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U Towers violates City housing code Student apartment building issued warning for disobeying regulations OLIVIA TAUBER Daily Staff Reporter
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The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners celebrated swearing in District 2 Commissioner Sue Think at the Washtenaw County Administration Building Wednesday evening.
Ceremony ushers in new class of Washtenaw Commissioners
Democrats control every seat on the Board after sweeping November elections TAL LIPKIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Elected officials and local residents celebrated the swearing in of the new class of county commissioners at the Washtenaw County Administration Building on Tuesday night. Four incumbents and four new
members, all Democrats, officially assumed their roles on the Board of Commissioners, the first time the body has been entirely Democratic in its history. The county has the most Democratic representatives in the state of Michigan. Lawrence Kestenbaum, the
county clerk and register of deeds for Washtenaw County, led the swearing-in ceremony. In a nod to the “blue wave” that swept the Board, Kestenbaum discussed the importance of considering the entire scope of beliefs within the county, which he said was the “most wonder-
ful constituency anyone can have.” “The people around this table do not represent the whole political scope of this county,” Kestenbaum said. “Reach out to those who you do not agree See COMMISSIONERS, Page 2A
University Towers, a student apartment building on South Forest Avenue, was received a noncompliance notice from the city early this week threatening fines of more than $200 should they continue to fail to comply with municipal regulations. The notice informed University Towers it had failed “to correct violations within the time limits specified” in addition to a “failure to obtain a current certificate or compliance with the city of Ann Arbor.” The warning invokes the City of Ann Arbor Housing Code, which reads, “No person shall lease or otherwise make a dwelling or rooming unit available for occupancy if a certificate of compliance is not in effect for the unit.” Ann Arbor’s Rental Housing
Services office conducts inspections of residential units every 30 months and issues certificates of compliance for each property that passes the evaluation. The notice posted on the doors to University Towers declared “all tenants have the right to put their rent money in escrow for all unregistered rental units and/or those posted as non-compliant” and listed Jan. 10 as the follow-up date for the violation. Failure to comply by that date could result in ticketing of University Towers. When reached by phone, a receptionist from University Towers who did not identify herself said she had no comment on the matter at the time, but a manager may be able to comment at a later date. At the time of publication, The Daily was unable to reach a manager See TOWERS, Page 3A
Dean: ‘generations’ of Alpha Sigma Phi University ME/NA took part in hazing activities settle suit boxes now brothers National headquarters disputes characterizations of the chapter while ACADEMICS
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IFC and University stand by the disciplinary sanctions imposed in the fall ALEX HARRING Daily Staff Reporter
Dean of Students Laura Blake Jones called out the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity DESIGN BY CHRISTINE JEGARL at the University of Michigan in a message to MLive published Dec. 17. Blake Jones said “several genZAYNA SYED erations” took part in hazDaily Staff Reporter ing activities at the Theta chapter and the fraterniRackham Graduate ty’s national headquarters School announced last turned a “blind eye” to hazmonth they will include ing. Middle Eastern and North On. Nov. 7, the University African identit y options on terminated the fraternity their applications for Fall for hazing infractions with 2019. The identit y will fall opportunity for recoloniunder the white racial catzation after five calendar egor y, with Middle Eastern years. The IFC released a and North African identistatement saying the Counties as further specif icacil supported the Univertion, along with options sity’s decision following for applicants to identif y the Student Organization as European or other. The Advancement and Recognimove follows requests from tion review conducted by Arab students, staff and the Greek Activities Review facult y for the Universit y Panel. to off icially recog nize their Alpha Sigma Phi disassoidentities in a campaig n ciated from the University titled #WeExist. and Interfraternity CounThe #WeExist campaig n cil in September, opting began two years ago when instead to join the newly current and former stuformed Ann Arbor Interdents Silan Fadlallah, Jad fraternity Council. The Elharake, Devin Jones, fraternity cited new zonIbtihal Makki and former ing codes implemented by Central Student GovernCity Council as the reason ment vice president Nadine for the change. According Jawad had conversations to the Office of Greek Life, about what the Diversifraternities must answer to t y, Equit y and Inclusion the University regardless of See ME/NA, Page 3A governance.
#WeExist campaign calls for representation
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“These sanctions result from a Hazing Response Team investigation that found substantial evidence of dangerous recurring practices within Alpha Sigma Phi’s new member process, including forced alcohol consumption and violent physical hazing,” the IFC wrote in the statement. Nicole Banks, interim director of Greek Life and assistant dean of students, did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment. Kim Broekhuizen, associate director of the University’s Office of Public Affairs, said in an email that disaffiliation does not mean the chapter will not be held accountable. “The general practice of a minimum suspension
for five years allows time for the current students to matriculate from U-M and for the headquarters to put greater support in place for the chapter to operate effectively following a closure for cause, to ensure that the same challenges do not recur,” Broekhuizen wrote. “The University investigated complaints against Alpha Sigma Phi that occurred while the chapter was an active member of the Interfraternity Council. Alpha Sigma Phi’s intention to disaffiliate voluntarily did not absolve the chapter of accountability for its behavior.” The suspension from the IFC came before an MLive article published Dec. 5 disclosing the results of a
Freedom of Information Act request regarding the fraternity’s closure. Text messages and emails between members of Alpha Sigma Phi described a “40-yard dash,” during which members would allegedly run on pledges’ backs during the chapter’s “Hell Week.” The fraternity brothers described the event taking place and a student being injured. “We had people run our backs during our hell week,” an Alpha Sigma Phi member wrote in a group message obtained through the FOIA request. “That doesn’t mean it’s a tradition or a (good) idea, but it means (it’s) become normalized by us.” See HAZING, Page 3A
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Vol. CXXVIII, No. 50 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
for $300k
U-M denies liability for wrongful termination of a former employee AMARA SHAIKH Daily News Editor
The University of Michigan has agreed to a $300,000 settlement after former employee, Amy J. Wang, claimed she was wrongfully terminated by the school. Through an attorney, the University signed the settlement on Dec. 3, which was later released to MLive after a public records request. According to the lawsuit, associate vice president of finance Nancy Hobbs, who was Wang’s boss, had asked Wang to “fraudulently misrepresent” the role of another employee to federal immigration officials. Wang’s complaint arose because the employee, who was working at the University through a North American Free Trade Agreement program allowing temporary work visas, was in a permanent managerial role despite restrictions in the program’s regulations prohibiting such a position. Wang claimed when she refused to lie about the employee’s status she was See LAWSUIT, Page 3A
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bro, the naked mile was a thing at the University of Michigan until 2004, how many of y’all would run that shit?
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COMMISSIONERS From Page 1A with and take them into consideration.” District 9 commissioner Katie Scott, a nurse at the University of Michigan and vice president of the Michigan Nurses Association, is new to the Board. She thanked the people who supported her throughout her first race. “I am really honored to be here,” she said. “It was stepping out on a shaky limb for me to decide to run for this office, but I am so excited
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… My family was extremely supportive of this work as well as the Nurses Association.” Many of the commissioners echoed the sentiment. District 2 commissioner Sue Shink, who replaced Democrat Michelle Deatrick, emphasized her commitment to serving residents unconditionally as an elected official. “You deserve honesty and integrity,” Shink said. “I say that whether you are in my county or not, voted for me or not, or are a part of my political party or not.”
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District 7 commissioner Andy LaBarre was elected to the Board again but relinquished his position as Chair, a role that District 8 commissioner Jason Morgan will take on in his second term on the body. Morgan said the commissioners are in a unique position to improve the lives of citizens. “We have a unique ability to help people and improve people’s lives like no other part of government can,” Morgan said. LaBarre emphasized the function of local government in people’s dayto-day lives and said he wanted to be a part of that process. “It is my privilege and honor to work as the commissioner for District 7,” he said. “When you have a government shutting down on the federal level over a policy consideration, it lets you know the importance of municipal and county government.” Serving the community was a common theme among the commissioner’s’ remarks. District 6 commissioner Ricky Jefferson, an incumbent, said he intended to be a voice for all of his constituents. “I’m here to make sure that those children can have the resources that they need when they grow up: public health, mental health and educa-
tion system,” Jefferson said. “We are here to represent you with anything.” Kestenbaum said the commissioners’ powers were unparalleled in Washtenaw County.
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“As the County Board of Commissioners, no one else can do what you have the authority to do,” he said, adding “Not all the important decisions are made in Washington. Some are made in rooms like right here.” After the swearing-in ceremony, the forum opened to questions from constituents in attendance. Superior Township resident Jan Piert said she attended the event because meeting with commissioners personally was imperative. “I came here tonight because my friend said we needed to come to see who our county commissioners are to put a face to a name and to be able to hold them accountable,” Piert said.
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HAZING From Page 1A The Office of Greek Life received the messages in an envelope during the 2018 winter semester and turned over the documents to the Ann Arbor Police Department last March. The case was closed because the AAPD were unable to verify the student was injured during the fraternity pledging process and because his parents were uncooperative with investigators. It was this “40-yard dash” which prompted Blake Jones’s statement to MLive, in which she questioned the national headquarters’ response to the “heinous behavior” and shared that hazing was found to have taken place at the chapter over multiple decades. Broekhuizen said the Fraternity & Sorority Life office supports Blake Jones’ statements. Blake Jones went on to say Alpha Sigma Phi had an “utter lack of consideration for the well-being” of new members and the evidence “confirms” the fraternity leadership’s knowledge of hazing-related behavior. The University and IFC agreed on sanctions against the chapter and remain committed to their original decision to close the chapter for five years. However, their position differs from that of the fraternity’s national headquarters and the AAIFC, which say the chapter is in
good standing but is no longer affiliated with the University or IFC. Gordy Heminger, president and chief executive officer of Alpha Sigma Phi, denied Blake Jones’s allegations of inaction from the national headquarters in an email to The Daily. He said within 24 hours of being informed of the incident national members were in Ann Arbor to meet with chapter members and investigate. He also said Alpha Sigma Phi national employees offered to work with the Office of Greek Life multiple times but weeks went by without a returned phone call. Heminger said he sees these recent actions from the University as retaliation for the chapter’s disaffiliation from the IFC, which he said was primarily because of the new zoning restrictions. Heminger said it wasn’t until six months after the national headquarters concluded its internal investigation and after its decision to leave the IFC when the University decided to hold a hearing, at which point the fraternity was no longer affiliated with the University and was advised by legal counsel not to participate. “I would strongly encourage the University to hold its students accountable, much like Alpha Sigma Phi did, and not use a chapter of 150+ members as a scapegoat or a mechanism to retaliate against because the chapter voluntarily surrendered campus recognition because
of zoning-related issues,” Heminger said. “We don’t dispute that some former members violated our Health and Safety policy, but we strongly dispute that the entire chapter was involved or that the headquarters turned a blind eye to policy violations.”
I would strongly encourage the University to hold its students accountable.
Heminger noted the national headquarters’ investigation resulted in disciplinary action against certain members and officers, a new protocol, a live-in staff member and other educational sanctions and restrictions. He said the fraternity is still open to working with the University in the future and believes the mandatory changes have been well-received by the chapter. According to Heminger, there were no health or safety violations at the chapter in the fall semester, which he sees as a sign of the effectiveness of the national headquarters’ intervention. He also said there were no criminal or code of conduct charges against any members of the
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TOWERS From Page 1A comment at a later date. At the time of publication, The Daily was unable to reach a manager for comment. Business sophomore Cameron Zurawlow lives in University Towers. He said he had not heard much from his landlords in regards to the notice. “I don’t really know what it’s for so I don’t know how it will affect me, but I do know that there has been no email or any communication in regards to this fine from management, which reflects on management as a whole,” he said. “As a resident, it would be nice to be on the same page as management and know all things that are going on with the apartment, but that definitely hasn’t been met.” He said he was disappointed with the management of University Towers and was willing to move elsewhere. “Living here kinda has its comment at a later date. At the time of publication, The Daily was unable to reach a manager for comment. Business sophomore Cameron Zurawlow lives in University Towers. He said he had not heard much from
his landlords in regards to the notice. “I don’t really know what it’s for so I don’t know how it will affect me, but I do know that there has been no email or any communication in regards to this fine from management, which reflects on management as a whole,” he said. “As a resident, it would be nice to be on the same page as management and know all things that are going on with the apartment, but that definitely hasn’t been met.” He said he was disappointed with the management of University Towers and was willing to move elsewhere. “Living here kinda has its ups and downs,” he said. “So to be honest, I don’t think management does its best. When looking into UT last year as a freshman, I was promised all new furniture when I would move in my sophomore year. It turns out that when I showed up this year, I did not have new furniture in my apartment, and when I asked the front desk about the situation, they told me that they never said that and that I was not promised new furniture, which was completely wrong on their part.” LSA sophomore Areesha Shahab also lives in University Towers and felt similarly to
Zurawlow. She said she hoped the noncompliance notice would push management to improve their performance. “I think the fine will cause many to rethink their stay in UTowers for future semesters and feel as though they can detest management more than they think since the city of Ann Arbor pointed out their flaws as well,” Shahab said. Shahab said friends of hers who also rented units in University Towers were frustrated as well. “Management isn’t all that great either,” Shahab said. “Some are very rude and unwelcoming. I’ve had a friend visit me in my apartment and get yelled at by a woman at the front desk for walking in the building, (which is) something that I hear other apartment buildings don’t yell at residents for as long as they don’t seem like strangers or pose a dangerous threat. I feel like by doing so, management is deterring future tenants.” Howard Lazarus, Ann Arbor city administrator; David Kaiser, Ann Arbor city building inspector; and the city’s Rental Housing Services department did not respond to requests for comment. This is a developing story. Please check michigandaily.com for updates.
fraternity as a result of the police investigation. He also said there will be no foreseeable changes in the chapter’s rush process or social calendar. The disagreement between the University and Alpha Sigma Phi regarding the “40yard dash,” the proceeding investigations by the fraternity and University and the chapter’s suspension persists going into winter semester. While the national headquarters says it and the chapter have been falsely characterized by the University and that the chapter remains operating, the University and the IFC uphold the sanction. AAIFC President Michael Salciccioli, a Business junior, said in a statement to The Daily the chapter is still in good standing with the AAIFC. He said the council took the actions of Alpha Sigma Phi national headquarters into consideration and sees no problems for the chapter moving forward under the AAIFC. “Alpha Sigma Phi’s nationals already adjudicated the issue and suspended or expelled members who were involved in policy violations,” Salciccioli said. “Because of this and the fact that, to our knowledge, Alpha Sigma Phi has not violated any of our policies since becoming members, the Ann Arbor Interfraternity Council believes no further disciplinary action is needed.”
ME/NA From Page 1A strateg ic plan could mean for the Arab communit y. However, they soon realized the Middle Eastern/ North African communit y was not included on any Universit y of Michigan documents. Arab students marked themselves as white or other. Kedra Ishop, vice provost for enrollment management, oversees key off ices within the Universit y that super vise the collection and reporting of student data. Ishop said input from the Islamophobia Working Group, the organization in charge of the #WeExist campaig n, provoked conversations with Rackham, which eventually led to an inclusion of Middle Eastern and North African identities. “ We made the change in large part in response to input from g roups, such as the Islamophobia Working Group and student organizations including CSG, that sought better ref lection of MENA identities in Universit y statistics,” Ishop wrote in an email inter view with The Daily. LSA junior Silan Fadlallah, who is currently the g roup coordinator for the IWG, believes the inclusion of a ME/NA identit y helps Arab students feel they belong. “(Inclusion of ME/NA identit y) is important because it g ives an extremely large communit y a sense of belong ing on campus,” Fadlallah wrote. “ You constantly see the “ You belong here” sig ns on campus and, honestly, not even having a box that represents your racial g roup doesn’t g ive me that sense. How can you belong in a place that doesn’t even recog nize your existence? And forget the feelings aspect, g iving us a ME/NA checkbox opens the doors to opportunities with communities of color on campus, scholarships, etc.” Jad Elharake, prog ram lead at the Off ice of Diversit y, Equit y, and Inclusion and the Off ice for Health Equit y and Inclusion, said that the lack of data on the ME/NA communit y creates problems with identif ying trends. “The inabilit y to collec-
Thursday, January 10 2019 — 3A
LAWSUIT From Page 1A asked by Hobbs to resign with the threat of being fired if she did not comply. As a result, the subject was moved to a disciplinary review conference where Wang was fired for “failing to meet expectations” on July 13. However, the University did not admit any liability in the settlement, and claimed they had corrected the employee’s visa issue without Wang’s involvement. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald responded to Wang’s allegations. “The University of Michigan categorically denies the allegation that Wang was ever asked to lie,” Fitzgerald said in an email to The Daily. “The university also denies that Wang was a ‘whistleblower’ because the university, on its own, discovered the visa issues with another employee and took action to correct that situation independent of Wang.” Hobbs retired from the University in late 2018. The University offered Wang $219,000 in lost wages and damages and $81,000 in legal fees. Wang agreed to never work for the University again and eliminated any new claims related to her termination.
tively identif y ME/NA students, facult y and staff is problematic for several reasons that we’ve stated in the past when it comes to retention rates, academic disparities, bias incidents, or really any assessment, especially DEI focused assessments,” Elharake said. While the Universit y has started to account for Middle Eastern and North African identities, the U.S. Census does not. According to several people involved with adjusting Universit y data, this has posed a log istical challenge to including ME/NA identities on Universit y documents. In order to adhere to federal reporting requirements, ME/NA identities fall underneath the white racial categor y in some off icial documents. Internal Universit y documents, such as sur veys and admissions applications, are the exception. “ We concluded that the application for admission is the most reasonable and eff icient mechanism to collect extended race and ethnicit y information,” Ishop wrote. “It is important to understand that we remain subject to reporting requirements of the federal government, the state of Michigan, etc. that require our use of and alig nment to the U.S. Census race and ethnicit y categories for reports to them.” However, many Arab students feel including the Middle Eastern and North African identities under the white racial categor y is simply inaccurate to their lived experiences. “The answer is extremely simple: Middle Eastern/ North Africans are not white,” Fadlallah said. “ We are a beautifully diverse racial g roup with several different cultures and customs from the ME/NA reg ion. If you go by the Census, yes it says we are white, but tr y turning on the news and listening to them talk about any Arab and/or ME/ NA countr y because they exoticize and villainize the hell out of us. So why are we only considered white when it’s easier and more benef icial, but considered to be the enemy or an “other” when societ y says so? We are ME/NA, not white, not other.” Ethriam Brammer, assistant dean and DEI imple-
According to the agreement, the University also agreed to to let Wang’s record indicated she had voluntarily resigned. “U-M agrees to characterize Wang’s termination as a resignation and expunge the personnel file of any documents ref lecting she was fired.” The agreement goes on to state, “Wang and U-M agree that they will keep this Agreement confidential and will not disclose any information to any third party.” Law professor J.J. Prescott, whose research interests include employment law and settlement, discussed the reasoning behind why the University may have chosen to agree to a settlement even though they did not claim any sort of liability for the situation. “Parties often settle to reduce risk and lower costs” Prescott said. “Going to trail costs is expensive and time consuming, and there is always the uncertainty about the trial outcome. Even if you are very confident you will win, you can never be sure, so settlement can make sense for both parties.” Wang and her lawyer from Gasiorek, Morgan, Greco, McCauley and Kotzian P.C. could not be reached for comment.
mentation lead of Rackham Graduate School, identif ies as an indigenous Latinx person and sees similarities between the Latinx and Arab communities. “The Latinx and Hispanic categor y is ver y similar in that you have racially Black identif ying Latinx individuals, or racially white identif ying, or my own identit y which is an indigenous or native Latinx person,” Brammer said. “The same kinds of combinations obviously exist with under ME/ NA individuals as well. Ideally (ME/NA) would be its own separate ethnic identif ier.” Brammer empathized with Middle Eastern and North African students who feel their identities are not accurately represented under a white racial categor y. “ Where the complications come from and where the similarities end is now the Census Bureau has a Hispanic box,” Brammer said. “Since 2010 census, there’s basically a question of whether or not you’re Latinx or Hispanic, and then you move to racial identif iers. You can identif y yourself as Latinequis and African American and white, or like myself, Latinequis and native. However, that’s not possible with ME/NA right now. To consistently report our data, it has to be embedded with white unfortunately, because that’s the kind of federal standard for data reporting.” Brammer believes the Universit y’s divergence from federal racial categories displays leadership. “I think the positive thing is that we’re showing leadership,” Brammer said. “This is important that Middle Eastern and North African individuals, be it staff, facult y or students, all have the opportunit y to more accurately identif y their own identit y. But it’s not the standard way of doing it. It means that it’s a little bit more complicated, and right now it’s still embedded within the white racial categor y, and we know that there’s a lot of complications that come with that.”
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MARISA WRIGHT | COLUMN
Stop talking about female candidates’ likability
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ELLERY ROSENZWEIG | COLUMN
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ay i ng on t he couch i n my com f y paja m a s , f l ippi ng t h rou g h t he ch a n nel s I come ac ro s s a n old cla s sic : “ D i r t y Da nc i ng .” I wa s ready t o ex p er ience a l l of t he pa s sion b e t we en Ba by a nd Joh n ny u nt i l I wa s r udely i nt er r upt e d by a s e quence of com merc ia l s f or weig ht lo s s pla n s a nd pro duc t s . I b eg a n t o hu f f a nd pu f f a s my che ek s t u r ne d re d a nd f l ipp e d of f t he s c re en i n r a g e . My si bl i ng s sig he d a nd ig nore d my v i s cer a l reac t ion t o t he com merc ia l s . S omehow, it sl ipp e d my m i nd t h at it wa s New Yea r ’s Day, t he b e g i n n i n g o f a m o nt h lon g m e n t a l b a t t le . For m o s t f ol k s , Ne w Ye a r ’s D a y i s t h e s t a r t o f t h ei r n e w pl a n , l i f e s t y le or d ie t . It ’s w h e n t h e y m a ke r e s olut ion s to be m or e a c t i v e , r e a d m o r e b o ok s a n d e a t c le a n e r. A f r e s h s t a r t f r om t h e h ol id a y g u i lt a n d s h a m e o f d r i n k i n g t o o muc h a nd st uf f ing our faces too o f t e n . B ut r e c e nt l y, I h a v e f o u n d it t o b e t h e b e g i n n i n g o f a t ox ic t i m e c a l le d “d ie t s e a s on .” Th i s i s w h e n p e ople a r e c on v i n c e d b y t h e d ie t i n du s t r y t h a t t h ei r l i v e s w i l l b e c om e b e t t e r a n d t h e y w i l l b e h a ppie r i f t h e y we r e ph y s ic a l l y s m a l le r. S o p e ople e v e r ye a r w i l l s p e n d t h ei r m on e y t o j oi n g r o up s , de v e lop pl a n s a nd get pr o duc t s t o m e e t t h ei r g o a l s o f lo s i n g wei g ht . Th i s ye a r, I w i l l n o t b e e n g a g i n g i n d ie t s e a s on but w i l l b e a c t i ve l y a v oid i n g t h e s e m e s s a g e s a n d r e s t r ic t ion s . I ’m s or r y t o s h a r e s o m e s a d a n d s h o c k i n g n e w s w it h e v e r y on e w h o i s c u r r e nt l y on t h ei r Ne w Ye a r ’s d ie t : D ie t s do n o t work ! I k n o w it m a y be ha rd to hea r t his message a f t e r b e i n g t old f o r ye a r s t h a t t h e on l y w a y t o r e a c h h e a lt h o r h a p pi n e s s i s b y wei g ht lo s s . B ut I ’m g oi n g t o r e p e a t m y s e l f a n d s pr e a d t h e t r ut h — d ie t s do n o t wo rk . Pe ople o f t e n r e g a i n t h e wei g ht a n d n e g a t i ve l y i mp a c t t h ei r m e t a b ol i s m . We h a ve b e e n fed a fa lse message t hat our weig ht e qu a l s ou r hea lt h , wh ich i s not a hol i s t ic v iew of hea lt h . S o, why a re d ie t s s o com mon ly re com mende d a nd why do we ke ep re s t r ic t i ng ou r s elve s f rom f o o d t o reach t h i s g oa l? I t h i n k weig ht lo s s compa n ie s wa nt u s t o b el ie ve t h at we c a n lo s e t he weig ht f or g o o d a nd a re w i l l i ng t o t a ke ou r mone y e ven i f it hu r t s ou r ment a l hea lt h a nd wel l-b ei ng . I h ave b e en t r y i ng t o re s t r ic t t he qu a nt it y a nd t he qu a l it y of my f o o d e ver si nce I
ELLERY ROSENZWEIG re ceive d me s sa g e s f rom t he world t h at my si z e wa s t o o big . I n t h i rd g r ade , I wa s you r aver a g e chubby k id who love d d r i n k i ng cho colat e m i l k , eat i ng ch icken f i ng er s a nd s ome d a m n g o o d f r ie s . A f t er v i sit i ng a nut r it ion i s t , I wa s t old t h at I shou ld b e w r it i ng dow n e ver y t h i ng I at e i n order t o lea r n my eat i ng pat t er n s a nd h a bit s s o I cou ld b e come a hea lt h ier eat er. But i n s t ead of lea r n i ng a b out eat i ng nut r it iou s f o o d s t h at cou ld f uel my b o dy, I b eg a n a n i nc re d i bly u n hea lt hy relat ion sh ip w it h
We have been told a false message that our weight equals our health, which is not a holistic view of health
f o o d a nd my b o dy. I n m idd le s cho ol , I c reat e d my ow n c a rb -le s s d ie t where I kept t r ack of my weig h-i n s i n a jou r n a l ( it wa s pre t t y up s e t t i ng t o f i nd i n my clo s e t re cent ly). I n h ig h s cho ol , I b eg a n pay i ng f or my d ie t s on b ot h Weig ht Wat cher s a nd Jen ny Cr a ig . D u r i ng t he p er io d i n my l i fe i n wh ich I t r acke d e ver y t h i ng I at e , I cou ld not s t op t h i n k i ng a b out f o o d t h rou g hout t he d ay. Th rou g hout t he f ou r yea r s , my weig ht wou ld f luc t u at e up a nd dow n a nd I bla me d my s el f f or my i n a bi l it y t o b e d i s c ipl i ne d . A nd e vent u a l ly, i n col leg e , I wa s over d ie t s but h ad a new “e t h ic a l ” veg a n l i fe s t yle t h at wou ld f i n a l ly m a ke me hea lt hy. But I ende d up f uel i ng i nt en s e c r av i ng s a nd c at eg or i z i ng cer t a i n f o o d s a s hea lt hy a nd ot her s a s bad or e v i l . Th i s pa s t f a l l , I s t opp e d b ei ng a veg a n a nd f i n a l ly a l lowe d my s el f t o s t a r t eat i ng eg g s a nd d a i r y pro duc t s . W hen p e ople a ske d why I qu it veg a n i sm , I wou ld bla me my s el f a nd say I d id n’t h ave t he w i l lp ower. A l l I cou ld
t h i n k a b out wa s eat i ng my old f avor it e s l i ke a ba g el a nd c rea m che e s e or fe t a bread . It wa s not u nt i l t he end of t h i s pa s t s eme s t er, i n my I nt ro t o B o dy St ud ie s s em i n a r, when I lea r ne d a b out t he d i f ference b e t we en eat i ng d i s order s a nd d i s ordere d eat i ng . It wa s t hen t h at I rea l i z e d my veg a n i sm wa s ju s t a not her way of re s t r ic t i ng my s el f . O f t ent i me s , eat i ng d i s order s c a n b e ea si ly c at eg or i z e d ba s e d on p e ople ’s d ayt o - do l ive s a nd d ie t s . But d i s ordere d eat i ng i s not a lway s clea r t o d ia g no s e but c a n s t i l l a f fe c t one ’s d ay t o d ay l i fe . S o, now t h at I rea l i z e d my p o or relat ion sh ip w it h f o o d come s f rom yea r s of d ie t s a nd la b el i ng f o o d a s g o o d a nd bad , I ’m not re s t r ic t i ng my s el f f rom my c r av i ng s . I h ave ac t u a l ly b eg u n l i s t en i ng t o my b o dy t o f i nd out when I ’m hu ng r y a nd wh at I wa nt t o eat . It ’s not ea s y. S ome t i me s I f i nd my s el f wa nt i ng t o b e re s t r ic t ive a nd don’t l i s t en t o t he sig n a l s my b o dy i s t r y i ng t o t e l l m y br a i n , a n d I ’l l o ve r e a t o r b e t o o a f r a id t o s t a r t . B ut I ’m f i n a l l y le a r n i n g m y n a t u r a l s i g n a l s o f hu n g e r a n d f u l l n e s s . I ’m n o t l i s t e n i n g t o w h a t a d ie t pl a n s a y s o r t r y i n g t o m i m ic t h e p o r t io n s t h o s e a r o u n d me are consuming. I ’m tr y ing to eat foods that a re r ic h , nut r it io u s , f a t t y, le a f y, g r e a s y, s we e t a n d f ue l m y b o d y. I f y o u a r e s t i l l lo ok i n g f o r a Ne w Ye a r ’s r e s olut io n , p e rh a p s m a ke it t o r e a d a n e w b o ok , p a r t ic u l a rl y “ B o d y Po s it i ve Po we r ” b y Me g a n Ja y n e C r a b b e . Sh e h e lp e d me cha nge t he way I t hink a b o ut f o o d a n d m y b o d y. I ’m not here to tell you how to f e e l o r w h a t y o u s h o u ld b e p ut t i n g i n y o u r b o d y. B ut b y s h a r i n g m y e x p e r ie n c e s , I h op e t h o s e w h o h a ve s i m i l a r r e l a t io n s h ip s w it h food k now t hey a re not a lo n e . I ’m s h a r i n g m y f o o d j o u r n e y, n o t f o r s y mp a t h y o r t o br a g t h a t I ’ ve g o t it f i g u r e d it o ut ( b e c a u s e I h a ve n ’t a n d I ’m c o n s t a nt l y le a r n i n g n e w t h i n g s a b o ut m y s e l f ), b ut t o i n f o r m y o u to ig nore t he messages f rom t h e d ie t i n du s t r y t h i s y e a r a b o ut w h a t y o u s h o u ld do t o y o u r b o d y. I n s t e a d , l i s t e n t o y o u r s e l f a n d u np a c k w h a t e ve r r e l a t io n s h ip you h ave w it h f o o d when you a re ready. L e t ’s b e k i nd t o ou r s elve s a nd re cog n i z e t h at ch a l leng i ng d ie t s ea s on i s not ea s y. Ellery Rosenzweig can be reached at erosenz@umich.edu.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.
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he most basic problem with thinking about candidates in terms of likability is that it prioritizes charisma over a candidate’s policies, temperament, experience, values and vision for the country. It creates a horse race version of politics in which everyone becomes a pundit choosing candidates based on who they think other people will like instead of based on who inspires them or presents the most thoughtful policy platforms. More importantly, likability is deeply gendered and racialized. Likability is prejudicial, not preferential. No one just happens to like Barack Obama, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden more than they like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Elizabeth Warren and Stacey Abrams. Likability is not innate, it is shaped by our social world. What we see influences what we value. What we have seen is 44 men and zero women elected president. Because we have never seen what one female president looks like, much less a broad and diverse array of them, it is much harder to imagine how a female president might govern. Our image of leadership is entirely defined by traditionally masculine traits, so we expect the command of a booming voice, the authority of broad shoulders and the power of a firm handshake. It’s no wonder that when a woman shows traditionally feminine leadership traits, threatening the system created to uphold male minority rule, she is cast off as “unlikeable.” Even in progressive circles, these issues persist. In 2016, countless men, the majority of which were “Bernie Bros,” insisted they would vote for a woman but just not that woman. That woman, who was arguably the most experienced candidate to ever run for president, who offered progressive policies, who would have been infinitely better than the current occupant
of the White House. No, not that woman. As recently as November 2018, I heard claims they “couldn’t define it” but “there is just something about her I don’t like.” What these men, and some women, fail to recognize is that who they do and do not consider likable is fundamentally tied to their own internalization of cultural messages about traditional gender roles for both men and women.
Our image of leadership is entirely defined by traditionally masculine traits
On the final day of 2018, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., announced her exploratory committee to run for the presidency in 2020. The former advisor of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Harvard Law School professor and current U.S. senator tweeted a video focused on protecting the middle class from exploitation by the wealthy, placing emphasis on issues related to civil rights and equality. And it didn’t take long for the sexism to begin. The same day, Politico ran an article questioning how Warren can “avoid a Clinton redux—written off as too unlikable before her campaign gets off the ground.” The article goes on to cite a friend of Sen. Warren’s as saying “she is a warm and affectionate person” to contrast her to Hillary Clinton, who apparently must be frigid and domineering. Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren are very different politicians. They have very different backgrounds. Yes, both went to law school and both became U.S. senators, but this hardly distinguishes them as inseparable kin in
Washington D.C. They have very different policies and policy priorities. Even the respective political environments for their presidential campaigns are very different. I wonder what they have in common. Besides the misogynistic biases in the media, the truly sad thing this exposes is that while O’Rourke can be compared to Obama and Obama can be compared to John F. Kennedy, female candidates don’t have a template of a victorious presidential campaign to be compared to. Instead, they are lazily grouped into the same category reduced to their gender with little analysis of their unique qualifications and values. Given the most generosity, what Politico is really asking is “how can Elizabeth Warren run for president as a woman while still being likable?” And they’re not wrong for asking it. They’re wrong for perpetuating a link between female candidates and being unlikeable. It is based on the same attitudes about women that lead to female leaders being described as “bossy,” “petty,” “not approachable,” “difficult,” “bitchy” and “self-interested,” as well as being assigned significantly more negative attributes than their male counterparts. Truth be told, any woman running for president will have to overcome the rampant sexism in this country. And if that woman is a person of color, she will have to overcome rampant racism as well. And while these candidates and their campaign staff will, unfortunately, have to devise strategies to deal with sexism and racism, it is because of the relationship between likability and prejudice. Voters (and those involved in and who talk about politics) should avoid choosing the next president of the United States based on who they would like to have a beer with. We all know how that went last time.
Marisa Wright can be reached at marisadw@umich.edu.
DANA PIERANGELI | COLUMN
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Why everyone should care about politics
t’s a conversation we’ve all had with a friend. When asked their opinion on something political, they get really quiet and bashfully utter the standard reply, “Oh, I don’t follow the news,” sheepishly replying that it’s “boring,” “depressing,” “doesn’t affect me,” “doesn’t matter,” or something along those lines. They may push the question on someone who does have strong political views, leaving us to wonder, “If our fellow University of Michigan students don’t consider themselves politically invested, what hope does the rest of society have?” And why do so many people not think of politics as a part of their daily lives that is worth their time? Don’t get me wrong, I always appreciate someone who has the courage to say they aren’t educated enough to speak on a topic, especially something as complicated as politics. So many people in this society give their opinions on issues they have no real knowledge on, only making them sound ignorant. However, so few people are actually educated on politics that ignorant opinions are what rise to the surface of these conversations. That leads to another big issue: ignorant voters. Ignorant voters are a threat to society, and they’re everywhere. A lot of people who don’t keep up with politics may do nothing to rectif y this when elections come around because they don’t believe their vote matters, so they don’t want to waste time researching. But when a good portion of voters all feel this way, it starts to make a big difference. This can lead to a major part of the population making uniformed electoral decisions, or simply not voting at all, greatly decreasing the accountability of the government. That’s how we end up with people
complaining about the person they elected to office; if they had done their research in the first place, we might not have had this problem.
Here’s why you should care about American news and politics: You live here
According to the Pew Research Center, ten percent of Americans above 18 are “politically disengaged”: they’re not registered to vote, they don’t contribute to campaigns and they don’t follow government and public affairs. Ten percent may not seem like a lot but that’s about 32,570,000 American adults. 32,570,000 people who don’t care what goes on in their own country. It should startle us that there are 32,570,000 potential voters who, if they even decide to vote, could be uninformed, which is hazardous to democracy. So here’s why you should care about American news and politics: You live here. Yes, keeping up on the news can be boring and/or depressing. Yes, American politics has kind of turned into a joke. And yes, the constant f low of unsavory information can be overwhelming. But it is your duty to be an informed citizen in the country you live in. Whether you like it or not, politics are everywhere. It’s not some easily disregardable school subject like calculus or chemistry (sorry engineers), or just a topic you can avoid at the dinner table. Politics are constantly present. The people who are elected the laws that are passed, and the actions that are taken
affects your everyday life dramatically. Not caring about politics is a kind of privilege — one that comes from being in a position granted by race, gender or class that allows you to feel like politics do not affect you. Maybe what happens to the public school systems doesn’t affect you directly. You’re not in school anymore and you don’t have kids in the school system, but it affects the people around you, and therefore society as a whole. As Elizabeth Broadbent writes in her own work, what Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos does to the school system doesn’t affect her kids because she homeschools them. But as an American citizen, she recognizes that it is her responsibility to care about politics, so she still spent time calling senators about schooling issues. Everyone benefits from a better school system, even if those benefits don’t seem direct or apparent. Therefore, issues that don’t seem to affect you personally can still inf luence your life, because they could affect the people around you. If you want to be truly invested in our country, then pretend the state of our country is like a good friend, one whose life you are a part of and you check in on them every day to see how they’re doing. Listen to a podcast, read an article, talk to your friends or even take a political science class. Spend 10 minutes a day catching up on what’s new with your country. Just do something, anything, to educate yourself on the world around you. It doesn’t take that much effort. But it will make you a more informed and active citizen, ready to create the country you want to live in. Dana Pierangeli can be reached at dmpier@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday January 10, 2019 — 5A
Slow to progress, Michigan’s offense looks for something that’s not there TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
Recall the first game of the season, a shock that came to many when the then-No. 4 Michigan hockey team fell to unranked Vermont. What was anticipated to be a relatively easy game ended in a loss that showed holes in both the Wolverines defense and offense. “I thought we weren’t ready to play tonight, we weren’t really ready to play,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson after the loss to the Catamounts. “We came in today with the mindset that it was going to be easy and that we were going to come out and score 10 goals on them. “Anytime you have that mindset, we got behind early and dug ourselves a hole. We clawed back a little bit. We did a lot of really good things, we just couldn’t score. Some nights they don’t go in, so you can’t give up four goals anywhere, at home, on the road, anywhere, and expect to win. You can check the stats, you gotta keep it to about two goals or under to have a chance. You give up four, you’re asking for trouble.” Now think back to Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to visiting Merrimack. The Wolverines (7-8-6 overall, 3-4-4 Big Ten) fell into an early deficit in a game they figured to win and struggled to score goals while allowing four on the defensive end. The Vermont game was the first of the season. Merrimack was the 23rd. The same problems that occurred then, as Pearson noted Tuesday, are still occurring now. Only back then, it took the goaltender
48 saves to stop the Michigan offense, whereas Tuesday, it took 36. So as the season progresses, a supposed non-issue is becoming more apparent as a critical weakness for the team — scoring. Pearson always believed the offense would grow as the team grew. After all, at the start of the season, new linemates were getting acquainted with one another, and younger players were learning the system. Pearson’s expectation has always been the same. “The goal scoring will come, the goal scoring will come,” Pearson said after Michigan’s exhibition game Oct. 7. “If you’re forced to have to score five, it gets difficult. If you give up four goals, it gets tough to score five.” And yet, against Merrimack, the team allowed four goals. And as predicted, it’s tough to score five, especially when a team is clawing back from behind. Against the 52nd-ranked team according to Pairwise, the Wolverines could only muster two goals, ones that required full effort just to get a good look. The two came from junior forwards Jake Slaker and Adam Winborg. Slaker, who managed to get a step on his defender, hit a well-placed shot over the goaltender’s shoulder. Winborg fought for positioning for his goal, redirecting a slapshot from the blue line. But these plays were never the issue. It’s the unsuccessful ones — despite all the opportunities created — that raise questions. How can the
“I thought we weren’t ready to play tonight.”
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior forward Will Lockwood and the Michigan hockey team struggled to convert chances in front of the net as the offense stalled in a 4-2 loss to Merrimack.
Wolverines, second in the nation for shots on goal and third in the nation for total shots, struggle to score so much? Moments in the Merrimack game offer explanations as to why. The first three minutes of the game were well played by the offense. Seven shots on goal, plenty of dangerous scoring opportunities were present. However, the team grew stagnant following its early barrage of shots, and more so after Michigan conceded a goal. Even after it gained a power play off of a hooking penalty, the offense struggled to get anything going. The first 40 seconds were spent attempting to enter the offensive zone, and quick clears by Merrimack made it more problematic for the Wolverines to get their
power play going. After the team finally pushed the puck into the zone, junior forward Will Lockwood received the puck at the blue line. Faced with pressure from defenders, he instinctively swung the puck out across the line to where another player was supposed to be to keep the offensive push alive. Only no one was there, and instead, the Warriors stole the puck during Michigan’s man advantage. The power play ended with no shots on goal. “We’re looking for a little bit too much offense playing — when you’re playing Notre Dame you know it’s Notre
Dame and you know they’re a tough team,” Slaker said, alluding to the 4-2 outdoor win over the Irish last Saturday. “Coming in, we just didn’t play good enough early. That caught us, we went down, and we ended up chasing the rest of the game.” The problem early was that Michigan was looking for something that wasn’t there. Passes that went aimlessly into the other team’s possession, rebounds that went untouched on the goalie’s stick-side and plays that would have benefitted from an extra pass were all issues exploited by the other team’s defense. “That’s the difference,
“It’s costing us games, and it’s starting to get frustrating.”
pucks all around the net, and we can’t convert,” Pearson said. “It’s more of the same for us. “If you have it even around the net — and we missed the net a lot — they blocked a lot of shots, but we missed the net a lot. Over the net, wide on greater scoring opportunities. We’re not a gifted team as far as scoring goes. We have to really work for our goals.” The realization of the team’s inability to score goals is the first step to fixing both sides of the puck. The offense can’t score five goals on any given day, and as Pearson hinted, a defense can’t expect that and give up four goals. “It’s hard to play from behind, and we keep finding ourselves in that situation,” Slaker said. “It’s costing us games, and it’s starting to get frustrating.”
Hughes steps up, Parris upsets in dominant ‘M’ win over Oregon State JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer
It was New Year’s Eve and Reece Hughes was playing video games with his friends. The sophomore was prepared for a night of some relaxed fun coming off of what had been a particularly grueling winter break of training. Then around 9:30, Hughes’ phone buzzed and displayed an incoming call from Michigan coach Sean Bormet. Bormet informed his young wrestler that he would be traveling with the team on their west coast trip to cap off the break and that he would be wrestling — although he’d be doing it two weight classes up. Hughes, typically wrestling at the 165-pound weight class, would be filling in for an injured Jelani Embree, one of Hughes’ closest friends. When it came time for his match on Jan. 3, Hughes stepped onto the mat with a game plan and nothing to lose and shocked everybody in attendance with a third period pin, highlighting a 33-8 victory for the Wolverines (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) over Oregon State (1-3). All the more remarkable, Hughes faced a nearly identical situation just a year earlier. When Michigan faced off against the Beavers in the Joe Wells Classic last season, Hughes stepped up a weight class and filled in for the then-injured Logan Massa to secure another surprise victory. Hughes showed everybody what it means to be a team player, embracing any opportunity to wrestle for the Wolverines, even if that means his record might take a hit. In the end, despite the weight difference, it was Hughes’ preparation and training that led to the victory. “Reece’s been training incredibly hard the last six to eight weeks,” Bormet said.
“He’s always trained hard, but there’s been a noticeable amount of increased intensity in his training, and I’m seeing it daily. “He’s a gamer. He competes hard, he sets a hard pace, he’s good in all three positions, and everybody’s excited to see him get his hand raised.” Hughes knew he would have to approach things differently if he were to tack some points on the board for his team. In response, Hughes schemed with Bormet to keep the pace and movement high and tire out his opponent heading into the third period. The plan worked like a charm. Hughes began the third in the down position, struggled to get to the edge of the mat with his opponent, Myles Terry, still draped over his back, then waited for Terry to make a mistake. After rolling around a bit on the edge of the mat, Hughes made his move, catching Terry’s leg and using his hips to thrust the wrestler onto his back for the bout-sealing fall. “This was one of the matches where I didn’t have anything to lose, and that’s why I feel like I wrestled a better match at the end of the day,” Hughes said. “I went out there with, ‘Just go out there and give it your all.’ That’s what a few of the coaches came up to me and mentioned before the match. As long as you go out there and give it
your all, we’re gonna be happy to take on the gauntlet of Big bench ready to wrestle up Wolverines are poised for a Ten wrestling and a deep for the sake of the team, the dramatic season. with your performance.” Another highlight for the Wolverines came from freshman Mason Parris, who pulled off an enormous upset against the top-ranked Amar Call: #734-418-4115 Dhesi in a near-dominant 11-4 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com decision. After finding success wrestling unattached to start out the season, Parris and the Michigan coaching staff were faced with a tough decision Release Date: Thursday, January 10, 2019 — redshirt their prized freshman or let him compete. Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle When match time rolled Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis around, Bormet and Co. ACROSS 8 Sheep prized for 39 “Bus Stop” 53 “Hasta WORK ON MACKINAC 1 Online shopping its wool dramatist mañana” decided to unleash the beast, units 9 Power unit 40 Not as current 54 “The Beat with Island This Summer – Make lifelong setting Parris free onto the 7 8 Series 10 Kiosk with a 41 Busy airport Ari Melber” friends. The Island House Hotel and automaker camera 42 Hand-dyed with network collegiate wrestling scene. 10 Comics possum 11 Ref. work whose wax 57 Avant-garde Ryba’s Fudge Shops are seeking help 14 Eagerly accept 2018 Word of the 45 Place to put on sorts Parris responded in kind, in all areas: Front Desk, Bell Staff, 15 Dinner table boors Year is “toxic” a suit 59 Hiddleston handily beating D-I’s No. 1 17 Pinch pennies 12 Miracle-__ 47 Filmmaker who plays Wait Staff, Sales Clerks, Kitchen, 13 Mac platform 18 Strictly religious with a unique Loki in heavyweight. Baristas. Dorm Housing, bonus, and 16 In vogue 19 __ out a living style Marvel films “When you have a 20 “My bad” 21 First word in discounted meals. 48 Anxiety 60 Santa __ titles by Arthur “Kidding!” 49 Disgraced 61 Boomer’s kid conversation with Mason, 22 (906) 847‑7196. Miller and Agatha 51 Go sour 23 Toklas’ life partner 63 RR stop Christie www.theislandhouse.com you could just see in his eyes 24 Cupid cohort 25 Flutist Herbie 28 “The Hunger ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: he wants to compete and Games” president 26 Vaper’s need, informally Coriolanus __ he’s up for the challenge,” 30 Flaps 27 With 43-Across, Bormet said. “He’s excited 32 “A Little feeling often fought Nightmare about competing, he loves to Music” composer 29 British courtroom fixture P.D.Q. __ compete. That’s why these 31 Blackthorn plum 33 Hot under the guys want to go wrestle in 34 Bloemfontein’s collar land: Abbr. Canadian coin college, and that was a great 36 35 Rhine whines 38 Lowbrow stuff opportunity for him tonight, 40 58-Across type 37 Ipanema greeting meaning “black and he was excited about it.” 38 With 66-Across, dragon” German Added Parris: “It was a 41 Disney’s Montana philosopher 42 Lamb’s lament great feeling. It definitely 43 See 27-Down buried in London’s Whole lot boosted my confidence a lot 44 Highgate 46 Hamburger’s just to compete with Michigan Cemetery home 01/10/19 Hallowed across my chest and compete 50 52 Starters for the team with my friends 55 Durham sch. 56 ’70s-’90s and stuff, so it was a really Pontiacs 58 See 40-Across good experience for me.” 59 Common With a key freshman set campaign
Classifieds
HELP WANTED
promise, and what four black squares in this puzzle create 62 Tailor’s measure 64 Person-to-person 65 Rather thick 66 See 38-Down 67 Frowny-faced 68 Chicken
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan wrestling coach Sean Bormet helped lead the win over OSU.
DOWN 1 Mary-Kate, Ashley and Elizabeth 2 S’pose 3 “Do I __ eat a peach?”: Eliot 4 Prefix with graph or gram 5 “Groundhog Day” director Harold 6 Mid-Mar. honoree By David Poole ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 7 Trite saying
01/10/19
Sports
6A — Thursday, January 10, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
With a target on their backs, Wolverines travel to Champaign ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
On Thursday night in Champaign, Michigan will play in the most important game of Illinois’ season. The Illini, for all intents and purposes, are already out of contention for the NCAA Tournament with a 4-11 record. Already, they’re more or less out of Big Ten contention as well, having dropped their first four games of league play. Currently, Illinois is ranked 106th in the country, per KenPom, and the schedule isn’t about to get easier. But there’s still this: a chance to knock off the No. 2 team in the country and give the Wolverines their first loss. As Michigan approaches a program-record win streak to start the season, a target has, inevitably, taken shape on its back. Six years ago, the Wolverines found themselves in the same spot — at 15-0 with Big Ten play ramping up. They loved every minute of it. “It’s way more fun (to be the villain),” Spike Albrecht, a freshman guard in 2013, said in a phone interview. “Because you know you’re the one everyone’s going after. You’re getting everyone’s best shot. And just a normal day when you go into someone’s home arena, it might not be really bumping or superpacked. But you know when you’re coming in, it’s going to be sold out.” Michigan knew then and it knows now that it won’t finish undefeated. When sophomore Jordan Poole was asked about the possibility after Sunday’s win over Indiana, he demurred, saying the goal was an undefeated record at home. When coach John Beilein was asked about it Wednesday, he turned to the spokesperson beside him. “There’s only one team that’s been undefeated in a long, long time and that’s almost 50 years,
I think. Right?” The coach was told: 1976 (Indiana). “So do the math. … 43 years, we just found out. May not happen again.” That realism, of course, won’t make the Wolverines a smaller target. It also won’t lessen the sting of an eventual loss. When that day came in 2013, it was Ohio State that delivered the blow — jumping out to a doubledigit lead early and hanging on when Trey Burke’s attempt at a buzzer-beater rimmed out. It was a splash of reality for a team with an unlimited ceiling. “They were up like 30-6,” Albrecht said, “and I was like, ‘Well shit, I guess we’re not as good as we thought.’ ” With that realization, though, came a quiet sigh of relief. “It’s like, ‘OK, it’s a great time to grow now. A great time to learn.’ You don’t always learn as much from winning,” Beilein told The Daily. “You learn more from losing. So when you have a loss, you embrace it and say, ‘OK, now we got a chance to be good.’ ” Added Albrecht: “It’s kind of — I don’t want to say it’s necessarily like, ‘OK, glad we got that first loss out of the way.’ Because you never want to lose. But it was kind of a reality check, and I think the coaches almost enjoyed it. Because they could come back and be like, ‘Alright, now we can get these guys off their high horse.’ “Because I’m sure if you’re a college kid, you’re 18 to 22 years old, you’re on top of the world right now. You think you’re hot shit. A first loss can be a little bit of a humbling experience but sometimes needed.” This team isn’t the 2013 team,
of course. Every player from then is long gone with the program’s identity having shifted from one that can go tit-for-tat scoring the ball to a top-ranked defense guided by the hand of assistant coach Luke Yaklich and the voice of junior guard Zavier Simpson. These players haven’t been here in the literal sense — at this time a year ago, making the NCAA Tournament still hung in the balance of every game. But they’ve played in games of far greater magnitude than a Thursday in Champaign. Final Fours and Big Ten Tournament championships — that’s the experience this team brings.
“When you’re coming in, it’s gonna be sold out.”
Save for freshman Ignas Brazdeikis, every rotation player has been on a big stage with the world watching. More than cold, hard logic, that will inform Michigan’s response to an inevitable loss, as it has informed its response to every win. “I think they’ve seen the example that Muhammad(Ali Abdur-Rahkman), Duncan (Robinson) and Moe (Wagner) and Jaaron (Simmons) set with that,” Beilein said. “They’ve seen, ‘We won a big game. So what? We got bigger goals.’ And I think we all see that. Cause we had a lot of big wins and it just didn’t change practice at all. Same guys the
next day. “So that’s, I think, what’s resonating with (Jon) Teske. (Charles) Matthews already knew it, Zavier already knew it. (Isaiah) Livers has seen it now. (Jordan Poole) has seen it now. Austin Davis. The extent of who’s back — the whole idea is now, Iggy and the other guys to say, ‘Yeah, this is the real deal. Every day, we get a win. That’s all it is is a win.’ Doesn’t mean anything until we play the next game and then we got to go do it again, do it again, do it again.” When each game you play is the other team’s most important, that’s the only choice in front of you.
“They’ve seen, ‘We won a bigger game. So what?’ ”
BY THE NUMBERS Michigan basketball
55.6
Opposing points per game. Ranked third in the country.
4
Wins against top25 teams, defeating Villanova, North Carolina, Purdue and Indiana.
17.3
Average margin of victory. Ranked 10th in the country.
282
Days since Michigan basketball has lost a game. ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein has his team one win away from tying the program record for an undefeated start.
Behind Enemy Lines: The Daily sits down with Illinois’ guard Aaron Jordan ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
On Thursday, the Michigan men’s basketball team (15-0 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) will hit the road for the first time in over a month when it travels to Champaign to play Illinois (4-11, 0-4). The Illini are one of two teams winless in Big Ten play, but their strength of schedule ranks fifth in the country, according to KenPom. They have already faced non-conference powers Gonzaga and Iowa State, as well as Nebraska, Ohio State and Indiana in the conference.
Things don’t project to be any easier for Illinois against the second-ranked team in the country. But the Illini under coach Brad Underwood are best known for their unique defense that is designed to put pressure on teams by forcing turnovers. That, combined with the fact that the Illini are playing in their home arena, ensures the Wolverines will have to work for a win. Illinois senior guard Aaron Jordan isn’t the most heralded player on the team, but he is the most veteran of a starting lineup composed of two four-star freshmen and a
“Something just clicked. ... I stayed with (basketball).”
sophomore. The Daily sat down with Jordan at Big Ten Media Day in October. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. TMD: How did you pick your number? AJ: That’s actually funny but 23 is actually my secondfavorite number. My favorite number is eight but you can’t wear eight in college (college players can only use numbers 0-5 on their jerseys) and I kinda just picked it in high school and then actually when I first got to college I told one of my best friends, my old teammate, that I was gonna
change it. He threatened me and said, “If you change your number we’ll have problems, I won’t be your friend anymore.” So I stayed with it. Not really much of a story behind it, I don’t know, it’s just something I sorta gravitated towards. TMD: Why is 23 your secondfavorite number? AJ: Because I used to play soccer and then my soccer number was eight and my dad used to always scream “Go number eight!” and so that kinda, early on I played soccer more, so then I really embraced that number. TMD: Why did you switch
“I’m not the worst Fortnite player. I can get a kill or two.”
from soccer to basketball? AJ: Basketball became, I started basketball around, I started travel basketball — so we actually go to a lot of places — in seventh grade, so it was just a really, it was a group of guys that were very close that loved basketball and so when I was able to be around that, something just clicked, and I said, “Hey, this is something I wanna do for the long run.” So I stayed with it. TMD: What’s your favorite place you’ve ever traveled to? AJ: It would have to be California. Anaheim. During AAU we went on a trip. We went to Philly for about a week and did a camp and then the team flew in and we had a basketball tournament. And then we came back to Illinois for a few days and then we flew out to
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
The Michgan men’s basketball team will play Illinois in Champaign Thursday night, putting an undefeated 15-0 record on the line with a chance to tie the program record for an unbeaten start to the season.
California, played out there, then we drove to Vegas. So that was very much a road trip. In California, we were able to go on the boardwalk, go on the beach, it was very chill out there, good weather, sunny, good food, In-N-Out. I love that. If I go out west, I’ll probably eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. TMD: What’s your favorite weather? AJ: Fall. Definitely fall. You can put on a hoodie, put on sweatpants. I mean, that’s the go-to outfit right there. TMD: What’s your favorite restaurant near the University of Illinois? AJ: Oishi. It’s a hibachi steakhouse. I love hibachi. Early on when our scholarship checks used to drop we always used to go, “Okay, hibachi, let’s go.” TMD: What’s your favorite order there? AJ: Last time I had steak and shrimp, but that was the first time I got steak in a while. Usually I get chicken and shrimp. But overall, truthfully, I like going there, I load up on the sushi. I’m a big sushi guy. TMD: What’s been your favorite off-the-court moment in college? AJ: Probably the trip overseas my freshman year. That was amazing. That was the first time going out of the country. Maybe second. But just being over there and experiencing it with those guys, that’s something you remember forever. TMD: Where did you go? AJ: I believe we went to Germany and then we went to Paris, saw the Eiffel Tower, I think that was it. There were a lot of other places but you go to so many cities and just enjoy the moment for so much that you kind of forget it. TMD: Do you play Fortnite as a team? AJ: A lot of the guys on the team play Fortnite. I am not one of them, actually. I just sit and watch and I just try to hype everybody up. Yeah, I’m usually the one — they say I’m the worst player. I’m not the worst Fortnite player. I can get a kill or two.
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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, January 10, 2019
DESIGN BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
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The top albums of 2018 Last year’s top songs, in are as inspired as the year all their despondent glory 1. El Mal Querer — Rosalía “The Romance of Flamenca” is thought to be the first modern novel. Developed in the 13th century, it tells the story of a woman imprisoned by her jealous fiance — a twisted love story fraught with peril. El Mal Querer, the second studio album from Los Angelesbased but Catalonia-born singer Rosalía, is based on “Flamenca”, with each of the album’s 11 tracks serving as a chapter that details an increasingly doomed relationship. It begins with “MALAMENTE (Cap.1: Augiurio),” which Rosalía states serves as “a premonition — this moment when you know in the beginning of the story how it’s gonna end, but even then you go and do it.” Indeed, the song inspires a certain foreboding, with the lyrics of the chorus roughly translated to “Badly (that’s it) (like this) / Badly / Bad, so bad, so bad, so bad, so bad…. (look)!” The trailing piano underneath a
a magnum opus. Although her previous records Bury Me At Makeout Creek and Puberty 2 were critically acclaimed and works of art in their own right, nothing thrust the songwriter into the spotlight like this year’s spectacular collection of songs. Mitski’s command of the concept album is unparalleled in indie rock, and songs like “Nobody” and “Geyser” showed her skill for writing to these concepts (in this case, love letters to herself), with remarkable ease and ingenuity. She manages to marry the classic markers of rock, synth and even folk music together to create unique narratives of sound within every track, winding mazes of meaning and catchy hooks that lead a listener down paths full of love, longing and self-realization. Hearing Be The Cowboy is like opening someone’s diary and finding they have written a novel of their own thoughts Mitski takes her experiences and builds them into spectacular poetry, offering her audience a confessional through the prism of truly great
much closer to feeling like we know Janelle Monáe.
— Laura Dzubay, Daily Arts Writer
4. OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES — SOPHIE In a piece that almost functioned as a portion of my application to The Michigan Daily two and a half years ago, but which I wound up scrapping, I attempted to review SOPHIE’s first album (more accurately a compilation of singles). Released as Product, the collection introduced the world to SOPHIE’s characteristic sound. It’s sometimes grating, and often thinly layered, but with nuggets of irresistible melody and an odd, uncanny-valley allure. In one word: plastic. After a two year break from releasing solo material — a break which saw her producing work by Vince Staples, MØ, Cashmere
1. “Immaterial” — SOPHIE It is not an overstatement to say that “Immaterial” does more in its just-under-four minutes than any other song released in 2018. On the surface, “Immaterial” is pure fun, a club-ready banger that leaves no stone unturned, sonically. The harsh synthetic pots-and-pans that characterize SOPHIE’s earlier work are almost constant throughout, if subdued, but the song is also sleek and atmospheric. “Immaterial” is a masterclass in maximalist pop: It builds from nothing, adding layer after layer, and allows us to bask in the whole organized mess for a full chorus before peeling back to let the progression repeat. After the second chorus, the sound is filtered down to nearly nothing. From that nothing, guest vocalist Cecile Believe’s voice rises. “I was just a lonely girl / In the eyes of my inner child,” she sings, as the song rebuilds around her, before presenting the central revelation of OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UNINSIDES: “I could be anything I want.” The same declaration appears in the chorus, followed by “Anyhow, any place, anywhere, anyone / Any form, any shape, anyway / Anything, anything I want,” confidently and plainly divorcing identity from physical form. Given that, alongside OIL’s release in June, SOPHIE publicly came out as a trans woman, “Immaterial” functions as the album’s central affirmation of her identity. But it feels reductive to point to SOPHIE’s coming out as the sole impetus of OIL, or to try to use it as a prop to convince you, the reader, to listen, because “Immaterial” is
deserves your attention for so many more reasons than that. As a final note, SOPHIE claimed back in July that she had three more albums coming out before the end of 2018. Fingers crossed that we’ll get them soon. — Sean Lang, Daily Arts Writer
2. “Sicko Mode” — Travis Scott It begins with a menacing advancement of synth. Wavering tantalizingly in the distance, the notes signal the approach of something. The specifics of what is approaching aren’t clear but Drake is mentioning something about Louis belts and the beat is spiraling, faster and faster — anticipation growing by the second — until, abruptly, the beat switches, the song splinters apart and hundreds of eager listeners collectively lose their shit. “Sicko Mode” is instantly recognizable. Whether you’re a fan of Travis Scott or not, you’ve heard this song: the Swae Lee chorus “Some- SomeSome- Someone said” bouncing off house party walls, the brief Luke sample from “I Wanna Rock” bleeding out from Ricks’s dance floor. Its power comes through its unexpectedness. Within an album that swims through a muted psychedelic haze, its sharp twists — from Drake to Travis to B.I.G. to the constantly shifting beat — slap you in the face. “Sicko Mode” embodies everything Travis Scott was working toward since Owl Pharaoh, when his music always contained a desperate note of desire to not just dream about fame but to be consumed by it. Now, nearly five years later, ASTROWORLD is certified
platinum, “Sicko Mode” continues to top charts and Travis Scott is not just dreaming anymore. — Shima Sadaghiyani, Daily Arts Writer
3. “Shallow” — Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Anyone who has seen the trailer for 2018’s box office hit “A Star is Born” knows the words to “Shallow” “I’m off the deep end / Watch as I dive in / I’ll never hit the ground!” Lady Gaga sings as her character Ally, immediately lodging the song’s chorus into every viewer’s heart for weeks and even months to come. The song served as the first single for “A Star is Born”’s incredible soundtrack, and set up the success and critical acclaim that both the album and movie received before and after its release. Even without the context of the movie, “Shallow” is a heart-wrenching ballad that fuses folk with rock and pop to form one memorable expression of freedom. It’s a song that taps into the universal desire to crash through the things that hold one down to find something else in the world, and will likely remain a classic for years to come because of this. The music is fantastic, but the song’s message is even stronger it tells the listener that they can go deeper anytime they choose, and find something beautiful within the risks they take to break free. — Clara Scott, Senior Arts Editor
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SONY MUSIC
steady, rhythmic clapping leads us into the first verse, and Rosalía’s teasingly abrupt lyricism spins over the production with grace; much like the woman within “Flamenca,” we are helpless to follow this narrative to its end, as hopeless as it may be. The devices Rosalía uses to tell El Mal Querer’s story are pieces pulled from all across the world. The bassline in “PIENSO EN TU MIRÁ (Cap.3: Celos)” was created in Spain. “BAGDAD (Cap.7: Liturgia)” was inspired when Rosalía went to a club in Baghdad. The title of “DI MI NOMBRE (Cap.8: Éxtasis)” was pulled straight from Destiny’s Child’s “Say my name, say my name.” This album stitches together sounds that have roots in flamenco’s expressive storytelling and organic dynamism yet still have contemporary pop’s global reach. El Mal Querer is a masterpiece of expert production; within the canvas of each individual song, all of the sentiments behind “ The Romance of Flamenca” — all the love and loss and betrayal — have been immortalized, universal and accessible to all. — Shima Sadaghiyani, Daily Arts Writer
2. Be The Cowboy — Mitski Mitski’s album Be The Cowboy is, at its most basic description,
music. — Clara Scott, Senior Arts Editor
3. Dirty Computer — Janelle Monáe For several years now, the public has followed Janelle Monáe often through the lens of her android alter-ego, Cindi Mayweather. In Metropolis, Cindi fell in love with a human and was chased through the streets of her city. In The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady, she became a revolutionary messiah. But Dirty Computer is the fullest and most realized crystallization of Monáe’s aspirations yet, a dazzling project in which the artist sheds Cindi’s narrative but retains many of her futuristic preoccupations. Not so much a union of the past and the future as it is a convergence between them, Dirty Computer is constantly owning its homages — both to those who inspired the album, like Prince, and to a future that this album will no doubt help to inspire. This future is one of sex positivity and acceptance, one of dynamism and color and verve. This album marks the moment at which an already daring and independent icon, breaking barriers with her cybernetic characterizations and embrace of gender-nonconformity, has truly come into herself. We had come to feel like we knew Cindi Mayweather. Now, we are this
Cat and Charli XCX — SOPHIE returned with “It’s Okay To Cry,” whose video marked the first time her face had featured in her art. In June, as OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES arrived, a newly vulnerable, more immediate version of SOPHIE emerged. She allowed us to see her, to begin to make guesses at who she is, to identify with her. OIL, for its cinematic scope, possesses just as much violent thrashing as SOPHIE’s previous work, if not more. But there’s also an aquatic element to the album, and not just in the title of “Is It Cold In The Water?” but in its sub-bass and in the way tracks like “Infatuation” and “Pretending” wrap you up in them. Listen on a nice pair of headphones and you’re suddenly left feeling small, far from in control — there’s a senseless of “it’s safe here” and more of “it’s here here” or, maybe, “it’s real here.” The best you can do is cede control to the massiveness of it all. Until, of course, the synth swells that round out “Pretending” give way to the club-ready bounce of showstopper “Immaterial,” a track on which SOPHIE declares “I could be anything I want.” And that’s what OIL is, ultimately: a declaration. One in which SOPHIE boldly claims her identity, while questioning the substance of identity itself.
GOOD
MSMSMSM
After “Immaterial” fades out, SOPHIE’s “Whole New World/ Pretend World” is upon us. I hope she shows us more of it. — Sean Lang, Daily Arts Writer
5. DAYTONA — Pusha T DAYTONA is, above all, incisive. The first of the Kanye West-produced, seven-track albums born out of the Wyoming sessions, Pusha T and Kanye came out the gates swinging. In direct contrast with Kanye’s indefatigable Twitter ramblings, DAYTONA is sharp and lean. Pusha T doesn’t veer far from his traditional lyrical themes of selling drugs and being a generally threatening guy, but he doesn’t need to — on DAYTONA, he perfects the form. It all lies in his delivery. Ice-cold menace drips off of every syllable, and he makes you believe all that he claims. The real genius of the album lies in the production, as Kanye’s skeletal sample-based beats are minimalistic masterpieces, stripping down the music to the very essence of hip-hop. “Come Back Baby” is this philosophy of production taken to its logical extreme: a relatively unaltered George Jackson sample gives way to a gaunt pattern of raw 808s and drums, over which Pusha T discusses his love for the sale and distribution of
cocaine. The combination of Pusha T’s lyrical excellence and Kanye’s knack at production based around the sampling of simple melodic phrases is lethal and exhilarating, and the result is an album that feels like the thesis of Pusha T’s career. — Jonah Mendelson, Daily Arts Writer
Quinlan said in a Rolling Stone feature, “Fuck me. There’s no rules. I forgot. You make them up, and then you realize that you have to obliterate them again,” and Hop Along do this time and time again throughout the entirety of Bark Your Head Off, Dog. The past year was saturated with a lot of indie rock, and thankfully Hop Along decided to shatter the status quo by shattering all expectations.
6. Bark Your Head Off, Dog — Hop Along
— Dominic Polsinelli, Daily Arts Writer
Hop Along’s Bark Your Head Off, Dog is an insanely ambitious endeavor. Narrative, poetic and biblical in lyric and even more complex in composition, it’s truly unlike any other alternative record released in 2018. They’ve always been excellent and cherished songwriters, expertly layering rhythm and melody guitars, but with the introduction of complex string arrangements and deft tonal shifts — often within the course of a single song — Hop Along has produced a work of epic magnitude. Their versatility is best showcased on fourth track “Not Abel,” opening with tender, rollicking folk before collapsing into uptempo rock ‘n’ roll. Every track is a thorough joy to listen to, as unexpected twists and turns constantly keep listeners on their toes, forcing them along the journey. In reference to Bob Dylan’s influence on their writing, lead singer and guitarist Frances
7. Golden Hour — Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour is a landmark work of pop-country; a well-crafted tribute to the sublime. Traditional country instrumentation and themes mingle freely with the psychedelic and subtly experimental, making Golden Hour as accessible as it is innovative. The production on Golden Hour is notable not just for the lustrous glow infused throughout, but for its great use of negative space — a scorching electric guitar or beautiful fingerpicked banjo swells like radiant light into the emptiness for just a few seconds, as beautiful and fleeting as the namesake of the album. Kacey’s emotive voice is 24-karat Nashville gold, tastefully draped across the
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Thursday, January 10, 2019 — 3B
Our favorite events from a Best style moments: 2018 year that was all too good was as trendy as you think 1. SMTD’s America: Approaches”
“Angels in 6. Pasek and Paul Book Tour Millennium to Ann Arbor
The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning first installment of Tony Kushner’s epic tale about AIDS and homosexuality in the Reagan era, “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” was performed on the Arthur Miller stage earlier this year. Daniel Cantor, director and University professor, pieced together a talented ensemble of actors. Particularly unique to this version of “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” was the angel suspended before the audience’s eyes in a vast array of colorful silks. It was easily one of the best theatrical performances I’ve ever seen. The commitment and passion coming from all involved was remarkable to witness. — Alix Curnow, Daily Arts Writer
2. MUSKET presents “In the Heights” 2018 has been a particularly dispiriting year for diversity. As a woman of color, it’s hard to face a world thriving with anti-immigrant sentiment. My heart reaches out not only to people of color, but to anyone who has been branded as different. Individuals with physical or mental disabilities, sexual assault victims and dreamers — those who face the consequences of their labels without having control over their experiences. Musicals like “In the Heights,” written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, remind us that there’s still hope for those who feel silenced. MUSKET’s rendition of this inspiring story of Latinx life in Washington Heights, Manhattan was vibrant and attentive to the culture it embodied. The show was not only a celebration of diversity, but of life. Musicals like “In the Heights,” like all stories from different walks of life, deserve a seat at the table. — Trina Pal, Senior Arts Editor
3. Literature vs. Traffic Installation When the University Institute for the Humanities brought the “Literature vs. Traffic” installation to the streets of Ann Arbor on Oct. 23, it was an intervention for thousands of Ann Arbor students and residents. Ten thousand books lay splayed out on East Liberty St. illuminated by the sun by day and by thousands of gentle LED lights by night. These lights gave the books a preciousness that reminded everyone who came across the installation how near and dear books are, or at least once were, to our hearts. Crowds eagerly sifted through the books when the gates opened at 8 p.m. that night, some people even acting as if there was a piece of knowledge lying somewhere on that street that would complete them if they could just find it. Maybe putting ten thousand versions of any object on the street for free would have inspired the same reaction, but it seems here that the students and residents of Ann Arbor were driven by a thirst for new information rather than consumer instincts. Before coming to Ann Arbor, the installation was also set up in Madrid, Toronto, Melbourne and New York. Its arrival and success here speak volumes about Ann Arbor’s far-reaching influence on the humanities. — Ben Vassar, Daily Arts Writer
When thinking about my favorite event of 2018, I am sent down a wistful lane of remembrance full of inspiring University productions, thrilling touring events and student pieces that moved me both to laughter and to tears. However, I have to think about the roots of all of this creative collaboration, exploration and celebration. Who paved the way? The answer lies in our many fantastically talented alumni, three of whom I had the pleasure of seeing live in Ann Arbor early in the fall semester of 2018. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (writers of “Dear Evan Hansen”) and Darren Criss (“Glee”) all came together on the “Dear Evan Hansen” book tour on a cool Oct. Ann Arbor evening in Hill Auditorium. The trio sang, read from the novel and told stories of Michigan and beyond, reminiscing on their past while thinking of their creative futures. The event reminded me why I am so lucky to be here: a student pursuing creative arts with so many inspiring and creative people around me. Pasek, Paul and Criss — all incredibly successful arts in theatre and film — have paved the way for University alumni artists after them by providing an artistic community of alumni working in the real world. At the event, the trio invited their previous professors on stage to sing songs from “Dear Evan Hansen” with them and answer questions from audience members, inviting us to all be a part of the conversation surrounding their new novel and future projects. The event was thrilling and breathtaking, yet casual and laid back. The audience settled into the auditorium comfortably, inviting the trio of artists to take a stroll down memory lane.
— Allie Taylor, Daily Arts Writer
5. UMS presents “An Evening with Audra McDonald: Songs from the American Musical Theater” This past Nov., I was lucky enough to see the fantastic Audra McDonald perform at Hill Auditorium. Audra McDonald is a six-time Tony award winning singer and actress — a well-known and powerful presence on Broadway stages. McDonald was able to connect with the audience by telling stories through narration and song in a way unmatched by any other performer. I watched McDonald make the most overdone Soprano repertoire sound new to my ears by projecting her own story and perspective onto the song. I was awestruck; her singing voice seemed to be simply an extension to her speaking voice. That night, McDonald dazzled the hearts and minds of Ann Arbor. — Isabelle Hasslund, Community Culture Editor
While a plethora of trends emerged on the runway in 2018, some of the most notable statements took the shape of a less wearable form. A year of political turmoil and tension, the push to vote became a major theme of this past year. With primary elections in Aug. and midterms in Nov., combined with an emphasis on change, voting became a sort of decorative accessory that was once so mundane and uninteresting. Voting has and always will be fundamental and one of the most important parts of civil discourse, but 2018 spun voting in such a way that it became shiny and new, a hip, cool aesthetic that extended beyond runways or clothes. The act of voting itself inspired a whole new wave of trends: ‘I’m Voting’ stickers were sold online and in stores, becoming a main focal point of laptops everywhere. Celebrities even used their fame to endorse this act through special merchandise and limited edition tees. With these items driving the aesthetic of voting, one thing in 2018 became very clear: to take the time to vote is to be on trend, showing it becoming all the more fundamental to being a legitimate trendsetter. A certain alliance formed with this aesthetic, between voting graphic tee wearers and sticker holders alike. Whether or not everyone who reps a ‘I’m Voting’ sticker or shirt actually voted is a debate within itself, but the aesthetic that evolved from the 2018 election scene is only the beginning for the development of an entire brand emphasizing that
3. Vibrant makeup The unveiling of Meghan Markle’s wedding day tab may have revealed just how much can go into looking like you aren’t wearing anything at all, but 2018 saw an explosion of beauty trends that served us the extravagant and the unexpected. YouTube MUAs and Instagram personalities are as prevalent as they have ever been and each artist’s path to carve out a creative niche for themselves has had the cumulative effect of ushering in increasingly vibrant, layered, multi-dimensional concepts that are encouraging the everyday beauty consumer to step out of their comfort zone and let cosmetics be a vehicle to realize personal fantasies. Unnaturally colored blush and eyebrow looks, forehead blush, luminous-vinyl textures (think face gloss and lacquered eye pigments), 3-D sticker appliqués and beyond have trickled into the routines of anyone possessing the gall to give these trends a try. It isn’t so much that any specific trend originated in 2018 or that anyone reinvented the wheel, but that makeup is on its way to becoming a creative space more concerned with creating new realities rather than heightening this one. Accounts like eve. frsr, branalunan and sydn4sty have amassed sizable followings by doing just this, and the cosmetics market has responded with aplomb — independent companies (like blush tribe and claropsyche) seemingly crop up every day with palettes, pigments and accessories to meet ever expanding needs, while larger companies
— Eli Rallo, Daily Arts Writer
7. SMTD’s “Porgy and Bess” Year after year, some of the biggest names in folk travel to Michigan for the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. This year, for the festival’s fortieth anniversary, the acts were bigger than ever. From some of the biggest names in the genre like John Prine, to smaller, up-and-coming acts like Mountain Heart, there really was an act for everyone at the festival. For two nights, Ann Arbor’s historic Hill Auditorium transformed into a haven for music that celebrates the tradition of storytelling in America. Whether you are a walking folk encyclopedia or know absolutely nothing about the genre, the Ann Arbor Folk Festival is an Ann Arbor tradition that everyone should experience. — Ryan Cox, Daily Arts Writer
8. Ann Arbor’s 40th Annual Folk Festival Year after year, some of the biggest names in folk travel to Michigan for the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. This year, for the festival’s fortieth anniversary, the acts were bigger than ever. From some of the biggest names in the genre like John Prine, to smaller, up-and-coming acts like Mountain Heart, there really was an act for everyone at the festival. For two nights, Ann Arbor’s historic Hill Auditorium transformed into a haven for music that celebrates the tradition of storytelling in America. Whether you are a walking folk encyclopedia or know absolutely nothing about the genre, the Ann Arbor Folk Festival is an Ann Arbor tradition that everyone should experience. — Ryan Cox, Daily Arts Writer
4. A Dramatic Reading of 9. UMS presents “Cold Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Blood” Salesman” with Alec Baldwin and U-M Theatre & Drama I have seen some bizarre things within Ann Arbor’s art world, but the University Musical Department For a brilliant reading of Arthur Miller’s iconic play “Death of a Salesman,” exceptional theatre students and professors from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance were joined by award-winning actor Alec Baldwin on Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Power Center. Semi-staged and fully produced in both its intention and execution, the near four hour marathon of a performance remained engaging until the last lines. The play was as profoundly tragic and poignant as it was cathartic. The seamless coherence between Baldwin and SMTD’s actors created an electric synergy that did Arthur Miller (an SMTD grad himself), SMTD and Baldwin more than justice.
1. Voting as an aesthetic
Society’s “Cold Blood” was by far the most absurd. Filmed live in the Power Center, the performance focused on hands. On stage, the audience could see the actors and cameras, but the real action was on the screen above which projected a close up of the actors’s hands. The show went through the death of seven different hands occurring in places like a drive-in theater or a frozen lake, deaths that could be both hilarious and mournfully tragic. The hands moved like people and embodied human characteristics in the most creative, minute ways. I felt as if I was in a hypnotic, dreamlike state as the narrative transitioned from story to story. The techniques used for lighting, shifting scenery and props were surprisingly brilliant. Many times I wondered, how did they do that with just a hand? “Cold Blood” stuck with me because death was portrayed in a way that was so hard hitting; I can still feel the sense of pleasant uncertainty and inevitably that I left with.
TIME
both the act of voting and showing political awareness are, in fact, high fashion. — Margaret Sheridan, Style Beat Editor
2. Exploded versions of classic prints Bold yet complementary shade ranges, classic prints reimagined and expanded upon, and plush textures played very nicely together this year. Whether it be fashion, expressing opinions or fighting for the things you care about, 2018 was not for the faint of heart: If you have something to say, say it! Words aren’t meant for mincing and they might best be backed up by a hardy cotton velvet, mohair or a blown-up woven houndstooth jacket, considering they all talk their walk and they were seen in nearly every fall runway show this year. Spring’s spliced double-jackets, leather inserts and drawstring necklines folded over into wildly proportioned faux furs and modernized classics taken to proportional and textural extremes. From the likes of household names like Balenciaga and Loewe to cult favorites like Engineered Garments, Neighborhood and A Kind of Guise, it felt as though classic silhouettes and prints had died and ascended to a retrofuturist heaven featuring droves upon droves of fuzz. A few outerwear highlights from the year were Demna Gvasalia’s interpretation of the double jacket at Balenciaga this spring, N.Hoolywood’s half leather, half super 120’s wool trench from their JFK inspired runway, Kapital Kountry’s oversized denim blazer with hand stitched smiley face patches along the arm and Craig Green’s brilliant employment of color blocking. This year marked both the expansion and deconstruction of classic styles across the board, creating a luxurious launching pad for designers moving forward into the new year.
like Anastasia Beverly Hills and Tom Ford are launching new products and widening their shade ranges to accommodate demands that reach further and bolder than their current offerings. It’s the Wild West right now, and there has never been a better time to pick up a kabuki brush and some pressed powder and see what happens. — Sam Kremke, Daily Arts Writer
4. Champion’s evolution as a brand It is safe to say that the brand, Champion, came up in 2018. As athleisure filled runways and the early 2000s began making a comeback, Champion rose in popularity. To provide a full analysis of Champion’s evolution as a brand, we must start from the very beginning. Champion’s simple, relaxed, clothing catered to the blank and oversized attire of the early 2000s and ‘90s. Known for its creation of the reverse weave, the hooded sweatshirt, and the sports bra in the mid1990s, Champion was the epitome of activewear. The brand had become so prevalent that it was named the official outfitter of the NBA in 1980. It was not until 2000 that Champion was considered more than activewear, it became a keystone for the normcore aspect of early 2000s fashion. Champion’s versatility can be seen in its comeback. It made its return by collaborating with well-known streetwear companies in 2017 such as Supreme and the French label, Vetements. Through each of these collaborations came distinct clothing, however, the Champion brand was undeviating. By 2018, Champion stood on its own as a fashion superpower. It no longer needed collabs to be attractive to customers; the classic blue, white and red logo was powerful enough for stars such a Kylie Jenner to sport.
— Sam Kremke, Daily Arts Writer
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— Fallon Gates, Daily Arts Writer
10. Orpheus Singers: “The Poet Speaks of Love” The Orpheus Singers are a vocal ensemble at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance conducted by Dr. Eugene Rogers’s graduate studio, a remarkable group comprised of Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts choral conductors. With their haunting voices, The Orpheus Singers left a lasting mark on their audience during their second performance of the semester on Nov. 29. Both undergraduate and graduate students revived age-old songs and poems in beautiful sound. The group provided a prime example of how supporting one’s fellow students at the University can evoke a sense of pride and awe. — Zachary Waarala, Daily Arts Writer
GW GLOBAL TRADING
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The best television from TV’s best year in a long time The TV beat has a problem: 2018 was a great year in television. On one hand, as the television addicts we claim ourselves to be, this “problem” has provided us with a myriad of excuses to avoid social contact and stay in. On the other hand, the consistent stream of quality television makes any effort to choose definitive favorites all the more difficult. The selection process itself was strenuous: on what criterion should we base our picks? Should we skew towards smart comedies, somber dramas, or meet somewhere in the middle with the wide range of dramedy hybrids on the market today? Should entertainment value be the main determinant or technical prowess? What role should cultural context and inclusion play? As best as we tried to pick shows that combined each of the above criteria, in trying to nail down an
and perhaps the best episode of TV this year, the horrifying “Teddy Perkins.” Although the titular city remains its central focus, Murai and Glover take us to a variety of locales within it, from a German festival to a state college frat party (which also produces one of the show’s most memorable and disturbing scenes set to D4L’s “Laffy Taffy”). All that’s left is to wait and see what this duo can accomplish next. — Sayan Ghosh, Assistant Arts Editor
3. “Barry” (Season One) Hired assassins have had a moment this past year, but our two favorites could hardly be any more different. Just as “Killing Eve”’s Villanelle BBC AMERICA
we received “Free Churro,” an entire episode delivered as a monologue before ending on a note so absurd it pretty much sums up Bojack’s entire relationship with his mother. “Bojack Horseman,” in all its brilliance, continues to set the standard for absurdist comedy (where else can you find a season-long arc about a sex robot gone rogue?) that has the capacity to make nuanced social commentary. — Sayan Ghosh, Assistant Arts Editor
6. “Insecure” (Season Three)
AMAZON STUDIOS
angle, it became very clear that no matter which shows we selected, and which order we placed the shows in, at the end of the day, it is subjective. So, if your favorite show does not end up making the cut, you still have pristine taste, champ! Also, please consider the fact that this list was drafted before the Golden Globes; we do, indeed, have minds of our own.
1. “The Marvelous Maisel” (Season Two)
Mrs.
After a pilot season that brought in two Golden Globes, four Emmys and an infinite amount of praise from critics, the cast and team of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” had a lot to live up to in the sophomore season of the Amazon Prime Video comedy. The show clearly did not disappoint. Rachel Brosnahan is a glowing, persistent light in gloomy world of cookie cutter comedies. Her magnificent performance is only enhanced by the equally impressive work of her costars, from the flawless comedic timing of Alex Borstein as Suzie, Maisel’s agent, to the love-to-hate-him role taken on by Michael Zegen as the star’s complicated ex(ish)-husband. Everything about “Maisel” is pleasing to watch: the saturated set design, the perfect soundtrack and the clever jokes woven into the show so well you might miss them. “Maisel” is so simply entertaining that it is easy to overlook the painstaking attention to detail that lies within the show. Once again, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has proved itself as the exemplar of a period comedy, highlighting the novel charm of a bygone era, but never failing to wryly critique the problems of it we have progressed from. One can only hope it will sustain its rule. — Samantha Della Fera, Senior Arts Editor
2. “Atlanta” (Season Two) Donald Glover and Hiro Murai have developed a symbiotic partnership for the ages. The Lennon and McCartney of modern TV, they achieved the rare feat of following up a brilliant debut season of TV with another, surpassing the first in terms of boldness, innovation and emotional resonance. There are too many episodes in season two that made me completely re-evaluate how TV can or should be done, in a way that reminds me of the way I felt I first watched “Twin Peaks” hit its stride. Donald Glover’s creative genius is common enough knowledge that any further lauding would seem redundant. More underrated are the virtuosic performances of Lakeith Stanfield as Darius and Brian Tyree Henry as “Paper Boi,” with the latter giving a nuanced and heartbreaking portrayal of depression this season. “Atlanta” continued to hit the surreal notes it did so well in season one, including a stunning “revelation” about Drake
is vivacious and disturbingly passionate about her job, the titular hitman in Bill Hader’s brilliant “Barry” is increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with his. He finds his true calling in an acting class directed by Gene Cousineau, played by Henry Winkler in one of his greatest performances. Like “Killing Eve,” “Barry” straddles the increasingly fine line between comedy and tragedy, and is anchored by Hader’s masterful portrayal of depression and his quest to climb out of it, all while his past life clings on. — Sayan Ghosh, Assistant Arts Editor
4. “Killing Eve” (Season One) You know what’s tired? Having the same debate every three months about whether or not James Bond can be played by a Black man. You know what’s wired? Scrapping the whole James Bond idea and allowing “Killing Eve” to replace it as the premiere spy story in pop culture. It is rare that a show can hook you from the first minute and then retain that chokehold grip on your attention for the remainder of the season, but “Killing Eve” does it. What makes the show so engaging is its usage of the parallel narrative arcs following both Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh, “Grey’s Anatomy”) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer, “My Mad Fat Diary”). The quickness with which the show intercuts between protagonists makes it difficult for audiences to figure out exactly who to place our support behind, which keeps us watching. The first season of “Killing Eve” is particularly exciting because of its boldness in daring to diverge away from genre conventions. At first glance, “Killing Eve” appears to be just another thriller-drama, devoid of all humor. But then moments of dark, off-kilter hilarity occur — like a character accidentally dying from spraying perfume (that really wasn’t perfume) and before you know it, you’ve devoured the entire season.
Well, I wanted to simply use a photo of Issa Rae as my justification for this ranking. But, alas, this job requires me to write, so I will attempt to summarize (in under 10,000 words) why “Insecure” ranks amongst the best television of 2018. While single-handedly transforming what it means to be a funny Black woman on television, this is not the sole reason why “Insecure” is great television. With each season, Rae and her team raise the bar of quality for the show — the writing continues to become snappier, the characters more layered, the cinematography all the more beautiful. However, I want to zero in on what season three has done in particular. Season three, in many ways, was a season of transition for the characters of “Insecure,” and while still continuing to provide enjoyable, hilarious, escapist television, it does an excellent job reflecting real changes twenty-somethings must endure. Through seeing the central characters surmount changes of great magnitude, “Insecure” remains one of the few shows on television in which all characters, central and secondary alike, have an element of depth and authenticity to them. During season three, particularly, characters like bougie Tiffany (Amanda Seales, “Blackish”) and brash Kelli (Natasha Rothwell, “Love Simon”), who were previously minor and underdeveloped, were given the chance to evolve before our eyes into fully fleshed out characters with a semblance of a life outside of their interactions with Issa. — Ally Owens, Daily TV Editor
— Ally Owens, Daily TV Editor
8. “The Good Place” As a fan primarily of comedies, I have never switched one on for the purpose of an intellectual challenge. That is, until I discovered “The Good Place.” From the beautiful mind of Michael Schur, a man that gave us both “Brooklyn NineNine” and “Parks and Recreation,” “The Good Place” is a comedy about death, decisions and doing the right thing (sounds hilarious, right?). It is the harmonious marriage of philosophy and comedy, two subjects that do not meet as often as they should. While watching “The Good Place,” you’ll find yourself chuckling along with loveable demon, Michael, played by certified silver fox Ted Danson and then moments later be captivated by a discussion of Kant with the dreamy Professor Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper, “Patterson”). Yes, the entire cast is hot. “The Good Place” will challenge both your mind and your ability to pick up on some incredible niche jokes. And if the Golden Globes won’t say it, I will: this is one of the best shows of the year. — Samantha Della Fera, Senior Arts Editor
9. “Queer Eye” (Season Two) 2018 was a long year. It’s hard to imagine that between Kylie Jenner giving birth, an Olympic games, a World Cup and Mark Zuckerberg taking over the government that not one, but two, seasons of the “Queer Eye” reboot were released. But, it’s true, “Queer Eye” triumphantly returned this year, and oh, was it wonderful. “Queer Eye” is the embodiment of joy neatly packaged in a makeover show. No matter how you may feel about individual members of the Fab Five (sorry, Antoni), the show undoubtedly acted as a force of positivity against a horrifyingly bleak year. While polarized political parties rip each other to shreds in Washington and across the country, “Queer Eye” reflected a different possibility: Georgia conservatives and queer men cuddled up on a couch shouting “Yas, Queen!” together. At its core, “Queer Eye” is a show about hope: Hope that some
— Ally Owens, Daily TV Editor
5. “Bojack (Season Five)
Horseman”
The animated show about a goddamn selfloathing horse man continues to produce the realest content on TV. Let the brilliant animal puns (seriously, how do they still come up with them) draw you in, but let the touching, intelligent portrayal of everything from addiction to loss to abuse keep you mesmerized. Every season, “Bojack” delivers episodes that push the envelope of what we can expect from the medium itself — from an entire episode under the sea with no dialogue, to Seasons 4’s magnum opus “Time’s Arrow,” which let us into the deteriorating mind and traumatic past of Bojack’s mother. This season, FX
NETFLIX
7. “GLOW” (Season Two) Because the season one finale neatly concluded the season-long arc dedicated to seeing whether the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling could actually produce a successful television program, I wondered where the show could take the ragtag bunch in its sophomore effort. I was pleasantly surprised to see that everything enjoyable about the first season was reproduced and elevated in season two. One of the best things about the second season was the opportunity to learn more about the real women behind the theatrical wrestling personas. While in the first season, the central drama afflicting the diverse ensemble was their satirical acceptance of their stereotypical roles, in season two, viewers are able to see what lies beneath the surface. Most memorable was the episode following Tammé’s (Kia Stevens, “Total Nonstop Action Wrestling”) struggle to explain to her son how and why she deals with participating in minstrelsy for a paycheck. Although we definitely saw more of the diverse ensemble cast than in season one, “GLOW”’s problematic tendency to centralize only its white characters remains. Being one of the best shows of 2018 does not mean it comes without room for improvement. Hopefully, in the forthcoming third season, we will be able to see the same heart and eclectic humor, but with better storylines for the characters of color. However, “GLOW” makes up for any shortcomings by finally providing viewers an episode completely dedicated to showcasing the show-within-the show in all its spectacular ’80s-ness.
of our differences are not irreconcilable, and hope that it is possible to truly fall in love with yourself. — Samantha Della Fera, Senior Arts Editor
10. “This is Us” Late at night, when you’re lying next to someone you love, a thought might strike you. If one thing had changed, your whole life would be different. “This is Us” is a show operating only on this thought. Its third season continues the work of its predecessors, building beauty out of the humdrum. Just when it seems like the Pearsons might be living life with a little too much comfort, they’re set back. The big date doesn’t go as planned, a community retaliates against assumptions about them and depression puts you to bed when you don’t take your meds. Its honesty and self-awareness easily are the best part of “This is Us.” It’s how the Pearson family wrangles with the moments where things fall apart and makes do. It’s how they admit they overreact. It’s how they try to grow, and fail at it. It’s the want to love and be loved. It might be a story about them, but at times, it feels like it could be about you as well. Season three has not seen the show turn towards the saccharine. Instead, it continues to straddle the line of feel good television and reality. Season three tightens its hug around viewers and envelopes you in such a way that an hour of “This is Us” has begun to feel like home. — Max Schwarz, Daily Arts Writer
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Thursday, January 10, 2019 — 5B
Book moments that moved Film’s 2018 movie favorites 2018 was yet another whirlwind year in the hurricane that has been the last half-decade, but luckily books, new and old, kept writers from all beats on Daily Arts sane. The Book Review asked a handful of them to write about their favorite moments with a book, literature or even reading itself this past year.
“Just Kids” Patti Smith
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My exposure to Patti Smith before I opened the first page of “Just Kids” was limited to childhood car rides with my parents and assertions by my friends that she was their second mother. I knew she had an album called Horses, which I had never consciously listened to, and thanks to the person that lent me the now treasured book (which I still must give back) I was aware of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. “Just Kids” sets Mapplethorpe and Smith’s relationship against the backdrop of the New York City art scene of the late 1960’s through the ’70s. It would be an easy task for Smith to romanticize or brag about her impactful presence in post-Warhol New York, but she never comes off as anything short of sincere. Her genuine tone never breaks: From her retelling of the difficult arrival in the city to her eventual stardom, she doesn’t ask for anything from the reader other than to listen to her and Robert’s story. Dispersed throughout the story are Mapplethorpe’s photographs and drawings. By placing his work in her memoir, Patti is able to give Robert a voice in the narrative to which he can no longer contribute. The reader feels her respect for Robert and all of the renowned artists she has the pleasure of sharing spaces with. Often, these artists come into her life on chance encounters, such as when Patti anxiously takes the stairs instead of the elevator to a recording studio to buy more time and runs into Jimi
Hendrix who calms her by saying “parties make me nervous.” Patti Smith’s memoir is a bay window into a magical era in New York City that she graciously opens to us. “Just Kids” introduced me to a world I wouldn’t have otherwise known existed. Every five pages I had to look up X location, Y person or Z reference. On the inside flap is a quote by Joan Didion: “This book is so honest and pure as to count as a true rapture.” I’m with Didion. “Just Kids” shook my core, in only beautiful ways. — Joseph Fraley, Blog Editor
“I Love Dick” by Chris Kraus When I read “I Love Dick,” I avoided being seen with it. It was like walking around with a bad Redbubble sticker on my book. And it’s not that I don’t love dick — It’s that “I Love Dick” looks like a nonchalant-sensational attention grab, and after so many annoying unsolicited remarks I was pissed off. The first half of the book doesn’t help much. Part one chronicles the not-so-fictional relationship between author-narratorfilmmaker Chris and her husband, literary theorist Sylvère Lotringer, as Chris pursues an unrequited erotic crush on Dick, a renowned cultural critic. Chris’s crush is realized through a lengthy series of letters she and Sylvère compose to Dick, punchy epistles that wring and wrap their feeling in enough cerebral wit to render the obsession safely translucent. They do some kooky shit, they hurt each other, they entertain you in the padding of irony. It could end there. Instead, Kraus flips the table by writing herself into the entire moment of part two, rejecting the brand of part one with so much conviction the prose practically drops 15 degrees. Chris’s letters to Dick morph into personal journals, a turn of
direction that taps into the power of her raw, unresolved feeling for the first time. “Fifteen years ago … whenever I tried writing in the 1st Person it sounded like some other person …” Kraus shares. “Now I can’t stop … it’s just more serious: bringing change & fragmentation … down to where you really are.” Chris Kraus encounters the eroticism of her voice right there on the page, and it’s hot. What’s even hotter about Kraus’s narrative coup is how masterfully it identifies and resists gender bias in the artistic community. She begins by permitting her own discontent, revisiting instances in which her work has been simplified by language like “insincere” and “quirky.” Instead of lapsing into echo-chamber diatribe, however, Kraus uses her intense feeling to critically bolster a series of similarly marginalized female artists. Hannah Wilke, Coco Fusco and Jennifer Harbury become motifcontributors as Kraus weaves their work into an originally networked acknowledgement, calling to mind the dynamic sampling of Maggie Nelson’s “Argonauts,” a comparison I rarely award. It seems important to acknowledge how the uncanny way I acquired and read “I Love Dick” set it up to be a watershed book in my personal library. It was recommended to me by a woman I have never met who was hired to edit the letters I was hired to write my students, then read across the borders of varying (united, psychological) states. The stars of reading circumstance certainly aligned, but I can’t shake the feeling that this situational voodoo is actually the work of Kraus. The generosity of her truth is so powerful it could wring whatever stars of circumstance into alignment.
1. “The Great Believers” by Rebecca Makkai Rebecca Makkai’s novel “The Great Believers” is a slick, harrowing novel. Alternating between Chicago in the 1980s and Paris in 2015, the book revolves around a large cast of friends and family members, all of whose lives have been devastated by the AIDS crisis. In the 1980s, a group of gay friends is slowly winnowed as the disease performs its heinous magic trick; over and over, the healthy become sick and the sick become dead. In 2015, the now-middle-aged sister of one of these men travels to Paris to find her missing daughter. Tests and treatments arrive too late for these characters, and their lives are shattered, ended and emptied by the disease. As the two stories unfold, it becomes clear that each focus is the collateral damage of the other: one in actuality, the other in memory. Makkai is particularly interested in the micro- and macrolegacy of AIDS. The disease ravages her characters’ interior lives as well as their bodies, and even those who survive it are left with wasteland of untethered, unconfirmable memory. Sidestepping simplicity, Makkai deftly maneuvers the crossed wires of desire and fear, infidelity and devotion. The book is frequently heartrending but never sentimental. Near the end of the book, when one character tests positive for AIDS, he lists all the things he’ll miss when he dies. In another writer’s less skillful hands, this could have been mawkish, but as is her signature, Makkai lets it be tenderly simple. “The brutal wind on the El platform. Fifty people huddled under the heating lamp. Pigeons crowding their feet,” she writes. “The man at Wax Trax! Records with the beautiful eyelashes. The man who sat every Saturday at Nookies, reading The Economist and eating eggs, his ears always strangely red. The ways his own life might have intersected with theirs, given enough time, enough energy, a better universe.” — Miriam Francisco, Copy Chief & Daily Arts Writer
2. “The Recovering” by Leslie Jamison Leslie Jamison’s latest combines all the things I’ve loved about her since her 2014 release “The Empathy Exams” — a careful, insistent prose style, a way with words that skips past pretense and narrative tricks and a uniquely keen insight into the human heart. “The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath” is an urgent, insistent read, an examination not just of her own alcoholism, but also of the nature of addiction itself. She weaves a personal narrative through a tapestry of a larger
Before I saw “Roma,” I didn’t know I could be moved by piles of dogshit in a carport. I never noticed how the arrangement of family members around a television screen after dinner can constellate the dynamics of familial love. I didn’t think about how much it means when someone takes the time to wake you up in the morning — how intimate, how full of love, that is. But I don’t often know what image or scent or sound will lay sudden siege to my memory when I revisit sites of significance to my past. Nor do I know how to make these sudden sieges of memory legible to people other than myself. How to articulate gratitude to the inhabitants of these memories, to express gratitude for the ways they loved me without thinking. Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”) vindicated me of these frustrations. In “Roma,” Cuarón’s
fuses numerous animation styles and mediums to create 2018’s most visually groundbreaking film. In a superhero genre oversaturated with statuesque white men, “Spider-Verse” follows halfLatino, half-Black high schooler Miles Morales as he slings webs across the rooftops of a nearfuture New York brimming with multiculturalism. SpiderMan’s new look never feels like tokenization, and the film is effortlessly modern as it weaves hip-hop and R&B into a classic orchestral movie score. The result is a film that is sleek, in-touch and absurdly fun to watch. It’s hard not to look at “Into the Spider-Verse” as pioneering when it upends so many classic superhero film conventions. It’s delightfully self-aware, often winking at the audience as it pokes fun at the superhero genre with fourth wall breaks and hilarious cameo performances
Lee creates an atmosphere of a world on the brink of either fire-and-brimstone or a moment of empowered change, and the film’s surprisingly true-to-life premise sets up for a harrowing finish, ripe with intensity and implication. – Stephen Satarino, Film Editor
4. The Favourite The prospects for “2018-in-film” were greatly improved in the month of Dec., and a portion of that excellence attributed to Yorgos Lanthimos’s historical feature “The Favourite,” a medieval farce starring Olivia Colman as a bratty Queen Anne, supported by Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as two cabinet cousins. Played straight and severe, “The Favourite” finds funny in a grandly costumed satire about interpersonal cabinet relations while war rages on across the
— Verity Sturm, Book Review Editor FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
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The best books of 2018 Ranging from graphic novels to memoirs to longform poetry, the Michigan Daily Book Review ranks their favorite titles published in 2018.
1. Roma
interrogation of what it means to want, to be out of control. Jamison’s writing has a way of working itself directly into the heart and brain of her readers, rendering the space between the words she’s using and the feeling she’s describing negligible. Reading Jamison’s work feels not like an education but more like an expansion — an expansion of empathy, understanding, of capacity for hope. I trust her writing to take me anywhere. — Asif Becher, Daily Arts Writer
3. “Heavy: An American Memoir” by Kiese Laymon I read, was knocked to the ground by and wrote about “Heavy” back in November, but have been ruminating on it since. It’s the type of book that sinks into your bones, adding some requisite weight to every step thereafter, a reckoning I haven’t experienced so viscerally since Ta Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me.” While Coates addresses his book to his son, Laymon writes to his mother, allowing room for more complicated conversation on the Black body and the (physical, verbal, psychological) violence it endures. In particular, Laymon writes to identify the violence deeply ingrained in his own family: where it began, how it became codified and what it does to the bodies that give and receive it. Turning the pen towards oneself is an arduous project, and the text is dense with Laymon’s moving effort and care. Although difficult, “Heavy” is a beautiful read. Laymon’s prose runs with tasteful repetition and an eye for detail, allowing the music of some moments and dashing imperative severity to others. The movement of Laymon’s language lends his book a sense of physical activity — one feels like they’ve covered some distance at the end, and the body is phantom-tired. “Heavy” is exhausting, but necessarily so, as if creating the circumstances necessary for recovery.
intricate, semiautobiographical ode to his family’s housekeeper Lido (to whom he dedicates the film) as well as her role in his upbringing amid the socio-political tension of late 20th-century Mexico City, speaks the language of memory and of honor to the women who shape our upbringings more fluently than any filmmaker in recent memory. Penning the story of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), Lido’s fictive counterpart, Cuarón amplifies quiet sufferings and desires, arranges before our eyes the unlikely keys to memory, and wisely selects certain doors to unlock and others to leave shut out of respect, reminding us that in a terrible, beautiful world, extraordinary love is just as possible as extraordinary evil. It’s as simple as that: “Roma” will remind you that there is a reason to live in this world, and people — specifically our mothers, biological and surrogate alike — to love and love back and thank. It is a welcome, well-timed reminder. – Julianna Moranno, Daily Arts Writer
2. Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse An awe-inspiring labor of love for all involved, Sony Pictures’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” seamlessly
from John Mulaney (“Saturday Night Live”) and Nicolas Cage (“Mandy”). Despite the film’s underperformance at the boxoffice — more a testament to the stigma surrounding animated movies than to the film’s quality — it has fared well through awards season thus far, taking home the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. With any luck, the film’s warm critical reception should help to lend legitimacy to animation as a medium that extends beyond just children’s entertainment.
English Channel. Colman is a befuddled, blundering queen whose personal absurdities Stone and Weisz must dance around for the benefit of both their country and their pocketbooks. Beginning at the bottom as a peasant in the movie, Stone grabs the film by the neck and puts on a display with the same level of talent and tact that landed her on the top of the mountain in 2016. A spectacle of costume and character, “The Favourite” is a must-watch for anyone aiming to see the year’s best.
– Max Michalsky, Daily Arts Writer
– Stephen Satarino, Film Editor
3. BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee, the most veteran of directors behind the films in our list, returns with a 2018 joint that’s on-par with his best work to date. “BlacKkKlansman” is the dramatic retelling of the story of Ron Stallworth, the first Black police officer in Colorado Springs, who went on to lead an operation to infiltrate his town’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan. The real “Ron Stallworth” in the film is played by John David Washington (son of Denzel), though the “Ron Stallworth” in the film is really acted out by two different people, the police department using the white Adam Driver as the face of the undercover-duo when meeting with members of the Klan.
5. A Star is Born The only imaginable explainable for why the A+ epic “A Star is Born” might not be ranked on your top ten list this year is if you haven’t yet had the privilege of witnessing (and being dazzled by) Cooper and Gaga’s on-screen magic. If, for some reason, the very combination of pop-legend Lady Gaga and dreamboat/ genius Bradley Cooper isn’t enough to make you split for the theater, let’s review a few of the key rationales for why this film is a non-negotiable mustsee for awards season (and for life in general). This list continues on the next page ...
— Verity Sturm, Books Review Editor
4. “Florida” by Lauren Groff “Florida,” Lauren Groff’s most recent collection of short stories, is a menagerie of things made wild by their environs. The setting of these stories — Florida, of course — is a broken incubator for the extremes of weather, emotion and beauty. Her characters (wives, mothers, sisters, children) grapple with the intrusive presence of their home state, an ambient specter that is both gorgeous and grotesque. Groff currently lives in Gainesville, Fla., and her intimate knowledge of the state’s peculiarities is evident. In “Florida,” pain and violence are inextricable from the quietly fantastic landscape.
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Our favorite films from this past year, continued 6. Black Panther In a year that saw dozens of heroes uniting to stop a universe-spanning calamit y, “Black Panther” still became not just the best MCU movie of the year, but the best f ilm Mar vel Studios has put out to date. At its best, Coogler’s latest plays like a Shakespearean epic crossed with the visual panache of “The Matrix” with a little bit of James Bond thrown in for good measure. That’s a diverse set of inf luences for anyone to wrangle together, yet Coogler still molds them into something that feels wholly orig inal from top to bottom. The action is crisp, the cinematog raphy and production desig n is beautif ul; it’s nothing short of a triumph of worldbuilding, art direction and stor y telling. Ever ybody on both sides of the camera g ives it their all with each scene. It’s hard to pick a true stand-out from the cast, as Chadwick Boseman absolutely nails the balance bet ween relatabilit y and regalit y in the title role while Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira and Winston Duke round out one of the best supporting casts of the year (M’Baku laughing at his own joke might be the single most endearing moment in 2018 entertainment). Yet the undeniable scene stealer is Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger in what might be the MCU’s f irst Oscar-nominated performance. In a f ilm all about what it means to have power, Jordan portrays just the opposite: a man inundated with feelings of powerlessness and driven by a sense of righteous f ur y, g rounding the performance in a humanit y that many other MCU villains sorely lack. It’s Ryan Coogler’s world, we’re just living in it. – Jeremiah Vanderhelm, Daily Arts Writer
7. Avengers: Inf inity War
Although heralded as the biggest crossover of all time and the culmination of the ten year Mar vel Superhero Saga, this bursting at the seams adventure epic is merely the prolog ue to an even bigger conclusion coming this spring. But while the marketing may have been misleading, the f ilm itself is the ultimate realization of what the Mar vel universe can be when maximized to its f ull potential: a comic book brought to life. No movie has ever felt more like a comic book than “Inf init y War” in the way it weaves bet ween stor ylines and the sheer number of characters and locations it throws at the audience. In the case of “Inf init y War,” bigger is better, it’s hard to imag ine a f ilm that is larger in scale. Is it totally and completely satisf ying? Not really. But in channeling the spirit of other fantasy and sc-f i epics like “Lord of the R ings” and “Star Wars,” it becomes the f irst Mar vel movie to tap into the inner power of epic my tholog y and present itself not just as an event f ilm but as the event itself. To quote Nick Fur y in Joss Whedon’s orig inal “Avengers,” what “Inf init y War” represents isn’t a Mar vel movie with stakes, but a promise of a Mar vel universe with the one thing it’s been missing: catharsis. Come this May, audiences around the world will have the opportunit y to see if it was worth it. – Ian Harris, Daily Arts Writer
8. Eighth Grade I saw “Eighth Grade” at the Nantucket Film Festival this summer and the whole time I couldn’t help thinking, is that Mike Birbiglia sitting t wo rows in front of me? So I spent the entiret y of the f ilm looking at Mike Birbiglia, monitoring his ever y reaction in time with my own. Was Mike Birbiglia laughing? I shall laugh. Was Mike Birbiglia cr ying? Here come the tears. Was Mike Birbiglia tr ying to get a popcorn kernel out of his rearmost molar? The entire audience felt swarmed with the awkward energ y emanating from Bo Burnham’s cringe-fest of a coming-of-age f ilm. We squirmed in unison as Kayla (a brilliant performance from newcomer Elsie Fisher) comments, self ies and DMs her way through the horrif ic awkwardness of middle school social situations. “Eighth Grade” is the coming-of-age f ilm of today. It’s “Prett y in Pink” plus Instag ram and minus racism. The millennial comedian’s writing and directing debut is nothing short of genius. John Hughes would be proud.
A24
– Becky Portman, Daily Arts Writer
9. Mission: Impossible — Fallout In a year saturated with franchise blockbusters, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” managed to both dominate the midsummer box off ice and raise the bar for f uture action movies. “Fallout” arrived with an energ y and dedication to meticulous stunt work that immediately lent the f ilm comparisons to 2015’s “Mad Max: Fur y Road.” The comparisons are more than valid: “Fallout” is and should be the new standard against which action set pieces are held. The sixth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” series could only be built upon a collective awareness of Tom Cruise as the actor who constantly challenges his physical capabilities. That’s why the narrative of “Fallout” doesn’t matter as much as most movies. The intricacies of the backroom espionage are not the reason the f ilm captivates so many. The action set pieces in “Fallout” are comfortably some of the strongest in the franchise and arg uably some of the most jaw-dropping ever made. It’s hard to recall a moment in f ilm from 2018 as thrilling as the one-take H A LO skydive near the beg inning of “Fallout.” Of course it is equally impossible to forget an uncommonly jarring bathroom f ight scene or Cruise leaping from building to building (and actually breaking his ankle in a shot that made the f ilm’s f inal cut). Above all, “Fallout” ser ves as a reminder for why we go to the movies in the f irst place. It is an unrelentingly tense yet undemanding joyride of an action blockbuster that is as adrenaline-f ueled as it is intelligent and boundar y-pushing. – Anish Tamhaney, Daily Arts Writer
10. Incredibles 2 The release of the much-anticipated sequel to “The Incredibles” showcases our generation’s desperate need for a feel-good, nostalg ic movie — something to bring back the carefree energ y of our childhood — and “Incredibles 2” does not disappoint. Set immediately af ter the ending of the orig inal movie, “Incredibles 2” follows the Parr family as they tr y to navigate a new environment where the family’s powers are on f ull display in a world where “supers” are still illegal. Like all Disney-Pixar movies, “Incredibles 2” develops important social commentar y under the sophisticated g uise of a kids’ movie. The primar y stor yline, in which Helen is the main super of the household, represents a shif t in expectations for women and how our societ y handles this change. In a year marked by prominent feminist messages and female empowerment, “Incredibles 2” addresses the complex relationship that g rows from a woman returning to work while her husband stays home to take care of the family. “Incredibles 2” is ever y bit as super as its lead family and then some. The movie brought back a franchise most of us thought long-gone and proved that sentimentalit y can be ever y bit as successf ul as a steroid-driven action movie. Nominated for a Golden Globe, “Incredibles 2” f inds its way into all of our hearts and will stay there for years to come. – Emma Chang, Senior Arts Editor
The swankiest directorial debuts of last year Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade” Maybe Bo Burnham was exactly the right person to tackle adolescence on the internet. Bo Burnham got his start on YouTube making nonsensical music, eventually moving to six-second video platform Vine and scoring his own stand-up specials on Netf lix. Yet his success never gave him an inf lated sense of self-importance — if anything, the sweet neuroticism that defined his bedroom YouTube videos only grew stronger. In an interview with The Daily over the summer, Burnham said “I just wanted to do an intense movie about being this person, not what it means to be a kid always throughout all of time. I was feeling very nervous and panicked and anxious on the internet, and I was looking at the internet and meeting people, and I saw all these people also feeling very nervous and panicked in their lives too.” Burnham channels these common, but culturally new feelings through Kayla (Elsie Fisher, “Despicable Me 2”), whose generation, by circumstance, has had unparalleled access to the internet. Most 20-somethings and young adults are familiar with ways the internet can interfere with how you express yourself. Anxieties about a crush turn into vague AIM status messages or logging in and out to generate notifications. Arguments and confrontations reach nebulous ends, as “leaving somebody on read” or “ghosting” become increasingly common terminolog y. And yet, despite their ubiquity, the effects of the internet on our most core selves have never been depicted as accurately as they have in “Eighth Grade.” Burnham’s directorial debut marks a watershed as an unf linching yet warm portrayal of being young online.
continue on with their lives without a second thought. In sharp contrast, the reason that “Heredity” is so claustrophobically terrifying and one of the year’s best films is that it never truly leaves you after the credits roll. Ari Aster’s feature-length debut functions in many ways like a drama rather than a scary movie, centering around how tragedy deteriorates the livelihood of the Graham family. By constructing the film like a family drama, Aster avoids tiresome horror cliches. There is no killer. There are few jump scares. There is no easy escape from the danger. The true demons of “Hereditary” are just ordinary people. This is what makes the film one of the most original and unforgettable of the year. As important as it is to discuss Aster’s creativity, it’s just as important as the technical means by which that creativity manifests on screen. The lighting is often dim and somber, allowing a viewer to see the defining features of an performer’s visage but nothing more. The walls of the Graham house eventually feel like they are caving in like an abyss. Another ingenious method of Aster’s is to hold a shot for longer than expected on a painful or unsettling image, forcing viewers to powerlessly stew in grim discomfort. “Hereditary” is a truly special horror movie. It enshrines Aster as an important name in the future of the genre and as a filmmaker whose future works will surely be too frightening to miss. — Anish Tamhaney, Daily Arts Writer
— Jack Brandon, Managing Arts Editor
Boots Riley, “Sorry to Bother You” Rarely is a directorial debut from an absolute-unknown; especially one as fresh and surprising as Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You.” It’s a fantastical satire about telemarketers and (not so subtly) ultimately the sociopolitical relationship between corporations and the workforce. It’s not surprising, then, that the road to get “Sorry” onto the big-screen was a long and winding one, with Riley fighting through a decade of production deliberations and setbacks to finally see his vision realized on screen. And “Sorry” could only really be his vision. No one else could have cooked up the type of fever-dream, fever-pitch whirlwind we end up with. Thank goodness he stuck with it to the end. Not to give too much away, “Sorry to Bother You” is a film that always seems to have one more surprise up its sleeve. Riley is seemingly determined to never stop throwing wrenches and humanitarian crises at his audience. No-name directorial debuts tend toward the safe side, often resulting in callow pictures with little scripts that aim for a “less-is-more” mis en scene. “Sorry to Bother You” spits in the face of anybody telling it that it can’t shoot for the moon, with Riley biting off more than anyone can chew in the best possible way. — Stephen Satarino, Film Editor
Ari Aster, “Hereditary” Horror movies are often treated with a sense of escapism. They allow viewers to feel scared for a contained period and
Bradley Cooper, “A Star is Born” You might know him as Phil, the dentist from “The Hangover,” or Ben, Amy Poehler’s partner in musical theater crime in “Wet Hot American Summer” or as David O. Russell’s favorite leading man. However you recognize the versatile actor with those piercing blue eyes. He is now officially a director. As a filmmaker, Bradley Cooper (“Burnt”) crafted the fourth re-make of “A Star is Born” with immense care, ensuring its predecessors were not overlooked while keeping a fierce eye at the future. The first-time director managed to add significant depth and raw emotion to a tale often wrought with conventionality and sappiness. The film is a stunning manifestation of the filmmaker’s vision and knowledge of filmmaking, incorporating strong editing choices, sophisticated camerawork and an ear for music emphasized by his co-star’s (Lady Gaga as “Ally”) talent. I have a feeling Cooper’s directing days are long from over; rather, he’s just getting started.
— Becky Portman, Daily Arts Writer
Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti Jr. and Rodney Rothman, “SpiderMan: Into the Spiderverse” Calling “Into the Spiderverse” a directorial debut is something of a misnomer given that Peter Ramsey, one of the three directors, had previously helmed “Rise of the Guardians” in 2012, but being as his two co-directors Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman were both newcomers to the director’s chair, I’ll say two out of three isn’t bad. Frankly, I’ll take any chance I can get to praise this movie. If the job of a director is to take the various elements of filmmaking and storytelling and make them work together toward a singular purpose, then “Into the Spiderverse” is one of the best directed films of the year. From beginning to end, it’s a psychedelic, hyper-kinetic ride that boasts groundbreaking animation and a slew of pop culture references, yet everything always comes back to the characters and their arcs. The color scheme, the “Scott Pilgrim”-esque insertions of comic book imagery, the score, everything. At the center of “Into the Spiderverse” is Miles Morales and everything else exists in his orbit. That isn’t to say that the rest of the movie is underdeveloped in any way. Each of the supporting characters is made memorable in their own way — from Hailee Steinfeld’s (“Bumblebee”) SpiderGwen to Nic Cage’s (“Mandy”) hysterical Spider-Man Noir — and are made even more so by the careful attention paid to what makes them Spider-Man. It’s the ethos of the film: Anyone can be a hero, anyone can be Spider-Man, and by forefronting this spirit through such a diverse set of characters in terms of personality and animation style, Ramsey, Persichetti and Rothman ensure their film enters into the realm of the greats. — Jeremiah Vanderhelm, Daily Arts Writer
WARNER BROTHERS