Sept. 20, 2012 issue of The Chronicle

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

The Chronicle

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 21

WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

Crack Summit Michelle: Vote for Barack clears the haze on addiction by Jack Mercola and Danielle Muoio THE CHRONICLE

What Duke students know or think they know about crack cocaine is probably false. Crack—cocaine cooked with baking soda and water and often smoked—may not be the most popular drug on campus, but its widespread use in the South encouraged health experts, social workers and members of the community to attend Duke’s first Crack Summit Wednesday, hosted by the Duke University School of Nursing and the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. People with firsthand experience with the drug— including leading researchers, a former Chicago police officer and a recovering addict—discussed the stigma attached to crack users and how to address widespread usage. Debunking commonly accepted knowledge about the highly addictive substance, the summit highlighted the importance of increased research and open-mindedness toward addicts. The common conception that crack cocaine is a cheap drug used primarily by young, black males is false, said keynote speaker Samuel MacMaster, associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Social Work. “We are creating a separation that doesn’t really exist,” he said. “And that separation allows us to judge people, to

SEE CRACK ON PAGE 10

NICOLE SAVAGE/ THE CHRONICLE

First lady Michelle Obama visited North Carolina Central University Wednesday to speak to students about the importance of voting in the upcoming presidential election. by Hanan Awel THE CHRONICLE

First lady Michelle Obama brought her husband’s campaign to the Bull City, drawing cheers from supporters waving posters with slogan “Forward.” Obama visited North Carolina Central University in order to urge the audience to line up at the polls for President Barack Obama to secure his spot in the White House. She emphasized that students who are currently

Chapel reopens to public this Friday from Staff Reports

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

not registered need to make sure they do so in order to continue their support for the president. More than 3,000 supporters and students attended the event. “[The election] could mean just one vote in your neighborhood—just one more person,” she said. “One single vote in your apartment building, in your dorm room—one. Keep that in your head.”

RECESS

Bad Plus returns to Duke after residency

THE CHRONICLE

by Megan Rise

The Duke Chapel will reopen Friday with the conclusion of the ceiling’s inspection. The Chapel closed Sept. 10 after a small portion of the ceiling fell in mid-July. The ceiling’s structure— particularly where the sliver fell—was inspected and stabilized. The project was completed by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., a Chicago-based structural engineering firm. The firm is doing similar work at the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument. “This group is the best of the best for this kind of job, and they’ve shown

THE CHRONICLE

Following a ceiling inspection, the Duke Chapel will reopen to the public this Friday.

SEE CHAPEL ON PAGE 3

It’s not often that a university can bring in an established group like The Bad Plus to work with its graduate students. But, that’s exactly what Duke, helped by a grant from the Council for the Arts, was able to do. The Bad Plus, composed of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King, are known widely for their mix of jazz, pop-music covers and experimental music. Unlike most residencies, The Bad Plus’, which started in fall 2010, included sessions where they performed and recorded music written by Duke graduate students in Music Composition. The Bad Plus also used their residency to premiere ‘On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring,’ a work that Duke Performances commis-

ONTHERECORD

Scouting Memphis, Duke football’s opponent Sat., Page 5

SEE OBAMA ON PAGE 4

“There’s nothing like constantly writing about heartbreak that gives you this enormous sense of appreciation about love” —Author Junot Diaz on his new book. See interview Recess page 4

sioned and developed. Before the recording sessions, students had prepared full-fledged compositions, often with little room for improvisation. But when the students met with The Bad Plus, the trio wanted more flexibility with the pieces. The group ended up using the students’ compositions as a jumping-off point, picking and choosing from the material to make pieces that were truly collaborative. For Kenneth David Stewart, one of the graduate students, the experience was an exhilarating challenge. He likened writing for The Bad Plus to “creating a framework for them to improvise within.” Another composer, Dan Ruccia, described the sessions as a way for him to “get the ideas from my head to their SEE BAD PLUS ON RECESS PAGE 6

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Why to interpret your dreams, Page 2

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THE CHRONICLE

Moran: Women are key in 2012 Student chosen by Emma Baccellieri THE CHRONICLE

Ellen Moran, former communications director for the Obama administration, addressed students and faculty on the significance of women in the upcoming presidential election Wednesday evening. Moran, who also served previously as director of Emily’s List, a group that works to elect Democratic women, identified three central factors that make

the election especially significant—the policy, campaign and information environments. The event was brought to campus through a collaboration among the Women’s Center, the Baldwin Scholars Program and the Women’s Studies Program. “With all the women’s issues that were discussed so prominently—Sandra Fluke, invasive ultrasounds, insurance mandates for birth control—I think there were a lot

PHILIP CATTERALL/ THE CHRONICLE

Ellen Moran, former communications director for the Obama administration, spoke Wednesday at the Sanford School for Public Policy about the role women’s issues play in the 2012 election.

of younger women who were surprised and got a wake-up call,” she said. “We’re in a time where social change is happening faster than policy change, and this generation is on the vanguard, pushing dialogue forward.” In terms of policy, Moran underscored the attention that has been given to social issues as something that makes this election unique. She noted that although the economy is the most meaningful issue for nearly everyone, there has been much more discussion of cultural problems than anticipated—especially of women’s interests and gay rights. “There’s been such a robust examination on all these issues that are typically considered secondary,” she said. Moran noted that this presidential election is the first since district reapportionment after the 2010 census. The results of the census, which occurs every 10 years, are the basis for changes in the composition of the Electoral College—changes that affect the candidates’ campaign strategies. She added that the nation’s changing demography—more voters of color, young voters and single female voters—is also noteworthy. People, she said, now have much more choice in the information they consume, which can be very influential in the beliefs they form. “Social media has changed SEE MORAN ON PAGE 3

as Democrat ‘star’ by Caroline Michelman THE CHRONICLE

Recognizing a year of dedicated political effort, the College Democrats of America named sophomore Adrienne Harreveld a College Democrat Rising Star of America. Each summer, CDA—an umbrella organization comprised of the local and state chapters affiliated with the Democratic Party—asks student political organizations for nominations for the Rising Star award, which is given to students who demonstrate dedication and leadership in their universities’ chapters. Harreveld was one of the ten students who received the award at the College Democrats of America Convention, which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina the weekend before the Democratic National Convention. “It really means a lot to me because I spend so many hours working on anything related to the Democratic Party, so it’s great to get that recognition,” said Harreveld, co-president of Duke Democrats. “There are tons of other college students who work just as hard as I do, so I’m really honored and really thankful to have won.” Harreveld was nominated by her co-President, David Winegar, and said the recognition stemmed from her extensive work with Duke Democrats’ Amendment One campaign last year. Amendment One sought to ban same-

sex marriage in North Carolina, and Harreveld worked at least eight hours a week with Duke Democrats to prevent the amendment from passing. Duke’s two precincts had the highest voter turnout for early voting in all of North Carolina, she said, noting that this was a great success. “It was pretty much four of us that did everything to make that happen... we were the only people to put up all the signs about early voting [and] pester everyone every day from when we got back from winter break,” said Harreveld. “Even though the election didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, it still is so inspiring to see the effort that I put in actually made a difference.” Harreveld was very involved in Young Democrats during high school, and knew she wanted to continue this kind of work in college. After joining Duke Democrats at the beginning of her freshman year, she quickly rose through the ranks of the organization, going from campaign chair to vice president of political affairs. In her leadership roles, she has organized phone banks and canvassing—when members go door-to-door asking for voter turnout—and coordinated many of Duke Democrats’ campaigns, with particular focus on Amendment One. She also serves as director of political affairs for College SEE DEMOCRAT ON PAGE 3

DUKE STUDENT GOVERNMENT

People should analyze Duke Libraries detail their dreams, expert says by Kelly Scurry THE CHRONICLE

Students attended a lecture Wednesday, perchance to dream. Dr. Xavier Preud’Homme, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the School of Medicine, discussed the mechanisms of the brain and the role of dreams in sleep at a gathering in Few Quadrangle Wednesday. A necessary precursor to understanding dreams is being able to remember them, so Preud’Homme recommended that people keep a pen and paper handy during sleep so dreams can be recorded upon waking up. “As you do that, it will change the way you sleep,” he said. “The more you dream, you’ll become more creative but you also will become more tired.” Writing about dreams will eventually cause the brain to become more aware during dreams and possibly allow for lucid dreaming, a phenomenon in which a person realizes they are dreaming and is then able to control what occurs in the dream. Preud’Homme noted that the more a person dreams—especially lucidly—the less useful sleep will become for rest, because the brain will be in rapid eye movement sleep longer and it will be even more awake and aware.

He explained that readings of brain activity during REM sleep are the same as when a person is fully awake. He said, however, that using a particular theory for interpreting dreams, which is common among psychoanalysts, is counterproductive.

“[When young, it’s] easy to be influenced by others, so be careful about divulging dreams to someone who may be using it not to help you but to actually gain control over you.” — Dr. Xavier Preud’Homme

assistant professor of internal medicine and psychiatry “Your dreams, I think, should not be approached from a Freudian or Jungian canvas,” Preud’Homme said, referring to two of the most influential theorists in psychoanalysis, Dr. Sigmund Freud SEE DREAMS ON PAGE 4

Rubenstein renovation by Carleigh Stiehm THE CHRONICLE

Students should expect significant changes in the West Campus libraries beginning this winter. Aaron Welborn, director of communications for Duke University Libraries, introduced the new plan for the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the Duke Student Government senate meeting Wednesday night. The project officially begins over winter break when the special collections library will be temporarily moved. About one-third of the collection will be housed on the third floor of Perkins Library, while the rest will be transported off-campus to the Library Service Center. The interior construction will pose challenges for students until renovations are completed summer 2015. “Our goal is to have no interruption of library services during this time,” he said. “It is going to be one of those show places of Duke when it is finished.” The large interior renovation will transform not only the rare books library but also the surrounding areas including the Gothic Reading Room, special collections library and the political science department. Over 32,500 square feet—six miles of linear materials, including books and manuscripts—

JENNY XU/ THE CHRONICLE

Aaron Wellborn, director of communications for Duke Libraries, spoke toDSG Wednesday about upcoming renovations to the Rubenstein Library. will be moved during this time. Beginning May 2013, he noted that the main entry to Perkins will be closed, and students will be able to enter through the side door between Perkins and Bostock Libraries. Off-campus materials will be SEE DSG ON PAGE 3

THE CHRONICLE

to be thorough and meticulous in their work,” said Chapel Dean Luke Powery. “Making sure our space is in good shape is of significant importance to the Chapel and for the care for all those who step foot in the Chapel.” The company transported special lifts from Chicago, which are capable of being collapsed to a three-foot width and can expand to reach heights of 90 feet. The chapel ceiling reaches a height of 73 feet. The team inspected the ceiling in portions of five to eight square feet at a time. Ray Walker, staff architect and project manager with Facilities Management, helped oversee the work. He said a final report on the condition of the ceiling will be received in three to four weeks, which will determine whether renovations need to be made. All the chairs and pews were removed from the Chapel during the process, allowing for a thorough cleaning and resealing of the floors. The process of moving chairs and pews back into the Chapel began Wednesday, and the building will open to visitors starting Friday.

@DukeChronicle

DEMOCRAT from page 2

MORAN from page 2

Democrats of North Carolina. “She is one of the most amazing people I have ever worked with and has been a great leader for Duke Democrats,” sophomore David Winegar said. “Adrienne has a lot of field experience from high school, and she did a great job of leading the work. She became a jack of all trades and ended up filling in wherever we needed her and being an incredible leader.” Tori Taylor , national president of CDA, said most students who are named a rising star go on to take larger leadership roles with their state federations of College Democrats or serve on CDA’s executive board. Although Harreveld expressed some interest in these roles, she said she prefers to continue working closely with Duke’s chapter to further her initiatives and educate Duke students. She noted that she prefers working on races that personally affect her rather than working on agendas that are being addressed by many college campuses. “Although I’m really passionate about re-electing President Obama, I’m more so about [the races] that hit closer to home and affect Duke students,” Harreveld said. “Duke is such a large voting bloc that tends to be liberal—it can really swing these elections.”

so much of how news is reported and how people form their opinions,” Moran added. She also highlighted how pivotal this election is for women, especially the younger generations. Women’s Center Director Ada Gregory noted that Moran was an ideal speaker in fortifying the series’ focus on women’s leadership in the political realm. “She emphasized how his-

DSG from page 2 available upon request from the Library Service Center and will be delivered within 24 hours. “This is a good time to remember that there are 10 libraries at Duke, and all of them have good study spaces,” Welborn added. The plans for this renovation began in 2000, but because of budgetary constraints, they were pushed off until they received funding from David Rubenstein, Trinity ’70 and vice chair of the Board of Trustees, Welborn said. Although the plans aim to keep the character of the library and surrounding areas intact, updated technology—including improved Wi-Fi—will provide

HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY!

CHAPEL from page 1

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 | 3

toric a year this is for women, both in terms of the candidates running and all of the issues the electorate is recognizing,” said Samantha Lachman, a senior who writes a column for The Chronicle. “She really crystallized the moment.” Moran also stressed how much gender inequality still exists. “It’s still true that only 17 percent of people in Congress are women. It’s still true that there are barriers to a woman running for president, as we saw with Hillary Clinton,”

she said. “Honestly, are there some parts of Washington that still feel like a boy’s club to some degree? A little bit.” Despite these disheartening facts, Moran said she is optimistic, noting that both parties have made progress in recent years in including women. To move even further, though, the work of this generation of young women is key, she noted. “Get involved, take a stand, no matter what party you support,” she said. “These elections truly matter.”

for enhanced preservation of old and rare materials. The new stack will also be environmentally controlled to protect the oldest manuscripts. Following the presentation from Welborn, the senate heard an appeal from Duke Krav Maga, a new club focused on the self-defense-oriented martial art, and watched a demonstration of its signature moves. The Student Organization Finance Committee had denied the club’s request to be formally recognized, said club president Danica Liu, a sophomore. Liu also writes a column for The Chronicle. SOFC Chair Kat Krieger, a junior, defended the previous decision not to give the club recognized status. “None of the martial arts

clubs are chartered,” she said. Vice President for Academic Affairs, sophomore Nikolai Doytchinov, proposed legislation to award the club a recognized status, which passed by a vote of 24 to five. Reviewing last week’s tailgate, Vice President for Social Culture, Neil Kondamuri, a junior, said students’ reactions determine the success of on-campus events, adding that he has heard mostly positive reviews of the event. “We didn’t have any behavioral issues,” DSG President Alex Swain, a senior, noted. Kondamuri added that there will be a different DJ at each tailgate. He then requested $1,200 to cover the upcoming tailgate expenses, which the Senate passed unanimously.

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THE CHRONICLE

OBAMA from page 1 Obama reflected on her modest childhood, when her father worked at the city water plant. She said her upbringing encouraged her to succeed and prosper in order to have a brighter future.

“[My parents] believed that when you’ve worked hard and you’ve walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you,” she said. “You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.”

In her speech, Obama attempted to shore up support for her husband and emphasized her belief that the president was the best man for the job. It was his character, demeanor and open heart that demonstrated his aptitude for presidency, she said. She also noted that when the economy was on the brink of collapse at the start of Obama’s presidency, it made him vulnerable to criticism from the media. But instead of taking the criticism to heart, he “got to work” fixing America’s economic situation, adding that Obama was working for ordinary Americans . Michelle Obama also noted that while the Republicans have focused on Obama’s failures, he has successfully cut taxes for the middle class. “He cut taxes for small businesses and working families because he believes teachers and firefighters should not pay higher tax rates than millionaires and billionaires. Not in America,” she said. Throughout her speech, Obama interacted with the audience. When a man exclaimed that he loved her, she responded with “I love you too, sweetie.” The exchange reflected support for the first lady, who garnered 65 percent favorability in a recent Gallup poll. In contrast, the president ranks at 53 percent. “Michelle is more favorable than her

NICOLE SAVAGE/ THE CHRONICLE

Supporters of President Barack Obama held campaign signs at North Carolina Central University when first lady Michelle Obama spoke there Wednesday.

DREAMS from page 2 and Dr. Carl Jung. Sophomore Patience Wall attended the discussion in order to gain some insight about her dreams and to learn about sleep in general. “Usually, people assume that if you have a dream then it has a particular interpretation,” she said. “But I know that is not the case, which opens up new possibilities.” Preud’Homme, whose clinical interests include sleep research and sleep medicine, became interested in psychoanalysis and dream interpretation as an un-

dergraduate in college. He noted that sleep serves a dual purpose in humans, allowing the brain time to rest but also to review memories, a process which occurs during the REM cycle of sleep. “Part of why we dream is because we rehearse what happened [to us] in the day,” he said. Sophomore Ege Yalcinbas, a neuroscience major, observed the discussion as a student of the brain. “Sleep was one of the topics discussed in Neuroscience 101, so I wanted to get a different perspective on the topic, outside of the lecture setting,” she said.

Kenan-Biddle Grants available for Inter-Institutional Student Projects The Kenan-Biddle Partnership, funded by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, is now receiving grant proposals from Duke and UNC students for projects designed to enhance the intellectual life at both universities by strengthening established or encouraging new collaborations. Preference will be given to proposals made jointly by students from each institution. Project proposals must include a student or students who serve as the project initiator. Proposals should be designed to stimulate collaborative arts, sciences and humanities projects between the two universities. The proposal should be specific about the activities and duties the participants would undertake and must include at least one public exhibition, presentation or performance.

Preud’Homme said examining dreams can give insight into how people function and can be used as a tool for better understanding oneself as a person. It is particularly beneficial to examine dreams while the brain is still developing, because younger people are generally more inquisitive. He advised caution, however, when discussing dreams with others. “[When young, it’s] easy to be influenced by others, so be careful about divulging dreams to someone who may be using it not to help you but to actually gain control over you,” Preud’Homme said.

husband,” Star Battle, an NCCU law student, said. “She’s the goodwill ambassador for the country [and] channels the idea of hope and prosperity for the country.” Andrew Hanson, a Vietnam War veteran, said the first lady’s role is to show that the president is relatable. “Michelle represents the family as a whole. She’s honest, supportive, and straightforward—I trust her,” he said. Duke senior Laura Neubauer said she would vote for Michelle Obama for president if she were running. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., noted Obama’s strides in forwarding positive legislation, despite the hindrances he faced on his road to change. He said Obama’s policies have focused on education reform by lowering the cost of college tuition and eliminating billions in subsidies. The president’s passage of the G.I. bill not only enabled access to an education but also ensured that they were not forgotten, Price added—noting that the Obamas’ humble beginnings, particularly their struggle with paying student loans, makes them relatable to the average American. “This is a personal issue for President Obama and Michelle, they worked hard for years to pay off those loans,” he said. “They are going to help make the college tuition under control.”

YI ZHU/ THE CHRONICLE

Dr. Xavier Preud’Homme, assistant professor of internal medicine and psychiatry, spoke about the the brain and the role of dreams in sleep Wednesday.

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Sports

>> THE BLUE ZONE

The Chronicle

THURSDAY September 20, 2012

As the Blue Devils look to get healthy for Saturday’s football game against Memphis, visit the sports blog tomorrow afternoon for the team’s weekly injury report.

www.dukechroniclesports.com

WOMEN’S SOCCER

LANCE-D Duke kicks off ACC home play The Lance Thomas jewelry case reveals many flaws with the NCAA rulebook Well, that ended quickly. For almost two weeks, it appeared Lance Thomas and his accessories were poised to become the litmus test for NCAA equality— could Duke, the longtime paragon of academic and athletic excellence, truly be Chris subject to major punishment for rules violations? Nope. And the NCAA might be the happiest to see it end this way. Sure, the NCAA says it will still go through with an investigation. It’ll make some phone calls, hear some “no comments” and then let it disappear as another issue makes national headlines. It really doesn’t have another option. The only people who have firsthand knowledge of what happened inside Rafaello & Co.—most notably why the company offered a 21-year-old with a full-time volunteer job $67,800 worth of credit to be paid within 15 days—are Thomas and the firm itself, and both have stonewalled all interview requests by the media and the NCAA since the settlement, which included a confidentiality agreement. (A brief aside: No hard evidence has yet been presented to suggest Thomas actually took an extra benefit beyond a series of crude analyses of his immediate family’s socio-economic status by various media nationwide. The bottom line is nobody has any idea what happened outside of Thomas and the jeweler, and it’s silly to pretend that we do. For the purposes of this particular column, all that matters is the NCAA’s inability—or reluctance—to respond to this type of situation.) The NCAA relies almost completely on three major sources for its investigations: whistleblowing (see Bush, Reggie), selfreporting and incidental exposure (like Thomas’ case). The problems presented by relying on third parties for information are obvious. Whistleblowers almost always have an ulterior motive in coming forward, often a grudge against the player or institution in question. Nobody ever self-reports a major violation unless damning evidence has already presented itself, and the athletic department thinks it can ease the punishment through honesty, however late it may be. When violations appear as a secondary result of a court case, though, as in Thomas’ situation, the parties involved can make it disappear all too easily, leaving the NCAA stuck thumping its rulebook indignantly. In fairness, the NCAA could not possibly employ enough staff to monitor each of its member institutions closely,

Cusack

SEE CUSACK ON PAGE 6

by Vaishnavi Krishnan THE CHRONICLE

The Blue Devils are finally coming home. After playing three of its nine games on the road this season, No. 4 Duke (7-2-0, 1-1 in the ACC) will take on No. 17 Maryland (6-2-1, 2-0) Thursday at 7 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium. This will also be the only game No. 17 of the week, giving MD the team a break afvs. ter many weeks of No. 4 double headers. Duke “It has been a long, long haul for Thursday, 7 p.m. everybody here, but Koskinen Stadium we are looking forward to [playing at home],” head coach Robbie Church said. Last weekend, the Blue Devils dropped the opener of their Florida trip, after being shutout by top ranked Florida State 1-0. They bounced back on Sunday to win 3-2 against Miami in an overtime thriller after junior Laura Weinberg netted the golden goal. “For some reason, Sunday’s game was one of my top three favorite games that I have played in,” junior midfielder Gilda Doria said. “This was a golden goal, overtime and it took everything out of us to get the victory. We really left it all on the field.” The Terrapins are currently situated at the top of the league, alongside Florida State, with two wins. They opened their conference play against North Carolina and Clemson this past weekend— holding both teams to only a single goal. The Blue Devils struggled in this aspect in their last two matchups and hope to not surrender as many goals to their opponents. Last season the team only let in 13 goals, but they have already allowed their opponents to notch nine this season.

THANH-HA NGUYEN/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Laura Weinberg broke the 2-2 tie in overtime against Miami to give Duke its first ACC win last weekend. “We are giving up too many goals. That is the bottom line,” Church said. “We have nothing but ACC games left, and we have got to make sure we do a better job defending.... I am talking about team defending. So we just got to tighten it, we are not far from being really good on the defensive side, but we

are just not there right now.” This matchup may feature a full Duke squad, after the return of Mollie Pathman and Kelly Cobb from Japan. Pathman has returned to the starting line-up and has been making the transition back into the usual SEE W. SOCCER ON PAGE 6

FOOTBALL SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

Memphis among worst FBS schools by Daniel Carp

Memphis

THE CHRONICLE

Tigers 0-3

MEM 25.0 PPG 138.3 RUSH/G 212.0 PASS/G 10 TD 2-4 FG-FGA SACKS-YDS 0-0

OPP 33.7 219.3 264.0 12 6-9 3-14

Yielding 219.3 rushing yards per game, the Tigers rank 108th out of 120 FBS teams. They also are the only FBS team that has yet to record a sack in the 2012 campaign, something they will need to fix to rattle Duke QB Sean Renfree.

Opening its season with three consecutive losses to Tennessee-Martin, Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee State, Memphis is hard-pressed to find the positives in its beginning to the 2012 campaign. As the Tigers head to Wallace Wade Stadium this weekend, first-year head coach Justin Fuente hopes his winless team shares in his frustration after Memphis’ 18-point loss to the Blue Raiders last Saturday. “I hope they’re disappointed. I think they are. I think they’re disappointed in the way we played on both sides of the ball,” Fuente said in his weekly press conference. “We talked very openly and frankly about it in the meeting [Sunday] in the things I felt like we needed to do in order to play better. I felt like they accepted it.” Surprisingly, the Tigers woes have not been at the quarterback position this season. After losing its top two signal-callers on the depth chart, Taylor Reed and Andy Summerlin, who transferred to Arkansas and

Samford during the offseason, respectively, Memphis was forced to turn to a transfer of its own. Jacob Karam, a junior who spent his first two years at Texas Tech, has taken the reins for the Tigers this season. Despite never having started a college game and throwing just 18 passes in his two years with the Red Raiders, Karam has adjusted well in his time at the helm of the offense. Through three games, Karam has completed just 58.4 percent of his throws, but has thrown five touchdowns compared to just one interception. That one pick, however, was returned for a touchdown by Middle Tennesee State. Karam does not have a deep arsenal of targets at his disposal. Of his 52 completions this year, 34 have been to two receivers, Keiwone Malone and Marcus Rucker. “I’m proud of those kids in the way they’ve embraced it. It’s been nice to see them have some success,” Fuente said. “We have to have some other guys step up. We’ve SEE SCOUTING ON PAGE 6

6 |THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

THE CHRONICLE

CUSACK from page 5

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

The Lance Thomas case is just one of many that shows NCAA rules need to change, Cusack writes.

W. SOCCER from page 5

SCOUTING from page 5

rigor of practice. Cobb, on the other hand, is currently suffering from a knee injury and may not play in the game Thursday. While the swelling has reduced enough for her to practice, an assessment and decision will be made Thursday morning regarding her status. Midfielder Kim DeCesare—who sustained an injury against San Diego Sept. 9—played over 50 minutes in both Florida trip games off the bench and may see a return to the starting lineup as well. In the meantime, the rest of the team is drawing from their Florida trip experience to prepare for Thursday. “We are going to focus on the little things, things that we may have looked over previously,” Doria said. “Both games this weekend really showed us some of our strengths, some of our weaknesses, but I think we still haven’t shown how we can play yet, and I think that is coming. That is what we are going to work towards for the rest of the ACC season.”

got to continue to scare people on the outside with another guy out there.” Although Memphis’ passing offense has not been a weakness in 2012, the Tigers have been prone to turn the ball over early and often. In last week’s loss to Middle Tennessee State, Memphis fumbled the ball six times, ultimately losing three. Scoring 25 points per contest, Memphis’ offense has not had a problem putting points on the scoreboard, but the defense has been heavily exploited in the team’s first three contests. Despite strong play from junior defensive back Lonnie Ballentine, who is second on the team with 31 tackles and has recorded two interceptions this season, the backfield has found itself susceptible to the big play this year. The Tigers’ defensive linemen have been less than inspiring as well. Memphis has not recorded a sack this season and has been at the mercy of opposing running backs, allowing 219.3 yards per game and seven touchdowns on the ground. Although the Blue Devils have had very little success running the foot-

nor would that be a prudent solution. Its massively overwrought rulebook needs an overhaul, though, if only so the organization can establish a clear and consistent set of guidelines enforceable across the country that everyone from athletes to coaches to fans can understand—not just NCAA compliance officers. Otherwise, the accusations of selective enforcement, which will follow the Thomas case whether or not it merits the claim, will plague the organization forever. Those accusations already follow the Blue Devils. In 2009, Corey Maggette testified before a grand jury that he had received cash payments of about $2,000 from a summer league coach while he was in high school, leading Duke’s Executive Vice President Tallman Trask III to say the admission “raises substantial questions about his eligibility to play for the Blue Devils during the 1998-99 season” in an official statement. Maggette and Duke were eventually cleared because the NCAA concluded that “there was insufficient evidence to determine Maggette knew or should have known” that he was ineligible because of

ball this season, averaging just 91.3 yards per game on the ground, they will still present problems for the Tigers in the trenches. “Duke provides many challenges for us,” Fuente said. “They’re the biggest team we’ve played so far. We’ll have to have a great week of practice.” Despite the difficulty they have had stopping opposing offenses, special teams has been a bright spot thus far for the Tigers. Punter Tom Hornsey ranks 16th in the nation at 45 yards per punt and has had 10 punts downed inside the 20-yard line. Kicker Paulo Henriques has struggled on field goals but has been reliable on kickoffs, with 12 of his 14 kicks going for touchbacks. Memphis’ punt coverage unit has been stellar, holding opponents to a negative return yardage on average. The special teams unit has also been responsible for three blocked kicks this year, one of which was recovered for a touchdown. “They’ve blocked three punts, they scored with one of those. They recovered a fumble in the end zone on a punt. They’re all over the place,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said. “They have dangerous returners and I think they only

the high school payments, according to NCAA Vice President of Enforcement David Price. Huh? If that doesn’t say enough about the confounding nature of NCAA compliance, nothing does. Amateurism is the most basic of the NCAA’s rules, presumably, so if an athlete doesn’t understand how taking money constitutes a violation of that principle, something has gone horribly wrong. So why not trim the guidelines down to size with simplicity in mind? It’s true that simplicity means generalization, which could lead to more loopholes for rule breakers to exploit—part of the reason why the current rulebook is so dense (at least it finally allows schools to give athletes cream cheese with their bagels, a no-no until the Big East crusaded for the rule’s repeal last summer). But if the code of bylaws is too much for anyone but a compliance officer to understand, following all the rules down to the letter becomes impossible. Trim it down. Keep allowing more cream cheese with the bagels. Make it clear that taking money from coaches or agents is a major no-no. But do it so I don’t have to take the rulebook down to Duke Law for interpretation.

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Josh Snead, who leads Duke in rushing, will have an opportunity to shine against Memphis. have one non-touchback on their kickoffs. They are playing well in the kicking game.” As the Tigers head to Durham this weekend, they will face what Fuente has called their “first true road test” of the season. Memphis has played away from the Liberty Bowl just once this season when it faced Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark., which because of its close proximity to Memphis, did not provide much of a road environment. Fuente said

his team is embracing the prospect of being road underdogs this weekend against Duke. “I love it. I want our kids to embrace it too. Sometimes it’s a little easier to have focus on the road. There’s less distractions. You’re there for strictly business,” Fuente said. “I like playing at the Liberty Bowl and having our fans, but I want our guys to get to the point where we relish in the fact that we’re the only ones there.”

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Uncommonly successful Duke is a school obsessed The administration’s effort with dialogue. We love dia- to start dialogues with students logues, as evidenced by all the are usually mediocre, but Comformal mechanisms we use mon Ground is a completely to have them: student work- student-planned and studenting groups, advisory councils, implemented program. Comcommittees and mon Ground subcommittees started in 2003 editorial for every imagby students in inable thing. But few groups public policy professor Tony on campus facilitate dialogue Brown’s social entrepreneuras powerfully as Common ship class. Since then, the Ground—the centerpiece pro- program has gone from begram of the Center for Race ing held annually to biannuRelations, which is also accept- ally, graduating more than 100 ing applications throughout participants per year. this week. At a university where The mere mention of the issues of race, class, gender and program triggers immediate sexuality are notoriously com- reactions—both positive and bustible, Common Ground negative—from many Duke provides a safe space where students. We will address the Duke students can share per- source and validity of some sonal experiences and achieve familiar Common Ground better understanding with one criticisms Friday. But today, another. we focus on the lessons to be

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Too high and drunk to read this article. What did it say? —“Dee Mack” commenting on the story “Weed, alcohol mix hurts learning.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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YESHWANTH KANDIMALLA, Editor LAUREN CARROLL, Managing Editor JULIAN SPECTOR, News Editor ANDREW BEATON, Sports Editor CHRIS DALL, Photography Editor MAGGIE LAFALCE, Editorial Page Editor KATHERINE ZHANG, Editorial Board Chair PARKER KUIVILA, Managing Editor for Online JIM POSEN, Director of Online Operations CHRISSY BECK, General Manager KRISTIE KIM, University Editor TIFFANY LIEU, Local & National Editor ANDREW LUO, Health & Science Editor CAROLINE RODRIGUEZ, News Photography Editor PHOEBE LONG, Design Editor MICHAELA DWYER, Recess Editor SOPHIA DURAND, Recess Photography Editor SCOTT BRIGGS, Editorial Page Managing Editor MATTHEW CHASE, Towerview Editor ADDISON CORRIHER, Towerview Photography Editor NICOLE KYLE, Social Media Editor SAMANTHA BROOKS, Senior Editor REBECCA DICKENSON, Advertising Director MARY WEAVER, Operations Manager DAVID RICE, Director of External Relations

learned from the program, which remains one of the principal spaces for dialogue on campus today. What can we learn from Common Ground? First, that students are actually capable of having conversations about issues important to them, even those as sensitive as race, class, gender and sexuality. In the wake of scarring scandals like lacrosse, it is student-initiated dialogue—not didactic or paternalistic rhetoric from administrators—that leads to healing and progress. Second, the most important thing about dialogues is quality, not quantity. The CRR’s emphasis on consistently executing high quality Common Ground retreats has been key to its success. In a larger Duke context, many

watered-down, half-hearted forums won’t accomplish much; a single carefully and thoughtfully planned one will. Many campus voices, including those on the Editorial Board, have sometimes been too quick to call for more and more dialogues. Instead, greater effort should be put into the actual form these dialogues will take: where and when they will be, who will be present, the rules and structure of the discussions and how the opinions expressed will be weighed and processed. Third, Common Ground teaches us not to be daunted by the social divisions that can seem insurmountable. Common Ground stacks its chips on diversity. It bets that men and women, straight and LGBT, greek and indepe-

dent, with various racial and socieconomic backgrounds, want to understand each other. Considering the program’s success—it now receives four times as many applications as it can accept—the diversity bet is a good one. Common Ground suggests that social divisions at Duke do not always block dialogue, an idea that has powerful implications for everything from social life to housing. Common Ground is not a perfect program. But it has accomplished a remarkable feat: starting a serious conversation about power and privilege among hundreds of Duke students, many of whom never considered such issues before. We hope that, with lessons taken from Common Ground’s playbook, other attempts at dialogue might be successful.

#MuslimRage

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ast week when protests in Libya broke out in administration as “all military-age males in a strike response to a film that insulted the Prophet zone” and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have led Muhammad, I was asked by a local news media to millions of civilian deaths. The film only served as source if I, as a Muslim student, would a reminder—at least to some—of the like to comment on the events. I reUnited States’ violence and hostility. fused, struggling to find anything of I am not saying this to justify the vispecial significance I could say. olence in reaction to the film. The fact I thought that the film was ofthat I even feel the need to clarify this fensive but that it was still within the point illustrates how pernicious this producers’ First Amendment rights totalizing view of Muslims is. Someto create it. There was absolutely no how because of my faith, there’s a justification for the violent response suspicion that I must support violence ahmad jitan that resulted, and those who commitand terrorism all around the world. ted violence are solely responsible for indecent family man This doesn’t just arise from my own those actions. These are opinions that paranoia. Last month, a mosque in most people I know hold, regardless of their religious Missouri was burned to the ground. Six congregants or ethnic identity. When I saw the most recent cover at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin were killed as a man of Newsweek—which features bearded men, appar- opened fire during their service. The attacker, an ently very angry at something, with the title “Muslim army veteran who had associations with white supremRage”— I finally understood why the reporter was acist groups, couldn’t even differentiate between two looking for a Muslim student to interview: As a Mus- major world religions. This spring, it was revealed that lim I could provide insight to this particular emotion the NYPD was spying on Muslim student associations that plagues 1.6 billion people worldwide. at universities across the Northeast. Users on Twitter exploded with their own expresThese aren’t isolated events. According to the sions of #MuslimRage at the invitation of Newsweek. FBI, the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 50 Examples include: “Lost nephew at the airport but percent in 2010. Anti-Muslim sentiment is encourcan’t yell for him because his name is Jihad” or “I’m aged by a small but influential group of ideologues having such a good hair day. No one even knows.” that have made a business of spreading hateful and Twitter snark aside, there’s actually a serious issue ignorant messages to the American public. This athere apart from the all-too-easy task of exposing the titude toward Muslims in America is just the newest shoddy journalism of weekly magazines. It’s not just addition to the long history of oppression of minoriNewsweek or local media stations that reduce the ac- ties in our country, from the genocide of American tions of populations all around the world to their faith. Indians in the founding of this nation, to slavery and It’s natural to want to comprehend how a privately Jim Crow, Japanese internment during World War II made and cheaply produced YouTube clip could elicit and a justice system heavily weighed against people such a violent response toward an American embassy of color. on another continent. Religion, although not entirely All of this isn’t to say that all of the world’s probirrelevant, won’t actually tell us much. lems can be placed on the shoulders of the United To make sense of the tragic events that resulted in States. For sure, corruption, oppression and ignothe death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambas- rant ideologues also exist in places like Egypt. What sador to Libya Chris Stevens, we first need to appre- we haven’t heard much of recently, however, is how ciate Libyans and the rest of the Muslim world for the Egyptian people continue to fight for their their full humanity. Even by using the term “Muslim rights within their own country. For example, uniworld,” we’ve already reduced the existence of al- versity workers and teachers all across Egypt have most two billion people to a primarily religious one. recently gone on strike demanding fairer wages and Societies, and the individuals that comprise them, contracts. Having said that, our country’s role in perare way too complex to understand by looking at petuating violence and injustice at home and abroad only a single aspect. We could try to view the protests cannot be ignored. Our energy is best spent with a as a result of religious fanaticism and a misunder- critical eye on the government that we supposedly standing of freedom of speech, or we could also try have a say in. to view protestors as political agents reacting to leHow’s this for #MuslimRage: White supremacism gitimate grievances. and imperialism have caused more violence than I These grievances include the United States’ sup- ever could, but I’m the suspicious one. port of brutal and corrupt regimes for as long as it is convenient (as recently as 2009, Hillary Clinton conAhmad Jitan is a Trinity senior. His column runs evsidered the Mubaraks to be family friends), drone ery other Thursday. You can follow Ahmad on Twitter @ strikes that target “militants” defined by the Obama AhmadJitan.

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A new New Year’s resolution

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or many students on campus, this week marks the first round of midterms. But for me, it’s the beginning of the new year. The holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, took place this past Sunday evening through Tuesday evening. A time for reflection on the past year, Rosh Hashanah always prompts me to re-examine not only my personal relationships, but also my hopes for the future. This year, I dream of making the world a better place. The start of a new year hannah andersonis the perfect time for selfbaranger reflection and creating state of the arts resolutions for the future. Whether it’s the Jewish new year, the Gregorian new year in January, the Chinese new year or the new school year, the celebration of the movement of time is an opportunity to evaluate oneself, one’s surroundings and how one wishes everything could be. Normally I focus on my relationships with my friends and family. Rarely, if ever, do I consider anything beyond myself and the people closest to me. This year at Rosh Hashanah religious services, that changed. The Jewish concept of “tikkun olam” (meaning “world repair”) came up Sunday evening at Duke’s Freeman Center for Jewish Life. The phrase originates in medieval Jewish mysticism, but in modern times the phrase has evolved to encompass an obligation for social action. Essentially, to be a good person one ought to act to make the world better. Tikkun olam has always been something that I’ve connected with deeply, but this new year it seemed, well, new. As I was sitting in religious services this week, I suddenly became aware of the magnitude of the chanting voices around me. These voices were not only the voices of strangers, but also an extension of me. At both the Duke Freeman Center and my own synagogue in Durham, I found myself broadening my sense of self to include these communities. I thought about what changes I want for the new year, not only for my own personal life, but also for the communities I’m part of. What changes I want for my two Jewish communities. What changes I want for the broader Duke community and for my hometown of Durham. And even for the state, the country and the world. How do I want this year to be different for all of us than last year? This feeling of self-obligatory social action isn’t limited to members of the Jewish tradition. Whether one identifies as Christian, Muslim, atheist, liberal, conservative, scientist, athlete, artist or just plain human being, we all want to make things better in some way. We might disagree on certain issues, but easing pain and suffering is a pretty universal goal. No matter who we are, there is some way we can contribute to repairing the world. There are a lot of things wrong and it can be overwhelming to think one personally has to change it. But if we all do one thing, there will be a heck of a lot more one-things done. For my one thing, I decided on an issue that is not only of great intellectual importance to me, but also a huge world crisis. I won’t go into the details of the many levels of the environmental crisis here, but suffice it to say it’s something that has changed, is changing and will change the world. And not for the better. Unfortunately, a lot of damage is irreparable, but there are still things we can do. For me, I’ve started by limiting how many resources I use. It’s not a big step, but it’s something that I can successfully do daily while still participating in society. It is the small way I try daily to fulfill my vision of tikkun olam, repairing the world. I time my showers. I use the clamshell to-go containers from the Great Hall. I always carry bamboo cutlery with me, so that I don’t have to use disposable sets on campus. I’m trying to repair the world; I’m trying to fulfill this self-obligation to make the world better. Maybe I don’t always put in 100 percent. But I can try every day, and so can you. Together we can repair the world. Hannah Anderson-Baranger is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Thursday.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 | 9

commentaries

lettertotheeditor A final word from Israel and Palestine Lest my words become lost in the perpetual though ultimately unproductive cycle of “I’m right, you’re wrong” counterclaims, I’ve always refrained from responding to columns and letters that deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But as I sit here in the city of Ramallah sipping my morning coffee, pondering yet another illegal Israeli settlement in perfect view of my kitchen window, and reading yet another article about senseless rockets into Israel from Gaza and settler price-tag violence, I’m going to toss a thought into the mix. Given that almost all of us approach this issue from a biased standpoint—I myself have Palestinian roots and grew up absorbing a fairly one-sided account of the conflict—and given our propensity to rely on news sources that most accurately reflect our predisposed views of the conflict, I’ve concluded that no one has the right to make sweeping claims about facts on the ground until they’ve come to Israel and Palestine and genuinely seen both sides of the conflict. Yes, friends, that means exploring both sides of the green line.... Oh, and when you cross into Palestine, go ahead and venture off the settler highway into Palestin-

ian Authority-controlled cities like Ramallah and Nablus. And check out the settlements, too. Guess what? That American passport you’ve got—you know, since we’re like Israel’s staunchest ally and all—enables you to walk straight into most settlements and chat it out with Israelis living there. I’d say add Gaza to the itinerary, but unfortunately access to the Gaza Strip is painstakingly reserved by Israel for a limited number of humanitarian aid workers. And in the meantime, until you’ve managed to make the journey out here, inform yourselves. Read a spectrum of news sources: Israeli Haaretz (left-leaning) or Israel Hayom (more rightwing) and Palestinian publications such as Ma’an News Agency or Electronic Intifada, just to name a measly few. If you’re looking for on-campus dialogue about the conflict, give the Peace or Pieces Coalition a whirl. My fellow Dukies, let’s be the inquisitive, tolerant individuals we boast ourselves to be. Push yourselves outside of your comfort zones and venture to examine this issue from another’s point of view. Leila Dal Santo, Trinity ’10 Former Co-President, Peace or Pieces Coalition

My open break-up letter

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o love lost, entail. What really hurts is that I don’t even know I have to admit, I wasn’t confident about what I did. Was it even my fault, or is this who you a lot last semester. Keeping up in school, really are? All I did was love you. I saw you as much thinking about my future, I could barely make time as I could, and brought you around my friends. for you. But you were always there for They loved you! We all did. You … WE me, I was confident in that. You made were something special, something I me feel more whole, more complete. could believe in. You would always be I had everything I needed, a friend, comfortable and familiar but never someone who energized me. Then fail to surprise me. Do you rememover summer, something changed. ber how every Wednesday we would go When we first reunited in the fall, get our favorite meal together, spicy I could tell something was different. peanut chicken? You’d always get the You were still basically yourself, but tofu, but I never held it against you. travis smith I could see the evidence of what had Now it’s over, like it never even hapand i was all like... pened. happened. You got greedy. You got lustful. You got a facelift, and judging I guess what I really want to say is from your portion sizes, you seem to have picked up that it doesn’t have to be like this. You didn’t have an eating disorder. You are a shell of what you used to sell yourself to some “idea,” becoming what you to be. We used to have fun. We used to be social. I had seen in magazines, but not in the mirror. I used to feel full. know deep down you really believe that slimming I talked to your twin, the Lawyer. She said I wasn’t down and restyling is getting you more out of life, the first to come and see her after you changed, that people will give you just a little bit more—your and she doubted I’d be the last. People are worried friends with their time, your boss with his money about you. You’ve lost sight of what’s important. and me with my love. But the whole world is full of You’ve whitewashed yourself and lost the real you. I people who look great. You were different because still drive by your sister’s place sometimes. She still you didn’t seem to care about that. You knew what has everything I once loved about you—the friends, was important, never caught up in yourself. That’s the family, the personality—but I know the distance what made you unique, and now that’s gone. After won’t let it work. three great years of being together, I didn’t think Despite what you say, this can’t happen any- I’d ever say this, but I can get better elsewhere. more… us… WE. We won’t work any longer. I know I’ve always wanted to try Mexican, or maybe a little you don’t think I’ll leave. But you can’t change be- something from the Mediterranean. Don’t take it fore my eyes and think I’ll sit right on back and let personally, you are probably the best piece of meat it happen. No, actually, you think you’ll get more I’ve ever had. out of me now—roughly five percent more or someI’ll miss you, Refectory. thing. You think I’ll bump into you again, maybe God bless, at our usual spot. Truth is, I don’t have to take that Travis route on my way to class. It’s not even the fastest. P.S. Those ice cream sandwiches you used to In fact, I might expand my narrow minded dating make were obnoxiously good. What happened? pool, setting my horizons past the boundaries of our shared campus. Travis Smith is a Trinity junior. His column runs evI can avoid you and the awkwardness that we now ery other Thursday.

oshri hakak guest column

Online only today!

oshri hakak guest column

“Dialoguing” by Oshri Hakak Read at dukechronicle.com/opinion

10 | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

CRACK from page 1 create stigma and to say, ‘It’s not us, it’s you’.... And in America 2012, how you’re treated depends on the color of your skin.” For every one black adolescent who uses crack, there are eight white users, he said. MacMaster blames Fox News and [the TV show] Cops for painting crack users as predominantly poor, black men. Removing the stigma In a study in which rats were allowed to consume as many doses of either crack or heroin as they wanted, the rats who took heroin only took doses once every few hours while those who chose crack binged on many doses over a short period of time until they passed out from exhaustion, dehydration or heart failure. The experiment demonstrated how chemical reactions perpetuate drug abuse more so than external influences. “The [crack-using] rat did not grow up in a bad rat neighborhood,” he said. “The rat’s father did not leave and go to prison. And the rat’s mother was not 14 when he was born.... It’s a chemical reaction, but when people do it, we say, ‘It’s their personality, where they’re from, etc.’” Crack yields a particularly pleasant high, making recovery from abuse extremely challenging, he said. Extreme amounts of dopamine are released upon consumption. “It works the same part of the brain as an orgasm,” he added. “If you’ve had an orgasm, that would be like a one [out of 10] whereas crack would be like a 10 or 12.” Jen Earls, a former Chicago policewoman of eight years, currently serves as an emergency room nurse at Duke Medicine. After both going undercover in crack houses on the west side of Chicago and treating addicted patients, Earls said the way society handles drug users needs reform.

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She suggested the offense be changed from a felony to a misdemeanor. “When crack is no longer a felony, it’s not going to be as attractive an arrest [to police officers],” Earls said. Crack use should primarily be viewed as a sickness rather than a felony, she said, adding that doing so will be more beneficial for the drug addict in the long run because it offers a greater possibility that the user will seek treatment. “Spending three hours in the police office with a crack user is not pleasant,” she said. “The person is dealing with an illness—it’s a treatment issue. Not many active police officers would say that [because] it’s not safe for their careers.” A harrowing addiction Stephen Daniels, founder of the Twin City Harm Reduction Initiative, spoke about his crack addiction, which lasted 20 years before he was able to quit. As a pre-medical student at Virginia Union University, Daniels had

“The person is dealing with an illness—it’s a treatment issue. Not many active police officers would say that [because] it’s not safe for their careers.” — Jen Earls Duke ER nurse never used or seen drugs, but curiosity about drug culture encouraged him to experiment with crack. The choice led him down a rocky path of addiction, seriously hurting his health along the way. His first major health scare would come at age 28 when he lost the ability to use his leg, a result of the drugs “rotting” his hip. After three hip replacements, the doctor refused to do more surgery since he was still using

FAITH ROBERTSON/ THE CHRONICLE

Samuel MacMaster, assistant professor at the University of Texas, spoke about misconceptions about crack cocaine at Duke’s first ever Crack Summit Wednesday.

crack, resulting in a hip fusion that left him physically handicapped. Daniels contracted hepatitis C and HIV before seeking help for his addiction, and even after deciding to get clean, it took 14 treatment sessions before he was able to do so. “My mother looked at me and said ‘God is trying to tell you something,” he said. “I said, ‘You’re probably right.’” Daniels currently suffers from pancreatic cancer. Despite battling addiction, the experience gave Daniels important insight on the mind of a drug addict, leading him to participate in community outreach. His work focuses on educating drug users to take precautions to avoid contracting infections that come from heavy drug use, which can lead to a person having unsafe sex or using dirty equipment. “I did everything in my power to shorten my life, but that was not the case,” he said. “I’ve breathed long enough to realize that what I’m doing now is what I was left here to do until I can’t do it anymore.” Earls said shifting the focus from criminalizing drug use to making sure drug users are taking precautions to keep themselves safe will have a greater impact in the long run. She noted that when Chicago made it legal for people to carry needles, it allowed police officers to discuss needle use with drug users and give them clean ones. Giving different types of treatment to men and women, as well as handing out kits with clean supplies and condoms, will also mitigate the transmission of illnesses, MacMaster said. “We have that chip on our shoulder where we say drug users are bad people, if we give them needles they will keep doing it,” Earls said. “That’s not true—if you give someone needles you could give them a little bit of health care, have a conversation and let them know there are safe places they can go to.”

HOMECOMING 2012 September 21-22

www.Homecoming.DukeAlumni.com FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

9:30 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. President Brodhead’s Homecoming Dance [ Wilson Gym Basketball Courts & huge tent on K-ville Quad ] Performances by: Duke Chinese Dance Troupe Rince Diabhal (Irish Dance Club) Duke Swing Dance Sabrosura DefMo Dhamaka

3:45 p.m. Blue Devil Walk [ Duke football team gathers on Towerview and heads to the stadium ]

Featured Band: Right On!

6:00 p.m. Duke Football vs. Memphis: Homecoming Game 2012 presented by Lowe’s – Never Stop Improving Be sure to arrive on time and cheer the Blue Devils to victory! FIRST 1000 STUDENTS receive DUKE sunglasses from Duke Athletics—be sure to arrive on time!

Recess

volume 14 issue 4 september 20, 2012

re:Joyce

e t i n i f n i

WEST Recess considers Kanye’s newest album

CENTER

SOPHIA DURAND/THE CHRONICLE

grizzly bear

Brooklyn band back with Shields

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junot diaz

he’s a scrambled eggs man

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dinosaur jr. trio reconvenes for I Bet on Sky

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September 20, 2012

editor’sNOTE

I

confess: I like pop music. If you know me at all, you’ll know that’s not much of a confession. Turn on the Top 40 station and there’s a 99 percent chance I know most of the words to whatever song is playing, especially if it’s Katy Perry. If you ever let me ride shotgun in your car, you will regret it—I will unabashedly force you to listen to Britney Spears and I will, without exception, skip every Arcade Fire song on your iPod. If you’ve ever spent time in the Chronicle office on a Wednesday night, you’ve probably even heard me sing “Starships.” But here’s another confession: I love classical music even more. Mine is a private kind of love, one that I have harbored for years that I rarely publicize, kind of like the intense longing of a 13-year-old for her summer camp counselor. I’m not sure why I feel more comfortable divulging my knowledge of the names and ages of the members of One Direction than the composers in the First Viennese School, or why I feel it’s more socially acceptable to blast Taylor Swift in my car than Stravinsky. But honestly, have you ever gone to a classical music concert on campus and seen more than five other students in the audience? Compare that to the Shaggy concert you went to last year. Clearly, there is something about pop music that students find attractive. Personally, I listen to Top 40 because many pop sing-

ers have a limited vocal range that parallels my own. Which means that when I’m singing along to “Call Me Maybe,” my childhood fantasy of becoming an international superstar seems, for three minutes and thirteen seconds, entirely plausible. “I’m not a bad singer,” I start to think. “I could audition for American Idol, and when I win, I’ll be so famous that I can name my kids after fruits.” The only thing that can bring me back to reality is a Beyoncé song, a beautiful yet dream-crushing reminder that some pop stars are actually capable of hitting more than five notes. Classical music is different. I’m a music minor and I’ve been playing piano since I was six, but I’ll be the first to admit I could never be a professional pianist. The sheer amount of willpower it takes to sit in the basement of Biddle practicing one measure of a Beethoven sonata over and over until your hands fall off is something that I’ve just never possessed. And performing classical music is even harder than practicing. My first concert at Duke had me so nervous that I played the first two measures of my piece and somehow managed to forget everything. I actually had to stop playing and walk offstage to get my sheet music. That was the first of many recitals that ended with a visit to Elmo’s, where I ate my incompetency in chocolate chip pancakes. My deep respect for classical musicians is not, by any means, the only reason I love the music. It’s the complexity, the ability of so many wordless strands of thought and emoKanye nickname generator tion to come together in a sinMichaela Dwyer................................................................................Malcolm Swerve gle instant, creating a work of Holly Hilliard.........................................................................................Warhol Mille art that is entirely ephemeral. Ted Phillips...........................................................................................Illest Gaultier Classical music is fleeting, a memory; it only exists when Dan Fishman................................................................................................Swag Iver it stops existing. It’s a mental Katie Zaborsky.............................................................................................Ye Picasso and emotional experience. Sophia Durand...........................................................................................Donda Sr. You can’t just recite the lyrics learn the basic chord strucEmma Loewe.................................................................................Mary Kate & Eezy or ture of Verdi’s “Requiem” Andrew Karim.......................................................................................Genius Gucci the way you can with a Ke$ha

[recesseditors]

DUKE PERFORMANCES In Durham, at Duke, a City Revealed. day atur BLAZING JAZZ TRIO s & ay frid this

THE BAD PLUS

song. And it would be impossible to capture one of Bach’s cello concertos in words: the passionate crescendoes, the trembling timbre of string against string, the immense range of human emotion. Even the way classical music is notated doesn’t capture the essence of the piece; you can draw notes any way you want (ask Stockhausen), but you can never effectively hold a symphony in your hand. It is beyond visual and verbal expression. Classical music is all the more amazing because it is universally comprehensible. You don’t have to be a musician to understand the elaborate language of an orchestra. A solo pianist can create a dialogue between the individual fingers of their hands, telling a story with a setting and plot and characters without actually saying anything. Take Debussy’s “La cathédrale engloutie.” The piano piece recounts the story of a sunken cathedral that rises out of the sea on clear mornings, only to return to the depths at sunset. When you listen to the piece, you can hear the church bells emerging from the ocean spray, can practically smell the salt in the air, can see the people crowded on the beach in awe. Or listen to Mahler’s first symphony. The third movement revisits a children’s song in a minor key, creating a world of nostalgia and regret, familiarity and disillusion. It’s high drama, and it’s all narrated by a double bass, not a pop singer dressed as a cupcake. It’s confusing to me that so many students think classical music is boring. I’ll concede that too much Mozart might put you to sleep, but what about Strauss, Tchaikovsky or Beethoven? You can’t complain that classical music is too hard to sing along to, either: listen to Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony and you will be humming it for the next week. Just because classical music concerts don’t involve your typical Main Quad bacchanalia does not mean they aren’t worth going to. Duke is a truly amazing place for classical music; there’s a different performance almost every week. Go to one, close your eyes. Allow yourself to really listen. I think you’ll discover that there’s more to life than just four chords. —Holly Hilliard

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September 20, 2012

Carolina Theatre begins ninth annual escapist fest by Adrienne Harreveld THE CHRONICLE

If you are a current undergraduate at Duke, chances are your life is pretty tragic—it means you were born after 1986 and never had the opportunity to see David Bowie as the terrifying yet misunderstood Goblin King on the big screen. Luckily, there is hope. From September 17-27, Durham’s own Carolina Theatre will be hosting its ninth annual Escapism Film Festival. If you’re unfamiliar with Bowie’s role in the Jim Henson cult classic Labyrinth or unsure of what the “escapism” genre is, imagine those dusty VHS tapes you watched with your cooler older sibling. Back to the Future, The Dark Crystal, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Goonies—these are just some of the films featured at the festival this year.

Jim Carl, the senior director of the Carolina Theatre and founder of the festival, describes escapism as “the movies you loved as a kid that you wish you could watch with your kids in theaters now.” While some of the other festivals hosted by the theater highlight more serious titles, Carl taglines this festival with, “Interesting is good. Fun is better.” Brad Lenz, Trinity ’15, who attended the festival last year agrees, saying, “Although I typically go to the Carolina Theatre to see more traditionally artistic films, attending the Escapism Film Festival made me feel all sorts of nostalgia. Plus, I never thought I would ever see The Dark Crystal in theaters.” Planning the Escapism Film Festival isn’t all campy Goonies-type fun. According to Carl, months of meticulous and thorough research went into acquiring each film that will be shown at the festival. Especially the rare 1982 theatrical vesion of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In fact, if Clark hadn’t gotten his hands on this particular version of the film, he

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wouldn’t have shown ET at all. “It is just one of those movies that you have seen 100 times, you love it, but you aren’t going to have the same reaction to seeing it in theaters as you would with Big Trouble in Little China,” he said. The Theatre will be screening the 35 mm version of the movie, of which there are only a few dozen known copies in existence. After director Steven Spielberg released the 2002 version of ET, he ordered all copies of the 1982 version to be destroyed. In wake of Spielberg’s recent announcement that the upcoming Blu-ray release of ET in October will include both the 1982 and 2002 versions, Clark knew Universal Studios would now grant the rights to screen the original version. After trying to track down the 1982 original, Clark finally procured his copy from a private collector in New Jersey. As a result, festivalgoers will be able to travel back in time and see the movie in its original form, which has not been shown in 30 years. Even though most Duke students didn’t have the experience of seeing these films in theaters, they still resonate as nostalgic memories of childhood, a feeling that Carl hopes to capture with the festival. For a complete schedule and ticket prices, visit carolinatheatre.org

Spaghetti westerns staple of Italian series by jamie kessler THE CHRONICLE

While many students on campus have perceived the hype surrounding Quentin Tarantino’s new film Django Unchained, few are likely to have heard of the 1966’s Django, directed by Sergio Corbucci, which inspired Tarantino’s current film. The Italian Studies Department is making moves to change that. La Tavola, an Italian Language activity group, sponsors film showings on campus every semester. This semester they’ve chosen to play spaghetti westerns. Spaghetti westerns constitute a genre that began around the 1960s. Often starring leading American males such as Clint Eastwood, the westerns were directed and produced by Italians, earning them the pasta-tastic-title. Django was the first western on La Tavola’s list. “We had been talking about playing a genre series for a long time,” said Matteo Gilebbi, director of La Tavola and lecturing fellow in Italian Studies. “The Tarantino movie gave us an easy reason.” La Tavola events provide students with exposure to Italian culture outside the classroom. Other events include Bocce Tournaments and an Italian dinner series, but the film showings are a particularly popular event.

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grizzly bear

“With the movies, it’s easy for [the students] to take away what they want to,” Gilebbi said. “It’s culture disconnected from the direct learning of language.” The spaghetti westerns are a favorite for Tarantino as well. He has said in the past that Django is one of his top five films of the genre. Django Unchained looks to be drastically different from the original but maintain some of the same racial themes. Unchained follows the story of a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) on a search to find his wife, while the 1966 version recounts the violent struggle between a faction of white racists and an anti-government Mexican militia. The original Django is a rebel without a cause; he betrays both sides to further his own interests, a common theme in spaghetti westerns. “The heroes are not Superman or even Batman,” said Gilebbi of the spaghetti western genre. “There’s not always happy endings.” Today’s Django has more at stake in the racial issues of the film, but Tarantino will likely try to preserve some of the character elements that made the original Django

SEE WESTERNS ON PAGE 6

chorus, maintains a conventional alt-rock structure. Fortunately, the Lennon-inspired piano ballad “Sun in Your Eyes” ends the album well, hitting some glorious highs. All of which is to say that Shields sounds wonderful, exhibits a high degree of musicianship, etc. But even after five runthroughs, I found there weren’t any moments that gripped me like the best tracks on Veckatimest: “While You Wait for the Others,” “I Live With You” and “Foreground.” Whereas Veckatimest was bold, grand and majestic, Shields is too complacent.

SHIELDS WARP RECORDS

—Suvam Neupane

arbitrage

Since their sophomore release Yellow House, Brooklyn collective Grizzly Bear has been lauded for songwriting that merges pop with a real eye for texture and ambience. With each release, Droste, Rossen and co. have expanded their sonic palette. The insularity of apartment-recorded Horn of Plenty gave way to the more ambitious cabin-sojourn Yellow House and then the meticulous and expansive Veckatimest. Shields, though a fine album with a few choice cuts, doesn’t build as successfully on the band’s past as does their earlier work. On opener “Sleeping Ute,” Grizzly Bear shows some teeth with a blues rendition. Above echoing Jeff Buckley-esque guitars and a soaring hook, Rossen sings, achingly, “but I can’t help myself.” “Speak in Rounds” continues the momentum of “Ute” with a dark arrangement, but midway through the band treads familiar territory—it’s eerily similar to the skipping guitar of “Southern Point.” I’ve never thought of Grizzly Bear as conventional, but the majority of Shields shies away from expanding their sound. After the jazzy-rock number “Yet Again,” the album starts to lose steam. “The Hunt” in particular merely plods along, going nowhere, and the arrangement doesn’t capitalize on the album’s best lyrics. “A Simple Answer” breaks the album’s flow, but the Broadway-esque vocals bore more than they please. Most Grizzly Bear songs are written intimately, but “Simple Answer” might as well have been written for the arena. “Gun-shy,” despite its catchy, dreamy

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unique. Unchained stars some of Tarantino’s favorite actors, such as Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Kerry Washington flesh out the ensemble. The movie will be released on Christmas Day and many involved in the project predict it will incite sizeable buzz. Like Inglourious Basterds and some of Tarantino’s other films, Django Unchained focuses on a time in the not so distant past that reveals the darker side of humanity. The writer/director often sets his films in an active historical context while adding his own twists and cinematic flair. Yet, according to Arts of the Moving Image Professor Markos Hadjioannou, that may come at a price: “The danger, of course, is that his ahistorical ‘cooler than cool’ version of America’s past and present leaves little room for a serious un-

DIR. NICHOLAS JARECKI GREEN ROOM FILMS

Ever woken up from one of those anxiety dreams where you imagine you get a bad grade on a test or forget to turn in a paper? Arbitrage is like one hundred minutes of nightmarish unease. Is it a comfortable experience? Doubtful. Is it a powerful experience? Certainly. To quote one moviegoer, “Oh, man. After that, I just want a massage.” In the film, wealthy banker Robert Miller (Richard Gere) gets in a car accident that threatens to unearth the hidden aspects of his high-profile life. Miller struggles to fulfill all of his self-imposed duties, including covering up an extramarital affair, hiding his company’s bank fraud, closing a merger to sell his company, keeping on good terms with his wife (Susan Sarandon) and mentoring his daughter (Brit Marling), to name a few. In light of the accident, which threatens to reveal his affair, Miller must either confess or spin an ever-growing web of lies. The audience, like Miller, is never sure of the better option in this lose-lose situation. The film draws much of its power from writer and director Nicholas Jarecki’s tight-knit screenplay. While the film starts in a place of relaxation, as soon as the car crash happens, there’s not a second to breathe. Snappy dialogue

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and quick scene changes keep the tension high. Every moment, Miller must keep up the illusion that each aspect of his life is the top priority. After devoting his full focus to a business trip, he must feign attention toward his family with gifts bought by his minions. Worries like this pervade the film and soon become the audience’s concern as the camera tracks Miller’s every move in his transition between worlds. Doubtless, Miller is a despicable character—he’s the type of banker that helped trigger the recent financial meltdown. So why should the audience care about what happens to him? Shouldn’t we want him to get his comeuppance? Gere’s stellar acting keeps us rooting for his character even when we’re about to give up on him. In little moments of privacy, he’ll show remorse, but as soon as he returns to the public sphere, he forces a smile and tries to seal every deal in his favor. Meanwhile, the film has moments when Miller’s wife and daughter show how he has betrayed them. These moments jerk our sympathies away from Miller. In the end, our indecision over whether to identify with Miller adds to the anxiety of his tough choice. If you’re looking for a way to unwind after a long work week, Arbitrage is not for you. But if you’re seeking a drama with all the tension of a horror film and some tough questions of principle, give the movie a look. —Kari Barclay

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recess

September 20, 2012

Recess Interviews:

JUNOT DIAZ Beginning at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Motorco Music Hall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz will be reading from This Is How You Lose Her, his collection of short stories released earlier this month. The book centers on interwoven stories of love and heartbreak and revisits characters from his previous works Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. As with all of his works, Diaz writes in the context of the Dominican-American experience. Recess Arts Editor Katie Zaborsky spoke on the phone with Diaz about his evolving view on love, inspirational movies, and MIT. R: In many of the stories in This Is How You Lose Her, the most heartbreaking moments seem to come in those fleeting details that feel too real to be purely fictional. How much of the material in the collection is autobiographical? JD: Oh my god, listen to you! Just starting with the heaviness! How old are you? R: I’m 21. JD: Yeah man, “I mean, there’s nothing like constantly you’re a little too writing about heartbreak that gives you ferocious. The truth of it is that I this enormous sense of appreciation don’t know how to about love.” give a percentage. I think that a lot of it is fictional— I know that seems impossible, given your claim— but I feel like paradoxically it’s very deeply private. Even the stuff that I’m making up I almost sometimes feel like it’s comingg from a life I almost lived. So it’s p personal,, I won’t lie. But if I had to ggive yyou a

percentage—I know this is not useful—a friend said to me, “Hey not bad! You only lied in 2/3 of the book!” R: You mentioned in a previous interview that audiences tend to have a stronger reaction to novels as opposed to short story collections. Do you see them as different vehicles of storytelling with different purposes? JD: Certainly, I think there’s no question. Historically, that’s been the case, and part of why I’m attracted to the short story collection is that the length of a short story collection affords various, and what I think are interesting, questions. I think in a group of linked short stories, you get more heartbreak for your buck. And in a book about heartbreak, it’s just where the form matches content. I mean, I believe that a novel can devastate you at the level of heartbreak, but I think that a book of short stories can devastate you in an entirely uniquely human way. When you’re my age, when you’re in your 40s, and you look back at the heartbreaks, it feels like a chain reaction of heartbreaks. And a short story collection is a really awesome way to communicate that to people. R: You are currently a creative writing professor at MIT, which is largely devoted to the hard sciences and technology. How does that atmosphere shape your creative output? JD: Oh, I don’t think it shapes it at all. I mean, you got to remember, as an artist, at least the way I work, I’m wrestling with things and with books and with ideas that, in some cases, are often 20 years old. I think MIT is great for me as a person, and I love all the nerds, I love being with all these energetic, brilliant young people and faculty members who are doing fascinating work across the sciences and engineering g and computing. And that’s wonderful, but I guess when I think about the source of my art, that river starts way earlier than MIT. I think I love MIT as a person, but I don’t know if directly it has had an enormous impact on my writing. It’s made me a better teacher and certainly a smarter person. I guess you can say those things affect the writing. I don’t know, a part of me feels like I’m wrestling with a shadow from the past in a way that has nothing do to with MIT. R: So you’d be the exact same writer if you had taught at another school because you write about what’s behind you? JD: I wonder. I don’t know if I can say that. When you put it that way, it makes my answer look stupid. But I wonder. I guess in a way, I don’t know. My answer would be I don’t know. Man, good question. Damn you, young person! R: A lot of people ask you about your literary influences, but has there been a movie or album that has influenced your writing to the same extent that other books have? JD: Oh yeah. I would say the movie Central Station, a Brazilian movie, had an enormous impact on my art. It’s a wondrous movie. Just something that was very inspirational. And I love a movie called Raising Victor Vargas, another movie that I think taught me a lot about how one writes about family. As far as albums are concerned, absolutely no question, I think almost all the music of Los Hermanos Rosario. R: An excerpt from your upcoming sci-fi novel Monstro recently appeared in The New Yorker. How will it be different from your previous works? JD: It’s this alien virus…it’s going to be like giant monsters eating the island, so I think when you have giant monsters eating whole cities, definitely, if I can finish it, it’s going to be a striking departure from what I’m working on now. R: Most of your fiction deals with characters that are in unsatisfying relationships, either with others or with themselves. After writing so extensively about these characters and their mistakes, how has your view of love changed? JD: It’s a wonderful question. It’s certainly made me far more aware of how precious and how vulnerable love is. I mean, there’s nothing like constantly writing about heartbreak that gives you this enormous sense of appreciation about love. You know, I used to think of love as much more durable but now I realize it is a very precious and vulnerable commodity. R: Okay, so this last question is to temper all of the heaviness. How do you like your eggs in the morning? JD: I am a scrambled eggs man with hot sauce.

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

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September 20, 2012

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Recess Reviews:

KANYE WEST This isn’t G.R.E.A.T. Music. It’s G.O.O.D. Music. Cruel Summer isn’t and CRUEL SUMMER wasn’t ever going to be Kanye’s bid for G.O.O.D MUSIC immortality. He’s been there. He’s done that. Kanye doesn’t need to worry about prestige. Kanye calls himself the god of rap and nobody argues. Domo Genesis (of Odd Future) said in an interview with Pitchfork, “I think only one person is cool, and that’s Kanye.” Even President Obama is a fan. “I like Kanye. He’s a Chicago guy. Smart. He’s very talented. He’s a jackass. But he’s very talented,” said the POTUS in an interview with The Atlantic. If Kanye had ever been interested in art for art’s sake, he’s not now. “I told you motherf#@kers it was more than the music,” he raps on “Cold.” And Kanye is right—there is more than music at stake here. First and foremost, CS defines the aesthetic and the political views of Kanye’s clique, a group of hip-hop and R&B artists both on and outside of the G.O.O.D. Music record label. Kanye uses the record as his chance to tell (rather than show) the world what he wants from rap music, what deserves his seal of approval and what’s that “shit [he] don’t like.” As a result, the seven tracks that Kanye performs on complicate and nuance his particular brand of semi-religious hedonism—moreso than all of the tracks on Watch the Throne. Kanye’s persona on Throne was shamelessly materialistic. On CS he wants his Lamborghini Murcielago and he wants us to have mercy toward him for wanting it. Kanye spends most of the album trying to explain why it’s okay for him and other celebrity black musicians to live ostentatiously. Each of Kanye’s tracks adds a new layer to his argument for black opulence. On “Clique” he spits: “You know white people get money don’t spend it/ … / I’d rather buy 80 gold chains than go ign’ant/ I know Spike Lee gonna kill me but lemme finish/ Blame it on the pigment we livin’ no limits.” Spike Lee has long spoken out against the way black celebrities often depict themselves as brazenly aimed toward material goods. For Kanye and his clique, black people who have made it out of the slums have earned the chance to showcase their wealth. Kanye continues that argument on “New God Flow”: “Aww man [I] made something from nothin’/ … I’m from the 312/ where cops don’t come through and dreams don’t come true/ like there the ggod ggo in his Murcielago.” But it’s on “The One”—a track that gets mostly lost in the shuffle of the album—that Kanye really explains how Kanye views his role with G.O.O.D. Music. Here he is The One, a Christ/prophet figure whose main mission is to teach inner-city black people to rise up: “It’s been hard preachin’ the gospel to the slums lately/ so I had to put the church on the drums, baby.” Of course, Kanye’s is a strange kind of gospel. The album mentions Jesus twice, but both times it’s in the context of Kanye’s “Jesus piece,” an absurd bejeweled ornament. As he says on “The Morning,” “G.O.O.D. woulda been God except I added more 0’s.” Kanye’s religious views are inextricable from his views about money and black power. His church on the drums preaches that black people need to avoid being “slaves to the funds.” On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye made himself into a Greco-Roman emperor. On Throne,

various artists

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

he and Jay-Z were feudal lords. By the end of CS, Kanye has the power of Vito Corleone. He’s already called Roc Nation “la familia” and referenced Francis Ford Coppola, but on “Don’t Like” his Sicilian attitude takes on a different force. He most hates frauds, sneaks and snitches. He hates the media, hipsters and those who have made their money easily, without having to overcome great odds. (His most damning critique of Romney is “Mitt Romney don’t pay no tax”). He’s built his group of loyal followers replete with some of black music’s most powerful yet questionably artistic forces—R. Kelly, Chief Keef and 2 Chainz. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Kanye’s sold out. If we’re to believe him, Kanye’s audience for CS is the poor black of Chicago and other cities, and G.O.O.D. Music is filled with artists who have wide, especially urban, commercial influence. It’s a good thing there are side stories to Cruel Summer because, judged as an album, there’s not a lot to get excited about. “New God Flow” is the album’s best track: Kanye is at his finest and most impassioned, and Pusha-T and Kanye have good chemistry. “Cold” and “Clique” are solid radio hits. As a rule of thumb though, the tracks that Kanye doesn’t appear on are uninteresting. “Bliss” is a strangely saccharine song, a hip-hop ballad of sorts, but it shouldn’t be on the same album as Kanye and Jay-Z. “Sin City” is a flop: its intoned verses come across as funny rather than epic. Kid Cudi’s “Creepers” is another head-scratcher. Take out Kanye’s verses, and there’s nothing here that ties the songs together as an album rather than a collection of songs.

If Kanye had ever been interested in art for art’s sake, he’s not now.

—Dan Fishman

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line through Duke’s Music Department until November 1. Director of Duke Performances Aaron Greenwald explained that he is always seeking substantive opportunities for collaboration with academic departments on campus. Ultimately, Greenwald said, the goal is to facilitate meaningful interaction between artists, Duke students and the Durham community. Lindroth mentioned that The Wet Ink Ensemble, which has worked with Duke graduate composition students in a similar capacity, is set to return this academic year, hopefully in a collaboration with the MFA program in Experimental and Documentary Arts.

BAD PLUS from News page 1

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heads to the instruments.” The composers sometimes had to compromise more than they had expected, though, in order to get their compositions in a form with which the visiting artists were comfortable. In the end, The Bad Plus “took complete ownership of the student pieces,” said Vice Provost for the Arts Scott Lindroth. The four graduate composers created four sylistically unique pieces that only sound alike because of the instruments and style of The Bad Plus. When Jamie Keesecker recorded “What’s Your Name and Number, Norma K.?” he took alternating sections of the material he had prepared for The Bad Plus and otherwise let the group riff off Keesecker’s soft/loud piano. Stewart’s piece “Thetastate,” which remixes a phone conversation he had with a psychic, is intentionally disorienting and led Stewart to question the process and starting point of compositions. “It was a gamechanger for me,” Stewart said. “[Working with The Bad Plus] let me shine a new light on myself and the way I look at the act of composing.” Ruccia describes his piece “Floes” as a sea of “free-floating melodic chunks.” Influenced by Morton Feldman and infused with 1970s Miles Davis, the piece examines the life cycle of composition. Alex Kotch worked with drummer Dave King to create polyrhythmic sounds in place of his typical electro-acoustic dance beats to develop something more comfortable for The Bad Plus to work with. After their successful residency, Duke Performances will bring The Bad Plus back to perform two shows at Motorco this coming Friday and Saturday. The recordings of the graduate students’ compositions were released Monday to coincide with the group’s return, and will be available on-

Duke Performances presents The Bad Plus at Motorco Music Hall this Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 for Duke students.

dinosaur jr. I BET ON SKY JAGJAGUWAR

Dinosaur Jr., an alt-rock trio consisting of lead singer J Mascis, drummer Murph and bassist/occasional singer Lou Barlow, are about as ancient as dinosaurs themselves. The band started in 1984, and they’ve been professional musicians for almost 30 years. I Bet on Sky, their tenth studio album, comes at the tail end of a career that has shaped the trajectory of independent music. The band has had one of the more tumultuous histories in rock lore. Barlow and Mascis have regularly disputed. Five years after their debut, Barlow was kicked out of the band. While recording their third album, Bug, messed-up s*** went down—and Mascis even forced Barlow to scream the line, “Why don’t you like me?” until Barlow coughed up blood. Once during a live show Mascis and Barlow attacked each other. Murph, for his part, got kicked out of the band in 1991. Mascis finally retired the name “Dinosaur Jr.” in 1997 and worked on numerous side projects as well as solo work, while Lou Barlow formed Sebadoh, an indie-rock band that’s been influential in its own right. Despite their troubled past, Dinosaur Jr. has collectively managed to resolve their differences enough to record an album. And, to our knowledge, there were no attacks. Given their interpersonal turmoil, that’s an impressive feat. I Bet on Sky contains many recognizable Dinosaur Jr. elements: Murph’s pounding drums and Lou Barlow’s me-

September 20, 2012

lodic, distinctive style of bass, both perfect complements to J Mascis’ blistering fretboard antics and lazy, whiny voice. And, of course, as is always the case with Dinosaur Jr., the pace is restless, the volume’s high and there’s lots and lots of guitar. There is something nostalgic and comforting about their sound, which is charmingly untarnished by recent music trends and auto-tuning. Compared to Dinosaur Jr.’s canon, this album has a lighter, breezier feel. They sound cleaner, crisper, perhaps as the result of 30 years of experience. It’s unexpectedly lovely, the kind of grunge rock I’d listen to nestled in a warm, fuzzy blanket by the fireplace. The opening track, “Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know,” starts with melodic keyboard and veers towards something surprisingly funky. “Almost Fare” is laid-back and summery. Barlow’s two song contributions, “Rude” and “Recognition,” are sensitive and vulnerable, with lyrics full of regret and lessons learned. Even the punkier, more chugging tracks, “Watch the Corners” and “Pierce the Morning Rain,” are mellow and even melancholy. Only their third release after getting back together in 2005, I Bet on Sky doesn’t try hard to prove something. It doesn’t try to live up to the glory years of Dinosaur Jr. in the late ’80s, either. But it works and sounds fresh to boot. It seems like the members of Dinosaur Jr. have finally learned what most second-graders master—how to get along with each other. That interpersonal growth has translated musically. —Indu Ramesh

WESTERNS from page 3 derstanding of the complexities of the issues at hand.” Unchained’s trailers and promos seem to promise audiences Tarantino’s distinct sense of humor and ravenous violence. However, it’s that “cool, cine-maniac quirkiness” that can lead to the film being taken over by “bold visuals and sexy dialogue,” said Hadjioannou. He worries the “mental appreciation of the political radicalness” will be overshadowed. Nonetheless, the AMI professor is “very much looking forward to seeing his new film,” as is Gilebbi and, seemingly, most of America. To see part of where Tarantino’s inspiration comes from, Duke students can attend the upcoming showings of La Tavola’s spaghetti westerns. A complete schedule can be found online on the Italian Studies Department website.

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