The Wake, Issue 3, Fall 2011

Hipsterzzz

06

Zoo Animal

12

Hot Freaks Interview & More!

01 - 15 november 2011

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial

Production

Editor-in-Chief Maggie Foucault

Production Manager Ryan Webert

Managing Editor Alex Lauer

Graphic Designers Steph Mertes, Ryan Webert

Cities Editor Alex Lauer

Art Director Keit Osadchuk

Voices Editor Maggie Foucault

And the climb begins.

Well, maybe it’s more like trudging, or plodding. We’ve completed the first half of fall semester. What does this mean? For most of us, this time of the year can be a real dick. The piles of papers, the midterm exams, and the dreaded group projects are beginning to swirl together, forming a supertornado of disorientation, ultimately leading to inescapable implosion of the soul. To loathe this onslaught of work puts it lightly.

Web Editor Eric James

Sound & Vision Editor Zach McCormick

This Issue Cover Artist Keit Osadchuk

Photographers Maggie Foucault, Ally Kodet

Business Advisory Board James DeLong, Kevin Dunn, Courtney Lewis, Eric Price, Morgan Mae Schultz, Kay Steiger, Mark Wisser

When does this shit storm pass, you ask? The answer is simple - December 22nd. That’s right, seven more weeks of disheveled papers covering the desk, dishes stacked up to the sink faucet, dirty laundry spilling out of the hamper, and five hours of sleep a night. I may be speaking for myself (which I am), but I’ve got more than a slight suspicion that I’m not the only person on campus who’s got a beef with the latter half of fall semester. And for those of you who love putting on your scarves and little mittens to go out for afternoon strolls, blithely taking in the splendiferous display of leaves that burst with an array of vibrant hues, painting the river banks with warmth - you make it so much worse for the rest of us.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people who celebrate the shift from fall to winter, but how the hell can you take the time to enjoy it? Over the past four years I was never able to understand what it takes to escape the soul-sucking force that is the second half of fall semester. It’s my last year here at the U, and I’m pleased to announce that after countless hours spent trying to uncover the sacred truth, I’ve finally come to my conclusion: I probably should have been working on homework all that time.

Illustrators Josie Keifenheim, Steph Mertes, Rachel Mosey, Keit Osadchuk

To my fellow sleepless drudges - while you sit at your desk, staring apathetically into the dimly lit middle distance, just know that after the seven weeks of delirium that lay ahead, there exists a magical place filled with hot chocolate, eight hours of sleep a night, and no papers.

Contributing Writers Eric Best, Alyssa Bluhm, Natalie Cecchini, Theon Kyne Dy, Lindsey Geyer, Matthew Hourigan, Alex Lauer, Zach McCormick, Kelsey Schwartz, Habakkuk Stockstill, Tony Wagner

11:3

Until then, we ride this shit storm out. Together.

Ryan Webert ©2009 The Wake Student Magazine. All rights reserved.

Established in 2002, The Wake is a fortnightly independent magazine and registered student organization produced by and for the students of the University of Minnesota.

The Wake Student Magazine 1313 5th St. SE #331 Minneapolis, MN 55414

Production Manager

(612) 379-5952 • www.wakemag.org The Wake was founded by Chris Ruen and James DeLong.

The Wake is published with support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress (online at www.campusprogress.org).

disclaimer The purpose of The Wake is to provide a forum in which students can voice their opinions. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not representative of the publication or university as a whole. To join the conversation email mfoucault@wakemag.org.

voices

LGBT Hate Crimes: Minnesota’s Growing Problem

By Kelsey Schwartz

In the last few years, one’s sexuality has become a growing issue for American society. I am not saying that it never was an issue in the past, it’s just that now there are more voices being heard . This subject, like a many others, is risky to talk about without stepping on someone else’s toes. It has spurred not only personal disputes, but also political. It seems as though everyone has chosen a side, myself included, but the one fact that I personally do not understand is the huge increase in verbal and physical violence and if I may say so, from one particular side towards the other. Such acts of verbal and physical violence are referred to as hate crimes, and they have been steadily increasing in number and severity over the last 10 years.

Everyone knows the word hate, and that it means to extremely dislike something. Many of us know this from our parents, mostly our mothers, when they would tell us after we exclaimed “I hate her/him/it!”, that “hate” was a strong word to use and that clearly we didn’t really hate her/him/it, but rather we just didn’t like them. When crime is added after hate it broadens the definition to violence upon a victim, usually physical and verbal, in which said victim is targeted because of race, religion, sexual preference, etc. Physical violence towards anyone is unacceptable; problems do not get solved by beating one another, especially in the case of one’s sexuality.

Hate crimes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals have increased by 13% since 2009 in the U.S.; this number is nothing compared to the 64% rise of these crimes in Minnesota alone, which was reported by Outfront, Minnesota’s Anti-Violence program. No one knows exactly what spurred the increase, but some say it’s in association with acts and bills that are trying to be passed through Congress. This doesn’t make sense to me, as these people have the same rights as everyone else and should be treated with the same respect.

The Minnesota Daily published an article about a recent hate crime that happened to two University of Minnesota students, Michael Dennis and his boyfriend Winfred Bates.

While walking to the bus stop, after a visit to the downtown Target, they were attacked by a group of 15 men. The men punched and kicked Dennis repeatedly until some of the attackers became uncomfortable and pulled the others off of him. Dennis and Bates then ran to the bus stop, and eventually were able to call the police. Within the article, they said that when they showed up, the police acted as if what had happened to them wasn’t a big deal. This is a common outcome for most hate crimes that occur in the Twin Cities area. Currently Minnesota does not have any hate crime laws; what they do have is an increase in penalties for offenders who are proven to have commited a crime against someone because of their race, gender or sexuality. This is unacceptable. I understand that they heightened the of-

04

01-15 november 2011

Josie Keifenheim

fense, but it shouldn’t be just tacked on to the normal laws, but rather set aside as a separate one.

Even though the physical damage done to the person will heal, the emotional and psychological damage will forever haunt them. I had some further questions for Dennis and Bates about the incident and how it effected them both on a deeper level. I wasn’t surprised to find out that Dennis described the incident similarly to how a car crash victim would describe the accident, “At first I didn’t really know what had happened, which would make sense seeing as, like in an accident, the amount of trauma was so great that my brain blocked it out.” He went further, saying, “As the days went on I would get pieces of the assault, but still to this day I can’t remember it all clearly.” It was the opposite for Bates;because he was able to escape most of the assault, he remembers it all clearly. Either way, they both agree that the attack will never be forgotten and every time they go out, the thought will always be in the back of their minds. I can personally relate to not remembering something because of massive trauma; even though mine was only due to a car crash, I can still relate to Dennis. Although some may think it would be nice to not

remember, and therefore not have to think about it again, in truth it forces your imagination to fill in the blanks in order to explain what little is remembered. Anyone who has had a tramtic experience like this can tell you that it is much worse.

In an effort to stop such assaults on people who have done nothing wrong other than being themselves, we must stand up. We live in the “land of the free,” and so shall everyone be free regardless of race, gender, sexuality, what have you.

Let everyone have their rights by voting NO on the upcoming Marriage Amendment in November 2012.

Every child that is raised in the United States at one point or another learns about equality. It’s in the Constitution, so why is it that hate crimes have become more common in the United States? Aren’t all people created equal, is that not what we as Americans stand for? We all have the freedom to express ourselves and our beliefs and to not be ridiculed for them.

Then why have the number of hate crimes increased? The United States cannot rightly say that we believe that everyone is “free” if these hate crimes continue to be a problem in our state, and our country. To live any other way is hypocritical of our collective values of inalienable rights.

voices

Has it Gotten Better?

‘It Gets Better’ Campaign Misses its Mark

By Eric Best

In the fall of 2010, six young people scattered across the U.S. committed suicide. While teen suicide itself may not be a new phenomenon, these six individuals gained national attention because they were reported to have committed suicide as a result of teen bullying and because they were, or even just perceived to be, gay. One of these young people was Seth Walsh, a 13-year old from California who was bullied endlessly by his classmates for being gay. Despite many reports by Walsh and others of this bullying to school administrators, the bullying continued relentlessly. Finally, he could not handle the trauma inflicted by his peers, and hung himself from a tree in his backyard. After a police investigation, none of his peers were charged with a crime.

Here enters Dan Savage, a noted sex and advice columnist, with the idea that though the middle and high school years may seem very difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth because of bullying and intolerance, their lives will get better later in life. Savage wanted to encourage these youth not count suicide as a viable option for coping with animosity from their peers. Hence, the “It Gets Better” campaign started, with support from popular figures that identify as LGBT, such as Ellen Degeneres and Neil Patrick Harris, as well Dan Savage and his partner, and LGBT allies like President Obama and Lady Gaga.

these higher rates of bullying and harassment. Even more research has supported that peer-to-peer discrimination toward LGBT children is linked to a development of severe psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. LGBT youth tend to have higher rates of suicidal thoughts as well as substance abuse, and when they are bullied, they are more likely to have lower grades and to drop out of school. If we know that all of these things are true, then why haven’t policies been created to prevent bullying in school systems? And if bullying is the cause of a majority of these problems with LGBT youth, why haven’t laws being proposed to make bullying a crime that is punishable by law? Laws punishing discrimination sends a message to queer and transgender youth that what is happening to them is wrong and what they identify as is right for them.

LGBT discrimination can only exist because our society allows homophobic messages to endure on institutional and interpersonal levels. Things that may seem commonplace, such

Despite the positive message, is it appropriate for us to tell children that it will get better in the future while they are struggling now? If they don’t feel comfortable in the world in which today’s children are living, or expressing themselves the way they’d like, how can we expect them to put faith and optimism into the same world? Lastly, can we guarantee that “It Gets Better”?

In order to create a world that “Gets Better,” change is necessary in all sectors of our society. First, school systems must provide support to any child suffering from bullying or discrimination, perhaps by law if school administrators refuse to abide by this rule. In classrooms, not only should “no bullying” policies be enforced, but students must be educated about the effects of hurtful words or behaviors. Educators and school officials, on all levels of education, must create safe spaces for their students, in which they discipline those that bully but also encourage students to feel appreciated for all of their identities. But most importantly, parents must teach their children at a young age about acceptance and diversity, and stress a dialogue that is free from assumptions or words that discriminate against certain people.

It is sad that we must have the suicides of a number of youth in order to realize that we must change. However, it is not too late to see our future children live without LGBT discrimination; we cannot just tell them that “It Gets Better,” we have to follow through with this promise: we must show them that today we are trying to create a better tomorrow.

In September, almost a year after the “It Gets Better” campaign launched, Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, of Buffalo, NY became another teen to commit suicide after being the victim of harassment from his peers. The tragic part of his story was that he, along with the founders of the “It Gets Better” campaign, actually believed it would get better. He posted his own YouTube video where he shared his story of enduring persistent bullying. A fan of Lady Gaga and her positive message to LGBT teens, he told his viewers: “Hold your head up and you’ll go far … love yourself … and I promise you that it’ll get better.” Sadly, his optimism in the “It Gets Better” celebrity messages and hope of one day being accepted wasn’t sufficient enough; Rodemeyer needed help with bullying and tangible support.

Study after study has found that LGBT teenagers experience bullying at much higher rates than their heterosexual peers, and that suicides among LGBT children is heavily linked with

as simple phrases or assumptions, can communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages which can create environments that allow bullying to persist. Overt messages taught to children, like when children learn that being gay is bad or is never even present in their childhood, or heterosexist legislation such as laws that prohibit same sex marriage, adoption, and other rights to LGBT people, send messages that LGBT people are bad or abnormal. Subtle messages supporting a homophobic way of the world convey to children that members of the LGBT community are an inferior group of people that are allowed to be bullied. When we ignore a student’s pleas for help with their harassment, a message is sent that bullying is harmless, and that their feelings are unimportant.

When these messages are taught to heterosexual youth, they may learn to develop hate for those that are different; when these messages are taught to LGBT youth, they may learn to hate themselves.

rachel mosey

www.wakemag.org

05

voices

Hipsterzzz

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, will a hipster will buy the soundtrack? by natalie cecchini Hipster is a term for a counter culture that exists outside of the mainstream. People who subscribe to this culture are ahead of popular trends, music, and fashion. They use words like “deck” instead of “cool” and “flat” instead of “apartment”. Hipsters drink Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and large amounts of coffee. They often shop at thrift stores and wear extremely tight jeans(no matter what gender they are). If you say to somebody, “Dude, I just found this awesome band!

Have you heard of them?” and they reply, “Yeah... I listened to them like 6 months ago,” they are probably a hipster.

The term hipster originated in the 1940s to describe people that liked a new type of jazz music called “bebop.” Hipsters as we know them today started appearing again in the late 1990s, probably due to the horrific fashion and music of the decade.

In the past, being a hipster was a positive thing: it meant that you listened to unique and new bands and were always on top of fashion, or even started new trends in fashion. Hipsters did this because they genuinely enjoyed different kinds of music, not to be cool. Recently however, hipsters seem to have changed and the term has taken on a negative connotation.

Hipsters have begun to act like they are the coolest people ever and are incredibly rude about it. They seem stuck up and have no problem putting their nose in the air while looking down on non-hipsters. As soon as one of “their” bands gets popular, they instantly hate it. NEWS FLASH: just because other people listen to the same band that you do, it doesn’t make the music any less good. I love the concept behind hipsters- listening to your own style of music and wearing cute, fashion-forward clothes, but hipsters have turned it negative by thinking that they’re more “deck” than the rest of us. Hipster has become an insult because no non-hipster wants to be associated with the term.

If hipsters removed their thick rimmed glasses (which they probably don’t even need) they might realize they don’t rule the world then people would stop making fun of them. However, there is a plus side to hipsters: they’re so cool that if we get enough of them we might be able to stop global warming!

ally kodet

06

01-15 november 2011

voices

NBA Lockout 1998 All Over Again

By Theon Kyne Dy In 1998 the National Basketball Association underwent a tragedy that reshaped the NBA. The players and the owners were unable to reach an agreement for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The NBA then underwent a lockout.

Luckily by January 1999, both sides were able to agree on the new CBA which would expire on July 1, 2011. The 1998-1999 NBA Season was changed into the 1999 NBA Season since it began in January 1999. Each team only played 50 regular season games instead of the normal 82 games. This lockout caused fans to feel betrayed, disappointed or simply forgotten. The following seasons had 82 games and fans began to come back and support their home teams. The NBA began to flourish again with a new wave of superstars that filled the void left by the departure of Michael Jordan in 1998. NBA television ratings kept growing and growing as the NBA season got more exciting because of the great talented athletes that emerged. The sky was the limit.

In June 2011, Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks had just defeated the Miami Heat in six games to capture their franchise’s first NBA Championship. Maverick fans were celebrating their team’s success in the playoffs. Even fans from other cities, specifically Cleveland and New York, were celebrating Dallas’ success since the team had prevented LeBron James from winning the championship (we all know why). After one day of celebration, the NBA off-season began. Suddenly every NBA fan started to feel unsure and slightly scared. The NBA off-season meant only that the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and the NBA had to begin talking and discussing a deal for the CBA to replace the old version that was soon to expire. The deadline for this new CBA was June 31 at 11:59 PM. As the days and meetings went by and no agreement was made, the players, owners, executives and especially the fans were getting nervous and praying that this would not turn into a repetition of 1998. Unfortunately, on July 1 at 12:00 AM the NBA placed its players in a lockout since a new CBA was not achieved.

The players and the owners were unhappy, but most importantly the fans were unhappy. Both sides still continued to meet in July, August, and September. The result of all these meetings over those three months was negative: the NBPA and the NBA were still very far from agreeing on a deal. There are a few reasons for the disagreements on the lockout, but the main one is that the owners want to reduce the players’ guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenue and were not moved by the players’ request to only drop it to 54.3 percent. As the weeks went by the NBA would then offer 47 percent and the NBPA would continue to demand 53 percent of the revenue. As October arrived, the NBA then decided to offer a 50-50 deal; however the players still held their demands of 53 percent. As training camp and scheduled pre-season games approached, the NBA decided to cancel both the pre-season games and training camps, since no deal had been reached by the first week of October.

As the scheduled season-opener on November 1 was getting closer, the NBPA and the NBA had one of the most important meetings of the entire fiasco. If no agreement could be made

by the second week of October then the first two weeks of the upcoming NBA season would be cancelled. The meetings came and went, the NBPA and the NBA were unable to reach an agreement on the new CBA. The worst nightmare of any NBA fan has just landed. In the third week of October the NBPA and the NBA still had yet to agree on a deal, so federal mediator George Cohen, who had helped solve the NFL lockout, came in and tried to solve the problem. Unfortunately after nearly thirty hours of talking with both sides, George Cohen stated that mediation was useless. The NBA still maintained their offer at 50 percent ; the players even reduced their offer to 52.5 percent, but still no deal. A week later, the NBA and NBPA meetings seemed to make progress towards a deal and everyone seemed to think a deal was coming. But on that Friday, both sides held a critical meeting and still neither accepted the other side’s offer with the NBA still staying at a 50-50 deal and the NBPA sticking to their already lowered 52.5 percent. Commissioner David Stern then announced the cancellation of all games in November and dashed all hopes for an 82-game season.

side should have settled for what the other side wanted; even with a lowered revenue percentage, a huge amount of money would still be earned by everyone at the end of the season.

All we can do now is just wait and hope that we eventually see Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks hold their championship on opening night, watch number one overall pick Kyrie Irving take command of Cleveland’s offense, be in awe after we watch MVP Derrick Rose, witness LeBron James continue taking his talents to South Beach, sit at edge of our seats and scream after a Kobe Bryant buzzer beater, continue to watch the evolution of Kevin Durant, see Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin dunk all over people, watch the determination of the ancientCeltics, and most off all, simply watch good ol’ NBA basketball no matter what teams are playing. God I miss watching NBA, and I know you do too.

For more information on this go to: www.nba.com and www.espn.go.com/nba

Throughout the lockout, fans have been getting signs that hint at a full cancellation of the NBA Season. What signs? Big name NBA players have been planning and talking to owners of basketball teams in other countries such as Turkey, Italy, and China. Some big time players have already decided to play overseas, some without an opt-out deal which would prevent them from returning to the NBA if the 2011-2012 season ever begins. Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, DeJuan Blair, Wilson Chandler, Kenyon Martin, J.R Smith, Danilo Gallinari, Andrei Kirlienko, Ty Lawson, and Deron Williams are some of the well-known players who have recently signed to play with teams from other nations.

Well-known players who have not yet signed a contract to play overseas are currently also planning to play abroad during the lockout. LaMarcus Aldridge, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Amare Stoudamire, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, and even our own Kevin Love are just a few players who are still considering playing overseas during the lockout.

This lockout has been a huge problem not only for the NBPA and the NBA but also for other minor people in the business.

Workers in the arenas that the teams play in will not be needed unless there is another sport that also uses the same stadium. Team trainers and physicians will have no work since they have no one to tend to. Even the people selling tickets, game promoters, and concession stand workers will be out of a job during the lockout. Often forgotten is the fact that this lockout also affects the college players who were drafted into the NBA in June 2011. Their dreams of playing in the NBA will have to be rescheduled.

The NBA lockout has affected nearly everyone working with and inside the NBA. But the heart and soul of the NBA has been, yet again, forgotten and disregarded. NBA fanatics, like myself, feel that the fans have been forgotten in the decision to cancel many of the NBA games. Many of us feel that one

keit osadchuk

www.wakemag.org

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cities

Sorry Vikings, We Have To Let You Go

By Alicia Johnson

Purple and gold. There was a time in Minnesota’s history that people were not ashamed to support and wear those colors that symbolize the state’s professional football team, the Vikings. Unfortunately that time was over ten years ago, 1998 to be exact. During that year they had a 15-1 record. Sadly they have been plummeting downhill every year since then. No one can pin point the reason for the Vikings failure as a team. People have blamed it on the coach, so we changed coaches, and we still sucked. If it was not the coach then it must have been the quarterback, right? Wrong! When the Vikings picked up Brett Favre, everyone had their hopes up that maybe, just maybe, they had a chance to win a super bowl. But as usual they choked when it counted and let everyone down. Now that the lease is over for the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome people are speculating that a new stadium in Arden Hills could help the Vikings out of their rut. Changing things in the past has not helped the Minnesota Vikings succeed so why should Minnesota spend $300 million for a team that cannot win a game even if they have over a twenty point lead in the first half? $300 million is a lot of money. And in today’s economy it is sad to see that congress people and even Governor Dayton are pushing for a brand new stadium for Minnesota’s least successful team. Schools are cutting teachers, a plethora of jobs are laying people off and giving pay cuts, and gas prices are rising. Should people not be more concerned with those issues that affect so many, and use that huge amount of money to fix those problems instead? Many polls show that Minnesotans agree that the Vikings team is a great asset to the state, but do not believe it is appropriate for government to subsidize that private business. All and all the total cost of the stadium at Arden Hills in expected to be $1.1 billion. The $300 million people are concerned with is the money the state has said that it is willing to put into the project. Having a sports stadium can be beneficial to the community. There are several bars, restaurants, and liquor stores that will get more revenue when a sports game is happening. If the plan goes through for a new stadium then it is too bad for those businesses that rely on those games because the minimum estimated opening date is in 4 years. If that is the case, then not only is the state wasting money building the stadium but also they are causing local small businesses to lose money too, because no one has a strong urge to hang out where a ton of construction is going on. The choices are endless for alternatives that the state could use the money for instead of a stadium.

It is not right to throw away that kind of money for a subpar team, especially with so many better options such as instead offering more funding for education or more money towards public or small businesses.

So what if the Vikings lose the battle and Minnesota does end up losing their professional football team? All the fuss about this new stadium comes from the fact that Los Angeles

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angie frisk

is looking into buying the Vikings if the state does not have a place for them. Yes, that would be weird at first not having a professional team, mostly because the Minnesota Vikings have been here since 1960, but in reality losing the Vikings would not be the end of the world. It would allow people to focus their time and money on Minnesota’s more successful teams like the Twins or the Wild or even the Lynx. People argue that the football team brings people together, but the atmosphere is the same for any type of sporting event. If people have the need to watch sports and bond, they can do so by watching TV, college games, or a professional game of baseball, hockey, or lacrosse. Warning: Those teams may actually win and may cause excitement. Winning is a new concept for those Vikings fans because they’ve forgotten what a win feels like. So what if Minnesota is no longer apart of the NFL? The majority of states do not have a professional football team.

Only 21 states have football teams, and the ones without seem to do just fine. Plus, even if it kills some hardcore fans, we are close enough to Wisconsin that it would not be that bad to jump on the band wagon and start supporting the recent super bowl champions who are dominating the 2011 football season. Also, it is a possibility that in the future Minnesota

would create a new team. That trend has happened several times in this state’s history. In hockey there was the North Stars, who are now replaced by the Wild and also in basketball when before the Timberwolves the Lakers called Minneapolis their hometown. Point is, if worst comes to worst Minnesota will do just fine without the inadequate Vikings.

It is sad to say but the Vikes had their 15 minutes of fame already and now are just over rated. Each game they play is the same old story. They are ahead by a crazy amount, then break down and turn into a hot mess the second half. “The Second Half Curse” is now an infamous phrase known to describe the Vikings. Money is too valuable in these hard times to put it towards brand new sports stadiums. Maybe in a world where money grew on trees and there were no other economic problems that required attention, then possibly it would make sense to build a new stadium in Arden Hills. Obviously that is not the case and anything costing over $1 billion should be put on hold so that money can be funneled towards making more jobs, lowering prices of products, education funds, construction funds, etc. There is just no reason to build a brand new stadium right now with all the implications it comes with. Sorry Vikings, your time seems to be up.

cities

Minnesota’s Changing Economy

By Lindsey Geyer

ally kodet

In 2008 the employees of the St. Paul Ford Assembly Plant were told they would lose their jobs that year due to the Ford Company’s downsizing and focus on more consumer demanded products. It is five years later and that threat has finally become a reality for the Minnesota workers. Built in the early 1920s, the St. Paul plant is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Ford plants still in operation. Residing on the Mississippi River, the location of St. Paul was chosen by the heads at Ford for the same reason many of the other plants and factories were built here: the hydroelectric power that can be harnessed from the flowing waters. Yet on December 19th, 2011 the plant will close and nearly 900 Minnesota workers will be out of a job.

This is a great example of how the Twin Cities has changed in terms of economic focus. Once a great manufacturing and industrial area, the production plants have been replaced by office buildings and Fortune 500 headquarters; the famous mills have been reduced to a museum, fittingly built rising out of the ruins of a destroyed grain mill company. The shift in labor is apparent, and the Ford plant in St. Paul is simply another byproduct of changing times. But why do we accept this fate? Is it because we desire the change, or because we believe we cannot halt the inevitable advancements? Personally, I believe we want a change in economic emphasis. We revel in the fact that we are now considered an epicenter for the growing arts culture, eco-friendly companies, and world-class restaurants. Our hipster tendencies (you can’t deny it, we all have some) have caused us to shun our dirty, manual labor- intensive past and look toward a “cleaner,” more glamorous future, and to most, factories are not included in the definition of a glamorous future.

Yet either way it is viewed, the Twin Cities has undoubtedly been transformed from its beginnings, and I suppose this observation can also be applied to the nation as a whole. To

be completely honest, I am surprised (yet delighted) that the Ford Company has still been able to keep manufacturing plants open in the United States at all. Succumbing to the pressure of overseas production has obviously been a major trend in company policy in the 21st century, and along with it, jobs and the economy have taken a hit. Obviously the economy is hurt when even one person loses a job. The implications of such an event occurring is great, and with the Ford Assembly Plant shut down, nearly 900 people will be faced with those ramifications. Take, for example, a single working person with a steady income. If that one person loses their job, they may be unable to support their family, assuming they have one. Perhaps they may have to rely on government funded aid to survive, thus affecting the rest of the state, and nation, by way of our taxes and ultimately and perhaps more importantly, our politics. Or, another route is that a single person loses their job, and they are then unable to contribute to the state and national economy from their resulting low funds and evolutionary impulse to save what they do have.

This causes a huge domino effect beginning with a slump in consumerism, resulting in the downfall of production, and consequently ending with more company downsizing and job loss. It’s rudimentary high school economics. When demand goes down, supply must follow, otherwise economic equilibrium cannot be achieved, and the corporation will lose money. This chain reaction and unavoidable loop of job loss and consumerism CAN occur. Hell, it basically already has occurred, we are just trying to ignore it.

Most of us were also in the dark about the Ford Assembly Plant closing in the first place. This issue has received very little coverage from media outlets, even in the Twin Cities.

Before reading this article, had you heard of the closing and relatively large job loss the city of St. Paul will take with the closing of this plant? If you had, I commend you for being interested and up to date in local economic and political issues.

If you are one of the majority of the people that has not, I bet you have heard of the talks of the new Vikings stadium, or that the Gopher football team lost. Again. Not even Ford Motor Company has acknowledged the issue at hand. Although I do not expect such a large corporation to be entirely enthusiastic about announcing a site closure, which to a company generally means failure, I do however expect them to provide the necessary information on it. Nowhere on their website was there even a mention or allusion to a St. Paul assembly plant. I find this disturbing. For one of the oldest and most efficient and successful plants in Ford’s history, one would think there would be a mention of it on the website. Even so, in hopes of getting contact information for the manager(s) of the assembly plant, the site stated nothing. It was like the St. Paul branch never existed. All that will be left is the daunting task of the realtors to find a buyer for the land. The possible chemical toxins from the manufacturing of trucks for decades that may or may not have leaked into the environment, and the giant underground tunnels below the foundations of the plant are some issues that obviously have to be discussed.

My opinion? Keep the plant open! Shocking revelation I know, but our economy cannot afford to lose any more jobs. Our people cannot afford to lose any more jobs! This push away from home-made consumer goods into foreign produced consumer goods is part of what is driving our economy down.

The circle of job loss (or as I like to think of it, the circle of death) and its implications needs to find some sort of an end.

By closing down the Ford Assembly Plant in St. Paul we are destroying a bit of our history, our economic standing, and our future. I am genuinely shocked this issue has not made more of an impact in our lives and media. So the next time you turn on the local news, ask yourself what is truly more important, sports and weather, or events that could very well affect your friends and neighbors.

www.wakemag.org

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cities

GO4GRUB: Being Lazy Now Easier

BY THEON KYNE DY

It’s 8 p.m and your sitting in you’re room studying and suddenly you get an urge to eat. Unfortunately you don’t have food and the closest convenience store is downstairs or too far and the closest restaurant is just too crowded and again, too far. I bet almost all University of Minnesota students have experienced this tragedy. Luckily for us two recent graduates from Indiana University can save not only our empty stomachs but also our cash. Aaron Davis and Josh Gershon brought to the U something that is very popular and normally used by the students at Indiana University. Following the footsteps of btownmenus. com, the online ordering food delivery website at Indiana, the two guys brought another version of that to the U. The name of the website they created is Go4Grub.com Go4Grub is an online ordering site that will provide students with the ability to get food deliveried from the restaurant of their choice straight to where they live. Other online ordering sites around Minneapolis that connect you to the restaurant of your choice normally charge you extra for using their site, while this service doesn’t charge you anything but the cost of food. Go4Grub in another sense is like the middleman in your transactions, in that it takes your order online, and sends it to the restaurant and after that it all depends on the restaurant.

Now, you may be thinking why can’t you just call the restaurant directly? One, sometimes the food you order is misheard by the employee taking your order by phone. Two, it’s much more convenient to order at the website since the menu is

right in front of you while you’re typing in your order. Just a reminder, Go4Grub is not responsible for late deliveries; the restaurant is liable when they receive your order and they will make the delivery of your food choice to you.

There’s even more perks and advantages when using this online service. One very cool tool you could use with Go4Grub is the advance ordering service. What do you mean by advance ordering? Well, it basically means that you can select a time and day when you want your food choice to be available for either pick-up or delivery (you can check on the site if to see if the restaurant accepts advanced ordering delivery).

One great deal for thrifty people at the U is that the Go4Grub website shows food specials and promos that the restaurants are offering. Moreover, Go4Grub offers exclusive promos which can only be taken advantage of by using Go4Grub website instead of calling the restaurant. Promos such as buy 1 get 1 free are available only by using Go4Grub. The website accepts credit cards for paying your bill online and if you’d rather, you can still pay them upfront when the delivery person arrives at your door.

Now you may be wondering what are the restaurants that are available at Go4Grub.com? As of now, they have Leaning Tower of Pizza, Pagoda, Leo’s Burritos, Campus Pizza and Pasta, Dairy Queen, Quiznos Subs, and Great Dragon. It may not be that much, but it’s pretty good for a new online

business which just started this September. Just give it some time; the two brains behind Go4Grub are doing their best to get connected with the big name restaurants in Minneapolis.

Very soon, Go4Grub will get us connected to a lot of restaurants around campus and we may even get confused with all the choices of restaurants on the site. That’s why there is a category section, where you can select the type of food you want at the moment, from wings to Chinese and even restaurants that are open late, it’s all organized there.

Yes Go4Grub isn’t yet connected with all the restaurants around Minneapolis or near the university but it still manages to show all the menus of every restaurant from A-Z, even though most of them are still not available to order online.

The great thing about that is that you can now see the menu before you get to the restaurant you want to go to and all of the menus of every restaurant are posted right there on the website.

I spoke with the two creators of Go4Grub about what they had in mind for the future. One of their plans is to create an app for an iPhone where you can order online from Go4Grub.com. This app will be very handy for students on the go. Students would just use the advance ordering services and select their food choice and then after placing their order they could either pick it up from the restaurant, instead of waiting in line, or simply stay put and let the delivery person bring it on over. Another great plan they have in store, listen up 21 year olds, is to set-up a page in the website which shows the events, promos, and basically all the happenings in almost every popular bar around campus such as Sally’s and Blarney.

Now I’ve told you all the good stuff about Go4Grub but how about what benefits we can get by just using it? During the winter in Minneapolis, it just gets too cold and basically impossible to go outside and get food. What do you do? Use the online ordering service that Go4Grub offers, obviously! Aside from winter time this is also perfect for those rainy days. Another great benefit of Go4Grub, as I’ve said from the beginning, is that utilizing Go4Grub is perfect for those events when you just want to eat at night and you’re too lazy to get dressed and get food.

GUY WAGNER

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Go4Grub is still small in size with connections to restaurants but it’s still very handy as of now, especially now because it’s winter time already. This service is going to get bigger and bigger, and according to the Aaron Davis and Josh Gershon, “We can take it, we are ready when Go4Grub gets a lot of users.” Well they’ve come to the right place, with cold weather from now until April, and the right university, with over 50,000 food loving students. Go4Grub is just going to grow and get more connections to other great restaurants. To summarize what Go4Grub is in the words of Martha Stewart, “It’s a good thing.”

mind’s eye

Black holes, Neutrinos, and Time Travel, Oh My!

By Mitch Ambrose

It is not often that something having to do with physics makes the front page, but every once in awhile a piece of physics news rises to the surface of the bubbling stew of stories that is the modern media and finds its way into the information soup bowl for public consumption. So how does physics news that manages to rise to the top contend with the likes of election coverage, sports games and, of course, the Kardashians? Convection alone isn’t going to do the trick.

One way is through fear. A recent example of this was back in 2008 when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located on the border of Switzerland and France, was about to begin operation. Somehow the rumor was started that the LHC had the potential to produce miniature black holes that could eventually engulf the Earth. As is the case with many rumors, this one did contain some element of truth. Scientists had speculated that the LHC could produce miniature black holes, but ultimately concluded that such black holes would promptly disappear, thus posing no credible risk to the planet or the public. Eventually the rumor died down and, to continue the analogy, the specter of food poisoning was eventually discredited.

What I wish to consider in this article is a different way that physics stories can garner attention: by capturing the public imagination. To do so, I will discuss the recent, muchpublicized finding by a team of physicists studying particles called neutrinos. Neutrinos are a member of the current set of elementary (i.e. indivisible) particles, and the characteristics that perhaps best define them are that they almost never interact with matter and that they are produced in staggering quantities by natural processes. A neutrino could pass through more than a light-year (the distance light travels in a year) of lead as though nothing were there! If this is not shocking enough, at the Earth’s surface, about 60 billion neutrinos produced by the Sun pass through every square centimeter (about the size of a fingernail) every second!

As many of you may have already heard, this group of physicists measured the speed of a neutrino beam given off by the LHC and found its speed to be faster than the speed of light.

To be more precise, they determined that it took the neutrinos 0.0024 seconds to travel 732 km, which is 0.00000006 seconds faster than the time in which they should have completed the journey. At first glance, this may seem like an inconsequential result. After all, 0.00000006 seconds is a practically incomprehensible duration of time. So what’s all the fuss about?

The fuss arises because the speed of light is, in a very real way, the ultimate speed limit set by the universe. More importantly, the inability to go faster than light is a cornerstone

keit osadchuk

of the special theory of relativity. This theory describes, among other things, how objects behave at speeds comparable to the speed of light, and the theory has passed every test of its validity with flying colors in its over 100 years of existence. An apparent contradiction to this theory is obviously very worrying for scientists, but why has the general public taken so much interest? I believe that it is because of the linkage between the going faster than light and time travel.

In every article I have read about the finding, time travel is mentioned at some point. Some articles even make time travel the central focus. Time travel is, of course, an integral component of many novels, television shows, and movies.

From The Time Machine to The Time Traveler’s Wife, from Star Trek to Lost, and from Back to the Future to Primer, time travel is a frequent and well-received player in popular culture. Why we have such a fixation on time travel is an interesting psychological question. I think our interest stems from certain shared desires, such as the desire to undo past mistakes. But whatever the reason, any news giving scientific credence to the possibility of time travel will consequently attract both the attention and the imagination of the public.

Many people are aware (or have otherwise just recently been informed) that being able to travel faster than light somehow allows for the possibility of time travel. The reason why travelling faster than light could allow for time travel is not easy to explain, but if you are curious, do an internet search of “tachyonic antitelephone” for one possible scheme for sending signals back in time. Also, it is debated whether time travel is even possible given the host of associated paradoxes, the most well-known being the “Grandfather paradox” where a man goes back in time to kill his grandfather and the logical contradiction ensues.

To return to the analogy, although the tantalizing possibility of time travel makes this apparent discovery a tasty treat for the general public, the physics community will find it a very tough bite to swallow. In all likelihood, after much careful chewing, the result will be rejected. Given that neutrinos interact so weakly with matter, it is notoriously difficult to detect them and there is plenty of room for a systematic effect in the data collection method to have skewed the measurements. In the end, although neutrinos may be shown to be unable to go faster than the speed of light, this will not stop our imagination from doing so.

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feature

A Year With Zoo Animal

By Alex Lauer

It was on a Friday night at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, November 12th of last year to be exact. Yes, I was at church on a Friday night, but not in the sense that you’re thinking. There was a free, open-to-the-public rock show happening. I had originally gone to the show because Retribution Gospel Choir was headlining, but there happened to be this band Zoo Animal opening for them. I’d only ever heard talk of them before that night. I mean, I had heard good things, but I didn’t expect much because the turnover rate for indie bands in Minneapolis is so ridiculously high. There was something different though that happened when the trio took the stage. By the time they had finished playing, after lead singer Holly Newsom shredded her guitar on her knees then threw it down violently and ran offstage, not waiting for applause, I didn’t even want to see the next band. Retribution Gospel who? I wanted more Zoo Animal.

Now it is almost a year later. I’ve seen a countless number of their shows at every type of venue, from warehouses to the Basilica Block Party. I guess you could call me a super-fan, but it’s not just me who has been taking notice. As my enthusiasm for their music has grown, so has their popularity both locally and nationally. If you haven’t seen them live, you’ve probably heard them on the Current or Radio K. But just as they were working on new music in preparation for a national album release, drummer Thom Burton and bassist Tim Abramson decided to drop out. On the forefront of moving past the title of local-celebrities to something more, the band is going through a drastic change.

This came as a very unwelcome surprise to me when I was at their recent show at The Cedar Cultural Center. It was a very positive show, which also happened to be Matt Latterell’s CD

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release, so everyone was having a good time. Matt was singing like it was his last show ever, the audience had no problem talking to the performers in between songs, and people even started dancing when Zoo Animal came on, something I’ve never seen before. But hey, that’s what you get at The Cedar. Despite the crowd’s enthusiasm, something was off.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but their set was different than those I had seen before. They weren’t as focused. They seemed distracted. Then, a few songs before the finale, Holly went up to the mic. She looked at her two bandmates and said, “Some of us don’t want to tour, so after this there will only be one more show with this lineup.”

I word vomited. I couldn’t help it. My mind searched for something to say, to comprehend this, and in the silence that followed her announcement I issued a “WHhhAAt?!” loud enough for everyone to hear. I could feel people whisper behind me, asking their friends what was wrong with me, but I didn’t even care. I was far from worrying about anything other than the notion that my favorite band was breaking up.

It didn’t make any sense. This band that is working on a new album and is cemented in the local scene was losing two of its three members. I had to see what was up. So I met with Holly Newsom on Friday to talk about this it.

Like most bands, they didn’t start off knowing they were going to be the next big thing. They just wanted to play music.

Holly didn’t start the band with the goal of selling a certain amount of records or making it into a certain festival, but she did talk about their mission statement: “I’m kind of a dork, ok, first of all, so I like to have goals even though I may not accomplish them. I just like to have a direc-

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tion. And I remember when we started the band, I kind of was like, ‘Ok what am I doing? What is this?’ And I had a mission statement. I told it to the band a lot and it ended up coming up a lot like in practice and on stage and on tour. Really simple, I just said, ‘We’re supposed to write good music and perform it well.’”

While I don’t know any other bands with mission statements, it seems to have worked for them so far. So why would anyone leave when they have this good thing going? Not only that, but every time Zoo Animal plays they are intensely focused and connected to the music. It’s like walking in on a personal moment. Thom is at the same time exact and fervent in his drumming, and never seems to look at the crowd. He is in his own world, but when he abruptly ends a song by smashing a cymbal and then immediately grabbing it, silencing it, people can’t help but be drawn to him. Tim may seem like the silent bass player, but he doesn’t get lost as others in his position do. The bass lines come out a lot in their music and he has the same intensity, although less blatant. And Holly never sings a song the same twice. There are these nuances that show she is always present in the music, not just regurgitating it at every show.

When as large of a change as this happens in the lineup of a band, it’s usually easy to see it coming. Certain members get sloppy with their instruments, act out at shows, and sometimes don’t even show up. This is not the case here. Holly explained that Tim and Thom leaving has been both friendly and necessary: “It just ends up being one of those things where when

this started I said, ‘Tim, you want to be in my band?’

You know, just like, that’d be fun. But then we start touring and Thom joins the band when we were kind of already known, so he kind of knew what he was getting into. But then as the band grows and as I—I want to be a career musician, that’s what I want to do. So I’m going to keep trying to get it going more and more. So Tim has been on three tours with me, I think, and Thom’s on two, and we’ve been out of town a little bit. And just like as things are going and the more that the band was kind of demanding their time, it just really manifested that they didn’t really want to be career musicians.

“It was totally a friendly thing. We were down in Chicago playing a show and we’re in the green room and it was a conversation and both of them were just like, ‘Yeah, I just can’t be on the road.’ Because it’s really demanding, and Tim just got married. And I’m married too, but my husband, like, it’s a different thing. He wants me to be doing it. I was doing music before we got married and he knew that was happening. It’s lame to say it, but it’s a practical thing.”

That lead me to question the future of the sound of the band, because even if you are playing the same music, different musicians means a different feel: “We were all in agreement that I should keep the name. And this solo stuff I’ve been doing I’m just going to start billing as Zoo Animal. I’m still going to do— you know we have sort of this history of like trio-grungy stuff, which there’s always going to be that flare in me, but it’s almost made me feel free to take more

directions and be a little bit more experimental with some different kind of genres.”

Phew. We can all breathe now. Zoo Animal is NOT over. This is not an instance of a band breaking up, but of new beginnings. Not only will you still be getting the same minimalist grunge sound you know and love, but you’ll be getting a bunch of new stuff that will be equally as compelling.

But I shouldn’t even be talking like this yet. Zoo Animal still has ONE LAST SHOW left with the current lineup.

So whether you’ve seen them before or this is the first time you’re hearing about them, you best be there (especially because it’s free). It will be on the night of November 11th at the best place to see a rock show in Minneapolis—Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church.

Yes, the same place I saw them a year ago.

On November 12th, 2010 I saw Zoo Animal for the first time. I found in them a band whose music I’ve connected with more than any other. Exactly a year later, I will see that version of the band for the last time. I’ve spent a year with their music in my life and while now it may seem like the end, Zoo Animal is not dead. They are just being reborn.

Want more? Then go like us on facebook and check out a video of Alex’s interview with Holly.

Habakkuk Stockstill

www.wakemag.org

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sound & vision

Hot Freaks! by zach mccormick

Sometimes even us grizzled music journos at The Wake get taken off guard. Case-study: Hot Freaks, an incredibly charming little 5-piece based out of NE Minneapolis with a sound that spans the range of classic and modern pop styles. After their lead-off single “Boo” was stuck in our heads for a week, we knew we had to get them in the mag. It only took one false-start at a Nordeast Bingo Bar before we had them riffing on every topic from Christmas music to their status as a “marriageconcept-band”.

The Wake: It sort of feels like Hot Freaks came out of nowhere. Where do the origins of the group actually lie?

Leo Vondracek: Darin, Cody and I knew each other from South Dakota, playing shows with our other older bands, Welcome to the Cinema and Golden Bubbles. I moved up here and wanted to start a band, these guys moved up and we all said “hey, wanna start something new?”. It’s not interesting at all, and it got even less interesting because then there was nine months where we practiced a lot but didn’t do anything because we only had, like, four songs and no bassist.

Sarah Darnall: I ran into Darin at the Kitty Kat Club one night and since I had gone to high school with Cody, and Darin was in college in the same town...

Darin Dahlmier: The older guy...always creepin’ around. (laughs) S: Since those two were in a band, we all knew each other but when he asked me to play bass in this new band in Febuary I didn’t really think it was real but then the called me two days later and said “Hey! We’re jamming, wanna come over?” “ooookay...”.

L: We asked her to be in our band at Porky’s on University about a week before it closed.

W: The “Hot Freaks Sound” seems to span several decades of pop, who are some of your biggest influences?

L: Weezer. (laughs). Ozma too, I got drunk last night and emailed the dude from Ozma like “Hey man! If you ever need a show in Minneapolis I’ll HOOK YOU UP!”.

D: They broke up in ‘03. (laughs) Cody Brown: I honestly have no idea, I started playing in bands when I was 13 just because I played drums in school and my friends asked me to play. “Hey, you’ve got a drum kit, come join our band”.

photos by maggie foucault

W: How does your songwriting process work? Is it a top-down thing or are y’all collaborative?

three or four times as many demos on my iTunes than there are songs that we play.

L: Some of the songs I had written completely when I came in, some there’s a riff and then we just kind of finish it.

L: But we’re gonna get ‘em all done someday!

D: Most of the time Leo will make GarageBand demos or MIDI demos...

L: And try to get people to respond to my emails...(laughs) S: We always have the most hilarious email chains...

C: He calls them “Hits or Shits, Volume Whatever” and they’ll be like, two or three demos, some are whole songs and sometimes they’ll be like fifteen seconds of some funk beat.

L: I think we’re up to Volume Six at this point!

C: And we have to decide if the songs are worthwhile to play as a band.

S: Same here, I was in band and Jazz band.

L: I wanna know right off the bat, if it SUCKS then just tell me.

C: Were we in Jazz band together at some point?

D: They’ll come with notes too, like “I’ve been listening to a lot of KISS lately, here’s this song.”

S: For like one year, yeah.

C: We were both in like, every music-associated group you could join at school, total band geeks.

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W: That’s still a pretty high output compared to the songwriter who spends all their time perfecting one or two songs.

C: I download all of them, just because I know it’s gonna be awesome to listen to someday. I have everything he’s ever emailed me in my iTunes, in a Demos folder, and there’s about

L: I used to be that guy, and I think I still am that guy, but the difference is you have to be not afraid to just throw out an idea, you can build on it. The worst is when you’re trying to make it perfect and you don’t know where to take, but ussualy when you send it out you realize, “that part sucked, I gotta change it that way.” Like the last email Spencer replied “It’s not Hits, it’s the other one. I’m not sayin’ it’s Shits but it’s fuckin’ close to that side.”

W: Your songs are really hook-y, do you set out to write stuff with “catchy” in mind?

L: Yeah, absolutely, that’s the Number 1 Goal! (laughs) We’ll have some stuff coming up that’s more “indie” but that’s only because it couldn’t be the other thing...

sound & vision

W: There’s some great harmonies on these songs, do y’all come from singing backgrounds?

L: We’re getting good man! We had practice the other day and it was like choir all over again.

S: It was, like, Leo played the tones...

L: We plan them out with a keyboard to make them perfect.

Should we sing a little bit right now?

S: No. D: Nah. C: No need.

S: Wasn’t your mom a choir teacher?

L: My dad was a band teacher and the church choir director. I was in Jazz choir too, that was awesome.

W: If you had your druthers, what would the Hot Freaks debut album sound like, and who would y’all get to produce it?

L: Eric Applewhite would be the local choice, if we had a million dollars I’d love to use the guy who produced The Cardigans album...who’s that other guy I was thinking about...?

C: I feel like we’re turning into more of a Funk band now...

C: It’ll be availible on CD and digital download.

L: If you want man! We can take it that way. Army Soldier, man!

L: We made album art and everything! With...materials from Staples...and Office Max, so I got really good at cutting paper.

C: Kanye West.

W: “Boo” was sort of this monster single that landed on my desk out of nowhere, was there a reason you released that song first?

W: What’s next for the band after this EP release? What’s the future hold for you freaks?

S: Uh...that’s a new one that didn’t really get the approval.

Leo really likes it but the rest of us are like “It’s...okay....”

W: Where does the musical and lyrical inspiration come from for Hot Freaks?

L: It’s all about fighting your inner demons.

C: Leo was drunk once and he texted me and said “I think we’re a marriage-concept-band”.

L: I realized we have, like four songs now that directly reference doing dishes. It’s about feeling bad, and then you gotta put it out there.

W: Your songs seem to reference depressing subject matter while still sounding “happy.” Do you like to disguise things with a happy melody?

L: Yeah, I think so. Like if our song “Write Me Letters” was a “sad” song it would be dark. It’s supposed to be that you’re feeling bad but you know you shouldn’t feel bad or something.

But you feel terrible.

L: Yeah, that was the first one we recorded and it turned out really good and quick, and we we wanted to release it with this EP but it didn’t really match the styles. We actually did record other stuff during that “Boo” session and we didn’t finish it...but we might now! We’re thinking about making another track that matches it for a Christmas EP.

L: I think he’d try to change our sound too much. (laughs)

L: Well, Sarah’s taking a two-month sabbatical to tour with her other band...

S: I don’t really know what’s happening. We talked about it the other night but there were drinks involved...Cody won $200 at pull-tabs so we kinda got distracted by that.

W:Actually Christmas or just winter-themed?

L: We’ve talked about doing a Christmas EP since we have that one song, maybe two, we might just wanna crank out a couple more EP’s and kinda decide what we want to sound like.

L: One of the songs is pretty explicit (laughs), and we might put another one on there, but the other ones will probably just be songs we wanted to record.

W: What did everybody miss at your EP release show if they weren’t there?

W: What’s the Hot Freaks live experience like?

D: Hopefully it’s just fun, that’s all we can hope for. It’s definitely not a serious affair, that’s for sure.

L: Cody went NUTS! He smashed the kit, left the band...

Oh! And we’re going on tour for three days! We’re playing in Mankato tomorrow night, Brookings on saturday, we’re living the hobby-band dream right now, it doesn’t get bigger than this! Well...if it just gets a little bigger...(laughs)

L: I try to tell as many jokes as I can fit between songs.

W: The big news right now is the EP, how’d you guys go about recording that? It sounds great!

C: They’re Leo’s GarageBand demos and we just pushed print. (laughs) L: These are the Shits we wanna release! No, we recorded with Preston Holm of Buffalo Moon at his house, aka Electric Kissing Party Studios. We took him out to Red Lobster afterwards by his request...

S: He didn’t want any money, he just wanted us to buy him dinner at Red Lobster.

L: We thought, “Well, this is kind of an expensive meal for us, but we got this EP for 17 dollars!”

D: As many as humanly possible before we just start the song and have to cut him off. Leo’s an amateur stand-up.

L: It’s not happening any time soon though, ‘cause I went to a real standup and I was like “ooooh shit...I’m not gonna make people laugh,” it’s a different level man.

C: I’m shooting for as many jokes as we can tonight [at their EP release show], Leo’s got at least 10 ready to go.

L: I’ve already planned out what I’m gonna say a little bit.

When Hot Freaks sent us their song “Outset Island” they probably should have printed a label on it that said “Warning, Dangerous Hooks.” If this perfect storm of melodic guitar, bubbling bass and spot-on harmonies doesn’t firmly stick itself in your head after just one listen, you must hate fun. Never fear if you’ve got an incurable case of the “Outset Island” earworm though, Hot Freaks told me that the best remedy is plenty of exercise, drinking lots of fluids and buying their new EP from their Bandcamp page.

S: Like notecards?

L: No I just...kept thinking about it in the shower today. (laughs)

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sound & vision

Let’s Hear It for the Remake

By Alyssa Bluhm

I’ve never been one to fully appreciate bacon unless it was preceded by the word Kevin. As in Kevin Bacon, that is. The original film Footloose propelled him into the land of 1980’s heartthrobs, but Bacon’s portrayal of Ren McCormack isn’t the only thing that made this movie so great. With a killer soundtrack, a cast of burgeoning young stars, and impressive footwork in every dance scene, the bar was set high for the recently released remake. Overall I was satisfied with the newest version of Footloose, but as with every remake the film suffered from several errors in judgment made by the producers.

Kevin Bacon, for example, didn’t even grace the screen with a cameo appearance. Bacon was allegedly offered a part in the movie, but he couldn’t find a character in the script that suited him well enough. One would think that if he were important enough to inspire the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, he could have a part written explicitly for him. Alas, being the iconic face of both Footloose and the small world phenomenon isn’t enough to get him so much as name-dropped in the film.

Another aspect of the film that bothered me was the blatantly used product placement. Maybe I’m just more inclined to notice these things as a journalism major, but sometimes it was just hard to ignore. Yes, the products did blend in with the scenes as naturally as they could, but some parts of the film felt more like commercials than an actual movie. Each time Ren used his iPod I felt like I needed to buy one to be as cool as he is. Then I remembered I already own one.

And then there’s the soundtrack. While I was thrilled that four of the best songs from the original soundtrack were featured in the remake (“Let’s Hear It for the Boy” by Deniece Williams is my favorite), the new songs were immensely disappointing. Unlike the original—a collection of uniformly awesome 80’s tunes—the new soundtrack is a bizarre mix tape that

includes a few pop, blues, and R&B songs, and about nine too many country tunes for my taste. The eclectic aspect of the soundtrack that could be used to appeal to a broader audience is eclipsed by the overbearing amount of twangy sound. If the producers of Footloose were trying to emphasize the rural Georgian setting of the film, they could have stopped at the overuse of Canadian Tuxedos. Really, we get the point.

One track in particular failed to blend with the movie more than others. The image of Kevin Bacon ferociously dancing through a warehouse to the song “Never” by Moving Pictures is a famous scene because, well, when do we ever get to see Bacon epically lose his cool? But in the remake Ren’s character has a borderline schizophrenic fit and dances to “Catch Hell Blues” by The White Stripes. The lyrics of the song actually match up with the theme of Footloose perfectly, but the beat clashed too much with Ren’s temper tantrum of a dance and ruined the scene.

On the other hand, the new version of Footloose did a lot of justice to the original. All of the same beloved characters (except for Ren’s mother, who was deliberately killed off as a macabre plot mechanism) appear as they were originally written: Ariel still has a death-wish fueled by her daddy problems, Rusty remains a stylish sweetheart, and Willard is still naïve and easily provoked to fight. These supporting roles are so important to the film that it wouldn’t be worth seeing without them.

The casting for these parts was done well, too. It was rumored almost four years ago that Zac Efron and Chace Crawford both considered playing Ren, though both of them dropped out and Kenny Wormald took the role. Aside from being a more masculine flavor of eye candy than Efron and Crawford, Wormald is also a fresh face to the silver screen. I was able to enjoy the film without thinking about High School

Musical or Gossip Girl like I would have if the other two had stayed with the film. And Wormald, because of being a professional dancer, wasn’t in need of a dance double. What?!

Not even Kevin Bacon’s awesomeness was enough to keep him from needing a double of his own in the original film.

Wormald’s talent was a perfect fit for this film.

In addition to the familiar characters, nearly everything else about this movie is similar to the 1984 version. The plot is identical, as is the yellow VW Bug that Ren drives, and most of the lines in the remake of Footloose are borrowed from the original. Having seen the original enough times to recite the lines as they play on screen, it was fun that I was still able to do that with this version.

The most obvious change in the plot of this film was a positive one at that. Rather than keeping the film in the exclusively white town of Bomont, Utah, the setting has changed to the culturally diverse haven of Bomont, Georgia. While I personally don’t see why the addition of African American characters must be accompanied by a change in setting, I’m sure I’m not the only one who can appreciate this particular upgrade to the film.

So much of Footloose was screwed up this time around. The only thing that was even worth changing from the original was the lack of diversity, but I can’t shake the feeling that this remake wouldn’t have been necessary if minorities were included in the first film. Despite all my negative criticism, I can gladly recognize this flick as a remake of one of my favorite films rather than a completely different movie with a recycled title. While I am not compelled to ever purchase or listen to the new soundtrack, the part of me that will eternally love Footloose wants to boogie back to the theater and give it another chance.

steph mertes

16

01 – 15 november 2011

sound & vision

The Prizefighters Follow My Sound Review

By Matthew Hourigan Prizefighters new LP Follow My Sound feels like a ska dancehall underground that rocks so steady a lush garden sprouts and flourishes above the surface. Then everybody else sees this beautiful garden swaying and finds the dancehall where they proceed to dance, sing and feel good all day and night. Follow My Sound is Prizefighters debut album created right here (!!) in the Twin Cities, as the LP label reads – “boss sounds from the twin towns” – 60’s Jamaica ska sound combined with soulful wailing vocals are enough truth to forget about all fleeting feelings. Prizefighters get down to the roots of issues at hand. As the needle finds its groove in track one, “Brujeria”, a dub dee-jay echoes the reverberated blessing “say yah mon.” Say yah to fluttering, high stepping rhythms and strong-pulsed horns pushing through deep bass vibrations. Sweet melodied guitar “wokka” and keys keys keys and sweeping organ. “Life can be so hard, so you got to be hard too...so don’t forget your roots, no matter what you do” - “Karma.”

Nothing feels wrong when this record is on. Terrible things could happen in any season and Follow My Sound would neutralize all those problems. You should probably own this record if you get sad in the winter, feel like you have problems with too many thoughts, like dancing, and would like to simplify things for a bit. “I don’t want to let you down...I just got to follow my sound” – “Follow My Sound”. Follow My Sound helps put living in perspective to a rhythm that will keep you rocking steady through it.

Phantom Vibration Growing EP by lindsey geyer Admittedly, when I heard local dream pop band Phantom Vibration put out a new EP, Growing, I was fearful it would be too similar to their first. Although a great EP, Kids did not have much variety in terms of song tone and mood. To my surprise (and pleasure) Growing mixes in beats and rhythms not generally associated with their “dream pop” genre. By far the catchiest song on the list is “Summer Blood.” Aptly named, it brought the life of summer back into my October. Another favorite off the track list is “Astral Home.” If you had any confusion on what exactly dream pop is, this song embodies it in every aspect. Emanating a psychedelic mood, this song causes the listener to travel on an acid trip of thought provoking ideas and lyrics. What truly solidified my love for the EP occurs at the end of the song “Retinas.” They conclude the song with, “ the time for dreaming is now gone,” followed by a slow instrumental meant to gradually bring you off of your high, or at least the one you thought you were on. Although in some areas I wished the drums were turned up a bit louder, I found Phantom Vibration’s Growing extremely enjoyable. Headed by Dan Clinton-McCausland on vocals and synthesizer, and Henry Mackaman on guitar, this St. Paul-based group has crazy synth action, entrancing lyrics, and great beats. And the best thing about them, they are better live.

Mac Miller I Love Life Thank You by habakkuk stockstill Hip-Hop music has reached a stalemate for a lack of a better word. Most of what we hear nowadays is the boringly redundant inoculation of fantasy narratives, phony lifestyles and “sing-a-long” ABC rhyme flow. That’s why I always thank the HipHop gods for providing us with industry outliers like Dead Prez, The Coolkids, Tyler the Creator and last but not least Mac Miller.

Mac Miller’s latest album, I Love Life Thank You (with features from artists Bun B and Talib Kweli) is filled with 13 tracks that showcase more of what Miller is known for from his previous albums. He delivers that backpack, rhyme cipher, laid-back thorough flow.

He does this with ease throughout the album. One example of this is the track “Willie Dynamite,” where he demonstrates his signature bravado flow over a silky smooth sampled track. He takes the listener along as he describes his ideas, lifestyle and nicknames himself the young “Macintosh.” Another song that can’t be ignored is the song that features Bun B (from the group UGK) where Miller decides to slow down and make a point that it is not always about money, clothes and honeys: its deeper than “All That” (hence the name of the track). But what’s ironic is that on the last song of the album entitled “All This,” Miller is right back to letting us know even though it’s not “All That,” he still enjoys his lifestyle as an artist and the perks that come with it.

Overall, Mac Miller is chill. I’ve been a fan since he emerged. I’ve followed his continual progress throughout his albums and it seems that each one is better than the last. If you’re looking for that lyrical wordplay, underground, headphone noddin’, nice flows and still has significance without being too serious about it, then I Love Life Thank You is an album you might need to cop.

Thank you Hip-Hop Gods!

www.wakemag.org

17

humanities

UNIVERSE

cloudy eyes

By Eric Best

I grew up with a book in my bed I got these glasses before I turned ten Often heard my mother and father worry Just something they did to make me a serious kid.

But some nights I still can’t sleep the past rolls back through my head.

Still, I can’t sleep until I see us.

Curse my mind and its ‘all-seeing’ eye.

We’re all so hopelessly nearsighted With not much inspiration for stargazing but yet, I couldn’t let those meteors pass by Not all of them anyway.

So if nothing’s ventured, in hopes of originality It’s not just small talk; it’s the biggest wager you’ve ever made.

Don’t you wonder how people think the banks of stars and time don’t matter?

I wanted to give you everything, Everything should have come through some transparent collection of words.

Everything was in my veins, stretching out like roots.

Truth is always under a microscope.

Science has that blank, holy, eye; Amongst the skyline, hovering over shoulders, stripping us…

Trust a book, stamped with some university.

Yet standing in shadows of superficial things, I cannot see only ruins, only what has been.

I cannot see without light.

I cannot see past a horizon.

Because reality, in a human sense, Has a habit of turn to smoke when you need air.

But this is not a thing on which to dwell, I think.

How can any of us regret?

18

01 – 15 november 2011

By Tony Wagner

At first I thought I was seeing things. I thought that the hours of staring at the computer screen had burned my retinas. A man in Nevada was selling a kit on the internet. It was a kit to Build Your Own Universe, right from your home. It comes with everything you need: a do-it-yourself, onetime-use atom smasher, a small but dense speck of matter, and a number of electromagnets. I needed it. I need it. I’m waiting for it to arrive.

I read that our universe expanded from a kernel of matter that was 10^-26 centimeters across and weighed a little more than ten pounds. I read that all you really need to build a universe is a black hole, even a tiny one, and some magnets to get the whole process started. Just a few things to create a whole universe out of nothing. In six weeks my kit will come and I will create my universe.

I will open a baggy carrying my ten-pound speck of dust, and I will empty it into the machine that I have built. Like a god, I will send particles smashing together and I will forge a microscopic black hole with them. With a flick of my finger I will kick start the process. My universe will expand into itself, creating its own space.

From my side, I will only see a small, blinding light, but my universe will expand rapidly. It will fill with stars and planets and galaxies. These trillions of worlds will blossom with life. Primordial ooze will grow into advanced beings across eons. Civilizations will rise and fall, but they will all owe their existence to me.

There will be no evidence to prove I exist, but the inhabitants of my universe will detect my presence anyway. Wars will be fought in my name. Countless people will live and die attempting to do right by me. Everyone in my universe will plead for me to help them, or to heal them, or to save them from their problems. Everyone in my universe will beg me not to destroy them. Every day I will look down at the blinding speck of light in my garage, and consider it.

www.wakemag.org

19

Next meeting will be held in The Wake’s office (located at 1313 5th St SE #331):

Nov. 28, 8:30 PM