2B — Thursday, October 1, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Around 7 p.m. in the Trotter 

Multicultural Center, the first 
few members of the Michigan 
Gospel Chorale (MGC) begin 
to arrive. One student heads 
directly to the piano and starts 
to play. More members enter as 
music fills the room, building 
an energy that’s warm and open 
to all who walk in. Excitement 
comes as each 
new 
per-

son 
arrives 

at 
practice, 

bringing 
their 
own 

unique voice 
to the chorus.

“It’s 
very 

informal, you 
come 
and 

you’re 
wel-

comed 
into 

the 
group 

automati-
cally, 
like 

people 
are 

really excited 
to meet new 
people, 
to 

bring 
them 

into the com-
munity, 
and 

I knew that 
it would be a 
big part of my 
time 
here,” 

said 
Phillip 

Hargrove, an Engineering grad-
uate student and MGC assistant 
director.

In an interview with The 

Michigan 
Daily, 
Hargrove, 

along with LSA senior Lawrielle 
West, MGC president, Nursing 
junior Brianna Hawkins, MGC 
secretary and Shakia Jackson, 
Rackham graduate student and 
MGC adviser, emphasized the 
importance for him to find such 
a group when he first came to 
Michigan as a graduate student 
after completing his undergrad 
at Stanford University. 

“This was a big challenge for 

me, coming out to a region of 
the country where I don’t have 
any family,” Hargrove said, “I 
felt like I’d be out on my own so 
it was real important to connect 
to a community of other people 
who love God and are excited 
about God and enjoy the same 
kind of things I do in terms 
of that. That was how I got 
involved, just came in and it’s 
been a great part of my experi-
ence.”

The chorale, which origi-

nated in 1972 as the University 
of Michigan 
Black 
Gos-

pel Choir, is 
a 
nonprofit 

organiza-
tion 
that 

encompasses 
not just the 
choir 
but 

also 
several 

auxiliaries 
including 
a 

mime 
team, 

the 
dance 

oriented 
I.O.P (Imag-
es of Praise), 
the sign lan-
guage group 
H.A.N.D.S 
(Hands 
Anointed ‘N 
Divine Signs) 
and the spo-
ken 
word 

T.R.U.S.T 
(Taking Ref-
uge Utter Spoken Truth). The 
diversity of performance types 
gives students several opportu-
nities to express themselves.

“I feel that they cater to 

everyone,” Hawkins said, ref-
erencing the role of the auxil-
iaries, “Like at our concerts, so 
someone that’s deaf can’t hear 
our songs but they’re able to see 
the sign language. Or someone 
who enjoys hearing singing but 
when they see a dance, they’re 
moved by the dancing. It caters 
to everyone and gives an overall 
experience at our concerts.”

“One of the great things about 

MGC is that we don’t require 
auditions for any of our auxilia-
ries or our choir,” Jackson said. 
“So for people to become mem-
bers they just have to show up 
and sing, mime, sign language 
or whatever they like to do. So 
when I joined MGC, I joined 
the day before a concert that we 
had, our College Night Concert, 
which occurs every January. I 
joined the night before and then 
over the night I learned the 
songs and got up there and sang 
with the choir the next day.”

Jackson, who has been with 

the chorale since her sopho-
more year as an undergradu-
ate and calls herself the group 
mother, echoed Hargrove’s sen-
timent of belonging.

“The choir members were so 

welcoming to me. I felt I had a 
family, some people who did 
care about me, and though I was 
a new member I didn’t feel as 
though I was an outsider or that 
I wasn’t able to contribute to 
the organization or the minis-

try,” she said. “They completely 
welcomed me and made me feel 
as though I had a purpose here 
and I can be here and sing and 
do whatever it is I wanted to do 
and so that’s what really made 
me want to stick with MGC.”

Uniting many participants in 

MGC is their Christian faith, as 
practice begins and the piano 
music dies down, the members 
form a circle for prayer. Hold-
ing hands, they thank God for 
the opportunity to be together 
and use their gifts and share in 
their faith, a core idea behind 
the organization.

“I think the mission is just 

to spread the Gospel of God 
but also just the love of Gospel 
music, so you don’t even have 
to be religious or attached to 
a certain faith to enjoy Gospel 
music,” West said.

The 
interwoven 
nature 

between faith and Gospel music 
shows itself in nearly every 
aspect of the group as they 
warm up to the song, “Draw Me 
Close to You/ Thy Will be Done” 
by Pastor Marvin Winans.

“Thy will be done/ Lord in 

me/ In me/ Because I see you 
work in others and I want you to 
work in me,” the group sings as 
West takes on directing duties 
for the practice.

“Something I really appreci-

ated about MGC was how the 
group is never afraid to tackle 
any song,” Hargrove said in 
regards to his experience sing-
ing for MGC. “I think I’m theo-
retically a better singer now 
than I was last year.”

As West guides the group 

through the popular Gospel 
song, “Even Me,” she stops and 
tells her fellow vocalists to sing 
out, to share their voice with 
God. West, who first came to 
the organization after receiving 
a direct message from MGC’s 
Twitter account inviting her to 
join, relates the words to faith, 
emphasizing the passion behind 
each verse, and the chorale 
responds accordingly.

“Lord, I hear of showers of 

blessings/ Thou art scattering full 
and free/ Showers of thirst souls 
refreshing/ Let some drops now 
fall on me.”

Helping MGC find this connec-

tion to their faith and each other is 
weekly Bible study.

“Once our spirit is out of whack 

everything is out of whack. Our 
songs don’t sound good, we arrive 
to things late, it’s kind of off. With 
the Bible studies it allows us to be 
on one accord about the things 
that we’re talking about,” Jackson 
said. “We’re focusing on a certain 
theme or certain scripture and 
through that we grow closer to one 
another ‘cause we’re all in tune 
with God and that puts us all into it 

as a ministry. 
Without the 
Bible 
stud-

ies, 
without 

the 
actual 

spiritual part 
we are just 
an organiza-
tion.”

The MGC 

isn’t 
just 

complacent 
in 
sharing 

their refined 
performanc-
es and belief 
within 
just 

the group, but 
also take part 
in an annual 
mission tour 
that 
takes 

them across 
the 
country 

where 
they 

perform and 
volunteer.

“Tour 
is 

during Spring Break, so we are 
already taking that commitment to 
not go party and go out. But to have 
this not only spiritual experience 
but this experience with people 
who love each other, we’re actu-
ally friends and this is such a great 
bonding experience. Once you go 
on tour, you’ll have memories for a 
lifetime,” West said.

“It’s amazing to go to like a 

church in Texas, where many of 
us don’t know the people at the 
church but we can all sing the 
same songs and the same worship 
experience,” Hawkins added about 
the tour that has had stops in states 
like Ohio, Kentucky and Florida, 
among others.

In addition to the tour, members 

of MGC finds themselves singing 
at churches and campus functions 
including Maize Night Madness 
and the Fireside Café on North 
Campus. The group also puts on 
performances at New Life Church, 
including their spring concert, 
which last year saw the choir 
unexpectedly perform without 
accompaniment when the musi-
cians didn’t show up.

These local events form a 

presence 
within 
the 

community 
that allows 
MGC 
to 

serve anoth-
er role. 

“I 
think 

it offers an 
outlet, a spir-
itual outlet,” 
Hawkins 
said. 
“I 

feel 
people 

come to our 
concerts 
and 
feel 

like they’re 
able to go 
to 
church 

if 
they 

don’t 
have 

a 
church 

home here. 
People come 
to us and can 
ask us for 

prayer and come to us and be like, 
‘Oh my goodness, it’s like I’m back 
at home.’ ”

As practice ends, the mem-

bers gather around in prayer one 
last time. Before they leave they 
each give another a hug goodbye. 
There’s a bond among the chorale, 
joined together by talent and faith.

“That’s just the beginning of 

something great, feeling like you’re 
welcome into a community, they 
are not only OK with you being 
there but they want you there, they 
need you there,” West said.

With their first event this Sat-

urday at Pastor Winan’s Perfecting 
Church, the group looks forward 
to spreading their message, as 
described by West.

“Gospel is based off faith and 

having a relationship with God, 
but also another part is being this 
inspiration movement — music to 
give you hope and faith to carry on. 
Every song we sing has meaning 
with us because a lot of us, not all of 
us, are Christians and so the songs 
we sing have meaning because it’s 
about God pulling us through or 
God’s going to pull us through or 
God has pulled us through.”

GOSPEL
From Page 1B

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

Business junior Christopher McClendon directs The Michigan Gospel Chorale.

SINGLE REVIEW

 Picture an inexplicably 
smoky, dimly lit basement of 
some good friend’s parents 
house 
in some 
sector of 
Midwestern 
suburbia. 
The room 
is filled 
with angsty 
high school 
seniors, 
making out on ragged couches, 
getting high, listening to 
your friend’s older brother’s 
band perform while someone 
discusses the details of 
their “next big move.” This 
incredibly archetypal setting is 
reminiscent of a John Hughes 
film, or the pages of the next 
box-office hit screenplay by 
Scott Neustadter and Michael 
H. Weber. Yet here it can be 
used to reflect another art form 
entirely. Here, the imagery 
of this quintessentially high 
school moment reflects the sonic 
simplicity emerging from Alex 
G’s new single, “Kicker.”
 The classically minimalist 
musician allows his guitar 
to occupy the sonic space on 
“Kicker.” Despite the song’s 

bummed-out lyrics and 
monotonous tone, the versatile 
character of Alex G’s guitar 
engages the listener from 
start to finish. At “Kicker” ’s 
crescendo, where one sustained 
screech of G’s guitar carries 
the song into its five-second 
denouement, we’re transported 
to that smoky basement. Those 
post-puberty almost adults are 
occupying the space where 
Alex G is playing. They’re 
bobbing their heads along, 
understanding of the great 

simplicity that his music holds. 
“Heaven, maybe freedom, 
what’s the word / Right, I 
forgot, quiet is the closest 
thing we got,” he sings, and the 
crowd’s slow head-bob feels 
almost tangible. The track ends 
too quickly, closing in on just 
under three minutes. Alex G’s 
performance reflects what he 
has perfected: expansive guitars 
and angsty lyrics to satisfy the 
smoky basements in the back of 
all of our minds.

- AMELIA ZAK

DOMINO

B+

Kicker

Alex G

Domino

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

The Michigan Gospel Chorale rehearses at Trotter Multicultural Center, Tuesday.

By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK

Daily Health Columnist

This summer I interned 

with Running Times magazine, 
which is the smaller, quieter, 
more intense brother of Run-
ner’s World, Men’s Health and 
Women’s Health magazines. 
The internship took place in 
Emmaus, Pa., where the Rodale 
publishing company head-
quarters are located — a tiny, 
organic- 
enthused, active town 

about an hour away from New 
York City and Philadelphia.

Naturally, the place is packed 

with fitness nuts, granola geeks 
and muscle heads. It’s awesome. 
Employees (and interns) are 
encouraged to take bike rides 
or run at lunch, buy meals at 
the organic cafeteria, promo 
running shoes and yoga mats 
and attend free fitness classes at 
Rodale’s state 
-of- 
the- 
art gym. 

The company motto, “Live your 
whole life,” is taken to heart by 
its employees — a wholesome, 
healthy lifestyle is truly what 
they practice and preach.

So when I met my roommate 

for the summer, an intern for 
Runner’s World, I was taken 
by surprise. I walked into 
our shared dorm room in the 
middle of a workout video, 
my 
new 
roommate 
splayed 

on a yoga mat in the center of 
the floor, holding a slightly 
sagging plank pose. Nothing 
out of the ordinary. I skirted 
around her, plopped my bags 
on the nostalgic twin XL bed 
and pulled on my running 
shoes, bracing myself for the 
East coast humidity. I asked my 
roommate, now clearly in the 
cool 
-down phase of her tape, 

what workout she was doing.

She promptly began to tell 

me about the “21 Day Fix.” 
Which, unfortunately, I would 
continue to hear about for the 
next 21 days. To save you the 
lengthy explanation — trust me, 
if there’s one thing people love 
to drone on about, it’s their lat-
est diet — here’s the 21 Day Fix 
in a nutshell: three weeks of 
daily, half- 
hour workout tapes 

and seven color 
-coded food 

containers.

The food containers are key. 

According to Beachbody, the 
mastermind behind the Fix, the 
reason diets go awry is because 
dieters don’t judge portion 
sizes correctly. To eliminate 
this problem, they’ve created 
containers of varying size that 
hold the “precise” amount of 
fruits, 
vegetables, 
protein, 

carbs, fats, seeds and dressing 
that you need in a day. The color 
of the container signifies what 
goes inside — the (relatively) 
hefty 
green 
container 
is 

for vegetables, whereas the 
thimble 
-sized orange container 

is for dressing. Basically, you 
“fill them up as directed in the 
Eating Plan, and you will lose 
the weight!” At least that’s what 
Autumn Calabrese, the manic 
Fix coach, promises.

But wait — there’s more. 

Think you can stuff a piece 
of bread in the yellow carb 
container? 
Think 
again. 

The containers give you the 
“freedom” to fill ‘em up as you 
wish, but if the food doesn’t fit 
... it won’t make you fit. This 
means no bread, no snack bars 
and no beer — or really any 
drink, other than water and 
morning 
breakfast 
shakes. 

Certainly no eating out. And 
once your container quota is met 
for the day, don’t try to sneak 
anything more. (Once, when my 
roommate was groaning about 
hunger, I mistakenly suggested 
eating an apple; she angrily 
replied that she had no more 
red containers left.)

As you can imagine, the 21 

Day Fix makes it difficult to 
make plans. Sunday trips to 
the farmer’s market turned 
into exhausting rants from my 
roommate on how she couldn’t 
buy the fresh pies (because, 
have you heard, I’m on the Fix), 
triggering more than a few 
rolled eyes. I’d come home from 
my usual eight 
-mile run to cook 

dinner, only to have her leering 
over my shoulder, eying my 
chicken and veggie stir fry with 
contempt. Then she’d quit the 
room altogether, claiming that 
she’d eaten all of her containers 
for the day and might as well go 
to bed.

I think I began counting 

down the days until the Fix’s 
finish more voraciously than 
she did. At its sweet, sweet end, 
my roommate did a final weigh- 
in: in 21 days, she’d lost eight 
pounds, but nary an inch from 
her waistline. I congratulated 
her on the loss, but waited 
warily for the weight to creep 
back — as it does, time and time 
again, for whom I call “quick 
fix” dieters.

The “instant gratification” 

phenomenon 
has 
been 

beaten into our heads, but 
it applies to diets too. Our 
culture perpetuates it — how 
many magazine covers have 
screamed, “Get Your Bikini 
Bod Now!” or “Bombshell Butt 
Fast!?” Summer means beach 
season; winter means fitting 
into that party dress.There’s 
no shame in wanting to look 
good, stat. The shame is that 
too many people only aim for 
the “stat” factor — immediate 
results — and set themselves up 
for long- 
term frustration and 

even serious bodily harm.

Here’s the bottom line: the 

pounds you lose on a quick- 
fix 

diet are primarily muscle and 
water weight. Yes, the number 
on the scale is lower, but that 
doesn’t mean you’re more fit — 
and it definitely doesn’t mean 
you’ll stay that weight for long, 
largely because of lost muscle.

“Metabolism” is a buzzword 

that gets thrown around often 
in weight loss discussion (“I 
have a slow metabolism” is 
a 
popular 
explanation 
for 

stubborn excess weight), but it 
comes into play here. The Mayo 
Clinic defines metabolism as 
“the process by which your 
body converts what you eat and 
drink into energy”; that energy 
is then used for basic body 
functioning (breathing, blood 
circulation, cell repairs) and 
physical activity.

When calories are drastically 

restricted, 
metabolism 

shuts 
down 
and 
becomes 

less efficient. Think of a car 
running on empty: you’re slow 
to react, have less power on the 
highway and run the risk of 
damaging your engine. Without 
the necessary proteins and 
nutrients to perform basic body 
functions, your body breaks 
down muscles for fuel. Muscle 
burns more calories than fat, so 
muscle loss is linked to a slower 
metabolism — which makes it 
even harder to keep the weight 
off than before the diet began.

Of course, metabolism isn’t 

the only factor in determining 
weight loss. Across the board, 
experts agree that a combina-
tion of exercise and (proper) 
diet are crucial to maintaining 
a healthy body. Remember that 
energy is also used for physical 
activity — the more you exer-
cise, the more calories you burn 
and the more muscle you build, 
which then promotes a faster 
metabolic rate.

The real secret to a lasting 

beach body? Making healthy 
habits. Find an exercise you like 
— maybe it’s running, maybe it’s 
a workout video — and stick to 
it. Eat balanced meals, making 
sure to fill up on protein and 
vitamin- 
rich vegetables, like a 

spinach omelette with grilled 
chicken. Work to eliminate 
processed 
food 
from 
your 

diet, but do so gradually. Your 
health doesn’t need a 21 
-day 

“fix,” but rather steady, positive 
improvement.

And please, for everyone’s 

sake, eat an apple if you’re 
hungry.

Middlebrook is eating a 

well-balanced diet. To let her 

know how well-balanced it is, 

email hailharp@umich.edu

HEALTH COLUMN

Vote to crush the 

crash diet

