4 -- Friday, March 25, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4 - Friday, March 25, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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STEPHANIE STEINBERG
EDITOR IN CHIEF
MICHELLE DEWITT
and EMILY ORLEY
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
KYLE SWANSON
MANAGING EDITOR
0
6
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FICOM TH L DAILY
Save Hollywood North
Snyder shouldn't cut Michigan film tax credits
Part of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's recently proposed bud-
get cuts includes the termination of the popular Michigan
film incentive. According to Snyder, this cut was just one of
the many tax incentives that were slashed in order to "level the play-
ing field." That creed may be applicable to other industries within the
crippled Michigan economy, but to the film industry, this cut won't
level the playing field as much as it will potentially eliminate it.
A Black' Friday
Implemented in April 2008, the Michigan
film tax incentive has not only boosted the
state's economy, but it has also singlehandedly
brought a new industry to Michigan. The cred-
its gave a substantial amount of tax incentives
to those in the movie industry interested in
filming in Michigan. This taxbreak - the larg-
est of its kind in the United States - covered up
to 42 percent of the production costs involved
with the filming of a movie. In its three-year
existence, the plan has resulted in more than
135 productions and has cost the state approxi-
mately $304 million, only $96 million of which
has been paid out, according to a Feb. 17 Free
Press article. This, compared to the more than
$649 million in revenue that the tax break has
generated, is more than enough reason to ques-
tion its recent termination.
The recent slash of the film tax incentive
will inevitably devastate the currently boom-
ing Michigan film industry. At a time when
most industries in the state are failing, the
film industry has become what some have
begun to call "Hollywood North." In its brief
existence, this blossoming industry has cre-
ated more than 6,763 film production-related
jobs, along with more than 4,000 jobs for
extras, according to the Free Press. While
abandoned industrial buildings continue to
plague the state, a former Pontiac car plant
is being filled with the new, state-of-the-art
$80 million Raleigh Michigan Studios, which
plans to open this spring. This massive infra-
structural improvement, along with two
other smaller studios already in operation, is
aidingthe Michigan economy.
The state must also recognize the restau-
rants, hotels and countless local businesses
that have undoubtedly benefited from the tax
incentives. The movie sets give an incredible
economic and morale boost to cities, as wit-
nessed in Ann Arbor during last week's film-
ing of George Clooney's coming movie, "Ides
of March." This recent production briefly
employed many of our peers and inevitably
helped the local Ann Arbor community.
If Snyder wishes to implement much-
needed budget cuts, he must do it in a reason-
able fashion. Instead of examining the many
Michigan tax incentives in a fine-tuned and
reasonable manner, Snyder decided to blithely
eliminate many of the tax incentives offered
by the state. In some ways, these budget cuts
are much needed, but the film tax incentive
should be an exception. As President Barack
Obama has repeatedly stated, we must make
budget cuts "with a scalpel, not a machete."
The elimination of the Michigan film tax
incentive fully exemplifies what the president
is trying to prevent.
Someone call Don McLean -
we'll be singing bye-bye to
Miss American Pie very soon.
It's said that McLean was talking
about the day
Buddy Holly
passed when he
wrote his 1971
song "American
Pie." I say that's
possible, but I -
prefer to think
that McLean was ERIC
actually a time SZKARLAT
traveler. After a
trip to 2011, he
came back and
sat down to write about the day the
music died - or, rather, the day that
Rebecca Black wrote the song "Fri-
day."
The video was featured on Com-
edy Central's "Tosh.O," where its
notoriety began. It then went viral,
exploding all over the world and
being watched by people who merely
wished to ridicule it. Black's lyrics,
melody, voice and awkward dancing
seeped into our brains and got stuck
in our heads. To Black, the catchi-
ness of the tune, and those who can't
get it out of their heads, represents
a sort of poetic justice - those peo-
ple who've made fun of her deserve
to have the most hated song in the
world stuck in their head. To listen-
ers, it's motivation for a homicidal
rampage. (But don't expect that to
hold up in court.)
Maybe Black should've taken a
note out of Ke$ha's book. Ke$ha
is one of the most well known art-
ists on the scene right now. Black
could really benefit from following
Ke$ha's example of ridiculous lyrics
- many of which concern partying
- boring melodies, annoying voice
and heavy reliance on Auto-tune
software. Ke$ha is a popular record-
ing artist and Rebecca Black is a
nothing. All she needs to do is take
advantage of all the things Ke$ha's
taken advantage of.
Alright - quiz time. Have you
studied? I'll give you the refrain
from a popular song. You have to tell
me: What is the most hated song of
the following?
A) LMFAO - "Shots"
Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots,
shots, shots, shots, shots, shots,
shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots
- EVERYBODY! (repeat)
B) DJ Khaled - "All I Do is Win"
Everybody hands go up - and
they stay there, and they say yeah,
and they stay there, up, down, up
down. Cause all I do iswin, win, win,
and if you goin' in, put your hands in
the air!
C) Rebecca Black - "Friday"
It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down
on Friday. Everybody's looking for-
ward to the weekend, weekend. Fri-
day, Friday, getting down on Friday.
Everybody's looking forward to the
weekend.
D) Ke-dollar sign-ha - "Tik Tok"
Don't stop, make it pop, DJ blow
my speakers up tonight, I'ma fight,
'til we see the sunlight. Tick, tock on
the clock, but the party don't stop.
(guttural sounds)
E) Rihanna - "Umbrella"
You can stand under my umbrella.
You can stand under my umbrella,
ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.
The correct answer, if you hadn't
guessed, is C. Did you pass? Good for
you. You get an extra point added to
your GPA. I'll let president Mary Sue
Coleman know. Power of the press,
and all that.
What really sets Black's "Friday"
apart from the other examples is
her annoying voice. Wait - Ke$ha
whines her way through "Tik Tok."
But Black's lyrics are more bor-
ing than the rest. Wait - LMFAO's
"Shots" aren't exactly a pinnacle of
lyricism. But her melody - wait.
Almost every song on the list fea-
tures passages where the vocal line
rests continuously on one note. But
her reliance on Auto-tune - never
mind.
Popular music
has reached a
new low.
Well, now we've got a problem.
What really makes Black unique?
Why is she most hated? Ok, she
spends the bridge of the song list-
ing the days of the week. Yeah,
that's it. She says, "Monday, Tues-
day, Wednesday and Thursday, Fri-
day, Saturday, Saturday to Sunday."
Yeah, that's it. She is stupid because
she sang that. Or was that the Black
Eyed Peas? I can't keep them straight
these days.
Now it's starting to look to me as
if Black is merely following the tra-
dition of those brilliant artists who
have preceded her. She's not the
outlier. She's the culmination of all
the music that has immediately pre-
ceded her. She was merely raised on
the music of the party. She is where
the music industry is presently. We
shouldn'thate her. We should glorify
her achievements.
Popular music, thy name is
Rebecca Black.
-Eric Szkarlat can be
reached at eszkarla@umich.
I
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Aida Ali, Will Butler, Ellie Chessen, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer,
Melanie Kruvelis, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley,
Harsha Panduranga, Teddy Papes, Asa Smith, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner
ERIKA MAYERI
a
-he Happy, Healthy Women: Anny Fang argues the need for
affirmative action to protect Women.
pod UiIumGo to michigandaily.com/blogs/The Podium
ANNA CLEMENTS|
Kiss me, I'm an immigrant
A 'foolish' bill
The Most Ridiculously Unconstitutional
Attempt award for March was won by the New
Hampshire Republican Party for its attempt
to ban college students from elections. The
state's Speaker of the House, William O'Brien,
also takes the title of Most in Need of a Men-
tal Filter with his astonishing comment that
students are "foolish" and "vote their feel-
ings" because they are "liberal," which was of
course caught on tape and widely circulated
on YouTube. His general position is that stu-
dents in New Hampshire flood the polls and
skew the results with their "plethora of the
easy self-confidence that only ignorance and
inexperience can produce." He would rather
that college students vote according to their
parents' residency status.
College students aren't desirable voters,
despite all attempts to mobilize them. Even in
our liberal Ann Arbor, elections are timed to
exclude college voters. While ostensibly mov-
ing the election to October so students could
vote, the city moved the primaries to the sum-
mer - and in a one-party city, that's all that
matters. Now, I'm still registeredtovote where
I graduated high school, but to me this seems
a little screwed up. If it weren't for these big
universities with thousands of students, cities
like Ann Arbor would be nothing but a blip on
the radar. But apparently politicians don't see
it that way, and they care more about pushing
their interests through than factoring in the
thousands of students who live there Septem-
ber through May.
Thankfully, O'Brien's bill has been killed,
but New Hampshire's GOP leadership omi-
nously promises that the issue will continue to
be a priority. There are so many things wrong
with this it's impossible to know where to
start. For one, students generally live in their
college town for at least eight months outof the
year, which is plenty long enough for them to
be more concerned about what happens there
than in their hometowns. And calling some of
the best-educated people in the county "fool-
ish" demonstrates something about O'Brien's
IQ. Yes, students are inexperienced, but so
are housewives who have never left their own
town - and we still let themvote. Just because
you don't like how a personvotes doesn't mean
you can take awaytheir vote. Maybe instead of
attacking students, the GOP should try actual-
ly listening to the concerns of students and, oh
I don't know, try to attract that demographic.
Yes, O'Brien gives reasons that he suppos-
edly believes to be true as grounds for barring
college students from voting. But truthfully,
it's just a poorly veiled attempt to eliminate the
votes of a demographic that doesn't tradition-
ally support the GOP. For that matter, maybe
he should advocate for repealing women's suf-
frage because women also tend to support the
Democrats. Somehow I don't think that one
would make it through the legislature.
But for me, perhaps the most ridiculous part
of this cluster of a bill is that college students
don't vote enough for this to be a real problem.
They're constantly the least mobilized, least
active age group in the nation. In the 2010
midterm election, only 19 percent of the under
age 30 demographic turned out to vote in
New Hampshire, according to CIRCLE. Col-
lege voters are hardly tipping the scale. If any
group is a threat, it's the retired set. But wait,
retirees usually vote conservative.
This plan seems to be nothingbut a targeted
attempt to exclude supporters of another party
from voting in elections. And the last time I
checked, that's illegal and seriously frowned
upon. We live in a democracy where, for bet-
ter or worse, all citizens get to vote. If O'Brien
doesn't like that then maybe he shouldn't be
allowed to make laws. I, for one, hope that in
the next election New Hampshire students
turn out en masse to "foolishly" elect anyone
who isn't a Republican.
Erika Mayer is an LSA junior.
On March 17 every year, Irish heritage becomes a point
of pride for people across the United States and beyond.
Particularly inthe U.S., where almost everyone has immi-
grant ancestry, there's a certain dignity gained through
the ability to identify percentages or surnames of rela-
tives that indicate Irish ancestry. Having lived in Ireland
briefly as a child, and having a mother who emigrated
from there, have earned me social points for as long as
I've been in school in the U.S. Since kindergarten, people
have been excited to hear of my experiences and to share
their relevant family background. The care that people
take to preserve their Irishness seems almost inversely
proportional to other immigrant groups (at least in their
public images), who are often strongly encouraged .to
assimilate. Does this seem at all hypocritical?
An article by Gregory Rodriguez, published in The
Los Angeles Times in 2007, titled "Illegal? Better if
you're Irish," details the relative luxury enjoyed by
contemporary Irish illegal immigrants compared with
those of other nationalities. He explains that "Irish ille-
gals do have a slight advantage. It's all in the stereotypes
- race-based, language-based, class-based." This hasn't
always been the case, however. In 19th century Detroit,
some shops had signs stating "No Irish Need Apply," but
there were fewer signs here than in the eastern states.
In those days, the T-shirt slogans so common nowadays,
"Proud Irish," "Irish Princess" and "I'm so Irish I Bleed
Whiskey," to name a few, would have been absurd. Com-
paratively, while it's possible to find "Everyone Loves a
Latina Girl" T-shirts online, the concept isn't nearly as
common as to become cliche, like Irish-American pride
has become.
The fact that Irish heritage is respected so much in
this country means that it's relatively inoffensive to
equate Irish culture with stereotypes that would other-
wise have negative connotations - they're often thought
of as traditional and superstitious, easily agitated, and
above all, drunk. If they didn't enjoy such high social
status in our culture, then joking about negative conno-
tations associated with the Irish wouldn't be acceptable;
if there were a "drunk Arab" stereotype, joking about it
would still be unacceptable (or would at least be enor-
mously disrespectful). Maybe part of the reason that it's
acceptable to joke about the Irish has to do with their
longstanding establishment here in the U.S.
Historic discrimination may be a source of respect
now. People are proud of the fact that they come from
a long line of people who have worked to get their fam-
ily where it is now. The "my family has worked hard
for generations to get me where I am today" line gets
used to excuse people from empathizing with mod-
ern immigrants, whose ancestors may not have con-
tributed directly to the development of this country
- though with modern globalized political and econom-
ic networks, people's actions affect foreign nations more
directly than before. However, ancestral labor shouldn't
be used to create a cultural hierarchy; if so, then we
would become like the societies of old, with aristocra-
cies based on history, rather than wealth based on labor
and innovation.
Many of the Irish immigrants came here before social
security and food stamps and Medicaid and before
labor standards prevented them from being used as
cheap labor. The U.S. needed people to build railroads;
the Irish needed jobs. Is it modern labor standards that
have changed our attitudes toward immigrants (or
rather, caused the difference between our retrospec-
tive opinions of our ancestry and our current stance on
immigrants today)? Though immigrants are still often
exploited for their willingness to work for low wages,
the practice isn't as socially and legally accepted as it
was in the days of the Irish potato famine. Furthermore,
once immigrants acquire a Green Card, they're eligible
for social security, financial aid for higher education and
other benefits.
Though there are differences between current immi-
gration to the U.S. - and the Irish immigration trends
of the late 19th and early 20th centuries - we shouldn't
forget their similarities. Both groups have been viewed
as second-class citizens. Both are pursuing some sort of
American dream, living out the hope which composes a I
central part of our national identity (just ask President
Barack Obama about that). And finally, both groups of
immigrants are a crucial part of U.S. culture. We must
not forget that, in taking pride in our heritage, it's this
nation's history of immigration that we celebrate.
Anna Clements is an LSA junior.
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