Inside this issue: If you have an AS related question, ‘Ask the AS’. PAGE 5 Western math professor offers a new art and math class next quarter. PAGE 6 Singer Noah Gunderson returns to campus. PAGE 9
Vol. 30 # #.#.# Vol. 31 #19 02.16.16
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A design inspired by Western’s outdoor sculpture collection. Cover design by David Shin // AS Review
Viking Union 411 516 High St. Bellingham, WA 98225 Phone: 360.650.6126 Fax: 360.650.6507 Email: as.review@wwu.edu as.wwu.edu/asreview @TheASReview facebook.com/theasreview © 2015. Published most Mondays during the school year by the Associated Students of Western Washington University. The AS Review is an alternative weekly that provides coverage of student interests such as the AS government, activities and student life. The Review seeks to enhance the student experience by shedding light on underrepresented issues, inclusive coverage, informing readers and promoting dialogue.
Someone takes a nap on top of the Mosquito sculpture in the PAC plaza. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork or anything else physically printable. Email submissions to as.review@wwu.edu. We welcome letters to the editor. Please limit your letter to 300 words, include your name, phone number and year in school, if you’re a student. Send them to as.review@wwu.edu. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar.
Marina Price Alexandra Bartick Trevor Grimm Ian Sanquist Becky Campbell Morgan Annable Will McCoy Chris Beswetherick Marina Price Adviser Jeff Bates
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers
A closeup of the new installation in the Western Gallery. Photo by Chris Beswetherick // AS Review
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EVENTS Open Mic Night Tuesday 2/16 // 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free Sign ups for a 5 minute slot are at 6:30 p.m. show starts at 7 p.m..
for change through hip hop and dynamic and inspiring calls to action.
Wednesday Night Concert Series: Evan Wecksell with Dummy Crew
Winter Leadership Development: Job Searching, Communicating Your Experience
Wednesday 2/17 // 7 - 9 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free
Thursday 2/18 // 4 -5 p.m. // VU 464 // Free
Free concert on the third floor of the Viking Union.
Presented by Jess Savage
Canned Food Drive
Tognazzini from career services.
Wednesday 2/17 // 6 - 7 p.m. // Main lobby of Academic West // Free
from admissions and Anna This workshop will help you turn your college experiences into marketable qualities to help
Join the National Society of Collegiate Scholars as they go door-to-door in neighborhoods around campus to collect non-perishable food items for the Bellingham Food Bank.
you land a job after graduation.
Comedy Open Mic Night
a job advertisement looking at
Attendees will go through the job application/interview process while translating campus experiences for potential employers. You will review
Thursday 2/18 // 7 - 9 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free
skills required for the position, talk
Signups start at 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m..
and cover letter utilizing leadership
Cultures of Resistance Series: Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
into an interview and tie that all
Thursday 2/18 // 6 - 7:30 p.m. // VU MPR // Free 14-year-old Indigenous activist and climate solutionist mobilizing a generation
Top Ten: February 8- 15 1
Blackstar David Bowie
2
Currents Tame Impala
3
Another One Mac Demarco
4
Weirdo Shrine La Luz
5
Every Open Eye Chvrches
6
Thank Your Lucky Stars Beach House
7
Yours, Dreamily The Arcs
8
Product 3 Beat Connection
9
What Went Down Foals
10
Leave Me Alone Hinds
about how to tailor your resume experiences, how to translate that together to create your personal brand.
KUGS is the Associated Students’ student-run radio station. Listen online at kugs.org. If you’re interested in getting on the waves, pick up a volunteer application in the station’s office on the seventh floor of the VU.
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The ‘Club Hub’ and Career Services Center host event to help students prepare for post-graduate interviews BY MORGAN ANNABLE
The AS Club Activities Office is partnering with Jess Savage from Admissions and Anna Tognazzini from the Career Services Center to offer a workshop on marketing your skills and experiences for a post-graduation job. The event will be held in VU 464 from 4 - 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 18. “We will essentially be going through the job application/interview process with an eye toward helping students translate their on campus experiences for potential employers,” Savage said. Savage and Tognazzini will help attendees determine the most important parts of a job advertisement, using specific examples, and then discuss how to tailor a resume and cover letter to fit the skills required for the position. They will also focus on how to discuss relevant leadership experiences in an interview. “I hope students will gain the ability to be self-reflective about their experiences and realize that they have a lot to offer employers,” Tognazzini said. “It doesn't matter whether you have had paying jobs, unpaid volunteer experiences, or student leadership positions, any and all of our experiences make us who we are and knowing how to talk about them in a way that employers can understand is invaluable.” Savage is the Associate Director of Admission for Outreach and Recruitment. She has worked for ten years on hiring committees for various entry level
jobs and has seen many resumes and cover letters from recent college graduates. Tognazzini is a Graduate and Pre-professional Programs Advisor. She gives presentations and works one-on-one with students to refine their resumes, cover letters and interview skills. She presented a similar lecture at the College of William & Mary, and found that the students were surprised at how much they had to say about their
“It doesn’t matter whether you have had paying jobs, unpaid volunteer experiences, or student leadership positions, any and all of our experiences make us who we are.” - Anna Tognazzi own experiences once they began thinking about them. “Together we aim to walk participants through the job application process while creating the opportunity for some self-reflection and tools to help identify and communicate relevant skills and experiences,” Savage said of her collaboration with Tognazzini. The event will be structured as a presentation, with interactive activities built in throughout the discussion. Tognazzini and Savage will use exam-
ples to guide the discussion and will help students think about how their own skills and experiences fit as examples of what employers are looking for in an applicant. “Students will have the opportunity to practice the skills we will talk about,” Tognazzini said. The discussion will touch on how students should brand themselves by compiling the various experiences from their time as undergraduates. This will help students promote themselves on the job market, Tognazzini said. “I hope that students will leave with some concrete examples of how they can communicate their experience as leaders in a way that is relevant to their job search,” Savage said. For students who are not able to make it to the event, both Tognazzini and Savage have a few quick tips. “Job applicants need to remember to both show and tell how their skills relate to the position they are applying for,” she said. “Also, yes—you do need to write a specific cover letter for each job you are applying for.” Tognazzini suggested scheduling an appointment with an advisor in the Career Services Center for help with anything related to post-graduation plans. “You already paid for it, so take advantage!” she said.
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AS Communications unveils new ‘Ask the AS’ project BY WILL MCCOY
Have you ever wondered when a certain event is or where the different resources we have on campus are? Your questions will be answered soon by the new program “Ask the AS”. The AS communication department is currently working on a new program where students can ask any question related to on-campus activity. The idea for a Q&A-based program came after the AS Communications Coordinator, Sierra Tryon, was browsing YikYak and noticed students were asking questions about several topics relating to Western. “So many students had questions but didn’t know where to look for answers,” she said. “I thought a service like Ask the AS would be useful.” Ask the AS is a great way to get students engaged in their school- both with the AS and the events and resources they seek. Ask the AS will make the AS more accessible to the student body. Tryon expects questions about directing students to resources, such as the Womens Center, Legal Info Center and Sexual Awareness Center, as well as more generic questions like event details and gender-neutral bathroom locations. Both the AS communications director and coordinator will provide answers to the questions asked, Tryon said. One difficult she expects to encounter is the time it takes to respond to the questions. “I am a student too, and there will be several times where a question pops up and I will be in class,” she said. “It will be hard to respond immediately during those times so I will have to be transparent about that fact and hope that students understand if there is a delay for getting an answer.” Ask the AS is still being developed, but the program will start answering questions by the end of the month. Once you start seeing posters for it on campus, you can start sending questions to the AS, Tryon said.
Coffee, crafts and concerns: a chance to express your opinion on Western’s accessability and disability policies
BY BECKY CAMPBELL
The AS Disability Outreach Center will be hosting its second event this quarter to open the dialogue about mental health, accessibility and disability on Western’s campus. The event, titled ‘Coffee, Crafts & Concerns’ will be held on Feb. 23 from 5:307:30 p.m. in Viking Union 464 and is open to students, staff and professors. After the last successful event that the Outreach Center hosted in January of this year, Annika Fleming, coordinator of the AS Disability Outreach Center, decided to continue the open discussion about what it means to have a mental or physical disability as a student on campus. Coffee, Crafts & Concerns follows this successful event not only for the Outreach Center, but for BRAVE, the suicide prevention program that was implemented on Western’s campus just a few short years ago after a rash of suicides in the Bellingham area. Fleming told the AS Review that there has never been a series of events like these on campus before. This particular type of event, she says, allows students a safe place to express their opinions and concerns about the state of Western’s accessibility and disability policies, procedures and programs. Similarly to the advent of the new gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, Flem-
ing said students saw a need to come together and make a change in policies. She hopes that these events put on by the Outreach Center will spur a larger grassroots change that will bring the conversation of accessibility and disability to the forefront of Western’s student dialogue. Several activities will be featured at Coffee, Crafts & Concerns, like the relaxation stations which includes things like soap making, coloring books and rock painting, giving participants a tangible reminder of the center’s dedication of creating a place that all students -- despite any accessibility concerns can be welcome. For those students who are concerned about addressing their issues publicly, the Outreach Center is providing options to submit questions and concerns anonymously during this event. Adaptive and assistive technology like iPads for students with autism and Pocketalker Personal Amplifiers for those hard of hearing are being checked out from the Ershig Assistive Technology Resource Center and will be featured for students to take advantage of in a safe learning environment. Attendees are being asked to RSVP via the Outreach Center’s Facebook page at facebook.com/ASdisabilityoutreachcenter.
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Professor turns math into beauty
BY CHRIS BESWETHERICK
T
eresa Downard, a Western math professor, sees the artistic beauty in math. Drawing from an early age and then developing a close relationship with math through her higher education, Downard began connecting those two spheres of her life to become a math artist. Downard is also teaching the first-ever math art class next quarter. “I had always considered [math and art] very separate things,” Downard said. “But at that point [graduate school] I was so heavy into the math stuff, you know, the math was getting into everything else.” Downard’s office is a gallery of her artwork. On the back wall hangs a drawing that looks like a perfectly laid-out tablecloth, but this artwork is actually visually represents the patterns found in prime and composite numbers. Similar to finding patterns in prime numbers, Downard discovers other mathematical patterns and principles as inspiration for her art. “Some of my artwork has to do with mathematical results I thought were particularly beautiful and trying to represent them visually, which is kind of tricky,” Downard said. “I did a piece recently where I was actually trying to answer some questions based on a picture, but that’s hard.”
Downard painted a warm colored portrait of a woman sitting in a plane of lines. She based this portrait on the Kuratowski Planarity Criterion, a study about graph theory. In January she attended the Joint Math Conference in Seattle and displayed some of her work. She has connected with many other math artists since the start of her practice. In fact, for last year’s Joint Math Conference, she gave a talk about a new math class Downard will teach spring quarter: Math 160, Mathematics and art. “Everyday we will have a new kind of problem that is based on a pretty picture that we will try to figure out and answer questions about,” Downard said. Downard designed the new class and will be the teacher for its first quarter. The only per-requisite is the completion of Math 112 with at least a C-, or a suitable Math Placement Score. The course does not demand for the knowledge of upper-level math skills, however many of the topics will delve into principles taught at higher levels on campus. The crux of the class will rely on the students’ math journals as the journals will show the artistic and mathematical processes used to identify the apparent math. The course will cover a breadth of artwork and
mathematical subjects such as graph theory, perspective and different kinds of geometries. “[It’s] a survey class that gives you exposure to the bigger portion of mathematics and the main focus is the problem solving,” Downard said. It’s strange to interconnect mathematics and art as they are vastly different, and often times associated with different types of learners. However, Downard points out several models in real life which are identifiable in artwork. “The most common examples are fractals, and things that use special proportions,” she said. “Like the golden ratio is a very famous proportion used in a lot of renaissance art.” These artistic uses of mathematical concepts defines math art. “You see people trying to use mathematical ideas to make their art have deeper meaning in some way,” Downard said. That is exactly what Downard is doing with her class, teaching both subjects in order to simultaneously give more meaning to each topic.
MATH 160 Mathematics and Art Offered: Spring 2016 Credits: 4 Time and days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 2-2:50 p.m. Prerequisites: MATH 112 or a suitable General Math Placement Test score.
Professor Teresa Downard displays her math artwork. Photos by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
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The Underground Coffeehouse Wednesday Night Concert Series
BAND OF THE WEEK
Evan Wecksell A MUSIC REVIEW BY IAN SANQUIST
Evan Wecksell, a comedian and musician from Great Neck, New York, will be performing in the Underground Coffeehouse this Wednesday. Wecksell has been touring professionally since 2004, playing shows in 45 states, while fitting in numerous appearances on TV, recording an album “LOL”, and co-writing “College The Musical: A Musical About College”, which sold out runs in New York and L.A. Wecksell strings together just enough power chords during his act to punctuate his jokes, while keep most of his attention focused on the changing dynamics of his audience. Popular routines include “BonJovi219”, a self-deprecating story-song on the adventures of a college student who spends his life on the internet, “FML.com”, a compilation of everyday miseries and indignities first recorded on the eponymous website, which Wecksell follows with a F my life contest, seeking submissions from audience members, and “Top Ten Things about …”, with Wecksell filling in the university at which he is performing in the blank. After initially pursuing a career in sports marketing, Wecksell discovered his passion for comedy during a presentation he gave for a marketing seminar.
He then began to perform at open mics around New York City, incorporating the guitar after a year of doing solo stand-up. Among his influences, Wecksell names comedians like Adam Sandler and Stephen Lynch. The material featured on Wecksell’s website feels less thoughtful, and less original, than much of the comedy that’s recently been coming out of Bellingham’s homegrown seen, but it will be interesting to see how he adapts to the crowd at the Underground, or if the crowd at the Underground will be a receptive audience to him. Dummy Crew will perform with Wecksell. Dummy Crew is a new recording project featuring space-age electronic rap beats, the shiny and synthetic textures of corporate boardrooms and slogans and elevators, merged with heady social criticism, astounding vulgarity, and psychotic energy. On the EP “Nobinashi”, Dummy Crew shares the adventures of John Q Public, a loyal employee of the sinister Nobinashi Corporation. During an average day, John Q rides in the elevator to the hundredth floor, discusses with a co-worker the company’s policy of enrolling all children of employees in a corporate day-care from birth to kindergarten, is treated to a video preaching the corpo-
rate ideology of acquisition and merger, offered a position as the company spokesman, and reassures his son, who, on the opening track, wakes up from a nightmare that corporations are people. The beat to “Elevator” suggests a warm but uneasy ambience, the atmosphere of a corporate office building where thousands of people go to work each day, and only a few actually know each other. “Corporate Video” is assaultive “Blade Runner”-esque electronica, centered around the deep and authoritarian voice of a robber baron. Possible reference points include John Carpenter’s 1988 movie “They Live”, Margaret Atwood’s novel “Oryx and Crake,” which depicts a corporate dystopia, and the rap album “Deltron 3030”. In its assemblage of manic and chatty voices, incorporation of advertising mantras and cultural detritus, surrealistic lyrical content, and suspicion of corporate ideology, Dummy Crew can feel similar to the subversively psychedelic comedy troupe active from the sixties, Firesign Theater—at least on “Nobinashi”. In October 2015, Dummy Crew released “Stab Yourself With A Gun Before You Listen To This Album”. Taking language to unparalleled heights of absurd
vulgarity, the album plays over heavy, blunted, funky, jazzy beats, digitally raising or deepening voices, like producer Madlib’s alter-ego Quasimoto, all while dropping casual references to literary icons like Truman Capote and Bukowski (in a slip-up with “Bukake”). It can be a challenge to grasp any distinct personality on the album, simply because of the abundance of personality. On Dummy Crew’s Bandcamp page, over twenty names are listed as members. Whether this extensive roster is to be believed, or is another gesture in the interest of dissimulation, Dummy Crew’s music is as pluralistic as it comes, spinning from sinisterly twinkling electronic ghost stories (“Really Scary”), to brashly inarticulate celebrations of capital gains (“Boat Money Cash”), to absolutely bad-mannered and densely woven lyrical textures (“Suck F***”). In April 2015, Dummy Crew released a 100-song collection. On the 27th track of this collection, “Crisco Veins,” someone raps, “Dummy Crew just tryin’ to make a rap surplus.” As this release and subsequent ones demonstrate, mission accomplished. Evan Wecksell will play with Dummy Crew this Wednesday in the Underground Coffeehouse at 7 p.m.
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Stay active this winter with Morgan Annable: Lake Padden
Housing and Hashbrowns: everything you need to know about living off campus, with breakfast BY WILL MCCOY We’re in the middle of February, and students have started thinking about where they will want to live for the next school year. For many, this will be their first time looking for a living space, which can be frightening. Housing and Hashbrowns will be the first event of its kind, aimed at providing students information about living off campus. Several speakers will give their expert opinion on various aspects of renting a living space. This event will take place in the VU MPR on Feb. 20, at 10 a.m. Breakfast will be provided for all attendees. “This event is open to all students,” Carmen Rasmussen, coordinator of the Campus Community Coalition and New Student Program Initiatives, said. “I think every students thinking about living off campus for the first time should
“It is important for every person living off campus to be prepared with the right information so they can have the best living experience possible.” - Assistant Fire Chief Bill Hewett
Lake Padden on a sunny day. Photo by Morgan Annable // AS Review
Lake Padden is a treasure trove of activities, from golfing to biking to playing on the playground. There are several parking areas, including the two main entrances off of Samish Way. To get there by bus, take the 44 bus toward Yew Street and get off at the Samish Way at E Lake Padden bus stop. The traditional layout 18-hole golf course meanders through a second-generation old-growth forest with trees up to 150 feet tall. Golf Digest rated Lake Padden Golf Course one of the best municipal courses in the state. Winter rates at the golf course last until March 15, so get your golfing in before the prices increase. To play 18 holes on weekdays costs $23 in the morning and $18.40 after noon, and on weekends costs $29.44 in the morning and $23 after noon. 9 holes costs $13.80 any time of day and any day of the week. If traditional golf is not your cup of tea, but you want to see the award-winning golf course, try FootGolf. The rules are virtually identical to those of regular golf, but it is played with a soccer ball. Call (360) 738-7400 to schedule a FootGolf time. It costs $16.56 to play 18 holes of FootGolf, and $11.04 for 9 holes. Mountain bikers, equestrians and hikers both novice and experienced can enjoy the trails near Lake Padden. The trail around the lake stretches 2.6 miles. There is an additional 5.1 miles of multipurpose trails south and east of the lake. These trails are more difficult and much hillier. Lake Padden Park also features a small beach, picnic shelters, a basketball court, softball fields, barbecue grills and a fenced dog park.
attend, but students who are living off campus currently can still learn a lot, especially if they haven’t had the best renting experiences.” Several people from around the community will speak at this event, and explain different aspects of living off campus to students. Rasmussen will talk about personal safety and how to be a good neighbor. Assistant Fire Chief Bill Hewett will be speaking at the event as well. His goal is to provide information to students about fire and community safety. He will cover what to do in a situation with a fire, explain how to check if your house is up to the fire code standards and how to prevent fires from starting. “It is important for every person living off campus to be prepared with the right information so they can have the best living experience possible,” he said. Other speakers will be from the AS Legal Information center, Emergency Management, NW Clean Air Agency and the City of Bellingham’s Rental and Registration program. Topics will range from emergency preparedness to what to do with mold in your house. Rasmussen understands that it is hard to live off campus, and some students don’t fully understand what they are getting themselves into. “Off-campus living can be a stressful part of any student’s life, and it is important to have that experience be a positive one. I hope that the information we provide will help students create a positive environment when they decide to live off campus,” she said. If you cannot attend this event, The CCC and AS plan to upload a video recording on Westerns off campus living website. Along with the video, there are other resources on their website that go into detail about all the different aspects of living off campus discussed in the event.
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Quidditch Crazy: WWU’s Wyverns Take On The Northwest Region BY BECKY CAMPBELL The unique phrase “Brooms down!” is heard at least once a week on Western’s campus by the members of the Wyverns, Western’s official quidditch team. Quidditch, a fantasy sport inspired by the hugely popular book series Harry Potter is making its heyday across the country at many universities since its original founding in 2007, including Western’s campus. Departing from most traditional sports, quidditch is a uniquely co-ed game taking parts of rugby, dodgeball and tag to create an entirely new game. Stated on the official US Quidditch website, there are almost 200 teams nationwide serving over 4,000 athletes. This organization also offers athletic-grade training for individuals interested in training, refereeing and directing tournaments. For the second year in a row the Western Wyvern’s made their way to the Northwest Regional USQ (US Quidditch) Championships held this past weekend on Feb. 6 in Salem, Oregon. The Northwest region covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and parts of Canada and includes at least 10 different teams that were included at this event: WWU Wyverns, Vancouver Vipertooths, Alber- The WWU Wyverns at the Northwest Regionals. Photo courtesy of WWU Quidditch ta Clippers, Emerald City Admirals, Rain City Raptors, Boise State Thestrals, British Columbia Quidditch Club, Moscow Manticores, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. The Wyvern’s assistant coach, Marcus Toomey said that the team had hope and inspiration going into this tournament and were looking for a win, which would help boost the team’s morale after a losing season. Placing 4th overall with 4-2 record, the Wyvern’s will not be heading to US Quidditch Cup 9 in Columbia, South Carolina from April 16-17. Even though they didn’t place Toomey said that they team was just happy to play quidditch with other like-minded individuals. Since last year, the Wyverns have lost some of their more seasoned players to others teams for a variety of reasons, the most common one not being a student at Western anymore. Former team captain and Western alumni, Nicole Jackson, left the team last spring and joined the Rain City Raptors, a freshman quidditch team out of the Puget Sound. Even with this loss of all-star players and veterans, Toomey says the team is happily introducing rookies to the sport as they continue to grow the inclusive community within the body of Western students and beyond. Though the team isn’t moving on, Toomey says the focus will continue to be, as it always has been, creating a fun and meaningful community for the sport. The Wyvern’s practice three times a week on the Communications Facility lawn on south campus. Practices are on Sundays from 1:303:30 p.m., Tuesdays from 7-9 p.m. and Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m.. The Wyvern’s encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about the sport or playing to come to one of their three practices during the week or post questions on their Facebook page at Three bludgers and a quaffle lined up in the middle of the field before the start of a facebook.com/QuidditchWWU. match. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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BY MARINA PRICE
Noah Gunderson returns to Western
Seattle-based folk musician Noah Gunderson will make a return to Western campus on Friday, Feb 19 at 7 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room to mark the release of his second fulllength LP, “Carry the Ghost.” Gunderson first performed at Western in 2011, to much acclaim from students. AS Productions Marketing Coordinator Aarin Wright said folk music is widely appreciated among the Western student population. Born in Olympia Wash, Gunderson’s first musical group was a band he founded called “the Courage,” which was made up of members of his family, including his sister Abby Gunderson and brother Jonathan Gunderson. The Courage disbanded in 2011, but Gunderson continues to make music as a solo folk artist. Gunderson said on his website that “Carry the Ghost” is deeply rooted in his own personal exploration of existential philosophy. “This album grew out of a desire to know myself, to know how I was supposed to live,” he wrote.
The album was produced by Gunderson himself, and mixed by Phil Ek, who has worked with other notable folk musicians such as Father John Misty and Band of Horses. Although Gunderson is no longer officially a member of The Courage, his brother and sister collaborated with him on his album, and continue to tour with him as a three piece band. Opening for Gunderson will be the bands Lemolo and Ghosts I’ve Met. Lemolo is the project of another Seattle musician Meagan Grandall, who has also recently released a sophomore album. Ghosts I’ve Met started as the project of singer songwriter Sam Watts in Seattle, but has since grown to feature a number of different songwriters and musicians. The three groups will play at the VU MPR on Feb 19 at 7 p.m., with student tickets going for $12 and non student ID Gunderson performing at To Write Love On holders going for $15 at the PAC box office.
Her Arms at Western in 2014. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
Club Spotlight: Darkside Printing BY CHRIS BESWETHERICK A creative group of art students who make up Western’s Darkside Printers club meets in the Fine Arts building on Thursday evenings. At these meetings, the students professionally critique each other’s artwork and prepare for their trip to the 2016 Southern Graphics International Convention (SCGI) in Portland, Oregon. In Room 214 the group’s conversations oscillate from friendly and knowledgeable chat, to helpful and serious critiques. The group is currently fundraising for their trip to the SCGI convention where they will share their screen-printed pieces and other digital artwork. The club will have a live screen-printing presentation for acquiring the necessary funds on vendor row. Members will sell screen prints and other works of art they have made. All the funding they earn from their shop will aid their trip. Their meetings are professional. Their latest meeting began with coordinating their fundraiser and an update on travel and hospitality info. Soon after, many members took out their artwork and the club agenda promptly shifted to a critique session. The group made rounds all through the art building: first in the entry hall, then through all parts of the printmaking classroom. Some work was in progress, and other projects were nearing completion. The students suggested new elements to incorporate, commented on the piece’s significance and alluded to professional artists with similar work. Currently the club does not have access to the screen-printers available in their classroom, however the club’s director Hugh Rountry is appealing to the art department for access. Once the club has permission to use the equipment, they will be able to screen-print during club meetings. The club is project oriented so attending the club would be more appropriate and valuable with works of art to share. Nevertheless, the club is a window to see exceptional art made by Western’s art students. The club meets in Room 214 of the Fine Arts building on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m.
Hand screen-printing is done on a small wooden frame. Photo courtesy of Martin Karvos
02.16.2016• 11
Mt Baker Theatre celebrates the 100th year anniversary of Sherlock Holmes
BY MORGAN ANNABLE
The Mount Baker Theatre is joining the recent bandwagon of Sherlock Holmes mania. The BBC show brought Holmes into the 21st century, but the Mount Baker Theatre is taking the character back to his roots by showing the 1916 film Sherlock Holmes starring William Gillette. The Mount Baker Theatre is hosting a series of silent films this winter. Sherlock Holmes is the second in the series; it will be shown on February 21 at 3 p.m. Tickets start at $10 and the film runs approximately two hours. The film was presumed lost for years, until it was discovered in 2014 in the Paris film archive Cinematheque Francaise. The film turns 100 years old this year. It stars American stage actor William Gillette, who adapted the character of Sherlock Holmes for theater. Gillette’s only film appearance was in Sherlock Holmes. “At last we get to see for ourselves the actor who kept the first generation of Sherlockians spellbound,” University of California-Berkeley film professor Russell Merritt said in an interview with BBC News. “As far as Holmes is concerned, there’s not an actor dead or alive who hasn’t consciously or intuitively played off Gillette.” According to a BBC news article, Gillette’s portrayal of Holmes helped inspire Arthur Conan Doyle to resurrect the character killing him off in The Final Problem. Gillette also introduced many of the attributes that modern Sherlock fans know and love, for instance, the curved pipe and deerstalker hat. In Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes, a prince’s incriminating letters to his ex-lover must be recovered. Meanwhile, the lover, Alice Faulkner, is being held captive by a husband-wife criminal team who are trying to get the letters from Alice so they can blackmail the prince. They involve Professor Moriarty to help them secure the letters, and the story consists of a battle of wits between Holmes and Moriarty. Organist Dennis James will provide a live soundtrack to the film. James is the Theater Organist for the Washington Center, the House Organist for the Coleman Theater in Miami, Oklahoma, and Cinequest Festival film organist for California Theater in San Jose, California. He researches every film he performs for to make sure his music and sound effects are authentic for the time period of the film. The third event in the silent film series is a action double feature including Hell’s Hinges and The Americano. Hell’s Hinges is a quintessential William S. Hart film full of plenty of action, realism and intensity. Hart paved the way for John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. stars in The Americano as an American man who travels to Latin America and must rescue the president’s daughter from a dictator.
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B-Gallery Co-exhibition: Pick Me Up & American Shamanic
Paul Grewel’s exhibit “American Shamanic” in the B Gallery. “My art deals with creating form within that abstraction and yet attempting not to destroy the abstract origin of that form. I call it American Shamanic because it references the notion of the artist as a shaman. The artist as the mediator between the society and ‘spiritual plane.’ The artist as communicator of timeless realities like death and liberation. The artist as a vessel for something greater.”
Hannah Raper’s interactive exhibit “Pick Me Up” allows viewers to rearrange objects in the B Gallery.