41 Thursday, May 22, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of.Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. 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. WANT MORE, EASILY ACCESSIBLE DAILY ARTICLES? Visit our website www.michigandaily.com and read our opinion section blogs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.