INSIDE
Active shooter drill planned
PAGE 3
Racing deserves respect
PAGE 4
Men rebound, win first NIT round
PAGE 5
Glazed Donut Works impresses PAGE 2
friday
march 21, 2014 FRIday High 79, Low 49 SATURday High 64, Low 46
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SMU unveils new supercomputer Jehadu Abshiro News Writer jabshiro@smu.edu The ManeFrame, SMU’s new supercomputer, was unveiled Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the data center on the southeastern end of the campus. Theoretical performance of MANA combined with SMU’s current system would exceed 120 teraflops. Flops is a measure of computer performance and an average consumer computer ranges from .25 to 7.5 “High-performance computing has become an indispensible tool in the 21st century,” said James Quick, SMU associate vice president of research and dean of graduate studies in a press release. “The incredible computational power provided by high-performance computing is widely used in science, engineering, business and the arts. ManeFrame brings this capability to Dallas.” At its peak, ManeFrame is expected to be capable of more than 120 trillion mathematical operations a second. Faculty and students research into subjects ranging from particle physics to human behavior to water quality and drug discovery would be increased. The new tool, installed in December, will be opened for
campus in May. High-performance computing makes it possible for researchers to study complex problems with massive amounts of data using sophisticated software and step-bystep recipes for calculations. “Certainly having a large resource like that increases the visibility of the SMU scientific community,” Assistant Mathematics Professor Andrea Barreiro said. The previous supercomputer would suffice for Barreiro computations. For Barreiro, who works in mathematical modeling, analysis and simulation of neural network, the new supercomputer would reduce her three month computation time to about two and a half months. “There are other faculty whose computation is very intense, they would be benefitted significantly,” she said. ManeFrame was previously located at the Maui High Performance Computing Center, one of the five U.S. Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Centers, according to Director of SMU’s Center for Scientific Computing Thomas Hagstrom. The supercomputer was named “ManeFrame” in March, after sophomore Chase Leinberger won the contest sponsored by Provost
Obituary
Courtesy of SMU Athletics
Sophomore Hannah Moss.
Student athlete dies Photo courtesy of mauinow.com
STAFF REPORTS
ManeFrame, previously known as MANA, was relocated to Dallas from its old location in Maui, Hawaii.
and Vice President Paul W. Ludden. “It was pretty satisfying,” Leinberger said. Leinberger, a business management major, came up with the name after going through several names and then deciding he wanted to combine both computers and SMU into something witty. He didn’t know he was going
WORLD
to win until the unveiling of the supercomputer. “It was actually on my birthday,” he said. “ It was like a present from SMU.” The winner was decided by email vote by SMU faculty, staff and students. The top five entries, selected by panel James Quick, associate vice president for research and
dean of graduate studies; Patty Alvey, director of assessment and accreditation, Rick Briesch, in the department of marketing; Thomas Hagstrom, professor of Mathematics, Jingbo Ye, professor of physics, Ramon Trespalacios, student body president and Katherine Ladner, student body secretary, won an iPad mini.
SMU sophomore Hannah Catherine Moss died on Tuesday, according to an email sent to students by Vice President for Student Affairs Lori S. White. Moss was a Business major from Austin, Texas, where she attended Lake Travis High School. She was a member of the SMU track and field team, and competed in the sprints event. She was 20 years old.
Metropolitan
Courtesy of AP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses media in Brussels.
US, European Union sanction Putin, Russia Associated PRess Raising the stakes in an EastWest showdown over Ukraine, President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and a major Russian bank that provides them support. He warned that more sweeping penalties against Russia’s robust energy sector could follow. Russia retaliated swiftly, imposing entry bans on American lawmakers and senior White House officials, among them Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer and the president’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes. It’s far more than just a U.S.-Russia dispute. European Union leaders said they, too, were ready to close in on Putin’s associates, announcing sanctions on 12 more people linked to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. That brought the number of people facing EU sanctions to 33. The Western aim is twofold: to ratchet up the costs for Putin’s annexation of Crimea and to head off any further Russian military inroads into Ukraine. “The world is watching
with grave concern as Russia has positioned its military in a way that could lead to further incursions into southern and eastern Ukraine,” Obama said, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House. Thursday’s volleys deepened the confrontation over Ukraine, a standoff that has become one of the biggest political crises in Europe since the Cold War. Putin, rather than backing off as the West warns of costs, has defiantly moved military forces into Crimea, backed a referendum in which the Crimean people overwhelming voted to join Russia and then signed a treaty formally absorbing the strategically important peninsula into Russia. In Ukraine, pro-Russian forces seized three Ukrainian warships Thursday, and U.S. officials acknowledge privately that there is little chance of Russia giving up Crimea now. The more pressing concern is stopping Putin from pushing into other Ukrainian areas with large ethnic Russian populations. Thousands of Russian troops are currently positioned along Ukraine’s eastern border. The Pentagon said Russia’s defense minister assured Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that those forces have no intention of crossing into
SANCTIONS page 3
CLAIRE KELLEY / The Daily Campus
The Trinity River has often served as a dividing line between the economically disadvantaged South Dallas and the downtown area.
Trinity River corridor to transform Claire Kelley Contributing Writer cakelley@smu.edu Looking out onto the Dallas skyline from the Santa Fe Trestle Trail in the Trinity River Basin, one can see cars driving to and from the city, but not hear them. The only audible sounds are the rushing of the river and kind greetings from passersby. On this unseasonably warm February day, a couple on one side of the river lets their dog roam the area off its leash, while another writes “Paris + Brittany” in pink chalk on the side of the railway where the DART zooms by every few minutes, reminding river goers of their whereabouts. “There’s just so much mystery and wonder about the Trinity,” said President and CEO of The Trinity Trust Gail Thomas. The Trinity Trust is an organization that is dedicated to the Trinity River Corridor Project, an ongoing endeavor to
CLAIRE KELLEY / The Daily Campus
Chalk hearts mark the location for RAFT’s Valentine’s Day event, Love Locks on the Trinity.
add amphitheaters, trails, lakes, white water rafting courses and more to the area within the next decade. The project’s “Dallas Plan” was adopted in 1994 and Dallas residents approved a $246 million capital bond program to fund the project in 1998.
Thomas has lived in Dallas since she was 16 years old, and has been working to develop the river for 15 years. She is passionate about the area because she believes access to nature is exactly what Dallasites need. “They’re demanding a lifestyle
change, and we have the potential for that right here in the center of our city,” Thomas said. “But we have to develop it.” The river itself is often frequented by the people living in nearby neighborhoods. But restaurants and bars near the river, like LUCK on Gulden Lane, get most of their business from Uptown residents, according to LUCK bartender Wesley Murack. “I don’t spend much time near the river itself, but I’m excited to see what’s going to happen with the development,” Murack said. The Trinity River has often served as a dividing line for the city. South Dallas is more economically disadvantaged in some neighborhoods and experiences elevated crime rates, unlike the more affluent neighborhoods that lie to the north of the Trinity. According to Thomas, this kind of separation is a result of
TRINITY page 3
2
FOOD
FRIDAY n MARCH 21, 2014 Review
High quality ingredients shine at Glazed Donut Works w. Tucker Keene Managing Editor tkeene@smu.edu There are no shortage of fantastic donut shops in Dallas, but the opening of Glazed Donut Works in Deep Ellum last summer was a game changer for the Dallas donut scene. Located on Elm Street, Glazed Donut Works joins in the recent trend away from “traditional” donuts and toward fancier, more creative donut flavor combinations. No more can a simple glazed, yeast-risen donut or an old fashioned plain cake donut pass in the modern donut world. Other Dallas donut icons like Hypnotic Donuts, Pookie’s Donuts and Yummy Donuts all know this and offer many more creative options that include toppings like peanut butter, bacon, coconut, horchata, salted caramel and others. But Glazed takes it to another level with high quality ingredients and a unique formula for their yeast-risen donut that adds a chewier, more satisfying and less overtly sweet base to the creative flavors they build on top.
ELLEN SMITH / The Daily Campus
Glazed Donut Works offers odd yet delicious combinations of flavors as well as traditional donuts with premium touches like this Saigon Cinnamon Sugar donut.
The high quality of their ingredients helps typically boring donuts shine. The Saigon Cinnamon Sugar uses only a light dusting of the Vietnamese cinnamon, which provides a much more elevated flavor
profile than most commercially used cinnamon sugar blends. Glazed Donut Works’ menu changes every day they’re open, but customers can expect their most popular offerings to be available most days. The best donut offerings
SATURDAY
FRIDAY
SUNDAY
March 22
March 21
New Visions New Voices: Spring Playwrighting Festival, Greer Garson Theatre, 8 p.m.
March 23
New Visions New Voices: Spring Playwrighting Festival, Greer Garson Theatre, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.
MONDAY March 24
Presidential Documents at Bridwell Library, Bridwell Library, all day.
New Visions New Voices: Spring Playwrighting Festival, Greer Garson Theatre, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.
TUESDAY March 25
Meadows Museum Exhibit: “Sorolla and America,” Meadows Museum, all day.
at Glazed are the custard filled ones, such as the Irish Car Bomb: a Guinness donut filled with a Bailey’s Irish Cream custard and topped with chocolate ganache, unlike any other kind of filled donut out there. The filling is of a much higher quality than typically seen inside a filled donut, and is so luscious, thick and creamy it could be eaten on its own with a spoon. This filling particularly shines in the Creme Brulee donut, a yeastrisen donut filled with vanilla custard and topped with caramel and caramelized sugar. The strong, authentic vanilla flavor of the thick custard is really highlighted in this donut, and the caramel
and crunchy burnt sugar on top really does evoke a bowl of creme brulee. Their proficiency with cream extends beyond the filled donuts though. Another popular choice is the Blueberry Mascarpone, which tops their trademark yeast-risen donut with blueberry glaze, fresh blueberries, and a dollop of vanilla mascarpone just as luscious and creamy as the fillings in their Creme Brulee and Irish Car Bomb, balanced by the tartness of the fresh blueberries. The Banana Pudding donut also shows off Glazed’s more creative side. Topped with banana glaze and crumbled vanilla, a beautiful bruleed soft meringue adorning the center of the donut. If these donuts sound more suited for dessert than for
breakfast, don’t worry. Glazed is also open late night, where they have a different menu entirely, perfect for those late night snacks while wandering through Deep Ellum on a Friday night. One of their most popular late-night offerings, and a mainstay on the menu, is the Donut Grilled Cheese. A plain glazed donut is sliced in half and a sandwich is made with American cheese and bacon, and is then toasted. The glazed side of the donut faces inward, so holding it doesn’t get too messy. An odd combination of flavors for sure, but the salty sweetness of the donut makes this a guilty pleasure worthy of any midnight meal. Glazed has also taken the “Old-fashioned” donut, typically a vanilla cake donut with a traditionally crunchier exterior than other donuts, and elevated it beyond its humble base. Peanut butter is added to one, coconut and pineapple are other options. Vegans aren’t left out by Glazed either. Every day one vegan donut option is available, often just as creative as the regular ones, with flavors like “Blackberry Moonshine,” for example. Their fritters are also worth trying. The pineapple rum fritter is their most popular, and frequently sells out very quickly. Large and thick, the crunchy exterior conceals swirls of rum and juicy bites of soft pineapple. The donuts offered at Glazed are truly a unique experience unlike any other gourmet donut in Dallas, and well worth the trip down to Deep Ellum either in the morning or late at night. Glazed Donut Works, on 2644 Elm Street in Dallas, is open from 7 a.m. to noon Wednesday through Saturday, and 8 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.
NEWS
FRIDAY n MARCH 21, 2014 Event
3
Senate, university collaborate for active shooter simulation Christopher Saul Contributing Writer csaul@smu.edu Thomas Caffall, a student at Texas A&M University killed police officer Brian Bachmann and bystander Chris Northcliff and eventually died in a hail of gunfire after a shootout with police in 2012. Four men shot and killed two students and wound a third in an on-campus shooting at the University of Central Arkansas
in 2008. “There have been 13 campus shootings in the last couple of years, including elementary and middle schools,” Student Senate member Winston Sher said. Scenarios like these are what Sher had in mind when he contacted the SMU Office of Emergency Management and asked them to hold an “active shooter” drill April 2 in McFarlin Auditorium from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. for students. SMU held an “active shooter”
drill last semester, but the drill did not involve students outside of the SMU Student Senate. “The student senators thought that the student body should be involved in the process. It is a test to see how the procedure should be done in the future,” Student Senate advisor Jennifer Jones said. The organization of this drill was the first time anyone in the administration has been approached by student body representation.
“We are very impressed by Senator Sher,” said SMU Director of Media Relations, Kim Cobb. “This is the first time that students have done this anywhere.” The event will take place in three parts. The first portion of the drill will be a presentation by the SMU Office of Police and Risk Management to those in attendance and a video, run, hide, fight that will tell students what to do in case of a shooter on campus. At an undisclosed time after the presentation, SMU
police will have a surprise shooter drill that will test what the students have learned and the policies and procedures the students and police use to disarm the situation. Finally, everyone will regroup and discuss what worked well and what needs improvement for the student body to be safer. To ensure the security of the students attending the event and those who are on campus but not aware of the event, SMU police will conduct a sweep before the drill, and students will be required
to sign an agreement before the drill, which prohibits anyone who is participating from using social media and causing panic on campus. “We are the first university in our region (the North Texas region) to do a lockdown drill,” junior Senator Fantine Giap said, “SMU ID is required to attend, and we will be providing Jimmy John’s and prizes.” Doors open at 3 p.m., and will close at 3:30 p.m. Door prizes will be awarded during that time.
Nation
Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps dies Associated Press Fred Phelps did not care what you thought of his Westboro Baptist Church, nor did he care if you heard its message that society’s tolerance for gay people is the root of all earthly evil. By the time you saw one of his outrageous and hate-filled signs — “You’re Going to Hell” was among the more benign — you were already doomed. Tall, thin and increasingly spectral as he aged, the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. and the Westboro Baptist Church, a small congregation made up almost entirely of his extended family, tested the boundaries of the free speech guarantees by violating accepted societal standards for decency in their unapologetic assault on gays and lesbians. In the process, some believe he even helped the cause of gay rights by serving as such a provocative symbol of intolerance. All of that was irrelevant to Phelps, who died late Wednesday. He was 84. God is love? Heresy, he preached, and derisively insisted the Lord had nothing but anger and bile for the moral miscreants of his creation. In Phelps’ reading of the Bible, God determined
SANCTIONS Continued from page 1
Ukrainian territory and are only in the region to conduct military exercises. The two men spoke by phone for an hour. The U.S. had received similar assurances from top Kremlin officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, before Russian troops moved into Crimea. The penalties announced Thursday by the U.S. and Europe build on an initial round of narrower sanctions levied earlier this week. While European officials did not immediately release names, the U.S. listed some of Putin’s closest associates. Among the 20 individuals sanctioned were Sergei Ivanov, the Russian president’s chief of staff, as well as Arkady Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, both lifelong Putin friends whose companies have amassed billions of dollars in government contracts. Also sanctioned: Bank Rossiya, a private bank that is owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, who is considered to be Putin’s banker. Putin has not been personally targeted by the first two rounds of U.S. sanctions. In fact, American sanctions on heads of state are rare, largely reserved for instances where the U.S. is seeking a change in government leadership.
TRINITY Continued from page 1
the flood Dallas experienced in 1908. Bridges were destroyed, preventing people from crossing the river. After the flood, it was moved and straightened, which killed much of its wildlife, dividing the city even further and discouraging activity near the water. “I never understood the divide because I have roots on both sides
your fate at the moment of your creation. Informing the damned could not save them from eternal fire, Phelps believed, but it was required for his salvation and path to paradise. And so he and his flock traveled the country, protesting at the funerals for victims of AIDS and soldiers slain in Iraq and Afghanistan, picketing outside country music concerts and even the Academy Awards — any place sure to draw attention and a crowd — with an unrelenting message of hatred for gays and lesbians. “Can you preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God?” he asked in a 2006 interview with The Associated Press. “The answer is absolutely not. And these preachers that muddle that and use that deliberately, ambiguously to prey on the follies and the fallacious notions of their people — that’s a great sin.” Once seen as the church’s unchallengeable patriarch, Phelps’ public visibility waned as he grew older and less active in the church’s pickets, with daughters Shirley Phelps-Roper and Margie Phelps — an attorney who argued the church’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court — most often
speaking for Westboro. In the fall of 2013, even they were replaced by a church member not related to Phelps by blood as Westboro’s chief spokesman. In Phelps’ later years, the protests themselves were largely ignored or led to counterdemonstrations that easily shouted down Westboro’s message. A motorcycle group known as the Patriot Guard arose to shield mourners at military funerals from Westboro’s notorious signs. At the University of Missouri in 2014, hundreds of students gathered to surround the handful of church members who traveled to the campus after football player Michael Sam came out as gay. Phelps’ final weeks were shrouded in mystery. A longestranged son, Nate Phelps, said his father had been voted out of the congregation in the summer of 2013 “after some sort of falling out,” but the church refused to discuss the matter. Westboro’s spokesman would only obliquely acknowledge this month that Phelps had been moved into a care facility because of health problems. Fred Waldron Phelps was born in Meridian, Miss., on Nov. 13, 1929. He was raised a Methodist
Russians have made light of previous U.S. sanctions on individuals, and targeted American lawmakers reacted In like manner on Thursday. Said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: “I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off.” Obama also signed a new executive order that would allow him to sanction key Russian industries, actions that could have a harsher impact on that country’s economy. Senior administration officials said Russia’s energy, financial services and metals and mining sectors are among the industries that could be targeted. “Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community,” Obama said. The U.S. has so far acted in conjunction with the European Union, Russia’s largest trading partner. The EU’s close economic ties with Russia gives its penalties more bite, but also leave the alliance more vulnerable if the Kremlin retaliates. The EU did not immediately release the names of those it had targeted Thursday with travel bans and asset freezes. European leaders, meeting in Brussels, also announced plans to scrap an EU-Russia summit scheduled for June. And like Obama, they warned that further provocations by Russia would result in deeper punishments. “We need to prepare to take further steps and we need to do it together,” said Swedish Prime
Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. “A strong Europe is the last thing that Putin wants. He wants to split us up.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that beyond increasing the number of people affected by asset freezes and travel bans — initially 21 politicians and military commanders — the leaders would prepare for possible measures at a higher level, which would include economic sanctions and an arms embargo. Russia’s economy has already taken a hit during the Crimea crisis. The country’s stock market fell 10 percent this month, potentially wiping out billions. Economists have slashed growth forecasts to zero this year, and foreign investors have been pulling money out of Russian banks. The West’s dispute with Russia is expected to dominate Obama’s trip to Europe next week. He’ll chair a hastily arranged meeting of the Group of Seven, pointedly leaving out Russia, which often joins the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan to comprise the Group of Eight. Officials said the G-7 leaders will discuss what kind of financial assistance they can provide to the fledgling Ukrainian government. The G-7 nations have also suspended preparations for a G-8 summit that Russia is scheduled to host this summer in Sochi, site of the recently completed Winter Olympics.
of the river,” said Mark Lea. Lea is a third-generation Dallasite who founded River Activation For the Trinity (RAFT) in July 2013 to encourage bottom-up activity in the Trinity River Basin. By planning events at least once a month, Lea and RAFT volunteers try to encourage people to spend time in the area. “If you’re going to change the habits of people and how they think about and engage with the space,” Lea said. “ou need to be
throwing more regular events.” RAFT’s past events include a Sasquatch hunt, levee sledding and Love Locks on the Trinity, where couples latched padlocks onto the rails of the Santa Fe Trestle Trail. On March 1 the organization partnered with The Trinity Trust and others to host the All Out Trinity Market, which featured the Trinity River Levee Run, yoga classes on the bridge, food trucks and local clothing vendors.
and once said he was “happy as a duck” growing up. He was an Eagle Scout, ran track and graduated from high school at age 16. Selected to attend the U.S. Military Academy, Phelps never made it to West Point. He once said he went to a Methodist revival meeting and felt the calling to preach. Ordained a Baptist minister in 1947, he met his wife after he delivered a sermon in Arizona and they were married in 1952. Phelps was a missionary and pastor in the western United States and Canada before settling in Topeka in 1955 and founding his church. He earned his law degree from Washburn University in Topeka in 1964, focused on civil rights issues. But in 1979, the Kansas Supreme Court stripped him of his license to practice in state courts, concluding he’d made false statements in court documents and “showed little regard” for professional ethics. He called the court corrupt and insisted he saw its action as a badge of honor. He later agreed to stop practicing in federal court, too. Despite his avowedly conservative views on social issues,
and the early stirrings of the clout Christian evangelicals would enjoy within the Kansas Republican Party, Phelps ran as a Democrat during his brief dabble with politics. He finished a distant third in the 1990 gubernatorial primary, and later ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and Topeka mayor. It was about that time that Westboro’s public crusade against homosexuality began. The protests soon widened and came to include funerals of AIDS victims and any other event that would draw a large crowd, from concerts of country singer Vince Gill to the Academy Awards. He reserved special scorn for conservative ministers who preached that homosexuality was a sin but that God nevertheless loved gays and lesbians. When the Rev. Jerry Falwell died in 2007, Westboro members protested at his funeral with the same sorts of signs they held up outside services a decade earlier for Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death in 1998. “They’re all going to hell,” Phelps said in a 2005 interview of Christians who refuse to condemn gay people as he did. It wasn’t just the message, but
also the mocking tone that many found to be deliberately cruel. Led by Phelps, church members thanked God for roadside explosive devices and prayed for thousands more casualties, calling the deaths of military personnel killed in the Middle East a divine punishment for a nation it believed was doomed by its tolerance for gay people. State and federal legislators responded by enacting restrictions on such protests. A Pennsylvania man whose 20-year-old Marine son died in 2006 sued the church after it picketed the son’s funeral and initially won $11 million. In an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 2011 that the First Amendment protects even such “hurtful” speech, though it undoubtedly added to the father’s “already incalculable grief.” “The Westboro Baptist Church is probably the vilest hate group in the United the State of America,” Heidi Beirich, research director for the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, told The Associated Press in July 2011. “No one is spared, and they find people at their worst, most terrible moments of grief, and they throw this hate in their faces. It’s so low.”
“Jason Bateman’s
directorial debut is
SPECTACULAR.” – Pete Hammond, Movieline
A wickedly clever COMEDY.”
“
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The entire cast is PERFECTION.” – Pete Hammond, Movieline
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4
OPINION
FRIDAY n MARCH 21, 2014
gender
sports
‘B-word’ holds women back
kian hervey Contributing Writer khervey@smu.edu While students were enjoying spring break last week, LeanIn. Org levied a war against the word “bossy.” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and her non-profit that supports women through community, education and networking initiated the campaign to encourage women to take on more executive and leadership roles. Celebrities like Beyonce, Jennifer Garner and Jane Lynch voiced their support for the campaign in a YouTube video that received over two million views. Lifetime TV aired the PSA in a special broadcast lending the network’s support. CNN Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and UN Women leader Phumzile MlamboNgcuka shared their support through photos shared on Twitter. #BanBossy picked up major traction when Google promoted the initiative on their homepage March 10. Social media has responded with mixed support, pointing to the campaigns major flaws in sending mixed signals. Getting rid of the word bossy does not free society of its poor perception of women in power. Removing a word from our vocabulary does not build women’s self-esteem.
The real threat to female empowerment is other women. Females have come up with a number of negative phrases to describe themselves in a positive light. To no surprise, most of these sayings include the other b-word, a female dog. Songs like “Boss A** B****” by Nicki Minaj and unreleased track “Bad B****” by Lil’ Kim and Miley Cyrus perpetuate the idea females are positive b-words, not just bossy. The “positive” b-word even seeps beyond music into everyday conversation. Some girls refer to their dearest friends as b-words, not knowing they’re reducing their companion to a lower state. Rapper Lupe Fiasco summarized the phenomenon best in a single off his fourth studio album, “Food & Liquor II.” The first verse depicts a scene in which a young child is riding in the car with his mother, who is referring to herself as a “positive” b-word. “Couple of things are happening here. First he’s relating the word “b****” with his mama — comma And because she’s relating to herself… [she] skews respect for dishonor.” The hook drives the point home. “B**** bad, woman good. Lady better.” Being called bossy has never stopped an ambitious woman from chasing her dreams. Being called a b-word would make any woman feel less than meritorious of the world. If Sandburg and her celebrity friends hope to empower women, they should start with a better b-word. Children do not need to be coddled from the word bossy. Young adults should ban the b-word. Hervey is a senior majoring in journalism.
cartoon
Courtesy of AP
Driver Jimmie Johnson (48) leads Matt Kenseth (20) and David Ragan (34) during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Racing requires athleticism, courage
Moez Janmohammad Contributing Writer mjanmohammad@smu.edu The argument has been going on for generations, but was recently reinvigorated when Donovan McNabb mentioned that Jimmy Johnson, six time Sprint Cup champion, was not an athlete because “he sits in a car and drives. What, athletically, is he doing?” enraging the entire motorsport community. Anyone who has driven a car has experienced danger at least once. The car is suddenly sliding, perhaps you took the corner too fast, perhaps there was a sudden lack of grip. Whatever the reason, you accept that for a
brief moment, death was near. There are two ways people respond to surviving that moment. Some recognize the fear, vow never to drive fast again and avoid death and danger for as long as possible. Others relish it and dance on the line between adrenaline and death. The latter are the fans of motorsport. Skirting death in a 900 horsepower monstrosity doesn’t necessarily make the race driver athletic, the preparation in anticipation of controlling said monstrosity does. Racing drivers are constantly teetering on the edge between gaining an extra tenth on their lap time and untimely death. Drivers must do weight training to be able to cope with the massive mount of forces they experience when braking for a sharp corner, the tight hairpin turn at the apex and accelerating to top speed before doing it all over again. On a Formula 1 track there are between 16 and 19 corners, an average speed of over 150 miles
per hour and G-forces between 2 and 5.5 Gs. In the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna experienced such high G-forces in the tight hairpin turns, he passed out after crossing the finish line in first and woke up a few minutes later with muscle spasms in his shoulders, but still went to the podium to lift the first place trophy and wave a Brazilian flag in his home country’s Grand Prix. Driving a racing vehicle at speed also requires intense mental concentration. Focusing on hitting the apex of every turn perfectly while controlling the car and managing the fuel consumption and tire life simultaneously is a demanding task, especially when you have to do it for over two hours. Losing focus for even a moment could be the difference between life and death in a high speed machine. Chris Hemsworth worded it best in the movie “Rush” when he said, “for all intents and purposes [an F1 car] is a bomb
on wheels.” Watching races on TV doesn’t really do the sport justice either, the cars have no traction control to stop the wheels from spinning out of control, no anti-lock braking to stop the wheels from locking up under heavy braking, and no other driver aids at all to help the driver control the car and stop it from throwing itself into a wall at 150 miles per hour. The looming shadow of a fiery death follows the drivers at every event. Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson said “racing drivers are missing the part of their brain that tells them what fear is.” All of these combined make McNabb’s comments seem interesting. To him, being able to sprint for 10 seconds and throw a semi-spherical object followed by a minute of rest is greater than the ability to drive and handle a machine that is actively trying to kill you. Janmohammad is a sophomore majoring in mehcanical engineering.
politics
Is the legalization of marijuana inevitable? This column was written by Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk for the McClatchy-Tribune News Service:
Courtesy of MCT Campus
quote worthy
“My suspicion is that they’ll be back stronger than ever.” —President Barack Obama on SMU’s basketball team after being denied entry to the NCAA tournament “At first I thought I looked like Anderson Cooper or like a Q-tip or something.” —Actress Pamela Anderson on her pixie cut “I walked around the construction site and figured out how to access the Freedom Tower rooftop. I found a way up through the scaffolding, climbed onto the 6th floor, and took the elevator up to the 88th floor. I then took the staircase up to 104th (floor). I went to the rooftop and climbed the ladder all the way to the antenna.” —A New Jersey teenager’s account of how he climbed to the top of the World Trade Center
First, 20 states and the District of Columbia passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use. Then in 2012, voters in Washington state and Colorado approved measures legalizing the sale and possession of marijuana for non-medical use, with state oversight. Now at least a half-dozen states from Alaska to Maine are considering following suit. Marijuana still remains a federally controlled substance, but Attorney General Eric Holder in January said the U.S. Justice Department would soon issue regulations to let state-sanctioned marijuana businesses have access to banking and credit. Can full legalization be far behind? Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, try to wrap their heads around the question. BEN BOYCHUK The University of Colorado system reports a 30 percent increase in applications this year. University officials credit their new and improved application, along with better high school outreach. But High Times magazine, a sort of Cigar Aficionado for stoners, has a different explanation: it’s the legal pot. Can that really be true? A CU spokesman told the magazine
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he has “hard time believing that someone is going to make that kind of significant decision about investing in their education based on whether they can smoke marijuana in the state” _ which only suggests he hasn’t visited his Boulder campus recently, or knows very much about the law of unintended consequences. More kids looking for a cheap and legal high are one such consequence. Here’s another: if you smoke pot and want to buy a gun in the Mile High State, odds are you will be turned down. Sure, marijuana use is legal under state law; but the federal government still considers it a crime, and no federally licensed firearms dealer would risk his business to make a point about states’ rights. Fact is, Congress isn’t about to legalize pot, and Eric Holder won’t be attorney general forever. More states venturing down the path of legalization invites conflicts with the feds that nobody can foresee. But the better argument against legalization is cultural, and it comes from an unlikely source: California Gov. Jerry Brown. A Democrat with a reputation for wild ideas, Brown shared his skepticism about legalization on “Meet the Press” this month. “If there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world’s pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not
24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together.” Brown is right. It may be the case that public opinion has shifted too far in favor of legalization. If so, then freedom must come with responsibility. Tax marijuana, certainly, but also let employers decide whether they want stoners on their payrolls, lay heavy penalties on sales to minors _ and hope the unintended consequences aren’t too dire. JOEL MATHIS Consider the following facts, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union: “Every 0.01 hours someone in the United States is arrested for having marijuana; Black people are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested than white people. The United States spent $3,610,000,000 enforcing marijuana laws in 2010.” Worth it? Almost certainly not. Why? Marijuana may be illegal, but it’s also pretty mainstream: A 2013 Gallup poll suggests that 38 percent of Americans have tried marijuana, a number that has little changed since the “Just Say No” reefer madness of the 1980s. And while Ronald Reagan had to withdraw a Supreme Court appointee who admitted smoking pot more than a decade earlier, these days there’s hardly anybody at the forefront of public life who won’t admit having dabbled with doobies in their youth. The
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republic survives. There are concerns that legalized pot would somehow rob America of its vigor: “How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?” California Gov. Jerry Brown asks. Brown’s rationale is almost exactly the same as was used for the failed prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s. We never learn. “I remember in 1977 when Gov. Brown was first in office, we went from indeterminate sentencing to determinate sentencing _ we had 20,000 people in our prisons. In 2007, we had 173,000 people in our prisons,” California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed out recently. You start looking at the war on drugs, you look at the corollaries as it relates to mandatory minimums and our aggressive efforts ... to incarcerate our way to solving this problem, it’s failed. A trillion dollars wasted.” Criminalizing weed makes hypocrites out of otherwise law-abiding Americans, reduces respect for the law, and saddles our nation with the expense of prosecution and prison for folks who pose very little threat to society. Thank goodness for the legalization movement. Boychuk is associate editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. Mathis is associate editor for Philadelphia Magazine.
Entire contents © 2014 The Daily Campus. thedailycampus@gmail.com • http://www.smudailycampus.com SMU Box 456, Dallas, TX 75275 • 214-768-4555 • Fax: 214-768-8787 Daily Campus Policies The Daily Campus is a public forum, Southern Methodist University’s independent student voice since 1915 and an entirely student-run publication. Letters To The Editor are welcomed and encouraged.All letters should concentrate on issues, be free of personal attacks, not exceed 250 words in length and must be signed by the author(s). Anonymous letters will not be published and The Daily Campus reserves the right to edit letters for accuracy, length and style. Letters should be submitted to thedailycampus@gmail.com. Guest columns are accepted and printed at the editor’s discretion upon submission to thedailycampus@gmail.com. Guest columns should not exceed 500-600 words and the author will be identified by name and photograph. Corrections. The Daily Campus is committed to serving our readers with accurate coverage and analysis. Readers are encouraged to bring errors to The Daily Campus editors’ attention by emailing Editorial Adviser Jay Miller at jamiller@smu.edu.
SPORTS
FRIDAY n MARCH 21, 2014 Men’s Basketball
5
Mustangs rebound from rough first half Billy Embody Staff Sports Writer wembody@smu.edu Just days after being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, the SMU men’s basketball team hosted the UC Irvine Anteaters as the No. 1 seed in the National Invitational Tournament Wednesday night in Moody Coliseum. What many fans and experts were interested in seeing was how the young SMU team would respond to such treatment from the NCAA Selection Committee. If someone watched the first 10 minutes of the game, he’d say the team didn’t respond very well, but the team went on an 11-0 run early in the second half and never looked back, winning 68-54. “I thought we got back in the game because of our defense. That’s got to be the staple of our program,” SMU head coach Larry Brown said. “I thought our bench helped us. We didn’t set out to trap and gamble, but we won like that.” SMU held a 32-6 advantage over the Anteaters in bench scoring, led by junior Cannen Cunningham and first-year Ben
RYAN MILLER / The Daily Campus
Cannen Cunningham No. dunks on 7’6” Center Mamadou N’diaye at Wednesday’s NIT tournament game in Moody Coliseum.
Moore’s combined 28 points and 10 rebounds. SMU was also able to force 20 turnovers by UC-Irvine and
taking advantage, scoring 19 points off of turnovers thanks to great pressure all night on the Anteaters.
“We try to get up and guard as best we can,” Moore said. “We try to put pressure on them and that really helped us.”
Mamadou N’diaye, a 7-foot-6 first year center, was the main problem while the Mustangs were on offense, blocking seven
shots and grabbing 12 rebounds, while also adding seven points. “You can’t practice for 7-foot6 in your life,” Cunningham said. “He was intimidating at times, but we found a way around it.” While the Anteaters were struggling with the Mustangs’ pressure, SMU took care of the ball extremely well, even when Nic Moore was off the floor, only turning the ball over eight times. Playing in front of the Moody crowd had something to do with the team’s energy remaining high and with the win, a huge milestone was broken. The Mustangs won their 16th home game of the year, the most in program history. The Mustangs will now face the fifth seeded LSU Tigers Monday at 8 p.m. in Moody Coliseum. Yesterday, Brown was named as one of five finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year award. Brown was joined by Michigan’s John Beilein, Virginia’s Tony Bennett, Florida’s Billy Donovan and Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall. Brown won the award back in 1988, when his Kansas team went on to win a national title.
Baseball
Opening day is on the horizon Preston Huthcerson Contributing Writer phutcherson@smu.edu There is exactly one day per season where anything is possible. On April 1, 2001 the Texas Rangers opened their season on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays. They lost, 1-8, not a particularly noteworthy result outside of being the first game of the season. But more memorably, it was the debut game for the Rangers’ new shortstop, a young star named Alex Rodriguez. The team had signed Rodriguez to a record-setting 10-year $252 million deal in December of 2000, generating considerable controversy—and some jealousy. He was arguably the best player in the game, with a wave
of cautious but steady whispers building behind his career— commentators beginning to use phrases like “future Hallof-Famer” and even “greatest shortstop of all-time.” The Rangers were entering their second season removed from a 1999 AL West championship desperate to return to competitive relevance. Thus the season began that day for a historically great player and a mediocre team. But even so, if things broke just the right way, if a few guys stepped up and a few guys returned to form — anything was possible. Baseball cannot be predicted, especially on Opening Day, months and miles away from the truth of October. The Rangers lost 89 games that season, good enough for last place in the division—year one of a $252 million dollar deal
essentially wasted. After just three seasons Rodriguez was gone, traded to the New York Yankees. All the Rangers had to show for their generosity was a .444 winning percentage with Rodriguez in a Texas uniform. On March 31 of this year ,another Rangers team desperate to return to the playoffs will begin their season. Instead of adding $252 million to the future payroll as the franchise had in 2001, this Rangers team added $268 million, split between two players: first baseman Prince Fielder and outfielder Shin-Soo Choo. On paper, this is a much better team than the 2001 version, but still the rosy glasses of Opening Day disrupt visions of what might be. What if Jurickson Profar is the best young second baseman in the
game and Leonys Martin learns to hit lefties? Or what if a few guys get hurt and a few underperform? Fans tremble in consideration of both scenarios. Earlier this winter, Alex Rodriguez, now age 38, received a 162 game suspension from baseball for his connection to a steroid clinic in Miami. He had previously admitted to using steroids, including during his time as a Ranger, and apparently never fully kicked the habit. Rodriguez will likely never play in a professional baseball game again, but the Rangers are still paying him, and will be for a few more years — the last bits of deferred money from his too-bigto-fail contract. There are a lot of things that can’t be seen from the hopeful high of Opening Day.
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Complete the grid so that every row, column, and 3x3 box contains the digits 1-9. There is no guessing or math involved, just use logic to solve.
Solution: 3/19/14
Crossword Across 1 Chess ploy 7 Antique cane topper 11 Home of the N.Y. Rangers 14 Fundraising targets 15 Wrath, in a hymn 16 Scarfed down 17 Annual Christmas party group 19 Small group 20 Brightened, with “up” 21 Bible book 22 “Let it be so!” 24 Thrice due 25 Wetlands protection org. 26 “Driving Miss Daisy” setting 29 Humor that won’t offend 31 Long poem 33 One of two Pauline epistles: Abbr. 34 “__ for Innocent”: Grafton novel 35 Pentecost, e.g., and what can literally be found in this puzzle’s four other longest answers 40 Same old thing 41 “This American Life” host Glass 42 Run 43 Exercised caution 48 Theatergoer’s option 49 Fla. NBA team 50 Maker of “3 Series” cars 53 “Beloved” author Morrison 54 Fromage hue 55 Yay relative 56 Part of a disguise 57 Singer with the debut solo album “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.”
61 Loan letters 62 Lisa’s title 63 Passes 64 Relaxing retreat 65 Against 66 Winning run, perhaps Down 1 Pens for Dickens? 2 Caine title role 3 Civilian garb 4 ASCAP rival 5 Grow 6 Jams 7 Social group 8 Org. co-founded by Gen. George Wingate 9 Knucklehead 10 Happen to 11 Got some attention 12 Flier that may have four lines 13 Prefix with thermal 18 “Right away!” 23 Key abbr. 26 “He makes no friends who never made __”: Tennyson 27 Grass-and-roots layer 28 ‘50s Dem. presidential hopeful 29 Good, in Hebrew 30 Brilliance 31 Effort to equal others 32 Relative of a T-shirt launcher 36 Hill worker 37 Creamy spread 38 Flowing out 39 Tankard contents 40 Tach no. 44 Dark side 45 It’s hard to untangle 46 Fifths on a staff 47 Knifelike ridges 50 Support
51 __ ray 52 Chef ’s tool 54 __ B’rith 56 Nintendo’s __ Mini
58 Finished on top 59 Dr.’s specialty 60 Distant
Solution 03/19/2014
36
ARTS
FRIDAY n MARCH 21, 2014 Profile
Dallas’ Young Actors Studio breeds new talent caroline hicks Contributing Writer cahicks@smu.edu
A young girl with long dark hair and bangs framing her round, fairskinned face leaps across the room with the ferocity of a tiger. She makes eye contact with the camera lens and performs a high kick in slow motion, her arms forming an X shape with the palms of her hands flattened. This is the demo reel of an aspiring actress showing her taekwondo chops to set her apart in the competitive world she has chosen as her career. This is Alexandria Bader’s approach to the world of acting. After years of being told she should be an actress because she has a charismatic personality, 16-yearold Bader finally convinced her mother to let her take acting classes. Three years ago she auditioned for Dallas’ Young Actors Studio. “At the time, I didn’t realize what a big deal it was,” Bader said. “Linda sat me down and said ‘I have eight spots and about 200 kids getting callbacks’ and I went ‘what?’” She laughs as she recalls her naïve start at DYAS when she had only a few years of childhood theatre experience under her belt. “I walked into the audition wearing heels and thought I looked cute but that was the wrong thing to be wearing… Linda had me take them off immediately,” she said. Bader recently decided to use Alexandria Lior as her professional name. Lior means “light” and Bader said she wants to be a light in this world. The Young Actors Studio is a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1986 by Linda Seto, a television writer, director and producer. Seto began her career directing and producing a 33-episode TV series titled “Kidsview” which won the National Action for Children’s Television Award of Excellence. Years later she decided to open the studio because she saw a great need for a TV and film-oriented acting school in Dallas. The studio provides aspiring actors and actresses with the training necessary to be prepared for Hollywood. They gain experience in film, TV and improv acting as well as voiceover, commercial and behind the camera work. They’re then able to show off their skills at live performances with studio audiences. The Dallas Young Actors Studio is located in the corner of
a corporate office park in Farmers Branch, Texas. It’s a Saturday afternoon and classes are in full session. Inside the building parents sit in a small, ordinary waiting room. It could be any kind of office, except that the white walls are lined with TV and film posters as well as photographs of young actors and actresses. The office is bustling with ringing phones and mothers of the actors helping out with paperwork. Alexandria’s mother, Kim Bader, is sitting behind the desk helping out with sign-ins. Kim Bader said she’s trying very hard not to be a stage mother. “It will be the downfall of your child’s career if you act like that,” she said. Before dedicating most of her time to acting, Alexandria was a third-degree black belt committed to competing in taekwondo. Traveling from coast-to-coast, she won more than 10 state championships. Now she incorporates her martial arts skills into her acting, which she and her mother believe will set her apart in that world. “Nowadays there are so many movies with fighting and action scenes, and Alexandria could really do that for a role,” Kim Bader said. Noah Ringer, a martial arts student from Dallas, was cast as the starring role of Aang in the film “The Last Airbender” without any acting experience. “Out of all the places Paramount Studios could have chosen to send him for acting boot camp, they chose our studio to train him,” Seto said. The Young Actors Studio has produced several other successes including Molly Quinn, who stars in the ABC TV series “Castle;” Kaitlyn Dever, who plays one of Tim Allen’s daughters on another ABC TV series “Last Man Standing,” and Kenton Duty who played Young Jacob on “Lost” and Gunther on the Disney Channel Original Series “Shake it Up.” Many of the actors, including these successes, don’t have agents when they start at the studio, but get the opportunity to perform for casting directors and agents during the second semester. “We try to bring that world into them as they’re training,” Seto said. “The ones that are most experienced or most marketable will get picked up first.” Unfortunately, such success stories have given rise to a host of fly-bynight operations that promise parents they can turn kids into stars. “Everyone wants to believe their child can be the next famous singer or actor,” Seto said. “Most of these
people are has-beens who may have worked in the industry or the very peripheral industry and are no longer working.” The Young Actors Studio has no hidden agenda. It is Seto’s worry that many aspiring actors won’t even make it to her studio because they have been burned in the past. “As a nonprofit, the studio doesn’t have a big money sponsor,” Kim Bader said. “The monthly fees are very low for what Linda is doing. She can take a limited budget and make amazing things happen.” If Alexandria Bader gets picked up it will most likely mean moving out to Los Angeles, a possibility she and her mother have considered. “Since Alexandria does school online, the move wouldn’t be difficult in that respect,” Kim Bader said. “The family arrangement would be a little more difficult for us.” Kim Bader has a 13-year-old son and a husband who travels frequently. “If Alex were to book a job there, I would go with her; she’s a minor still. Basically, we would do what we needed to do to make it work.” Kim Bader said, admits she’s still learning the ins and outs of the business. “We’re a package deal, but Linda teaches us the etiquette to prosper in this industry. She tells us all the time, ‘Don’t make it about yourself! This is not your show!’ It’s a balancing act between being there to support your child and not losing sight of who it is about,” Kim Bader said. “I’m her job!” Alexandria Bader said laughing. And a full time job it is. Alexandria Bader spends up to 15 hours each week taking acting classes, which eventually led to her family’s decision to homeschool her. It was not a decision taken lightly, but her parents realized it was the most logical choice after finding an online program that would allow her to keep up with her studies on a schedule that worked for her. “After deciding to homeschool, we talked to Linda about how to get her into the studio more often to take advantage of the extra time,” Kim Bader said. Alexandria Bader spends every Saturday at the studio from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. She said classes go in whatever direction Seto decides to take them that day. “It’s really fun cause she’ll just throw us out there and it really helps with character building and maturing in acting,” she said. Down the narrow hallway at the Young Actors Studio a group of five teens practice in a small room with black drapes covering each
Courtesy of youngactors.org
Dallas’ Young Actors Studio students read scripts as a training exercise.
wall and the iconic Hollywood sign suspended above. They’re performing a dramatic dialogue they have been working on for weeks with their teacher Xai Homechan. At the end of the dialogue a parent stands up clapping and exclaims, “That was so much better!” Homechan then announces that the group is switching gears and ushers them into the room next door. This space appears to be a mini movie set. There is a kitchen with a door that leads into a living room scene complete with couches, lamps and a stairwell. Bright lights shine down on the set and it seems like someone could roll out a camera at any minute and scream “Action!” Instead, Seto does. First, she speaks to the group of about 15 kids and teens to give them instructions for a skit about a homeless man. “I like the stories about heroes…think about Sandra Bullock in ‘The Blindside.’ I want you to pretend you’re not in suburban America and dive into a life of having nothing,” Seto said. Seto whispers to Homechan and he nods as he pulls a blanket around himself and limps onto the stage. Seto then calls young student Natasha Merlene up and instructs her to befriend the homeless man. Once Seto said “action” Merlene rushes through the set’s doorway and dives into character as a young girl who meets a homeless man on the street. As the scene progresses Merlene grows attached to the man and realizes how fortunate she is to have a home. A deep
relationship builds between the two characters as she meets him under the bridge every day after school. It’s an improvisational exercise that changes based on Seto’s shifting guidelines as she pulls different students out of the audience to gear the story in a new direction. Alexandria Bader is called to enter as a friend of Merlene’s and performs in a subtle, soft-spoken fashion. She is unsure of whether to help the homeless man until Merlene convinces her of the just cause. It’s when a small young girl named Peyton Diamond enters the scene that the dynamic changes drastically. Told to play the granddaughter of the now dying homeless man, she becomes deeply emotional as her grandfather grows sicker by the day. No one will help her save him, and when he finally dies she curls up in a ball on the stage and cries. Stillness looms over the room during her convincing performance. When Seto shouts “cut!” Diamond and Merlene hurry off the set and grab tissues to dry their tears. “The power is not in the words,” Seto said. “In film acting it’s the relationships and the moments of silence or tenderness we as actors share with the audience.” “I like that for a little bit in time you can be someone else… because you feel completely immersed in your character,” Alexandria Bader said. “The realism in it is scary, but it’s what we live for. It’s like
a rush.” She said that in an industry that has become so sexualized, she wants to be a role model who parents are okay with their kids looking up to. “I want her to reach her goals but without compromise,” Kim Bader said as tears fill her eyes. “I love that whatever notoriety or celebrity she gets, whenever she talks about it it’s always paired with ‘what can I do for people?’” Believing in her daughter, however, doesn’t mean Kim Bader is unaware of the extreme competition in this market. “I tell Alex all the time, once you put yourself out there you’re going to be open to a lot of judgment and you’re gonna need to learn to let it roll off you,” she said. “It’s all a learning experience.” At the Young Actors Studio, Seto strives to prepare students for life at large no matter what they end up doing. “The way we formatted the studio is like a mini-junior college of the arts,” she said. “It helps them to grow in so many facets.” Seto’s first goal is to help her students learn about themselves as people and give them confidence. “Just being able to perform is a great quality no matter what you’re doing in life.” Seto said. “The confidence to communicate and the skills gained from improv help them to think quickly on their feet. I have kids who went on to start their own businesses and I can look back and say that even though they aren’t actors, they are successes because of the life skills they learned at our studio.”
celebrtiy
New photos emerge from Kurt Cobain’s suicide investigation associated press Seattle police have released previously unseen images showing drug paraphernalia from the scene of Kurt Cobain’s suicide 20 years ago. Police spokeswoman Renee Witt said Thursday that several rolls of undeveloped film were found when a detective re-examined the Cobain case recently. Seattle police released two images to the media late Thursday. One was an image showing a box containing a spoon and what appear to be needles on the floor next to a cigarette and sunglasses. The other showed the paraphernalia box closed, next to cash and a wallet that appears to show Cobain’s identification. Cobain’s, whose body was discovered in Seattle on April 8, 1994, is not seen in the images. An investigation determined he had shot himself.
Courtesy of Associated Press
Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvanna, in a 1993 photo, a year before his death.