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Thursday, May 22, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu
Thursday, May 22, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
IAN DILLINGHAM AARICA MARSH STEPHANIE SHENOUDA
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
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.
Waging for m--ore
The state must counter negative effects when increasing wages
ast week, the Michigan Senate passed a bipartisan bill 24-14
to raise Michigan's minimum wage from the current $7.40
to $9.20 per hour. The bill also proposes to increase tipped
employees' wages from $2.65 to $3.50 per hour-and tie future mini-
mum wage increases to the level of inflation. The bill has now moved
to the state House but not without opposition. Some dissenters claim
the increase should be more gradual while others assert the bill
doesn't do enough to help the working class. Raising the minimum
wage will undoubtedly increase individuals' quality of life. Republi-
can Gov. Rick Snyder and the House should support the legislation.
However, the state must also take action to counter any negative
effects associated with minimum wage increases.,
Onvulnerability
walkdown Ann Street each night Bulishit. As a poet and journalist, my
while the trees arc wild with job requires me to navigate this plan-
magnolia. From the porch, a man et with fear, integrity, joy, question,
smokes with tender ache. To dirty my hands with emotion.
wrists and some- I am frustrated that I am frequently
body else yells for told to "tone down" my feelings, or
more meat on the am dismissed as too angry, too gleeful.
grill. As spring- There is no such thing. So much of my
time in this city work as a writer asks me to be vulner-
begins to unbuckle able, to ask questions, to sift through
all the dirt into all these parcels of emotion. Peers or
loose greens and CARLINA co-workers often advise me to be "less
yellows, I smell A LN
baec. I lt m DUAN happy," or to write "less poems about
barbecue. I lift my Dpeanut butter and more poems about
hands. I praise the your mom." I say: Don't tell me which
rocks that huddle feeling is mine or not mine to touch.
nakedly by my feet. Vulnerability, for me, becomes a
It seems dangerously mundane to way to remain honest and bare and
constantly speak about the weather, giving. There's a culturally funky idea
but in Ann Arbor, there comes a type that to be vulnerable is to "be soft," or
of small wonder each time the sun slips that vulnerability is weak. I disagree.
over the curbs. It's awe I can't erase, and Vulnerability lifts the hard weights.
awe that's an example of the emotional No matter what field we are in, we
vulnerability I've been criticized for. have to allow ourselves to be skinned.
Recently, I was told by an acquain- We have to be embarrassed and we
tance that I "feel too much." Gnawing have to be brave. Perhaps the instanc-
on a stick of gum, he asked, "Isn't it es that I've grown the most on this
overwhelming? To always be talking campus have been moments where
about emotion? It's like, never-ending." others have taught me how to be vul-
Widening his mouth, nerable by asking
he popped a shim- difficult questions,
mery, white bubble. sharing their wide-
As we ebb into It's easy to forget ribbed truths.
classless, intern- I hope my teach-
ship-filled, work- that rush of awe at ers are vulnerable. I
tight spring, it's easy the w we love. hope my doctors are
to forget that rush e ywvulnerable. There
of awe at the way is no other way to
we love, the way we learn or heal. I want
learn. As a female writer, it's especially my dentists to be unapologetically
easy to feel pressure to "unlearn" that vulnerable with their mouths. I want
sense of emotional intimacy with the the grocer to sell me glazed donuts
world, and to exchange it for a more vulnerably. If we don't allow ourselves
scientific, calculative lens. So often, to unravel - to give vulnerably and
we're told that emotional detail and openly to one another - so much of
intimacy are frail, "soft" things. Too our navigation with the world would
much emotion can reduce our work. be meaningless.
We become rendered as sentimental British essayist Zadie Smith writes,
mush. As a female writer, I've often ."I want to find an accommodation
doubted the wild sense of vulnerabil- between telling stories about life and
ity behind my work. Am I revealing living it well." I add that in order to
too much? Am I being overemotional? claim bright stories and bright life, one
Yet, despite the risk I think vulner- must begin to unbutton all the harsh
ability strips me into, it's well worth reserve we have about "too much"
inhabiting both in literary work and in emotion. One must be vulnerable.
life. What arises from the willingness If we want to be intellectually gen-
to remain vulnerable are the more erous with one another - to love, to
muscled truths. make time, to trust, to grow - we've
As a woman of color in the class- got to deconstruct the tough masks.
room, the newsroom, the workplace, We've got to give way to vulnerability.
I have been told that it's "unprofes-
sional" for me to have such deep emo- - Carlina Duan can be reached
tional investment in my work. I claim: at lindaduan@umich.edu.
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It's guaranteed to be a good time.
Tennessee electro- duo who together form Cherub,
jamming out to "Jazzercise '95."
funk duo's new album Cherub only formed in 2010, but
since then, they have produced
is a near miss some of the funkiest shit around.
On May 19, they released their
By NICK BOYD latest album, Year of the Caprese.
DailyArts Writer Cherub is best categorized
under the heading of the infant
I remember the first time I genre "electro-funk." For the last
saw Cherub ... Oh, I remember. I few years, Cherub, and many oth-
was a scared freshman lost in the ers that the genre has to offer,
jungle of Necto. have been some of the best-kept
A small man in secrets around. Aside from their
drug rags took hit "Doses and Mimosas," off
over the middle Year of the its first album Mom and Dad,
of the dance Cherub have strayed away from
floor and per- CapreSe mainstream success. This is
formed a light Cherub more a failure on the part of soci-
show - he was ety, than on the part of Cherub.
like a mystical Columbia Records Mom and Dad is one of the best
hobbit with fire- albums of the last two years, yet
flies for fingers. it never really got the recognition
I thought he was going to eat his it deserved.
hands. He was definitely thinking Since their previous E.P., 100
about it at least. It smelled like a Bottles, was released in 2013,
Seth Rogen movie set. Sensory Cherub has done lots of incred-
overload was setting in - and just ible feature work. Their recent
when I couldn't handle any more, collaborations with producers
the funkiest bass drop in the his- Gramatik, Exmag, Big Gigantic,
tory of the universe almost killed and even west coast rapper, 100s,
me. I wheeled around, expecting have all been top-notch. Cherub
to see the headliner, Gramatik, on has the Midas touch of funk. Hav-
stage. Instead, I saw Jordan Kelly ing produced such an excellent
and Jason Huber, the Tennessee body of work over the last year, I
'Ghost Stories'
Coldplay delivers natural unavoidability of its loss.
Chris Martin struggles to accept
quiet, experimental this on Coldplay's gorgeous, medi-
tative sixth album, Ghost Stories.
new album Notice that it's Chris Martin
accepting this, not Coldplay. While
By ADAM THEISEN the group's lead singer has always
SeniorArtsEditor enjoyed the lion's share of atten-
tion, this record in particular puts
No matter how in love two peo- Martin in the spotlight and rel-
ple are, eventually, they must part, egates the other three band mem-
and somebody's heart will break. bers to the shadows. Fresh off his
When our love split with Gwyneth Paltrow - a
stories end, we're breakup that will undoubtedly be
simply left with on the minds of all fans while they
the ghosts of our Ghost listen to Ghost Stories - he spends
significant oth- the entire album wandering the
ers manifested Storlies sonic landscape, ruminating on
in memories Coldplay his broken heart with his soft,
of times past. lovely and entirely un-masculine
That being said, Atlantic Records voice. The metaphors he uses can
love is the most be a little goofy ("you're a sky full
uniquely special of stars"), and he's filled with the
thing that we as humans have, and kind of heart-on-sleeve earnestness
if we're going to experience it in all that's very easy to make fun of, but
its beauty, we have to embrace the he's still delightful, floating precari-
figured Year of the Caprese would
surely be too good to be ignored.
Sadly, Cherub's latest album lacks
the same signature funky touch
of their other work, and falls flat
amid high expectations.
This is not to say the album
is a failure - there is still much
to be enjoyed - but the 12 tracks
contain some uncharacteristic
drops in energy in the form of two
especially boring songs. "<3" and
"Strip to This" mark the midpoint
of the album. Naturally, Cherub
would try to change it up at this
point to maintain the interest of
their listeners; however; in their
attempts to do so, they produced
the two worst songs on Caprese.
"<3" has a cool beat, but the lyrics
sound like they should be coming
out of Kelly Clarkson's mouth.
"Strip to This" will not be pro-
voking many lap dances because
the lyrics are dull and the pro-
duction is in need of some Viagra.
Aside from those two poorly
timed duds, the rest of the album
comes closer to the high bar
Cherub has set for themselves.
The album opens strongly - a soft
opener, "Simple," blends seam-
lessly into one of the most animat-
ed tracks on the album - "Disco
Shit" - which would definitely
ously on the ethereal music, never
forcing anything, just letting his
feelings exist.
Most of the music on Ghost Sto-
ries doesn't drive itself in any arti-
ficial direction, and the best songs
eschew the typical rock song for-
mula entirely. The one-two open-
ing duo of "Always in My Head"
and "Magic" perfectly exemplify
this. The music evokes a distinctly
outdoors feel. Like a starry night,
it's glittery, quiet, pretty and airy,
with the rhythm section in particu-
lar doing an expert job of capturing
the intended mood. At this moment,
Coldplay is at a great spot in its
career where it's confident and pol-
ished but still hasn't lost its creative
spark.
The only disappointing moments
are the songs that work too much
within traditional structures, that
call attentionto themselves asbeing
songs at the expense of the album's
mood. "Another's Arms," for exam-
ple, is simply an average rock song,
and it's a good thing that Ghost Sto-
ries is only 40 minutes long, as too
many of these tracks would bog
Cherub fails to reach previous height
Cherub releases latest album Year of the Caprese
get the hobbits at Necto moving.
The fluid transition is a testa-
ment to Cherub's skills in produc-
tion. The fourth track, "Freaky
Me, Freaky You," gets so tragical-
ly weird that you sort of just have
to stop and listen - "Your parent
met your Mommy back when you
were in her tummy. Since you
never met your father, I guess you
can call me Daddy," is utilized
as a pick-up line. Bold strategy,
Cherub, very bold. But hey, they
said it would be freaky.
Before the album dips brief-
ly, Cherub recycles "Doses and
Mimosas," as if to say, "Hey guys,
sorry for the next two songs.
They are pretty bad." And you
know what? It may be cheating to
down the experimentation. 40 min-
utes is the perfect amount of time to
keep the listener's interest.
For a band known for having
such a great live act, it's tough to
imagine how these songs will work
in a concert setting. "Midnight,"
among a few others, is the type
of song that makes you extremely
conscious of yourself and of how
much your breath has been taken
away. In its best moments on.Ghost
Stories, Coldplay doesn't feel like a
band, but rather avery special, frag-
ile, contemplative mood. The one
exception, though, is "A Sky Full of
Stars." It's the Coldplay-est of Cold-
play songs, and from the very first
piano chords, you know for certain
thatthe soaringchorus is due in less
than two minutes. It's the kind of
pop radio hit that the band is prac-
tically obligated to deliver on every
record, but the fun and familiar
sound, while out of place, will still
be welcomed by fans, and the Avi-
cii-assisted EDM backbeat opens it
up to exciting remix potential.
All Coldplay albums are ambi-
tious, but Ghost Stories is ambi-
reuse your best song to dull the
suck of two new bad ones - but
babies will be born because of it -
so in the end, everyone wins.
The album ends with some good
tracks, -"Lifesaver", "Tonight",
and "Chocolate Strawberries" -
but "Lifesaver" and "Tonight"
were pre-released singles, so
their novelty is already worn by
the time you get to them, serving
to reinforce the album's flatness.
All in all, Cherub does some okay
stuff on Year of the Caprese - but
that's not what their fans are used
to. Cherub needs to bounce back
on its next album with something
that marks an improvement on its
previous work to re-establish its
promising trajectory.
tious in the complete opposite way
that Coldplay albums usually are.
Instead of setting its sights for outer
space and trying to fly there, the
band has looked inward and cre-
ated one of the most ideal breakup
records in recent memory. Sure, it's
still the same old sensitive Coldplay
whose unique traits are easy for
some peopleto laugh at, and afewof
the more traditionally-structured
songs are a disappointingwaste, but
Coldplay is an extremely successful
band that is still working hard and
not getting stuck in creative ruts.
Coldplay is the exact opposite of
edgy, and very little about the album
forcefully grabs your attention, but
that's what makes it special. Ghost
Stories is an album for sitting in
your backyard in a sweatshirt after
sunset, whether you're entirely
engrossed in your own thoughts,
or entirely captivated by another
person. The bass is your heartbeat,
the guitar is the windchimesbehind
you being blown by a light breeze.
The strings are butterflies flying
high above you. This is love, and this
is loss. This is life, and this is music.
If passed by the rest of the
Michigan legislature, the bill
would tie minimum wage to
inflation. Since the minimum
wage isn't currently adjusted
to inflation, workers earning
the same salary can afford
less each year. This causes
fluctuations in the real value
of wages. Adjusting for
inflation, the 1968 minimum
wage was $10.69 and $6.94
in 2008, so this increase is
not unprecedented as many
politicians have suggested,
and is in fact in line with
historical precedents.
Opponents of minimum
wage increases often cite the
model of supply and demand,
which predicts that increasing
the price of labor causes
unemployment. This model,
however, simplifies several
realities of the American
economy. Many people,
including distinguished
economists, believe our
complex market fails to meet
the conditions required to
allow the supply and demand
model to accurately predict
the effects of a minimum wage
increase on the labor market.
The model requires many
factors to be held constant,
however, our economy is highly
complicated and ever-evolving,
failing to meet the conditions
required of- a perfectly
modeled economy. Scholars
and government officials
should increase economic
research, continuously
monitor the economic impact
of the wage increase after its
implementation and adjust
long-term policies as necessary.
To ensure access to higher
paying jobs, Michigan needs
to provide more educational
opportunities for workers.
Increases in education
levels significantly affect
qualifications and earning
ability. Statistics from the U.S.
Department of Labor show
31 percent of minimum wage
workers only obtained a high
school diploma. Likewise,
individuals with only some
college constitute 28 percent
of the minimum wage work
force. However, one doesn't
necessarily need to obtain a
college degree if they wish to
boost their earnings. In fact,
the percentage of minimum
wage workers drastically
decreases to 5.1 percent for
those with an associate's
degree and to 2.2 percent
for workers who complete
some form of trade school
or occupational programs.
Such programs may do more
to alleviate poverty for both
current and future workers.