February 20, 2015

The Oberlin Review

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 VOLUME 143, NUMBER 14

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Court Overturns Fracking Regulations The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4–3 that city ordinances prohibiting or regulating fracking were unconstitutional. According to the Court, state government, not local government, has the “sole and exclusive authority” to regulate fracking. “The oil and gas industry has gotten its way, and local control of drillinglocation decisions has been unceremoniously taken away from the citizens of Ohio,” wrote William O’Neill, one of the justices in the minority, in his dissent. The city of Oberlin voted to ban fracking in 2013.

Almost 1,500 oil wells have been drilled in Ohio since 2009.

Senior Breaks Women’s Basketball Record College senior Christina Marquette set the all-time scoring record in Oberlin women’s basketball history by scoring 23 points against the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops on Wednesday. She has tallied over 1,700 career points during her four years, surpassing Heisman Club Hall of Fame member Nzinga Broussard, OC ’02, with 1,693 points. Marquette also holds the current record for most career rebounds headed into the Yeowomen’s regular season finale. The conference closer takes place this Saturday against the Wittenberg University Tigers at 1 p.m. in Philips gym.

Senate Reports Higher Voter Turnout Students have voted in the recent Student Senate election at a significantly higher rate than recent elections. According to current Student Senator and College junior Machmud Makhmudov, turnout stood at 27 percent on Thursday night, in contrast to the 20 percent figure that Senate usually aims to achieve throughout the entire voting period.

Cowhaus Creamery Threatens Closure Sarah Conner Staff Writer Due to a significant decrease in revenue, Cowhaus Creamery has been forced to consider closing its store. The owners point to the lack of parking caused by the nearby construction of the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center at the corner of College Street and Main Street as a major reason for this drop in profit.

Josef Bomback, OC ’76 and the coowner of Cowhaus, said the store has experienced a 30 percent decrease in revenue compared to the previous three years they have been in business. He said this drop in revenue directly coincides with the beginning of the Oberlin Inn construction and the removal of parking spaces located outside of the building.

“We were under the assumption that when this building was starting construction, and when those places were taken away, there were 17 places that would be removed, and the parking lot where the trailers are would be removed,” said Bomback.

“Anyone with half an ounce of sense in them would have temporary parking for retail. Without parking, you don’t have retail.”

Bomback said he was surprised by the decrease in on-street parking spots.

“You can have the best location in the world, but the deal-killer every time is no parking,” he said. “We were

Cowhaus Creamery employee Eddy Marflak stares out the window of the empty store. According to the owner, Cowhaus has experienced a decrease in revenue after losing parking spaces during the Gateway Project construction and may have to shut its doors.

Lulu Huang

shocked when we found out that these places were going to be permanently taken away.”

Bomback said the disappearance of parking spots is due to the city’s lack of strong management and foresight. The College owns the lot and all of the parking spaces in question.

“Those spaces are owned by Oberlin College; it’s provided for their facilities and the Oberlin Inn, and it’s [under] their total control about how many spaces they want to maintain,”

said Fire Chief Dennis Kirin. “I don’t see where anyone else in the city, or the city itself, can come in and say you need to provide more parking.”

He says that all of the concerns of the East College Street Project should not be directed toward the city but instead toward the College.

Kirin went on to say that his only role in the parking decision is to approve the safety of the College’s parking plan.

“The contractor has to bring a

plan to the city about their plan to minimize disruptions, and they have to consult with the city,” said Kirin.

“Between public works and city engineer, they have 95 percent of the say about what happens up there, and they help minimize disruptions. The developer and the contractor put the project plan together. We don’t create it; we only help minimize disruption.”

Bomback is also concerned with See Construction, page 4

City Meets Target, Halves Carbon Emissions Oliver Bok News Editor The city of Oberlin has met its target of cutting 2012 greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2015.

Oberlin emitted 113,832 metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2012 and is projected to emit 56,866 metric tons in 2015, according to analysis done by the consulting firm Cameron-Cole.

“In three years, we halved the entire city’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said Sean Hayes, the executive director of the Oberlin Project. The Oberlin Project is an organization that seeks to help Oberlin make progress on a wide variety of environmental issues and coordinates action between the city, College and other local organizations. “It’s really remarkable. When you actually deal with this stuff on a day-to-day level and know what’s involved, you say, ‘Really?’”

Hayes attributed the decrease mostly to changes in the city’s energy portfolio, as electricity generation in 2015 is projected to emit only 19 percent of the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by power plants serving Oberlin in 2012.

Instead of relying primarily on coal, as the city

did in 2012, Oberlin now gets the bulk of its energy from landfill gas — methane that is emitted from landfills, trapped and burned for energy. The city’s electric portfolio is now 24 percent hydro power, 3 percent solar energy, 3 percent wind energy and 55 percent landfill gas. The last 15 percent consists of coal, nuclear power and natural gas. Oberlin now gets roughly 85 percent of its energy from renewable sources — if one considers landfill gas to be renewable energy.

Some environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, oppose the classification of landfill gas as renewable energy on the grounds that the process depends on pollution and that burning methane produces greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio EPA both classify landfill gas as a form of renewable energy.

“In the long run, we shouldn’t have landfills, and then we won’t have landfill gas,” Hayes said. “But in the meantime, there’s a huge amount of methane that comes off of landfills. Methane is essentially the main component in natural gas, so it can be burned and used in the same way natural gas can.

And to top all of that, if you don’t use it, the way that

Senior SendOff

Imagining Havana Oberlin students explore Cuba over Winter Term.

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

2na Tanks Jurassic 5 founder underwhelms hip-hop fans.

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INDEX:

Opinions 5

The men’s basketball team will take a 10–14 record into its last conference game this Saturday.

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

landfills used to vent that methane was just into the atmosphere, and methane is 20 to 21 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So it’s a win-win-win while we have landfills.”

According to Doug McMillan, energy services and sustainability initiatives manager at Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System, landfill gas works well for a town of Oberlin’s size.

“In the whole United States, renewable energy is only 11 percent or 12 percent of the whole picture.

Because we’re so small, we’re able to buy enough to get to 85 to 89 percent [renewable energy]. For Cleveland, there probably wouldn’t be enough [landfill gas] in Ohio to supply them with that size,” McMillan said.

McMillan added that he did not foresee the city going 100 percent renewable energy anytime soon because the city purchases the remaining 15 percent of nonrenewable energy from other electric companies. According to McMillan, renewable energy is expensive to create and thus hard to sell at a competitive price, so the city does not want to create more renewable energy than for which there is See Oberlin, page 4

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The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Marijuana Group Pushes for Oberlin Lab Marisa Aikins The city of Oberlin is now a contender to house a marijuana testing facility. ResponsibleOhio, a nonprofit organization campaigning to legalize marijuana for medical and personal use for adults over the age of 21, is pushing for the facility to be located within city limits.

Although homegrown marijuana will be allowed conditionally, the majority of ResponsibleOhio’s proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution focuses on creating legalized marijuana stores and testing facilities that will be centralized and heavily regulated. The Marijuana Control Commission, a regulatory body that the amendment would create, will regulate the 10 growing locations and at least five testing facilities across Ohio.

The marijuana produced will be

distributed to medical marijuana dispensaries and retail marijuana stores in the areas surrounding these facilities. The marijuana purchased for medicinal purposes must have a recommendation from a doctor and will be sold to the patient at wholesale price. Marijuana purchased for personal use will have a tax rate of less than 15 percent, and 85 percent of the tax revenues will go to municipalities, townships and counties to support public services.

While Oberlin is one of the options for testing facilities, the Marijuana Control Commission would have the final say in where the lab would be located and who would run it, according to Lydia Bolander, a ResponsibleOhio spokesperson.

According to Bolander, Oberlin College is one of the reasons ResponsibleOhio is looking at Oberlin

as a possible testing location. “We wanted to be sure that the research facilities were located in close proximity to Ohio colleges and universities so that these institutions could benefit from potential research opportunities and job growth,” Bolander said.

In order for the proposal to appear on the Nov. 2015 ballot, over 305,500 signatures must be collected. If the amendment passes and the Marijuana Control Commission chooses Oberlin as a location for a testing facility, the Oberlin City Council is ultimately responsible for whether or not the testing facility appears in Oberlin.

“My personal considerations would be to weigh the economic benefits to the city with the possible negative social impacts of marijuana use, and I’m not prepared to make that judgment [at this time],”

said Sharon Fairchild-Soucy, City Council vice president. The City Council members have not had a thorough discussion on this topic and consider it a moot point until it appears on the ballot.

The proposed location for the testing facility is at the intersection of Route 511 and Oberlin Road.

This plot of land is 32.78 acres and was purchased by the city in 2003 for future economic development, according to Oberlin City Manager Eric Norenberg. In the past, this site was home to a gas station and later was used for farming, though it has not been in use since the 1960s.

According to Norenberg, this venture is being treated in the same way any economic development prospect would be treated. Initially, the testing facility is projected to create 40 jobs. Over time, this amount is projected to increase

as the facility grows and becomes more established, potentially resulting in opportunities for local hiring.

However, the Ohio Rights Group, a separate group campaigning for legalized medical marijuana, disagrees with the fundamental idea of ResponsibleOhio’s proposal: a centralized and state-regulated marijuana industry.

“Under the ResponsibleOhio model, all of the profits would be concentrated in the hands of the wealthy investors, and as we all know from the Reagan-era economics, very little will ‘trickle down’ back into the economy,” said John Pardee, the Ohio Rights Group’s president. Pardee added that as an Oberlin native, though he believes that adding well-paying jobs is a laudable goal, he disagrees with ResponsibleOhio’s method.

Students Challenge American Perceptions of Cuba Elizabeth Dobbins News Editor Many Americans think of images of rum, and beaches when they think of Cuba, but there is more to the story, according to Professor of Hispanic Studies Ana Cara. Cara and the eight students who traveled with her to Cuba over Winter Term hope to challenge common American perceptions of Cuba during “Imagining Havana,” a presentation next Monday in Craig Lecture Hall.

“The premise behind [the trip] was, because of the embargo, [that] the kind of information that reaches us is very filtered and usually very, well, iconic. We have pictures of Che [Guevara] and we have pictures of old cars,” Cara said.

“Through the arts, primarily, although we did do some historical readings … we looked at how Havana and Cuba more generally have been represented both by people from the outside and by Cuban people themselves.”

However, Cara said the goals for the trip varied among the participants. In order to capture these many different views, all participants in the trip will present on a range of different topics, including the people the group met, socialism, the Cuba-U.S. relationship, the health care system, political art and Cuba as a symbol of revolution.

College sophomore Simon Regenold, who will present on tourism, said he was struck by the impact of tourism on Cuba and his own position as a tourist in the country.

“We are tourists, and we are trying to get to know people, but we need to think about our positions as Americans. But cultural exchange is [also] very important,” Regenold said.

Over the course of the two-week trip, the group stayed in the Martin Luther King Center in Havana; a guest house in Marianao, a workingclass neighborhood; and Varadero, a popular tourist area in Cuba. Regenold said he found the difference between Varadero and the less touristoriented places interesting.

“Tourism [is] definitely perverting the culture a little bit, and it’s not the greatest influence.

People can make more money working tourist

industries than working as a doctor,” Regenold said. “But also, the interesting thing is how the Cuban government has used its own agency to use tourism to subsidize the government itself. It charges people when [they] leave, and there are two currencies — one tourists use and one [local] people use.”

The trip, run through the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College, mixed sightseeing with conversations with residents. According to College sophomore Evelyn Wagaman, this integration allowed the students to develop, among many things, an idea of the popular opinion in Cuba on President Barack Obama’s re-establishment of diplomatic ties with the country on Dec. 17 of last year.

“We explored Cuba, Havana specifically, through the lens of art and music, but we also talked to a lot of people from Havana informally and we got to learn what they thought of the changes between [the] U.S. and Cuba,” Wagaman said.

Cara said the majority of the Cuban residents that she spoke with felt overwhelmingly positive about the U.S.-Cuba talks to lift the embargo.

“My favorite part was talking one-on-one with people, because one of the extraordinary things about the trip was that it coincided with Obama’s announcement of ending the embargo,” said Cara. “The talks were happening while we were there, so the whole city was very aware that this was happening, and people were very open about their opinions regarding this.”

Cuba, an officially communist country with a socialist economy, often experiences shortages on various goods such as TVs. Over the course of the trip, many students weighed the pros and cons of this system, including College sophomore Hyacinth Parker.

“It’s a very high-functioning, very poor country,” Parker said. “You can either see it as very poor and just leave it there, or you can see it as another world. It kind of is another world in some ways, just because it’s doing everything a lot differently than the rest of the world. … To say that that country doesn’t know what it’s doing

The Oberlin Review — Established 1874 —

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February 20, 2015

Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods.

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Top: Professor Ana Cara and the eight Oberlin students on a Winter Term trip to Cuba speak with Cuban author Eduardo Heras León. The students explored Cuba through the lens of art and music.

Bottom: The group rides the “End the Embargo Against Cuba!” bus which attracted attention from tourists and occasionally broke down. During the trip, students explored the difference between Cuban and American culture.

Courtesy of Ana Cara (top) and Hyacinth Parker

and it’s a poor country is very simplistic.”

Parker said that one day the group was looking to buy about 20 dice for a dice game and asked one of their guides where to purchase them. The guide said they would be lucky to find two.

However, while many goods are not abun-

Julia Liv Combe Herbst Allegra RoseKirkland Stoloff Managing editor Samantha Taylor Field Link News editors Rosemary Oliver Boeglin Bok Elizabeth AlexDobbins Howard Opinions editors editor Will Kiley Rubenstein Petersen This Week editor Zoë Sam Strassman White Arts Week This editorseditor Hazel Kara Galloway Brooks Arts editors Georgia Danny Evans Horn Sports editors VidaQuinn Weisblum Hull Sports editors Madeleine Nate Levinson O’Meara Layout editors Tiffany Tyler Sloan Fung Layout manager Ben Sarah Garfinkel Snider Layout editors Alanna Josh Blankfield Sandoval Photo editors Abigail OliviaCarlstad Gericke Brannon Rockwell-Charland Talia Rodwin Online editor Cyrus Alanna Eosphoros Bennett Editors-in-chief Editors-in-Chief

dant in Cuba, the government provides free access to medical care, a highly developed biotech industry and free education, resulting in a literacy rate higher than that of the U.S.

Photo editors Curtis Mike Cook Plotz Business manager Effie Savi Sedlacek Kline-Salamon Ads manager Reshard el-Shair Business manager Ian Campbell Production Sophia Ads managermanager SaraBamert Vaadia Production manager staff Stephanie Bonner Production Alice Fine Emma Eisenberg Production staff Abbey Bisesi Taylor Field Julia Davis Katherine Hamilton Lya Finston Julia Hubay Annelise Giseburt Tracey Knott Joseph Kenshur Noah Morris OliviaPeckham Pandolfi Anna Kiley Sheffield Petersen Silvia Michael Swantek Drew Wise Distributors Antonia JoeChandler Camper Edmund Metzold Joseph Dilworth Talia Krehbiel-Boutis James Kuntz

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Corrections Corrections: The Review is notof aware of The Review is not aware any corrections any corrections this week. at this time.

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The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

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Off the Cuff: Scott O. Lilienfeld, Samuel Candler Dobbs professor of psychology at Emory University and psychopathology expert Content Warning: The following interview contains ableist language, including discussion of terms used in the work of the interviewee.

So it’s more a popular term, and it’s not really a formal term. So the answer to that is probably no, because it’s not really a disorder itself.

The term ‘sociopath’ actually came from the 1930s when some people thought that there was a difference between people with antisocial and criminal behaviors. [The behaviors that] stemmed from primarily genetic causes [were] only psychopaths, and those whose antisocial and criminal behaviors stemmed from more social causes, like bad parenting or growing up in a bad neighborhood or things like that, were sometimes called sociopaths. There has been some [push] to revise that distinction, but it’s not really stuck.

Scott O. Lilienfeld, Samuel Candler Dobbs professor of psychology at Emory University, will be presenting his talk “Beneath the Mask: The Search for the Successful Psychopath” next Friday. Lilienfeld researches personality disorders and specializes in psychopathy. He spoke with the Review via phone to discuss manifestations, common misconceptions and causes of psychopathy.

How did you become interested in studying psychopaths?

Well, I am one, so — just kidding. But I do get that a lot …

It was really by happenstance. I took an undergraduate course with Bob Dworkin at Cornell University. Bob taught a course on research in psychopathology and Bob, in that course, presented us with, for about a month or so, research on psychopathic personality.

And I found it fascinating — really, really interesting — in part, because I’ve always been really puzzled by how people could grow up or develop without really some filter or empathy. In the course that Bob taught, he talked about the work of David Lykken and [how he] launched the experimental research on psychopathy and devised some very clever — I thought at that time — incredibly clever, ingenious methodologies that seem to show that psychopaths are deficient in fear and that that fear deficit may give rise to the core features of the disorder.

A couple of years later I applied to graduate school and got into the University of Minnesota, which was my first choice. After I got in, ironically, I was checking the faculty members who were actually not in the psychology department, but were adjunct to that department, and there was a faculty member in psychiatry and I noticed his name — David Lykken. I said, “Wow, that seems familiar. Is that the same [person] that did that interesting work that I found fascinating about psychopaths?” Sure enough, it was, so soon after I got to Minnesota I decided to meet David Lykken, and we met, and I asked to be in his lab, and he said yes. The more I worked for David, the more interested in the disorder I became, and the rest is history.

Thursday, Feb. 12 9:45 p.m. A student reported the theft of approximately $50 from a wallet, which was left unsecured in a locker in Philips gym. Nothing else was reported missing.

Friday, Feb. 13 3:31 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a smoke alarm on the third floor of Harkness House. A strong odor of burnt marijuana was detected,

Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University Scott O. Lilienfeld, who will present “Beneath the Mask: The Search for the Successful Psychopath” next Friday

Psychopaths are often portrayed in pop culture. What are some popular misconceptions?

I think … some people confuse psychopaths with people who are psychotic and that might be because the names are sort of familiar. So that’s one misconception: that they’re out of touch with reality, they don’t know the difference between right and wrong. In fact, if anything, the opposite is true. Psychopaths probably do know the difference between right and wrong; they just don’t care. They understand that robbing a bank is wrong, typically, but they don’t seem to appreciate the moral gravity of the act.

Another common misconception is that psychopathy is equivalent or close to equivalent with violence, so that most psychopaths are very violent. It is true that psychopathy is tied to an increased risk for violence, but it’s also true that most psychopaths are not necessarily physically violent, although they can wreak havoc in many different domains.

Are there any differences, in terms of symptoms or neurology, between sociopaths and psychopaths?

Sociopath is really not a formal term anymore. We discourage people from using it because it means three or four different things.

and smoke was observed. The officers confiscated several smoked marijuana cigarettes, a green pipe with residue consistent with marijuana and a marijuana grinder containing a substance consistent with marijuana from one room. In a second room, officers confiscated smoked marijuana cigarettes, incense, a candle and a half-full gallon of tequila.

They transported the items to the Safety and Security office before turning them over to the Oberlin Police Department.

Saturday, Feb. 14 2:35 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a smoke alarm

Are people born psychopaths, then? Are there any genes that predispose people towards psychopathy or is that unknown?

No one is really born a psychopath, I would think. We’re still trying to figure it out, but it’s undoubtably due to a very complex combination or maybe configuration of genes that mark it. At most, genes may predispose people to psychopathy. So there are probably some predisposing factors. We don’t quite know what they are, but there seems to be some genetic basis to some genetic aspects of the disorder, which include lack of fear and callousness, for example, that may in turn, when combined with environmental factors, give rise to psychopathy.

Of course there’s lots and lots [of] fearless people who are not psychopaths. Chris Kyle, the great American sniper, was a pretty fearless guy who doesn’t strike me as psychopathic. Lack of fear is not going to make someone a psychopath, but when combined with other traits and maybe then pairing with other environmental circumstances, [it] might further the predisposed people in that direction.

The topic of your talk is “The Search for the Successful Psychopath.” Can psychopaths be successfully assimilated into society? There’s the common belief that people that are in high-powered positions often have psychopathic tendencies.

That’s right, yeah. Well, we don’t know. … There’s certainly a lot of speculation that, at least in the short run, maybe these folks are out in society and, maybe, just maybe, leading corporations and winning political elections and so on, but a lot of that is really clinical lore, and there’s very little systematic research on the subject.

on the second floor of East Hall, likely caused by burnt popcorn.

There was no smoke or fire.

Sunday, Feb. 15 3:32 a.m. Officers were requested to assist with a student ill from alcohol consumption on the second floor of Harvey House. The student was in and out of consciousness, and an ambulance was requested. The individual was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

8:02 p.m. A resident of Talcott Hall reported that an unknown individual had ripped a portion of a poster display on the bulletin board in Talcott Hall. Posters from a bulletin board were also

Some of your research also looks into selfreporting of psychopathic tendencies.

How is psychopathy often diagnosed?

The most common method in at least research settings is something called the psychopathy check list. … It’s a very standardized interview. We ask the person about their personality traits and their behavior, but you also integrate that with cooperative information, ideally file information, to try to verify or confirm or in some cases disconfirm what the person had said. … And that’s not necessarily a well-supported way of doing it. We actually use self-report measures in our lab, which is somewhat controversial, but it has actually worked fairly well for us in our lab. But that’s publicly researched settings. We wouldn’t advise using self-report measures in forensic settings where people might have a strong motivation to [appear] good, for example.

Why is it controversial to use self-report methods?

Well, a lot of people think that, maybe with some justification, that because psychopaths tend to lie a lot and maybe not have much insight into themselves, that asking them about their own traits may not work. If [someone is] already a liar, asking them if they lie a lot is maybe not a good way of doing things. But what we do in our lab — we don’t ask them to reflect much on who they are. The [questions] don’t require much insight and don’t require much ability to reflect on one’s behavior or to evaluate whether one is psychopathic. We merely ask people what they do, what they’ve done and what their attitudes are. That seems to work pretty well.

The term “psychopath” is sometimes considered a slur. Do you have any the thoughts on the use of the term or possible alternatives?

It can indeed be a derogatory term. In our own lab, we prefer to talk about individuals with varying levels of psychopathic traits rather than psychopaths or nonpsychopaths.

Plus, this fits better with the research literature, which suggests that psychopathy is distributed along one or more dimensions rather than a black-and-white category.

Interview by Elizabeth Dobbins, News editor Photo courtesy of the Emory News Center The last question was conducted via email.

noticed on the floor near an entrance to the building.

Monday, Feb. 16 10:07 a.m. A student fell on the walkway between South Hall and Fairchild House and injured their wrist. Officers responded, and the student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

2:28 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a smoke alarm at Baldwin Cottage. The sprinkler system had discharged in the attic area, causing water to seep into a room on the second floor.

Facilities personnel were called to make repairs, and students were

temporarily relocated.

7:20 p.m. A student reported a suspicious individual wearing a hoodie and track pants in Robertson Hall. Officers responded and checked the area, but the individual was not located. A second student reported that they left a practice room unattended for approximately 20 minutes and found $300 missing from their wallet when they returned.

Tuesday, Feb. 17 7:51 p.m. A custodial staff member reported a snow shovel missing from the Conservatory Annex area, near the first floor elevator lobby. The identity of the shovel thief is unknown.

News

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The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Construction Causes Parking Problem for Cowhaus Continued from page 1 the safety of the lighting near his shop. He said the lighting is poor, which creates a hazard in the winter when the sun sets sooner in the day.

According to Bomback, this deters families from coming during prime business hours if there is not any nearby parking and they must walk through the dark. “[The lighting is] very limited, considering the amount of employees that are there,” said Bomback. “It is not [just] hard for customers, but employees too. A lot of them are students too, and they are driving from Elyria, Lorain

[and] North Ridgeville, so it is really tough on everyone. I really feel bad, and I do not want our employees walking at 11:30 at night three or four blocks away to go get their car. It’s not safe.”

Even though the amount of street parking has been decreased, there are currently four on-street parking spots, in addition to the Eric Nord Way and the East College Project parking lots. Although it is ultimately the decision of the College, Kirin said that more spots will be created in the area.

Kirin said that throughout the East College Project construction, parking was always an issue. However he believes there is sufficient

parking, especially when compared to the rest of the downtown area.

Bomback said that they are projecting revenue to be 20 to 25 percent lower this year compared to the past three years. As for the future of Cowhaus Creamery, he is unconcerned. Cowhaus is in the process of getting involved with wholesale marketing and will distribute ice cream to up to 150 stores throughout northern Ohio starting toward the end of this summer.

“Oberlin is stuck in the past,” Bomback said.

“They said they are going forward, but they are stuck in the past. For this to be resolved, we’re out. But as an alumni this hurts me to even

think like that … but we’ve been making some really strong and positive movement for this issue to be restored.”

He says he has several options, including moving locations, but he is still trying to keep the business in town.

“Right now, we are not going out of business,” said Bomback. “Right now, we are going to keep plugging and taking [it] month by month. … We personally enjoy having a flagship, and we consider East College our flagship.

And we still do, until the numbers say we cannot anymore. We hope this is enough to sustain us until the parking comes in.”

Oberlin Cuts Emissions through Changes in Energy Portfolio Continued from page 1 local demand.

The city has 15-year contracts with landfills in Mahoning County and Geneva. Even when the contracts expire in 2026, however, Oberlin still has right of first refusal and could choose to unilaterally renew its contracts with the waste management companies.

To David Orr, special assistant to the president on sustainability and the environment, the crucial moment came in 2008 when the City Council had to decide whether or not to continue using coal after the old coal-fired power plant that Oberlin relied upon for its energy was set to

go offline.

“The default setting in January of 2008 was that we were going to buy into a thousand-megawatt coal-fired power plant for 50 years down in Meigs County. We won the vote not to do that in a 4–3 vote. That helped us dodge the bullet,” Orr said.

Orr credited David Sonner and David Ashenhurst as the Council members most responsible for Oberlin’s shift away from coal.

“If they had not led that battle and won the fight in ’07, ’08, ’09, we would be a coal-fired powered city for a long time to come. It was unpopular, but they did the right thing,” Orr said.

Another important factor in the large decrease in the city’s carbon

City’s Energy Source Portfolio in 2015

emissions was the switch from coal to natural gas in the College’s steam plant in 2014. According to the Cameron-Cole statistics, the College’s coal usage constituted almost 10 percent of the entire city’s carbon emissions in 2012.

However, the College’s use of natural gas is emblematic of what Hayes described as the “next challenge” in the quest to further reduce emissions: finding ways to reduce or replace the use of natural gas as a means to heat homes and businesses. Natural gas is projected by Cameron-Cole to constitute nearly half of the city’s carbon emissions in the coming year, and the low cost of gas makes it a very alluring energy source for many residents.

“Gas has the lowest carbon emissions of any fossil fuel when it’s burned, so there’s a lot of people switching to gas right now,” Hayes

said. “Partly it’s the fact that gas actually has really low transmission costs to move it from place to place, and it has really high storage capacities within the pipeline system of the U.S. Given the proliferation of fracking, the price of gas is really cheap.”

According to Hayes, getting residents to stop using gas also poses equity concerns. “It’s a really tough challenge, because if you want to go carbon neutral on the city scale in a replicable way that doesn’t gentrify a community and doesn’t price lower income residents out of their homes, you can’t just say, ‘We’re going to move everyone off gas right now,’” Hayes said.

Hayes added that he was hopeful that technologies like electric heaters and biogas could, in time, replace natural gas as the method of choice for Oberlin residents trying to heat

their homes and businesses. Hayes also touted the savings generated

by Providing Oberlin with Energy Responsibly, a local nonprofit group that, among other things, weatherizes low-income residents’ houses for free.

The next emissions reduction target that the city will try to reach to meet is 75 percent of 2012 levels by 2030. By 2050, the city aspires to be entirely carbon-neutral. Oberlin College has pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2025.

In December 2014, the White House recognized the city of Oberlin as one of 16 local governments deemed “Climate Action Champions.”

Oberlin is also currently a semifinalist in the Georgetown University Energy Prize, an ongoing competition that focuses on reducing residential energy consumption and gives a $5 million prize to the winning community.

Metric Tons of CO2

Metric Tons of CO2 Emissions by Source

Emissions Source

Graphics by Sarah Snider

Winter Term Presentation Offers Opportunity to Discuss Cuban Culture Continued from page 2 “They may only have one or two pairs of shoes as opposed to 10, but on the other hand, they have access to opportunities that people in the U.S. don’t universally have,” Cara said. “On the [one] hand, you can call it a poor country because everything is distributed among the populations, but on the other hand you can say, well, everyone has opportunities that otherwise they wouldn’t have. It turns your head around a little bit and makes you start reassessing and reading what you see in a slightly different manner [than] that of an American perspective.”

The opportunity to examine these perspectives and the idea for the trip came about when English for Speakers of Other Languages Instructor Amy Moniot sent Cara an email asking her to lead the Winter Term trip. Cara and Moniot worked with Assistant Dean of Studies Andrés Fernández and Associate Dean of Studies and Director of Programs for International Study Ellen Sayles to organize the logistics and educational goals of the trip.

During the planning process, Cara decided to de-

velop a fall semester class to prepare students for the Winter Term trip. Although not all the students who went to Cuba took one of the two “Imagining Havana” courses offered last semester, the classes, one a full credit class taught in English and one single-module class taught in Spanish, offered a starting point for students to consider American perceptions of Havana.

Regenold said that visiting Cuba after taking the class helped him better understand Cuban culture and the limitations of the classroom.

“It some ways [my experience in Cuba] does match up [with the class], but in some ways this is a culture — how could I have thought I could possibly learn about it in a classroom?” Regenold said.

Cara said the College plans to offer another trip to Cuba in 2017 titled “Reimagining Havana.”

Interest in visiting Cuba is high at the College, with College President Marvin Krislov and a group of Oberlin alumni also planning to visit this year during the March alumni trip “Cuba: The Pearl of the Antilles.”

Krislov said the response to the trip has been so overwhelming that a second alumni trip to Cuba is planned for this October.

The group stands in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, Cuba. Over the course of two weeks, the students traveled to several different parts of Cuba and chatted with residents.

Courtesy of Hyacinth Parker

Opinions The Oberlin Review

February 20, 2015

Letter to the Editors

UIUC Correct in Rejecting Salaita To the Editors:

My son and I came to visit Oberlin on Feb. 16. [My son being] a prospective student, we thought it would give some insight into the school reading the current issue of The Oberlin Review.

In the issue was an “interview” with Steven Salaita. I put interview in quotes, as it more properly should have appeared alongside [Professor of Politics] Jade Schiff ’s Letter to the Editor. Both belonged there, as they were both completely devoid of anything remotely approaching a balanced or even

truthful description of why Salaita was ultimately rejected as fit to represent the University of Illinois as a professor.

According to both the interview and the letter, poor Steven’s First Amendment rights were squashed by those seeking to stop “anti-Israel” opinions. But maybe those reading the article, or Jade Schiff, might have drawn a different conclusion had some of Salaita’s tweets been published as well.

Here are just a few of the many that might have been important to include in his interview or maybe even ask him directly about.

“At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestin-

ian children, would anybody be surprised?”

“By eagerly conflating Jewishness and Israel, Zionists are partly responsible when people say antisemitic shit in response to Israeli terror.”

“Fuck you, Israel. And while I’m at it, fuck you, too, PA, Sisi, Arab monarchs, Obama, UK, EU, Canada, US Senate, corporate media, and ISIS.” Clearly the University of Illinois didn’t want this man to represent them as a professor. Now, with a bit more information, Review readers can decide if they feel the same way or not.

–Andrew Katlin and Fisher Katlin

Fervent Progressivism Blocks Other Views Chloe Vassot Contributing Writer The Oberlin College community is almost notorious for its open embrace of views that lie largely outside the mainstream American political culture. Students are known as extremely accepting of people and opinions that would be ostracized elsewhere, giving Oberlin a reputation of “open-mindedness.”

But unfortunately for a minority of students on campus, the “open-mindedness” of the community goes only one way: toward a rejection of unpopular views in favor of unwavering adherence to the political left.

This was something that attracted me to Oberlin — coming from a community almost as well known for its conservatism as Oberlin is for its liberalism, I looked forward to finally being around people who agreed with me. I equated the presence of liberal values with acceptance of differing opinions.

But in any place where one set of views is so thoroughly sup-

pressed, there is also a peculiarly entrenched closed-mindedness and a refusal to let unpopular opinions be heard.

Being open-minded does not merely entail adhering to beliefs that are marginalized or unpopular elsewhere; being openminded means being able to listen to all sides of an argument, even the side that many have categorized as ignorant.

As a self-professed liberal-minded first-year, I love the mainstream Oberlin culture and the continual validation of my own opinions and beliefs. But other first-years who have more moderate or less fervently progressive views can feel that their ideas are excluded and dismissed.

This is one of a few reasons some are choosing to transfer to another school or strongly considering that possibility for the coming year.

It is sadly ironic that a community that professes to value freedom of thought and expression can concurrently shut out moderate (and especially conservative) thoughts and ways of thinking.

To take an extreme example, the general perception on campus of people who are anti-abortion is that they are ignorant, misogynistic and do not respect the fundamental rights of women.

Since being at Oberlin, the intense rhetoric and mindset against people with such conservative views has begun to strike me as too simplistic and naïve, and very unfair toward people who actually hold these views.

I personally am very much in favor of a woman’s right to choose an abortion. But I’ve had something I’ve only now begun to appreciate: the privilege of knowing and respecting women my age (and older) who hold anti-abortion views, and their stance does not come from a place of hate or ignorance, but from their more deeply held conviction of every human’s right to be alive. It’s difficult for me to unequivocally ridicule an opinion that stems, in some cases like these, from a place of compassion. My reaction to defend people who I strongly disagree with,

on this subject as well as others, has showed me that focusing on only an idea and not those who believe in the idea could lead to misunderstanding and anger; it is not helpful in creating constructive arguments for or against one’s opinion.

I can no longer see the issue of abortion as simply right or wrong, as I did before I came to Oberlin.

It took being here, surrounded by a new set of majority beliefs, to allow me to see the benefit of fully listening to both sides of any argument — and maybe especially the argument that forces one to re-evaluate one’s own thought processes.

Creating a safe and open environment for people of all views and values, something Oberlin at least professes to do, does not come from silencing opinions that may have the ability to offend or cause discomfort, but from allowing an atmosphere of mutual respect and compassion to flourish.

A true culture of openmindedness is something Oberlin would do well to cultivate.

SUBMISSIONS POLICY The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and column submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board.

All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in the following Friday’s Review. Letters may not exceed 600 words and columns may not exceed 800 words, except with the consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names, for all signers. All electronic submissions from multiple writers should be carbon-copied to all signers to confirm authorship.

The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for content, space, spelling, grammar and libel. Editors will work with columnists and contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. In no case will editors change the opinions expressed in any submission.

The Opinions section strives to serve as a forum for debate. Review staff will occasionally engage in this debate within the pages of the Review. In these cases, the Review will either seek to create dialogue between the columnist and staff member prior to publication or will wait until the next issue to publish the staff member’s response.

The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to the author of a letter to the editors.

Opinions expressed in letters, columns, essays, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review.

Page 5

The Oberlin Review Publication of Record for Oberlin College — Established 1874 —

Editors-in-Chief Julia Herbst Rose Stoloff Managing Editor Taylor Field Opinions Editors Sam White Kiley Petersen

Williams Controversy Highlights Perils of Fame in Objective Journalism Media lenses turned inward last week when NBC announced its Feb. 10 decision to suspend Nightly News anchor Brian Williams.

Revelations that the Emmy Award–winning news personality had repeatedly misrepresented his experiences reporting on a 2003 Iraq War mission left the news network reeling, trying to assess damage done to the network’s credibility. Williams delivered an on-air apology on Feb. 4 for what he called a “mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” but his words were quickly overshadowed by a media cycle determined to scrutinize stories from throughout the anchor’s Nightly News tenure.

On the same day as the suspension, revered newsroom comedian Jon Stewart announced that he would be leaving The Daily Show at the end of 2015. In the previous episode, he offered his own stance on the unfolding NBC debacle. “We got us a case here of infotainment confusion syndrome,” he said. “It occurs when the celebrity cortex gets its wires crossed with the medulla anchordala.” While Stewart’s comments drew laughs from his audience, as usual, there is truth in his humor. Not only does he mock the air of celebrity that Brian Williams exuded when he first embellished his experiences on Letterman’s couch, he also alludes to the exaggerated reaction from the media.

On-air fact-checking apologies are not entirely foreign to Stewart. In April of 2009, in the midst of a heated discussion with conservative journalist Cliff May, Stewart called former President Harry Truman a war criminal for his decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A week later, he apologized for the illconceived comment, referring to the terrible feeling he got after the show: “And it just sat in there [gestures to stomach] for a couple of days, just sitting going, ‘No, no, [Truman] wasn’t, and you should really say that out loud on the show.’ So I am, right now, and, man, ew.

Sorry.” Just this year, after mistakenly listing Dante Parker’s death in police custody in a segment on unarmed Black men recently killed in police shootings, Stewart took to the air again to publicly rescind his prior comment. In both cases, Stewart’s apologies were enough for his audience. But for Brian Williams, not so much.

Stewart’s humorous take on the BriWi embroglio can be interpreted in part as a lighthearted attempt to distance himself from the NBC anchor. To be sure, Stewart and Williams have much in common. In his final piece, “Kings of Their Crafts, but on Divergent Paths” (Feb. 11, 2015) recently deceased New York Times columnist David Carr wrote of similarities in the two media icons’ trajectories toward fame, with both attaining celebrity status fueled by high viewership and loyal fan bases. Both have sizable collections of Emmy Awards. Williams, who has made frequent appearances on late-night TV shows, has appeared regularly in the guest seat on The Daily Show.

Yet Stewart frequently reminds media critics that he is first and foremost a comedian, despite his opinionated role in the realm of “fake news.” Williams, on the other hand, is first and foremost a journalist, despite his proclivity for late-night appearances. In the current media environment, the most significant difference between the two professions is the level of objectivity to which they aspire. While Stewart and Williams have both incorrectly reported facts on their respective shows, the impact of their missteps is different. While Stewart’s errors appear in the context of a show overtly guided by the host’s own opinions, Williams’s untruths are presented to upwards of 9 million viewers under the guise of objective news: history, recorded as it unfolds, unaffected by the reporter’s See Editorial, page 6 Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opinions

Page 6

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Papal Support for LGBTQ Issues, Evolution Misleading Kiley Petersen Opinions Editor As a former Catholic, I can tell you that the pope is a big deal.

He’s the head honcho, second only to Jesus, in modern Catholics’ “What Would _____ Do.” So what the pope chooses to endorse or to condemn is a sign of what direction the mainstream church is heading.

I grew up in a liberal AfricanAmerican parish in St. Paul, MN. So while more conservative white Catholic churches were solemnly singing along to an organ and sending white savior mission trips off to lessprivileged nations, we clapped our way through gospel songs, danced in the aisles and had much more enjoyable Sundays than any other Christians I knew growing up.

In an environment that so heavily immersed me in AfricanAmerican and African and Latino immigrant culture, I knew a liberal side of the Catholic church that many of my other friends did not. Every single person who was old enough voted for Obama in 2008, and we were always very conscious of language and culture barriers that a majoritywhite Catholic church might not have been. Our golden days were during the reign of Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Harry

Flynn, famously progressive leaders of the Catholic church, where our politics regarding race and gender were aligned with the Church authority.

So after the horribly conservative leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, my church was visibly relieved when Pope Francis was chosen in 2013. Not only was he the first South American pope in history, his history of activism and leftist social leaning seemed in tune with our anti-racist and anti-capitalist morals. Conservative Catholics took offense when Pope Francis first began making headlines — and we obviously rejoiced. Finally, here was a humble pope who would move the antiquated, obsolete Roman Catholic church into the 21st century. How could someone who used to be a nightclub bouncer before he entered the seminary be bad for the church?

Some of his recent headlines include “Pope Criticizes Vatican Bureaucracy,” “Pope Francis Suggests Church May Tolerate Civil Unions” and “Pope Francis Says Evolution Is Real and God Is No Wizard.” Seems like a drastic departure from typical traditional Catholic rhetoric at first glance.

On closer examination, however, Pope Francis’s seemingly reformist declarations are not as radical as one would think.

The church’s views on evolution

and other theories like the Big Bang have actually been pretty compatible with scientists for a half-century. In 1950, Pope Pius XII suggested in his papal encyclical “Humani Generis” that evolution is not contradictory with religion, and Pope John Paul II’s 1996 speech also declared that evolution “is more than an hypothesis.” A majority of Catholics have actually accepted most scientific theories in conjunction with church teachings; the extremist fundamentalists who believe in only the creation story are slowly dying out.

Some of his more radical statements that appear to support “homosexual marriage” are actually less progressive than they appear. His July 2013 quote about gay rights only appears liberal because of previous church teachings that have demonized and criminalized LGBTQ people.

When asked if there is a “gay lobby” in the Vatican, the pope responded, “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord? You can’t marginalize these people.”

Maybe I’m just an angry atheist queer woman, but I would like more than an affirmation of my right to life. Thanks for not marginalizing me, for treating me as an actual human being?

And no matter what the pope says, he unfortunately does not

speak for all Catholics. Many Catholics, while professing “acceptance” of queer and trans bodies, also blatantly refuse to even consider civil unions for LGBTQ couples. I’m still not out in my liberal African-American parish because several older members would not approve, and even some of the self-professed “liberal” younger generation is still staunchly pro-life and anti-queer.

Another example of Pope Francis’s double standard is his acceptance of trans people. Di–––––––––––––––––––––––––

Some of his more radical statements that appear to support “homosexual marriage” are less progressive than they appear.

His July 2013 quote about gay rights only appears liberal because of previous church teachings that have demonized and criminalized LGBTQ people.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– ego Neria Lejarraga, a Spanish trans man, apparently wrote to the pope last year, received two phone calls from him and visited him in late January of 2015. This obvious acceptance of a trans man seems to be in direct opposition to Pope Francis’s comments in Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, which equate trans people to nuclear weapons as both contrary to the order of creation.

“Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in

a few instants a very high number of human beings. Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation.

With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator.”

This hypocrisy in the pope’s language is confusing. He has an impressive approval rating probably because he is seen as a modernizer for the outdated church, yet his support for these contested issues is a false front. I view it just like a business executive who jumps on the rainbow LGBTQ trend, the feminist trend or the green trend to appear friendlier to younger members. The church, while still boasting an impressive 1.2 billion Catholics globally, has a decreasing base of young members.

No matter his reasons for these progressive claims, the pope falls short on any real advancement in church doctrine.

This points to a central flaw in this type of logic. You cannot proclaim love for a person (based on race, gender, sexual orientation or gender orientation) and then refuse to admit them any rights in your religion.

I’m not asking for the pope to demand that the Catholic church marry same-sex couples, or to allow women to become priests, because that is not going to happen in my lifetime. I’m asking that the pope and the church approve of the legal marriage or civil union of LGBTQ couples, and for the health, safety and acceptance of women, people of color and trans people. Basic humans rights, really, that the church claims to uphold.

Editorial: Journalists Must Recognize Personal Biases Continued from page 5 opinions. When purportedly objective journalists of Williams’s stature report untruths, they violate their viewers’ trust by selling them a distorted historical record.

Some commentators, including this Editorial Board, have decried objectivity as an unattainable standard, one which inevitably carries the potential to violate audiences’ trust by obscuring reporters’ inherent biases. Writing for the A.V. Club, Caitlin PenzeyMoog suggests that when practicing within the confines of objectivity, reporters “must pretend to be robots.

That’s bad for journalism, bad for engagement, and bad for the people who benefit from strong reporting.” Stewart, she argues, succeeds precisely because he uses humor to free himself from that standard. Williams, whose public personality and frequent forays into late night TV have long been at odds with the robotic objectivity of nightly news programs, seems to prove her point.

Public figures — from politicians to comedians to journalists — must be held accountable for their biases and opinions, and media personalities such as Williams and Stewart are no exception. And in virtually all public professions, opinions are part of the trade. “It doesn’t seem possible for any intelligent person to explore an issue and not, in that process, form opinions on it,” PenzeyMoog rightly suggests. “It’s more harmful to pretend that reporters don’t have opinions, because we don’t know how those opinions might be affecting the story.”

Breaking news journalism, so the saying goes, is the rough draft of history. Good journalists, however, must take the initiative to revise previous drafts swiftly and diligently — and to recognize their own place in the story.

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Page 7

Awareness Vital in Eating Disorder Treatment Rose Stoloff Editor-in-Chief Trigger Warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders.

Over the summer I found myself sitting in my bed at three in the morning writing an email to my mother, confessing to her that I had been living with an eating disorder for the last three years. That night, while trying in vain to fall asleep, something clicked in my brain. I was done hiding my disease, done suffering alone and ready for help. Her response the next morning: “I already knew; I love you.”

My eating disorder crept up on me during the summer before my sophomore year at Oberlin. It snaked its way into my life so maliciously and silently that I never even recognized it for what it was. I wasn’t planning on losing weight; I never wanted to change my body. I started restricting what foods I ate and how large my portions were because I was developing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. But my habits soon became obsessions, and in a matter of months I weighed as much as I had when I was in fifth grade.

A year and a half after reaching a healthy

weight, and seven months after receiving formal treatment and therapy at the Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders, I still have a hard time talking about and admitting that I am a recovering anorexic. In fact, this op-ed will likely come as a surprise to all but a few friends.

Anorexia is much more than a number on a scale or a last-ditch effort to lose five pounds; it is a biological, irrational state of mind that has the highest death rate of any mental illness. But like most mental illnesses, eating disorders are still clouded in shame, making them both hard to talk about and hard to recognize. Next week, Feb. 22–28, is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. This year’s theme is “I had no idea.” According to the National Eating Disorder Association, the week will be geared toward educating people about the importance of catching the early, often-overlooked warning signs of eating disorders.

My mother once told me that if you are pregnant, it is as if every other woman on the street is pregnant too. The same was true of my eating disorder. Before my own experience I never thought about eating disorders; now I see eating disorders, disordered eating patterns and unhealthy rela-

tionships with food and bodies everywhere.

At meals, every time somebody proclaims that they shouldn’t have eaten those French fries or that they don’t “deserve” that cookie, I cringe. I worry when members of my cross country and track team casually remark that they haven’t had their period in months, something I lost for a year to anorexia. I am resentful of the new “health” app on the iPhone that tracks how many miles its user has walked in a day. And I can no longer set foot in a co-op because I am triggered by the way people discuss their food restrictions with pride and the shaming that often occurs for taking more than one’s “cooperative portion.”

Catching disordered eating behaviors before they have the chance to spiral into full-blown eating disorders is crucial and the focal point of NEDA’s awareness week.

I have seen acquaintances at Oberlin and close friends display patterns of unhealthy behavior, and I have mostly been too cowardly to say anything. I am not suggesting we police each other’s eating habits. That could easily backfire. But calling people out on microaggressions in reference to others’ food choices could go a long way.

My cross country team has a salad obsession that I am regrettably complicit in.

But a plate full of vibrant vegetables, beans and hard-boiled eggs has become so commonplace that when a teammate of mine had two slices of pizza for dinner, two of our other teammates stared critically at her plate, asking if that was what she was really having for dinner.

I doubt my teammates meant any harm.

Before my own experience I likely made similar comments. In fact, my cross country teammates are generally more conscious of issues of body image and eating disorders than many people I know, and I credit much of my recovery to my experience on the team. But I should have said something to my two teammates about the devastating effects that this tiny comment could have had on some individuals. Part of the process of recovering from an eating disorder is learning to confront “fear foods.” If someone had judged me for eating pizza, I likely would have thrown my meal in the trash in exchange for a salad.

I have been thinking about writing this piece for a long time. More than anything, this is my way of coming clean about my eating disorder. But I also hope that maybe it will convince others to think more critically of the way they discuss food, bodies and health.

Winter Term Contextualizes Social Justice Concepts Erin Ulrich Contributing Writer I think it goes without saying that Oberlin is a stimulating place; the social rigor parallels that of the academic, resulting in an inevitably challenging yet invigorating environment. However, what I find more often than not (as I know many other people do) is how isolating the Oberlin bubble can be and how exaggerated this is during Winter Term. As an opportunity to depart from the bubble for an entire month, Winter Term is a prime time to apply theoretical knowledge learned in the classroom to the real world. I was particularly excited about my first Winter Term experience this past January; I felt as though I had been specifically primed for exactly what I was going to do outside of Oberlin.

For the month of January, I spent five days a week student teaching a combined fifth- and sixth-grade classroom in the San Francisco Bay Area Public Schools.

The students in my classroom were primarily students of color from low-income families, many of whom did not speak Standard English as a first language. Seeing as I spent my first semester at Oberlin being pushed by my Rhetoric and Composition class to move past orthodox, outdated, Eurocentric ideals of English monolinguism and to essentially tell the standardized education system to fuck off, I felt as though I had sufficient education and practice in theoretical discussions regarding such issues that would easily transfer over to the real world.

But as I flew across the country, I felt the bubble begin to pop. It was not as though all I had learned

at Oberlin and all the previous ideals that I had challenged just disappeared, or that I felt as though the amount of classroom time I had spent discussing the countless racist policies in the institutionalized education system had been wasted. However, theoretical knowledge does not equate to practical knowledge. My Winter Term experience was not a smooth shift in thinking in the abstract or ideological to the concrete, but rather a reformation of both modes of thinking as the result of the other.

It’s true that the public education system in this nation is fucked up. I cannot count on my fingers the number of times I saw students verbally abused by teachers, paid no attention to in the classroom or punished for no reason other than the color of their skin. And because this immense inequality

is so embedded in such a massive system, theoretical discussion is needed in order to begin developing strategies for reformation.

But without exposure to the real world, taking things so entirely out of context and engaging in conversation at such a place of privilege, it is often easy to fall into a trap of a type of radicalism that is ineffective in practice. Theory misses not just macro-problems such as funding for the institutionalized education system, but also even more basic problems, such as how racism plays into office politics and thus affects the treatment of teachers by their students.

We have a responsibility to stand up against the ways in which the institutionalized education system predestines certain students to lives of inequity because of their race. We cannot accept that those in power contributing

to this oppressive system can be the sole determinants of a child’s future. We cannot accept that 10and 11-year-old students of color are expected to perform well in school, regardless of their home lives, without any sort of support or reassurance that they are intelligent, powerful and can have the same access to the same opportunities as white students.

But in order to implement real and lasting change, we must also exist outside of the bubble so as to position ourselves in a way that is not counter or damaging to the way things exist currently. And with the tools our community and education provide us, we need not be distinct from the real world here at Oberlin, but rather can make whatever change we wish, however large or small — but only if we are willing to step outside of our comfort zones.

Social Movements Must Incorporate Environmental Justice CJ Blair Columnist There’s no doubt that Oberlin is a place known for its conscientious and progressive students. While Oberlin’s sustainable Adam Joseph Lewis Center and a handful of environmental organizations demonstrate concern about environmental issues, day-to-day conversations between students tend to favor social, rather than environmental, justice. This is by no means a bad thing, but such conversations often fail to see the ways in which environmentalism is just as pressing a concern as social justice, as well as how the two are inextricably tied.

If it sounds like I’m going to condemn the social justice initiatives on campus, let me assure you that I’m not. The way in which Oberlin responded to the horrendous incidents of police brutality this fall was the most powerful and moving experience I could’ve imagined for my first semester of college. Even when tension between students and administration was at its peak, there was no denying the ability of the stu-

dent body to use powerful rhetoric to promote action on campus. After speaking to John Elder, OC ’53, who has served on the Board of Trustees for years, he said that this passion has characterized Oberlin since he was a student. Why, then, is environmentalism not being so ardently championed?

Part of the reason may be a lack of urgency in environmental campaigns. With social justice initiatives, particularly issues like marriage equality that are currently being reviewed by courts and lawmakers, the end goal is attainable and not too distant. Of course, it will be a very long journey before social acceptance of LGBTQ identities is the norm, but at least there is great potential for short-term achievement in the form of new laws or changes in policy.

In spite of all the media attention surrounding global warming, environmentalism provides less room for immediate satisfaction. By virtue of the movement, the goal is not to reverse a systemic injustice but to invest in the future. Conservationists are not wrong when they say that their movement is working to ensure a clean planet for

future generations, but it’s quite a bit harder to fight for something you know you’ll never live to see than something you could possibly fix in a year, such as the lack of diversity in the Student Senate.

There is, however, some common ground here. Whether they are social or environmental, justice movements have the most power and potential to succeed when the focus is narrow. On campus, I work with Oberlin College Anti-Frack, and we are currently trying to stop Spectra Energy’s NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline, which is due to go through the town of Oberlin when it’s installed. From the name of our group, you can tell that we’d like to see the end of hydraulic fracturing of land for natural gas. Yet we know we won’t accomplish anything unless we home in on a facet of this problem that can be combated locally. This narrowing of focus into a concrete and definite line of activism provides urgency and capacity for change for the people who fight for it.

It’s also worth noting that environmental justice and social justice, when seen on a smaller scale, can be combated

simultaneously. The proposed route for the Nexus pipeline, for example, is slated to go through many low-income communities of color, where Spectra Energy is less likely to find resistance from residents toward this immensely dangerous pipeline. In my home state of Kentucky, mountaintop removal for coal mining has left vast tracts of the Appalachians barren and forever ruined. This occurred in some of the state’s most impoverished regions, and the residents have known nothing but poverty and urban decay for generations as a result.

Oberlin is a place of amazing energy, and that shouldn’t change. However, there is vast potential for that energy to be augmented if it grows to encompass environmentalism. The type of person who comes to Oberlin is one who can apply ample intelligence to solving problems, and when such people come together to fight, the results are always powerful. As long as I am here, I am going to fight for environmental justice, and I can only hope that even more bright and passionate minds will join me.

Voices of

WO B C Sunday

Monday

Drowning in Sludge Viral Cybernetic Implosion

GET BENT

12 a.m.

5–6 a.m. Tuesdays

1 a.m.

Wyatt Winborne, College first-year

2 a.m.

The Black Fog

3 a.m.

Hardcore Vanity

4 a.m.

Electro-Chemical Transmission Quantum Corridor

What’s the theme of your show?

I’m playing kawaii pop that’s been slowed down so the vocals that are typically associated with the genre aren’t so squeaky and sound more like what the original vocal tapes would be. Because [in] kawaii pop, they generally tend to bend the vocals up in pitch to give it sort of — not quite a chipmunky sound, but almost. So I’m bending the vocals down to make it not sound like that.

How did you decide to do this?

I’m a big fan of kawaii pop; I think it’s really fun to listen to. PC Music is a great label.

I think I heard a remix of a kawaii pop song and slowed it down and thought it was interesting to hear how the vocals sounded normally, and that’s how I decided to do my show.

5 a.m.

6 a.m.

Gut Feels

7 a.m.

LGBTunes

8 a.m.

Applied Pressure

Tuesday

Wednesday

100% SWEAT

Shoegaze Kidz

Junkyard Brown Radio Show

Ultra Violet

Queen of Bacchanal

Soca Is...

Ichi Ni San Shi

The Arboretum

Holy Shit!

Orange Candy

My New Pep-Pep

Seoul Train

Into the Woods

Get Bent

Classical Diva Moment

Basic Witches

Wine Moms

The Soundsystem Corpse Paint and Cough Syrup

1967

The student-run radio station serving the College and town from the antenna atop Wilder Hall made its spring semester debut on Monday morning with a schedule full of new shows and old standbys.

Thursday

Toothy's Treasures Shut Up and Listen Dr. Greenthorn & the Space Cadets Bill Clinton's House Party I Know Where Sid Barrett Lives Encyclopedia Psychadelia

Out of the Lab

Muse for Hire

Natural Formations

Rudest on the Radio

Gym Dance

Gettin' Buckets

In Transit

Let it Bleed

Just Cuz

Daily Dose

10 a.m.

Sound Unseen

Divas, Divas, Divas Backwoods Barbie II Amal Glam Radio Slam

The British Invasion

Cleveland Renaissance

Look out Liar

Queens of Noise

News Hour

Secret Garden

Chinese Society

Porto-Novo

S.E.A. Change

Á la Saveur de...

Entre Hierba, Polvo, Plomo

Seoul Beats

Existential Maneuvers

Hispañoberlin

Connections

Glad4Trad

4 p.m.

5 p.m.

Dead Hear Footsteps

6 p.m.

The Auto Era

7 p.m.

Uncommon Practice

8 p.m.

9 p.m.

Underground Railroad Radio Radical Departures

10 p.m. Beaver Club 11 p.m. Oberlin Collage

Bruxxsel Just for the Jazz of It

Soul Food

Rock and/or Roll

Turn Up! The Radio

Art Thoughts

It's Gonna Rain

Foldover

Exhibition Initiative

Insane Rip

Not Quite 'The City'

All Things Irish

Live Fast Die Fast

History 101

Welcome to Paradise Through Being Cool It Came from The Garage

Something for Nothing Naija Boys do American Rap

Jazz Oddysee 2.0 Big Surf Radio Radio 54 Uncle Mike's Obituary Delhistanbul Express

Rip Smops Minority Report

4 Corners

Why the Folk Cambooty Party

Finding Freedom: Oberlin Capoeira Angola Alumni Retreat Friday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Afrikan Heritage House This all-weekend event will include workshops, discussions and capoeira’s characteristic rodas, in which pairs of capoeiristas engage in the art’s unique combination of dancing and fighting in the center of a ring of onlookers who sing and play music. All events at the retreat are open to the public. See the online events calendar for full details and times.

account a lot of things. There are a lot of variables. So, the show itself, the DJ’s experience, what times they can make a show, what times they can have a show, how it fits into the larger programming …

MS: Our first priority goes to community members, especially community members who have established shows at certain hours, just because they have dedicated listenerships and their schedules are a lot less flexible than [students’]. We think it’s really important to get members of the community involved in the radio station.

What do you think people don’t know about WOBC? MS: A surprising number of people don’t know about our “Live from Studio B” program. Every Sunday at 2 to 3 p.m., we live-broadcast, record and videotape a live musical act from Studio B, which is just a little studio situated in the back of the station. [The acts are] sometimes touring bands, sometimes bands from Cleveland, sometimes Oberlin students.

SSS: Sometimes when a band comes to the ’Sco, … [they stop] by Studio B the day before or after the show.

Organized Noise

Chameleon Radio

Balle Balle Chaos Solid Gold City

Hot Case, Final Pull

Snapshots in Time USA & World Today

12-Inch, Single

Strange Martini

Disco Minute

Heavy Rocks

Subject Detroit

Germaniacs

The Ritual

Pure American Metal

The Point of No Return

Environmetal

The Review sat down with Sivan Silver-Swartz, Conservatory senior and WOBC music director, and Michael Stenovec, College senior and WOBC operations manager to talk about what it’s like to help keep WOBC on the air.

Is WOBC different from other small college radio stations?

Sivan Silver-Swartz: Yes. One of the big things is that it’s 24/7, which is pretty rare for a college this size. A lot of other liberal arts colleges have radio stations turn off the transmitter at night.

Another thing that’s different is that … we joke that our unofficial motto is “no experience necessary.”

There’s a very quick training period, and so you don’t have to have had a year working at the station before you have a show, which a lot of other stations do have.

All the students have a one-hour slot, so there’s a lot of shows and there’s a lot of people, which I think makes it much more exciting.

Have you ever gotten too few applications for the slots?

SSS: No, not in at least our time. It is a lot of slots, but as long as I’ve been here, there’s always been at least 50 more applications than slots.

How do you choose, then?

Michael Stenovec: Funny you should ask. [Laughs.]

SSS: It’s a long process because we have to take into

Hot R&B Singles

Hour of Power

DEMOCRACY NOW All Reggae

Freedom from Strife

Hearts and Minds

Crisis on Infinite Earth The King's Collective

What happens if you curse on the air?

SSS: First of all, that never happens. [Laughs.] So, there isn’t something automatic that happens. It’s not like — MS: A red light doesn’t flash.

SSS: But what can happen is that somebody can listen and then complain to the [Federal Communications Commission] about it, and then the FCC can fine us a lot of money.

Is it true that you’re not allowed to have long periods of radio silence?

SSS: That’s another FCC thing; it’s technically illegal to have more than 15 seconds [of] dead air. I think it’s because they don’t want anybody crowding up the airwaves when there isn’t actually any content going out, so that space could be used by another station.

Has WOBC ever had regulatory trouble?

MS: I think before our time maybe it might have happened once. But we don’t really have any room in our budget to allow this sort of thing to happen. … It would be catastrophic.

Vibe: “Jammin’ and silly. I like being silly. It’s fun.”

What’s the theme of your show?

I’m playing psychedelic pop with a component of voice mails, where I’m taking clips of my favorite voice mails and playing in weird music with weird sounds. I’m trying to interview people about voice mails; it’s a project I’m doing. … That was an idea I had about a documentary, like interviewing people about voice mails or doing a project involving that… so I’m kind of doing this to test it out. I just really like weird psychedelic pop-type music, so I thought this would be really fun to do.

Pagan Pool Party

Soulful Love

Plink Plank

Becca Winer, College first-year

Babe Waves

Are U Feeling It?

Courtesy of Anna Rose Greenberg

12–1 p.m. Mondays

Rare Birds

Hepcat

9 a.m.

World Famous Meeko Show

Here's Another Goodie The New Midwest Northern Soul Classics

Soul Stroll

Even More Reggaeton

3 p.m.

Know Your Roots

The Fever

The Classical Guitar Show

Four Lines, No Waiting Making 12 p.m.

CONnections Pleasures, Old 1 p.m. and New Live From Studio 2 p.m.

B

H.W.'s Sassy Lips

Mix It Up!

The Flannel Channel The Times with Clark and Mike

11 a.m.

Saturday

Made in America

The Music and the Mirror Not Your Mama's Pasta

Politically Erect

Friday

AMAL GLAM RADIO SLAM

GERMANIACS 9–10 p.m. Saturdays

Anna Rose Greenberg, College sophomore

Vibe: “Industrial power.”

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

It was at 6 a.m., which was kind of rough … but honestly, I kind of liked it. That was because I knew firstyears always get weird after-hours slots, so it’s kind of like a rite of passage. … There were weird callers all the time, especially at like 6 a.m. I got a weird call from a trucker who called in and was trying to make small talk and was like, “Oh hey, how’s it going? Crummy weather we’re having here.” And then he made a weird reference to Seattle suicide rates. … Then he said, “So anyways, can you play this song?” I played the song, and it was a sad song, but I expected no less from that guy.

Lydia Moran

INTO THE WOODS

Hazel Galloway

5–6 a.m. Mondays

Paul Mehnert, College junior

Vibe: “Folky, but also sometimes creepy, but also sometimes not creepy.”

What’s the theme of your show?

It’s a lot of experimental folk music, so dark folk music or progressive folk music. … It’s a lot of my favorite stuff. It’s a lot of stuff from the ’70s and that period, and also a lot of contemporary stuff, like more poppy bands like Fleet Foxes.

Is this similar to your previous show?

It’s pretty different. For my last show I did black metal, but a lot of black metal has folk influences, so a lot of the stuff I’m playing now is darker folk music that has elements of the same [style].

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

A sort of funny thing is that the DJ after me only showed up for two of his shows the entire semester, so I basically had a two-hour show the whole semester. There was one point when the girl after him also didn’t show up, so I was just playing for three hours straight, which was fun but also not that fun because it was four in the morning to seven in the morning. But also it was nice, because after the first hour I would stop playing black metal and start playing whatever I wanted. I ended up playing a lot of folk stuff, and I really enjoyed that, so I think that’s what inspired my new show.

THE FLANNEL CHANNEL 7–8 a.m. Wednesdays

Rachel Maclean, College sophomore Abbey Bisesi, College sophomore

Vibe: “Goofy and entertaining, but also serious.”

What’s the theme of your show?

Abbey Bisesi: It’s like a part talk, part music show, mostly just talking about topics that are salient to the queer community. … [We play] mostly music by queer artists … just, like, a range. We’re not really limited by a genre, other than we want to be promoting queer artists.

What’s the theme of your show?

My theme for Germaniacs is loud German music, so primarily punk and metal.

German music is really my passion; Berlin is my favorite city in the world. These are the people I listen to. I’m probably the loud German music expert on the East Coast.

Before this, I did Global Cacophony, which was just loud music from anywhere but the United States.

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

Well, the huge high point is definitely that I’ve managed to get a few of these hugedeal German musicians up and interviewed them, and they’re all super nice, and they actually talk with me, and I can’t believe that.

[Other memorable moments were] some of those 3 a.m. shows, just playing 30-minute songs of Germans chanting, like Gregorian chanting and strange ambient noise. … It gets pretty funny sometimes, though that might just be sleep deprivation.

WINE MOMS 6–7 a.m. Tuesdays

Margaret Saigh (DJ Kathy), College sophomore Ryan Murphy (DJ Barbara), College sophomore

THE BRITISH INVASION

Vibe: “Silly. Mom-like, awkward.

Like really dry humor.”

10–11 a.m. Tuesdays

Jackie Milestone, College junior and WOBC Pop Director

What’s the theme of your show?

MS: We’re two uncool moms who like to drink a lot of wine. A lot of times we talk about contemporary issues that we find somewhat troublesome, like the fact that girls seem to be going out more without wearing any makeup and all those kinds of things. We talk about our kids a lot and how they’re changing in the changing world. And then we’re really puzzled, so after a while we just decide to kick back and play Paula Abdul and Macy Gray people like that.

RM: George Michael, Prince.

Vibe: “Energetic — I like to keep my shows definitely engaging and high-energy. And informative also, because I always like to give background information on the stuff I’m playing.”

What’s the theme of your show?

It’s British music, and it’s definitely starting with British Invasion– era stuff. And then it’s going to move onto other British music and British songs, pop and stuff like that.

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

Last semester … one week, I did Disney music, which was super fun.

And towards the end of the show I think the person who was DJing after me called and said they were going to be late. I had my playlist all made up, and I didn’t have any extras, so I just announced on the air, “Call in to request Disney songs if you have anything that you didn’t hear that you want played.” … A lot of people called in, and on the fly, I just played a bunch more songs. Somebody I didn’t even know called in. … It was really fun just going on the fly and getting actual requests from people.

How did you come up with the idea?

RM: We are wine moms. Someone called us that one time.

Hazel Galloway

This Week Editor: Hazel Galloway

Contributing Writers: Lydia Moran and Olivia Konuk

Hazel Galloway

What are some memorable moments from previous shows?

RM: I feel like “Times of the World” was really funny. … We kind of just make it up as we go along, and one time, … just between songs [I said], “And now, Times of the World,” and I just named random world cities and the time it currently was in those world cities, and we both found it really funny.

MS: We also do a “What the Kids are Listening to Nowadays” segment, and we play very clean versions of Drake and Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry.

RM: Also, my mom listens to it and texts me music suggestions. She’ll be like, “You’re not wine moms until you play this particular Van Halen song.” And sometimes we’ll play something and she’ll text me and be like, “Yes! Perfect choice!”

CALENDAR

Noche de Juegos Friday, Feb. 20, 8 p.m.

Harvey House Lounge

Maslenitsa (Russian Carnival) Saturday, Feb. 21, 1:30–2:30 p.m.

Tappan Square

The First of Mays Saturday, Feb. 21, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Oscars Screening Sunday, Feb. 22, 8 p.m.

Wilder 101

Mallory Monday, Feb. 23, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Majical Cloudz Thursday, Feb. 26, 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

The ’Sco

Residents of Spanish House are organizing a casual night of board games and snacks in the Harvey House lounge. All are welcome to drop by and try Spanish Bananagrams, Uno, Scrabble, Taboo, cards and other games. It will be a Spanish-language event.

The Russian department will host a celebration of the traditional Russian holiday celebrating the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Although the forecast is far from spring-like, the festivities in Tappan will include a bonfire in addition to traditional Russian songs and games.

This original silent film is the culmination of months of work by College juniors Linnea Kirby and Molly Barger, along with double-degree junior Christiana Rose. The plot highlights their and others’ extensive experience in tumbling, acrobatics and aerials as it tells the story of a pair of bandits who join the circus while on the run from the law. Live music will accompany the screening.

The Oberlin Film Series will bring the Oscars to the big screen in Oberlin for a second year. There will be pizza and trivia games, and an Apollo gift card will be awarded to whoever correctly guesses the most Oscar recipients. Semi-formal attire is optional.

This four-piece band based in western Massachusetts will bring its folk-punk sound and revolutionary spirit to Oberlin while en route to a tour stop in Pittsburgh. According to the group, they draw their influences from “ritual practices and personal mythologies, old Appalachian music, queerness, strangeness, the woods, growth and uncertainty.”

This Montreal-based duo met with a wider audience after opening for Lorde on her tour of North America this fall. Their synthy electronic pop sound incorporates indie elements and has been called “melodic and mesmerizing,” “disarmingly vulnerable” and, in reference to their latest album, “as discomfiting as it is transcendent.”

Voices of

WO B C Sunday

Monday

Drowning in Sludge Viral Cybernetic Implosion

GET BENT

12 a.m.

5–6 a.m. Tuesdays

1 a.m.

Wyatt Winborne, College first-year

2 a.m.

The Black Fog

3 a.m.

Hardcore Vanity

4 a.m.

Electro-Chemical Transmission Quantum Corridor

What’s the theme of your show?

I’m playing kawaii pop that’s been slowed down so the vocals that are typically associated with the genre aren’t so squeaky and sound more like what the original vocal tapes would be. Because [in] kawaii pop, they generally tend to bend the vocals up in pitch to give it sort of — not quite a chipmunky sound, but almost. So I’m bending the vocals down to make it not sound like that.

How did you decide to do this?

I’m a big fan of kawaii pop; I think it’s really fun to listen to. PC Music is a great label.

I think I heard a remix of a kawaii pop song and slowed it down and thought it was interesting to hear how the vocals sounded normally, and that’s how I decided to do my show.

5 a.m.

6 a.m.

Gut Feels

7 a.m.

LGBTunes

8 a.m.

Applied Pressure

Tuesday

Wednesday

100% SWEAT

Shoegaze Kidz

Junkyard Brown Radio Show

Ultra Violet

Queen of Bacchanal

Soca Is...

Ichi Ni San Shi

The Arboretum

Holy Shit!

Orange Candy

My New Pep-Pep

Seoul Train

Into the Woods

Get Bent

Classical Diva Moment

Basic Witches

Wine Moms

The Soundsystem Corpse Paint and Cough Syrup

1967

The student-run radio station serving the College and town from the antenna atop Wilder Hall made its spring semester debut on Monday morning with a schedule full of new shows and old standbys.

Thursday

Toothy's Treasures Shut Up and Listen Dr. Greenthorn & the Space Cadets Bill Clinton's House Party I Know Where Sid Barrett Lives Encyclopedia Psychadelia

Out of the Lab

Muse for Hire

Natural Formations

Rudest on the Radio

Gym Dance

Gettin' Buckets

In Transit

Let it Bleed

Just Cuz

Daily Dose

10 a.m.

Sound Unseen

Divas, Divas, Divas Backwoods Barbie II Amal Glam Radio Slam

The British Invasion

Cleveland Renaissance

Look out Liar

Queens of Noise

News Hour

Secret Garden

Chinese Society

Porto-Novo

S.E.A. Change

Á la Saveur de...

Entre Hierba, Polvo, Plomo

Seoul Beats

Existential Maneuvers

Hispañoberlin

Connections

Glad4Trad

4 p.m.

5 p.m.

Dead Hear Footsteps

6 p.m.

The Auto Era

7 p.m.

Uncommon Practice

8 p.m.

9 p.m.

Underground Railroad Radio Radical Departures

10 p.m. Beaver Club 11 p.m. Oberlin Collage

Bruxxsel Just for the Jazz of It

Soul Food

Rock and/or Roll

Turn Up! The Radio

Art Thoughts

It's Gonna Rain

Foldover

Exhibition Initiative

Insane Rip

Not Quite 'The City'

All Things Irish

Live Fast Die Fast

History 101

Welcome to Paradise Through Being Cool It Came from The Garage

Something for Nothing Naija Boys do American Rap

Jazz Oddysee 2.0 Big Surf Radio Radio 54 Uncle Mike's Obituary Delhistanbul Express

Rip Smops Minority Report

4 Corners

Why the Folk Cambooty Party

Finding Freedom: Oberlin Capoeira Angola Alumni Retreat Friday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Afrikan Heritage House This all-weekend event will include workshops, discussions and capoeira’s characteristic rodas, in which pairs of capoeiristas engage in the art’s unique combination of dancing and fighting in the center of a ring of onlookers who sing and play music. All events at the retreat are open to the public. See the online events calendar for full details and times.

account a lot of things. There are a lot of variables. So, the show itself, the DJ’s experience, what times they can make a show, what times they can have a show, how it fits into the larger programming …

MS: Our first priority goes to community members, especially community members who have established shows at certain hours, just because they have dedicated listenerships and their schedules are a lot less flexible than [students’]. We think it’s really important to get members of the community involved in the radio station.

What do you think people don’t know about WOBC? MS: A surprising number of people don’t know about our “Live from Studio B” program. Every Sunday at 2 to 3 p.m., we live-broadcast, record and videotape a live musical act from Studio B, which is just a little studio situated in the back of the station. [The acts are] sometimes touring bands, sometimes bands from Cleveland, sometimes Oberlin students.

SSS: Sometimes when a band comes to the ’Sco, … [they stop] by Studio B the day before or after the show.

Organized Noise

Chameleon Radio

Balle Balle Chaos Solid Gold City

Hot Case, Final Pull

Snapshots in Time USA & World Today

12-Inch, Single

Strange Martini

Disco Minute

Heavy Rocks

Subject Detroit

Germaniacs

The Ritual

Pure American Metal

The Point of No Return

Environmetal

The Review sat down with Sivan Silver-Swartz, Conservatory senior and WOBC music director, and Michael Stenovec, College senior and WOBC operations manager to talk about what it’s like to help keep WOBC on the air.

Is WOBC different from other small college radio stations?

Sivan Silver-Swartz: Yes. One of the big things is that it’s 24/7, which is pretty rare for a college this size. A lot of other liberal arts colleges have radio stations turn off the transmitter at night.

Another thing that’s different is that … we joke that our unofficial motto is “no experience necessary.”

There’s a very quick training period, and so you don’t have to have had a year working at the station before you have a show, which a lot of other stations do have.

All the students have a one-hour slot, so there’s a lot of shows and there’s a lot of people, which I think makes it much more exciting.

Have you ever gotten too few applications for the slots?

SSS: No, not in at least our time. It is a lot of slots, but as long as I’ve been here, there’s always been at least 50 more applications than slots.

How do you choose, then?

Michael Stenovec: Funny you should ask. [Laughs.]

SSS: It’s a long process because we have to take into

Hot R&B Singles

Hour of Power

DEMOCRACY NOW All Reggae

Freedom from Strife

Hearts and Minds

Crisis on Infinite Earth The King's Collective

What happens if you curse on the air?

SSS: First of all, that never happens. [Laughs.] So, there isn’t something automatic that happens. It’s not like — MS: A red light doesn’t flash.

SSS: But what can happen is that somebody can listen and then complain to the [Federal Communications Commission] about it, and then the FCC can fine us a lot of money.

Is it true that you’re not allowed to have long periods of radio silence?

SSS: That’s another FCC thing; it’s technically illegal to have more than 15 seconds [of] dead air. I think it’s because they don’t want anybody crowding up the airwaves when there isn’t actually any content going out, so that space could be used by another station.

Has WOBC ever had regulatory trouble?

MS: I think before our time maybe it might have happened once. But we don’t really have any room in our budget to allow this sort of thing to happen. … It would be catastrophic.

Vibe: “Jammin’ and silly. I like being silly. It’s fun.”

What’s the theme of your show?

I’m playing psychedelic pop with a component of voice mails, where I’m taking clips of my favorite voice mails and playing in weird music with weird sounds. I’m trying to interview people about voice mails; it’s a project I’m doing. … That was an idea I had about a documentary, like interviewing people about voice mails or doing a project involving that… so I’m kind of doing this to test it out. I just really like weird psychedelic pop-type music, so I thought this would be really fun to do.

Pagan Pool Party

Soulful Love

Plink Plank

Becca Winer, College first-year

Babe Waves

Are U Feeling It?

Courtesy of Anna Rose Greenberg

12–1 p.m. Mondays

Rare Birds

Hepcat

9 a.m.

World Famous Meeko Show

Here's Another Goodie The New Midwest Northern Soul Classics

Soul Stroll

Even More Reggaeton

3 p.m.

Know Your Roots

The Fever

The Classical Guitar Show

Four Lines, No Waiting Making 12 p.m.

CONnections Pleasures, Old 1 p.m. and New Live From Studio 2 p.m.

B

H.W.'s Sassy Lips

Mix It Up!

The Flannel Channel The Times with Clark and Mike

11 a.m.

Saturday

Made in America

The Music and the Mirror Not Your Mama's Pasta

Politically Erect

Friday

AMAL GLAM RADIO SLAM

GERMANIACS 9–10 p.m. Saturdays

Anna Rose Greenberg, College sophomore

Vibe: “Industrial power.”

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

It was at 6 a.m., which was kind of rough … but honestly, I kind of liked it. That was because I knew firstyears always get weird after-hours slots, so it’s kind of like a rite of passage. … There were weird callers all the time, especially at like 6 a.m. I got a weird call from a trucker who called in and was trying to make small talk and was like, “Oh hey, how’s it going? Crummy weather we’re having here.” And then he made a weird reference to Seattle suicide rates. … Then he said, “So anyways, can you play this song?” I played the song, and it was a sad song, but I expected no less from that guy.

Lydia Moran

INTO THE WOODS

Hazel Galloway

5–6 a.m. Mondays

Paul Mehnert, College junior

Vibe: “Folky, but also sometimes creepy, but also sometimes not creepy.”

What’s the theme of your show?

It’s a lot of experimental folk music, so dark folk music or progressive folk music. … It’s a lot of my favorite stuff. It’s a lot of stuff from the ’70s and that period, and also a lot of contemporary stuff, like more poppy bands like Fleet Foxes.

Is this similar to your previous show?

It’s pretty different. For my last show I did black metal, but a lot of black metal has folk influences, so a lot of the stuff I’m playing now is darker folk music that has elements of the same [style].

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

A sort of funny thing is that the DJ after me only showed up for two of his shows the entire semester, so I basically had a two-hour show the whole semester. There was one point when the girl after him also didn’t show up, so I was just playing for three hours straight, which was fun but also not that fun because it was four in the morning to seven in the morning. But also it was nice, because after the first hour I would stop playing black metal and start playing whatever I wanted. I ended up playing a lot of folk stuff, and I really enjoyed that, so I think that’s what inspired my new show.

THE FLANNEL CHANNEL 7–8 a.m. Wednesdays

Rachel Maclean, College sophomore Abbey Bisesi, College sophomore

Vibe: “Goofy and entertaining, but also serious.”

What’s the theme of your show?

Abbey Bisesi: It’s like a part talk, part music show, mostly just talking about topics that are salient to the queer community. … [We play] mostly music by queer artists … just, like, a range. We’re not really limited by a genre, other than we want to be promoting queer artists.

What’s the theme of your show?

My theme for Germaniacs is loud German music, so primarily punk and metal.

German music is really my passion; Berlin is my favorite city in the world. These are the people I listen to. I’m probably the loud German music expert on the East Coast.

Before this, I did Global Cacophony, which was just loud music from anywhere but the United States.

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

Well, the huge high point is definitely that I’ve managed to get a few of these hugedeal German musicians up and interviewed them, and they’re all super nice, and they actually talk with me, and I can’t believe that.

[Other memorable moments were] some of those 3 a.m. shows, just playing 30-minute songs of Germans chanting, like Gregorian chanting and strange ambient noise. … It gets pretty funny sometimes, though that might just be sleep deprivation.

WINE MOMS 6–7 a.m. Tuesdays

Margaret Saigh (DJ Kathy), College sophomore Ryan Murphy (DJ Barbara), College sophomore

THE BRITISH INVASION

Vibe: “Silly. Mom-like, awkward.

Like really dry humor.”

10–11 a.m. Tuesdays

Jackie Milestone, College junior and WOBC Pop Director

What’s the theme of your show?

MS: We’re two uncool moms who like to drink a lot of wine. A lot of times we talk about contemporary issues that we find somewhat troublesome, like the fact that girls seem to be going out more without wearing any makeup and all those kinds of things. We talk about our kids a lot and how they’re changing in the changing world. And then we’re really puzzled, so after a while we just decide to kick back and play Paula Abdul and Macy Gray people like that.

RM: George Michael, Prince.

Vibe: “Energetic — I like to keep my shows definitely engaging and high-energy. And informative also, because I always like to give background information on the stuff I’m playing.”

What’s the theme of your show?

It’s British music, and it’s definitely starting with British Invasion– era stuff. And then it’s going to move onto other British music and British songs, pop and stuff like that.

What have been some memorable moments from previous shows?

Last semester … one week, I did Disney music, which was super fun.

And towards the end of the show I think the person who was DJing after me called and said they were going to be late. I had my playlist all made up, and I didn’t have any extras, so I just announced on the air, “Call in to request Disney songs if you have anything that you didn’t hear that you want played.” … A lot of people called in, and on the fly, I just played a bunch more songs. Somebody I didn’t even know called in. … It was really fun just going on the fly and getting actual requests from people.

How did you come up with the idea?

RM: We are wine moms. Someone called us that one time.

Hazel Galloway

This Week Editor: Hazel Galloway

Contributing Writers: Lydia Moran and Olivia Konuk

Hazel Galloway

What are some memorable moments from previous shows?

RM: I feel like “Times of the World” was really funny. … We kind of just make it up as we go along, and one time, … just between songs [I said], “And now, Times of the World,” and I just named random world cities and the time it currently was in those world cities, and we both found it really funny.

MS: We also do a “What the Kids are Listening to Nowadays” segment, and we play very clean versions of Drake and Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry.

RM: Also, my mom listens to it and texts me music suggestions. She’ll be like, “You’re not wine moms until you play this particular Van Halen song.” And sometimes we’ll play something and she’ll text me and be like, “Yes! Perfect choice!”

CALENDAR

Noche de Juegos Friday, Feb. 20, 8 p.m.

Harvey House Lounge

Maslenitsa (Russian Carnival) Saturday, Feb. 21, 1:30–2:30 p.m.

Tappan Square

The First of Mays Saturday, Feb. 21, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Oscars Screening Sunday, Feb. 22, 8 p.m.

Wilder 101

Mallory Monday, Feb. 23, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Majical Cloudz Thursday, Feb. 26, 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

The ’Sco

Residents of Spanish House are organizing a casual night of board games and snacks in the Harvey House lounge. All are welcome to drop by and try Spanish Bananagrams, Uno, Scrabble, Taboo, cards and other games. It will be a Spanish-language event.

The Russian department will host a celebration of the traditional Russian holiday celebrating the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Although the forecast is far from spring-like, the festivities in Tappan will include a bonfire in addition to traditional Russian songs and games.

This original silent film is the culmination of months of work by College juniors Linnea Kirby and Molly Barger, along with double-degree junior Christiana Rose. The plot highlights their and others’ extensive experience in tumbling, acrobatics and aerials as it tells the story of a pair of bandits who join the circus while on the run from the law. Live music will accompany the screening.

The Oberlin Film Series will bring the Oscars to the big screen in Oberlin for a second year. There will be pizza and trivia games, and an Apollo gift card will be awarded to whoever correctly guesses the most Oscar recipients. Semi-formal attire is optional.

This four-piece band based in western Massachusetts will bring its folk-punk sound and revolutionary spirit to Oberlin while en route to a tour stop in Pittsburgh. According to the group, they draw their influences from “ritual practices and personal mythologies, old Appalachian music, queerness, strangeness, the woods, growth and uncertainty.”

This Montreal-based duo met with a wider audience after opening for Lorde on her tour of North America this fall. Their synthy electronic pop sound incorporates indie elements and has been called “melodic and mesmerizing,” “disarmingly vulnerable” and, in reference to their latest album, “as discomfiting as it is transcendent.”

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

February 20, 2015

On the Record with Keith Myers of Dear White People Wednesday night, the Apollo Theatre screened Justin Simien’s lauded satirical drama Dear White People, which focuses on the experiences of Black students at an Ivy League university. The Review spoke on the phone with Keith Myers, who played the relatively small but crucial role of “Black Mitch” in the film and who grew up in nearby Wakeman, Ohio. Meyers discussed everything from his DJ alter ego to Simien’s distinctive directorial approach to drinking mochas at The Feve.

What’s the relevance of Dear White People in our current cultural climate?

I think any time somebody makes an honest attempt to address race, especially in the modern day, it’s gonna be relevant to somebody. And, obviously, the more people that see it, the more relevant it becomes. The fact that we had an awesome grassroots campaign helped too, [because the film] wasn’t thrown in people’s faces with big billboards and stuff like that. This word-of-mouth, grassroots campaign led to a lot of people being more trusting of it. I think we developed a great foundation for the movie, and despite how big it became it still wasn’t some big studio project that was kind of trying to force something down your throat. I think it was just saying, “Hey, this is one … artist’s opinion of what’s going on.”

Do you feel like the film has a special relevance at Oberlin and other colleges?

One of the first things I thought when I saw Dear White People was how great it would be if I was in college, and I got this movie handed to me by a professor. … I was in high school and college in the late ’90s, so we had our versions of these sorts of films, but I don’t think we had something this head-on. This movie really addresses a lot of things that are going on, especially to kids who are going through this sort of thing. I know a lot of the older generation will watch this movie and [say], “Oh, I didn’t even

realize that these problems existed.” … But there are a lot of pop culture references and there is a hip tone to the movie itself, which I think helps when you deal with [these issues]. … I remember when I was in school, we had these really corny videos, you know? [Laughs.] And a movie like Dear White People deals with similar issues but in a hipper and more relatable way.

The way the film depicted pop culture definitely made it more accessible to me. The references and such helped me get in that mindset of taking the film’s subject matter seriously.

Yeah, it didn’t quite have that 50-year-old white dude perspective.

[Both laugh.]

Do you feel like Dear White People is unique overall in terms of perspective? Is it coming from a place that differentiates it from most movies?

I think the topic of the movie is not necessarily unique. There are a lot of musicians, actors, writers and so on addressing [this topic]. What makes it unique is that Justin [Simien] had his own clear, direct vision of what he wanted to do. Of course he watched Spike Lee’s films, and of course he kept up with the blogs and things that were happening, all that stuff. He took all that information and experiences from his life and sort of put it into a big package and made a movie from it. I think that’s what makes it most unique: [Simien’s] very clear vision of what he wanted to do. I think the topic matter has been [depicted before]. But I don’t know if anybody has quite presented it to the public in this way before.

Can you tell us about the character you played? How did you get in character during the production process?

The guy I played, Mitch, people in the movie call him “Black Mitch.”

I always listened to hip-hop when I

was a kid. I grew up in Wakeman, which is down the street. There are like four cornfields surrounding my high school, and stuff like that. I was unique just because I was listening to that sort of music. So, I think the thing that I can relate to with this character is how out of place he feels, even in the modern era. Now, obviously, everybody knows white kids in the Midwest listen to hip-hop. But when I was growing up … [hip-hop] wasn’t out there. It wasn’t something that you could be interested in and not be ridiculed and made fun of or whatever. So I think that’s kind of how I approached it.

The guy I play, he hangs out with these kind of snobby, upper-crust white kids. But he’d probably rather be hanging out with kids from the Black Student Union. But, especially at an Ivy League level, there is a lot of segregation, even now. Certain groups of people always hang out with certain groups of people. This situation leads the guy that I play to Ohio native Keith Myers, who played “Black Mitch” in Justin Simien’s satirical have a specific idea of what Black is. drama Dear White People I don’t think he’s trying to be Black, I think he just gets that [culture] more than he gets going to Harvard. You unaware of the relevance of Oberlin 15-year-old kid will stumble into the know what I mean? He understands at the time; I had no idea what the Apollo Theatre, see this movie and exhip-hop more than he does classi- school even was, or any of that stuff. perience something similar. cal music … even though his parents I was just this kid who was very abmaybe listened to [classical]. I created sorbent. At that time, I was listening Are you working on any artistic my own backstory for him and used to tons of music. I didn’t even know projects right now? that. Basically, Mitch is just looking what being an artist meant. I didn’t So, music is my first love in art in for his place in the world, as the other know that a career in the arts was an general. Growing up, I listened to it, I characters are. option. But something about Oberlin sang, I always felt gravitated toward made me gravitate towards there. it. Hip-hop was such a great discovYou mentioned growing up close Once that happened once, I just ery for me, because I got to watch it to Oberlin, in Wakeman. Did you kept coming back to The Feve. I still become something. That was a spespend much time in Oberlin grow- make it a point to go there. When cial thing as a kid growing up in the ing up? If so, how did the the artis- I was going there, there was a re- ’80s and ’90s. Our parents didn’t even tic community affect you? ally dirty pool table in the basement, know what it was. … I loved rock muI think Oberlin really did have an and it had a way more dive-bar feel. sic, too. My parents were listening to insane effect on me. I went to Western It was very attractive to me. It wasn’t soul and classic rock and things like Reserve High School, in Wakeman, because I had read a Yelp review of that. So, I wasn’t just into hip-hop. and there wasn’t a big arts program it or something. I just walked in and Overall, music has always been a big there. Somehow, when I was about 15 was sort of blown away by all these part of my life. I still DJ in LA under or 16, a friend of mine took me to The unique people. So that was sort of my the name DJ Moist. [Both laugh.] And Feve. We just sat there and drank mo- first experience where I realized, “Oh, I play a lot of the stuff I listened to in chas and watched all the weird people there’s this whole world out there.” high school. My main wheelhouse is walking in and out. And I was kinda … My experiences in Oberlin were like, “This is awesome.” I was totally eye-opening for me. [I hope] some See Myers, page 13

New Smoke + Mirrors Album Fails to Ignite Radioactive Spark Vida Weisblum Arts Editor American rock band Imagine Dragons’ freshly released sophomore LP would make an appropriate soundtrack for any Showtime TV melodrama. However, aside from making for some decent background music, Smoke + Mirrors’ decidedly mainstream vibe fails to rekindle much of the “radioactive” spark Imagine Dragons once ignited.

Released on Tuesday, the album spans 50 minutes of music — 10 minutes less than the band’s deluxe 2012 debut album, Night Visions, which included breakout songs like “It’s Time,” “Radioactive” and “Demons.”

Now, just three years later, Imagine Dragons, which formed in 2008, might already be running out of quality inspiration. The new track list does include some more recent hits, including “I Bet My Life” and “Gold,” which, despite their popularity, are subpar predecessors of the true Imagine Dragons gold of yesteryear.

The band equates angst with musical strength, which causes problems for Smoke

+ Mirrors. Due to the ferocious guitar strumming and the sporadic shouting in “I’m So Sorry,” the song resembles a lackluster remake of Billy Squier’s “The Stroke.” Meanwhile, “Dream” could pass as a OneRepublic song, albeit minus catchy instrumentals and thoughtfully constructed lyrics.

Later, in a more mellow tune, lead singer Dan Reynolds repeatedly moans, “We all are living in a dream / But life ain’t what it seems / Oh everything’s a mess” throughout each chorus. The soft instrumentals leading into the lyrics are mellow but are ultimately dulled by these repetitive vocals.

Eventually, the single line finds its breaking point where the lack of tonal variation melds into an unbearably annoying stream of noise.

With a nearly identical sound to the band’s original top songs, Smoke + Mirrors is plagued with an intensity that falls below the level of hardcore metal, yet relies too much on scream-singing and electronic elements to be pure rock. Riddled with repetitive lyrics and choruses that bank on title phrases, the album’s songs are devoid

of much meaning.

The debut song of the album, “Shots,” boasts several moments of excitability but could easily be confused for any other song the band has produced and would easily suit the end credits of a rom-com starring Ashton Kutcher. The discombobulated general sound of the song mixes Imagine Dragons’ excitement with poorly rendered choral harmonizing, some cool electronicsounding scales and a generous dab of ’80s falsetto. A similar effect occurs in its hit song “Gold,” in which the lyrics repeat the word “gold” for what seems like an infinite number of times. Interspersed throughout the song are unsatisfying attempts at electronic distortion that disrupt the flow of the song like human hiccups in the midst of conversation. Nonetheless, Reynolds preaches with electric grandeur highlighted by a strong guitar solo. These two tracks prove the most successful of the album despite theatrical peaks and valleys.

One of the final tracks, “Hopeless Opus,” renders Smoke + Mirrors a questionable production. The song first offers a catchy

rhythm but then declines once a layer of painfully out-of-tune vocals infiltrates the sound. A tedious lament accompanies Reynolds’s underdeveloped choice of words: “Oh I’m trying not to face what’s become of me / My hopeless opus.” The sporadic interjection of the unsettling phrase “hopeless opus” persists throughout the chorus and may inspire giggling.

Though the enthusiastic energy with which the band crafted most of its tracks is apparent, Smoke + Mirrors is generally mediocre. Reynolds’s passionate singing is complemented by climactic guitar-heavy instrumentals, which make it easy to become emotionally invested in his songs.

Nevertheless, Smoke + Mirrors is exactly what its title suggests — Imagine Dragons’ overall unclear aesthetic. A second album should effectively develop upon a pre-existing sound and propel a musical artist further toward realizing their conceptual potential. While its original sound still rings clear, Imagine Dragons has yet to follow a single cohesive trajectory. Only time will tell if the band can regain its momentum.

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

‘Rotten’ Flick Features Last Farley Appearance

Arts

New Oberlin-Centric Late-Night Show Features Student Comedians Zoë Kushlefksy and Daniel Cramer

Nate Levinson Columnist This column is the first in a series that will review movies that receive the dubious distinction of an under-20 percent rating on the Tomatometer on rottentomatoes.com: the movies we love that the critics didn’t.

This week I turn my attention to Beverly Hills Ninja, a 1997 comedy starring Chris Farley and Nicollette Sheridan with a 14 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Movie critic Pete Vonder Haar hated the movie so much that he wrote, “Maybe Death did Chris Farley a favor by sparing him from making more shit like this.” I definitely wouldn’t go as far as Vonder Haar, as I find it hard to believe anyone who signed up to watch a movie about a fat, idiotic ninja in Beverly Hills was expecting anything Oscar-worthy. In any case, I took it upon myself to determine if Beverly Hills Ninja is hilariously bad or just unwatchable.

Farley plays Haru, a stumbling and fumbling aspiring ninja tasked with helping Sally Jones, a mysterious and beautiful blonde from Beverly Hills played by Sheridan, get to the bottom of an international counterfeit scheme.

The movie relies on every ninja stereotype imaginable as Haru, determined to prove that he is “The Great White Ninja,” travels from Japan to “the hills of Beverly,” and hilarity ensues. Aided by a more accomplished ninja, Farley works to crack open the case and woo his damsel in distress. It’s worth mentioning that the film does seem questionable racially .

The acting is anything but first-rate, but it doesn’t have to be.

For the most part, the gags work and if you appreciate Farley’s high-energy form of comedy, the movie definitely has its fair share of laugh-out-loud moments.

Funnyman Chris Rock even makes an appearance as Farley’s novice sidekick, one of Rock’s earlier roles. Director Dennis Dugan would have been wise to better capitalize on Rock’s obvious comedic talent, as he’s quite effective in the film. Still, his scenes are gold and reason enough to see the movie.

It’s easy to see why the film (and I use the term “film” loosely) received such negative reviews; it is decidedly short of any kind of sensible plot structure, and if you don’t like Farley, then there’s no way you would enjoy this movie. The jokes are corny and always stupid, and the action scenes are downright bad.

I must admit that, despite my appreciation for Farley’s work, I was a little disappointed with Beverly Hills Ninja. The movie piqued my interest when I was younger, but it failed to live up to even my low expectations during a second viewing. A lot of the jokes fall short, and I can’t help but think they could have done a little more with what they had to work with. Chris Farley as a ninja is a pretty stupid concept, but it’s funny enough. Instead, Farley’s and Rock’s talent often goes to waste thanks to a bad script and poor directing.

Amazingly, Beverly Hills Ninja is practically the highlight of Dugan’s questionable directing career. Apparently devoid of any artistic talent whatsoever, he is responsible for poisoning the minds of viewers with horrors like Grown Ups 2 (7 percent), Jack & Jill (3 percent), The Benchwarmers (11 percent) and, my personal favorite, Saving Silverman (18 percent). Dugan may be a rich man, but he’s an awful director.

As for Farley, his best work undoubtedly came as a member of Saturday Night Live. His roles as Matt Foley and as one of Bill Swerski’s Superfans (see: “Da Bears”) are still fan favorites. Sadly, the movie was the last release of Farley’s short life, as he died of a drug overdose at the age of 33, just over 11 months after the film’s release.

Obvious criticisms aside, I couldn’t help but enjoy Beverly Hills Ninja. Call me sentimental, but I love the late ’90s aesthetic of the movie, and seeing Farley and Rock work in their prime is fun to watch. Beverly Hills Ninja may be rotten, but come on, it sure beats the hell out of Grown Ups 2.

Krislov’s Top Picks For those looking to make their own jump into the world of under-20 percenters, President Marvin Krislov has a few recommendations. Citing his love for Julia Roberts, he counts Valentine’s Day (18 percent) as a personal favorite.

The Hangover Part III (19 percent) also made his list, as he loves “anything with Ed.”

Page 11

The stage at the ’Sco might have been mistaken for the Cat in the Cream Monday night, with a couch and armchairs creating the space for Oberlin’s first late-night comedy talk show, Good Talk with Luke Taylor.

Good Talk’s group of organizers made sure their first installment was more than just a comedy show, presenting their diverse debut to a full house of spectators.

“The turnout tonight was so much more overwhelming than I could have possibly imagined,” said co-host and College senior Maya

Sharma after the show. Show writer and College senior Will Banfield said, “I was ecstatic with the number of people who showed up.” In the minutes before Taylor and Sharma took the stage, the room buzzed with excited energy. “This was a bigger crowd than we had expected. … I had no idea that people knew about it,” said Banfield. “This was just another Facebook event that people [were] getting, and then all of a sudden people were like, ‘I can’t wait!’”

As soon as College junior Reed McCoy, writer and technical director, clicked the clapperboard, the house band, Elijah and the Conservative Boys, composed of Conserva-

College Sophomore Santino Stropoli sits down for an interview after performing a Ukelele solo. Santino guest-starred at the new late night comedy show at the ’Sco called Good Talk with Luke Taylor, Eli Steiker-Ginzberg

tory sophomores Elijah Fox-Peck and Michael Ode and College junior Jake Abramson, began to play. Sharma and Taylor entered the stage to wild applause, and the audience remained both responsive and warm throughout the show, despite some technical slip-ups. Taylor’s microphone fell off of his shirt a few times, but he managed to turn this repeated problem into an inside joke with the audience.

Perhaps because of these minor difficulties, Taylor maintained an intimate and comfortable relationship with the audience. In return, the audience was sensitive to the fact that first performances are prone to such errors.

In traditional late-night style, the show opened with a monologue in which Taylor talked about his recent time studying abroad in Russia.

As Taylor commented on notable aspects of the trip, Sharma pointed out biting similarities between his description of Russia and her observations of Oberlin, including the frigid weather and the fact that nobody smiles as they walk by others.

Following the monologue, writer and College senior Sophie Zucker entered with illustrated posterboards, which she used to inform Taylor of what he had missed during his semester abroad. Sharma added quips of her own during each posterSee Good, page 13

Genre-Benders Strive to Rekindle Roots Mohit Dubey In case you haven’t heard from one of your folk music–loving friends or seen them hanging out at The Local drinking coffee and eating bagels, Punch Brothers are back in town. The American experimental folk and bluegrass band spent a week conducting workshops at the Conservatory culminating in a concert at Finney Chapel on Thursday night. The performance kicked off a threemonth tour across the U.S. to promote their new album The Phosphorescent Blues. The band has served as artistin- residence at Oberlin since the fall of 2013 and continues to bring its genre-bending sound and energy to campus through insightful panels, high-energy jam sessions and uplifting concerts.

Mandolinist Chris Thile discussed the fundamental divide between classical and folk in a panel about bluegrass on Monday. Thile claims that the best musicians signal the creation of new genres by fusing their “intuitive flame” with a desire to make the music “faster, higher and louder.”

Band member Gabe Witcher expanded on this idea: “There was really great music in the past that resonated with people so much.” However, he said, both bluegrass and classical are facing a decline in popularity, due to being generations out of touch with the “initial impulse that drove that music to be that good.” In a sense, both bluegrass and classical music have not only become perceived as dying arts but as a way to transport listeners back to the golden age of that music.

Punch Brothers’ current struggle is to find creative ways to revisit the initial spark of musical greatness and fan the flames of a new kind of music that is free of labels such as classical and folk. The Phosphorescent Blues, released on Jan. 23, exemplifies the band’s unique approach to music making. According to Witcher, Claude Debussy’s work was the main musical influence for the album’s compositional style, featuring experimental harmonies that predate those of jazz. The band even covered Debussy’s “Passepied” as the third track on their album. Both Punch Brothers and Debussy employ an impressionist approach in their music through the use of harmonic and orchestral colors that give the listener the true sense of what the song is about.

So, what is this album about? Well, if you listen closely to the lyrics: cell phones. More generally, the album cen-

ters on what Witcher describes as the “inevitable human impulse to connect with others,” and how that impulse is exploited and amplified by modern technology, according to Witcher. Witcher, who got his first email address while he was in college, believes that “[technological] devices have permeated every aspect of ... [peoples’] lives at this point,” altering the ways in which individuals communicate, create art and capture memories. Witcher candidly admitted to being guilty of using his phone to snap a quick low-quality video while at a Van Halen concert, only to show it to a few friends and wonder “how much better might it have been if [he] had just let him walk by me and perform.”

Many performing artists like Punch Brothers are taken aback when they pour their hearts out on stage only to look up and see a wall of cell phone cameras. Interestingly, Punch Brothers exploited the technology of this 21st-century misfortune in their song “Little Lights” by asking fans to send in recordings of themselves singing the chorus to the song to create a virtual choir that Punch Brothers mixed in the studio. The song, which describes the experience of standing onstage basking in the glow of tiny cell phone screens, ends the album with the words: “Guide us back to where we are, from where we want to be” — an anthem of the diffusion of modern attention.

“You’re not gonna be able to get away with just making a record any more,” Witcher said. “You’re gonna have to find ways to let people see you. That’s how people are experiencing music now.” Instead of increasing their technological presence, Punch Brothers have been spending plenty of time hiding out in northern Ohio and completing their last few production sessions for the album.

The Conservatory’s atmosphere has heavily impacted the band’s work ethic and attitude toward writing a new album. According to Witcher, this means being surrounded by forward-looking musicians who crave new challenges and sounds they can sink their teeth into. Punch Brothers have used the musical and intellectual atmosphere at Oberlin to find new strength and clarity in their songwriting. Witcher, who learned to play drums from scratch in order to perform the new album on tour, advises budding musicians to “keep doing what you’re doing, with your ears open and your hearts open, and always keep your ego out of the way of your learning.”

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Jurassic 5 Founder Fails to Win Over Audience with Dreary Set Jack Reynolds Hip-hop hearts were broken upon lauded lyricist and Jurassic 5 founder Chali 2na’s appearance at the ’Sco on Valentine’s Eve. 2na was phantasmal, retreating backstage for periods that reached 15 minutes in length. In his absence, electronic music duo and recent collaborators Funk Hunters did their best to fill

the void 2na created, bringing a tightly mixed strain of high-energy dance music that had the crowd moving. For those who weren’t especially interested in 2na or hip-hop, the performance was enjoyable and hyperactive. However, 2na’s infrequent stage time inspired feelings of confusion and disappointment among ’Sco-goers; these feelings were epitomized by some dude in a beanie who repeatedly shouted, “Where are

An animated Chali 2na attempts to liven up the ’Sco. Lackluster stage presence plagued the rapper’s Valentine’s Eve performance.

Dana Thomas

the bars?!”

2na’s indifference at the ’Sco was disheartening but perhaps unsurprising, given his history. The emcee spent his formative years in southern Los Angeles during hip-hop’s “Golden Age,” a period from the mid-’80s to the early ’90s characterized by its diversity in sound and subject matter. During the “Golden Age,” location often dictated differences in style. Collectives were formed in high school or through friendships. These factors played a role in starting Chali’s career. Along with classmate Lucas McFadden, who would later DJ under the name “Cut Chemist,” Chali 2na began performing at the Good Life Café in southern LA. This testing ground, which hosted the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz and Ice Cube, also saw the conception of Jurassic 5.

Unfortunately, 2na and the rest of Jurassic 5 came into the scene too late. Though their eponymous 1998 debut record was certified gold, subsequent releases did not reach the ears of mainstream hip-hop listeners. The group did obtain a strong following in the underground scene, but, by the mid-2000s, it was clear: Its sound, inspired by idols of their adolescence, was dated. This was a shame, considering 2na’s individuality in the rap scene. His creamy baritone, rapid flow and complex internal rhyme

schemes separated him from other rappers, but he never really reached the level of success he deserved.

2na has collaborated with other artists frequently in recent years. These collaborations range from brilliant to terrible to downright absurd. He has rapped under a dinosaur persona in a bizarre, strangely childish concept album, but has also recorded with respectable acts, including Fatlip and K’naan. When staying in his comfort zone, which includes thickly layered lyrics and minimal, nostalgic beats, Chali excels. However, in other efforts, particularly those that have delved in the electronic genre, Chali sounds out of place. “Gadget Go Go,” a 2010 collaboration with U.K. dub legend Rusko, and 2014’s “Do this For You” with the Funk Hunters both sound forced and gimmicky. In these tracks and others, Chali sounds as if he is using his pedigree from Jurassic 5 to stay barely relevant and continue making money.

With 2na’s history in mind, it makes sense that Chali 2na was so indifferent on Valentine’s Eve — he’s probably just trying to support himself. Although he danced about the stage when he was actually on it, he looked distinctly tired.

Undoubtedly, the uninterested rapper will continue to ride out his lukewarm, 20-year-old successes for the foreseeable future.

Talk Underscores Intersection of Political Activism, World Music Aviva Blonder Staff Writer Rebekah Moore was still getting used to speaking in English again at her talk this past Monday, “Music and Activism and Ethnomusicology in Action: Lessons from the Field.” At the talk, Moore discussed her work in Indonesia over the past six years and delineated connections between music and activism. “[Music] can help us to understand a lot about what it is to be human,” she said.

Moore first visited Indonesia while completing her master’s degree. “I was playing gamelan, which is an [instrument] that you find all over Indonesia. … I spent some time in Bali and got my first taste of some of the local bands from a cassette shop,” she said. Her talk did not primarly focus on gamelan, but instead on modern Indonesian bands. Throughout the talk Moore played clips of songs, including “Bento” by the ’70s performer Iwan Fals, whom she described as the “Bob Dylan of Indonesia.” Iwan Fals protested the Suharto government, who in turn arrested him, jailed him and banned him from performing for several years upon his release. Indonesia is now a democracy, but modern Indonesian musicians are still politically active.

For example, the rock band Navicula is known for its involvement in environmental activism. According to Moore, the lead singer is highly educated and has helped the government with disaster relief and preparedness. Moore joined Navicula on a tour through inner Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, where they worked with Greenpeace to document and raise awareness of illegal deforestation. During the talk on Monday, Moore showed a video of Navicula driving through a village on motorcycles, drawing attention to its cause.

Moore has organized concerts in Indonesia, using the clout of famous musicians to draw public attention to the HIV and AIDS epidemic and open up a national dialogue on what is typically considered a taboo topic. She has encouraged collaboration between bands from different genres to, as she described it, “use music to take on issues” and cultivate a “healthy musical ecology.” Moore showed one video clip of a collaboration between a gamelan orchestra and an electronica band.

The usage of music and ethnomusicology for activist purposes isn’t limited to Indonesia. As Moore said, “When we’re looking at a country with a very short history of direct elections for their president, there tend to be some central issues that are a bit more obvious, some central social injustices that stick out more, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot going on in the United States that musicians are dealing with.”

Moore organized her talk with ethnomusicologist Jennifer Fraser, who teaches classes on the music of Indonesia and the intersection between music and activism in the Conservatory. “Ethnomusicology is well positioned to address issues of racial and social injustice. I’ve taught a class on music ecology, where we look at environmental destruction and justice issues. … I made space in the class to talk about Ferguson, and we’ve talked about music and ebola, music and the Hong Kong protests and so on,” said Fraser. She further explained, “I am getting ready to put together a class on musical activism, so I thought it would be nice to feed into that on campus.” Though the class is still in the early planning stages, Fraser said that “it would be a class that involved community engagement and not just the theory of musical activism.”

One of the students who attended the talk on Monday, Conservatory junior Jeanette Chen, stayed after the talk to speak with Rebekah Moore. “I’m trying to explore the field of musical activism, how the arts can play a role in conflict resolution. I think it’s really interesting how art can play a very healing role in places of violence and conflict,” said Chen. She explained that the talk gave her hope that music can play a role in places of conflict. She described it as a very human way of connecting communities.

Rebekah Moore addresses a small crowd during a talk on ethnomusicology. Her presentation underlined the connections between ethics and music.

Mike Plotz

Arts

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Page 13

Good Talk with Luke Taylor Brings Comedy to ’Sco Continued from page 11 board’s presentation. Complaints of The Feve’s changed happy hour policy resonated with older audience members, while speculations about the new stained glass store in town being a front for a drug cartel exemplified the Oberlin-centric tone of the show.

College sophomore Santino Stropoli, the first guest of the evening, played a ukulele solo.

After his performance, Taylor sat down with him for an interview. Setting jokes aside and adopting a more genuine tone, Taylor asked Stropoli questions that informed the audience about his music and talent. This segment demonstrated the educational importance of the show. “We’re trying to really showcase the Oberlin community,” said Taylor. “Doing the interviews … that’s the reason I did this. ... I think that’s a really cool

thing we can do.”

The show returned to humor and showcased the rest of the cast with a pre-recorded skit called “Oberlin Stunts” that was projected onto the back wall. From a shot of Zucker falling face first into a massive pile of snow, to writer and College junior Charlie Kaplowitz gallantly shouting on the silent fourth floor of Mudd library, to producer and College senior Taylor Greenthal satirically informing passersby that Beyoncé is not a feminist, this segment picked up the momentum of the show.

The next segment involved a DIY prize wheel, over which Taylor expressed immense pride.

College junior Robb Pears was chosen as the first candidate to spin the wheel because of he helped to construct it. The wheel included such prizes as “your name on a piece of paper,” “Luke calls your parents” and a horn blare. Pears won advice from

Sharma, who dished out intentionally vague wisdom about studiousness. Next to spin the wheel was College senior Paul Miller Gamble, who won $15 in DeCafé goods, including several cans of tuna and a can of Chef Boyardee.

College senior Bronwen Schumacher of the Oberlin Apparel Collective then sat down for an interview with Taylor and Sharma. They discussed the origins of the clothing line and where Schumacher gets her fashion ideas. Several of Schumacher’s designs were projected on the back wall, ranging from a T-shirt with a design of all of the windows on Oberlin’s campus to a Mason jar that says “Oberlin, 1833.” After the sneak peek at the Oberlin Apparel Collective designs, Taylor announced that he had some designs of his own to propose, and projected some funny, stereotypically “Oberlin” T-shirt designs, including Greenthal posing as a “first day of school

freshman” wearing Uggs and an Oberlin hoodie on the front of a shirt, and a “last day of school senior” with a new hairstyle and alternative clothing on the back of the shirt.

The show wrapped up with Elijah and the Conservative Boys playing an original tune while the show’s crew struck the stage. Taylor said he is hopeful about the show’s future. “I would love for it not to [end when I graduate], but I have no idea. We’re planning on doing like seven or eight shows before the semester ends. If people are interested, I think this is an amazing thing,” he said. If the first show is any indication, Good Talk has a long future at Oberlin. When it comes down to it, the show works because of the people involved. Greenthal said, “Nothing like it existed before, and it was exciting to create something from scratch and work with people that I really like and respect.”

Conservatory Musicians Shine in Danenberg Recital Series Colin Roshak Some of the Conservatory’s most accomplished performers treated audience members to masterworks of the Western canon juxtaposed with bold contemporary compositions at the Danenberg Recital this past weekend. The recital exhibited the Conservatory’s breadth, including everything from atmospheric noise by a TIMARA major to a classical pianist’s expert rendition of a Romantic piece by Frédéric Chopin.

The annual concert began with a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in E-flat Major. Conservatory junior and Organ Performance major Matthew Buller delivered a calculated and precise rendition of the familiar fugue. Buller kept each voice in the texture very distinct and used minimal rubato. Despite the piece’s abrupt mood changes, Buller’s performance was consistently energetic and well-executed from the introduction of the fugue’s first subject to its triumphant final chord.

Following Buller’s rousing introduction came a quartet by Bach con-

temporary Georg Philipp Telemann.

The musicians’ choice to play period instruments imbued their performance with authenticity. The piece’s first movement contained haunting melodies paired with moments of contrapuntal jubilance. The second movement emphasized virtuosity with fast descending runs traded off between the voices. The ensemble handled the especially delicate third movement with the utmost care and skill. Despite minor intonation issues, partly due to the use of period instruments and techniques, the ensemble played each movement with unwavering balance and musical intent.

Cellist Jennifer Carpenter, a doubledegree fifth-year, especially distinguished herself by providing a tasteful bass foundation for the higher voice’s exchanging melodies.

Third on the program came a suite for solo violin composed by Conservatory senior and cellist Joshua Morris.

Conservatory junior Kah Yan Lee rendered technically difficult passages with flawless intonation and remarkable virtuosity. The well-constructed piece offered two contrasting moods

— one flashy and vulgar, the other more thoughtful and introspective.

The first mood had brash, high-reaching runs, while the second oozed with melancholy. Lee maturely maneuvered through the changing moods of the piece with elegance, not once losing the attention of the audience.

After Lee’s stunning performance came another soloist, this time at the piano. Conservatory senior Farshad Zadeh took the stage and gave a magnificent performance of the first movement of Rachmaninoff ’s second piano sonata. Zadeh made easy work of the technically barbarous sonata. The well-paced performance left plenty of room for the audience to breathe and absorb the multitude of musical ideas that Zadeh had to offer. The piece changed character dramatically as Zadeh balanced high, virtuosic runs delicately with powerful, low-pitched chords. From the dramatic opening to the introspective end of the movement, Zadeh delivered a memorable and impressive performance.

Next, Oberlin’s own Pierrot Sextet gave a top-notch performance of the

legendary Pierre Boulez’s Dérive I. The piece swelled with great enthusiasm and harmonic complexity. Each part thickened the texture, leading to a dramatic climax. At some points, the piano overpowered certain voices in the texture, but despite these minor balance concerns, the performance was excellent, and the ensemble paid great attention to dynamic contrast and intonation.

The next piece was written for and performed on electronics by Conservatory junior Mitchell Herrmann.

With the help of a large array of electronic equipment in the center of Warner Hall, as well as speakers and amplifiers strategically placed around the room, Herrmann took the audience deep into the unknown, establishing a heavy atmosphere. A variety of strange noises filled the hall. The piece was a dramatic departure from the rest of the program and provided a distinctly modern moment.

For the concert’s penultimate piece, the Neo Winds ensemble performed a quintet by Boston-based composer John Harbison with excellent communication, intonation

and interpretation. The beginning of the piece featured incredibly highpitched horns. As the piece continued to develop, each instrument took on a character of its own. The horns were brash, the clarinet more perky, the oboe enticing, the bassoon plodding and the flute singing above all of them. With subtle gestures and eye contact, the quintet played with flawless synchronization. The piece ended in the extreme registers of each instrument with a shimmering final chord.

The final piece on the program was as brilliantly performed as the rest of the concert. Sophomore pianist Shiyu Yang gave an inspired performance of Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat Major.

Yang’s technique was flawless, and he breathed great life into the entire performance of one of Chopin’s betterknown pieces.

As a whole, the Danenberg Recital succeeded in exposing audience members to music from a variety of styles and time periods. The performers displayed not only their high level of technical skill but also the breadth of their artistic interests.

Myers Discusses Creativity Continued from page 10 ’90s R&B and hip-hop. It’s kind of weird that now that’s nostalgic. And I’m very versed in it. … I love that side of it. So that’s one thing that I’m continuing to do out here. I don’t do it for anything other than fun — I don’t take myself too seriously.

Also, it’s pilot season out here right now, so it’s time to get some new work. That’s always the goal. I’m developing a few projects, and I’m writing a few pilots myself.

I try to create my own work that way.

Do you have any advice for young actors or young artists in general?

Yeah! I think the thing is, you’re always going to be afraid [and] intimidated.

Those feelings are always going to be there. The faster that you stand up to that bully that’s in your head, telling you that you’re not good enough or that you can’t do it, the easier it gets. I don’t think it ever goes away. I’m always battling my insecurities as an artist. But I’ve stood up to them enough that I know I’m able to win that wrestling match, at least some of the time. You know what I mean? It’s like when you see someone you’re attracted to at a party, and when you go home at night, you think, “I should’ve talked to them.” And the one time you do, you realize, “That wasn’t that crazy.” I think it’s the same thing. You have this idea as an artist, and because it’s gradual, and it’s yours, and it’s very real and raw, you think, “Should I really put my time into this? Should I write this down?”

My advice is to just do it. If you have an idea, put it on paper. If you’re a musician, get out your iPhone and at least record a bar or record a verse or a hook or a chorus. I know for me, when I’m creating something, it usually only takes one sentence or one idea for a character that I’m writing, or one moment of dialogue, or something like that; that’s my hook. And I can always go back to that hook as my foundation. … If you neglect your muse for long enough, it’ll stop talking to you. If you get inspired, don’t take that for granted. You’re really lucky as an artist to be able to hear that voice. I think everybody has it, but I don’t think everybody listens to it. If you keep telling your muse to shut up, eventually it will listen.

Interview by Danny Evans, Arts editor Photo courtesy of Keith Myers

Sports

Page 14

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Softball Seniors

This week, the Review sat down with softball seniors and co-captains Katie Pieplow and Jenny Goldsmith to discuss their upcoming season, a spring break trip to Florida and their expectations for their senior season.

You have both been on the softball team since your first year at Oberlin. How have you seen the team progress?

Katie Pieplow: I think our freshman year, it was very different than it is now because it was Coach [Mimi Mahon]’s first year. As we have been able to work with her more and more, we’ve been able to grow as a cohesive unit, as opposed to people who are fighting against each other a lot of the time.

Jenny Goldsmith: I would agree with that. I think it has just been interesting. I definitely feel like the team has gotten better. I think we have always had a lot of talent, and I think the team has just really grown to have the same mindset, so we can use that talent really productively.

How have the first-years contributed so far to the team?

KP: We’re not used to having a super-young team. We’re used to having a team that’s young, but always with a group of upperclassmen, and now we only have three upperclassmen. And one of them is in basketball. So for this part of our season, we only have two upperclassmen, and everyone else is a freshman or a sophomore. It’s great because they’re super enthusiastic and we love working with them, but also it gets really overwhelming because you have always expected there to be

work hard on making sure everyone is comfortable stepping forward.

JG: Last year we didn’t go outside in Ohio until April 15. So we expect to be inside for a while, and we work really hard to make the most out of it.

We do what we can.

How have you been preparing for this season especially?

KP: We do our workouts with the team, but also we spend a lot of time outside of practice talking to each other, talking to coach, trying to keep everyone on the same page and keep everyone moving in the direction that is most beneficial to the team. So we do not only practice stuff, but we also do a lot of planning beforehand and deconstructing afterwards.

Jenny Goldsmith (left) and Katie Pieplow these people above you who always know what they’re doing and you can just follow them.

JG: It’s been a lot of fun, but a lot of work, getting everyone on the same page — getting everyone on board with what we’re trying to do.

What are your expectations for this season?

KP: Our expectations are high, that’s for sure. We expect to do a lot this season, and I think we are in a very good place to accomplish these goals that we have set out for ourselves.

JG: We have a lot of big, overarching goals for the season. We really are expecting big things. We have also been working a lot on the practiceby-practice, game-by-game mental aspect of everything, and just really focusing on continuing to push for-

ward every day.

What are the overarching goals?

Is there a specific team you want to beat?

KP: Everybody. I think our huge goal for this season is to make it to the conference tournament and to compete at a high level there. Obviously, if we don’t focus on each game and each individual aspect then there’s no way we can make it there.

So, even though that is our goal as a team, it’s not what we’re focused on right now. Right now we are focused on preparing for this season.

How has your practice schedule worked with the weather recently?

JG: We are always indoors this time of year. We’re really hoping we actually get to play this weekend.

We’re used to this, and that’s just been another thing, trying to get everyone used to how we have to do things.

KP: I think after four years, at this point we have come to expect being able to switch from dirt to turf, back and forth, multiple times over the course of the season. But even just the physical aspect of it — the ball comes off differently, you’re not playing outside, you don’t have these different elements to compete with.

Not being able to perform as well after playing so long on the other [field type] messes with you not only physically, but also mentally. It kind of gets you down, and we work hard on combating that. You can take the first 10 minutes of a practice or game outside and you can do little fundamental drills to watch the ball off the dirt or the grass, and I think we try to

What are you most excited for this season?

KP: I think I’m most excited this year for our conference games. This is our last year, so I think Jenny and I both have worked very hard on getting and staying very prepared for our senior season. This is something we love to do and we’ve been doing for our entire lives.

JG: Our freshman year we played 10 games down in Florida, and in past years we have switched back to eight because we had to come back for a conference game here. But we actually are going to get to stay for 10 games again this year. So it’s exciting to just get two more games in with almost guaranteed great weather.

Interview by Tyler Sloan, Sports editor Photo by Yingran Nan Zhang

— Men’s Basketball —

Yeomen Split Pair Against Hiram, Ohio Wesleyan Bob Cornell Staff Writer The men’s basketball team split its last two games with a convincing 83–58 win over the visiting Hiram College Terriers last Saturday and a tough 106–76 loss against the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops on Wednesday. Sophomore Nate Cohen spearheaded the Yeomen’s offense with a career-high 20 points and 5 assists against the Terriers. He attributed his sharpshooting to both recent training and his teammates’ adept off-the-ball movement.

“I’ve been getting into the gym a bunch outside of practice for the past few weeks, and that has really started to show in the games,” Cohen said.

“Against Hiram I picked my spots well, and my teammates were able to find me for some pretty solid looks that I was able to put in.”

Cohen was particularly lethal from behind the arc, connecting on six of seven threepoint attempts. Discussing the Yeomen’s shooting efficiency, Head Coach Isaiah Cavaco cited extra hours in the gym over January as a major contributor to the success.

Sophomore guard Nate Cohen launches a shot against the visiting Hiram College Terriers last Saturday. Cohen scored a career-high 20 points in the game to help carry the Yeomen to a 83–58 victory.

Eli Steiker-Ginzberg

“Our guys spent a good amount of time in the gym over Winter Term working on their individual skills,” said Cavaco. “They’ve also bought into the idea of playing to set each other up and shoot the shots [that are] best for them.”

Junior big man Randall Ollie also saw success in the paint against the Terriers with 14 points on 5–5 shooting and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.

Ollie has raked in 239 points for the Yeomen this season and is en route to surpass his record from last year of 258 points.

The sharp Yeomen defense

provided the necessary edge to keep the Terriers at bay, forcing Hiram to give up 17 turnovers as seven Yeomen logged at least one steal. Sophomore guard Jack Poyle contributed three steals to complement 14 points and 4 assists, and senior guard Miles Gueno and firstyear forward Sam Kreisberg each had a pair of steals.

The Yeomen homestand ended with a trip to Delaware, Ohio, to face the nationally ranked Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops. Oberlin’s defense faltered under Ohio Wesleyan’s offensive pressure, as Nate Axelrod and Claude Gray blew

past the Yeomen with 32 and 25 points respectively.

Offensively, Ollie contributed a team high of 20 points and 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Cohen continued his double-digit scoring spree with a 13-point effort, while junior Ian Campbell chipped in 12 points off the bench and Poyle added 11 more.

Although the Yeomen dropped to 10–14 on the season and 6–11 in conference play, their wins against Hiram and Allegheny College last week, along with Kenyon’s loss to Wittenberg, have helped the squad clinch the eighth seed for the NCAC tournament.

Oberlin concludes the regular season against the 24thranked College of Wooster Fighting Scots on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Philips gym. The Fighting Scots have had a promising season, recording a 19–5 overall record and 13–4 conference record. The two teams met earlier this season when the Fighting Scots defeated the Yeomen 91–71.

“We expect to match the speed and intensity levels of the best teams in the league,” said Cavaco. “We have a great opportunity ahead of us to move the program another big

step forward, this week and next.”

The season finale marks the last home game for the three graduating members of the team: Seniors Austin Little, Jesse Neugarten and Gueno will be honored prior to the 3 p.m. tip-off.

“It is pretty weird to think that this is actually the last game I’m going to be playing at Oberlin,” Little said. “Miles and Jesse are two of the best players and, more importantly, friends that I have been lucky enough to share time on and off the

court with. I expect that playing alongside them for the last time on our home floor will be another of the great moments we have had together.”

Gueno echoed Little’s sentiment in leaving the men’s basketball program this spring.

“A lot of hard work has been put into this basketball program, as far as building it up to what it is now,” he said. “I can certainly say that the Oberlin basketball ship is sailing in the right direction now. The best is yet to come for this program and Coach Cavaco.”

Home Games This Week Saturday, Feb. 21 10 a.m. – Women’s tennis vs. Baldwin Wallace University in John W. Heisman Field House 2 p.m. – Women’s tennis vs. Indiana University of Pennsylvania in John W. Heisman Field House 1 p.m. – Women’s basketball vs. Wittenberg University in Philips gym 3 p.m. – Men’s basketball vs. The College of Wooster in Philips gym

Wednesday, Feb. 25 6:30 p.m. – Women’s tennis vs. Ashland University in John W. Heisman Field House

The Oberlin Review, February 20, 2015

Sports

Page 15

Definitive Biases: Budding NBA Stars Enter Primetime

Women’s Basketball Continues Surge

Dan Bisno and Henry Weissberg Columnists

Continued from page 16

Welcome back, sports fanatics. It’s been quite a week in the NBA universe.

Last Friday Mo’ne Davis, the 13-yearold Little League pitching phenom, gave Kevin Hart the “spin cycle” in the All Star Celebrity Game. On Saturday, Zach LaVine soared head-to-rim to win the Slam Dunk Contest, and Steph Curry proved that he is the preeminent splash brother in the Three-Point Contest. On Sunday, Russell Westbrook showed he’s more than an eyeglasses model and took home his first All Star MVP award.

Now that the confetti has fallen on the season’s halfway point, it’s time to leave the fanfare and return to critical, biased sports analysis. After all, we are merely two subjects painstakingly pretending that we do not make every decision based on our favorite haircuts.

Now is the time to start thinking about who has risen from pedestrian expectations to join the tree of budding stardom, and so we embark on our vessel of clickbait journalism to sail the seas of the NBA’s surprising stars. Our avenue for comparative interpretation is the following listicle. And without further ado: Our 2014–15 NBA breakout players.

Landing the No. 3 spot is Draymond “The Dancing Bear” Green of the Golden State Warriors. Playing on the highest-scoring team in the league and alongside Curry and his partner in crime Klay Thompson, Green offers key defensive contributions that have catapulted the Warriors into first place in the Western Conference. When David Lee and Andrew Bogut were both sidelined with injuries, the 6-foot-7inch Green stepped in and anchored the Warriors’ defense.

Green’s game is a sight for sore eyes.

He has a comparatively short, stubby body that commands space down low like a large man on a New York City subway. His speed and strength al-

low him to be an elite paint defender at such a short height. Green leads the NBA in defensive win shares — a statistical category that attributes game wins to players’ defensive performance. He is 11th in the league in plusminus at 4.8 and has career highs in minutes, field-goal percentage, points, blocks, steals and rebounds. Green is a valuable cleanup defender who works harder than anybody to help his teammates win (and win they do). The Warriors have the best record in the NBA, and Green is a big reason why.

Coming in at No. 2 is the 180-pound, 6-foot-2-inch Jeff Teague of the Atlanta Hawks. It may be surprising to see Teague so high on this list, as he has been an established and respected point guard in the NBA for several seasons. With some simple analysis, however, it becomes clear that Teague is worthy of our praise. The unexpectedly successful Hawks have been astounding this season. Some call them the “Spurs of the East” due to their unselfish style of play, and having Teague at the reins is a big reason why.

The Hawks score the sixth most points in the NBA and have recorded the second most assists of any team, with Teague leading the team in both of these categories. Averaging 17 points, 7.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game, he’s on pace to easily surpass his previous career highs.

The San Antonio Spurs rely on multiple ball handlers to create their highly efficient offense, as Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are both capable of beating their man off the dribble, getting into the paint and assisting a teammate. With shooting specialist Kyle Korver as Teague’s partner in the backcourt, the Hawks, on the other hand, rely on Teague as their sole playmaker and offensive initiator.

Considering how important his role is on this unexpectedly dominant team, he is entirely deserving of “breakout” recognition.

In an all too obvious choice, our No.

1 breakout player is Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls. There is a reason he was selected for the All Star Game over his more decorated teammates. He is balling off the wall and no one else compares. Butler entered the season as an afterthought behind the big three of Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah, but in a surprise to many, he is solidifying himself as the best player on the third-place Bulls of the East.

His numbers tell the story, as Butler averages a team-high 20.4 points per game but only attempts 14.3 field goals per game. That’s fewer than Rose and Gasol. He’s averaging career highs in points (exactly double his career average), blocks, assists, rebounds and true shooting percentage.

But let’s not allow his flashy numbers to distract us from Butler’s real strong suit. He is an elite defensive wing player and has been for a number of seasons. Now that he has added an offensive arsenal to his game, Butler has become one of the top two-way wing players in the NBA. His plus-minus statistic, 4.7, is the highest on his team, and the 12th highest in the Association. Yikes! Watch out for Jimmy Buckets!

No one likes an honorable mention, but all of these players deserve credit for their remarkable first halves in the NBA season, and we wish we could include them on this list: Victor Oladipo (Orlando Magic), Jonas Valanciunas (Toronto Raptors), Brandon Knight (Phoenix Suns) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks).

Butler, Teague and Green have been nothing shy of excellent. All below the age of 27, the time when many players begin to hit their prime, the future seems bright for these strong competitors. Their fans called and they answered, leaving frightened opponents in their path as they climb the ladder to NBA stardom. Speaking directly now to Butler, Teague and Green — please keep it up, our editors are trusting us.

early in the season and let a lot of people play, and by the time we got to conference, we had a good idea about what everyone’s capability was.

We changed the lineup after Christmas break and it just worked.”

The team has started three first-year players for the majority of the run, a move the coaching staff was able to make due to the selflessness of some of the veterans on the team.

“We had some upperclassmen take some non-starting roles willingly and enthusiastically, and I think that their willingness to sacrifice for the team made a huge difference for us,” he said.

One of those upperclassmen to take on a different role was Hamilton, who has come off the bench for the last 12 games. She had backto-back 14-point games against Allegheny and Hiram and has played her best basketball off the bench, something Jenkins attributes to her playing style.

“Caroline is a rhythm player, and I think coming off the bench gave her a chance to evaluate the flow and intensity and the direction of the team,” he said. “Coming off the bench suits her perfectly. It allows her to be a primary scoring option and be a focal point of the offense.”

Now, with the playoffs just around the corner, the team is using the opportunity to send Marquette, the team’s lone senior, off on a positive note as extra motivation to finish strong.

“I think that a lot of what we’re doing is for her,” Jenkins said. “She’s had some trying times during her time here and things haven’t gone as well as we would have liked them to, but I think our players really embrace the idea of sending Christina out on a high note.”

Not only is Marquette the only senior, but she is also the team’s leader on and off the court and a positive example for the younger players on the team.

“Christina is the hardest worker,” Jenkins said. “She puts the most time into it. She plays hard, she’s a great teammate, she’s supportive, she’s teachable; [she’s] everything you could want. I think she’s been able to instill some of those values into the younger players and they’ve embraced it.”

Hamilton echoed Jenkins’s sentiment.

“Christina has meant everything to our program. The numbers and the records reflect it, but more important [are] the examples she set as a leader for the classes below her.”

The team’s strong run hit a speed bump Wednesday night against the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops as the Yeowomen fell in a nailbiter 68–66. Another double-double from Marquette wasn’t enough, as the team was unable to erase a nine-point second-half deficit.

The team will look to get back on track and end its regular season on a high note when it takes on Wittenberg in a revenge game this Saturday at home at 1 p.m.

Editorial: Superstars Tarnished by Their Teams Continued from page 16 to it the whole time. Hey, I just want to know how you gonna stop God’s plan? God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. The marathon continues.” The marathon to which he refers, of course, is the parade of different teammates and coaches and the endless losing he’s endured in Sacramento.

Wishful thinking has me hoping that the Kings will realize they’ll never win with Cousins and trade him to an organization that actually has its act together, but that might be a pipe dream. Franchise centers like Boogie don’t grow on trees, and Sacramento would be crazy to deal him unless they have a “Godfather” offer for him.

Cousins is hardly the only superstar athlete to endure such turmoil.

The Detroit Lions All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson has had an equally tough time in the early part of his career. Unlike Cousins, Johnson has always been the consummate professional, but like the Kings’ star, he has yet to win a playoff game and has seen his talent go to waste on losing squads. As a Lion, Johnson has made the playoffs just twice, losing in the first round each time, while also

playing for the only team to go 0–16 in NFL history.

Sadly, star players are not alone in their suffering on bad teams.

Johnson and Cousins are some of pro sports’ brightest stars, but their teams are so bad that they are often prevented from playing in prime time or in meaningful games, keeping casual fans from seeing their immense talent.

An old adage says that stars win championships, and this is certainly true, but they don’t win championships without being surrounded by other talent. No one doubts the greatness of Cousins or Johnson, but the talent of their teammates has long been in question, and they have suffered as a consequence.

Johnson’s Lions appear to be on the up and up — as they narrowly missed winning a playoff game last season — but fans of Cousins can only hope that the Kings are able to engineer a turnaround of their own.

Whether through a change in management or pure dumb luck, fans of the NBA and Boogie can only hope the Kings pull themselves together in time to give the best center in the league a chance at consistently winning.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

February 20, 2015

— Women’s Basketball —

Marquette Leads Yeowomen to OT Win Nate Levinson Sports Editor The women’s basketball team added to its recordbreaking season last Saturday when it came from behind to beat the visiting Hiram College Terriers 76–72 in overtime. The win pushed the team’s overall record to 14–9 and its North Coast Athletic Conference record to 10–4, making it their best NCAC record ever.

The Yeowomen began the game slowly, trailing by five at halftime, but they rode a

17-point second half by senior forward Christina Marquette to tie the game and eventually win in the extra period. As has often been the case this season, Marquette led the team in scoring; she contributed 33 points, also adding 13 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists in a full line. First-year Tyler Parlor also helped carry the team, notching her first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The team scored 41 total points in the second half after scoring only 22 in the

first, an uptick Marquette attributed to playing at a faster pace.

“I think in the second half we started executing more offensively,” she said. “We were finding each other in transition and getting easier baskets than in the first half, where we were playing a little bit of a slower game and having to shoot contested shots.”

Trailing by two with just 18 seconds left to play, junior guard Caroline Hamilton was fouled on a shot attempt.

Coolly, she stepped up to the line and nailed a pair of free

First-year guard Tyler Parlor looks to make a pass against the visiting Allegheny College Gators. Parlor notched her first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds against Hiram College last Saturday. The Yeowomen are currently 10–5 in conference play and 14–10 overall.

Courtesy of Erik Andrews

throws to send the game to overtime.

Hamilton was fresh off hitting five crucial free throws late against the Allegheny College Gators last Wednesday. She said she loves being in those highstakes moments late in games.

“Stepping to the free throw line in a big situation is where I want to be,” she said. “It’s something I have control over. Staying focused is just a matter of knowing free throws are something I practice and I’m prepared for the situation. When you’re prepared, no situation is too big or overwhelming.”

In overtime, the Yeowomen worked quickly to put the game out of the Gators’ reach as they jumped out to a quick five-point lead and never trailed.

The Yeowomen have played a number of close games this season, and Head Coach Kerry Jenkins felt the experience gained in those games helped the team in the second half and overtime against Hiram.

“We’ve had a couple of close games throughout the year, and down the stretch they made a couple of mistakes that put them in a hole, and we took advantage of those mistakes,” he said. “I think it was our experience

earlier in the year that helped us eke out the victory.”

Since starting the season 4–6, the Yeowomen have gone 10–4, a stretch that has pushed them into third place in the NCAC. Hamilton said the the turning point came to fruition after the Jan. 17 loss to Wittenberg. Since that point, the Yeowomen have won six of eight games, falling only to the nationally ranked DePauw University Tigers.

“Our success in the second half of the season isn’t a fluke,” Hamilton said. “After our game at Wittenberg, everybody on the team made a commitment that we were all in. We showed up the next day and got to work. Individual workouts, more film, extra effort at practice. We haven’t stopped since then and our success really shows what can happen when a team commits to a common goal and everyone is all in.”

Jenkins, on the other hand, attributed the success to changes made to the lineup at the beginning of conference play.

“We made some decisions as a coaching staff earlier in the year about how we were going to go about the out-ofconference [games],” he said.

“We extended the lineups See Women’s, page 15

— Swimming and Diving —

Yeowomen Break Oberlin Records in Season Closer Harrison Wollman Staff Writer The North Coast Athletic Conference four-day championship meet proved historic for the women’s swimming and diving team when it broke Oberlin records with a fourth-place finish and a final tally of 913 points. The relay team of junior Samma Regan and sophomores Vera Hutchison, Nora Cooper and Maddie Prangley headlined the Yeowomen’s success in the 800-yard relay with a fourth-place finish of 7 minutes, 39.71 seconds. The speedy race, which the squad finished 10 seconds faster than the previously held school record, also qualified them for the NCAA B meet.

“The 800 freestyle relay, which qualified us for nationals, really stood out a lot for me,” Regan said. “We all just got up and just had a super fun time before and after the race.”

Much of the women’s swimming and diving team’s success has come from the leadership of Head Coach Andrew Brabson. In only his second year at Oberlin, Brabson made history by earning the NCAC Women’s Swim Coach of the Year title for the first time in Oberlin’s history over the weekend.

Regan accredited Brabson’s recognition to his attention to individual swimmer’s talents.

“Andy really understood the idea of work ethic and really tapped into that,” she said. “He understood our strengths and played on that. He made us more competitive than we were in previous years.”

Regan, Cooper and Hutchison struck again, with junior Lauren Wong rounding out their 400-

yard medley team, when they crushed the previous school record of 4:01.22 by touching in at 3:56.08. Regan and Cooper also broke school records in the 200yard free, finishing within .24 seconds of one another at 1:53.86 and 1:53.62 respectively. Reflecting on the Yeowomen’s recent success, Cooper shared that the team’s mental resilience has had a direct correlation with results in the water.

“Prior to the meet, the women’s team had a meeting in which we outlined our goals for [the] conference [meet]. I think that helped in terms of preparing us well,” Cooper said.

The accolades continued into the final day of competition for Regan and Hutchison, when both made the cut for the NCAA B competition in their respective races. Hutchison took sixth place in the 200-yard butterfly while Regan beat out the competition for fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke.

On the men’s side, the Yeomen racked up 547 points to claim eighth place. All-American senior diver Chris McLauchlan clinched sixth place with a strong performance in the men’s three-meter event with 492.4 points. McLauchlan followed up with a sixth-place finish in the final. Sophomore Jeremy Cooper managed to earn a spot in Oberlin history as well, swimming the ninth-fastest 200-yard free in Oberlin history with a time of 1:45.96.

Brabson echoed Cooper’s remarks regarding his team’s tough mentality and cohesive dynamics.

“Our team came out with a great mindset and were certainly able to feed off of the energy and excitement,” he said.

The swimming and diving season concluded at

the NCAC event for those who did not qualify for the NCAA B competition. The individuals who did make the cut will compete in the Fast Chance Invitational at Kenyon College this Saturday to bolster their chances of selection for nationals.

Give Boogie a Chance Nate Levinson Sports Editor For the first five years of his volatile career, DeMarcus Cousins’s tremendous talent has been wasted.

After falling all the way to the No. 5 pick in the 2010 draft due to concerns about his maturity, Boogie (as he’s affectionately known) has done nothing but dominate. He’s improved every year he’s been in the league, and at this point it’s fair to say he’s the best center in the NBA. He’s ninth in the league in player efficiency, sixth in points per game and third in rebounds per game, but there’s one key category in which he’s lacking: wins. The Kings sport the third-worst record in the Western Conference at 18–34 and, set to hire their third different coach of this season alone, have been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster in the 2014–15 season.

Cousins is a bully in the best sense of the word. There are few, if any, defenders in the entire NBA that can defend him for an entire game.

His strength, power and improved jump shot make him almost impossible to match up with as long he’s motivated and consistently running the court.

Some might point to Cousins’s immaturity as the reason for his lack of success in the win column, but that’s hardly an excuse for such ineptitude.

The Kings have failed to win more than 28 games in any of Cousins’s five seasons with the team — a pretty amazing feat considering their superstar building block. Sure, Cousins has some growing up to do, but that’s no excuse for all the losing.

Unfortunately, Cousins’s poor winning record has taken a toll on him. After hitting a buzzer beater to beat the Suns earlier this month, he said to reporters, “Man, this city done put me through so much, and I stayed loyal See Editorial, page 15

Sophomore Jean-Paul Gilbert flips in the men’s diving competition at the North Coast Athletic Conference championships last weekend. The swimming and diving team concluded its regular season at the meet.

Courtesy of Rachael Andrews