STUDENTS GET SCHOOLED BY BLUE MAN GROUP ARTS, pg. 4
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Volume LXXVII, Number 87
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Ayala remembered as ‘sweet,’ great listener SARA NATIVIDAD
snatividad@mustangdaily.net
Members of the Cal Poly community will gather Friday evening to light candles for sociology freshman Giselle Ayala, whose death left many friends and acquaintances recalling memories of a smiling, happy 18-year-old this week. Ayala, who went missing while partying with friends at
the annual spring break party Deltopia this past weekend, was found dead in the surf on Saturday morning. Santa Barbara sheriff ’s officials suspect she may have fallen off a cliff when local officers broke up a party she was attending, though an investigation into her death is still ongoing. Despite the unknown circumstances of her death, Ayala will be remembered as
the kind of person who was always smiling, graphic communication freshman Alyssa Wigant said. The two students lived in Tower 1 of Yosemite Residence Hall and became close friends from the moment they met — Wigant said Ayala even helped her through a difficult breakup. According to Wigant, Ayala was a great listener — someone Wigant was able to
confide in when she felt like she could not talk to anyone else, she said. The feelings of trust and confidence that Ayala instilled were felt among many other students in her tower, Wigant said. Ayala was one of the people who brought the tower together, and the change in the atmosphere since her death demonstrates the lasting impact she’s had on
Yosemite Tower 1. “She made us feel safe and comfortable,” Wigant said. “We have to find another way to cope with things like that now that she’s gone.” Ayala’s roommate Deborah Newberry, a computer science freshman, described her as “the sweetest girl,” and the last person to deserve see AYALA, pg. 2
Born this way
Orfalea moves up in Bloomberg rankings
Pride Month speaker discusses the science behind sexual orientation.
LAURA PEZZINI
lpezzini@mustangdaily.net
Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business was ranked No. 64 on the Bloomberg Businessweek magazine’s ranking of the nation’s top undergraduate business colleges, making 2013 the fifth consecutive year the college made the list. The Orfalea College of Business moved up five spots from number 69 in 2012. Orfalea College of Business Dean Dave Christy said this higher ranking has much to do with the quality of relationships between the students and faculty. “One of the things I give students a lot of credit for is that this is really a partnership between the students and the faculty,” Christy said. “Cal Poly students are already so selective and they understand these things. They don’t want the university to slip behind and they want to hold us accountable.” The Orfalea College of Business was one of only three public California business colleges to make the list, the others being University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Riverside. Four private institutions in California were also represented — University of Southern California, University of San Diego, Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University. “Most of the schools that
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What makes a person gay, straight or bisexual? Former Harvard neuroscientist Simon LeVay discussed the science behind sexual orientation during his presentation last night at Cal Poly’s Recreation Center as a part of Pride Month hosted by the Pride Center. LeVay said the speech was an effort to educate people on discrimination and change attitudes about what it means to be gay, he said in an interview prior to the event. “We need to create a world where people welcome gay people and value them for the difference they create in the world,” LeVay said. LeVay’s extensive research in whether a person is born gay or if they become gay found concrete evidence that homosexuality is biological rather than a lifestyle choice. He said some people think it’s important to figure out what makes people gay before they decide about equal rights with marriage and other legal cases. “Quite often we hear people say that when they learn that see PRIDE, pg. 2
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Simon LeVay, a former Harvard neuroscience professor and author of “Gay, Straight and the Reasons Why,” spoke at Cal Poly on Tuesday for Pride Month.
DEAN DAVE CHRISTY
are ahead of us in the rankings are either private universities or the flagship state universities,” Christy said. “We hang very well and I’m proud.” But Christy said he prefers not to overhype the few steps up the Orfalea College of Business has taken in the ranking. “One of the things I don’t make a big deal about is moving a step up or down, because there’s so much noise in the system that it means we’re basically in the same place, and that’s not a bad place,” Christy said. “Where we are in the rankings means that we’re in a very, very attractive place.” Instead of focusing on rankings and lists, Christy said he would rather focus on the quality of the school. “I think that if you look at the data, our students are happier with their experience,” Christy said. “The quality of our students and the quality of their faculty have been rising.” The college’s admission statistics speak to its position as well. According to Cal Poly’s Fall 2012 Census, 28.3 percent of first-time freshman see BUSINESS, pg. 2
English professors say e-books will not take place of physical books JENNIFER SILVA
Special to Mustang Daily
People don’t use the typewriter anymore, they’ve given up on floppy discs and cassettes are out. But, paper books will still be necessary in the future, Cal Poly professors say. “There’s just something about sitting in a room full of books than sitting in a
bare room with a Kindle,” English lecturer Mark Roberts said. “It’s like there’s so much potential knowledge in there, you feel like you could know everything if you spent enough time, and you don’t get that from looking up something on iTunes.” Even if e-books do not completely outsell books, data on sales indicates a change. In 2011,
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Amazon sold 105 Kindle ebooks for every 100 paperback and hardback books, according to The New York Times. But people are not moving away from print books to ebooks, English lecturer James Cushing said. “I think it’s a lie, I think it does not exist,” Cushing said. “I think it’s people trying to sell pieces of technology that
SPORTS, pg. 8 Why baseball in March is the best
they can delete and get you to buy more expensive technology. It’s a rip off.” Still, e-books are a great new technology, marketing professor Stern Neill said. “It certainly makes a lot of sense, efficient delivery mode, easy to update, saves trees,” Neill said. “You can constantly change content, so if there’s a new case of social
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media update, I could immediately update and the content will be fresh.” E-books have their advantages as well, Roberts said. “As revolutionary as the iPod, in the same way you can suddenly carry around an entire library of music, you can now carry around an entire library of books,” Roberts said. E-books can be a new innova-
tive teaching technique to keep students engaged, Neill said. “You can have students manipulate the info,” Neill said. “The content is more interactive.” A major advantage to having print books, however, is that people can read or write in the margins, Roberts said. “One of the things we have see E-BOOKS, pg. 2
INDEX
Opinions/Editorial..............6 News.............................1-3 ClassifiedsComics..............7 Arts...............................4-5 Sports..................................8
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(being gay) is more of a born that way, they become sympathetic to gay people and support nondiscrimination or gay marriage,” LeVay said. LeVay said as a homosexual, being gay is a central part of who the person is and that it’s an important part of their nature as a human being. With the Supreme Court currently tackling the controversial issue of whether to overturn California’s Proposition 8 as being unconstitutional, framing homosexuality as a biological outcome rather than a conscious choice can change the decision if gay people are entitled to rights, he said. “I think the reason for discrimination in the states is that a lot of anti-gay feelings are tied up with conservative
BUSINESS continued from page 1
applicants were admitted in Fall 2012, and only 10.3 percent of transfer applicants. These numbers show the Orfalea College of Business as the second-most selective of Cal Poly’s six colleges for freshman
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Christian feelings, that it’s something people have chosen to do to make themselves gay,” he said. Pride Center intern and mathematics sophomore Brady Hiob said that as a homosexual, in the argument of nature versus nurture, nurture is false based on his own experiences. “I don’t know who would choose to have segregation and prejudice,” he said. “If I would have had the choice, I wouldn’t have chosen to have all this prejudice against me, but I am grateful of who I am and I’ve been able to learn so much about myself.” Hiob personally organized inviting LeVay to Cal Poly after he learned about LeVay’s research in a biology lecture. Hiob said he never had a solid answer on the reason behind sexuality; if it’s a choice to be gay or if it’s innate. “I’m on the side of sci-
ence,” Hiob said. “I guess I just wanted to let everyone know that that is the reason. I didn’t want people to think it’s a choice and wanted to push that onto campus.” Hiob said he thinks Cal Poly’s campus is pretty open minded, but LeVay’s groundbreaking research from 1991 can bring a different perspective into the conversations about the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) students and culture. “It’s getting back down to the building blocks of it and why we are the way we are, rather than just discussing our culture,” he said. “Any sexual orientation is all related and there isn’t actually choice in there because you figure it out through experimentation. In college, you get to experiment because you’re around all these different people and your sexu-
applicants, behind the College of Liberal Arts. “I think selectivity is probably more important than the rankings in terms of the quality of the school,” economics department chair Steve Hamilton said. “The quality of any school depends on the quality of the students and the quality of our faculty.”
Hamilton said the ranking in itself is a draw for potential students. “It’s good for exposure, and it’s good to draw interest among high school students and others wanting to study business at Cal Poly,” Hamilton said. Christy said many factors influenced the Bloomberg Busi-
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“It was just a very interesting presentation and very informative,” psychology senior Luke Rosener (right) said of the speech. “It was also simultaneously very humorous in his presentation, which was surprising.” ality goes where your attraction lies.” Hiob said the prevalence of the biological argument can help get cultural ideas about
nessweek rankings, particularly emphasizing interviews with industry recruiters. “Part of this whole ranking is that they interview our recruiters, and they’re very positive about the quality of Cal Poly students,” Christy said. One of the things recruiters like about the Orfalea College of Business, according to Christy, is the fact that students choose an area of study before arrival at Cal Poly. “Recruiters like it,” Christy said. “I think that comes from the curriculum and a lot of other stuff, especially Learn by Doing. Recruiters talk about Learn by Doing all the time.” In addition to positive recruiter reviews, students of the Orfalea College of Business added their input by contributing to Bloomberg Businessweek’s data. “Our students were very great about filling out the reviews from Bloomberg Businessweek, and I think that shows how proud they are in the quality of the school,” Christy said. Business administration junior Melanie Ulrich said she thinks the Orfalea College of Business succeeds because of its community atmosphere. “It feels more like a commu-
AYALA continued from page 1
such a tragic ending. “It was the perfect roommate situation,” Newberry said. “We could be honest with each other and literally talk about everything because we had so much in common.” The two were not best friends, but they shared a friendly living environment, Newberry said. Ayala had a taste for fashion and would help her roommate pick out clothes, she said. They also often shared long talks that lasted late into the night. Newberry, though, is still in shock after the sudden tragedy. “Our room still looks the
E-BOOKS continued from page 1
from great writers, great thinkers, is we have their libraries, and within the margins of their notes and the things that they thought we can study their influences and see what they thought about other great writers,” Roberts said. “We’re not probably going to have that for e-books, nobody is going to want to look up all the marginal notes that somebody made in their Kindle years from now.” The main advantage of paperback or hardcover books is
homosexuality to shift from the idea of being gay as a lifestyle choice. LeVay’s presentation and other events happening in April as a part
of Pride Month are to inform and help people, Hiob said. Alexandria Scott contributed to this staff report.
I think that if you look at the data, our students are happier with their experience. DAVE CHRISTY ORFALEA COLLEGE OF BUSINESS DEAN
nity of hardworking teachers and students all willing to help each other succeed,” Ulrich said. “I think we deserve to be on the list because of our emphasis on Learn by Doing and all the different individual and group projects we do.” Christy spoke to the fact that so few public schools made the list, citing gaining resources for students as one of the hardships of public institutions. “Some of it is that they’re swamped with demand,” Christy said. “I think that’s one of the big struggles, is getting the right resources.” However, Christy also noted that Cal Poly was the only California State University (CSU) school to make the list. “Our student quality is off the charts,” Christy said. “There’s no other CSU with students with the academic credentials
of Cal Poly.” The focus now, Christy said, is to maintain the Orfalea College of Business’ current quality. “My first objective is just to not lose ground, and then we have to just maintain our standards largely with recruiters. It’s tough because one of our challenges is just continuously improving to maintain where we are,” Christy said. “In a ranking, to move up in the ranking, you have to hope that other people are asleep at the wheel.” Christy said this can be done in part by maintaining the high standards for admittance to the school. “I still want to be attractive to the very best,” Christy said. “This external ranking helps tell that story. None of this happens if you don’t have the student quality and the faculty quality.”
same,” Newberry said. “Her bed is made and her desk is as neat as usual. It doesn’t seem like anything is off. It’s the type of thing that you just don’t expect to happen to you.” Ayala was more than just a sweet and caring friend, she was also full of ambition, according to Newberry. If she wanted something, she would strive for it, Newberry said. Her determination and work ethic was noticed by geography assistant professor Benjamin Timms during fall quarter. “She was the kind of student you’d like to have in your class,” Timms said. “I’m very sad at the loss of her potential, she was a model student.” Ayala was one of the top students in Timms’ class and was
always very engaged and attentive during lectures, he said. She was as present with her friends as she was in her classes. There was a certain look on her face which showed how engaged she was with the people she interacted with, Wigant said. Her loss is felt strongly among the residents of her tower and it is clear that everyone misses her deeply, she said. “If anyone was able to comfort us about this situation, it would be her,” Wigant said. “And she’s not here.” A candlelight vigil to remember Ayala will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in the University Union Plaza. It is open to all students, faculty and staff.
105 Amazon Kindle e-books were sold in 2011 for every 100 physical books being able to write in them and hold them, Cushing, Neill and Roberts said. People like the feeling of books, holding something physical, Neill said. “I like the wholeness of it, you know that all the content is here, there’s an index and
table of context and you can thumb through it and find things,” Neill said. Roberts also enjoys holding and looking through a book, he said. “A lot of people want to hold a book, so there’s probably more of a romantic attachment to books than technological,” Roberts said. Books are a classic form of literature, Cushing said. “The book is what you have no matter what, this is what you always had,” Cushing said. Books will be around for a long time, Roberts said. “It’s an art object and that, I think, is going to preserve it,” he said.
MDnews 3
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
WORD ON THE STREET Do you think Cal Poly will eventually convert to semesters?
“There clearly seems to be a push from the upper-management level of the CSU system, so yes.” • Kyle Klitzner materials engineering senior
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
American drones hit more than al Qaeda JONATHAN S. LANDAY McClatchy Newspapers
“Yeah, I think, probably. Just because so many UCs and Cal States are on the semester system, it would make sense.” • Mary Mosely kinesiology senior
“I feel like it’s going to, just because so many schools are on the semester system, but not anytime soon.” • Becky Long recreation, parks and tourism administration freshman
Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaeda and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show. The administration has said that strikes by the CIA’s missile-firing Predator and Reaper drones are authorized only against “specific senior operational leaders of al Qaeda and associated forces” involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks who are plotting “imminent” violent attacks on Americans. “It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative,” President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 6, 2012, interview with CNN. “It has to be a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.”
Copies of the top-secret U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy, however, show that drone strikes in Pakistan over a four-year period didn’t adhere to those standards. The intelligence reports list killings of alleged Afghan insurgents whose organization wasn’t on the U.S. list of terrorist groups at the time of the 9/11 strikes; of suspected members of a Pakistani extremist group that didn’t exist at the time of 9/11; and of unidentified individuals described as “other militants” and “foreign fighters.” In a response to questions from McClatchy, the White House defended its targeting policies, pointing to previous public statements by senior administration officials that the missile strikes are aimed at al Qaeda and associated forces. The documents also show that drone operators weren’t always certain who they were killing despite the administration’s guarantees of the accuracy of the CIA’s targeting intelligence and its assertions that civilian casualties have been “exceedingly rare.”
McClatchy’s review is the first independent evaluation of internal U.S. intelligence accounting of drone attacks since the Bush administration launched America’s secret aerial warfare on Oct. 7, 2001. The analysis takes on additional significance because of the domestic and international debate over the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan amid reports that the administration is planning to broaden its use of targeted killings in Afghanistan and North Africa. The classified reports provide a view into how drone strikes were carried out during the most intense periods of drone warfare in Pakistan’s remote tribal area bordering Afghanistan. Specifically, the documents reveal estimates of deaths and injuries; locations of militant bases and compounds; the identities of some of those targeted or killed; the movements of targets from village to village or compound to compound; and, to a limited degree, the rationale for unleashing missiles.
McClatchy’s review found: •
•
At least 265 of up to 482 people who the U.S. intelligence reports estimated the CIA killed during a 12-month period ending in September 2011 were not senior al Qaeda leaders but instead were “assessed” as Afghan, Pakistani and unknown extremists. Drones killed only six top al Qaeda leaders in those months, according to news media accounts. Forty-three of 95 drone strikes reviewed for that period hit groups other than al Qaeda, including the Haqqani network, several Pakistani Taliban factions and the unidentified individuals described only as “foreign fighters” and “other militants.” During the same period, the reports estimated there was a single civilian casualty, an individual killed in an April 22, 2011, strike in North Waziristan, the main sanctuary for militant groups in Pakistan’s tribal areas. At other times, the CIA killed people who only were suspected, associated with, or who probably belonged to militant groups. To date, the Obama administration has not disclosed the secret legal opinions and the detailed procedures buttressing drone killings, and it has never acknowledged the use of so-called “signature strikes,” in which unidentified individuals are killed after surveillance shows behavior the U.S. government associates with terrorists, such as visiting compounds linked to al Qaeda leaders or carrying weapons. Nor has it disclosed an explicit list of al Qaeda’s “associated forces” beyond the Afghan Taliban.
NASA to follow California parents pull the trigger on ‘trigger laws’ student’s ‘crazy’ plan MARK K. MATTHEWS
NATASHA LINDSTROM The Hechinger Report
“Yeah, I’ll bet they are, because even after everybody’s talking about how they don’t want to, they still said they would within the next decade. But we’ll probably be the last school to switch.” • CJ Kobliska kinesiology sophomore
“I think they are, maybe not in the near future, but eventually.” • Lorenzo Ibarra landscape architecture senior
South Los Angeles parents were on the cusp of making history Tuesday by possibly becoming the first in the nation to force a public school overhaul without a court fight through California’s controversial “parent trigger” law. The law, versions of which are now making their way through several state legislatures nationwide, lets parents at underperforming schools organize and petition for major reforms, from firing the principal and staff, to ceding control of the school to a charter operator. On Tuesday, parents in a Los Angeles neighborhood voted on a plan to have the school district team up with a local charter school operator to take over their struggling local school.The results will be made public Wednesday afternoon. Three years ago — just before the enactment of California’s Parent Empowerment Act of 2010, the official name of the state’s parent trigger law — parents at the same school complained that district officials were silent after dozens of community members presented a makeshift peti-
tion to oust the principal of the low-performing school. “Before, the district wasn’t involved,” said Esmeralda Chacon, whose third-grade son attends the school. “Now, we’re going to start seeing changes.” Since 2010 when the law passed, more than 20 state legislatures have considered versions of parent trigger bills. Last month, legislative proposals cleared the state Senate in Oklahoma and Georgia, and last week the Florida House greenlighted a similar bill. The national effort owes much to Parent Revolution, a nonprofit advocacy group lobbying for parent trigger laws around the country, and the Gates, Walton Family and Wasserman foundations, among others, which have provided the money. The group has a budget of nearly $5.5 million, according to its spokesman, David Phelps. In California’s first two major parent trigger attempts — first at McKinley Elementary in urban Compton, southeast of Los Angeles, and then at Desert Trails Elementary in the tiny San Bernardino County desert town of Adelanto — the efforts driven by parent unions proved divisive and hostile.
Parents called the police on one another, students of feuding parents lost friends, school meetings turned into shouting matches and teachers from the surrounding areas participated in counter-campaigns to get parents to retract their signatures from the petitions. This time has been different. The parent union at 24th Street Elementary in South Los Angeles hasn’t faced major opposition from within its community, avoiding a court fight. The parent petition sailed through the Los Angeles Unified School District Board on a 7-0 vote in early February with enough signatures to represent 69 percent of the school’s students. Among the parents’ demands were calls for stronger leadership, better academics, safer and cleaner facilities and a new culture of high expectations. The parent union received eight initial letters of interest of potential operators in late January. Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and even some teachers’ union members have voiced support for working with the parents to improve student achievement.
Orlando Sentinel
NASA’s new plan to explore the solar system is unusual for several reasons. For starters, the $2.6 billion mission is itself odd: NASA wants to send a robot to capture an asteroid and drag it near the moon so future astronauts can fly a new spaceship to visit it. As strange is the story of how the concept became reality. It wasn’t born at NASA headquarters but instead is credited to a 20-something scientist from Italy who dreamed up the idea while working stateside for influential U.S. space activists, including Lou Friedman of The Planetary Society. “I was introduced to the idea by a young intern,” Friedman said. “First of all, I thought it was crazy.” But the intern, Marco Tantardini, was persistent and ultimately got Friedman’s backing — so much so that the two men later anchored a 2012 study that became the foundation of the new policy, which the White House officially will unveil Wednesday. “Success has many fathers, but Marco certainly is one,” said Friedman, who noted a similar concept was being studied at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Still, he said, Tantardini was a “passionate”
advocate who won over skeptics. Reached by phone in Cremona, Italy, Tantardini, 28, said he came up with the idea while studying the possibility of mining an asteroid. NASA’s post-space-shuttle struggles compelled him to expand the concept. Now his biggest desire is to see the plan succeed — and then one day join it. “I would like to get in the loop of the exciting adventure if it gets big,” said Tantardini, who now works as a self-described “entrepreneur.” Whether Tantardini gets the chance first depends on Congress, which will get a first look this week at the proposal. The White House included $105 million for the project in its 2014 budget. It envisions launching a probe in 2017 to capture a 25-foot, 500-ton asteroid. The probe would drag the asteroid to a point near the moon so NASA astronauts could attempt a visit as soon as 2021. The unorthodox idea already has champions in U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, Florida Republicans who voiced support this week. “I’m intrigued by the concept,” Posey said. “I think it has merit to it.” But NASA will need many more backers in Congress, and the first real test is expected Wednesday when the House science committee meets to discuss U.S. space policy.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
THE MEN BEHIND THE BLUE ARYN SANDERSON
asanderson@mustangdaily.net
The Blue Man Group broke its silence Tuesday. In a rare treat, Cal Poly students were able to interact with the Blue Man Group demasked and outside of character. Cal Poly Theatre and Dance Department, in conjunction with Expressive Technology Studios, hosted Blue Man Group performers Russell Rinker and Shane Andries for an exclusive sit down with students. The meet-and-greet took place on Tuesday in H.P. Davidson Music Center, room 212 at 11 a.m. Blue Man Group is an example of an experimental theater troupe that was able to achieve commercial success, theatre and media studies lecturer Steve Luber said. Luber hosted the meeting, acting as an interviewer for the casual, informal and personal “Inside the Actors Studio”-formatted session. “It’s a combination of the actors speaking about the Blue Man Group, what their performances are like, why they’re significant and the themes, and also a chance for students to talk to working professionals in theater,” Luber said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to speak with professionals in the field. Really, they get to meet a Blue Man, and how cool is that?” Technology in action For 25 years, Blue Man Group, the bald-headed, blue-painted performance trio, has shaken up the contemporary art scene with percussion, pantomime and pandemonium. Although its performances are part vaudeville entertainment and part high-octane rock concert, the Blue Man Group raises philosophical questions about the technological age and taps into the cultural desire to reconnect with community, Luber said. “Because they are these alien creatures, they approach technology as if they don’t understand it, so it gets the audience to look at these technologies like cell phones, television — and they now have this thing they call the Gi-Pad, which is a not so subtle reference to a tablet — and rethink how we use them and how it both connects us and isolates us,” Luber said. The Blue Man Group guest speakers Rinker and Andries mirrored this sentiment. “The show is so much about the lack of connectivity we have and breaking through that barrier,” Andries said. “The irony is that our show talks about being dependent on technology, and it’s probably the most dependent on technology,” Rinker said. Blue crew The Blue Man Group performance tour came with six trucks of lights, props and other equipment, Cal Poly Arts programming development specialist Denise Leader Stoeber said.
“This is the biggest show that I’ve seen come in,” Leader Stoeber said. “I think six trucks is the most we’ve ever had.” Along with its own lighting, electronic equipment and props, the crew brought two washing machines, one for normal clothes and one for clothes tainted by blue makeup. “It was very considerate of them to bring their own because, if not, everything would have been dyed blue,” Leader Stoeber said. It took the crew around five hours to do the wash before the show, Leader Stoeber said. The lights, props and equipment take up both wings of the stage. Blue as a brand The original Blue Man Group — Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton — started as street performers in the late ’80s. Despite such humble beginnings, now there are around 50 to 60 Blue Men, Rinker said. Along with this tour, the Blue Man Group has six permanent shows, a show on the Norwegian Cruise Line and a Grammy-nominated album. So how did a street act become a global empire? “It’s always evolving,” Andries said. “It has to be a commentary on today for the show to stay the same.” Blue Man Group threw out all of the old rules, ditched apparent plot and did away with verbal dialogue. Instead, Blue Man Group delivers a multimedia experience that defies — and even mocks — convention. In just some of the troupe’s acts, Blue Man Group makes music by chomping on Cap’n Crunch Cereal, spins a canvas while spitting paint on it to create artwork and uses PCV tubing as instruments. In Andries’ favorite bit, the Blue Man Group invites a female audience member on stage for a “feast” (this entails spewing regurgitated food at points). To preserve the integrity of the creators’ vision, after each Blue Man is cast, the actor goes through an eight-week training process. Some of the training includes: throwing and catching marshmallows from long distances, observing dogs’ interactions and breaking free from individual, human mannerisms, Rinker said. “There’s a certain physical language to the Blue Man. As in, the Blue Man moves in a very specific way,” Rinker said. The Blue Man does not swing his arms when he walks. He does not talk. He does not breathe through his mouth or open it all. He does not multitask. He moves with direct purpose. He focuses on objects. The Blue Man is curious, see BLUE, pg. 5
JOSEPH CORRAL/MUSTANG DAILY
Blue Man Group performers Russell Rinker (left) and Shane Andries (right) lost the face paint to speak with students about their experiences with the show on Tuesday.
MDarts 5
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The Postal Service’s first tour in 10 years comes to SLO KASSI LUJA
kassiluja.md@gmail.com
It’s been a decade since electronic-indie band The Postal Service headlined a tour. But fans won’t have to wait any longer to see the band onstage. The duo, consisting of vocalist Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie frontman) and producer Jimmy Tamborello (electronic musician known as Dntel), is set to perform in front of a sold-out show with opening act Baths at Alex Madonna Expo Center on April 12. “(Tickets) probably sold out I would MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE say probably within like 30 minutes, if not less,” Boo Boo Records manager Frank Hayes said. The band isn’t just returning to the music scene with a new tour, though. This San Luis Obispo show comes just days after The Postal Service’s reissue of its 2003 debut album “Give Up” on April 9. The “Give Up (DeHAPPY BIRTHDAY: This year marks luxe 10th Anniverthe 10th anniversary of The Postal sary Edition)” album Service’s only album, “Give Up” is comprised of the (Sub Pop Records). The record, original 10 tracks feawhich has sold more than a million tured on the band’s copies, was the second-ever Sub debut album, along Pop Records album to go platinum, with 15 bonus tracks following Nirvana’s “Bleach.” The that includes brand Postal Service’s sole full-length new songs “A Tathas since become a cult favorite, tered Line of String” and “Turn Around.” and several of its songs have found “I think it’s cool to their way into the media and been see that they have covered by notable artists. A reistheir old music and sue of “Give Up” with additional their new music songs was released on Tuesday. so you can kind of
compare how their sound is now,” said communication studies sophomore Erin Warren, who is attending the concert. The band’s original debut album “Give Up” was placed No. 36 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time.” “I think that record is super strong,” Hayes said. “It’s a good listen.” Graduate student Christina Diaz also enjoys the band’s music. “It’s really great study music especially when you need something to listen to in the background,” Diaz said. Audience members can expect to hear some of the band’s more notable songs such as “Such Great Heights” and “Be Still My Heart” at the show. “I’m just really excited because I’ve never been to a concert like this,” Warren said. “I’ve never been to a concert that’s kind of electronic like indie-pop kind. I don’t really know what to expect. I think I’m most excited for that.” The Postal Service’s stop to the Central Coast is just one of many shows it’s doing this year, along with both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, beginning the night after its show in San Luis Obispo. Though the indie duo is back on the music scene, it’s undetermined as to how long they’ll be back. Rumors of the band’s reunion sparked in January with its new website. “If someone takes a year hiatus, something really major would have to happen to reunite,” Hayes said. “Most of the time I think a band is pressured (into creating a new album after so long).” But unfortunately for fans such as Hayes, Gibbard tweeted that there will “never” be a new Postal Service full-length.
BLUE continued from page 4
mysterious and a trickster. The Blue Man is a foreigner, a jester, a scientist and a hero. “They break you down and set you back up to discover your own Blue Man,” Rinker said. “It’s all very organic.” Advice from the actors Being an actor for the Blue Man Group is an exercise in internal monologue, subtext and intention, Andries said. “You develop a bag of tricks as an actor,” Andries said. “If you fall back on the things that work for you, you’re never going to grow.” Because the Blue Man Group performers cannot speak, they must learn to communicate in a universal, physical language with emphasis on their eyes and their movements.
“There’s so much you can communicate without speaking; it’s the essence of physical storytelling,” Andries said. But the biggest piece of advice Andries has for Cal Poly students is the importance of humility and personal character. “Say yes to anything when you’re first starting out,” he said. “And more important than your acting is how you are as a person. When people cast, they think, ‘Do I want to hang out with this person? Do I want to go to a cast party with this person?’” Blue Man Group performed at the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center on Monday and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Both shows sold out. San Luis Obispo was the fourth stop on the group’s tour. Next, the Blue Man Group heads to Denver, Colo.
Visit mustangdaily.net to see a video of the men without the blue sharing their insights.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Volume LXXVII, Number 87 ©2013 Mustang Daily “I hella like metric.”
Privacy is dead: time to make a choice Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. We are all interconnected. And I don’t mean this in the way of the six degrees of separation kind. Instead, I mean that if I wanted to find out about a man whose name is Smitty Werbinjagermanjensen, I could easily do so. I could see his pictures on Facebook. I could read his résumé on LinkedIn. I could look at his “selfies” on Instagram. I can know that he is friends with Tom on MySpace. There is a plethora of information about each and every one of us on the Internet, and most of the time, it is because we put it there ourselves. The exponential increase in the role of technology and the interwebs on our lives has made more information about more people available to everyone and anyone, all because we clicked “I Agree” to the terms of service. Here is something to rustle your jimmies: the pace at which these technologies grow and change is much, much faster than the pace at which privacy laws are being created to deal with these shifts in technology. As a result, we have to ask questions like this: Do I actually own the pictures I post on Facebook, or the music I put on iTunes? The implications of these questions are much broader than one may first assume, and our privacy is under attack by these questions from numerous different areas of tech. This isn’t just about the photos we post or the recipes we “like.” It is about how our actions on the Internet are monitored, how our phones consistently broadcast our exact locations, how drones will be used for surveillance and perhaps, most importantly, who knows and uses this information. Privacy is inherently linked to ownership, and when we accept the terms of service, in many ways, we waive our
right to that ownership. To be as frank as possible, privacy is at a pivotal point in history, and I think it is going to die. Here is why: The more digitized and technologically involved our lives become, the easier it is to monitor our actions. Technology moves too fast for policy-makers to keep up, and how our information is protected depends on the laws they make. Tech giants such as Facebook and Google routinely collect information about their users, and perhaps they don’t do anything with that data, or connect the data to specific users, but the fact is this information is collected in the first place. There is next to nothing that is completely anonymous on the Internet, and as we continue to place more aspects of our lives in these giant databases, the easier it will be for anyone to track our actions. The information is already out there, and how we allow companies and the government to use this data will redefine what privacy means. As the input of private information onto databases continues to become more pervasive in our lives, the more the controllers of these databases can know about each individual. Sooner or later, this has to be-
come a major issue because the use of this data is in no way heavily regulated. Maybe this would be to our benefit. Maybe having all of our money digitized will make transactions more efficient. Maybe using Google Glass, the new smart glasses from Google, will positively affect how we interact with the world around us. Someone though, whether it be the major corporations or the government, is going to want access to this information, and someone is going to get it. We already give this information to the companies. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a terms of service agreement. And the government already mines our data, listens in on our conversations and reads our texts and emails. Thank you, President Bush and the
Patriot Act. Unless the most perfect Internet privacy laws are drafted and passed, individuals will never have complete control over their privacy. For us, the major question will be: Who do we want to control and use this information, the government or the corporations? Is the Internet something that can be owned by these corporations, or is it something of a public service that the government can provide? Your information is out there, and someone is going to use it. Of course, you could always go live as a hermit — there’s not much of a social network there, though. This is Zachary Antoyan, promising that he is NOT a conspiracy theorist. Except for when it comes to the moon landing, 9/11, Area 51 and JFK’s assassination. Inside jobs, all of them.
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Mental illness in college-aged men needs attention
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
“Not at all.” • Mindy McKenzie history senior
ANNE MICHAUD
Newsday
A 17-year-old who had no issues growing up begins to be annoyed by everything: lights in the bathroom, the sound of water running. He has trouble sleeping. He begins self-medicating, turning to drugs or drinking to quiet the anxiety he feels. He also wants to silence the voice in his head that is telling him to throw rocks at anyone who tries to get him to come down from the roof of his home. This boy is eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia, but only after he has had multiple episodes, according to a story told by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., at a hearing on mental health reform. Experts say it takes one to two years, typically, after teens’ first episode of psychosis for them to be diagnosed and helped. The longer they go on unstable, the worse their illness gets. When it returns to session this week, Congress is scheduled to take up mental health care reform, an issue touched off by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and other recent mass murders. There are many good proposals. One bill from Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, would train law enforcement and school officials in “first aid” for mental illness — how to detect problems early and intervene effectively. The Obama administration is also working on a public awareness campaign. But there are off-point ideas too. One of them is broad funding of community mental health clinics — a bipartisan bill introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. It’s not bad to promote better access to and affordability of mental health services. But, if we want to prevent massacres, let’s be more direct. Let’s shrug off the fear of stigmatizing one group, shed the political correctness and admit to ourselves that untreated psychosis is a crisis among mostly young men. These are the facts: Adam Lanza, 20, at-
NEWSART
t acke d a school in Newtown, Conn.; James Holmes, 24, shot up a Colorado movie theater; Jared Loughner, 22, opened fire in a Tucson supermarket; Seung-Hui Cho, 23, killed 32 at Virginia Tech. There are two current political distractions to talking plainly about the causes of mass shootings. One comes courtesy of the National Rifle Association, which is trying to turn the national conversation away from gun control. David Keene, NRA president, has repeatedly called for Americans to “fix the mental health system.” Yet NRA opponents are so virulent that they seemingly refuse to agree with the NRA about anything, even this commonsense goal. The other distraction is from advocates for the mentally ill. They seem to believe that if we admit that some mentally ill people are violent, then we are painting all as violent. This intonation surfaces after every mass murder: People with mental illness are much more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than they are to be the perpetrators. Fine. Let’s agree to this and get down to
solving the problem. At a congressional hearing in January, Dr. Thomas Insel, director of mental health at the National Institutes of Health, talked about why mental illness is difficult to diagnose. There are no blood tests, and it’s often a disease that starts young. “When we talk about mental illness, we’re talking about illnesses that begin early in life,” Insel said. “It requires a different mindset about how do you detect, how do you intervene and how do you make sure that you can make a difference.” Before treatment, people are at a 15-fold greater risk of becoming violent than after treatment, Insel told the congressional committee. There’s hope in that statistic. It means that treatment can work, he said, and people can recover. Like treatments for cancer and heart disease, cures are most effective when the illness is caught early. Allowing people to suffer for years with paranoia and hallucinations is cruel. To catch this killer, let’s be honest enough with ourselves to look at young men.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
BASEBALL HEAVEN Sports writer reflects on attending in spring training JACOB LAUING/MUSTANG DAILY
JACOB LAUING
jacoblauing.md@gmail.com
Lemonade, lemonade like Grandma made! That’s the distinctive jingle of Derek Moore, perhaps the most boisterous and charismatic lemonade vendor in all of Major League Baseball. And if you’re a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan like myself, you’ve heard Moore’s crunchy baritone lemonadehook at Scottsdale Stadium, the Giants’ Spring Training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz. For baseball lovers, Spring Training is heaven. For anyone who doesn’t like baseball, Spring Training is probably a nightmare. I just made my third visit to Scottsdale to check out my favorite team, the World Series champion San Francisco Giants, prepare for the season. I’ve decided to break down exactly
why Scottsdale truly is baseball paradise, turning even the most negative elements into positives. Let’s begin. The games don’t matter For readers who aren’t familiar with Spring Training, it’s a series of pre-season exhibition games played between professional baseball teams, running from mid-February until opening day at the beginning of April. The 30 professional ball clubs are split in half, with the East Coast teams playing in the Grapefruit League at stadiums throughout Florida, and the West Coast teams playing in Arizona’s Cactus League. Extended rosters are permitted in Spring Training, meaning each team can carry as many players as they like, including the everyday starters, prospects in the minor league
system, or recently acquired free agents. The point of Spring Training is not only for players to prepare for the six-month grind of the regular season, but also for each club’s executives to scout out their entire organization in hopes of putting the best possible team on the field come opening day. Think of it as a warm-up for the superstars, a tryout for prospects and free agents and a scouting opportunity for the coaches and executives of each organization. With that being said, the games are essentially meaningless. Sure, they keep score, there are umpires and performance is important to the players, but all of the statistics and records are erased after the conclusion of Spring Training. If baseball isn’t your cup of tea, I know what you’re thinking, “If these games don’t even
matter, how could watching them be remotely interesting?” I understand completely. I spent my first weekend of spring break watching my Giants get smacked. They lost by at least six runs in the first two games I saw. But what I’ve come to realize about Spring Training is that it doesn’t matter if your team wins or loses. Sure, a win obviously creates a more pleasurable experience. At the end of the day, the statistics don’t matter, and Spring Training is an opportunity to watch your favorite team play the game you love, regardless of the result. The starters bail early As I mentioned earlier, part of Spring Training is scouting the farm system, which means that the fan-favorite starters often aren’t in the lineup. If
they are, it’s not uncommon for these seasoned veterans to hit the showers after only playing a few innings. I literally saw Giants outfielders Angel Pagan and Andres Torres running down the first base line in street clothes. It was the fifth inning, and they just wanted some easier access to the outfield parking lot. The way I see it, you have all season to watch your favorite players. Guys such as Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval will be playing at least 90 percent of the 162-game season. Spring Training is the chance to see the new guys, the rookies with something to prove, and the players who are fighting every day for a spot on the big league roster. It’s outrageously hot and uncomfortable Two o’clock in the middle of
Lotito earns Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year
IAN BILLINGS/MUSTANG DAILY
Devon Lotito earned a spot in the NCAA championships with his 29-9 record and first-place finish at the Pac-12 championships. Lotito, a true freshman, wrestled at 133 pounds in the 201213 season and became the fourth Cal Poly wrestler to win Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year.
the desert isn’t the most desirable atmosphere for anything, let alone a three-hour baseball game. I’m usually sweating after just a few minutes in my seat. And let’s not forget that spring break almost always overlaps with Spring Training, and Scottsdale is a pretty spectacular vacation spot. In addition to the fact that The New York Times named it one of the “hippest and most happening places in the country,” Scottsdale is full of fine dining, annual art festivals, top-notch golf courses and of course, baseball. So instead of lying on the beach or tanning by the pool with nothing to do over spring break, I’d much rather roll my sleeves up, soak in the 90-degree desert heat and, win or lose, watch my Giants play the game I love most. To me, that’s paradise.
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