Issue 2 | Volume 63

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63 | thebluebanner.net

In this issue

The student voice of UNC Asheville | Established in 1982 | thebluebanner.net

NEWS - pg, 2

#BlackLiVesmatter #Translivesmatter

Features

french broad chocolate Lounge - pg. 9

Meet the staff pg. 12 the real map of unc Asheville pg. 4

sports

unc asheville men's soccer beats Liu Brooklyn pg. 7

opinion

VMAs pg. 19

#Westandwithwdbj pg. 24

find us digitally / @thebluebanner / www.thebluebanner.net / issuu.com/bluebanner / instagram.com/uncabluebanner

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63 | thebluebanner.net

page 2

NEWS

The Blue Banner Fall 2015 Editorial Board Editor-In-Chief Timbi Shepherd, jshephe3@unca.edu Enterprising Editor James Neal, jneal@unca.edu News Editor Emma Alexander, nalexand@unca.edu Sports Editor Harrison Slaughter, jslaught@unca.edu Arts & Features Editor Larisa Karr, lakarr@unca.edu Copy Desk Chief Tamsen Todisco, ttodisco@unca.edu Layout & Design Editor Makeda Sandford, msandfor@unca.edu Asst. Layout & Design Editor Jennifer Barnes, jbarnes1@unca.edu Multimedia Editor Maddie Stagnaro, mstagnar@unca.edu Social Media Editor Michael O’Hearn, mohearn@unca.edu Opinion Editor June Bunch, kbunch@unca.edu Photography Editor Blake Willis, bwillis2@unca.edu Copy Editors Devric Lefevre, dkiyota@unca.edu Kathryn Gambill, agambill@unca.edu Advertising Manager Amber Abunassar, aabunass@unca.edu Falculty Advisor Michael Gouge, mgouge@unca.edu

#BlackLivesMatter activists attend the Madison candlelight vigil for victims of Charleston church shooting.

Photo by Overpass Light Brigade - Flickr Contributor

Pushing Forward

The Black Lives Matter Movement continues to gain ground

of social, economic, political and cultural equality for black Americans remains at the forefront of the public mind.

The movement’s long reign in the spotlight is not only monumental, but revolutionary.

In this, the popular concept of death was not only the tragic close of life, but it was also a galvanizing spark that created a grassroots campaign that captured the nation’s attention and not let go since.

Brought to national awareness by a series of black American

deaths at the hands of police, the first and most publicized one being Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014, the Black Lives Matter movement is known for its nationwide promotion of equal rights. While perceived by many to be a movement protesting police brutality, it embodies a spectrum of issues, including unequal treatment by police and the inclusion of all black Americans.

Tiece Ruffin, Diversity Out-

no sign of slowing down.

According to a reA&F Editor port by the National Center for lakarr@unca.edu Eighteen murders of transgen- Transgender Equality, violence der individuals were reported in and aggression toward trans2015 alone, and the trend shows gender individuals is a national

issue, with the strongest concentration of negative attitudes toward transgender individuals located in the South.

At UNC Asheville, organizations like the Trans Student

Union and student-run plays like Qtopia, are raising awareness of the transgender community.

Ezra Campbell, a Qtopia cast member, says transgender indi-

Opinion/News Staff Writer

cwall1@unca.edu

In the United States, death is simultaneously good and highly feared -- it sells movies, skyrockets television viewership ratings, and increases the awareness of systemic racism among the general public.

Death makes people pay attention.

Because of that, the Black Lives Matter movement has been revitalized. The movement is not

Read more on page 16

The call for transgender equality rings urgent LARISA KARR

Gordon Gellatly, Jason Perry, Matt McGregor, Phillip Wyatt, Curtis Ginn, Holden Mesk, Maddy Swims, Sam Shumate, Ashley Elder, Becca Andrews, Roan Farb, Johnny Condon, Jordyn Key, Meredith Bumgarner, and Carson Wall.

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new and many of same rights are being demanded, just as they were 50 years ago. These rights include equal treatment by the police and transparent federal acknowledgement of grievances.

These rights can be adequately captured in the word equality, and currently the relevance of the movement is at its highest level since the Civil Rights Movement. With the 24-hour news media and the mobilization of an army of activists, the movement and its ideology

CARSON WALL

Staff

Read more on page 16

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Have a news tip?

Send to jshephe3@unca.edu The Blue Banner is UNC Asheville’s student newspaper. We publish each Wednesday except during summer sessions, finals week and holiday breaks. Our office is located in Karpen Hall 019.

The Blue Banner is a designated forum for free speech and welcomes letters to the editor, considering them on basis of interest, space and timeliness. Letters and articles should be emailed to the editor-in-chief or the appropriate section editor.

Letters should include the writer’s name, year in school, and major or other relationship to UNCA. Include a telephone number to aid in verification. All articles are subject to editing.

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

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Not just our burden: Fighting systemic pressures on student finances BECCA ANDREWS News Staff Writer randrew1@unca.edu

Photo by Cory Thompson - Contributor

Ann Dunn reflects on her recent home invasion.

Caught off Guard

Professor offers insight after burglary

CORY A. THOMPSON Contributor cthomps2@unca.edu

It was a crisp Thursday morning, the first of the semester, when Ann Dunn pressed into her North Asheville home and noticed the first signs of a burglary.

“I had been teaching Dante at the university,” said Dunn, a 68-year-old lecturer in the UNC Asheville humanities program.

“I had no idea I was walking into hell.”

At first, Dunn said she thought family was responsible for the open drawers and cupboards.

She thought it was one of her children who had knocked askew the white linen tablecloth over the credenza.

“I thought, ‘Oh, they must have been really looking for something,’” Dunn said. “It’s amazing how your brain focuses on only what you expect.”

Dunn said her bafflement grew as she entered her bedroom.

“On the bedside table I saw jewelry boxes. They didn’t belong there – they belonged in the bathroom,” Dunn said. “I was still in disbelief. I thought maybe one of the grandchildren had picked out some necklaces for make-believe.”

But when Dunn ventured into her bathroom, she said she realized the nature of the intrusion.

The contents of her jewelry cupboard, she found, were emptied on the floor.

“It felt horrifying,” she said. “It felt as if an elevator dropped, and I was trapped inside. I knew, at that moment, I had been broken into.”

David Shelton, a police officer at UNC Asheville, said lawbreakers prey upon homeowners with set schedules.

“You never know who is hanging around and looking for an opportunity,” Shelton said.

“Criminals will sit in neighborhoods they consider ritzy and try and learn people’s patterns.”

Shelton said residents must take steps in order to avoid being a target.

“Look around,” Shelton said.

“Take note of any strange vehicles or people. If you leave, make sure your doors and windows are locked.”

Homeowners should take additional precautions if they’re going on a trip, Shelton said.

“Make sure you’ve got a motion light, or a light on a timer,” Shelton said. “Get somebody you trust to be seen around your house.”

Dunn said she heard many of these tips before, but never thought she could be the victim.

“This was somebody who knew my schedule,” Dunn said. “Or, spookier yet, someone who had been watching me and my routines. I live with curtains drawn now.”

In addition to the jewelry, Dunn said she noticed the absence of her computer and camera alRead more on page17

The average college student faces a lot of stress already.

Lately, however, a certain stressor seems to be on the rise: financial burden.

Going to a four-year college is more expensive than ever.

According to a report by the Institute for College Access and Success Project, the average debt for students after graduation is about $28,400, a 25 percent increase from $23,450 in 2008.

This increase is especially hard on low-income students.

Alex Hutchens, a sophomore receiving financial aid, said worrying about money is a big source of stress. One of five children, Hutchens is mostly financially self-sufficient.

“It makes you feel more tired, but I think it’s made me work harder,” said Hutchens, a sophomore creative writing student from Wilmington. “I’m going in debt just to go here, so I want to make it worth it. Either you give in and say, ‘I’m going to be poor for the rest of my life,’ or you go, ‘I’m going to try.’”

Only 9 percent of students from the lowest income group finish college, but 54 percent of students from the highest income group finish, according to an inequality study by Stanford.

The issue is exacerbated by America’s extreme income gap.

The Congressional Budget Office found in the last 28 years that real incomes of the richest 1 percent of Americans almost tripled, while the real incomes of the median household increased by about 25 percent.

The richest 1 percent holds approximately one-third of the nation’s wealth, while the top 5 percent claim over 60 percent.

It is hard for a student to bridge that gap, Hutchens said. It is unlikely they will graduate, and even harder for them move up.

According to the Stanford study, it is even harder as a minority. Of children born in the bottom income quintile, over half of black children remain there as adults, while only 31 percent of white children remain there.

It is also difficult if the student is going out of state. Halie Sanderson, a sophomore environmental science major from Athens, Georgia, needs finan-

Happenings sept. 2 - sept. 8

September 3

Diversity on Campus: Student Perspectives Karpen Hall 139 - Laurel Forum Noon

cial aid to help with out-of-state costs. At UNC Asheville the difference is about $16,000.

“It’s way too much,” Sanderson said. “For the school itself, it’s really expensive. Tuition should be the same for everyone whether you are in state or out of state and financial aid would be less of an issue.”

The problem is worsened by the public school system. Keith Bramlett, a lecturer for sociology, said that public schools are funded by property taxes, and this is called the per-person expenditure. A school in a poor area will have a bad reputation because the PPE is substantially lower than schools built in high dollar area.

It is also found that schools in poor areas often employ teachers and faculty with less experience, according to the Stanford study.

“We can predict with frightening accuracy the number of prison beds we need by looking at third-graders,” Bramlett said.

“Because, in the third grade we can predict with uncanny accuracy who’s going to be college prep, who’s going to drop out, and who’s going to be in a voRead more on page 17

September 4

Opera Diplomacy: A Lecture Reuter Center 102 - The Manheimer Room 3-5 p.m.

Blue Echo Concert: Mellowfield Highsmith University Union 143 - Grotto 5-11 p.m.

September 7

New Developments in Health & Wellness: Different Perspectives Reuter Center 102 - The Manheimer Room 4:30 p.m.

Social Justice Coffee Hour Highsmith University Union 143 - Grotto 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Outdoor Film Festival: An American Ascent Highsmith University Union 143 - Grotto 6-9 p.m.

Follow us on

@TheBlueBanner

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 4

the

Real Map of Asheville

According to the Banner staff Our favorite spots around our favorite town.

Grab your new friends and visit them!

West Asheville Westville Pub Good beer. Great pub food. Nice ambience.

Odd’s Café A quiet, hipster-infested study spot.

Firestorm Café & Books Anarchy, coffee, books. What more do you need?

Biscuit Head A hangover cure.

Sunny Point Café Get there early. Glare at the tourists. Gobble up the food.

River Arts District Wedge Brewing Company Beer emporium plus food trucks.

White Duck Taco Shop Tasty, cheap, but small. Good for a snack.

12 Bones Best BBQ in town — Obama orders takeout here.

Downtown Wicked Weed Crowded but worth a visit for the flavor.

Old Europe Posh pastries, classy coffee and free Wi-Fi. Battery Park Incredible book maze. Espresso and wine bar.

Pritchard Park Asheville’s loudest, most rhythmic party.

Doc Chey’s An Asheville establishment. Quality pad thai for under $10.

Rosetta’s Delicious vegetarian food, open late on a semi-regular basis.

Chai Pani Hip Indian street food, relatively cheap.

Mamacita’s Taco Tuesdays are a must!

Bouchon Creperie Larisa’s favorite place to chill — a beautiful, laid-back aesthetic.

Jerusalem Garden Belly-dancing. Pitas. Turkish coffee. YUM. Salsa’s Pricier but full of taste and massively portioned.

Chorizo A great-value brunch spot!

Vortex Donuts ABSOLUTELY THE BEST.

North Asheville The Bywater Drink and float.

High Five Coffee If you’re lazy, mosey on over for bagels and coffee.

Nine Mile Get your jerk on!

Edna’s Light-fare café, perfect for studying.

Asheville Pizza & Brewing You’ll find the Banner staff noshing here frequently. In a word, totchos.

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September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

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SPORTS

Locals preach benefits of running MATT MCGREGOR

A&F Staff Writer mmcgrego@unca.edu

Gary Ettari once ran the Charlotte marathon on a diet of water and bagels.

This diet turned on him at mile 21. He walked and almost crawled for three miles in a state of what long distance runners call “bonking” until completing the marathon. Bonking takes place when the body loses its remaining resources to continue.

Though Ettari says he regrets his choice of energy supplement, there are few runners who could testify to running a marathon on water and bagels.

“Running teaches me that I can overcome almost anything other than my own mortality,” Ettari says. “I love the paradoxical feeling of overcoming things, getting faster, meeting goals, yet realizing that all of this is only temporary.”

For Ettari, associate professor of language and literature at UNC Asheville, running teaches him on a level that transcends the scholarly interpretation of words into the more interior, wordless realm of existence and what this means for him.

“I think that is the great lesson running teaches us: pain is temporary. It teaches us how to embrace the pain and be with it and not be defeated by it,” Ettari theorizes. “It teaches us to push through because life isn’t a bed of roses a lot of the time.

It might be a different kind of pain. It might be emotional pain. But just that realization is an important thing to learn.”

When Jane Roane faced a diagnosis with breast cancer, she says she experienced severe stress and relied on running to process the different kinds of pain associated with the dis-

Photo by Matt McGregor - Staff Writer

Jane Roane, left, and Adam Hill, right, at the front desk of Jus’ Running on Merrimon Avenue.

ease.

“Running helped me so much because I was able to focus on something else and it cleared my mind,” Roane says. “It kept my body going.”

To the joy of her co-worker Adam Hill at the running specialty store Jus’ Running, she sets coffee and donuts she brought from Geraldine’s Bakery on a glass top counter encasing various types of timers and GPS running watches.

Adam says this is another great thing about running -- you can eat donuts.

“If it can help me deal with

breast cancer, it can help with anything,” she says. “I can be stressed about something and go for a run and have a different perspective afterward.”

Nodding in agreement, Hill sips at his coffee and looks into the white paper bag containing donuts.

“Some folks can run and they are able to shut their brain off and not think,” Hill says, “and other people can run and think clearly while hashing out a relationship or work problem in their head. By the time the run is over, they are ready to tackle it.”

While sightings of Hill running occur anywhere on the UNCA campus and along Merrimon Avenue, he prefers trail running. It gets him away from the traffic and up into the cool breeze of the mountains with the wildflowers. The challenge of the climb and skipping over rocks and roots combines running with his love of hiking.

“I see a mountain and I want to climb it. I want to see how fast I can go up and down it,” he says. “But the whole spectrum of running is awesome. It’s simple. We have all these sports that require a lot of prepara-

tion, and runners just go out the door.”

Though not inspired by water and bagels, Hill encounters several bonking walls on the Pitchell Challenge, a 66-mile trail run from Mount Pisgah to Mount Mitchell on the Mountain-to-Sea Trail. The race begins at midnight, and the temptation to get in his car and leave when he passes the Folk Art Center becomes an insistent voice in his head.

“There are multiple winds, a second and a third, then the sad walk scenario in which you don’t have the pop in your legs,” Hill says. “You’re just stumbling along, and then eventually, whether you get calories in you or you see the finish, realizing you only have single digits left, you get that sense of accomplishment that picks you back up.”

Lindsey Perry, UNCA sophomore, praises the benefits of how running reduces stress and overcoming the infamous bonking wall.

“Running makes me feel pumped. It increases mental clarity and it’s great for endorphins,” Perry says.“There is a wall in running in which you are exhausted and you don’t want to keep going. If you break past that, it feels awesome. You feel like you could just keeping going forever.”

Miranda Satterfield, a Jus’ Running employee and biology major at UNCA, runs to relax.

“I run because it gives me a break from everything else,” Satterfield says. “I do have goals in running so there is a little bit of stress involved in that but I try not to make it too much pressure because it is where I relieve pressure.”

Hill says he loves to hear everyRead more on page 17

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

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Men’s Soccer opens season in promising fashion HARRISON SLAUGHTER

Sports Editor jslaught@unca.edu

The UNC Asheville men’s soccer team moved to 2-0 for the first time since 2001 after a come from behind 2-1 win against Long Island University Brooklyn.

The last time the Bulldogs opened the season 2-0, they went on to win the Big South Season Championship.

“I thought it was a very impressive team win for us against a very physical team. In the second half we did a good job initiating the point of attack and we had two classy goals,” said Mathes Mennell, head coach of the UNCA men’s soccer team.

“Today was another positive step forward and these types of battles will prepare us for the Big South.”

In the sixth minute of the contest, an LIU player was given a red card, which put the Blackbirds a man down for the rest of the match. Despite playing a man short, LIU took the lead

in the 23rd minute on a goal by Rasmus Hansen, forward for the Blackbirds.

The Bulldogs went into the locker room for halftime trailing 1-0.

Zach Joens, forward for the Bulldogs, scored the equalizer on a free kick from just outside the box in the 54th minute.

Both teams were aggressive throughout the match with LIU recording three yellow cards on top of the red card and UNCA recording one yellow card.

In the 72nd minute, sophomore Ben Chapel found the back of the net on an assist from A.J. Liames for the game-winning goal.

Zak Davis, goalkeeper for the Bulldogs, recorded five saves for the second straight game.

“Overall, I am pleased that we came back and won in front of our home fans. I am excited for where we are going and for the players to have found two wins in two games,” Mennell said.

“We certainly have a lot to work on, but this was another positive step forward.”

Photos by Johnny Condon A.J. Iiames, #14, Jack Huber, #10, and Andrew Lawrence, #17, along with the men’s soccer team, achieves a 2-1 victory against Long Island University Brooklyn on Saturday, August 30.

Sept. 2 - Sept. 9

calendar Sept. 2 Spin Class Student Recreation Center 213-B

5:30 p.m.

Sept. 3 Abs Blast Sherrill Center 351 12 p.m.

Sept. 4 Volleyball vs.

Montreat College Justice Center 3:30 p.m.

Women’s Soccer vs.

Alabama A&M Greenwood Field 7 p.m.

Sept. 5 Yoga-all levels Meditation Room 468 12 p.m.

Sept. 6 Mindful Flow Yoga Meditation Room 468 4 p.m.

Sept. 7 Labor Day No classes or events Sept. 8 Fit in 5 Sherrill Center 351 12:15 p.m.

page 8

Bulldogs pick up first loss of season to Catamounts CHRIS JONES

Sports Editor cjones5@unca.edu The UNC Asheville women’s soccer team fell at home to Western Carolina University to the tune of three goals to zero to record their first loss of the season.

Chad Miller, head coach of the WCU women’s team, said his team played a great game on both sides and was happy with his team’s overall performance Thursday night.

“We started off the match with a quick score and got another one right three minutes before halftime,” Miller said. “That helped our confidence and let us head into halftime with a twogoal lead and plan accordingly to head out for the second half.

We had a great all-around team

effort tonight, and we hope this kind of play will continue and that we keep on improving each game.”

The first half of the match started off routinely as both teams tried to establish each of their game plans, until Catamount Redshirt senior Kimberly Sullivan knocked the ball into the right side of the net to score the first goal of the game at the 15-minute mark of the match.

Sullivan’s goal came off of a corner kick by WCU freshman Sayres McKenna and a headed assist by WCU senior Kelly Pannell.

At the 30-minute mark of the match, Bulldog freshman goalkeeper Keller Dixon appeared to sustain an injury as she went down during the action. She was replaced by freshman goalkeeper Madeline Getz. Keller Read more on page 20

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

SPORTS stats

By Harrison Slaughter

VOLLEYBALL Aug. 28 UNC Asheville USC Upstate

Final 1 3

Aug. 29 UNC Asheville UNC Charlotte

Final 0 3

Aug. 29 UNC Asheville Davidson

Final 3 1

Aug. 27 UNC Asheville WNC University

Goals by Period 2-1 0-0

Final 3 0

Aug. 30 UNC Asheville Francis Marion

Goals by Period 1-2 0-0

Final 3 0

Aug. 28 UNC Asheville USC Upstate

Goals by Period 0-2 0-0

Final 2 0

Aug. 30 LIU Brooklyn UNC Asheville

Goals by Period 1-0 0-2

Final 1 2

Photo by Johnny Condon - Staff Photographer The UNCA Bulldogs celebrate their 2 -1 victory against Long Island University Brooklyn.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Men’s Soccer

Photo by Adrian Etheridge - Contributor

UNCA Bulldog Katie Tuorto, #24, and WCU Catamount Kelly Pannell, #3, vie for control over the ball.

TheBLUEBANNER.NET

page 9

Arts & Features

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

Arts & Features

A local sweet spot JASON PERRY

A&F Staff Writer jperry1@unca.edu On any given night, a long line of addicts wait on the street in downtown Asheville looking for a fix.

A chocolate fix.

“I can always find an answer in chocolate,” says Jael Rattigan, Chocolate Lounge co-owner.

Inside, the sounds of light chatter, classic rock and clinking forks hit you as fast as the sweet smell of hot chocolate. Teenagers sit in booths that look out upon the city. College students gravitate toward the old wooden furniture in the back.

Everyone waits for their dose.

The concept of the lounge started with a newly-wedded couple living in the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. In 2003, Dan and Jael Rattigan opened a café and dessert shop called Bread and Chocolate in the village of Puerto Viejo de Limon.

“It was a breakfast, lunch and dessert place,” Jael says. “That is definitely where we got the cocoa fever. We were able to not only make truffles and desserts, but we were able to see cocoa farms, see how it grows, and watch farmers make it into a chocolate product.”

The Rattigans purchased an old cacao farm to homestead on when their first son Sam was born. But they decided they wanted a new place to raise their son, so they began looking for a new home.

“We wanted a place where an independent business would be supported,” Jael says. “We wanted a place where there was a strong local food culture, and we wanted a place where we could raise our kids.”

The city of Asheville was con-

stantly suggested to the couple.

The Rattigans say they decided to take a trip and visit. After five days in the city, they knew it would be their home.

In Asheville, Dan and Jael started making chocolate in their kitchen and selling it at local farmer’s markets. They sold chocolate for a year at the markets and started to grow a loyal fan base, but they knew if they wanted their chocolate to be financially sustainable, they would have to make their product more available for consumers.

Time to take a risk.

“We got a loan from our bank for $60,000 and a little bit more from our family,” Jael says. “We were pretty naïve. I thought that was a lot of money, but now that we have been in the business world for a long time that is a ridiculously small amount to spend on opening up a restaurant.”

The Rattigans asked for a loan right before the economy was declared to be in recession.

A month later, they say, they would have been denied by the banks.

They found a place at 10 South Lexington Avenue in a low traffic area, and the Chocolate Lounge was born.

“We actually started out in our home kitchen, which was challenging, but it was very low budget,” Jael says. “Even when we opened up the Chocolate Lounge in 2008, we were making the products at our house and then delivering it every day.

It was a lot of extra work and hassle.”

Business started small, but it grew quickly with profits, almost doubling by the first year.

Eventually, Jael says, the lounge had to expand to the second and

The story behind the French Broad Chocolate Lounge

Photo by Johnny Condon

Customers visit the French Broad Chocolate Lounge now located on 10 South Pack Square in downtown Asheville.

third floors. The second floor was used for additional seating, while the third floor was used for a kitchen.

“We would get deliveries for 2,000 pounds of chocolate,” Jael says. “It would all have to be carried by hand upstairs. Ev-

ery time something was made on the third floor it had to be carried three flights of stairs from the kitchen.”

The menu grew as well. Flavors range from pure dark to maple and smoked sea salt. The chocolate addict can choose from a

Highland Mocha Stout cake to a frozen chocolate mousse to a liquid truffle.

“There is not a specific taste I look for,” Jael says. “The perfect taste of chocolate depends on every moment.”

Read more on page 20

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 10

Arts & Features Timbi's Alt Top 10 Movies of 2015, so far TIMBI SHEPHERD Editor-In-Chief jshephe3@unca.edu

8. Prince 10. Welcome to Me Carol Burnett’s zany variety-show antics meet Michel de Montaigne’s personal, essayistic brand of philosophy in this absurd, kitschy and totally relatable exploration of the self — of how we can both lose and find ourselves in art, which, in this case, looks deceptively like bad TV. But must I really say more than “Kristen Wiig in a swan boat?”

Playing like a mashup of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and a John Hughes movie, Prince is a highly stylized, but nonetheless raw and deeply felt comingof-age tale. Alternately glossy and gritty, the film grounds the punch-drunk angst and raging, swooning hormones of its protagonist, a Moroccan-Dutch adolescent, in a harsh social reality that attempts to push him aside as a bum or, worse, a mutt. In defiance, he pushes back against his enemies. In defiance, he forgives them.

Above all, he cries out his humanity, evoking marginalized Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas’s famous words, “I scream, therefore I am.”

9. It Follows From the extended opening shot of a girl more or less sashaying away in blood-red heels — away from what, we do not know — director David Robert Mitchell plays on the silly, often misogynistic tropes of ‘70s and ‘80s horror films, namely A Nightmare on Elm Street and the films of John Carpenter. Though, this is no slut-shaming genre exercise.

Here, characters experience the consolation as well as the emotional complexities of sex.

The film’s ethereal visuals and Disasterpeace’s synth score are the stuff of dreams and fairy tales.

7. Tom at the Farm and Mommy I have to admit I have a crush on so-called “enfant terrible et prodige” Xavier Dolan, so excuse me for squeezing two of his films into one spot. In Tom at the Farm, the young director ambitiously channels Flannery O’Connor to tell a gothic tale of love and hate, grief and remorse, sexual repression and internalized homophobia.

Tensions burst into tango as the film’s central duo let off steam

in the sexiest barn dance ever.

Mommy, a work of great élan and gravitas, takes Dolan’s art to new emotional heights and depths. Baddest bitch alive Anne Dorval (here having fun playing a basic bitch), teen heartthrob Antoine-Olivier Pilon, and my personal heroine, Suzanne Clément, are simultaneously true-to-life and largerthan-life in their interpretations of three lost souls who can’t live with or without each other.

They are devastatingly starcrossed. Cue Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die.”

6. Salvation Army Based on his autobiographical novella of the same name, openly gay Moroccan author-director Abdellah Taïa’s 84-minute Salvation Army tells a great deal with great reserve.

I might rename this Scenes from Under (Queer) Childhood, after Stan Brakhage’s tactile masterpiece, for its sensuous evocation of Taïa’s yearnings as a boy for the affection of his father and his older brother, his reaching out for the touch of strange men on the street and his offering his pubescent body to sex tourism.

Taïa also impresses upon us his desperate need for human connection after emigrating for his studies in French literature and, in the film’s most tender and lyrical moment, his communion with a fellow Moroccan emigrant in the intimate quarters of a Salvation Army.

Agnès Godard, perhaps one of the three best cinematographers in the world, captures all of these affective, touching moments with keen sight and fine feeling.

5. Clouds of Sils Maria The hazy, obliquely glimpsed scenes of Olivier Assayas’s Clouds of Sils Maria fade one into the next as you would wake up just before the consummation of a dream. The film’s most elegantly composed images seem to decompose just as elegantly. They evanesce, fleet away from you. The dramaturgical scene transitions mark the passage of time as an aging theater actress loses ever more of herself in vain attempts to regain her youth. The scenario, along with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart’s sharp but sensitive interpretations of their characters, calls to mind R. W. Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, but Assayas makes this film looser, more abstract, more mysterious.

4. About Elly The irony of this title is that

the eponymous Elly disappears about a third of the way through the film, rupturing the narrative as well as profoundly disrupting the lives of the other characters. Director Asghar Farhadi, who turns out consistently piercing studies of Iranian domestic life, devises a cunning parable about the pernicious effects of rigid social conventions and niceties.

Farhadi’s misguided characters spin a complex web of lies in which they find themselves caught tragically by their own devices.

3–1. The Dam Keeper, World of Tomorrow, Joanna, respectively For me, this has been the year of the short film. These three small, life-affirming masterpieces distill their subjects into a visual, emotional and spiritual purity unmatched by any other film this year.

The Dam Keeper’s sensitive, empathic rendering of subjective states through the interplay of light and shadows, World of Tomorrow’s vivid, expressionistic use of colors, lines and simple shapes to get at our most abstract questions of what it means to be human and Joanna’s gentle, natural illumination of life’s subtle gestures and broad movements, its vicissitudes and moments of calm — all are sights to behold.

These films move me to tears.

And yet, their cathartic power achieves something like grace.

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September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

Arts & Features

TV Show Review

Fear the spinoff

Photo courtesy of AM

Fear The Walking Dead premieres MICHAEL O’HEARN Social Media Editor

mohearn@unca.edu

DISCLAIMER: THIS REVIEW/ RECAP CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE “FEAR THE WALKING DEAD” PILOT. TURN THE PAGE IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT. If there were three songs that a soundtrack artist for this show could describe the beginning, middle and end of this interesting first hour of the prequel series to AMC’s The Walking Dead, they would be revived rock anthems.

The first 15 minutes of this episode could be accompanied by Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast,” with our protagonist running into a walker almost immediately after waking up in an abandoned church.

Viewers are introduced to Nick, a Johnny Depp-inspired character, and are then plunged into the world of the undead (known only as “walkers” to this universe). The first five minutes of the episode are set in an abandoned church, viewers later learn was home to, as so casually explained by Nick, a “junkie convention.”

According to Ryan Steinauer, a junior psychology student at UNC Asheville, the show’s pilot was not surprising.

“It was interesting but had a typical progression,” Steinauer said.

“It was just like The Walking Dead with a different setting and different people. I hope they don’t take the traditional route with the plot and include more of the people fighting back without the government’s help.”

The first scene of this series conveys this show is not going to be just a medical drama, although most of this pilot takes place next to a hospital bed.

“It was slow in the middle before picking up again at the end,” Stein-

auer said. “They spent way too much time in the hospital.”

When Nick escapes from the church, and the clutches of his now-dead-turned-walker friend Gloria, he bolts out of the building only to be laid flat in the road by an oncoming car.

The cinematography during the car crash was a bit uninspired, as viewers have seen an escapee running in slow motion out of a building many times before (especially if the building happens to be on fire), but it works here when it’s immediately accompanied by the protagonist being rammed by a vehicle.

This accident brings us to his family, who are forced to come together when Nick is injured.

The central family of this show is typically dysfunctional. The rebellious teenage daughter dislikes her stepfather and, as always, the mother disapproves of her son’s drug-addled behavior.

Madison is the mother of the family and assistant principal at the school where her daughter goes. She walks into the school one morning and the principal has to flag down a student who brought a knife to school.

The viewer comes to find out the student had heard about the impending doom to America and brought it for protection. Madison is skeptical until later in the pilot, when she keeps the knife and sends the student on his way.

Nick explains to his stepfather, Travis, what happened in the church the night before, which prompts Travis to look into the abandoned monastery. Because he’s a stoner, he has been restrained by nurses at the hospital who consider him to be crazy.

The words Nick uttered, something along the lines of “she was eating people,” sparked curiosity in Travis’s mind when Nick explained what happened to Gloria once he woke up at the beginning of the episode.

Read more on page 23

This could be you but you're playin'! buy an ad today email amber abunassar at aabunass@unca.edu

German corner

By Jana Mader, Professor of German, Department of Modern Languages and Literature

Folge 14: Schulen in Deutschland In Deutschland gibt es eine Schulpflicht: Kinder müssen neun Jahre lang in die Schule gehen. In die Grundschule gehen alle Kinder ab sechs oder sieben Jahren. Nach der 4. Klasse geht man entweder auf die Hauptschule, die Realschule oder das Gymnasium. Im Gymnasium lernen Schüler in der Regel zwei bis drei Fremdsprachen, meistens Englisch und Französisch. Nach acht Jahren macht man das Abitur und kann dann an einer Universität studieren.

An deutschen Universitäten muss man als Student gut Deutsch können. Wenn Deutsch nicht die Muttersprache ist, bewirbt man sich mit einem Nachweis über Deutschkenntnisse.

page 12

Arts & Features

Arts & Features

Artist Spotlight

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

Logan Patterson is a new media and art education freshman from Mooresville, North Carolina.

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 13 Arts & Features

beat from the Street

Shane Thomas Livingston, musician and writer originally from West Virginia

Was it tough living in West Virginia? “For a musician, yes. If you’re not playing either country, heavy metal, surprisingly, or cover songs, you will never get a gig in your entire life. I was very sad for a very long time. The saving grace was that I worked in a music store with some cool guys, but other than that, it was pretty miserable.”

How would you describe your music? “Alternative folk-rock with a tiny hint of jazz.”

Who would you say are your primary inspirations? “Sonny Rollins, Laurence Schubert and, I always get weird looks on this one, but Dave Matthews, only because that was the first band I ever got into when I was 11 years old. So I wouldn’t even be playing the guitar if it weren’t for them. Whether or not I listen to them any more or not, I owe them for me even getting into music. It was the spark, so he’s always going to be top of the list.”

How would you describe your style, clothing-wise? Does it match your music? “The jazz part, definitely. If you look back at what Bob Dylan used to wear back in the day, I would say maybe a little bit because I’m a bit of a storyteller with the lyrics, so I guess you can throw that in there too. The music’s

By Larisa Karr | Features Editor | lakarr@unca.edu Many stories lurk throughout Asheville, whether they are behind the Vaudevillian jazz-folk played by buskers around Pritchard Park, the colorful businesses decorated with funky, hand-made crats or the laughter echoing from a patio as locals and tourists alike enjoy delicious beer.

definitely a slight bit grittier than my snazzy outfit would lead you to believe.”

“I look at it as, especially when I come out busking, there’s nobody else dressed like this, not a single person. It kind of helps set it apart a little more, and, quite frankly, I like looking snazzy. I miss how people looked back in the ‘30s. Obviously, appearance isn’t everything, but you should take pride in your appearance and how you dress and how you look because it’s going to carry over into other aspects of your life. You’re going to take pride in even the smaller things.”

If you were to describe your musical style in three words, which ones would you choose?

“Deep, un-poppish and contemplative. If a song doesn’t make you think, I don’t think it’s a good song. It doesn’t have to have words to make you think. I love classical musicians. I love Beethoven, Brahms, even Wagner, although he got a bad rap back in the ‘40s. But, if it doesn’t really make you think and feel something, then, what’s the point? Which is probably about 90 percent of the shit you hear on the radio these days.”

“The older musicians, I felt, put more character into their music. It wasn’t about getting famous and getting on the radio. It was about playing music for people and putting the message across. He’s not a major influence, but Woody Guthrie is a prime example of that. Back in the ‘30s, people were going through some terrible, horrible stuff, and he wanted to write music to make people feel better. That’s what he did and he got hugely famous because of it. But he wasn’t doing it to be famous. He was doing it just to make people smile again because they were going through the worst times of their lives.

At that time, people needed that more than anything.”

What would you say that you love and hate about Asheville? “I love the diversity of Asheville more than anything. Any kind of food that you want to get, it’s going to be here, any kind of music that you want to hear, it’s going to be here. If there was anything that I hate, it would be that it’s slowly turning into a tourist town. I get that it’s useful and helps the town grow, but I hate tourists so much. Everybody is walking around in their Birkenstocks and their cargo shorts, ugh. And, I’m sorry, but if I’m walking down the sidewalk one more time and I have someone just stop dead in their tracks, I’m going to lose it. I will lose my damn mind. You’ve got to. You have to start taking

Virginia Day Jones, originally from “the mountains”

What do you do for a living?

“I save lives.”

How would you describe your sense of style?

“Comfortable.”

What would you say are three adjectives to describe your style?

“Love, peace and harmony.”

Who would say inspires you in terms of artists/musicians/people?

“All kinds.”

Do you have any specifics?

“The one that created the Memoirs of a Geisha. That story was one of the most beautiful, most elegant, most colorful, most expressive.”

Do you like Asheville?

“I love it. I’m just getting used to it to where I feel pretty comfortable. It kind of has my little areas and territories where I can go that way without getting lost and that way and that way and that way.”

If you were to say what has been one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to you that has influenced who you are as a person, what would you say?

“Experiencing the jungle.”

Which jungle?

“Just the jungle. It’s a jungle. It’s the jungle.”

Is that a metaphor for life in general?

“No.”

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 14

meet the staff Timbi Shepherd Editor-in-chief

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Greensboro Three words that describe me: Small, anxious, feral Hobbies and interests: Exploring Asheville dive bars, crying at the movies, worshipping goddesses Suzanne Clément and Tilda Swinton, feeling all the feels of ’80s music, playing with my cat, Jack-Jack

Tamsen Todisco Copy Desk Chief

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Marshfield, Vt. Three words that describe me: Funny (punny), creative, dependable Hobbies and interests: Writing/editing, video games, learning new things, my cats

Michael O’Hearn Social Media Editor

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Wichita, Kan. Cue “We’re not in Kansas anymore” and The Wizard of Oz jokes.

Three words that describe me: Signed, sealed and delivered, I’m yours. OK, enough with the classic rock fluff. I’m outgoing, charismatic and the life of the party among all of my friends, family and colleagues.

Larisa Karr Arts & Features Editor

Major: International studies and mass communication Hometown: Brevard,

N.C. Three words that describe me: Curious, engaging, neurotic Hobbies and interests: Photography, reading, viewing films, drawing, writing and traveling.

Matt McGregor Arts & Features Assistant Editor

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Vicksburg, Miss.

Three words that describe me: Scattered, inquisitive, nervous.

Hobbies and interests: Dogs give me perspective. I work issues out through running. I want to write Golden Girls fan fiction but I don’t know where to begin.

Mostly, I’m just glad to be at UNCA and working at The Blue Banner.

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 15

Blake Willis Photography Editor

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Morganton, N.C. Three words that describe me: Eccentric, free-spirited, playful Hobbies and interests: Traversing the cyber worlds of Azeroth and Sanctuary, taking photos of and eating delicious food, drinking great beer and socializing with cool cats.

Maddie Stagnaro Multimedia Editor

lis, Md. Three words that describe me: Dedicated, passionate, caring Hobbies and interests: Dancing, soccer and writing.

Major: Mass communication and political science Hometown: Charlotte Three words that describe me: Eccentric, ambitious, sassy Hobbies and interests: Creative writing, reading forgotten history, ghost walks and technology.

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Hendersonville, N.C. Three words that describe me: Creative, sarcastic, pragmatic Hobbies and interests: Hiking, swimming, being weird with my dog.

Major: Spanish and mass communication Hometown: Tryon, N.C. Three words that describe me: Funny, gregarious, outgoing Hobbies and interests: Taking selfies with servers at restaurants, watching Parks and Recreation and learning new languages (I’m currently majoring in my third)

Major: Mass communication Hometown: Annapo-

James Neal Enterpring Editor

Emma Alexander News Editor

Amber Abunassar Advertising Manager

Harrison Slaughter Sports Editor

Major: Mass communication Hometown: A stupid little city named Laurinburg, N.C. Three words that describe me: Determined, laid-back, outgoing Hobbies and interests: Watching sports and judging the players, so I decided to make that my job as well. I like snowboarding during the winter and jumping off waterfalls during the summer.

Carson Wall Distribution Manager

Major: Psychology Hometown: Asheville Three Words: Analyti-

cal, relaxed, honest Hobbies/Interest: Reading mystery novels and watching action movies.

page 16

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

Arts & Features

Black Lives Matter

reach coordinator at UNC Asheville explained this message.

“Black lives matter in all areas -- beyond males, to include females and trans, to include education, to include housing,” Ruffin said, “because all of those things are about black life, and we cannot be diminished to one sector of our life.”

This attempt at inclusion is difficult at times, due to the difference of ideology and personal history found in the movement’s activist base, however the base of supporters has grown due the use of technology for organization and spread of information.

As seen in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, and other international movements, social media is a tool that has increased the ability for participation in protests and the conversation at hand. Due to this, the ability of the Black Lives Movement to maintain relevance and spread its message is highly effective.

At the same time, while technology is beneficial to activists, a

Transgender viduals are in need of nationwide attention.

“There hasn’t been a week this year where there hasn’t been a trans-person murdered,” Campbell says. “It will be a big news story and then it will die down, and it’s somehow okay to name these people using their birth names. That is absolutely not necessary.”

The shift in violence toward transgender individuals has increased in the United States, according to a report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. As a result, activists staged “dieins” in cities like Cincinnati to mourn the loss of transgender people.

Forty-one percent of transgender individuals commit suicide, according to a 2010 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

From page 2

large amount of attention to the movement has occurred due to the mainstream media’s coverage of the movement. The focus has increased the expansiveness of the message for black equality. Whether or not the coverage itself it positive or negative is still to be seen, however Ruffin said she feels as though the transparency is beneficial.

She expressed that seeing both the good and the bad parts of the movement is more telling than official statements, as the effects of systemic racism can be seen in multiple facets of society.

Still, there is room for improvement, as Bill Haggard, vice chancellor for student affairs at UNCA, mentioned of the media coverage, noting a lack of context in coverage. Though the coverage is positive, as it keeps the movement relevant, there has been too much coverage of violence instead of peaceful discussion of the issues at hand.

Haggard said he believes that,

From page 2

Transgender individuals are oftentimes the subject of misconception, one being that a person has to have a sex change in order to be transgender, according to Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Beck Martens, a sophomore majoring in sociology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, is one of the people at UNCA who is working to combat these misconceptions.

“Transgender is a term that encompasses people who get sex change surgery and get top or bottom surgery, then come the people who don’t undergo top or bottom surgery,” Martens says. “It is a big umbrella term that encompasses a lot of things.”

Organizations like the Trans Student Union, which Martens recently helped co-

as a community of higher education, there needs to be a focus on critical thinking, to help students look beyond news coverage and formulate a deeply informed opinion, a practice already in effect at UNCA. UNCA, at large, is supportive of the BLM movement, as shown by the multiple events, per year, held by the administration and student organizations in support of diversity and black American rights.

Maya Newlin, current student body president campaigned on a platform that included increased diversity in the student population, and is moving ahead with those plans, noting that the movement has made a visible difference since her freshman year.

“I think the biggest thing is how to stand in solidarity with one another,” Newlin said of the movement. “We all have different identities outside of being black that us being black affects that even more.”

She acknowledged it was a complicated issue, one that was not always thoroughly discussed by

the mainstream media, a change is needed due to the everyday expression of violence experienced by black Americans.

Along with the efforts of the SGA, Newlin listed several student organizations that stand in solidarity with the movement, including the Black Student Organization, the International Socialist Organization, the Intercultural Center, Multicultural Student Programs and Shades of Color.

Haggard, also the co-chair of the Diversity Action Council on campus, noted the council is dedicated to promoting racial understanding and equality through various means, including the annual Walk Against Racism held on campus. To him, it is crucial to focus on decision making authority and influence, to ensure that black lives matter as much at UNCA as any other life.

In truth, the purpose of the Black Lives movement can be narrowed to the idea of equality of worth for black Americans and in doing such, correct a system through change of policies,

perception, and political representation.

The Black Lives Matter movement comes from the roots of systematic injustice and because of the long list of grievances, progress is slow. The acknowledgement of problems and change of the United States government system is not known for its fast adaptation rate and the depth of the suppression of these issues means there is much progress to be made.

“If we try to dilute or be subversive to try and minimize it, we will continue to have this unfounded, egregious, this horrific racial violence and we don’t deserve that,” Ruffin said.

The definition of true change is subjective, however, and as the Black Lives Matter movement has proven, change is possible. History is ugly and full of death. The official website of the Black Lives Matter movement proclaims that the changing environment on race is not just a moment in time, but a movement that keeps pushing forward.

found, are part of a movement on campus to help generate more education about transgendered individuals.

Qtopia was also a part of this movement, as it featured vignettes including characters based on hybrids of real people, such as Campbell’s character, a trans man scared of telling the truth about himself to a female because of the fact that she might reject him. The play also gave a comprehensive clarification about the different types of sexualities and gender identities that exist.

“At the end of the semester, I got invited to do a read-through for the queer youth theatre class, so I took two of my trans friends just because there wasn’t a lot of trans voice in the piece,” Campbell says. “It was very cisgender, very white and so that was part of why I was there, and something just told me that this is an important thing.”

Another recent, and violent, trend is intense perse-

cution directed toward black transgender individuals. A survey by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs documenting hate crimes reiterates this, as 72 percent of the victims were trans women and 78 percent were black.

“I think it is much more heightened if you are trans-feminine identified, and certainly even more so if you’re trans-feminine and you’re a person of color,” Campbell says. “I feel that a lot of circumstances lead those individuals into circumstances that aren’t necessarily safe, oppressive situations, and also I feel that society thinks that it’s OK.” In Asheville, student activists like Martens and Campbell say they are earnest to do what they can in order to raise awareness amongst fellow students and members of the community.

Val Cruchon, a junior majoring in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at UNCA, was particularly excited to work

with children through UNCA’s LGBT+ rights group, Alliance.

“When I came here, I knew that what I wanted to do, eventually, would be to work with queer youth when I graduate,” Cruchon said. “Then, I found Alliance and thought that this would be a great segue into what I hoped to do, so that was kind of what got me interested and started.”

For Cruchon, who identifies as trans-masculine, but also pansexual and pan-romantic, trans is one of many identities that fall under the blanket term of queer.

Many transgender people are fine with identifying as queer, Cruchon says, because it is essentially a term that represents a fluidity of identity and a state of constant change.

Whether or not the violence against transgender individuals is poised to change, however, rests inside an unknown forecast.

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September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

Arts & Features

Burglary

most immediately. The Asheville Police Department found the items at a pawn shop the very same day. The data on Dunn’s personal laptop had been wiped.

“I had a panicked moment – it wasn’t about the computer, but for the information on it,” said Dunn, who also heads a dance company. “Now I’m missing the press release for Asheville Ballet’s upcoming concert. I also lost all the research for the articles I’m writing, and volume of poetry I was about to complete.”

According to Dunn’s daughter, Abby Bird, the burglars spared the most important part of the

From page 3

home.

“I’m so glad it didn’t happen when she was home,” said Bird. “She’s safe, but it’s such a shame that she has to live in fear in her own home.”

Dunn said she is shaken, but wants to continue to teach her students.

“It’s very difficult to keep teaching classes while this goes on,” Dunn said. “Grading papers, preparing class – my mind keeps wandering.”

Still, Dunn said, the burglary haunts her every day.

“It’s hard to know exactly what I’m missing,” Dunn said. “It’s hard to look for what’s not there.”

Finances

cational track. At that age the most important predictors of what track you’re on are class, background and your race.”

These structural disadvantages against the poor are often dismissed. Capitalism thrives off the cycle of poverty and having someone at the bottom as a labor force, Hutchens said.

“When you are poor, you are going to take whatever is offered to you. I’m not taking advantage of any system, I’m getting help,” Hutchens said.

“It’s weird that poor people are called greedy when people are giving them things, but then rich people, who have 60 percent of

From page 3

the wealth, aren’t greedy.”

A study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that special programs such as direct job-creation benefit disadvantaged youth. Hutchens suggested making FAFSA and receiving financial aid easier.

“People have this misconception that if you are poor then you are automatically going to get into college and get all this stuff, but I am so really lucky to have this money,” Hutchens said. “I know people whose parents make less money than mine and they haven’t gotten shit from FAFSA.” Hutchens said they would like

to see a redirection of funds toward education. Sanderson said she recommends scholarships directed toward students who are going out of state, or business funding students, so they have better education in their workforce.

Bramlett said he simply aims for mutual respect.

“One of the things we need to do is respond to people as people,” Bramlett said. “Not ignoring their race, gender, sexuality, class background, but afford everyone the entitlement of respect by virtue of the fact that they are human beings. They deserve our respect and they

Runners From page 4

Hey, beautiful people of UNC Asheville! Do you have a passion for writing, designing, taking photographs, sharing impactful images and ideas with the world? Or even a budding interest? If so, the staff of your student newspaper, The Blue Banner, would love to have you join us! We are revamping The Banner this year, and we are looking for contributions in all forms and of all interests -- politics and economics, arts and features, sports, opinion/commentary, reviews, photo journalism, visual artworks, graphic design work, comics and political/editorial cartoons, multimedia content, science and environmental journalism, etc.

If you’re interested, contact Timbi at jshephe3@unca.edu

one’s story for running. He follows several races, from the World Championships in Beijing to the Leadville 100-miler made famous by Christopher McDougall’s book, Born to Run. “The whole spectrum of running is awesome,” Hill says. ”It is people getting out there and chasing dreams.”

On the wall above Ettari’s desk hangs a framed poster of long distance runner Steve Prefontaine who died in a car accident in 1975.

“Yeah, that’s at Hayward Field. He’s looking at the clock to see what his time is as he’s crossing the finish line getting ready to break the tape,” Ettari says.

For the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, running opens doors to a spiritual realm. Ettari says he finds this perfectly understandable when he runs, preferring to run alone.

“Running is spiritually enlivening to me. I get out there, away from everything, and become uncluttered and focused on the goals,” he says. “There is a purity there that I don’t have in most other phases in my life.”

Ettari explains the teaching of running as an illumination of the impermanence of our pain, joy and very lives.

“If you’ve ever had a really good run you feel immortal, yet simultaneously exhausted, so the body is always failing until we are not alive anymore,” he says. “This is not in any way depressing to me. It is a healthy fact to learn.”

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 18

OPINION

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

ROAN FARB

Opinion Staff Writer rfarb@unca.edu

There’s nothing that can quite beat the feeling of watching a woman on a stool playing an entire song using only her hand and an oddly shaped spoon.

Perhaps the only thing more captivating is the sight of the man who stepped into the city bike lanes to get around her now colliding with a panting bicyclist.

For years now, Asheville has prided itself on the alternative culture & reputation its city streets have earned it. To say the city of Asheville owes much of its tourism scene to street performers, also known as buskers, would be a massive understatement.

In the last year or so, Buncombe county lawmakers have begun to discuss the possibility of issuing “busker permits” to street performers, due to a startling increase in tourism and clogged sidewalks that force pedestrians into the city’s biking lanes.

With the idea of a permit up for discussion, and the possibility of permits becoming necessary in order to perform anywhere in Asheville, the fate of the city’s tourist scene and reputation are up in the air.

Would it be beneficial for all

musicians to have permits in order to practice, display and benefit financially from their talents?

Of course not. Establishing not only financial but also official documentation before being allowed to perform does nothing but limit those who would consider performing to begin with.

Is it fair to argue that only established musicians and performers are “worthy” of the Asheville sidewalks?

Absolutely not. Last time I checked, people who decided to study law weren’t the most informed on the subject of musical ability.

The possibility of a permit system being enforced in Asheville not only discourages artists from other parts of the world from visiting, but it also encourages local performers to consider leaving Buncombe county indefinitely.

With support for local musicians and artists being encouraged by the majority of businesses in the downtown area, it’s a surprise to find how silent the local community has been in regards to busker discrimination and restrictions.

Widely spoken out against and (rightfully) criticized harshly by local musicians, the idea of busker permits has seemed to have lost its initial support

from the Asheville City Council’s three-person Public Safety Committee.

Local musicians have taken up efforts of their own to combat the discrimination they face on a daily basis from the very city they help keep afloat.

An organized group under the name Asheville Buskers Collective, hold regular and frequent meetings to discuss the options artists could present to Buncombe county lawmakers in order to reach a satisfactory compromise.

ABC meets on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. at New Mountain Asheville and can be contacted by calling (316) 253-6597.

The group also hosts a website, http://avlbuskers.com, with loads of information on how to help keep Asheville weird.

The Asheville Buskers Collective can be found on Facebook, and frequently posts about how to busk correctly without violating any city laws.

The other big reason behind changing Asheville’s busking policies comes drenched in sweat, pedaling up one of the extensive hills of Merrimon Avenue.

Cyclist safety is obviously very important, especially in a city where biking is so widely used, but the program has reintroduced the topic of busking restrictions in Asheville,

reminding local police officers that buskers are just another obstacle on the sidewalks of the city streets.

Watch for Me NC is a cooperative pedestrian and bicyclist safety program between the NC Department of Transportation and local partners.

Developers of the program aim to minimize pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and deaths in Asheville through a heavy focus on public education and police enforcement.

Watch for Me NC comprises of two key elements, safety and educational messages, that target drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists, and enforcement efforts by local police officers.

Watch for Me NC has received a mass amount of backing from many powerful local partners, such as the Asheville Police Department, both UNC Asheville and AB-Tech Police Departments, Neighborhood Services and Asheville Regional Transit, just to name a few.

With the city holding a heavy advantage in the form of funds and support over local musicians, artists, performers and poets, how exactly will it be possible for both sides of the argument to be heard?

Buskers not only bring tourism and a unique culture to the city of Asheville, but have also directly made the city what it

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 19

A stressful night with MTV Here we are again. Each year, MTV gets our most adored, annoying and notorious faces of Hollywood, throws them together in one room and supplies the weaponry.

Sunday night at the 2015 live event, Twitter went crazy as usual and you literally couldn’t get away from it on TV. It aired on just about every channel besides Disney Channel - CMT, BET, VH1, MTV and more.

So yes, that means no Walking Dead or Teen Wolf reruns for either of us. Miley Cyrus left me sighing the entire 2.5 hours, gliding on and off stage with a total of 10 different outrageous outfits throughout the night, full country accent and constant twerk in tow. I am a Miley Cyrus fan, but that title went

on vacation tonight when I first laid eyes on her color-changing faux dreadlocks, because cultural appropriation is not cool, kids. Don’t do it.

The opening act was eerie because of the recent debacle concerning T. Swift and Nicki Minaj’s Twitter beef, so it looked very unnatural for them to be twirling on the L.A. stage together. Taylor Swift can get just about anyone to play bestie in the public eye. She is, after all, America’s sweetheart & biggest product in the music industry. I appreciate her good nature, just not her weird controlling way of doing business friendships.

But Nicki dazzled us all, and the intro ended with Macklemore and some rock dude jamming it out in the parking lot. OK! We

made it through the first twenty minutes! We can breathe. But not just yet.

MILEY, WHAT’S GOOD? The award acceptance speeches were basic, of course. Bruno Mars was oddly enthusiastic, and everyone else was thankful for the typical hard workers that make their career successful in any way. Nick Minaj had the most exciting acceptance speech by far, thanking her lady pastor and calling out Nicki Minaj in the same breath. I LOL’d the entire way, and was so thankful Miley finally got called out for her antics and offensive sideswipes toward Nicki the Ninja, the most bootylicious Harajuku barbie. Nicki yelled, “Miley,

VMWHY?

Commentary by Makeda Sandford, Layout & Design Editor

what’s good?” and it was like the shot heard ‘round the world.

Just before I knew it, all was well and Demi Lavato was dancing with wet guys in neon speedos out in the parking lot.

It was odd. I blanked out until I noticed Justin Bieber crying after his clean performance (why so sad, boo?) and Miley insincerely proclaiming, “Justin, call me when you’re legal!”

Empire cast members mentioned black lives matter, which was great and necessary, and right afterward, Snoop Dogg fed Miley weed brownies. Which was…uneventful. My favorite performances were heartfelt Tori Kelly’s and the beautiful A$AP Rocky sharing the stage with Twenty One Pilots.

But Kanye stole the stage. I

loved and hated his speech, but mostly loved. He took the time to speak on issues black artists have had to deal with for decades and the prevalence of media bias against black and brown artists have stayed persistent. He muddled the good parts with Kanye babble, but the man is important and deserved the stage. I commend him for bringing the show together.

The VMAs left me angry, confused, and laughing my way to sleep. I didn’t download Miley’s free album she released at the end. No one could pay me to do that after her craziness. But I’m pleased the black artists got to speak on their grievances in more than a few ways this time.

Now if the world will listen.

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 20

Women’s Soccer allowed one goal before she was replaced and saved three shots on goal. Getz played the rest of the match for the Bulldogs, grabbing five saves and allowing two goals.

Western Carolina Redshirt sophomore Kelsey Cooke scored a goal with one minute remaining in the first half.

McKenna was in the action again in the second goal of the game for the Catamounts by earning another assist on the goal by Cooke. UNCA went into halftime trailing 2-0.

The rest of the second half went back and forth as UNCA tried desperately to cut into the Catamounts 2-0 lead, but to no avail. Western scored their third and final goal of the game from a corner kick assist

by Redshirt senior Sara Robinson and headed in by Sullivan.

This was Sullivan’s second goal of the game and a career high for the Redshirt from Portsmouth, Rhode Island. After the goal by Sullivan it was all WCU controlling the last 10 minutes, getting the last four shots of the game and keeping the Bulldogs at bay.

“This was a great game played tonight by both teams,” said Asst. Referee Jonathan Glover. “No head should be low, because they both played really hard and should be happy

From page 8

with their performances. It was a great game to officiate.”

UNCA had 10 shots and only three corner kicks in the game. Sophomore forward Caroline Houser had six of the Bulldog 10 shots and aimed three at the goal, but failed to score in all of them.

Western Carolina had 17 shots, eight corner kicks and seven saves in the match.

Sullivan claimed four of those shots, of which two went in the back of the net for her goals of the night. Pannell had three shots and earned one goal in the match. WCU junior goalkeeper Carly Tinstman earned the shutout with her seven saves in the match.

“Our whole team played great on offense as we scored three goals, and our defense helped out a lot in keeping the ball away from the goal.

They made my night fairly easy for me,” Tinstman said. “The offense took a lot of pressure off of me by giving me a cushion by scoring goals, and that helped me focus on the game and not worrying about a game tying or losing goal.”

UNCA women’s soccer returns home to Greenwood field in Asheville on Friday, September 4, at 7p.m., when they host Alabama A&M.

Chocolate Lounge With the new expansion, business has flourished. The Rattigans say they stopped buying chocolate as an ingredient and started making it themselves.

They built a chocolate factory in Asheville and started to import cacao directly from small farmers in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Peru.

All other ingredients are bought locally in Asheville. The couple says they believe the business should be embedded within the community.

Marketing Coordinator Sarajane Case says she was attracted to the lounge because it was ethically sound.

“I can market something that is a beautiful product,” Case says.

“But also they are doing things right so I don’t have to gloss over anything. I can just tell the

From page 9

true story. I don’t have to fluff anything up or try to make it pretty because it already is.”

With growing popularity, the two floors for seating quickly became overcrowded.

“We had fire code capacity issues with our last space, meaning we could only have 49 people on our lower level,” Jael says. “We would consistently have at least that many people in line. Not to mention the people sitting down and the people working. We were in violation of the law and getting hassled by the fire marshal.”

It was time to expand, Jael says, this time to a different location.

The Chocolate Lounge is now located at 10 South Pack Square. The space is all on one floor, seating is more readily available and ingredients can be transported more easily.

Photo by Johnny Condon - Staff Photographer

Customers enjoy visiting the French Broad Chocolate Lounge now located on 10 S Pack Square in downtown Asheville.

A longtime Chocolate Lounge customer and senior at UNC Asheville, Kevin Paradise, says he likes the new location.

“The new location has a larger space,” Paradise says. “It has a warmer kind of feeling to it.”

But one thing has not changed in the new location. Addicts still line up outside the lounge, hungry and waiting for their chocolate fix.

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 21

comic by katelyn schubel

Busking From page 18

is today.

While local businesses preach their adoration of art, poetry and music created in our city every time you walk through their doors, the support they boast of is, in most cases, one-dimensional.

Amidst the fight for buskers to keep their rights in our fair city, many businesses in the downtown area have avoided taking a stance on the issue.

Local business’ silence may be the final nail in the coffin for the buskers of Asheville.

Their disinterest on the issue only helps city officials near their goal of restricting and regulating free expression, destroying decades of culture and creation of which these mountains constantly sing.

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 22

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September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 23

Walking Dead Rather than do nothing, Travis runs into the burning (albeit, bloody) building to see what’s going on.

Psychology student Steinhauer was impressed with the courage Travis displays.

“I love how the dad was so chill even though all of this truly scares him,” Steinauer said.

“How he was able to keep his composure through all of this was really cool.”

Upon entering the building, viewers hear classically ominous music heard in mosthorror movies. Travis then uses his detective skills to find out what happened with Nick and his friends the previous evening.

According to Sebastian Pennacchio, a freshman psychology student at UNCA, the anticipation of seeing what will eventually unfold on the show excited him most.

“I loved how fast-paced the music was because it really got me pumped and gave me goosebumps,” Pennacchio said.

“Also, the anticipation of the rise of zombies fueled that anticipation.”

Travis encounters blood, guts, and a deranged man who ends up running out of the building at the first sighting of Travis’s flashlight. All signs point to a spooky ending here, Scooby.

According to Hunter Gomes, a sophomore creative writing student at UNCA, the decisions made by some of the characters deteriorated his overall enjoyment of the show.

“If anything, I didn’t like some of the characters’ logic,” Gomes said. “The father goes to investigate that church based on something his son said without calling the police? Then the father brings his wife back to the church and they still don’t call the cops. I would just assume someone would have called the cops by then.”

Travis takes his wife back to the church, where the blood and gore remain. Rather than believing him at the sight of the scene,

From page 11

the mother still remains skeptical about what happened at the church, saying “bad things happen here all the time.”

“I really do not like The Walking Dead, to be honest,” Steinauer said. “I like this show better because it’s sort of realistic and has more connections to our world, rather than Rick waking up and not immediately being killed by zombies.”

There was a nice touch in one scene where Travis is teaching his students about Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” by trying to get one of his students to realize the man-versus-nature theme underlying the story.

This scene and the discussion of London’s work brings the themes of both Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead to life.

It is after this scene that we are provided with one of the first jump-scares in the series. Madison goes to check in on the principal of the school, only to find him hunched over in a chair with his back facing the camera.

The music intensifies, and the audience is trained to think he’s turned because he doesn’t respond immediately to Madison.

There is nothing to fear, however, as the principal is just evaluating teachers by listening in on the classrooms.

“There were times where they tried to be suspenseful and it didn’t really work,” Steinauer said. “You knew what was going to happen.”

Nick is still sitting in the hospital, only to discover his roommate is undergoing a “code blue,” and needs to be relocated in the medical facility.

Because he was at the church the night before, seeing what could potentially result from the man next to him dying, Nick tries to escape the hospital after one of the nurses is nice enough to take off a single restraint.

In my mind’s eye, Styx’s “Renegade” would be the song playing in the background while we see Nick wander across Los An-

geles in the hopes of escaping the ensuing plague.

Of course, Travis and Nick’s mother, Madison, search for him after hearing he’s escaped from the hospital. The search leads them to Calvin, Nick’s best friend, who can’t recall where he’s seen Nick.

While on their search, Travis and his wife get stopped on a highway with traffic building up on an exit off the interstate. Helicopters are flying overhead to illuminate the scene and, rather than getting out and checking to see what’s been going on with the church, Travis just backs up and drives past.

“The few zombie scenes were really graphic and, in the future, I want there to be a lot of blood and gore, just complete chaos and panic while watching the world crumble as the zombies take over.”

Sebastian Pennacchio In the next scene, the rebellious teenage daughter, Alicia, and her friends, watch a YouTube video of the incident on the highway and discover that a man was struck by a car on the exit and turned into a “walker” by eating the paramedic resuscitating him.

“If this series is going where I think it is, I think it’s going to be focused heavily on destruction and zombie attacks,” Pennacchio said. “The Walking Dead can have a balance between action and drama, but I want this show to be very action-packed.”

Later, viewers learn Calvin drugged Nick the night before, and both of them have to keep it secret from Nick’s family.

When Nick asks Calvin what he gave him, I jokingly said it was blue meth in reference to Breaking Bad, which, if I’m not mistaken, started about the same time as the events on this TV show. It’s easy to keep a secret between two people if one of them is (or turns up) dead.

Meanwhile, the audience sees some romance between Alicia and her boyfriend. Their happy romance presumably survives for all of one episode when the boyfriend invites Alicia to Venice Beach and then stands her up, leaving the viewers, like Steinauer, to think maybe he too was bitten and is now a walker.

“I think the boyfriend turned and she just doesn’t know it yet,” Steinauer said. “Maybe her parents will expose her to this new world and she will end up having to kill him.”

Calvin agrees to help Nick get back on his feet, but he has an alternative plan for his friend.

The duo stops under a bridge and Calvin pulls out a gun to kill Nick because he believes Nick could blow his cover as a dealer.

Nick fights Calvin and grabs his gun. By shooting Calvin in the chest, Nick not only frees himself from Calvin’s rage but also puts a theory he has had all episode to the test. In Nick’s mind, if Calvin turns into an walker, Nick can finally gain the upper ground and make his parents believe him about Gloria being a cannibal.

Calvin does reanimate after Travis and Madison find Nick.

At this point, I was screaming at Nick to shoot Calvin in the head, but again, this isn’t The Walking Dead. The characters here are just learning about the virus and the apocalypse.

This revelation, said Gomes, is what he hopes will cause the fall of the society surrounding the walkers in the wake of the apocalypse.

“From the show, I expect to see how society falls and how the military will try and fail to fight the zombies,” Gomes said.

“Also, potentially how families will crumble and hopefully the rebuilding of society as they

come to terms with the apocalypse.”

When the walker tries to kill his parents, Nick tries to use their truck twice to run over the walking corpse of Calvin, yet only to discover Calvin is not going to go down easily.

Now immobilized, Calvin lays on the ground and snarls at the trio of Nick, Madison and Travis.

“What the hell is going on?”

Madison asks. Travis turns to Madison and, as straight-faced as he can, replies, “I have no idea.”

Gomes said the prequel-series isn’t necessarily based on what’s known about The Walking Dead.

“We know what happens after Rick wakes up from his coma, but we don’t know what happens while he’s in it,” Gomes said. “In a way, we don’t need it, because we know what happens in the aftermath, but it’s always cool.”

Here and through the end credits, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” would have been a fitting choice. According to Pennacchio, this show has the opportunity to be bigger and better than The Walking Dead, even in its first season.

According to the Nielsen ratings, this first episode of the series grabbed more than 10 million viewers when it debuted August 23.

Later in the week, new ratings statistics from Live+3 launched Fear the Walking Dead past AMC’s other spinoff series debut record, Better Call Saul, with 13.3 million viewers.

“Honestly, while I was watching this, I felt like it was a completely different show 90 percent of the time,” Pennacchio said. “The few zombie scenes were really graphic and, in the future, I want there to be a lot of blood and gore, just complete chaos and panic while watching the world crumble as the zombies take over.”

FINAL RATING: 7.8/10 WALKERS

OPINION

September 2, 2015. | Issue 2, Volume 63| thebluebanner.net

page 24

The Blue Banner’s View

Why becoming a local television reporter no longer seems like a safe bet

#WeStandWithWDBJ Commentary Last week, the nation was shocked to learn about the live murders of a reporter and her photographer in Roanoke, Virginia.

The two victims, 24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-yearold Adam Ward, lost their lives during a live interview when Vester Lee Flanagan approached them and gunned them down on television on the morning of August 26.

Which brings a question to the mind of this aspiring reporter: what do we do now? When will these heinous acts of murder come to an end? Add this to the list of growing sites of heinous murders in the last five years: Charleston, Newtown, Aurora and now Roanoke.

In the last five years, we have seen numerous deaths in places that we originally thought were safe.

A white supremacist opens fire on a church in Charleston, downing nine. An elementary

By Michael O’Hearn, Social Media Manager - mohearn@unca.edu

school class of 27 was killed at the hands of a former student at the school in Newtown, Connecticut. All but 12 moviegoers watching the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises narrowly escaped the clutches of a psychopath in Aurora, Colorado.

And now, we can’t even go out into the field to bring the community a recounting of the day’s events. Live, and hopefully still breathing, from Roanoke, this is WDBJ News 7.

We often associate these types of events with the Middle East, where bombings occur every day and journalists are captured for interrogating and questioning. Think of Egypt, where on August 31, three journalists were kidnapped by the government because they weren’t “reporting the truth.”

In the days since this fatal shooting, numerous reports have surfaced describing Vester Lee Flanagan, who killed himself in a rental car following the

murders.

Flanagan was fired from the WDBJ station two years prior to this event and colleagues at the station described him as being erratic, too sensitive and “management’s worse nightmare,” according to Trevor Fair, the video editor at the station.

Flanagan was fired after making an internal complaint at the station in early 2013.

Two words ring in my head when I read descriptions of Flanagan: mentally unstable.

Tighter laws on gun control should go into effect following last week’s crime, barring those who fall under this category from obtaining firearms.

The parents of slain victim Alison Parker are rightfully taking a stand for gun control.

Andy Parker, Alison’s father, clamored for “sensible gun legislation” in an interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Sunday’s episode of State of the Union with Jake Tapper .

To bring about change in the legislation, Parker told Harlow he would be teaming up with astronaut Mark Kelly, whose wife, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head at a 2011 Arizona rally. There will be struggles. There will be backlash.

Second Amendment advocates fervently fight in support of their right to bear arms, even after this crime. When parents can no longer embrace their daughter because an angry former co-worker decided to effectively terminate the daughter’s life, this no longer becomes a matter of a heated issue but one of the lives of our children and loved ones.

It’s time to put the smoking guns down. Our government

has a checks and balances system in place to overthrow the concentration of massive power in one branch should it come to that point. This system should be transposed to the way one can purchase a gun at a trade show or store.

I like what 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has to say about gun control. Sanders hails from Vermont, a state with little-to-no gun control.

Sanders strives to, instead of banning the Second Amendment rights of all Americans, prescribe to instant background checks on gun buyers and making mental health services more readily available as president.

I’m tired of turning on the television and seeing body bags and a mugshot of the perpetrator who robbed innocent victims of their lives. If I want a large amount of gruesome television, I’ll stick to watching CSI: or Supernatural.