arkansas traveler 3.09.09
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University of Arkansas student-run newspaperTRANSCRIPT
University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark.VOL. 103, NO. 64 | Single Issue Free
WWW.THETRAVELERONLINE.COM About you. For you. For 103 years.Page 1 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009
LifestylesLiterature and theater on stagepage 8SportsHogs look for two in a rowpage 5
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Monks create sand mandala to illustrate worldly impermanence
Future for state scholarships is uncertain
LANA HAZEL Staff Photographer
Tibetan monks help create a sand mandala in the Reading Room of Mullins Library this week. The mandala will be destroyed later this month as a show of impermanence.
The extended deadline for uni-versitywide student scholarships ended Tuesday, while a whirlwind of change in extolling scholarships takes place in the state Capitol. The number of applications the Office of Academic Scholarships received for 2009 compared to last year remains to be seen.
“We don’t have a full picture yet on where we’re at,” said Bryan Hembree, direc-tor of Academic Scholarships, who also described this time of year as the “busi-est” for the Office of Academic Scholarships.
Some colleges have seen increases in students applying.
“We saw a 20 percent increase in scholarship applications over last year,” said Laura Gamble, scholarship administrator for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.
As the UA decides on scholar-ship recipients, scholarship leg-islation is being pushed through the state Legislature.
The state House of Representatives passed legislation Monday that would reduce the amount that colleges and uni-
versities spend on scholarships to halt bidding wars that drive up tuition costs for other students in the state. Gov. Mike Beebe was expected to sign the legislation.
The state lottery proposal vot-ers passed in November also is being hammered out. The schol-arships derived from the lottery could be given to students who
meet lower eli-gibility require-ments of either a 19 on the ACT or a 2.5 grade-point average, replacing the traditional slid-ing scale.
The lottery could garner $100 million, and increases
in lottery sales could bring more scholarship opportunities along with larger amounts.
Such scholarships depend on the success of an industry that has proven not to be recession-proof. The economic crisis has caused decreases in state lottery sales across the country, from California to Massachusetts, which is a departure from the trend of increased sales in down economic times.
The effects of the lottery remain to be seen for months, but there are millions of dollars that are readily available to Arkansas
FundingYour
Future
Tibetan monks are bring-ing love, compassion and peace to the community through the construction of a sand mandala at the Mullins Library in the Helen Robson Walton Reading Room.
The word “mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle.” Although there are many different types of mandalas, the ones construct-ed by sand are unique to the Tibetan culture in that they are believed to affect purification and healing. They are created by hand and embody traditional meditative designs that represent the universal qualities of har-mony, balance and community, according to a press release.
The construction began Monday with an opening cer-emony where three Tibetan monks blessed the area before beginning their construction on the mandala.
“Spiritually, we believe we have to bless the place so that we have permission to inhabit the space,” said Geshe Thupten Dorjee, instructor in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
“For centuries, Tibetan man-dalas were seen exclusively by the monks and nuns of Buddhist monasteries,” according to the press release. “In 1988, however, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, decreed that a mandala be con-structed in full view of the pub-lic.
“Tibetans have long believed that to witness the creation of a mandala is to cultivate these enduring qualities within each of us, and so to witness the cre-ation of a mandala is to lay the foundation for a strong and bal-anced human community.”
The sand mandala is con-structed by millions of grains of colored sands that are laid into place on a flat platform. This process could take a week or longer.
“This is a healing ceremony,” said Sidney Burris, director of Religious Studies. “We hope that the community will gain benefit from watching it grow.”
Lama Agha will be working on the mandala through March 11 – 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday,
and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 8.
“The mandala is a 2-D rep-resentation of a 3-D goal for the environment,” Dorjee said. “The art of the mandala signi-fies Buddhism. It presents every-thing from pure wisdom and love to harmony and balance.”
A finishing ceremony 7 p.m. March 11 will celebrate and seal the mandala’s completion, and the finished mandala will be on display from March 11 to March 29.
After a closing ceremony, the mandala will be destroyed. Small packets of sand from the mandala will be distributed to those who are present.
“This signifies the imper-manence of this world,” Dorjee said. “Nothing exits forever.”
Police consider carrying Tasers
The Public Safety Council of the UA Police Department is researching the possibility of allowing UAPD officers to carry Tasers.
A group of officers recently submitted a proposal that would allow officers to carry Tasers, believing this less-than-lethal tool could save lives, UAPD Director Steve Gahagans said.
The Public Safety Council, which is made up of staff, fac-ulty and students who monitor the actions of the UAPD, were informed of the proposal, he said. The council was given a month to research the subject and gather opinions from the public, and it will likely reconvene in the first week of April to discuss the feed-back it receives, Gahagans said.
“We are not even close to pur-chasing Tasers,” he said.
Charles Alexander Lanis, a
student who is a member of the council, has received some outside opinion on the issue, he said in an e-mail interview. Most people he has talked to agreed that Tasers could be very helpful to officers, but a few were fearful that they could be abused in the hands of police officers, Lanis said.
Among police officers, there is a great deal of support for carry-ing Tasers because officers think it would allow them to diffuse a dangerous situation that could lead to someone being injured, Lanis said.
“Right now, I think the issue is pretty non-existent, however, as few students outside of a few cam-pus committees really know about it,” he said.
Lanis thinks that Tasers are another tool officers can use to subdue someone without using a firearm, he said.
“There are situations I’ve heard
UA student promotes local businesses
Liz Slape, a UA student pur-suing her master’s in business, and Lisa Sharp, the owner of Nightbird Books, recently began the Fayetteville Independent Business Alliance to promote local business in Fayetteville.
Slape and Sharp met because of their common interest in the local economy and decided to begin a chapter of the American Independent Business Alliance, Slape said. FIBA became an affili-ate of AMIBA in October.
Top priorities for FIBA are edu-cation and awareness, Slape said, and the group also wants to shift consumer spending and promote local independent businesses.
FIBA is organized so that it is possible to act politically, a power that Slape and Sharp do not want to use unless it is an issue that affects the majority of members, Sharp said.
FIBA has two primary goals: to create a brand identity, which members can carry on their prod-ucts, and to educate consumers about the economic benefits of shopping locally, Sharp said.
“It’s really easy to pull on people’s heartstrings, but the mes-sage we are trying to send is about their purse strings,” Slape said.
The hope is to have enough
businesses spreading the word about the brand name that shop-pers will begin looking for the logo by next fall, Sharp said.
Slape, the founder of “Keep Fayetteville Funky: Support Your Local Businesses,” said small busi-nesses provide a variety of prod-ucts that wouldn’t be out there otherwise. She gave the example of Sharp’s bookstore allowing space for authors who may not be well-known, giving the consumer more choice and the author more exposure.
It is not just money, Slape said. Shopping locally has implications for freedom of speech and expres-sion, as well as for the environ-ment.
“The goal of FIBA is to keep the community from becoming ‘Anywhere, USA,’” Slape said. “If you as a consumer don’t make conscientious decisions about your purchasing, those decisions will be made for you.”
People also take for grant-ed the quality of service local businesses provide, Slape said.
Consumers use the knowledge of the store employees to make purchases at home, but if they don’t spend money in the store, the knowledge of the staff will dry up, she said.
“People should be aware that every time they spend a dollar, it’s like casting a vote that you want that business to stay there,” Slape said.
The UA Sam M. Walton College of Business is allowing Slape to work on FIBA as her assistant-ship.
“It is interesting to me that they are supportive of the entre-preneurship and small business in this way – it says there is room at the UA for small business,” Slape said.
The Walton College, and the university as a whole, strive to maintain positive and rewarding connections with the community, said Carol Reeves, an associate professor of business.
“Liz’s GA is a bit unique, but encompasses everything we try to achieve with our Graduate Assistantship program,” said Marion Dunagan, assistant dean for graduate programs.
Because it believes entrepre-neurship is critical to the future prosperity of the state of Arkansas,
EDWARD HUMPHRYS Staff Photographer
The Fayetteville Independent Business Alliance was established to help promote local businesses in Fayetteville. Co-founder Liz Slape is also the founder of the “Keep Fayetteville Funky” logo that can be seen around town.
See TASER on Page 3
See BUSINESS on Page 3
See FUNDING on Page 2
James BakerSenior Staff Writer
Saba NaseemStaff Writer
Jack WillemsSenior Staff Writer
Taniah TudorSenior Staff Writer
New university logo presented Tuesday
The university’s new logo was adopted Tuesday by the Office of University Relations after a nine-month designing process.
UAPD
Find out about study abroad March 5
Join Tyler D’Andrea Thursday, March 5, for information about CIEE Study Abroad Programs. CIEE offers students an array of cultural choices for summer, semester and yearlong study abroad in 118 study abroad programs in 40 countries around the world. Tyler will be outside the food court in the Arkansas Union 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will be available 2 to 3 p.m. in the Office of Study Abroad for walk-in advising regarding CIEE programs.
Pianist to perform March 6
The Fulbright College Department of Music will feature guest pianist, Avan Yu in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 6, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. He will be performing pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Stravinsky.
Award-winning film featured Sunday
The OMNI Center’s Video Underground series will feature the film “Paradise Now” 7 p.m. Sunday in the United Campus Ministries building at 902 W. Maple St. Written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad, the film dramatizes the story of two young Palestinians who embark on a suicide mission to Tel Aviv. The 91-minute film is in Arabic with English subtitles. “Paradise Now” was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 and won the Golden Globe that year for Best Foreign Film. For more information about the event, contact Gerald Sloan at 575-6302 or [email protected].
Orientations offered for those interested in running for ASG office
Students interested in running for an Associated Student Government executive office should attend an orientation either 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, March 12, or 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 13, in Room 312 of the Arkansas Union. Contact ASG Secretary Emily Burrow at [email protected] for more informa-tion.
Student Independent Film Association invites stu-dents to meeting
The Student Independent Film Association will host a meeting 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, in Room 105 of Kimpel Hall. This RSO is open to everyone, and at the meeting, everyone will vote to decide what independent film is shown next on campus. SIFA’s goal is to bring more independent films like “Pulp Fic-tion” and “Slumdog Millionaire” to the UA campus. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
BRIEFLYspeaking
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | www.thetraveleronline.comPage 2 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009 NEWS
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The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper at the University of Arkansas, is published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring academic sessions except during exam periods and university holidays.
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college students. Reserve scholarship money
in the Department of Higher Education reached $53 million in 2008 and is ready for qualified students to cash in, according to a Dec. 5 article in the Traveler.
The need has never been higher, as the average debt of graduating UA seniors in 2007 was $19,000, according to the article.
Bill Bond, a senior in environ-mental soil and water sciences, is one student who hasn’t failed to cash in on the $53 million sitting in the state reserve.
“I get more than half of my scholarships from the state and the remaining amount from the Honors College,” Bond said. “I don’t receive the smaller depart-mental scholarships that most in the department have.”
About 15 years ago, if scholar-ship money wasn’t used, it was the students’ and the university gave them a refund check at the end of the semester, Bond said, though things have unfortunately changed.
More information on scholar-ships can be found at Scholarships.uark.edu.
LANA HAZEL Staff Photographer
Mandalas are a universal symbol for impermanence. A ceremony Wednesday will celebrate and seal the mandala’s cre-ation.
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Dr. William T. Cavanaugh is an Associate Professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of “Torture and Eucharist” and “Theopolitical Imagination.”
*A special note to faculty and staff. We would like to invite you to a lunch at Carnall Hall with Dr. Cavanaugh to discuss Being Catholic on Campus on Wednesday, March 4th. If you would like to receive an invitation to this event email Laurie Schueler at [email protected].
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the Walton College works very hard to support entrepreneur-ship activities among its students, Reeves said. It provides sup-port to students who participate in national and state business plan competitions, the Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship, and the New Entrepreneurs Club, she said.
“Allowing an MBA student to work on the Fayetteville Independent Business Alliance accomplishes both objectives,” Reeves said. “It supports entre-preneurship and strengthens ties
with the community.”FIBA currently has 35 business
members, which include local companies, civic organizations and individual citizens, Sharp said. Some of the members are Limbertwig Press, Jammin’ Java, Shine Salon and Coyote Farms, according to the FIBA Web site.
Retail and food service busi-nesses probably reap the most obvious benefits because they generally receive more repeat business, Sharp said.
The incentive to join FIBA for individuals who do not own a business is to emphasize the value they place on local businesses and to help support the organizations, Slape said.
The group even has had col-
lege students give money because they want to have cool, funky places to go, Slape said.
FIBA is in the middle of updat-ing its Web site, which is planned to include links to the members’ business sites, Sharp said. The group also plans to print a catalog of its members when the numbers are between 200 and 300, she said.
A case study on local mer-chants versus chain retailers in Austin, prepared by Civic Economics in 2002, showed that local merchants generate substantially greater econom-ic impact than chain retailers. Economic impact was based on locally focused expenditures of the merchants, including such
items as labor, profits, goods and services, according to the study.
The study found that local merchants spend a much larger portion of total revenue on area labor to run their enterprise and sell merchandise, keep their mod-est profits in the local economy and provide strong support for local artists and authors, creating further local economic impact.
Modest changes in consum-er spending habits can gener-ate substantial local economic impact, according to the study, and money spent with a local merchant yields more than three times the local economic impact than money spent with a chain retailer.
where an officer came very close to shooting a student because of an apparent threat,” Lanis said. “Those situations would disap-pear if officers were equipped with Tasers.”
On the other hand, the fact that a Taser is not a lethal weapon could make police “trigger-happy,” as seen in isolated incidents across the country, Lanis said.
The public often views Taser use as excessive, particularly in situations where there was no seri-ous threat to the officers or the public, but most uses of Tasers are still considered legitimate, he said.
“You hear about the one or two cases where it was used and you think it should not have been used, but you never hear about the thousands of cases of Tasers being used correctly,” Gahagans said.
Though they understand the negative publicity coming from incidents such as when a stu-dent was stunned by a Taser at the University of Florida in 2007, police officers think this should not take attention away from the success stories of Tasers, Gahagans said.
The UAPD is perhaps the only police agency in Northwest Arkansas not using Tasers, and all the other agencies report that the
positives outweigh the negatives, Gahagans said. Tasers de-escalate dangerous situations without causing the subject harm, he said. There are numerous situations where officers could have used lethal force, but loss of life was avoided because of the presence of a Taser, he said. Recovery from a Taser is instantaneous, whereas recovery from other intermediate weapons, such as pepper spray or batons, takes longer, Gahagans said.
“Officers are required to be ‘tased’ during training, and there have been no documented seri-ous injuries to those officers,” Gahagans said.
Students who want to send input to the UAPD on this issue may use an e-mail link on the UAPD Web site or e-mail the UAPD at [email protected], said Gary Crain, UAPD public information officer. They may also e-mail their comments to Crain at [email protected]. All submis-sions will remain anonymous and confidential.
Rachel Jackson, a freshman social work major, does not think Tasers are necessary because the crimes that occur on a college campus are not particularly seri-ous, she said.
However, Stephanie Roy, a freshman accounting major, said she thinks Tasers can be used to control individuals who cannot control themselves.
The Associated Student Government has begun an Employee of the Month program at the UA.
Faculty, staff and “pretty much anybody who works at the UA is eligible to be Employee of the Month,” said Stephanie Woodruff, chair of the ASG Press Relations Committee.
The program provides an opportunity for students to honor any UA worker, whether it be a receptionist or someone working in Brough Commons, Woodruff said.
Candidates for Employee of the Month must be nominated by stu-dents, and nomination forms are available in the ASG office.
“There is a space on the form that gives students the opportunity to write why they are nominating the employee,” Woodruff said.
The ASG Press Relations Committee will gather the nomi-nations and look at the reasons the employees were nominated. The Press Relations Committee then will decide who is Employee of the
Month.“We’ll put it to a vote,” Woodruff
said.Every month, the employee
who is chosen to be honored will be presented with a plaque at the subsequent ASG meeting.
“Nominees who are not chosen as Employee of the Month will stay in the pool for the rest of the year,” and students can nominate candi-dates again the next month if they want, Woodruff said.
“The idea for the program came from ASG Sen. Adam Glasier, who presented legislation to the senate to start the program, and it was assigned to the Press Relations Committee,” she said.
The Press Relations Committee has been trying to get the program underway since November.
“We’ve had some roadblocks,” Woodruff said.
For example, the ASG Web site is under construction.
“As soon as it’s done, we’ll also have nomination applications online,” Woodruff said.
“We’re ready to get it started,” she said. “We’re just waiting on students to turn in nominations.”
BUSINESSfrom Page 1
TASERfrom Page 1ASG begins program
to honor employeesJennifer Joyner
Senior Staff Writer
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Online PollWould you consider online dating?
Vote online at thetraveleronline.comOPINIONEditor: Kimber Wenzelburger | Managing Editor: Tina Korbe Phone: 575.8455 | E-mail: [email protected] 4 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009
THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
Mexico’s outlaws might be making head-lines, but if tourism declines too dramatically, the United States might begin to share more with the country than a border.
America’s southern neighbor certainly isn’t a safe haven. The Department of State recently released a travel alert to warn travelers of the dangers of voyaging across the border.
USA Today reported that Mexico has expe-rienced “a wave of beheadings, grenade attacks and shootouts as drug cartels battle each other for supremacy.”
One syndicate has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people, according to The Los Angeles Times.
This problem directly affects the United States. The Los Angeles Times reported that 730 people have been arrested in the past two years in connection with a single cartel.
Late CIA Director Michael Hayden said that Mexico ranked alongside Iran as a top security risk to the United States, according to USA Today.
On the other hand, if travelers avoid the country in significant numbers, the situation might create a paradox of crime. Less tourism leads to greater poverty. Financial hardship ushers in more lawlessness. Fears of this de-linquency then prevent even more vacationers from making the trek. The cycle goes on.
The Latin nation is already experiencing effects of the economic downturn.
Close to 30 percent of Mexican adults cannot find full-time work, according to USA Today.
According to The Washington Post, “tour-ism is one of Mexico’s main sources of income, and the country that sends the most tourists is the United States.”
And the gangster lifestyle continues to be a powerful temptation for Mexican youth as tele-vision shows and songs glamorize the culture, according to USA Today.
Experts say that common tourists are no more likely to experience violent crimes in Mexico than in their own home country – that is, if sightseers practice what the State Depart-ment calls “common-sense precautions.”
The State Department suggests Americans can stay safe by staying near tourist regions and avoiding districts where protests, prostitu-
tion and drug deals occur.The Washington Post reported that the alert
for Mexico focuses on border towns and makes no mention of “Cancun and other Caribbean resort areas” and that crime bosses and street dealers have little interest in harming tourists.
And Mexico is not experiencing this crime surge because of a lack of laws. The reason is actually from an increase in regulation.
USA Today reported that the recent spur of violence was caused by a resistance to Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s war against drug smuggling, and according to The Washington Post, Mexico is “fighting to keep drugs from heading into the world’s largest consumer na-tion – the United States.”
What a strange situation North America has gotten itself into. One country has endangered the lives of its own citizens and police force in order to keep a wealthier nation safe. Money really does make the world go round.
Horror stories are likely to occur at every holiday destination. Mexico is definitely not the most dangerous place to travel, but if Americans do not continue to share important tourism funds, Mexico’s crime might visit more frequently.
Clint Fullen is a columnist for The Arkan-sas Traveler. His column appears every other Wednesday.
Wal-Mart’s not so evil now
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, an evil lord un-fairly worked both his vassals and his serfs. He demanded they all work more – and more efficiently – than any other serfs or vassals in any of the neighboring lands. He was even rumored to pay his female serfs up to 37 cents less an hour than his male peasants.
Nobody liked the evil lord, not even the other nobles, because he pretended to be humble, when he was actually the richest lord to ever live. But they especially disliked him because his serfs and vassals produced cheap food and clothes that everybody could afford to buy – and did, except those precious few who could openly dislike him because they, too, were rich. Those rich few could afford to buy food and clothes from the fair farmers who carefully cultivated the tastiest organic foods and made the spiffiest, most creative clothes.
Some of these fair farmers called themselves the Fay-etteville Independent Business Alliance and they kept their little corner of the kingdom funky. They were so cool that even people who shamefacedly shopped at Wal-Mart – er, groveled to the evil lord – still secretly supported the clev-erly coined motto of the fair farmers and sought to support them whenever they could.
But lo, a recession fell on the land – the deepest, dark-est days the kingdom had seen in years and years. And even though the people rode their stuttering king out of the kingdom on a rail and replaced him with change they could believe in, the days were still dark.
Suddenly, the evil lord didn’t seem so evil anymore. The people told themselves they liked him because he had recently painted his castle green, but they really liked him because they saw what he said was true; if they saved money, they could live better. And the best way they knew to save money was to buy food and clothes from the now-not-so-evil lord.
So, they did. And the now-not-so-evil lord’s coffers grew still fatter. To be precise, they grew $3.8 billion fatter in the three months that ended – well, really not so very long ago. The lord’s sales for the season even set a record.
The now-not-so-evil lord liked to be not-so-evil, so he resolved to keep the sheep-faced affection of his millions of foe-turned-friends until the end. He even aspired to influ-ence the new king and his courts. But, no matter what, the lord promised always-low prices. Always.
Almost everybody was prepared to live happily ever after, but not the fair farmers. They feared for the funkiness of the kingdom – not only because of the evil lord, but also because the dark days made their tasty organic foods and spiffy, creative clothes seem a little less appealing. The farmers thought, “If the townspeople but knew the econom-ic benefit to all of buying our tasty, spiffy products, they would preserve their loyalties.”
But the farmers needn’t have worried because the townspeople did know. And even the lowliest of the low in the kingdom – the scribbling scriveners who lived in the dungeon of an ivory tower – liked the fair farmers. Even though these struggling storytellers mostly bought what they needed from the now-not-so-evil lord – they were pen-niless, after all – they sometimes saved up money just so they could spend it to keep Fayetteville funky. They thought it was the least they could do.
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
FEELING THE LATIN HEAT
It’s or its?
Adam Roberts writes: “No one has ever been confused because I replaced ‘its’ with ‘it’s.’”
Perhaps not, but you would have confused your readers had you written this sentence: “A clever dog knows its master.”
Or is it: “A clever dog knows it’s master”?
In the first instance, you have an obedient dog. In the second, not so much.
Sincerely,
A militant grammarianKatherine ShurldsJournalism professor
Wrong direction
In response to the editorial of Mr. Abel Tomlinson, the re-emer-gence of the Keynesian economic doctrine under President Obama is the exact opposite direction that we need to follow to regain our economic foothold.
Since his election on Nov. 4, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost almost a third in value and continues to dive: minus 300 this Monday (courtesy of Yahoo! Finance). It is clear that the numerous “spendulus” bills have not helped.
And while President Bush failed to rein in Republican
congressional deficit spending, the cost of the Iraq war does not amount to trillions. According to Nationalpriorities.org, the Iraq war amounts to a total of 600 billion as of present, plus interest over five years (10 billion per month); that amounts to 200 bil-lion less than Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama spent in one bill!
We arrived at this point today through government interfer-ence in the banking and housing sectors, i.e. The Community Reinvestment Act. The fact is that returning money and economic power to the people leads to the most prosperity.
Ronald Reagan turned double-digit stagflation and an equally painful recession around in three years by lowering the top tax rate to 28 percent, encouraging strong dollar monetary policy and re-modeling the tax code (doubling government revenues by eliminat-ing loopholes).
Oh, I forgot to mention, he also defeated the most power-ful military enemy of the United States: the Soviet Union.
Charles GuerrieroFreshmanEconomics
The Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include the author’s name, student classification and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone num-ber for verification. Letters should be sent to [email protected]. Letters appear in the order they were submitted as space permits. The editor reserves the right to edit or refuse letters on the basis of length, accuracy, fairness, liability and sensibility.
EDITORIAL BOARD KIMBER WENZELBURGER | Editor TINA KORBE | Managing Editor BRIAN WASHBURN | News Editor JACLYN JOHNSON | Assistant News Editor
The Internet (Abridged)
CLINT [email protected]
Mexican crime shouldn’t deter U.S. travelers
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates an-nounced Thursday that the existing ban on the photography of U.S. military caskets returning from Iraq would be altered to allow news cover-age of the caskets with express consent from the families of the deceased. Under these new provisions, caskets can be photographed only with the consent of the soldiers’ families.
While this is a promising development, the revisions do not go far enough.
These types of bans arise more out of politi-cal considerations than a concern for the honor of the dead. During the Vietnam War, photo-graphs of military caskets proved politically
dangerous to war supporters as they allowed the public to view and understand the mortal realities of combat. The modern ban came out of a fear that these kinds of images would influ-ence public opinion on warfare.
Such bans do a disservice to our nation’s soldiers. An attempt to sanitize the realities of warfare by disallowing photography of their caskets obscures their sacrifice and does greater dishonor than the caskets’ display. If done in a respectable manner, the photography of our war dead should require no process of family consent that will serve as another barrier to the proper coverage of war’s realities.
We acknowledge, however, the necessity of controls on photographs of dead or wounded U.S. troops. Such photography threatens
anonymity considerations and could also cause intelligence breaches that would bring more harm to American soldiers. Moreover, it would sacrifice the respectability and moral superior-ity of our nation’s soldiers by displaying profane images of the dead in the same way that our enemies often parade around their captured and killed.
The Obama administration should take the changes they have made to this ban even fur-ther. Renouncing all restrictions on the respect-ful photography of military caskets will tear down a bastion of the repression of free press. It will allow the American public to understand the war in a real and reverential manner, and it will grant our soldiers the honor and dignity that their ultimate sacrifice deserves.
Media should be free to photograph military coffinsGUEST EDITORIAL
The Harvard Crimson
Let UA police know thoughts on Taser use
Officers from the University of Arkansas Police Department are exploring the possibility of carrying Tasers on campus, and they’ve invited members of the UA community to express their opinions on the situation.
Some UAPD officers said that carrying Tasers could prevent more violent situations that would warrant the use of a baton or gun. Using a Taser might be a better choice than opening fire on a situation that is not life-threatening, they said.
Because of the 2007 stunning incident at the University of Florida, which caused video footage to circulate of a 21-year-old student being stunned by university police, many at the UA might be hesitant to allow police to carry Tasers on the UA campus.
Until the final decision is made, then, we encourage all to contact the UAPD and write letters to the editor to get their opinions heard.
Freshman Bo Bigham got the Arkan-sas baseball team started at the plate and redshirt freshman Drew Smyly was dominating on the mound to lead the No. 21 Arkansas baseball team to a 7-3 victory over Valparaiso at Baum Sta-dium on Tuesday afternoon.
Bigham went 2 for 4 at the plate with a walk, RBI and run scored, but his first inning double down the right-field line was the catalyst for a four-run inning which was all the offense the Razorbacks needed. The Hogs four-run inning is a season best and was capped by fellow first-year player Zack Cox who smoked a double to score two runs including the eventual game winner.
On the mound Smyly looked strong over his career high five innings of
work to earn the first win of his career. Striking out two of the first three bat-ters he faced, Smyly scattered five hits over his five innings and gave up one run in the fourth, his first run allowed this season. In potential trou-ble in that fourth inning, Sm-yly gave up three straight hits to the Crusaders, which scored Valpo’s only run against him, but he then induced a 5-4-3 double play to end the rally.
Arkansas (6-1) scored four runs in the first and tacked on an additional two in the sec-ond to give Smyly a comfort-able six-run cushion. The Razorbacks would add another run in the bottom of the fourth to match the Valparaiso (4-2) run.
After Smyly, the Razorbacks handed
the ball to junior Bryan Bingham who made his first appearance for the Ra-zorbacks. Returning from a rib injury, Bingham was untouchable as he sat down six straight Valparaiso batters
tossing just 19 pitches. A rough ninth for the Razorback pitch-ing staff allowed two Valparaiso runners to score and make it a 7-3 game, but another Razor-back freshman making his first appearance, Geoffrey Daven-port, came in to get two outs with the bases loaded and earn his first save of the season.
Arkansas scored its seven runs on nine hits and got the benefit of three Valparaiso errors. Along with Bigham, Andy Wilkins and Zack Cox each had two hits and two RBI. Senior Scott Lyons was his regular smooth self
in the field making seven plays without an error, but also scored two runs as he reached base four times. Other hitters for Arkansas included Ben Tschepikow (1-5, 1 run, 1 RBI) and James McCann (1 for 4).
After the first inning, those in at-tendance could feel that it was going to be a good day for the Hogs. With one out, Bigham went the opposite way for his double, and then scored on Tschepikow’s single to center. After a stolen base by Tschepikow, Wilkins sent a pitch through the right side for a sin-gle to score Tschepikow. A walk to Brett Eibner put runners at first and second for Cox who turned on an inside pitch and pulled it down the right-field line.
The Razorbacks and Crusaders continue their series on Wednesday at Baum Stadium with a 3:05 first pitch.
SPORTSTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
Hogs host RebsArkansas looks for two straight at homeFriday in Sports
Phone: 575.7051 | E-mail: [email protected] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009 | Page 5Sports Editor: Bart Pohlman | Assistant Sports Editor: Matt Watson
Did you know?The World Baseball Classic begins
tomorrow with China vs. Japan. The U.S. team begins play Saturday.
Despite losing in blowout fashion to Auburn on Sunday, the Arkansas women’s basketball team still has plenty of chances to show just how far it has re-ally come this week at the Southeastern Conference tournament.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s in Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, giving Razorback fans easy access to go cheer the ladies on.
By finishing 17-12 overall and 6-8 in SEC play, Arkansas earned the No. 8 seed, and will play No. 9 Ole Miss in the first game Thursday at noon.
“It’s a good match-up for us and a revenge game for them,” Arkansas head coach Tom Collen said. “Neither team played really well in Fayetteville, so I’m sure they think they can get the win on a neutral court.”
The 6-8 SEC record was Arkansas’ best finish in conference since 2003, something that Collen un-doubtedly feels proud of in his second season at the helm.
Ole Miss finished 16-13, with a 5-9 record in the SEC.
Against Auburn on Sunday, the Tigers’ win against the Razorbacks proved why they are the No. 3 team in the country and are SEC champions for the first time since 1989.
“We have to find a way to put this one behind us,” Collen said Sunday after the game. “We just ran
into a buzz saw today and we have to put this one behind us.”
Auburn (27-2, 12-2 SEC) didn’t commit a single turnover in the first half and shot 52.5 percent from the field in constructing a 54-32 lead.
“It was a rough day right from the beginning,” Collen said. “I can’t remember us getting a stop in the first half. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stat sheet with 11 assists and zero turnovers. They played near perfection. Hats off to them; they deserve to be the conference champion.”
One thing Arkansas will be able to pride itself in going into the tournament is the emergence of ag-gressiveness from senior Whitney Jones.
The Blytheville native scored a career-high 23 points versus the Tigers to go along with 10 rebounds, giving her four double-doubles on the season.
“Whitney came to play,” Collen said. “She was the one bright spot for us heading into the SEC tourna-ment.”
If Arkansas manages to defeat Ole Miss, the Ra-zorbacks will get another crack at No. 1 seeded Au-burn on Friday.
The Razorbacks and Rebels met a little over two weeks ago, and Arkansas won 70-59 in Fayetteville as part of ‘Think Pink Day.’
Charity Ford, who was SEC Player of the Week re-cently, hit a pivotal trey in that game that propelled Arkansas to victory.
“That was the play that cost us the game,” Ole Miss head coach Renee Ladner said. “Arkansas did
a great job, but especially when we made a mistake. They took advantage.”
Collen was overjoyed that Ford managed to stick the big triple.
“Thank god for Charity Ford,” Collen said. “That (was) the third time in a row she’s stuck a big shot. She was the player of the game.”
Ford’s return to the Razorbacks from injury pro-vided a key spark, which led the team to reel off five victories in a row in order to make themselves possi-bly NCAA tournament worthy and improve their posi-tion in the conference.
After her play in a win at No. 15 Florida and in a Senior Day win against Alabama, Ford was chosen for the SEC accolade.
“I’m thrilled that Charity is getting the recogni-tion that she’s worked so hard this year to achieve,” Collen said. “She has taken a special role on this team, and she’s worked extremely hard to come back from an injury.”
Now she is a candidate for the SEC’s Sixth Player of the Year, essentially a Sixth Man award, something that is hard to fathom because she missed five games during the middle of the conference slate.
“She’s got to be one of the toughest players I’ve seen,” Collen said. “We asked her this year to be our top player off the bench, and she has been vital to our team’s success as that sixth player.”
Ceira Ricketts was also honored five times this season by the SEC for being Freshman of the Week.
With Sunday’s win over Georgia, Arkansas has a chance to get two wins in a row for the first time in conference play in Wednesday night’s game against Ole Miss.
Of course, just one win has been hard to come by for the Razorbacks, who recorded their first victory in 31 days with the 89-67 weekend decision.
“From my focus, we’ve got one; now, let’s try and get two,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “It’s been a while since we were able to win two games in a row. That needs to be our focus. There’s just not a lot of games left, period. There won’t be too much of
a hangover from (the weekend).”One thing Arkansas hopes does hang over from
the weekend is its defensive intensity. The Razorbacks (14-13, 2-12 SEC) forced a season-high 15 steals in the win over the Bulldogs, which led to 27 points. “I wish we could press more,” said Arkansas guard Rotnei Clarke, who acknowledged the team’s lack of depth. “Yesterday our defense was our offense. It cre-ated several opportunities for us.”
The Rebels enter on a two-game losing streak fol-lowing back-to-back double-digit losses to Auburn and Alabama.
Ole Miss beat Arkansas in the teams’ earlier meet-ing, 74-65 in January. That was the Razorbacks’ second loss in Southeastern Conference play. When
asked if that was the time he felt Arkansas might have been over-hyped following a good nonconfer-ence schedule, Pelphrey said he never felt that way. “After we beat Texas, I said our greatest challenges lie ahead of us, and I meant that,” Pelphrey said. “I understood who our team was and we had to overachieve at a lot of different places and that by having success against one team that was fourth in the country and one team that was seventh in the country, all we did was get our opponents’ attention. “I never thought there was a point where it went all wrong because I’ve never felt like that. A lot of times we haven’t got the rewards of all our hard work; we haven’t made the plays that we needed to make.”
Hot shot
Clarke went 4-of-11 from 3-point range and scored a team-high 19 points in the Razorbacks’ Sunday win.
The freshman from Verdigris, Okla., has now hit at least four 3-pointers in six of Arkansas’ last seven games. Clarke, who shoots 500 shots each night after practice, said he has been working more on his form during practice.
“I could have shot better (Sunday),” said Clarke, who finished 6-of-15 from the field. “I was happy with the win. I’ve been trying to do other things when my shot isn’t falling.”
Pelphrey said the guard is doing other things than just shooting the ball to make himself a better player.
“He’s been better going to the basket and getting in the lane, and the others have done a better job finding him,” Pelphrey said. “I’ve always said he’s much more than a 3-point shooter. If you’re just that, it will be hard to get a 3-point shot. He has to learn to do other things better to make him more of an of-fensive threat.”
Welsh 100 percent
Junior guard Stefan Welsh came off the bench to score 14 points and add five steals in the win over the Bulldogs.
Welsh, who has been battling a toe injury, said it was the first time he was 100 percent since the Razor-backs’ Feb. 4 game against Tennessee.
It’s a good time to be a baseball fan.
Spring training is in full force, and the No. 21 Arkansas Razorback baseball team ends a midweek series against Val-paraiso today at 3 p.m.
And in March, it’s a good time to be a college basketball fan, too.
With selection Sunday rapidly approaching, the majority of students will minor in ‘brack-etology’ for the month. And after weeks of research, your girlfriend will still have a better bracket by solely picking which team has a better mascot.
But with the World Baseball Classic starting Thursday with a showdown between China and Japan, baseball fans will have an opportunity to fill out a different tournament bracket.
After the inaugural tourna-ment in 2006, the baseball world was a little skeptical. However, the event showed success with strong television ratings. Mer-chandise sales were high, too. Sports Illustrated reported Ven-ezuelan jerseys were selling at a rate of one every six seconds.
It’s an interesting premise. An international baseball tourna-ment played in March while fielding teams from South Africa and Australia doesn’t sound too enticing. But it is.
The event just will never live up to its full potential because of the timing of the event. As MLB teams are just now preparing for a new season, star players are leaving camp to play in the tournament. That doesn’t bode well for owners who want to make money – and win cham-pionships.
And I hear there is a basket-ball tournament soon.
It just cannot be penciled into a better time slot. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t take place. It will happen every four years now, and it isn’t too much of a burden for teams.
And if you watched last year, it was very entertaining.
The U.S. team will look for a better showing Saturday against Canada after being ousted from the first round.
Not having Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeria and Chase Utley from the 2006 squad will hurt. But the American roster still looks to be a leading contender.
Young standouts in David Wright, Ryan Braun, Dustin Pedroia and Brian McCann bring a wealth of talent. A rock solid pitching staff includes Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt, Jonathan Broxton and Brian Fuentes.
United States manager Davey Johnson said he has noticed a more serious and passionate team this year.
“Everybody I’ve talked to – some guys like the first-timers – they’re real pumped up,” Johnson said in an MLB.com ar-ticle. “They saw what happened a couple of years ago, and they don’t want that to happen again. Nobody wants to go back early.”
And to do that, the team will have to get past pool C, which includes our neighbor to the north, Italy and Venezuela in a double-elimination format.
With a roster including Mag-glio Ordonez, Bobby Abreu and Carlos Zambrano, the Venezu-elan team could be a ‘bracket buster’ to watch out for.
And for you fantasy owners out there, keeping an eye on
March ‘Classic’ Madness
COMMENTARY
Deuces Wild
HAROLD MCILVAIN [email protected]
See MCILVAIN on Page 7
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Razorbacks look for two in a rowMatt Jones
Senior Staff Writer
Arkansas prepares for SEC TournamentWOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Derek OxfordSenior Staff Writer
JONATHAN GIBSON Staff Photographer
Rotnei Clarke has made at least four 3-pointers in six of Arkansas’ last seven games.
Big !rst inning leads Razorbacks over ValpoBASEBALL
UA Media Relations
Smyly
DOWNTIME THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | www.thetraveleronline.comPage 6 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009
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ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19) TODAY IS A 7.As you get out into unfamiliar territo-ry, your anxiety level increases. You’re facing fears you forgot you had. Relax. This is good for you. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20) TODAY IS A 7.Put in for that promotion, raise or better job you want. Take on more re-sponsibility and you’ll earn more cash. It’ll be easy, too. It’s all about timing.
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 21) TODAY IS AN 8.The more facts you have at your fin-gertips, the better, of course. You’re all in favor of change. Help it be change that will actually work. Run it out to its likely conclusion.
CANCER (JUNE 22-JULY 22) TODAY IS A 7.Digging around in your closets, you may be surprised to find just the thing you need to pay off a nagging debt. Sell it and look around for other things someone else might buy. They’re in there.
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) TODAY IS A 7.New information shows who was telling the truth and who was not. Get your informants to keep talking and the entire story comes out. Reassure them all that confession is good for the soul.
VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22) TODAY IS A 5.It would be nice if everyone wanted the same thing, but that’s not the case. You’ll be lucky to get them to agree on anything. Ignore them and keep on doing what you know is best for them all.
LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22) TODAY IS A 7.Good news from far away makes you eager for a new adventure. You have a few chores to finish, however. Since one’s a creative project, no telling how long it will take. Better get started.
SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21) TODAY IS A 7.Somebody in your family needs more of your attention. You can tell by how much noise this person is making. Half an hour of listening should be enough to take care of the problem.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21) TODAY IS A 7.The more you learn, the more you know how to direct the people who serve you. Whether or not they’ll listen is difficult to determine. Looks like you may have to make a lot of noise to get their attention.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19) TODAY IS A 6.Postpone whatever else you could be doing and make hay while the sun shines. That means the extra work that’s available will not last forever. Hurry so you can beat the competition.
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18) TODAY IS AN 8.Write about your adventures, but not just in scientific terms. Put in the raging rivers you had to raft down and the rugged mountains you had to climb to find that new butterfly. That’s the fun part.
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20) TODAY IS A 7.If you’re having trouble expressing your feelings in person to a family member, how about writing a letter? A pretty photo card could say in pictures some of what you’re trying to say in words.
MONDAY’S SOLUTION
MONDAY’S SOLUTION
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UA STUDENTS and RSOsFree: 30 or fewer words. Up to four
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Toshiba laptop for sale. Two years old. Vista with Office 07. $300. Call 501-620-8911 HAS GOT TO SELL!
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Roommate needed for 2 bedroom 2 1/2 bath condo in Fayetteville. References needed. $350 /mo and half utilities. Located off of Wedington within close reach of UofA. Call Nikki at 479-502-5452.
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with a company you don’t know, check them out with the Better Business
Bureau by calling the BBB at 501-664-7274 or online at www. bbb.org.
Physical activity is great for kids,but injuries can occur. Then it’simportant to treat them properly,before those sore shoulders andswollen knees become chronicconditions later in life. Visitaaos.org and nata.org for preven-tive measures and information ondealing with youth injuries.
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THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | www.thetraveleronline.com WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009 |Page 7 LIFESTYLES
waltonartscenter.org
Tuesday, Mar. 24 – Sunday, Mar. 29
Tickets start at: $20PART OF THE PROCTER & GAMBLE BROADWAY SERIESShow Sponsor: Tyson FoodsSupport provided by: Bob and Marilyn BogleAdditional support provided by: The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion CommissionMedia Partners: 40/29 News, The Morning News2008-09 Season Sponsor: Walmart/SAM’S CLUB
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A star-studded cast brings these two stories to life. Kenneth Alan Williams, best known for his roles in “ER” and “Will and Grace,” is just one of the cast’s big-name tal-ents. Popular TV stars Tom Virtue and Diane Adair also join Williams on the stage.
After the performance, audience members may join the company for an open Q&A session.
Founded in 1974, the mission of LATW is to enrich the cultural life of the national community through the use of innovative technologies to produce and preserve significant works of dramatic literature on au-dio, and to ensure public access to these great works.
LATW has a syndicated radio theater broadcast that airs weekly on National Public Radio. The the-ater company often works with ma-jor actors such as Mark Ruffalo and Paul Giamatti, according to their official Web site.
“This company brings a dif-
ferent element of theater that is unique to Northwest Arkansas, of-fering our local community the op-portunity to experience live radio broadcasting,” Aibangbee said.
The productions will be 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Walton Arts Cen-ter.
Tickets range from $25 to $35, and student tickets are $10. They can be purchased through the box office at 479-443-5600.
THEATERfrom Page 8
VERONICA PUCCI Staff Photographer
Sarah Creasman (middle) stands in front of one her paintings at last Thursday’s reception for her undergraduate honors art thesis, titled “My Atmosphere.”
AN INVITING ‘ATMOSPHERE’
players in the classic is a pretty good idea. Research by Baseball Prospectus showed that starting pitchers who were in the tourna-ment didn’t fare too well during the regular season.
But with a March filled with plenty of baseball and basketball, it will be another memorable month for sports fans. But the classic won’t live up to its true potential.
Harold McIlvain II is a senior staff writer for The Arkansas Traveler.
MCILVAINfrom Page 5
While the word “tae-kwon-do” might conjure images of an ancient art form in Asia or recall the catchy tune of the popu-lar song “Everybody Was Kung Fu Fight-ing,” tae-kwon-do is rarely associated with Northwest Arkansas. But it should be.
Northwest Arkansas is home to one of the top tae-kwon-do organizations in the country.
The UA tae-kwon-do club recently took home the championship trophy for winning the U.S. Central Tae-kwon-do Invitational. The club topped Kansas and the Mexican national team to capture first place in the prestigious event.
“That was a whirlwind of a time,” said junior women’s team captain Lauren Love. “It was fast-paced and my first com-petition ever so it was a lot of pressure, a lot of stress. But it turned out just fine; I’m glad I did it.”
The nine representatives from the Arkansas club scored a combined total
of seven first-place finishes sprinkled throughout the various levels in the fight-ing and form competitions. The UA com-petitors prevailed in a field of 42 teams and 487 competitors.
The group evolved from a batch of unsure strangers into a close-knit family organization that excelled in a pressure-filled environment at the championships held in Oklahoma City.
“We started out just shaking hands and meeting people, knowing their names,” Love said. “But it escalated into just like a family.”
The club, which is in association with coach Victor Marko’s Red Dragon Tae-kwon-do Academy, is open to anyone and features a wide assortment of members.
“Getting involved in any martial arts gets you to bond with others no matter who they are or where they’re from or what their station is,” senior Lauren Lind-sey said. “It’s a different type of family for you to get to.”
Kevin Lee was surrounded by the sport
growing up as a child in Korea and con-tinued participating in it when he moved to the United States when he was seven years old.
In 2008, after giving up tae-kwon-do 18 years before, Lee, a 36-year old PhD student at Arkansas, saw a flier advertis-ing a tae-kwon-do class taught by Marko. He figured it would be a fun way to stay in shape and ended up joining the competi-tive club and is now its president.
“We’ve done demonstrations on HPER Night,” Marko said. “We always have a booth out in HPER Night for people to come sign up on Club Night.”
Marko said tae-kwon-do is vastly dif-ferent from other martial arts sports, despite being lumped into a general cat-egory.
“Tae-kwon-do is the renowned kick-ing specialist [martial art],” Marko said. “We are 80 percent kicking to 20 percent punching. Most other martial arts are the other way.”
To Marko, the sport is about more
than athletic accomplishments, although that is a goal. He said there is a higher purpose.
“My favorite part of teaching and coaching is teaching them how to be a winner,” Marko said. “Not in the ring and not so much in fighting or competition but becoming winners on their own.”
Love and Lindsey met each other in a beginner’s class and proceeded to join the competitive club together. Lindsey said tae-kwon-do is a great way to meet people and also presents other opportunities.
“You get something to work out those aggressions and stress,” Lindsey said.
Sophomore Justin John is a black belt and is one of the squad’s most talented members. He won the fighting division at Oklahoma City while finishing second in forms and said tae-kwon-do gives people confidence in everyday life.
“I think [tae-kwon-do] gives you a confidence and you just walk tall,” John said.
Lee stressed that tae-kwon-do is a
sport for anyone, citing himself as an ex-ample.
“The key thing is just dedication,” Lee said. “If you look at me, you ask any doc-tor to look at a weight/height chart and they’ll say ‘well you’re obese.’ If you watch me doing tae-kwon-do you might scratch your head. It really doesn’t matter how big you are, how weak you may look. It’s all about learning the techniques.”
The championship experience is something that will not soon leave the team.
“It’s a bit of a rush because you’re surrounded by a whole bunch of people,” Lindsey said.
While the tae-kwon-do club finds suc-cess in competition, perhaps the greatest impact of their training reflects outside the lines, in their everyday lives. The friendships forged, confidence attained and determination to be successful will spill into their school, jobs and relation-ships.
Just the way Marko envisioned it.
CLUB SPORT SPOTLIGHT
UA tae-kwon-do club punches its way to championshipJimmy Carter
Staff Writer
Hope Gala 2009Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation begins its fund-raiserFriday in Lifestyles
Phone: 575.7540 | E-mail: [email protected] Page 8 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009Lifestyles Editor: Anna Nguyen | Asst. Lifestyles Editor: Lindsey PruittLIFESTYLESTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
In the mid-1990s, Counting Crows became every American nice guy’s favorite band: the
group had songs featured in “Dawson’s Creek” and “Party of Five,” performed at an MLB All-Star game and wrote sensitive songs about sensitive girls. It was really nothing new, and no one got hurt.
More than 10 years later, Benjy Davis Project’s Dust is a continuation of that same harmless aesthetic, injected with good-old-boy Southern charm (the septet hails from Baton Rouge, La., and accompanies most of their songs with violin or organ drones). All the mark-ers are here, including painfully
predictable song structures and almost-romantic drivel (“I’m still bitter and you’re still sweet,” Davis sings on “Still Sweet”).
The music occupies the te-dious ground between trite country lyricism and unremark-able radio pop. Dust just begs to be liked, but its naked sincerity is simply too bland and too lim-iting to contain any real mean-ing. The songs limp along, and Davis sings of the defeat and insecurity that they so perfectly personify.
There are some unintention-al moments of hilarity though,
especially in Davis’ moments of nice guy anger. As a graduate of the Kid Rock school of profan-ity, the group’s singer simply places the word “damn” into any phrase possible in hopes that it will emote angst: “punch the same damn wall,” “a damn good feeling” and the aptly-titled “Same Damn Book.”
Dust certainly isn’t a terrible album, but that might be part of its problem. The songs are too afraid to offend or evolve, so they simply wade into mediocrity and float there. Dust is so harmless that it hurts.
Fashion is subject to change as time progresses, but it isn’t always moving forward.
Think about something you’re wearing today. It is probably a recycled style of some other decade.
Just blue jeans? Well, Levi Strauss didn’t have casual daily wear in mind when he created rugged blue jean overalls for the coal miners of the 1850s.
One of my favorite fashion quotes is from Miranda Priestly, a character from the novel, “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Priestly is offended when her new assistant, Andy Sachs, refers to fashion as “stuff.” She quickly corrects Sachs by explaining that the blue sweater she is wearing is a product of the trickle-down process and the color, in fact, originated from an Oscar de la Renta collection of ceru-lean blue gowns.
During World War I, while men were overseas, women began taking on traditionally male roles and, suddenly, re-stricting corsets and layers of petticoats were impractical.
More comfortable clothes were fit to wear to work in factories or to go to women’s clubs. Women’s clothing included military-cut suits and jackets.
Between the two world wars, the Roaring Twenties celebrated flirty, fancy fash-ion until the stock market crash of 1929 caused an eco-nomic standstill in fashion.
During World War II, a textiles shortage quickly changed the composition of their garments.
The effects of time hold true to even the seasons of the year.
Don’t mind the snow last weekend because spring is still just around the corner. Stores are filled with spring and summer clothes, but the styles are not new - most are just creatively redesigned.
In Payless Shoe Stores, there is a pair of oxford peep-toe pumps that exemplify the shoes of the 1940s. Although they are a fairly new addi-tion to department stores, the same style began almost a year ago in high fashion.
Just as marketing experts can track the cycles of pro-motion, fashion forecasters can track the cycles of trends.
This year, trends show that canary yellow, hot pink and bright red are huge for the warm seasons.
The economic struggle right now appears to be influ-encing designers to focus on colors or textures rather than the quality of textiles, just as it was in the 1940s.
InStyle magazine shows that the hourglass shape is popular for spring. The silhouette of fashion has been changing since its existence, transitioning from straight, curvy, loose, tight, short or long during each fashion period.
The cyclical process of fashion is brilliant, I think, as it celebrates our history and the geniuses of the past.
Although we might pick fun at our parents for the bouffant hairstyles of the 1960s or frizzy curls of the 1970s, those styles will prob-ably come back around.
Right now, we are an eclectic culture of fashion.
Ladies wear summer scarves like those of the 1950s, “hippie” symbols of the 1960s and pantsuits of the 1970s.
Men are wearing more col-ors like the men of the 1960s, patterned clothes of the 1970s and punk styles of the 1980s.
The recreations of our past offer a great variety of clothing styles now.
Natalie Johnson is a staff columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every other Wednesday.
For their first concert of the new year, the UA Jazz En-sembles will perform a double feature tonight in the Arkan-sas Union Theater.
Under the direction of James Greeson and Gerald Sloan, the two groups will each perform an exciting col-lection of jazz arrangements.
Each group consists of 17 members selected by an audi-tion, according to a press re-lease.
In addition to his regular duties as a UA professor, Sloan joined Greeson in leading the bands this semester, accord-ing to the music department’s Web site.
“[Sloan] is extremely knowledgeable about jazz and is doing an excellent job with the students,” Greeson said.
Tonight’s performance will feature exciting big band sounds like all good jazz gigs should, and it will also show-case the bands’ diverse stylis-tic talent.
“Jazz music is a ‘big tent’ with a lot of different sub-categories and we try to poke around in all of them,” Greeson said.
Some of the elements tak-en from under the big tent to-
night will include traditional, Latin and modern jazz, he said.
The music was select-ed through a criteria that Greeson and Sloan set.
“I try to choose pieces for the jazz bands that are, firstly, strong compositions that are worth the students spend-ing time to prepare them,” Greeson said.
“I [also] want the music to be challenging to them, but not beyond their reach as mu-sicians,” he said. “As good as this year’s bands are, they can play pretty much anything.
If all previous concerts serve as any indicator, then tonight’s concert will cer-tainly feature a vast array of sounds that will leave the audience begging for more at night’s end.
The pieces on tonight’s program will certainly be en-tertaining for both the audi-ence and the musicians.
Exciting Latin jazz will move the audience to their feet as one of the groups per-forms “Ran Kan Kan” by Tito Puente.
The work of Thad Jones, a legendary big band leader of the ‘60s and ‘70s, will be fea-tured when one of the groups performs songs, “Kids Are Pretty People.”
“[Kids Are Pretty People] is widely hailed as one of the eight best big band jazz com-positions ever,” Greeson said.
Sammy Nestico, a staple in all jazz ensembles’ repertoire, can be heard in “A Night in Tunisia.”
One of the night’s main at-tractions will be the playing of “A View from the Side” by Bill Holman.
“This is a challenging work with a lot of modern ele-ments in it that was awarded a Grammy in 1998 as the ‘Best Instrumental Jazz Composi-tion of the Year,’” Greeson said.
The evening will also fea-ture numerous solos by stu-dent instrumentalists whose preparation will be evident.
Another feature will be so-los by Fayetteville’s own Clau-dia Burson, who is known for her exciting and unique piano performances, according to the music department’s Web site.
A simultaneously acces-sible and impressive genre, jazz is especially suited to a student audience.
The concert begins 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Union Theater.
There is no admission fee and the concert is open to the public.
Sign of the timesRazorback Runway
NATALIE [email protected]
L.A. theater brings broadcast to stage
Stacy Mossberger Staff Writer
LAURA CROW Courtesy PhotoJen Dede and Peter McDonald in L.A. Theatre Works’ production of “The Lost World”
“Another one bites the dust”ALBUM REVIEW
Brady TackettStaff Writer
COURTESY PHOTO
MAGGIE CARROLL Staff Photographer
Writer Kyle Minor reads his new book, “In the Devil’s Territory” Friday at Nightbird Books. Minor will embark on a joint nationwide authors’ tour with Kathleen Rooney, who recently published “Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object.” The tour, “Live Nude Girl in the Devil’s Territory,” will take the authors to more than 25 bookstores in the country.
A MINOR STOP IN THE ‘TERRITORY’ Jazz ensembles gear up for a fresh performance
Robert GarnerSenior Staff Writer
The L.A Theatre Works national tour returns to the Walton Arts Cen-ter tomorrow with a back-to-back presentation of “War of the Worlds” and “The Lost World.”
The two plays combine for “an entirely new theater-going experi-ence which is highly entertaining, thought-provoking and very un-expected,” said Susan Loewenberg, the producing director of the show.
This will be the third time LATW will be performing at the WAC. The company previously performed “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial” and the “Pentagon Papers,” said Jolana Aibangbee, public-ity and promotions coordinator for the WAC.
“Theatre Works is a premier radio broadcast company that features multiple Sci-Fi television and film actors, who share micro-phones on stage,” Aibangbee said. “The show also features live sound effects.”
While “War of the Worlds” was recently made into a movie starring Tom Cruise, the story has a much longer history. Originally a novel by H.G. Wells, it was first adapted for performance by The Mercury Theatre. The plot focuses on an eyewitness news report about an alien invasion from Mars on the
East Coast of the U.S.When the original 60-minute
radio program was broadcast in 1938, it created a panic among listeners who thought they were listening to a newscast. Many of the listeners tried to flee the area, ac-cording to a press release.
Excluding the actual fear that listeners felt, LATW hopes to bring the intensity of that radio broadcast to the stage.
Also an adaptation, “The Lost World” evolved from a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This sci-fi adventure comedy revolves around a professor who leads an expedition through the Amazon rain forest to discover dinosaurs that have evolved alongside ape-men, according to the press re-lease.
Because both productions are based on highly entertaining and
enduringly relevant stories, they work well in tandem, Loewenberg said.
“[Both] utilize the genre of sci-ence fiction to tell their respective stories, one highly dramatic, the other witty and very funny,” she said. “But both plays have themes which are startlingly relevant to present-day concerns.”
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