Vol. 89, No. 18

VOL. 89 | NO. 18 02 / 22 / 22

EST. 1933

Independent, Impactful & Impartial

CO VE R BY OL IV IA M AD RZ YK |T HE SI GN AL

PHOTOS BY GEORGIA STATE

ATHLETICS AND ARTWORK BY

PATRICK CALVILLO

IN THIS ISSUE : In Arts and Living: Our take on Atlanta’s newest comedy joint Pg. 11 In Sports: How we think Tom Brady’s retirement affects the Falcons Pg. 12

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-Deena

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THE BLOTTER

February 22, 2022

WWW.GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM/NEWS

CRIME BLOTTER

FEBRUARY 17TH

FEBRUARY 15TH

“Hide your belongings”

“Stay alert”

A Georgia State-affiliated victim reported an act of theft near the Student Center West on Tuesday.

The case remains active.

NEWS BRIEFS

FEBRUARY 16TH

“Ouch. That’s gonna hurt tomorrow.

A Georgia State-affiliated victim was involved in a case of battery at the student recreation center on Wednesday afternoon.

The case is still active.

A Georgia State-affiliated victim reported an act of larceny on Thursday at the Commerce Building. The case is still active.

“Oh no, you didn’t”

Two Georgia Stateaffiliated victims were involved in two cases of larceny on Thursday night.

The case remains active.

LOCAL

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

Fulton County Schools will require summer learning for select students

National Archives confirms it retrieved documents from Mar-a-Lago

Cargo ship in Atlantic sets fire, destroys thousands of luxury cars

The summer school program will be required for some Fulton County students struggling academically. However, parents can opt them out of the program. The in-person summer learning will be on a half-day schedule from Jun. 8 to Jul. 8.

The county expects students who fail the Georgia Milestones assessments to opt into the program. While parents have the choice to stop their children from participating in the program, officials have emphasized that opting out of the program could potentially hold children back a grade.

The National Archives and Record Administration has confirmed that fifteen boxes of records were collected from Donald Trump’s resort in January. Some of the documents collected were marked as “classified national security information,” “and that the matter would be referred to the Justice Department. NARA now has its eyes set on obtaining social media records that the Trump Administration did not capture. NARA said that it has “obtained or is in the process of obtaining some of those records.”

On Wednesday, the vessel holding over 4,000 vehicles, Felicity Ace, was set ablaze.

Insurers have estimated the cargo to be valued at over $100 million. All 22 crew members were rescued by the Portuguese Air Force and reported as being in “good health.”

The ship was en-route to dock at Rhode Island, and this fire comes amid prices skyrocketing in the automotive industry. Porsche confirmed that the ship was holding over 1,000 of its cars, and Volkswagen confirmed it had vehicles on the vessel as well.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Photo by Trent Legaspi

Check out more of Trent’s work on Instagram : @trentlegaspiphotos

NEWS

February 22, 2022

WWW.GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM/NEWS

Investment firms such as Blackstone Inc., Cerberus Capital Management and KKR & Co. have purchased thousands of homes across the country, including in our very own backyard.

PHOTO BY DUSTIEN ON DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

Top news stories of the week Housing market bubble, Bezos’ superyacht ADAM DUFFY News Editor

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ouse prices skyrocket:

In a January report, Georgia Multiple Listing Service found that the price of homes in the Metro-Atlanta area had increased 22.8% from the previous year. Realtors had sold 17% fewer homes in that same time.

The median price of a home sold last month was $350,000.

This price is a 23.5% increase from January 2021.

The prices of single-family homes have increased dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic. Conditions during lockdowns created or exacerbated trends that have led to this increase.

On a material level, issues with the global supply chain have made wood and other materials harder to obtain. This supply chain issue has increased the cost of building new houses and caused the housing market to inflate.

However, what caused an even more significant tightening of the market within the last year has been purchasing homes by private-equity firms and hedge funds. These finance giants have turned their gaze to the housing market in an attempt to garner extreme profits, and it is working.

Investment firms such as Blackstone Inc., Cerberus Capital Management and KKR & Co. have been some of the most prominent players in this game. These groups have purchased thousands of homes across the country, including in Atlanta.

The intent behind these purchases is to give prospective homeowners no other choice than to rent from these large firms that have complete control over what the renters pay.

Firms have strategically planned these home buy-ups to coincide with societal trends. In the past two years, Americans have been fleeing big cities all across the country.

These people’s destination is the suburbs. Such a significant shift in where people live would have caused a crunch in the housing market on its own.

However, it has become unbearable for the average

consumer to find a house matched with these other factors.

These large firms are not working alone either. Some of the most popular home listing sites, such as Zillow, are helping fuel this consumption of homes.

Reports digging into Zillow found that the website was selling 20% of all the homes listed on the service to investment companies like Blackstone.

The national trend is even more pronounced in the Sun Belt, stretching from Orange County, California, to Savannah, Georgia.

This region has the fastest-growing population in the country. Zillow sold up to 40% of all the homes in this area listed on the website to these equity giants.

Most of these houses were not publicly listed on the site either. They were sold directly from Zillow to these firms, with consumers not getting a chance to even look at them.

These same homes are now popping up on Zillow and other sites as being available to rent.

This trend has some very major implications for the future of the American middle-class. For the past 200 years of American history, owning a home has been the number one way to accumulate intergenerational wealth.

Spokespeople from these firms and some experts in mainstream media believe that this is the future. They claim that the model of Americans no longer owning their homes but renting from a small number of housing giants is the next step in our society.

The climb in house prices is benefitting current homeowners.

The value of their homes is at an all-time high.

At the same time, companies are pushing those wanting to purchase a home out of the market. This shift is especially pronounced in younger generations of Americans.

The rate of homeownership among people between the ages 25-35 is at an all-time low compared to other generations at that same age.

This fact coincides with other economic metrics that show a

bleak landscape for future generations in our country.

Jeff Bezos’ yacht faces eggs-istential threat:

The largest sailing yacht in history will set sail within the next few months. Commissioned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the super-yacht cost a reported $500 million.

People have marred the vessel’s virgin voyage with controversy. The 417-foot yacht is being built in Alblasserdam, the Netherlands, by Oceano. To leave port in Alblasserdam, the ship must pass through the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

Rotterdam hosts the historic Koningshaven Bridge, a railway bridge built in 1927. While the bridge has not been in use for nearly 30 years, when city officials proposed dismantling it, the people of Rotterdam vehemently opposed it.

Due to these pressures, the bridge was instead declared a national monument in the 2010s. The bridge underwent restoration during this time, and officials said it would stay up indefinitely.

The Koningshaven Bridge only has a clearance of around 131 feet, hundreds too low to allow the super-yacht to pass through.

The city officials will temporarily dismantle the bridge to allow the ship to get around this problem. Although Bezos will be footing the bill for the dismantling and rebuilding of the bridge, locals are still unhappy.

Locals are so unhappy that Rotterdam resident Pablo Strörmann created a Facebook group titled “Throwing eggs at super-yacht Jeff Bezos.”

The planned event is to throw eggs at the half-a-billiondollar yacht that has received thousands of people interested or planning on attending.

While the logistics of launching eggs the near 250 feet it would take to hit the passing vessel are challenging to overcome, but the amount of attention this movement has received shows how important this monument is to the people of this very historically important city.

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THE SIGNAL

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Buckhead fights to form own Cityhood

The future of Atlanta hangs in the balance TARA WOODIN Staff Reporter

M

On Tuesday, nine families of the Sandy Hook victims announced that they had agreed to a $73M settlement with gunmaker Remington.

PHOTO BY ROBERTPRZYBYSZ ON DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

Sandy Hook families receive $73M

Gun manufacturer Remington pays millions after almost a decade MATTHEW MONROE Staff Reporter

O

n Tuesday, nine families of the Sandy Hook victims announced that they had agreed to a $73 million settlement with gunmaker Remington. Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old gunman, used a Remington rifle in the tragic 2012 shooting that claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six teachers.

Many have observed this case and looked at it as a crucial case from now on, as it could set a precedent and help victims of other mass shootings seek future lawsuits against gunmakers.

Families of the victims initially sued Remington in 2015 and said the company should have never sold such dangerous firearms to the public. The families said their focus was on preventing future shootings by holding gunmakers responsible for how they sell and market their products.

At a press conference, the parents described the settlement as a bittersweet victory in light of what they lost.

Nicole Hockley had her six-yearold son killed in the shooting and spoke at the press conference.

“Nothing will bring Dylan back,” she said.

“My hope for this lawsuit is that by facing and finally being penalized for the impact of their work. Gun companies along with the insurance and banking industries that enable them will [have] to make their practices safer than they’ve ever been, which will save lives and stop more shootings.”

Gun rights groups say that the settlement will have little to no

effect on future firearms sales, citing that federal law protects gunmakers from being held liable in most instances.

We might expect to see increased pressure from insurance companies for gun manufacturers to avoid the kind of either design choices or marketing practices that gave rise to this litigation,” said Timothy D. Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State.

As large as this settlement was, it wasn’t the first of its kind. Families of eight victims in the D.C. Sniper attacks reached a $2.5 million settlement in 2004, and $550,000 of that came from Bushmasters Firearms Inc. The Sandy Hook case focused primarily on how the shooter’s firearm, a Bushmaster XM15E2S rifle, was marketed towards younger males. The company advertised through violent video games and in one of the ads showed a rifle with the phrase “Consider Your Man Card Reissued.”

Despite the evidence provided by the prosecution, Remington has argued that no evidence proved its marketing had any correlation with the shooting.

The company also argued that The Connecticut Supreme Court should have dismissed the lawsuit as federal law gives gunmakers wide-ranging immunity. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that they would make an exception to federal law, and the families could sue Remington under state law over its rifle marketing.

Remington appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court

denied the case.

It remains to be seen whether similar lawsuits against gunmakers will go forward, as the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide on the exception to the 2005 law that the Sandy Hook families used in the case.

President Joe Biden referred to the settlement as “historic” and said, “while this settlement does not erase the pain of that tragic day, it does begin the necessary work of holding gun manufacturers accountable for manufacturing weapons of war and irresponsibly marketing these firearms.”

Biden called upon Congress to repeal the immunity law and stated that he would “continue to urge state and local lawmakers, lawyers, and survivors of gun violence to pursue efforts to replicate the success of the Sandy Hook families.”

Remington is one of America’s oldest gunmakers and was founded in 1816. After dealing with various lawsuits and retail sales restrictions since the 2012 shooting, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and subsequently sold its assets to several companies.

Only families who signed onto the lawsuit will receive damages in the settlement. According to the families’ spokesperson, Andrew Friedman, they have yet to decide what they will do with the money.

Four insurers of the company that is now bankrupt agreed to pay the full amount of coverage available, which totaled $73 million.

any relationships have suffered throughout the pandemic, and Atlanta is no exception.

Over the last couple of years, the rise in crime has led to Buckhead filing for a divorce from the city. The battle to annex Buckhead or preserve Atlanta’s city limits has continued for over a year.

There has been speculation that this push from Bill White, the head chairman and CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, is based mainly on race.

White has countered, saying it has nothing to do with race, but instead about “80,000 legally registered voters who want and who deserve to vote this year.”

However, critics aren’t so sure when Atlanta’s population is roughly 50% African American, and Buckhead is approximately 77% white population.

Buckhead is home to about 20% of Atlanta’s population but accounts for 40% of the city’s budget. Those in favor of Buckhead cityhood argue they are not receiving their fair share of their pay.

“We are focused on fighting crime, getting our garbage picked up, paying less taxes,”Bill White said.

Mayor Andre Dickens and his cabinet have been working tirelessly in Buckhead to clean the streets and to show that Atlanta is actively working to make a cleaner, safer city.

“Every person out here in Buckhead sees me out here working day and night with our team,” Dickens said.

“I’m at roll call. I’m out here laying it on the line for our police force, our firefighters, and all of our workers so that our citizens of Atlanta know that this mayor is hands-on and attentive to our needs, and I think

Buckhead sees that and they want to stay.”

Dickens said.

“The business community came out full force last week saying that we want to stay in Atlanta and work together with this administration.”

Many large businesses in Buckhead argue all the costs associated with switching to a new city will be costly and unnecessary.

Furthermore the financial toll on Atlanta would be catastrophic if Buckhead left. Many citizens say that Atlanta needs to unite now more than ever to solve.

“What Buckhead is doing is like taking their ball and going home,” said Jason Duncan, an Atlanta Attorney who works at a firm near Buckhead.

“It’s selfish, and it doesn’t fix anything.”

Currently, the state legislature has refused to hear the proposal for Buckhead to have its city.

So, for now, it will not be moving forward.

Still, Buckhead cityhood leaders are not taking the news lying down. White has urged citizens to leave ProBuckhead City yard signs and call their legislative leaders.

“We will never give up,” said White in a press conference this week.

“We will never give in to the city of Atlanta and their coordinated efforts to deny us our right to vote on cityhood.”

However, Mayor Dickens, who is just a little over a month into his first term, won’t back down on this either.

He has made fixing the problems in Buckhead one of the main things to tackle in his first 100-day plan.

“Buckhead cityhood is not going to happen on my watch,” Dickens said.

“I hope it never happens.

The city of Atlanta needs to be one city with one bright future.”

OPINIONS

February 22, 2022

WWW.GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM/OPINIONS

Yale University Sheffield Scientific School Building Ornate Victorian Facade Decorations New Haven Connecticut

PHOTO BY BILLPERRY ON DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

Alumni-children are favored at Ivy League Colleges The problematic system of favoring children of alumni over non-alumni undergraduates.

E GABBY MILLER Staff Columnist

veryone has heard about the Ivy League colleges of America.

These colleges have the reputation of accepting our country’s leaders: James Madison, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison and many more of our presidents went to these types of schools.

However, did you know these schools have an old tradition of accepting more alumni-children into these types of colleges?

These colleges have a habit of boosting the acceptance rates to those whose parents are alumni of one of these Ivy League colleges. Today this tradition is receiving backlash.

Various students at one of these schools are calling out the unfairness of the admission boost to alumni parents.

Racial injustice initially fueled this tradition. In the past, people at these schools did not want other people to look different from the majority of the American population. So, colleges made this tradition to control the demographics of these colleges.

This boost allowed schools to control their preferences on who gets the honor of being accepted into this college. They wanted more people to look the same as their primary demographic, and they would boost the chances of the children of the alumni over the non-alumni children.

This tradition should not even exist anymore because it does not give the non-alumni children a chance of getting a better future. These colleges are known to be the best of the best. Whoever gets accepted to these colleges are future lawyers, business owners, and even political figures.

Colleges want a similar demographic, and that demographic does not give these non-alumni children the same shot as the alumni-children.

Not everyone has the privilege to go to college. Some people could come from a family who did not go to college.

Some people could be the first in their families to get into college.

This tradition makes it harder for those to get into these types of schools just because their parents did not go to college in general, and that is not fair to those who want to better themselves and get an education.

With this tradition, colleges pick and choose who gets the honor of getting accepted based on their appearance.

Appearance is everything when you are attending these schools, and holding onto this old tradition, makes it so the college could still control who gets accepted into these colleges.

What happens if the non-alumni child works harder than the alumnichild to get accepted into one of these schools? There is always someone who works harder than the other person, and because of this tradition,

the alumni-child could see this boost could mean they do not have to work as hard to get in.

This tradition is horrible for those who desperately want acceptance into these schools because of the prestige these Ivy League schools have.

It is unfair for those who get a boost in getting accepted. It is unfair for those who work harder to get in and do not have the same privilege as the alumni children.

“

This tradition makes it harder for those to get into these types of schools just because their parents did not go to college in general, and that is not fair to those who want to better themselves and get an education.

— GABBY MILLER

”

Staff Columnist

Giving a boost to alumni-children at these schools is not a good thing. It is based on wanting the same demographic of people to get accepted. It does not give those who wish to better themselves by getting an education.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022

OPINIONS

7

ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN KOENIGS | THE SIGNAL

The reality tv show genre is finally facing their lack of BIPOC representation.

PHOTO BY GORODENKOFF ON DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

Diversity in dating shows is not real diversity

It is impossible to create a truly diverse environment within the confines of an exclusive setting

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LUIZA DE ABREU

Staff Columnist

s an avid consumer of reality dating shows, I know far too much about The Bachelor franchise, and I have seen all seven seasons of “Love Island UK” more times than I’d like to admit.

When watching these shows, it’s impossible not to see the parallels between what happens in the Love Island villa and what happens in the real world. Dating shows constantly overlook women of color in predominantly white, heteronormative dating arenas.

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We need more BIPOC in the writing rooms, in the producers’ seats, and as the creators of these shows.

— LUIZA DE ABREU

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Staff Columnist

It’s no secret that these shows are heterosexual entertainment at their finest. Executives tailor them to a straight, white audience. The one time The Bachelor franchise depicted an LGBTQ+ storyline was with two blonde and blue-eyed women.

It’s not a very progressive choice and not an accurate depiction of

what queerness looks like in real life.

It’s not too surprising when you consider that they don’t cast anyone over a size four or with a name that isn’t Hannah or Ashley.

Out of all 20 years and 40 seasons of “The Bachelor”, there have only been four Black leads. Rachel Lindsay, the first Black lead in the history of the franchise, recently said in a 2021 interview with Vulture, “I thought I could change The Bachelor franchise from within. Until I realized I was their token.”

What does it say about the franchise as a whole when the only Black male lead in 20 years of “The Bachelor” after being introduced to 25 incredible women of color turns around and picks the white girl with a documented history of racially insensitive behavior?

There is a culture of racism that runs so deep, that many Black people who come onto the show have internalized it.

Too often, we see beautiful dark-skinned Black women have tearful journeys searching for love, pining for the white man’s heart just to be used as a pawn and ultimately tossed aside for the blonde, blue-eyed girl.

It’s heartbreaking but incredibly discouraging when TV shows make the only people who look like you portrayed as undesirable.

In the most recent seasons of reality shows, casting directors have tried to be more diverse in their casting process. In 2021, after criticism from past contestants and fans, CBS pledged that the future casts of shows like “Survivor”, “Big Brother” and “Love Island” would have at least 50% people of color to be more progressive.

Though this shows a small amount of progress, casting isn’t necessarily the only thing that makes a show diverse. It’s about inclusivity in the boardroom, meaning people from different cultures and walks of life take part in the creation and execution of the show.

Simply casting a few Black contestants is not enough.

We need more BIPOC in the writing rooms, in the producers’ seats and as the creators of these shows.

When a show is rooted in a white heteronormative culture, it is impossible to create a truly diverse environment within the confines of that exclusive setting, no matter how many people of color you cast.

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Doom Scroll Social media’s war on the mind Written By: Terrance Davis - Staff Columnist

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ILLUSTRATION BY LAURYN JOHNSON AND PAGE DESIGN BY EVAN KOENIGS | THE SIGNAL

efore we begin, I should clarify that the solution is probably not to do away with social media altogether. It may seem like the obvious solution.

However, there is an inescapable utility to keeping up with social media in some capacity. After all, there is minimal separation between our online lives and our real lives.

That said, social media’s detrimental effects on the mind become more and more observable, especially as many people’s media habits, in general, have changed drastically following lockdown.

While social media platforms already gave us a method through which to escape from our lives, they also served the purpose of connecting us to others.

Even if our friends and favorite celebrities aren’t exactly with us, it can satisfy certain social urges while not bringing us into the proximity of others. This supplementing of social interaction can be more addicting when outside factors are hindering social lifes.

These suspicions of the addictive nature of social media platforms particularly, Facebook and Instagram, were more or less confirmed during the Capitol testimony of Facebook insider Frances Haugen.

In her report, Haugen outlined the many ways in which Facebook, and by extension, Instagram, inten-

tionally courts younger users and damages their mental health in various ways that Facebook’s very own researchers recorded .

The same barriers of class and aesthetic beauty in our real lives are further amplified by the wide range of people we see on social media.

Many of the most popular faces on these platforms are the most famous people on earth. The idea of a platform in which regular people have to, in effect, compete with famously wealthy people would necessarily breed this type of insecurity.

Social media is proven to be addictive in many ways, and a lot of this is by design.

As algorithms get better and user interfaces become more convenient with constant feedback, the experience of infinitely scrolling through social media provides users with a continuous sense of gratification The very architecture of social media feeds has obas they are being fed content from hundreds to thouservable effects on its users, namely the infinite scroll. sands of users almost instantaneously.

Platforms like Twitter offer users an endless stream of It is also very satisfying to post to social media and automatically generated content as they scroll. find validation from friends and possibly even strangWith so many users and tweets at any given moers. The more followers or subscribers one has, the ment, as long as someone has an internet connection, greater the amount of proof. they can scroll through the app infinitely. This feaHowever, this parasocial dynamic becomes harder ture of these apps has given way to the prevalence of to maintain for an individual as one’s following grows doomscrolling. bigger. There are greater expectations for these people The term came into prominence in 2020 and is used to portray a manufactured aspect of their lives, with to describe the act of intentionally and consistently have many consequences. scrolling through bad or disheartening news or inforWhen describing a social media presence as manmation. The reasons for engaging in this somewhat ufactured, it is essential to know that the process of masochistic act are relatively simple. “manufacturing” an appearance is just a part of postPeople need distractions, and it can make people ing to any social media platform. feel less alone to see that others experience suffering There is an almost mandatory level of curation and in the same way. effort that goes into even the most seemingly casual News journalism already plays on the tendency for Instagram posts since, after all, people post for public people to seek out or pay attention to awful news. consumption.

Still, when factoring in the speed at which inforThe social media experience is also very harmmation can come out, and the increasing number ful in how it forces users to perceive other of people who consume their news through users, especially about themselves. social media, the process is much more At the same time, people generally unintense and harmful than it would be in a derstand that the average social media more limited format. feed is closer to a work of fiction or a Prolonged interaction reality show than documentation of with this mindset while one’s everyday life.

Depending on the range of one’s viewing people who are feed, this act of doomscrolling can part of the “real world” also extend to consuming the bad can give individuals a Suspension of disbelief is intenews or depressive thoughts of an skewed sense of reality, gral to this experience. To fully individual user or friend, further and it would be naive to enjoy and immerse ourselves into compounding the destructive nasay that anyone is our social media feeds and the ture of the social media landscape. immune to these lives of our friends and those who The unfortunate truth is that effects. influence us, we must cut the part social media and smartphones as a of our brain off that rationalizes whole have almost completely intehow the photos and videos come out grated with our own real lives.

Terrance Davis the way they do.

There are observable social, political Staff Columnist Prolonged interaction with this and economic shifts as these platforms mindset while viewing people who are become more accurate. It is more or less part of the “real world” can give individimpossible to be in the loop without access uals a skewed sense of reality, and it would to social media, and there is a definite social be naive to say that anyone is immune to these utility, especially on an individual level. effects.

Constant notifications play on our FOMO and The Haugen report, submitted to the Wall Street knowing that other people engage will naturally make Journal, detailed how Facebook and Instagram have us want to do the same. However, what people need been incredibly troublesome, especially for young to address the power that many large tech firms wield girls. regarding the level of transparency to the public, is One leaked study showed that 17% of teenage girls none. have said their eating disorders have gotten worse In the meantime, it is crucial to understand the since using Instagram. Another study showed that manipulation of reality that happens on these apps. around 32% of teen girls felt worse about their bodWhile we cannot remove ourselves from its effects, ies after using the app. The reasons for this should be understanding how it works can encourage a healthier evident enough. relationship with social media.

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ARTS & LIVING

WWW.GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM/ARTSANDLIVING

February 22, 2022

PHOTO BY KANTVER ON DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM | ALBUM COVER FROM BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROADS

“Ants From Up There” avoids the sophomore slump Britain’s greatest band puts out another classic DESMOND LEAKE Arts & Living Editor

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fter an incredible debut album with “For The First Time,” British Post-Punk outfit Black Country, New Road exploded in popularity, with a US and UK tour scheduled for 2022, and their follow-up Sophomore album announced to release Feb. 4th.

Preceding the release of their forthcoming album, the group posted an announcement on their Instagram page announcing lead vocalist Isaac Wood would depart the band after the release of “Ants From Up There,” and that the tours would be canceled.

In this sense, “Ants From Up There” is an elegy for Wood’s signature vocals that dominated much of the group’s work. Essentially it is a glorious send-off for one of the most interesting vocalists in recent times.

“Ants from Up There” is everything their debut was but even grander, varying from the maximalist violindriven tracks, to quiet stripped-back guitar-driven ballads. It’s a beautiful piece of art that manages to surpass the already excellent “For The First Time.”

The first single released and the second track of the album, “Chaos Space Marine” is an incredible way to begin the album. The song is driven by a constant riff and string accompaniment as Isaac emboides the titular Chaos Space Marine and his use of Warhammer 40K as escapism in the face of his failing relationship.

The upbeat progressive instrumentals contrast the cryptic and depressing lyrics that dominate the track.

While Isaac may be the lead vocalist, the other members are just as essential to the madness that is

BC,NR. The way the group manages to throw together saxophones, violins, piano and horns while seamlessly blending with Isaac’s unique vocals is a sight to behold.

“Concorde” follows “Chaos Space Marine” and features the prominent imagery of airplanes that dominate much of the album, with a toy airplane in a plastic bag being the album’s cover.

The song itself starts with a rather slow and chill first half which builds into an explosive second half.

It evokes the imagery of a plane taking off, which fits with the constant references across the album.

The lyricism on “Concorde” is some of the hardesthitting material the band has written, with the lines “I was breathless upon every mountain, just to look for your light,” being the most succinct description of Isaac’s obsession over his former lover across the entire album.

“Good Will Hunting” is a standout track, with Isaac’s somber wavering voice permeated the entire track as if he were representing the anxiety anguishing over an old flame while catchy shifting melodies play throughout the track.

The lyrical usage of contemporary pop culture references, such as “She has Billie Eilish style,” gives the illusion that the song is a conversation Wood had about the lover he so desperately desires but knows he can’t have.

“The Place Where He Inserted the Blade” is another highlight, featuring an ethereal piano instrumental in the background with soft trilling flutes in the

background while Wood sings about his codependency issues with his partner represented by an incredibly elaborate metaphor for cooking food.

The piano-driven accompaniment is beautiful and Wood’s buttery smooth delivery across the track breathes a lot of life into it.

The final track, “Basketball Shoes,” has been played at live shows for years before its official studio release.

It has undergone multiple revisions of its lyrical content, with the original version directly referencing artist Charli XCX, which is changed to an entirely separate person in the final version.

The studio version is still a glorious 12-minute track of epic saxophone lines and horns playing while Isaac reckons with the toll his relationship has taken on him,with three separate parts broken up by different instrumental sections that dominate the track.

The album ends climactically with intense guitar riffs and saxophone blaring while Wood screams emotionally about a wet dream he had about someone named Charlie. It’s intimate, emotional and grandiose all at the same time.

“Ants From Up There” is quite the send-off to Isaac Wood and it’s hard to Imagine where the band will go without their signature vocalist and songwriter. But regardless of what the future holds, “Ants From Up There” is one of the standout albums of 2022 and it’s only two months into the year.

ARTS&LIVING

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022

11

“Dynamic El Dorado” brings comedy to Atlanta “Dynamic El Dorado”: Atlanta’s newest comedy joint GRACE BRASWELL Associate Arts & Living Editor

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ithin the past few years, Atlanta has blossomed into what is known as “The Hollywood of the South” with its temperate climate and unique scenery, making Atlanta an ideal place for producers to film a range of scenes.

With the growth of the Atlanta film industry, the city has become a hotspot for actors, actresses, filmmakers and creative minds– bringing in people from all over the world to work in the world of film.

With Atlanta’s new boom of film and art in mind, comedy lover and art enthusiast Miguel Figueroa wanted to create a space where aspiring actors, comedians, filmmakers and artists could come together to learn, grow and create in a welcoming environment.

In 2019, right before the pandemic, Figueroa opened “Dynamic El Dorado,” a space for comedians, artists, improv actors and filmmakers to have a place to work, put on shows and display art.

Figueroa started doing improv and sketch several years ago, however, after several small theaters shut down around Atlanta, Figueroa found the opportunity to invest in his small theater.

“I was investing in real estate, and I came across this little corner,” Figueroa said.

“I thought I could have some shows here while I try to get a tenant in here. I told this to my wife, who told me I should go ahead and set up a theater and a studio for performances. The idea was to have a place to develop people who have taken basic classes in stand up, improv and sketch”.

There are not many places around the city that offer classes such as stand up and sketch, so Figueroa hopes to provide a space for those who want to learn comedy and improv to be able to through classes, shows, collaborations and open mics.

Apart from comedy and art, the space is also used for filmmakers to work on films and short films, podcasters, casting recordings, etc. Currently, Dynamic El Dorado hosts an art show

featuring artists Bryce Hart and Patrick Calvillo titled “The Clowns We Admire.”

This art show features paintings and drawings of some of the most famous comic artists of all time. From SNL comedians to Robin Williams, recognizable faces line the walls of Dynamic El Dorado in comedy. All of these art pieces are on sale currently.

For “The Clowns We Admire,” Calvillo’s art style leans towards a more pop-art, computer graphic design style, while Hart uses paint-like mediums and sketches to portray these iconic faces in comedy.

“We brainstormed for a while trying to figure out what themes would be good for our art show,” Calvillo said. “We knew that we were going to do it here, and it made sense for us to do comedians because they do improv and stand up here. It made sense to do something fitting with the venue.”

Calvillo, originally from Kansas, moved to Atlanta with the flow of Atlanta’s film and media scene. In Kansas, Calvillo worked with artist Wayne White, puppeteer and set designer for the television comedy show “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.”

After moving to Atlanta, Calvillo continued to work with White in Chattanooga as a painting assistant and White’s wife Mimi Pond, who wrote the first episode of “The Simpsons”.

After working with creators and artists such as Pond and White, Calvillo realized the importance of leaving Kansas, which brought him to Atlanta.

“After meeting these people, I realized I needed to get out of Kansas and go where people are,” Calvillo said.

With love for both art and improv, places in Atlanta such as Dynamic El Dorado give Calvillo a space to create art, work with other artists and participate in improv shows.

Apart from the current art show at Dynamic El Dorado, the venue also frequently hosts comedy shows. Shows such as “Mom and Dad Improv” are held every Saturday at 8 pm, and there are solo sketch shows every first of the month.

Using steady escalating tension and a lack of context, analog horror creates terrifying and compelling stories.

PHOTO BY SEAWARDS DAWSON | THE SIGNAL

Analog horror: The bizarre and the unsettling

An exciting platform for independent creators GARET WEHS Staff Reporter

B

eginning as a mostly audioonly, internet-only offshoot of the found footage horror subgenre, analog horror first began emerging and growing as a subgenre in the early 2010s. The majority of analog horror often consist of blurry images and fuzzy audio.

Little to no context is given to the watchers of these videos, and instead, speculation and theorizing are encouraged are the video’s comment section.

Adjacent to other forms of online horror and urban legends, such as the SCP Foundation and blurry pictures of Bigfoot, analog horror works in the realms of plausible deniability or even alternate history.

The bizarre nature of many videos or series in the subgenre all work towards establishing an unsettling tone through a gradual build-up of tension.

Like any other visual medium, presentation is everything for good analog horror. The suspension of disbelief is an integral part of enjoying analog horror.

Being a genre primarily populated by independent creators, often, videos must resort to creative tricks or minimal CGI. Found footage is the most common form of delivery for analog horror and lends itself nicely to the lower budget of many creators.

Several series currently running display some of the best qualities of analog horror and do so with incredible skill. “The Backrooms” by Kane Pixels shows a practical and short example of what good analog horror looks like.

Bizarre, disorienting and unsettling,

“The Backrooms” does a lot with a little.

The lingering shots of empty rooms and repeating hallways keep watchers on edge, and the rest of the short series does little to explain what is going on.

While it is a short series overall, “The Backrooms’’ is a relatively digestible and compelling story. It features a nameless cameraman falling into the Backrooms by chance and documents his bizarre time there.

The titular backrooms appear to be an infinitely repeating series of similarlooking dingy rooms that someone can rarely escape. The series’ creators are currently expanding on the show, giving further background to what people see in the initial video.

Another series that provides a fascinating and downright unsettling form of analog horror is “The Mandela Catalogue” by Alex Kister. A series that pretends to be a group covering a series of bizarre events in a fictional Mandela County, “The Mandela Catalogue” is one of the strangest and unsettling pieces of analog horror.

More direct than many other series, “The Mandela Catalogue” seeks to make viewers uncomfortable using strange biblical allusions and imagery. Alongside the religious references, the paranormal danger of the series feels outright malicious and predatory.

The brief recordings of the victims throughout the county of Mandela introduce the series as depicting the ordinary routine of normal people before quickly descending into fear and paranoia.

Although occasionally stiff, the acting in these brief glimpses of the world

pair well with the federal warnings and advisories that play between the incidents. The overall worldbuilding of the series gives just enough to retain interest while leaving enough mystery to fuel rampant speculation.

A series that focuses entirely on worldbuilding is the “Monument Mythos” series by ALEXKANSAS. A series that dives completely into alternate history, “Monument Mythos” is a tangled web of conspiracies and lies that span the globe.

Presenting itself as the findings of a lone investigator, “The Mandela Catalog” creates a fascinating narrative regarding the existence of supernatural threats to the world.

Beginning with shorter videos showing isolated incidents, “Monument Mythos” manages to tie many of them together in remarkable ways as the story progresses and gets more complicated.

One episode may only focus on President Deans, an enigmatic man that seems to be hiding something despite his overwhelming charm. Another may focus on the discovering the body of a man that claims to be George Washington frozen in a Delaware River.

The fascinating thing about “Monument Mythos” is that it manages to connect these two things through a complex timeline. analog horror is an exciting subgenre that provides independent filmmakers an avenue to explore bizarre and exciting concepts. Without the pressure of conforming to the conventions of typical horror, these series can create compelling stories.

SPORTS

February 22, 2022

WWW.GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM/SPORTS

Upcoming Games

VS. Kennesaw State Away Game vs Georgia Tech @ Georgia Tech 02 / 23 / 22

3:00 p.m.

ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN KOENIGS | THE SIGNAL

How Brady’s retirement affects Falcons With no Brady, the NFC South crown could return to Atlanta

VS.

SKYLER HILL Staff Reporter it twisted. Despite his age, he has shown that he can still throw the football year after year.

Ryan threw for 4000-plus yards 10 seasons straight, only missing the mark this past year by 32 yards. Unfortunately, fans will probably never see Ryan play as good as he did during his MVP run, but the stats speak for themself.

Kyle Pitts lived up to the hype, the highest-drafted tight end of all time. In his rookie year, he broke the legend Julio Jones’s record for most receiving yards by a rookie. Pitts showed off in his debut season and proved himself as a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

For this season to be successful, the Falcons will need to address the concerns of Corradelle Patterson and Calvin Ridley possibly leaving the team.

Cordarrelle Patterson was the MVP of this Falcons team last year. Week after week, he left defensive coordinators frustrated with no answers for the star.

Patterson had 11 touchdowns and had career highs across the board.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank recognizes the talent Patterson brings to this roster and hopes to re-sign him this summer.

“From our standpoint, we’d love to have [CP] back,” said Blank on AtlantaFalcons.

Com. “We saw the same thing that you saw on the field. I think this is a very talented player, a very talented athlete. He’s a terrific young man. He’s great with the fans. He’s great in the locker room. He’s a real competitor [and] I hope that he’ll be a Falcon this time [next] year.”

Ridley took a step away from the Falcons back in October due to mental health. Blank and the Falcons would love to sign him back, but Ridley has yet to contact the Falcons organization with a timetable for his return..

On the other side of the ball, the defense for the Falcons remained bottom of the barrel last year. According to Pro Football Reference, they finished the season as the #29 ranked defense. Despite the ranking, there’s still hope.

They have the elite A.J. Terrell at cornerback, ranked #2 in the league at his position only behind Jalen Ramsey.

At linebacker, with 192 tackles last season, league leader Foyesade Oluokun is a free agent this summer. Re-signing Oluokun will be at the very top of the todo list for the team this offseason.

From what we know, Brady has officially retired from football, but to no surprise, it turns out the thought of him coming back may not be that far-fetched.

Brady appeared on the LetsGo! Podcast and left listeners with something to think about.

“I’m just gonna take things as they come,” said Brady. “I think that’s the best way to put it, and I don’t think anything, you know, you never say never.”

All in all, this offseason will be huge for the Falcons. They haven’t won the division outright since 2016, and with Brady out of the picture, the NFC South is up for grabs.

Can they get it together at this opportune time and snatch the division crown?

Georgia Tech Away Game vs Kennesaw State @ Kennesaw State 02 / 23 / 22 5:00 p.m.

Men’s

H

ear ye, hear ye! It’s time for the city of Atlanta to rejoice. After years of rule, Brady has retired, and many fans have found new hope. Roll those breaking news tickers out and shine them bright because the future looks very promising for the Falcons right about now.

Seven-time Super Bowl champion, three-time MVP and arguably the greatest football player of alltime has retired from the NFL, opening the floodgates for a wide-open NFC South.

As many Atlanta natives remember, in 2017, the Falcons lost the Super Bowl to Brady himself. In March 2020, the hate for Brady only exasperated the Falcons’ fans even more.

The news had come flooding in, and the caption flooded every sports network on television.

Tom Brady was leaving the New England Patriots and joining the young and hungry Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South, the same division as the beloved Falcons.

Fans would now have to endure Brady’s wrath twice a year.

With a Brady-less NFC South, a rebuilding year for the Buccaneers, a questionable Saints squad and a very untrustworthy Panthers team, the division crown is for the taking in Atlanta.

For starters, the Falcons’ offense could be lethal. This offense will depend on several factors starting with Matt Ryan for this to work. Ryan will go into next season as a 37-year-old QB but don’t get

VS. University of Louisiana Monroe

Home Game @ Georgia State Sports Arena 02 / 24 / 22 7:00 p.m.

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022

13

GSU volleyball set for the future with Terry Hutchinson

This hire will shift the culture of the Panthers volleyball team.

O

JASON RICHBURG Staff Reporter

n Feb. 3rd, Georgia State announced that they hired former Townson University assistant coach Terry Hutchinson as the new volleyball head coach.

This hire comes after former head coach Sally Polhamus did not renew her contract back in December.

Polhamus was the head coach of the Panthers volleyball team for eight seasons and accumulated a win-loss record of 71-143.

Here is some background information on the new Panther family member.

Before he arrived in Atlanta, Hutchinson made several pitstops.

Hutchinson was a former collegiate athlete in the 90s spending time at Junita College before transferring to East Stroudsburg University.

At East Stroudsburg, he helped the Warriors make the EIVA Division I national semifinals twice. He was nationally ranked in blocks in 1995 and 1996, on his way to earning All-EIVA Division I Honors in 1996.

In 2003, he became the head coach of Norlanco Girls’ Volleyball club and the Yorktown and Spooky Nook Volleyball Clubs in Pennsylvania.

He moved up the ranks and became an assistant for two years at Elizabethtown College and spent a year at Franklin & Marshall College.

Then he spent some time as a recruiter and player development coach for Sun Belt Conference, rival Georgia Southern University.

Over the last five years, Hutchinson has been an assistant coach at Towson University.

In those five years at Towson, he helped the Tigers appear in three straight NCAA appearances, and in one of those years, the Tigers went 16-0 in the CAA and reached the Sweet 16, where they almost beat the number 11 ranked team in the Penn State Nittany Lions.

During his years with Towson, Hutchinson helped turn them into one of the best blocking teams in the nation, and that showed with this past fall as the Tigers finished

18th in the country in blocks per set, averaging 2.64.

As well as being an excellent development coach, Hutchinson brings incredible recruiting ability.

While at Towson he recruited the CAA Rookie of the Year Lydia Wiers, who had the 29th most total blocks in the country with 138 and had one of the best blocks per set ratios with 1.20.

Some of Hutchinson’s first words as the new coach of the Panthers were those of pure excitement and being honored on being given this opportunity.

“I am truly honored, humbled and excited by this opportunity to lead the Georgia State volleyball program,” Hutchinson said.

Director of Athletics, Charlie Cobb, was excited to bring Hutchinson into the Panther family, as he described him as a leader, with high recommendations.

“Terry has an outstanding background of leading and building successful teams,” Cobb said. “He comes highly recommended, but most importantly, he made an incredible impression on our team when he interviewed on campus.”

Head Coach of Georgia State’s women basketball team Gene Hill, has already made Hutchinson feel at home by giving him an exciting welcome online.

“Welcome Terry!!!” Hill said on his Twitter.

Coach Terry Hutchinson will have his hands full as he looks to turn the Panthers into a formidable ball club in the Sun Belt.

Last season the Panthers finished fifth in the East division of the Sun Belt Conference with an 8-20 record for their 11th straight losing season.

The Panthers’ last winning season dates back to 2009 when they went 22-18-1, appearing in the Southeast College Invitational.

Coming from a winning program, Hutchinson plans to turn this program into a defensive force that’ll eventually take over the Sun Belt.

Justin Allgaier wins the EchoPark 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.

PHOTO BY ACTIONSPORTS ON DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

New-look Atlanta Motor Speedway set to debut in March

New racing surface, banking, track width rejuvenates 62 year-old circuit BAILEY KNIGHT Staff Reporter

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ith the NASCAR Cup Series championship season getting underway in Daytona Beach on Feb. 20th, the series is just under a month away from returning to the confines of the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton.

Atlanta Motor Speedway has another new look this season. It features a new racing surface, steeper turns and a narrower track.

After the Cup Series’ July 2021 race, the track’s owner, Speedway Motorsports, began repaving the track surface. The surface was last paved in 1997 when the owners altered it from its original oval to the current 1.54-mile “quad-oval” boasted by most of Speedway Motorsports’ facilities.

As racing surfaces age, the outer layer of smooth asphalt wears away, revealing a coarse underlayer. This underlayer is detrimental to tires which means slower lap times as green flag racing progresses.

However, this also means competitors must use every inch of the race track, from the apron to the wall, searching for grip.

Three-wide racing was not rare on the old AMS surface.

“It’s challenging, it’s difficult,” two-time series champion Kyle Busch told Nate Ryan of NBCSports. “You have to figure out how fast you can run, how hard you can push, and yet still try to save your tire and not burn your tires off it…Overall, this is one of the more fun tracks.”

But the maintenance required for the old racing surface was a pain for Speedway Motorsports.

The old surface retained water and took hours to dry, making NASCAR officials nervous on race weekends when rain

was in the forecast. During the winter, water under the surface would freeze and expand, causing more cracks to the racing surface.

“In the last five years, we’ve looked at how we take care of groundwater,” said Steve Swift, Senior Vice President of Operations and Development for Speedway Motorsports. “We’ve had races that have been postponed because of weepers (moisture seeping through the track surface).”

The new asphalt uses technology to counter this, called an Open Drainage Layer or ODL. Water under the asphalt passes through the ODL to a groundwater pipe below the surface, taking it away.

This new asphalt eliminates the possibility of water affecting the racing surface and allows it to dry quickly in the event of rain.

Alongside the surface change, the banking in the turns was increased to 28 degrees, the steepest of the mile-and-ahalf intermediate tracks on NASCAR’s schedule and the third steepest on the program.

After the 1997 repave, Geoffrey Bodine established the AMS lap record for the series - a qualifying lap with an average speed of 197.48 miles per hour. While speeds may not reach that high, they could reach 190 miles per hour - a mark not seen since 2017.

NASCAR also narrowed the track from 55 feet wide to 52 feet wide on the front stretch, 42 feet wide on the backstretch and 40 feet wide in the turns. These changes will force drivers to race side-by-side and create many opportunities to pass on corner exits.

“In NASCAR, we have our Daytona

and Talladega-style draft, and those are on 2.5- and 2.66-mile tracks,” four-time AMS winner Kurt Busch said. “This is a mileand-a-half. Things are going to be moving quicker. You’re going to be digesting things much faster.”

Kurt, the older brother of Kyle Busch and winner of the last race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, was one of three drivers to participate in tire tests at the renovated speedway in January. Other drivers agreed the track would run like a superspeedway.

Long green flag runs and stretchedout fields defined old Atlanta, but superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega have a lot of pack racing. Cars stay close together to take advantage of each others’ draft, which reduces drag and yields higher speeds.

Cars that leave the group risk losing the draft, thus causing them to lose speed.

Atlanta’s new surface, banking and width are conducive to pack racing.

The track could be ideal for the new Next-Gen race car series, which officially debuted at the Busch Clash in Los Angeles early in February.

In preseason testing at Daytona, it was apparent that the Next-Gen car doesn’t suffer as much if they fall out of the draft.

It’s easier for drivers to fall back and rejoin a group. Put this car on a smooth narrow surface, and we’re bound to see a lot of two-wide back-and-forth action at AMS. Ultimately, it’s a clean slate for NASCAR drivers and teams. They’ve yet to race this car or race on this version of Atlanta Motor Speedway. Some teams won’t have accurate information until race weekend.

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 on Mar. 21st will indeed be the first of its kind.

The Kickback

February 22, 2022

WWW.GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM/SPORTS

UPCOMING EVENTS FRIDAY

GSU’s Collegiate Recovery Community Coffee Connection 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

SCW room 482

Trap Karaoke 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Student Auditorium

Men’s Basketball vs ULM 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

GSU Sports Arena

Tom Gibson Jazz Trombone Sectional 1:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Aderhold

SSDP Presents:Legalize Georgia 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Student Center East room 216

Black History Month Trivia 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Virtual

FEB 25

THURSDAY FEB 24

WEDNESDAY FEB 23

TUESDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Men’s Basketball vs Louisiana 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Student Center East

Bent Frequency 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Kopleff Recital Hall

The Leadership GamesJeopardy Style 11:45 a.m. - 11:45 p.m.

SCW 460

FEB 28

SATURDAY FEB 27

FEB 26

FEB 22

THE KICKBACK

Promotional Table 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

First Floor,Student Center East

WANT YOUR UPCOMING CAMPUS EVENT TO BE HERE? LET US KNOW! AT SIGNALPROD@GMAIL.COM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022

THE KICKBACK

15

GAMES SUDOKU

GAMES CROSSWORD

USE THE CLUES TO FILL IN THE WORDS PUZZLE. THIS WEEK’S THEME IS: THE MOVIES Words can go across or down.

Letters are shared when the words intersect.

ACROSS 3. First film to introduce showtimes in 1960 5. This artist inspired the famous Xenomorph in Alien (1979) 7. First film with sound in 1927 8. This word was removed from the Hollywood sign in 1949 DOWN 1. Disney’s first feature-length animated movie 2. The country where Peter Jackson filmed The Lord of the Rings trilogy 4. First “summer blockbuster” (1975) 6. George Lucas’ dog inspired this character 7. Dorthy’s dog

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APR = Annual Percentage Rate. APR is 9.25% – 17.25% and will vary based on the Prime Rate in the Wall Street Journal.

Accurate as of June 21, 2021. *Georgia State Visa® Rewards credit cards earn one (1) Reward Point for every one (1) dollar spent on all purchases. Reward Points may expire and can only be earned on signature-based transactions.

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