WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 4
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
It's asexual awareness week. Be aware that asexuals exist!
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
Just walked in front of Allen Field-house with my pants at my ankles.
No shame.
And now the heating on/off kerfuffle begins...
I think this tree just used razor leaf on me. It was not very effective.
Dear editor, please make The Office couple happen!
Yeah, so, uh, can you not make out in the library?
Does anyone else feel personally victimized by that research methods midterm?
My friends and I compare things to the KU parking department when we want to prove how much we hate something.
Did notap for six months. It was effective.
I feel bad for the TAs that have to take attendance of their 60+ students in Budig 120, now that Professor Pasik-Duncan has made the MWF lecture MANDATORY!
CHIEF KEEF
When bored at work I get to walk out of my office and watch KU basketball practices. AFH is the most glorious place, I'm going to be a baseball secretary assistant forever. Never graduating.
Actually by that logic, the FFA editor threw for more yards than Jake Heaps in the second half. And so did Batman. Coincidence? I think not.
I need to find someone with a gerilla suit for halloween. Sincerely banana suit nur
The FFA should have snapchat.
I did a push up. Why am I still fat?
You know, it'd be real nice if people actually read the rules of the indoor track at the Rec.
I told myself that I was going to stop judging people on their appearance but then I saw a lady with sweatpants tucked into her Uggs on the way to class.
If you are new to the Midwest, don't try to understand the weather here. It is more complex than you think and you will likely get a headache.
How many brownie points should I get by going shopping with three girls for an afternoon?
Young miss, I'm sorry, but you are quite distracting when the entirety of your buttocks exit your pants at relativistic speeds as you sit down.
Controversial rapper serves as face of violent crime
Chief Keef is the most important rapper in America. Chief Keef is
creating brutal, nihilistic music about a generation of youth's anger and self-destruction. Chief Keef, or Keith Cozart, turned 18 in August.
With heads banging, trap beats blaring and an armory of weapons flailing back and forth, I'd be wary if I were Keith Cozart's camera man.
I tap the play button on the YouTube video and click up the volume. Someone in the back yells, "Hell yeah, Chief Keef," and half-a-dozen hipsters jab their elbows out to dance like Keef and his crew do in the video. It dies in a smattering of laughter.
His cruel indifference, cartoonish misgery and Disney-villain love of violence is so extreme that
all anyone can do at first is laugh. And then you realize it's serious.
"Hate Bein' Sober," "No Tomorrow" and "3Hunna," are all packed with verses about benders, daily gun violence and border wars. The content is nothing new, but the delivery and context is. Rapping over skittering trap beats, Keef's verses are mumbled and apathetic
He ignores lawsuits and court appearances. He tweets jokes and taunts about shooting victims in rival neighborhoods. He treats the world around him with an amused indifference.
If you can afford a few hours, listen to "This American Life's" two-part special on Harper High School, which is near Chief Keef's neighborhood. Modern violence in these places is made up of revenge killings for revenge killings for revenge killings. Violence pervades everything and wears down even the staunchest resisters. There is no escape from the street violence and this oppressive world takes a toll.
By Wil Kenney
wkenney@kansan.com
From this bleak backdrop, Chief Keef emerged. He was the boiling point of a culture of endless, needless violence. Keith Cozart's success was a Cinderella story of viral videos, Twitter beefs and abrasive lyricism.
in this way, South Side Chicago's kids identified with him infinitely
more than mainstream artists. Keef's peers didn't gravitate to glamour, love or the hip-hop game at large. They saw themselves in the lyrics of gun violence, petty crime and masochistic drug use. They kick-started Keef's career and remain core fans today.
When Keef started to gain traction beyond his hometown of Chicago, the rest of his story gained national attention. His genre of grim, destructive music was dubbed "Drill" and he was signed to a major label. Suddenly Keef's rage was earning him money back.
The thing is, the more I read about and listen to this cruel anti-hero, the more I think that his success is the best thing to happen to urban Chicago in years.
His is the face pictured on a nightly newcast about street vio
lence. When he violates his parole, gets lampooned by hipsters and catapulted to fame by his peers, he's shoving the problems of violence into the public consciousness. Intentionally or not, he's bringing more attention and potentially more solutions to the streets of Chicago than anyone else out there.
He's a window into the mentality of some of the most violent people in Chicago's South Side. While a product of cyclical violence and poverty, he could be the beginning of the solution for urban violence everywhere.
GOVERNMENT
If all else goes wrong, Chief Keef,
at least you're finally rich.
Wil Kenney is an English major from Leawood.
Budget compromise unlikely in current political climate
Imagine that by February both houses of Congress and the President have amicably come to a long-term budget agreement while keeping the government open and avoiding default on our national debt. Imagine that they have done so without resorting to the type of brinksmanship that now characterizes the dysfunction of our democracy and without shaking consumer confidence in this fragile economy.
The outlandishness of this possibility is representative of how belief in the democratic process has eroded. As unlikely as compromise seems, it may be the only option left after the shutdown resulted in disastrous approval ratings, particularly for the Republican Party at 28 percent in Gallup's October poll, but a record low for both.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other prominent party figures including Govs. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker have already begun to take the lead by declaring that the shutdown strategy was doomed from the start. However, a faction of right-wingers in the House, including freshman Texas Rep. Ted Cruz, are still advocating the use of this failed strategy. Cruz has said as recently as this past weekend, "I am willing to do anything to stop Obamaacare."
Republicans can take the path that McConnell has indicated and focus on 2014, oddly enough listening to President Obama's advice for dissenters to "argue for your position and win an election," but instead it is likely that the party will continue with a splintered approach. However, I do expect cooler heads in the Senate to prevail initially after laying down for the rabble-rouser (Cruz and company) in the House. I'm not optimistic enough
about the effectiveness of our elected leaders to believe that any deal will be made without another attempt to destabilize the country, but they will be able to keep the lights on at the FDA this time.
Lawrence's own Rep. Lynn Jenkins voted to end the shutdown despite being a proponent of the strategy and voting for it to begin with, but only because she is being forced to respond to a constituency that can hold her accountable. She is aware that her upcoming race against Democratic challenger Margie Wakefield will be a fight, and she cannot afford to be on the wrong side of the vote twice. Instead she attempted to save face and try to appear as a "compromiser" by voting to end the shutdown after helping to instigate it. Standard and Poor's Credit Rating Agency estimated that the shutdown shaved at least 0.6 percent off of annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth, with $24 billion in economic growth lost to the shutdown.
No other Kansas governor has voted to return funding to the government, and Kansas senior Sen. Pat Roberts was one of only 18 Senate Republicans to oppose the re-opening agreement.
process. It goes beyond failing consumer confidence in a fragile economy; it threatens the fabric of our democracy and is shaping the perception of political participation for a generation.
There are real ramifications for this irresponsibility that go way beyond even the economic impact. People my age have spent their formative years of political development without an example of a functional democratic
It is difficult to see a solution to this problem as long as this extreme level of ennemy exists between the two parties. If the American public grows more frustrated with the fringe "idealists" who are unwilling to compromise during the most recent in a long line of debacles, then there is a chance for a fundamental change in how Washington is working.
historical statistics indicate that change is unlikely despite the record-breaking levels of disapproval. Even when Congressional approval ratings have been higher, around 30 percent, re-election rates have been closer to 90 percent in Congress.
10-90 percent in going unfortunely many of the biggest shutdown stalwarts represent districts so affected by gerrymandering that their seats will be safe from most opposition, which allowed many of them to commit to the shutdown strategy in the first place.
This level of dysfunction has us all scratching our heads for the root of the problem. All I can ascertain is that as citizens and important contributors to the democratic process, we cannot simply accept the status quo and expect anything to improve. Nothing will change the fundamental gridlock for the good of the people unless we as constituents hold our representatives accountable for this cyclical nature of crisis-to-crisis governance.
Clay Cosby is a junior majoring in political science from Overland Park.
IDENTITY
Musical authenticity is more than meets the eye
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
For instance, The Rubens prefer their music to be considered as blues-rock as opposed to pop rock. They explained their reasoning to be that the blues has such deeply implanted roots within the music industry, in stark contrast to pop music. Their careful consideration of their sound is vital.
Two hours after landing at Chicago O'Hare International Airport and
Five minutes after the interview, the band appeared on stage in the same ragged jeans and t-shirts I just saw them in. With a band like The Rubens, what you see is what you get.
The five Aussie natives, three of which are brothers, comfortably cracked jokes and contributed thoughtful responses to each question asked. Amidst the laughter and boyish banter, the word "authenticity" became a reoccurring matter of importance to each individual member and the group as a whole.
Two hours after landing at Chicago O'Hare International Airport and enjoying a quick welcome home Potbella's pit stop, I was sitting in the Green Room at the music venue Evanston SPACE. I was there to help Val Haller, the founder of Valslist.com and the woman I intern for, with her interview of the Australian band The Rubens
On the opposite side of the authenticity spectrum is Mumford & Sons. Though I admittedly have six of their songs in the vast abyss of my iTunes library, I like to think they got there on accident.
In an interview with The Guardian, front man Marcus Mumford attempts to defend his band from naysayers like myself by saying that, "The authenticity thing has never been an issue for me. Not since I came to the realization that (Bob) Dylan, who's probably my favorite artist ever, the richest artist for me, didn't give a shit about authenticity. He changed his name. And modeled himself on Woodie Guthrie. And lied to everyone about who he was."
Upon reading this, I couldn't help but notice that my hands had formed into fists. After I simmered down and digested the fact that Mumford had just discredited the one-and-only Bob Dylan, I found myself wondering what it even means to be authentic. Is
In a sea of similarities, artists continually struggle to stand out above the rest. In my opinion, if artists spent less time crafting their image and more time cultivating their sound, the road to recognition would be a much shorter trip.
Mumford & Sons, for example, was doomed from the beginning by presenting their band with a name that is highly misleading, seeing as not a single band member happens to be an offspring of Marcus Mumford (thankfully). I think that if the group were to focus less on their hoedown attire and more on their music, then perhaps each track would illustrate some innovation other than the intense strumming of string instruments that sounds like a barnyard explosion.
One group that is far more pleasing to the ears, and one that I feel exemplifies the importance of sound over image, is Alt-J. Though I bet most wouldn't be able to point any member out in a crowd, I'm certain that the group would be recognized upon hearing just one note of any song off their debut album. Their music incorporates instruments that, when combined and with the right arrangements, create a sound unlike any other. And that's the point.
it possible to remain authentic in the realms of the music industry? I surely think so.
Lyndsey Havens is a sophomore majoring in journalism from Chicago.
We've all heard the phrase "mind over matter," but when it comes to artist authenticity within the music industry, I believe it should rather be "music over matter." Instead of using willpower to overcome physical problems, perhaps all it takes is music.
Connecting devices to the Budig wifi is like trying to get all your friends to date a really weird chick... No connection at all!
@ColinKarr
@Kansan_Opinion I don't do drugs, but I do have a guilty pleasure for Ke$ha's music.
@Ben_Samson
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