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Monday, January 30, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Out of luck The Michigan men’s basketball team suffered from a lackluster shooting performance in its 70-62 loss to Michigan State in East Lansing.
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POTUS PROTESTS
ANN ARBOR
City and ‘U’ oppose new Trump-led travel ban CAROLYN GEARIG/Daily
Hundreds marched from the Diag to the Federal Building on East Liberty in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Friday night. There have been numerous protests nationwide in response to President Donald Trump’s policy decisions, including his executive order on immigration over the weekend.
Thousands protest immigration executive order at DTW airport Airports across the nation fill with demonstrations in response to Trump legislation RIYAH BASHA Daily News Editor
Nearly 5,000 people took over the Detroit Metropolitan Airport international terminal Sunday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order preventing individuals
from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Attendees stopped lanes of traffic and filled the terminal, chanting: “Let them in” and “This is what democracy looks like.” Organizers from the Michigan Muslim Community Council and the Michigan chapter of the Women’s March on Washington
arranged the protest in under 24 hours, joining similar movements at airports across the country over the weekend. Trump’s order, signed on Friday, severely restricts immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries including Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Syria for 90 days, suspends
all refugee resettlement for 120 days and bans Syrian refugees indefinitely. A New York federal judge — who is also a University of Michigan alum — overturned part of the ban Saturday evening to allow travelers currently detained at airports into the country. Protesters first demonstrated See PROTEST, Page 3A
A2 mayor Christopher Taylor, ‘U’ Pres. Schlissel pen statements against order MAYA GOLDMAN Daily Staff Reporter
The Ann Arbor community reacted negatively to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the travel and resettlement of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries to the United States that was issued last Friday. Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor issued a statement on his Facebook page Sunday afternoon condemning the actions of the Trump administration thus far, saying people must stand up and fight the president’s harmful policies. “Trump and his supporters have polluted something beautiful
— the honor of the United States and its people,” Taylor wrote. “The world looking in, ourselves looking about us, we must now reasonably question the continued truth of that reputation. Are we in fact a decent and just people? Is the United States of America a force for good? Do we as a people have the courage to try to make the world a better place, or are we debilitated by weakness and fear?” Taylor went on to say Ann Arbor was committed to protecting the constitutional rights of its citizens and all Americans. He mentioned questions of citizenship would not hinder this commitment, hinting at Trump’s most recent executive order. See REACTIONS, Page 3A
University funds big data projects Judges see Student led for social, health science research play relays startups,
BUSINESS
CAMPUS LIFE
select first finalists
Three teams of specialists to receive $3 million in funding from Data Science Initiative
Contest geared at new startups sees innovative technology, software
Researchers at the University of Michigan will be using big data — large data sets that need to be computationally analyzed — to predict when individuals will be affected by diseases like depression and Hepatitis C. Big data will also be used to understand the applications of single-cell gene sequencing — examining genetic information from individual cells — through three projects that were recently funded. The three projects, M-CHAMP, the Michigan Center for SingleCell Genomic Data Analysis and the Intern Health Study, are receiving $3 million in funding from the Michigan Institute for Data Science as part of the Challenge Initiatives Program, which challenges data scientists and other research investigators to solve real-world problems in areas of transportation research, learning analytics, social sciences and health sciences. The program is part of the University’s plan to invest $100 million in Data Science Initiatives and infrastructure, which was announced in September 2015. Brahmajee Nallamothu is leading the Michigan Center for Health Analytics and Medical Prediction project, which includes research investigators from LSA, the College of Engineering, the School of Nursing, the School of Public Health and the Medical
TYLER COADY
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship’s Startup Competition completed its first nonqualifying round on Friday afternoon in front of a crowd of over 200 students, faculty and local businesspeople at the Stamps Auditorium on North Campus. The competition, began at the beginning of the month with a series of auditions of more than 40 student startups pitching to the Center for Entrepreneurship. Only 13 teams made it through to the actual competition, all aiming to win the final cash prize of more than $15,000 in funding for their startup. The projects range from all different fields, but the majority are based on development of technology and software. For this round, each startup was given one minute to make its pitch to a panel of four judges from Ann Arbor and Detroit investment and business development firms, See STARTUPS, Page 3A
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School. Nallamothu noted the goal of all three projects was to help researchers understand the vast amounts of data that were spread throughout multiple disciplines. “The big goals of all the projects, in my opinion, are to help us start to make sense of all the information that is currently surrounding us in a diverse set of fields,” Nallamothu said. “The stakes are really high for us to succeed, because these new tools can be transformational across all these areas: social sciences, health, transportation and learning analytics.” M-CHAMP focuses on two
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areas: acute lung injury following critical illness and chronic Hepatitis C virus infection. Nallamothu explained, while there are current ongoing studies trying to predict the outcomes of patients, they aren’t as comprehensive and complex as M-CHAMP. “Currently, most studies take a ‘snapshot’ view of how patients are doing to predict how they will do in the future,” Nallamothu said. “Longitudinal data that is collected over time often goes ignored because of the complexity of including all of this information into statistical models. We want to change that and help improve our
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ability to predict how patients will do over time.” The Michigan Center for Single-Cell Genomic Data Analysis, another project receiving University funding, analyzes single-cell genomics data. The group will use this information in applications concerning cancer and cell development. This team of researchers come from LSA, College of Engineering, School of Public Health, the Medical School, the Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics and the Comprehensive Cancer See RESEARCH, Page 3A
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Vol. CXXVII, No. 18 ©2016 The Michigan Daily
1969 riot in Malaysia
Over 100 in attendance for Malaysian Cultural Night at Mendelssohn RACHEL LEUNG Daily Staff Reporter
Thirty students performed a play in rememberance of the 1969 racial riots in Malaysia as part of the eighth annual Malaysian Cultural Night on Sunday night, which also the celebrated the Lunar New Year. The play, written by Ross sophomore Jeevan Netraaj Singh, tells the story of a Chinese boy named Lee who was orphaned because of the race riots. Throughout the plot of the play, he develops a deep resentment for Malays, blaming them for the death of his mother, but his feelings of hatred change when he is eventually adopted by a Malay family. LSA junior Aifa Muhammad Radzi, the publicity director of the Malaysian Cultural Night Board, explained the topic of the race riots is generally avoided in Malaysian schools. “Why we highlight it in the play is that we don’t actually talk about it a lot in Malaysian history classes,” Radzi said. “In Malaysia, it’s still considered a sensitive topic.” See MALAYSIA, Page 3A
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ON THE DAILY: THE “D” SCORES AN “A” GRADE FOR PIZZA In the city of Detroit, everybody gets a slice. Detroit ranked number five on Tasting Table’s list of “The 9 Best Cities for Pizza Lovers.” New York City and Brooklyn came in first and second, respectively. According to the website, Detroit-style pizza is characterized by its rectangular shape and abundance of crust. Notable pizza joints mentioned in the article are Amar Pizza, Loui’s Pizza and Pepe Z’s. A Detroit Free Press article about the rating notes that Detroit was also named a top travel destination by the New York Times and a top “unexpected” food city by National Geographic, both for 2017. Eater Detroit’s online map of “The Essential Metro Detroit Pizzerias” also mentions the
city’s iconic Neapolitan round pizza and its own New York style. Niki’s Pizza, located in Bricktown — a neighborhood of Detroit — is described as an exemplar of the city’s deep dish. PizzaPapalis, a Metro Detroit chain, is known for its Chicagostyle deep dish, according to the article. Supino Pizzeria, a family-owned diner in the heart of Eastern Market, is known for its New York style. The restaurant was also featured on an episode of Food Network’s hit TV show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Guy Fieri — restaurateur and host of the show — said his favorite Supino pizza was the “City Wing Thing,” complete with smoked turkey, cherry peppers and garlic. - JENNIFER MEER
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MUSIC FOR THE SOUL
Our success depends on continuing to attract and support academic talent, at all levels, from all around the world. UniversityofMichigan @UMich #UMichTalks w/justices Sonia Sotomayor, 1st Latina appointed to USSC & Susanne Baer of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany #UMich200
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily Zach Heckendorf performs at the 40th annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Hill Auditorium on Friday.
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES Biology Seminar
Near Eastern Studies Lecture
WHAT: Anita Layton, biomedical engineering professor at Duke University, will discuss mathematical modeling techniques that are being used in kidney research. WHO: Quantitative Biology Seminars WHEN: Noon to 1 p.m. WHERE: West Hall, Room 335
WHAT: Classical Studies Prof. Aileen Das will discuss how the Canon of Medicine distinguishes between medicine and philosophy. WHO: Department of Near Eastern Studies WHEN: 4:10 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: 202 S. Thayer, Room 2022
Japanese Film Screening WHAT: The Center for Japanese Studies will be screening “Zero Focus,” a film in which a woman tests her detective skills as she searches for her missing husband. WHO: Center for Japanese Studies WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Theater
Chemistry Discussion WHAT: Frank Osterloh, chemistory professor at University of California, Davis, will discuss methods being developed to create fuel from solar energy. WHO: Department of Chemistry WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Chemistry Building, Room 1706
Startup Funding Presentation
Urban Research Lecture
WHAT: In this workshop, Entrepreneur in Residence Josh Botkin will teach aspiring entrepreneurs about different types of funding for projects, such as bootstraping and crowdfunding. WHO: Innovate Blue WHEN: 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. WHERE: Ross School of Business, Room R1220
WHAT: Kian Goh, an assistant urban planning professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, will discuss how urban planners are confronting today’s difficult environmental tasks. WHO: Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning WHEN: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: Art and Architecture Building, Auditorium 2104
Daily Staff Reporter
Over 80 people gathered inside the Michigan Union Rogel Ballroom Friday night to listen to Matt Gallagher, former U.S. Army Captain and critically acclaimed author, recount his experiences in the Iraq War as a part of the 8th Annual Student Veterans of America at the University of
NEW WEEK, NEW ME.
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Dr. Willett: #Diet needs to be at the center of our studies. If we don’t understand diet, we won’t get the full picture. #umnutrition75
Spanish Music Recital
UMich Research @UMichResearch
WHAT: Author Harlan Lebo will give an overview on the production of the classic 1941 film “Citizen Kane,” as well as discuss its historical effect and cultural relevance. WHO: University Library WHEN: 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. WHERE: Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery, Room 100
WHAT: University alum Horacio Contreras and DMA student Cesar Canon will perform on the cello and piano, respectively, in this hispanic music recital. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: 8 p.m. WHERE: Earl V. Moore Building, Britton Recital Hall
.@UROPumich student is working w/ @UMich faculty to find ways to administer heart disease drugs so that only infected cells are targeted.
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Notable author, Matt Gallagher, attends benefit dinner and recounts experiences KAELA THEUT
UM SchPublic Health @UM_SPH
“A Filmmaker’s Journey”
Army veteran and author urges student vets to pursue passions Michigan Benefit Dinner. Student Veterans of America is a non-profit organization on campus aiding veterans with resources they need at higher education institutions, as well as after graduation. The group has chapters at almost 1,500 schools across the country, and has supported more than 500,000 student veterans. During the event, Gallagher
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read passages from his novel, “Youngblood,” as well as personal essays detailing his youth and experiences during the war. He spoke of the importance of continuing to tell stories, and how they can shape the future of the United States. “Whether you’re an aspiring writer or going into business or going to be a dentist, we’re all storytellers,” Gallagher said. “It’s a way of giving back to our families, to our communities, to American society at large, to help understand the past and maybe, to help shape the future for the better.” Gallagher commented numerous times on the strong national reputation of the Student Veterans of America chapter at the University. Business senior Jonathan Chen, President of the SVAUM, said after serving nearly four years in the Marine Corps, he felt very welcomed by the Student Veterans of America. Chen described the hardships veterans face when they enter into a university setting, and explained how the group works to make the transition as smooth as possible. “We say there’s really three big things: the professional, the social and the academic,” Chen said. “If you really think about it, somebody coming into college, like the normal way, you have an 18-yearold, it’s kinda hard — hard to adjust, hard to find weird places, all that kind of stuff. When you put all that, class itself is hard, but then being a veteran and coming out of four to eight to 12 to 20 years in the military, some with multiple combat deployments, some with kids, some with husbands or wives, then putting school on top of that — it’s extremely hard. I Read more online at michigandaily.com feel
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PROTEST From Page 1A outside the terminal a stream of people spontaneously joined from cars driving by and some travelers even delayed their flights to participate. The crowd then packed the entire arrivals area inside the terminal for a rally led by elected officials and local activists. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D–Mich.) told protesters their activism — in addition to legal action — was a key component in overturning Trump’s ban. “We are trying to introduce legislation that will overturn the executive order,” she said to cheers from the crowd. “This is not about Republican or Democrat, we are here as Americans. There is no one who doesn’t care about national security … but we are standing for fundamental rights in the Constitution: freedom of religion, freedom of speech.” Residents of cities with high concentrations of Muslim immigrants, like Dearborn and Hamtramck, also protested Sunday afternoon. Michigan hosts the second-highest population of Syrian refugees in the country, but resettlement programs across the state may be forced to close in light of the ban. LSA freshman Ayah Kutmah, a first-generation Syrian American, said the protest allayed much of the anxiety she felt after the executive order, despite her relatives’ inability to join her in the United States. “My family is devastated, but I don’t like to think of (the ban) as indefinite,” she said. “I have so much hope today,
RESEARCH From Page 1A Center. The project will be led by Jun Li, an associate computational medicine and bioinformatics professor, and Anna Gilbert, a mathematics professor. The third project, the Intern Health Study, headed by Srijan Sen, a psychiatry professor, will be using data collected from mobile applications from over 1,000 medical interns to determine the relationships between circadian rhythms, mood and sleep, as well as how they might lead to depression.
REACTIONS From Page 1A Michigan has one of the highest numbers of refugees in the country, with over 2,000 Syrian refugees and 8,015 refugees in total. Ann Arbor is often considered a “sanctuary city,” meaning the city’s police can only enforce immigration laws in criminal circumstances. “Ann Arbor affirms the principles and hard fought rights enshrined in our Constitution,” Taylor wrote. “Among these rights are freedom of movement and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. We will protect and honor these rights. We will not stop the innocent and demand to see their papers. We will confront the criminal and protect the innocent, without regard to citizenship or documentation. Count on it.” The University of Michigan community has also been vocal in its opposition of the executive order. While President Schlissel wrote on Saturday that the University would not release the immigration status information
MALAYSIA From Page 1A The riots are viewed by many Malaysians as a dark spot in the country’s history. A racial divide between Chinese and Malays developed, which was intensified by the 1969 Malaysian general election. After the election, many angered Malaysians attacked members of the Chinese-dominated majority party, as well as many civilians. The casualties of the riots were
and I honestly think the more we show support like this for refugees and immigrants, the more representatives will listen.” Elected officials attending the event included Dingell, Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D–Mich.), and Michigan Reps. Abdullah Hammoud (D–Dearborn), Yousef Rabhi (D–Ann Arbor) and Jim Ellison (D–Royal Oak). Rabhi condemned Trump and called for more representatives to fight for the protection of vulnerable citizens. “This is fighting for the America we all love and fighting against an oppressive man who is now the president of the United States and pushing a neofascist agenda,” he said. “My role is standing up every day for the refugees seeking safety in our country, for everyone who wants to make America home.” Waving to a line of cars honking on the airport concourse, state Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D–Detroit) paused chanting to criticize the “hypocrisy” of the ban. “My family fled their homes overseas because of these kinds of policies, and now they’ll have to fight them here,” she said. “Here, now, though, I’m proud to be an American today.” Both University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel and Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor released statements this weekend promising to protect international and undocumented community members. Schlissel’s refusal to release information on students’ immigration statuses was one of a handful of statements from universities and colleges over the weekend affirming a commitment to international students. Taylor, too, stood in
solidarity with immigrants and refugees, even accusing Trump and his supporters of having “polluted” the country’s honor. Nursing senior Matt White applauded the University’s statement at the protest and pushed for even more action. “I was very proud to see our University stand up on this issue,” he said. “But we need to work to protect all immigrants — students, faculty and staff — not just students.” History Prof. Heather Thompson agreed, citing the protest’s place in a history of resistance against policies limiting immigrants’ rights. Amid chants of “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” Thompson warned of history repeating itself. “The American people who care about refugees, immigrants, democracy and freedom are not going to put up with this and they never did,” she said. “They didn’t in the ’20s, they didn’t in the ’30s, not in the ’50s and they’re not going to do it now. I remind Americans we’ve been here before, and fascism happens slowly when we don’t stand up.” Protest organizers connected Sunday’s action to a slew of other issues — most notably Trump’s order of a wall on the Mexican border — and assured larger and more coordinated campaigns were on the way. MMCC organizer Fatima Salman pointed to the immediate response the protest garnered from community members. “Every community has joined along in the last day and we as a Metro Detroit community are a strong and unified front,” she said. “Refugees are welcome here, and they’ve always been welcome here and they always will be.”
Sen explained the goal of the project is to find patterns that lead to depression so measures can be taken to identify at-risk individuals and provide treatment. “Largely, the goal of the study is to capture data about people’s sleep, activity, their cardiac function and where they’re going, so we can predict before people really descend into the depths of depression that people are at risk in the first part,” Sen said. “The second part is to come up with some kinds of intervention to prevent depression.” Alfred Hero, a professor of electrical engineering and
computer science and the co-director of Michigan Institute for Data Science, explained the efficiency of the groups in analyzing big data stems from the fact that they are composed of so many different disciplines. “All of the projects funded by MIDAS are funded in a very multidisciplinary manner and that’s where you can make progress on these problems, because it’s not just looking at biological processes and how to sample cells and how to do sequencing,” Hero said. “It’s really how do you analyze that data to be able to segment the population into these classes of susceptibility.”
of its students, a national petition gained traction among staff and faculty. Titled “Academics Against Immigration Executive Order,” the petition is a platform for academics from across the country to denounce the order on the grounds that it is discriminatory, places an undue burden on those affected and hinders academic progress in the nation. “The (Executive Order) significantly damages American leadership in higher education and research … From Iran alone, more than 3000 students have received PhDs from American universities in the past 3 years,” a clause of the petition reads. “The proposed EO limits collaborations with researchers from these nations by restricting entry of these researchers to the US and can potentially lead to departure of many talented individuals who are current and future researchers and entrepreneurs in the US. We strongly believe the immediate and long term consequences of this EO do not serve our national interests.” Over 4,000 professors and academics had signed their
names to the petition by Sunday morning, and over 60 of those names come from University professors and graduate students. History Prof. John Carson said he found out about the petition earlier this weekend and signed it immediately. He told the Daily he felt the executive order was an attack on not only his personal values and those that the nation was built upon, but also to universities worldwide. “It will have effects on the international scope of universities,” Carson said. “You can imagine this closing of the movement of people, and eventually the movement of ideas in the end.” Carson’s fear of what this new immigration policy might bring is echoed in the final lines of the petition. “The unethical and discriminatory treatment of law-abiding, hard-working and well-integrated immigrants fundamentally contravenes the founding principles of the United States,” the petition reads. “We strongly denounce this ban and urge the President to reconsider going forward with this Executive Order.”
predominantly Chinese. Singh, the director of Malaysian Cultural Night, echoed Radzi’s statements and said he felt some Malaysian people in his community felt uncomfortable with his choice of topic. “Even when I was writing this play, I felt some resistance from some fellow Malaysians that did not want me to go through with this because they thought there were so many other aspects of Malaysian history I could talk about,” Singh said.
Singh said he chose to write a play about the racial riots because he felt they were important to discuss and remember. When writing the play, he wanted to depict how Malaysia is truly an integration of different cultures. Singh’s play featured a traditional Malaysian dance, as well as a Chinese Umbrella Dance and Bhangra, a traditional dance originating from India, to represent Malaysia’s multicultural society.
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STARTUPS From Page 1A who later decided whether or not they wanted to advise and nurture the startup into a fullf ledged company. The Startup Competition advertised its event as being similar to the reality television show “The Voice,” as the panel of four judges began facing away from the contestants and turned around only when they wanted to add a contestant to their coterie of startups. Sonali Vijayavargiya was one of the judges at the event as the founder and managing director of Augment Ventures, a firm that invests in technology and software companies. She said the Startup Competition provides not only a chance for industry leaders to identify budding companies, but to serve in mentorship roles. “We are taking the investment background that we have and bringing it to the students so that they can build new businesses,” Vijayavargiya said. “I am really looking for opportunity as you know when I look at the new enterprises, I really like to see what kind of a problem they’re solving, what kind of a need they’re meeting
Monday, January 30, 2017 — 3A and what it takes, what kind of technology and people, it takes to get to that point.” Vijayavargiya was the first judge to turn around following the pitch and partner with a startup by the name of Cheruvu, which advertises itself as “Big Data for Small Farmers.” The team is made up of three graduate students who aim to build resilient and sustainable villages by employing data science to improve the decisions of small farmers. ForzaMetrix was the first startup that had two judges turn around and vie for its stewardship. ForzaMetrix, whose three team members have experience in business, engineering and law, pitched itself as a company that can help optimize athletic performance through the use of workout tracking sensors and analytics. Both Scott Taylor, of the Michigan Small Business Development Council, and Jake Cohen, of Detroit Venture Partners, attempted to compel ForzaMetrix to enlist their mentorship. Taylor sold his company by highlighting how he feels he can help ForzaMetrix build a customer base, but Cohen rebutted by extolling his firm’s connections to professional sports teams and entertainment
companies. “(Detroit Venture Partners) has a lot of connections in the sports and entertainment world, as I work for Dan Gilbert, who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers,” Cohen said. “I would love to work with you.” ForzaMetrix ultimately sided with Cohen. One of the companies that elicited a quick turn of the chair was Find Your Ditto, an online service that aims to connect peoples who live with chronic illnesses and build support networks among its members. Parisa Soraya, a master’s student of health informatics, said seeing Cohen turn around in his chair and select her as someone he wanted to mentor was an exciting experience. “It was very relieving to be selected because you only have a minute and we had to figure out how to best present the venture quickly and to get someone interested,” Soraya said. “It was really nice, as Jake was our top choice and it worked out.” Five more startups were chosen by the panelists, with the seven teams, such as Pakochi, Air Mail and FUNL, being left behind and unable to advance to the next round. The second round of the Startup Competition will be on Feb. 10.
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MEGAN BURNS | COLUMN
Using your privilege for good
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C
Fascism in American politics
hichijima is a small, with the Soviet Union. Yet, this desolate rock island all contributed to him losing his located in the south Pacific re-election in 1992. Following his and in 1944, it was defeat, the Republican home to a Japanese Party allowed for Naval installation its radical right to that was subject to grow louder and frequent attacks by stronger, preaching American warplanes. blind nationalism to On Aug. 1 of that year, its uncompromising a young lieutenant followers. His eldest was piloting a torpedo son’s administration bomber that was shot and the Republican down a few miles from MICHAEL Party in opposition the island. He escaped former President MORDARSKI to by parachute out of Barack Obama further his plane, landed in the contributed to the water, made it onto a raft and began growth of the dangerous ideology drifting toward the Japanese that was once the party of George island, which was known for its H.W. Bush. cruel treatment of its prisoners All of this culminated in the and confirmed cannibalism. He swearing in of our Celebrity was eventually rescued by a small President, Donald Trump, who in American submarine, and his his “American carnage” speech war career, this terrifying event touted the same nationalist and included, would prove to be crucial populist rhetoric that has been in the shape and formation of the heard before in the past. A man politician he would become later many feared for already displaying in life. authoritarian tendencies during Former President George his campaign and transition Herbert Walker Bush enlisted period, whether it be refusing to as a fighter pilot to liberate remove himself from his many the oppressed from the Axis business interests or condemning powers. This struggle against and silencing members of the blind nationalism and radical press, gave an inaugural address policies continued all his life. that stated, “When you open your His presidency was not defined heart to patriotism, there is no by conservatism or profound room for prejudice.” Republican ideology, but instead, His administration has begun his administration was moderate on a note of authoritarians using and pragmatic, working toward a nationalism and love of one’s common goal with the other side country to mask injustices and of the aisle. to start a campaign against I recently finished reading Jon the free American media. His Meacham’s “Destiny and Power,” press secretary Sean Spicer the 2015 biography on Bush, lambasted the press over the most which details these struggles with insignificant of issues — that the radicals utilizing nationalism both size of his inauguration crowd home and abroad. His political was actually larger than reported. battles later in life cost him his His counselor Kellyanne Conway presidency. He raised taxes then further dragged America despite the uncompromising into George Orwell’s “1984” nature of the far right, enacted with her argument that Spicer legislation for minorities and the was simply offering “alternative disabled despite pushback from facts.” And finally, the president’s staunch conservatives and most chief strategist Stephen Bannon importantly, he convinced the said the media should “keep nation not to hide behind guns its mouth shut.” “You’re the and patriotism in the face of a opposition party,” he said. “Not foreign danger and simultaneously the Democratic Party. You’re the demonstrated when, where and opposition party. The media’s the how military force is necessary to opposition party.” solve a crisis. This is all occurring as part of Bush had seen how the the Trump “movement,” which nationalism of Nazi Germany and incorporates the populism, Imperial Japan were disguises the nationalism and isolationism public bought into, allowing for the once seen generations before. heinous governments to proceed America has used nationalism with truly evil policy. Therefore, to write the darker chapters of he refused to submit to the blind our history. “Sea to shining sea” nationalism to which many within required the genocide of an entire his party fell prey. His ability race of people. The heroic fight to place country over party was against communism allowed for essential in ending the Cold War McCarthyism and the buildup of
ERIN WAKELAND | CONTACT ERIN AT ERINRAY@UMICH.EDU
deadly nuclear arsenals. And the flags flying after 9/11 hid our eyes from a government that tortured fellow human beings. This devotion to the starspangled awesomeness of America will likely only grow because President Trump is also proposing a “Day of Patriotic Devotion:” a day of common proclamation and devotion to our country. This new holiday relates to the section of his inauguration speech when he stated, “At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.” Many believe that 21st-century America would never allow a fascist to emerge and abuse power like the demagogues of the previous century. Many of us read only of the incomprehensible levels of violence of wars of the past, wondering how such people allowed for that to happen. We’ve been buffered from the violence of the world and fooled with money and easy lives into believing that it will never happen again. Yet we have elected a TV celebrity who demonstrates that he has an unpredictable, scattered and egotistical personality, and is vengeful to the point of trivialness against all his enemies. We have allowed this man to surround himself with sycophants and spineless politicians who are so readily willing to submit to his childish will. And we have already allowed this administration to begin lying to us, to begin utilizing the nationalism and populism that drove its campaign to govern the country. President George H.W. Bush once stated that people must caution themselves from “suicidal nationalism.” He understood the threats posed by such blind ideologies that promote populist and dangerous leaders. He nearly died fighting against a nation that fell victim to it. And he understood that some things were greater than your job or your political party. One of them was never to bend to the will of the blind patriotism so ingrained within the radical ideology. And now, in 2017, America is faced with a presidential administration posing similar tendencies to those of autocratic regimes blanketed in a love for one’s country.
Michael Mordarski can be reached at mmordars@umich.edu.
MEGAN BURNS
T
he weekend of Jan. 21, I attended the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. and was lucky enough to be surrounded by over 500,000 likeminded, democratically active citizens. Legions of pink hats and clever signs overtook the National Mall in downtown Washington. I felt empowered and powerful in spite of the previous day’s inauguration of our new president. After the march had finished, reports marveled at the lack of arrests. While many women took this as a sign of peacefulness and respect, others raised concerns about the racial implications of this phenomenon, especially in light of racially charged police aggression in the recent past. The perception of “a harmlessness white woman” pervaded the march, and police officers wearing pink pussy hats and shouting affirmations of safety and love at marchers were signs of this racial bias. The successful peacefulness of the Women’s March is certainly positive, but it is critical that white women recognize the privilege we have and apply that to our role in activism. A lot of march attendees took to social media, claiming that this event was “just the beginning” of modern political activism. However, while many of these injustices feel new to many of the white women who attended (myself included), feelings of political inequality have long been a reality for minority communities. The importance of representational diversity in the realm of political and social activism cannot be understated. The University of Michigan is home to many liberal-minded, politically active students, but these students are overwhelmingly white, educated
and upper-middle class. I do not intend to shame anyone for holding these identities, but it is imperative, now more than ever, to understand one’s ability and role in activism. Political and social activism have historically been popular among white people, and as a result, women of color have been excluded from and marginalized in various major moments in activist history. Many movements toward gender equality almost exclusively catered toward the ideals of heterosexual, middle-class white women. This dissociation led to the creation of “womanism,” a term coined by Alice Walker, which focuses on issues unique to women of color. Despite social progress in the past few decades, the involvement of people of color in activism has elicited feelings of discontent among certain white Americans. Many white women claim to feel threatened by the supposed “attack on unity” resulting from the focus on intersectional oppression. This has generated significant debate as to what the purpose of protesting should be and also the importance of recognizing that those who are the subjected to the deepest injustices are not white women (and never have been). People of color have also raised criticism of this being the first instance in which so many white women have expressed outrage, our silence being broken now that our rights are under attack. Incidents of police brutality have been circulating media outlets for years, and yet very few white women have participated in the many peaceful protests that have occurred in response to these atrocities. Luvvie Ajayi, bestselling author and media icon, stated eloquently in a recent Facebook post: “Remember that you as a white person are walking in a body of privilege. You didn’t show up before but you can show
up now. NOW. When the next Sandra Bland, Aiyana StanleyJones, Rekia Boyd, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner etc etc etc happens, you better come out. We will need you to show up again and again, in these numbers.” While there could be any number of excuses made for why white women (once again, myself included) haven’t shown up yet, none will suffice. The new administration has made it clear that it will follow through on the campaign promises of the campaign — platforms that attack the rights of many minority Americans. White women, the first step we should take is to listen and respect the opinions of women of color. Our voices have been powerful in the past, and when the time is right, we can use our voices to empower all marginalized identities. We can no longer pretend it is sufficient to post Facebook statuses and express our concern on social media. We can no longer turn the other cheek to microaggressions and daily injustice. We can no longer avoid real activism, as Madeline Nowicki wrote in an op-ed for The Michigan Daily, when she outlined some great opportunities for action. We must utilize our privilege to help those without it. Activism is not activism if you only seek change for yourself. We are responsible for helping to safeguard the well-being of all Americans, especially those who are being threatened under this administration. And while the challenge seems insurmountable, that does not make it an unworthy or hopeless cause. In the words of Audre Lorde, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
Megan Burns can be reached at megburns@umich.edu.
MASS MEETING — MONDAY, JANUARY 30 at 7PM Join us in our newsroom at 420 Maynard St. to learn how you can become a part of the Opinion section as a writer and/or Editorial Board member. Contact opinion@michigandaily.com for more information. IBTIHAL MAKKI | OP-ED
Depoliticize Arabic studies
IBTIHAL MAKKI
T
he College of LSA language requirement asserts that, “informed respect for other cultures (and) tolerance … are the hallmarks of a liberal arts education, and the study of foreign languages fosters precisely these capacities.” In my experience, however, these capacities are not promoted equally by all language departments at the University of Michigan. Specifically, our Arabic program, which uses the problematic textbook, “al-Kitaab fii Ta’allum al-Arabiyya,” which translates to “The Book in the Learning of Arabic” (hereafter: “al-Kitaab,” “The Book”). As a daughter of Lebanese immigrants, during my 18 years living in an Arabic-speaking household before college, I never heard either of my parents use the Arabic term for “United Nations.” Bearing this in mind, imagine my confusion as “al’umam almuttahida,” the UN, was introduced in Lesson One of “al-Kitaab.” Vocabulary terms in Lesson Two included translation, translator, specializing and admissions. Lesson Three included Army, officer (in an army) and political science. Lesson 10 dedicates a section to learning about the non-Arab “Ayatollah,” or the supreme leader, of Iran. The terms for “to play,” “sports,” “running,” “life” and “hobby” are not introduced until Lesson Six. Additionally, the online companion regularly includes Orientalist depictions of Arabs, including young women marrying older male cousins with aspirations to be stay-athome moms, college students
not permitted to leave their homes and various arranged marriages. The way in which languages are taught is a reflection of how they are perceived to be utilized and it is inaccurate to indicate that such terms are more important to Arabic communication than the colors, numbers greater than 10, days of the week and months of the year — taught in the second, third and fourth semesters of Arabic. Many of these terms may seem harmless as they stand alone. However, in considering the context of “The Book” as a whole, after completing 15 credits of Arabic, students can say “my uncle is an army general,” but not “my uncle has green eyes.” Students can say, “I hope to major in political science, specialize in translation of Arabic news and work for the UN” but not, “I hope to write poetry.” As a University that is proactively promoting inclusivity and understanding through the plan for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, it should not be acceptable to use a book that teaches the word for “oil” before the verb “to think.” Teaching Arabic through this blatantly politically charged lens has problematic educational and social implications, necessitating analysis and constructive criticism. If the University regards second language acquisition as providing “deep awareness of linguistic and cultural differences and a means to bridge them,” as is stated on the LSA website, then it is the responsibility of our language departments to uphold that vision. Utilizing a textbook that prioritizes politicized vocabulary only serves to perpetuate negative
generalizations about Arab culture and does not portray an accurate representation of my culture, my family or myself. This concern is further exacerbated when considering that Arabic 101 may be many students’ first formal introduction to the language and culture and, as such, they may be less equipped to recognize these biases and divorce them from reality. The dominant traits inherent to Arab culture — which emphasizes hospitality and generosity, cherishes family and food and appreciates literature and music — should not be lost to the global discourses that have undoubtedly been restricted to conflicts, politics and security. I am not oblivious to the fact that many students enroll in Arabic classes in pursuit of relevant professions at the UN, Department of State and any other number of synonymous assemblies. The questions remain, however: Why does the Arabic program cater to these students, and why am I automatically subjected to this framework? It would be more appropriate for the Department of Near Eastern Studies to adopt a different textbook and create a separate, advanced class for students proficient in Arabic who wish to expand their political vocabulary. I am aware that the majority of American universities use “al-Kitaab, “as the grammar lessons are effective. However, if this book is recognized as problematic and enabling harmful stereotypes, then the University should search for a better book — or write one.
Ibtihal Makki is an LSA senior.
Arts
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TV REVIEW
Monday, January 30, 2017 — 5A
ALBUM REVIEW
DRAG RECORDS Ty Segall on tour
Archie in a diner in the series premiere
THE CW
Uneven ‘Riverdale’ still holds true to CW mold something more than a typical teen mystery drama (think Daily Arts Writer Freeform’s “Pretty Little Liars”), it occasionally falls During the past few years, into the trappings of one. The the CW has been on an dialogue has genuine moments upswing in content. While it of wit, but for the most part, struggles with ratings, the its excessive reliance on pop network has been producing culture references makes it a number of quality television almost grating to listen to. shows catered to progressive, Unlike “Gilmore Girls” or young adult audiences. The “Veronica Mars,” “Riverdale” CW’s hilarious female- seems a little too keen on driven comedies (“Crazy making references that are Ex-Girlfriend” and “Jane the obscure (“I’m already the Virgin”) have become award- Blue Jasmine of Riverdale winning critical darlings, High”), cheesy (“You should while its long-running dramas be the Queen Bey of this drab (“The Vampire Diaries” and hive”) and just plain confusing “Supernatural”) (“Can’t we, and superheroin this post“Riverdale” centric programs James Franco Thursdays @ 9 p.m. (“Arrow,” world, just be all “The Flash,” things?”). Series Premiere “Arrow” and Moreover, the “DC’s Legends personalities of The CW of Tomorrow”) the characters have developed are a bit faronline cult followings. The fetched. In particular, newest addition of “Riverdale,” Archie has yet to show a an updated adaptation of the single character f law — he’s famed Archie Comics, seems talented, athletic and a tad to fit the CW mold perfectly, too gorgeous to be considered but its ability to draw in both a relatable protagonist. acclaim and devout fan bases Conversely, the show’s main is still up in the air. villain, redheaded queen bee In the promos preceding Cheryl Blossom (newcomer “Riverdale” ’s premiere, the Madelaine Petsch), has yet show was thought to be a to show a single redeemable grittier, darker take on the quality — she’s manipulative, much more lighthearted entitled and a note too onecomic series. The description dimensional to be considered is certainly true for the a compelling antagonist. most part — “Riverdale” At the same time, uses a tantalizing, neo-noir “Riverdale” seems confident murder mystery as a framing in developing these characters device for establishing the by intertwining its mystery characters, story and location. subplot with a coming-of-age But contrary to the initial story that gets at the heart perception, “Riverdale” is of its source material. The much more than “‘Twin Peaks’ love triangle between Archie, meets Archie.” The show Veronica and Betty was always maintains a sly self-awareness an integral part of the original to its own soapy nature and comics, but to see it fully thus infuses unabashed realized in a live-action take melodrama, pop culture- is quite entertaining and could heavy humor and a cast of easily prompt a “Team Betty attractive characters into its vs. Team Veronica” situation. story. But instead of simply pitting From the first minute of Betty and Veronica against the pilot, the show’s laconic each other, “Riverdale” narrator, Jughead (Cole stitches the two into a strong Sprouse, “Suite of Zack and female friendship that modern Cody,” in a welcome return television could really use. to television), sets the story The internal conf licts in motion: After the sudden, mysterious death of a beloved high school student, the residents of the titular town must grapple with the tragic news while dealing with secrets and inner demons of their own. There’s Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa, “A Dog’s Purpose”), the football player/ aspiring musician whose affair with his music teacher Miss Grundy (Sarah Habel, “Whip It”) threatens both underlying Archie, Betty of their reputations. The and Veronica also offer some seemingly perfect blonde insight into the characters’ Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart, lives, especially with their “The Kings of Summer”) has complicated family dynamics. been harboring a crush on Veronica tries to reinvent Archie for quite some time, herself when she moves to but finds some competition Riverdale in an attempt to in rich girl Veronica Lodge disassociate herself from (newcomer Camila Mendes) to her father’s mysterious win his affection. With a few scandal. Archie wants to twists and turns, “Riverdale” fulfill his passion for writing sets up its intriguing premise music against his father’s in admirable fashion, but not wishes. Betty represses her without a few bumps along the pent-up anger against her road. authoritarian mother. All of Though “Riverdale” is these complex issues make right on the cusp of being it clear that “Riverdale” SAM ROSENBERG
“Riverdale” is much more than “‘Twin Peaks’ meets Archie.”
still cares deeply about the characters and how they fit into the larger narrative of growing up in a world that can be cruel and dangerous (hence, the murder mystery subplot). The show’s soundtrack, too, complements the era well, incorporating songs from M83, Santigold, Tove Styrke and Tegan and Sara. There’s even a wonderful synthpop cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “All Through the Night,” performed by the school’s ferocious girl trio Josie and the Pussycats. If there’s one thing “Riverdale” is doing right in terms of recreating Archie for today, it’s with its music choices. While the writing and characterizations may be uneven, the parts that do work absolve the majority of “Riverdale” ’s faults. The pilot’s cliff hanger — more clues on the death and possible murder of the student are revealed — certainly makes “Riverdale” engaging enough to continue watching. Perhaps after it builds some momentum, “Riverdale” can hopefully join the ranks of its fellow CW binge-worthy programs.
‘Segall’ boasts essentials for a modern rock album that has brought the garage rock niche popularity to the festivalDaily Arts Writer going crowd. Segall is never afraid to show off Garage rock artists like his talents. The man is incredibly Ty Segall are essential to the adept at his craft, sprinkling mainstreaming of rock music. lightning fast guitar melodies Everything about his music throughout the album that give screams retrospective rock ‘n’ it the rock credibility it needs roll, while keeping the genre fresh to survive in the 21st century. through the use of heavy-handed Segall’s penchant for writing distortion. Artists like Segall, both vocal and guitar melodies through their indie-tinged take keeps the album fresh, each song on rock, are the ones responsible distinct from the next, despite for summer festivalthe distortion that goers head-banging permeates his Ty Segall their flower crowns work. Ty Segall off to massive pop The drunken, tunes masked romantic aesthetic Drag Records under guitar riffs commonly and solos that bring found within the out the rocker in modernization anyone. of rock, a movement fronted Ty Segall is exactly what you by artists like Twin Peaks and would expect from albums of this Mac Demarco, is palpable on the festival punk archetype — it’s a album. With lyrics like, “Take my bright drunken haze of an album. guitar / I’ll be at the bar,” and “I The blurry black and white image don’t want to call you baby,” Segall on the cover speaks for itself: A paints imagery of long-haired sad dark image of a man who lacks any boys ruminating over love with tangible features other than the a stiff drink in hand. It’s lovable, curtain of hair covering his face. fun imagery that adds relatability Even though the cover represents to a genre that can otherwise feel the genre, the album itself removed. features tracks that produced Back-to-back tracks “Papers” poignant definition between the and “Take Care (To Comb Your songs on the album. On his latest Hair)” are pleasantly lighteffort, Segall has expanded the hearted and cryptic to the dirtier lo-fi atmosphere of the point of goofiness, adding to the oldies rock on 2015’s Ty Rex by romance through their detail. utilizing incredibly well-written Segall shows he’s capable of more pop melodies, a common staple than just the lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll we DOMINIC POLSINELLI
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have come to expect from him. These floaty indie rock tracks give the album more depth than he’s accomplished on more recent releases, which tended to stick to his status-quo brand of punk. It makes for great effect before his goodbye — a lonely pair of chords on 12-second closer “Untitled.” By getting in touch with his tender side, Segall has written a record that is not only ripe for throwing yourself around in a pit, but also includes moments for swaying along to the melody with breezy carelessness. “Talkin’” tones down the album, taking cues from music that almost feels like Beatles-era rock, while “Thank You Mr. K” brings it back to speed with rollicking piano added to the mix. It’s an effective play with varying tempo and volume, and the result is an unexpected but far-reaching album. On his second self-titled record, Segall has taken the often two-dimensionality of garage rock and made it threedimensional through modern twists that give it distinction from the typical hazy aesthetic of the genre. It’s far from a surprising or magnificent album, but Segall succeeds in taking on his genre of choice with a broader view. To put it bluntly, it’s damn good — full of wit and charm. Hiding beneath rough riffs, shrill solos and a somber cover, Ty Segall proves that its namesake isn’t as sad as he’d make you believe.
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ACROSS 1 Song of praise 6 Madagascar primate 11 “Norma __” 14 Fiber-__ cable 15 Last Olds model 16 Make a decision 17 Massachusetts witch trial town 18 Frenzied 19 Speedometer reading: Abbr. 20 Mork’s sign-off 22 Cute Aussie “bear” 24 What we breathe 25 In favor of 26 Native of Damascus 27 Chinese menu letters 28 Eastside Manhattan thoroughfare 31 Dijon darling 33 Brain scan: Abbr. 34 Had the best record in 35 Confidentially, in Cannes 39 Univ. near Harvard 41 Unspecified number 42 Choppers 46 Boat made from a hollowed tree trunk 50 Ship, to a sailor 51 Zambia neighbor 52 Suffix with east 53 Male or female 54 Pastoral poem 55 Request for the latest update 58 Cozy cat seat 59 Kind of Boy Scout badge 61 Ancient region of Asia Minor 63 “Lux” composer Brian 64 Tylenol alternative 65 “Filthy” moolah 66 “Sure thing” 67 Eight plus one, to aviators 68 Disdainful grin DOWN 1 Places to buy stamps: Abbr. 2 Language of Chile 3 On the loose
38 Kitchen 47 Tracey on whose 4 Property implements show “The encumbrance 39 Humdrum Simpsons” 5 Golden Arches 40 “Lust for Life” debuted egg sandwich punk rocker 48 More orderly 6 Hollywood’s 43 Defining 49 Dinner plate scrap Hedy quality 55 Chirpy bird 7 Stylish vigor 44 2000s crime 56 Home with 8 Café chalkboard drama set in drones listing Baltimore 57 Sentence 9 Ocean State 45 Cast a spell subject, as a rule sch. on 60 Yale collegian 10 1990 Stallone 46 Dan of old 62 __ Lingus: Irish boxing film which MGM musicals carrier at the time was thought to be the ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: conclusion of its series 11 Caesar salad lettuce 12 Give a hand to 13 Flammable hydrocarbon 21 There’s __ in “team” 23 Bully’s threat ender 24 “Breaking Bad” channel 26 Palm starch 29 “Later, bro” 30 X, to Cato 32 Update factory machinery 36 “Toodles!” 37 GOP fundraising org. 01/30/17 xwordeditor@aol.com
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Arts
6A — Monday, January 30, 2017
DAILY TV COLUMNIST
FILM REVIEW
To exorcise insecurities
ATLAS MEDIA CORP. Sondheim in the new documentary “The Best Worst Thing.”
‘Best ’ honors Sondheim ASIF BECHER Daily Arts Writer
There’s nothing quite like crying during a movie. It’s cathartic, usually embarrassing and the best part is that after it’s over, you wipe your eyes in the sheltered darkness of the theater and promptly pretend it never happened. There are some signposts marking which movies will make you cry — if there’s a dog, if it’s about some sort of tragic event, if it’s nostalgic for your childhood, or if it’s a beautiful celebration of the power of humanity coming together. The last one might just be a personal preference (I dare you to name someone who didn’t cry at the end of “The Martian” though), but the fact is you never really know when it’ll happen, which is part of what makes movie-crying so special. You don’t have to know anything about musical theatre or Stephen Sondheim to get something out of “The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened,” a documentary chronicling the making and failure of the Sondheim musical “Merrily We Roll Along.” In fact, you can know next to nothing about musical theater and still find yourself stupidly wondering where all this water on your face
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
is coming from. experience the greatest joy they “The Best Worst Thing” was might ever know. made by Lonny Price, one of the They staked all of their original cast members in the hopes and dreams on this show, musical, and combines footage believing it to be the culminating from the original rehearsal moment of their lives. In a video process in the early 1980s and from 1981, a 23-year-old Lonny present-day interviews with Price said, “If I get hit by a bus the cast and creators, including the day after opening night, I Sondheim himself. The musical don’t think I’ll care, because at itself was about the relentless least I got to do this,” flashing the passage of time and biggest, most the erosion of the earnest smile idealistic dreams of you’ve ever people in their youth. seen. Price Ironically (or maybe was not the Atlas Media Corp. only one who not ironically at all), “Merrily We Rolled Michigan Theater felt this way. Along” was not a The contrast successful show; between such it closed after only footage and 16 shows, making it a painfully present-day interviews of the fitting subject for this particular same cast members, now much documentary. older, wiser and almost entirely Each of the original cast sadder is jarring, to say the least. members remembers their time The intended audience of this working on the show as some of the documentary is most certainly best days of their lives — getting to aspiring actors, theater students work with the legendary Stephen and of course Sondheim fans Sondheim on a Broadway stage. young and old. And yet, at its core, They all spent their childhoods “The Best Worst Thing” is a story wearing their record players thin about a bunch of young people with Sondheim’s official cast thinking they’ll never be any older recordings, and now they had and that their hearts will never all received their big breaks as break, and a bunch of adults who actors with their hero. To watch know better, but still think it’s the documentary footage of the worth hoping. There isn’t anyone rehearsals in the 1980s is to see in the world who isn’t one or the a bunch of kids (the cast’s ages other. So, of course, there wasn’t a ranged from 16 to 25 years old) dry eye in the theater.
“The Best Worst Thing”
On April 23 of last year, I tweeted: “I wish you could get a yearly exorcism where all your like worst insecurities and petty jealousies got pulled out of you.” I was imagining some supernatural way to treat fear, some mystical way to conveniently get rid of all those self-destructive insecurities that keep you from being the best person you can be. Then, over winter break, I started watching “The Leftovers,” and I found it. In the eighth episode of the second season, Kevin Garvey takes a trip through the afterlife, represented in the series as a hotel. He is told that in this realm, he is an international assassin, tasked with killing a presidential candidate. The candidate is Patti Levin, the same woman whose ghost has haunted Kevin throughout the season, forcing him to confront his complicity in her death and in the dissolution of his own family. Perhaps if Kevin can track down and kill Patti in this purgatory, he will find some sense of closure, some acceptance of how his life has been derailed. The question, then, is how much of this is real. Is this realm he inhabits really the afterlife? Does everybody experience purgatory as a hotel? Is the Patti we see — in all three forms, whether as a presidential candidate, an innocent little girl or the cult leader we know — really Patti, or has she solely been a hallucination representing Kevin’s deepest fears throughout the season? One of the biggest strengths of “The Leftovers” (or one of its biggest weaknesses, depending on who you ask) is how much these answers are left ambiguous. The answer is sometimes both; yes, by drowning Patti in the afterlife, Kevin may be setting her actual spirit free, but it means just as much for his personal character development that he is willing to cross that line and kill her. What if we all had these glimpses of the afterlife? What if you could poison yourself like Kevin did, take a journey through a hotel of your demons and come back alive
rejuvenated and convicted? What if you could reduce each of your insecurities to a physical being, and by drowning them, exorcise them? To be clear, “The Leftovers” doesn’t represent this option as a simple cure-all. The third and final season, which airs in April, will surely present many more obstacles standing in the way of Kevin’s happy ending. The specter of Patti was just one of many personal struggles he has experienced over the course of the series. But there’s still something about the idea that
BEN ROSENSTOCK seems beautiful and simple. Maybe it’s my relative stage in life that makes this fantasy so appealing. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m graduating soon, being thrown out into a world where friends aren’t a built-in guarantee, where my day lacks the structure that classes and a part-time library job provide. In this final semester, instead of finding myself liberated by the abundance of free time, I sometimes find myself weirdly constrained by it. I have the sense that I’m at a standstill, waiting for something exciting to happen. I should be enjoying the lack of obligations, but new stressors are quick to replace the old, providing an ample supply of residual teenage angst in the final months before I enter the “real world.” Sometimes, all I want is to enter a terrifying place, deal with everything that haunts me and then resume life. Imagine it: You wake up in a hotel room you don’t recognize, with a vaguely familiar guy standing over you, smirking and saying things like, “Your writing will never be good enough” and “How do you expect to make it in the real world
when you still have to Google simple household chores?” You push him out the window with a satisfying explosion of glass, watch him tumble to his death and feel yourself stop worrying about those things. You hear a knock at the door and open it to find a parade of people marching in. After you wake up from this dream, you won’t be able to remember anything about their appearances except that they looked like amalgamations of everyone who ever hurt you, anyone who contributed to your deepest insecurities. There was the girl who looked like seemingly every girl you’d ever had romantic feelings for, telling you she didn’t feel the same way. There was the guy who looked like some ridiculous, stereotypical masculine ideal, all muscles and crooked smiles. And all of these imaginary figures you vanquished, with the gallant swing of a sword or the flick of a lighter. You watched their imaginary visages crumble like rock or melt like paper. It didn’t feel violent or cruel, because they weren’t real. They were the worst parts of you, the parts you wanted to move past. And then the world around you dissolved before your eyes, disappearing into blackness. Your eyes opened, expecting the cold white interior of the hotel room, but instead there was the warm glow of your bedside lamp and the Christmas lights strung across your ceiling. The heaped clothes on the chair, the leaning towers of books, the hum of the old mini-fridge — it was home. You stood up, went upstairs, took a shower. As the warm water ran over your shoulders, you thought about what you would do that day. You stepped out of the shower, wiped the condensation from the mirror and looked at yourself, bony chest and bags under your eyes and hair too long or too short or too flat. And you didn’t see anything wrong this time.
FILM REVIEW
‘Evil’ fails on every level JEREMIAH VANDERHELM Daily Arts Writer
Watching “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” is like staring directly into the sun for two hours. For those who care about the wellbeing of their eyes, it’s unrecommendable. It may be one of the most inanely put together films in recent memory. Not a single action scene makes logical sense (nor a single one of the jumpscares works). Its characters barely qualify as such; they’re cannon
fodder meant to be killed off to give the illusion of “tension.” None of the “Resident Evil” films prior to this have been particularly good, but they’re bearable. “The Final Chapter” pivots that. Fans of the franchise will pay no mind to any of this. They’ve stuck with it this long because of those B-movies tones. They’re fun, and it’s impossible to argue against that. It’s important for them to understand, however, that “The Final Chapter” pays very little mind to what they may want out of the finale of the franchise. The film picks up three weeks after
directly to the audience, explaining everything that has happened in the series so far. The problem is that this glorified “Previously the finale of the previous film on…” segment literally rewrites the in the series, meaning that the franchise. In this way, “The Final cliffhanger “Retribution” ended Chapter” is barely the finale to with goes unanswered. the “Resident Evil” In many ways, that sets franchise. It’s the “Resident the stage for what’s to capper to another Evil: The Final come. What better way series entirely, with Chapter” for director Paul W.S. different characters Anderson (“Pompeii”) and a different Screen Gems to clue his fans in on mythology. Rave, Quality 16 the kind of movie For most of the they’re about to watch movie, it’s unclear than by gaslighting them? why Anderson would rob his fans That’s not even the worst of of the possibility of closure and it: The prologue to “The Final a rewarding ending to a series Chapter” features Alice (Milla that they love. By the third act, it Jovovich, “Survivor”) speaking has become shockingly obvious.
History was rewritten to force one final twist, and in all fairness, it’s a twist that might have worked had it actually been planned from the beginning. Instead, it was shoehorned in at the last moment, one last betrayal from Anderson to the fans that he claims to love. If “The Final Chapter” is an insult to fans of “Resident Evil,” it’s completely insufferable to those who have been on the fence so far. It sells itself as an action-horror film, but it fails utterly on both those accounts. With the action, everything is cut so fast and so awkwardly that even fights that might have been cool are rendered completely unintelligible. This reaches its peak later in the movie, where every frame for a full second
is a different shot. It is painful to watch. Action has to be legible to be exciting, and “The Final Chapter” is anything but. The horror doesn’t fare any better. Every two minutes, like clockwork, the sound falls out for a few moments before there’s an explosion of noise and rapid cuts. It would have been subtler if Anderson himself had shown up in the theater to scream directly into audience members’ ears, “You should be scared now!” No matter its prospective audience, no matter its intentions, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” fails. The only thing anyone can hope it succeeds at is sticking with its titular promise: It better be “The Final Chapter” of this franchise.
B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | January 30, 2017
Michigan 62, Michigan State 70
BETELHEM ASHAME Managing Sports Editor
EAST LANSING — After a blistering offensive performance against Indiana on Thursday, the Michigan men’s basketball team (4-5 Big Ten, 14-8 overall) headed to the Breslin Center, eager to bring its hot shooting along with it. But while the Wolverines’ offense has carried them this season, their defense, particularly from the perimeter, has cost them dearly. It came back to bite them once again Sunday against Michigan State (5-4, 13-9), as the Spartans shot 45 percent from three and opened up a nine-point lead midway through the second half — a deficit that Michigan could not overcome in a 70-62 loss. Though Michigan State had been down by one with 15 minutes left in the game, the Spartans went on a 12-5 run in the span of five minutes — bookended by 3-pointers from guard Matt McQuaid — to take
Some time off
The Michigan hockey team used its bye week to recover both mentally and physically before beginning the final stretch of its season
» Page 3B
a 54-45 lead. In a back-andforth bout between two evenlymatched teams, the run turned out to be the knockout blow, and the Wolverines managed just five points from the f loor the rest of the way. “We just really couldn’t get good looks,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “They just shut down a lot of the things that we do, they had a great defensive plan, and it worked really well.” Michigan also scored six free-throws down the stretch,
“I think he understands this rivalry ... as good as anybody out there”
all courtesy of senior guard Derrick Walton Jr., who had come alive in the second half.
One of just four Wolverines who hails from the state of Michigan, Walton made it abundantly clear Friday that he was eager to take on Michigan State, and his efforts on the f loor Sunday showed it. “I think he understands this rivalry probably as good as anybody out there,” Beilein said. With Walton leading the charge, Michigan turned around its offensive fortunes. He opened the stanza with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 34, and he pushed the pace on offense in the hope that his teammates would do the same. “I know this team looks at me as a leader,” Walton said. “When I play and show the face that, ‘It’s time to win’ I think they follow suit. ... I just try to exude it by playing hard and smart.” While he finished with a game-high 24 points and nearly notched a double-double with nine rebounds, the rest of the Wolverines couldn’t seem
to shoot their way out of the funk. They finished the game shooting just 34 percent from the f loor and 27 percent from beyond the arc — a dramatic drop from their last game when they shot 63 and 55 percent, respectively. If a single trend has emerged from Michigan’s performances this season, it’s that when sophomore forward Moritz Wagner finds himself in foul trouble in the early stages of the game, the Wolverines’ offense struggles to find a groove. That trend continued against the Spartans, as Wagner played just seven minutes of the first half. He picked up a quick foul just two minutes into the game, and later picked up his second with eight minutes left in the half. “He’s got a high skill level, and it allows us to f low through some things,” Beilein said. “But he is also learning defensively, so he’s still a work-in-progress. … At times, he makes our offense and our defense much better.”
Wagner’s replacement, senior forward Mark Donnal, managed to keep the Wolverines in the game, though, scoring a team-high seven points in the first half to help Michigan enter the halftime break facing just a four-point deficit. But while the Wolverines
“They just shut down a lot of the things that we do, they had a great defensive plan, and it worked really well” held on in the early stages of the second half, Michigan State turned it on in a f lash and never looked back. The Spartans were led by freshman forward Miles Bridges, who notched a double-
double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. In reality, it was more of the same from Bridges, who already led the team in both scoring and rebounding with an average of 16.4 and 8.1 per game, respectively. Though Michigan had begun to turn its conference season around with wins over Illinois and Indiana this past week, an entirely different challenge awaited the Wolverines inside the Breslin Center. Michigan State may not have been having the season that many expected, not to mention that it had just lost three consecutive games to Ohio State, Indiana and Purdue, but the rivalry game brought out a different energy altogether in both the players and the fans. Spartan coach Tom Izzo stated after the game that the crowd made a huge difference and that his players fed off their enthusiasm. Midway through the second half, the Spartans took their big swing, and Michigan simply couldn’t recover.
Stars aligned
What would happen if you put Jim Harbaugh, the Pope and John Cena together at Hill Auditorium?
» SportsMonday Column, Page 2B
SportsMonday
2B — January 30, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
Imagining the perfect ‘Signing of the Stars’
A
year ago, Tom Brady, Ric Flair and Migos made Hill Auditorium home to the most star-studded National Signing Day in the country. In case you dismissed that event as a fever dream, it bears repeating that on that day, MAX Jim Leyland BULTMAN — longtime MLB Manager and least likely rap fan in the building — dabbed with the up-and-coming Atlanta rap trio Migos. Other than being an unpredictable collision of worlds, it was proof that, at ‘Signing of the Stars’, anything can happen. That got us at the Michigan Daily thinking: What would be the perfect ‘Signing of the Stars?’ Who should introduce whom? Is the dab too dead to revive? We took a stab at predicting the ideal event. 11:00 a.m.: Doors open. Fans are stunned when they enter and, in place of last year’s cardboard cutouts, they find a wax sculpture of every single commit. There first appear to be two sculptures of three-star running back Kurt Taylor, but fans eventually realize Taylor has simply decided to pose next to his likeness, completely still, until the event begins. Oddly, his biceps are even more defined than the wax sculpture. 11:08 a.m.: Upon arriving at their seats, guests are delighted to discover Jordan Brand Signing of the Stars headbands. It’s not clear whether fans will ever use them, but the Jumpman logo is enough to send them over the moon. 11:59 a.m.: As lights dim in Crisler Center, the crowd begins to applaud as Randy Sklar takes
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Jim Leyland and Migos were among the many famous celebrities that traveled to Ann Arbor to participate in the ‘Signing of the Stars’ at Hill Auditorium last year.
the stage, ready to host the event for the second straight year. But just as he raises the microphone to his mouth, familiar music blares over the public address system, startling him. Sklar looks over his shoulder to see John Cena charging toward him. Cena steals the mic and challenges Sklar to a title match for the right to host the event. Sklar suggests the two share emcee responsibilities, and, for some reason, Cena agrees to the compromise. 12:12 p.m.: Harbaugh takes the stage for the first time. He does not seem to be totally sure whether he invited Cena, of if he just sort of showed up. Harbaugh introduces himself to the wrestling star and asks if Cena has any eligibility left.
“You’d make a heck of a fullback,” Harbaugh tells him. 12:17 p.m.: Migos makes their first appearance to get the crowd fired up. They perform “T-Shirt,” and as the crowd goes wild, Quavo requests that “the kid in the Brady jersey I always saw dabbing on TV” come up on stage. A line of 40-50 students forms near the stage. 12:28 p.m.: Harbaugh begins introducing the early enrollees. The first celebrity presenters, introducing five-star receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, are the Young Pope and the actual Pope, both of whom declare their fondness for Harbaugh. Harbaugh fist-bumps the Young Pope and formally asks the actual Pope to baptize his newborn son, John, at the Vatican this spring.
The Pope agrees to do so. 12:35 p.m.: Things are starting to get weird. Cena goes on a minute-long rant about how hungry he is and demands that sophomore offensive lineman Michael Onwenu, seated in the front row, share his large bowl of grapes. Onwenu refuses. Cena challenges him to wrestle for the grapes, but when Onwenu stands up to accept the challenge, Cena inexplicably rescinds the offer. 12:46 p.m.: Harbaugh sets up a live video stream introducing four-star quarterback Dylan McCaffrey. But Harbaugh can also be seen in the background of the video, climbing a tree behind McCaffrey’s house. At first, fans assume this must just be a taped video, but then the quarterback
‘M’ thrives at Saginaw Valley State Jets Pizza Invitational TOR THORNE
Daily Sports Writer
Through just two scored meets this season, the No. 11 Michigan women’s track and field team is already where Michigan coach James Henry expected it to be. Amongst the Wolverines’ five event wins at the non-scoring Saginaw Valley State Jets Pizza Invitational this past weekend, Michigan’s runners claimed the top seven spots in the one-mile race and swept the top four spots in the weight throw. “The pressure is on its way,” Henry said. “So this meet we just wanted to relax and have some fun.” On Friday, competitors in the field events started on a high note, as junior Bailey Baker notched a personal record in the weight throw, tossing for 18.42 meters. Freshman Courtney
Jacobsen, junior Kayla Deering and freshman Meagan Malloy followed suit, taking the second, third and fourth spots for Michigan, respectively. “The first month of the indoor season is where you work, and the second month is where you see results,” Baker said. “Our group is seeing results pretty early, and I think that’s a testament to how hard we’ve been training and all the work we’ve put in.” Deering claimed second place in the shot put with a 14.12 meter heave, while Baker finished in fifth. In the high jump, senior Aaron Howell took first after clearing the bar at 1.68 meters, while freshman Jada Wimberly came in second just behind her with a top height of 1.63 meters. In the pole vault, senior Sarah Uhlian was the runner-up, clearing the bar at 3.70 meters,
trailing only Windsor’s Rachael Wolfs, who cleared 3.91 meters. Much of the Wolverines’ early success this year has come from strong performances from their freshmen. The group has been headlined by Julia Hall, who has finished first and second in two 600-meter races at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational and the Notre Dame Invitational, respectively. This weekend, in her 400-meter debut, Hall claimed first place once again, besting the second-place finisher by more than 0.5 seconds. “I was still a little disappointed with my time, but it was a learning race,” Hall said. “I know it’s not possible to break a record every meet, but I’m excited to see what I can do with a little more practice.” Senior Courtney Munley competed unattached for Michigan and won the mile run by a large eight-second margin.
The next six spots were also claimed by Wolverine runners, five of whom broke five-minute miles on the day. Another Michigan victory came in the 4x400-meter relay race, in which sophomore Lauren Rodriguez, freshman Jade Harrison and seniors Haley Meier and Gina McNamara finished in 3:53.42. McNamara claimed the fifth victory for the Wolverines, this time in the 800-meter contest. While Michigan is heartened to see success this early in the year, its sights are set on remaining healthy and working to improve for the Big Ten Indoor Championships in a few weeks. “We want our kids to have an outstanding performance later in the year,” Henry said. “Our goal here in January is just for the team to put forth a good effort and get ready for the result month (February).”
KEVIN ZHENG/Daily
Senior Courtney Munley competed unattached for the Wolverines this weekend but still won the mile race at the Saginaw Valley State Jets Pizza Invitational.
starts taking audience questions. One asks how it is possible Harbaugh is in the background. “Oh, that’s just one of his recruiting clon-” he starts to respond, before Harbaugh cuts the feed and abruptly moves on. 12:54 p.m.: The stadium goes fully dark for just one moment, and when the lights come back on, the stage has been turned into a courtroom set, Judge Judy presiding. Harbaugh and NCAA President Mark Emmert emerge and debate the NCAA’s recent passage of a measure banning Spring Break practice trips. Emmert spends his entire time allotment trying to explain Judge Judy doesn’t have jurisdiction over the NCAA. Judge Judy asks who does have jurisdiction over the NCAA. Emmert vanishes into
thin air. 1:22 p.m.: That last part took a while. Sensing the crowd starting to get distracted, Harbaugh calls in the big guns. Tom Brady walks out onto the stage, with fans wondering aloud whether it’s a good idea for him to be in Ann Arbor during Super Bowl week. Brady confesses he’s actually in town to help the Patriots sign star cornerback Jourdan Lewis to their Super Bowl roster. “You can’t do that!” one Falcons fan shouts from the upper bowl. “You have to wait for the draft!” “Who’s going to stop me?” Brady responds. “Roger Goodell?” Harbaugh and Brady look at each other and then burst into maniacal laughter. Migos is visibly upset. 1:36 p.m.: Harbaugh announces that he has a special surprise for fans. Najee Harris, the nation’s No. 1 overall player and an early-enrollee at Alabama, emerges from the tunnel and announces he has changed his mind. He wants to come to Michigan. Emmert re-appears out of thin air, ready to scold Harris, but Cena uses his famous “Attitude Adjustment” on the NCAA president. Emmert decides to allow Harris to transfer and play immediately. 1:40 p.m. Grateful for the recruiting help, Harbaugh convinces Onwenu to share his grapes with Cena. 1:41 p.m. – 1:59 p.m.: The rest of the event goes on. It’s basically the same as last year. 2:02 p.m.: Fans exit the arena and realize that those weren’t wax sculptures at all. Those were the real players. “So how were there two Kurt Taylors?” one intrepid student asks. It’s a great question. Max Bultman knows this was super weird. He can be reached at bultmanm@umich.edu or on Twitter @m_bultman.
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
Wolverines break records in Boston CHRISTIAN NEUBACHER Daily Sports Writer
For the first time in program history, the Michigan men’s track team had three athletes run a sub-four minute mile in a single race. “It was outstanding,” assistant coach Kevin Sullivan said. “My freshman year when I competed at Michigan, we had two guys go under four minutes and we thought that was a pretty big deal.” Graduate students Ned Willig and Will Sheeran and senior Connor Mora all broke the four-minute mark at the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic, with all three reaching the milestone for the first time in their careers. “I was just very excited,” Willig said. “It’s been a goal for a while, so it’s cool to finally reach that.” Both Willig and Sheeran spent their undergraduate years at Brown University, with the former bringing home three Ivy League Championships during his time with the Bears. “We knew coming in that all three guys had the potential to run under four minutes,” Sullivan added. “I was really hoping that at least one of the three would. “It’s such a big barrier in the athletic world. … It says a lot about where the program is right now.” In addition to the success of the runners in the mile race, the Wolverines were able to showcase some of its younger athletes at the meet. After nearly winning the 400meter dash, sophomore Taylor McLaughlin was 0.1 seconds away from breaking Michigan’s record in the 200-meter dash,
finishing fourth overall in the event. “I think Taylor was a little disappointed with his 400,” Sullivan said. “For him to come back two hours later and run the second-fastest time in Michigan history showed a lot of resilience.” Since arriving in Ann Arbor, the New Jersey native has quickly established himself as one of the program’s most promising athletes. McLaughlin has already managed to win a Big Ten championship, set a school record in the 400-meter run and finish second in the Under-20 World Junior championships in the 400meter hurdles. In addition to taking part in the Terrier Classic, the Wolverines also competed in the Saginaw Valley State Jets Pizza Invitational this weekend, where some of the team’s less experienced runners had the opportunity to showcase their abilities. Notable performances included sophomore Matthew Plowman’s second-place finish in the 800-meter run — a careerbest — and sophomore Blake Washington’s second-place finish in the 400-meter run. Despite that half of the team was spread out at different competitions, both Sullivan and Willig stressed that the dispersed set-up did not impact the team’s preparation. Willig mentioned that, though the team had been split up, he received a lot of texts congratulating him on his record-breaking performance. “Everyone’s very supportive even though we’re not competing in the same place,” Willig said.
“It’s been a goal for a while, so it’s cool to finally reach that”
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
January 30, 2017 — 3B
Wolverines emphasize individual improvement during bye AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan hockey team didn’t watch any film of its opponents this week. Rather, the Wolverines spent this past week working on improving themselves. They didn’t focus on game-day activities — established lines, for example — instead emphasizing individual improvement. “We can focus on ourselves every day,” said junior forward Dexter Dancs. “It’s an extra week to really figure out some problems we have, go out and solve them.” However, that doesn’t mean that Michigan avoided a competitive atmosphere this past week. On Friday and Saturday, the Wolverines participated in 3-on-3 drills, organized by Michigan coach Red Berenson to make up for the lack of a weekend series. The Wolverines also spent the week seeking to maintain their momentum from their shootout victory over Michigan State last Saturday, something that could be challenging during a week with no games. Especially for a team like Michigan — one that desperately needs to improve its record in order to make a run at the NCAA Tournament — playing in consecutive weeks might help its case. While postseason play may seem like lofty goal for the struggling Wolverines, it is on the minds of the players. “We’re sitting on the bigger picture right now,” said freshman goaltender Jack LaFontaine. “As this team right now, we’re talking about six
weeks down the road, ‘How are we gonna feel? How are we gonna play? What are people going to say about us? What’s gonna be the outcome?’ “Six weeks is the Big Ten Tournament, and we want to be ready. I think with the leadership in the locker room, that’s possible. I think we have the ability to be an elite team not only in the Big Ten, but in the entire country.” The time off allowed Michigan’s players to relax their bodies from game action, but not from intense practices. The Wolverines hit the weight room three times this week, an increase from their usual amount. For Berenson, though, the bye week meant giving his team the opportunity to improve on essential aspects of its game that need improvement — most prominently, its shot selection. “I want their shots to be on the net instead of over the net or miss the net,” Berenson said. “Let’s work at getting our shots away quicker. Let’s work at taking a pass and shooting it right away without over handling it. A lot of the little details of hockey, we can do some of those things in practice that take a little bit more time than we can afford to give in a regular game week.” The coaching staff also had the chance to experiment with some new strategies with the Wolverines. The extended practice period allowed the staff and players ample opportunity for trial and error. Most importantly, though, the bye week gave Michigan a time to rest. While the Wolverines still practice every day, it gave a team seeming to
battle with injuries a necessary week to recuperate before the final stretch of its season. “The body is not getting physically beat up,” Dancs said. “… Some players have problems that it’s good to get a couple weeks off so they can rest their body.” Added LaFontaine: “(Everyone’s) a little bit tired, it gives us extra time to relax, get our feet under ourselves.” Because the Wolverines had no opponent Friday night, the players could solely focus on making themselves better. The film watching would come the following week, but fine-tuning the basic hockey skills would come in the present. This self-improvement might
be what Berenson enjoys most of the bye-week. The players never asked their coach who would be playing or who would be starting. They could just focus on shooting, clean passing and aggressive defense. “(In a game week) you’ve got the pressure of things you’ve gotta get better at,” Berenson said. “Sometimes you’ve gotta forget about worrying about all the other pressure builders or concerns. … We (didn’t have) the mental
anxiety of ‘Geez I hope I’m in the lineup on Thursday. I hope the coach tells me at the meeting on Thursday I’m playing.’ No pressure this week. Just practice hard and have fun.” Added Dancs: “... That’s really beneficial for a player. Things like that can really affect a player. … You’re not thinking about the game on Monday of the first week as much you would on Monday if you’re playing on Friday.” As Michigan transitions to
“It’s an extra week to really figure out some problems”
its game week against rival No. 8 Ohio State, the film watching will begin. Set lines will start to formulate and the focus will turn to the Buckeyes. For the past week, though, the Wolverines focused on themselves and having an enjoyable time, free from the stresses of ranked opponents. “In this bye week, morale is high,” LaFontaine said. “The boys are positive, coaches are honest, and they are keeping a competitive nature. Honestly, it’s awesome to have a bye week. You get to improve on things you won’t usually do in another week.” And the Wolverines can only hope that the morale will last for the next six weeks.
“No pressure this week. Just practice hard and have fun”
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Freshman goaltender Jack LaFontaine and his fellow Wolverines used their bye week to recover both mentally and physically before the final stretch of the season.
‘M’ shines in annual Autism Awareness Meet ANNA MARCUS Daily Sports Writer
The No. 10 Michigan women’s gymnastics team had a day of firsts when it faced No. 19 Illinois last weekend. The team topped the 197.000 score mark for the first time this season, earned seven scores of 9.900 or higher and senior captain Nicole Artz’s floor routine garnered her a perfect 10, earning her a nod as Big Ten Gymnast of the Week. It didn’t look like it could get any better for the Wolverines this early in the season. But then it did. Boasting a season-high score of 197.225, Michigan (2-1 Big Ten, 4-2 overall) seems to have found its groove, handing in-conference rival No. 12 Nebraska (2-1, 4-1) its first loss of the season, 197.225-194.800. The meet held unique importance to the Wolverines, as it was the team’s fourth annual Autism Awareness Meet, held at Crisler Center on Saturday. The annual event began in 2014 when assistant coach Dave Kuzara came back to Michigan and proposed the idea after running the event as head coach at Western Michigan. The Wolverines’ coaching staff was unanimously on board, passionate about raising awareness for the cause. “It’s just an amazing event,” said Michigan coach Bev Plocki. “It has been such an educational experience for all of our student athletes in terms of understanding and accepting people who are a little different, but having the realization that they are brilliant as well.” Executing high-energy, intricate routines across the board, the Wolverines made the day even more special by repeating last week’s magic. They found themselves with eight scores of 9.900 or higher, spread throughout all four events. Michigan expected tough competition from the Cornhuskers, as they placed second behind the Wolverines in the Big Ten Championship last season. But on Saturday, Michigan swept all four events,
led in score after every rotation and claimed the all-around title in the meet. Artz continued her momentum, taking the allaround title for the second consecutive week with a top score of 39.500 Saturday. Artz and junior Paige Zaziski tied for first place on bars, scoring a season-high 9.925 in the second rotation. Finishing off the meet and securing for Michigan a season-high score, Artz earned a 9.900 for her dynamic floor routine, which awarded her the first-place title for floor in a three-way tie with sophomores Olivia Karas and Emma McLean. There was never a shortage of energy from the fans and gymnasts during the meet, but the room was the most electric after Karas’ vault performance.
During the first rotation, Karas executed a one-and-a-half Yurchenko and stuck the landing, earning her both a career-high score of 9.975 and the first-place vault title in the meet. “I couldn’t breathe when the team came over to hug me,” Karas said. “Those are the best hugs — you remember them forever.” Vault has been a consistent high-point for Karas, who was one of the topranked vaulters in the nation last year. According to Plocki, vault was the Wolverines’ strongest event of the day, as they demonstrated improvement in their landings. Michigan had struggled with inconsistency, specifically on vault dismounts. “We have been working really hard on our landings,” Plocki said. “We have bigger, more
“I couldn’t breathe when the team came over to hug me”
dynamic vaults, but we haven’t done a great job of sticking landings.” For McLean, there was much to celebrate. Not only was Saturday her birthday, but she earned a career-high 9.900 on vault, matching her careerhigh of 9.900 on floor to give her the joint first-place title. It is the second week in a row that McLean’s floor routine has earned her a near perfect score. “This year I went in with the mindset that I’m going to have a party when I do my floor routine,” McLean said. “It makes it more fun.” The Wolverines covered all their bases this week, as senior captain Talia Chiarelli won beam with a 9.925, setting herself apart from her competitors as the only gymnast to earn over a 9.850 in the event. Between raising awareness for an important cause, sweeping Nebraska and earning a seasonhigh score, Michigan looks well on its way to returning to championship form.
Karas highlights win over Illinois SARAH HURST For the Daily
It didn’t take long for sophomore Olivia Karas to reach the vault. Sprinting full speed down the runway, she made contact with the springboard, flipping and soaring through the air. Somehow, through all of that, she managed to stick her landing cleanly. As Crisler Center erupted in cheers, the team chased her down the mat and embraced her. They didn’t need to see the score to know Karas had executed the move spectacularly. Team chemistry is clearly an important aspect of the Michigan women’s gymnastics team. After every event, the entire team congratulates their competing teammate with hugs and cheers. “When one person is up there and you’re not, you have to have
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Senior captain Nicole Artz claimed the all-around title for the second consecutive week and led the Wolverines to a victory over the Fighting Illini on Saturday.
full trust and faith that they’re going to do everything they can do for you,” Karas said. “So you celebrate because they did the best possible thing for you. “The best thing in the world is sticking the dismount and having your team come run up at you. It’s an indescribable feeling.” Karas scored a 9.975, her career high on the vault, which was enough to secure her a first-place finish in the event. One contributing factor to her success in the event was her dismount, which the team has been focusing on in recent practices with assistant coach Dave Kuzara. “Dave has done a really great job of getting everyone in the right mindset to minimize deductions and try your best to stick,” Karas said. “We’ve been working on it so much and it’s really nice to see all that hard work pay off.” Her new career-high topped the 9.950 she scored back in March of last year at the Big Five Tournament. Michigan coach Bev Plocki acknowledged both her difficult routine and flawless execution. “Her vault is a one and a half, it’s a harder vault than the fulls, and to stick the landing like that is like the exclamation point,” Plocki said. Along with her exemplary performance on the vault, Karas was also part of a threeway tie for first place on the floor. She scored a 9.900, as did two of her teammates, senior Nicole Artz and sophomore Emma McLean. A personal favorite for Karas, the floor provides a platform for gymnasts to showcase a diverse range of skills. “I’m very animated when I do gymnastics, I like to get my team and the crowd involved in it,” Karas said. “Of course I like to tumble and stuff but the dancing is so fun.” Following her, the team emerged victorious with a score of 197.225 to Nebraska’s 194.880.
SportsMonday
4B — January 30, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan stifled by Spartan defense in loss ‘M’ falls to top-ranked MEN’S GYMNASTICS
MINH DOAN
Daily Sports Editor
EAST LANSING — With the Michigan men’s basketball team down by nine with 10:32 left in the game, junior guard Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman drained an open three to cut the deficit to six. On the ensuing Michigan State possession, the Wolverines forced a turnover from Spartan guard Cassius Winston and bolted up the floor. But with the chance to cut the lead even more, senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. dribbled into a crowded paint, lost the ball and the Spartans regained possession. The next two Michigan offensive possessions saw more of the same, as senior wing Zak Irvin and Abdur-Rahkman each turned the ball over. Michigan State’s defense forced the Wolverines to turn over the ball on three consecutive possessions in under a minute. And a minute after that, Spartan forward Miles Bridges slammed home a dunk to put Michigan State up by 12, effectively ending any chance of a Michigan comeback as the Spartans won 70-62 at the Breslin Center on Sunday. Friday, Walton said the Wolverines had to be “borderline perfect” to win a game on the road. For Michigan, that crucial stretch of possessions in the second half was when it had to be perfect, and it wasn’t. “There’s been two or three possessions that were not as good as we need to be,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “That’s college basketball. This team’s going to have great challenges on the road, but that’s the way it is.” After the game, Beilein attributed Michigan State’s defense as a big reason why the Wolverines turned the ball over nine times in the second half — Michigan was averaging just over nine turnovers per game
entering Sunday’s contest. “Their defense was terrific,” Beilein said. “We’ll look at (it), and we’ll try to find a way to do some things better. They’re good at it, and they’ve always been for years and years. When we were able to beat them, our offense was really clicking, and it wasn’t tonight. Credit Michigan State.” Michigan poses a unique matchup for teams with two big men, as redshirt sophomore forward DJ Wilson and sophomore forward Moritz Wagner both shoot 3-pointers effectively. But Michigan State came prepared. The Spartans denied Michigan any “pick-and-pop” shots from the behind the arc, which forced the Wolverines to find other avenues for success. While Michigan made an adjustment in the second half, evident in Walton nailing two 3-pointers to start the stanza,
the Wolverines still didn’t look comfortable. “They weren’t giving us any catch and shoot threes,” Walton said. “They went home every time we drove. But we made an adjustment in the second half. We just didn’t hit the (shots) that we usually hit.” The Spartans’ in-yourface defense also forced the Wolverines into quick decisions, which sped up the overall pace of play, another issue that put Michigan off-balance. “We came to the bench and I told myself and my teammates that I thought we were playing way too fast,” Walton said. “We were getting sped up.” And with the team’s best “slasher”, Abdur-Rahkman, on the bench with foul trouble for most of the game, the Wolverines had a tough time driving on the Spartans. Instead, Michigan settled for contested jump shots. “We took some really tough
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Sophomore forward Moritz Wagner struggled to stay on the floor and make an impact offensively against the Spartans.
Murphy notches first pin of season in his final home meet MARK CALCAGNO Daily Sports Writer
In the final home match of a collegiate wrestler’s career, emotions run high in the excitement of the day — from being introduced to rousing applause to playing in front of friends and classmates for the last time. But for Michigan senior Brian Murphy, the nostalgia of wrestling in his final match at Cliff Keen Arena was not a concern. He didn’t focus on the pageantry — the photos, walking out of the locker room with his arms interlocked with his parents’ and the announcing of all his accolades to the crowd. He was focused on winning a dual meet against No. 10 Lehigh. “I just try to keep it like any other match because that’s how I’d compete the best,” Murphy said. “I don’t worry about it.” Later, he added: “I think it actually helped me a little bit. It helped me loosen up, just talking to my parents — not about wrestling or anything — and staying calm because it’s not going to be good if you get too nervous before a match.” Murphy’s focus showed on the mat. He dominated and pinned Lehigh’s Kent Lane just 1:50 into the first period of the final home match of his career following an early takedown. It was the captain’s first pin of the season, which capped a run that saw the Wolverines win four consecutive matches to take a 17-3 lead at halftime. Redshirt freshman Sal Profaci and redshirt sophomore Malik Amine were both victorious, notching victories in the final moments of the third period. But true to his no-nonsense demeanor, Murphy’s emotions didn’t take the upswing one would expect from a college athlete after a dramatic victory. “Just staying on that track and staying loose — I don’t try to get too high or too low,” Murphy said. “I know that it helped the team in a big way, so I was happy about that. It just keeps that momentum
shots when we were supposed to get to the basket,” Walton said. “We made an adjustment, but I wished we would’ve made it from the jump.” Added Wagner: “We settled to the point where we thought there would be a bump when there wasn’t. I just think we need to play with better poise and take better shots.” All in all, Michigan State dialed up the perfect defense to make the Wolverines just uncomfortable enough to put Michigan off its game. Now, with nine days until the two teams will meet again at Crisler Center, the Wolverines will need to figure out how to break the defense that did just enough to throw them off their game. “Michigan State is good,” Beilein said. “They’re a good team, whether it’s nine days from now or 29 days from now. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge to beat them.”
going. I was happy I was able to get the pin; if I just get a decision there, maybe that momentum doesn’t roll through. Those guys did a great job.” Michigan earned its fourth team win over a ranked opponent this season, improving to 7-4 overall. “The main part of our season is still ahead of us, though,” said Michigan coach Joe McFarland. “But this is a great confidence builder. It’s a great moment for us.” Despite the excitement of Profaci and Amine’s major upsets, Murphy received the two largest ovations of the afternoon from the Wolverine contingent — the first after his introduction into the starting lineup, and the second following the referee’s decision to give the captain the pin and six team points for Michigan. His value to the Michigan wrestling program didn’t go unnoticed by those watching the
senior at Cliff Keen Arena for the last time. “We have a great crowd,” Murphy said. “Alumni come and watch us every dual meet — it’s awesome. These fans are really knowledgeable about the sport, and it’s great to have that.” And that value is certainly evident to his coach. “He’s a class act, a great kid,” McFarland said.” It was great to see him get a pin for us going into intermission today.” Murphy indeed is all about business when it comes to wrestling. He and the Wolverines still have three regular season matches before the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments after an early Senior Day. But even Murphy couldn’t help himself from seeing the sentimental nature of his performance Sunday afternoon. “I tried not to focus on it, but after the match, it felt pretty good getting a pin in my last one here.”
Oklahoma on the road The Wolverines notched their new team-high score in a losing effort BENJAMIN KATZ Daily Sports Writer
After the men’s gymnastics team placed third in a sixteam field in the Windy City Invitational two weeks ago, Michigan coach Kurt Golder recognized the potential of his young team. But in order to combat their collective lack of experience, Golder increased the difficulty of their routines leading up to the meet on Saturday against No. 1 Oklahoma. That strategy might have hurt the Wolverines more than it helped them. No. 8 Michigan put up a new team best for total team score, but the experienced talent of the Sooners easily prevailed, 430.050-400.800. “I guess hindsight being 20/20, I think we lost a little momentum,” Golder said. “We probably would’ve been better off (if we) just had another meet in there instead of a bye week. But you don’t know that until you have it scheduled that way, and then you find out that maybe that wasn’t the best way to approach it.” From the get-go, Oklahoma was in the driver’s seat, and the Wolverines played catch-up throughout. Though Michigan set season records in the vault and parallel bar events, scoring 70.950 and 64.900, respectively, Golder was still displeased. “(Oklahoma is) really good, but I was disappointed with our performance,” Golder said. “I know it can be difficult to go on the road, but that’s part of the game. You’ve got to go on the road for Big Tens and for NCAAs and you’ve got to perform. It is early in the season for us, it’s
just our second meet and we are going against the No. 1 team, but I expected us to be a lot closer and have a lot better performances than we did.” After an impressive outing at the Windy City Invitational, sophomore Emyre Cole led the Wolverines with dominant performances in floor, high bar and vault, where he stuck the landing on his Yurchenko 2.5. His execution earned him a 15.000, a tie for the night’s best score on vault and another event title. Cole also finished second on floor with a 14.750, falling to reigning NCAA champion Yul Mouldauer (14.850). Despite the close loss, Golder believes Cole and his floor teammates — including senior Anthony Stefanelli and sophomore Anthony McCallum — are primed to be strong contenders in upcoming meets. Notably, Stefanelli was to perform an upgraded routine against Oklahoma, but rolled his ankle in practice last week, forcing him to “lay low” and revert to a previous routine. Sophomores Samuel Su and Ryan Dunning also contributed with third-place finishes in pommel horse and rings, respectively. But even after trying to build on the positives — as Golder and his coaching staff try to do after every meet — Michigan will be learning from its losses in preparation for next Saturday’s showdown against No. 6 Ohio State. “We’re behind where I think we should be,” Golder said. “We have a bit to catch up on now. And it’s going to get a little tougher and little more demanding in practice so we can make up that ground.”
Wolverines take full advantage of clock in victory over No. 10 Lehigh ROBERT HEFTER Daily Sports Writer
On Sunday, everything was clicking in timely fashion for the Michigan wrestling team. With eight seconds left in his match, redshirt sophomore Malik Amine pounced for a successful takedown, propelling him to a win over Lehigh’s Laike Gardner, the 11th-ranked wrestler in the nation in the 149-pound weight class. Combining clutch latematch points with signature hard-nosed wrestling, the 14th-ranked Wolverines dominated No. 10 Lehigh on Senior Day, coming away with a 24-13 victory, increasing their winning streak to three. Redshirt senior Conor Youtsey started off the meet for the Wolverines in the 125pound weight class. Lehigh’s
Darian Cruz — ranked eighth in the country — utilized early riding time and a takedown to gain the advantage. Youtsey mounted a comeback, but with a late takedown and an escape, Cruz struck first for the Mountain Hawks with a 4-2 win. However, Michigan turned on the jets starting at the 133pound weight class, powering its way to five straight wins. “Our effort was there, our guys are doing a good job of imposing our will on theirs,” said Michigan coach Joe McFarland. “If you do that and put yourself in the driver’s seat, we got a lot of momentum early on.” Redshirt freshman Stevan Micic — the seventh-ranked wrestler at 133 pounds — started this push, firing off takedown after takedown and driving his way to a 21-4 victory
MAX KUANG/Daily
Senior Brian Murphy and the Wolverines made Senior Day count with an dominant upset victory over 10th-ranked Lehigh on Sunday at Cliff Keen Arena.
via technical fall. But it was redshirt freshman Sal Profaci who jumpstarted the momentum of the whole dual with his 3-2 decision over Lehigh’s Randy Cruz in the 141-pound match. Profaci shot early and claimed the first two points of the match. As Profaci seemed commanding, his foe was countering most of his shot attempts. Cruz scraped back two points to tie the bout, but Profaci’s control over the duration of the matchup awarded him the crucial winning point through riding time. Amine, senior Brian Murphy and redshirt freshman Logan Massa followed suit, all prevailing through a decision, a fall and another decision, respectively. Murphy put the crowd on its feet with his pin at 1:50, capping off Michigan’s dominant start to the dual. “I just trust the process, and honestly stay in the match and just battle,” Amine said. “The kid was tough and I knew it was going to be a close match. I was chipping away at him. … I scored the takedown and I think that was the turning point in the match.” Redshirt freshman Myles Amine and redshirt junior Aaron Calderon both dropped the next two matchups. Amine’s loss of riding time and late forfeit of takedowns led to his 6-2 defeat, while Calderon allowed some escapes, ultimately resulting in his 6-4 loss. Redshirt freshman Jackson Striggow reversed the momentum, though, with his 9-0 major decision over Lehigh’s Tom Murray. Striggow’s multitude of takedowns paired with over one minute of riding time led to his success, effectively clinching the match for the Wolverines. With a win over a top-10 team, Michigan is peaking at the right time, while it capped its season at Cliff Keen Arena in style.