Sea of Seahawks: Experiencing Feb. 5’s Victory Parade, p. 6 Pop Music Industry Conference, p. 9 Five pioneers of Black History, p. 12
Vol. 29 #17 2.10.14
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Clear skys and low temperatures froze Swift Creek near Mt. Baker. Cover photo by Isaac Martin // AS Review
MAKING YOUR LIFE BETTER, ONE PAGE AT A TIME 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 © 2013. 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 under-represented issues, inclusive coverage, informing readers and promoting dialogue.
IN THIS ISSUE NEWS
FEATURES
4 Labyrinth prepares 10 Unspoken rules of for publish
Western
Women’s Center journal to be released later this month
From campus pedestrian traffic to umbrellas, a few rules we’ve all subscribed to
9 PopMIC Annual Music Industry Conference connects students with industry professionals
COLUMNS 6 Sea of Seahawks Our writer Dominic D’Angelo joined over 750,000 12s to welcome home the champions of Super Bowl XLVIII
11 A man of stories Meet John Hanneman, the Viking Union’s lead custodian, Army Veteran and baker
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.
THE AS
REVIEW Cade Schmidt Kylie Wade Isaac Martin Trevor Grimm Kelly Mason Andrew Wise Annika Wolters C Hayley Halstead Dominic D’Angelo Designer Kristina Huynh Adviser Jeff Bates
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Photographer Copy Editor Writers
Naomi Wachira performs at the Underground Coffeehouse on Wednesday, Feb. 5 as part of the Wednesday Night Concert Series. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review CORRECTION: In our last issue, a photo with the story “Enjoy your weekend without breaking the bank” on pg. 9 ran without a photo credit. It was taken by Assistant Photographer Trevor Grimm.
Feb. 10, 2014 • 3
EVENTS Jazz Jams Mondays at the Underground Coffeehouse
VSA + HOH Valentine’s Day Meeting
to the aquatic center, meet at the Outdoor Center at 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 10 // 7 p.m. // UGCH // Free
Feb. 13 // 6 p.m. // AW 304 // Free
Come to the Underground Coffeehouse for a night of jazz! Bring your own instrument to play or just come, sit back and enjoy the music.
WWU Hui’o Hawaii and WWU Vietnamese Student Association are having a joint meeting to celebrate Valentine’s Day! The meeting will feature games and possibly some treats.
4th Annual Valentine’s Day Covers Show at Make.Shift
2014 AS Club Showcase Feb. 10 - 21 // 1 -3 p.m. // Red Square & Comm Lawn Learn everything you need to know about the clubs in the AS at this event! For the next two weeks, clubs will be tabling at main parts of campus to spread information and recruit new members. The first week, find them in Red Square and the second week, the info fair will move to the Comm Lawn. Each day will feature 10 different clubs tabling and anyone who stops and talks to a club will get a free doughnut.
Wednesday Night Concert Series: Br’er Rabbit w/ Katey Sullivan Feb. 12 // 8 p.m. // UGCH // Free Br’er Rabbit is performing at Western after being voted the 2013 Best Band in Bellingham by Cascadia Weekly.
Yoga Feb. 12 // BH 405 // Free Take a minute halfway through the week to revitalize the body and mind with free yoga sessions brought to you by the AS Outdoor Center. For more information, contact Freddy Collins at 360.650.7532.
Feb. 14 & Feb. 15 // 7 p.m. // Make.Shift (306 Flora Street) // $5
WWU Athletics: Women’s Basketball
Make.Shift, Bellingham’s DIY art space and all-ages music venue, is celebrating Valentine’s Day with two days of covers. Friday’s show will feature covers of the White Stripes, Brand New, New Order, The Posies, Descendants, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins and Limp Bizkit. Saturday’s show will feature songs by Blink-182, Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind, Avril Lavigne, The Breeders, The Get Up Kids, Hot Snakes and Soundgarden. The rules at Make.Shift are, as always, no drugs, booze, smoking or PDA.
Feb. 13 // 7 p.m. // Carver Gym // $5 for students, $8 GA
Ice Climbing in Lillooet, BC
PANDEMONIUM Feb. 13 // 7 p.m. // UGCH // Free The AS Social Issues Resource Center presents this spoken word event aimed at discussing and promoting social justice. The event will feature a performance by Ela Barton, a slam poet from Seattle.
The women’s basketball team will face off against Saint Martins this Thursday night.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire Feb. 13 // 7:30 p.m. // AH 100 AS Productions Films presents a free screening of the second installment of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Kayak Roll Sessions Feb. 13 // 7:45 - 9:15 p.m. // Arne Hanna Aquatic Center // $15 Join the AS Outdoor Center to learn, practice or perfect your kayak roll. Boats are provided but participants are also encouraged to bring their own. For a ride
Feb. 14 - Feb. 17 // $180 The AS Outdoor Center is hosting this weekend trip to Lillooet, which is described by the Climbers’ Guide to the West Coast as “the epicenter of the finest, and certainly the most reliable, concentration of winter ice routes in southwestern B.C.” For more information, contact Freddy Collins at 360.650.7532.
WWU Athletics: Women’s Basketball Feb. 15 // 7 p.m. // Carver Gym // $5 for students, $8 GA Catch the women’s basketball team battling Western Oregon at Carver Gym this Saturday night.
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Morgan Burke, VP for Business & Operations: Meet the new face on the AS Board of Directors By Annika Wolters The newest member of the Associated Student Board of Directors, Morgan Burke will officially begin her duties as Vice President for Business and Operations on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Burke was appointed to the office after winning a special election last month that took place to fill a vacant spot after previous position holder, Hung Le, resigned. The AS Review sat down with Burke to discuss the special election process and her plans now that she’s in office. What was your reaction when you first found out you were elected? I was super excited. It didn’t really hit me yet because I wanted to win so badly. I just wanted to continue the work I had been doing. But when I heard I did a little happy dance. I called my boyfriend first and let him know, then I called my mom and texted a bunch of my friends and people who were helping my campaign. What advice would you have for students who are running in the spring AS Elections? Plan ahead. Prioritize. When you get stressed and overwhelmed with all the campaigning and stuff you have to do, your classes always come first. You’re a student at the end of the day. Have a campaign manager, maybe a couple. Have one who’s in charge of sign-ups for campaigning and one who’s in charge of posters. Campaigning is important. People notice your face and they want to talk to you and interact with you. Another hard thing about the special elections is that nobody really knew it was going on. People would walk by me and say, “You’re super early!” And I would say, “No I’m not, check your email.” The joke is on you. A lot of people had some good questions. I felt like all mid-terms happened that week. That week was probably one of the hardest weeks I’ve had to deal with on top of tests. I cried a lot. That’s what got me through.
Photo by Isaac Martin // AS Review every position and found different proportions to separate how much they should get paid for their salary base. I’m working on the hospitality policy. I’ll be changing that around to include recognition of volunteers and lay out the specifics about how to purchase food and when food should be purchased for things such as event purposes.
What’s it like coming onto the AS Board halfway through the year? It’s a different dynamic because there’s already a culture that has been established and they have their own roles, they interact in their own way. When another person comes in, everything has to shift. But the people are great. They’re super understanding. They’re super welcoming. I think we’ll start off with leadership activities, icebreakers and So what are you going to start working on first? getting-to-know-you [games]. First, I’m going to move into my office and decorate it with my new I want to have them over to my house for dinner and have an inoffice buddy, Josie Ellison [Vice President for Academic Affairs]. When formal hangout. I’m such an RA [Resident Advisor], I want to have I told her, she picked me up and flung me around. one-on-one’s with each individual person to get to that relationship and A lot of the big stuff that we’re going to do is take a salary examina- understand what makes that person tick. Then when I pull it out into tion policy to the board. That will be a big project. We determine the a professional world, I can understand why they do what they do and base rate for all the different positions. It’s really boring, but we took better support them and they can better support me.
Feb. 10, 2014 • 5
Labyrinth prepares for publication By C Hayley Halstead Last year, the theme of the AS Women’s Center’s annual journal publication, Labyrinth, was “Bodies in Motion.” This year, Editor-in-Chief Logan Brouelette has taken a different approach with the development of “Communities (Un) Bound.” The artwork from this literary journal is scheduled to be available for viewing in the Viking Union Gallery Feb. 24 to March 14. A closing ceremony will take place on March 10 where writers will have the opportunity to read their work. Throughout the entire gallery showing, visitors will be able to grab their own copy of the free journal. Brouelette, a creative writing major and the Women’s Center’s assistant coordinator for creative programming, aims to include an array identities and is excited about the representative content that is up and coming. “We have a pretty diverse group of topics. The main things we were looking for approach different subjects and identities that haven’t been represented in previous Labyrinths,” Brouelette said. While the submission date has passed, Brouelette said there are about 21 artists and writers with material in the journal, with a maximum of three pieces of literature or art per contributor. Brouelette organized panels to decide on what content to publish. “We have an art panel that’s comprised of some art majors, and we have volunteer writers that are mostly English majors for creative writing and literature. It’s mostly community-based, and that’s what we are looking for to help review the content,” he said. When the art panel reviews images, the panelists discuss aesthetic qualities, how the pieces fit into the theme and the artists’ statements, Brouelette said.
“I’m going to be really excited to see how the community looks at these pieces and interprets them for themselves.” With the theme of “Communities (Un) Bound,” the idea was for people to evaluate identities they hold and ponder how they interact with multiple communities. This has been Brouelette’s first journal he has been involved in. “Being the Editor-in-Chief is huge. I didn’t realize it would be such a big responsibility, but it’s been very rewarding working with Western’s community and seeing what kinds of artistic qualities, representations and identities people have out there. It’s been a really cool process,” Brouelette said. The creation process has been exciting for Brouelette because he’s been able to see the various topics that were brought up by artists and writers. “Things are going very well,” Brouelette said. “I’m going to be really excited to see how the community looks at these pieces and interprets them for themselves.”
Top Ten: February 3-10 1
I Want to See Pulaski at Night [EP] Andrew Bird
2
Paracosm Washed Out
3
The Run Around Wild Child
4
“Vacant” [Single] Lures
5
Rave Tapes Mogwai
6
Reflektor Arcade Fire
7
Acoustic at the Ryman Band of Horses
8
Half About Being a Woman Caroline Smith
9
Free Your Mind Cut Copy
Are Gone 10 Days Haim 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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Sea of Seahawks: One 12th Man’s experience By Dominic D’Angelo Its 22 degrees in Seattle, but the wind cuts it down to 11. The sun shines, but it’s laughing at you. You’re not going to feel warm today. What’s the best way to keep warm? Packed like a sardine in a crowd of 750,000 roaring 12th men and women, that’s how. On Feb. 5 I had the honor of attending the Seahawks Super Bowl Victory Parade. In all honesty, I thought that by attending the parade I was special. Daydreaming, I fantasized of being in the ranks of a couple thousand having the honor of shaking Pete Carroll’s hand and having a fly-by conversation with my personal idol Russell Wilson. Waking up at 6 a.m. and walking across campus for the early morning bus down the Sound, I was instantly proven wrong. Blue and green zombies were everywhere, their hands’ clasping what I could only guess was victory coffee. When I finally got on the bus, my fantasy was all but gone. With the person next to me staring into a book with painted blue and green eyebrows and the woman behind me alleging that the projected 300,000 people had warranted the need for Seattle to call out the National Guard to keep the peace, I knew that the Emerald City would be packed. Looking down, coffee in hand, Northwest hip-hop in my ears, I composed a haiku: Green and Blue Seahawks Descend upon Seattle Can it be louder? Could it be? I would say that it depends on your personal experience of the 12th man loudness. But when we pulled into the city, it was deafening. A legion of blue and green clad 12’s stood in the cold, their solidarity apparent by the rolling call issued by everyone from drunken college students to the elementary school children atop their parents’ shoulders: “SEA!” A call answered by the necessary amen: “HAWKS!” Stepping in amongst their ranks I remembered how amazing it was to be a part of the 12th man. We may be loud, we may be obnoxious, but altogether we are connected. Fact: when the Hawks play, everyone wearing anything from a Walter Jones jersey to Hawk-shaped earrings is family. That’s a fact reflected throughout my entire day, Russell Wilson jersey against my bare chest, receiving handshakes and high fives from blue and green strangers of all walks of life. How many other fan bases can claim to have such a strong bond? After a wait that seemed eternal, the parade finally arrived at my location. Like a legion of Romans returning from campaign, the Seattle
Feb. 10, 2014 • 7
Sea of Hawks at the Super Bowl Victory Parade on Wednesday Feb. 5. Previous page, top: Golden Tate waves the 12th man flag at the Super Bowl Victory Parade on Wednesday. Photos by Evan Matz Seahawks rode down the streets astride steeds of military-grade vehicles. They passed by in youthful vigor with the prize of their conquest, the silver of the Vince Lombardi trophy. A smiling Pete Carroll waved to the crowd. A flag-toting Golden Tate rallied the masses. An excited Russell Wilson led the “Sea-Hawks” chanting crowd. As their gladiators passed by, the crowd turned into a frenzy, tossing skittles in every direction. The drum of war was played by the Beast himself: a cigar and champagne-toting Marshawn Lynch. When the parade came to an end, a new ceremony kicked-off as Pete,
John Schneider, Paul Allen, Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson all addressed the masses at CenturyLink Field. The ceremony was broadcast inside Safeco Field, as well as by news stations across the nation. The team, one that was graded as a C+ draft class, held up the greatest trophy in all of football. Their giddiness was evident as Ricardo Lockette and Lynch repeatedly tried to interrupt speakers at the podium. As I left the stadium Carroll’s words reverberated through my head, “We’re just getting started.” I always knew that this year, and the ones to follow, will be great years to be a 12.
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Superheroes among us: WWU Comic Book Club
From left to right: Quinton Maldonado, Kyle Banks and Garrison Waley-Sharp show off some new reads at Comic Book Club. Photos by Annika Wolters // AS Review By Annika Wolters Walking among us are spandexed, caped superheroes masquerading in street clothes. There is one inside every comic book and graphic novel lover. A small gathering of these super citizens meets in a lair located in Miller Hall. They are the WWU Comic Book Club. The Comic Book Club meets 5 p.m. every Thursday in Miller Hall 105 and is open to anyone who wants to celebrate the world of comics. After only a year of reading comic books and graphic novels, vice president Scotty Felch decided to jump into the world of comics headfirst by becoming an officer of the club. “My roommate asked me, ‘Scott, you’re new to comics, why would you want to be an officer in a comic book club?’ Well, I think it’s important to have the voice of the newcomer represented,” Felch said. The club meetings typically begin with each member bringing the group something they have been reading. The discussion then turns to a specific weekly topic. President Quinton Maldonado said in the past the club has talked about independent and underground comics, the depiction of minorities and sexuality and the history of comics throughout the ages. Felch and Maldonado are passionate about making the world of comics and graphic novels accessible for any mortal who has ever been curious. Learning about comics can be intimidating, they said. “Whenever new people show up, we try to gauge how much they’ve read,” Maldonado said. “If they haven’t read any, we will try and merge
the conversation in that direction to give them a good introduction to comics, because a lot of people don’t know where to start.” For those new to comics, Felch and Maldonado recommend reading the stories that sparked some of everyone’s favorite movies. When he was younger, Maldonado read “Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta” and “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.” As he got older, he began to further explore the alternate world represented in comic books. “I started reading comics about two years ago and picked up comics after DC [Comics] rebooted its entire line. I just picked up a bunch of random number one comics from DC and started with that and just left from there,” Maldonado said. “But I never got into it that much until I played the ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ game because I was super big into video games and that one inspired me.” Maldonado suggested that though the comic section in Wilson Library is rather small, it can be a good place to start for someone looking for authors to follow. Other good places to start include the comic book and graphic novels sections of the Bellingham Public and Alternative libraries. Felch always wants the club to be open to people with all levels of comic book knowledge. “I don’t think I would have gotten into comics if it weren’t for somebody who could push me in the right direction. I would like to pay that forward to people,” Felch said. “I don’t want our meetings to ever be a bunch of old comic book elitist nerds arguing with each other, and no room for the newcomer to get their foot in the door.”
Feb. 10, 2014 • 9
The Army, pizzas & diving:
the life and times of John Hanneman, saint of the VU
By Andrew Wise “I pulled it off for three years, not very well. I’m still academically // Photo by Isaac inclined, it’s not like it was hard, just an odd situation,” he said. Martin Then, in 1990, Hanneman found himself standing in front of the door of a place he never expected to be - a US Army recruiting office. In the Viking “Of all things, the last thing I wanted to was join the military,” but Union, long after he did, “Because they would send me out here.” the sun has set, after Hanneman requested to be stationed at Fort Lewis in Tacoma so the food court has closed, after the post office has shut its window and that he could scuba dive in Puget Sound, which he did. Hanneman said the last few AS employees trickle out of the building to go home for the he’s been on at least 47 dives in the Sound. night, John Hanneman’s day begins. Hanneman arrived at Fort Lewis in April of 1990, and one day in I found him sitting in his office, at about 9:30 p.m., catching up May of that year, he sat in the base’s dayroom with a group of other solon emails before starting his rounds. He wore a big, blue and white diers and watched as tanks rolled into Kuwait, marking the beginnings Rastafari-style knit hat which looked to be concealing a pile of dread- of Operation Desert Storm. It was a no longer a peacetime army. locked brown hair. His greeting was warm and friendly. “Everything’s been different since then,” he said. But Hanneman “I don’t know if I have all the answers to your questions,” Hanneman wasn’t deployed during Desert Storm, and by 1992, he was out of the said, “but he does,” pointing at the Jimi Hendrix screen saver on the army and headed to Bellingham and Western as a student. He took desktop of his computer. classes on campus for a year-and-a-half before getting a job at a little With that, we were off, massive cleaning supplies cart and mop kids’ play place called Tube Time, which is no longer around. He also bucket in tow. Hanneman has been a custodian at Western since 2007, was one of the first employees at Boundary Bay Brewery and Bistro, and got the job as the VU’s lead custodian just a few years ago. He man- which has since become a Bellingham staple. ages a crew of seven, mostly students. Hanneman especially appreciates While working at Boundary Bay, Hanneman learned to throw being able to work with students, saying that, “It gives me a chance to pizza dough, “I made a quarter of a million pizzas down there, literexpress myself more and freely among a bunch of intelligent, knowl- ally,” he said. edge seeking young people. It can’t be much better than that.” He started creating his own dough recipes and started a pizza crust Hanneman is 47 years old, though he says he still gets carded on oc- business, which was to be called John Dough Pizza Company. He baked casion. His road to Bellingham was a long and winding one, starting in in Erin Baker’s bakery, the owner of Baker’s Breakfast Cookies, which his hometown in rural Kansas. was also just starting out at the time. Hanneman’s logic was that “If she He attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence for three years, blew up, I could blow up.” but a complicated financial situation with his family and high tuition But it wasn’t to be. The combination of a bad economic climate and had Hanneman deep in student loan debt, working three jobs just to the loss of a few investors forced Hanneman to sell out in 2004. try to keep up. “I found out I didn’t have the heart to make a lot of money.” But he’s
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From umbrellas to North Face: Western’s unspoken rules ken rule against using umbrellas. The rule may be practical – umbrellas don’t fare well when 1. Don’t trip, chocolate chip it’s so windy. It may be because Rihanna’s 2007 According to Facilities Management, there hit, “Umbrella” made the object too mainare over one million bricks here at Western, so stream. Or perhaps, it’s stubborn PNW pride? tripping on one is inevitable. But don’t worry, Whatever the reason, umbrellas are a no-no. it happens to all of us. 4. Go with the flow 2. Three-day weekend = Ghost town If you’re walking against the flow of traffic A three-day weekend rolls around and ev- in Red Square at 12 p.m., you’re gonna have a eryone packs up their laundry baskets to go bad time. A wise man once said, “No, no, no, home, transforming campus into a ghost town. stick to the stuff you know. If you wanna be According to the Office of Admissions, 88 per- cool follow one simple rule, don’t mess with cent of students are from Washington, so what the flow - no, no.” Yes, that is a High School do you expect? Musical quote. By Kelly Mason
Face, Columbia or Patagonia item. You also probably have some crew neck you bought at the bookstore. But wait, you’ve also got something plaid, Birkenstocks or hiking boots, Ray Ban-looking sunglasses and a snapback or beanie. Don’t you dare lie, because you know it’s true. 6. Leave early for Warm Cookie Night This is critical. Unless you want to be waiting outside the dining hall in the cold while people inside are enjoying the deliciousness that is Warm Cookie Night, leave early!
7. Sun’s out, fun’s out...side Spring quarter hits and suddenly everyone 3. No umbrellas allowed 5. The unofficial, official uniform crawls out of their caves to soak up the sun. Despite all the rain, Western has an unspoIn your closet you have at least one North When the sun is out, Western becomes the stereotypical college campus that we see in movies. Everywhere outside people are hacky-sacking, frolfing (frisbee-golfing, it’s a thing) and tanning in the sun. It’s truly a magical time. 8. Go to the next urinal This is an unspoken rule of life, not just at Western. Whether it’s in a stall, at a urinal or wherever you decide to do your business, unless you are out of options, don’t go next to someone. It’s awkward. Enough said. 9. You have to do it once... We’ve all got a Bellingham bucket list. You seriously have to try to eat at every classic Bham food place and you haven’t truly lived in Bellingham until you’ve whined during an Oyster Dome hike. 10. Have fun The last rule is always to have fun. Even though it’s cliché, forcing people against their will to have fun is important. But seriously, enjoy your time at Western because you only get Unspoken Rule No. 8: Use the next urinal over. Photo Illustration by Isaac Martin four or five, maybe six years here. & Trevor Grimm // AS Review
Feb. 10, 2014 • 11
still proud of the product, “It was the best damn pizza. Oh my god it was good. I used olive oil, not canola oil. I stuffed as much whole grain as I could into a pizza crust without offending anybody, a little bit of rye in there, just fantastic.” Hanneman then worked at an assisted living residence with elderly and developmentally disabled individuals. “I miss them so much to this day,” he said. “So much fun. A very difficult job, but just such a loving experience.” In 2007, Hanneman got a custodial job at Western, and several years later when the lead custodian retired, Hanneman applied and took over. He’s dealt with a lot in his tenure at the VU, from a massive flood in the VU Gallery at 4 a.m. to the drunken students who try to climb the outside of the building, which apparently is a regular thing. He’s learned to live with the brutal backward 9-to-5 schedule, having to be in bed by noon in order to get enough sleep. It’s the students that make it all worth it. After opening the locked VU door to let a group of students walk through the lobby and warm up, Hanneman turned and said, “This is the best part of my job every night… if it’s cold I can let people warm up for a little bit. That is the essence of what I feel I do around here. Support. We all work together.”
Hanneman noted that since the financial crisis in 2008, students have been a lot less likely to make messes, that being in college is no longer something people take for granted. He feels that his work is recognized, “The majority of students are aware that there are people on staff at this university keeping things clean, and that it’s not just house elves.” For Hanneman, if Western’s campus were a giant car, the VU would be the hood ornament, “So I want to polish up the hood ornament, because it’s the first thing that new students and their parents will see, standing here and looking over the bay, I want that to be a great memory.” As our interview concluded, my night was finished and I would head home to a comfortable bed. Hanneman still had six and half hours of work left to do. This was daunting to me, but for him, it’s worth it. “I take a tremendous amount of pride in this place. Same as if I was making a pizza for you, I’d want it to taste great. I’d want it to be the best pizza you’ve ever had, I’d want each bite to be the best bite you’ve ever had, and that’s just like this place: I want it to look yummy.”
Pop Music Industry Conference connects students with professionals By Andrew Wise The music industry is by its nature a vast and tangled monster, fraught with the hypocrisy of relying heavily on massive corporate influence and a vehement anti-corporate sentiment in music. For college musicians and music lovers taking their first steps into the fringes of that very monster, the road to even modest success is a rough one with lots of dead ends and no map. Now in its fifth year, AS Productions’ Pop Music Industry Conference offers networking opportunities and inside knowledge to Bellingham’s aspiring musicians and music industry professionals. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 22 in the Viking Union Multi-purpose Room. “It’s a great chance to learn things that you can’t find in a classroom or even online, to meet and get advice and stories from people who’ve done really cool things with their lives and careers,” said AS Pop Music Coordinator Caitlyn Glinski. This year, those people include RA Scion (Ryan Abeo) of Seattle hip-hop duo Common Market, Sharlese Metcalf, host of Audioasis on KEXP-FM in Seattle, music columnist at “The Stranger” Trent Moorman and many other producers, musicians and journalists connected to the Pacific Northwest’s music scene. One of the major additions to the conference for this year is Project
Pitch, where attendees have ten minutes to pitch their new project, be it an EP, mix tape, collaboration, bird sounds, etc., to pros from the industry for feedback. The music industry runs on relationships and on knowing promoters, venue owners, producers and other musicians. With that in mind, the conference includes a Music Industry Expo and networking period designed to give attendees a chance to connect with local businesses, local venues and each other. “[Networking] is critical… If you have experience that’s great, but the way you get involved is by knowing people, by volunteering your time, and building relationships. It’s not like other jobs where you get your major and you’re set. There is no major for this here, so making connections is huge,” Glinski said. The keynote speaker for the event is Sean Nelson, best known as the singer of rock outfit Harvey Danger. He’s also worked as co-owner of Barsuk Records and as a writer and editor for “The Stranger.” The day will conclude with a concert featuring some of the conference’s panelists. Tickets to Pop MIC are $10 for students and $20 for non-students. Registration information can be found at the PopMIC website: golkac. wix.com/aspopmic2014.
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Honoring pioneers of Black History
By C Hayley Halstead // Graphic By Kristina Huynh Feb. 4 marked Rosa Louise McCauley Parks’ birthday, an activist known for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus, breaking Jim Crow segregation laws and kicking off the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Names like Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X are synonymous with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Yet Black History Month reaches far deeper than what high school history textbooks glossed over on the Civil Rights Movement. Here’s a glance at just a few pioneers of black history who we nod to this month and every other month. Bayard Rustin The man behind the 1963 March on Washington was Pennsylvania-born Bayard Rustin. Rustin has been remembered as an activist rooting for equality, human rights, peace and justice. He was also openly gay has been recognized post-mortem as a champion for queer people of color. What was so remarkable about Rustin was his ability to relay Gandhi’s non-violent protests techniques to other leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr.
Jean-Michael Basquiat “Believe it or not, I can actually draw,” said Jean-Michael Basquiat, a New York’s HaitianAmerican artists. Basquiat died at the age of 27, and inspired a generation of artists with his graffiti work and paintings that incorporated symbols and social observations. Basquiat dealt with constant racism from his peers in the art community, but was able to triumph and become an internationally-recognized artist and even worked with Andy Warhol. Basquiat became the youngest artist to showcase his paintings at the Kestner-Gesellschaft Gallery in Germany. This summer, Jay-Z immortalized Basquiat in his single “Picasso Baby,” saying “It ain’t hard to tell, I’m the new Jean-Michel.” Huey Newton Ever heard of the Black Panther Party? It was co-founded by Huey Newton to serve those being oppressed, to defend them against oppressor and reclaim black-identity. The party had a militant perspective by promoting its members to own guns for self-defense against racially-targeted attacks. Contradicting Rustin’s beliefs, Newton believed that violence or the threat of it could create change.
Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells made history with her investigative reporting of lynching in the 1890s. Her shocking reporting made her a target of white-supremacists, forcing her to move from Memphis to Chicago where she and writer Frederick Douglass organized a boycott of Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition because of its misrepresentation and neglect of the black community. Until her death in 1931, she maintained headstrong anti-racism and women’s rights activism. James Howard Meredith James Howard Meredith denied acceptance to the University of Mississippi after his race was discovered by the registrar. [Meredith took this case to the district court, which ruled against him, but later was able to gain the attention of the US Supreme Court, because of Brown versus the Board of Education.] In 1962, Five-hundred US Marshalls were sent in on his first day of class for excessive rioting at the school. Upon graduation, Meredith was active in the Republican Party and ran for Congress. He later served as a domestic advisor to Senator Jesse Helms in 1989 and remains active in civil rights today.