Jerk November 2013

NOVEMBER 2013 VOL XIII ISSUE II SYRACUSE NEW YORK your student fee

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Illustration by HIllary Cianciosi

CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2013 7 8 9 10

FROM THE EDITOR FEEDBACK PEEPS JERK THIS What you should hit up and bitch about this month.

11 BACKDROP The E-Room

12 CLICKBATE 13 TOTALLY UNSCIENTIFIC POLL National Aviation Month

14 SEX Sexperiments

15 FRAMED

BITCH OPINIONS 16 IGNORANCE IS BLISS Lack of U.S. involvement in Syria hints at a greater problem.

18 COLOR BLIND Does affirmative action actually help those it sets out to?

20 FROM RUSSIA, NO LOVE Is impending never-ending financial ruin worth it?

22 FREE PASS The dark story of selling sex in fashion.

24 PRESTIGE DOESN'T PAY How much is your college degree worth?

25 SO FALL OF IT Fall is about more than commercialized bullshit.

SMUT FEATURES 26 WAGE WARS With New York’s cost of living, minimum wage doesn’t mean living wage.

30 THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY Artist and former SU professor, Mary Giehl, knits her way into the heart of Syracuse.

34 TREXX At Trexx Nightclub, drag queening isn't just about the clothes, makeup, or wigs, it's an art.

11

GAWK FASHION

“IT

38 TOP SHOP Your wardrobe essentials: User tested, Jerk approved.

46 CLOSET CASE Let your clothes do the talking.

47 STRIPPED What your Doc Martens say about you.

NOISE ARTS & MUSIC 48 THE NEW NORMAL

38

WA S

KID

DY S

TUF

F. L I

KE

64

TEE

NY

58 48

BO

PPE

RS.

You're not the only one illlegally downloading.

52 OFF THE BOOKS

NO

RAP ."

Breaking down your favorite novel genres.

48

58 REWIND Freddie Mercury

24

59 ALTRUIST One Direction

62

60 AMPLIFIED Ben Fiore

61 SYNAPSE Guy Fawkes Day

62 DISCOVERSYR Stevie's Street Eats

64 SPEAKEASY Dave Jacobs, the King of Marshall Street.

65 OBITCHUARY Birthday Cards

52

DID YOU KNOW...?

The adventures of Captain underpants was the #1 most challenged book of 2012.

66 FORM AND FUNCTION Cover Designed by Mary Wagner 4 11.13

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The holiest of shopping rituals.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

EDITOR

Daniel Taroy

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Laura Cohen

Mary Wagner

MANAGING EDITOR

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

EDITORIAL

Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm OPINIONS EDITOR Diana Pearl ASST. OPINIONS EDITOR Leigh Miller STYLE EDITOR Joelle Hyman ASST. STYLE EDITOR Julie Kosin MUSIC AND ARTS EDITOR Benjamin Bondy ASST. MUSIC AND ARTS EDITOR Cori Rosen RESEARCH EDITOR Michelle van Dalen COPY EDITORS Erin K. Kelly, Eric King FACT CHECKERS Erin G. Kelly, Roxy Silver FRESHMAN INTERNS Collin Gordinier, Ryan Harper EDITOR AT LARGE Daisy Beccera FEATURES EDITOR

WEB

Nicole Fisher WEB EDITOR Teresa Nigolian ASST. WEB EDITOR Alissa Pulver COPY EDITOR Kelley Rowland FACT CHECKER Erika Zoffer DESIGNER Jackie Barr

EXECUTIVE WEB EDITOR

DESIGN

Maddie Kelly Paris Bethel, Andrea Bolf, Sara Easterling, Jennifer Powers DESIGN DIRECTOR DESIGNERS

ART

Sarah Kinslow Adam Day STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Allen Chiu, Ilana Goldmeier, Penelope Vasquez STAFF ILLUSTRATORS Hillary Cianciosi, Dylan Cownie, Anna Ellis, Adrian Hatch, Christina Mastrull, Lise Sukhu

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR

BUSINESS

Justin Dorsen Rachel Meyer AD DESIGNER Hannah Blauner AD REPS Brianna Dutton, Jacob Gillon, Emily Hook PUBLISHER

AD DIRECTOR

PUBLIC RELATIONS MULTIMEDIA

Cassie-Lee Grimaldi ASST. MULTIMEDIA DIRECTOR Annie Pettinga PODCAST DIRECTOR Lakota Gambill MULTIMEDIA STAFF Brittany Bart, Bria Holness, Michael Moates, Arden Phillips PODCAST STAFF Brianna Couture, Chloe Miller, Haley Schluter, Sawyer Rosenstein, Keely Sullivan, Lucy Tomkiewicz, Melissa Viola Nawojski, Malcolm Whitfield MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Ryan McGlynn Tori Coté PR DESIGNER Meghan Burns PR REPS Brittany Anderson, Hannah Ruben, Mariann Yip COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

It started with a desperate plea from my seventh grade English teacher: “Anyone who participates in the speech contest gets extra credit!” Being an overachiever lacking a social life, I signed up. The topic our favorite book, and why reading was important. There’s nothing I love more than reading, so I was thrilled. My seventh grade novel of choice was Charlie Bone, the tale of a musically gifted boy who learns he can hear photographs talk.

I still remember my opening line: “Books are magic, transporting us to a different land.” It impressed, and I won our school’s competition, moving on to the district-wide round. I practiced for hours; there was no way I could lose.

A podium stood facing a crowd of parents, with a ring of chairs behind it for the competitors. Three judges sat at a table with stoic faces poised to take notes. I took my seat amongst the eight other contestants dressed in the middle school version of business attire.

Two students gave their unimpressive speeches, and then I was up. I stood in front of the crowd and choked. I rushed through my sentences and stumbled over words, while my hands pinwheeled at my sides, making gestures completely unrelated to what I was saying. In short, it was a complete disaster—and needless to say, I lost.

While my public speaking skills haven’t improved over the years, my love of books has only grown, so I’m giddy to bring you "Off the Books," our exploration of all things novel-related in honor of National Novel Writing Month (page 52). If books aren’t your thing, you can explore a more intellectual conversation on page 16 with our take on U.S. involvement in foreign politics. Or, keep the mood a little lighter with the fuzzy tale of Mary Giehl and her practically magic knitting needles (page 30).

Photo By: Chelsea Stahl

Riyana Straetker

In the meantime, if you’ve got a reading recommendation, hit a girl up.

CONTRIBUTORS

Paige Carlotti, Lisa Cianciotta, Ousman Diallo, Brendan Germain, Paul Greenfield, Kathryn Isaac, Taylor Kowalski, Amanda Maldonado, Sam Maller, Emmie Martin, Eva Narun, Sophia Openshaw, Drew Osumi, Alexandra Ross, Jason Rostkowski, Heather Rounds, Polina Rozina, Sarah Schmalbruch, Natasha Schyuler, Ian Simon-Curry, Chelsea Stahl, Shijing Wang, Meg Zukin

Read or die,

Melissa Chessher ADVISER

Through its content, Jerk is dedicated to enhancing insight through communication by providing an informal platform for the freedom of expression. The writing contained within this publication expresses the opinions of the individual writers. The ideas presented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Jerk Editorial Board. Furthermore, Jerk will not be held responsible for the individual opinions expressed within. Submissions, suggestions, and opinions are welcomed and may be printed without contacting the writer. Jerk reserves the right to edit or refuse submissions at the discretion of its editors. Jerk Magazine is published monthly during the Syracuse University academic year. All contents of the publication are copyright 2013 by their respective creators. No content may be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the Jerk Editorial Board.

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Riyana Straetker

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PEEPS

FEEDBACK Looks like we’re not the only ones who can appreciate a pretty face, so we know our model is feeling the love. But trust—this on-campus rivalry shit’s getting really old (even though we know we’re winning).

Ivan Rosales @_IvanRobles Love the smell of a new #JerkMagazine Oct. 7 SU Writing Center @syracusewc @jerkmagazine Looking forward to

SHOW US SOME LOVE Jerk Magazine 126 Schine Student Center Syracuse, NY 13244 @jerkmagazine jerk@jerkmagazine.net jerkmagazine.net

reading. Any chance I can get copies in the WC (101 HBC)? Makes for much better reading than the D.O. Oct. 7 Ian Simon-Curry @incrediblyian Y'all should really pick up a copy of the latest @jerkmagazine if only to stare at the beautiful creature on its cover.

Oct. 8

SARAH SCHMALBRUCH

JASON ROSTKOWSKI

A fan of symmetry, Sarah Schmalbruch loves the

Television,

number eight. Other obsessions of this senior

Rostkowski is afraid of sheds. The book Bud, Not

magazine major include crop tops, collecting

Buddy, in which orphan Bud is forced by his foster

silver bracelets and rings, making wishes at 11:11,

parents to live in a shed, scarred him for life in

and the Rockettes. Her story on the drag queens

the fourth grade. Lucky for this model, and Gawk’s

of Trexx Nightclub (page 34) features some fierce

fashion feature (page 38), Bud didn’t ruin grocery

dancers of a different kind.

stores for him, too.

radio,

and

film

senior

Jason

Jorge Talamantes @jorgetamales The 'model' on the cover of @jerkmagazine is my dream everything.

Oct. 9 Clifford D. Jacobs @gofalloffacliff YAAAAS đ&#x;‘? As a #NativeAmerican from a #reservation, I agree. @jerkmagazine Oct. 7

OUSMAN DIALLO SU Career Services @CareerSU Psyched that #SUCareerFair was mentioned as a hit on this month's @jerkmagazine Oct. 11 FOLLOW, DON’T LEAD facebook.com/jerkmagazine

@jerkmagazine

vimeo.com/jerkmagazine

Jerkify Syracuse

PAIGE CARLOTTI

Growing up, Ousman Diallo wished he could go

Paige Carlotti prefers hand-written letters to

super-saiyan like his hero Goku from Dragon Ball

email. This could be because the magazine junior

Z. The multimedia, photography, and design grad

likes to eat paper—really, she’s just addicted to

student would also settle for the job of Mufusa

eating old homework assignments. It must run

from The Lion King or, if that doesn’t work out, an

in the friend group, seeing as her roommate

archaeologist. For now though, the founder of the

enjoys the taste of flowers. Who knows, maybe

Facebook page Humans of Syracuse University

Carlotti will start noshing on dearly departed

will stick to photography. Check out his photos for

birthday cards (page 65).

Noise (page 60).

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JERK THIS

SHIT WE LIKE, AND SHIT WE LIKE TO AVOID.

HIT

BACKDROP BACKDROP

The E-Room

SU’s Outing Club stashes its equipment in South Campus’ big red barn.

NATIONAL NACHOS DAY

If your plate isn’t 8 inches tall, you're doing it wrong. Nov. 6

SAMPLING SYRACUSE

Eat your way through the city on this delectable food tour de Cuse.

Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 9

STUDENT ASSOCIATION ELECTIONS

As Damian of Mean Girls says, “These a-holes will represent you for a full calendar year.”

Nov. 11—15

WORLD'S SMALLEST PARADE IN SKANEATELES Because size doesn't matter.

Nov. 29

CHRISTMAS SONGS ON THE RADIO 'Tis (finally) the season.

PARENTS' WEEKEND

Let the claustrophobic parental clusterfuck commence.

Nov. 1—3

VIDEO GAMES LIVE CONCERT

Because doing it in your room isn't enough.

Nov. 9

50 SHADES! THE MUSICAL

No thanks—we'd rather wait for the movie.

Nov. 12

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE

How many more Oscars does J.Law have to win before she’s done with this franchise shit?

Nov. 22

SNOW STORMS

The only flurries we dig are the ones from McDonald’s.

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The E-Room is open every

A $13 membership fee goes

”I really like that it’s a

Wednesday and Thursday

pretty far—SUOC members have

challenge,” Brown says when

evening to issue equipment and

access to any equipment they

describing SUOC.

offer training sessions for more

need when they sign up for a trip.

advanced outings, like caving.

By Emmie Martin : Photos by Sam Maller A rainbow of kayaks, ropes, and cross-country skis fills the open room. Music blasts as students mill around, trying on wetsuits, adjusting harnesses, and cracking jokes. It’s a typical night in the Syracuse University Outing Club’s (SUOC) equipment room, or E-Room, located through a nondescript door at the backside of South Campus’ red barn.

Immediately to the left of the door, a projector streams YouTube videos of rock climbers and skydivers. To the right, a rope hanging from the ceiling suspends a student mid-air as he learns the basics of vertical

caving, in preparation for an upcoming caving trip.

SUOC typically hosts between 10 and 15 trips a week, offering outings like hiking, mountain biking, and whitewater kayaking.

Lilly Brown, a senior economics major, recalls crawling through a mud pit during one of her first caving trips. The challenge of it, she says, made her fall in love with the sport—and the club—even more.

From the line of license plates on the ceiling to the row of kayak paddles covering the back wall, every inch of the room serves as evidence of past adventures. JM

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TOTALLY UNSCIENTIFIC POLL

CLICKBATE

WHAT WE GOT OFF TO ON THE WEB THIS MONTH

UP IN THE AIR Thanks to our friends the Wright Brothers, November is Aviation History Month. Jerk polled 50 random students in Bird Library to unearth people’s pre-, post-, and in-flight preferences.

.net What's happening with Jerk on the web

WHAT WOULD YOU NEVER WANT TO SAY IN AN AIRPORT SECURITY LINE?

BEST SEAT ON THE PLANE?

“SO, I’VE GOT A

FullHouseReviewed.com With a cornucopia of overused catchphrases—have mercy on us, please—one episode of Full House was enough to satisfy anyone’s cheese-quota for an entire year. Enter FullHouseReviewed.com, a blog that reviews every episode aired in order. Readers can catch up with one of the First Families of sitcom TV and revisit the glory days of pre-parka Olsen twins. And with a new post every Friday, FHR brings a weekly dose of intelligence and deadpan humor that should have imbued this show for nine years running. Admit it, DJ shouting, “Bitch, have you lost your mind?” is the only kind of obscenity that would’ve made even Bob Saget blush.

Jerk’s podcast is back in action, voicing every opinion you've had about each week's top news.

Check them out every Friday—if you like what we write, then you're going to love to hear what they have to say.

@tavitulle

1 Procatinator.com

Struggling students and aspiring writers flock to coffee shops for more than just a caffeine fix—it’s conducive to productivity.

New app Coffetivity claims the mix of calm and commotion in these environments get creative juices flowing, so the developers compiled a soundtrack to aid you in any location. Download, brew, and enjoy.

Style Rookie star blogger and rising Twitter celebrity Tavi Gevinson (@tavitulle) reminds us that feminism can have a funny side: “LEAN IN more like LEAN CUISINE IN am I right ladies!!” You’re already a writer, magazine editor, and singer Tavi—why not lean into the comedy scene while you’re at it?

Combining two of the most prominent sections of the Internet (not porn—get your head out of the gutter), website Procatinator.com caters to what every kid in the middle of an allnighter wants 1 to see: an animation of a cat synced to an arbitrary song from YouTube. Who says that multitasking can’t pay off?

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FAVORITE QUALITY IN FLIGHT ATTENDANTS? I like the pretty male Perfection flight attendants. of the safety demonstration —she's almost as good as Vana.

PHOTO CREDIT: www.fullhousereviewed.com

Coffetivity

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MEAT CLEAVER, A BOX OF MATCHES, AND A BOTTLE OF LISTERINE.”

A heavy pour—get as much diet coke in that cup as A soothing voice possible.

—no one needs screeching over that intercom.

60%

40%

Window— you get the views and a headrest.

Aisle—easy access to the bathroom, and first to get your complimentary drink.

6 5 4 3 2 1

X

0%

Middle—two new friends.

WORST THING ABOUT FLYING?

36% CRYING BABIES, DUH.

BEST THING ABOUT FLYING?

46% Getting off the plane.

22% Hot seatmates—aka the opportunity to join the mile high club.

20% Last minute bump up to business class. Now that's smooth sailing.

12% Small bags of mini pretzels. Although making those last for longer than three minutes is a challenge.

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BITCH SEX

FRAMED

DON'T TRY THIS

AT HOME

You always remember your first time—but there’s more to “first-time sex” than an awkward lost-my-virginity-in-mychildhood-bedroom story. Trying something new is always a bumpy road, but bring sex into the mix and things get messy. Jerk got the dirt on the best sexual experimentation stories (or as we call them, sexperiments) on campus.

PAIN IN THE BUTT

ELEVATED ECSTASY

“I tried anal for the first time in the shower with my then-boyfriend. I wasn’t prepared for him quickly shoving it in, and I passed out on the bathroom floor.

Two days later we tried again. Needless to say, I’ve decided anal is not for me.”

“While on vacation with my girlfriend and her family, we had a serious lack of alone time. To remedy the situation, we had sex in the hotel elevator at 2:30 a.m. It was seriously hot—until a custodian walked in on us.”

“My boyfriend and I tried being romantic and bought kissable massage oil. Turns out, it tastes like ass. We decided to use honey instead, but it just would not come off. The sheets ended up sticking to my body and face— basically, it got everywhere. We ended up having to shower before we could do anything else. Talk about a mood-killer.”

ALL TIED UP

“My at-home hook-up wanted to tie me up. One night I was supposed to come over after his parents went to bed, so that afternoon he tied a belt to each bedpost on his guest bed to prepare. When we got there that night, the belts were gone, as were the sheets. His mom found the belts and took them––awkward.”

CANADIAN CONUNDRUM

“I got invited to my boyfriend’s formal in Canada, which, of course, means sex. I wanted to surprise him so I bought a feathered toy whip and planned on using it to spice things up. I didn’t realize my bags would be searched when crossing the border. I had to explain it to Border Patrol and beg the guard not to reveal my secret.

He was not amused. But, thankfully, he let me into Canada despite my 'dangerous weapon.'” JM

PHOTO CREDIT: http://bit.ly/19KPpjm

STICKY SITUATION

Abbey Lossing

Angry Birds

Senior, illustration major “When I started this piece, it was really just a doodle. I enjoy drawing patterns and I was simply having some fun. But I liked the colors and the composition, so I wanted to take the illustration further. When I finished, it was just the birds on the tree without the text bubble and I thought the image was a bit cliché. I was trying to think of how I could change it when I wrote the ‘fuck off’ bubble somewhat spontaneously.

It made me laugh and completely changed the feeling of the piece, so I kept it there.

I like art that makes you smile.”

Showcase your work in Framed. Email art@jerkmagazine.net.

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Email us your sex stories at sex@jerkmagazine.net.

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Ignorance is Bliss The problem with our generation's unconscious opposition to military action.

By Taylor Kowalski : Illustration by Adrian Hatch

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Before the resolution passed, however, there existed a strong possibility of American boots landing on Syrian ground. A recent CNN poll showed 59 percent of Americans oppose Congress authorizing military action in Syria, in addition to 72 percent believing said action would not achieve any goals, leaving President Obama caught in a bind. Still reeling from the Iraq War, Americans are defiant in their call to stay out of international conflicts. Professor Miriam Elman, who specializes in international security and Middle Eastern relations, argues the cure for Americans’ fear of involvement is support from other countries. “The American public has become largely isolationist when it comes to military solutions and interventions, at least in the Middle East and North Africa.

The public does not see America's vital interests at stake in these conflicts,” Elman says. She clarifies that to avoid allowing a failed state to become an anti-American haven, multinational interventions are necessary.

PHOTO CREDIT: http://bit.ly/17mE97a

Syria almost blew up in our faces a minute ago, and the fact that most people can’t point to the Middle Eastern nation on a map is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s to the east of Iraq—you know, under Turkey? North of Jordan? Nevermind).

To understand the United States’ situation with Syria, here’s an index cardsized explanation: Two years ago, peaceful protests began to challenge the government currently in power. President Bashar al-Assad responded with a violent crackdown. Syria is now engulfed in a full-fledged civil war, most recently pushed into our media spotlight because of the chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 in Damascus, a suburb outside Syria’s capital. Resulting in over 1,200 fatalities, this use of chemical weapons crossed the “red line” President Obama drew in the sand of biological warfare. In response, the United Nations passed a resolution requiring Syria to abandon its weapons stockpile.

The U.S. was almost on the brink of a brand new military conflict, and it’s becoming important to know what our generation— the Millennials, and the future leaders of tomorrow—thinks about intervening in other nations. But unless directly asked by an international relations professor, it seems we don’t think about it much at all. Sure, everyone will quietly and with a raised question markimplying voice say that the United States shouldn’t get involved in any more conflicts; but when asked the dreaded question: “Why?” we respond in silence. Growing up in the wake of conflict in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and all the American newsroom and family dinnertime commentary that went along with it, our generation is conditioned to reject all ideas of military intervention. The irony lies in the fact that so few of us know the full situation. We only know that the answer is to look up from our Instagram feeds and give a loud and confident, “No!”

If not military action, then peaceful intervention stands as the only answer. Elman points out that not all aid is synonymous with boots on the ground, and that, in its hesitation, the United States has lost its chance in Syria.

“The U.S. should have provided material assistance to the rebel movement early in the conflict,” Elman says. “Now, two years later, any intervention will not lead to an outcome that would be as beneficial as transitioning Syria to a democracy it once could have been. A democratic Syria is no longer an option on the table.” The U.S.’s best hope now, Elman says, is stability: an end to the ongoing violence.

With peaceful intervention out, and military intervention considered a stressor on a fragile situation, the American public can finally feel pacified by its isolation. It seems that in terms of international issues, America resembles a swaddled baby: useless and asleep. JM

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By Natasha Schuyler

COLOR BLIND In college admissions, positive discrimination means race first, test scores second.

In 2008, Abigail Fisher sued the University of Texas Austin for rejecting her application.

Their reasoning: They wanted to accept lessqualified minority students—not another white female. Five years later, this past June, the Supreme Court voted 7-1 to uphold affirmative action in college admissions, given that schools couldn’t achieve diversity otherwise. Consequently, Fisher’s case bounced back home, its fate left for reexamination in a lower Texas court.

Fisher v. University of Texas questioned the race-conscious admissions process.

Being half-black, I’ve always had an investment in affirmative action’s effects.

So in the process of applying to graduate schools, I spoke to Judge Jawwaad Rasheed, Support Magistrate of the Oneida County family court system and a former admissions counselor. He explained my ethnicity gave me leverage over white applicants in the admissions process. My LSAT scores could be considerably lower than those listed on a school’s website and I still might be accepted—maybe even with a scholarship.

The problem is, I don’t think of myself as black. I’m biracial and grew up in a completely white neighborhood. I used to believe affirmative action created a barrier in the United States—as long as it existed, the country couldn’t look past skin color.

And given the ridiculous standardized test scores many schools require, it’s easy to see how many people of color might think they would not be able to get into college without affirmative action.

But it’s in this way that the stigma associated with affirmative action is created.

“People think it’s taking a black person off the street with an eighth grade education, putting them in a college setting, and expecting them to do the work—that is not the case,” Rasheed says. Just because affirmative action may give students of color may an advantage over a white student, doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified to receive a solid college education.

Especially when most schools’ required SAT or LSAT averages are kept unrealistically high to justify accepting a low percentage of applicants. And that’s not because the work is so difficult that only 10 percent of the applicants can do it.

As universities skew the numbers to make themselves look far more elite than they actually are, they create the stigma that affirmative action is a cop out for anyone it applies to. Is affirmative action unfair? Perhaps.

But it’s not because institutions are lowering expectations for minorities, but because they don’t offer the opportunity of higher education to those who meet the realistic admission scores. Admission should be based on more than if an applicant fits into a certain ethnic checkbox. By broadening the parameters of affirmative action, students who deserve to be in college would be—leveling the playing field for all of us. JM

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With a history of patchy successes, it's not worth squashing Olympic dreams for an LGBT boycott that won't yield results.

By Meg Zukin : Illustration by Christina Mastrull There must be something in the vodka because Russian officials are causing a frenzy over their stance on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. Some countries— including the United States—are talking about boycotting the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

As of June 30, Russian law prohibits individuals from engaging in “propaganda” as a means of protecting children, according to PolicyMic. This refers to distributing information that creates or glamorizes nontraditional sexual attitudes, equates the societal value of traditional and nontraditional sexual relations, or generates

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hoopla in nontraditional sexual relations. In case you haven’t caught on, “nontraditional sex” is synonymous with LGBT sex in the minds of our antiquated Russian friends.

Punishment for natives includes fines or jail time. Foreign citizens or stateless individuals risk possible deportation––hopefully to San Francisco, where the exiled tourists could gaily frolic in peace.

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where the homophobes are considered pariahs and the LGBT community is revered. My town is a California cliché within itself. Its inhabitants include avocado-eating,

weed-smoking, gay-loving liberals, and last year my flamboyantly gay best friend won the title of Homecoming King by popular vote.

The fight for LGBT rights isn’t simply a “social issue du jour” for me, but a personal battle.

That being said, I don’t think that boycotting the Olympics will solve anything—and it certainly won’t bring home any medals.

Supporters of pulling out have history on their side—after all, this wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. opted out of the Olympics. In 1980, when the U.S. protested the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, they banned Americans from competing in the summer games. Instead of crying tears of joy on the podium, banned athletes cried tears of disappointment from their couches where they sat watching the summer games. That year, the U.S. Water Polo team lost the chance to dominate in their Speedos in Soviet Russia.

“I was devastated that I couldn’t go. I put a lot of time and effort into the sport and we had a very good chance of winning the gold,” says Steve Hamann, starting goalie for the 1980 U.S. Olympic Water Polo Team. “People say they’re going to boycott, but I think that’s the wrong direction. We should be trying to spread goodwill and sportsmanship.”

So if we don’t boycott the games, what the hell are we supposed to do? The United States is the world’s policeman—we tell other countries when they are breaking laws while we sit on our high horses drinking Dunkin’ and eating donuts.

Roger Hallas, Associate Professor of English and Director of LGBT Studies points out that Westerners need to pay attention to the specific needs of Russian LGBT rights.

“There’s a longtime history of English and American activists going to other countries with LGBT issues and potentially doing much more harm than good,” Hallas says.

Besides, if the United States really wanted to show Russia who ruled the roost, the boycott would have to be on a much grander scale than protesting against some silly games, anyway. According to Hallas, cultural boycotts have had a “patchy history,” and aren’t considered efficient, especially when dealing with those stalemate Russians. And buying Belvedere instead of Smirnoff isn’t going to cut it. The United States would have to commit to a much larger protest—such as refusing to buy Russian oil or gas—to send any serious message to the Russians.

Boycotting the Summer Olympics in 1980 resulted in nothing but bitter athletes and a returned boycott by the Soviets in 1984. Doing the same in 2014 will do nothing but repeat history. The best bet for Olympic athletes is to venture out to Sochi, win their respective medals, and celebrate with a massive, gay orgy in Olympic Village. Maybe we can even extend an invite to Putin. JM

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S S A EP

FRE

By Ian Simon-Curry In fashion, sex sells––clothes, that is. But when sex sells success, the industry looks the other way. Recent reports reveal a history of turning a blind eye when sex abuse becomes a professional currency.

Earlier this year, 17-year-old Meghan Chereek ran away from home after a fight with her father. Seeking fame and fortune, she moved to Los Angeles where she met Jimmy Sommers, CEO of the clothing brand Wildfox Couture, in a restaurant. He seduced her with promises of modeling and design work, wrenching her into the Hollywood lifestyle of booze, drugs, and sex.

She’s since filed a lawsuit, accusing Sommers of creating a hostile living environment after, unable to pay her rent, she had to move in with him.The suit claims that Sommers continued to demand sex from her and never provided her with the promised work. This isn’t news. “What

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PHOTO CREDIThttp://hypebeast.com/2013/2/rihanna-by-terry-richardson-for-rolling-stone

Certain fashion industry bigwigs have a collection of sexual assault charges, yet their reputation remains unblemished in the industry.

she is alleging goes on in the fashion and entertainment industry all the time,” says Jeff Herman, Chereek’s lawyer.

Reports of similar behavior run rampant.

Famed fashion photographer Terry Richardson has had a reputation for inappropriate sexual behavior for years. His provocative style of photography almost always features models and celebrities in the nude. In fact, a casting page on his website makes a standing request for models over the age of 18 who want to pose nude.

He's never been sued or convicted of sexual abuse, but a sufficiently large and continuous batch of complaints against Richardson suggest that his lasciviousness is quite real.

Many models report that he requested they call him “Uncle Terry” and that he tends to be as nude as his subjects when shooting.

A February article from The Fashion Spot reports that model Charlotte Free defended Richardson in a since-deleted statement on her Tumblr blog, angrily calling out models who accuse him of abuse.

The post reveals a troubling attitude towards misconduct that permeates the industry.The notion that others are “waiting in line” to take the place of models unwilling to accept sexually inappropriate situations suggests that abuse is just part of the job. In such a sexualized industry, there seems to be a dangerously fine line dividing acceptable behavior and abuse. Many models fear speaking out about sexual harassment because it can mean losing professional connections and experience. And it’s not just models who are wary of speaking out either. A March 2010 Jezebel article collected stories about Richardson from industry insiders, all of

whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, given the photographer’s powerful position in the fashion world.

One such anonymous source described how a friend of hers—a stylist who formerly worked with Richardson—saw him abusing young, naked Eastern European models, taking advantage of the fact that they spoke little English. The stylist was so ashamed and afraid to speak up that she quit working for him.

Though Richardson’s behavior is widely known, he continues to find work with influential magazines and brands. The industry willfully ignores sex abuse by those in its top tier.

Advocacy groups, such as the Model Alliance are taking strides to change things, aiming to improve working conditions for models and make it easier for them to report sexual harassment. Its Model Alliance Support system partners with the Actors’ Equity and the American Guild of Musical Artists to provide a way to discreetly report grievances via email.

This effort by the Model Alliance is admirable, and certainly is needed, but even more of an impact could be made if someone in a position of power at a magazine or brand would take a stand. Nothing would communicate a rejection of the fashion world’s current apathy towards sex abuse better than a well-known editor refusing to work with Richardson or anyone with a history of inappropriate behavior. But this industry that treats its most famed names like gods, it’s going to take some serious movement to knock them off their pervy pedestals. JM

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Prestige Doesn't Pay PayScale’s college rankings on return on investment following graduation forces students to think twice about the value of an education.

With retailers everywhere cashing in on the autumnal season, we forget what this time of year is actually about.

By Amanda Maldonado

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climbs illustrate the relative uselessness of traditional university evaluations.

Syracuse University Professor of Political Science Kristi Andersen suggests that these academic rankings are not useful for those applying to college. Generic ratings perversely motivate colleges to improve the areas academic ratings look at—not the overall school. This may expand funding and applicant pools, but the institution’s value becomes severely overinflated. Brad Gorham, S.U. associate professor and the chair of the Communications Department, simply says, “All of these ratings are partly B.S. anyway.”

While colleges are certainly capitalizing massive tuitions, the end result after graduation is never as large as you imagine.

The substantial number of engineering and technical schools on PayScale’s list is almost shocking. They argue that an engineering degree, and other specialized programs, will pay off more in the job market than a liberal arts degree—no matter what institution stamps the paper.

Whichever way you slice it, the statistics look frightening. But what you make of your education can never be ranked—and if the numbers get you down, remember, “Education and intelligence aren’t the same thing.” JM

PHOTO CREDITS: http://dailym.ai/GDiDDU Copyright of Starbucks

By Brendan Germain : Illustration by Dylan Cowlie Everybody needs a degree. But the value of that flimsy diploma does not always equate post-grad. PayScale, a financial and salary informational site, has released a new list of top institutions that base rankings on the economic merit of one’s degree, rather than academics. So watch out philosophy majors, your education just became more obsolete.

Created in 1984, the “granddaddy of college rankings,” U.S. News and World Report, began churning out lists curated by journalists who rarely even visit the schools they evaluate. The news magazine instead collects data from online sources, opinions from faculty and staff, and information from the institution’s website.

PayScale, launched in 2002 by former Microsoft manager Joe Giordano, evaluates post-graduate earnings, economic status, and the return on investment (ROI) you— or your parents—get back for your college education, switching the focus from a university’s prestige to a degree’s financial value in the real world.

PayScale ranks U.S. News’ top institutions lower than you might expect. Yale University, constantly battling for the top spot, comes in at 93 on PayScale’s 2013 list, with a 5.8 percent annual ROI. Syracuse University, usually ranking 62, pulls a paltry 360 on PayScale with just 5 percent annual ROI. The staggering drops and significant

of It

So

Last spring, I lugged my Southern California life 3,000 miles east when I transferred to Syracuse University—without visiting once.

Parka-clad students asked, “Why the hell would you move here?” with as much warmth as a January morning. And after a semester of weather-centric whining, I returned this fall prepared to earmuff the East Coast negativity.

Instead, I’ve encountered a new version of the SU clone—the state fair-loving, Pumpkin Spice Latte-sipping, cashmere sweaterwearing wannabe. The same people so baffled by my decision to leave Los Angeles now rep this corner of the country with more pep than the models in a Vineyard Vines catalog. This transformation defies logic and yet somehow, I’m the crazy one for moving to Central New York, where half-assed excitement for these few autumnal pseudo-traditions mark me as the ignorant one.

Yes—pseudo-traditions. I don’t think overdosing on pumpkin-spice-and-cashmereeverything for a few months justifies tradition.

I’m not against the idea of a community united by celebration; I just don’t understand what we’re celebrating. Maybe it’s a childhood of

October heat waves or a lack of red-yellowand orange memories from growing up on the East Coast, but raised in the super-season of Beachy and Balmy, I can’t relate to the fantasy fall of New England postcards. There isn’t a specific day Californians trade in boogie boards for rakes. And we’re not obligated to chug gallons of apple cider or wrap ourselves in knit scarves, either. Yet every year, these items roll out at the start of September, marking the onset of fall on the East Coast while the same hallmarks in the West have no emotional resonance.

Regardless of where you’re from, fall should be about the familiarity of spending time with friends and family while going to that stupid fair—or raking leaves, or making pumpkin bread—year after year. Put the value in seasonal traditions, not the byproducts themselves. It’s easy to get swept up in the hype of something new, but keep your “I HEART FALL” shirts out of sight. And come Snowmageddon 2013, shut up and let this warm-blooded Golden State native hold onto the warmth of home. JM

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WAGE W AR Low minimum wage means workers do more, and get paid less.

By Heather Rounds : Illustration by Polina Rozina Sammi Troyer props her elbows on the coffeeexcellent grades, while taking 19 credits so splattered tabletop and tucks her hands she doesn’t lose her academic scholarship. underneath her chin. Troyer sits at a table near Troyer might get off one shift, finish as much Food.com in Syracuse University’s S.I. homework as she can in her two-hour break, Newhouse School of Public Communications. and then rush out to her other job. She sleeps Her short blonde hair, tied in a ponytail, four hours a night. This routine of skipped bounces as she talks—smiling and energetic. meals, stolen hours of sleep, 46 hour work It’s impossible to tell Troyer is stressed. weeks, and to-the-minute planning is the Since age 16, Troyer has worked seven only way Troyer can support herself while minimum wage jobs. Now, as a junior earning the bare minimum. How she feels elementary education major at SU, she works after a shift: “Used.”

46 hours a week between her jobs at Mom’s “Employers stretch [minimum wage Diner and Domino’s Pizza. “There’s no going workers] thin because they know they can do out. There’s no partying. There’s no being a anything and we’ll take the money for it part of anything. It’s just me, school, and because we need the job,” Troyer says. Over work,” Troyer says. the summer she worked as a waitress, making Describing her responsibilities and $2.13 an hour, excluding tips. Her schedule, her life sounds like a nonstop responsibilities included setting tables, marathon. She sprints from one task to the washing dishes, serving food, and cashing next, juggling her jobs and trying to maintain out all of the customers. When large orders

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arrived in the evenings after the customers left, Troyer’s boss would send home all the workers, except the employees earning $2.13—they had to stay and unload boxes of frozen food and crates of produce for a few extra hours. “So we’re getting paid $2.13 an hour to be doing a job of someone that gets paid 15 dollars an hour,” Troyer says bitterly.

Discussions of raising the minimum wage have flitted in and out of the Congressional arena on both state and federal levels.

Minimum wage is supposed to set the standard so that individuals earning the lowest income can survive on a 40-hour workweek.

Yet people, like Troyer, have to work extra hours to make ends meet. New York has the fourth highest cost of living in the country, yet unlike California, Washington, and Vermont— whose minimum wages all have increased to eight dollars or more to compensate for their

costs of living—N.Y.’s minimum wage remains unchanged at $7.25. Don Dutkowsky, an economics professor at SU’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says these states have increased wages because they want their residents who work full-time minimum wage jobs to be able to support themselves without living in poverty or needing government assistance. NewYork has yet to follow suit, and Dutkowsky doesn’t see it happening in the immediate future. “I think it’s the government’s task to ensure that if people can work 40 hours a week that they’ll be out of poverty,” Dutkowsky says. “But at a current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, even if somebody does the right things, they can’t support a life beyond poverty with that wage.”

Increased wages would allow students, who constitute a large majority of the people holding minimum wage jobs, to work fewer JERK

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hours and dedicate more time to their studies.

Which means students, like Troyer, wouldn’t have such draining itineraries. With higher pay, students would also get a headstart on paying off student loans while in college.

Phyllis Weber, another SU student, feels the tension as she attempts to balance school and her minimum-wage job. Weber, a junior duel international relations and anthropology major, laments about her job at a restaurant on Marshall Street. The job makes her life a balancing act—depleting her social life and threatening her academics, but not paying enough. “I thought about quitting and I talked to my parents about it, but it’s just not plausible. It’s hard figuring out hours and keeping up with school,” Weber says, laughing weakly. “This semester it’s been very difficult.

I’m very behind right now.”

Last fall, Weber had to pick up a second job at the Carrier Dome. It’s unusual for her not to work a full shift at the Dome until 10 p.m., hurry home to study for a few hours,

squeeze in a quick shower if she has time, and then trek to her job on Marshall to work until 4 a.m. This semester, however, she chiseled her workload down to one job—but it still takes a toll on her life. “I would love to work less,” Weber says. “It would provide me more freedom to be a normal kid in college.”

Juxtaposing the cost of living with minimum wage, Dutkowsky believes minimum wage would have to be increased to at least 12 dollars an hour to adequately help people survive and stay out of poverty. If it was an appropriate amount, students who work diligently, like Troyer and Weber, wouldn’t have to battle to make ends meet. Weber knows of coworkers who work full-time, earning minimum wage, but are still forced to live off welfare or some other state aid.

Insufficiently paying jobs everywhere leave workers feeling exhausted and exploited.

Last month, community organizers, employees of Walmart, and the United Food and Commercial Workers planned protests in

major cities across the country for better wages and hours for Walmart employees.This conglomerate of people, referred to as Organization United for Respect (OUR) at Walmart, staged these demonstrations across 15 cities—including New York City,Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago – on Sept. 5, 2013.

With angry and empowered slogans splattered across waving signs, the frustrated OUR Walmart petitioners danced, rallied, and blew horns throughout the course of the oneday protests. Protesters called for full-time

“EMPLOYERS STRETCH [MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS] THIN BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY CAN DO ANYTHING AND WE’LL TAKE THE MONEY FOR IT BECAUSE WE NEED THE JOB,” —SAMMI TROYER

Student

wages of $25,000 a year, or 12 dollars an hour. If their demands were met, Walmart employees would be financially secured above the poverty line.

Walmart Corporate's response to Our Walmart's demonstrations show troubling contradictions. On their Facebook and Tumblr pages, OUR Walmart claims employees involved in the protests had been fired or had some form of disciplinary action taken against

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them, but Walmart Corporate denies these claims. Spokesman Dan Fogleman says OUR Walmart is actually a front for Walmart’s competition to attack the corporation and publicly defame Walmart.

And even if some of their employees did participate in the protests, it was a small number and does not represent the opinion of the majority of its workers. “It’s a little bit of a bloody fight sometimes and as a worker you wonder if it’s worth it,” Dutkowsky says, commenting on the situation at Walmart.

Senior Rachel Ahart, a social work major, keeps a list of horror stories from her past job as a cashier at a restaurant, making only $5.25 an hour and a few dollars in tips each night.

For her, minimum wage isn’t just barely survivable, but not an appropriate amount for the demands workers have to meet. Bosses often run minimum wage workers ragged, squeezing out every morsel of work they can.

Because most of these are service jobs, they require their employees to interact with customers, who can be rude and impatient— something that Walmart employee, Cydney Ward, resents.

Ward cashes out a woman and son purchasing large bags of cereal. Ward bags the cereal, but a couple inches of one of the packages jutts out. The woman called Ward incompetent and lacks common sense. She demands to see the manager. Ward confesses the most difficult aspect of her job isn’t standing all day or bagging item after item, but “finding ways to be polite to people that are incredibly rude to you.”

The minimum wage sector is filled not only with students paying off loans and this week’s rent, but nearly four million other Americans. Workers, like Ward, who do jobs that are exhausting and monotonous, with difficult people, long shifts, sore feet, and little pay. Workers who must get up tomorrow, and do it again. JM

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MARY THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT

Artist Mary Giehl keeps the community warm—one hat, scarf, and pair of gloves at a time.

By Nicole Fisher : Photos by Ilana Goldmeier

Giehl sits in front of just a portion of the 750 items donated for

“Connecting with Something Warm.”

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Stuffed gallon-size Ziploc bags overflow from cardboard boxes in the corner of Mary Giehl’s self-built backyard art studio. Each bag holds knitted and crocheted items: scarves, hats and infant slippers varying in color, size, and design. Standing above the organized chaos, Giehl—wearing rounded glasses, a simple gray T-shirt, light wash jeans, and blue Crocs splattered with paint—searches for an example of excellent craftsmanship. “Oh, there it is,” she says, pulling out a knitted scarf embellished with rows of delicate white and yellow flowers and green stripes resembling grass. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asks. Giehl folds up the scarf and places it back in the bag.

Next, she pulls out a heather-gray structured hat with a cream-colored stripe around the middle. Giehl wishes she could keep the hat, one of 750 items scattered around her studio.

According to her, however, that would defeat the purpose of her project. With a sigh and a smile, she repackages the chunky knit back into its designated bag.

Giehl, a local installation artist and former Visual and Performing Arts professor at Syracuse University, never anticipated the feedback she received from her project,

“Connecting with Something Warm.” Through this community-inspired project at ArtRage Gallery, Giehl has spent the last year collecting donations of yarn-made items contributed by local knitting guilds. Within the next month, Giehl will travel around downtown Syracuse, placing packages filled with pieces on city walkways, park benches, bus terminals, and other accessible areas where people can find these gifts. Each Ziploc bag also contains a postcard, which Giehl hopes the recipient will mail back to the gallery to explain how they encountered the items. Then, on Nov. 2, ArtRage Gallery will display the postcards as part of their exhibit, “Spoken Threads: the Art of Craftivism,” an exhibition of fiber social justice projects.

As a collection of fiber art inspired by traditional craftsmanship, “Spoken Threads” and “Connecting with Something Warm” considers the impending Syracuse snowstorms—and the people who are left without the means to comfortably survive them. With over 400 homeless individuals and families living in emergency shelters in Onondaga County, Giehl’s project displays something more than just yarn. For Giehl, JERK

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ArtRage approached Giehl about the project since they knew of her expertise in fiber work from her previous work. Giehl was inspired by a project she worked on in 2004 called “Inner Light of Children.” The project happened when Giehl found herself with an excess of sewn Muslim children’s clothing protected by beeswax. Giehl built mannequin-like stands dressed in different outfits made from the clothing. Over 16 weeks, she left three structures at a time in bus shelters around the city of Syracuse, with an attached postcard that asked individuals to name the structures and then send the postcard back to Giehl. The postcards were then arranged in a window downtown next to images of the figures around the city.

For “Connecting with Something Warm, ”Giehl contacted multiple knitting groups around the Syracuse area. She attended their meetings, explained the project, and asked for their assistance. Around a year ago, Giehl contacted Deborah Gardner, a member of The Knitting Guild Association who attends the Northern Onondaga Public Library Knitters meeting each week. Giehl attended a meeting to explain the project to the group and after that, Giehl kept coming back. “I was supposed to be the drop-off person for the group, but Mary enjoyed our group so much she kept coming back for more,” Gardner says.

Most of the Northern Onondaga Public Library Knitters donated around two items each, but some members asked others to contribute as well. “I even used the project to barter with someone,” Garnder says. “I had a couple of books I wanted to get rid of and a group of members wanted them. Instead of paying for them, I suggested she knit a scarf for Mary. She said ‘How about I make two?’”

The project escalated after it received some attention from the press. When the Post Standard published an article about the project in July, the newspaper provided the community with Giehl’s contact information.

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Since then, the project contributions have been overwhelming. One day over the summer, Giehl received an email asking her to pick up donations for the project from a house. She thought she would only be getting a couple of items. The woman sent 200.

Donations to the project were not limited to the borders of Syracuse. Giehl, who has ties to North Carolina after completing an artist-inresidency project there, received two boxes of donations from a knitting group she attended while living there. Giehl was touched that the women who were part of the inspiration for the project wanted to help her reach her goal.

The project inspired others to clear out their yarn collections. Giehl says that five or six women donated 15 to 25 items each.

And when they said they were done, they would come back with two more items.

Giehl even received a pair of infant’s socks in the mail made by a 96-year-old woman.

Giehl says she can see the time that went into each item she receives. The creativity of the knitters and complex designs inspire her. One woman sent in six scarves that she made by thrifting old sweaters, unraveling them, and creating new scarves for the project from the salvaged yarn. Attached to each scarf was a handwritten label describing the type of fabric used. “She told me that each item only cost her two dollars, but how about the time she dedicated to the project?” Giehl asks. “I hope someone appreciates it.”

Though some women in the knitting groups tear up over “Connecting with Something Warm,” not everyone was receptive to the project. A woman expressed her hatred of the project to Giehl.

“It was tough for her to realize what was going on,” Giehl says. “As I continued to explain, she became more receptive but was still resistant.” The woman argued that it was disrespectful to the items and the women who made them to leave them at random locations. Giehl walked away feeling defeated, but waiting for her at the meeting the following week was a Pandora bracelet bag, with a crafted wine glass

“SHE TOLD ME THAT EACH ITEM ONLY COST HER TWO DOLLARS, BUT HOW ABOUT THE TIME SHE DEDICATED TO THE PROJECT? I HOPE SOMEONE APPRECIATES IT.” —MARY GIEHL monogrammed ID tag around the handle.

Also inside the bag: two delicate scarves and a note from the same woman. She had come around.

The original goal for the project was to collect 500 items. A week before she started distributing packages, Giehl realized she surpassed that goal. Giehl hopes ArtRage is pleased with the turnout for the first stage of the project. “It is a unique community bonding experience and has the ability to impact many,” says Kimberly McCoy, the community engagement organizer at ArtRage.

This project opened Giehl’s eyes to a generous and creative group she hopes to stay in touch with. “People love the idea of giving away knitted and crocheted items,” she explains. “They love to work with their hands and keep busy. These women and men contributing to the project are a

unique bunch. They love the activity, the feel of fibers, and patterning. To them it is something they get immersed in.”

On Oct.7, Mary drops off 20 scarves around Liverpool. She places an item on a bench and drops a pin on her Maps app at the location of the package. She walks away, unsure if the handmade items will find a home, but excited for the warmth they will bring. JM

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ancing ueen Trexx Nightclub serves gay, straight, and everything in-between with pride.

By Sarah Schmalbruch : Photos by Drew Osumi Fifteen minutes remain until showtime when Jazzi hurries into the cramped dressing room at the back of the club. As her name suggests, she shines in a tight, short dress, covered in flashy turquoise sequins.

Her stiletto pumps highlight toned legs, and her thick, black, fake eyelashes would put Nicki Minaj to shame. Jazzi’s face—porcelain-like, thanks to layers of foundation—is framed by an amber-orange wig, which she whips off to reveal a buzz cut.

Jazzi lifts her dress over her head. Her black bra lies against her flat chest, filled only by large, sewn-in pads. A club staffer points out that the Styrofoam pads tucked into her nude tights—her “hips”—need to be switched. She has mixed up her right hip with her left. She comments on how different girls’ bodies are from boys’ and how tough this makes her life; one only has so much time and money to spend.

That’s why she makes most of her own attire. Jazzi is a regular performer at Trexx, an 18 and older nightclub and gay bar located at 323 N. Clinton St. in downtown Syracuse.

Founded in 1995, the club opens for

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business Thursday through Saturday, with drag shows every day except Friday.

Thursday nights, known as College Night, draw the biggest crowds. Themes for the shows range from S&M to Drag Wars to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

For the performers, getting ready for these shows is no small task. Although every inch of their faces is artfully caked in bold makeup, Jazzi says there’s more to drag than that. “It’s not even about the makeup. It’s an art; people don’t get that.”

Performers use every mirror in Trexx’s tiny dressing room. Rebecca stands in front of a fan, drying the beads of sweat that have collected on her forehead from her last performance. Jenna pulls on a pair of ripped black tights that show more skin than they conceal. Idalis gives herself three spritzes of perfume.

These girls may not be the same as the ones you would find in a girls' dorm bathroom on a weekend night, but the concept is similar.

They’re dressing to impress. They just use a little more makeup—not to mention hips, boobs, and wigs—to do it. JM

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2

3 Jazzi, after realizing she mixed her right hip from her left, gets her styrofoam pad “hips” fixed by a club staffer.

Jazzi puts last minutes touches on her makeup. Idalis, in blue, gets the top of her dress done-up.

Jenna has been cross-dressing since high school and been doing drag for 14 years.

She has three kids— two girls and one boy.

Winner of the Syracuse New Times “Best gay friendly straight bar—best straight friendly gay bar,” Trexx is “hands down the mega danceparty in this area.”

There’s a dancefloor with multicolor lights, club music, and live bands. Cover charge ranges from two to seven dollars, depending on age and night.

Trexx is open until 4 a.m.,Thursday through Saturday, with different themes each night.

Thursdays are college nights, Fridays are “Funkin Club Nights,” and Saturdays feature go-go boys and girls. Each night, at midnight, there are male strippers.

1 5 4

WHITE TEE'S AND SUNGLASSES ALEX: Sunglasses: Urban Outfitters $14, Shirt: T by Alexander Wang $90, Shorts: Vintage from Modern Pop Culture $14; Shoes: Model’s own.

JASON: Sunglasses: Model’s own; Shirt: Model’s own. KATHRYN: Sunglasses: House of Harlow 1960 $138; Shirt: T by Alexander Wang $80, Sneakers: Converse $45.

TOP SHOP

We've made our list and checked it twice.

Whether you're glitter or goth, these Jerkapproved wardrobe essentials will make for a lifetime of easy dressing—no expiration date.

BY: Joelle Hyman and Julie Kosin PHOTOGRAPHER: Allen Chiu MAKE-UP ARTIST: Eva Narun HAIR STYLIST: Lisa Cianciotta MODELS: Kathryn Isaac, Alexandra Ross, Jason Rostkowski Shot on location at Tops Supermarket, Nottingham Road

BLACK PANTS (left) KATHRYN: T-shirt: Vintage; Pants: Model’s own. ALEX: Sweater: Zara, $120, T-shirt: Saturdays Surf $40; Pants: J.Crew, $118; Sneakers: Nike, $120.

CREWNECK SWEATSHIRTS (right) JASON: Jacket: Model’s own; Sweatshirt: Gap $40; Sneakers: Superga from J.Michael $64. KATHRYN: Sweatshirt: Alternative Apparel $38. ALEX: Sweatshirt: American Apparel $40; Flannel: Stylist’s Own; Sneakers: Superga, $110.

SNEAKERS (left) JASON: Sneakers: New Balance, J.Michael $70.

HATS (right) ALEX: Undershirt: Vintage from Modern Pop Culture; Shorts: Forever 21 $17; Knit hat: Carhartt; $8. JASON: Knit hat: American Apparel $22; Boots: Model’s own. KATHRYN: Jacket: BDG $60; Romper: Vintage from Modern Pop Culture $26; Knit hat: Eugenia Kim $188.

M OTO R CYC LE JAC K E T: STY LIST' S OW N ; PA N TS: C UR R E N T/ E LLIOTT, TH E D E STR OY E D A N K LE J E A N $228.

TRANSITIONAL JACKETS (left and right) JASON: Jacket: J.Crew $238; Sweater: Topshop $72; T-shirt. ALEX: Jacket: Elizabeth and James $250; Sweatpants: H&M $20 KATHRYN: Jacket: Vintage; Sweater: Uniqlo $60; Skirt: Vintage from Modern Pop Culture $32.

JACKET : M ADE WE LL $ 9 8 ; S WEATS HI RT: S T Y L I S T 'S OWN; PA N TS : Z AR A , SLI M F I T D EN I M $ 8 0 ; S UN GLASS ES : M OD EL'S OW N .

M OTO R CYC LE JAC K E T: STY LIST' S OW N ; PA N TS: C UR R E N T/ E LLIOTT, TH E D E STR OY E D A N K LE J E A N $228.

GAWK STRIPPED

CLOSET CASE

ALL-ACCESS PASS

You don't need to go backstage to get the scoop on your favorite band.

Check out these tees with more history than Sid and Nancy.

Photos by Ilana Goldmeier

KNOCKING

BOOTS Lace 'em tight or slide on your sheepskin-lined shame—whatever the weather, boots are the answer.

By Julie Kosin : Illustration by Hillary Cianciosi

“Grupo Cultural AfroReggae was created by an ex-drug trafficker to bring education to youth in favelas with dance, percussion, and a blend of hip-hop, soul, and R&B. Any time I wear it I get compliments—the Rasta colors get a lot of people’s attention—and I get excited to tell people about [the organization].

It’s been a good way to meet friends.”

“My brother got me into Dashboard Confessional.

When he was over being emo, he passed down this shirt to me because he knew I was still into the band. I really don't mind wearing this shirt anywhere—I wear it out to parties and bars.

Sometimes people say things, sometimes they don't, but it's really what I feel comfortable in so I want everyone to see it.”

“I grew up on The Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead, and my dad and I would always sing ‘Blue Sky’ on car rides together.

He passed away from cancer when I was a senior in high school. After his funeral, my sisters and I went through his dresser full of T-shirts. I chose the ones that were band shirts because they reminded me of him the most.”

-Bridget Walsh

­–Lauren Lewis

–Kelsey Bray

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Thanks to meteorological uncertainty and uneven terrain, boots are the universal staple of a Syracuse University student’s wardrobe— contrary to the sea of orange T-shirts ESPN documents at every Carrier Dome event. But how, when, and why this footwear essential is executed on campus depends entirely on the social species of its owner.

Take your classic black knee-high, for example. This shoe clings to the leggingclad limbs of a sorority sister like a rushing freshman desperate for a bid. Only one circumstance can separate her from those battered, beloved boots: rain, which requires the impenetrable olive-green veneer of the Hunter Wellington.

Despite the presence of the somewhat pleasing design of the Hunter boot, nothing can diminish the overwhelming onslaught of ugly footwear that arrives on campus when inclement weather strikes. From late October to early May, duck boots, UGGs, and Sorels transform the non-Panhellenic student body into a shuffling mass of hobbit-footed mutants. From preppy frat boys trading in

their Top-Siders for Timberlands to the ESF outdoorsmen who confuse campus for a camping expedition, wearing ugly boots is as prevalent at SU as Walden–filtered Instagrams of the Hall of Languages after the first snow fall.

Only a select few avoid the horror every year, sacrificing warmth and comfort for a more attractive silhouette. Pairing Chelsea boots or Doc Martens with an oversized flannel, this group is comprised of the Visual and Performing Arts kids who spent the last six months debating the pros and cons of Hedi Slimane’s grunge collection for Saint Laurent.

Want in on the conversation? Familiarize yourself with Isabel Marant, the fashion set’s go-to designer for that laid-back, Parisian cool-girl effect so desirable to the non-Gallic masses. Then swap your Steve Madden knock-offs for a pair of black fringe boots from Marant’s collaboration with H&M (launching in select stores and online Nov. 14) to bring some of that desperately needed French je ne sais quois to Cuse. JM

JERK

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11.13 47

By Ryan Harper

THE NEW

48 11.13 • JERK

PHOTO CREDIT: http://bit.ly/19KPpjm

With recording agencies and on-campus Internet technology services slowly losing vigilance, illegal downloading has become...

For the last eight years, Joanna Weinberg one day a month sits down at her computer, opens up iTunes, and begins her search. She takes her $10 monthly allotment and starts at the Top Singles section. Thanks to iTunes raising prices an extra 30 cents, she has to settle for less than an album’s worth of her favorite songs from the last four weeks.

She was an eighth grader in the summer of 2005, the same summer she joined MySpace with her friends. Incidentally, it was the same time she found out the 300 songs her Top Eight convinced her into downloading on LimeWire would rack up a total of $4,000.

“It was kiddy stuff,” Weinberg, now a senior, says. “Like teeny boppers. No rap.”

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Weinberg, opening a case not even her parents, both lawyers, were willing to fight. She fell victim to a crusade waged against music downloaders from 2003 through 2008, an era that saw only 50 authorized music providers in its early days.

Approximately one in three people believed the music they downloaded was legal. By the end of the campaign, more users found the legal and more legitimate sources available.

But increased legal access doesn’t equal a decrease in illegal downloading.

Weinberg has since moved on and considers the suit another conversation starter. And while her wallet still reels from the indiscretion, she understands why others haven’t stopped. “There are so many outlets to get music for free,” she says.

About five years ago, Syracuse University was a haven for illegal downloaders. Then, in

2007, students and personnel were handed 37 settlement letters from the RIAA—the secondmost in the country behind Ohio University.

That response, fueled by the growth of illegal services such as Napster and FrostWire, temporarily stalled on-campus activity.

For senior Emma Smelkinson, subscribing to paid services such as Spotify Premium isn’t the same as filling her iPod. Whenever she can’t find what she needs, she’ll download it.

Her latest find was the Arctic Monkeys’ AM. She scours the Internet and, from there, lets uTorrent, a popular bittorrent client, do the dirty work.

Sure, there’s a fear of Trojans and viruses, but more underground sites are taking precaution to prove their trustworthiness.

The Pirate Bay, for instance, remains one of Smelkinson’s favorites. One of the largest providers of bittorent downloads, the site color-codes uploaders with skulls and crossbones based on reliability— you're labeled pink if you're trusted, green if you're VIP. Such measurements placate anxious downloaders.

“Totally worth it,” Smelkinson says, reflecting a general consensus among SU students who take what they need when it suits them.

Advertising professors Brian Sheehan and James Tsao conducted a study published in 2009 that examined on-campus downloading.

Titled “Motivations for Gratifications of Digital Music Piracy Among College Students,” their research found social utility as downloading’s primary driver and peer pressure as the catalyst for its escalation.

JERK

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11.13 49

NOISE

“i think our culture is worse for the fact that people do something they know is wrong.”

—BRIAN SHEEHAN Advertising Professor

RIAA’s old sanctions may still live with the accused, but the majority of downloaders emerged untouched; getting through that time added an element of invincibility. “Everyone had a story of hearing of someone who got sued,” Sheehan says.

In 2008, the RIAA ended its campaign of litigation against offenders like Weinberg.

With new means of disseminating music, the industry can’t defend itself. A European Commission Joint Research Centre report published this year found illegal downloads boost legal purchases by two percent— justifying the RIAA’s move away from suing the average leecher.

Now, the industry tries to push fans toward a legal marketplace, shifting focus from enforcement to education. RIAA spokesperson Cara Duckworth saw firsthand the power transfer to the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), an organization created in partnership with the motion picture industry. Under the new warning procedure, downloaders receive up to six warnings before suffering legal action.

“We just let people know that this is going on,” Duckworth says. “Like, ‘Please stop—and here’s a place you can go to get legal music.’”

The push toward legal services such as Spotify, iTunes, or Pandora coincides with the passage of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), which puts universities under more pressure to protect copyright and enforce the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This allows the RIAA to wash its hands of its former responsibilities.

In 2009, they launched Why Music Matters,

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a website dedicated to presenting alternative options that pay content creators. Their mission focuses on educating the Internet users on what’s legal and illegal—a distinction that previous users such as Smelkinson, whose father introduced her to downloading with the server Kazaa, really needed.

“At that point, I definitely wasn’t aware of the repercussions and didn’t think that peerfile sharing was illegal,” she says.

While the RIAA has lessened its role in enforcement, SU’s Information Technology and Services remains watchful. If caught by a copyright holder, a student could potentially face greater consequences from ITS than from the CCI. But regardless, punishments have receded.

According to Communications Manager Chris Finkle, ITS works to maintain the law of the land and ensure on-campus policies align with industry standards. He didn’t work at SU five years ago, but from stories he’s heard, taking further action was more common then.

These days, five people, including the director, work for ITS’s Information Securities team. They spend most of their time securing the network and protecting it from hackers.

Their jurisdiction, however, doesn’t extend beyond that. “There’s nobody sitting at a computer 24/7 looking at what’s going on over the network,” Finkle says.

But when a copyright holder does send notice, the punishment follows the same protocol. Each time a student gets caught, they’re quarantined from the network, but with an opportunity to redeem themselves—if they meet certain requirements.

Strike one: Read SU’s network policy and send an e-mail as proof of completion. Strike two: Make a mandatory appointment with the Director of Information Security for a counseling session. Strike three: You’re out.

Not exactly, but repeat offenders will stand before Judicial Affairs, where they’ll have a strong chance of losing network privileges.

Yet even that isn’t enough to break the habit. With ITS and RIAA backing off, a mindset of indifference over piracy laws among college students has replaced fear. Weinberg remembers her friends downloading off AirOrangeX without consequence, following the mentality of a high school prankster: If everyone does it, then no one can get in trouble.

Though Sheehan remembers 2009, when a more prevalent unease over getting caught sat in the back of his students’ minds, popular attitude continues to evolve. “I think our culture is worse for the fact that people do something they know is wrong,” he says. “But they don’t care because they don’t think they are going to get caught. And everyone else says it’s okay.”

A BBC study published last year ranks the United States as the top country for illegal music file transfers at nearly 97 million downloads nationwide. And decreasing government involvement won’t help curb the trend.

Syracuse students have illegally downloaded since the birth of Napster and will continue to do so as long as AirOrangeX is up and running. In Joanna Weinberg’s eyes, they don’t care enough to worry anymore.

“You don’t think about getting caught,” she says. “Not in 2013.”

Take, for instance, an introductory communications law seminar. David Rubin stands before a lecture hall of 39 freshmen.

As the former S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications dean, he’s well acquainted with his students’ on-campus habits. On the topic of illegal downloading, he throws it back to the room.

“How many of you have done it?” he asks.

Every hand goes up. JM

THICK AS THIEVES As defined by the U.S. Copyright Office, infringement is “when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. “ Below are a few options you probably thought were legit—until now. Remember: In most cases, if the industry isn’t getting credit— money—then it’s illegal.

VIDEO TO MP3 CONVERTERS This service allows users to strip audio from their favorite online videos. Seems like a simple enough way to bring your favorites on the go, right? After all, YouTube channels don’t receive direct payment from viewers.

By taking the content away from the site and advertisements, however, you’re basically stealing money straight from the artist’s—or Vevo’s—pocket.

MIX CDS For the special few who realize their disk drive isn’t some oversized piggy bank, mix CDs may seem an innocuous gesture. Thinking about making your Friday night hook-up a playlist of Nora Ephron-level love songs?

Think again. The only way you’re in the clear is if you’re sending Columbia Records a check for every Sleepless in Seattle track.

CONCERT RECORDINGS Before filming your favorite live rendition of Vampire Weekend’s “Diane Young,” make sure to ask permission from Ezra Koenig before the show. If you post that song and monetize from those personal recordings, then you’re breaking the law.

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off the books

The Feminist Novel!

To celebrate National Novel Writing Month, Jerk revisits the classics.

the COMING of Age NOVEL J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is the quintessential tale of growing up, hating it, and wanting to run away. For those similarly-inclined, here’s why Holden Caulfield had it right about disappearing to New York City.

1. It’s the best place to lose yourself

3. Doing adult things

Don’t waste your patience with the lousy people at school. Instead, make like Holden and go to New York City, or The City as it’s called by anyone who matters. You’ll still be around people you can’t stand, but they won’t be able to stand you either, so at least you’ll have that in common. Stay away from that Yelp-approved restaurant on the corner of Such Street and Something Avenue; it’s phony anyway. In true Holden fashion, hit up seedy bar after seedy bar and meet hardened old men who can wax poetic with you about “the old days.”

So you’ve lost all joie de vivre. Now it’s time to enjoy the trappings of adulthood found in NYC. Grab an underage drink or two—preferably something with an amount of whiskey proportional to your sophistication. Befriend a barkeep, or seek comfort in the arms of a lady of the night. You don’t even need to do anything with said lady; just keep your hands to yourself and bask in a shared loss of innocence instead.

2. The dark, gritty city aesthetic From the dank alleyways to the fuck yous scribbled on the walls, you’ll quickly realize that The City is as crummy as your outlook on life. But it’s perfect for you, a misunderstood and tortured youth with as much joy in your heart as insufficient funds on your MetroCard.

Take the bleak cityscape and make it the place—your place—for reckless abandonment.

Become the Chris McCandless of the concrete jungle, rent a rat-infested apartment on Avenue C, and let the darkness of pavement infiltrate your swollen heart.

4. Endless source of nonexistent nostalgia Let’s face it: you’re not old enough to be nostalgic about much. The world today is about as messed up as it was when you were born.

But nostalgia goes hand in hand with cynicism, and New York has no shortage of people yearning for days past. Head to Central Park and reminisce about your carefree childhood while watching children on the carousel.

Consider the Natural History Museum, where, like Holden, you’ll likely find beauty in how everything—other than yourself—always stays the same.

Jane Eyre

It isn’t uncommon to feel a sense of empowerment after reading an impactful piece of writing. Early feminists novels, like Jane Eyre, have the power to inspire and change viewpoints through examples of fearless protagonists who rise above their conflicts and say fuck the patriarchy.

In this 1847 novel, the eponymous heroine asserts her own identity within a maledominated society—a notion well ahead of its time. Charlotte Brontë, under the penname Currer Bell, introduced 19th century readers to issues of sexuality, class, and religion lacking in other works. Jane only marries Mr. Rochester once she’s certain their marriage is a union between two equals, rather than upholding the submissive, Victorian woman stereotype.

The Scarlet Letter

Set in 17th century Salem, Mass., Nathaniel Hawthorne’s historical drama chronicles Hester Prynne’s isolation in the aftermath of an adulterous affair. Though her public humiliation shows the inherent gendered double standards of Puritan America, Hester perseveres. She raises a child alone, supports herself and her daughter financially, and remains dignified even after her spirit has been crushed.

The Awakening

“There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air”—this kind of atmospheric language defined Kate Chopin’s 1899 seminal novella. While vacationing in the Gulf of Mexico, Edna Pontellier struggles to embrace traditional motherhood alongside her radical ideas of femininity and social attitudes in the conservative South. With one novella, Chopin forcibly thrusts America into literary modernism, putting the written word toward a greater movement.

Matilda

A book before it was a movie before it was a Broadway show, this children’s novel— written by Roald Dahl, no less—proves females can be extraordinary no matter their age. Matilda stands up to bullies like her parents and principal, discovers telekinetic abilities, saves the school, and helps meek schoolteacher Miss Honey find her voice along the way. Pretty fierce for a grade school kid.

The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen yells, “I volunteer as tribute!” and, in doing so, gives Millennials a heroine for our present and future. In the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, Katniss hunts to support her family before winning a televised death match that forces her to become a smarter and more lethal warrior than she already is. She even leads her male counterpart to survival, flipping the idea of typically male action heroes on its head.

Romance novels have long been criticized as being formulaic when, in reality, they’ve evolved greatly from the precedent set by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Look below and guess the love story.

To the casual science fiction fan, there exist only Trekkies and Whovians—but diehard aficionados flock to these lesser-known sub-genres.

Feminist sci-fI

CYBERPUNKS

Responsible for the misconception that sci-fi deals exclusively with the final frontier, the space opera took off in the 1940s and laid the foundation for a near-century of fandom afterward. Initially used as a pejorative term, the space opera emphasizes romance and adventure, sometimes drawing on western films for inspiration. E.E. Smith’s Lensman and Skylark series set the literary precedent for the genre, but it took until the early 1980s and the international success of Star Wars to propel space opera into the mainstream. Today’s space opera strays from romanticized storytelling, opting instead for a darker tone about the defeat— rather than the triumph— of mankind.

Infusing science fiction with activism, feminist scifi offers thoughtful criticism by posing questions about women’s roles in society. This subgenre explores topics of gender and identity by creating dystopian or utopian roles where gender disparities are celebrated, reversed, or eradicated. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for instance, helped spearhead the movement by dealing with the idea of asexual reproduction and retelling the story of creation. Other titles, such as Woman on the Edge of Time and The Female Man, challenged gender norms and helped demyth the “damsel in distress” stereotype.

Beyond standard literature, however, feminist sci-fi gave birth to femspec, a comprehensive academic journal pushing to positively reinforce ethnic diversity within a genre that often excludes strong female characters and characters of color.

Bruce Bethke’s 1983 eponymous short story brought cyberpunk—a portmanteau of “cybernetics” and “punk”—into the lexicon.

With a focus on high technology and low, rebellious street culture, cyberpunk hews close to reality, expanding on present-day fears of artificial intelligence sprawling too far out of control in the near future.

Anti-heroes and marginalized populations abound in this postmodern, postindustrial landscape, combining film noir and dystopian qualities in works such as William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

Other technoprogressive movements, such as steampunk and biopunk, exist in the same space.

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ANSWERS: 1.ROMEO AND JULIET 2. GONE WITH THE WIND 3. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN 4. GREAT GATSBY 5. TWILIGHT

Space Opera

THE ROMANCE NOVEL

THE THE SCIENCE SCIENCE FICTION FICTION NOVEL NOVEL

The Mystery Novel Following the days of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, the mystery novel has become a by-thenumbers checklist gone the way of John Grisham and James Patterson. Author your own with this Jerk approved writer’s guide.

1. THE HERO SHOULD HAVE...

A self-deprecating streak.

A mismatched sense of invincibility.

A lack of fulfillment; never satisfied.

Non-negotiable: A previous life-altering trauma.

Optional: A drug or alcohol dependency.

2. THE VILLAIN SHOULD HAVE...

An inflated ego.

Near superhuman strength and/or cunning.

A distinct advantage over the hero.

Non-negotiable: A knack for leaving clues behind.

Optional: Good looks.

3. THE CRIME SHOULD...

Be done at night.

Have a compelling motive.

Baffle authorities.

Non-negotiable: Be unoriginal (i.e., stabbing, drowning, etc.).

Optional: Be done through a third party (i.e., hiring a hitman).

4. THE LOVE INTEREST SHOULD… Be misleadingly weak.

Match (or outmatch) the hero in wit and wiles.

Be attractive.

Non-negotiable: Always be in danger.

Optional: Be in cahoots with the villain.

5. THE PLOT SHOULD… Have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Have twists and turns.

Move at breakneck speeds.

Non-negotiable: Be resolved.

Optional: Leave room for a sequel.

THE DYSTOPIAN NOVEL

Our society’s hypothetical deterioration is likely best left in the pages of 1984, but we’re closer to parts of Orwell’s mind-controlled society than we thought.

Much like all other technologies in the superstate of Oceania, telescreens work as tools of propaganda. Bidirectional and never turned off, these voiceactivated flat panels push party ideologies and offer the government constant surveillance into private residences. Today’s televisions don’t spy on us, but they’re just short of the mark. The Xbox Kinect, for instance, is always listening when voice commands are activated. And with dictation programs such as SpeakWrite and Dragon, perfecting voice recognition to Orwellian standards is closer to reality than before.

A mechanical device responsible for writing literature and music filled with Party groupthink, the versificator disseminates government-approved content generated free of human involvement. Its closest contemporary— the spambot—functions similarly, working off a specific directive and churning out relevant information. More so, machines capable of creating content indistinguishable from content generated by people already exist.

Coupled with rapidly progressing artificial intelligence research, a real-life versificator may not be far off.

In Oceania, the Thought Police work in tandem with telescreens to monitor and punish the citizenry for thoughtcrimes opposing Party dogma. In the United States, PRISM—the National Security Agency’s (NSA) electronic surveillance program— requests data from companies like Google and Facebook, collecting intelligence first and analyzing it later to hunt down terrorist activity.

What remains unclear, however, is the extent of NSA’s oversight, meaning all our private information could be floating around— government threat or not.

REWIND

WE HELP CRITIQUE POP CULTURE SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO.

ALTRUIST

FREDDIE MERCURY

One Direction

By Daniel Taroy

The deal As it says in scripture: Before Justin, there was ‘N Sync. And a decade later, boy bands are as in vogue now as they were in their TRL glory days. Thanks to U.K. import One Direction, the legacy of five-part harmonies and shellacked hairdos has survived even our harshest pop-punk and EDM misgivings.

By Erin Kelly

ALBUMS

BY THEIR

SINGLES

58 11.13 • JERK

Rating (out of 5)

Artist

Album

Single

Swearin'

Surfing Strange (Nov. 5)

"Watered Down"

4.5

Gap Dream

Shine Your LIGHT (Nov. 12)

"Shine Your Light"

3.5

Gilded Pleasures EP (Nov. 12)

"Tell It How It Is"

3.0

The Growlers

The issue

PHOTO CREDIT: http://bit.ly/190RjcO

WE JUDGE

Queen’s relevance outlives Mercury, proving that the essence and power of his legacy will never fade from music or the minds and hearts of his fans across the world. In fact, Freddie was voted 58th in a poll of the 100 "Greatest Britons" in 2002 and he wasn’t even born in England. Mercury ranked higher than J.K. Rowling, a queen in her own right—take that, Harry Potter.

Thanks to his influence, we have artists like Fun., who recreate theatrical pop-rock with lead singer Nate Ruess’ falsetto reminiscent of Mercury’s. Fun. even played with the remaining Queen members for a set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas this September. And Lady Gaga credits her own dramatics to the late frontman, her stage name an ode to Queen’s, “Radio Gaga.”

Mercury once said, “I always knew I was a star, and now the rest of the world seems to agree with me.” We agree Freddie—you, and Queen are here to stay, and like your composition and style, your impact on music will continue to transform over the years, to come back better than before. JM

PHOTO CREDIT: http://queenphotos.wordpress.com/page/40/

From kid-friendly versions of “Under Pressure” and “Another One Bites the Dust” in Target’s back-to-school commercials, to Katy Perry’s new Killer Queen fragrance, to drunken “Bohemian Rhapsody” sing-a-longs at every family reunion, it’s impossible to escape Queen’s lasting influence. And with the remarkable vocal range and flamboyant personality of late frontman, Freddie Mercury, the band's legacy lives on.

Mercury redefined stage presence when Queen exploded onto the music scene in the 70s. With intelligent theatricality, ambiguous sexuality—glitter-doused unitards, anyone?—and the desire to take risks, Mercury turned rock ‘n’ roll into an art form.

But the show came to an abrupt halt on Nov. 24, 1991, when Mercury died of complications from AIDS just 24 hours after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.

As one of the first celebrity casualties of the epidemic, Mercury’s death directed public attention to the illness, paving the way for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity in Mercury’s memory.

Boy bands, 1D included, have historically been marketed toward teenagers—teen girls, particularly. As with their predecessors, each member falls into one of the familiar tropes: The Hot One (Harry Styles), The Sensible One (Liam Payne), The Funny One (Louis Tomlinson), The Mysterious One (Zayn Malik), and The Innocent One (Niall Horan), making them infinitely more marketable to varying tastes. And from releasing a self-described “feminine fragrance” to inspiring scores of Future Mrs. Harry Styles shirts, the band’s intent is obvious. Even criticism of Directioners, including a British GQ article comparing fans to “knicker-wetting banshees,” focuses on a specific slice of the fanbase.

The (larger) issue Society likes its celebrities straight. To succeed otherwise, they must be funny (Ellen

Degeneres), conventionally attractive(Matt Bomer), or completely hidden away (Lance Bass) to be as accessible and unthreatening as possible. For 1D, maintaining that safe image demands interview questions about ideal girlfriends, and tabloid speculation about trysts with the occasional model or pop star. Further fueling the fire are select tracks, such as “Diana” from this month’s Midnight Memories, which seem intended only for female fans.

The defense Too bad 1D doesn’t give a fuck. Call male Directioners gay, and Tomlinson will say, “Fans are fans,” regardless. Call Styles bisexual, and he’ll wear a flower crown and eat a candy thong off his bandmate onstage.

In an industry and genre primarily defined by heterosexual representation, these boys stand apart. Of their five music videos released in the last year, not one included a love interest.

And in concert, they switch to gender ambiguous pronouns, like you, instead of the gendered hers and shes, that normally fill their lyrics. Just as they’re candid about getting hair and makeup done, 1D is unafraid of camping it up with each other. Some might claim cultural disparity; even so, America could learn a thing or two about breaking gender norms from what Business Insider calls the “first billion-dollar boy band.” JM

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11.13 59

SYNAPSE SYNAPSE

BEN FIORE

AMPLIFIED

Guy Fawkes On Nov. 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators attempted to blow up the English Parliament and that bastard, King James I of England. But the plot fizzled out before it even began and now, on this day every year, the people of England celebrate King James’ survival by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes. Over here at Jerk we just like anarchy, so enjoy a few pieces of culture that celebrate political overhaul.

Where they're from: Liverpool, N.Y. • Members: Ben Fiore—vocals, guitar; Zach

Hayes—vocals, percussion, guitar; Ryan Burns—bass, guitar, mandolin • Active Since: 2003 • Sounds like: The bastard child of Matt Nathanson and The Script

FILM: Oldboy

What they Jerk to: The Goo Goo Dolls and singer-songwriters such as Jason Mraz, Joshua Radin, and—as Zach Hayes admits—Sara Bareilles. “Future wife—she doesn’t know it yet,” Hayes says.

Best Song: “Circles,” originally released on the 2012 album of the same name, was so successful that the band collaborated with Fritz Sakran to make “Circles Remix.” The original acoustics and rough voice of lead singer Ben Fiore, paired with rap verses as well as synthesizer à la One Republic, create a sound that warps genres.

Weirdest Gig: In addition to mistakenly headlining a drag show, the band also performed at Amy’s Slumber Party, radio station 93Q’s all-women business event.

About 800 ladies with questionable BACs were quite taken with the men’s performance.

One band member even had to be escorted

60 11.13 • JERK

out by police, wearing less clothes than he came in with.

Why you should listen: With the unique flare of percussionist Hayes’ cajón, or box drum, the band’s inherent knack for acoustic covers, and their new hip-hop beat influence, their music takes the drab coffee shop/bar scene band and bumps it up to a new level for listeners.

New Album: The Places We Will Go will be hip-hop influenced, more production-based, and better geared toward radio play. Expect the album's release this December.

Where you can listen: Find them on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and their website, benfiore.com. Keep up with Ben and his band on their Twitter @bfioremusic, and catch them at the Limp Lizard in Liverpool, N.Y. every weekend.

PHOTO CREDITS: (GUY FAWKES), http://bit.ly/19B1hOZ (FILM),http://bit.ly/1abEcn1 (MUSIC), http://bit.ly/VrPvBO (TELEVISION), http://usat.ly/1c35907 (BOOK) http://bit.ly/1a2bsTA

By Eric King : Photo by Ousman Diallo

MUSIC: Mantangi

Like Guy Fawkes, actor Josh Brolin is held prisoner

M.I.A. has always released music promoting

in upcoming thriller Oldboy, in theaters Nov. 27.

notions of political misconduct, and her new

The Spike Lee-directed film is based on a 2003

album, Matangi—coincidentally set to release on

Japanese manga of the same title and follows a

Nov. 5—sends just those messages. With tracks

former hostage victim’s retribution against his

like “Bring the Noize” and “Karmageddon,” we’ll

kidnapper. After 20 years of imprisonment, Joe

surely be banging on our dashboards in defiance.

Doucett (Brolin) seeks vengeance in a way that Fawkes only dreamed of.

TELEVISION: Killing Kennedy

BOOK: Walking Dead Vol. 9

On Nov. 10, National Geographic will air Killing

Anarchy rises in Robert Kirkman’sThe Walking

Kennedy, a piece based on the book by Bill

Dead Volume 9, which drops Nov. 19. The graphic

O’Reilly. In a creepy twist, the show premieres

novel—that served as inspiration for the AMC hit

right before the 50th anniversary of President

series—launches readers into apocalyptic chaos.

Kennedy’s death. The TV-movie depicts a plot to

You guessed it: it’s a zombie takeover. With no

assassinate a political figurehead—only this one

government, some serious undead mayhem is

was actually successful.

bound to go down.

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11.13 61

DISCOVERSYR

Stevie’s Street Eats Made-from-scratch, seasonal food and a menu that changes daily makes Street Eats a foodie haven.

By Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm : Photos by Penelope Vasquez

989 JAMES ST. SYRACUSE

The food truck operates a few days a week, spring through mid-fall. The deli is open year-round, Mon-Fri.

Steve LeClair seasons the pork shoulder with a smattering of freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt. He blasts it on the stovetop over high heat, developing a deep-brown crust, then places in the oven for about 12 hours.

The braised pork, cooked low-and-slow with house-made stock and mirepoix (chopped celery, onions, and carrots), emerges meltingly tender.

“I love doing my braises,” says LeClair, owner and chef of Stevie’s Street Eats, located at 989 James St. “Everybody’s into that rib-sticking stuff.” Stuff like the pork shoulder, which LeClair might serve with basil and mascarpone whipped potatoes and gravy or as a teriyaki-style banh mi sandwich, topped with pickled vegetables and srirachasesame mayo.

Street Eats began as a food truck in March of last year, and just seven months later, on Nov. 5, 2012, opened their deli at the Imperial Gardens apartment complex.

Prior to opening Street Eats, LeClair served as a professional chef for more than 20 years before growing tired of the conventional restaurant scene. After noticing the rise of food trucks in bigger cities, LeClair, with the help of his wife Danielle, decided to open up his own truck. His thinking: “Syracuse has its share of hot dog carts and sausage sellers, how ‘bout I do something on the street here

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that’s totally different than what everybody else is doing?”

The truck—with menu items like fried calamari tacos, hand-cut fries, and half-pound Black Angus burgers—was a success from the get-go. So popular, LeClair would run out of food, and since he was doing his prep work in a shared kitchen on Westcott St., didn’t have the space to increase output. He needed his own established kitchen and with the truck closing for the winter, opening the deli was the perfect opportunity to expand Street Eats and keep customers happy.

While the deli remains open year-round, the truck only operates May through midOctober. The deli and truck share the same concept: changing daily menus, using local and seasonal ingredients and making food from scratch and to order.

Each night, the next day's menu is posted to the Street Eats' Facebook page, where its 2,000-plus followers wait to see what crazy-yet-harmonious combinations like “The Hammertime” sandwich, stuffed with candied ham, melted Wisconsin cheese, applewood smoked bacon, a fried egg, and sweet chili garlic compote, Street Eats will serve next. LeClair doesn’t get inspiration from other menus—he dreams it all up in his head, serving food he likes to eat. Food that, clearly, Street Eats customers love too. JM

Steve LeClair, the owner and culinary mastermind of Street Eats.

A crispy, fried burrito is finished with a dollop of sour cream.

The dining area outside the truck, parked at the corner of W. Fayette and Geddes Streets.

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OBITCHUARY

SPEAKEASY

The King of Marshall Street

Birthday Cards CAUSE OF DEATH: SOCIAL MEDIA

When Dave Jacobs was a Syracuse University sophomore in 1976, he felt a lack of “rah-rah” in the community. So that year, his family moved to Syracuse to start a Syracuse University spirit-wear business on The Hill. Thirty-eight years later, Shirt World keeps us affectionately Cuse-clad, while simultaneously pursuing us on the street.

1843-2013

By Paige Carlotti

By Leigh Miller : Photo by Penelope Vasquez So the guy who stands outside of the store— what’s up with him?

I started it years ago to create the hysteria and charisma of the atmosphere. It’s kind of a double-edged sword. We want to connect with the people on Marshall Street and some people love it, some people don’t. I don't know how long we’re going to continue that.

We’re trying to find the happy medium.

Have you found it actually brings in sales?

We’ve been here long enough that people know if they want the authentic, the original Syracuse garments, they’re gonna come up to The Hill. So our business hasn’t faltered if he’s not out there promoting it.

Is there ever a time when the two-for-one sale isn’t going on?

Not really cause there’s not much more you can do, whether it’s a buy-one-get-one or buy-one-get-something. Ya know?

What’s your favorite T-shirt at Shirt World?

“Real Men Wear Orange.” At 3 a.m. one night I’m sitting in bed and it hits me. I turn and tell my wife I have an amazing idea.

She says to “go back to bed” ––I have ideas

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every two minutes—but I say, What do you think about “Real Men Wear Orange?”

The next morning we called our attorney, registered it and trademarked it. From around 1991 till now, and tens of thousands of T-shirts later, it’s become an iconic shirt of Syracuse.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve witnessed on Marshall Street?

In 1997, when we got into the Final Four, we looked outside our store and saw people from Haven and Walnut Park in the hundreds, maybe thousands, coming down in droves and said, “Wow, we gotta get out of here!”

It’s like having the sea opening up and the water flooding onto Marshall Street.

What makes Syracuse spirit unique?

I’ll tell ya, I’ve been around this country, playing ball, traveling, and seeing different universities and colleges, and our students, fans, and this community are the best, most loyal, and most understanding. Because if we’re losing, our kids don’t jump off the bandwagon. They stay on there and they just keep moving forward. JM

After battling social media-related illnesses for two years, Birthday Card went to heaven last month. Birthday Card lived a long, happy life—remembered for its creativity, ability to put a smile on anyone’s face no matter the distance, and knack for putting one’s feelings into words.

Unfortunately, Birthday Card could not withstand the Internet’s ability to instantaneously connect people from great distances––which consequently took the life of its brother, Belated Birthday, as well. Birthday Card is preceded in death by Invitation and Thinking of You, and is survived by siblings Thank You, Graduation, and Sympathy.

Birthday Card put forth a valiant effort, warding off Facebook wall posts, Twitter mentions, and Instagram collages with singing cards, voice-overs, and pop-ups.

Overpriced pieces of paper, however, could not compete with the greater affordability of cyberspace during these tough economic times. Birthday Card began to show signs of life again with the invention of e-cards, but didn’t have the antibodies to fight the quickness, convenience, or personalization of digital best wishes.

During its final years, shopping for Birthday Card became a chore for some and a hassle for many. Perusing the aisles of Hallmark required so much effort and wasted time overanalyzing the person’s hobbies, relationship status, and blood type—the list goes on. “Should I get the one with the puppies? She loves puppies, right? Or is she the one who’s allergic? Damn

it, I can’t remember. I’m going with the flowers.” Before you know, it’s 10:30 p.m. and you’ve missed the first half of American Horror Story.

When posting on someone’s Facebook wall, the biggest decision you have to make is how many exclamation points to tack on at the end, all whilst comfortably lounging in front of the TV. Though some argue that Facebook may be disingenuous compared to Birthday Card, Instagram’s birth in 2010 gave way for endless photo collages of you and your bestie, accompanied by a caption with hilarious inside jokes intricately woven throughout. I mean, come on—why spend money on a card showing a photograph of a stranger doing something funny when you can have a picture of the real drunk birthday bitch doing it herself last Friday? JM

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FORM&FUNCTION FORM&FUNCTION

How To Dress For Black Friday

Dead iPad: So much for 12 hours of Hulu.

Coupons: When technology fails, revert to caveman tactics.

Oversized hoodie: No one's hair looks good after sleeping outside.

Fast food: You’ve already lost your dignity—why not your waistline?

Pillow: Time for that tryptophaninduced snooze.

Loafers: Good luck outrunning the soccer moms.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Shijing Wang MODEL: Jake Katz

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