Home Away From Home

BY JULIANNE SKRIVAN/STAFF WRITER

BY CYNTHIA LUU/STAFF WRITER

ach August, its dorm sweet dorm for many U students.

Rebecca Lewis, a freshman in biomedical engineering,
said she enjoys living in the residence halls.
I love having a community up here on campus, Lewis said.
The residence halls at the U are situated on the upper east side of
campus with names such as Shoreline Ridge, Chapel Glen, Sage Point
and Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community.
Some say the biggest adjustment in dorm life comes for freshman students moving away from home for the first time. Resident
Advisors, who monitor the residence halls, try to foster a sense of
community for these students by hosting events and leaving their
doors open.
Cassidy Klein, a sophomore in exercise and sports science, lived
on campus last year. While she didnt choose to live there again
this year, she said she continues to be friends with those she met
in Chapel Glen, even living with one of her dorm neighbors in a
house this year.
Having everyone so close by was the greatest perk of living in
the dorms, Klein said.
Jessica Switzer, an undeclared freshman, said the biggest difference between life at home and living in the residence halls is
living in close proximity to people she doesnt know.
Im from Salt Lake City, but I didnt know my roommates, she
said. Its been great though. Theyre all really nice, and I like it. Its
not bad at all.
For Isabella Kearns, a freshman in pre-nursing, the biggest challenge to living on campus is travel.
I hate walking everywhere, especially uphill after classes, she
said. I miss my car.
The U has a bus system to transport students from the Peterson Heritage Center to lower campus, which fills up quickly every
morning. If students opt out of taking the bus, its about a 20-minute walk to most classes.
Kearns has two roommates this year, a fellow swim team member and a foreign exchange student from Australia.
Its the best of both worlds, she said. I have a teammate, and I can learn all about a different area.
j.skrivan@chronicle.utah.edu

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS SAMUELS

thechrony

Remembering those
with Alzheimers

tanding by the front door

of the City Library downtown is a giant forgetme-knot.
It stands about six and a half
feet tall, with wisps of purple
ribbon tied to a wire frame.
Each ribbon holds the name of
an individual who has suffered
from Alzheimers disease.
Kate Nederostek, program
director for the Utah chapter
of the Alzheimers Association,
said the disease is an important issue throughout the
country. Thats why Nederostek
planned the You Are Not
Alone: Join the Fight Against Alzheimers event last Thursday,
co-hosted by KUED-7 and the
City Library, to raise awareness.
There are over five million Americans living with the
disease, Nederostek said. Its
extremely important in Utah because our numbers are growing.
According to the Alzheimers
Association national statistics,
there are 32,000 reported cases
of Alzheimers in Utah, and of
those cases, nearly half of the
patients are under the age of 85.
Rachelle Anderson, community and outreach coordinator
for KUED-7, said Utah women
older than 55 are more likely
to develop Alzheimers than
breast cancer.
To me, thats very eye-opening, she said.
The Alzheimers Association is
one of the largest resources for
anyone affected by the disease
or dementia. The association is
also the largest nonprofit funder
of related research, providing
support groups and educational
programs on a national level.
Our goal is to eradicate
the disease, Nederostek said.
Everything we do is to raise
awareness of how many people
are affected by Alzheimers and
how the disease progresses.
Anderson added, Its not
just the person it affects but
the support group around that

The Funny
Formula

person. The life of their spouses, BY TAYLOR ALMOND/STAFF WRITER

their family and their friends. I
think people need to know more
about this issue not just from
the diagnosis of the individual
but how it affects everyone
around them.

THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

The You Are Not Alone event

was structured around three
main components: the interactive forget-me-knot display, a
free film screening of POV: The
Genius of Marian and a discussion led by Richard King from the
Center for Alzheimers Care.
King said Utah is very underserved in Alzheimers care
and hopes the event highlighted the deficiency.
This event brings public
awareness and gives people the
opportunities to become aware
and start a dialogue, King said.
Alzheimers disease is a devastating disease. People who have
it lose their ability to talk and
reason, and eventually they lose
themselves within the disease.
In hopes of combating the
disease, King and Nederostek
advise concerned citizens to talk
to local representatives and initiate awareness with the local and
federal government.
September is known as
World Alzheimers Awareness
Month. The Utah Chapter of
the Alzheimers Association will
host a Walk to End Alzheimers every weekend in September to raise awareness.
c.luu@chronicle.utah.edu

riting about comedy festivals is easy. Funny

or Dies Oddball Comedy and Curiosity
Festival began at 5 p.m. on a side stage in
USANA Amphitheatere, a view of the Wasatch Mountains in front and the Oquirrhs behind. It ended at
11 p.m. but the parking lot was so crowded, I was
stuck there until well after midnight.
During that time, the comedians described
almost everything that went on for me.
Wanna hear about the weather? Heres Hannibal
Buress: Its hard to do comedy with a beautiful
breeze like this. I wanna chill, drink a beer, forget
about work ... what do you mean I have to talk for
20 minutes? This sucks.
That was at 8, before the wind and rain mercilessly shorted out wedge speakers and a projector
during Louis C.K.s set. We knew it would happen
the screens had been swaying the entire performance. Only a few dozen people left.
How about the crowd? Demetri Martin has the
scoop. Everyone here is white. Just different shades
of white white to very white. Its OK. Im white. But
were very close to being a rally, so keep it cool.
The crowd was also sweaty and drunk, salty and
drunker by dark. The rain washed us off.
What did the comics think of Salt Lake City?
Chris Hardwick said, Everyone kept saying LDS,
when he performed in SLC last June. I had no idea
what they meant I thought there was a gang lord
called El Diaz terrorizing the town.
Quoting comedians is easy. You hear quips
about the city, the weather and the people at every
comedy show. But here it was incessant comics
punched in local references everywhere and busted
my gut every time. Thats all because of the venue.
Heres a reductive formula for comedy: Set up an
expectation, then do something different. Relate,
then subvert. Its like lying to your relatives say
you do one thing, then do another, and all of you
can laugh about it once its over.
Problem is, its much harder to lie when you have
20,000 relatives sitting outside. So, to make it easier to connect, you talk about whats common.
Take Sarah Silverman. Shes a year out from her last stand-up special, We Are Miracles, and she was working on new material during the
set. How do you make up for half-completed (but still funny) jokes? You interview a guy named Jesus in the front row while sitting on his lap.
Hannibal Buress is a pretty calm comic he was much louder and much more animated here. Chris Hardwick ran into the audience. Jeff
Ross roasted volunteers. Whitney Cummings used polished material from her last stand-up special.
The ploy worked every time. Each comedian kept 20,000 people interested.
But local references and audience interaction are easy pickings for comics. Whats harder is speaking honestly.
Everyone tried to be honest, of course. Nobody was telling innocuous jokes without politics or zest. But Aziz Ansari did it the best. His material was tight and poignant, in preparation for a sold-out show in Madison Square Garden.
Most of his set was about creepy dudes how constantly and consistently women have to avoid them and the lack of creepy women
fondling or flashing or scaring men. At one point, he asked the women in the crowd to raise their hands if they had seen a man masturbate to
them in public. Hundreds raised their hands.
Hundreds of women shared a traumatizing experience with a gesture and Aziz got everyone to laugh about it. To see how absurd the
society or gender roles or whatever it is that caused this really is. Thats what comedys good for.
t.almond@chronicle.utah.edu
@chronyarts

Con

attracts nerds,
artists alike

BY TAYLOR STOCKING/STAFF WRITER

he Salt Palace was the place to be last weekend

for all kinds of nerds. The second annual Salt
Lake Comic Con was a celebration of much more
than just comic books.
Cosplayers came dressed as characters from
movies of various genres. There were Stormtroopers
and Jedi Knights from Star Wars, as well as King
Arthur and his knights from Monty Python and the
Holy Grail. There was Walter and The Dude from
The Big Lebowski, and there was David Bowie
from Labyrinth. There was even Lone Starr and
Barf from Spaceballs.
Characters from anime series, video games, fantasy
and sci-fi novels, TV series, childrens cartoons and, of
course, comic books came to life.
There were also rows and rows of booths selling
swag. Charles Prows, owner of The Nerd Store in West
Valley, said Salt Lakes first Comic Con in Sept. 2013
was what enabled him to start his business. If it wasnt
for last years Comic Con, Prows said, I wouldnt have
a store here.
Prows store sells comics, collectibles, random
stuff and whatever you want. Prows attended San
Diego Comic-Con for the last four years, but this
year was his first as a retailer. When asked what he
thought about the lawsuit over the use of the name
Comic Con, he said he heard the people behind the
San Diego Comic-Con need more space and want to
expand to other locations. Theyre trying to get the
name so they can get out of San Diego, Prows said.
Its not just businesses that are benefiting from the
large quantity of nerds in Salt Lake. Artists and authors
have found a great place to showcase their work.
James Pilcher, a graffiti artist selling paintings he
made on old vinyl records, said he watched other
graffiti artists get into trouble and decided to move to
the more legit side of graffiti art. This was his first year
at Comic Con, but he was at Fan-X earlier this year,
and his art made it to Fantasy Con.
Pilcher said he was experimenting with different
mediums for canvases when some friends brought by
some records that had been painted. He uses a combination of stencils and freehand, and his best pieces
take advantage of being painted on a circle. His Death
Star, for example, looks almost three-dimensional.
Attendance exceeded expectations at the first Salt
Lake Comic Con last year, as well as FanXperience
in April and this past weekends Comic Con. Over
100,000 people attended this years event. Many attendees were frustrated by a perceived lack of organization, and organizers promise to do better next year.
This is good news for Prows and Pilcher, who both plan
on coming back, whether its organized better or not.
t.stocking@chronicle.utah.edu
@ChronyArts

11