Study Breaks

VOLUME 30 ISSUE 6

STUDYBREAKS.COM

Mobley: Fresh Lies and A New Face For Austin musician Mobley, it’s about so much more than the fame.

Ambivalently Yours Talks the Multitudes Women Contain PAGE 32

Hannah Daisy Wants to Make Self-Care Boring Again PAGE 24

George Clanton and The Rise of Vaporwave PAGE 28

on the cover.

MOBLEY

BY MATT ROBERTSON

fixtures

features

thoughts

Note from the Editor ....

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Building the Lily ........................

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EMBRACING DICHOTOMY WITH AMBIVALENTLY YOURS

Who’s Who ...................

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Adults Explain Things to Me ........

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Playlist .........................

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So, Your Idol’s a Sexual Deviant ...

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MAKE SELF CARE GREAT AGAIN

Backdrop ...................

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The Elephant in Game Chat ......

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September Horoscopes

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Self-Care for Your Self-Care ....

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Picture Yourself on Television ....

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Let’s Talk About Trash .................

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GEORGE CLANTON, VAPORWAVE TORCHBEARER

28 MOBLEY: FRESH LIES AND A NEW FACE

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Study Breaks worked to cover every facet of the college experience, from class advice and dorm room tips, to highlighting over-achieving students and chronicling the latest developments on campuses across the country. For the most part, we felt somewhat obligated to cover college issues; our readership is, after all, almost exclusively college students.

After months of deliberation though, we’ve pivoted. Now, in holding to a truer embodiment of the phrase “study breaks,” we’ve given our student writers freer rein to write about the people, ideas and subjects they care about. No more student interviews, major breakdowns or college news.

Instead, Study Breaks will focus on everything that you use as a distraction from studying: music, television, film, books, social media — anything you use to take a study break. As a result, we have some really cool things in the following pages. Amongst the gems: a profile of Austin musician Mobley (PG NO.), an interview with mental health advocate and artist Make Daisy Chains (PG. NO.), several new ways of thinking about self-care and other stories that we think you’ll find fascinating.

Of all the issues we publish during the year, September is by far the most important. For the last few months, most students have been off campus, meaning a broad swath of our print readership has been absent.

In years past, we have put out several specialized summer issues anyway, which have explored topics like health and nutrition, summer jobs and life after graduation, but this semester we went a different route. Rather than work around the clock to publish magazines that would only reach a tenth of their normal readership, we opted to not release any print magazines over the break and instead doubled down on our web production. The decision makes a lot of sense on paper, and it’s definitely a smarter choice from a productivity standpoint, but there’s just nothing like being back in print — the main reason why this issue feels particularly special.

On top of being back on campus physically, this month’s magazine is also important for another reason. Previously,

More than ever I’d encourage you to visit our website, where you’ll find much more than we can fit into the pages of a magazine once a month. And if you’re interested, there’s never been a better time to look into one of our writing, editing or artistic internships, which you can apply for online as well.

We might have changed our focus, but our mission is the same: to empower remarkable student creators. That’s why everything on the website and in the magazine is produced by a college student (except, of course, this one note from the editor). But whether or not you want to get involved with Study Breaks, make sure to go out on at least one limb this semester. Do something you haven’t before, be creative, get out of your comfort zone and have your most memorable semester yet.

Enjoy, Mark Stenberg Editor-in-Chief @markstenberg3

our team.

FOUNDER Gal Shweiki

ACCOUNTING Elizabeth Castro

ART DIRECTOR Jesus Acosta

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Marcus Flores

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mark Stenberg

DISTRIBUTION Frank Hartfield, Jose Espinoza, Ernest Ward

contributors.

WRITERS Natalie Hoover, Point Loma Nazarene University Gabbi Calabrese, Arkansas Tech University Christian Nelson, Eastern Michigan University Monica Petrucci, Emerson College Raina Sciocchetti, Unity College Jenne Benchetrit, McGill University Cameron Andersen, New York University Candace Baker, University of Texas at Austin Haley Newlin, Southern New Hampshire University Jonathan Christian, Northwest Vista College Sarah Penix, Ohio University

PHOTOGRAPHERS Stephanie Bravo, Ringling College of Art and Design Matt Robertson, University of Texas at Austin Hunter Harwick, University of North Texas ILLUSTRATORS Yun Yao, Academy of Art University Kira Widjaja, Rhode Island School of Design Kayla Rader, Northwest Vista College Sandra Hernandez, Ringling College of Art and Design Ben Miller, Towson University

writing internships.

Study Breaks is written exclusively by a team of student interns from across the country. These writers work with the editorial team to pitch and submit one piece a week for the website, in addition to writing for the monthly print magazine.

Spring internships run from Jan. 28 to May 28, 2019, and applications close Jan. 14. If interested, email editorial@studybreaks.com with “Student Writing Internship� in the Subject.

Introduce yourself in the body, making sure to include your name, school and major. Please attach at least two samples of your work. Ideal writers are intelligent, funny and talented, though no formal experience is necessary.

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backdrop.

EXPLORING COLLEGES + THEIR CITIES

P HOTOS AND WORDS BY HUN T ER HARWICK, UNIVERSI T Y OF NORT H T E XA S

C O R P U S C H R I S T I is riddled with interesting buildings and architecture. There are so many warehouses, strip malls, and many other types of buildings that were once so alive in the 50s and 60s but have now fallen into disrepair. I chose to photograph these buildings so they can be put back in the limelight again, as they were back in their time.

My hope for this city is that leadership is put in place where one appreciates all of the rich histories this city has to offer with its buildings so that they can one day take on a new life!

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building the In its first year, The Washington Post experiment has tapped into an audience hungry for its elegant, curated content: millennial women.

BY S AR AH P ENIX, OHIO UNIVERSI T Y I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K A Y L A R A D E R , N O R T H W E S T V I S T A C O L L E G E

Created by The Washington Post’s Emerging News Products team and run by editor Amy King and deputy editor Neema Roshania Patel, The Lily combines freelance articles and curated stories from The Post to offer a collection of content that caters to millennial women and young people.

After only its first year, the publication won the Society for Features Journalism’s Excellence-in-Features Awards’ digital innovation category for their biweekly newsletters.

“We knew that if we could take stories that this audience would be interested in and kind of put them all together in one place and give them a certain look, that that we could probably provide a better service to young people,” King told me over Skype last month.

The publication launched in June 2017; however, it has quickly grown into a far-reaching, multiplatform media outlet. The Lily has articles ranging from popular culture and international women’s issues to comics created by diverse groups of people. The newsletters are both experimental and traditional, which has helped lead to their success. Instead of recapping stories biweekly, the newsletter serves to highlight the top news for the week and shed light on stories about women that people may not otherwise see. “We wanted a mix of really interesting, intriguing design and really compelling stories,” King says. “The other thing about our newsletter that we think kind of helps us stand apart, and that we see readers really appreciate, is that our newsletters are really built to engage with our readers in email.”

As a web branch stemming from a well-established media outlet, The Lily has focused on tightly curating their aesthetic and stories in order to make the brand pop. “It’s difficult to launch a brand within an existing legacy news organization, so we’ve really learned a lot about what works in getting our brand to be recognizable and what doesn’t, and we’re really doubling down on things that have worked,” says Roshania Patel. “So an example of that is our content strategies are kind of double-pronged.”

Featuring a black and white theme, ample representation and stories that reflect women’s lives around the world, The Lily combines entertainment and news through a fresh, sophisticated lens. “Every single story that we publish, we create a custom illustration for,” Roshania Patel says. “We wanted to make sure that our stories stood out in crowded social feeds.”

The Lily now has more than 175,000 followers on Facebook and nearly 26,000 followers on Instagram. “I think we get pretty excited about Instagram. We do some pretty basic story roundups on Instagram stories, where we’ll just design a headline and link to a story and those work really well for us,” King said. “But we also try and get creative with how we’re using the tool.”

Over the next year, Roshania Patel and King aim to grow the publication further through innovative content and sourcing stories from a greater variety of writers. This year, The Lily is working to increase the number of writers for the publication by hiring a contractor. Their team includes a video editor, a staff writer and two art directors. “We’re pretty equal on art and editorial, which is really important to our teams,” King says. “We consider the creative direction to be just as important as the stories.”

King and Roshania Patel are also working to expand their original content in the publication’s second year. “Since our original content is doing really well, we’ve been trying to think of content series that would resonate with the reader,” King says. One series that has done especially well so far is focused on mental health. It is called the Anxiety Chronicles and it has run for more than eight weeks.

Although The Lily has seen great success in its first year, the team is dedicating their second year to improving and growing as a publication. From what has been effective to where there has been challenges, they are looking to continue cultivating a tight-knit readership through meaningful, stylized content.

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explain things to me

An examination of adultsplaining, the latest bane of modernity.

BY S AR AH P ENIX, OHIO UNIVERSI T Y I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K I R A W I D J A J A , R H O D E I S L A N D S C H O O L O F D E S I G N

You’ve probably heard of mansplaining, and you might have even had the displeasure of experiencing the condescending phenomenon for yourself. But, on par with mansplaining in its insidiousness but far more covert is adultsplaining, a parallel concept that occurs when adults speak belittlingly to youth who happen to know more about whatever subject is in question.

Adultsplaining, like mansplaining, deals with a struggle of inequality — but a very different kind of struggle.

When someone adultsplains, they firmly believe that they know what’s right based solely on the fact that, as an adult, they’re better and wiser than you. And though they’re often wrong, they feel the need to explain everything to you anyway. In our elders’ defense, this phenomenon has always occurred; younger people have always had to suffer through the pontifications of their superiors. However, because of the accelerated rate of change that technology has afforded us, the problem has recently become exacerbated. Nowadays, older people simply lose touch more quickly. Hence, adultsplaining.

HOW TO SPOT A SPLAINER An adultsplainer could be a middle-aged woman who doesn’t quite grasp how difficult paying for college is nowadays; she likely thinks that working part-time will guarantee a debt-free graduation. It could be a man who explains to a gay teenager that homosexuality is just a phase, one they’ll move past eventually. It could even be someone who doesn’t believe in mental illness counseling an anxious kid to exercise, put down their phone and wait for the relief to flood in.

Importantly, adultsplaining has very little to do with discipline. If, as a child, you misbehaved or

In much the same it’s harder than ever to be a young person, it’s also harder than ever to be an adult, especially a parent.

endangered yourself, any responsible adult would be right to explain to you what you did wrong. Parenting or even just intelligent guardianship will always involve a degree of explanation, because as a kid, from time to time, you need someone to explain concepts you’d be unable to grasp on your own. However, adultsplaining doesn’t hold as its motivation mentorship, or really even the improvement of the child. Instead, its impetus is rooted in the adult’s insecurity, a far less benevolent motivation than the enrichment of a child and one hardly destined to lead anywhere good.

The parenting website Cure Joy maintains that telling children how life is, rather than encouraging them to explore it, is a hallmark of bad parenting. Doing so not only fails to equip the child with the tools they need to succeed in life, but it can lower their self-esteem and make them feel unimportant. The same line of thinking applies to students, who arguably need even less pedagogy and more applied independence. At a certain point, handholding and coddling become not only unhelpful to young adults, they become dangerous, even stunting.

SO WHY SPLAIN? In much the same that it’s harder than ever to be a young person, it’s also harder than ever to be an adult, especially a parent. Information moves more quickly, lifestyle paradigms shift more commonly and the learning curve only grows more steeply. In just a few years, you go from pushing the boundaries to just trying to keep up with them, all while you’re haunted by the knowledge that whatever you’re experiencing now will only continue to worsen, at quicker and quicker rates, until you’re eventually completely dislocated from modern life.

plaining adults are simply trying to mask their own self-consciousness.

On a more basic level, the way we gather our information has evolved (or devolved) in recent years, and some adults have difficulty finding up-to-date, verifiable material. More so today than ever before, you can find something online to back up almost any notion you have, which makes discerning the truth harder than it used to be. For adults less savvy to the ways of the web, adultsplaining can be less a symptom of condescension and more a reflection of outdated researching tools. And when an adultsplainer is wrong, but they have a website saying they’re right, it’s all the more tempting for them to dig their heels in, pull the age card and force you to listen.

So what’s the solution? First, it’s important to remember who the adults are in the situation: them. You’re not responsible for suffering their delusions, babying them or being their life coach. You have your own stuff going on, so look out for yourself first. At the same time, a little bit of empathy in an adultsplaining situation will go a long way, for the both of you in fact.

If the end goal for both parties is growth, cooperation is the key, not antagonism. Understand how difficult it must be to be an adult in a world where memes are rapidly becoming an entirely new language. Then, express as tactfully as possible that you’re feeling condescended to, and that if they really wanted to help, they would hear your feedback and respond by changing their approach. From there, they either change their style or they show their cards. If it’s the latter, conversation over.

An understandable, if discouraging response to such existential dread is insecurity. According to neuropsychologist Dr. Rhonda Freeman, two prominent signs of self-doubt are an air of superiority and the tendency to “disagree regardless of accuracy,” both of which are signpost traits of adultsplaining. So rather than arrogance, most over-exSTUDY BREAKS

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your celebrity role model is a sexual deviant, A helpful drill to prepare you for when the day comes.

And the day will come.

BY G ABBI CAL ABRESE, ARK ANS A S T ECH UNIVERSI T Y I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K I R A W I D J A J A , R H O D E I S L A N D S C H O O L O F D E S I G N

So, it’s happened. You woke up to find one of your favorite celebrities trending online — but not for anything good. This is the moment you’ve been dreading since society decided sexual harassment awareness should become a household conversation. It’s tough. When one of your favorite actors/ musicians/writers/etc. is exposed for sexual harassment, it can be a confusing and emotionally harrowing time. I sympathize with your plight.

It doesn’t help that the internet is a minefield and if you don’t tread carefully, there are bound to be explosions. If you can’t shout your opinion into the depths of social media without receiving backlash, how are you supposed to cope?

Luckily, there are ways to avoid coming off as insensitive or ignorant when coming to terms with the harsh reality of your idol. Here are four tips for navigating the tempestuous waters of your favorite celebrity’s scandal.

DO NOT ENGAGE ONLINE. I know there is a tiny internet devil perched on your shoulder, persuading you that it’s necessary — nay, helpful! — to insert your opinion in online discussions. Well, allow me to be your internet angel and emphasize that, while it might seem like an arduous feat, it is in fact possible to read something you disagree with and move on without starting an argument.

I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t have and share your opinions, but confronting a group of emotional keyboard warriors is, likely, inconducive to a productive conversation. Instead, try talking about the situation with people you know in real life, face to face. Someone who understands what the accused celebrity’s work means to you, who will listen even if they disagree and who will work through what you’re feeling with you.

PROCESS WHAT YOUR IDOL’S WORK MEANS TO YOU IN A NEW CONTEXT. Some will be quick to discredit any art produced by a sex offender, which is a valid response. You can’t blame a person for revoking their support, but that doesn’t mean you need to disavow work that has helped you through tough times.

Thinking for yourself can be exhausting, especially when everyone and their chinchilla is happy to shove their thoughts into your brain, but nobody can set your boundaries for you. You are responsible for deciding how much support you’re willing to give this celebrity, how their work fits into your life now and how you’re going to discuss their work going forward. Somebody somewhere is going to disagree with you no matter which route you choose to take, so you might as well walk the path that makes you feel emotionally and morally satisfied.

ALLOW YOURSELF TO FEEL WHATEVER IT IS YOU NEED TO FEEL. As someone who firmly believes emotions are nothing but bloodthirsty hellhounds set on destroying humanity, I understand the instinct to stifle all the complicated feelings swirling in that complicated brain of yours. Especially when, once again, other people are trying to dictate the “correct” response to a complex issue (hello, this article). But it’s okay to feel disgusted or upset or betrayed or even indifferent.

When a celebrity who has made a positive impact on your life turns out to be a reprehensible human being, it can raise questions about yourself and the world around you, and the only way to get answers is to explore the dark cave where your feelings live.

REMEMBER, YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY VICTIM. Yeah, you’re hurt. I’m not invalidating that, but keep in mind that there are people whose bodies, safety and mental well-being were violated. Feel what you need to, but, you know, feel it with perspective.

Also, the conversation surrounding celebrity sexual harassment scandals contains certain nuances that do not warrant your input. People have been genuinely hurt by your idol’s actions, and it’s not your place to determine whether a celebrity really did what they’re being accused of or whether others are reacting appropriately. Plenty of people will be trying to take the wheel on appointing the “truth,” and there’s no need for you to be one of them.

Nobody can stop you from having those thoughts, but you can stop yourself from vocalizing them. Unless you have experience with sexual assault, this is not your lane.

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the elephant in the

To combat toxicity, game developers are censoring their users. Should they?

BY CHRIS T IAN NELS ON, E A S T ERN MICHIG AN UNIVERSI T Y I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y Y U N Y A O , A C A D E M Y O F A R T U N I V E R S I T Y

Doritos. Fourteen-year-old kids. Screaming. Banging your mom.

These are images typically associated with the Xbox Live and “Call of Duty” communities. The truth is, though, that these visuals could describe any game with an online mode or any gaming platform. In recent years, online functionality has become

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so fundamental to the video game experience that most major releases now come attached with an online multiplayer mode or are strictly online multiplayer experiences. “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,” for example, which is scheduled to hit shelves in October, will completely eschew any single-player campaign. So,

with the gaming market pushing for everyone to play together, it’s become more important than ever that everyone plays nice, which has been easier said than done.

Indeed, the gaming community has already developed a noxious reputation for tactlessness, and the lawless nature of game chats has only exacerbated this predilection. If you are, say, a black man like me and have ever been called a “nigger,” chances are that the encounter occurred during an online gaming session. If you’re even a non-black man with a deep enough voice, you’ve probably been called a “nigger,” too. It goes without saying, of course, that this harassment is 10 times worse if the other players determine that you’re a woman, whether you are or not. So, what can we do about this abuse?

Gaming companies have to be careful how they handle toxicity, and they have to remain open to criticism about the systems they implement.

In a perfect world, because most online games come with a “report player” function, every player would use the feature properly and games would be played in harmony. In reality, most players don’t report misbehavior because many game publishers are slow to take action, which leads people to stop reporting. As a result, online games, especially competitive ones, become home to unsportsmanlike behavior and vulgar language. The toxicity can become so unbearable that users stop playing competitively, only play with friends or drop the

game altogether. It’s a sad reality, but for years it’s been the status quo.

Recently, however, some game publishers have begun taking a more proactive approach to help improve their gaming climate. The popular team-based first-person shooter “Overwatch” became an instant hit when it was released in 2016 by Blizzard, but once it added a competitive mode the game became the new face of toxicity in just a few months. In January 2018 however, game director Jeff Kaplan released a developer update saying that they’d been able to ban more accounts thanks to players using the report function more frequently. Kaplan also said that Blizzard would be actively searching for toxic activity on social media accounts, such as YouTube and Twitter, tracing them back to their Blizzard accounts and banning them. While banning players for exhibiting toxic behavior outside the game sounds like a problematic practice, the “Overwatch” community was so bad that the procedure was largely welcomed; so far, no major “invasion of privacy” scandals have arisen.

Nor is “Overwatch” the only popular online shooter to crack down on its less friendly players. “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege” has had toxicity problems since the game became popular, about a year or so after its initial launch. On console, teamkilling makes casual mode basically unplayable without being in a squad, which makes the report function ineffective. On PC it’s not as bad, but there teams can use text chat to send racial and homophobic slurs to the enemy team.

In July, Ubisoft activated a chat filter that banned players who used words the filter deemed inappropriate, including terms like “nibba.” The filter is active in all game modes and first-time offenders are banned for a half-hour. The measure received backlash for not warning players they would be banned, which became an issue because players would trick others into typing a banned word to get them kicked out mid-game. Overall though, the change was largely well received, partly because players were too busy complaining about updates to the game itself and partly because most people don’t enjoy seeing hate speech when they’re playing video games. Who would’ve thought?

Gaming companies have to be careful how they handle toxicity, and they have to remain open to criticism about the systems they implement. However, if gaming is to become a space in which people from all walks of life interact, gamers need to learn that they can’t just say whatever they want. If they need the gaming companies to teach them that lesson through censorship, then so be it.

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self-care for your

Bubble baths and Netflix binges are great, but working in sustainable solutions is key.

BY MONI C A P E T RU C C I , E MER S ON C OL L EGE I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y B E N M I L L E R , T O W S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

As the school year begins, there’s an overwhelming amount of stress looming over college students. You might be dreading the future months of juggling all the elements of a new semester, like classes, extracurriculars, part-time jobs, internships, social lives, exercise — the list goes on forever.

When you’re in the mood to treat yourself by buying something that’ll make you happy, think about what will benefit your well-being in the long run. Buy a yoga class membership, a meditation app or something for your favorite hobby. Spend your money on something that will make you happy for longer than the second you first try it on.

A common way to cope with all this stress is by taking time for self-care, a term that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. You might imagine a self-care session as a bubble bath and face mask, a pizza to yourself or just a midday nap. The problem with a lot of these, though, is that they are quick fixes to stress; they don’t have long-term effects on your overall mental health or well-being.

INSTEAD OF: SPENDING A FREE AFTERNOON BINGE-WATCHING …

TRY: CLEARING OUT YOUR MIND.

So this semester, try to replace these quick-fix “treat-yoself” habits with more constructive, effective self-care sessions. Here are just a few ways you can implement this idea to make this semester your happiest one yet.

INSTEAD OF: SPENDING YOUR NIGHT OUT DRINKING ...

TRY: GOING OUT TO DINNER WITH YOUR FRIENDS. I know it’s tempting to drain your week’s worth of stress and sorrows in cheap alcohol and sweaty parties, but think about how that’ll feel in the morning. It’s not healthy to constantly count on drinks to numb your problems — especially if you’re doing it every weekend.

But this doesn’t mean you have to stay home on a Friday night! Plan an occasional dinner out with your friends, where you can talk about your stresses of the week in a comfortable space, treat yourself to a yummy meal and get a good night’s sleep without the worry of an impending hangover.

I know — the only thing you want to do after class or when you finish a paper is sit in front of your favorite show and let it entertain you. But every once in a while, you should use these tiny bits of free time to do something your brain will later thank you for.

Even just a 10-minute meditation or a half-hour walk around campus to clear your head will do a lot of good for your headspace. Doing something like this regularly will put your stressful thoughts into perspective and bring a new sense of calm to your everyday life. And you can always watch that episode right after!

INSTEAD OF: PROCRASTINATING …

TRY: SETTING SCHEDULES FOR WORK AND BREAK TIMES. Sometimes a long to-do list seems too overwhelming to tackle. You don’t know where to start, so you start scrolling through Instagram or taking a nap just to get away from the stress. When you’re suffering from too much anxiety to start getting things done, the only thing that you feel like you can do is procrastinate.

INSTEAD OF: GOING ON AN ONLINE SHOPPING SPREE …

TRY: SPENDING YOUR MONEY ON SOMETHING THAT WILL BENEFIT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH.

This might be one of the most common problems college students face. One of the best ways to combat a procrastination addiction is to organize your time. Make a concrete schedule for when you’re going to do each assignment or errand, including allotted times for breaks. That way you can stay on track and still look forward to break times.

I’ve always been one to take part in “retail therapy,” whether that means wasting an entire day at the mall spending money or making impulse buys online. Of course it feels good to treat yourself after a long week of work by buying a cute new outfit or eyeshadow palette. But again — these aren’t things that will help aid your stress problem.

Of course, there’s also plenty of room for partying and shopping and eating dessert every once in a while, but don’t consider these to be the only forms of self-care you provide for yourself. Keep your mental health in mind this semester, whenever you get any time to yourself amidst the college chaos.

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representation without

When it comes to on-screen diversity, the television industry is leagues ahead of its film counterpart, but not because it’s tried hard.

B Y J E N N A B E N C H E T R I T, M C G I L L U N I V E R S I T Y I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K A Y L A R A D E R , N O R T H W E S T V I S T A C O L L E G E

As television soars through a golden age of quality programming, the long-standing debate pitting the storytelling merits of TV versus those of film has broached a new question: How do the mediums compare when it comes to representation? While both art forms operate in unison and manage to give audiences compelling reflections of every-

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day life, it seems that TV has succeeded in ways film has not yet managed.

TV and film productions are based in relatively the same regions, with a wide overlap in rosters of talent. If TV is better at cultural representation than film, then how has it man-

aged to make these progressions while film hasn’t? With the Emmy Awards slated for Sept. 17, it’s as apt a time as ever to explore the question, and to assess whether TV diversity is as advanced as it appears to be.

Before digging into statistics, one might assume that, at least anecdotally, TV seems to be doing a pretty good job of looking like the world does. With people like Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, Kenya Barris, Lena Waithe, Nahnatchka Khan and Issa Rae running hugely popular shows, television has never had more to offer its audience, not just in terms of reflecting society but also in quality and craft.

The idea that television does better than film with onscreen representation might be true, but it’s important to consider why this may be and if public perception plays a role in it. Both mediums have struggled or been unwilling to incorporate a broader spectrum of voices into their stories, as evidenced by 2018 reports that white people are still overrepresented on television. The only reason that television seems to excel at this is because mainstream film has done a terrible job at heeding calls for multiculturalism and casting diversity.

“TV diversity is not great, as we know, but film is pretty abysmal,” said Darnell Hunt, the director of UCLA’s Center for African American Studies. “Women and minorities are underrepresented … in both television and film. But it’s much worse in film.” There are a few reasons why that might be, according to the Los Angeles Times.

First, the TV industry is much larger than the film industry.

This means that, while TV generally has a larger output, there are also more opportunities for jobs and careers in television. Additionally, there is greater pressure on executives to create shows for the television audience, which has a broad range of demographics tuning in each night. Finally, advocacy groups have been more active in holding TV executives accountable for casting and hiring decisions.

Awards shows are also a relevant component of the representation discussion, because they can be misleading to viewers at home. The Academy Awards have been laden with controversy in recent years, and movements like #OscarsSoWhite have brought the representational imbalance to the forefront of the conversation. By contrast, the Emmy Awards have done a particularly good job at celebrating sundry identities on the small screen. This doesn’t mean that the problem is fixed, of course; in fact,

it could very well be a tactic to avoid the backlash that the film industry has seen.

In 2016 and 2017, the crop of Emmy nominees and the Emmy Awards themselves were notably diverse; this was pointed out in both years by news outlets like CNN. This year, there is a record-breaking number of non-white nominees: 36, up 20 percent from last year’s 30. But experts who have conducted studies on the subject of onscreen representation warned viewers that this shouldn’t be taken as an indication that diversity is improving.

“It’s a psychological thing,” said Ana-Christina Ramón, who co-wrote the 2018 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report.

“You have a handful of examples and so you think there should be a big increase, but that’s not necessarily the case when you look at the whole population [of film and television shows] … the needle isn’t moving that much.”

That doesn’t mean that the success of shows like “Insecure,” “Atlanta,” “Dear White People” and “Fresh Off The Boat” should be brushed off. These programs do the work, not just in thoughtfully portraying real people but also in their acknowledgement of the intersection of identities, which is an enduring part of the human experience for many.

How much can one executive change the kind of programming offered by a company? ABC is home to “How To Get Away With Murder” and “Fresh Off The Boat,” but they also went ahead with the disastrous “Roseanne” reboot and scrapped an episode of “black-ish” for confronting police brutality. It’s the only major network led by a woman of color, Channing Dungey. Thus, underrepresentation is a multifaceted problem that evidently needs to be tackled from all angles.

Television appears to have made strides where film hasn’t because it’s a much larger industry, with more room for output and risk-taking. Awards shows aren’t an accurate measurement of representation levels, but it can be difficult not to visualize the industry as a reflection of nominations when they’re often the only way viewers can observe the scope of a year of programming. Consequently, representation is still not where it needs to be in either medium, and the fact that film lags further behind simply makes its small-screen counterpart look better than it is.

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let’s talk about

How far are we from a zero-waste world?

BY R AINA S CIO C CHE T T I, UNI T Y C OL L EGE I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y S A N D R A H E R N A N D E Z , R I N G L I N G C O L L E G E

Most people associate zero-waste living with the occasional nonconformist who makes the news for producing only a single jar of trash over a five-year period. Meanwhile, the majority of the populace continues to actively purchase and dispose of material goods at breakneck speed.

The lack of consideration for garbage in mainstream culture suggests that many people assume that items disappear after they are thrown into a trashcan. Disposed-of materials are no longer needed, possessed or accounted for — in effect, garbage is worthless and virtually ceases to matter.

THE ENVIRONMENT MIGHT DISAGREE The average American generates an estimated 4.5 pounds of trash every day; the world collectively produces over 2 billion tons of solid waste each year.

This foreboding quantity of garbage is dispatched to landfills (where the unnatural compounds displace soil and leach toxic substances deep into the earth), into incinerators (where the waste is scorched into ash, heat and pollution) and into the oceans where, by way of prolong migration, where it disrupts marine life and forms islands the size of small countries.

WORLD WAR TRASH Considering that garbage is literally invading and destroying the planet, it might seem surprising that the movement for zero-waste living faces fierce opposition.

Human lives are actually at stake, so shouldn’t a few thorough reports and a little media coverage concerning the growing trashiness of the planet be enough to convince everyone to stop buying plastic water bottles or invest in reusable shopping bags?

One of the most injurious misconceptions regarding trash (and environmentalism in general) is that the best way to spark an environmental revolution is to educate the public. Research proves time and time again that telling people what they should believe and how they ought to behave is hilariously ineffective when it comes to provoking tangible change.

The real solution is to change behavior, not attitudes.

According to notable environmental authors like Thomas Heberlein (“Navigating Environmental Attitudes”) and Dr. McKenzie-Mohr (“Fostering Sustainable Behavior,” aka the environmental campaign bible) and hundreds of case studies, the most effectual means to change behavior is to implement changes in the system and navigate with and around attitudes as one would negotiate rapids while rafting in a strong current. One must invoke carefully designed technological and structural fixes rather than bludgeoning new attitudes and lifestyles into people,

which is rather like rafting upstream or rafting directly into rocks at full speed to a dramatic crash.

PAY AS YOU THROW AWAY In the case of waste, targeting behaviors rather than attitudes means implementing structural changes, like market incentives and formal sanctions, in order to ensure that refuse is diminished in quantity and becomes less trashy.

The City of San Francisco boasts a Bag Reduction Ordinance, Cigarette Litter Abatement Fee Ordinance and City Government Construction Recycled Content Ordinance, among countless other waste-reducing policies. A Bottled and Package Free Water Ordinance restricts sale of packaged water while increasing availability of drinking water in public areas. The Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance requires all residents to separate recyclables, compostables and landfill-bound trash appropriately, or pay consequential fines.

The result of this advanced legislature is that San Francisco diverts 80 percent of all waste away from the landfill (the highest of any major city in the United States) and will almost certainly reach zero-waste status by 2020.

San Francisco is not alone in this commendable fight against trash. The University of California system is also committed to going zero-waste by 2020 and currently diverts about 70 percent of all refuse by supporting the optimal sorting of waste with appropriate receptacles and facilities and supplementing with innovative systems and energetic campaigns.

The City of Seattle has gone straw-less with a ban on all straws and plastic utensils for businesses selling food and drink. Experts assess that this statute will prevent over 1 million plastic straws from circulating around Seattle over the course of just one month. Several European countries and cities have already banned single-use plastic items.

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT — AND THE WORLD WINS Stellar examples aside, there is an urgent need for universally higher standards. A zero-waste world requires not only individual dedication to reducing waste through exemplary reusing and recycling efforts but also (and more importantly) the establishment of formal institutions that support zero-waste living, such as large-scale prohibitions on unnecessary plastic products, improved recycling and composting facilities and increased fees that target industrial waste.

At present, the concept of a zero-waste society has only begun to attract serious attention. Next on the agenda must be a serious attempt to smash the era of the omnipresent trash can and transition into a post-trash world.

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make self care again Artist and self-care advocate Hannah Daisy is trying to make self-care less sexy, but more accessible.

B Y C A N D A C E B A K E R , U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S AT A U S T I N I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K A Y L A R A D E R , N O R T H W E S T V I S T A C O L L E G E

It’s estimated by the World Health Organization that one in four people in the world will be affected by mental illness at some point in their lives, and in high-income countries, 35 – 50 percent of those suffering will receive no professional care. Half of these chronic illnesses manifest themselves by age 14, and even though early treatment can be crucial in effectively managing symptoms, they often go unrecognized until adulthood. Over the past several decades, the conversation surrounding mental health has shifted to a more sympathetic and encouraging tone. But the discussion still has a long way to go, and unfortunately it’s still considered to be a taboo subject that is uncomfortable to talk about.

That’s exactly why Hannah Daisy, a 33-year-old London-based occupational therapist, is the artist that everyone should be paying attention to. On her Instagram account, @makedaisychains, which currently has over 57,000 followers, Daisy posts her hand-drawn images depicting the unapologetic truth about what it’s like to be living with mental illness. “I think I’ve drawn since I could pick up a pencil, but I guess in relation to my account, it probably started in about January 2016,” she says of her decision to use her talents on Instagram. “It’s just something I started to see what would happen.” The moniker “makedaisychains” came to be when Hannah signed up for MySpace in 2004 and found that “Hannah Daisy” had already been taken as a username.

For Daisy, starting her account was a way to combine her artistic talents with her lengthy experience working in

mental health services. “I think that there are lots of different strands as for why I do it the way I do it, and that’s because I have dyslexia and I’m a much more visual person, so I communicate much better through images rather than words. That’s just how my brain works,” she says of her methodology. “I’m also in quite a unique position having worked a decade in mental health services and then having had these services myself as well.”

The artwork found on her profile creates a warm and welcoming tone, while at the same time tackling a serious issue. It’s bright and colorful, oftentimes featuring adorable cats with important phrases like “Anxious Not Rude” and “I Believe You.” Alhough most of her posts are focused on mental health, she also includes other topics, such as women’s health and LGBTQ+ pride. She even adds visual descriptions to each image so that the visually impaired are not excluded from her message.

It’s a sort of social media community that reminds people that they’re not alone in their struggle. People experiencing mental illness often suffer from loneliness and isolation only made worse by the stigma that can surround their conditions. That stigma can lead to discrimination, harassment and a reluctance to seek treatment.

Daisy’s professional experience in occupational therapy has certainly proved itself in the creation of her hashtag #boringselfcare. Most people on social media have probably seen pictures of people buying bath bombs or expensive face masks and calling it “self care.” If you didn’t know

any better, you’d think that it was something that should only be done on occasion and should be both luxurious and worthy of a post on Instagram.

But for Daisy, whose career centers around helping people to achieve everyday activities, the twisted interpretation of the phrase has alienated those who actually need to hear it. “This is not my understanding as a mental health professional at all. Self-care refers to all the activities we need to do day to day and the ‘self’ bit doesn’t mean you have to do it yourself,” she says of the term’s glamorization. “I renamed it ‘boring self-care’ to give it a new language and help people understand what it actually is. I feel that the hashtag is not for everyone.

It’s for people who struggle day to day. It’s for people with mental health problems, chronic illness, disability

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etc., not for the able bodied and people without mental health problems to post selfies with the hashtag.”

The reality of self-care is clear in drawings that the drawings that Daisy posts with the hashtag. Captions like “Brushed My Teeth,” “Went Food Shopping,” “Did My Laundry and Took It Down” and “Did My Homework” don’t seem nearly as glamorous as posting about treating yourself with something extravagant. But these are things that individuals, especially those who are able-bodied, often take for granted, and they’re the day-to-day activities that help people maintain some sort of normalcy during their recovery process and manage symptoms of their illness.

Daisy has also been very open on her blog about her

personal struggle with mental illness. In one post, she describes her experience with “pill shaming,” something that is fairly common for those taking medication prescribed for their mental health. “I have had mental health problems on and off over the years and have tried quite a few different medications before finding one that works ... I have been to events organized by certain anti-psychiatry organizations where people have talked about how awful medication is.

This is also so dangerous, and it fed into me thinking that I don’t need to take medication. It might be fine for them, but promoting a ‘psychiatry is evil’ mindset is also very dangerous. I could criticize psychiatry all day but at the end of the day, some people need the medical treatment.”

It’s the sort of experience that is a sad reflection of the public’s misconceptions about mental health treatment.

Medical treatment is, of course, just one layer to treating mental illness. Receiving care could include psychotherapy, medication and even brain stimulation treatments. What works for one person might not work for another, but the stigma that surrounds certain types of treatment, such as medication, is toxic to those who are in recovery. No person should be made to feel weak for needing an extra push beyond “natural” treatments like changes in diet and exercise, and no one should be shamed for seeking help.

While some people question the need to care for mental health even when nothing is necessarily wrong, The World Health Organization (WHO) stresses that it is essential to overall well-being. It maintains that medical intervention is oftentimes necessary, but also points out that there is a social aspect to treating mental disorders. The WHO states that “people with mental illness require social support and care,” and one key objective of its Mental Health Action Plan is to “provide comprehensive, integrated and responsive mental health and social care services in community-based settings.”

Community discussions surrounding mental health are extremely important in promoting awareness and understanding, and yet it’s still considered by many to be a taboo subject. One reason for this, according to Daisy, is that mental illness is an invisible condition. It’s easy to underestimate how much someone could be struggling because they might be putting up a facade to those around them.

High-functioning illnesses like depression and anxiety place a burden on the person suffering to manage the expectations of those around them, and the lack of understanding that surrounds them might lead others to believe that the mental suffering is as bad as it is.

mental illness] are often not understanding or want to help but are scared they might make it worse.”

The isolation can also be compounded by other factors.

LGBTQ+ individuals are twice as likely to suffer from mental illness than their straight peers, and 11 percent of them have reported being denied care due to bias or discrimination.

Multicultural communities face barriers to care that include less access, poor quality of treatment and increased stigma surrounding their conditions. Women are around 40 percent more likely to suffer from mental illness compared to men, especially depression and anxiety, and are exposed more to social factors that could have an impact on their mental health.

Daisy, a woman who identifies as queer, knows that marginalization all too well. But she believes that it has had a positive impact on her activism by making her more inclusive of other groups that might be otherwise left out of the conversation of mental health. “I think once you’re part of a group that is marginalized or oppressed, then you have to think about all of the other [groups] because everything just kind of intersects anyway. So I do think that it’s important to be talking about those who are in other parts of marginalization that I’m not a part of,” she says. “Because of being queer and being a woman and having health problems, it puts me in a certain position where I experience marginalization.”

While Daisy says that she doesn’t necessarily know how far-reaching her account’s impact has been, she’s optimistic about it. “Lots of people message me and say it’s been helpful,” she says. “Hopefully I’ve changed some use of language on the internet and social media.” The future of her activism is a bit uncertain, although she wouldn’t rule out the possibility of writing a book. Though there is still more work to be done towards advancing the public discussion about mental health, Daisy offers advice for those who might know someone suffering from mental illness and want to help: “I think just being there for a friend, offering to listen. Support them to get help. But also be aware of yourself and how much you are able to look after others.”

It’s an attitude that contributes to why those suffering from mental illness feel so marginalized in their communities.

“I think people are marginalized in so many ways,” Hannah says. “For example: having to work when unwell and not everyone has sick pay — it can be punitive. Others [without

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Clanton’s idiosyncratic sound combines prog pop and internet goth in an unlikely matrimony.

BY HAL E Y NE WL IN, S OU T HERN NE W HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSI T Y P H O T O GR A P H Y BY S T E P H A NIE BR AVO

With his long brown hair, gaunt cheeks and sunken green eyes, George Clanton hardly seems like the Los Angeles type. In a city filled with bronzed models and aspiring actors, the Virginia native is bound to stick out, but that’s part of the plan, really. After spending the last few years in Brooklyn, the vaporwave artist has grown in popularity across the country, but nowhere has welcomed him as warmly as LA, a city whose reputation for progressive music seems to strengthen with each year. So, last month he and his girlfriend, who performs and tours alongside Clanton as Negative Gemini, set out for the West Coast.

sounds. It’s pop music with a punk ethos. My friend called it progressive pop and I like that too.

Anyways, I don’t think I have enough contemporaries to warrant getting my own genre yet. My notoriety comes from the vaporwave movement, so I’m often called a vaporwave artist as well. Whatever works! Except synth pop. Don’t call my

Around the same time, on Aug. 17, Clanton released his second full-length album, Slide, a project that comes three years after his first release, “100% Electronica,” a 10-song production that introduced his signature sound. The first album is a pounding mixture of deep, thumping bass lines with bright, dancing synths glittering above them. Clanton sings, through heavy distortion, above the sonics and adds plinking keyboard notes to break up the interplay between the two main aural components. His newest work, “Slide,” follows much in the same vein, but with the addition of guitar and other more recognizable elements.

I was able to talk with Clanton last month, before his album had been released, about his recent tour — which featured a handful of stops in Texas — as well as his then-impending move to Los Angeles, the death of his dog, his plans for the future and what he envisions for his burgeoning career as a record label owner.

HALEY NEWLIN: THERE ARE UP-AND-COMING ARTISTS EVERYWHERE, HOW DID YOU GET YOUR BREAK? GEORGE CLANTON: I was discovered by Skylar Spence (then Saint Pepsi), who gave me a shout out on the Gorilla vs. Bear blog, which led the blog to give me the award of the 10th best album of the year for 2015. I got to open for Charli XCX and Sophie that year as a result, and it’s been growing ever since.

HN: SOME REFER TO YOUR MUSIC AS DANCE/ELECTRONIC, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT? GC: I don’t know how to dance, and it’s not EDM. I put it in the main category “electronic” because it’s not quite “pop” either. I think it’s probably indie-pop as stupid as that

music synth pop, please.

HN: ARE THERE ANY REOCCURRING THEMES IN YOUR MUSIC? YOU’VE TALKED A LOT ABOUT JUST LIVING LIFE AND POSITIVE ENERGY — HOW DOES THAT COME THROUGH IN YOUR SONGS? GC: My lyrics are definitely not about living life or positive energy. I think it’s the opposite. I yearn to live life and surround myself with positive energy because the world is already a dark and sad place. I don’t want to revel in it. That’s easier said than done.

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HN: WHAT KIND OF ARTISTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP WITH YOUR LABEL? GC: We have been very serious about being selective to build our brand to the point where everyone who follows us knows whatever we put out will be fire, and the vinyl record itself will be a high-quality product.

HN: YOU HAVE DONE QUITE A FEW PERFORMANCES ALREADY, INCLUDING YOUR RECENT APPEARANCE AT THE MEMPHIS CONCRETE MUSIC FESTIVAL. HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHERE YOU’LL PERFORM? GC: When I’m booking shows myself, I choose the venues very specifically. Especially in cities where there is a high demand, like New York City, I pick the venue that makes the most sense for the crowd.

I definitely like to play more intimate, smaller shows and sell them out than play a room so big it will never feel full.

That’s not to say I won’t play just about anywhere if someone wants to reach out to me seriously.

physically pick you up and carry you through the air. That’s the positive energy I was talking about. The songs and the show are dichotomous.

HN: WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE LIKE WHEN CO-FOUNDING 100% ELECTRONICA? GC: It was actually very easy. The hardest part was convincing people it was a real label. But between my partner, Negative Gemini, and I, we had four different groups who had already reached a certain level of success that we could put under our label umbrella.

By the time we released our first outsider record, “Surfing – Deep Fantasy,” the press was already referring to us as a label. Ultimately it was super easy because we had the respect of the audience and of other artists we wanted to work with before we even started. If we didn’t have that it would’ve been nearly impossible. Still we are very small and boutique, but we do have a pretty unreal cult following and that’s more than we ever hoped for.

HN: WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR 100% ELECTRONICA? GC: I would like to get to the point where we can sell at least 1,000 records just by putting our stamp on it. With that kind of power, you can break out new artists you believe in and mutually benefit from it.

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HN: WHERE ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE PLACES TO PERFORM AT, SO FAR? GC: I have played Elsewhere in Brooklyn a few times now and I really like how the crowd pops off in that room. Recently Satellite Bar in Houston surprised me with how sick it was. Empty Bottle in Chicago is another one that is always loud and wild.

HN: WHAT CAN THE AUDIENCE EXPECT FROM YOU AT YOUR SHOWS? WHAT IS THE ATMOSPHERE LIKE? GC: First-time viewers never know what to expect. But it’s loud and high energy from start to finish. We will jump around together and sing all the words as a group.

In Richmond, Virginia, this year, someone who didn’t know what was going on with the mosh punched a guy in the face. As the show went on, the puncher bought the punchee a drink, apologized and started jumping around in the pit too. There is just too much positive energy.

HN: YOU SAY YOU DON’T WANT TO BE COMPARED TO OTHER ARTISTS AND TRY TO EXPRESS YOUR UNIQUE STYLE, BUT ARE THERE ANY ARTISTS WHO INSPIRE YOU WHEN YOU’RE CREATING NEW MUSIC? GC: I think very recently Tame Impala reinforced this idea of being your own. I didn’t appreciate his first two albums very much because to me it sounded like The Beatles mixed with Black Sabbath or something and I didn’t feel surprised or impressed by any of his choices. It didn’t feel original.

So, I didn’t listen to the third album, “Currents,” for years until my friend put it on during a road trip. By contrast, “Currents” seemed very original and honest, and as a re-

sult, I listened closer and respected the music more. So, there’s that. But earlier in my life, 311 taught me how important it was to “Come Original.”

HN: YOU RECENTLY SHARED THAT YOUR DOG, KODY, PASSED “INTO THE NEXT DIMENSION.” WHAT DID HE MEAN TO YOU AS AN ARTIST? GC: I don’t think I drew inspiration from Kody musically in any way, but Kody has been a very important part of my life for years now, and all the fans know him by name. He was kind of a mascot for us.

HN: YOU REFERRED TO KODY BY SEVERAL DIFFERENT NAMES, WHY? GC: It’s just the sense of humor my girlfriend and me have.

Have you ever had a significant other for a long time or anyone else that you love that you didn’t have several nicknames for? It’s even easier to nickname a dog because you can imagine they like all of the nicknames. We called him “Mister Roll Tail” because he was a husky and he had a rolly rail.

HN: YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS IN BROOKLYN, WHY DO YOU WANT TO MOVE TO LA? GC: It took like 10-15 shows before we were selling out shows in New York City, but it only took two tries in LA. It seems like we have a bigger fanbase there.

My brand of wacky pop music seems to be in demand there and I want to move there and thrive! Also, several celebrities we admire were at our sold-out show, which played right into our LA fantasy. We just want to live that life. And the weather is nice all year.

GEORGE CLANTON’S NEW ALBUM, “SLIDE,” WAS RELEASED ON AUG. 17 AND CAN BE STREAMED ON SPOTIFY AND ITUNES.

HN: YOUR FIRST ALBUM, “100% ELECTRONICA,” WAS SUCCESSFUL AMONG VAPORWAVE ARTISTS AND ON BANDCAMP. HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU HEARD “SLIDE” HIT NO. 1 AS THE BEST-SELLING ON BANDCAMP’S VINYL CHARTS? GC: A big relief! All of my releases have hit No. 1, so it would’ve been a big glaring sign that my career was falling off if it didn’t hit No. 1. Bandcamp is more popular than ever, as are vinyl records, so I had to accept that it was going to be a lot harder to reach No. 1 than it was in previous years. As time has passed with the preorder, I see now that many people are just as excited as I am to have this record out and it’s selling better than any of my other releases.

HN: WHAT SHOULD FANS EXPECT FROM YOUR NEWEST ALBUM? GC: They can expect it to be my best work, also the most unique. I think this album will be even harder to draw comparisons to single artists. I am trying my best to really show that I am my own thing.

HN: HOW DOES “SLIDE,” WHICH CAME OUT ON AUG. 17, COMPARE TO YOUR PAST RELEASES? GC: It’s more open and free than my previous work. The album is all over the place stylistically. That isn’t to say its unfocused. I think it works beautifully. I think the most striking new element is that there are more bits of rock and roll: acoustic drums, electric guitars, etc.

HN: ARE THERE ANY OTHER PROJECTS YOU ARE WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT? GC: I am working on buying old deck fingerboards on eBay and putting my own art on them to commemorate the release of my new album.

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In her work, the artist and feminist explores the multitudes women contain.

BY CAMERON ANDERSEN, NE W YORK UNIVERSI T Y

There’s an illustration floating around on Tumblr of a set of feminine facial features — wide eyes, button nose, cherubic lips — sketched onto a baby pink background. Written over the face is the phrase “His opinion does not define you.” Click on the artist’s credit on the bottom of the post and you’ll be rerouted to a Tumblr account called Ambivalently Yours. Theme: pink. Bio: “I can’t always make up my mind, but I am boldly undecided (feminist rants/ questionable advice/ too much pink).” Content: decidedly feminist … possibly even subversive?

The artist’s Instagram boasts the same content, a similar bio and almost 60,000 followers. Scroll down the page and you’ll find a drawing of a double-headed girl, the faces similar but not exact: “It confused you that I was both delicate and full of fury.” A girl with orange lips and pom-poms for hair: “My softness is my armour.” A braided and banged girl with a hole by the side of her mouth: “I’m tenderly angry and cautiously hopeful.” All pink, pink, pink.

Ambivalently Yours is the artist behind this “feminist practice,” this ode to the complexity of girlhood and the countless manifestations of femininity.

Her profile picture is a figure in a pink hoodie zipped all the way up to the throat, hood drawn up over a face that’s covered in pink hair. Ambivalently Yours has decided to remain anonymous, but she isn’t hiding behind her facelessness — she’s using it.

Anonymity isn’t the only trademark of the artist; many of AY’s pieces deal with the dichotomy between soft and strong and the possibility that both can exist simultaneously in all women. That duality makes itself known throughout her entire gallery of work; the above-mentioned illustration of the double-headed girl is a perfect example (“It confused you that I was both delicate and full of fury”).

AY’s art is made by a woman, for women and inspired by women. It really is a team effort backed by femininity and made possible by the individual experiences of women.

Each piece is a reminder that girls occupy space, and complex thoughts and emotions occupy girls.

And Ambivalently Yours is nowhere near done. In addition to Season 2 of her podcast, Rebelliously Tiny, which will premiere later this summer, she is always producing work.

As long as a girl has a story to share, AY will be there to sketch it out in pink and strength and softness.

CAMERON ANDERSEN: WHICH PRONOUNS DO YOU GO BY? AMBIVALENTLY YOURS: She/Her CA: COULD YOU PLEASE START WITH GIVING JUST A BIT OF BACKGROUND ON THE WORK YOU CREATE AND WHY YOU STARTED THE “AMBIVALENTLY YOURS” ACCOUNT? AY: I first started my feminist practice as Ambivalently Yours in 2011 when I was studying feminist art while working in the fashion industry, which seemed like a huge contradiction. At work, I became the feminist killjoy every time I raised a concern about the sexist undertones in our campaigns, and in art school I was the fashion girl who many assumed was duped by the patriarchy just because I was drawn to softness and feminine colors. I felt caught somewhere in-between two worlds that I both loved and hated; in other words, I felt ambivalent. Eventually, I decided to embrace my contradictions. Ambivalently Yours became my braver alter ego, giving me a way of exploring my feminist questions from this in-between place where things are undefined and pink can be powerful.

CA: WHY ARE YOU “AMBIVALENT?” AY: Ambivalence means the co-existence of conflicting emotions, like loving and hating something at the same time. To me ambivalence is the word I use to describe how I feel about most things. By embracing ambivalence I’m giving myself permission to have complicated opinions. To quote Rebecca Solnit from the book “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild possibilities”: “The answer to most either/ or questions is both; the best response to a paradox is to embrace both sides instead of cutting off one or the other for the sake of coherence.”

CA: HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE PODCAST PLATFORM TO THE INSTAGRAM PLATFORM? HAVE YOU

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I make work to remind myself and others to embrace our complicated emotions and to hopefully help people (and myself) feel a little less alone.

FOUND THAT ONE SUITS YOUR NEEDS BETTER? AY: Instagram in a good place to share quick thoughts and emotions through simple drawings. Podcasting is a more long-form medium where I can explore more complicated ideas that benefit from being approached more slowly and carefully. To me, both mediums are complementary.

CA: HAVE YOU HAD ANY GRATIFYING INTERACTIONS WITH FANS OF YOUR WORK? AY: I’ve met so many of my friends and collaborators through sharing my art online. But really, any day that anyone writes to me to tell me that they saw my work and know exactly what I mean is a good day. To me art is a language, so when you find other people who understand that language, it’s very gratifying.

CA: IS THERE A SPECIFIC PIECE OF YOURS WHOSE CREATION REALLY IMPACTED YOU? AY: In 2015, I was invited to do a three-month residency at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. During my time there I tried to respond to as many of the messages that people wrote to me online as I could with drawings. I made a hundred drawings and answered hundreds of messages. It was a really intense and overwhelming project, but it was also the first time that I really had the time and space to make work and think of myself as a “real artist.”

Making these pink drawings can feel so silly and unimportant sometimes, so doing it as a full-time job for three months was a huge gift and privilege. It really changed the way I valued what I do, and helped me convince myself that the things that many people think are silly can actually be

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important if we decide to treat them as so.

CA: CAN YOU TELL ME THE INSPIRATION/STORY BEHIND ONE OF YOUR PIECES? AY: The majority of my work is inspired by the messages that people write to me online, which I respond to with drawings (you see these exchanges on Tumblr), or more recently with my podcast Rebelliously Tiny.

CA: WHAT DO YOU HOPE YOUR FOLLOWERS TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR WORK? AY: I make work to remind myself and others to embrace our complicated emotions and to hopefully help people (and myself) feel a little less alone.

CA: DO YOU THINK YOUR ANONYMITY HAS INFORMED YOUR WORK OR VICE VERSA? AY: I think that my anonymity has helped me be braver in my work, and it might have sometimes shielded me from some of the more volatile and violent aspects of the internet. It does sometimes also get in the way. It sometimes makes me feel a little too separate and compartmentalized from what I am doing. Like everything else, I have mixed feelings about it.

CA: IN WHAT WAYS ARE REMAINING ANONYMOUS CRUCIAL TO YOUR PROJECT? AY: I’m not sure that it is crucial, it’s just what feels best right now. It might change, it might not.

CA: WHAT SELF-CARE HABITS HAVE YOU PICKED UP? IS THERE ONE IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU FIND

ESPECIALLY USEFUL? AY: I try to take social media breaks when I can. I place my phone far away from me when I’m eating a meal or working, so that I don’t start stress scrolling out of habit. I’m generally not great at self-care, it’s something I need to keep working on. I’m trying to get better at taking time off, resting more, moving more.

CA: ARE YOUR PIECES INSPIRED BY PEOPLE YOU KNOW IN REAL LIFE? AY: As I mentioned earlier, mostly my work is inspired by anonymous questions I get online, which I filter through my own personal experiences and interactions.

CA: DO YOU EVER FIND THAT USING A PRIMARILY PINK COLOR SCHEME LIMITS YOU? HOW DOES IT LEND ITSELF TO YOUR MESSAGE? AY: I don’t see it as a limit; I see it as a signature. All the drawings I post online are part of an ongoing series, so in a way they are all part of one big, never-ending art piece. By using the same pink I am linking them all together.

I decided to make all my drawings light pink because people kept telling me not to. The use of pink is actually my resistance against everyone who told me that soft pink was not a powerful color, or that my work was too feminine and not confident or strong enough. I know that girls are brainwashed from a young age to like pink, and maybe part of my affection for it is rooted in that, but I disagree that everything associated with girlhood should be automatically be seen as weak and silly.

CA: YOU DO A LOT WITH THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN SOFT AND STRONG. COULD YOU SPEAK TO THAT A LITTLE BIT? AY: We live in a world that devalues emotions, especially emotions that are associated with femininity like sadness, softness, vulnerability. As someone who has always been hyper-emotional, I know how hard it is to process and express emotions. It takes a great deal of strength to feel things. I try to highlight that in my work.

CA: DO YOU HAVE ANY PROJECTS THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON? AY: I am currently working on editing Season 2 of my podcast, Rebelliously Tiny, which I co-produce with Hannah McCasland. The episodes will be out later this summer and in the fall. You can listen on my website or subscribe on Apple podcasts, Stitcher or Google Play.

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fresh lies and a new face

For Austin musician Mobley, it’s about so much more than the fame.

B Y J O N AT H A N C H R I S T I A N , NORT HWES T VIS TA C OL L EGE P H O T O S B Y M AT T R O B E R T S O N , U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S AT A U S T I N

Originality doesn’t exist in modern music — or at least, it can appear that way sometimes.

With trap-centric pop songs and overly glitzy summer anthems contaminating mainstream radio, from the outside looking in, the music industry seems intent on repackaging and recycling the same trends and spewing them out for mass consumption with little consideration for quality. ‘ Furthermore, as a listener you’re also forced to contend with internet celebrities who chose to pursue a musical career after a publicity stunt on a daytime TV show — yes, I’m referring to Danielle “Cash Me Outside” Bregoli — or the never-ending, progressively bothersome wave of SoundCloud rappers, though neither party seems to possess an inkling of long-standing talent or innovation.

In 2018, listeners thrive on immediacy, a reality that causes chart-toppers and popular artists to disappear as quickly as they arrive. Taking all these factors into account, it’s safe to say that musicians exist in an unforgiving environment. If you’re lucky enough to get noticed

based solely on your talents, your chances at remaining relevant seem slim to none, and it’s only a matter of time before your career vanishes into the wind of yesteryear.

Mobley, though, doesn’t much seem to mind. For him, creating music isn’t a means to gain recognition, but rather a method of personal expression that just so happens to function as a career. Despite gaining a notable following — the majority of the musician’s songs on SoundCloud exceed 500,000 listens — notoriety seems to be an afterthought for the burgeoning star.

Although Mobley is far from secretive, the musician’s reserved nature and humble perspective on his craft provide an intriguing contrast to his colorful, constantly evolving output, as evidenced by his debut project, “Fresh Lies Vol. 1.” It’s difficult to select one factor that sets him apart from his contemporaries, though his self-described “post-genre pop” certainly speaks for itself. From the earworm chorus of “Tell Me” to the pitch-shifted vocals laced throughout “Hound the World,” the artist’s flair for merging eccentric experimentation and sharp songwriting into unforgettable tunes leaves an impression.

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Most of all, “Fresh Lies Vol. 1” feels original. Over the course of the project’s 10-track duration, Mobley proves that he’s an artist that deserves your attention. I sat down with up-and-coming musician to discuss his debut album, weird fan interactions and the difficulties of being an artist in the internet age.

JONATHAN CHRISTIAN: WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE QUESTION TO ANSWER IN AN INTERVIEW? MOBLEY: That’s a really long list. In a general sense, I would say any question that reveals that the interviewer doesn’t really know who they’re talking to or really doesn’t care who they’re talking to.

Or, any question that’s super generic like, “How did you get started in music?” or “How would you describe your music?” They can be fine in a certain context, but if it’s the very first thing they ask, that’s annoying.

JC: DOES MUSIC RUN IN YOUR FAMILY? M: No, my immediate family is not particularly musical. No one other than myself really plays any instruments — certainly not very seriously.

I did have an aunt who was a professional musician for a while. She had a touring gospel choir.

JC: WHAT TYPE OF KID WERE YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL? M: Probably a little jerk. I was a shy kid, but I was what you would call an overachiever. I was class president, valedictorian and played three sports. A weird mix I guess, but I kept to myself mostly.

JC: HAS MUSIC ALWAYS BEEN YOUR FORM OF EXPRESSING YOURSELF? M: It definitely came later. I’d planned to be a lawyer and thought I’d go into politics. I wrote my first real song the summer after high school, and ever since then, that’s basically all I’ve been doing. It kind of turned into a career on its own.

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JC: WHAT WAS YOUR BREAKTHROUGH INTO THE INDUSTRY? M: I’m still waiting for that moment in a certain sense.

I’ve been a professional musician, in that I’ve made a living doing music exclusively, for close to three years. So I guess, by a lot of metrics, that would be “making it.”

However, how long you can sustain that, or whether that turns into a 20-year career, is a different question. But, I definitely appreciate it.

There have obviously been a lot of little milestones before and since then. My first headline gig or first sold-out show, playing [Austin City Limits] or playing Lollapalooza this year, are all really exciting. I’m not convinced that there will ever be one clear moment where it’s like, “I’ve made it.” It seems like it happens more gradually than that.

JC: HAVE YOU HAD ANY WEIRD FAN INTERACTIONS YET? M: Oh my gosh. Yes. My wildest fan story happened during South by Southwest one year. Some fans apparently convinced my roommates at the time that they were friends of mine. I don’t know how they found out where I lived, but my roommates let them in. They took a shower in my bathroom and rummaged around my bedroom. I don’t know what else they did, but that was pretty weird.

I guess that was kind of an “I’ve made it” moment. I’ve taken security more seriously since then because there was no reason for me to expect that anyone would every do anything like that.

JC: WHAT’S THE MEANING BEHIND THE NAME MOBLEY? M: I’ve pulled a lot of different lies about the meaning. I guess I mostly just like the way it looks and sounds.

Fresh Lies is an allusion to the type of cyclical nature of a lot of the rhetoric in America and the tactics that people in power will deploy to hold onto it.

JC: WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE ON “FRESH LIES” FOR THE TITLE OF YOUR DEBUT? M: “Fresh Lies,” as a phrase, was a result of me looking around at the world and noticing lots of lies, deception and narratives that were being put forward are really just a reframing of old narratives we pretend that we’ve evolved past and matured beyond. So, “Fresh Lies” is an allusion to the type of cyclical nature of a lot of the rhetoric in [America] and the tactics that people in power will deploy to hold onto it.

JC: I’VE NOTICED A LOT OF YOUR MUSIC SEEMS TO DERIVE FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. DO YOU MAKE MUSIC FOR YOURSELF OR IN RESPONSE TO WHAT YOU SEE AROUND YOU? M: I would say both. It really feels like one thing. I’m a strong believer in the feminist idea that the personal is political. If I’m feeling particularly sad, happy or angry, it’s hard to separate that from the fact that I’m part of a larger system that impacts me, that I contribute to or resist. It’s an internal reaction to the world around me as I experience it.

JC: THE MAJORITY OF YOUR SONGS, ESPECIALLY ON “FRESH LIES,” MELD CATCHINESS WITH SLIGHTLY EXPERIMENTAL ELEMENTS. IS THAT A SOUND YOU ACTIVELY TRY TO ACHIEVE? M: I think it’s part of my voice as a producer and a songwriter. I really love catchy, melodic music, but I also really enjoy music that pushes you to expand the way that you think about music or what’s aesthetically pleasing. I like to give people lots of sonic surprises in my music. I think it’s a combination of being obsessed with catchy songwriting and forward-thinking production.

JC: DO YOU APPROACH MAKING SONGS FROM A MELODIC OR SONGWRITING STANDPOINT? M: Recently, the most common way is for the song to come together all at once. I’ll hear a sound in my head and it’ll be a lyric with a melody, or it could be a drum beat. Then I’ll make decisions like, I want the drums to

be super compressed, a really long reverb on the piano, or a certain distortion on the guitar and I want the vocals to be processed in a particular way.

As of late, songs are coming to me fully fleshed out or with a strong sense of what the road map is. It’s a holistic process. I make all my records at home. My studio’s always set up in the same way, so when I start a demo, I’m really starting the final version of the record.

JC: IS THERE A CERTAIN TIMEFRAME YOU DEDICATE TO A SONG THAT DETERMINES WHETHER YOU RELEASE IT OR NOT? M: I wish I could release everything as I finish it. That would be the most exciting and fun way to do it. But, especially now, music has such a short self-life with a lot of people. They’ll listen to something briefly and move on to the new thing.

You have to be careful with what you release. I’ll put weeks or months into making a song and then when it’s out, it’s gone. I just try to be strategic, and sometimes that means putting something out after a few weeks or a few years.

JC: WHAT IS THE GREATEST STRUGGLE YOU’VE FACED BEING A MUSICIAN IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET? M: It’s definitely hard to get people’s attention. I believe that once you have people’s attention, it’s just as easy or hard to stand out and convince them that you still have something compelling to say that’s worth their time. But, getting their attention in the first place is definitely difficult.

The means of production has become so cheap that the barriers to entry are basically nothing for most middle-class people. Anyone can make a record. Anyone can release a record. In most places in the country, anyone can book a show. On top of that, you’re not just competing with other music, you’re competing with streaming video services, gaming consoles and the

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endless amount of entertainment options at people’s disposal.

People talk a lot about how [record labels] are dead, and how you don’t need them anymore. There might be some truth in that, but there’s still no replacement for having access to mass media. I think when you can guarantee thousands of people will see or hear something, that’s something the average person in their bedroom can’t compete with unless they get really lucky, and that’s like buying a lottery ticket. You don’t set up a business plan around a lottery ticket.

JC: CONSIDERING ALL THOSE FACTORS, WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED TO KEEP MAKING MUSIC? M: I would be doing this no matter what. I’m pretty obsessed with making music and I need a job, so I might as well be doing something that I enjoy doing or that I feel called to do. It can definitely be discouraging at times, but it can also be really rewarding.

I got an email earlier today from somebody I’ve never met.

She said she heard my last single and the words she used were, “It changed my life.” She said she fell to her knees and started crying. It’s incredible to hear that. There aren’t a lot of jobs I’m qualified for where I would get that kind of reaction to my work, so experiences like that are definitely encouraging.

JC: ARE THERE ANY ARTISTS YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO COLLABORATE WITH? M: I can name lots of people who I think I could make cool records with. But if somebody said, “Pick two artists and they’ll be waiting for you in the studio when you get home,” I’d probably say Rihanna and Kevin Parker from Tame Impala.

JC: DO YOU STRIVE TO BE ON THAT MAINSTREAM LEVEL? M: I honestly just want job security. I’m from a working-class background and I feel like I take that approach with being a musician. I definitely don’t have any desire to be famous in a personal way. I’d love for my music to be well known, and if that means Mobley is a big name, that’s cool.

But, at the same time, there are lots of musicians that I know where you could go all over the country and ask if anyone in a particular room has heard them and virtually no one will ever say yes. But, those musicians are making a comfortable living making music because they have a core fanbase and they’ll be fine doing that for the rest of their lives.

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I really just want artistic freedom. Whatever path leads to that in the best way, that’s the path I’m interested in following. That said, obviously, playing to huge crowds is really fun so I’m all about that.

JC: DO YOU HAVE ANY PROJECTS IN THE WORKS? M: Right now, we’re just focusing on promoting “Fresh Lies” and the song “Swoon” in particular. But, I’m always writing. I’d say that I’m probably 75 percent finished with the next record.

JC: IF THERE’S ONE TAKEAWAY YOU WANT FOR LISTENERS, WHAT WOULD IT BE? M: I definitely want people to be inspired. I don’t know exactly how I want them to be inspired, but if music is uninspiring — if it’s not captivating, it feels like waste. I hope people are walking away feeling energized, compelled and inspired from what they just heard or saw.

I really just want artistic freedom.

Whatever path leads to that in the best way, that’s the path I’m interested in following.

your september horoscope

BY S AR AH P ENIX, OHIO UNIVERSI T Y

ARIES Because Mars is entering Aquarius on the 10th, changes in regard to friends and ideas of the future will be afoot. It is important to stay grounded by being self-aware.

TAURUS With Venus entering Scorpio on the 9th, you will be able to use flattery to get you anywhere you want, if you use it wisely. During this time, manifest the adaptability you feel emotionally by embracing meaningful interactions.

GEMINI You will find enhanced focus and a demanding need for solitude with Mercury moving from Virgo to Libra as school begins. Later in the month, you will find that you are more connected with your creative self-expression than usual.

CANCER The new moon on September 9 will help you feel at ease socially and more aware of your environment as classes begin to pick up pace.

LEO With your ruling planet entering Libra at the end of the month, prepare for a busy schedule and full social life, but be sure to give others extra time and attention or else your connections will suffer.

VIRGO With Mercury entering your sign at the start of September, you may feel restless due to thought overload. This is a good time to speak your goals for the year into existence.

LIBRA Mercury enters your sign on the 21st, so expect to speak your mind and for relationships with classmates to be more prominent.

SCORPIO When Venus enters your sign on the 9th, anticipate for your inhibitions to disappear. During this time, your focus will be on pleasure-seeking activities and your appearance.

SAGITTARIUS With Jupiter sextile Pluto on the 12th, the only way you will see success this month is if you make positive changes in your routine, perspective and habits.

CAPRICORN Your ruling planet Saturn goes direct to kick off September, giving you a fresh approach to transformation and perspective. During this time, be sure to practice self-care and realize your goals.

AQUARIUS When Mars enters your signs on the 10th, you will be motived this month to make your mark on the academic year through self-assertion and taking charge of your life.

PISCES When Chiron Retrograde enters your sign at the end of the month, you will be especially impacted by the healing energy this transit provides to any deep wounds.

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