THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011
PAGE 5A
opinion
K-State was in the tournament?
I spent no time on my bracket and it's busted. You spent two days researching and your bracket is busted. Hence, you might as well flip a coin to see who wins.
If FFA were no longer anonymous, there would probably be fewer comments regarding the use of one's genitalia.
I love how Charles Barkley calls the Morris twins "The Lawfirm." Haha.
Did I stutter? You are a dirty pirate hooker.
Spring break in Columbia, Missouri?
Worst idea ever.
Like a pretty girl has ever let you in her car.
It's a fact: The prettier the girl, the messier the car.
Good news, I just saved a ton of money on condoms by switching to your girlfriend's birth control!!
I bought some AXE today, I better get some hair action.
I don't know what's making me more paranoid. The reefer coming from across the hall or the soundtrack to "The Social Network."
Damnit, it says "say something clever," not "complain about your love life."
McColllum is creepy when it's empty.
That's what I get for coming back a day early.
I figured it out. We've gotten it all wrong men. If you make a woman a sandwich, she will have sex with you.
Why do Jersey Shore and KU basketball have to end around the same time? What the hell are KU students supposed to do with their free time?
We just couldn't stop that cinderella magic, but I still love my hawks! F.O.E.
I call you super soaker because you wet the bed until you were 20.
Speaking of gingers and their superiority,props to fellow ginger Mike Bruesewitz for his dagger against KSU.
Dear windshield wipers, can't touch this! Sincerely, the Little Triangle.
I accidentally booked three different hookups tonight in St. Louis. I need to fire my secretary.
I told myself that I'd be productive and use spring break to catch up on my schoolwork...I caught up on my sleep instead. Productive!
Noooooooooo, I am graduating next year and my plans of joining 50,000 jayhawks on Mass. Street is now ruined :{(This was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What have I done wrong to deserve this GOD?
Self is still my hero.
some bands must sell out to loosen Internet chains
POP CULTURE
Inevitably in interviews the music journalist must ask the musician, "What's next?" Typically near the end of a Q & A session, the query satisfies a reader's inherent need to know if their band is making progress on a new masterpiece, something that doesn't sound too different, or too similar from the substantially YouTubed song that got them the interview.
Often musicians answer in the same vague terms a recent graduate would use to field career questions from well-intentioned relatives: "We're trying some things out right now," "trying to get our name out there some more" or "just trying to take things one day at a time."
I used to ask this question as an interviewer for an online publication. Generally jovial talks, the mood seemed to shift whenever the future was brought up. Even the most quotable troubadours would suddenly become reticent, offering Dylanesque pranksterisms to their sneakers, or reciting answers equally as worn as the pockets for which their hands sought shelter.
I could never desensitize myself from either answer. I felt like the jackass who was prying into personal lives. It was
BY MATTHEW MARSAGLIA
mmarsaglia@kansan.com
likely the same question whispered by loved ones during lulls in long distance phone calls, or in emails from parents notifying them of deposits; the internal conflict faced everyday in self-reflective stints superimposed against the fleeting image of some American landscape.
An honest answer would be complicated.
Two years ago, Das Racist appeared to be just another Brooklyn-based, private-school educated, avoiding-pressures-of-drudging into-middle-class-mundanity
It was bittersweet when I read "Das Racist" on the Granada's billboard in early March. While excited I only had to go a few blocks to see them, a part of me wished they were playing bigger venues by now.
band of the week. A friend introduced me to their music, and I was hooked. Weeks later, their song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" was going viral on YouTube and in the following months, their exposure bleed beyond blog press and into mediums with donors. Over the last two years, however, they've remained more or less within in an Internet contagion, unable to reach that Gladwellian timing point.
This scares me for a few reasons. I need them to sell out. I need them to leave the Internet.
To a certain extent, I live vicariously through the few bands I've followed from backpack heroes to Volkswagen commercials. I live vicariously because I appreciate the risks musicians take that I myself am afraid. In this sense, I want them to do well, because I know they'd be forced into a job they'd hate if they weren't able to break into the edges of the mainstream.
But I also encourage their ascendancy for a selfish reason: I need to see them gain popularity, because I understand that if they don't, I won't be able to live vicariously through their fortitude, and, consequently, I'd experience another
example of realism without a musical beacon generations before seemed to use as a crutch.
My Internet upbringing has taught me that if a meme remains on the Internet, there's a better chance its half-life will be a few minutes more. Nicki Minaj and Phoenix were once a struggle to find, but since they made it to Cadillac commercials and SNL skits, I've been able to listen to them without trying.
And I don't mind this popularity or ubiquity. I derive a distinguished pleasure out of tracking an interest that gains exposure — perhaps the defining sensation of the nascent century.
But I think my involvement is ultimately rooted in an oscillation between understanding and despising bands who allow themselves to "sell out" (i.e. make money), because I jostle with a similar decision, the choice between realism and idealism, adherence and choice — the curious curse of the middle class.
Marsaglia is a senior in English from Naperville,Ill.
In related news, Das Racist plays Wednesday at the Granada. Support a fix.
COMMENTARY
Basketball brings different kinds of students together
I never went to my high school's basketball games. I think we sucked big time or something — I dunno, I wasn't involved in the soap opera that was Mulvane High School's "Rowdie" Crowd (that's just the way they spell "rowdie" in Southern Kansas). The main reason is because I had forgotten sports when I started listening to Good Charlotte and putting on mascara as eyeliner (make-up is confusing!) when I turned 13. But even when I grew out of my weird emo phase, I never went back to getting any enjoyment out of sports. Until I came to KU. I found myself swept up in the insanity of KU basketball.
If I said this strange phenomenon was simply because I go to KU, that would be partially right. There's something definitely rad about seeing Barack Obama choose Kansas to win in his bracket. And it's fun to see everyone tweeting up #kubball storms. However, there's more to it than this. I think in a corny way, it feels like everyone at KU is a part of it.
To reiterate, I don't enjoy sports. Like at all. The commercials don't even really make the Super Bowl worth it for me – and I love good commercials (thanks, "Mad Men"). I would much rather watch three thousand episodes of Amanda Bynes' trainwreck/sitcom "What I Like About You" than watch a baseball game. But I have fallen in love with KU basketball.
I didn't really start watching basketball until I moved in with my roommates last year - both huge KU basketball fans. They watched every game, and by association of living with them, I watched a ton of games too. I even watched that heart-shredding UNI game during the tournament. And it was a mad-ass letdown. I felt pain, because a basketball team lost. It was a strange, strange feeling.
I was like, "Am I turning into a were-wolf?" Then I was like, "No, I think I just felt something from watching a sport." This
BY CHANCE CHARMICHAEL
charmichael.kansan.com
year I don't have the same roommates. I live with someone who is just as disinterested in sports as I am, but I've started watching the games on my own. I think it's more than simply going to KU - I think it's feeling like a part of it. I see those pictures of Mass. Street when KU won in 2008, and I want that so badly. I want all of the students (who aren't fuddy-duddies) to come together, and celebrate being a part of The University of Kansas. That'd be rad.
I understand now that liking sports must suck hardcore – especially if you like a team like the 49ers (drum rimshot, right?) Okay, I tried, but I really don't know anything about football) – because when you lose it can almost feel like you've failed. And that's why Sunday sucked a megaton - even moreso than last year. I know it will be a year now before we get another shot at that championship and it feels bad, man. But it's exhilarating to root for such an awesome team, and hopefully it will be worth it someday. Because it'll feel like we all won, damn it. Those of you who cringe like the nerd you are at the word "sports," give KU basketball a shot. It can be exciting.
Chance Carmichael is a junior in creative writing from Mulvane. Follow Chance on Twitter @ChanceComical.
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James Naismith's Original Rules of Basketball will be on display at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art until May 29. Where should the rules go after that?
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COMMENTARY
Now, I am very glad to be an American citizen. It is my opinion that people will continue to argue with one another no matter how good their lives are. If there ever were to be a real
Stubbornness gets in the way of change
I don't agree with either article completely, but there was something about those two ideas that seem to fit together.
I'm sure there are some people who are actually concerned about manufacturers of incandescent light bulbs losing their jobs, and there are some people who dislike compact fluorescent light bulbs for rational reasons but for the most part. I think this is just about people being afraid of change.
Utopia, I imagine it wouldn't be a place where all arguments have been settled, but rather a place where people only have ridiculous things left to argue about.
Earlier this month, I read two interesting articles on the New York Times' website. The first article, "Let There Be More Efficient Light," made the argument that government-mandated efficiency standards for light bulbs would help our country despite the vocal protests against them. The second article, "The Modesty Manifesto," stated research claimed Americans' confidence is higher than it was in previous eras.
When I hear we have people in Congress arguing about light bulbs it makes me think we must at least be on the right track.
That being said, resistance to light bulb efficiency standards is the worst symptom of overconfidence: Stubbornness.
We aren't just afraid of changing our light bulbs either. Do you remember a little more than 10 years ago when many countries in Europe adopted the international euro as their currency? I can't imagine a situation in which the U.S. would be willing to give up its dollar even if it was in all of our best interests.
I don't even need to use hypothetical situations. What about the metric system? We've had more than 200 years to adjust to it, and we still treat it like a punch line. That's what I call being stubborn.
I'm not saying that I don't understand. For example, I own 15 video game consoles and as someone who owns that many consoles, I can tell you no one actually needs 15 of them. I've collected them out of a sense of nostalgia, a fear that I won't be able to play my favorite games if I get rid of them, and a sense that they're a symbol of pride for my favorite hobby. It's a form of stubbornness.
Ben Holladay is a senior in journalism from Mulvane.
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