The Pitt News 11-11-14

Vol. 105 Issue 68

@thepittnews PLAY ON WORDS

Pittnews.com

Tuesday,November 11, 2014

Conflict at Conflict: Students protest restaurant closure Jess Muslin Staff Writer

Greg Armstrong, a staff technician at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, plays Scrabble with a robot.

Christine Lim | Staff Photographer

Pitt aims to change low diversity numbers Meagan Hart Staff Writer

Chelsea Reyes may not come to Pitt.

She’s worried it won’t prepare her for the real world.

Reyes, a high school senior from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, is currently applying to colleges and says that while she plans on applying to Pitt, she is leaning more towards New York University partly because of the greater racial diversity there.

“I think college should prepare you

for the real world, and the real world means you need to be able to interact with different kinds of people,” Reyes said. “I am looking to meet people who can challenge me and also for people to teach me different things and show different perspectives.”

For an urban school with more than 35,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Pitt is not as diverse as its competitors, such as New York University and Rutgers University.

According to Pitt’s 2014 Fact Book, of the 35,014 students enrolled in the

school in 2013, 16 percent were racial minorities — African American, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander and Hispanic students.

At NYU, 61.5 percent of the student body, 44,599 undergraduate and graduate students, is non-white.

Rutgers, located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, has a 56 percent minority population, much higher than Pitt’s, according to its 2013 Fact Book. Rutgers-New Brunswick has

Roughly 200 people surrounded Conflict Kitchen Monday evening to show their support for the restaurant after it announced its closure after receiving death threats last week.

Conflict Kitchen, a permanent food stand in Schenley Plaza that serves a rotating menu based on the cuisines of countries with which the U.S. is in conflict, announced on its Facebook page Friday that it would be closing until further notice after receiving death threats in a letter.

Conflict Kitchen served Palestinian food prior to closing — something many in Pittsburgh claimed was a one-sided take on the Palestine-Israel conflict.

The owners of Conflict Kitchen could not be reached for comment on the protest, and they declined to comment on the death threats on Saturday. They have expressed discontentment with media coverage on their website and Facebook page.

Students for Justice in Palestine, a Pitt student group, organized the demonstration, which began at 5 p.m., and they hope to repeat every day at 5 p.m. until Conflict Kitchen reopens.

“Closing Conflict Kitchen is the perfect example of trying to silence [the] Palestinian voice,” Haley Murphy, a Pitt student, said.

Murphy, a junior majoring in global management and marketing with a certificate Sopho-

Diversity

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Conflict

3 more Kara Kloss attended the protest.

Nathan Smith | For The Pitt News

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November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

SGB Presidential candidates talk platforms, accountability and plans for restructuring Wasi Mohamed

Andrew Stefanik

Main platforms: Improve academic quality by helping individual departments work with students, help students work with administrators on initiatives they care about and serve as a liaison between the student body and faculty.

Holding Board members accountable: Form an Internal Improvements Committee to hold the Board accountable to the student body. The Committee would track Board members’ progress and use various benchmarking techniques to gather information.

Restructuring student government: Create structures like a campus senate to enhance and utilize the student voice.

Main platforms: Bring a level of professionalism to SGB, restructure the Board and improve student services.

Holding Board members accountable: Set goals up front that are specific, measurable, attainable and realistic, complete with a timetable and accountability system in which communication is key.

Plans to restructure: Change elections process: Half of the Board should be elected popularly by the student body, the other half should be elected indirectly by presidents of certain organizations — the people who rely on student government the most will have a greater voice than the average student.

Graeme Meyer

Main platforms: Restructure student government, improve campus safety through efforts with campus and city police and advocate for students living off-campus.

Holding Board members accountable: Have honest conversations with Board members at the start of the term about what’s possible, how to get things done, laying out expectations and making sure members aren’t discouraged.

Plans to restructure: Create a student assembly to see more involvement from non-Board members, outline clear responsibilities for each position, implement a new format — such as an executive branch with two judicial branches — and hold weekly meetings with Board members to formally check in.

T P N S U D O K U

FROM PAGE 1

DIVERSITY 34,765 graduate and undergraduate students.

Pennsylvania State University, whose student body population is 46,606 as of fall 2014, is 33.1 percent non-white.

Rutgers spokesman E. J. Miranda said diversity in the school’s student body is part of the reason for its reputation, and diversity is important if students are going to get the best education possible.

“The university takes great pride in its tradition of promoting a diverse campus community that offers students intellectual and cultural interactions that enrich their educational experience and prepares them to be global citizens,” Miranda said.

In his first “report of the Chancellor” address on Oct. 31 at the fall meeting of the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said one of his goals is to increase student diversity on campus.

Although Gallagher has not yet announced any specific plans to increase diversity, he has made it clear that it will be a priority in the fu-

Diversity

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Today’s difficulty level: Medium Puzzles by Dailysodoku.com

November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 1

FROM PAGE 2

CONFLICT

DIVERSITY

in Arabic, is a member of SJP, and said she has always been a big fan of Conflict Kitchen. She held a sign outside the restaurant that read “I Support Open Dialogue, Tolerance, & Delicious Food.”

Members of the crowd stepped forward one-by-one to say why they supported Conflict Kitchen.

Two women engaged the crowd in a song, while others stated reasons such as “love, solidarity and empathy makes the world make sense” and “over some good food enemies can become friends” as the reasons for why they support Conflict Kitchen.

Supporters also held signs that read things like “CK Strong,” “We Support Conflict Kitchen” and “Thank You Conflict Kitchen, We Support You.” Murphy said students deserve to experience other cultures and have a more diverse campus.

“I just want people to know that Conflict Kitchen represents a very peaceful project. It’s not a message of hate,” Murphy said.

Hadeel Salameh, president of SJP, said people from different backgrounds and with different political views attended the demonstrations. According to Salameh, a senior majoring in creative writing, the demonstration was about solidarity.

“But today’s not about politics. It’s about standing with the Conflict Kitchen,” Salameh said.

Salameh said that Conflict Kitchen has meant a lot to the Students for Justice in Palestine during its past projects but even more so since the food stand started serving Palestinian food.

“We don’t like to see that voice silenced, but first and foremost it’s a recognition of their safety,” Salameh said.

Raghav Sharma, a sophomore majoring in politics, philosophy and economics, is the secretary of SJP and agreed with Salameh.

“We think violence has no place in rational political discourse,” Sharma said, referring to the death threats.

Sharma said that although interest in the demonstrations will probably eventually dwindle, the members of SJP will continue to show up each day to support what they believe in.

“We wanted to show the people who try to silence us through violence that we will not stand for that,” Sharma said. “We will raise our voice whenever we can to say what we believe in.”

ture.

Gallagher said diversity enhances creativity and attractiveness of Pitt, and it’s also critical to the region.

“In order to thrive economically, it must grow, and as it grows it must become more diverse. The numbers tell you what you would expect: that Pitt, like the Pittsburgh region, is less diverse than many other regions or institutions,” Gallagher said. “This is an opportunity

for us because it means we can do better.”

But, according to Gallagher, Pitt’s diversity problem is changing.

This year, Gallagher said, Pitt has new students from 46 different states and 21 countries, due to efforts in student recruiting. Gallagher also pointed to new programs such as the Global Getaway, an integration program for international students and an international associates employer program, which offers international students assistance with job hunting.

Every year, during resident assistant training, Pitt trains student RAs on how to deal

3 with possible diversity issues within dorms.

Pitt’s Office of Cross-Cultural Leadership and Development holds the training, which takes place for about half a day preceding freshmen orientation week.

Abigail Tobin, an RA in Tower A, said she received training that prepared her to work with international students as well as students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“We had a talk from the office for international students and we were able to talk to two different international students and ask them questions,” Tobin, a sophomore, said.

Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.

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November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

EDITORIAL

OPINIONS

The Pitt News endorses Wasi Mohamed for SGB President This Sunday, The Pitt News met with each presidential candidate for Student Government Board to ask them about pertinent issues facing the future of SGB. Candidates Andrew Stefanik, Wasi Mohamed and Graeme Meyer agreed on one thing: SGB needs restructuring. Over the past year, the Board has seen the resignation of four members as well as poor voter turnout. Now, incoming Board members will face the challenge of reinvigorating the student body’s commitment to and engagement with student government.

While each candidate possesses relevant experience to lead and oversee this process, one candidate stands out from the others.

That candidate is Wasi Mohamed.

Mohamed, a senior triple majoring in neuroscience, history and philosophy of science and religious studies, said one of his three main platforms was restructuring student government because “it affects every single other advocacy initiative we have.” He recognizes the flaws within student government and has laid the groundwork to solve them based on his experiences in different campus organizations.

He was instrumental in the formation of PittServes, an organization that connects

individual students and student organizations seeking service opportunities with local and regional organizations that need volunteers for projects, and he has served as the Resident Student Association executive board president as well as a member of various committees within SGB, including the first Community Outreach Committee, which oversees a variety of service projects, including PMADD. Mohamed said these various projects required him to compare the student-related issues that exist within the University with other comparable institutions, which has helped him identify how exactly he can work to restructure SGB. Furthermore, Mohamad understands that the lack of student participation with SGB is unacceptable and has proposed attainable solutions to ensure the Board makes progress — and quickly. He suggested the implementation of certain structures, like a campus senate, to enhance each student’s voice. Mohamed rejected the Board’s exclusive nature and said he wants to expand its influence and outlook by “discussing campus issues within student groups instead of making everybody come to our meetings.”

Mohamed aims to establish an independent committee of students who will check the progress of board initiatives, all with a critical and fair eye. Such a measure would place extra burden on the Board, and is integral to keeping SGB accountable. Although it may be inconvenient for him, Mohamed said he understands the importance of checking the Board.

It’s Mohamed’s activist spirit paired with a keen judgment on how to practically achieve results that makes him fit to lead SGB. He’s been outspoken and dedicated to challenging and working with administrators on changes ranging from the addition of halal food and a reflection room in the William Pitt Union to the signing of the workers’ rights accord.

Mohamed’s commitment to pragmatism and effectiveness also has the potential to transcend student government and spearhead the efficiency the Board desperately needs. It’s also refreshing to have a candidate working to ensure a more clear and transparent civic process. For example, the Board’s constitution only requires three percent of the student body to vote in a referendum, and only half of those who vote need to approve a measure for it to

pass — a rule Mohamed said he found “ridiculous,” since more than three percent of the student body should be involved with policy changes. If more students voted, more pressure would be placed on Board members to act on and execute the referendum outcome.

Mohamed also has an innovative outlook on academic reforms. He said he wants to work with academic departments to ensure that students receive the education they want and deserve. Mohamed said he wants to retool SGB’s Academic Affairs Committee to make sure that academics are always improving at the University. Additionally, Mohamed said he wants general education requirements to cater more to student interest.

“We need to make sure that people have the freedom to make sure that all the geneds do something for them personally,” he said.

While each presidential candidate is capable of leading SGB, Pitt’s student body deserves a leader who demands tangible change on the behalf of the student voice.

Mohamed wishes not only to talk, but to act, and we believe he is the best choice for Pitt’s Student Government Board President.

Let’s have a true home game: Bring football back to Oakland Elias Economou For The Pitt News Your print-at-home tickets have arrived!

An e-mail that students should open with excitement has turned into another overlooked item in our inboxes.

Football games at Pitt are different from stereotypical college football games. The lack of an on-campus stadium has tainted our college game day experience.

We are unlike other universities. Our football team does not have a true home — a stadium of our own that holds a special place in every student’s heart. We do not have a

stadium that connects us to the greats of Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett. We do not have a connection with Heinz Field — frankly, a stadium with capacity of 65,500 cannot be filled by a school that has roughly 18,000 undergraduates.

Athletes would much rather play in a stadium that is consistently packed, where students are shouting and everyone is cheering. There is no reason why the football team should feel embarrassed to play at home in an empty Heinz Field. The Thursday night game was the first ever “gold-out” at Heinz Field, as it seemed that there were more empty seats than fans in the stadium.

A game that was broadcast on ESPN should have gone completely different for the Panthers. We found ourselves in a great position with the opportunity to show the world how passionate we are about our football team. But as fans, we failed.

Our football team, which has seen somewhat of a turnaround in recent years under head coach Paul Chryst, still cannot attract students to games.

Is Pitt’s shaky play before the upcoming game the reason why students don’t show up to home games? Is it because they want to see Pitt play better opponents?

Or is it simply because the idea of waking

up early to get on a bus and be driven to a stadium that holds no connection to our school or team does not sound appealing?

This idea is the main thing that has steered students away. Waking up early to skip the line that stretches all the way to Towers from WPU is something most students are not willing to do.

How can other schools with comparable football programs sell out their stadium’s seats, game after game? Although the University of Michigan has 10,000 more undergrads than Pitt, the 40,000 more seats

Economou

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November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 4

Rossi has a point. Football players thrive on adrenaline. How do they get these adrenaline rushes? They play under the big bright lights and make their fans happy — but how can they when no one shows up to the games?

The only way to take the football atmosphere and the status of the school to the level where it should be is to bring a stadium back to Oakland. There could be a game on Tuesday and the stadium would be packed.

We could finally bring back the meaning of college football to Oakland.

ECONOMOU in their stadium put us in a similar group.

Michigan continues to sell 100,000 tickets to their games even after terrible loses to Notre Dame, Utah, Minnesota and Rutgers.

In October 2014, Pittsburgh TribuneReview writer Rob Rossi said the stadium was so empty against Virginia Tech that, “Dan Marino could have jaywalked across Tony Dorsett Drive without notice.”

THE PITT NEWS Natalie Daher Editor-in-Chief editor@pittnews.com

Cristina Holtzer, News Editor news@pittnews.com

Nick Voutsinos, Opinions Editor letters@pittnews.com

Shawn Cooke, A&E Editor

aande@pittnews.com Chris Puzia, Sports Editor sports@pittnews.com

Theo Schwarz, Visual Editor photos@pittnews.com

Ellie Petrosky, Copy Chief tpncopydesk@gmail.com

Stephen Caruso, Layout Editor

The Pitt News Crossword, 11/11/2014

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ACROSS 1 Jeweler’s concerns 9 Coke product 15 Passed 16 “Top Hat” dancer 17 How Dickens’ novels were first published 18 Is wild about 19 Backwash creator 20 Montreal Canadiens’ alltime leading point scorer 22 Toon shopkeeper 23 Signals one’s presence, in a way 25 Highly visible septet 27 Year in Clement VIII’s papacy 28 Piquancy 29 Silly sorts 30 Jump back into the fray 32 Clingy husk 33 Paper fatteners 34 Flips 38 Hot air ballooning watchdog: Abbr.

39 Almond confection 40 About 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere 43 Engine once known as Live Search 44 Abbey section 45 Gig at the brig 47 Your alternative, at times 48 Taper off 49 1974 top ten hit for Carole King 51 Kenyan export 53 Green Giant morsel 55 Dietary practice 57 Efface 58 Sea along the Balkan peninsula 59 Letter closing 60 Buoys up DOWN 1 Underwhelming 2 She played Principal McGee in “Grease”

E S T A B L I S HE D 1 9 1 0

Mahita Gajanan, Managing Editor manager@pittnews.com

Danielle Fox, Assistant News Editor Harrison Kaminsky, Assistant News Editor Matt Barnes, Assistant Opinions Editor Dan Sostek, Assistant Sports Editor Jeff Ahearn, Assistant Visual Editor Zheru Liu, Multimedia Editor Joelle Smith, Social Media Editor Becca Nagy, Assistant Copy Chief Emily Hower, Assistant Layout Editor

Copy Staff

Sarah Choflet Anjuli Das Kinley Gillette Johanna Helba Emily Maccia Sam McGinley

Bridget Montgomery Sarah Mejia Shivani Pandit Michelle Reagle Michael Wilson Megan Zagorski

3 View providers 4 Prefix with athlete 5 Right-leaning type?: Abbr.

6 Bourbon Street city, informally 7 Drivers can be seen in them 8 Broad view 9 Mountebank 10 Five-time A.L. home run champ 11 A BMOC may have a big one 12 Colorful cover-up 13 Brunch order 14 Guarantee 21 Whisking target 24 Miss badly 26 Blofeld’s cat, in Bond films 27 Picture of health?

28 “I’m off!”

31 Baryshnikov move 32 Wimbledon fivepeater 34 Largest moon of Jupiter 35 Fondness 36 Submits, as an exam paper

Editorial Policies

11/22/14 Friday’s Puzzle Solved

©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

37 Topeka-to-Peoria dir.

39 Bar __ 40 Handout from a chair 41 40th anniversary symbols 42 Unintelligible talk 43 Sawyer of old comics 46 “Antiques Roadshow” expert

Chryst and chancellor Patrick D. Gallagher have to take the initiative. As crazy as it sounds, this is not an unforeseeable outcome, because of the incredible amount of money the school and its established alumni, not only of the school, but also of the football program, have: Aaron Donald, Larry Fitzgerald, LeSean McCoy and Darrelle Revis, to name a few.

Location will be tough since The Petersen Events center took over Pitt Stadium, the greatest spot on campus, but there are still places in Oakland. For example, Schenley

Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each.

Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns,- car toons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter - in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to letters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left.

The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is-pub lished Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer.

Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the editors, may be referred to the Community Relations -Com mittee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law. The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University staff, - fac ulty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and edito rial offices of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

By Brad Wilber

11/22/14

47 Booth warning sign 50 Onetime capital of the Mughal Empire 52 Pacers and Ramblers 54 Bk. of the Torah 56 Baseball’s Ryan Zimmerman or Jordan Zimmermann, briefly

5 Plaza that now serves as a place to sit only in the spring when temperatures are not frigid, could serve as a great place for a stadium right in the middle of campus.

If the dreams of many students come true, they will have a place to call home.

The football program will have a place to call home.

It will take time, it will cost a lot of money and it might not even happen. But as a Pitt student, I can still dream of how nice it would be.

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November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT Run the Jewels ruin lives on nuanced, brutal sequel LP

Shut up, Mark Kozelek: Your music deserves better

Killer Mike (left) and El-P (right) take no prisoners on Run the Jewels 2. Photo via Run the

Kozelek has been looking sadder than ever lately. Caldo

Jewels’ Facebook page

Dan Willis Staff Writer

Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2 Grade: A There’s a moment toward the end of “All Due Respect”, a highlight from hip-hop duo Run the Jewels’ second eponymous album, when the following takes place: El-P tells you that your parents are going through a tumultuous divorce that is entirely your fault and then tags in Killer Mike who reveals that he is your new stepfather and that he is going to do a terrible job at it. And all of that happens in about 11.4 seconds.

Run the Jewels can ruin your life in less time than it takes a 1975 Coupe DeVille to go from zero to 60. El-P and Killer

Verde

Mike’s mastery of the medium, plus their chemistry as performers, makes them capable of pretty much anything.

Their unlikely collaboration came about in 2009 as a left-field blind date curated by Jason DeMarco of Williams Street Records, the label responsible for the musical property of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block. Three years later, they had finally chosen a name and completed their lean and forceful self-titled debut. By then, producer and rapper El-P — also the founder and CEO of influential underground hip-hop label Definitive Jux — had eased off his impressionistic, overwrought flow and polished up his old-school, lo-fi beats considerably.

Meanwhile, lead MC Killer Mike — an underappreciated staple of the Atlanta

Jewels

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Shawn Cooke A&E Editor Fact: Mark Kozelek has a lower approval rating than Congress, Ebola and ISIS. OK, maybe not Congress.

It hasn’t been easy to like the Sun Kil Moon singer lately. Even though Kozelek put out one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, the astonishing Benji, he’s dominated music blog headlines in the past several weeks for some meanspirited onstage and offstage behavior.

Many in the music journalism community have tempered their affection for Kozelek’s music — Pitchfork’s Editor-in-Chief Mark Richardson summed it up well in last week’s review of Mark Kozelek Sings Christmas Carols, when he described Sun Kil Moon’s Benji as “still very good, even if I’ve stopped bringing it up at parties.”

The PR-suicide campaign began in

September when Kozelek told a noisy crowd of “f*cking hillbillies” at Hopscotch Music Festival in North Carolina to “shut the f*ck up.” Just a week later, he took shots at Philadelphia classic rock fetishists The War on Drugs for bleeding into his set from the next stage over at the Ottawa Folk Festival. It was more of the same militant Kozelek stage banter, including the now-famous sound-bites: “I hate that beer commercial sh*t” and “This next song is called ‘The War on Drugs Can Suck My F*cking D*ck.’”

A few weeks later, Kozelek took it a step further and released a song called “War on Drugs: Suck My C*ck,”and then invited Adam Granduciel, lead singer for The War on Drugs, to perform with him at one of his shows. Granduciel accepted the offer, but said in an interview with “Songs

Kozelek

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November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 6

JEWELS hip-hop scene — started incorporating some East Coast devices into his staunchly Southern flow, while also finding an effective platform for his politically urgent vox populi. The weirdo cast aside his underground contrarianism and the underdog finally found someone who understood him. Run the Jewels was the sound of two friends simply making the album that they wanted to.

And Run the Jewels 2 does nothing but up the ante at every turn. It’s more political, more fun, more vulgar, more nuanced and more brutal than the debut — or really any hip-hop release in recent memory. So what’s changed?

Well, for one, El-P’s production style has changed. On previous releases, his snare sounds resembled more the spreading of mortar than any conceivable drum, while his analog circuits ran too hot to ever truly be in tune. But here, the beats are crisp and clean and yet still undeniably El, thanks to the consultation of obscure Brooklyn-based producer Little Shalimar. The instrumentals are also delightfully dynamic: “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry” begins by carving out a cavernous space between sternumshaking bass and whirring high frequencies, but it ends on a high-energy synth workout with no patience for negative space. Meanwhile, “Jeopardy” vacillates between dry, skittering percussion and

a snare that’s no thwack and all reverb — plus it even has some improvised trombone solos. As adventurous as both Killer Mike and El-P are, they’ve never put out something as intricate as this.

Lyrically, the album is just as astounding. Sex, drugs and violence are used for effect, resulting in instantly quotable lines that are by turns harrowing, hilarious and admirable. And this mastery of medium is deftly counterbalanced by the vehemence of their message. El-P’s nervous nihilism and Killer Mike’s earthy storytelling prevent their more political songs from slipping into newsboy cap social consciousness. “Angel Duster,” for example, thrives on exactly this tension between frustration and salvation — when El ends his half of the hook on “we’re still here running around, screaming/they’re still here pointing and laughing,” Mike picks it right back up with “got hope for the living/got prayers for the dead.”

Run the Jewels are two intelligent hip-hop virtuosos who grew up among the old guard, but want nothing more than to go forward. They brag, joke, philosophize and spit acid with the best, but they also refuse to be slaves to any trends or expectations. And Run the Jewels 2 is a perfectly no-frills mission statement. It’s the product of two friends who want to make the best music they can. Plus, it goes hard. Like, liferuiningly hard.

“It’s the product of two friends who want to make the best music they can.”

FROM PAGE 6

KOZELEK for Whoever” that Kozelek rescinded it immediately afterward. In typical calland-response fashion, Kozelek released another dis track, called “Adam Granofsky Blues” — eschewing use of the singer’s stage name “Granduciel.” The latest song features Kozelek reciting Granofsky/Granduciel’s response as a spoken-word track and laughing after each line.

Anyone familiar with the Sun Kil Moon live show — or at least this year’s Live at Biko album — may not bat an eye at Kozelek’s recent behavior. Much like some of the best stand-up comedians, he constantly wages war with the audience, eviscerating people who talk during his set, shout things in between songs or stare at him oddly from the front row. While some might not appreciate this pushback at a music show, those attending a Sun Kil Moon gig should know by now that it’s par for the course.

But his war on The War on Drugs and the “singles” it’s spawned are more than a failed attempt at comedy. It’s a pathetic, sad and inexplicable verbal assault on a band that never set out to intentionally harm Kozelek. Meredith Graves of Perfect Pussy labeled it as abusive language that’s reflective of curmudgeonly men in the music industry’s “dangerous patriarchal head mentality.” At least the feud even brought on some genuine humor this past weekend when El-P of Run the Jewels, who were performing on a stage next to Kozelek at Fun Fun Fun Fest, led the crowd in a playful anti-Sun Kil Moon chant.

The backlash is becoming slightly more lighthearted, but it still might be difficult to look beyond Kozelek as even

7 more of a caricatured grump than before when we hear his music. Post Drugs-gate, how should we approach Benji? Ghosts of the Great Highway? Kozelek’s entire catalog with Red House Painters?

Since Kozelek writes so much of himself into his songs, it seems impossible to forget about his recent behavior when listening to them. But music is still a deeply personal experience for the artist and the listener — and that experience doesn’t have to be a shared one.

Benji is at times a painfully confessional record with specific references to deaths in Kozelek’s family, his playground fights and his “nagging prostate.” It’s oversharing at its finest — and sometimes most cringe-worthy — but as with any other narrative-based art, Benji can hold a mirror up to our own lives.

When Kozelek sings about withering away after his mother passes away, his acquaintance of a second cousin who burned to death and his grandma, I don’t think about any of those people very much — I think about my own mother, my own cousin who passed on too soon and my own late grandparents. Kozelek’s situations are specific, but he captures a universal psychology of loss.

So there’s no need to backpedal on admiration for art just because the artist made a sad fool of himself. “Annie Hall,” “Chinatown” and Jack Donaghy on “30 Rock” are still beloved pieces of pop culture, despite whatever unsavory things we know about Woody Allen, Roman Polanski and Alec Baldwin.

If you loved Benji in February, “Duk Koo Kim” in 2003 or Ocean Beach in 1995, keep loving them. And hope that Kozelek shuts up.

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November 11, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

SPORTS

One of baseballʼs finest

Blind sportswriter Ed Lucas shares experiences

Ed Lucas interviewing Willie Mays . Courtesy of Ed Lucas

Chris Puzia Sports Editor Nestled deep within Union, New Jersey, lives one of baseball’s most significant figures and one of his best stories.

Some of the top authorities on baseball history may know who Ed Lucas is, though most don’t. But whether you are a sports fan or not, his story will resonate.

Lucas knew baseball legends such as Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and Yankee great Phil Rizzuto better than almost anybody. But for most of his life, he couldn’t see them.

When he was just 12 years old, Lucas, a lifelong baseball fan, was blinded when

he was struck by a baseball while playing a pick-up game with his friends.

“I started seeing all sorts of colors,” said Lucas, now 75. “I didn’t want to say anything to my parents, but they could tell something was wrong. I had detached retinas.”

But Lucas didn’t want to let his blindness control his life. He went on to become one of the first blind people in the country to graduate from college with a communications degree when he graduated from Seton Hall University.

After that, he became a reporter covering New York baseball teams for more than 50 years.

Ed’s long and successful journalism ca-

Lucas with Bill Clinton at Yankee Stadium . Courtesy of Bill Menzel

reer began with his mother. Seeing how depressed Lucas was shortly after the accident, she managed to get Rizzuto’s attention when he was in New Jersey for an event. At the time, he played shortstop for the Yankees.

“He gave me his phone number … he would call me up once in a while, take me for a ride, take me out to dinner,” Lucas said. “He was a real close friend.”

Rizzuto and Lucas’ mother also connected Lucas with Leo Durocher, manager of the New York Giants at the time, who invited Lucas to the stadium to talk to players — an experience that kick-started Lucas’ career as a journalist..

Though he mostly covered the Yankees,

Lucas also had experiences with Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I knew Barry Bonds because his father, Bobby, was a dear friend,” Lucas said.

“Ralph Kiner and I would sit and we would talk. He was a gentleman and a great storyteller. I loved listening to him talk about the great old-time ballplayers.”

But while Lucas began to build a reputation as a premier journalist, his peers at the time did not hold him in the same regard.

“The biggest challenge was reporters giving me ‘the business,’” Lucas said. “They didn’t want me there. Standing there, I could hear some of them saying, ‘How the

Lucas

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LUCAS

hell can this blind guy cover this game? He’s taking up space, talking to players when we can’t talk to them.’”

He overcame the inherent difficulty of reporting on a game he couldn’t see with baseball savvy and a deep knowledge of the game. Over time, Lucas could determine how an at-bat went based off of the reaction of the crowd and the sound the ball made when it hit the bat. He typically listened to radio broadcasts of games in the press box and then interviewed players after games.

Lucas was the first person — blind or otherwise — to be married at home plate of Yankee Stadium when he married his wife Allison in 2006. “[Yankees owner at the time George

Steinbrenner] said he’s picking up the entire tab,” Lucas said. “He had the field looking like it was opening day with the lines drawn, and the scoreboard said ‘Congratulations Ed and Allison on your special day.’”

His sons from his first marriage, Edward and Chris, stood as best men when he married Allison.

“The stadium was our babysitter,” said Chris in a New York Times interview. “It’s Babe Ruth’s house, but my brother and I, it’s our house as well.”

In addition to being married at home plate, Lucas also made history in 1980 when he became the first person in the country with a disability to win full custody over a spouse without a disability after his first wife tried to get custody of their sons.

Lucas said he knows the difficulties he faced as a young blind person, and he

wanted to help people cope how he did. He started the Ed Lucas Foundation, which has hosted an annual celebrity golf outing to raise money for itself. This year’s outing saw former Yankees manager Willie Randolph and Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman attend.

According to its website, the foundation “offers direct support to individuals who are blind/visually impaired, as well as those with disabilities that are determined to be of financial need.”

Lucas also follows the rest of the league in addition to New York teams, and pays special attention to the Pirates ever since their recent resurgence.

“The manager in Pittsburgh, Clint Hurdle, is a great guy,” he said. “He’s always been an outstanding gentleman ... And Barry [Bonds] was always nice to me when

11 a lot of people knocked the hell out of him.”

Lucas was also inducted into the New Jersey Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.

“For the Irish American Hall of Fame, I was inducted in the second class. That was a big honor,” Lucas said. “That’s recognized by the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It’s not just something this guy has in his bar.”

Utilizing his background and life story, Lucas has also given numerous motivational speeches in businesses and universities around the region. He said the most important thing is to “try to do what you want to do, and don’t give up.”

“A lot of people discouraged me all the time, but I didn’t give up,” he said. “If you want to do something, you’re going to do it.

It might take time, but you’re going to do it.”

Pitt in the NFL: Larry Fitzgerald climbs in record books Brandon Duerr For The Pitt News For the second straight week, Larry Fitzgerald led the group of Pitt alumni in the NFL and made some noise in the league record books as well. At week 10, Fitzgerald and the Cardinals traveled back to Arizona to face rookie Aaron Donald and the division rival Rams, who were coming off a very impressive road win

against another division foe, the 49ers.

Fitzgerald finished the game with nine receptions for a team-high 112 yards, catching all but one of his 10 targets to ensure that the Cardinals remained in first place in the NFC West with a 31-14 come-from-behind win. Even after starting quarterback Carson Palmer left the game early in the second half with a torn ACL injury, Fitzgerald continued the offensive chemistry with backup quarterback Drew

Larry Fitzgerald moved into 18th on the all-time receptions list Sunday. MCT Campus

Stanton to help lead the Cardinals to an 8-1 record, their best start since 1948.

Fitzgerald climbed in the record book during the game as well. He moved ahead of Keenan McCardell for 18th on the alltime receptions list and passed Cowboys great Michael Irvin for 24th in career receiving yards. Aaron Donald had three tackles in the loss and also recorded a tackle for loss in a big defensive first half for St. Louis.

In Thursday night’s primetime game, the Cleveland Browns, led by former Pitt defenders Jabaal Sheard and K’Waun Williams, traveled to Cincinnati and steamrolled the Bengals by a final score of 24-3. Sheard aided the Browns’ stout run defense up front by getting in on five tackles and providing pressure all game that caused Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton to throw three interceptions.

K’Waun Williams played one of his best games of the season in the secondary for the Browns, tallying four tackles and two pass breakups and helping to keep receivers A.J. Green and Mohamed Sanu off the score sheet. The victory propelled the Browns into sole possession of first place in the AFC North and also ended a 17-game road losing streak to

division opponents.

Punter Andy Lee of the 49ers continued his campaign for best punter in the league by winning the field position battle in a victory in New Orleans against the high-powered Saints. Lee pinned the Saints inside their own 20-yard line on three separate occasions and averaged 44.7 yards on his seven punts. The 49ers ended up topping the Saints with a final score of 27-24.

The Patriots headed into their bye week after a huge win against the Denver Broncos. Defensive back Darrelle Revis continues a stellar defensive year for New England. He has played shutdown defense on opposing wideouts and has two interceptions and 28 total tackles in the nine games he has played.

LeSean McCoy and the Eagles took on the Carolina Panthers on Monday Night Football for a chance to remain in first place in the competitive NFC East. Entering the game, McCoy had really been picking up the workload. He had 349 rushing yards, 5.3 yards per carry, over his last three games. The Eagles asked McCoy to pick up the offensive workload because starting quarterback Nick Foles was sidelined due to a broken collarbone last week against the Texans. Carolina came into the game giving up 132 rushing yards per contest, which ranks an abysmal 27th in the league.