The WichiTanpage 6

The sTudenT voice of MidwesTern sTaTe universiTy

WEDNESDAY, OctObEr 21, 2009

Box-office rumpusSpike Jonze’s adaptation of “Where the WIld Things Are” is more than just a kids movie.

page 8Underdog victoryMustangs overcome 7th ranked Javelinas in an unexpected victory.

See JUN page 4

Nothing is taboo

Professor encourages students to think freely and express openly

Chris CollinsManaging Editor

Ever since he was a kid, Dr. Nathan Jun has been very curious. He wanted to know how the world worked, if there was a God and what it all meant. Now the MSU philosophy professor is still questioning everything, but not necessarily arriving at many conclu-sions. But that’s okay with him – his students, who seem to multiply every semester, have picked up on his inter-rogative personality. As the sole philosophy instructor at MSU, Jun is enjoying himself, al-though he said he’s overworked. He said he hopes his success spurs MSU administration into expanding his de-

partment. “When kids are little they constant-ly ask, ‘Why?’ Jun said. “And I guess I’m just one of those people who never stopped asking why. I never settled on a comfortable dogma or truth, the way some people do. They’re like okay, I found my thing. I never did that, so I guess that’s why I’m doing what I do. I’m still just searching around – the only difference being that now I get paid to do that and I teach other people to do that.” This semester Jun is teaching four classes: primary concerns of philoso-phy, ethics, 19th century philosophy, and Eastern philosophy. He said he uses a problem-based ap-proach to teach his ‘primary concerns’ course, while some of his other cours-

es focus on the history of philosophy. He also said some of the main points brought up in his classes are what he refers to as ‘perennial philosophical is-sues:’ the meaning of life, the existence of God, the nature of reality. Jun tries to keep a maximum of 30 students enrolled in his ‘primary con-cerns’ class, but only allows about 20 to attend his upper-level classes. Al-together he is teaching about 100 stu-dents this semester. “Last year, when I was a little less savvy about such things, I didn’t have any caps on my enrollment,” Jun said. “They would come into my office and ask for an override and I would let them in. That got rather ungainly very

Photo by Julia Raymond

Keeping memoriesin modern fashion

Wai-Kun yearbook transitionsfrom paper to online version

Chris Collins

Managing Editor

MSU’s yearbook, The Wai-Kun is going digital next year. The decision, which was dis-cussed at Student Government Association and Student Alloca-tions meetings last semester, was finally made this semester. The reason, Director of Stu-dent Development and Orienta-tion Matthew Park said, was be-cause the Wai-Kun was making almost no money. He said the yearbook sold about 250 copies in one of its most profitable year of the de-cade. One of the most expensive aspects of the project, Park said, is printing. “Production spending was a large part of the fees,” Park said. “The costs were hefty.” A digital yearbook will incur no production cost, Park said. The savings won’t start right away, he said, since the staff still has to produce this year’s book. The savings will begin in two years, he said. The Wai-Kun will be acces-sible to students from the MSU

Web site, and should be down-loadable onto disc or jump drive, he said. “It’ll be much more modern,” Park said. “Digitizing yearbooks is a trend being seen across the nation, especially in Lone Star schools.” Wai-Kun Editor-in-Chief Lo-ren Eggenschwiler said going digital is probably a good idea. “I like having the physical pa-per, but it’s a lot different than it was in high school,” she said. “We have a much smaller staff than I had in high school, too.” Eggenschwiler said that her minimal staff of three people makes working on the book dif-ficult at times. Relying on pho-tos from academic departments instead of taking most of their own complicates things as well, she said. This year’s annual will be 106 pages, she said. New books will cost about $20. “Everything is going digital these days,” Eggenschwiler said. “Everybody has a Facebook and a Twitter. It’ll be easier since ev-erybody’s online now.”

Everything is going digital these days. Everybody has a Facebook and a Twitter. It’ll be easier since everybody is

online.-Loren Eggenschwiler“ ”

Photo by Julia Raymond

Staff Editorial

The WichiTan Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Brittany Norman Managing Editor Chris Collins Entertainment Editor Lauren Wood

Op-Ed Editor Josh Hoggard Sports Editor Kaitlin Morrison Photo Editor Julia Raymond

ReportersRichard Carter

PhotographersLoren Eggenschwiler

Copy EditorLauren WoodJamie Monroe

Advertising ManagerJamie Monroe

AdviserRandy Pruitt

Copyright © 2007. The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Asso-ciation. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University. First copy of the paper is free of charge; additional copies are $1. The Wichitan welcomes letters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before in-tended publication. Letters should be brief and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a telephone number and address for verification purposes. The editor retains the right to edit letters.

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Fashion your seat belts

It’s about that time of year again... Fall. The winds of new seasons are bringing out the jackets, the scarves, and unfortu-nately, the Ugg boots. Dressing to fit the seasons is impera-tive in our material culture. Some people, however, obviously don’t care. Or, go overboard and break every rule possible in an attempt to be “cute”. Some days, on a brisk fall morning, peo-ple look at you as the most chic and fash-ionable person in all your new fall outfits. Other days, however, people just won-der what the balls you were thinking when you got out of bed. With temperatures dropping and the leaves changing, we at the Wichitan would like to guide you on your Fall Fashion se-lections as best we know how.

Everything has its place1. . When prop-erly put together, some outfit and ac-cessory combinations can really wow onlookers. A scarf with a nice jacket is always a winner. Ugg boots com-bined with Nike running shorts... Not so much.Dress appropriately2. . There’s no way some of you girls can honestly tell me you aren’t cold in your tank top and short skirt in 30 degree weather. Cover yourselves. You can still look cute and be fully clothed. Trust me, ladies. Mod-est is hottest.Embrace the sweats; don’t let 3. them embrace you. Sweats often get shunned. Don’t deny the warmth and comfort of a good pair of sweats! However, that little skin-tight number that shows off all your junk... Guys and girls alike... No. Don’t do that.

Fashion is meant to be made your own. Individuality is the key to shocking and aweing casual passersby. Do your own thing. But, don’t be stupid. You want people to look in interest. Not disgust.

There is a dangerous time creeping around the corner. It isn’t often talked about, and is brushed under the table like some sort of folklore. Since people pass this looming tragedy off as myth, they will find themselves un-prepared on that fateful day. I’m talking, of course, about the zombie apocalypse.

Last week, we dispelled some common rumors about zombies. I trust you did your zombie homework and reviewed and memorized the facts we dis-cussed last week. After all, your mind is your most valuable weapon when slaughtering herds of the un-dead. If you haven’t committed those facts to memory, shame on you. If you didn’t get a chance to, shame on you. But, there is still hope. Pick up last week’s issue. Remember, zombies are dead, zombies have no cog-nitive abilities, and the only way to kill them is to remove the head or destroy the brain. Once “remove the head or destroy the brain” was men-tioned, I bet a few of your hearts skipped a beat. I know a lot of you faith-ful believers are ready to hear about effective zombie killing strategies and weapon sug-gestions. Like any veteran zombie-massacring sensei, I

know how fun it can be to go on a Left 4 Dead style zom-bie killing rampage and an-nihilate every zombie in your path. However, I must insist on refraining from being a hero. The best offense against the undead is a good defense. A good attack strategy, however entertaining and awesomely destructive as it may be, should be considered secondary to a good defen-sive game plan against the undead. The first step to a good de-fense against a slew of zom-bies is fortification. Ideally, constructing your own fort is your best option. Fifteen-foot high concrete walls surrounding, sniper towers, an emergency under-ground escape... High ceilings, a vacant first floor with a roll-down ladder, a basement for storage... But, lets be honest here. In the event of a zombie apoca-lypse, that kind of fortification is simply out of the question. Despite past predictions, zombie infections have hap-pened suddenly and without much public warning. By the time you are preparing to take on the undead, it’s probably too late to think about build-ing a fort. More than likely, you’ll be in your home or workplace or school when this tragedy oc-curs. Knowing what to do within a moments notice may be the difference of life and death. So, in the event of a sudden outbreak, here are a few key

things to keep in mind:Find all the non-perishable •

items you can and put them in a safe place. The last way you want to die is starvation.

Get as high as you can • and destroy the staircase. Zombies may be able to bite, but they can’t climb anything beyond stairs.

Know your way out of any • building you enter into. In the event of becom-ing trapped, you HAVE to have a way of escape. Otherwise, you become an entree.

There is strength in num-• bers. Grab as many non-infected, able bodied friends as you can. If you happen to run into myself, Grace Johnson, or Alexis Tate, get one of us on your team. We are experts.

Be ready to move. If your • makeshift fortress be-comes overrun with the undead, you’re going to have to get out as fast as you can.

Once your pseudo-fort has been assembled, making it more defendable is a must. Set up a perimeter. Zom-bies cannot climb, or think, for that matter. If at all possible, set up as sturdy and strong of a perim-eter as you can. Re-enforced wood or concrete are your best bet. Chain-link and barbed wire are certainly better than noth-ing, but the risk of breech in-creases as the sturdiness of the perimeter decreases. Set up some sort of sniper

type tower. Killing the zom-bies before they can attempt to breech your perimeter is the absolute best idea. Remember, aim for the head. In that sniper tower, have someone keeping watch at all times. Constant awareness is key in determining how to go about defending the fort against a full-scale zombie breech. Keep yourself entertained when not on guard. As previ-ously mentioned, you MUST keep your mind sharp when taking on the undead. The same thing goes with your body. Keep yourself in physical shape. Get around an hour of exercise a day. When you run out of sup-plies or your fortress is breached, you might have to relocate or find supplies. Traveling on your feet is your best bet. It keeps you stealth, and against the slow zombies, speed is a non-fac-tor. Plus, a car can attract the undead and reveal your loca-tion. Always keep close to your team. NEVER travel alone. Keep all angles under watch. Zombie sneak attacks are the second-biggest infection-spreading bites, next only to being overrun. Of course, defense isn’t the only offense. At one point in time, you’ll have to kill a zombie. Next week, we’ll talk about weapons. I know, I’m salivat-ing at the thought too. Survive until then...

Josh hoggard

Zombie experT

The best offense against zombies

Second in a series

Op-Ed The WichiTanOctober 21, 2009 3

Beingthefirstactualcolumninthisseries,I thought therewas nomore fitting place tobeginthancreation.Eachreligionhasitsowncreation story, outlandish tales about world-swallowingwhales, knowledge-bearing treesandmile-highwarriors. These stories capture the imagination asmuch as try to explain humankind’s origin,thoughit’spossiblewe’rejustGod’sEZBakeOvenmistake. Somepeoplegettoowrappedupincreationstoriesbecausetheyforgetwhattheyare:sto-ries.Andthefunnythingisthatwhenyougettoreadingthesevarioustales,youstarttoreal-izethey’reremarkablysimilar. Thinkaboutitthisway:NightmareonElmStreetwasatightmovie.Itwasscaryashell,atleastwhenitcameoutintheatres.ButthenCravenmade another one.And another one.Andanother.PrettysoonFreddyhadkidsandanevilfamilyanditgotalleffedup. This isbasicallyhowI feelaboutcreationstories:atfirst,it’sverypowerful;ithitsyourightatthecenterofyourbeing.Butonceyoustarttogetwrappedupinallthedetails,itjustgetsabsurd. Wehavetoaskourselves:shouldwerelyonthe literalor symbolicmeaningof thesesto-ries?Isitreallyimportanttofindanexplana-tion–howeverplausible–forhowweorigi-nated?Didweallcomefromthesamemothergod? Ifso,fromwhencevagwerewepushed? Forthesakeofclarity,weshouldbrieflyre-viewthecreationstorymostofusarefamiliarwith,Genesis1.Thisisthe‘mature’version,sotospeak. God:Wow,talkingtoyourselfsuredoesgetold.AndI’mtiredofwatchingGoldenGirlsreruns.Ineedtogetthisuniversepoppin’. Adam:Woah,what’sup,Yahweh.ThatwasabrutalnapIjustwokeupfrom.Where’stherestoftheparty? God:You’rethefirstonehere.There’ssomeanimalsandplantsandshitaroundhere.Gettowork,bro. Adam:Thisisdullsville.Ineedafriendtoplayhackey-sackwith.Ouch,thatsmarts!Didyoujustripoutmyrib? Eve:HeyAdam,I’mEve.Thatsureisabigtree.AddmeonFacebooklater. Snake:Thisappleistotallylegit.Ifyoueatityou’llbeassmartasStephenHawkingandyou’llstillbeabletowalk. Eve: I think they said on Iron Chef weweren’tsupposed toeat this.Areyousure itwon’tfrymybrainlikekeyboardduster?Ohwell,Iguessyoutalkedmeintoit. Adam:Wow,thisiseffingtasty.Butwhat’sthatweirdthinginbetweenmylegs?Eve,doyouwannahookup? ThoughmostofusknowtheGenesisstory,manyothercreationmythsarealmostexactlythesame.Ijackedthisnextsectionfrom‘ThePowerofMyth’byAmericanmythologistJo-sephCampbell. Lookforthesimilaritiesinbotheventsandphrasinginthesestories. Genesis 1: “In the beginningGod createdtheheavensandtheearth.Theearthwasform-lessandvoid,anddarknesswasuponthefaceofthedeep.” StoryfromthePimaIndiansofArizona:“Inthebeginningtherewasonlydarknessevery-where–darknessandwater.Andthedarknessgathered in thick places, crowding togetherand then separating, crowding and separat-ing.” Genesis1:“SoGodcreatedmaninHisownimage,intheimageofGodhecreatedthem;male and female he created them.AndGodblessedthem,andGodsaidtothem,‘Befruit-fulandmultiply.’” FromalegendoftheWestAfricanBassaripeople:“Unumbottemadeahumanbeing.ItsnamewasMan.Unumbottenextmadeanante-lope,namedAntelope.Unumbottenextmadea snake, namedSnake.AndUnumbotte saidtothem,‘Theearthhasnotyetbeenpounded.Youmustpoundthegroundsmoothwhereyouaresitting.’Unumbottegavethemseedsofallkinds,andsaid,‘Goplantthese.’ Genesis: “‘Have you eaten of the tree ofwhichIcommandedyounottoeat?’Theman

said, ‘The woman whom thou gavest to bewithme,shegavemethefruitofthetree,andIate.’ThentheLordGodsaidtothewoman,‘Whatisthisthatyouhavedone?Thewomansaid,‘Theserpentbeguiledme,andIate.’ TheBassari legend:“OnedaySnake said,‘We too should eat these fruits. Why mustwegohungry?’Antelopesaid,‘Butwedon’tknowanythingaboutthisfruit.’ThenManandhiswife took thefruitandate it.Unumbottecamedownfromtheskyandasked,‘Whoatethe fruit?’They answered, ‘We did.’Unum-botteasked,‘Whotoldyouyoucouldeatthefruit?’Theyreplied,‘Snakedid.’ If youhaven’t gotten it yet,most creationstories are the same, whether they’re fromArizona or Mesopotamia orAfrica. I couldusethreeexamplesorthreehundred.Theonlythingthatwouldchangeistheculturalinflec-tionofthestory,notthestoryitself. “Whathumanbeingshaveincommonisre-vealed inmyths,”Campbell said later in hisbook.“Mythsarestoriesofoursearchthroughtheages for truth,meaningandsignificance.Theyarecluestothespiritualpotentialitiesofthehumanlife.” Campbellalsofeltthatpeopleshouldstudyother religions than theirown,so theycouldget a better world perspective on these sto-ries. “Read other people’s myths, not those ofyourownreligion,”hesaid.“Thereasonisbe-causeyoutendtointerpretyourownreligionin termsof facts – but if you read the otherones,youbegintogetamessage.” InGenesis,AdamandEve’spathtotheTreeofLifeisblockadedbyaflamingsword,sig-nifyingthattheycanneverputbackthefruitthey stole, that they cannever return to thatperfectstateofunityandoblivion. In thatvein, theNorseaccountofcreationalsoincludesaflamingsword.Insteadofbar-ringasinfulcouplefromtheTree,though,theswordisweildedbySurt,guardianofthelandofheatandbrightness,calledMuspell. When the heat fromMuspellmet the fro-zenlandofGinnungagap,theicemeltedandthickenedintotheshapeofaman.ItwasYmir,afrostgiant.LikeCain,thefirstsonofAdam,Ymirwasbad-temperedandviolent. Hewaseventuallykilledbythethreechil-drenofBor,oneofwhomwasOdin,themostpowerfulNorseGod.The slainYmir’sbodybled somuch it caused amassiveflood thatdrownedall the frost giants exceptone.Thelastgiantsurvivedonlybybuildinganarcforhimself(seeNoah). Ymir’sbloodbecamethesea,hisbonestherocksandhishairthetrees. Probably the zaniest creation tale in theworldisthatofthescientologists.ItreadslikeacrossbetweenabadStarTrekepisodeandaJ.D.Salvatorenovel. Basicallythescientologistgenesistalegoeslikethis:Approximately75millionyearsagothe galactic overlord Xenu saved mankindfrom the overpopulated Galactic Federation(I’mnotmakingthisup). Xenugatheredupallthepeople,frozetheirsoulsandthrewtheminavolcano.Thevolca-noeswereexplodedbyahugenuclearblastaf-termembersoftheGalacticFederationforcedXenuintoamountaintrapinastrangeworld.Thefrozensouls–whichatthispointwereonthawlikerawchicken–weretheoriginofhu-manbodies. The reason this story reads like sciencefiction is because it is. Scientology founderLafayetteHubbardwasanAmericansciencefictionauthorinthe1950swhenhepennedthemythology. I try to be tolerant of all religiousbeliefs,butthisisabiggerhoaxthanBalloonBoy. TheChurchofScientologymaintainseightCelebrityCenters, thebiggestofwhich is inL.A.Thesecenters,althoughtheyhaveafewother functions, cater only to the organiza-tion’scelebritymembers.Andthememberlisthassomeunlikelyfolksonit-JohnTravolta,Kirstie Allie, Beck, Issac Hayes and ChickCoreaareallonthecenter’shotlist. Hubbard’shotlycontestedbrainchildisre-allyjustaglorifiedpotluckofotherworldre-ligionsthathavebeenaroundlongerthan60measlyyears. He borrows heavily from Daoism, Bud-dhismandHinduism,aswellasFreudianand

Jungianideology.ButHubbardbastardizesasmuchasheproselytizes.Heuseskarmicele-mentsfromeasternphilosophiesasapretenseforexorcisingmalevolentthetans(pastspiritslivinginone’sbody).Healsocampaignedforuseofhypnotism–whichshouldbedebunkedasaquacktherapy–anddismissedpsychol-ogyasapseudoscience. Whataprick! Thebiggestproblemwith creation stories,however, isn’t taking advantage of people’simaginationlikeHubbarddid.It’speoplewhotaketheallegoricaltalesandtranslatethemlit-erallyorhistorically. Some people even think the Biblical ac-countofGenesistrumpstheevolutionarythe-ory produced byWallace andDarwin in the19thcentury. Let me precede the remainder of the col-umnwiththis:Idonotthinkintelligentdesignis bullshit. But I do think teaching it in ourschools is.Creationismisnota theory, it’sabelief.Andthefieldofsciencehasnoplaceintherealmofbelief. Sorry,evangelista-wads. Creationscience,alsoknownasintelligentdesign,makes theassumption that there is acreatorGod.This is a problem because sci-enceassumesnothing.Onlythemostprovenscientificassertions–likegravityorNewton’sthree laws of motion – have enough streetcredthatbasicallynoscientistwouldopposethem. Other than those few exceptions, sciencetakesnothingforgranted. Everything is testable.Everything is argu-able. Mostofthepeoplewhocampaignforteach-ingcreationismalongsideevolution inclass-room–whichisliketurninghighereducationintoSundayschool–arebasicallyproponentsof the Christian creation story and no oneelse’s. Iguessatsomepointtheyrealizedthiswaspretty conspicuous, so they startedcalling it‘intelligent design.’ But most of the propo-nents of this theory, too, are Christian cru-saders hiding underneath another religion’srobes. This is aquote fromDr.KenHam,presi-dent of creationist organization Answers inGenesis.Hedoesn’tbelieveinevolution. “The intelligentdesignmovement isnotaChristianmovement,” he said. “They’re notall about theBible; they don’t tell youwhothisintelligenceis.Theintelligencecouldeas-ily be directed to aMuslimgod or aHindugodoraNewAgegodorwhatever.” IwonderiftheHinduswouldthinktheiran-swerstocreationwereinthebookofGenesis,yourpretenciousness.ThisassholeHamandother assholes like him aren’t campaigningforintelligentdesignbecausethey’retryingtobefairtootherfaiths;they’retryingtomaketheirstreamofbullshitseemlesssubjective. ButI’mnotunfair.Icanseebothsidesoftheargument.See,I’llproveit.

Arguments for evolution:Opposablethumbs•Science•Everythingelse•

Arguments against evolution:TheWNBA•ThebandNickleback•AnyAbercrombieandFitchretailstore•

Another good argument against evolution–ornaturalselection,at least– is theDavidLetterman scandal. Get this: Letterman is60-plus-years-oldandprobablyhastopoplike15Cialisjusttogetastiffy.Buthe’sslammin’onhoesathirdofhisagewhilecheatingonhiswife. Baller! Darwinshouldhavehadaclauseinhisthe-oryaboutbeingrichashell. Pointofinterest:accordingtoarecentPewResearchCenter poll, four out of 10Ameri-cansbelieveinacreatorGod. SomecreationistsarguethattheonlyreasonwerationalpeopleacceptDarwin’s theoryisbecause we’ve been spoon-fed it our wholelives.Otherssaythatwegowiththeflowbe-causewehaven’tyetfoundanybetterexpla-nation.

Andthey’retotallyright.Butthat’sthena-tureofscience.UnlikethecreationstoriesoftheBiblethatcouldneverchange,scienceislike a living, breathing organism unto itself,constantlyshiftingandprogressing. Science is a system of accumulation ofknowledge, andwe gowith the best answerwe have at the time because that’swhatwehavetodo.Duh! Dan Lietha is a creationist cartoonist andillustratorwithahard-onfordinosaurs.He’salsoacronyofthatassholeHam.Liethasayshe draws his dinosaurs from the “Biblicalpoint-of-view,”whateverthatmeans. Shit! I guess Imissed the part inGenesiswhen the Almighty created the first dinos.“And God looked upon the T-Rex he hadmade,andsawthatitwasgood…” Givemeabreak. HereisacomicthatDanprobablythinksishilarious.Butthat’sjustbecausehewroteit.Itactuallysucks.

Andhere’sonethatDanwon’tlike,becauseit’sactuallyfunny.

If creationists were truly concerned aboutsubscriberstotheirbeliefsystem,theyshouldhaveworkedontheplotlinealittlebitmore.Evolutionistpaleontologiststellusagrandiosetaleabouttoothy,bloodthirstylizardsgettingwhackedwithaflamingcometrightbeforetheworldbasicallyended. Talkaboutasummerblockbuster. Genesis gave us a garden, a snake and aflood. Weak! Iwonder howmuch theywould have hadtopaytogetGuyRitchietopepthestoryupabit. But seriously, the moral of the column isthatwhen you believe one religious story isright,youaresayinganotheriswrong.Inreal-ity, they are all equally right and important.They’re all the same story about the samethings. Don’tgetwrappedupinthedetails. That’sitforthisweek. AsJourneywouldsay,“Don’tstopbeliev-ing!” Peaceoutgirlscouts.

CreationExplanation:Was Adam just an atom?

Chris Collins

Managing ediTor

NewsThe WichiTanOctober 21, 20094

quickly.” Jun had 50 students in his ethics class last spring. He had 40 students in two more of his classes, too. “You can do the math on that one,” he said. “It’s quite a few more than I was teaching this semester. So that’s just the long way of saying, ‘appar-ently philosophy classes are pretty popular.’ This semester, with the enrollment caps, I’ve had to turn a lot of students away. It’s not something I like doing, but I have to so I don’t lose my mind.” He said allowing high num-bers of students into his cours-es was a test to see how much he could do. He won’t make that mistake again. Jun believes his high en-rollment numbers refute the misconception that people in North Texas aren’t interested in philosophy or religion. “High enrollment numbers totally puts the lie to that idea,” he said. “Clearly people are interested or they wouldn’t be taking classes in the num-bers that they are. And I have to mention at some point that this is clear evidence the uni-versity ought to consider ex-panding the philosophy pro-gram. So far there has been absolutely no indication that they intend to do that, which is disheartening to me.” Jun said he thinks one rea-son students are enrolling in his classes is that the emer-gence of new ideas, possibili-ties, and avenues of thought excite them. “It very seldom manifests itself in class discussion, be-cause I think that people are shy to discuss these things openly because of the nature of these issues,” Jun said. “But I can’t emphasize how often they are divulged in personal reflection papers, midterms and exams.” Jun said philosophy is im-portant because it teaches people how to think. “It ought to play an incredi-bly important role in anyone’s college education, because the kind of critical thinking skills one acquires in philosophy coursework will prove con-sistently important in all other coursework,” Jun said. “Es-pecially in a university that calls itself a public liberal arts university, I think that every MSU student owes it to him-

self or herself to take at least one philosophy course, if not more than one. That’s just part of a liberal arts education. You’re selling yourself short if you don’t avail yourself of that opportunity. You should get that foundation for what-ever else you’re studying be-cause it’s worth its weight in gold.” Jun said he’s amazed by the difficulty some students have in trying to overcome their personal religious beliefs to learn about another culture. However, he continued, that struggle is another reason they’re taking a philosophy class. “Some elements within our culture frown upon having open and honest discussions a b o u t religious d i f f e r -ences, so I think a lot of p e o -ple are t a u g h t that it’s just not polite to have dis-cussions a b o u t t h e s e s u b -j e c t s , ” Jun said. “Whereas I try to tell my students that this is the substance of philosophy. Initially, a lot of students have difficulty speaking honestly, openly, rationally and respect-fully about, for example, the existence of God. It’s never occurred to some of them that this is something you can talk about. But this has to be done in the spirit of mutual respect and with a shared goal, which is the acquisition of truth.” Jun said many students, even the meek ones, warm up to the idea of discussing reli-gion and philosophy through-out the semester. “You just have to get used to the idea of philosophiz-ing, which most students have never encountered before,” Jun said. “And that’s fine – it’s why they’re in college. There seems to be a natural occa-sion for philosophy around this time in our lives because that’s the first time in one’s life when you’re on your own. It’s one of the first times when

you get to have a stake in your own ideas. You have much more opportunity to create your own sense of self.” Jun said that his intro course is probably, at least for many of his students, their first intro-duction to other religions. He said he tends to allude to non-Christian religious traditions in the class, mainly because he finds that many beginning students are fundamentally ig-norant about other religions. “This is through no fault of their own, obviously,” Jun said. “But they don’t even know much about religions that are historically cognate to Christianity, such as Juda-ism. It’s astounding to me that a Christian doesn’t know what Torah is, for example. But on

the other hand, I’m not so sur-prised, because Christianity in the U.S. is so insular. I think we can make a general point that many students don’t know about any other culture but their own.” Jun said his employment at MSU came from necessity more than anything else. The job opportunities for wet-be-hind-the-ears philosophy pro-fessors are slim, he said. “I didn’t have much of a choice,” Jun said. “The aca-demic job market is perpetu-ally tight and Midwestern was basically the school that offered me a job.” The other jobs offered to him, he said, were sub-optimal compared to MSU. Jun earned his bachelor’s degree in English and philoso-phy from Loyola University in 2001, his master’s in philoso-phy from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, and his doctorate in philosophy and literature from Purdue Uni-versity in 2008.

When he entered college, Jun said he wanted to pursue a career in creative writing. “I wanted to be a poet or a novelist until about my junior year,” Jun said. “But I was despairing of the possibil-ity of not having any money, because no one can just write anymore, unless you do the Stephen King thing.” Since he doubled-majored in English and philosophy at Loyola, he decided to pursue a master’s degree in philosophy. But he still hadn’t let go of his aspirations of writing profes-sionally. “I thought I would get a de-gree in philosophy and teach as a back-up, you know?” Jun said. “I’ll write short stories and poems and do this phi-

losophy thing until I hit it big and win a Pulitzer Prize. In retrospect, what the hell was I thinking?” Jun said graduate school at Purdue helped to develop his interest in philosophy and he realized it was what he should do with his life. As far as Jun’s personal philosophy goes, he’s attract-ed to anarchism – at least for the time being. Anarchism is a socialist philosophical move-ment that emerged in 19th cen-tury Europe. “In terms of what anar-chism means philosophically, it’s simply a commitment to total freedom on the one hand and total equality on the other hand,” Jun said, “Traditional-ly in Western politics, there’s been a tension between liber-als, people who emphasize personal freedom, and social-ists, who emphasize equality. Allegedly, those things are in total conflict with each other.” Jun said even in our current-day political spectrum we see

this tension: one between big business and big government. “Anarchism just claims it’s possible to reconcile those two competing tensions by creating a stateless, socialist society in which you have a system of federate communes in which everybody owns ev-erything in common,” Jun said. Jun said he’s interested in the subject for two reasons. First, because historians haven’t paid enough attention to the movement. “It’s an incredibly important story historically that hasn’t been studied nearly enough,” he said. “There’s a lot of really interesting work that needs to be done, but nobody’s doing it. So I’m one of the people

who’s do-ing it.” B u t s e c o n d , and more i m p o r -t a n t l y , he’s inter-ested in the social s y s t e m b e c a u s e he truly b e l i e v e s in it. “ I think it’s right,” Jun

said. “I’ve looked at all the ar-guments for and against it, and there’s all these competing views about how we should organize ourselves socially, but this one strikes me as be-ing correct.” He said he hasn’t become complacent just because he has figured out what he wants to do for a living. Now he just has more questions – he’ll just have to keep searching for what makes him happy. Jun said the main problem with anarchism is implemen-tation. Though theoretically anarchism is sound, it may be unfeasible practically in mod-ern American society. “It probably won’t happen in my lifetime,” Jun said. “I have hope that one day people could. I tend to be an opti-mist, but I think things would have to get very, very bad be-fore they could get better. You would have to have small-scale societies for anarchism to work, and people would have to radically rethink their

relationships toward each oth-er and the earth. There’s noth-ing theoretically that could keep it from working, because I don’t believe in some static human nature, that human be-ings are intrinsically selfish. The problems are practical.” Jun thinks, however, that a socialist-type government –such as anarchism – may be necessary to counteract our global, excessive way of life. “I just hope that there will be a spiritual, mental and po-litical paradigm shift in our thinking, and people will go, ‘Boy, we really fucked up,’ Jun said. Jun said he is committed to helping students become more philosophically aware and tol-erant. One way he’ll try to do this is by inviting guest speak-ers to his classes. This semester Jun asked a Hindu student to speak to his classes about what it’s like being Hindu. A yoga instruc-tor, one of Jun’s friends, also spoke to his classes. At the end of the month, Jun said, a Buddhist group from Sheppard Air Force Base will do a demonstration of Bud-dhist chant at MSU. Two of the members will speak to his classes. A highly decorated Daoist martial artist is coming to talk to Jun’s classes in No-vember. He’s also trying to get a Ti-betan Buddhist monk to travel from Dallas to MSU to speak to students. Jun said that although he’s finally settled into a viable ca-reer, he still has a lot of ques-tions. “No philosopher worth his salt presumes to know any-thing,” Jun said. “Some peo-ple think of philosophy and art as being two fundamentally different things, and I don’t really think of it like that. I think of doing philosophy as a creative act. When you write philosophy, it’s no different to me than writing a poem. It’s a different genre, but it’s still a work of art.

“I thought I would get a degree in philoso-phy and teach as a back-up, you know? I’ll write short stories and poems and do this

philosophy thing until I hit it big and win a Pulitzer Prize. In retrospect, what the hell

was I thinking?”–Dr. Nathan Jun

JUN..................................................................................................................................................................................continued from page 1

News The WichiTanOctober 21, 2009 5

Campus briefsWednesday

• Exploring the World of Art Bus Tour

at the Kimbell Art Museum

• Student T-Shirt Exchange in the

CSC 194 at 8 a.m.

• Homecoming All-School Picnic and

Maverick’s Birthday in Sunwatcher

Plaza at 11:30 a.m.

• Counseling Center: Grief Support

Group in the CSC Apache at 3:30

• Academic Recovery Group in the

CSC 108 at 4 p.m.

• Homecoming Banner Judgingin the

CSC Atrium at 4 p.m.

• Pearl Thurston, jazz pianist in Akin

at 7 p.m.

• Psychic Entertainers: the Evasons

in the CSC Comanche at 8 p.m.

Thursday• Student T-Shirt Exchange in the

CSC 194 at 8 a.m.

• Homecoming Photo Booth in the

CSC Arrowhead at 11 a.m.

• Athletic Luncheon and Update at

the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at

MSU at noon.

• Homecoming Golf Tournament at

Weeks Park Golf Course at noon

• Tobacco Cessation Course in

Bridwell 109 at 4:30 p.m.

• Speakers and Issues Series: Is

America Obssessed with Beauty? in

the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at

MSU at 7 p.m.

• Homecoming Torchlight Parade and

Bonfire in Killingsworth at 9 p.m.

Friday• Sorority Open House at the Fain

Hall Sorority House at 1 p.m.

• Homecoming Fish Fry at Sikes

Lake at 5 p.m.

• Cardboard Boat Race at Sikes Lake

at 6 p.m.

• Opening Receptions for Two Exhi-

bitions: Luke Sides and Art Camp in

the Juanita Harvey Art Gallery at 6

p.m.

• Class of 1959 Dessert Social at

the Alumni House at 7 p.m.

• Minority Alumni Mixer in the Sun-

watcher Village Clubhouse at 8 p.m.

• UPB: Pirate Party in the Don Flatt

Gym 101 at 9 p.m.

Saturday• Morning Coffee in the CSC Arrow-

head at 7 a.m.

• Maroon and Gold Club Buffet in the

CSC Mesquite Dining Hall at 7:30 at

7:30 a.m.

• Homecoming Brunch and Alumni

Awards Ceremony in the CSC Coman-

che at 10 a.m.

• Homecoming Parade at 11:45 a.m.

• Tailgate Party at Memorial Stadium

at 5:30 p.m.

Monday• French Club Film: A Very Long En-

gagement in the CSC Shawnee at 7

p.m.

Ask NOT what

WICHITANcan do for you.

RATHER...

Ask what you can dofor WICHITAN

EntertainmentThe WichiTanOctober 21, 20096

‘Where the Wild Things Are’

Photo CourtesyThe cover of “Where the Wild Things Are” attracted children to read this classic book.

For a film that’s had a lot stacked against it from the get go—being based off of a clas-sic children’s book, getting Maurice Sendak’s blessing, various studios passing it up, directors trying and failing to effectively adapt the material—it would seem impossible for “Where the Wild Things Are” to strike common ground in to-day’s market.

Most of the post-movie chat-ter has ranged from “What a masterpiece” to “That was bor-ing” to “I don’t get it.”

That’s to be expected. This particular film is either going to strike a deep chord in you or go completely over your head--there is no middle ground. I would only recommend it to a few of my friends and loved ones because I know the rest would mostly fall into the “I don’t get it” camp.

Before going into “Where the Wild Things Are,” I knew off-handedly that I was going to be entertained because I liked what I saw from the outset.

What I didn’t realize until the last ten minutes was how vividly the film captured the essence of childhood, or more specifically, what it’s like to be in the head of a rambunctious, misunderstood, highly imaginative nine year-old.

Right from the jarring open-ing sequence, in which Max (the main character) viciously gives chase to the family dog and wrestles with it on the floor, I had a big smile on my face.

Why? Because I’ve been there, and I’m sure a lot of other

Classic children’s book comes to life on the big screen

Devan Gill

For The WichiTan

Photo CourtesyMax Records stars as

the main character in “Where the Wild Things Are,” which was released to theaters Oct. 16.

Photo Courtesy

Maurice Sendak was the author of this classic chil-dren’s book.

20-30 something’s have been there too. It brought me back to a time when I chased, ran away from and wrestled with my dogs.

As a child, I felt an inex-plicable ecstasy that I haven’t felt since because stuff like that naturally goes away with age. As we get older, we tend to compromise our wild side and look at life in more ra-tional terms, such as realizing that some things must change and most things are simply out of our control.

That’s the major dilemma that the egocentric Max is faced with in this film.

When things don’t go his way or his loved ones turn their back on him, Max lashes out and de-stroys things, then feels a great sense of sadness because it didn’t solve anything.

I think we’ve all been there too.

For those who have read the book, the opening lines state that Max makes mischief, but they never explain why he acts the way he does.

Of course, Sendak’s book could only go so deep giv-en the readership he was aiming for.

The beauty of Spike Jonze’s take on the material is that he reads between the lines and gives them a whole new meaning.

In the book, Max simply acts on his own impulses and is then banished to his room. In the film, Max’s self-imposed exile is spurred on by the discovery of a new boyfriend that his mother has brought home for dinner. In-stead of transporting himself al-most instantaneously to the land of the Wild Things as he did in

the book, Max’s journey to the island is a very treacher-ous one in the film. The fact that Max spends an indefi-nite amount of time on the island blurs the issue re-garding whether or not he actually made the journey, but since the film never tells the audience, it just makes things more enthralling.

Jonze succeeds in immersing the audience in a storybook at-mosphere, complete with exotic locations (sand dunes, beaches, forests), bizarre constructs and even a giant dog (which makes no sense at all but is amusing nonetheless).

More importantly, the Wild Things themselves are faithful translations of their illustrated counterparts. Whereas read-ers could only exhibit a passing interest in the Wild Things, we are given a motley crew of mon-sters that are funny, charming, intense and very flawed.

Jonze doesn’t obscure the fact that these creatures are exten-sions of Max’s personality, with Carol (James Gandolfini) being the most direct representation of Max’s primal fear.

This is where the movie de-

s t r o y s any pretensions about the audience it’s aiming for.

Kids may delight in the fun-ny moments, which there are plenty of, but the film takes some lengthy detours into dark places--some subtle, some not so subtle.

They’re not happy all the time, and they don’t offer com-fort when Max needs it the most. Some of them are defiant, pas-sive, and bitter--and when they get angry, they don’t pull any punches. That’s because they’re more human than monster, and again, this film examines what it means to be human on a deeper level than any Pixar film has at-tempted in the past.

Again, Jonze gets the book and makes the material his own without butchering the themes that made it such a timeless clas-sic.

Jonze’s approach to the film was terrific and perhaps

‘Law Abiding Citizen’ serves justice and suspenseYou would never think the

gorgeous face of Gerard But-ler could be so heartless in this season’s must-see thriller, “Law Abiding Citizen.”

The gist of the movie revolves around an attack on Clyde Shel-ton’s (Butler) family that leaves his wife and daughter brutally murdered. Instead of seeing his

Courtney Foreman

For The WichiTan

family’s two killers get the jus-tice they deserved, the man least responsible for the murder was given the death penalty and the man most deserving of punish-ment gets off with third degree murder, five years in jail.

After seeing this injustice in the legal system, Shelton de-cides to take matters into his own hands by coming back 10 years later to grant justice where he sees fit, starting with the man

who got away with murder, Clar-ence Darby.

Once the back story is set in the movie, the real adventure be-gins.

Butler’s character in this film turns from devastated father and husband, to deranged revenge-seeking killer.

After Darby winds up dead, Shelton is arrested and taken to jail for his murder.

The tricky part is, when assis-

tant DA Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), who was originally assigned to Clyde’s family’s case 10 years ago, begins to talk with Shelton about the recent murder, Shelton only hints at confessing he was the one who did it.

Confused yet? Well, that’s Shelton’s entire goal by this point.

He begins to threaten Rice and tells him that he needs to fix the system that so wrongly al-lowed a killer to walk free and his family’s deaths go unjusti-fied or he will find justice by his own means.

From his jail cell, Clyde be-gins to use his former skills as a brilliant inventor to plan system-atic events that slowly but surely knock off anyone and everyone who was involved in the case that failed to provide appropriate punishment to the two men who took his family from him.

The phrase “keeps you guess-ing” is an understatement when it comes to this film.

The plans of attack made by Butler’s character are well-or-

Photo CourtesyJamie Foxx and Gerard Butler star in the new thriller, “Law Abiding Citizen.”

his most acces-sible directorial effort to date. He opted for a lot of handheld shots t o fully embody Max’s energy and point-of-view, giving the rest of the film a very loose, arthouse feel.

The creature effects were amaz-ing because they weren’t 100 percent CGI concoctions but rather oversized suits (courtesy of the Jim Henson Creature Shop) that had been augmented with CGI.

This gave the Wild Things a lot of presence, but most impor-tantly, it made them more per-sonable.

Karen O’s indie score compli-mented the various moods being played out on screen without missing a beat. Max Records, who plays Max, delivered a strong and touching perfor-mance, which was very refresh-

ing since most child actors for-get how to act like, you know, children. The voice talent was top-notch, particularly that of James Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara.

In conclusion, “Where the Wild Things Are” isn’t going to be regarded as the best film of the year by many, and it prob-ably won’t win any Oscars (even though it should).

What it may have lacked in uni-versal appeal it more than made up for with a lot of heart, style and gumption. Any movie that has those qualities is a master-piece in my book.

chestrated and incredibly fasci-nating to watch play out.

The way the justice system fails him in this movie has you rooting for Shelton instead of the “good guys” and really makes you question how the whole le-gal procedure is run.

There were a few scenes that are hard to watch if your squea-

mish about blood and torture, but on the other hand, seeing But-ler’s back side and all its glory, makes up for it in my opinion.

Overall, if you’re interested in seeing a movie that actually has a plot line worth watching and that will keep you on the edge of your seat, I highly recommend “Law Abiding Citizen.”

Entertainment The WichiTanOctober 21, 2009 7

Sunday, bloody awesome Sunday

Photo by Brittany NormanThe last time U2 had been in Oklahoma was 26 years ago.

Brittany norman

ediTor-in-chief

Jackson and Swift lead AMA nominationsThe nominees for the 2009

American Music Awards were announced on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

Having already received multiple nominations for the Grammys, CMAs and MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift can now add a few more accolades to her collection.

Last Tuesday the 19 year-old country star received five American Music Awards nominations, including favor-ite female country music art-ist, favorite female pop artist and artist of the year.

Michael Jackson was an-other top nominee, with five nominations, followed by rap-per Eminem who nabbed four. Beyonce, the Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon and T.I. each received three.

Also, for the first time in the show’s 37-year history, fans will be able to determine the final four nominees of the T-Mobile Breakthrough Art-ist Award by voting on ABC.com. Among those considered for the category are Kings of Leon, Lady Gaga, Gloriana, the Zac Brown Band, Keri Hilson and Jermiah.

The AMA’s will premiere live at the Los Angeles’s

Lauren Wood

enTerTainmenT ediTor

Nokia Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m.

Here is a com-plete list of AMA N o m i n a t i o n s 2009:

David Bowie’s “Ground Con-trol to Major Tom” played as haze from what seemed like doz-ens of fog machines billowed out from underneath and around the stage, reminiscent of a UFO. The audience roared with shouts and applause as the members of U2 came onto the stage one by one. The scene created was one of a space ship lifting off, all of us in tow.

For all anyone enjoying the show from inside University of Oklahoma’s Memorial Stadium, the stage and everyone around it might as well have been in an-other world.

U2’s 360º tour, in the words of someone who attended the Oct. 12 show in Arlington, is “a spiri-tual experience.” From the larg-er-than-life stage that looks like something straight out of another galaxy to the col-orful light show to the unmistak-able star quality of the performers, it’s difficult to find any reason to complain.

It doesn’t’ matter how much the tick-ets cost, U2 is an act worth shelling out the dough for.

Considering the last time U2 made a stop in Oklahoma was in 1983, Bono was right when he announced to the crowd that the time to get from that venue, a mile down the road from Memorial Stadium, to the show on Sunday was definitely slow go-ing. Still, the rock group proved that sometimes, 26 years isn’t too long to wait for an

Audience found what it was looking for at U2 concert

Photo CourtesyU2 has been traveling the world on their 360º tour, performing songs from their latest album, “No Line on the Horizon.”

Photo Courtesy

U2 performed Sunday night at The University of Oklahoma.

encore. They even played a song from

the album they had released that very year, a version of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” set to heart-wrenching scenes on the 360 degree LCD screen of scenes from protests over the disputed election in Iran. It was a show of solidarity toward the oppressed — something Bono and the rest of the band are famous for – as well as a reminder of just how long U2 has been lighting stadi-ums on fire.

Twenty-six year encompassed the release of 23 albums, includ-ing live and compilation releas-es, one box set, 49 singles, seven of which hit number one on the U.S. charts, a Hall of Fame in-duction and 23 Grammy awards, tied with Stevie Wonder for most Grammys won by a musical act.

For a good hour before the

show, everyone sim-ply stared at the stage and tried to figure out what everything was. It was a lot of metal, a lot of color, and a lot of lights. When the show started, the stage itself seemed to disap-pear and become part of the atmosphere, and it truly did make the concert an all-encom-passing experience. When the stage takes up over half the length of the football field, it certainly serves to make an enormous stadium venue seem smaller and more in-timate.

That’s always a feat when tens of thousands of people are crowded into a space trying to get the full concert experience.

The Black Eyed Peas provid-ed the first surprise of the night (at least for me), in that Fergie could actually sing. Who would have thought? Expecting a lip-synched performance with a bunch of booty popping while will.i.am, Taboo and apl.de.ap. rapped the opening set away. Surprise, surprise, Fergie’s mic was actually turned on and she could sing.

They worked their way through the hits, from “Let’s Get it Started” to “Boom Boom Pow,” all the while dancing in space-age costumes while danc-ers dressed as robots or wear-ing strange monochromatic bodysuits joined them on the stage for added effect. Fergie stole the show with her spar-kly dress, dance moves and vocals.

The crowd was more than warmed up despite the chilly weather when U2 finally came on to kick off their two and a half hour set with a track from

the new album, “No Line on the Horizon,” called “Breathe.”

Other “No Line” songs played including “Get On Your Boots,” “Magnificent,” “No Line on the Horizon,” and “I’ll Go Crazy.”

“Unknown Caller” made an appearance in the setlist, and it was the only song that wasn’t entirely enjoyable. It just seems that a band with proven lyri-cal chops would choose a bet-ter track to put the lyrics up on the big screen for a sing-along. (If you’ve heard the song, you know what I mean. “Force quit and move to trash,” really? We all love our Mac computers but that’s taking it a little too far).

A comment was made during the concert, after they played “Elevation,” that the focus seemed to be on newer music. Only, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” was released in 2001, eight years ago. A band has defi-nitely proven staying power if singles going on a decade old are still considered new.

Truly old favorites like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Look-ing For” and “The Unforgettable Fire” got as much response from the audience as the newer hits.

They’re classics, and even the youngest members of the audience (ten years old and younger) were singing along to songs that were more than twice their age.

Many of the audi-ence members were apparently strangers to U2 concerts. When the band left the stage the first time, people began packing their T-shirts and other band memo-rabilia up to start the walk back to the parking lot, only to be stopped by Bono’s return to the stage.

He sang “Amazing Grace” af-ter a performance of “One,” and finished out the five-song, two-part encore with touring staples “Where The Streets Have No Name” and “With Or Without You.”

A twenty-four song set list by U2 seemed to pass by in no time at all, and ending on a slow note with “Moment of Surrender” hardly seemed fitting.

Concerts like the one U2 put on are a reminder of what real rock stars are. There aren’t many of them left. In the song “Kite” from “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” Bono sings a line about

“the last of the rock stars.”U2 might very well be it. See-

ing Bono, The Edge and the rest of the crew up on that enormous stage is a reminder of just how much they are larger-than-life. Other rock bands come and go, but they don’t have the staying power and the wide appeal that U2 managed to grab. They’ve been around since the late 1970’s, up there in longevity with The Rolling Stones. Their singles still make a dent in the Billboard charts after all this time, when the children of their first fans are grown now and having children of their own.

They played the song “In a Little While” after Bono remi-nisced how long it had been since they’d come to Oklahoma. Maybe in the real world, 26 years is “a little while.”

In the music business, howev-er, the fact that they’re still fill-ing up football stadiums means something bigger.

Pop/RockFavorite Male Artist

Eminem Michael Jackson

T.I.Favorite Female Artist

Beyonce Lady Gaga

Taylor SwiftFavorite Band, Duo or Group

Black Eyed Peas Kings of Leon

NickelbackFavorite Album

Lady Gaga “Fame” Michael Jackson “Number

Ones” Taylor Swift “Fearless”

Country MusicFavorite Male Artist

Jason Aldean Darius Rucker Keith Urban

Photo CourtesyEminem is in

the running against Michael

Jackson and T.I. for Favorite

Male Artist.

Favorite Female Artist Reba McEntire

Taylor Swift Carrie Underwood

Favorite Band, Duo or Group Rascal Flatts

Sugarland Zac Brown Band

Favorite Album Rascal Flatts “Unstoppable”

Taylor Swift “Fearless” Zac Brown Band “Founda-

tion”

Rap/Hip-hopFavorite Male Artist

Eminem Jay-Z T. I.

Favorite Album Eminem “Relapse”

Jay-Z “Blueprint 3” T.I. “Paper Trail”

Soul/R&BFavorite Male Artist

Jamie Foxx Michael Jackson

MaxwellFavorite Female Artist

Beyonce Keyshia Cole Keri Hilson

Favorite Band, Duo or Group Black Eyed Peas

Day26 Mary Mary

Favorite Album Beyonce “I Am Sasha Fierce” Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D. Michael Jackson “Number

Photo CourtesyAbove: Taylor Swift is nomi-nated for five awards at this

years AMAs.Left: Beyonce is up for three

awards.

Ones”Soundtracks

Favorite Album “Hannah Montana: The

Movie” “Hannah Montana 3”

“Twilight Soundtrack”

Alternative RockFavorite Artist Green Day

Kings of Leon Shinedown

Adult ContemporaryFavorite Artist

Daughtry Jason Mraz Taylor Swift

ARTIST OF THE YEAR Alternative: Kings of Leon

Country: Taylor Swift Pop/Rock: Lady Gaga Rap/Hip-Hop: Eminem

Soul/R&B: Michael Jackson

T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist

Pop/Rock Breakthrough Artist: Kings of Leon, Lady

Gaga Country Breakthrough

Artist: Gloriana, Zac Brown Band

Soul/R&B Breakthrough Artist: Keri Hilson, Jermiah

Rap/Hip-Hop Breakthrough Artist: Drake, Kid Cudi

Photo CourtesyMichael Jackson is in the

running for five AMAs.

SportsThe WichiTanOctober 21, 20098

2,124 Total number ofparking spaceson the MSU campus.

$385

* Free Wi-Fi

Zack Eskridge was nearly per-fect and No. 22 Midwestern State continued to be a nightmare for No. 7 Texas A&M-Kingsville as the Mustangs rolled to a 38-7 win Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

Eskridge, the national pass ef-ficiency leader, completed 24-of-25 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another.

The Mustangs also grounded out a season-high 212 yards and accounted for three rush-ing touchdowns including a 14-yarder by Eskridge while Neal Carr added two more form 7 and 3 yards out.

BeeJay Mathis finished with a season-high 100 yards on 22 car-ries, while Carr added 66 yards on 15 totes.

Eskridge completed his first 18 passes and hooked up for TDs with on a 15-yard toss to David

Little and a 10-yard pitch-and-catch to Jared Freeman as the Mustangs rolled up 457 yards of total offense.

Andy Tanner paced the Mus-tangs’ receiving corps with 81 yards on four receptions, while Sheldon Galloway had a sea-son-high nine receptions for 75 yards.

Texas A&M-Kingsville, which was limited to 286 yards of total offense, was led by Fred Winborn, who rushed for 108 yards on 11 carries.

Javelinas quarterback Billy Garza was limited to 163 yards on 14-of-30 passes and threw one interceptions.

Midwestern State, who im-proved to 6-2 on the season and 2-2 in the LSC South, plays host to Central Oklahoma next week, while Texas A&M-Kingsville (7-1, 3-1) faces Eastern New Mexico next week at Javelina Stadium.

MSUMUStangS.coM

For The WichiTan

Midwestern State stampedes over No. 7 Javelinas 38-7

Top left: MSU Captains take the field. Middle Left: Zack Es-kridge looks for a receiver. Bottom Left: Coach Bill Maskill talks to his team after a big win over No. 7 Texas A&M Kingsville. Top Right: Mustangs’ offensive line gets ready for a play. Middle Right: Senior BeeJay Mathis finished with a season-high 100 yards. Bottom Right: Fans cheer on the Mustangs. Bottom center: Players pose after a big win. (Photos by Patrick Johnston.)

It took one shot for No. 22 Midwestern State to pick up an-other Lone Star Conference win over Eastern New Mexico Fri-day at the ENMU Soccer Field.

In the 55th minute Kendra Clemons ripped a shot over the head of the ENMU goalkeeper Sierra Cardenas to lift the Mus-tangs to a 1-0 win.

“This is a tough place to play,” MSU coach Jeff Trimble said. “They picked it up in the second half and put some pressure on us.î

It was sophomore Lindsay Pritchard’s pressure on a throw-in on the MSU offensive half of the field which led to a turnover in the 55th minute.

Pritchard served the ball ahead to Clemons, who beat an ENMU defender near the top of the box and ripped her first goal of the season to provide the difference in the match.

The MSU defense, led by se-nior Megan Hanlon and fresh-man Brittany Martinez, limited the Zia attack to five total shots with just one of those on goal.

“Megan played her best game of the year. She attacked out the back and played defense very well,” Trimble said. “Brittany made her first start and did a great job in the back for us.”

Senior Ashley Meek and fresh-man Mallory Whitworth com-bined for the Mustangs’ ninth shutout this season.

Eastern New Mexico slipped to 7-8 overall and to 2-4 in the

LSC.On Sunday, Midwestern faced

a stiffer competition when they traveled to Canyon to take on No. 13 West Texas A&M at The Pitch.

The Lady Buffs buried two goals in the opening 20 minutes and held off Midwestern State’s attacks to pick up the LSC win 3-1.

West Texas A&M’s Miriam Dominguez blasted a shot in from the top of the 18-yard box in the 9th minute past MSU start-ing keeper Ashley Meek to give the Lady Buffs a 1-0 advantage.

Dominguez then threaded a through ball to Lindsay Mc-Horse, who converted a one-on-one chance past Meek to give WT a commanding 2-0 advan-tage in the 20th minute.

The Mustangs clawed back to within a goal when Kelsey Hill scored on a cross from Brittany O’Neal to make the score 2-1 in the 59th minute, but MSU was unable to score the equalizer.

West Texas A&M put the match away with a McHorse’s second goal of the game to beat MSU reserve keeper Mallory Whitworth in the 87th minute.

The goal was the first allowed by Whitworth since New Mexi-co Highlands’ Jessica Heninger scored in the 65th minute on Sep. 5 - a span of 584:18 of field time for the true freshman from McKinney.

With the split, the Mustangs dropped to 10-2-1 on the season and 4-2 in Lone Star Conference play, while West Texas A&M improved to 10-2-1, 4-2 on the

season. The Mustangs, who have lost

two of three after opening the season on an 11-match unbeaten streak, are on the road this week with matches against Southwest-ern Oklahoma on Friday after-noon and University of Central Oklahoma on Sunday.

With the loss, Midwestern State fell out of the NSCAA/adi-das NCAA Division II Coaches’ Poll Tuesday afternoon, but are still receiving votes in the week-ly ranking.

The Mustangs are one of four teams in the rugged South Cen-tral Region to receiving votes in the national poll joining No. 7 St. Edward’s (Texas), No. 16 Incarnate Word and No. 19 West Texas A&M.

Midwestern spent the last six

weeks in the poll spending two week at No. 10 which is the highest ranking in program his-tory.

Midwestern State and West Texas A&M are tied for first in the Lone Star Conference stand-ings. Eastern New Mexico sits in third with a record of 10-3-2 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Northeasten State holds the fourth place spot with a 6-6 overall record. Their LSC record is 0-3.

After their roadtrip this week-end, the Mustangs return home for their last two home games of the season. They will take on Abilene Christian on Oct. 30 at 5:30 p.m., before playing their Senior Day game on Nov. 1 against Angelo State. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.

Soccer drops second game of the season and out of the rankingsKaitlin MorriSon

SporTS ediTor

Sports The WichiTanOctober 21, 2009 9

Midwestern State took the lead early in the first half of Sun-day’s game against St. Mary’s (Texas) at the MSU Soccer Field and never looked back.

Tyler Murphy scored his first goal of the season off a header from Nathan Fitzgerald in the third minute of the match.

MSU turned up the pressure after the intermission and found the back of the net after Kyle Hyden served a cross into the box from the left corner.

Hyden’s serve initiated a three-header combo in the mid-dle of the box as Craig Suther-land redirected to Jake Landon who sent it to the far post to Nick Auditore, who deposited his team-leading eighth score of

the season to push the lead to 2-0 in the 59th minute.

Midwestern pressured St. Mary throughout the game, out-shooting the Rattlers 31-3 in-cluding 13-0 edge in shots on goal.

Senior forward Bryan Sajjadi helped to put the game away by playing a part in the last three goals scored by Midwestern in the last 22 minutes of the game.

Sajjadi touched a give-and-go which resulted in Fitzgerald’s second goal of the season in the 79th minute, then threaded a cross to Tex McCullough for an-other assist in the 82nd minute.

Sajjadi finally scored after converting a penalty kick in the 90th minute.

“We played more consistent for a 90-minute period without a lot of letdown,” Elder said.

The Mustangs defense al-lowed goalkeeper Raul Herrera to record his ninth shutout of the season, without having to make a save.

With the shutout, Herrera tied former MSU standout David Stockton with the most shutouts in a season since Midwestern became a member of NCAA Di-vision II in 1995, but needs two more to match Jeff Henscheid (1980) and Kevin Payne (1986).

The Mustangs, who improved to 10-1-2, extended their unbeat-en streak to 12-straight matches while stretching their home un-beaten string to 19.

With the loss, St. Mary’s dropped to 4-8-1 on the season.

Midwestern State moved ahead seven spots to No. 11 in the latest National Soccer Coaches’ Association of America/adidas national poll released Tuesday afternoon.

Midwestern State is one of six teams in the South Central/Mid-west Region to receive a national ranking joining No. 4 Fort Lewis (Colo.), No. 6 West Texas A&M, No. 16 Colorado Mines, No. 17 Truman (Mo.) and No. 25 Metro State (Colo.).

The Mustangs have carried a ranking in the last 41 national polls dating back to the 2006 season.

Midwestern faces a pair of critical regional and Lone Star Conference matches this week-end as the Mustangs take on Eastern New Mexico Friday in Portales before battling West Texas A&M Sunday in Canyon.

The Mustangs have faced these two teams earlier in the season. On Sept. 18, it took two

overtimes, but the game ended in a 0-0 tie with West Texas A&M, and two days later, MSU picked up a 5-0 win over East-ern New Mexico. Both games were played at the MSU Soccer Field.

With the win, Midwestern State moved up a spot to No. 2 in the South Central Region Tuesday when the NCAA Divi-sion II Men’s Soccer Committee released its weekly rankings.

The Mustangs (10-1-2), who are currently riding a 12-match unbeaten streak, moved into the top two when Truman dropped a match to Lewis (Ill.) last week.

MSU trails top-ranked West Texas A&M (11-1-1), but are ahead of No. 3 Truman (Mo.) (10-2-1) and Incarnate Word (Texas) (6-4-3) in the South Central Region.

Fort Lewis (Colo.) tops the Central Region followed by Colorado Mines (11-2-3), Metro State (Colo.) (9-4-2) and Regis (Colo.) (7-3-4).

Top-ranked teams advance to the NCAA Division II postsea-son when the final regular season rankings are published Nov. 3.

Championships selection is set for Monday, Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. on NCAA.com.

The top two teams from the South Central Region and top two sides from the Central Re-gion will meet at the site of the Central Region’s top team on the weekend of Nov. 13.

The winner will then advance to the NCAA II national quar-terfinals the following weekend against the West Region winner for the right to compete in the Final Four.

Kaitlin Morrson

SporTS ediTor

Mustangs pound St. Mary’s 5-0, move to No. 11 in natonal rankings

Heather Primavera knew she was destined to become a soc-cer player by her fifth birthday. Heather’s mother and father, Joe and Tonia Primavera, enrolled her in recreational soccer at the age of five. From that day on, Heather’s life revolved around her love of the game.

She played throughout grade school, junior high and high school. Heather was recruited to play for MSU in 2005. She spent four years on the women’s soccer team, leading the girls to many victories as captain and goalkeeper.

Today, Heather Primavera is the first assistant women’s soc-cer coach at MSU. It’s only nat-ural. Soccer runs in the family.

Joe and Tonia first met as stu-

dents at Arlington High School. They shared a love of soccer, and each other. Tonia was an All-State soccer player two years in

a row in high school. Joe, also an avid soccer player, graduated one year before Tonia and walked on to the men’s soccer team at the University of North Texas.

Before he finished his first year as a starting forward for UNT in 1986, Tonia discovered she was pregnant with his child. Tonia had just graduated high school. Joe had to quit his soccer career to support his new family.

Heather Primavera was born on March 22. 1987. Although her parents were young and in-experienced, they soon had a good idea of what their blue-eyes, freckled face little girl was capable of.

Joe coached Heather’s rec-reational soccer teams until she was 10 years old. She played for five club soccer teams during the next eight years. She attended Mansfield High School where

she was a member of the junior varsity squad her freshman year. She made the varsity team as a sophomore and played as the goalkeeper through her senior year. She won All-District 4-5A accolades two years in a row. She was a two-time all-region pick while tying the Mansfield High School single season shut-out record with 13.

At MSU, Heather was a three-year starter for Coach Jeff Trim-ble.

Heather won her first colle-giate start on October 19, 2005 against Northeastern State.

In 2006, she started 17 match-es and compiled a 9-7-1 record with six shutouts.

In her second year, she led the Lone Star Conference with a 0.83 goals against average and was ranked 35th in the NCAA Di-vision II rankings. She was also

named to the Lone Star Confer-ence Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Her senior year she was named to the All-Lone Star Conference Honorable Mention team after posting a 12-6 record with three shutouts.

Heather graduated from Mid-western State in May with a bachelor’s degree in mass com-munication. She planned to stay in Wichita Falls so she could work on getting her teaching cer-tificate to become a high school soccer coach. Grad school occu-pied her mind until the day Jeff Trimble, head women’s soccer coach, offered her a job.

“At first I thought it would be kind of weird because I’ve played with most of them (play-ers on the team) for the last three years,” Heather said. “But it’s not at all.”

Heather’s roles on the team include filing and keeping up with all the new, incoming fresh-man recruits and handling all the travel arrangements for out of town games. She must also or-ganize and file statistics from all games, including information from the opposing teams.

“Coach (Trimble) loves hav-ing me around because I’m a girl and I can deal with all the girl stuff,” Heather said with a laugh. “Girls come in crying and he doesn’t know what to do some-times.”

Heather is currently work-ing on her master’s degree in Kinesiology. She will continue coaching at MSU for as long as she can. Her main goal is to be-come the head women’s soccer coach at the collegiate level.

“My love for soccer will never end,” Heather said.

Heather Primavera, former goalkeeper for MSU, is now the Assistant Coach for the women’s soccer team. Photo by Patrick Johnston)

Vanessa VicK

For The WichiTan

MSU athlete hangs up cleats and takes on new role

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Vjekoslav Stipanic and Bozo Zaputovic split a pair of matches to claim seventh place at the ITA National Small College Championships. The teammates both come from Monte-negro, where Zaputovic said they played against and alongside each other since

childhood. Stipanic and Zaputovic fell to South-ern Indiana’s Diego Gimenez and Joseph Boesing 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 in the consolation semifinals before rallying to defeat Metro State’s Scott Bradley and Georgie Perez 6-2, 6-4. They completed the fall season with an 11-3 mark as doubles partners.

’Bama showdownDoubles team takes seventh at nationals

Photos by Brittany NormanZaputovic and Stipanic traveled to Alabama to com-pete in the ITA Na-tional Small College Championships. They took seventh overall.

SportsThe WichiTanOctober 21, 200910

Tuesday

On Deck this

week...

ThursdayOctober 22

Volleyball

@ Abilene Christian

7 p.m.

FridayOctober 23

Men’s Soccer

@Eastern New MexicoNoon

Women’sSoccer

@ Southwestern

Oklahoma3 p.m.

SaturdayOctober 24

Cross Country

@Lone Star Conference

Championships(Canyon, TX)

Volleyball

@Angelo State2 p.m.

Football

vs. University of Central Oklahoma

7 p.m.

SundayOctober 25

Men’s Soccer

@University of Central

Oklahoma1 p.m.

Women’s Soccer

@ West Texas A&M

3 p.m.

Home Events are bolded

Mustangs to watch...

Men’s Soccer

Midwestern State moved ahead seven spots to No. 11 in the latest National Soccer

Coaches’ Association of America/adidas national poll released Tuesday

afternoon.Midwestern State is

one of six teams in the South Central/Midwest

Region to receive a national ranking joining

No. 4 Fort Lewis (Colo.), No. 6 West Texas A&M, No. 16

Colorado Mines, No. 17 Truman (Mo.) and No. 25 Metro State (Colo.).

Cross Country

Midwestern State remained at eighth in the NCAA Division II

South Central Region Tuesday afternoon

when the United States Track & Field and Cross

Country Association released its weekly

rankings.MSU was idle last

week as the Mustangs prepare to defend their Lone Star Conference

championship Saturday morning in Canyon,

Texas.MSU will compete in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional meet on Nov. 7 in Abilene.

94318-Midwestern State University-8x15-4C-10.7

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Midwestern State used a very well played offensive and nearly flawless defensive game to pick up an easy Lone Star Conference win over Eastern New Mexico Thursday at D.L. Ligon Coli-seum.

It only took three sets, 25-14, 25-9, 25-14, for the Mustangs to improve to 9-17 on the season and 5-1 in conference play.

Junior middle blocker Lau-ren Bayer had seven kills and helped the Mustangs to 10 total team blocks, notching four solos of her own.

Six MSU players recorded multiple blocks including Ses-ley Graves (4), Kari Damjanovic (3), Hillary White (2), Miranda

Byrd (2) and Shelbi Stewart (2).Byrd paced the Mustangs with

eight kills and three service aces while hitting .429, while Dam-janovic and Graves added fives kills each.

Kiara Jordan led a stellar back row performance as she finished the night with 17 digs, while White added 14 more.

MSU limited Eastern New Mexico to a season-low -.010 team attack percentage as the Zias finished with only 22 kills and committed 23 attack errors in 98 total attempts, while falling to 5-17 and 0-7 on the season.

It was a little different story on Saturday when the Mustangs took the court at D.L. Ligon Coliseum for the Dig Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness game against West Texas A&M.

Natalie Johnson and Melissa Harper combined for 22 kills to lift the No. 6 Lady Buffs to a 3-0 win.

MSU fought back from a 14-8 deficit in the opening set to claim and 23-21 lead after forcing WT into consecutive attack errors, but the Lady Buffs responded after a timeout to close the set by taking four of the final points to claim a 25-23 win.

Sophomore outside hitter Hil-lary White led the Mustangs at-tack with six kills and added 12 digs and two blocks.

Freshman Shelbi Stewart add-ed six kills as well, while Ses-ley Graves, Lauren Bayer and Miranda Byrd all finished with five kills.

Bayer paced MSU at the net with three blocks while Kiara

Jordan led the back row efforts with 14 digs.

The Mustangs dropped to 9-18 on the season and 5-2 in confer-ence play, while West Texas A&M improved to 22-3 and 8-0 after claiming its 58th-straight win against a Lone Star Confer-ence opponent.

On Tuesday, the Mustangs traveled to Dallas to play a non-conference match against Dallas Baptist.

The Patriots got the best of MSU, winning in three sets- 25-13, 25-18, 25-23.

Sesley Graves led the offen-sive attack with 10 kills. Miran-da Byrd added five, while Lau-ren Bayer had four.

Hillary White led the Mus-tang defense with 22 digs, while sophomore libero Kiara Jordan

finished the match with 12. Midwestern had a total of sev-

en team blocks. Karolina Dam-janovic, Bayer and Graves all had one block each.

The setting duo of Dimery Michaels and Kimberly Jeffrey finished with 22 set assists. Mi-chaels had 14, while Jeffrey had eight.

The loss dropped the Mus-tangs to 9-19 on the season.

The Mustangs hit the road for two Lone Star Conference matches.

On Thursday, they will take on Abilene Christian at Moody Coliseum at 7 p.m.

On Saturday they will take on Angelo State at the Junell Center at 2 p.m.

Kaitlin Morrison

SporTS ediTor

Volleyball drops to 5-2 in Lone Star Conference play