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'Oxy Confessions' fosters inclusive community dialogue, anonymously

April 1, 2014

Late at night, curled in bed and delaying sleep or avoiding work, many Occidental students scroll through the shocking and frequently humorous “Oxy Confessions,” available via Facebook for evening entertainment. “Oxy Confessions” became part of the Occidental College experience in late October, publishing “confessions” that anyone can submit anonymously through a Google Form. This page may be a tool for procrastination, but the extensive engagement with the page also indicates students’ investment in their shared experience on campus. Each time readers empathize with a struggling peer, celebrate a shared passion or hope someone took note of how great they looked that day, students are connecting with each other and developing a sense of community online and on campus.

At its best, the page is a place where community members can share their voices with the knowledge that at least some of their peers are listening. “Oxy Confessions'” open and honest platform encourages students to invest in each other, and every post, like or comment continues to foster a sense of community.

The majority of the confessions pertain to typical college social dynamics. Carnal appreciation for unnamed individuals, sports teams and dance groups take up most of the page. Proposals for intimate conversations under the stars atop Mount Fiji pop up now and again, and lengthy rants about broken friendships and betrayal are constant. What drives “Oxy Confessions'” 1,303 likes is the anonymity that allows readers to wildly speculate as to whom each confession is about, and more importantly, whether it is about them. That desire to connect with others may often come off as silly, but it is essentially human and demonstrates students’ desire to be a part of the campus community.

It appears that in “Oxy Confessions,” anything goes for prospective love.

“Found my professor on Tinder… and we had a match…” anonymous post No. 2766 said.

While this post shows shows the quirky side of the confessions, the page ultimately allows readers to not only recognize that others crave love and attention just as much as they do, but that there is a good chance they are appreciated more than they realize.

Similar to an addiction, students frequently feel a sense of guilt after perusing “Oxy Confessions” and fear they are wasting time. For others, reading the more alarming confessions triggers a sense of guilt. Stories of drug use, rape, depression, sex, incest or wildly offensive comments usually fall into this category.

Though some of the posts deal with uncomfortable realities of college life, the support expressed in reference to pronouncements of depression, loneliness or other problems shows the true value of “Oxy Confessions.” It may be naïve to assume that the reader’s first intent when reading those sort of confessions is to help, but amazingly, such confessions are usually met with comments from people who truly care. Readers respond with empathy and a willingness to connect with the confessor if he or she wishes to reach out.

The anonymous host of “Oxy Confessions” also typically provides appropriate hotlines and resources for confessions. The simple possibility that these messages of support might reach students in need reinforces that engaging with the page is not a waste of time.

What brings most students back to the site time and again is the opportunity to step away from life’s stresses and share a moment with fellow students — even anonymously. Students stop to engage in generational nostalgia for TV shows like Disney’s “Lizzie McGuire,” decide where they fall on the page’s constant contention of political correctness or agree that students waiting in the pasta line will eventually turn to ash.

A recent post exemplifies the type of pop culture laments that often appear on the page.

“I don’t have hobbies, interests or friends. What I have are distractions to keep me occupied until the next ‘Game of Thrones’ book or season is out,” anonymous post No. 2802 said.

The post’s popularity legitimizes its perspective and normalizes watching geeky television like “Game of Thrones,” which can be as big a part of college life as hanging out with friends or joining clubs. Realizing that there are at least 50 other people on campus who are deeply invested in silly but awesome interests like fantasy TV shows connects and unites readers.

Other platforms such as clubs, classes, student government or even just reading and responding to email can spark a strong sense of community as well. But students are drawn to the mysterious, silly, sexy and blunt nature of “Oxy Confessions,” and who can blame them? Readers of this page should also prioritize going to class and finishing their essays, but time spent interacting with others via “Oxy Confessions” has a valid and even vital role to play in students’ daily lives.

Through “Oxy Confessions'” open and honest dialogue, maybe even more students can agree with confessor No. 2720.

“I like Occidental,” anonymous post No. 2720 said.

Olivia Landon is an undeclared first-year. She can be reached at landon@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyOLandon.

Mad for March Madness

Juliet Suess

April 1, 2014

The National Basketball Association (NBA) finals cannot compare to the excitement and heart of the annual March Madness college basketball tournament; in fact, nothing in sports can. The raw emotion of the event and fansmanship of the schools set it apart from any other American sporting event I have witnessed. Just making it to the tournament often gives teams something to prove, and sometimes players perform better than they have all season. Reaching the March Madness tournament is the pinnacle of one’s collegiate career.

Players and fans alike feel deep emotional connections to the outcomes of the games. Especially in the later games of the tournament, the final buzzer brings with it an outpouring of emotion. It is an incredible juxtaposition of some of the strongest human emotion: anguish by those on the losing team and pure, unabashed joy for those on the winning team.

Many of the players have tears on their faces for different reasons. They simply cannot stop themselves from the feelings that come to them. It’s beautiful.

Fans, too, have a similarly automatic, visceral emotional reaction. Many fans at schools with big sports are the “one team for life” sports fans written about in this column last week. They live and breathe their sports teams.

At the NCAA tournament, this showing of fanmanship intensifies. Fans battle for greatness on social media and get in arguments over which team is better or will win it all.

That is exactly the type of fanmanship that should be applauded. These fans fully and completely believe in their team, whether they are ranked first or 16th in their region of the bracket. Tears upon losing are acceptable as are hugs and joy upon winning.

But Arizona fans took it too far after their loss to Wisconsin. Fifteen people were arrested in Tuscon following disorderly behavior resulting from the overtime loss to Wisconsin, according to ESPN.

Granted, the referees made a questionable call, and the fans’ anger is justified in some ways; any strong fan of any sport is not going to take a loss without some sense of anger or disappointment.

Getting arrested simply because a sporting team lost is overkill. It is not the police’s fault that Arizona lost and yet, the fans took it upon themselves to take it out on their surroundings.

Referees make calls every day that they think are the right call, and sometimes those have a huge impact on the game’s outcome. But to let the anger at those calls detract from the overall meaning of the tournament is selfish and immature, not to mention disrespectful and out of hand.

March Madness stands alone, in my view, as the single most exciting tournament in the sport. It moves quickly and is overloaded with action, excitement and emotion. There is no other tournament in the country that shows the opposition of emotion and sportsmanship quite like the NCAA tourney.

Juliet Suess is a senior ECLS major. She can be reached at suess@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyJSuess.

Baseball's loud music disrespects residents, violates quiet hours

Michael Tonetti

April 1, 2014

It is a Friday night, and I go to bed relatively late. Expecting to sleep until the late morning, I am surprised to be woken up before 9 a.m. to music neither my roommates nor typically I listen to. Confused at first, I slowly realize the pop music is coming from the baseball team’s pre-game warmup for its 11 a.m. game, clearly audible to me because Anderson Field is less than a couple hundred yards away from my hall.

The Occidental College student handbook’s Residential Education & Housing Services (REHS) Policy clearly states that residential housing quiet hours are from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. through the week and from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the weekends. With this in mind, students should be asking themselves why they are consistently woken up before quiet hours are over to the sounds of blaring music coming from the baseball field.

According to Associate Director of REHS Juls White, this policy only accounts for noise that occurs within the residence halls and areas connected to the residence halls (i.e. Stewie Beach, Haines Lawn, Chilcott-Erdman Lawn, Berkus Hall courtyards). However, according to the actual text of the policy, REHS should account for the unusual circumstances of the baseball field, too. The policy states that, “These hours extend to areas directly surrounding the residence halls.” From this section of the handbook, it is clear that students should be questioning why an athletics event would be exempt from this policy.

Despite the policy, REHS’s hands are pretty much tied on the issue, according to White.

“[REHS] does not have control over noise levels at athletic spaces,” White said. “However, we do live in a community of respect, and [REHS] is always willing to help alleviate the noise when possible.”

White encourages students who are concerned with the noise to call the Resident Adviser (RA) on duty so they can work with Campus Safety to have the baseball team lower the volume.

Regardless of whether REHS has the ability to control outside noises, I don’t expect the music to be completely shut off. As an NCAA athlete myself, I understand the desire for pre-game music. And according to economics major Kenneth Nishimura (sophomore), the tie between pre-game music and baseball is especially longstanding.

“Playing music during the pre-game of an NCAA baseball game is a pretty universal and integral part of any pre-game routine from college up to the pros,” Nishimura, an injured-reserve member of the varsity baseball team, said. “It’s just a really good way to stay loose while at the same time pumping you up a little bit.”

It is perfectly reasonable for a baseball team competing in one of the best conferences in Division-III to want to play music during warm-ups and in between innings. But this music should not infringe upon fellow students’ rights to sleep in on the weekends.

So, on that note, I request two things of the baseball team and their DJ.

First, simply lower the volume of the music. I can endure some soft noise outside of my window, but when outside music is projected through my room at similar sound levels as my personal speakers are capable of playing, I believe this implies a lack of respect. If they are not willing to do this, at least courtesy hours could be honored, and they could wait an extra hour to begin blasting music.

Second, if residents are going to be unwillingly subjected to the baseball team’s noise, some better music should be played. As opposed to the usual Top-40 radio hits playlist, perhaps some better pump-up music could be played.

Politics major Daniel Terner (sophomore), a Norris Hall resident, agrees that different music could be played.

“I would just say a lot of times they could really pick a better song,” Terner said. “You hear the same Avicii riffs and country songs over and over. It just gets annoying after awhile.”

The principle of communal respect should constitute all that is needed to enforce courtesy hours in this instance. It is purely disrespectful towards upper campus to be subjected to an alarm clock they did not set. The school policy states, “The right for quiet supersedes the right to make noise.” This statement was made to mediate cases such as this. In a situation where residents are clearly negatively impacted, with potential for a decline in academic performance due to an insufficient amount of sleep, a change undoubtedly needs to be made.

Michael Tonetti is a sophomore Diplomacy and World Affairs major. He can be reached at tonetti@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyMTonetti.

Campus Safety tests new dispatch service

Lauren Rewers

April 1, 2014

The Campus Safety Department has introduced dispatch controllers to its personnel on a trial basis as part of an ongoing effort to make Campus Safety more efficient and allow officers to focus more on patrolling duties.

G4S Secure Solutions, a security contracting agency, currently supplies the dispatchers, who answer and field all calls to the department. The officers either address the call, if possible, or forward it to Occidental’s officers on patrol.

“We have found that this is the most efficient way to do this,” Associate Dean of Students Tim Chang said.

Chang, who oversees the department, collaborated with Campus Safety officials to initiate and observe the trial.

According to Chang, officers previously answered all calls to Campus Safety, potentially interfering with their patrol. Additionally, poor service in the Academic Commons and basements of buildings on campus caused problems with missed calls from those areas.

Chang said that the change will improve the workings of Campus Safety in two ways. First, additional personnel will improve communication between the officers, students, faculty and other departments. Second, it will allow the officers on patrol to do their work on campus without interruption from calls that can be handled by the dispatchers.

“It allows officers to be more proactive in the field, where they need to be for our students, visitors, faculty and guests,” Director of Campus Safety Sean Kennedy said.

The temporary dispatchers were initially only contracted to work from March 17 to March 28, during which time Campus Safety monitored the number and time of the calls coming into the department. According to Chang, the information is used to determine when a permanent dispatcher may be needed most. In light of the its success, the trial has been extended to May 20 at the suggestion of the department.

According to Chang, the additions to Campus Safety will relieve strain from an already understaffed department. Currently, Campus Safety employs 12 officers, down from 18 a year and a half ago. A search committee headed by Assistant Dean for Community Engagement Ella Turenne and including Kennedy and others is looking to replace those employees.

“I want to make sure we pick the best person possible,” Kennedy said. “It takes time to get the right candidate — for the students, for the faculty.”

Additional staff from G4S Secure Solutions and other security firms have been employed by the college in the past to assist at large events, such as the Los Angeles County Science Olympiad hosted on campus on Feb. 22. They will also be present for Programming Board’s Springfest concert on April 12.

After Office Hours: What Professors are Doing Outside the Classroom

Taylor Majewski

April 1, 2014

One of the benefits of a small, liberal arts college is that students and professors have the opportunity to get to know each other beyond basic facial recognition in a large lecture hall. Many Occidental students take advantage of their small class sizes and meet with their professors in one-on-one settings on a weekly basis, developing individual connections with them. Often, Occidental students become very familiar with the professors who teach classes within their major, and they may even develop a fond, Mr. Miyagi-Daniel LaRusso type of relationship with their academic adviser. Occidental professors are encouraging to students, constantly helping them to grow as scholars and soon-to-be professionals. But what are their lives like once they leave the classroom?

Professor of Art History and Visual Arts Linda Lyke is a Los Angeles artist and professor at Occidental, who specializes in printmaking. At Occidental, she teaches classes such as “Lithography,” “Photo Processes in Printmaking” and “Silkscreen Printmaking.” She has displayed her work in 15 one-person shows and her prints have been featured in 80 national juried print and drawing exhibitions.

Some students might be surprised to learn Lyke is also a nationally-ranked tennis player. Two years ago, Lyke and her daughter decided to start competing in national mother-daughter tennis tournaments. Within a year and a half, the two claimed the No. 1 ranking in the country as a mother-daughter duo. Lyke and her daughter are successful in tournaments played on a variety of surfaces, including grass, clay, hard courts and indoor courts. The two credit their consistent success to their many years of playing together.

“We know each other’s game pretty well, and we keep working on it,” Lyke said.

Lyke mentioned that she has played in the United States Tennis Association league for a long time.

“As you travel, you meet other mother and daughter teams, and you get some really fantastic tennis players,” Lyke said.

Lyke and her daughter also play against other faculty members at Occidental to keep their game sharp.

“We’ve played with them and against them, just for practice. Sometimes we practice with the men’s team, trying to get better,” Lyke said.

When she is not racking up wins on the tennis court, Lyke uses similar skills to create works of art in her studio.

“When you’re playing you have to stay in the moment, and when I’m in the studio, I’m always responding to what’s happening while I’m working,” Lyke said.

Currently on sabbatical, Lyke spends much of her time in her studio working on a series of tracings that depict the anonymous and unethical nature of killings in the Unites States and of drone strikes in other countries.

———-

Every Saturday for the past four years, associate professors Mary Christianakis (Critical Theory and Social Justice, or CTSJ) and Richard Mora (sociology) have gone to a Special Housing Unit (SHU) in central Los Angeles which holds incarcerated youth. In collaboration with the InsideOUT Writers program, these two Occidental professors developed a creative writing curriculum that they teach to a class of young male inmates each weekend. These inmates are minors who will undergo fitness hearings to determine whether they will be tried as adults or juveniles in court.

“To me, it’s one of the biggest civil rights issues in the United States,” Christianakis said. “The system is fundamentally flawed and not rehabilitative.”

Christianakis’ and Mora’s creative writing class at the SHU stems from their passions for issues related to juvenile justice. Over the past four years, their class sizes have ranged from one to 14 inmates per class. Student turnover is common in these classes because of the interference of court dates.

The idea of the InsideOUT program and Christianakis’s and Mora’s class is to use creative writing as a catalyst for personal transformation in order to reintegrate incarcerated youth back into communities. The InsideOUT alumni program also helps formerly incarcerated young people apply to college, obtain jobs and find apartments.

“It’s challenging because there are years of feeling bad and ashamed to overcome,” Christianakis said.

The students have the emotional strains of being incarcerated, having greater literacy needs due to their incarceration.

At least one SHU staff member remains in the room watching the inmates while Christianakis and Mora teach their class. The two teach all types of creative writing to the students. They read Tupac’s poetry while students write their own rap lyrics and letters and explore fictional stories.

As the students learn, Christianakis and Mora also reap the benefits of the class experiences.

“My teaching at Oxy informs my teaching at Central and vise versa. I reflect on my teaching there and I bring that to my classroom at Oxy,” Mora said.

The two are working on expanding the program and making it more accessible.

“[The program is] too small now to have the serious impact that it should have,” Christianakis said.

Both professors are hopeful the collaboration between Occidental and the InsideOUT program will continue to grow.

“Imagine us creating a small institute on our campus with students and alums where we can create academic papers, research projects and documentaries that will have an impact on social policy. I know that Oxy students crave that sort of thing,” Mora said.

Director of the Community Literacy Center and education professor Desiree Zamorano used to teach a class in which Occidental students worked with the InsideOUT Writers program, however, the college chose to discontinue the class. Both Christianakis and Mora hope that Occidental students, as both scholars and social agents, will have the opportunity to participate in the program again in the future.

—-

Ari Laskin was recently named the new Media Arts and Culture assistant professor of Comparative Media Studies. In his three years at Occidental, Laskin’s classes have ranged from digital culture studies to explorations of “mockumentary” film to topics in international cinema. However, Laskin has also been focusing on a myriad of his own film projects.

Recently, Laskin has been working on a book link project that explores the history of infrared and night vision through drones. He is hosting a symposium of military visuality where several theorists will be discussing the U.S. military’s increasing use of drones, which will debut on April 24. He worked on the project for almost five years and even attended a military conference at the Pentagon that dealt with Tier-3 classified drones.

Laskin wants to record a film focusing on research out of UC Berkeley, which mapped cinematized internal thought using MRI machines.

“This is a beautiful cinematic art form with lots of artistic potential as well as theoretical potential. This work is manifested in my art work and theoretical writing,” Laskin said.

Additionally, Laskin is working on directing a feature-length film. It will explore foodie culture and the quest for ethnic authenticity within the hipster blogosphere. The project, which also involves a web-series and user-generated content, will specifically explore Korean dishes Bossam and Samgyupsal. According to Laskin, it will display how the racial notions that circulate contemporary foodie practices are stuck in 19th century: They are fixed as pure and authentic.

“The focus is on a subset of foodie reviewers known as ‘chowhounds’ who are particularly obsessed with uncovering hole-in-the-wall ‘ethnic’ restaurants,” Laskin said via email. “For the chowhound, the ideal eatery is previously undiscovered and serves food in the diasporic region that is nearly identical to that cooked in a home country in the Southern hemisphere. In particular, I am interested in how the notions of race that underlie ‘chowhounds’ search for ethic authenticity assumes that race is something that is fixed, natural, and is pure in its source country.”

—–

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, associate professor of politics Caroline Heldman traveled to Louisiana to cover the aftermath for the local KPFK radio station and contribute to rescue and relief efforts. Early in her career, Heldman worked with an organization called Common Ground Collective to refurbish homes damaged in the hurricane. She then proceeded to open the New Orleans Women’s Shelter with help from Occidental students. The shelter now operates as its own organization and is run by a local resident.

Since then, Heldman has worked to open the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum – a museum that celebrates the neighborhood – that was virtually wiped off the map of the city of New Orleans after Katrina. Heldman started the project after reading a report on rebuilding in New Orleans and was struck by the lack of effort going into rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward. With no bills being pushed by local or state politicians to rebuild the neighborhood, it was not going to survive, according to Heldman.

“It became clear to me that there needed to be a place to remember what the neighborhood was like,” Heldman said.

After three years, the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum opened in August 2013 and currently features events from the history of the Lower Ninth Ward and cultural events to entertain and educate. The museum is an interactive experience that tells the story of the Lower Ninth Ward through the eyes of its residents. Heldman works in New Orleans five months out of the year and even owns the museum building, which also holds volunteer housing. The Living Museum is currently run by two Occidental graduates and several of Heldman’s students fly to New Orleans to live on the volunteer site during breaks.

“The mission of the museum is to remember the past, celebrate the present and plan for the future,” Heldman said.

Heldman hopes that the Living Museum will become the ultimate destination for tourists wishing to learn about what happened to communities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Men’s Track & Field sweeps SCIAC Multi-Dual 2 as Occidental women defeat Caltech, fall to Pomona-Pitzer

Tim O'Donnell

April 1, 2014

Improvement was the word of the day for the Occidental track and field programs on Saturday at SCIAC Multi-Dual 2, as numerous Tigers dropped time in track events and added distance in the field by significant margins. The performances led to a men’s sweep over the Caltech Beavers and the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens and a split for the women, who defeated the Beavers but fell to the Sagehens.

“It was really a collective team effort today,” Occidental track and field head coach Rob Bartlett said. “The throwers did great, the sprinters did well, and the distance runners did well, too. Really the whole team contributed.”

On the track, The Occidental Weekly staff member and middle-distance runner Alex Nieves (junior) finished second in the 400-meter with a time of 49.17 seconds, dropping 1.20 seconds from his lifetime best and giving him the ninth best time in Division-III this season. Sophomore Greg Capra also dropped his time by over a second in the 400.

First-years Kyle Dalton and Jeh Johnson finished second and third in the 200-meter, producing lifetime bests of 22.18 seconds and 22.22 seconds, both respectively.

Dalton also finished second in the 100-meter with a time of 11.10 seconds, while Kevin Cox (senior) followed closely with a fourth-place finish of 11.16 seconds.

Additionally, relay efforts brought home two first-place finishes for men’s sprinters. Dalton, Johnson, Nieves and Cox defeated the Sagehens in both the 4×100 and 4×400 meter relays, crossing the finish line at 42.29 seconds and 3:18.54 minutes, respectively. The 4×400 squad now holds the nation’s second-fastest time.

Junior Jenny Quilty and Onyekachi Nwabueze (first-year) took center stage on the women’s side. Quilty took third place in the 100-meter with a season-best of 12.89 seconds and second place in the 200-meter at 25.99 seconds. She finished right behind Nwabueze, who crossed the finish line victoriously at 25.93 seconds.

Both Quilty and Nwabueze remain on Occidental’s all-time top-10 for the 200.

Additionally, hurdler Rachael Hinkel (sophomore) won her second SCIAC competition of the season with a seasonal best of 15.53 seconds.

“If you look around, almost everyone had seasonal bests or lifetime bests,” sprint coach Tyler Yamaguchi said. “In track and field, that’s what you’re always after: improving yourself.”

The distance runners strung together an equally impressive day.

Junior Colin Smith won the physically taxing 1,500-meter with a time of 3:56.94 minutes. After recovering from the stresses of his first race, Smith then secured a lifetime-best of 1:57.93 minutes and a sixth-place finish in the 800-meter less than an hour later.

First-year Raoul Friedemann posted a collegiate best 1:57.74 minutes in the 800 en route to a fifth-place finish.

Senior Jenna Wong and Weekly staff member Mel Devoney (first-year) led the charge for the women’s distance runners. Wong finished third in the 5,000-meter, shaving off a minute from her SCIAC Multi-Dual 1 time. Devoney finished fourth in the 1,500-meter, also claiming a season-best time at 4:53.14 minutes.

“I think the training is paying off for everybody,” Smith said. “Everybody is working hard and gaining confidence.”

Occidental’s participants in the field events showed great promise and served as the largest point-contributors on the day.

Well-known football standouts Andrew Clarey (sophomore) and Dalton Spinas (senior) — the latter competing in his first collegiate track and field event — both finished in top-three of their respective events.

Clarey grabbed second place in the shot put, throwing a career-best of 42-10.75 feet. Spinas worked his way into third place in discus, throwing 122-22 feet to start out his career.

Sophomore Noah Winnick took fifth in javelin and recorded a season-best of 144-09 feet. Junior Kimberly Orpinela moved into fourth all-time in the Occidental women’s record book when she finished in second place with a lifetime best of 135-06 feet.

“Today was a very good example of Oxy track and field filling the field gap that we haven’t had for a couple of years,” Winnick said. “It’s nice to have a group of guys that are throwing together and working well together. It was very fun.”

A few Tigers head to San Diego on Friday and Saturday for the Cal-Nevada Championships. The entire team will then regroup for the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on April 12.

New BBQ joint provides good meat with a side of family values

Nina Greenebaum

April 1, 2014

Just three blocks from Occidental, wedged next to Yellow Liquor on the corner of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Ridgeview Avenue, is Max City BBQ, the newest Eagle Rock gastronomic venture. The corner café is hardly a dive; it boasts a bar lined with Ranunculus flower bouquets and over-sized glass jars filled with lemonade and iced tea. Part of the rear parking lot has been transformed into a back patio surrounded by a succulent plant vertical garden. The attractive space is the result of nearly a full year of renovations.

Formerly a marijuana dispensary, the venue was dramatically transformed into the vision shared by co-owners and husband and wife Jason McDonald and Melanie Blair and business partner John Andrus. Andrus, an architect, handled the majority of the renovations.

The motivation to start up the restaurant began for McDonald and Blair well before the March 21 opening. Seven years ago, McDonald was challenged to a “rib-off” among friends in Los Angeles but fell short of winning. Since then, New Yorker McDonald committed himself to improving his product, though clearly not from a “barbecue family.”

“I am a bad loser,” McDonald said.

Following the rib-off, McDonald and Blair began catering small-scale, backyard events for friends and family in L.A. The catering business took off, prompting the couple to expand the business to a retail space.

The menu at Max City BBQ is identical to that of the couple’s flagship catering business, featuring barbecue classic such as baby back ribs, brisket, pulled pork and barbecue chicken, served with sides including macaroni and cheese, cucumber salad and cornbread.

I headed to Max City BBQ with Diplomacy and World Affairs major Emma Lalley (senior) and Art History and Visual Arts major Hannah Rindlaub (junior) on a Thursday evening less than a week after the opening. I went for the barbecue chicken paired with the cucumber salad, while Rindlaub and Lalley ordered the pulled-pork sandwich with Key lime pie for dessert.

The portions were generous and came in disposable containers nestled on hammered aluminum platters. Served with a cornbread muffin, the flavorful and moist chicken was even better with the barbecue sauce found on the table. The cucumber salad was reminiscent of Japanese cucumber salad with rice-wine vinegar, lightening up an otherwise-heavy meal.

Although each item on the menu is delectable, certain dishes stand out. “The Key lime pie is what’s up,” Rindlaub said.

We were far from the first Occidental students to visit Max City, according to McDonald. Thus far, he has been thrilled with the traffic but is still figuring out how to keep up with demand while maintaining high quality. McDonald has hired Occidental students in an effort to keep up with demand.

“It is hard to keep things fresh when producing in large quantities,” McDonald said.

McDonald aims to maintain flavorful, classic dishes by utilizing high quality, organic ingredients, including eggs from the Atwater Village Farmers Market.

McDonald, Blair and Andrus are acutely aware of the Occidental community’s potential impact on their business and hope to continue to cultivate an Occidental fan base. As other Eagle Rock businesses have done, Max City BBQ is offering a 10 percent Occidental student and faculty discount, as well as other deals tailored to the college crew.

M-F 11:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., 4729 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041

After Office Hours

The Occidental

April 1, 2014

Hang the DJ: The one about life behind the decks

Jack Butcher

April 1, 2014

This past weekend was one of the best I have ever had during my time in college, and all it took was people dancing to music that I chose to play. That is one of the best parts about being the DJ for a party or other event: the cheer when you play someone’s favorite song, watching the ebb and flow of the crowd and playing the right music to influence and match it.

Learning how to operate the programs and equipment for DJ-ing can be fairly straightforward, and mostly just requires practice. The bigger challenge is learning how to read a crowd, to know how they will respond to a certain track or genre. Even more difficult is figuring out how to interact directly with people who come to talk to you while working the decks. Most of the time, they just want to hang out and maybe request a song or two.

However, sometimes, having others in the booth or on stage can be a distraction, or worse, affect the set in a negative way. While instances such as these are fortunately few and far between (for the most part), there were a few that happened to me over the weekend (as a disclaimer, I bear no ill will towards anyone mentioned in this post, and all names have been changed for anonymity). While I do not claim to be an expert, there are some lessons that I can pass on for those who want to get behind the decks.

Messing with a DJ’s equipment

Last Friday, I had just began what would end up being one of the best sets I ever had. The crowd was building, the bar was cranking out drinks and everyone seemed to be having a fantastic night. Naturally, I was mostly concentrated on my computer and controller, and did not notice two guys (we’ll call them Dave and Mel) standing by the club’s mixer, glancing around surreptitiously and trying to raise the overall volume without anyone noticing. Fortunately, my friend and fellow musical moron Gary was in the booth with me and noticed what they were doing, then called them out on it.

Deep down, I have no doubt that Dave and Mel had only positive intentions when trying to make the audio levels go up. Loud music is exactly what a party needs, right? What they might not have considered was that we had already set the volume at a level that worked best for the club without blowing out their speakers, as well as finding the balance between getting people to dance and allowing them to have conversations as well. While the faithful and energetic might stay on the dance floor all night, not everyone has that level of stamina; and if the music is too loud, they will not be able to hear their friends while taking a break.

There is also the risk of causing permanent damage to the equipment. Yes, we probably could have turned up the volume, but having the levels up too high can ruin the speakers. Changing audio settings without letting the DJ know can throw them off as well, since they suddenly have to adjust to their songs being considerably louder than before.

This “do not touch without permission” policy extends to the decks and headphones as well. While I have no problem letting someone try scratching or playing around with the controller’s buttons for a second, it can be frustrating for both the DJ and the crowd to suddenly have the music stop and stutter. Even worse is when someone tries to take over completely when the performer steps away for a second, as what happened to me on Saturday. While I was looking through my bag for a power cord, a random person grabbed my headphones and began messing around with my decks until I asked him to leave the stage.

What can the audience take away from this? Always ask the DJ for permission before touching his or her equipment. All of it is expensive, and if we aren’t using our own speakers, you risk interrupting the flow of the set, or worse, causing costly damage. For DJs who are trying to deal with this, the best route is to stay as calm as possible and politely ask the other person to stop. Most of the time they will be perfectly willing to leave your stuff alone.

Playing “Bangers,” And other requests

On Friday night, the atmosphere of the party was at its greatest intensity around 12:30 a.m. The crowd had been going hard for the past half-hour, enjoying the blend of throwback and current rap hits. Who doesn’t enjoy some classic 50 Cent through massive speakers?

After a little while, I decided to play a couple more downtempo songs to give people the chance to take a short rest before hitting the dance floor again. At this point, another guy in the booth – I’ll call him Martin – informed me that I needed to stop playing “Bar Mitzvah” music and play more “bangers” to get the crowd going.

My first inclination was to acquiesce his request with this remix of the immensely popular, festival-read track, “Animals.”

I also wanted to tell him that not only was I asked to stick to Top 40 and rap for most of the night, but also that this wasn’t Ultra Music Festival or Electric Daisy Carnival, where a DJ can get away with just playing all the big room house songs they want in a row. Resisting the urge, I calmly told him I would keep his suggestion in mind.

Oddly enough, on Saturday, I had the exact opposite problem. I had been tapped to play a showcase of my favorite genres, including trance, electro and progressive house, none of which see too much play at parties around campus. Most people at the event seemed to be getting into the music, apart from one person – I’ll call him Rick. Rick came up about a minute into the set to tell me, “You need to play songs with vocals in them.” and not five minutes later, to demand I play hip-hop.

In both cases, Martin and Rick made the mistake of misidentifying the crowd they were in. When putting in a request for a DJ, you need to be aware of what kind of music is being played at the event. Sometimes, a variety of electronic, rap and pop music can make an appearance. Other times, the selection may be more limited based on the event organizers or crowd. For DJs, the best way to handle people either asking or demanding a certain song or genre be played is to remain as polite as possible. Do not just dismiss them, but instead either say that you will try and fit their request in or explain why you might not be able to use a specific song. The key is to stay as friendly as possible – which can be difficult to do, especially when the audience member is being flat-out rude and obnoxious. Again, this is usually not a huge issue, since most people will be friendly and just want to have a good time.

Despite these issues, my two gigs last weekend were hands down some of the best I have ever had as an amateur DJ. Spinning for a crowd of your peers is both a party and a learning experience. One of my friends told me the next day that he had never seen me happier than when I was DJ-ing, and he was right. There is nothing else quite like it.

Until next time: No retreat, no surrender.

JTB

Jack Butcher is a senior history major. He can be reached at butcher@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyJButcher.

Fish got 99 problems and they all Congress: How a single representative is trying to take the science out of fishery management

Jill Goatcher

March 31, 2014

Every now and then we hear about a representative in Congress who claims, “global warming is a hoax,” or “climate change isn’t based on real science.” These statements are shocking and disturbing to hear from elected representatives charged with making decisions for our country. However, a more subtle condemnation of science has been happening in Congress, and it directly affects the survival of the fish in our oceans and the people that make their living by fishing.

Oceans being hurt on Capitol Hill? (Jill Goatcher)

Fishery management strives to hit the sweet spot between maintaining the national fishing industry while ensuring that fish populations are not depleted to the point of extinction. The Magnuson-Stevens Act was established in 1976 by Congress to combine science with management to work effective fishery management in the United States. The law protects populations from fishing faster than fish are able to reproduce (called “overfishing” ), and calls for the United States fishing industry to adopt sustainable fishing practices, which netted an average of $4 billion worth of fish between 2008 and 2010. Drafts of the reauthorized bill include measures that would restrict transparency in management decisions, increase the waiting period for fish-saving policies to be implemented and reduce the amount of critical oversight currently in place over fishery management councils.

Trawl net on deck of a commercial fishing ship. (CC)

Overfishing is a massive national and global problem. As technology has adapted from line and net fishing, the capacity for one boat to bring fish ashore has exponentially increased. Fishing technology, called “bottom trawling,” collected over 800 million pounds of fish off the coasts of the U.S. in 2007 alone. A net (which can be as wide as six 747 planes lined up wing tip-to-tip) is typically dragged along the bottom of the ocean floor, indiscriminately scraping and corralling marine animals into the net. The net also destroys the seabed, including corals and sea grasses that are critical to supporting life in that environment. The net is then winched up onto the deck where animals that cannot be sold to a market are thrown overboard, often already dead or near death. These animals are called “bycatch” and are killed purely as a result of this unsustainable fishing practices.

Bottom trawling destroying critical marine habitats. (Greenpeace UK)

The Magnuson-Stevens Act has cut down unsustainable fishing practices and stock depletion and has allowed the U.S. to maintain one of the strongest fishery management plans in the country – overfished populations have fallen to 26 populations in September 2013 from 72 populations in 2000, and a whopping 34 different types of fish have been rebuilt to sustainable levels since 2000.

Cod, a sensitive fishery in the northeast United States, in a trawl net on deck. (CC)

This act is up for reauthorization this year, and a single representative is trying to reverse the strengthening of fishery management practices. Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources Rep. Doc Hastings of central Washington State has proposed changes to the act that have led conservation groups to call it, “The Empty Oceans Act.”

Among many changes that blatantly ignore fishery science, the draft would mandate a five-year waiting period – compared to the two-year waiting period currently – before policies could be implemented to restore a struggling fish population. This means that for an additional three years, fishing practices do not have to be changed for a fish that could be on the brink of depletion. This would only further damage the fish stock, leading to more severe economic and environmental consequences when restoration policies are finally put into place.

Red snapper, a sensitive fish population in the Gulf of Mexico, caught off the coast of Florida. (CC)

Hasting’s draft of the act would also do away the transparency with which fishery management councils have historically operated. By restricting public access to fishery data that is used to make management decisions about fish resources, key stakeholders, including fishermen and scientists, would be unable to see the statistical reality of fish stocks in oceans nationwide. This could open the door to poor management decisions that, without public oversight, could be based on political, rather than environmental, motivations.

Additionally, how the Magnuson-Stevens Act is reviewed by larger environmental legislation, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, could be completely altered. The National Environmental Policy Act requires impartial, ecosystem-based review of “federal management actions,” including the exploration of alternatives to proposed actions to minimize potential damaging impacts of federal management proposals such as fishery stock management. Hastings has proposed that the Magnusen-Stevens Act does not need this sort of oversight, leaving fishery managers lacking broad ecosystem information that could lead to the most effective decisions to improve the health of fish populations.

A school of fish in the Gulf of Mexico. (CC)

The proposals made to the Magnuson-Stevens Act by Chairman Hastings are environmentally irresponsible. The draft must be altered to allow the act to move forward with strength, not scale back on science-based management and prolonged waiting periods. As critically informed citizens, we can not accept this shift in Congress toward destroying our fisheries.

Jill Goatcher is a senior politics major and marine biology minor. She can be reached at goatcher@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyJGoatcher.

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