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Can hate foster love? H8RS GON’ HATE
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS GATELEY | MUSTA NG NE W S
| Hater, an app that connnects people based on mutual hatred, is grounded in the concept that sometimes mutual dislikes reveals compatability more than mutual likes.
Annie Vainshtein Special to Mustang News
Mick Jagger is still having kids. Wet willies. Second-wave feminism. Donald Trump. What do these have in common? All are fodder for a dating app called Hater, which does exactly what it implies: it matches people by their mutual hatred of things. Hater, which publicly launched Feb. 8, is the latest installation in
an arena of apps attempting to strategize the dance of modern love. Bristlr is a dating app for men with beards and those who scout them (it has 100,000 registered users). 3nder is Tinder plus a third. Sizzl sorts users based on their bacon preferences — crispy or subdued? Contrary to its many cohorts, Hater is grounded on a premise that the app’s creator Brendan Alper found reflected
in research: sharing negative attitudes promoted closeness between people. Haters offer users more than 3,000 topics to hate. Many of them are from Alpert’s own conversations with his friends about their pet peeves. It’s complicated According to renowned anthropologist Helen Fisher, when we’re in love, certain parts of
the brain — like areas linked with negative emotions, critical social assessment, planning and the evaluation of trustworthiness and fear— turn off. According to Dr. Raj Persaud in “Simply Irresistible: the Psychology of Seduction,” married or “happily cohabiting” couples are less likely to suffer from depression and live longer than single, divorced or widowed people — but only if they pick
the correct partner. Knowing what constitutes the correct partner, is where science encounters challenges. According to psychology professor Elizabeth Barrett, who counseled couples for years, Hater’s implicit prerequisites for sustaining attraction may actually hold up in the real world. HATERS continued on page 2
‘Queer Town Hall:’ ASI Presidential candidates speak on queer community Megan Schellong @ meganschellong
JAKE GIUSTO | MUSTA NG NE W S
INSPIRATION | Luke Liberatore, also known as Alt9, played popular songs by Skrillex, Flume, RL Grime and What So Not, some of his biggest influences.
Cal Poly DJ Alt9 to open at Spring Stampede Anjana Melvin @ CPMustangNews
When computer engineering sophomore Luke Liberatore came to Cal Poly from Cleveland, Ohio, he had two goals. The first goal was to gain one million plays of his original music on SoundCloud by graduation. If he reached this goal, Liberatore, known by his DJ name Alt9, would consider DJing as a career. His second goal was to
become a household name at Cal Poly. At Spring Stampede his freshman year, Alt9 saw a way to achieve these goals. Standing in line to watch the winner of Battle of the Bands open the concert, Liberatore decided he wanted to be on that stage. The opportunity presented itself at Associated Students Inc.’s event So You Think You Can DJ? (SYTYCDJ) April 21. “I remember just standing in line and looking out at all the people;
there are DJs and big names up there and [thinking that] it would be amazing to DJ just in front of my peers,” Alt9 said. “When I saw the application go up on Facebook, I was like, ‘I have to make this happen somehow.’ So I sent in my application that same week and started working on my set.” Five student DJ acts performed 15-minute sets for a chance to be the opening act at this year’s Spring Stampede concert. Alt9’s two playlists were a mix of pop-
Cal Poly Triota and Queer Student Union (QSU) hosted the first ever “Queer Town Hall,” in a Q&A format with the four Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) presidential candidates Monday. The meeting began with opening statements from the candidates, agricultural sciences junior Riley Nilsen, biomedical engineering junior Davis Negrete, business administration sophomore Archie Mitchell and political science junior Chase Dean. The discussion,
moderated by political science sophomore Katie Ettl, allowed each candidate one minute to respond to a question with a 30-second rebuttal, if the candidate had one. Question topics included involvement in the queer community, faculty resignation within the cross cultural center, education about queer studies, gender-neutral bathrooms, economic and racial imbalances, mental illness, sexual assault and the steps candidates would take to make Cal Poly’s campus more inclusive. TOWN HALL continued on page 3
ular songs by his biggest influences: Skrillex, Flume, RL Grime, What So Not and more. With two turntables on either side of him and a mixer in between, Alt9 matched the tempo of two songs to transition one song to another. This technique is known as phrasing and helps transition between tracks without breaking the structure of the music. DJ Alt9 continued on page 5
SAMMI MULHERN | MUSTA NG NE W S
Q& A | Candidates answered questions about Cal Poly’s LGBTQIA community.
News 1-3 | Arts 4-5 | Opinion 6 | Classifieds 7 | Sports 8
NEWS 2
MUSTANG NEWS
Responsible Voter Guide advocates for social and environmental justice in ASI elections Cecilia Seiter @ cseiter17
Students looking to elect an Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) president supportive of social and environmental justice were given an easy way to do so this year. The Responsible Voter Guide (RVG) is a newly-formed, student-run organization dedicated to electing candidates supportive of environmental and social justice to ASI. RVG acts as a media source for the student body. It endorsed certain candidates and highlighted those candidates’ specific goals and policies on the RVG website. The organization also aimed to boost participation in student government. Landscape architecture senior Natalie Montoya is the founder and chair of RVG. She said she hopes RVG will bring issues of environmental and social justice at Cal Poly into the spotlight. “We would love if RVG could be a really powerful force and something that’s known not only to help elect candidates, but to see social justice and sustainability elevated on the campus as a whole,” Montoya said. To make her vision come true, Montoya collaborated with other student organizations, such as Empower Poly Coalition —which acts as the facilitator for RVG — Mustangs United for Israel and Students Influencing Curriculum. Together, they created a questionnaire for ASI candidates pertaining to their stance on issues of social justice and sustainability. Once they had interviewed all the candidates, the RVG committee
HATERS continued from page 1
Barrett said it’s easy to find people who align with the things you love. “The real challenge, the staying power of a long-term relationship is how do you love someone when they’re not at their best? When they’re showing their ugly side?” Barrett said. The ugly side — the part of us that hates, is judgmental or biased — is the underbelly of connection. It’s often the part of ourselves we work hardest to hide, Barrett said. Meanwhile, the things we report liking, especially ones on dating sites we know thousands will see, run the risk of sounding agreeable or surface-level. “Hate is an interesting word and it’s kind a flip term.” Barrett said. “We’re really talking about the things that annoy us or those dark things that kind of drive our inner story — our shadow state.” Shared disenchantments, cynicisms and unpopular opinions retain a vigor in romantic rela-
decided which ones to publicly endorse on their website. “We supported the candidates that we felt were super in line with our vision of social justice and sustainability,” Montoya said. “We want to endorse people who have experience about these topics.” One of these endorsed candidates is Chase Dean, a political science junior running for ASI president. He said his platform heavily prioritizes social justice and sustainability and he plans to work closely with RVG. RVG will work with the next ASI president on a variety of projects, Montoya said, such as increasing the availability of healthy food on campus and making textbooks more affordable for students. “Something that’s really powerful about [RVG] is that it’s a group of students coming together ... and letting the ASI president know that they are going to hold them accountable,” Dean said. “I think it’s a new form of accountability for whoever’s elected, and a way for students to amplify what they want to see at Cal Poly and what they want to see changed.” Dan Hedden, an environmental protection management senior and president of Empower Poly Coalition, said RVG helps to bring a wider range of viewpoints to student government. “I think with a lot of previous ASI elections, a lot of presidents have been from agriculture, and it would be nice to shake that up a little bit, and make sure someone’s in office who has different views,” Hedden said. “We’re just trying to bring up tionships, Barrett said. They can lift couples out of arguments or negative spaces because the mutuality is meaningful and holds more significance than a shared affection for Bernese mountain dogs. According to Barrett, research shows that some of the reported reasons couples divorce are interchangeable with the reasons they got married: he married her because she was outgoing and fun to be around; they divorced because she never stopped talking. “What bonds people is mysterious,” Barrett said. “That’s why marriage therapy is one of the hardest aspects of being a counselor because you really can’t know the dance couples do privately. What is it that draws them together? A lot of times therapists end up just being an audience to that dance that couples do.” According to Don Ryujin, a psychology professor and personality researcher who recently gave a TedX Talk about the power of emotions, research during the last 130 years consistently
RVG
RESPONSIBLE VOTER GUIDE | COURTE SY PHOTO
| The Responsible Voting Guide (RVG) is an organization that advocates for candidates who support social and environmental justice.
the smaller ideas to the biggest part of campus.” Next year, Montoya said RVG will be fully independent and won’t need the Empower Poly Coalition to act as a facilitator.
She said the RVG committee is aiming for more equal representation from cultural and social justice clubs as well. Meetings are open for any interested student to attend.
Montoya said RVG’s ultimate goal is not only to elect its endorsed candidates, but also to see an increase in election participation. “I feel like Cal Poly campus
is really ready for something like this,” Montoya said. “If we’re going to go towards a better world, we have to take a stance, and this is the stance we’re taking.”
demonstrates the power of similarities for relationships. “It’s not just similarities,” Ryujin said. “The things that you match up on have to be really critical to you.” So loving pork chops might not take you out of the running in courting the local vegetarian so long as your feelings on either aren’t extreme. What other apps often miss, Ryujin said, is assessing this relative importance and the threat it poses to a person’s value-system.
they married. The Waddells said they were of the generation that believed in government and its propensity toward truth, a government for and of the people, until Vietnam. “We had a mutual dislike — an intense hatred of the Vietnam War,” Yolanda said. “It was just awful.” Yolanda and Jay joined the Peace and Freedom Party, both becoming avid defenders of civil rights and equalities. They resisted the sexual revolutions during the tail-end of the ‘60s. They found them shallower and not nearly as fulfilling as the relationship they were cultivating. David Brooks, New York Times columnist, wrote about three socio-historical movements of love, which he dubs the American Regime of Choice, the Russian Regime of Fate and the Regime of Covenant. Brooks argues that our pragmatism toward choosing the right partner has led us to little success. “The dating market becomes a true market where people carefully appraise each other, looking
for red flags,” Brooks said. “The emphasis is on the prudential choice, selecting the right person who satisfies your desires. It involves calculation and gamesmanship.” Dating apps are the perfect headquarters for this Regime of Choice. Many of them, including Hater, focus on the individual and his or her immediate needs and desires. The Waddells resisted the movements that operated under what they think of as the American Regime of Choice. “Dating by choice is more ‘me-oriented’,” Yolanda said. “It’s not accepting the other person with their faults and their strengths. It’s saying, ‘OK, I’m going to create this companion according to my needs.’ I think that’s unfortunate.” The Regime of Covenant, however, is oriented toward the other person, Brooks wrote. The good of the relationship comes first, then the needs of the partner and those of the individual. It chooses devotion over selfishness and reaches toward transformation, not an exit.
“The Covenant Regime is based on the idea that our current formula is a conspiracy to make people unhappy,” Brooks said. “Love is realistically a stronger force than self-interest. Detached calculation in such matters is self-strangulating.” In all fairness, a regime of choice wasn’t really an option for the Waddells at the time they were courting. Matchmaking was around, but it was expensive and sparse. There certainly weren’t apps about bacon. Of course sharing interests and values is important for Yolanda and Jay. Like Ryujin said, their value-systems align, but the fine-tuned optimization in today’s Regime of Online Choice overlooks the mystery of connection—one that eclipses dating analytics. “I think that if I had had an app where I could define the person I was looking for, I would never have found Yolanda,” Jay said. “And she has broadened and expanded my life with her different points of view and — I would call them — higher sets of values.”
But does it work? To see whether or not these theories held up in real-life partnerships, enter Yolanda and Jay. Los Osos, California residents Yolanda and Jay Waddell have been together for 57 years. They met in Chicago in the winter of 1960 as the bridesmaid and groomsman to mutual friends. After dancing at the wedding reception, they parted ways until the fall of 1961 when Jay returned from the Army. A few months later, he invited her to dinner at his parent’s apartment and in late August of 1963,
NEWS 3
THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017
Graduation rates continue to increase Aidan McGloin @ CPMustangNews
Cal Poly’s four-year graduation rate increased during the past 20 years to 47 percent, making it the highest in the college’s history, according to the digital archives and the Cal Poly Factbook. Five-year graduation rates also increased by 40 percent to 77.1 percent and six-year graduation rates increased from 58.5 percent to 82.6 percent. An increase in graduation rates has been a focal point of administrative goals since 1991 when President Emeritus Warren Baker said Cal Poly must “assure that the
students we do enroll can get their classes and provide the services necessary to retain and graduate the students in a reasonable time,” in a memo to the university community. First-time freshman graduation rates increased 200 percent over the past five years with what Bruno Giberti, professor of architecture and member of the current Graduation Initiative Leadership Team, describes as a mixture of changes under Provost Kathleen Enz Finken. Under Finken, Cal Poly created degree flowcharts, designed PolyPlanner and made degree progress reports on the Cal Poly
portal in what Giberti describes as an “attempt to make a clear path to graduation.” With an increase of students with higher GPAs and test scores in recent years, students are naturally going to graduate early, Giberti said. This year’s push is led by the Graduation Initiative Leadership Team which consists of Cal Poly faculty and staff and received $800,000 funding from the California State University (CSU) System’s Graduation Initiative 2025. The team hopes to push the CSU system’s four-year graduation rate to 40 percent and the team wants to increase Cal Poly’s
rate to 71 percent. Cal Poly is currently expected to exceed that goal by 2.7 percent according to Mary Pedersen, senior vice provost and member of the team. The team used the funding to engage with seniors by increasing advisor outreach, using PolyPlanner to accommodate classes, increasing micro grants — small grants for people who struggle financially— and by increasing the capacity of summer courses, Pedersen said. Though Cal Poly has the highest graduation rate of the CSU system, it is still lower than that of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara,
creating an incentive for the university to continue pushing. “We aren’t sitting around patting ourselves on the back,” Giberti said. He also stressed that graduation rates are a “really complicated phenomenon” that many newspapers and vocal advocates do not fully understand when they talk about increasing them. They are nuanced, involving a wealth of people in unique situations at Cal Poly, all studying different subjects with different aspirations. That’s why it requires a constant rethinking of goals and why the question of what to do next is always on his mind. In addition to the short-term
goals they achieved working with the current senior class, the team also plans long-term changes to the way Cal Poly treats students. These include an expansion of the block schedule for freshman year, allowing each department the option of planning out all three quarters for freshmen before they arrive on campus. They also plan to hire more faculty to decrease the number of heavily impacted classes and to increase tenure density. A higher tenure density allows tenured professors to distribute the work of designing coursework and advising senior projects amongst themselves.
AIDAN MCGLOIN | MUSTA NG NE W S
TOWN HALL continued from page 1
Representing the queer community Negrete said he would go to the student groups prior to meeting with a university official or administrator to make sure he voices the right opinion of the students. “I’d like to not put words in people’s mouths,” Negrete said. Mitchell said “communication would be the biggest aspect of it.” He would want to give those individuals platforms to voice their opinions. Dean said leaving the office and attending meetings of the under-represented groups would be a way to receive their input. He also said acknowledging protests as a valid way to express an opinion would bring more recognition to marginalized voices. Nilsen said her close friendships within the queer community would continuously leverage her support for them if elected. “I know that I will always keep those friends in mind when talking about an issue like that,” she said. Participation and enrollment in diverse studies Nilsen is taking Survey of Indigenous Studies (ES 241), her second class in ethnic studies. In regard to having more classes focused on women’s and gender studies and ethnic studies within the USCP requirement, Nilsen said she would look toward working with the academic senate to redefine the requirements for USCP. Nilsen was the first to point out that the regulations have not been reviewed since the late ‘90s. “The time is now to work with the academic senate and redefine what those requirements are,” Nilsen said. Mitchell said he has neither taken a women’s and gender studies class nor an ethnic studies class. However, he said that both are important components to understanding the people he would represent.
“I think one of the biggest keys towards inclusivity is understanding,” Mitchell said. Mitchell added that he would advocate for a queer studies minor — which Cal Poly has already added to its 2017-19 catalog. Dean has taken an introductory ethnic studies course, and this quarter he’s enrolled in Survey of Latino/a Studies (ES 243)and Native American Cultural Images (ES 321). Like Nilsen, he would like to see the USCP requirements revised. Furthermore, he would like to see the work of ethnic studies’ professors acknowledged more frequently.
I think one of the biggest keys towards inclusivity is understanding ARCHIE MITCHELL
In regards to taking ethnic studies courses, Dean said students “need to be taking classes that are actually presenting the material how it should be presented.” Dean also nodded to the ethnic studies faculty and their commitment to their publications. “I think we need to acknowledge the hard work the ethnic studies faculty does; I heard that a professor is publishing three times as much as other people, but not getting the classes they want,” Dean said. Negrete would like to see the USCP requirements focused more on ethnic studies or women’s and gender studies as well. Negrete said he has not taken a women’s and gender studies or ethnic studies class, in part because his major does not offer any free electives. Keeping the Cross Cultural Center afloat Within the past year, 100 percent
of the Cross Cultural Center’s faculty left, according to Ettl. One of the questions asked was how to prevent the Cross Cultural Center from diminishing. Each candidate addressed the severity of the issue, with Dean referencing a specific action he took to move toward hiring more faculty of color. Recently, he wrote an endorsement for a resolution with the academic senate to have third party “x” interviews for faculty of color. He wants to make sure that faculty feel comfortable in their positions after hearing about micro-aggressions against them on campus. Mitchell said he’s not sure how he would fix the problem, but he sees it as a huge issue. “I think the staff at the university should be representative of the students,” he said. Nilsen said the fear of the Cross Cultural Center’s presence leaving campus raises a “huge red flag” for her. She said there are opportunities within ASI for students to feel more incorporated, especially with the new added space to the Cross Cultural Center. Negrete referenced his experience working in the multicultural center, and how the faculty he worked with felt they had little support from the administration. The support and connection is something that Negrete sees lacking, and would make it a point to address. In the remaining 30 minutes, audience members had the opportunity to ask the ASI presidential candidates questions on their concerns. After the discussion concluded, both the QSU and Triota Cal Poly decided to endorse Chase Dean for ASI President. The QSU is a campus club for queer identifying students to participate in “activism, community building, and social programming,” according to its Facebook page. Triota Cal Poly is the “safe space for expressing feminism in all of its various styles” on Cal Poly’s campus. To watch the entire Q&A, visit the QSU Facebook page.
ARTS 4
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MUSTANG NEWS
ST X ENTERTAINMENT | PROMOTIONA L
| In his review, Llamas praises the creators of “Their Finest” for their efforts in portraying the lives and struggles of civilians on the homefront during World War II, an often overlooked perspective.
Review: ‘Their Finest,’ a heartfelt dramedy Greg Llamas @ CPMustangNews
Greg Llamas is a journalism senior and Mustang News columnist. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News. When it comes to World War II movies, it’s easy to think of wellknown films like “Saving Private Ryan” or “Schindler’s List.” These types of war films often display the brutality of war while praising the heroism soldiers and affected figures face. The main plot of these types of films is either “Let’s go kill the Nazis/Japanese” or “Let’s go save the Jews.” One aspect of World War II that isn’t covered as frequently in film is the home front, places far away from the war but still greatly affected by it. That’s why “Their Finest” is one of the most interesting World War II movies in recent memory, adapted from Lissa Evans’ novel, “Their Finest Hour and a Half.” Instead of focusing
on hard-fought battles that show how bloody and unnecessary war is, “Their Finest” highlights what citizens of a warring country at home deal with and the struggles they endure. In 1940 in London, Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) struggles to make ends meet with her artist lover Ellis Cole (Jack Huston), a man without a steady income who paints dreary portraits of wartime industry. After being hired by the Ministry of Information to flesh out female dialogue in propaganda films, she starts a friendly rivalry with fellow screenwriter Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin). They brainstorm ideas for propaganda geared toward Americans about twin sisters who steal their father’s boat to save British troops at the Battle of Dunkirk. As the arrogant actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) and the rest of the crew assemble to shoot the film, Catrin and Buckley form a relationship that gets too close. “Their Finest” portrays an almost paradoxical world where life
in London must carry on as usual while German planes routinely raid the city with payloads of bombs. Londoners must routinely hide when the air-raid sirens turn on, which is very frequently. Catrin and Buckley spend their days working in the scriptwriting room while bombs from German aircrafts shake their building as well as several others, often damaging the ceiling. Even though they are away from any conflict on the mainland, World War II is still something directly affecting them. This paradox of continuing normalcy in a war-ridden world reaches its peak when Catrin casually walks down a street and a store near her is destroyed by German bombers. Among the pile of rubble and mangled mannequins is the body of a woman just killed by the attack that could’ve taken Catrin’s life. This causes her to vomit in a dark alleyway, one of the strongest visuals in the film. Life is fragile in London — one moment citizens are going about their day and the next, they’re gone.
The interesting, yet terrifying world of war-torn London is just a piece of the film’s intrigue. The bosses at the Ministry of Information task the screenwriters with creating a story both “authentic and optimistic,” a seeming contradiction for the dreary state of the world. These themes that the bosses wanted in their own film trickle down into the rest of “Their Finest,” as there are some genuine moments of happiness for the characters in a world that is so broken. One of the happy moments in the film comes from the developing relationship between Catrin and Buckley. At first, their rivalry seems forced, Buckley comes across as a man who doesn’t want a woman to steal any of his creativity. But this conflict turns friendly as he begins to acknowledge that Catrin is just as talented as he is at writing. Their relationship feels real as it develops from a sort of hesitance to a legitimate friendship. Of course, this friendship gets a
bit too close and Catrin finds herself in a sort of love triangle between Buckley and Ellis. I say sort of because it’s one of the least interesting aspects of the film. We’re never given a reason to like Ellis as he’s unsupportive of Catrin’s goals and ashamed that she brings home more money than he does. Even with an injury he sustained in the past, there’s nothing at all likable about Ellis. It’s quite obvious that Buckley is a better partner for Catin and there’s no conflict at all when it comes to something so clear. Along for the ride in Catrin and Buckley’s film is Ambrose Hilliard, a star of an old detective series who plays the drunkard Uncle Frank. Whenever on the screen, Hillard takes over the scene. Despite his arrogance, there’s a sort of charm to his eccentricity which makes him more appealing than any other character. Hilliard has a soft and caring side to him under all his pretentiousness. He genuinely cares for people as he patiently mentors the handsome
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war hero — but terrible actor — Carl Lundbeck (Jake Lacy) for his role in the film. Hilliard also cares for Catrin, praising her writing of Uncle Frank and comforting her when tragedy strikes in her life. The most enamoring scenes in “Their Finest” are when the film Catrin and Buckley wrote is shot. Far from the damaged alleys and streets of London, they film on the soothing beaches and grassy plains of the British countryside. Even with the world so divided and the future uncertain, Catrin and Buckley are able to develop a relationship in the most hopeful of places. “Their Finest” is the most unique World War II film to be released recently, a rare dramedy in World War II era films. It portrays relationships developed outside of being directly involved with a war, but it shows how difficult life can be for those left at home and those involved on the home front war effort. As the poster for “Their Finest” says, “In the fight for freedom, everyone played a part.”
ARTS 5
THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017
What you need to know about sour beer RACHEL MESAROS | COURTE SY PHOTO
BOLDLY BREWED | More than 518 microbreweries opened in California in the past year, making breweries eager to find new ways to stand out. Because of this, sour beer has gained momentum with its acidic taste.
Marie Leleu Special to Mustang News
Sour beer — defined as a beer that has an intentionally acidic, tart or sour taste — has grown in popularity among microbreweries along the Central Coast. The surge and how the beer is produced has taken people by surprise. “Sour beer and it’s how’s and why’s may never be completely understood,” head brewer and founder of MadeWest Brewery in Ventura Mike Morrison said. With 518 microbreweries that opened in California in the past year, craft brewers are always looking for new ways to stand out, allowing sour beer to gain momentum. The history In the early 1900s — before the process of refrigeration and development of fermentation —
all beers could be considered sour because they were brewed in an open container, which allowed yeast in the air to ferment the beer, giving it a sour taste. It wasn’t until 1996 that the process of using wild yeast in an open wooden-aged barrel was discovered as the fermentation method behind creating sour beer. According to the New Yorker, William Reed — a former brewer at the Boston Beer Company — accidentally brewed one of the first commonly known sour beers in 1996. Described as tasting like a liquid Sour Patch Kid, Reed called the sour The Brewhouse Tart. It was a Flanders red ale, meaning it was fermented with a mixture of conventional and wild yeasts. Two local breweries — Libertine and Barrelhouse — are at the forefront of increasing sour beer options in San Luis Obispo.
Bringing sour beers to San Luis Obispo Libertine started in Morro Bay, California and specializes in creating a variety of sour beers, or as they like to call them, Wild Ales. Libertine’s brewing process is done at both the Morro Bay and downtown San Luis Obispo locations. “Most of the process is the same as a clean beer brewery: grain is ground in the mill, the ground grain meets with the hot water and then gets boiled and hops are added to it,” Libertine head brewer Dan Miller said. “The thing that separates us [Libertine] from clean beer breweries is that we cool it down quickly and then put it in an open top fermentation vessel for about two to three days.” The open top fermentation vessel is visible to any customer who walks into the downtown San Luis Obispo Libertine, which
offers customers insight to the process behind the beer they are about to order. However, this is only half of the process in creating a Libertine sour. “Generally the beer will sit in the open top fermentation for about three days until most of the sugar has been converted into alcohol … Then we transfer it to our production facility in Santa Maria where most of our oak aging happens and the flavor is added,” Miller said. A rising trend When creating a fruity wild ale, Libertine adds whole pieces of fruit into the barrel and lets the yeast eat it to create the discrete flavor. This is common for most breweries that create sour beers. Uncommon to other local breweries in the area, Libertine uses Morro Bay salt water to create one of its most iconic sour beers.
“I recently turned 21 and tried my first sour beer the other day. It was the Morro Rock Gose from Libertine, which I later found out is brewed with seawater from Morro Bay and avocado honey,” sociology junior Lauren Ashworth said. “Sour beer is becoming one of my favorite types of beers, but I also have yet to try a variety of different beers since I’m used to drinking whatever is cheapest.” While students may be attracted to sour beer’s unique taste, they tend to be discouraged by the price. Sour beers are usually more expensive than other types of beer, such as IPAs or Porters. “There is a price difference when it comes to sour beers, you won’t see sour beers hitting market price at, like, seven bucks for a bottle,” BarrelHouse Brewery manager John Pranjic said. “They require a lot more
time, both either in a barrel or in a coolship or however you are storing them. The price structure comes out more like a bottle of wine; the longer you have it in the barrel, the better ingredients you use, how long you store it, that all affects the price.” Despite the higher price of its sour beers, BarrelHouse increased their sour beer production by at least 1,000 percent since last year. Pranjic explained that the demand for sour beer has increased, from customers asking for it more and from brewers at BarrelHouse wanting a challenge. The goal for BarrelHouse Brewery is to keep up with the sour beer trend by introducing a third sour beer in the next year. “It’s very artful how a sour brewer gets the final product, it requires a lot of work, but it’s worth it,” Pranjic said.
Saturday, April 29th 5:30 - 8:30 pm
JAKE GIUSTO | MUSTA NG NE W S
OTHERS | There were several DJs competing in So You Think You Can DJ?. The winner would open for Spring Stampede.
DJ Alt9 continued from page 1
“I match up different points in each song. For example, the beat will drop at the same points or the vocals will match up at the same points,” Alt9 said. “Once they’re synced, I’ll start the song I want to bring in and slowly bring it in through my mixer. I can hear that through my headphones and I can make adjustments.” Playing a mix of popular electronic, rap, hip hop and some of his personal favorites, Alt9 won the votes of the audience at the University Union Plaza by an online survey after the performance. But for Alt9, SYTYCDJ? and Spring Stampede are just a means to an end. Alt9’s dreams of DJing started long before he got to Cal Poly, back when he was just Luke Liberatore, playing gigs in Cleveland. Liberatore first got hooked
on electronic music in middle school when he came across early DeadMau5 music. As a high school freshman, Liberatore joined the DJ club that performed at school dances and fundraisers. He started playing for his friends, but by the summer before his senior year, he started booking solo gigs at nightclubs and concert venues around Cleveland under the name Alt9. Pressing the “Alt” and “9” keys on some computers creates a circle, which is his logo. Nearing the end of high school, Alt9 was presented with the opportunity to open for Adventure Club, an electronic duo he admired. DJing in front of over 300 people, he realized his hobby could turn into something much more than performing for friends at parties. Though Alt9 created an established image for himself in Cleveland, he had to start all over in San Luis Obispo. In the
last two years, Alt9 promoted his brand by playing at venues like The Graduate and SLO Brew. His marketing efforts have culminated in SYTYCDJ?. “So You Think You Can DJ? is probably the hardest I promoted for any event,” he said. “It was amazing to see in less than two years how many friends and fans I have here. Being able to put a number on that and seeing people in the crowd was really cool.” Slowly but surely, Alt9 is making a name for himself as a DJ while he balances school and work. “I realized in the past few weeks I’ve been working nonstop since I got to Cal Poly,” he said. “Constantly promoting, constantly working on new sets. It takes up quite a big chunk of my time, but I love it. You know what they say, ‘If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.’ And it doesn’t feel like work at all.”
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OPINION 6
MUSTANG NEWS
OPINION
Hunter White @ CPMustangNews
Hunter White is a history junior and Mustang News columnist. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News. “Moonlight” is not a film about black men. It is not a film about gay men. It is not a film about drug dealers, poverty or life in a Miami ghetto. Of course, it is about all of these, but to focus solely on them is to lose sight of the universal humanity of Chiron’s quest for identity. In this brave new world, we have rightfully begun the laborious task of filling in the gaps within our national culture. It has become far too tempting to isolate ourselves and our experiences within their respective social segments. But in our quest for individual representation, we cannot forget that art’s most powerful attribute is not its ability to represent the individual but in its ability to tap into the universal, to touch some portion of our repeated DNA. It is in the pursuance of identity in which Chiron acts as not just a
‘Moonlight’ and identity: A search for self window into his unique struggle but as a mirror into our own soul. Constrained by images of masculinity, which are rooted in both violence and Don Juan sexuality, Chiron is a boy left trapped between who he is and who he is expected to be. While being chased through the streets by a group of schoolmates who sensed his peculiarity with the acute predatory instinct of children, Chiron is saved by the empathetic Juan, a charismatic drug dealer played by Mahershala Ali. Juan saves Chiron and takes the impressionable boy under his wing. Although his screen time is short, his presence echoes throughout the film. Juan is one of the few characters in the film willing to accept Chiron as he is and not as whom Juan might imagine him to be. “So your name Blue?” the young Chiron asks Juan after he shares a story about a nickname bestowed upon him by an old woman from his past. “Nah, at some point you gotta decide for yourself who you
gonna be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you,” Juan replies. Mahershala delivers these lines with an anguish born of Juan’s own struggle for an identity, but Chiron never sees the conflict within Juan. Chiron only sees the house, the car, and the
It is about a constant war between what we want and what is expected of us. beautiful wife — the pre-decided image of what he imagines a man like Juan to be. In adolescence, Chiron finds himself at war with the same demons that haunted Juan. He lives in a world where his compassion and nonviolence are not the brave and admirable qual-
ities our religions and national values try to paint them as. They instead leave him impotent in the face of violent children emulating violent men. In this maelstrom of masculine aggression, Chiron seeks comfort in an old friend and schoolmate-turned-lover. This brief moment in which Chiron acts in accordance with himself is almost immediately ripped from him by violent means. Left alone but for these hardearned lessons, Chiron responds with the only expression of control his world respects: violence. Years later Chiron appears as Black, an Atlanta drug dealer equipped with fancy car and studded grill, both adopted from Juan’s image. At the height of his new persona, Chiron is pulled back to Miami by a phone call from his one-time lover. The two men meet as near strangers. Chiron embraced the hard identity he had suffered without, and his former lover turned his back on this hardened masculinity in favor of a calmer life. They dance around each other unsure of
who the other has become and whether or not what had initially brought them together remains. Chiron’s dark night of the soul comes in the apartment of his former lover. He shakes loose the amalgamation of assumptions and standards that had crushed him into his current shape. In a small act of human contact he wrentches free some piece of himself out of the Frankensteined masculinity he had built. “Moonlight” is about the tortured quest for self. It is about the constant war between what we want and what is expected of us. It is a story which should not be secluded to one corner of the human experience. Every shot, every line of dialogue and every gesture brings the audience closer to Chiron’s search for identity. It is this same search for an ever-changing primordial self that harrows us every step of our lives. This unanswerable question that our entire existence turns on, “who is you Chiron?”
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INTROSPECTION
A24 FILMS | PROMOTIONA L
| Moonlight uses the personal journey of a young queer man to metaphorically represent a universal search for self that can be found in most of our own life stories.
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SPORTS 8
THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017
Men’s Lacrosse streaks into postseason
THROUGH THE DEFENSE
STE VE HORTON | COURTE SY PHOTO
| Sophomore midfielder Mitch Stickney (18) splits multiple defenders to score one of his five goals against UC Berkeley. The 13-10 win moved the Mustangs to No. 4 nationally.
Brian Truong @ Crusaderkitten
Following a stunning 13-10 victory over UC Berkeley, the Cal Poly men’s club lacrosse team sits atop of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League. The Mustangs are undefeated in divisional play at 7-0, boasting a 14-2 record this season and are in a great position to claim their first national championship title. But the Mustangs’ dominating performance is no fluke. Last year, the team made it to the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse League National Championship finals for the second time in club history, falling to the Chapman University Panthers 9-5. “That was a tough game and a tough loss, to make it all that way and get outmatched,” sophomore
attackman Guralas said. This season, the Mustangs already claimed the top seed in the upcoming Western Conference Championships and a bid to the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) National Championship tournament. The team’s only losses this season were one-goal decisions earlier in the season — 6-5 to Brigham Young Feb. 25 and 5-4 to Colorado in overtime March 10. The Mustangs haven’t lost since the Colorado game and have won their last eight games by a combined 118-56, gaining momentum to again become strong contenders to win it all. “There’s a lot of pressure on the team,” Guralas, who has a team-high 42 goals this season, said. “There’s not a guy on this team that doesn’t want to go to
the finals.” The roster is stacked with experienced players, having lost only two from last season. Also returning is head coach Bobby Dabrieo, who doesn’t have any complaints with the attitude of the Mustangs. “They have a lot of passion for the sport,” Dabrieo said. “These guys love coming out here, competing and working. That’s a great combination for a team.” Dabrieo, who led the team to a second place finish in his first year as head coach, attributes much of the Mustangs’ success to the team’s strong defense. “[Our defense] is the best in the country,” Guralas said. “It all starts with our goalie [senior Sean Pihl]; he’s an absolute stud.” Pihl has guarded the
Mustangs’ goal for four years and currently boasts a personal-best .682 save percentage.
There’s not a guy on this team that doesn’t want to go to the finals. AJ GURALAS
“He’s [an] All-American and he’s been the best player on our team all four years,” senior defenseman and team captain Jackson Cole said. Pihl was chosen as First Team All-Conference Goal-
ie for the past three years and Defensive Player of the Year in 2016. Put simply, “he just makes a lot of saves,” Cole said. With the Mustangs’ defense shutting down opponents, Dabrieo has been looking to make improvements in his team’s offense. “We haven’t done a great job of shooting this year, that’s why we haven’t scored a lot of goals,” Dabrieo said. But the Mustangs scoring has improved as over half of their season’s goals have been produced in their last eight games. Guralas leads the team in goals for the second year in a row. Junior attackman John Corbolotti and sophomore midfielder Mitch Stickney have each posted 23 goals this season.
In last week’s win over UC Berkeley, Stickney buried a game-high five goals, earning him the MCLA Division Commanding Performance of the Week award. “When our offense plays and moves together like we did, there’s nothing that’s going to stop us,” Guralas said. More commanding performances will be needed for the Mustangs to reach the finals this year. The Western Conference Championships begins Saturday when Cal Poly faces Stanford University at Novato High School. The National Championships take place Monday, May 8 in Orange County. “We’re winning the [National Championship] this year,” Guralas said. “We’re bringing it home to San Luis Obispo.”