OCT. 30 - NOV. 6, 2018
VOL. 86 | NO. 11
/gsusignal
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The
halloween issue
ILLUSTRATION BY SHANCHEZE JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL
MISSING GRADY BABIES
REMINISCING
COSTUME SHOPPING
YOU CAN PLAY, TOO
Grady Hospital is home to disturbing mysteries surrounding a high number of infant abductions.
The Signal editorial staff remembers how Halloween shaped their childhood.
There are a lot of fun places to shop and thrift your way into sexy thread.
Georgia State intramural sports have everything from ping pong and basketball, to NBA 2K and Madden NFL.
NEWS | PAGE 6 GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
OPINIONS PAGE 8
News 3
ARTS & LIVING | PAGE 12
OPINIONs 7
Arts & Living 9
SPORTS | PAGE 17
Sports 15
NEWS
2
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
BLOTTER OCT. 22
Training wheels? Off. Law? Broke. Me? Zoomin’.
A Georgia State student reported a bicycle theft at the University Lofts first level parking deck at 12:29 p.m. OCT. 24
Blazin’ near Broad
A Georgia State student was arrested at Aderhold Learning Center on a charge of marijuana possession.
This is how I flirt, OK?
Someone not affiliated with Georgia State was arrested on Capitol Avenue on a charge of following too closely.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Daniel Varitek
editor@georgiastatesignal.com executive editor (atlanta) Vacant executive editor (perimeter) Vacant
We’ve all got that one crazy ex...
Editorial NEWS EDITOR Will Solomons
A Georgia State student reported criminal damage upon entering their car at the University Lofts parking deck.
news@georgiastatesignal.com
ASSociate NEWS EDITOR Natori Spence news2@georgiastatesignal.com OPINIONS EDITOR Vacant opinions@georgiastatesignal.com associate oPINIONS EDITOR Vacant opinions2@georgiastatesignal.com ARTS & LIVING EDITOR Sydney Bloeme living@georgiastatesignal.com
OCT. 25
ASSociate ARTS & Living EDITOr Samuel Puckett
Oh, I thought yellow meant speed up?
living2@georgiastatesignal.com SPORTS EDITOR Jerell Rushin sports@georgiastatesignal.com ASSociate SPORTS EDITOR Vacant sports2@georgiastatesignal.com copy editor Vacant copy@georgiastatesignal.com
Someone not affiliated with Georgia State was arrested at Edgewood Avenue and Peachtree Street on a charge of failure to obey a traffic control device.
Production production editor Devin Phillips
ILLUSTRATION BY DEMETRI BURKE | THE SIGNAL
PHOTO OF THE WEEK Dunwoody Campus holds a homecoming celebration on Oct. 24 filled with events, games and even a table where students can create a homecoming shirt to show off their Georgia State pride.
productions@georgiastatesignal.com Associate production editor Vacant production2@georgiastatesignal.com
PHOTOGRAPHY photo EDITOr (atlanta) Vanessa Johnson
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PHOTO BY DAKOTA SMITH | THE SIGNAL
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NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
www.georgiastatesignal.com/news
Paranormal investigation finds potential evidence in Kell Hall A paranormal investigator carries a detailed conversation with a potential spirit named Walter ADA WOOD Staff Reporter
D
o you believe in ghosts? With a little skepticism but an open mind, The Signal brought a paranormal investigator to Georgia State to answer one question: Is our campus haunted? The team was accompanied by Georgia State University Police Department Officer Hyron Catlyn as a police escort and Jennifer Spear, the paranormal investigator who blogs under the name “The Haunted Feminist.” The following story should be considered with a healthy dose of skepticism. These are the highlights of any seemingly suspicious activity that took place in the early morning of Oct. 14 at 1 a.m.
THE INVESTIGATION
To start the investigation off with a bang, the team headed right into home base: The Signal office in Student Center West. Spear concluded that the office was not haunted since there was no evidence from her devices. The investigation then led to Sparks Hall and the lower floors of Kell Hall where Spear determined there was convincing evidence found. The Signal headed up to the sixth floor where there was a door labeled, “Do not enter, hazardous material.” Inside, there was an old laboratory in complete ruins. Glass bottles, beakers and flasks littered the floors and counters, mostly broken. Vials and jugs of liquid chemicals and composition books filled with notes were left behind, covered in dust. Spear began using a “spirit box,” a device that rapidly flips through radio stations and, supposedly through channeled energy, allows spirits to speak through the stations. The lab in Kell Hall was different than any place The Signal had investigated that night. The spirit box was more active and the box emitted constant, clear sounds and noises. Previously, the team would wait as long as three minutes before any sound was emitted from the box. But the strangest of all was the repeated clarity of one voice in particular. The voice was heard over multiple stations in a row: the voice of an older man. Despite this, the words were broken as if someone was losing service on a call. The box was blaringly loud. Everyone covered their ears and had to shout to communicate. Spear dialed down the volume knob on the box to its quietest setting, but there was no change in volume. “It’s so loud in here. I can’t hear you. Can you turn it down a little bit?” Spear said, shouting over the noise. The volume dropped immediately. Everyone in the room was shocked. The team asked if the voice in the box trusted them or if it was angry with them. “Stay,” the voice said, as the sounds grew louder. Spear said the spirit was probably excited and was having trouble keeping the volume low and communicating at the same time. The voice spoke again: “Help.” The team questioned if going to a different room or floor would be better to communicate. As the team was considering leaving the laboratory, the box crackled out a response. “Wait. Stay,” it said. Spear said she believed the voice seem interested in speaking to the team, who then inquired on the potential spirit’s name. “Walter,” the box said. After asking it twice if its name was Walter, both times it said, “Yes.” “Are you here with us?” Spear asked, to the empty room. “Look closer,” he responded clearly. Everyone repeated what he said in unison to confirm their ears weren’t faulting them. “Can I take your picture?” Spear asked and pulled out her camera.
“Images,” the voice said. She took several photos but upon later analysis found nothing out of the ordinary. The team moved into an office connected to the lab and the spirit box’s clarity abruptly changed no voices could be heard, only loud, slow beeping. “Are you angry the building is being torn down? Is this your home?” Spear said, as she returned to the lab. The voice responded with an audible, “Home.” The team talked to Walter a while longer, but, slowly, his responses became less prevalent and the team eventually left. After exiting the room, The Signal asked the police escort what he thought of the investigation so far. “You’re switching channels that people are talking on so you are going to hear things that come together. If you shut it off, you hear something, then you will believe,” Catlyn said. “You’re wasting your time.” The team headed up the rampway to the next floor, and written on a chalkboard there was what could be an ominous sign or a simple student prank. Written in chalk it said, “There is no escape.” Below that, “Nope? Try upstairs.” After heading upstairs and finding nothing else of interest and nothing in Langdale Hall other than the realization that the volume button was no longer broken, The Signal concluded that the place with the most activity had already been found and called it a night at 3:30 a.m. One student on the team suggested the spirit belonged to Walter Strauss, the owner of the sneaker shop across from Langdale Hall. Strauss passed away earlier this year after a life of 94 years in which he fled Nazi Germany and built a business in Downtown Atlanta.
The Investigator Investigator The JENNIFER SPEAR
THE HISTORY
There are at least four events in the history of Atlanta that could be directly traced to a cause of any paranormal activity on Georgia State’s campus, according to Kyle Cobb, an independent paranormal investigator. Cobb began paranormal investigations 12 years ago and specializes in demonic activity and agitated spirits. “Georgia has been occupied for at least 15,000 years,” Cobb said. The first victims of mass death around campus were the Muscogee or “Creek” Indians, of whom it is estimated 90 percent were killed by smallpox due to Spanish exploration. “In the early 1500s, there were approximately 30,000 to 50,000 Muskogee,” Cobb said. “200 years later, there were only about 2,000 families left.” Atlanta was founded to serve as a location where the Atlantic and western railroad lines met and was consequently nicknamed “Terminus.” “To build this railroad, they relied on slave labor,” he said. “This station was essentially the modern Five Points in Atlanta, right on Georgia State campus.” The Civil War was the next period of mass death on campus grounds. “There were all sorts of skirmishes around the city of Atlanta but also a particularly huge battle,” Cobb said. The Battle of Atlanta saw over 75,000 soldiers engaged with the total estimated casualties in the battle at 9,222. “You had horrific fighting, the buildings burned, all of these things happening right where your campus is today,” Cobb said. The fourth and final incident Cobb identified was the influenza outbreak of 1918. In Georgia, 20 million people were killed by the flu in just 18 months. Atlanta was no exception to the epidemic, with 2,000 reported cases at once. “In Atlanta there were so many dead they were stacked up on the sidewalks like a wood pile,” he said. Cobb said that between each of these events, Georgia State has a real potential to be haunted. “For certain, all of these events occurred right where the campus is today,” he said. As the death toll rose, rumors of ghosts and tales of spirits continued to rise with it, leading to the whispers of the supernatural that surround Atlanta’s most haunted locations, including Georgia State.
Jennifer Spear, a paranormal investigator and lawyer, goes by the title The Haunted Feminist. She aided The Signal in discovering if Georgia State is truly haunted.
The equipment equipment The SPIRIT BOX & SPEAKER
A “spirit box,” a device that scans radio frequencies in an attempt to communicate with potential spirits through radio waves, was used during The Signal’s paranormal investigation of the Georgia State downtown campus.
PHOTOS BY JULIAN PINEDA | THE SIGNAL
NEWS
4
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
Excorcist Bishop Bryan D. Ouellette and nuns lead Mass with chant and song.
PHOTO BY ZACH SALLING | THE SIGNAL
A modern-day unconventional exorcist
Wrestling demons in and outside the church, pistol at his side ZACH SALLING Staff Reporter
E
xorcist Bishop Bryan D. Ouellette, now “semi-retired,” spends his time expelling demons. His sermon on Sept. 16 began with a verse from Matthew 16:25, one of the most difficult verses he said it was for him to teach. This particular sermon often serves as an instruction for one of the more difficult rituals in Catholicism: exorcisms.
THE CHURCH
Ouellette’s Holy Nicholean Catholic Church is tucked between a tattoo parlor and sports equipment shop in Cartersville, Georgia. On Sept. 16, an overcast sky and light rain set off the morning before Mass. Nothing marked the Holy Nicholean Church save for their emblem on the outside of their door. The inside was not as low-profile. It was pitch black. A purple light illuminating a porcelain-like statue of Jesus Christ on a cross behind a metal gate provided the only light for the room. In front of the metal gate was the lectern, followed by an empty set of four pews. Religious Byzantine-style paintings covered the walls. On the left side of the room, a thicket of branches sectioned off a white-clothed table. An aluminum bucket, sized for an infant, sat atop. A family of three—a man, woman and child—occupied the left side of the room. A woman, who arrived later, sat in the back. Besides the family and woman, the pews were empty. Bishop Ouellette, Sister Mary Joan and Sister Kateri, all in white cloaks, and Sister Elizabeth Healey and Sister Maximilian, both in black cloaks, performed Mass. They began with chants and songs, turning on and off various lamps that sat around the lectern. Ouellette returned to Matthew 16:25, using the verse as a lesson in reevaluating identity, a verse that the bishop said additionally supports exorcisms. “We live in entropy, don’t we? We waste away,” Ouellette said. “Whatever is remembered about you is fiction, gets changed, as people tell the story and you become someone other than who you really were.” With a switch of a lamp, the sermon ended.
A MODERN-DAY EXORCIST
Ouellette met with The Signal at the back of the church. He removed his cope, a liturgical vestment, revealing a pistol holstered to his hip. Ouellette does not fit the general mold of the clergy. He’s explored several Roman Catholic religions and left his pastoral ministry due to his witnessing corruption. Afterward, he completed a degree in psychology and worked in clinical
facilities, managing care of clients with disorders such as schizophrenia. He continued his religious studies through an independent Catholic ministry where he was consecrated by his bishop under Eastern Orthodox church traditions. “I’m not a traditional pastor, in which I have a congregation,” Ouellette said. “This is a mission church. This church services people who are in spiritual crisis.” Ouellette discovered the Independent Sacramental Movement, leading to the creation of the Holy Nicholean, a church where the bishop doesn’t have to report to a higher authority. The Holy Nicholean church specializes in exorcisms. Ouellette performs these as a Catholic bishop, though the church is not in union with the Vatican. The church itself holds refuge for the community who seeks spiritual connection where they may have been shunned elsewhere. “[Attendees] don’t have to worry about jumping through the hoops the Roman Catholic Church has them jump through. Here, if you’re a baptized Christian, you’re welcome,” Ouellette said. He’s also a celebrity, having appeared in the Rolling Stone and conducted an exorcism on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures. “Some people have criticized me for being willing to go on TV,” Ouellette said. “Look, I can make two choices: I can continue to leave this a taboo subject, only making it more enticing by making it more mysterious, or I can use my expertise in the same way, going public and using that notoriety to educate. I prefer the latter.” Though Ouellette seeks to educate about the practice of exorcisms, he recognizes modern views of Christianity and the mass opposition toward it. “I don’t blame [society] for marginalizing the Christian religion because most of the people who call themselves Christians are nut cases. Plain and simple,” Ouellette said. “You can quote me on that.” The South is often attributed as a haven for religious fanaticism. As Flannery O’Connor, a southern author from Milledgeville, said, “While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.” Reports of exorcism requests have risen in the last century. Within the United States, Christianity has primarily enacted exorcisms, but non-Christian religions also have their own versions of exorcisms. The biggest misconception people have about exorcisms is that “ it’s a magic fix,” Ouellette said. “I’m not Gandalf. I’m not going to wave my staff around and it fixes [everything],” Ouellette said. “I’m a facilitator of grace, but if you’re not willing to accept the grace there’s not much I’m going to be able to do for you.” And Ouellette and his team have a very thorough process for testing for a demonic process,a detractor for some clients.
“Clients come in and get really frustrated with us when they find out there is an evaluation process, that we need to be sure what we’re dealing with before we start any kind of solution,” Ouellette said. Medical professionals’ opinions do not go out the window during an exorcism. On the contrary, Ouellette advocates that clients seek medical treatment first. “We always encourage them to get their treatment through their conventional medical channels and then come to us for spiritual healing,” Ouellette said. “What we’re looking for is, is there a demonic presence involved in this situation?” Clients seeking their help often attribute their illness to demons and want to disregard medical treatment. “Nothing is all demonic. The demonic likes to exploit our vulnerabilities,” Ouellette said. “We fight that while their doctors do the symptoms.”
THE EXORCISMS
Exorcisms have long been popularized in movies such as “The Exorcist.” Though some scenes have been exaggerated, Ouellette said he has witnessed some hallmarks of an exorcism. “Levitation—never to the ceiling, but I have seen people risen a few inches above the bed,” Ouellette said. “People dry heaving or spitting up, that’s almost every single exorcism.” Ouellette’s last exorcism reportedly blew out the power on the entire block. “The lights in the room started to flicker. It did it three times, which as you might’ve seen from paranormal shows, is a sign of mocking the trinity,” Ouellette said. “Our incense will explode and go everywhere and try to light things on fire. It’s dramatic, but maybe not in Hollywood’s CGI kind of way.” The exorcisms also take a toll on Ouellette. “When we are making headway with a victim, I will all of a sudden feel a surge of anger and things will fly off the shelves and break. It happened this past week,” Ouellette said. Some clients reporting demonic possession were alleviated not from an exorcism, but from religious counseling. The client Ouellette counseled was a carpenter. “He was convinced that his homosexuality was a result of demons and I sat down with him and said to him, ‘You don’t have demons. You have guilt,’” Ouellette said. The bishop and nuns spoke with him for some time. “He went to confession and cried and hugged us — a big bearhug.” Much of the modern resistance toward Christianity has been its view of homosexuality. However, Ouellette has his own views. “How about we let them forge their relationship with God and let what happens in the privacy of their own home be something they work out with God and not be a judge and a jury for them,” Ouellette said. “There is nothing in the gospels that would excuse us from our responsibility to each other.”
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
NEWS
5
Is climate change the new apocalypse? Report says humanity has 12 years to save the planet NATORI SPENCE
Associate News Editor
T
he world now has a ticking clock of just about 12 years left to get a hold of climate change before it gets a hold of us, according to a United Nations climate change report. But, what if people simply don’t care enough? Issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the report described a grim reality of a world plagued by worsening food shortages, extreme storms, threatened ecosystems, wildfires and the displacement of millions of people. They also predicted a mass die-off of coral reefs. A team of nearly 100 scientists warned the world to implement “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” because they are required to ward off the worst impacts of global warming, which could be felt as soon as 2040. By that time, most of the current students at Georgia State will be in their 30s, and in the worst possible scenario, that generation could experience what could be considered an apocalyptic-like crisis. “From rising sea levels to more devastating droughts to more damaging storms, the report makes brutally clear that warming will make the world worse for us in the forms of famine, disease, economic tolls, and refugee crisis,” Vox reporter Umair Irfan said in an article on climate change. Despite the depressing future foreshadowed by this report, the scientists did say that we still have time to catch up before the earth overheats, and halting global warming can save many people from suffering from water scarcity. If climate change is slowed down, there would be fewer deaths and illnesses from heat, smog and infectious diseases, according to the report. “The world’s economies must quickly reduce fossil fuel use while at the same time dramatically increasing the use of clean, efficient energy. These transitions must start now and be well underway in the next 20 years,” the report stated. Mitigating climate change would significantly reduce the risk of some potential severe impacts
such as water scarcity, extreme heat, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, biodiversity loss and rising sea levels. This report shows that the longer we wait, “the more difficult, the more expensive and the more dangerous it will be,” said Bill Hare, a physicist with the nonprofit group Climate Analytics. But, with President Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate agreement, it’s unlikely the U.S. will move in a more environmentally conscious direction. The Paris Agreement is an agreement adopted on Dec. 12, 2015, within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and its central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature below 2 degrees celsius above preindustrial levels. It even is pursuing long-term efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Today, 181 countries are currently part of the agreement as they aim to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. “Although the government policies and initiatives do shape the direction of how the world responds to this issue, individuals can help combat this problem with just altering their daily lives to better suit the environment,” Georgia State student Antonio Contreras-Muñoz said. He made the decision to go vegan around a year ago to better himself and the environment. In a 2006 report, the U.N. said raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all cars and trucks in the world combined. According to downtoearth.org, the single most important step an individual can take to reduce global warming faster than any other means is to adopt a vegetarian diet. “The reason I went vegan is not only because of the horrible way animals are treated in the food industry, but also because of how much our meatbased diets contribute to the worsening of the environment,” Muñoz said. “We can’t depend on the government to care enough. If you care about the effects of climate change, do something,” Contreras-Muñoz said. For senior Chauncey Carter, convenience is the most prominent factor that hinders his willpower to change his environmentally unfriendly habits. He said he knows there are a lot of things he can
change about his lifestyle, like turning off the water while brushing his teeth or turning the lights off, but nothing has shocked him enough into changing. “I would definitely consider making some changes in my lifestyle habits to help save the planet, but I think the biggest reason it’s so hard for me and a lot of other people is because we always search for the easiest way to do things,” Carter said. “We live in a microwavable society where we want everything to be ready in 5 minutes.” Although Carter knows he lacks the willpower to truly implement these changes, he said he still plans to try. “I’m going to try to eat better and be more conscious of the little things I do everyday that [are] adding to the destruction of the environment,” Carter said.
HOW YOU CAN HELP Use only LED bulbs. Turn down the temperature on your water heater. Go on a climate-friendly diet. In addition to cutting down on beef and other carbon-intensive foods like cheese, yogurt and butter, eat locally produced food. You’ll keep food from traveling long distances by planes, trains, trucks and ships. Buy less bottled water. Invest in a reusable water bottle you can refill when you’re thirsty. If you’re nervous about the quality of your local tap water, look for a bottle with a built-in filter. Recycle. Americans generated 258 million tons of municipal waste in 2014 and recycled and composted 89 million tons for a recycling rate of 34.6 percent.
“If you care about the effects of climate change, do something.” — ANTONIO CONTRERAS-MUÑOZ Georgia State student
ILLUSTRATION BY DEMETRI BURKE | THE SIGNAL
SIX STUDENTS NAMED HOMECOMING COURT ROYALTY BY WILL SOLOMONS Students, faculty and fans bundled up in jackets in the sparsely populated stands overlooking Georgia State Stadium’s field as the homecoming court waited for their names to be called, each hoping for the crowns, sashes and applause that would be granted to only six students. Before arriving to the stadium, the court marched in the golf cart parade, faces beaming and hands waving to the crowd. As they stood on the field, those same expressions lit up on each face when the loud speaker cracked to life. Students’ votes were counted, and it was time for the Panthers to crown their new royalty. Tyrel Cooper and Samantha Harvel were crowned Mr. and Ms. GSU, respectively. Shamar Barkley and Chelsea Adams now represent Georgia State as Mr. and Ms. Blue and White. Out of the five perimeter campuses,w Andrew Lay and Alana Burrell were voted as Mr. and Ms. Perimeter. The announcements were brief as the court was ushered on and off the field, making way for the football game to kick off again. According to Spotlight Programs Board official Sierra Reese, the reason for the brevity was because the athletics department maintains a tight schedule. “Typically when we are partnering with athletics … we’re under their jurisdiction so we have to work with them for what works with them,” Reese said. “So it could be as simple as how many people are on the field or how much time we have on the field to actually do the crowning. So if it did feel a little bit quick, it probably wasn’t a Spotlight thing.” Now that the students are crowned, it’s their decision if they want to continue to serve the student body. “Typically for Spotlight, we like to pull them for different events,” she said. “We might have them open for the Distinguished Speaker Series … The president’s office might want to utilize them to meet some speakers or visit a campus or something of that nature or opportunities to meet students who might be interested in the university.”
NEWS
6
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
Snatched at birth from Grady Hospital
Professor and podcaster explores case of missing babies ZACH SALLING Staff Reporter
“I
t’s not they don’t want to be found. I think it’s more if they are found, then what?” Laura Norton said of abducted Grady Memorial Hospital babies. “Once you find these children, who are now adults, the story’s not over.” Grady Hospital is now No. 1 for highest infant abductions from a near-20-year study conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children since 1983. A total of eight babies were kidnapped from Grady Hospital since the late ‘70s and early ‘80s—all African-American and all born to mothers who, on average, were 18 years old Of those eight, Tavish Sutton and Raymond Green are still missing. Laurah Norton is a senior English lecturer and the creator of “The Fall Line” podcast, which investigates cold cases such as the Grady baby abductees. Season 2 of “The Fall Line,” titled “The Grady Babies,” chronicles nine episodes featuring stories of “mental health and the value placed on young mothers and their babies and how that value changes based on the hospital you can afford,” out later this fall. “We find families who are interested in having their stories told and we work with them to tell their stories,” Norton said. “What we do is provide a platform, so everyone can hear the stories they’ve already been telling.”
NOVEMBER 1978
Donna Green, the mother of Raymond Green, has been telling her story since ‘78. Green, a 16-year-old mother, had just given birth to Raymond Green at Grady Memorial Hospital. Green chatted with a woman named Lisa, who told Green she was her neighbor, in the maternity ward while Raymond laid in his crib. Green, needing a ride home, asked Lisa. Her new friend didn’t hesitate. Lisa drove to Green’s apartment. Green said goodbye and brought her newborn home. A couple days later, Lisa surprised Green at her door. Green welcomed her inside. They settled in and chatted while Raymond rested. Green excused herself to the upstairs bathroom. When Green returned, she looked for Lisa. She looked for her newborn. Both were gone. “When the police were called, it took several hours, there wasn’t much follow-up, but that was ’78,” Norton said. In 1978, technology and security lagged by today’s standards. “The woman who kidnapped him was actually allowed on the maternity ward and she was there for days. She just said she was a relative,” Norton said.
ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN STAMPS | THE SIGNAL
Donna Green is now an advocate for missing persons. Norton, also a mother, has worked very close with Green over Season 2 of “The Fall Line,” and Green’s 40-year search for her son motivates Norton to tell Green’s story. “Working with her and the fact that her son is going to be 40 years old soon and she has no idea where he is. He’s in the wind. And just kind of watching her, imagining that, [while] also having a son,” Norton said. “That’s 40 years of not giving up.” Green’s generation did not have the same technology that is available today to assist her in finding her son. “If my child went missing, I have the privilege of bringing down the house about that and she did not as a 16-year-old mother in 1978,” Norton said. “She did not have access to the things I have access to, and it’s not because I have a greater ability to use them, it’s because they are offered to me.” Through their work together, Norton and Green have extended help to other families. “She’s become so serious about this that she’s developing her own podcast, which we’re helping her with, to tell families what to do when someone goes missing,” Norton said.
majority of the ones that have been identified were teenagers, so there’s also a lack of mental health available to the women that were seeking babies in the first place.” Of the abductors, four were teenagers and two were in their 20s. One of the teenage abductors was suspected in a trafficking scheme; however, this is not usually the case. “Trafficking is something we talk about a lot, but trafficking of infants is not as big of a thing as trafficking of children,” Norton said. The other three were suspected to have been desperate to have their own babies. “Women [needed] a child for some reason, either because they cannot have their own child or because they have lost a child and told people that they are pregnant,” Norton said. Of the adults, one woman suffered a miscarriage and was afraid she’d lose her husband. Another abductor was single, living with her parents. The juveniles were found catching MARTA to Grady hospital and taking the baby. As a result, they were often caught. The identified abductors, who succeeded, were all women in their 20s and 30s. “There was an established relationship created. One of them went on the ward dressed as a nurse. That’s a very common thing that happens. The other one was able to sneak in as a family member,” Norton said. “There was a plan in place. They knew the schedule of the nurses, they knew when checks were done.”
THE ABDUCTORS
THE ABDUCTED
OCTOBER 2018
The abductors, who’ve been identified, have all been women. “Many of the women have struggled with mental health issues, they’ve been in abusive relationships,” Norton said. “The
Tavish Sutton and Raymond Green, the two babies who are still missing, may have an easier life not being found. “I think that they don’t know. The question is, ‘Would
they want to know?’” Norton said. “Because that’s part of the problem. What do they do with that information? Because what you’ve done, practically speaking, is turn their lives upside down.” Being found ensues a price, sometimes lawsuits by their own family. But, in the case of Shanta Yvette Alexander, an abduction resulted in something life-affirming. Alexander went missing in 1981, a four-year difference between Raymond Green’s disappearance in 1978, yet had a completely different outcome. They had two forensic sketches of the kidnapper for Alexander within an hour of abduction. The police aggressively sought for her, pushing Alexander’s photo out. “[Alexander] was recovered quickly. So much so, that the baby grew up to become law enforcement because it was such a striking experience for her that the Atlanta P.D. worked so hard to save her,” Norton said. Yet, knowing where to place the blame for those still missing, like that of Sutton and Green, is not so clear. “Raymond Green got a one paragraph article on page four of the AJC, and that was all the news coverage. Not a single TV station. That was it,” Norton said. Donna Green moved back to Atlanta, trying to get more attention on the case, but the Atlanta Police Department didn’t have anything on record—they lost it. “We’re looking at a police force that didn’t have computers at the time. Thousands of files. Leaks moving, etc.,” Norton said. “But she had to take in that one little article to prove that her son had been missing. “That’s not the fault of one system, that’s the fault of everybody.”
OPINIONS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
www.georgiastatesignal.com/opinions
It’s never been a scary time for men
The Trump Effect: a powerful tool in male dominance
I
SHARI CELESTINE Staff Reporter
Shari is a third-year Creative Writing major with an interest in diversity in publishing. In her spare time, she works on her Urban Fantasy manuscript.
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@shari_celestine
n a reaction to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual assault allegation, President Donald Trump said, “It is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of. This is a very, very — this is a very difficult time. What’s happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice. “It’s a very scary situation where you’re guilty until proven innocent. My whole life I’ve heard you’re innocent until proven guilty, but now you’re guilty until proven innocent. That is a very, very difficult standard. You could be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody could accuse you of something.” Nothing could be any further from the truth. This is just another tactic Trump and his cabinet are using to placate members of the GOP who might have been shaken up by the public outcry after Kavanaugh’s testimony. Understandably, midterm elections are only a few weeks away, so it wouldn’t look good if the leader of the Republican party showed any weakness. It’s never enough for men to just be in power. When Kavanaugh took the stand, he stole the spotlight from the real victim, Dr. Ford, and made himself out to be the vulnerable one. Kavanaugh stole a page from the White Woman TearsTM playbook and broke down during his testimony. The very idea that men are suffering and should be scared of every action they make around women is a joke. Millions of men interact with women daily and don’t cross the line into unwanted attention. But it’s all a show for politic’s sake. Trump is helping elevate Kavanaugh to victimhood; Trump needs to make Dr. Ford look
like she is attacking Kavanaugh and his bright future as a Supreme Court Justice. Kavanaugh claimed his life was shattered during his testimony yet a few short hours after his confirmation he was quickly sworn in as the newest justice of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, and has been working ever since. Dr. Ford on the other hand still can’t return home, receives death threats and was publicly mocked on live television by the president of the United States! In a poll conducted in 2015, 42 percent of Trump supporters said that white men faced a lot of discrimination in the United States. White men have a history of being the most privileged in the country. What Trump is doing by saying that it’s a scary time for men is a classic fear tactic. It’s coming from the same playbook as critics who say the #MeToo Movement encourages unproven misconduct allegations against men. Trump’s comment is a desperate cry to white men around the country who are now worried about losing their power in society. Remind me again, who is it a scary time for? Women. Women have been standing in solidarity with each other for a very long time. Speaking up and speaking out about their experiences together because they are not being taken seriously outside their circles. They don’t feel safe opening up about their sexual assault or misconduct. Women are often criticized for not speaking up sooner but when they do, more often than not they are not believed, brushed aside or publicly humiliated if the man holds enough power. Twenty seven years ago, Anita Hill sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was
absolutely humiliated over and over again for standing up and speaking up against Clarence Thomas. Hill’s character was questioned. Sen. Howell Heflin even asked Hill if she was a scorned woman — if she saw herself as a martyr for the civil rights movement. Women just can’t tell the truth about sexual assault; there just must be some underhanded reason women speak up against men in this manner. And yet it’s men who are living in scary times? Here’s another scary thought: the Trump Effect. At its lowest point, this creates an increase in bullying in schools because of Trump’s rhetoric used at his rallies and (almost) every one of his daily tweet threads on Twitter. At its highest point, Trump’s words have created a wave of unacceptable behavior heard by millions. Trump has only been president of the United States for about two years. In that short space of time, he has managed, on every level, to leave a negative impact on the American government long after he’s left the White House. Trump has made the American presidency a laughing matter. In September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump tried boasting about his administration’s accomplishments. He said, “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” The room filled with other world leaders laughed. Laughed at the very idea of Trump’s young presidency having done more in about two years than any previous American president. This is the man who spoke of scary times for men. A man who has no real regard for the nation’s institutions nor the people within them.
ILLUSTRATION BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL
OPINIONS
8
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
EDITORIAL Grape eyeballs and hot dog organs Our fondest Halloween memories
I
t’s officially spooky season, and sadly The Signal editorial board is a bit too old to go trick-or-treating (at least by society’s standards). So instead, we will take a walk down memory lane, throw ourselves back into the Halloween spirit and recount our most memorable pumpkin and haunted house-filled experiences.
SYDNEY, ARTS & LIVING EDITOR
With all the spooky sights and frightening fun, every year Halloween captivates our hearts and our stomachs. I’m sure we all share the same memories of sticking our unsuspecting hands into a bowl of peeled-grape eyeballs and trusting the school carnival’s volunteer moms that the concealed hot dogs covered in slime were indeed human remains. Whether you were the breed to buy your costume or make it at home with Mom, in that special moment the bell rang, releasing you from whatever joke of homeroom you were forced to rally in, you were indeed your true self: a witch, a magician, a vampire, a princess. For once, you could be recognized for who you truly are, even if it may just be a 12-year-old in a princess costume on a sugar high.
WILL, NEWS EDITOR
We never had a close community in my home county in Effingham, Georgia. But on Halloween, down Brittany Lane close to where I grew up, I truly felt part of one. The way to the actual neighborhood where the street was where we went trick-or-treating was greeted off the highway by a tunnel of overhanging branches. The stars and moon were completely blacked out, the only light coming from our 2001 Camry’s headlights. Once we were in the neighborhood and began the festivities, we would make our way house by house to the famous — or rather infamous — haunted house. As a nine-year-old, I was completely terrified by the murderous clown at the entrance and a polka dot room, where a person would stand flush with the wall waiting for unsuspecting families. Being able to be lost in the magic of Halloween and spending the time with my family, all unified in the venture of being scared, is something I wish I could still do today — and maybe I can.
SAM, ASSOCIATE ARTS & LIVING EDITOR
At age 15, I was in my bed at midnight on Halloween, my costume folded and my covers warm. My anxious eyes focused intensely on the plain ceiling as I fought the urge to sneak out. The compulsion itched inside me, dangerous and alluring. I was
convinced Halloween was magical, that this night held some fast secret I was missing in bed. When I locked the backdoor behind me, my body hummed with excitement but my frantic brain asked, “Now what?” The cold crept in my collar and I walked, not going anywhere. I was running into other high school-aged kids, who were out skating or smoking in the park or by the baseball field. The adventure ended when I ran into a loose dog and wasn’t trying to deal with that at 2 a.m.
NATORI, ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
As a child, I remember associating Halloween with one thing: candy. The sweet satisfying feeling of that last handful of treats filling up my pillow case was the only thing that kept me treading through the brisk winter air after sunset. But, my hard work was always met by my father’s rationale. I’d walk through my front door and reluctantly hand over my pillow case to hear him say, “You can’t eat this much candy.” Then, if I was lucky, I’d be left with ten pieces for the night. I still wish that I could have been able to indulge just once, but I’m thankful for a mouth not plagued by cavities and regret.
DEVIN, PRODUCTION EDITOR
When I was younger, I used to get in trouble a lot. I never did anything major, but it was enough for my parents to feel like they had to ground me. One year, I got in trouble for something — probably not doing my homework — so my mom told me I wasn’t allowed to trick-or-treat that year. She knew I wanted to go, so as a punishment she told me to watch all of the other kids and hand out candy at our door. Alas, I handed out candy to all of the kids in my neighborhood and once they were all gone, I grabbed my bag of candy corn, sulked up the stairs and watched the Disney Channel Halloween movie marathon. I won’t lie, it was pretty fun. I mean, why walk around the neighborhood for candy you might not even want when you can literally buy your own bag of candy? Now, I buy a bag of candy corn and have my own movie marathon every Halloween in honor of the year my parents decided to ruin my life.
ANGEL NELSON, DIGITAL EDITOR
Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, under the roof of a Baptist family, I was not allowed to celebrate the “Devil’s Holiday,” aka Halloween. My mom dressed me up once as Blue’s Clues, I think just for
the pictures and to say I had a normal childhood. Anyway, I remember my grandpa’s church had a lockdown where my family and anyone else who happened to attend the “family” church spent Halloween night. We locked the doors, prayed and slept on the benches, next to the Psalms books on the back of each seat. As the night grew darker and everyone was sound asleep, there was a tapping noise on the wooden floor, as my little sister pitter-pattered around the church. She lightly woke up everyone to ask to go trick-o-treating and wouldn’t yield until her request was made. To this day we talk about that historic night.
VANESSA, PHOTO EDITOR
I went trick or treating until I was about 15 years old. I loved the chill in the air, the free candy and the promise of mischief with my best friends as we wandered the streets late into the night. As my friends and I made our rounds on what would be the last year of trick-or-treating, we came to a house with a little old lady. The woman who lived there wasn’t giving out candy, but stuffed animals instead. She invited us in to pick out one we’d like. Like any teens who listen to their parents’ advice on strangers (and on the lookout for a strange adventure), we went right in! She was a bit of a hoarder so there was a lot to look at and even more to talk about. We spent a few hours there keeping her company. Those friends have since faded from my life, but the desire to try new things, talk to new people and make unconventional decisions has long stuck with me from our time together. Needless to say, only the brave took her dirty stuffed animals home in their goodie bag.
JULIAN, VIDEO PRODUCTION EDITOR
I remember one Halloween night in particular that really shook me up. This was when I moved to Salem, Massachusetts, when I was in high school. On Halloween I explored a creepy house with my friends, but there was something off-putting about it. We soon found out it was an old coven of three evil witches that once ruled over Salem. After almost being hurt by the resurrected witches, we found a black cat who helped us steal the witches’ magical spell book. We then ran from the house and tried our best to remain alive until sunrise, which was when the three witches would disintegrate back to dust. Long story short, we survived the night and the witches turned to dust, thankfully. That was a crazy night — good thing this is just the summary of “Hocus Pocus.”
ARTS & LIVING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
www.georgiastatesignal.com/artsandliving
The
bitter disputes about candy
How polarizing is your favorite Halloween candy? SARA ABDULLA Staff Reporter
I
t’s time to settle the dispute once and for all: Candy may be the only beacon of light remaining in this dark, desolate world, but which candy takes the cake? Scientific research has established that people who are inclined toward sweet tastes tend to be kinder and more prosocial toward others than those who are less partial to sweetness. But there are subtle differences in flavor within the cornucopia that is sugary candy that may or may not reveal salient aspects of your persona. The taste-personality paradigm is nothing new. Scientists have been pursuing the link between taste preferences and personality for decades; One example illustrating these theories is “benign masochism.” In the 1970s, Paul Rozin theorized that people who liked spicy food, despite the fact that capsaicin is a biologically aversive stimulus that activates human pain receptors, subscribe to benign masochism. Kinky. It follows, then, that people tend to have incredibly powerful feelings about their preferred candies and correspondingly adverse feelings about those they dislike.
REESE’S
Dasha Kazmin, a junior studying kinesiology and health, said she loves Reese’s so much that people who don’t like Reese’s “don’t deserve to breathe [her] air.” “I dream of [Reese’s] every single night before I go to sleep,” Kazmin said. Reese’s is, in fact, one of America’s favorite Halloween candies: According to sales data from 2010 to 2017, it is the fourth top-selling candy in the country. On people who don’t like Reese’s candies, Lauryn Little, a fourth-year actuarial science major, said, “I just feel bad for them. [Because] most people who don’t like Reese’s don’t like them [because] they dislike peanut butter and that’s just unfortunate.” In comparison, Little’s other favorite candy, Nerds, doesn’t even break the Top 25 of popular candy. “Regarding [Nerds] I don’t think I’d care,” she said of people who don’t like them.
GUMMY BEARS
Dante Brice, a fourth-year film student, is
Georgia’s Favorite Candies sales data from
also fond of unpopular candy. He likes gummy bears and prepared a list of reasons for The Signal of why they’re the best: “- Good high snack - lots of vegan options - some of them have real fruit and there’s even ones with f------ vitamins - good for sharing unlike candy bars - good high snack - can freeze them and then you have a hard candy, it’s so g------ versatile - they’re sold practically everywhere - you can get sour ones if you’re feeling kinky” Gummy bears are uncommon on Halloween top-sellers lists, but three people that The Signal spoke to named the animal-shaped delicacy as their No. 1 favorite. Perhaps grocery stores should reconsider how they market them. Brice especially emphasized the fact that gummy bears are easily shareable. People who don’t like gummy bears “make life inconvenient because it’s the only candy I’m willing to share. Also, I imagine they have weird baby teeth that can’t chew properly,” Brice said. Monica Shen, a Georgia State alum, on the other hand, said she likes them because “they’re fun and they don’t get as sticky as other soft candies like Starbursts.” Starbursts made the top-seller list as an impressive top 5 favorite, yet no one that spoke to The Signal named them their most-liked candy.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT CHOCOLATE?
Simple sugar-constituted candies, like Starburst, don’t satisfy many people’s cravings. In comparison, some studies suggest that chocolate creates “total sensory pleasure” that makes it utterly addictive and thirstquenching. Chocolate has been fervently consumed for centuries; in the 1600’s, chocolate was even the prime suspect for female hysteria. Anandamide, a chemical isolated in chocolate, may mimic the effects of cannabinoids, the THC and marijuana neurotransmitters, in the brain. This parallel may in part explain some of the addictive-like properties of chocolate in particular. Andre Golshir, a fourth-year chemistry student, prefers chocolate candy in general, but believes that Snickers could say something about his personality.
“I am made up of caramel and nuts (representing my personality) but I hide it by covering it with chocolate,” Golshir said. While Golshir doesn’t discriminate against those who dislike chocolate, he called Starburst an “illegal piece of trash.” Some people are just here for the candy in general. “I have strong feelings about sugar,” Carissa Lavin, a first-year law student, said. Still, even she won’t bear witness to candy corn.
THE CANDY CORN DIVIDE
“I think candy corn is a disgrace to candy. It tastes like a packet of sugar that was left out in the rain,” Lavin said. Little echoed Lavin’s sentiments. “I’d burn all candy corn to the ground and never look back,” she said. Brice conceded that candy corn is indeed little more than plain sugar, but said he believes that it has its place in civilized society. “I’ve grown less fond of it as I’ve gotten older because it’s basically just [dyed] sugar, but catch me at the right time and I’m down for them. Usually Halloween is that time,” he said. Amy Andrelchik, a senior student studying chemistry, who is an ardent supporter of the Halloween staple, said that she sympathizes with defectors. “[Candy corn] has a weird texture so I get it if people don’t like it. It’s chalky,” she said. In contrast, Oliver Flint, a Georgia State junior, said that people who dislike candy corn will be on the “wrong side of history.” Despite the acrid controversy surrounding candy corn, it thrives as America’s sixth most popular Halloween candy. Regardless of what the best Halloween candy is, nearly everyone will agree that the sugary treats are a feast for the senses. Perhaps, though, human hankering for sugar is an unfortunate evolutionary byproduct of the need for early humans to differentiate between bitter poisonous plants and sweeter edible plants. But evolution or not, high sugar consumption has been linked to maladies from obesity, heart disease and diabetes to cancer, depression and gout. Daresay, it’s time to switch to Splenda.
according to a survey on
2010-2017
1. Swedish Fish. No data available on the success in America of other animal-shaped gelatin-based candies by the same company. 2. Hershey’s Kisses 3. Lemonheads Georgia’s Favorite Candy according to a survey on Influenster. com: Pixy Stix
PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY VANESSA JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL PAGE DESIGN BY DIANA TAVERA | THE SIGNAL
1974
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” $30 million lifetime box office
1999
“The Blair Witch Project” $248 million lifetime box office
d e t n u a h e Th f o y r o hist r o r r o h indie BY JOSH WINSTON STAFF REPORTER
H 2010
“Rubber” $100,000 lifetime box office
orror films are an essential part of any Halloween tradition. Films that bring us face-to-face with ruthless serial killers or demonic infestations allow us to experience fear and terror, but at a distance that is manageable and fun. They’re scary, but not too scary. Horror films let us safely explore the darker side of humanity, the seedy underbelly of the human psyche that comes alive when the sun sets and random acts of terror jolt us awake from the mundane sleepwalking of everyday life. Darkness emerges and with it, a whole universe of dark and dreadful figures that haunt the movie screen and sometimes our imaginations long after the film has ended.
Popularizing indie cinema 2014
“It Follows” $163,453 lifetime box office
2016
“The Witch” $25 million lifetime box office
ILLUSTRATION BY AMBER KIRLEW AND PAGE DESIGN BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL
Until relatively recently, horror films have always occupied a niche position on the margins of mainstream cinema. Because of this, they’ve historically had the freedom to tackle gruesome or otherwise unsettling subject matter. This thematic freedom has allowed the horror genre to split, crack and rupture into a constellation of subgenres. From slashers to ghost stories, mockumentaries, to comedy horror, the genre has proved itself to be fertile ground for experimentation. Specifically, indie or low-budget horror cinema has proven itself to be particularly illustrative of horrors’ commitment to experimentation and shock value. Low-budget horror cinema in the U.S. emerged from mainstream horror in an attempt to economize the often financially bloated and excessive mainstream film productions. Since the 1910s the dominant mode of film production in America has been the studio system, a system characterized by excess and inefficiency that would dominate cinema until its collapse in the 1960s when factors such as the paramount decision and the rise of independent cinema began to erode the dominance of major Hollywood studios.
With that collapse, many film productions were only able to continue as independent and financially conservative in order to account for the loss of such a large filmic system. These films were characterized by their shoestring budgets, small crews and attempts to clearly define themselves against mainstream narratives. According to Diana Anselmo Sequeira, a film and media professor at Georgia State, the 1960s were an important time for new types of experimental cinema. “The1960s are also important not just because of cultural revolution but also because of the emergence of porn and porn becoming much more commodified and visible,” she said. Anselmo Sequeira attributes indie cinema’s emergence to the proliferation and mainstream adoption of porn in the 1960s and 70s. “Horror of the 60s and 70s is going to borrow a lot from that spectacular, very bodily, physical, gushing kind of genre,” she said. Horror subgenres, such as the slasher film, closely mirror porn’s production with its interest in visualizing the transgression of bodily boundaries and its dedication to penetration, whether by weapons or by more phallic apparatuses.
A new standard for slasher films This is where films such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” emerge with all of their gory glory. In October of 1974, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” premiered to a mixed global reception. Many theaters outright banned showings of the films due to its violent and gory subject matter. The story follows a group of friends who eventually become food for a family of cannibals and is loosely based on the crimes of serial-killer Ed Gein. The film was made on a shoestring budget in central Texas by Tobe Hooper with a cast of previously unknown actors. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” went on to become enormously popular, grossing an estimated 30 million dollars at the domestic box office. In addition to a successful theatrical run, the film also redefined the slasher genre and is regarded as one of the most influential horror films of all time. Writing for TIME, Richard Soglin said “‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ set a new standard for slasher films.” The film is credited with originating the figure of the hulking faceless killer and the use of power tools as murder weapons. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was famous for how it transformed the American conception of what a horror film could be. But it was also famous for what it revealed about American life in general. For many critics and theorists, the film represents a horror filled critique of capitalism and the American industrial force. According to theorist Robin Wood, the killer Leatherface and his cannibal family can be seen as victims of industrial capitalism when their jobs as slaughterhouse workers became overshadowed by technological advances. Even today, the film still holds its own up against newer titles. “It’s still quite a scary film by today’s standards even if it was made in the seventies ,” Georgia State student Natalie Cullen said.
Documentary-style cinematography
Spinning into absurdity
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was also noted for its documentary-style camera work. Another film that utilizes this specific style of horror cinematography is “The Blair Witch Project” which had a monumental impact on the indie horror genre. “The Blair Witch Project” is a 1999 horror film about a group of student filmmakers who venture into the Black Hills of Maryland to make a film about a local legend colloquially known as the Blair Witch. The low-budget film had a successful marketing campaign, pitching the film as “found footage” of the missing video team a year after the events of film were said to have taken place. “The Blair Witch Project” premiered
“Rubber” tells the unlikely story of a rubber car tire named Robert that comes to life, gains psychic powers and embarks on a killing spree in a California dessert. Robert comes to life, rolling along until he gradually encounters more and more people. With each kill, his powers grow in strength until he can eventually blow people up with his telekinetic abilities. The film represents a rare and imaginative entry into the indie horror cannon and offers a well balanced comedic and horrific narrative. IndieWire said it was “one of the more bizarre experiments with genre in quite some time.” Rubber was shown at Cannes in May of 2010 and was picked up for U.S. distribution by Magnet Releasing. “Rubber” was also a polarizing production with some critics deeming it imaginative while others regarded it as pretentious and heavy handed. Ruthlessreviews.com described it as a “steaming load of rubbish masquerading as a movie,” while The New York Times called it witty. In any case, “Rubber” highlights how indie cinema functions best. When not beholden to wide audience appeal or box office success, indie films are able to truly experiment with their genres and produce something that, for better or for worse, makes its viewers think.
at Sundance in 1999 with a promotional marketing campaign alleging that the actors of the film were either “missing” or “deceased.” It was also one of the first theatrically released films to be marketed primarily through the internet with fake police reports and an IMDB page that listed the actors as dead or missing. The film had an especially large impact on the horror genre with many films such as “Paranormal Activity,” “Cloverfield,” “The last Exorcism” and countless others borrowing from its mockumentary-style cinematography and narrative. It would also go on to become one of the highest grossing indie films of all time with a box office of $248.6 million.
Popularizing indie cinema These influential films have also served as inspiration for a whole new generation of independent cinema. The 2014 film “It Follows” debuted at Cannes film festival and was purchased by RADiUS-TWC for distribution. The film follows Oakland University student Jay as she encounters a malevolent entity that follows its victims to eventually kill them. Because of the parasitic nature of
its supernatural villain, the film is sometime interpreted as a cautionary tale about the spread of HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. The film opened to a limited release in March of 2015 and earned $163,453 making it the highest earning limited release of that year.
Polarizing critics Borrowing from the same tradition of “The Blair Witch Project,” the Roger Eggers film “The Witch” tells the story of a New England separatist community and their supernatural encounter with either an evil wiccan force, or their overactive imaginations. The movie’s initial 2016 theatrical release gave way to polarized criticism with some applauding the films ambient sense of puritanical dread while others found it downright boring. Katy Waldman writing for
Slate Magazine, said “‘The Witch’ makes the mundane sinister...Intense realism, almost closer to VR than cinema, envelops viewers in a desolate colonial winter.” However, what remains uncontested about “The Witch” is its successful theatrical run. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 91 percent and a box office sale of $25.1 million in the U.S. and $40.4 million globally.
ARTS & LIVING
12
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
When costume shopping: to DIY or buy? Where you shop could take you from trick to treat SAM PUCKETT
Associate Arts & Living Editor
W
here did you get your costume? There are as many options for costumes as there are ways to get your groceries delivered, and Amazon does both. There are online stores selling prefab costumes, trendy exchanges, seasonal stores and good ol’ Goodwill. Students have varying budgets, but who’s dropping a lot of bread on a costume? The cheapest way to make a costume is to pull from your closet first. You can add anything extra later. Former Georgia State student, Shireen Hashemi, is dressing up as Slash from the band Guns N’ Roses. She took a fairly traditional approach and mixed her closet with pieces bought on Amazon. She was reluctant to go online, citing ethical concerns with the company, but she needed cheap accessories. “I usually use what I have and buy some cheap little pieces. In this case, I’m buying a top hat and aviators,” Hashemi said. “I never buy a full costume, I’ll use things from my own wardrobe.”
WEIGHING THE OPTIONS
Second-hand materials have the romantic quality of found-art. It’s also cheap and environmentally sustainable, and frequently more creative and extravagant than our budgets would otherwise allow. The right shopper, in the right Goodwill, can live large on a small budget. On the other hand, thrift shopping is a risk. You might not always find exactly what you need, and you’ll need to creatively compromise. Fresh-from-the-factory costumes also reflect the way they came to you. They’re convenient and never out of stock. The chances you won’t find what you need are slim. Rubber gets poured into a mold, plastic is stamped into shape, mechanical, repetitive and indelicate. Costume companies pick popular characters from mass media and make plenty of pollution and labor abuses to get it out there. These factory-made costumes often display hilariously bad names to avoid copyright infringement. CostumeDiscounters.
com offers a Cruella de Vil costume as “Womens Dog Lovin’ Diva Coat” and a Poison Ivy costume as “Sexy Adult Lethal Beauty Costume.” Spirit Halloween offers a Slender Man outfit as “Teen Stalker Man Costume.” So if you’re trying to buy a costume from a larger retailer, you may want to go in-person because looking online could be difficult not knowing what laughable name it’s under. But if you’re trying to go a cheaper route, try buying secondhand. Chain thrift stores like Value Village and Goodwill usually offers the lowest prices, but take longer to sort through overwhelmingly, underwhelming options. More upscale options are often clothing exchanges like Rag-O-Rama and Buffalo Exchange. They only accept merchandise of a certain quality, but they will give you cash or store credit in exchange for it, hence the name. Iv Fischer has worked at Rag-O-Rama for a year and a half. Working there at this time last year was tough, she said, but this year was more intense. The day of the Little Five Points Halloween Parade brought so much extra business, working the floor was a stressful experience. She said any given Saturday is bound to be a busy one, but shopping for the holiday brought the stress to another level. “I was so relieved to get off,” Fischer said. “I just had to get out of there.”
WHO’S EVERYONE WEARING?
Popular costumes change year to year. Often, costumes are a way of reflecting the biggest news in the culture. Fischer is often asked for help finding costume pieces for people, and she said female pop-stars are the most requested this year. “A lot of people [this year] come in for celebrity costumes. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, that kind of thing.” Fischer said. “They’re more, iconic looks you could say.” Fischer stocks the racks and often checks and rechecks shelves to tidy up things. She said she keeps the inventory in the back of her mind while on the job so she’s capable finding any piece you ask, so long as you have a clear idea in your head. “I had to help a woman find a Teena Marie outfit,” Fischer said. “Which was difficult because she doesn’t have just one look she’s really known for.”
ELEVENTH-HOUR COSTUMES When you were too worried about midterms to find something to wear, here are costume recommendations so you don’t show up without trying. Lumberjack: In 2012, dudes cosplayed this every day. Dark jeans, flannel shirt and a mustard yellow beanie do the trick here. Cuff the sleeves and apply an eyeshadow beard for a final touch. Call Me by Your Name: God we wish we had Timothee Chalamet’s hair, but we can settle for this. Put on a nametag, write “Your Name.” You may have to explain the joke and people will groan, but that’s show business. Vampire: This one is easy, if you can get the teeth in time. Fake blood around the mouth or neck can be made with food coloring, Vaseline and cocoa powder. Pretty sweet! Snow White: You’ll be so cute, you’ll be taking home all seven dwarves in this look. If you have a yellow skirt, a blue sweater and red belt, headband and shoes, you’ll look like a snack cursed to sleep for a thousand years after one bite. Devil: Just buy the horns. Do whatever horny thing you want after that. Red makeup is on-theme here, obviously. Dazzle them with spectacle and only your best friends will notice how lazy it is. Rosie the Riveter: Lazy to the point of cliché, throw a jean shirt over jeggings and tie your hair back in a red bandana. To complete the look, quote “Parks and Rec” all night and ask people if they’re registered to vote.
BEANIE
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAO NGUYEN | THE SIGNAL
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
ARTS & LIVING
Bringing your own drink with a screw-on cap to Halloween parties is a good measure of safety,
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY VANESSA JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL
Staying safe during spooky season Halloween on campus could just feel like any other day SYDNEY BLOEME & SAM PUCKETT
Arts & Living Editor & Associate Arts & Living
Tricks and treats alike tramp well-heeled and cloven-hooved on Halloween. The city is crawling with fun and waiting to get into trouble. But not too much trouble, as there are still some bumps in the night that could make Tim Burton jump. The holiday is known as a time when dark ghouls crawl slimy from cracks deeper than imagination, but that’s a load of hooey. Georgia State University Police Department Chief, Joseph Spillane, said students don’t need to worry about witches or goblins. When it comes to crime, Halloween is just like any other day. “Not really, not on campus,” Spillane said on the chances of increased crime this holiday. “Crime doesn’t really happen much on Halloween.” No reason not to be careful, especially with all the tools available. You can coordinate your group in the group chat, check up on each other. The school provides the LiveSafe app, which connects you to campus police. But if it would make you more comfortable, there are a variety of safety apps such as Shake2Safety and Circle of 6, both of which can be set to send out distress alerts to select contacts. Spillane said he wants to give students advice for navigating campus after dark. “Stay in groups. Don’t go anywhere alone in the city. Not even on campus,” Spillane said. Yes, the same advice you scream at characters on screen, in horror movies can be useful offscreen for your night out. Groups deter violence, so squad up. And if you ever feel out of your element or cool, don’t hesitate to ask for help. “If you feel unsafe, give us a call and we’ll be happy to give you a ride,” Spillane said. And he means it. Spillane estimated GSUPD gives about 30
rides to students a day — mostly in the evening across campus, after late school functions, library studying or other less responsible activities. Campus organizations such as fraternities are usually the ones throwing Halloween parties. Risk Management head, Nahom Taye of Alpha Tau Omega said it’s all about prevention to make sure the parties are a safe environment for everyone, on days not only reserved for Halloween. Taye said ATO has found that enforcement of a set guest list, alcohol monitoring and sober monitors best ensure the safety of the party and its attendees. Guest lists are to make sure everyone at the party is trusted and their behavior vouched for. “We have a set guest list. We make sure we know everyone who gets in. We put in steps so we don’t have to question every guy when I’m looking around in the party,” Taye said. ATO monitors alcohol consumption by enforcing a ticket system. Their parties are strictly BYOB, (“bring your own beer”), and whoever brings the beer is the only one who can drink it. Spiked drinks are a big concern for college aged students and with BYOB, people can only consume what they brought. “You make sure no one’s bringing in alcohol from outside. Our policy is BYOB, bring your own booze,” Taye said. “They can finish their six pack. It’s just to manage it.” They also turn away anyone with hard liquor. That way, the night doesn’t turn dangerous with anyone becoming too aggressively drunk or starting any fights. “We’ve had to stop people from bringing an entire handle of alcohol,” Taye said. “We confiscate that from them.” And if something were to happen at a party, with sober monitors, there are always people easily accessible and in the right state of mind to handle the situation at hand. “They have either a neon hat or something distinguishable during the party so if they ever need someone, they have someone trusted they can go to,” Taye said.
Taye said with all of these prevention measures in place, ATO cuts back on any possibly dangerous situation so that both men and women can feel comfortable at their parties. “The point of a guest list, managing how much alcohol everyone consumes, sober monitorings, all of those are in place so that stuff never happens. Because all of it leads to that,” Taye said. So this Halloween, stick in groups and watch out if you’re walking around Downtown after dark. Make sure you feel comfortable with the people at your party and know if there’s someone trusted you can go to in any emergency. Be wary of communal punch and be sure to inspect whatever spider web designed cookies at the party you go to, even if a surprise Halloween edible is the least of your worries.
PARTY TIPS: Be sure you can see effectively out of your mask. Don’t let your costume impair your visibility. Be aware of exits. Just a small precaution but you always want to know of at least two. Don’t put your drink down in an unfamiliar place and keep both your eye and your hand on the opening as your drink can still be targeted while in your hand. Redownload LiveSafe. That track-a-friend feature can help you feel so much safer. Have enough charge on your phone for the Lyft or Uber home. Be with people you trust.
ARTS & LIVING
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In the ghostly spirit of the spookiest season, a costumed figure drawing class is being held at the Atlanta Artist Center at 10 a.m. The event is $15 at the door for non-Artist Center members and parking is free in the back.
At The Bakery, in collaboration with Mammal, will be a No Oogie All Boogie Halloween party. This 18+ discothemed fun time is $5 entry.
Calling all super moms! This all-ages class promotes a music learning environment for moms and kids, teaching the natural joy of singing, dancing and playing. Class is at The Phoenix in Tucker
Village Theatre, performance venue and bar under Pencil Lofts, will host a ghost swag comedy sketch show at 8 p.m. Tickets at the door are $10.
The alliterative band will headline at the Variety Playhouse. Kitchen Dwellers is the opening act and tickets are $20.
Meeting at 8 a.m. at Caribou Coffee across from Piedmont Park, the Atlanta Track club will have their weekly long run. Runners are encouraged to set their own comfortable pace. This is a no-drop run.
The Atlanta Bible Study has set up a meetup for the Howell Mill Starbucks at 7:30 p.m. The congregation will be moving through the book of Ecclesiastes.
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SPORTS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
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A GAME OF INCHES: GSU LOSES HOMECOMING AFTER FAILED COMEBACK Georgia State lost 37-34 to Coastal Carolina on Homecoming in heartbreaking fashion
Georgia State football has a 2-6 record after losing 37-34 on Homecoming at Georgia State Stadium.
JERELL RUSHIN Sports Editor
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eorgia State (2-6, 1-3) was down 17-0 in the first quarter of their homecoming game against Coastal Carolina (5-3, 2-2). The Panthers were driving for a game-winning touchdown with less than three minutes left in regulation. Dan Ellington fired a fourth down pass to Penny Hart, but the ball slid just off Hart’s fingertips, just as another pass did the play before. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers took a knee on the next play, and they won 37-34. This is the second consecutive homecoming loss for Georgia State. The sure-handed Hart reached 100 receiving yards for the 11th time in his career, and he passed former Arkansas State Red Wolf J.D. McKissic for fourth place in all-time receiving yards in Sun Belt Conference history. Hart, known for his reliable hands, was visibly frustrated and disappointed after the failed fourth down. Ellington said one play doesn’t determine any game, and that was especially true on Homecoming because there were many plays Georgia State wishes they could rerun. “‘Keep doing what you do’ … He is everything you want in a football player,” Elliott said on the message he gave Hart after the loss. “He is everything you want in a leader. It’s who he is … You’ve got to lift a young man like that up because he’s putting everything on his shoulders right now thinking that it was all him, and it’s nothing even close [to being all on him].” Georgia State scored two touchdowns in the first half, but a bad snap held back Brandon Wright from attempting one extra point. The score was 17-13 at halftime. Senior linebacker Terry Thomas said better communication sparked the team to change its mojo. “[We] just had to wake up,” Thomas said. “Just me being vocal on the sideline and telling everybody to wake up and to play and I was able to make a couple plays and I see my fellow teammates just feeding off of that energy.” [Read The Signal’s coverage of Georgia State’s Homecoming Court crowned at halftime.] Coastal Carolina had no solution for the Georgia State offense in the second half. The Panthers’ run grew to 27-3 when Ellington ran in a 42-yard touchdown, which gave them a 27-20 lead.
PHOTO BY UNIQUE RODRIGUEZ | THE SIGNAL
The teams eventually tied the game 34-34. Then Coastal Carolina place-kicker Massimo Biscardi made a 23-yard field goal with 2:54 remaining in the fourth quarter to put his team up three points. Georgia State couldn’t score in those two remaining minutes and turned the ball over on downs on the play which Hart and Ellington couldn’t connect. The Panther offense once again showed its full potential in the second half by out-scoring its fourth Sun Belt Conference team in four attempts this season. Coastal Carolina, however, shut out Georgia State 10-0 in the fourth quarter. The starting offensive line, which featured three redshirt
“‘Keep doing what you do’… He is everything you want in a football player. He is everything you want in a leader. It’s who he is… You’ve got to lift a young man like that up because he’s putting everything on his shoulders right now thinking that it was all him, and it’s nothing even close [to being all on him].” — SHAWN ELLIOT Georgia State football head coach
freshmen, Malik Sumter, Pat Bartlett, Jalen Jackson, was a big factor in the comeback and the 290 rushing yards. Tra Barnett finished with 161 rushing yards, the second-most in Panther history, and two touchdowns. Ellington was 14-25 passing for 231 yards and one touchdown and ran for 80 yards. “We had 521 yards of total offense,” an emotional Ellington said during the postgame press conference. “8-of-11 third down. We did really well on third down which was one of our keys to victory today. Coach Trickett said if we do [get ourselves in] good third downs — manageable third downs — that we had a chance to win the game. And he was right; he
had a chance to win it. We just didn’t click and win it, and we just didn’t pull it off.” Georgia State’s streak of slow defensive and offensive starts moved to three games once Homecoming was underway. Georgia State finally put itself on the scoreboard late in the first quarter when Ellington threw a 42-yard touchdown to Devin Gentry. The Panthers wasted a handful of chances to keep the game close before their first score. An intentional grounding penalty was called on Ellington which knocked Georgia State out of field goal range on its first drive. The special teams unit allowed the Bobcats’ return man to escape into Panther territory after appearing to be nearly tackled, and the referees tacked on a 15yard personal foul penalty on the same play. Coastal Carolina quarterback Fred Payton would throw a 25-yard touchdown to Malcolm Williams two plays later, and the Chanticleers took a 17-0 lead. The defense was a huge disappointment for them because it was out of position and not playing its assignments correctly too often, Elliott said. A few examples are the 80-yard touchdown CJ Marable ran for after catching a pitch, and another is a quarterback draw Taylor nearly scored on by running through the middle of the defense. A bowl game appearance is not likely for the Panthers with their remaining schedule that includes tough games against Appalachian State (5-2, 3-1) and Georgia Southern (7-1, 4-0). The Panthers were in the same position in 2015 when they made their first bowl game in program history by winning their final four games with a 2-6 record. Texas State plays Georgia State next Saturday, Nov. 3, at 2 p.m. A game against the Texas State Bobcats is a matchup Georgia State needs because the Bobcats are one of the worst teams in the Sun Belt. Texas State is last in the conference in scoring offense (22 points per game), total offense (323.5 yards per game) and offensive touchdowns (21). If Georgia State starts slow like they’ve done in all but one game, their Achilles’ heel of their season so far, they may have a better chance of winning than usual because of the Bobcats’ lack of offensive production. Texas State hasn’t topped 375 yards of total offense since it played Louisiana on Oct. 6, four games ago. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and 92.9 FM.
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Coach Gene Hill and the new women’s basketball coaching staff plan to use their NCAA tournament experiences to their advantage for the upcoming 2018-2019 season.
GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY GEORGIA STATE ATHLETICS
New coaches begin next era of women’s basketball Entirely revamped sideline emphasizes defense; first game Nov. 2 TAJ STRICKLAND Staff Reporter
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eorgia State women’s basketball is starting off this season with an all-new coaching staff after it didn’t renew former head coach Sharon Baldwin’s contract in March 2018. Gene Hill, acquired on April 19 this year, is now the new head coach of the Panthers. Hill brought over former head coach at North Carolina Central and Winston-Salem State University, A.G. Hall to the staff as an assistant coach. After hiring Hall, Hill recruited former Marshall associate head coach, Katie Pate to the staff. But Pate isn’t new to the Panther family; she managed business operations and academic success in 2014. Hill also picked out former Mercer head coach, Tiffany Morton. Morton coached the program for three years and helped them reach an NCAA tournament in the 2017-2018 season for the first time in school history. She also coached the team to a Southern Conference championship that same year, breaking into the Top 25 in the USA Today’s coaches list. Hall comes with a lot of defensive knowledge. During his tenure as head coach at Winston-Salem State, Hall recorded two 15-win seasons and the team was the No. 2 ranked defense in Division II basketball that allowed only 51 points per game. Hall is in for a treat with two defensive anchors on the Panthers right now. Center Shaquanda Miller-McCray and forward K.K. Williams are two upperclassmen that had a good season on the defensive end of the court last year. Miller-McCray was tied for sixth in the Sun Belt Conference in blocks per game with 1.3. Even though she averaged that many blocks, the Panthers ranked 10th in the conference in scoring defense, allowing 71.7 points per game. Miller-McCray is excited to work with her new head coach and assistant coach this season. She believes that the new staff is working hard for them to not only be better on the court,
but also off the court. She also spoke briefly about coach Hall’s philosophy on shot blocking. “They strive for us to be better as people,” Miller-McCray said. “He [Hall] always tells me that if I block the shot, I better block it out of bounds and if I do not send it, then [there is] no need to block it.” Miller-McCray also mentioned the expectations that the new coaching staff set for the players. Despite having a new set of coaches, the standards remain the same. “Come ready to practice, every day. Bring the energy, effort and make great choices,” Miller-McCray said. K.K. Williams had the same approach about her newly acquired coaches and how she has created a great relationship with them. Williams also feels good about working with defensive minded Hall and is learning his schemes to become a better defender. “He is always telling me get your hands up, get down and get in the gap, so he is really big on defense,” Williams said. “Our head coach is really big on choices and tells us to make great choices on and off the court,” Williams said of the new coaching staff ’s strengths. “Me and coach Morton have a great relationship and I love all my coaches, they are a great aspect to our team.” Williams also explained that Gene Hill and the other coaches want defense to be a strength for Georgia State. “Our goal is to basically play straight up defense, be in the gap, play good on-ball defense, get under the screens and just paying attention to what you need to do and executing,” Williams said. Despite having major success in the ACC with both Georgia Tech and North Carolina State, Hill chose to become the head coach at Georgia State. The university’s developments and being a Georgia native influenced his decision. “I think just the growth that is going on with the university and just everything like the synergy around the whole campus, it’s just a great time to be here,” Hill said. “This was a homecoming also, going to high school in LaGrange, so I feel very fortunate to be able to be here and represent my state.”
Hill’s decision to bring in Hall comes with some history in this business. Hill and Hall have known each other for 18 years beginning when they were coaches at USC Spartanburg and North Carolina Central respectively. Familiarity is one of the biggest reasons that Hill hired Hall and most of his assistant coaches. “You want to make sure you get people that you trust and people that share your same vision and passion and knowing those people for so long, I knew that was something I could count on,” Hill said. “They want what is best, not only for the program, but for the kids also.” With his new team, Hall looks forward to teaching the Panthers all the necessary steps to become a really good defensive team. “The thing that has made me a good defensive coach is basically paying attention to detail and just trying to get the kids to understand subtle nuances of being a good defender,” Hall said. “The basic slides and how to move and how to make the situations work for you. The last time the women’s team had a winning year was the 2009-2010 season. But now, the entire coaching staff has a track record of winning, which suggests they will find success at Georgia State soon. The Panthers may have touched base on every aspect of the game through the coaching picks for this season. With the senior leadership and the new coaches on the sideline, the women’s basketball team looks to find an identity they can stick with throughout this upcoming season. With Hall teaching his players the different schemes of his defense, the Panthers’ potential should be much higher than last season’s. Georgia State begins its season on Friday, Nov. 2 against Shorter at the GSU Sports Arena at 7 p.m. Before the Panther’s Sun Belt schedule begins on Jan. 3, its non-conference slate features games against Georgia Tech (GSU Sports Arena, Dec. 2), Kennesaw State (GSU Sports Arena, Dec. 13) and Florida State (Tallahassee, Florida, Dec. 29).
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How and why to get involved in intramurals Where good competitors become better friends JOSHUA FIFE Staff Reporter
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uzzer beaters, touchdowns, spikes and saves. Who says playing sports in college should exclude the average student? Georgia State’s intramurals allow anyone with a passion for competition to take a break from their studies and play in organized sports leagues. Signing up is easy, and leagues are active the entire school year. “I think [intramurals are] a great way to meet people,” Georgia State Director of Intramurals Zachary Schneider said. “You’re meeting new people who have similar interests as you. When you come together, at the same spot at the same time, you may meet somebody that’s a good competitor that may become a good friend. I think it’s good to stay active, get out there and meet new people. Intramurals are geared toward competition between students at Georgia State, as opposed to club sports, which pit Georgia State teams against other colleges at the state, regional or national level. Intramurals organize games and tournaments; however, they don’t arrange practice times or spaces for teams – that’s up to the students. Intramurals are also free to participate in, whereas club sports may have membership fees. Club sports may qualify for financial assistance from the Recreation Center based on a four-tier system that determines how much funding teams can receive. Tier one clubs, such as rowing, can get up to $5,000, tier two up to $1,000 and tiers three and four receive no funding. Granted amounts also depend on the number of teams that qualify and the total amount of available funds. Club sports team can climb to higher tiers by earning points through three different categories: leadership, form completion and competition.
PARTICIPATION
All current Georgia State students, alumni, staff and faculty can participate in intramural competition. The spouses of Georgia State faculty can also participate if they are active members of the Recreation Center. Varsity athletes are eligible to play sports that are similar or the same as their sport. For example, football players can play flag football, tennis players can play racquet sports and so on. Perimeter students can participate as well, but only two are allowed on each Downtown Atlanta campus team.
Schneider came up with an All-Georgia State tournament for flag football and 5-on-5 basketball. The Atlanta and Perimeter campuses competed on Sunday, Oct. 28 for the flag football tournament.
This year’s flag football champion will be offered a trip to the Georgia Peach Classic extramural tournament hosted at Georgia Southern.
REGISTRATION
Greeks have their own divisions of intramurals: the National Panhellenic Conference and the Interfraternity Council. Phi Mu has won the last five NPC championships and a Jernigan Cup in 2016. The Frank B. Jernigan Intramural All-Star Award, or the Jernigan Cup, is an award named after the first director of recreational services at Georgia State. Schneider said that the Jernigan cup “awards the best overall teams for the entire academic season who participate in major and minor events.” Teams compete in as many sports as possible to earn points. Points are gained through participation, sportsmanship and success in either major or minor events. Major sports, such as flag football, 5-on-5 basketball, softball and indoor volleyball receive more points than minor sports like sand volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball and arena ultimate frisbee.
“You may meet somebody that’s a good competitor that may become a good friend. I think it’s good to stay active, get out there and meet new people.”
VIDEO GAMES
Phase II of fall intramural sports began Oct. 27 with dodgeball. Phase I, which included sports like flag football and indoor soccer, ended mid-October, and its playoffs ran from the Oct. 11 through Oct. 18. Students can register for intramurals online through IMLeagues, the site where people can access intramural schedules, rosters and sign up sheets. Anyone with a Georgia State email address can access the university’s page, create a team, join a team or sign up as a free agent. Any person who creates a team is considered the captain. Team captains are responsible for organizing and contacting members of the team and informing them of the sport rules and policies.
— ZACHARY SCHNEIDER Georgia State Director of Intramurals
FREE AGENTS
Students can sign up as free agents if they don’t have a team yet. Teams will sign free agents if they need extra players on their roster. Free agents can also send a request to join a team that must be approved by the team’s captain.
CHAMPIONS
Intramural tournament champions receive T-shirts and a trophy at the end of the season. In addition, the champions for major sports are offered a chance to compete in “extramural events,” or competitions between intramural teams of different schools. Georgia State covers extramural tournament registration costs for champions.
Coach Gene Hill and the new women’s basketball coaching staff plan to use their NCAA tournament experiences to their advantage for the upcoming 2018-2019 season.
GREEKS
Madden NFL, FIFA and NBA 2K are available as intramural sports. The Madden season ended in early October and FIFA and NBA 2K are available in the spring Esports are new to the intramurals scene, having just began last year. “We were just looking for a program opportunity that was outside the stereotypical offerings,” Schneider said. “Most of these things are physically active but we were trying to find people that come to the game room. We offer billiards, table tennis and these egames.” Few people have played the video game intramurals so far, but the Recreation Center will continue to offer them because the games don’t require officials or other costs. Some students, like Georgia State senior Teddy Werner, hope that esports will grow in the future. Werner has played in intramurals for the past four years. “I think they should expand the esports,” Werner said. “There’s just as many kids, if not more, that would like to play in those games [and] compete in those games.” Awareness may be a hurdle to overcome in the introduction of these new options. “I bet a lot of people just don’t know about it, honestly,” Werner added. “A lot of kids who would want to compete in [esports] probably just don’t ever go into the game room, so they probably didn’t even know that was an option.”
PHOTO BY AZAM LALANI | THE SIGNAL
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End goal: Senior Caitlin Ray’s final shot at title
Ray enters her first and last conference tournament since freshman year DANIEL RICHARDSON Staff Reporter
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he Georgia State women’s soccer team is poised to begin play in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Oct. 31. The Panthers (7-9-1) earned their first tournament berth since the 2015 season. They finished fifth place in the conference’s regular season standings. This season didn’t seem destined for the level of success the team has seen. The team began the year 2-8-1 and 0-4 in conference play. It looked as if this year would go down as another season of rebuilding under second-year head coach, Ed Joyce. Senior forward, Caitlyn Ray, is one of the only remaining players from the 2015 championship game season. Ray, along with junior, Brooke Shank, leads Georgia State in points with 11. She is tied for third in the Sun Belt with five assists alongside Jordan Kondikoff of Texas State and Natalie Melillo of Troy. The same talent that has been on the roster since the Panthers’ opening day loss finally came together to play well at the right time. “We have developed a lot,” Ray said. “From the beginning we knew that we were a very skilled team, but now it is all finally coming together and everyone else is starting to see it too.” Georgia State is entering the conference tournament this season with a winning mindset. The team confidence is at a level unseen since the team’s last tournament berth, and the Panthers look to translate that to their tournament play. The Panthers ended this regular season with momentum heading into the tournament, and they are focused on making it to the title game. After losing to Arkansas State on Sept. 23, Georgia State went on to win five games in a row, including a 1-1 tie against top-ranked Texas State in San Marcos, Texas. The points earned from the stalemate helped the Panthers solidify their place in the conference tournament. “This year I expect us to win the title game,” Ray said. “We have a lot of talented girls and we are all starting to click on the field so I expect nothing less than a championship win.” When the Panthers played in the tournament in 2015, the team had an unimaginable run beforehand in which they took down top-ranked competition as the No. 6 seed to get to the championship game. They would lose 4-0 to South Alabama in the championship game. That season, Georgia State took down the No. 3 seed Texas State and the No. 2 seed Troy, winning the match via penalty kicks. The match against Troy in the semi-finals is one that still sticks with Ray today. She said the game was one that college athletes dream of being a part of. That is the same energy that Ray is
Caitlyn Ray, senior forward on the women’s soccer team, heads into her final Sun Belt Conference Championship and aims to help lead the team to a winning position.
trying to instill in her squad as the tournament rolls around. Georgia State entered the 2015 tournament with four freshmen on the roster. This year’s team enters the tournament with a host of younger players – 15 players on the roster are freshmen – who have yet to experience tournament play. Five of the first-year Panthers started nine or more games this season. Ray said she and the team’s other senior players are making sure their younger teammates are not too overwhelmed by the moment. “[J]ust continue to play the way we have been playing and not to let the tournament pressure affect your game,” Ray said. Ray will also take her experience as a young freshman who started 11 matches in the regular season that year and apply it to
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY GEORGIA STATE ATHLETICS
her tournament play as a senior – and leader – on her team. “I learned that when playing in the tournament that every game can possibly be your last game of the season,” Ray said. “Which means that you should give everything you have and I intend to bring the same attitude this year.” As a senior, Ray has the opportunity to lead her team along with Shank, the team’s top goal earner, to the Sun Belt Conference title as she exits the program. The chance to capture the title that she came so close to winning her freshman season has stoked her competitive fire. “[K]nowing that this is my final season and that at the end of the road could be a championship title I am more motivated than I have ever been,” Ray said.
GSU and its developing homecoming tradition Homecoming wasn’t always held in the fall … or with football CHRISTIAN CRITTENDEN Staff Reporter
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he week of homecoming is traditionally the week in the fall that universities and their alumni and students circle on the their calendars. Despite this history, Georgia State is still developing its Homecoming traditions. The Panther football team has existed for nine seasons, and that’s how long homecoming has been a fall activity. Before football, the same homecoming events were held in February and scheduled with basketball games, a stark difference from what college students and alumni are now accustomed to. In homecoming’s previous form, the men’s and women’s basketball teams would both play on separate days, and were both part of the homecoming week. The men’s basketball team would play on Saturday, ending the official week of celebration.
Since the events now take place in the fall with a football game, the number of people who can participate has drastically increased. Even before the Panthers acquired Georgia State Stadium, they were playing at The Georgia Dome. While the Panthers were never able to fill up the Georgia Dome, they were able to fit more people than the GSU Sports Arena could. It allowed people to tailgate, which is an essential part of football season and homecoming. Tailgating in the winter at a basketball game was difficult, and as a result it rarely happened. “You would not see a lot of students necessarily tailgating or publicly gathering before a basketball game,” Georgia State Student Recreation Center staffer Kacy Toberg said. “Whereas now with having football, you see students tailgating a lot and more of that kind of traditional atmosphere which makes for a fun environment.” Toberg, who has been working at Georgia State since 2001, was once a member of the homecoming planning committee. Visibility is everything, and getting people to see the product is critical. The GSU Sports Arena has a 3,854-person capacity,
so the number of people that were actually able to participate was restricted. “But I think the biggest thing for homecoming is that you want people to come back to your biggest events,” Georgia State Associate Athletic Director of Communications Mike Holmes said. “And what are our biggest events? Realistically, it’s football; we can put 25,000 people in the stadium. That’s going to be bigger than what we could put in the Sports Arena.” Not only did the football team change the way homecoming is celebrated, but it also played a big part in changing the perception of school spirit. “When I first came it was very surprising to me that students did really have a strong connection regarding spirit and pride with Georgia State,” Toberg said. “You wouldn’t see a lot of people at that time wearing Georgia State gear. It would be very rare that you might find Georgia State gear out in the shopping malls, and that’s very different now. And I think football has played a big part in that kind of cultural shift.”
SPORTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018
SPORTS BRIEFS Football Lost Homecoming 37-34 to Coastal Carolina and are 2-6 overall and 1-3 in conference Georgia State came back from down 17-0 in the first quarter and held a 34-27 lead in the fourth quarter Penny Hart had 118 receiving yards and one touchdown, his 11th career game with 100 or more receiving yards Tra Barnett rushed for two touchdowns and 161 yards, the secondmost rushing yards in a single game in Panther history Were out-scored by 10-0 by Coastal Carolina in the fourth quarter
men’s soccer Lost 1-0 to South Carolina last Wednesday Gave up the game-winning goal in the 65th minute Stands at 9-5-2 after defeating Coastal Carolina 4-3 on Oct. 28 Max Hemmings scored twice, and Tristan Jumeau and Aris Briggs scored once All four Georgia State goals came in the first half Faces UAB on Nov. 2 in Birmingham, Alabama
volleyball Has a 6-16 record after splitting home conference games last weekend Lost 3-1 to Arkansas State and defeated Little Rock 3-2 Senior setter Sarah Renner moved into sixth place all-time in Georgia State history with 2,345 assists The Panthers had to come back in the final set to beat Little Rock Panthers play Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina this week
Cross Country Placed fourth out of twelve places in the Sun Belt Championships Lotte Meyberg, the Panthers’ top participant, finished 15th overall with a time of 18:08:20 in the 5K Angela Alonso was 16th in the 5K with a 18:10:84 finish Marine Garnier finished 30th for State with a 18:52:98 time Georgia State earned a rivalry point because it finished higher than Georgia Southern (ninth place)
2018-2019 SUN BELT WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACHES’ PRESEASON POLL school
points
first-place votes
1. LITTLE ROCK
113
(8)
2. TROY
131
(4)
3. TEXAS STATE
97
-
4. UTA
97
-
5. ARKANSAS STATE
95
-
6. SOUTH ALABAMA
78
-
7. LOUISIANA
75
-
8. COASTAL CAROLINA
72
-
9. APPALACHIAN STATE
67
-
10. GEORGIA SOUTHERN
39
-
11. GEORGIA STATE
39
-
ULM
13
-
19
e r o m e r a s m r e t d i M ? s w n o o i n t k c e u l o e l a i t Did y n e d i s e r P n a h t t importan
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