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DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
News@DailyCollegian.com
Another year, Another record
Rao: A ‘walking paradox’
Serving the UMass Community since 1890
A fresh start for Blue Wall
SGA president has wide range of interests
New cafe features variety of food stations
By Aviva Luttrell Collegian Staff
By Benjamin Zifkin Collegian Correspondent
Vinayak Rao’s spectrum of interests is wide enough to stretch the globe – both literally and figuratively. The senior Student Government Association president was born and raised in India until 2001, when he moved to Belmont with his parents. In high school, Rao traveled to Argentina on a tour with his rugby team. He’s visited the United Kingdom with his father, who lived there for 32 years, and has also traveled to Sri Lanka with his mother’s family. His sophomore year of college, he studied abroad in Brazil. In high school, Rao played football, rugby and wrestling. He claims he can recite every line of Lord of the Rings, devotes a majority of his time to both his mental and physical well being and has dreams of one day hosting a travel show. In other words, Rao has covered a lot of ground. “I like to call myself a walking paradox or a walking oxymoron,” he said. “There’s a large disparity between the things I like to do. … I think having that varied interest really did me a lot of good because it opened my eyes to almost every single spectrum that I would be exposed to.” Rao’s travels, he said, have made him especially aware of all different facets of life. “It’s such a cliché statement that traveling opens your mind and broadens your perspective, but there’s so much validity to that claim that I can’t even understate it,” he said. “From
The Blue Wall café is getting a fresh start this semester. After a nine-month, $19 million renovation, the eatery is set to open Sept. 2, just in time for the first day of classes. The revamped café combines the old Blue Wall, Marketplace and Hatch eateries into one location. The overall look is modern and sleek, with open views of the kitchens. According to David Eichstaedt, director of Retail Dining Services, it will serve high quality food made from locally sourced ingredients, and the majority of the food preparation will take place on site. “That’s a big difference from the old Blue Wall,” Eichstaedt said. “In the old Blue Wall, there was a lot of prepared food that came in from a different kitchen. Now if you need fried chicken for a buffalo chicken salad, that’ll be made right here, in front of you.” Despite the shift to local ingredients, Eichstaedt said prices will remain similar to, if not the same as prices at the old Blue Wall. Although construction on the eatery is expected to be complete by the first day of classes, a crucial decision has yet to be made. “Earlier in the year we had a naming contest and we narrowed it down to three finalists: Blue Wall, New Wall and Fusion,” Eichstaedt said. A Facebook poll, which closes Sept. 5, will decide the winner, and results will be announced at the café’s grand re-opening ceremony Sept. 9. In the new eatery, which seats up to 850, patrons will be able to choose from 10 different stations, or “concepts,” as Eichsteadt
see
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The clambake was made possible by $70,000 in donations and sponsors, as well as 30 to 40 chefs and 200 volunteers.
UMass completes world’s largest clambake By Jaclyn Bryson
T
Collegian Staff
o kick off the start of the new academic year, the University of Massachusetts brought the community together on Labor Day to celebrate a New England tradition – the clambake. “What’s more New England than a clambake?” said Christopher Howland, purchasing and marketing manager of Auxiliary Enterprises. “It’s synonymous with the Bay State. It’s something that we wanted for our students and staff to welcome them back.” Although there was no previous Guinness World Record for
largest clambake, according to a UMass press release, Guinness set the record at a minimum of 1,500 clambakes served to individuals in eight hours. Howland added that one serving of clambake included one chicken lobster, two little neck clams, one steamer, half an ear of corn and two potatoes for a total of approximately two pounds of produce and two pounds seafood. The goal was to serve 3,000 of those as quickly as possible. “This is UMass Amherst, we’re bigger than the best,” said Garett DiStefano, director of Residential Dining. “We’re going to do much more than 1,500 and we are going to try and do it in only two hours.” Students, faculty and Amherst residents waited in line as 100 steaming pots of steamers, little neck clams and locally sourced produce were prepared.
“The idea is to try and support as much as we possibly can and showcase the best that Massachusetts has to offer,” DiStefano said. These local specialties include Hadley corn and potatoes and lobsters from Massachusetts’ own fishermen. To make the event possible, UMass received more than $70,000 from donations and sponsors, the highest ever raised for a UMass Dining world record, according to the release. The University has previously broken world records for the largest California roll, largest stir-fry, largest New England seafood stew and last year, the world’s largest fresh fruit salad. Those who supported the event include Kittredge Equipment, see
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see
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Speakers tell new students Integrative Learning to make the most of UMass Center open for fall New building home to three departments
More than 4,000 attend freshman convocation
By Nicole Dotzenrod
By Eleanor Harte
Collegian Correspondent
Collegian Staff
Speakers at the University of Massachusetts New Student Convocation hammered home the point that freshmen should be careful not waste their potential over the next four years. “You alone have the power to make these next four years unforgettable,” Student Government Association president Vinayak Rao told the incoming freshman class of 2018, which filled the Mullins Center Monday afternoon. “Join a fraternity, join a sorority, join a club,” he said, adding that his involvement with various activities have made hard times easier and good times even better. “You have no excuse to ever be bored on this campus.” Rao, who was elected SGA president in March, pointed out that
CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy addresses incoming freshmen during Monday’s convocation. the future president of the class of 2018 was sitting in the Mullins Center, unaware that they would be giving the same speech in three years. “If you don’t know who you are,
that’s okay,” Rao added. “You will experience change here, and that’s good. The man that was sitting in your seat three years ago today is see
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Construction on the Integrative Learning Center at the University of Massachusetts has been completed in time for the fall 2014 semester, much to the excitement of professors and students alike. The ILC is located on North Pleasant Street next to Hasbrouck Laboratory, in close proximity to the Student Union and Lincoln Campus Center at the north end of the campus pond. Construction on the $93 million building began in March 2012 and was completed in August. It is the new home of the communication, journalism, linguistics and film studies departments, according to the UMass website. The 173,000 square foot building boasts more than 60 rooms and 2,000 seats of state-of-the-art classroom space, according to the website. These classrooms come equipped with audiovisual devices and new
educational technologies, including five team-based learning rooms designed to foster interaction among students and between students and faculty. The ILC also has studios and specialized television broadcasting and production rooms, computer classrooms, and speech perception and auditory phonetic labs. Journalism professor B.J. Roche, who is settling into her new space in the ILC, said she isn’t looking back at her days in Bartlett Hall. “I’m looking forward to having heat,” she said in a recent interview. “I’m going from an office with erratic heat. Every student who has ever had a meeting in my office knew the radiator was so bad that we often had to go to another room. Bartlett really had some problems as far as comfort and usability.” Roche said she is looking forward to the new atmosphere of the ILC this semester, where she will be teaching in one of the multimedia labs. “We’re going to have some terrific space around the department for students to work, which I’m excited see
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THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
THE RU N D OW N ON THIS DAY... In 1666, the Great Fire of London broke out. It burned for three days and destroyed 10,000 buildings, including St. Paul’s Cathedral.
AROUND THE WORLD
Libyan forces capture gov’t ministries CAIRO — It was, by all appearances, a jihadists’ pool party – staged at an abandoned American diplomatic compound in the Libyan capital. In video footage posted online Sunday, a group of laughing, whooping men identified as members of an Islamist-linked group – some in black paramilitaryappearing outfits, some in summertime civilian wear – clowned, mugged for the camera and did swan dives off a second-floor balcony into a swimming pool said to be in an annex of the embassy in Tripoli, which was evacuated last month amid heavy fighting. The images were emblematic of Libya in free fall, with the oil-rich North African nation spiraling into all-out civil war more than three years after the toppling of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. And the spectacle of a breached diplomatic compound – even one empty of any American personnel – stirred memories of the Benghazi attack nearly two years ago that killed the then-ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. The current U.S. ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones, who has been overseeing American diplomatic activity from Malta, said on Twitter that the video footage appeared to have been shot in a residential compound at the embassy. A commander for an Islamist faction called Libyan Dawn told Associated Press on Sunday that the militia had “secured” the residential annex. Witnesses cited by the news agency said the compound did not appear to have been ransacked or looted, though some windows were broken, and it quoted the commander as urging foreign envoys to return. It is not clear when the video was shot. The American diplomatic staff was spirited out of Tripoli after fighting – centered on the capital’s now-wrecked international airport – came too close to the embassy grounds. In what was described as an orderly departure, the staffers were taken overland to neighboring Tunisia on July 26, under the escort of U.S. Marines backed by air power and naval vessels offshore. The State Department said at the time that the closing of the U.S. Embassy was a suspension of an American diplomatic presence rather than an end. Most other diplomatic installations in Tripoli, those of neighboring Arab countries as well as Western nations, have also been closed. The video shows men milling poolside in front of a stately looking whitewashed building with black wrought-iron railings. Gleeful shouts ring out as some leap fully clothed into the blue but slightly cloudy water. At one point, the cameraman says, in Arabic: “This is the U.S. Embassy!” Los Angeles Times
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about. It’s nice and clean and everyone is really knocked out by it. When I was walking up to it I started to cry – they did such a great job and it’s a great space.” With the ILC’s new broadcasting studio, the University will now be able to offer three to four courses in broadcast journalism this semester, up from just one offered last spring, according to Spire. “It’s a thrilling time to be a journalism major,” Roche said. “I’m not going to miss Bartlett. I think this new space will have an interesting energy and projects coming about because everyone will be in the same orbit. We’ll be creating some great memories over there very quickly.” John Kingston, head of the Linguistics Department, echoed Roche’s enthusiasm. “I am ecstatic about being in the ILC,” he said. “In the 24 years that I’ve been here, the Linguistics Department has been crammed into woefully inadequate, insufficient and decrepit space in South College. A number of our laboratories were in the basement of Bartlett, and the Center for the Study of African American Language was in Arnold House. Now, we at last have space for all our faculty and graduate students, for visitors and for undergraduates. “I expect these changes to transform how the entire department works, how its members interact with one another, and how productive we are, and I expect these changes to dramatically increase our success in attracting the best students to our undergraduate and graduate programs.” Linguistics professor Rajesh Bhatt said, “I am very excited for the new building – its design and nice views. Our department used to be scattered across many buildings and I am happy that we will now be in the same space. The students also have larger offices and I’m looking forward to impromptu meetings and discussions.” The construction of the ILC was managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management, and was funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Higher Education Bond bill, UMass and the UMass Building Authority, according to the website. Nicole Dotzenrod can be reached at ndotzenr@umass.edu.
Middle right photo by Araz Havan. All others by Cade Belisle.
BLUE WALL called them. Among those stations are several that returning students may recognize. Famous Famiglia will now serve pizza baked in a deck oven, which Eichstaedt said tends to produce a better pizza than the conveyor oven used in the old location. Another upgraded familiar is Tamales, which will now serve freshly baked tortillas and in-house marinated beef. Star Ginger and Paciugo Gelato will also be making a return to the new space, and students who have eaten at the Procrastination Station will recognize People’s Organic Coffee. New stations include Green Fields, which will feature tossed-to-order salads and fresh wraps, and Wasabi, serving freshly rolled sushi. Deli Delish and The Grill will both serve sandwiches, but Deli Delish will offer a selection of signature toasted and untoasted sandwich-
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es, and The Grill will serve burgers and milkshakes. Another concept, Chef’s Table, features a vertical rotisserie that will offer a variety of roasted meats and world cuisines. “It could be a Cubano sandwich with rotisserie pork, or Chinese noodles with some other type of meat. ... There will be new specials every day,” Yum! Bakery, in addition to offering baked goods, will prepare much of the bread and dough various other stations will need. Additionally, an 11th station located across the concourse, called Harvest, will serve prepared meals in a similar fashion to Grab n’ Go. According to Eichstaedt, the entire renovation was funded by Dining Services, with the help of a loan from the state. Benjamin Zifkin can be reached at bzifkin@umass.edu.
THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
DailyCollegian.com
FRESHMEN not the man I am today.” Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy encouraged students to make the most of their time at UMass during his speech. “A lot will happen between now and May 2018,” he said. “They will be exciting years but for some of you they may include anxious moments. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.” Enku Gelaye, vice chancellor of Student Affairs and Campus life, introduced the UMatter at UMass initiative to the students, explaining its goal of promoting a stronger campus community through actively caring for each member. “If we all act individually then together we will succeed,” she said. “It’s all about being an active bystander and taking a stand.” The incoming freshman class, made up of more than 4,000 students, is one of the highest academically achieving classes to ever enter the University, according to Subbaswamy. Gelaye added that this year, there are also 1,100 new transfer students. Subbaswamy stressed the importance of classwork to the new students, encouraging them to become engaged with their course material. “Classes are a lot more interesting when you are prepared,” he said. “You have the ability here to explore all sides of an issue, which is the way you will discover the truth.” Andrew MacDougall, president of the Alumni Association, told the students that the first four
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CLAMBAKE
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“Don’t just attend the university. Be a part of it.” Vinayak Rao, SGA president years here are the most important, but they are not the end. “UMass is always a part of you, now and for the rest of your lives,” MacDougall said. “You have the opportunity to be an active participant in our programs and to connect with alumni throughout the world. We invite you to be proud members and ambassadors of our UMass Amherst community, always remembering, You were. You are. UMass.” The Minuteman Marching Band performed a rendition of its Earth, Wind and Fire medley before teaching the new students the Alma Mater and the Fight Song. The convocation concluded with the new student pledge, which includes a commitment to the pursuit of an education that “emphasizes intellectual exploration and fosters educational growth.” After the convocation, the new students took a class photo. “Don’t just attend the University,” Rao said. “Be a part of it.” Eleanor Harte can be reached at eharte@umass.edu.
Coca-Cola and Performance Food Group. In addition to the donations, 30 to 40 chefs and 200 active volunteers made the event possible. Josh Webb, a sophomore who volunteered at last year’s barbeque, said he hopes people realize how much work goes into preparing the event. “There’s a lot of preparation that people wouldn’t think about,” he said.
“UMass Dining is a really amazing organization that can pull off a lot.” The event also featured other freshly made options to welcome students back to campus, including blended beef-mushroom burgers, pineapple barbeque chicken, traditional macaroni and cheese and Asian slaw salad. “We’re hoping to probably feed all day today, close
to 10,000 people,” DiStefano said. “We just make it one big festivity.” Yet despite the honor that goes along with beating a world record, the goal of this clambake was simply to bring everyone together after a long summer break. “I feel like it brings the community together and shows how much spirit UMass has,” said freshman Charlotte Hoff.
“If a 10,000 person barbeque with a world record attempt is any indication of how much we want the students on campus, it just goes to show how much we care,” DiStefano added. “We’ll do anything we possibly can to improve the quality of life on campus.” Jaclyn Bryson can be reached at jbryson@umass.edu.
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my experiences traveling, I’ve seen how other people live their lives and how they make do with what they have. That has really opened up my mind in a way that nothing else has.” In December 2011, Rao said he took an especially memorable trip to Sri Lanka with his grandmother and parents. Much of his grandmother’s family lived there until the 1980s, Rao explained, but was uprooted by genocide and moved to India. “It was really nice to go there just to see the life that they lived back then, seeing the country in a state of peace rather than turmoil. I think that was really eye-opening to my grandmother and my mother,” he said. And to understand how important family is to Rao, one only has to look at the extent to which he is willing to go to see them. Every year, he makes the 24-hour journey to India to visit his grandmother, who Rao said is the most important person in his life. “I’ve spent more time in airports than I have in shopping malls,” he said. “Any chance I get to see her, I take up in a heartbeat.” Rao’s father works in management for a cable television company, and his mother sings classical Indian film songs as a profession. “One cultural fact is that the Indian movie industry is very closely tied with the Indian music industry, so the way that we would see a major hit song released in America, in India it would be released with a movie
where they would sing and dance along to it. So my mother sings songs that are found in major Indian movies,” he explained. However, Rao jokingly added that although the rest of his family is musically gifted – his father plays the guitar and his sister sings – he did not inherit that artistic talent. At UMass, Rao is working toward a dual degree in communication and investment psychology, which he explained as a combination of courses in the finance department of the Isenberg School of Management and the psychology department. “I think understanding how the human brain works is very important in all aspects, especially when it comes to financial decision making,” he said. “What really got me is I wanted to learn whether you’re buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks or you’re buying a cup of coffee at say Rao’s, what goes on in your mind that makes you say, ‘I want to invest my two dollars into a cup of Rao’s coffee as opposed to Starbucks,’ or vice versa.” Although Rao, 21, is entering his senior year, he is planning to take an extra year at UMass to write a thesis and space out his course load. “I didn’t want to stress myself out too much this year, because given the nature of my job, I’ll be very busy throughout the day and the entire semester,” he said. Today, Rao said he can’t picture himself attending any other college or university, but that wasn’t
always the case. “I came to UMass, I’ll be honest with you, with the mindset of transferring after the first semester, maybe to NYU or BU. I think after a week of living my freshman year at UMass, the thought of transferring completely left my mind,” he said. “I fell in love with UMass – the campus, the community, the professors, my friends – (and) everything about it made it feel like a home to me.” In high school, Rao was never involved in student government, and said he didn’t really know what it was. However, he recalled a particular instance during his first week at UMass that sparked his interest in the organization. “My freshman year, I was attending convocation down in the Mullins Center, and I saw the SGA president at the time, Yevin Roh, give his convocation welcoming speech. I can’t remember the specifics of what he talked about, but just seeing him talk there, being the one student amongst several different chancellors and vice chancellors really appealed to me because I saw him speaking and I realized that he had worked to get so hard to get to where he was,” Rao said. “That was something I really wanted to aspire to do, and I didn’t know how to get involved my freshman year. Then I became friends with people in SGA, and my sophomore year I joined senate.”He added, “I’m looking forward to giving my speech at convocation now, too.”
CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN
Rao during a SGA meeting in March shortly after his election. Rao re p re s e n t e d Southwest Residential Area - South as a senator his sophomore year and served on the Ways and Means Finance Committees. He continued to be involved in the senate his junior year, and was elected Chairman of the Finance Committee. “What I was in charge of in my committee was managing the trust fund, which at the time was valued at $95,000, which we allocated out to different RSOs on campus on need-based priority list,” he explained. Now in his role of SGA president, Rao said, “I’m looking forward to a lot of things this year, but I think mainly just being in the position that I am and being really able to make a difference in the lives of the student body.
“I think that the most important thing a leader can do is not to tell people what to do or give orders, but to listen to what people have to say,” he continued. “I enjoy working with people because I genuinely enjoy listening to what people have to say, and I think that that’s probably the biggest trait that I’ve learned that has helped me in my leadership positions in the past.” In addition to his involvement in SGA, Rao is a brother of the Theta Chi fraternity and was the marketing director of last year’s TEDxUMassAmherst. After college, Rao said his dream job would be to host a travel show similar to Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” where the Bourdain travels the globe sampling local food
and culture. However, Rao said that realistically, he hopes to join an information technology startup, and move to either Seattle or San Francisco. “I think what’s really great is what I’m learning in SGA is leadership skills, I learned marketing skills and promotional skills (from TEDxUMassAmherst) and what I learn from Theta Chi is just how to grow personally,” he said. “What I think is really amazing is that I’m finding that every single lesson I’ve learned in these separate entities and organizations, I’m using in all my other ventures, as well.” Aviva Luttrell can be reached at aluttrel@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @AvivaLuttrell.
Opinion Editorial THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” - Maya Angelou
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Editorial@DailyCollegiancom
#BlackLivesMatter: The irony behind ‘Black-on-Black’ crime The following column is the first of many pieces addressing the race problem in the United States that will appear on this page. If there are any questions or concerns as to why I
Josh Odam chose to capitalize “Black” and keep “white” in lowercase, please read the following author’s note from “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness” by Touré: “I have chosen to capitalize the word “Black” and lowercase “white” throughout ... I believe “Black” constitutes a group, an ethnicity equivalent to African-American, Negro, or, in terms of a sense of ethnic cohesion, Irish, Polish, or Chinese. I don’t believe that whiteness merits the same treatment. Most American whites think of themselves as ItalianAmerican or Jewish or otherwise relating to other past connections that Blacks cannot make because of the familial and national disruptions of slavery. So to me, because Black speaks to an unknown familial/ national past it deserves capitalization.” “I guess the heat does make people crazy…and before you know it, crazy becomes normal” - Huey Freeman, The Boondocks
post-racist society: a world where I am not targeted, ostracized, marginalized or politically/economically disenfranchised by the color of my skin–two completely different conceptions. 3. White people kill each other too: According to reports from the United States Department of Justice, most homicides are intraracial in that 84% of white victims were killed by whites. 4. Respectability politics constantly distracts us from the larger issues: In short, “respectability politics” are an understood set of rules about how Black people should act in order to live positively in a Eurocentric environment. When we fail to carry ourselves in a “respectable” fashion, it is used as an excuse for increased police presence in communities of color. I am not advocating for sagging pants and gangs signs being thrown up. However, telling Black people to take off our hoodies, pull up our pants and turn down our music does not solve the problem of police brutality. It is merely a method of pacification to shame Black people so they shut up about actual issues. 5. The notion of Black-on-Black crime justifies increased police
“As people of color, we must stand and act with the same level of indignation whenever a young sister or brother’s life is lost to gun violence.” This summer, we have been inundated with images of unarmed Black bodies cut down by white authority figures. These tragedies have reopened wounds in our community (as if the wounds left from Trayvon Martin or Jordan Davis were ever healed to begin with) which have resulted in uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri. I had the privilege of hearing commentary from individuals on both sides, but one notion constantly being reiterated was “Black-onBlack crime” i.e. Black people need to deal with violence in our own community and pay less attention to cops killing us. It was discussed to the point where I personally had to rethink my views on the subject. After serious introspection, I reached the conclusion that Black-on-Black crime definitely exists, but it is examined through a warped and distorted societal lens. Here’s how: 1. No other group of people are pigeonholed or vilified as heavily when they commit acts of violence against their own: Maybe I’m mistaken, but white-on-white crime, Latino/a-on-Latino/a crime or Asian-on-Asian crime don’t seem to be as popular. Homicides take place within all of these groups, yet the magnifying glass is always on black people. 2. By its very existence, Black-onBlack crime invalidates any idea of a post-racial society in the United States: If we are so far removed from race, why the term “Black-on-Black crime”? Please, I beg all of you, stop using this void and meaningless term “post-racial.” There’s no such thing as “post-racial.” There’s no “post-racial United States.” Racism did not disappear after President Obama was elected. There’s no “post-racial era.” It’s a term for a concept that does not exist. Even if there was such a thing as a postracial society, I would not live in it. However, I would like to live in a
force. If you arm local police forces with military-grade equipment, soon their behavior will be reminiscent to troops stationed overseas. The emphasis on community policing takes a back seat to SWAT raids. Furthermore, when society at large perpetuates the idea of “Black-onBlack” crime, they are indirectly asserting that Black people are inherently violent. Therefore, due to our “naturally aggressive” disposition, a separate set of rules govern our treatment from police. Under this mindset, a militarized police, riot gear for minor offenses and a ‘shoot first’ mentality are all necessary tactics when dealing with Black suspects. People are outraged over the murder of Michael Brown, as they should be. However, we need to be consistent with our outrage. This is not to excuse police and their occupation and terrorizing of communities of color. But the fact remains that hundreds of Black women and men shot and killed in Chicago, New York, Detroit and Oakland over the past two summers received no national moment of silence, no walkout, no rally, no day of rage, no acknowledgement whatsoever. Intraracial violence and police brutality in the Black community cannot be viewed as isolated issues because they share a common denominator: the loss of Black life. As people of color and as Black people, we must stand and act with the same level of indignation whenever a young sister or brother’s life is lost to gun violence. Today, our house is on fire and when we ask for water, they bring us gasoline in the form of armored tanks rolling through residential areas. We have an obligation to secure our neighborhoods and resensitize this country to the loss of Black lives.
A white police officer shoots an unarmed black teenager in a suburban black community, a too common occurrence in the United
Zac Bears States. The same black community rises up to protest the discriminatory treatment they face from their police force on a daily basis, from too frequent traffic stops to a son shot dead on the street by the people sworn to protect him. What happens? Reporters are arrested, protesters are injured and
black president in office [and] I wonder if I can live anywhere I want.” Rather, Beauchamp found that, “It was really just a huge awakening.” During the protests, the local, state and county police departments have shown their true colors. After arresting two reporters in a local McDonald’s and never filing charges or reports, officers fired at nonviolent protestors with tear gas, limiting access to cars, neighborhoods and homes. Officers similarly accosted two Al-Jazeera America reporters and
parents were often faced with the choice of not going to court or leaving children unsupervised in the car –both crimes. T h e racism is not contained in Ferguson. An outpouring of racist support has flooded a GoFundMe account, run by associates of Ferguson PD, created to support Wilson. Online racists from 4chan.com (whose racism speaks for itself) have vowed to “intensify the hate.” University of Massachusetts political scientists Brian Schaffner, Wouter van Erve and Ray La Raja say that Ferguson exposes the larger problem of racial bias in local elections. By holding municipal elections in odd-numbered years,
“Our country is broken... We can only fix it through a deep and uncomfortable national conversation about the institutions of racial oppression that continue to cause unimaginable pain, tear communities apart and kill unarmed teenagers on the street.” shootings continue. All while the officer who killed the boy without due process sits in his home on administrative leave. And yet the conversation in the media does not focus on Officer Darren Wilson’s actions. The media focuses on the actions of the protestors, calling them rioters, looters and violent criminals using Michael Brown’s murder as an excuse to wreak havoc. Some people took advantage of peaceful, necessary protests to commit crimes. Surprise, surprise. In fact, recent research from the University of California Berkeley shows that during clashes in 192 cities during the Occupy Wall Street protests, police were the violent agitators far more often than protestors were. Victim blaming is the last resort of a desperate criminal accomplice. Racism lives in American institutions. In black communities, local police departments often have few or no black officers and city councils and school committees have far lower rates of black membership than the population warrants. Police and political diversity and representation only represent implicit racism; there is strong evidence that Ferguson is a “sundown town.” A “sundown town” is a largely Northern phenomenon, where black people are unwelcome after dark. James Loewen, an American sociologist, tracks the “sundown town” to the 1890s, when only 119 U.S. counties (out of thousands) had no black residents. This number skyrocketed to over 700 by the 1930s, a function of the great migration of blacks out of the South after the institution of Jim Crow. To keep the newly-Northern black populations oppressed, white leaders ghettoized the North, segregating blacks into separate communities, often in unhealthy or undesirable locales. At night, the Ku Klux Klan (and now local police) harassed, attacked and killed blacks who ‘trespassed’ in whites-only areas. In his documentary “Sundown Towns,” Keith Beauchamp focuses on communities in Indiana and Illinois, and at the beginning says, “[He] was really hoping to prove Loewen wrong…[because] we got a
regularly approached residents and protestors with raised assault rifles. The Governor imposed a two-night curfew. But these actions barely scratch the surface of the true police misconduct. Since the year 2000, after Missouri passed a law requiring race, age and gender records of all traffic stops, 93 percent of the drivers arrested by the Ferguson police have been black, while they only represent 67 percent of the local population. Ferguson PD arrested Henry Davis in 2009 on an outstanding warrant, but he was the wrong Henry Davis. According to the Daily Mail, he recounts his beating at the hands of three officers, subsequent documentation of his injuries and, after returning from the hospital, being held longer. He was released on $1,500 bail, and the Ferguson PD sent him a bill for four counts of property damage –for bleeding on the officers’ uniforms. The officers were found to have perjured themselves by filing false reports –he didn’t bleed on two of their uniforms –but Davis has yet to win an appeal after excessive force charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence (the station’s video cameras happened to be running at 32 times normal speed during the events). Ferguson police filed an 18-page report on his alleged theft of cigars from the convenience store but didn’t file a report on the shooting of Brown. In fact, the corruption of the criminal justice system and exploitation of the black community in Ferguson goes even deeper. A report from Arch City Defenders – a legal defense organization – shows that “fines and court fees” are the already-impoverished city’s second largest revenue source, and that, on average, Ferguson courts dispense $321 in fines and three warrants per household, according to Marginal Revolution. The report cites that the high rates are due to “low level harassment involving traffic stops, court appearances, high fines and the threat of jail for failure to pay.” It also cites that, because 37 percent of courts surveyed by a local judge closed hearings to non-defendants,
a Progressive-era reform meant to shield local politics from partisanship, turnout in Ferguson is drastically reduced. For the 2012 presidential election, 71 percent of the electorate was black, which was 55 percent of the city’s black population. For the 2013 spring city elections, only 47 percent of the electorate was black, and they only accounted for 6 percent of the total black population. The non-partisan ballot, also a Progressive-era idea, limits uneducated voters’ knowledge of candidates and further reduces their chances of voting. What are the consequences of these institutions? Five of Ferguson’s six city councilors and the mayor are white (in a town where 67 percent of the population is black). A justice system is not just if it only provides justice to paragons of virtue. Real justice means that Brown gets the same legal protections as Jared Loughner or Timothy McVeigh. Brown didn’t shoot up a movie theater or blow up a federal office building. According to the law, Brown had not committed any crime. Yet Loughner lives. McVeigh, responsible for the deaths of over 500 people, died six years after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. And only because he dropped all of his death penalty appeals. Brown allegedly takes a box of cigarillos from a convenience store. Dead on the street. Eric Garner responds to repeated police harassment. Dead on the street. McVeigh blows up a federal building, killing hundreds. He dies six years later, after a last meal and statement in a federal prison. Our country is broken. We cannot fix it by taking away military toys from the domestic police, as pundits suggest. We can only fix it through a deep and uncomfortable national conversation about the institutions of racial oppression that continue to cause unimaginable pain, tear communities apart and kill unarmed teenagers on the street. Zac Bears is the Opinion & Editorial Editor. He can be reached at ibears@umass.edu.
Josh Odam is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at jodam@umass.edu.
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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian is published Monday through Thursday during the University of Massachusetts calendar semester. The Collegian is independently funded, operating on advertising revenue. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life, became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914 and the Tri–Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily from 1967 to 2013, The Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994. For advertising rates and information, call 413-545-3500.
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Tuesday, September 2, 2014
THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
United States and allies must eliminate ISIS
Advertising is all around us, with the help of Big Brother’s data George Orwell eternalized the slogan “Big Brother is watching you” in his novel “1984” and surfaced a worldwide intrigue with futuristic dystopian societies. From Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” to Lois Lowry’s “The Giver,” and more recently, Veronica Roth’s
Maral Margossian “Divergent” series, our disturbing fascination with Big Brother has grown. But as we keep our eye on Big Brother, we have let Big Brother’s brother creep up on us: utilizing Big Data. Big data is massive, complex, volumes of information collected from various sources that require significant computing power to analyze. This is a vague and basic description of big data, but concrete definitions are debated even among professionals.
website. For instance, I once looked up airline tickets, then a few hours later looked them up again and the price climbed outrageously. Coincidence? I think not. Those ads usually occur from your computer’s cookies, small tracking files used to safe user information by websites, which can be disabled. However, Google can use content from your email and YouTube to more personalize advertisements on websites your visit. The primary challenge for advertisers is actually reaching the consumer. Being bombarded with some sort of ad at every turn results in varying degrees of desensitizing. It becomes easier to ignore logos of different brands and companies and move on with your day. In the Forbes article, “Here’s The Future Of Advertising According To Google,” Robert Hof writes, “. . .You should be able to target not
“In the quest for individualized personal data, some companies are willing to get up close and personal.” Big data can be harnessed for countless purposes – not necessarily all evil – but when this enigma takes shape of personalized advertisements, Big Brother’s watchful gaze becomes more than a disturbing fascination. In the quest for individualized personal data, some companies are willing to get up close and personal. For example, two years ago, Facebook conducted a weeklong experiment to see if they could alter its users’ moods based on content on their News Feed. About 700,000 uninformed users were involved in the experiment; some were shown happy content while others, sadder content. The experiment revealed that by the end of the week, those shown happier material were more likely to post happy content, while those shown sadder material posted more negative content. This experiment poses ethical questions in terms of not only privacy, but also concerning the manipulation of users’ News Feeds. In another equally disturbing research, a study conducted by the marketing agency Pattison Horswell Durden (PHD) analyzed the days of the week and times of the day when women feel more or less attractive. The study found that women feel least attractive on Monday mornings and feel best about themselves on Thursdays. The researchers point out that these two days offer prime opportunities to target beauty related products to women. Apparently, exploiting the insecurities and emotional states of women is all right as long as it generates money. We’ve all experienced the time when we were searching for a particular item to buy on the Internet and a few days later see an ad for that item pop up on an unrelated
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devices but people.” Coca-Cola implemented this strategy of targeting people with their “share a coke campaign.” A Mediapost article describing the campaign states, “The Share A Coke campaign features Coke bottles on which the brand logo has been replaced by the most popular first names of American teens and Millennials, or other friendly identifiers, like ‘bestie,’ ‘star’ and ‘BFF.’” The company targeted Millennials with familiar names and slang specific to the generation in order to appear less like a company and more like a familiar friend. Not only are our browsing history, emotions and locations exploited for advertising, our sensory experiences are up for grabs. According to a New York Times article, “anywhere the eye can see, it’s likely to see an ad.” Some, “Got Milk?” billboards in San Francisco emitted a chocolate-chip cookie aroma at bus stops. However, after people complained about the scent, the company was asked to shut it off. So much for nostalgic memories of grandma baking cookies –those poor folks now associate that smell with busy, noisy bus stops. The article also states that the average person is exposed to over 5,000 advertisements each day. That amounts to about three advertisements per minute if the person doesn’t sleep. There’s not much we can do about this flood of advertisement other than be conscious of it. It becomes easy to fall into a cycle of consumption, but before Big Data reduces us into an algorithm, we can at least make it harder for them.
Two weeks ago, the militant group ISIS (also known as ISIL or Islamic State) posted a video online in which they showed the beheading of American journal-
generated by over a decade of American troops in Iraq, what should America do? The answer is simple: eliminate the threat. This is not the same case in Iraq as it was 10 years ago, Steven Gillard in which the credibility of a true threat to the United States is quesist, New Hampshire native and tionable. This isn’t Al-Qaeda, an University of Massachusetts enemy with no physical base that alumnus James Foley, who had is hard to pin down. This is a clear cut case of an American enemy been held captive since 2012.
different. Intolerance has no place in the 21st century, especially intolerance that results in genocide. Eliminating ISIS by whatever means necessary would both rescue people helpless to defend themselves and remove a group that will undoubtedly be a threat to the United States in years to come. The U.S. response needs to be
“Eliminating ISIS by whatever means necessary would both rescue people helpless to defend themselves, and remove a group that will undoubtedly be a threat to the United States in years to come.” ISIS is a militant Islamic movement that has gained ground in both Iraq and Syria and aims to establish a base for their Islamic caliphate, in which those under their power will live under Sharia Law. Their goal is, ultimately, world domination. Far from a secular army with territorial or economic goals, the Islamic State is rooted in religious fundamentalism. Even the terrorist group Al-Qaeda has classified their actions as too extreme. Tactics used by ISIS include broadcasted mass executions of enemy soldiers, the selling of women as sex slaves and genocide of Christians and the Yazidi people, an ethnic minority in Iraq. Moreover, ISIS has threatened to “drown the US in blood” and have claimed that they will raise their flag on the White House. The beheading of Foley came in response to the limited United States airstrikes used to assist Iraqi and Peshmerga troops fighting the militants. At the end of the video, ISIS showed another man, purported to be American journalist Steve Sotloff and threatened to kill him if the U.S. does not end the military airstrikes in Iraq. Given the delicate situation
–a global enemy –that wants to destroy all of those who are different from them, and the longer we wait, the stronger they will grow. ISIS has killed an American citizen. They have made their ambitions to attack the US clear. They have repeatedly committed crimes against humanity by indiscriminately slaughtering innocent people. Absolutely nothing is to be gained by allowing them to continue their unchecked offensive of violence, hate and intolerance. The human rights abuses committed by the militant group alone are enough to warrant military action, not to mention the killing of an American citizen. I’m not a proponent of war, and, given the outcomes of both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I know most Americans are not, either. With that said, I am a proponent of security, I am a proponent of human rights and I believe that it is the position of the United States, and all other countries that are capable of doing so, to step in and put an end to the violent fanaticism that is running rampant in Iraq. We need to do it for Foley. We need to do it for the Christian and Yazidi people who were slaughtered simply because they were
swift and ruthless. In the past decade or so, tactics such as airstrikes and arming and training our allies have proven to be popular alternatives to traditional measures. Both of these, however, have done little to quell the momentum of ISIS. Both the Iraq War and Vietnam War have been classified by some as mistakes: wars that did not need to be fought that only resulted in the loss of American lives. But the nature and ambitions of ISIS are far different from those of Saddam Hussein and Ho Chi Minh. Their ambitions are much closer to those of Nazi Germany: rooted in violence, intolerance and extermination. I’m not advocating a full-scale invasion of Iraq, or an indiscriminate carpet bombing of enemy territory, but I am advocating for international action that is strong and stern, international action that will guarantee that ISIS ceases to be a threat to the civilized world. It’s the right thing to do. Steven Gillard is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at sgillard@umass.edu.
Maral Margossian is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at mmargossian@umass.edu.
Why the media doesn’t handle depression well Like so many people, I was to finding an answer to this quesshocked and saddened to hear of tion – yes, we know that Williams Robin Williams’ suicide this past had been struggling with severe depression, but what may have Kate Leddy caused it to escalate to suicide? Dozens of reports came out about August. I immediately turned to money troubles, Williams’ heart the countless articles and media surgery, his use of antideprescoverage that were cropping up sants and his recent diagnoses by the second, each elaborating with Parkinson’s disease. on the severe depression of the While I don’t deny that these beloved actor I had grown up may have been factors in Williams’ watching. struggle, it just isn’t that simple. With the news, a delicate and We undoubtedly want to have important topic was placed in direct answers and logical conthe media’s hands. According to clusions, especially with such a the World Health Organization, grievous event, but when it comes 350 million people are affected by depression, all of the finger-pointdepression. Williams’ tragic death ing is causing us to miss a huge opened up an opportunity to dis- talking point. cuss an illness that is still widely In the first few days after the misunderstood in our society, as news, there were dozens of interit is unfortunately extremely com- views and reports of friends of plicated. Williams, healthcare profession There seemed to be one press- als commenting on the effects of ing question that was on the minds Parkinson’s disease, surgeons of millions of heartbroken fans, elaborating on the heart surgery family and friends when Williams procedure and discussions about passed; it’s the same question that previous actors who have dealt must be at the forefront of anyone with depression. Yet, there were grieving a loved one’s suicide: why no psychologists or other profesdid he do it? sionals to talk about depression in The media immediately took and of itself until much later.
The stigmas associated with depression often paint it as a state of constant sadness, something that often results from a tragic event or experience. Millions suffer in silence with the feeling that they should be able to just “snap out of it” and appreciate what
“Reporters should stop digging for more evidence on who and why before they have finished analyzing what.” they have. Fox News anchor Shepard Smith calling Williams a coward just hours after the news broke (and even the wording of his apology afterwards) epitomizes this stigma. He claimed he was simply “wondering aloud” how a successful man like Williams could leave behind three children who loved him dearly in a “fit of depression.” The reality is that when a person is severely depressed, the illness seizes complete control and the
victim can see no other option. I did not learn any of what I know about depression from the media, or reports of celebrities that have dealt with it. I wish that I could say I had. Instead, I learned after a neighbor attempted suicide. I learned when a close friend of mine was considering it. Nothing could make me want the world and myself to understand depression more than having my best friend look me in the eyes and tell me he knows he should be happy and has so much to be thankful for, but that he finds himself trapped in this feeling that is beyond sadness; it is a sheer emptiness, devoid of hope. This is what the media should first and foremost be discussing if they are choosing to address Williams’ illness: not what caused it, but what exactly it is. This is an opportunity to help others understand that it is a debilitating mental illness that anyone can have, one that can certainly be worsened by harsh factors in life, but that can affect anyone. By putting more focus on who or what is to blame for the suicide, the media is only reinforcing the stigma that
a person’s depression is only valid if he or she has a true reason to be feeling that way. Reporters should stop digging for more evidence on who and why before they have finished analyzing what. In the end, it comes down to blame. Many blame the heart surgery for worsening Williams’ depression, many blame his previous issues with substance abuse, many blame all of these outside factors which put William’s into a dark place in order to take any blame off of Williams himself. Until we start zeroing in on just the depression itself, though, and put as much effort into analyzing the symptoms, misunderstandings, signs and treatment methods as we are the outside factors that may have contributed to it, then we are missing a huge point that could bring forth more discussion about the illness, a greater awareness of how it can be dealt with and a reduction of the stigmas they leave so many dangerously untreated. Kate Leddy is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at kleddy@umass.edu.
THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Sports@DailyCollegian.com
@MDC_SPORTS
FOOTBALL
HELD AT BAY 30
7
BATTLE OF THE BAY STATE GILLETTE STADIUM FOXBOROUGH, MASS.
BC rushing attack dismantles UMass By Mark Chiarelli Collegian Staff
ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN
Boston College running back Myles Willis (23) tries to elude a tackle by UMass defensive back Jackson Porter on Saturday. The Eagles racked up 338 rushing yards on the day.
Eagles surge through ‘worn down’ Minutemen
Although UMass only found itself trailing 6-0 Collegian Staff heading into the locker room, Boston College domi For the first 30 minutes nated the game in almost of play, despite a signifievery statistical output en cant difference in yardage route to a and time of possession, 30-7 victory over the the Massachusetts football Minutemen in front of team was still competitive 30,479 at Gillette Stadium. with Boston College on “I thought we matched Saturday. up well physically in the Earlier this week in a first half,” Whipple said. radio interview on 98.5 The “Our defense was worn Sports Hub, coach Mark down. We just don’t have Whipple said he wanted his enough bodies right now.” team to be in a close foot- Boston College’s game ball game at halftime. plan was straightforward: “We need to get into half- run the football. time in a football game,” The Minutemen (0-1) Whipple said. “And then allowed 338 yards on 61 we can make some adjust- carries and it certainly felt ments and play to win in like much more than that. the second half. “They did what they Whipple got his wish, wanted to do and we but didn’t get the results he couldn’t stop them,” hoped for. Whipple said.
By Andrew Cyr
It was a combination of quarterback Tyler Murphy and running backs Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse piling up the yards for the Eagles, but it’s the offensive line that deserves the majority of the credit. Whether it was a readoption or counter, Boston College easily turned the corner and bounced big runs to the outside throughout the game. Murphy finished with 118 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown for the Eagles. The dual-threat quarterback also went 17-for24 with 173 passing yards and a touchdown for the game. It was Murphy’s ability to escape the pressure and move the chains that allowed Boston College to have possession for 42 minutes, 11 seconds as opposed
ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN
Mark Whipple returned to the sidelines in his second stint as coach at UMass. to UMass’ 17:49. The Eagles (1-0) picked up 30 first downs on the day (27 on run plays) to the Minutemen’s seven. In his first career start, Blake Frohnapfel went
9-for-22 for 147 yards with a touchdown and interception. Frohnapfel was on his back after many throws as the Eagles; defensive front see
BAY STATE on page B3
Boston College rumbled and tumbled to a victory in the most grueling and surgical of manners. The offensive strategy employed by the Eagles on the Massachusetts football team came without the flair of most modern day, spread style offenses. Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy threw for just 173 yards in the 30-7 victory over the Minutemen and was as much of a threat with his legs as he was with his arm, even on passing plays. Instead, it was as repetitive as it was effective. The Eagles dialed up run play after run play, alternating between readoption handoffs, interior runs and jet sweeps. At the conclusion of the game, Boston College had totaled 338 yards on 61 rushing attempts. In comparison, UMass rushed 22 times for just 55 yards. From the sideline, Minutemen coach Mark Whipple observed an abundance of tired UMass defenders. “I think our defense is just worn down,” he said. “We don’t have enough bodies at this point. (Boston College) had 45 plays in the first half.” The first half acted as the tone setter, a message from the Eagles that the run game wasn’t going away. Boston College possessed the ball for 20 minutes, 49 seconds, dwarfing UMass’ meager 9:05 mark in the first half. In just 30 minutes of play, the Eagles had racked up 211 rushing yards and already carried the ball 29 times. T he Minutemen employed their base 3-4 defensive front for the majority of the game and outside of a select group of defensive subs, featured the same rotation of playsee
RUSH WOES on page B3
FIELD HOCKEY
Minutewomen re-tool, eye successful 2014 season UMass must replace 7 graduating seniors By Tyler Fiedler Collegian Staff
The Massachusetts field hockey team enters the 2014 season with a combination of youth and experience that coach Carla Tagliente hopes is the right mix in bringing the program its sixth Atlantic 10 championship in eight years. The Minutewomen have to fill the void left by the seven graduating seniors. Five of their eight points leaders from 2013 departed, including star Hannah Prince, leaving a major hole
on the offensive side of the turf. But Tagliente said she believes seniors Lauren Allymohamed, Mariajose Rodriguez and Renee Suter are ready to take on the challenge amid heightened expectations surrounding the team. “We need to take it one day at a time, one game at a time,” Tagliente said. “It is a short term focus with a long term objective of winning A-10’s and getting far into the NCAA tournament.”
This season, Tagliente brings in two new assistant coaches in former UMass standout Shannon Taylor, who was also an assistant under Tagliente in 2012, and former Connecticut star Sarah Mansfield to round out her staff. “Sometimes change is good, and they have hit the ground running,” Tagliente said of the two coaches. “Shannon (Taylor) has great international and positional experience and Sarah (Mansfield) Coaching is one of the most decorative Tagliente returns for her goalkeepers to ever play.” fourth season coaching at Tagliente went on to say UMass. Her teams have won that they have brought fresh two straight A-10 titles and ideas and the three have a made it to the NCAA tourna- great balance of coaching ment quarterfinals in 2013. styles.
Defense The Minutewomen’s most experienced position is their defense. It is the backbone to this team returning two starters in Allymohamed and Rodriguez who are two of only three seniors on this young squad. Allymohamed is a captain on the team and posted eight goals and 16 points last season. Rodriguez started 21 of the team’s 24 games. Also returning is sophomore Hannah Farrell who appeared in all 24 games for the Minutewomen in 2013, starting four of them. The team will look for bigger numbers from Rodriguez and Farrell while also looking to see
RE-TOOLING on page B3
CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN
Brooke Sabia (with ball) is a crucial component to UMass field hockey this season.
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Tuesday, September 2, 2014
THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
M E N ’ S S O C C E R
A LASTING LEGACY
DailyCollegian.com
UM seniors must lead team forward Schwartz, Keys guide Minutemen By Ross Gienieczko Collegian Staff
COLLEGIAN FILE PHOTO
Sam Koch, the head coach of the UMass men’s soccer team for the past 23 seasons, passed away in July after a battle with sinus cancer.
I
In wake of death, Koch’s vast impact evident in those who knew him best
could tell you about my experience in reacting to Sam Koch’s sense of humor. I could tell you about the handful of times I interviewed him as a nervous assistant sports editor, about my sudden realization that not all coaches answered in rehearsed clichés and that it was Mark perfectly Chiarelli acceptable to erupt in laughter in the middle of a simple interview session. I could tell you about his infectious personality, his calm yet powerful demeanor on the sideline or the one time he told a group of assembled reporters that his brother once stole his saxophone. Or I could let those who played for Koch – who died in July after a two-year battle with cancer – during his 23 years as steward of the Massachusetts men’s soccer program tell you about it. Take Dominic Skrajewski’s word for it. He’ll know plenty more about the passionate, abundantly positive coach with a quick-wit than I would. Skrajewski started 67 games as a defender for the Minutemen and captained UMass from the backline during his senior season before graduating in 2012. “If he wanted to, he could probably get a time slot on Comedy Central,” Skrajewski said when reached by phone. “He always had a one-
liner, he always had that line to get someone to laugh. He’d get that serious talk to the team, talk to you, he’d tell you how it is and then he’d end it with a joke. He’d get you right back to where you need to be with a positive attitude.” Take Brett Canepa’s word for it too. Canepa was a junior co-captain during Skrajewski’s senior season and an outright captain during his senior campaign in 2013 despite missing the entire season with a torn ACL. “His jokes, he probably thought they were funny,” Canepa said in between laughs of his own. “It was definitely some old school jokes that he would laugh at himself about and that’s what we love about him. The guys would laugh at him, not with him, and Coach would laugh for himself so it was pretty funny.” Matt Keys, who will captain UMass this season, added his own anecdote. One of his fondest and funniest memories of his coach was Koch’s recollection of the time he was asked to throw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game. He was fresh off a College Cup appearance after guiding his 2007 squad to an improbable Cinderella run in NCAA tournament. The story came up when Koch was asked to throw out the first pitch at the UMass softball team’s Cancer Appreciation Day in a tribute to Elaine Sortino, another legendary UMass coach who passed away after a battle with cancer. “I asked him, ‘Are you nervous?’” Keys said of his coach who he referred to as a “father figure.”
“And he was just like, ‘No way.’ And you know the expressions and the way he uses words? The way he described the fear of throwing out the first pitch at the Red Sox game was so funny.” Fortunately for those who were privileged enough to at least share Koch’s company, it’s easy to think of those mannerisms. And it’s easy for each of those three players – and countless more – to think of a time when Koch so profoundly impacted them as both young men and athletes. Koch was a loving family man. He spent many weekends traveling hours at a time to see his children play soccer, only to scurry back to Amherst so he wouldn’t miss a practice. That family appeal extended to every player who donned Maroon and White as part of a family that extends much further from the pitch. He was overwhelmingly positive. He expected a lot from his players, and in return, offered them guidance. Any time a player needed to talk, his office door remained open. He was a fighter. He fought to keep UMass, a program nearly cut due to funding and Title IX issues, afloat. It was a chip on his shoulder that never left. “He’d tell us stories about when he came to UMass and they were about to shut down the team,” Skrajewski said. “And he had this attitude that ‘they’re not going to shut down this team. We’re going to do so well that they’re not going to even want to shut down this team.” By 2007, the Minutemen were besting national powerhouses. So it’s no surprise that
Koch confronted his diagnosis with sinus cancer in a similar manner. He wasn’t going to make it an issue and the program would stay status quo under his watch. “Two years ago when he was about to go on this battle of cancer, it was actually my senior year and I was lucky enough to be the captain at that time,” Skrajewski said. “He brought me into his office and he wanted to let me know he was about to tell the team. He got emotional, he told me what he was about to tell the team and about his journey that he was about to take on. But I saw the sense in him, he looked me straight in the eye and said ‘I’m going on a battle, I’m not giving up.” That’s the Sam Koch many who associate with UMass soccer will remember. They’ll each tell you, one by one, about what a substantial impact he’s made on so many lives. His attitude will carry on with the Minutemen for decades, and will be what is always remembered. “He was probably very scared inside,” Skrajewski said. “But he was just so positive about everything that he took this head on and I know that he gave it everything he had. “He’s one of the strongest people I know and he was definitely a role model and he was a father figure to me at UMass. You see him day in and day out, I couldn’t be more proud of him and I know he’s looking down on us.” Mark Chiarelli can be reached at mchiarel@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli.
When Massachusetts men’s soccer coach Sam Koch passed away this July after a two-year battle with sinus cancer, the Minutemen lost their head coach of 23 seasons, who guided them to 222 wins, four Atlantic 10 regular season titles, and three NCAA tournament appearances. If you talk to anyone within the UMass men’s soccer program, though, and the last things you’ll hear about are Koch’s accomplishments on the field. “He was a coach, a friend, a father figure, a leader, and someone I looked up to,” said forward Josh Schwartz, who played his first three seasons with the Minutemen under Koch. “He was a big part in me coming here. When I came out for my official visit, coach just stood out to me as a really great guy and a great person, someone that I wanted to play for.” “We were really close. I kind of saw him as a friend and a father figure,” defender Matt Keys said. “He was an easy guy to get along with and an easy guy to talk to.” Interim head coach Devin O’Neill, who has over 20 years of experience coaching college soccer (the past two as an assistant coach at UMass) will help pick up the slack in terms of leadership responsibilities for the Minutemen. Naturally, however, some of that responsibility will fall on the team’s veteran players. “When you’re coming up, you’re always looking up to the older guys, it’s just something that’s natural,” Schwartz said. In terms of “older guys,” UMass will be leaning on two senior leaders in Keys and Schwartz. Keys, a 6-foot, 4-inch defender/forward from Norfolk, Massachusetts, has started every game for the Minutemen since arriving in Amherst in 2011. Already named team captain for the upcoming season, Keys is a vocal leader and someone other players look to regularly. “I’m used to playing that role on the team,” said Keys, who served as co-captain last year. “It’s something I feel very comfortable with.” Schwartz had high praise for Key’s leadership abilities. “I really see Matt as the true leader of the team,” Schwartz said. “He’s been that for a couple years, been a captain for a couple years.”
“I just have to accept that role and lead by example. You know, working hard, playing hard, doing everything right on and off the field.” Josh Schwartz Senior forward
“When it comes to leadership, I just follow suit with him.” It only takes one game to see that Keys is the heart and soul of the UMass defense. As the tallest player on the team, Keys is also the loudest one and is the center of communication on the field. He doesn’t shy away from that role, and in fact said that he welcomes it. “There are definitely times as a player/captain that I’m going to have to step up and really be a leader for those guys.” Keys said. Schwartz, on the other hand, spearheads the Minutemen’s offense and led the team in points each of the past two seasons. In contrast to Keys, Schwartz brings a quieter brand of leadership to the Minutemen but also talked about being a veteran leader on the team. “I just have to accept that role and lead by example,” Schwartz said. “You know, working hard, playing hard, doing everything right on and off the field.” “It’s something that I hope I can instill in the younger group as they continue to grow here.” By watching Schwartz play, it’s easy to see how he sets the example for the rest of the team. Always one of the smaller players on the field, listed at 5-feet, 6-inches, he is sometimes hard to see amongst hordes of towering defenders fighting for the ball, but more often than not, he emerges with possession. You couldn’t pick two players more suited to represent UMass soccer. Koch might be gone, but the senior class he left behind will ensure that many of his best attributes live on in the program. “We’re still going to play with all the qualities that Coach Koch wanted,” Schwartz said. “With passion, positivity, dedication, and hard work.” Ross Gienieczko can be reached at rgieniec@umass.edu and followed on twitter @RossGien.
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RUSH WOES ers. UMass failed to generate enough presence along the line and didn’t have the flexibility to showcase different combinations of players. As the game wore on, the Eagles continued to rip off chunks of yardage against an exhausted tired defense. “That’s who we got,” Whipple said. “We’re a (Division) I-AA team with some I-A players, a number of scholarship guys. That’s just what it is.” The play of Murphy appeared to frustrate the Minutemen the most. A graduate student transfer from Florida, Murphy is much more potent with his legs than with his arm, stymying UMass on multiple occasions. Murphy led the Eagles with 118 rushing yards on 13 carries. A bulk of Boston College’s offense came from the shotgun, as Murphy lined up with a running back next to him and ran the read option, a play designed for the quarterback to decide whether to keep the ball or hand it off based on the positioning of defensive players. Murphy was deceptive
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in his decision-making and found success getting around the edge of the Minutemen defense. “He did a good job,” Whipple said. “They did a good job, they did what they wanted to do and we didn’t stop them. And we didn’t make enough plays on offense to stop that kind of offense.” I n i t i a l ly, UMass remained competitive despite a significant Eagles advantage in yards. Boston College led just 6-0 at halftime after the Minutemen thwarted touchdown attempts with their back to their own end zone, instead forcing the Eagles to kick a pair of first half field goals. UMass safety Joe Colton – who stood out with 13 tackles in the game – lamented the defense’s inability to make quick stops. “Yeah, it’s frustrating when they’re getting chunks of yards going all the way down the field,” he said. “And then you decide to stop them inside the 20 (yard line), that’s frustrating and it wears you down. And you keep going out there and just, it’s a pain
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
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Sha-Ki Holines started at defensive end on Saturday for UMass. in the ass. It’s our fault, it’s our own fault. We have to stop them earlier.” As the Minutemen wore down, the Eagles took advantage, scoring on their first two drives of the second half and opening up the game. The size and experience of the Boston College line – it featured five players who entered with 84 career combined starts – took control of the line of scrimmage in the second half. After the game, both Whipple and Colton highlighted a lack of comple-
mentary football by the Minutemen. The defense couldn’t follow UMass’ first score of the day with a stop and the offense couldn’t muster any drive longevity to aid a tiring defense. It’s something the team will work on as it prepares for Colorado next Saturday. “I don’t know if there’s a total trust between both sides of the ball and we’re working on that,” Whipple said. Mark Chiarelli can be reached at mchiarel@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli.
put constant pressure on the new quarterback. Frohnapfel also struggled with his deep ball, but it wasn’t by much. UMass took plenty of shots down the field early in the game to open receivers, but Frohnapfel’s passes sailed just high of his targets. “Those are throws where, against a team like (Boston College), you need to hit,” he said. “Throws that I need to make.” Frohnapfel finally connected on the deep ball with 1:29 remaining in the third quarter, hitting Tajae Sharpe for a 77-yard touchdown pass for UMass’ first score of the year. It was the first 70-plus yard touchdown pass since current Minutemen quarterbacks coach Liam Coen did so on Oct. 25, 2008. J.T. Blyden rushed for 43 yards on nine carries in his collegiate debut after Jamal Wilson left the game midway through the third quarter due to injury. Both Whipple and Frohnapfel were impressed with the 18-year old’s performance and expect his role on
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offense to grow substantially as the season progresses. The Minutemen struggled to move the ball on the ground, however, picking up just 55 yards on 22 carries. UMass’ best chance to pull ahead early came at the 2:20 mark in the second quarter after cornerback Randall Jette intercepted Murphy and returned it to the Eagles 19-yard line. Frohnapfel was called for intentional grounding on the next play, which resulted in the loss of down and a 15-yard penalty. After an incompletion and four-yard screen pass to Wilson, Blake Lucas missed a 44-yard field goal wide right and the Minutemen remained scoreless. UMass’ next test will be a next Saturday against a Pac-12 team as Colorado visits Gillete. Andrew Cyr can be reached at arcyr@umass.edu, and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
UMass falters in 2OT despite Bruno’s heroics Minutewomen let chances slip away By Frank Corona Collegian Staff
With a goal by junior co-captain Jackie Bruno in the last second of regulation to tie the match at 1-1, it looked as though the Massachusetts women’s soccer team was heading into extra time with all the momentum it needed to take a victory in its home opener. Unfor tunately for the M i nu t ewo m e n , Catherine Zimmerman and Providence had other plans. Zimmerman scored in the 97th minute to lead the Friars to the 2-1 win. Zimmerman also assisted on the first goal of the game to Alison Mills in the 33rd minute. The junior led the team with five shots on goal. The Minutewomen (1-21) were not surprised by Zimmerman’s effectiveness, as they were fully aware that she would be a factor going into the game. “If anybody is going to
score for Providence, since they have difficulty scoring goals, Zimmerman is their one person who can score goals,” UMass coach Ed Matz said. “You need to be aware of her,” added Matz. “The goal she scored was just a goal scorer’s goal where she wanted it more than the two people who happened to be covering her.” U M a s s looked like it responded to the deficit in the first half with a promising cross from Laura Johns to Stacie Murray that went in, but it was immediately called back for offsides. Both teams finished with 12 shots. Matz said the key is capitalizing on opportunities, something his team was unable to do against the Friars (1-1-2). “I don’t think we created great opportunities for ourselves today,” Matz said. “We created opportunities but not great ones. It’s movement off the ball that needs to get better. We need to keep working hard to create those chances.” The lack of chances came from the Minutewomen’s inability to win headers
RE-TOOLING freshmen Grace Horgan and Melanie Kreusch. UMass’ defense allowed only 37 goals on 230 chances, leaving opponents goals per game at 1.54. The Minutewomen outshot their opponents by nearly 200 shots. By contrast, the team was third in the conference in goals allowed and goals allowed per game. “(The) expectation is to get to the point where (defense) is our strong suit,” Tagliente said. “We have great defenders returning but need to fill the void left by the great defenders that graduated.” Goalkeeper Sam Carlino returns for her junior season and was named to the Atlantic 10 Preseason AllConference team. She finished her 2013 season with a 1.47 goals against average and played with the United States national program at the 2014 Women’s National Championship.
Midfielders Suter will man the midfield alongside last year’s
and 50/50 balls, which put a lot of pressure on their defense, especially in the first half. “In the first half, that’s pretty much where we lost the game because we had no momentum,” Bruno said. “Every time we had a clearance it was Providence ball and that put a lot of pressure on our defense and our backs to have to make quick decisions. If we did a better job with those 50/50 balls, it would have given us more momentum and more opportunities.” The Minutewomen capitalized on their last opportunity of the game, as Bruno scored on a pass from Madison Smith with one second remaining in regulation. “It was just do-or-die at that point,” Bruno said. “I just ripped it and thank God it went in.” Although Bruno was not on the field during the Friars’ game-winning goal due to a calf injury, she noticed a common problem. “It was the same goal we keep on giving up,” she said. “One center back got beat, defenders got caught watch-
Jackie Bruno (16) scored with just one second remaining to tie the game at 1-1, but the Minutewomen fell to Providence in double-overtime. ing, losing your mark, bad body positioning, maybe a loss of focus.” UMass is looking for its first win of the season at Rudd Field and is hoping to correct the mental mis-
takes in time for their next matchup. “We all hate losing on Rudd,” Bruno said. “Those little zone-outs can’t happen and as long as we have a solid week of practice
they won’t.” The Minutewomen return home Friday at 4 p.m. to take on Cornell. Frank Corona can be reached at fcorona@umass.edu.
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leading scorer Brooke Sabia and sophomores Izzie Delario, Cliodhna Loughlin and Hailey Cockrum. This group has plenty of experience, however, with a combined 100 games played and 58 games started last season. Both Cockrum and Loughlin contribute both on midfield and defense for the Minutewomen. They combined for seven points in 18 games played last season. Offense might not come so easy for the Minutewomen this season as they lost a good chunk of their scoring and assist leaders from the previous season. All seven of the graduating seniors contributed on the offensive end, so the onus falls on the underclassmen to provide a lift. Expect the majority of the offense to once again come from Sabia, who led the team in points (41) and goals (20) in 2013. “(I) tell her not to look at numbers and statistics,” Tagliente said of Sabia. “She has a tremendous amount of natural talent, we need her.”
COLLEGIAN FILE PHOTO
Forwards Forward is the most inexperienced position for UMass despite three upperclassmen playing up front. The Minutewomen lost all of their starting forwards from a season ago, but junior Allie Sabia, who contributes both at forward and on defense, will take some of the load off the young players. Juniors Courtney Spleen and Tory Berry will be asked to tackle a major role in the upcoming season along with redshirt freshman Katie Clark and freshmen Sarah Hawkshaw and Nicole Kuerzi. Sophomore Nicole Miller will look to contribute more in the scoring end after four goals in 24 games as a freshman. The Minutewomen led the conference last year in shots per game, goals per game, goals scored and scoring average. Tyler Fiedler can be reached at tfiedler@umass.edu and on Twitter @ Tyler_Fiedler.
UM aims to replicate success By Tyler Fiedler Collegian Staff
The Massachusetts field hockey team had a goal last year: win the Atlantic 10 and make the NCAA tournament. After posting a 19-5 season record and a perfect 7-0 conference record and making it to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals last season, the goal entering 2014 is simple. Do it again. “We have to start where we are now,” UMass coach Carla Tagliente said. “We have to focus on us and get better every day.” UMass won its second straight conference title last season under Tagliente. Now, the test becomes making it three in a row while advancing further into the postseason. “Our overarching goal is to win another A-10 title while competing for the ultimate prize in the NCAA tournament,” Tagliente said. “We need to get players up to speed and take it day by day.” Last season, the
Minutewomen lost to powerhouse Duke in the quarterfinals It was a heartbreaking loss for a team that came up short of its ultimate goal.This iyear’s team is full of veterans and youngsters looking to make an impact. The combination of the youth and leadership should make for another successful year for the Minutewomen. It will be a daunting task, however. If last year is any indication. UMass’ first four games of the season are against teams that finished in the top 30 in the country last season. Tagliente said she isn’t concerned about the strength of schedule. She’s more concerned about how prepared her team is for each game.“We do not focus on our opponents, the focus is on us,” Tagliente said. “It does not matter who we play.” It’s the Minutewomen’s toughest stretch of the season. In its first game UMass will take on Maryland –last year’s top-ranked team for most of the season –followed
weeks later by a matchup with defending national champion Connecticut. At the end of the season, they get a tough test with national power Syracuse. “You can only control so many things,” Tagliente said. “Having a tough schedule is what we expect and we are going to go out and play just like it is any other game.” Luckily for UMass, the games against UConn and Syracuse are in Amherst at Garber Field, where it went 10-2 a year ago. But the notion of continued success is rising around the Minutewomen. They want more than just another A-10 title. This team wants to win the NCAA tournament and the confidence Tagliente has instilled in them gives them and their fans reasons to believe that something special might be happening in Amherst. Tyler Fiedler can be reached at tfiedler@umass.edu and on Twitter @ Tyler_Fiedler.
Arts Living THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
“Comedy is acting out optimism” - Robin Williams
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Arts@DailyCollegian.com
SUMMER MUSIC
Fresh faces and veterans shape the sounds of the summer
Four albums that rocked the season By Jackson Maxwell Collegian Staff
Summer 2014 was fascinating across the board in terms of new music. For independent music in particular, it was a time when both fresh faces and long-dormant veteran artists rose to prominence, crafting some of the year’s most startling and innovative sounds. On the Lo-Fi side of things came one of the summer’s most surprising masterpieces, Alex G’s “DSU.” Alex G is the pseudonym of Alex Giannascoli, a Temple University student who has been recording woozy, deceptively brilliant bedroom pop in his dorm room for the last three years. “DSU,” released on the Brooklyn-based Orchid Tapes label June 17, is Giannascoli’s first major release, vividly showcasing all of his songwriting talents. Ragged, primitive riffs, crackly keyboards and gentle beats guide these songs, but merely serve as a backdrop for both Giannascoli’s immaculate sense of melody and touching vocal performances. The guitars in “Serpent Is Lord” snake their way
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Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley of Alvvays perform live at Birthdays in London this August. through, and encircle Giannascoli’s seemingly hesitant, but intimate singing. Songs like “After Ur Gone,” “Boy” and “Harvey” are about as perfect and pure as power-pop can get, and rise above their Lo-Fi origins to express emotion in a startlingly direct manner. Going toe-to-toe with Alex G for best new independent artist of the summer was Toronto-based quintet Alvvays. The band’s self-titled debut, released July 22, led off with not one
but two consecutive tracks that will likely be known as indie-rock classics for years to come. “Adult Diversion” opens with an irresistible, Motown-esque bass line, and only gets better from there. The bouncy verses flow seamlessly into the track’s earworm of a chorus, which then gives in to a shimmering guitar solo that functions as a perfect sonic embodiment of summer. Lead singer Molly Rankin has a beautifully understated voice that perfectly balances confidence, coy-
FOOD & DRINK
A beer drinker’s guide to the upcoming fall season A breakdown of this season’s brews
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With fall comes a delicious array of rich hops and heavy spices. 5.25%) is available all year round, but is best consumed during the fall due to the aging process. The main flavor profiles of this beer, slightly sweet with a toasted, biscuity flavor, develop more depth with time. For a fresh hoppy flavor, Founders Brewing Company is coming out with its Harvest Ale (ABV 6.5%). With a hazy orange coloring, this ale has a sweet, herbal hops flavor with a hint of citrus and a light grass note. There is also a toasted malt undertone in the finish. With all of its flavor layering, this is a great and interesting ale to drink in the fall. For a classic, Samuel Adams’ Oktoberfest (ABV 5.3%) is a great blend of malts—five, to be exact. The malt layers create a deep flavor profile with hints of caramel and toffee. There is also a bitterness, which comes from Bavarian Noble hops. For people that lean toward a lighter brew, Three Floyds’ Broodoo (ABV 7%) is an Indian Pale Ale sub style of a wet hop ale. It has a toasty, nutty malt backbone that coats the palate. There
are big hints of tropical fruit and pinesap in the aftertaste. Two unexpected drinks for the fall include a hard cider and a breakfast stout. Angry Orchard has an apple ginger flavor for its hard cider (ABV 5%) that is brilliantly light with a surprising depth. The ginger is not overpowering but present and gives the refreshing cider a tart tinge. On a completely different end of the brew spectrum is the breakfast stout, brewed by Founders (ABV 8.3%). Made with Kona and Sumatra beans, dark chocolate and oats, this stout is perfect with breakfast or even as a dessert due to its smooth, roasted flavor. It is a heavier and more unique option. These are just a few of the different options for the upcoming fall brew season. While there are classics like the Oktoberfest, many breweries are branching out into new flavor profiles. Make sure to try an unfamiliar sixpack this fall because there are many delicious choices out there. Adria Kelly can be reached at akellysu@umass.edu.
Jacskon can be reached at jlmaxwell@ umass.edu
Music festivals disappoint Boston Calling, others fall flat Collegian Staff
Collegian Staff
facings was the return of Spoon, the Texas rock quintet who released its eighth album, “They Want My Soul,” Aug. 5. The band’s first album in over four and a half years, “They Want My Soul” was a treasure trove, filled to the brim with every quality that has made the band so beloved over the past 15 years. Each track is snappy and to the point, with lead singer Britt Daniel confidently delivering hook after hook directly into your brain, where it will likely stay on repeat for quite awhile. Daniel’s wit is still razorsharp, punctuating his songs with a defiant attitude forged from the years of obscurity and critical indifference Spoon fought its way through before its rise to fame. The rhythm section of Rob Pope and Jim Eno is consistently note-perfect, accentuating Daniel’s wordplay with emphatic rhythms and subtle melodic innovation. Spoon is a band that has never backed down from a challenge, so it is quite fitting that the 20-year-old band not only remained relevant with their eighth release, but also made one of the best records of the summer.
MUSIC
By Sarah Robertson
By Adria Kelly To a beer lover, the shifting of seasons isn’t about the leaves changing color or getting back to classes. It’s about the seasonal brew selection. While the summer is full of fruity notes and light tones, fall focuses on herbal flavors with more intensity and depth than a summer ale. There are a few labels that you should keep a lookout for this year. First come the pumpkin ales, with two standouts this season. The Elysian Brewing Company of Seattle is releasing The Great Pumpkin Ale (ABV 8.1%). With a deep copper color and medium body, this brew has actual pumpkin seeds in it, giving it a pumpkin flavor as authentic as it gets. It has a sweet initial flavor with a spicy aftertaste. Another pumpkin ale to look out for is Weyerbachers’ Imperial Pumpkin Ale (ABV 8%). Brewed in Pennsylvania, this beer has a hearty and spicy caramel flavor. Although the initial taste may be sweet, it’s not cloying, and the Imperial is lighter than typical pumpkin brews. Also from Weyerbacher comes its Autumn Fest Ale (ABV 5.4%.) With a nice full mouth feel and a delicious roasted malt flavor, this is the perfect brew to indulge in from August until November. Vienna and Munich malts are used to create the velvety and slightly fruity flavor. Next comes an amber ale from Maryland. Brewed by Heavy Seas, Marzen (ABV
ness and restraint through each of the album’s nine tracks. But Rankin and the band truly strike gold on the album’s second song, “Archie, Marry Me.” The song’s lyrics revolve around a familiar premise: boy and girl are in love, boy is afraid of the commitment the girl desperately wants. Rankin, as the girl, arrives at a simple conclusion in the song’s unbelievably catchy chorus: “Hey, hey/marry me Archie.” With those two songs, Alvvays launched one of the summer’s most
bright, catchy and lifeaffirming albums. Also released July 22 was Liam Betson’s “The Cover of Hunter,” a masterful, sprawling epic of suburban discontent, loneliness and melancholy. Betson, best known for his stints as a guitarist for New Jersey punk band Titus Andronicus, had released solo albums before, but under the pseudonym Liam the Younger. His Liam the Younger albums fell mostly under the realm of the folk genre. His quite, contemplative songs relyed on gently strummed acoustic guitars to emphasize the quiet desolation Betson so vividly illustrated in his lyrics. “The Cover of Hunter” is Betson’s most forthright rock record to date, flowing effortlessly between hushed verses and stunning, cathartic choruses. Enlisting Titus Andronicus members both past and present, Betson crafts a record that towers over the rest of his already impressive solo discography. “The Cover of Hunter” is a record that shows Betson breaking out of the shadow of his former band in a huge way. Despite the emergence of many new artists this summer, there were a few veterans that returned to flaunt their musical staying power. Chief amongst these resur-
This summer, I walked by Boston Calling by happenstance. I was in the city for no particular reason and didn’t know the festival was that day until I saw the advertisements glaring at me from across the subway tracks. Curious, my friends and I followed the sound of bass echoing off the skyscrapers until we reached Government Center. We rounded the corner and had basically made it backstage. Mere yards separated us from stairs leading to the main stage, where four lumberjack-looking musicians waited to go on next. Through the fence we could see them talking, tuning their instruments and smoking cigarettes. In Boston, the music festival mystique is shattered. The city suffocates the music by forcing what should be a huge setting into a city block. Echoes bouncing off the surrounding buildings made the music muffled and oppressive. Security guards were stationed lazily along the festival’s border, feeling more like baby sitters than any sort of authoritative figure. But as I looked around at all the flower-clad teenagers, they seemed to be loving every second of it. That is when I decided Boston Calling is the training bra of music festivals. Nothing about it is appealing or sexy, but to those who have never had one before, it is the best thing to ever happen to them. Music festivals have been idealized and commercialized so much that simply being at one can make or break
someone’s summer. So to meet the demand, music festivals have to increase their supply. This s u m m e r, Lollapalooza sold out in record time. Every threeday pass was purchased in under an hour and every single-day pass in less than two. Coachella attracted more than 80,000 attendees daily over the course of the two-weekend event and grossed $67.2 million last year. With that kind of money, it’s no wonder music festivals are being promoted more than ever. Even stores like American Eagle and PacSun advertise their “festival fashion,” like fringes and high-waisted shorts are part of some unspoken dress code. Coinciding with their surge in popularity, music festivals have also experienced a drastic change of face. Today, beautiful people advertise festivals wearing beautiful clothing twirling in beautiful sunsoaked fields. This is nothing like the drug-induced hippy mud-fests of generations past. At the first Woodstock Festival in 1969, food had run out after the first day. It lacked proper sanitation, and festivalgoers were forced to relieve themselves out in the open for the duration of the festival. Yet Woodstock is still regarded as one of the most influential events of that generation. This brings up an important point that music festivals seem to have forgotten. Festivals aren’t about choosing lineups that will rake in the most revenue or following current trends. They are about celebrating a culture through music. Back in the era of Woodstock, there was a message behind the music and a reason almost half
a million people traveled Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York. In 1969, the counterculture movement was in full swing and Woodstock was simply a tool of expression. Not all music festivals have dwindled to the level of Boston Calling, but its existence and popularity speak to the undesirable direction that American music festivals are going in. Festivals like the Newport Jazz and Folk festivals, a Rhode Island tradition since 1954, have stayed true to their genres since their inception, and continue to draw consistent, devoted crowds each year. Boston Calling began two years ago when founder Mike Snow recognized the market of college students simply dying to go to a music festival, so he brought it to them. There was no single theme to Boston Calling, and no message being celebrated other than the fact that college girls will pay hundreds of dollars to say they went to a music festival. With any guts and the smallest twinge of desire, we could have jumped the fence around Government Center and disappeared into the sea of bodies within. All that separated us from the music was a chain-link fence fortified with port-o-potties and fried dough stands, but it wasn’t even worth it. Everything Boston Calling has to offer can be experienced from the comfort of the Greenway for free. So we sat in the North End, sipping coffee and listening to the distant beats completely content with our free lawn seats. Sarah Robertson can be reached srobertson@umass.edu.
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Awards throughout the years Mork & Mindy Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Television Series or Musical Comedy
THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
AC T O R R E T RO S P E C T I V E
Remembering an American icon Robin Williams’ farreaching influence By Nathan Frontiero
Good Morning Vietnam Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Fisher King
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Aladdin
MTV Movie Awards Best Comedic Performance Saturn Awards Best Supporting Actor
Mrs. Doubtfire
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy MTV Movie Awards Best Comedic Performance
Good Will Hunting Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
One Hour Photo Saturn Awards Best Actor
Collegian Staff
I am leaning on the register. It’s a slow day at work, so I check my phone. There’s a message in my Sketch 22 thread that stops me. I start scanning the Internet, hoping to find something to tell me it isn’t true. But I only find confirmation. I stare at Entertainment Weekly’s short breaking news post, and read it over and over again for a few minutes. The words are unchanging. Robin Williams is gone. And I am broken. My eyes begin to water, but I choke it back. Marbles: The Brain Store isn’t the ideal environment for looking depressed. I put my smile back on, and do my best to stay peppy through the rest of my shift, but there’s a darkness that colors my mood. Later, when I’m driving home in my car, that soreness comes back. I start sobbing and can’t stop, so I stay 10 under the speed limit and stare out into the night, my vision blurred and eyes stinging. No amount of words can encapsulate the scope of a life, and especially a career, as remarkable as Robin Williams’. Little glimmers, the moments we try to catch in our frames or on our pages are a record of sorts, but they do not provide the true depth of organic memories. I cannot capture an entire life within the binds of an article, and I will not try to. What I can impart is a series of truths. Robin Williams was a genius and an artist. The unique impression he made on me he also made on innumerable others. He bettered the worlds of filmmaking and comedy with his presence. When I was very young, news of celebrities’ deaths always made me cry. So after thinking about it for some
FILM REVIEW
BAGOGAMES/FLICKR
Robin Williams as radio DJ Adrian Cronauer in one of his most highly praised films, “Good Morning Vietnam.” time, I realized why the news of Williams’ death destroyed me. This wasn’t just another public figure I would never meet. Robin Williams was an actor and comedian whose work had become entrenched in the most emotional parts of my life. After learning that he was gone, I was brought back to those times. An arc was now closed and a void had opened in its place. Some younger part of me, an inner person I knew, had died as well. When I found out that Williams’ death was likely a suicide, a deeper, darker pain awoke within me. Over the course of the day after Williams’ death, I read a number of articles that addressed the pervasiveness of depression among comedians. The shattering point that these writers reached is that comedians have to continue making people laugh to hide a deep feeling of worthlessness. Kurt Vonnegut once said something to the effect of “laughing and crying are opposite sides of the same coin.” Robin Williams embod-
ied that duality. He lived it. In the conversations I had or heard about his death, the understanding that persisted was that the man was his onscreen persona. You can see it in his performances and hear it in his voice. Mixed with the rapid-paced wit and spontaneity is an aching heart, a deep humanity. When I think of Robin Williams, I see his characters. I see that squinty-eyed smile break in “Jack,” and I can remember the tears Williams’ 10-year-old character cried as he reeled after Miss Marquez rejected his offer to go to the dance. I see Patch Adams visiting deathly ill patients while wearing angel wings or a red clown nose, breaking into an energetic monologue to lift their spirits. I hear Willams’ unmistakable voice behind the animated Genie in “Aladdin,” and think of the improvised brilliance of so many of his lines. Those moments marked glimpses of pure happiness in my childhood, but the time when I most felt connected to Williams and his
work was at the end of high school. My favorite film of all time is the one that finally earned Williams his Oscar, and is the film I will most remember him by. His turn as Sean Maguire in “Good Will Hunting” glowed with humor and heart. I’ll never get over the moment of catharsis in that film, as Williams’ psychology professor breaks Will Hunting from a cycle of abuse. About a week after Williams’ death, I revealed something deeply troubling to a dear friend. When she told me, “It’s not your fault,” I felt chills. Robin Williams left an indelible mark on comedy and cinema. He made the world laugh despite its pain. He was always mindful of that proverbial coin, and made a life balancing pathos with levity. To quote him, “You’re only given a little spark of madness, you mustn’t lose it.” I’m glad Robin Williams never lost his. Nathan Frontiero can be reached at nfrontiero@umass.edu.
TECHNOLOGY
Marvel’s super space opera Apple plans to reveal a slew
‘Guardians’ makes sci-fi films fun again By Yoshi Makishima Collegian Staff
“Guardians of the Galaxy” starts out like any good superhero movie—with the traumatic death of a parent. In 1988, we first meet our hero, young Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), at the bedside of his dying mother. He clutches his prized possession—a cassette player Walkman, containing a mixtape of his mother’s favorite songs. Unable to cope with his grief, he flees the hospital room, scrambles out into the night…and gets abducted by aliens. As far as backstories go, Quill’s is pretty wacky—but for him and the rest of his dysfunctional crew, wacky is par for the course. These Guardians of the Galaxy are Marvel’s latest additions to its superhero lineup. But if Iron Man and Captain America are the A-Team, these guys are C-listers at best. The group, lead by Quill, a thief-for-hire, includes Gamora (Zoe Saldana), an alien assassin with major daddy issues; Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a genetically-altered raccoon and firearms enthusiast; his partner Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a tree-like being whose vocabulary is limited to the words “I am Groot”; and Drax the Destroyer (prowrestler Dave Bautista), a muscle-bound tough with absolutely no sense of irony. “Nothing goes over my head,” he boasts. “My reflexes are too fast—I would catch it.” You probably don’t
know the Guardians of the Galaxy—and neither does anyone else in the movie. It’s a running joke that no one has heard of “Star-Lord”— the codename the adult Peter Quill has given himself. If it sounds a little grandiose, it’s meant to be. Quill is a swaggering, overgrown manchild, who still carries his cassette player loaded with his mother’s mixtape of 1970s hits. Pratt likens his character to Han Solo or Indiana Jones, but in Quill you might see more of Emmet Brickowski (“The Lego Movie” protagonist voiced by Pratt), or FBI Agent Burt Macklin (the alter-ego of Andy Dwyer, Pratt’s character from NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”). Pratt lends his characters an endearing goofiness and an appealing vulnerability. They’re all big geeks at heart. It’s hard to picture Han Solo lip-synching to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” as Quill does in one of the movie’s opening scenes. That same giddy sense of joy is apparent throughout the movie. The cast is a winning mix of comic actors, such as Pratt, Cooper and John C. Reilly, combined with sci-fi veterans like Karen Gillan of “Doctor Who,” Diesel from “The Chronicles of Riddick” and Saldana of the new “Star Trek” film franchise. They’re all just having a blast riffing on well-tread territory, and it shows. Of course, star power alone does not make a movie, and “Guardians of the Galaxy” was a risky project to mount. After debuting in the 1970s with little success, these lesser-known heroes languished
in comic book ignominy before Marvel Studios got ahold of them. There would be no large, eager fanbase awaiting this movie, as there had been for the Superman and Spiderman franchises. But relative anonymity, it seems, was a creative blessing for director James Gunn and screenwriter Nicole Perlman, along with the rest of the production team. Since there were no expectations for “Guardians of the Galaxy,” they could actually have some fun with it. No one was going to take this movie seriously, so the movie didn’t have to, either. It’s the first Marvel movie that is unquestionably a comedy—and probably one of the first superhero comedies in a long time. In the advent of Christopher Nolan and the “Batman” series, every superhero movie has had to be sepia-toned and deadly serious. When we hear that first “Ooga-chaka, Ooga-ooga, Ooga-chaka,” we’re in the age of Stormtroopers and Klingons, when Christopher Reeve was still the nerdy, loveable Clark Kent and Batman’s punches came with their own title cards—when the good guys could win, and still make us laugh while doing it. “Guardians,” with its neoncolored palette and wicked sense of humor, takes us back to the golden age of space operas and superheroes, back to a time when superhero movies could be fun. Yoshi Makishima can be reached at emakishi@smith.edu.
of new products this month
New operating system, iPhone By Kevin Hollerbach Collegian Staff
Since the release of the iPhone 4S in 2011, Apple has been consistent with the releases of its most popular device. Every fall, the multi-billion dollar company excites its fans with updates and new features for the beloved smartphone. With almost 20 percent of the United States’ population owning iPhones, according to statista.com, new releases are typically the talk of the technological world after they are announced. Ridicule is often directed toward the iPhone for its incremental updates and lack of “wow” factors. This year, though, the iPhone 6 will have a full redesign both inside and out. As a direct threat to large Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, Apple has decided to expand the iPhone’s screen once again, this time to 4.7 and 5.5-inch screens. These two separate phones will debut at the same event; either both titled the iPhone 6, or the 5.5-inch iPhone holding its own name such as iPhone Air. There will be other noticeable aesthetic differences between the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 6, as well, including a thinner, more rounded form factor—a change from the square design of recent iPhones. The front screen
will be made from a new sapphire material, stronger and more scratch resistant than Gorilla Glass. Behind the sapphire there will be a higher resolution screen, with an increase of about 30 pixels per inch. The power and lock button, which has been located on the top of iPhones since the beginning, is likely to change, as well, moving to the right side of the device. This is intended to make locking and unlocking easier with the larger screen sizes. Some analysts believe the Apple logo at the rear of the iPhone 6 will be illuminated, much like the backside of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The backside camera may also finally get an upgrade. iPhones have sported an eight-megapixel camera for almost three years now, but the iPhone 6 will see a bump to 10 megapixels, and a new true-tone flash. Along with these external changes, there will be some more typical internal updates. Apple will be updating the battery, processor and graphics unit on the iPhone 6, as they have always done with new phone releases. The storage size is likely to be enlarged to 32 gigabytes for the cheapest model, up to a possible 128 GB. However, new additions will also be made to the internals. For example, Near Field Communication (NFC) is a technology used for everything from making purchases with a digital
credit card to sharing contacts with friends. A leaked schematic for the new iPhone obtained by Business Insider suggests the existence of an NFC chip in the device. All of the fun is not reserved for just the iPhone 6, however. The new iOS 8 software update will be a change that all iPhone owners can utilize. It will be available this fall for all iPhone models starting with the iPhone 4S. Notable features include the ability to reply to a message within the notification center, sending voice messages and current GPS location in the messaging app and HealthKit, a brand new health-related app. Other, less talked-about features include updates to Siri, like the new “Hey Siri” command that initiates a voice-activated request, as well as changes to the iPhone keyboard, including predictive text and the ability for users to install other keyboards, such as Swype, as their default. Those looking to get their hands on new iPads will also be in luck this fall, as a second Apple event in October is rumored to show off a newly redesigned tablet along with some other goodies. As for the iPhone 6 (and possibly the long-awaited iWatch), Apple has just sent out invitations for an event Sept. 9 with the tagline, “We wish we could say more.” Kevin Hollerbach can be reached at khollerb@umass.edu.
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Tuesday, September 2, 2014
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Add a little fun to your life by pronouncing “menu” as “meh-new!” Try it and smile! Meh–new! Meh–new!
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Sometimes motivation and hard work are only The signifance and quantity of bananas in realized after your third hour of playing your diet take a sharp decline when one on minesweeper. campus is 600 percent above market price.