ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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The Statement Daily Arts Writer Adam DePollo travels to Valparaiso and the home of his favorite poet, Pablo Neruda.
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GOVERNMENT
International students draw value from U.S. election CAROLYN GEARIG/Daily
Wayne State Prof. Saeed A. Khan speaks at Islamophobia: Politics, Priorities and Prejudice in 2016 at the Hatcher Graduate Library Tuesday.
Nonprofit urges Muslim-Americans to participate in political process
Researchers present data on low voter registration, high Islamophobic sentiments KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
With the presidential election less than a week away, about 50 people gathered Tuesday at Hatcher Graduate Library to listen to researchers Saeed Khan and Sarrah Buageila discuss data
on how everyone, but especially those from marginalized communities, can affect the political process at both the local and national level. The event — Islamophobia: Politics, Priorities and Prejudice in 2016 — was organized by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a nonprofit
founded in 2002 that conducts research aimed at empowering American Muslims to increase community involvement and participation in democracy in the United States. Buageila, the project manager for ISPU’s research department, began the talk by detailing the results of two polls on American
Muslims. She said the ISPU found 61 percent of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Islam, roughly half of all Americans do not know a Muslim and 80 percent of U.S. media coverage of Islam is negative. Furthermore, she said only 60 percent of Muslims are registered to vote in the United See LECTURE, Page 3A
Presidential race sparks intrigue, concern outside the United States CALEB CHADWELL Daily Staff Reporter
Though campus is abuzz about the presidential election, international students, many of whom have never experienced the American political process firsthand, are bringing a new perspective to the contentious race. Noting political discourse among students has been tense at times during the election season, Business sophomore Jonathan Cheng, who is from Hong Kong, said he thinks Americans should first recognize what a privilege it is for them to be able to democratically elect their leader. “I think it is pretty impressive
for Americans to vote for their president,” Cheng said. “Voters should treasure this opportunity where this is not a certainty for people in many other countries.” Cheng said he decided to pursue his college studies in the United States, both because American universities are consistently ranked highest in the world, and because he valued the more relaxed learning environment and relationship between professors and students. “The relationship between students and faculty are more ‘equal’ and friendly,” Cheng said. “I remembered in my accounting class, while a student dropped his notes on the floor, the lecturer See INTERNATIONAL, Page 3A
Central Student Government hosts Diag Stanford Lecturer Lipsey, ‘U’ event to gather feedback from students links data
CAMPUS LIFE
STATE
alum, dies at age 89
Participant concerns center on University diversity, access to North Campus
Former Buffalo News editor was significant donor to student groups
The University of Michigan Central Student Government launched a new campaign, “It Starts With Me,” at an event on the Diag Tuesday. The initiative aims to bring awareness to racism and discrimination on campus. As part of the event, students were also encouraged to submit feedback to the body about their initiatives and plans this semester. For the event, representatives from the general assembly, as well as CSG commissions, were posted near Mason Hall with 600 donuts, CSG handouts and a suggestions board for students to write on. As of Tuesday afternoon, the suggestions on the board primarily centered around transportation to North Campus, as well as expressions of solidarity for minority students on campus. LSA junior Zena Shunnar, deputy programming officer for CSG, said the event was organized in part because leaders in the organization believe the body needs to be more accessible to students. Increasing transparency of the assembly’s initiatives was part of the platform of newMICH, the political party led by CSG President David Schafer and CSG Vice President Micah
CALEB CHADWELL Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan alum Stanford Lipsey, the longtime publisher of The Buffalo News and a significant donor to several initiatives and groups on campus, including student publications, died Tuesday morning at the age of 89. Lipsey was a native of Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1948 with a B.A. in Economics. While a student, he was a photographer for The Michigan Daily and a photography editor for the Michiganensian yearbook. In 2005, Lipsey donated $3 million for the renovation of the Student Publications Building, which houses several campus publications including the Daily. The Board of Regents then renamed the Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building in his honor. Lipsey also established a series of annual scholarships and prizes in 2007 for See LIPSEY, Page 3A
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Griggs, LSA seniors. “I think it’s important to show students what we’re doing, to actually have interaction,” Shunnar said at the event. “The main reason we chose Diag Day (was) just to show face and to not be behind a door so much.” “One trend that I’ve noticed is about more frequent buses on weekend, like the timing of buses,” Shunnar said.
“And then just, like, a lot of people who have been feeling discrimination on campus, supporting different causes and minorities on campus.” In the past few months, several incidents targeting minority students have sparked controversy on campus. In September, posters were hung in Mason and Haven Halls bearing slogans like “denying your heritage … be white.” In
response to the slogans, more than 200 students marched through campus, chanting “No justice, no peace” to express solidarity. By the end of the day, the suggestion board was covered with more than 300 different suggestions, ranging from “No more meatless Monday” to “Fight racism,” and CSG representatives said they See DIAG, Page 3A
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
University of Michigan students write suggestions for Central Student Government as part of a campaign to increase inclusivity and tolerance on campus through an event on the Diag Tuesday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVI, No. 21 ©2016 The Michigan Daily
and maps in Detroit
Alex Hill discusses project to create cartographies of city MARGOT SHERIDAN Daily Staff Reporter
Alex Hill, data and design coordinator for the city of Detroit’s Health Department, spoke at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities Tuesday on the importance of contextualizing data Hill heads Detroitography, a project designed to document how Detroit’s history has changed its geography, economy and society. The project, launched by Hill shortly after he moved to Detroit in 2009, emphasizes how residents tie their identities to the spaces and places where they live. “When I first moved to the city, I had a lot of questions about where things were and what was going on, so in my free time, I started pulling data and creating my own maps to understand it,” Hill said. “In that process, I was connecting with a lot of other people in Detroit who were making maps and they were creating some great work.” For Hill, a love of maps started at an early age. As a former See MAP, Page 3A
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2A — Wednesday, November 2, 2016
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BRIEF: STUDENTS SHOW SUPPORT FOR STANDING ROCK Monday, Facebook was flooded with posts of individuals checking in at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, including many University of Michigan students, to show their support of the people protesting a proposed pipeline that would go through the reservation. As of Tuesday evening, 303,547 people had checked in at Standing Rock, according to the Facebook page, and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation page had 665,319 likes. Many of the people who were checking in at Standing Rock were not actually visiting North Dakota, and some of the posts stated that the large number of check-ins aimed to overwhelm and confuse police officers in the area. A portion of the posts additionally suggested the Morton County Sheriff’s Department was using Facebook check-ins in the area to target protesters. However, in a Facebook post,
the Morton County Sheriff’s Department stated that it was not using the check-ins to find protesters. “The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is not and does not follow Facebook check-ins for the protest camp or any location,” the post read. “This claim / rumor is absolutely false.” LSA senior Dylan Nelson wrote in an email interview that at first he did not wish to join the many people checking in because he believed it did not inspire any real change, but later changed his mind, citing the importance of raising awareness. “I was initially very reluctant to check in because it seemed to be another example of privileged but well intentioned liberal undergraduates superficially engaging with a resistance movement to feel useful and accumulate social capital,” he wrote. “Then I read a post by a friend of mine validating my insecurities about appropriating
the movement’s symbolic power but encouraging people to check in anyway without, for example, a clarifying message that I wasn’t actually there.” In an email interview, LSA junior Madison Fyke wrote that, regardless of the statement made by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, she would rather take the extra step than risk the potential safety of the protesters. “In my opinion, we can’t ignore the fact that building the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation would compromise the Sioux Tribe’s burial and prayer sites,” she wrote. “And even if the Morton County Sheriff’s Department denies that they’re following Facebook check-ins at the protest camp, it’s important to take all precautions to protect the protesters when we can’t be there to protest ourselves.” The protests in Standing Rock have been going on for months
in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,100 mile frackedoil pipeline, which is under construction. According to the #NoDAPL website, the pipeline would increase fracking around the Bakken shale region and endanger a major drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million additional people living downstream. Proponents of the pipeline argue the new construction would provide an economic boost for the country and make the U.S. more self-sufficient. Nelson added that the series of posts inspired him to research the issue more and have a better understanding of the protesters actions. “I also know that because of the check ins I spent more time than I might have otherwise getting my facts straight and that I now understand more clearly why this is something worth getting so upset about,” he wrote.
David Barnes @David_Barnes21
Actually just witnessed a guy say “I can’t work on the lab, I’m late for parkour” then proceed to run down the hallway #umich
Super Mario @bigharrymitch
When you’re late to class because 3 years into umich you need a blue book
Kay
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES Pre-Med Consultations WHAT: Opportunity for students to meet one-on-one with Daniel Kallenberger, assistant director of admissions at Western Michigan’s School of Medicine. WHO: Career Center WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: Student Activities Building, room 3200
Eye on Detroit WHAT: Panel discussing implications of new ballot proposals that require developers to employ Detroit residents. WHO: University of Michigan Detroit Center WHEN: 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. WHERE: Detroit Center
@NaturallyKay_
Off-Campus Housing Fair
Study Abroad for Transfer Students
Greek Debt Crisis Lecture
WHAT: Housing fair meant to connect students with landlords and simplify the search for students seeking housing off-campus. WHO: Beyond the Diag WHEN: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, Rogel Ballroom
WHAT: Opportunity for transfer students at the University to explore study abroad opportunities. WHO: Newnan LSA Academic Advising Center WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Newnan Advising Center, room J
WHAT: Elena Panaritis, former member of Greek parliament, will discuss the Greek debt crisis’ roots and the way out. WHO: Modern Greek Program WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Angell Hall, room 2175
Michigan Business Challenge Information
Mock Law School Admissions Committee
String Quartet Open Rehearsal
WHAT: Information session for the Michigan Business Challenge, a business plan competition open to all students. WHO: Innovate Blue WHEN: 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Ross School of Business, R0230
WHAT: Event with representatives from Richmond and Notre Dame law schools to cover the elements of the admissions process. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League, Henderson room
WHAT: Behind the scenes look at the Calidore String Quartet as they prepare for their upcoming concert season. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Earl V. Moore Building, Watkins Lecture Hall
@juliaeb97
BRIAN KUANG
Daily Staff Reporter
Following the discovery of shallow groundwater contaminated with the toxic compound 1,4-dioxane in October, the city of Ann Arbor took steps to pursue new legal action against the responsible party Tuesday night. City Council voted unanimously during a special session to pursue a new legal intervention in the state’s decades-old settlement against the original polluter during a special session. The contamination in the groundwater is believed to have originated from the Gelman plume, the result of improper wastewater disposal by the Ann Arbor-based
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Concern arises over discovery of shallow contamination in water Mayor Christopher Taylor told residents the city intends to launch a new legal action to achieve standing to negotiate with the polluter. Under the current consent judgement in the 1992 case, only the state of Michigan can negotiate with Pall Corporation. City Council had earlier discussed the possibility of pursuing the option in a closed-door special session earlier last week. In 2006, Ann Arbor formally settled with Pall Corporation for $500,000 and lost any negotiating rights under the state’s original 1992 lawsuit and consent judgement against Pall Corporation. In an interview, Taylor said if the Washtenaw County District Court accepts an official motion for intervention from the city’s attorney, Ann Arbor would have the right to directly negotiate with Pall Corporation regarding cleanup and pollution control, along with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. “The current court case is between the state and the polluter; we’re looking to have a seat at the table,” Taylor said. “We’re looking to have a seat at the table as the discussion moves forward. You can’t have a seat at the table; we can’t be in the room where that conversation occurs if we are not a party to the case.” While Taylor said he had the support of the MDEQ director to take this step, specific details of the city’s legal strategy still must be finalized and the timeline for filing a new motion are to be determined. However, some local residents present at the special session expressed skepticism as to whether See CITY COUNCIL, Page 3A
I do not pay this much tuition to be waiting on a bus for 30 minutes @UMich fix this
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City Council votes to further legal action in dioxane case in special session company Gelman. From 1966 to 1986, the waste created a large slow-moving mass of carcinogenic water — or plume — beneath the city of Ann Arbor, as well as Scio and Ann Arbor Townships. The company has since been purchased by Pall Corporation. The plume, first discovered in 1985, has forced the closure of more than 100 private residential wells and could reach the Huron River in the coming decades, according to county projections. Residents have also expressed concerns about potential exposure to the compound from groundwater seepage into basements on the city’s west side. At a community town hall held last week regarding the discovery of shallow contamination, Ann Arbor
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Wednesday, November 2, 2016 — 3A
AN IM AL EQUALIT Y
INTERNATIONAL From Page 1A
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Ann Arbor resident Brie Clark, with the nonprofit organization Animal Equality, puts a Virtual Reality viewer on Engineering freshman Dylan Carleton on the Diag on Tuesday.
LECTURE From Page 1A States — compared to 94 percent of Protestants. She told the crowd she hopes these numbers bring light to issues with voter registration and negative perceptions and spark more involvement from the Muslim community. “We don’t want to do research just for the sake of doing research, we want to do research that empowers the community,” Buageila said. In her remarks, she focused on how to increase voter turnout in not only the Muslim American community, but also in all minority communities. Noting Islamophobia and the erosion of civil liberties is a main concern for Muslims, she emphasized that this should be a concern for all Americans, calling it an extension of the United States’ legacy of slavery and imperialism. Buageila concentrated on increasing Muslim-American civil participation particularly
MAPS From Page 1A Eagle Scout, he said he was curious about understanding his surroundings through his mapmaking skills. “I think it’s definitely the boyscout effect,” he said. “I did a lot with maps and compasses as a kid, so as part of that I’ve really always enjoyed looking at maps to understand what was going on.” Hill and his collaborators use open-source data, information that is freely available to the public, to create their maps. They combine different aspects of raw data to create intricate visualizations of certain phenomena. Some examples include “Detroit’s Digital Divide,” “Liquor, Parks and Homicide,” and “Detroit Neighborhood Coffee Shop Density.” “A lot of the ideas for maps come from community conversations where people will have questions about something, and I’ll make a map for it,” Hill said. “I follow a lot of the conversations in urban planning and public health within the city, so I look for how research and data from other cities can be applied to Detroit.” LSA senior Kyle Monagle, one of the approximately 30 students in attendance for Hill’s presentation, said he was there to satisfy a requirement for a class
CITY COUNCIL From Page 2A the city’s strategy would be sufficient to mitigate the public health risks posed by the plume. Vince Caruso, a founding member of a coalition of county-wide officials to combat the plume Allen’s Creek Watershed Group, said he is not confident the MDEQ will be able to adequately control the contamination even with new legal action, pointing to the agency’s handling of the Flint
through short-term strategies, long-term strategies and “Get Out and Vote” tactics. In practice, these strategies include educating the Muslim community, volunteering to work at the polls on Election Day and increasing mosque attendance. Despite some negative perceptions of mosques, Buageila said polls show that frequent mosque attendance is linked to greater civic engagement. Khan, a lecturer in the department of Near East and Asian Studies at Wayne State University, continued the conversation by connecting Islamophobia to other antiprogressive campaigns during American demographic shifts. He said rapidly shifting demographics in the U.S., like the first year with a non-Protestant religious majority in 2010, has led to an unprecedented moral panic regarding the direction of the country. Although the religious majority has changed, Khan also acknowledged the prominence of Islamophobia and questioned the real root of its increase, saying
in the Department of American Culture. “We’ve been talking a lot about gentrification and pertinent problems the city is dealing with,” Monagle said. “I’m planning on living and working in Detroit after graduation, so I want to learn more about the city, which is why this talk sounded really interesting to me.” In his presentation, “Giving Data Empathy,” Hill discussed the different ways maps make sense of social, political and economic phenomena. He noted, however, that statistics without context aren’t going to motivate lawmakers, voters or residents to enact change. Hill said he believes it is necessary to help consumers relate to data on a more personal level. Through Detroitography, he hopes to empower Detroiters by giving them the tools to understand and tell the story of their neighborhoods themselves. He noted that as part of the project, he organizes mapping workshops in libraries and community centers to help Detroit residents improve their data literacy, saying he believes the repair and preservation of any city must be grounded in the people living there. “I am always looking for ways to collaborate with other people in the area,” Hill said. “For me, this project made sense because it is a way to keep the conversations about change in the city going.”
water crisis. He added that he believed the only way forward would be to petition for an Environmental Protection Agency superfund to bring federal intervention. “I think we have good evidence the DEQ is not up to this effort,” Caruso said. “I think we need to move and I think the EPA has technology, they have scientists, they have large numbers of staff that can come in, they have the Department of Justice … they will go after the responsible party, and they’ve done that before.”
it does not solely come from the federal level. “Washington has proven to be paradoxically fairly impotent when it comes to fairly moving the needle on anything,” Khan said. To instead locate the source of Islamophobia at the local level, Khan researched six topics of law: voter identification, immigration, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, right to work and anti-Sharia law. Through this research, he said he found restrictive legislation is overwhelmingly driven by Republicans, though only 13 percent of total Republican lawmakers in the country work to pass such legislation. Khan said 80 percent of this small group supports voter-access laws, adding they display a desire to disenfranchise and restrict people from their rights as Americans to engage in civil and political matters. Based on his findings, Khan said it is important for Muslims to increase their self-awareness and education on these areas of law, as well as to take part
DIAG From Page 1A viewed the day as a success. CSG Communications Director Joe Shea, a Public Policy senior, echoed Shunnar, saying it was important for students to know what their elected officials are working on. “We’re very passionate about making sure we are a resource for students, so the best way to do that is solicit feedback by any way possible,” he said. The organization’s goal, Shunnar said, was to have students fill the board of suggestions with their opinions on recent CSG initiatives and future events they would like to see hosted by the assembly. “If that board of suggestions gets filled and we’re able to see something consistent on that board, that will help us progress and do something students really want,” Shunnar said. LSA freshman Brittany
LIPSEY From Page 1A photography, investigative reporting and public service for University undergraduates. “If you’re financially successful in life, those resources should go back to society,” Lipsey said in a video interview at the Daily in 2009. “Certainly the institution that educated you and allowed you to mature deserves support for the young people that are coming in.” After graduating from the University, Lipsey served in the Air Force during the Korean War as editor of the Offutt, a Nebraska-based newspaper Air Pulse at Strategic Air
in more political engagement. For the broader community, Khan urged people to develop a contextual understanding of the Muslim community, as well as identify and integrate how wider legislative and policy concerns will impact the Muslim community. “It is all connected, it is all related, it is all integrated,” Khan said. LSA sophomore Mary Najjar, who attended the event for her Arab-American studies class, and said she thought many Muslim Americans feel conflicted about their political participation. “I thought that it was interesting, I guess you almost kind of understand it, but, like, the Muslim community thought that there wasn’t anyone there to represent them so there was no point in voting because nobody is there for their interest,” Najjar said. “It is kind of a paradox where you have to vote to get their attention so they focus more on your issues, but also if they’re not focusing on your issues you wouldn’t want to get involved.”
Jullie, who signed the banner, said she was glad to see the initiative. “I think it’s a really good idea that people can raise suggestions with what they want to see happen,” she said. Shunnar noted that the board also made it clear students weren’t completely familiar with assembly initiatives, because many students expressed concerns about problems the body is already working to fix. “It’s nice that we’re able to be a little more transparent with what things we’re doing, because it’s different to send out an email than to talk to students,” Shunnar said. “We’re getting a lot of kids.” She said she hopes to host another event similar to Diag Day, perhaps in another location, in the future. “I think we may have one on North Campus, so just to change the scenery, obviously just getting a lot of student impact is important,” she said.
Command Headquarters. He then joined the weekly Sun Newspapers in his hometown of Omaha in 1953, where he eventually became the paper’s publisher and owner. In 1969, Lipsey sold the paper to Warren Buffett, but continued as publisher. During his tenure at Sun Newspapers, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for local investigative reporting in 1973. In 1983, Lipsey became publisher of The Buffalo News in New York at the request of Buffett, who also owned the paper. He remained in that position until his retirement in 2012. Lipsey is survived by his wife, Judith; daughter, Janet; son, Daniel; and two grandchildren.
walked by and picked that up for him, and it was like nothing special happened; this may seem to be usual here, but it was rarely seen in some societies.” He said his parents favor Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and often ask him about what the supporters for both candidates are like. “People from other countries pay a whole lot attention to what the U.S. president says, and the president’s speech and action can fluctuate the global economic and political environment a lot,” Cheng said. “I think the success in this country counts on both a great education system and the diversity of foreign workers.” Engineering sophomore Tony Li is originally from Beijing, but has lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, since the age of 7. During his senior year of high school, he said, he decided to take a leap and attend school in the United States because of the University of Michigan’s “stellar” engineering program. “My family moved to Canada from China when I was 7, and I’ve lived there until I came here for university,” Li said. “The Canadian schools are OK schools, but just not engineering-wise.” Li said he feels bad for students who can vote, most of whom are voting in their first presidential election. “It’s not a desirable choice,” He said. Thrust into the political atmosphere on campus during this year’s presidential primaries as a freshman, Li said he was especially shocked to see Trump emerge as the Republican nominee as opposed to someone more appealing such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.) or Ohio Gov. John Kasich. After watching the 2015 Canadian federal elections, Li said, he expected a more moderate candidate than Trump to emerge, similar to the newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party or former Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party. He said he initially wanted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) to win because he generally agrees with Sander’s democratic socialist policies since they are similar to the Canadian political system, but added he felt Sanders never really had a chance. “I definitely care who wins, I’m here (in America) quite a bit,” he joked. When he goes back home to Canada for breaks, he said, his friends will often poke fun at the U.S. presidential election; however, they intently keep up to date with the race. “They’re still following the politics,” Li said. “America is a superpower and people do care about who’s going to lead and have that supreme power.” Li added that he senses
political tension among students on campus, particularly when he sees people having polarized political arguments. “They all bring in their personal viewpoints, but I don’t think they’re taking anything from the other side,” Li said. While he is interested in the outcome, Li said he probably won’t bother to watch the election results live. “It’s pretty much decided from the polls; Trump does not have a chance,” Li said. “I’ll definitely check online once in a while that evening.” While Li and Cheng are experiencing the presidential election up close as a byproduct of attending college in the United States, Jori Korpershoek, said he is currently studying abroad at the University semester partially because he wanted to experience the U.S. election firsthand. Korpershoek attends Leiden University College in The Hague, Netherlands. He said he wants to have a greater understanding of why there is a surge of the alternative right-wing movement happening in the United States with Trump’s nomination, especially considering that candidates in the past, like 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney have been more moderate. “If you have a two-party system, you would expect the candidates presented to the people to be relatively mainstream,” Korpershoek said. “I didn’t think Trump would win the primary.” Korpershoek said he finds conservative philosophy intriguing, but added that he doesn’t think Trump embodies those principles. “I think there’s something admirable about pure conservatism and I think Trump has very few of those qualities,” Korpershoek said. “I think what I’ve been trying to understand is, on the one hand, trying to sympathize with people who are voting for politicians like Trump, while at the same time also trying to find that balance between economic anxiety or if everybody is just like racist.” Currently, Korpershoek said people in the Netherlands are talking more about the U.S. election than the forthcoming Dutch election in 2017. “It’s pretty intriguing how there’s a relatively sizable percentage of people who follow the American election intensely,” Korpershoek said. “I couldn’t recognize other German politicians, for example, but I could tell you who Marco Rubio is and what John McCain looks like.” For the most part, Korpershoek said he doesn’t sense a lot of tension on campus, but rather a general nervousness on both sides of the political spectrum. “I kind of expected things to be tense, but I feel more of an apathy in most people I meet, rather than anger,” Korpershoek said.
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, November 2, 2016
ROLAND DAVIDSON | COLUMN
From Baltimore to “Atlanta”
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CJ MAYER | COLUMN
Voter suppresion is the real threat
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acing worsening polls, cast, dating back to 2008. The Donald Trump has number of Americans killed by brought the issue of lightning from 2000 to 2010? voter fraud to the forefront of It’s numbered at 441, which is American political 11 times the amount debate. He claims of potential voter that because of voter fraud cases. fraud, the election is A research group being rigged against from Arizona him. It’s important State University to note where these investigated claims come from; 2,068 electionTrump is advocating fraud cases dating for voter ID laws, a back to 2000 and legislative monster concluded that that the Republican while fraud has CJ Party has been occurred, the rate MAYER building up for years. is infinitesimal, and While Trump tries to frame in-person voter impersonation the issue as protecting our on Election Day, which democracy, we need to be prompted 37 state legislatures aware of the facts. Voter ID to enact or consider tough laws are intended to prevent voter ID laws, is virtually nonvoter impersonation on Election existent. Day, but, as I will prove, voter Let’s break down what impersonation (showing up to we’re talking about: Voter the polls and pretending to be impersonation exists on such someone else) is non-existent. an “infinitesimal” level that Under false claims, the issue there is “virtually no voter of voter ID laws has become impersonation fraud.” That political. What’s really at is what all the data indicates stake with voter ID laws is the over the past decade. However, right to vote, which is an issue to stop this non-existent that should not be politicized. problem, we have potentially These laws already exist in disenfranchised up to 21 million 20 percent of states. Voter ID Americans, roughly 11 percent laws are ineffective, could of our country, which is the disenfranchise more than 21 number of Americans without million Americans and must go. a valid voter ID who would be The problem of voter fraud prevented from voting. isn’t the issue it’s made out to So why, you ask, do we have be. Donald Trump correctly these laws at all? You might states that 1.8 million deceased not be shocked at the answer people are still registered — it’s political. Ninety-three to vote, but that in no way percent of Blacks voted for indicates that voter fraud is the Democratic Party in the being undertaken on their 2012 election. There is an behalf. The much publicized unmistakable trend that these South Carolina voting fraud laws are intended to suppress, case of dead people voting in particular, votes from was investigated by the State minorities. If you’re doubtful, Law Enforcement Division, look at the trends. Twenty-five and in an election with more percent of African Americans than 1.3 million votes, just do not have the necessary voter five possible, unaccounted-for ID that some states require, “zombie” votes were found. while only 8 percent of white Trump claims that 14 percent Americans do not. The U.S. of non-citizens are registered Court of Appeals ruled that the to vote, but according to the North Carolina voter ID law managers of the database was unconstitutional, saying who accumulated the data that the provisions “target he’s basing that on, “the likely African Americans with almost percent of non-citizen voters in surgical precision.” What led recent US elections is 0.” them to such a conclusion? In Florida, there are more North Carolina lawmakers instances of shark attacks actually requested data on how than there are of voter fraud race affected voting behaviors. cases with sufficient evidence According to the lawmakers, to investigate, according to “with race data in hand, the Politifact. A comprehensive legislature amended the bill to report published in The exclude many of the alternative Washington Post found just photo IDs used by African 31 potential incidents of voter Americans. The bill retained fraud out of one billion votes only the kinds of IDs that white
North Carolinians were more likely to possess.” In that race data was also research that indicated African Americans were more likely to use same-day registration and the early voting period. With this data in hand, North Carolina’s legislature eliminated sameday registration and cut the early voting period nearly in half. Most damagingly, the judges wrote that this “comes as close to a smoking gun as we are likely to see in modern times, the State’s very justification for a challenged statute hinges explicitly on race.” This is a court, not a partisan think tank. Courts around the country have slowly started to rule these voter ID laws unconstitutional in that they target minority voters. To further prove the politicized nature of the issue, feel free to juxtapose the most conservative states with those with the strictest voter ID laws. There’s another clear trend: In general, the more Republican the state, the harsher the voter ID laws. The GOP platform actually argues for stricter voter ID laws, even though a federal appeals court has ruled them unconstitutional. Combined with felony disenfranchisement, which by itself disenfranchises 13 percent of the Black population in the United States, an absolutely staggering number, voter ID laws are intended to build upon laws that already suppress minority voting. There is no doubt that voter suppression of minorities is a politically charged action. Democrats and Republicans both go out of their way to politicize what should not be politicized. This is just another example, but it’s crucial to promoting real democracy. Nearly 11 percent of the country does not have proper voter ID — to disenfranchise all those people for political reasons is undemocratic. In the face of voter fraud rhetoric, we can’t lose sight of the big picture and get steamrolled. We need to be finding ways to increase voter turnout, not depress it. On the principles of our democracy, we must reduce voter ID laws, and our rhetoric around it must change.
CJ Mayer can be reached at mayercj@umich.edu
DON’T KNOW WHAT A REGENT IS? GOOGLE IT. THEN TUNE IN TO OUR PODCAST. For our fifth episode of The Michigan Daily’s Election Podcast, columnist Brett Graham talks diversity, tuition increases and campus climate with candidate for University Regent Carl Meyers (R-Dearborn).
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hen we discuss Clearly, these are both pressing whether something issues that deserve action, but is racist, there’s it’s important not to create a onea sort of monolithism at play. dimensional Black perspective to A leaf is green because we all advance social justice causes. perceive it as such. This sort of measured However, an object stance is good for or institution’s discourse, but bad for racist character advocacy. Can you depends on people’s imagine the NAACP perception; saying that they speak something only for 47.543259 (to use becomes racist an arbitrary number) once people decide percent of Black it is. Rather than people? It would be a asking whether catastrophe. They would something is racist, lose credibility in the ROLAND it’s more productive public sphere. These to discuss whether DAVIDSON well-intentioned and or not people find often effective groups — it racist. whose efforts I agree with — seek If you had to guess how many to institutionalize a limited version Native Americans are bothered of truth to suit their agenda. by the name of the Washington A large part of an institution’s Redskins, what would you say? power lies in its ability to convince Fifty percent? Seventy-five people that it best represents the percent? This issue has been at truth. To better understand the the forefront of conversations relationship between truth and about social justice for years, power, it’s helpful to borrow from so it’s only logical to conclude Foucault’s theory of “regime of that this bothers a significant truth.” To quickly reduce his portion of the Native American writing: What we conceive as community. A recent survey found truth isn’t absolute; it’s influenced that 9 percent of Native Americans politically and has an agenda. The polled find the name offensive. struggle for power in the public This isn’t an argument that the sphere is based upon claiming name is appropriate. If very few heir to truth. This isn’t to make Native Americans actually take an argument that all truth is pride in the name, I don’t think totally relative, subjective and there are many (if any) compelling individuated. It is possible to reasons to keep it. But, this piece of create a universal theory; however, data goes to show how fickle our we should not expect this to perception of racism is. come from our political arena. In other policy domains, we can As I previously discussed, groups see similar ways in which we’ve focused on political actions are less essentialized the views of people of concerned with representing the color. Consider this recent pair of whole truth than with convincing surveys about racism in the United the masses and policy makers that States. In one conducted by CNN, their version of truth is correct. 17 percent of Blacks polled viewed Rather, we can use the arts as a the Confederate flag as a symbol of lens to construct these coherent, Southern pride. In another by Pew, comprehensive worldviews. 36 percent of Blacks surveyed had The television show “Atlanta” a “great deal” or “fair amount” of is a good example of how art confidence that local police treat can bolster our discourse. The Blacks and whites equally. Neither show has a clear political bent; of these numbers is particularly Donald Glover’s character often high, but they were both much acts as a proxy for the show’s higher than I’d been led to believe liberal audience. Additionally, it by leftist discourse. has other aesthetic goals beyond Let’s be clear: Police brutality representation, such as humor is a serious issue — no two ways and drama. However, the show about it. In that same Pew survey, does a lot of important work, just 0.6 percent of Blacks expected like not breaking police brutality the police to use an appropriate down into a simplistic Blackamount of force in a given scenario. white binary. Early in the series, In regards to the Confederate flag, Paperboy, an aspiring rapper, is 73 percent of Blacks in the sample leaving jail when a Black police said that it should be taken down officer recognizes him and asks from government buildings. for a photo. The officer poses with
Paperboy by holding his fingers together in the shape of a gun; the rapper is clearly nonplussed by the officer’s lack of sensitivity. As the two talk, the police officer gleefully reveals that he arrested famed Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane and doesn’t connect the dots between Gucci and Paperboy’s similar plights. In this short scene, “Atlanta” demonstrates how people of color are incorporated into systems of oppression, which is an important nuance often left out of discourse about police brutality. I recall some conservative commentators claiming that race could not have played a role in Freddie Gray’s murder due to the fact some of the cops were Black. This demonstrates just one deleterious effect of leaving out important nuances like these in our public conversation. Similarly, the show doesn’t shy away from presenting how prejudices, such as sexism and homophobia, exist within the Black community. These problems exist in all communities, but they morph depending upon their social context. It’s important to recognize that “Atlanta” is about Atlanta and tells a specific story that is underpinned by geographic, cultural and socioeconomic locations. Thus, we shouldn’t use it as a synecdoche for Black America. At the end of the day, this show is a single data point, but it does add important nuances to our conversation and is accessible to a wide audience in a way that other discursive modes aren’t. Discussions of race are often based around the truth proffered by civil rights groups, which are extremely important, but don’t represent the entire truth. They’ll occlude facts and perspective that don’t advance their goals. This is true in all realms of policy. We can’t fully understand the effects of NAFTA solely by looking at employment statistics. We need to understand people’s narratives and communities’ responses to increasing globalization. If we want to have a full conversation about the issues in our world, we can’t rely on purely political sources of truth. Art like “Atlanta” isn’t the only way to end the discursive essentialism, nor is it necessarily the best way, but it provides an important first step. Roland Davidson can be reached at mhenryda@umich.edu
ISAIAH ZEAVIN-MOSS | COLUMN
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Let’s deconstruct celebrity
alking into The one of us. Dressed in an oversized Loving Touch in striped shirt, blue jeans and a Ferndale on a cold, simple baseball cap, Ms. Kline dreary Thursday night, I was interacted seamlessly with the surprised to see, standing right in dozens of people asking for front of me, the artist photographs. Many of whom I had come to these fans stood and watch. Greta Kline, stared in disbelief at the lead singer of Kline’s unequivocal Frankie Cosmos — one generosity and of my favorite bands welcoming attitude. — was selling her Immediately upon group’s merchandise, entering the space, I standing behind a came up to her and propped-up table. No asked if she would be security in sight, no in a photograph with ISAIAH intra-crowd shoving me. She accepted, or cursing to get ZEAVIN-MOSS and turned to me Kline’s attention. She — admittedly, I was stood there, engaging sweating (I sweat with her fans, and we responded more than anyone I’ve ever met, with equal calmness. outside of my brother (and this is I found this experience something we bond over a lot and surprising for many reasons. he’s coming this weekend so if you Principally, I find that we as a see me feel free to empathize or to culture endow celebrities and check in with us about our surely artists whom we admire with sweaty armpits and backs and certain divine attributes. We faces (and do you feel the effect shake their hands and then do not that this anecdote about my sweat wash that hand, as if the artist’s had on you? You now feel like you talent might literally rub off onto know an additional element of me, us. We configure lives for them, the writer, Isaiah (Hi, I’m Isaiah), somewhat based on their music, because I shared it with you, I but mostly upon our projections said, “Hey, I can actually share and fascinations and imaginations. more than I normally do because And I do not mean to distinguish I trust my reader not to call me myself from this culture of out. I trust that I can be a little bit fanaticism. Last month, after vulnerable and playful with my seeing Bernie Sanders speak at reader. That’s what I think was at UMMA, I felt viscerally saddened the core of Kline’s open welcome when I could not shake his hand. to her fans)))). I struck a pose — He was quickly swept behind a and, without a hesitation, Ms. curtain by a big, burly security Kline stuck her tongue out and her guard, and he was gone — whisked hands up as if we were best friends away and thrown back into the — and, in that moment, I felt like confines of my mind, where I can we could have been! She was right project fantasies and ideas about there with me, in that moment, Sanders the celebrity, ignoring equally embracing our shared Sanders the human. sense of silliness and playfulness. But Kline’s warm welcoming Eventually, the show began. of her fans seemed to blur this Having seen Kline in this casual, very distinction between the playful context made me feel so celebrity and her fans. Instead, if much closer to her music, which only for a moment, she became deals explicitly with the narrator’s
self-consciousness and anxiety. There was no longer any alienation between myself and the words and sentiments in the songs. This could be about me, this could be about any of my friends whom I’m dancing with, about any of my friends from home. I think there’s a lesson to be learned from this experience: By fantasizing and imagining lives for celebrities, we do not, in fact, get closer to them. Instead, the conclusions at which we arrive have their footing in other assumptions that we make. And I’m not saying this sort of fanaticism is inherently wrong. Not at all. As I said, I engage in it — it’s fun to narrativize and to make characters of real-life human beings. But I think if our goal is transparency — if our goal is to actually understand artists or celebrities for who they are — then we ought to try to break down the social barriers between fans and their idols, between public figures and their followers. We ought to have be able to interact with them in less strictly constructed settings, where they will not shy away from engaging with those who have flocked to witness them. Because in this kind of a space — one in which people engage freely and set aside the cultural currency attached to their bodies, we get a little bit closer to one another. It takes courage. It takes both parties trusting each other not to humiliate or taunt. This is how we should regard one another by default. Just like I believe you, the reader, to be decent enough to know that I sweat, horribly, humiliatingly, disgustingly without criticizing me. My body gets exorbitantly wet. It does! And that’s OK. Isaiah Zeavin-Moss can be reached at izeavinm@umich.edu
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 — 5A
BOOK REVIEW
FILM REVIEW
LIL WAYNE
“Smell my armpit!”
NETFLIX
It’s kilt season.
Guest’s ‘Mascot’ lacks luster of his prior films Mockumentary focused on mascot competition silly, but overkill year hiatus (albeit interrupted by a TV show, “Family Tree,” and a Daily Arts Writer wonderful segment at the 2012 Oscars), Guest is only a remnant A few months ago, GQ ran of his former self, color faded from a health-focused profile of Bill his face like the former president. Clinton. The former president Reserving himself to a small was but a sliver role, and lacking of his former self, O’Hara and Levy, the color drained his two greatest from his lips and stars, Guest’s latest his southern project resembles “Mascots” grit and charm more an off-kilter Now Streaming absent from his impression of defenses of liberal himself than a Netflix politics. Quietly further addition devastating, the to his impressive profile painted a oeuvre. portrait of greatness (scandals Perhaps that’s because the aside, President Clinton was subject of the film — a mascot indisputably a phenomenal competition — feels like a rehash politician) in decline. of “Best in Show,” which focused Similar words could be written on a dog show competition. about Christopher Guest, the Quirky characters from around king of mockumentaries. A the world, dedicated to a starring role in Rob Reiner’s pointless competitive activity, “This Is Spinal Tap,” about a are introduced one by one and British hard rock band in decline, descend on the host city, mix led to a brief stint on “Saturday and mingle and then compete Night Live “and then a string (with a number of setbacks) until of phenomenal improvisational a winner is named. But it’s not mockumentaries, “Waiting for just the context that feels overly Guffman,” “Best in Show,” “A familiar; so many of the specific Mighty Wind” and “For Your events and character types that Consideration.” These films, feature in “Best in Show” return planned but unscripted, brilliantly in “Mascots,” which renders pick apart inane, niche worlds the film utterly predictable, ripe for comedic emasculation: especially if one has seen “Best Small-town community theater? in Show” countless times like me. Dog shows? Folk music? Oscars Even the opening scene — a couple fanaticism? Nothing is off limits in the competition bickering with for Guest and his repertory each other in a Shakespearean company of improvisational depiction of ill fate — is directly actors, who inhabit quirky roles copied. It’s unfortunate because with a deftness that defies human Guest’s films revel in their comprehension. imagination and creativity. Guest, who would star in his Predictability ought to be an films alongside the brilliant anathema, rather than a defining likes of Jane Lynch (“Talladega feature of a Guest film. Nights”), Catherine O’Hara Perhaps it’s also the strong (“Home Alone”), Eugene Levy sense of removal the film can’t (“Finding Dory”) and so many help but evoke. Netflix is a great others, showed just as much platform for experimentation, but brilliance in front of the camera its penchant for expressive color as behind it. But in “Mascots,” his palettes (think the bright pinks return to filmmaking after a ten- and yellows in “Unbreakable DANNY HENSEL
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Kimmy Schmidt” or the intensely faded colors in “House of Cards”) gives “Mascots” a sheen of artifice that ruins its lived-in world. Mascotery, as the characters call it, isn’t nearly present enough as a competitive field in pop culture for us to really laugh. Dogs aren’t particularly silly in and of themselves, but dog shows are rather ludicrous. The Oscars aren’t inherently ripe for humor, but the pageantry surrounding the desire to be nominated for one is. I had thought that mascot competitions were an invention of Guest (Google corrected me — they are in fact real), but mascots themselves are a rather funny concept. The added layer of a competition seemed to be overkill. That’s not to say the film isn’t worth watching. Anytime Guest’s regulars are assembled on screen, hilarity ensues. I lost it when Jennifer Coolidge (“Legally Blonde”) and Bob Balaban (“Moonrise Kingdom”) appeared as a wealthy, disinterested couple. Parker Posey (“Dazed and Confused”) and Ed Begley Jr. (“St. Elsewhere”) are funny as ever. Fred Willard’s (“Anchorman”) appearance and troublingly funny aloofness on any screen is cause for celebration. And while Guest’s younger generation of new collaborators don’t quite rise to their predecessors’ level, they still add blissfully funny moments. “Mascots” isn’t so much a failure as it is a disappointment. Each laugh amplified the silences in between, of which there were far too many, when the awkwardness between characters simply proved too artificial, too phony or too familiar. Guest’s model is perhaps unsustainable — luck no doubt plays a role in encountering terrains well suited for comedic deep dives — but I never expected Guest’s fortune to run out.
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
Rude’s original spin on ‘Earnest’ Resurrected theater troupe takes on Oscar Wilde’s most famous play simplicity is not an option in a Wildian world or in a comedy, and as Daily Community Culture Editor these two men, Jack and Algernon, pursue courtship, they digress into It’s the blurring of traditional a web of lies tied together by the gender roles with non-conforma- name “Earnest” — the man they’re tive ones; it’s the cognitive dis- both pretending to be. sonance that accompanies men Apparently, according to Wilde, acting as women women prefer a man and women as men; Earnest; it’s The Importance named it’s the reversal of the predominant sex and sexuality of Being Earnest aspect we look for in a play written by in a man. As confuFri. and Sat. at 8 one of literature’s sion arises over the p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. most eccentric, concourse of the writtroversial homoten play and the Lydia Mendelssohn sexuals. It’s a case of men’s lies devolve Theater mistaken identity. into chaos, their As written, “The façade is mercifully Students and Seniors Importance of put to an end. But in $8, Adults $10 Being Earnest” is a a campus produccomedy masked in tion from the Rude layers. Written by Oscar Wilde and Mechanicals, a key aspect of the published in 1895, the play centers facade persists through the cast. around relationships, specifically, Opening Thursday, Rude the relationships of two men and Mechanical’s production of “The women who fall in love over the Importance of Being Earnest” feacourse of the play. But of course, tures an all-female cast with the NATALIE ZAK
exception of one boy, who will be playing Lady Bracknell, a role traditionally played by a man dressed in drag. A play that is already characterized by deceit, this feature adds an entirely new dimension to the dynamics of deception. “It was an interesting season for the U-Prod mainstage. They had very male heavy casting, so we were trying to figure out how we could compensate for that in a show that has a decent sized male cast,” School of Music, Theater and Dance junior Elle Smith. “My assistant director and I were brainstorming and trying to figure out how we compensate for that. We had this idea, that originally wasn’t anything we were ever expecting to do, but then thought, ‘An all-female production of Earnest? That could totally work.’ And then we realized that it really could work.” Taking place in post-war Britain during the 1950s, in this adaptation not only will the men be played by women; there won’t be men at all
‘November’ full of heart, history Lil Wayne memoir chronicles his experience being incarcerated never “turns off” Lil Wayne. Years before hip hop’s morphing with Daily Arts Writer social media, he worked endlessly to be present in his fans’ lives. Celebrity culture and its interIt should be unsurprising, then, textuality have always caused that Lil Wayne’s first literary tension in hip hop, a genre found- endeavor is a chillingly personal ed on authenticmemoir. But what’s ity. Famous people most intriguing is “Gone ‘Til strive to control its setting: Rikers November: A their public perIsland Correctional Journal of Rikers ceptions by preFacility. In NovemIsland” senting themselves ber 2010, Lil Wayne through carewas sentenced to a Lil Wayne fully crafted, often year in prison for glamorous lenses, firearm possession, Plume but rappers have and though other traditionally been rappers have served expected to portime — notably, tray themselves unashamedly. At Bobby Shmurda, who’s still incarthe art form’s inception, cyphers cerated, and Gucci Mane, who was occurred on street corners, and released in June — few have done lyrics represented livelihoods. it with the theatrical quality of Lil Fibs were pounced on. Word was Wayne, who was well-represented bond. by his then-rookie prodigy, Drake, By the 2000s, hip hop had during his absence and even exploded into the mainstream and appeared on new songs from jail. its fanbase evolved into a reliable Lil Wayne’s first book — titled market. Clothing labels, movies “Gone ’Til November” and puband TV shows emerged, all repre- lished in his handwriting — sented by rappers, the 21st-centu- offers unfiltered glimpses at the ry rock stars and starry-eyed fans thoughts and emotions that fueled were expected to purchase the the rapper’s persistence throughproducts. Veterans who retired or out his incarceration. It’s more of lost steam — Diddy, Jay Z, 50 Cent a cathartic clearing of conscience and more — expanded into less than a project designed for fans: artistic industries and the expres- the journal is part of a daily regisive lifestyle that the genre once men that Wayne creates to stay stood for started to dissolve into a busy and sane. His other routine corporate scheme. Artists’ focus- activities include watching televies seemed to switch to creating sion in the dayroom, listening to crossover hits and earning enough sports on the radio, praying and celebrity status to do an expensive making phone calls to friends, endorsement. Hip hop’s humanity family or his children (whom he was dwindling. refuses to allow to see him in prisThroughout the aughts, Lil on, despite never wasting a visitaWayne combatted this mental- tion day). ity switch ferociously. He released On the second day of his what felt like infinite mixtapes sentence, Wayne becomes of fully engaged lyrical exercises acquainted with a group for free on the Internet and chal- of inmates that he calls a lenged peers to match his work “brotherhood,” and its members ethic by rapping on beats that ease each others’ time by sharing belonged to them. From 2003 to food, wisdom and conversation. 2007, he pushed out 11 free proj- A lot of the group’s activities ects and two major-label albums. are documented in “Gone ’Til In between his own hits, he November” — cooking dinners hopped on other artists’ songs to with items from commissary, stay creative. An avid sports fan watching sports and fantasizing and self-described competitor, about the outside — and Wayne he started rapping at eight-years- narrates their routine with an old and released his first album underlying sense of gratitude. at age 15. Much like Michael When Flea, one of his peers, is Jackson, Dwayne Carter seems released, he says: “I am happy like to view himself as a performer I am getting out.” When Coach, first, human being second. He another peer, wants to marry SALVATORE DIGIOIA
— the traditional characters are revisioned as women disguising themselves as men in an attempt to come to terms with both the spheres of separation instilled in the 1950s home, as well as the spectrum upon which their sexuality lies. “During the 1950s and coming off of World War II, there were more women in the workforce, so we’s picturing Jack and Algernon and their female identities as they would have been involved in that,” Smith said. “But then, “Oh, the men are back from war’ and they lose all this independence they had during the war time, so they create these two male alter egos that they wouldn’t have been able to have as women.” All of this — the elaborate analysis of these women, their sexuality and their places in a post-war society — exist under the umbrella of the original play’s script. Nothing has been verbally changed to accommodate this drastic creative interpretation of the play. Through the careful emphasis on certain pronouns and pointed stage direction, the goal of conveying these women’s stories is achieved, and at no cost to the central theme of love. “We’ve been playing with this idea that the character Jack is a lesbian, and the only way she can work
through her sexuality is by pretending to be a man,” Smith said. “Whereas Algernon, who is essentially Wilde inserted into the play, loves everything and does everything and lives this life of complete pleasure and finds herself caught off guard by Cecily and surprised by falling in love with her.” As the first of two shows put on by Rude Mechanicals this year, “The Importance of Being Earnest” opens their 20th anniversary season. Rude is re-solidifying its place on campus under the leadership of producers Lindsay Harkins, a SMTD senior studying performance arts management, and Violet Kelly-Andrews, a SMTD junior in the same program. “It’s mostly about us trying to give Rude more credibility now by continuing producers. Because it’s student-run theater, it’s really just about opportunity and experiences for students,” Kelly-Andrews said. “People don’t know about Rude Mechanicals yet though because it has only just been raised from the dead.” “Earnest” appears to be a strong promise from Rude Mechanical’s resurrection. Broaching sexuality and gender as accepted in 2016 and placing it in the 1950s with a script from the 1890s brings “an interesting mix of ideals from differ-
another inmate, Wayne grabs a Bible and officiates the ceremony. He often sounds stripped from star power and humbled by his surroundings. Wayne sincerely cares about his peers’ happiness. Yet “Gone ’Til November” is filled with analyses of different guards and the special privileges that each grants Lil Wayne. On his first day, two female guards are suspended for leaving their posts to seek him out and Wayne accepts the news as proof that attracted fans will pursue him anywhere. The most exciting thing about this book is its constant and inevitable Lil Wayne-ness: even while incarcerated, his optimism and humor remain mostly intact. His visitors include Diddy, Chris Paul and Kanye West; he makes a phone call to order a new Ranger Rover after seeing it in a commercial; he doesn’t wear the same pair of underwear more than once. It’s been years since Lil Wayne released a relevant solo album. With “Gone ’Til November,” he offers something different to appease fans while court battles with Birdman, his former business partner and father figure, continue to restrain his musical freedom. In the book’s preface, he notes that he didn’t initially intend to publish the journal. Thus, some sections are scarily dark and hopeless. Wayne’s willingness to share such deeply pained material is another example of his unswerving commitment to pleasing fans. During a mild confessional that occurred on Twitter last month, Lil Wayne hinted at his retirement and publicly dreaded his own helplessness. He claimed that his final album, Tha Carter V, is finished and sitting in a drawer, waiting to be released at the convenience of Birdman. “I AM NOW DEFENSELESS AND MENTALLY DEFEATED,” he wrote. It’s an upsetting road to retirement for a performer who was once the best at his craft, who has been cited as a major influencer by younger stars like Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper, who actively steered hip hop toward its modern, anarchic race to release music constantly. He should at least be able to walk away from his field at peace. Lil Wayne tweeted that he: “ain’t lookin for sympathy, just serenity.” I hope he’s able to find it.
ent generations that actually work really well together” Smith said, while also adding to the continuous layers that envelop this production. And although Rude has only recently been revived, as an underdog it has room to grow, along with a vast community of students in and outside of SMTD who audition for shows. “We’re definitely the underdog but that’s what makes it exciting,” Violet said. “The payoff is so much more worth it. When we accomplish something it’s a huge accomplishment, and it’s an amazing to feel like you’re working on something that’s brand new but also been around for a while.” Just like the play itself, Rude Mechanical exists within the curious paradox of old and new, having both a sense of freshness and youth, while also holding a certain legacy. But this paradox plays to their advantage, for as Smith’s direction of “Earnest” demonstrates, any limitations can be handled — and handled in style. There’s an underlying sense that Wilde would approve of the direction his beloved play has taken in this production, for as Algernon exclaims in one of his Wildian epitaphs, “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”
Arts
6A — Wednesday, November 2, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
TV REVIEW
LCD Soundsystem performance at Lollapalooza is life-changing The revelatory moment when we were all crying boys and girls JOEY SCHUMAN Daily Arts Writer
AMAZON VIDEO
“Nice Free People caftan.” “Nice Ann Taylor shift dress.”
Stylish yet typical ‘Revolt’ New Amazon series a good step for women on TV, but nothing new Girls Revolt” is based off an actual sexual discrimination lawsuit filed Daily Arts Writer against Newsweek in 1970. But the show alters the story slightly, With the burgeoning progres- instead following a group of female siveness of peak TV, Amazon’s researchers at the esteemed New newest drama “Good Girls Revolt” York magazine News of the Week in should’ve been a real 1969, headed by Don standout. Created by Draper lookalike “Narcos” co-execuFinn Woodhouse tive producer Dana (Chris Diamanto“Good Girls Revolt” Calvo and adapted poulos, “The Three from the book “The Stooges”) and the Series Premiere Good Girls Revolt” irritable Wick by Lynn Povich, McFadden (Jim Amazon Video the show has all the Belushi, “Show Me a workings for a great Hero”). “Good Girls television program: it contains an Revolt” includes only two real-life unexpectedly great cast, glossy pro- characters, screenwriter Nora Ephduction values and several inspired ron (Grace Gummer, “Mr. Robot”) moments. Additionally, “Good Girls and American Civil Liberties Union Revolt” features feminist overtones, activist Eleanor Holmes Norton including strong female leads who (Joy Bryant, “Parenthood”), but the pass the Bechdel test and subvert fictitious characters are surprisingtrite depictions of female TV char- ly more compelling. acters. The problem is that “Good At the forefront of the cast are Girls Revolt” squanders its poten- the hippie, peace-loving Patti (Gential by turning a powerful true story evieve Angelson, “Backstrom”), the into something that is less so. stuck-up but confident Jane (Anna Though “Good Girls Revolt” suc- Camp, “Pitch Perfect”) and the ceeds in some aspects, its promis- mousy photo copier Cindy (Erin ing premise is unfortunately poorly Darke, “Don’t Think Twice”), all executed, suffering from sluggish of whom showcase a passion for pacing, scattered storytelling and journalism, especially when Ephmiddling dialogue. The Amazon ron takes a stand against McFadshow is definitely on the right track den in a pivotal scene at the end of to work its way up the very steep the pilot episode. While each actor ladder of streaming television pro- gives admirable performances, grams, but it has a while before it specifically Camp and Angelson, can reach the dramatic heights and there remains some hollowness to emotional depth of its ’60s drama the show. counterpart “Mad Men.” With each episode ranging Technically, the plot of “Good from 45 to 54 minutes, “Good SAM ROSENBERG
B-
Classifieds
Girls Revolt” drains many of its positive qualities with a cluttered, unfocused narrative. Interesting plot developments, such as Patti’s on-and-off romance with her coworker Doug (Hunter Parrish, “Weeds”), are downplayed and overlap with mediocre plot points. The other romances between the characters feel cliché and overdone, showcasing an overt amount of sexual tension that will make your eyes roll. Scenes that involve female empowerment come off as somewhat preachy, especially when Bryant’s character, who is one of the show’s only women of color, is delegated to playing a slight stereotype of the wise Black woman offering advice to white, privileged women on how to stick it to the man. That being said, “Good Girls Revolt” addresses office sexism and discrimination in a complex, nuanced way, propelling the trio of female researchers toward combating their domineering male counterparts with a drive to succeed in the world of journalism. “Good Girls Revolt” could have been transcendent, had it cut out a lot of its familiar elements — its tooobvious 1960s references, lengthy sequences of dialogue and predictable romantic entanglements. Still, with the rise of female voices on television, whether through writing, directing or acting, “Good Girls Revolt” represents a fine, albeit flawed example of the kinds of gripping stories that can be told through a female perspective.
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
HELP WANTED
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Less-played song, usually 6 Big name in big projections 10 Skips, as TiVoed ads 14 Like Andean pyramids 15 Bumpkin 16 Touched down 17 “Gotta go!” 19 Without serious thought 20 Cuts down 21 Single 22 Garson of Hollywood 23 “Do it, __ will!” 24 Peter Parker’s alarm system 27 Bed blossoms 29 Hyundai rival 30 Vineyard cask 31 Stainless __ 32 Agent 33 “Looney Tunes” stinker, familiarly 34 Kaiser roll topping 38 Hide from a hunter? 41 “Yet cease your __, you angry stars of heaven!”: “Pericles” 42 E-cigarette output 46 Firefighter’s tool 47 Lanai music maker 48 Has a conniption 50 Henry VIII’s third wife 53 “Noah kept bees in the ark hive,” e.g. 54 __ acid 55 Capp and Capone 56 Poet Whitman 57 Manner 58 Sign of deceit, and a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters 61 Years, to Livy 62 Navigation hazard 63 __-garde 64 Establishes 65 Fancy jug 66 Nutty green sauce
DOWN 1 Vatican personnel 2 Show disdain for 3 Dessert drink made from frozen grapes 4 Weekly septet 5 Disney doe 6 Modern Persians 7 Subdued 8 Civil War nickname 9 Boomer’s kid 10 ’70s-’90s African state 11 Pasta preference 12 Forms a big stack 13 Compound in many disposable coffee cups 18 Easy pace 22 Govt. property overseer 24 Corn Belt sight 25 Barely makes, with “out” 26 “Geez!” 28 When the NFL’s regular season begins 32 Canadian whisky 33 BlackBerries, e.g.
35 Seattle’s __ Place Market 36 Antelopes, to lions 37 At any point 38 Sleepover need 39 Check out 40 Lax 43 Tropical fruits 44 Rich 45 Charges for use of, as an apartment
47 GI hangout 48 Club owner? 49 Toss from office 51 County seat of County Clare 52 Thanksgiving decoration 56 “__ Only Just Begun”: Carpenters hit 58 Ship, to its crew 59 “Hee __” 60 Go on and on
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Levels of fandom are relevant after an incredibly draining day. Interspersed in the madness were sincerely earnest words from Murphy, snippets like “thank you guys for being very sweet to us … you never know, you could just hate us and be here just to throw things, but thank you for hanging out and listening.” But the privilege was all ours. After all, it would be foolish not to feel privileged to see this act, an act that had once been thought of as extinct. Beyond that, it was necessary to appreciate the sheer perfection of the set. Murphy often looks tense on stage, maybe even pained. It seems to come out of severely perfectionist tendencies. It’s not easy to synchronize a conglomerate of music machinery into harmonious poetry.
Consequently, raw emotions hit, and the waterworks peaked during “Home.” The feeling of truly being back home, of remembering the rough nights — albeit with the right people — got to me: “And after rolling on the floor / And thankfully, a few make sure that you get home / And you stay home / And you better.” The song, off of This Is Happening (2010), unlocked a bundle of memories and future uncertainties, and such an anxiety-inducing package hit hard. The unique thing about LCD Soundsystem’s music, in fact, is just how emotionally exhausting it is. In nearly every song, there’s an especially methodical intro, a prodding hook and a meticulously plotted out comedown. And so, we respond as such: where is it, what is it, where is it, oh wow, oh my gosh, wow, well OK that was cool, wow. Repeat. Each song is grounded in pure catharsis. So, in the span of one Lollapalooza set, it’s like being thrown on 14 ultra-sentimental loops, for 90 consecutive minutes, surrounded by equally overwhelmed people. A lot of the audience, including me, were with our friends that night, the same friends with whom we have been listening to LCD for years: the awkward years, the pressure-filled years, the transitional years. LCD had carried us through it all. This aforementioned catharsis proved to be overpowering. By the time the first notes of “All My Friends” rang out — urgent, but distinct, notes — we were all sobbing. “Where are your friends tonight?” Our friends were there, and other peoples’ friends were there. James Murphy had created, for one night, friends everywhere. That night, we were all crying boy.
TV REVIEW
Try-hard ‘The Living and Dead’ plummets into abyss of tired tropes BBC series takes big risk with twist that ruins the believability her own sexuality, Nathan psychoanalyzes, as the adolescent Daily Arts Writer girl attempts to murder one of the farmworkers. The theme In the spirit of Halloween, of science vs. supernatural entertainment and media out- emerges early on, and is carlets are (rightfully) capitalizing ried throughout the season as on all things spooky. And since Nathan attempts (and fails) to one can never use his practice have too many to explain the period pieces, tragedies. But BBC America the series strays has wrapped up from good old“The Living and the horror and 19thfashioned hauntDead” century England ings when it tries into one packto pull an origiSeries Premiere age. “The Living nal surprise — a Thursdays at 9 p.m. and the Dead,” a decision that is six-episode miniperhaps its bigBBC America series, has the gest misstep. At right setup for a the end of the compelling endfirst episode, a of-October binge, but falls flat woman dressed in 21st-century in execution. apparel and carrying an iPad Nathan Appleby (Colin Mor- walks through the 1894 mangan, “Merlin”) and his wife sion. Adding time travel is Charlotte (Charlotte Spencer, risky: the genre has developed “Above”) inherit a struggling so many tropes that it’s nearly family farm in Somerset, Eng- impossible to find an original land, only to be haunted by the take. In the case of “The Livsupernatural. Nathan, a turn- ing and the Dead,” it not only of-the-century psychologist opens up room for clichés but, from London who believes in more importantly, completely science and logic, spirals down invalidates the 19th-century a dangerous path as he seeks England the series attempts to an explanation for the mysti- recreate. What is supposed to cal forces that are plaguing his be a “twist” is so jarring and vicarage. Before long, Nathan out of place that it destroys the is forced to face the memory historical feel necessary to creand ghost of his dead son from ate a believable period piece. a previous wife, further strainWhat “The Living and the ing his relationship with Char- Dead” does best is deliver an lotte in the process. aesthetically pleasing viewThe series pilot introduces ing experience. The shots “The Living and the Dead” of countryside England are ’s supernatural elements as a whimsical — warm and almost neighbor’s daughter becomes sepia-toned, as if taken right possessed by ghosts of farm- out of an old photo book. ers past. She’s just scared of Colin Morgan’s jawline isn’t DANIELLE YACOBSON
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Fandom is a tough concept to make concrete. The extent to which we, as spectators, love certain forms of entertainment cannot be definitively graded, and while it might be more important to just absorb the entertainment rather than assess our appreciation for it, how genuinely we experience things does matter. Celebrities Aziz Ansari and Donald Glover (aka “Childish Gambino”), for example, seemed to be LCD Soundsystem fans, completely losing their shit in various clips of “Shut Up and Play the Hits,” which documented the band’s (then) farewell concert in 2011 at Madison Square Garden. As did the “crying boy,” a boy who was shown legitimately bawling for the duration of that same show. Levels of fandom are relevant here, because after an incredibly draining day, we were in a sea of diehards for LCD’s headlining set July 31 at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park. This is important, not as much because the crowd of mostly twenty-somethings around us were more “sophisticated” or “mature,” but because the teens rolling face were finally, and appropriately, confined to the suburban high school enclave that is the adjacent Perry’s stage. This? This was a set for the fans, and on that festivalclosing night, fandom manifested itself as total, complete and unadulterated joy. James Murphy, Nancy Whang and the rest of the gang proved they have a special way of causing this. Maybe it’s the distinct sound, or just the memories we have associated with this sound. They
disbanded in 2011 and, while we all thought that was the end, it wasn’t; it was July 2016, and we were able to experience their reunion tour and hear this sound once more. What started off as a roll call of hits — “Us V Them,” “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” and “I Can Change” supplied the set with tons of early momentum — gave way to the organized chaos of “Tribulations” and “Movement.” The band sounded good, but more important, they had us locked in. Bodies jumping up and down, swaying back and forth; cultish, in the best type of way.
C
too hard on the eyes either, but a successful series needs more than an attractive lead to keep an audience engaged. Both Morgan and Spencer play characters that are difficult to connect with and draw on emotions that are almost too unrelatable. Their performances aren’t strong enough to grab an audience through the disconnect of both another time and a world plagued by the undead, serving to only further alienate the series from success.
The series strays from good old-fashioned hauntings. Period pieces act like a mirror: they reflect an aspect of the present day through the lens of another time. Stories set hundreds, even thousands, of year back can still be unbelievably relevant to the modern viewer, because themes of humanity, justice and hope have not changed throughout the timeline of the human experience. Yet the BBC America series isn’t able to establish that connection. Without the humor of “Downton Abbey” or the thrill of “American Horror Story,” it’s no surprise that “The Living and the Dead” wasn’t renewed for a second season.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports & News
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 — 7A
Michigan searching for an identity With a sputtering offense and a young team, the Wolverines are pressing ahead in hopes of finding a suitable style AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson knew right away. At Thompson Arena on Saturday night, he saw his players disheartened and discouraged. After battling with Dartmouth the whole game, his then-11th-ranked Wolverines let up a late goal to lose 3-2 to the Big Green. Michigan’s players looked to their coach for a message of motivation in a weekend when it lost both of its games. “His message was that we did good things, but there’s still some things we have to get better at,” said senior defenseman Nolan de Jong. “It was a glimpse of what we can be, rather than the Vermont game where we pretty much struggled throughout the entire game — there wasn’t very much pushback from us. “At least we kind of see the team we can be. See the energy, the legs, the enthusiasm that we can play with. It’s a good sign. We gotta keep improving every day.” Through seven games, the Wolverines stand with a .500 record and many questions. Michigan’s lines continue to shift nearly every period, and its goaltending situation remains a mystery until just before puck drop. If the Wolverines had consistently outplayed their opponents, these aspects would be solidified. But until they do, Berenson believes it necessary to constantly tinker with his lineup and netminders. As the third-youngest team in college hockey — with an average age of 20.9 — another coach might be easily frustrated having to teach his new system to a fresh
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Senior defenseman Nolan De Jong is tasked with leading a young Michigan hockey team that is still looking to find firm footing early in the season.
set of players. But Berenson — in his 33rd year in Ann Arbor — is used to it. “Even though we’ve had maybe not as many freshman, you look at the age of our team, it’s always been around 18,19 or 20,” Berenson said. “... We’re helping them develop and learn how to play at this level and they’re already ready. You’ve seen Lockwood and Slaker, they’ve already made an impact on this team. It’s not like they have to be reinvented. These kids know how to play hockey. Some of them are more ready than others.
It’s our job as a group to help them all make the adjustment on where to fit in.” In De Jong’s freshman year, the team struggled at times, including a four-game losing streak and a month when it won just four of nine games. As a first-year player, he looked to his older leaders (former Michigan defenseman Mac Bennett and
former forward Derek DeBlois) for guidance. “They were the guys who no matter what happened, whether we lost 10-1 or we won 10-1 they were always in here putting their work in,” De Jong said. “Doing extra things in the weight room or on the ice, they were always trying to get better, which is
“At least we kind of see the team we can be.”
something I looked up to a lot.” Now as a senior leader and captain, De Jong says he “absolutely” sees himself in that role. “It’s not always going to be things that I say, but it’s going to be things that have to show,” De Jong said. “That’s going to be if we have a conditioning skate at the end, even if I’m not the fastest guy out there, I’m gonna be the guy that’s gonna push it all the way to the goal line or get those extra few strides in. Whether I have to block a shot in practice
Panel tackles issues of polling, Twitter and cybersecurity TYLER COADY
Daily Staff Reporter
With the general election six days away, topics dominating the national conversation such as the influence of Twitter on the election, the vulnerability of America’s voting technology to hackers and whether a shift to electronic voting could solve it were discussed at a University of Michigan Information and Technology Services panel discussion titled “Disrupting Democracy: How Technology is Influencing Elections.” The event was moderated by the host of Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition, Doug Tribou, and attended by approximately 60 students, faculty and staff members. Alex Halderman, a professor of engineering and computer science who was a panelist at the event, researches polling technology and voting machines by deconstructing government machines and conducting security analyses on them. During his remarks, he emphasized cybersecurity concerns that surround polling technology in an age of increasing digital connectivity, as well as increased cyber concerns over hacking by non-state and foreign actors. “Unfortunately, the security is nowhere near where it should be,” Halderman said. “The problem is that about a quarter of American voters, even today, will be voting on technology on voting machines that don’t produce any form of physical record.” To illustrate more specific concerns over exclusively electronic voting, Halderman spoke about how in 2010, Washington, D.C. staged a mock election in which all polling would be conducted via the Internet. Officials in D.C. invited computer scientists and hackers to infiltrate the voting system’s network so as to learn about potential issues with online voting. Halderman and a team of UM students took up the district’s offer and, within two days, they were in complete control of the
or whatever to kinda show guys that I’m all in.” The Wolverines have spent these first seven games constructing their own identity, one that already looks drastically different from last season’s, in which its prolific offense had an immediate impact in games. This year, though, Michigan is still in the midst of developing its own distinct character. The growing pains that the Wolverines inevitably have faced are simply a part of the game, according to Berenson. He will keep readjusting and focusing in order to find groups that work and succeed together. “This is our team now and it’s about creating an identity and creating the personality for our team,” De Jong said. “I think we have a lot of youth and that should bring a lot of excitement and I think at this point in the season, we can’t be using youth or a young team as an excuse. “(It is) time to push forward. We’re going to have to be a hard team to play against. A fast team, stingy defensively and I think goaltending is going to be a big part of our team. I think we’re still working on the identity but we’re going to get there. Added Berenson: “We haven’t really played the kind of hockey that I think our players think we can play, or the coaches think we can play. We gotta build whatever identity that is. Our next game is our best chance to take a step in that direction. You’re not gonna do it all in one game, or a week or a weekend, but I think if we start seeing the same results, better results in certain areas then we’ll start getting an identity that we can believe in as a group.”
FOOTBALL
‘M’ third in playoff standings JAKE LOURIM
Managing Sports Editor
ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily
Engineering Prof. Alex Halderman and Political Science Prof. Walter Mebane discuss the influence of technology in elections on a panel moderated by Michigan Radio Host Doug Tribou in the Michigan League on Tuesday.
voting system. “I am not sure how many people can be reading the newspaper or watching TV today, and think that it would be a good idea to take our election system and just put it at a website somewhere that could be reached from anywhere in the world,” Halderman said. Chris Dzombak, another panelist, also stressed the vulnerability of America’s polling infrastructure, saying it has not received nearly enough attention this election cycle. Dzombak is an Ann Arbor resident who works for The New York Times as a software engineer for iOS development. He said he’s discussed the increasing issue of cyberattacks on governments with his coworkers. “We have seen more and more higher profile sort of Internet and
computer security issues as these sort of things are becoming more and more common,” Dzombak said. “A paper audit trail and checking it against the results are important and they seem like common sense security measures and I am really disappointed we have not implemented these measures.” Panelist Walter Mebane, a professor of political science and statistics, also discussed his research on U.S. elections and election forensics, a field of study that analyzes ballot formats and compares the merits of voting machines. Mebane said when a social media site like Twitter becomes the central place that voters to turn for information on the election, the inability to disprove a lot of the information disseminated on the site allows
rumors and misinformation to run rampant. “Twitter can certainly be used to spread rumors and misinformation … as it is a kind of weird universe where credible information is hard to establish,” Mebane said. Beyond the issue of spreading misinformation, Mebane said Twitter and social media is often bifurcated, or divided based on the preferences of the consumer. Noting the high polarization characterizing the current election, he said this bifurcation lets users only seek out like-minded individuals and consume political information that aligns only with their previously held viewpoints. “If the post-election behavior mirrors the pre-election behavior, one set, one group saying big fraud, big rigging, big
problems … regardless of what happens there,” Mebane said. “That would be an issue and the question would be to counteract that message if it deserves to be counteracted to and have that message be supported or refuted by evidence.” LSA sophomore Jamie Pew, an attendee, agreed with some of the sentiments voiced at the event, saying he has noticed his Twitter feed features views and opinions predominantly in favor of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and related topics. “I have a very narrow perception of what’s going on in the election and what the outcome will probably be,” Pew said. “It is definitely a challenge to find the right people to follow, both Democrats and people who are conservative.”
If the college football season ended today, the Michigan football team would have a chance to compete for the national championship. The Wolverines ranked No. 3 in the first College Football Playoff poll released Tuesday night. At the end of the year, the top four will reach the playoff, with the first- and fourth-ranked teams and second- and third-ranked teams playing each other and then the winners of those games playing for the national title. The semifinals this year for the teams that make the playoff are in Atlanta and Glendale, Ariz., and the championship game is in Tampa, Fla. Alabama (8-0) earns the top-ranked spot this week, with Clemson (8-0) at No. 2. Texas A&M (7-1), despite losing to the Crimson Tide, 33-14, is the final team in the top four, ahead of undefeated Washington at No. 5. Michigan’s opponents also earned a strong showing in the poll, with Wisconsin (6-2) at No. 8 and Colorado (6-2) at No. 15. The Wolverines beat the Badgers on Oct. 1, 14-7, and the Buffaloes on Sept. 17, 45-28. One of the biggest surprises in the rankings is Penn State at No. 12. The Nittany Lions struggled earlier in the year and lost at Michigan Stadium, 49-10, on Sept. 24. They make an appearance in the poll in large part because of their upset of then-No. 2 Ohio State on Oct. 22. The Buckeyes (7-1) come in at No. 6 in the rankings and play Saturday night at home against No. 10 Nebraska (7-1), the fourth Big Ten team in the top 10.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, November 2, 2016 T E A M
S TAT S MICH 46.6 23.9 249.0 5.4 31 228.1 63.9% 8.0 14 3 74.8 477.1 47.7% 66.7% 3.4 17.2 17.9 42.1 9-14 8/3 43.4 33:48
Points/Game First Downs/Game Rush Yards/Game Yards/Rush Rushing TDs Passing Yards/Game Completion % Yards/Pass Passing TDs Interceptions Offensive Plays/Game Total Offense 3rd-down Conversions 4th-down Conversions Sacks/Game Kick return average Punt return average Punting average Field Goals-Attempts Fumbles/Lost Penalty Yards/Game Time of Poss
I N D I V I D U A L
OPP 11.6 12.1 111.1 3.3 3 120.1 41.7% 5.0 8 8 58.1 231.2 15.5% 35.3% 1.4 20.7 8.8 38.1 3-7 12/5 46.0 26:13
S TAT S
PASSING Player Speight O’Korn Morris TOTALS
Cmp Att Yds 130 207 1691 11 15 89 4 5 45 145 227 1825
TD 13 1 0 14
INT 3 0 0 3
Att Yds 90 450 53 424 53 403 66 348 12 138 15 131 9 47 19 33 4 29 3 19 2 17 3 15 6 12 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 -1 1 -2 1 -11 10 -15 19 -49 371 1992
Avg 5.0 8.0 7.6 5.3 11.5 8.7 5.2 1.7 7.2 6.3 8.5 5.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 -0.5 -2.0 -11.0 -1.5 -2.6 5.4
Lg 42 57 45 34 33 63 17 4 13 14 10 11 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 10 63
TD 5 3 6 4 0 3 1 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31
No. Yds 38 664 29 345 20 304 6 114 10 75 4 53 5 33 4 28 2 27 2 24 1 23 10 21 1 21 2 18 1 18 1 15 1 12 2 10 1 7 2 6 1 4 2 3 145 1825
Avg 17.5 11.9 15.2 19.0 7.5 13.3 6.6 7.0 13.5 12.0 23.0 2.1 21.0 9.0 18.0 15.0 12.0 5.0 7.0 3.0 4.0 1.5 12.6
Lg 46 26 35 54 15 33 15 14 21 22 23 9 21 15 18 15 12 5 7 4 4 5 54
TD 5 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14
RUSHING Player Smith, D. Evans Higdon Isaac McDoom Peppers Chesson Hill Henderson Morris Davis Crawford O’Korn Hirsch Wilson Beneducci Hewlett Gedeon Allen TEAM Speight TOTALS RECEIVING Player Darboh Butt Chesson Perry Hill McDoom Poggi Evans Wheatley Ways Henderson Smith, D. Isaac Asiasi Crawford Hirsch Jocz McKeon Harris Bunting Johnson, N. Peppers TOTALS
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan turns to Bens to carry O-line’s left side JAKE LOURIM
Managing Sports Editor
One of the Bens on the left side of Michigan’s offensive line is a fifth-year senior, and the other is a true freshman, but the similarities between them outweigh the differences. Ben Braden, a fifth-year senior from Rockford, Mich., will make his 32nd career start on the Wolverines’ offensive line this weekend against Maryland. Ben Bredeson, a true freshman from Hartland, Wisc., will likely make his fourth. The two lived next to each other for the duration of fall camp, and now they play next to each other, Braden at left tackle, Bredeson at left guard. In addition to their dorm this summer and their first name, they also share a meeting room, a heritage from the Upper Midwest and a love of hockey. Michigan made the change during its bye week to start both of them against Illinois on Oct. 22 and against Michigan State on Saturday. After starting left tackle Grant Newsome suffered a season-ending knee injury Oct. 1, the Wolverines gave redshirt sophomore Juwann BushellBeatty the nod at that position the next week against Rutgers. They also started Bredeson in place of Braden — who has battled injuries for most of the season — at left guard. Michigan then emerged from its bye week in a new alignment, starting Braden at left tackle for the first time in his career. It was not a drastic change, nor did it respond to a significant need. But when the Wolverines tested different arrangements during their week off, they found success with Braden and Bredeson on the left side, and so the two Bens it was. “We were constantly fluid, changing things up all the time,” Bredeson said. “You
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Fifth-year senior offensive lineman Ben Braden and freshman offensive lineman Ben Bredeson (74) have settled into their positions on the left side of the line.
just have to stay ready, and that’s what I did. That’s what everyone on the line does. We all have to be ready to go when our number gets called.” That wasn’t always the case. Michigan started the same five offensive linemen in the same five spots for all 13 games last season. Newsome, who occasionally played as a sixth offensive lineman, was the only other one to play significant snaps. This year, the Wolverines have used four different combinations, with all of the changes coming on the left side. Part of the fluctuation is because of Newsome’s injury, and another part is depth
— Michigan did not have Bredeson last year, and BushellBeatty played sparingly until last month. The unit also appears to be more versatile this season. Junior center Mason Cole started at left tackle for two years. Bredeson often draws comparisons to him for his ability to move around. And until Braden went in at left tackle during the bye week, he had not practiced there since fall camp. Among Michigan’s group, Bredeson steps into a group with three fifth-year seniors and another three-year starter in Cole. He seems to have built a particularly strong rapport
with Braden. When he first spoke to media in late September before the Wisconsin game, he said Braden had mentored him “a lot more than you can imagine.” The two also room together in the team hotel the night before each game. “He’s helped me with plays, protections, pregame tests, life, basically everything,” Bredeson said in September. “… He has gone far out of his way to help me, mentally and physically, with the game.” Braden gives similarly complimentary remarks about Bredeson, who backed him up at left guard before both cracked the starting lineup and
who appears to be the future of the offensive line. “Bredeson’s a good kid,” Braden said. “He works really hard. Smart guy, great attitude, great character. … I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him, and I definitely see myself growing with our friendship even when I’m not here anymore.” As for the roommate assignment that sparked a particularly close friendship, Bredeson isn’t sure how that came about. “I couldn’t tell you,” he said. “They just decided to make it confusing and put the two guys with the closest names together.”
PUNT RETURNS Player Peppers Jocz Evans Perry TOTALS
No. 15 1 1 0 17
Yds Avg. Long 257 17.1 54 27 27.0 0 15 15.0 15 6 -6 305 17.9 54
TD 1 0 0 1 2
Cole plays through sickness for standout game
INTERCEPTION RETURNS Player Stribling Hill, D. McCray Thomas Lewis TOTALS
No. 3 1 1 1 2 8
KELLY HALL
Yds Avg. Long 60 20.0 51 27 27.0 27 22 22.0 22 4 4.0 4 0 0.0 0 113 14.1 51
TD 1 1 0 0 0 2
Yds 9 9
Avg. Long 9.0 9 9.0 9
TD 0 0
Yds Avg. Long 168 28.0 55 34 11.3 18 28 14.0 15 6 6.0 6 5 2.5 5 241 17.2 55
TD 0 0 0 0 0 0
FUMBLE RETURNS Player Hill, L. TOTALS
No. 1 1
KICKOFF RETURNS Player Peppers Lewis Henderson Hudson Hill, K. TOTALS
No. 6 3 2 1 2 14
Daily Sports Editor
Monday, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said that his youngsters would have to start drinking more whole milk. He wasn’t talking about his growing children, though. Instead, it was his response to senior tight end Jake Butt and junior center Mason Cole, who were battling sicknesses last week. Both were still able to see the field and had a hand in defeating Michigan State, 32-23, and Cole even received high praise from Harbaugh.
“Mason Cole, there’s a guy,” Harbaugh said. “And I’ve always said this, too, but (I) experienced playing some of my best games with a temperature. There’s something that makes you focus more during a game. Mason was our offensive lineman of the week. I thought he had the best performance of our offensive line.” Harbaugh also suggested doing more push-ups and using hand sanitizer to combat illness, though Cole’s sickness didn’t seem to have much of a negative impact on his game. While he doesn’t necessarily
agree with Harbaugh’s belief that being sick can set up for a great game, he understands where his coach is coming from. “I can see what he’s saying,” Cole said. “When you’re not feeling right, you just focus on you. You kind of put everything else aside and you have to focus on you 100 percent to do your job.” Nothing was going to detract from playing his in-state rival, and at no point did he anticipate being absent from the Michigan State game. “(My illness) really wasn’t that big of a deal,” Cole said. “There’s
not much that can take you away from playing in that kind of an environment. You’ve gotta go there and perform and in that rivalry game and you just gotta do what you gotta do. It wasn’t bad — it wasn’t as bad as people made it sound.” He attributed his illness to the changing seasons and said that people everywhere are working through the same thing. Luckily for the Wolverines, Cole is back to feeling healthy. He may have been physically unavailable for practice last week, but he said that he was there mentally. As a three-year starter,
KICKOFFS Player Allen Foug Tice TOTALS
No. 53 8 3 64
Yds 3392 460 189 4041
Avg. 64.0 57.5 63.0 63.1
TB 28 2 0 30
No. 27 27
Yds 1138 1138
Avg. 42.1 42.1
Lg 56 56
PUNTING Player Allen TOTALS FIELD GOALS Player Allen Tice
FG Pct. 1-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+ Lg 9-13 69.2% 0-0 5-5 3-5 1-3 0-0 45 0-1 0.0% 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0
LEADING TACKLERS Player Gedeon Peppers McCray Thomas Hill, D. Winovich Glasgow, R. Wormley Gary Hurst Godin Charlton Lewis Stribling Kinnel Clark Watson Metellus Glasgow, J. Hudson Bush Pearson TOTALS
Solo 22 31 18 18 20 6 5 9 7 9 7 7 11 7 6 6 6 6 5 3 3 2 232
Ast 39 17 25 16 10 20 21 13 15 11 13 12 5 8 4 4 4 2 3 5 5 4 280
Tot 61 48 43 34 30 26 26 22 22 20 20 19 16 15 10 10 10 8 8 8 8 6 512
TFL 8.5 12.5 8.0 2.0 5.5 4.0 5.5 5.0 6.5 2.0 4.5 2.5 1.0 1.0 0.5 0.5 71
SK PBU 3.0 2 3.5 3.5 4 4 2 2.0 1.0 1 4.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 4.0 3 7 3 1.0 1 27 28 GRANT HARDY/Daily
2016 SCHEDULE
Junior center Mason Cole played through an unspecified illness when the Wolverines beat Michigan State, 32-23, at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.
9/3
9/10
9/17
9/24
HAWAII (4-5)
UCF (4-4)
COLORADO (6-2)
PENN ST. (6-2)
10/1
10/8
WISCONSIN (6-2) at RUTGERS (2-6)
10/22 ILLINOIS (2-6)
10/29
11/5
at MICH. ST. (2-6) MARYLAND (5-3)
W, 63-3 (1-0) W, 51-14 (2-0) W, 45-28 (3-0) W, 49-10 (4-0) W, 14-7 (5-0) W, 78-0 (6-0) W, 41-8 (7-0) W, 32-23 (8-0)
3:30 p.m., Michigan Stadium
Cole’s absence would be felt immediately. After two years at left tackle, Cole switched to the center position, which is a role he feels completely comfortable in. Despite spending more time at tackle, he now likes playing at center more. Cole held Michigan State’s star defensive lineman Malik McDowell — who leads the Spartans with seven tackles for loss on the season — to just two tackles last weekend. Cole thought he played fairly well, despite missing some practice. The rest of his team wasn’t quite there though. Michigan’s offense was prolific in the first half, scoring 27 points, but production slowed in the second. One of the offense’s most disappointing performances came during the fourth quarter, when Michigan went 2-for-7 on third down and had just 16 rushing yards. “I think you’d like to see us go out there and see us get a few first downs and close out the game, but we didn’t,” Cole said. “But our defense came up big, our special teams came up big … they saved us, but it’s a team effort, and they covered us that time.” Regardless of the changes that are occurring on the offensive line — with sophomore Grant Newsome out for the season and freshman Ben Bredeson earning a starting role — Cole has emerged as Michigan’s rock up in the middle. “I mean, he’s moving people and getting his job done down after down, playing low and fast and physical,” Harbaugh said. “He’s really developing as a center, there’s no question about it. … (I) feel great that this is his position. He is an ideal, prototypical center and doing a great job. Just gotta boost his immune system.”
11/12
11/19
11/26
at IOWA (5-3)
INDIANA (4-4)
at OHIO ST. (7-1)
8 p.m., Iowa City, Iowa
Michigan Stadium
Noon, Columbus, Ohio
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 2 , 2016
2B
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 / The Statement
t h e s t at e m e n t
the tangent
Magazine Editor: Karl Williams
Editor in Chief: Shoham Geva
Deputy Editors: Nabeel Chollampat Lara Moehlman
Managing Editor: Laura Schinagle
Design Editor: Shane Achenbach Photo Editor: Zoey Holmstrom
T H O U G H T B U B B L E : H A L LOW E E N
Copy Editors: Emily Campbell Alexis Nowicki Taylor Grandinetti
Creative Director: Emilie Farrugia
How To: Pizza Rolls and Other Thoughts B Y S Y LVA N N A G R O S S
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
When I was five, I hated broccoli. I would scream and choke and run away for fear that I would have to eat broccoli. Cauliflower I would eat, sometimes, if my dad melted enough cheese on top. Brussel sprouts? Never. These reactions to food are similar to how I believe a lot of college students feel about cooking. No judgement, by the way. I would much rather dump a can of soup into a pot and heat it up than roast a chicken and use the leftovers to make my own homemade broth. To some, students will always be stuck in a Campbell’s soup frame of mind, and that’s totally fine. But, for me at least, my taste buds have been affected by a mixture of maturation and already decreasing metabolism and I now crave a grilled salmon over fish sticks. (That comparison was mostly made for effect rather than truth. I actually sincerely dislike fish sticks and have not had one since elementary school. I do, however, sincerely love salmon.) I have always been a decent “chef.” My parents worked a lot growing up, and so I had plenty of opportunities to start experimenting in the kitchen by myself from a
young age. My mom taught me fractions using measuring cups for baking in kindergarten, making me feel right at home behind the stove when I began to move from baking brownies to roasting a chicken. Since the beginning of high school, my mom and dad would offhandedly describe what they were doing when making dishes such as chicken cacciatore, brisket, tilapia with asparagus, etc. So I’m very confident in saying that when I cook, the food comes out to an edible degree. So, the problem in college isn’t that I prefer pizza rolls to a homemade whole-wheat crust margherita pizza garnished with fresh basil. It’s that there isn’t enough time in the day to spend creating food compared to just heating it up. To me, this is the “pizza-roll aesthetic,” in which it is almost fashionable to use the kitchen as an oversized microwave in college. Don’t confuse a want for already prepared foods as being lazy. I maintain an A GPA average, am the president of a prelaw sorority, secretary of a law society, work in four major roles at the Daily (columnist, women’s basketball beat writer, sports night editor and recruitment chair) and hold a job as a barista at a coffee shop. When I come home at the end of the day, I am looking for something that only requires me to stand up for no longer than 10 minutes. Past that threshold, I refuse to do anything but cuddle in my bed and watch Netflix. Judging by my roommates and friends, that sentiment is shared by a lot of my peers — sans the occasional spurt of culinary energy and motivation. But as senior year wears on, I’m more aware of the fact that when I leave college I will no longer feel the “pizzaroll aesthetic” will apply to my life. Or rather, I will feel unaccomplished if it does apply. For me, I’m capable of more. I’m capable of a “Julia-Child aesthetic.” A lot of that, though, begins with grocery shopping and trying new things. I’m not suggesting to seniors that we immediately replace our beloved pizza rolls with intimidating dishes like Thai-style meatballs and roasted butternut squash. I am suggesting that we start to strive to make those dishes our goal, while evolving pizza rolls into an indulgent 2 ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA a.m. snack.
“My second costume was an impromptu decision because someone was selling a halo on the Ladies of U of M Facebook page and my friend and I did a devil/ angel combined costume. This was probably one of my best Halloweens because of how easy it was to make costumes.” – LSA senior Alexandra Meilhac
I’m 20 years old now. I’ve had skewered octopus in Japan, alligator in New Orleans, pig cheek in Spain, cacti in New Mexico and lobster ice cream in Cape Cod — and I still refuse to eat broccoli. I still dislike cauliflower. But I will now make, and then eat, brussel sprouts if they’re roasted to the point of being charred crisps with no semblance of green left. So, I guess that’s me maturing. How to: Grocery shop and not buy pizza rolls 1. Coupon AF 2. Get the whole-wheat bread 3. Frozen vegetables? Canned vegetables? Girl. 4. If you’re working with a budget, get the generic brand 5. It actually tastes just as good, Buzzfeed Video has proven this 6. Don’t overbuy; if you see something you might use maybe, don’t get it 7. Chips and salsa are a staple and/or hummus and pita 8. Buy that instead of your next bag of potato chips 9. Caveat: If you are planning on engaging in nighttime fun, make sure your drunchies are satiated at home so you don’t feel the need to go out and spend money at 2 a.m. 10. If you can’t cook, no worries; practice makes perfect 11. Food is love, food is life 12. Get all the free samples
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 / The Statement
3B
on the record: “your damn emails” “It’s pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before the election... In fact, it’s not just strange; it’s unprecedented and it is deeply troubling.” —HILLARY CLINTON, Democratic presidential nominee, on F.B.I. director James B. Comey, who disclosed the agency was looking into potential new emails tied to Clinton’s private server on Friday, October 28.
“As it stands, we now have real-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV of federal criminal investigation. Perhaps worst of all, it is happening on the eve of a presidential election. It is antithetical to the interests of justice, putting a thumb on the scale of this election and damaging our democracy.”
“In the absence of additional, authoritative information from the FBI in the wake of your vague disclosure, Congress and the American people are left to sift through anonymous leaks from Justice Department officials to the press of varying levels of detail, reliability, and consistency... The American people deserve better than that.”
— JAMIE GORELICK, former deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton, and LARRY THOMPSON, former deputy attorney general under George W. Bush, in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
—SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IOWA). chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Comey on Monday, October 31.
Copy That: Finding Structure in the Stylebook B Y E M I LY F I S H M A N
I
’m not creative. I’m just not. I know saying that seems like the ultimate admission of failure to some, especially considering my choice to pursue an English major, but after a lot of soulsearching and many failed attempts to write the next Great American Novel, I’ve come to the somewhat depressing realization that I am just not creative. I have my creative moments, but the thought of sitting down to write something completely on my own talents and with no instructions seems terrifying. Even writing this took me weeks of planning and outlining and it still was not easy for me to create something unique of which I could be proud. I like rules, I adore guidelines and I function a heck of a lot better with a clear instruction manual. That’s why I love the working at the copy desk so much. Not to say that everyone at the copy desk is like me, because in my time at The Michigan Daily I have learned that copy attracts creative and witty people with a fondness for Oreos and the Oxford comma. I simply happen to thrive in an environment where the rules are clearly laid out and I have a guide to follow. The Stylebook is probably the most comforting tab open on my computer, all 65 pages of it. I’m not creative, and working at
the copy desk allows me to be a part of the creative process where otherwise us non-creative people would get shut out. Coming to college, I was under the impression that every single intelligent person was also creative — they
had only original thoughts, they never struggled to say something interesting and the quality of their work, no matter the discipline, always ref lected their imaginative dispositions. I thought that I had to be someone who only ever added to the discussion with original
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA
insight. I thought that being creative was a sure-fire way to be successful at the University of Michigan and in careers beyond. There wasn’t one specific moment when I realized I wasn’t creative and decided I was probably doomed to fail in any and all future endeavors. My creative energy just sort of def lated over time, and as I realized how utterly uncreative I was, I began to see and appreciate all the more the depth of creativity that exists in my peers. There are some wacky and wonderful things going on at this University, and my lack of creativity means I am often on the outside peering in. The world needs people who are creative, but the world also needs people like me who love creativity but just can’t be a part of it. My work at the copy desk is probably going to be ref lective of most of my adult career. I am not going to write the narrative, but I am going to be able to come alongside those who are creative and hone and shape their work into something that is even better. If that involves changing “amidst” to “amid” and Googling party affiliations of city council members for the rest of my life, that’s fine with me. I’m just happy to be included, lack of creativity and all.
4B
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 // The Statement
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 // The Statement
THE HOUSE OF PABLO: A Journey to the Home of Pablo Neruda By Adam DePollo, Daily Arts Writer This is part of an ongoing series on the writer’s study abroad in Chile. “65. He had no children, but the people loved him. 66. Like the Cross, do we have to come back to Neruda with our knees bloodied, our lungs full of holes, our eyes full of tears? 67. When our names no longer mean anything, his name will keep shining, it will keep projecting over an imaginary literature called chilean literature.” —Roberto Bolaño, “Carnet de baile” I. I woke up to the sound of heavy footsteps and a conversation in Spanish, using everything at my disposal to keep out the light beating down on my eyelids. The conversation came closer and grew louder. A door slammed shut, and I realized there was no point trying. I raised my torso from the couch. I was still wearing my coat. It seemed that someone had covered me in a blanket after I passed out the night before. It fell off my chest into a bundle around my waist. Soft white sunlight shone into the room through a window in the ceiling, burning my eyes, and there was a young woman I’d never seen before sitting on the adjacent couch, staring at me. “Good morning,” she said in Spanish. She was blurrier than she ought to have been, so I wiped
my hand across my eyes, trying to find my glasses. I grunted at her and patted blindly at the blanket covering my legs, the coffee table next to me and the f loor underneath the couch. “Wh … gla … gaf … ” “What are you looking for … your glasses?” “Yeah … ” “They’re on top of your head, man.” I patted the top of my head and, sure enough, my glasses were nestled into my hair. I tried to pull them down onto my face and felt a sting as a few strands tore out of my scalp. I looked back at the girl, sure that I’d never seen her before. “You’re one of Gustavo’s friends, right?” she asked. “Yeah … uh, Gustavo.” “Ah, OK. Well, he’s in the bathroom.” It was 10:30 a.m. I stood up, light-headed. Gustavo. We were playing Never Have I Ever the night before, but with pisco. Nunca nunca. Terrible idea. Never again. I took a few steps, wandering in a confused circle. She looked concerned or uncomfortable. “Are you OK?” she asked. “Can I get you something … Some water? … An egg?” I patted myself down; wallet, keys, f lip phone, pen, passport. Everything in order. “No, no,” I said. “I’m fine, thanks.” “Mhmm … OK, well, like I said, Gustavo’s in the bathroom. He should be done in a minute.” Something was wrong … I left my goddamn bag at the hostel. I looked around the room again, making sure it wasn’t just sitting under a couch or a coffee table. It wasn’t. I had to go. She looked up at me incredulously as I shuff led out. The light shone brighter as I moved closer to the door and I covered my eyes with a forearm as I stepped out onto the terrace. The sky over Valparaíso was gray that morning, the air heavy, cold and wet. On my left, I could see the harbor sandwiched among the rows of houses lining the street that runs down off Cerro Concepción, one of the steep rolling hills on top of which Valparaíso is built. To my right I saw thousands of brightly colored houses coating the mountains around the bay. The city looked like a box of crayons gradually fading away into a cloud of fog and mist. Even from there, I could smell a bit of ocean. A French-sounding melody echoed off the facades around the terrace in disjointed phrases; oboe, tuba, accordion. I climbed down the narrow stone staircase and passed through an iron gate into the cobblestone street. As I tried to remember how to get back to the hostel, an old man in a beret and brown wool jacket watched me stumble over a sudden drop in the sidewalk. The street was called Papudo and it was somewhere on that enormous hilltop. I was hoping nobody stole my bag. I needed my books — I was going to Pablo Neruda’s house. II. For the better part of an hour I wandered up and down the streets running along Cerro Concepción, one of the hills that dominates the Valparaíso landscape. I eventually found the hostel and fished my bag out of the wooden storage box underneath my bed. Then, I descended the 65-degree-angled roadway
that lead back to Valparaíso proper without falling or throwing up, and shuff ling down increasingly busy streets. I wandered between an endless procession of smoking street barbecues and sopaipilla carts as stray dogs, some of them in polyester sweaters, trotted between refurbished electronics stores and the old, crag-faced men lining the sidewalk, smoking cigarettes in their wool beanies and rough leather jackets, looking as though their entire lives had been a constant shore leave that never quite ended, even after they’d finished their careers and disembarked for the last time. As I dragged myself through the city, the weight of 10 years of Spanish classes; 15 years of defending my interest in socialism to friends and family who considered it somewhere between naive and psychotic; thousands of hours of extracurriculars; four years of working two jobs alongside 18-credit course loads; 5,500 miles on an American Airlines plane; an hour on the Santiago subway; four hours trapped in a Pullman bus with “The Big Bang Theory” playing at full volume out of the overhead speakers and a lifetime of plaintive sighing over the novels and books of poetry hidden in between my textbooks and inside of my instrument cases — the combined weight of everything that I had ever considered essential to myself. All of that seemed to have crawled into the pile of books in the messenger bag slung across my shoulders and threatening to drag me down into a gutter if I should slacken under the weight for even a moment. Chief among them: Neruda’s “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.” Born in 1904, Neruda was a Chilean poet and politician. His first book of poems, “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair,” was the first book in Spanish I ever owned. I have a small, red, hardcover with pictures of pomegranate seeds arranged in even rows across the front. On the back, there’s one of those classic portraits of Neruda in his wool jacket and tweed golf cap, glancing lang uorously off to his right. His hand — a young man’s hand, less grizzled than the rest of him — is pressed up against the side of his face in an uncanny sort of way, somewhere between resting on the thing and propping himself up with it. An impossibility dressed like a simple gesture, or maybe an everyday motion done so well as to appear more than what it is. In any case, it’s incredibly Neruda. I spilled a glass of water on the book the day after I bought it and spent the majority of that evening airing out the pages with my mom’s hair dryer. It spent the next seven years on my nightstand, where it slowly grew into a species of totem that I used in a sort of ritual that, in retrospect, seems pretty much completely ass-backward. While the rest of my books accumulated copious marginalia and words translated in superscript, I’d occasionally thumb through my copy of the “Love Poems” — pristine except for a dark stain left on the back cover by the water incident — and read a few lines at random, waiting for the day when my Spanish or my literary sensibilities were developed enough to be able to read entire
poems without resorting to Google Translate while experiencing sudden, sublime f lashes of working-class spiritual insight with each turn of the page. Something about Neruda’s cap told me that that was what was supposed to happen when you read one of his poems. But as with any totem, fetish or otherwise meaningful object, the version of Neruda’s book I had f loating around in my head was, I was quite convinced, largely disconnected from anyone else’s notion of what that book should mean, how it should be read, or how it should be contextualized within Neruda’s life and larger body of work, within the particular moment in Chilean history to which it belonged and within some grandiose Weltanschauung about the nature of the human spirit. For that matter, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that not only my relationship with Neruda but the entire scenario in which I found myself wondering about that relationship was somehow fundamentally wrong. Rather than sitting in the comfort of a modernist poetry course back in Ann Arbor, nursing a Lobster Butter coffee and talking with a group of like-minded gringo collegiate-types about a bunch of poems that were little more than words on a page, I was instead taking a book I schlepped from a Barnes & Noble 5,000 miles away on an absurd pilgrimage halfway up a mountain where nothing was waiting for me but an old house full of jaded tour g uides. III. I walked through the sultry streets the rest of the way, bearing the rain as it began and intensified. But just as I thought I might need to duck into a mercadito and wait for the rain to pass, I turned a corner and saw two uniformed guards standing just inside a large, open portico. Behind them was a courtyard full of people lifting jackets and magazines over their heads, making a collective light jog of an exodus toward what looked like a chimerical lighthouse that had been called forth out of the mountainside by a coven of chanting Nerudas. I had made it to the poet’s house: La Sebastiana. In place of the coven, however, Neruda’s house is kept from sinking back into the mountain by a cushion of cold, hard cash. I bought a ticket to the show in the adjacent gift shop and made my way toward the house’s front door, which led into a foyer full of tourists holding electronic audio guides up to their ears. There to greet visitors, the museum staff seemed more preoccupied with ensuring that the audio guides matched each guest’s respective lingua franca. When I was suddenly left out in the wake of a group of Japanese tourists, a young woman in a black-and-white uniform noticed me, yet to receive an audio guide, and asked in heavilyaccented English, “Where are you from?” I answered in Spanish, “I’m from the U.S., but I speak Spanish.” Standing behind the reception desk, a man in his 30s called out in his own accented English, “What does he speak?” The young woman, again in English said, “English, but he speaks Spanish.”
The man behind the counter looked at her, then me, and then looked for a moment at the air between us, his face suddenly consumed by the sort of expression you see pass across f light attendants’ faces during boarding procedures, just after they’ve greeted one passenger and just before the next one comes close enough to warrant a verbal address; a brief relaxation of the muscles of the face that causes the bags under their eyes to suddenly appear, palpably, to be unmistakably there, as if they were actually shouting at you and not simply hanging above the f light attendant’s cheekbones like a bit of wallpaper. He then reached down into the audio-guide rack and pulled up one of the units, tossing it underhand to the young woman next to me, who placed it in my hands and told me, in Spanish, to enjoy my visit. I hit play and held the guide up to my ear. A different young woman’s voice came through the speaker, welcoming me to the La Sebastiana House/Museum Guided Audio Tour in yet another gradation of accented English. I glanced back at the woman who had greeted me at the door. She was busy making hand gestures at a middle-aged French couple. C’est la vie. IV. La Sebastiana looks like a person of extreme rotundity, or, really, like a wedding cake. In any case, each f loor fans out from a spinal column of a central stairwell that leads up to a sort of aerie where Neruda wrote poems in his trademark green ink under the watchful gaze of a massive portrait of Walt Whitman. The other levels of the house each have their own aesthetic, and the audio guide provides a careful description of each room. The audio guide’s description is a catalogue of the incoherent collection of furniture, artworks and knickknacks Neruda had amassed during his lifetime followed by a series of references to the poet’s work, politics and personality quirks that serve as something of an explanation for the otherwise chaotic assemblage of material. But of course, an audio g uide really doesn’t make sense of all of those knickknacks. I wonder, in fact, why they even bother trying. Whatever relationship the Pablo Neruda Foundation — which handles the day-to-day operations of the museum — might be able to draw between Neruda’s life and the random assortment of shit in his house simply doesn’t reveal any profound new way of reading his work or even add much to the body of biographical information amassed in the wake of his death in the throes of the Chilean coupd’état in 1973. The audio g uides almost admit as much. They explain that Neruda simply had an interest in collecting things, and that almost all of the ornaments on display in his house came from friends and admirers who thought of him while wandering through f lea markets and antique shops around the world. The only thing that explains this place is the fact that Neruda lived in it, and at the end of the day that’s about all that can be gleaned from the entire edifice. But if the guide does manage to account, in however slapdash a manner, for Neruda’s
approach to interior design, it doesn’t do anything to change the fact that the layout of the place makes for a terribly uncomfortable museum experience in the here-and-now. The aforementioned stairwell is only wide enough for single-direction traffic and the house’s sumptuous furnishings leave roughly the same amount of room open for any kind of walking tour. As a result, the 50-or-so people simultaneously wandering around the place with nothing to guide them other than a set of plastic wands quickly turn into an anxious mob that can’t do much of anything other than try to get around itself. The place is a literal tourist trap, and the cage walls are made out of the other tourists walking around the house. By the time I reached La Sebastiana’s top f loor, I had spent the better part of an hour watching a series of middle-aged gringos inch their way down the house’s staircases and seriously regretted the 10,000 pesos I had blown getting into the place. As I waited in the seven-person line crammed into the hallway leading into Neruda’s study, I was already dreading the walk back down to the ground f loor and busied myself trying to calculate the number of sopaipillas I could have bought (upward of 20) instead of coming here in the first place. After f lattening myself up against a wall to allow an old German woman with a walker to shimmy past, there was finally enough space in the room for me to step in. A four-foot-tall portrait of Walt Whitman stared out at me from one side of the room. Next to the portrait, there was a copy of a map of the Americas drawn up by a Dutchman in the 16th or 17th century, complete with caricatures of the indigenous peoples populating Chile and Argentina and a couple of sea monsters f loating around in the Pacific. I didn’t bother turning on the audio guide. I shuff led past Neruda’s writing desk and stood next to the window, looking down over the hills of Valparaiso and out to the harbor and the Pacific Ocean stretching out into the distance. The four or five people crowded next to me were all looking through the window with the same sort of exhausted expression on their faces. They had given up on the audio guides, too. As I looked over at the them, I wondered whether they had come to Neruda’s house looking for the same sort of things I had come there for. In all honesty, though, my reasons for going there were making less and less sense with each passing moment. I figured that people go on a pilgrimage — even a made-up pilgrimage like the one I was on — to remind themselves why they continue to believe the things they do; to renew their sense of right and wrong and remind themselves why they keep observing the rites and rituals prescribed by their holy books, no matter how out of touch with reality those ideas seem. If a holy site were anything, it seemed to me, it ought to be a place where those beliefs still made something like rational sense. A place without compromises and without hypocrites, where nobody cuts corners and nobody has to cut corners to keep true to their dreams and ideals.
5B
I looked back at Walt Whitman. I suppose I wanted him to be crying, or something miraculous like that. He wasn’t. And this wasn’t any kind of shrine. I had gone on pilgrimage to a goddamn gift shop. V. As I sidled back down the stairs toward the rainstorm waiting outside, I wondered to myself why I thought I’d find anything other than I did here. Before coming to Valparaiso, I had, on a few different occasions, talked about Neruda with my host family and Chilean friends. As I should have expected, none of them read Neruda with any kind of regularity. After all, nobody reads. Period. And even fewer people read poetry, even when it’s poetry by a Nobel-winner. Even in asking people what they thought about Neruda, I got the vibe that I was coming across as a bit of an ass. I mean, shit, imagine a tourist coming up to you off the street and expecting you to have an opinion about Walt Whitman. Even if you did have one, chances are you’d probably be on your way to work and want nothing more than for that guy to get out of your face so you could get back to your Facebook feed and the Drake pouring out of your earbuds for the hundred millionth time, slowly demolishing your ear drums. The few Chileans I met who did have a serious opinion about Neruda pretty much invariably hated him. They thought he was a self-aggrandizing cornball at best and, if you really wanted to get into it, they thought he was a chauvinist who served as a mouthpiece for precisely the sort of machista, heteronormative Marxism that the Latin American Left has been trying to disassemble for the last 20-some years. In other words, they saw Neruda for what he was: an old man from a bygone era, a latter-day Romantic whose utopias were an escape from an antiquated set of problems. A quaint sort of antique, maybe, like the ships in bottles and imported silk screens and Coptic tapestries lining the walls of his house. But, in any case, an antique that’s better off left hanging on the wall. When I finally made it back down to the ground f loor, the guy standing at the front desk had his forehead in his hands. He was massaging his temples and sweating around his collar. I left my audio guide on the counter and stepped out the door back into the rain. I stood outside the gift shop for a moment and watched the steady stream of tourists f lowing through the door. The guards over by the front gate were smoking cigarettes under their umbrellas. Over to my left, a few more tourists had gathered at the edge of a concrete overlook. They were speaking Portuguese and trying to figure out how their knock-off selfie stick was going to work with one of their iPhones. I took my glasses in my hand and did my best to dry off the rainwater with the hem of my coat. I looked down toward the harbor, which seemed just as far away as when I arrived. I glanced at my watch. There was a bus back to Santiago in 45 minutes. But I didn’t need to rush. The busses left every two hours.
6B
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 // The Statement
Dancing For My Mom
S
he lay on her side with her head on the armrest, her angular shoulder wedged into the square corner of the couch. She was so small, you nearly missed her with a quick glance at the living room. But if you stared long enough, you could see the rise and fall of her chest. If you listened close enough, you could hear the wheezing of her lungs. I remember a lot of things: the things you see in movies, the things you read in novels. Her hair came out in stages — sticking to the brush in small strokes at first, then falling out in handfuls to fill the bucket we kept by the sink. She never threw up — at least that I knew of — but she hacked as if to turn the walls of her intestines inside out. Her nails chipped and turned yellow, then blue, then black. She lost her appetite and I watched her ribs protrude from her skin one at a time. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and lung cancer when I was in eighth grade. I remember coming home to my parents sitting at the dining table. The air so still, I could see the specks of dust hovering in space. I didn’t fully understand it then, what it meant to live with a disease. She had surgery on her breast, before the radiation and chemo. They removed a quarter of her lung to rid the tumor, and she was left with a gashing scar that ran down her back — a slightly pinker, second spine. She fully recovered a year later, and by then I was accustomed to packing lunches for my dad, my brother and myself, as well as cooking dinner, cleaning the house and waiting for clothes to dry while learning algebra. My eighth grade was different. I got little sleep, which I now think trained me well for this rigorous college curriculum. I was forced to grow up, forced to see pain and feel the fear of death lurking in its peripheries. Maybe it was a combination of this fear and independence that led me to attend boarding school in another country and subsequently leave for college far away. I know it sounds ironic — why leave? How could I. I started dancing when I was three years old and dreamed of becoming a professional dancer in a Chicagobased contemporary dance company. When my family moved from California to Japan after fourth grade, I was shocked by the culture but also the urgency I felt to return to the United States. I wanted to pursue this dream that formed over time, crystalline images that were so clear they were reflective. My mom supported me most. Dreaming isn’t easy for everyone, she used to tell me. I was lucky to have a dream, to want something so badly I could change my lifestyle. I could travel across the globe. So I did. After boarding school in North Carolina, an ACL tear and an awakening for a career shift, I chose to attend the University of Michigan to double major in dance and neuroscience and pursue a career path in medicine. I was entirely consumed by my happiness, with the feeling of finally finding my niche and belonging to a university-sized world that I could pin my own. This is probably why the news of the recurrence of lung cancer hit me hard. Stage 4 lung cancer — not surgically removable or treatable with radiation or chemo like last time. My mom got the news of the recurrence in October. I may have been at a football game, I may have been drunk off cheap wine, I may have been locked in the
by Yoshiko Iwai, Daily Staff Reporter library thinking midterms were a series of metastatically depressing days. My parents waited to tell me. It wouldn’t have been right to tell you over the phone, when you couldn’t see my face and know that I’m OK, my mom rationalized. I didn’t understand how fighting cancer twice wasn’t enough. I didn’t understand how someone who never smoked a cigarette and cooked every single meal from scratch could receive this sort of punishment from life. I didn’t understand why it always had to be her, why it couldn’t be the chainsmoker across the street or the serial killer who got away — someone who deserved it, someone not her. How could a mom so selfless, who let her daughter leave home get this in return? How could someone make it their life mission to give and teach compassion and receive an ultimatum: You fight this war in the front lines or you die. I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand. I would have taken her place if I could. But honestly, I don’t think I could. Say genome editing allowed my mom and I to swap our DNA helices — I could not take her place. I wish I could, I wanted to say I could, but I was too scared. Despite my astronomical feelings of guilt and resentment for the spontaneous recurrence of malignant cells, I wasn’t brave enough. I could not even begin to comprehend the fear she felt going to bed and waking up to, day after day. And you know what the hardest part was? That she was still her — she was still happier than me, she was still more positive and giving than I could ever be. Watching her, with just three quarters of regular lung capacity, taking oral drugs to suppress tumor growth that were nothing short of poisonous, hurt. If she could wake up in the morning and smile, still give something positive to the world, there was nothing I couldn’t do. On New Year’s Day, I remember sitting at home with my mom. Because Japan is 13 hours ahead of Michigan, my Snapchat and Instagram were exploding with sparkly cocktail dresses and shiny cocktail glasses. Champagne ILLUSTRATION BY ELISE HAADSMA
corks hitting ceilings, people throwing kisses like confetti. I remember sitting at the dining table, my mom sitting in front of me. The medication managed to stop the tumor’s growth but came with strong side effects. Her nails were destroyed, her fingers cut and the skin on her back covered in hives. I helped her apply the antibiotic ointment on her back every night to places she couldn’t reach. I covered the red bumps with the white cream like snow covering mountain tops. For the first time, it occurred to me that my happiness fueled my mom. That I, pursuing my passions, inching toward my dream and happiness, was her greatest dream. That maybe, just maybe, the best thing I could do was focus on myself and my aspirations, because the sight of me refusing to quit somehow was a reflection on her relentlessness and willpower — I am living proof that she will not lose this war she is fighting. Nov. 7 marks my mom’s two-year anniversary of the start of this medication. The tumor has not grown and that is what I am grateful for every morning. Every couple of weeks, she goes to the Kobe City Medical Center to get checked. Her lungs, her breasts and her blood. Every couple of weeks, my stomach drops and my intestines feel as though they are getting wrung out dry. But every couple of weeks, I am reminded of how lucky I am. It is so easy to get caught in the drama of college, the friendships that fail, the relationships that disintegrate and the grades that teeter on a pinpoint. I took a cancer seminar last year and read cases of medications failing after long-term use. I fear that this balance of tumor suppression and growth could be shattered any day. But I think this fear is what drives me forward. It is what tells me to appreciate today for what it is, to remind the people I love that I love them for who they have made me become and inspire me to be, and to never take anything for granted. I hope that someday I will have the kindness and strength my mom carries with her every day — that one day, I can embrace the future the way she embraces tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 // The Statement
7B
Learning to Love Myself in Safe Spaces by Ana Lucena, Daily Arts Writer
A
t the beginning of the summer, I went to my middle school for a Girl Scouts reunion. The school remained exactly as I remembered it (including the stench of hormone-fueled hysteria clinging to the walls), except there were new stickers on the door of many classrooms. Those rooms were designated as “safe spaces” for LGBTQ individuals — meaning that, as a school, these classrooms have a zero-tolerance policy for homophobic and transphobic aggression toward students who identify as LGBTQ. As a queer girl who was called a dyke too often in that very building, I held back a scornful laugh. In middle school, I learned everything was fair game for merciless gossip, from who you ate lunch with to the length of your pants. There was never a right answer. And worse, I could not exempt myself from critique like I had in the past by keeping things to myself. Criticism came to me without so much as an invitation. You would be pretty if you, like, straightened your hair and wore makeup! And then I started getting called a dyke by lanky, acneridden 13-year-olds wearing malicious smirks. Unbeknown to them, I had already begun to question what ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA
was “wrong” with me. To be sure, gossiping about cute boys in my class was a favorite pastime of mine since first grade, but there was more happening beneath the surface. I remember finally bringing my mom’s attention to the gorgeous models in shampoo commercials I fawned over in third grade, and by fifth grade the hot, heavy sensation that would stir within me when I saw bombshell musicians like Christina Aguilera perform in provocative costumes. I thought everyone did. My devoutly Catholic and Latina mom always shut off the TV or shielded my eyes during the movies when a straight couple would kiss on screen. She would also remind me of how I was going to grow up to marry a good man and have beautiful children like God intended. At 13, I felt like I was going to have to choose between this confusing future and turning into an angry, buzz-cut-sporting lesbian like the ones I saw on TV. I didn’t know what to make of myself, and these stereotypes didn’t help. I was very hurt by God for giving me a surely damned, defective brain that couldn’t pray away my lust for women on the one hand, while having
crushes on boys in class just like “other girls” on the other. I was mortified that people thought I was a lesbian in spite of sharing which boys I had crushes on. My attempt to keep my feelings for girls to myself failed without having said a word. In middle school, I developed adjustment disorder, or situational depression, which is a short-term disorder that arises when you can’t handle major changes in your life. I felt numb to my core and stayed in bed for entire weekends due to emotional exhaustion, and I never considered letting my parents know about what was happening at school because I felt they would be angry at me deep down, too. On the last day of seventh grade my favorite teacher pulled me aside into her empty classroom. She hugged me and, out of the blue, said I was strong and courageous. She didn’t say why, but I knew. She was acknowledging the bullying I endured. I thanked her out of respect, but I felt a cold apathy. Her words felt as cheap as the paper these new “safe space” stickers were printed on. She had revealed that she knew I was being bullied but did nothing to stop it. She was expressing her sympathy after being a bystander over something that tore me up inside. If these new “safe space” stickers had been posted throughout my school six years ago, would she have done something then? Times have certainly changed. Once I got to the University of Michigan, I immediately sought help. I am very thankful for the University’s Spectrum Center — a designated safe space on campus — where I was guided with nothing less than compassion and self-affirmation. Professionals there moved me to tears with supportive smiles and explained to me the facts of bisexuality. In the Spectrum Center’s first-year student initiative program, I met other queer freshmen who showed me I was not alone on this journey to selfdiscovery. I saw I could thrive on campus in the LGBTQ community. Through the center’s mentorship program, I was mentored by another bisexual girl who was in the School of Social Work. She let me confide in her, like a cousin who had already been in my shoes. As a fellow Catholic, she convinced me I would meet someone who would make me happy regardless of the inner conflict I currently feel, helping me stop my self-loathing and live my truth. I learned who I was in safe spaces. Heated columns criticize “safe spaces” at universities, claiming they baby college students by isolating minorities and infringing on free speech. Critics argue that these havens shelter marginalized communities from the hardships of the real world. To be sure, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. But for many in the LGBTQ community, college provides the first time one can openly explore and embrace their true identities. It gave me the courage prove to myself that all of me is real and worthy of love, no matter how much those close to me would rather I pretend this part doesn’t exist. And there is nothing coddling about that.
8B
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 // The Statement
V I S UA L S TAT E M E N T:
MUD BOWL
PHOTOS BY RYAN MCLOUGH LI N
Last weekend, I photographed Mud Bowl — a fundraiser for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. The atmosphere was unlike any other sport I’ve shot before; spectators ranged from tailgaters, to alumni to Greek life members, all cheering on their favorite team. Being on the sidelines was nothing short of chaotic, and I got mud splashed all over me as I tried to capture the action, atmosphere and fights breaking out. It reminded me that the spectators and atmosphere are just as important as the athletes and telling the story of the game. That’s why Mudbowl easily claims the spot as my favorite event I’ve shot on campus.
A player gets ready to pass the ball to the quarterback.
A fan drinks a beverage on the sidelines of the game.
Teammates cheer each other on in between plays.
A player fixes his mouthguard in between plays.
A player looks on in between plays.
A player smiles to fans during the game.