Portland State Vanguard

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Vanguard ••Tuesday, Thursday, TUESDAY, Jan. JUNE Nov. 31,4,8, 2013 2013 2012• •news •news news

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African night from page 1

Students take to the stage for African dance performances AAS members decided to change things up this year and use a new format. Many of the performances—more so than previous years— included student performers.

The entertainment portion of the night began with a packed ballroom watching a dozen girls from the Kukatonon Children’s African Dance Troupe perform several routines accompanied by traditional African drums.

Like many of the other entertainers, the dance troupe involved audience members in the performance by encouraging them to sing along and dance with the music.

“In the air is happiness—it’s like Africa,” Sheka Dosary, an event attendee, said. “Everyone is smiling.”

Following the dance performance was a video explaining AAS and how the group has evolved over the years.

The group was formed in the 1970s; their mission is to bring Africans in the PSU community together.

“We bring diversity and culture,” AAS President Marianne Mulumba said in the video. “We introduce people to things they don’t know about African culture.”

Following the video was a speech by keynote speaker Michael Alexander, the CEO of the Urban League of Portland—a nonprofit that focuses on equality in education, employment and civil rights for African-Americans.

Alexander’s speech focused on 10 life lessons to keep people true to themselves and their origin; many of the lessons focused on unity among all people.

“People will forget what you say, forget what you do, but won’t forget how you make them feel,” Alexander said.

His speech set the tone for the night, as audiences members came together to celebrate the many different cultures of Africa. Performers drew influence from experiences living in Somalia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic

Republic of the Congo.

Following the keynote address was a musical performance by the band SerayaZ, and poems by Jamila Osman and Joe Mulumba. Kenyan pop and rhythm and blues artist Evashia rocked the house with a powerful vocal performance.

The audience also got a taste of African fashion at the halfway point of the show, as models in boldly colored dress graced the stage.

The night continued with dance performances by Nigerian dance group Chiamy & Friends and Heber Ethiopia, and a poem by Neema Doti.

Closing the night were the crownings of the African king and queen and a vocal performance by Kirubel Mersha.

The attendees’ excitement over the night’s events was apparent.

Abby Dawson, a business administration graduate student, decided to spend her birthday at the event because she had such a wonderful time previously.

“The last year I came here, I loved the dancing and everything,” Dawson said. “I’m so excited to see it all again.”

all photos kayla nguyen/VANGUARD STAFf

Erashia Kenya performs at the 33rd Annual African Culture Night.

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Rolia manyongia-jones, the director of the Kukatonon Children’s African Dance Troupe, left, moves to the music. Students model fashions, right, at the 33rd annual African Cultural Night on Friday.

girl rising from page 1

Organizers hint at possible screening in the fall

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© The girl education project

A film about a disabled girl in Bangladesh was among the shorts shown at the Girl Rising event.

roller-coaster reaction while viewing the film.

“It just spurred a broad range of emotions,” Kang said.

“I went from angry to happy to laughing—then to [thinking about] what can I do to help.”

The screening had an impressive turnout of almost 200 people; they came to partake of an international food buffet and experience a film that has the community abuzz. But the intent was to reach beyond simply providing an evening of entertainment—to also be a catalyst for change.

“We want to inspire people to go out and volunteer or [perform] random acts of kindness. Maybe even just make them think,” Kang said.

Several booths provided attendees an opportunity to give back by volunteering in the community. There were representatives from organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Women’s

Resource Center, ChickTech and Girls Inc. Chabre Vickers, the director of community relations for Big Brothers Big Sisters, was particularly thrilled to have a booth at the screening. She said that the PSU community has offered a tremendous pool of volunteers for her program.

“We’re very excited about Girl Rising because we know that the movie is going to really incite in people a desire to do something,” Vickers said. “Becoming a mentor is something that most anyone can do.”

As the credits rolled, lines for the booths grew about as long as the line for the buffet, with people obviously moved by what they had just seen.

AJ Brown, an IELP instructor and emcee for the night, gazed across the space proudly as she considered the event’s success in recruiting new volunteers and raising donations.

“[T]hose of us from first world countries…don’t necessarily have the same fights to champion as the girls in the film,” Brown said. “But, hopefully, people can get inspired to perhaps spend the rest of their lives reaching out and helping.”

According to Kang, the event raised about $1,000, which will be donated to the 10x10 campaign to help support their mission of educating young girls in developing countries.

“It was a success,” she said. “I would have been happy if even just 50 people showed up.”

For those who missed the chance to see Girl Rising, screenings are happening across the country, but in fairly limited numbers. Fortunately, Kang hinted at the possibility of another screening of the film at PSU in the future.

“This was sort of a test run,” Kang explained. “I think we’re going to make this a part of the Portland State of Mind [event] in the fall.”

To learn more about Girl Rising and the 10x10 campaign, visit girlrising.com.

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, • •TUESDAY, TUESDAY, JANUARY JANUARY JUNE MAY24, 17, 4, 1, 2013 2012 • VANGUARD

PSU Archaeology Roadshow attracts hundreds to OMSI

kayla nguyen/VANGUARD STAFf

mary beth browne, an elementary school teacher who volunteered for the show, excavates a house site in a village in Washington State with Jaydyn Kipe, 5, and Maliya Parker-Hill, 4. The children learned about digging, screening and examining artifacts.

Event featured close to 30 exhibits staffed by student volunteers Coby Hutzler Vanguard Staff

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry played host on Sunday to the second annual PSU Archaeology Roadshow, a free public outreach event aimed at promoting archaeology in Portland’s backyard.

The four-hour event saw 575 visitors of all ages and was staffed by around 80 volunteers from Portland State and the surrounding archaeology community. A panel of experts was on hand to help examine and identify artifacts brought in by visitors.

“We know people like archaeology,” said Virginia Butler, a professor of anthropology at PSU, who organized the event with her undergraduate community archaeology class. Community archaeology, she said, is a relatively new way of approaching archaeology that seeks to “build more grassroots support and build more community involvement,” around the field.

“Archaeology is relevant to the public; it’s not just about the past,” said Lyissia Coffey, a volunteer at the event and one of Butler’s students.

“You learn a lot about yourself.” Butler’s 14 students were among the volunteers at the roadshow.

Volunteers attended each of the nearly 30 exhibit booths, discussing with attendees such topics as ground-penetrating radar, local discoveries of mastodon bones and the study of peoples through their waste patterns.

“You don’t have to go to other countries, to the American Southwest or Central America,” to engage in archaeology, Butler said. “We have a lot of really

impressive heritage sites in our region.”

Indeed, several of those sites are on PSU’s campus.

“Archaeology’s not always from ‘somewhere else,’” said TJ Brown, a master’s student studying prehistoric archaeology. Brown staffed a booth dedicated to some of the artifacts uncovered on campus, including glass bottles, porcelain and even a small leather shoe.

“There’s lots of really cool history under PSU,” Brown said, adding that many of the artifacts found on campus were unearthed in 2002 during construction of the Native American Student and Community Center.

In fact, historical artifacts are often recovered from construction sites.

Jo Reese is a senior archaeologist and co-founder of Archaeological Investigations Northwest, a local firm dedicated to interpreting findings at construction and development sites like that of the NASCC. “Once you find a [cultural resource] site in Oregon, state law addresses it,” she said, adding that the purpose of such laws is to aid in the identification and recovery of any historically significant artifacts from development and construction sites.

Portland’s early phases of urban renewal in the 1960s and modern infrastructure projects like TriMet expansions and the Columbia River Crossing have yielded findings as well, Reese added.

Artifacts are often handed down through family lines, as was the case with a small ceramic pot brought to the roadshow by Julia Sylla, a Portland resident who learned of the event on PSU’s website.

Sylla said that her mother handed the pot down to her after originally acquiring it in Bolivia. She added that, while it was an heirloom in her family, the pot was “just a pot.”

After spending some time with the roadshow’s panel of experts, Sylla learned that her pot was “pre-Columbian,” which dates the pot’s creation to before the arrival of European explorers (such as Christopher Columbus) in the Americas.

Sylla added that she enjoyed her experience with the panel.

“I think it’s a really great service,” she said. “It definitely makes [archaeology] a little more real.”

Artifacts arrived from far and wide, and included a 19thcentury iron key from the Oregon coast and a Romanera coin that was found in Maryland.

“It’s been a fun time seeing what the public’s been finding out there,” said Bob Cromwell, a member of the expert panel and an employee with the National Parks Service at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash. The Roman coin, he added, was likely someone’s keepsake.

While all manner of artifacts were on display, and while people were certainly encouraged to bring in their discovery or hand-me-down, Butler was keen to emphasize that one of the event’s priorities was to foster “a sense of archaeology beyond the beauty and wonder of the ‘old thing.’” It’s just as important, she said, to find out “how many stories it holds.

“As someone once said, ‘it’s not what you find, it’s what you find out.’”

Eager to find out what visitors thought of this year’s roadshow, volunteers provided exit surveys that Butler and her next group of students will use when designing future roadshow events.

“I want to see a lot of responses like, ‘I had no idea archaeology was this!’ or, ‘Wow!’” Butler said, adding that she thinks people’s expectations will also be realistic.

“Indiana Jones is kind of extreme,” she said. “Most people know that’s kind of a joke.”

ASPSU from page 1

Running mates “need to think they have some buy-in,” Foster says The 569 votes cast in the ASPSU election represent a 1.9 percent voter turnout, down from last year’s 9.3 percent turnout.

The ASPSU constitution does not include any rules for the student government hiring process. According to Foster, he and his administration placed an emphasis on being open to scrutiny while interviewing for the positions.

“We wanted to have a more transparent process,” Foster said. Foster convened a hiring committee comprising SilvaHernandez, University Affairs Director Thomas Worth, Legislative Affairs Director Dave Coburn and Oregon Student Association Campus Organizer for PSU Courtney Helstein.

“It was a deliberative process involving people that I…trust,” Foster said of the committee.

The deadline for applications was May 22. For the staff positions, Foster and his hiring committee interviewed the applicants and then deliberated as a group, choosing what Foster said was the most qualified applicant for each.

Executive cabinet positions required nominations and senate approval.

Discussing the applicant pool, Foster said, “I wanted to leave it up to the committee because some of the people were my friends, some of the people were Yesenia’s friends [and] some of the people were Tom’s friends. I wanted an objective voice.”

But several members of student government have alleged that Harris pledged future cabinet and staff positions to campaign aides well before the election.

“He promised positions to people before he was elected,” said a student government member. “He didn’t have the authority to appoint anyone yet.”

When asked whether he ever explicitly offered jobs to staffers before the election,

Foster responded that “the only [person] I said that to was Donovan Powell. I said it jokingly, but I seriously considered him for the position.”

Foster said that he and Powell, whom Foster called a “good friend,” talked before the election, and that Foster encouraged Powell to apply for the publications director position.

“At public universities, the average turnout is 10 percent,” Oxendine said, referring to Portland State’s 1.9 percent turnout rate for last month’s election. Oxendine called the ASPSU election turnout “terrible.”

Butch Oxendine, president of the American Student Government Association

Powell was named the publications director after an interview process that included one other candidate; the publications director was one of several positions to which only two or three candidates applied.

“We knew right off the bat we wanted him,” Foster said. “[Powell] is the definition of the best publications advisor that ASPSU could have.”

Foster said that Powell’s competition for the publications director job lacked the critical computer programming experience that Powell had, making Powell the stronger candidate.

Powell did not respond to the Vanguard ’s requests for comment.

Ellie McConnell, ASPSU’s student life director, added that ASPSU reached out to find more applicants for the open positions.

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“We put up flyers and posted that we were hiring on Facebook,” McConnell said.

Foster admitted that he weighed a campaign staff member’s contribution to the race when he sought applicants for vacant staff positions.

“When getting someone to run with you, you don’t promise them things—but when you have someone running with you, there’s a political thing,” Foster said. “They need to think they have some buy-in.”

It’s not unusual for a newly elected politician to reward the staff members and volunteers who helped put him or her in office, according to Butch Oxendine, the president of the American Student Government Association.

“Let’s just look at national, state [and] local elections,” he said. “The president of the U.S. picks his Cabinet.

They’re ultimately approved [by Congress], but the president chooses people…Is that unethical? I don’t know.”

According to Oxendine, the question is not whether a student body president should be allowed to promise a friend a job but whether “student government is going to be just like it was in the past.”

The insular nature of the hiring process at Portland State may simply be symptomatic of the lack of interest in student government on campus.

“At public universities, the average turnout is 10 percent,” Oxendine said, referring to Portland State’s 1.9 percent turnout rate for last month’s election. Oxendine called the ASPSU election turnout “terrible.”

“It says that people outside of a select few don’t care,” Oxendine said. “If I’m the president, I want to try and open that up. I want to say, ‘Student government’s not just cronies, not just a clique of nerdy kids who all they do is run for office.’ No, you want to represent the student body.”

miles sanguinetti/VANGUARD STAFf

AsPSU president Harris Foster spoke to students at a meet-and-greet in May before the election.

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VANGUARD • TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013 • News

Revamped Quiet Study PSU’s first MRED Lounge opens in Smith students complete

program, celebrate

New study space designed by students Stephanie Tshappat Vanguard Staff

On Friday, more than 40 students, staff and faculty members gathered in the Smith Memorial Student Union, room 439, to celebrate the opening of the Quiet Study Lounge.

The space has been undergoing a remodel since the Peer Tutoring Lounge vacated it in spring 2012. What was once a gray, drab and dreary area of campus has been opened up and transformed into almost 2,900 square feet of soothing colors and natural light that streams in from the windows facing the Park Blocks along the west wall.

Posters designed by the university’s student-run Graphic Design Center decorate the space, along with quotes that reflect on the benefits of silence: “True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment,” William Pen said. Will Rogers admonishes, “Never miss a good chance to shut up.”

Brian Hustoles, the director of the student union and university events, opened the event by expressing his excitement at the new study space for students.

“I’m happy to be here to celebrate this glorious new Quiet Study Lounge,” he said.

There were many different companies involved in the transformation, with some of the work done by students, Hustoles said.

“All the design work was done by our student-run design center here on campus, and the bamboo furniture was made [in] Portland State’s woodshop,” he said.

Other vendors included Integra, who provided the lounge chairs, and Weld House, who made custom coffee tables from used car hoods.

Hustoles also commended Sean Green, the student representative for the Smith

all photos riza liu/VANGUARD STAFf

Jackie balzer, the vice president of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, explains why the study lounge is important to the PSU community on Friday. kalya nguyen/VANGUARD STAFf

Advisory Board, for his commitment to and involvement in the project.

“Sean Green, as a student rep, was involved in every single aspect of this transformation,” he said. “He was here last night, buffing the carhood tables for this event.”

The second speaker, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Jackie Balzer, emphasized the importance of enjoying this accomplishment.

“This is the model of students, faculty and staff collaborating on a challenging project and maintaining our student-centered and sustainability values,” she said, then shared several reasons why providing a quiet study lounge for students is important.

First, a number of studies show that spending more quality time on campus is directly correlated to student success and completion rates, Balzer said.

She emphasized the importance of quiet spaces when pursuing academic success and the benefits of providing a comfortable place where students can gather, discuss and learn together.

“This is a space where students can feel comfortable,

safe and nourished. This lounge makes [students] feel good and therefore makes [students] want to do well,” Balzer said.

When Green took the podium, he underlined how important a student-centered focus was to the project—students on the Smith Advisory Board and the Associated Students of Portland State University student fee committee were “instrumental in the creation of the space.”

A prime example is the chair that is set up in the lounge until June 12: Students can try out six different types of office chairs and then fill out a form stating which chair they prefer and why and submit it for review. This is the way chairs for the space will be chosen.

Consideration for sustainability was a key aspect as well.

“We spent a year and a half working on this space—testing chairs, looking at cubicle and table design, choosing paint colors,” Green said. “We literally spent hundreds of hours considering every single choice, and wanted to draw on thoughtful design and thoughtful choices to maintain financial sustainability as well as environmental sustainability.”

The quiet study lounge in the Smith Memorial Student Union, room 439, is now open to students.

Hessam nadji, the managing director of research and advisory services at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, speaks at the real estate conference.

8th annual real estate conference attracts 700plus community members Kaela O’Brien Vanguard Staff

More than 700 members of Portland’s real estate and business communities came together to celebrate the first group of students to complete Portland State’s Master of Real Estate Development program.

PSU’s Center for Real Estate hosted its eighth annual real estate conference, titled “Real Estate Investments: Then and Now,” on Friday morning, and the graduates were recognized for their accomplishments. The conference was held in the lower ballroom of the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel.

Some of the first 15 students to complete their MRED degree were at the conference, along with more than 50 sponsors of the Center for Real Estate.

“We value getting people together,” said the center’s executive director, Larry Remmers, in his opening remarks.

The room was filled with more than 80 tables and people talking, shaking hands and patting backs, so it took a moment for the conference to commence over the buzz.

The conference is hosted yearly, both to thank the community and bring together the many leaders in the real estate field, Remmers explained.

Speakers at the event included Blake Eagle, the recently retired CEO of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries; Hessam Nadji, a managing director of research and advisory services for Marcus & Millichap

Real Estate Investment Services; and Michael Gum, a student among the first cohort of graduates.

Gum encouraged companies to invest in themselves and their employees.

“Help employees get their master’s [degrees] in real estate development and advance their education,” Gum said.

Gum also insisted on the continued mentorship of PSU students by members of the Portland real estate community.

Also during the conference, a leadership award was bestowed on Mark Fisher by Scott Dawson, the dean of the PSU School of Business Administration. Fisher is the chairman of the Center for Real Estate’s Advisory Board as well an employee of the Standard Insurance Company.

“No other area’s success rests more on community in PSU than the Center for Real Estate,” Dawson said in his deliverance speech.

Following the presentation of the award were presentations by Eagle and Nadji.

Eagle discussed institutional investors and their impact on the marketplace.

An institutional investor, Eagle said, is a highly specialized investor that pools large sums of money from sources such as shareholders, contributors and donors on behalf of others. The capital is then spread across a broad range of opportunities, including debt and equity markets and the public and private markets.

Eagle also discussed real estate investment trusts, created

by Congress in 1960 to allow all investors the opportunity to invest capital in diversified portfolios of income-producing real estate.

“An impact of such investors is the legitimization of real

estate as an investment asset class,” he said. Eagle believes that in recent years, with the growth of REITs, the perception of real estate investment has changed. Rather than investments being perceived as deal-driven and tax-oriented, they are perceived as offering portfolio diversification and capital growth, Eagle explained.

The second presentation, by Nadji, discussed findings by the Marcus and Millichap Research Services about the current state of the real estate market.

While employment is still low, the economy is experiencing recovery—especially in the real estate market, Nadji said.

“The apartment market is fine, and the housing market, which was the culprit of the credit crash, is coming back,” Nadji said, adding that there was a 10 percent increase in home sales from 2012 to 2013.

“It’s not only a great time to sell, it’s a great time to buy,” Nadji said. “We have the strong footing [needed] to give us some assurance that the recovery is underway.”

To view complete slideshows of both presentations, visit pdx. edu/realestate-events.

The conference was organized by Julie Gibson, the assistant director of the Center for Real Estate.

The MRED degree, jointly offered by the School of Business Administration and the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, was officially offered for the first time in fall 2012.

There are still slots remaining for next year’s program, beginning in fall. There will be an information session about the MRED program on June 13. Contact the Center for Real Estate for more details at pdx.edu/realestate.

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, • •TUESDAY, TUESDAY, JANUARY JANUARY JUNE MAY24, 17, 4, 1, 2013 2012 • VANGUARD

President urges action on student loan interest rate Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)—President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to prevent student loan rates from doubling in a month, prompting a fight with House Republicans who accused him of playing politics instead of sitting down to work out small differences and avoid an increase.

Interest rates on new subsidized Stafford loans are set to go from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1. Lawmakers from both parties say they want to avoid the increase but are divided over how to do so.

Obama said if Congress doesn’t act to stop loan rates from rising, students would rack up an additional $1,000 annually in debt.

“That’s like a $1,000 tax hike,” the president said.

Obama made his case flanked by college students wearing

business suits and dresses on a steamy Washington morning in the Rose Garden. The event marked the beginning of a public campaign by the president to extend temporarily current student loan rates or find a longterm compromise to avoid the rate increase.

The event also gave the president a chance to try to move past political controversies that have been dogging his agenda, including investigations into last year’s deadly attack in Libya, political targeting at the IRS and secret monitoring of journalists who reported stories based on national security leaks. Obama opened his Rose Garden appearance by touting economic improvements during his presidency.

Obama said rising college debt—more than $26,000 on average for a four-year degree—saddles young adults with debt just as they are

starting out and prevents them from buying cars and houses, hurting the economy overall.

“That doesn’t just hold back our young graduates. It holds back our entire middle class,” Obama said.

The White House has proposed linking federal student loan rates to the financial markets. The Republicancontrolled House passed a plan last week that would reset student loan rates every year according to financial markets, but Obama has threatened to veto the bill in part because it doesn’t lock in current low rates.

“The House bill isn’t smart and it’s not fair,” Obama said.

House Speaker John Boehner responded by accusing Obama of practicing “petty partisanship.

“The differences between the House plan and the president’s are small, and there’s no reason

they cannot be overcome quickly,” Boehner said in a statement.

“But today, rather than working to resolve the issue, the president resorted to a campaign stunt to try to score political points. If the president is truly unhappy with inaction, the only place to look is the Democratic-run Senate, which has taken no action to prevent rates from doubling.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the issue next week, said Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Senate version would freeze current rates for two years while Congress works on a long-term fix, something the White House says Obama supports.

Obama spoke personally about the power of an advanced degree, saying he and his wife are only in the White House because of their education.

“We didn’t come from privilege,” the president said. He recalled they ended up paying off their student loans only in the past decade, and the payments were higher than their mortgage.

“We were lucky. We had more resources than many,” he said.

“Higher education cannot be a luxury for a privileged few,” Obama said. “It is an economic necessity that every family should be able to afford, every young person with dreams and ambition should be able to access.”

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coby hutzler/VANGUARD STAFf

Oregon students swarm the steps of the Capitol in support of increased funding for education at a rally in Salem on April 25.

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VANGUARD ••TThursday, TUESDAY, uesday, THURSDAY, TUESDAY, Jan. JUNE JANUARY OCTOBER Nov. FEBRUARY JANUARY 31,4,8, 2013 2013 2012 10, 25, 26, •2, 2012 2011 •ARTS •2012 ARTS ARTS ••&•OPINION &OPINION CULTURE &ARTS CULTURE CULTURE & CULTURE

ARTS & CULTURE

EDITOR: Louie Opatz ARTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5694

God, nature and nonsense Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life screens at 5th Avenue Cinema Breana Harris Vanguard staff

Before I try to convince you why Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is the worst thing to happen to film since James Cameron discovered motion capture, I beg you to look up Christopher Plummer’s comments from the 2012 Newsweek Oscar Roundtable on YouTube.

We can all trust Captain Von Trapp to deliver some honesty, right?

Plummer recounts his experience working on Malick’s The New World and very eloquently sums up why he’ll never work with the director again.

Malick, he says, desperately needs a writer.

According to Plummer, Malick’s scripts are “terribly pretentious,” and he cuts everyone out of his movies, neglects or even eliminates the storyline and characters in favor of poetic visuals and turns emotional scenes into “background noise.”

The clip is worth watching, especially to see the clear amusement on George Clooney’s face, another roundtable member and Malick veteran.

It’s really too bad that Malick shows such blatant disrespect for actors and what they do, because the actors are the best part of 2011’s The Tree of Life. Jessica Chastain is a radiant and wonderful actress, deserving of all her hype.

As saintly 1950s housewife Mrs. O’Brien, she weeps elegantly over one of her sons dying in Vietnam. Then, in a flashback, she gets to smile beatifically at the sky, run her hands through grass and beckon her three boys in slow motion.

(If you ever want to die of alcohol poisoning, play a drinking game involving artistic shots of hands in a Terence Malick movie.)

Chastain also gets to whisper in voiceover, mostly nonsensical snippets about God and the underlying theme of nature versus divinity, which is the only real point to the movie.

© Fox Searchlight Pictures

A BUZZ-CUTTED BRAD PITT stars in Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life, which is playing this weekend at PSU’s 5th Avenue Cinema. Pitt’s Mr. O’Brien is “heartfelt and disturbing.”

A lengthy, dialogue-free series of visuals about the creation of life and the universe, including some pretty cool dinosaurs, comes about a halfhour into the film and ends with more of Mrs. O’Brien whispering about searching for her dead child. Blaring, pompous opera music plays the whole time. What more do I have to say?

Brad Pitt, as Mr. O’Brien, also has a couple whispered voiceovers, but he gets the most actual dialogue and the most room to give an actual performance of any actor in the film.

Pitt is a talented guy, and he does wonders with the tired cliche of the 1950s husband who is tough-bordering-on-abusive to his family.

Of course, he secretly wanted to be a musician. Of course, he teaches his young sons to box.

It’s a testament to Pitt that he makes Mr. O’Brien both heartfelt and disturbing, but the problem is that when he says things like, “You make yourself who you are. You are in control of your own destiny,” it’s hard to remember that Malick wants you to disagree and be on the side of Mrs. O’Brien, where God is in control of

everything and we should all be meek and bond with lambs and butterflies.

Yes, The Tree of Life is undeniably a religious movie. Defenders of the film say it poses a series of questions, and the most prominent seems to be: Why does God let bad things happen to good people?

Didn’t we stop asking that question decades ago?

Didn’t C.S. Lewis write something that summed it up? The Christian overtones are hard to take seriously, but it would be cheapening the argument to dislike The Tree of Life solely because I’m an agnostic.

Malick’s filmmaking is about a thousand times more offensive than his religion.

In all fairness, I know people who will say without irony that this film changed their life. To them, the grandeur is justified and powerful. I also know plenty of people who irrationally loathe it like I do.

All of them have fairly decent taste.

And on some level, love-it-or-hate-it movies are always fascinating. How can people, many of whom often agree on things, look at a piece of

Queens in name, kings in execution Queens of the Stone Age return with first album in 5 years Nicholas Kula Vanguard staff

There comes a time about once a year when I feel as if I should review something by a band you’ve heard of. I’ve decided to take that option early because the new Queens of the Stone Age record is available to me, and that band is incredible.

Not many bands on planet Earth have such a fiercely loyal following as QOTSA, and quite the fracas ensues whenever the band has a new record out. I am hereby pledging to prolong this fracas and tell you everything I think about it.

If you’re one of the seven people between the ages of 16 and 60 that hasn’t heard of Queens of the Stone Age, this is your lucky day, because they are one of this country’s finest rock bands.

To this day, the band has never released a bad record—not even their debut album is bad.

Before 1996, when Queens formed, singer/guitarist Josh Homme played in another equally impressive rock band called Kyuss.

By all accounts, Homme is the only member of Kyuss that hasn’t built an entire career on playing Kyuss songs. There’s a reason for that— Homme’s mind is a prolific one.

But the difference between a regular prolific mind and Homme’s is that everything he touches turns to rock.

Homme and company remove all the frilly gunk that rock musicians think people want to hear and stick to a very solid but intelligent formula for pure rock bliss.

The riffs are tight and chunky, the songs all evolve beautifully as they progress, and Homme is just an all-around great rock vocalist. Almost every album leaves you feeling aurally full.

However, the throngs of loyal Queens of the

Stone Age fans are beginning to get hungry—the band hasn’t released an album since 2007’s Era Vulgaris, and this is the longest the band has taken to release an album in its lifespan.

Not only that, but this record, …Like Clockwork, took a full seven months to record. What kinds of treasures await?

Much like Era Vulgaris before it, Clockwork is really, really dark. When Queens of the Stone Age do dark, it doesn’t come off as terribly melancholy— but it’s something the searing guitar tones smear all over Clockwork.

Instantly, it’s easy to see why Homme is one of today’s unsung guitar legends. The opening track, “Keep Your Eyes Peeled,” has an incredibly layered, complex and unique tone—the kind that a lot of guitar players could spend years searching for.

Homme’s typical hyper-compressed tone is intact, and it’s a mystery why nobody has stepped up to copy his sound yet.

Homme has such a buttery voice that there is a lot to like about this as an opener. It builds wonderfully and—Homme aside—the sounds are very unusual; the rest of the band pushes the limits of “common sense” rock standards.

Throughout, though, it’s clear that Homme is still the centerpiece of this—the solo on “I Sat by the Ocean” is wildly creative; it sounds like an orchestra playing in reverse.

The record is full of awe-inspiring bits. Most of the guitar on “My God is the Sun” falls into that category, as does the psychedelic, bluesy haze present on “I Appear Missing.”

One thing that becomes clear as Clockwork unfolds is that Homme is an exceptional all-around craftsman of tone. I am fully aware that I sound like a cheesy Hawaiian-shirt-wearing suburban

dad for saying that, but it wholly applies. The music has always been exquisite on Queens of the Stone Age records—and not just in short bursts.

To that end, the production on Clockwork is beautifully separated. It’s easy to let the ear isolate all the layers as everything has been given room to breathe. The production is truly inspiring—and, as Homme acts producer on QOTSA records, adds another level of elitism to his credentials.

There’s also something to be found on Clockwork that’s relatively new—keyboards. That isn’t to say that Queens of the Stone Age has turned into the Edgar Winter Group or anything; while there is plenty of electric piano smattered all over Clockwork, and it adds a lot more than it takes away.

It’s almost impossible to talk about Clockwork without mentioning one of the hardest-hitting one-two punches in memory—“Smooth Sailing” and “I Appear Missing” together are a testament to the power of incredible tracks and ordering foresight. Just these two tracks in succession are enough to bring loyal Queens fans to their knees.

Try it sometime.

“Smooth Sailing” is definitely the ballsiest cut on the record: imagine some crunchy, shit-kicking electro boogie straight out of Road House’s Double Deuce bar. This is the type of music someone puts on the bar jukebox before a massive brawl breaks out.

That said, “I Appear Missing” is quite possibly the most ambitious piece on the record—there is some incredible songwriting here. The song evolves like something from Black Sabbath’s glory days of songwriting: This is just how riff-based rock music should work.

Quite possibly the weakest spot on the record is the last song, coincidentally the album’s title track. It just doesn’t have the oomph to compete

filmmaking and have such diametrically opposed reactions? When The Tree of Life screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, it was booed by critics. Then it went on to win the Palme D’Or best directing prize. The conflict seems to extend across the board.

I don’t think of myself as particularly cynical or detached about films—in fact, quite the opposite. I’m a big fan of musicals and any form of unabashed, cathartic emotion in movies. I support earnestness.

But, to me, Terrence Malick isn’t earnest, or even emotional. The endless whispering, opera music and slow-motion shots of hands just add up to incredibly pointless pretension.

Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, and my main entry into films is always through the writing. Maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of actors. How conventional of me to expect scripts and acting. I obviously don’t understand avant-garde moviemaking.

The Tree of Life comes close to achieving some depth, especially with Hunter McCracken as the younger version of the O’Briens’ oldest son.

But every time there’s a piece of dialogue or a scene that might mean something, the camera cuts away and the actors are once again stock photography models.

Sean Penn is the older version of McCracken’s character, and he’s barely in the film—he just wanders around and looks sad. He has two Best Actor Oscars. Pitt is one of the biggest stars in the world.

Chastain went to Juilliard. Yet they’re all merely Malick’s props.

I take issue with calling this film experimental.

Replacing storytelling with pretty shots of cows and planets is not experimental filmmaking. It’s just ridiculous. The emperor has no clothes.

But I could be wrong. Maybe we should all listen to Mrs. O’Brien: “Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light.”

If you’re on board with that, good for you. Just please stop whispering about it.

5th Avenue Cinema presents The Tree of Life 510 SW Hall St. Friday, June 7, and Saturday June 8, at 7 and 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 9, at 3 p.m. $3 general admission, free for students

with the staggering musicianship presented in the two tracks before it. “…Like Clockwork” leaves off appropriately enough but never gathers enough momentum to really pull you in. You’re likely exhausted after “I Appear Missing”—and that’s OK. In this world, there are two types of rock bands: amateurs and true professionals. Queens of the Stone Age are so much the latter that it’s kind of hard to comprehend. And if you’re one of those seven people I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, get it together immediately.

This is one of those bands, that—much like the Beatles and the Stones of your parents’ generation—you’re going to bore your kids talking about someday.

Turns out, getting old can be cool.

© Matador

Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork Matador Records Out June 3

Arts Arts&&Culture Culture ••T TUESDAY, uesday, Jan. JUNE31, 4, 2013 • VANGUARD

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Here come the masters 2013 MFA graduates to show in downtown gallery Jeoffry Ray Vanguard Staff

Portland State’s graduating fine arts master’s students are kicking off the summer with a group exhibition this Thursday. And, thanks to the efforts of curators active in the community, they’ll have the opportunity to display their work right in the heart of downtown’s Pearl District.

The graduate exhibition, titled “Here Come the Warm Jets,” will feature works by artists Mami Takihashi, Will Bryant, Rene Allen, Steve Brown and Leif Anderson. They will show at the Upfor Gallery, an in-development art space to be fully opened this fall by curator Theodore Downes-LeGuin.

The show will be guest curated by Jeanine Jablonski, owner and director of the downtown-based Fourteen30 Contemporary gallery.

Jablonski noted that Downes-LeGuin and the Upfor Gallery are providing the students a unique chance to show on one of the busiest days for art in the city.

“It underlines that people are really interested in what PSU is doing with its MFA program,” she said. “Typically, the MFA [shows] are at Disjecta. To put them in the middle of the Pearl is a great opportunity.”

Jablonski hand-picked the work she felt was each artist’s most effective, putting them together in a show that will be rich with new media and sculptural works.

Jablonski mentioned several works by each artist, such as a video by Anderson that was shot in a dumpster and a room Allen constructed to fit her body specifically.

courtesy of leif anderson

Behold: A still from Leif Anderson’s video “Untitled (dumpster),” which he’ll be showing along with another video and sculpture piece at the upcoming MFA graduate exhibition.

“My curation really ranges, so I tried to let the work speak to me,” she said. “The show is very loosely about a constructed space, whether mythological or in a dumpster or the space of a cardboard box.”

In addition to directing Upfor, Downes-LeGuin is also the current board chair of Portland’s Disjecta Gallery. He noted that PSU faculty members frequently work with artists to produce effective programs.

“PSU encourages a degree of experimentation in its MFA students that is really important and refreshing, but it is experimentation with intent and structure, which is also important,” DownesLeGuin said in an email. “I hope to find ways to continue support for student programs. Several Portland galleries do a good job of respecting the commercial imperative while supporting noncommercial aims, so there is a template. Thesis shows are one of my favorite experiences and they deserve wide exposure.”

The exhibition will also be a sort of preview of Upfor Gallery itself, which will open for business

later this year. In addition to balancing commercial and social objectives, Downes-LeGuin also hopes to encourage more new media into the region and to take on artists equipped with more vision than fame.

“The initial program will be a reflection of my interests, which are diverse, possibly undisciplined,” he said. “The gallery will work with artists who don’t have wide market exposure, who are grappling with significant ideas, and will emphasize digital and new media work. Digital can be challenging to present and collect so perhaps we can contribute to the community by taking some risks in this area.”

Jablonski is no stranger to curating within the Portland art community. Her space, Fourteen30 Contemporary, has shown a variety of contemporary artists over the past five years.

Jablonski enjoys being in a city where artists emerge, often before moving on to bigger cities.

“I exist within the in-between of the mainstream and the many alternative spaces in the city,” Jablonski said. “This year is an entire

calendar year of presentations by solo artists that I think everyone should see. The gallery has also grown as the artists have grown. Five years is a big marker for a gallery in the city.”

Jablonski often works closely with the university’s fine arts program. In addition to the upcoming exhibition, she also curated last year’s graduate exhibition at the Cleaners Gallery. For that show, she paired students with regional artists to create a dialogue between works. She stressed the efforts of faculty such as MFA Chair Pat Boas in challenging students.

“Because [the fine arts department is] small, they’re constantly evaluating the strength of the program,” she said. “A big part of that is what their alumni are doing after leaving school. It’s the strength of the their work and the strength of the faculty that sets it apart.”

The show will be an important first step into the greater art community for the graduating students. Downes-LeGuin noted that they are stepping into an art community that is really coming to life.

“We are early in an exciting arc,” he said.

“This is a place that many people in the art ecosystem, from artists to curators to collectors, want to be [in] or visit. Portland is in the vanguard of poking at what it means to be an artist, especially the connections and compromises between artists and other members of the creative classes.”

The Portland State School of Art and Design presents Here Come the Warm Jets The 2013 Master of Fine Arts in Contemporary Art Practice/Studio Practice Graduate Exhibition Thursday, June 6, to Sunday, June 16 Upfor Gallery 929 NW Flanders St. Preview reception: Wednesday, June 5, 6—8 p.m.

Opening reception: Thursday, June 6, 6­—­8 p.m.

These hands were made to heal In Surgeon Simulator, shit gets real Brandon Staley Vanguard Staff

Surgeon Simulator 2013 was initially realized during a 48-hour game jam, the prompt for which was a heartbeat. Then dubbed Surgeon Simulator 2012, the game featured a single medical operation in a single environment. The 2013 iteration of the game has now been released with updated content and a shiny new look. But is it enough to make me feel like George Clooney in ER? In Surgeon Simulator 2013 you play as Nigel Burke, amateur surgeon. The goal of the game is to perform various transplants without killing your patient. To accomplish this in the real world you would need nearly a decade of training, a team of dedicated assistants and unrivaled dexterity.

Surgeon Simulator 2013 supplies you with none of these things—especially the dexterity thing.

As you play, you will be fighting the purely manual controls. The only control you have over Nigel is a single arm (you can choose between leftand right-handed in the menu). Nigel’s arm can be moved freely around the operating space and any of Nigel’s five fingers can be controlled independently using keys on the keyboard.

To complete your surgeries you will need to manipulate bone saws and drills and grasp organs, and open boxes and administer medicine via syringes without inadvertently dosing yourself.

This might all sound unnecessarily complicated—and rightly so. But that’s partly why the game is so fun.

There’s a twisted kind of satisfaction that comes with conquering the game’s scheme and making Nigel’s arm do precisely what you want it to.

(Or, more realistically, “approximately but close

enough to what you want it to.”) The surgeries you’re tasked with actually aren’t very difficult, but they’re made all the more harrowing by the lack of control.

To add to the challenge, the gravity is, if not wholly realistic, consistent. Move Nigel’s arm too quickly while releasing a scalpel and the scalpel will go flying. Throw an active drill on the operating table and it will skitter around, knocking over other equipment and potentially doing irreparable harm to your patient.

Success at the operating table means meticulous planning and, perhaps more importantly, being able to laugh at the chaos when all your carefully laid plans explode in a torrent of drill bits and large intestine.

What makes Surgeon Simulator enjoyable is also its one downfall. Watching medical equipment and organs get thrown around the interior of an operating room or ambulance is riotous fun, but I encountered numerous situations where items that were critical to my objective were tossed out of my reach by the game’s wonky gravity.

When this happened my only recourse was to restart the mission. Part of the fun of the game is the obfuscation of the control scheme, but watching a transplant kidney roll off the operating table after I’ve spent five minutes removing a ribcage, staunching blood flow and furiously yanking out organs was just frustrating.

On the surface, Surgeon Simulator sounds incredibly disturbing and violent. You are, after all, performing life-threatening surgeries on an inert patient, and in most cases the state you leave him in is less than ideal.

However, the cartoony way in which the game is presented and the underlying sense of humor make it feel less like you’re committing brutal murder (despite the game’s accusations to the contrary after I lost a patient) and more like you’re

© Boss studios ltd.

Up in those guts: Get wrist-deep in some innards in Boss Studios’ Surgeon Simulator 2013, which is not for the squeamish.

playing a nuanced version of the enduring board game Operation.

The soundtrack also plays up the game’s inspiration, which is almost unquestionably the emergency room dramas of the ’80s and ’90s. From the moment you hear the synthesizer- and drumheavy intro playing in time with the beating of a heart, you know what you’re in for.

Surgeon Simulator 2013 is not a game for everyone. The controls are purposely complicated, the strange gravity in the game can sometimes leave you in un-winnable situations and there is a measured though noticeable amount of blood and guts.

But I do believe there’s something to be said for a game that is completely crazy and embraces its craziness. In this regard Surgeon Simulator 2013 is a breath of fresh air.

Sure, you can go into the game wanting to ace all of the surgeries, or you can just sit in reception and whip all of the clutter on your desk into a frenzy with a couple of well-aimed swipes of Nigel’s meaty paw. Personally, I prefer the latter.

Back to the question at the beginning of the review: It was rhetorical—I always feel like George Clooney in ER.

Boss Studios presents Surgeon Simulator 2013 Price: $9.99 Platform: PC

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VANGUARD ••TThursday, TUESDAY, uesday, THURSDAY, TUESDAY, Jan. JUNE JANUARY OCTOBER Nov. FEBRUARY JANUARY 31,4,8, 2013 2013 2012 10, 25, 26, •2, 2012 2011 •ARTS •2012 ARTS ARTS ••&•OPINION & OPINION CULTURE &ARTS CULTURE CULTURE & CULTURE

Spring female fashion Throw on something perfect for class and comfort

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Caroline McGowan Vanguard staff

It’s rainy. It’s sunny. Now it’s rainy and sunny at the same time. Welcome to late spring in Portland.

Students weighed down by galoshes, sweatpants and rain-soaked backpacks can be seen trudging between Millar Library and Smith Memorial Student Union as they await the year’s most eagerly anticipated change of season.

As students, we are in the final days of classes and can easily be found daydreaming about all of our highly anticipated summer plans while staring out the window. Nothing is quite as intoxicating as letting suffocated toes slip into flip-flops and throwing on casual shorts for some time in the sun.

We long to debut the vibrant colors and breezy fabrics that symbolize the pleasantness of the summer sun, yet our excitement is dulled by the relentless drizzle.

This season’s women’s fashions are an exception to the doldrums of a winter overstaying its welcome and are attacking depressed closets with all that is bold, playful and comfortable.

The stores are full of pants, shirts, skirts and shoes that were practically made for Portland State students ready to turn our soggy campus into a lively runway.

For spring 2013, the fashion world and women everywhere have embraced the provocative and bombastic.

On the runway, contrasting black and white reigns supreme for spring, while graphic Tshirts and bursts of color proclaim that now is not the time to be timid.

Celebrities and the silver screen kept the momentum going with the annual Met Gala, famous for its red carpet fashion showcase.

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© polycore.com

This year’s event was centered on all things punk, while the blockbuster The Great Gatsby reboot revamped the allure of the inyour-face statement outfits of yesteryear.

Glamour magazine’s style guide for spring/ summer 2013 points to graphics, metallics, fluorescents, bomber jacket silhouettes, stark whites and ’90s revivalism.

High fashion doesn’t seem to have a home on the Portland State campus (or any college campus to which I’ve ever been). Still, an undergrad budget doesn’t have to be the death knell for personal style.

The chairs are sort of uncomfortable, there are countless stairs to climb and the elements can be a pain to deal with—it’s no wonder Portland State’s campus is thick with Vikings sweatshirts and Nike sneakers.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t fuse versatility with expression, which brings us to the big question: Where does fashion fit in with this fast-paced community?

For PSU students, the answer is in fabrics and details. Comfort has become a higher priority in the fashion world lately: Flats are seeing a revival, forgiving shapes are replacing the skin-tight silhouettes of old and individuality is no longer conveyed through imported, overpriced garments.

This is great news for students since comfort is essential for long days of studying.

But what about cost? After all, one term of in-state tuition runs around 3,000 bucks, and so do many luxury dresses!

The solution is twofold: knits and accessories. Cotton and stretchy blends are ideal for the classroom and are both easy and expressive. Why not wear your signature Vikings shirt with a jersey maxi skirt for an appropriate campus look that also shows off your feathers as a fashionista?

Looking to embrace trends on a budget?

Why not cash in on the metallic trend with a shiny backpack or headband? A Steve

Madden book bag priced at $54 as opposed to a $2,000 metallic trench coat from a high-end designer is a no-brainer and still flaunts your flair on a budget.

Scarves are already a signature of Pacific Northwest style, and even the hot sun won’t keep them off of stylish necks in the next few months.

A vast array of available colors and embellishments mean that folks are free to don whatever they like and still have the ability to be eye-catching and expressive. Shop online, or locally like a good Portlander should— there are scarves all over the City of Roses.

As far as shoes go, I’ve unintentionally met the sidewalk in mile-high heels and I know I’m not alone. Nobody wants to do that in front of their classmates, so perhaps a casual sneaker like the classic $40 Keds would be a better fit for trips between Cafe Yumm! and Lincoln Hall.

As the saying goes, “Look good, feel good.”

So find the right spring fashion for you and feel good; you could use that extra confidence for finals.

Featured fashions 1. Shoes: Keds $40 2. Hoodie: americanappearel.net $48 3. Top: stampdla.com $42 4. Skirt: boohoo.com $20 5. Scarf: Amazon $13 6. Backpack: stevemadden.com $54 7. Bracelets: dorothyperkins.com $17

Vermicelli peanut salad Move over jelly: Peanut butter has a new BFF Kat Audick Vanguard staff

This vermicelli peanut salad is a crisp and refreshing dish that will help you chill out during the warm Portland summer.

Nice and light but still rich and flavorful, this is an excellent vegetarian dish to share with your friends at graduation parties. Toss in whatever veggies you love and enjoy this versatile recipe.

Vermicelli noodles can usually be found in the Asian food section at your local grocer. If you can’t find them, angel hair wheat pasta can easily take its place.

Boost up this recipe’s protein with sliced grilled chicken or tofu. If you’re making this dish beforehand, be sure to toss with peanut dressing before refrigerating or your noodles may get congealed.

The delicious sweet and savory peanut dressing that goes with this salad is perfect for a wide variety of meals. Use it as a silky dipping sauce for spring rolls, drizzle it over grilled veggies and shrimp or try it as dressing on hot Vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches.

Leave out the soy sauce and vinegar and you can even use this spicy sauce as a unique dessert topping on chocolate cake or vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients Pasta 4 oz rice vermicelli noodles 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1/2 cup savoy cabbage, chopped 1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks 2 green onions, chopped 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced 1/3 cup bean sprouts, whole 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds 1 tsp lime juice 1/4 cup chopped peanuts or cashews, toasted Dressing 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter 3 tbsp soy sauce 1/4 cup warm water 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil 2 tbsp red wine vinegar (or rice wine vinegar) 2 tsp honey 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped (or 1 tsp pickled) 1/2 tsp Sriracha (optional)

karl kuchs/VANGUARD STAFf

Instructions In a medium pot, bring water to a rolling boil, then add vermicelli noodles. Cook as directed by package, usually 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft. Drain noodles and rinse under cold water for 1 minute. Toss noodles with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and set aside in a large bowl.

In a blender, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, warm water, sesame oil, red wine vinegar, honey, red pepper flakes and ginger and puree on low until thoroughly combined.

You may need to add a small amount of warm water to smooth to a sauce consistency. Add bean sprouts, chopped cabbage, carrots, green onion and cilantro, then toss with noodles.

Cut red bell pepper into thin slices and toss with noodles. Pour small amounts of dressing over noodles, and toss until coated to your personal preference.

Finish with sesame seeds, lime juice and chopped nuts. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and serve immediately, or cover and chill in the fridge.

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VANGUARD •• TUESDAY, THURSDAY, JUNE NOVEMBER 4, 2013 10, • OPINiON 2011 • SPORTS

OPINION

EDITOR: Meredith Meier OPINION@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5692

No, you can’t have my passwords Oregon bill bans employers from Facebook stalking Everywhere and Here Eva-Jeanette Rawlins

T © derek keats

Conquering the sea Scuba diving is an awesome hobby Ms. Fudge’s Sweet Nothings Stephanie Fudge-Bernard

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hroughout college I’ve thought it would be neat to try scuba diving.

But it never quite fit with my schedule, I was too nervous to take it by myself and it seemed like one of those activities pretentious rich people do in order to show off how much gear they can afford.

However, before this term started, several of my closest friends realized they needed a non-specific two-credit course, and I found myself bamboozled into taking a scuba class I knew very little about—for the final term of my college career.

After nine weeks of awkward moments, hilarious lectures and a couple of extremely challenging labs, I’d recommend that anyone who has moderate swimming abilities and likes new adventures take scuba diving. Scuba, by the way, is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.

I had no idea what to expect on my first day of class, but my Portland State schedule indicated that I would have a lab in the Stott Center swimming pool, so I brought a bathing suit.

The first thing you learn very quickly in scuba diving is that you’re going to meet a strange variety of people, and you better like them.

With only 15 spaces available in each lab and only a couple of instructors, you’re going to be seeing the same group of people every week, and in a pool there’s only so much room for you to hide.

Closely related to meeting new people is learning that you’re going to be getting close to them. Literally close. As soon as the instructors decide to start putting you in masks and dumping

you in the pool, you’ll need to be comfortable with full body contact and swapping some bodily fluids.

Whether that sounds terrifying, disgusting or arousing, it’s an aspect of scuba diving everyone somehow gets over pretty much instantly. The chlorine in the pool sanitizes anything you share with your mouth, and when you’re underwater you kind of get a free pass to hold on to the cute girl in the pink bikini.

You get to breathe underwater like a superhero, and everything besides your banana hammock or tankini is provided.

Once you get comfortable getting up close and personal with your diving buddy, you’ll need to get prepared to be comfortable with the unending puns and hilarious banter between the instructors. Whether they’re giving you what they call their “three dolphins” example or hamming up a lesson, one of the best aspects of scuba diving at PSU is the entertainment provided by what seems to be comedy night at every scuba lab.

Scuba diving also gives students a chance to conquer any discomfort they might have at being underwater. If

you’re like me and have always loved swimming but are positive something horrible will happen if you leave your face underwater for too long, scuba diving presents an interesting challenge.

The fear of drowning really isn’t a silly or illogical phobia—it’s a very real and human concern to want to protect your fragile lungs from the vast, angry waters that make up about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface.

There’ll definitely be a couple of scuba labs where you’ll be positive that you can’t do one of the crazy things the instructors throw at you— from holding your breath for an ungodly amount of time to taking off bulky gear underwater and watching your air tank float away from you.

Luckily, the most difficult tasks in the scuba lab almost always serve to make students more comfortable with the easier tasks they’ll have to do to get certified, and the pool is only 10 feet deep. A lifeguard and the instructors stick around so that if you somehow manage to hurt yourself, several trained professionals can kiss it all better.

Ultimately, scuba diving is a great choice for anyone looking for a fun adventure during a particularly boring term. If you take the class, you’re going to look forward to it even if you half-believe you are going to drown. You get to breathe underwater like a superhero, and everything besides your banana hammock or tankini is provided.

Plus, you can get certified at the end of the term, so you’re able to travel to awesome places and do even more badass things, like spearfishing.

The instructors are hilarious, the gear is provided and the course can fill a missing two-credit spot in your schedule. Take a scuba class, punch Poseidon in the teeth and become a diver.

he Oregon Senate just passed a bill that doesn’t raise as many eyebrows as what the bill seeks to prohibit. If made into law, House Bill 2645B would “prevent businesses from demanding passwords to Twitter and Facebook as conditions of employment,” according to KATU News.

It’s shocking to learn that it’s even legal to do so in the first place. As of today, when you apply for a job, not only do you have to cough up your Social Security number, your address, your criminal history and the other usuals, you can also be asked to provide your Facebook password.

Absurd.

Even more absurd is that Maryland is the only other state that bans prospective employers from doing this.

In what universe is it OK? Before the explosion of social media—remember the good ol’ days?—we weren’t asked to bring a photo album with us to an interview, or our diaries or social calendars. That would have been laughable. But that’s essentially what this is.

What makes any employer think they have the right to that information? They don’t need to know I was at my sister’s graduation party before they can decide whether I can successfully sell a pair of shorts.

Unless I was wearing a really ugly dress, of course.

There are so many things wrong with this issue that it’s hard to know where to start.

One of the purposes of an application and interview process is to provide a level of anonymity and equality to all candidates, basing their eligibility for a job purely on merit and accomplishment.

Delving into potential candidates’ private lives and basing the decision to hire them on what they ate for dinner last night (or, more seriously, what religion they are) is unethical.

And in the case of religion, it’s discriminatory.

If you think it’s all theoretical and that no one would actually ask you to do that, think again.

According to the KATU report, “employers in Illinois have been sued for discriminating against applicants and employees for their use of lawful products, like cigarettes and alcohol.”

These aren’t isolated incidents, either. They’re just the ones who got caught. So if you get tagged taking a swig of something that’s not water, you’d better erase it before you turn in your job application.

What’s public is public, what’s private should be private. If you’re stupid enough to make your Facebook page public then that employer’s probably right not to hire you.

It makes sense that employers should be able to access what everyone else can on the public forum—because, well, that’s the whole point. But giving them the right to anything that requires a login name and password shouldn’t even take a second thought. It’s just wrong.

Even if your page is squeaky clean, the power dynamic between employee and employer creates a situation that forces you to do something just to get a job. In other places, that’s called coercion.

If you were up for the job of your life and it was down to you and the guy with the tie gripping the black portfolio, and you were called in for one final interview—the result of which would be life-changing—and then the interviewer casually ended with, “And if you’d just leave your Twitter account information with the receptionist, that’d be great. We’ll be in touch”—what then?

You’d give it to them, right?

You’d be stupid not to. If that was the difference between getting your dream job or not, you wouldn’t have much choice.

No one should be put in that position.

If you’re going to work for the National Security Agency, they might need to know a thing or two (or gajillion) about you— that makes sense. But there are a scarce few jobs that actually need that kind of information.

What I do off the clock is nobody’s business and certainly says nothing about how I carry myself professionally. Take Dennis Rodman, for instance.

You can say what you want about him, but he led the NBA in rebounds for seven years and has five championships under his belt. Bam! There shouldn’t even need to be a bill to ensure social media privacy. But there is, and we should all feel pretty fortunate that we live in a state where it won’t be an issue much longer.

The other 48 should probably get a move on and get a status update already!

corinna scott/VANGUARD STAFf

OPINiON • TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013 • VANGUARD

11

A new prosthetic MESA gives kids real-world projects, promoting global awareness One Step Off Emily Lakehomer

suraj nair/VANGUARD STAFf

Butt tax New ways to reduce cigarette waste No Brakes Easton Snow

S

moking is true freedom: a glorious exhibition of one’s inner dragon, a sexy statement of youthful allure, a luxurious way to hire a hit man for five dollars a day.

Those who are part of the smoking culture are orally and physically bewitched by the temptation and taste of a fresh stick of tobacco. Taking a five-minute break from reality, they inhale their vice and exhale their stress; without remorse they escape the rigorous daily schedules they adhere to while wading through the toilsome tar-pit that is school and work.

This is a hard time for smokers; they are persecuted by way of legal distancing from doors and windows, healthfreak smugness and sneers, parents with children in tow diving away from the deadly columns of cancer and cleanair advocates claiming a right to the atmosphere. In the Park Blocks in the middle of Portland State’s campus, however, a completely public domain, smokers can enjoy their freedom and puff away in peace.

But among this subculture there exist a few careless smokers who litter their butts along every walkway they visit and in every open space they inhabit. This litter causes frustration, disgust and harm to the environment and is an eyesore against the lovely natural decor of the Park Blocks.

Because of the butt stigma, smokers are brow-beaten from every angle. Student groups are pushing for a full ban on smoking in the Park Blocks, which would force the large amount of smokers into the tiny nooks and alcoves hidden away from plain sight.

The idea of removing a direct polluting agent isn’t an unreasonable one; however, a large pack of smokers huddling in front of a business or housing facility near the school would cause a ruckus, as well as jeopardize the cohesive relationship between the school and the community around it.

A solution exists.

Along with the use of manageable ash trays—the ones shaped like pawns from a chess set—there should be a 25-cent tax on cigarettes that are sold within a certain radius of the school or even throughout the entire downtown area.

Not only would this tax money provide for cleaning up littered cigarette butts, it could help to establish a refund service similar to that used with recyclable cans and bottles.

Many cities have implemented this extra tax on cigarette sales, and applying a refund to the butts would incentivize the proper disposal of cigarettes as well as give all the cracked-out wanderers of the downtown area something to focus on other than asking every passerby for spare change.

Imagine an entire force of volunteers scouring the city for butts that they could trade by the pound for cash. The city would be cleansed of its stinky butts, smokers would think twice about flicking their potential cash refund onto the ground—and maybe they would even be relieved of some of the persecution they presently face.

Cigarette butts don’t decompose because of their toxicity and plastic-based composition. There are some visionaries who believe cigarette butts could be used as a filler in concrete pouring,

bricks or other building materials.

Recent discoveries have revealed that cigarette butts can be used to prevent rust and corrosion in steel used by oil companies. In essence, one toxic waste can be used to aid in the transportation and harvesting of another toxic waste, which is a step in the direction of finding a use for butts but is hardly sustainable.

TerraCycle Inc. has found a way to recycle cigarette butts.

The company, founded in 2001

by Tom Szaky, has become an innovator in finding ways to recycle (and upcycle) things we’ve traditionally seen as landfill-only waste.

In collaboration with Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company—the maker of American Spirit cigarettes—TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade collects cigarette butts, the cigarette box’s inner foil and plastic wrapping and other cigarette waste. Members of the CWB send their waste to TerraCycle using prepaid shipping labels.

All this “waste” then gets recycled into things like plastic shipping pallets, ashtrays and various other products. Whatever residual tobacco remains goes into tobacco composting.

So, you see, butts don’t have to be an eyesore. We just have to think a little differently.

With Portland considered one of the forerunners of green technology and environmentalism, the city should make an effort to reduce one of the leading forms of pollution that plague the environment. If not for the sake of the Earth, then for the peace of mind of smokers and nonsmokers alike. Then they can stop arguing about open-air cleanliness and personal freedom.

A new tax is one way of handling this butt nuisance, and having the crack-heads and meth freaks clean up the city seems hilariously utilitarian.

T

he first film I vividly recall watching is the original Star Wars. Every Sunday as a kid I’d come home from church and watch it with my parents. At some point they introduced me to the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. I was enthralled with the film up until the scene where Darth Vader cuts Luke’s hand off. If that tidbit is a spoiler for anyone, I apologize (but also, it’s 2013 and if you haven’t seen Star Wars then you should reevaluate your life).

Luke having his arm amputated disturbed the young me more than anything I’d seen up to that point. I couldn’t watch the film for years because of how much it affected me—not so much the actual amputation but the way Luke’s hand was replaced with a robotic prosthetic. Three-years-old me became convinced I was a robot made up of circuitry and fake skin. Now I’m older and (a little bit) wiser, and almost 100 percent sure I’m not a robot.

There is a point to this anecdote, I swear. Earlier this month, Portland State played host to around 250 middle and high school students, all vying to be chosen as creator of a new prosthetic limb. The main focus of the project was to create a new limb that would eventually be sent to “help children in developing countries who’ve lost arms to land mine accidents.”

Students were divided into 80 teams and had been working on the project for the last eight months. They showed their projects on Friday, May 10, as part of Oregon MESA Day. M E S A— M a t h e m a t i c s

Engineering Science Achievement—is part of PSU’s Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science’s outreach program. By partnering with local organizations like Intel and Luma Lighting, Oregon MESA’s goal is to engage sixth- through 12th-grade students in projects that will help prepare them for college and to pursue degrees in the science, technology, math or engineering fields.

Instead of just limiting it to middle and high school kids, why not create something for elementary school children?

Not only does this project have good, sound, non-darkside intentions, it’s also doing a lot for students and the community. There is a 100 percent graduation rate among students who participate in the program. According to Suzanne Stevens, a writer for Portland Business Journal, that’s double the normal graduation rate for the rest of Portland Public Schools (the rate is “about 35 percent for low-income and minority students”).

Whatever the outcome of these projects is, the program is

being funded and the students are able to work with professionals in their given discipline and get a taste for what kind of work the jobs entail. This also aids in building humanitarian mindsets, which contributes to creating sustainable technologies and relationships with other countries.

This is a really cool thing, and it’s awesome that so many young adults are getting the chance to work on a project of this magnitude. It’s also nice that PSU is involved. Good job, PSU. But how about taking it further?

Instead of just limiting it to middle and high school kids, why not create something for elementary school children?

I mean, I thought there was a major possibility of me being a robot until I was, like, 5. I’m pretty sure most parents don’t want that for their children.

If this were introduced at an even younger age (just something like it, with less pressure, of course), interest in science and technology could be fostered and encouraged in children for a much longer span of time. If that were to happen there might be higher graduation rates across the board, not just for those students taking part in a specific program. And that’s part of what school is all about, right?

For some reason, the results of this year’s project haven’t been published, so there’s not yet a way of telling whether the students created the next prosthetic or not—but I’m sure they did. In a program that’s funded by Intel with working professionals leading the way, these kids are off to a great start in the science and technology fields.

And, who knows, maybe in a few years that robotic hand Luke Skywalker had back in 1980 will be a reality.

© kcoy

12

VANGUARD • TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013 • Opinion

“IT’S DO, OR DIE WITH TY” Dear Mayor, Bin Laden got word to me, He thinks People know my name internationally because of him and I’m a Know body.

New York Times, and the New York media, Some think I’m a hero, due to my stories of the Human bodies immune system, saving lives. Now by my medical history, New York public schools have converted vegetarian meals, breakfast, and lunch.

© sam churchill

Green Eyez PSU accelerates One Step Off Emily Lakehomer

B

y now I think it’s safe to say that nearly every Portland State student knows the school’s stance on sustainability. Portland is one of the greenest cities in the country, so it makes sense that the state’s largest public university values green living as well.

I recently found out that PSU has this thing called an Urban Sustainability Accelerator. I had no idea what that was even though this is my third year in school. I figure a lot of other people outside of the engineering, sustainability and community development programs probably don’t know what it is either.

Because the word “accelerator” is in the title, I figured it was some kind of new-age device—but I was wrong. The USA (a perfect acronym) helps implement sustainability and provides assistance and peerto-peer advising. Perhaps most importantly, it includes project members and the community in the cultivation of sustainability.

The main point of the project is to aid smaller cities in creating sustainable development and cultivating a green lifestyle for future generations. Beginning just this year, the project is set to last for one calendar year and will continue beyond that if resources allow. Cities were selected based on their desire to participate and willingness to “advance plans and policies related to sustainability in their own regions,” according to a PSU press release.

The first batch of participants includes cities in Texas, Kansas, Maine, Kentucky and California. There’s a reason PSU’s motto is “Let knowledge serve the city.” Part of the responsibility of having that knowledge and these wonderful resources is knowing when to share.

“Over the last 40 years, people in our region—at PSU, in government, [in] the private

sector, nonprofit organizations and community leaders—have acquired valuable expertise in many sustainability subjects,” USA Director Robert Liberty said. “As other cities aspire to greater sustainability they can both draw upon that expertise and, through our collaboration with them, contribute to that store of knowledge.”

It’s kind of like that quote from Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Since PSU is such a sustainable powerhouse, it makes sense that we feel the need to share our wealth of knowledge with communities that haven’t made the “top green cities” lists.

So now that we know how green and generous with its knowledge PSU is, what makes this project different from anything else that’s been done?

The USA focuses on implementation. What this means is that rather than just talking about how nice it would be if everyone had the same green, sustainable lifestyles as people in Portland, the USA actually goes in and implements these changes in participating cities.

The program also includes assistance for the duration of the yearlong timeline; then, if there are still resources available, it will continue to provide assistance.

Another important part of the project is mutual learning and advising. Both parties benefit from the shared resources

and knowledge. This allows for a broader spectrum of sustainability efforts to be cultivated.

According to the International City/County Management Association, an organization that works with local government to promote sustainability, some of the other goals of the project are: “creating active transportation networks” and “multi-modal and mixed use corridors,” and integrating “land use and transportation planning at the project and system level in order to promote sustainable communities and reduce climate-changing pollution.”

In addition, the project will play a large role in urban development, waste reduction and protecting natural environments, when necessary.

This is a really wonderful way for Portland to extend its resources, knowledge and sustainable ways to other cities. Like I always say when I write articles like this, part of sustainable living is fostering and providing aid to smaller communities. If this project can help do that, then it’s something worth knowing about.

Projects like this are doing things that can really benefit the community, and I don’t see any negative aspects to this apart from the possibility of the efforts going to waste after the initial year is up.

And all that’s necessary to avoid that is, as always, sustainable thinking and community building from the get-go.

With all of these things happening and working together, Portland can be a national leader in sustainability. That’s pretty cool.

PDX budget problems I feel might all fall under war crimes.

Example, 2008 Columbia River crossing was all prepared by Mayor Potter at his term.

By e-mail To Ambassador Rice, also Washington D.C. I ask for investigations over the croakers.

Oregonian News report 911 plot went down at year 1999.

I got no other information, due to life, and death at the Newspaper.

May Day riot, Seattle Wa. 1. I feel was cause by alarming reports that Ryan Crocker is U.S. Ambassador to the Country of Afghanistan. (inter net) 2. The Krogger Corporation own, and control all Americas food business almost.

3. John Crogger, Oregon Attorney General who took away my driving rights.

Who are the Croackers for real?

Conclusions: At every adult book stores you will see the whips, hand cuffs, that tortured girls that made international News. Still goes on.

Minister Tyrone C. Williams Letter to the editor - received May 3, 2013

DESIGN FOR THE VANGUARD! EMAIL THE PRODUCTION MANAGER AT PRODUCTION@PSUVANGUARD.COM

ETC. ETC.•• Thursday, TUESDAY, JUNE Nov. 4, 8, 2013 2012 • VANGUARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Erick Bengel EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5691

7 p.m.

5th Avenue Cinema 510 SW Hall St.

Student work in narrative film, music videos, experimental video, documentary, animation and motion graphics will be showcased by the College of the Arts in the Student Moving Image Show. Come see the best of what PSU has to offer and stick around for a reception after the FREE show.

Saturday, June 8

Grand Floral Parade 10 a.m.

Memorial Coliseum to downtown

trekapalooza.brownpapertickets.com

TREKKERS OR TREKKIES? Avid and casual fans alike will have a blast at Trekapalooza, in an atmosphere created to immerse attendees in another world. This event takes place June 9, at 4 p.m., at 525 SE Pine St.

Tuesday, June 4

and prizes will help to take your mind off of your current stress.

FREE

Mo Yan and China’s New Historical Fiction 6 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 298 1825 SW Broadway

Professor Jeffery C. Kinkley of St. John’s University will be the guest of Portland State’s Institute of Asian Studies and will present a discussion on Nobel Prize winning author Mo Yan, best known to Western audiences for his 1987 novel Red Sorghum FREE Clan.

Wednesday, June 5

Climate Change Planning in Copenhagen Noon–1 p.m.

College of Urban and Public Affairs, room 311 506 SW Mill St.

Visiting researcher Patrick Driscoll, from Aalborg University in Copenhagen, will be at Portland State to offer a presentation on how climate change mitigation and adaptation planning in Copenhagen allow for sustainable urban growth and development. You are free to bring your lunch along with you for this lecture.

If planning to attend please RSVP by emailing phamkat@pdx.edu.

Campus Public Safety Forum 4–5 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 333 1825 SW Broadway

Portland State’s Task Force on Public Safety will be holding an open forum about public safety on campus. The forum will call on a panel of students, staff and faculty who will analyze crime data and host a series of campus conversations in the effort to collect findings and present data to the president of the university. ReFREE freshments will be provided.

Spring Midnight Breakfast: Casino Night 9 p.m.–Midnight Smith Memorial Student Union third floor ballroom 1825 SW Broadway

Take a break from studying for finals and writing papers to enjoy free breakfast with friends and fellow students at the spring term midnight breakfast. Food, casino style games

Thursday, June 6

Archaeology First Thursdays 4 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 296 1825 SW Broadway

The Portland State Anthropology Department presents Mark Madsen, a guest speaker from the University of Washington, who will give a lecture titled “What Can We Know about Past Cultural Transmission?

Issues in Extending Behavioral Models to Archaeological Time.”

The lecture will explore the distribution of artifact types and behaviors through patterns in social learning, cognitive biases and social network FREE structure.

MADE IT: School of Architecture End-of-Year Exhibition Opening Night 5:30–8:30 p.m.

AIA Portland: Center for Architecture 403 NW 11th Ave.

The School of Architecture will be celebrating the accreditation of the Master of Architecture program and its transformation into a school with an end-of-the-year architecture design show. The school will show off work from both graduate and FREE undergraduate students.

Drama! Dance! Drums!

7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Hall, room 75 1620 SW Park Ave.

Portland State’s Center for Japanese Studies invites you to an evening celebrating 30 years of excellence.

Performances will include storytelling, comic theater, dancing and FREE drumming.

Friday, June 7

Student Flea Market 11 a.m.–3 p.m.

South Park Blocks or Smith (if raining) 1825 SW Broadway

The first ever Student Flea Market will be held at Portland State to allow students from all Portland schools to gather and sell their handmade arts and crafts or reused

goods. Space is free to students looking to participate but registration is required. To register, visit FREE bit.ly/10dig6Q.

ETC.

tickets for this event, visit trekapalooza.brownpapertickets.com.

21+

Monday, June 10

Dads Group 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 462 1825 SW Broadway

If you are a father as well as a student at Portland State, the Resource Center for Students with Children welcomes you to Monday meetings where you have the chance to connect with others in your position FREE and enjoy some free snacks.

The Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade is a tradition that is now 100 years old. The parade features 17 floats decorated with flowers, marching bands and equestrian units. For more information on the exact parade route, visit rosefestival.org. FREE

Come with Me from Jerusalem: A Discussion of the Novel with Kamal Abdel-Malek

Sunday, June 9

7 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 329 1825 SW Broadway

Rye Beer Festival

Trekapalooza: Portland Pride Edition

4 p.m.–2 a.m.

East Burn 1800 E Burnside St.

4 p.m.

Union/Pine 525 SE Pine St.

Portland celebrates the revival of rye beers with the Rye Beer Festival at East Burn. The event will include 19 different types of rye beers, including some special collaborations between local breweries, as well as rye foods.

For more information, visit ryebeerfest.com. FREE 21+

Trekapalooza is an event that encourages Star Trek fans to show up in costume or plain clothes to enjoy a recreation of Quark’s Bar, complete with Star Trek-themed drinks and special food items. This event is also aimed at celebrating pride in diversity and everyone is welcome. Admission will be $8 in advance and $12 at the door. For more information or to purchase

2013 College of the Arts Student Moving Image Show

13

Tuesday, June 11

Come with Me from Jerusalem is a novel about an Egyptian student who falls in love with a Jewish classmate and the conflicts that arise because of this. The story of the novel highlights the Arab-Jewish conflict in the Middle East in the context of a gripping love story. Join the Middle East Studies center for a discussion about the novel with the author, scholar Kamal Abdel-Malek.

FREE

= on PSU campus FREE = free of charge FREE = open to the public 21+ = 21 and over

14

VANGUARD •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, JUNE JANUARY 4, 2013 10, 2012 • SPORTS • ETC.

SPORTS

EDITOR: MARCO ESPAñA SPORTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-4538

Martin was meant to be a Viking

Bianca martin, right, spent her last year as a college athlete at Portland State, coming through for the Vikings with strong showings during the outdoor season.

Distance runner excels in lone season at PSU Rosemary Hanson Vanguard Staff

Since she was a teenager, PSU senior Bianca Martin has always loved competing in an oft-avoided sport: distance running. The Beaverton native’s track and field career began at the University of New Mexico, where she redshirted through her first year.

Plagued by injuries and not fitting in well with the program, Martin left the Lobos after her second year and came home to Oregon, where she started running with a private club after enrolling at Portland State.

“Running is so pure,” Martin said. “All you need is shoes…[Distance running] is what a lot of people hate to do and that is something that almost makes it cooler— thinking [about how] everyone hates it, but I’m actually pretty good at it.”

Though she took a somewhat unconventional route to the Park Blocks, Martin has made her time on the team count, working hard to improve after spending long periods out of competition. That work paid off last fall when first-year assistant coach Jonathan Marcus witnessed Martin’s abilities at an indoor meet in Seattle.

Marcus introduced himself and asked Martin if she would consider becoming a Viking.

After completing the paperwork to determine her eligibility, Martin joined the team for her one and only season in the green and black. She has proven her talent over the past season with the PSU squad: After posting solid times throughout the regular season, she took second in the 1,500-meter at the Big Sky Conference Championship last month, advancing to regionals in that event, where she made it to the semifinal round.

“I think she is a natural fit into the program,” Marcus said. “She has high goals and ambitions for herself.”

Martin came up big for the Vikings at the Big Sky meet, following up her secondplace finish in the 1,500-meter by taking seventh in the 800-meter.

“The two-three finish [of Martin] and Amber [Rozcicha] got us ahead early in that meet,” Marcus said.

“They were somewhat unexpected points, and then her resilience and ability to come back in the 800 and score some points an hour later really demonstrated her growth as a runner.”

Martin was one of two Vikings to advance to the semifinal round of competition at regionals, all of her success coming just one year after knee surgery.

Though her time as a PSU athlete has been brief, Martin has enjoyed the experience.

karl kuchs/VANGUARD STAFF

“It has been a great situation for all of us,” Martin said. “I finally got a team that I had been missing out on for the last couple years. It’s been great for me to come in and be a—I don’t want to say role model, but leader, because my lifestyle is 100 percent tailored to running…I think

a couple of the distance girls really picked up on that.”

Distance sports are a family tradition for Martin, whose parents competed as distance cyclists—her mother was a two-time national champion and her father twice made it to the Olympics. Now that her college

running career is at an end, Martin plans to give herself at least one year of complete devotion to running to see where it takes her. Her coach has no doubt about her ability to succeed.

“She is a…talented athlete with a bright future,” Marcus said.

Coach Pop comes back home to the finals Spurs icon customizes roster to compete in new era Tanner Notch Vanguard Staff

Last month, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was asked to comment on the remarkably consistent play of Tim Duncan, the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer who has spent his entire career with the Spurs. The team was in the midst of its sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and Popovich stated his intention to follow his star player into retirement when Duncan decides to leave the game for good. There is no timetable in place for the decision, and “Coach Pop” has spent the last few years limiting Duncan’s playing time during the season in preparation for extended playoff campaigns.

Nonetheless, Popovich’s announcement served as a reminder that life in the NBA without the prolific duo may not be all that far away.

It has been nearly two decades since Popovich, then the general manager and vice president of basketball operations for the Spurs, hired himself for the head coaching position in 1996. Over the years since then the league has seen legends come and go, instituted a host of rule changes and endured two lockouts. But things are more or less the same in San Antonio, with Popovich and

Duncan getting ready to compete for their fifth NBA title together. On Thursday the Spurs will make their first appearance in the finals in six years, though they have remained in contention nearly every year since claiming the franchise’s first championship in 1999.

Popovich, who is known for his terse and dismissive manner with sideline reporters, remains one of the most fascinating personalities in the game. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy who once considered a career in the CIA before opting to become a basketball coach, his first head coaching job came at Division III Pomona-Pitzer in Southern California. Without highquality facilities, top athletes or even a single scholarship to work with, Popovich built his reputation as a cerebral tactician with a knack for the getting the most out of the talent available to him.

Many high-profile coaches make good livings with one system or style of play, sometimes bringing it with them relatively unaltered through decades of a successful career. Popovich’s style, on the other hand, is one of supreme adaptability, changing with the times and maximizing the potential

of whatever combination of players he has at his disposal. After winning titles in 1999, 2003 and 2005 with a physical, defense-oriented approach built around Duncan’s talents, Popovich began to develop the offensive talent on the roster, using point guard Tony Parker as the catalyst for his new system. Parker was the MVP of the finals during San Antonio’s last championship run in 2007, and in the ensuing years the Spurs gradually morphed into a dynamic scoring machine focused on constant motion, three-point efficiency and ball movement—and, once again, they are on the cusp of a title.

With a deep bench full of versatile role-players that have become the trademark of Popovich’s championship squads, San Antonio will try to claim Larry O’Brien Trophy title again this week.

After fading in the later rounds over the past few postseasons, it remains to be seen whether the Spurs will have enough left in the tank for one more seven-game showdown against the best of the Eastern Conference.

But it stands to reason that Coach Pop will be ready for whatever comes. If anyone can figure out a way to make it happen, he can.

© danny johnston/ap

gregg Popovich has built a career on maximizing the potential of his players. San Antonio will head back to the NBA finals on Thursday.

16

VANGUARD •TTUESDAY, uesday, Jan. JUNE 31,4,2013 2013• •SPORTS SPORTS

Timbers tame Hammerheads at home Frederic piquonne, left, made the most of his opportunity in the starting lineup on Saturday, reeling off four goals in the first half.

kayla Nguyen/VANGUARD STAFF

Portland reserves roll over Wilmington in third round of U.S. Open Cup Matt Deems Vanguard Staff

The Portland Timbers played host to the United Soccer League’s Wilmington Hammerheads on Saturday in the third round of the 100th annual Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a nationwide tournament for all teams within the United States Soccer Federation. The Hammerheads faced a tall order as they tried to best the Timbers

at home, but had a bit of help in the effort as Portland sat several starters, including goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, striker Ryan Johnson and midfielder Diego Valeri.

The decision opened the door for some of Portland’s exciting reserves to get some reps on the pitch. Though the U.S. Open is something of an afterthought for many MLS squads, Timbers head coach

Caleb Porter takes the contest very seriously. “I wrote the [Timbers] a letter before I even met them,” Porter said. “And one of the things I talked about was that our goal is to win trophies here, plain and simple.”

With several of the team’s star players on the bench for a game that did not affect the MLS season standings, Jeld-Wen Field was at about half capacity—but the crowd was characteristically raucous as the Timbers took the field.

MLS rookie Frederic Piquionne was among the

players who got the chance to showcase their talent against Wilmington. He wasted no time getting into the match, receiving a corner kick from team captain Will Johnson in the second minute that he headed past the Hammerhead line to put the Timbers up early and set the pace for the match.

Unsatisfied with his first goal of the season, Piquionne struck again in the 17th minute, getting an assist from Michael Harrington to put another header out of reach of the Wilmington goalie. The striker made it a hat trick 17 minutes after that, breaking from the left side of the box and netting a half-volley in the right corner of the goal for a 3-0 Portland advantage— becoming just the second Timbers player to earn a hat trick in U.S. Open Cup play.

But he didn’t stop there. In the 45th minute, with halftime quickly approaching, Johnson booted a perfect free kick into the pack and Piquionne connected on a header to send the Timbers into the locker room up 4-0. Giving the Hammerheads a much-needed reprieve, Piquionne hung up his cleats for the night when the Timbers substituted in forward Sebastian Rincon in the 53rd minute.

Wilmington finally got on the board eight minutes later when Paul Nicholson hit a handsome half-bicycle kick past Timbers reserve goalie Milos Kocic, cutting the lead to three. But that was all they would get as Johnson recorded his third assist of the game, sending a pass to Mamadou “Futty” Danso in the 73rd minute that Danso headed into the net for the final goal of the night.

Porter was respectful of the opponents in his postgame press conference but made it clear that his team had intended to make a statement. “We need to appreciate the fact that we’re in Major League Soccer, and at the end of the game there should be no doubt to the players, the coach and our supporters which team is the Major League Soccer team,” Porter said.

The Timbers advanced to the next round of the U.S. Open Cup to face the North American Soccer League’s Tampa Bay Rowdies on June 12 at Jeld-Wen Field. Before that matchup, however, the team will fly to the Windy City for a meeting with the Chicago Fire on June 8, with the official viewing party scheduled to take place at Marathon Taverna at 5:30 p.m.

Defining market value in professional sports Drew Lazzara Vanguard Staff

I grew up in what most people would consider a small media market. As of September 2012, my hometown of Indianapolis was ranked 26th in the country in the number of households with a television. In all sports, but especially in professional basketball, this is said to be a very important aspect of a franchise’s ability to position itself as a consistent winner.

The other three teams remaining in the NBA playoffs were ranked 16th (Heat), 36th (Spurs) and 49th (Memphis).

The reality is that you can win in a small market.

But the public perception is vastly different, and it’s based on a misconception about what “small” really means. Indianapolis is not a small city by any objective definition; the Indy metro area population was around 1.75 million during the 2009–10 NBA season, when Forbes deemed the Pacers “among the most troubled franchises in the NBA.” Perhaps they are troubled relative

Thursday, May 30

NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 5

vs.

Miami Indiana

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Top performers LeBron James: 30 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists

Saturday, June 1

NWSL

vs.

Chicago Thorns

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Top performers Jazmyne Avant: 1 shot on goal Angie Kerr: 1 shot on goal

NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 6

@ Indiana Miami

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Top performers Roy Hibbert: 24 points, 11 rebounds

Sweating the small stuff to a franchise like the Los Angeles Lakers, which just this year signed a $3.6 billion television contract with Time Warner Cable. But it’s something of a stretch to term a franchise “troubled” when you’re talking about a team that was purchased for $11 million in 1983 and is now worth $383 million (and rising).

Nice little ROI, particularly considering that team owner Herb Simon already has a net worth of roughly $2.2 billion.

I bring this up to demonstrate that, in terms of pure financial viability, there really is no such thing as a small market for owners of professional sports organizations. It’s a concept that was invented by a group of billionaires so they could put the screws to players in collective bargaining agreements—a way to wring a bigger profit share from their larger-market coconspirators and coerce taxpayers into footing the bill for new arenas. It’s a pretty slick racket, one that relies on convincing customers that a metro area of nearly two million people is somehow “small.”

Don’t get me wrong—this isn’t a rant against the wealthy.

This is about the toll that being a so-called small market has on the civic pride and psychological well-being of a city’s population. When you grow up in a town like Indy and you watch

Recent Results

the indiana pacers have proven to be more than up to the task against their high-profile foes in this year’s NBA playoffs.

MLB

@ Minnesota Seattle

5 4

Top performers Jason Bay: 2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBIs

Sunday, June 2

International Women’s Soccer Exhibition

@ © ronald martinez/getty images

sports, awareness of your city’s place in the pecking order seeps into your consciousness from an extremely young age. You see it in the amount of respect your opponents show you, in the officiating, in the national reporting of your team’s games. It’s a subtle but constant drumming that goes like this: “You’re a small city, so you are less culturally significant, which means you aren’t as smart, which means you’re not as important.”

That drumbeat has only gotten louder in the age of 24-hour media coverage. Now, when the Pacers whip the New York Knicks in the playoffs because by every conceivable definition, Indiana is a better team, you hear round-the-clock analysis of “what went wrong with the Knicks.” After New York lost their series—lost!—there were four days of discussions about what the next step for the franchise might be. (My suggestion is to try not being

so irrelevant from a basketball standpoint.) Meanwhile, the team that beat them soundly and was preparing to continue their season in the next round received no attention.

That kind of treatment has persisted throughout the conference finals. Zach Lowe of Grantland is one of the only writers who has gone out of his way to recognize the excellence of the Pacers—to tell the whole story—and it’s part of the reason that he is currently the best basketball writer in the world.

People in Indianapolis hear this stuff, and it gets to them. It wears on their self-esteem in tiny ways every day. And you can say it’s “just sports,” but that’s like saying it’s “just” art or literature or politics or religion.

That’s not hyperbole or false equivalencies; all of those institutions demand and are enriched by our faith, and they in turn enrich us. A

rational, emotionally healthy adult might argue that sports shouldn’t be allowed to define any aspect of our self-worth, but they do, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Competition, a sense of community and shared experience, civic pride— that’s what sports are about, and I always feel sorry for people who can’t figure out a way to love something about them. Life is just better when you love sports. I believe that.

And yet in cities like Indianapolis, this passion for sports is being undermined. Not through exploitation at the ticket window or on tax day or when a greedy billionaire claims he “needs” a new arena, but when Indiana beats New York and Hoosiers are made to feel like it’s the other way around—as though winning, the ultimate measure of value in sports, doesn’t really matter at all.

U.S. Canada

3 0

Top performers Alex Morgan: 2 goals

Monday, June 3

NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 7

vs.

Miami Indiana Top performers LeBron James: 32 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists

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