2014-07-24

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Ann Arbor, MI

Thursday, July 24, 2014

ELECTIONS

City Council proposes two amendments to Ann Arbor’s charter New provisions would relax residency req’s.

By EMMA KERR Daily News Editor

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Jackie Simpson, the new director of Trotter Multicultural Center, stands in the facility, which is currently being renovated.

University names new Trotter Multicultural Center director Appointment reflects renewed effort to address student programs

By IAN DILLINGHAM Editor in Chief

inside

In response to student input on campus diversity issues from the Winter 2014 semester, the University appointed the now-former director of the University’s Spectrum Center Jackie Simpson as the new director for the Trotter Multicultural Center Monday.

Simpson will focus on improving programming alongside ongoing efforts to improve the physical space for the upcoming academic year. In an additional

appointment, Trey Boynton, currently director of diversity and inclusion in University Housing, will be appointed director of MESA in August. Prior to these appointments, one director, Nina Grant, oversaw both organizations.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily Tuesday, E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, praised the two new appointees for their dedication to improving student life on campus and willingness to work with students during their time at the University.

“What I’m trying to do is have two really strong leaders in those areas, as we rethink how we engage most students,” Harper said.

The announcement follows the University’s pledge in January to

allocate $300,000 to the Trotter Center’s facility renovations, following a protest by members of the Black Student Union.

In a Wednesday interview, Simpson said she was just beginning the process of learning about the renovation projects already underway. She also noted that, while the building was certainly in need of repairs, it was still beautiful and a great space for students to meet.

Simpson added that she has already begun meeting with campus groups such as the BSU, which is one of nine student organizations that currently hold office hours in the Trotter Center.

BSU vice chair Geralyn Gaines said her organization was optimistic about the appointment See TROTTER, Page 6

Amid a City Council meeting Monday heavily focused on the city’s charter and infrastructure development, discussion was frequently interrupted as protesters chanted, “Boycott Israel, stop bombing Gaza.”

Protestor’s comments included descriptions of how their livelihoods relate to and have been affected by recent conflict and violence in Israel and Gaza.

“It is with our money, Mr. Mayor, that they blow up hospitals, that they kill innocent mothers and children,” Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the protesters, said. “We are here to tell you that we hold you responsible, and we are going to come many, many times.”

The group continued chanting despite Mayor John Hieftje’s attempts to quiet the crowds and bring order to the meeting.

“I hear you, that you are going to come many more times, but if your issue is that you want to interrupt local government, then you will need to give that some thought,” Hieftje told the group.

After protesters left, City Council members opened discussion of and eventually agreed to putting a new charter up for vote in the coming general election in response to

recent confusion surrounding the candidacy of Bob Dascola.

Dascola’s residency was questioned by the city in federal court earlier this year over a 1970s charter provision that required candidates for office to both be registered to vote and show proof of residency in the city, which the court eventually found was unenforceable because the provision was voided by the courts in previous years. The decision largely left the city without legally established residency requirements for candidates.

The provision approved by City Council relaxes previously enforced rules to allow anyone to run for Council as long as they are registered to vote in their ward when they file for their candidacy.

The second proposed amendment to the charter ensures the same policy also applies to city boards and commissions.

Though both Councilmembers Christopher Taylor (D-Ward 3) and Jane Lumm (I-Ward 2) asked that the issue be postponed due to the time-sensitive nature of the eligibility question to the coming election, City Councilmembers voted unanimously to let the voters decide on the proposed requirements in the November general election.

The council also addressed purchasing land to turn into public parks in the Burton Park and Glendale areas, as proposed by Councilmember Stephen Kunselman (D-Ward 3). Some council members, as well as Mayor Hieftje, said See CHARTER, Page 2

NEWS

OPINION

ARTS

SPORTS

INDEX

At the helm of GM, Mary Barra faces many challenges.

From the Daily: Detroit needs to revamp health care for expectant mothers.

Common’s new album paints a serious, emotional portrait of Chicago.

Kopmeyer, Ezurike have made the shift to the NWSL successfully.

>> SEE PAGE 4

>> SEE PAGE 7

NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ...............................4 ARTS ......................................7 CLASSIFIEDS.........................8 CROSSWORD........................8 SPORTS................................ 10

Detroit Beat

>> SEE PAGE 6

Maternal deaths

Nobody’s smiling

Women’s soccer

>> SEE PAGE 10

Vol. CXXIV, No. 116 | © 2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com

2 NEWS

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Nonprofit surveys candidates on the arts Arts Alliance highlights lack of institutional support for creative sector

By SHOHAM GEVA Managing News Editor

Wednesday, nonprofit group the Arts Alliance released the results of a survey sent out to electoral candidates about their involvement in and stance on support for various aspects of the arts in Washtenaw County.

The Alliance also held a forum Wednesday morning with several of the candidates to discuss the results.

Debra Polich, executive director of the Arts Alliance, said the group conducted the survey and forum to increase focus on the arts both for the community at large and for elected officials by demonstrating the impact of the creative sector on the county.

“The importance there is again,” Polich said, “(the creative sector) is a voting block, and people want their elected officials to pay attention to these issues and the policies that can impact the sector and keep it vibrant.”

She said while there’s plenty of local engagement with the arts and high levels of individual support in the area, where Washtenaw County faces a challenge in comparison to the rest of Michigan is institutional support, making the role of elected officials important.

“We don’t have public investment,” she said. “And I mean that public investment by dollars, but I also mean public policy investment, making policy decisions that really foster a climate, an environment, that makes the creative sector a priority, and so that’s part of the change and that’s part of the work that we need to be doing, as advocates for arts and culture for the creative sector.”

Of the candidates sent surveys, 23 returned them, including the four Democratic candidates running for Ann Arbor mayor Ann Arbor City Council, incumbent City Council candidate Sumi Kailasapathy (D–Ward 1), Ward 2 City Council candidates Nancy Kaplan and Kirk Westphal and Debbie Dingell, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan’s 12th District, which includes Ann Arbor.

When it came to the mayoral candidates, all four expressed similar positions on the broader issue of arts availability and engagement in Washtenaw County, saying they

supported it. Councilmembers Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1), Sally Hart Petersen (D–Ward 2) and Christopher Taylor (D–Ward 3) all also identified themselves as having donated or contributed personally to an arts, cultural, or heritage organization.

Though all four said they broadly supported pubALLISON FARRAND/Daily lic investment in the arts, options Debbie Dingell, 12th District US House candidate, speaks at a forum held by the Arts Alliance Wednesday. diverged slightly on how specifically the arts should port to an arts, cultural or heritage be supported. Briere said she sup- organization. ported governmental funding, with Dingell also said she supported an emphasis on small grants to the arts availability and engagement in arts. Councilmember Stephen Kun- the county, as well as identifying selman (D–Ward 3) and Taylor both herself both as a personal donor to identified line funding appropria- an arts, cultural or heritage orgations or tax-based options as exam- nization and an artist. She identiples of potential funding pathways. fied public-private partnerships as Petersen said she supported crowd- a primary way to support creativity funding based initiatives, as well as in the county. use of public space.

Polich said the trend in the surKailasapathy, Kaplan and West- vey has generally been towards supphal similarly identified support port, though the manifestation of it for the arts. Kailasapathy said she is sometimes less concrete. preferred a mix of private and pub“What I hear a lot of is yes; yes lic funding, while Kaplan said she this sounds like a good idea, but, supported reaching out to private you know, really we don’t have the donors and Westphal advocated resources to make it happen,” she the creation and maintenance of an said. “The fact is if something is economy that allows artists to earn important, you can find resources. a living and attracts more to the You can find ways to make it haparea. All three said arts availability pen. It’s a belief system and an and engagement were important investment. It’s both saying it’s and also identified themselves as important, and making it imporhaving personally donated to sup- tant.”

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CHARTER From Page 1 they thought the Council should not be reaching out to developers, but rather letting the city’s Park Advisory Committee make recommendations to them.

“I find myself wondering, well, why are we not talking about the places that are out there and that no one is proposing development on that appear to be trying to stop a development that has been well into the approval process?” Sabra Briere (D-Ward 1) asked.

The resolution to inquire into the willingness of developers to sell to the city and the desirability of the land eventually passed

8-2, through Councilmembers also expressed concerns about the language of the resolution, the potential of wasting time on land that was not desirable to build a park on or not available for purchase from developers, and a reduction in tax revenue from the city buying more land.

“The city is already the largest property owner, almost double that of UM,” Sally Petersen (D-Ward 2) said. “We are always mad when the University takes land off the payroll, and we are doing the same.”

Council also approved traffic and parking changes for the University’s move in dates, which is set to change from previous years into a more condensed process between August 27 and 29.

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Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NEWS 3

55th Ann Arbor Art Fair thrives Dennison Building to be with new vendors, larger crowds renovated, become hub for international programs

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Ann Arbor residents Dana Wilson and Connor Otto entertain a crowd of Art Fair attendees at the corner of State Street and North University Ave Saturday.

Businesses and local nonprofits find benefit in influx of tourists

By HILLARY CRAWFORD Daily Staff Reporter

Nearly 1,000 artists flocked to the streets of downtown Ann Arbor Wednesday through Saturday to display their work at the 55th annual Ann Arbor Art Fair.

Though the fair is comprised of four separate art shows, because each fair is connected to the others, attendees feel as though the event is singular in nature. Debra Clayton, Executive Director of the Guild of Artists and Artisans, said the guild has a tagline they use — four fairs, one event.

The Ann Arbor Art Street Fair was first to emerge in 1960 as an “Experiment in Arts and Crafts.” Shortly after in 1967, the State Street Area Association established its own fair in its commercial district, and the fair continued to grow when the Free Arts Festival found local artists to participate in 1970. This fair is now known as the Summer Art Fair, sponsored by the Guild

of Artists and Artisans, and is located on Main Street and the portion of State Street which runs along the University’s campus. After the Original Street Fair moved to the streets surrounding Burton Tower in 2003, the South University Area Association hosted artists in the area formerly occupied by the Original Street fair.

Clayton said overall, though each portion of Art Fair may differ in their specific mission, it’s a collaborative event held together by the city’s overall atmosphere both for the fairs and for other groups downtown, such as businesses.

“People like to come here, experience our stores, our restaurants, the University campus, the museum,” Clayton said. “ You find it’s a happy marriage and it’s a family and you think that part of this family is the artists, the stores, the restaurants, the University—everybody kind of benefits.”

AJ Davidson, vice president of the Bivouac store in Ann Arbor, has worked outside of his store during Art Fair for the past 15 years. He said the event allows the store to sell old merchandise and bring in the new, making rotation both easier and more

efficient.

“It brings a lot of people downtown, which is a lot of people into our store and it’s great,” Davidson said.

In addition to art, nonprofit organizations are also given space at the fair. Organizations present this year included those representing animal rights, different political leanings, news publications, and various religious stances, among others.

“I think they’re all doing the same thing— mostly to promote awareness,” said Dave Arnoldi, a volunteer at the Huron Valley Humane Society.

When it comes to the artists themselves, those who exhibit their work at the fair include both longtime returning individuals as well as new ones.

Maureen Riley, Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Street Fair, said the amount of new vendors has grown as baby boomers retire, resulting in a shift in the aesthetics. She added that the Art Fair itself continues to grow in the diversity of work it tries to present.

“That’s the beauty of the Ann Arbor Art Fair,” Riley said. “Anybody can find something they like, and at a price point they can afford.”

One artist, David O’Dell from Lake Orion, Michigan said he was mostly accustomed to participating in galleries. He creates rock ‘n’ roll posters as well as prints of cars, taken from photographs his father took decades ago at events such as Beatles concerts and the Indie 500.

“I’m trying to figure out what goes well in a fair,” O’Dell said.

“But people said you should try the Ann Arbor Fair—it’s fabulous.”

Jerry Wygant, an artist from Pentwater, Michigan who works with various types of wood he collects himself, was stationed on State Street in his permanent spot for the 12th year. He began working with wood to make jewelry and other accessories over 25 years ago.

“The reason I love the whole show is that I meet so many educated people here,” Wygant said. “They’re working on doctorates and they’re from all over the world and they’re interesting people.”

Regents approve $49 million project with aim of increasing collaboration

By MICHAEL SPAETH For the Daily

The home of physics and astronomy — the David M. Dennison Building — is set to receive both a physical makeover, as well as a change of tenants.

According to a plan approved by the Board of Regents on July 17, the building will be renovated to become the new home of centers, institutes and units focusing on international engagement. Renovations will focus on the 10-story high-rise section of the building, which will include extending windows outward on the 10th floor as well as a plan to enclose the overhang area on the ground floor for added space.

The International Institute and all of its centers will move from the School of Social Work Building to Dennison, and LSA centers focusing on international engagement will also relocate to Dennison. The Department of Astronomy, currently housed in Dennison, will move to West Hall, which is currently undergoing a renovation of its own.

At the regents meeting on the 17th, Provost Martha E. Pollack praised the renovation plan and noted Dennison’s unique history.

“I just want to quickly mention that virtually every student that has been at the University of Michigan probably in the last fifty years has taken a class in Dennison,” Pollack said. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s one of our most run-down buildings and this renovation is really going to make it quite the opposite, and it’s going to take the International Institute, which are increasingly important as our students do more global work, give them a nice home, make it actually more efficient on campus.”

In the proposal approved by the board, Chief Financial Officer Douglas Strong, interim executive vice president, estimated

the renovation cost to be $49 million.

“A renovation of approximately 106,000 gross square feet vacated by the relocation of the Department of Astronomy to West Hall and the repurposing of classrooms will create spaces that will facilitate faculty collaboration and enhance opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students,” Strong submitted in the proposal.

Devon Keen, program manager at the University’s African Studies Center, which is a part of the International Institute, one of the building’s new proposed tenants, said while their current location at the School of Social Work is great, crowding has occasionally been a problem.

“There are many centers here and we could definitely use some expanded common space,” she said. “There’s not a lot of room for events, so we are often vying for the same space during the busiest times of the year, because we have really one big room that’s used for large events, and then smaller rooms.”

Keen said for the move, one important aspect will be preserving each of the International Institute’s centers’ unique identities in its new Dennison facilities.

“It’s very important to us that the identity of each individual center is maintained so that if someone walks into this space, they’ll be able to clearly see, oh, ‘I’m now in the African Studies Center,’ or ‘I’m now at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies,’ because I think that’s part of what draws people to us, is that individuality of each center,” Keen said.

She added that overall, she would like the African Studies Center to have more space for events, lectures, meetings and other activities in Dennison.

“It’s always nice to have a new, upgraded surrounding, and I’m very interested to see how it will look in the end,” Keen said.

A schematic design for the building, which will provide more details about space allocation in the building, has not yet been submitted to or approved by the regents.

4 OPINION

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu IAN DILLINGHAM EDITOR IN CHIEF

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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board.

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

FROM THE DAILY

Minimizing maternal deaths Poverty must be addressed to lower deaths related to pregnancy

I

n early July, it was announced that Detroit’s maternal death rate is three times the national average. Between 2008 and 2011, the Department of Community Health reported that 26 Detroit women died as a direct result of pregnancy or childbirth. Fortunately, two months earlier, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan alongside Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System, the Detroit Medical Center and several other partners launched the “Make Your Date” campaign to help expectant mothers in need. While it’s extremely important that the campaign continue to grow and assist mothers in need, Duggan and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder must also address the root cause of the drastic maternal death rate: poverty.

Detroit’s maternal death rate is grossly inflated with 58.7 deaths per 100,000 babies. While this number is highly unacceptable, it’s not surprising given the linkpercent of the city’s population live below the poverty line, which is only made worse by a lack of education and deteriorated living conditions. Women in poverty are less likely to receive consistent medical care throughout pregnancy, putting a large number of Detroit’s expectant mothers at risk.

This situation contributes to a maternal death rate in the city that’s higher than countries such as Libya, Uruguay and Vietnam.

While health care before and during pregnancy is important, Dr. Sonia Hassan — a dean for

maternal, perinatal and child healthcare — insists that good health prior to pregnancy is vital for “cutting down the risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes.” Preventing these conditions is strongly rooted in a healthy diet and exercise, solutions that many Detroit residents do not have access to. The expense of healthy eating can be difficult for many to afford, so women in lower socioeconomic groups struggle to pay for the lifestyle that decreases the likelihood of maternal deaths.

“Make Your Date” is vehemently working to “ensure that every pregnant woman in every neighborhood knows that our great city is stepping up to provide support and ensure she delivers a healthy, happy baby.” The campaign

along with several provisions in the Affordable Care Act help provide preventive service coverage to women with no cost-sharing.

Women are provided with services such as pap smears, mammograms, vaccinations, colonoscopies, contraception and screening without needing to pay a portion of the cost.

Providing a wide array of fully-covered services will help women, yet more must be done to provide healthy opportunities for women in these conditions.

Implementing initiatives to decrease the root of the problem — Detroit’s high poverty levels — alongside thoroughly educating the public will help thousands of pregnant women in Detroit deliver their babies safely.

Join Editboard at 6:30 on Mondays at 420 Maynord

T

“Bad behavior”

This past March Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Supreme Council decided to eliminate the fraternity’s pledge programs entirely.

“As an organization, we have been plagued with too much bad behavior, which resulted in loss of lives, ZAK negative press and WITUS lawsuits,” Bradley M. Cohen, the Eminent Supreme Archon, President of SAE’s national organization, said in a YouTube video. “In order to survive, we must change not only some of our practices, but our culture.”

SAE isn’t the only fraternity organization that might want to listen to Cohen’s advice. Though SAE is a particularly deadly fraternity (nine people have died in events connected with SAE since 2006), overall “there have been more than 60 fraternityrelated deaths in the U.S. since 2005,” according to Bloomberg News. In today’s Greek Life, the “bad behavior” no longer seems to be rare or anomalous, but instead disturbingly normal and common. What’s more, as anyone even remotely involved on college campuses probably knows, the troubling examples and results of “bad behavior” don’t just include death, negative press or lawsuits, but violence, hazing, sexual assault (including rape), among other misconduct.

Eventually we might ask whether today’s fraternity system produces this “bad behavior” because it’s intrinsically flawed, or whether the “bad behavior” is just the fault of a few bad individuals.

Most fraternities and universities answer that it’s the latter case. In a statement, SAE’s national fraternity organization said that members who violate its rules “are in no way representative of the fraternity.”

Though, according to the New York Times, “Numerous studies show that members of Greek organizations drink more heavily than other students, and alcohol abuse is strongly tied to other forms of misconduct. But (once again) in interviews at multiple campuses, fraternity members said their reputations was tainted by the bad acts of others.”

Patricia Telles-Irvin, Northwestern University’s vice president for student affairs, said, “We have to be very careful before we blame the Greeks.”

Telles-Irvin doesn’t claim that “the Greeks” are innocent, but she believes that it’s because “they’re so

visible that they get easily targeted.”

Dartmouth College President and former University provost Philip J. Hanlon appears to hold a similar view. In response to sexual assault at Dartmouth and what he calls “a culture where dangerous drinking has become the rule,” Hanlon didn’t single out fraternities, despite the fraternities at his school largely dominating social life and recently facing intense criticism.

But why not single out fraternities?

If they’re so visibly a part of the problem, then why not blame them?

Of course fraternities don’t deserve all the blame, and further restricting Greek Life probably won’t definitively end death, sexual assault and so on, on college campuses, but it will end some.

By denouncing individual fraternities and individual members, the larger fraternity institution tries to protect itself from ridicule and thereby survive. This happened when Theta Xi’s national organization tried to isolate the blame to the one University chapter member who posted a racist Facebook party invite; when Alpha Epsilon Pi’s national organization ousted University senior Andrew Koffsky from his chapter presidency after he publicly admitted to hazing allegations; and when Arizona State University suspended Tau Kappa Epsilon’s chapter for several violations.

If fraternity and University officials were not to scandalize the bad behavior but instead acknowledge that they lead a corrupt system and institution, they would risk their own destruction, thereby rendering their acknowledgement an act of suicide. Therefore, because we cannot reasonably expect them to be so self-critical, we must ask whether the scandalizing response of the fraternity institution is legitimate and based on facts, or merely based on private interest.

My intuition is that the fraternity system creates “bad behavior” not on accident, but as the normal byproduct of being secretive institutions with problematic ideas of manliness that praise alcoholism and womanizing while having unjust immunity from policing. But, we shouldn’t simply follow my intuition or anybody else’s.

We should continue to research the question of the legitimacy of Greek Life and the scandalizing claims of its officials while remaining open to the anti-establishment explanation that “bad behavior” might just be a normal aspect of frat life.

— Zak Witus can be reached at zakwitus@umich.edu.

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Equal and opposite

C

alling the camp clinic the “clinic” doesn’t do it justice.

For nearly 900 people at a time, we are the primary care, urgent care, ER and support system. Working here has taught me invaluable information about the “real world.”

Specifically, in DEREK how we handle and WOLFE respond to injuries.

Quite frankly, we don’t always know what to do when bad things happen to us. It’s time for some education.

I’ll speak from current experience.

Campers and staff get hurt and sick. But not all “emergencies” are emergencies. Keep this in mind.

Bumps. Bruises. Fevers. Scrapes.

Strep Throat. If you can name it, it probably happens. Unfortunately, screams, cries and calls for help usually accompany these injuries too.

But, pardon me for a second as my inner science nerd is about to reveal itself. I’m not sorry about it.

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

You have to love Newton’s Third Law. And though this law helped me a great deal in getting through my Physics classes, it actually carries more weight in my job at the camp clinic.

What we often see is that the camper’s reaction to what just happened to them magnifies the actual condition of the injury — the definition of making mountains out of molehills — which makes assessing the severity of the situation a bit more difficult.

Here’s an example: A camper is playing a friendly game of soccer with his friends. When he was about to score a goal, he trips over his friend’s leg, falls on his wrist and proceeds to scream in agony.

“It feels like death,” he claims.

That’s the action. The reaction — by counselors and clinic staff — is even more important. There are effectively two options: 1. Freak out and treat the situation as life threatening or 2.

Take an objective, yet compassionate approach giving the initial shock of the incident to wear off before determining significant action.

As someone who has been accompanying the first responder to these kinds of situations, abiding by option two is essential for the sake of the injured camper and for the medical personnel. You don’t want to make emotional decisions and send a camper for an X-ray he doesn’t need.

In reference to Newton, you don’t

want to have an equal reaction. You want an equal and opposite reaction.

Many times, after 15 minutes or so, the camper is completely fine. The “emergency” wasn’t an emergency. At worst, maybe he or she is a little sore for a few days. And in the cases he or she isn’t completely fine, you can have peace of mind knowing you did the right thing and get him or her the proper treatment.

So the real question is why should you care? Since you’re reading this, you’re clearly not a camper — I hope, anyways, because cell phones aren’t allowed. After all, there’s a big difference between camp and the rest of reality. At camp, medical care is often immediate for even the most minor injuries. Campers don’t even have to think twice about getting taken care of. Clearly, this isn’t the case at home. You don’t have a doctor or nurse arriving to your doorstep within minutes of a minor injury.

In the “real world,” we have to do our own decision making in regards to our health. Reducing time of care is extremely important for both the medical personnel and patient. How do we know if we’re supposed to go to the ER, urgent care or make an appointment with our doctor?

In 1996, there were 67 million emergency room visits. In 2008, 119 million. Disturbing if I say so myself.

I’ve written in the past on why I believe a universal health care system is needed in the United States. But with the system as it stands, knowing what to do and where to go when we’re hurt would be the simplest way to improve the efficiency of our system. That’s it! Millions of those trips could have been moved to urgent cares, which are equipped for handling smaller injuries and sicknesses.

Unfortunately, that education isn’t really happening in the United States.

The largest advocacy attempt is a campaign called “Choose Better.” But, that campaign is based in England.

Sure, there are smaller initiatives, but nothing on a large scale.

In my hometown, I’ve driven past plenty of urgent cares and wondered, “Who would ever go to one of these?”

Well at camp, we often use urgent cares for issues we can’t take of on site. They’re great, most definitely faster than the ER and have a more comfortable feel to them. It’s just that most people don’t know they can and should be using them.

So maybe, a little education and advocacy would be the appropriate reaction. Thanks, Newton.

— Derek Wolfe can be reached at dewolfe@umich.edu.

I

OPINION 5

Writing as fuel

n the center of the classroom, a boy sat with his legs splayed over the couch, clutching a deck of cards. As he slapped a card down on the table, his eyes flickered upwards toward the CARLINA front of the DUAN room, where I stood. Stacks of paper thundered across my desk. The card-players cackled.

Two hours later, I watched my middle school students hunker over poems. Pink eraser grits fluttered, brows crinkled, pencils tripped across white paper.

Somebody burped. Another scuffed his shoe against linoleum.

“I can’t do this,” one student said, pushing back his chair.

“Yeah,” I said, tapping my hand to his page. “You can.”

This week, I’m teaching writing workshops centered on Asian Pacific Islander American identities to young ChineseAmerican campers in Michigan.

When I was introduced as “The Writing Teacher” to my students, a collective groan swam through the air. One boy put his head down on the desk.

“Writing!” he sighed in dismay.

“I hate writing.” During my first workshop, my students counted down the minutes until I left.

“See you tomorrow,” I said, as I packed up my bag. “Tomorrow!?” they wailed. “We have to write tomorrow, too?”

When I say I’m here to teach writing workshops, I often get similar reactions from my students, regardless of age: disappointment, dismay, resentment.

Writing is hard. It’s hard to teach, but it’s even harder when students don’t clearly understand what the point of writing anything is. While the value of writing is lauded repeatedly in schools and in the workforce, literary education is oftentimes formulaic, rather than handson and experimental. We tend to ingest writing as a blurry,

unquantifiable task, rather than a form of play and relevance.

My students like stories.

They like hearing about slabs of pineapple pizza, thunderstorms, monkey kings. Today, I had my students create myths or legends that spoke to their ChineseAmerican experiences. They wrote about moon cakes that induced laser vision. They wrote about Voldemort performing a traditional Chinese fan dance. They wrote about superhero dumplings, kitchen sink monsters and peach trees. When my students toss their hands up, I tell them they do, in fact, know how to write. So much of writing is just a process of swimming through the brain’s jungles and wires. Oftentimes, writing is just the end product of a long process of thinking. Writing untangles our grits of thought and makes them tangible. What makes it all so difficult is that in order to write, one must trust the brain to do its own funky, imperfect dance.

When I teach writing workshops, the constant challenge is in re-discovering why reading and writing matter in their ability to reshape ground and pummel through doors. I remind my students that poetry, prose and all forms of writing can forge visual and verbal connections. Writing acts as both a translation and a re-vision for our worlds. And above all, the process of writing gives us access to play.

People don’t understand why I spend so many of my waking hours living with poetry and prose. “Where’s the value in that?” they ask. Others seem to place poetry on the side: “That’s a great hobby, but… you should really find a steadier source of income.” I shrug my shoulders.

My LinkedIn profile features a hilarious assortment of past jobs, most of which relate to storytelling. I’m proud. I celebrate. I ask questions, record shit, swing, chase, write.

Recently, Filipino-American poet Patrick Rosal published a piece in the New York Times explaining why we should pay attention to poetry as necessity.

“Part of the problem is our

assessment of poetry is about awards, publications and appointments. Not enough is about how everyday people are moved by poems,” Rosal wrote.

“Truth is, they are hungry for it — especially when it’s written, read, performed and listened to with the whole body.”

Poetry, as Rosal described it, becomes a bodily experience, and one that we ache for.

Perhaps this “hunger” is what we need young people to learn in schools. Writing poetry, prose or essays isn’t dull. Writing isn’t unconquerable. Being a writer offers you the opportunity to also be a firefighter, a lawyer, a doctor, a gardener, a juggler. Writers are never only writers. They are collage-makers, pulling from a mash-up of fields and experiences, weaving together, playing with language to construct.

“I write poems,” I told my eye doctor last week, when he asked what I aimed to do postgraduation. “Wow,” he said, jamming an eye drop into my eye, “That’s certainly … mysterious.”

I blinked, and contact solution dripped menacingly down my face.

The more we intake the writing process as mystery, the less likely we are to access it. Perhaps it’s naïve, but I’m convinced that writing offers a type of fuel for efficient problemsolving. Writing can move us through the world with vigor and curiosity. I tell my students not to think of themselves as “good” or “bad” writers. They all have stories. They all have wrists and throats and mouths. They are joyful, and small. Some wear oversized soccer jerseys to class and others eat green peppers at lunch, while still others marvel over silver paperclips.

My students are learning how to seize joy through learning how to experiment with language. Through writing, they’re learning how to ask questions. They’re learning how to hatch rage. It’s important, complicated, messy work. It’s work that counts.

— Carlina Duan can be reached at linaduan@umich.edu.

Want more opinions on feminism, drugs, government or philosophy?

Visit www.michigandaily.com/thepodium for our tri-weekly blogs.

6 NEWS

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

TROTTER From Page 1 of a new director, but has plans to continue work in the fall to ensure all of the issues raised in January’s seven demands protest receive appropriate attention and action from the University.

“We’re still working hard to obtain these goals that we’ve set in place,” she said. “I hope that in several years all the demands will be met … No one coming up into the BSU and the BBUM movement is going to be okay with these demands not being met.”

Gaines said she hopes the new director will ensure the necessary renovations are completed to make the physical spaces in Trotter Center safer.

While facility improvements have been the ongoing topic of conversation ever since January’s protest, Harper said improving student programs at the center was an even greater challenge.

“It’s not that we’re moving away from paying attention to improving the facility,” Harper said. “But we also need to strengthen programmatically what’s going on there — so it’s a shift in focus.”

Simpson said she plans to organize programming based on student input and has plans to form a student programming board to oversee event planning for the various campus organizations that use the space.

In addition, Simpson also plans to form a student multicultural advisory board that could work with the administration to address minority issues in a proactive, rather than reactive fashion. She helped moderate similar student groups at her former position in the Spectrum Center, which during her time as director helped establish gender-neutral housing and other programs on campus to support the LGBTQ community.

Simpson said she envisioned that the board would work closely with Harper and other University officials to foster conversations about multicultural issues on campus. She added that such a board, if it had been in place sooner, may have identified the need for Trotter Center updates sooner and would have had more ability to

voice those concerns to the administration.

“If we’d have an advisory board, we could have had that conversation early on and tried to move that agenda forward, rather than having student have to put together a set of demand to say, ‘These are the things I want,’ ” she said. “The idea is to hear what it is the students are feeling so that we can be responsive ahead of time, before they get to a breaking point.”

The University is also continuing the long-term process of establishing a new multicultural center on Central Campus, which Simpson said she adamantly supports. Harper said working on programming changes at the current facility is an important step in determining the best plan for the new center.

Harper also said she felt it was important to capture students’ energy while the protest was still at the front of their minds.

“Lots of students have been talking about the multicultural center and being involved,” Harper said.

“We really can’t wait. We need to harness that energy and that commitment right now and have some honest conversations about what it isn’t and what it could be. I think the possibilities are endless, but we have to do that work now while we also plan for a new facility.”

Though she did not reference specific program proposals, Harper said the University plans to work with students to evaluate the best use for the space, potentially including classes, retreats or workshops.

Harper also referenced the current struggles between the Trotter Center and local Greek community, citing student complaints of homophobic, racist and sexist language that gets “hurled out of dark windows” on their way to the center for events.

Simpson said she plans to work to improve the neighborhood around the Trotter Center by engaging local Greek houses through regularly scheduled community meetings and retreats, allowing members of those houses and students who use the Trotter Center to engage in dialogue and build understanding about “We just want to think differently about that work and work

with those students that live around the multicultural center, so that they have that as part of their University experience also,” Harper said.

From the BSU’s perspective, most students on campus are still not aware of the issues surrounding the Trotter Center and minority inclusion on campus. Many continue to live in sheltered communities that prevent them from engaging with these issues, Gaines said.

“We’re just trying to make people aware, to educate,” Gaines said. “I think we know vice president Harper has our back, but we all could do a better job making campus aware.”

The new appointments will also allow both MESA and the Trotter Center more freedom to develop programs specific to the needs of their students. Harper said the current system, with one director overseeing both facilities, presented problems given the physical separation of the spaces — Trotter Center is located off of Washtenaw Avenue and MESA offices located in the Union — and the specialized needs of each office.

“In the past, we’ve focused on the facility,” she said. “What we need to focus on now is how we make sure there’s something going on inside the facility.”

In a press conference on Friday, University President Mark Schlissel also addressed the issue on diversity on campus, noting that it was a topic of discussion throughout his interview process and during the months leading up to his appointment.

“Last year was a very important year on campus from the diversity discussion perspective,” Schlissel said. “I’ve never been at an institution where it’s closer to the top of the mind of people that you talk to … It’s very much part of the fabric.”

Harper agreed with his comments, citing the long history of diversity issues on campus, which she said positioned the University as a national leader on the topic.

However, she said the added attention can put pressure on administrator to create a perfect campus.

“It’s hard, but it’s doable,” she said. “We just have to do it with our students, not to our students.”

SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO THIS FALL? WE DO... #rushTMD HIRING FOR FALL 2014: NEWS, SPORTS, OPINION, ARTS, PHOTO, DESIGN, ONLINE, VIDEO AND MORE!

DETROIT BEAT

General Motors CEO Mary Barra in midst of difficult summer Detroit automaker recovering from ignition switch recall

By KATIE BURKE Managing Editor

General Motors CEO Mary Barra began the summer in the Big House, delivering a speech to University graduates that offered advice for the future.

Last week, she appeared in front of Congress for the fourth time in four months, addressing an audience that was much less welcoming than the class of 2014.

Barra did not mention GM in her commencement address in May, even though the company was in the midst of a crisis that would call into question the culture of one of Detroit’s major automakers.

Detroit has been home to American automakers since Henry Ford and William Murphy founded the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899. Since then, three have emerged as the foremost U.S. automakers: Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors.

The three automakers have weathered a number of storms over the past decades, from the oil crises in 1973 and 1979, to the Ford tire failure controversy in 2000, to the GM and Chrysler bailouts of 2009, all of which have had ripple effects on their home city.

The most recent jolt to the industry began Feb. 13, when GM recalled 619,122 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 models, both cars that sold well when they were on the market.

What began as a routine recall notice — 714 recalls affecting 27,957,339 vehicles were issued in 2013, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — quickly led to the public revelation of a faulty ignition switch linked to 13 deaths and 54 accidents.

One month earlier, Barra had assumed office as the first female executive of a major automaker.

According to GM, she was notified of the defective ignition

switch Jan. 31, two weeks later, leading to the initial recall. By March 17, 2.6 million vehicles had been recalled and three days later, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee announced its first investigative hearing into the issue.

This is the second major auto company recall this decade following a 2010 Toyota recall sparked by unintended acceleration in the Prius and other models. The company eventually recalled 15.43 million vehicles worldwide, and was fined $17.4 million by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

While the Toyota recall occurred on a massive global scale, the implications of the GM crisis hit much closer to the Motor City.

How the switch came to be In pursuit of a smoother ignition switch, GM engineers began working on a new design in 1997. Between 1999 and 2001, an engineer named Ray DeGiorgio was given control of the design and was ultimately in charge of approving the final design specification in March 2001.

After its initial design approval, the switch had proven problematic in testing. There were multiple reports of the switch slipping from “run” to “accessory” modes, as well as electrical issues. By design, when the ignition switch is no longer in “run” mode, airbags will not deploy.

DeGiorgio and his team attempted to address these problems in time for the vehicle launches of the Saturn Ion and Chevrolet Cobalt. In internal emails, DeGiorgio referred to it as “the switch from hell.”

According to an internal investigation, in 2002 DeGiorgio approved the switch design for production, even though it had not yet met torque requirements.

Reports of vehicle stalling continued to be brought to the engineer’s attention in the following

Read the rest of this article at MichiganDaily.com

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ALBUM REVIEW

ARTS 7

ALBUM REVIEW

‘Trouble in Paradise’ No ‘Smiling’

in Chicago

By BRIAN BURLAGE Daily Arts Writer

POLYDOR

Elly Jackson a.k.a La Roux

Danceable beats fill La Roux’s ‘80s throwback album

By ADAM DEPOLLO Online Arts Editor

It’s been five years since English synthpop duo La Roux — then composed of singer/multi-instrumentalist Elly Jackson and producer Ben Langmaid — released its eponymous debut album, which featured Bthe massively Trouble in successful singles “Bullet- Paradise proof” and “In La Roux for the Kill.”

The years since Polydor 2009 have presented a number of obstacles for Jackson, including a debilitating bout of performance anxiety, but, after parting ways with Langmaid over creative differences, La Roux has returned as a solo act with its infectious sophomore release Trouble in Paradise.

On 2009’s La Roux, Jackson and Langmaid successfully blended ‘80s chic with elements of the late ‘00s club sound on the album’s radio-ready singles, but the LP’s deeper cuts were something of a disappointment. While the distillation of punchy square synths and 808 percussion worked on “Bulletproof,” it left the rest of the album feeling sparse and incom-

plete, as though it were begging for a remix that La Roux wasn’t quite ready to provide.

Fortunately, the creative split between the duo’s members seems to have opened the way for Jackson to pursue her ‘80s throwback aesthetic to its potently danceable and upbeat conclusions on her latest release. Opening with “Uptight Downtown,” Jackson delivers a string of well-crafted melodies and contagious choruses over buoyant analog synths on the album’s more club-ready tracks and lush piano riffs and vocal harmonies on ballads like “Paradise Is You.” Jackson’s ear for melody is particularly strong on the chorus of “Cruel Sexuality,” a dance track with traces of Graceland-era Paul Simon,” and on the mildly tropical synth lines of “Sexotheque.”

Trouble in Paradise’s production, provided largely by Englishman Ian Sherwin, is just as impressive as the album’s songwriting. The warm lo-fi halo floating over Jackson’s voice adds an inviting color to the LP while providing a touch of nostalgic ‘80s fuzz to the whole project — a number of the tracks, particularly “Cruel Sexuality” and “Silent Partner” with their driving analog bass lines and echoing vocals, sound like they were recorded inside of a David Bowie music video. You can almost see the fog machines and angular shoulder pads sticking out through the mix.

This album’s biggest stumbling

block, however, is Jackson’s lyrics, which, while exploring the rocky aspects of relationships implied by the record’s title, don’t offer much in the way of innovation or even particularly creative imagery. Even on the most interesting lyrical track “Paradise Is You,” Jackson is dealing with ideas, like losing yourself in your lover, that we’ve all heard before.

And, while I could overlook Jackson’s lyrics if she ended the album on a strong note with the catchy single and second-to-last song “Let Me Down Gently,” she unfortunately closes out the LP with its most disappointing track “The Feeling.” In comparison with the finely wrought ‘80s aesthetics on the rest of the album, this cut’s badly mixed bass lines and drums are an unexpected turn. The lackluster production blends poorly with Jackson’s weak falsetto and clumsy vocal harmonies, making this track seem like a half-finished demo that was mistakenly tacked onto the album’s final cut.

With the exception of the album’s weak finish, however, Trouble in Paradise is a solid follow-up to La Roux’s debut album that, while lacking any obvious hits along the lines of “Bulletproof,” is a much more satisfying release. Few of the LP’s first eight tracks feel incomplete in the way that much of La Roux did, and Jackson has clearly come into her own as a songwriter, crafting refreshingly nostalgic pop tracks that still sound like they were made in 2014.

There’s something unsettling about Lonnie Lynn’s voice. His distorted mid-range flow sometimes smears over the treble/ B bass border. It’s gravelly.

His Nobody’s inflection seems rather venom- Smiling ous at times, and Common when you hear it string together ARTium his somber material you start to have thoughts like “Man, if this guy is rapping about Chicago crime, it must really be a huge problem”. And that’s precisely what Common does on Nobody’s Smiling. The whole album is a log for his thoughts about growing up in Chicago, being confronted with violence at an early age and grieving for murdered friends and family. The particular immaterial quality of his voice allows him to give his subject matter a unique importance, a cut-the-shit directness that aims its five-fingered death punch straight at your forehead. And before you can recognize it happening, Common takes the podium as the experienced teacher and you become his happy pupil. Listen and learn, he says on Nobody’s Smiling: I’ll tell it like it is.

Lesson 1: Album artwork counts.

Nobody’s Smiling is the aesthetic opposite of Common’s sixth album Be, the uplifting, jazz-sprinkled soul project that proved he could delve into the root of hip-hop and still maintain his funk. The most immediate difference between Be and Nobody’s Smiling is the album cover. Be’s cover is tainted with a tangerine glow, upon which Common’s Marvin Gaye-esque profile grins openly. Its warmth and sincerity reveals much about the album’s power through spoken word: stories told around the halo of a fire. Nobody’s Smiling, on the other hand, takes its moniker very literally. Common’s stony face emerges like a ghost, his eyes dark

as coal, the front of his pale face turned aslant now, the whole look of him bending into shadow. From the second we notice its correlation to Be, we learn that Common has set a pretty high mark for the album. His is grave business, after all.

Lesson 2: Politics have changed very little in south-side Chicago.

Sure, Common has had his share of political involvement with campaigns, protests and charity.

And sure, he even took a special trip to the White House in 2011 to perform for the Obamas. But if Be was his grand inaugural address, then Nobody’s Smiling is his solemn campfire talk, in which he bears the heft of his anxiety about Chicago crime to the people who might not know better. R&B production wizard James Fauntleroy kicks off the opening track “The Neighborhood” with a plea, his voice straining from somewhere in empty space: “But be careful don’t drown in the gold/I know it glows but it’s cold.” A chorus of shrill trumpets shatters the peace. Common and Lil Herb (hailing from ‘Terror town’ in Chicago) use the rest of the song to explain just how impossible it is to leave a neighborhood in Chicago and how consistently dangerous it is to challenge any of the neighborhood rules.

Urban division often translates to political division, they seem to state – not the other way around.

Lesson 3: Gloom has a place in an album’s sound.

While Common busies himself with painting a bleak and even tragic portrait of Chicago, producer No I.D. crafts even bleaker instrumentation. With the exception of “Hustle Harder” and “Real” – two tracks that gracefully address sexuality in the midst of violence – the beats are thunderous, the bass is deep and an electric tinge galvanizes the album’s neo-soul vibe. Horn sections filtered through mix machines and a score of wiry classical instruments each add beauty to an otherwise desolate soundscape. No I.D. has delivered his trademark intensity See COMMON, Page 8

8 ARTS

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

COMMON From Page 7

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in a number of genres with a number of artists. He brought us “Black Skinhead,” “Holy Grail,” “Find Your Love” and “Run This Town.”

While No I.D. and Common have collaborated before, Nobody’s Smiling marks the first time they’ve worked together on the Def Jam label and it shows. The album is a confident departure from previous forms and techniques.

Lesson 4: Time can be used to spite death.

Each of the ten tracks on Nobody’s Smiling express a state of being. Common qualifies the state of his own life by exploring time. He sees time as an investment, and whether by means of money or murder, it can actually rearrange priorities (especially in the light of violence) and refocus ambition. He raps on “No Fear”, “If I’m in the building that mean I got equity/Where articles are black like Ebony/Since I was a shorty I was thinking longevity/No fear, I say that with levity.” Nowhere else on the album does Common rap about what he dreamed of as a kid.

Instead of money, women or cars, it’s longevity. A longer life. More time. These are the things that he was taught to appreciate growing up. Why? Because death was around the street corner.

Between No I.D.’s masterful blending of hip-hop with R&B and Common’s laid-back lyrical prow-

A serious hiphop narrative of Chicago. ess, the two are able to reify life in urban Chicago. Common’s not telling us about its violence and crime to win our sympathy, he’s telling us about it to win our admiration.

He made it out. He made it to L.A., to the studio, to the big labels, the parties and even to the White House. “Survivor soldier a child is destined/A star is born in a Chicago storm/The name is Common/ I’m anything but the norm” he raps about himself on “Real,” and he’s exactly right. Three years have passed since his last release. True to his own creed, Nobody’s Smiling makes it obvious that he let none of that time go to waste.

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FILM COLUMN

Greatest Hindi film?

“Gangs of Wasseypur” a Tarantino-esque crime saga

By AKSHAY SETH Daily Film Columnist

“Gangs of Wasseypur” starts with the opening credits of a popular Indian soap opera. Everyone looks happy. The main character, billed as “the perfect daughterin-law” to a wealthy household, beckons viewers through her life, smiling in response to weepy intro music while making pit stops on the way to point out her supporting cast. They wave and namaste at us in return. As the music wavers, slows, the camera dollies away to reveal the glowing television screen we’ve been watching. A family crowds around it.

But the small, battered-looking TV seems too far away. Isolated in the bottom-left corner of the frame, our faceless family stares at it, absorbed — eyes locked toward the top-right.

It’s a brain-numbing pause of detachment dedicated to the sort of brain-numbing entertainment Bollywood, an industry churning out nearly daily installments of these 30-minute dramas — the one referenced in the opening scene withered away for a grand total of 1833 episodes in its eight year run — gets so much hate for producing. Which is why what comes moments after that apathetic first scene resonates like a crackling “fuck you” to the entire Bollywood establishment, shaping the following 320 minutes in the form of a middle finger aimed squarely at the formulaic, tepid filmmaking that has plagued Indian cinema for so long.

A hail of bullets streaks through the room, blows up the TV along with every shitty soap character inside and sets up the extended tracking shot which launches us into the film, following a gang of gunmen in their attempts to surround and assassinate an unnamed family in Wasseypur, India. As the classic Hindi song “Khalnayak” (roughly translating to “badass motherfucker with a pimp-ass hat”) blares through

grainy cell phone ringers, a narrator tugs us back in time to the start of this sprawling, generationspanning crime epic.

Though leaving it off at ‘crime epic’ would be like calling “The Godfather” trilogy ‘those videos with the Italian people shooting each other.’ “Wasseypur” unfurls like a continually-expanding patchwork quilt, balancing scores of characters, each with their own unique backstories, to paint a stinging portrait of the way corruption feeds off cycles of poverty.

It races over hours of content at an unyielding speed, demanding its audience keep pace as it breaks countless unspoken censorship barriers along the way. Grisly displays of violence, coupled with even more forward depictions of sexuality are strewn at every corner of the script, yet what props the film up is a steady arc for the masculinity exhibited by the three clashing clans squabbling for control.

The first of those clans and the one which becomes our guide through this expansive portrait of the Indian mafia are the Khans, descended from Shahid Khan, a 1940s era gangster who was chased out of Wasseypur by his competition, Sultana Daku. Shahid, then forced to earn an honest living as a coal miner in nearby Dhanbad, is eventually killed at the hands of his employer Ramadhir Singh, who overhears Khan’s plans to seize the wealth he has recently acquired from the departing British. As the years roll by, Khan’s son, Sardar swears vengeance for his father’s murder, knowingly sparking a blood-feud that molds decades of conflict between the Khans, Singhs and eventually the Sultanas, who are thrust back into the fray after Sardar returns to Wasseypur. It sounds like “The Real Housewives of Orange County” meets “Game of Thrones” level shit because it is. And it’s never blemished by an apology or a stray moment of hesitation. We trudge through the violence without ever glancing over our shoulders, and the film is better because of the confidence in its transitions.

Director Anurag Kashyap embellishes countless stories — mostly stemming from innumerable references to classic Hollywood gangster flicks — with

individual quirks that harken to an almost Tarantino-esque treatment of character. Early along, in the film’s very first act, the final mission is written in blood, but as in “Reservoir Dogs” or “Jackie Brown,” we only climb on for the five-hour-long ride because everything that happens in between is doused in self-referential hilarity: The murderous, blade-chewing psychopath who perpetually speaks with a lisp; the fact that Sardar’s second oldest son, Kashyap’s Michael Corleone, is a pothead; the flirting (ft. random goat). The number of times the word “penis” is screamed at random passersby.

Still, despite an undeniably hilarious sequence of vignettes to tie the story together, the film’s heart pulses with the rise and eventual demise of the Khan clan.

In doing so, the movie adopts a somewhat beaten stance about the perils of heedless greed — the constant need to one-up the competition even if the outcome is chaos.

But the more intriguing bit is how Kashyap threads the movement of time using pop culture references to each passing decade’s Bollywood hits. And in doing so, he again forces us to confront the role this far-reaching media can play in the violence unfolding in small, education-lacking towns like Wasseypur. The bloated, unrealistic portrayals of masculinity these films adopt can be seen influencing the characters’ displays of ferocity, with Kashyap taking special care to use various Hindi movie songs in scoring the aftermath of or lead up to a fatal conflict.

“Wasseypur” solidifies itself as arguably the greatest Hindi film I’ll ever see because it forces us to look directly at the bloody aftermath. The mini-Indian history lessons are narrated detachedly and presented in black-and-white news format to give matter-offact information about the stark realities in the small mining villages of northern India. Guns are eventually imported from neighboring towns. The money-making schemes become more complex.

The Internet makes a cameo. But the real intrigue lies with the realization that Bollywood can be seen filling in the human side, and as “Wasseypur” makes clear, fuck the soap operas, because the message has to change.

ARTS 9

WEEKEND R O U NDUP What: Kids Day at White Lotus Farms Where: 7217 W. Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI When: Saturday, July 26 from 9:30 am to 3 p.m.

Ann Arbor parents and children are encouraged to join the Tsomo family on their farm Saturday morning and afternoon for a day filled with live music, face painting and milking demonstrations.

White Lotus Farms was created 40 years ago and is host to three generations. The work ethic at White Lotus Farms is based the Tsomo family’s lifelong dedication to Buddhist philosophies. Finely crafted breads, cheeses, creams and fresh produce are all grown and created at the farm making Kids Day a perfect opportunity for parents wanting to teach their children about farming and/or supporting local businesses. Attend Kids Day this Saturday and you’re guaranteed to enjoy a fun day full of great friends and food.

What: UM Museum of Natural History Planetarium Where 1109 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI When: July 25, 26 and 27 The University of Michigan’s Museum of Natural History Planetarium hosts numerous showings centering around astronomical information and findings. The Sky Tonight is an exploration of important stars in the sky, and is hosted at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Larry Cat in Space is about an inquisitive cat that learns about life in space; the event is perfect for kids, and it’s at 12:30 on Fridays. Light Years from Andromeda is an audiovisual show narrated by a Star Trek actor that shows how the earth changed during the 2.8 million years light beams travelled to earth.

The event is at 2:30 on Fridays. Hubble vision is an audiovisual show centering on findings from the Hubble Space Telescope, and the event is at 2:30 on Saturday. Whichever event you choose, you’re sure to have a fun time.

10 SPORTS

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Kopmeyer, Ezurike shine in NWSL

By JAKE LOURIM Managing Sports Editor

Haley Kopmeyer is Michigan’s all-time leader in saves, goalsagainst average and minutes played, but in the National Women’s Soccer League, there are lots of Haley Kopmeyers.

Kopmeyer, a four-year starter for the Wolverines, now backs up U.S. Women’s National Team starter Hope Solo — by many accounts the best goalie in the world — for the Seattle Reign. So when she made her first start June 19 for the undefeated Reign, she knew she couldn’t give up a goal.

But there was one player in particular that she couldn’t give up a goal to — and one player in particular who wanted to score on her.

That player was Nkem Ezurike, who played with Kopmeyer at Michigan from 2010-12 and then became the Wolverines’ all-time leading scorer last season.

“Obviously I don’t want anybody to score on me, but there’s a little bit of a rivalry there and I was like, yeah, I definitely can’t get scored on,” Kopmeyer said. “Getting scored on by friends is just the worst.”

Kopmeyer went back to her Michigan days to try to gain an edge by remembering Ezurike’s strengths and weaknesses.

Ezurike had a shot at her former teammate just before halftime, but her header was deflected away.

“It was in the back of my mind,” Ezurike said. “It’s always funny when you’re playing against someone you know, you kind of want to beat them more often than

someone you may not know. I was hoping to get a goal against her, but she came up big that game.”

The two Michigan alumni speak highly of each other off the field, but the competitive side of each of them came out when they put on opposite jerseys.

Kopmeyer and Ezurike, products of the rebuilt Michigan women’s soccer program under coach Greg Ryan, are the Wolverines’ only two players in the NWSL, which started last spring. But even two of the program’s best ever say the pro league was a major adjustment.

“I was a little shell shocked at first — the speed of the play, how hard the girls shot the ball, so many parts that you can think about, and then you actually see it and you’re like, ‘OK, wow,’ ” Kopmeyer said earlier this month.

“That was an adjustment and it showed me how I needed to train, how I needed to alter my training, how I needed to get the game to slow down mentally for me.”

One other adjustment: This league was a business now.

Kopmeyer wasn’t easily the best goalkeeper on the team like she was at Michigan. Her team didn’t have to keep her around — and at one point, they didn’t, releasing her after last season.

Kopmeyer took her lumps last year, playing only one game in goal, but she re-signed with the team for this season and has a solid footing on the league’s best team.

The same goes for Ezurike in Boston. She also got off to a slow start this spring in her rookie season but has now appeared in 11

of the Breakers’ 18 games, starting six and scoring two goals.

Like Kopmeyer, she also found the transition to the professional league to be difficult.

“Starting off, I didn’t get much playing time, so practices really helped with getting to that intensity required for the program,” Ezurike said. “It’s just something to work at. It’s a different mindset that you’ve got to step it up from what you did in college.”

For two players who were stars in college and started for most of their four-year careers, that wasn’t easy to do. Kopmeyer was a mainstay in the net, and Ezurike was the lone forward at the top of coach Greg Ryan’s 4-1-4-1 scheme.

As Kopmeyer put it, they went from being the best players on their team in college to a league where every player was the best player on her team in college.

“I have no problem admitting that going from the college game to the professional game was a very massive step,” she said. “I definitely think Michigan did well to prepare me in terms of what the rigors of training would be like, but it’s just that talent level that skyrockets.”

Added Ezurike: “That’s part of the game and it’s kind of what you sign up for, but it’s definitely in the back of your mind that it can change pretty quickly.”

Not too long ago, Michigan wasn’t the kind of program that sent players to professional leagues. The Wolverines have had four straight winning seasons under Ryan, but before Ryan arrived they hadn’t had back-to-

back winning seasons since 200304.

Ryan’s hiring brought major changes to the program, but they proved to be worthy in the end. Judging by his recent recruiting classes — the latest of which includes 11 newcomers — Kopmeyer and Ezurike won’t be the only pros he churns out of his program.

Ezurike said Ryan’s experience beyond the college game, including a stint with the U.S. Women’s National Team before he came to Ann Arbor, is a good reference for players hoping for professional careers.

And if Michigan continues its trend, Kopmeyer and Ezurike will have a few more players around the league to keep their eyes on.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

PATRICK BARRON/Daily

Nkem Ezurike (upper) and Haley Kopmeyer have both been contributors in the NWSL this year after illustrious careers at Michigan.

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SPORTS 11

Michigan’s ‘Music City Miracle’ lives

By JASON RUBINSTEIN Daily Sports Writer

NEW YORK — Though Tampa Bay Rays ace David Price has enjoyed an illustrious baseball career, one single game continues to linger in the back of his mind.

It’s not the memory of when the left-hander started the MLB AllStar game in 2010. It’s not when Price recorded a save in Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS to send the Rays to their first-ever World Series.

Nor is it the games Price pitched in 2012 en route to winning his first Cy Young award.

It’s the game Price entered as a college junior on June 4, 2007 against Michigan, and then exited in disgrace.

It was a beautiful night, in the mid-80s, not a cloud to be seen, a perfect night for baseball.

Price and No. 1 Vanderbilt had reached extra innings against the Wolverines in the deciding game of the 2007 Nashville Regional.

The Commodores were unquestionably the nation’s best team in the regular season. They boasted a lineup that included four current MLB players: Price, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Pedro Alvarez, the Atlanta Braves’ Mike Minor and the Baltimore Orioles’ Ryan Flaherty.

Michigan, meanwhile, had success of its own, but to Vanderbilt the Wolverines were just another minor obstacle on the way to the College World Series.

After all, Vanderbilt had beaten Michigan in the 2006 Regional with virtually the same roster, so why would 2007 bring a new fate?

Already fortunate to take the game to the 10th inning, Michigan knew the deck needed to be stacked in its favor to topple Vanderbilt. And the Wolverines found some luck in the barrel of Alan Oaks’ bat.

A freshman no-name who wasn’t even in the starting lineup, Oaks silenced the 4,000 fans in attendance, hitting the most gut-wrenching home run in Vanderbilt history to dethrone the Commodores, 4-3.

Seven years later, those

PAUL SHERMAN/Daily

Former baseball coach Rich Maloney’s 2007 Michigan team stunned No. 1 Vanderbilt, an upset that still haunts former Commodores to this day.

involved in the game haven’t forgotten one detail of Michigan’s rendition of the “Music City Miracle.”

Erik Bakich — Michigan’s current baseball coach and Vanderbilt’s hitting coach in 2007 — can recite every detail of the game, including Vanderbilt’s batting order, as easily as a flight attendant can list off safety procedures.

And neither Price nor Bakich can forget the ball disappearing into the perfect summer night to complete the stunning upset.

“That’s a painful scar that will never heal,” Bakich said in a recent interview with the Daily.

“That was as high of a moment for Michigan that was as low of a moment for our team at Vanderbilt.”

“That’s a painful scar that will never heal.”

***

If a team were to dream of one pitcher being on the mound in the ninth inning of the deciding game in the regional, it would be Price.

And luckily for the Commodores, they got their wish as Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin brought Price in with a man on first with no outs.

Price, the eventual first pick of the 2007 MLB Draft, breezed through the ninth, striking out two.

He thought the 10th would be just as easy with Michigan’s best hitter, Zach Putnam, subbed due to a double switch.

In Putnam’s place, Oaks stepped into the batter’s box, and Vanderbilt pitching coach Derek

Johnson jogged out to advise Price.

“He was like, ‘hey, he’s hitting .188, with one home run and six RBIs,’ ” Price said. “ ‘You know he has slider bat speed, so if you throw him a slider, make sure it’s a good one.’

“So I was like ‘Alright, well he hasn’t seen my slider yet, so I am going to throw him the nastiest one I’ve ever thrown.’ ” Meanwhile, the pinch hitter’s mind was a whirlwind.

“I hadn’t had an at-bat in like two weeks,” Oaks said. “So that was going through my mind. The next thing I thought of was that (Price) is the best pitcher in the country, so close your eyes and swing hard.”

Price first threw one of his trademark sliders, but it landed in the dirt and Oaks didn’t bite. But he never planned to swing at any sliders. Seconds before he stepped to the plate, Michigan coach Rich Maloney told Oaks, “I didn’t put you in there to walk. So if you get a strike you better be swinging.”

Oaks had slider bat speed, but the righty struggled all season hitting breaking balls. So, on the second pitch, when Price threw a fastball to the outside corner and Oaks’ bat stayed idle, he knew he made a mistake. Would Price toss another fastball?

“The second pitch was an outside fastball for a strike,” Oaks said, “and I didn’t swing and looked down at (Maloney) and he wouldn’t even look at me — he was so mad.”

Price’s next two pitches were sliders in the dirt. Now in a hitter’s count, three balls to one strike, Oaks knew only one pitch was coming: a fastball.

Seconds later, Oaks connected on a heater and crushed the ball over the fence in left-center field.

“There was a lot adrenaline and excitement after I hit it,” said Oaks, who currently pitches for the Normal CornBelters in the Frontier League. “After I hit the home run, I forgot a lot, because it was so crazy.

“I just happened to be some young punk to come in and hit a home run.”

Oaks’ home run won Michigan’s first regional championship since 1984 and put an end to one of Vanderbilt’s greatest teams.

Bakich called the 2007 Vanderbilt team the most talented team he’s ever been a part of.

“It just seemed like it wasn’t meant to be,” Minor said in a low tone, recalling Oaks’ hit.

Price can’t erase the memory.

the No. 1 team in the country at their home field at a regional,” Bakich said. “That was an eyeopening moment. At that point, it was solidified in my mind, and probably the minds of a lot of the coaches across the country that Michigan is a place in baseball that can host regionals and go to Omaha from.”

More so, that game taught Bakich an important lesson that he preaches to his players every day: that the best team doesn’t always win, and that anything can happen in postseason baseball.

And while Michigan hasn’t hosted a regional or even advanced to one yet in Bakich’s tenure, if his recruiting classes are any indication, the Wolverines are heading in the right direction.

***

While it’s odd for Price to see Bakich coaching Michigan, Price said he knows Michigan will thrive under Bakich.

In fact, Price couldn’t think of a better multi-faceted coach between Bakich’s health expertise, intensity and baseball knowledge, even if sometimes it got a little bizarre.

Bakich was such a health nut that he would put a Snickers bar in his mouth, chew it up and spit it out to avoid the calories. He was so enthusiastic that he would run around shirtless in freezing late fall weather to pump up his team.

Michigan holds a 59-56 record under Bakich in his first two seasons, but he’s fielded a team of mostly freshmen and sophomores.

He’s brought the Wolverines to the Big Ten Tournament two years in a row, already an improvement from the years leading up to his hiring.

Price and Minor both believe any team under Bakich could thrive.

Minor said there is no better coach than Bakich at instilling confidence in his players. But for now, Bakich can only hope his team can create a moment like the one that still bothers David Price.

In seven years, a student can earn an undergraduate degree and a law degree. It’s also a long enough duration for an assistant coach to become a head coach.

Bakich, Price and Minor’s head recruiter to Vanderbilt, has now donned the maize and blue as Michigan’s head baseball coach.

And because of Oaks’ heroics, it’s occasionally a hard pill to swallow.

“I saw that he’d signed with Michigan and initially it was a little weird,” Price said. “I was happy for Bakich that he got a head coaching job, but the last place I ever expected him to go was Michigan.”

But despite the change of allegiance, Oaks’ home run against Bakich’s Vanderbilt had long-ranging implications.

For one, Bakich may not be coaching in Ann Arbor if not for that game.

Bakich’s success as a recruiter at Vanderbilt went a long way, landing him the head coaching job at Maryland before he landed in Ann Arbor in 2013.

“I think there was a realization for me to see the University of Michigan come in and upset

***

“After I hit the home run, I forgot a lot, because it was so crazy.”

12 NEWS

Thursday, July 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

PHOTOSTAFF ABROAD: “SNAPPING” THE CHILDREN OF GHANA

Allison Farrand spent a month studying abroad in Ghana where she met many children and confronted her own ethics as a photographer.

My month spent studying abroad in northern Ghana was most definitely a transformative experience. I came away with a new understanding of heat, an obsession with mangos and a deep love for a culture that emphasizes kindness above all else. However, it would be remiss of me to display these photos without recognizing the slew of political issues that come with photographing people, and especially children, abroad.

My fellow students and I had daily discussions about how uncomfortable we felt in certain situations, as a group of anthropology and African studies majors are bound to do. Our professor, from a different era and with less sensitivity to the political effect a group of Americans can have abroad, placed us in many situations

where we felt extremely uneasy. Once, our plans suddenly changed from visiting a school on a weekend with a few donations, to interrupting classes in the middle of a busy school day with immense fanfare. I was forced to confront my discomfort and the political and historical context of my skin color.

But this is a photo story about northern Ghana, not a space for my personal reflections. I should explain that these children repeatedly asked me to “snap” their photo.

So I did, they laughed at themselves frozen on my camera screen, and I taught them how to “snap” me.

This is who I met. These are the photos I brought back.

— ALLISON FARRAND