VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 16 • JULY 27, 2021
HEAT WAVES ARE GETTING DEADLIER AS THE GLOBE GETS HOTTER. IN THIS NEW WORLD, WHO GETS ACCESS TO AIR CONDITIONING?
SPORTS Vikings 2021–2022 schedules released for volleyball, basketball and football P. 7
ARTS & CULTURE Nicolas Cage delivers a stunning performance in Portland drama Pig P. 8
OPINION Dear billionaires— come back to Earth P. 9
CONTENTS
COVER BY SHANNON STEED, COVER PHOTOS BY TED S. WARREN/AP IMAGES
INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD
P. 3
NEWS AIR CONDITIONING IN A WORLD ON FIRE
SPORTS SCHEDULES FOR VIKINGS VOLLEYBALL, SOCCER AND FOOTBALL RELEASED
P. 4-5
SCIENCE & TECH THE PEGASUS PROJECT: UNCOVERING SPYWARE AND ITS ABUSE
ARTS & CULTURE NICOLAS CAGE’S PIG IS BEAUTIFULLY MELANCHOLIC
P. 8
P. 6
OPINION DEAR BILLIONAIRES, WE ALREADY HAVE A PLANET
P. 9
STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Nick Gatlin MANAGING EDITOR Morgan Troper NEWS EDITORS Conor Carroll Danny O’Brien INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser OPINION EDITOR Rachel Owen ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth CONTRIBUTORS Nova Johnson Catherine Kane Allison Kirkpatrick Analisa Landeros
PHO T O A ND MULTIMEDI A MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee
A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher
DESIGNER Kelsey Stewart T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
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A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
THIS WEEK 4
around the
WORLD
July 19–24
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KARISA YUASA 1 July 19
PERU
Following the country’s longest electoral count in 40 years, leftist Pedro Castillo was announced as the presidentelect, according to The Guardian. Polls for the 2021 runoff general election closed on June 6, but officials took 43 days to announce the first-time politician as the winner, due to the closeness of votes. Castillo won the election by a margin of 44,000 votes, or 0.26% over far-right rival Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori. “On behalf of my family I would like to salute the electoral authorities,” Castillo said. “And also salute the political parties that have taken part in this democratic celebration.” After a virtual ceremony, Castillo said, “Dear compatriots, I bring here an open heart for each and every one of you.” Fujimori has conceded, despite calling the election fraudulent without evidence. “I am going to recognise the results because it is what the law and the constitution that I have sworn to defend, mandates,” Fujimori said. “The truth is going to come out anyway.” Peru’s election authority has dismissed Fujimori’s appeals to overturn the election. The Organization of American States, European Union, Great Britain and the United States have called the election fair. On July 28, Castillo is set to be sworn in as Peru’s fifth president in three years. 2
July 21
MWANZA, TANZANIA
Tanzania’s main opposition party announced that its leader, along with ten other party figures, were arrested at their hotel,
PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
according to Reuters. The opposition party, officially known as Chadema, said that party leader Freeman Mbowe and others were detained at around 2:30 a.m., and taken to a police station before being transferred to a station in Dar es Salaam. The arrests occurred after meetings took place in Mwanza, despite provincial authorities banning public gatherings due to COVID-19. Amnesty International has referred to the arrests as arbitrary and has called for releases unless “authorities have clear legal grounds to justify the arrests.” Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes Region said, “Tanzanian authorities must stop targeting the opposition and trying to narrow the space they are able to operate in.” Mwangovya called the arrests “arbitrary” and “politically motivated,” and claimed the detentions show “Tanzanian authorities’ flagrant disregard for the rule of law, and human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and association.” 3
July 23
TOKYO, JAPAN
The opening ceremony of the Olympic games—marking the start of the 2020 Olympics—took place a year after they were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The opening ceremony had less than 1,000 attendees in the stadium, due to strict COVID-19 restrictions, according to Reuters. “Today is a moment of hope,” said Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee President. “Yes, it is very different from what all of us had imagined, but let us cherish this moment because finally we are all here together.” The postponed games did not start without controversy. In May, a Japanese newspaper, the
Asahi Shimbun, conducted a survey that found that only 21% of respondents wanted the Olympics to be held this summer. As the city of Tokyo continues to be in a state of emergency, protesters of the games gathered outside the stadium. Protesters were seen holding signs that read, “Cancel the Tokyo Olympics” and “Olympics kill the poor.” As of July 20, less than 36% of Japan’s population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 4
July 24
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
Thousands of people took to the streets for Budapest’s biggest pride parade in the celebration’s 26-year history, according to Al Jazeera. The parade follows the government’s decision to outlaw the portrayal of LGBTQ+ themes to minors in a controversial vote in June. “Instead of protecting minorities, the Fidesz-Christian Democratic government is using laws to make members of the LGBTQ community outcasts in their own community,” wrote organizers of Budapest pride in a statement, according to Reuters. Approximately 200 counterdemonstrators were also present along the parade route. “Pride marches in eastern Europe are less about celebration and more about protest, with more to protest against after every year,” said Luca Dudits, one of the heads of Hatter Society, a LGBTQ+ rights group. “It is now more important than ever to take to the streets together in this fight for the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people.” On July 21, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced plans for a five-question referendum that he believes will prove that citizens support and agree with the controversial law.
INTERNATIONAL
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CONOR CARROLL On July 13, Multnomah County officials released a preliminary report on the effects of the extreme heat event that took place in late June, which resulted in over 100 deaths across the state. According to the report, the majority of fatalities were people who did not have access to air conditioning. “More people died from the June 2021 heat wave in Multnomah County than died from heat in the entire state of Oregon in the past 20 years,” the report stated. “What is clear even now is that climate disruption is making extreme heat events more frequent, more intense and longer in duration.” The report also highlights that those over 65, the houseless and those susceptible to prolonged heat exposure were also those most likely to have perished during the late-June heat event. However, according to experts, access to personal air conditioning is an important factor in surviving temperatures that can endanger human life. “Air conditioning has proven to be one the best ways to reduce heat-related deaths,” said Dr. Vivek Shandas in a recent discussion with Portland State Vanguard. Shandas is an associate professor in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, and an associate researcher in the Center for Urban Studies at Portland State. As of 2021, the state of Oregon does not require landlords to provide air conditioning to their tenants. Colleges across the state, which house thousands of students on campus at any given time, have no such requirements either.
AIR CONDITIONING POLICIES
Prior to the extreme heat event in June, University Housing and Residence Life (UHRL) responded to an email from Vanguard inquiring about the use of personal air conditioning units in dorm rooms. “Portable AC units are not allowed,” the PSU response stated. “However, [students] can purchase a small evaporative cooler.” The email went on to describe the requirements of such an evaporative cooler, stating it “must not exceed 150% of the size of the [dorm] unit,” and that “[the student] may need to use less power in [their] dorm/unit.” UHRL also implemented several measures to address the recent extreme heat event. According to Christina Williams, Director of Media & Public Relations for Portland State, UHRL placed “AC units or commercial fans in specific hallways that retain more heat to help with airflow and plans to add more as we are able to secure them.” Leaving windows open when the UHRL hallways were below 90°F degrees was stated not to have presented a security concern, but, additionally, PSU had opened a cooling area for residents until Sept. 22. PSU is not the only college in Oregon that does not allow personal air conditioning units in dorm rooms.
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FEATURE
At Oregon State University (OSU), Stephen Jenkins is the Associate Vice-Provost of Student Affairs and the Executive Director of University Housing and Dining Services (UHDS), who corresponded with Vanguard about OSU’s policies. “Per our UHDS Policy Guide, personal air conditioners are not allowed,” Jenkins stated. “However, as in all cases, if there is need for an accommodation we work closely with students and with the Disability Access Services Office through an interactive process to make the appropriate accommodations.” PSU also indicated that they had taken steps to protect students from the extreme temperatures. Williams stated that the June heatwave was “an unprecedented event” and, in the days leading up to the high heat, “[UHRL] and key facilities and emergency response personnel from across the university” had met to establish fan usage and cooling stations—and emergency overnight accommodations, which were stated to be utilized by about 20 students. Assurances aside, the issue of what is owed to Oregon-based collegiate renters in terms of a safe, ambient atmosphere necessitates an explanation of what students’ rights as renters are.
TENANTS’ RIGHTS NOT FOR ALL
“Oregon residential landlord-tenant law is mostly covered by Chapter 90 of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS),” Troy Pickard stated in a discussion with Vanguard. Pickard is managing attorney and founder of the law firm Portland Defender, which specializes in tenants’ rights and landlord disputes in Portland for over a decade. “There are a few exclusions from that, and one of the exclusions is, generally, residence at an educational institution,” Pickard said. “So, if you’re a student and you live in on-campus dorm housing, you’re almost certainly excluded from the regular landlord-tenant rules.” One of the more important aspects of a landlord and tenant relationship is the economic contract regarding the legal term “habitability.” “Oregon habitability law requires a landlord to supply ‘effective... weather protection of roof and exterior walls,’” Pickard stated. “The list in ORS 90.320 is illustrative, not exhaustive, so if a tenant were to rent a home that, for example, simply could not be cooled below [90°F], perhaps that tenant would have a claim that the home was uninhabitable, even though temperature is not specifically addressed.” The difference between what a university provides to a student in dorm rooms and what a landlord must provide to a tenant under ORS 90 can often be shrouded in nuance. But, according to Pickard, laws potentially allow for students to have less rights procedurally than tenants in a standard rental agreement. “The legal difference is that the university doesn’t have to care about what ORS 90 says in terms of habitability standards, timelines and processes for kicking a student out,
etc.,” Pickard stated. PSU did not respond when asked for comment about data on the cost of air conditioning for students living on campus. However, considering the significant cost of air conditioning for a single renter or homeowner, the economics of air conditioning policies for large institutions like colleges or apartment buildings reasonably deserve more consideration.
MONIES AND STUDIES
College students living off-campus face challenges as well. Oregon does not require landlords to provide air conditioning generally, and student tenants can be at risk of being victimized by negligent or predatory landlords through what the Federal Trade Commission calls “phantom rentals” or “hijacked ads.” Academically and procedurally, conflating students’ rights with tenants’ rights is still in a nascent stage. Therefore, there is limited data, for instance, on how often college students specifically are scammed by landlords or otherwise denied habitability in some way. Protections for college students generally focus more on student loan debt relief, loan servicing or civil rights issues regarding personal information. Policies like those of PSU and OSU that do not provide air conditioning in dorm rooms force the economic burden onto students, who are statistically less likely to have resources for items like a personal air conditioner—which, depending on the make or model, range in cost upwards of hundreds of dollars. In 2019, according to a Federal Reserve report, 40% of Americans could not afford a $400 emergency nor had that amount in their savings account in general. Concurrently, in an Institution for Higher Education Policy analysis, researchers found that an estimated 70% of working- and middle-class students cannot afford college at all. According to a 2019 survey from OneClass, an education services company, among the 399 students attending over 82 schools they utilized in the study, the majority of students had “between $51-$500” in their bank account—and nearly 15% of the respondents had less than $50 in their bank account. Research from the 2018 “Still Hungry and Homeless in College” study, conducted by Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, indicates that over 30% of respondents were “food insecure” and another 36% stated that they were “housing insecure.” Nearly 10% said they had been houseless in the last 12 months before the survey. Furthermore, there is evidence to prove that students at all levels are not only safer, but more productive with access to reliable and more comfortable living and working environments. In a recent study of over one million New York public school students, researchers found that a student "taking an exam on a day when the outdoor temperature is [90°F] performs 13% of a standard deviation worse than they would have on a [65°F] day.”
PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
WHAT’S NEXT?
Climate change will purportedly exacerbate and expose more of these underlying challenges for college students,and tenants generally, as well as their ability to be safe and secure in their respective housing situations. Global warming is already endangering renters across the U.S., from rising sea levels in coastal areas, extreme flooding in typically dry environs and increasingly disparate climate experiences for the wealthy and the poor. The changing climate will influence energy and economic policy for decades to come. Roughly 116 million metric tons of carbon dioxide are released each year from air conditioning. However, the total CO2 expenditures that the U.S. generated in 2019 was an estimated 6.6 billion metric tons, according to government analysis. Regardless of what sector or industry emits the most greenhouse gases, the result is still the same: extreme weather events are on the rise and an environment increasingly unable to protect itself from the vagaries of man-made climate shifts. “Find water is my first rule,” Shandas said. “Few things are more cooling than spending time with the body in water.” “[Furthermore], the body cools by sweating, and since we, in the Pacific Northwest, live without humidity, going outside and allowing the breeze to evaporate the sweat is the best way to stay cool,” Shandas continued. According to National Weather Service data, extreme heat is the number one killer when it comes to climate- or weather-related deaths; as temperatures continue rising, so will deaths from the heat. “I see a ‘perfect storm’ brewing,” Shandas said. “With rising home/rent prices, and heightened levels of gentrification, I expect that many people are living in more financial precarity… [and] the ability to run an air conditioner seems ever more difficult.” Oregon’s fire season is already in full swing, with the Bootleg fire in southern Oregon already the largest fire in the contiguous U.S., burning thousands of acres every day. Higher daily temperature averages are going to become a more common occurrence in the Pacific Northwest, and those without access to air conditioning are going to pay the price. “We [in the PNW] can certainly do better than touting our ‘climate-cred,’ and start putting policies into place that can keep those most vulnerable from dying unnecessarily and provide a safe environment for our students,” Shandas said.
AIR CONDITIONING IN A WORLD ON FIRE
RECORD HEAT WAVES RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT TENANTS’ RIGHTS AND WHOSE DUTY IT IS TO PROTECT STUDENTS’ SAFETY SHANNON STEED
PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
FEATURE
5
THE PEGASUS PROJECT:
UNCOVERING SPYWARE AND ITS ABUSE
RYAN MCCONNELL
It was revealed on July 18 that a private Israeli firm, NSO Group, developed Pegasus spyware used to hack the iPhones of journalists, activists and government officials. The investigation into use of the spyware and the individuals affected is known as the Pegasus Project. The investigation has uncovered a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers and 37 confirmed hacks by NSO’s Pegasus software. Among the targets of these attacks were two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, French President Emmanuel Macron, Telegram founder Pavel Durov and even advisors to the Dalai Lama. What makes the spyware so dangerous is that it is what’s known as a “zero click attack.” Essentially, malware can be deployed without the user ever having to interact with the device. Many apps and software that tout endto-end encryption work really well to defend against attacks known as “manin-the-middle” attacks. These attacks involve a hacker discreetly placing themselves in between two communicating computers or phones, retrieving or executing data as it is being transmitted. End-to-end encryption locks the communication line, preventing any hacker from retrieving the data. The malware being investigated by the Pegasus Project uses an attack type known as an endpoint attack, where a hacker targets and takes control of one of the computers directly, instead of sitting in between two computers. Often, a hacker must force the target individual to interact with something in order to conduct the attack, for example by clicking a malicious email, reading a text message or getting them to plug in a USB drive. In contrast, zero click attacks don’t require any interaction from the victims themselves. The malware can be sent and executed without the victim ever finding out. This is why it’s so powerful—and why journalists have been demanding censure. These attacks are usually the kind depicted in movies and TV shows. A hacker can execute code on a computer and then gain access to a device, retrieving whatever information they’re looking for. In reality, however, these hacks are extremely rare, highly sophisticated and seldom used against consumer individuals.
6
SCIENCE & TECH
The chances of being compromised through this malware are extremely slim, unless you’re in the intelligence industry, an international journalist living in a foreign country or an activist advocating under hostile governments. What makes the use of the Pegasus software so complex has to do with NSO Group’s unusual business model. NSO leads in the field of spyware development, but their role isn’t to deploy the spyware themselves. Rather, their clients have the autonomy to decide how to use it. These clients are almost exclusively government entities. NSO currently rests at the center of a global debate between weapons-grade surveillance technology, which remains largely unregulated. Shalev Hulio, NSO’s chief executive and co-founder, has expressed how these tools were meant to be used against legitimate threats and terrorists. “We built this company to save life,” Hulio said. “Period.” While Hulio has acknowledged that some of NSO’s clients misused their software in the past, he explained that all of the aforementioned clients’ access were shut off after a human rights audit was conducted. NSO also requires their clients to sign an agreement promising to use the software only for law enforcement or counterterrorism purposes. Pegasus was first demoed in 2018, and many expressed concern that this company was selling surveillance technology to nations that perpetrated human rights abuses as far back as 2016. Other reports claim the malware was deployed on the phones of journalists and activists in December 2020. These reports do little to corroborate NSO’s claims about preventing their clients from using surveillance software for malicious purposes. The Washington Post is awaiting responses from several countries that are alleged to be involved in the deployment of NSO’s spyware. Israel responded by citing the 2007 Defense Export Control Act, explaining the state “approves the export of cyber products exclusively to governmental entities, for lawful use,
and only for the purpose of preventing and investigating crime and counterterrorism, under end use /end user certificates provided by the acquiring government.” Appropriate measures are taken to resolve any violations of this law, Israel claims. Currently, the Indian government has denied allegations that they used Pegasus software, as have Morocco and Rwanda. More detailed information regarding the Pegasus Project and ongoing investigations can be found on The Guardian’s website, where dedicated articles relating to the subject are published daily.
KELSEY STEWART
PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
PORTLAND STATE TEAMS WILL HAVE FULL SCHEDULES FOR THE 2021–22 YEAR ERIC SHELBY The Portland State Athletics Department recently released 2021–22 schedules for volleyball and football, while the men’s and women’s basketball teams released their conference schedule. These are the first full schedules since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Volleyball and soccer will both be played in the fall season, unlike the 2019–20 season, when volleyball was played in the winter and soccer in the spring. Football will be played in the fall as well, as opposed to their unusual one-game season in April 2020. The men’s and women’s basketball teams have not yet released their entire season schedules. The first day of the season for PSU women’s volleyball is Aug. 23, with an exhibition preseason game against Central Washington University. The Vikings ended the 2020 season with a record of 6–12, winning five of the last six games with a 5–5 record at the Viking Pavilion, PSU’s arena. Redshirt junior Parker Webb led the team in kills with 161 this season, with freshman outside hitter Gabby Hollins in second with 141. Portland State Vanguard interviewed Hollins on her hopes for the upcoming season. “The thing I am looking forward to most this
season now that the pandemic is coming to an end is being able to play in front of our fans and also being able to build stronger relationships with my teammates,” Hollins said. Despite a strange season in 2020, her favorite part was being able to travel with the team and “just being able to actually have a season after months of uncertainty through the pandemic.” “I am excited that we are able to play a preseason schedule that gives us the chance to play teams we don’t normally get to,” Hollins said. A notable team on the Vikings’ volleyball schedule is Weber State University, which finished the 2020 season 18–2. University of California, Los Angeles ended their last season 15–7, and PSU is set to play them this year at the Long Beach State Tournament on Sept. 3. The Vikings play University of Oregon in the Oregon Invitational. Oregon finished their Pac-12 season 15–5. Grand Canyon University had a 11–4 record in 2020 with an undefeated record at home but 3–3 away; they will play at the Viking Pavilion in the upcoming season. The Big Sky Conference champion, Weber State University, ended their season 18–2, with runner-up University of Northern Colorado at 15–4. PSU’s 2021 women’s soccer season starts Aug.
21, with the Vikings playing Seattle University at Hillsboro Stadium. The Vikings will play six more non-conference games after Seattle, including against the 7–3–1 Gonzaga University. The Vikings finished their season 0–9–1 in 2020, and look to turn their season around next year. PSU plays University of Montana on Oct. 3, in hopes of humbling the reigning conference champions. They play Sacramento State on Sept. 26 as their first conference team—seeking revenge after a tight 2–1 loss in overtime—and end the season playing Northern Arizona University on Oct. 24. PSU’s football team starts its season on Sept. 4 against the University of Hawai’i. The Vikings football 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19, although the team played a game against University of Montana before their season was canceled. They ended their season with an 0–1 record. Prior to the pandemic, PSU finished their season 5–7 with a 4–2 record at home. After kicking off the season in Hawai’i, they’ll play the Washington State Cougars in Pullman, Washington. Their first home game is against Division-II Western Oregon University on Sept. 18. The Vikings will end the regular season hosting the annual Dam Cup, a rivalry game with Eastern Washington University. Of the 42 meetings
between the two Pacific Northwest teams, Eastern leads the series 21–20–1. Eastern won the last matchup in a high-scoring 53–46 game in 2019, their fourth straight win against the Vikings. The Vikings look to end that streak this year. In men’s basketball, the Vikings will play all of their Big Sky opponents twice, once at home and once away. They will end their conference season in Cheney, Washington, attempting to knock out Eastern Washington University, the Big Sky champions. In the 2020 season, the Vikings finished 9–13 overall and 6–8 in conference play. They swept Idaho last season, but lost close ones to the Pac-12 teams Washington State and Oregon State. PSU women’s basketball ended their last season with a record of 12–13 and 7–11 in conference play. With six of their first seven games canceled last season, they look for a rematch against Idaho State University, the team that knocked them out of the Big Sky Conference. Even though the Vikings lost to Eastern Washington two times in a row in the regular season, they beat them by 20 in the tournament and look to beat them in the regular season. As the start of the 2020 college sports season approaches, fans in attendance will be a major difference from last year, and the Vikings are excited to see fans in green and white once again.
PSU VIKINGS OUTSIDE HITTER GABBY HOLLINS PLAYS AGAINST UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
SCHEDULE FOR VIKINGS VOLLEYBALL, SOCCER AND FOOTBALL RELEASED PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
SPORTS
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NICOLAS CAGE AS ROB FELD IN PIG. PIG/NEON
THE PORTLAND-BASED DRAMA IS A KNOCKOUT EXERCISE IN SIMPLICITY BÉLA KURZENHAUSER Ever since Nicolas Cage’s shopping spree-induced conflict with the Internal Revenue Service in 2009, the once-renowned star of films like Moonstruck and Rumble Fish has pivoted his career towards midnight flicks and direct-to-VOD duds such as Color Out of Space and Jiu Jitsu—a film where Cage trains a Burmese village in the art of jiu-jitsu to defend Earth against alien invaders. Although most of these titles are nothing more than your standard special-operations thriller/tax-writeoff, once in a blue moon, Cage will deliver a standout performance in an excellent film, displaying to the world that his acting chops are just as sharp as ever. His newest film, Pig, is one of those rare gems. The dramatic thriller—which is set and filmed in Portland, Oregon—chronicles a truffle farmer, Rob Feld (played by Cage), whose prize trufflehunting pig is kidnapped by a group of delinquents. He, alongside his business partner Amir, played by Alex Wolff of Hereditary fame, venture into downtown Portland in search of revenge, answers and one very talented hog. When Pig first made its advertising rounds a few months back, it was seemingly pushed as a John Wick-esque thriller starring Cage as a familiarly bitter old man seeking violent restitution for the theft of his beloved swine. In reality, it’s anything but that. The neon colors are swapped out with a muted palette of grays and
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ARTS & CULTURE
blues, with the cloudy and rainy weather of Portland’s autumns perforating the screen as the summer greenery of this city bleeds and washes out into the gutters. Pig is a solemn film—it does not relish in vengeance, choosing instead to slowly reveal more of itself as it peels back each of its layers like an onion. Despite its narrative being built around a revenge story, Pig and its director Michael Sarnoski understand that revenge is not a dish best served cold. It’s a dish best served calmly, as people talk and converse and work things out like rational people. There’s no real twist to Pig, no “gotcha” moment, no zingers nor surprises. It relishes in the quiet moments and dives into existentialism frequently. Rob is a silent but thoughtful character who glides through vignettes depicting the simple things in life—sitting on a porch teaching a boy about persimmon trees, discussing salted baguettes with an old baker friend or waxing poetic about the inevitable “Big One” earthquake that will sink much of the West Coast. It’s that last part that firmly roots Pig in its Pacific Northwest identity. It’s more than just a film that takes place in Portland; it embodies the city’s sense of culture and identity at each level of filmmaking. Conversations with a restaurateur and a chef reveal Rob’s disdain for the cultural gentrification of Portland that has ensued over the decades, and the film’s use of washed-out locales only enriches these themes. Restaurants are colored with starch-
white curtains and furniture, and, with Cage retaining his bloodied makeup and forager garb throughout the entire film, his position in these settings feels more and more alien as the film progresses. He is not of this place, and Sarnoski’s direction makes this apparent. Amidst this tale of existentialism and melancholy, Cage himself delivers a tour-de-force performance. Gone is the guttural physicality of his more recent performances, like that in Mandy, as he shifts into a brooding role. His face speaks a thousand words like a landscape of its own as he murmurs and mumbles solipsisms during moments of respite and contemplation. Every word he speaks is valuable, with even his silence filling the void. Pig is not a slow film by any means, but it knows how to take its time. It stops to smell the roses and look at the sights, appreciating the little things that surround us. Even in the face of inevitability, it understands that the small things are what makes life beautiful, whether that’s a good meal that roots itself in your memory for the rest of your life or a day in the woods staring out at the river. It’s rare to see a film that understands the importance of food and the culinary arts in our lives, and Sarnoski wastes no time getting you to appreciate these moments for their simplicity and beauty. Pig is a peaceful, calm and quiet film that must be experienced for yourself, and will most certainly be remembered as one of Portland’s local treasures.
PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
RACHEL OWEN I want to be funny about this so badly. There are so many jokes to make about this situation, from Jeff Beezus’s silly cowboy hat to his—and I cannot express this enough— incredibly phallic spacecraft design. I want to be funny about this so badly, but I can’t. Billionaires should not be going into space. They should be helping the planet that exists down here. How hard is it to understand that? Earth is just one planet in our beautiful solar system, but being able to float in space for 11 minutes proves absolutely nothing. Jeff Bezos going into space only proves that he has the money to do it. How can you be funny about a billionaire flying into space when there are people down on this planet who can’t afford to eat, some of whom are employed by Bezos himself ? Going up to space on the backs of workers that don’t have a solid quality of life—when he can provide that for them—is despicable. It is ridiculous that billionaires can just throw money at space engineers and say, “Hey, I want to go to space.” We’ve gotten to a point where billionaires have the ability to literally build themselves a rocket instead of looking in the mirror
and asking themselves, “What if I put my money into something that is actually beneficial for the human race, and for the planet as a whole?” It would be understandable if Bezos was going to space for actual science, but he didn’t even do that. Bezos did about the same amount of work that a monkey in the 60’s did. He didn’t help with gathering any scientific knowledge, and he didn’t help with any actual space exploration. He just did it because he could. Bezos has been to space more times than Amazon has properly paid taxes. According to data provided by the Forbes 400 list, Bezos makes $149,353 every minute. Multiplying by the 11 minutes he was in space, Bezos made $1,642,883 while he was in the air. That is significantly more money than many people will make in their lifetimes, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If I were to list out every single better thing to do
with that money, this article would be more than 10 pages long. For starters, climate change; just two little words, filled with multifaceted projects, any of which Bezos could have donated to with even a single dollar. But, instead, he floated around and made $1.6 million—just in space. That does not even account for the money he made during the time that it took to prepare his silly little project. And yes—I’m going to call it a silly little project, because it is silly, and very little. Bezos has the power to change the world and, instead, he flew into space for a dick-measuring contest with other billionaires. It’s so easy and so much fun to make jokes, as well as to blame Bezos, but he is not the only one. Musk and Richard Branson are just as easy to blame. Billionaires should not exist in the first place. They are an extension of hyper-capitalism in a world where disparities in wealth in the United States alone are only going to grow. They are choosing not to take the opportunity to change
WHY GOING INTO SPACE RIGHT NOW IS POINTLESS
that. Bezos treated going into space the same way a four-year-old treats going to Disneyland. I hope that, years from now, people will look back at this and understand that Bezos and these stupid billionaires are not an accurate representation of all the people that live here. I hope that 20–30 years from now, when kids are reading about this in their history classes, they look at what has happened and they think to themselves how crazy it is. Because it is crazy! All of this is crazy! There’s a phrase in environmental activism: “We have no planet B.” It’s true. We don’t. And as much as billionaires would like to think that they can escape the atrocities that are happening on this planet, they can’t. Even being able to go into space for 11 minutes is a risky thing to do, so the fact that Bezos did it just to say that he could is unjustifiable. It’s stupid. Maybe there should be a better word for me to use, butit’sthetruth.Itisstupid.IfBezoswasgoingupthere to conduct experiments, or to learn something about how we travel to space, or space engineering—or literally anything else—that would be a whole other story. If he was actually doing something to benefit the human race, then my article about it would be completely different. But he didn’t do that. He didn’t do anything to benefit anyone other than himself.
JEFF BEZOS, SPEAKING AT A PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER THE LAUNCH OF A BLUE ORIGIN ROCKET ON JULY 20, TRIES ON A PAIR OF GOGGLES THAT BELONGED TO AMELIA EARHART. TONY GUTIERREZ/AP IMAGES
DEAR BILLIONAIRES,
WE ALREADY HAVE A PLANET PSU Vanguard • JULY 27, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
OPINION
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