The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, February 7, 2020 — 5
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
I had no idea of what to
expect out of the Iowa Caucus
Concert featuring Bon Iver, but
when Senator Bernie Sanders
announces
he’s
holding
a
concert to rally supporters and
by circumstance you’re already
going to be in the correct state,
you find a way to get to that
concert.
I woke up in Ann Arbor at 5
a.m. that morning and drove all
the way to Iowa with another
Michigan Daily journalist and
a photographer to report on
the pre-caucus activities in the
state. By the time we arrived at
the concert venue — Horizons
Event Center in Clive, Iowa
— at 4 p.m. on Friday, we’d
already
interviewed
several
Iowans about their feelings on
the caucus, trailed around a
group of University of Michigan
students canvassing for Senator
Elizabeth Warren and eaten
lunch at the World’s Largest
Truck Stop. That’s all to say:
We’d been busy.
Since this wasn’t just any
concert — this was a Bernie
Sanders
Caucus
Concert
—
there was an hour of Iowan
folk bands to open the show,
2 hours of energetic political
speeches
from
Sanders’
political surrogates (the senator
himself was stuck in D.C. for
the impeachment trials) and
then about 45 minutes of Justin
Vernon closing out the show
with a solo acoustic set. I wasn’t
used to this Iowa reporting
schedule of 18-hour days, so
by the time Justin Vernon took
the stage at 9 p.m., I was pretty
damn exhausted.
Still, I left the press area
— buzzing with professional
journalists all very excited to
be at this rather unusual event
— and planted myself squarely
in the middle of the crowd
for Vernon’s set. About 2,000
people had turned out to support
Bernie and see Bon Iver, and as
far as I could tell, it wasn’t much
different from the crowd at a
packed university co-op party.
I’d never seen more rolled-
up beanies, circular glasses
frames or Doc Martens in one
space before. People of all ages
had come out to see the show
(there were multiple babies in
attendance!), but the majority
of attendees looked between the
ages of 18 and 30, which checks
out, considering Sanders’ appeal
to young voters. The crowd
was energized by the call, and
screamed when Vernon took the
stage, just as they had during
the rallying cries of the political
figures who’d spoken earlier in
the evening. The couple next
to me looked so thrilled by the
combination of Bernie and Bon
Iver that I thought they might
jump each other right there
in the middle of the Horizons
Event Center.
The feeling in the event
center
shifted
suddenly,
though. Vernon, who hails from
Wisconsin, opened his set with
a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With
God on Your Side.” When he
croned “the country I come
from is called the Midwest,” the
audience cheered, but far more
softly than they had earlier. A
man to my right wearing a cow
print baseball cap and sporting
a thick mustache (no beard)
swayed from side to side. I
felt whiplashed; the softness
of Vernon provided a stark
contrast to the angry radical
energy that had precipitated
the room just before he took the
stage.
The
tonal
shift
left
me
feeling
confused
and
even
more exhausted. My back hurt
from standing for so long in
bad shoes. Plus I wanted to
see how professional political
journalists were treating this
caucus concert.
Out
of
respect
for
the
Midwestern energy in the room,
I “excused me”-d and “pardon
me”-d back to the press area. But
when I got back there, the tables
were almost entirely empty.
Gone were all the laptops,
voice recorders and cameras.
Everyone
seemed
to
have
gone home to their company-
expensed motels. I thought back
to the buzz I’d felt emanating
off the other reporters in the
press area before diving into
the crowd of Bernie supporters
and Bon Iver fans. Had it just
been an excitement to leave the
event?
I felt betrayed, in a way. A
free Bon Iver concert that you
get paid to go to! Sure, for an
arts and culture journalist,
no big deal. But for a political
reporter? That doesn’t happen
every day! Covering 2020 is a
serious job, but I felt like no one
should be above having a little
fun at a free concert.
Disappointed, I didn’t want
to go back into the crowd, but
I couldn’t see Vernon from the
press tables, so I walked up the
stairs to the small press balcony.
The balcony also had a view of
the stage, but an even better
view of the press area below,
and as I counted the number
of
journalists
who’d
stuck
around on my fingers, I noticed
someone I hadn’t seen before:
One lone journalist sat asleep in
her chair at a press table, head
down on the cold plastic.
As
I
looked
at
this
sleeping comrade, I realized
the
heaviness
of
my
own
exhaustion. Sure, I loved Bon
Iver as much as the next guy. But
I’d been working for 15 hours
at that point. The newsworthy
part of this event had come
and gone. I didn’t need to be
there, and frankly, I wanted to
be asleep, too. I decided to cut
the other journalists — who’d
probably been working 18-hour
days in Iowa for weeks now —
some slack. We were all tired.
We could pay to see Bon Iver
another time. Let’s all go back to
our motel rooms and go to sleep.
Pre-caucus Iowa: Bon Iver,
Bernie and lots of beanies
MAYA GOLDMAN
For The Daily
Warning:
“Dear
Edward”
is not meant for the faint-
hearted or anyone with a fear
of flying. “Dear Edward” by
Ann Napolitano is the story of a
young boy, Edward, who is the
sole survivor of a plane crash
that took the lives of his family
and the other 186 passengers.
The book shifts from Edward’s
present-day perspective to those
of eight other distinct characters
on the flight, tracking their
experiences
from
boarding
the plane to the final moments
preluding its fatal crash.
The intensive buildup leaves
the reader craving to read more,
and the dramatic irony of the
plane’s inevitable crash steadily
heightens as you delve deep into
the minds of the passengers: their
problems, struggles, regrets — all
of which seem minuscule under
the weight of death waiting to
take them all. All but Edward.
Several issues are brought to
light through these characters:
abusive relationships, sexuality
struggles and identity crises.
“Dear Edward” is not a fairytale;
just like the unpredictability
of life, the plane crash is not
something
for
which
the
characters are prepared. They
are not actors who know how
the
scene
ends,
characters
experiencing
a
flashback
or
omniscient narrators of their
experiences. Having the story
told as a novel makes it more
engaging, more real and more
devastating
to
witness
the
evolution of each character’s
priorities and dispositions before
they collectively sink into their
imminent deaths.
The
increasingly
chaotic
setting on the plane contrasts
from that of the solemn and quiet
perspective of Edward. While
Edward’s chapters focus on him
as an individual, the chapters
occurring on the plane switch
frequently and rapidly between
the specified eight characters
onboard. Accustomed to the
isolation of characters usually
exhibited in YA novels, I initially
found
the
constant
shifting
difficult to follow. Nevertheless,
because each character is so
unique (an injured soldier, a
dying
Wall-Street
sensation
and
a
free-spirited
woman
amongst the eight), a sort of
rhythm is established within
the perspective shifts and it
becomes easier to decipher who
is who, solely based on the voice
Napolitano uses for the eight
characters.
While the plane chapters
were
always
gripping
and
suspenseful, leaving the reader
waiting for the realization of the
unavoidable terror, they were
often very similar. The shift
between the characters aided
the range of these chapters,
but often it felt repetitive with
each character retelling their
increasingly apathetic thoughts.
The anticipation of the crash
initiated
at
the
beginning
preemptively
made
these
sections seem tedious and dull
until the height of the conflict
arose.
Until the real drama finally
makes its appearance, Edward’s
chapters maintain the reader’s
interest. When first introduced,
Edward is Eddie: the innocent
12-year old boy preparing for his
family’s move to Los Angeles.
Soon,
though,
he
becomes
Edward, the boy that readers
are desperate to protect. He is
physically
weak,
emotionally
destroyed and achingly lonely.
Time passes slowly for him;
he
does
not
overcome
his
trauma quickly — or even at all
— by the time the novel ends.
Napolitano shows that healing
is not something that happens
overnight. The false expectation
can complicate dealing with
trauma in one’s own life, but
Edward’s story is reassuring
in that his problems are not
miraculously solved.
CW: Anti-Blackness, fetishization,
body shaming, economic privilege
Competitive reality TV truly
benefits from the weekly release
format of cable and channel
television. You have a week to
ruminate on the show after
watching an hour of action and
drama that falls upon your favorite
contestant. The week-long break
in between each airing gives
the viewer a chance to debrief,
discuss and process the episode
before repeating the cycle with
the next week’s episode. By the
next episode’s release, you may
not care about the rote, repetitive
nature of the competition and its
dramatic editing. While watching
competitive reality TV you may
wonder if Netflix’s binge-
worthy episodes provide
a better alternative.
Netflix’s
“Next
in
Fashion” is the streaming
giant’s latest foray into
the realm of fashion
and competitive reality
TV. Similar to “Project
Runway,”
“Next
in
Fashion” tries to find
a fresh and talented
designer who will be
awarded
a
$250,000
investment toward their
own brand, as well as
an opportunity to sell
their designs through
online retailer Net-a-Porter. All
designers, unlike competitors from
shows such as “Master Chef,” are
professionals within the fashion
design trade; most have their own
brands, while some have even
ghost-designed
under
celebrity
brands. “Next in Fashion” pits
the contestants, initially paired in
teams of two, to create stunning
looks that will be judged on a
catwalk. Contestants that do not
meet the judges’ approval are sent
home.
Tan France and Alexa Chung,
the hosts of “Next in Fashion,”
provide tongue-in-cheek humor
that
provides
levity
to
the
otherwise tense and often chaotic
environment within each episode.
Assisting France and Chung are
industry heavyweights who judge
each
contestant’s
submission.
While
entertaining,
“Next
in
Fashion” reveals a fair number
of problematic behavior mostly
through the critiques from guest
judges and the hosts.
The show’s attempts to find
the
most
forward-thinking
designers come across as elitist
and economically privileged. In an
episode where the challenge was
to create suits, France and guest
judge Jason Bolden disregarded
outfits that looked “cheap” and
“not expensive.” These criticisms
ironically came after Tan France’s
“Fashion Tip” segment in which
he advised contestants to opt for a
cheap, yet tailored suit compared to
an expensive one.
“Next in Fashion” rears its
most problematic side during the
critiquing segments of its two Black
contestants, Kianga ‘KiKi’ Milele
and Farai Simoyi-Agdebe. In the
aforementioned
suit
challenge,
the judges criticized Kiki and
Farai’s
practical
interpretation
of a woman’s power suit. In the
subsequent episode, despite Kiki’s
prodigious
expertise
within
streetwear, the hosts and judges—
save for guest judge Kerby Jean-
Raymond — heavily criticized the
“unfinished” look of their outfit, an
intentional design decision by Kiki.
It is only Kerby’s stalwart refusal to
disqualify Kiki and Farai that saves
the duo from being disqualified.
For a moment, you hold out hoping
that “Next in Fashion” breaks the
appropriation and commodification
of Black culture and design by
established, predominantly white,
clothing labels and designers. And
for that moment, it does pass; Kiki
and Farai are not disqualified from
the round.
Yet,
Kiki
and
Farai
are
disqualified in the next round,
which
involves
lingerie.
Tan
France and Victoria’s Secret model
Adriana Lima’s criticisms
of Kiki and Farai’s design
revolve around a supposed
lack of breast support and
a lack of “perky breasts.”
Though Kiki and Farai’s
lingerie design revolved
around women’s comfort
and also showed detailed
construction of a breast
support system, Kiki and
Farai
are
disqualified
nonetheless. Those who do
not prescribe to the white
heteronormative standards
of beauty, including Kiki
and Farai, are sent out of the
competition.
Equally puzzling are the host
and guest judges’ fascination with
the two East Asian contestants:
Angel Chen and Minju Kim.
While the two contestants receive
praise from Tan France and Alexa
Chung, you wonder if it stems
from an extant fetishization of
East Asian culture from a Western
perspective rather than a genuine
applause
towards
the
design
process of both Angel and Minju.
The ‘Next in Fashion’ is
entertaining but tone-deaf
BRENDON CHO
For The Daily
NETFLIX
“Next in Fashion”
Series Premiere
Netflix
THE TODAY SHOW VIA YOUTUBE
Learning to live with pain:
Napolitano’s ‘Dear Edward’
LILLY PEARCE
For The Daily
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
When Senator
Bernie Sanders
announces
he’s holding a
concert to rally
supporters and
by circumstance
you’re already
going to be in the
correct state, you
find a way to get
to that concert
“Dear
Edward”
Ann Napolitano
Dial Press
Jan. 6, 2020
Read more online at
michigandaily.com