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KANSAN.COM/NEWS | MONDAY, APRIL17, 2017
You realize by saying you don't want to see Trump's taxes you're really just saying, "I'm a dumbass who doesn't care how my laws are made and who they benefit."
People who use trays in the underground are weak
I went from zero to drunk in like 20 minutes.
The amount of parking tickets I've received during my 2 years here at KU is almost comical at this point.
If he's in your tax bracket and he's your age,he's not a sugar daddy.
Student Senate Election Day/Avoid Jayhawk Blvd. Like the Plague Day.
I just got my nose pierced with bud light.
I'm in a Chuck E. Cheese and I think this is the closest to hell I'll ever be without actively being dead and in hell.
Sanchez: Coachella has inauthentic allure
no matter what coalition approaches me i just tell them i voted for them and they leave me alone. it's pretty effective.
I once told someone I voted for Satan.
If you feel like an idiot. I wore 2 layers on a 72 degree day.
headphones and not looking up high enough to make eye contact works like charm
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hilary duff is so angsty.
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I love dads.
My mom keeps trying to take pictures of me and my dad at dinner and she caught me complaining.
I'm an office supplies whore
Last night when I got home at 1:30, my roommates had deadbolted the front door and didn't let me in until 2:15 am
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Illustration by Erica Gonzales/KANSAN
▶ SANDRA SANCHEZ
@sssanchez26
Friday marked the beginning of Coachella, a two-weekend, multimillion-dollar music festival which has become a haven for celebrities and indie partygoers alike. The music festival is iconic for its boho-chic fashion and culturally appropriating headdresses, bindis and dashikis. Masquerading as a celebration with free-form, hippie-like atmosphere, in reality the festival is restricted by its high ticket and lodging fees and requires a hefty purse to attend. Even celebrities who
have pioneered the Coachella vibe are reportedly paid by brands like Lacoste to showcase their clothing while attending, furthering the Coachella illusion.
Coachella has capitalized on this authenticity, the feeling that other large festivals like Burning Man and Stagecoach have also pioneered. These festivals take place in desert-like conditions far from cities
- Coachella is nearly 125 miles from Los Angeles and are relatively isolated, providing concertgoers with the feeling that their experience is unique and organic. Escapism is a powerful tool, and what Coachella has been able to do is refashion it into a money-making enterprise.
The first Coachella festival took place in 1999. It was not only created to save a failing concert promotion company, but also to take up Woodstock's declining popularity, as it had become marred by controversy and violence. The first festival was described by one newspaper as an "attempt to create a user-friendly, European-style regional music festival," in the valley of southern California, combining music performance with art exhibition.
Escapism is a powerful tool, and what Coachella has been able to do is refashion it into a money-making enterprise."
The location of the festival has undoubtedly given it its success, providing enough atmosphere and landscape as an antithesis from city life. The festival's name actually refers to the valley, but originally was a mistaken transcription of the Spanish conchilla,
meaning small shell, referring to the area's once rich seabed. In the 70s, the Coachella Valley was prominent for being the home of struggling rural Mexican and Filipino farm workers, who joined in widespread boycotts of California's grape harvests, highlighting migration issues and fighting for better labor unions.
Today, the festival has cultivated the valley's brand such that its name is even legally claimed, and many do not remember or know of the area's history.
In our age of social media, image is everything. Coachella in many ways has embodied this. The idea that everything and everyone has a brand that must be perfected and advertised has led to Coachella's success as a sold experience. Drawing from its ability to portray an ideal life of hippiedom, Coachella has marketed the authentic so many of us crave.
In our daily lives of struggle, stress about jobs, school, finances, imagining some other paradise just beyond the Rocky Mountains calls to each of us. The idea of a utopia is not a new one, and indeed many before us have shared in this glorification. From responding to industrialization, urbanity, and technology, it seems that humans have a natural tendency to want to run away to nature and find themselves again.
In wandering forests, hiking mountains, or partying in the sweltering heat to the beat of Lady Gaga, people can find meaning again in experience. But we have to remember that behind the music and beyond the image is reality, and that authenticity must be paid for.
Sandra Sanchez is a junior studying global and international studies, history and Chinese.
Liston: Local history should be appreciated
RYAN LISTON
@rliston235
In 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state: a state that prohibited slavery. Today, Lawrence is often heralded as a model community for tolerating and welcoming diversity. Yet the difficulties leading
to the state's admittance and the racial and social problems that persisted in the area for decades after are sometimes overlooked.
The Watkins Museum of History at 1047 Massachusetts Street contains exhibits that display the state and Douglas County's contentious history. From the drafting of a state constitution to Vietnam War protests in Lawrence, the museum highlights events that occurred during times of social and political conflict.
state and, more specifically, Douglas County. Douglas County, Lawrence and the University of Kansas have not always been tolerant to diversity. We need to learn from the issues of the past and apply those lessons to today's political and social climate.
Students should visit the museum to learn about the struggles that have shaped the history of our
Learning history helps us avoid regressing from the social gains we have made and improve upon our current standing. To fight for the rights of marginalized and underrepresented groups, we need to look at the successes and failures of social movements in our community throughout time.
Learning history helps us avoid regressing from the social gains we have made and improve upon our current standing."
The past shapes the present and the present shapes the future. As a society, we have to strive to continually improve our communities. Abolitionists, civil rights leaders and students in Douglas County fought to make progress on critical issues. Students today can learn from these efforts and apply them to their own advocacy and activism. Visiting Watkins Museum can help by exposing the flaws that existed and by emphasizing the values that have grown in our community.
Ryan Liston is a sophomore from Lawrence studying journalism and political science.
Edited by Paola Alor
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