ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, February 24, 2016
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English journalist, Mil Yiannopoulus, speaks on issues regarding feminism and mysogyny during the debate against Julie Bindel at the Michigan League ballroom on Teusday.
Controversial figures debate feminism, freedom of speech Event at Michigan League draws large campus, state crowd By BRANDON SUMMERSMILLER Daily Staff Reporter
A debate featuring controversial public figures Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos took place Tuesday night in the ballroom of
the Michigan League. During the debate, the two speakers exchanged arguments about feminism, debating whether the feminist movement impedes an individual’s freedom of speech. Hosted by The Michigan Review, the event drew a crowd of several hundred people, some of whom drove across state lines to hear the pair. Engineering senior Hunter Swogger, one of the event organizers, said the Review
wanted to bring Bindel and Yiannopoulos’ voices to the University’s campus in order to expose the campus to new ideas. “The entire point is to hear prominent people of prominent ideologies come together and speak,” Swogger said. Yiannopoulos has been the subject of significant criticism for his opinions on individual feminists and feminist ideology, namely his views that feminists invent problems that do not exist
— such as campus rape culture and the gender wage gap. Bindel, who considers herself a second-wave feminist — a movement focused sexuality, family and workplace issues that lasted from the 1960s to the 1980s — has also received criticism for her treatment of modern feminists and the transgender community. Both Yiannopoulos and Bindel, who are British, have been banned from multiple universities in the See DEBATE, Page 3A
Modifications to come in light of recent shootings in Kalamazoo By RIYAH BASHA Daily Staff Reporter
Students at Western Michigan University are raising questions about the reliability and efficiency of emergency alerts concerning off-campus incidents at their college after Saturday night’s mass shootings in Kalamazoo. Jason Dalton, an Uber driver in the city, shot eight people at random while picking up riders throughout the city between 6 and 10 p.m., killing six and injuring two victims. The incidents occurred in three separate county jurisdictions across the span of more than four hours, with Dalton moving within two miles of WMU grounds at times. No alert was
sent out by WMU. WMU junior Philip Faustman said he drove by the crime scene on his way home from work, but had no idea what had occurred. “I did see about 20 cop cars there. I couldn’t find anything out until about 11 p.m. when local news reported the news,” he said. “But on Saturday night when kids are out at bars, no one’s in dorms, there’s incredible on-campus traffic moving offcampus. When a large chunk of the student body is going to be affected by this, why was there no alert?” WMU has an emergency alert system similar to the University of Michigan’s, capable of alerting students, faculty and staff by phone and e-mail. Unlike the University, WMU’s system only reports threats occurring directly on campus, the minimum required of schools by federal law under the Clery Act. After backlash about the lack of an alert, WMU president See ALERT, Page 3A
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CSG talks resolutions, recalls three members
‘U’ rank drops in business poll on academics New York-based publication considered 477 colleges in study By ANNA HARITOS Daily Staff Reporter
Tuesday, Business First — a publication based in Buffalo, New York — released an ranking of the top public colleges in America. The University of Michigan placed second in the rankings, a drop from its first place ranking in 2015. The University declined to comment on the ranking. The University’s first place spot was taken this year by the University of North Carolina, which was the runner up in the 2015 rankings. According to the study, the University scored 97.621 points out of 100. The ranking of 477 four-year public universities is based on 20-part formula created to indicate which institutions offer their
students the best educational experience. The formula looks at indicators of excellence, diversity, prestige, affordability and economic strength.The breakdown of the statistics looked at for each university covers a wide range of departments. It includes the school’s admissions process, economic communities, tuition, retention rates, diversity, reputations, resources and housing costs. All the statistical information that was reported was from the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Other publications’ college rankings — such as the U.S. News and Forbes — were also taken into consideration. The University is ranked first among the 15 Michigan institutions that were included in the study. The second was Michigan State University in 37th place, and Michigan Technological University in 124th place.
Body discusses issues of abseentism at meetings By ANNA HARITOS Daily Staff Reporter
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Senator Marco Runio (R-Fl) speaks at a rally in Grand Rapids on Tuesday evening.
Presidential hopeful Rubio hosts rally in Grand Rapids Republican candidate talks student debt and American Dream By CAITLIN REEDY Daily Staff Reporter
At Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R–Fla.) campaign stop in Michigan on Wednesday, all roads led to the American
Dream. Weeks before Michigan’s presidential primary on March 8, Rubio visited the Lacks Enterprises Inc. factory — a car part manufacturer just outside of Grand Rapids. Two thousand supporters gathered in a storage warehouse for the company to hear Rubio, who discussed the burden of student loans and what he characterized as the country’s failures, ranging from military to the current
campaign. In particular, Rubio spoke of his frustration with current levels of student debt in the United States — Market Watch reported on average a debt of a $35,051 for students graduating in 2015 — a topic he said he is the sole Republican candidate to address. “You go to school, you do everything they ask you to do and you end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in See RUBIO, Page 3A
At Tuesday’s meeting, representatives of Central Student Government discussed medical amnesty, recalling representatives, an upcoming mental health survey and two resolutions. During the meeting, the assembly voted to call on the University to enact all-encompassing medical amnesty, including drug violations, for the University and for the state of Michigan. Currently, the state provides medical amnesty only for underage drinking. “A Medical Amnesty Policy cannot achieve its goals unless it protects both the caller for help, and the person experiencing the medical See CSG, Page 3A
the statement The Literary Issue: Light of your life, fire of your loins
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University students recieve Fulbright awards Twenty-nine University of Michigan students received Fulbright grants this year — more Fulbright scholars than any other public university in the United States — for the third consecutive year, according to a press release. Among both public and private universities, the University was ranked only below Harvard University, which received 31 Fulbright grants. The Fulbright program provides recipients the
opportunity to conduct research, study or teach English in over 140 countries for six to 12 months. Selection is made based on the applicant’s’ academic and professional records as well as on their academic project proposals’ potential. Proposed research topics and travels for the UM recipients vary. One recipient, John DoeringWhite, a social work and anthropology Ph.D. candidate, is researching undocumented migrants in Mexico. Another, University alum Layne
Vandenberg is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil researching how 2016 Olympic Games preparations affect lowincome communities. The U.S. Department of State has sponsored the Fulbright program since 1946, with the aim of increasing mutual understanding and appreciation between different cultures. The University was the top public producer of Fulbright scholars nationwide in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010-2012.
WHAT: The Off-Campus Housing Fair will occur in the Union. Come meet property managers and financial aid advisers. WHO: Beyond the Diag WHEN: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. WHERE: The Union, Pendleton Room
WHAT: The Center for Campus Involvement will host a class on how to make healthy smoothies on the go. Following the demos prizes will be raff led off. WHO: Center for Campus Involvement WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: The Union, Pendleton Room
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Rackham student Niklas Tamm prefaces the U-M Choirs and Symphony Orchestra performance of Brahms, Mahler and Vaughan Williams with a a description of the story of the piece.
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Broadcasted theatre
Architecture lecture
WHAT: “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” will be broadcasted live from the National Theatre in London. WHO: University Musical Society WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Theater
WHAT: Taubman will host guest lecturer Esra Akcan to present a lecture on “Open Architecture.” WHO: Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning WHEN: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: Art and Architecture Building
Film and lunch
Love Your Genes drive
CREES lecture
Brown Bag recital
WHAT: The Confucius Institute will host a film and lunch event. They will be showing a documentary created by a University professor titled “Chinese Minzu Music and Dance.” WHO: Confucius Institute WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: The League
WHAT: As part of Eating Disorder Awareness Week, the Body Peace Corps will collect old clothes to celebrate “all bodies” by hanging up the clothes on a line. WHO: Body Peace Corps WHEN: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: West Quadrangle, the Connector
WHAT: Guest lecturer Zlatko Jovanovic will give a lecture titled “Sarajevo, My Dearest City, We Fixed You for the Olympics,” on representations of Sarajevo from 1979-1987. WHO: Center for East European Studies WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work Building, room 1636
WHAT: There will be a 30-minute organ solo. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: 12:15 p.m. WHERE: School of Public Health Building l Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
A federal judge determined that Hillary Clinton aides will be questioned under oath, the Washington Post reported. They will be questioned about using a private e-mail server during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.
2
This week, the Statement magazine celebrates the literary arts on campus, with a selection of student poetry and prose. >> SEE STATEMENT on 1B
3
Kurdish special forces announced that they rescued a Swedish teenager from ISIL, The New York Times reported. The 16-year-old girl from Boras was allegedly mislead by an ISIL member to come to Iraq.
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Panel of experts on U.S. justice system discuss solutions to long sentences, high incarceration rates for minorities
Event features presentations from local activists, Ann Arbor attorneys
the School of Nursing, said Tuesday night to a packed room in the Hatcher Gallery. Haidar was one of dozens of students who participated in a dialogue titled #WhoWillBeNext: A Dialogue on “The New Jim Crow Laws: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Hosted by Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, the dialogue focused on the treatment of incarcerated individuals and the effect it
By WILL FEUER Daily Staff Reporter
“Nobody cares about prisoners, that’s how it is,” Jalal Haidar, a sophomore in
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has on society. Participants sat around six tables, which were filled with University of Michigan students, community organizers, lawyers and clergy members, who each debated issues regarding race and criminal justice. The Michigan Daily was asked not to include any remarks made during table discussions at the event, but did record speakers and presenters. During the event, Diane Smalley, a local community activist for female inmates, shared stories of young Black men and women being handed half-life sentences for crimes that she said they had clearly atoned for before the end of their sentences. Smalley asked participants to think about benefits from mass incarceration. “High incarceration means high economic activity,” she said. She noted that contracts given out by prisons to private companies for prisoner necessities like food and clothes can be huge sources of income and employment for those who benefit from the process. Iglesia Martell, an Ann Arbor attorney, echoed Smalley’s remarks and said individuals who are incarcerated tend to be from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. “Judges who have a different life experience don’t really understand poverty or what really drives someone to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Martell said. “People who are incarcerated tend to be people who are more disenfranchised, especially if
GREG GOSS /Dailly Angie Martell, Washtenaw County public defender, facilitates a group discussion on national race issues and mass incarceration at Hatcher Library’s Gallery Room.
they can’t afford an attorney and this tends to be people of color.” During table discussions at the dialogue, participants came to the consensus that economic incentives to perpetuate the system of mass incarceration, along with judges who do not empathize with people of color, create a system in which individuals of color are assigned longer prison terms. Another participant raised the point that some people believe the U.S. is currently a post-racial society, which in turn contributes to racism in the judicial system. Maya Finoh, a professor at Brown University, said though that view of the U.S. was inaccurate, several recent historical events — namely, the election of President Barack
Obama as the first Black president — could explain why it exists. “Just because Barack Obama was elected does not mean we are living in a post-racialized society,” she said. “…I think you could make the argument that in 2015, we are living in a more racist America than in 1955.” After discussing the perceived issues, the conversation turned toward potential solutions. Participants cited education for the young and investment in poorer areas in particular as ways to reduce crime. Smalley pointed to restorative justice as a way to improve the judicial system, which is a method by which prisoners contact the families who were aff licted by their crimes and apologize, showing
genuine remorse. “It forces rehabilitating criminals to reach out to the family in such a way that the family recognizes it,” she said. After the event, Nursing junior John Shaver said despite the United States having the highest incarceration rate in the world, he hopes the University will take a stronger stand in helping to create a judicial system that is not critical of people of color. “The incarceration system in the U.S. has been unnecessarily racialized and has seeked to limit the opportunities of Black and brown people,” he said. “And I hope that the University responds by making some sort of an official stance against the ways that the judicial system has been prejudiced against people of color.”
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RC Art Gallery displays studentprisoner photos The Residential College Art Gallery in East Quad will display student-prisoneer collaborative photos through April 8, a University press release reports. The project is the first ever photography workshop in the state that included both students and inmates, and it was part of Humanize the Numbers — an ongoing project that connects prisoners and community members in Southeast Michigan through art. The photography workshop took place at Thumb Correctional Facility. During each session, the inmates would share their ideas for an image, and the students would then capture their vision. One of the photos feautured in the gallery depicts a chess board in which a single black piece lies in the shadow of white pieces. Another captures an inmate with their hands covered in red — inmate Johnnie Trice explained in a University press release that the photo signifies his journey at Thumb Correctional Facility. He entered with blood on his hands and left with paint, he said.
Food bank works to counter lead effects in Flint Beginning Feb. 24, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan along with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will offer 12 truckloads of food to Flint residents, according to MLive. The mobile food pantries offer choices rich in vitamin C, calcium and iron to reduce the effects of lead contamination. Each distribution site expects to receive 400 families and provide them with healthful foods to limit the impact of lead exposure. Part of the funding was a part of the approved $28 million supplemental budget approved in January. The first event will be at noon on Feb. 24 at Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church. At 1 p.m., another distribution site will be Salem Lutheran Church.
Retired judge expected to be DPS transition manager Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes is slated to be the transition manager for Detroit Public Schools. He will meet with district teachers at Cass Technical High School on Wednesday to discuss his plans to transition the Detroit schools back to local authority, according to the Detroit Free Press. Rhodes will asssume the transitional role after emergency manager Darnell Earley’s resignation on Feb. 29. Gov. Rick Snyder tasked Rhodes with guiding and implementing DPS reform legislation. He will head a leadership transition team, on which Tonya Allen, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, has been asked to serve. Allen has not yet confirmed the postiion. The Free Press reported that union officials have requested Rhodes consider a third person to serve on the transition team. The Detroit school district faces a $3.5 billion debt and lawsuits rearding the teacher sick-outs and poor infrastructural conditions that closed numerous schools over the last several weeks. Rhodes played a role during the years leading up to the Detroit Bankruptcy and in the years following. Rhodes and Snyder met with teachers and principals on Monday as well to hear feedback from the community. State lawmakers are still debating legislation; however, many of the bills still have yet to gain widespread support.
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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) greets supporters at a rally in Grand Rapids on Tuesday evening.
RUBIO From Page 1A student loans,” Rubio said. “Current leaders don’t care about our debt. They just care about getting reelected.” Along with helping students, Rubio discussed his plan to enhance the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, citing a recent misstep with the suicide hotline of the department that allowed calls to go to voicemail or otherwise not be responded to immediately. Moving to the broader topic of the military, he also touched on his plan to end a deal the Obama administration made with Iran, which reduces sanctions on the country in exchange for an agreement from Iran to severely restrict its nuclear program. Also on the subject of the military, Rubio garnered a response from the crowd when he expressed dissatisfaction regarding the potential closure of Guantánamo Bay, a military prison known for its conduction of unethical interrogations, and his plans to start a real war on terror. “When I am president, it
CSG From Page 1A emergency; and unless it applies to all substances, not just a narrow subset,” the resolution states. “The Medical Amnesty Policy desperately needed is one that provides complete protection for students of all ages.” The vote resulted in a 26-0 vote with one abstention, which barely qualified as a quorum for the body. LSA senior Noah Betman, speaker of the assembly, said if 24 representatives or less were present during the vote it could not have been held, and the resolution could not have been passed. Attendance has been a recurring issue throughout the year. During the meeting, three representatives were recalled based on the premise that they were absent for more than the allotted number of absences without justification. During his representative report, LSA junior David Schafer asked body members to look over the the survey, which he said has been reviewed by University researchers and officials. The survey, a series of questions regarding student awareness of mental health information and resources, is meant to gauge whether there is a need to improve the general mental health climate for faculty and students. Schafer said he and the
ALERT From Page 1A John Dunn sent out a public letter to the campus community Sunday noting the need for reform. “We need to make adjustments in our own procedures to respond to extraordinary circumstances,” he wrote. “Last night’s incident clearly was one.” WMU senior Austin Wines, a residential adviser and student organizer, put together an online petition the night of the shootings calling for improvements to the system. The petition garnered about 1,500 signatures in a day.
will be my number one priority to rebuild the U.S. military,” Rubio said. “We aren’t going to have a fake war on terror. When I am president, we are going to have a real war. We are going to find them and we are going to destroy them with the best military in the world.” Rubio, who is polling in third nationally with 16.4 percent, according to an aggregate of polls from RealClear Politics, has yet to win a Republican primary. His closest finish was a slight lead over Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Tex.) in the South Carolina primary this weekend to obtain second place behind Donald Trump. However, Rubio said he remained confident about his chances in the election. “This election is so much more, because after eight years of failure, this election will be what we want it to be for the 21st century,” he said. While Rubio was campaigning in Michigan, Nevada’s Republican caucus was called for frontrunner Donald Trump. The win places more pressure on Rubio, as well as Cruz, to perform well in later primary states such as Michigan.
During his speech, Rubio referred to Trump indirectly, saying he wasn’t asking his supporters to let the nation be divided by the presidential results. “I will never ask you to be angry in order to win. If you elect me I will be president for all Americans, even the people that don’t like me or say nasty things about me on Twitter,” he said. “Because if you want to be president of the USA you have to love the American people, even the ones who don’t love you back.” Rubio ended the rally by recounting his family’s history, which he said is the reason he is running for president. The son of two immigrants who he said worked their entire lives but were able to buy their own house and raise a family of four, Rubio said if elected he aims to protect the American dream. “We owe everything to the Americans before us. Each generation left their children better off than themselves,” Rubio said. “Now the moment has arised for our generation to do our part … If you vote for me, we will leave our children with the greatest nation in the history of mankind.”
co-authors of the survey, LSA junior Yumi Taguchi and LSA senior Anna Chen, met with the Institutional Review Board in order to ensure the questions were not biased. “We are doing this with a randomized sample, and hope to send this (survey) out by the end of March,” Schafer said. “We aim to analyze the data in April and throughout the rest of the summer, and come back in the fall with some pretty concrete initiatives for the 2016-2017 academic year.” Among the resolutions brought to the table were to add the 24-hour phone line of the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services to the back of student Mcards, and to fund the production of a video for the Prescription Drug Misuse Campaign. The CAPS resolution aimed to have the number printed on Mcards starting with the class of 2020, with the intent of decreasing the stigma associated with mental illness. “Everyone knows there’s a mental health crisis on campus,” said LSA senior Allison Williams, one of the resolution’s authors. “The goal for this resolution is to decrease the stigma that is associated with mental illness on campus, so many people feel uncomfortable going to CAPS who may need to can get the help they need.” Williams added that printing the number on the back of Mcards would be a symbolic
gesture to show students that the University cares about mental health issues. Public Policy junior Jacob Pearlman, CSG student legal counsel, said he admired the presence of the resolution and thought it was a much needed resource. In speaking to the second resolution, Schafer, a co-author, said it was part of the ongoing prescription drug misuse campaign. Beginning last semester, the body has been planning a week-long event to raise awareness in students on how academic pressure impacts drug abuse and what the effects of that abuse are particularly on college campuses. The campaign was inspired in part by the death of University alum Josh Levine, who passed away from a drug overdose after mixing adderall with alcohol at a party. If approved, the resolution would allocate $900 to fund the production of a promotional video for the campaign. Schafer said he believes the video will be a helpful resource for both current and future students. “All those behind the campaign, myself included, hope that this video will be utilized by future student groups and orgs on campus,” Schafer said. “I hope this will last longer than than the campaign, and have a lasting effect that educates and protects students.”
In an interview, Wines said the petition focuses on the emergency alert system as an obtainable goal, aiming to match the significant importance of alerts with system improvements to increase campus safety and timeliness of alerts. “Such a large shooting gaining national attention shines a light on this issue people are now taking seriously,” he said. The University of Michigan’s Division of Public Safety and Security alert system differs from WMU in that it alerts the campus community to possible threats both on and off University property through e-mails, tweets,
texts to registered devices and messages on the DPSS website and the UM digital gateway. According to DPSS spokesperson Diane Brown, DPSS filters threats before sending out an alert, with help from Ann Arbor city police help in determining the imminence of incidents. “We work quite collaboratively with the city police as well as the county sheriff,” she wrote in an e-mail interview. “To determine whether or not to issue an alert for an incident not occurring on campus, we would analyze whether we perceive there is a threat to our campus community.” Wines emphasized that
United Kingdom due to their views. In an e-mail interview with The Michigan Daily, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote that Bindel and Yiannopoulos were allowed to participate in the debate on campus because the University strives to allow freedom of speech for all students, including opinions from outside guests. “The university feels so strongly about this topic that our commitment is codified in an official policy, called a Standard Practice Guide,” Fitzgerald wrote. The guide states the expression of diverse viewpoints is of utmost importance to the University community because students should both be able to express their opinions and be able to be exposed to new ideas. In response to the debate, the University’s Spectrum Center — which dedicates its efforts to LGBTQ awareness on campus — offered extended office hours to provide an alternative space for students who felt threatened by the debate. Engineering freshman Conrad Stoll said he was surprised the center hosted a safe gathering space for members of the LGBTQ community during the debate, since both Yiannopoulos and Bindel are gay. “I would think that would be good,” Stoll said. “There’s two renowned people who are in the queer community and I was really shocked that the Spectrum Center acted as if they were terrible.” The Spectrum Center was not immediately available for comment Tuesday evening. A statement on their website reads, “We recognize that the rhetoric of the speakers featured in this event is incredibly harmful to many members of our campus community. The Spectrum Center will be providing a supportive alternative space this evening and holding extended staffed hours until 9pm. There will be no program; our intent is to offer a relaxing, positive space for students who want to gather in community.” During the event, Bindel noted that she was banned from multiple academic institutions following The Guardian’s 2004 publication of her article titled “Gender benders, beware,” which prompted many in the feminist community to label her as transphobic. In the article, Bindel argues that transgender women do not experience the same struggles of being women since they are born as men. “They decided I should never ever be redeemed,” Bindel said. “All my 35 years of unpaid activism disappeared because I was suddenly a vicious transphobe.” Bindel said unlike modern day feminism, her feminism advocates for the prevention of violence against young women and girls. In his remarks, Yiannopoulos said he thought modern day feminism is dangerous because it silences men, compromising freedom of speech. “The problem is that the particular modern ground of feminism has a problem with free speech,” Yiannopoulos said. “There’s a particular brand of feminism which holds almost total sway in the media and in gender studies.” During the debate, the pair touched on several gender equity issues, such as the wage gap between men and women. Research from multiple sources, such as the federal government’s College Scorecard
though he was disappointed in the handling of the situation at WMU, he and other student leaders are focused on forwardthinking reform. “We’re going to be taking a hard look at what we can do now in the 21st century to reflect the type of campus students are calling for,” he said. “We appreciate the cooperation of a lot of different forces on campus to address this issue.” After holding a campus town hall, Dunn organized a campus life committee tasked with updating the emergency alert system that includes former members of the National Guard, a former county
released last year, has shown a significant gap in pay between men and women in a variety of professions. Bindel said the wage gap is caused by several factors, one of which is the perception of women in the workplace among their male colleagues. “Women are punished and they’re treated very harshly for asking directly, assertively, for a pay rise,” she said. Yiannopoulos countered by claiming the wage gap simply does not exist. He said instead, when women are presented with the same opportunities as men, such as pursuing a degree in the STEM field, they are not as likely to complete their education. “Women don’t work as hard,” Yiannopoulos said. LSA senior Andrea Filisko said she came to the debate because she believes there is a real freedom of speech problem on college campuses. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily feminists, but I do think there’s a large amount of censorship of the right of the political spectrum on college campuses,” Filisko said. Beyond gender, the discussion also considered several other equity issues. Yiannopoulos applauded when a questioner noted that Michigan institutions of higher education can no longer take race into account during the admissions process due to the 2006 adoption of Proposal 2 in the state. He charged that affirmative action policies are ineffective because real change to solve educational inequalities must occur at the childhood stage of educational development. “You improve the quality of teaching, you don’t pretend people are going to deal with a course they can’t,” Yiannopoulos said. Bindel said she supported affirmative action, since she herself was once an underprivileged student in England but was able to attend a university with the help of state provisions. “I don’t think that African American people who are given a helping hand to get to university are stupid or have a low IQ,” Bindel said. “I think that they’re just socially disadvantaged.” Bindel’s statement was met with a round of applause and loud cheering from several spectators. LSA freshman Olive Scott said she wanted to hear from Yiannopoulos since she identifies as a feminist, an idea he rejects. “Mainly I just wanted to hear what he had to say and why he believes the things he does,” Scott said. The event also featured an open mic portion, during which attendees were allowed to share their views on topics discussed during the debate and ask Yiannopoulos and Bindel questions. During the open mic portion, LSA sophomore Emily Kaufman attempted to climb onto the stage, which incited some audience members to chant GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump’s name repeatedly. Flyers for a University chapter of Students for Trump were on many of the seats in the League preceding the event. Kaufman said she climbed on the stage to directly challenge Yiannopoulos. After the event, Swogger said while the things both figures said were controversial, he hoped students realized it was all in good fun. “They’re mainly just screwing around; they’re mainly just comedians,” he said. “They love making people laugh, they love making each other laugh and they don’t take themselves too seriously.”
sheriff and student leaders. WMU spokeswoman Cheryl Roland said the administration is attentive to student concerns and looks forward to dialogue. “As a university, we need to do better on this front,” she said. “We have a good system in place for alerting people to campus emergencies, and we probably need to formalize a system in which in extraordinary circumstances we can reach out to the community more quickly without setting up a pattern of too many warnings that might jeopardize the way people view them.”
Opinion
4A — Wednesday, February 24, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Classes on class Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com SHOHAM GEVA EDITOR IN CHIEF
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LAURA SCHINAGLE MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
Support Families for Flint Act Over the last few months, the events that led to the Flint water crisis have come to light. The need for legislation to deal with its aftermath and to prevent similar disasters from becoming commonplace nationwide is urgent. On Feb. 4, 2016, Congressman Dan Kildee (D–Flint) introduced an essential bill called the Families of Flint Act. This bill is an important step in the process of helping Flint get back on its feet and supporting those most affected by the crisis. FOFA would appropriate money toward four focus areas: repairing and replacing water service lines, servicing the needs of family and communities affected by lead exposure, expanding economic development (especially for the youth of Flint) and health monitoring provided by the new Center for Excellence on Lead Exposure. Most importantly, the bill requires the replacement of old pipes and the inspection of new water pipes to ensure that Flint residents can once again obtain clean tap water in their homes. For infrastructure repairs deemed necessary by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of Flint would receive $770 million in funds. To help provide services to families and children exposed to lead in Flint, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would receive $270 million in funding, the U.S. Department of Education would receive $180 million, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would receive $10 million and the U.S. Department of Justice would receive $10 million. For economic development, the U.S. Department of Labor would receive $40 million and the U.S. Department of Commerce would receive $25 million. Finally, to monitor ongoing health of residents in Flint, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would also recieve $200 million to create a Center of Excellence on Lead Exposure in Flint. Another crucial aspect of Kildee’s legislation is that it would require the Michigan state government to match every federal grant dollar Flint receives. In this way, Michigan’s state government and the federal government take equal financial responsibility for resolving the crisis in Flint. The total amount that would be appropriated, roughly $765 million (about $1.5 billion with Michigan’s matched funds), would be split roughly equally between infrastructure fixes and mitigating the consequences of the crisis. In addition to FOFA, other legislation has been introduced that would also help Flint. Recently, Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D) and Gary Peters (D) introduced provisions into a bipartisan energy bill that designates certain funds toward Flint. In addition, Gov. Rick
Snyder (R) recently signed a $28 million aid bill for Flint, one of many allocating state resources to Flint. The Flint water crisis also highlighted the need for legislation to better monitor water contamination nationwide. On Feb. 10, the U.S. House passed the Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness Act, which is an ammendment that Kildee supported to strengthen regulations on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s notification of communities in instances of water contamination. The intent of the bill is to inform the public in crises similar to Flint’s, so the muddled and tragic mishandling of Flint’s situation can be avoided in the future. Although these are small steps in the right direction, FOFA, as of now, is the most effective legislation to deal with this crisis and it must be passed immediately. Kildee said in a press release that he was pleased that the aforementioned amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act passed, and that continued legislation is on the table. Ultimately, though, Kildee said he “hope(s) it is only a first step in addressing this crisis.” The government has an obligation to protect the many citizens who have been effectively poisoned by neglect and misinformation, and Kildee’s bill is a positive step toward fulfilling this obligation. Flint must not be just a talking point for politicians and presidential hopefuls. It is crucial to provide continued, consistent attention to the needs of Flint residents. The health of thousands of people is at stake, not simply political capital for the campaign season. Bringing justice and aid to the people of Flint, as Kildee proposes in the FOFA bill, and as other legislation is working to do, is a foundational step in the right direction. FOFA provides a substantial amount of financial aid to Flint and to its community agencies with specific goals and means to ensure the targets are being met. Congress should act quickly and vote yes on this bill. The federal government, as well as Michigan’s state government, is accountable to the needs of its citizens — Flint should be no exception.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Caitlin Heenan, Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Keller, Minsoo Kim, Payton Luokkala, Kit Maher, Madeline Nowicki, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Jason Rowland, Lauren Schandevel, Melissa Scholke, Kevin Sweitzer, Rebecca Tarnopol, Ashley Tjhung, Stephanie Trierweiler, Hunter Zhao
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to to thedaily@michigandaily.com.
MICHELLE SHENG
E-mail michelle at shengmi@umich.edu
On the very first day of my introductory political science class, the professor posed a question to the packed lecture hall, “Is the American Dream attainable for everyone?” She instructed us to discuss our answers with those around us before sharing LAUREN with the class. SCHANDEVEL Immediately, the room erupted with excited chatter as hands shot sporadically into the air. “I think the American Dream is attainable for everyone,” one kid replied. “Because if you work hard enough, you can achieve success.” I watched incredulously as the other students nodded in agreement, my head swimming with counterarguments. What if your school district is underfunded? What if you live in a neighborhood where you constantly fear for your safety? What if you have to work during high school to help your family make ends meet? As the conversation adhered to this theme for the remainder of the 90-minute lecture, I felt completely and utterly alone in my objections. I could not comprehend why my classmates did not take into account the potential roadblocks people could face while pursuing an education or a career — unless, of course, they have never encountered those roadblocks themselves. At the University, I have found that this is usually the case. Most students here come from disproportionately privileged backgrounds; they attended exceptional schools and lived in safe, affluent neighborhoods — and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, this undeniably advantaged upbringing has the tendency to serve as a
“
partition, sheltering those who live behind it from the realities of the world around them. Some of these kids are so engrossed in their fortunate lifestyles they forget that they rank among the numbered few who can actually afford to have them. For students hailing from more modest backgrounds, these divisions can be painfully obvious, and pervade every aspect of their college experience. Some consider their socioeconomic status to be a pivotal component of their identity, though the inconspicuous nature of it means their peers usually do not detect any difference between themselves and their less affluent constituents, as it is assumed that most college students are relatively well-off.
“Some of these kids are so engrossed in their fortunate lifestyles they forget that they rank among the numbered few who can actually afford to have them.”
I understand the option of blending in is a privilege that most marginalized people cannot claim to have, and I recognize it as such. However, when an aspect of one’s identity slips so easily under the radar, it can both isolate and alienate them from their peers. As far as I can tell, there is no open dialogue on campus that addresses socioeconomic discrepancies, and because the issue is not always observable, most people do not consider it compelling enough
to explore. Popular political science or economics courses tend to brush over the subject in favor of generalizing concepts to make them more digestible — which would be fine if there were a breadth of classes that delved deeper into it. Though there are a few here and there that analyze the implications of class structure, unless you are searching the course guide with very specific results in mind, most of these courses are only discovered through word of mouth. Furthermore, while the University currently has a Race and Ethnicity requirement that focuses on “comparisons of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, social class, or gender” there are only a handful of courses that emphasize the role of class in their curricula. While these courses don’t necessarily need to be required with the same stringency as Race and Ethnicity courses, increasing the availability of these classes and highlighting their importance in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary education will engage students more often in conversations pertaining to socioeconomic status. For some people, the “American Dream” is a straight shot to success. However, there is merit in realizing the conditions that facilitate this success do not apply to everyone. That day in lecture, I learned that not everyone is as acutely aware of this phenomenon as I am, and, frankly, it alarmed me. College students, particularly those at prestigious universities, wield an influence that a select few can claim: They will undoubtedly play a major role in shaping the future of society. Raising awareness about the myriad identities and backgrounds that make up this society is something we cannot neglect. Lauren Schandevel can be reached at schandla@umich.edu.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
Because if you want to be president of the U.S.A. you have to love the American people, even the ones who don’t love you back
—Sen. Marco Rubio (R) during a presidential campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich .
When you think of Syrians, think of Anne Frank
I
f you are a Jewish woman, like myself, you are required, by some unspoken rule, to read two books around the ALISON time of your bat SCHALOP mitzvah: “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank and “Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret” by Judy Blume. Unlike stories of survival such as Elie Wiesel’s “Night” or fictions such as Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief,” Anne Frank’s diary is not a Holocaust story. Frank’s story is actually much more similar to Blume’s “Margaret” than it is to “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.” Like Margaret, Anne Frank writes about her future and boys and frets over puberty. Anne Frank’s diary is almost more tragic than stories of death camps and torturous Nazis because it is relatable. Anne Frank was a girl trying to grow and learn the way all young women should, but her story was cut short. When I first read her diary, I was struck by how much I related to Frank and her desire to experience a first kiss on the lips. For me, it would not come for two more years, and for her, it would not come at all. You may not know that Anne Frank’s father, Otto, had tried to get an American visa for his whole family to immigrate to the United States. As The Washington Post so chillingly put it, “Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old woman living in Boston today.” I read this line as tears well up in my eyes. I feel an intense sadness. I am sad because I, as a 13-year-old girl, like so many other 13-year-olds, Jewish or not, feel a strong connection to Anne Frank.
This is not the only reason I am sad. I am sad that Anne Frank never made it to the United States, because there are hundreds of thousands of young girls out there now, both Syrian and otherwise, who may never make it to the United States. The United States government could not have known that Anne Frank was being taken to an early death in the Bergen-Belson concentration camp in Germany. But today is different.
“While the situation in Syria does not involve gas chambers and giant crematoriums, it involves other horrors. Syrian refugees face displacement and threats from their own government, much like the Jews did in Europe.”
Today, with 20-20 hindsight, the United States can save young girls, like Frank, from death by a brutal, racist government. You may, like many others, fear that taking in Syrian refugees is taking in potential terrorists. In the 1940s, Jews were also seen as a threat to the United States. They were viewed as dirty communists trying to corrupt a struggling capitalist economy. The United
States currently plans to let 10,000 Syrian refugees in over the next year. It is not clear how many Jewish refugees the United States took in during the World War II era. However, one thing is clear: Jewish people were not often welcomed. Many were turned away because the United States government feared they were spies for the Germans or radical anarchists. There are large collections online of photos of Jewish refugees on boats being turned away from the United States and Cuba. The Jewish refugees who did not make it to the U.S., Canada or Palestine faced an almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis. While the situation in Syria does not involve gas chambers and giant crematoriums, it involves other horrors. Syrian refugees face displacement and threats from their own government, much like the Jews did in Europe. The truth is, Anne Frank did not die from a gunshot or a gas chamber, she died from typhus alongside her younger sister. Her mother died of starvation. Today Syrian refugees in camps around the world face similar problems: food shortages, diseases and extremely low quality of life. If stories of Jews in the Holocaust break your heart, then so will stories of Syrian refugees. When you think of Syrians, rather than picture a threatening man with a gun, picture a young woman. Picture an Anne Frank. We need to give Syrian refugees the kind of chance we never gave Jews. Alison Schalop can be reached at aschalop@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
Baroque quartet By DAYTON HARE Daily Arts Writer
Music making is, and always has been, a communal activity. Though we lack an abundance of concrete documentation, it is likely that Ensemble the very earli- Nevermind est instances of music making Wed., Feb. involved com- 24, 8 p.m. munities of people coming Walgreen together to sing Drama Center and play early Free percussion instruments. Over time these gatherings developed in complexity and ritualistic practices — both social and spiritual — sprang up around them, many of which still exist in some form today. However, in many tradition music making also began to become more grandiose, slowly becoming disconnected with its communal roots. This is arguably the case with the European tradition of classical music, as is particularly evident in the advent of large symphonic orchestras and the ‘opera-as-spectacle’ culture that has developed over the last several centuries. Despite all this, the social nature of music making is still very evident in specific areas, notably that of chamber music. It is often chamber musicians, rather than large ensembles, who can be found participating in outreach events and community activities (a fact which, granted, has as much to do with organizational challenges as ensemble ethos), but chamber music’s social nature is perhaps most obvious in the closeness of the performers. In the early history of chamber music, often it was played by a group of friends for personal enjoyment, and in today’s professional world this is still the case for many performers. Ensemble Nevermind, the group of friends who will be bringing their music to Ann Arbor on Wednesday evening, is no exception. “I used to study the modern flute for pedagogie, and Baroque flute,” Anna Besson, who is the flutist of Ensemble Nevermind, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily. “And Robin, the gamba player, and Jean,
the harpsichord player, used to study the viola da gamba and harpsichord because it’s really [the] early music department.” Besson went on to explain the origins of Ensemble Nevermind in more detail, and how the players metas peers at conservatory. “So we basically met at Conservatoire supérieur de Paris … except Louis, we all used to study there. We started to play together in another ensemble, with singers, and finally we just found out that it worked very well, the four of us,” Besson said. “We used to get all together for chamber music or for our examinations, for example … we used to share our friendship just to participate [in] each examination. And so we decided, because we were close friends, to go ahead after our studies and start something together.” The four founders of Ensemble Nevermind — Besson, Louis Creac’h, Robin Pharo and Jean Rondeau — brought the group into existence about three years ago, creating a performance group which specializes in chamber music from the Baroque period (c. 1600-1750). “For concerts, of course, it’s a quartet, so we can play music from, I would say, end of 17th century … until, I would say the end of [the] 18th century, because after this period of course harpsichord and viola da gamba disappear from orchestras and music chambers, because of the Revolution.” In addition to their professional specialization in Baroque and other early music, the youthful friends of Ensemble Nevermind enjoy playing other genres together for recreation. “For fun, we like to play a lot of music, so we improvise a lot when rehearsing,” Besson said. “It can be like contemporary music, or jazz music, or traditional music, it depends. It helps … to relax also.” Besson also spoke about the ensemble’s upcoming performance in Ann Arbor this week, saying the program to be presented will largely be for quartet “In Baroque music ensembles you always have a trio, even if there are four musicians, because two of them are playing basso continuo, so they play the same part,” Besson said. “And we’ve decided to really play
music for quartet, which means that viola da gamba and harpsichord have two separate parts.” Besson also described some of the specific pieces Ensemble Nevermind will be performing, detailing her history with them and talking about the composers. “When we decided to read the “Paris Quartet,” by [Georg Philipp] Telemann, which are very [sic] written for quartet, it was like really what we wanted to do,” Besson said. “Because we perform like a string quartet, in fact — there is no leader, it is ensemble, we just act like if we’re a string quartet. With a first violin, second violin, alto — ah well, viola — and cello, it’s really the same.” Ensemble Nevermind’s CD of Quentin and Guillemain, among other composers, will be coming out on the 22nd of March, the first release of the group. “[François] Couperin [is] the last composer we will play, because sometimes you have the continuo with harpsichord and viola da gamba, but sometimes the gamba also plays a soloist part,” Besson said. “So sometimes it’s a trio, sometimes it’s a quartet, so this is very interesting, it’s in between.” Besson also explained some of the philosophical reasons behind what Ensemble Nevermind does, and the goals of the group in terms of societal impact. “Usually people always ask ‘Why ‘Nevermind?’ ’ And in a way — yes we are French, but it doesn’t matter, in the sense that music belongs to everybody,” Besson said. “It doesn’t belong to people from 60 years-old, as we usually see in the concert hall, at least in France. And (the age discrepancy) is a pity, because we want to touch everybody, and especially young people.” Besson concluded on an optimistic tone, conveying her hope that through Ensemble Nevermind’s music they might change the way early music is perceived. “So maybe, with the fact that we have taken some funny pictures, and some videos that we’re not wearing black clothes — we just want to change a bit this vision of Baroque music … music belongs to everybody. There is not an age to listen to Baroque or classical music.”
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 — 5A
FILM REVIEW
A24
You played yourself.
‘Witch’ is terrifying By JACOB RICH Senior Arts Editor
A24 is quietly killing it. Do people realize how many of the greatest films of the 2010’s this New York-based Adistribution company has The Witch financed? None A24 of their films make an enor- Rave & Quality 16 mous amount of money — the few that have done huge numbers include “Ex Machina,” my favorite film of 2015, and the critically acclaimed Amy Winehouse doc “Amy” — but almost all of them are innovative and excellent. You have them to thank for “The Spectacular Now,” “Obvious Child,” “Under the Skin,” “The End of the Tour” and “Room.” And now we have “The Witch,” a tiny-budget period horror film with a brand-new writer/director attached (Robert Eggers). Stuck somewhere between “The Shining” and “Evil Dead,” this is a brutal, tension-filled exploration of Christian guilt so uncomfortable and disturbing that it made two couples sitting in front of me get up and exit the theater 10 minutes in. I didn’t blame them for leaving. This is a tremendous film that continues A24’s streak of high quality releases, but it’s not for everyone.
‘Zootopia’ showcased By VANESSA WONG Daily Arts Writer
Move over, New York City; the trendiest urban metropolis is now none other than “Zootopia,” Disney’s latest animated brainchild. An urban city created by animals for animals only, “Zootopia” marks the largest animated world the studio has created to date, with double the number of digital models used in “Big Hero 6.” Matthias Lechner, the film’s Art Director of Environments spoke about the world-building process on Thursday, Feb. 18 on campus in a lecture sponsored by the Michigan Animation Club. Lechner emphasized that the “city should be a character itself:” it should feel imaginative, but still be grounded in believability — this is a modern city, after all. To begin the design process, Lechner’s team mentally walks through a typical city experience from the eyes of an animal. The research started by looking into organic architecture shapes, particularly the work of Sagrada Familia architect Antoni Gaudi. The shapes of buildings and city planning are informed by animal behavior and habitats. Zootopia has a city center with outer districts representing different artificially-created climate zones: Bunny Burrow, a hilly, rural countryside with kid cubbyholes in houses for the constantly growing bunny families; Sahara Square, a slick desert canyon with an active nightlife to match its nocturnal lifestyle; Tundratown, an icy locale with Russian-inspired architecture; Little Rodentia, a model town
scaled to the size of a mouse and the Rainforest District, a towering tropical borough. Because animals love nature, buildings are organically integrated into the backdrop. Lechner believes that “a model is successful if ‘life’ is felt, but the audience doesn’t really know why.” He stressed the importance of creating a backstory for every single detail about the city and how it came to be. To recreate the feel of a city’s ever-progressing history, buildings showcase different eras of architecture while sprinklers artificially create the rainforest districts’ constant showers. The city infrastructure contains tall metal pipes disguised as plant roots, and a plethora of car options fit every animal shape and size. The team also created a subway map connecting the different districts, and contemporary products, billboards and advertisements targeting specific animal needs peek out behind — details seemingly minor, but essential enough in building a fully fleshed out world that signage design merited its own job title. Even the flags in Little Rodentia are stiffer because they require smaller pieces of cloth. This meticulous attention to detail is what makes the world of Zootopia burst with vibrancy. Lechner chuckled when a student asked about “Easter Eggs” — hidden references to other Disney animated pictures — scattered throughout the movie, saying that as a parent of a young child, he feels confident that “Zootopia” contains a wealth of little background stories to withstand repeat viewings. One such instance to watch out for
is a calendar featuring “Big Hero 6” ’s San Fransokyo in the police chief’s office. However, it’s important to note that environment design is not an isolated process. Designers and screenwriters work closely together at the beginning of the filmmaking process, meeting in collaborative meetings at least every six weeks for critiques so that the storyline and animation can build off each other and grow in the same direction. Though Lechner estimated 80 percent of designs didn’t make it to the final movie, his team can tweak elements to fit new storylines. For example, a scene featuring a Bunny Burrow house was cut, but the house design was adapted to become the train station in the final version of the film. For every shot, the art director oversees sketch creation, which the modeling department digitally arranges. Next, the looks department, supervised by the production director, takes these basic shapes and adds textures, surface colors, and other artificially created details. The optimization team uses a program to bounce light off shapes to further render color and detail. The process for each scene takes about a month and a half, though the teams do work on multiple scenes concurrently. A delightfully bumbling tale of talking, two-footed animals needs an environment with the zeal to match. With its large scale and lovingly crafted details, “Zootopia” delivers. “Zootopia” will be released on March 4, 2016.
might make us burn in hell forever. As the family descends into religious hysteria, we see the terrifying implications of how the dogmatic belief of the parents impacts their children. The power of these scenes would not be as effective were it not for Eggers’s strict adherence to period social customs and manners of speech. Even more impressive is the actors’s delivery of said speech, so believable that the dialogue maintains a strict separation from our contemporary reality, but so emotional that we can’t help but empathize with the family’s horrifying plight. While it does drag around its midpoint, “The Witch” quickly maintains pace as slow-burn symphony of familial tension that ends in an electrifying coda. Adhering to the formalist school of Bergman and Kubrick, Eggers and his editor (newcomer Louise Ford) have shaped a thriller that is structurally compelling and nuanced. It’s wonderful to see so much new, hungry talent getting the platform they deserve. Films like “The Witch” shouldn’t exist, financially speaking. They’re heavily niche products that don’t make a lot of money. But thanks to midtier distributors like A24, cinema can once again exist between the blockbuster and the no-budget indie. We need more movies like “The Witch.”
KANYE WEEK
Why I don’t love ’Ye By KEN SELANDER Daily Arts Writer
FILM PREVIEW
“The Witch” is as much about a time and a place as it is about a situation. The film takes us back to primitive America, where surviving each winter was not a guarantee. Today, we dull our fear of death with science and comfort, but the harsh wilderness of 17th century New England lacked both of those luxuries. Instead, the God-fearing puritans relied on devout Christianity to make sense of their harsh existence. In their world, heaven and hell are unquestionably real, as are evils that lurk in the woods. In an inversion of the classic “don’t show the monster until the end” Spielberg routine, we see the witch right away. We’re talking classic witch in the woods here — this is a gross, wrinkly babydevouring witch. She’s not misunderstood. She’s a fucking evil witch, and she’s scary and ugly and hangs with the devil. Her purpose? To torture a family of excommunicated Christians, struggling to make ends meet on a thatched-roof farm. The heart of the film’s dread is a youthful fear embodied in some of the best performances by children I’ve ever seen in a film. Newcomers Anya Taylor-Joy and Harvey Scrimshaw bring us back to that primal emotional experience we had after lying to our mothers or stealing an extra cookie after dinner — that feeling, lingering for just a few minutes, that our dishonesty
I have a very dirty secret that will make most people with a musical inclination gasp: I’ve never listened to much Kanye. As terrible as this might sound, let me reflect on how I caught myself committing such an unspeakable hip-hop sin. You see, there’s a lot of music out there in the world — a whole lot. If you want to bring out some fancier words you could say there’s a plethora, or perhaps a surplus. So much that one doesn’t have time to listen to all there is. I’ve never listened to The College Dropout or 808s & Heartbreak. And yes, of course I’ve heard singles like “Heartless,” “Jesus Walks” and “The New Workout Plan” at a party or in a friend’s car. But there’s just so much of Yeezy’s discography I don’t know. Are you angry with me? Or just disappointed? That’s OK. Let me bring the discussion to a place you might find yourself, too. When I browse around Spotify or YouTube and find some tune that will keep me feeling good while I’m strolling around campus, I don’t just listen to it a few times and then put it on the shelf. I abuse the song. I listen until I know all of the words. I press play until I dread the song, until I can’t enjoy it for the next six months because I’m so sick of hearing it by the time I’m done with it. I’m currently in the middle of this process with much of the Arctic Monkeys discography and Born Sinner by J. Cole. Listening to a song this frequently, or at least in relation to all the other music available, is taxing and time consuming. One artist I simply haven’t focused on is Kanye West, but I do have some working knowledge of his work because hearing his songs is inevitable. While it seems he’s advanced to a miraculous level of media attention since some-
where around the time he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs, his music has been on the radio far before that. “Gold Digger,” “Flashing Lights” and “N****s in Paris” are prime examples of songs I’ve heard despite the dense walls of the rock I live under. Being conscious of my gap in popular music knowledge, I figured I’d give Yeezus a play when it came out. All the hype was there. I figured it’d prove to be solid ammunition for some future casual conversations. But man, it was harsh on the ears. I had to cut my listening short somewhere in the middle of “Blood on the Leaves.” For all I know, “Guilt Trip” “Send It Up” and “Bound 2” may be rad tunes, but I wasn’t feeling it. I know what
Kanye was doing, but he did too much: Yeezus was too artificially artsy for me to take any joy out of it. Kanye was simply trying too hard, but then again that’s Kanye as I understand it. Yeezus was not my jam. I said it. I’ll start bracing myself for the shit storm. So as bizarre as it sounds, I’ve barely listened to any Kanye and I despise Yeezus. I’ll listen to The Life of Pablo, though I fear it’ll be akin to Yeezus, but appearances by Kendrick and Chance the Rapper sound appealing. Classic Kanye records will definitely make their way to my playlist in the coming months when I get around to it, but as a student there’s only so much time to listen to music and I simply haven’t prioritized Mr. West.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, February 24, 2016
FILM COLUMN
ALBUM REVIEW
Holocaust film malaise CAPTURED TRACKS
This is not a screenshot from the upcoming season of Workaholics.
Mellow ‘Life of Pause’ easy listen Wild Nothing’s fourth studio album is soft and surreal. By SHIMA SADAGHIYANI Daily Arts Writer
Imagine looking into a kaleidoscope — a bright whirlwind of color and ambiguous designs, always transforming into new patterns. AIt’s intense but Life of soothing and the undulat- Pause ing movements Wild Nothing of light are entrancing; you Captured Tracks could spend forever with one eye pressed against that small cylinder. Listening to Wild Nothing’s new album, Life of Pause, is a similar experience. With four complete albums already behind them, you would think Wild Nothing would put their years of experimenting with hazy vocals and varying electronic backgrounds behind to settle down for something more structured and simple. Fortunately, Wild Nothing continued to explore with albums like Empty Estate and Golden
Haze which set the groundwork for (and produced a chromatic, subtly psychedelic adventure in) Life of Pause. The album opens with “Reichpop” and the soft, Zen-like melody of the first few minutes transitions smoothly into a bright, upbeat tempo that pushes the song from something that you would use to meditate to something that deserves its own light show. By the time “I am the silent son / I am the only one / staying home today” is added to the mix, “Reichpop” is perfectly layered with nebulous vocals on top of a bouncing rhythm on top of the serene melody heard individually in the beginning of the song. It’s five minutes of a beautiful catastrophe, and the fun only continues throughout the rest of the album. Title track “Life of Pause” is a mess of contradictions as the buoyant beat overpowers the sorrowful “how come we were in love?” while “Adore” is a compilation of introspective guitar chords and haunting piano melodies that perfectly capture the essence of heartache. The songs in Life of Pause sew the album together like a patchwork quilt — the edges meld smoothly together but each section is different, which is the reason why this album is so interesting. Each song is its own composition. The only elements
tying the entire album together are the muted vocals and ambient rhythm. The song “Japanese Alice” is fast-paced and bewildering in its twirling tempo, completely contrasting the creeping and leisurely “Alien.” The tracks would have been too conflicting to be listened to in the same album if not for the uniting vocals making each song, no matter what the beat, seem remote and indefinite. And this dissonance in each song fits for most of the album because Wild Nothing usually knows how to push their surreal sound without being in your face about it. However, the groovy, harmonious vibe of songs like “To Know You” and “TV Queen” falls flat in the two weakest tracks of the album, “Lady Blue” and “A Woman’s Wisdom.” In both songs, the uniformity of the vocals and the beat creates a dreariness that stands out from the rest of the album’s bursting vitality. But these are just two songs in the entire 11-track album and actually help to provide a bit of a break from the other dizzying compositions. Overall, Life of Pause is a mindblowing dream; a perfect mix of gauzy afternoon jams and retro tunes taken straight from your wildest daydreams and ready for you to explore on a day that is just a little too monotonous.
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle 6 Brand that “gets the red out” 7 Epic with a very big horse 8 Refillable candy 9 Metal playing marbles 10 Delaware Valley tribe 11 Comes into view 12 Salutation abbreviation 15 Bite-size Chinese appetizer 17 Tarzan portrayer Ron et al. 21 Mothers of Invention musician 23 Empty, as threats 24 Fourth notes 25 “Entourage” agent Gold 26 Diarist Anaïs 27 Rum-soaked cake 31 “The Affair” airer, briefly 32 Morticia, to Gomez 34 Peaceful relations 35 Annual tennis team event 36 Texting farewell
37 Chap 38 Lennon partner 39 On Soc. Sec. 42 The same number 43 Places where élèves study 44 Wicked ... and, homophonically, like five long puzzle answers 46 One of the reindeer
47 “The Bell of __”: Longfellow 48 “Don’t need to watch that movie again” 50 Spiffy 51 Fencing attack 54 Celebrity chef Burrell 55 Lengthy story 56 Nebraska natives 57 Evening, in ads 60 Anger
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When I asked my 16-year-old sister if she wanted to see “Son of Saul” last Friday night, she expressed a great interest. She had never heard of the film, but had overheard me talking about it a little, so she knew at least that it was a Holocaust film. I JAMIE thought BIRCOLL it only fair to warn her that this film a) was European (therefore in subtitles and highly character driven) and b) takes the viewer into the heart of a death camp; there would be, in short, some disturbing content. She was undeterred. As we watched the film, I repeatedly saw her shaken expression, her hands often covering her mouth in terror. And when we left, she was expressionless, almost catatonic, in her demeanor. I never asked her what she thought of the film as a whole, but I know she found it distressing. I didn’t find the film so shocking, and was more surprised by how little death I actually saw given the setting. For almost the entirety of the film, the camera never leaves the protagonist Saul’s face or back as he navigates the seemingly labyrinthine halls of the death camp. In fact, almost everything in the shot other than Saul’s face or back remains out of focus and distant. We are maddeningly aware that there’s more happening in the scene, but we can’t actually see it — like a flicker in the corner of the eye, but with the turn of the head, the apparition vanishes. We therefore experience
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ACROSS 1 Lobsters’ sense organs 6 Celebs 10 Flight from the law 13 Poker declaration 14 “__ my guard down” 15 Famille patriarch 16 Form by combining elements 18 One-piece garments, slangily 19 Rome-based carrier 20 Toll road timesaver 22 “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” singer 24 Performer’s supporters 28 Guacamole, e.g. 29 Twisty letter 30 Diva delivery 31 Snoozed 33 Fictional voyager 40 Retired New York senator Al D’__ 41 Rational 42 DDE rival 45 Esteemed league member 46 N, in Morse code 49 Sparkle 52 Currencies 53 Irrationality 58 Bravo preceder 59 Host of the 2015 MLB All-Star Game 61 Not masc. or fem. 62 Prod 63 Gold brick 64 Fashion monogram 65 Jury member 66 Fluff, as hair
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the entirety of the death camp through Saul, and there is no shortage of horror to be found; we are with him when he leans against the metal door of the gas chamber and hears the desperate screams of hundreds, only for the noise to suddenly cease; we are with him at the pits as Jews are led like lambs to the slaughter, one by one lined up, pushed to the edge of the pit and executed with a bullet to the head; we are with him as he fires the scorching ovens. And yet I was not disturbed, nor was I moved by Saul’s lack of perspective as he searches for a rabbi to provide a proper burial for a boy he believes, though is probably not, his illegitimate son, rather than commit himself to the final preparations for a prisoner uprising. Some might call my stoicism inhuman.
I don’t believe I’m inhuman, but I have been desensitized. I don’t believe I’m inhuman, but I have been desensitized. I’ve seen many, many Holocaust films, and, having been raised in a Jewish home and having gone to Jewish day school for nine years, I have no shortage of vivid images of Holocaustrelated material and memory. After a while, these images and horrors stopped being horrifying — they just became facts, cold and nonjudgmental. Of course, “Son of Saul” wasn’t made solely for me. But I ask myself why I so desire to see films like these, films that display human suffering in all its terror, where there is only one possible ending — death — and I am rather unmoved by it. Indeed, “Son of Saul” seems to offer no lessons, no reason to exist beyond portraying a more personal take on the otherwise grander scale that is most other Holocaust films — human suffering through one viewpoint, one angle, rather than many. Is that enough of a reason for a film to exist? Is guilt over the Holocaust so high that any film that explores the subject gets an automatic pass for a dearth of content? If I want a film that depicts mass death, why can’t I cut out all Holocaust-related material and go see “Deadpool” instead? At least then I can laugh at the absurdity of it all, rather than sitting with resignation. In fact, I did go see “Deadpool,” 17 hours after I saw “Son of Saul,” and, to my surprise, I found similarities in their stories. At their cores, both are stories of an individual coping with trauma: one seeks distraction from the horror of
his daily life, the other seeks full-scale, bloody revenge — both seem to me highly irresponsible courses of action. And as its cocksure, self-aware attitude reiterates over and over again, “Deadpool” also has no reason to exist. It is the product of a moneymaking Hollywood machine: no more, no less. But “Deadpool” is escapism where “Son of Saul” grounds itself in reality, a past reality but reality nonetheless. There are no alternate timelines and no reset buttons for “Son of Saul” and the Holocaust genre as a whole (unless you’re “Inglourious Basterds,” but that’s another story altogether). It is, ultimately, just a horrid chapter among the other many horrid chapters of a long human history. Perhaps it is guilt that drives our fascination with the Holocaust (particularly in Europe), perhaps it’s a function of the “never forget” ideology passed down through the generations. Perhaps we cling to the glimmers of hope and escape, as one might do with the case of Saul, in an otherwise dark and twisted world. Or perhaps it’s that human suffering is itself fascinating, and the Holocaust represents the apex of that suffering. I do not know the answer but I do know this: for as much as we research it, write about it, create films related to/about it, the Holocaust is out of our reach of understanding. The only ones that really understand it are those that suffered through it, and even they may not have come to terms with it. And for as many films and stories as there are about a hero, a savior, a do-gooder, those stories comprise a small minority that can never hope to relate the experience. I think, therefore, “Son of Saul” is the best type of Holocaust film, the one that says nothing, that seems to have no reason to exist. In its silence, its frustratingly close camera angles, its out of focus middle and backgrounds, we are forced to accept that the Holocaust is beyond us. The point, then, is not necessarily to feel or to relate, because we simply cannot feel and relate to this chapter of history in a way that would ever prove satisfactory. The point is to go to the theater, to submit yourself to more death without purpose, to know that you could go see “Deadpool” instead. Sometimes, it’s acceptable to just watch and be present and to know that what you’re watching is a Holocaust film. In the end, that’s all we can really do.
Bircoll is dealing with Woody Allen-esque post-WWII anxiety. To give him some consolation, email jbircoll@umich.edu.
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Sports
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 — 7A
Defenseman Martin tries hand at forward By KEVIN SANTO Daily Sports Writer
Cutler Martin stepped off the rink after Monday’s practice, and judging by the smirk on his face, you could get a sense that something witty was coming. Observing Cooper Marody speaking to reporters, Martin cracked a joke that it was time for Marody to join his fellow freshmen in collecting all the pucks on the ice. Martin took the first-year forward’s spot in front of reporters, and he just couldn’t help himself from tossing one more comment Marody’s way. “This is the spot where real forward stars are,” Martin said with a grin. The punch line? The sophomore had never played a single shift at forward in his life until last Friday against Ferris State. This season, Martin has played 25 of the Michigan hockey team’s 28 games. And with the exception of the matchup with the Bulldogs, he has suited up as a defenseman in every one of those contests. But now, Martin is transitioning into a different role for the Wolverines. Michigan coach Red Berenson moved Martin into the forward slot Friday night, pairing him with junior Max Shuart and sophomore Niko Porikos on the fourth line. The change may not be permanent, but it certainly came as a surprise. Last Monday, Martin walked into the locker room and Berenson pulled him aside to tell him that the team needed him to add some grit up front. Next thing he knew, Martin had a white jersey in his stall — the same one every forward typically wears in practice — and his transition process had
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Cutler Martin is experimenting with playing forward for the Wolverines despite having only played defense for his entire career.
begun. “I don’t know what the plan is,” Martin said. “I don’t know if they specifically know exactly what they want me to be. If they need a forward, I’ll be a forward. If they need a D, I’m going to be D.” For Berenson, two factors played into the decision. The first involved looking to the future, and the second related to the present. He felt the fourth line needed a better fit for this campaign, but he also believed the team would need something more at forward in the coming years. The defenseman-to-forward conversion process isn’t a foreign concept to Berenson, as he did the same thing with Wolverine
alum Scooter Vaughn in 2008. Vaughn made his debut as a forward in the CCHA Championship a season after spending every prior game of his career as a blueliner. And the change was successful, as Vaughn closed out the final two years of his Michigan career as a winger. Though he notched just six points in his first season as a full-fledged forward, Vaughn boosted that total to 28 his senior year and finished third on the team in goals — all while
leading the Wolverines to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal and an NCAA Frozen Four title game in those respective years. Vaughn’s history is evidence that if Martin’s switch is permanent, it may take some time for the sophomore to make the transition. Martin immediately recognized those growing pains Friday, but that’s not to say the experience wasn’t positive. “Obviously at this level of the game, it’s kind of like you react to things instinctively,” Martin
“I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life at D.”
said. “Now, since I had to switch positions all of a sudden, I have to think about it a little more. It was definitely confusing to some extent. It was different, but it was fun.” Yet, in the short term, Berenson sees aspects of Martin’s game that could lead to an immediate contribution. “I like his intensity, I like his grit,” Berenson said. “And he’s got strong hands. When he goes in the corner, he goes in like a man, not like a boy. I like those things about him and I think our team needs that. ... The question is, are we a better team with this lineup? It remains to be seen.” Even if Martin’s change is only temporary, he still views time on the offensive side of
the puck as a valuable learning experience. In just one game, the new forward has gained a fresh perspective on what makes playing the position so difficult — challenges like protecting the puck, moving from the defensive zone to the offensive zone and simply creating scoring chances in general. With that new outlook, Martin is confident that even if his time as a winger ends as soon as the upcoming series against Minnesota, he will be able to make his teammates’ lives easier. In his brief stint as a forward against Ferris State — he played just eight and a half minutes by Berenson’s estimation — Martin did show some flashes of offensive prowess. His line strung together some dangerous scoring chances, and Martin rang one off the crossbar while falling to his knees in the second period. Despite the near-goal, though, his teammates still don’t think of Martin for flashy offensive abilities. “I think he played well last game … but in my mind I still think he’s a defenseman,” said junior blueliner Michael Downing. But, of course, the player who started an interview with some self-deprecating humor came prepared with a friendly rebuttal in his back pocket. “I think when I come to the rink every day, I think I’m a defenseman still,” Martin said. “It’s going to be really difficult to get that instinct out of me. It’s always going to be there. I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life at D. “I think if I wind up for a slap shot in front of (Downing) and I’m on forward, he’s going to get out of the way and think I’m a forward pretty soon.”
Michigan can’t tame course conditions at Puerto Rico Classic Wolverines’ tropical tournament produces outings to forget By ANDREW EHRENBERG Daily Sports Writer
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich (left) guided the Wolverines to their best start since the 2009 season with a sweep of Canisius over the weekend.
‘M’ credits hot start to chemistry By SYLVANNA GROSS Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men’s baseball team is not superstitious — or at least hasn’t alluded to any reservations when talking about its recent success. But if the Wolverines win the next contest against Saint Joseph’s on Friday, they’ll be matching their bestever start to a season since 2009 with a 5-0 win streak. But the team is trying not to dwell on its hot start. “We’ve looked ahead without making it something our players will be focused on,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “There’s no further than our next opponent, and no further than today’s training session. We’re certainly excited about going out to California with the team, but we’re not going to California today, we’re not going to California tomorrow — we’re going to California on Thursday, and our first game isn’t until Friday.”
Still, the excitement surrounding the team is electric after its four-game season opener against Canisius — especially after sophomore lefthander Oliver Jaskie pitched six innings and allowed just three hits. He was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for his performance. Other highlights of the first sweep included the first home run of the season by designated hitter Harrison Wenson and a finish by Carmen Benedetti with two strikeouts and a flyout. “It feels good,” said senior left-hander Evan Hill. “It always feels good to win. We’re just taking the momentum into practice today, and then the next day of practice. We’re going to keep going forward and take the momentum into the weekend and continue to win.” Michigan outscored the Griffins, 27-5, and allowed only one earned run for the entire weekend. The last time the Wolverines
opened this well, in 2009, they finished 9-15 in the Big Ten and 30-25 overall — which would be a disappointment for this seasons’ team considering last year’s group went 14-10 Big Ten, 39-25 overall, and finished with a Big Ten Tournament title. Bakich points to the chemistry of the team as the reason for the early success. “They genuinely care about each other and want each other to do well,” Bakich said. “The team chemistry on this team is extremely high, and when you have that, you feel fortunate because you’re blessed to be around a group of guys who genuinely want to do well and genuinely care for one another and care about where the team is going. It’s fun to watch from a coaching standpoint.” The time gap between the 2016 team and the 2009 team is minor compared to the time between 2009 and 18 years ago when Michigan started 6-0 in 1991 under Bill Freehan.
Despite the impressive statistics, though, Bakich is itching for some adversity. “From a coaching standpoint, you’re always interested to see how the team responds when you get that punch in the mouth or that kick to the stomach,” Bakich said. “We had played with a lead for the entire weekend, and things went well for us because we were playing really well. and that was exciting. We’re going to want to replicate that as often as possible. I think with the highcharacter group of kids that we have that we’re excited to see how they respond to some adversity. “You know the garbage is going to hit the fan at some point in this season. So whether it’s this weekend or a month from now, I’m just excited to see how (the team) bonds when things aren’t always going our way.” But for now, superstitions aside, it’s safe to say that Michigan is off to what might be a historic season.
In a weekend dominated by Southeastern Conference opponents, the Michigan men’s golf team could not quite keep up. Sunday, the team travelled to Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, to compete in the annual Puerto Rico Classic for the 14th straight year. All-Big Ten golfers Chris O’Neill — who finished seven shots over par — and Kyle Mueller (plus-9) both struggled, which made it difficult for the Wolverines to climb the leaderboard. O’Neill, a senior, had his fourth — and last — chance to tee off at the Puerto Rico Classic. It was an outing to forget. With the dryer and faster grass that the Michigan team is used to practicing and competing on in the Midwest, it struggled to settle in when it encountered the unfamiliar conditions. Teams with stronger performances, such as champion Alabama (minus-25) and runner-up Clemson (minus16) are used to the warmer and more tropical climate. This gave them a heavy upper hand over the Midwestern teams, who are still practicing in a below-freezing environment. Michigan coach Chris Whitten was disappointed, but he understood the team’s challenge getting acclimated to the atypical Rio Grande course. “Adjusting to the conditions of the course was tough”, Whitten said. “It played very wet and very slow. Most places
we play at are the opposite. Making adjustments on the fly is what we need to be able to do.” Whitten emphasized that in-game adjustments are going to be key to the Wolverine’s success, especially on courses where they are less confident. The team’s best performance came from freshman Nick Carlson – who finished the three days with a cumulative score of plus-6 – and so the Wolverines fell behind quickly and failed to adjust, finishing with a final team score of plus29. Despite struggling this weekend, Whitten and Carlson both remained poised and are maintaining ambitious goals. “Our guys compete to win every tournament”, Whitten said. “If we play the way we are capable of playing, we can make it back to the postseason and have a chance at the Big Ten (Championships).” Whitten remains firmly convinced of his team’s ability, but he recognizes that the team has a long road ahead to optimize its potential. He and his athletes know that making on-the-fly adjustments is not easy, noting that the team has to work hard for their opportunities. Carlson echoed this when speaking about his goals. While he generally emphasized teamoriented goals, he also added that each shot is an opportunity. “We have to make every move count,” Carlson said. With the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., coming up on March 5, the Wolverines will have to adjust to yet another unfamiliar climate. But more importantly, they are looking to start an upward trend as the Big Ten Championships in April grow nearer.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, February 24, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wolverines brace for Northwestern Demps remembers MEN’S BASKETBALL
By SIMON KAUFMAN
double-OT thriller
Daily Sports Editor
Before addressing the media on Tuesday, Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein lightheartedly noted that with spring Northwestern approaching, at Michigan the days have Matchup: been getting Northwestern longer. 17-10; “You know Michigan 19-9 we’re getting 11 When: hours of daylight Wednesday every day right 7 P.M. now? You know Where: Crisler that?” Beilein Center said. “That’s a secret about TV/Radio: BTN Coach Beilein. I keep track of the sunrise and sunset, because growing up in Buffalo, in the long winters, you couldn’t wait to have that sunshine.” Outside, the sun may be on the rise, but inside of Crisler Center — where the Wolverines (9-6 Big Ten, 19-9 overall) practiced Tuesday afternoon in preparation for their Wednesday matchup with Northwestern — the sun has been setting on a season that began with unclouded optimism. Senior guard Caris LeVert — who opted to forgo the NBA Draft and lead the team in his final year — has instead played just 11 minutes in 2016 due to a lower left leg injury. Senior guard Spike Albrecht has joined him on the bench after announcing in December he would be done playing due to his own injuries. With both of their seniors on the bench, the Wolverines’ defensive struggles have caught up with them during conference play. Michigan’s opponents are averaging 67 points per game — the most opponents have averaged against the Wolverines since the 2007-08 season, Beilein’s first at Michigan. With just three games left on the schedule, Beilein said his main focus is to emphasize better
By JACOB GASE Daily Sports Editor
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. emphasized the need for stronger team defense as the season winds to a close.
defensive play. “We still can’t plug the holes in our defense right now,” Beilein said. “We just cannot do it. And we’ve just got to keep working at it. We’re going to do some drills today — like back to the beginning in some things — because we’re just having trouble with just the idea of guys in the midst of action getting into a stance and playing really good gap defense or 1-on-1 defense.” As a team, Michigan aims to keep opponents under 40 percent from the field. Lately, the execution has faltered. Four of the Wolverines’ last six opponents have shot better than 50 percent from the field. Sunday, Maryland shot 54 percent on field-goal attempts, edging the Wolverines 86-82 and snapping a 50-0 mark that Michigan had in games in which it scored 80 points under Beilein. “(We need to emphasize) really being there,” said junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. “Helping the next guy, making it five against the ball as opposed to — it’s been basically just 1-on-1. The focus going forward is playing better team defense. I don’t think individually we can point guys out and say they’re not doing their job, we’ve just got to do a better job
collectively.” The Wildcats (5-9, 17-10) will be coming off an eight-day break after losing to Purdue on the road on Feb. 14. Northwestern has just five conference wins but has stuck around in many of its losses and even took a then-No. 7 Maryland team to overtime a month ago in College Park. In a low point for the Wolverines last year, the Wildcats edged them in Evanston in a double-overtime thriller. Northwestern gets most of its offensive production from guards Tre Demps and Bryant McIntosh, who are averaging 14.9 and 14.3 points, respectively. McIntosh’s 6.6 assists per game are second best in the conference. “They really are executing well,” Beilein said. “I mean, you look at all their games, they’ve been out of only a couple games. … They’re a good basketball team, and I wouldn’t doubt if they’re right in the middle of the Big Ten based on looking at their schedule going forward. LeVert still out: Beilein said that he does not plan on LeVert playing on Wednesday. “Do not expect Caris to be able to play,” Beilein said. “I just talked with him, and he’s not going to be
able to practice today, he still has some discomfort. Going forward, just plan on that he’s not going to be playing until he’s ready to play again.” The coach said that he will not shut down LeVert permanently because the senior guard still wants to play. Beilein wants to give him the opportunity to do so in his final season if he’s healthy. Donnal’s future on hold: Before the season started, Beilein reclassified forward Mark Donnal from a redshirt sophomore to a true junior. Donnal has been Michigan’s best big man this year and is coming off a 25-point performance at Maryland. Despite his stellar play of late, Beilein said that any conversation of reclassifying him again in order to get four years of play out of him would not be an immediate decision. “We probably will have that (conversation) ongoing,” Beilein said. “He’s really doing a great job of earning his scholarship this year. He’s doing a wonderful job of working hard and doing everything. But we’ll meet at another time because it obviously affects our scholarship situation in 2017.”
If there’s one easy prediction to be made about the Michigan men’s basketball team’s matchup with Northwestern on Wednesday, it’s that there’s no way it can top what happened in the two teams’ last meeting. When the Wolverines traveled to Evanston on March 3, 2015, their season was essentially lost. Their two best players, then-junior guard Caris LeVert and thensophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr., were done for the year with injuries, and Michigan had just come off a brutal 1-6 record in the month of February. Facing the Wildcats — who were then 5-11 in the Big Ten and had already lost to the Wolverines earlier in the season — seemed like a chance for Michigan to snap out of its funk and start a late-season push for the National Invitation Tournament. But what happened instead was a double-overtime thriller from which Northwestern escaped with an 82-78 victory, and the Wolverines missed out on postseason play all together. As Michigan slides closer to the NCAA Tournament bubble, it faces another mustwin scenario this season when it hosts the struggling Wildcats on Wednesday. To secure a win, Michigan will have to hold in check the hero of last year’s game: senior guard Tre Demps, who pulled off one of the most improbable feats in recent Big Ten memory: sinking not one, not two, but three late clutch 3-pointers. The first came with four seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime, and then Demps struck twice in the last 10 seconds of the first overtime to erase a six-point Michigan lead and force double overtime.
The Daily caught up with Demps at Big Ten Media Day in October to discuss that wild game, one of the biggest performances of his career to date. The Michigan Daily: Where did that game against Michigan last year rank as far as the craziest games you’ve been a part of? Tre Demps: It definitely was the craziest. I think what a lot of people don’t realize is I was really struggling in that game prior to what happened at the end, and (senior center) Alex Olah was carrying us throughout the game. I just have to give all the credit to my teammates and the coaches, who trusted me at the end of the game to take those shots. TMD: After a game like that, do you start to feel more comfortable with the ball in your hands in late-game situations? TD: Yeah, you know, it’s actually something I used to practice with my dad all the time, taking that big shot. We’d play 1-on-1 and pretend there was a certain amount of time on the clock. We practiced that from the time I was in elementary school. I think it gave me the confidence to do it at this stage. TMD: I heard you talking earlier about how your team puts a lot of emphasis on practicing lategame situations. With so many close Big Ten games last year and probably coming up this year, do you think that Michigan game is a good indicator of how well your team can perform in those? TD: Absolutely. A lot of credit goes to one of our assistants, Coach (Brian) James, because he draws up all our late-game plays. He has all the specials, he has a lot of plays you didn’t even know even existed, to get you open opportunities. It’s fun to run those in practice, and hopefully we’ll get to use them a lot during the season.
Wolverines top Wildcats CSG write-in votes could elect Jim Harbaugh’s son STUDENT GOVERNMENT
By LELAND MITCHINSON Daily Sports Writer
Going into the Michigan women’s basketball game at Northwestern on Tuesday, freshman center 70 MICHIGAN NORTHWESTERN 65 Hallie Thome was ranked second nationally in field goal percentage. And her offensive efficiency was on display once again against the Wildcats, as the Wolverines raced to a 70-65 victory at Welsh-Ryan Arena. For the second game in a row, Thome registered 20 or more points. Her 22 points on the night led the Wolverines (9-8 Big Ten, 17-11 overall), and she was joined in double-digit scoring by sophomore guard Kateylnn Flaherty and junior guard Siera Thompson, who scored 17 and 13 points, respectively. The Wolverines were slow to get going in the first half, scoring just 13 points in the first quarter, but they went into halftime with a five-point lead and never looked back. “We’re a high-scoring team, and tonight we couldn’t really get the ball to fall in the basket,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico in a postgame interview with Big Ten Network. “We had to grind it out on the defensive end and we found a way to do that.” Thome came out of the locker room on fire, scoring six points in the first 4:28 of the second half, and the Wolverines extended their lead to 50-39 by the time the third quarter came to a close. Though Michigan has had a potent offense all season, the Wolverines have struggled on the glass. But Michigan didn’t have any difficulty grabbing boards against Northwestern (4-13, 15-14) and, surprisingly, the Wolverine guards led the way in that category. Freshman guard Boogie Brozoski paced the team with seven rebounds and Thompson added another five to the total. With just over two minutes left in the game, Brozoski drove the lane, drawing the Northwestern defenders and dishing it to Thome for an easy layup. That assist was one of Brozoski’s seven on the night and slowed the momentum the Wildcats had been building. Northwestern was able to come within four points with 39 seconds remaining and caused further concern when it pressed
the Wolverines and stole the ball back. But the Wildcats rushed the shot and were forced to foul when Michigan collected the rebound. With just 17 seconds remaining, Thome picked up her fifth foul and the Wildcats were able to cut the lead to four once more. However, the Wolverines stayed in control and made the free throws they needed in order to close out the game. “I think we’ve really improved (our free throws),” Barnes Arico said to MGoBlue.com after the game. “The team as a whole, but also getting the right people the ball at the end of the basketball game to be fouled.” The Wildcats were led offensively by forward Nia Coffey, who had 22 points while also creating problems for the Wolverines in the paint, as she compiled a career-high six blocks on the night. Northwestern also benefitted from 14 points from forward Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah and 11 assists from guard Ashley Deary. Tuesday’s win puts Michigan above .500 in conference play for the first time this season, as they improved to 9-8.
DAVID SONG/Daily
Freshman forward Hallie Thome scored 22 points in the Wolverines’ 70-65 win over Northwestern on Tuesday.
By MAX BULTMAN Managing Sports Editor
If Jim Harbaugh’s 2016 Central Student Government presidential campaign really is conducted with enthusiasm unknown to mankind, voters may be in for a surprise on election day. Last year, the Michigan football coach made waves when he placed fourth in the CSG presidential election as a write-in candidate, with 115 votes. At the time, Harbaugh tweeted jokingly: “Disappointed w/4th place finish 4 @umich student body Pres. Competitive juices flowing! Hat in the ring for 2016 & will campaign w/ #EUTM” Harbaugh’s 2015 votes ultimately didn’t amount to anything, but only because he was not enrolled as a student. This year could yield different results, though. While Jim Harbaugh the football coach is still not enrolled as a student, his son, James Harbaugh, is a freshman in LSA. Though James Harbaugh is not officially running for a CSG position, as a student he is eligible to be elected president, vice president or LSA representative as a write-in. In other words, if students write in “Jim Harbaugh” on their ballots, Harbaugh’s son of the same name could be elected. According to the election results available on the CSG website, 45 votes for Jim Harbaugh were officially counted in the LSA representative race in Fall 2015, the younger Harbaugh’s first semester at Michigan. The lowest winning vote total for an LSA representative in the Fall 2015 election was 535 votes. These figures are from a “weighted” system, which awards a certain number of
votes to candidates based on how high they are on the voter’s list of preferred candidates. In Fall 2015, Harbaugh appeared on 24 ballots — 21 as a first choice and three as a second choice for a final tally of 45 votes. There was also a single ballot cast for “Jimmy Harbaugh,” as well as another stray “Jim Harbaugh” ballot, but those votes were not counted. CSG Elections Director Ben Reese told The Michigan Daily this week that those votes could, and perhaps should, have been consolidated with the other 45, but since there were two clear winners, it would not have made a difference to the election results. “People write in Jim Harbaugh in every election,” Reese said. “The writein is going to be a write-in. There’s no way I can control what people write in there. If it’s clear they’re voting the coach, like if people write, ‘Coach Harbaugh,’ those aren’t going to be counted toward (James). “But if everybody is voting for James or Jimmy, I don’t know if I’ll combine ‘James’ and ‘Jimmy.’ It just depends what the write-in ballots look like.” Of course, Harbaugh’s son is not required to accept the position, even if he is elected. In the case he were elected as an LSA representative, and he declined, the LSA Student Government would simply appoint an interim representative to fill his vacancy until the next election. Reese told the Daily last week that James Harbaugh would be eligible for election to
any position in the LSA Student Government, as well as for president or vice president of the CSG Executive Committee. He would not, however, be eligible as a write-in candidate for any position in schools he is not enrolled in, such as the College of Engineering or Law School. The CSG Election Code calls for the dismissal of ballots that are inappropriate. But the precedent set in Fall 2015, in which ballots with Harbaugh were counted, suggests votes for “Jim Harbaugh” could be counted as legitimate votes for Harbaugh the undergraduate. “Given the choice between invalidating the ballot or counting the ballot toward someone who can actually be elected, I would be inclined to count it as a vote for someone who can actually be elected,” Reese said. “I would prefer to count more ballots as valid ballots than to assume that every vote for Jim is a vote for the coach. But they’re welcome to challenge that in (Central Student Judiciary) if they disagree with me.” CSJ hears any cases on eligibility, election infractions or other contested issues surrounding the election. This year’s CSG elections are slated to take place March 23 and 24. Given past results, it does not seem likely that Harbaugh would accumulate enough write-in votes to make a serious threat at winning a representative seat, let alone the presidency. But given the coach’s popularity, it’s not impossible that, come March 25, there could be a Harbaugh ready to take office.
“People write in Jim Harbaugh in every election.”
4B
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement
Little Sh*t
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement
Mindfulness
By Adam Depollo Daily Arts Writer
Cammie Finch, LSA Senior
It was fifty degrees in Orlando today, so every smart person stayed inside. Bob sat in his room watching a newsman stand in the snow. I sat in the hotel lobby watching a middleaged man watching a newsman stand in the snow. I’m not sure if either of us enjoyed ourselves, but my sentence was longer. Later that afternoon, I sat in the jacuzzi reading “The Library of Babel,” which ends like this: I venture to suggest this solution to the ancient problem: The Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order). My solitude is gladdened by this elegant hope. Mar de Plata, 1941. And so I turned to Jorge Luis Borges, who had insisted on wearing his three piece suit in the hot tub, and said —Jorge, didn’t you know that if you spent all day in the library, everything you wrote would come out covered in dust with a Dewey Decimal number? Borges pulled the Aleph out of his pocket and held it in front of my face, driving me insane for a moment until he placed it gingerly back into his jacket. Borges was blind, you know, so that was a fun little game he liked to play. He went back to making little splashes with his cane. —Adam, he said, I remember once walking by your father in a hallway at Michigan State — this was long before he had ever thought about having you, of course — and thinking to myself ‘I wish I had a little shit hanging around all the time to let me know when my prose gets dusty.’ The world certainly is an interesting place, wouldn’t you say? One never knows who’s listening. I started to get out of the jacuzzi, and Borges added — Little Shit, didn’t you know that if you spent all day in your own head, everything you wrote would come out covered in blood with a bit of brain attached? He started laughing, and I put my shirt back on. —You should probably take that off, he said. I think you need some sun. I can see you’re whiter than me! I walked away, and Borges shouted after me —And Little Shit, stop pretending to be Roberto Bolaño!
inhale … open your thighs wide like the pages of a book yawning their language into your head drink in the stillness lift your spine taller and prepare for the backbend (you are stronger than you think you are) envision the full moon washing the back of your head with its silken fingers, dripping its nectar down your vertebrae until your seat is warm in thought
OK
align your sacrum to this intelligent edge of backlit realism (it’s magical)
By Cammie Finch When you ask me “Are you OK?” you haven’t really asked me anything.
breathe deeply into the beauty of asymmetry and savor your perfect state of being vulnerable (because i do).
What exactly are you implying? I wonder without asking because I’m too far lost in your tangled wood of acronymbleness.
be aware of your breath: think - and then let it pull, like an unknitted cloud, away with your … exhale.
Am I … an ornery kid? (don’t sit me in time out this is our time now) ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY WATERS
an original Keats? (that’s right, bright star, I dare not breathe without you) an occupied kangaroo? (I’ve found my pouch, my cradle, my comfort I’ve zipped it shut)
(crown of thorns eyes of wild heart of flaming orange spirit) an orbiting Kepler? (my head circles like Saturn circles around like Saturn circles around like Saturn circles around like Saturn) an omnipotent karma? (my presence tips the paint into your lap, swerves cars into your lane. my presence can make you rich, can make you pay)
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY WATERS
Most Downloaded Woman of 2000 Eliza Cadoux LSA Junior 48K12.JPG, she’s a charmer she holds a pixel grin pixie limbs frame pink pearlescent nylon bikini
an obliterated kayak? (the rapids have gotten too rough, can’t you feel my plastic splinters digging into your hands?)
fingers wrapped around her thong, she pulls up the sides to show that crook place between hip and leg this is why she is in demand
an obdurate kazoo? (my mouth is plugged to spite you that’s what we instruments can do)
downloaded in 2000 to the graces of laptop computers on which child plays on Microsoft paint and mother looks up shelters and motels and teen searches instructions for apple pipes
an Orville kernel? (i’m ready to be transformed under pressure, watch me i’m about to explode)
48K12.JPG, boxed looks over the boxed people and grins ad infinitum
an oceanic kebab? (substance disintegrating downwards, yet my skeleton structure floats on the surface. the shriveled remains of memory go along for the ride)
I can be any OK you want me to be. I’m an overloaded kaleidoscope, twist me to see my colors change before your monochrome eyes. I can be any OK you want me to be that is, with the proper specifications.
an orangutan king?
OK?
Bywater Squabble Eliza Cadoux Excerpted from Call Your Mom’s upcoming performance This Close
Nucleus
Blanche hollers thinking I let the place go? I let the place go? Only it’s me And this isn’t Scene 1, and we are northerners In this humid city And I say thinking I’ll let you go? I’ll let you go?
By Katarina Merlini LSA Sophomore. I’ve grown weary of my treacherous heart for too long it’s sat vapid in my breast a thankless burden I could do without like a scythe cutting silk it whispers in the night the truths wound deeper than the lies
We rode bikes over And over Dark rings under your eyes
with yellowed nails I dug in deep cracked through my ribs and slipped through sinew I pulled it out with an old coat hanger cleansed the wound with warm watered wine and sewed it closed with willow vines I’ve kept the withered thing in a mason jar filled with formaldehyde it’s grown an eye and watches me sleep sometimes I ask him what he’s called he has yet to answer me
5B
I equated myself to a flame dancing wavering-nearly-going-out And you the wind
ILLUSTRATION BY KELSI FRANZINO
ILLUSTRATION BY KELSI FRANZINO
Let’s fight and dance until the stubbornness of New Orleans saves us
2B
Wednesday, February 24. 2016 // The Statement
l e t te r f ro m t h e e d ito r s
t h e s t at e m e n t
the tangent
Magazine Editor: Karl Williams
Photo Editor: Zoey Holmstrom
Managing Editor: Laura Schinagle
Deputy Editor: Nabeel Chollampat
Creative Director: Emilie Farrugia
Design Editor: Shane Achenbach
Editor in Chief: Shoham Geva
Copy Editors: Emily Campbell Alexis Nowicki Jose Rosales
Dear Readers, Literary Issue, light of our lives, fire of our loins. Our sin, our soul. It’s here. Finally. After a year, wait no more. Dozens of students submitted their original work: Borges’s insults, Pita Kabab, insomnia, dead fish, stillbirths, bad sex — everything you ever wanted, you can find in these pages.
Between the flash and thunder B Y S A N P H A M , D A I LY S TA F F P H O T O G R A P H E R 1/ môt . Tên tôi là Pham . Khánh San. my name is a bell on a mountain. i am stubborn. i will not move for you.
Welcome, and enjoy.
my mother’s tongue echoes like clanking metal and scatters in the shadows. 2/ hai Tôi hai muoi ’ `’ hai tuôi. twenty two years of wishing for moonlight skin and ocean eyes are gone and i embrace the rest of the dark sky. i stand on the earth.
Magazine Editor, Karl Williams
Deputy Editor, Nabeel Chollampat
it strikes a light(ning) curse in vietnamese to remind us that if we could understand more than just numbers and basic greetings her words would have more strength more power.
Design Editor, Shane Achenbach
`
`
3/ ba ~ Me. sinh o Viêt Tôi sông o’ My. ’ . Nam. we try and eat the ocean but we drown before we can touch. our english and our voices cease. 4/ bôn Tôi thích là nhà van. Tôi thich là giáo viên. i write. i teach. i learn. i swallow. i digest. my mother’s tongue counts the seconds between what is seen and what is heard 5/ nam Con yêu Me. . i love you with your tongue
Creative Director, Emilie Farrugia
)
Photo Editor, Zoey Holmstrom
)
on the record: authors “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA
— Author HARPER LEE, who passed away on Feb. 19, 2016, on reading.
“Where else? I belong to a lost generation and am comfortable only in the company of others who are lost and lonely.” —Author UMBERTO ECO, who passed away on Feb. 19, 2016.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement 3B
Drunk and Overheard
Larva
B Y YA R D A I N A M R O N , L S A S E N I O R
B Y G AV I N G A O , L S A S E N I O R
“I hear you’re bad at sex,” she says to the boy. A chuckle bursts out but they don’t notice. No one ever notices the sometimes shy one posted against the wall, pants or no pants. The boy looks startled a bit. She grins. “Me? Who t(old) you that?” Pathetic, but who can blame the boy. The party noise eats the rest, so refocus to left eye corner. She’s still smiling, and so is the boy but less surely. Is that a pickup line? Her chin juts to a point and her black lipstick is good. Either way, what a fucking line. If this is a movie, the line is “Well, let me prove ‘em wrong.” But no one says that. This isn’t a movie. She walks away and the boy goes back to looking for his coat in the coat mountain piled on the hallway couch. Canada Goose doesn’t win in these parts. The party is full of funny butts and sexy butts and uncomfortable losers with their pants on. Sid walks by and slaps each naked hairy thigh, two laughs together and he’s gone. He’s here with one of the ones. Exposed in the hallway. Take a lap. Took a lap and another shot. Living room still packed. Catie introduced Will. A golfer with another pointy chin. Couldn’t help imagining her letting him fuck her later after the cops come like she described over stir fry the other night. Alone on top of the stairs now sitting. Watching them leave and come and drink and talk. For the one to talk to. Height is (in)escapable power that feels good to have. Heels Castles Dunks Penthouse Swimming Pools. One boy climbs and squeezes by in those new red briefs on the plastic person in American Apparel. Inconvenient mannequin boner. The weirdness in the greatness of underwear. The anger in the disappointment in people who tried to shut this joy down. Don’t come if you’re uncomfortable. One girl in the bedroom to the right is barfing bad. Check if she’s OK? Instead, stay seated, assume her girl-
friend is pulling back her hair. Like Aron in high school carrying one to the subway and riding uptown after washing the pavement a pink bottle of wine outside Gray’s Papaya in SoHo. First time and second to last so far. Proud of it. Why come to these? is the classic loner thought. It’s goddamn Valentine’s Day, pants are off, and the ending is off to sleep. Came but didn’t come last time. Good play. Slinky down the stairs like Christmas lights twirled around the banister. Too drunk for all of it. A mural appears on the stair wall of a cute village in a rural valley. Orange roofs littered between green trees below a big blue sky and faint clouds. Like a big fat beautiful cliché. Kid with ‘80s grandpa glasses butts in. Black plastic choker. Pale see-through skin like a seal. Say what’s known, judge what’s not. Fuck it. Denial is healthy sometimes. “Pretty amazing right?” His eyes look like condescending politicians. “German exchange students painted it like a hundred years ago supposedly.” He knows too. “Looks like Germany yeah.” Never been, but fuck it without fucking it. The period squashes his smile like a bubble of silence in the sound growing fast. Murdering conversation intentionally is satisfying sometimes. Take a piss. “Do you know where the bathroom is?” He points with skinny bones. “Thanks.” Pissed on the seat and wiped it. A gold cased lipstick on the sink counter. Black on the mirror. A chuckle bursts and no one notices except the mirror. Eyes widen and vaseline lashes in the mirror. When you go back out, you’ll notice everyone again. The night girl with the black lipstick did one’s lips in the air — but next level is in the mirror. And on Wednesday sometime see her in the mirror at Cantinas with that Australian clementine. On a Wednesday.
It’s the first snow of a new year where nothing is new, and everything wants to lug its turgid body into the flour sack of quietude. Even the landscape unfurls its fur like the back of a white buffalo. Some child’s red balloon seized by the speartip of a mountain ash, a bird heart quivering in the center of a coma. And the scare -crow, strung up on a broomstick, bears the weight of his humiliation on his straw mind where winter falls upon a ryefield, and the owlet sings a plain song of despair, its notes – gurgling water in a mouth made out of blue cloth, the same gauze the silkworms once spun to fashion a robe for an emperor, whose men and women prostrated before his palace, his servants swarming around his ivory throne like botflies around a bull’s flank. The empress wore her face like a carnival, her loneliness so extravagant. She patted the blue-lipped baby in her lap the way she stroked her husband’s pride. There’s a lot to desire in this life. But not these pale colonnades, or a woman’s shriek piercing the night like the light from a kerosene lamp. She stared into her garden and saw two geese atop the frozen fountain, still as weathervanes, huddling around a silver egg, that nascent eye, that luminous larva spoiled with love given freely. The wolf -white world just shrugs, bats
ILLUSTRATION BY ZOEY HOLMSTROM
its infant eyelashes and goes on to dream another stillbirth.
4B
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement
Little Sh*t
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement
Mindfulness
By Adam Depollo Daily Arts Writer
Cammie Finch, LSA Senior
It was fifty degrees in Orlando today, so every smart person stayed inside. Bob sat in his room watching a newsman stand in the snow. I sat in the hotel lobby watching a middleaged man watching a newsman stand in the snow. I’m not sure if either of us enjoyed ourselves, but my sentence was longer. Later that afternoon, I sat in the jacuzzi reading “The Library of Babel,” which ends like this: I venture to suggest this solution to the ancient problem: The Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order). My solitude is gladdened by this elegant hope. Mar de Plata, 1941. And so I turned to Jorge Luis Borges, who had insisted on wearing his three piece suit in the hot tub, and said —Jorge, didn’t you know that if you spent all day in the library, everything you wrote would come out covered in dust with a Dewey Decimal number? Borges pulled the Aleph out of his pocket and held it in front of my face, driving me insane for a moment until he placed it gingerly back into his jacket. Borges was blind, you know, so that was a fun little game he liked to play. He went back to making little splashes with his cane. —Adam, he said, I remember once walking by your father in a hallway at Michigan State — this was long before he had ever thought about having you, of course — and thinking to myself ‘I wish I had a little shit hanging around all the time to let me know when my prose gets dusty.’ The world certainly is an interesting place, wouldn’t you say? One never knows who’s listening. I started to get out of the jacuzzi, and Borges added — Little Shit, didn’t you know that if you spent all day in your own head, everything you wrote would come out covered in blood with a bit of brain attached? He started laughing, and I put my shirt back on. —You should probably take that off, he said. I think you need some sun. I can see you’re whiter than me! I walked away, and Borges shouted after me —And Little Shit, stop pretending to be Roberto Bolaño!
inhale … open your thighs wide like the pages of a book yawning their language into your head drink in the stillness lift your spine taller and prepare for the backbend (you are stronger than you think you are) envision the full moon washing the back of your head with its silken fingers, dripping its nectar down your vertebrae until your seat is warm in thought
OK
align your sacrum to this intelligent edge of backlit realism (it’s magical)
By Cammie Finch LSA Senior When you ask me “Are you OK?” you haven’t really asked me anything.
breathe deeply into the beauty of asymmetry and savor your perfect state of being vulnerable (because i do).
What exactly are you implying? I wonder without asking because I’m too far lost in your tangled wood of acronymbleness.
be aware of your breath: think - and then let it pull, like an unknitted cloud, away with your … exhale.
Am I … an ornery kid? (don’t sit me in time out this is our time now) ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY WATERS
an original Keats? (that’s right, bright star, I dare not breathe without you) an occupied kangaroo? (I’ve found my pouch, my cradle, my comfort I’ve zipped it shut) an oceanic kebab? (substance disintegrating downwards, yet my skeleton structure floats on the surface. the shriveled remains of memory go along for the ride)
an orangutan king? (crown of thorns eyes of wild heart of flaming orange spirit) an orbiting Kepler? (my head circles like Saturn circles around like Saturn circles around like Saturn circles around like Saturn) an omnipotent karma? (my presence tips the paint into your lap, swerves cars into your lane. my presence can make you rich, can make you pay) an obliterated kayak? (the rapids have gotten too rough, can’t you feel my plastic splinters digging into your hands?) an obdurate kazoo? (my mouth is plugged to spite you that’s what we instruments can do) an Orville kernel? (i’m ready to be transformed under pressure, watch me i’m about to explode)
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY WATERS
Most Downloaded Woman of 2000 Eliza Cadoux LSA Junior 48K12.JPG, she’s a charmer she holds a pixel grin pixie limbs frame pink pearlescent nylon bikini fingers wrapped around her thong, she pulls up the sides to show that crook place between hip and leg this is why she is in demand downloaded in 2000 to the graces of laptop computers on which child plays on Microsoft paint and mother looks up shelters and motels and teen searches instructions for apple pipes 48K12.JPG, boxed looks over the boxed people and grins ad infinitum
I can be any OK you want me to be. I’m an overloaded kaleidoscope, twist me to see my colors change before your monochrome eyes. I can be any OK you want me to be that is, with the proper specifications. OK?
Bywater Squabble Eliza Cadoux Excerpted from Call Your Mom’s upcoming performance This Close
Nucleus
Blanche hollers thinking I let the place go? I let the place go? Only it’s me And this isn’t Scene 1, and we are northerners In this humid city And I say thinking I’ll let you go? I’ll let you go?
By Katarina Merlini LSA Sophomore. I’ve grown weary of my treacherous heart for too long it’s sat vapid in my breast a thankless burden I could do without like a scythe cutting silk it whispers in the night the truths wound deeper than the lies
We rode bikes over And over Dark rings under your eyes
with yellowed nails I dug in deep cracked through my ribs and slipped through sinew I pulled it out with an old coat hanger cleansed the wound with warm watered wine and sewed it closed with willow vines I’ve kept the withered thing in a mason jar filled with formaldehyde it’s grown an eye and watches me sleep sometimes I ask him what he’s called he has yet to answer me
5B
I equated myself to a flame dancing wavering-nearly-going-out And you the wind
ILLUSTRATION BY KELSI FRANZINO
ILLUSTRATION BY KELSI FRANZINO
Let’s fight and dance until the stubbornness of New Orleans saves us
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Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement
Wakeful: A Year in Sleeping by Claire Bryan, Editorial Page Editor Yesterday morning, I drank decaf coffee. Last night, I crawled into bed a little before midnight, but did not fall asleep until 3:30 or 4 a.m. And yet, now, at 6:11 a.m, I am a piercing, alert awake. I shove my phone back onto my desk and push my eyes closed. The light from my phone’s screen creates an imprint on the insides of my eyelids. Instantaneously I begin to feel nervous (a feeling I now grudgingly call anxious), but, because I refuse to be a victim, I get up, tuck my hair behind my ears and reach over to pull heavy blue curtains open. Sitting on my bed, staring at the eerie morning light flooding across my crumpled blankets, I open my laptop. There’s a word document titled “insomnia” saved in a folder titled “2015,” within another folder titled “don’t go there.” This document was created on February 21 at 7:19 p.m. It was reopened and added to on March 7, March 23, April 7, 8 and 25. My pointer finger double clicks the document open and begins scrolling over the 5,000 plus words that exist inside. As I type these words I have coursing waves of nerves brushing up and down through the inside of me. They originate in my gut, folded up behind my top abdominal, in the fleshy part of the cartilage that connects my top two ribs to my sternum. Sometimes a wave of nerves comes every time I take a breath in, sometimes a wave of nerves comes when I hear a noise, sometimes a wave doesn’t come and the lack of its not coming surprises me. I think about the lack of it, why this time the wave is absent, and, like clockwork, the wave does comes. It knows I’m thinking about it. This word document contains the story I want to tell: about how anxiety leads to insomnia. But now that I’m upright, no longer attempting to fall asleep, reading over the words I wrote last year, I’m not anxious. I’m listening for those waves of nerves; I’m trying to feel for them. They do come sometimes these days, but today I can’t find them. This lapse or lack (I’m not sure which one yet) is the story I need to tell. I’ve spent a year asking why my brain won’t let me sleep. I have found a lot of answers in a lot of different places. This summer I thought I fixed my sleeping, but in recent weeks I have been living too many 6 a.m. mornings. Fixing is complicated and identifying the need to fix it is even more problematic. As I read tirelessly through my old writing, I’m asking myself a slightly different question: Why doesn’t my mind let me fall asleep even after I have understood why it won’t let me fall asleep in so many different ways? *** Last September I moved into a sorority house with 55 other girls. A sorority house is a lot of things; loud is a good place to start. Floors creak, doors slam, voices travel sharply and into every corner of the house. I wish I could say I had trouble sleeping because I woke up when I heard noise. Or I wish I could say I had trouble sleeping because I laid in bed for a couple hours thinking about the homework looming over my head, or how I didn’t want to spend next summer at home in San Diego like I had in the past, or my recent and only break up with a boy who’d been my best friend for years — though all of those things I
did wake up to and did think about. But sound is sound and thoughts are thoughts, and the two didn’t add up to me not sleeping. As the weeks got colder and I remembered how foreign scarves and boots look on me, I told my three roommates and myself I had a lot on my mind. “How’d you sleep?” was the most common, courteous greeting, but when directed at me, it became an ache in my chest. It still is. I didn’t bother saying much more than “OK” because though some people are light sleepers and might understand if I said “not great,” saying “I don’t think I ever fell asleep last night” isn’t a breakfast table conversation anyone wants to have. In quiet moments, I did say that last phrase, but the conversation fell bitterly silent because I didn’t have anything to say after that initial observation. Friends would ask why and I’d try to explain what I was thinking about but ultimately end in saying to them, “I don’t really get it.” They wouldn’t either. I began “going to sleep” as early as I could, crawling into the corner of my top bunk bed around 11 p.m. I’d lie for hours, listening for when each roommate would come in the heavy door. One, two hours passing, three, all right everyone was home I thought. Then I’d lie watching for the sinking into sleep feeling to overcome me. When it wasn’t coming, I’d become frustrated that I wasn’t getting sleep nor was I getting work done. This intersection of two nonproductive truths was a driving center point that I fixated on. Some nights, around five or six in the morning I think I drifted, behind my thoughts, into a light sleep. At 7 a.m. my roommate’s alarm would go off and she’d dress to go on a run and I was wide-awake. I drank coffee and went to class and went to meetings and wrote my stories for the student newspaper, and though I was exhausted each day that passed I reasoned with myself: I was stressed and college was noisy. I identified what happened at night in terms of when my roommates came home and when I heard noise and nothing more. I told myself I was OK in the morning, and throughout the day I could almost forget I even told myself that. For weeks, it was survivable. Months later, it was unbearable. But that was the trickiest part about all of this, and still is: There is a lot of truth in that simple phrase. I am OK. *** My sister Robyn is two years older than me, but most people who meet us when we are standing side by side mistake us as twins. We are both five foot six, a hundred and twenty-five pounds, have the same dirty blonde hair, wave our hands the same way when we rant, had the same major at the same school (I get “Hi Robyn” on campus at least once a day) and have identical dream jobs. In high school I could spend all week with Robyn: sit with her at lunch at school, drive home and do homework in her bed with her, hate walking the ten steps down the hall to fall asleep in separate rooms. When Friday night rolled around and friends would suggest seeing us we could decide to go to our favorite Japanese restaurant — where the waitresses knew us by the “twins” and the menu hadn’t changed in eight years —
and I would still feel like I had a lifetime to catch her up on. Senior year of high school I wrote a profile on Robyn. At the end of nine pages I tried to pinpoint the relationship Robyn and I have — how marvelously strange it is to have someone on this earth who mirrors your same goals in life but is not yourself and can challenge you and make you grow pretty perfectly. Our thoughts weren’t the same hair strands, but they weaved together tightly making us strong. The two of us want to invent a lot of words. Like for the feeling you feel when you are perfectly full, but not just the word content, it must apply to eating only. Or the word for daydreaming when you are trying to fall asleep but not fully dreaming yet. Or a word to describe a process we always thought was possible: getting rid of the common cold by pretending you don’t have one. Robyn used to always remind me that life is too cool to sleep and we always wanted a name for that quality, the sleep-when-you’re-dead quality about someone, about us. When we met my older brother’s girlfriend for the first time we thought she was too uptight — she lived alone in a tidy one-room studio, she had her days planned into a scheduling book, she checked off the lists that created her days religiously. I never thought I would become someone who needs to count the hours of sleep I’m getting or brush my teeth at a certain time or make my bed perfectly or tell Robyn I couldn’t go to the Arb at 2 a.m. All of these things I became. *** In November I took a lot of NyQuil, the blue gels that were shoved in the bottom of my desk drawer that my dad bought me freshman year. Thinking the antihistamines would help me sleep, I began to take the pills every night before going to bed. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The pills would make my body heavy and drowsy and craving sleep, yet my mind would still run with thoughts and never stop. It was tormenting. One night when snow wasn’t on the ground yet, I ran out of NyQuil and walked to Walgreens to buy a box of ZzzQuil. On the second floor they had only shelved the extra large box. When I placed it on the counter along with toothpaste and a bag of almonds the cashier picked it up to scan it. “Someone’s really trying to sleep,” he said while laughing a bit, low and loud. I tried to place his accent. He sounded Southern, but maybe that was still Midwestern. I laughed, just slightly, more to myself than to him. “You know, in college I had the worst insomnia,” he continued. I looked at him, wide-eyed, wanting to hear more but not knowing if he’d continue and not willing to push him to. “My girlfriend broke up with me and all I could think about was how I had screwed it up. I let it keep me up all night. I was a fool. I should’ve just gone to bed!” He smiled at me, as if it was that simple, paused and then after another low laugh said, “I’m just saying you can get really addicted to these things. I know.” I tried to explain to him that they only shelved the extra large box and I didn’t really need that much. I don’t know if I would have taken ZzzQuil every night if I had bought that box. Before I paid, I asked him to take it off my bill. I walked home thinking that it had been weeks since I had
thought about the nights in September when I did think about that summer’s breakup. As I pull sticky contact lenses from my eyes, brush my teeth and crawl into an oversized t-shirt I often feel physically sick. I dread getting into bed because I know that it will begin my war with sleep. Where I fight to keep my eyes closed as wave after wave of once invigorating butterflies of nerves pulse up and down my body relentlessly. I often lay in bed for four or five or six hours not being able to silence my mind that runs around violently and carelessly with my thoughts. My eyelids tremor unknowing to the confusion beyond my skull and my muscle. When I wake up I don’t feel as if I am waking up. I feel woken, frightened, moved and rearranged forcefully in the middle of the night, but sun is shining through my window. By January my sleeping got worse and my tiredness evolved into an unfamiliar tiredness. I no longer craved for heavy blankets and my eyes to close. My body buzzed with these anxious feelings, and I began to hate lying around and listening to them. What I hated more was how physically and mentally weak I felt. What I hated most was how I didn’t want to admit these weaknesses. And so I didn’t. The sockets of my eyes began to grow darker and darker shadows. I stood in front of the mirror and stared at the two semicircles of pulsing skin right under my eyes. The skin was colored a grey-purple; if I stared really close there were the tiniest light pink spots mixed in between. My eyes would sting — this sour, painful sting — every time my eyelids closed and reopened. I didn’t recognize both the feel and the look of my own eyes anymore. I don’t know how much of it was in my head and how much of it was reality, but I began to not look like myself. I stopped feeling like myself months ago. *** The first week of February, I sat in a small waiting room with six black chairs and a coffee table piled high with newspapers and two different succulent plants. I was shaking just slightly, as I scrambled to fill in the mountain of papers on my lap that I was supposed to complete before my first appointment at Ann Arbor Consultation Services. “Please list who you live with, your relationship to them, a description of who they are, are you satisfied with this relationship — yes or no?” I began laughing, a shallow laugh, out loud, at myself. A girl or lady — she looked around 25— sitting two seats away looked over. Harsh, blackframed glasses dominated her face. Her hair was red and pixie cut. I wondered why she was here. And then hated myself for asking that question, hated myself for living every cliché movie scene of a therapist waiting room where the main character dreams up what everyone’s problem is. I wrote down “55,” then the word “girls,” then paused for a moment and eventually wrote the word “friends.” The ballpoint pen I was using left a black blob of excess ink at the start of the “f” of friends; my handwriting looked ugly. I couldn’t muster much else more to begin to justify what my life was in a sorority. Justifying how I couldn’t imagine my life without it brought its own anxieties. Folded up in a notebook of mine, I have a piece of paper that states in large, spidery handwriting “General Anxiety Disorder” with a string of numbers after it that I was supposed to call and repeat
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement to my health insurance company but never did. It ing them “anxiety” make them occur more often? was given to me nine weeks ago by a therapist… my Did identifying a problem help solve it or simply therapist. I kept it because it gave me concreteness and boldly accentuate it? every time I opened this notebook that sat on the *** desk next to my bed, it told me — or by keeping it I traveled to New Hampshire in a minivan there I was trying to get it to tell me — a piece of with five strangers at the start of May. We had my identity. all signed up for the New England Literature “This is the room we have available at this Program and would be camping and backpacktime, it is typically for our younger patients, I ing while studying the work of New England apologize,” I was told on the first day of therapy authors together. As hours of the drive stretched as I entered a room painted blue full of puzzles on and secrets seemed to be exposed like they and toy blocks. I made a joke about loving puz- were nothing fragile between us, I told them I zles, grabbed a piece, and played with it between was worried about my sleeping. I didn’t know in my pointer finger and thumb as I thought. I spent that minivan that I was about to spend six weeks an hour on a couch every week. I practiced cog- learning how to sleep again. At night, my body nitive behavioral therapy on white worksheets. I would not feel anxious and buzzing but instead talked a lot. I didn’t hate it. I learned a lot: how be calm enough to actually crave sleep now that my brain had created unhealthy synapses where when I heard one noise, no matter how small, I jumped to thinking I would never be able to fall asleep when in truth it was a pretty small noise. How other things, like not going to bed on time or it not being fully dark in my room, linked another unhealthy jump in my mind telling me I’ll never be able to sleep. Every time these synapses fire they create deeper and deeper grooves in my neurological paths that release anxious feelings within me. My brain was making these well-worn grooves and I had to train it not to follow down the same problematic grooves every night. I learned something really heartbreaking about the freedom of thought. I used to believe that every thought was your own and was healthy and true and deserved to be thought about and explored. I learned that this wasn’t true. *** According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States. I paid a lot of money and ILLUSTRATION BY spent a lot of mornings hoping my sisEMILIE FARRUGIA ter’s car that wasn’t built for snowy roads would survive a 10-minute drive to a therapist’s it had been reminded how good sleep felt. There office to be diagnosed with the most general dis- are a lot of things to fall in love with in the careorder that exists in the world. And now, I, too, fully crafted community of NELP. Sleep was my was this basic denominator. I was the statistic largest love affair. written at the top of news articles addressing When we spent three days in the pouring rain “mental health awareness” that were pitched in on the Pemigewasset trail, a trip we had to cut the newsroom. short due to the harsh weather, I faced my anxiI have typed the word insomnia into Google ety with higher physical stakes. Instead of hava few hundred times. Insomnia can be classified ing to wake up and walk my body through Ann into four categories: transient (insomnia lasting a Arbor to class, I had to be rested enough to climb single night or a few weeks), intermittent (if tran- a mountain. sient episodes occur from time to time), chronic When the last week of the program came and (if insomnia occurs most nights and lasts a month I still hadn’t taken a solo camping trip where you or more) or secondary (when insomnia is a side hike out and set up camp to spend 24 hours comeffect of another problem, a symptom of an emo- pletely alone, I began to think about and realize tional, neurological, or other medical disorder.) why. I imagined all the waves of nerves finding I believe I have experienced all four of these me in a small green tent with thick rows of birch types. The most prominent, and also the hard- trees and miles of lake water around me. I knew I est to accept, is the secondary type — my anxi- would spend 24 hours wide awake, counting the ety gives me insomnia. But I don’t know if those waves of nerves pulsing up and down the insides words are true — the word insomnia and the of me. After the dishes were cleaned that night, I word anxiety can very much be reversed in that signed myself up anyway. sentence. My insomnia gave me anxiety. Because On my solo, when the sun went down and I could’ve sworn to you those first nights not I crawled into my sleeping bag, I couldn’t find sleeping there were no waves of nerves, I just sim- the waves of nerves. And where in the past the ply couldn’t sleep. Or, were the waves there and I searching for waves typically brought them just didn’t have a word to call them by? Did defin- running to me, none came. I fell asleep effort-
lessly, on a slanted hill because I couldn’t find flatter ground, on twigs and branches and rough dirt because I didn’t do a good job of clearing the ground, listening to strange animals thud through the brush. Despite all of the unhealthy synapse-inducing factors, I slept. *** This year, as I folded sheets under my mattress and pushed pins into a tapestry to hang on my wall, I told myself I was constructing a purposeful place to sleep. I told myself it was going to be different this year. It is different, of course it is, but sleep doesn’t come like it did in New Hampshire or in San Diego or in Washington D.C., where I spent the rest of the summer. It seems to remember it is unwelcome here in Ann Arbor.
Sometimes I go to class with the old exhaustion. But sometimes there are days when someone answers my question of "how are you?" with “good, but tired” and I feel like I can actually relate because I feel a normal amount of tired. There is never a night I fall asleep — that luxurious sinking feeling that I miss — effortlessly. The second week of the semester I sat on a black couch and a boy asked me to explain why I said I didn’t want to see him anymore after a very sudden and short amount of time. I scrambled with too many words, trying to explain how I have problems sleeping and don’t understand it fully and his presence in my life added more waves of nerves and less sleep. I didn’t say to him what I have written here. I fumbled a lot. He looked at me and said, “Claire, that’s the point. You have general anxiety disorder; you don’t have to explain it. It is a clinical disorder.” Maybe he’s right; maybe I need to get better at understanding the clinical part of my disorder. Maybe I need to pull out that white piece of paper that has my diagnosis on it and study it, learn to cope with the tangible symptoms of anxiety. To accept that my insufficiencies are excused by my diagnosis. Maybe my exhaustion will finally evaporate if I can stop trying to solve my anxi-
7B
ety, to cure it. But here is the difference: It is not as simple as what all the thought catalogs and WordPress blogs from every anxiety-suffering teen who preaches to accept yourself and become not a statistic but a normality, because I have tasted cured-ness. In New Hampshire I was strong. I know I do not have to live sleepless. There is something sickening attached to what I learned in therapy, attached to this clinical part. I learned that my brain, my self, created unhealthy neurological pathways. I made so many unhealthy choices that I gave myself a disorder. Though I am trying to pull myself out of those deep problematic neurological pathways, I am haunted by this idea that I gave myself a disorder. *** It is a strange sensation to watch yourself in very real, tangible ways change into a person you don’t recognize. Last year I noticed I’d creep away from loud conversations and into the confines of my bedroom. Outside of my house, I noticed when conversations got loud more often and would remove myself from them, not commenting or speaking up. In these awake times, there were never waves of anxiety. So why was I creating distance between myself and the people around me? Why, when I genuinely liked and wanted to share my life with the people around me, was I reverting more inwardly than ever? So this week I sat on each of my roommates’ beds and challenged myself to explain my insomnia, something I always struggled to make public. As I opened my mouth an elevator speech of what my insomnia is like flowed from my mouth, and, strangely, I didn’t hate it. I said it seven times, to each of them, and for the first time in a long time I recognized and liked the sound of my own voice. I wasn’t explaining a diagnosis, I wasn’t explaining a definition of insomnia that I had Googled, I was explaining, quite simply, me. Just like those deep grooves that are the neurological pathways in my brain, I’m typing these words to create new grooves that lead to a healthy explanation of my anxiety. I’m pulling myself out of the problematic grooves. I’m remapping my brain. I’ll now always think of my anxiety as not general, not the same, most common mental disorder in the country, not everyone else’s. I’ll think of it as this peculiar, hybrid disorder that surfaces only in this unique arena right before and right after sleep. Sleep is a romantic time between self-awareness and self-lost-ness, and I feel lucky my anxiety allows me to exist so alert in these times: They might be the most important. I’ll share what I can about this precious part of me and I’ll know sharing feels reassuring and rewarding. But I won’t forget that there is beauty in the nuances of my secret: There will always be a little bit of all of this that is still unsolved, and I’m not afraid, worried or anxious to keep that part to myself. I am going to create a new word for my type of anxiety — a precious type that only comes alive in the secret moments in between the conscious and the unconscious. That word will be all mine.
8B
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement
Are you guys, uh, cousins or something? By Rich Phillipson, LSA Junior I is this poem good will it get me laughed at or yelled at or whatever nah you’re fine is this paper good will i pass this class will i be put on academic probation and be publically humiliated nah you’re fine what do i do here do I text them back now? tomorrow? what’s the protocol? you worry too much. like, literally no one cares about these things as much as you II [
A lmao bro I won a hopwood cha-ching! (secretly jealous) ohmygod I am going to get so wrecked *cough* which means if you are getting wrecked i’m like getting deep-fried i need to date someone that hates me i need to buy some more sweaters B [ ] and i are done-zo are you ok? im great! (one laughing)
] broke up with me
that’s probably a good thing yeah, you’re probably right as usual (both laughing) PKB Bites Moans oh my goooood Falafel on cheeks You disgust me I know, it’s great. am i a bad friend am i a bad friend am i a bad friend am i a bad friend am i a bad friend am i a bad friend if i am a bad friend am i a bad person
pita kebab and chill?
i need to stop going to pita kebab i wonder when i will date [ ] again we watched foxcatcher here i wonder when i will date [ ] again as our relationship fell apart i wonder when i will date [ ] again see you just need to not talk to her i wonder when i will date [ ] again that’s how you do break-ups i wonder when i will date [ ] again just don’t talk to ‘em pita kebab got me through my break-up i wonder when i will date [ ] again
Photos by Zoey Holmstrom/ DAILY