The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, November 3, 2011 - 3B

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, November 3, 2011 - 3B

The finest
and the best

B ehold, the newest
forum for college gos-
sip: collegesfinest.com.
Created by three students
from Michigan State Univer-
sity, this
website
allows
students to
compare
images of
guys and
girls to find
the "fin- HALEY
est" at their GOLDBERG
university.
It's a simple
concept: Users click on their
college of choice (currently
limited to Michigan State and
the University of Michigan)
to compare students. They
then select "Compare Guys"
or "Compare Girls," and two
images of students appear,
giving the option to choose
the "finest"
This new forum of gossip
came to me in a Belgian waffle
haze, as I sat down in the Hill
Dining Center ready to dig
into the Michigan-branded
delight I just made. A guy
pushed a neon-colored flyer
into my face with the words
"Colleges' Finest" flashing
at the top. After he left, my
roommate and I began bash-
ing the website, saying it
was shallow and immature.
But when we went up to our
room and I logged onto the
site, something amazing hap-
pened: I couldn't stop rating
the guys and girls at our Uni-
versity!
My comments of "This is so
stupid" and "Why would any-
one post their picture on this
website?" quickly turned into
"guy on the left" and "guy on
the right" as I was sucked into
the concept of Colleges' Fin-
est. I didn't want to compare
my peers, but this website just
made it so darn easy!
Of course, since the site
is new, it has its downsides.
There are so few pictures of
men and women that almost
every time, I was shown
either the picture of a man
holding a swaddled baby or
a bro on a Jet Ski. Also, the
forum the website has set
up for people to post about
the finest bars and cafeterias
on campus is majorly lack-
ing. Nonetheless, I was still
addicted to rating my peers.
But the reality of the web-
site suddenly set in when an
image of a girl flashed upon
my screen: a friend from one
of my classes. Although the
website fully told me I was
judging my peers, it initially
seemed so distant from me,
mostly since I didn't recog-
nize the man holding the baby
or the Jet Ski bro. But now,
judging the appearance of
someone I knew? That was
too much.
4 I could have selected her
as the finer choice, possibly
putting her in the running
for finest girl of the week/
month, but I couldn't do it
- I couldn't judge someone
I knew in that way. And as
I exited the website, I won-
dered: If in reality I don't
judge people, then why is it
so easy for me to do so in an

online forum?

My mind flashed back
to the scene in "The Social
Network," when a drunken
Mark Zuckerberg creates
Facemash, and people across
the Harvard campus indulge
in comparing their peers by
rating who is better looking.
The commonalities between
Zuckerberg's Facemash and
Colleges' Finest are endless.
It's easy to click right and
left, deciding who is better-
looking out of an endless sea
of unknown peers. I maybe
alone, but realizing I'm judg-
ing people I know just makes
the whole process a lot more
shameful. And for me, the
fact that the name, school
and Greek life affiliation of
these people appears after a
user selects their image just
makes the website that much
more offensive. These are real
people, and I don't want to
play a part in judging them on
that basis.
It's no fun to
judge people
you know.
On its website, Colleges'
Finest advertises itself as a
place where users can "view
data about college life, for
example, the best looking stu-
dent bodies around America"
- but what's the purpose of
selecting the best looking
person at our school? I'm not
denying that seeing our school
rated finest over Michigan
State wouldn't instigate a
sense of pride, but in reality,
does it really matter?
Furthermore, in order to be
ranked the finest, University
students have to go on the
website and compare images
of ourselves to Michigan State
students. Without knowing
which schools the two images
are from, we must select our
students as more attractive
in order to move up the rank-
ings. While we may deem our-
selves as the most physically
appealing, the notion of our
peers judging others so mate-
rialistically is more of an ugly
characteristic than an attrac-
tive trait of our University
student body.
Again, I admit to succumb-
ing to the intoxicating design
of the website and the ease
with which a user can rate
a person with the click of a
button. But it's blatantly obvi-
ous this gossip website serves
no true purpose, other than
making the idea of passing
judgments seem acceptable.
The Jet Ski bro, the man hold-
ing the swaddled baby and all
the students on collegesfinest.
com are real people. And even
though they subject them-
selves to judgment by posting
their pictures on the website,
I believe our peers and our
establishment deserve more
than a rating on looks toube
deemed the "finest" and the
best.
Goldberg is scoping you
out on Facemash. Scold her

at hsgold@umich.edu.

STARKID
From Page lB
without stopping - was a suc-
cess. The Basement Arts audi-
ences were treated to the magic
of Voldemort dancing a jig, Ron's
endless caloric intake and Draco
Malfoy (played by Lopez) slither-
ing around on stage, and the cast
and crew went home happy.
"We didn't even expect people
to show up to the show," Richter
said. "It was just for fun, and even
after the show it was an, 'OK, that
was fun. It's over. What a good
time we had."'
The video that launched
a million hits
The decision to put the "Harry
Potter" musical on YouTube was
motivated by geographic and eco-
nomic necessity. The mostly grad-
uated cast had gone off to start
careers in New York City and Los
Angeles and wanted to be able to
share the show with friends and
family, so the cheapness and con-
venience of YouTube was prefer-
able to creating and distributing
DVDs.
Their stardom ignited when
links to the videos were sent to
friends at "Harry Potter" news
sites, including MuggleNet and
The Leaky Cauldron. With the
huge traffic and influence of these
websites in the Harry Potter fan
community - along with the
impending theatrical release of
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince" just weeks later - the vid-
eos became an instant sensation.
At the time, Walker was mak-
ing a road trip from Los Angeles to
New York and deciding which city
to settle in.
"Literallythe day after I left L.A.
they put it up on YouTube, and by
the time I got into New York, it had
300,000 views," Walker said.
Other cast members couldn't
stay away from the computer, con-
stantly checking the number of
views.
"Every day, I was like, 'Oh, but
this is where people will forget
about us,' "Lopez said. "Everytime
the numbers went up and up and
up onthe views, I thought, 'Butcthis
is the cap. It can't get any higher,'
and it kept going."
The true brunt of their fame hit
the cast later that summer when
some of the actors decided to go
to the "Harry Potter" convention
Azkatraz in San Francisco.
"Right as we walked into the
main entrance there were people
who knew us," said 2009 alum
Dylan Saunders, who played
Dumbledore in the "Potter" musi-
cals. "It was very jarring ... they
hadthis'I've seen you on YouTube'
kind of aura."
Holden, who co-wrote all the
StarKid productions and played
Remus Lupin in "A Very Potter
Sequel," recalled an impromptu
performance they did at the con-
vention.
"One day, Darren had his guitar,
and we did a little sing-along with
50 people," Holden said. "And we
were like '50 people, holy shit!' We
were just thrilled ... that had never
happened to us before."
It was eerily familiar, this sud-
den realization that people knew
who these University students
were - it almost seemed to paral-
lel Harry's revelation in "Sorcerer's
Stone" that everyone in the wiz-

arding community knew who he
was.
The production originally had
the generic moniker, "Harry Pot-
ter, the Musical," But when the

Last February marked the premiereof StarKid's first independent production, "Starship."

videos were uploaded on YouTube,
StarKid discovered the name broke
copyright laws, so the videos were
taken down and retitled "A Very
Potter Musical."
This was also around the
time the group took on the name
StarKid. The YouTube user name
and Twitter handle were created
as "StarKidPotter," a reference
to Draco's line in "A Very Potter
Musical": "Look at this, look at
rocket ship Potter! Starkid Potter,
moon shoes Potter, traversing the
galaxy for intergalactic travels to
Pigfarts!" The name stuck.
Fall came, and the creative forc-
es behind the production wanted
to tap into this newfound fame and
momentum. The newly dubbed
Team StarKid put on the musical
"Me and My Dick" in October 2009,
starring Richter as a (presumably)
fictional version of himself and
Walker as his titular appendage.
The show was based on a rough
version called "The Penis Play" cre-
ated during the annual "24 Hour
Theater" display in fall 2008.
The soundtrack to "Me and My
Dick" was a raging success, debut-
ing on the Billboard Top Cast
Album chart at number 11. More
importantly, it proved StarKid had
an audience beyond what its mem-
bers had imagined.
"That was like,'Oh, they're actu-
ally looking at our other work, and
it's not just Harry Potter-related,' "
said 2010 alum Jamie Lyn Beatty,
who played Sally in the show. "'Me
and My Dick' is as far as you can get
from a Harry Potter musical, and
we still got people tuning in and
watching and singing the songs
and listening to the album."
The nextstep was "A Very Potter
Sequel," continuingthe adventures
of Harry, Ron and Herman - par-
don - Hermione through song and
dance. And though StarKid was
now on the map, the group didn't
fret about higher expectations.
"The first one was such a fuck-
around, (it was hard to imagine)
the idea that now there's an expec-
tation," Walker said. "If such a
high bar was set by accident, you
go, 'Can't be that hard of a bar to
meet.'"
"A Very Potter Sequel" was per-
formed in May 2010, with produc-
tion starting after classes ended so
the student cast members could
rehearse and perform without
schoolwork on their minds. The
video forthe sequel premiered later
that summer at the Harry Potter
convention Infinitus in Orlando,
eternally gracing the world with
Severus "Butt Trumpet" Snape
(2009 alum Joe Moses) and Walker
as uber-man Umbridge.

To Chicago and beyond
When the Potter sequel was
done, the future of StarKid wasn't
immediately clear.
"We were all pretty depressed,"
Beatty said. "We were like, 'Gosh,
we are at our happiestwhen we're
with each other and when we're
performing these shows ... In an
ideal world wouldn't it be won-
derful if we could all create a
mini-Ann Arbor somewhere else,
just do these shows for the rest of
our lives?'"
These wishes soon came true,
as members of Starkid decided
to take a giant leap and continue
the company beyond the Univer-
sity. Last fall, members relocated
to Chicago a city with an estab-
lished, youth-driven theater scene
and a relatively affordable life-
style, and where members could
focus on productions rather than
balance full-time jobs to pay rent.
StarKid's first independent
production premiered last Febru-
ary, a "Starship Troopers"-riffing
space odyssey called "Starship."
The show continued the streak of
success, selling out within a mat-
ter of days, but the professional
world came with brand new chal-
lenges.
"It was the first time we had
to rent the theater, we had to
insure the theater, first time we
had to pay the actors and design
a full-fledged set," Saunders said.
"There were a lot of ingredients
that ... we had to suddenly come
up with on our own."
This past summer, StarKid
returned to Orlando for the
"Harry Potter" convention Leak-
yCon, performing for a crowd of
almost 3,000 fans - a nice bump
from the audience of50 two years
ago. In the spring, the group per-
formed alongside the Gregory
Brothers of "Double Rainbow"
fame, and the fun of the mini-
tour inspired StarKid to put on a
tour of its own.
After the opening night of
the S.P.A.C.E. tour tomorrow,
StarKid will continue on to 14

cites, concluding in New York
City and reuniting with Criss for
that performance. The tour fea-
tures a cast of seven including
Lopez, Richter, Walker, Saun-
ders, Holden, Beatty and 2009
alum Meredith Stepien. To open
each leg ofthe tour, they're bring-
ing along 2009 alum and singer
Charlene Kaye and her band.
"This is a chance for usto real-
ly celebrate what we've been able
to do over the last three years,
to celebrate the fans and thank
them," Albain said. "We couldn't
do it if we didn't have this incred-
ible fan base."
As Richter noted, StarKid's
ability to fill a void in the heart
of Harry Potter fandom led to its
initial success.
"Our play kind of came around
at this really opportune time to
garner a fan base, because it's a
fan base looking for more things
to be a fan of," he said. "We came
at this pristine moment where it
was like 'Man, all the books are
done, we have nothing else ... But
what is this?'"
StarKid provided that some-
thing else, an enchanting experi-
ence made for fans by fans - the
tenets for triumph in today's viral
video world. The viral platform
is a medium in which stars van-
ish as quickly as they appear, but
StarKid has sustained its suc-
cess by tapping into the hearts
of its fans. For starters, the term
"StarKid" refers not only to the
members of the performance
troupe, but to its fans as well.
"We call (the fans) StarKid,
they call us StarKid," Holden
said. "It really does help break
down the separation between
us."
The legacy of StarKid is yet
unwritten - part of it may be the
"Potter" musicals, part of it may
be "Me and My Dick" or another
gut-busting musical in the future
- but much of it will certainly be
about the group's role as torch-
bearer in a world where the divi-
sion between fan and creator is
increasingly indistinguishable.

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H--, OK

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COURTESY OF CHRIS DZOMBAK
All the founders of StarKid are alumni of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

I