by Nicole Kyle THE CHRONICLE Audience members who came to watch Duke Uni- versity Improv’s Secret Show under the Blackwell Arch two weeks ago got the usual dose of comedy they were expecting. There were the characteristic punch lines, imperson- ations and witty banter between members followed by jeering and enthusiastic applause. But there were also new additions to this year’s act that the audience may not have been expecting. Two new female members were added to DUI’s cast this year. Freshmen Jess Hendin and Julianne Kolb are the first women to join the previously all-male troupe in nearly five years. “We took the four best people, and two of those hap- pened to be girls,” said senior David Distenfeld, a veteran DUI member. Fellow member Tom Blemaster, a senior, said the all- male trend is nothing more than a numbers game. “It’s always really tough at auditions because usually we just have a lot more guys than girls,” he said. “This by Christina Pena THE CHRONICLE The Socioeconomic Diversity Initiative will start hold- ing focus groups this month to analyze the experiences of Duke students who receive financial aid. The initiative hopes to identify elements of the student experience that need improvement due to challenges that stem from socioeconomic differences between students. “I think it is important to know what students are struggling with, whether that is academic, financial or beyond,” said Alison Rabil, assistant vice provost and director of Financial Aid. “We want students to make the experi- ence here the best it can be and make sure everyone is included despite in- come, language or culture.” Students differed on the way they percieved the effects of money and class on campus. “I don’t feel like there is any effect at all,” said junior Misha Lavrov. “People usually don’t talk about that sort of thing. I feel like the ini- tiative could be beneficial or it could be a waste of time.” Nearly half of students get some sort of financial aid— 43 percent receive need-based assistance and 3 percent get merit or athletic scholarships, Rabil said. Some students feel that there is a social difference between those who are on financial aid and those who are not. SEE DUI ON PAGE 8 SEE SOCIOECONOMIC ON PAGE 4 by Rachna Reddy THE CHRONICLE White with a patch of orange on its ear, a cat sits on its haunches on an Allen Building step. It’s night, and the short- hair is the only illuminated figure on the academic quad. So still that it might be ghost or statue, it is one of Duke’s resi- dent feral felines. Cats have a quiet presence all over West Campus—lone toms sunning on the patio of Armadillo Grill, a calico scampering across the Bryan Center walkway, tabbies mewing from the bush- es of the Biological Sciences Building. Duke is home to more than a dozen feral cat colonies. Until summer 2008, a small, scraggly cat frequented the shrubbery of the Phys- ics Building. The physics students called her Schrodinger, but she was also known as Ribbons and Patches. “Truthfully, she was hideously ugly, spot- ted all over, brown, yellow and all sorts of colors thrown in. She wasn’t a pretty looking cat but she was cute,” said Arya Roy, a final- year graduate student in math. “Of course, cats don’t really care what you call them. As long as you’re around, they purr.” Roy, who came to Duke five years ago, said the cat had been a visitor at the Physics Building for 10 or 12 years before passing away. Roy took over cat-feeding duties from former physics professor George Rogosa, who returned to put food out for the cats even after his retirement. Since Schrodinger’s death more than a year ago, however, Roy has stopped feeding strays. “I didn’t want to make a habit of feed- ing lots of stray cats,” Roy said. “When I go away, who will feed them?” Roy said unlike many strays, Schroding- er was affectionate and would sometimes rub up against his legs to be pet, but Roy didn’t allow her to do it often. “I didn’t want to get her used to anything that wouldn’t be permanent,” he said. Laughing up at the glass ceiling Students split on financial aid distinctions Prowling and purring, cats find a home at Duke MICHAEL NACLERIO/THE CHRONICLE Duke University Improv has not had female members in its group in five years. (From left to right) Freshmen Robert Zaleski, Hunter Douglas, and two females, Julianne Kolb and Jess Hendin, are the newly selected freshmen members of the comedy troupe this year. LAUREN DIETRICH/THE CHRONICLE Feral cats are a regular sight on campus, especially outside the Physics and Biological Sciences Buildings. Although some have fed and trained the felines over the years, others believe they pose problems to the community. SEE CATS ON PAGE 6 Alison Rabil The Chronicle THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, ISSUE 33 WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM Two Dukies premiere shorts at the NY Film Festival, Page 3 ONTHERECORD “We are updating our Web site... to allow students to up- load their own content, sort of like YouTube.” —Co-President Stephanie Shyu on Cable 13’s revamped site. See story page 3. Men’s Tennis: All-American Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha qualify for singles and doubles at the ITAs, PAGE 9
Transcript
by Nicole KyleThe chronicle
Audience members who came to watch Duke Uni-versity improv’s Secret Show under the Blackwell Arch two weeks ago got the usual dose of comedy they were expecting.
There were the characteristic punch lines, imperson-ations and witty banter between members followed by jeering and enthusiastic applause. But there were also new additions to this year’s act that the audience may not have been expecting.
Two new female members were added to DUi’s cast
this year. Freshmen Jess hendin and Julianne Kolb are the first women to join the previously all-male troupe in nearly five years.
“We took the four best people, and two of those hap-pened to be girls,” said senior David Distenfeld, a veteran DUi member.
Fellow member Tom Blemaster, a senior, said the all-male trend is nothing more than a numbers game.
“it’s always really tough at auditions because usually we just have a lot more guys than girls,” he said. “This
by Christina PenaThe chronicle
The Socioeconomic Diversity initiative will start hold-ing focus groups this month to analyze the experiences of Duke students who receive financial aid.
The initiative hopes to identify elements of the student experience that need improvement due to challenges that stem from socioeconomic differences between students.
“i think it is important to know what students are struggling with, whether that is academic, financial or
beyond,” said Alison rabil, assistant vice provost and director of Financial Aid. “We want students to make the experi-ence here the best it can be and make sure everyone is included despite in-come, language or culture.”
Students differed on the way they percieved the effects of money and class on campus.
“i don’t feel like there is any effect at all,” said junior Misha lavrov. “People
usually don’t talk about that sort of thing. i feel like the ini-tiative could be beneficial or it could be a waste of time.”
nearly half of students get some sort of financial aid—43 percent receive need-based assistance and 3 percent get merit or athletic scholarships, rabil said.
Some students feel that there is a social difference between those who are on financial aid and those who are not.
See DUI on PAge 8 See socIoeconomIc on PAge 4
by Rachna ReddyThe chronicle
White with a patch of orange on its ear, a cat sits on its haunches on an Allen Building step. it’s night, and the short-hair is the only illuminated figure on the academic quad. So still that it might be ghost or statue, it is one of Duke’s resi-dent feral felines.
cats have a quiet presence all over West campus—lone toms sunning on the patio of Armadillo grill, a calico scampering across the Bryan center walkway, tabbies mewing from the bush-es of the Biological Sciences Building. Duke is home to more than a dozen feral cat colonies.
Until summer 2008, a small, scraggly cat frequented the shrubbery of the Phys-ics Building. The physics students called her Schrodinger, but she was also known as ribbons and Patches.
“Truthfully, she was hideously ugly, spot-ted all over, brown, yellow and all sorts of colors thrown in. She wasn’t a pretty looking
cat but she was cute,” said Arya roy, a final-year graduate student in math. “of course, cats don’t really care what you call them. As long as you’re around, they purr.”
roy, who came to Duke five years ago, said the cat had been a visitor at the Physics Building for 10 or 12 years before passing away. roy took over cat-feeding duties from former physics professor george rogosa, who returned to put food out for the cats even after his retirement.
Since Schrodinger’s death more than a year ago, however, roy has stopped feeding strays.
“i didn’t want to make a habit of feed-ing lots of stray cats,” roy said. “When i go away, who will feed them?”
roy said unlike many strays, Schroding-er was affectionate and would sometimes rub up against his legs to be pet, but roy didn’t allow her to do it often.
“i didn’t want to get her used to anything that wouldn’t be permanent,” he said.
Laughing up at the glass ceiling Students split on financial aid
distinctions
Prowling and purring, cats find a home at Duke
michael naclerio/The chronicle
Duke University Improv has not had female members in its group in five years. (From left to right) Freshmen Robert Zaleski, Hunter Douglas, and two females, Julianne Kolb and Jess Hendin, are the newly selected freshmen members of the comedy troupe this year.
lauren DieTrich/The chronicle
Feral cats are a regular sight on campus, especially outside the Physics and Biological Sciences Buildings. Although some have fed and trained the felines over the years, others believe they pose problems to the community.See cats on PAge 6
Alison Rabil
The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, ISSUE 33www.dukechronicle.com
Two Dukies premiere shorts at the NY Film Festival, Page 3
onTherecord“We are updating our Web site... to allow students to up-
load their own content, sort of like YouTube.” —Co-President Stephanie Shyu on Cable 13’s revamped site. See story page 3.
Men’s Tennis: All-AmericanReid Carleton and Henrique Cunha qualify for
in Pyongyang that ended Tuesday, north Korea’s leader and china’s prime minister raised expectations that the north might return to nuclear disarmament talks that it abandoned in the spring.
Kim Jong il told Wen Jiabao that north Korea is ready to rejoin the multilateral talks but that it first needs to talk one-on-one with the united States so that “hostile rela-tions” can “be converted into peaceful ties.”
missile launches, a nuclear test and threats of “all-out” war that rattled the world in the first half of this year gave way to tarmac hugs during this week’s talks, the release of detained foreigners and a resumption of tearful reunions among families separated by the border between the two Koreas.
it is not clear, however, whether the unit-ed States will accept north Korea’s condition for returning to disarmament talks, which
Kim’s government condemned in april as a forum for regime change. and there are new signals that north Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear program.
The State Department says it needs to confer with chinese officials who visited Pyongyang this week to gather more precise information about what north Korea is willing to do.
The obama administration has repeated-ly said it will talk with north Korea, but only if Pyongyang agrees to participate again in the six-party denuclearization talks, which began in 2003 and involve the two Koreas, the united States, china, russia and Japan.
Those Beijing-based talks produced significant results through 2007 and 2008, as north Korea—in return for aid and dip-lomatic concessions—disabled a pluto-nium factory and demolished a cooling tower at its main nuclear power plant.
“ ”It is not enough to succeed.
Others must fail.— Gore Vidal
TODAY IN HISTORY1971: John Lennon releases his
megahit “Imagine”
WaShinGTon — congressional re-publicans fired back Wednesday at the White house’s Pr campaign for health-care reform, highlighting concerns voiced by two Democratic governors about a possible expansion of medicaid.
The federal-state program for low-in-come children, pregnant mothers and dis-abled people is already driving states to the fiscal brink, and many governors—repub-lican and Democrat alike, including those who support the overall reform effort—are deeply concerned that congress will add to the burden by expanding medicaid to cover millions of poor, uninsured adults.
The columbus (ohio) Dispatch report-ed that ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Demo-crat, has warned officials in Washington that, “with our financial challenges right now, we are not in a position to accept additional medicaid responsibilities.”
Reform may lower deficitWaShinGTon — Senate Democrats
pushing health care legislation received a boost Wednesday from congressional budget experts, who estimated that a bill being debated by the Senate Finance committee would substantially expand coverage and lower the federal deficit.
The nonpartisan congressional Budget office calculated that the legislation, writ-ten by Sen. max Baucus, D-mont., would cost $829 billion by 2019. But because that tab would be offset by spending cuts elsewhere and by new revenues, the pan-el’s health care bill would lower the deficit by $81 billion over the next decade—and potentially even more in later years—the budget office concluded.
at the same time, the bill would ex-pand the percentage of americans with health insurance from 83 percent to 94 percent, according to the estimate.
ToDaY:
7555 FriDaY:
8770
Meeting raises hopes for disarmament talks with N. Korea
Medicaid expansion raises concerns among Dems.
miGuel Juarez/The WaShinGTon PoST
Various wildlife, including zebras, giraffes and gazelles, roam the Boma area in south Sudan. During Su-dan’s 20-year civil war, many of these animals fled to Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, but since the war ended in 2005, they have resumed their old migratory habits. The Boma-Jonglei ecosystem is now home to one of the world’s largest mammal migrations. The Bandingalo National Park has been proposed for the area.
THE CHROniClE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 | 3
by Sony RaoThe chronicle
As students turn to Web sites like You-Tube and hulu to follow their favorite shows, cable 13, Duke’s student-run televi-sion station, is trying to draw those viewers to its own online content.
Since its creation in 1976, cable 13 has been a major venue for students to show-case their original broadcast work. now, its production team is expanding program-ming to a Web-based platform.
“We are updating our Web site to make our programs more accessible and to allow students to upload their own content, sort of like YouTube,” said cable 13 co-Presi-dent Stephanie Shyu, a senior.
Students will soon be able to access cable 13 in three ways—via Duke’s cable network, on a live stream on the cable 13 Web site or on-demand through its video archives, said co-President Merideth Ba-jana, a senior.
With the new Web site, cable 13 will be able to showcase different student events, such as the step show that took place dur-ing homecoming and performances by lo-cal musicians. content would also include student-produced shows and other works.
The site will also allow cable 13 to ex-pand its coverage. As one of their initiatives to broaden scope, cable 13 members will attend sporting events to post live feeds on
by Carmen AugustineThe chronicle
The Student organization Finance committee came under scrutiny by Duke Student government members at the DSg meeting Wednesday night.
Senators debated the role SoFc should have in determining which clubs exist on campus after SoFc chair David hu, a ju-nior, made a special presentation on the SoFc selection process. The committee is trying to judge prospective clubs with a more critical eye this year by asking clubs more probing questions such as “Why do you want to be a group?” and “Do you have a newsletter, a Web site and an adviser who is willing and active?” hu said.
A number of DSg members said many clubs applying for charter or recognition are redundant—very similar clubs already exist and there is not enough space on campus for every club.
“issues that keep coming up are, ‘This group sounds like it should be like this group that already exists, but this one doesn’t do what we want it to,’” said Vice President for Academic Affairs cynthia chen, a senior.
She recommended that existing groups be approached and worked with to encor-porate club subsections.
other members said they feel strongly that students have the right to form any club they wish.
“it’s a very dicey territory when we get in the business of rejecting groups,” said Athletics and campus Services Senator Ben Bergmann, a junior. “Space preserva-tion is important at Duke, but it isn’t as dire as people make it out to be.”
When Bergmann asked hu for an ex-planation of why the 12 SoFc members are qualified to reject clubs applying for a charter or recognition, hu pointed out that SoFc can help prospective clubs re-vise their mission statement to make it more appealing to the committee.
hu proposed passing a charter for the new Duke Wealth and Management club, the only club he said SoFc found worthy of presenting to DSg out of six that ap-pealed to SoFc.
“[The Duke Wealth and Management
club has] a wonderful professor, they have their own newsletter [and] they have active members and speakers lined up,” hu said.
The club, boasting 110 active members, is focused on educating interested students about management. Although similar to the Duke investment club, the Wealth and Management club wants to approach the same subject with the goal of “mentoring and teaching people,” hu said.
• painting • photography • sculpture • mixed media • digital art • animation • film • music • video • creative writing and more...
DSG deliberates SOFC’s function Cable 13 aimsto strengthen Web content
Dianna liu/The chronicle
As SOFC Chair David Hu, a junior, proposes the chartering of the Duke Wealth and Management club, DSG debated on the role SOFC should play in the group chartering process during its meeting Wednesday.
See DsG on PAge 6 See cable 13 on PAge 7
DUKE STUDENT GOVERNMENT
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“Take the relationship between me and my room-mate last year,” said sophomore gabriel Arce, who said he receives financial aid. “his dad is the [chief executive officer] of the royal Bank of canada, which is the top bank in canada. he is a good guy, probably one of the most humble guys i’ve met at Duke, [but] we couldn’t fully connect or relate to each other. he would hang with all the other well-off frat guys and i would hang out with other people who were more like me. We got along very well but we just tended to interact with different groups of people.”
Money is also an issue for students in similar economic situations.
Sometimes there are uncomfortable moments when the subjects of financial aid packages and loans are brought up, several students said.
“i feel like it comes up in conversation—who’s on fi-
nancial aid or taking out loans and who’s not,” said junior Tina Del carpio. “i work as a [resident assistant], so i don’t have any student loans, and when that comes up, sometimes there’s tension with friends who do have to take out loans. Sometimes there are awkward moments, but i don’t feel like it hinders my experience. All things here at Duke are open to students despite any socioeco-nomic gap.”
Some students said financial aid helps minimize the so-cioeconomic gap and make opportunities—such as clubs, study abroad and internships—available to all students.
“i feel that there are socioeconomic gaps and dis-tinctions at Duke, some more obvious than others. in a purely monetary sense, however, a large portion of the gap is reduced by the aid many students receive or at least in my case, my financial aid places me at less of a disadvantage,” said sophomore Jonathan lee. “i be-lieve that in my case, the socioeconomic differences are a bit less distinct than they were in high school. i went to very diverse schools and everyone blended pretty well
together, so i expected much of the same when i came here. But it’s quite obvious that people self-segregate very easily here since they have much more control over who they live and associate with.”
The average financial aid grant last academic year was $30,000, bringing the amount of money used on finan-cial aid that year to approximately $97 million, including money distributed by Duke and the federal government, rabil said.
incomes at Duke vary, but some students said a willing-ness to interact with people they normally would not as-sociate with can help bridge divides.
“i think the reason why we had such a good room-mate relationship was because we were forced to live together and we were just naturally outgoing people,” Arce said. “People from different socioeconomic levels don’t tend to interact with each other. But just because they don’t doesn’t mean they’re incompatible, and Duke provides an environment for us to find where we are compatible.”
SOCIOECONOMIC from page 1
Officials at odds over resources for Afghan missionBy Rajiv Chandrasekaran
The WAShingTon PoST
WAShingTon — in early March, after weeks of debate across a conference table in the eisenhower executive office Build-ing, the participants in President Barack obama’s strategic review of the war in Af-ghanistan figured that the most conten-tious part of their discussions was behind them. everyone, save Vice President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, agreed that the United States needed to mount a comprehensive counterinsurgency mission to defeat the Taliban.
That conclusion, which was later en-dorsed by the president and members of his national security team, would become the first in a set of recommendations con-tained in an administration white paper outlining what obama called “a compre-hensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Preventing al Qaeda’s return to Afghanistan, the document stated, would require “executing and resourcing an inte-grated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy.”
To senior military commanders, the sen-tence was unambiguous: U.S. and nATo forces would have to change the way they operate in Afghanistan. instead of focus-
ing on hunting and killing insurgents, the troops would have to concentrate on pro-tecting the good Afghans from the bad ones.
And to carry out such a counterinsur-gency effort the way its doctrine prescribes, the military would almost certainly need more boots on the ground.
To some civilians who participated in the strategic review, that conclusion was much less clear. Some took it as inevitable that more troops would be needed, but others thought the thrust of the new ap-proach was to send over scores more dip-lomats and reconstruction experts. They figured a counterinsurgency mission could be accomplished with the forces already in country, plus the 17,000 new troops obama had authorized in February.
“it was easy to say, ‘hey, i support coin,’ because nobody had done the assessment of what it would really take, and nobody had thought through whether we want to do what it takes,” said one senior civilian administration official who participated in the review, using the shorthand for coun-terinsurgency.
The failure to reach a shared under-standing of the resources required to ex-ecute the strategy has complicated the
White house’s response to the grim assess-ment of the war by the top U.S. and nATo commander in Afghanistan, forcing the president to decide, in effect, what his ad-ministration really meant when it endorsed a counterinsurgency plan for the country. gen. Stanley Mcchrystal’s follow-up re-quest for more forces, which presents a range of options but makes clear that the best chance of achieving the administra-tion’s goals requires an additional 40,000 U.S. troops on top of the 68,000 who are already there, has given senior members of obama’s national security team “a case of sticker shock,” the administration official said.
The meetings now underway in Wash-ington are rooted in part in the gap in un-derstanding that became evident in March. This account of how it opened up is based on interviews with several senior civilian members of the administration and mili-tary officers directly involved in Afghani-stan issues. nearly all spoke on the condi-tion of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about internal policy discussions.
As the president’s top defense and for-eign policy officials debate the way for-ward, they have begun to revisit the March
review’s main conclusion, asking whether the administration’s relatively narrow goal of preventing al Qaeda’s return to Afghani-stan would best be achieved through a full-on counterinsurgency mission or through a more limited counterterrorism operation that would target any high-level terrorists seeking to operate there again.
This time, the discussions about coun-terinsurgency will not remain theoretical or involve back-of-the-envelope estimates of troop levels. it is clear to all around the table now that pursuing a full counterin-surgency, at least according to the model developed in iraq by gen. David Petraeus and embraced by Mcchrystal, would en-tail tens of thousands of additional troops, legions of civilian specialists and billions more reconstruction dollars.
Senior military leaders, including Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, and Petraeus, who now heads the U.S. central command, have indicated their support for Mcchrystal’s request in discussions with administration officials. Biden has taken the opposite view, renewing arguments he made earlier this year for a narrower counterterrorism mis-
See afGhanIstan on PAge 5
THE CHROniClE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 | 5
OPERATION: Textbook Store PUBLICATION: ChronicleHEADLINE: Purchase Textbooks DATES: 10/08, 10/09COLOR: Black
Do you still havetextbooks to purchase
for this semester?We have to return unsold textbooks by wholesaler and publisher deadlines. Beginning on Monday, October 12, we will return Fall ’09 textbooks (used and new) to their vendors.
If you still need texts for your courses, now is the time to buy them.
As always, if you need a text that we don’t have in stock, we’ll special order it for you. You prepay for the text and we order it shipped second-day air at our expense. It takes 2-3 business days to get special orders, so plan ahead.
Don’t forget our Used Books Classifieds listing.The link is available at
www.dukestores.duke.edu/textbook.php
Duke University® Textbook StoreMid-Level, Bryan Center / Phone: 919.684.6793
Department of Duke University Stores®
sion instead of a comprehensive counterinsurgency cam-paign. others, including Defense Secretary robert gates and Secretary of State hillary clinton, have not staked out a firm position.
With the costs now clearer, some officials at the nation-al Security council and the State Department who voiced support for counterinsurgency in March have started to consider other options. There is increasing interest in Biden’s stance, as well as in a modified counterinsurgency effort that would involve sending more military trainers but not more combat forces.
“The skeptics are growing,” one senior official said.Asked why obama is questioning a key assumption of
his Afghanistan strategy just six months after he stood be-fore a bank of flags and endorsed the white paper, admin-istration spokesmen have cited the potential impact on counterinsurgency efforts of the country’s fraud-riddled presidential election in August. They have also noted that obama said in March that he would review whether the United States was “using the right tools and tactics to make progress.”
But senior officials involved in Afghanistan strategy dis-cussions now and earlier this year said the lack of agree-ment in March about counterinsurgency will make these deliberations more protracted and disputatious.
“We’re going back to key assumptions,” one of the of-ficials said.
less than three weeks after obama took office, the White house selected former ciA officer Bruce riedel to review U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. riedel was told to consult broadly but act quickly: The president wanted his conclusions by mid-March, before a nATo summit in europe early in April.
Working with national security adviser James Jones and his top aides, riedel assembled a team that included rep-resentatives from the defense and state departments and the ciA. A senior official from the Joint chiefs of Staff was there. So, too, was Biden’s national security adviser, Ant-ony Blinken, and lt. gen. Douglas lute, who was former President george Bush’s iraq war czar but was kept on by Jones to help manage Afghanistan war policy for the nSc. Petraeus and richard holbrooke, the administration’s
point man at the State Department for Afghanistan and Pakistan, often attended the group’s meetings.
in a campaign speech in June 2008, obama called the fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and in the frontier regions of Pakistan “a war that we must win.” he did not mention the Afghan Taliban, the insurgents battling U.S. forces and the Afghan government. Although the Taliban welcomed osama bin laden when they ruled Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials say they believe there are few, if any, links between Taliban commanders in Afghanistan to-day and senior al Qaeda members.
obama’s choice of words was not lost on members of the review team. They, too, argued that the United States
should focus on al Qaeda. Their final document made the point bluntly: “The core goal of the U.S. must be to dis-rupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda.”
But the question of how to achieve that end provoked pointed debate. Most participants insisted that the only way to prevent al Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan would be to build up an Afghan government, with a large enough police force and army to defend itself. That would require continued U.S. assistance, in reconstruction and fighting the Taliban. And that meant counterinsurgency.
Blinken, speaking for his boss, argued that trying to build an Afghan state strong enough to withstand the Tali-ban would take more time and resources than the Ameri-can public would be willing to tolerate. if the goal is al-Qaida, he said, the United States should pursue a more focused strategy, targeting terrorists who seek to set up operations there.
one participant described the counterinsurgency vs. counterterrorism debate as “very spirited.” But, the partici-pant said, referring to Blinken, “at the end of the day, he
was a minority of one.”counterterrorism is “what the Bush administration did
largely for seven years and it didn’t work,” riedel said. “And it’s not likely to work in the future.”
The review team had reached a consensus that more troops were needed to pursue a counterinsurgency strat-egy. They engaged in rough estimates based on traditional counterinsurgency doctrine. But the numbers depended on how much of the country required such an approach — parts of the north and west were deemed sufficiently quiescent — and how many Afghan security forces could be added to the mix.
“i don’t think anyone had any illusions that this was go-ing to be cheap and easy,” riedel said.
in March, however, it was not clear to several of the par-ticipants that a significant addition of U.S. forces would be needed. obama had only recently authorized the de-ployment of 17,000 more troops. Most of them would be heading to helmand and Kandahar provinces in the south, where the insurgents were making gains. later that month, obama agreed to send 4,000 more soldiers to help train the Afghan army. Several team members assumed those forces would prove sufficient.
encouraging the view that a massive influx was not needed were statements from the overall U.S. and nATo commander at the time, gen. David McKiernan, who said he had shifted his troops toward counterinsurgency opera-tions. he was not asking for more forces beyond the 21,000 obama had agreed to, plus 10,000 more in 2010, which the Pentagon told the White house it could address later in the year.
“Typically, you defer to the field for the resource needs,” said one senior official involved in the review. “in March.. we thought we had a handle on what McKiernan thought he needed.”
A military official familiar with McKiernan’s thinking said his request for 30,000 troops last fall was tempered by a belief that the Bush White house would reject it outright if he asked for more. As it was, Bush tabled the request, leaving it to obama.
Another wild card was the role civilians would play in an expanded counterinsurgency mission. The review team agreed with holbrooke’s desire to dispatch hundreds more development specialists and to overhaul U.S. recon-struction programs.
“I don’t think anyone had any illu-sions that this was going to be cheap
and easy.” — Bruce riedel,
former CIA officer
AFGHANISTAN from page 4
6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 THE CHROniClE
cats cause concernsThere are several theories for why Duke is home to so
many feral felines. The campus is a sheltered environment with numerous food sources, and some suspect local pet owners abandon kittens on its grounds.
Although feral cats have won some hearts on campus, their presence is the cause for many concerns.
“They’re not native to this area—they’re not native to north America,” said Jeff Pippen, an associate in research at the nicholas School of the environment. Pippen has worked at Duke for 20 years.
cats were first domesticated in the sands of Ancient egypt. Most north American wildlife have not evolved to cope with the predatory threat they pose, Pippen said.
“cats, we all know, are effective predators and they love to prey and hunt,” Pippen said. “it’s been documented that they kill many small birds, small mammals and reptiles that are native to this area and belong in the forest.”
helen cook has worked at Duke as a clinical nurse for 25 years. in 1995, she saw a kitten warming itself on the lawn outside the Duke University credit Union on Mor-reene road. Since then, cook has worked to care for and reduce the feral cat population on campus.
“i was not willing to just feed them because that’s not going to help the situation,” she said. “With feeding came neutering, spaying and vaccinating. it was a two-pronged effort there.”
cook is part of an ongoing movement to reduce the Durham feral population using the Trap, neuter, release method, working with an organization called operation catnip.
To trap a feral, cook and other volunteers place food in a box that closes when a cat enters. cook captures about 100 cats each month from the Durham area and takes them to to a clinic to be vaccinated, neutered and spayed with a voucher.
neutered ferals are marked on the ear and released at the location where they were found.
cook also rescues and domesticates kittens for adop-tion. This season, she found three outside the Duke cha-pel. cook estimates she and those helping her have social-ized a total of more than 100 kittens on Duke’s campus. She has half a dozen “kitties” herself, most of which have been rescued from University grounds.
Duke’s chapter of Students for the Protection of Ani-mals also has plans for a Tnr project with campus cats, said chapter President Matthew Slayton, a senior.
Pippen, however, said re-releasing ferals into the cam-pus environment is unwise.
“if you successfully capture a feral cat from the wild, under no circumstances should it be returned to the wild,” he said.
in 2008, the Animal Protection Society of Durham re-ceived 2,497 cats, said Simon Woodrup, director of com-munity outreach for APS.
By county ordinance, all animals brought to the shelter
can be housed there for a certain amount of time. last year, 837 cats were euthanized after being deemed feral and un-adoptable. For feral cats, life as a pet is not an option.
“right now, you’ve got so many generations of feral, if they’re not kittens, then there’s no socializing,” said Janet Patterson, shop coordinator for the Physics instrument Shop. Patterson has worked with cook extensively.
Pippen said that in the interest of the campus ecosystem, sending the captured cats to a shelter is the best option.
“it may sound heartless, but my long-term goals are for the health of the environment and the health of the human population at Duke as well,” he said. “ideally, all feral cats on campus are gone by whatever means are most humane.”
roy, however, does not think that the cats pose much of a predatory threat.
“if ribbons could hunt, i would love to see it,” he said. “growing up with cats, if you feed them... they are lazy bas-tards. Yeah, they probably kill a bird or so.”
Pippen disagreed, noting that evidence does not show that feeding reduces hunting behavior, and predator in-stinct is deeply instilled in felines.
“i love cats,” Pippen said. “i’m a cat person. My cats are kept indoors. They can be completely fed but if a mouse gets into the house, or a cricket, or a spider, that cat has found a play toy. That’s its nature. even if well-fed, cats are still out killing native wildlife.”
Many, however, believe that re-releasing infertile cats is the best way to reduce the population. cook said eradicat-ing all cats would create a vacuum that invites other felines to move into the area.
cats create communitycook’s favorite cats were a couple, both members of
the credit Union colony—Brutus and rena. Brutus was a stubborn brown tabby who escaped cook’s traps for three years. She cared for him for more than a decade.
“i used to call him brute-ass. he wasn’t going into that cage, no way no how,” cook said. “he was a big old honkin’ tom. he went from being an alpha tom to a rather mellow, neutered boy.”
Brutus would saunter out of the woods when she arrived with food, cook recalled. Sometimes it was a nice gallop. he would even rub up against cook’s legs. But his “lady,” rena, was more reserved.
“[rena] was sort of the matriarch and Brutus was the partriarch, and they were very cute,” cook said. “i was glad that they hooked up.”
cook said the credit Union colony is shrinking —she has not seen kittens in the area since 1998, and has seen no signs of new ferals moving into the territory.
The building is not the only place on campus fewer cats call home. cook recalled one warm summer 10 years ago when her group removed 30 kittens from the area around Page Auditorium.
“We were literally running a kitten nursery,” cook said. “There’s not nearly that number of cats anymore.”
Throughout the 15 years that she has cared for campus cats, cook has assembled a community of helpers.
“We have physicians, we have researchers. We have stu-dents, graduate students,” cook said. “This has given me a great opportunity to basically get to know Duke. it’s a diverse group of people.”
Jack chance, a security officer for the Duke University Police Department, has fed campus cats before and after work for seven years.
“As long as i work and i can afford the food, i’ll keeping feeding them,” he said. “i’ve seen some [that are] real, real skinny from not having enough to eat.”
chance has four cats of his own and names some on campus after their personalities. his favorite, Sisco, once hopped out of a bush with a bird in her mouth and pre-sented it to chance.
chance said he thought of it as Sisco’s gift to him for feeding her.
Anne lacey, administrative coordinator for the Biologi-cal Sciences Building, occasionally puts food out for feline neighbors.
in cold weather, she sometimes finds them huddled on the steam vent. There is an orange and white one, a little gray and a calico.
“The little gray one talks,” lacey said. “if i go outside, she meows and meows and meows, but if you get too close to her, she walks away.”
cook has not seen a feral at the credit Union in months—zero cats from a population that was once more than 30. rena died last June and about a year ago, Bru-tus finished the food cook gave him and trotted into the woods. he didn’t appear for cook’s next visit.
“it’s like Brutus was the last,” cook said, though she still puts food out at the credit Union. “i would love for me to be out of business in terms of taking care of feral colo-nies—i would love it. But i want that to happen through attrition.”
Study Abroad for Engineers
Tues., Oct. 13, 7 p.m. 203 Teer Engineering
Hosted by the Pratt School of Engineering &
the Office of Study Abroad Qu
esti
on
s? C
all 6
60-5
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CATS from page 1
Academic Affairs Senator Kaveh Danesh, a soph-omore, said the club is a nice alternative for those who do not get a leadership position in the invest-ment club.
other senators found fault with giving charter status to a club so similar to one already active on campus.
“it’s valuable for Duke students to learn that they can still be an effective member of a club without hav-ing a fancy title,” said junior Will Passo, vice president for Durham and regional affairs.
DSg members finally decided that the Wealth and Management club does not need charter status. orga-nizations that apply for charter are allowed to apply for funding on a regular basis, and this new club does not need funding, members said.
clubs can also apply for recognition, which gives them access to the programming fund. Passo moved to amend hu’s proposition, granting the club recognition instead of a charter. The amendment was passed.
In other business:Undergraduate representative for Academic Affairs
Ben getson, a junior, gave a status report on cours-erank, a Web site new to Duke that allows students to review courses before they register for them. The Web site’s goal is to allow students to “use [their] experienc-es to guide [other students’ course selections],” getson said.
The site is almost ready for wide use and has 119 reviews, 544 ratings and 5,117 courses as of Wednesday evening. After students register on the site, they can supply information regarding courses, such as rank-ing the class on a scale from one to five, a review and an overview of the class. Students also have the option of providing their grade in the course so that a rough grade distribution can be graphed.
getson said one thing he would like to see includ-ed on the site is the option to review professors. Any student can register and write a review, but if inappro-priate criticisms are included, the review could be re-moved, getson said.
getson is hoping to launch courserank later this Fall, in time for registration for Spring semester.
DSG from page 3
“It’s a very dicey territory when we get in the business of rejecting
groups.” — junior Ben Bergmann,
Athletics and Campus Services senator
THE CHROniClE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 | 7
the site, said junior Maddie Burke, co-vice presi-dent and director of sports for cable 13.
“This will help students get familiar with the broadcasting and editing process,” Burke said. “our mission is to give kids interested in multime-dia the tools they need to take it to the next level.”
Shyu said cable 13 has received interest from students planning to pursue television production as a career.
The crew is facing technical difficulties with the Web site, But cable 13 members said they have greater hopes for a stronger production team this year because several people have expressed hopes to create their own shows.
Additionally, interest in production has in-creased, but cable 13 members said television view-ership has declined. They attribute this change to a decrease in the number of students who have televisions in their rooms and an increasing shift toward online viewing.
Shyu said that although cable 13 continues to face difficulties in membership retention, it is ex-pected to some degree.
retention is not a new issue, said junior Wonnie Song, a former cable 13 board member in charge of promotion, adding that last year it was difficult for the station to keep regular viewers.
“We had a good proportion of viewers that found our station while they were surfing channels,” Song said. “They just wouldn’t sit down to watch it.”
Bajana said she believes that the Web site’s launch will help cable 13 serve students wishing to showcase their own work and to reach out to the larger Duke community.
“This is a way for us to make sure that we are able to become important for students in the way that they need us to be,” Bajana said, “We are put-ting in foundations this year for what can happen in five or 10 years down the road.”
currently, the cable 13 Web site is under con-struction and is expected to be completed by the end of october, Bajana said.
CABlE 13 from page 3
chronicle File PhoTo
Cable 13, shown filming a show, is revamping its Web site to increase its online viewing audience. The new site will also allow students to submit their own videos.
Sunday, OctOber 11 • 10 am | Hayti Heritage centerworship service with pastor Brady BLade, sr.
free & open to the puBLic
Sunday, OctOber 11 • 5 pm | Hayti Heritage center Live concert recording
tickets: $26, $5 for duke & nccu students
world premiere:The hallelujah Train Feat. pastor Brady Blade, sr.
Brian Blade, daniel lanois & an all-star Band
+ zion Baptist church choir
brian blade The hallelujah Train · 10/10 & 10/11
Monday, october 12
12:30-1:30 pm:Brown bag lunch conversation between Brian Blade & Melvin Butler. Alumni Memorial Commons Room (AMCR) in the Duke Divinity School
4:25-5:40 pm:Class Visit: Gospel & Jazz: Cultural & Musical Connections
with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler. White 107 on Duke’s East Campus
6:30-8:00 pm:Listening session & conversation with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler.
Pinhook Bar, 117 W. Main St., Durham
tuesday, october 13
1:15-2:30 pm:Class Visit: Music in African & African-American Religion
with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler. Friedl 240 (between Aycock & Wilson on Duke’s East Campus)
4:00-5:30 pm:Conversation & demonstration with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler.
North Carolina Central University Music Building
The hallelujah Train Residency schedule
lauren DieTrich/The chronicle
A student receives a seasonal flu vaccination in the Bryan Center Wednesday afternoon. The annual flu-shot clinic, sponsored by the Student Health Center, offered free flu shots to all Duke students.
I want my mommy!year it was different, there was more of an equal number of girls and guys that tried out.”
The two girls, along with freshmen hunter Douglas and robert Zaleski, were welcomed to DUi a month ago after a week-long audition process that turned away nearly a hundred would-be comedians.
With the arch packed to capacity, the group quickly got into their usual improv antics. From the reactions of the audience, it was clear that the new members meshed well with the old. Kolb’s impression of a chain-smoking, husband-less grandmother got the same round of rousing laughs, hoots and hoorahs, as did sophomore Kyle glackin’s impersonation of an illegal immigrant —a crowd favorite.
“i feel comfortable with everyone al-ready,” hendin said.
Adjustment is nothing new to DUi. group members said the dynamic of the troupe changes every year with the addi-tion of new members.
“When you add anybody new, it chang-es the jokes you’re able to make,” Disten-feld said.
The last female member of DUi, caro-line haubold, Trinity ’05, said her addi-tion to the group had a noticeable effect on the troupe’s act.
“i was the first girl any of the guys had improvised with when i joined,” she said. “At certain points, it would be very fratty. A lot of the jokes were very guyish—that got toned down when i was in the group.”
haubold added that being one of the few girls in DUi was not without its challenges.
“girls have to be careful to not be the sweet princess or the old hag in every scene,” she said. “it’s easy to get typecast.”
Junior Jenni Brandon too could attest to the difficulty of being one of the only funny women in a group of dominating male personalities. Brandon auditioned for DUi two years ago and made it to the top ten during callbacks before eventu-ally being cut.
“it was a fun experience and very in-timidating—those boys are very talented,” she said. “it was also intimidating because i was a girl.... Men being funny translates better than women being funny.”
Brandon said she thinks things may have turned out differently her freshman year if another girl had been on the judg-ing panel.
“i think with these girls they might be able to get a few more in the future,” she said. “But DUi are great guys—su-per nice. But it’s good, i think, to have the girls.”
regardless of the year-to-year changes in group dynamic, current members of DUi and alums said the group remains at its core the same.
“DUi is a group full of strong person-alities competing for the spotlight as co-medians and that won’t change whether there’s a girl or not,” haubold said.
Audience members too said the chem-istry of the group was only improved by the addition of female members.
“i think [the girls] fit in nicely. it added a new dynamic,” said freshman ritza calixte, who had seen one of DUi’s performances prior to the addition of the freshmen as well as the Secret Show Thursday night. “it was refreshing. i think they made a good choice with who they selected, even with the other two freshmen.”
DUI from page 1
volume 12, issue 8 October 8, 2009(the indie band)
MSR4It’s not a new gang. Find out about the art project inside
page 3
Duke In NYFFTwo Duke faculty members
premiere work at the festival
page 5
former ghostsFreddy Ruppert talks about
his new super grouponline
recess
special to the chronicle
HallelujahBrian Blade comes to
Durham for a residency and to celebrate his
father’s ministry,PAGE 4-5
PAGE 2 October 8, 2009recess
[recesseditors]
sandbox
i love the ’90sAndrew Hibbard....................................................................................britney > mileyEugene Wang...................................................................dream worlds, parts 1 and 2 Claire Finch..................................................................................dream worlds, part 3Kevin Lincoln.................................................................................pavement reunion! Charlie McSpadden...................................................when destiny had five childrenMaddie Lieberberg......................................................................secret crushes on JCJonathan Wall....................................................................2pac’s still out there, mangWill Robinson.............................................................................presidential infidelity
I left class with instructions to Google Anton Meiwes, the German cannibal (it was a relevant example, promise). This was an instruction from my professor, a man who proclaimed that he wears “cheap-a— clothes” from Bangladesh to not just me but an entire class (and a great class, in the academic sense—not sucking up, it’s just the highlight of my average Monday/Wednesday)(What up, MF). I never got around to Google-ing Meiwes beyond checking the spelling of his name for the purposes of this bit of writing, but, in true Carrie Bradshaw fashion, it got me think-ing about that Dirty Projectors song “Can-nibal Resource” (What up, AG).
And, in another SJP-gone-SATC turn, it got me thinking about music. I’m not go-ing to write about that Pitchfork list of the best albums of the decade, but that is what I thought about. Specifically, how end-of-the-decade lists shouldn’t come out in Sep-tember, with three months of great music left. (That said, I dare you to challenge us to make a best-of-the-decade list. Oh wait,
it’s already in process—What up, JT.) Spe-cifically, I just discovered one of the best tracks of the decade. No, it’s not that Vam-pire Weekend track about rice beverages. It’s the debut track from Jesus Christ (the indie band).
Did you know that Jesus Christ was an indie rocker? I didn’t. And apparently he’s not. The group is a collaboration be-tween Tao Lin, a poet who writes in IM-speak (his most recent collection is titled Shoplifting from American Apparel, which should tell you all that you need to know) and Carles, the proprietor of snark-blog Hipster Runoff. To complicate things, Carles might not be real. To complicate things further, Carles might be Tao Lin. Which right there makes two parts, but my Catholic upbringing taught me God had that Holy Trinity thing going, so keep your eyes open in the coming days for Je-sus Christ (the indie band) to unveil its third member: Bob Dylan. His Christmas album is only the beginning.
—Andrew Hibbard & Kevin Lincoln
the
Duke Performances in durham, at duke, the modern comes home.
Dianne Reeves with
RomeRo lubambo & Russell malone • 10/9
for tickets & info919-684-4444 dukeperformances.org every single show, all season long. take advantage.
Sunday, OctOber 11 • 10 am | Hayti Heritage centerworship service with pastor brady blade, sr.
Sunday, OctOber 11 • 5 pm | Hayti Heritage center live concert recording
don byron new gospel quintet feat. rev. kelly r. andrews
Friday, OctOber 16 • 8 pm | Hayti Heritage center
anonymous 4Saturday, OctOber 17 • 8 pm | duke cHapel
murray perahia
tueSday, OctOber 20 • 8 pm | page
This friday
It always strikes abruptly, furtively and without warning. A girl waves to a male. A boy takes note of a familiar car at the Belmont. The circumstances vary. Everyone asks the same questions.
“How do you know that guy?”“I didn’t know you were friends with her.”No one wants full disclosure, but every-
one inquires.“Is that really how you know him?“Yeah.... Kind of.” Practice your poker face.“Did you hook up with her?” Awkward
silence. It has happened again.You can’t change the past. In fact, it’s
probably sitting just a few rows behind you in your 10:20 a.m. lecture. Given these un-avoidable confrontations, one must learn to tread the line between implicit and ex-plicit. “That’s not how my ex used to do it…,” is a mood poisoner, if not a relation-ship killer. Still, when two members of the opposite sex hold eye contact for a little too long or a T-shirt with mysterious Greek letters appears, questions emerge.
Generally, men employ denial. They try to believe that their girlfriends were blessed with natural sexual prowess. As Lu-dacris astutely noted, men want “a lady in the street but a freak in the bed.” I would qualify this statement as only applicable to the bed of said freak’s current partner—all other beds should be kept out of sight and mind. When it comes to a girl’s sexual skeletons, most men would like the closet door closed.
On the other hand, the average girl de-mands full disclosure of every past exploit. In fact, Facebook may have been invented to help girls overcome the hurdles of their laconic male partners and aggressively stalk pictorial evidence of their boyfriends’ ro-
m a n -tic past. Although most won’t own up, girls equate the dis-covery of an ex-girlfriend’s open F a -cebook profile to the excitement of a BMW in the driveway Christmas morning.
Personally, I gobble up every morsel of ex-related detail, hungry for confirmation of my inherent superiority and assurance that I have better boobs. Then, there is the inter-rogation. “How did you meet her? Where is she from? What are her hopes, dreams and fears? Am I hotter and more talented in bed?” The last question is a statement.
The awkwardness factor doubles on the opposite side of the ex equation. Recently, I had the dubious pleasure of meeting a girl whose boyfriend I knew a bit too much about. Our brief exchange was cordial enough until she said I looked familiar.
“I feel like I’ve seen you before.”Never quick on my feet, she paused before a
flicker of clarity flashed across her face.“Were you in my Psych 11 class?”I responded with something resembling a
nod, unwilling to admit that she was more like-ly to recognize my thong, still floating around her boyfriend’s room, than identify my face.
I can only deduce that interactions re-garding the ex (or that girl your boyfriend may or may not remember sleeping with) bring out the worst qualities in the best people. Still, we click past one more photo, overreact to an offhand comment. Are we masochistic or simply insecure? That’s a question I haven’t thought to ask.
Brooke Hartley is a Trinity junior. Her col-umn runs every other Thursday
duke,Horizontal
October 8, 2009 PAGE 3recess
Pictures Reframed
Nov 18
www.carolinaperformingarts.org
OCTOBER 200911 Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer
NOVEMBER 200911 Bruckner Orchestra Linz with Dennis
Russell Davies, conductor, featuring The Carolina Choir with Susan Klebanow, director
17 Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediæval – Steel Hammer
18 Leif Ove Andsnes, piano, and Robin Rhode, visual artist – Pictures Reframed
20 Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca
Showing at UNC’s Memorial Hall.Order tickets online or at the Box Office(919) 843-3333 M–F 10am–6pm
Bruckner Orchestra Linz with Dennis Russell Davies,
Boasting a diverse and eclectic array of rising artists, organiza-tions and downtown entrepre-neurs, Carborro is already well known as a hub for underground art and music scenes. This Friday night, these two creative avenues will merge in the fourth annual Minus Sound Research opening.
Part rock concert and part gal-lery exhibition, MSR4 features the works of seven local musicians who use visual art to show another side of their creative talents. The seven artists come from such mu-sic scene stalwarts as Bull City, Strange, the Sames, Shark Quest and Phon.
MSR has garnered immense popularity in a short timespan, much to the delight of showcase curators Maria Albani (of Orga-nos) and John Harrison (of North Elementary). The two first con-ceived the idea of MSR while on tour with their respective bands.
“We were talking about our other musician friends who were creating visual art but not show-ing it, and that kind of bummed us out,” Albani said. “Since many musicians make their own CD art and posters, it’s not surprising that someone who makes music also makes art.”
Drawing from this inspiration, Albani and Harrison approached several musicians and asked to dis-play their visual works in the first MSR. As the show developed, mu-sicians began submitting work of their own accord. The acceptance process is laid back and without stringent regulations, according to Harrison.
The requirements for the works are just as lax. Each artist created five to seven pieces using a variety of techniques, including sculptures, photography, mixed-media paintings, pastel portraits and screen-printing. Often the
musicians had no formal train-ing in the arts but simply wished to express their creativity in dif-ferent ways. Kurtz’s ceramics, for example, stemmed from his fasci-nation with animals.
“I’ve been preoccupied with drawing and sculpting animal forms for a long time,” Kurtz wrote in an email. “There’s this weird element of animal life. Some of the beasties in the world are just freakish and awesome. I try to create pieces that echo that affinity for me.”
The rest of MSR is bound to be equally eclectic with pieces focused on sound, advertising and fantasy creatures. There is no set structure to the showcase; Albani and Harrison will collect and spontaneously arrange all the pieces on Thursday night.
“While galleries are usually more streamlined, our actual show ends up being quite diverse,” Har-rison said. “We don’t group like pieces together, and so a sculpture could be right next to a mixed me-dia. We’re a little off-center.”
Thus, MSR breaks the norm
of traditional exhibitions. Albani said they acted as though they were setting up a concert, com-plete with posters, refreshments and, of course, live music. Despite praise from the media and public, she and Harrison intend to con-tinue holding this spectacle once a year rather than creating a more permanent space.
“We’ve definitely talked about how nice it would be to have a permanent gallery, but to me, it could be too time-consuming,” Albani said. “I think we enjoy it so much because we’re able to put 100 percent into it.”
With hundreds of people at-tending past shows, their efforts have certainly paid off. This Fri-day will likely follow suit.
“I think the public will be de-lighted, dazzled at the show and the music, and the entire produc-tion,” Kurtz wrote. “I’m excited.”
The opening of MSR4 is Oct 9 from 7 to 11 p.m. at Wootini Gal-lery in Carrboro’s Carr Mill Mall, 200 North Greensboro St., Suite A-9. MSR4 will run through Dec 14.
special to the chronicle
Minus Sound Research will see its fourth iteration this Friday. The Carrboro art ex-hibit highlights the art of many North Carolina musicians including John Harrison of North Elementary and Maria Albani of Organos as well as many others.
Art, music unite at MSR4
by Claire FinchTHE CHRONICLE
Visitors to the Center for Docu-mentary Studies may not even no-tice the exhibition We Cheat Each Other. Pictures and letters are un-ceremoniously tacked to the wall with push pins, creating an un-demanding presence that under-mines its hefty emotional punch.
The show is a visual chronicle of the decade-long relationship between Duke alumnus Eric Gottesman, Trinity ’98, and Sala-mawit Alemu, an Ethiopian wom-an. Gottesman received a Hart Fellowship from Duke in 1999, sending him to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he met the then eight-year-old Alemu. Gottes-man began to work with Alemu to document her life, eventually producing the letters, drawings and photographs that form the heart of the exhibition.
One of the show’s more appeal-ing elements is its invocation of our voyeuristic tendencies. The some-what random ephemera of Got-tesman and Alemu’s relationship
is displayed with no frames and minimal textual interpretation, giving the impression that one is going through a box of personal artifacts. Reading Alemu’s letters furthers this feeling of emotional trespass. Readers are confronted with reflections on her mother’s death and her future dreams —all in a handwritten scrawl that quick-ly becomes familiar, perpetually evoking Alemu’s presence.
Part of the show’s interest comes from its fascinatingly frag-mented subject. Alemu continu-ally changes her first name and identity, evolving from young, orphaned Ruth into Meron, who works in a brothel. One gets the impression that Gottesman’s documentation of Alemu’s life both facilitates and captures her shifting subjectivity, making the exhibition a startingly intimate glimpse into the often private rapport between two people.
We Cheat Each Other is on display in the CDS’s Porch Gallery through Dec 19.
Alum brings light to life in Ethiopia
Page 4 October 8, 2009recess
by Andrew HibbardThe chronicle
Brian Blade and his father, Pastor Brady Blade, Sr., have telling voices. The former speaks calmly and with a smooth tone, interjecting the occasional jazz
musician’s “man.” The elder Blade’s voice reveals years in the ministry, and even treated me to a “Praise God!” in our conversation.
But what connects them, beyond their obvious kinship, is music.
“he grew up listening to my music and my singing, and it made a great impression on him,” the pastor said of the younger Blade.
on Saturday and Sunday, over two performances and one service, father and son will come together in Durham in a project commissioned by Duke Performances called The Hallelujah Train.
conceived by Brian, the project celebrates his father’s nearly 50-year history as the pastor of the Zion Baptist church in Shreveport, la. Brian took the drummer’s chair at the congregation when he was 13 (his older brother, Brady Blade, Jr.—also coming for the performance—had just left for college). he grew up surrounded by his fa-ther’s music and said some iteration of the project has al-ways been on his mind.
But the younger Blade, now 39, went off and built a career as one of the most successful drummers in music, working with Bill Frisell, Joni Mitchell, producer Daniel lanois (also playing this weekend) and his own Fellow-ship Band. it’s now coming back to the beginning. Blade said the project is all about his father, his ministry and his “God-given talent” to preach through song.
“My dad—when he gets going, it’s great and just inspir-ing to me to see someone with conviction, with the goods
to back it up, come and deliver something from deep in-side,” Brian said.
The Hallelujah Train is more than a son admiring his father, though. named after a show the pastor hosted in the late ’70s and early ’80s in which choirs and bands from Ark-la-Tex would play, the two performances will be re-corded for a live album.
“it brings back not what’s been lost in memory, but what’s been lost in terms of documents. it’s a bit of a re-vival of sorts,” Brian said. “i don’t want to have the regret that i didn’t do my part to try and document what i’ve been blessed with.”
Director of Duke Performances Aaron Greenwald add-ed that it’s very unusual for universities or promoters to commission live albums.
“Generally, what folks at universities or big presenting institutions want to commission are marquee pieces,” he said. “But i felt like this was a unique opportunity that fit well with...the kind of music and culture we ought to be celebrating.”
indeed, The Hallelujah Train is the ultimate manifesta-tion of Duke Performances’ current season, which is ex-ploring modernism through the African diaspora.
Greenwald said that his interest in the project stems from the connection between religion, gospel music es-pecially, and jazz, a link that too often goes unnoticed and unexplored. it’s a thread that’s clear to the elder Blade.
“[Music] calls for participation on the part of the peo-ple,” the pastor said. “When worship becomes a spectator thing, it loses its meaning and worth.”
And this is an appreciation Brian has clearly inherited from his father.
“it teaches you so many fundamental things without you necessarily even being conscious of it,” Brian said. “i think it just gave me the bedrock necessary to ground
me in every other situation i would be a part of: how to listen, how to serve the song, how to submit yourself to the moment and be able to improvise and shift as the spirit moves.”
even more than this, The Hallelujah Train will serve as a testament to the importance of gospel music, an art that has never achieved much commercial acclaim. Although a set list hasn’t been finalized, there will be some compositions from lanois and Fellowship Band member John cowherd. But The Hallelujah Train will primarily include classic gospel songs presented in a fresh context.
“There’s this essential thread through [the music]—even if it’s new, it makes it seem like it’s always existed,” Brian said. “it’s just manifesting itself differently now. We’re going to try and have our version of our life experi-ence come through in some of these old songs.”
To boot, all of this will happen at the hayti heritage cen-ter, a deconsecrated African Methodist episocal church.
“i just couldn’t imagine doing true gospel projects in reynolds,” Greenwald said. “in a sense, having access to hayti was a reason to do the project.”
Joining the pastor for his Sunday worship will be Shreveport’s choir. in addition, over 100 people are ex-pected to come up from Blade’s congregation for the performance, a testament to how the community values its pastor.
At its core, The Hallelujah Train is about a father endow-ing his son with a sense of a deep musical tradition, one that is of great importance in America.
“You really have to go beneath the carpet and look deep-er into the ground,” Blade said of gospel. “But once you find it you realize, boy, it’s the roots of American music.”
The hallelujah Train will be performed Saturday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 11 at 5 p.m. with shuttles running from West Campus. Pastor Blade will preach Sunday morning at 10 a.m. All events are at the Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville St. For ticketing information, visit dukeperformances.duke.edu. The Sunday morning service is free.
“There’s this essential thread through [the music]..... We’re going to try and have our version of our life experience come through in
some of these old songs.” — Brian Blade
photos special to the chronicle
Brian Blade (above left) grew up in the Zion Bap-tist Church in Shreveport, La. where his father, Brady Blade, Sr., (above right) has served as the pastor for almost five decades. The pastor put his son in music lessons as soon as Brian “learned his ABCs.” The younger Blade became the drummer for the congregation at age 13 and has since become one of the foremost drummers in music, working with Joni Mitchell and Daniel Lanois. Af-ter the two performances of The Hallelujah Train, Blade will do a two-day residency at Duke and North Carolina Central University with Melvin Butler (bottom left), a member of Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band and a professor of ethnomu-sicology at the University of Chicago.
HALLELUJAH!
Following Blade’s Sunday concert, his band will leave but Fellowship Band saxophonist Melvin Butler, a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of chicago, will join the drummer for a packed two-day residency that features events at Duke, nc central and the Pinhook.
Father, son and gospel come together for two nights only
Monday, oct. 12
Religion in African Diaspora, 1:15-2:30 p.m., Friedl 240 charlie Piot’s religions in African Diaspora class will host the two musicians as they talk about the
larger cultural history of their music. look for Butler to take the front seat on this one.A conversation and Demonstration
Conversation and demo with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler, 4:00-5:30 p.m. NCCU Music BuildingBlade and Butler will join Branford Marsalis to talk about applications of gospel in jazz and do a
demo.
Lunchtime Conversation, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Alumni Memorial Commons Room, Divinity School channeling some of the thematic elements of The Hallelujah Train, Blade and Butler will discuss the inter-
section of jazz and religion in a brown-bag lunch panel. The discussion will highlight this intersection in the African-American community. Aaron Greenwald will moderate
Classroom Visit, 4:25-5:40 p.m., White 107 Blade and Butler will continue to discuss the themes addressed earlier in the day, focusing on jazz and gospel,
in a visit to combined sections of John Brown’s intro to Jazz course and Phil rupprecht’s Music 65 course
Listening Session, 6:30-8 p.m., The Pinhook Duke University library Jazz Archivist Jeremy Smith will be the DJ for this “underground” listening ses-
sion with Melvin and Blade. The session promises lots of jazz, gospel and Joni Mitchell.
tuesday, oct. 13
October 8, 2009 Page 5recess
by Charlie McSpaddenThe chronicle
neW YorK, n.Y. — This past Saturday, two members of Duke’s film faculty showed their impressive work at the renowned new York Film Festival.
The festival selected films by Spring 2010 Visiting Filmmaker David Gatten and Produc-tion Teaching Fellow Shambhavi Kaul for the 13th Annual Views from the Avant-Garde series. Gatten’s Journal and Remarks and Kaul’s Scene 32″screened in front of a packed audience in the Walter reade Theater at lincoln center this past Saturday.
The experimental series, which took place over the course of this past weekend, featured 60 works divided into 11 different programs. Since it was added into the festival in 1997, the collection has become a premiere stage for avant-garde cinema, for which there is no real commercial market.
Program 2, the second of the 11-part series which showcased Gatten and Kaul’s films, fea-tured ten non-narrative works from different filmmakers. The topics and their geographic locations ranged from halloween in a small, South American town to a letter composed in Thailand to a Canterbury Tales-inspired journey through snowy Great Britain.
“The Views from the Avant-Garde section of the festival is not only international but also includes films that, because of their atypical nature, are otherwise impossible to see,” Kaul wrote in an e-mail.
Keeping with the international tone, Kaul’s three-minute Scene 32 takes place in the salt fields of india’s Kaatch desert, where Kaul was born on her filmmaker father’s film set.
“i have this kind of mythic relationship to the place,” she said after her film screened. “i’ve always wanted to go back and see it over again...to create a new relationship with the place that expressed the longing, the sense of memory...that’s part of the fiction of it.”
rather than turn to personal history for inspiration, Gatten was influenced by the fa-mous evolutionary work of charles Darwin. Journals and Remarks transports the audience to the birthplace of his theory: the Galapagos islands of ecuador.
“i was trying to compare Darwin’s words with my experience 180 years later and see what that would yield,” Gatten said about his work. “i’m re-
ally interested in different ways of representing the world, and the relationship between the rep-resentation of the world through words and the representation of the world through images.”
Gatten’s film is part of a larger work called Continuous Quantities, the structure of which is based on an entry in one of leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks. “one of the things [Da Vinci] said was ‘i would like to devise a ma-chine that could divide the hour into 3000 equal parts’,” Gatten said. “And i thought, i will make a 60 minute film with 3000 shots all the same length. That works out to be 1.2 seconds, and in film terms, 29 frames.” The
15-minute Journal and Remarks represents 700 of those 3000 shots.
This is the sixth time Gatten’s work has ap-peared in the festival, whereas Kaul was one of twenty filmmakers showing work for the first time. Despite differing levels of experi-ence, the filmmakers can relate to each other through their passion and creative vision.
“The commuity of filmmakers who gather for this festival make films for no other rea-son than a deep desire to do so,” Kaul said. “This makes for an environment of dedicated, incredibly creative, intellectual as well as sup-portive filmmakers.”
EMPIRE STATE OF FILM
photos special to the chronicle
Brian Blade (above left) grew up in the Zion Bap-tist Church in Shreveport, La. where his father, Brady Blade, Sr., (above right) has served as the pastor for almost five decades. The pastor put his son in music lessons as soon as Brian “learned his ABCs.” The younger Blade became the drummer for the congregation at age 13 and has since become one of the foremost drummers in music, working with Joni Mitchell and Daniel Lanois. Af-ter the two performances of The Hallelujah Train, Blade will do a two-day residency at Duke and North Carolina Central University with Melvin Butler (bottom left), a member of Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band and a professor of ethnomu-sicology at the University of Chicago.
Following Blade’s Sunday concert, his band will leave but Fellowship Band saxophonist Melvin Butler, a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of chicago, will join the drummer for a packed two-day residency that features events at Duke, nc central and the Pinhook.
photos by charlie Mcspadden/the chronicle
David Gatten (left) and Shambhavi Kaul (left) both premiered new short films over the weekend at the New York Film Festival’s Views of the Avante-Garde section of programming. Both are Duke faculty members.
Two Duke faculty unveil works at New York Film Festival
Monday, oct. 12
Religion in African Diaspora, 1:15-2:30 p.m., Friedl 240 charlie Piot’s religions in African Diaspora class will host the two musicians as they talk about the
larger cultural history of their music. look for Butler to take the front seat on this one.A conversation and Demonstration
Conversation and demo with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler, 4:00-5:30 p.m. NCCU Music BuildingBlade and Butler will join Branford Marsalis to talk about applications of gospel in jazz and do a
demo.
Lunchtime Conversation, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Alumni Memorial Commons Room, Divinity School channeling some of the thematic elements of The Hallelujah Train, Blade and Butler will discuss the inter-
section of jazz and religion in a brown-bag lunch panel. The discussion will highlight this intersection in the African-American community. Aaron Greenwald will moderate
Classroom Visit, 4:25-5:40 p.m., White 107 Blade and Butler will continue to discuss the themes addressed earlier in the day, focusing on jazz and gospel,
in a visit to combined sections of John Brown’s intro to Jazz course and Phil rupprecht’s Music 65 course
Listening Session, 6:30-8 p.m., The Pinhook Duke University library Jazz Archivist Jeremy Smith will be the DJ for this “underground” listening ses-
sion with Melvin and Blade. The session promises lots of jazz, gospel and Joni Mitchell.
tuesday, oct. 13
Page 6 October 8, 2009recessthe invention of lyingdir. r. gervais and m. robinsonwarner bros.eeEEE
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capitalism: a love storydir. m. mooreoverture films
eeeEE
zombielanddir. r. fleischercolumbia pictures
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For the protagonist of Ricky Gervais and Matthew Rob-inson’s The Invention of Lying, nothing is going his way.
Overweight and unpopular, screenwriter Mark (Ger-vais) happens to live in a world where no one lies or even knows what a lie is. At his workplace, his boss tells him that his screenplays are stale, an arrogant colleague of his, Brad (Rob Lowe), admits, “I’ve always hated you,” and his secretary (Tina Fey) calls him a “fatty-fat-f—.” His personal life is no different. His too-good-looking sort-of girlfriend Anna (Jennifer Garner) explains that although she enjoys spending time with him, she doesn’t want to have “chubby, snub-nosed kids.” When Mark finds himself unemployed and empty-pocketed, he for-tuitously stumbles upon the ability to lie, and, realizing that there are rewards for dishonesty, creates the life he
never had. Although the film’s first 20 minutes crackle with brash
comedic dialogue, it becomes old and far-fetched. No one would ever be as abrasive as everyone in this parallel uni-verse is: honesty does not equate to perpetual insults. Ger-vais attempts to assert himself as an every(English)man, but his limiting stand-up comedic presence isn’t able to elevate him from iconic television writer to silver-screen leading man. Although Garner is touchingly vulnerable as Mark’s untactful, often inappropriate love interest, their relationship has no on-screen merit, and even she is un-able to establish any chemistry. The many A-list cameos are memorable, but their appearances are nothing more than respectful nods to Gervais.
A self-indulgent writer, Gervais soon may be likened to Woody Allen in that they write of beautiful women fall-ing in love with unattractive and poor yet witty men. This sort of lie is only capable of happening in their respective imaginations.
—Michael Woodsmall
Take Transformers, dial down the Michael Bay, sub in zombies, strip out the main plot, sprinkle in a faux Michael Cera, throw in a redneck and you’ve got a worthy approxima-tion of Zombieland. Though it sounds like a hilarious concoction, the film industry’s lat-est zombie B-movie is destined for oblivion.
In a post-apocalyptic America, where a hamburger-transmitted virus turns most of humanity into zombies, the lanky, awkward Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) meets red-neck Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and embarks upon a half-witted journey to find Twinkies, casually slaying zombies along the way. After being robbed by sister con art-ists Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), the two groups eventually join together on a trip to a supposedly zom-
bie-free Los Angeles amusement park.The film detracts from the overcrowded
zombie subgenre, utilizing masses of the undead as video game-type ploys to keep the action or humor moving. First-time di-rector Ruben Fleischer fails to recognize the audience’s instinct to laugh at his un-threatening zombies, inadvertently mak-ing them more humorous than believable. The convenient romance that blossoms between Columbus and Wichita is similarly implausible, leaving the film’s buddy movie aspect its only convincing dynamic. Near the film’s close, Columbus remarks that he’s found the family he never had. But even this elicits a chuckle instead of a tug on the heartstrings.
Zombieland was an enjoyable ride, but no mass of zombies can save the trite and tenuous plot. You’ll leave the theater with a few good laughs and an otherwise empty mind.
—Andrew O’Rourke
It’s old hat for reviews of Michael Moore’s films to belabor the obvious: his films are di-visive, controversial and play fast and loose with rhetoric and the definition of documen-tary film. However, it is Moore himself—be he Barnum or Riefenstahl—who is the ob-ject of scrutiny. As the director, narrator and author of his films, Moore is the film. And in many ways, once you have seen one Moore film you have seen them all.
This is true of Capitalism: A Love Story. All of the conventions established by his 1989 film Roger & Me are in evidence—even footage from the film itself. Moore’s use of narration comes across as sardonic and bathetic, and his ironic, archival foot-age is used to denounce craven executives and torment both lobby security guards
and corrupt politicians. His trademark “gotcha” interviews and heartrending footage round out his recipe for blue-collar agitprop.
In Capitalism, Moore takes a broader approach, using the modern banking cri-sis as a springboard for a larger skewering of free-market capitalism. As one would expect in a 120-plus-minute film tackling so vast a topic, the results are more than a little scattershot. Moore makes liberal use of ripped-from-the-headlines statistics and the lives of victimized Americans, but fails to make a cohesive argument, prefer-ring to swing his rhetorical brickbat to devastating effect.
And in the end, Moore, the fulmina-tor-provocateur par excellence, succeeds in what he set out to do: not to convert but rather to unleash a scathing indictment of what he sees as a fundamentally cor-rupt system.
—Asher Brown-Pinsky
October 8, 2009 Page 7recess
Picasso and the Allure of Language
The Nasher Museum presents a groundbreaking exhibition examining Pablo Picasso’s lifelong relationship with writers and the many ways in which language transformed his work.
size: 1/4Vpaper: Duke Chronicledue: 10/1 runs: 10/8
French Horn SpectacularThursday, October 15, 8pmPage Auditorium, Duke UniversityGrant Llewellyn, Music Director North Carolina Symphony French Horn sectionMozart: Eine kleine NachtmusikSchumann: Konzertstück for Four HornsBeethoven: ContradancesBrahms: Serenade No. 2 in A Major
Tickets on sale now! Duke employees $15, Students $5
DUKE MEDiCiNE DUrHAM SEriES PrESENtED By
StAtEwiDE PArtNErSHiP AND SUPPort ProviDED By
This concert is dedicated in memory of E.T. Rollins, Jr. and supported by the E.T. Rollins, Jr. and Frances P. Rollins Foundation.
there is no enemybuilt to spillwarner bros.eeeEE
xxthe xxyoung turks
eeeeEThe xx aren’t trying too hard, and that
might be the most refreshing part of their eponymous debut. A batch of quiet, R&B-inspired songs that deal almost exclusively in heightening, resolving or reconciling sexual tension, xx sounds like the work of a band comfortable in its own shoes. Every detail—the wash of heavily rever-bed guitars, the deftly conversational bass lines, the sparse percussion—is carefully employed toward creating sublimely un-derstated pop music.
It’s difficult to say where xx came from. The band is committed to a sound in a way one wouldn’t expect on a debut. Not only that, but it’s an eclectic sound, combining Cure-style guitars with R&B templates. The xx previously recorded a hushed, ethereal version of Aaliyah’s
“Hot Like Fire” that fits right in with xx and might be the best reference point for their inspiration. Their achievement is surprising, though, because there wasn’t a clumsier, less cohesive predecessor. Get-ting this album right the first time, given the disparate influences that characterize it, was no mean feat.
Vocalist Romy Madley Croft is perhaps the biggest revelation, a fantastic talent whose breathy delivery is xx’s most recog-nizable sound. But the chemistry between Croft and bassist and vocalist Oliver Sim lends a sense of sincere intimacy to lyrics that wouldn’t be nearly as powerful with-out it. The result is tracks like “Islands,” a pitch-perfect exhibit of vulnerability that never comes across as overwrought or feigned, and “Infinity,” a beautiful and subtle take on failed romance. The xx make some mistakes, including the exces-sively ambient “Fantasy,” but most of xx is pretty and inventive enough to make you forgive almost all of them.
—Ross Green
“Aisle 13,” the opening track from Built to Spill’s There is No Enemy, grandly reintro-duces the Idaho-based band back onto the modern indie rock scene.
On the track, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Doug Martsch orchestrates multiple layers of surf guitars under his constantly distorted vocals. This sets the template early for the rest of the album.
The single, “Hindsight,” is a laid-back alt-country tune, complete with twangy slide guitar. While past albums have drawn comparisons to the Strokes and Modest Mouse, this sounds more like the bland as-pects of post-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco.
At its worst, Enemy sinks to a slow, dark melodrama, especially painful on “Oh Yeah” and “Things Fall Apart.” Here, Martsch’s whiny, affected voice turns into a
droning annoyance. But there is still hope yet. “Aisle 13” and
“Good Ol’ Boredom,” contrary to their ti-tles, are probably the most upbeat songs on the album. After a perfectly strange intro, “Aisle 13” splashes in with a symphony of guitars, eventually settling on a catchy riff and strong, comfortable drumming. “Good Ol’ Boredom” drives forward with a snare hitting on every beat—think Motown—and Martsch’s vocals, which sound shockingly like John Lennon.
The best track on the album is “Done,” a pleasant, dreamy tune toward the far end of Enemy’s runtime. “Done”—almost seven minutes long—is the farthest departure from the band’s 2006 release You in Reverse, which had a more aggressive, tense sound. The title fits the tune here, as listeners feel Martsch’s relief upon finally completing Enemy after three-and-a-half years of work. After a listen or two, the product of this toil is evident, but it falls short of greatness.
—Sam Schlinkert
Page 8 October 8, 2009recess
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The Life of the World to Come, Durham resident John Darnielle’s 16th album under the Mountain Goats moni-ker, proves that prolificacy does not always sacrifice qual-ity. Take that, Ryan Adams.
On an album of songs named after Bible verses, Darn-ielle’s astounding lyrical poignancy remains fresh. Fortu-nately, the influence of the Good Book enriches, rather than fully informs, the spirituality of the album. Darnielle is still reacting to the world around him, trying to discern the relevant from the superfluous, and the result is power-ful songwriting flush with personal anecdotes.
On the pop-inflected “Genesis 3:23,” Darnielle visits his old house: “Living room to bedroom to kitchen/Familiar and warm/Hours we spent starving within these walls/Sounds of a distant storm.” “Matthew 25:21” hauntingly portrays a visit to a dying friend and a premature eulogy: “You were a presence of light upon this earth/And I am a witness to your life and to its worth.” Darnielle’s lyrics, by exposing his own psyche, speak of universal experiences that demand the listener’s contemplation.
Musically, Life doesn’t stun as much as it shimmers. The arrangements are simple: steady acoustic guitar and piano occasionally paired with orchestration by Final Fan-tasy’s Owen Pallett. On “Hebrews 11:40,” violins vibrate above a chugging rhythm to form the album’s most dy-namic track. Primarily, though, the music is a vessel for the poetic lyrics, unspectacular but adequate.
This album gives the feeling that if John Darnielle hadn’t picked up a guitar one day, he would be a poet. And if poetry were more popular, he would be a grizzled artist sitting in an armchair somewhere. But fantasy aside, 16 albums later, the Mountain Goats still make great mu-sic. For that, we can all sing praise.
—Jake Stanley
the life of the world to comethe mountain goats4ad
eeeeE
Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest book, is literature imbued with all the beauty of a Chopin composition.
The work contains some of Ishiguro’s most unique fiction yet. It explores many of the themes of his most renowned novels, The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, but the multiple distinct pieces al-low for a confrontation of these ideas from varied per-spectives. As a collection of short stories, it connects its characters in a translucent web of hope and heart-break. Though few of the stories share common pro-tagonists, they all contain failed relationships, strained marriages and aspiring musicians. With each, Ishiguro demonstrates his unequaled gift for storytelling.
Nocturnes begins with “Crooner,” which tells the sto-ry of Tony Gardner: a has-been, and in his own words, “Just some crooner from a bygone era.” He is spending time in Venice with his “inimitable” wife, the energetic
Lindy Gardner. Tony is determined to make a come-back, even if that means letting Lindy go. After this first story, Ishiguro leaves his audience on a low note, one that reflects the mysterious melancholy of the Ve-netian night.
His next piece, “Come Rain or Come Shine,” de-parts from the tone of the first, a comic intermezzo in Ishiguro’s composition. A middle-aged man visits his old friend’s home only to realize that his presence there is that of a counselor in their failing marriage. The feud between husband and wife builds into a startling crescendo: the wife walks in on the friend crouched down on all fours, chewing magazines to simulate the destructive effects of a rampant dog and stewing a shoe in the kitchen to create a canine smell. Ridiculous, yes, but with Ishiguro as conductor the scene is especially moving, its undertones dense in implication.
Nocturnes is inspired and inspiring. Every story and every line resonates with music—the music that only the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro could summon up.
—Paul Horak
nockturneskazuo ishiguro knopf
Book review
SportsThe Chronicle
www.dukechroniclesports.com
THURSDAYOctober 8, 2009
>> WOMEN’S TENNIS Senior Amanda Granson has to win one more match to earn a spot in the main draw of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championship in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
by Gabe StarostaThe chronicle
n.c. State has already experienced the peaks and valleys typical of a full season in just five games.
The highs: a come-from-behind win over visiting Pittsburgh and the play of redshirt sophomore quarterback russell Wilson.
The lows: two demoralizing defeats to nearby rivals, a four-point defeat on na-tional television to South carolina to start the season and a loss to Wake Forest last week to kick off Acc play.
Duke’s season thus far has paralleled that of the Wolfpack to some degree. Senior quarterback Thaddeus lewis has racked up the yardage through the air just as Wil-son has, but the Blue Devils’ only wins have come against the likes of Army and n.c. central, arguably the two weakest teams on their schedule. For n.c. State, back-to-back home dates with Murray State and Gardner-Webb served the purpose of accumulating wins toward a possible bowl berth.
in recent years, though, Duke has served as bowl-win fodder for the Wolfpack just like Murray State or Gardner-Webb. n.c. State has beaten the Blue Devils 11 straight times, but lewis hopes to break that streak this week.
“You hear some of the [n.c. State] guys saying, ‘Y’all aren’t a rival no more because we beat you so many years straight,’…but it’s a pretty big deal,” lewis said.
For the Blue Devils to break their barren run against the Wolfpack, the Duke secondary
will have to keep Wilson under wraps—a task that has proven too difficult for many defenses in the redshirt sophomore’s brief career.
Wilson has already thrown for more than 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns this year, and is also second on the team with 156 total yards on the ground.
“russell is a very talented athlete,” head coach David cutcliffe said. “he moves. he makes plays. he creates. he does a tremen-dous job of finding targets downfield off the scramble. You have to mix it up. There is no one way to defend a russell Wilson.”
When the two teams met last year—a 27-17 Wolfpack victory at Wallace Wade Stadium—cutcliffe said n.c. State threw “jump ball after jump ball” and was successful doing so. Duke struggled with tall, physical receivers against Virginia Tech last week, and n.c. State brings some of those same attributes to the table.
The Wolfpack’s two top receivers from the win against the Blue Devils last sea-son, Jamelle eugene and Jarvis Williams, are both back this year. Williams is second on the team in receptions behind 6-foot-5 tight end George Bryan, a matchup nightmare for Duke’s linebackers.
on the other side of the ball, the Wolf-pack secondary has been susceptible to a strong passing game, much like Duke’s, but n.c. State’s pass rush could prevent lewis and Sean renfree from being effective.
cutcliffe singled out linemen Alan-Michael
Football Scouting the opponent
Wolfpack’s Wilson a secondary’s nightmare
See wolfpack on PAGe 10
lauren dietrich/chronicle file photo
Henrique Cunha went 3-0 in singles qualifying at the Ita all-american Championships.
larsa al-omaishi/chronicle file photo
Redshirt sophomore Russell Wilson can cause problems for opponents through the air or on the ground.
Men’s tennIs
Cunha, Carleton both qualify for ITAs in Tulsaby Gabe Starosta
The chronicle
Junior reid carleton and freshman henrique cunha advanced to the main draw of the iTA All-American championships in both singles and dou-bles play this week in Tulsa, okla.
carleton had by far the easier road of the two. Because of his proven record of success and his lofty national ranking—carleton is the no. 29 player in the country—he was not required to go through qualifying for singles play. instead, he was placed directly into the main draw, which begins this morning.
The Brazilian cunha, on the other hand, made it through three rounds of qualifying. Playing in just his third collegiate competition, cunha was pushed hard in his first match, nicking a 7-5 win in the third set to move on. head coach ramsey Smith, though, said that cunha got better and better as the tour-nament continued, culminating in a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Tennessee’s Matt Brewer Wednesday to earn a spot in the rest of the tournament.
“i can’t think of the last time we had a freshman start that well, especially at the level that he’s been playing,” Smith said.
carleton and cunha were also in Tulsa to com-pete in the doubles tournament, and they swept through qualifying comfortably to earn a spot in the main bracket.
The duo did well in doubles Tuesday, winning two matches to advance to the final qualifier. one of those two wins came against the pair of clay Donato and
Stefan hardy, north carolina’s top doubles team. Smith said carleton and cunha’s 8-5 victory against
the Tar heels, who have beaten the Blue Devils con-sistently in recent years, will be important when the team season begins in January.
“We’ve typically struggled against their no. 1 team, so that’ll give us a lot of confidence that they won pretty convincingly,” Smith said.
After that win, cunha and carleton still had some work to do, and took care of another Acc duo in the final, this one comprising Virginia’s Milo Johnson and Santiago Villegas. The Duke pair won that match 8-4 to earn a main-draw seed.
looking ahead to the rest of the tournament, which runs from this morning until Sunday’s fi-nals, Smith spoke glowingly of Duke’s two par-ticipants. The lone Blue Devil not to qualify was senior Dylan Arnould, who was eliminated in the second round of qualifying.
“A lot will depend on the draw, but the way cunha is playing, i don’t see anyone that either one of them can’t beat if they are playing well,” Smith said. “They are both playing well now, and everyone here is good so it will be fun to see how they match up.”
The iTA All-American championships involve 64 singles players and 32 doubles squads, and in-cludes most of the nation’s top players. cunha is one of only two freshmen to have qualified for the singles tournament, and he is the only freshman to have made it through qualifying in both singles and doubles.
10 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 THE CHROniClE
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cash and Willie Young as potential chal-lenges for the Blue Devil offensive line, and lewis pointed out Young in particular. he already has seven sacks on the season.
“Willie Young is coming every time,” lewis said. “That’s the guy that sticks out when you watch the film, but all four of them present a problem.”
Despite its strong pass rush, the Wolfpack hasn’t always been able to keep opposing passers off the scoreboard this season. Against Wake Forest last week, the n.c. State front four sacked senior quarterback riley Skinner six times and the secondary intercepted him twice, but he still accumulated 361 yards and three touchdowns in a Demon Deacon win.
But if lewis and renfree don’t get the time they need on offense, another 360-yard passing effort might not be enough for Duke Saturday.
“our [offensive] line and the tight ends included are going to have to lock down and really protect Thad,” tight end Brandon King said.
The Blue Devils know they cannot afford to see their quarterbacks on the ground, or else they could be looking at a 12th straight defeat to the Wolfpack.
WolFpaCk from page 9
michael naclerio/chronicle file photo
Jump balls to physical wide receivers and tight ends helped n.C. state beat Duke 27-17 last year.
making the gradeEXAM NO. 5: The Virginia Tech Hokies
Rush:
Thaddeus Lewis showed yet again why he is a four-year starter at quarterback. The senior threw to nine different recievers, including a 48-yard pass early in the first quarter to Brandon King that gave Duke a 7-0 lead. Lewis was able to avoid mistakes while taking chances downfield, even when the Hokies knew the run was not a threat. Scott’s first reception of his Blue Devil career came on a beautiful ball from Lewis, who hit the freshman perfectly in stride down the sideline for a 26-yard gain. In all, Lewis threw for 359 yards, his highest total this season.
Pass:
The running game again showed progress behind Desmond Scott, who gained 34 yards on seven carries. Unfortunately, Duke’s other backs couldn’t follow Scott’s lead. Re’quan Boyette, who recieved little help from his offensive line, could never find daylight on his way to only four yards on 10 carries.
OFFENSE B+Overall Grade:
Rush:
The offense played valiantly in a game where it should have been easily outmatched. Whereas last year the Blue Devils stuggled to get first downs against the Hokies, this year their problem was punching the ball in the end zone when they got into the red zone. The running game struggled, but when Duke went to the hurry-up offense, spread the field and threw the ball downfield, the Blue Devils saw success. A few timely Virginia Tech penalties didn’t hurt matters either.
Pass:
The defense mostly held its own against Virginia Tech, limiting the Hokies to under four yards a carry. Vince Ogho-baase wreaked havoc in the Hokie backfield all day, and Virginia Tech only saw success on the ground when it ran away from the fifth-year senior. Of course, when the Hokies had to run at the end of the game to run out the clock, they did so with surprising efficiency, given how well Duke had played to that point.
DEFENSE C+ Overall Grade:
X’s & O’s:
This was a game where the pass set up the run. The Blue Devils did well early, stuffing Virginia Tech’s run-ning game. Unfortunately, Duke had to focus more on the pass when it couldn’t stop Taylor. And late in the game, the Hokies were able to run it down Duke’s throat.
X’s & O’s:
This is where Duke had a few problems. It only took Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor 22 passes to rack up 327 yards through the air. Leon Wright got beat for a 28-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter on a play the Wade Wackos won’t soon forget. Wright appeared to have an interception, but as he came down to the ground he lost the ball right into Hokie Jarrett Boykin’s hands. Boykin appeared to be out of bounds when the exchange occured, but the officials didn’t see it that way.
Highest marks: QB Thaddeus Lewis It might be time to stop with all the Sean Renfree talk. Lewis opened the scoring for Duke with a 77-yard drive and closed the game with an even more impressive 90-yard drive, when the Blue Devils easily could have packed it in. Without much of a running game, Lewis led Duke to 26 points against the No. 6 team in the nation, an impressive feat.
Football
— by Lucas Nevola
It’s not all his fault because the offensive line was like a sieve at times, but Desmond Scott was able to find a few holes in his brief playing time. Any time a running back averages less than a yard per carry it’s time to reevaluate things.
Hit the books: RB Re’quan Boyette
the chronicle thUrSDAY, octoBer 8, 2009 | 11
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Democratic leaders ponder help for economy, the joblessBy Don Lee
the Los AngeLes times
WAshington — With joblessness continuing to rise and the recovery in danger of losing steam, President Ba-rack obama met Wednesday with top congressional Demo-crats to discuss new ways to boost the economy and create jobs.
But obama and the Democrats are caught in a double bind: having seriously underestimated the severity of the recession early this year—especially in terms of unemploy-ment—they face difficult policy decisions about how best to ease the financial pain of millions of idled workers and assure that the recovery continues.
At the same time, they are under relentless attack from Republicans and other conservatives who contend that the $787 billion stimulus package approved last winter has sent the deficit soaring while failing to bring down unem-ployment.
that leaves the administration with the sticky challenge of finding effective ways to buoy the economy without ap-pearing to propose more “stimulus.” Reflecting the politi-cal sensitivity of the issue, White house and congressional aides insisted Wednesday that another “stimulus” plan was not in the works.
But administration policy-makers and some outside economists are beginning to worry that the still-embryonic recovery could falter in coming months if no new action is taken. not only is unemployment expected to rise—and remain high—well into next year, but consumer spend-ing—a major engine of economic growth—remains ane-mic, and most of the existing money from the Recovery Act will have been spent by the first half of next year.
Although officials would not give specifics of obama’s 45-minute meeting with house speaker nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and senate majority Leader harry Reid, D-nev., the White house has been looking at extending key elements of the original stimulus package, including expanded un-employment benefits, a subsidy for continuing health in-surance for laid-off workers, and a tax credit for first-time home buyers.
these three programs are set to expire by the end of the year.
Also under consideration are various ideas to spur job creation, including a proposal to offer tax credits to busi-nesses that hire new workers or extend the hours of exist-ing employees.
most economists believe obama’s stimulus package, which also included funds for highway projects and teeter-ing local governments, has measurably helped the econ-omy respond to the worst recession since the great De-pression. some are beginning to call for new government action to sustain the budding recovery.
“the bottom line is the economic case for more inter-vention is overwhelming,” said heidi shierholz, an econo-mist at the economic Policy institute in Washington.
Unemployment in september was reported at 9.8 per-cent Friday. moreover, job losses accelerated last month from August, heightening concerns among analysts and intensifying pressure on the obama administration, which has been focused on health care overhaul and troubles in Afghanistan and iran, to do more to improve the domestic employment situation.
since the recession began in December 2007, the econ-omy has suffered a net loss of about 8 million jobs, based on revised figures reported Friday. Adding that figure to the number of new jobs needed just to keep up with the growing population, shierholz estimated that the nation is in the hole about 10.7 million jobs.
the severity of the problem, some economists say, de-mands additional stimulus despite the unwanted addition to the government’s deficit. “the reality is that if we let people just flounder and not help them, we’re shooting
ourselves in the foot,” said heather Boushey, senior econo-mist at the Center for American Progress, noting that fail-ure to act would lead to more dire social and economic problems.
But the size of the political challenge for obama is re-flected in the fact that the senate, home to many moder-ate and conservative Democrats as well as the vocal goP minority, has thus far been unable to act even on the rela-tively noncontroversial proposal to extend jobless benefits for three months.
having passed the house more than two weeks ago, the extension bill has been bogged down in the senate amid differences over how many states should get the ex-tra benefits, among other issues. meanwhile, more than 300,000 long-term jobless workers saw their benefits expire last month.
“it’s like they don’t care. otherwise they would have done something by now,” said a woman in Chico, Calif., who asked that she be identified only by her first name, Diane. the one-time paralegal said she received her last unemployment benefit check sept. 19.
“it’s sad,” she added. “What do they expect people to live on?”
obama’s original stimulus package extended the nor-mal 26-week unemployment benefits to 79 weeks, and also provided a 65 percent subsidy for employees who lose their jobs to maintain their CoBRA medical coverage for another nine months. Both programs are set to expire at the end of this year. the home buyer’s tax credit of as much as $8,000—which has helped to stabilize the housing market—is slated to end nov. 30.
in a statement after Wednesday’s meeting with obama and Pelosi in the oval office, Reid said an extension of the home buyer tax credit is needed, as well as “creative, inno-vative ways to encourage businesses to create new jobs.”
White house officials said the president’s economic team has been considering dozens of job-spurring ideas. one of them that appears to be getting a close study is a proposal to give a tax credit to businesses that hire work-ers. the incentive was used in the 1970s, but members of Congress have expressed concerns that it would amount to a subsidy for businesses and be subject to abuse.
“The reality is that if we let people just flounder and not help them,
we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.” — heather Boushey,
senior economist at the Center for American Progress
12 | thUrSDAY, octoBer 8, 2009 the chronicleClassifieds
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the chronicle thUrSDAY, octoBer 8, 2009 | 13
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Disclaimer: Smoking is bad. If you do it too much, you will probably die younger than you wish to die. Smoking increases the
risk of developing a wide variety of cancers, heart disease and/or a host of respiratory problems. Smoking by pregnant wom-en may result in fetal injury, prema-ture birth and low birth rate. In short, don’t smoke.
Campus Council voted last Thursday to continue the ghettoization of Duke smokers. The council resolved in a 9-8 vote to support a smoking ban throughout residential areas of East and West campuses. Fortunately for smokers and the concept of individual liberty, Cam-pus Council has no real authority, so its resolution must go to Duke administrators for approval.
There is a chance that the administration will not support the blanket residential smoking ban. Thus, in order to ensure that they successfully get smokers’ butts out of their faces, Campus Council also passed a backup resolution 9-5 to do essentially the same thing as the first resolution (did the three dissenters from the first resolution leave for a smok-ing break?). This one bans smoking within 25 feet of all dorms and on all walkways that are parallel to and within 50 feet of dorms. Very tricky.
Why did they pass these resolutions? Is it that they wanted to make Duke students stop smoking by play-ing doctor, mommy and daddy all at the same time? No. As Campus Council President Stephen Temple explained to The Chronicle last week, “Campus Council is not trying to reduce smoking on campus.”
So if Campus Council’s objective is not to save smokers from themselves, we must ask again: Why have they passed these resolutions? According to Temple, the council simply wanted to represent popular student opinion on the issue. In that, it most likely succeeded.
Smoking, smoke and smokers are not popular—at Duke and increasingly across the United States. In Chicago for instance, a city ordinance prohibits smok-ing in restaurants, bars and other indoor public plac-es. Taken at face value, this ban seems reasonable. In
practice, however, this law goes too far. For example, in 2008 the popular musical “Jersey Boys” was forced to modify its Chicago production to comply with the smoking ban. This meant a lack of cigarettes, regular or herbal, and consequently a lack of fidelity to the script and the true story that inspired the musical. A bit unnecessary, I think you would agree.
Even overseas, smoking has become so unpopu-lar that it is now illegal in what formerly were the smokiest places on earth: pubs in Dublin and cafés in Paris. Samuel Beckett and Jean-Paul Sartre would be up in arms to hear of such developments. That is, they would be up in arms if they had not already died from smoking-related illnesses.
Because everyone hates smoke, Campus Council thought it prudent to just band the moral majority together and drive smokers into the sea. Not so fast, angry mob. Campus Council forgot to ask them-selves truthfully if this smoking ban is necessary before they resolved to limit Duke smokers’ ability to engage in a legal activity—especially a legal activ-ity that made James B. Duke rich, and subsequently helped build this University.
Is the Campus Council advocating a smoking ban in order to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke? That is certainly a valid goal, but a blanket ban on smoking outdoors in the vicinity of dorms on East and West is over the top. Ban smoking inside the dorm? Sure, that is an enclosed space. Ban smoking in archways? OK, I can understand that, the archways are semi-enclosed. Ban smoking in the open air? That is nothing more than tyranny of the majority.
Passing a smoker on a sidewalk for one or two sec-onds is at its worst a minor annoyance, and a minor annoyance is not enough to prevent people from do-ing what they want, where they want. I learned that when I tried to ban Dragon Gate from my dorm be-cause of its noxious smell. If you find a person smok-ing in the open air by the place you live to be a per-sonal affront to your general well-being, then, sorry I’m not sorry, but just walk around or walk faster.
Smokers already are outside, and that is where smoking bans should end. There is no rational pur-pose for casting them out of society. Hopefully, the administration recognizes this and comes to the de-fense of an unpopular and unhealthy habit in the name of individual liberty.
Jordan Rice is a Trinity senior. His column runs ev-ery other Thursday.
commentaries14 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 THE CHROniClE
The C
hron
icle
The
Ind
epen
dent
Dai
ly a
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uke
Uni
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editorial
If Campus Council has its way, smoking on campus will become a little bit more dif-ficult.
In a close 9-8 vote last week, CC passed a resolution recommending that RLHS in-stitute a smok-ing ban near residential areas of campus.
This resolution specifically would restrict smoking in the residential areas of East and West Campuses to designated areas, such as fire lanes and parking lots. If this policy is not implemented by RLHS, Campus Council voted as an alternate plan to prohibit smoking within 25 feet of any living space and on parallel walkways at least 50 feet from these buildings.
Campus Council’s plan to designate specific smok-
ing areas goes too far, but its alternate plan to implement a non-smoking buffer zone around residential areas is more reasonable.
Smoking can be an inva-sive act when smoke travels into individu-
als’ rooms or surrounds the entrances to dorms. For this reason, regulating smok-ing around residential areas makes sense.
But the proposal current-ly on the table addresses this concern with a hatchet when only a scalpel is needed. and it too closely resembles the draconian smoking ban im-plemented at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill two years ago that pre-vents smoking within a 100-foot radius of any campus building.
From a practical perspec-tive, most smoking near residential areas occurs on benches outside of each dorm or near the door. To curb this, a 25-foot no-smoking buffer would suffice.
Moreover, sweeping re-strictions on smoking—like designated smoking areas —fail to adequately balance the rights of students living on campus with the rights of smokers. Although their hab-it has negative consequences for public health in general, smokers still should be able to light up without being confined to a specific area.
A looser restriction would better uphold the rights of both smokers and non-smokers by instituting narrow measures that reinforce residents’ enti-tlement to clean air but do not unnecessarily violate rights.
And limiting the ban to areas within 25 feet of living spaces leaves many open spots on campus available for smok-ing, including the entire aca-demic quad and the Plaza.
The plan would also give residents leverage when faced with smoke entering their rooms through open windows. It recognizes the importance of smoke-free living condi-tions and offers residents a for-malized mechanism to ensure these rights.
In the end, any ban on smoking constitutes a largely symbolic gesture, and for logistical reasons, enforcement should not be particularly strict. Simply by its existence, though, the ban empowers residents—especially those on the first floor who are most affected by outside smoking—to take
action when they find their air quality affected.
Although banning smok-ing directly outside of resi-dence halls is a welcome mea-sure, any further restrictions are unnecessary and would place an undue burden on smokers. Making the choice to smoke in an open space that has no impact on resi-dents is a personal one, and regulating smoking in these spaces would impose values and violate rights.
The University should not be in the business of regulat-ing morality or individual de-cision making, but it should make reasonable interven-tions to preserve the right to clean air for students in resi-dence halls.
To this end, a 25-foot no-smoking barrier around resi-dential areas will do.
I applaud the changes implemented by new Chair Dan Blue, and wish him the best in his leadership of the Duke BOT..
—“Raven” commenting on the story “Board of Trustees briefed on cost-cutting measures.” See more at www.dukechronicle.com.
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commentariesTHE CHROniClE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 | 15
I’ve always been fascinated by the magic of cosmology—the science of the universe, and our place in it. Intro-spection comes easy at four in the morning, walking
back from wherever, with the moon and the stars drift-ing overhead.
Of the many theories that exist, none get me go-ing more than the multiverse theory. The theory was the focus of a “Family Guy” episode two weeks ago. This is how Stewie Griffin put it: “The theory states that there are an infinite number of universes coexisting with ours on parallel dimensional planes. Now, in each of these alternate universes, the reality is different than our own—sometimes only slightly, sometimes quite radically…. Every possible eventuality exists.” Basi-cally, since time and space are presumably infinite, anything that can happen has happened, is happen-ing and will happen again—maybe not here in our universe, but beyond.
The point is that somewhere else, right now, you could be a rock star or a lesbian, a murderer or a pres-ident. Many of the accomplishments you hang from your walls might never have come to fruition, but on the flip side of this, in other alternate worlds, “alter-nate you” was smart enough to not make the same mistakes. And this is where I start to get emotional. The whole thing sounds so romantic. Let’s face it, as good as you might have it, there are always going to be things or memories you wish you could change. Parts of yourself—things that you have done or that have been done unto you—that you wish to shed like a pair of wet socks, but that always manage to haunt you at your darkest hours. With multiverse, you are given a second (and a third, fourth, fifth, etc.) chance—a chance to make amends or to escape from the ghost of this or that.
So I turned it over to Duke students, and asked them to think about their regrets: what they hoped their alternate self was doing right now, things they might have gotten wrong, but that their brother/sister from
another dimension was doing right. I got all kinds of responses—Facebook messages, texts, anonymous e-mails—and have put just a few together below.
“Honestly, I hope they aren’t so scared to be ex-posed. I hope they stop looking at that girl from class, and just say something. That they aren’t really as scared to be upfront and open. Who knows where it could have gone.”—from Guts Don’t Fail Me Now
“I think what I regret most is the fact that I have always allowed myself to be last. I truly believe that when you’re in love, the needs, wants and desires of the other individual come first but not at the cost of your own self-worth. I regret the fact that I’ve let peo-ple abuse me emotionally and physically in the name of ‘love’.”—from Favor for Holly
“A big regret I had since coming to Duke was this guy I was dating, who was closeted, and I feel like I didn’t give him a chance to work through it before I decided to break it off. I always wonder now if things would’ve been different if I’d been more patient, or understanding.”—from Wondering What If
“I think that the alternate me is probably a lot hap-pier with herself right now. She has always respected herself in her relationships, or rather in her lack of true relationships, and therefore has never felt used or ashamed, but rather empowered and proud.”—from Lucy in the Sky
And that, my friends, is the magic I’m talking about. Imagine a world where things go right, where you are strong enough to do all the things you’ve dreamed, or at least have the courage to keep some of your nightmares at bay.
I know from personal experience that sometimes doing what you know you should do, or feeling how you know you should feel, is easier said than done. Al-though fanciful visions of a reality parallel to ours are all well and good, “it is important to remember that it is never too late to become what you might have been,” to say what you might have said or to do what you might have done. But some things are a matter of the past, and for those I say look upwards and have faith in knowing that maybe, just maybe, somewhere out there, you are getting it right.
Thomas Gebremedhin is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Thursday.
Last week, during my daily perusal of The Huffington Post, I came across the story of Derrion Albert. The 16-year-old honors student was on his way back from
school when he was beaten to death by fellow high school students in front of his lo-cal community center. This beating was particularly hor-rifying because it was taped on someone’s cell phone and subsequently posted throughout the web and on many prominent sites like YouTube.
After getting past my shock and anger at this in-cident, I started wondering what exactly is happening to America’s public schools.
Chicago is no stranger to school violence. Before 2006 an average of 10 to 15 students in the city were shot annually. Just last school year, CBS News reported that there was a total of 34 deaths and 290 school shootings. School shootings have become an alarmingly regular occurrence. Of the 58 school shootings that have happened around the world since 1996, 44 of them occurred right here in the United States—in 26 of the 50 states. What is even more disturbing is the age of the shooters: 21 of the 44 shootings that happened in the U.S. were committed by students 15 years old or younger. One shooting that is particularly haunting occurred in Mount Mor-ris Township, Mich. in 2000 when a first-grade boy fatally shot his 6-year-old female classmate. No charges were filed against the boy and he was placed in the care of his aunt.
Now this is not an article about gun control or the need for more restrictive gun laws. (Although one wonders what is wrong with a nation when a 6-year-old has access to a gun.) This article is about the need to acknowledge that there is a serious problem with the nation’s public schools.
Take Washington, D.C., for example, which has one of the most dangerous public school systems in the country. The Heritage Foundation conducted an assessment of the 70 schools that comprise the D.C. public school system and discovered that during the 2007-08 school year, 2,379 crimes were reported (about 2.7 crimes per 100 students). Violent crimes comprised 666 of the crimes reported, and even one homicide was reported.
American schools have deteriorated to an astonishingly violent level. It is now quite normal for a school to employ metal detectors and police officers to monitor their students. Albert’s school did indeed have a police presence but obvi-ously not enough of one, and since the shooting more police units have been sent to patrol the school and the community.
But police units and metal detectors are merely bandages for deeper wounds. Schools need to take a more proactive approach to the violent crimes that are becoming such an alarming addition to our public schools. One of the biggest causes of school violence is gang activity. Some believe that Albert was murdered because of his refusal to participate in his school’s gangs. Often violence occurs because of tension between different gangs, which manifests itself in fights and sometimes shootings both on and off school property.
But the fundamental reason why violence has become so rampant in public schools is because of the lack of adequate resources. It’s no coincidence that the majority of schools af-fected by violence are low-income schools. The struggle to deal with school budget deficits affects not only the quality of schools but also affects the number of teachers and staff members present. One of the most effective resources to counteract school gang violence are teachers and counselors. They are best equipped to really understand the mindset of psychologically troubled students who are the ones most likely to attempt school shootings. A perfect example of these types of students are Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters in the 1999 Columbine incident.
Of course, the solution to school violence is a multi-faceted problem that goes deeper than allocating more resources to America’s troubled school system (although this would defi-nitely improve the situation). Nearly eight years after the No Child Left Behind Act, many children are still being left be-hind. We are all here at Duke because of our outstanding edu-cational achievement. Students are told to strive for academic excellence so they can one day attend a top 10 university. But how can they focus all their energies on school work when they’re not even sure if they’ll make it out of school alive?
Dayo Oshilaja is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Thursday.
private donationsWednesday’s coverage of the Board of Trustees
(“Board of Trustees briefed on cost-cutting mea-sures”) was a very good summary of the meeting and the challenges facing all of us at Duke, but may have left an incorrect impression about fundraising results in the last fiscal year. The article states, “In addition to an overall decrease in investments, the University has seen a 61 percent decrease in revenue from pri-vate donations—from a historic high of $351.6 mil-lion in the 2007-2008 fiscal year to $136.9 million in the 2008-2009 fiscal year...” As noted, the University’s financial statement follows generally accepted ac-counting principles (GAAP), which distribute private support among multiple revenue categories, rather than counting them all under the header “Contribu-tions.” In addition, the financial statement notes that pledges—promises of future support—are counted in the year in which they are made. As a result of these and other footnoted accounting procedures, the University’s financial statement is not the best source for information about private donations.
In fact, the commonly agreed-upon standard for measuring private support comes from the
Council for Aid to Education, which includes phil-anthropic cash receipts, not pledges, as well as non-governmental grants that represent philan-thropic distributions. By this measure, in 2008-09 Duke received gifts totaling $301.6 million from nearly 101,000 donors. Although that is down from the 2007-08 record high of $385.7 million, prin-cipally as a result of several large, one-time, non-recurring gifts from generous donors such as the Duke Endowment, last year’s total represents very robust private support from the full spectrum of alumni, parents, and friends of the University, and still places Duke among the leading fundraisers in higher education.
There is no doubt that the economic turmoil of the past year has affected philanthropy at all levels, from the most successful universities to small non-profits. However, we are deeply encouraged by the eagerness of the Duke community to invest in our es-sential missions of education, discovery and service, and to do so consistently and generously.
Michael SchoenfeldDuke University Vice President for Public Affairs
and Government Relations
thomas gebremedhinword-by-word
dayo oshilajacan’t we all get
along?
gloria ahn’s
“Where the hell is Matt?”Featured today on the opinion blog: backpages.chronicleblogs.com
