The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | April 4, 2017| Volume 107 | Issue 152
ORGANIZERS PLAN TO CONTINUE PRE-HEALTH SUMMIT Abhignya Mallepalli Staff Writer
When a large number of students were having difficulty registering for organic chemistry labs in spring 2015, Rohit Anand, senior neuroscience and psychology major, realized just how many students at Pitt wanted to pursue a career in health. “Pitt is a pre-health school, not a pre-med school,” Anand said. He set out to create a coalition of prehealth students — meaning anyone trying to have a career in the health field, in jobs such as nursing, dentistry and medicine. The coalition would make tackling far-reaching issues — such as advocating for more lab periods — easier and more powerful. Along with creating a coalition, he planned to establish a new Pitt event: a multi-specialty conference to bring together students interested in health fields. After eight months of planning to bring his three-year-old idea to fruition, Anand and the Coalition of Pre-Health Students successfully held the inaugural Pitt Pre-Health Summit Sunday. More than 150 students gathered on the seventh floor of Alumni Hall at 9 a.m. for the event and then dispersed to various campus buildings for a myriad of breakout sessions. Well-dressed, pre-professional students spent the day swarming around campus, carrying pamphlets, business cards and tote bags from exhibitors and speakers, such as Jim Withers, a local doctor who provides “street medicine” to homeless people who cannot afford proper health care. “To really experience someone else’s reality [is] hard to do in a hospital,” Withers said. See Summit on page 2
MODEL, ACTIVIST NYLE DIMARCO SHARES EXPERIENCES, ADVOCATES FOR INCLUSION The University of Pittsburgh American Sign Language Club performs a dance before Deaf model Nyle DiMarco presents a lecture hosted by Pitt Rainbow Alliance. Meghan Sunners VISUAL EDITOR
Janine Faust Staff Writer
When Nyle DiMarco was 24-years-old, a friend asked him if he ever wished he could hear. He immediately replied no. “I told him, ‘I have always been deaf. It is part of who I am,’” DiMarco said. “Why would I want to be any different?” This is the message the actor and model relayed to nearly 200 Pitt students, faculty and community members of Pittsburgh’s Deaf community at the Frick Fine Arts auditorium Monday night. DiMarco was the first Deaf contestant on “America’s Next Top Model,” the second on “Dancing with the Stars” and the first Deaf winner of both. Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance invited him to speak about his work and life experiences. “We figured that inviting him would be a great way to bring people from different backgrounds together and be a learning experience for those outside the communities he belongs to,” said Rainbow Alliance President Peter
Crouch. The event was free to all attendees, with reserved seating in the front four rows for Deaf individuals. Representatives of Pitt’s American Sign Language club were present to serve as interpreters. When DiMarco walked onstage, hearing fans applauded, while members of the Deaf community held their hands in the air and shook them. “Glad to be here in Antonio Brown’s hometown,” he signed, referencing his “Dancing with the Stars” opponent. His translator, Ramon Norrod, spoke what he signed for the non-ASL speakers in the room. During his presentation, DiMarco spoke about his experience growing up in an entirely Deaf family and some of the trials he faced as a hearing-impaired individual in hearing schools. He described the first Deaf school he attended in his birthplace of Queens, New York, as unchallenging and unfit to teach hearing-impaired
students. “I could sign better than anyone in my class, as well as most of my teachers,” DiMarco said. Unsatisfied with the Deaf schools in their area, his family moved to Texas so that DiMarco and his siblings could attend a better school, one run by members of the Deaf community. There, DiMarco said he realized the ASL community was where he could truly thrive. “Being there, it gave me a sense of self-confidence and pride,” he said. “I learned that being deaf is not a disadvantage. It’s an asset, a strength we should all embrace.” DiMarco also recounted his time at Gallaudet University, the only college specifically for hearing-impaired individuals in the world — “Deaf people’s Mecca.” He also told the audience about how he was contacted by “America’s Next Top Model” on Instagram and his experiences on the show. In various instances on the show, DiMarco sat alone while the other contestants See DiMarco on page 2
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Summit, pg. 1
His speech inspired students to pursue even their most unconventional passions, and students carried his words with them as they attended the rest of the summit. Anand’s idea for the summit emulated a popular annual pre-health conference at University of California, Davis, that attracts thousands of students each year. Last year, the UC Davis event included workshops, such as “How Future Health Professionals Can Fight for Health Care Justice” and “Genetic Counseling: A Growing Profession.” Registration for the next conference is currently open to 4,500 attendees. To try and create this same opportunity for pre-health students on the East Coast, Anand and the group contacted representatives from regional veterinary schools, dental schools and medical schools to speak with students about the possibilities for their futures.
“It took a while. We had to follow up emails with one or two phone calls [at least],” he said. Now that the conference is over and the organizers have had time to read surveys dis-
Dr. Anish Ghodadra speaks about 3D printing in radiology during one of the breakout sessions of the Pitt Pre-Health Summit. Meghan Sunners VISUAL EDITOR
DiMarco, pg. 1 gossiped or discussed their own drama — he often talked about being isolated by their disinterest in including him. “To be human is to have language, and I was pretty much without language for the two months on that show,” he said. “People would say they’d want to learn more from me [about Deaf culture and ASL], but never bothered. It was pretty isolating.” DiMarco said he stuck with the show because he knew he was making an impact and inspiring other Deaf individuals. After he won the top model slot, “Dancing with the Stars” reached out to him. His partner, Peta Murgatroyd, was initially unsure about dancing with him, but they made it work. “She’d tap me for when to start and scratched my back as a way to say ‘go faster,’” he said. DiMarco said he was glad he was able to represent the Deaf community on “Dancing with the Stars” to tell a story, incorporating parts in his dances where he and his partner danced without music to show to the world what he experienced during practice. “People were crying during those parts,” he said. “They got to understand how my life worked.” DiMarco also spoke about his organization, the Nyle DiMarco Foundation, a non-profit for Deaf children and their families. “We’re working with legislators right now to pass more bills providing resources and making the world more acces-
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persed afterwards, they’re working on building the event for next year. Some students, such as first-year Akeem Williams, were intimidated by the prospect of networking with professional schools so
early in their college careers. Jan Niec, a junior economics major and next year’s CPHS chair, confirmed plans to integrate workshops about networking leading up to the conference next year. The surveys were mostly positive, the only prevalent complaint being the confusion caused by the multi-building setup, Niec explained. Anand has high hopes for the future of the conference and said the group will work on improving some of the timing problems they faced this time. Scheduling rooms was tricky as the coalition is not an official Student Affairs-affiliated group. Niec said the biggest change for next year will be getting the University more involved with the planning. “Five people cannot plan something for more than a few hundred people,” he said, alluding to their ultimate goal of attracting thousands of people. “We think it is something that can add value to Pitt.”
sible for Deaf individuals,” he said. “Whenever I do this work, I always keep in the back of my mind that our differences are our strengths.” At the end of his presentation, DiMarco taught the hearing individuals in his audience how to say “embrace yourselves” in ASL — hands in fists, crossed over the chest and then a thumbs up. After he finished, Lindsay Surmacz, a program coordinator at Pitt’s Institute for Clinical Research and a hearing individual, asked DiMarco what educators needed to do to make the classroom more accessible and inclusive. “Include aspects of their history and culture, definitely,” he said. “Plus, it helps if you know ASL.” Surmacz said she was glad she attended DiMarco’s talk because she feels not enough conversation occurs between Deaf and hearing individuals, which negatively impacts both groups. “People need to be able to understand each other to help each other and be inclusive,” she said. Hannah Adams, a sophomore communication science and disorders major, attended the talk to see a prominent member of the Deaf community that she’d been a fan of since he rose to fame. Adams, a hearing individual pursuing an ASL certificate, said she thinks it’s cool that someone in the media is raising awareness about Deaf issues. “A lot of hearing people don’t know much about Deaf culture,” she said. “Now they have the chance to gain a per- Nyle DiMarco signs about his experiences as a Deaf spective, to learn.” individual. Meghan Sunners VISUAL EDITORS
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Opinions
From the Editorial Board: Senate GOP should reconsider rule change ONLINE
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TRUMP PLAN FAILS ON JOBS, ENVIRONMENT Jamie Veins Columnist
President Donald Trump’s brightly colored receding hairline, black suit and white button-down shirt stood in sharp contrast to the dark-haired coal workers clad in golf shirts flanking him on either side. The occasion was March 28 in Washington, D.C., during the signing of an executive order intended to roll back EPA energy emission restrictions. The president declared, “Historic steps to lift restrictions on American energy … will eliminate federal overreach [and] restore economic freedom.” The whole scene seemed an ironic reminder of just how in tune the president is to the “fellas” who constitute the American working class. The order will “allow our companies and our workers to thrive, compete and succeed on a level playing field ... For the first time in a long time, fellas,” the president added, smiling toward the men standing at the heels of his chair. The problem with this executive order is that it does more to hinder the development of renewable energy than it does to support the working class population who have suffered from the collapse of the fossil fuel industry. The focus of this executive order is to suspend a number of climate laws — specifically the Clean Power Plan, which the Obama administration introduced to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. The order has suspended the policy until further review, continuing Trump’s crusade to impair Obama’s presidential legacy, rather than create his own. EPA head Scott Pruitt and Trump have worked for months to spin the policy as one that’s “pro-job and pro-environment” as Pruitt said in an address at the EPA on Feb. 21. But the coal miners who quite literally
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backed Trump as he signed the executive order represent only about one-tenth of 1 percent of the American workforce. With fewer than 200,000 permanent jobs pertaining to the coal industry, the order affects a very small portion of the U.S. economy. And even if this policy did extend the demand for coal in the United States, an increase in coal production would not necessarily correlate to an increase in coal-related jobs. Over the last few decades, power plants have increasingly relied on automated equipment for higher outputs at faster speeds. From 1980 to 2015, the number of coal workers plummeted by 60 percent, despite an 8 percent increase in coal production. And a 2016 study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development anticipated that automation will eventually supplant 40 to 80 percent of coal miners. The same study found that driverless technology has the potential for a 15 to 20 percent increase in output, a 10 to 15 percent decrease in fuel consumption and an 8 percent decrease in service fees. The coal industry must rely on automation, rather than people, if it wants to continue to compete with the continually growing oil and renewable industries. Automation may still provide some opportunity for job production, but the jobs will be specialized and not likely available to Trump’s working-class supporters. This policy has the potential to create the kinds of jobs that would only increase the economic burden on the people the Clean Power Plan is said to hurt, while slowly severing the lifeline that future jobs in the renewable industry could provide them. The environmental focus in the renewable energy industry is clearly difficult for Trump to maneuver, as he’s unfamiliar with the nontraditional business structure. “We’ll be fine with the environment,”
Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR Trump said to clarify his political priorities in a 2015 interview with Chris Wallace. “We can leave a little bit, but you can’t destroy businesses.” We can leave a little bit of the environment! A pro-environment policy, indeed. While the order does not directly withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement — a joint resolution within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to reduce emission outputs — it does make it nearly impossible for the United States to meet its own commitment to cut American emissions by nearly 26 percent of 2005 levels by 2025. Should the United States fail to comply with the mission of the Paris Agreement, there’s a good chance other nations will fall short as well. This would cripple the treaty’s success, having the same effect as the Bush administration’s refusal to enter into the Kyoto Protocol — the Paris Agreement’s predecessor designed to reduce international carbon dioxide emissions — just 12 years ago. The rollbacks on environmental regula-
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tions follow a 31 percent cut to the EPA, a department whose funding constitutes only .22 percent of the federal budget. Given the small role that the EPA’s operations play in the country’s overall budgeting, it’s possible Republicans made the cut simply to control what they saw as the agency’s threatening “totalitarian” tendencies. Or perhaps it was made because the Trump administration continues to neglect the reality and severity of the climate change crisis and can no longer be confronted by their own misgivings. This is, afterall, the most troubling aspect of last Tuesday’s executive order: all the questions it leaves unanswered. If the Clean Power Plan is repealed, the EPA must devise its own replacement. What will that plan look like? Where does this leave the United States with regard to the Paris Agreement? And, will this order even help create jobs in the fossil fuel industry? If it does create jobs, how will it do so? How many will it create? And what will be the effect? As Trump might say, “Nobody really knows.”
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Culture MAGICIAN, AUTISM ADVOCATE TAKES STAGE AT FRINGE FESTIVAL By Virginia Homan
For The Pitt News
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Clark, of Louisville, Kentucky, performed n the back room of a small, almost hidden bar called St. Mary’s Lyceum three shows at the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival from in the North Side, tech crews scurried March 31 through April 2. In addition to Clark’s around making last minute lighting show, “A Different Way of Thinking,” the fourth annual festival featured a musical called “Launchecks. Laughter and conversation from bar patrons dry Night” and a solo comedy show called “Moand locals faded as a large door slid into place to on-the-oncle.” Because Clark falls on the autism separate the billiard room-turned-stage from the spectrum, he used the festival and his magic show bar. Pittsburgh Fringe employees donning bright to double as an autism advocacy event. Growing up with autism, Clark said he had blue shirts directed guests to the seating area. Out from behind a large gray curtain popped trouble finding a niche. His twin sister excelled in energetic 23-year-old Cody Clark, clad in a suit basketball and his brother in football, so his own lack of enthusiasm for athletic pursuits left him and tie. “I’m very excited because I grew up [watch- perplexed. But, during a family vacation, a magiing] Mr. Rogers, who has been a huge influence cian called on the 11-year-old Clark to be a volunon me,” Clark said. “It’s good to perform in his teer in his show. That’s when he found his passion. He began practicing magic non-stop and met literal neighborhood.” He began fiddling with a Rubik’s cube, keep- with other aspiring magicians to learn new tricks. ing the small audience engaged with his sleight of Remembering his own feelings of isolation as a hand while also making humorous conversation. child, Clark wanted to be someone who kids with He tossed the toy in the air and when it returned autism could look up to. “Unfortunately with things like bullying, kids to his hands it was miraculously solved.
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with autism don’t think too highly of themselves, and I’ve had my own struggles with that, but I like to use my shows to bring kids with autism to see someone who has succeeded,” Clark said. “It was a huge hit, and a great way for me to reach out to the autistic community.” Local autism advocate Cori Frazer also sees the necessity for self-representation for people with autism, although they take a different approach than Clark does. Frazer, a graduate student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, is an adult living with autism. They co-founded The Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy, which takes a more community-centric approach to addressing the needs of people with autism. The center represents those living with autism through legislative, social and community building efforts. The organization started in 2014 as a chapter of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Unlike other advocacy initiatives, the network is run primarily by autistic individuals, rather than those individuals’ parents.
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“As an autistic adult, I went looking for a community and I found a lot of parents. I felt like we needed our own community that we directed that could center our concerns and provide what we needed,” Frazer said. While the center focuses on building its own community, Clark has plugged into the communities surrounding Fringe festivals. He’s performed at nine Fringe festivals and countless independent acts. It’s through these festivals that Clark was able to get his start in professional magic and begin his journey into autism advocacy. Originally beginning in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947, Fringe festivals promote exploratory performance arts by featuring lesser-known performing artists. Cities across the country and the world hold their own Fringe festivals — typically through the United States Association of Fringe Festivals — which specialize in uncensored and alternative performances. Though each Fringe festival may have its own flavor, each strives to See Magician on page 9
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SUBSTANCE DISAPPEARS IN “GHOST IN THE SHELL” Ian Flanagan
Senior Staff Writer Visually pleasing but ultimately hollow, “Ghost in the Shell” has problems that go beyond the whitewashing. The Ghost in the Shell franchise began with the Japanese manga series in 1989, which then debuted as an anime adaptation in 1995. The new live-action revision piggybacks off the story elements and famous images of the superior anime adaptation, but scrubs the source material clean of its national origins and thematic complexities. “Ghost in the Shell” takes place sometime in the mid21st century, though the year isn’t specified. In the film, Scarlett Johansson stars as Major, the first perfected human cyborg synthesis and the leader of the counter-cyber-terrorism operation Section 9. She became a cyborg after the company Hanka Robotics used its artificial intelligence technology to save Major from a nearly fatal accident. Her nefarious enemy Kuze, played by Michael Pitt, begins hacking into the minds of those involved with Hanka Robotics. Kuze becomes Major’s primary target as she simultaneously attempts to regain memories that she lost during her transformation into a cyborg. It is hard to comment on this film without mentioning the whitewashing. The main cast members are white actors, even though the film is set in Japan and based on
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a Japanese franchise. Critics — both professional and on social media — have ripped into the directors for not finding the most suitable actors to play the roles, and for Americanizing a story that is solidly placed within a different cultural context. But, these criticisms are self-defeating given the nature of Hollywood. High-profile studios would never risk a high-budget adaptation of this nature without one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood — and Hollywood is filled primarily with white actors. This criticism, then, falls more squarely on the shoulders of the broader Hollywood culture, not this specific film or its production team. Usually the choice to place an American star in a film exploiting cultures overseas is just a ruse for a higher worldwide box office tally — ahem, “The Great Wall.” For Japanese audiences, original voice actors of the anime adaptation will voice the characters, so it seems Paramount’s heart isn’t in the wrong place, despite capitalistic intentions. Although, with an underperformance of less than $19 million at the box office in its debut this weekend, it seems the safety of casting white actors hasn’t paid off. Johansson, aside from her skin color, just isn’t the right fit for the masculine, hard-jawed Major of the original film. Her soft, round facial features are almost the antithesis of the physical aspects the original character. She tries
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to give to her all to the boiled-down role, but when most of your job is being stone faced, a physical match to the character would have been preferred. In terms of being a robot, Johansson’s emotional portrayal of a computer operating system in 2013’s “Her,” was far more suitable to her talents. The rest of the casting yields as many mixed results as the film in question. Pilou Asbæk is perfectly suited to play Batou, Major’s bulky, x-ray-spectacled right hand man. Pitt is appropriately creepy playing Kuze, but the original character — called the Puppet Master in the 1995 adaptation — was much more interesting. In this adaptation, he’s another cyborg, but in the earlier version he manifested from the internet into a physical form. Juliette Binoche is wasted in an inconsequential role as a Hanka Robotics scientist who oversees Major’s recoveries. Casting aside, the cultural appropriation handled in every other aspect of “Ghost in the Shell” is still troubling. The nameless “Blade Runner”-esque cityscape where the film takes place feels like a generic assimilation of watered-down Japanese culture mostly populated by Japanese people, where the primary cast is the ethnic exception. Yet the film acts in an entirely race-blind fashion by virtually erasing the tone and identity of the movie. This See Ghost on page 9
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Sports column
PANIC AT THE PETE: WISE, JOHNSON’S TRANSFERS CAUSE FOR ALARM Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
bigger role elsewhere. The very next day, the women’s basketball team received some much more devastating news when the University revealed sophomore forward Brenna Wise is pursuing her own transfer from the school. Wise has been the face of the program since she arrived on campus. The Pittsburgh native led the Panthers in scoring and rebounding in each of her two seasons at Pitt while developing into one of the most versatile and effective players in the ACC. The Panthers haven’t seen much team success in the last two years, but Wise was positioned to form the core of a much-improved bunch next season with junior Yacine Diop returning from injury. Now, the women’s basketball program is in shambles as it tries to replace the one player it needed to succeed. The men’s basketball team was dealing with its own losses, but nothing too drastic. Clearly the team was in a transitional period, and nobody was expecting much improvement on this
year’s 14th place finish in the ACC next season — not with four starters graduating, including All-ACC performers Michael Young and Jamel Artis. What fans were expecting was a group of talented first-year players, led by point guards Marcus Carr and Aaron Thompson, to come in and establish a new foundation for the program. And they would do it alongside the one returning starter who was slowly developing into a star: Cameron Johnson. The 6-foot-8 shooting guard progressed from 4.8 points per game in his first season to 11.9 points per game as a sophomore last year, while shooting a team-best 41.5 percent from 3-point range. Now, the feared long-range threat was poised to be the focal point of Stallings’ highoctane offense. Until Friday night. Well, early Saturday morning. Soon after Mississippi State shocked the Connecticut women’s basketball team and snapped the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak in the Fi-
It started with a harmless announcement March 13. That’s when sophomore guard Crisshawn Clark revealed his intention to transfer from the Pitt men’s basketball team after missing the entire 2016-17 season with a torn MCL and meniscus. Clark could have provided some useful depth for the Panthers if healthy in time for next season, but he likely wouldn’t have been an impact player. The next day, another of Pitt’s young hoopers followed Clark’s tweet with one of his own. True freshman Corey Manigault — a 6-foot-8 forward who saw limited playing time in 201617 — announced that he too would be leaving the program next season. Manigault brought a lot of potential with him, even though he didn’t seem ready for ACC-level basketball as a true freshman, and his announcement was a bit more concerning, as the Panthers’ entire 2016 recruiting class had now disappeared in the span of one year. Along with Clark and Manigault, Pitt head coach Kevin Stallings dismissed true freshman point guard Justice Kithcart March 3 prior to the team’s regular season finale. Still, the losses were far from devastating blows. Now, 10 days after Clark’s announcement, another player has decided to head for the Petersen Events Center’s exit doors in search of a new home — sophomore guard Damon Wilson. Wilson was a highly touted prospect in 2015 who had yet to reach his full potential while receiving limited playing time. The departures were unfortunate, but still no reason for Panthers fans to panic. Some turnover was expected with four new recruits already signed and three more verbal commits planning to join the team in 2017. It’s understandable if Wilson didn’t feel like Pitt was right for him and wanted to pursue a Cameron Johnson is Pitt’s latest player to transfer. Evan Meng STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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nal Four, Pitt fans received a shock of their own as news broke that Johnson would be pursuing his transfer from Pitt. The move sent the Pitt Twittersphere into an uproar, as fans finally felt the full realization of the crumbling team and memes started sprouting up comparing the 2017 roster to the casts of bumbling misfits from TV shows like Full House and The Office. It’s normal for any team to have one or two players transfer after a disappointing season, whether to seek out more playing time or try to play closer to home. The Pitt women’s basketball team lost two key players, Stasha Carey and Frederique Potvin, after the 2015-16 season. But the Panthers added graduate transfer center Brandi Harvey-Carr and enough incoming talent to offset the losses. But replacing Wise will be an entirely different task, and one without a clear solution. Meanwhile, the mass exodus the men’s basketball team is facing is certainly unprecedented. Stallings and the University have yet to comment on Johnson’s decision, but his father Gil told the Pittsburgh PostGazette that the uncertainty facing the program next year factored into his decision. Gil said Stallings had nothing to do with it, but the second-year head coach is part of that uncertainty facing the program. Carr, Thompson, junior college transfer Jared Wilson-Frame and several other incoming players had the ability to play key roles right away on next year’s team. But the Panthers needed a go-to scoring option with legitimate ACC chops to center their offense around. Stallings had that blossoming star player in Johnson. Now, he has a combined returning 9.3 points per game to build around. And, finally, both the men’s and women’s basketball programs officially have reason to panic.
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Ghost, pg. 7 comes across early on when the dialogue moves back and forth between Japanese and English without a care for logic. The original storyline took place in post-WWIII Japan, but “Ghost in the Shell” acts as if the time and place in the future isn’t worth mentioning. Instead, the film glosses over specific details that were included in the source material, committing to a monotone “action sci-fi” ambiance. Part of the fun of Japanese cinema, animated or live action, is the culture shock that goes along with the experience. “Ghost in the Shell,” without explicitly rejecting the original manga and films, softens everything interesting, or grotesque, about its universe. For instance, Major wore a spandex suit in the live action adaptation, but was nude in the original. The violent scenes in the live action were also surprisingly bloodless — both of these changes garnered a safer PG-13 rating. But the biggest shortcoming of “Ghost in the Shell” is how bluntly and gracelessly it handles its story’s themes. The series conceptually deals with questions of consciousness, identity, memory and the merg-
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ing of the organic with the digital. This new film has almost no time for introspective dialogue with its short runtime and a propulsive, blockbuster sense of pacing. As a result, the few forced moments spent building themes are spliced in as recovery time between stylized violence or visually enhanced vistas. Despite the missed opportunities in the film’s plot and character development, the cinematography and production design work together to bring the futuristic setting into a convincing live-action vision. The new film can’t help but recycle some of the best sequences and moments from the 1995 film — like the building dives and Major’s surreal fight in shallow water while utilizing her invisibility. In both the reenacted and original scenes, the action is cleanly shot and proficiently choreographed. Recognizing the potential of its source material only in moments of inspired visuals from director Rupert Sanders, this adaptation thankfully doesn’t set up sequels. Though there are some inspired moments of actual filmmaking, “Ghost in the Shell” is lacking in its own voice and personality, relying instead on the preexisting popularity of an established franchise.
Magician, pg. 6 give its audience members a break from the big-name stage performers they’re used to seeing. At Pittsburgh Fringe, submitted performances are unjuried, meaning local fringe organizers select them at random. This gives lesser known artists — including Clark — a chance to perform in front of large audiences. Last year nearly 1,000 people attended the festival. Xela Batchelder, executive director and founder of Pittsburgh Fringe, said the unjuried aspect of the festival is what makes it compelling for the audience. “The true Fringe experience is seeing a lot of shows and seeing a lot of things you’ve never heard of,” Batchelder said. “You come away with things you’ll never plan on coming away with and experiences you never knew you were going to have.” To reach a broader audience, Clark has developed a kid’s show called Conductor Cody, which combines children’s love for trains with magic — especially since Clark’s two interests as a child were Thomas the Tank Engine and magic. During Clark’s show at the Pittsburgh Fringe, he told stories about his childhood and about growing up with autism — such as making
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Velveeta Mac ‘n Cheese Clark with his grandmother to help quell his temper tantrums. As Clark told the story, he magically pulled three boxes of the “ooey-gooey stuff ” out of a seemingly empty brown paper bag. “I like to make my magic more than just a stunt,” Clark said. “Stunts are fine, but I feel like my magic can really say something more than just ‘Wow, how did you do that.’” Although Clark incorporates his experience growing up with autism into his act, he doesn’t want that to define his performance. “Advocating will always be a part of who I am, but I want people to know that I’m a magician too when you take the autism off the table,” Clark said. “Although I use my magic to talk about how autism makes me different, a lot of the stories in my show we all can relate to.” Both Clark and Frazer emphasize that individuals with autism aren’t defined solely by their diagnosis. Clark is a brother, a son, a magician, a student and a dreamer. Frazer is a grad student, a self-starter, a leader and a founder. “I want people to know that our lives aren’t tragedies and that we are worthy of human rights and community living whether or not we graduate high school or use our mouth to speak,” Frazer said. “Whether or not we have an intellectual disability, we are all worthy human beings.”
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