2-News

I

n 
the 
seminal 
classic 

“Under Pressure,” David 
Bowie 
sings 
what 
is 

perhaps the most insightful 
lyric of the 20th Century:

“Love’s 
such 
an 
old-

fashioned word and love dares 
you to care for the people on 
the edge of the night, and love 
dares you to change our way of 
caring about ourselves.” 

While it might be considered 

an overdramatization of what 
is much more often a mundane 
and 
long-winded 
process, 

Bowie’s words encapsulate that 
beautiful, singular emotional 
experience of being in love. 
That is the most remarkable 
aspect of the lyric. See, while 
most of the art promulgated by 
our mass media and prominent 
in our popular culture glorifies 
falling 
in 
love, 
this 
song 

extolls being in love, which is 
supposed to be the best part. 
This sets the song apart from 
the contemporaries we see 
today and gives it a unique, 
everlasting presence in our 
musical ethos.

Similarly, the film “Palm 

Springs” finds itself at the 
crossroads 
of 
a 
traditional 

Hallmark 
rom-com 
and 

“Groundhog Day,” yet it is 
best described as a treatise on 
being in love. This makes the 
movie a generation-defining 
experience to which everyone 
under 35 can relate but every 
American can appreciate.

In “Palm Springs,” we are 

thrust into a world that feels 
strangely familiar, given that 
we have experienced months 
of quarantine. Andy Samberg’s 
Nyles 
— 
boyfriend 
of 
the 

bride’s best friend — is living 
in an infinite temporal loop, 
experiencing the same Nov. 9 
wedding over and over until 
one day something different 
finally 
happens; 
Cristin 

Milioti’s Sarah — sister of the 
bride — joins him, kicking off 
the real story. After the quick 
obligatory 
explanation 
of 

the loop’s “rules,” the movie 
ventures where no predecessor 
has dared. It explores the 
relationship 
between 
two 

people in a world in which 
literally nothing matters and, 
in the process, creates the 
most insightful perspective on 
romance since “Crazy, Stupid, 
Love.” 

This comes to fruition in 

the desert scene — which I 
highly recommend you watch 
before reading the remainder 
of this article. The pair, after 
getting high on mushrooms, 
spend a night together in the 
desert when Nyles explains his 
personal philosophy through 
the metaphor of a chocolate bar, 
essentially claiming that the 
past does not matter. He only 
cares about people’s actions in 
the present because everything 
else, the past, the future, is 
thin air. Then, in pushing 
back, Sarah reveals her past: 
The early divorce that scarred 
her, the impulsive decision-
making that still haunts her 
and so on, which, for the first 
time in the movie, changes 
Nyles’s 
attitude, 
forcing 

him to briefly reevaluate his 
worldview. However, tellingly, 
Nyles cannot even remember 
his own past, remarking that 
“(this feeling) drifts away just 
like they all do.” Then, the 
two toast to “pretending not to 
care,” which is just about the 
most Gen Z response to a real 
emotion.

See, for Gen Z, likely the 

most nihilistic generation, the 
world of “Palm Springs” does 
not seem so terrible. Sure, not 
being able to experience the 
future might be difficult to 
reckon with, but, honestly, our 
world has been so crazy that 
having a break is appealing. 
Take me for example.

My life began on May 5, 

2000, six months before Bush 
v. Gore, one year before 9/11 
and three years before the 
invasion of Iraq. My first 

exposure to politics was the 
election 
of 
Barack 
Obama 

amid a recession that ravaged 
communities 
worldwide, 

including 
my 
backyard 
of 

Southeast Michigan. 

From there, life has been 

a constant barrage of heart-
wrenching 
mass 
shootings, 

devastating natural disasters, 
increasingly 
dire 
warnings 

about an impending climate 
crisis, 
political 
scandals, 

gridlock and a global pandemic 
to top things off; so no, I 
need little to no drama from 
my personal relationships. I 
shiver at the mere thought of 
some public grand romantic 
gesture. I, and most of Gen 
Z, would prefer to just have 
someone stable to weather the 
storm beside me. That is the 
point of “Palm Springs”: In a 
world that means nothing, our 
interpersonal 
relationships 

mean everything.

That is why there is a 

newfound 
audience 
for 

romance movies and shows that 
dare to depict real life rather 
than the grandiose fiction of 
running through an airport. 
Instead, we propel Netflix 
originals like “To All the Boys: 
P.S. I Still Love You” and “The 
Kissing Booth 2” to the top of 
the charts, not because the 
acting is amazing — it’s not — or 
because the lead ends up with 
the right guy — she doesn’t, 
because both John Ambrose 
and Marco got screwed.

We 
watch 
these 
movies 

because we love to watch 
broken people navigating an 
increasingly 
complex 
world 

and making human mistakes. 
We love to see this journey play 
out because it is the journey 
that we are on every single 
day. In the words of Nyles from 
“Palm Springs,” we are born 
lost, but, in each other, you are 
found.

9 — Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Time to modernize SMTD

ANDREW GERACE | COLUMN

“Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays”: 

It doesn’t matter

ILANA MERMELSTEIN | COLUMN

Redefining rom-coms: Treating every day like 

it’s our last dance

G

rowing up as a Jewish kid, 
I regularly took offense 
to strangers wishing me 

a “merry Christmas” during the 
holiday season. I remember exiting 
those interactions with a scowl, 
ranting incessantly to my parents 
about how “they don’t know that 
I celebrate Christmas” and “there 
are other holidays during this time 
of year.” 

I was right: “Merry Christmas” is 

far from the most inclusive greeting, 
and no one should assume which 
holiday somebody is celebrating 
(or even that they’re celebrating 
one). However, I frequently allowed 
this frustration to blind me from 
the reality of these interactions 
— someone was simply offering 
positive wishes for the season in 
the only way they knew how. As 
I matured, I realized my anger 
toward those wishing me a “merry 
Christmas” was only hurting myself. 
No one maliciously said these 
words, nor hoped to dim my little 
Jewish spirit as I assumed they did. 
I contributed to the divisive nature 
of the world in the time of year 
when unity is the most necessary, 
all because people said a nice thing 
to me, which just happened to be the 
wrong nice thing.

Others in the world believe 

we should only greet people with 
“merry Christmas” — that “happy 
holidays” is Christianity erasure, 
and that those of the opposing view 
have declared some kind of “War 
on Christmas” by using a more 
inclusive greeting. I, however, only 
choose to recognize the Grinch’s 
“War on Christmas”; the one in 
the United States does not exist. 
Secularists are not perpetrating any 
“War on Christmas” by including 
religious minorities when saying 
“happy holidays,” and those who 
choose to say “merry Christmas” 
as opposed to “happy holidays” are 
not imposing their religious beliefs, 
only offering well-wishes in the way 
they’ve been taught. If you choose 
to internally (or externally) punish 
someone for greeting you with 
positive wishes for the season, you 

may just be looking for a reason to 
get angry, and you’re likely hurting 
yourself in the process.

According to Bill O’Reilly in 

2004, who coined the term “War 
on Christmas,” the use of “happy 
holidays” by large retailers to 
substitute 
“merry 
Christmas” 

foreshadowed secularist America’s 
plot to destroy religion and push 
a 
progressive 
political agenda. 

Though religion has not since 
been 
destroyed, 
involvement 

with 
religion 
has 
indisputably 

decreased as time has progressed. 
The results of a Gallup poll 
indicate that the percentage of the 
American population identifying 
with Christianity has dropped by 
14% between 2004 and 2019, and 
the percentage of the population 
not identifying with any religion 
has increased by 12% in the same 
timespan. 

However, if the goal of reducing 

religious involvement was to push 
the progressive agenda, it certainly 
has not been achieved. O’Reilly 
cited “gay marriage, partial birth 
abortion, euthanasia, (and) legalized 
drugs” as examples of progressive 
ideals in an areligious America. The 
United States has since legalized 
same-sex marriage on a national 
level, but many states continue to 
restrict abortion and most states 
list physician-assisted suicide as 
illegal, while marijuana is still illegal 
recreationally in many states.

Furthermore, another Gallup 

poll indicates that around 93% of 
Americans claimed to celebrate 
Christmas in 2019, which is only 
approximately 
3% 
lower 
than 

the percentage reported in 2004. 
Given that only 67% of people 
identified with Christianity in 
2019, these results indicate that 
around 26% of those who celebrate 
Christmas aren’t even Christian. 
The 
“destruction” 
of 
religion 

following the replacement of “merry 
Christmas” with “happy holidays” 
has not instituted the progressive 
agenda as O’Reilly believed it would, 
and it has not been associated 
with a significant reduction in the 

percentage of those who celebrate 
Christmas. My understanding is 
that the secularization of the U.S. 
has almost nothing to do with the 
celebration of Christmas, so the 
alleged “War on Christmas” simply 
does not exist.

However, those who say “happy 

holidays” aren’t completely off the 
hook, specifically those who, like 
I once did, take offense to being 
wished a “merry Christmas.” The 
26% deviation between those who 
identify as Christian and those who 
celebrate Christmas indicates two 
things. First, a stranger who says 
“merry Christmas” to ten people 
will likely be successful with nine, 
given that 93% of people report 
that they celebrate Christmas, and 
only one will have the potential 
to take offense to the statement. 
However, if the stranger says 
“happy holidays” to ten people, 
they include all ten with the 
neutral statement, but multiple of 
the nine may believe in the “War 
on Christmas” and take offense to 
the statement. The stranger is more 
likely to offend fewer people by 
saying “merry Christmas.”

Second, if 26% of those who 

celebrate Christmas do not identify 
as Christian, it can be argued that 
the celebration of Christmas does 
not have to be a religious institution 
at all. In 2017, a Pew Research Center 
poll indicated that, though 90% of 
Americans celebrated Christmas, 
less than half viewed it as a religious 
holiday. If someone wishes you a 
“merry Christmas,” it is more likely 
than not that they simply hope you 
eat lots of chocolate and have a good 
day on December 25.

Ilana Mermelstein can be reached 

at imerm@umich.edu.

JENNA SCHEEN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT JSCHEEN@UMICH.EDU

KEITH JOHNSTONE | COLUMN

Keith Johnstone can be reached at 

keithja@umich.edu.

Design courtesy of Mellisa Lee

A

s I was setting up the 
recording session for my 
brother Michael’s graduate 

school audition, I heard the familiar 
sound of a jazz trio warming up. 
Warm tones from the trombone were 
met with thumping bass and bright 
piano. While these sounds were 
familiar, the circumstances were 
anything but. Usually these sessions 
are small and intimate with players 
close together to communicate — 
12 feet apart and masked certainly 
was a strange change of scene. As I 
was setting up, I couldn’t help but 
think that as music, the gig economy 
and the world have changed over 
the years, music education at the 
University of Michigan’s School of 
Music, Theatre & Dance … hasn’t. At 
least not at the rate it needs to keep up 
with the rest of the world.

To put the antiquated nature 

of 
some 
of 
SMTD’s 
course 

requirements into perspective, every 
undergraduate at SMTD must take 
at least two semesters of written and 
aural music theory while many, like 
myself, have to take at least two full 
years. The primary focus of these 
first two semesters of theory are 
counterpoint, a musical technique for 
combining melodic lines developed 
in the 9th century, and figured bass, 
a technique for harmonic structure 
developed in the 17th century. After 
asking a Theory Graduate Student 
Instructor my freshman year why we 
are required to learn these techniques 
from the rather distant musical past, 
I was met with a laugh and a simple 
acknowledgement that at this point, 
it’s tradition, and we’re one of maybe 
three music schools that still do this. 
Not a particularly satisfying answer 
when paying out-of-state tuition for 

an effectively irrelevant course 

requirement. 

You may be wondering, how is 

a technique from the 9th or 17th 
century at all relevant to any non-
classical major at the school? The 
simple answer is that it isn’t. Beyond 
reinforcing a sense of Western music 
supremacy arguably tied to white 
supremacy, the course does little 
to help non-classical composition 
majors at the University. 

Anna Rosengart, an SMTD and 

LSA senior, reflected on many of 
these required music theory and 
history classes, saying, “newsflash: 
white Western music isn’t the 
only music, and madrigals and 
symphonies aren’t the only way to 

study it. … I wish we learned about 
other ways to be musical in the ‘real 
world’ and could get more exposure.” 
SMTD needs to move past tired 
curriculum requirements to address 
societal and educational realities.

University alum Mohan Ritsema, 

a jazz bass player, expressed his 
frustration with antiquated aspects 
of the curriculum taking the space of 
basic skills and lessons that should be 
taught. 

“Something I’ve always felt about 

U-M, that I especially feel now, is 
that it’s messed up. U-M requires 
everyone to learn figured bass but not 
how to use the producing software 
Logic. We have to take two years of 
classical piano but never learn how 
to set up a microphone. I think now, 
that is really starting to bite people,” 
Ritsema said. 

Requiring students to take classes 

like these is a waste of time and 
money when students aren’t learning 
skills that will allow them to succeed 
or sustain themselves in the future. 
Unless students are going into music 
theory, knowing figured bass won’t 
put food on the table. But knowing 
the basics of sound production or 
self-promotion may be the difference 
between making it or breaking it in 
the music industry.

University alum Brendan Davis, a 

pianist, said he wishes “we had had 
marketing classes at SMTD.” While 
Davis has continued to have gigs 
during the pandemic, having self-
marketing or business skills as part 
of the core curriculum for SMTD 
students would help others translate 
artistic skills into economic security. 

“I know many musicians who have 

had to retire or step away from music 
due to COVID. … Learning stuff like 
self-marketing would’ve been really 
helpful.” As the music industry has 
changed across the board both due 
to the market and recently COVID-
19, institutions must change to teach 
students how to succeed and survive 
with their craft, not just the origins of 
a distantly related musical language 
or history.

SMTD has examples it can and 

should follow in-house. Programs 
like EXCEL Lab at SMTD provide 
students 
both 
coursework 
and 

workshops about the music industry, 
music entrepreneurship, social media 
and other relevant topics. SMTD 
should cut other undergraduate 
course requirements and make these 
courses required. If students want 

to pursue topics like medieval music 
history or theory, they are welcome 
to do so, but shouldn’t be required 
to. 
While 
these 
opportunities 

theoretically exist for students, both 
Ritsema, Davis and I haven’t able 
to utilize them during our time at 
Michigan due to the number of other, 
irrelevant course requirements we 
have to satisfy.

“Generational gaps in technology 

definitely exist,” Ritsema said about 
the faculty and administration. 
He went on to say that there is a 
general sentiment among faculty 
and students that something more is 
needed, but they are not sure what. I 
urge students to communicate with 
the administration about student 
needs. However, I more strongly urge 
the administration to look around at 
the holes that need to be filled in our 
education, now more than ever. We 
can’t afford to graduate from SMTD 
without a better core curricular 
foundation in how to operate as a 
musician, no matter how artistically 
skilled we may be.

If there was ever a time to 

modernize SMTD, it must be now, as 
the floor has fallen out for musicians 
worldwide. Broadway’s doors are 
closed until at least May 30, 2021, 
indoor performance venues are 
closed in Michigan and across the 
United States due to actions like 
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 
orders and in-person music education 
has been greatly affected at schools 
like SMTD. 

As musicians fight to survive in 

the ailing industry, it is apparent 
that it isn’t their required studies 
in medieval musicology or theory 
that are helping them survive, but 
their ability to setup livestream 
concerts, busk, self-promote, write 
grants and find virtual gigs; all 
necessary skills that aren’t reflected 
in SMTD’s course requirements. 
SMTD must modernize to address 
both COVID-19 and education in the 
21st century, providing a teaching 
based on educational effectiveness, 
not Western music supremacy or 
antiquated tradition. 

“Even 
without 
COVID,” 
as 

Ritsema said, “these were things 
everyone needs to know. These are 
the skills that you need in the 21st 
century if you want to make it as a real 
professional musician.”

Andrew Gerace can be reached at 

agerace@umich.edu.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

