Review
News // Events // Student Life
25 Vol. 28 3# 5.13.1
Reporter adopts a vegan diet for one week. Read about it on page 8.
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THE FORGOTTEN Queer Resource Center event discusses issues facing queer homeless youth on May 16
By Kylie Wade att Smith, Queer Resource Center assistant coordinator, is well versed in the countless issues facing queer-identified people of all ages, races and gender identities. But in an event Smith planned for May 16, called The Forgotten, the focus will be on an issue and a group of queer people that rarely get discussed – queer homeless youth. “It was something that the QRC hadn’t talked about adequately before and also just hadn’t been talked about in a way on campus that wasn’t abstract,” Smith said. Briana Fitzpatrick, coordinator of the Queer Resource Center, said one of the reasons the QRC was focused on bringing this event to Western was to highlight an aspect of the queer movement that is rarely discussed in mainstream media. “I think that a lot of times what is signified as the most important issue for queer people in the media is marriage and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and all of these are really privileged aspects of life and these people– their fight– is just to have a place to live,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that this is a really important event because why the fuck are we focusing on marriage and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell when people don’t even have a place to sleep, don’t even have a place to have sex, don’t even have a place to eat or do anything? I hope that this points out to a lot of people the different aspects of the queer movement.” The Forgotten will begin with an screening of a documentary called “The Downtowners.” The documentary was produced by two students at The Evergreen State College, Nichole Ketcherside and Jessica Eskelson, who worked with Partners in Prevention Education (PiPE), an organization that works with homeless youth in Olympia, Wash. “Our mission is to engage homeless and at-risk youth and young adults in the elimination of sexually related violence and bias and hate crimes as they contribute to youth homelessness and as they exist in street culture,” explained Rosalinda Noriega, a violence prevention specialist, advocate and co-founder of PIPE.
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The organization also provides a weekly violence prevention dinner and discussion meetings with homeless youth, as well as providing crime victim services, including advocacy, therapy and support groups. Another service the organization offers is a support group called Queer Art Heals Your Heart, a therapy group that uses art as a tool for processing violence and trauma. Smith said to honor the role that expressive art has for queer homeless youth, The Forgotten will feature an expressive art piece about the appearance of oppression. The individual pieces made by those who attend the event will be made into a quilt to show solidarity with queer homeless youth. “The Downtowners” began as a class project for Ketcherside and Eskelson, and it was originally supposed to be a five-minute film. It began by simply documenting what was discussed at PIPE meetings. Noriega explained that the five-minute project grew into a yearlong, personal project for Ketcherside and Eskelson, and the end result was a 48-minute documentary detailing the stories, struggles, hopes and dreams of homeless youth in Olympia. After the documentary, there will be a guided discussion led by Nancy Lamusga, who is a mental health programs coordinator with PIPE, further discussing the issue of queer youth homeless and focusing on understanding the many layers of oppression and struggles they face. “Among the issues that can lead to homelessness among youth and young adults has to do with family rejection or running away because of fear of coming out as being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender,” Noriega said. “Many young people leave home either because it was an abusive home life or they were feeling neglected.” PIPE states that of the hundreds of youth they have worked with since opening in 2004, 90 percent identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; 72 percent have experienced an abusive home life and 66 percent have experienced sexual assault. The Forgotten is an attempt to share their stories.
“We tend to be very removed from the problem and don’t see it as much,” Smith explained. “[The event will be about] just discussing how the queer homeless youth are targeted in their community and how we can interrupt this targeting and stand in solidarity with them. Often they’re talked about and spoken for, but rarely do they actually talk about their experiences and share their perspectives.” Those planning the event hope it will resonate with participants long after the documentary is over. “I hope people take away an awareness that will help them recognize that when they see a homeless person on the street that they’re actually seeing a person,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think we’ve gotten into a way of thinking about homeless people that they’re disconnected from you - that’s them, and I could never wind up like them so I really hope that this event shatters that.” Noriega said one of the best ways Western students can get involved with the issue is to question some of their own beliefs about homelessness. “I think that people have a lot of assumptions about groups, and in particular youth and people who experience homelessness,” Noriega said. “Homelessness is not a choice– it’s a consequence of complex issues having to do with abuse and neglect and financial insecurity.” Beyond that, Noriega believes it’s important for people to consider the societal values that cause homelessness and violence and how they may be reinforcing those values in small, everyday ways. “Think about what feels violent in our own lives, whether it’s physically, emotionally, spiritually or mentally, what are the ways that we disrespect one another, what do they look like, what do they sound like and what beliefs are behind those?” Noriega said. Smith said The Forgotten will not only focus on discussing the issues that face queer homeless youth, but also identifying ways, such as the ones outlined by Noriega, that students at Western can have a positive impact on the situation. The event is from 6 to 9 p.m. in Academic West Room 204 on May 16.
Why the fuck are we focusing on marriage and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
when people don’t even have a place to sleep, don’t even have a place to have sex,
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and don’t even have a place to eat or do anything?
- BRIANNA FITZPATRICK
EVENTS OF THE WEEK
Monday May 13
Lord of the Rings Trivia Night
6:30 p.m. at the Underground Coffeehouse $1 buy-in per person
Teams of up to six people competing for a cash prize in a “Lord of the Rings” trivia night. First place takes 70 percent of the winnings, second place takes 20 percent and third place takes 10 percent. All hobbits, elves, wizards, and dwarf warriors are welcome to attend.
Tuesday May 14
Are You Ready For Rent? 7 p.m. in Miller Hall 138 Free
The Legal Information Center is sponsoring this event to talk about landlord-tenant laws, tenant’s rights and other things student renters should know.
May 13, 2013 • 11
Wednesday May 15
Friday May 17
7 p.m. in Viking Union 552 Free
4 - 9 p.m. in the Fairhaven Game Room $5
Thursday May 16
Saturday May 18
KVIK - Void Walker Season Finale The season finale of the third season of the sciencefiction/horror show series. Each episode is a continuing narrative of the “Void-Walker” venturing into the afterlife.
Movie: “Oz the Great and Powerful” 8 p.m. in Arntzen 100 Free
A showing of the Disney fantastical adventure “Oz the Great and Powerful.”
8-Ball Tournament
WWU Billiards Club is hosting this two day tournament to find Bellingham’s best 8-Ball players. All players will be entered into a raffle, and the top three finishers will win a grand prize. All skill levels welcome.
Uhane O Ka Aina-Spirit of the Land 6 - 9 p.m. in the VU MPR $12-15
Authentic Luau hosted by Western’s own Hui’o Hawai’i members. There will be music, hula dancing, food and more.
BACK2BELLINGHAM
By C Hayley Halstead
Western’s biggest alumni event set for May 17
A carnival in Red Square, 15 bands in Fairhaven, LivFest on the Communications Lawn, a Boundary Bay Brewery party in the library and Relay for Life are just a taste of what is to come this Friday to Sunday during one of Western’s largest events: Back2Bellingham. Chris Roselli, director of Young Alumni and Student Programs, refers to this event as a homecoming, parents and family and community weekend all in one. He partnered with alumni, faculty, staff and New Students Services and Family Outreach to put on an event for people of all ages. Back2Bellingham works alongside Family Weekend put on by NSSFO. Billboards all the way down to Tacoma were more than up in efforts to get alumni to the school. Last year, over 1,500 alumni and family members attended B2B. Roselli said he expects up to 7,000 people on campus for this year’s B2B. Due to the large volume of attendants, parking will not be enforced after 3:30 p.m. on Friday. This is B2B’s fourth year, and it has grown from year to year. For a $12 purchase of a bracelet, acting as a ticket to the event, the participant is eligible to join in on more than 150 events happening over the weekend. Admission can either be purchased on B2B’s website or at Red Square during the event. There will be a few events that require additional payment, such as the sunset kayak Friday night and various planetarium shows. Starting on Friday, the Wade King Recreation Center will open to the public for $4.50. Take just a small walk over to the Communication Lawn for LivFest 2013, a local music festival, which will take place up until 10 p.m.
and will resume on Saturday. There will be a conversation about social entrepreneurship at 10 a.m. Friday at the Comm Lawn. Participants are also welcome to visit the art building to view the “Masters of Design” exhibit or stroll over to Carver Gym for the 14th annual Scholars Week Showcase. At 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center, “Soapbox” will feature 24 students who will depict balancing time, money, technology, relationships and helping others in one’s pursuit for happiness through music and dance both Friday and Saturday. At 8 p.m. in the PAC Room 16, student composer Kramer Elwell will present an electronic concert on the same two nights. During the same time Friday night, the Underground Coffee House will host The Walrus, a classic rock band featuring Chuck Dingee, a Western alumnus. The bulk of activities will occur on Saturday. Main events include the Western Community Lunch outside Old Main; a party in Wilson Library featuring live student music and food from Boundary Bay Brewery; Relay for Life on the Viking Track and Field; the Red Square Carnival; the Downtown Bellingham Bash at Boundary Bay; as well as the opportunity for youth ages 8 to 18 to be with Western students to see the Western experience. There will be free massages, yoga classes, five giant blowup obstacles, portable marine life touch tanks and food vendors. B2B is partnering with many local businesses while out of town guests stroll the town. At Boundary Bay, starting at 6 p.m., SpaceBand will play. Admission is included in the $12, but a $5 cover
is required for non-registered attendants. Other events include the 16th Annual Hui ‘O Hawai’I Student Luau, a magic show with John Walton, KUGS reunion, Dead Parrrots Society Show and much more. Throughout the day, there will be “classes without quizzes,” which are short and fun sessions for people of all ages. For example, there will be a session called “30 Apps in 50 minutes” where educational applications for children will be presented by Woodring College of Education Professor Paula Dagon. Another session will be “The Joy of Speaking in Public” presented by storyteller and Western professor Rosemary Vohs. One of the features about this year’s B2B is the intermural basketball champions of 1997 will challenge this year’s basketball team to a game in the Rec center. Apart from being a reunion and community event, B2B is also a service event. Roselli said school supply donations will be collected for low income families. A trail cleaning project along Whatcom Creek will take place on Saturday. Last year, Western Office of Admissions had more than 650 prospective students visit the school. Resident halls will be open for viewing. “It’s a great excuse for people to break away from their routine,” said Roselli. “If we host something, everyone contributes together.” Not everyone wants to watch sports, participate in academics or party. B2B captivates all the different affinities and brings it together in one big weekend, said Roselli.
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Learning Team's Emile Panerio. Photos by Cade Schmidt // AS Review
The Annual Edends-Higginson Festival Music this year was co-sponsered by Buchanan Towers and welcomed several Seattle-area and Bellingham bands who kept crowds entertained in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room during one of the year’s first summer-esque weekends on May 4.
Kithkin's Ian McCutcheon.
Kithkin's Bob Martin. Kithkin's Alex Barr.
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Cody Olsen poses with lettuce in his mouth for the vegan diet experiment article on page 8.
NEWS
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Photo by Cade Schmidt
review
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©2013. Published most Mondays during the school year by the Associated Students of Western Washington University. We are a student-produced, alternative campus weekly covering news and events that are of interest to the Western community. We support all programs, offices and clubs affiliated with the AS. We have a direct connection to the AS board of directors, and although we report on board actions objectively, our relationship should be made clear. Submissions: We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork or anything else physically printable. Email submissions, or send them to the mailing address above. They will be returned as long as you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Letters: We also welcome letters to the editor. Please limit your letter to 300 words and include your name and phone number. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar, if necessary.
LULU New app has women rate their past partners for others to see
EVENTS
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CONCERT SERIES Last performances at the Underground Coffeehouse outlined
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VEGAN DIET Reporter attempts to adhere to a vegan diet for one week
FEATURES
3
QUEER EXPERIENCE Photos from the event
Lulu is an app intended for women
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Copy Editor Contributing Designer Writers
Megan Thompson Spencer Pederson Cade Schmidt Serena Imani Korn Bradley O’Neal C Hayley Halstead Isabelle Hoonan Nick Markman Lauren Prater Lauren Simmons Kylie Wade
Adviser Jeff Bates
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STUDENT LIFE
Calendar/Ads: We don’t sell ad space. Sorry. Email as.review@ wwu.edu to have an event listed in the calendar.
Staff
9
to rate men they know and gather information about potential partners. Read the story on page 4.
Photo illustration by Cade Schmidt // AS Review
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GUEST LECTURE Overview of David Suzuki’s May 6 lecture on Sustainability THE FORGOTTEN AS Queer Resource Center’s May 16 event focuses on queer homeless youth SPIRIT ANIMAL How to find your inner spirit animal is explained
May 13, 2013 • 3
FOURTH ANNUAL QUEER EXPERIENCE
Cast members of the Fourth Annual Queer Experience. The performers retain their anonymity.
The first performance of the Fourth Annual Queer Experience had VU 565 filled to capacity. Former AS Queer Resource Center coordinators Elle Peters and Josh Foley created the event to establish a platform for individuals to seek empowerment through sharing their queer experiences. Photos by Cade Schmidt Cast members embrace
during the performance.
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FINDING YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL
By Isabelle Hoonan
Spirit animals these days appear to be synonymous with the Goodwill-thrifting, indie set: dressed in a 1990s acid-washed shirt with a wolf across the front, dressing with a “spirit animal” on the front has become an en vogue fashion staple. Although spirit animals are replicated to perhaps express a luxe, bohemian Coachella persona, dig a little deeper and there is a deeply spiritual practice toward finding your spirit animal outside of the Goodwill bins. Everyone has a spirit animal, and it’s far more spiritual of a presence than pop culture has appropriated. The varying practices toward finding one’s spirit animal range from gobbling down some hallucinogenics in nature to meditating. Partaking in the sober route to reach full conscious awareness, my curiosity to understand my own spirit animal and later reading about its importance led me to the drumming meditation practice. I decided to participate in a solo drumming meditation guided by Margaret Ann Lembo’s “Meet Your Power Animal: A Drumming Journey.” After being versed in the spiritual powers of tapping into my own personal power animal, my meditation started with basic meditation rituals, such as relaxing through deep inhalations and exhalations and becoming aware of the sensations in each part of my body. I was asked to envision an opening in a tree, whether through the roots or at the base or anywhere I could imagine. Envisioning my third eye in the middle of my forehead, I was asked to see myself surrounded by white light, immersing myself into a tunnel. I was to meet my spirit animal leaving the tunnel or opening of the tree. To my surprise, I was met by a raccoon. It is a rule that you do not choose your spirit animal; it chooses you. Disassociating from preconceived notions of what a raccoon may mean to me in an everyday state, I was instructed to let my spirit animal communicate with me as 20 minutes of steady drum beats ensued. Raccoons have incredibly alert states of being. Through the raccoon’s eyes, which stare with deep intensity, it led me up the tree and back down later, showing me three of its other dwelling spots. Although the raccoon didn’t speak to me in a human voice, its movement of agile bursts gave me wisdom into my subconscious state how I was perhaps currently navigating my world at this moment. I opened my eyes after 20 minutes of following the raccoon around a forest and hearing its variety of primal sounds. Curious to see what the raccoon represented in power animal culture, I read about of traits raccoons
that supposedly correlated to my own state of being. Raccoons are symbolic for artists, with their source of observation resonating from their fingers, which have nerve endings like a human’s, according to Paula Marie Deubel’s article “Raccoons as Indian Spirit Animals.” Raccoons are extremely verbal, communicating with up to 50 different sounds. They represent an ability to adapt to different environments and an attention toward the gift of touch. Connecting with your spirit animal has the power to make you more aware of your nature and how your energies can best be asserted in this world. “Our power animals are with us for our entire lives, but there are some who come in and out of the journey just as the seasons change,” said Alyssa Krist, 33, a Wise Awakening employee. “The animals remind us of our primal qualities in relation to how we adapt and navigate through our lives.” Spirit animals, also known as power animals, are an essential guide toward enlightenment and understanding one’s intuition in American Indian cultures. According to the Manataka American Indian Council’s “Animal Spirit Guides” website, you do not choose your spirit animal. Rather, the spirit animal chooses you. American Indians regard spirit animals as representative of the human psyche “resurfacing from the preconscious ancient human mind.” If one’s spirit animal is a reptile, for example, meditating with the qualities of reptiles in mind may allow a person to connect with the “reptilian aspects of the mind” that correspond with the limbic system in the brain, which deals with sensory impressions, pleasure and pain, according to the Manataka American Indian Council. Meditating on different spirit animals opens up the human psyche and inhabits different qualities of those animals through activating the thalamus and the hypothalamus in the brain, which process emotions and intuitive wisdom. “Having a power animal may assist you in many of life’s circumstances,” said Lembo, creator of the audio meditative guide “Meet Your Power Animal: A Drumming Journey.” “Every animal has gifts, talents and qualities. This is often referred to as animal medicine. The gifts are the medicine in assisting us in healing, growing, and learning on many levels,” Lembo said. “Once you meet with and connect with your personal power animal, you have the opportunity to use that animal’s qualities in everyday life. That is the purpose of the power animal: to use their medicine in your everyday life.”
I was met by a raccoon. It is a rule that you do not choose your spirit animal; it chooses you.
May 13, 2013 • 5
NEW APP FOR WOMEN TO RATE MEN
Lulu is an app intended for women
to rate men they know and gather information about potential partners. Information from anonymous reviews are converted into hashtags such as #HotCar and #NothingBadAboutHim
Photo illustration by Cade Schmidt // AS Review
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By Isabelle Hoonan ith the new smart phone application Lulu, women can gossip and rate their friends, exes and former flings through a social network anonymously. These anonymous ratings are seen by other women who can review potential partners. Designed for women Facebook users to review men they know as either an ex, friend, hookup, crush, or current partner, Lulu’s creator Alexandra Chong was rewarded with $3.5 million to run Lulu as a startup to help love lives of women who like men. However, the resulting project of what the website TechCrunch calls a “dating intelligence site” is controversial in terms of empowerment for both men and women. Rating men on a scale of one to 10 on appearance, humor, first kiss, sex, commitment and other categories, women are able to divulge details and opinions of any guy they are Facebook friends with. Any women viewer is able to search a guy’s name and view a mass of over share: how he is in bed, how he has commitment issues, how he’s close to his family, etc. “I just looked at the app and found this guy I’ve known since kindergarten. Now I know the details of his hook ups from the last 24 days,” said Bridget Gahagan, Western a sophomore. “It’s so weird.” The anonymous reviewing and “ask a dude section” may be anonymous for women, yet men are unknowingly tagged as bait to be crucified for every hookup blunder or relationship mishap they’ve ever committed. While women are allowed to rate men as generously or as poorly as they want, they aren’t allowed to write about just anything. Women can choose from a list of quali-
ties provided by the Lulu team that are shown through hashtags, ranging from #StrongHands to #FuckedMeAndChuckedMe. Chong said in an interview with BuzzFeed how this keeps women from posting anything too personal and keeps Lulu “light-hearted and not cruel.” “Sexually, he’s a work in progress, but he’s no slouch in the hotness department,” read one review of a Western male student. Comments such as #Manscaped and #SweetToMom are more complimentary. For women who use Lulu, it can be a quick ticket toward through a guy’s intentions and relationship past. Despite the accessibility of personalized details about a man a woman may barely know, many Western college students feel ambivalent or turned off by the app’s ability to influence a woman’s opinion about a man she may only vaguely know. Despite Lulu’s controversial format, Lulu is on the path toward reaching a possible 1 in 4 undergraduate women, according to the website TechCrunch. In April, Lulu was already boasting 200,000 users from the five universities where Lulu is heavily marketed. According to other interesting statistics shared with TechCrunch, 50 percent of new users come back weekly, visiting an average of eight times per week and spending 45 minutes on the app per week. “It’s basically like Western Confessions posts, only it’s exclusive for women with their questions and opinions about certain guys,” said Leah Gross, a sophomore. While women can rate any of their Facebook guy friends anonymously, Lulu Dude is another app designed just for guys to see their ratings on the survey database. Although they cannot change reviews written about
them, Chong said in the BuzzFeed interview, “should a guy not do well in a particular category, then they can change their behavior… it’s like a Yelp for men.” Men can always remove themselves from seeing their reviews if they aren’t into the subjective feedback. Despite being able to read their reviews, men worry over what women choose to say about them - for the good or for the bad. “Honestly, I thought it was the end of the world,” said Fikison Balogun, a senior. “The idea of an app that allowed women to anonymously rate men in just about every aspect was terrifying.” After finding out about Lulu on Twitter, senior Dylan Koutsky began hearing from guy friends about the potential damage they could face from Lulu’s ability to sway a woman’s opinion based on their profile. “I don’t really think too much about the app, although I was curious to see if I was on it,” Koutsky said. “I mean whatever girls are posting on the app are probably ones who would be talking about guys with friends anyways; it’s just much more public now.” Danny Canham, assistant coordinator of the AS Women’s Center, thinks said the app can be problematic in terms of objectifying men, butthat the app has received so much controversy because women are not usually seen as the ones objectifying. “It’s not as if this is the first time an app like this has come out,” said Canham. “There’s Tucker Max and other websites where men talk about women in controversial ways. However, I think any anonymous platform that places people into stereotypes or categories have the risk of people getting hurt.”
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Poster by Amelia Barlow // AS Publicity Center
May 13, 2013 • 7
UNDERGROUND COFFEEHOUSE PREPARES FOR LAST SHOWS OF THE YEAR By Lauren Simmons On the third floor of the Viking Union, students have the opportunity to attend free, intimate concerts in the Associated Students Underground Coffeehouse. For the next three weeks, the Wednesday Night Concert Series continues to bring locally based artists to the Coffeehouse. The concert series, which starts the first full week of fall, winter and spring quarters and ends the week before Dead Week, has been a part of Underground Coffeehouse programming guidelines for a while, said Michael Vierela, AS Underground Coffeehouse coordinator. About two years ago, the series was Wednesday and Friday nights, but it changed to just once a week – Wednesdays – because it worked better for students than Fridays, Vierela said. The last three concerts of the series feature Mary Lambert on May 15, Specters on May 22 and Shelby Early on May 29. The weekly concert series is at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. The last concert is May 29. The concerts are free and
open to students and the public. Even though the confilled out this school year, gives AS Productions feedcert series ends on May 29, there will be another concert back regarding what type of artists, bands or genres that during June 5 of Dead Week, Vierela said. students want to hear. As coordinator for the Coffeehouse, Vierela is in “Of course I tried my best to book acts that students charge of doing all the booking, requests, offers, conare looking for in particular, but it’s also fun to sort of tracting and other duties for artists coming to play the look at acts [like] student bands [or] Western bands Coffeehouse. that just show up in the Underground It’s fun to look at acts [like] Coffeehouse, and giving them a chance “A lot of the programming student bands [or] Western that we do, not just in the to perform for a Wednesday night Underground Coffeehouse, bands that just show up in the concert, and really building a combut in general, is we get a lot munity in that way in the Underground Underground Coffeehouse, of student input, specifically Coffeehouse,” Vierela said. and giving them a chance from our Taste Test survey A 150-capacity venue like the to perform for a Wednesday that we send out at the beginUnderground Coffeehouse makes for night concert. ning of every school year,” a different kind of concert experience, Vierela said. Vierela said. Since many of the artists Earlier in the quarter, the featured are regionally touring, and not concert series featured The Cellar Door, The Vonvettas, nationally touring, the opportunities for local artists to Great Pacific and Soccermom. get exposure are plentiful. The Taste Test survey, which about 700 students
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Acoustic singer and songwriter Shelby Earl returns to Western for the last Underground Coffeehouse show of the year. She previously oppened for Ben Gibbard’s performance on March 3.
MICHAEL VIERELA
the final line up MAY 15
MAY 22
Honest
Refreshing
Mary Lambert Type of Music: Singer/Songwriter Seattle artist Lambert is featured on Macklemore’s hit “Same Love,” the anthem for Washington’s Referendum 74 last year, legalizing same-sex marriage, Vierela said. As a queer artist, Lambert sings a lot about her identity and also incorporates slam poetry into her performances. “Every time I listen to her music, it just seems like it’s coming from a really honest places in how it relates to her experiences,” Vierala said.
Specters
Type of Music: Indie-Rock-Pop Specters is a Bellingham duo that pays homage to Pavement, Weezer and Built to Spill, according to the band’s website. They released their first EP, “Poor Cletus,” in January of this year. “Since there are so many indie rock bands, it’s hard to distinguish a lot of them, so I feel like there’s something really simple and refreshing about their music,” Vierela said.
MAY 29
Shelby Earl Powerful
Type of Music: Acoustic, singer/songwriter A Seattle artist, Earl recently performed at Western when she opened up for Death Cab For Cutie front man Ben Gibbard. Earl was originally supposed to play the Underground Coffeehouse three days after Gibbard’s performance, but was asked to open for Gibbard, so she had to reschedule her performance in the Coffeehouse, Vierela said. Earl’s album “Burn the Boats” was number oneAmazon’s “Outstanding Albums of 2011 You Might Have Missed.”
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LET US TELL YOU W ABOUT VEGANISM
hat do Mike Tyson, Betty White, Carrie Underwood and Bill Clinton have in common? They are part of the estimated 1 percent of the American population who are vegan have diets without animal
Writer adapts vegan diet for a week By C Hayley Halstead
byproducts. Though people do not always share identical motivations for such a strict diet, weight loss, lower cholesterol and blood pressure sounded appealing to me. The majority of my food intake consisted of meat and dairy. Initially, the concept of this British movement of veganism was absolutely absurd and forbidden to both my mind and stomach. Nonetheless, I wanted to experiment and understand how difficult it is for a resident of Western to find food on campus to fit their needs. I set my goal of maintaining a vegan diet for one week. To be recognized as a vegan, I had to exclude any type of animal products, such as milk, meat, butter, honey and gelatin, from my diet. The morning of my first day as a declared vegan, I reached for my honey granola bar and shrugged my shoulders with the assumption it contained no animal products. An imaginary slap on my wrist came from the vegan police as I recalled honey is not considered vegan. Because one of the purposes of veganism is to avoid harming or exploiting animals, honey cannot be vegan, simply due to the fact that bees try to defend themselves and are negatively harmed by humans. Because I am a resident on campus and lack sufficient cooking supplies, my mini-fridge consisted of empty space, and I went my first morning without breakfast in attempt to prevent being late. I was essentially restricted primarily to the dining halls and a few excursions downtown. During my attempt for a week-long vegan lifestyle, I visited all of the cafeterias on campus to see how vegan-friendly they were. While all three of the cafeterias serve garden burgers, fruit and had a salad bar, trying to find something unique and tasty was challenging. To my surprise, all cafeterias had hot daily vegan entrees, such as barbeque stir fry vegetables and tofu from the Ridgeway Commons and polenta from the Fairhaven Dining Hall. Fairhaven was definitely the most vegan-friendly, as it practically had its own section of the cafeteria. It also served hummus, which became my best friend over the past week. Small packs of vegetables and hummus are sold around campus, which I purchased as snacks. Snacks culminated into my vegan meals. Dining out with other people was the most difficult task. While at a restaurant, the server would babble about their daily specials to which I would ask about vegan options. A shake of the head and apology would follow along with a finger pointing to only a few items on the menu. At Pepper Sisters on State Street, I was able to order a garlic potato burrito, and at D’Annas CafÊ, also on State Street, I enjoyed spinach noodles and marinara sauce. However, there are many restaurants around Bellingham that were unable to accommodate my diet. For several days, I reaped the benefits of feeling fuller faster, feeling more energized and overall feeling healthier. I adopted the attitude of eating for the only purpose of preventing hunger instead of for enjoyment. I was able to borrow a blender from a friend and produce fruit smoothies with an almond milk base. I found the most difficult part about being vegan was finding adequate sources of protein, which I obtained through nuts and spinach. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete my streak of veganism when a potluck was hosted at my house, and I was surrounded by an array of homemade non-vegan dishes. My self-control was broken, and I was once again a joyful omnivore. Other reasons people decide against veganism include the difficulty of commitment, overall costs and availability of foods. Reflecting on my experience as a vegan, there were definitely aspects of this lifestyle I enjoyed. I appreciate the idea of respecting animals and eating only foods that had no animal harmed in the making. In addition, less fat intake through meats was an enjoyable idea. After weighing the benefits and negativities associated with veganism, I decided that a vegan lifestyle was not for me, because trying to juggle grocery shopping and saying no when my friends go out for milkshakes is just too difficult. However, I have found some ways to eat healthier, such as eating vegetarian lasagna instead of the meaty alternative.
An imaginary slap on my wrist came from the vegan police as I recalled honey is not considered vegan.
Photo illustration by Cade Schmidt // AS Review
May 13, 2013 • 9
DAVID SUZUKI LECTURES ON SUSTAINABLILITY
By Nick Markman The root word “eco” has its origin in the Greek language and stems from the Greek word “oikos,” or “home.” In English, two of the most common hosts for this root are ecology, “the study of home” and economy, “management of the household.” Though these two words are etymologically similar, the motives and interests behind each are often conflicting. Popular Canadian environmental activist, broadcaster and geneticist David Suzuki delivered his lecture “Time is Running Out: Ecology or Economics?” last Monday, May 6 at the Performing Arts Center Main Stage. Suzuki discussed the value and connectivity of the environment and questioned the majority of the western world’s misguided prioritization of the economy over nature and the environment. Suzuki was brought to Western as a part of the annual Japan Week celebration. The lecture was cosponsored by the Department of Languages, Huxley College of the Environment and the Office of Sustainability. Professor of Japanese Studies Michiko Yusa and Western President Bruce Shepard introduced Suzuki to a packed audience in the PAC early Monday afternoon. Shepard said Suzuki’s lecture represents two topics that are very important to Western – international affairs and environmental studies. Suzuki began by introducing himself as an elder in society. Elders, he said, have divested themselves of the frivolous pressures to seek fame or power and thus speak the truth that comes with having no hidden agenda. “Elders are a very special group in society,” Suzuki said. “We’ve got something no one else in society has: we have lived an entire life. We have made mistakes. We’ve learned a hell of a lot in a lifetime.” Suzuki then made a call to action for fellow elders to make an active effort to educate youth on the mistakes and lessons learned in the past. He said that although the majority of the world is in awe of humanity’s recent technological advancement over the past 200 years,
we have still failed to learn from crucial mistakes in the past. One example, the use of the pesticide DDT to kill pest insects in the 1940s and ‘50s shows how effects of biomagnifaction can wreak havoc on food chains. Throughout the years of DDT usage, small initial levels of the chemical intensified as they moved up each step in the food chain. The effect was so great and unanticipated that in the 1960s, human breast milk was considered too toxic to feed to babies. Suzuki said the current issue over the use of genetically modified organisms presents a similar situation where unanticipated consequences are likely. “We don’t know enough to begin to apply these very powerful technologies in the manipulation of the genes of domestic plants and animals,” Suzuki said. “The lab is not a replica of the real world. The lab is an artifact. In the real world, everything is connected to everything else and we don’t know enough to anticipate the effects of what we do with our powerful technologies.” Suzuki talked about indigenous cultures and the First Nations people of Canada, who he has worked with throughout the years. He said that all of these cultures share something that the rest of the world should adopt – a sense of connection to the environment and to nature. “There’s no environment out there and we are here. We are literally created by the elements that come from what they call Mother Earth,” Suzuki said. “Mother Earth isn’t some poetic or metaphoric way of speaking. They mean it literally. We are created out of the Earth.” He said that this connectedness that native cultures feel toward nature is confirmed by the sciences. Everything in our bodies, from the blood in our veins to the air in our lungs, comes from the elements provided by the sun, Earth and stars. We each have atoms in our body that at one point were in the bodies of every organism that has ever existed and when we die, our atoms will go off and diffuse throughout every organism for the rest of time.
Suzuki went on to discuss how the interests of economists and market-centered individuals clash with the interests of ecology and the environment. Economists, Suzuki said, believe growth can be sustained forever when, in reality, it cannot. He said that the fundamental flaw in the economic system is how it disregards all the services that nature provides as “externalities,” when these services are not only tremendously valuable, they are necessary for life. “If we tried to put a value on replacing what nature does, it comes to over two times the total of the collective GDP of every country in the world to pay for what nature provides for nothing,” Suzuki said. The human population was never larger than it is today, and it is growing every day. There are individuals alive today who saw the human population triple over the course of their life. This exponential growth, partnered with Western society’s fascination and obsession with consumption, is placing tremendous pressure on the Earth, Suzuki said. Humans currently take over 40 percent of the planet’s net primary productivity. This means that humans, one out of the 30 million known species on Earth, use over 40 percent of the energy produced via photosynthesis by the planet, absorbing sunlight for ourselves. Suzuki said that if we do not prioritize the environment, make the right to a healthy environment a constitutional right, and place aside national and self-interests for the good of the Earth, humanity and Mother Nature will face a very deprived future. “It takes just a simple twist at the way we look at the world to see where the solutions lie,” Suzuki said. “The simple twist is to realize we are not in control. We are utterly dependent for our wellbeing and survival on the health of the biosphere. We’re not here to serve the economy: the economy is here to serve us. To my fellow elders, let’s get going. We have a lot of work to do.”
‘CLUB HUB’ WINDS DOWN THE YEAR
By Lauren Prater On May 16th from 5 to 8 p.m., the Associated Students Club Center will be hosting the AS Club Kick Back event. This event was started with the intent to make an easy transition for club members and leaders to “pass the torch” from one club member to another. “Passing the torch is more of a symbolic thing,” said Jarred Tyson, AS Club coordinator. “It’s like passing the torch of leadership.” This symbolic event will consist of current AS club leaders mentoring and helping incoming leadership students. The event includes of several workshops focusing on training the incoming club leaders and helping the outgoing club leaders to adjust to life after college. The event will start with a big group discussion, followed by break out groups and workshops with a break for
dinner, and concluding the night with dessert provided by Mallard Ice Cream. Throughout the night attendees will receive up to three raffle tickets, which they can place in a drawing of their choice for up to five different prizes; the biggest prize is a touch screen video camera. “The event is essentially open to anyone but more focused on students who are planning to take on leadership roles in the future,” Tyson said. This event is successful in preparing future leaders for their positions. “My favorite part of the event is running around and making sure everything is running smoothly,” said Kasey Koenig, AS club support specialist. “I also love watching people come out of the workshops and actually take
something away from it.” This year, the event is collaborating with the College of Business and Economics Business Week. CBE Business Week has an event planned every day from May 13 to 17, and the AS Kick Back event was able to collaborate and become part of the schedule of events. “I’m definitely looking forward to getting club leaders in the right mentality,” Tyson said. “By the time fall comes around, they will have a better understanding of how things work.” This event is entirely free and is open to all students or anyone with slight leadership interest. Last year, the event brought in about 70 to 80 attendees, and it is expected to have even more this year due to promotion and advertising.