Winter 2009 (Vol. 2 Issue 2)

HIGHER OPIATES IN FACTS JUVENILE THE HAIR EDUCATION APPALACHIA ON FAKE IDS GANGSTER DOWN THERE

backdrop

volume 2 issue 2 winter 2009 www.backdropmag.com

magazine

THE CONTRABAND ISSUE

entertainment : hype : culture : sex : art : humor : health : music : life

It’s All About Location & Lifestyle

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Letter From the Editor: Most of us have heard our parents reminiscing about their uninhibited college escapades after a few too many martinis.

And you have to admit, there is something about the college experience that allows even the average, once law-abiding student to let down his or her hair.

In Generation Rx, the marijuana and LSD of yesteryear (though both are still highly acclaimed in some circles) have been supplemented by Ritalin, Adderall and many other prescription medications that are used both responsibly and recreationally. And so I’m proud to present Backdrop’s no holds barred winter issue, where we cover not only prescription drug trafficking but heroin and other opioid abuse, gang activity, graffiti and falsifying identification, too.

We put together this so-called contraband issue because we see

college as a rite of passage and understand that sometimes such a journey includes a little bit of funny business, as Grandma would say.

With the release of our winter issue also comes the launch of our Web site (www.backdropmag.com). This is a whole new venture for us but we’re thrilled about the possibilities for two-way communication. Readers from near and far will now be able to view our archives, comment on our stories and shop in our store. We will be updating our site with web-exclusives and blog posts several times per week so I urge you to bookmark us and start checking us with the same frequency that you do Facebook or um ... at least Blackboard.

Sex, drugs and Backdrop,

Send us your feedback via snail mail, e-mail or carrier pigeon. We’d love to hear from you.

Want to advertise with

Look for these icons throughout the magazine for web exclusives www.backdropmag.com

Backdrop? Contact Su at backdropmag@gmail.com

Backdrop magazine Editor In Chief Tara Melvin Publisher Gina Beach Photo Editor Krysten Bauman Design Director Alanna Geoghegan Advertising Director Susannah Sachdeva Marketing Director Sarah Price Assistant: Will Cooper Copy Chief Rachel Godward Assistant: Meredith Barnett

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winter | 2009 | backdrop

Senior Editors Andrew Eisenman Shamus Eaton Associate Editors Shane Barnes Elizabeth Sheffield Web Designer Pat Newman Contributors Courtney Astolfi, Lindsay Bailey, Douglas Bair, Annie Beecham, Emilee Brightman, Abby Clary, Hannah Croft, Pat Doyle, Shanice Dunning, Jessi Finn, Katie Flaherty, Alexis Malure, Darla Massaro, Lauren McGrath, Helene Miller, Laura Ornella, Erin Rose Pfeifer, Nik Salontay, Aadam Soorma, Joshua Taylor, Allory Williams, Steve Zeisler

Designers Rachel Custer, Wendy Goldfarb, Adrienne Hapanowicz, Sarah Harris, Seth Miller, Brett Nuckles, Lizzie Rosegrant, Marissa Schoonover, Kelley Shaffer, Coleman Simeral, Britton Spark, Robyn Strachan, Francesca Wagner, Morgan Weidinger Photographers Courtney Gross, Denise Pansing, Andrea Kozakewich, Dan Krauss, Conor Lamb, Pete Larson, Pat McCue, Kate Ramsey Copy Staff Emma Frankart, Greg Gallant, Gloria Lomeli, Brittany Perrine Member Relations Rosalyn Robinson Adviser Jack Brady

Write to Backdrop C/O Scripps Hall Ohio University, Park Place & Court Street Athens, Ohio 45701

table of contents 9

39

32 THIS + THAT

The Bomb.com

Dorm Daze 6

Cyanide & Happiness

The Good, the Bad and the UGGly Who still rocks the boots?

Hot for Teacher

6 7

Backdrop warms up with Annalisa Zanuso and Andre Gribou

Exhibit A Showcasing OU’s creative minds

Technology and the sound of music

There Will Be Bread

6 Meals for Under $6

8

Self Published The power of Doris’ secrets

Pornology 101

HYPE

The Heart of Athens Bleeds Black House of Brews

9

The ins and outs of brewing beer

11

Profile (sort of) of an Athens graffiti artist

Writing on the Walls

FEATURES

A-TOWN

Fake IDs and the law

Broney’s Brad Wharton discusses whiskey, O.A.R., Palmer Fest and baldness

15 17 18

Passing the Bar 12

The Young and the Reckless Inside juvenile corrections

Opiates in Appalachia Examining Ohio’s opium epidemic

SEX + HEALTH Beating the Bush

35

Pubic hair trends: A history

Sexistential Questions

37

What not to ask and why

Bend it like Bikram

39

How to get in (yoga) position

41

HIGHer Education The study-drug trade

19

The Perils of Perks

21

RUTHLESS RANT + RAGE

24

Don’t Trash the Stache

Decorative Injections owner Jimmy Kisor

Former OU grad students’ zombie parody becomes a cult classic

Bartender at the End of the Block

13

Food for a financial crisis

OU MDIA professor’s erotic side research

ENTERTAINMENT Aural Pleasure

A tour of OU’s coolest campus rooms

43

Over the counter stimulants

46

Fighting against moustache discrimination

25 Special thanks to Domino’s Pizza for providing sustenance at the fall Backdrop Bazaar.

28 32 partially funded this issue

backdrop | 2009 | winter

4

MAGAZINE RELEASE PARTY

SE x

D R UG S

backdrop Friday february 20th

19 South 8:30 pm

$3 over - $5 under

Featuring: Amish Electric Chair

Two eb She Bears

Front Royal Kaslo

Mind Fish

D Jones Nig-Unit

with MC Matt Karp

this + that THE BOMB.COM Cyanide and Happiness at explosm.net/comics

BY AADAM SOORMA for a quick laugh and need a break Dyou’veown from all the studying, err, Facebooking been doing?

Look no further than “Cyanide and Happiness.” The daily web-comic that uses recurring, coarsely drawn characters engaging in senseless, controversial, sometimes offensive acts leading up to awkward punch-line climaxes, is produced by four friends who collaborate to tap into their eclectic, dark senses of humor. First posted in January 2005 as primitively drawn stick figure cartoons, “C+H” has since developed a loyal fan base. More than 37,000 users are registered on the “C+H” forum, which isn’t surprising, considering it is one of the 2,000 most-visited sites on the Web, as reported by Internet statistics company Alexa.

Poking fun at topics like disability, murder, violence and sexual deviancy, “C+H” relies on

trademark awkward silence panels in which characters are seen staring at each other blankly. These serve as a crescendo to an indefinite punch-line, made funnier by the figures’ distinguishable expressions.

Contributing artists Rob DenBleyker and Kris Wilson feel that the foursome has worked well together on projects such as “C+H.” “We all had a hand in it, but Kris had the biggest hand, one of those Styrofoam hands you see at football games,” DenBleyker said.

Matt Melvin and Dave McElfatrick, the other two contributing artists, believe that using a minimalist style helps drive their humor.

“There are some fantastically drawn comics out there, but minimalism works for us and our content in a way that would be detrimental to many others,” Melvin said.

A word of caution: when logging on, it isn’t

a bad idea to turn your speaker volume down just a bit, as pop-up ads run rampant. Also, be ready for cheeky flash ads and the occasional removed comic.

Think you’ve got what it to takes to make your own “C+H” strip? The writers occasionally accept guest comics as part of week-long theme strips. So whether you’re just browsing around or looking to realize a dream of authoring an R-rated comic strip, check out “Cyanide and Happiness.” It’s guaranteed fun for the whole … well … wait … (awkward silence) … b Read the full interview with the comics www.backdropmag.com

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGGLY These boots are made for walking, let the numbers do the talking

Average Pairs of Ugg Boots Owned

Sorority Sisters

R

egardless of whether the Aussie-inspired fur-lined Ugg boots are a trend you’re crazy about, or simply make you cringe, their prevalence is undeniable. The Ugg Boot epidemic has shown significant staying power, an ability to pervade every social circle (boys on the coasts are already embracing the boots with the fur) and a place in pop culture. On campus though, the popular notion is that the Ugg is a staple, bordering on a stigma, for one group above all others. The perception is that our beloved Greek sisters rack up Ugg frequent flyer miles faster than any group, rocking what seems like a different pair for each day of the week. So is it fair for Uggs to be linked to letters or is this pervasiveness just a perception?

Non-Sorority Sisters

1.6 Pairs

0.2 Pairs

Data compiled by Darla Massaro 43 women were surveyed

ON BY BRIT

ILLUSTRATI

K

TON SPAR

HOT FOR TEACHER

It may be chilly outside, but these two professors are warming up the classroom. We spoke with two of OU’s finest.

BY COURTNEY ASTOLFI

Photographs by Denise Pansing and Courtney Gross

ANNALISA ZANUSO LOVES CHOCOLATE, GELATO AND WINE. SHE’S ALL ITALIAN, BUT CALLS ATHENS HOME FOR NOW. IN THE MEANTIME, SHE TRULY EARNS THE TITLE OF OU’S RESIDENT BELLA DONNA. What’s your favorite word in the Italian language? Truzzo — it means yuppie.

What is your favorite drink? I love wine. Normally I like the white ones, because it’s sweeter.

What is your favorite flavor of gelato? I’m a big fan of chocolate, and I love stratatella.

There’s so many…

Is there anything in Athens that reminds you of home? Winter and fall, with all the colors and leaves that fall down.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? I’d like to be a genie in a bottle.

What did you want to be when you were 12 years old? I wanted to be a math teacher or be an engineer or do architecture.

What’s your favorite thing to do in Athens? We have this Italian club called Ciao Club.

We eat, watch movies and I really have fun. It’s my way of making people aware of the Italian culture.

Tell me about a bad dating experience. Well, I have been dumped on my birthday…

ANNALISA ZANUSO

What was your reaction when you found out your name came up for this? I was happy. And you know, it’s not an article about the worst teacher ever, so I must not be that bad.

ANDRE GRIBOU HAILS FROM NEW YORK AND BRINGS TO ATHENS A LITTLE BIT OF CLASS AND A LOT OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. WHETHER HE’S LECTURING ON ‘70s PUNK, OR TEACHING BEETHOVEN, GRIBOU KNOWS HOW TO KEEP THE BEAT HOT. What’s the worst thing that’s happened to music in the past 50 years? Because of the perfection of recordings, spontaneity and variation in performance has been drastically affected. The other thing is that the commercial deification [of musicians] takes away from the spontaneous excitement of, for example, the Beatles, that you can’t reproduce.

If you could relive any time in history, when would it be? I’m thinking 1906, I’m about 18, in Paris. Oh yeah.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? To fly would be wonderful… but the ability to heal­— that would be my answer.

What’s your favorite magazine? I have two: The New Yorker and Mojo, a British music magazine. It’s everything that Rolling Stone should be.

What did you want to be when you were 12 years old? A musician, and I was really drawn to politics, but I kept coming back to music.

What was your reaction when you found out you were recommended for this?

I laughed and thought that was very sweet and thought the title was extremely funny. b

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ANDRE GRIBOU Read more fun facts about these profs www.backdropmag.com

The African American Studies Program at Ohio University is one of the oldest of its kind in the nation

exhibit Showcasing the university’s creative minds

Different Moon

By Chris Miller

It’s the smell of your hair as you sleep on my shoulder And the feign of surprise when we wake up hung over And the smile and sighs as you pull me in closer And the look in your eyes when you finally roll over And you tell me straight faced you’ll be leaving soon And what we did was underneath a different moon You annexed my sweatshirt as you headed back home And left me with a feeling I’ll always be alone.

Alone within my head, accompanied by my thoughts But alone with my thoughts will make you no big loss

a.

And you tell me straight faced you won’t be calling soon And what we did was underneath a different moon The earring I found will be at Goodwill by Tuesday And the marks on your neck will disappear around Wednesday Those blond hairs won’t be there with a turn in the dryer Around this time next weekend you’ll be proven a liar

Lady in a Yellow Hat

se

[we paint signs] A Typographic Collaboration Una ColaboraciónTipografica

hacen

rótulos

Meredith Post

A Typographic Collaboration

By Meredith Post

a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.

i d e o l o g i e s

Design is

By Andrew Burkle

a response to social change.

7

a better idea.

v i s u a l

Mexico 08

And in a week I’ll be singing a different tune Because what you said was underneath a different moon

you can’t

Peeling Potatoes

BOMB

By Jon

an

idea

1

In 1959, Alvin Adams (as in the newest dorm) became the first African-American to receive a journalism degree from OU

See more Exhibit A submissions www.backdropmag.com

backdrop | 2009 | winter

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AURAL PLEASURE Athens sounds off on the audio format fight

BY JESSI FINN & JOSH TAYLOR

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAT McCUE

A

decadent wall of vinyl looms dominantly over opposite rows of CDs at Haffa’s Records on Union Street. For student Sam Oches, drummer of Athens band The Jarts, these albums are of eager interest.

“I lived in Chicago this summer doing an internship, and I came back and [Haffa’s] had basically tripled their vinyl selection. It’s like a winter wonderland in there,” he said.

Sam is one of many audiophiles catalyzing vinyl sales during the digital age. 1.88 million vinyl albums were sold last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales in the United States and Canada. This is double the roughly 990,000 vinyl albums sold in 2007.

The increase is a result of young music lovers uncovering “analog sound,” the atmospheric, emotive tunes that analog recording and vinyl tape preserve from the original performance. Audiophiles in Athens now enjoy, record and produce music the way it was done before the digital age.

Eddie Ashworth, assistant professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies, remembers the good old days. He is a 20-year veteran record producer who has worked with Sublime, Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses, Great White and Pennywise to name a few. In

the ’60s, when a new record came out, he’d buy it and listen to it for the first time with his friends “almost like some sort of musical ritual. I think the younger audience wants that,” Ashworth said.

Moving with the industry, Ashworth made the switch to digital in the ’90s, though he still prefers analog’s warmer sound. Unlike analog, which goes straight from instrument to tape, digital sound results from converting the sound into a series of numbers using a digital audio workstation.

‘It’s a great sound. People who try to say they can’t tell a difference aren’t listening close enough.’

Zach Inscho, Russenorsk These workstations comprise a computer, a unit that converts analog audio into digital audio formats and digital audio software, such as Pro Tools or Logic, which records and edits digital audio. However, software can emulate analog audio by way of plug-ins, which are digital effects that can be purchased separately.

Ashworth is among many music connoisseurs able to differentiate between real analog tape and imitations. When his iPod shuffled through songs he had produced over the past 12 years, he was unsettled by the variations in sound quality. “It kind of made me sick to my stomach to hear how much smaller and harsh sounding my own recent work had become,” he said.

While Ashworth converted from analog to digital with unsatisfying results, a new generation of local producers has embraced old methods.

Josh Antonuccio, who owns and runs 3 Elliott Studios with friend Chris Pyle, has fallen in love with analog recording. It’s 3 Elliott’s wealth of equipment that makes analog recording a reality in Athens.

Since discovering the power of analog, Josh has pushed each band he has worked with to track to tape even though it is less convenient and more expensive than digital tracking. The difference in quality between the two sounds is most evident when the music is played at full volume. With digital sound comes unintentional distortion. After comparing analog and digital, the bands are sold.

Russenorsk, a band composed of students Tim Race, Jack Martin and Zach Inscho, is

one of Josh’s converts. Tim said it was Josh’s push to get them to record on analog that contributed to the success of their album.

Zach agrees.

“It’s a great sound. I mean, people who try to say they can’t tell a difference [between digital and analog], aren’t listening close enough,” he said.

Local band Southeast Engine has also utilized 3 Elliott’s analog capabilities, recently recording their fourth album From the Forest to the Sea, which will be pressed on both CD and vinyl. The band hopes the new record will help the resurgence of vinyl and be a treat for their fans.

‘I’m a walking studio. I could literally do a song on College Green today and have it online for sale on iTunes tonight.’

Devin Palmer, rapper and producer “Southeast Engine has always wanted to press vinyl, however, with the previous albums, it didn’t really make as much sense.

The demand for vinyl — even a few years back — was not as substantial as it is these days.

Even Best Buy is stocking vinyl, ” drummer Leo DeLuca said.

Despite vinyl’s resurgence, digital recording has not gone the way of the 8-track just yet.

Progressive metal band October Fist plans to finish digitally recording their first record by the end of June. “Today, because of the vast increase in the power of the personal computer digital audio workstations such as Pro Tools are widely available and easy to learn,” guitarist Brian Wenner said. He added that with bedroom producers “the result is greater quality at an affordable price.”

Producer and student Andre Smith, aka Dre Deuce, and other hip-hop artists have also benefited from the ease of digital recording.

“Instead of carrying mad records all you’ve got to do is carry a laptop and your tables,” he said. “They even have a mixer out that you don’t even need the laptop, all you need to do is plug in a USB drive with the music and you’re good money.”

Devin Palmer, a student rapper and producer, acknowledges the benefit of cheap recording techniques, but also recognizes the potential for untalented artists to saturate the hip-hop scene.

“Now, with people being able to have their own million dollar sound on a $400 to $500 equipment budget, you’ve got people sitting at home all day making good and notso-good music,” he said. “My entire setup is digital, the only hardware being my MacBook Pro, mic and MIDI controller. So that means I’m a walking studio. I could literally do a song on College Green today and have it online for sale on iTunes tonight.”

With these advancements, it may seem like analog production in hip-hop is on its way out. Andre, however, appreciates the vintage style of analog. “There is a certain bliss you get from carrying all your records and just having the feel of the vinyl under your hand,” he said.

Sam finds ritualistic pleasure in vinyl’s resurrection.

“There’s something about just having [a record], pulling it out of the sleeve, blowing it off, putting it on. It’s an event,” he said.

“Music is something you need to take time to enjoy and appreciate, and that’s what vinyl makes you do.” b

DIGITAL GET-DOWN Jake Sigal graduated from Ohio University in 2004 with a masters in engineering. He invented the USB turntable for ION Audio in 2004, which plugs into a computer and converts vinyl into mp3 music files. Since its inception, ION has sold more than one million units of the convertor. The success has come in part from students, with Urban Outfitters being one of the first retailers to carry the USB turntable.

Jake said the increase in vinyl consumption gives students the chance to learn how music mechanically works. “When the needle goes in the groove, it starts vibrating like a guitar string is plucked, it makes that sound. That’s not something that a lot of folks in their 20s have heard before ... Just like playing a drumhead or plucking a string on a guitar, vinyl is real sound where you’re actually mechanically making sound as opposed to sending digital signals,” he said.

THERE WILL BE BREAD The short film that rose yeast from the grave

BY NIK SALONTAY

are three kinds of people in this Twhohere world: people who love zombies, people are terrified of zombies and people who

aren’t worth befriending.

Kevin S. O’Brien is very much in the first group. He’s the highest caliber of zombie fan, the kind who’d drop an “outrageous amount” of money in a charity auction for the

the killer bread has left the house. The man is about to go outside when a climactic blizzard of white bread convinces him otherwise.

To make the film, O’Brien bought 110 loaves of Kroger’s white bread, back when a loaf was just 19 cents.

The couple that appear in the graveyard scene allowed O’Brien to use their

The short film ran directly after Night of the Living Dead. It was an instant classic. Every year since, when Night of the Living Dead ends, the crowds start chanting, ‘Bread! Bread! Bread!’ chance to appear as a zombie in the Walking Dead comic book series; who tried out three times to play an extra in Day of the Dead, in which he appears at exactly 1:28:08. But the pinnacle of O’Brien’s undying zombie fandom was in 1990, when, as a graduate student at Ohio University, he produced a short film called Night of the Living Bread.

The eight-minute homage parodies Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero’s cult classic that defined the modern zombie and began the grunt-filled, stiff-legged second and third films, Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).

In O’Brien’s celebrated short film, killer bread rises (no pun intended) against humanity. A small group fights back with toasters instead of torches, and seeks safety by sealing off windows with sandwich bags.

The story starts just like the original. A couple pulls into a cemetery and when they get out of the car, they are attacked — by a slice of bread. Subsequent slices maul the man, while his girlfriend flees to a random, Hitchcockian house, where she joins the other survivors. By daybreak, everyone is dead except one man. It appears that all of

b

condominium to film the rest of the movie.

“I put bread all over the place,” he said.

“There were probably crumbs in their apartment for some time.”

In October of 1990, Night of the Living Bread premiered at the third annual Horror Film Marathon at the Drexel North Theater in Columbus.

“We kind of made a big deal out of it,” O’Brien said. The crew made little bread badges out of hardened clay, a trading card set and collectible action figures (pieces of toast) with name cards like “Crusty” and “Toasty” to hand out to the marathon crowd.

O’Brien’s short film ran directly after Night of the Living Dead. It was an instant classic. Every year since, when Night of the Living Dead ends, the crowds start chanting, “Bread! Bread! Bread!”

After all the success at the Horror Film Marathon, O’Brien submitted Night of the Living Bread to the Hamburg No Budget Short Film Festival in Germany, where it

took first place in the audience vote. Then, just for kicks, he sent his short to the studio that was producing the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.

He got lucky. The studio needed a short film to bump the remake into the two-hour television slot. Columbia Pictures offered O’Brien a $2,500 advance for the North American film rights. Shortly after Halloween of 1992, O’Brien called the major television stations for the ratings on his short.

“I did some number crunching and figured about a million people had seen my film. I thought to myself, ‘How awesome is that!’”

The next shock was when Elite Entertainment, a company that restores cult classics, decided to include Night of the Living Bread on its Laserdisc of the 1968 Living Dead.

“I was a huge fan of Night of the Living Dead and here my film was being included on the definitive collection,” O’Brien said. “Student films do nothing, go nowhere usually.”

Best of all, Romero approved the inclusion of Night of the Living Bread on the “Millennium Edition” of his zombie classic.

Apparently, Romero saw O’Brien’s short film and called it “a hoot.”

O’Brien has since created three more films for the Bread series: Loaf, a spoof on the final scene of Alien; Another Bread Film or a Shameless Marketing Ploy, which pokes fun at exploitation films; and Sandwich, an animated short. b

See the Night of the Living Bread video www.backdropmag.com

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ILLUSTRATION BY BRETT NUCKLES

a-town

BARTENDER AT THE END OF THE BLOCK Broney’s Brad Wharton discusses whiskey, O.A.R. and baldness

25 S. COURT ST. ATHENS, OH 45701 740.592.5478

BY SUSANNAH SACHDEVA the end of your shuffle.

Iandt’sYouryou’re feet kill, you’re cold, a little more than

drunk. You get to Broney’s Alumni Grill, get in line, and finally make it up to the door.

The man looking back at you is bald, muscular and extremely intimidating.

Meet Brad Wharton.

This former Ohio University football player — an inside linebacker from 1997 to 2001 — and lifelong Athens resident is the owner of Broney’s. This bar and grill, considered a “newbie” at the ripe age of three years, has managed to make a name for itself on Court Street with its clean design and signature drinks (peach champagne slush, anyone?). Opened in March 2006, the bar boasts more than 100 types of beer and more plasma screen TVs than any other bar in Athens.

Brad and his older brother Tony (Brad + Tony = Broney’s) opened the bar a year after lucking into a liquor license.

At the time, Brad was in grad school at OU for Coaching Education and managing at Courtside Pizza & Sports Bar. He acquired the license, rented the space, and a year later Broney’s was born.

Back before Broney’s inception, the corner lot was inhabited by a body shop and later a car dealership. Across campus in Sargent Hall, freshman Brad wasn’t even

thinking about bar ownership.

As an upperclassman, he lived in a house on the corner of Mill and Palmer and on Congress. “It was typical of any college student,” Brad said of his experience at OU, aside from 1999’s Palmer Fest when the band O.A.R. played in his back yard.

Other than partying with O.A.R., Brad enjoyed One and

PHOTOGRAPH BY PETE LARSON

If you do catch him chilling at Broney’s, you’re sure to find him with a Jameson on the rocks in hand. “We go through a lot of Jameson ... partly because of me,” Brad noted.

Although this whiskey-loving bar owner has an intimidating exterior at 5’11” and 220 pounds, he is a softy on the inside. He loves his 28 employees, secretly

I like the university. I like the students. But I don’t like how the students change every year. You get to be close with a couple of them and then they’re gone.

Brad Wharton, Owner of Broney’s Alumni Grill Two Fests (which were called Derby Days back then). “That was always a good time,” he said, “The guy who coordinates those ... I bartended with him at Courtside back in the day.”

The book-loving, workout fiend who frequented the Pub and C.I. in his college days now is less apt to party hard at 31 years old.

“Maybe I’ll go out twice a month,” Brad said. “I go to Courtside and the Pub if I go out. I go here (Broney’s) a little bit but it’s kind of hard to relax here.”

enjoys the peach champagne slush. “I like it. I just don’t drink it in public,” he says. He tends to get too attached to the college kids that come through.

“I like the university. I like the students. But I don’t like how the students change every year.

You get to be close with a couple of them and then they’re gone,” Brad sighed.

So next time you come to Broney’s, don’t be intimated

by Brad’s tough look. Like he said, “The bald head just means I have a lack of hair, but I’m a nice guy.” b

“The Real McCoy” is believed to refer to the reliability of the automatic car lubricator made by Elijah Mccoy, a black entrepreneur

mountainlaurelathens.com

DORM DAZE The dopest of dorm room digs

BY EMILEE BRIGHTMAN & LAUREN McGRATH

F

riends since the age of five, Benjamin Wagner and Jacob Rogers are sophomores living in Bromley Hall 627. Their room embodies many college life ideals: space to hang out, a projector for watching movies on the wall, an extensive video game setup and hippie-inspired decorations that seem almost quintessential at OU. In addition to being an amenityfilled bachelor pad, the room is also filled with history and harmony. “This room holds a lot of sentimental value to us. I always feel at home here, and I suppose that’s what a [room] should feel like,” Ben said.

TAPESTRY The guys decided to use tapestries instead of posters to cover the walls.

They have a wax tree hanging, a Grateful Dead wall tapestry from Breckenridge, Colo., and another one Jake acquired from his girlfriend when she redecorated her room.

TVS As the saying goes, the more, the merrier. Ben and Jake have two televisions and a projector. One TV is used primarily for Xbox 360, Super Nintendo and watching DVDs, while the other is used for kicking back and watching the tube. According to the guys, their extensive Seinfeld collection gets a lot of use. To enhance viewing pleasure while watching movies, they have set up surround sound speakers.

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RECYCLING While OU encourages students to recycle by providing the proper units, few take the time out to follow through. Ben and Jake make sure to separate their paper, plastic and glass.

CLOCK Instead of the abrasive digital alarms that many students wake up with every morning, the guys have a large, silver analog timekeeper that is even artfully missing some numbers. Who knew college students could actually tell time?

TREE “We didn’t water it all break, and it’s still going strong,” Ben said. Their tree is a money plant, a relatively low maintenance plant with silver dollaresque seeds that are thought to bring good fortune.

Check out another sweet dorm room www.backdropmag.com

S

prucing up a lackluster college dorm room is not an easy task. It takes a mixture of a Martha Stewart-esque knack for expert decorating and a touch of originality to transform a boring room into a cozy home away from home. Sophomores Brittany Parsons and Maddie Wilson understand that concept completely. “We have a lot of personal and unique things in our room, and it doesn’t look like it came straight out of a Pottery Barn,” Brittany said. Living in 345 Adams Hall on South Green, the girls spent the first few weeks of fall quarter decorating and rearranging to get the room just right. Their space is as attractive as it is functional.

TIKI BAR Maddie’s mom found the bar on someone’s curb and salvaged it for her daughter.

“The Tiki bar that started out as someone else’s trash became our new treasure and the highlight of our room,” Maddie said.

“When we got our hands on the Tiki bar, we had to rearrange everything and bunk our beds, but it was worth it,” Brittany said.

Brittany’s iPod has a “Tiki bar” music playlist to add to the tropical mood.

SPACE UTILIZATION

Brittany used a floor space planning Web site that helped the girls furnish the room effectively.

OTHER FABRICS Rather than the typical poster-covered room, 345 uses mismatched fabric pieces found at garage sales to add some spice to the white walls and surrounding areas. “We have a lot of Sticky Tac and Command adhesive invested in this room,” Brittany said.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATE RAMSEY

CURTAINS Not only are these curtains cute, but they’re also homemade.

SEATING OPTIONS “My favorite part of the room is its size.

It actually has a few extra feet compared to the other dorm rooms in the building and it allows us to have more seating and space for our friends to visit,” Maddie said. While the couch is functional, the futon feature is unexpected and adds to the “homey” feeling of room 345.

In 1940 Booker T. Washington became the first African American to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp

LIGHTING

Brittany and Maddie have a remote controlled light switch connected to a small globe-shaped light above Maddie’s desk that emits a surprising amount of light. At night, the girls can take the remote into bed to turn off the lights without the pain of getting up again.

JUST FOR FUN In case a crisis ever arises, there is a full tool set, step ladder, craft supplies and paint brushes, and even a costume box to beat the winter blues. b backdrop | 2009 | winter

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6 Meals for $6 80

05

29 Food for a financial crisis

BY HELENE MILLER, KATIE FLAHERTY & HANNAH CROFT

here do you want to eat?” It’s the simple question that “W is strangely difficult to answer. All types of food run through your mind while making a mental picture of Court

But your stomach isn’t the only thing influencing your big decision — so, too, is your checking account. The eight hours TH AN you worked at Bromley last week aren’t going to get you very K YO Street, visualizing restaurants block by block.U! Chipotle and far. If you swipe the bill on debit again, will you be able to pay Wendy’s are available anywhere. You’ve been to Jimmy John’s rent this month? You need a place that is both different and at least a million times, and you just aren’t in the mood for a delectable, but won’t be a pain in your assets.

Big Mamma’s burrito.

Oh, the choices…

Mike’s Dog Shack

The Union Street Diner

Bagel Street Deli

We often tend to walk by some places over and over again without really noticing them. Mike’s Dog Shack is one of those places. Tightly crammed next to the Athena, it’s one of Athens’ best-kept secrets. Turkey hotdogs and corn dogs are only $2, and come with up to 13 toppings!

Combos are only $4-5. These hotdogs were pretty delish, and the lines definitely beat O’Betty’s Red Hot.

The Union Street Diner — most often utilized for drunken food runs — is even better sober. Not only does it serve steamy pancakes at all hours; its sandwiches kick butt. Our favorite is the turkey-bacon melt with tomato, but they’re all scrumptious and cheap. Sandwiches are less than $5 and fries are only an extra buck. It’s definitely a cheaper and more authentic than the Court Street Diner.

With a gritty New York atmosphere, this artsy deli’s customers are greeted by chalked-up brick walls adorned with aluminum foil sculptures. Offering endless combinations, made-to-order sandwiches and numerous BSD originals, these bagels are suitable for any meal of the day.

We recommend creating your own. Our sandwich consisted of a sun-dried tomato bagel, turkey, honey mustard, sprouts and tomatoes. A “meal deal,” consisting of a drink and chips, is available for $5.35 — a modest price for a quality meal with a little ambiance.

20 S. Court St. Bang for your Buck: $$$ Delicious Factor: We “don’t want none, unless you got buns, hun!”

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70 W. Union St. Bang for your Buck: $$$$ Delicious Factor: We could spend more time there than Rachel and Phoebe spent at Central Perk.

27 S. Court St. Bang for your buck: $$$$ Delicious Factor: Big city taste at a small town price

Nancy Green, a former slave, was the “Aunt Jemima lady” pictured on packaging and billboards

Killer Tomato

5 N. Court St. Bang for your Buck: $$$$ Delicious Factor: So delectable we almost died Underneath Kinko’s, a snapshot from the standard mall food court awaits, but the Italian cuisine is far from ordinary. Killer Tomato offers a small variety of salads, pastas and soups at a more than reasonable price.

With all the food conveniently packaged to go, we were out the door with wedding soup and pasta in hand at the expense of five minutes and $4.

Brenen’s

8 S. Court St. Bang for your Buck: $$$ Delicious Factor: Simply scrumptious If you have never stepped inside this hip uptown eatery, you have been missing out on an array of hunger-satisfying possibilities. The Greek veggie sandwich and bag of Baked Lays cost only $5.75 before tax. To help keep this meal cost efficient, we recommend getting your deli delights to go, and eating at the tables outside. The Court Street trekkers are a great source of complimentary entertainment.

108 W. Union St Athens, Ohio 740.589.2474

# 1 BIKE STOP IN SOUTHEASTERN OHIO FRIENDLY BARTENDERS CLOSE TO CAMPUS SOUVENIR T-SHIRTS & MORE DAILY DRINK SPECIALS

Souvlaki’s Mediterranean Garden

9 W. State St. Bang for your buck: $$$ Delicious Factor: Foreign appeal for authentic eats Souvlaki’s, one of Athens’ oldest uptown restaurants, has been serving the area since 1978. After 30 years of service, Souvlaki’s success relies on reputation — not frills. The restaurant’s interior seems stark without trendy urban décor, but the main course is anything but lackluster. It offers falafel, pitas, hummus and Greek salads, but is best known for its savory gyros. We recommend the grilled chicken gyro with the famous tzatziki sauce and a soda for only $4. b

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATE RAMSEY

b

Is eating healthy in the dining halls truly possible? www.backdropmag.com Booker T. Washington was married in Athens on W. Washington St. in 1885

OPEN 10am-1am 365 days a year

NO VOMITING ON PREMISES

SELF PUBLISHED The sentimental scribbles of the Doris zine

BY ELIZABETH SHEFFIELD

hat would the world be like if we all “W told our secrets? What if a stranger gave me their secrets, trusted me with their

secrets, knowing they would never see me again?” she said, sitting cross-legged in mismatched clothing. While the idea may seem like a radical psychological experiment, it is exactly what Cindy Crabb does.

It started with a typewriter, scissors, glue and tenacity.

She was 23 and living in California. The Riot Grrrl period had just hit, ringing in the ’90s with third-wave feminism and punk. Her parents were divorced. Her mother had a drinking problem, her father had distanced himself and her stepbrother had sexually abused her. She had an arsenal of secrets.

Too often, as Cindy explained, those secrets, those internally buried time bombs, remain untold, and eventually detonate on

their owner. Instead of ticking toward self-destruction, Cindy wrote down a few secrets that were a little too volatile to verbalize. She then made about 20 photocopies, and distributed them to strangers. This was the birth of the zine Doris, which is now internationally distributed, and nationally acclaimed by figures as notable as Harvard librarians.

Cindy was at first modest, speculating that Doris’s circulation is around 2,000. After further pressing, she bashfully revealed that it is distributed in the U.K., Germany, Malaysia and other distant places. Despite Cindy’s one-year presence in Athens, her published anthology of Doris has already made a communal impact as the main text for OU grad student Megan Lobsinger’s course on women and writing.

“It’s really interesting to me how reading something that is so personal and so very much about this person makes you think about yourself and your own relationship to human rights, or the opposite sex, or anything really,” Megan said.

Not only did the text inspire introspective digging, but also created much heated discussion with its uncensored references to abortion, sex and lack of commitment.

“Cindy speaks so frankly that students had no choice but to ... get pissed off,” Megan said. “There was a lot of anger.”

In addition to being taught locally, Doris is also locally created in a friend’s attic, only a few miles away from campus. Cindy giggles when she calls it her office — and understandably so. The attic office is every child and every writer’s dream hideaway. After climbing a rickety ladder that extends from the ceiling, Cindy’s office welcomes visitors with a ceiling that requires stooping and is adorned with naked insulation and cobwebbed light bulbs. But the real charm is the multitude of children’s board ILLUSTRATION FROM DORIS

games. In addition to her writing supplies, the built-in shelves are overflowing with nostalgia, creating an atmosphere as authentic and intimate as her zine.

Although this workspace seems like Cindy’s natural habitat, she actually hails from

Cindy aims to create a resource for girls and women who have experienced adversity.

Minnesota — and no, she does not have an accent. After attending Goddard College in Vermont for one year, Cindy dropped out and moved to California, the birthplace of Doris. Eventually, she moved back to the East Coast, settling in North Carolina, before moving to her new home in Athens.

Through her travels and work, she has met other zine authors whose work she collects in her office. Amidst this library is If You Roll Up This Fanzine It’s About The Size Of Snarla’s Finger, by Miranda July, the writer and director of You and Me and Everyone We Know. Cindy regards this zine as one of the inspirations for Doris.

Before she found her inspiration, Cindy protested issues ranging from nuclear waste dumping to abortion rights. However, she felt something was missing. She wanted to provide a personalized voice for the issues that deeply compelled her. By divulging her secrets, Cindy realized she could create this voice. And, with this voice, she hoped to provide a dialogue — not only an internal dialogue between readers and Doris, but between readers and their community. More specifically, Cindy aimed to create a resource for girls and women who have experienced adversity. The zine also doubles as a map toward social awareness and justice, a place where Cindy hopes everyone, not just women, will follow.

“I hope [Doris] extends to everybody … but when I think about it, and when I think about how [few] resources I had as a young girl, and how few role models I had, and how nobody told me that my voice mattered at all — in fact, most people told me to shut the fuck up — that’s where my heart goes out … to the person I was when I was young.”

Now, 20 years later, the zine has evolved with Cindy and is professionally printed.

Even though Cindy can’t be sure what the whole world would be like sans secret, she does know that it has made her own world a far better place. b

PORNOLOGY 101 Professor traces the roots of erotica

BY LAURA ORNELLA

D

r. Joseph Slade, a Media Arts and Studies professor, has a white goatee that looks vaguely like a chinstrap on a football helmet. He wears thick-rimmed glasses, a yellow and brown tweed suit and a butterflypatterned tie. He is turned away from the door, typing contentedly on the kind of outdated-looking desktop that fills half a room.

On the wall behind his desk is a numb-blue poster of a large, phallic cigar and the words Stags, Smokers and Blue Movies: The Origins of American Pornographic Film. The poster is from an exhibit that’s still running in New York’s Museum of Sex. Along the bottom it lists the names of those featured in the exhibit. Slade is one of them.

Right now Slade is a busy man. Though he teaches only two classes at Ohio University, MDIA 105 and Media and Sexual Representations, he is in the middle of authoring two books, Shades of Blue, a history of stag films, and Lethal Maxims, a history of Hiram Stevens Maxim, who invented the first self-powered machine gun called the Maxim gun, and Maxim’s son, Hiram Percy, who invented a sound suppressor for firearms.

Slade is interested in outlaw discourses not for the shock value or voyeurism, but to find out how voices once considered criminal gradually make their way toward the center of culture. “[When] something that is illegal and routinely and universally condemned leaps into the forefront of culture, it needs to be researched to be understood,” he said.

Slade was first intrigued by pornography as a teenager. He wondered how one of the most desired activities could be entirely stifled by society. He began to research the subject. His exhibit at the Museum of Sex explores the beginnings of pornographic film, called stag films, which first appeared around 1908 and existed for more than 60 years until pornography was finally legalized in the U.S. When one of his articles on pornography was published in a journal for health care professionals, it caught the eye of Margaret Mead, an anthropologist whose academic research is famous for helping to ignite the American sexual revolution of the 1960s.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA KOZAKEWICH

Mead invited Slade to join her for tea, where she encouraged him to further his studies in the “untouched area.”

In the ’60s, Slade enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he worked at the State Fair Music

Before coming to OU, Slade was a professor of American Literature at New York University and a librarian at the New York Public Library. He has visited more than 40 countries, and once carried his son in a backpack on ice breakers in Iceland. But he

Martin Luther King reached across Slade and said to the black student, ‘Did anyone ever tell you, you get white hot with anger?’

Hall. Around the same time, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was touring college campuses.

Dr. King had been in Dallas for a conference with other ministers and ran into a young Slade, who was working backstage.

When the other ministers called the audience into prayer and everyone bowed their heads, Dr. King did not. He had no notes, no prepared speech, but he could work a crowd, and he constructed his entire speech that day off the emotions of the audience.

After the conference, Dr. King invited Slade to a demonstration in town the next day. Oblivious to the nature of the event, Slade invited his friend, a white girl who was dating the only black student at SMU. At the protest, a man from the American Legion was taunting the couple, and just as the black student was about to throw a punch, Dr. King reached across Slade and said to the black student, “Did anyone ever tell you, you get white hot with anger?”

The day Dr. King was assassinated, Slade cancelled all of his classes.

The Indianapolis Recorder is the oldest surviving African American newspaper.

refers to New York as “home.”

He still researches pornography, but admits commercialized sex does not excite him anymore.

“Now I don’t even watch the videos,” he said. “They seem tedious to me. I’ve seen pretty much everything, so I fast forward to get the general idea of things.”

Slade, in his trademark patterned tie, behind a desk scattered with papers and various knickknacks, thinks pornography can be art. He posits that in the future, pornography will grow to have deeper meaning than what it stands for currently, that porn actors and actresses will become respected and admired like Hollywood stars.

When asked why he studies porn, of all things, Slade sat back in his chair and said, “I want more of an understanding of how the cultural dynamic works. I have no desire to promote pornography. [I have a desire] to understand it and understand its relationship to the culture.”

And really, there are worse things to analyze for a living. b backdrop | 2009 | winter

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j

hype

THE HEART OF ATHENS BLEEDS BLACK Jimmy Kisor is the most underpaid, unofficial therapist in town

BY ABBY CLARY

T

here are paintings on the walls and cartoons on the lobby television. A stereo in the back room is playing one of the hundreds of CDs that are shelved from floor to ceiling. Yet despite the toy figurines scattered throughout the place, this is no pediatrician’s office; parental discretion is advised. You have entered the office of Jimmy Kisor, owner of Decorative Injections--a tattoo and piercing parlor on Court Street.

As you sit in the hot seat waiting to get inked, you examine the toys from A Nightmare Before Christmas and the “Creepy Classics” collection. Your ears don’t recognize the ’80s goth/rock album playing and the paintings on the wall are almost indescribable in their darkly eccentric motifs.

As Jimmy sits down next to you, the anxiety disperses. His neck and arms are sleeved in colorful tattoos and he has a Mohawk and a nose ring. But he is incredibly friendly and conversational, and not at all intimidating as stereotypes might suggest.

The buzz of the tattoo gun begins and you notice the surveillance television in

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the corner of the room displaying a view of the lobby. Sitting on the wooden bench out front is Chuck Johnson, a husky bald man who wears a scowl of neutrality on his face.

He could easily pass as the shop’s bouncer, but he is actually the resident piercer at Decorative Injections. The cartoon he appears to be watching is in fact Hentai (Japanese animated porn).

The lobby TV gets a lot of use during slow hours when most of the shop’s college-aged clients are still in class. Jimmy mentions that day they watched an entire four-disc set of old vampire movies. Not coincidentally, there was nudity in those too. “It’s such a family place,” Jimmy adds sarcastically.

But away from the tattoo parlor, Jimmy is a family man. He adores his wife Melody and daughters Ziah, 5, and Avina, 18 months. “My perfect night would be going home, hanging out with the family, and watching reality TV,” Jimmy said.

A couple times a month he gets together with his four-man band, The Goodbye Goats. During their time together, the

band practices, records at a studio in Nelsonville, or performs--mostly in venues around Athens. Allegedly, the band’s page was booted from MySpace because someone reported them for using profanity.

Despite the alternative music scene, The Goodbye Goats don’t get a great response in Athens. “We’re not Dave Matthews Band and that kind of throws people off,” Jimmy said. The band likes to shake it up and throw some weirdness into their shows. They played at this year’s Halloween block party and their set featured a huge vagina wall with placenta-covered freaks popping out of it. “For an artsy, multicultural college town we still manage to shock people,” Jimmy explained.

“Our music isn’t easy to listen to; it’s thought provoking.”

Still, Jimmy’s humble and down-to-earth character prevails. Despite his tough, rockmetal exterior, Jimmy doesn’t drink or party. He loves structure and routine in his life and is a “pancakes-and-eggs for breakfast” kind of guy. “When I’m on stage I act wild like I’m a hard-ass, but honestly I’m pretty

The hour and a half you spent in the hot seat was conveniently just enough time for you to spill your whole life story...

low-key,” Jimmy admitted.

Maybe Jimmy is so laid back because he’s always been exposed to the collegetown atmosphere; he grew up in Athens, attended Athens High School, and doesn’t plan to leave the area any time soon. When asked what part of Athens he couldn’t live without, Jimmy replied that he loves everything--except maybe the cold. “I like [Athens] because it’s sort of hidden from the world,” he said. “I think of Athens as a hidden island with a lot of diverse and open-minded people.”

In particular, Jimmy’s favorite Athens bar is The Union. “It reminds me of a creepy, gross, underground bar from a vampire movie or something,” Jimmy said.

He also raved about Stephen’s restaurant because he knows all of the chefs there and they treat him like a celebrity. Jimmy stays grounded, however, keeping his ego in check.

Unlike most people, Jimmy’s personal life isn’t always separate from his work

life. Melody, is a huge part of Decorative Injections’ operations. “She owns it more than I do,” Jimmy said. He raves about how levelheaded Melody is and how the shop wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for her. She keeps track of all the inventory and finances of the place and keeps the boys in check. “This place would look like Willy Wonka’s porno factory if Melody weren’t around,” Jimmy said.

The remaining shop employees include tattoo artist Aaron Creamer, tattoo apprentice Colin Glover, and (when he’s not touring with his band SkeletonWitch) receptionist and tattoo artist-in-training Chance Garnette.

In the hot seat, you wince a bit in pain as Jimmy puts the finishing touches on your custom tattoo. The hour and a half you spent there was conveniently just enough for you to spill your whole life story, including the fact that you’ve never met your real mother, you cheated on your girlfriend with the hottie from your economics class,

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAN KRAUSS

and you listen to the Jonas Brothers on your iPod every day.

But don’t worry, Jimmy doesn’t judge; at least not to your face. “It’s totally barbershop style in here,” Jimmy said. “[Clients] confess everything to you. Stuff we don’t even want to know. We’re the deaf ear that people take advantage of to just get everything off their chests.”

Pumped about your new tattoo, and wondering just what could possibly shock someone as unique as Jimmy, you exit Decorative Injections ready to show the world your permanent companion. b

HOUSE BREWS

BY ANNIE BEECHAM

>>“I’ve got this bug,” brewmaster Brad Clark says while standing on the

damp floor of a plexi-glass enclosed room at Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery.

“I’m constantly thinking about new brews — I have dreams about beer.”

>>The 25-year-old resident brewmaster is standing on the deeply inset floor of a room behind the bar where the brewing process begins. In this warm, stale space, hot water and cracked barley are mixed into a mush the consistency of oatmeal in large vats called mash tuns. The air is thick and beads of sweat appear on the forehead of BC, as he is called affectionately by co-workers, while he shows off the gleaming machinery used for brewing. Wearing a navy blue jump suit and

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a postman cap, he looks more like a car mechanic than a brewmaster.

BC’s enterprising mind, shaped by his creative writing degree from Ohio University and an associate degree in brewing theory from Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, is constantly working, storing ideas and conceptualizing new flavors. He reads books and magazines about brewing voraciously, visits the farmers market, and searches every corner of Athens to find inspiration.

Always extending his breadth of brewing know-how, BC’s next project is to secure an International Brewmaster’s Diploma through a program in Germany within the year.

Jackie O’s is famous for its microbrews and many an uptown-reveler has sipped a raspberry wheat ale, but not many are privy to the complex transformation water, barley, hops and yeast undergo to become the flavor-rich beer that pours out of the taps.

The Underground Railroad had no clearly defined routes of escape

From Barrel to Belly Every beer requires a quadfecta of ingredients: water, barley, yeast and hops, the dried flowers from the hop plant. The ingredients, which BC orders out-of-house, travel from across the nation (the barley from Kent, Ohio, the yeast from Odell, Ore., and the hops from Yakima, Wash.) to get intimate in Jackie O’s brewing vessels. The barley, which contributes sugar, flavor and aroma to the brews, must be cracked open in a mill before it can be used.

1

The cracked barley is added to a large mixing vessel, called a mash tun. BC uses a paddle to combine the grist with hot water.

After steeping for an hour, the mixture resembles a vat of soggy cereal. During this process the sugars, flavors and color of the barley are released. Wheat, which BC adds to all beers to create longer-lasting foam (something beer nerds truly appreciate, BC said), is added during this step too.

2

The mash is transferred to a kettle, slowly brought to a boil, and the hops are added — neutralizing the sweetness of the barley and giving a distinct bitterness and aroma to the brew. The kettle can produce 12 kegs of beer, enough to last three to six weeks. Though not quite state-of-the-art, the brewing equipment is unique to Jackie O’s. Storing and conditioning tanks in the basement are 1920s dairy tanks converted to suit a brewer’s needs.

3

Simple beers, like the raspberry wheat ale, are carbonated and sent through pipes in the ceiling to the taps upstairs. Brews with higher alcohol contents take a different route. The Four Leaf Series, an experimental, high alcohol brew, and others are aged in wooden bourbon or wine barrels for as few as three months or as long as 18 months.

During this period, fruit, wild yeasts and bacteria can be added to the brew. With names that sound like exotic STDs, beer-souring bacteria Pediococcus and Lactobacillus contribute tart, fruity flavors.

5

After three to five days little sugar is left to be consumed by the yeast and fermentation halts. The beer is pumped to the lowceilinged basement of Jackie O’s where it clears for one week as the yeast, hops and proteins sink to the bottom and flavors are pulled together. BC tastes the mixtures periodically, and when he deems the flavor appropriate to the type of beer, the brew is sent on to one of two destinations: the basement to age, or the bar to drink.

6

Drink up. A mega-mug of watery Bud Light won’t ever taste the same after sipping on one of Jackie O’s signature ales. And that quick buzz from the higher alcohol content isn’t the only reason you should be feeling good — microbreweries, which produce limited quantities of beer, like Jackie O’s, promote local business and create regional pride. You can have your microbrew and drink it, too.

7

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAN KRAUSS

The mixture, a sugar-water substance called wort, is pumped to fermentation vessels that are housed behind the windows on either side of Jackie O’s front door and yeast is added. The yeast binges out on the sugars from the barley, releasing alcohol and carbon dioxide in its wake.

During this key stage, beer is made. BC gives credit where credit is due. “I, as a brewer, make sugar water,” he said. “Yeast makes beer.”

4

OU pledged $250,000 to fund one of the nation’s first African American Studies Institutes

backdrop | 2009 | winter

22

BREW IT

YOURSELF

BY STEVE ZEISLER

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN KRAUSS

C

ongress repealed federal restrictions on home brewing small amounts of beer in November 1978. President Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law the following February and many states followed suit. Thirty years later the home brewing movement has skyrocketed, leading to local and national home brewing clubs, organizations and competitions.

Jason Klein, 33, has been brewing beer for 11 years and has helped run the home brew competition for Athens’ favorite weeklong microbrew festival, Brew Week. Klein, a fervent beer

27 S. Court Open Mon-Fri 8-9, Sat-Sun 10-9 Phone: 740-593-3838

BA GEL Street Deli

“changing the world, one bagelwich at a time!”

Largest combination of sandwich possibilities in town!

Made to order salads, soups, tofu and more...

brewer and several Athens locals helped start the Athens Home Brew club in August. “We’ve only had three meetings, but our club is growing. It includes Ohio University graduate students and outsiders of Athens as well,” Klein said. The meetings extrapolate on the home brewing scene in Athens and Southeast Ohio and its promotion potential. “We sit around and drink the beer we brew too. If you think it’s a party atmosphere ... it’s not.

It’s a social atmosphere and it’s mainly about hanging out with friends and drinking good beer,” Klein said.

From brewing-to-fermenting-to-bottling-toconsuming, the whole process takes about a month.

Brewers looking to pick up a few supplies can turn to Eric Hedin. The 50-year-old part-time paramedic and nurse has been a passionate beer brewer for 15 years. He opened the Athens Do It Yourself Shop on East State Street six years ago with some inheritance money, and sells brew kits to people from all walks of life. However, if you’re new to brewing beer, plan on forking over some dough.

“The equipment is about $80, and the ingredients can be between $18 and $30,” Hedin said. However, there is a high yield output. A typical batch of beer yields about 10 gallons, which is equivalent to nearly 4.5 cases.

Hedin’s shop is a mishmash of kits, cylinders, ingredients, flavorings, bottles and kegs strewn about everywhere, but he guarantees he has everything a person could need for brewing beer.

“I have 35 different types of malt grain and 25 different types of hops. You can mix this and that and create your own personal beer,” he said. From brewing-to-fermenting-to-bottling-to-consuming, the whole process takes about a month.

So toss the rest of those Natural Lights and give your taste buds something that’s not urine-in-a-can; something that is instead your own concoction; something personal and homemade. b Read a review of some of Jackie O’s finest www.backdropmag.com

WRITING ON THE WALLS

WRITING ON THE WALLS

BY NIK SALONTAY

Profile (sort of) of an Athens graffiti artist

BY NIK SALONTAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY CONOR LAMB

have never met a man as dedicated to being Isatmysterious as “The Writer.” As instructed, I and waited in Peking Express. All I knew

was to look for a guy in a white T-shirt. The hush-hush of the situation made it seem as though we were meeting to exchange insider secrets. Eventually, a man wearing Skullcandy headphones came from behind me and introduced himself with an obviously fake name. A pseudonym. The Writer.

I told the man of mystery I wanted to write about graffiti in Athens. He cut me off, saying “graffiti” is what “they” call “it” because “they” see “it” as something criminal. “Artists” call themselves “writers” or “painters.”

The Writer said that if I wanted to understand the “graffiti” scene, I’d have to join him.

There would be no going back. I would no longer be one of “them.” Now I faced a scary, seemingly life-altering decision, the kind no one gets right until it’s too late. That was an exaggeration, but it was the ultimatum with which I was clearly presented. The Writer said I would need to become his “tool” if I wanted to follow him. Once someone enters, he or she will never be the same. I was terrified.

I tagged along with The Writer to Universe of Superheroes, the comic book store on Washington Street. He briefed me on the civil war waging in the Marvel universe, which would sound nerdy and improbable if you didn’t know what was going on. After half an hour of comic talk, The Writer told me to make a stencil and meet him at the Hip-Hop Shop’s MC battle that night.

“Hip-hop plays a big role in the scene,” he said.

I agreed to do both, but I never made the stencil.

The Writer disappeared for several weeks after that. I tried to track him down through mutual friends, by hanging out where he hangs out and generally following his tracks.

A couple of times I saw The Writer on the street and he’d say, in passing, “I’ll call you.”

Supposedly, his phone broke. As the weeks went by, the deadline for this piece approaching, I continued to search for him, but with no luck. While explaining to my editor how I’d lost my only lead, The Writer called.

“I want to show you some things,” he said.

“Sometime this week.” ou can look at each other and kind of “Y know,” the Writer said. “There’s a kind of brotherhood in that.”

The Writer started tagging (painting) when he was in high school. Back then, it was mostly about the feeling he got from breaking the law.

It felt good. He conceded he’s still a newbie, having gotten serious about tagging only in the past few years.

“I’m still trying to learn how to hold a paint can,” The Writer said. “That [technique] takes years to build.”

He was not the incredible, Banksy-like street artist I envisioned, but he certainly had a personality. Working with The Writer was a game of mousetrap: everything was loaded with impressive, but ultimately cheap, tricks and it always took longer than I expected to get anything down on paper.

On the night I was about to give up, The Writer called me and finally, something was going to happen.

The Writer on College Street, across Iwasfound from the police station, and at the time he tugging on his girlfriend, the same girl

who served me weeks ago at Peking Express.

He called her “Monkey” and demanded that she come paint with us.

“My girl’s pissed at me,” he whined later.

The plaza at 5 N. Court St. was officially closed, but the door was propped open and The Writer took me inside. From a kiosk cabinet, The Writer pulled out a few smudged, fingerprinted cans of spray paint, the little ball inside clinking like dice.

He said, “The corporations aren’t going to miss a little paint.” I could not help but feel like the kid had gone out of his way to impress me.

“I’m impressed,” I said.

“We’ll use blue today,” The Writer said, handing me a can.

I asked how I was supposed to hide it.

“It’s not illegal to carry paint.” He laughed

at me. Embarrassed, and a little emasculated, I jammed the can in my back pocket, where it looked cool. The Writer took me along a route that cut past Hudson Health Center.

“Fuck” was sprayed hastily in white paint on the building’s corner, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was his work.

“That’s graffiti,” he said. “People like that give us a bad name.”

If someone made a list of great things to gawk at on campus, the amphitheater behind Seigfred Hall would be one. Five stories tall, the black and white, vaguely tribal abstract mural covers one wall entirely, while the rest of the amphitheater is covered with more amateur-looking stuff.

The Writer’s girlfriend began to paint the topside of the steps. We shook the cans while she painted, talking graffiti, Malcolm X and “the corporations.” It was exactly the conversion you are thinking it was. Predictably “anti.”

“A lot of us are ready to die for a cause,” he said. “[The cause] is peace.” He let the comment hang there, seemingly very content with how it sounded to him.

His girlfriend finished her piece: “HATE” began to dry on the stairs, clear if you stand at the top.

“I like it,” The Writer said.

“Your turn.” He extended a can to me. I said early on that I wouldn’t paint, because I wasn’t sure if I could break the law in an article. I realized then that The Writer was right about one thing: No one cares.

The Writer told me to paint my favorite word. I thought about it. Using a can of cheap blue paint, I put everything I had into tagging “BENEVOLENCE” on one of the stairs. It felt like the closest I would ever come to making love with cement. b See photos of the coolest tags in town www.backdropmag.com

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features

PASSING THE BAR

Legal advice on running the underage risk

BY SHAMUS EATON & ALLORY WILLIAMS

“D

o you have a fake?”

At Ohio University, where a solitary bar-laden street dominates the late-night social scene, the phrase permeates conversation. As a top party school, access to 21-and-up establishments is perhaps even more coveted than elsewhere, and when the party-hungry Bobcat tires of house parties his eyes grow wide, transfixed by the lights of Court Street.

After testing back doors, blending in with busty blondes, and giving the kamikaze run-for-it the old college try, many underagers come to one solution: they need a fake.

Some students inherit hand-me-downs from siblings or sorority sisters, but others turn to manufactured IDs from dorm room suppliers or Internet vendors. Regardless of source, each plastic lie must pass one test before all others: The doorman. Jordan Schultheis, a 3-year veteran of the C.I. door, is not about to let just anything fool him.

After manning the worn stool at the C.I. entrance since he was a sophomore, Jordan has acquired a “sixth sense” when it comes to fakes.

“I’m pretty confident,” Jordan said of his ability to catch fakes.

“You just know. Sometimes you can’t pinpoint exactly what is off about it, but there is just a sense you get.”

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He’s seen it all, including arrests, and while customers are usually the ones being cuffed, bartenders may be held accountable as well.

And, while the doorman steers clear of trouble, the bartender knows who to blame if someone’s taken out by an authority.

“My manager told me if he gets arrested he’s punching the door guy on the way out,” Jordan said.

Regardless of skill, a few good fakes slip through the cracks each night, and that’s what causes problems. While students may be gently shooed away by Jordan, others can just as easily be forcefully apprehended by less obvious agents.

A common mistake is looking for OU Police Department and Athens Police Department in bars, the former of which has no jurisdiction and the latter, according to Captain Tom Pyle, considers false identification a meager problem.

“It’s a college town and kids are going to drink,” Pyle said. “We’re well aware that a lot of our crimes start with intoxication, but we don’t focus on people that have a beer. We focus on people that PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KRYSTEN BAUMAN act out.” It’s the undercover beer ninjas, the Ohio Investigative Unit, a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, that prey on underage drinkers.

Julie Hinds, a representative for the unit, said that the department acts, “on complaints and compliance checks,” but that it also “conducts routine field investigations.”

“The agents are sworn peace officers under the Ohio Revised

‘They’re basically God ... They do what they want when they want. When they’re here, they’re here to make arrests.’

Jordan Schultheis Doorman at the C.I.

Code and they have full arrest powers,” Hinds said.

“They’re basically God,” said Jordan of the investigative unit.

He recalls one ID never even making it to his hands. “He hadn’t even handed me the ID. They cuffed him and took him away,” Jordan remembered. “I almost pissed my pants.”

For those unlucky arrested few, the experience isn’t soon forgotten.

Chris Locke still remembers the day his luck ran out.

After an indulgent day at Palmer Fest, Chris, confident in his

Although AP style cites “black” as proper terminology, many individuals prefer “African-American”

fake, followed his friends to the bars. sees fit.

Chris and his crew entered the bar, quickly McGee and Pyle both offered up advice on purchasing drinks. A few bouncers soon began avoiding agents’ attention and a subsequent checking IDs, and Chris tucked his beer away to court date. fumble for his fake.

Pyle is quick to point out the legality of The doorman took quick note of Chris, who an officer asking for an ID. “The context of appeared to be hiding his drink, and confronted that gets twisted,” he said. “Now, they’re not him. Chris thought he was prepared, but upon required to give me one if I don’t have probable seeing his ID the man simply said “This is not cause.” Those of-age, but still fresh-faced, can you,” as he flashed his badge. Suddenly Chris’ breathe a sigh of relief though, as simply looking piece of plastic was not the “get out of jail free young doesn’t account for probable cause. Pyle card” he thought it was. said that even if an officer has a suspicion, the “My heart just sank,” Chris said. “It was my drinker in question can deny him the ID on the second offense, and I felt like an idiot.” basis of not having probable cause. That’s not to The undercover cuffed Chris, dragged him out say subtle missteps can’t give officers probable of the bar and handed him a ticket. Once Chris cause, though. was released, his sigh of relief was snuffed out by “For instance, if we see someone hiding a glass the reality of the ticket in his hand. under the table or we see four young-looking “Since they were a private investigation unit, kids at a table with two pitchers of beer and four they didn’t have to take me into jail,” Chris full glasses and not one takes a drink the entire explained. “But I saw that I was being charged time I’m in the area, that gives me probable with not only falsifying identification, but also cause,” said Pyle, giving merit to the classic underage consumption. I was getting two first- ‘play it cool’ line of defense. degree misdemeanors for one incident.”

McGee cannot stress pleading the fifth enough, “I plead ‘not guilty,’” Chris said. “I wanted to a constitutional right easily forgotten. have a chance to fight my case.”

“You can’t catch a fish unless it opens its With a favorable sentence seemingly bleak — mouth,” is McGee’s motto. Unfortunately, for second offenses are usually judged more harshly most students, more alcohol leads to loose lips.

— Chris wisely took a chance many simply do not. (A chance he’s glad he took after meeting ‘You can't catch a fish unless it his attorney).

When asked about his nickname, attorney Pat opens its mouth,’ is McGee's motto.

McGee’s face lights up; “Set ‘em free, McGee,” he laughs. Proud, his eyes sparkle in fond Unfortunately, for most students, remembrance as he recalls the name, given to more alcohol leads to loose lips. him by a judge 13 years earlier. In the past nine years, McGee has worked several hundred fake ID cases in Athens, enough to ensure that when McGee also encourages students to play dumb his clients fight the law, the law won’t win. when caught drinking in the bar.

Most students inherit McGee’s wisdom the “They have no evidence that you’ve broken hard way, on a stone cold bench while their the law,” he explained. “And it’s not illegal to friends sleep soundly at home. Luckily for them, possess someone’s ID. I cannot put words in Set ‘em free is on the case. my clients’ mouths as far as alibis or anything, According to McGee, consequences may vary but I can’t tell you how many times students are from case to case and judge to judge, and it’s wise enough to tell me ‘I had someone else’s ID his job to minimize the damage. First-offenders in my wallet, I found it on the street and I was can expect enrollment in a diversion program, going to give it back to them later on.’ Totally which involves a fine, community service, an legal. It’s up to the state to convince the judge.” alcohol course and an eventual wiping away of Being caught with a completely manufactured the charge.

ID, though, results in a misdemeanor charge of “What [the judge] tries to do through the falsifying identification. diversion program is say ‘look, you’ve got Even with McGee’s sage wisdom, some to get away from this concept that the law is students have to face the music, something he unfair,’” McGee explained. “If you violate the said is all part of growing up. law a second time, the judge is saying basically “Sometimes, here in Athens, students seem to ‘You’re not listening to me.’ For a second think that they’re in a protected bubble, but when underage, for instance, he imposes a mandatory it bursts it really bursts hard,” McGee said. “So two days in jail.” part of my job is to protect them and get them to McGee warns, though, that while this may think clearer. It’s part of the maturing process. be the norm, a judge may very well throw You may disagree with the law itself, but you have the proverbial book at students if he or she to be objective of your actions.” b Before the Civil War, the South had laws that said slaves could not be taught to read or write

BLACK HISTORY ON THE BRICKS Backdrop pays homage to significant black figures and events through time John Newton Templeton, a freed 1828 slave, is the first black graduate of OU, and the fourth in the nation.

James Carter Corbin becomes OU’s 1853 second black alum. He later became the first president of what is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff— originally a state-supported college for black students.

Arthur Carr becomes OU’s first black football player.

Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn becomes OU’s first black female graduate.

1903 1916

In order to solve housing problems, OU creates 1944 a policy that places black students in the homes of black residents of Athens.

E. Curmie Price, hired by the English Department, becomes the first black faculty member.

1963

One of the nation’s first Black Studies departments is created and is now known as the Department of African American Studies.

1969

Black students confront President 1976 Sowle about OU’s lack of sensitivity to black cultural programming and entertainment by marching on Baker Center. Sowle resigns five days later.

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Alumna Lisa Miree is crowned Miss Black USA.

2001

On July 1 Roderick McDavis becomes OU’s 20th chief executive and its first black president.

2004

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1833

Edward J. Roye, who would go on to become the fifth president of Liberia, becomes OU’s second black student.

He attends for a year.

1885

Between 1885 and 1911, OU had three black trustees: John R. Blackburn, Reverend John F. Moreland and James E. Benson.

1915

Leonard Barnett establishes the DuBois Club, the first black student organization at OU.

1919

A chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s first black fraternity, is established on campus.

1923

In order to dissuade black students from segregated states from attending OU, the board passes an act forbidding out-of-state students’ attendance.

1960s

Elsa Sylvester writes to President John Baker about discrimination in housing and barbershops — an issue that was partially alleviated in 2008 with the opening of The Chop Shop.

1967

Proposal for a black studies department is drafted, calling for a black dormitory for black students, black history classes and more black faculty members.

1975

OU’s first black homecoming is organized.

1977

Black students claim the Civil War Monument on College Green as their gathering place.

2008

Barack Obama is elected the first black president of the U.S. With 66 percent of the county voting for him, Athens is the only blue county in Southeast Ohio.

Photos courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, The Athena Yearbook, Ohio Today, Spectrum Green Yearbook

THE YOUNG & THE RECKLESS Facility rehabilitates young hustler’s life

BY DOUGLAS BAIR

T

he Wayne Hills Projects is rival gang territory. At 1 a.m. Josh was asking for it. He had just finished off a bottle of Grey Goose vodka.

He had on him a little less than half an ounce of weed. In one pocket was a gun, loaded for his protection. In the other pocket were some extra bullets, just in case. He was armed, but drunk. Someone came up behind him with what looked like a .22 pistol, but that’s all Josh remembers. When he regained consciousness, the weed and the gun were gone. He still had the extra bullets, but so what?

Josh is not his real name. It can’t be, according to the juvenile corrections facility in which he lived at the time this piece was reported, because Josh is a minor —17 to be exact. Therefore, a nickname must be used to protect his identity. He has seen bullets whiz by his face. He’s been to court four times, had two stints in jail — and we’re not talking the drunk-tank. Josh survived the brutal mugging that saved his life and ended up here, in the Hocking Valley Community Residential Center on the back roads of nearby Nelsonville, Ohio.

The HVCRC is not a prison. There are no bars. The doors are unlocked. Josh’s room has a window to the outside, a desk and a

cot-like bed. He’s in street clothes, baggy South Pole stuff, a T-shirt the color of blood. Josh has strong, square features. His hair is short and faded up the sides. From behind the fishnet glass observation window of the door to his room, Josh’s eyes look tired and angry and sad all at once.

Josh’s days at the HVCRC are regimented and serious. He’s up at 6:30 to do chores, after which he goes straight to HVCRC’s built-in educational center, where he studies for his GED. He has an hour or so of monitored recreation in the facilities full-court. Later in the day, Josh and the rest of the HVCRC’s residents have structured interactions and positive-thinking group conversations. Then it’s bedtime.

“I’m just trying to do my time,” Josh said. “Not let the time do me.”

A

lmost every weekend, Josh’s mother drives three hours to the HVCRC to see her son and to gauge his progress in the program.

She leaves his 10-year-old half-sister at home with her husband, Josh’s stepfather. Now in its fifteenth year, the HVCRC was backdrop | 2009 | winter

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established as an alternative to state institutions. She said he is bright enough to make The groundwork for the facility was laid in something positive of his life. the late ’80s by 12 rural judges who lobbied the Ohio Department of Youth Services and he kids here tend to be a little bit annoying,” the state legislature to establish funding for Josh said, the first time I met him. He has community correction facilities. The judges been in HVCRC for a month and a half. He is had noticed a disturbing trend when youth hesitant to open up and mistakes me, I think, criminals were sent to state facilities under the for some kind of authority figure. Basically, DYS. Things were happening to kids from he gives me answers he thinks I want to hear. rural areas. They were being abused, sexually “[The other residents are] just little immature or physically. Some became much more kids,” he said. “You know when you are 17 hardened criminals. and around a bunch of 12 year olds, they tend Sally Barr, the executive director of HVCRC, to get on your nerves.” has been with the facility since the beginning.

Josh claims he is already away from the She said the idea behind establishing a gang life, which, he thinks is what got him community residential center for troubled here. Josh was born out of wedlock. He grew youths in rural Southeast Ohio goes hand-in- up splitting time and houses with his mother hand with the treatment the facility offers. and father, who split up before Josh was a year “[Those involved in planning] wanted to old. Josh refers to his father as a “gangster.” establish a place that was closer to the youth’s Whether that means his father’s involvement home. Most facilities in larger, urban areas in gang life preceded his own is unclear. What cousin.” He sounds like a hustler — like a are far away, and parents of youth criminals in is clear is that gang life runs in the family.

Southeast Ohio are impoverished and don’t Josh remembers as a child seeing his father’s salesman. Quick to point out who he knows, have any money to travel those distances to relatives with money, nice cars and women. where he’s been and what he’s done, as if it’s work with their child,” Barr said.

He said he literally “fell into” gang life. His part of a logical deduction that legitimizes A major part of HVCRC’s program is uncle, the “head honcho” of the street gang who he is. It’s exactly what Barr said would keeping families involved in the treatment around Josh’s hometown, was “that uncle happen. For instance, Josh claims to have of their children. Many of these parent- who let me do shit that my parents wouldn’t.” made $250,000 the past two years, before education classes are court ordered. HVCRC But still he was hesitant to welcome Josh into he got caught and sent here. He said he kept holds such classes two to three times a month. his gang. Instead, he encouraged Josh to the money in a junky, old Ford, and out of his flashy Tiburon. (Josh has a thing for cars; The goal of HVCRC is not to condemn youth play football. criminals for what they’ve done. Barr said she Apparently, nepotism exists in gang life. he was written up for going to look at a used hopes to rehabilitate kids here, so they can go Josh said initiation into the gang comes at the Mustang with his mom, and was prevented back to their communities as better people. price of being pummeled “for five minutes by from immediately moving into the next zone The HVCRC accepts a particular class 10 of the baddest [members].” Others are sent of his rehabilitation.)

Josh goes back and forth between bragging of youth criminal. There about his gang experiences, glorifying are no murderers or rapists here. Typically, all the boys ‘Some of these kids put their hat to the side his involvement almost condescendingly, and supporting a sort of self-reflective, in the program are nonviolent offenders — substance and listen to rap music, and they think that’s anti-gang activism. “I know kids think abuse, property crimes, the gang life ... they’re messing up because that the street life is cool,” Josh said.

“Some of these kids put their hat to the including larceny, and anger side and listen to rap music, and they management. The facility has they don’t know what they’re getting into.’ think that’s the gang life. When they go 22 beds and serves 12 counties to a real town and do that kind of stuff, Josh in Southeast Ohio. The they’re messing up because they don’t average length of stay is about HVCRC resident know what they’re getting into.” six months, but navigation Sometimes he speaks as if he’s older through the programs’ four zones may take as long as 19 months. on “missions to get something for us to get than his age. Josh is the first to say he’s “street Barr, who received her Masters in counseling some money.” If he is successful, he’s in. Josh smart.” He said his street smarts are the from Villanova University, said that juvenile said he got an easy induction into the gang reason he is progressing faster than normal through HVCRC’s four-zone program. The criminals are falsely perceived in the media as because of family ties. irony is that Josh, however smart he may be, evil and malevolent.

Josh’s main job was to sell cocaine, but “Most of our kids are from impoverished there are two ways to look at Josh’s role in is not on the streets anymore. He’s here, in backgrounds,” Barr said. “Their parents the gang: He was either a protégé, or he was juvenile corrections. He got caught. To some do not provide adequate structure protected — given a little responsibility so he extent, he predicted this: “I knew that I was and supervision. [Some] kids get into could make a little money and stay away from going to end up in prison or six-feet in the trouble because of boredom. Many trouble. It’s difficult to decipher how family ground.”

He and a friend were downtown and Josh of them are introduced to drugs by ties manipulated his actual involvement. Josh their parents.” admits he “was one of the guys that was on top dared the friend to steal a woman’s purse. Josh watched his friend run up behind the lady, Josh’s story is no exception. In an e-mail, because of family.”

Barr said not to let Josh bullshit me. She Josh drops names as if these people are snatch her purse, and run off. Josh had not said he might glorify gangs and drug use. celebrities. Everyone is “my friend” or “my planned how he himself would flee the scene.

“T

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Many African Americans in the North and South assisted runaway slaves

He was arrested for conspiring to steal, and jailed for refusing to rat out his friend. He was put on probation.

A few weeks later, with plans to go to Miami, Fla., to make it big, Josh got high (“I smoked three blunts”) and went to the county fair, where he happened to unluckily run into his probation officer. He spent a week in jail and was transferred to HVCRC. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PETE LARSON

uck is a funny thing for someone like Josh. He was unlucky to be born into a broken home. He was lucky to have an uncle with money and connections. He was unlucky to get jumped, robbed and, as far as he remembers, pistol-whipped. He was lucky he didn’t die. He was unlucky to get caught, sent to jail and then to corrections. At 17, he’s lucky it’s not too late for second chances. Had he been an adult at the time of his arrest, the chances of turning his life around clean slated, getting his GED and going to school would have been unlikely at best.

The last time I see him, Josh is weeks away from completing the HVCRC program. He can’t wait to get out. He’s confident about the GED and his ability to live a clean life outside of HVCRC. He said he doesn’t want gang life anymore. He said HVCRC has shown him how much potential he has, that in a gang all you get is a lot of money and an early grave.

“The way it’s looking now, after I get out of here, I’m going to Hobart Institute [of Welding Technology] in Troy, Ohio, for welding. I’ll be making about $30 an hour,” he said.

Josh isn’t worried about getting out of the gang. He estimates there are probably 800 people in his uncle’s gang. Exiting is always easier said than done; one cancels his gang membership either by dying or spending a long time in prison. But Josh’s situation is an exception to the norm. His uncle, Josh thinks, would want him to have more than a life of crime.

On January 13, Josh is released from HVCRC, having completed his four-zone obligation. He’s not going to Hobart anymore; instead, he has his sights set on pharmaceutical sales — so, doing what he was doing before, but legally. An HVCRC van drives him home, back where he came from, back where the gang is, where his family runs the streets.

He knows he will be tempted the second the van lets him off at the curb. osh is 18 now. He’s got his GED. He knows he is still the same person, but he knows now exactly what he has to lose if he gets arrested again.

“Really, I’m just looking at myself,” Josh said. “Making my role model like the person I want to be in the future. I’m just looking at my own self as a role model. I see myself being a good dad and making money.”

The ability to “bullshit” is a skill. Barr knows how bright Josh is; she has seen him maneuver through the program with relative speed and fewer slip-ups than his peers. The first time I met him, and probably thereafter, Josh knew what to say and what not to say. He was keenly self-aware and attuned to how he was portraying himself, to the point that, at times, he sounded almost scripted. He wouldn’t say that, though.

He would say, “I’m a pretty open person. I just come out with it.” b

L

J

The 4 Zone Program Troubled youth who are admitted to the HVCRC must successfully complete the facility’s 4 Zone program. Each zone has it’s own aspects: the higher the zone, the more freedom and responsibility given. Advancement is determined by daily points and whether the youth meets educational goals and expectations. Youth may earn up to 12 points daily, which are gained through positive behavior and hard work.

Zone 1 (135 points plus school credit earned) Privileges: Unlimited mail 1 collect phone call to parent/guardian per week Church Zone 2 (minimum 270 points plus school credit earned) Privileges: Zone 1 privileges plus: 2 off-campus passes of 2 hours each May eat before Zone 1 residents and receive second helpings May have toiletries of their choice within reason May wear watches May assist kitchen staff with cleanup after meals Permitted to participate on the community service work crew Zone 3 (minimum 290 points plus school credit earned) Privileges: Zone 1 and 2 privileges plus: Eligible for all on-campus and approved off-campus recreational activities Television privileges May have a CD player in room with a maximum of 5 discs (No homemade or parental advisory label discs or those lacking factory packaging) Zone 4 (minimum of 312 points plus school credit bearned) Privileges: Zone 1, 2 and 3 privileges plus: Move about the building unsupervised May be tour guides

b

See how Josh is doing now that he is out. www.backdropmag.com backdrop | 2009 | winter

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OPIATES IN

APPALACHIA AN INSIDE LOOK AT SMACK IN ATHENS

BY GINA BEACH

Heroin

F

all quarter 2008. Bill locked the door to his one-bedroom apartment.

He sat down at his desk. The blinds were rotated to keep light and onlookers out of his window. He tapped the rim of the orange, cylindrical vial and a single pea-like pill dropped into his palm. He set the pill on his desk and used an old ATM card as a pestle to crush the pill into powder. He stuck a sawed-off drinking straw into his nostril, bowed to the table and snorted deeply.

Two months later. After a week of detox, rehab and ongoing recovery meetings, Bill lights a cigarette, rolling a pink, hexagonal pill in his palm.

He will hold the Suboxone under his tongue for several minutes until it dissolves, curbing his cravings and preventing his brain and body from experiencing a high should he relapse.

“The guy who invented this drug deserves a medal,” Bill said, opening his hand. “But the guy who invented OxyContin, man. Did you know it was marketed as a less-addictive opiate?”

Lauded in 1995 as a miracle drug that would suppress chronic pain in cancer patients and those recovering from injury, OxyContin, the “Heroin of the Midwest,” is now one of the most widely abused and addictive prescription narcotic painkillers on the market. On the street, OxyContin sells for a dollar a milligram. Higher doses cost upwards of $80 per pill. When users, who range from retired factory workers to the kid sitting behind you in class, can no longer afford to feed the habit, they often turn to another poppy-derived narcotic; a street drug with the same effects on the brain (and a strikingly similar molecular structure) and a name that sounds like what one might call a courageous woman: heroin.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KRYSTEN BAUMAN

Athens County has a higher rate of opiate- prescription medications. In the first half of related deaths at 28.4 per 10,000, than 2008, that ratio jumped to 31 percent. the state of Ohio as a whole. Opiate-related The Washington County sheriff’s office deaths are defined as any death due to estimates that 90 percent of property ingestion of opium, heroin, methadone or crimes are related to addiction, because synthetic narcotics like OxyContin. drug users often either cannot keep a job or Opiates elevate dopamine levels in the do not make enough money to supply their brain, but as the body builds up a tolerance, growing habit. more of the drug — whether it’s swallowed, Major Mark Warden is part of the Major snorted or injected intramuscularly or Crimes Task Force based in Washington intravenously — is needed to achieve the County. The task force combines police desired high. Users chase the high they departments, sheriff’s offices, prosecutor’s experience early on by increasing the amount offices and criminal investigations bureaus of the drug they ingest in one sitting, putting from counties Washington, Morgan and themselves at risk to overdose. Overdoses (formerly) Athens to fight crimes ranging also may occur when a user gets high in an from prostitution to money laundering unfamiliar setting or at an unusual time. The to narcotics. body fails to anticipate the drug, leading Opioids are a faceless drug. Warden said he to a more intense high and a greater risk has seen addicts with nothing and everything. of overdose.

Last May, the task force collaborated with the Turtle, a Washington County native and Drug Enforcement Administration to bust a former junkie, began trading marijuana heroin ring in Nelsonville. Local narcotics to factory workers in Marietta for their units arrest street users first, then move up prescribed pain medication when he was still the chain to dealers to cut off the supply. in high school. He later “The minor dealers moved on to shooting are usually users up Demerol, an opiate The misconception that themselves,” Warden pain medicine, and prescription medications are said. “If they’re only then, heroin. He said in it for the money, the when one builds up a a safer alternative to street major dealers won’t tolerance to a drug, the use because it will cut dosage that previously drugs sends half a million into their profits.” made him or her high Although the kind no longer induces people to the emergency of high from any form as strong an effect. of opioid is nearly Although one may room annually. identical, the intensity seem high to others, of heroin can vary the feeling inside is not greatly depending on as great and thus he or she will ingest more of its purity. Mexican tar heroin is brown and the drug, or find other drugs to compensate resembles earwax. It is more common in for it. The misconception that prescription Southeast Ohio than white powder heroin medications are a safer alternative to street from Afghanistan. Tar heroin is often cut drugs sends half a million people to the with coffee or sugar. Turtle used to cut emergency room annually. powder heroin with coffee creamer or brown “I overdosed one time,” Turtle said. sugar depending on its color. Powdered milk “Other times I could have been hospitalized. and the bitter-tasting drug Quinine are also I was turning blue in a bathroom and my popular cutting agents. buddy busted the door down.”

Heroin in Athens sells for $20-25 a Others have not been as lucky. Three dime bag and around $50 for a balloon, heroin-related deaths were investigated considerably cheaper than the $1 a milligram by the Athens County Coroner’s Office in going-rate for OxyContin. Warden said 2008: A man from Gloucester (a heroin where prescription abuse leads to heroin use, distribution hub in Athens County) and two stores like Lowe’s and Walmart experience local college students, Christopher Theil increases in theft. Warden knows a user and Kelly Armbruster. who sold his children’s Christmas presents Christopher, a student at Hocking College to buy drugs and another who would scan in Nelsonville, and Kelly, an OU student, the obituaries for cancer-related deaths and both 22, were found dead in a bathtub at target the houses where she knew narcotics River Park Towers. Their deaths were due to might be left over. acute heroin and alcohol intoxication.

In 2007, the number of new prescription Athens County Coroner Scott Jenkinson drug abusers surpassed the number of new said diverted prescription medications, such marijuana users. Last year, prescription drug as those from Turtle’s factory hook-ups, abuse exceeded the combined abuse of all are predominantly responsible for heroin’s street drugs, excluding marijuana. increasing prevalence in Southeast Ohio. In The mean age of first-time prescription 2007, 21 percent of cases investigated by opiate abuse is around junior year of the coroner’s office were related to drugs or college —21.2 years old — according to

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heroin

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use. “There are probably a number of opiate users — both heroin and prescription pills — on campus, but they are generally not coming into the counseling center for a drug counselor,” said Jason Weber, a licensed professional counselor and licensed independent chemical dependency counselor at Hudson Health Center.

University Judiciaries do not record which drugs are associated with each code of conduct violation. Very few cases have dealt with prescription drugs, and Kelly Pero, the assistant director of Judiciaries, does not recall a case that involved heroin in her six years with the office.

However, for a person caught with opioids, Judiciaries might be the least of their concerns. For a guilty plea entered by a firstoffender, the sentence might be as lenient as mandatory enrollment in a diversion program and probation. A first degree felony — meaning the offender possessed between 500 and 2,500 doses — carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. “[Heroin is] a drug that’s really hurt our community bad,” said Robert Driscoll, Chief assistant prosecuting attorney for Athens County.

Health Recovery Services is one Athensbased mental health and addiction nonprofit that has seen significantly increased numbers of intravenous heroin users among patients in the past year. Since this past summer, IV heroin use has “skyrocketed at least by 10-fold,” said Dr. Joe Gay, executive director of HRS. Methadone has been a popular drug in aiding addicts in recovery, but its risk of abuse is high. Although neither Bill nor Turtle chose methadone to quit, Turtle’s ex-wife and older sister went the methadone route.

“You can re-up your dose. [A regimented tapering of the drug] is not mandated, all you’ve go to do is threaten that you’re going to go get high,” said Turtle, who tried to quit “cold turkey” on several occasions during his seven-year stint as a junkie.

He has been clean now for four years, has partial custody of his two children and is working on his nursing degree. Turtle remembers how painful withdrawal was and attended Alcoholics Anonymous to stay completely sober.“I know even alcohol will lead me to sticking things in my arm,” he said.

Bill decided to quit taking opiates at the end of fall quarter. “I would score a bunch, maybe $1,000 worth of Oxy[Contin] and put it up my nose in 2 or 3 weeks. It was crazy,” he said.

However, he couldn’t keep up financially with his addiction. “I started selling stuff and taking out cash advances,” he said. “I finally

called my parents.” They helped him get into rehab.

The collateral damage of heroin usage extends further into the community than the drug itself. For every heroin user there’s a friend or family member who suffers; a mother who pulls her child’s body from a bathtub or a spouse who watches his or her partner fall dope sick.

OU students Katie and Sarah found out via a Facebook message that their friend, Jaclyn, had overdosed on heroin and died while home for a weekend in the fall of 2007.

“To us, we shouldn’t have had to keep going to classes, studying, talking to people, but the rest of the world was normal,” Sarah said.“[Users] don’t realize how important they are to other people. We had not even known [Jaclyn] for more than a year, but we were devastated.”

When Jaclyn first told Katie and Sarah she was using OxyContin, they weren’t sure how to react. “You want to trust people. If they say it’s cool and she says she does it all the time, it must not be as dangerous as they say it is,” Sarah said. “You should be able to tell someone ‘No, you shouldn’t do heroin,’ but you can’t.”

In desperate cases, students can anonymously report substance abuse problems to the Dean of Students, who will facilitate an intervention. Reporting a student should be a last resort, when there are “no bridges left to burn,” said Weber.

Despite the difficulty, Weber recommends calmly telling the user how you feel and how their usage affects others directly. “[Those words] can be pretty powerful. Even though the person might not immediately respond to them, it stays on their mind,” he said.

Bill knows staying sober is difficult, but the repercussions of a relapse could be fatal. He has cut himself off from users and dealers.

He has had to find alternatives to the rush and feelings drugs gave him.

“Now I have cigarettes, weights, food, caffeine, sex. Normal pleasures.” b

— Wtih reporting by Elizabeth Sheffield

EMERGENCY CONTACTS Hudson’s Counseling and Psychological Services 740-593-1616 Ohio Narcotics Anonymous Help Line 800-587-4232 Counselors In Residence Sun. - Tues. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.

122 Jefferson Hall Wed. - Thurs. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.

419 Baker Center Dean of Students 740-593-1800 Athens Police Department 740-592-3313 backdrop | 2009 | winter

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sex + health

BUSH

BEATING THE

BY ERIN ROSE PFEIFER

PHOTOGRAPH BY PETE LARSON

Trimming the bush. Cutting the curlies. Managing the muff.

Whatever you call pubic hair maintenance, you’ve at least made an attempt at controlling the hair down there. In our highly sexualized society, it’s no longer just accepted; it’s expected. A well-manicured reproductive region is not just a girl thing.

Men and women are turning to new methods of hair removal that transcend the razor blade. Techniques include laser hair removal, waxing and even dissolving unwanted hair with a chemical combination that warrants the wearing of safety goggles more typically found in eleventh grade chemistry class.

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The Bush/ Au Naturale

The Bikini Design

to pubic hair what laissez-faire is to the economy: completely handsoff and untouched

just off the sides and top, as to fit a bikini bottom

H

The Triangle a small triangle of hair sits on the pubic bone, but all hair from the bikini line, labia, perineum and anus is removed

ubic hair has had a troublesome time Pacquired in our clothes-off society. Even its role seems contrived. According

to Susie Bluestone, a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio, pubic hair in today’s society has one main job: to protect the delicate skin around the genitals. Irritants such as tight-fitting clothing and sex can become quite uncomfortable if there is no barrier to absorb the friction.

Pubic hair also has the important function of helping absorb perspiration in the hot, tropical regions of the body. When moisture is not absorbed properly it can lead to a bacterial breeding ground. According to Bluestone, “We are always sloughing off dead skin cells ... so you have the potential for getting bacteria. The hair follicle is open so the bacteria gets in and causes something like a pimple infection.”

This can lead to an array of issues below the belt such as small, zit-like bumps (that often resemble genital herpes) to a fully-infected hair follicle that can lead to hospitalization. And since most of us leave razors in the humidity of a shower or bathroom, small amounts of rust and bacteria can easily grow and transfer onto the private parts during shaving. So before you accuse your partner of giving you an STD, stop and do the math. Shaving causes open hair follicles. Add a dark, warm environment and excess moisture and you could end up with a bikini line that resembles a pizza-faced 13 year old.

“It’s a relatively young trend, but the impression is that hair is dirty and Americans therefore want to remove it ... but it isn’t and [shaving] increases the risk [of infection],” Bluestone said.

But what if you aren’t shaving per se? The second most common way for Americans to remove unwanted hair is waxing. While extremely painful, it is also long- lasting and relatively inexpensive. Barb Johnson, a waxing specialist at Raphael’s Aveda Concept Salon and Spa, said about three-fifths of her clients are students, the vast majority of whom get the Brazilian bikini wax. “[Students] just go all the way. They want it gone,” Johnson said. According to Johnson, women in their mid-20s tend to request the Triangle or Landing Strip

The Landing Strip same as the Triangle, only a narrow vertical line takes the place of the Triangle

The Sunset a "V" is shaved into the Triangle, spacing the pubic hair into three equal sections

shapes. However, older women prefer a little more hair “down there.” “The older generation always gets the traditional bikini wax,” she said.

Bikini waxing has gained popularity in the past few years for several reasons.

First, it is effective. Getting the same area waxed on a regular basis can result in less hair growing back. And the hair that does grow back will be softer and less coarse. It can also save a lot of time since waxing can

‘It’s a relatively young trend, but the impression is that hair is dirty and Americans therefore want to remove it.’

Susie Bluestone nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood last anywhere from two weeks to a month of hair-free living. To get these perks, most women are paying about $40 for a single waxing session.

To some, however, forking over the cash to have a stranger rip hot wax off their genitals is less than appealing. Professional pubic hair landscaping and upkeep is masochistically painful. Half an inch to one inch of pubic hair is needed for a successful wax, but know that, “the longer hair gets, the more it hurts,” Johnson said.

Keep in mind that bruising and bleeding are common after any waxing session and that tanning before or after can increase the pain exponentially.

Like many female students on campus, Ohio University senior Olga Kooi thinks the pain is worth it. “The first time is very, very painful and you’ll never want to do it again. But later it gets easier and easier, and there are numbing creams out there to help,” she said.

Despite the pain and expense, professional waxing does seem to be a slightly safer option for those interested in ridding themselves of pubic hair. A licensed professional will always disinfect the area prior to waxing and use only new, sanitary strips

The Princess Cut like the Triangle, this tear-drop shape sits on the pubic bone and all other hair is removed

The Brazilian “Barbie Doll style”, no pubic hair down there… anywhere…

to remove the wax and hair. Additionally, the chances of acquiring ingrown hairs are minimal since the entire hair is uprooted.

By not using a razor, you are eliminating the possibility of razor burn or transferring germs from an over-used, rusty razor onto your genitals.

Underneath the civilized behavior, humans are just animals trying to keep their species alive, and pubic hair can actually aid in this process. But before you go baring it all to some stranger at the bar, keep in mind that it is not the aesthetic appeal that’s going to help you — it’s the scent.

Our primal forces are triggered by our personal subtle scents, called pheromones: a chemical that is secreted in our sweat and acts as a natural aphrodisiac to potential mates. Having a tuft of pubic hair can help keep these pheromones collected and stored to up your sex appeal without anyone ever really knowing.

Pubic hair is protecting our skin, keeping us safe from harmful germs, and even helping us get laid. So why the animosity?

Turns out, like many other trends in society, what started as a practical solution to a problem gained attention and thus, popularity. In ancient times, Egyptian, Roman and Grecian prostitutes shaved their pubes off to help remove and avoid lice. Then came the invention of the merkin, a special little wig for the pubic area, originally intended to hide the visible signs of sexually transmitted diseases. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “merkin” first appeared in everyday language in 1617, a time in which theater was a major form of entertainment. All of the actors were male, so the merkin made it possible for men to hide their genitals and play women on stage in nearly-nude scenes. Today, both male and female actors use merkins to avoid full-frontal nudity in a scene, which can also help a movie score a lower rating.

But not everyone feels that the pubes need to go. On the September 19 airing of his show, Bill Maher said, “Bring back a little pubic hair. Not a lot. I’m not talking about reviving that 1973 look that says I’m liberated ... and I’m smuggling a hedgehog. I just want a friendly, fuzzy calling card that tells me I’m not going to get arrested.” b backdrop | 2009 | winter

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G

G

G G GG G G G G G GG G G G GG GG G G G G G G GG GG G G G G G G GG G G G GG G G G

SEXISTENTIAL QUESTION

BY ANDREW EISENMAN ILLUSTRATION BY ROBYN STRACHAN

of undiagnosed schizophrenia surfaces when two people are Arootssort centimeters away from having sex and start asking questions. The of these questions — the kinds of existential sex questions that cause us to lie and over-think and pass judgments on each other when we are at our most vulnerable — run deeper than we can fathom; they reach through the soil and the earth’s mantle, and are, with life’s other unanswerable questions, tethered to the planet’s core like a bunch of balloons.

Here’s what happens: Two people think they like each other. They have been on a few serious dates and have kissed for a tongue-dryingly

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long time. Until now, they have been taking it consciously slow, because they have both made the mistake of jumping into a pool with a shark in it.

They find themselves in bed, hands moving over each other as if their bodies are stove-hot, trying to show passion for every fleshy square inch — the kind of cinematic stuff that comes off amateurish and uninspired in real life.

Clothes come off. In terms of layers-removed and proximity of bodies, this is the furthest they have ever gone with each other. Under the covers, the kind of intercourse they are having is akin to the kind of

intercourse one has with a couch with a plastic cover on it — probing, gorilla-with-a-stickish, on the wrong side of underpants.

The next step is to put to use an advanced version of a concept they have been hard at work perfecting, basically since infancy; something that has to do with fitting shapes in slots, and is not all that difficult a task at this age. However, it always happens that in the heartbeat between aim and insertion, someone will chest-press or push-up to create a conversational space between bodies, look his/her perplexed partner in the eyes and ask something totally inane and vulgar and inappropriate, like, “How many people have you had sex with?”

To ask the question itself — How many people have you had sex with? — functions as a kind of insecurity tic. It’s like when a friend tells you a secret, and you promise not to repeat it, and you go around all day reminding yourself you promised not to repeat it; yet later in the day you run into a mutual friend to whom you have really nothing else to say, but you want to make conversation so you go ahead and tell them the other friend’s secret, as if it were a bee you were trying to keep in your mouth. Sexistential questions are exactly like that.

If you think about it, there are certain things we only think we want to know; things that, if we knew them, would do more harm than good. Often these things are important to us on an unimportant level. The problem is that once we get the idea in our head, these things nag our bored brains day after day, until we cannot take it anymore, so we seek the answers and then the answers themselves bug us the rest of our lives, reminding us of our limitations and so forth. Our partner’s sexual history is something we only think we want to know.

The “number” question is especially complex, because the answer, whether it’s Teresaian or Chamberlainian — and even if certain things can be raised from the inevitable bloodless, rolled-up shirtsleeve flaccidity that complex conversation lulls it into to have earth-shattering sex thereafter — does not extinguish the asker’s inherent insecurity; knowing only sets it aside for the time being. But, isn’t it true that once we exchange numbers, we end up spending the rest of the relationship’s natural life passiveaggressively trying to put a name to every numeral? In effect, knowing our partner’s number actually makes us more insecure than we were before.

Think about it: when we know our partner’s number (truth notwithstanding), we become kind of paranoid. It hits us that we’re not the only person in the world that our partner has found attractive-enough to have sex with, and that we are probably somewhere in the middle on the attractiveness spectrum. We

begin to look for the glint in our partner’s eyes when he or she is talking to someone of the opposite sex, the kind of twinkle a dog has around the person in the family who always feeds him under the table at dinner. The real lunatics might confiscate cell phones, hack Internet accounts, interrogate friends, spy on or maybe even hold his or her partner captive in a windowless basement 40 miles out of town.

The other side of the equation is, of course, the answer we give when asked. To even find an acceptable answer, one must first reconsider the question: “How many people have you had sex with?” Emphasis and inflection are vital to understanding the questioner’s desire to know your answer, and thus will de-

Isn’t it true that once we exchange numbers, we end up spending the rest of the relationship’s natural life passiveaggressively trying to put a name to every numeral? termine whether you lie or tell the truth.

An emphasis on either the “have” or the “you” connotes the questioner’s curiosity, as well as the aforementioned insecurity thing.

This person probably thinks he or she really wants to know how many other people you have had sex with. When the questioner emphasizes the word “sex” (How many people have you had sex with?), there are other implications: either you have no idea what you’re doing (i.e., you’ve spent the last halfhour kissing dead spots, struggling to untangle your legs), or you’re masterfully having your way with your partner’s body (from personal experience, it’s usually the former).

The other connotation is that your partner notices something is awry about your sexual organ, which has the same insulting tone of asking someone who’s throwing up, “How much did you drink last night?”

The only other sensible emphasis — and one should hope the question is never asked this way — is on the word “people” (as in, “How many people have you had sex with?”). To a perceptive listener, an emphasis on “people” would imply that at least some of the questioner’s own sexual experiences have been with non-human animals. In this case, run.

When we are asked how many people we

The black slave, York, accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition

have had sex with, and the answer is the difference between making love to someone we truly like, or having to find our clothes in the dark, we are in the hot seat. There are certain factors that make our correctly answering the “number” question more difficult. One should be mindful of the “I Think She Thinks I Think” assumption trap (the pronouns are interchangeable), which almost every 3Dthinking person has gotten a foot stuck in before. We all have been on one or the other side of a relationship that functions on amateur telepathy, which not only makes everyone self-conscious to the point of impotency; it leads to poor communication and, quite often, tears.

In terms of heterosexual sex (which is the only kind of sex I have had so far, unless you count inanimate objects from ages 8-12, when there literally wasn’t anything else to have sex with that wouldn’t bite or run away) when the girl asks the guy how many people he has had sex with, what she’s asking is: “How many other girls have you done this to?” When the guy asks the girl, he’s trying to gauge her “Rate of Admissions,” for which there isn’t a better epithet.

I should have mentioned sooner that there is no epic revelation here. I am not a sexologist or sexpert or anyone who knows anything, really. I am not even trying to sound like an expert, which some people do when they talk about sex. I think you think I think I am some kind of expert. But, I’m not. My research for this piece was limited to (limited) personal experience, urban legends and a few weird books I found on the sixth floor of Alden Library — Sex and the College Girl was one title, I think.

My hope was to point out the warped nature of our tendency to ask critical questions when we’re in bed, practically docked inside each other, in the time between when our food-chewing mechanisms perform a sort of awkward side job, which somehow makes us want to do more with each other’s other multifunctional body parts.

Questions we ask in bed are the pet alligators of the relationship. It’s like this: A pet alligator always seems harmless (I’d debate its cuteness) when it’s shorter than your forearm. But when it gets out of its tank one afternoon when you’re not home, and neighborhood dogs start to go missing, you are going to wish you’d never bought it in the first place. And when the neighbors ask you about it, you’re going to act like the alligator wasn’t yours, but inside you’ll still feel bad, and guilt is a hard thing to get out of your head. b Play another numbers game with 85 ways to spend $85K www.backdropmag.com

backdrop | 2009 | winter

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BEND IT LIKE BIKRAM There’s no place like Ohm

BY ALEXIS MALURE

B

efore one even considers stepping into a yoga studio, he or she must be able to successfully contort his or her body into a human pretzel calmly and peacefully while simultaneously being suffocated by herbal incense, right?

While this may not actually be necessary in order to succeed at yoga, don’t be fooled; yoga is not for the weary and inept — it is an intense workout that can be both physically and emotionally demanding. Some of the world’s top athletes, best known celebs and most influential politicians turn to yoga to

keep them sane, sexy and in shape. Skeptical that a powerful and arduous workout can be found somewhere in between a simple combination of poses and postures? Still think it’s only for the Enya-loving high school art teacher who has a strange affinity for origami and tofu? Check out these six challenging poses to see if you can bend it like Bikram. Athens has several local venues that can help get those thighs into shape without requiring Sanskrit as a second language. Fortunately, they won’t make your Visa card sweat either.

UPWARD DOG

DOWNWARD DOG

Adho Mukha Svanasana Focus: Upper back What do you get out of it? This pose relieves several bodily ailments while soothing the mind. It gives the body an energizing boost while alleviating menstrual discomfort, headaches, and back pain.

Warning: Pregnant women should not attempt this pose late-term.

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana Focus: Wrists What do you get out of it? This pose improves posture, firms your butt, and also helps relieve symptoms associated with mild depression, fatigue, and asthma.

Warning: Individuals with carpal tunnel syndrome should not attempt this pose.

EIGHT- ANGLE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KRYSTEN BAUMAN

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Astavakrasana Focus: Arms, wrists, abdomen What do you get out of it? This pose strengthens the wrists and arms, while toning the abdominal muscles.

Did you know? The name literally makes reference to the eight angles created in your body by performing this pose.

HEADSTAND

WHEEL

Urdhva Dhanurasana Focus: Wrists What do you get out of it? This pose opens the shoulders and wrists while strengthening the back of the body. It also helps relieve symptoms associated with depression or fatigue.

Did you know? You can support your hands or feet on a pair of blocks until you are able to complete the full back bend.

Sirsasana Focus: Arms, legs, spine What do you get out of it?

This pose strengthens the entire body (abs, arms, back). It also helps develop greater balance and reenergizes the body.

Did you know?

This pose can help relieve symptoms related to asthma, sinusitis and insomnia.

YOGA AROUND ATHENS PING RECREATION CENTER

CRANE

Classes held Wednesday,Thursday, Friday, Sunday 740- 593-9915 Classes are included in student’s general fees Faculty/Staff: $6 Adult: $7.50 Child under 18: $6 Guest of OU Student, Faculty/Staff, or Alumni: $7.50

INHALE YOGA STUDIO

Bakasana Focus: Wrists What do you get out of it? This pose strengthens upper body, arms, shoulders, chest, abs, and upper back. It also helps develop focus, balance and coordination.

Did you know? A partner can help you learn to balance in the Crane pose, especially if you are a beginner.

8 N. Court St., on the Garden Level 740-350-5654 Visit www.inhaleyoga.org for a complete list of classes, fees, descriptions, and schedules. The studio holds a variety of events in addition to regular classes.

Not Your tYpical partY

boo k yo girl ur s ni ght part in y to day !

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❤ Cell 740.706.9631 Jenn Pugh, Senior ConSultant♥❤ JennPugh@PureromanCe.Com ❤ 740.374.0506 backdrop | 2009 | winter Fun fact goes here Fun fact goes here Fun fact goes here

www.jennpugh.pureromance.com

HIGHER EDUCATION STUDY DRUGS ON THE COLLEGE CAMPUS

BY LINDSAY BAILEY PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREA KOZAKEWICH

A

shley meets someone on the steps of Alden Library and exchanges three oblong, orange-colored Adderall capsules for $18. This doesn’t seem like a typical drug deal — there’s something about it that seems totally legal, like selling off other things you have but do not want or need — but a drug deal is exactly what this is.

Ashley (a nickname used to protect her identity) is a sophomore journalism student, and she has been selling Adderall on campus for about a year.

“My first clients were upperclassmen, my boyfriend’s older brother and his roommates, who offered to pay me for some of my [Adderall] when they heard I had a prescription,” she said.

Ashley was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and prescribed Adderall in fifth grade. She was weaned off the medication in high school.

“When I got ready to go to college, my psychiatrist offered to renew my prescription, but warned me that people would want to buy it,” she said.

Ashley said she sells to more than 16 people, most of them students, some of whom call up to three times a week. She claims to have made around $120 in a single day selling her Adderall. The going rate for her 30 mg, time-release Adderall — perhaps the

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most sought-after dosage and type of the psychostimulant in town — is $6 a pill.

In 2005, only 4 percent of Ohio University students admitted to using Ritalin or other prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to OU’s Alcohol and Other Drug Survey. Two years later, this figure jumped to 11 percent.

Daniel Hudson, a pharmacist [at Hudson], said the director feels the health center would be at risk for robberies or assaults if it carried Adderall or other amphetamines.

Adderall, America’s most widely prescribed drug for ADHD, and Ritalin are used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and ADHD. They have a high potential for abuse and addiction.

The CVS on Court Street reported that out of the 3,200 people who filled prescriptions during the month of October, only about 5.6 percent were receiving medications for ADD and ADHD. However, the scientific journal Addiction reported that 54 per-

cent of college students surveyed who were diagnosed with ADHD had been approached to sell, trade or give away their meds in the past year, and the number of people getting their hands on stimulants illegally could be much more significant than CVS’s 5.6 percent.

The question to ask here is: Why are so many college students looking for a drug used primarily to treat learning disabilities?

According to andorrapediatrics.com, Adderall and Ritalin enhance brain activity and improve performance. They assist people with ADD and ADHD in sustaining their attention for a longer amount of time. These drugs do the same thing to people without ADD and ADHD. How-

‘I wouldn’t consider myself ADD...I just have no motivation.’

John Dealer and user of Adderall

ever, the Journal of the American Medical Association, said the problem with abuse doesn’t stem from too few diagnoses. The Journal reported that the number of people diagnosed ADHD is accurate in comparison to the number of people who actually have the learning disability. A patient has to undergo rigorous testing and their work and school histories are investigated to determine whether or not they have ADD or ADHD. The point is that not just anyone can walk into a doctor’s office and demand a prescription for Adderall.

OU students illegally seek study-aids to such a degree that Hudson Health Center’s pharmacy refuses to carry any amphetamines. Daniel Hudson, a pharmacist there, said the director feels the health center would be at risk for robberies or assaults if it carried Adderall or other amphetamines.

“There isn’t a pharmacy in the country that hasn’t been broken into four or five times. [The] amphetamines are always targeted,” he said. The CVS on Court Street reported having only one robbery in the past several years.

Terry Koons, the associate director of prevention education at OU, along with other experts, speculates that prescription drugs are viewed by students as “legitimate” and “safe” because they can be taken orally and are seemingly “more”

legal than other illicit drugs. Because of a prescription drug’s assumed “legitimacy,” Koons speculates that certain studies might not be able to accurately represent how many OU students are abusing the socalled “kiddy coke.”

John, an OU senior, said he sells his prescribed Adderall for very cheap to his friends, who use it for academic purposes.

He said the people to whom he sells take Adderall for reasons all across the board — from lack of motivation and apathy to concentration problems and time crunches.

“I wouldn’t consider myself ADD,” John said. “I just have no motivation.”

The only real difference John said he could feel when he takes Adderall is that, without it, he would never even begin to study. After taking Adderall, John said he becomes mentally aware that he needs to start working. Past its academic perks, the drug is not an enjoyable experience for John, who dislikes the side effects, such as nausea and the urge to chain-smoke.

“I personally don’t enjoy the effects of Adderall,” John said. “I hate the way it makes me feel. I’m not a nice guy during finals week.”

Carol, a junior majoring in international studies, said she uses Adderall illegally when she knows her studying is going to take several hours.

“I know that if I don’t take Adderall I’m going to give up after only a few hours.

I’ll start making excuses and convince myself I’m prepared for a test even when I know I’m not,” she said. Carol described studying on Adderall as being simply “more fun.”

“I feel better, more alert, and the information just seems more interesting,” she said. “Time goes by faster and all the other things I could be doing just don’t tempt me the way they do when I study without it.”

Koons said that Adderall has many of the same effects as cocaine. When it’s snorted, the health risks of Adderall increase, because it enters the blood stream more directly. Snorting Adderall or Ritalin can cause damages to the nasal and sinus cavities, respiratory problems, irregular heartbeats, psychotic episodes and even death by toxic shock. Koons said that some types of time-released Adderall, which enter the blood stream slowly, cause the body to build up a tolerance to the amphetamine.

Adderall and other ADHD medications have been linked to 25 deaths in recent years.

Despite the OU Alcohol and Other Drug

Survey’s reports, Koons, who is involved in the judiciary and intervention process at OU, said he deals almost exclusively with marijuana and alcohol users. Further, there is no rule in the Student Code of Conduct that deals specifically with prescription drugs. In fact, not one person has gone through OU’s judiciary process for dealing or abusing them. The OU Judiciary Office reported that if a student were caught either dealing or abusing prescription drugs he or she would be treated in the same manner as someone caught selling marijuana, which is dealt with on a caseby-case basis and for which there is no set punishment.

“It would be difficult to detect if someone was abusing prescription drugs,” Koons said. “It would take quite a bit to determine impairment.”

The effects of Adderall, such as being talkative or hyper, could be attributed to several other things such as coffee, caffeine pills, sugar or just a bubbly personality.

Therefore, in order to be caught, Koons said that another person would have to be aware of abuse.

According to U.S. law, selling a Schedule II drug (like Adderall) is a class B felony (maximum penalty 10 years in prison and $10,000 fine) and possessing another person’s amphetamine carries the same charge as possessing methamphetamine, a Class C felony (maximum penalty 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine).

Ashley, the dealer who claimed to have made $120 in a day, said, “I know what I’m doing is a felony, but the likelihood of getting caught is so low and I make so much money, that I just don’t care.” b

Charles W. Chesnutt, author of The Conjure Woman, 1899 was one of the first sucessful black fiction writers.

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S K R E P THE PERILS OF PPERKS PEERRKKSS What students should know about the substances that help them cram but make them crash

BY SHANICE DUNNING PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PAT McCUE

A

lmost every day during the summer of 2005, Aisha Upton, an African American Studies major, went to Geauga Lake, — an amusement park in Aurora, Ohio. It was there, at a free giveaway, that Aisha’s Red Bull dependency would begin. She was oblivious to the fact that it would become an academic crutch while harming her body in the process.

Last winter, Aisha faced her most difficult quarter.

Overburdened by extracurricular activities and rigorous course work, she downed two Red Bulls to complete each night’s work. She then gambled, upping the Red Bull ante to four the night before two crucial exams. It didn’t pay off. Her hands began to tremble and her heart raced uncontrollably.

Nevertheless, she remained steadfast and continued studying.

“The situation was serious, but I had to do what was necessary,” Aisha said.

Many students share Aisha’s fervor for academic excellence and depend on energy boosters to get the job done well. We’ve all been there. It’s the eleventh hour and you’re just beginning that project that you’ve been putting off for eight weeks.

The “by any means necessary”

mind set is unavoidable when the stakes are high and time is limited. There are tons of lightning-in-a-bottle solutions in which we look for the key to our success.

RESEARCHERS STUDIED THE RESULTS OF 30 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS THAT DRANK ONE SUGAR-FREE RED BULL AND FOUND THAT SOME OF THE STUDENTS’ CARDIOVASCULAR PROFILES RESEMBLED THOSE OF HEART DISEASE VICTIMS.

RED BULL

stroke. Researchers studied the results of 30 university students that drank one sugar-free Red Bull and found that merely an hour later the students’ blood had thickened, increasing the possibility of blood clots. Researchers said that some of the students’ cardiovascular profiles resembled those of heart disease victims.

A Red Bull representative denied the study and reassured the public that both versions of the drink were safe.

Not only can Red Bull “give you wings,” it can also give you a decrepit body.

Though billions of cans have been sold worldwide, the product was suspected of causing serious to near-fatal side effects after its release in 2000. Because of this, Red Bull is banned as a soft drink in some countries, including Norway, Uruguay and Denmark.

People react differently to the ingredients, but their potency guarantees that moderation is the way to go. Red Bull’s stimulants have the ability to dramatically increase the heart rate and blood pressure of its users, which can be deadly when coupled with high amounts of stress, such as those experienced during exam periods. In addition, its diuretic qualities may quickly dehydrate users.

The sugar-free version is even worse.

In August, an article released by Times Online revealed that the sugar-free version of the drink caused heart damage.

Researchers from the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia reported that, regardless of age, just one can of sugar free Red Bull can increase the risk of heart attack or

5-HOUR ENERGY

One of the only things senior Melissa Wiley knew about the 5-Hour Energy shot when she took it was that “Braylon Edwards is fine!”

Melissa’s ignorance is not surprising, as there have been very few studies conducted on the 2 oz. energy shot that promises its users a healthy five hour energy boost with no “crash” at the end. However, a quick Google search results in hundreds of consumer reports.

The opinions about the product vary.

Many people raved about its effects, while others suffered from adverse reactions.

Some people experienced extreme nausea, rashes or an extreme lack of energy after the initial boost.

As for Melissa, she didn’t find the shot as delicious as Braylon Edwards. “It was gross!” she said of the energy

shot. “It’s definitely something I wouldn’t take all the time. And you do crash at the end. It may be different for other people, but I crashed,” she said.

The product, like Red Bull, has the ability to increase its users’ heart rate to an unhealthy degree. Additionally, the 5-hour shot contains large amounts of vitamin B6 and B12 — 2,000 percent (40 mg) of the daily dosage of B6 and 8,333 percent (500mg) of B12. Both of these vitamins are water soluble, which means that your body will absorb what it doesn’t use. B6 is usually healthy in adults at intakes up to 200 mg a day. However, if B6 is taken at 200 mg or more, over time it can cause many side effects such as numbness in hands or feet, mental disorders, insomnia, kidney stones and irritability.

NODOZ

No Doz, a brand name for caffeine tablets, can be found in just about every market in town. A single tablet contains 100 mg of the stimulatnt, which is about the same amount of caffeine as in 7 oz. of coffee.

It also contains vitamin B3 and vitamin B1. NoDoz representatives recommend that users take no more than one and a half pills in a three-hour period, and a maximum of six pills in a 24-hour period.

It is also recommended that users avoid drinking caffeinated drinks such as soda, coffee or energy drinks while under the effects of NoDoz. Barb Nakanishi, a dietician at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, advises that students should try to avoid any type of energy supplement. However, if students are considering using one, they should be cautious and consider the long-term effects on their bodies.

“Students think they’re invincible, but they should start paying attention to the nutrition labels, and take them seriously,” she said. “As a dietician, I just want people to know what they’re putting into their bodies, and not all of these [supplements] have been studied well. Not all the results will be the same in every person.” b backdrop | 2009 | winter

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ruthless rant + rage

DON’T TRASH THE STACHE

A CALL TO END MOUSTACHE DISCRIMINATION

BY PATRICK DOYLE

It’s easy to see without looking too far that the moustache is an endangered species in the facial hair community.

Ever since the moustacheheavy 1970s, upper-lip hair masterpieces seem to be on the decline. No matter how astonishing, no matter how much time and effort has gone into one’s moustache, the praise and attention is lost in a sea of goatees and scruff and halfbaked beards. Modern America is starving for the moustache.

This void is an everyday reality, yet few people have the courage to speak out against facial hair mediocrity. The moustache is oppressed! History, too, has failed the moustache, and the source of its oppression might be the evil it connotes. John Wilkes Booth had a moustache. Hitler’s patchstache is infamous. More recently, both the Unabomber and Saddam Hussein had moustaches. Dahmer, too.

Shame on us for neglecting the great legacies left behind by mustached individuals who built our culture: Albert Einstein, Cap’n Crunch, Freddie Mercury, Super Mario (and Luigi), Salvador Dali, Hulk Hogan, Ned Flanders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimi Hendrix and Burt Reynolds. That’s an all-star team of American cultural icons if I’ve ever seen one.

The truth is, the moustache is a gift to

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER

THE HOLYFIELD ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW EISENMAN

THE ARTIST

the world, and it comes in different styles, varieties, lengths and colors. Surely everyone can find one style of stache endearing enough to love when there are so many to choose from. There’s the Handlebar, the Fu Manchu, the Toothbrush, the Dali and, my personal favorite, the Walrus: characterized by the thickest, bushiest whiskers.

Our campus is in need of a revolution, and moustaches just may be the only solution.

Personally I don’t want to live in a world where the general public can’t find beauty in any of these varieties. But believe me when I tell you, we are far from the upper lip utopia that I dream of.

It was winter break one year ago when I experienced my first instance of moustache discrimination. At the time, I was the owner of a lusciously beautiful moustache. I’m talking the kind that would make Burt Reynolds envious. The kind that sweats in the summer and has icicles in the winter. My moustache had a moustache. I needed money to support the kind of lifestyle one has when he sports such a specimen, so I attempted to get a temporary job. The particular job to which I applied had no distinct facial hair policy, so I thought I could make some money and keep the stache.

Apparently that was too much to ask. The

interview process went well and the manager said the job was mine—on the condition that I shave off my moustache. There was an alarming double-standard here, seeing as the manager himself had some goofy goatee-type thing on his face. I politely inquired as to why my pride and joy had to suddenly disappear.

Then he answered in a way that still makes my upper lip quiver to this day. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “I feel that people just won’t be able to take you seriously.”

Incidents like what happened to me occur across the country, often even in supposedly progressive-minded college towns like Athens. For a community built around education, the citizens and students of Athens could sure use a little Moustache Pride 101.

Having a solid four quarters under my belt, I’ve realized this campus is far too intolerant when it comes to upper lip foliage.

This is a call to action. Our campus is in need of a revolution, and moustaches just may be the only solution. But I can’t do it alone.

Spread the word. Be kind to your mustached brothers and sisters. If you happen to see someone with a goatee or a soul patch, do not put him (or her) down for growing such mundane facial hair. Rather, inform him of the glory and personal satisfaction that exist when one has a moustache. Chances are he has no idea. So, come on men (maybe even some of you women too) and let your upper lip shimmer with undeniable splendor! b

THE TRUCK DRIVER

THE WOLF MAN

(AMBRAS SYNDROME)

THE OCCASIONAL FEM-STACHE

THE WALRUS

THE PORN STAR backdrop | 2009 | winter

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