Nuclear North Korea /p.12 Tilly and the Wall/p.04

Nuclear North
Korea /p.12
Tilly and the
Wall /p.04
PLUS Rugby Q&A / Down with Pluto / and more!
The Weekly Student Magazine of the University of Minnesota
/ volume 5 / issue 5 / 4-10 October 2006
Editorial/
Editor-in-Chief
Jenny Odegard
Managing Editor
Eric Price
Athletics Editor
Craig Rentmeester
Campus Editor
Sarah Howard
Literary Editor
Jacob Duellman
Sound & Vision Editor
Kristen Mueller
Voices Editor
Cole Dennis
Editorial Assistants
Alyssa Cogan, Dan Olmschenk, Lyndsey
Danberry
Senior Staff Writers
Rachel Drewelow, Dan Groth
PRODUCTION/
Production Manager
Jeremy Sengly
Art Director
Sam Soule
Photography Editor
Brennan Vance
Web Editor
Luke Preiner
Senior Photographer
Ethan Stark
Graphic Designers
Dave Hagen, Eric Price, Becki Schwartz,
Jeremy Sengly, Krista Spinti
Copy Editors
Kelly Frush, Erin Lavigne, Rachel Levitt,
Tammy Quan, Morgon Mae Schultz
BUSINESS/
Business Manager
Angela Damiani
Office Manager
Elizabeth Keely Shaller
Advertising Executive
Meghan Norris
Public Relations Director
Cassie Benson
Advertising Intern
Tyler Jones
Public Relations Interns
Marlys Huismann, Alison Traxler, Julie
Veternick
THIS ISSUE/
Cover Artist
Jeremy Sengly
Illustrators
Dave Hagen, Alex Judkins, Michael Mason,
Jeremy Sengly, Brennan Vance
Photographers
Aimee Gauthier, Christine Lenzen,
Josh Loewenhagen, Ethan Stark,
Brennan Vance, Danielle Wiskus
©2006 The Wake Student Magazine. All rights
reserved.
Established in 2002, The Wake is a weekly
independent magazine produced by
and for the students of the University of
Minnesota. The Wake is a registered student
organization.
Contributing Writers
Elizabeth Aulwes, Lyndsey Danberry,
Rachel Drewelow, Janessa Dohse, Sarah
Howard, Katie Mae Kohlbeck, Marcus Lewis,
Josh Loewenhagen, Kristen Mueller, Nattie
Olson, AJ Sabako, Jupiter Surya, Valerie
Tukey, Erika Wurst
The Wake Student Magazine
1313 5th St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 379-5952 • www.wakemag.org
The Wake was founded by Chris Ruen and
James DeLong.
Coffee Talk:
Nuclear North
Korea/p.12
“Katrina-style incompetence,” “priority, pessimism, politics” and
“appalling” were among the labels experts recently slapped on the
United States’ policy regarding North Korea at a recent local panel
discussion. The Wake takes a look at what this means for the future of
relations with the rogue state.
Dear campus,
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the news. Our beloved
Dustin Diamond—a.k.a Samuel Powers, a.k.a. Saved
by the Bell’s Screech—has joined the esteemed ranks
of Colin Farrell, Kid Rock, and Paris Hilton. Yes, soon
enough, the washed-up celebrity’s “ten inch member—
flaccid” will grace computer screens across the nation
when his very own sex tape is released.
Really now. The Middle East is going to hell, spinach
is killing people, North Korea’s got nukes, K-Fed is
releasing an album, the Carlson School of Management
is expanding, and now Screech has been caught on
tape performing a Dirty Sanchez. We’re one release of
Chinese Democracy away from the four horsemen.
Enjoy the last issue of The Wake, because the end is
nigh.
ERIC PRICE
Managing Editor
SOUND & VISION p.04
PHOTOGRAPHY p.09
VOICES p.10
LITERARY p.14
Letter/
from/ another/
editor/
Wake athletics is in need of a new editor. Sadly, I am
planning my departure. So here’s my pitch.
Rather than getting paid shit and covering the same
ATHLETICS p.16
teams week in and week out, join the Wake athletics
CAMPUS p.18
Temptation Island. Alright, maybe not. However, you
BASTARD p.22
team. You’ll get laid more than contestants on
will have the ability to write about topics ranging from
rock climbing, dodgeball and women’s rugby.
Basically, anyone with a little writing ability and a
passion for arguing about sports when they’re drunk
should apply.
Craig Rentmeester
Athletics Editor
Sound & Vision/
By Kristen Mueller
04/4–10 October 2006
\ Sound & Vision
Omaha, Neb., has been an incubator for up-and-coming
indie acts since Saddle Creek Records led the charge
out of the laughably Midwestern town and into the rest
of the country’s stereos and concert venues. Tilly and
the Wall stomped its way to the forefront of this lauded
music scene thanks to band member Jamie Williams’s
tap shoes and a wooden platform placed on stage.
There are no drums in this whimsical quintet’s tracks.
Instead, two feet and a pair of tap heels supply the percussion—picture Riverdance on the Triple Rock’s stage,
minus the plaid.
Equally important are the musicians lined up next to
Jamie like a family of ducks. There’s Nick White, a joketeller on keyboards. Neely Jenkins, the timid one on
vocals, shakers and bells. And Derek Pressnall strums
the guitar while singing with Kianna Alarid, who also
shakes a tambourine when not playing the recorder.
When asked why they like Missy so much, Alarid’s voice
becomes reverential. “Oh God, how can you not? She’s
just fearless. … She’s just so weird, you know? And she
doesn’t care.”
While hip-hop’s queen has yet to grace a stage alongside
Tilly, the band has shared the spotlight with a roster
of indie acts most scenesters would trade their skinny
jeans and thrift store tee collections to hear live. The
Go! Team, Of Montreal, Rilo Kiley, and Coco Rosie are
just a few. But it’s Conor Oberst’s label, Team Love, that
released Tilly’s first album, Wild Like Children, in June
2004. In May, they followed up with Bottoms of Barrels,
another ’60s-pop-inspired disc bursting with fanciful
harmonies and clap-along melodies.
The band has shared the spotlight
with a roster of indie acts most
scenesters would trade their skinny
jeans and thrift store tee collections
to hear live.
This streak of bravery is a trait embodied in another of
Tilly and the Wall’s idols: Missy Elliot. “We have this
dream list of people we’d really like to play with, like
Missy Elliot and the Cure,” Alarid shares with a laugh.
Although several of Tilly’s songs are liable to send your
feet bouncing at the speed of the beads inside Neely’s
shaker, occasionally Jamie’s feet do need a rest, and the
group will slow it down with a song like “Lost Girls,”
inspired by outsider artist Henry Darger. The Chicagoan’s watercolor paintings of the Vivian Girls, a gaggle
of sisters who combat adults’ evil deeds, show children
in matching bonnets and dresses holding hands and
frolicking across a countryside that would blend seamlessly onto a fairy tale’s pages.
“I feel like [Darger’s art] affected all our lives in the
band, and I just felt like writing about it,” Alarid says.
Today it’s Alarid’s turn to field questions from the press,
and she does so over the phone while shopping in the
men’s section of a Goodwill near her parents’ house in
Omaha. “I’m actually shopping for my mom,” she says.
“She wanted this men’s button up shirt … I think she
wants to paint on it. She’s very crafty.”
That explains Alarid’s outfit: a pair of white pants she
painted neon, under a jean skirt topped by a kid’s dress
with a swirly pink-and-blue floral print, worn as a
shirt. This last piece reflects Tilly and the Wall’s childish origins. The band derived its name from a children’s
book by Leo Lionni that the School Library Journal
recommends for students in kindergarten through second grade. It tells the tale of a courageous mouse named
Tillie who believes the grass on the other side of a wall
is exceedingly greener, brighter and better—and decides to do what no other creature dares to get there:
tunnel under the wall.
much less knows the words to our songs,” Alarid says
with a voice as humble as Tilly’s candy-sweet chord
combinations. “We’re just up there having fun, and we
want people to know that they’re welcome to have as
much fun as we’re having.”
Aside from saddling up with famous friends, the seemingly sleepy town of Omaha also had a profound effect on the band’s trajectory toward success. “It’s real
easy to be a musician here, because living is so cheap,”
Alarid says. “Plus we have a lot of basements in the
Midwest, so maybe that contributes to bands forming.”
But the main factor she emphasizes is the whole-hearted support from locals. “Every time a new band comes
out, everybody goes to the show. … That’s why bands
keep coming out [of Omaha].”
courtesy of pressherepublicity.com
Alarid equates titling the disc with naming a baby. The
final choice, Bottoms of Barrels, was pulled from a lyric
in “Sing Songs Along.”
“It does seem sort of tragic,” she says of the title. “But
the thing is, I feel like our whole spirit is sort of about
hope and observing life and how it can be shitty, but
always having that hope, because if you’re not positive
then what else—what else can you do?”
You can “get down,” as “Sing Songs Along” advises. Or
throw your mouth open wide, in accordance with the
lyrics of “Urgency”: “Either start screaming or start
singing.”
Enthusiasm and genuine love for each other and their
fans are plastered throughout Tilly’s website. Just click
on their news blog and you’ll be blanketed in an outpouring of affection (“you are the reason we are still here doing this. we love you. xoxoxoxoxo”) brought slightly back
down to earth only by a liberal use of “fuck” (“We are like
buzzing with fucking joy!”).
Their unadulterated excitement and incredulousness is
the only thing allowing them to get away with cavityinducing phrases, like “Hello you sugar cubes!” “Hope
your day is pretty!” and more Heeehhehehes than an
eight-year-old chatting on AIM.
Then again, Tilly and the Wall was named after a talking mouse, so why not grant them these whimsies?
Tilly and the Wall will return to the Triple Rock Social Club at 9
p.m. on Oct. 9. 18+, $10-$12; triplerocksocialclub.com, tillyandthewall.com.
Of these two commands, most crowds opt for singing.
“It still blows my mind that anyone knows who we are,
\05
www.wakemag.org
Sound & Vision/
Covered in
Brand Names
An upscale boutique
invades Dinkytown
By Valerie Tukey
Dinkytown’s first high-end clothing store, “Covered,”
is nestled on the corner of 14th Avenue SE and Fourth
Street. The shop, owned by Stacy Larson, is the newest addition to the student neighborhood’s ever-changing landscape. But don’t let the flashy tags fool you; while
some of the clothes may be out of most college students’
price range, Larson’s boutique might have what you’re
looking for.
“The store may seem upscale,” Larson says. “But once you
get in the door, I promise you’ll be sold.” And sales seem
to be the only thing on Larson’s mind, “Last weekend for
our grand opening (Sept. 9th and 10th), we were so busy
that we even had people changing in the bathrooms,” Larson says.
The boutique may be limited on space, but the young and
contemporary clothing is abundant. Take one look at Larson and you’ll know what kind of clothing Covered has
to offer. She may not be runway-model tall, but she has
a pronounced sense of style. “I have been reading Vogue
since I was 10 years old,” Larson says. Since she has a
keen eye for fashion and a knowledge of jeans exceeding any Express or Gap employee, Larson makes a perfect
salesperson.
In each dressing room Larson created a list of what she
calls “denim rules,” a simple guide to help buyers find
the perfect fit. “I say the same thing to nearly every cus-
06/4-10 October 2006
tomer,” Larson says. “So I thought that I should just post
a list of guidelines to help women find the perfect pair
of jeans.” The list includes how the jeans should fit, how
much they should stretch, and which pairs work on taller
versus shorter women. But out of all the guidelines, Larson saved the best for last. Number eight reads, “You are
gorgeous!” Shopping and a self-esteem booster? It doesn’t
get much better than that.
Jeans aren’t the only focus at the new store. Covered
carries some big name brands like Citizens of Humanity and T-bags, but the store also sells more affordable
brands like Tulle. “We have really cute long T-shirts for
$30,” Larson says. Some of these comfortable tees have
scrunched sleeves at the shoulder or fun designs on the
back. In addition to cheap shirts, Covered is preparing for
fall, stocking big wool jackets for $80.
Although some threads may be more expensive than at
a chain store, Covered has attracted plenty of Golden
Gophers. “I’d say that about 60 percent of my customers
are students,” Larson says. “But we have a ton of women
driving in from Edina to shop here.” So what made Larson choose Dinkytown to open up shop, when many of her
customers are in their 30s?
“I had been thinking about opening up a shop in Dinkytown for a few years,” says Larson, who was a buyer for
St. Louis Boutique “Q” the past two years. “Last February I was looking at Craigslist and found this retail
space,” She bought it right away. “I just felt it,” Larson
brennan vance
says. And luckily for Larson, since Covered is surrounded by sandwich shops and used-book stores, there is no
competition. Sure, Dinkytown has a few veteran clothing
stores like “Everyday People,” but Larson doesn’t view
them as competition. “We help each other out more than
anything else,” says Larson.
“I think Covered is really good for our store,” says Jessie
Taft, a longtime employee at Everyday People. “It is great
because we can refer people there if they are looking for
something more specific. And since Everyday People carries plenty of vintage accessories and shirts, it makes a
perfect fit. “Everyday People is great for someone looking
for a piece to add to their outfit,” Larson says.
\ Sound & Vision
Decadence,
Depravity, and
Dragons
dave hagen
By Marcus Lewis
It’s the last week of August, and for three days, all I’ve
thought about is what I’m going to drink when I get home.
Last night, I perfected the Black and Tan. But tonight, I
need something harder. It was my third straight thirteenhour day of working at the Minnesota State Fair.
My booth wasn’t bad: there were no deep fryers, no corn
batter, and no products to sell. I was working for a local
media channel, and I was in charge. Most of my days were
spent in an air-conditioned office, though I also had to
work the autograph tables for talent. All things considered, it was the crème de la crème of state fair jobs. All
things considered, it still sucked.
Today was particularly bad. Poison was playing the
Grandstand, which meant that the typical fairgoer’s uniform of cut-off jean shorts, wraparound sunglasses, and
NASCAR paraphernalia was altered to include hair-metal
t-shirts (in lieu of or in addition to NASCAR gear). The
same guy wearing a Mötley Crüe shirt that day was probably paying homage to Dale Earnhardt the day before.
Two days prior, I met my favorite fairgoers by way of a
variety show that used my office as a dressing room. I let
a monkey sit in there with me. It was owned by a woman
in her mid-thirties wearing semi-revealing clothing, and
a gentleman roughly the same age in a black suit with a
Flock of Seagulls haircut. She was nice, he less so. When
I asked him if monkey shows were all they did for money,
he replied with a sort of Gob Bluth-meets-Dirk Diggler
hand motion, “Oh no. I’m a magician. I do all kinds of
tricks.” (It should be noted that he did no trick with this
illusionist hand motion).
Another day allowed me the opportunity to learn the future from a gentleman waiting in line for an autograph:
“John, yes, the John, John the Apostle.” He told me that he
had confirmation from someone in Texas that the Rapture
(not the band) was coming Sept. 12 and would be in the
United States within 18 months. I thanked him for coming
in and handed him more pencils than were normally allotted for visitors.
I laughed and laughed, then went
back to the booth and vowed to
myself, “no more festivals.”
The final day of the fair was the first that I allowed myself
to actually enjoy it. I bought a greasy steak sandwich and
a taco salad and went to a freak show in the Midway. The
highlight was when the performer who swallows swords
almost died because a little girl from the audience stepped
in front while she was pulling the sword out. I laughed
and laughed, then went back to the booth and vowed
to myself, “no more festivals.” I didn’t like them before
working the fair, and I certainly did not like them after.
So naturally, the next weekend, having won tickets, I
found myself at the Renaissance Festival. My girlfriend
insisted upon going so we could watch glass get blown.
I, in turn, was blown away (pun intended) by the whole
experience—including the costumes people wore. While
most were employees getting paid to dress like knaves
and knights, several of them were normal people who just
like wearing cloaks and pointed hats (and watching Lord
of the Rings). I couldn’t decide if this was better or worse
than NASCAR gear and cutoffs, which, admittedly, were
also prevalent at the Renaissance Festival.
But unlike the State Fair, dragons were (thankfully) everywhere, which is also one reason the whole production
should be called “Ye Olde Festival” or “Medieval/Renaissance Times,” since simply “Renaissance Festival” is not
historically accurate. Everybody knows dragons went
extinct around 1350, roughly a century before the Renaissance began. Despite this glaring inaccuracy, I wanted
desperately to buy dragon-related art-and there was plenty on hand, from candles to a painting titled “Defiance,”
which showed a mostly-nude woman staring defiantly into
the eyes of a menacing dragon. Unfortunately, it was too
expensive to buy, and I decided it would not project the
right kind of statement in my living room.
In the end, all I wanted to do was go home. Don’t get me
wrong, I did learn from my experience that I don’t hate
festivals. In fact, I kind of like them, at least in small doses, and with the right attitude. I suggest mocking it on the
surface while secretly embracing it on the inside. But really, you just need to know when to leave. Thirteen hours
is too many. Three’s about right.
\07
www.wakemag.org
Sound & Vision/
Fusion at
ArtsMosis
explore the
tarps uses,
creating a
huge party.
By Katie Mae Kohlbeck
What happens when you mix spoken word with dance,
and artists with urban planners? Or when students dress
in Velcro suits and play with giant tarps? And what does
the guy in a squirrel costume have to do with anything?
You’ll find out at ArtsMosis, the Arts Quarter Collective’s
annual event where anything is possible. The AQC, an
eclectic student group in the West Bank Arts Community,
also hosts grant writing workshops, cabarets, and art festivals. But none are as big as ArtsMosis.
This year’s festival includes about 10 projects, ranging in
content from spoken word and multimedia presentations
to dances and explorations of space and place. Of course,
there could always be spontaneous last-minute works,
adding even more eccentricity to the festival.
Zachary Crockett, one of AQC’s leaders and a graduate
student in music composition, calls ArtsMosis a “unique
and amazing [event] for students at the U of M.” It’s
unique because the show allows students to collaborate on
what they love in order to create meaningful works, a feat
not always possible when professors hand out detailed assignments. Instead, students are allowed full reign with
their projects—with one stipulation. They need to be interdisciplinary, meaning students from different focuses
must join forces.
ArtsMosis is a “nice mechanism to invite people to work
together,” says Laura Winton, a theater graduate student who’s collaborating with Annie Hanauer, a dancer. Winton will be performing a spoken piece about her
experience in New York on Sept. 11, and Hanauer will
add movement to her words with a choreographed dance.
While Winton feels she could always improve upon the
piece, she’s decided to retire it after ArtsMosis, since it’s
the fifth anniversary of the attack.
The festival isn’t limited to art students. The “Urban
Echo” project, for example, is the brainchild of three
graduate students studying four diverse fields: landscape
Michael mason
architecture and urban planning (Laura Baker), music
composition (J. Anthony Allen), and, well, art (Christopher Baker). “I don’t think landscape architecture has
ever been involved [in ArtsMosis],” explains Baker. “Maybe it’ll add an edge.”
The Urban Echo project is an exploration of space and
place. It goes beyond just speaking of the terms’ differences by actually exploring what creates a place. The
interactive experiment will take place outdoors, between the Regis Center for Arts and the Barker Center
for Dance. Their goal is to make the grassy knoll a place
rather than just a space. To do this, the collaborators are
inviting anyone to send text messages, images, emails,
and voicemails to specially created numbers or addresses.
“It’s really the participants who are creating the piece,”
explains L. Baker.
Participants are asked to submit answers to simple, yet
profound questions: Who, what, where, and why we are.
Responses will fill the large projection screens and echo
from speakers. These individual answers are, ultimately, the threads that make up the fabric of this “place,”
which celebrates individual stories and unique urban
landscapes.
Past ArtsMosis projects have been wildly successful and
are always imaginative, like last year’s tarp experiment
led by students who wanted to explore its many uses.
Though the project’s original plan didn’t come to fruition, Crockett explains, what came to pass may have been
better. The artists ended up frolicking, playing, and tossing objects (think shoes, rocks, and miscellaneous debris)
onto the tarp. Soon a huge group gathered to watch and
“I tell you,
it was the
most successful thing at
the event,”
Crockett says
with a laugh.
“Total pandemonium,
complete
insanity.”
Urban Echo
It’s not to late to have your
voice heard or face displayed
in the Urban Echo project. To
participate, send text messages
to (612) 501-2598, voicemails
to (612) 626-6921, and cell
phone or video messages to
[email protected].
Last minute, unplanned projects sometimes make appearances at ArtsMosis as well. Last year, three young
men showed up hours before the event commenced, set up
large boxes, and hid in them all night. As people stopped
to look at the handmade sign they posted in front of each
box, a knife would suddenly poke out. Stranger still, one
of the men later emerged wearing a squirrel costume and
started running around.
“You just never knows what’s going to happen at this
thing,” Crockett says.
What we do know about this year’s showcase, scheduled for Oct. 6, is that there will be an electronic music
piece, a percussionist performance enhanced by video and
electronic music, people dancing in Velcro suits (mildly
improvisational, mildly choreographed), and a history lesson, in the form of a piece taking place on the Bohemian
Flats, which used to inhabit the West Bank.
We also know that ArtsMosis is a truly unique event, and
an ideal way for students of all backgrounds to become
involved in on-campus art. Without the generosity of the
College of Liberal Arts, which funds students’ projects,
and the passion of the students, ArtsMosis wouldn’t be
possible, Crockett says. The main goal, he concludes, is
“to keep art going with students.” Even if that means
commandeering a section of the West Bank or dressing
like furry creatures.
ArtsMosis is scheduled for Oct. 6, on the West Bank of campus; tc.umn.
edu/~aqc/artsmosis.html.
Review
Experimental indie-punk trio The Slats has constructed
a raw and witty, if not intelligent, album in Boom Patrol.
Their fifth full-length disc opens with the ballsy, anthemlike hook of “Ironman,” boasting gold-plated fists and
proclaiming “there’s no use crying,” before continuing on
through the dirty bass sound and pseudo-rap of “Ignatius,” a song with brash lines like “iconoclastic and drastic/
I’ll break any law that I don’t think is right.”
The Slats: Boom Patrol
(Latest Flame)
By Josh Loewenhagen
08/4-10 October 2006
Track seven, “I Wrote the Code,” is one of the albums
highlights, with lyrics such as “I don’t think that I’ve ever
seen/poetry so sharp and clean/since the samurai/cut off
their hands/it’s the marketing scheme that curdles the
cream.”
Musically, singer and four-string-guitarist Brian Cox,
bassist, vocalist, and guitarist Jon Hansen, and percus-
sionist Mark Tietjen have not created an overly complex
album. The riffs are fairly basic, though the sort of open
fourth and fifth-style vocal harmonies are complemented
by a certain measure of garage band flare and an almost
hardcore guitar sensibility, not so much in terms of style
as much as structural use of dissonance. The bare-bones
production of the album is topped off with confident,
well-placed vocals, and manages to maintain a sort of
pop-awareness.
Overall, The Slats have constructed a solid album that
manages to be to the point and simplistic, yet also engaging and interesting. Given the opportunity, it is definitely
worth a listen or two.
myspace.com/theslats
\ Photography
Josh Loewenhagen
Photo Poll/ How do you think the legalization of street drugs would impact society?
I think that legalizing drugs in the U.S.
would create a lot of chaos. People
would feel that they could use drugs
out in public and around children. They
would be setting bad examples and
could possibly become violent.
Candace Rutkowski
Freshman
There is a significant chance that if drugs
were legalized in the U.S., there would be
a spike in crime, violence and overdoses.
However, the government would be able
to better regulate and tax the substances,
leading to more control over the
currently barely-controllable.
Davidson Ward
Freshman
I believe that the legalization of drugs
would only affect society negatively, but
that’s based on bias rather than rational
weighing of pros and cons. I suppose
that some drugs could end up “safer, but
besides that, I don’t see how legalization
could benefit society.
Lindsey Kahn
Freshman
by Ethan Stark
Drug use would increase among the
people who already use them. However,
there would be no significant increase
among non-drug users.
Ariel Schimek & Anthony Berg
Sophomores
\09
www.wakemag.org
Street Drugs
Voices/
alex judkins
BY nattie olson
headshot by aimee gauthier
The first time I heard the story of my two acquaintances
being beaten with the barrel of a gun, their assailants collectively stealing around four grand of money and drugs
from them, I knew it was time to delete some numbers
from my phone. The minute your life starts to sound a
bit too much like an Elliott Smith song, the first time you
survive a chat with the cops while wasted, it’s probably
time to reevaluate your priorities.
If you or someone you know gets into drugs, there only are
two outcomes. What hopefully happens is that the person
realizes that it isn’t worth the brain cells or risk, and they
eventually cut it out. Unfortunately, what happens more
often is the person ends up burnt out, in jail, or dead.
But every overdose, brain-fried junky, every drive-by,
violent cartel kingpin, these are not byproducts of the
drugs, but rather the fact that they’re illegal. Not only
that, but no matter what a naive Nancy Reagan or a
kitchen-ruining Rachael Leigh Cook has to say about it,
what you do with your own body and mind, in your house,
that’s your business, provided that you don’t cause harm
to anyone else.
mand for these products. The other half of America’s drug
habit, the suppliers, will also never be stopped because of
the tempting profits. Even after you assassinate a kingpin,
wipe out an entire cartel, the money is too tempting and
a new network will always replace it. It works a lot like
Wal-Mart only it’s slightly less devastating to local economy. You buy something in bulk and sell it at whatever rate
the market suggests. No need for a business degree here,
I think that as long as we have to
work to survive, as long as we feel
stress, people will continue to get
trashed.
just fill up a hockey bag with pot in British Columbia and
cross the border, which at some places is an unmarked
stretch of forest. Or, like a baggage handler I knew laid
witness to, bribe some dudes at the Miami airport, and
when a plane lands from Uruguay, send the rest of the
crew to lunch.
On the radio last summer I heard that half of all Minneapolis violence is drug-related. This isn’t just people getting baked and beating the shit out of passersby, it’s about
business. Is it any surprise that when an in-demand product is decreed illegal, a black market will exist for it? And
when problems arise throughout this market (when people
get shorted, greedy, when deals go awry, as they do in all
business) the folks involved can’t exactly go to the law or
the union to straighten these things out, so they utilize
violence. Trust me, some giggling stoner on a desperate
search for more Funyuns isn’t looking for a fight.
Think about any episode of Cops you’ve ever seen. Any big
drug bust put on CNN. Or maybe a bullshit commercial
where Rachael Leigh Cook destroys her kitchen, showing the viewer that the pan is heroin. All of this is costing a lot of your money. Money which, if personal choice
were respected, would not be spent at all. And speaking
of those media campaigns, impotent as they are, why is it
always the black kid getting busted with pot? The black
teens run over a girl in the drive-thru lane. Another black
kid finds his dugout empty with a note from mom on a zigzag. Then there was the little black girl, stranded by her
brother at the carnival, the narrator’s musty voice saying
“Just tell your parents you lost your sister because you
were stoned.” Isn’t all that a little racist?
Not even the Drug Enforcement Administration with all
its useless media campaigns, can curb people’s desire
to get wasted. I think that as long as we have to work to
survive, as long as we feel stress, people will continue to
get trashed. Thus, the nature of being alive fulfills the de-
By any definition, alcohol is a mind-altering drug. Illegal
once, gangs supplied the demand and made huge, untaxed
profits. Realizing prohibition as a failure, the government
legalized, taxed and regulated its use. If we taxed drugs
and stopped wasting billions on worthless advertisements
10/4-10 October 2006
and other anti-drug efforts, we could use the extra cash
to feed the world. But knowing our government, it would
probably just go toward another war.
Along with respecting personal choice, removing profits
from the bad guys and putting it toward humanitarian
efforts, if drugs were legal we could reduce the transmission of HIV. The AIDS epidemic is the most important, crucial task at hand for us and clean needles, along
with education would be a good start. We could remove
this dark alley setting and bring drugs to the consumers, and tell them what they were getting into. The quality
and dose could be controlled, and maybe if we explained
what a certain chemical would do to a user, in a setting
more professional than an abandoned boxcar or a graffiti
soaked tunnel, people would learn more about their body
chemistry, take more responsibility for their actions, and,
upon considering a drug, reconsider.
In America, you can sue McDonald’s when you burn yourself on their coffee or when their food makes you fat.
Fearing lawsuits, they now make playgrounds from foam
rubber and soft plastic. Somewhere along the line, we lost
the pioneer’s spirit and became babysat citizens. Eliminating personal freedoms in the name of safety and protection is the ass-backwards antithesis of what our forefathers wanted.
Take it from someone who’s spent the duration of their
short life breaking rules, calling a fruit forbidden only
makes it appear sweeter. In the end, when you wake up
with unexplained bruises scattered about, an apocalyptic headache, terrified that you said something awful
to someone you love, the only direction you’re headed is
down. It isn’t worth it, as everyone either already knows
or will one day come to find out, but it also isn’t anybody else’s business what you do with yourself, and even
though it will be decades before American government
recognizes that, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
\ Voices
Don’t Tell Me
I’m Numb
BY erika wurst
A year ago, life was good. I had just graduated high school
and was about to go to a stellar college. I had a ton of really badass friends. I was dating a boy with whom I’d been
obsessed for three years, who was also attending the U of
M. I had moved out of my father’s house, and we were finally patching things up. And I was finally, finally leaving
the stifling boredom of Manhattan, Kansas.
But I was sad consistently and unsure of why. When I was
with my friends or boyfriend, I was trying to figure out
why I was so unfufilled. When my mom, my best friend in
the world, told me that she loved me and that she would
miss me when I left, I mumbled “ditto” or something
equally as meaningless and left the room.
The thing is, I knew all along what was happening. I had
been treated for depression when I was a freshman in high
school, but had gotten off the medicine when I felt better.
After reading some article about how America was overmedicated, I started to hate the fact that I had been one of
the doped-up zombies the author was talking about. So I
chose to suffer.
That was a mistake on my part. After a summer of being unable to make me happy, my boyfriend broke up
with me. My best friends moved away to the far corners
of the country, and I didn’t say goodbye to them because
I couldn’t express something I didn’t feel. In college, I
made friends relatively easily, and was doing well in my
classes, but I spent every night crying in the stairwell of
Middlebrook Hall, getting pitying stares from the security
monitors. After two months of this purgatory, my mom
convinced me to go back on antidepressants.
Now I am upset over the ignorance of others every time
I hear some condescending motherfucker telling me that
America is overmedicated and we all need to man up and
deal with our problems. Fuck that. Why the hell shouldn’t
I have taken medication? I took all the appropriate steps
before medication. I talked until I was blue in the face
with everyone important in my life, not to mention a professional counselor.
All I felt at that point was a constant loneliness, despite
the fact that I was surrounded by people who loved me.
Avoiding becoming a statistic even became unavoid-
able. According to the National Institute of Mental
Health “most people with a depressive illness do not seek
treatment.” All I wanted was to be able to enjoy my life,
I still don’t see a reason why that shouldn’t be socially
acceptable.
I suffered from a milder form of depression, called dysthymia. In general most people would agree that those
with severe cases of bipolar disorder or depression need
medication, and in those cases, anti-depression medications are seen as one of the best solutions. So when does
it become okay for someone to get on medication? Schizophrenics are not the only ones who are allowed to have
medicine, nor should one have to be suicidal to warrant
medical help. It is also important to consider that at this
point it might be too late to recover completely.
Anti-depressants are considered dangerous for exactly
this reason; because depression can’t be measured. There’s
no test or definitive indicator that tells a doctor that his
All I wanted was to be able to enjoy
my life, I still don’t see a reason why
that shouldn’t be socially acceptable.
or her patient needs medication. This does not mean it
doesn’t exist. Just because the pain isn’t physical doesn’t
mean it’s not real, or that it shouldn’t be treated. Depression and bipolar disorder are just as real as any other diagnosable illness. A medical professional would never tell
a cancer patient to get some counseling, or maybe pick up
a new hobby. And while depression isn’t cancer, it is still
an illness with serious mental and sometimes physical
manifestations.
The apex of the argument between those who support antidepressant use and those who don’t is this: most people
don’t understand that antidepressants are like other forms
of medications. Why is it so hard to see? Doctors prescribe
pain killers when their patient has gone through physical
trauma that’s putting them in pain, along with physical
treatment for whatever the injury or illness was.
brennan vance
The public should acknowledge that anti-depressants
could help people who are in pain and accept them for
what they are: a tool that could help you, along with
truly dealing with your problems, to feel better. Taking
anti-depressants and coming to terms with whatever has
caused the emotional pain that warrants them are not mutually exclusive, and it’s time we stop assuming they are.
Mental illnesses should be treated exactly the way physical illnesses are; with careful diagnosis and a variety of
treatments that maximize the comfort of the patient while
working towards permanent recovery.
Yes, I realize it’s possible for patients to get addicted to
anti-depressants, just like it’s possible for patients to get
addicted to painkillers. And I realize it’s possible that
doctors may be over-prescribing anti-depressants just as
they’ve over-prescribed antibiotics for decades. But we
sure as hell don’t disregard painkillers and antibiotics in
cases in which they’re needed.
It’s easy for me to look back now and realize how stupid I
was for ignoring the relief I knew medication could have
brought me. But at the time the voices telling me that pills
weren’t the answer were loud and convincing. It took me
a long time to realize that anti-depressants don’t make
people zombies; depression does. Anti-depressants, along
with counseling and life changes, if necessary, are key
to ending the depression so commonly felt by myself and
countless others.
\11
www.wakemag.org
Feature/
Talk amongst yourselves.
I’ll give you a topic:
Crisis on the North Korean Peninsula.
Discuss!
By Rachel Drewelow
“Katrina-style incompetence,” “priority,
pessimism, politics” and “appalling,” were
among the labels experts slapped on the
United States’ policy regarding current nuclear and humanitarian crises on the Korean
Peninsula at a recent Hubert H. Humphrey
Institute of Public Affairs panel discussion.
Former political leaders and government officials gave their take on the U.S.’s diplomacy
– or accused a lack thereof – at the presentation, “Beyond the Nuclear Issue: Crisis on the
Korean Peninsula” in mid-September.
12/4–10 October 2006
“The development by Korea of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons
is one of the gravest threats that we have
had in our lives, and in our history,” argues
L. Desaix Anderson, whose credentials include 35 years as Foreign Service Officer in
the U.S. State Department. The four-person
panel, moderated by former Vice President
Walter Mondale, agreed with Anderson that
the threat was serious, but differed on how it
should be handled.
forts to curb their nuclear ambitions – which
are believed to currently contain more than
800 ballistic missiles, according to a BBC
News country profile. The Bush administration has sought six-party talks with North
Korean leader Kim Jong-iI, in hopes of using
international coercion to urge North Korea
into abandoning its nuclear program. The six
parties are the U.S., North Korea, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea. North Korea’s
requests for bilateral negotiations with the
U.S. have been consistently denied by the
administration. North Korea walked away
from planned multilateral talks last fall due
to financial sanctions imposed by the United
States, after the United States accused North
Korea of state-sponsored drug running and
counterfeiting, explains Burton Levin, who
is former Foreign Serviceman at posts in
Asia, former U.S. Ambassador to Burma,
member of the board of directors for the
Mansfield Foundation and SIT investment
visiting professor of Asian Policy at Carleton
University.
As part of Bush’s proclaimed “axis of evil”
(Iran and Iraq also make that club), North
Korea has thus far evaded diplomatic ef-
Levin calls these public sanctions ridiculous,
saying the issue of counterfeiting should
have been “so secondary” to the diplomacy at
hand. Whether the accusations were true or
not, Levin says, a diplomat does not “create
an atmosphere that’s going to create problems when you’re really working on diplomacy.” It was “appalling,” he says.
Defending the Bush administration’s policy,
L. Gordon Flake, former director for research and academic affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America, says
the administration is acting with “priority, pessimism, and politics.” North Korea
is hardly a top ten priority for the United
States, he says. “In terms of foreign policy,
our first priority is Iraq, our second priority
is Iraq, and our third priority is Iraq,” Flake
contends.
Flake argued that the United States’ policy is
based on the fact that it is not capable of dealing with North Korea bilaterally – as it is tied
up in the Middle East, and has little invested
in the country to bargain with due to sanctions. “The fundamental outlook,” Flake says,
“is that [negotiations] probably won’t work
out right now.” Two-party negotiations would
“provoke a crisis,” Flake says, “you don’t ask
a question you’re not ready to answer.”
\ Feature
North Korea
Quick Facts
Population: 22.9 million (UN 2005)
Area: 47,399 square miles
Capital: Pyongyang
Eternal President: Kim II-sung
(deceased)
Chairman, National Defense
Commission: Kim Jong-iI (son of above)
All information researched from BBC News, news.
bbc.co.uk.
Anderson rejects Flake’s position, and continues to shame the administration’s approach. “The President of the United States
has an obligation... to defend America and
its national interests and just because you
happen to be involved in Iraq, you need to
be able to chew gum at the same time as you
walk,” he says. “[North Korea] is a much
more critical crisis than Iraq ever was. They
didn’t have nuclear weapons – even Iran is
three, four or five years away from them and
North Korea is churning them out,” he says.
Seung-Ho Joo, a specialist in East Asian issues and associate professor at University
of Minnesota-Morris helped explain in a
later interview why the U.S. insists emphasis on Iran’s potential nuclear capabilities
while sidelining North Korea. North Korea
has a running nuclear program, he explains,
which is different for the Bush administration, which leans toward preemptive policy.
“North Korea’s nuclear issue is much more
difficult to handle [than Iran’s],” he says,
“plus the front line is in Iraq, and Iran is its
neighboring country.”
“World leaders are more or less postponing,”
Joo says. “The focus is more on the Middle
East… ignoring Korea is not a smart policy.”
He maintained that the United States needs
to approach North Korea in two-party diplomacy, and “focus and reach actual results.”
At the discussion, Flake maintained that
the “U.S. does not have the characteristics
[needed] to solve the North Korea problem
bilaterally.”
Bush, in his accused lax policy, enabled
North Korea to develop nuclear weapons,
Andersen argues. He agrees with Flake that
the outlook is grim even if the United States
does refocus its diplomacy with North Korea, but says “we still, I think, have to try
because the only alternative is a nucleararmed North Korea or war - and neither one
of those is acceptable.”
To contextualize the nuclear crisis, it is important to understand the country – to the
extent available at least, explained Dean of
the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, J.
Brian Atwood, also former administrator of
the U.S. Agency for International Development for the Clinton administration. “The
route to peace is international cultural understanding,” Atwood says.
“…the only alternative is
a nuclear-armed North
Korea or war - and neither
one of those is acceptable.”
North Korea, which test-launched seven missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads
in July, has remained a secretive government
since becoming an independent state in 1953.
The communist country emerged at the end
of World War II, opted to remain isolated and
is still technically at war with South Korea.
The two never signed a peace treaty.
North Korean citizens have little access to
the world outside of their country. Radios
and televisions are pre-tuned to government stations. They do not have access to
the World Wide Web either, only pages on a
minimal intranet dominated by the government. The regime has been judged the
world’s worst violator of press freedom, by
Reporters Without Frontiers. The government is also accused of various human rights
violations, including torture, slave labor
and prison camps, according to a BBC News
country profile.
Aid agencies estimate that over two million North Koreans have died due to famine,
flood and economic mismanagement since
the 1990s but the country does not release
these facts, according to BBC. North Korea
receives aid from the United Nation’s World
Food Program. Dean Atwood argues humanitarian aid must not be compromised for
politics, though he understands the temptation, he says.
In 2002, North Korea allegedly admitted to
the United States the development of a secret
nuclear arms program. This was in violation
of a 1994 agreement to abandon nuclear endeavors in exchange for construction of two
safer light and water nuclear power reactors
and oil shipments from the United States. In
response to the admission, North Korea first
claimed a right to the weapons, and later
proposed negotiating for aid and a “non-aggression pact” with the United States. Bush
responded by stopping oil shipments, after
which North Korea said it never admitted
having weapons – blaming a deliberate mistranslation of their statement of having the
“right” to weapons. North Korea blamed the
United States for the disintegration of 1994’s
pact because of this and for being years behind schedule on the light power reactors.
Nonetheless, North Korean Scud missiles
and evidence of plutonium production were
discovered by the end of 2002.
talks with the United States. The United
States insisted on six-party talks, and four
rounds of talks had occurred by 2006. After
the last talk in September 2005, North Korea
agreed to give up its weapons in return for
aid and security promises. Later, North Korea demanded the right to a civilian nuclear
reactor. In July, North Korea test-fired seven
missiles.
Levin argued at the panel discussion that
North Korea is scared of U.S. power, thus
its nuclear program and insistence on the
non-aggression pact. He says the problem is
indeed between the United States and North
Korea.
Bush insisted on an international front,
and wants North Korea to resume six-party
talks.
Though panel members voiced their reactions to Bush’s diplomacy from different
poles, none tried to argue with Flake’s most
basic premise. “Make no mistake about it; we
are not prepared for a crisis in North Korea
right now.”
The panel discussion was sponsored by the Hubert H.
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, The Maureen and
Mike Mansfield Foundation and the Minnesota International Center on September 15. All background information on North Korea was researched at BBC News, news.
bbc.co.uk.
Throughout 2003 North Korea continued
to demand bilateral “non-aggression pact”
\13
www.wakemag.org
Literary/
Submissions
Likeness Lost
P.J.
BY AJ SABAKO
by Anonymous
I bear your likeness, it’s been said
In the Porcupine Mountains
Lorelei swimming the liquor of my eyes
in the upper peninsula of Michigan
The press of your cheek against the blue mirror sheen
the autumn air is already seeping
Shivers
into the leaves.
You’re dying to glean a glance
I see Hoffmaster,
At us. At what the mirror’s reflecting.
the pioneer of this place, pressing his palm
against the cool rock at my feet.
Though I’ve tried to dissect
He slowly washes his eyes
To split the coat of scales
with the sunlight coming off
Splay the sleek spine
Lake of the Clouds.
Beneath a rusty constellation of pins
The trees shudder in the wind and
Not even that sepchural skeleton can say
I see him
Where mother ends and daughter begins
drift over the cliff
crumbling into the jagged bluffs below.
My fingers in a stiff, merciless display
How they scratch and pluck
How they wring and wrench your silk slick limbs
Tearing you to tangles
Your broken angles a pile in the corner
Haunt my reflection no more
In the morn lonely
The mirror reflects
Eyes vacant
Eyes full of holes
There aren’t enough fingers
To plug those holes
To keep those eyes afloat
I sigh and let fall the secret sore
For watery myths, their likeness lost
14/4-10 October 2006
\ Literary
My Shoulder’s a Bridge
BY Jupiter surya
The distance began with a tone;
And to my left, I saw eyes hang from above,
Then on to Riverview Apartments,
a decision to set my steps forward
as the sounds of the afternoon faded to a buzz.
where tennis courts gleam
with reason—
Dusk neared, and behind one tree
next door to the highway
beyond the window of the old music building
where one may witness the traffic,
I began in a crescent of concrete and stone,
a light appeared
the city,
whose center bears the lines
and shimmered
the land used for old steel and garbage,
under a tired wooden pole.
and dimmed
and a river too polluted,
They skated from rooftop to rooftop
glass.
to the circuits of the stores lining the streets.
while fingers dragged along the panes of
so you can only ‘view’.
I felt my way down to the river,
I took the alley with scattered gravel
and the signs of a beginner’s tags
over business stone
covered black and re-tagged again—
The scars of the garbage truck’s
teeth kick into my sandals,
scrape my feet.
To the west, a walking bridge
extending out
keeping my distance from the geese
from the old Mineral Resources building,
with tiny gifts of history
never seen.
Uncovered by machine,
the tombs of tools lie open
in bunches underneath the back of the building
The burden of the bridge
as I crossed over the tracks of commerce,
whose engines snarled slowly as they pass—
I could feel the waves of their distance bounce
from the steel, to the wood,
to the roots of my toes,
for eyes once attracted to the rusted,
ragged den of a man in his 50’s,
who slept under the canopy
of the old loading dock
for semi-trucks,
following the path along the banks of stone,
whose protective eyes caught mine,
resisting my approach to their home of a coast.
And I found, in the distance,
a barge bound for the locks to the north—
My shoulder’s a bridge
to the ship
carrying its load.
I wanted to swim to its rusted personality,
as it drew ripples from the shore,
to its sores,
because he had everywhere else to go.
and back to the shore.
wrangling my hips as they walk.
I like to read.
Send me submissions.
Smile at being in print.
[email protected]
\15
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Athletics/
Rugby Scrum…didlyumtious
Q&A with the club’s president
By Lyndsey Danberry
The origins of rugby date back to London,1175, where a monk, William Fitzspephen, documented youths “playing with a
ball in open spaces.” If you would like to
be a part of history, join the women’s rugby club. It’s a club requiring no prior experience, simply a commitment to learn, give
your all and have fun! Be careful though,
when a rookie scores on their first try, they
have to run around the field naked – that’s
the rules.
“When a rookie scores on
their first try, they have
to run around the field
naked.”
The Wake: I have to know. Has anyone
actually scored on their first try and run
around the field naked?
Kristy Lear: Laugh. No, we don’t actually
do that especially with the hazing rules.
It’s just kind of how rugby started, as a
fun game against friends. There’s a huge
social community. Once you join, you will
meet people from other states who love it
as much as you do.
The Wake: All right, on a more serious
level … what kind of record does the University of Minnesota women’s rugby club
hold?
Christine Lenzen
The Wake: Is there a chance that the U of
M rugby club could ever become a varsity
sport?
Lear: Well, it has changed over the last
couple of years. Not last year but the year
before, we qualified for nationals as a Division-II team. Last year we moved up to a
Division-I team, which is a whole new ball
game for us. We are trying to be competitive at the Division-I level, but it is more
difficult. Before we became a DivisionI team, we used to make it to Nationals
quite often.
Lear: It is possible that eventually our
team could become a varsity sport because
of Title XI (Title XI requires schools to
demonstrate substantially proportionate
athletic opportunities for male and female
athletes). The U of M needs to have at least
one more varsity women’s sport to be equal
with varsity men’s sports. We are still
looking into things, but we hope that if the
University considers another varsity sport
they will consider us.
The Wake: How is the team doing so far
this year?
The Wake: The opponents on your schedule include Eastern Illinois, Madison and
Eau Claire.
Lear: We lost our first game against Eastern Illinois, which is one of the few varsity rugby teams in the nation. There are
probably less than 10 varsity teams in the
nation right now, but it is growing. We did
win our second game against Milwaukee’s
club team.
The Wake: How did the All-Minnesota
Tournament go?
Lear: We won! We have won every year
since before I started, so 5+ years. During
16/4-10 October 2006
the tournament, we played the University
of North Dakota and won 32-5, we beat
St. Ben’s College 30-0, Moorhead 30-0 and
during the championship game we beat
Minnesota-Duluth 20-17!
Lear: Well, we have no other varsity teams
on our schedule. Our games against Madison on September 30 and Marquette on
October 7 are our qualifying games for nationals. We must win both those to qualify
for the playoffs, which will take place the
first week in November. If we qualify for
nationals, the Final Four, we will continue
playing tournaments until spring.
The Wake: I never got the chance to play
sports in high school or college. What kind
of rush comes from playing a sport as aggressive as rugby?
Lear: It’s great, unlike lacrosse or hockey; girl’s rugby follows the same rules as
men’s. Aggressive tackles and checking
are encouraged. We play the game as hard
as men do. A lot of girls look for that when
looking for a sport – it’s equal opportunity.
The Wake: Any inspiring words to girls
who might want to try out for the team but
are worried about scoring on the first try?
Lear: It’s great to be involved in any sport.
Rugby is a tough and competitive sport
that is becoming more and more popular
in Minnesota, particularly in high schools.
Right now is a great time to be a part of
rugby because it is growing so rapidly.
The best part about joining the U of M
rugby team is that you don’t need any experience. Our coach was on the USA team
and is very knowledgeable about how to
play the game. It doesn’t matter if you
have never even heard the word rugby.
\ Athletics
Aggressive Competition Is
Not Just for Varsity Sports
The Wake talks with women’s club volleyball
a national tournament because we get to
see another part of the country. Our travel
is limited; the farthest we usually go is 10
hours to play schools such as the University of Iowa, Michigan or Wisconsin. We get
to see schools we don’t typically see in our
regular season like California and schools
out East.
The Wake: How competitive is the NIRSA?
Maul: Almost every team we compete
against during our regular season goes to
that tournament. Club teams work up to
play in the tournament; it’s the pinnacle of
every club’s season.
The Wake: How is the team looking this
year?
By Lyndsey Danberry
The women’s club volleyball team is a dedicated group of girls playing for the love of
the game. Their season starts in mid-September and runs through April. The club
is split into two teams, the A-team and the
B-team. The women compete in weekend tournaments throughout the midwest.
They also attend the National Intramural
and Recreation Sports Association national championships at the end of the season.
The women’s club has been very successful
in the past at the NIRSA. The championship was held in Minneapolis in 1995, and
the girls took second place. A year later,
the championship was held in Toledo,
Ohio, where the girls took first place and
walked away national champions.
The Wake talked with the Vice President
of the women’s club volleyball team, Suzy
Maul, to learn about this year’s squad.
The Wake: Is the team planning on traveling to travel to Kansas City, Missouri, for
the NIRSA?
“It’s always fun to travel
for a national tournament
because we get to see
another part of the country.”
Suzy Maul: Yeah, they usually fall on the
second week in April, generally over Easter weekend. It’s always fun to travel for
Maul: Hard to tell right now, a lot of
fourth- and fifth-year players graduated or
moved. It’ll be interesting to see what new
players we get. A solid number of players came out for tryouts … lots of impressive new talent for both teams A and B ... a
great outlook for 2006-7 season.
The Wake: Do you get the opportunity to
compete against a lot of Big Ten Schools?
Maul: There are a lot of big ten schools
with club teams but whether or not we
play them depends on were they are located. Illinois draws the most people because
they are centrally located. When we host
tournaments we see schools like the University of Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado,
Iowa and sometimes Illinois.
The Wake: Which school would you like to
beat the most?
Maul: Iowa State is a huge rivalry for us; it
should be a good game. The University of
Wisconsin-Marquette is also a very good
team.
Be sure to catch the women’s club volleyball team when they host a game on campus this March.
The Wake: What do you think of your
schedule this year?
Maul: It’s pretty premature as far as
scheduling goes. We play three of four
tournaments in the fall. Our spring season
gets busier as we gear up for nationals.
There are usually 12 teams in the tournament pool so we get to play and see a variety of teams. We could potentially play
six or seven different schools throughout
a weekend-long tournament. We travel
to Washington University on October 14,
Marquette University on November 11 and
Minnesota State University on December 2
for our fall tournaments.
Your ad here.
[email protected]
\17
www.wakemag.org
Campus/
5th District
BY elizabeth aulwes
photo courtesy of
tammyleeforcongress.org
Some say that the race to become the next
U.S. Congress representative from the 5th
District was decided in the Sept. 12 DFL
primary. But Republicans are mounting an
attack on the winner of the primary, Rep.
Keith Ellison, that could shift the district
from the liberal stronghold it has historically been to more conservative ground.
DFL politicians have represented the 5th
District, which encompasses all of Minneapolis and some of the surrounding suburbs, since 1963 when Republican Walter
Judd was in office. Because of this, many
doubt that the other candidates in the race
(Republican Alan Fine, Independent Tammy Lee and Green Party candidate Jay
Pond) have much of a chance.
“This district is way too liberal to elect
a Republican and not liberal enough to
elect a Green Party candidate,” says Nick
Lambert, a University of Kansas political science graduate and a former staffer of Ember Reichgott Junge’s campaign
for Congress. Reichgott Junge was one of
Ellison’s DFL opponents and was defeated in the primary. “This is the 10th most
democratic district in the country,” Lambert says.
But Lee, the Independence Party’s nominee, says that “the complexion of the district changed in 2000” when it was redistricted following the census. “Congress is
desperate for a new direction,” Lee said in
an interview, and she thinks she can provide some balance between the extremes.
“People are fed up with partisan politics,”
she says.
photo courtesy of
keithellingson.org
photo courtesy of fineforcongress.org
18/4-10 October 2006
Fine’s recent attacks on Ellison prove
that partisan politics are alive and well
in this campaign. In recent candidate debates, Fine, a Carlson School of Management professor, has repeatedly brought up
Ellison’s ties to the Nation of Islam and its
leader, Louis Farrakhan. Fine has called
the Nation of Islam a “hate group” whose
agenda includes the “destruction of our
country” and has called on Ellison to explain his association with the group. Fine
says that “these are questions that need
to be asked.” He says he feels that Ellison
is trying to avoid the subject to dodge bad
press.
Ellison has responded by saying that he
was never a member of the group and has
never met Farrakhan. “Never in my life
have I held racist or bigoted views,” Ellison says. His supporters, he says, are a
diverse group of people including Jews,
Christians, Hindus, Muslims and “all of
God’s people.”
plies to the current situation in Iraq. In an
interview, Fine said that he is updating
his position paper on Iraq as the situation
there evolves and that it will be posted online soon.
But Lee may not be right when she says
voters aren’t willing to put up with it anymore, as the DFL primary race showed.
Though Ellison never went negative personally in the race to the primary, some
groups supporting him did. Education
Minnesota sent out fliers on his behalf
criticizing the other candidates in the race.
Ellison won the race with 41 percent of
the 5th District’s support. Mike Erlandson, retiring Rep. Martin Sabo’s chief of
staff and Ellison’s former opponent in the
primary, also mailed literature attacking
his opponents. Erlandson came in second
place with 31 percent of the primary vote.
Reichgott Junge, who took third place with
only 21 percent, never mailed any negative
campaign literature.
Fine does include “protecting the environment, the welfare of our children, making
our neighborhoods safer and more cohesive, and producing jobs and keeping our
economy strong” in his priorities, according to his Web site. Ellison is for a singlepayer universal healthcare system and
says he “will not support any effort that
will provide Wall Street investors with
a short-term financial gain at the cost of
long-term ecological degradation.”
“This district is way too
liberal to elect a Republican and not liberal
enough to elect a Green
Party candidate,” says
Nick Lambert.
Ellison does say that he wants to maintain a positive campaign as “a reason of
principle.” His basic strategy in responding to attacks has been to request a return
to the issues. Ellison told the Star Tribune
that Republicans “haven’t done much for
homeland security, we still have a healthcare crisis. The Earth is warming up, and
they’re not doing anything about it. What
are they going to do? They have to try to
engage in smear politics.”
Ellison has also called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq,
calling it a “terrible mistake” on his Web
site. Fine, though he doesn’t mention the
War in Iraq on his Web site, says that he
“believe[s] in a strong defense and will
support policies that will enable us to
maintain the security of our country.”
He also says he “will support legislation
protecting U.S. interests throughout the
world,” but doesn’t explain if this ap-
Lee wants to balance the budget, invest in
public schools, including early childhood
education, convert to alternative energy
fuel usage, and reform healthcare. She
says her plan will “bring healthcare costs
down and provide more affordable insurance for more people.” Lee also says she
wants to get college tuition prices under
control. “Higher education has increasingly become out-of-reach” for many families.
She’s interested in creating a civil service
program which would be the “21st century’s version of the GI bill where college
students could give back to the community
and possibly earn some loan forgiveness.”
Lee supports a “graceful, pragmatic exit
strategy” from Iraq.
Pond, the Green nominee, says on his Web
site that the “major-party representatives do not work for the residents of their
districts, but for the party elite and the
corporate lobbyists. To break the cycle we
need congresspeople who are independent
of this system.” He supports a single-payer
universal healthcare system, a reduction
of U.S. forces stationed in Iraq and reparations to be paid to the Iraqi people, and a
major overhaul of the nation’s energy system to convert to wind power.
Lambert may be right that this is a DFL
stronghold and is likely Ellison territory.
But, as was proven in the DFL primary,
voters might be listening to negative attacks, and Fine has a good start. But, Lee
points out, “It was college students who
stood up and said ‘we want a change’ when
Jesse Ventura was elected. Students have
the power to make a difference.”
\ Campus
For Pluto, Size Does
Matter
Farthest planet no
longer “planet”
BY janessa dohse
If you were beyond devastated upon hearing that Pluto was recently demoted to
dwarf-planet status, you are not alone. On
Sept. 14, in the first of a weekly series of
events hosted by the University’s Institute
for Advanced Study, Pluto admirers came
from far and wide to mourn the loss of
their beloved planet.
The series of events, titled “Thursdays at
4:00,” selected Terry Jones as their first
speaker. Jones has been working in the
University’s astronomy department since
1982 and sought to provide information
about Pluto’s discovery, its brief stint as a
planet and why it got the boot.
In 1929, Kansas farmer Clyde Tombaugh
was hired by the Lowell Observatory to
search for the ninth planet. After less than
a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered
Pluto. Differing from the other eight planets, Pluto was much smaller in size and
had an irregular orbit.
All was going well for Pluto until early 2001, when
the Hayden Planetarium
removed Pluto from its
display of the major planets.
In the years that followed, many similar
objects were discovered in the solar system. As Jones stated, it’s “not a recent notion that Pluto isn’t a planet.” However, all
was going well for Pluto until early 2001,
when the Hayden Planetarium removed
Pluto from its display of the major planets,
re-labeling Pluto a Kuiper Belt object.
Since Hayden Planetarium’s evil deed,
scientists and astronomers alike have debated whether Pluto should remain as one
alex judkins
of the nine planets. Earlier this summer,
the International Astronomical Union was
called on to decide once and for all the status of Pluto.
In August, the IAU met in Prague and defined a planet as having sufficient mass
for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body
forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic
equilibrium. This is basically an overly
scientific way of saying that a planet must
be round (or nearly round) to be in this
much sought-after category.
Pluto’s status was the IAU’s main concern
when redefining what constitutes a planet.
But based on their definition, anything in
the solar system that is nearly round can
be classified as a planet. So responding to
fury and outrage by other scientists, the
IAU added another criteria to their definition saying a planet must dynamically
control its local orbit and sweep it clean of
smaller objects. There goes Pluto.
discoverer’s birth, the spacecraft is carrying some of Tombaugh’s ashes. New Horizons is predicted to land on Pluto sometime during the year 2015. I bet Tombaugh
didn’t plan on spending an eternity on a
“trans-Neptunian-object.”
And not only did Pluto get booted from the
solar system, the IAU didn’t even allow
Pluto the dignity of giving it a new title.
As for now, Pluto resides with many other
bodies in a group temporarily referred to
as “trans-Neptunian-objects.”
Jones expressed his remorse by saying,
“Science has to change, it has to progress.”
Many others are surely grieving with him.
On the other hand, University senior Jose
Rivera sums up his feelings by stating, “I
don’t care that much about Pluto.” I think
he speaks for us all.
But here is the real kicker. In January
2006, NASA launched its New Horizons
spacecraft in a first-ever mission to Pluto.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of its
\19
www.wakemag.org
Campus/
Theater Antiques
denise rath
Rare collection of
Guthrie history on
display
by sarah howard
A new exhibit on the West Bank features
photographs, set models, costume sketches
and other items from the Guthrie collections that have been part of the Guthrie
history since 1965. These items have been
on display in the Elmer L. Andersen Library since August 7. The display allows
for guests to get an idea of the early history of the theater and its creators as well as
a feeling for all that goes into a show and
how this has changed over the years.
Sir Tyrone Guthrie announced his plan for
a theater outside of New York City in 1959
and chose Minneapolis over several other
cities because of the strong arts community. Early documents and sketches of Guthrie’s original Hennepin Avenue location,
where it sat for about four decades, are
also featured and show the history of the
theater. Many original sketches of different building ideas are on display and allow
for a viewer to see all of the various ideas
that were explored for the building. These
20/4-10 October 2006
A gown from Amadeus,
which played in 2001,
and a fairy costume from
1996’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream are beautiful examples of the work
on display.
sketches were done by Ralph Rapson, the
Guthrie’s architect and head of the School
of Architecture at the U of M at the time
the theater was built.
Most notably are the two grandiose costumes displayed under stage lighting. A
gown from Amadeus, which played in
2001, and a fairy costume from 1996’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream are beautiful
examples of the work on display. Costume
“bibles” show original costume sketches
and are displayed with cloth piece samples
that give an idea of the consistency of the
costume. Sketches come to life with notes
by the original designers that say things
such as “NOT quick change,” describing
the use of the costume in production.
Antique photographs show Sir Guthrie on
the building site with floor plans as well
as at different stages of putting the shows
together throughout the production. Show
programs from the early plays also add to
the mystique feel of the exhibit. Also in
the “Beginnings” display there are early
telegraphs announcing the theater as well
as the announcement of the theater being
named after Guthrie.
The exhibit is on display until Oct. 27 and is free and
open to the public on the first floor gallery of the library,
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit andersen.
lib.umn.edu for more information.
Bastard
Cocaine
Open - Face Sandwich by Alex Judkins
Arbitrary Awards
Most badass way to die:
Popping a wheelie into a
meat grinder while shouting
the lyrics to Van Halen’s
“Can’t Get This Stuff No
More”
Honorable mention:
Anything that doesn’t
involve getting killed by
some pansy-ass stingray,
really
Least badass way to die:
Devoured by the Sarlacc
Honorable mention:
Devoured by the Rancor
Best sex scene:
Kiefer Sutherland and
Morrissey
Worst sex scene:
Rob Schneider and a staple
remover
Honorable mention:
Screech performing the Dirty
Sanchez. Oh, wait…
Most blatant sign of the
upcoming apocalypse:
The Screech sex tape
Honorable mention:
The expansion of Carlson
Honorable mention:
Eric’s Corner
(attempted)
Homewreckers of the Year:
The Minnesota Daily’s office
of the publisher
Website of the Week
www. marmadukeexplained.blogspot.com
22/ 4-10 October 2006
5,000 people
per week
will see your
ad here.
[email protected]
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