Pulse Editor
Jacquelyn Lewis
jacquelynlewis@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, April 10,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
Online
Stripped: Mason West
explores the world
of exotic dancing.
Read the column at
www.dailyemerald.com
‘Liberated’ Iraq
to cull benefits of
McWorld legacy
Joseph M. Bechard
Edge Culture Columnist
In about 220 short years, America became the first
country to perfect civil society. Today marks a new era.
Now, behind an entirely benevolent and altruistic leader,
our country has hearkened to a higher mandate. We are
going to impose “freedom” on any dunderheads who
don’t realize democracy is better than anything they’ve
figured out in all the millennia they’ve been around.
I see big things in the future for Iraq. As soon as
coalition forces liberate the country’s people, we could
really win them over with our rich and enlightened cul
tural heritage. Newly liberated Iraqi women will be
aching to use their newfangled freedom to dress like
hookers. We will deploy a crack team of cultural am
bassadors — maybe Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and
Russell Crowe — to hand out Glamour magazines,
Wonderbras, Old Navy Ultra Low-Rise Boot-Cut Jeans
and pink thongs at MTV summer vacation in Umm
Qasr. Sure, in America this type of culture causes 80
percent of women to be dissatisfied with their body im
ages, but don’t worry, only 4 to 13 percent will really
suffer from serious eating disorders.
For the Iraqi boys, it’s a steady diet of teenage angst
and effrontery. Some of them will love the poetry and
artistry of Insane Clown Posse,
Mudvayne or Linkin Park. For the
rest, it’s hardcore rap. The United
States may be one of the industri
alized world’s leaders in murder,
suicide, rape, drug consumption
and robbery, but it can’t be a result
of our culture. It’s because we are
so free.
Next will come the movie indus
try. Universal Studios will open an
“Operation Iraqi Freedom” theme
park with simulated Apache Heli
copter air raids on Baghdad and
tours of the locations where they
shot recent hit movies glorifying the
war. Not to be outdone, Disney will open Disney World
Basra, an Aladdin-themed park intended to brighten the
faces of sad Iraqi children — and plant consumerist no
tions of freedom in the budding young imaginations of a
new demographic.
Joseph
Bechard
Cultural
Obstetrician
To further ease their suffering, we’ll export our
ridiculous pop culture, sports idolatry and video game
worship to keep their minds off pressing issues like the
environment, politics or art. America is the world’s
leading polluter. Its political system is suffocated by
corruption, and its communities are losing touch with
one another. But we don’t care. Why should Iraq?
A democracy modeled after the United States would
naturally support a free press owned by large corpora
tions — so long as it doesn’t report news that portrays
its country, politicians or big business negatively.
And how could you represent our political culture as
anything but fair? Under the iron fist of Saddam Hus
sein, Iraqi people had one choice on their presidential
ballot. In America, we had several choices that didn’t
matter. If you’re going to have a completely symbolic
vote, it’s good to have a few choices. That’s freedom.
Speaking of choices, I’m sure the members of this
new democracy will love all of the great ones on the #1
value menus soon to light Iraqi nights. Our busy new
friends will need plenty of fast meals. Snacking and
poorly prepared meals will quickly increase the coun
try’s obesity levels. Before they know it, more than half
of Iraq’s population will be overweight and more than
20 percent will be considered obese, just like us well
fed Americans.
Yes, America is the world’s moral and cultural leader. We
should take it upon ourselves to impose our obviously supe
rior political and cultural standards on the rest of the world.
Because we know what’s best for everyone.
Contact the Pulse columnist
atjosephbechard@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
Pulse brief
Graduate dance student
presents concert
Innovative choreography will in
terface with text, video and creative
costuming on Friday and Saturday,
when graduate dance student Gorrie
Cowart presents her master’s of fine
arts concert, “Connections.” Both
performances will take place at 8
p.m. in the M. Frances Dougherty
Dance Theatre at Gerlinger Annex.
The student dancers have been
rehearsing since fall, and Cowart
said the concert consists of six
pieces, some of which were years in
the making. The selections include
“Thimbleberry Sketches,” a dance
video Cowart directed in the Colum
bia River Gorge. The footage in
cludes performers exploring move
ment in waterfalls, on cliff edges and
in fields.
“It’s filmed in the place where I
grew up, so it’s kind of nostalgic to
me,” Cowart said.
Cowart will also perform in two
duets with husband and fellow grad
uate student Tim Cowart, including
“Embrace,” a work created by Seat
tle choreographer Wade Madsen.
“What She Said,” “Wardrobe
Wars” and a solo created for Tim
Cowart are also part of the program
— each displaying Corrie Cowart’s
original choreography.
In addition to Corrie Cowart’s and
Madsen’s works, dancers in Eugene
choreographer Alito Alessi’s humor
ous “Hoop Dance” will cavort and fly
across the stage.
“I’m a pretty playful person,”
Corrie Cowart said. “So, overall,
there’s a pretty playful sense about
the concert.”
Tickets are $10 general admission
and $5 for students and senior citi
zens, and are available at the door 30
minutes prior to the performance.
—Jacquelyn Lewis
Husband and wife graduate
dance students Tim and Corrie
Cowart will preform six pieces in
"Connections," Corrie Cowart's
master's of fine arts concert.
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Music festival promotes ‘Hope’
The School of Music hosts the
Music Today Festival, an event
that encourages peace and
prosperity in tumultuous times
Andrew Shipley
Freelance Reporter
The School of Music will showcase mu
sical styles ranging from West Coast
choral groups singing for peace to the
mellow chamber jazz of vibraphone and
marimba duo Senior Mouse during the
2003 Music Today Festival.
The event will be a weeklong series of
performances by local, regional and in
ternational artists. The biennial festival is
produced by the School of Music and or
ganized by Professor Robert Kyr. Perfor
mances of student work will include the
premieres of multiple graduate com
posers in Friday’s Oregon Composer’s Fo
rum, which kicks off the festival at 8 p.m.
in Beall Concert Hall, as well as perform
ances throughout Saturday by the UO
Chamber Choir and University Singers.
The festival’s theme is “Hope in a Time
of War,” and will address the turbulent
state of current events. In addition to in
troducing the diversity of modem music,
the festival will highlight the role that mu
sic can play in promoting peace through
this diversity.
School of Music Publicity Director
Scott Parkhurst said audiences should
not be put off by the event’s contempo
rary theme.
“People are nervous about coming to
contemporary music events,” Parkhurst
said. However, he added those fears are
unfounded.
“A lot of contemporary music now is
wonderfully creative and listenable,”
Parkhurst said.
Contemporary music is an extremely
diverse genre, often referring more to
style then the actual composition of the
pieces performed. For example, the inter
nationally renowned Santa Fe Guitar
Quartet will perform a set on Monday, in
cluding pieces by B6la Bartok and Bach.
The schedule also includes the pre
mieres of more than 20 original pieces,
most of which are composed by Uni
versity students. Friday’s forum will be
an opportunity for graduate students to
take pieces labored tirelessly over in
bedrooms and quiet practice rooms
and introduce them to a live audience
for the first time. Graduate student
Erik Ferguson, who has performed
more a dozen pieces, said he is looking
forward to the festival.
“I am really excited,” he said.
The seven nights of performances by
artists from multiple nationalities and
continents are brought together largely
due to the personal investment of Kyr. He
introduced the first Music Today Festival
soon after arriving at the University more
than a decade ago.
“I wanted to bring music of our time
to the region,” Kyr said. “The goal is to
create a festival that will be as diverse as
possible. We wanted to feature especial
ly our student composers, and the
100th Monkey (an ensemble group per
forming on Tuesday) is entirely student
run. We also have two groups from out
side the region, both of which are inter
nationally renowned.”
Kyr said this year’s festival also has spe
cial meaning due to the tumultuous state
of international affairs. Kyr, who
Parkhurst said has “long been an activist
for peace” said he wants to emphasize the
festival’s theme of hope in a time of war.
“These performances are meant to in
spire and uplift,” Kyr said.
The event will include a special per
formance by local and San Francisco Uni
versity choirs drawing on more than 700
Turn to Music, page 6