the daily northwestern - feb. 7, 2013
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The Feb. 7, 2013, issue of The Daily Northwestern.TRANSCRIPT
The Daily NorthwesternDAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM Find us online @thedailynuThursday, February 7, 2013
ARTS The CurrentSpend this valentines day doing good for others » INSIDE
Evanston resident to join Peace Corps » PAGE 2
High 37Low 27
OPINION KurtzNot so fast, Democrats
» PAGE 6
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881 INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Forum 6 | Classi! eds & Puzzles 7 | Sports 8
City receives state grant for trailBy CIARA MCCARTHY!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+)
. e Illinois Department of Transpor-tation granted Evanston /012,222 last week to restore a west Evanston trail.
Evanston’s grant is part of a total /02 million given to local transportation projects in Illinois. Gov. Pat Quinn and Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider announced last week that 03 projects
statewide will be supported by the lat-est round of funding through the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, an IDOT initiative.
In Evanston, the grant will go toward the rehabilitation of the trail at Ladd Arboretum, a 45-acre park along the North Shore Channel near west Evan-ston. . e multi-use path is currently in a state of disrepair, according to a news release.
“Presently the trails are in a deteriorated
state and due to poor drainage conditions are o6 en unusable in inclement weather,” said Doug Gaynor, the city’s parks, rec-reation and community services director in the news release.
Bikers and pedestrians, many of whom are schoolchildren, use the trails frequently.
“Incorporating bike paths, bike lanes and sidewalks into the transportation system encourages physical activity and healthy lifestyles by providing a safe place
to walk, jog and bike close to home,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a release.
. e grants are also expected to create jobs throughout the state.
“. ese projects will create hundreds of jobs while preserving our heritage, beautifying communities and creat-ing new transportation options across our state for pedestrians, bicyclists, and
Alum to write State of the Union speechBy CAT ZAKRZEWSKI!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+)
Cody Keenan (Weinberg ’27) will assume the role of President Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter and is slated to take the lead in writing next week’s State of the Union address.
. e Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that long-time chief speech-writer Jon Favreau will end his seven-year tenure with Obama on March 4 to pursue a career in screenwriting. Keenan, who currently serves as the associate director of presidential speech-writing, gained attention in 7244 for his role as lead writer on Obama’s speech at the Tucson memorial for the shooting involving then-Rep. Gabrielle Gi8 ords (D-Ariz.).
. e speech called for the country to rise above political divisions following the shooting, which claimed the lives of six people, including a federal judge and 9-year-old girl, and wounded 4: oth-ers, including Gi8 ords. . e Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Chi-cago Sun-Times highlighted Keenan’s participation a6 er former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced Keenan had written the speech.
“People were upset that the rheto-ric and ; nger-pointing had gotten out of hand, and it felt like a moment for
speaking to who we are as a nation and what we need to do,” Keenan said to Crosscurrents, a Weinberg magazine, in 7244. “. e truth is, President Obama rewrote a lot of it. We (speechwriters) don’t always hit the sweet spot, but the president knocked that one out of the park. It was one of those moments that reminded me why I chose to work for him in the ; rst place.”
Keenan is a Chicago native and spent his childhood in Evanston and Wilmette. A6 er his family moved to Connecticut when Keenan was in high school, the article reported, he returned to Chicago.
At Northwestern, Keenan began as a pre-med student but then switched his major several times until ; nally gradu-ating with a degree in political science. . e Crosscurrents article said he enjoyed “. e West Wing” and built a speechwrit-ing foundation in history classes.
A6 er graduation, the Northwestern Magazine reported he got his start in D.C. working as an intern and legisla-tive assistant to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) from 7223 to 7225. In 7221, he began working as an intern, and later speechwriter, for the Obama campaign. He received a Master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Ken-nedy School of Government.
Source: Creative Commons
CHIEF CAT Cody Keenan (Weinberg ‘02) dressed up as a pirate for a photo taken in the Oval Offi ce with President Barack Obama. It was used at Obama’s humorous speech to the White House in 2009.
Foley family turns to Syrian social networks for infoBy CAT ZAKRZEWSKI!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+)
. e family of freelance journalist James Foley (Medill ‘21) announced Tuesday they were turning to social media websites in Syria and the sur-rounding region for information about his location, 50 days a6 er he was abducted in the country.
Foley was kidnapped by an unidenti-; ed gunman on Nov. 77, 7247. . is is the second abduction of Foley, who was held in Libya by Muammar Gadda; support-ers for 37 days in 7242. Foley’s brother, Michael, said the family hopes to use social media this time around to poten-tially obtain tips about his location.
“We haven’t heard any new direct information,” Michael Foley told . e Daily on Wednesday. “. at’s why we’re continuing to pursue all avenues.”
When Michael Foley spoke to . e Daily, social media advertisements for the cause had only been live for about 73 hours. He said they had already topped :22,222 viewers and received responses from several hundred people.
“. e response has been much better than I expected,” Michael Foley said.
John Foley, James Foley’s father, shared his hope that the social media campaign would be successful in a Tues-day press release.
“Social media has transformed how people communicate and share informa-tion,” John Foley said.“Our family believes that someone in Syria knows what hap-pened to Jim, where he is located and we hope that person contacts us.”
. e Foley family did not release the news of their son’s second capture until early January. He was reportedly cap-tured with his translator and driver, who were later released. James Foley was with another journalist, who is also missing and remains unidenti; ed.
A6 er he was released in Libya in 7242, James Foley gave back to the Medill community by talking to groups of students when he was in the United States and participating in the Crain Lecture series.
While on assignment in Syria in November, shortly before his second disappearance, he spoke to Medill Prof. Loren Ghiglione’s class via Skype. When
asked about his capture in Libya, he told Ghiglione’s class he had learned from the experience.
“He tries to be even more cautious than he was in Libya when he was taken the last time,” Ghiglione said to . e Daily in January. “It’s just sad that yet again we don’t know what’s happening to him.”
James Foley is a “veteran” border con-< ict journalist and has reported in the Middle East for more than ; ve years, Michael Foley said.
“We’re pretty used to it now at this point as a family,” Michael Foley said. “He’s very cautious. He always has been.”
Since the news of the capture broke in January, numerous organizations, recently including the International Center for Journalists, have advocated for James Foley’s release. As of Wednes-day, more than =,322 people signed an online appeal from the Foley family at freejamesfoley.org.
. e website also now o8 ers a link in both English and Arabic for people to provide any information on James Foley or “useful contacts in Syria.” Michael Foley said he hoped the new
campaign would reach “as many people as possible.”
“We’re not leaving any stones unturned,” Michael Foley said. “. e
message will get to right people, and they’ll contact us.”
Photo courtesy of Manu Brabo
MEDIA MEDIATION James Foley’s (Medill ‘08) family said Tuesday they will use social media in Syria to seek information on his whereabouts.
‘Support Josie’ aid exceeds targetsBy ALLY MUTNICK$%&'( -#)&*+ -!%>>#+
More than :2 Northwestern theater companies, clubs and Greek organizations came together during the last few weeks to fundraise for a life-saving double-lung transplant for Josie Nordman, a Commu-nication sophomore with cystic ; brosis.
A wristband sale, coordinated by Nor-dman’s sorority Chi Omega and sta8 ed by the NU Equestrian Team and 77 other Greek organizations, raised about /0,322 selling bracelets printed with the message, “Support Josie,” across campus from Jan. 71 to Feb. 4.
Sharon Reshef, Chi O philanthropy co-chair, said with donations that other NU groups have sent them, they will most likely give Nordman’s family about /=,222.
“It actually exceeded our expectations,” the SESP junior said. “We had no idea how much we were going to raise. Ulti-mately our goal was /0222, and we raised (more than that).”
Nordman, who has had cystic ; brosis since she was 3 months old, was placed on the lung transplant list last Decem-ber. She is down to only 4= percent lung function because of complications from her disease.
Her family will have to pay up to /50,222 of the /502,222 transplant and have asked the community for help. As of Feb. =, a donation website set up by Nordman’s former teacher has raised /:2,143. Most NU groups donate directly to Nicolle Nordman, Josie’s mother, who estimates they have about /:0,222 includ-ing NU e8 orts.
» See TRAIL, page 7
» See NORDMAN, page 7
Around TownThe !nancial aid formula is much more generous than a few years ago. The increase in need-based aid in the past !ve years makes (NU) much more a"ordable.
— University President Morton Schapiro
“ ” Schapiro tells Chicago group why higher education is worth the cost Page 6
City resident to join Peace Corps, travel to Panama By CATIE L’HEUREUX!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+)
A ..-year-old Evanston resident will leave for Panama later this month to begin a ./-month experience in the Peace Corps.
Catherine Rolfe, a former Medill cherub, will leave Feb. 01 to spend three months in Panama City, where she will live with a host family and train with about 23 other Peace Corps volunteers to learn technical and language skills. Rolfe will then be assigned to a speci4c community to help train local English-language teachers, among other projects.
“I’m excited to really get going on a project and hopefully be able to contribute to some kind of lasting impact that really helps people,” Rolfe said.
Rolfe grew up in Evanston and Winnetka and graduated from New Trier Township High School in .335. Although she didn’t attend NU, Rolfe and her family still have ties to the Uni-versity. Rolfe stayed in Jones Residential Col-lege when she attended the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute one summer in high school. She is the daughter of Kellogg Prof. Andy Rolfe
and Elizabeth Briner (Communication ‘52), a second grade Chicago school teacher.
“Ever since she was a little girl and went to summer camp in Wisconsin and Minnesota, she loved travel and meeting new people and having new experiences,” Briner said. “I know how much she wants to do it, and I could not be happier for her.”
In December, Catherine Rolfe f in ished her political science degree at Barnard College in Man-hattan, N.Y.
At Barnard, she was the vice presi-
dent of philanthropy for her sorority and partici-pated in two summer service trips to Ecuador and Ghana. 6ese programs propelled her to
want to work in the Peace Corps, she said.Nationally, the Peace Corps receives up to
02,333 applications every year, said Jessica Mayle, public a7airs coordinator at the Peace Corps midwest recruitment o8ce in Chicago. Rolfe will join 92. other Illinois residents who currently serve in the Peace Corps, according to a release.
Catherine Rolfe said she looks forward to becoming :uent in Spanish while in Panama, she said. A;er co-captaining New Trier’s badminton team during her high school senior year and playing on Columbia University’s club team for a year during college, Rolfe said she may try to start a badminton league in Panama. Although she is interested in pursuing a career in journal-ism, she said her plans may change drastically a;er her time in Panama.
“I expect that this experience is going to change me a lot, hopefully for the better,” she said. “I don’t know when else I will have the opportunity to take two years and go live in Panama. I’ve been very lucky, and I think that I am obligated to give something back and help other people.”
Car tires slashed after owner, new to town, parks in wrong spot
Someone slashed the tires of an Evanston man’s Hyundai in a parking garage in the <33 block of Hinman Avenue sometime between Monday night and Tuesday evening, Parrott said.
6e =5-year-old parked his car Monday night and found the two right-side tires, valued at ><33, slashed. 6e man said he moved to the area just three days prior and accidentally parked in the wrong spot. Parrott said the man thinks this is why his tires were slashed.
Burglar takes Xbox, cash from locked apartment
Someone broke into a .0-year-old Evanston man’s apartment in the 033 block of Clyde Ave-nue on Tuesday, EPD Cmdr. Jay Parrott said.
6e resident told police he locked all doors and windows to the apartment while he was gone, Parrott said, adding there were no signs of forced entry.
6e burglar took an Xbox game console and >933 in cash, Parrott said. 6ere are no suspects at this time.
Chicago man breaks into home, threatens to kill resident
Evanston Police arrested a .=-year-old man early Tuesday morning in connection with a home invasion and aggravated assault on a .5-year-old Chicago woman, according to a news release.
Lamont Hall allegedly forced entry into the home looking for the woman’s sister, according to the release. Hall then reportedly displayed a gun and threatened to kill the woman and her children.
Police responded to a call and heard screams
coming from the apartment in the /33 block of Dobson Street. After police entered the home, Hall attempted to flee from the back of the building. Police arrested him shortly after.
EPD charged Hall with home invasion, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated assault. He was out on parole in connection with an armed robbery when the alleged home invasion occurred.
Hall is scheduled to appear in court in Skokie on Feb. ...
— Tanner Maxwell
Photo courtesy of Catherine Rolfe
GO WITH PEACE Catherine Rolfe will embark on a 27-month journey in Panama later this month. Rolfe is heading South America, where she will learn technical and language skills, with the Peace Corps.
Police Blotter
“I expect that this experience is going to change me a lot, hopefully for the better. I don’t know when else I will have the opportunity to take two years and go live in Panama.Catherine Rolfe,Peace Corps participant
2 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2013
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FEBRUARY 8 ! 10, 2013this weekend in music! P I C K " S TA I G E R
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Segovia Classical Guitar Series:Hopkinson Smith: A Bach RecitalLutkin, 3 p.m.$18/12Acclaimed baroque and early music specialist Hopkinson Smith elegantly explores the works of J. S. Bach, including his immortal cello suites, through the unique voice of the German theorbo, a type of bass lute.
Alice Millar Birthday ConcertAlice Millar, 7 p.m.Freewill o"eringStephen Alltop, conductor and piano; Eric Budzynski, organ; Alice Millar Chapel Choir and soloists; Alison Wahl, soprano; Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra
Two “crowning” jewels adorn this year’s Alice Millar Birthday concert: Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. Rounding out the program is Mozart’s sublimely beautiful concert aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te.”
9SATURDAYNorthwestern University Chamber OrchestraPick-Staiger, 7:30 p.m.$6/4Robert G. Hasty, conductor; Alison Wahl, soprano
Hugo Wolf, Kennst du das LandJohannes Brahms, Serenade No. 1 in D Major
Alice Millar Birthday Concert
Hopkinson Smith
FRIDAY8FRIDAY8FRIDAYSymphonic Band: Re!ectionsPick-Staiger, 7:30 p.m.$6/4Timothy J. Robblee, conductor
Opening the program is Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Steven Stucky’s imagining of Henry Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary. Also featured are Dana Wilson’s Day Dreams and Ryan George’s Fire!y, inspired by the workings of a child’s imagination.
On Campus Part of what we’re doing is to get kids acclimated into school. — Pride President Michael Johnson“ ”
ETHS feeder basketball Pride program expands for third year Page 6
ASG nominates !rearm committeeBy JUNNIE KWON!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+)
Associated Student Government discussed nomi-nating members for a committee to focus on .rearm regulation and proposed a resolution in recognition of a president’s birthday during Wednesday’s Senate meeting.
Toward the end of the meeting, senators nomi-nated members to the Ad-hoc Committee on Fire-arm Regulation, which was created by the bill “Ad-hoc Committee on Gun Control” that passed last week. /e senators nominated seven people and the names of those elected were announced via an email to senators a0er the meeting.
Steven Monacelli, ASG vice president for com-munity relations, will be the committee’s chair.
ASG Vice President Brad Stewart and senators Weinberg sophomore Petros Karahalios, Weinberg sophomore Alexander Deitchman, Weinberg fresh-man Joshua Crowder and Weinberg sophomore Emily Schraudenbach were elected as the commit-tee’s other members.
Senator Rebecca Schieber, a Weinberg sopho-more, proposed an emergency resolution to celebrate
former President Ronald Reagan’s birthday. /e reso-lution would acknowledge that Reagan’s birthday is on Feb. 1. She attempted to bring the resolution to the 2oor for debate, but senators voted to not address it.
“I would vote for this for any president, because even though I don’t support all presidents, I sup-port all of their birthdays,” Schieber said. “It’s just for fun.”
Some senators were concerned that the resolu-tion would stain ASG’s reputation as a professional student government.
“/is is not an emergent issue — Ronald Rea-gan has had 343 birthdays before,” said senator Ian Coley, a Weinberg senior. “It’s embarrassing to me that this is coming up as emergency legislation … this should have gone through rules if it was going to be considered at all.”
Although some senators deemed the resolution a waste of time, Schieber encouraged senators who hadn’t been vocal during past meetings to participate in the debate. /is addresses an issue that speaker Ani Ajith said senators brought to his attention in the past few weeks. Senators were frustrated that the same handful of senators took a majority of the speaking time, the Weinberg junior said.
“Sometimes, especially the new senators, feel intimidated,” he said. “What I try to reemphasize in Senate is that senators should feel at liberty to speak when they have something they feel will signi.cantly contribute to the discussion.”
He added that although some senators partici-pate less during Senate, most of them are extremely active in communicating with their constituents and contributing to caucus meetings. Almost all sena-tors feel that people should not speak unless they have “something new, something positive or fresh” to contribute to the conversation, he said.
“I believe there are a lot of loud voices in Senate that tend to (drown out) other senators, and that can cause other senators to feel a little shy,” said senator Jane Gilmore, Weinberg junior. “It’s just bucking up and getting to the point where you can talk.”
Senators were scheduled to debate and vote on a new resolution,”Brady Scholars Senior Project: Hoop House,” which would suggest building a makeshi0 green house on campus. Because of miscommunication, the authors did not show up to the meeting. Senators voted to table the resolution for one week.
“Meet the Fokkens”7 to 9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 7
Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive/e Block Museum will screen “Meet the Fok-kens,” which pro.les identical twins who were once prostitutes in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. /ey later established their own brothel and set up a union for sex workers. /e .lm focuses on the twins in their later years. One has retired, and the other is struggling to endure the taxing demands of her job.
JAN. 4
CAMPUS CALENDARSupplies for Dreams 3v3 2 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 9
Patten Gymnasium, 2407 Sheridan Road Northwestern’s chapter of Supplies for Dreams is hosting a 5 vs. 5 basketball tour-nament. /ere will be co-rec and competitive brackets, and the top three teams in each will receive a gi0 card from an Evanston eatery. Proceeds from the event will bene.t Supplies For Dreams programming.
JAN. 4
SASA Show 2013: The SASA Golden
Globes 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 9Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St.NU’s South Asian Student Association presents their annual show on Saturday. /e show will feature dance groups and a cappella performances. Audience mem-bers can also vote on their favorite class dance for the .rst time as part of the Show Class competition.
JAN. 4
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2013 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 3
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THE CURRENT
INSIDE: Odds & Ends 2 | Columns 3 | Reviews 4
Every weekend, while other students are hitting !e Keg, catching a movie or studying in the stacks, Communi-cation junior Michael Finley is deliv-ering heartfelt performances at the
Chicago premiere shows of Annie Baker’s highly acclaimed play, “!e Aliens.” Finley plays the lead role in this production, which has already received positive reviews from local publications such as !e Chicago Tribune and Time Out Chi-cago since its "rst show Jan. #$.
!e play, set in the backyard of a co%ee shop in Vermont, centers on three main characters: Jasper, an aspiring novelist, KJ, a college dropout with a history of psychological problems and (Finley’s character) Evan, a timid #$-year-old barista. His character, who initially tries to shoo the two &'-year-old slackers (played by Steve Haggard and Brad Akin) from his workplace, instead "nds meaning and growth in his develop-ing friendship with them. !rough this relation-ship, he ponders crucial decisions about life paths that would stir confusion and insecurity in the mind of any high school senior. Although not much action takes place on stage, each line and movement is subtle and nuanced. !e stage decor is simple, with only a picnic table in the center and a trash can on the right side of the stage.
Finley found out about the role through his acting professor Cindy Gold. Director Shade Murray (Communication ‘(), ‘'*), who keeps professional contact with Northwestern’s faculty, approached Gold in search of a suitable actor. Gold was right on the money when she sub-mitted Finley’s information to him; critics have
described his performance as “pitch-perfect.” Finley, upon reading the script, was highly enthu-siastic about the role.
“I loved the script,” he said. “A+er reading it, I was really hopeful. I would have done whatever I could do to get seen for this, whatever I could do to get an audition.”
It is somewhat uncommon for professional theaters to hire such a young actor, especially one who hasn’t completed acting training. Moreover, casting Finley was a rare case because playing Evan’s role demands a great amount of control in the scenes.
“Actors at such a young age have a lot to "gure out,” said Akin, who plays KJ. “More o+en than not, the director goes for the older actor because there’s con"dence in knowing that you’ve got someone who’s done this for a while.”
However, when Akin (Communication ‘'*) and Murray met Finley at the audition, they were immediately blown away.
“He had a really, really great audition,” Akin said. “!e director decided that this is the direc-tion we needed to go.”
In fact, Finley’s tender age may have served as an advantage. At the audition, his baby face caught the director’s attention because Finley’s youthfulness underscored one of the most
important dynamics of the play, according to Murray: the contrast between “a #$-year-old hanging out with two &'-year-olds.”
Furthermore, Finley empathizes a great deal with Evan. When Murray talked to him about the character, he automatically understood Evan’s thoughts and said, “Believe me, I know what
that’s like.” Finley said he felt especially attached to his char-acter because they share a past of being bullied.
“I wasn’t like all the other guys doing sports,” Finley explained. “You can feel alienated.”
His connection with the character is noticeable. Akin said Finley’s subtle awkward-ness, which is “just below the surface,” is one of the things he loved about his portrayal of Evan’s character.
!is is hardly Finley’s "rst time on stage. As a high school student, he performed in pro-ductions at the Metropolis
Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights, Ill. Last year, he participated in the !eater and Interpretation Center show “You Can’t Take It With You.”
Initially, Murray was apprehensive about how Finley would adapt to “a small storefront theater space,” because most of his experience comes from large school auditoriums. Finley dispelled these worries in rehearsals and during shows by
giving “natural, conversational and e%ortless” performances, according to Murray. In fact, all of Murray’s concerns about featuring a student actor eventually disappeared. As soon as rehears-als began, Finley proved to the cast and crew they had made the correct decision.
“It was never a question of explaining what he needed to be doing,” Murray said. “A lot of young actors "nd it hard to balance instinct and technique, but Michael never had a prob-lem with that.”
Although “!e Aliens” is a fairly new (,'#') play, it was a highly anticipated one, with many theater companies bidding for performance rights. To feature a trending play that so many rave about was a nervous endeavor for the cast and crew. However, Finley said he was proud of his performance, as well as the work of his fel-low actors and crew. While he was thrilled with the good reviews, he noted the cast and crew maintained the consistently superb quality of the production.
“We weren’t going to change the show whether we have good or bad reviews,” he said.
Finley said he is most excited to see what the audience takes away from the play. As the story of three men trying to "nd their way in life is relatable to many, he said he hopes the audience learns the importance of human connections, mourning and friendship.
“!e Aliens” will run * p.m. !ursday through Saturday and & p.m. Sunday until March & at A Red Orchid !eatre, #-&# N. Wells St.
Finley gives out-of-
this-world ‘Aliens’
performance
EXTRATERRESTRIAL TALENT
“It was never a questionof explaining what he
needed to be doing.A lot of young actors
!nd it hard to balanceinstinct and technique, but Michael never had
a problem with that.Shade Murray,
Director, “The Aliens”
BLAZINGTOMATOES
! e Bal-timore
Ravens won Super
Bowl XLVII in a "#-"$ show-
down against the San Francisco #%ers Sunday. A& er the Ravens deterred a near-comeback by San Francisco, coach John Har-baugh and his team celebrated their second Super Bowl victory. ! e game also featured a hal& ime performance by Beyonce. ! e Current and Daily sta' ers commented:
—Kaitlyn Jakola
—Manuel Rapada
—Christine Nguyen
—Josh Wal! sh
—Tanner Maxwell
—Ally Mutnick
—Lauren Caruba
Odds & EndsPage 2 | The Current Thursday, February 7, 2013
“A Midwestern,” the "#$% recipient of Studio ""’s &',(## Bindley Grant, is the story of two Wisconsinite brothers en route to retrieve &(##,### from their uncle’s cabin.
) e younger must avoid a fearsome French-Ca-nadian named Jean-Luc, who seems to expect the money as well. As “A Midwestern” approaches its second weekend of production, ) e Current spoke with writer-director Jon Fraaza and produc-ers Madison Berry and Shivani Chanillo about their much-hyped ! lm.
THE CURRENT: Jon, when you wrote “A Mid-western,” did you do so with the intention of submitting it for the Bindley?JON FRAAZA: Well, I wrote “A Midwest-ern” with the intent of submitting it for some sort of grant and bat-ted back and forth between the &$,### grant and the Bindley. I ! gured that the scope of this project was large enough to warrant the (latter).
THE CURRENT: How was the ! rst weekend of shooting? Any good stories?JF: It was cold as hell, I can tell you that.MADISON BERRY: I think it was $ degree on the ! rst day in Palmyra, Wis.JF: Plus wind chill. So it was, like, negative $*. ) e coldest we probably were was when we took the camera, the tripod — both which are extremely heavy, sharp and cold — and then we took a couple of other crew members and an actor and marched out about $(# yards to a treeline beyond the farm and we ! lmed the scene where Jean-Luc is taking pop-shots at the brothers. Absolutely horrible in terms of cold, but it looks really good.MB: Luckily that day we had a pop-up tent that had a heater inside of it, so they were able to go in there — but then at one point the wind got so bad that it li+ ed the whole tent up and onto a car.
THE CURRENT: What were the challenges of managing such a large crew?SHIVANI CHANILLO: De! nitely providing food. ) at was a big deal.
MB: We normally call for food donations, so Evanston businesses and a bunch of Wiscon-sin businesses stepped up to give us food. But making sure we had enough (and) getting it to set was always a struggle.
THE CURRENT: How did you go about scout-ing and booking the locations you shot on?JF: Our fantastic locations manager Madison Ginsberg put a lot of work into ! nding a barn, a diner and a house that would let us shoot both the exterior and the interior and that looked appro-priate for the script ... She found a fantastic diner that we’re shooting at next weekend, but she ulti-mately could not ! nd a house or a barn. And so I talked to my parents, and they said that my dad’s
lake house would do fantastic, and it actu-ally was perfect. ) en there was a barn
that my cousins knew the owners of, and we asked them if we could shoot there ... ) ey didn’t charge us anything, so we saved a lot of money on that.
THE CURRENT: What tone are you aiming for with this
movie?JF: Hopefully it makes you laugh.
It’s a comedy-thriller sort of movie.
THE CURRENT: “Fargo” style?JF: Not quite as dark as “Fargo.” More like “A Fish Called Wanda” or “) e Big Lebowski.”
THE CURRENT: Has the screenplay trans-lated on set the way you expected it to?JF: I would say absolutely. ) e actors are just perfect in conveying the characters that I wrote, and the cinematography from Declan Fox is fantastic. It’s looking good. We got four inches of snow the day before we showed up, so the exteriors look great. It’s really coming together quite nicely, and I couldn’t be prouder of it.
“A Midwestern” will be playing at the Studio "" premiere in June.
! is interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Two brothers. A murderousFrench-Canadian. $500,000.
And a bottle of ketchup.
—Paulina Firozi
—Annie Bruce
Five words for...
SUPER BOWLCOMPILED BY
ALEX BURNHAM AND
KAITLIN SVABEK
Guy Fieri was not allowed inside a VIP Super Bowl party, and he did not take it well. Fieri apparently caused quite the scene after he couldn’t get in to the Second Line Studios bash Sunday. Imagine what Fieri’s initial reaction was after he got that zero-star review from the New York Times.
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez might be back together? Does any-one really care? The on-again, off-again pair was spotted together at a concert over the weekend. The lovebirds need to make up their minds, because the publicity stunt is starting to lose its effect.
You can’t have it all. Oscar nomi-nee Naomi Wattsexplained to report-ers that being a mom is “exhausting.” Soon a+ er, however, she explained that she tries to do her own
laundry and cooking but has help if she runs out of time. Hiring help must be really exhausting, Naomi.
It’s finally time for the return of Monica and Chandler Bing. Cour-teney Cox landed a guest-starring stint on Matthew Perry’s “Go On.”Sources report Cox will play a love interest for Perry’s character on the show. Now if we could only get Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer to guest star as well. And they should all hang out in a coffee shop together.
Fans no longer have to say thanks for the memories — Fall Out Boyis reuniting. The band announced they are going on tour in the spring and releasing a
new album, “Save Rock and Roll.” For those too impatient to wait, the group also released a new single that’s already available to down-load online. It’s been a while, so we’ll see if the boys still have what it takes to make the middle-schoolers scream.
Beyonce received rave reviews for her Super Bowl halftime per-formance. She was also joined by Michelle Williams and Kelly Row-land, making the event a full Des-tiny’s Child reunion. The one person in America who was not happy with the performance? Singer Keyshia Cole tweeted that the addition of Williams ruined the concert. Looks like someone’s jealous she wasn’t invited to join Beyoncé on stage.
Adam Levineannounced he is releasing a line of men’s and women’s fragrances. The brand will be sold at Macy’s within the next month. Let’s hope Levine’s
commercials for the new scent are less ridiculous than Brad Pitt’s.
Q&A with...
PROD TEAM OF‘A MIDWESTERN’
SAM FREEDMAN
the lives of therich and famous
RUNDOWNANNIE BRUCE
—Kelsey Ott
—Chelsea Peng
—Susan Du
—Ava Wallace
—Rohan Nadkarni
—Cat Zakrzewski
—Maria Fernandez-Davila
—Michael Kurtz
—Caryn Lenho,
“After newsroom meltdown, still hurts.”
“FALSE. Beyonce clearly won everything.”
“Game better than Beyonce’s show.”
“Beyonce: light of my life.”
“Who run the world? Beyonce.”
“I didn’t even watch it.”
“Destiny’s Child reunion – I died.”
“It wasn’t a Beyonce concert?
“Super Bowl? Beyonce’s opening act.”
“Beyonce’s manicure was really shiny.”
“Wish it was the Patriots.”
“The Ravens won, blackout, Beyonce.”
“Mama Harbaugh must be proud.”
“My mom was beyond appalled.”
“Dolphins almost made the playoffs...”
“Joe Flacco is a babe.”
“Happy that Delaware’s boy won!”
“Real sad my doppelganger lost.”
“That 109-yard touchdown. What, what?”
—Kaitlin Svabek
“Got jumped by Chris Brown and a couple of guys … I only wish Everest was here.”
— Frank Ocean concerning his altercation with Chris Brown in a Los Angeles parking lot. The charge, a misdemeanor battery, has been dropped.
“She just kinda seems dead inside, like there’s nothing behind her eyes”
— Dave Grohl on Britney Spears during a “Chelsea Lately” appearance Monday. Grohl, featured on the show’s Grammy-related week, made the remark after a Las Vegas casino turned Spears down for a show in favor of a hypnotist.
Source: Creative Commons
“I told you we were gonna come back!”
— Patrick Stump on the reunion of his band Fall Out Boy. The group played
its first show together since !""# on Tuesday and is scheduled to release a studio album May $.
Columns The Current | Page 3Thursday, February 7, 2013
I’m really not a big watch guy. I’ve got a couple, my favorite being a nice open-movement job I got just recently, but I really only wear it when fancy
dress is required. To me, a watch is a fashion statement, not a tool — why bog down your wrist when check-ing the time is just one smartphone unlock screen away? With the hassle of winding them or having to buy new batteries or replacement straps, watches are more trouble than they’re worth, a relic of the prehistoric pre-digital age, like Polaroid or dead-tree paper. But just like those, the watch has found new life in this age of apps and streams in the Pebble, the coolest piece of wearable technology I have
ever seen.If I had to describe the Pebble in
one phrase, it would be: “I want one.” Part smartphone, part watch, part open-source development platform and all sleek style, the Pebble does so much more than give you the time. It has the same e-ink interface as Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader, mak-ing the display easy to read even in direct sunlight. % e development toolkit included with the watch means you can create an in& nite number of watch faces, from the
traditional clock to avant-garde digital dot displays. As I said — I want one.
But telling time is not even half of what the Pebble
can do. In many ways, the Pebble serves as
a wrist-mounted controller for all of your technology, allowing you to read texts without even having to pick up
your phone, control your iPod from across
the room and even clock your running times while
out jogging.Apart from
the
internal computing power, the Peb-ble is a gem of industrial design. % e watch face is smooth and glossy in each of the three colors (black, white and red) and all the physical button interfaces are nestled snugly onto the right side of the watch. % e one thing I generally dislike about watches is the fact that they can be a bit obtru-sive, but I get the feeling the Pebble would make a nice addition to any ensemble.
Sure, the prospect of a smart-watch seems a little silly — a' er all, is it really that di( cult to reach into your pocket to pull out your phone which can do an in& nitely better job of managing your mobile life? Well, no, it’s not that di( cult, and yes, the
Pebble is largely extraneous. But the fact that the Pebble was the subject of the most successful Kickstarter campaign of all time (the develop-ers wanted to raise )*"",""" — they ended up raising more than )*" mil-lion) speaks to the undeniable allure of the smartwatch.
% e price, though, may cut a bit of that allure; at )*+", the Pebble is a he' y investment for something that makes life easier. Still though, it’s hard not to love the Pebble — it’s smart, it’s sexy and it’s the perfect accessory to your iPhone or Android. And I can guarantee it’ll make all your friends jealous.
Valentine’s Day is a shamelessly pub-lic celebration of heteronormativity. It propagates the
image of straight, monogamous couples at every corner — on
greeting cards, in cheesy Lifetime movies and in wedding ring com-mercials. It idealizes the old-time American values of chivalry, court-ship and expensive candlelight din-ners, implying eternal happiness for those who find their soul mates.
So what? It’s OK to go over the top once a year, right? Perhaps. But how do we celebrate happy relationships in a society where diamond rings are the privilege of the majority? The nauseating commercial fluff of Valentine’s Day makes it easy for us to forget those who cannot cele-brate it. The gay man who cannot purchase “Him and Her” cards at Hallmark. The lesbian who can buy her partner a ring but can-not marry her in their home state. The hundreds of same-sex couples in small-town America who are afraid to be seen publicly for fear of discrimination and violence.
If love is love, then why can’t we all express it as flagrantly and fearlessly as the happy young white couple on the Kay Jewelers commer-cial? If marriage is so great, then why has the American divorce rate increased by +" percent over the last !" years? If men are still of flow-ers-and-door-holding caliber, then why has one in every four American women experienced domestic abuse in her lifetime?
So please, Wildcats, join me in boycotting this ridiculous commer-cial fiasco and instead help speak up for many whom it does not acknowledge. Please don’t misun-derstand me — I’m not anti-love. I’m extremely pro-love for everyone
— for bachelors, straight couples, gay couples, swingers, co-habitators, asexuals and single parents. It’s time to embrace your own unique love, even if mainstream society and the legal system will not do the same.
In defiance of this literally and figuratively sugar-coated holiday, I offer some less-than-typical ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with yourself, your friends or your sig-nificant other.
1. VOLUNTEER YOUR TIMERather than spend money on an
extravagant dinner, spend your time at a local soup kitchen or
homeless shelter. For you Cats, Hilda’s
Place, Evanston’s only homeless shelter, serves f r e e d i n n e r Thursdays and is probably in need of volunteers.
2. SUPPORT A NON-PROFITStill want to do some-
thing nice for your loved one? Then do that! But do it in a more socially conscious way. Allow-ance for Good, an Evanston-based non-profit working toward lessening the global education gap, is selling )+ e-cards to raise money for folks in Guatemala. Or buy your loved one a gift from a loving company, like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or TOMS shoes.
3. STICK WITH FLOWERS AND CHOCOLATE
But do it the anti-corporate way. You can order fair-trade chocolate online at Divine Chocolate USA, which is owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana, or find yummy organic treats at your local Whole Foods. If you’re going the flowers route, buy fresh ones from your local florist.
That’s all, folks. Happy Anti-Val-entine’s Day!
Accessorizing is not just about scarves anymore, no matter what a stroll down Sheridan Road may
seem to tell you. Guys have been getting creative with personalizing their style, proving that men’s fash-ion is not just a plain suit-and-tie a, air. Here are some of the latest acces-sorizing trends that will have you rethinking out& t additions beyond the wintery mindset of layering. % e overall lesson of the latest accessories (and accessories use in general) is to mini-mally apply powerful pieces to direct emphasis where you most want it.
1. WOODEN BOW TIES% ink of these as the new neutral.
Available in many wooden tones that work with nearly any shirt color, these relatives to the classic staple are a quirky trend on the rise for casual ensembles. % ese sti, bow ties are anything but. % ey exude good-hu-mored creativity while following the ideal placement of a focal point up near the face.
2. TROUSER CUFF PINSA blazer pin poses a statement; cuf-
- inks are fashionable. A pin on the
cu, of your pants, though — now that’s a fashion statement. When
cu, ed pants gained popu-larity they were
soon accentu-ated by this
trend. Pinning has gone from keeping jeans’ hand-rolled cuffs in place to becoming a
purely aesthetic modification to
pre-cu, ed trousers. A modest pin placed
outward and above the ankle is enough to catch the eye and draw attention to particularly stylish shoes or socks. Trouser cu, pins sub-tly guide focus whereas a blazer pin demands attention due to its promi-nent placement — it can o' en seem overbearing on non-uniform out& ts.
3. COLORED WATCH FACESNo, I’m not talking about the neon,
glow-in-the-dark plastic watch you had as a child. % ese days, brown is no longer exclusive to the leather band. It joins dark colors such as maroon and forest green to grace watch faces for the creation of a sophisticated, adult, masculine version of the color-satu-rated wristwatch. For those who have reservations about the practicality of
wear-ing navy (I certainly wouldn’t hesitate), a navy watch face becomes a safe but noteworthy hint of color in coordination with neutral-tone suits.
4. GILDED SUIT POCKETSBy now, most of us have surely seen
images (mainly related to women’s fash-ion) of button-up shirts with golden tips at the collar points. If not, you must not be an Urban Out& tters kind of guy, and I really don’t blame you there. Regard-less, a spino, of the gold collar tip trend is coming around, and that is the gold-trimmed jacket pocket. % e whole point of the gold adornment is its gaudiness. % erefore, it’s no surprise the pocket rim’s decoration is meant to steer pieces toward casual street style instead of turn them formally glitzy. It should be noted this trend particularly refers to sti, metal gold trimmings, not to gold stitching or appliqués; but hey, do as you like — the world is your pincushion.
IT’SABOUTTIMEWatch out for the new tech-y time pieces
SADIANMIUEDELISLNum iriusci duisit, velent nulpute ex ex ea ad magna
column
WILL PODLEWSKI
column
TONYA STARR
column
SYDNEY ZINK
IT’SABOUT
Source: Pebble
Page 4 | The Current Thursday, February 7, 2013
theater
NICKEL AND DIMEDAVI SMALL
In the shadow of the Beyonce Super Bowl Spectacular, it’s helpful to take a step back and remember that a performance does not have to overwhelm the senses in order to be effective. Often, it is the subtle performance of a quiet play that can have an immense impact — no pyro-technics needed.
“Nickel and Dimed,” the most recent play from Northwestern’s The-atre and Interpretation Center, is one such subtle performance. Based on Barbara Ehrenreich’s !""# nonfiction book, this play is an account of the three months she spent undercover as a member of the American working class. The author spends each month in a different location: as a waitress in Florida, a house-cleaner in Maine and a Wal-Mart employee in Minne-sota (though presumably to prevent copyright issues, the store is comi-cally referred to as “Mall-Mart”). In each location, she discovers the dif-ferent personalities who make up the working class and the challenges they face. Fans of Ehrenreich’s book will
be pleased to see this play is a mostly faithful adaptation, keeping Ehrenreich’s liberal indig-nation in the forefront of every work-ing-class setting.
This pro-duction is so ef fec-tive because it gives a
human face to the working class. As played by NU students, each worker Barbara encounters has depth — they’re not simply carica-tures. Juanita Andersen as Gail, a tough waitress, opens the show and grabs the audience’s attention. Gail quickly shows the audience that no matter how low-wage her job is, it is by no means “unskilled.” Amelia Hefferon, as Mall-Mart employee Melissa, is the embodiment of Mid-western kindness; she provides a perfect counterpoint to Gail’s rough, businesslike attitude.
Playing Ehrenreich herself, Laura Winters is both protagonist and nar-rator. During the course of the show, she breaks the fourth wall with a pseudo-Power Point presentation in which she describes her wages and living conditions to the audience. Funny and persuasive anecdotes directed at the audience are sprin-kled throughout, such as the section devoted to explaining, in intricate detail, the challenges house-cleaners face from human excrement. Winters shows us how Ehrenreich was trans-formed by her situation, changing her from generous, liberal “Barbara” into “stubborn, defeated ‘Barb.’” It’s clear Ehrenreich is in a complicated situation: Although she clearly has honorable intentions for her expose, her middle-class moral standards often clash with her coworkers’ need to simply get by.
“Nickel and Dimed” presents a compassionate look at America’s working class through a theatrical lens. Although it occasionally veers into sanctimonious territory, this play challenges us in the audience to confront our own conceptions of what poverty is in contemporary America. Though this production lacks showy, in-your-face theatrical magic, its subtle depiction of life in the underclass rings truer than any elaborate performance could.
Season one of “Smash” was crazy to say the least. $ e story lines were all over the place, and some of the characters (Ellis, I’m talk-
ing to you) were far too eccentric even for a series about show busi-ness. $ e season two premiere of “Smash,” however, proved that with some much-needed focus and new characters, the series can succeed. With Josh Safran as the new showrunner, the two-hour premiere was % lled with promise.
$ e beginning of the episode picked up right where season one left off, with the premiere of “Bombshell” in Boston, and quickly moved on from there. Karen is moving out and moving on, and ex-boyfriend Dev is nowhere to be seen. Ivy is back at the bottom of the Broadway world and realizes she needs an exercise in humility if she’s ever going to be a star. $ e creative team of “Bomb-shell” is dealing with mixed reviews and, as usual, money problems. All of this might sound pretty similar to season one of “Smash,” but the % rst few hours of season two showed subtle but signi% cant shi& s in the creative style.
For one, even though the characters
are still trying to get “Bombshell” to Broadway, Safran presents a much more ' eshed-out plot that incorpo-rates fresh and interesting story lines. Marilyn Monroe is no longer the sole focus. Season two also introduces new characters such as Veronica, a Broadway star, and Jimmy, a wan-nabe Broadway star. By getting rid
of tiresome, fairly ' at char-acters like Leo, Ellis and
Dev, “Smash” is able to introduce these new, more interesting characters without overcrowding the show.
Ivy, a complex character who
became downright unlikable at some
points during season one, regained some bal-
ance in the opening episode. She still wants to be a star, but she realizes what can happen if things get out of control. $ is realization was necessary and makes it easier for audiences to root for her.
Safran also took the time to add more levels to characters who had become quite one-dimensional. Derek, for the % rst time, appeared more complex as he grappled with sexual harassment charges. The writers wisely decided to explore the friendly relationship between Derek and Karen, and hopefully,
that partnership will continue as they work together outside of “Bombshell.”
$ is new season of “Smash” makes audiences root for the characters, instead of scratching their heads at the decisions they make. In season one, viewers were told they should become instantly mesmerized by Karen’s voice. $ ey were told Julia and Tom have a great friendship. $ ey were told they should want to see the characters make it to
Broadway. Season two shows us why we want them all to succeed. Sure, the episode was % lled with some cheesy, eye roll-worthy moments (Derek has yet another dream musi-cal sequence), but for the % rst time in a long time, the good outweighed the bad. If “Smash” continues on this path, viewers will stop “hate-watching” and starting enjoying the fascinating show in front of them.
Photo courtesy of
SINGULAR SENSATION Katharine McPhee is one of the characters of “Smash.” McPhee plays Karen, a singer who’s fi ghting for the part of Marilyn Monroe.
Energy bars can be a student’s best friend. When you’re study-ing late at night in the library and need a little fuel, a bar can be the perfect boost. When it’s really cold, windy and snowy out, and your fridge is looking bare, a bar or two can be a suitable alternative to delivery. However, a lot of energy/protein/snack bars are really just glori% ed candy bars, laden with sweeteners and sure to spike your blood sugar.
With hundreds of bars on the market, it can be hard to di( erenti-ate between them. Just look at the colorful wall of bars at Whole Foods. It’s easy to grab something quickly based on the packaging or ' avor, but next time take a look at the ingredients and nutritional facts before you buy a snack bar. What is the ratio of protein to sugar? Can you pronounce all of the ingredients? $ ese are just a couple of questions you might want to ask yourself next time you’re shopping.
I’ve discovered a few great-tasting and all-natural new bars that you probably haven’t heard of. You won’t % nd these at Whole Foods (yet), but they are all available online if you want to try something new.
If you like quinoa, which has been popping up in fast-casual restaurants everywhere as an alternative to rice, you’ll like Mark Bars. $ ese bars contain only a short list of ingre-dients, including rolled oats, quinoa, nuts and dried fruit. Peanut butter chocolate is the most popular ' avor, and they use dairy-free chocolate. I love the slight crunch of quinoa and the almost crumbly texture. $ ese are manufactured in Chicago and available at % tness clubs around town, as well as at Freshii and $ e Goddess and Grocer. Recommended for Clif bar fans.
Coconut lovers will adore Joebars from Cocomo Joe. Regardless of which ' avor you pick, organic coconut will be the % rst ingredient. $ ese bars have more fat and saturated fat than most, but these are healthy fats from coconut, and one bar will keep you full for several hours. You can even buy a sam-pler box online with two of each ' avor if you are indecisive. Mango, inspired by
$ ai mango sticky rice, is my favorite. Recommended for Nature Valley Crunchy granola bar fans.
GoodGreens bars are both vegan and gluten free, and each bar has a special superfood protein powder blended in. $ e proprietary blend contains everything from spirulina and wheatgrass juice to goldenberries, aloe vera and mangosteen. A little agave and brown rice syrup are used as sweeteners. $ ese taste the most like candy bars since most ' avors include a dairy-free dark chocolate coating. $ ey also just released a new line of Greek yogurt bars. Recom-mended for Balance Bar fans.
television
SMASHANNIE BRUCE
Raise the bar with three high-energy, great-tasting options. Fuel up.
foodENERGY BARSAMBER GIBSON
“O! en, it is the subtle performance of a quiet play that can have an immense impact — no pyrotechnics needed.
ReviewsPage 4 | The Current Thursday, February 7, 2013
Energy bars can be a student’s best friend. When you’re study-ing late at night in the library and need a little fuel, a bar can be the perfect boost. When it’s really cold, windy and snowy out, and your fridge is looking bare, a bar or two can be a suitable alternative to delivery. However, a lot of energy/protein/snack bars are really
$ ai mango sticky rice, is my favorite. Recommended for Nature Valley Crunchy granola bar fans.
GoodGreens bars are both vegan and gluten free, and each bar has a special superfood protein powder blended in. $ e proprietary blend contains everything from spirulina and wheatgrass juice to goldenberries, aloe vera and mangosteen. A little agave and brown rice syrup are used as sweeteners. $ ese taste the most like candy bars since most ' avors include a dairy-free dark chocolate coating. $ ey also just released a new line of Greek yogurt bars. Recom-mended for Balance Bar fans.
Raise the bar with three high-energy, great-tasting options. Fuel up.
foodENERGY BARSAMBER GIBSON
BARS
Reviews Thursday, February 7, 2013
YUM!
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SCHAAP
ISAACSON
GRANDERSON
DOHRMANN
EIG
In August !"##, the White House and Con-gress reached an agreement on deficit reduc-tion that many thought was a smart move. If no deal for long-term deficit reduction was in place by Jan. #, !"#$ then a mandatory %#.$ trillion in cuts — known as sequestration — would go into effect.
This was a wonderful idea: We force the government to work together to make a deal that would benefit the country for the next decade. In fact, we make the cuts brutal
enough to assure the United States would go into a recession if they were enacted. No one would be stupid enough to let that happen.
Well, no one except politicians.On Jan. #, the White House and Congress
realized they couldn’t make a deal, so they postponed the sequestration for two months. On Tuesday, the president offered a short-term solution that would postpone the seques-tration again.
There is merit to President Obama’s pro-posal. The cuts would be devastating to an already shaky American economy. Estimates for potential job loss range from the Bipar-tisan Policy Center’s %# million to the Con-gressional Budget Office’s %#.& million. The United States cannot afford to let these cuts go into effect.
And yet, can we really afford not to? What does it say about our government when we give ourselves a deadline to address our nation’s enormous deficit — and then when the day comes, we just kick the can down the street again, hoping someone else will take care of it for us?
So we’re in the awkward position of being unable to let the cuts take effect, but also being unable not to. We can delay the seques-tration for another two months, six months, or even two years, but it is unlikely that either party will give up enough ground in negotia-tions to avert the cuts, no matter how far we put them off.
The problem with the sequestration cuts is that it doesn’t affect Congress in any way. When the cuts go through, it won’t be the
politicians that will be losing their jobs; it will be average Americans. Sequestration cuts aren’t holding the government’s feet to the fire; they’re holding ours, and we don’t have a say in how to avoid them.
We all know how this will play out. Demo-crats and Republicans will come to some compromise that no one seems to like and will only delay the inevitable. Americans have to find a way to put pressure on Congress to stop taking our economy hostage.
It’s time that we weren’t the only ones feel-ing the heat.
Joseph Misulonas is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, email a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
' ese are great times to be a Democrat. Over the last #" months, Obamacare survived its Supreme Court challenge, the president outfoxed Mitt Romney on the campaign trail and Republicans imploded in Senate races nationwide. Add this to the fact that the admin-istration has conveyed a greater willingness to confront its ideological foes on issues such as gun control and immigration, and one could defensibly conclude that, nationally, Democrats are in the political ascendancy.
But that judgment would be premature. ' ere are a number of cross-cutting trends that will impede the wave of liberal change that commen-tators like Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith and Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer have predicted since Nov. (.
For one, the Republicans still control the House of Representatives, and, due to skillful gerrymandering, will probably maintain control of it until at least !"!", when the next census rolls around. ' e state of Pennsylvania provides
an instructive example. Although it is reliably blue at the presidential level (the last Republican to win the state was George H.W. Bush in #)**) and Democrats hold a # million voter identi+ ca-tion advantage, the state’s delegation in Wash-ington, D.C. is composed of #$ Republicans and just * Democrats.
' is hold over the house means that any domestic policy that President Obama wants to pass will still require signi+ cant Republican input to become law. Moreover, midterm elec-tions typically have older, whiter electorates, which favors Republicans greatly, as we saw in !"#". In terms of winning back the House, !"#& and !"#* will be heavy li, s for the Democrats.
Secondly, the Republicans have one-party control of !& states, which might not sound like a big deal, but consider that some of the biggest political stories of the last year — think Scott Walker’s raid on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin or Rick Snyder’s ban on mandatory union membership in Michigan — occurred in states that + t this description.
' ird, at least one crucial part of our court system remains friendly territory for conserva-tives. ' e Roberts court is expected to overturn or dramatically reshape long-standing prec-edents on a- rmative action and the Voting
Rights Act, both of which many liberals hold dear.
Finally, from the Republican perspective, things simply can’t get any worse than they were in !"#!. No one will talk about “legitimate rape,” sideshows like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R- Minn.) will not feature as prominently (if at all), and their candidate in !"#( will almost certainly be better than Mitt Romney. Whether it’s Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, he or she will almost certainly have cannier politi-cal sensibilities than Massachusetts’ tone-deaf ex-governor. Plus, the Republicans are bound to close the yawning digital gap that provided such a crucial edge for the Obama campaign.
' is is not to say that the Democratic Party does not currently occupy a position of strength. It does. A two-term president and a Senate majority are nothing to sneeze at. But there are considerable roadblocks between our current, con. icted reality, and the liberal America of the future that so many pundits have hailed.
Michael Kurtz is a Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]
YONIMULLERDAILY COLUMNIST
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The Daily NorthwesternVolume 133, Issue 69
Editor in ChiefKaitlyn Jakola
Managing EditorPaulina Firozi
Web EditorJoseph Diebold
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COLLEGE COSTS Northwestern President Morton Schapiro spoke about the economics of higher education Wednesday at a luncheon held by the City Club of Chicago.
MICHAELKURTZDAILY COLUMNIST
Sequestration cuts hang average Americans out to dry
Schapiro stresses higher education in speechBy JILLIAN SANDLER/0123 456178 490::58
Northwestern President Morton Schapiro advocated Wednesday for paying the price of higher education during a speech in Chicago.
Schapiro spoke about the economics of higher education at a luncheon put on by the City Club of Chicago, a non-partisan nonpro+ t organiza-tion that focuses on civic issues, according to its website. It invites various civic leaders to speak at events multiple times per year, City Club Executive Director Tweed ' ornton said.
“(Our job is) to be a stage that can connect the
City Club of Chicago members and the citizens of Chicago to these leaders,” ' ornton said.
In his speech, Schapiro addressed what he called “six misconceptions about American higher education.” Among these “misconceptions” were the devalue of graduating college with debt, the inability to obtain su- cient + nancial aid at private schools and the questionable practicality of liberal arts majors.
Schapiro said NU is one of the $# “highly selective” schools in the Consortium on Financ-ing Higher Education, which focuses its research in part on the a; ordability of attending college,
In politics, appearances can deceive
Pride program looking upBy EDWARD COX9<5 /0123 6789<=549586
Ask any parent about Evanston Township High School’s feeder basketball program and they’ll say there’s more than the usual hustle and bustle at practice. There’s pride.
“Evanston is going to shine, Evanston is going on to states and will win,” parent Rich-ard Kalaygian said.
The Pride feeder basketball program at ETHS has attracted ##$ students this season, Pride President Michael Johnson said. This season’s participation, the highest since the program’s creation in !"##, comes as members and organizers continue to grapple with the September !"#! death of former Pride player Dajae Coleman.
“Part of what we are doing is to get kids acclimated into school,” said Johnson, who worked with the ETHS athletic director to establish the program.
Players in the feeder program now play against middle school students from other area feeder programs.
Mike Ellis, the high school’s boys basket-ball head coach, said he hopes to establish connections with league teams and organize tournaments in which the Pride feeder team could participate.
Some of the feeder programs come from districts like Lake Forest and Waukegan, Johnson said. Pride feeder will be compet-ing in an annual Waukegan tournament this weekend.
Andre Patrick, the program’s vice president, said Pride has “worked out beautifully,” calling last season a successful one.
“What we saw is a big part of the reason why we created the program which is to create a jump start for kids,” Patrick said.
In addition to teaching middle school students how to prepare for higher level
basketball, the program also provides student athletes with structure and support, Johnson said.
After Coleman, an ETHS freshman who played with the Pride feeder program, was shot and killed in September, Johnson said the team embroidered jerseys with the message “DC$,” Dajae’s initials and the number he wore when he played on the Pride team. The ETHS boy’s basketball program wore red shoes and red jerseys because that was Coleman’s favorite color, Johnson said.
“Ultimately what came out of it was that the community opened its eyes … people kind of looked at it and said, ‘That could have been me,’” Johnson said of Coleman’s death. “We’ve taken on the strain of the community.”
Tuesday night, Patrick pulled out his iPhone, which had a picture of Coleman smiling in his orange Pride feeder uniform, the same picture on the program’s website. His last memory of Coleman was after he watched him hit a three-pointer at an Evanston Pride feeder basketball game.
Coaches also counseled team members on the Pride basketball team after the Coleman’s death, Johnson said.
“It hurt everyone in Evanston,” said ETHS freshman Immanuel Woodberry, a friend and teammate of Coleman on the Pride feeder team. “He was a good person … all he wanted to do was play basketball.”
Johnson said he is considering plans to introduce study sessions and tutoring into the Pride feeder program, which would give players a couple of hours to study.
“I don’t know if we will be happy if we don’t make a leap every year,” he said.
At the end of Tuesday’s two-hour practice, the seventh-grade basketball coach gathered his team for a countdown.
“One, two, three: homework!”
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Thursday, February 7, 2013
according to its website. !ese schools are pricey but worth taking out loans and incurring debt to attend, Schapiro said. !is, he said, is in part because graduation rates are higher than at some cheaper, but underfunded, schools.
Schapiro sought to debunk the perception that selective schools are una"ordable. NU is among the #$% schools in the nation that charge &'(,((( or more per year, Schapiro said, but of the )((,((( students that attend these institutions, just half are paying full price. Additionally, he said, less than $
percent of all college students in the country are paying &'(,((( or more on tuition yearly.
Michael Mills, NU’s associate provost for enroll-ment, told !e Daily last week that about *' percent of NU students are receiving +nancial aid.
Mills said the University spent &,* million in +nancial aid scholarships in $(#(. !is number jumped to &#() million in $(## and &##, million in $(#$.
“!e +nancial aid formula is much more generous than a few years ago,” Schapiro said. “!e increase in need-based aid in the past +ve years makes (NU) much more a"ordable.”
Schapiro also addressed the social payo" of
obtaining a bachelor’s degree, saying those who do are more likely to vote, volunteer and make health-ier choices. He also spoke in favor of funding the humanities, despite the fact that the careers stem-ming from these majors may be less lucrative than those related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“We might be rich (if we only focused on funding STEM majors), but would it really be life worth living without literature and all that?” Schapiro asked.
John Ross, director of business development at A-liated Engineers, an engineering design +rm working on some campus construction, attended the speech. He said Schapiro helped him realize that
sending his daughters to college does not have to be so +nancially daunting.
“He took assuage to some of my fear of my two young daughters going to higher education institu-tions,” he said.
Dan Valliere, executive director of Chicago Com-mons, which helps foster self-su-ciency in disad-vantaged neighborhoods, said he enjoyed Schapiro’s analysis of higher education’s value.
“He’s framing education as an investment,” Val-liere said. “He’s showing the complexity, and I think that’s key.”
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others,” Quinn said in the release.Evanston’s division of parks/forestry and facilities
management worked to complete the city’s appli-cation for the grant. Paul D’Agostino, the division’s superintendent, said plans to repair the trail might include crushed granite with a binder material to hold it together. !e trail was installed in the #,)(s
and has only received spot maintenance since its installation.
!e ITEP grant contributes .( percent of the cost of the project, with the city contributing the remaining $( percent, or &#*',(((. In total, the trail rehabilitation will cost &/$',(((.
IDOT spokeswoman Paris Ervin said the grants aim to increase alternative methods of transportation and decrease a reliance on motor vehicles.
In $(#(, ITEP granted &,( million to state
transportation projects. !is year, IDOT received %$. applications asking for nearly &*'( million in grants, Ervin said. IDOT selected '* of these applications to receive funding. Evanston applied for the grant last summer, D’Agostino said.
Evanston bicycle activist Susan Munro said the availability of better maintained trails would provide a safe and enjoyable location for cyclists in the city.
“!e challenge in Evanston is always trying to +nd streets that are safe to bike on,” she said.
!e grant also contributes to Evanston’s bicycle improvement plan and the Ladd Arboretum master plan, both of whic were created to facilitate biking in Evanston and to enhance the park.
Although an exact timeline for the trail reconstruc-tion has not been established, Ervin said IDOT expects work to begin within #$ months of the creation of +nal plans, which are currently being developed.
TrailFrom page 1
“It’s been a lot more than I even could have pos-sibly imagined they would do and they are planning to do more,” Nicolle Nordman said. “!at’s really amazing.”
Reshef said all the organizations that worked the tables were very helpful, coming out with a lot of energy despite the freezing temperature and unpre-dictable weather.
Cam Ulmer, fundraising chair for Phi Mu Alpha fraternity, helped sell wristbands at !e Rock on Fri-day. He said he was surprised by how many people bought wristbands to show their support.
“I think they gave more because we were sticking it out in the cold,” he said. “It was below zero most of the day.”
Ulmer said a0er the sale, the brothers decided to donate the money from the chili sale at their annual Super Bowl party to Nordman. He said not many brothers are close with Nordman, but all are eager to support her. !e event raised close to &'((.
“Even if we don’t know her, she is a fellow North-western student in our community,” he said. “We still felt like we could help out in any way.”
Almost all the student theater groups that comprise the Student !eatre Coalition have or will hold fund-raisers at their recent and upcoming shows, according to Je" Sachs, Lovers & Madmen president and StuCo board member.
Sachs said in addition to sending around collection tins during shows, many of the groups have come up with other fundraising ideas.
Lovers & Madmen’s most recent production, Mid-night’s Dream, raised &/.. for Nordman. !e play,, set
in a club, sold non-alcoholic drinks and held an extra showing with all the pro+ts donated to Nordman.
!e Dolphin Show’s production of “My Fair Lady” raised &*/' with a silent auction of costumes and props during the show’s two weekends, according to Sachs.
Nordman, who is producing a show for Lovers & Madmen in the spring, said she was touched by all of the e"orts.
“I love theater people and their creativity,” she said. “!ose groups are donating proceeds that they could totally be keeping for themselves to help me with my medical costs.”
Besides StuCo, Challah for Hunger donated &%(( of their proceeds to Nordman, according to Julia Rudan-sky, a Weinberg sophomore and the organization’s president.
!e !eatre and Interpretation Center also raised about &)(( by collecting money at its production of Nickel and Dimed, according to Nichole Cooper, TIC marketing and communications manager.
Sachs organized one of the +rst fundraisers at Cheesie’s Pub and Grub on behalf of StuCo and raised about &'((. He said he hopes the companies continue to at least take collections at their shows through the end of the year.
“I didn’t know how well we would be doing,” he said of StuCo’s e"orts. “But just the fact that almost all the groups are taking part in something is so great.”
Reshef said that Nicolle Nordman had told her she was extremely thankful for the wristband sale and all the NU e"orts to support Josie.
“It was really our pleasure,” Reshef said. “!ere is a girl in our sorority who needs a life-saving lung trans-plant. Of course we are going to do something.”
Source: Facebook
SUPPORTING JOSIE Various campus organizations have fundraised on behalf of Communication sophomore Josie Nordman, who is on the wait list for a double lung transplant. More than $30,000 has been raised by both campus groups and outside donors.
NordmanFrom page 1
SchapiroFrom page 6
SPORTSThursday, February 7, 2013 @Wildcat_Extra
ON DECK ON THE RECORDWrestlingNU at Northern Illinois, 7 p.m. Friday
We’re not looking for kids who are going to barely graduate and stay eligible. That’s not who we are. — Pat Fitzgerald, football coach
FEB. 8
Fitz wary of recruiting evolution
By ROHAN NADKARNI!"#$% &'(#)* &+",,'*
Life as a football coach used to be simple.
But just as college football o-enses evolved from three yards and a cloud of dust to spread, pistol, wildcat, air-it-out o-enses, college football recruit-ing has expanded from a simple pro-cess to a high-stakes game of national intrigue, with recruiting websites and social media further complicating the process.
At Northwestern’s national signing day press conference in Chicago on Wednesday, head coach Pat Fitzgerald .elded questions on the team’s newest
players, but he also spoke for a consid-erable time about his personal issues with the way recruiting works.
Fitzgerald likened the current situ-ation to a reversed system of dating. In Fitzgerald’s world, schools o-er recruits scholarships — marriage pro-posals — before learning more about each prospect through series of visits and phone calls — or dating.
“We o-er scholarships before we’ve ever got to know them,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s socially awkward. It’s really kind of backwards, I’d like to see it /ipped over. But we got a lot of things to .x in the NCAA before we .x that.”
Fitzgerald, who pointed out even “email is dead,” previously spoke out
against the NCAA allowing assis-tant coaches unlimited contact with recruits as young as sophomores.
But recent NCAA legislation will allow exactly such contact, allowing assistant coaches unlimited calls, texts and tweets with recruits.
For Fitzgerald, the new legislation is extremely short-sighted.
“As a trustee of the AFCA I’m going to do everything I can to override a lot of these NCAA rules that have been passed,” Fitzgerald said. “0ose rules were not made with the student-athlete in mind, with the quality of life of our assistant coaches in mind. High school coaches have zero inter-est in us having earlier access with their student athletes.”
0e NU coach was quick to point out the problems with allowing col-lege coaches to contact football play-ers as young as 12 years old, such as in/ating the egos of the recruits or leaving no room for assistant coaches to lead normal lives as increased com-petition demands they spend more time schmoozing young players.
Fitzgerald joked that the school should “open up a call center” if the new rules remain in play, while also concluding that it would cost pro-grams millions to keep up with one another, creating budget problems for the other 13 varsity sports at NU.
“Sure, I’d love to talk to a 14-year-old,” Fitzgerald said of contacting young recruits. “(But) I’d rather talk to my 5-year-old son.”
The coach recommended that the NCAA revert back to rules that allowed college coaches to only speak to players during their senior year of high school, similar to how the NFL can not have contact with any college players who are juniors or younger.
Even with the new rules, the Wild-cats refuse to change their recruit-ing standards. Any player verbally committed to NU who visits another school will have their scholarship o-er taken away. And even with the rising pro.le of the football program, Fitzgerald insists that athletics will always remain the top priority under his watch.
“It’s going to always start with the way a kid demonstrates a positive attitude,” Fitzgerald said. “Academi-cally, we need to believe that they’re going to come here and be incredibly successful. We’re not looking for kids who are going to barely graduate and stay eligible. 0at’s not who we are.”
Rohan Nadkarni/Daily Senior Staffer
SIGN ME UP COACH Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald sits down for his signing day press conference.Fitzgerald spoke at length about his dissatisfaction with the future of recruiting in college football.
Wildcats ride hot streak to high rankBy ABBEY CHASE+6' !"#$% ()*+67'&+'*(
0e last time Northwestern was ranked No. 88, Facebook was one month old and Roger Federer held two major titles.
A snappy start to the season has put the Wildcats at their highest ranking in nine years. With only one loss so far coming from No. 9 Duke, NU has more than proven itself to be an unyielding opponent.
But the No. 85 Cats’ early suc-cess this year has not come out of nowhere. NU saw its best season in three years during 4:14, when the team went ;-5 in Big Ten play and quali.ed for the NCAA tournament for the .rst time since 4::9.
With their non-conference season now fully underway, the Cats have simply picked up where they le< o- last May.
“0is year and last year, I’ve been a lot more con.dent just playing my game,” said senior Sidarth Balaji, who holds a 1:-4 singles record. “Being con.dent has allowed me to play within myself and be more aggressive on my shots. I felt like I’ve been able to play more of a complete match and not have as many losses in the three sets.”
Tenacity in three-set matches has already paid o- signi.cantly for NU in the .rst part of the season. In their nine dual matches so far, the Cats have won ;2 percent of their singles matches when pushed to a deciding set.
But the Cats’ success in doubles has been key to giving them the advantage when they take to the singles court.
During last year’s season, NU won nearly =: percent of its doubles matches in Big Ten play. In their 4= dual matches, the Cats won the doubles point 12 times and went on to win the match 18 of those times. 0ey were only able to win twice without winning on the doubles court, taking out Minnesota 5-8 and Purdue 2-4.
A more aggressive game plan in return games has helped put NU in a winning position.
“We are not giving too many return games away where the oppo-nent gets a free game or don’t have to work,” coach Arvid Swan said. “If you can make them work and struggle through each service game, it applies a lot of pressure to them, especially as the match proceeds towards the end.”
And this year has been no di-er-ent. An 3-1 record perfectly mirrors NU’s 3-1 doubles tally.
“We’re bringing a lot of energy right o- the bat,” sophomore Alex Pasareanu said. “We’re getting on top early, we’re really right in their face and we’ve really focused on staying positive. I think they’ve been a little bit startled by it.”
A busy weekend for the Cats begins on Friday with No. 5: Van-derbilt, a team that narrowly defeated the Cats 5-8 last year in Nashville, Tenn.
NU will next face Harvard in the .rst of two matches on Saturday in the Cats’ third double-header of the season.
Last week’s rankings placed Harvard at No. 4; but a loss to then-unranked Old Dominion at home caused the Crimson to su-er a 4:-spot free-fall in the new ITA
rankings released Tuesday. With a 2-1 lifetime record against Harvard, NU will have the edge going into the match but against a team that is much tougher than the rankings indicate.
0e Cats will close out the week-end against unranked Valparaiso Sat-urday night, a team NU has never faced before.
“It’s just the progress that we’ve made from match to match that’s been good,” Swan said. “We still
have a long way to go and so many good teams le< to play so we need to continue to make progress and give ourselves a chance to succeed in these upcoming tough matches.”
Daily file photo by Melody Song
COMING IN HOT Senior Sidarth Balaji serves during a recent home match in Evanston. The Wildcats have earned their highest rank as a team in nine years this season, losing only once to No. 9 Duke.
No. 40 Vanderbilt vs. No. 34 NorthwesternEvanston, Ill.3 p.m. Friday
Some teams left out
The Wildcats are returning to Wrigley Field.
Northwestern has teamed up with the Chicago Cubs to bring more than just its football team to the Friendly Confines over the next five years. It all starts on April 4:, when the Cats host Michigan for some baseball at Wrig-ley. The following spring, lacrosse will take the field against Notre Dame, and more sports are set to join the party shortly.
As exciting as it may be for NU to return to the North Side, two major programs will not benefit from this partnership. In fact, these are the same two teams that don’t reap any rewards from the >44: million athletic facility on the shores of Lake Michigan that was announced in September. Those two squads are, of course, men’s and women’s basketball.
This is not to say athletic director Jim Phillips should not have made these two deals. Both were very smart for the athletic department as a whole and should bring NU a lot of publicity, which equals added revenue. However, these deals do very little to improve the situation of two programs on the cusp of the NCAA Tournament.
Phillips has said numerous times that football is the engine driving the boat. And although that’s undoubt-edly true, basketball is the gas pedal of said boat. As fast as the boat goes with football-related revenues, it only goes faster with revenue from bas-ketball. Football can bring in a lot of revenue, but basketball also brings in a lot of money, especially if the team continues to improve and play in the postseason.
Phillips told me last quarter that basketball facilities are on the radar, but the athletic department has to spread out its investment. I commend this approach, but it is also what is holding the basketball programs back.
As much as coach Bill Carmody has been maligned for not being able to steer the Cats into the NCAA Tourna-ment, he has done an incredible job given the facilities his players have to work with. Welsh-Ryan Arena is prob-ably one of the worst in the country among the schools in BCS conferences. The fieldhouse in the back is nice, but it leaves much to be desired. Facilities are obviously not the only thing that matters; otherwise Nebraska would be a basketball powerhouse with their new facilities. However, it can be the difference between good teams and great teams.
By the time the new lakeside facility is complete, 12 of the 19 varsity sports will have had their practice or game areas upgraded since 4:::. The four sports left out are fencing, volleyball and both basketball programs. We can talk about the fencing facilities, but they don’t have enough home duals for NU to spend valuable resources upgrading Patten Gymnasium for them. On the other hand, basketball is the second-most popular college sport behind football. Fans obsess over the latest basketball recruits not the latest tennis, fencing or soccer recruits.
Recruits will love the new facil-ity and will relish the opportunity to play in such a historic venue as Wrigley Field. However, these deals forget a major revenue source for the athletic department — the basketball programs.
JOSH WALFISHDAILY SPORTS
Men’s Tennis
Football