9/6/16 Emerald Media - Tuesday Edition

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⚙ TUESDAY

The science of

IMAGINARY FRIENDS ABOUT 75 PERCENT OF WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT IMAGINARY FRIENDS COMES FROM EUGENE. UO’s Imagination Research Lab studies the oftmisunderstood topic of these childhood companions.

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D A R C I H E R O Y : U O ’ S O F F I C I A L T I T L E I X C O O R D I N AT O R

đ&#x;”Š MUSIC

Ezra

FURMAN’S San Francisco-based Ezra Furman plays during Pickathon’s 18th annual music festival. (Emerson Malone)

‘Big Fugitive Life’ a bipolar, captivating listen ➥ EMERSON

MALONE, @ALLMALONE

Earlier this summer, Ezra Furman played a show with his backing band The Boy-Friends at Pickathon Music Festival, adorned in a red floral dress, a pearl necklace and Kool Aid-blue dyed hair.

His self-deprecating stage presence was loud and palpable. While most musicians would relish the cheers between songs, Furman disavowed them outright.

He would shout back at the crowd, deadpan: “Don’t just do that! You have to make me earn it!� He introduced “Teddy I’m Ready,� the opening track on Big Fugitive Life, which came out earlier this summer, by saying that this song is about “what we call, at this juncture of our lives, ‘rock and roll.’ �

In a column for The Guardian, Furman wrote, “Far from being a showbiz gimmick, for me, dressing as I please has signaled the end of a lifelong performance of straightforward masculinity. I have always been uncomfortable with masculinity.� In the same piece, Furman, who is genderfluid, recalls being inspired by the way Lou Reed effortlessly transcended masculinefeminine tropes, a shared theme within Furman’s music.

Big Fugitive Life is only six tracks and 18 minutes long but showcases ample variety and musical prowess. In his own words, Furman describes the EP as a polarizing two-parter. The first half is “our vision of rock and roll — a madness that overtakes your mind and body.� He describes the latter, more glacially-paced half as “acoustic guitar as open wound, a troubled mind on display.� This side finds Furman singing about his Jewish grandfather fleeing the Nazis in the aching track “The Refugee� and an enigmatic, stripped-down lament (the Robert Johnson-esque “Penetrate�).

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Honestly, the EP’s first half is more fun. “Teddy� is a barnburner. Furman counters his own cries that he’s “ready to rock and roll,� with non-sequitur lines like, “The truth is just a mole rat crawling underneath the earth / It is naked and it’s gnawing away at the world / And it hurts so bad that I could cry / But they don’t allow no crying in the cold straight world of men / So I build my little fortress / ‘Til I can get even.�

The second track “Halley’s Comet� carries some of the same anguish when Furman writes about the celestial phenomenon (“I find it hard to live this life of nouns and adjectives / While all around us planets shift and comets fly right by�). In the chorus, his tone swings from instructive (“Halley’s Comet only comes by once�) to fuming (“But do you care like I care?!�) in a split-second, like a middle schooler who’s nudging you to test how sincere you are.

On his Facebook page, Furman writes that the band members include Furman and “whosoever is star-crossed enough to join forces with him.� One of those lucky fellas is Tim Sandusky, who plays saxophone on Furman’s records and is the pulsing heart of the music. Sandusky’s sax steps in when a more conventional band would use an electric guitar, such as during the solo on “Teddy� or on “Little Piece of Trash,� when the sax bounces off the rhythm with a youthful, power-pop energy. The sax compresses the heartlandrock of Springsteen into bite-sized tracks but still feels intimate and personal.

This is Furman’s second EP this year, following the Record Store Day release Songs

By Others, in which he covers tracks the likes of The Replacements, Beck and Little Richard

Ezra Furman’s ‘Big Fugitive Life’ EP came out on July 19, 2016 (Courtesy of Bella Union Records)

đ&#x;“… CALENDAR THIS WEEK IN T U E S D AY S E P

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One Amazon reviewer once gave CAH a onestar review and wrote that “the vulgarity of the game made my wife question my morales [sic] and reverence to an almighty God.� Old Nick’s Pub is hosting a competitive round of the game that brings the children’s card game Apples to Apples to depraved, grotesque territory. Following the tournament, New Orleans band Casual Burn and Idaho Falls desert-rock outfit Clay Temples will play at the pub.

WE D N E S DAY

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Mad Decent Block Party at Cuthbert Amphitheater (2300 Leo Harris Pkwy.) – Tickets are $61 — 18+. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Show starts at 4 p.m.

Cards Against Humanity Tournament at Old Nick’s Pub (211 Washington St.) – 6-9 p.m.

➥ EMERSON

MALONE, @ALLMALONE

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Stand By Me presented

by Richard E. Wildish Community Theater in Springfield (630 Main St.) – 6:30 p.m. Free.

It’s a story to which many of us can relate: hanging out with childhood friends somewhere in a small Oregon town, looking for a dead body.

The 1986 movie, filmed around Eugene, Cottage Grove and Veneta, is based on the Stephen King short story “The Body.�

The Emerald is published

by Emerald Media Group, Inc., the independent nonprofit media company at the University of Oregon.

Formerly the Oregon Daily Emerald, the news organization was founded in 1900.

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TiĂŤsto, Party Favor, Dillon Francis, Evergreen, Herobust, Jai Wolf, Keys N Krates and Neo Fresco are all part of this rambunctious party happening at the Cuthbert this Friday. Mad Decent Block Party is a lineup of electronic dance DJs and artists that tour the country every summer.

The 2016 lineup is visiting 13 cities with 16 shows this summer.

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A pint of Red Wagon Creamery ice cream (Courtesy of Red Wagon Creamery )

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Oregon Ducks versus S A T U R D A Y Virginia Cavaliers at Autzen S Stadium (2700 MLK Jr. Blvd.) – Game starts at 7:30 p.m. E P

Why Is There So Much Terrible Beer? And Other Important Questions of Economic Regulation at the UO School of Law (1515 Agate St.) – at 1 p.m. in Room 141.

Attorney Paul Avelar, who works with the nonprofit firm Institute for Justice, will be speaking on the effects of economic regulation on consumers and the economy. The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies hosts this event.

F R I D AY

Red Wagon opens in EMU this Tuesday, Sept. 6 Red Wagon Creamery will open a new location on campus this Tuesday, Sept. 6, on the bottom floor of the EMU. Red Wagon started as a pushcart that sold ice cream in Kesey Square back in 2011, but now operates out of a scoop shop in downtown Eugene and runs Oregon’s smallest dairy processing plant.

The creamery focuses on creating ice cream using seasonal ingredients sourced from the Willamette Valley, as opposed to processed ingredients.

The EMU invited the local company to open an ice cream store on campus after it was favored highly by students in a poll.

Red Wagon’s location in the EMU will carry the two flavors that were most requested by University of Oregon students: Saturday Morning, a cereal-and-milk-flavored ice cream, and Tracktown Berry, a honey-flavored frozen yogurt with housemade granola.

The new location will also be participating in the upcoming Flock Party on September 23, during which it will trade free buttons and stickers in exchange for an Instagram follow. –Mathew Brock

NEWS REPORTERS TRAN NGUYEN MAX THORNBERRY WILL CAMPBELL A&C EDITOR EMERSON MALONE A&C WRITERS DA N I E L B RO MF I E L D CHRIS BERG M AT H E W B R O C K SPORTS EDITOR JARRID DENNEY SPORTS WRITERS JACK BUTLER HANNAH BONNIE ZAK LASTER

The University of Virginia Cavaliers had a rough 2015 season, and it wasn’t just because of their 4-8 record. The team’s coach Mike London resigned, followed by the hiring of Brigham Young University coach Bronco Mendenhall. The Cavs play the Oregon Ducks (9-4) this Saturday at Autzen.

Joseph at HiFi Music Hall (44 East 7th Ave.) – 21+.

Doors open at 8 p.m. Show starts at 9 p.m. Advance tickets are $12; $15 at the door

E M A I L : KC A R B O N E @ DA I LYE M E R A L D. C O M

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VP OF SALES AND MARKETING LINDSEY SMITH X303 E M A I L : A D S @ DA I LYE M E R A L D. C O M

D I G I TA L / D E V E L O P M E N T JACOB URBAN SOCIAL MEDIA PA I G E H A R K L E S S

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The name “Josephâ€? might conjure images of a blasĂŠ solo male act, but the truth couldn’t be more different. On Aug. 26, the trio of Portland sisters released its sophomore album I’m Alone No You’re Not, full of intense, punchy acoustic pop and uncanny vocal harmonies produced by Mike Mogis (who’s worked with Bright Eyes, Julian Casablancas and Rilo Kiley).

ALEXA CHEDID

PHOTO EDITOR K AY L E E D O M Z A L S K I

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ON THE COVER An illustration of a girl and her imaginary friend. UO’s Imagination Research Lab pioneers research in imaginary friends.

Illustration by Mary Vertulfo

PUBLISHER & PRESIDENT C H A R L I E W E AV E R X 3 1 7 E M A I L : C H A R L I E @ DA I LY E M E R A L D. C O M V P O P E R AT I O N S K AT H Y C A R B O N E X 3 0 2

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The Imagination Lab is defining friendship ➥ EMERSON

MALONE, @ALLMALONE

(Mary Vertulfo)

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henever an imaginary friend appears in pop culture, Dr. Marjorie Taylor is called up to provide expert testimony.

Last summer, after the release of Pixar’s Inside Out, Slate magazine interviewed Taylor, a University of Oregon professor emerita of psychology and director of the UO-based Imagination Research Lab, to evaluate Bing Bong, the pink elephant that dwelled in the recesses of a character’s long-term memory. “I think Inside Out did a good job,�

Taylor told the Emerald. “The imaginary friend was not remembered well because the child was older.�

In the 1991 fantasy-drama Drop Dead Fred, a woman is tormented by her imaginary friend from childhood.

Taylor recalls a scene in which a therapist suggests “neutralizing the part of the brain that creates the imaginary friend.â€? “What a horrible movie,â€? Taylor sighed. “Having an imaginary friend is healthy and normal [‌] Give me Bing Bong any day.â€?

In 1999, Taylor published her best-known book, Imaginary Companions and the Children who Create Them. The book’s cover shows a young girl spoon-feeding applesauce to the empty chair next to her.

The Imagination Research Lab, based in Straub Hall, is a catalyst for much of what is known about imaginary friends. “Around 75 to 80 percent of what’s known about imaginary companions comes from Eugene,� said Taylor. Studies conducted by the lab regularly involved interviews with families from the area about imaginary companions.

Dr. Tracy Gleason, a professor of psychology at Wellesley College, said Taylor was the first person to study imaginary companions with a systematic, empirical approach. “We’ve successfully discarded the notion that [imaginary companions] are an indication of psychopathology,� said Gleason. “That’s definitely out the window [...] [Taylor] was the one who said these kids are not lonely, isolated and shy and all these negative stereotypes.�

In one study, the lab’s researchers interviewed children in the foster care system to see what effect these imaginary friends had on those who experienced a rough upbringing.

Dr. Naomi Aguiar, a UO graduate and former researcher in the lab, recalls speaking with one girl who lived in 11

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foster homes before being adopted into her lifelong family. The girl told Aguiar that her companion was an invisible milk carton. “What do you like about this milk carton?� Aguiar asked the girl.

She responded: “I really like that he’s not human because he can teach me about what it’s like to not be human, and I can teach him about what it’s like to be human.� “A long time before Marjorie’s work, people really thought imaginary companions were a sign of mental illness,� said Lou Moses, UO professor of psychology. “It’s just a product of their creative imagination. It’s really groundbreaking research.�

During interviews with parents in studies with the lab, Taylor and the researchers have heard genuine concern from parents about their children’s imaginary companions. “I’ve had a parent say, ‘I pray every day for the Devil to leave my child,’ � said Taylor. “[Taylor] was the one who pointed out that [imaginary

friends] come in all shapes and sizes,� said Gleason. “They’re not all human. They’re not all invisible. Some are based on objects.�

Taylor, who recently retired from UO professorship, is working on updating her book with a second edition, which will include discoveries from the lab’s numerous studies over the past 17 years.

The updated edition will include an augmented understanding of imaginary friends as well as chapters on comparable subjects, including her more recent research on paracosms, the phenomenon of children building intricately detailed, imaginary worlds and the relationship that forms between fiction authors and their characters.

Taylor came to the UO in 1985 and published her first paper on imaginary friends in 1993. At the time, psychology textbooks would only reference creativity and childhood pretend-play in passing, despite the majority of preschoolers having imaginary companions — 65 percent of children by age seven according to a 2004 study by University of Washington and UO psychologists. “What do children spend the whole first four years of their lives doing in the United States? Playing and pretending,� said Aguiar. “When Marjorie [started] researching it, nobody took it seriously. It was considered fringe.�

During the lab’s studies on imaginary companions, researchers interview parents and children separately to cross-check information from the child. Oftentimes, young children are prone to misunderstanding the questions. “If you ask, ‘Do you have a pretend friend?’ and they say, ‘No,’ then the parent says, ‘Ask her about her ghost sister,’ and you go in and ask, ‘Do you have a ghost sister?’ and she’ll say, ‘Yes! Her name is Olivia!’� Taylor said.

To bring a clinical, scientific approach to something as fickle and impulsive as childhood whimsy, the interviewer can’t laugh or even smile at what they’re hearing, no matter how odd, because any sign of amusement might encourage the child to stretch the truth.

Sometimes imaginary friends are an extension of the child’s insecurities and can serve as an alibi for projecting his or her fear onto someone else.

“Even if the tiger is completely imaginary, the feeling of confidence is not.”

Dr. Marjorie Taylor

Dr. Marjorie Taylor, (Kaylee Domzalski)

This is useful in understanding Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip about a mischievous youth and his stuffed tiger playmate. Calvin won’t admit to being fond of his classmate Susie and affirms that girls are obscene, whereas Hobbes has the swagger and bravado to own what Calvin can’t.

“I like the idea that you walk down the road with a tiger at your side and you feel more powerful,” said Taylor. “Even if the tiger is completely imaginary, the feeling of confidence is not.”

Around 2001, the lab did a study with 152 Portland youth, all around age 12. They selected students who were doing poorly: getting in fights, doing drugs or failing classes.

Roughly 9 percent of this group had imaginary companions.

The researchers returned to the same group when they were older. Those who had an imaginary friend at age 12 were much more likely to be part of a group that was doing well at age 18.

“Being rejected by your friends may not be a bad thing if you can create a sense of social support through your imagination,” said Aguiar.

However, the connection between the child and the imaginary companion isn’t always amicable. Imaginary friends can take on an adversarial nature.

“They’re annoying. They show up when you don’t want them. They won’t go away. They put yogurt in your hair.

They’re always saying bad words and have to be put in timeouts,” said Taylor. But they’re not just relentless bullies, she added. They have nuanced personalities just like anyone else.

During another interview with the lab’s foster care study, Aguiar asked a young boy if he had an imaginary companion. The boy paused and asked, “Does it count if it’s on a video game?”

“I don’t know,” Aguiar said. “You tell me.”

Aguiar now focuses on the relationship that develops between children and the virtual characters in apps and video games. To date, there’s very little research on children’s experiences with virtual reality because they have only begun engaging with virtual characters on a screen in the past few years.

“We don’t really know how digital companions are different from the imaginary companions that children create for themselves,” Aguiar said.

Aguiar suggests that the 2013 movie Her, in which a lonely writer named Theodore forms a romantic partnership with an operating system named Samantha, made a plausible case in depicting our future relationships. The dynamic between Theodore and Samantha is comparable to that between a virtual character and a user, or a child and an imaginary companion.

“It’s very future thinking: what is a relationship?” Aguiar asked. “How do we know when a relationship is real?”

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Darci Heroy as Interim Title IX coordinator prior to her acceptance of the official position. (Adam Eberhardt)

DARCI HEROY ➥ E M I LY

O L S O N , @ E M I LY Y Y _ O L S O N N N

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n Feb. 27, 2015, University of Oregon protesters marched into Johnson Hall with signs and shouts, demanding the university to change its treatment of sexual assault victims. On that day, the administrators responded by locking doors and refusing to answer phones.

Since then, UO administration has responded to student unrest with a slow but steady trickle of changes in sexual assault prevention and response.

Their latest step indicates that those changes won’t cease anytime soon. On Aug. 23, the university announced that Darci Heroy will become the permanent Associate Vice President and Title IX Coordinator.

Heroy was originally encouraged to apply for her position during the university’s national search for a permanent coordinator, but she declined. She enjoyed running her own consulting business and being able to spend time at home with her toddler, she wrote in an email to the Emerald. Roughly a year and a half later, she changed her mind. “I became very invested in the work that I had accomplished at UO,� she said. “I ultimately chose to put my own business on hold and continue to focus on the positive changes that I and the Title IX team are making here at the university.�

The position oversees university-wide compliance to Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education. The university created the coordinator position after the protest in Feb. 2015.

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Heroy worked as a consultant on Title IX issues for 10 months while the university conducted the national search. The search yielded four candidates, but none were offered the position, and Heroy has acted as the interim coordinator for the last seven months.

In her interim role, Heroy brought changes to UO’s sexual assault prevention and response by implementing workgroups to evolve Title IX programs and

“As someone who’s organized events on campus in regard to sexual assault, it’s very rare that an administrator will show up.�

-Darci Heroy drafting a new mandatory reporting policy. “We’re thrilled to have her on board permanently,� said UO spokesperson Tobin Klinger. “She’s stepped in and helped to move things forward.�

Heroy said that a key challenge of her position is coordinating individuals and their efforts across such a large institution.

Because Heroy has to work with both students and

administration, Women and Gender Studies student Sophie Albanis was concerned Heroy might be less loyal to students upon taking the interim position. “It was something I was really cautious about because she had worked for the university previously,� said Albanis, who is also a leader of the student-run Organization Against Sexual Assault. “I don’t think anything has transpired that’s validated that fear. She’s done a fine job so far. It was time for some new leadership in that office.�

Among her goals for the position, Heroy lists taking “a hard look at where we need to improve, how we can be more compassionate and inclusive and how we can continue to remove barriers to reporting.� She also aims to invite “diverse experiences and views into our policymaking and implementation processes.�

Albanis believes that allowing an open discussion of Title IX issues—between students, faculty and administration—will be key to solving them. “More efforts to engage students in [policymaking] would be really valuable,� Albanis said. “As someone who has organized events on campus in regard to sexual assault, it’s very rare that an administrator will show up.�

Heroy hears that concern loud and clear. She said she invites anyone to contact her with questions, concerns and ideas. “Don’t be surprised to see me showing up at classes or functions,� she added.

đ&#x;”Ś NEWS

MOST

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During Fall 2015

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popular idea that has come under investigation is that Math 111 is the most failed class at the University of Oregon.

The Emerald recently attained a copy of the Fall 2015 grade distributions from the UO registrar office, detailing the percentages of grade options for UO classes that term.

Of the 1,215 students who took Math 111 in fall 2015, 133 received either an F or an N (no pass) – more students failed Math 111 compared to any other class.

These students are in the category of DFWs, according to UO Math Professor Chris Sinclair. DFWs are students who receive a grade of D, F or withdraw from the class. Math 111 had 307 students that fell into that category. Chemistry 221 held second place, with 266 DFWs. Sinclair is an associate professor in the mathematics department. He has heard that Math 111 is “the most failed class,� but doesn’t currently teach it. “It doesn’t bother me,� Sinclair said about the course’s reputation. “Let’s suppose we make Math 111 easier, then what happens in Math 251? We have to dumb down Math 251 because we have a lot more people who know less than they should coming in.�

Graduate Teaching Fellows most commonly teach Math 111 at UO, according to Sinclair, usually while they are taking a teacher’s education class. Sinclair doesn’t attribute this to the failure rate, but rather he thinks it benefits the student-teacher relationship because GTFs are able to relate to the students more, he said. “As you get further and further into the depths of mathematics, you forget how hard it was the first time,� he said.

Houston Greenberg, a sports business student at UO, took Math 111 his freshman year. He learned about the class’

reputation after reading it on his syllabus, he said.

While taking Math 111, Greenberg learned that a lot of students who failed the course would then revert to take Math 95 and repeat Math 111 two terms later. “I knew a lot of people in [Math 111] that were getting D’s and F’s, which was surprising.� Greenberg said. He finished the course on his first attempt with an A-, he said. “What was really nice about 111 was it was in a small classroom with like 20, 30 kids, so if I needed help, I could go right to [the teacher], as opposed to my calc class which was 400 people,� Greenberg said.

Another class — Math 315 — emerges from the data with the highest failure rate with about 33 percent failing, 8.33 percent withdrawing and about 16 percent with a no-pass — totaling about 57 percent. However, a mere 12 students took the course, compared to 1215 students in Math 111. Math 315 introduces the “methods of proof� necessary for calculus and related fields, Sinclair wrote in an email.

Sinclair thinks the reason so many dislike math is due to the “social attitude towards mathematics,� he said. “If you’re in the situation, and you are terrified that you’re going to fail Math 111, then really the solution is to talk with the person teaching it, let them know of your fears, but also have some sort of expectation that you can do this.� “We can’t have half of our population going around saying, ‘I can’t do math.’ That’s why people fail Math 111, not because it’s too hard,� he said. “There’s always going to be some class that has the most failures, unless we don’t fail anybody.�

➥ WILL

CAMPBELL, @WTCAMPBELL

1,215 Students took Math 111

25.19% earned an A or higher

1 in 4 students received a DFW Most Failed classes at UO

307

Math 111: #1

266

Chem 221: #2 (Emily Garcia)

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