The Wake, Issue 6, Spring 2012

Goin’ H.A.M.

SOPA/PIPA

04

Jay Gabler

10

Pine Box Preachers & More!

07 - 20 february 2012

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial

Production

Editor-in-Chief Maggie Foucault

Production Manager Ryan Webert

Managing Editor Alex Lauer

Graphic Designers Steph Mertes, Sean Quinn, Ryan Webert

Cities Editor Alex Lauer

Art Director Keit Osadchuk

Voices Editor Maggie Foucault

Web Editor Eric James

This may be the first time that Spring semester has actually started out looking more like Springtime than Winter. As a lifelong Minnesotan, the lack of snow and tolerable temperatures make me feel a little out of place.

But, let’s be real, no one is actually complaining, except maybe those who rely on weather as their only way to make small talk.

Sound & Vision Editor Zach McCormick

This Issue Cover Artist Keit Osadchuk

Photographers Corrisa Burkel, Keit Osadchuk, Habakkuk Stockstill

Illustrators Josie Keifenheim, Keit Osadchuk, Sean Quinn, Steve Sitek

Contributing Writers Amanda ABell, Mitchell Ambrose, Addie Filiatrault, Maggie Foucault, Angie Frisk, Cooper Henckel, Alison Henderson, Elizabeth Ireland, Alicia Johnson, Theon Kyne dy, Alex Lauer, Tyler Lauer, Elissa Mann, Zach McCormick, Annie Michaelson, Justin Miller, Kelsey Schwartz, Steve Sitek, Logan Wroge

Right now, though, I have other things on my mind. Like a few thousand other students, I too will be graduating this May. It’s almost surreal to think that my college years are coming to a close. Freshman and sophomore year seemed like the longest of my life, but the three years after have blown by.

Business Advisory Board James DeLong, Kevin Dunn, Courtney Lewis, Eric Price, Morgan Mae Schultz, Kay Steiger, Mark Wisser

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And it’s staggering to think of how much my plans and goals have changed in this short amount of time. When I started at the U, I swore I would never go to grad school, I applied at The Daily, and I thought I wanted to study Political Science. Now, I’m prepping for the GRE, running The Wake, and majoring in Chinese. I’ve gone from depending on my parents, to completely supporting myself, to living off a loan. When I started college, four years seemed like an eternity; now, I am planning out my life four years in advance.

If you are lucky enough to be graduating this semester, I wish you luck in whatever your future plans might be! If you are still slogging through Liberal Education Requirements and bureaucratic nonsense, try to remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it might not be the one you thought it was.

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11:6 Maggie Foucault Editor-in-Chief

©2009 The Wake Student Magazine. All rights reserved.

Established in 2002, The Wake is a fortnightly independent magazine and registered student organization produced by and for the students of the University of Minnesota.

The Wake Student Magazine 1313 5th St. SE #331 Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 379-5952 • www.wakemag.org The Wake was founded by Chris Ruen and James DeLong.

The Wake is published with support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress (online at www.campusprogress.org).

disclaimer The purpose of The Wake is to provide a forum in which students can voice their opinions. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not representative of the publication or university as a whole. To join the conversation email mfoucault@wakemag.org.

voices

Media’s Dream, Majority’s Nightmare

By Logan Wroge

What happened with the SOPA and PIPA bills

Why our trusted representatives supported SOPA and PIPA

SOPA and PIPA, to someone who has not been on the Internet or watching the television recently, would seem like simple acronyms from some obscure student organization. But in reality, SOPA does not stand for Student Ornithological Protection Association. Stop Online Piracy Act, more commonly known as just SOPA, is the House of Representatives part of a bill in which the main goal is stopping the theft of intellectual property, or illegally downloading movies, music, and other copyrighted materials. PIPA, the Protect IP Act, is the Senate half of the bill that was looking to accomplish the same task.

The controversy of SOPA and PIPA touched a little close to home when Minnesota Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, surprisingly showed support for the PIPA bill. Critics were questioning this odd occurrence. How come two Senators, who are usually on the side of social freedom, were aligned with bills that many view as restrictive and unconstitutional? Answers start to become a little more apparent when you view the campaign donations for the duo. The numbers help to expose the reasons behind our Senators’ support.

The original intentions of stopping theft is not what had people so worried, even though many were scared they wouldn’t be able to watch Entourage for free. It is the implications that these bills pose on sites that “enable” the illegal downloading of copyrighted materials that had the public in a panic. If a site, such as YouTube or Facebook, shared a link or displayed an advertisement for one of the websites that the government would consider illegal, then these social media mainstays could face legal action for enabling unlawful activity. In order to protect the Internet from the formidable Big Brother, websites and ordinary Americans banded together to protest SOPA/PIPA.

How come two Senators who are usually on the side of social freedom were aligned with bills that many view restrictive and unconstitutional?

On January 18, Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, and other websites participated in a ‘blackout’ to draw attention to the issue. Some sites were completely offline for the day or had expressed support in another way. Hordes of media conglomerates were angered with this show of defiance, as were students scrambling to get papers done without the help of Wikipedia. After this date, members in Congress shifted from the majority supporting to opposing the bills—democracy in work. The voice of the people trumps a threat to our personal freedom, but for how long? While these versions of the bills have fallen dead, Congress is still planning on addressing the issue of intellectual property theft, and soon. Will future protests be enough to keep the Internet free?

As college students, we are used to media at our demands.

The days of sitting by the radio to hear a certain song or making sure no one is using the television at a specific time were supposed to be dead. Now, we have become accustomed to consuming all the media we want whenever and wherever, but will future bills change the lifestyle we are accustomed to? Enjoy the freedom of the Internet now, because soon enough we might be back to waiting by the radio.

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07 – 21 february 2012

Amy Klobuchar received $205,707 from 2007 to 2012 in campaign contributions from the television, movie, and music industry. While this number might seem big, four other industries donated more money to Klobuchar than media companies. Still, that amount of money might have helped to persuade her vote in the generally considered unfavorable direction.

The dollar signs become more a factor when we turn our heads towards Al Franken. As most people know, Franken used to write and act for Saturday Night Live. When you compare the contributions to his campaign during the same time period by the media industry, Franken was given an exceedingly larger amount: $904,568. The story becomes more interesting when you see his top individual contributors for that time period. Time Warner, one of America’s biggest media conglomerates, donated the most at $65,438 to Franken’s campaign. In second place, General Electric added $61,628 to the Franken fund. What most people do not realize is that General Electric is a part owner of the company NBCUniversal, which produces Saturday Night Live. These numbers tell us that one of Franken’s largest corporate contributors are the media business.

CNSNew.com/Penny Starr

AL FRANKEN (DFL), PIPA Supporter

$904,568

from the media industry

Those who have been questioning why Klobuchar and Franken voted the way they did might have a reasonable answer.

While aligning with the general population is important, keeping those who support your campaign can be more vital, especially for Klobuchar who is facing reelection when November hits the calendar this year. Examining Franken, one can’t help but think that maybe there is more than just appeasing those who contribute to campaigning.

Saturday Night Live skits and episodes are very difficult to find on the Internet, even without SOPA and PIPA’s possible barricades. If the bills had passed, the only option you’d have, if you wanted more cowbell, would be purchasing SNL DVDs or a Netflix subscription. Even though the facts about royalties received by the actors and writers weren’t available, it is worth asking the question of whether Franken is receiving a piece of the pie. The SOPA and PIPA bills might have died for now, but they have created questions for Minnesotans to ponder about. Are campaign contributions enough to allow politicians to ignore the general consensus? And are possible monetary gains guiding our leaders towards a more restrictive Internet?

Capitol Chatter

AMY KLOBUCHAR (DFL), PIPA Supporter

$205,707

from the media industry

voices

Newt’s Family Values

It’s mind-boggling that Gingrich can sell his god-fearing conservative front to the right when everyone knows all about his personal sexcapades. Blatant hypocrisy should be a deal breaker, but Fox News was able to speculate about how “Newt Gingrich’s three marriages mean he might make a strong president – really.” Really. Actual headline. So it may be all about the spin, but his moral deviations haven’t been limited to his personal life.

The winner of the South Carolina primary doesn’t practice what he preaches; voters don’t seem to care

Gingrich stands on a platform of family values, and appeals to those voters – yet he has a nasty and public history of being a total douche bag.

By Elizabeth Ireland Who is Newt Gingrich? It’s hard to keep up with the GOP these days. Only weeks ago Mitt Romney was the Republican Party darling, and then big bad Newt swooped in and took the South Carolina primary, further complicating the seemingly eternal battle for the presidential nomination.

Although he hasn’t been prominent in the race for long, Gingrich has been in the biz for a long time. He served as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999 and represented Georgia for twenty years. His platform isn’t anything new; he wants Americans to have access to guns, religion, and fewer taxes.

He also wants to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. And goddamnit, he is sick and tired of republicans being pushed around by the liberal media. Just take the January 24 debate. When the moderator asked Newt about his open marriage scandal, Newt responded, “…to take an ex

Religion in the Media Proud supporters or pathetic phonies?

By Alicia Johnson Looking back in history, it is obvious that religion has caused many arguments and problems. Thankfully nowadays there are a wide variety of religions and, at least in America, it is relatively acceptable to believe in whatever you want. With so many options, it is best to choose what you actually believe in. It is normal for people to believe what their parents or family believes in. It is also normal to branch out and be different if that is what you so choose. One thing that is becoming more and more popular is religion in the media. I hope no one is using the media as their source for figuring out what to believe when it comes to religion, particularly because many of those who publicize their beliefs are doing it for attention and it is not sincere.

Tim Tebow, a quarterback in the NFL for the Denver Broncos, is no stranger to the media scene. Whether you watch football or not, I would bet money that the majority of people have heard or seen something about this proudly religious quarterback. Sadly, many stories about Tim Tebow are not focused on his football skills; instead they are about him being crazy obsessed with religion. This leads to the question: is

keit osadchuk

wife, and make it two days before the primary, a significant question in the presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”

A significant question in the presidential campaign brought up before a primary? Blasphemy! Everyone knows that you save the dirt until after the important stuff. But seriously, there’s a larger issue here. Gingrich stands on a platform of family values, and appeals to those voters – yet he has a nasty and public history of being a total douchebag. What’s despicable is cheating on your MS-ridden wife and then asking her for an open marriage. Although I guess she could have seen it coming, because she was the mistress when he cheated on his first wife – who had cancer.

he simply proud of his beliefs or is he playing up for attention from the media? It seems like he is doing it for the attention, because honestly no one really cares about rookie quarterbacks that much to make such a scene about them. The media adores this guy though. Most of the media time is spent praising him and making him look good, but it’s not all gumdrops and lollypops for Tebow. Saturday Night Live did a skit back in December mocking how the Bronco’s only win now because of Jesus’ help. The Jesus impersonator even calls out Tebow about being in people’s faces with his beliefs.

Gingrich resigned from his position as Speaker of the House after he was slapped with multiple ethics violations in 1999.

More recently, it was revealed that Freddie Mac paid Gingrich $1.6 million to offer strategic advice as a “historian” during the bail out crisis. Also, he wants to steal the moon and get rid of North Korean nukes with a giant laser. Okay, those last two aren’t real, but you get the point. The dude may have traditional conservative politics, but he’s kind of openly horrible.

And his name is Newt.

Republicans fixate on and identify themselves with morality.

That’s what makes it so outrageous that Republicans are actually buying Gingrich’s “family values” front. But, to quote the man himself, “It doesn’t matter what I do. People need to hear what I have to say.” Well said, Newt. Here’s hoping that the Republicans can find a normal person before it’s too late.

but what religion is and means is different to each individual.

Many people are proud of their religion, so if and when people show it off it should be for the right reasons and not to clear your name to the public or make you look like an angel.

Most of the media praise him and make him look good.

It is very common in football to pray before games and make gestures thanking God after a touchdown, and most people do not have a problem with that - but Tebow crosses the line.

It seems like everything he says and does is about God, but without sincerity. It seems like he is playing up his religion for publicity and popularity, and he’s not alone. Many celebrities who find themselves in trouble with drugs or alcohol tend to suddenly “find god” in hopes of fixing their reputations. Another football player, Michael Vick, stated that when he was in jail for dog fighting that he became “closer to god.” Even Tiger Woods started wearing a Buddhist bracelet after the whole scandal with all his “lady friends.”

Religion: you can hate it or love it, practice it and preach it,

Angie frisk

www.wakemag.org

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“ v h i

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Timberwolves: United We Run Our recently down-and-out team is once again becoming something to stand behind

By Theon Kyne Dy In 2005, the Minnesota Timberwolves were unable to make the playoffs for the first time since drafting high school standout and NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett in the 1995 NBA Draft. Between 1996 and 2005, the Timberwolves were consistently a playoff-bound team. The state of Minnesota had high hopes of getting the state’s first professional basketball championship since the early years of George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers. Unfortunately, failure has always been the end result of a Wolves run. After being eliminated in the Western Conference Semi-Finals by the heavily fueled Los Angeles Lakers, the Wolves never again appeared in the NBA Playoffs. From 2005 to 2007 players were traded, waived off, and coaches were fired.

It was indeed a bad time for the organization. The only player left from that 2004 Minnesota Timberwolves Playoffs team was the captain, Kevin Garnett. Through losses and missing the playoffs season after season since 2005, Garnett kept positive that this team would win a championship. In the end, a championship was impossible for KG in Minnesota.

On July 31, 2007, Kevin Garnett had to let go of his dreams of bringing an NBA championship to Minnesota and was traded to the Boston Celtics. Luckily for Garnett, he won his first and well-deserved championship in his first season as a Celtic. Obviously, he had a lot of help from his fellow Celtics, which he really didn’t have in twelve seasons with the Timberwolves.

They need players who have a deep desire to win, just like what Kevin Garnett had in Minnesota seven years ago.

The Timberwolves then resorted to trying their best in the NBA Draft, since none of their current players were good enough. Drafting All-Star and double-double machine Kevin Love in 2008 would definitely improve the franchise, but it certainly wasn’t enough. In Love’s rookie season, the Timberwolves still weren’t able to get a good record. In 2009, the Wolves would be given the opportunity to draft a 19 year old point guard from Barcelona, Ricky Rubio bad news came along with him: Rubio would be unable to join the team until the 2011-2012 NBA Season. Again, the franchise suffered and ended up with the worst record in the NBA that season. In 2010 the Wolves seemed to get better when they signed two 2nd overall picks, Michael Beasley and Darko Milicic, but the Wolves again ended up with the worst record in the league that year. Those two seasons were simply an embarrassment for Timberwolves.

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07 - 21 february 2012

angie frisk

In the 2010-2011 NBA season the Timberwolves continued being the worst team in the NBA, even though the LeBron-less Cleveland Cavaliers suffered a 23 game losing streak that season when LeBron decided to go to South Beach.

point guard Luke Ridnour, versatile player Anthony Randolph, three point threat Anthony Tolliver, and an energy boost in Wayne Ellington are certainly keys to keeping the Wolves active while the stars rest.

However, things have started to change this year. The atmosphere in Target Center has certainly been electric, so electric that it hasn’t been this loud since Garnett blew past defenders for a dunk and celebrated with a signature pounding of the chest. Rubio has finally arrived in Minnesota, more specifically in the United States, to play for the Timberwolves.

In my opinion, there’s only three things the Wolves should concern themselves with in order to become a championship team. First and foremost, the team members they should certainly keep are Love, Ridnour, Rubio, Darko, and Adelman.

Second, they should definitely trade Michael Beasley (yes, I heard all those boos and chants of, “Let’s trade Beasley!” from the Target Center) for another forward or center, possibly another big man to help Darko and Love. Beasley this season has played like a complete sloth on the court. Lastly, the Wolves need to get tougher minded players or get their players to become mentally tougher. They need players who have a deep desire to win, just like what Kevin Garnett had in Minnesota seven years ago. They need the intensity of past NBA Champions: the determination, the ruthless aggression to win games, and the ability to face adversity and overcome it.

Rubio thus far has been nothing short of a surprise to me.

Honestly, I never thought Rubio would become the point guard he is right now. I knew this guy could pass the ball well, but I never knew he could shoot, even with LeBron James coming right at him. Although Rubio is not better than Paul, Rose, Rondo, Williams, or even Nash, he is the perfect guy to revive the Wolves from their sluggish play. Rubio has certainly changed the system of this team, bringing hope to a Wolves franchise that could easily have transfered to another city like Seattle.

Rubio has been the main cause of this sense of hope in Wolves fans, but we should not forget his teammates and key additions over the summer. Love has certainly taken full leadership of his team and has come up big in situations where a captain should shine (did you see the Clippers game?). Three key additions this off-season were the signing of three winners in the NBA. The signing of Head Coach Rick Adelman in particular will certainly help the Wolves. Adelman hasn’t won a championship, but he certainly knows what it takes to win one. J.J Barea, who just experienced what it was like to win a championship, will be a valuable player for the team. Last but not least, drafting Arizona big man Derrick Williams as the 2nd overall pick will give the Wolves fresh legs that can run the floor with Rubio which we have certainly seen in recent games.

The Wolves also kept big man Darko Milicic, who I believe has the skills an average big man needs. Key players like veteran

The Timberwolves, in my opinion and with slight hope, will make the playoffs this year as the 7th or 8th seed in the West.

The Wolves definitely have been doing better this season not only record-wise but in playing as a team. Garnett might even agree. The Timberwolves need to do this together in order to bring back the glory days of the early 2000’s. United the Timberwolves run, and united we run. A championship might not be too far away with some pieces of the puzzle in place already. Vamos, Timberwolves, Vamos!

Look for Theon’s sports column in future issues!

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Student Services Fees

goal is to justify your existence and convince others that it’s worthwhile. The real dividing line in terms of why they should or shouldn’t receive funding is what they do for students. So, looking at the seven groups brought into question – what do they do?

Where your tuition dollars are going

By Cooper Henckel

According to the SUA group biographies, the following groups aim to serve students in the following ways:

According to the Office of Institutional Research, there were 30,610 undergraduate students registered last year at the University of Minnesota. Given increasing enrollment, one can safely assume that there are currently more than 30,000 undergrads at the U, all required to pay Student Services Fees.

Graduate students may elect to do so, but are not required.

These fees are then distributed by the Student Services Fees Committee, a board made up of nine students and two administrative representatives. There are also smaller administrative units who handle the accounts for groups with the largest amount of funding. The students who administer on these boards receive a stipend of between $500 and $750, depending on their position. From these paid appointees, the $365.90 each U of M Undergraduate is required to pay is distributed to groups that apply for them. The question here being: are the fees being appropriately spent?

The two largest qualifiers for student groups seeking funding stated on the Student Services Fees website are: groups must be non-profit AND may not be affiliated with a ‘partisan political organization.’ The University qualifies the meaning of ‘partisan political organization’ as “organizations affiliated with a registered political party or candidates for election which are formed for the purpose of supporting political party candidates for election.” The actual impact of this limitation leaves a great deal to be desired. Of the 56 groups and organizations that received funding from Student Services Fees this academic year, two are openly conservative on political issues (with the entire purpose of their group being to

OTHER GROUPS BOYNTON UNIVERSITY RUN SUA

steve sitek

advocate those positions) and five are focused on religious issues. Nearly a quarter of the funding available for non-essential student groups goes to these groups, despite the implied neutral stance of the University on funds distribution.

In terms of fund distribution for all groups, the organization with the largest percentage of funding is SUA (Student Union and Activities), receiving $122.27 per student, about 33% of the total funding available. Second to them is Boynton Health Services, receiving $118.02, only slightly less at 32%. Combined, the other large, mostly University governed groups (Aurora Center, Rec Center, University Student Legal Services, and Learning Abroad Center) receive $142.54. For those of you keeping up with the math, that leaves about $16.93 for the rest of the student organizations to compete for. It’s worth noting that $1.18 goes to pay for the stipends of the Fees Committee, 7% of the funds left over for student organizations.

In context, exactly how much of the available funding goes toward the political groups? They don’t directly advocate for a party, but Students for Human Life, an anti-abortion group, and Students for a Conservative Voice, a conservative political advocacy group, are the only two blatant political groups receiving funding. How much? $2.41 between the two groups, with Conservative Voice receiving the bulk - $1.91. Though seemingly insignificant, they receive 14% of the total available funding for non-essential groups.

The religion focused groups – CASH (Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists), CRU (Campus Crusade), Hillel Jewish Student Center, Lutheran Student Movement, and St. Paul’s Outreach – receive $0.11 (CASH), $0.28 (CRU), $0.38 (Hillel), $0.15 (LSM), and $1.06 (St. Paul Outreach), totaling $1.98 or 11% of the available funding for student groups. Although most of the five groups are within the average funding for most groups, the latter stands out. Few groups (Minnesota Daily - $6.58/38%, MN Public Interest Research Group - $1.39/8%, Radio K - $2.89/17%, and GO FIRST - $1.10/6%) receive more funding, and none of those groups are avidly dedicated to “training young adults to live as committed Christians in today’s world” using students’ money. The question isn’t whether the Student Services Fees Committee knows what they’re doing, but if what they’re doing is acceptable.

Are the religiously focused groups that different from a cultural group? Are the policy focused groups different than a minority rights advocacy group? Arguably, the differences are few. Both kinds of groups are focused on producing results favorable to their represented group. The issue isn’t whether or not they’re trying to convert people. The point of groups is to convert people to the way of their thinking. The

Students for Human Life “We promote health and wellness by providing information that demonstrates the health effects of abortion and birth control and offers alternatives that can improve general well-being, while preserving the lives of all involved.”

Students for a Conservative Voice “Students for a Conservative Voice publishes The Minnesota Republic, the conservative newspaper on campus.”

Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists “CASH co-sponsors panels, speakers, and workshops with a diverse array of faith groups on campus.“

Campus Crusade “Our vision is to turn lost students into Christ-centered laborers.”

Hillel Jewish Student Center “To provide social, cultural, educational, social action and Israel related programs and opportunities to Jewish students at the U of M as well as provide educational opportunities about Judaism to the non-Jewish population.”

Lutheran Student Movement “We are building relationships between students, regardless of race, religion, or background. We are striving to improve interfaith relations on campus, and help make the University community one that is welcoming and accepting of everyone.”

St. Paul’s Outreach Training young adults to live as committed Christians in today’s world .

Ultimately, whether or not these groups should continue to receive student funding is up to the students. Undergraduates are required to pay Student Services Fees but are given some element of control over how the funds are spent. All groups given university funding are required to allow any student to investigate their activities and expenditures, the Student Services Fees Committee welcomes opinions on how fees are spent and publishes their information on their website (www.studentservicefees.umn.edu), and students can speak out about things. Collectively, these questionably funded groups account for 25% of the funds available for student groups on campus. Factoring in the 30,000+ students who pay their Student Services Fees, these groups receive $131,700 directly from the student body. Have they earned their keep?

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College Students Living in Luxury

The way many of today’s college students are choosing to live can be summed up in one word: luxury. Talk to any recent University of Minnesota graduate from the past five years, and the way housing has changed on campus in that short period of time is remarkable.

By Amanda Abell

Looking back over the past few years, it is easy to pinpoint when the trend really started to accelerate. In 2009, Doran Companies began building Sydney Hall and renovating the Dinky Dome into lavish student apartments. Demand was through the roof when they began leasing for the 2010-2011 school year. Doran must have noticed the popularity of the Sydney units because they continued on to another project the next year, 412 Lofts. 412 Lofts, along with FloCo Fusion, opened in Fall 2011. While FloCo was not a Doran Companies project, they are continuing to build near campus. Their newest project, The Edge on Oak, is currently leasing for Fall 2012.

Even though there were costly apartment buildings in Dinkytown before these new complexes, including 1301 and Northstar, the demand seems to be ongoing as newer constructions are built. Prices are continuously increasing because of competition and demand. It makes a person wonder how college students are able to afford living in these extravagant buildings when rent averages around $800 per month.

Many argue that it is worth the money because of all the extra amenities these complexes provide. Workout facilities, tanning beds, heated parking garages, and even flat screen televisions in bathrooms justify the extra money spent. Those may be factors that lure students in, but are they really necessary? The university provides a recreation center on campus, and not to mention the fact that heated parking will only add another cost on to a rent bill.

FloCo Fusion is doing everything they can to attract residents.

While they already offer amenities such as workout facilities and tanning beds, they also offer residents a free bus that travels to downtown and uptown bars on Friday nights. Next year they plan to up the ante with Core Power Yoga incentives as well. However, it is no secret that FloCo also upped its prices for next fall, so is the extra money worth it? While teaming up with Core Power Yoga sounds like a great enticement, the repercussions will most likely be that Core Power will become too crowded and begin to turn yoga-goers away.

The economy remains in recession, yet “broke” college students manage to cough up hundreds and hundreds of dollars per month to live in brand new apartments.

The economy remains in recession, yet “broke” college students manage to cough up hundreds of dollars per month to live in brand new apartments. While some like 412 Lofts come furnished, others like FloCo Fusion do not. Therefore, students are not only paying expensive rent, but adding the costs of furniture to their tab. College is supposed to give students the opportunity to live on their own and rough it for a while until they complete their education and find a sufficient job. Although, by the way these extravagant complexes are assisting the transformation of college lifestyles, students may be living off their parents’ money a little longer than expected.

corissa burkel

How To Have Fun In The Cold

Compared to other infamous Minnesota winters, this winter has been somewhat mild. Remember how we had almost no snow on Christmas and it was in the 40s right after New Year’s? But now that the cold and snow have set in, the last thing a lot of us want to do is be outside. Here are some fun ways to get out and enjoy winter in the Twin Cities!

around the Twin Cities. The Theo Wirth recreation area, for example, has 15 miles of groomed trails. Skiers can rent skis, boots, and poles, and even take a quick lesson. Look up the Minneapolis Park and Recreation website for some more trails.

By Elissa Mann

Ice Skating

Tubing is a great outdoor winter activity if strenuous activities aren’t your thing. It’s a fun group activity, so grab some friends and hit the slopes! Often, public parks and public school playgrounds have great sledding hills and don’t cost money. Although it’s a little out of the way and expensive, Buck Hill has fantastic groomed hill for tubing, and a lift spares you the hassle of walking up to the top!

Winter Recreation in Minnesota

Remember when you used to go skating on the neighborhood pond when you were little? Ice-skating is one of those Minnesota pastimes that is still fun even at an older age. There are lots of skating rinks, both indoors and outdoors, around the Twin Cities. On a budget? Check out open skate at Mariucci Arena on campus; with your student ID, you can use the arena plus rent skates for under five dollars. Willing to spend a little more money? The Depot in downtown Minneapolis has a fun atmosphere as well as more hours of open skate. Go on a Thursday night and bring your student ID to save a few bucks.

Cross–Country Skiing Cross–country skiing is a favorite winter activity for many who live around the Twin Cities. It is one of the best ways to get a really scenic workout despite the frigid temperatures. Cross– country skiing can be quite the workout, so you will warm up quickly. There are lots of great places to cross country ski KEIT OSADCHUK

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Tubing

Winter Disc Golfing People usually associate disc golf as a warm weather sport.

But with the right warm clothing, there is no reason it can’t be played in the winter as well. It’s a good excuse to walk around outside and breathe in some fresh winter air! A couple of the advantages of playing in winter are that the courses are nowhere near as busy as in the summer and there are no bugs.

Tape a piece of brightly colored ribbon or material to your discs so they don’t get lost in the snow. Kaposia Park in South St. Paul is a favorite among local disc golf enthusiasts. Acorn Park in Roseville is another decent course. Check out the Disk Golf Course Review website for more options.

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TCF Bank and U of M Funding: A Symbiotic Relationship

Besides the fancy stadium and free sweatshirts, does this relationship really have student interests in mind?

By Addie Filiatrault The University of Minnesota campus can seem like an overwhelming place to the unfamiliar, but along with the maroon and gold colors of school spirit, there’s one thing new incoming students become acquainted to very quickly- the TCF logo. TCF has been the U of M’s preferred bank for over fifteen years, and just about anywhere you go around campus, you’re sure to see the logo.

Upon receiving a brand new U card, necessary for printing and making school purchases, a friendly employee talks to students about opening a TCF account, asking you if you’re interested in an enthusiastic tone that seems to be more of a suggestion than a question. Caught up in the rush of orientation, signing up for an account can feel like just another step in the process. Reassured with promises of superior banking access and advantages as well as a free sweatshirt, over 80% of incoming new students are lured into opening a TCF account. Many students are attracted to the option for the sheer convenience it offers. There are ATMs everywhere on and around campus, it’s way easier than carrying around cash, and you can even make purchases with your ID card.

A friendly employee talks to students about opening a TCF account, asking you if you’re interested in an enthusiastic tone that seems to be more of a suggestion than a question.

Advances in electronic financing offer Universities and students alike many new options as well as new complications.

Looking for ways to cut costs while keeping up with the latest trends, many Universities across the country are finding that banks are eager to take care of some of their larger bills in exchange for promotion on campus, generating millions for both parties in the student market alone. This poses an obvious question of where ethics come into play when higher education and major corporations become so intimately

involved with students finances.

The TCF name is portrayed affectionately and enthusiastically on the U of M campus, but this comes at a price for TCF as well. Aside from the services and events TCF funds for the U, the bank also pays $1 million annually in a contractual reimbursement. The bank appears to be happy with the arrangement, as it has agreed to pay $40 million to secure the relationship through 2030. TCF has similar contracts with nine other Universities, including Minnesota State University-Mankato and others in the Midwest. TCF doesn’t divulge detailed information on the sources of their payments, but other financial corporations have similar deals throughout the country. Banks offering to provide debit features on student ID cards often give the school a direct percentage of purchases, and interest income generated in student accounts.

TCF has also been notorious for charging high overdraft fees, and even strategically processes purchases in order to make overdrafts more likely to occur. Services such as free checking are advertised, while service fees and hidden charges are deceptively hidden in the fine print.

As students, it would be nice to know that University officials truly have our best interests at heart, but it would also be naive to think that the income generated in TCF from high student debt rates don’t become wrapped in to the million dollar reimbursements the U of M receives.

While going to college is unquestionably a valuable and rewarding experience, it is a significantly different financial investment than our parents were making a generation ago.

Both tuition and interest rates continue to rise at unprecedented rates, and some have speculated that student loans may be the next economic “bubble” to pop. While this may or may not be true, Americans now owe over $1 trillion in student loans, a number that surpasses all combined credit card debt nationally. The actual national default rate on these loans is over 20%, and many vital protections concerning bankruptcy and default protections have been eradicated.

Little active discussion or media attention is given to these issues, yet the consequences can be either very devastating for the borrowers, or very profitable for the lenders. Federal loans are capped off at a certain amount, but there is usually no limit to the amount a student can borrow from a private bank, and it is often these loans that have the highest interest and default rates. As the estimated cost of attendance at many Universities is often greater than a student’s financial resources, this sometimes becomes a necessity, but it is important to consider who will ultimately be benefiting from these investments. While banks and lenders are the biggest recipients, even the U.S. Department of Education profits from defaulted student loans.

As students, it would be nice to know that University officials truly have our best interests at heart, but it would also be naive to think that the income generated in TCF from high student debt rates don’t become wrapped in to the million dollar reimbursements the U of M receives.

Habakkuk Stockstill

As government funding has provided a safety net for the inevitable fallout of large banks gluttonous pursuits, the U.S. economy has found itself in a downward spiral of debt. As the value of the dollar continues to fall, and smaller local banks continue to fail, it may seem to make sense to overlook the pesky charges or less than ethical codes of conduct for the security and convenience of having an account with a bank that is “too big to fail.” Yet, if there is a lesson to be learned from the current financial collapse in the EU, fabricated bailout schemes and artificial funding resources are finite even for large economies and the inevitable collapse is not pretty.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to putting your faith in the most popular options.

Credit Unions are one of those options. As non-profit, member owned financial cooperatives, Credit Unions are democratically run with a people oriented outlook. Credit Unions are easy to join, and provide all the same services as corporate banks, including free checking and savings accounts, no-fee ATMs, low rate loan options, and online services. Since all bonds are owned by the members in an egalitarian system, all profits are returned to the members as well. Credit Unions are invested in the local community and many are involved in reinvestment initiatives aimed at offering financial services to underserved populations and providing financial education. Banking with a Credit Union provides the assurance that your money will not be manipulated by changing rates or prophet oriented lenders, and there are numerous options in the Twin Cities area.

www.wakemag.org

09

feature

Minneapolis Visionaries Series:

Jay Gabler In the age of multi-taskers, one man proves to be multi-talented.

By Alison Henderson

Keit Osadchuk

Before there was Twitter, there was Harvard, and Jay Gabler has conquered both. Since returning to his home state of Minnesota after earning a PhD in Sociology from one of the most renowned school in the world, the ambitious Gabler has made a name for himself in the Twin Cities.

In an age where the barrage of creative outlets are so vast and readily available (and

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often overwhelming), Gabler has worked himself into a system of creative freedom, self-management, and endless possibilities.

What more could you want from life?

“I just ran with it,” Gabler said. Though he was referring to his editorial positions at the Twin Cities Daily Planet that he landed in 2007, it appears to be his sweeping and subconscious mantra.

On the Twin Cities Daily Planet: “After being out East for college and grad school, I moved home to be with family, so I had to start a new career. There aren’t many research-in-sociology jobs in the Twin Cities, so I attempted a career in writing and journalism.”

Before taking the job, Gabler thought he would be more akin to publications such as Metro Magazine or The Onion’s AV Club, both of which he has written for. However, the flexibil-

feature

ity of the online publication along with the nature of citizen journalism changed his mind.

“The people I work with are great. I also really enjoy a publication that is driven by mission, not profit, which means we’re able to publish what we think is important to publish, and what the public is interested in contributing, not what will get hits or sell ads. We want to be a tool for the community.

“It’s more about looking at the big picture, facilitating communication connections, and publishing all sorts of different kinds of writing content from all sorts of people. That has been very satisfying and has allowed me to do my own writing and use it as a platform to write the kind of things I would like to write, be my own editor, and assign myself whatever I want.”

Gabler believes this could be a breakthrough year for the Twin Cities Daily Planet with funding, support, and projects growing. He is working to attract readers who get their news from daily publications; as he put it, “gaining the eyeballs and clicks of readers who turn to traditional news sources.”

If you bother to read it all you can discover that it’s fiction.

“My goal was to make it as inconspicuous as possible. You can read it and you can relate to it without it always being in your face as a work of fiction, but I don’t want to seriously deceive people.

“I’m not the first person to think about writing hyper fiction, but if we didn’t create the Tangential just because there were other blogs like us we would be nowhere.”

How do you have time?

“I’m online all the time and I like to multitask, so it makes it easy to shoot a blog post here, a tweet there. If I have a thought that I think might be interesting to express on Twitter, I can tweet it as myself, put it through the Daily Planet, or if it’s more entertaining to come from someone else, I can make it come from one of the characters.

“But you know, keeping my sanity is a priority. I do keep all those plates spinning, but they spin more slowly.”

On The Tangential:

In addition, Gabler often teaches online sociology at Rasmussen College.

“My second project is The Tangential, a creative writing and pop culture blog I co-founded in January of 2011. That’s been just a fantastic ride and experience. It’s been great to collaborate with dozens of staff and contributors, and experience an exploding readership. We have an international audience, including large followings from Poland, Australia, and the U.K.

And did we mention he wrote Sociology for Dummies?

“The biggest upcoming project with that is a book-length collection of original, fictional stories based on the theme ‘future cities.’ It was supposed to be published as a unique, cheap paperback compilation of short stories, just to get something out there. Moving forward, I’ve been surprised with the outcome. Exactly how we will publish it, who’s going to publish it, or when you will see it: that is up in the air, but it is definitely moving forward. It will happen somehow.”

“I’m interested in people and in understanding how things work, and not taking received knowledge for granted.

Gabler’s list of past accomplishments and future plans continued. His mouth raced, his mind ran and though I couldn’t see it, I’m certain the gears of ingenuity were spinning in his head as he spoke.

On Unreality House: “My newest project, Unreality House, is an idea that stemmed from experience with The Tangential, where a lot of what we write about is our own lives. We have a lot of regular readers who aren’t from the Twin Cities who don’t know us personally and yet they seem to love us writing about ourselves. That made me think: what is the difference from these peoples’ perspective between us and fictional characters?

“What if you wrote a work of fiction that was ongoing and evolving, like a blog, that people could read and relate to like they read and relate to blogs?

“In comes Unreality House. The premise? A funder has decided to support upcoming writers by giving them yearlong fellowships in the middle of Minnesota to do nothing but write. The four selected characters report their lives through not only a blog, but also through Twitter accounts (all of which Jay manages).

“Let them write whatever they want to write and have them post on the blog. They’re all fictional characters, none of them exist; the house doesn’t exist, but I left a trail of cookie crumbs.

Does sociology play a big role in what you observe and what you write about?

“Yeah, I think the things that made me interested in sociology are the same things that make me interested in journalism.

“I go to an event like Rock the Garden and I’m thinking, ‘Why is this successful?’ What makes this event successful and not others? As a sociologist [of culture], I studied from an academic perspective. As a journalist, it’s less important to conduct a scientific analysis than to report on facts, but present it with style and in an entertaining manner. If you’re observing what people are wearing at Rock the Garden, from a sociological perspective you’d want to count heads and say, ‘What number of people are wearing hipster sunglasses?’ Whereas from a journalistic perspective, you can just compose an entertaining tweet about that.

“One thing I want to do more of in the future is putting myself in the middle of that conversation between academia and journalism.

“I want to write a script about a meeting between two sociologists from the 20th century, who are now both deceased, and had very different perspectives about the way society works.

I want to put their ideas in the form of an entertaining play.”

Applying that sociology to your blog, why do think people choose The Tangential? Why do you think it has been so successful?

“We get a lot of feedback like ‘you are so good at putting into writing what I was thinking.’ It’s funny because it’s true. It’s like why people love Jerry Seinfeld.

“I think the reason that blogs like The Tangential do well among a wide variety of people is because we write about every day subjects but in a stylish and well-written way. We’re accessible to people who eat and fall in love and break up and who have mothers…which is pretty much everyone.

“One thing people have said is that I have found a niche for myself where you are a journalist and have a platform to write reviews and previews, but you also go out a lot. I sort of report on my own life as it unspools. It’s about people who are out living that life. They’re out at that music show having fun like everybody else.

“I think I’m the only person who routinely publishes reviews of shows at the Guthrie and then also goes to a warehouse party and tweets from it at 3 a.m. I think that gives me a number of possible constituencies who hopefully appreciate what I have to observe about all of those situations.

Tweet: “Yay! More exercise!” (heart) “I can’t believe you left your fucking bike lock at home, dumbass!” (head) “It’s about bringing together high and low culture. If you can be someone who is interested in literature and classic films but not be sitting in your ivory tower but also be going out to parties, watching TV and drinking Four Loko, I think that’s the readership--people who are interested in all of those things together.

“This is my dream job. I’m working for myself and the things I believe in.

“I’d rather ride a bike than drive a car, and live in a studio apartment over a house if I can wake up in the morning and do what I want to do all day, and collaborate with people I most respect. That’s priceless.”

The tagline of the blog is Don’t Be Boring. Don’t suck. For the situations in life where you do have to be boring or have to suck, how do you get around it? [pause] “Well, you never have to suck. If you’re in a situation where you have to suck then you better get out of it. Getting around situations where you have to be boring? [pause] The actual advice would be to avoid them as much as possible, but when I am in situations where I have to be boring, that is when I turn to Twitter. You can redeem the little boring, sucky situations in life by coming up with something entertaining to write about them.

“For instance, after biking almost all the way to the Triple Rock before realizing I was without my bike lock, I did not curse myself. Instead, I came up with the most entertaining way to tweet about it.”

Where to find JAY: TheTangential.com TCDailyPlanet.com UnrealityHouse.com Twitter.com/JayGabler JayGabler.com

www.wakemag.org

11

sound & vision

The Wake-Eye-View: Best New Bands 2012 All sorts of magic can still happen within First-Ave’s storied walls

By Zach McCormick

For several years, First Avenue’s Best New Bands showcase has served as a sort of hybrid awards-show and taste-making opportunity for the Twin Cities music scene. I headed downtown and nabbed a good spot on the floor to give y’all the Wake-eye-view.

If Fire in the Northern Firs were aware of the “first-bandcurse”, they certainly didn’t show it. A relative unknown on this bill, FINF won over the crowd with a slew of songs from their excellent debut record Field Guide, balancing their shoe-gazey noise and dreamy hooks handily.

Sounding to my ears like a slightly more tasteful, bass-heavy version of Ke$ha-stye Top 40 pop, Sexcat’s two female singers took the stage with a surprising amount of swagger, but seemd to run out of enthusiasm for their breathy sex-kitten schtick halfway through.

Mysterious new super-group Dream Crusher are the heirapparent to Gayngs’s electronic soft-rock throne. Featuring two drummers, two synth players and 3 guitarists who also tend to fiddle with electronics, they sometimes resemble a cool-kids-club masquerading as a band. The massive group managed to bring a satisfactory performance thanks to their bassist Dominic Hanft’s innovative playing and an invigorating verse or two from Sean Anonymous of Wide Eyes.

After Haley Bonar’s performance with side-project Gramma’s Boyfriend at BNB 2012, I’ve finally given up on ever understanding her. Taking the stage in stuffed-sweatpants and a Casper t-shirt, Minneapolis’ Sweetheart proceeded to scream, taunt, and howl whilst local guitar-badasses Jeremy Ylvisaker and Jacob Hanson shredded the paint right off the fuckin’ walls. Playing angular, almost Devo-y punk with tongue firmly planted in cheek, these musicians nailed a great set.

Fresh off their triumphant contract-signing with Domino records, junior-psyche-rockers Night Moves perhaps had the most to prove at this year’s BNB. With a packed house that seemed excited for the lads’ appearance and an endorsement from Chase Mathey, who labeled them “sexiest band,” the band performed admirably under pressure. The group’s americana-meets-psychedelic-R&B sound was in full force thanks to a live drummer (finally), and frontman Mickey Alfano sang confidently.

Bloodnstuff’s heavy riffage elicited a serious amount of headbanging and even a couple of raised-horns from the crowd.

Playing not one but three full-sized guitar amps, frontman Ed Holmberg brought the noise along with his sole cohort Dylan Gouert on drums. The band performed a set’s worth of notquite-metal with a propulsive fury.

And then you all left. Shame on you, Minnesotans! There was one more act to go, and poor MaLLy got totally shafted by his slot on the bill. Unfazed, the young MC delivered a tight set’s worth of rhymes, showcasing the talent that’s earned him daps from Atmosphere. Working by himself MaLLy won over the remaining crowd with grit and honesty, and even gave us a sneak preview of a new song from his forthcoming album The Last Great. In a few months, this guy will be signed to Rhymesayers and you’ll be kicking yourself, so next BNB, take it from a seasoned veteran and resist your natural Minnesotan urge to leave early. All sorts of magic can still happen within First Ave’s storied walls, so the least you could do is stick around to witness it.

KEIT OSADCHUK

Teen Pregnancy is Totes Out Despite harsh criticism, teen pregnancy shows seem to help more than hurt

By Annie Michaelson Who wouldn’t want to board a plane and have every passenger look at you and groan? Spit-up coating your entire wardrobe is fine, I mean, those True Religion jeans didn’t cost much…and a full night’s rest? Who needs it! Wait, stretch marks aren’t in?

Teen pregnancy has been in full swing for the past few years, and many have been pointing the finger of blame at MTV’s well-watched shows 16 and Pregnant and its follow-up Teen Mom. Through the network’s intrusive taping, audiences watched as new mothers fought with their baby daddies, adapted to parenting as high school students, and, more importantly, watched those cute kids grow up. MTV’s holdnothing-back policy lead us into these teen moms’ delivery rooms, court cases, and weddings, where we looked through a peephole into a busy life of bottles and broken relation-

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ships. With the fourth season of 16 and Pregnant nearing, viewers are beginning to wonder when this phenomenon will end. Could this show possibly be the trigger for millions of pregnancies across the United States? While most would say yes, and that the continued publicity of these shows is advocating for teens to become pregnant, the opposite is true, according to an MTV article.

When 16 and Pregnant aired for the first time, the idea was incredibly taboo to various audiences. By no means is pregnancy a goal for anyone who rides the bus to school and has Chemistry 3rd period. Speaking of unplanned pregnancies casually was unheard of, yet 16 and Pregnant’s featured moms came off as incredibly carefree: “eh, I’m pregnant?

Cool. What’s for dinner?” This attitude caught the attention of teen girls across the country as they tuned in religiously on Wednesday nights while their parents grimaced at the idea and their stomachs churned. Well, parents need not slurp down Pepto any time soon as they will be soothed with this information: in an article by MTV released during the 2nd season of 16 and Pregnant, the series was actually “credited for the decline in teen pregnancy rates, with a decrease by 6%. 82% of teens said the hit series helped them understand the trials of parenthood.” Phew, that was a close one.

Still skeptical? A 20-year-old mom, with experience as a pregnant teen commented on the matter with her opinion; “16 and Pregnant didn’t make me feel like it was OK. I always looked down on girls getting pregnant and thought it would

Josie Keifenheim

never happen to me. I was embarrassed and scared. 16 and Pregnant reassured me how hard it was going to be but also badly portrayed the idea that teen moms don’t raise their own child.” It’s easy to become accustomed to watching teen moms struggle on TV while munching on popcorn and flipping in between channels. However, this “glamorized” lifestyle of 16-year-old moms juggling doctor appointments and earning a GED is not the scenic route, and it seems American teens are finally catching on.

sound & vision

Art Galleries for People Who Know Nothing About Art: A Guide

tations is just as bad as going blind. If a fan of Bon Iver went, they would encounter a video installation using imagery from Bon Iver’s music videos, only presented with new haunting naturalistic and digitized soundscapes in place of Bon Iver’s singing, which may be a turn-off. The exhibit isn’t glorifying Bon Iver, but rather presenting works with a nod to the band and lots to Minnesota/Wisconsin landscapes while re-contextualizing the pieces in the hopes of presenting a re-imagined and evolutionary look.

Featuring: “THIS IS NOT A PLACE” @ XYandZ Gallery

Rule #3: Challenge yourself to leave thinking something other than “that was cool” or “that was dumb.”

By Tyler Lauer As a transfer student from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul who is now endeavoring outside the fine arts, I feel like a link between people who know nothing about art and people who know nothing else. It’s like the distinction between the MIA and the Walker. Anyone can go to the MIA to appreciate artifacts and master paintings, but not everyone can get something real out of the Walker. It’s a shame that more U of M students don’t see more gallery works since Minneapolis has one of the best artistic communities out there. To change this, I’m presenting the rules to seeing and appreciating art with examples from the show, THIS IS NOT A PLACE.

Rule #1: Know something about the work.

This rule seems obvious, but when was the last time you read an artist’s statement? With modern art, you can’t just look at it and figure out a specific meaning. Modern artists are always pushing the boundaries of what art is, so not understanding immediately is natural. For example, upon enter-

Hurting For a Pertin’ at the Winter String Band Gathering

By Steve Sitek Capping an end to January, local bluegrass idols Pert Near Sandstone hosted their second annual Winter String Band Gathering at the Cedar Cultural Center. The spacious Cedar catered to a diverse crowd by providing winter string band relief to both the young and old. The Cedar has been notorious for watered-down crowds that prefer politely listening rather than dancing, but the crowd did not disappoint the Pert faithful. While Saturday proved slightly more toned down, Friday brought the foot stompers out in full force. The wooden floor vibrated around the aroma of sweat, beer, and whiskey. As the Pert Near regulars hollered along to old timey tunes, unfamiliar neighbors found themselves dancing arm and arm.

Pert Near Sandstone is a local band that has dependably rocked the Cabooze, the legendary West Bank venue, for years. With a full string quartet sound accompanied by a clogger, Pert Near boasts a distinct bluegrass sound. While developing their style, they opened for Trampled By Turtles

Bon Iver

ing the XYandZ Gallery you see photos, sticks, and nature/ smoke/water video imagery being projected with accompanying sounds. To unrefined eyes, this may be dismissed as “weird and stupid.” Now, if you would have researched, you would know these works by Isaac Gale and David Jensen have been compiled over their last year with renowned Eau Clairebased band, Bon Iver. You would know that they are Minneapolis based artists who’ve worked with Doomtree, Gayngs, and more. You would know that this exhibit isn’t necessarily presenting a thesis but playing with “themes of space--both external and psychological.”

Rule #2: Have an open mind.

With this knowledge base (although I encourage you to find out more about this exhibit, Bon Iver, and the artists) we still have to have an open mind. Going into an exhibit with expec-

and other bluegrass favorites from around the country. Fiddler Ryan Young of Trampled by Turtles got his start in Pert Near Sandstone before becoming a full time member for Trampled. Since their most recent November release, Paradise Hop, Pert Near has experienced more exposure and larger audiences with each performance. The String Band Gathering marked another sold out show to the growing list by selling out both nights on January 27 and 28. The surging band is already booked at First Avenue on April 6 for their first time ever.

Friday night’s festivities kicked off with renowned folk hero Pop Wagner picking, fiddling, and joking all around the stage.

He proved to be a perfect emcee, channeling his 40 years of experience and previous work with the popular NPR program A Prairie Home Companion. The String Band gathering also showcased the up and coming Colorado based band Head for the Hills. They proved to be a success reminiscent of other popular Colorado jam-grass bands such as Emmit-Nershi Band and Yonder Mountain String Band. On Saturday night, the opening band Hen House Prowlers ended the event by joining Pert Near Sandstone on stage. As the openers took the stage with Pert, they plucked to the crowd-favorite tune, “No Rest.” The song began, “Well I ain’t gonna take no rest till I die.” As soon as “Well” was bellowed, the crowd joined in by singing an elongated ominous “Well,” filling everyone with wholehearted bluegrass praise.

Often in my younger years, I saw modern art and described it as “dumb” or “stupid.” We as a society don’t have enough artistic schooling to effectively think about modern art in an educated manner. Luckily you don’t have to know much about art in order to take something away from it. That’s the beauty of art. Use these rules and you will better appreciate the art world and leave with a longing for more.

Where to find THIS IS NOT A PLACE XYandZ Gallery Thurs-Sat 12 to 6 3258 Minnehaha Ave S Minneapolis, MN 55406 TheXYandZ.com

on display until

FEB 11

Both shows over the weekend ended a little before midnight, but the String Band Gathering did not finish when the Cedar closed its doors. Across the street, the Nomad World Pub hosted the Gathering’s after-party. More local bluegrass was on display with the Twin Cities own San Succi Quartet and the Eau Claire based Evergreen Grass Band. The foot stomping continued into the wee hours of the night in what proved to be a great Winter String Band Gathering.

Steve Sitek

www.wakemag.org

13

sound & vision

Pine Box Preachers

By Zach McCormick

Sometimes the stars align and you find the right band at the right time. Late last fall, The Wake was looking for a band to kick off our live video series and word of mouth told me I should go see The Pine Box Preachers. With less than 24 hours notice, these guys were more than happy to let a stranger shove a camera in their face while they bashed out a set of raw, roots-rock ‘n’ roll to a late night bar crowd. The least we could do was put them in the magazine so y’all could discover how awesome they are along with us.

training...if you can call it that, was trying to be heard over a lot of people un-amplified. It’s just how I learned to sing, it didn’t always sound good, and I’m not sure it always does but...I don’t care [laughs].

I: I think we continue to do it because it’s too fun not to, it’s easier than writing your own songs and it’s more fun because you get to interpret it and sort of act out a fantasy of something you’ve always loved anyway.

W: How does your band’s songwriting process work? Is it a top-down thing or are there multiple songwriters?

J: Plenty of famous musicians played covers throughout their entire careers, and it’s only recently that it doesn’t happen as much. I think it should!

R: It’s usually that one of us comes up with an initial idea, like Steve writes a lot of our songs, but we’ve also had songs written by Andy, Ike, myself...

J: But not me.

Andy Lorenz (Guitar): Ringo! [laughs] R: That idea gets workshopped in practice and we all just kinda play our own way and everybody develops their own part organically. It’s usually after the first performance that the song takes shape, because inspiration happens when you get in front of an audience with energy.

The Wake: Could you talk a bit about the origins of PBP?

W: Where does the inspiration come from?

Josh Dietsche (Drums): How far back do we go? Ross and I played music in high school. We played in a very unoriginal band called The Riot, but it was fun.

S: Why did you all look at me? The songs that I’ve written for us come from all sorts of places. What I have a tendency to do is listen to a song and say “I’d like to play a song that sounds like that” then I usually go and write a song that sounds exactly like the one I was just listening to [laughs], so I scrap it and come back to it about a week later and then sometimes I’ll bring them to the band. Lyrically I’ve been very inspired

by Bruce Springsteen in the last year or so, and a lot of guitar parts I write come from Motorhead.

Ross Hackenmiller (Bass): It sowed the seeds. All of us but Josh went to Hamline together and the four of us started playing music our freshman year just ‘cause we wanted to keep our chops up.

J: We met Steve the next year because he played Harmonica.

R: When we were at Hamline we started off as just a bar band or cover band, using old songs to connect with each other.

W: Who are some bands or performers that have a had the strongest influences on your music?

Steve Sola (Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar): That’s a long question, probably because I think all five of us have very distinct musical influences, I think all five of us come from pretty unique places, musically speaking. We all do enjoy a lot of the traditional blues stuff and some of the more contemporary rock artists, but personally I grew up listening to a very bizarre mixture of blues, folk music and hair metal from my mom and dad. The first song we did together as The Pine Box Preachers was “Smokestack Lightening” by Howlin’ Wolf, so that should give you an idea of what brought us together as a band.

J: Tom Waits is a big influence too.

S: I try to avoid saying that because Tom Waits is almost untouchable in my mind. He’s an influence, but I’d say he’s more of an inspiration to me.

R: When people ask what we sound like, I say we’re some weird child of Howlin’ Wolf, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin and The Stooges.

W: Steve, as a singer with a gruffer voice, do people ask you about about the Tom Waits influence a lot?

S: People say I must listen to a lot of him, it’s not really annoying, but the most annoying thing is when they ask “Does that hurt your voice?” [laughs] I wouldn’t be doing it if it did!

That voice came from what I used to do musically, I was in a few bands that didn’t really do anything, so most of what I did was busking. I’m from Duluth and I used to play on the Lake Walk like six days a week by myself, so most of my vocal

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Ike Adams (Guitar): I wanted to let Steve take the lead on that question because lyrical content is mostly him, but developing songs comes down to each of our influences and how we reconstitute them. We listen to a lot of different stuff but there’s definitely enough common ground. We never talk about it this way when we actually do it [laughs].

R: Once we find the common groove everything else starts to fit into place and that’s where the real development occurs.

W: You mentioned being in a bar band at one point, and when I saw you guys you did a few covers, what do you look for in a song that’s not an original?

J: That it’s good [laughs].

R: Usually one of us comes to the band and says, “I like this song, we really gotta play this song” and the if we know it the rest of the bands says, “of course, we gotta play that song!”

It’s nice that we have common enough influences that we can always appreciate what everyone brings to the table. We’re down to play tons of different stuff, we have a big repertoire and that comes from just being a blues-bar band, you just amass a ton of different songs to play for people.

W: Alot of bands these days don’t do covers though, is there another reason?

S: When these guys were all in Good as Gone, which was the name of the band before I joined it, there were so many different covers that it was hard to create a cohesive sound and an identity as a band, so when we decided to actually do something with it...

I: Picking new covers was a way to learn what we wanted to sound like.

S: Deciding which songs we thought people would say, “that sounds like a Pine Box Preachers song” to eventually.

A: The thing about the blues too is that a lot of it is just rehashing the old standards.

I: If there’s any “common ground” between us it’s definitely the blues.

R: Blues offers you the opportunity to workshop with each other too, what’s makes a song unique in a lot of blues is the lyrics and maybe an important riff, but usually it’s just the interpreter, you know, like “That was Muddy Waters doin’ it instead of Howlin’ Wolf.”

W: You guys have recorded a couple of live bootlegs and a selftitled album, could you tell us a little about that recording?

S: Well, the live album was just a handheld recorder on a table in the middle of the bar, and the other record we made because Ross and Ike had jobs at Hamline’s recording studio.

J: But that one was also recorded “live,” in the sense that it wasn’t multi-tracked, but it was studio-recorded.

S: It was prodded and poked-at for a while.

R: The vocals and harmonica were overdubbed, but only because we didn’t have enough channels to record it all at once.

Other than that, everything was done in one night.

W: Do you guys like the idea of recording “live” in a room together like that? [general affirmative murmur] S: I think some songs would lend themselves really well to us actually sitting down and orchestrating parts a little more specifically for them, and that just comes from having a specific idea in mind when I bring a song to the band, but some other songs would be served better if we just took two or three tries at it together.

R: I think recording “live” can help capture the energy of the performance that sometimes gets lost in the studio. A lot of those solos on that recording were improvised in the moment, and I still enjoy listening to them today. I think a lot of soul was put into them. I’m a fan of Chess records and all those old lues labels, and they just had guys recording in the same room at the same time.

W: You seem open to sharing the bill with a lot of acts: punk bands, blues bands, cabaret shows, etc. Do you like doing that or is it a necessary evil?

J: Both.

S: It’s enjoyable because it allows us to create different sets for different audiences, and it’s kind of gratifying to know that our sound will fit with a bunch of different flavors of music or whatever, but a lot of it is a necessity thing at this point.

Part of us having so many different directions that we step in makes it hard to be in any one specific scene.

I: Sometimes it’s a little frustrating, it seems kind of hard to develop a niche...

sound & vision

Keit Osadchuk

R: On the other hand, we have basically been welcomed in by most audiences we’ve seen at these different things.

J: Then we went and saw ‘em and Steve met J.D. Wilkes [vocals and harmonica].

A: It’s always really gratifying to be playing with a group of other bands and musicians who are entirely in different genres and squeeze our way on the bill and then explode on stage.

S: After the show I bought him a beer and we started talkin’ about stuff. I told him how I liked that they had that rootsy blues sound but that it was still very 21st century. Then he said, “there’s a lot of bands on MySpace that I kind of pay attention to, there’s a great band from the Twin Cities that friended us a while back called the Pine Box Preachers...”

I was crapping my pants, “Oh...that’s cool...that’s my band actually...” it was great, he stood up and shook my hand and then I literally ran out of First Avenue and called Ike and left like a five minute message.

R: We tend to be the bombastic band on the bill [laughs].

W:If you could share the bill with any current performer, who would you play with?

S: The Legendary Shack Shakers.

A: Reverend Horton Heat!

S: There are bands like that that are a little more rock’n’roll, even though we like the blues stuff it’s tough to play with a straight-up blues band. We could go play a blues festival, but we’d have to take a lot of time and tailor a pretty specific set to that. We would fit, and we’d have a good time with it, but the bands that we play best with tend to straddle more than one genre. The Legendary Shack Shakers were like my initial vision of what I wanted to do with this band and I think a lot of that comes through in the music.

W: Has the Twin Cities been a good place to launch a band like PBP? Have you had any difficulties getting the local music community to pay attention?

I: I feel like this has been the best place in the world for us, not that it’s all been a bed of roses, but I don’t know any other city where we would be as at home and play with as many different acts. We’re able to play with lots of different acts that we wouldn’t elsewhere.

J: At the same, it’s hard because the Twin Cities really fosters the arts but there’s an oversaturation of bands. There’s just so many bands, and not enough places for them to play or always enough people to go out and see them.

A: Also, a lot of rock’n’roll bands tend to fly under the radar here, I think other styles are more popular with the media in the Twin Cities.

W: What’s next for The Pine Box Preachers?

S: We’re hoping to get into the studio before June to record a full album. Besides that, we have shows coming up in February, including a gig at The Fine Line on Febuary 29. Come see us live!

Hey Wake readers! Even if you’ve got crippling ‘Stickitodamanophobia’ (the fear of rock clubs and bars) you can still see The Pine Box Preachers play from the comfort of your own home, thanks to a wonderful little website called Wakemag. org. We’re happy to feature this great band as part of our ongoing web-video series, so fire up your interwebz and watch The Pine Box Preachers play their song “Kerosene” live at Hell’s Kitchen.

www.wakemag.org

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sound & vision

El Camino - The Black Keys Success brings more of the different for the Black Keys

By Justin Miller After leaving the world of alternative blues forever changed with their hard-nose rhythms, wailing vocals, and goddamn catchy riffs that have become the hallmark of their first four albums, the Black Keys’ musical tentacles have started feeling out other sounds at the perfect time. Flying high on the huge success of their last album Brothers, they are at a sonically orgasmic period in a band’s career when they can afford to do whatever they want. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney take what was working so great with their previous release, add on just enough to keep it interesting, and make you ask- “Will they ever stop getting better.” The new album, dubbed El Camino, has the bright layers and shiny production (Danger Mouse is the producer and co-writer) that they experimented with on Attack & Release, and perfected with Brothers. Yet, it doesn’t get old. They strike a familiar tone with their opener and viral sensation “Lonely Boy,” are reminiscent of ‘60s pop like the jangly “Nova Baby,” and seamlessly flow into that sort of R&B sound heard on tracks like “Stop, Stop” and “Sister”; a great example of the band playing around with their sound.

The standard mind-invading riffs mix with a strong backbeat throughout “Sister” while Auerbach showcases some vocal diversity in the choruses. This evolution is molding the Black Keys into more than just the blues-rock band of their past. But El Camino does have something every previous album of theirs has: addictively good replayability. Be warned.

Girl Walk // All Day The ultimate cure for people who think they “don’t like to dance.”

By Alex Lauer Music and dancing are inextricable. From popping and locking to slow dancing, people will always feel the need to move when hearing music. The problem is self-consciousness. Most people get it in their heads that dancing in public is embarrassing or abnormal. With the massive music video that is Girl Walk // All Day, filmmaker Jacob Krupnick has not only created a film that tries to reanimate public spaces, but one that will inspire even your shyest friend to dance.

As you may have guessed from the title, this music video is set to Girl Talk’s mashup album All Day—yes, all 71-minutes of it.

You’re probably thinking, “There’s no way I would sit through a music video that is over an hour long.” But I challenge you: try to watch the first section without going onto the next, and the next, until the end (you can find it split into 12 sections on girlwalkallday.com). It’s more music film than music video because it’s just as engrossing as anything you’ll see in theaters.

The basic premise is that a dancer, the undeniably talented Anne Marsen, gets sick of her boring ballet classes and breaks out to freestyle throughout New York City’s many landscapes—from department stores to the subway. When I say “freestyle,” I mean it. Almost 100% of the dancing in this film is thought of on the spot. But instead of putting these dancers up on a pedestal, Krupnick makes the statement that everyone can do what they’re doing.

What’s even better than all this? The Girl Walk team is currently traveling around the country and hosting events that are 10% film screening, 90% dance party.

Like it? Love it? Go to girlwalkallday.com/request-a-screening to bring them to Minneapolis!

Tinker Tailor Soldier WTF? By maggie foucault If you can make it through the first hour of this film, you will not be disappointed but you may still be quite confused. Nominated for three Oscars, including Best Lead Actor (Gary Oldman), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the film adaptation of the 1973 novel by John le Carré. It follows the attempts of John Smiley (Gary Oldman), a retired spy, to expose a Russian mole in the highest ranks of the British Secret Intelligence Service, nicknamed The Circus. The film gets off to a slow start with flashbacks that are only distinguished as such by Smiley’s different glasses frames and too many SIS employees to keep track of.

Unlike other spy films like The Bourne Identity, violence is rare. However, the violent scenes of the movie are incredibly short and incredibly jarring. For example, the film begins with an undercover meeting with the Russians to confirm the identity of the mole. However, the meeting goes bloodily awry, leading to the shooting of not only the spy, but a breast-feeding mother whose child continues to eat FROM HER DEAD BODY. In the second hour of the film, everything begins falling into place with the return of a spy who had been assumed to be rogue but actually harbors vital information.

Overall, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is worth a watch if you’ve read the book or just enjoy Cold War-style intrigue. What at first comes across as “Grandpa’s telling stories about the war again” quickly becomes a gripping mystery that you hope won’t require the death of all your favorite characters in order to be solved. Oldman definitely deserves his Oscar nomination for the role, but I can’t help wondering how Colin Firth or Benedict Cumberbatch were passed over for the Supporting Actor nom.

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mind’s eye

Small Particles, Big Science

Everything you should know about the LHC but probably don’t

By Mitchell Ambrose

What is colder than outer space on the outside and hotter than the center of the sun on the inside? Here’s a hint: it’s the largest machine in the world and happens to be buried underground. Still stuck? The answer is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC for short), a particle accelerator located beneath the border of France and Switzerland. It is called the Large Hadron Collider because 1) it’s, well, large (the main component of the machine is a 26,659 meter ring), 2) it uses hadrons (a certain type of particle) and 3) it collides the hadrons together.

However, the LHC is simple in name only; everything else about the machine is quite complex. It is the product of years of construction, decades of science, thousands of people, and billions of dollars.

The LHC is the world’s largest particle accelerator. It essentially works by accelerating two counter-rotating hadron beams (kept in circular motion by 9,300 superconducting magnets cooled with liquid helium) to 99.9999991 percent of the speed of light and then forcing the beams to overlap in one of four locations where sophisticated detectors have been built to analyze new particles created in the collisions.

Translation: it smashes fast-moving particles together and then scientists watch the wreckage in a high-tech demolition derby of sorts (popcorn optional but recommended).

If your interest still hasn’t been piqued, here are some other fun facts about the machine: Air is removed from the beam tube such that it is as empty as outer space. The machine collects enough data to fill more than 100,000 DVDs every year. Some of the particle collisions create temperatures that are more than 100,000 times the temperature at the center of the Sun. Components of the machine are kept at -271.3 degrees Celsius or 1.9 Kelvin (i.e. 1.9 degrees above the lowest possible temperature).

You may be wondering at this point why a machine that investigates particles so small as to be invisible to a microscope needs to be as big as a city. The answer is that the size of the machine is essentially determined by the desired collision energy and the strength of the magnets. To reach very high energies, the particles must be moving very fast, but the faster the particles move, the harder it is to keep them moving in a circle with magnets.

The beam collisions are expected to be able to produce a maximum energy of 14 teraelectronvolts (TeV) per particle.

This is actually only equivalent to about one trillionth of the

sean quinn

energy contained in the average granola bar. So is the LHC watching its weight? Not quite. You must keep in mind that there are a massive number of particles in each beam. When they are all accounted for, each beam has about the energy of a 400 ton train travelling at 150 kilometers per hour. This still might not seem like very much, but on the sub-atomic scale it is a massive amount of energy, enough to split apart particles and make new ones.

So what is the purpose of the LHC? It is most well-known for its role in the search for a particle known as the Higgs boson, although there are many other experiments being carried out simultaneously with this search. The Higgs (named after the physicist Peter Higgs) is potentially the key to answering the question of why particles have mass. This may seem like a pointless question; things have mass, that’s just the way things are, right? It turns out that the property of mass is quite mysterious. The Higgs is the particle that is suspected to be responsible for endowing particles with mass, and therefore it is an important missing piece in the puzzle of our understanding of the universe.

The Higgs is sometimes referred to as the “God” particle, although most physicists dislike the name because it is misleading. The person who coined the phrase actually wanted to call it the “Goddam” particle because of how difficult and costly it is to find, but the publishers of his book refused. The existence of the Higgs has not yet been confirmed, but in December of last year, scientists at the LHC announced that two independent experiments (CMS and ATLAS) both observed an anomaly in the same region consistent with the existence of the Higgs. This result has a “significance” of about two sigma, meaning that there is around a five percent chance that the anomaly is just a statistical fluctuation. A significance of five sigma is needed to proclaim a discovery.

Regardless of whether or not the Higgs is found within the next few years, it is an exciting time for particle physics. Nevertheless, however much of a scientific and technological accomplishment the LHC may be, the purpose of the machine may seem esoteric and ultimately of little significance to the non-physicist. This is a valid criticism. After all, perhaps it would be better if all the very intelligent people working at the LHC focused their energies and resources on solving more pressing problems, such as the need to develop alternative energy technologies.

However, particle physics is unique in that it is very difficult to predict what advances and new technologies it will produce. There are many technologies that perhaps never would have been developed if it weren’t for their initial use for particle physics research. To give an example, most hospitals now have small particle accelerators to make radioisotopes, produce X-rays, and treat cancer. In the end, I think it is very healthy for a society to have people probing the fundamental structure of the universe. At the very least, if we ever encounter another intelligent life form in the universe, we might be able to brag about how we figured out everything first.

www.wakemag.org

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mind’s eye

What the Frack!?

Rocks aren’t the only things crackin’

By Kelsey Schwartz josie keifenheim

mixture, which is 98% water, it floats back up to well where it is then collected. The mixture is then pumped out and stored in large containers for further use in new wells.

Not many people like to talk about the United States’ natural gas supplies. They are under the belief that the US doesn’t have any or, if we do, not nearly enough to support the whole country.

In specific areas targeted for hydraulic fracking, there can be dozens of wells that are drilled close together, and because this is not the natural process there are some major hazards that go along with it.

“The truth is the United States has enough oil and natural gas to last us another 100 years,” reported the PGC (Potential Gas Committee) in their 2011 press release. “That is, if we stay at the current consumption rate.”

Just recently the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report stating that it found large amounts of petroleum and other chemical compounds in 17 drinking wells in Pavillion, Wyoming. They do not know the exact cause for the contamination of the underground aquifer, which is an underground reservoir of fresh water, also known as an underground river. The majority of the Earth’s population get their fresh water supplies from these kinds of aquifers. The EPA suspects that the contamination was partly, if not fully, caused by local gas provider EnCana and the company’s fracking practices. The types of chemical found in these wells are almost identical to the chemicals that EnCara uses for fracking, making many people question whether the benefits of fracking outweigh the risks.

So where is all of this natural gas? How can you hide 1,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and not have swarms of energy companies fighting for a piece of it? This is because all the natural gas, oil, and coal that PGC claims is within the US boarders is trapped deep in the earths crust, within shale formations. The typical depth for the natural gas to form in shale formations is 5,000-20,000 feet, which is roughly one to three miles below the surface of the Earth! At this depth there is little to no porosity in the rock, which keeps the natural gas from floating closer to the surface or collecting in large air pockets between rock formations.

According to geologists like Dr. John Curtis, these gas resources are called ‘unconventional’ gas. In the past, this type of natural gas was not typically pursued because at the time it was discovered the US lacked the money and means to extract it efficiently without digging gaping holes in the ground.

In Youngstown, Ohio another local gas company, D & L Energy, is also under the microscope for its fracking procedures.

The town is located in an area of low to no seismic activity, but in the last eight months there have been nine small earthquakes ranging from a magnitude of .5 to 2.7. These of course are not enough to cause major damage, but do cause the ground to tremble enough that people can feel it. Also, even though the magnitudes aren’t enough to cause serious damage, the buildings there are not built to be earthquake resistant. Ohio seismologists found that the majority of the earthquakes epicenters occurred near the location of a 9,000 foot hydraulic fracking well. Even though seismologists aren’t able to prove if the well was the sole cause of the recent earthquakes, they still believe that it played at least a small part.

Geologists and energy industries now have a way of extracting this untapped resource. A system known as “fracking” has just recently been gaining a lot of attention, not only in the energy industry but also with politicians and environmentalists. The reasons for the sudden interest in this practice range from it’s poisoning drinking water to causing earthquakes.

Hydraulic fracking, or fracking as it is more commonly known, is the technique of extracting gas and petroleum from shale formations deep below the Earth’s surface. This process naturally occurs in nature when liquid is pressurized between rocks, causing the rock to break and thus creating fractures, allowing the oil or petroleum to squeeze out and float up to open pockets between the bedrock and Earth’s surface. This takes a lot of time to happen on its own, not to mention that the pressure, amount of liquid, and temperature all have to align perfectly to allow it to happen.

Oil and gas companies accelerate this process by drilling down into the bedrock until they get to the source rock, or the rock that holds the small amounts of natural gas within it.

In most cases the natural gas originates in shale formations.

After the hole (or well as the experts call it) is dug, a long tube is inserted. This tube acts as a barrier so that the fluid being pumped into the well won’t seep into the water table and surrounding soil, potentially contaminating it. It is usually solid, except for the end which is perforated to allow the hydraulic

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fluid to flow easily into the bedrock, while also allowing the oil and natural gas a way to escape after the fracking occurs.

When the tube is inserted, a mixture of water and viscosityincreasing chemicals is pumped through at a slightly higher pressure than the fracturing point of the rock. This causes the rock to break, creating many small fractures. To keep the fractures open they then add sand to the liquid mixture. The small particles of sand act as support beams and hold open the fractures, allowing the trapped oil and natural gas to flow out freely. Since the gas and oil are lighter then the hydraulic

Hydraulic fracking is both a help and a hinderance to the United States and it has become a high-profile topic in environmental circles and even in the Presidential race, causing many people to take sides. President Obama addressed his views on Hydraulic fracking in the State of the Union address on January 24, saying “...we have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy...I am requiring all companies that drill for gas on public land to disclose the chemicals they use, because America will develop this resource without putting the health and safe of our citizens at risk.”

Which side will you choose? Is hydraulic fracking worth it or is it not all what it’s cracked up to be? Only time can tell.

THE BASTARD

www.wakemag.org

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20 (Monda y Night )

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