The Wake Issue 4 Fall 2010

Proposition 19

06

Outer Space

10

Elections, Reviews & More!

09 – 29 november 2010

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial

Business

Editor-in-Chief Maggie Foucault

Business Manager Katie Kolberg

Managing Editor Sophie Frank

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

Section Editors Andrew Larkin, Zach McCormick

I’m not ready for it to be November yet.

Production

This Issue

There is too much left to do this semester for there to be only be one month left!

Production Manager Tarin Gessert

Cover Artist Angie Frisk

Graphic Designers Tarin Gessert, Steph Mertes, Ryan Webert

Illustrators Meher Khan, Rachel Mosey, Keit Osadchuk, Caleigh Souhan

Photography Editor Matt Miranda

Art Director Keit Osadchuk

Copy Editor Agnes Rzepecki

Photographers Kara Allyson, Joe Scott

Contributing Writers Jessica Bies, Kelsey Carlson, Jia Guo, Carter Haaland, Kevin Karner, Joe Kleinschmidt, Zach McCormick, Matt Miranda, Eric Murphy, Matt James Rich, Jon Schober, Leigh Anne Stein, Neale Torgrimson, Hallie Wallace

10:4 ©2010 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.

But that’s the point of this issue: all the things we forget, all the things that creep up on us before we’re ready, all the things we would never remember except for the one dork who never forgets.

Throughout this issue you’ll find articles about things you might not remember, even though they were a REALLY BIG DEAL only a few months ago. The RNC 8, arrested over two years ago, have all finally taken plea bargains; the rocket that NASA crashed into the moon over a year ago has finally yielded the water they were looking for; people are still buying things specifically because they say “green” on them. You might have been able to let these things stay in the periphery of your memory if the Wake staff weren’t filled with those aforementioned dorks.

Luckily, you have us at the Wake. Join us? Mondays at 8:30? Yes please.

Maggie Foucault

Editor-in-Chief

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 ebrew@wakemag.org.

voices

The New Majority

by Eric Murphy

creative commons

There will be an almost unbearable amount of dissection and analysis of last Tuesday’s midterms before the media shifts to dissecting and analyzing the 2012 presidential race. They will be trying to find a narrative for the election, a story to tell viewers about what happened. Who were the big winners?

The Tea Party? The Republicans? No—well, okay, they were some of the big winners. The biggest winner of last Tuesday’s election, though, was cynicism.

The 2010 midterms were a repudiation of governing with substance. It was a validation of political game-playing, cynical manipulation, cheap stunts, and outright lies. And I don’t say this just because the party I preferred lost. There is evidence all over the country.

For example, in West Virginia, Democrat Joe Manchin pulled several cheap political stunts. He ran hard to his right to close the ideological gap between himself and his Republican opponent so that he could run on personal popularity. In one of his ads, he literally shoots a cap-and-trade bill. With a gun.

That was maybe the biggest stunt of the election, and, sure enough, he outperformed his polling and won by ten points.

One narrative that pundits came up with was that the election was a referendum on Obama’s agenda. It was not; it was a referendum on the perception of his agenda. Those who had an interest in a Republican victory mangled and distorted this perception until the facts had been buried and forgotten.

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Take the stimulus bill for an example. It has been spun as “failed” and “job-killing.” Besides the irony in a term like “job-killing stimulus,” these characterizations are simply incorrect. 2.5 to 3 million people are working today that would not be if the Recovery Act had not been passed—unemployment is at 9.5 percent, but would be at 11.5 percent without the stimulus. These are facts, supported by the Congressional Budget Office and Mark Zandi, John McCain’s economic adviser. Zandi has said “the stimulus did exactly what it was intended to do. It was to end the recession and jump start a recovery and it did that.” This is not to mention that roughly a third of the stimulus was tax cuts. These tax cuts were subtracted from paycheck withholding rather than distributed as obvious lump-sum rebate checks because the President’s economic team thought people would be more likely to spend the money this way. Republicans spun the Recovery Act without regard to facts, and now 34 percent of Americans—a plurality—think that the stimulus hurt the economy, and another 31 percent think it made no difference. The political games Republicans played and the lies they told about the stimulus bill succeeded in distorting the facts and deceiving the American people into believing a false narrative about a bill that prevented a depression.

The same is true of health care reform. The two main criticisms against the health care reform bill are that it is expensive and a government overreach. With regard to the first,

it actually reduces the federal deficit by over $13 billion per year; in other words, it saves money. The government overreach criticism specifically refers to the individual mandate—that all Americans must buy health care if they can afford it. This idea was first put forth by conservatives in George Bush Sr.’s administration, and the Republican health care bill proposed during the 1993 health care debates required an individual mandate as well. But cynically opposing anything the Democrats did was more politically beneficial for Republicans. And, as we now see, it paid off hugely.

Political courage, on the other hand, did not pay off. Russ Feingold—one of the most famously bipartisan Senators and the only one to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act—lost to an opponent who said, “I don’t believe this election really is about the details.” There is no clearer example of substance being rejected for bland, generic partisanship.

The 2010 elections showed that a party whose sole purpose is to win elections will do so, even when their actions come at the expense of the American people. Voters rewarded politicians that governed and campaigned based on political calculations and rejected those who governed and campaigned on conscience. Americans chose cynicism, game-playing, manipulation, and distortion this election, but we get to try again in just over 700 days.

voices

Guantanamo Detention Camp Still in Existence

By Matt James Rich

One of the greatest travesties of the Bush administration was the creation of the Camp X-Ray detention camp in southern Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay on Jan. 11, 2002. In just six years’ time the camp (now Camp Delta) had overstayed its welcome according to the world community. By the time of the Obama presidential campaign any policy or practice remaining from the era of post 9/11 fear was to be done away with, or so the campaigning made it seem.

Guantanamo Bay still holds 174 detainees from 24 nations, and while the Obama administration has undertaken the slow process of clearing and trying detainees, some oddities and offenses have come up. The trial of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen tried for killing Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, was met with particular skepticism, as Omar was the first adolescent to be convicted of committing a war crime since World War II. The fact that Omar was charged with a battlefield killing was also out of the ordinary, but the charge was later determined to not fit with the laws of wartime as Khadr wasn’t wearing a uniform (this also led to the charge being downgraded to a domestic law offense). Khadr plead guilty to all charges on Oct. 25th of this year and is set to return to Canada in one year’s time to serve seven more in a domestic prison.

on hold so no detainee saw any trial. In December 2009 a transfer of detainees was made to the Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois despite considerable controversy regarding homeland security and assorted paranoia.

Guantanamo Bay still holds 174 detainees from 24 nations.

With a reformation in the military commission and the fact that detainees are finally seeing transfers out of Guantanamo, there’s a sign of good things to come in the way of repealing a legacy of human right’s violations. We can only hope that the recent change of power in the House of Representatives doesn’t slow down or reverse progress made.

While other convictions and trials haven’t been as complicated as Khadr’s (his being the first trial after the Obama administration’s extensive renovations to a faulty system of prosecution at Guantanamo Bay), there are still problems with placing freed captives somewhere they can resettle. Over 16 nations have taken in cleared detainees, the most recent nation being Germany, which agreed in September to settle two unidentified detainees, one from Palestine, the other from Syria. Albania has taken the largest influx of cleared detainees, with a total of 11 living within Albanian borders.

Though problems related to unorthodox convictions and placing of cleared detainees are contributing to a sad and poorly state of things for U.S. policy, the proceedings are a step up from the those at Guantanamo Bay under the Bush administration, during which a single conviction wasn’t confirmed until 2007, when Australian David Hicks was sentenced to nine months and is now living free back home. This delay occurred because all charges at first were filed under the faulty military commission system created by the Presidential Order. The system was deemed unconstitutional in 2006 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The reformation of this commission, brought on by the Obama administration, is providing greater defendant protection and greater flexibility. The reforms were instigated in November 2009. Up to that point, all tribunals were placed futureatlas.com

caleigh souhan

www.wakemag.org

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voices

Much Ado About Propositions tPoint by kevin karner

The polls are in and the voters of California have rejected Proposition 19. The amendment would have allowed anyone 21 years of age or older to “possess, cultivate or transport marijuana for personal use,” and local governments would have been able to regulate and tax any part of the marijuana industry, from which the RAND Corporation estimates $1.3 billion would have been generated in state revenue. It would still have been illegal to smoke in public or while anyone younger than 21 were present, and driving under the influence would have been treated like a DWI. Your employer could still fire you for a failed drug test.

Proposition 19 held a narrow majority in the polls until mid October when Attorney General Eric Holder (aka Billy Dee Williams) released an ultimately catalytic official statement that reaffirmed that “[the Justice Department] will vigorously enforce the Controlled Substances Act against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”

Such a modest article as this cannot do justice to the futility that is narcotics prohibition, so instead let’s focus on what could have happened had this legislation passed.

For starters, this could have shaved at least a billion dollars off of that nasty $19.9 billion deficit that Californians have going for them. Of course, that’s just California’s problem— the implications of Proposition 19 are of national—perhaps international—consequence.

According to the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, the untaxed retail price of high-quality marijuana could have dropped to as low as $38 per ounce, down from $350. Though the legislation would only apply to California, these prices would not stay within the state. Already the highest domestic exporter of marijuana, cheap Calif-Bud would have flooded the market.

So what if California become the heartland’s hook up?

RAND’s analysis suggests that the Mexican drug cartels, currently making 15 to 26 percent of their revenue from selling marijuana to Americans while supplying 70 percent of the narcotics entering the United States, would be driven out of the game. At $28 an ounce, suddenly smuggling weed across the border would not be a cost effective operation; $2.7 to $9.7 billion is a hell of a bite out of the monopoly controlled by what the Department of Justice calls “the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.”

I’ll admit, Proposition 19 would have ultimately been decided by the Supreme Court and may very well have been overturned, but the fact that it made its way onto the ballot says something about where we are as a society. The stoner culture is inextricably entwined with our national identity; it seems ridiculous that while a movie like the Pineapple Express is last summer’s highest grossing comedy I can still get kicked out of The Hideaway for mistakenly referring to a “water pipe” as a bong. Your parents smoked weed. Your professors smoked weed. The President smoked weed. Carl Sagan was a stoner. And you know what? They all grew up and got a job and became functioning members of society. Some of them are probably still clandestine smokers—the type of people that buy $800 volcano vaporizer and dust them off every now and then with a glass of Chardonnay.

Time to grow up and have our laws reflect the reality of the times, muchachos.

tCounterpoint by matt james rich

When I make an argument about marijuana legalization I am in no way making a value judgment about smoking marijuana.

Such judgments belong to ethical and health debaters, and are only a piece to the puzzle of actual legislation regarding marijuana legalization. Here I intend only to argue against the idea of marijuana legalization as a simple process that would provide immediate settlements to legal discrepancies.

We need only look to the example of states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Looking at examples from two states that voted in favor of medical marijuana, Michigan and California (Michigan legalized medical marijuana in 2008, while Californian legalization dates back to 1996), it is apparent that the issues considered by voters were actual medical need, whether the drug would be properly distributed, and if legalization would cause a devolution into poorly maintained distribution centers allowing for the decline of western civilization or whatever people could be led to believe.

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After 14 years, it is no longer readily apparent just what difficulties California went through to establish numerous certified distribution centers and an organized card system for patients. In Michigan, the process has made clear in only two years that statewide approval of medical marijuana does not open a floodgate for general use.

The state has had an assortment of legal issues to deal with regarding just how to manage marijuana use. Throughout 2009 and 2010, certified marijuana distribution centers and support groups for marijuana users have been raided. The raids and arrests have been brought on by accusations of drug abuse and illegal drug dealing occurring at the sites raided. There are also discrepancies over whether some centers were actually certified and whether or not the support groups were allowed to exist in the first place. There is much more conflict and messy legal reform than anyone imagined in 2008 when Proposition 1 was first approved.

On the note of legalizing all marijuana use (California was the only state voting on that issue in the November 2nd elections) the legal conflict is even more mammoth, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. stated that the U.S. government will continue to prosecute marijuana laws in California even if Proposition 19 passes. The proposition would lead to a conflict regarding states’ rights versus national law (a holdover in actuality, existing since the American Revolution) that would take a national precedent and instigate a state-government versus national-government conflict unseen in quite sometime. Californian secession (despite always seeming imminent) would actually have reason for consideration, which is more than anyone considers when thinking of the legality of marijuana use.

voices

Mother Nature Sells Out

by Joe Kleinschmidt Nike’s famous slogan, “Just do it,” reflects the corporation’s response to the 1988 culture of “cool.” Today, companies are taking cues and profiting from the eco-friendly trend, giving environmentalism a place in capitalism, turning nature into a commodity. Prevailing cultural trends favor a lazy environmentalism, fueling the consumption of “green” products that allow consumers to feel as though they are saving the planet.

The green trend is spurred in part by consumers who feel separated from the natural world. By buying a product claiming to have beneficial environmental ends, a temporary link to the natural world is formed. “The Nature Company,” a company formed in the ’90s, benefited from selling merchandise providing these links. “Nature” enthusiasts willing to pay for plastic snakes, spiders, and toys, as well as a range of educational products, were promised the thrill of the rugged wild within the comfort of air-conditioned, furnished homes. Companies are now extending such fallacies to everyday products.

It doesn’t hurt that green is hip. Leonardo DiCaprio, Pierce Brosnan, and Bono are just a few of the celebrities backing the global warming crusade. Businesses are ensnaring customers lulled into the trend. Some products these green companies push on consumers might have actual in consumption, but production can never equal the preservation of the environment. “Clean coal” may remove harmful sulfur from the source, but the fact remains that burning the coal still releases carbon dioxide.

In a recent study by TerraChoice, an environmental marketing consultant, 95 percent of products claiming to be green or environmentally friendly actually misrepresent the ecological impacts of packaging and production. The agency dubs these subtle ruses as “The Sins of Greenwashing.”

Aside from the fact that green marketing itself may very well be an oxymoron, the public has generally become more conscious of a new, vague sense of environmentalism. Shoppers uncomfortable with true action in the ecological movement may find solace in the fact that their Clorox is “natural.” Even bottled water companies like Dasani produce bottles with 30 percent plant material, possibly swaying consumers into choosing the Dasani brand. Everyone seems to be cashing in on the green movement.

These fallacies have long inundated consumers. Back in the 1960s utility companies spent more than $300 million on advertising anti-pollution findings, eight times what the actual research cost. Companies have long focused on making consumers feel good about their purchases, whether they are accurate or not. Ambiguity in the messages displayed on pack-

keit osadchuk

ages and in commercials often skew the legitimate claims.

Confusing titles like “eco-friendly” and “environmentally friendly” actually mean absolutely nothing in terms of regulation standards among environmental groups, and are often simply words used to convince consumers to consume particular products. When eco-consciousness is hip, corporations want to extend an eco-friendly image to their products, which can be quite dangerous to public knowledge.

Branding and selling an idea isn’t a new tactic in marketing.

Americans are constantly surrounded by companies’ attempts to create a certain feeling, from Starbucks’ community aesthetic to McDonald’s beef-laden happiness. The irony in “greenwashing” lies in the product’s alien juxtaposition within nature. Like Tide or Hidden Valley Ranch, companies subject television viewers to blatant propaganda to hark back to simpler times. “Nature,” as it exists in these advertisements even becomes encapsulated within the bottle of ranch.

Rhetoric and images like these diminish the definition of green, even our concept of nature.

In reality, the best eco-friendly products are not the ones being advertised, like farmers markets, which provide fresh, locally grown food. In the store, government standards like “Energy Star,” “Green Seal,” and “EcoLogo” guide shoppers to genuinely green products.

When purchasers delude themselves into buying in on the socalled eco-friendly market, they may not weigh the other factors that play into the production of their product. When affirmation of buying waste becomes a solution, no action takes place. President Barack Obama recently visited the University and even incorporated “green jobs” in his talking points.

These ideas cannot be contested, but when speakers leave the specifics out, the real solutions actually become farther away.

The public is becoming accustomed to a cheapened version of green and people are readily accepting this commoditized form. Environmentalism doesn’t exist in novelty t-shirts, campaign ads, or slimmer plastic water bottles. Diminishing the value of environmental causes only decreases actual problems on earth.

www.wakemag.org

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cities

Obama’s Rally: “Mobilize the Base” by jia guo

kara allyson

As you probably know from the emails that flooded your U of M inbox, on October 23rd, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the University of Minnesota Field House, to lobby for Mark Dayton in the November 2nd election. “Know that he’s been fighting for the people of his state his entire life,” Obama said of Dayton’s past work.

In the speech, Obama argued that Mark Dayton could strengthen the state’s economy, put people back to work, and save taxpayer dollars by cutting waste and abuse. He spoke of “a brighter future” under a Democrat-led state government, in which new jobs would be created, the economy would improve, and healthcare and education systems would bulk up. “[Obama] stirs up people’s enthusiasm, makes full use of it, and hopes to turn it into Mark Dayton’s vote,” said Kathryn L. Pearson, a Professor in Political Science Department.

Obama’s speech lasted for nearly half an hour, and was punctuated by frequent applause. He stated by analogy that before his administration, the American economy was sluggish, like a car trapped in a ditch; 8 million people lost their jobs, many small businesses went bankrupt, and families couldn’t afford to send their children to college.

The President addressed jobs, economy, school and health— people’s foremost concerns today—making it clear that Obama knows what most people want to hear, and makes use of it to stir up emotions. He convinces people that he is try-

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ing hard to “get the car out of the ditch,” and that though it is hard, it is possible, and that Mark Dayton is the only candidate who could “pull the car out” for Minnesota.

When it comes to the influence of Obama’s speech on the upcoming election, his purpose became just to “mobilize the base,” Pearson says. “His speech mainly plays a part in encouraging people who already intend to vote for Mark Dayton, instead of persuading people to change their opinions to vote for Mark Dayton.”

The President addressed jobs, economy, school and health—making it clear that Obama says what most people want to hear.

The University of Minnesota was the last rally station in Obama’s cross-country campaign trip. He chose the University to draw more young people into the election, especially given that there are many political activists at the U of M. “Obama inspired many people’s enthusiasm in 2008 for the upcoming election,” Professor Kathryn says. “Among them, were young people. This rally should help Mark Dayton in the elections, as Dayton is too serious to inspire people in the same way that Obama can.”

While Obama may have motivated a few Dayton supporters to actually go out and vote, the election results show that Obama’s speech did not affect students who were already planning on voting for Emmer or Horner.

Until the week before the election, Mark Dayton led Republican opponent Tom Emmer by 7 and 10 percentage points in the governor’s race. In addition, the chance of each candidate winning based on 100,000 simulations with random variation in the local and national political environment conducted before the election showed Mark Dayton at 85.1% while Tom Emmer had 14.9%, according to the Minnesota Independent News Network.

President Obama also visited universities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada to rally students to vote Democrat. However, in each of these states the Gubernatorial race was either won by the republican candidate or was so close that votes are being recounted. In all but Nevada, the Senate race was also won by the Republican candidate. While many of these election results are still being held up by recounts, these preliminary results illustrate the failure of Obama’s get out the vote campaign for the 2010 elections.

With Dayton leading Emmer by only 9,000 votes on election day, it seems Obama’s rally may not have had the desired effect. In Minnesota this means we are again stuck in a toofamiliar recount limbo.

cities

Fair Trade vs.

Direct Trade

by Kevin Karner

From 1962 through the 1980s, the global coffee-bean market was regulated by the International Coffee Agreement, a contract that established annual export quotas and commodity prices between a consortium of exporting countries—think OPEC for coffee. The system wasn’t perfect, or the most efficient, but it was a valuable regulatory framework—when global prices rose, quotas were increased to bring the price down and vice versa. After its disbandment in 1990, cheap Vietnamese coffee flooded the market and drove coffee prices down to all time lows. There was a consolidation of power between agri-businesses like Neumann, Volcafe, ED & F Man, and Cargill, while the decade saw banks like Goldman Sachs become heavily involved in commodity futures markets. As a result, the global price of coffee beans became subject to market speculation rather than actual supply and demand.

By 2000, 60 percent of coffee sale profits went to Sara Lee, Proctor & Gamble, Philip Morris, and Nestle. This turned out to be a devastating development for three quarters of the world’s coffee growers who farm on less than 25 acres each.

In the United States, the government extensively subsidizes domestic crops, allowing U.S. farmers to sell otherwise impossibly cheap produce. Poorer governments—in countries whose economies essentially depend on agriculture—don’t have this capability. By 1995, the proportion of income going to producers had fallen to 13 percent, while consuming countries were retaining 78 percent. Over the next five years the average price paid to Mexican producers dropped from $1.49 to a hundred-year low of 47 cents per pound, forcing these farmers into extreme poverty and, as was the case with many South American agriculturists, encouraging them to illegally migrate north or to convert their fields to coca or other narcotic fields.

The greatest strength of the fair trade practice is also the source of its greatest criticism. As the number of producer applicants increased and the organization expanded, it became necessary for the FLO to charge producers for certification costs in order to ensure the integrity of the label. Additionally, for enforcement’s sake, producers must be part of farmer cooperatives—a requirement that some have called overly exclusionary.

An alternative to the bureaucracy of the Fairtrade certification is direct trade. Direct trade roasters negotiate directly with independent farmers, bypassing the bureaucratic setbacks involved with a comprehensive process such as with the FLO. This means that the specifics of the “direct trade” in question vary from roaster to roaster, placing the burden to research the circumstances of the transaction and the purported practices of that particular company on the consumer.

One distinct advantage of a direct trade system is that this method is rewards producers of gourmet coffees. While Fairtrade guarantees a price minimum, it does not take into consideration the varying levels of coffee quality and so there is no incentive for farmers in a cooperative to invest the resources necessary to grow coffee above the necessary standard.

One example is a company like Dunn Bros. Coffee which describes itself as an “inclusive coffee buyer” that buys directly from individual growers, both certified and not. Their compa-

ny website uses their recent contract with farmers in Burundi as an example of a case where, for a variety of reasons, coffee farmers were not in the position to seek any sort of formal certification: “If we were to simply buy only Fairtrade certified coffee, we would not only be missing the opportunity to bring to market some new and wonderful tasting coffee, but we would be excluding farmers who work just as hard, and deserve just as much as those who can afford and/or have the opportunity to become certified….We pay high prices for high-quality coffee that has been sustainably produced from growers we know.”

While a praiseworthy alternative, direct trade is not a replacement for fair trade—its inherent flexibility allows the term to be co-opted too easily by roasters looking to cash in on the ethical trend. The notion of ethical coffee is catching on. Starbucks bought 20 million pounds of Fairtrade coffee in 2007, and big box retailers like Wal-Mart are ordering unprecedented amounts to meet growing consumer demand. As fair trade grows, Fairtrade will need to adjust its policies accordingly, in order to maintain a balance between affordability and integrity—an evolution that may leave good farmers in the dust. In this sense, more inclusive models like direct trade, while perhaps not explicitly concerned with developing a broader social infrastructure like the FLO attempts, are crucial to achieving the original goal of shifting the consumer’s paradigm in a more responsible direction.

Welcome to the free market: a system where, in the name of bargain coffee, a handful of large companies reap the vast benefit of a global trade, while everyone in the market cannibalizes each other for the scraps—collateral damage be damned.

But there is another option provided by Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), a nonprofit association of labeling organizations, traders, and independent consultants. Here, they are part of Transfair USA. To qualify for the Fairtrade label, independent farmer cooperatives must be deemed to have provided “safe working conditions and living wages,” prohibited child labor and discriminatory practices, and must actively contribute to the development of their local community. Importers under the label must guarantee to pay whichever is higher—a FLO price floor based on how much the farmer yielded or the regular market price. On top of this, importers pay 10 cents toward the grower’s community development fund and a 20-cent bonus if the coffee was certified as organic—thereby providing incentives for sustainable farming practices without mandating them.

With these extra expenses, how could an importer hope to make a profit? Instead of spending extra for the taste, consumers are guaranteed that their money is making a difference in the lives of strangers in far-away countries. creative commons

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feature

The Watering Hole

A Galaxy Far Far Away

by Jessica Bies

by Carter Haaland

When the Lunar Prospector detected hydrogen signatures radiating from the moon’s lunar poles in 1999, NASA deliberately crashed the spacecraft into a crater located near the southern pole in an attempt to determine whether or not Earth’s backdoor neighbor was holding out on us and had been hiding water in those rarely seen depths. This attempt was unsuccessful.

In 2009, the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured several faint new galaxy candidates. These vague blinks of light emerged from the opaque hydrogen haze that has, until recently, obstructed our understanding of the universe at its earliest stages. These potentially field-altering discoveries seem to have been swept under the rug once the initial hype died down. This was due to the fact that these galaxies lacked validity without an accurate distance measurement.

Nearly ten years later, on June 18, 2009, the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas V rocket with the sole mission of finding out once and for all whether or not the moon was actually home to some of that liquid gold, water.

After orbiting the earth for several months, LCROSS swung its way past the moon and shot a rocket into the Cabeus crater before slamming itself down next to it. Back on Earth, amateur astronomers were unimpressed when the dual impact failed to produce a visible debris plume, but scientists observed the crash using spectroscopic telescopes that measure the various properties of light to identify different materials.

By November, the LCROSS team was able to confirm that there was indeed water on the moon. This October, LCROSS also confirmed the presence of several other compounds in the plumes, which suggest that the Cabeus crater is actually the site of a comet impact.

“These days we are finding water in a number of interesting places in the solar system, heretofore thought to be devoid of interesting material,” said University of Minnesota Professor, Dr. Charles Woodward, part of the ground-based observation team working on the LCROSS project.

Woodward said the implications of finding water on the moon are interesting in more than one way. According to Woodward, the findings of the LCROSS project suggest that in the future astronauts may be able to build permanent self-sustaining lunar habitats. In addition, LCROSS members found an abundance of other materials in the plume that suggest that the moon may actually go through some sort of active water cycle. If this is true, it is not too much of a stretch to assume that the same processes are taking place on other moons in our galaxy, like on Jupiter and Saturn’s moons, Europa and Enceladus respectively. This theory opens up several new areas of research and exploration.

Ultimately, if able to understand the different processes and environments that allow water to form in space, scientists can plan for far larger space missions in the near future. In turn, the moon, which previously served no other purpose than to adorn the night sky, may very well become the stepping stone to a new age of space exploration.

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Earlier this month these galaxy candidates resurfaced when a group of European astronomers successfully measured the distance to the most remote galaxy detected yet. The team of astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s oh so accurately named Very Large Telescope (VLT) to analyze the faint glow. The light collecting capabilities of VLT were combined with the infrared spectroscopic instrument known as SINFONI. After 16 hours of observation and two months of meticulous data analysis, the team confirmed that it was viewing the galaxy known as UDFy-38135539 13.1 billion years ago when the universe was a mere 600 million years old.

Measuring the distance of galaxies is an extremely difficult process that is done using spectroscopy, which is, in Layman’s terms, quantifiable measurement gathered from the study of wavelengths and frequency. An in depth report on the discovery was published in Nature, the highly acclaimed international journal of science, on Oct. 21st.

Beyond the fact that it is pretty rad to have made the discovery of a galaxy that is, relative to the life span of the universe, “a four-year-old boy in the life span of an adult,” there are also intriguing scientific implications. The universe was not transparent in its earliest stages due to a hydrogen fog that was able to absorb ultraviolet light. This fog was cleared out by the expansion of young galaxies. The measurement of UDFy-38135539 confirms the fact that we are now studying one of the galaxies that was integral to the clearing of the hydrogen fog. The exponential expansion of technology is now allowing us to understand more and more the very beginning of our universe.

feature

US Abandons the Moon, Hope

by Maggie Foucault Ah, outer space. The final frontier, orbits, gravity, and other science words. Since the dawn of time, man has been awed by the infinite galaxy-filled blackness that lies above us and has attempted numerous times to master it. Orbiting the Earth every 24 hours, visible from every country in the world, the moon is the perfect strategic point in space. With the recent discovery of usable water and other materials on our shiny white friend, the strategic importance of the moon has been magnified.

None of this seems to matter to the Obama administration, however. Earlier this year, Congress voted to cut the Constellation program, a NASA project that would have returned United States astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972. Though seen as a mostly symbolic gesture to past exploration at the time, new discoveries of usable materials on the moon, specifically usable water that could support lunar settlements, have made this project all the more necessary.

Professor Roberta Humphreys, a professor at the University of Minnesota for nearly 30 years, says she is frustrated and deeply disappointed with the Obama administration’s take on space missions. The administration has also abandoned the most recent shuttle program, forcing U.S. astronauts to buy seats on other countries’ shuttles, a practice Humphreys calls “disgusting.”

“In most peoples views, NASA “wastes” too much money on manned space flight,” says Humphreys. Robots have become increasingly popular, sent to Mars on numerous missions to gather information about the planet. There are times when humans are still required, however, particularly in situations where a “human decision” is necessary. When robots encounter problems, the controllers on Earth are forced to quickly reprogram the robot and hope that the next time around goes better, a tedious and sometimes ineffective process. Humphreys own service to the Space Telescope Institute Council has added to her opinion on robotic space missions, “Could we have done the servicing mission on the Hubble (Space Telescope) with robots? I don’t think so.”

According to Humphreys, manned space flight is still a worthwhile investment, “Ninety percent of the time a project doesn’t need humans, but when it does, you’re glad they are there.” Another solution to the funding problem is allowing private companies to develop new technology for use by NASA. But this too poses a problem. As Humphreys points out, “The advantage of NASA is that it is a government entity and not for profit. The primary mission is to work safely.”

Humphreys worries that private companies allowed to work without the oversight of NASA will be more interested in profit than in the safety of the astronauts using their creations.

Implementing NASA oversight would cost a similar of money as maintaining the program proper, however, which makes it an unlikely solution.

With Canada, the European Union, and even China developing new space technology and continuing to fund manned space flight, the United States needs to follow suit or be left in the moon dust.

www.wakemag.org

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cities

Streetcars

by Kelsey Carlson Streetcars: they came, they evolved, they conquered. And then they were hit by a whole slew of buses. But now, the near extinct Minneapolis mode of transportation may be making an unexpected comeback.

After years of persuasion, City Council finally approved the implementation of a long-term streetcar network. March marked the beginning of a 20 to 50 year plan to rebuild seven streetcar routes in and around the metro area. The metro area already claims an intricate bus system, and plans for the expansion of a light rail are in progress, so a third mode of transportation may seem excessive. The fact that this proposed mode of transportation would be the nostalgia-inducing streetcar seems almost overindulgent. But streetcars today are a far cry from the horse-drawn relics and quaint tourist boxcars that hark back to the 1800s.

In national studies, modern streetcars have proven to draw in 40 percent more riders than busses. The return of the streetcar may be scoffed at for its old-fashioned notions, but ironically, it’s the very simplicity of the “old-fashioned” streetcar that makes it more attractive than the bus. New riders or tourists who worry about climbing onto the wrong bus

can have absolute trust that they are taking the correct route on a streetcar. They need only look at the tracks bolted to the ground and pick the direction they want to go. In addition to simplifying travel, the set routes also help to catalyze development in communities around the transportation. A permanent route and high frequency of stops means a more consistent flow of human traffic than the light rail can provide. More than this, it’s the increased environmental efficiency of the streetcar that makes it attractive to Minnesota public transportation planners. Streetcars promise to connect Minneapolis to the neighborhoods and cities around it while staying 95 percent cleaner than diesel buses.

maneuver out of possible backups or traffic jams like buses can. In addition, the streetcar consumes hefty amounts of street space and could elbow out room for bikers and cause congestion on the road.

Minneapolis is already dealing with some loose transportation threads as promised light rails and new bus lanes remain unfinished. The implementation of a streetcar system will mean another “work-in-progress” in the streets of Minneapolis. There’s a feeling of contentment that comes from checking a completed task off a list. It’s a shame city transportation planners can’t seem to experience it.

But in a time when money is tight, is the resurrection of ye olde streetcar something worth investing close to $500 million in? Federal funding from grants is allotted to cover half of the cost, but that still leaves much to be accounted for. According to Access Minneapolis, the city’s working plan for transportation reform, the remaining 50 percent of funds would be attained through a 12.5 percent increase in meter fees and a $50 annual surcharge on public and commercial parking spaces for those within the “streetcar benefit zones.”

Though streetcars can provide more consistency and comfort than buses, they can’t promise a faster trip. Streetcars run in the street with normal traffic so there is no way for them to guy wagner

Howdy Neighbor

by Leigh Anne Stein

On Oct. 21, the city of Minneapolis unveiled a neighborhood project at a Community Action of Minneapolis building. The new welcome initiative, called “Hello Neighbor,” asks volunteers to go out into their communities and personally greet recent immigrants to their area.

The Hello Neighbor project provides volunteers with gift bags for the new members of the community: tote bags stuffed with “Tap Minnesota” water bottles, prepaid calling cards, coupons for nearby businesses, and information about city services.

The goal is to reach 500 new residents in the Minneapolis neighborhoods within the first year of the Hello Neighbor program. Then the city can start thinking about branching out to welcome all new residents to the area. Hello Neighbor is meant to be a “holistic effort to establish a human connection with newly arrived immigrants at an early stage with the hope that new residents will learn about city services and resources, feel a part of the community, connect with civic and neighborhood organizations, and improve their overall quality of life,” according to the Neighborhood and Community Relations department.

Hopefully volunteers heading out this month will start their welcome campaign by shaking off the image the comment boards of the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, KSTP, and other websites give of immigrants.

Meher Khan

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On the Star Tribune’s message board under its short article on Hello Neighbor, six of six people “liked” the following comment: “They should include an English dictionary in that care package, as well as a driving manual.”

Another person wrote: “Really? How about including a bus ticket to Chicago, or better yet New York,” and “Can’t we just mail it to them, with their welfare check?”

With that sort of sentiment (and I warn you those are tame comments), it’s no wonder the city of Minneapolis decided to invest in a welcome program.

The Hello Neighbor program got the go-ahead in January 2010, when the city council authorized the Neighborhood and Community Relations department to accept a $100,000 grant from the Bush Foundation for the pilot program.

The beige canvas totes and the distribution materials volunteers will hand out, including the large folder full of city services information, are emblazoned with a blue and green earth and Minneapolis skyline logo designed by student Tousue Vang from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

A blue water design on the back of the tote will be printed with the word “welcome” in English, Oromo, and Somali.

Mayor Rybak’s office, the Neighborhood and Community Relations department, City Council Vice President Robert Liligren, and Council Member Cam Gordon were all involved in the launch of Hello Neighbor.

To get involved in the program, contact Ahmed Muhumud, the Access and Outreach Manager with the Neighborhood and Community Relations department: ahmed.muhumud@ ci.minneapolis.mn.us. or call his office at 612.673.2162.

cities

RNC 8

by Hallie Wallace

matt miranda

The RNC 8 case is finally over. On Oct. 19th, the remaining four defendants accepted a gross misdemeanor plea agreement carrying no jail time. For those not up to date on leftist activist causes and activities, the RNC 8 is a group of eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, all of whom were preemptively arrested prior to the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Held by law enforcement officials throughout the weekend of the convention, the eight were then charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism under the Minnesota PATRIOT Act. Later in the year, state prosecutors added charges of conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property in furtherance of terrorism, as well as charges without relation to terrorism. These new charges left the defendants with four felony charges apiece.

As a result of outside pressure from the Twin Cities community and various groups around the country, prosecutors removed the charges of terrorism in early 2009. In August 2010, the first defendant accepted a plea bargain agreeing to a single gross misdemeanor charge, and began serving a 91-day jail sentence on Oct. 20. Later in September the prosecution, due to a lack of supporting evidence, dropped the charges against three of the RNC 8. Before taking the plea agreement last month, the four remaining defendants were scheduled to begin their trial on Oct. 25.

Max Specktor, the youngest of the eight activists, is a University of Minnesota student taking a hiatus from his studies to accommodate the time commitments the trial would have entailed. Specktor, who is active in other groups around the Twin Cities including the MARS Collective and the Jimmy John’s Workers’ Union, has mixed feelings about taking the

plea bargain. “On one hand, it would have been nice to be able to make our case in court,” he said, “But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have trusted a jury hearing our case. It wouldn’t have necessarily been a jury of our peers, and probably wouldn’t have been a fair trial.”

“My only hope is that out of this chaos, we can maintain the wisdom and foresight to build the world we wish to see.”

As part of his plea agreement, Specktor will be on probation for one year, and is required to complete 100 hours of community service, a task that comes naturally to him. In his pre-sentencing statement, read before the judge on Oct. 19th, Specktor said, “I refuse to sleepwalk through life. Instead, I’ve chosen to celebrate life and fight to defend it. In practice, this means I am an active participant in my community, and work to provide resources to assist in supporting that community. In these hard times, I believe that communities need to learn how to support themselves and I am committed to furthering that goal.”

friends of the rnc8

the world in general. Nathanael Secor, another member of the RNC 8, told the judge, “The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office and other cooperating agencies broke down unlocked doors and used violence and threats for the political purpose of repressing activists and agitators working to expose the injustices of colonial wars and environmental destruction.

We are told this is called ‘keeping the peace’ and was done in the name of ‘justice,’ yet when other people find it necessary to go beyond the sanctioned means of protest, they are called ‘terrorists’” He added, “We must seize every opportunity to abolish these institutions of domination. We must be prepared to firmly face the politics of business-as-usual. And we must continue to work for nothing less than full liberation.”

The legacy of the RNC 8 case will most likely hang over the leftist community for a long time to come. As it took place in the Twin Cities, it shook up many people locally, and opened their eyes to the repression of dissent that goes on every day in the United States. It also brought together a strong and committed group of people, the Friends of the RNC 8, to defend the rights of political and social activists. If nothing else, the case has fired up another generation of people drawn to causes of peace and justice. As Max Specktor said in his presentencing statement, “My only hope is that out of this chaos, we can maintain the wisdom and foresight to build the world we wish to see.”

The other three defendants also made statements at the sentencing, and used the time to make political and social observations about the trial, as well as the current state of

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13

sound & vision

Joe Scott

Free Entertainment!

by Leigh Anne Stein In the Minneapolis theatre district there is a tall office building just like any other office building. It has a front desk security guard and large polished glass windows. Short sidewalks connect it to similar office buildings off LaSalle Avenue. There’s a dentist’s office next door and a hotel across the street.

It may not look special, but this building is where the Hennepin Theatre Trust employees make magic happen. From starting a new Broadway lecture series, to lining up an impressive list of shows for the 2010-2011 season, to continuing musical theatre programs for students; the Trust has been busy.

Luckily for college students, one of the Trust’s magical acts is convincing new shows to offer student rush tickets. A “rush,” aka a ticket that goes on sale two hours before a show starts, is cash only, costs a set price, and requires standing in line outside the box office with a valid student ID to purchase up to two.

“Usually rushes only cost between $20 to $30 a ticket,” said Anna Pitera, marketing associate and street team coordinator at the Hennepin Theatre Trust. “Regularly, box office tickets can be up to $130 depending on the show. And you get the best available seats at the time, so you usually get a great deal,” Pitera said. “We push for every show to have a student rush.

With higher profile shows sometimes they don’t have extra tickets. But they do usually offer a lottery in place of a rush.”

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For the single weekend showing of the coming of age musical Spring Awakening, showing Nov. 6 and 7, rushing allowed students to buy $20 tickets for seats that could have cost up to $60 originally. It’s a good deal, and we college students love a good deal, though standing in line for hours before a show starts is no guarantee of rush tickets.

“Popular rushes can be lined up down the block and around the corner,” Pitera said. When Avenue Q was in town over the summer, “People started lining up 2 to 3 hours before the box office opened. It’s expected when we have shows targeted to young people,” she said.

Another way to get discounted tickets, or in this case FREE tickets, without standing in line is to join one of Pitera’s street teams. Like many shows, Spring Awakening is a touring performance. So, to get the word out about its imminent arrival, local street teams organize to flier areas, do grassroots publicity, and answer questions in the community about the show.

“The Spring Awakening street team is called ‘The Guilty Ones,’” Pitera said, “It’s a play off one of the song lyrics. The idea started in New York City at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre where young people loved the show and wanted to get the word out. The idea grew and blossomed.”

The Guilty Ones this year in Minneapolis were asked to flier in eight different places, put posters up in 10 places, and use their social media connections to “get the word out to personal networks.” They met twice with the marketing team at Hennepin Theatre Trust offices, first to talk about the show

and find out what was required to receive free tickets, and later to check in with the team and report their progress.

“You need to continually find creative ways to reach students,” Pitera said. “Using theater fans’ enthusiasm is the most beneficial thing for getting the word out.”

Members of The Guilty Ones this year also received a special perk: two on-stage seats. Opportunities like that aren’t made available to the public. They’re to reward those who work hard to help out the theatres.

The next big upcoming show that will include a student rush is Hair. Presale tickets have already started appearing on the Trust’s social media pages. Previously there were competitions on Twitter including “what would be your monster name” where winners received free tickets. So keep your Internet eyes open. You can find the Trust online at facebook. com/htt and twitter.com/hennepintheatre.

In January Pitera will be sending out a call for a Hair street team. Teams tend to be 10 to 15 people. If you’re interested in joining, keep an eye out online and feel free to email for more information and join a student mailing list at StreetTeam@ HennepinTheatreTrust.org.

A nonprofit organization, Hennepin Theatre Trust is the owner of Pantages, State, and Orpheum Theatres. Find out more online and look up shows at www.hennepintheatretrust.com.

Search for rush opportunities at other venues around the Twin Cities by visiting their websites or calling ticket offices.

sound & vision

The Many Faces of Michael Larsen

By Alex Lauer

Rachel Mosey

When most people die, they instantly become more pure in the eyes of society. The grouchy lady down the street who swears at little kids becomes one of the most upstanding citizens, the bully who made high school a living hell for certain kids becomes the lion-hearted model student, and the mediocre become the extraordinary. While I don’t usually have a problem with this, it has turned the celebration of the lives of the departed into a monotonous ordeal with a stale format. If everyone is sanctified upon death it becomes easier and easier to overlook those who should be remembered, those who have left a fire on this earth that should be felt by all, and leave them solely in the memories of family members, if that. I fear that fate for local revolutionary and recently departed Michael Larsen.

On Oct. 17th, 2010, Michael Larsen, more commonly known as the Eyedea half of Twin Cities hip-hop group Eyedea & Abilities, was pronounced dead. While there are journalists, fans, and haters out there prying open every door and floorboard in search of the cause of death, you won’t find that anywhere here, so if that is what you’re craving you might as well give up now. This isn’t sensationalism; this is a remembrance, a look into his uncommon life rather than his unfortunate death.

While I know more about Eyedea than the average college student, I did not have a personal relationship with him, leaving me with a scarcity of knowledge about who he really was and how he influenced those around him. To truly gain some insight into this lost artist, I looked to friends close to him, one deeply embedded in hip-hop culture, b-boy Jason Noer, and one from another way of life, fellow emcee Chris Keller.

As mentioned before, Michael Larsen is best known for his work in the hip-hop duo Eyedea & Abilities, but to even try and grasp a trace of who he was requires quite a bit more knowledge. An essential part of his legend comes from his battle emcee background. Most notably, people recognize him for winning Blaze Battle, a national emcee freestyle competition that was aired on HBO in 2000, when he was still underage. This aspect became an inseparable force throughout his life. While most popular emcees of our time shy away from this form of expression, undoubtedly because of its degree of difficulty and uncertainty, Michael put an overwhelming emphasis on this art, including it in his live shows and cyphering frequently with friends. But there was far more to Eyedea than just battle rap and freestyle talent. Chris Keller, or Kristoff Krane, when performing, make sure that its not the only thing he is remembered for, offering up this advice to those who want to know more: “If you find something appealing in [Michael], then look deeply into his whole world and his whole approach.” This doesn’t require much effort either, for Larsen has released music under at least five different names: The Sixth Sense, Oliver Hart, Face Candy, Carbon Carousel, and Eyedea & Abilities. Within these you can find diversity uncommon to traditional emcees, for Carbon Carousel was an alternative/grunge rock group, Face Candy was an improvisational rap/jazz group featuring Chris Keller and others, and Larsen has been known to reach into all aspects of hip hop, too. Well-respected b-boy Jason Noer noticed this upon their first meeting: “I met him as a b-boy, he had mad moves, and

he was rhyming all the time.” It didn’t stop there either. As their friendship progressed, Jason noticed how Larsen was unlike anyone else within hip-hop culture, “Mikey was different because he evolved much faster . . . I still define myself as a b-boy and a hardcore hip-hop purist. Mike went beyond that . . .[he] was always interested in things outside of hip-hop. He only battled to get people to listen to E & A’s first album.” The talent he is known for most isn’t even the thing he was most passionate about.

Chris spoke about the first time he hung out with Michael, how he had invited him over to freestyle with him and another local rapper, Carnage. “He was very impressed with the way that I freestyled . . . I wasn’t brought up in the b-boy, hiphop world . . . so I didn’t fall for that sort of stuff and I think that that’s what initially caught his attention, that he could learn something from me, but in return he was naturally a teacher to anybody he was in a relationship with,” Chris said.

Michael brought Chris into the hip-hop world and honed his musical skills, while Chris helped him look at music from new perspectives. In a way, Michael has passed on this developing form of hip hop onto Chris, one that doesn’t hold onto certain traditions, one that is free to flow, change, and incorporate new elements. It is devastating that at only 28, Michael had to leave this world, but with the short time that he had, it is remarkable what was accomplished. He has left his mark within the people here, and if it isn’t evident now, keep an eye out and an ear open, because it will be.

www.wakemag.org

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sound & vision

Enter the Void

By Alex Lauer

Elivs Costello National Ransom

By Zach McCormick

Two Escobars

By Neale Torgrimson

When I saw a trailer for Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void I immediately thought it was the next step in cinema, a revolution.

I thought wrong. This film is what you would get if you took a disturbingly perverted high-school dropout who smokes too much weed and gave him an unlimited budget to make a movie. The amount of repeated shots, the unacceptably weak acting, and the fact that Noé must have missed the lesson on “leaving things up to the imagination” make the film seem like a void that repels anything that could be deemed artistic, much less revolutionary. The drug use portrayed isn’t even the worst part; a sixth of this movie is basically porn. I’m not being sensitive either, for I’ve seen Requiem for a Dream and Teeth, both graphic and disturbing films, and found some

merit within both of them, but not here. The extent to which Noé goes to show so many sex scenes negates any meaning they could have held. I would say this is joke, that Noé is trying to pull a fast one, but then there are all the references to Freudian theory (i.e. psychosexual development, Oedipus Complex). You know what, maybe there is some merit here!

Oh wait, that’s right, these subjects have been so heavily discussed for that last 100 years that this film centering around them, and bringing nothing new to the table, shows just how worthless and uninspired this film really is.

At this point in his career our venerable Mr. Costello has traversed through so many musical styles that recent albums have felt like more of a pretense for genre exploration than anything. National Ransom ups the ante this outing with sprawling ambition and a dose of that old Elvis magic.

country tearjerkers like “That’s Not the Part of Him You’re Leaving.” Not to neglect the strong playing on the album’s bluegrass and western-swing portions by Elvis’ crack string sextet The Sugarcanes, or the excellent rhythm section that the Impostors provide for country rockers.

The record kicks off with a bass-heavy roots rocker that sounds like a leftover Attractions b-side, thanks to the man himself Steve Nieve being called back up to fill organ duties.

Fans of Costello’s earlier work shouldn’t get too excited, however. From the gypsy folk jazz of the second cut “Jimmy Standing in the Rain” onward, the King takes his listeners on a wild scattershot of his past dalliances. There are thick strings and overtones of Costello’s classical dabbling on tracks like “Stations of the Cross” that brush against stately

If you’re just now catching on, National Ransom is a big record, with a lush wall of sound dynamic that occasionally works against it. The record is just a bit too long, and certain cuts sound like they would benefit from the tighter, edgier instrumentation of Costello’s earlier work. Still, it’s a masterfully composed set of songs from a titan of songwriting. We can nitpick, but at the end of the day National Ransom is still a must-have for the King’s loyal subjects.

In the 1994 World Cup, tournament favorite Colombia faced the United States. Aided by an own goal by defender Andres Escobar, the United States beat the Colombians 2-1 and shocked the world. But this was no “Miracle on ice,” as Escobar was murdered days later in retaliation for his mistakes on the pitch. The Two Escobars uses the incident to reflect on Escobar and the golden age of Colombian soccer, as well as the cocaine trade and the life of history’s most notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar.

The film does an excellent job connecting Andres and Pablo, whose humane traits (a love of soccer and a genuine compassion for the poor and underprivileged) are given as much focus as those more insidious. Using interviews with family members, teammates, underworld associates, and govern-

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ment officials, the film chronicles two tragedies: the death of Andres and the state of violence in Colombia. A powerful sense of dread lingers over the segments involving Andres, as the audience knows his fate and how his dreams of starting a family, playing in Italy, and of a peaceful Colombia will remain painfully unfulfilled. The other tragedy involves Colombia itself, as it was dying with Pablo; rival cartels, the government, and the paramilitary group Los Pepes were all locked in a brutal and ruthless war. Colombians could take pride in their national team, but with laundered drug money and gambling funding it, not even sport could provide escape.

Capable of portraying tragedies and complexities small and large, The Two Escobars is a remarkable documentary.

sound & vision

3 Artists You Should Know About by jon schober

ZOLA JESUS We haven’t had an artist since Xiu Xiu who is more depressing than Zola Jesus. It’s very fitting; after all, Nika Roza collaborated with Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart in the project Former Ghosts. What sets Zola apart though is how young she is: 21-years-old and just now graduating with a double major from a school in Wisconsin, in the state where she grew up.

She is no stranger to the local Midwest scene, and her sound which can best be described as gothic rock has not been delved into with such veracity and finesse until now. With lyrics about eminent world destruction and hopelessness, it might seem you’ll want to cry by the time you finish listening to one song. Fortunately, the beats she creates are so stellar and reminiscent of Twin Cities bands like Lookbook or Digitata that you end up forgetting what she is saying and just get lost in the perpetual filter of lo-fi buzz coming at you.

Warpaint This LA-based band has been around for ages, but if you don’t live on the West Coast, you’ve probably never heard of them. Like any band that has torn up a local scene for years, more often than not, no one more than 50 miles from the band has heard of them. Good thing Warpaint finally released some tangible material and signed to a major label, then. Their single “Undertow” has been floating across the web for a while, and debut album The Fool was already released in Europe to uniform critical acclaim. They’ve toured with Yeasayer, The xx, Vampire Weekend, and Little Joy, and their haunting, slow melodies coupled with Tegan and Sara-ish dual vocals will really make this act a mainstay for years to come. If you aren’t sold, the band features a former member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yes, that might still not sell you on them, but you gotta admit that is pretty interesting.

Fool’s Gold While it’s been a year since their debut album, Fool’s Gold, has remixed everyone who is anyone in the indie world. The cool thing about the band’s remixes is that they aren’t steeped in electronica like typical reworks; instead, Fool’s Gold utilizes dozens of instruments and their cultural backgrounds to remix songs with an international flair. Their self-titled debut from last year was a total sleeper, and I haven’t discovered it until now. Poor decision on my part, as this was definitely one of the best albums of last year by a long shot. Their tunes hearken so full-heartedly to ethnic musical traditions that it’s difficult to not enjoy them and become cultured in the process. They are epic jams, every song verging on five minutes of sonic bliss, and each part from the 11 members in Fool’s Gold is composed seamlessly with the next. It’s insane how rich these compositions are.

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sound & vision

Trailer Park Boys: An Introduction

by Neale Torgrimson

Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian television series centered on the lives and exploits of a group of residents of a Nova Scotia trailer park. A hit in Canada over the span of several years, the show has only developed a cult following here in the states.

That isn’t likely to change as the show’s run ended in 2008, but the show is still making new material and incorporating it into a live version, which came to Minneapolis’ Pantages Theater on Oct. 17. I stumbled upon Trailer Park Boys almost by accident, after my cousin made a brief mention of it during a get-together. Bored one day, I decided to start watching. After burning through its seven seasons and two movies, its safe to say I was hooked and there was no way I’d miss the live show when it was in town.

A mockumentary, new viewers will compare the show to more familiar mockumentaries, such as The Office, but the show’s do-it-yourself style and comedic content set it apart. The live show, much like the television series, centers on the escapades of Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles (Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, and Mike Smith, respectively), and to understand the live show, an explanation of the series is in order.

Julian is the de facto leader of the group and is always hatching schemes to make the gang money. Never without a rum and Coke in his hand, Julian could be seen as an intimidating thug,

but his genuine concern for the state of the park and the financial state of his friends makes him far more complex then that.

Bubbles is the most honest member of the boys, preferring kitties and toy trains to stealing meat and bootlegging liquor.

Despite his “googly-eyed” glasses and the fact that he lives in a paint shed (with full plumbing and all), Bubbles is considered the wisest and most respectable member of the trailer park, but his abandonment issues keep him from straying away from the others’ influence. Ricky is the scene-stealer of the show. He is a foul mouthed, vulgar, abrasive, and volatile lowlife who has been stirring things up at the trailer park since grade school.

He is characterized by his ridiculous malapropisms, which have been termed “Rickyisms.” They range from such phrases as “supply and command,” “my mother’s mating name,” and “sweet and power chicken.” Ricky is a widely renowned and self-professed idiot, having failed the 6th grade several times and never finished the10th. However, he does have a preternatural knowledge of growing weed. Despite his nature, Ricky does possess genuine human compassion, especially toward his daughter, Trinity, and his on-again, off-again fiancée/girlfriend, Lucy, and has aspirations of becoming a more educated individual. Unfortunately, this facilitates his illegal behavior just as much as it leads him away from it (“Just think how good I’ll be at growing weed once I get my grade 10”). Opposing them at all turns is the eternally drunk ex-cop and trailer park

Keit Osadchuk

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supervisor, Jim Lahey, and his perpetually shirtless assistant and lover, Randy Bobandy.

Every season or movie starts and ends in the same way with few exceptions: the boys get out of jail and a few months later they are back in jail. While this is a big deal stateside, the Canadian big house is portrayed in significantly different ways than it is in the American media (“Jail this time sucked, the guards don’t even let us smoke pot or get drunk anymore”).

While it is always great to see your idols up close in person, the theatre experience is less enjoyable than its televised predecessor. Audience members, many of who were dressed in track pants and tacky shirts like their favorite characters, seemed more interested in shouting out their favorite lines and praising the actors than watching the performance. Even the Trailer Park Boys were thrown off by the excess of cheering, with Julian asking the audience, “Will you shut up?” Also, the Trailer Park Boys did seem to lose comedic impact when transitioning from mocumentary to variety show. That being said the show was still very funny with the boys grilling up hot dogs to make money and shooting reels to get into Jackie Chan movies. This was likely the end of my Trailer Park Boys experience, as the creators are moving on to other projects, but I hope it marks the beginning of yours.

sound & vision

EVENTS CALENDAR

Tuesday, November 9 EYEDEA MEMORIAL BENEFIT

First Ave / 5:00 pm All Ages / $20 (Fifth Element Online) MARINE STERN

7th Street Entry / 8:00 pm with GAY BEAST and FOOD PYRAMID

18+ / $10

Thursday, November 11 DAWES

First Ave / 6:00 pm with PETER WOLF CRIER and MOONDOGGIES

18+ / $14 adv / $16 door

THE SOVIETTES with CHEAP GIRLS, SLOW DEATH and WRITTEN OFF

18+ / $10

Saturday, November 13

with TARLTON and LEISURE BIRDS

21+ / $10

7th Street Entry / 8:00 pm with LUCY MICHELLE & THE VELVET LAPELLES, PHANTOM TAILS, ESTATE and DADA TRASH COLLAGE

18+ / $5 adv / $6 door THE SUBURBS and THE SUICIDE COMMANDOS

Triple Rock / 9:00 pm

First Ave / 8:00 pm 21+ / $20

with THE LITTLE LEBOWSKI URBAN ACHIEVERS and MONTHS & COLORS

18+ / $10

Saturday, November 20

BUFFALO MOON

SKOAL KODIAC and SEAWHORES

Turf Club / 9:00 pm with CHELSEA BOYS and NEILYO

21+ / $6

Turf Club / 9:00 pm with SLAPPING PURSES, DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN and FOOD PYRAMID

21+ / $7

Tuesday, November 16 DELOREAN

7th Street Entry / 8:00 pm

Friday, November 12

MILITARY SPECIAL

SCOTT LUCAS AND THE MARRIED MEN

TAPES N’ TAPES

Turf Club / 9:00 pm

Friday, November 19

Tripple Rock / 9:00 pm

with LEMONADE and LIGHT POLLUTION

OS MUTANTES

Cedar Cultural Center / 10:00 pm with ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI and DIVA

All Ages / $18 adv / $20 door

18+ / $12

LOTUS

First Ave / 8:00 pm with MUX MOOL and sMILOdon & TOFFLER

18+ / $16 adv / $18 door CLINIC

7th Street Entry / 8:00 pm with THE FRESH & ONLYS and THE BOMBAY SWEETS

Thursday, November 18 CLOUD CULT (CD RELEASE)

First Ave / 6:00 pm with FORT WILSON RIOT

All Ages / $20

18+ / $16

Nino Andres

www.wakemag.org

19

THE WAKE NEEDS YOU! WRITERS, CONTRIBUTORS, & IDEAS WANTED

8:30 PM @ 1313 5TH ST SE #331 MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55414 8:30 PM • SEPT 27 • OCT 11 • OCT 25 • NOV 8 • NOV 29 •