AS SIRC presents poetry workshop with Remi Kanazi, page 9
AS VU Gallery presents Adam Fung, page 4 Vol. 31 #21 2.29.2016
Vol. 31 #21 2.29.2016
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A piece from Adam Fung’s show in the VU Gallery. For more information, turn to page 4. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
AS Featured Event:
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. 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 Chris Beswetherick Morgan Annable Will McCoy Becky Campbell Designer Zach Becker Adviser Jeff Bates
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers
Sunlight streams between trees in the Arboretum. The first day of spring is on March 20. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
2.29. 2016 • 3
EVENTS AS Job Fair
Memoirs
Associated Students? Over 100 positions will be available for next year. Head to the AS Job Fair to get an idea of job
This year’s Memoirs event, hosted by the AS Womxn’s Center, will take the form of a 3-night art show in Western’s B Gallery.
March 1 // 11 a.m. // VU MPR // Free March 2- 4 // 6 p.m.// B Gallery // Free Interested in a job with Western’s
opportunities you might be interested in.
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Thank Your Lucky Stars Beach House
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Currents Tame Impala
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Blackstar David Bowie
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Every Open Eye Chvrches
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Be Small Here We Go Magic
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Product 3 Beat Connection
Western’s annual Global Gourmets dinner will be on March 3rd and will showcase traditional dishes from around the world. For more information, turn to page 9.
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The Cutting Edge 1965- 1966 Bob Dylan
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Art Angels Grimes
Festival of (In) appropriation
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Horizons Painted Palms
Conversation on Classroom 2016 Spring Bee-In March 2 // 7 p.m.// Fairhaven Climate College Room 300B // Free Monday, Feb 29 // 5 p.m. // VU 462 // Free
Open to students and community members alike, the AS Outback A discussion on efforts made by the Farm’s Be-In will teach the basics of Faculty Senate to address issues on bee-keeping, and let attendees know classroom climate at Western will take how they can get involved with the place on Monday. This will be a student- led Outback Farm’s educational apiary discussion and snacks will be provided. next season.
Cultures of Resistance Presents: Remi Kanazi Tuesday, March 1 // 6 p.m. // Miller 152 // Free The final installment of the AS SIRC’s Cultures of Resistance series will take place on Tuesday in the form of a poetry workshop by internationally renown poet, artist and activist Remi Kanazi. For more information, turn to page 9.
Women in Service Tuesday, March 1// 3:30 p.m. // FR 101 // Free Hosted by the Veterans Outreach Center, Women in Service will include a panel discussion with students, faculty and alumnae.
Top Ten: February 21- 29
Global Gourmets March 3 // 6:30 p.m. // VU 565 // $12
March 3 // 8 p.m.// Pickford Film Center // Co-hosted by ASP Films, this series of films will take an in-depth look at repurposed cinema and its applications. For more information, turn to page 5.
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Gone By Dawn Shannon and the Clams 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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Step into the 1940’s: An Evening of Mystery and Intrigue BY BECKY CAMPBELL Stepping into the swinging forties, the Viking Radio Theatre will be hosting the 2nd annual mystery dinner night on Friday, March 6, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Leopold Crystal Ballroom in downtown Bellingham at 1224 Cornwall Avenue. This event, hosted by the Viking Radio Theatre, FoulPlay Murder Mystery Club and the Swing Kids club is set to feature live radio drama performances, a catered dinner, swing dancing, mock casino gaming and a murder mystery for all attendees to solve. Students and community members are encouraged to dress up to the nines in vintage attire for an evening of classic entertainment and intrigue, said Walter Putsch, Viking Radio Theatre production direction. Included in the evening festivities is the chance to play blackjack, poker and craps to earn prizes. In order to obtain a raffle ticket, any individual must earn $250 or more from
BY MARINA PRICE
the mock casino to qualify. The popularity of last years event came as a surprise to the clubs and with popular demand they have brought it back as a hopefully reoccuring annual tradition for everyone to enjoy. Some of the entertainment during the evening will be performed by members of the Viking Radio Theatre in the form of live radio drama pieces written by members of the club. Their mission is to bring back the flair and unique theatrical thrill of radio drama to todays airwaves. The primary goal of the club, says Putsch, is to showcase the talent of Western students to the local community and campus. Listeners can follow their stories on Bellingham’s KUGS radio at 89.3FM. The other primary host of this event is the Swing Kids, a dance-club on Western’s campus that teaches anyone who wants to come and learn how to dance. This AS club, which was established more than
a decade ago meets weekly on Wednesday nights in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room from 6-9pm. Meetings are free and anyone regardless of skill is welcome. In order for the mystery dinner night to be a success, said Putsch, he is encouraging students to come out in their most creative outfits, suspend belief for a few hours and participate in the grandstanding experience that is a murder mystery dinner. Tickets are now on sale for pre-registration at $15 for Western students and faculty and $20 for non-students through Viking Radio Theatre’s website and Facebook page. Pre-registration will end on Sunday, February 28. After that date, tickets prices will increase to $20 for students and faculty and $25 for non-students. For more information on this event, visit the Viking Radio Theatre Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vikingradiotheatre.
AS VU Gallery welcomes art from Adam Fung: Full of Infinite Space
The AS VU Gallery is now home to a new temporary exhibit titled “Full of Infinite Space” from WWU Bachelor of Fine Arts alum and internationally recognized artist Adam Fung. Fung is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Texas Christian University. Fung’s main medium is painting, although his works have recently included sculptures produced from 3D printing. Fung’s work in the VU Gallery includes
about 20 paintings, and premiers his new inflatable painting. He created these works after a recent trip to West Texas and New Mexico, where he visited a number of observatories and Spaceport America. Fung’s show in the VU Gallery will run until March 11, and the reception will be on March 7 at 6 p.m., followed the next day by a lecture from Fung at 4 p.m. in the Old Main Theatre. The lecture will be
free. From the artist’s statement: “Upon return from these locations, these paintings evolved simultaneously with process becoming paramount to their creation. Composed of a series of lines, forms, textures, and a range of paint applications, the illusionistic spaces found in my previous work are eliminated all together. The multitude of layers act as means to conceal, overlap, reveal, and
respond to what came before. Starting points are lost, redrawn and in rare circumstances, resurrected. The paintings succumb to inertia, hesitating to arrive at a finished point, rather acting as vantage points, patterns, plans or a search for future visualizations.” Turn to the back page of this AS Review issue for some photos of the gallery exhibit, including Fung’s new inflatable painting.
Festival of (In)appropriation showcases repurposed cinema
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BY MORGAN ANNABLE
The Festival of (In)appropriation is an annual showcase of short, innovative audiovisual works that take existing film, video, or other media and repurpose it to make something completely new. In other words, the filmmakers use their existing material in “inappropriate” ways. Each film is no more than 20 minutes long. AS Films Coordinator Nate Sawtell said that he has been working with film studies professor Greg Youmans and Pickford Film Center marketing manager Lindsey Gerhard to bring the festival to Bellingham. The show is at 8 p.m. on March 3 at Pickford Film Center. “I’m holding this event because there is little representation for this type of cinema (recycled cinema, or found footage) either on campus or in Bellingham,” Sawtell said. “I think that this festival gives a chance for both students and the members of the public who are interested in video art to watch and enjoy some new and exciting films within the field.” He said that the festival will provide an opportunity for students as well as the general public to see films that they would otherwise not have a chance to see. The festival will be a unique film viewing experience even if the original material is familiar to the audience, because the makers of the films featured in the festival repurpose the originals to make a completely different meaning. Students who attend the festival will have a chance to become connected with the creative community in
Bellingham outside of Western. AS Productions Director Jonah Falk said that, because the festival is a collaboration between Pickford Film Center and Western’s AS Productions, it will be a simple way for students to begin networking with the larger Bellingham arts and entertainment community. “Getting out into the creative community in Bellingham, in addition to campus activities, had a huge impact on me because I met a ton of artists and people that share my interests,” Falk said. “[Sawtell] is doing a great job of linking our campus network with the rest of Bellingham, I’m excited to see what can come from that.” The festival is currently in its eighth year. This year’s 12 films range from Afrofuturism to a Call of Duty: Black Ops remix. Films that caught our eye Astro Black: We are the Robots uses a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind mixed with German electronic music, Star Trek characters, and David Bowie to create, as the festival’s website says, “a transnational conception of cultural production that unsettles our linear conceptions of time. In Landscape with broken dog, Argentinian filmmaker Orazio Leogrande combines found footage from archives all over the world and overlays an original score.
The film explores a shared delusion of discovery and medical experiments. Let Me ASMR You is a Canadian work intended to evoke a physical response in viewers. Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR, is an unexplained phenomenon characterized by a tingling sensation in the head, scalp, or back, evoked by a visual or auditory stimulus. It Takes All Sorts appropriates audio excerpts from a 1970s education film about medical labor and animates woodland flora and fauna to make them speak the words from the film. Filmmaker Rachel Stuckey creates a human-less world which highlights the mechanized nature of our real healthcare system. Overpass takes viewers back to 1994 with the famous OJ Simpson car chase. A voiceover blends personal narrative with Shakespeare’s Othello and explores the filmmaker’s personal connection to the car chase on the freeways of Los Angeles. These five films, plus seven equally strange ones, will take viewers down roads simultaneously familiar and brand new, and will introduce Bellingham and Western to an unusual type of filmmaking.
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Stay active this winter with Morgan Annable: at-home workouts
Club Showcase: Super Smash your way to success BY CHRIS BESWETHERICK Loud cheers of excitement and amazement are guaranteed in a brutal match of Super Smash Bros. Every Friday afternoon at the AS Super Smash Bros club meeting from 4 p.m. until around 7 p.m. in the Viking Union, you’ll hear these reactions. With over 500 students and gamers subscribed to the Super Smash Bros. (SSM) club’s facebook page, meetings often attract a large amount of participants. The group consistantly guarantees tournaments lasting three or more hours. Every other week the club has a Super Smash Bros. Melee (SSBM) tournament, and the weeks they don’t play SSBM, they play another Super Smash Bros. game, such as Project M, or the Wii U version. What’s most comprehensive about this club is their attention to ranking. Every week, the winners and losers of the tournaments are recorded and with that information the club administrators update a google doc page with player names, their ranking and the characters they use. This record proves who in the club are the best players. However, a lot of the members in the group are more casual players of SSB, and they easily fit in. “Whenever you come to a meeting, there’s someone around your skill level,” Tristan Gray, President of the club said. SSB club welcomes players of any level to join in. You do not need to be an official member of the club to attend a meeting. Some of the more dedicated members of the club, however, enter competitions in local Super Smash Bros. regions, and further away regions. Gray and some other members traveled to California where they competed in a multi-day tournament. SSB is an internationally played game, and players are everywhere, so joining this club can also network players with other players around the nation, but more easily in Bellingham. “Bellingham has a great [Super Smash Bros.] scene,” Gray said. For those who don’t know much about Super Smash Bros and would like to get involved, there is a free documentary about the game and its intense following on Youtube called “The Smash Brothers Documentary.” The full video is more than 4 hours long, and follows some of the different players journey’s into tournaments. It also covers how such a simple game, created in 1999 and not meant for massive competitions, wound up selling over 7 million units worldwide. The club has reasons to join for every type of SSB player: someone casual, or someone competitive. Regardless of either level of interest, it’s a hub for gamers and friends.
AS Review photographer Trevor Grimm enjoys themed at-home workouts. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review A busload of Western athletes recently drove 12 hours for a competition in Idaho. It is not necessary to travel that far to be active. In fact, there is no need to leave the house. My roommate is currently in the middle of the 30 Day Little Black Dress Challenge, which is designed to tone the areas of the body that are most shown off when wearing a cute dress. Find it at 30dayfitnesschallenges.com. This challenge includes planks, lunges, squats, and other workouts that require little space and no equipment. Marvel and DC fans alike, take note. Darebee.com is home to many superhero-themed workouts. Watch your favorite television show or movie while working out to become more like a superhero. The Quicksilver requires a couch for tricep dips, so the living room is the perfect place for this workout. If Disney is more your thing, try the Tarzan workout from darebee.com while watching the movie. Check out the index of f***yeahmovieworkouts.tumblr.com for more workouts to try while watching Disney movies, Harry Potter, and scores of other movies. The workouts are formatted like movie-related drinking games. For example, in the Breakfast Club workout, every time the characters talk about their parents, do 20 crunches. If you ever wished you could be in the game Temple Run, you can at least try the themed workout. It consists entirely of high knees and jumping, which may save you from demonic monkeys some day. There are even literary themed workouts. Epic poetry aficionados might try the Beowulf workout, while Tolkien fans should check out the Legolas workout. Beginners who want to try a lower body workout might try the Cookie workout. At the completion of each set of jumping jacks, leg raises, and more, treat yourself to a cookie. The workouts on darebee.com are free and they show what part of the body each workout focuses on, the difficulty, and the type of workout. The Legolas workout, for example, is a combat skills type workout. The Night’s Watch includes both strength and AS Review photographer Trevor Grimm enjoys themed at-home workouts. tone. The Firestorm is a high burn type and a streamline type workout. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
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Underground Coffeehouse Wednesday Night Concert Series
BAND OF THE WEEK
Bootleg Sunshine
A MUSIC REVIEW BY IAN SANQUIST This Wednesday, Bootleg Sunshine will play in the Underground Coffeehouse with Emma Lee Toyoda. The show starts at 7 p.m. Bootleg Sunshine, a Seattle band, describe their vibe bluntly and open-endedly on their website, with the deceptively simple statement, “Bootleg Sunshine play American music.” A statement like this is probably meant more as a challenge than as any attempt to accurately describe the sound of the band’s music. But the challenge itself is worth considering, as it invites prospective listeners to take stock of what they think of or hold dear as “American music.” In Bootleg Sunshine’s case, American music presents itself as fiddle-heavy, jaunty folk songs full of longing and diverse musical flavors. The band’s live recording from the Tractor Tavern includes “March of the Sea Cucumber,” an epic grooving instrumental that incorporates calypso and tango, and moves into a funky salsa boogie freakout with jazzed-up drum solos, all while retaining its central bluegrass DNA. Next is “Fire on the Mountain,” as traditional a bluegrass dance stomp as they come. You listen to it and can imagine the floor shaking, frantic feet unsettling dust, in a saloon lit by flickering kerosene lamps. Early videos feature Bootleg Sunshine performing as a duo, just guitar and fiddle, in wide-open fields. It’s spacious and pastoral, and in one, “For Lovers II-III,” ambient songbirds fill out spaces left by the melody with such fluency that one can really only imagine this song performed in a meadow or on a hillside, during a picnic, say—anywhere but in a studio, in any case. Bootleg Sunshine plays the kind of music that makes you want to head for the sticks, to get away from all the concrete, maybe to a cabin, and just listen close and move around to the feeling of closeness that the songs inspire.
Emma Lee Toyoda will open the show. Toyoda is an indie folk singer-songwriter from Seattle. Her most recent release on Bandcamp is the two-song “What A Shame,” which Toyoda describes as “some sad piano ballads bc im sick + winter sux”. The title track of this all-too-brief release contains one of the best, most suggestive opening lines I’ve heard recently: “She looks like me, but we/Don’t have anything else in common/Oh what a shame.” Toyoda sings in a deep, glossy and ponderous voice, that sounds profoundly connected to the earth at the same time as it can sound like it’s on the verge of floating away. She sounds calm to the point of desolation, and her voice plays beautifully against the haunting and sparse acoustic arrangements that she favors. On “Trapped,” from “Meadows,” a collection of demos posted in February 2015, Toyoda offers a fresh image for that most familiar genre of songs on the topic of soured love: “Our fingers stopped fitting long ago/But still I fought for you/Now you’re gone and lost in a song/Looking for others to fool.” The collection ends with what might be the most melancholy song I’ve ever heard recorded with a ukulele, “Replaced.” The arrangement is so subtle and lonely and breathtakingly gentle, and the emotions so bare, that the song feels timeless, a classic of nostalgic introspective folk, up there with “These Days,” and “Both Sides Now”. In March 2015, Toyoda took third place in EMP’s Sound Off! competition of underage musicians. The “Wine is in the Fridge” collection of demos from October 2015 contains some of her most upbeat and pop-friendly recordings. These songs are highly polished, produced with fuller arrangements, and if they lack the intimacy of the songs on “Meadows,” they represent a step forward in terms of craft and song structure. Emma Lee Toyoda will play with Bootleg Sunshine this Wednesday in the Underground Coffeehouse at 7 p.m.
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AS SIRC Cultures of Resistance
series comes to a close BY CHRIS BESWETHERICK
“I’m part of a system that’s falling apart,” 15 year old Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, internationally known environmental activist stated at the SIRC’s Cultures of Resistance event performance in Western’s Multipurpose Room. Inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour,” when he was only 6-years-old, Martinez writes rap music about his relationship with the earth, and travels the world lecturing and performing his environmental goals of changing the earth. Martinez marched onto the stage, and confidently spoke to a group of students and adults with well-formed poetic sentences so he could inspire his dream of bettering the environment. Xiuhtezcatl is 15 years old, lives in Boulder, Colorado and told the audience his fear of big oil companies in his hometown in such a way that easily made the
Xiuhtezacatl Martinez performing a piece at the AS SIRC Cultures of Resistance event on Feb 18 in the VU MPR. Photo by Chris Beswetherick // AS Review
audience fear these companies. Martinez spoke about many big oil companies coming to Boulder for fracking to extract oil from Colorado’s earth. Their effect is violent and fatal. Martinez highlighted a point about his friend who lives near one of the fracking points in Colorado; this friend lost his voice, and experiences daily
“People are destroying the earth because they are no longer connected with it.” - Xiuhtezcatl Martinez pain from the escaping chemicals. Martinez told this with a regretful, and depressed tone as he is so close to the environmental disaster; the honesty of the story made it even more appalling. Martinez has traveled to several countries outside the United States and believes the world is losing touch with itself. “People are destroying the earth,” Martinez said, “because they are no longer connected with it.” Martinez, similarly to Pierce Freelon in another Cultures of Resistance performance, wove musical performances in with this lecture. He began his talk with an environmental rap and an alluring question: “How could [the environment] not be the greatest discussion?” Martinez referenced Bellingham in many of his points as a way to make his audience feel connected to the issue at hand. However, Martinez spoke with the most authority with points most-related to Colorado. In fact, Martinez lacked masterful knowledge of the environment. For example, he referenced Hurricane Katrina happening in 2012. However, the incorrect date is more of a petty mistake, because as a 15 year old, he, along with this collaborators in the Earth Guardians have already ridden Colorado of a 20 deal with Xcel Energy. His accomplishments are progressing the action, but he knows more people have to be involved to really make a difference. “We’re seeing an amazing imbalance” he said. “We gotta act before it’s too late.”
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The final workshop After inviting a plethora of international perspectives to speak about pressing social issues, the Social Issues Resource Center (SIRC) is ending their Cultures of Resistance series with the Arab-American Palestinian resistance poet Remi Kanazi on Tuesday March 1 in Miller Hall Room 152 at 6 p.m. Kanazi will elaborate about his experiences and connections with music, poetry and the conflict in Palestine. “I feel like there’s not really a comparison to be made because each performance [has been] beautiful and powerful and liberating and revolutionary,” SIRC’s Outreach Coordinator Wayne Rocque said. “Remi Kanazi is another speaker that will be adding to that.” Kanazi writes poems based on his witnessing of the Palestinian Resistance and the Arab-American experience. He lives in New York and has published collections of his poetry: “Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up From Brooklyn to Palestine” in 2015, as well as others. His descriptive and at times graphic poetry harshly presents Palestine’s conflict with Israel. “I never knew death / until I saw the bombing / of a refugee camp / craters/ filled with/ dismembered legs,” reads Kanazi’s poem, “A poem for Gaza.” In his collection “Poetic Injustices,” he wrote 48 poems which represents the year “Nakba”--meaning the catastrophe in Arabic--where over 700,000 refugees fled from their homes. Disasters like these warrant
him to write his poetry. While war inspired his poetry, he started writing because of a Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and led Kanazi to pursue spoken word. Now, he writes to inform his audiences about Palestinian-Israeli disputes and violence. “...These historical traumas and experiences that Palestinian-Americans face affects them even if they aren’t in their homeland,” Rocque said. “Wherever they live in the world….these traumas are passed down.” The SIRC wants their audience to aware themselves of these written-about conflicts. “For students who don’t identify with the Arab-American experience, they will first learn there is one,” Rocque said. “It’s here, it’s loud and it’s calling out.” Furthermore, they want multi-ethnic insights to be formed. “For a lot of white students, it’s a time to step back and just listen to what marginalized students have to say,” Rocque said. “For Arab-American, or Muslim-American students to reaffirm their power by listening.” Ultimately, a closer connection and stronger awareness of every social issue the SIRC has investigated was their point of the series. “How can we join hands and create a more powerful movement,” Rocque asked. The final event in the Cultures of Resistance series from the AS SIRC with Remi Kanazi will be on Tuesday, March 1 in Miller Hall, Room 152. It will start at 6 p.m., and the event is free.
Global Gourmets dinner showcases dishes from around the world BY MARINA PRICE International Student & Scholar Services’ annual event Global Gourmets showcases traditional dishes from around the world. Partnered with the Center for International Studies and Western’s Catering crew, the dinner highlights dishes that are put together by Western’s Executive Chef Patrick Durgan, who works to create authentic dishes together with students who want to celebrate their favorite dishes from home. 2016’s Global Gourmets will feature dishes from Uzbekistan, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan and England. Guests will get to experience dishes in an elegant setting, accompanied by short presentations about the chosen dish and it’s cultural significance. The event will be on Thursday March 3 in VU 565, and will start at 6:30 p.m. The event is $12 for Western students and $30 for faculty, staff or community members. Tickets will not be sold at the door, but are available for pre-purchase at the PAC Box Office.
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Need classes for Spring? Check out our new class showcase column
Whatcom READS! author and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki comes to Bellingham BY MORGAN ANNABLE
BY BECKY CAMPBELL
Chadō, also known as the Way of Tea, is a centuries old living art form found within the Japanese Tea Ceremony. This art form is a way of training the mind while learning about Japanese culture, as well as a class now being taught at Western. This spring, students can take the course from instructor Shelley Thomas in either the beginner or advanced classes. Thomas teaches both classes and has been involved in the Way of Tea since 1984 when she began her study at the Urasenke tea headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. In addition to this official training, Thomas has also been able to serve tea to ambassadors of the United Nations and heads of state who visited the Kyoto Imperial Guest House. She holds a Chamei License which gives her explicit permission to teach these classes. Chadō 1 will explore the history, influence of Zen and ancient ideals, practice and context of the Way of Tea to gain a better understanding of Japanese aesthetics and culture as well as analyzing chado’s relevance to contemporary society. This class will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays during spring quarter from 2:30 pm - 4:20 pm and is 3 credits. Chadō 2 continues to investigate the practice of tea the beginner class started and takes a more deep look into the art forms, aesthetes and daily life of those who practice tea. The main focus for the class will be creating tea utensils (like tea bowls and bamboo tea scoops) will practicing the next level of the tea ceremony. Classes for the more advanced chado course will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays of spring quarter from 4:30 pm 6:20 pm. Both classes will be held in the Fine Arts building and under the Art History Department. Thomas wants to emphasize that during the practice periods of class, students will receive instruction in how to participate in a chakai (informal tea gathering), receive sweets and tea, and learn how to make a bowl of tea for a guest. “It cultivates your character,” she says, “and teaches students etiquette that can help them if they plan to travel.”
A Japanese tea hearse. Photo courtesy of Wikicommons
Ruth Ozeki at a book-signing in California. Photo courtesy of Wikicommons This year’s Whatcom READS! book is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, a bestselling author, Zen Buddhist priest, and filmmaker. She will be in Bellingham for a variety of events from March 3 – 6. All of these events are free and open to the public. On March 3, Pickford Film Center will screen Halving the Bones at 6:30 p.m. with a pre-film reception at 5:30 p.m. including a question and answer session with Ozeki. The film tells the story of a half-Japanese filmmaker, Ruth, who has a literal skeleton in her closet. A can on her shelf contains half of her dead grandmother’s bones. The film is told in three parts: a fantastical journey through Ruth’s family’s archives to explore her grandmother’s wedding, then a debunking of these stories as Ruth discovers her own cultural confusion. The third section of the film is a documentary-style unpacking of the grandmother’s possessions. Ozeki wrote, directed, and produced the film in 1995. On March 4 at 1:30 p.m. Ozeki will give a lecture on the principles of Buddhism at the YWCA Ballroom in Bellingham. Later that evening Ozeki will speak at the main stage of the Mount Baker Theater at 7 p.m. To get a great seat, get there at 6:30 p.m. This talk will focus not only on A Tale for the Time Being, but also on Ozeki’s life as a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest, and her other books. She has also written My Year of Meats, which comments on the differences between American and Japanese culture, and All Over Creation, a novel about potato farmer’s daughter who gets embroiled in a growing GMO controversy. This event, like all the others in this series, is free for students and the public. A ticket is not required, and seating is done on a firstcom, first-served basis. On March 5 Ozeki will be on campus for an event entitled The Art and Craft of Writing. This will be held in the Wilson Library Reading Room at 1 p.m. In this lecture, Ozeki will provide tips and inspiration for aspiring writers and she will speak about the process of writing. In addition to these author visits, Whatcom READS! is partnering with Allied Arts of Whatcom County to sponsor the Whatcom READS! Art Challenge. Participants in the art challenge should have read the book so that they can create a work of art somehow inspired by the book. Art submissions are due March 1 and the works will be displayed at the Allied Arts Gallery from March 4 – 26.
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Student band records album in 72 hours
BY WILL MCCOY
A local band comprised of Western students recorded their second album in 72 hours during the Valentine’s Day weekend. The band Bob Fossil recorded their newest album, American Hippo, at Champion Street Sound Studios in downtown Bellingham. The only had the long weekend to record, and even they didn’t think they could finish the entire album in that time. “I think that I speak for all of us when I say we are very excited to release this record,” Kenny Clarkson, lead singer and guitarist, said. “This is the first time our sound feels complete and refined. “ Bob Fossil was able to schedule some recording time because of Russ Fish, a Fairhaven Professor who teaches audio technology classes. Fish is friends with the owners and was able to help the band out. The members of Bob Fossil arrived at the studio on Friday to set up. They returned the next day at 10 a.m. to record, and didn’t leave the studio until 11 p.m. They all returned to the studio for another recording session on Sunday that lasted from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. At this point, all
the members of the band decided to sleep in their cars to wake up on Monday at 7:30 a.m. to finish recording. Their last recording session went from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 a.m., but they didn’t leave the studio until 3:00 a.m. due to the mess hey created over the weekend. Hank Miller is the bassist of Bob Fossil and stated that they have come a long way from their first album. He says that having an actual studio to record in has helped their progress. “Our last album was simpler in terms of song structure, but now we are making more complex songs and having everyone playing at once helped with giving each other cues on what parts are coming up,” Miller said. He added on that they have had other musicians come in and add on their own creativity to certain tracks. There are songs with a trumpet, a duet and even a live chorus. Alan Schellenberger, the drummer for Bob Fossil, is the newest member of the band. He thought this experience was something that happens once in a lifetime. “When you are in the studio your
Bob Fossil performing at the Underground Coffeehouse. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
minds set is ‘alright we are here to make this thing’, and then all of a sudden it starts morphing and evolving into something completely different,” Schellenberger said. “And when you only have 72 hours to complete an album, you have to be okay with that. You can’t resist the change because you’ll eventually run out of time.” Joe Canfield, guitarist and backup vocals, has had experience with recording albums and the post-production process. He was the person who recorded their whole first album. Their first album they recorded, titled Bob Fossil, was done in the shed they have behind their house. Most of the members have lived together since sophomore year. This was a difficult task that took them around eight months to complete. Bob Fossil performing at a show above Bellingham Bar and Grill. Photo by Trevor “Looking back at it, Grimm // AS Review
recording in the shed was awful especially after finishing our new album,” Canfield said. “It turned out really well for being recorded in a shed, most people would say it sounds great and they couldn’t tell it wasn’t recorded in a studio.” Bob Fossil hopes to release American Hippo during April. After Canfield is finished with his part of the post-production, he will hand it off to Fish to let him master it. The inspiration for their band name comes from a British comedy show titled “The Mighty Boosh”. A character on the show is a zookeeper named Bob Fossil. Clarkson and Miller were roommates’ freshman year in the Ridgeway dorms. They would play music on the tennis courts during their free time. During these jam sessions is when they met Canfield, and another member Bob Fossil, Bob Hall. Ever since then, they have been playing music together and adding new members to the band. If you are interested in checking out Bob Fossil and their new album, they will be playing a show at the Wild Buffalo on March 15.They are all excited to start performing again, and they plan on playing songs from the newest album.
12 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
VU Gallery presents: Adam Fung’s Full of Infinite Space
Artwork by WWU alumni and assistant professor of Fine Arts and Texas Christian University Adam Fung currently on display in the VU Art Gallery. Fung will give a lecture on his work on March 7 at 4 p.m. in Old Main Theatre, and the gallery reception will be on March 8 at 6 p.m. The works will be on display until March 11. For more information on Adam Fung, turn to page 4. Photos by Trevor Grimm // AS Review