SHIFT MAGAZINE Issue 5//Vol. 1

VOLUME 1 // ISSUE 5

SHIFT MAGAZINE NEW CLASSIC / AEGIS

MAY 2015

SHIFT

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MAGAZINE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Shannon King CREATIVE DIRECTOR Aaron Pelo

FEATURES EDITOR Miriam Ackervall

FASHION EDITORS Sola Muno Zach Witford

DESIGN EDITORS Lexie Johnson Morgan Lovay

PHOTO EDITORS Melissa Freeland Rachel Beglin Courtney Evans

DIGITAL CONTENT DIRECTOR Alex Holmes DIGITAL FEATURES Lauren Guldan

DIGITAL FASHION Mackenzie Kimball

DIGITAL DESIGN Haley Fox

DIGITAL PHOTO Brady Mathieson

VIDEO EDITOR Christina Oh

PUBLISHER Samantha Zwick MARKETING DIRECTOR Olivia Cottrell

ACCOUNTS DIRECTOR Kirsten Ho

ADVERTISING Kassie Wallace

DISTRIBUTION Amber Lam Jessi Chudler

FINANCE Colleen Natzke

OUTREACH Maddy Moog

EVENTS Karen Bates

SOCIAL MEDIA Sylvia Sankaran

Our mission is to inform, inspire and engage deeply with the University of Michigan campus community at the intersection of student and professional life within the fashion industry. SHIFT is intended to provide a marketable media platform for students to push the boundaries of what has traditionally been possible within print without compromising the level of quality associated with the SHEI brand. o1

L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I TO R

ON TO THE NEXT ONE

Modernity is not limited to a single interpretation. How could it be, when the concept is grounded in something ever-changing: the present, hurtling toward a future?

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hether minutes or decades from now, that future will become the present, often one very different than predicted. Which part of that sequence gives way to modernity? Anticipation of the future, the surprising distance between past prediction and the present, the multiplicity of interpretation?

The world of fashion and consumer culture that surrounds SHEI is invested in modernity. Designers and advertisers revolve around an axis of ‘what’s next’.

At SHEI, what’s next is what’s now. We work to predict what will interest readers and watchers an hour, a week, six months from now. We play with time when we dress up in flapper style dresses made in 2015 and use abandoned buildings as current backdrops. Above all we don’t limit ourselves to a single

interpretation. We are about art and commerce. We connect people, gather data and collect beautiful objects. We are writers and producers, witnesses and recorders of what’s now.

This issue, released on the cusp of summer, is a bit shorter than the last; it is, however, some of our finest work.

Our freshly elected executive board is hard at work, ushering in a new year of content and creativity for you to enjoy. We welcome you to the now, the new, the modern era of SHEI. As always, we welcome you to...

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CONTRIBUTORS

SHIFT MAGAZINE

SHEI MAGAZINE’S DIGITAL MINI STYLING

mackenzie kimball

elden maynard

hannah wasserman

LITERATURE lauren guldan

lily shipp

elden maynard

PHOTOGRAPHERS rachel beglin

melissa freeland

alex holmes

DESIGN tara lewis

MODELS katie kennedy

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shannon king

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

IN THIS ISSUE ABOUT THE COVER:

Fashion // Modernity is the name of the game in this issue--not modern design, or mod fashion, or modernist art, but what it means to be here, be now. Our cover shoot, Aegis, attempts to peel away the layers we’ve built upon ouselves, the shell of protection that makes us who we are.

There are as many ways to be fragile as their are to be strong, and living in the modern world, the metaphysical is as prominent as the flesh-and-blood.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

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CONTRIBUTORS

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MUSIC & CULTURE Get yout groove on with the Empty Mug-signed band, the Euphorics.

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RADAR: ANNA SHRESTINIAN Meet the creator of the U-M student abroad’s next best friend.

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LIFE AFTER GROCERIES One student’s brave trial in amassing as much free food as possible.

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NEW CLASSIC

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AEGIS .

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M U S I C & C U LT U R E

SHIFT sits down with the Euphorics , a local groove-pop band that’s making waves.

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iving in Ann Arbor, it’s hard to overlook the music scene and the many talented artists this town is home to. While The Euphorics only officially formed less than a year ago, its members—Oren Levin (Lead Vocals/ Keyboard), Dan Sagher (Guitar), Erez Levin (Drums/Backing Vocals), and Sam Collins (Bass/Backing Vocals)—all grew up right here in Ann Arbor, and music has always been an important part of their lives. Following a long recording session in the Duderstadt Studio last month, SHEI sat down with the band to learn more about their signature “groove-pop” style and how The Euphorics came together.

All four of The Euphorics have had a passion for music since they were kids. Erez, who is in the School of Music at the University of Michigan, remembers him and his younger brother Oren’s parents saying, “You guys came out as musicians, so we figured we should probably get you music lessons.” Meanwhile, Sam mowed lawns to save up enough money to buy a used bass, and Dan started taking music lessons after a kid in his fourth grade class played “Smoke on the Water” on the guitar for show-and-tell. The four of them eventually all met through the Ann Arbor Music Center, where Sam and Erez both took lessons from Theo Katzman, a local musician who now plays in the band Vulfpeck. In high school, Dan and Erez played in various bands and musical projects that eventually broke up when members left for college, but they continued to just play music together in

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Erez’s basement for fun, covering bands such as Weezer and Green Day. When Dan came back from his freshman year at Worcester State University, having decided college wasn’t the right fit for him, the idea to form The Euphorics started to come into the picture. After that, the band came together quickly. “One day, I’m driving Oren back home and I pull up to the driveway and Dan and Erez are already there on the porch,” Sam said. “And I go up to them and they’re like ‘yeah so this is the band that you’re in.’ And I had my upright bass in the car from a jazz gig so I got that out and we jammed on the porch.” It continued like this throughout the summer, just a group of friends playing together and writing music. Erez describes how he had been reluctant to have his little brother involved in his bands in the past, but when The Euphorics was formed, something had changed. “After going to college for a year, this weird thing happened where we just clicked,” Erez said. “I remember being like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s have Oren in the band!’ We used to call him our secret weapon.”

Now, Oren sings lead vocals in the band in addition to playing keyboard; there’s no question that he belongs in The Euphorics.

Once the school year started up, the band started playing coop shows as often as they could, and also got the opportunity to play a show at The Blind Pig. “We kind of moved into this really cool music scene with all these bands that play the co-ops just for the kids that want to come out to the parties but also see some live music,” Erez said. “And if you ask anyone who goes

Click + Listen Click here for a free download of their song, “On My Mind”

Check out more music at: http://www.theeuphorics.com Empty Mug Records is an independent, student-run record label that aims to create a support network for local musicians and provide the means to distribute and promote creative works on the University of Michigan’s campus. Together with SHEI Magazine, EMR is looking to showcase exceptional local musicians and expose students the wide range of music talent available in their own backyard.

to those parties, they’re just awesome.” The success of these shows was enhanced by the lighting and sound production of a friend of the band members, Ben Factor, who Erez met at UM orientation. “He knows our songs and he does his lights with the music; it just makes for this whole cohesive experience,” Erez explained. “And we’re really proud of it, because especially for a house show in a living room, we feel like we’re doing something pretty special.” After gaining local recognition and starting to build up a fan base, the band decided to start recording. Their latest single, “Hungover Pixie Dream Girl,” was released a few weeks ago, and they hope to put out the rest of their album in the coming months.

On their musical influences, they call out bands and artists spanning a number of genres, such as The Beatles, The 1975, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, John Mayer, and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. The band’s own sound is just as diverse as their influences would suggest, and is self-described as “groove-pop funk-rock.” Their main goal is to write catchy music. “It has to groove,” Erez said. In terms of songwriting, their process either consists of one member bringing a hook to the

group or sometimes, as Sam said, “We start out jamming not knowing where we’re going with it at all and it’ll just turn into something.” When it comes to naming the songs, however, it’s a little more difficult. “We’re very reluctant to name our songs,” Erez said. “‘Pop Song,’ ‘New Song’...We have a song called ‘New New New Song’ right now and we actually know what they all are,” Dan added with a laugh. Each member adds their own personal style to the signature Euphorics sound, and because the writing process is so collaborative, they all take equal credit for writing the songs. “What’s really cool is that each of the members contributes their own sound that makes it what it is,” Oren said. “We all come from different musical backgrounds and I think that’s what makes our sound so unique.”

The Euphorics have already built up an impressive list of shows, culminating in their first sold-out concert at the Blind Pig last month opening for the band Vulfpeck. While they’ve gained plenty of experience in the past year, The Euphorics really are just getting started, and their fans can’t wait to see what they’ll do next. BY LILY SHIPP

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RADAR ANNA SHRESTINIAN

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nna Shrestinian cannot be confined to one traditional niche on campus. Despite being a female in an intensely male-dominated field, she seamlessly fuses her passion for engineering with her extracurricular pursuits and sorority-based social life. She refuses to be constricted by the stereotypical attributes of her many interests and is motivated to both create a legacy of her own within the computer science world and inspire younger generations of women to become engineers themselves. Travel has been a great source of inspiration for Shrestinian’s work as a computer scientist. When Shrestinian went abroad to Berlin last summer, she discovered a lack of travel guides specifically for students.

She and her friends found that as they traveled to new cities every weekend, they would struggle to figure out which restaurants, hostels, bars, and local hot spots were best to visit.

As Shrestinian recalled, “Nothing [was] really geared towards our age group,” especially on sites such as Trip Advisor. Upon returning to the States, she started to create a Web Application called Wander, a site that blends the information of a travel guide with the interactivity of a social networking site. While for now she’s only completed the interface, she hopes this app will include categories ranging from “Eat,” “Sleep,” and “Experience,” to “Party” and “Escape.” Since this app is entirely aimed at students studying abroad, it would seek to provide reasonably

priced options—for example “Eat” would provide a variety of choices including “Cheap Eats,” “Street Food,” “Cafes,” and “Good Stuff.”

Unlike popular travel sites, “Sleep” would not just include fivestar hotels, but safe hostels in prime locations where students could inexpensively lodge for the weekend. Shrestinian notes that having information about hostels would be especially useful, because the hostels’ websites often misrepresent themselves or exclude vital information. For example, “Some hostels are just for bachelor parties and you wouldn’t know that from the website,” she said, speaking from her own personal encounters.

The “Experience” tab would include popular cultural attractions such as museums, galleries, and historical sites. While “Eat,” “Sleep,” and “Experience” are categories traditionally found on most travel sites, Shrestinian hopes to make her app more applicable to young travelers, which is reflected in the “Escape” section. This category would point users towards local events and recreational activities, such as parks, markets, and festivals.

Initially she plans to create the app specifically for University of Michigan students traveling abroad. She envisions all users having an individual profile, so each member can follow other students while abroad. These profiles would link to Facebook, so students can connect with their friends to ‘like’ and share information and expand their network within the abroad community. “It would be

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all user submitted data, because I think that would be the best way to get a lot of information,” she said. “Then everyone could have a following feed of what they’re friends have favorited or liked.”

Her love for travel and experience in Berlin did not solely inspire her to create Wander, but also sparked a desire to move abroad after graduation. Because of her academic field of interest, she is particularly drawn to the vibrant startup cultures in Amsterdam and Berlin. “I think living in Berlin made me want to be a part of that culture, because it’s more appealing than having a 9-5 type of job.”

Yet as a woman in a heavily male-dominated field, Shrestinian has already been exposed to the difficulties of breaking into the startup world. “They say when you work in the industry it becomes a real boy’s club. They’re playing ping pong and drinking beer all day...At first I was so attracted to how laid back they were, but I realized I actually might not fit in there,” she admitted. The predominantly male culture has influenced her to take an app development internship at JP Morgan this upcoming summer rather than pursuing an internship at a startup. Challenging the stereotypical notion that banking is an overwhelmingly male industry, Shrestinian noted that as opposed to tech startups,

“Banks care way more about getting even numbers of men and women.”

However, the culture of male prevalence is not limited to the startup industry, but rather is a pervasive phenomenon for women in any sector of computer science and engineering. Shrestinian notes that the prejudice against women in this field is a product of the “subconscious biases” many people innately have. She says these biases are particularly evident for those who don’t fit the computer science stereotypes. For instance, Shrestinian has personally experienced an interview in which a recruiter made a comment about her being a “pretty girl in coding,” which she deemed both highly inappropriate and condescending. This type of behavior is not exclusive to the workforce, as she finds that even her major here can be a bit of a boy’s club as well.

In a 30-person discussion, Shrestinian noted that there might be just one other girl, and she finds that people are generally surprised when she tells them she’s a computer science major.

Because many women don’t code, she concedes that there may be a bias that women can’t code. “Many girls in the major feel that they have to prove themselves, because you may be going into a situation where people underestimate you,” she said. However, Shrestinian also notes that this bias is often a

product of the drastic ratio of men to women, and not necessarily reflective of her male peers’ beliefs about the capability of female engineers.

Shrestinian doesn’t necessarily feel that she needs to stifle her feminine interests in the classroom. Rather she commented, “If I had to mask anything it would be feminism in general, or people are going to roll their eyes if I comment on the fact that, for example, I’m the only girl in the class and now the GSI is Facebook messaging me.”

Though she loves being part of the female-dominated sorority world and the male-dominated engineering department, at times she finds that she rarely discloses her affiliation with a sorority to her classmates. “You’re not going to want to be in a CS class with a Greek sticker on your laptop,” she admitted, perhaps partly because of the hyper-feminine stereotype that is attached to sororities.

Yet Shrestinian hopes to be a part of evolving the engineering culture and eliminating the unfounded biases against women. She is involved in clubs such as “Girls in EECS,” where she mentors girls once a week to help them with scheduling and provides them with a place where girls in engineering can support one another. She is also working with fellow women in engineering

to organize a hackathon for middle school and high school-aged girls, in order to encourage girls to get involved in engineering and programming at a young age. Shrestinian emphasizes the importance of mentors, largely because there aren’t many female coders or engineers portrayed in the media, even on shows that directly represent the tech industry such as Silicon Valley. “There hasn’t been a woman Mark Zuckerberg yet, and girls really have no one to look up to in that sense. Aside from Wander, I would love to be remembered as someone who actually inspired more girls to start doing tech.” If Shrestinian’s entrepreneurship and innovation displayed in her creation of Wander is any indication, it seems as if she’s on the right trajectory to doing just that.

WRITTEN BY LAUREN DIAMOND AND NATALIE SHERER

ABOVE: An example of the proposed Wander profile page and of some of the things you could discover using Wander. Wander is still in production but make sure to look out for it, and Shrestinian, as they clear a path for the future of study abroad.

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With all the free food provided on campus, one student decided to see if he could live off it for one month.

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haven’t been to Meijer in six weeks. I haven’t eaten a meal that wasn’t complimentary in three. I went on Tinder this weekend to find someone who could swipe me in at South Quad’s Dining Hall and snuck out with enough food to be on a most wanted list if they ever see this article. What started out as a simple experiment quickly became a derelict endeavor into 21st century foraging, with a lot of free pizza. As is the case with many students, I’ve been put on far too many email lists for various student orgs, and I decided to finally get back at the constant barrage of messages in the least vengeful way possible — by actually attending their meetings. Some organizations are big winners, while others are definitely to be avoided. The University has a lot of events specifically geared towards providing free food, and you may as well get your fill of them to make up for that six-figure-debt you’re about to graduate with.

Half of the spam emails from student orgs that grace our inboxes involve free food in one way or another. They’ve got their monthly meeting or some guest speaker (it doesn’t really matter), but whatever it is, there’s probably Cottage Inn, so start there. BUT BE WARNED: Getting yourself on the DAAS (Department of African American Studies) email list is a serious commitment, do so at your own risk. To the two ladies in charge of sending out more messages a day than my mom did after I moved out, I’m sure you’re wonderful people, but I have commitment issues and that’s why you’re in my spam folder now. I would suggest you take a moment to look at the events tab on Facebook (ignoring every sorority’s nightly Pizza House fundraiser) and browse the Upcoming Events, or check out those “Popular In Your Network” events; you can find solid weekend eats and the occasional “upscale” function that has more to offer than bagels.

So now that you know where to look, here are the generous contributors to my hunger, rated holistically on the following criteria: Quality - Do they put their money where my mouth is? How much?

Content - Is there more to this than food?

Popularity - I don’t wait in line for anything Escapability - Let’s be real, I’m here for one reason, let’s keep it that way. I’m not looking for anything other than the plates and napkins, thanks.

TO START OUT, The Department of American Culture is a big win.

Wednesday night workshops feature speakers about unconventional career opportunities in American Culture.

Catered Tk Wu, legendary. I planned on ducking out after I constructed my mountain of fried rice and broccoli beef, but stuck around because the presenters were interesting and entertaining. There were about 30 attendees, and they even raffled off a bunch of prizes at the end to those who

stuck around. If I wanted to leave, I could have. But I didn’t, so that’s a job well done in my books.

The Department of History is a tricky one. Much like the eggplant emoji — no one really knows just what it means, but it’s provocative. It makes you feel some type of way, even though you don’t know what. They held a Fall Course Expo with enough NYPD to feed the Thursday night post-Skeeps crowd. I grabbed an entire box and rolled out when no one was looking. They also house the History Club, which meets every few weeks and usually has Cottage Inn or another equivalent. It’s all students, so no one really cares what you do. It’s a wild west of free food and I usually wind up eating half my body weight and still grabbing some for the road.

However, not all events are created equal — I went to another function, some Careers in Law and History presentation, showed up 10 minutes late assuming it was a pretty free-flowing engagement, only to be met by 10 chairs in a circle, half of which were unoccupied. The “food” was bite-sized candy and CVS brand cookies. The dDepartment member leading it kept prodding people to ask questions and it was the most awkward and forced hour of discussion in my life. As soon as I entered I was stuck —, there was no way to casually exit without making a scene. The stuff of nightmares.

The University is the prayer hands emoji for sure. Every Wednesday you can get free bagels and coffee at the Alumni Center by Rackham, five minutes in-and-out and on with your day. Most Friday nights they have uMix in either the Central or North Campus Unions: tons of free food and some entertainment if you need an alternative to the usual Fishbowl and Feta Bread Friday, where one of your friends always gets too drunk and breaks down in Pizza House over how the guy she hooked up with after formal isn’t texting back.

Wisely/Spoon University’s booth in Mason Hall last weekI still dream about those brownies.

Science Trivia Night at the Natural History Museum- I just came for the food and left, but the trifecta of Domino’s, Bruegger’s and Insomnia was top-notch, thanks.

FOR ALL THE SUCCESSES, THERE WERE LOSERS. Student Late Night at UMMA- I was pretty hype for this, 2,000 planned on attending according to the Facebook event, but when I got there… popcorn. All they had was popcorn. Unforgivable.

Taste of Tea at the League- So unprepared. I was one of the first people there so I was able to get my one cup of Earl Grey and tiny scone before 500 people poured in and cleaned everything out in minutes. Amateur.

SAPAC on the Diag, I support your cause so don’t get it twisted, but when you write “free food” on your event page and all you have to show for it are fun-sized snickers I’m not gonna be happy. Sorry.

BY ELDEN MAYNARD ILLUSTRATED BY TARA LEWIS

SHEI’S NEW EDITOR IN CHIEF

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DARING

EDGE NEW // CLASSIC

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Shoot Director: Aaron Pelo Photographer: Alex Holmes Model: Shannon King 14

EARN YOUR STRIPES Denim button down by Today Clothing, all other pieces are model’s own.

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BROAD RIPPLE IS BURNING Faux is friendly but leather is better.

Moto jackets are the perfect spring or fall transition peice, so it pays to invest.

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aegis Shoot Director: Elden Maynard Stylists: Mackenzie Kimball, Hannah Wasserman Photographers: Rachel Beglin, Melissa “Freaky Fresh� Freeland Model: Katie Kennedy 19

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