION

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e a m k c e h C A staple in any board game collection, chess is known played by by few. few. by many but played The competitive sphere for it is impressively large.

That alone can make the game seem seem daunting daunting to newcomers, but it may be worth a shot. Its rules aren’t hard to learn but its strategies are endless. Sit strategies down, and play a while. words_victoria fondeur. photo_valeria barbaglio. design_marita gavioti.

“T

he Queen’s Gambit” took the world by storm three years ago, so much so that sales of chess sets went up by 87% according to research firm NPD Group. However, as with most trends, people eventually dropped off the chess bandwagon when something new came along; now, their chess sets sit forgotten on a dusty shelf accumulating dust.

Chess, a nearly 2,000-year-old game, is once again rising in popularity. Considering jumping on this recycled bandwagon? “Rook” no further — we will explain this game through and through to all the rookies. In no time, you will be making your move and declaring “checkmate.”

Once a “pawn” a time, in the sixth century, a game named chaturanga arose during the Gupta Dynasty in India.

Chaturanga was the ancient Indian foundation of the chess we know today. This ancient Indian game was fundamentally similar to modern chess with players aiming to capture the king to attain victory.

However, some of the chaturanga pieces were slightly different as they reflected the military structure of ancient India, including pieces such as a

4

DISTRACTION

The Guide

general along with elephants and an infantry.

Rather than bishops or a rook and queen, the game also featured chariots and a calvary.

The introduction of the modern chess game to Europe by way of Persia is what gave rise to the complex and admired version that we think of today. In this time, there were a few rule changes, such as the pieces being changed to Ruthless, powerful, reflect European medieval unforgiving — the king of monarchy structures and the the chess board is a slowmovement of the pawn two moving yet crucial piece spaces instead of one. that can move one step in The basic goal of chess every direction, and capture is a simple one: capture any of the opponent’s pieces your opponent’s king. What surrounding it. Despite its seems like such a simple limitations, the king is the only piece by which the game task takes a lot of expertise; ends through the utterance some players take years to of the infamous word perfect their craft. With “checkmate.” practice and dedication, however, comes players like Bobby Fisher, who was the top-ranked American chess player during the Cold War and won against the USSR’s best in the 1972 Chess World Championship.

Fisher’s victory served as a confrontation which ended the Soviet reign of the sport until Russian chess player Garry Kasparov claimed the title of highest chess ranking in 1985.

Kasparov held this title until 2013, when he was surpassed by

Black and white, white and black. The alternation between these two distinctive colors on the iconic chess board is what we picture when we hear “chess.” With over 319 billion possible combinations of moves made possible by the organization of the board, and 400 moves being possible after each individual move, each game is unique.

Norwegian chess player Magnus Carlsen, who is said to be a force to be reckoned with within the chess community. Carlsen, who was named a chess grandmaster at 13 years old, is now 32 and has the highest recorded chess ranking in the world of 2,882.

Joshua Méndez, a junior majoring in ecosystem science and policy, began playing chess in 2018 and never looked back. Today, he serves as president of the University of Miami Chess Club.

“Bobby Fischer [is the most influential chess player.] During the Cold War he was treated not just as a chess player, but an American hero,” said Méndez when asked about Fischer’s impact on the sport.

The power of social media has spiked the popularity of chess amongst the general public. This bodes the question — why now? The accessibility of chess has been at right at our fingertips for hundreds of years.

“I started playing chess because I thought it was a good way to stay sharp,” said Méndez. “I also felt the abundant resources online to learn it gave me a shot at getting competitive.”

Apps and websites such as chess.com allow for people to play online, whether with their computers or on-the-go. The website, which has a mobile version as well, teaches users how to play chess, allowing even beginners to start from scratch and work their way to mastery. From tutorials on different maneuvers to tips on how to gain the most advantage wherever you are in the game, it covers all the basics.

Chess’ rise to popularity is especially prevalent amongst men.

Alon Labock, a freshman majoring in interactive media, says he thinks that the growth in popularity amongst males has heightened the competitive nature of the game.

“For males, I think playing chess is appealing because of the strategic component to it and the competitiveness, that is the biggest reason why I enjoy chess,” said Labock.

Researchers have found that playing chess aids in cognitive development. A 2012 study from the National Institute of Health found that consistent chess playing improved players’ problemsolving skills in addition to their cognitive abilities.

Dr. Melvin L. Butler, a professor for UM’s Frost School of Music, is the faculty advisor for the chess club. Butler said he has been playing chess since he was ten years old, sticking with it because it allowed him to simultaneously compete and use his intellect.

“Since I moved on campus in 2018 and started playing chess with students in the lobby of Stanford Residential College, they have definitely become more engaged with me and with each other,” said Butler. “Chess seems to have a way of prompting even some of the most introverted students to strike up conversations, and I have noticed that this helps them to form new friendships and to gain new levels of comfort in their interactions with me as a faculty member.”

Whether you are a “rook-ie” or a seasoned player, chess brings people the opportunity to connect while expanding their mental strength. Next time you’re itching for a game break, ditch the game 2048 and hit the board instead.

Steal Some Strategies Just in case you want to get a little more advanced, here are some chess openings to try out on your next opponent. The horizontal portion of the board is lettered a–h, right to left, and the vertical portion is numbered from 1–8, bottom to top.

French Defense 1. e4 e6 (pawns) 2. d4 d5 (pawns) 3. c3 f6 (knights) 4. g5 (bishop) King’s Gambit 1. e4 e5 (pawns) 2. f4 (pawn) c5 (bishop) Queen’s Gambit: 1. d4 d5 (pawns) 2. c4 dxc4 (pawns) 3. f3 f6 (bishop) 4. e3 e6 (pawns) 5. bxc4 (bishop) c5 (pawn) Catalan Opening: 1. d4 (pawn) f6 (knight) 2. c4 e6 (pawns) 3. g3 (pawn) Pro tip: Always “activate” your king. Even though you want to protect this piece, it’s essential to play it safely.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION

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Campus Cats

Wandering about, especially in the dead of night, our campus cats slink around seemingly undetectable. Most of them are seen wandering around Eaton Residential College and the architecture school; but they sometimes hide in plain sight all around campus. Be cautious when running into these creatures — they are not all friendly, so keep your distance.

Much like a big city, college campuses are bustling with people trying to go from point A to point B as quickly as they can. This speed makes it hard to appreciate the little things on campus. If you look a little harder and wander a little further, you might find some quirks that give bland sections of campus a whole new life. So, if you find yourself with some time on your hands, look around. words&design_sal puma. photo_valeria barbaglio.

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The Guide

Richter Library Games Catalog

Have you ever wanted to plan a game night with friends, but you didn’t have any games you all wanted to play? Or maybe you have wanted to test a game out before shelling out the money to buy it.

Turns out, the solution to these problems is here on campus. The Richter Library has collections of games ready for students to rent out.

They have titles from newer platforms such as the Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5, and some throwbacks for the Wii and Xbox 360. For tabletop fans, the library also has a selection of board games to rent.

Video games can be rented out for seven days, whereas board games can be rented for three. Either way, you have plenty of time to enjoy them without fear of getting in trouble.

The Rathskeller Shortcut

The Rathskeller features a second-floor loft with seating and some pool tables to help unwind after a long day. Right next to the upstairs bathroom is the exit door. It may seem scary with the warning plastered across it, but as long as you don’t leave it open for too long, it can be used as a shortcut directly to the second floor of Shalala.

It’s great for when you have to catch a meeting and your lunch runs a little bit over. The door only opens from the Rathskeller’s side, so unless you have a friend to let you in, you’re going to have to go the long way.

The Geology Pit

If you’re on the lookout for a new hangout spot, there is a “hole” location you probably have not heard of. Near the Campo Sano building is a pit used for geology classes. Although we can’t tell you what exactly goes on in said pit, it makes for a cool hangout spot if you stay around the edges where you can stay under the cover of trees. The middle of the pit gets direct sunlight most of the day, so if you want to tan somewhere besides the ever-crowded campus pool, this pit might be a great substitute. Just make sure to check the class schedules first.

Frost School Cat Corner

Wedged in a corner between the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre and the Frost School of Music are a few chairs and a table. To a passerby, it might look like discarded deck furniture. However, if you stay for a little while longer, you’ll see its feline visitors. The campus cats frequent this area during the night; if you’re lucky, you might find some of the bolder cats out and about during the day. They only come to you if you don’t make too much of a ruckus. So, be respectful, and they might grace you with a little visit.

Stacks Floor Five Doodle Window

When putting in long hours of academic weaponry in the stacks of Richter Library, the small windows and endless shelves of books can make the space feel like solitary confinement. However, there is one window on the fifth floor of the stacks that makes it feel like you’re not alone. The window is adorned with scribbles from other students who were also dreading their time in the library. It’s comforting knowing the burnout is a collective feeling. After all, misery loves company. If you desperately need help for an exam, sit down here and call upon the generational strength of ‘Canes past.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION

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UP MY

SLEEVE Whether they’re crafted patchwork sketches or full-blown portraits from shoulder to wrist, sleeve tattoos are increasingly leaving their mark on the young and young-at-heart. Previously considered the bold bodily statement of motorcyclists, prisoners and rebellious teens, a Pew Research Center poll released in August 2023 found that more than a third of Americans have a tattoo. Whether it’s a beautiful pattern of flowers or a collage of the names of your exes, here’s what’s getting people inked up. words_sidney roberts, lauren ferrer & carter richardson. photo_sharron lou. design_drew morris.

8

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The Guide

Dragon tattoos are a popular choice for pieces of a sleeve. Their long tails leave room for creativity in layouts. Dragons symbolize power, strength, protection and wisdom.

J

amari King, a senior double-majoring in criminology and sociology, has 11 tattoos.

“I got them because I wanted to look cool,” said King, jokingly. “I’m just kidding.

I got the tattoos because I wanted them to convey a message that meant something to me as opposed to just getting what looked cool.”

Although he likes to think of them as one giant tattoo, King’s largest designs are on his arm, beginning at his wrist and spanning to his chest. The others are on his upper back and behind his neck and ear.

For some, body art in the form of tattoo design is a form of self-expression, a canvas on which to paint their stories and beliefs. Others use tattoos to commemorate important life milestones or pay tribute to loved ones.

King says his tattoos follow a general “king” theme.

“My last name, King, is also on my back beside a lion because it represents who I view myself as, which is the king of the jungle,” said King. “Jesus Christ is also the king, so I have him on me, too.”

Experts advise that designs should be chosen to stand the test of time and retain their meaning. They offer a simple three-step structure to begin designing your perfect sleeve.

First, you should decide between a full sleeve or a partial sleeve.

When going in for his first tattoo, King says he did not plan on going in for a full sleeve. “One thing led to another and, once I got one, I couldn’t stop going back,” said King.

Next, pick your tattoo style. While there is a myriad of different styles that different tattoo shops specialize in, a few popular styles are tribal, traditional, watercolor and Japanese. With crafting a sleeve in mind, stick to one to two styles for a more uniform and clear flow.

The final step is to decide on a major theme for your sleeve. Motivations for permanent ink range from sentimental attachments to social ties and important life decisions. The decision to get permanent ink also brings about various concerns including family judgment and corporate discrimination lingering in the minds of many as they prepare to sit in the chair for their first — or 14th — tattoo.

“I was never advised not to get them, but I was warned to make sure that I knew what I wanted,” said TreVonte’ Citizen, the Miami Hurricanes’ running back. Citizen says he got his first tattoo at 17 and now has a total of 13.

“The one on my forearm, a dove and a praying hand, represent my loved ones that have passed,” said Citizen.

If a full sleeve of tattoos is the end goal, be prepared to schedule multiple sessions with the artist of your choice. Some tattoo artists will charge by the size of the chosen design while some will charge per hour. Small tattoos can range from $50 to $200, while a two-hour session can cost up to $600.

“I do my tattoos in tap-out sessions, so I’m able to get as many pieces as I would like as long as I do not quit,” said King. “The most I have ever paid for a session was like $600.

In total I’ve probably spent about $3,000.”

While traditional and tribal tattoos remain a staple for many, Gen Z has led the movement of a new style that is slowly taking over social media and high-end tattoo shops — fine line patchwork.

From Harry Styles showing off his perfectly constructed left arm designs during his international tour to Emma Chamberlain’s minimalistic tattoos peeking through as she walks Fashion Week red carpets all over the world, patchwork tattoos have attached themselves to the celebrities consistently influencing Gen Z. Just by scrolling through a tattoo hashtag on TikTok or Instagram reels, tattoo enthusiasts can find local artists and tattoo shops that will release pages of patchwork designs to their followers. These minimalistic designs help fill space as tattoo enthusiasts build a sleeve of various small designs.

This style has risen in popularity as it takes away the idea that one must think through the “major theme.” Instead, people

can choose various small designs that symbolize an even wider variety of different ideas to represent whatever they want.

Whether it’s emotional or just funny, the patchwork style promotes general freedom within self-expression.

If you decide to cover your entire arm in self-expressions, many brave souls can attest warnings of social stigma and discrimination against exposed tattoos from their parents and members of elder generations.

“I was absolutely advised not to get them, especially at 16 in high school in South Dakota,” said Aren O’Kelso, a second-year film production graduate student. “I was the only kid in my high school with a sleeve.”

But the number of teens with tattoos is growing, and the body art is seemingly becoming a rite of passage into adulthood. In a 2018 study, Dr. Gary L. Freed, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan, found that more than 25% of teens between 16 and 18 had asked their parents if they could get tattoos.

Tattoos are no longer taboo, industry analysts say. The global tattoo market is expected to grow from $2 billion this year to $3.92 billion by 2030 according to Fortune Business Insights. Not only are they becoming more socially acceptable, but the number of workers with tattoos in the professional careers is growing.

Michael French, a professor at UM’s Herbert Business School, conducted a comprehensive research study analyzing workplace discrimination concerning tattoo wearers in 2018 One of French’s areas of study is risky behaviors, including topics like texting and driving and binge drinking. French also studies the different outcomes of sensation seeking behavior like extreme sports, skydiving and race car driving. French says studying tattoos was an extension of his research into risky behavior.

“I’ve always been kind of curious about it,” said French. “My grandfather had a tattoo,

Patchwork tattoo sleeves are the latest craze. Add some interest by using a different artist for every patch, representing an array of styles and memories.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION

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Tattoos give people the opportunity to act as their own canvases. Research shows that the number of tattoos one has positively correlates with selfesteem among college students.

A City of Ink Tattoo Shops in Miami

Whether you’re seeking vibrant colors or intricate fine lines, Miami’s tattoo scene has it all. Explore these shops that showcase the city’s tattoo diversity.

Gregos Tattoos Specialties: colored tattoos 7203 SW Eighth St., Miami Instagram: @gregostattoos Contrary to what you might think, women have more tattoos than men. 58% of women have at least one tattoo, compared to men with 41%.

and I thought that was cool, but no one else had tattoos.”

French’s study, which surveyed more than 2,000 people from all 50 states, found that having a tattoo is not significantly associated with one’s ability to get a job compared to those who don’t have tattoos, even for visible or offensive designs. French says whether people take offense to a tattoo is subjective.

In the years after he published his study, French said he has often been asked by friends and colleagues if he will re-open the study for a new generation of data and results.

“We’ve been hesitant to do that, because I don’t think the results are going to change,” said French.

King spoke to avoiding certain work environments with strict policies regarding tattoos in the workplace. King says he has worked as a registered pharmacy technician, freelance photographer, tutor and private security. “If it’s an issue, then I just won’t go there because it’s not where I fit,” said King.

“In some jobs that I’ve had, if I wasn’t wearing long sleeves and if my tattoos were exposed, they would almost think that I wasn’t intelligent or I wasn’t up to par,” said Syriah Delgado-O’Neil, a senior majoring in criminology.

Delgado-O’Neil has been employed at a bar and most recently an internship in the U.S. Capitol, despite having a full sleeve on her arm and large designs on her thigh,

10 DISTRACTION The Guide

Monchi Art Specialties: black & gray realism, geometric, sketch 3250 NE First Ave., Miami Instagram: @monchiart

foot and back. Delgado-O’Neil says she had company on Capitol Hill and not necessarily with just other interns.

Sen. John Fetterman has nine tattoos on his forearm, each representing a day on which someone died violently while he was mayor of Braddock, Pa., said Delgado-O’Neil.

The former intern also said that Rep. Rosa DeLauro debuted her first tattoo this summer when, at age 80, she helped celebrate her granddaughter’s high school graduation.

They both got inked to celebrate.

As attitudes evolve, many employers prioritize skills and qualifications over physical appearances. Even large companies spanning industries — from Disney to Bank of America — have relaxed their rules regarding visible tattoos in the workplace.

Citizen said he had no worries regarding his tattoos, boasting his 13 body art accessories which cost him upwards of $2,000.

“Even if it wasn’t in my profession, I would still be tatted up,” said Citizen. “I’d probably be more tatted now if I had more time on my hands.”

As more of Gen Z adventures into adulthood, we will likely see tattoos become a larger part of our culture as members stand by their decisions, proudly showing the world their artistic investments.

Inked Life Miami Specialties: tattoo artistry, body piercings 1247 Washington Ave., Miami Beach Instagram: @inkedlifemiami Tattoology Lounge Specialties: fine-line tattoos, micro-realism, watercolor tattoos 6421 Biscayne Blvd, Miami Instagram: @tattoologylounge

Happening tackles today’s hot topics and inspiring innovators. Hear the stories of school shooting survivors and how these events are shaping education across the country. Or how the rising levels of extremist groups in Florida are having an effect on the state’s political sphere. On a lighter note, Lot 11 transformed the underside of a highway to a cultural center. We bring you the latest and greatest Miami has to offer. photo_valeria barbaglio.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 11

ave

ur

chools

Today’s college students can recall at least one school shooting in their academic careers and are likely the first generation to be able to do so. Gen Z is the first generation who practically grew up knowing how to react in the instance of a lockdown — drill or real. Unfortunately, we have to face the harsh reality: no matter the precautions, no school is 100% in the clear. words_gigi rettew, melanie lowe & liam brandt. illustration_rachel farinas. design_lizzie kristal.

C

hesni Birgy, a junior criminal justice major at Michigan State University, was in the MSU Union building on Feb. 13, 2023, when a gunman entered the East Lansing campus.

“We heard the first shot, but didn’t really think anything of it,” said Birgy. “The second shot, still nothing, and then the third. We knew what it was and sprinted out of the building.”

Birgy ran to the nearby Panda Express and hid in the bathroom for safety.

“It felt really long being in there,” said Birgy. “Like, I didn’t know if it would be OK to come out.”

MSU sophomore Mariana Aubele was in her dorm at Snyder-Phillips Hall when a friend called asking if she was okay.

“My roommate and I put our dresser up against the door, hid in our closet and just listened to the police radio until it was over,” Aubele said.

When the shooting was over, which occurred in two campus buildings, three students were dead and five others were wounded. The shooter then shot and killed himself, police reported.

In the United States, any mention of a school shooting might make you think of high-profile mass shootings at public K-12 institutions — Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland and Uvalde among others. As of mid-October 2023, there had been 288 school shootings with 209 victims, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

12 DISTRACTION Happening

But college students like Birgy and Aubele have first-hand proof that K-12 schools hold no monopoly on gun violence.

“Personally, I never thought that this kind of thing could happen so close to me,” said Birgy. “But now, it’s like, it can happen anywhere, so you always just have to be prepared.”

However, in 2023, “anywhere” has included not only the MSU shooting. A campus shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Aug. 28 where a professor reportedly was killed by a Ph.D. student, and a homecoming week shooting at Morgan State’s Baltimore campus that left five people injured on Oct. 3 made national headlines and sent shockwaves around the country.

The campus shootings this year have created a sense of fear some University of Miami students say.

“I think if a shooting happened on campus, it would be absolute chaos,” said UM junior marketing major Alyssa Mirenda.

She echoed what other students say about the university’s open campus policy.

“I often think about the fact that really anyone can wander in here,” said Rachel Lipsky, a UM junior neuroscience major.

When BestColleges, a platform that helps high school students research colleges, surveyed college students in 2022 about campus safety, 65% of students said school shootings in particular made them concerned for their safety on campus.

The earliest recorded U.S. university shooting happened in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin where a shooter killed 15 people and injured 31 others from a tower on UT’s campus.

The Violence Project, a nonprofit that aims to reduce violence through comprehensive research, estimates that there have been 12 mass shootings on university grounds since 1966. A mass shooting is defined as a minimum of four people being wounded or killed by gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that archives gun violence data from law enforcement, media and government resources.

Beyond mass shootings, there have been 308 incidents of gunfire on university campuses from 2013–2022 that claimed a total of 94 lives, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit organization advocating for gun control.

In a prepared statement to Distraction, the University of Miami Police Department said it is important that students and the community at large be aware that most mass shootings occur in open spaces and places of commerce, but universities are not exempt.

“Shooting in educational settings, while not as common as open spaces, do happen,” said the UMPD statement. “This underscores the need to report suspicious activity and behavior. Take advantage of training offered by your school.”

The department said the university is

We heard the first shot, but didn’t really think anything of it. The second shot, still nothing, and then the third.

We knew what it was and sprinted out of the building.

Chesni Birgy Michigan State Student

Since the start of 2023, there have been 123 incidents of gunfire on school grounds. This resulted in 36 deaths and 87 injuries, a shockingly high number that only seems to be growing.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 13

prepared to respond to a shooting on campus.

“Our officers are well equipped and trained to respond to incidents on campus,” added the UMPD statement.

“We work very closely with the Coral Gables Police Department to coordinate and increase our response resources on campus.”

Lipsky said she expects the university to send out emergency alerts as soon as police are notified of an incident.

“It’s crucial; they can save your life with a text,” Lipsky said.

The university’s Office of Emergency Management is responsible for preparing and responding to any emergency that impacts the university, including mitigating the impact of an active shooter. The office conducts reviews of local, national and international armed intruder and mass violent events and analyzes after-action reports, said Matthew Shpiner, director of emergency management at UM. All community members are automatically added to the university’s Emergency Notification Network, which allows the department to quickly notify students, faculty and staff of emergencies via their mobile device.

Shpiner said his office has conducted more than 450 active shooter response training courses in the past decade.

Courses are open to all community members and are offered via Zoom at least twice a month.

“These courses include strategies and tactics you can use anywhere on campus,” Shpiner said.

Additionally, UM’s emergency preparedness department outlines steps members of the campus community can take before, during and after an emergency on its website page.

But some students, like Lipsky, said they are unaware of emergency plans in place at UM. “I have never even heard of any emergency plans from the university,” said Lipsky.

The office said students are responsible for attending the training as it is not required by the university. The schedule for the remaining sessions can be found on www.events.miami.edu/oem.

While UM has not had any mass shootings in its nearly 100-year history, there have been cases of isolated violence.

In 1996, Hurricanes linebacker Marlin Barnes and friend Timwanika Lumpkins were beaten and shot to death in his on-campus apartment with a shotgun. Labrant Dennis, Lumpkins’ ex-boyfriend, was convicted in 1999, according to news reports.

In November 2009, UM police officials said the four suspects, two men and two women, drove through the area of the Hecht-Stanford Dining Hall and Wellness

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Center firing multiple shots from a BB-gun. Students, faculty and others were forced to remain indoors for nearly an hour until police apprehended the suspects and lifted the lockdown.

Besides actual violence, there have been cases of serious threats at UM, including a 2022 incident in which a former UM student sent an email detailing plans to commit a mass shooting at UM and at a local middle school. The threats were sent to CanesWear, a store in Broward County that sells Miami Hurricanes gear. The suspect, Kenny Espaillat, was arrested and later taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital for a mental health evaluation and treatment according to police.

While students at UM have not experienced gun violence in recent years, the fear of falling victim to one is still prevalent.

“I do not feel like UMPD has enough police cars,” said senior interactive media major Andaiye Gibson. “I feel unsafe on the patio, the bridge and pretty much anywhere open.”

Other students say they are confident that UMPD could handle an active shooter incident on campus.

“There are enough police cars here,” said graduate data science major Yemi Adekoluejo. “I think we will be all right.”

Despite confidence in protocol, Adekoluejo said his personal response would be to get away from a crime scene.

“At the end of the day, I still just know to run,” he said.

Freshman finance major Vin Lin agrees, saying “I feel safe on campus, I mean the area itself is safe.”

Despite the scare she encountered last year at MSU, Mariana Aubele completed her freshman year and returned to campus this semester.

Aubele said she was not scared to return but was thankful that MSU canceled classes for a week so that she could return home to her family in Pennsylvania.

“My family wasn’t really scared for me to go back,” said Aubele. “They just stressed to me not to go out at night really and always be looking out for what’s going on around me, because … you never know.”

As the U.S. government continues to neglect creating and enforcing stricter gun ownership and use laws, students across the country are forced to take charge of their personal security on- and off-campus. So, stay aware, stay informed and, most importantly, don’t think a school shooting couldn’t impact you or the ’Canes community at-large.

Dial 911 in case of emergency on any campus, or dial 305-284-6666 for the University Police Department.

with UMPD What are the UM protocols for UMPD to follow in the event of a school shooting?

UMPD officers are trained and will immediately respond to a shooting threat. Partnering with the Office of Emergency Management, the university will activate the Emergency Notification Network, ENN. We incorporate additional resources from the Coral Gables Police Department and utilize countywide resources through mutual aid.

The Coral Gables campus is an open campus. How do you respond to people who say the university is vulnerable to a shooting because of the ease of access?

Safety and security are a top priority on all University of Miami campuses. Creating a safe environment is not due to any single factor, but instead is a combination of multiple layers of infrastructure, personnel, and policies which work together to support the safety of our community. We strongly encourage students and faculty to take an active role in our collective safety by immediately reporting any suspicious or unusual activity.

What would you say to students who are fearful of being in a campus shooting? What can they do to protect themselves or others?

Be aware of your surroundings and always report suspicious activity. Look around for emergency exits in large, crowded and frequently visited areas. Additionally, participate in active shooter response training and encourage your peers to do the same.

Even Ron DeSantis relates oranges to Florida, as seen on his Time Magazine cover, published in June 2023. DeSantis is aggressively peeling an orange, with the headline “What Ron DeSantis Means for America.”

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Despite the glamor of Cocaine Cowboys and the corruption of government officials, Floridian politics have long been considered moderate. Unfortunately, hatred is rearing its ugly head, with extremists in government seeking to normalize their dangerous opinions across the peninsula. With anti-LGBT rallies, antisemitism on the rise and neo-Nazis projecting swastikas on buildings and the Floridian flag, the Sunshine State is looking pretty dark these days. words&photo_matt jiménez. design_lizzie kristal.

OPINION Florida has long been a diverse society since its founding in 1513, as the state is home to people of various races, cultures, languages, religions and ways of life.

However, the ruling classes have not always been tolerant of those who diverged from what was deemed acceptable — whether it was Native Americans during the Spanish colonial period, Black people during the chattel slavery and Jim Crow periods or LGBTQ+ communities in the mid-20th century. While Florida has come a long way since those dark times, some individuals and groups are trying to drag it back to an age where exclusion was the norm and hatred was accepted.

Florida has recently become ground zero for extremism not only in the United States but the broader Western World. The shifting political paradigm in Florida has even caught the attention of politicians in other countries — the premier of the Australian state of Queensland went as far as telling local anti-LGBT protesters to “get to Florida,” comparing participants in the demonstrations to members of the Republican Party of Florida.

So, what happened, and how did we get here?

Florida is home to a number of hate groups, and some are feeling more emboldened than ever, with groups like Moms for Liberty, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and National Socialist Florida. These groups are slowly garnering more attention, weaving their way into the mainstream political fabric. Their increased influence over politics in the state is partly due to the high levels of coordination between such groups.

The Anti-Defamation League noted that there now exists an unprecedented level of coordination among White nationalist groups in the state. Many groups also feel empowered to fully broadcast their ideologies in public forums because of the popularity of certain political figures, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis, who include far-right talking points into their rhetoric.

Notably, Nate Hochman, a now-fired staff member for DeSantis’ presidential campaign crafted and disseminated a pro-DeSantis video. The video placed him in the middle of the Floridian flag where the state seal

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was replaced by the Sonnenrad, an ancient Celtic and Nordic symbol appropriated by the Nazis. The video also heavily featured homophobic symbolism touting bills passed by the Florida Legislature which targeted LGBTQ+ rights, such as Senate Bill 1557 — the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-11, also introduced Senate Bill 1248, which aimed to ban the Florida Democratic Party, though the bill died in committee, presumably due to its antidemocratic nature.

Additionally, as reported by The New Republic, leaked chats from the messaging platform Signal showed that DeSantis’ campaign committee was involved in the making and approval of such controversial videos, although there was no indication that DeSantis’ rapid response director Christina Pushaw, who was in the chat, approved of the addition of the Sonnenrad. DeSantis did not condemn or explicitly address the video.

Indeed, Florida has become a magnet for these types of extremists — 90 of the 855 protestors convicted of for the January 6 insurrection were from Florida, the highest number from any state. But the problem is growing across the country. An Associated Press poll conducted in 2022 found that 1 in 3 Americans now believe in certain aspects of the Replacement Theory, a debunked

conspiracy theory which argues that liberal politicians are trying to replace White American citizens with non-White immigrants for electoral gains.

In an exclusive interview with Distraction, Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried was questioned on the current state of Floridian politics. “For decades, the extremes of both parties were just that: the extremes.

And they weren’t in leadership roles, they weren’t dictating policy perspectives, and they weren’t in a position to actually effectuate change in policy,” said Fried.

“But unfortunately, in Florida, over the last few election cycles, these types of individuals are getting into leadership roles and are crafting policies that are taking our state in a very dangerous direction, even though it truly does not reflect the people who are living here in our state,” she said.

Fried also mentioned she considered DeSantis and former president Donald Trump to be not the root causes of the issue, but symptoms of it.

“There’s always been divisiveness in our state and in our country. And I take this example all the time that, look at Germany.

After Germany lost World War 2, there were no remnants of the Nazi Party.” said Fried. “Whereas here, in America, when the Confederacy lost, they still had monuments celebrating Confederate leaders. We still have Confederate flags flying all throughout the state. What Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump knew, is that [they] knew how to teach the art of fear.”

These factors compound when accounting for the speed at which dis- and misinformation can spread in the digital age.

Social media has become a powerful tool for extremist groups, allowing them to gain traction more quickly and appear as bigger threats than they truly are.

But how can hateful, fringe ideologies start gaining traction in such a diverse society? The answer lies in their adaptiveness. Hatred comes in many forms and is often tailored to current demographic

realities.

While the Ku Klux Klan and Nationalist Socialist Florida infamously employ overtly bigoted symbols and messaging, other groups remain more subtle, appearing inclusive on the surface.

One such example is Moms for Liberty, a Melbourne, Florida-based political action group founded by former school board members that has gained worldwide attention for its fight against what it refers to as “woke indoctrination,” as well as its involvement in removing certain books from public K-12 schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes them as a group that presents itself as a modern parents’ rights organization with chapters that perpetuate views that are aligned with anti-government conspiracies,

anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and anti-inclusive instructional practices.

The Anti-Defamation League similarly reports that antisemitic incidents in Florida have more than doubled since 2020, hitting an all-time high both in the Sunshine State and across the United States. The ADL recorded 269 incidents in 2022, a 42% increase from the previous year in Florida.

The organization notes that the largest single source for the increase in these antisemitic incidents was activity attributed to right-wing extremist and White supremacy groups, with 118 related to political extremists.

There have been several controversial antisemitic incidents recently across the peninsula, with groups going across public colleges late last year spreading the message “Ye was right,” a reference to Kanye West’s 2022 antisemitic tirade on a podcast with

White supremacist Nick Fuentes, expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler.

More recently, however, the IsraelPalestine conflict is being felt closer to home, with many people fearing a rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism. The AntiDefamation League cites that antisemitic incidents are up by nearly 400% from this time last year, and college campuses across the country have become ideological battlegrounds with regards to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

UM student Ulysses del Pino, a junior political science major and born-and-raised Floridian, said Florida’s shift to the right hasn’t entirely surprised him. “What does surprise me is the effectiveness and influence that individuals like Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump have in persuading people, especially in Florida, to believe that the

legislation they support is foundational for the country, even though these legislations are intentionally negative toward women, BIPOC, and the LGBTQ+ community in our state,” he said.

On the other hand, a junior linguistics major and exchange student who wished to remain anonymous said that she has not noticed much of the extremism in her daily life and remains mostly unaffected. “I didn’t know about or notice these forms of extremism, so it hasn’t really influenced me,” said the anonymous student.

Several Republican elected officials in Florida did not respond to requests for comment or rejected the opportunity for an interview.

Just f*cking vote — for Democrats.

EXTREMIST An enduring symbol of Florida, the color orange has long been one of the state’s distinctive identifying features.

Representing energy, growth and health, Florida’s state fruit is the orange, the state flower is the orange blossom, and orange juice is the state beverage.

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Lilies

words&illustration_saidy burch. design_julia gomez. coordination_nicole vedder.

I never knew silence could cut like a knife, until this evening on a limestone rink—where a bed of ravens dance in lacey dress and throw their collars to the sea.

You are still as a stone, and your eyes cast away to the mangroves—you are over walls and bridges, out where the gulls have flown.

You are unfeeling, molded of ashen coral and fossilized fabric.

You turn your head only to keep the birds from picking your flesh, and wear a suit of black as proof of phony kinship; you catch the technicolor songs in your dreary eye and swallow them like pills.

I want to chase a firefly or drum our feet on ancient reef; but my dress has snagged on your hung neck, and you are tired, so I will perch on a fountain of lilies and watch the minnows waltz instead.

Poem Corner There is a verse for everyone in poetry. Whether it’s a free verse or prose, poetry allows us to look through another’s perspective through their strung together cohesion of words and interpret it differently depending on both the subject matter and who we are as people. For the poets themselves, their words can function as an extension of their experiences and thoughts in how they journal it onto paper. Distraction’s newfound Poetry Corner hopes to facilitate the spotlight for local writers here at the U and explain the meaning and intent behind each highlighted piece.

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Behind the Verse A conversation with the author, Saidy Burch

Q A

What initially drew you to the writing scene as a poet?

I’ve always loved writing but didn’t start writing poetry until my freshman year of college as part of a creative writing class. I remember dreading our first poetry assignment — not because I didn’t like poetry, but because I was intimidated by it. But as I began writing my first poems, I fell in love with the genre and its capability for hyper-vividity and sensory vibrance.

Writing poetry feels akin to painting.

Q A

What is poetry to you/who do you say you write for?

Poetry is a highly versatile art form.

For me, it’s primarily a way to express and communicate emotion. It’s collage-ish or like a mosaic; you’re tasked with picking and arranging images on a two-dimensional plane in an attempt to flower something out of the reader, or out of yourself. Poetry is fascinating to me because it challenges writers to see beyond face-value of image and intertwine abstract ideas with the concrete.

Some images are quite bold in their tonal effect. There is no denying, for example, the mystique that hangs around the image of a black cat — although even then, there is potential for morphing by the writer. Others are more malleable, inviting writers to shape them like clay into an object possessed by feeling. Take sunlight: is it a veil of honey, or a burning rod against your skin?

Q

How do you draw inspiration from everyday mundanity into the artistic abstract wonders of writing? Do you have any personal things you do to take note of all of them?

A

I believe there is beauty to be found everywhere. We live in a brilliant, intelligently-designed world brimming with life and art in all spaces — in clouds, lizards, people’s voices, old chalkboards — all carrying with them their own beautiful stories, geometries, places in memories. If you know me personally, you know I am constantly getting distracted by little things — the way paint has stained a glass jar, how rain collects in asphalt gaps on the road — and taking pictures of them or writing little notes of myself so I remember the image.

Author’s Poem Rec.

Q A

A line that travels with you throughout your day after you’ve read something is no easy feat—what line from your poem resonates with you the most?

“I’ll recommend ‘La Cachiporrista’ by Alexandra Lytton Regalado — such brilliant imagery.”

I’m not sure why, but the phrase “you are over walls and bridges, out where the gulls have flown” seems to meander through my head quite often.

Q A

Could you give a brief elaboration on the context behind “Lilies”?

Even why you chose to focus on the certain details you did, like the ocean, fabric, and mostly creatures of flight.

“Lilies” is about a high school formal dance I attended. I’ll leave the details of what exactly occurred that night up to your interpretation, but most of the images come from my observations from where I stood during the dance. The dance was outdoors, on a courtyard of fossilized coral. I remember sitting for a while on the edge of a fountain whose water no longer ran, watching tiny fish dot around lily-pads. Over the heads of all the other girls in lacey black dress, I could see a black ocean and a border of mangroves.

Saidy Burch, Poet

Q A

Are there any other meaningful aspects of your piece that you would like to point out?

Don’t try to swallow songs like pills. I don’t think it tends to go over very well.

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Lot 11 After nine years of building, SkateFree, MPA, FDOT and the city of Miami created a safe haven for avid skaters within the Miami-Dade community under a busy highway.

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Home is subjective; everyone has their own definition of what a home can be. For some, home is a house in a suburbia with a white picket fence where children frolic in the front yard and families come to life. For others, home is where you can go to pursue passions — even if it’s an urban mountain range of skate ramps and rails beneath the Miami metro. Home knows no singular definition; however, Miami-based nonprofit SkateFree took a vacant parking lot and made it into Lot 11 which is now home to the Miami skateboarding community. words_caleigh russo. photo_sophie pallman. design_melanie bergunker.

“When I grew up in Miami, there was a loss of hope for good skate parks paired with a ton of apathy from the government,” said SkateFree’s president Nick Katz. The professional skateboarder, who also owns Andrew Skate Shop in Downtown Miami, recalls that the couple of skate parks present in Miami during his childhood were janky and paling in comparison to the state-of-theart facilities he saw in skate magazines.

“At the time, skateparks were an afterthought; they were just a new amenity that the city could add to its public parks,” said Katz.

SkateFree founder Danny Fuenzalida echoed this sentiment saying, “after living in Miami for a few years, there was a complete void of people willing to push the City of Miami for a good skate park.”

One of only four professional skaters in the area, Fuenzalida felt obliged to fill the void within the Miami skateboarding community. Growing up in Chile, Fuenzalida dreamed of building skate parks where he grew up. The professional skateboarder said he took his dream above and beyond when he moved to Miami.

“When I went to the city about [a new skate park], they said they had always supported the idea of building skate parks, but the skating community was not organized enough,” said Fuenzalida when reflecting on his first steps towards Lot 11. “The city told me that there was never a concrete plan when they would take steps towards building skate parks.”

Fuenzalida remembers the city of Miami told him to start an organization so skateboarding could assemble a plan towards building a skate park. Thus, in 2012, SkateFree was born to harness private ownership to create a public amenity. The nonprofit was founded with Fuenzalida’s childhood dream of building and managing free public skate parks being at the center of organization’s initiatives.

“Relying on the city was not going to get me my dream skate park,” said Fuenzalida when asked about his motivation to begin SkateFree.

Fuenzalida and Katz first met back when construction broke the ground at Grand Central Skate Spot which used to be a 22,000-square-foot skate park located in downtown Miami. Impressed by Katz’s commitment to building a state-of-the-art skateboard park in Miami, Fuenzalida asked Katz to join SkateFree. From there, the pair began working together on additional projects such as their temporary, one month pop-up skate park in partnership with Red Bull.

“Things worked out in a beautiful way. I was really lucky with how things worked out,” said Fuenzalida. SkateFree partnered with the Miami Parking Authority and was lucky when the city-level organization donated a parking lot underneath a bridge. Over nine years of development, Katz and Fuenzalida created a skate park with premier facilities, which has since become a hub for beginners and professionals alike.

“Lot 11 showed that we can take an old dusty parking lot under I-95 and turn it into something, the best skate park in Miami,” said Katz. “We turned it into something useful for the community.”

Katz says he sees kids at Lot 11 daily, assuming they spend more time at his skate park than at home or school. “I want Lot 11 to be a meeting ground for kids, where they meet friends that change their lives. I hope that when kids come to Lot 11, they feel as if it’s their home,”

Polly Mercenari, a UM freshman majoring in media management, says he grew up interested in skateboarding and began going to Lot 11 with his father at age 12 to meet people and to learn how to skateboard.

Although Mercenari may not skate as often as he used to, he still sees value in the city having a public space akin to Lot 11.

“Lot 11 is so convenient because it is close to everyone, whether north, south, east or west,” said Mercenari. “When I go there, I see a little bit of everything — from little kids learning to skate to older people shooting professional videos and everything in between.”

Mercenari says he still attends Lot 11 — only now to attend the monthly flea market.

The Lot 11 flea market, which occurs on the third Sunday of every month, allows small local businesses to sell various products, from food to custom clothes and jewelry.

“It’s really fun to walk around and check stuff out, especially the vintage and thrifted clothes,” said Mercenari who enjoys bringing friends along with him.

By creating programming that has become a prominent part of SkateFree’s brand story, Katz says he feels lucky to flex his creative muscle and work with partners

The lot is under the I-95 highway and has 38,000 square feet of terrain, full of nooks and crannies for skaters to take advantage of. It is a nationally recognized skatepark in the community.

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The skate park is one of few to win the LEED Gold status for its design and efforts of a sustainable production.

The skatepark was built with environmentally friendly materials. Throughout its construction, builders used recycled concrete and asphalt sub-base materials in efforts to minimize carbon emissions. In total, the production process of Lot 11 took about 10 years, and the final product was well worth the wait.

on unique free events.

“Programming has become a really big part of our brand story and give back to the Miami community,” said Katz. “Our goal is to bring new experiences to the Miami skate community that have never existed before.”

One creative who connected with the space and understood the necessity of Miami having a skate park akin to Lot 11 was former Off-White CEO and former Louis Vuitton artistic director Virgil Abloh. According to Katz, Abloh “always pushed positive energy [his] way about how important Lot 11 would be” during the skate park’s construction process. After Abloh’s sudden

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passing in November of 2021, Katz said he and Fuenzalida felt it necessary to honor his contributions to skateboarding and partnered with Nike to create the Virgil Abloh Foundation.

“My last correspondence with Virgil before he passed away was about doing some skate contest at Lot 11,” said Katz, recalling how even after Abloh’s career took off, he still checked in on Lot 11’s development.

“I remember him telling me he thought it would be dope to do a skate event at the park during Art Basel weekend; he even offered to put up all the money and fund it to make a vibe.”

On Dec. 5, 2022, just over a year after

Abloh passed, Lot 11 hosted its first annual Abloh Skateboarding Invitational on Art Basel weekend. Many coveted names within the skateboarding community were in attendance, including Paul Rodriguez, Ishod Wair and Sean Malto.

“The city came out in droves for the Abloh Invitational, and I was really proud of it,” said Katz. “I am really excited to see it happen again this year,” Katz added, stating that the event will include a day of skateboarding clinics for kids and giveaways for the community.

Out of all the events Lot 11 has hosted since opening in 2019, Katz says his favorite was the Andrew Music Club. In collaboration with his good friend David Sinopoli, who founded the Three Points Music Festival and owns Club Space, Katz planned a unique, underground music experience with affordable ticket prices.

“We did a large-scale campaign with Spotify to curate a playlist of what music represented the Miami skateboarding scene,” said Katz on Lot 11’s other endeavors. Katz says the Skate Noise campaign culminated in a live band performance from the Jacuzzi Boys on June 30, 2023.

“Having performers at Lot 11 brings a one-of-a-kind ticked music experience to Lot 11,” said Katz. “It makes it a venue that can be more malleable and give people a great experience with their friends.”

“I saw my two friends’ DJ performance for an event for skaters and techno listeners last month at Lot 11,” said Gaelle Charlet, a UM junior double majoring in computer science and interactive media. “I knew most of the DJs, and everyone there was super friendly,” she added.

Lot 11 is more than just a skatepark; it is a hub of arts and culture that is the product of years of pursuit and a passion ignited in the childhoods of Fuenzalida and Katz.

Together, they created a home for the next generation of skateboarders, filling the void they felt in their youth within the skateboarding community.

What the Fork is a foodie’s paradise, stuffed with mouth-watering recipes and hidden-gem restaurants. Get a hint of umami, the forgotten taste.

Take tips on hosting the perfect dinner party that’s sure to wow your guests.

Meet RedFarm, a new Asian fusion restaurant opening soon in Coconut Grove. We are serving up the latest dishes, so grab a plate and dig in. photo_valeria barbaglio.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 23

UMAMI The 5th Taste

Umami was created in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda in Tokyo. He researched that glutamate was responsible for the taste of a specific broth from the kombu seaweed. It was separate from the common tastes like “sweet” or “salty,” and named this taste umami.

Food cravings are a natural part of the human appetite. But sometimes the family sized bag of Tostitos or the Hershey’s Kisses don’t cut it. Not all foods fall into the basic tastes of sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Chefs, home cooks and those of you who just like to eat, please join us on our enlightening journey of defining umami — the forgotten fifth taste. words_mary gorski. photo&design_lizzie kristal.

24 DISTRACTION What the Fork

The History

While the elusive, often forgotten fifth taste is not a recent discovery, it was not officially recognized in the scientific community until the early 2000s when scientists identified the receptors for it. Foods heavy in the chemical compositions responsible for umami, like monosodium glutamte, have been used across all cultures for much of history. The ancient Romans incorporated umami flavors into their garum, a fermented fish sauce. During medieval times, Arabs and Byzantines frequently used murri, a fermented barley condiment packed with umami chemicals. In the late 1800s, renowned chef Aguste Escoffier was serving meals combining umami flavors into his sweet, sour, salty and bitter dishes throughout his restaurants in Paris and London.

Flash forward, and the Umami Information Center, or the UIC, was established in 1982 as a study group to promote the research of umami by a group of nutritional scientists, food chemists, physiologists of taste and the oral cavity. The members of UIC partook in international umami symposiums in Japan and elsewhere to exchange research regarding this newfangled taste.

Eventually, in 2002, scientists confirmed that our taste buds had receptors for umami, and it was officially declared a fifth taste.

The Science

Ribonucleotides, glutamate, taste receptors … what exactly does any of this have to do with tasting umami? In elementary school, we all learned about the five senses processed in our brain with the help of our eyes, nose, ears, hands and mouth respectively. However, unless you pursued a degree in biology, you were unlikely to have learned exactly how our senses work.

The sensation of taste can be broken down into two facets: somatic sensations and taste detectors. The somatic sensation of taste concerns the temperature and pressure of foods, specifically their textures.

“We have exquisite sensitivity for texture on our fingers and also in our mouths,” said Dr. Nirupa Chaudhari, a professor at the University of Miami who has conducted extensive biophysiology and neuroscience research. Chaudhari explains that the way we can feel whether a surface is smooth or rough with our hands is the same way we can tell whether we’re eating something smooth and creamy or hard and crunchy.

Taste detection is a little different since a large part of our sensory recognition is learned, meaning that a taste might not be recognizable to you from name alone. On your tongue, each taste bud has receptors which interact with chemical compositions in food that translate into sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami in our brain.

The neural mechanisms responsible for tasting umami are not that different from tasting sweet or salty, so why is it so unknown to most people? Chaudhari unravels this phenomenon, explaining that “if you have not encountered a taste, it may be difficult to tune into a particular one.”

Part of being able to detect the taste umami is being familiar with the taste itself in the first place. The same way people who grow up eating particularly spicy cuisine develop a tolerance for it, people who grow up eating umami rich foods recognize it more in their everyday lives. Your oral cavity develops the ability to handle and enjoy different foods over time. Diets that include aged cheeses and meats, fermented fish sauces, miso, mushrooms, tomatoes and seaweeds build up your capacity to detect umami as an individual taste.

Monosodium glutamate or MSG is the chemical compound most commonly responsible for invoking flavors of umami. Characterized as savory sensations with a mouthwatering aftertaste, this compound interacts with our taste bud receptors which send information to our brain and deliver the umami message. Glutamate occurs naturally in many meats and vegetables, but often in conjunction with sodium, which is why umami is often confused with saltiness. In some cases, glutamate is paired with sodium and potassium, which still produces that umami flavor but sidesteps away from the salt intensity.

The Food

The umami chemical powerhouse MSG can be purchased as a seasoning, but it is not advised to eat a spoonful of monosodium glutamate alone. So, how should you enjoy the umami flavor sensation? If you’ve eaten a bowl of spaghetti with a mountain of parmesan cheese on top or snagged a sushi roll from Sushi Maki in the Hurricane Food Court, you have likely tasted umami without even realizing it.

“The first time I recall experiencing food with umami was having ramen as a kid,” says Julia Carey, a master’s of music student in the Frost School of Music. Carey explains she did not acquire an extensive taste palate until college, so much of her umami experience came from cheap stovetop ramen.

Now, when cooking at home, she likes to get more experimental, exploring umami flavors through Chinese, Thai and Korean cuisine and utilizing ingredients such as fish sauce and oyster sauces, as well as miso which is a fermented soybean paste. Miso and other soy based foods such as tofu, tempeh and soy sauce have increased glutamate content in their fermented forms, resulting in bigger umami flavors.

They’re even known to lower blood cholesterol, improve fertility in women and decrease menopausal symptoms.

Other ways to include umami in your cooking could be as simple as arranging a charcuterie board of your favorite aged meats and cheeses. Cheeses that drive home the umami flavor punch include Parmesan-Reggiano, aged Gouda, Comte and Roquefort. As the cheeses age, their proteins are broken down into amino acids through proteolysis, which increases their levels of free glutamic acid.

Cured and aged meats with high levels of glutamate and ribonucleotide IMP include Iberico ham, prosciutto di Parma and smoked salmon. In addition, foods such as garlic, mushrooms both dried and cooked, tinned fish, seaweeds and kimchi all have high glutamate levels which equate to strong umami flavors.

However, if you would rather make a drink, green tea or tomato juice are optimal choices with high umami flavor. Green tea can be enjoyed as brewed loose-leaf tea — or her Instagram worthy cousin, matcha — and contains both glutamate and theanine which also invokes the umami flavor. Besides having high glutamic acid levels, tomatoes are also full of vitamins and minerals including vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, folate and plant-based antioxidants.

And there are a lot of local options if you are looking to get out and test your tastebuds on umami flavors at restaurants.

“Some of my favorite foods since coming to Miami have been at Ohho Noodles Market and Moon Thai by campus,” said Angela Mesaros, a senior architecture student. “Getting to sit with my friends is always a great experience, especially with tasty noodle dishes.”

Other restaurants certain to give you an umami experience include Atchana’s Homegrown Thai Restaurant, Sapore Di Mare and Minty Z in Coconut Grove, as well as Baby Jane Cocktail House and Noodle Bar, Sexy Fish Miami and Hutong Miami in Brickell.

Umami

GRILLED CHEESE - 2 slices sourdough bread - Minced garlic - 1 tbsp butter - Sliced tomato - Aged Gouda cheese - Shredded parmesan cheese

Heat butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Spread garlic on one side of each piece of bread. Place bread

in the frying pan, mayo side down, once butter is melted and foamy. Place shredded cheese on both pieces of bread and top one with tomato. Place the other slice of bread, cheese side down top of the other and flatten.

Umami

MOCKTAIL - 8 oz brewed loose-leaf green tea, cooled - 1 oz black berry simple syrup - 1 oz lemon juice - Club soda

Mix first three ingredients and pour over ice. Top with club soda and garnish with mint leaf and lemon wedge.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 25

RedFarm, an innovative, creative and tasty Asian fusion restaurant, is making its way to Coconut Grove. While already an established chain in New York City, they are opening up a new location here, providing a nearby dining spot to hungry ’Canes. Though leaning on the more expensive side, it is great for a classy date night or a group dinner. And with a menu like this, the dollars will be worth the deliciousness.

RedFarm will soon be opening at 3131 Commodore Plaza in Coconut Grove. The chain already has locations in New York City, Austin and London.

words_dylan davis, jasmyne roberts & mariana apostolatos. photo_redfarmnyc.com. design_lizzie kristal.

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et ready because this well-loved restaurant is debuting in Miami very soon.

“We’re thrilled to bring the flavors of our Asianfusion Chinese restaurant from New York to the vibrant community of Coconut Grove,” said Nick Dixit, the general manager of Miami’s new location and Director of Development for China Grill MGT. Dixit did not provide a specific date for the opening, but he said they’re aiming to be open by the end of the year.

The restaurant, located at 3131 Commodore Plaza, will not be RedFarm’s first foray outside of New York. They have a location in London, which opened in 2018, and another in Austin, Texas, which opened in 2022. Their new Grove location will take over the space vacated by Mr. Moe’s, a popular college-crowd restaurant that attracted scores of University of Miami students.

Unique to the Miami location will be a “neon duck behind the bar,” said Dixit. It’s something you might have to witness for yourself.

With a farm-to-table menu, RedFarm boasts a “Chinese cuisine with a Greenmarket sensibility,” according to management.

RedFarm’s high-powered, imaginative Chinese cuisine and modern yet rustic design at its New York location was inspired by a local farmer’s market. The design features natural wood, whitepainted brick and gingham cloth to tie together the aesthetic.

According to the restaurant’s website, dim sum master chef Joe Ng and Chinese food expert Ed Schoenfeld introduced the idea of the restaurant through a food hall stall in midtown Manhattan in 2010. A year later, the physical restaurant opened in 2011 in the West Village, followed by a second location in the Upper West Side in 2013.

New York resident Daesha Roberts dined recently at the Upper West Side location to give South Florida readers an idea of what awaits them in the Grove.

“I went by myself after work and it was not too crowded,” said

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Roberts, who ordered the crispy braised oxtail dumplings for $23 and the pan-fried lamb dumplings for $22. “My server was very friendly, and the food came out within a reasonable time.”

Roberts said she liked the quality but was disappointed by the quantity.

“They were really tasty and fried crispy the way that I like,” Roberts said. “However, it made me really sad that there were only four of them.”

Although the restaurant and ambience were nice, Roberts said the prices were a bit higher than she expected. She gave higher ratings to Mr. Chow and TAO, two other high-end Chinese and Asian fusion restaurants, respectively.

On its social media platforms, RedFarm scores high marks from its fan base.

“If you haven’t been to RedFarm, your life actually sucks; people love their food so much that they would say it’s life-changing,” according to The VIP List, the American restaurant critic duo of Meg Radice and Audrey Jongens, who share their restaurant reviews on TikTok. After perusing the RedFarm menu, we came up with a list of must try items once the Miami location opens.

For appetizers, you can indulge in the crab, truffle and corn chowder for $25: a decadent and creamy soup combining the sweet taste of crab, the earthy essence of truffle and the sweetness of corn.

RedFarm also offers its signature pastrami egg rolls for $15, a unique and crispy appetizer.

Roberts’ crispy braised oxtail dumplings order have impressed other customers, which some claim as one of the best appetizers one menu.

RedFarm also has a wide selection of dumplings, including the Pac-Man dumplings for $21, a whimsical and creative take on traditional Chinese dumplings that are carefully crafted to resemble

Shrimp & Snow Pea Leaf Dumplings

$19.50

RedFarm Pastrami Eggroll

$17

The RedFarm menu is split into starters, salads and mains. To focus on their Asian fusion roots, the menu includes rice, noodle and dumpling sections where they have classic and modern variations of beloved dishes. Its starter dishes have a price range from $16–25. Their main entrees range from $25­–53, not including their makeyour-own Peking duck dish for $115.

Pan-Fried Lamb Dumplings

$22 Pac-Man, the iconic video game character.

Stuffed with shrimp fillings and vegetables, they come complete with black sesame-seed eyes to resemble the four Pac-Man characters: Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, being chased

by Pac-Man, a sweet potato tempura with a blueberry eye.

Vegetarians might try the crunchy vegetable and peanut dumplings for $17 for an equally delicious but meatless dish.

Still hungry? There is an even greater selection of main dishes.

To start, you might not want to pass up a chance to order the peking duck for $115, a crispy whole duck served with pancakes and three sauces, giving diners all they need to craft their own peking duck rolls.

For a seamless fusion of barbeque and Asianstir-fry, order the BBQ’d beef fried rice for $34, which features tender pieces of marinated beef grilled to perfection along with a stir-fried medley of vegetables, rice and vibrant seasonings.

The udon noodles with grilled short ribs for $36 is also a dish bursting with flavor, consisting of thick udon noodles underneath pieces of grilled short ribs. The grilled prime creekstone strip steak for $72 is a must for steak lovers, an elegant steakhouse experience. Dry-aged for 40 days, the steak is grilled twith a charred exterior and a juicy interior.

Ready for dessert? Enjoy a refreshing slice of key lime pie for $16, or a fruit plate with a side of ginger syrup for $16. For those with an extra sweet tooth, enjoy a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate Chantilly cream frosting for $16 or the ice cream sandwiches for $16.

BBQ Beef Fried Rice

$35 Crunchy Vegetable & Peanut Dumplings

$17

Whole Peking Duck Pancakes and Three Sauces

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BE OUR GUEST

From your local college pizzeria to the flashiest restaurant on South Beach, there’s no shortage of dining options in Miami. But underneath the flashiness and often expensive foodie fun of South Florida, is a lost art — the dinner party. You might associate dinner parties with the kinds your parents hosted or attended: drab, overly formal and often running way too long. But in recent years, the dinner party has received a muchneeded Gen Z makeover. words_julia hecht. photo_valeria barbaglio. design_charlotte deangelis.

While simple, cutting up some fresh bread for your guests can add a fancy feel to any dinner.

Bonus points if you add some spiced, warm butter.

G

one are the days when dinner parties equated to dusty tablecloths, too-formal toasts and silverware clinking over pointless small talk. Whether you’re most drawn to the ability to dress to a theme, eat a home cooked meal or spend time with your friends in a classy setting where you don’t have to shout over the music, dinner parties satisfy the perfect in-between of going out and staying in. But how does one pull off such a classy gathering on a college budget?

Curating Your Guest List

Do you know the saying, “the people make the place?” This sentiment certainly holds true when deciding who to invite to your dinner party. Ideal guests are people who will appreciate the intention and can bring something to the table — both literally and

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figuratively. University of Miami graduate student Giovanna Fernández started hosting her dinner parties a few years ago as a way to get closer with her friends she’d met not long before and was pleasantly surprised by the reception.

“I honestly didn’t know if dinner parties would be something they’d want to do. But everyone I invited showed up, and we had so much fun. It was such a great way for us to all connect, and now we’re so close, and we still do dinner parties almost every week,” said Fernández That being said, don’t be afraid to expand your invites to outside of your circle. One of Fernández’ friends and recurring guests, UM

A balance of appetizers, proteins, salads and carbs is essential for a dinner party. Not only will it provide a spread of different flavors, but it can appease the different pallets of your guests.

senior and media management major Kristen Mosely, said she’s enjoyed integrating her friends’ boyfriends into Fernández’s dinner parties.

“We’ve been slowly introducing our boyfriends to the group. The last one we had we brought them all together and they actually became friends so fast, and that dinner party ended up being my favorite one so far,” said Mosely.

If you want to take it a step further, there’s even been trends on TikTok of dinner parties where every guest must bring someone that the rest of the party doesn’t know with people raving about the unexpected connections born from it.

To Theme or Not to Theme If frat parties haven’t clued you in already, people love a good theme. While dinner parties don’t necessarily require a theme, adding one can be a super fun and easy way to engage your guests and make the night more cohesive — think themed menu, dress code, music, etc.

Maria Paes is a UM senior majoring in advertising who hosts themed dinner parties frequently. Paes advises to “get everyone excited” for the event.

“With everyone having such busy schedules, it’s important to choose a theme everyone can get excited for, and one that has clear options for dishes,” said Paes. “I like to base all the decorations around the theme.”

Paes hosted an Italian themed dinner party at the beginning of this school year, complete with European style decorations and Italian food.

“The decorations were super cute.

Everyone loves Italian food, and it was super easy to plan,” said Paes when reflecting on her dinner party hosting experience.

Themes can be as generic or as niche as you desire. And they don’t have to drain your bank account — you can make fun e-vites in Canva and find decor at the Dollar Store or even DIY it with stuff you already have.

UM senior and architecture major Mary Gorski started hosting monthly dinner parties as a result of her friends being tired of the Miami clubbing scene and wanting to hang out without spending a lot of money.

“Each party has a designated theme which translates to dress code, what to bring, what activity we do and even the music we play at it,” said Gorski. “We’ve done tacos and tequila, renaissance Thanksgiving, Mamma Mia, casino night, cottagecore and Italian summer. I really enjoy hosting, and my friends love a theme and an excuse to dress up, so it works out perfectly.”

Some other popular themes are murder mystery where the host plays out a whole investigation over a “murdered” guest, making a dish or drink that represents your ex-partner and more. Knowing your audience is our best tip — so refer to step one if you’re struggling to pick a theme.

Caprese salad is a popular dish to go along with the main course of your dinner party. Relatively easy to make, and with some good plating and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar glaze, it can be a beautiful addition to the table.

Dish it Out

You don’t have to be Gordon Ramsay or Rachael Ray to be able to serve up a stunning dinner. While themed parties provide great framework for menus, you can’t go wrong with going buffet style or making a big batch of something simple like pasta — the Gigi Hadid vodka pasta and the TikTok viral baked tomato and feta pasta are two sure-fire crowd pleasers. And make sure you’re accommodating your guests’ dietary restrictions and preferences — the last thing you want is dinner party drama.

Hors D’oeuvres Hors d’oeuvres are the perfect little bites to keep your guests from getting hangry while the main course is prepared. Here are some classic hors d’oeuvres that are easy to prepare and beloved by eaters everywhere.

Beverages

Similar to the food, big batch recipes are your friend when it comes to drinks for your guests.

“My go-to themed cocktails are normally spritz or things that can be made large batched in a pitcher just for ease,” said Gorski. “Apple pie martini and limoncello spritz have been the faves.”

Margaritas, Moscow mules and sangria are super easy to make large quantities of, and don’t neglect the effortless favorite of a bottle of wine. If you’re trusting of your guests’ bartending abilities and want to get more interactive, have each guest prepare a drink for the group to try as a fun activity, like a boozy show and tell.

Be the Perfect Guest

Maybe you’ve read this far, and you don’t feel quite ready to host your own dinner party. Don’t fret — a dinner party is nothing without its loyal guests. If you find yourself invited to a friend’s dinner party, just make sure you’re not rolling up empty handed.

“As much as I’d love to host, my apartment just isn’t ready yet, so I am so happy Gio loves hosting,” Mosely said of Fernández’s dinner parties.

“Normally what I bring to dinner parties depends on what my roommate and I feel like cooking. We almost always make a pasta dish because we’re truly fiends for pasta, but sometimes we will bring dessert instead,” said Mosely. “If we’re feeling a little lazy, or if we were too late to responding in the group chat, we’ll bring a bottle of wine.”

Catering to the fact that we’re all broke college students, bringing a little booze can make you the darling of the dinner party.

All of the hosts we interviewed agreed that they love when guests bring a bottle of wine.

Bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party requires virtually no effort besides a trip to

Q

- Stuffed mushrooms - Shrimp cocktail - Pigs-in-a-blanket - Jalapeño poppers - Deviled eggs - Baked Brie bites

the liquor store, adds to the classy vibe of the event and gives your host one less thing to worry about.

Dinner parties don’t have to be some huge stressful undertaking. Yes, they can be elaborate, but, above all, they should just be a way to enjoy good food and good company.

Even if you’re an underclassman with little to no hosting space, you can utilize shared spaces on campus to gather your guests.

The opportunities are endless, and, if you follow our advice, the leftovers and buzz surrounding your dinner party will be too.

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T

ea

ime

When Starbucks released their matcha tea latte in 2006, the menu item had a chokehold on many tea fanatics.

While matcha emerged as the tea forerunner at the time, herbal teas are the backbone of coffee shops across America.

Chamomile, peppermint and ginger beverages have been gaining popularity. They’re not just fleeting or indie trends either; these teas have been used to treat ailments for thousands of years. So, go ahead and grab your teacups because we’re spilling the tea on tea. words_ariella green. photo_lizzie kristal. design_valeria barbaglio.

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After water, tea is the second most popular drink in the world. Maybe the British were onto something after all …

3

Ways to Prepare Tea

Cold Brew Tea

Even though you extract the most health benefits from tea when it’s consumed warm, sometimes you’re in the mood for something refreshing. To make cold brew tea, pour water over the tea leaves and leave them in the fridge to chill and steep for six to 12 hours.

When tea is prepared this way, the taste is less bitter since it does not contain catechins which are released in hot water.

Kung Fu Style

Kung Fu is the Chinese traditional method to prepare tea which requires a specific teapot called a “gaiwan,” a special small tea pitcher called a “chai hai,” a kettle and a teacup. Once the water has finished boiling in the kettle, pour the hot water over the gaiwan.

Pour the water from the gaiwan into the chai hai, and from the chai hai into the teacup to preheat the vesicles. Next, measure out your tea leaves into the gaiwan, and pour the hot water from the kettle over the gaiwan. Quickly, remove the water. Once done, pour new water over the gaiwan and steep for 10 to 30 seconds. Pour the tea from the gaiwan into the chai hai, then from the chai hai into your teacup.

Western Style

To prepare your tea, you will need a tea kettle, a teapot, teaspoon, mug and a tea strainer.

To begin, boil your water in the kettle. Measure out a serving of loose tea in your tea pot using your teaspoon. Once the water is boiled, pour it into the teapot and let it brew for three to five minutes. Once brewed, have your tea strainer ready and place it on top of your mug to catch the tea leaves. Pour your tea into the mug and enjoy.

A A

s to be expected, black tea has remained one of the most common teas in United States for the past three centuries. Only recently have people begun to expand their palettes and opt for healthier options, such as matcha tea.

“Matcha’s having a moment, or it’s been having a moment,” said Devon Casher, a Miami acupuncture physician who utilizes traditional Chinese medicine.

Casher has been practicing for seven years and is a firm believer in holistic medicine’s ability to heal and get in tune with the body. Chinese medicine is all about balancing the elements in your body.

Those elements are damp, fire, heat, cold and wind. For example, “a mild case of wind is a cold because it comes in hot,” Casher explains. In Florida, the weather is humid and sticky which makes our bodies damp. The bitter taste in matcha allegedly helps break down the dampness in the body.

“Matcha you should always have warm,” Casher says. Despite the heat in Florida, to extract the most health benefits from the tea, she recommends you enjoy matcha in the purest form because “it helps activate the components better when it’s warm.”

With the winter season upon us, Casher recommends drinking ginger tea to keep your body warm, since ginger is a warming type of herb. Ginger tea is also good for your digestive system. In the body, digestion resembles heat and fire, “and you want to continue to feed the fire,” Casher explains.

Rabbi, software engineer and physician of Chinese medicine, David Bottoms, who owns Healing Herbs in Fort Lauderdale, typically enjoys a cup of hot tea after meals because of how it supposedly helps with digestion. When asked about his goto tea, Bottoms praised mint.

“I like mint tea. Living here in Florida, it is cooling, reduces sweating, helps treat rashes and upset stomachs and deals with stress and anxiety. Of course, it tastes good too.”

He further explained that there are two types of teas: medicinal and non-medicinal. On a day-to-day basis, non-medicinal tea helps us by “reducing stress and dealing with everyday anxiety,” said Bottoms. For this reason, University of Miami freshman Ava Weidner drinks tea before bed.

“I just want something warm and cozy that will help me wind down,” Weidner says.

UM junior Abi Schcolnik can second this feeling as well.

“The winters in Uruguay can be pretty cold, and I just remember, even when I was a kid, my mom would give us tea after lunch and dinner,” Schcolnik recalled. “When I miss home, I make myself a little cup of tea.”

The amount of caffeine in tea improves cognitive performance while giving the consumer an added boost of energy but not so much so that they won’t be able to get a good night’s rest. UM freshman Alexa Sauer highly recommends Tazo tea because they have a ton of great flavors and promote sustainability.

“I drink [Tazo] tea the most in the early afternoon around 11 or 12. It helps me settle into my routine,” said Sauer.

The “magic” of teas can be hard to understand if you don’t know where to start. So, for you starters, here are a few popular ones here that are great to try.

Types of teapots are made for certain kinds of tea. Built-in infusers are used for loose-leaf tea while glass pots are used to display the unfurling leaves of the tea. Electric kettles, while convenient and quick, aren’t a traditional choice.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 31

A Starting Point The “magic” of teas can be hard to understand if you don’t know where to start. So, for you starters, here are a few popular ones here that are great to try.

There is an ancient Japanese tradition associated with matcha called “chamei” which means “tea name.” During tea ceremonies, if a grandmaster found a particular blend of matcha pleasing, he would give the tea a chamei, and the blend would be known as the grandmaster’s “konomi,” which means “butcher block of leaf.”

Just as winter comes, so does flu season. If you’re feeling congested or have a sore throat, lemon ginger tea can help. This tea opens your nasal passages while relieving you of your stuffy nose. If you have a sore throat, this tea eases the pain and fights against infection.

This tea has been drunk by pregnant women for centuries because it’s a blood builder and helps a lot of women in the labor and delivery process. However, more research is being conducted to determine whether the tea is truly effective. If you’re not an expecting mother, raspberry leaf tea contains both vitamins C and E which are antioxidants that get rid of loose electrons in your body which can damage your cells while also building up your immune system.

“Now give me a word, any word; and I will show you how the root of that word is Greek,” said Gus Portokalos in the 2002 film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Well, Mr. Portokalos, the word chamomile has the Greek root word “chamos” which means ground or earth and “melos” which means apple. When you put those two words together, it makes earth apple. Chamomile tea was given its name because it’s grown close to the ground and tastes like an apple.

Nobody knows exactly how English Breakfast tea received its name, but there is a theory that in 1892 a Scottish tea master by the name of Drysdale began to market this black tea to be consumed over breakfast rather than just in the afternoon.

People began to call it “Breakfast tea.” Once Queen Victoria tried this blend of tea prepared by Drysdale, she renamed it altogether and we’ve been calling it English Breakfast tea ever since.

32 DISTRACTION What the Fork

The top five teas in the world are black tea, green tea, herbal tea, oolong tea and white tea.

Blue. It’s just a color, but it has heeps of meaning. This issue’s special section tackles all-things-blue. Get crafty with how blue conveys a plethora of emotions in the arts. Explore the unventured, both the sky and ocean. Get groovy with the upbringing of blues and jazz and its presence in Miami. Get your blue-tinted goggles on, and dive in. photo_valeria barbaglio.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 33

L i n r i n e v g l i s S

Being in the depths of sadness can seem incredibly daunting. In the healing process, growth is the light at the end of the tunnel.

34 DISTRACTION Blue

Let’s put this bluntly: life can sometimes suck. It can suck more than sometimes.

Even this summer’s “Barbie” movie showed that life can be painfully imperfect even in a perfect, pink world. Nonetheless, the lows of life must occur for us to cherish the highs. What if we told you the lows are more worth taking advantage of than the highs? Sadness is often inevitable, but what comes from your sadness might be exactly what you needed all along. words_amanda mohamad. illustration&design_marita gavioti.

Despite what you might assume, especially in a city as bustling and exciting as Miami, nobody is perfect. The silver lining is that growth can come from these blues even if you think you’re at your lowest. The following University of Miami students shared stories of grief, angst, defeat and depression with Distraction and how their situations changed them for the better.

Breakups

No matter the length of the relationship, or whether the split was amicable or messy, breakups can leave both parties in pain.

The pain may not hit immediately, but the sooner you accept the circumstances, the sooner you can start your journey of healing and becoming independent.

Chloe Hatcher, a UM junior majoring in media management and public relations, recently ended a twoyear relationship. While the length of the relationship made the circumstances more difficult to deal with, she realized that breakups are a completely different ballgame when experiencing one as opposed to seeing others’ pain as they recover.

“From an outside perspective, it’s easier to detach and look at the problem realistically, but when you’re in the middle of it, it can be hard to separate your feelings from what you should be doing,” said Hatcher.

When in pain, all you want is for it to end. However, grief knows how to test you for the better because, despite what it seems at the time, good things will eventually come your way.

In a situation like a breakup, it means you’re one step closer to eventually finding either the one for you or someone who will be good for you at that particular time.

Not only did Hatcher learn the typical independence skills that come from separating from a significant other, but she “learned to wait and sit in the uncomfortable presence until it’s not so uncomfortable anymore.”

Bullying

Nobody forgets middle school. It’s arguably the most awkward time of your life — we don’t need to go into those details — and among the awkwardness, it was also a battleground of schoolyard bullying.

Whether you were the bully, the bullied, or watched it all go down, these moments etch themselves in your mind. The mark has yet to fade for sophomore Connor Schinski.

“I used to cry every day to the counselor and call my mom to pick me up because I couldn’t stand the anxiety and hate from others at my school because they thought I was ‘different,’” said Schinski. “I was isolated from the typical things that a growing boy should experience.”

Like Hatcher, Schinski learned a great deal of independence

from this isolation. Although he believes having a support system is important, he also knows that being dependent on yourself more than others is vital. “[Depending on myself] has made my problems and stresses a lot easier to manage and for me to not worry about people’s opinions as much. Being forced to be independent and rely on myself has severely boosted my problem-solving, organizational and creative sides,” said Schinski. “I used to be unmotivated in various things and procrastinate, but now I use work and effort as a form of therapy and stress relief.”

Injury

Our physical well-being goes hand-in-hand with our emotional well-being. In high school, junior Reese Putnam was an avid cross country runner whose running career ended sooner than expected when she was T-boned in her car on the way to practice. An MRI later revealed the accident caused herniated discs in her neck, meaning she would not be allowed to participate in her senior year season.

Coping With Sadness Not all solutions are permanent. Healing from sadness takes some patience. But for now, here are some temporary ways to cope with sadness.

Taking a walk in the sun: While it’s not always easy to leave your home in times of sadness, staying cooped up inside will not do you any good. We’re in Miami, after all, and the sun’s Vitamin D encourages serotonin production.

Pampering: We cannot encourage compulsive spending, but treating yourself to a mani-pedi or salon blowout every so often is not the worst thing in the world.

And as always, ensure your sadness doesn’t get in the way of essential selfcare. Look good, feel good.

Furry friends: Pets like dogs, cats and bunnies are scientifically proven to increase feelings of calmness. Don’t have a pet of your own? Shelters in the MiamiDade area allow visitors just for playing.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 35

“The tears started rolling, and I just kept saying, ‘so no more cross county.’

I was heartbroken,” said Putnam.

Putnam continued to support her teammates and friends from the sidelines when she could not participate and decided to start taking photos of the cross-country meets for the school yearbook. Today, Putnam has her own photography business and covers the Miami Hurricanes football, soccer, baseball, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball games. She even photographed rapper Flo Rida when he spoke to the School of Arts & Sciences students in March 2023.

“I quickly learned that sports photography was something I loved and enjoyed doing. I like to say that without getting into a car accident, I probably wouldn’t have pursued photography as much as I do now,” said Putnam. “[The accident] truly has made me approach life with an ‘everything happens for a reason’ mindset, and that maybe you just don’t know it yet.”

Death

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th at

wn

gj din Fin

You might avoid thinking about it until it affects you personally. There comes a point in life where the unsettling feeling around death kicks in — the feeling of someone being on earth and creating memories with them, and then one day they’re not.

A male student in the School of Arts & Sciences who wished to remain anonymous lost his grandmother two years ago, just two days before his 19th birthday.

“It was my first instance with death, and I think when you face something that is the hardest thing you ever face, it puts a lot of things in perspective for you,” said the anonymous student.

“Do I wish it didn’t happen? Of course. But do I think I’ve learned an extreme amount since she’s died? One thousand percent.”

While this student’s grandmother lived until she was 94 years old, knowing she had a fulfilling life made the healing process a little easier.

“There will be nothing more difficult [to me] than what I experienced when I found out that she was gone. Your world will be put on an axis and shifted,” added the anonymous student.

Sophomore Lindsay Pierce realized this when her best friend at UM, Brooke Ashley Roth, suddenly passed in March 2023. Roth died six days after her 20th birthday after complications with COVID-19 combined with a rare, life-long condition of Marfan Syndrome, a disorder that affects all connective tissue, most commonly in the heart.

Pierce lives by her late friend’s words and attains that she led a life worth living in only 20 years.

“I learned that everything we can do to make ourselves oy feel happy and fulfilled, we should,” said Pierce. “People in the ho s always talk about living your life to the fullest and how short mi ve dst ha life is, but for me, it never really hit home until I lost my best s e of d udi ark t friend. ” r, st e imes c tea v e ow an be a daun rs a , ting challenge. H Since Roth’s passing, Pierce has turned her grief into growth, he re p oot owe l f -s allowing herself not only to handle challenging situations with e rful, s and tem can porary sadness and tears more grace and control but also to be a comfort to others who are also imp rov ake grieving a friend. e att dm n ention a , y to detail, promote generosit “I apply what Brooke would do in a lot of difficult situations because she was so level-headed, calm and comforting in a crisis. I have a lot of us m her in me now,” said Pierce. ave. ore gratef ul for what we h College students are well obliged to “rallying” when it starts to get rough.

While daily that applies more so to going out even if you’re hungover from the night before, it can also be applied to more personal situations. It’s okay to let yourself feel, but the only way to grow is to keep rallying and pushing through. After all, a star can’t shine without darkness.

See No Evil Human Shield

The evil eye is a cross-cultural phenomenon in history, with its earliest occurrences dating around 5,000 years ago in ancient Greece and Rome. It was often embraced by Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic and Jewish traditions, which would later form the Hamsa Hand, an open hand with the evil eye at its center.

The majority of the ancient Mediterranean world viewed the evil eye in a positive manner, using the amulet to ward off negative forces or energy. Oftentimes, those who believed in the evil eye put its power at the same level as whatever gods or deities they believed in. But not all the forces the evil eye was made to fight against were ones of religious association.

Dr. Robyn Walsh, a religious studies professor at the University of Miami, said people in ancient Mediterranean countries wore the evil eye as an amulet to shield their personal vulnerabilities.

“We’re all sort of aware at various points of our own vulnerability, but we don’t always have the executive function to constantly process it. But that’s why amulets are so important because we can go on autopilot, and let it do the work for you,” said Walsh.

Senior Chrysanthi Makrygeorgou is an international student at UM hailing from Athens, Greece and can often be found wearing jewelry from her own country, some of which includes the evil eye.

“I strongly believe in the energy of evil eye, as a lot of times I have witnessed jealousy turning into bad luck from other people,” said Makrygeorgou.

Its energy even extends into the world of love — something UM students are very familiar with. Love is one of the most vulnerable feelings of all today, as much as it was in ancient times. Not all were open to embracing it, so ancient people wore the evil eye to armor their heart.

“They thought arrows could go into your eye and scramble your brains and make you fall in love with someone you maybe didn’t want to fall for,” said Walsh.

The inability to control the power of the evil eye isn’t a spiritual theme exclusive to the ancient Mediterranean. A Slavic folktale titled “The Evil Eye,” written by Polish writer and historian Kazimierz Władysław Wóycicki in 1837, tells the story of a man who was born under “an unlucky star” possessing him with an evil eye, and any person or animal he looked directly at would die or catch a disease. When around others, he was forced to either keep his eyes closed or keep his head down so as not to affect them.

The little, blue-outlined eye you find in jewelry or knick-knack stores is more powerful than you might think.

However, the power of what is dubbed today as the evil eye vastly differs from the powers of a typical comicbook superhero or an enchantment from your favorite fantasy movies.

Its abilities and meanings differ significantly from culture to culture.

Take a brief trip around the world, and you’ll see what you once thought of as a trinket from your last vacation with a new set of eyes. words_amanda mohamad. photo_sharron lou. design_julia gomez.

But when the man, known to his community as “the evil eye,” fell in love and married a woman he met in one of his rare outings, he begged for his wife to cut his eyes out with a knife.

When she refused, he decided to complete the act himself and bury his eyes in the ground. The evil eye’s servant years later decided to find and dig up the eyes, dying the second he found them.

The Spread

It wasn’t long before customs of the evil eye spread across the world. In Latin America, where the evil eye is referred to as “mal de ojo,” directly translating to “evil of eye,” people use it less to protect themselves from harmful forces but to separate from the negative energy and stares of people who hate them.

They believe negative energy can physically manifest itself into sicknesses like fever, vomiting, insomnia or excessive crying in children. By wearing the mal de ojo, they believe they are protecting themselves from both physical and emotional suffering.

In Serbian culture, the belief in superstitions is high, especially for the evil eye. UM freshman Catherine Thomas grew up in a household that embraces its Serbian heritage and never even saw an evil eye until she started using social media.

“My family would never want one in the house because it’s known to bring harm and cast curses,” said Thomas. “I believe it can be a good thing if one’s culture embraces it, but if you do not have any significance behind it, you shouldn’t be wearing it.”

In the Middle East, the evil eye is thought to cause bad luck in forms such as unemployment, sickness, disability, domestic issues and other accidents. It’s often believed to attack young, wealthy and attractive people but doesn’t shy away from all adults, children, people’s property or even cattle.

The evil eye is probably a more controversial topic to you now than before you read this article — however, there is no need to throw out that souvenir bracelet. As long as you acknowledge and respect others’ beliefs, you can embody the small but mighty eye all you want.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 37

bleu From acrylic, oil and watercolor, to more niche forms of paints like encaustic, tempera and gouache, the type of paint an artist uses is crucial for the end result. It is arguably as important as the subject matter or intended emotion of the piece.

Color plays a role just like any actor. Blue comes with its own connotations and emotions, tools that artists can utilize in their masterpieces.

Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and the blue hue on “Twilight” are two examples of creatives who found ways to incorporate blue to implement emotion and depth.

The use of blue in art is deliberate, so pay attention to the feelings it sparks in you. words_caleigh russo. photo&design_lizzie kristal.

38 DISTRACTION Blue

F

ilmmaking can be like assembling a machine with thousands of moving parts conjoining to form the final product. Within film, color is meant to guide the film’s tone and tap into the viewer’s subconscious reactions.

The versatile and evocative color blue is used by filmmakers to heighten the emotional impact of scenes and convey specific themes.

Given filmmaking’s deliberate nature, the use of blue in film is never coincidental. The meaning behind employing blue hues within a film dives deeper than most viewers can discern.

“Blue is something you do not embrace,” said University of Miami film professor Thomas Musca. “It is not as inviting, whereas the greens and yellow invite you in more.”

Musca says that blue is often associated with nighttime or coldness. In contrast, its complementary colors, red and yellow, are associated with daytime and warmth.

Musca, a highly accredited filmmaker with a four-decade-long career in producing, directing, and screenwriting, is color blind.

The professor, who cannot differentiate between shades of blue, says he needs to weigh color psychology more heavily into his filmmaking process.

“I often find myself having long talks with my director of photography and production designers about my handicap and how to use color,” said Musca of his alternative methods of employing color psychology.

“Blue is what darkness is when you illuminate it,” said Konstantia Kontaxis, the department chair of cinematic arts at UM. “I believe this is very true for film,” added the professor, who teaches film editing and directed research courses.

“There is the blue what we call the blue of daylight on a color temperature scale; daylight is the bluer edge of the scale,” said Kontaxis. “Blue daylight is meant to convey an upbeat or happy moment, whereas the darker the blue, the gloomier and more sinister the scene can be.”

“The truth is we can take a color and imbibe it with an emotional thing,” said Edmund Talavera, another film professor at UM. Talavera, who teaches cinematography courses, says that blue can range in meaning depending on the shade. “Blue can be the open sky, symbolizing freedom; blue can also mean sadness by being the color of a kid’s

shirt when he died,” said Talavera.

The meaning of color is very vague,” added Talavera. “But we, as filmmakers, decide what the color means and try to use it throughout the film to affect the audience.” During the filmmaking process, the filmmakers will choose the color for the overall feel of the world they are creating — this is the primary color.

Succeeding this decision is selecting a secondary color for the character and the things they deal with; this color often compliments the primary color.

Filmmakers will then pick an accent color that changes over time to illustrate how the characters develop throughout the story.

“The selection of the primary, secondar and accent colors plays into every aspect of filmmaking,” said Talavera. “Whether selecting lighting, locations, props, makeup looks or wardrobe options, everyone knows we are playing with these colors and tries to use them as creatively as possible.”

“When you talk about objects, you talk about set design and color there is determined by contexts and what is going on with the character,” said Kontaxis. Color and lighting are often denoted as the creative toolkit of a cinematographer, allowing them to create the mood by selecting the quality of light.

“In great films, set design and lighting work in tandems; together, they conspire for a great film,” added Kontaxis. “Color is a way to externalize emotions by putting on sets to make sure the color is apparent throughout the use of color and imagery.”

Talavera says three things impact how well colors play together: the hue, the brightness and the saturation. Often, dependent on these three variables, blue does not play well with colors near it on the color wheel, such as green and purple.

“Blue is very popular to use as a primary color to represent the feel of the world,” said Talavera. The cinematographer says that for a film he shot, he and his coworkers decided to shoot it in New York City and add blue hues to the film to dull the city, making the scenery look bluish and colder.

“Nobody wants to watch a bland and grey film,” said Alex Patrionis, a junior majoring in film. “You can tell the quality of a film by how it looks on the screen and how the colors play together.”

Patrionis said that even before becoming a cinematographer, he subconsciously looked at the colors used in film because he likes vivid, interesting-looking things.

“When I watch films, I look at things from the standpoint of someone who also creates,” said With regard to what the color blue represents in art, there is a bit of a gray area. Blue can depict sadness, calmness and serenity. It can even show expansiveness or isolation.

Expression comes in many forms — from cinematography to painting. No matter the medium, blue can be utilized to depict certain moods and hues.

Colette Belzer, a sophomore majoring in film.

“I try to pay attention to colors and how they shift the tone.”

Belzer recalled filming a longshot film, or a one-take film, for a class earlier this year.

For this one-shot thriller, Belzer said she used lighting to foreshadow the main character’s murder, using a cooler purple tone to convey mystery. However, when the protagonist later discovered she was not in imminent danger, the lighting switched to warm tones for the party her friends had planned for her.

“Blue can be mysterious,” said Belzer, adding, “I have noticed a pattern of blue being associated with emotion.” Belzer said the “Twilight” film series exemplifies this well, using cool tones and a blue aesthetic in the gloomy, desolate town where the protagonist struggles with loneliness when she arrives.

“Blue is typically a sad color,” said Belzer.

While watching the Disney film “Soul,” Belzer said she noticed the use of blue when the protagonist regretfully reflected on his life post-mortem. However, when he realized there was never a purpose to living life — only to live to the fullest and have fun — filmmakers filled the screen with warmer tones.

“Depending on what the story is trying to convey, a lot of times it all goes back to the common mindset of blue being a lowkey color,” said Patrionis. “It is an important color, but nothing aggravates; blue is calm like a pendant or a small blue orb.”

“Blue stands out for the things that cannot be verbalized by the characters or captured in film,” said Kontaxis, speaking of Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s film “Blue.”

The cinematography professor said that in some movies, blue becomes like storytelling, woven in as an essential part of the story.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 39

Look up at the stars, and you may wonder what is beyond our knowledge in space.

Now look down. The deeper we venture into the sea, the further we advance into the unknown. The constant technological advancements of NASA and other scientific organizations are difficult to keep up with, and there is still much of our solar system and depths of the sea yet to be discovered. Let Distraction help you revisit your childhood memories of counting down to blast off and educate you of the revolutionary accomplishments beyond the frontiers of the unexplored. words_grace tylee. photo_david kronman. design_marita gavioti.

Earth’s solar system may be sustained by a solitary sun, but in the galaxy at large, more than half of all stars have one or more partners. These multistar systems come in all sorts of stunning shapes and sizes: large, hot stars orbited by smaller, cooler ones; double stars orbited by planets; seven-star systems in a complex gravitational dance.

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We know so little about space and sea, but the question is why? At some point in our education, we are taught briefly about our solar system and the planets within it, the first man on the moon and how we may travel to Mars one day — but there is so much left unexplored. As with the ocean, many take on adventures in snorkeling or scuba diving off Miami Beach, but only a kilometer of the ocean has been explored.

As we enter an era of new technology and innovation, space travel and ocean exploration are becoming a pressing matter to understand the patterns on Earth and what lies beyond our realm of living. There is a large amount of money being invested into NASA to fund various space explorations and probes, and there is ocean technology and sonar developments that could possibly increase our knowledge on the deepest parts of the ocean floor.

For many students, there is an interest in how we live on Earth and are constantly surrounded by oceans, yet there is hardly any exploration into what could possibly be down there. Space exploration also piques the interest of many wondering when we will go to the moon again or if venturing to Mars is even a possibility. There are questions left unanswered about why we know so little about our own universe, but there are also many difficulties that make it hard to understand these frontiers.

SPACE SPACE EXPLORATION EXPLORATION

Space exploration is one of the biggest developments in our modern history.

NASA is hard at work with creating and sending probes into space for further exploration. There are projects underway to return to the Moon and to send more rovers to Mars. However, according to Dr. Joshua Gunderson, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences, one of the main factors that inhibits additional ventures into the great beyond is the cost.

These are big missions that require lots of preparation and money in order to ensure that these trips go smoothly.

The other main factor that is truly of the major concerns is human safety.

“Going beyond the Earth-Moon

environment, there’s hazards such as types of radiation that can be cancerous with charged particles that can come and can hit humans,” said Gunderson.

The Earth’s environment is much different than that of space, so safety is a major concern and a factor that affects our ability to exceed the already explored territory of space.

“There is a magnetosphere that is a protective envelope that shields us” said Gunderson.

Earth is very conducive to humans and allows us to thrive. Yet once we exit, we lose protection from the magnetosphere alongside losing access to every other factor that makes life possible. Human space travel is a feat in having to account for living conditions and safety. Space exploration with nonhuman technology is easier to account for in terms of safety.

As of now, there are a large number of unmanned probes going to Venus and to Saturn’s moon, Titan, in the hopes of finding potential life. In terms of finding life in our solar system, there is a very limited chance of this happening due to the environmental extremities.

If life was found it would “most likely not be intelligent life, equivalent to low level bacteria or single cell life found on Earth,” said Gunderson.

The exploration for life consists of aiming to find biomarkers that could indicate a possible living organism.

Especially on Mars, there are many rovers there continuously looking for biomarkers that could be evident of any possible life there yet “it is unlikely that there would be current life as this would have already been discovered.”

“This might be a possibility in the span of our lifetime as technology advances are happening quickly, and NASA is investing money to do this,” said Gunderson.

As for travel outside of the solar system, this is very

unlikely. Human safety again is at the forefront of these issues, and it would be very difficult to sustain life so far away. Furthermore, there is no need for humans to travel into the deepest depths of space, as there are also probes that could do most of the exploration without having to risk a life.

This is likely not going to occur for a long time as it is “contingent on technological innovations moving humans at high enough speeds or dealing with the particle radiation and if humans can live for extended periods of time in lower g levels,” said Gunderson.

Most humans are frail and not made for interstellar travel, so our eagerness to explore the beyond may not be so simple. Space exploration is expensive and dangerous and requires a long time to develop. Our hopes of traveling back to the moon and even Mars are difficult, but even beyond this is still in question.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 41

OCEAN OCEAN EXPLORATION EXPLORATION Another unexplored frontier that occurs right here on Earth is our oceans. There are many curiosities as to what could lie below the ocean with more than 80 percent of the oceans remaining unexplored. The main reason as to why it is so difficult to further explore are the conditions of the world’s oceans.

A majority of the unexplored “is characterized by zero visibility, extremely cold temperatures, and crushing amounts of pressure” according to Oceana. Ocean Exploration technologies are becoming more advanced with Human Occupied Vehicles, or HOVs, and Remote Operated Vehicles, or ROVs. Yet expeditions can be very expensive and lack of navigation and data can make it very difficult to further explorations. There is a need for more information but many organizations are reluctant to invest in projects because of the unknowns, leaving no progress to be made. In our present time, more technology such as better satellite coverage allows for more predictions and research into the deep ocean.

Oceans are variable, but the shape of the Earth is constant so this allows for the satellite to pick up on movements, according to Dr. Donald Olson a professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Marine Sciences. The ocean is ever changing, and one of the main reasons is climate change. There is more flooding on the US coast because of high astronomical tides due to the moon being closer to Earth. All of this can be seen with developing technology.

“Climate deniers say people are wasting too much money on ocean exploration,” said Olson.

There is also some ocean technology that can predict El Niño events to gain more of an understanding of weather patterns across the globe. Overall, the ocean is a very difficult place to explore as “sound has a lot of promise, but it is not high resolution,” said Olson.

There is also a lot of worry about disturbances to marine life in these deeper areas because there are many uncertainties. Even though ocean exploration is new, and there is little knowledge of most of the ocean’s terrain, there are many technologies that have given data with “there being more profiles of the ocean than ever before,” said Olson.

The ocean is fascinating to many students, as UM offers majors such as marine affairs, marine biology and ecology, marine science, and oceanography.

A UM marine science major Olivia Chaumont shares her own experiences and interests in the aquatic world and the future of ocean exploration. She finds that the SCUBA technology really provides an opportunity to explore marine life and stay underwater for longer.

Her own specific interests include “helping sea life and observing how marine life operates as in the future we will find ways to stay at lower depths,” said Chaumont.

She hopes to join programs involving coral restoration as this will allow her to “explore parts of the ocean that have been unseen to find ways to save coral in Florida,” said Chaumont.

Some of the most elusive clues to the evolutionary history of life on Earth lie deep underwater. The expertise of cave divers make it possible to access some of the deepest and darkest realms of our planet that have otherwise remained a mystery. More people have stood on the Moon than to subterranean places cave divers have visited.

Space and ocean exploration cover a lot of unknowns. Yet with more technologies developing and curiosities speaking about whether we will find new life in space, or finally explore the darkest parts of the ocean, there will be new developments far in the future that will increase our knowledge of these frontiers. For now, we can keep dreaming about a life on Mars, or the new and interesting marine life we are yet to find in the ocean, with hopes of someday achieving progress in exploration.

Life on Mars?

According to NASA, they are creating an exoplanet program to find other life forms in space. Yet, the search for life could take decades to come to fruition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor Sara Seager is currently looking for possible chemical combinations that could signal potential alien life. Water is a very clear sign that life may be present so exploration there is the first plan of action which naturally is Mars being the closest. There could be a very high possibility that life may exist in places without water, but that is unknown to many astrobiologists.

However, there is no firm evidence of life beyond Earth now. There have been numerous “alien encounters” circulating the media, but no solid evidence of life. The 1976 Viking Programme aimed to look for life on Mars yet found nothing. Many researchers believed things might have been ignored and there should be a re-evaluation for new possible life that emerged.

42 DISTRACTION Blue

KIND OF BLUE ALL THAT JAZZ

Since being invented

by Adolphe Sax in 1840, the saxophone has become an important instrument utilized in a variety of music styles, especially jazz, which often features improvised saxophone solos.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 43

When you think of the word jazz, what exactly comes to mind? You might think of the music played over the intercom when visiting your grandparents in hospice. Or maybe your mind takes you to the bustling French Quarter of New Orleans where tuba and saxophone players passionately blow into their horns and fill the liquor-scented streets with the sweet sounds of their instruments. The rich history of jazz goes much deeper than simple conotations, and its roots run through Univeristy of Miami’s Frost School of music and greater Miami jazz scene. words_andrew mccleskey. photo_sophie pallman. design_marita gavioti.

The Jazz Age of the 1920s and 1930s spread the global popularity of jazz, influenced heavily by the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition Era of the U.S. as well as the introduction of radios worldwide.

UM’s Frost School of Music offers two Bachelor’s degrees relating to jazz: studio jazz instrumental and studio jazz vocal.

The History of Jazz & Blues

A century before the all-white Original Dixieland Jazz Band released the first ever official jazz recording in 1917, enslaved Black people across New Orleans planted the musical seeds of the genre.

City officials drafted an ordinance in 1817 that restricted enslaved people’s ability to dance, play instruments or sing in public, stating that enslaved people could only engage in such activities on Sundays at Congo Square, known today as Louis Armstrong Park. Consequently, each Sunday, the space became enveloped with the sounds of percussion and stringed instruments playing various forms of traditional African music that enslaved people brought to the Americas from their respective homelands.

John Hart, a UM jazz guitar performance professor, argues that the variations of African music played in Congo Square by enslaved people almost 200 years ago had

44 DISTRACTION Blue

a profound impact on the larger American music tradition.

“All the rhythms of jazz came from what was happening in Congo Square,” said Professor Hart. “Almost any style of popular music in this country that uses some form of drums can be traced back there.”

Following the conclusion of the American Civil War, formerly enslaved people living across rural America working the fields as sharecroppers began to develop what music scholars now refer to as “the blues.” Although people loosely use the term to refer to any music laced with feelings of despair or melancholy, the genre has a specific structure: a 12-bar pattern built on three chords.

Inspired by the earlier strides of blues musicians, New Orleans-born instrumentalist Buddy Bolden desired to create a looser version of the blues that allowed for improvisation and spontaneity. At the turn of the 20th century, Bolden became known

around New Orleans as King Bolden, and his band amassed a dedicated fan base between 1900 and 1907 that came out in droves to hear his fast-paced, soaring tunes. With that, jazz was officially born.

Magic City Jazz

Now, you may still find yourself wondering: how does Miami fit into the jazz tradition? Before the abolishment of segregation in 1965, Miami’s Black community almost exclusively lived in the Coconut Grove and Overtown neighborhoods. As a result, when Black jazz singers from other cities ventured down to South Florida for gigs at Miami Beach hotels and bars, the White owners of these establishments refused to house them for the

duration of their visit — leaving them with no other option but to stay in Overtown, as Coconut Grove remained too far from most of the jazz clubs in the city.

When Miami began experiencing a boom in tourism following the conclusion of the second World War, popular Black jazz performers such as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald started to frequent the many bars, hotels and restaurants that called Overtown home during the late 1940s and 1950s. During this period, people began affectionately referring to Overtown as the “Harlem of the South.”

However, in the years following desegregation, Miami city developers and officials moved to purchase the land of Black residents living in Overtown with hopes of using the land for the construction of massive freeways. Unfortunately, most of the cultural sites and businesses that used to stand at the center of the historic Overtown community have been destroyed and have been replaced by I-95 and I-395.

Recently, the jazz scene in Miami and other cities experienced a large-scale hardship in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, as the live component of jazz is integral to the genre.

Even though South Florida did not institute the most restrictive COVID-19 lockdowns, jazz musicians residing in the area still felt the hardship as a result of less opportunities for paid performances. To add to injury, Le Chat Noir, a jazz club located just north of downtown Miami that consistently ranked among the best of the city’s jazz music venues, closed during the pandemic and remains inactive today.

Nevertheless, the pandemic presented a unique opportunity for jazz musicians to retreat into their homes and find creative ways to continue creating and performing the music they love. Virtual concerts and recording sessions primarily held over Zoom gained popularity during the pandemic and exposed jazz musicians to newfound methods of engaging with their audiences and collaborators.

Maria Quintanilla, a Los Angeles-born jazz vocalist pursuing her doctorate in jazz vocal performance at UM, recalls how the pandemic pushed her artistry into exciting yet unknown territory when recording her latest album, “Irrefragible Laws” amid the chaos of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The pandemic forced me to be creative in a different way,” said Quintanilla.

“I started asking myself, ‘What are things around my

studio apartment that I can use to continue creating?’”

So what remains of Miami jazz today in the post-pandemic age, and where can people go to experience live jazz music?

Fish House

Founded in 1996, many Miami residents may know this South Miami eatery for its diverse seafood offerings ranging from snow crab legs to Peruvian ceviche. However, the restaurant also hosts jazz and other music performances almost every day in a cozy live music lounge located towards the back of the establishment.

Joshua Fenner, a junior majoring in music engineering technology and minoring in computer engineering, went to Fish House for the first time during his sophomore year and highly recommends the venue to anyone who desires to learn more about jazz’s varying subgenres and hear quality jazz performances in the city.

“Eating good food and experiencing different musical cultures at Fish House was a really cool experience, especially as a Frost student and a music lover,” said Fenner. “I really loved hearing live Cuban jazz at Fish House because the experience showed me just how different jazz is in other countries.”

Glass & Vine

Nestled within the picturesque, tree-lined streets of Coconut Grove, Glass & Vine opened in 2016 and offers guests with extensive American cuisine options on their brunch, lunch and dinner menus. Outside of mouthwatering appetizers and entrees, the restaurant welcomes jazz bands to their outdoor space as performers on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings with each night taking on a different musical theme.

Megan Higgins, a junior majoring in communications studies minoring in art and marketing, worked at Glass and Vine as a hostess during the spring semester of her sophomore year and cited her employment at the restaurant as the reason she changed her perspective on jazz as a whole.

“Before working at Glass and Vine, I never really saw jazz music live and associated it with old people in New Orleans,” said Higgins. “Seeing jazz music live there helped me gain an appreciation for the genre that I never had before. For the first time, I saw young people playing jazz music, and

young people coming out specifically for the jazz performances.”

“Through my time at Glass and Vine, I realized that jazz music isn’t some dying genre, and that it actually excites people from my generation,” Higgins added.

Lagniappe House

Located in the heart of Miami’s Arts District, Lagniappe House has become a staple in the city’s food scene since its opening in 2012. UM students in recent years have come to adore the venue as the perfect place for drinking one too many glasses of wine, gossiping a little too loudly and smoking one too many cigarettes. Despite being more known for its alcohol and charcuterie, Lagniappe House has dedicated itself to pushing forth jazz music in the city through hosting live jazz performances every night.

Vivian Lynn, a junior majoring in global health studies and international studies, decided to go to Lagniappe with close friends for the first time during the spring semester of her freshman year and was pleasantly surprised by the restaurant’s live jazz music offerings.

“When I got invited to Lagniappe for the first time, I was very intrigued by the aesthetic and atmosphere of the restaurant: the greenery, the moody lighting and the outdoor seating,” said Lynn. “I had no idea that there was even jazz music, and it was my first time really hearing it live. The performance was so eclectic and made me want to know more about jazz as an artform.”

The Frost School of Music’s Performance Halls Do you want to experience live jazz music but don’t want to cough up your money on overpriced Ubers? Look no further than the various live music venues that can be found right here on campus. The Maurice Gusman Concert Hall, the Victor E. Clarke Recital Hall and the Knight Center for Music Innovation all host concerts throughout the year that provides members of the ’Canes community the chance to experience not only jazz but also classical and contemporary music performed by UM students and faculty. With discounted concert ticket pricing for UM students as well as free event offerings, the on-campus performance halls make experiencing live jazz music easily accessible and affordable for anyone ready to test the waters.

Need a jazzy playlist?

Scan this code in the Spotify app to hear our songs of choice.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 45

The term “blue balls” was first coined in 1916 in the U.S. in order to describe the feeling of intense sexual frustration. By contrast, women have their own version called “blue vulva syndrome.” According to WebMD, like blue balls, the vulva also suffers from slight aches and discomforts.

N Everyone has different comfort levels when taking it to the bedroom. But some people end up compromising their own feelings due to pressure from the other party. “Blue balls” is a medical slang term that is used to describe the feeling when someone leads you on and then stops advancing, leaving you sexually frustrated and in physical pain. Is it a myth used for sexual manipulation or a medical fact — or both? words_remi turner. photo&design_lizzie kristal.

This article references sexual assault and sexual misconduct. Do not read if you are uncomfortable with these topics.

46 DISTRACTION Blue

ot all sex is fulfilling or, more importantly, consensual. Considering the mounds of horny teenagers and young adults that flock to the University of Miami, we must acknowledge how forms of sexual slang like blue balls are not as innocent as they seem. Sex can still be steamy without coercion — we suggest you try.

“Are ‘blue balls’ real?” It’s a simple question that continues to leave millions of people puzzled. Despite the common assumption that the term “blue balls” was invented as a sexual phenomenon for men to complain about their testicular agony, the condition is in fact bona fide. Not only are blue balls real, but the catchy phrase even has an official medical diagnosis.

According to a survey study published by the International Society of Sexual Medicine, epididymal hypertension refers to scrotal pain, most of the time minor, that occurs due to the absence of ejaculation at peak sexual arousal. You might have first heard the term blue balls from an older sibling, investigating on a site like Urban Dictionary or even from the lips of a male romantic partner convincing you that the pain left in his testicles will send him to his death bed if not immediately relieved.

In most cases, the mentioning of blue balls causes one to associate male-bodied

persons with the term. I mean how could you not? The word “balls” is literally in the name. The term blue balls is so snappy that even medical professionals are aware of its existence. Knowledge of the term in the United States dates back to the early 1900s and continues to be widespread in popular culture today. Whether the term is used for good or bad is still up for discussion.

Busting Open the Truth

The science behind epididymal hypertension is not difficult to comprehend, and with a brief explanation of the term, you can see just how unalarming the condition is. Epididymal hypertension occurs when the drainage of blood in the testicles is deferred during sexual arousal. The pain, most likely minimal, begins to arise when the blood present in the testicles is not released via orgasm.

Think of testicles like two balloons.

During an erection, blood swells the genital structures, causing them to physically increase in size. As the balloons are “blowing up,” blood flow remains constant and venous release is limited due to compression of the emissary veins, causing the balloons to grow to their limit, ready to burst. One would assume that to diminish the overwhelming amount of pressure, the balloons must be “popped.”

This is not necessarily true. Ejaculation isn’t the only suitable option. Recall how the balloons were blown up in the first place — now put that action in reverse, releasing the air slowly. To do this, divert your mind from the pressure in your penis through various activities such as taking a shower or reading a book. If absolutely necessary, picture your grandmother wearing a crop top. However, make sure you do literally anything except persuade your sexual partner that this penile pressure is somehow their fault. The pain, if you even want to call it that, is most likely miniscule, so it shouldn’t take long for this fleeting feeling to differ from displeasure.

Although the discomfort resulting from epididymal hypertension is usually miniscule as well as temporary, more uncomfortable situations can occur. In the unlikely case that the symptoms of blue balls are more serious, the pain most likely results from other testicular health issues. In these circumstances, a healthcare professional should be consulted.

How to De-Blue

When it comes to most instances involving blue balls, the condition can be treated in three simple ways. Take note that each option

does not include ejaculation or orgasm. The first option is a cold shower or cold bath.

Limit your lust with the help of cold water to assist the circulation of blood flow in your genitals. If a chilly shower isn’t your cup of tea, then try sipping on a cup of tea. Or find some other relaxing type of past time and distract your mind from the matter period.

Mental distraction such as partaking in a meal, watching T.V., listening to music, or working on a current project will also do the job just fine. Even whip out a board game if necessary. Try playing a mean game of Monopoly, so long as your partner is up to it.

Lastly, physical exercise is a very suitable option for treating blue balls. A light jog around the neighborhood can leave you feeling better in no time. Maybe you can lift some weights and get a nice pump in. Or if you’re feeling something a little more Miami style, a dip in the pool can make you forget all about your balls and how sad and blue they were. Brownie points if the pool is cold, in that case you’re killing two birds with one stone. If none of those options excite you then there is always the tried-and-true masturbation method. Some of the best orgasms are achieved from a one-man band.

If masturbation does not seem appropriate since a sexual partner is present, you might consider asking them for assistance. Although, acknowledging your partner in the situation does not mean you should be tossing them all the blame.

A partner does not know what you’re physically feeling and most likely can’t help it if unintentional discomfort arises. In the possibility that a partner is hesitant to assist, skepticism does not allow for efforts of persuasion to increase. You would know when someone is clearly willing to assist; consent is always clear.

Consent is Sexy

An anonymous It’s On Us ambassador at UM clarified the common misconceptions of consent when saying, “Consent is not the absence of a no; consent is an enthusiastic yes.” There is a likelihood that a partner is willing to aid in recovery from blue balls, just not in a physical manner. If a partner agrees to help, converse about an agreeable solution that is consensual on both ends.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are still oblivious to the effects of sexual coercion and how it can be used, even without intention to cause harm. For example, attempting to convince a partner to treat a case of blue balls is a form of sexual manipulation. Sexual

coercion displayed in verbal form can have an impacting effect. So, when a male-bodied sexual partner says something like, “Come on, you’re going to give me blue balls,” note that this is a tactic of coercion.

Besides opening a gateway to sexual coercion, the term blue balls itself adds to longstanding sexist beliefs that go hand-inhand with what happens in the bedroom. We have acknowledged the fact that blue balls are not a myth, yes, but it must be noted that the condition does not only pertain to males.

Female-bodied people can also experience pain due to sexual arousal not followed by an orgasm. Now what’s the likelihood members of society are as familiar with a term like “blue vulva” or “blue bean” as they are with the notorious blue balls? The chances are slim.

The unnecessary stigma that women can’t experience pain after a sexual peak comes from outdated, androcentric beliefs that men’s sexual needs are the priority. Dr. Claire Oueslati-Porter, the director of the gender and sexuality studies department at UM, explained the negative contributions of a saying like blue balls by dissecting bigger ideas that tie into the term.

“An orgasm gap exists in heterosexual sexual relationships, where there is so much more centrality placed on the male bodied person’s climax and female body people may not orgasm at all,” said Oueslati-Porter, describing that there was the larger problem at hand. The inappropriate use of a word like blue balls only aids in widening that gap.

To dismiss the negative connotations that surround sexual statements like blue balls, society must acknowledge how to adjust the use of the term solely in an appropriate and enlightening manner.

“The term [blue balls] encapsulates how women are normally adapting to the sex drive of men instead of men adapting to the sex drives of women,” said an anonymous female undergraduate student, justifying the bad behind blue balls.

In a perfect world, all sexual relationships would be equally pleasuring and of course, consensual. We as a society can take one step closer to perfection with small advancements like erasing blue balls as a scapegoat for unwanted acts. Instead of using blue balls as an excuse for sexual intimidation, prioritize balance and mutual pleasure — your balls will end up thanking you.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 47

Why so blue?

In the early 20th century, several research studies were conducted and reached the same conclusion: blue is the world’s favorite color. A 2010 study showed that a person’s preference for a particular color can be determined by averaging out what that person associates with that color. For example, green is linked with nature and plants overall, orange is often associated with autumn and Halloween and pink typically represents love and femininity. But what exactly makes something feel … blue? words_tamia mclean. design_charlotte deangelis.

Periwinkle Icy Retro Timeless

Aquamarine Serene Emotional Tranquil

Royal Blue Deep Vibrant Elegant

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#CCCCFF Lizzie Kristal

#7FFFD4

Sapphire Serenity Depth Spirituality

Baby Blue

Amanda Mohamad

Calm Peace Cool

#0504AA

Turquoise

Caleigh Russo

Bright Clarity Nostalgic

#0F52BA Julia Gomez

#89CFF0

Penn Blue Vastness Beauty Calm

Ocean Blue

#141852 Sal Puma

#0090CC

Valeria Barbaglio

Strong Cold Vast

Matt Jiménez

#A3FAF7

Arctic Blue

#C9E5F5

Marita Gavioti

Euphoric Elegant Serene

Lex Kondratenko

Health and Wellness section is your sanctuary to refuel your body and mind. Discover science behind acne and how to keep it at bay. Tie your laces to get ready for a marathon. Consider an ever-growing obesity epidemic in America. Keep flipping for the best tips on tending to your health. photo_valeria barbaglio.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 49

The amount of fast food restaurants in the U.S. has been on the rise over the past four decades, and alongside it are obesity rates. The low monetary cost and convenience of pulling into a drive-thru makes it dangerously easy to fulfill and exceed our daily caloric needs.

The infamous “freshman 15” is not a new concept to college students. In fact, many students are introduced to the concept while still in high school and preparing for their next adventure after receiving their diploma ... and often dread it. But there is a vast difference between a weight gain and true obesity. Obesity begins with one habit, but luckily habits can be broken. words_katie palmer, drew trodden & brendan ernst. photo_valeria barbaglio. design_lizzie kristal.

50 DISTRACTION Health & Wellness

D

ear college co-ed: You’re on your way to a four-year degree, positioned to gain lots of knowledge, friendships, experiences and — wait for it, weight for it — some extra pounds.

Medical researchers say about a third of U.S. college students are overweight or obese.

“Transitioning from eating my mom’s authentic, homemade food to eating burgers and fries in the dining hall, I noticed changes in my weight, skin and in my mental health,” said Atlee Kohl, a junior finance and accounting major.

Kohl’s experience echoes what many of his peers say about the extra pounds that begin to show up as early as first semester of freshman year.

“I have always been extremely active, but I found it more difficult to maintain that healthier lifestyle with so many different food choices right in front of me,” Kohl said.

Like Kohl, other University of Miami students say they are well aware of “The Freshman 15” — the estimated amount of weight students can put on once they are away from homecooked meals and the influence of their parents.

As soon as students arrive on campus, the “just say no” or “just say less” challenge begins. The warpath is filled with tons of traps — from skipping breakfast to indulging in unhealthy and unbridled snacking, to joining in on late-night pizza orders and caving in to high-calorie favorites: burgers, fries and sandwich Cubanos.

A 2020 online article in Obesity Science & Practice cites an observational study of student dorm snacks. Students had an average of 47 food and beverage items in their room, totaling 22,888 calories per student. More than 70% of students had each of the following items: salty snacks, cereal and granola bars, main dishes, desserts, candy and sugar‐sweetened beverages.

Freshman Lily Kuzdzal concedes that her diet and nutrition habits “probably” have gotten worse since arriving on campus.

“I have a lot less control over what I’m eating,” said Kuzdzal, a business analytics and legal studies major.

Medical researchers cite poor food choices and large meal portions as underlying causes of obesity in college students. Stress also is a factor.

Cynthia Lebron, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies, said students often find the stress-inducing hours of school curriculum, combined with their new nutrition norms, to be detrimental to their health and well-being.

“And that will have an impact on the way you’re living, the way you’re studying, the way you’re moving,” Lebron said.

Students say it is possible to gain control of their health by making smaller changes in their daily routine and lifestyle choices.

Kuzdzal said she joined the UM triathlon club team where she practices four times a week, running, swimming and biking. She tries to walk a lot and plans her meals.

“I check the app to see what is in the dining hall, and I am always mindful about what my healthiest choice may be that day,” Kuzdzal said.

UM students also are found fighting the “15” at the Herbert Wellness Center.

“You have to get into the habit of going to the gym or doing what you like to do to stay active,” said freshman Tim Hibben, a student in the business school. Hibben said he goes to the gym weekly and, like Kuzdzal, walks everywhere to keep in shape.

John Vogelsang, a junior exercise physiology major and a personal trainer at the center, said most clients struggle with weight gain and fluctuation because of a lack of physical activity and poor nutritional choices.

“You get insight and access to a lot of knowledge you may not already have; map out your goals with them and have someone

to motivate you to achieve those goals,” Vogelsang said.

Exercise plays a large role in health and weight management, but diet takes the cake in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, he said.

“No matter how physically active you are, you won’t lose weight if you have a bad diet,” Vogelsang said.

Isaiah Horton, a junior wide receiver for the Miami Hurricanes Division I football team, attributes much of his success as an athlete to his nutrition, exercise and physical preparation prior to stepping on the field.

“What you put in your body is what you are going to use when you are out on the field,” Horton said. “It’s like a car, if you put in bad fuel, it won’t run properly.”

Working out twice daily in season, Horton follows a carefully structured nutritional plan to fuel his game. He and his teammates eat careful diets with focus on their specific nutritional needs.

As a wide receiver, Horton relies more on a carb-based diet with solid protein sources to fuel his quick sprints across the field.

Following specific nutritional plans provided by the team nutritionist, Horton and his teammates work diligently to stay in shape and perform at the highest level.

While students are trying anything and everything to stay healthy, researchers say it is important to note the difficulty of staying fit with the country’s plethora of fast food restaurants, the “super-size-me” American menu and inactive lifestyles stemming from T.V., computer and video game screen times. Obesity leads to a myriad of health issues, including heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and asthma.

“In reality we know that there are systems in place that don’t allow us to be the healthiest,” Lebron said.

For the past half century, Americans across all demographics and social classes have seen an increase in weight gain at an unprecedented rate. Almost 70% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The National Institutes of Health traces the origin of the American obesity epidemic to 1976 with increased consumption of the following ultra-processed foods — white bread, sweetened breakfast cereals, cookies, savory snacks, cakes, candy, ice cream, margarine, sausages and pizza.

But college itself is not the sole cause of this epidemic. Students aged 17 to 23 who were enrolled in college weighed less than those who were not, according to the NIH and a longitudinal survey of youth by Charles Baum, a professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University. College students

in this age group weighed an average of 157.9 pounds compared to 168.4 pounds for individuals not in college.

“Overweight or not, students at UM are in a good place to fight fat. Miami has a bit more of a fitness culture here compared to other schools,” Hibben said. “You always see people doing things and keeping themselves moving.”

Jocelyn Williams, a junior global health and public administration major, is a fitness convert. She is letting go of old habits, cutting back on the culture of going out, partying and eating at restaurants. She said she is committed to become a healthier version of herself.

Following the advice of a fitness friend, Williams sticks to a workout and nutrition plan consisting of daily exercises four days a week and a whole foods diet that limits or avoids processed foods. Her fitness routine also includes weightlifting with daily walking.

Williams said she has noticed the difference.

“I feel like I am able to engage with my academics, my social life and my everyday being a little bit better,” Williams said.

Williams attributes her success to the supportive community around her. In March, Williams will be running her first halfmarathon.

Student Health Service offers the following online nutrition advice: • Don’t skip breakfast • Stay hydrated • Sip smart • Eat good fats • Snack smart • Eat your colors • Reduce your sugar intake • Avoid processed food • Read labels • Don’t keep sugar-filled snacks in your dorm

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 51

26.2

Ever been stuck in South Dixie Highway or I-95 traffic and noticed a bumper sticker that reads “26.2” on the back of a car? This number is no secret code — it’s the exact amount of miles it takes to complete a marathon. The preparation is perhaps even more intense than the event itself, but by making the effort to implement new lifestyle choices in your exercise, diet and simple daily routine, this bucket-list item might be doable. words_valeria barbaglio. photo_sophie pallman. design_melanie bergunker.

N

utrition is the first step in marathon running. According to Professor Jacobs, an exercise physiology Professor at the University of Miami training for his own marathon, “any run that’s longer than 60 minutes, you’re likely going to benefit from carbohydrate supplementation [during].” His main recommendation is, “regardless of what source you’re taking it in from, you should be consuming about 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.”

Nutrition is the first step in marathon running. After all, a car can’t run without gas.

Dr. Kevin Jacobs is an exercise physiology professor at the University of Miami training for his own marathon.

“Any run that’s longer than 60 minutes, you’re likely going to benefit from carbohydrate supplementation [during],” said Jacobs.

“Regardless of what source you’re taking it in from, you should be consuming about 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.”

Around 60 minutes prior to exercise, your meals should consist of foods in your regular diet and be a good source of carbohydrates.

After the workout, you should also prioritize getting carbohydrates in to rebuild your carbohydrate stores, added Jacobs.

Carbohydrate loading is a common strategy to increase the amount of muscle glycogen stored. Jacobs shares that the best way to do so is not cramming bowls of pasta the night before, but instead using a gradual increase.

“In the week prior to the event, taper your training volume, cutting down your exercise while at the same time increasing the

52 DISTRACTION Health & Wellness

amount of carbohydrate in your diet,” said Jacobs. This combination will still be enough to increase muscle and energize you best on race day.

KT Palmer, a junior at UM studying marine biology and ecology, shared how she found nutrition to be more important than she previously thought. It affects your bone density, muscle mass and even how your body prevents itself from being injured and recovers from an injury.

In the past two and a half years, Palmer has raced three halfmarathons and is training to run the New York City Marathon in November.

Aidan Aronin, a sophomore majoring in finance and real estate, says that food and running “go hand in hand,” mentioning that without proper nutrition, muscles can’t recover properly. Aronin has completed one half-marathon and is signed up for his first half Ironman Triathlon, which consists of a half marathon at the end of a 1.2-mile swim and a 56-mile bike ride.

Hydration is another crucial step in marathon running. Jacobs recommends drinking water half an hour to 15 minutes before you exercise and as often as possible while you work out.

For recovery and performance, a runner’s main focus should be rehydration. Drinking something with carbohydrates, not just plain water, will further aid in keeping you hydrated for longer.

While nutrition and hydration are crucial, it is important to not overlook the importance of sleep. Without proper rest, both recovery and performance are negatively influenced, and injuries increase.

Injuries to the ankle, knee or hip from overuse are the most prevalent injuries affecting runners, according to Jacobs. With various methods of caring for your body after long runs, allowing enough time for recovery is a priority.

Some way to help your body recover from a strenuous run include icing your knees and joints, taking ice baths and utilizing compression to manage inflammation and swelling.

Injury prevention also aids in minimizing recovery needs and strains. Stretching and foam rolling before and after a run helps reduce tightness. Palmer emphasizes the training of all the muscles around the knees, such as unilateral exercises for injury prevention.

Lower body strength training exercises, including multi-joint movements such as squats or lunges, are all very helpful for building up strength because the movements are similar to running. For beginners, plan your week with some variety in training with a balance between strength training, running, cross-training, speed work and recovery.

“Doing these different types of workouts allows you to have overall better conditioning, but at the same time reduces the chance that you get some repetitive type of injury,” said Jacobs.

He added that to increase your speed during long runs, add high-intensity interval training once or twice a week.

There are many ways to incorporate this type of speed training into your workouts. One method could be interval running at a 1:4 ratio of race pace to cool down while still running. Another method could be incorporating speed walk at the end of a more prolonged run, concluding with a short sprint as long or as short as you’d like.

Focus on progression from week to week and give yourself enough time before a race. Jacobs recommends four to six months of training for a full marathon. To help build up to this distance or, for shorter runs, there are all sorts of training programs you can look into.

Palmer’s number one recommendation is to plan.

Having a guideline, even for the little things, will help you stay on track and hold yourself accountable. Plan your meals, workouts and recovery into your schedule to propel yourself closer to your goal.

Right before a race, be cautious of heavy exercise.

If you overwork yourself, you may not recover in time for your race. This is known as overtraining syndrome which results in a performance plateau.

While not overworking your body, getting the miles on your legs is the only way to build up the necessary endurance, according to Jacobs.

“The key is the cross-training and variety. The more you can build that in, the more well-rounded you’ll be in terms of your conditioning and the less likely to have repetitive injuries,” said Palmer.

Some prefer to walk their marathon. This is a great way to stay active, live a healthier lifestyle and still feel accomplished when crossing that finish line.

Whether you finish in one hour or five, “Anyone that puts their shoes on and runs out the door is a runner to me,” said Palmer.

The original length of a marathon was meant to be 26 miles in the 1908 London Olympics, but it was extended to 26.2 miles in order to start at the Windsor Castle and end at the Olympic Stadium.

It’s of the utmost importance to stretch after your run to promote the flow of blood in your muscles which helps remove lactic acid and waste products. Your muscles and joints will thank you later.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 53

Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished

Although severe acne is typically associated with genetics — stress, poor diet, and excessive sweat are among the most common triggers. Sounds a lot like college life, right?

54 DISTRACTION Health & Wellness

Neutrogena, La-Roche Posay, Differin, and Corsx are popular brands for acne treatments.

People of all walks of life can be affected by acne, especially amongst teenagers and young adults.

According to The American Academy of Dermatology, acne is the most common skin condition in the United States. Many have it, but how does it happen? Let’s clear up the nature of acne, as well as provide tips and dermatologist-approved products and routines for healthy, blemish-free skin. word_tamia mclean. photo_sharron lou. design_lizzie kristal.

Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Blemished Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a 28-step skincare routine.

That can actually dry out your skin. A simple routine with cleanser, sunscreen and moisturizer accompanied by prescriptions from your dermatologist will do the trick.

T

here are two common misconceptions about acne: one, it’s just a pimple, and two, it only affects teenagers.

According to the University of Miami Health System’s dermatology department, acne is a skin disorder that results in inflammation, pimples and cysts which are commonly found on the face, back and shoulders. Acne occurs when sebum, an oily substance found in the subcutaneous layer, gets clogged within pores of the skin along with dead skin cells. As sebum and dead cells accumulate, bacteria begin to source — resulting in inflammation and a cluster of pimples and blemishes.

In addition, acne can be categorized into different types depending on severity.

Yale Medicine classifies the three types as: comedonal, papular and cystic.

Comedonal acne is the most general and least painful form of acne, where hair follicles, also known as comedo, are blocked by bacteria, sebum and dead skin cells. This develops into a small, hollow bump.

Papular acne is slightly larger and more inflamed than comedonal acne, often caused by the constant presence of bacteria. Papules can evolve into another subtype of acne called pustules which, like the name suggests, are filled with white-yellowish pus at the tips.

The most painful and severe type of acne is cystic acne. Cystic acne happens when sebum, dead skin and bacteria stockpile under the skin developing a series of painful papules and pustules across the face. Furthermore, because cystic acne typically forms under the skin, there is more inflammation and pressure built up surrounding the pustules — creating its boillike appearance and uncomfortable sensation.

Contrary to popular belief, sebum is beneficial to the skin. According to Nivea, a German personal care brand, sebum is a composition of fats that assists in UV protection, moisturizing and overall protecting the skin from most bacteria. An overproduction of sebum can lead to acne.

So, that begs the question, what causes sebum to overproduce? It’s something that we’ve had the pleasure of going through: puberty and hormonal imbalances.

The AAD report states that approximately 85% of people between the ages of 12 and 24 experience at least minor acne. In addition, outside of dermatology offices, acne treatments are readily available throughout the country, in common stores such as Walmart and CVS. Stella Bilder, a sophomore at UM, noticed her acne in eighth grade. Like many young girls, Bilder went through a string of possible solutions to help her case “[It] started in the eighth grade; everyone has acne, it’s definitely something you think about a lot,” said Bilder. “[I’ve] went to the dermatologist for years, experimented with different medications, including Proactiv.”

Proactiv, now called Alchemee, is among the many popular skincare brands that were

incessantly advertised during the 2010s.

The brand’s advertisements often featured celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner to target the young female demographic.

According to Verywell Health, Proactiv’s active ingredient is benzoyl peroxide, a highly effective topical antiseptic used to fight acne. Although many acne-base skincare products include benzoyl peroxide, some Proactiv products also include glycolic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid or AHA responsible for removing surface layers of dead skin and improving skin tone.

Despite its overwhelming popularity at the time, Proactiv is most effective on mild, typical comedonal acne and is not strong enough for moderate to severe acne. For Bilder, like many other products, they only provided a temporary solution.

At their wit’s end, Bilder’s dermatologist gave her the green light for one of the strongest forms of medication — Accutane.

Isotretinoin capsules, regularly known as Accutane, are a prescribed retinol-based medication to treat severe cases of acne.

Often a last resort remedy, Accutane is well-known to be an aggressive and heavy medication which is why it’s only prescribed when no other acne-based prescriptions and over-the-counter medications work.

And that was the case for Bilder, who took Accutane in 2020 during her sophomore year of high school, from January to July.

“Accutane is very heavy medication, very aggressive,” she said. “It dries out your skin [and] creates mood swings. It gets worse before eventually it gets better.”

It took approximately four months until Bilder saw her skin improve, and by July, her acne was nearly eradicated.

Accutane is taken daily and is only meant to be short term, with a variety of sources and testimonials saying that skin improvement occurs between one and three months of treatment. Wanting to make sure that her treatment was used to its full effect, Bilder used Accutane for a total of six months.

However, despite Accutane’s combative effects, another reason dermatologists find the medication as a last option — apart from the typical physical side effects such as headaches, dry skin and body aches — is that the medication is known for its psychological ramifications.

“Accutane caused a lot of mood swings, but my confidence has improved a lot because of it,” Bilder said. She goes on to say that she wouldn’t recommend the medication to someone who has a predisposed mental or emotional condition, such as depression, anxiety and even psychosis.

“Acne is an unfortunate evil,” Bilder jokes.

Indeed, but proven time and time, acne is not a forever deal.

The

Dos and Don’ts of Acne

Do invest in some good quality

products for acne-prone skin.

No need to break the bank: there are plenty of affordable acne products stemming from well-known skincare brands like Neutrogena, the Ordinary, Cetaphil and many others.

Don’t flip-flop between products and treatments.

The skin is a complex organ. It takes time for our beautiful skin to become responsive to ingredients.

Therefore, AAD recommends using products for six to eight weeks. From there, if your acne is not improving, switch to the next product.

Do clean your face regularly.

After a fun night, it’s highly suggested that you wipe and cleanse your face. Not only would you be cleaning away your cute makeup, but also all the dirt, oil and sweat you’ve accumulated from such a busy day. Besides, sleeping with makeup on — even accidentally — can cause your acne to get worse.

Don’t squeeze the life out of

your acne.

As tempting as it is, squeezing or attempting to pop your acne will further inflame your clean — even leaving scars. Resisting the urge may be difficult, however.

But definitely do visit a certified dermatologist to address any concerns, especially if your acne worsens after taking over-thecounter medications and other products. From there, your dermatologist can provide the necessary treatments to alleviate your acne and look your best self.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 55

IS HOME WHERE THE GRINDIS

Satellite workout spots on campus, like the Spruance Outdoor Gym at Lakeside Village, give students an open-air workout experience beyond the confines of the typical enclosed-gym experience.

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Pilates, HIIT classes, lifting and spending hours on the StairMaster — all popular forms of exercise that come with grand promises to transform your health. But it comes at a cost — both in the literal and figurative sense.

Classes and gym memberships can run up to $300 a month, and going to the gym can be inconvenient at times. Nowadays, the internet can provide all the information we need, so who says you can’t bring the gym home instead? words_veronika valia. photo_ethan dosa. design_charlotte deangelis.

W

from your body that you may be pushing yourself a hether you don’t have the money or time little too hard. for a conventional gym workout, it’s Cano tends to not isolate muscles, and instead perfectly plausible to get a good workout focuses on multiple muscle groups at the same time from the comfort of your own home. Aside from being through exercises such as deadlifting. In that vein, it more convenient, home workouts, which are typically is important to note that for certain completed alongside some form of sports, such as bodybuilding and video, can provide a more targeted more intense forms of training, home approach to exercise.

Everybody is workouts probably aren’t going to No longer do workouts have to be different and has cut it. However, home workouts are completely full body, incorporating a good start for anyone interested in cardio, weights and machines. Instead, different goals, so trying their hand at fitness. with a simple search, you can find that is definitely She further suggests investing targeted workouts that work for you in low weight dumbbells such as in an instant. Whether it focuses on something to eight- or 10-pound weights because a specific muscle group or a piece of remember. with lower weights you can do more equipment you have at home, there is reps and achieve results. But these bound to be something for you. results will come within months, We tend to associate hard workouts Karen Cano not weeks. Fitness isn’t an overnight with seeing results. However, working Personal Trainer transformation, and in the meantime, out doesn’t have to be some dreaded it is important to enjoy the shortactivity where you leave dripping with term benefits, like endorphins. Switch your mindset sweat, smelling like a dead rat and eager to hop in the to seeing your at-home exercise as a form of self-care, shower as soon as you finish up. Instead, change your rather than a momentous activity you force yourself to frame of mind out of that “all-or-nothing” mindset. complete to burn calories or build muscle.

“I try to personalize the workouts to my clients,” For UM senior Mia Ornstein, she explains that she said Miami-based personal trainer Karen Cano does “at home workouts if [she’s] feeling called to move about her own workouts. “Everybody is different and [her] body.” She goes into further detail explaining has different goals so that is definitely something to that she tends to want to exercise to remember.” “quiet [her] mind.” When it comes to Unfortunately, workout videos aren’t always as what specific exercises she does, she personalized as paid services from a certified trainer, I use YouTube says that she does “a Pilates workout but you are able to pick and choose what you want videos and and [places] weights on either [her] to do and, most importantly, do it at our own pace. sometimes add wrists or ankles.”

When it comes to doing workouts at home, Cano “I use YouTube videos and suggests that people focus on strength training, as it in a TikTok video sometimes add in a TikTok video if is important to work with what you’ve got, especially if I want to try I want to try something new,” said because it is hard to do intense cardio sessions in your something new.

Ornstein. apartment living room while your roommate plays It is important to note that you Grand Theft Auto. don’t need to splurge on materials When it comes to the actual exercises that she Mia Ornstein such as a mat and attachable weights does with her clients, Cano tends to focus on full UM Senior right off the bat, but when you body movements, yet at the same time incorporating get more serious that might be a functional movements that are more targeted. If you consideration. don’t know where to start with home workouts, she Working out is about self-love and taking care of also suggests that you start with something full-body, your body, and you don’t need to spend hours grinding and then as you get to know your body, you can focus in the gym to reach your goals. Simply showing up on weak points. As you progress in your workout and being consistent is the most important. Do it for journey, you should try and remain in tune with your yourself, and don’t be afraid. body’s agility and strength, as well as listen to signs

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NO EQUIPMENT

WORKOUT If you’re in need of some inspiration for your at-home workouts, use our workout as a starting point. We are giving you some basic exercises and different ways to turn them into a workout. To spice it up, use your own favorite exercises to customize our plan.

1

Warm Up

words&design_lizzie kristal. photo_ethan dosa.

2

To prevent injury, be sure to warm up properly. Try some dynamic stretches or general movements, like a brisk walk.

Choose Your Exercises

Push Up

Squat

Tricep Dip

Plank

Enter a high plank position and steadily lower your chest to the ground. Push through your palms to end in the high plank position.

Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your toes outwards as you lower your booty. Push through your heels to come up.

Sit on a surface a few feet off the ground. Scoot your booty off, and bend your elbows to lower your body. Push back up.

Enter a low plank position on your elbows. Keep your core tight and tuck your pelvis up into your belly button. Hold.

3

Pick a Format

Circuit

Do each exercise for 15–30 repetitions with little rest in between exercises. Repeat the whole circuit 4–6 times for a complete and efficient workout.

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HIIT

AMRAP

Complete as many repetitions of each exercise as possible in a set amount of time, followed by a short period of rest. For example, 30 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest before moving onto the next exercise. Repeat.

Short for “as many reps as possible,” this method is a doozy.

Complete repetitions until failure before moving onto the next exercise. Rest in between each cycle and repeat.

Fashion is showcasing the best in style, perfect for those looking to make a statement. Grab your Levi’s and find out how to style your jeans, jorts and everything in be-jean. Step up your street style and fashion your favorite team’s jersey. Read about the dos and don’ts of piercings.

This section plunges into the cultural significance of today’s trends. photo_valeria barbaglio.

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From Abercrombie’s rebranding to the Prada Spring 2021 organic denim line, denim is making a comeback in ways we’ve never seen. Dresses, bras and purses are all made of denim. The re-emergence of this trend has come with its own alterations too — excessive rips, raw edges, unique washes, seam placement and patchwork elevate this trend to another level. Let’s show some appreciation for the big blue of the fashion industry. words_juliana warnock & darby steininger. photo_sharron lou. design_lizzie kristal.

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The classic Canadian Tuxedo takes on a whole new meaning. From the utilitarian practicality of the 50s to Britney Spears’ and Justin Timberlake’s 2001 appearance on the American Music Awards red carpet, this unconventional “tux” is now making its way into mainstream media and everyone’s closet.

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Denim, first created in the 17th century in Nîmes, France, is a sturdy cotton fabric made by using a twill weave technique and dyeing the fabric shade of indigo. The indigo plant is very rare and difficult to import, so companies now produce indigo synthetically which has proven to harm the surrounding environments surrounding the industrial areas.

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porting denim skirts and skorts, shorts and suits, University of Miami students swarmed Nashville during fall break to let loose in the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll and the country music capital.

Whether it was morning brunch at Stateside Kitchen, bar hopping along Honky Tonk Highway or catching concerts throughout all hours of the night, about 100 ’Canes descended on the city in denim.

They weren’t intentionally pushing a denim agenda. Rather, they realized, like everybody else, that denim has crept back into their wardrobe.

“Denim made me feel like a true man on those streets of Nashville,” said Mikhal Akhund, a senior business law major who traveled to Nashville with five friends.

Senior advertising major Abby Gendell packed her jeans and denim skirt for the weekend trip.

“A lot of people were excited to strut their denim on Broadway,” said Gendell, referring to the popular strip of bars, restaurants and live music in Nashville.

Maybe, denim has never really gone away after exploding onto the fashion scene in the 1950s, initially popularized by Elvis Presley. A hundred years earlier, denim was worn as work pants on farms and in factories.

Calvin Klein, one of the most famous denim brands in America, has been at the top of the denim game for decades, particularly with its commercials. In 1980, “it girl” model Brooke Shields launched her first Calvin Klein campaign featuring the slogan, “Do you want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”

The commercial became a media sensation.

“Denim is always in, and always will be,” the Calvin Klein website boasts. Every year, the designer brand comes out with a new celebrity denim commercial that makes such a simple item of clothing an iconic must-have. This year’s campaign features celebrities Kendall Jenner, Kid Cudi and Alexa Demie.

“Denim is timeless,” said junior marketing major Catarina Whitaker, who recently added two fun, new pieces from Free People to her ever-growing denim collection.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s iconic double denim outfit made its debut in 2001 at the American Music Awards, defining fashion for the entire decade. The early 2000s are known for featuring its famous “ugly denim” and tacky Y2K looks that some would classify as heinous.

Think about celebrities such as Ashley Tisdale, Selena Gomez and Bella Thorne during their time on Disney Channel. Each celebrity fashioned denim on and off the screen, such as layering dresses and skirts over jeans or wearing jeans so low to the point of falling off.

This re-emergence of denim gives the famous phrase “Canadian tuxedo,” a denim jacket with a pair of jeans, a whole new meaning. It certainly can be defined as “ugly denim,” but you simply can’t look away. It’s an eye-catcher, and that is what people tend to love about it — the absurdity of it all.

Now, the younger generations have begun to

For a similar look, ASOS has an extensive variety of lengths and styles of denim dresses. Looking to splurge? Search for Prada’s Navy Organic Denim Mini Dress for a runway-ready outfit.

Chunky belts found in stores like Urban Outfitters and Free People are the perfect way to break up the denim for a more dynamic look.

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This Nolita 19 In Colorblock by Coach pairs perfectly with the denim tones. Another fitting option

by Coach is their Nolita 19 denim handbag with rivets.

style denim like how they saw on the red carpet.

Having undergone many transitions throughout the fashion industry, denim continues to be a wardrobe staple. Other clothing items, such as shoes or accessories, will fluctuate in trendiness, but denim continues to make a statement in the public eye.

“I love that overalls are making a comeback,” said Julia Lubarsky, a junior computer science major. “I can throw them on for class, or over a bathing suit to go to the beach. They are such a quick, comfy and cute outfit.”

While a high-quality pair of jeans can last for years, denim is not just for jeans. This generation has been revamping old denim pieces and discovering new trends, almost creating an ode to the 2000s. The iconic Y2K style has made a strong emergence in social media, and young adults everywhere have started taking the old trends out of retirement.

The possibilities of jean outfits are endless regarding style and wash. Denim has a sense of comfort and durability without sacrificing style.

Whether it’s a pair of flare jeans or cutoff shorts, there is a denim style for everyone. Some trends that fashion designers predict will continue to gain traction are denim on denim, low-rise denim, bejeweled jeans, maxi skirts and overalls.

In recent years secondhand shopping, also known as thrifting, has captivated teens and young adults to find vintage pieces to rework into their wardrobe, particularly denim. When people thrift, they can find unique clothing items that are valuable and unique.

Kayla Sullivan, a senior majoring in education, started thrifting about two years ago

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while visiting Connecticut and New York.

“It’s like a treasure hunt. Thrifting is so fun to do with friends to find more unique clothing at a cheaper price,” said Sullivan.

Revitalizing these vintage pieces into modern everyday fashion has contributed to the Y2K style emergence of 2023. These style choices are not only being applied to women’s fashion, as young men also have their take on the denim development. Specifically, a lot of young men have a love of jean shorts, or “jorts.”

“I love my jorts because they allow me to remain stylish with the denim look, but without sweating bullets,” said Joe Anillo, a junior majoring in media production. “You have to adapt to beat the heat down here in Miami.”

And it’s not just a Miami thing.

Luke Crouch, a sophomore majoring in civil engineering at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., has been wearing denim for years and will continue to style his jeans for all different occasions.

“Jeans are like beer, you can’t have just one,” said Crouch.

“I love my jorts because they allow me to remain stylish with the denim look, but without sweating bullets,” said Joe Anillo, a junior media production major. “You have to adapt to beat the heat down here in Miami.”

And it’s not just a Miami thing.

Luke Crouch, a sophomore civil engineering major at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, has been wearing denim for years and will continue to style his jeans for occasions.

“Jeans are like beer, you can’t have just one,” Crouch said.

We know that denim, while iconic, can be quite constricting on a day-to-day basis. A distant memory of jeggings comes to mind.

Now they’re more stylish than ever — flare, wide leg, and yes … skinny jeans — and are still just as comfortable.

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E

ver since Julia Fox stepped out in Los Angeles in a tiny denim tube top and low-cut jeans in March 2022, many people have been wondering where she bought the outfit.

She revealed on her Instagram that she made the outfit herself.

“It makes for a really cute set and it’s easy and, honestly, now that latex is kind of played out. Denim, you’re all I have left,” said Fox in her Instagram caption.

While Fox’s DIY ensemble shocked the public at first, it made waves throughout social media with many other influencers and viewers taking their own approach to the outfit, such as myself.

I made the outfit in about 15 minutes with an old pair of jeans I already had.

I did not think I would be able to make an outfit out of a pair of jeans, but it was easier than I had originally expected and looked great.

The materials needed are simple — scissors, a sharpie, a tape measure and your least favorite pair of jeans.

words&photo_elle haymond. design_lizzie kristal.

Instructions 1. Find any pair of jeans that you do not mind cutting. High-waisted jeans work best, as the top of them will be cut off.

2. Use a ruler to measure six inches from the top of the jeans and mark the six-inch spot with a marker.

3. Use scissors to cut from the line you made.

4. The piece you cut off can now be used as a tube top, and the rest that is left are your bottoms.

5. Now you have a trendy denim outfit that you made yourself.

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Tip: make sure to measure your desired length of top and the rise of your jeans before beginning the project.

BTS The Burger King Our in-house hand model, Sal Puma, got into character for the obesity epidemic photoshoot. The burger, as appetizing as it looks, is from the Mahoney-Pearson dining hall. photo_valeri

a barbaglio.

Behind The Scenes

Lookin’ Like a Snack The denim photoshoot took place in the beloved Munch, hotspot for nicotine feens and late-night snacks.

Even our staffer, Andrew McCleskey, got hungry.

photo_sharron lou.

The Last Supper In the trenches of deadline, Uber Eats came in clutch. Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomaches when ordering this two-person feast from China Steak House, including four entrees. It was gone in an hour. photo_sal puma.

photo_lizzie

kristal.

Oodles of Doodles The whiteboard in our Distraction suite had some visitors. Covered in anime, Japanese and other random bits, the board represents the inner workings of our creative process — a mess. photo_sal puma.

Winter 2023 DISTRACTION 67

Did you know that earlobe piercings are the most common type of piercings? A 2017 survey found that 84% of women and 64% of men said they’ve had their earlobe pierced.

PIERCED Piercings, the less troublesome but more promiscuous sibling of tattoos, are spiking in popularity. They’re customizable, significantly less painful and sometimes temporary — all their attracting factors. From tame piercings such as ear, septum and belly button piercings to more risqué ones, such as tongue and nipple, there is a piercing to fall in line with everyone’s preference and personal style. words_veronika valia. photo_reese putnam. design_gaelle charlet.

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F

or a lot of people, piercings are a form of self-expression; and a way to show unique style. However, not everyone is always accepting of piercings for a variety of cultural, religious or social reasons.

A lack of parental support did not discourage Remi Turner, junior at the University of Miami, from jumping the gun and getting a piercing. She went against her parents’ wishes and, luckily enough, they didn’t find out until she decided years later to reveal her secret.

“I have two piercings. My first was my septum, and I got that when I was 17,” she said.

Turner went to a Catholic private school and would often push the limits of student dress codes by openly flaunting her pierced Nose piercings are more than just a versatile septum. But whenever she feared formal accessory. This popular piercing practice began disciplinary action for wearing the septum over 4,000 years ago in the Middle East as a tradition piercing, the well-known trick of flipping in Indian culture, often symbolizing womanhood. a septum piercing up into the nose always came in handy. Unfortunately, her parents aware that your piercer, especially if you are told her to take it out. That wasn’t too getting something done on an intimate body successful, as she now has a second nose part, may not be the same gender as you. piercing and hopes to get more.

She then explained how after her piercer While a lot of older generations still have made the marks of where the barbell would an aversion to all piercings, students at UM go, her piercer had her lie down. After telling are starting to push the limits even further. her piercer she was nervous, he simply In the depths of the piercing world are the responded: “If you’re going to be scared of risqué piercings. An anonymous female UM anything, be scared of the nipple clamps.” student, not wanting everyone to know the Cue the shudders. “As soon as he pulled them surprise she has under her shirt, spoke on her out, I almost passed out,” said the anonymous recent experience getting her nipples pierced. student.

“I just woke up one day and decided As for the actual piercing process, the just to do it. I didn’t think about it too anonymous student recalls it being an much — I just called a local piercing place, extremely painful experience, but the pain hopped in the Uber and got it done,” said the only lasted for a few minutes. anonymous student.

A body piercing takes around nine “The only circumstance where someone months to heal, and it will likely be a bit of a should get a nipple piercing is if they in bloody sight. A couple rules of thumb: don’t general have a high pain tolerance. Highly touch or pick at the scab and be sure clean recommend taking a Xanax before and the wound every day. definitely don’t smoke [weed] before, as it will For inexperienced people looking into amplify the sensation,” said the student. getting a piercing, speaking with a wide Read that carefully. Do not “sesh” variety of piercers helped shed some light before a piercing. The anonymous student on what the best way is to get one. If you explained that she had a horrible experience can cough up the money for a professional when getting her nipples pierced when she piercer, do not go to Claire’s. Instead, go to was stoned. She admitted to taking 500 a consulting session from a well-researched mg of marijuana edibles and recalled that piercer to get the feel of the shop, the the anxiety was overwhelming — not just procedures and equipment they use and the from the needle but also from the piercers hygiene of the shop. knowing that you’re under the influence.

A professional piercer, explained that it When you go into a piercing shop, they is very important that everything is sterile will scan your ID to make sure you are over and the aftercare is communicated properly.

18 and make you fill out a consent form to When asked what the problem with places make sure you aren’t under the influence. like Claire’s is, he responded with a sigh.

Otherwise, they cannot provide you with “[Their piercers] are undertrained; the their piercing services. Using a fake ID or piercings are also prone to infection and are being under the influence can be risky, so overpriced,” he said. take that as a sign to go in honest and sober.

We’ve all seen the “Parent Trap” scene The anonymous student described where Lindsay Lohan A pierces Lindsay in-detail the actual process of piercing her Lohan B’s ear with just a hot safety pin and an nipple. Fair warning: graphic imagery lies apple, but DIY methods like that can quickly ahead. lead to infection — sometimes even hepatitis.

First off, she advised that you need to be Luckily, infection is unlikely to be fatal, and

Take a Stab at It Standard lobe: The standard lobe piercing is usually the first piercing people get, and definitely the least scary. As the name suggests, this piercing goes through your earlobes, the squishy, fatty part that hangs from the ear. Prices range from $20–80.

Navel: Commonly referred to as the belly button piercing, this style was all the craze in the early aughts, but has recently experienced a comeback. The piercing usually goes through the upper fold of skin on the belly button, but can also be done underneath or on the edges of the navel. Prices range from $40–55.

Nipple: Make sure to wear a top that can easily be pulled down, up, or unbuttoned for the piercer to have access to the nipple. Most piercers will also recommend a 14-gauge straight barbell, as it pulls less on new piercings and allows for a better healing experience.

Prices range from $40–100 per nipple.

Viper bite: Popular in the alternative scenes in the 2000s and early 2010s, viper bite piercings — also known as a snake bite — are located on the bottom lip. This piercing takes only six–eight weeks to heal, but you will need to be careful while eating during the healing process. Prices range from $80–120.

the best option is to disinfect and take some antibiotics.

In short, don’t try this at home, don’t get stoned before you get pierced and smile through the pain of the nipple clamps or the piercing gun. After all, piercings might add a little shine to your appearance.

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BEHAVIOR

Since the advent of modern sports in the United States, passionate sports fans have collected the jerseys of their favorite players and teams. While originally a way of showing your allegiance for a team, jerseys have become a new fashion trend regardless if you know the team or not. words_jamie moses. photo_cecilia intriago. design_constanza ardiles.

I

f you’re new to the scene and want to look at the different styles of jerseys out there to see which catch your eye, online is a great place to start. Various websites offer jerseys of different teams and styles that can set you in the right direction on your jersey journey.

Etsy

Known for its immense collection of artsy wears, Etsy has quite the stock of jerseys as well. Whether you’re searching for a football, soccer, basketball, or a different type of jersey, the site has plenty of artists and designs to get you the best jersey for you.

For a more personalized look, some sellers on Etsy let you can customize the name and number to anything you want.

Whether you’re looking for Boston Bruins or Buffalo Bills jersey, Etsy has it all. The site as well as the seller will update you every step of the way from placing your order to doorstep delivery.

eBay

If you’re looking for the best item at the lowest price, eBay is the site for you. Free shipping, free returns and the freedom to list your own products at

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your given price. eBay also boasts incredible discounts with some items listed with over 90% off the original price.

“I bought a Philadelphia Eagles jersey off of eBay, and I had a great experience,” said University of Miami senior Gavin Gibbons. “The shipping was fast and my item came in great condition for a cheap price.”

Reddit

Reddit has the latest stories, memes and threads with conversations that span from sports and entertainment to fashion and food trends.

It might be harder to find a jersey to buy off this site, but the many threads might help you find a style of jersey that fits you best.

If you don’t support a specific team, shops have added basic jerseys to their catalogs. They still have mesh and block letters like a real jersey, but without the shame of being a fake fan.

“I spent a few hours checking out the forums to find the best jersey for me. I went with the Reebok brand and put Westbrook, 36 on the back,” said Gibbons. Brian Westbrook, now 44 years old, used to be a running back for the Eagles.

Maybe you’ve looked online and you know you want to try on your jersey before buying it, you’re questioning your sites legitimacy, or you want the in-person shopping experience. Here are our some retailers close to campus that might have the jersey that’s right for you.

Sports Fan-attic

Sports Fan-attic has, well, an attic’s-worth of jerseys for buyers to sort through. The store is also known for its custom designs, allowing customers to walk in, order their jersey and often have them ready to go in under an hour. University of Miami Alumni JeanPierre Vilcherrez has made and accompanied friends on many purchases at this store.

“My experience is always easy and convenient,” said Vilcherrez. “I would totally recommend this store and will be getting more of their Miami jerseys in the future.

Preferably UM because I love my alma mater so much.”

Sports Action

Right in the heart of Brickell, Sports Action is surrounded by countless dining, cinema and other retail choices. It serves as a more upscale but well-versed store with knowledgeable staff and a variety of options, particularly with shoes and jerseys. The wide and ever-changing selection of air forces makes for excellent pairings with any jersey and very satisfied, returning customers.

Pelé Soccer

This soccer store is famously named after the Former Minister of Sports of Brazil, Pelé. He has spearheaded three Brazilian World Cup wins and played as a forward throughout his 22-yearlong career.

The store provides numerous options for cleats, equipment and, of course, jerseys to fulfill all

After snagging a jersey, make sure to complete styling the rest of the look. Gold chains or a grunge bucket hat are good accessory options.

Scam Avoidance We asked the questions, and the stores gave us the answers. Here’s how to avoid getting scammed or rigged when you’re purchasing a new jersey, and some questions to ask yourself:

of your soccer needs. Located right on the beautiful beaches of Miami, students and local residents can make an awesome day out of jersey shopping and sightseeing. And it’s legit, with their Messi jerseys being a customer favorite.

Styling

Now that you’ve secured your new favorite jersey, it’s time to style it. First, you’re going to want to work with the jersey itself. You can layer the jersey with a fitted shirt underneath for a more layered look on a chillier day.

Or tuck it into your bottoms, scrunch up the fabric into a hair tie or leave it hanging.

Next, figure out what you’re going to wear for bottoms. Jeans can often offset the bright jersey colors if you wear a pair with a neutral color, and they’re very easy to find in stores or your closet. Bell bottoms, baggy, tight, you name it — they can all fit the vibe.

“I love to tuck my jerseys into jean shorts, especially in Miami where it’s warm yearround. Otherwise, jeans are great, too,” said UM junior Rachel Davit.

“I wear skirts with everything in Miami.

Especially tennis skirts, I love them in white or black,” said UM senior Emily Morrison.

“The jersey and skirt gameday combination is great for pictures.”

Social media influencer and UM alumna Alix Earle was seen sporting the jersey look at a recent Miami Dolphins home game in a couple TikTok videos with Miami Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios that went viral.

Finally, there are a variety of ways to style shoes with your jersey. From a sporty sneaker to cowboy boots, you really can’t go wrong.

“Pairing a jersey with Air Forces Ones, Dunks or Jordans never fails,” said Davit.

Look for Brand Reputation Have you heard of the brand before? Is its website or storefront legit? Does it attract a lot of customers?

Watch the Deals Are the discounts too good to be true? Is your credit card safe on the website or in the storefront? Do you think you might get hacked if you buy something here?

Check the Reviews Are the reviews good or bad? What do they say about the fit, quality and design? Are the items missing anything important, or do they look fake?

Winter 2023

DISTRACTION 71

The Last Distraction A chill party in someone’s dorm or apartment is a great move when looking for some simple plans. But screw simplicity. It’s time to think outside of the box and throw a party with a little bit of flair. You don’t have to go Gatsby-level and break the bank, but a fun theme can easily elevate a get-together into a night to remember. words&design_sal puma.

Freaky Friday

Disney Channel Chique

As fun as Y2K is to do, it’s been done before. Though if the early 2000s still pique your interest the fits found on Disney Channel during that time are just as memorable. Layers upon layers of mismatching patterns, jewelry that is way too big, and sequins … so many sequins.

Wether you have a character in mind or not, its a great way to “Shake It Up.”

Middle School Throwback

This theme might require a text to your parents as it’s centered around the good old days of middle school. Find a horrible picture of you back then that speaks to you and try to replicate it. It’s like a throwback Thursday but from puberty hell.

Royal Wedding

Come dressed in your outfit fit for a coronation. The trick is to not have anyone dress as the bride and groom but as the cast of characters you might spot in attendance. Over the top hats, gaudy sunglasses. Anything that gets across the message of “yes I’m British and I’m making it your problem.”

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For this theme everyone needs to parter up.

You can do it by choice, but random selection can make it funnier. Partners dress up each other so that everyone is wearing a fit that belongs to their partner. Bonus points if partners are a secret and the game is to guess who’s dressed as who.

Rice Purity Decades

The Rice Purity Test is an online quiz that assigns you a score based on how “pure” you are. While the test of your wild side doesn’t have any true merit, it can be a fun thing to incorporate into a theme. Whether your score is in the ‘80s, ‘60s, or even the ‘20s, you dress up like you were in the decade of your score.

Back of the Closet

The glory of this theme is that there is no real theme to it. All you have to do is wear that one outfit you have wanted to wear for a while. Whether it’s a beautiful dress you bought but never put on or a Halloween costume from years ago that you still love. It’s the controlled chaos of this theme that gives it charm.

PUT A

FACE TO THE

NAME! Seniors it is your last chance to Seniors it ismark. your last chance to make your make your mark.

Book your Senior portrait now by Book your the spring seniororportraits scanning QR code, visiting our website, Ibisyearbook.com! starting Jan. 29 and continuing You demand. can catchSign us taking with up with the portraits the Whitten UC Lobby link on ouratwebsite below. starting at the end of January.

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Join our award-winning staff. We’re always accepting writers, designers, photographers, videographers, P.R. pros and business-savvy sales reps. However you’d like to get into the swing of things, we have room for you. Send an email to distraction305@gmail.com for more information. illustration_rachel farinas.