THEUWMPOST est. 1956
the student-run independent newspaper
October 3, 2011
The Milwaukee Film Festival page 7
Issue 6, Volume 56
Economic wisdom from Joe Ford page 17
Black labor and Leninism Professor discusses Leninism in the early 20th century labor movement
The Milwaukee Film Festival page 7
Failing the freshmen
Students that don't receive proper education in high school could pay more for college By John Parnon Assistant News Editor news@uwmpost.com
Jonathan Flatley, English professor at Wayne State Univeristy has an overall rating of 2.8 on ratemyprofessor.com. Post photo by Sierra Riesberg By Lyla Goerl Staff Writer news@uwmpost.com
Approximately 30 students and community members attended Jonathan Flatley’s lecture, “Black Leninism; Or, Newspapers and Revolutionary Attunement from Lenin to the League of Revolutionary Black Workers,” on Friday, Sept. 30 in Curtin Hall hosted by the Center for 21st Century Studies. A related screening of Finally Got the News, a documentary about the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in
Detroit, Michigan, was shown Sept. 27. Flatley is an English professor at Wayne State University and has written many articles on various topics including modernity in literature and culture, modern and contemporary art, American studies and AfricanAmerican literature and culture. He believes that the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement is an inf luence in today’s society and should be studied as such. “What we need to think about is looking back into the past for help,” Flatley said. Flatley gave his argument on
how DRUM facilitated an affected attunement that allowed workers to share an affective state and become aware of themselves as a collective. Formed in May 1968, DRUM was organized in Detroit, Michigan, at the Chrysler Corporation Assembly Plant where most of the workers were African-American and were not being treated equally. DRUM organized strikes, starting when the Hamtramck Assembly plant, formerly Dodge Main of the Chrysler Corporation, wanted an increase in production without adding more workers. They wrote one page newspapers describing the strikes and
calling other workers to organize more strikes to make a point to the plant managers. “When we look at today’s society and how the newspapers have changed today, DRUM has had a big inf luence in changing the news,” Flatley said. Flatley ended his argument by saying the political actions executed by African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement in Detroit will always be part of the past and part of the future. A question and answer session was held afterwards, and Flatley answered questions pertaining to Leninism in the 21st century.
UWM named 12th most gay-friendly school in the nation Campus Pride’s Campus Climate Index rates top universities By Jon Gorski Staff Writer news@uwmpost.com
This year, UW-Milwaukee was ranked 12th out of the 25 most gayfriendly schools in a new survey conducted and published by Newsweek and The Daily Beast. The study was based on eight factors from the Campus Pride’s Campus Climate Index, ranging from “policy inclusion” and “academic life” to student housing and counseling services. Founded in 2001, Campus Pride is the only nonprofit organization devoted
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to helping incorporate and protect LGBT students in the entire country. It is made up entirely of volunteers, a large majority of which are students. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was ranked number one on the list. Warren Scherer is a program coordinator at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center on campus, located on the ground floor of the Union near The Union Station. He expressed surprise at the award. “Initially, I wasn't even aware that Newsweek or The Daily Beast were
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giving out this award at all,” he said. “It was very exciting to be ranked among some nationally recognized schools for our efforts.” The study concluded that about 84 percent of students thought the university was “very accepting of minority students” and gave UWM a “B” grade on diversity, noting its LGBT center as a factor in the rating. According to Scherer, UWM’s LGBT Resource Center is dedicated to resolving disputes between students and taking care of reports of bias, as well as providing an environment in which LGBT students can get to know
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one another and feel comfortable. It also works to ensure that UWM has a welcoming climate to LGBT students, working to resolve differences on campus. Though the campus was ranked highly among LGBT-friendly universities, Scherer says there is more work to be done. “We deal with bias, like things being written on stalls, students being verbally harassed, that sort of thing,” Scherer said. “It depends on the solution they want. Some folks just want someone to talk to.”
COMICS PUZZLES
When the leaves begin to fall around Milwaukee, students know they'll be dusting off their favorite jackets, watching their heating bills skyrocket and, most certain of all, paying more for tuition than the previous year. But for almost 45 percent of the freshmen class, the cost of education might go up more than just the 5.5 percent increase in tuition this year. The number of students taking remedial math and English courses has gone up by 7 percent from the previous year at UW-Milwaukee, amid a 41 percent increase over the past five years. About 2,300 students are currently enrolled in remedial courses, which the university defines as “non-credit” classes. This means that students must still pay full price for these courses yet receive no college credit towards their degree. About 550 students are currently enrolled in UWM's Honors College, which is intended for students who score highly on the placement exam and typically have high ACT scores (a 25/26 composite score or higher) coming into college. Opposite UWM, UW-Madison currently has 16 students enrolled in “non-credit” classes, according to Martin Rouse, an assistant dean in the Adult Career and Special Student Services department at UW-Madison. A student that tests into a Math 90 course could end up paying thousands more in tuition than a student who received high marks on their placement exam. Of these students, 1,668 of them are freshmen, Director of the First Year Center Ericca Rolland said. This number makes up almost half of the entire freshmen class. “There are significantly more students taking remedial courses,” Rolland said. “And about 40 to 45 percent of the freshmen class is enrolled in remedial courses.” But Rolland said the university wants students to be successful and created Panther Math Prep to assess if students are being placed properly. Upon completion of the program, students may retake their placement exams. “It's a totally free program so that students don't have to pay for the classes later,” Rolland said. “Students are sent a letter in the first week of May or June about coming on campus and doing the four week program.”
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October 3, 2011
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700 arrested in anti-Wall Street protests More than 700 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested Saturday afternoon after blocking traffic lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge, Reuters reports. The third such event in a week ended in mass arrests after a contingent broke-off from the larger protest and headed across Brooklyn-bound lanes, despite several police warnings. Witnesses described a chaotic scene on the famous suspension bridge, as a sea of police officers surrounded protesters using orange mesh netting. Last week, 80 protesters were arrested, and several women were peppersprayed by a police commander in an incident captured on video and spread via the internet.
Bank of America to charge $5 debit card usage fees
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Infographic by Russell Pritchard
Opossum, where art thou?
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FRESHMAN
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Only 234 students registered for Panther Math Prep this year, but over half of the students that retook the placement test at the end of the program tested into credit level courses, according to a document compiled by Rolland. Eric Kendall, a math tutor and program assistant for the Panther Academic Support Services, said that more often than not, the student is not the one to blame. “I had one student in math 90 that was really bright, and when she found out all of the things she hadn't been taught, she got really angry,” Kendall said. “And she really f lourished with tutoring and was able to do everything.” On average, the number of students enrolled in remedial courses at UWM has gone up by 134 students every
year for the last five years, according to information obtained from the Provost's office. “I see students straight out of high school who say they didn't take any math at all,” Kendall said. “And I'm like wow, they should have done this in grade school.” According to a report to the Commission on Student Life and Learning updated this January, “As an urban institution, UWM presents itself and is sometimes perceived as a university that defines itself as open access, available to any student with a pulse.” Rolland said that Chancellor Lovell is currently working on defining what being an access university means. The report also states, “One of the challenges UWM faces is how to maintain its commitment to recruit and retain students in Milwaukee County, some of whom struggle in high school, while also appealing to high-achievers.”
High-achievers are defined as students who are strong ACT scorers and involved in a number of different programs, such as AP courses in high school, being on the National Honor Roll or being regionally or nationally recognized for strong academic high school performance. The report stated, “The Honors College has virtually no budget to recruit students nor can it offer these students anything but a range of seminars (that is, no field trips, film series, theater visits, funding for students to attend conferences, etc.),” and recommended increasing the budget for both the recruitment and retention of high-achieving students. “I'm still surprised by the number of people who come to the tutoring center [from math 90/95],” Kendall said. “The issue has nothing to do with their ability to do it. They're just not being taught. They obviously aren't getting the level of service they need [from high school].”
Bank of America will begin charging $5 monthly fees at the beginning of next year for customers who make debit card purchases, CNN reports. Regardless of whether you select “debit” or “credit” at the point of sale, any card activity will result in the nominal fee, which several other banks have considered implementing. The move coincides with the implementation of new rules limiting the amount banks can charge retailers for card usage, from 44 cents to 21 cents. This limitation is expected to cost banks billions of dollars in revenue.
Airstrikes in Yemen kill American al-Qaida leader A U.S. drone and jet attack killed American-born Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and six other people on Friday, The Houston Chronicle reports. Al-Awlaki had become influential in AlQaeda, using fluency in English and knowledge of the internet to recruit members and plan attacks on the U.S. This includes, intelligence officials believe, the Nigerian underwear bomber that tried to detonate a bomb on a plane in Detroit on Christmas in 2009. As an American citizen that had not yet been charged with a crime, al-Awlaki’s death has sparked controversy over whether the U.S. had the authority to kill him without extending him the right to a trial. Seven people were killed in the attack, including al-Awlaki
Million Dollar Boobies Heidi, the German cross-eyed opossum died at age 3 1/2 years old. Heidi was an American-born marsupial who lived brief ly in Denmark before finally residing in the Leipzig Zoo in Germany. The ocularly challenged Heidi gained international fame last December when a story about her was printed in the German tabloid Bild. She had over 390,000 fans on Facebook, she had a song written about her and even had her own line of merchandise. After weeks of suffering the Leipzig Zoo finally decided to put her down on Sept. 28. The cause of her sickness was atributed to old age. The average lifespan for a opossum is 2-3 years.
Holly Madison, a model, reality TV star and former flame of Hugh Hefner, has insured her breasts for $1 million, Reuters reports. The policy will financially protect Madison for her burlesque show at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada, called “Peepshow.” “If anything happened to my boobs, I'd be out for a few months, and I'd probably be out a million dollars,” she said in an interview with People. “I thought I'd cover my assets.” A surgery in 2001 changed her cup size from an A to a D.
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$50 million deficit to come from campus
Faculty budget committee learns deficit will likely result in cuts to departments and campus By Aaron Knapp Assistant News Editor new@uwmpost.com
In its most recent meeting Thursday, the Academic Planning and Budget Committee brainstormed ways that it might restructure UW-Milwaukee’s budget model to contend with a $50.9 million deficit that the university is expected to reach in 10 years if there is no reform. That deficit, calculated last month and up by nearly $20 million from a projection made in May, will accumulate due to financial commitments that UWM cannot back out of and will largely have to be paid through funding cuts to departments and academic programs. “Given all of the things that we’ve heard, the changes in the trends of how we’re funded, the numerous needs that we have on this campus, the projected $50 million deficit that is probable in 10 years that could grow given all of the other things that need to be done here… there is a need to rethink how we allocate resources on this campus,” Interim Associate Vice Chancellor of Business and Financial Services Jerry Tarrer said. Tarrer gave a PowerPoint presentation to the committee with Donald Weill and Cindy Kluge, both employees in the Office of Budget and Planning. In this presentation, they explained to the committee how UWM’s current budget-setting process works, what circumstances necessitate a change in how the budget works and alternative models that might be used at UWM in the future.
UWM already made up a nearly $17 million funding cut from the state in this year’s budget from higher tuition, cuts to the campus and department operations, cuts to employee fringe benefits and some assistance from the UW System. Since UWM is limited to raising tuition by 5.5% per academic year, it is expected that most of the projected deficit will be made up through cuts to the operating budgets of departments around campus. The deficit that was calculated in May of this year, which was $31.4 million, included building projects such as buildings for the School of Freshwater Science. The new budget includes some extra building projects for the School of Public Health (estimated at costing $9 million), re-location of a greenhouse ($7 million) and a building lease for the Water Council ($3.5 million). “For anybody that has built a home, you know there are always add-ons and things like that,” Weill said. “When you’re building a multi-million dollar building, the add-ons can be a little bit bigger.” Not included in this budget are costs that might be incurred from moving departments and offices around campus, furnishing new facilities, transportation to and from the satellite campus in Wauwatosa and renovations to the Northwest Quadrant, which are expected to exceed $70 million. Although the committee made no decision about what it would support, it explored making modest changes to the current budget process, which largely relies on the budget from the previous year and tacks on incentives for better
performance, and radical changes, like a zero-based budgeting model. In the new proposed model, precedent is ignored, and each department must justify the rationale for its funding to the university, essentially forcing departments to compete with one another. Even though the committee largely opposed the idea of departments competing against each other, some members expressed a need for the university and departments to have flexibility to transfer funds from one department or project to another. “Even within departments, it becomes impossible to discuss maybe eliminating something if there’s that possibility of the marginal tuition going down if you do,” committee member and associate professor in PSOA’s visual art department Lee Ann Garrison said. “I think we’re all, at least all of the departments I know, are living beyond their means and then banking on getting some more students to get some marginal tuition to make ends meet.” Marginal, or “excess,” tuition is garnered through increased enrollment and generally flows back to departments that experience that enrollment growth. “By allocating ‘excess’ tuition revenues to the schools/colleges that generate it, the Provost can help to ensure that programs with growing enrollments receive some additional resources to support the additional workload,” according to a 1999 statement on the subject. The Academic Planning and Budget Committee’s next meeting will be on October 13.
company and its off-shoot Silver Star Merchandising, disqualified from the bidding process for an apparel deal, to have Rick VanBrimmer, director of trademarks and licensing for OSU, removed from the deal and fired and that students and faculty be allowed to participate in the decision for an apparel deal. The University of Southern California recently signed a 10-year exclusive-merchandising deal with Silver Star Merchandising. University spokesman Jim Lynch said in a statement Monday that OSU is currently talking to license apparel companies, including Silver Star Merchandising, about an exclusive apparel model. USAS, however, said that Ohio State has been secretly communicating with Bill Priakos, chief operating officer for Dallas Cowboys Merchandising Ltd., since spring of 2010 in an attempt to secure the Cowboys bid. The USAS has emails posted on their website, obtained by the Freedom of Information Act, between VanBrimmer and Priakos. In one of the emails, VanBrimmer responds to questions from Priakos about making a bid. “The only caveat is that I may be forced into looking at ‘bids,’ simply because we are a state agency. But don’t fear that process,” VanBrimmer wrote to Priakos. Pasquarello said there are several problems with the deal and Silver Star Merchandising. “Silver Star has been in communication with Rick
VanBrimmer for the past year-anda-half basically setting up the ground work for Silver Star to come in and take a monopolistic contract for OSU apparel,” Pasquarello said. “It’s going to wipe out the hundreds of independent contracts we already have and basically have all of our apparel solely produced by Dallas Cowboys and Nike.” Neither Silver Star Merchandising nor the Dallas Cowboy’s organization were able to be reached for comment. The last problem the USAS has, and why it first got involved against Silver Star, is it believes Silver Star is using sweatshops in several countries. “Looking on the surface we have found four reports from the Worker Rights Consortium detailing worker abuses in Indonesia, Bangladesh and El Salvador and one from the Fair Labor Association as well,” Pasquarello said. Both are independent labor-rights organizations that monitor and try to stop the use of sweatshops by companies. Lynch said in the university statement that OSU is a member of both organizations, is a leader on initiatives dealing with fair labor practice and has scheduled a meeting for Oct. 3 with USAS representatives to hear their concerns. In Bradford’s opinion, the university has not done enough. “I hoped in May that the university would make some changes, but we’ve seen that the university doesn’t actually care,” Bradford said. “We are more and more like a corporation and not an institution for higher learning.”
October 3, 2011 3
Botts-Butler named new Equity/Diversity Services director Brings a background in law and human resources to UWM
Students strip down in protest By Todd Avery
The Lantern, Ohio State U. via UWIRE
Several Ohio State U. students were rooting against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, but it had nothing to do with their football team. A group of OSU students in United Students Against Sweatshops stripped down and protested in front of Bricker Hall on Monday in an attempt to prevent a potential apparel deal between Dallas Cowboys Merchandising and OSU. In a group of 15 students, all sporting cardboard signs and boxes, most of the men had no shirts on while several women went with only sports bras or strapped shirts to emphasize their point. “We would rather go naked than wear Dallas Cowboys Merchandising Apparel,” said Terasia Bradford, a third-year in French and sociology. The protest started in the basement of the Ohio Union where the students got their signs ready and moved on through the Oval while chanting “We don’t give a damn for sweatshop sweatshirts” to the tune of “We Don’t Give a Damn for the Whole State of Michigan.” The group traveled to Bricker Hall where they delivered a letter of delegation stating their demands to the secretary office of university President E. Gordon Gee before heading back to the Union. Nicholas Pasquarello, a fourthyear in psychology and sociology and co-president of USAS at OSU, said the demands included having the Cowboys’ merchandising
By Danielle Mackenthun Staff Writer news@uwmpost.com
UW-Milwaukee’s new director of the Office of Equity/Diversity Services Francene L. Botts-Butler said she chose UWM in search of a new job and opportunities, including living in a bigger city. Before accepting her position at UWM, she was the director of the multicultural student services at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. As the director of the Office of Equity/Diversity Services, Butler investigates discrimination based on, but not limited to, race, sex, religion, veterans, disability and orientation. Harassment and retaliation issues are also investigated, as well as conflict of interest and issues involving abuse of power. As the campus’ Title IX coordinator, Botts-Butler promised to enforce the 1972 education amendments prohibition against discrimination based on sex in educational programs or receiving financial assistance. The Office of Civil Rights is paying closer attention to Title IX and now recognizes sexual harassment, sexual assault and bullying as discriminatory acts.
Besides her job as director, she serves as an officer for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. As such, she travels across the Midwest discouraging campus hazing. Ten years from now Francene L. Botts-Butler sees herself retired but said, “I’m always going to do something… in terms of being involved in the community.” Botts-Butler said in working with students, she learned that time is relative. The more you have on your plate, the more focused you become. In addition, Botts-Butler said she enjoys her job, because she is able to utilize skills from her background, including law and human relations. Her education includes degrees in English and political science from Kentucky State University, a master’s degree in political science from Ball State University in Ohio and a doctorate degree in law from the University of Kentucky. Students and university faculty and staff can contact the Office of Equity/ Diversity Services for assistance and guidance on the appropriate steps to take in regards to discrimination. Their office is located in Mitchell Hall Room 359. Feel free to also visit their website at http://www4.uwm.edu/eds/contact/ or call (414) 229-5923.
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NEWS
October 3, 2011
UWM prepares for 2025
By Steve Garrison News Editor
news@uwmpost.com
Technology has rapidly digitized the industrial world, collapsing the brickand-mortar business model and forcing some UW-Milwaukee officials to ask whether the ivory tower may be the next. Several weeks after Chancellor Michael Lovell expressed concern over the growth of online, for-profit universities, UWM held the Digital Future Campus Summit, part of the university’s two-year Digital Future Planning Initiative started last October. Borrowing from a Dutch proverb, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Johannes Britz said the Digital Future Planning Initiative gives the university the opportunity to “sail with the wind.” "If we really want to be competitive, if we really want to move forward, we need to embrace technology," Britz said. “If we do not adapt, we will not survive. If we do adapt, we can survive and thrive.” Faculty members who received Digital Future grants last fall presented their projects at the summit. One idea in development is a plan implemented by Professor Margo Anderson and technology developer Ching-Tzu Chien to create a digital and print encyclopedia and history of Milwaukee. Another prototype presented by Professor Craig Berg was a virtual classroom training module, where aspiring teachers can get handson training in classroom management and discipline. Other projects presented looked to
streamline online research collaboration, create in-house English placement tests for non-native speakers and introduce student researchers to high-performance computing. On Oct. 19 2009, the University kicked-off its Digital Future Planning Initiative with a keynote speech by Richard Katz, emeritus vice president of EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, a research service devoted to informational technology issues in higher education. Katz said during a previous campus retreat that information technology has revolutionized the mission of higher education and is a prime enabler of the knowledge-driven era. “Those forces that have doomed the current form of the newspaper, music, television and book-publishing industries will soon be unleashed in education – particularly higher education," Katz said. Three aspects of higher education will be particularly impacted by emerging technologies, Katz said, including student learning and teaching, research and university relations. $30,000 in grants were made available earlier in the year to faculty interested in pursuing projects focused on technology in higher education. Grant recipients presented their research to colleagues at the summit meeting on Sept. 27, which ran from 9:00 a.m. to noon. During the summer, input from faculty, staff and students was sought on what challenges and opportunities were available to the university as a result of technological changes.
PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
Participants in the study identified accessibility, active learning and professional development as the three most important aspects of technology on campus. Specific actions supported by study participants included improving campus network connectivity, offering training and support for technical tools, enhancing digital tools and developing a high-performance computer cluster service for research. Summit leaders and attendees discussed how to implement these suggestions and identified challenges and milestones along the way. Britz said that the next steps to be taken include analyzing the costs, benefits and feasibility of implementing suggestions gathered over the summer. The Digital Encyclopedia Project
Milwaukee will join such cities as New York, Los Angeles and Louisville in having its history digitally immortalized by a project partially funded through a digital future grant. "This is a project that merges the old-fashioned, humanities-type world of texts and books with the new digital world…We are moving from the Kodaks, if you will, to the e-Readers,” Anderson said. The Digital Encyclopedia Project, started in fall 2010 and expected to be completed in 2016, will compile approximately 750 entries – plus images, maps, graphs and charts – detailing the history of Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha. Topics include gendered Milwaukee, Hmong, Catholics, cryptosporidium
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Digital Future Summit attendees attempt to transition university into 21st century and Carroll University. The encyclopedia is estimated to cost $1.9 million in total and will take seven years to implement. The project has acquired $800,000 to date through federal and local grants, various UWM departments and charitable gifts. A $350,000 grant proposal sent to the National Endowment for the Humanities is currently pending and another $735,000 will be acquired through private grants and charitable gifts. The digital encyclopedia will be developed in collaboration with University Information Technology Services, with a hard copy being published by Northern Illinois University Press. The coffee-table sized hard copy will complement the digital version and will retail for $60 to $80. Virtual Classroom Simulator Another project funded through a Digital Future grant is the Teach Live Lab, a virtual classroom simulator developed to teach behavior management skills to future educators. “The virtual classroom is this: it is a chance to practice your teaching skills before you ever go in and ruin a classroom or get eaten up,” Berg said. The number one problem with young teachers is classroom management and discipline, he said, two skills that are difficult to learn without experience. “You either make it or break it on whether you can take care of student misbehaviors or not,” he said. One way students are prepared
for their new environment is through monitoring classrooms and tracking student-based disruptions. The students collect the data, and Berg said the results were surprising. While one 50-minute class may have as little as three disruptions, others will have over 150 disruptions. “Poor classroom management can destroy a newbie just like that and ruin their career…three kids can ruin it for everybody,” he said. The solution, a virtual classroom management tool, was developed by Dr. Lisa Dieker, coordinator of the special education program at the University of Central Florida and former professor at UWM. Young educators are hooked up to devices that detect movement and then lead a classroom of five virtual students, each one based on different personality traits. “Mariah is a little autistic, Michelle, in the right corner, wants to answer every question posed by mankind and more, and some are causing more problems than others,” Berg said. Students spend 10 to 15 minutes leading the class through exercises and dealing with student-based disruptions. Berg said that besides dealing with difficult students, the virtual classroom also teaches educators how to present questions and then respond to student answers. “How you ask questions and how you respond can either get kids thinking, keep kids thinking or shut-down whole classrooms of kids thinking,” he said.
This week’s crossword solution
Try your hand at this week’s puzzles, turn to page 23
Last week’s solution
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This week’s Goduku solution Prevention Magazine named Milwaukee America's their 15th best walking city. They credit the RiverWalk for its three miles of trek-able concrete which connects the Milwaukee RIver to Lake Michigan functions as a biped's best friend for traveling downtown and to adjacent neighborhoods.
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October 3, 2011
SPORTS
Panthers rally late, fall to Cleveland State
Despite a comeback in the final minutes, UWM’s men’s soccer loses 3-2
Sophomore James Ashcroft fires a strike Saturday night. Post Photo by Austin McDowell By Nick Bornheimer Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com
UW-Milwaukee’s men’s soccer team fell short to Cleveland State Saturday 3-2, after rallying for two goals in the final three minutes of the contest. It was an 87th minute altercation that ignited the late Panther surge. A penalty kick from junior Cody Banks and a rebound goal from freshman Adam Hutchinson brought the game within reach, but Cleveland State held off the Panther attack and gave Milwaukee their first conference loss of the 2011 season. “Some of our players missed some easy chances tonight,” Head Coach Chris Whalley said. “You have to take chances at this level.” The Panthers (5-5, 2-1 Horizon) had an 11-6 shot on goal advantage and a 1914 overall shot advantage but allowed Cleveland State (3-6-1, 1-1-1 Horizon) to walk away with their first conference win of the season.
THE UWM POST
The Panthers missed a good opportunity in the fourth minute on a Keegan Ziada shot that was blocked by Vikings goalie Brad Stuver. A quick turn-around by Cleveland State allowed for Aaron Adkins to net the first goal of the game after a long sideline run, giving the Vikings the early edge. Cleveland State would score again in the 36th minute on a Zach Ellis-Hayden goal, putting the Panthers down by two going into the half. “We missed a good chance, and then they scored a goal,” Whalley said. “And then the guys didn’t react very well to the goal. We had some chances in the first half, had another mental lapse towards the end of the first half, and we’re twonil down.” A third Cleveland State goal, this time by Admir Suljevic, gave the Vikings a convincing lead with less than 25 minutes to play. A scuffle broke out in the Cleveland State box with just over three minutes to play in the match. Yellow cards were
given to Stuver and Milwaukee freshman Richard Johnson, allowing junior Cody Banks an opportunity to drill an upper 90 goal. Milwaukee was able to find the back of the net again in the 89th minute on a free kick played into the box. Two shots were fired on goal before freshman Adam Hutchinson scored and pulled the Panthers within one. It was too little, too late for Milwaukee, though. With just 51 seconds left to play, Cleveland State played keep away in the final seconds. Milwaukee looks to right the ship Tuesday when they take on Big Ten foe Michigan State in East Lansing, with kickoff at 3 p.m. “We have to go to Michigan State with all intentions of winning the game,” Whalley said. “We don’t change what we’re trying to do; we just have to do everything a little bit better. We weren’t good enough today, but we have to make sure we execute better on Tuesday, and we’ll be fine.”
UWM swimming and diving alumni pack the pool
Annual event brings past and present aquatic athletes together By Nolan Murphy Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com
On a Wisconsin Saturday actionpacked with sporting events throughout the land, the UW-Milwaukee swimming and diving alumni reassembled to remember and rejoice. The Klotsche Center Natatorium was cooking like a hot oven, with over forty past swim team members were present. The Milwaukee swim team has been extremely successful historically. The men’s program is the reigning back-toback Horizon league champions and looks to be favored again this upcoming season. The women’s team has a fresh new look with five student-athlete transfers. Fourth year coach Kyle Clements emphasized on what the alumni meant to the UWM swim and diving program. “The alumni have been meeting in early fall for three of the last four years. It has been the unofficial gathering time for alumni and current athletes to come together and support the swim program. The amount of support received from the
alumni the last few years with us winning is the true meaning of this program,” Clements said. The alumni and the current athletes have a connection as if they are family. Many of the past swimmers and divers help in recruiting for the program, and they are always eager to stay involved. Many have chosen to stay in the Greater Milwaukee area after the completion of their careers, some getting involved with coaching in the area. There were no winners or losers on Saturday in the pool. The alumni and current athletes were just happy to be together once again, celebrating their successful program. The team roster will change as the years go by, but the family-like camaraderie will always be present within this swim program. As the 2011-12 swim and dive season kicks off, the ones cheering the loudest and proudest will be the former members of this program. Having the alumni being so involved and proud of where they came from is something that Kyle Clements will never take for granted.
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uwmpost.com
October 3, 2011
6
Women’s soccer team Just what the doctor ordered continues their Sports medicine, a potential career path winning ways By Tony Atkins
Assistant Sports Editor sports@uwmpost.com
There are thousands of students roaming about on UW-Milwaukee’s campus every single day. Some are looking for what field they want to venture into, while others are already dead set in their paths. When people chose the field they wanted to get into, they may or may not have thought, “What am I doing to help out the world?” Of course, that’s not everyone’s goal in life, but when deciding something with such importance, one must be passionate about the life they are preparing themselves for. As a journalist, I feel that my goal is to inform citizens of the things going on around them. If students are aware of what jobs are out there, they will have a better picture of the field of work that they would like to go in to. For those who have interest in sports, medicine and helping others, considering sports medicine as a professional occupation is worthwhile. Dr. John Ochsenwald, often
referred to as “Ox” by his patients, has been certified for thirty years. He began as an assistant at Ohio State, where he worked for 10 years, and has since been working here at UWM for 20 years. He currently serves as the director of sports medicine and works directly with the men’s soccer program. He pointed out several necessities that would be vital in having longevity in such a field and was interested in giving students a bit of what to expect in that line of work. The key for students wanting to go this route, according to Oschenwald, is that their primary passions have to be medicine and helping others. “You obviously have to have a desire to be in the medical field,” Oschenwald said. “A like of sports and being around sports helps as well. I wouldn’t put the love of sports first. I think that a desire to help people on the medical aspect of things would definitely have to come first.” As injuries occur, the team’s medical staff is more than likely going to be the first to have to deal with them. At that point, the most important thing is to educate the patient on what the issue is and decide
how to proceed. It’s also important to know when you can handle things on your own and when something is more in line with a trip to the emergency room. “When it is an injury on the field, obviously I would have to make decisions. Whether that is if I can take care of it in the athletic training room or if I think they should go to the emergency room,” Oschenwald said. Not only is the athletic training room available to athletes, but students with injuries are also able to access the training room with a referral from the Norris Health Center. When you watch a sport, you probably don’t pay too much attention to the people working behind the scenes, but people like Oschenwald are the gears of the machine that keeps the players healthy and on the field and healthy. But to sports medicine specialists, helping others is of the utmost importance, above everything else. If you can picture yourself heading down Oschenwald’s career path, you may have potentially solved the problem of picking a major.
UW-Milwaukee powers to 3-1 win over Wright State By Alex Wendland Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com
The 12th-ranked Panthers women’s soccer team extended their winning streak to five games after Saturday’s victory at Wright State in Dayton, Ohio. The Panthers controlled the entire game and cruised to a 3-1 victory over the Raiders. The Panthers set the tone and jumped out to an early lead with a goal from Keara Thompson in the 32nd minute of what was an otherwise uneventful first half. The pace picked up considerably in the second half, but the Panthers didn’t let up. Sarah Hagen added her 14th and 15th goals of the season to the tally, bringing the score to 3-0. The lone Wright State goal came
from Brittany Persaud in the 88th minute from a pressing and panicked Raiders attack. If you didn’t know any better, you would think the Panthers were coasting through the game. In truth, it was the quiet confidence of the Horizon League juggernaut. The Panthers extended their record to 11-1 and stand atop the Horizon League at 3-0 in conference play. Saturday’s game was Hagen’s final Panthers appearance before spending a week with the U-23 team in hopes of earning a chance with the U.S. National Team. Hagen will return to the Panthers at the conclusion of the camp. The Panthers’ next game is against Valparaiso at Engelmann Field this Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Panthers women’s basketball to show claws in hunt for victory this season Young team hungry to showcase talent
By Eric Engelbart Staff Writer
sports@uwmpost.com
Women's coach Sandy Botham returns a talented roster hungry to compete for a conference crown. Post File Photo.
As the 2011-12 NCAA women’s basketball season approaches, the UW-Milwaukee women’s basketball team has every reason to feel optimistic. The team’s regular season kicks off Nov. 11 at the Klotsche Center against the Wisconsin Badgers. The Panthers are looking to rebound from a less than stellar 2010 campaign and appear to have the talent to make some noise in the Horizon League this year. The Panthers have an impressive roster, composed of talented young players. In fact, the team only has a single senior on its active roster. The team has plenty of new talent to compensate for the graduation of Lindsay Laur, who led the 2010 Panthers in scoring, assists and rebounding. “I think Laur’s spot will be filled by committee,” Panthers coach Sandy Botham said. “We will have more balance in scoring.” Returning players include dynamic junior guard Sami Tucker, sophomore guard Angela Rodriguez (last year’s Horizon League Newcomer of the Year) and center Courtney Lindfors (named last year to the Horizon League All-Newcomer Team). The Panthers will add a strong freshmen class to the mix, including guard Ashley Green, who was a unanimous first-team all-state selection last year while leading Nicolet High School to the state title. “The team is more diverse, with more weapons, and more depth,” Botham said. This year’s schedule will provide many challenges to the Panthers. Most notably, the Panthers will play college basketball powerhouses Baylor and Oklahoma back-to-back
on Dec. 8 and 11. These games will test the young Panthers team, and the experience should prove valuable to the team in its quest for a Horizon League Championship. “We have a daunting nonconference schedule, so the team will have to grow up quick,” Botham said. “The experience will prepare them for our league and expose things we will have to get better at. One characteristic of my teams is they play their best ball at the end.” Contending for a Horizon League Championship is easier said than done. Last year’s Horizon League champions, the Green Bay Phoenix, went a perfect 18-0 in conference play in the 2010-11 campaign. The Panthers will take on the Phoenix at home in the Klotsche Center on Jan. 7 and in Green Bay on Feb. 4. If the Panthers are able to capture a victory in either one of these meetings, the team will have a good chance of stirring up the Horizon League this year. The Panthers will also take on last year’s second and third place teams, the Cleveland State Vikings and Butler Bulldogs, in both home and away games. Cleveland State and Butler both must rebound from the loss of star players to graduation. The Vikings lost leading scorer Shawnita Garland, and the Bulldogs lost leading scorers Chloe Hamilton and Brittany Bowen. The Panthers appear to have a bright future. With a wealth of young talent, the team’s core will meld into a dynamic unit over the course of the season. The Panthers should be able to make an improvement this year, and spectators will be rewarded. The 2011-12 campaign will undoubtedly be a memorable one for fans of Panthers’ women’s basketball.
A bunch of broke staffers recap the third annual event The Mississippi River is still a symbol of a lot of things to America. Industry and commerce are atop that list, but cars, airplanes and the internet have reduced its status as a mode of transportation to the realms of leisure and romance. Both of these are implied in UW-Milwaukee faculty member Sean Kafer’s feature length documentary Valley Maker. Aboard a homemade raft, the name of which is lent to the title, Kafer and a few friends dodge commercial barges and experience the various cultures on the great river between Prescott, WI and New Orleans. The massive undertaking of this mode of travel coupled with steady-handed filmmaking is commendable, but the film ends up telling its audience of little more than Kafer’s ability to make a gorgeous movie in a precarious situation. And for most of the film, that is enough. (Tim Sienko)
one could hope to see in a story that centers around teen-aged terrorism. But the textured tableaus of suburbia, contemplative pace and framework structure, used here as a cheap device to build tension in a heavy-handed story, fail to bring any subtlety to the film. In fact, the irony that no one ever talks about Kevin, neither before nor after he brings his hunting bow to school, falls f lat against Ramsay’s focus on and sympathy toward Kevin’s mother, Eva, portrayed by the ever-reliable Tilda Swinton. Eva, once a corporate executive, makes the mistake, according to the film’s logic, of balancing her career with parenthood. Ramsay leaves no question of which should have been left out: Eva can only get a job working for a clueless travel agent after the tragedy. The story is so spare and concrete that the film feels more like a parable than a complex narrative. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the moral of the story considered any of the characters, featured or implied, who lost much more than their careers. (Tim Sienko)
Page One: Inside the New York Times (Andrew Rossi, United States)
The Bengali Detective (Philip Cox, England/India)
An in-depth look at the nation’s premier news organization as it faces the challenges of transitioning from print to online media while maintaining the highest standards of journalism. Colorful characters, like drug addict turned Times reporter David Carr, and compelling plotting, such as the WikiLeaks releases and an investigation into rival paper Chicago Tribune, coupled with a brisk 88-minute running time, combine to offer a dynamic look at the New York Times. (Zach Brooke)
A hidden gem of the Passport: India series, The Bengali Detective played early in the week to a moderate crowd. A documentary about a private detective with big ambitions to dance, the film is by turns hilarious and heartwrenching. When the titular detective gets his chance to solve his first murder case, the film takes a serious bend and becomes a critique on the Indian police system. A raw look at life in India without the Bollywood lens, The Bengali Detective is a beautifully composed if underappreciated film. (Zach Erdmann)
By The UWM Post staff fringe@uwmpost.com
Valley Maker (Sean Kafer, United States)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, England) In Lynne Ramsay’s third film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, she offers some of the most beautiful imagery
Robot (S. Shankar, India) Holy shit! The single most expensive film to ever come out of India, Robot sees every cent of its
$30 million budget is well spent. A Bollywood extravaganza from start to finish, Robot stars Indian legend Rajni in a dual role, as both the titular Robot and his devilishly handsome creator. When a rival scientist convinces our hero to give his robot feelings, the drama begins full force. From musical numbers amongst ancient ruins to giant snakes made of thousands of robot clones, Robot doesn’t disappoint. It’s light on the acting chops and heavy on the cheese, but for fans of Bollywood, it’s three hours of technotropic blowout. (Zach Erdmann) The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat, France) Just as the fairy tales of The Brothers Grimm were reinterpreted from their dark and gruesome beginnings, French filmmaker Catherine Breillat revamped Sleeping Beauty’s tale in her 2010 film, The Sleeping Beauty. In Breillat’s version, however, there is only a trace of the elements of the original story. Breillat’s film is heavily rooted in fantasy, taking the audience on Anastasia’s magical journey, but it all feels real, which presents a fascinating dichotomy between conscious and unconscious, dream and reality – indicative of a heavy Freudian inf luence. The representation of woman, and subsequently, feminism, plays a major role in the film, as well, with themes of androgyny, independence and bisexuality. The Sleeping Beauty is right up the alley of those who enjoy films they cannot mentally come to terms with until at least 24 hours after viewing. ( Jackie Dreyer) The Milwaukee Show The nine local short-films on parade for this hometown celebration showcased a breadth and depth expected of a film-community much larger than Milwaukee’s. The sold-out crowd was given off-beat documentary, traditional fiction and experimental
art, while most of the pieces blurred the lines between those three modes of filmmaking. John Roberts, Milwaukee Film’s filmmaker in residence, screened his new-age goth video, “The Wheel,” which seamlessly blended animation and live action to tell a Dr. Seuss meets Neil Gaiman fantasy story. Other highlights included Blyth Renate Meier’s “Everyday,” an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s friend as she goes through the clinical gestures of life as a cancer patient, and Kate Balsley’s “Anima Mundi,” a collage of still f loral images that become animated into a kaleidoscopic dance. (Tim Sienko)
Spielberg’s classic take on the mystery of the heavens and the nature of language and communication, was presented on 35mm to a packed Oriental Theatre. The film, an undisputed masterpiece, holds up incredibly well (even though the print, which must have been 30 years old, was not the best), but the real story was Zsigmond’s presence at the screening. He was gleefully introduced to a standing ovation by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel film critic Duane Dudek and graciously and energetically participated in a long audience Q&A upon the film’s conclusion. (Steven Franz)
Happy (United States)
Shorts: World’s Best Commercials
Does happiness really come from money? Director Roko Belic traveled around the world to find out that it doesn’t. Visiting with families in India, Bhutan, Japan, Louisiana, Denmark and Namibia, he found that as long as a person does not have to worry about shelter or where the next meal will come from, happiness stems mostly from relationships, community and a sense that one is doing something meaningful. Largely ignored as a valuable topic of study until recently, psychologists and scientists have found that less than 10 percent of a person’s happiness is associated with what happens to them. The other 90 percent is determined by genetics and what a person does to keep his or herself happy, a little like toning a happiness muscle. Belic looks in many of the world’s nooks and crannies to investigate the secret to happiness from the oldest, healthiest and happiest people. (Aaron Knapp)
From hilarious to heart-wrenching, the Milwaukee Film Festival showed some of the world’s most creative and imaginative commercials from 2010. Collected at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June, the compilation included some American favorites such as Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and Axe’s mock infomercial “Clean Your Balls” featuring Jaime Pressley. Ironically, the most provocative and entertaining commercials came from the ad campaigns of other film festivals, such as “Sexuality” and “Subtitles,” both of which promoted the Vancouver International Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival. The collection’s most impressive commercial came from the organization behind the Young Director Award, which solicited for submissions with its “Born to Create Drama” ad campaign, including a commercial in this collection in which a young girl mischievously gets her mother into trouble when she convinces a cop that she has been abducted by a stranger. (Aaron Knapp)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, United States) Part of a two-film celebration (along with the Bette Midler musical The Rose) of legendary Hungarian cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
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the uwm post
October 3, 2011
Nevermind 20 years later
Did the most important album of the 1990s actually leave a legacy?
Nirvana's Nevermind is celebrating its 20th anniversary. But how influential has it been? By Steven Franz Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
So here we sit, a week more than 20 years removed from the publication of what’s considered one of the most important albums in the history of popular music. What do we have to show for it? Nirvana’s Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991, in many ways the culmination of a four-year stretch in rock and roll history that entirely redefined the genre in a popular sense. Even though Guns & Roses’ Appetite For Destruction, the album that most effectively placed the first nail into the coffin of the 1980s, was released in July of 1987 – and oddly enough, Guns & Roses was a band that Nirvana publicly hated and, in a lame sense, feuded with – it was 1988 that first reinvigorated rock music as a potent and subversive entity after a two-decade stretch of sheen, superficiality and banality (with, of course, a few exceptions). Jane’s Addiction, the Pixies and Sonic Youth all released their most important works that year, with the added benefit of Screeching Weasel’s first great album, Boogadaboogadaboogada!, which would, more than anything, define punk style and substance throughout the next decade. But Nevermind was released almost ten months into 1991, and its immediate
influence seems more apocryphal than earth shattering. Bands like Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam had all released their respectively important major-label debuts earlier in the year – and Alice in Chains had released theirs a full year before. Yet it was Nevermind, specifically the famed video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” that gave so-called grunge music, a mishmash of similar rock styles that mostly hailed from the same Seattle scene, both a hook and an image. Nirvana popularized something that was already well-defined, the peak of a mountain that had its grounding a few years in the past. But why is that important? Truth be told, Nevermind is not particularly innovative, a label that seems to have been mercilessly applied to it over the course of time. But that’s okay. The first fat-bellied power chords that kick “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into gear may have been a revelation for the general consumer of music. (There’s a reason the song remains in regular airplay on contemporary rock radio even today.) But for young, subcultural audiophiles throughout the ‘80s, it sounded wholly familiar, which is perfectly fine. We’re not here to debate whether the album is good or bad. Nirvana attempted to be the blank canvas on which the spirit of the Pixies, Sonic Youth and others could present itself, in which attempt they were wholly
– perhaps a bit too much – successful. Nevermind alternates between honest Replacements balladry, raw three-chord punk mayhem and stop/start Pixies irony at the drop of a hat, but there’s very little ultimately about the album that is solely Nirvana’s beyond Kurt Cobain’s shriek and Dave Grohl’s distinctive drumming. And maybe that’s what made it sell so well. It gave kids the ability to embrace a movement and all its disparate parts as much as they were embracing a band. Culturally speaking, the members of Nirvana were as much their flannel shirts as they were their music. They were alternative rock. “Something in the Way” seems to be the best example of Nirvana speaking clear. In the context of the album, it (and “Polly”) seems woefully out-of-place amid the noise and Pixies impressionism. There’s an almost uncomfortable level of clarity here (as with “All Apologies” on In Utero), as the wall of static between the listener and Kurt Cobain’s psyche is completely struck down. It’s this idea that the band would eventually latch onto (and would make the white noise that much more significant) and would pervade Unplugged in New York, but it’s not what Nirvana was most inclined to do on Nevermind itself. It’s telling that even Bleach, the band’s underappreciated 1989 debut, sounds almost nothing like its successor, preferring instead an effectively unfocused brand of sludgy
punk, out of which “About a Girl” sticks like a compound fracture. Nevermind, at the time, was a catalyst above all else. But 20 years later, it’s difficult to see what exactly it was a catalyst for, in the long term, aside from the band’s own substantial legacy. Grunge music has certainly stuck with us for quite some time, which is why the idea that we’re suddenly nostalgic for it (with new albums and tours from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden) is so absurd. However, it was eventually bands like Nickelback, Three Doors Down and Creed who became the standardbearers for the movement that Nirvana effectively began, a group of bands that, while they have commercial draw, have streamlined a fundamentally chaotic style – if not, genre – of music to such an extent that they’ve ripped its heart out and done a funny little dance on it. Nickelback, during an incredibly lucrative career in which they’ve sold 21 million albums in the United States alone (in the age of the digital download no less), have unflinchingly maintained their reputation as one of the most critically reviled bands on the face of the Earth. And what Nickelback is essentially playing is the music of Nirvana, replacing bare heart and intelligence with leering sexism and chest-thumping hyper-masculinity, which is difficult to comprehend. Perhaps the canvas that Nirvana
presented with Nevermind was so blank that it allowed all the wrong interpretations, all the wrong projections, all the wrong paintings. Perhaps that’s why Pearl Jam, whose Vs. more than easily outsold Nirvana’s own In Utero in 1993, have maintained a level of critical respectability to which the bands who have followed in their compatriots’ footsteps have seemed medically allergic. In the ‘80s, it was easy to see the imprint that the Beatles and Rolling Stones had left upon popular music with synth pop and new wave songwriting. In the ‘70s, especially in the eyes of the Clash and the Sex Pistols, the influence of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry was firmly cemented both on the charts and in the soul of rock. But 20 years after Nevermind, what can it say for itself? A quick perusal of the pop charts doesn’t paint a very positive picture. Of the current top 50 albums, only three are from rock bands, and one of those (the number-one selling Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5) features pop singer Christina Aguilera prominently. If rock isn’t dead, it’s certainly hibernating. Ultimately, Nevermind ’s once-certain long-term impact on rock and roll does not seem, two decades later, to have been all that profound. And while there’s some poetry in the idea that Nevermind ’s only ultimate legacy might be itself, it doesn’t make it seem any less that writing this piece is like writing a second obituary for Kurt Cobain.
uwmpost.com
October 3, 2011 9
A legend of the one-liner An interview with comedy veteran Steven Wright
By Graham Marlowe
Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
“Every morning I wake up and make instant coffee so I’ll have enough energy to make the regular coffee.” Quotes like this form the softspoken mystique of Steven Wright, the Massachusetts comedian whose “Guy on the Couch” character from Half Baked (1998) helped mainstream his humor at the tail end of the ‘90s comedy boom. Before that, Wright became a self-made veteran of New York comedy clubs in the ‘80s – just one on an extensive list of lifelong-careers launched in unison, like those of Lewis Black, Lenny Clarke and Steve Sweeney. Wright has retained a low-energy, high profile presence in Hollywood, continually attracting a series of bizarre roles that fit just fit right (Reservoir Dogs, Coffee and Cigarettes, The Aristocrats). Although critical steam still rises from Wright’s latest, I Still Have A Pony (2007), few have seen more than his paintings since his 2008 induction into the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame. Despite this, Wright approaches 2012 with a suitcase full of one-liners and the hope of another short film. In preparation for his Oct. 6 appearance at the Pabst Theater, The UWM Post interviewed Wright. UWM Post: Some of your favorite comedians lean towards the angrier, world-weary side of comedy. There are elements of your movie One Soldier (1999) that could be considered dark comedy, compared to your usual material. Were you always this way, or did you mellow with age?
Steven Wright: I think I’ve always had the same perspective. I never saw myself as angry, but I enjoy commenting on weird things and making weird jokes. One Soldier, as opposed to the stand-up, was more like “Why are we alive?” There are definitely jokes, but it’s more of an existential, lifequestioning thing. Post: Do you feel that as a comedian people have expectations for you as consumers? Does that make it harder for you to branch out and do other things? SW: In stand-up, it does, because they wanna hear those weird kind of jokes, which is what I do all the time. Occasionally, I think of something that’s not like that, and I put it in. And they don’t go for it, because it’s not from the same angle. That doesn’t bother me that much, though. With film, you can certainly branch out more – more than other art forms, I would say. Post: As an artist, the more you explore things with your voice, the more it’s going to benefit your work. It’s different in Hollywood, isn’t it?
SW: I agree that, as an artist, to explore, expand and take risks is the best thing you can do. I’m known for this way of doing my stand-up, and that’s fine with me. I’ve never been that interested in doing
another version of myself, y’know? Artists that do metamorphose are interesting cats. I’m just grateful I have this giant audience hooked into what I’m doing, such that I’ve never tried to go in another direction professionally. Post: You’ve done a healthy amount of
exploration with your “voice” – stand-up, voiceover work, acting, music, painting. What setting is most you? Has that changed? SW: Writing jokes and performing jokes, that’s mainly what I do. When I was in school, I drew and painted all the time. I did that before I ever wrote anything. And then after high school, I started playing the guitar. From there, I went into comedy, my teenage dream. I paint and do music, and I’ve acted in movies and made a couple of my own. I like to do all of those things, but stand-up is my focus, creatively. Post: How has the world or business of comedy changed since you made your big break? Do you feel those things have re-shaped your audience? SW: When I started in the early ‘80s, it was right when the comedy “boom” was happening. There were two comedy clubs in Boston and then these other restaurant/ bars that would have it one night a week. So right when I started, there were a lot of places I could “play” and develop. There were definitely more opportunities than
there are now, yet some cities were just two or three clubs. I got known, went on TV and my audience – 40s through 70s, some college and high school students – began following me. They just trusted me, from the time I was all over TV in the late ‘80s, when I was on [The Tonight Show Starring] Johnny Carson through everything. Young people today can just pull up YouTube or Wikipedia and study me, and the thought of that keeps me up at night sometimes. [Laughs.] Post: Are there any newer comics that you’ve identified with? SW: There’s none that I really identify with. But Louis C.K., he’s brilliant. He’s an amazing stand-up comedian. His TV show [Louie] is fantastic. He writes and directs and edits and acts on that show he does. The guy’s a genius, in my opinion. There are also some younger comedians in New York clubs that I’ve really enjoyed – Jim Jeffries, Bill Burr, Joe DeRosa. There are so many excellent comedians out there. Post: What’s on deck for you now? What can people look forward to after this tour? SW: People don’t necessarily see my paintings or hear my music, but I keep doing it. I’m just gonna keep creating, even though most people will see it in the form of stand-up. I’m just gonna keep doing what I feel I’ve been lucky enough to do all these years. I took a risk trying to do comedy and it worked out for me, but if I’d never taken the risk, nothing would have happened.
Exploring the relationship of Milwaukee and electronic music
An interview with Collections of Colonies of Bees By Graham Marlowe Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
In an effort to understand the many facets of electronic music in Milwaukee, it seemed easier to learn about the people who make it before studying recordings. To get a glimpse into the wide array of possibilities that exist within Milwaukee music, The UWM Post interviewed Chris Roseneau and Jim Shoenecker, both of local post-rock act Collections of Colonies of Bees, not only to better understand Milwaukee’s music culture but also electronic music’s reception. The UWM Post: Given your history, what kinds of innovations have you witnessed as an artist in this area? Were you involved with them directly? Jim Schoenecker: There’s been this series called MELT [Milwaukee Experimental & Electronic Music] that’s been showcasing a wide array of electronic music and also acoustic instruments: guitars, drums, etc. Paul Demix is doing amazing things [with MELT] right now, and it’s getting a great response. People are finally coming out to see electronic and experimental music on a club level. It really has a great response, in that regard, more like 50 to 75 people
for music like this, instead of the usual three. It’s a sign of health for Milwaukee. Post: In your experience, what has Milwaukee’s reaction to music in this realm been? Artistically speaking, do you feel limited or inspired by their response? JS: Neither. I believe in what I do, and I enjoy myself doing the music I do. If it turns out to be a bust, it doesn’t make a difference to me. But seeing these other things happening is super-encouraging. Then again, I’ve seen amazing things recently in Chicago that have been way less attended. I think the energy is just right in Milwaukee right now. Chris Rosenau: Talking of music outside of the umbrella that the Collections of Colonies of Bees moniker encompasses, we’re more of a rock band with electronic elements. That being said, most – if not, all – of the players do side projects of some sort in both realms. In terms of how Milwaukee responds to that music, it ebbs and f lows. There are a lot of people who get different series together, like MELT. There’s always a good response for it. There’d be a bigger response in Chicago or New York, but those cities also have a lot more people. Post: Having spent time in Japan and such as COCOB, do you feel your
music would fare better outside of Milwaukee? CR: I don’t know if one audience is more open-minded than another, but one of the things that hits you in the face in Japan is the incredible attentiveness of the audience, though I don’t think that’s because they enjoy it more, necessarily. It’s always one of our challenges in the Bees when we bring things down to a quiet level, to really try to capture the audience instead of having to talk over them the whole show. In the States, concerts are more of a social event. In Japan, everyone is silent and insanely attentive. No one’s distracted. JS: There’s certainly more acceptance to “outside,” experimental and modern music there and more of an acceptance towards pushing boundaries. But that coincides with the attitude that Chris was talking about. The passion with which people consume music in Japan is definitely greater, though. Post: The music you write requires a special kind of attention to get the full effect. Based on what’s going on in the music industry itself, how do you compensate for that during the creative process, at gigs? CR: In a live environment like COCOB, I think we combat that with raw energy and volume, honestly. Bees
is known for a really energetic, intense live performance, so it’s hard to ignore when you’re standing in front of it. In a way, we pride ourselves on that kind of a performance. When you see us, it’s not just a bunch of guys jamming on a C7 chord in their garage – it really sways back and forth. People like what we do, and we do it loudly. In the recorded environment, you have to somehow get these people to buy this record, and then once they buy it, you have to get them to actually spend the time to listen to it. These aren’t three and a half minute pop songs, you know? Our work behaves differently. JS: The recordings we’ve done recently have really focused on capturing the energy of a live show. To me, that’s the biggest triumph you can have. Post: What would you say, as someone in Milwaukee music, what its strengths and weaknesses are? CR: One of the marked strengths of Milwaukee music, versus some of the other places that we’ve played music, is this incestuous atmosphere where people go to gigs, talk to bands and, then, in a few weeks, become members of those bands. That stuff doesn’t happen all the time, but I think it happens a lot more in Milwaukee than I’ve seen happen in other places. I’ve
played with so many people in this city, in all sorts of different musical experiments. We have people sing on our records. We play on their records. We sit in on each others’ sets and ask people to do all sorts of stuff, not just in Milwaukee, but in Madison, Eau Claire, etc. I’ve been afforded crazy musical opportunities that I wouldn’t have had if I were living somewhere else because of this kind of acceptance and desire to play with dozens of different people. It certainly seems less hierarchical in terms of the way bands interact with each other, put shows together – the way people earn their reputation. In cities like Seattle, you almost know where you stand just knowing what night of the week you’re playing, even if it’s a Wednesday. JS: That’s definitely not how it is here, thankfully. Chris and I have a lot of experience playing, so we embrace and are super open to doing different things with emerging artists, experimenting. “You like what I’m doing. I like what you’re doing. Sure, why not?” I think that’s the best aspect of playing music in Milwaukee.
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the uwm post
October 3, 2011
Risks not worth taking
Mastodon's experimentation doesn't pay off By Steven Franz Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
Mastodon’s new album The Hunter is a lot of things. The Atlanta band has always made a living drawing on a variety of influences that transcend the heavy metal milieu they occupy, which is why they’ve been so readily accepted by the blog-reading indie world. But here, so many influences are represented, and the band moves so shockingly outside their comfort zone that The Hunter sometimes feels more like an album of covers than it does an original composition. That’s not necessarily an insult, mind you. Mastodon has shown itself to be nothing if not flexible over the course of its five-album career, morphing from a high-minded, sludgy alternative metal act with literary aspirations – 2004’s Leviathan, their magnum opus, is based on Melville’s Moby-Dick – to a band as concerned with their musical complexity and breadth of expertise as their sometimes Lovecraftian storytelling. But The Hunter concerns itself so much with how it sounds that it loses touch of the band’s innate sense of novelistic lyricism and mostly operates (without the context of future albums)
as an unjustifiably wild, and hopefully brief, departure from not just a working formula but an effective skill. There are brief glimpses of the real Mastodon shining through, and mostly those songs stand out among the The Hunter’s best. The celestially apocalyptic opening track “Black Tongue,” a song as mythologically strange as the album’s marvelously absurd album art, recalls the intellectually opaque heavy metal song-crafting of Blood Mountain (2006) and their ironically commercial and lyrically impenetrable breakthrough Crack the Skye (2009). It’s also a tremendous headbanging anthem, a classic in the band’s oeuvre, recalling Master of Puppets-era Metallica side-byside with “Spectrelight,” which is feral enough to have appeared on the band’s earliest, musically rawest releases. But it’s tracks like the Opeth-esque title track that guide the rest of the album, songs that find a band tired with its well-worn, if entirely unique musical style, looking to branch out and explore the reaches of their songwriting eccentricities. “Curl of the Burl” is a bluesy answer to longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde and his band Black Label Society, complete with a super-clean vocal style that was unheard of in Mastodon’s early days.
“Creature Lives” is a neo-psychedelic, Dark Side of the Moon-like track with a billowing, 80-second synthesizer nightmare of an intro that fades into a rolling bass lick that seems lifted from Mogwai’s 1998 classic Young Team and a massive chorus that recalls Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” But where in these expressive, interesting musical diversions does Mastodon come in? While it’s certain that an experiment like this, mostly pulled off as intended, was a joy for the band to produce, its overall greatness is fundamentally limited by the absence of individual peaks throughout most of the record. Very few tracks speak to each other save for the successive and similarly titled “Blasteroid” and “Stargasm,” two of a variety of titles (“Octopus Has No Friends,” “Bedazzled Fingernails”) that seem more like jokes than anything, an aloofness that prevents the album from fully congealing. “The Hunter” has a soul, referring to singer Brent Hinds’ brother, who died on a hunting trip during the album’s recording. Perhaps that’s an excuse for the band to get a little silly, but The Hunter, while fun, falls well short of excellence.
Mastodon's The Hunter is a strange and hopefully brief tangent in a great career.
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October 3, 2011 11
Under the roof, under the stars
Sound Tribe Sector 9 brings futuristic power to the Riverside Theater
Sound Tribe Sector 9 brought their brand of spacey electronica to the Riverside Theater, to grand results. By Graham Marlowe Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
As the need for “chillout” rooms in dance clubs grew sparse at the turn of the millennium, bands like the Disco Biscuits and Sound Tribe Sector 9 picked up where failed, big-name attempts to preserve electronic music’s original, ravebirthed edge in an increasingly shallow, pop-centric music industry – think The Crystal Method, Paul Oakenfeld, The Orb – left off. Of those bands, STS9’s pilgrimage to the shores of instrumental rock has been one of the more successful in dance music, bringing its own Santa Cruz flavor
to the art and compacting moments of transcendence into breezy, multi-part suites, with an extended, often threehour performance ethic. After 13 years, STS9 continues to do so with artistic intent, much like it did Friday night at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater. Quickly following a set of nicelychilled downtempo from Little People – whose recent debut, Mickey Mouse Operation, was performed almost entirely – a Technicolor vibe was loud and clear as the venue began to fill up, with listeners already engaged on the same full-band level as STS9. The main distinction that STS9’s futuristic dance music holds among others is its relaxed, drawn-out sense of
time, emphasized by the five-piece set they played. What better plan then to pack as many people who understand the liquidity of time into a smallerthan-usual venue for the purposes of live music? While the group has had its fair share of concept-album self-discovery, the group kept its busier, digital gestures (“Shock Doctrine,” “Oil & Water,” “Lion”) to the first of its two sets, fusing the old with the new to fans’ delight, as low-end synth and wah-pedal guitar created a special friction between members David Phipps and Hunter Brown. This led STS9’s rhythm section into the next available dimension, i.e., second
set. All the while, authority-questioners dressed in autumnal blends happily lost control, their dance moves gathering steam as Saxton Waller’s subdued light show draped the stage in organic, twilit patterns. At times, one can picture themselves living these songs in real-time, walking the roads paved by their composers, and the ability to be picturesque, to say less with fewer words, is how STS9 chose to darken its second set. Through a series of extended, dub-like readings, the group let off its natural impulse towards textural and rhythmic shifts as a group and zeroed in on their wellspoken abilities as soloists. This change kept the midnight oil burning onstage
longer than usual in songs like “Abscess” and the encore pick “Somesing,” the first of which proved a murky blur of police sirens, Rasta rhymes and throbbing bass. In other places, the band seemed to inhabit a certain melancholy lifted from years spent in the periphery of Phish’s Trey Anastasio. It was here that Brown and bassist David Murphy, who produced a jazz, bass-driven deluge of “Aimlessly,” paid homage to Trey’s quieter, sensitive electric side – proof that the band doesn’t equate old songs to bad habits that must be shed. To them, their catalogue is a set of study tools for self-empowerment, but the magic of their live show is meant to be shared with a wide, open-air audience.
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12 October 3, 2011
Now showing at a theater near you
A look at what’s to come at UWM’s Union Theatre
City of Life and Death, a stark historical masterpiece about the Nanking Massacre in China, screens this weekend at the Union Theatre. By Kevin Kaber Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
The UWM Union Theatre is one of the most notable and diverse movie theaters in the entire country, but it can be easy to overlook, in the context of studies and the day-to-day bustle of the UWM campus. Every week, the staff at The UWM Post provides a brief guide to the theater’s most notable titles, in an effort to encourage students to make the most of this unique and vibrant resource.
The International Experimental Cinema Exposition (Tuesday, 7 p.m.) Experimental film has always had a home at UWM and Experimental Tuesdays at the Union Theatre have always been a testament to this. This Tuesday, the theater will host The International Experimental Cinema Exposition. Hosted by the curator of TIE, Christopher May, the program will showcase the history of experimental filmmaking from filmmakers known and obscure. The experimental films shown are inspired from avant-garde filmmakers, like Tom Chomont and
The Film-makers’ Cooperative based in New York City. Tous les matins du monde (Wednesday, 7 p.m.) Based upon the novel of the same name, Tous les matins du monde is an award winning and critically acclaimed portrayal of aging composer Monsieur de Sainte Colombe’s life. Sainte Colombe is at the end of his career when the young and talented Marin Marais becomes his apprentice. The story is based on actual historical figures portrayed in a fictional matter,
beautifully rendered as a period piece in a vibrant fashion. The film is composed of dazzling and colorful imagery, while a haunting and mesmerizing violbased score hangs in the background. Though the film centers on the lives of musicians, its visual composition is just as important. City of Life and Death (Friday, 7 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m. & 7 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.) This 2009 dramatization of the Battle of Nanking by director Chuan Lu is a striking example of contemporary
filmmaking. Entirely in black and white, the film takes an almost Spielberg-esque take (à la Schindler’s List) while at the same time maximizing the brutality of war in a stunning manner (à la Saving Private Ryan). The film’s stance on the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre stands the test of time, even when compared to today’s warring nations. Lu has been considered one of the newest and most important filmmakers hailing from China and has drawn much inspiration from American and European filmmakers.
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October 3, 2011 13
What dreams may come Dum Dum Girls one-up themselves on their second album
By Steven Franz Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
It’s the year of the Dum Dum Girls. The California throwback poppers have been very firmly dictating the direction of indie rock since 2009 when they released their debut album, I Will Be. Along with Vivian Girls, Wavves and Best Coast, they helped popularize a style of manufactured lo-fi throwback rock and roll that became the norm in an increasingly diffused genre, a trend that hasn’t abated in the subsequent time. The Dum Dums, upon their inception, were essentially doing what the Ramones did in 1976. Unlike modern pop-punk bands, they mostly turned their gaze further back even to the band from which singer and founder Dee Dee Dum Dum takes her pseudonym, right to the source of the inspiration of the Ramones themselves. As a result, I Will Be is an assertive album with an assertive name, a driving slice of period-obsessed, sometimes kitsch melodrama. Only in Dreams, on the other hand, looks to a slightly different era of music for its muse: the late 1980s. Like their four-song He Gets Me High EP from earlier this year, it recalls the histrionic guitar-driven indie of bands like the Smiths and My Bloody Valentine, and it’s a testament to the influence that even those bands draw from mid-20th century pop that the fusion works so well.
There are still many bits of unbridled punk rock energy dotting Only in Dreams. Its very first track, the 140-second “Always Looking,” hammers the point home quite succinctly with a boogie of a rhythm and a shout-and-response chorus that, oddly enough, draws vaguely from excitable, participation-encouraged street punk. But the very next track, the standout “Bedroom Eyes,” is the first indication that something else is being drawn on here. It dials back the romp and ramps up the fuzz for the closest thing the Dum Dum Girls will probably ever produce to a power ballad. The electric texture recalls shoegaze at its most immersively imperative, and its storytelling adds a layer of sorrow and mourning to what had heretofore been a melodramatic but still upbeat brand of retro pop. It’s an example of the kind of musical connect-the-dots of which the Dum Dum Girls are more and more capable as their careers progress – the chief example of which is the six-and-a-half minute “Coming Down,” a stark country music contrast to I Will Be, which doesn’t contain a song longer than three minutes and fifty seconds. The song itself, a selfassured breakup song, is an anthem of sorts but never resorts to either bitterness or sorrow, preferring instead a practical, but strong, middle ground that draws strength from everything it can, ever increasingly, just like the Dum Dum Girls themselves.
Dum Dum Girls take a huge musical step forward, and wonderfully complicate an already warm sound, with Only in Dreams.
Life as a race Senna wins on and off the track
Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna is the subject of a piercing documentary showing at Landmark Downer. By Kevin Kaber Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
Like soccer’s international appeal, Formula One racing gains massive amounts of attention from nearly every corner of the earth. But like soccer, Formula One has more or less been swept under the rug by Americans and replaced with a suitable counterpart, e.g., NASCAR. Yet, it is still a sport driven by politics, money and rivalries, and, like any other sport, it has its share of godlike, near mythical, figures. Ayrton Senna was one of those figures. Senna has been considered one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time and has effortlessly pushed the limit of competitive driving. His career in the Formula One is documented in Asif Kapadia’s film, Senna. From an early age, Senna was deeply engulfed in motorsports. His well-
off family was able to afford a go-kart, with which Senna used to compete. Eventually, he made his way up the ladder and found himself among the Formula One league. In the midst of world championships, Senna became a worldwide celebrity and became notorious amongst other drivers. He and his greatest rival, Alain Prost, had decided each other’s fate by crashing into one another on two separate occasions. With his celebrity, Senna became increasingly concerned about the social problems, including poverty and hunger of his home country, Brazil. Setting aside millions for charities, the driver became one of Brazil’s national heroes and, to this day, is still honored. Senna proves its worth due to its fascinating and awe-inspiring portrayal of the young driver’s racing career. Constructed from miles of racing footage, interviews and personal videos as if it were a fictional film, the documentary is
a build up to Senna’s well-known death during his last race. One needs not to be even a remote fan of Formula One to understand and sympathize with the integrity of Senna. Instead of focusing on the sport itself, Kapadia shifts the focus to the sort of aura that Senna possessed on and off the track. Much of Senna’s life was driven by his devout Catholicism, and his spirituality was a target that Prost loved to take stabs at, as the documentary shows, on a few occasions. Everything that Senna did was, to him, a means of self-discovery – an inspiring theme that Kapadia captured from thousands of interviews and footages. Senna’s life is almost too-eerily primed for its obligatory documentary. The film’s subjects live in a sort of drama already. Senna may no longer be alive, but his portrayal in the documentary is an inspiring and unfortunate tale that won’t be forgotten.
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October 3, 2011 15
50/50 equals won Tugging on Midwestern heartstrings Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps enchanted an intimate crowd Friday beat the odds By Sean Willey Staff Writer fringe@uwmpost.com The title alludes to the possibility of chance, but the truth is that the heart will stop. The chance, or option if you prefer, lies in the living. This theme has been done to death, but 50/50 – based on a true story – embraces this notion in the most realistic way in recent memory. Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings an intriguing and comedic solitude to his character. Gordon-Levitt may be finding a niche in these kinds of roles. His performance brings the same feel as watching him in 500 Days of Summer. 50/50’s final shot is the same: a single-camera close-up of our protagonist smiling just as he did at the end of the 2009 hit. He has the face for it. 50/50 was written by Will Reiser, who based the story off his real-life experiences (finally, a movie not based on a book) with the help of coproducer Seth Rogen. They teach us, behind the guidance of moderately new director Jonathan Levine that life means nothing without love. The movie opens with Adam (Gordon-Levitt) jogging down the street alone and with an aching back. He’s a calm, down-to-business type of guy. He and Kyle (Rogen) are best buddies, and they work together at a public radio station. Kyle is a goofoff who enjoys life, maybe a little inappropriately at times. The relation the two have is a nice example of yin and yang, and it’s the most likeable thing about the film.
In a visit with his doctor, Adam is informed he has a malignant tumor. He deals with it pretty well and goes home to his girlfriend Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard), who vows she’ll stay with him through it. Adam’s mother Diane (Anjelica Huston) overreacts to the news, but considering she has a husband with Alzheimer’s disease who can’t remember much, she’s upset to see her family slipping away. Adam seeks the attention of the student psychologist at the hospital. Katherine (Anna Kendrick) is just as inexperienced in her new quest as Adam is his. This film is beautiful, because it takes such a touchy subject but puts such a comedic spin on it. For instance, Adam is seen smoking medicinal marijuana with his fellow chemotherapy patients in many scenes. As Adam’s cancer develops, so do the attitudes of those around him, as they realize they, too, must change to cope. For negative and positive reasons, all the characters give us polarizing performances. Even Rachel – possibly the most insensitive character – has a place from where she is coming, and we can understand. Rogen’s humor works as well. Normally, it’s too random, but in 50/50, his comedic backboard is Gordon-Levitt, and the jokes bounce off each other pretty well. Cancer isn’t funny, but this movie’s chuckle factor is high. On top of that, it doesn’t shy away from the sensitivity of the subject. The world doesn’t seem to exist when you find out cancer is invading your body. Love and friendship are things we only achieve by living, and, to live, we have to try to beat the odds.
By Jackie Dreyer Chief Copy Editor
fringe@uwmpost.com
Every unique neighborhood in Milwaukee has its hidden gems – coffee shops, vintage stores, restaurants that all feel like you’re the only one who possibly knows about them. And you cherish that. It’s easy to garner sentiments like this about bands, too. You, undoubtedly, have at least one friend who prides himself or herself on “discovering” bands before the rest of you and your friends – bands they know everyone else will love – just so they can say, “I heard them first.” Full disclosure? I was not the first of my friends to discover Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps. But have I admittedly been one of their biggest fans since the moment I first heard their debut, full-length album Backyard Tent Set (2008) in October of last year? You bet. Hailing from Minnesota, Smith got her start solo, slowly adding bandmates after she became the weekly resident artist at Minneapolis’ 400 Bar, a renowned venue known for helping shape the careers of Elliott Smith and Conor Oberst, to name a few. Caroline Smith became Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps upon the introduction of drummer Arlen Peiffer (also of Cloud Cult), multi-instrumentalist David Earl and bassist Jesse Schuster (who also plays with Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles). Friday night marked the first time Caroline and the Good Night Sleeps have played in Milwaukee since I fell in love with them, erm, musically. Tucked
away in the back room of Club Garibaldi, a longstanding corner bar in Bay View, Caroline and the Good Night Sleeps shared their tour for their new album Little Wind (2011) to an intimate crowd Friday night. All in fitted or skinny jeans and unassuming plaid shirts or tees, Caroline and the Good Night Sleeps look like people you could find hanging out at a Riverwest bar on any given night. Their attire is not part of the show, an element predetermined by so many bands as part of their “act.” Caroline and the Good Night Sleeps put on a show that is all about the music, about relating to their audience as people just like them, building a sense of community and shared experience. In fact, an amusing anecdote shared with the crowd was of the band’s ride up from Chicago the night before. The band went into the night knowing it would be “rough,” i.e., “We are getting drunk,” Smith said. A self-proclaimed “light weight,” she earned herself quite the hangover “from four beers.” While driving through Chicago Friday morning on their way to an Indian buffet, Smith told Schuster, who was at the wheel, “I have to vomit, like right now.” “Right now?” Schuster said. “Right now,” Smith said, and she proceeded to hurl right in front of a group of Chicago tourists, including “a dancing cupcake who was like, ‘Oh my God.’” If you never thought a story of someone’s hangover could be endearing – and dare I say, cute – look no further. The roughly hour-and-a-half-long show was further filled with a healthy mix of songs from Backyard Tent Set and
Little Wind, pleasing those who knew the band’s older record well and giving people a substantial serving of their new material. “Tying My Shoes,” “Closing the Doors” and “Clench My Teeth,” three of the more popular songs from Backyard Tent Set were played as vehemently as if it were the first time. And Caroline and the Good Night Sleeps sung and played their hearts out together on jewels from Little Wind, like “Calliope” and “Denim Boy.” Smith seemed genuinely thankful and appreciative when people clapped and cheered after each song, like she’s still gleefully surprised every time people turn out to watch her and the band perform. It is so innocent and pure and charming that you can’t help but smile when her face lights up. The beauty that is Smith’s voice is hard to pinpoint. Her sound has been compared to Billie Holiday and Feist, but I would liken it more to Regina Spektor. Whomever you try to compare her to, however, it’s not bad company to be keeping. What makes her sound so magical is perhaps precisely that you can’t pinpoint who it is similar to. It is uniquely Caroline, supremely strong and enchanting. What it comes down to is that Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps is the product of genuine talent and true camaraderie amongst its members. The foursome truly cares about each other, what they’re doing together as a whole. It is the type of band that makes you proud to be from the Midwest, proud to be in their presence – a band that makes you want to root for local music, through and through.
Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps. Image courtesy of thegoodnightsleeps.com
TUESDAY ST. VINCENT AT THE PABST THEATER
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the uwm post
October 3, 2011
EDITORIAL The following piece represents the views of the Editorial Board of THE UWM POST. The editorial board is not affiliated with the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and these views do not represent the views of the university.
Coping with the soft bigotry of low expectations
UWM, remedial students and high-achievers all have stake in each other’s success The issues surrounding the high number of UW-Milwaukee freshmen enrolled in remedial courses are dicey, to say the least. They raise questions about possible disharmony between our central values of equal opportunity and meritocracy, which go to the very heart of who we are as a university and as people. In parsing this powder keg, it is essential that all parties are mindful of the dedication required by their commitments, as well as the very real dangers that come from overbooking oneself. For starters, UWM must acknowledge the limits of remedial education. Students in remedial courses deserve faculty attention which is equal to the risk they are taking by starting college at a disadvantage. If current trends continue, there is a very real chance remedial programs will be pushed beyond capacity. This is a disservice to incoming students hoping to make up for the past, only to find they’ve been hoodwinked by a slick marketing campaign that bears no resemblance to reality and that they have been set
up to fail. In their desire to expand enrollment, UWM runs the risk of becoming a predatory lender rather than a partner in prosperity. Additionally, any remedial course programs, as well-intentioned as they might be, must not take resources away from honor students and other high achievers. Instead, their interests must always be considered in tandem with the interests of those farthest behind, and UWM would do well to offer more programs tailor-made to benefit our best and brightest. If this means capping the number of students who need remedial classes, then so be it. UWM’s goals of being an access university, while at the same time being a sought after research university, need not be mutually exclusive, but, as of right now, they are far from balanced. On the other side of the equation, students enrolled in remedial classes have an obligation to make good on the opportunity afforded them, especially if they have taken out government loans to pay for their education. When bad students fail, it ref lects negatively on the image of UWM
and diminishes the quality of life for all students. Though it may be the fault of their high school that they are incapable of doing college curriculum, personal responsibility is the supreme prerequisite of college and adulthood. There is no shortage of options for those struggling with course materials. In addition to a stellar faculty, there are several opportunities to receive help outside of class. Programs like Panther Academic Support Services, Panther Math Prep and The Writing Center all exist solely to help students achieve success. If you need help, get help. They’re rooting for you, and so are we. There is no shame in needing remedial lessons, nor is there shame in extending the opportunities of higher education to the earnest and eager that, for whatever reason, come to college less than fully prepared. There is, however, considerable dishonor in entering agreements under false pretenses. UWM and the nearly 2,300 students enrolled in remedial courses must walk a fine line if they are to live up the promises they have made.
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
All of us at THE UWM POST want to hear what you think and welcome your letters to the Editor. Feel free to comment about articles, opinions or anything you find in our weekly issues. Send your letters in an email to letters@uwmpost.com. In your submission indicate whether or not you wish to remain anonymous.
Response to “Great lakes becoming less great,” published September 26
David Rangel’s September 26 OpEd entitled “Great Lakes becoming less great” was replete with inaccuracies which need to be addressed. Mr. Rangel begins his opinion piece with the falsehood that “Now more than ever, invasive species are entering the Great lakes in alarming numbers…” The acknowledged fact is that since 2006, there have been NO new aquatic nuisance species discovered in the Great Lakes. Ships entering the Great Lakes from overseas already comply with the most aggressive ballast water management requirements in the world. Under federal law, every ocean-going vessel must exchange its ballast water while at sea before entering the St. Lawrence Seaway. The ballast tanks are also f lushed with sea water. This two-pronged approach has proved to be 99.993% effective at removing or exterminating freshwater zooplankton that could possibly invade the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. Furthermore, the U.S. and Canadian governments stop, board and test every international ship entering the St. Lawrence Seaway, the gateway to the Great Lakes, for compliance to that law. Additionally, the science community has confirmed that technology is not currently available to meet higher than the IMO standard. The state of Wisconsin, which previously required a ballast water treatment standard of 100 times IMO, engaged the Ballast Water Collaborative, a group of leading environmental scientists, vendors, naval architects and other experts in the U.S. and Canada, including New York DEC staff, in an unprecedented in-depth review of ballast water treatment technologies and the science available to measure their effectiveness. The Collaborative concluded that treatment technologies do not exist today to meet the 100 times IMO standard. The Wisconsin DNR ballast water general permit was subsequently modified to require the IMO standards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tasked its Science Advisory Board (SAB) to address the question of whether ballast water treatment technology exists now, or in the foreseeable future, to meet a standard greater than IMO. The SAB’s final report, issued in July, found that NO such technology exists. Not mentioned by Mr. Rangel is the role the U.S. Coast Guard plays in this process. Today, there is no technology approved by the USCG to meet New York ’s regulatory requirements. In fact, the USCG has yet to establish a ballast water treatment technology approval process. Shipowners will not install ballast water treatment systems unless they are USCG approved, because they are unable to obtain insurance otherwise. Those regulations will be published in the next few months. It is quite a stretch for Mr. Rangel to conclude that Governor Walker and other interested parties are against the NYDEC regulations for profits sake. The shipping industry fully supports efforts to find a workable solution to mitigating the spread of invasive species into the Lakes, but it should be fact-based and scientifically-sound, grounded in technical capabilities and economic realities. This is what the EPA and USCG are working to achieve. And, yes, the proposed New York regulations do threaten the economic well-being of the eight Great Lakes states, which is why there has been push back by the industry. Economies are dependent upon the movement of goods. When considering environmental impacts of shipping by water, it is important to note that alternative modes of transporting cargo – trucks and trains – create much more pollution via air emissions, as well as increased congestion and more fatalities. Waterborne transportation is the cheapest, safest, most environmentally-friendly mode of transportation, mostly because of scale. For example, one ship can haul the same amount of cargo as 3,000 trucks. The cost of many goods and services will increase exponentially if shipping on the Great Lakes were to cease, plus the economic impact that would be borne by the respective states in terms of unemployment benefits for the loss of marine industry related jobs. Hysteria is never the intelligent or useful way forward. The shipping industry is supporting efforts to ensure proper – and attainable – standards are created. Laura Blades Director of Public Affairs American Great Lakes Ports Association
A view from both inside and outside the LGBT Resource Center.
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OP-ED
October 3, 2011
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Slavery in the sunshine state The male mystique Why and how the practice of slavery still exists in Florida By William Bornhoft Staff Writer editorial@uwmpost.edu
Legal slave trade in the United States ended 146 years ago, upon the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. As most people know, a governmental ban doesn’t mean the problem completely ceases to exist. Today, the tomato fields of the sunshine state are home to the same brutal and inhumane practices of slavery that existed at America’s birth. The vast majority of slaves are immigrants desperately seeking employment and are tricked into entering a slave ring on the belief that they’ll be justly compensated for their work. Mariano Lucas Domingo is a man who was lucky enough to escape slavery after being held captive for more than two years. Domingo was forced to work in the fields during the day and was locked up at night in the back of a moving truck, where there was no place to sleep or to use the bathroom. There were no days off, so when he and other slaves became too tired
to work, they were brutally beaten and locked up. Sadly, the farm Domingo was held at is one of many where slave practices continue. In the last 15 years, 1,200 former slaves have been released from Florida farms. Knowing the economics behind this is key to understanding why slavery continues to go on in the land of the free. Fast food chains and super markets demand extremely cheap fresh tomatoes all year round in the United States, even in the off-season months. Because Florida is generally warm all year round, it becomes a “tomato capital” during the winter. Gathering tomatoes at the pace needed to satisfy the high demand is extremely labor intensive. Even in the 21st century, fresh tomatoes need to be hand picked by individuals, which can lead to high prices that fast food chains and grocery stores would rather avoid. This creates a high demand for slave labor in the tomato industry, which dramatically lowers costs and increases profits for companies. Before pinning the blame entirely on profit-seeking businesses, it’s important to learn what your role, the
consumer, is in all of this. Floridabased U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy says it’s a fact that every American who has eaten a fresh tomato from a fast food chain or super market has eaten a fruit hand picked by a slave. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, organized in 1993, is a nonprofit organization that fights for better working conditions and wages among farm workers and campaigns to end slavery in Florida. The CIW has been partially responsible for the investigations and convictions of seven slave operations since 1997, freeing over a thousand victims of slavery. The fact that slavery is still alive and well in the U.S. is deplorable, yet awareness of the issue is still relatively low. Low levels of awareness contribute to the existence of slavery in Florida. Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland, says this is the type of crime that “withers in the light of publicity. It can't stand it. No one wants to have conditions that existed in 1850 happening right now, in Florida or anywhere in the United States.”
Bear market blessings
Will women ever understand what’s going on in his head? By Angela Schmitt Staff Writer editorial@uwmpost.com
Men are so enigmatic. If you are a woman and you think you understand men, I think you are full of crap. I, for one, will fully admit that I couldn’t figure out what goes on inside the brains of men if my life depended on it. It always seems like when a guy does something that confuses me, all my guy friends either tell me he’s lying or that he just wants sex. Seriously, I could say, “Joe canceled our date because his grandma fell, and he has to take her to the hospital.” My girlfriends will all say, “OMG, he’s so sweet! What a nice guy!” But my guy friends will say, “His grandma didn’t fall. He lied to you. He doesn’t want to go on a date. He just wants to hook up.” Of course, I try to argue back and say that maybe, just maybe, his grandma really is hurt, and Joe is a nice guy. However, my guy friends will respond, “Nope. He’s lying. Move on.” And I lose all faith in males. I can’t help but wonder… Are men really like that? Are they actually that unfeeling that all they want is sex, and they don’t care who you are or how much they have to lie to you? They just want to get in and get out? If that’s how it is, then men are a bunch of sociopaths.
I don’t know if I am just an eternal optimist or if I’m being naive, but I think it’s a little more complicated than that. Guys make it sound like there is no room for gray area. A guy either likes you and it all works out, or he doesn’t like you, he tries to sleep with you and then he forgets you without blinking an eye or feeling a single thing. So why aren’t women like that? I don’t know very many women who are capable of acting like they like a guy just to sleep with him and then never talk to him again. So how come guys can apparently do it so easily? My male friends tell me all guys are cold-hearted, opportunistic liars, but I just can’t accept it. If they’re all like that, how do any of them have girlfriends or get married? Are they just horrible to women until they meet one they actually like? How could society work if men really thought and acted that way? Not to mention all the chaos that would ensue when all the used and abused women started getting their crazy on! In the mean time, men need to realize that women are clueless when it comes to understanding them. So give us a break, just be honest with us. We can handle it. If you really must hit it and forget it, I’m sure there are women out there that would be up for a no-strings-attached situation, so do us all a favor, and just go find one of them.
Recession provides rare check to materialistic society “Charlie Horror Picture Show” Comedy Central salutes one of Hollywood’s notorious train wrecks
By Joe Ford Special to The Post editorial@uwmpost.com
I’m enjoying this economic contraction. Consumption is down. People aren’t buying stuff, so manufacturing is scaling back, and there is less shipping. It gives the planet a slight reprieve. I hope this oil based economy collapses – and the sooner, the better. We can’t afford a system that relies on constant growth. Few understand the pressure this planet is under, let alone the blowback we will experience. This economic system doesn’t produce a healthy society or a healthy environment. Hyper-competitive, neoliberal capitalism is as unnecessary as it is unfair. The few people benefiting most from this destructive system are the people setting the agenda and making the rules. Large numbers of us have to start rejecting those rules and stop following these folks down this fool’s path of unsustainable growth and more consumption as markers of success. You can blame the politicians. “Vote to throw the bums out next election” is conventional wisdom. To which I would add: “Because there’s more bums on the sidelines waiting to take their place.” But there’s more to it. Seldom mentioned is how we vote with our money. I’m not talking about billions in donations to Political Action Committees and political parties or the alphabet soup of ways to disguise financial inf luence the corporations buy our government with. That’s them voting with their stockholders’ money. I’m talking about the actual consumption that’s driving this train wreck. That’s how we give money to those corporations to do their dirty deeds. We all vote every time we spend money. Every dollar we spend is a vote.
Author and environmental activist Derrick Jensen wrote, “Corporations are institutions created explicitly to separate humans from the effects of their actions. If current trends are any indication, they’ve succeeded.” Want to support sweat-shops in Southeast Asia? Back to school sales anyone? Spend money at Target and Wal-Mart as fast as your media encourages. Like products from our petro and poison intensive factory farm system? (“Farm” and “food” are a stretch. Let’s call it a “food” production system.)
If as much media time was spent educating us as it is spent distracting us with sports and entertainment, this would be a better world.
Keep buying cheap at the box stores. This begs the question: Why does our government subsidize and promote the production and distribution of this junk while purveyors of real food are left to fend for themselves and compete in an anything but “free” market? Why would it be good policy for a government to subsidize food that makes its citizens sick and encourages over-consumption so that half gets wasted? Enjoy the destruction of the planet? Keep buying BP gas. Agree with our worldwide military footprint? Cast your vote by signing up with AT&T for all your communication needs. Oh, and our climate is changing. The U.S. military leads the world in causing environmental destruction, and the Pentagon knows our climate
is changing. They’re actively planning for the fallout. Pros at analyzing risk, the insurance industry is working the upcoming impacts into their current actuarial calculations. If as much media time was spent educating us as it is spent distracting us with sports and entertainment, this would be a better world. They’ve discouraged civic participation and replaced it with reality TV. If we were bombarded with background information as much as we are with glossy sales pitches, we would not tolerate most of our regular routines. If as much time and money was spent educating us about animal abuse, monoculture and genetic modification as there is the selling of $1 burgers at a fast food joint, we wouldn’t be eating there. Our leaders aren’t leading us. They’re lining their own nests at our expense. Our press industry is playing us for punks, substituting sensationalism for necessary information. Our media amounts to an intricate and refined propaganda delivery system designed to point eyeballs in the right direction. In the end, we’re left holding the bag and looking like clueless clowns. We’re going to have to figure this out for ourselves, and we’re running out of time. Pay attention people! There is power in our numbers, but most of our numbers are being duped. We have to start making our own rules. We have to figure out a different way to live on our own. Take every chance we get to lessen our reliance on the system. Get around the requirements. Get creative and figure out ways to reduce our impact and our dependence. Set examples and offer alternatives to friends and family. We will begin to notice other people doing it, too. A few at first, but eventually many, will all be moving in the same direction.
By Jessica Wolfe Special to The Post editorial@uwmpost.com
Comedy Central roasted yet another victim of self-destruction. The network’s salute to Hollywood’s notorious train wrecks recently showcased “The Warlock,” otherwise known as Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen has sure had his ups and downs this past year, and, on September 19, he got called out for them on national television. Winning? Not so much. It’s hard to determine exactly what is funny about making fun of people whose lives are simply out of control. But you don’t often see well-respected stars being roasted – and for good reason. They would be highly offended and less able to laugh at themselves, and that, my friends, would certainly leave an awkward aftertaste. Instead, Comedy Central takes on easy targets, like Sheen, who have spent the past year setting themselves up for the crude remarks. It was rather effortless for roasters, including Mike Tyson, Steve-O and Jon Lovitz, to formulate offensive content aimed at one another. But did it go too far? The roastees, including Sheen, did not seem affected by the roasting and remained in good spirit throughout the show. Sheen was caught laughing and clapping after most of the jokes directed at him, as was the audience. The roast did, however, accomplish one thing – contributing to Sheen’s continuously growing ego. His rebuttal showcased his ever-confident swagger. Though the former Hollywood bad boy turned “warlock” now has to submit to mockery in order to preserve his fame, it appears that nothing can deflate his ego, not even being booted from Two and a Half Men. The premier of the reinvented CBS comedy drew almost 28 million viewers, pulling in record ratings with the debut of Ashton Kutcher as Sheen’s replacement. Airing shortly after his character’s mock funeral, the Roast of Charlie Sheen also drew record numbers for Comedy
Central. The network had originally intended to air the Roast of Charlie Sheen during the season premiere of Two and a Half Men. At least someone behaved in a mature and respectable manner, moving the jokes and debauchery to the 10:00 slot – a more appropriate time for a roast, anyway. Stabs were taken at Sheen’s history of employing prostitutes and excessive drug use. Even his kids weren’t off-limits. Private Practice star Kate Walsh made the most of this opportunity, stunning audiences with her audacity and witty diagnosis. “It’s amazing –after abusing your lungs, liver and kidneys, the only thing you’ve had removed is your kids,” she said. Jeffrey Ross also took a turn: “If you’re winning, this must not be a child custody hearing. The only time your kids get to see you is in reruns. Don’t you want to live to see their first 12 steps?” The comedian also singled out Sheen’s ex-wife Brooke Mueller. “Brooke Mueller is not very bright unless Charlie throws a lamp at her,” he said, indirectly referencing Sheen’s previous domestic violence charges. Mueller was in attendance, and the camera made sure to capture her surprisingly comical reaction. It’s hard to imagine that Sheen didn’t feel a single scorch from the hot seat. But nonetheless, he gave an impressive rebuttal with retorts of his own. “Once again, I come out unscathed,” Sheen said. “You can't hurt me. I can't kill me. Did you really think your little jokes were going to hurt me?” If the roastees didn’t mind what was said, we certainly shouldn’t either. Should we feel sorry for Charlie Sheen? Not necessarily. He submitted himself to the roasting and was fully deserving of the mockery he received. But did it go too far? Sure, some of the stabs were aimed below the belt, but it made America laugh. The Roast of Charlie Sheen may be considered one of the most outrageous publicly broadcasted interventions that might finally set this man straight.
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October 3, 2011
COMICS
the uwm post
Primal Urges
Andrew Megow
Mock Duck Soup
Mitchell Moeser
I Like Your Shoes
Carol Brandt
She Said, He Said
Kat Rodriguez
Luna’s Upside Down World
Andrea Thurner
PET OF THE WEEK
This is KC, the regal beagle. She likes thinking about food, eating food, and looking for food. She’ll let you pet her...if you have food. When there is no food to be found, she loves cuddling and being wrapped in light for a dramatic portrait.
To see your pet featured, e-mail petoftheweek@uwmpost.com!
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PUZZLES
THEUWMPOST CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 School subj. 5 Scored really high 9 Throng 14 Emanation 15 Take the bait 16 Speak one’s mind 17 Persia 18 Crop chemical 19 China neighbor 20 Auto ending production in 2011 (2 wds.) 23 Bard’s before 24 Reznor’s band, for short 25 Treks 29 Zenith’s opposite 31 Not now 33 ____ Jima 34 Cheese, milk, etc. 36 Strainers 39 Auto that ended production in 2010 (2 wds.) 42 Roof of the mouth 43 Ingenuous 44 Literary collection 45 Church event 47 Noble, as gases 51 Spoiled (2 wds.) 54 Wk. part 56 Jeans maker 57 Auto that ended production in 2011 (2 wds.) 60 foursquare personality 63 Skid (var.) 64 Always 65 Love 66 CCCP 67 Prefix for mart or watt 68 Noise 69 Lyricist 70 Wallet fillers DOWN 1 2 3 4 5
Unmarried woman Word before borealis Swapped Chill, maybe Counting machines
6 Taco herb 7 And others (2 wds.) 8 Take (from) 9 Word before bear or bee 10 Pavarotti’s field 11 Tear 12 Gene stuff 13 Wet wiggler 21 Absorbed with awe 22 Japanese art form 26 Provide 27 Water pitcher 28 “Help!” 30 Thought 32 Songs of praise 35 Pre-refrigerator occupation 37 Ask 38 Adam’s garden 39 Austen or Eyre 40 Enthusiasm
41 42 46 48 49 50 52 53 55 58 59 60 61 62
Body therapist Dog’s foot Totals (2 wds.) Roman XI Go back on a promise Aquarium fish Sharp plant structure Uninspired Notify Too Note Mothers, maybe Bother Addressee
October 3, 2011
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SUDOKU INSTRUCTIONS: Fill in the squares so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 exactly once.
solution found on page 4
GODOKU
INSTRUCTIONS: Fill the squares so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 bo contains the following letters exactly once: E, K, S, D, M, R, B, I, A. One row or column will reveal a hidden word!
solution found on page 4
solution found on page 4
A Clever Coin Trick
Harry and his sister are trying to solve one of those fascinating coin tricks which are so popular with the young folks. Ten coins are placed on the table as shown, so that we can count three rows of four-in-a-line, and the problem is to discover how to change the positions of only two of the coins so that there will then be five rows of four-in-a-line. It is a very simple puzzle. Just think of it! Only move two of the coins somewhere else so as to make it possible to count five rows instead of only three!
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