When Sixth College junior Ginny Tice first stepped foot in
University of Westminster’s Cavendish Campus in London, she was struck with
fascination. Not only were robe-clad wizards and witches interacting with
non-magical folk, there were even a few Arithmancy and Divination classes being
held and a game of Quidditch underway.

Tice is part of an Internet subculture called fandom — a
group of fans who share the same interest or activity in a specific work of
fiction. The appeal of this fantasy world led Tice to London, where she
attended Sectus, a renowned convention dedicated to Harry Potter.

“It was my first convention and my first trip to Europe,
which probably ate up all the money I earned that summer,” she said. “However,
getting to see all the places mentioned in the books, and more importantly,
getting to meet a lot of cool people with similar interests was very surreal.”

Although fandoms began in the late ’60s and early ’70s with
the start of fanzines and the TV show Star Trek, the use of the Internet has
expanded their popularity.

“Suddenly, anyone
obsessed with something obscure or not so obscure, or with a certain paring or
type of fiction could generally find a group of people with similar interests,”
Tice said. “The general joke of the Internet now is ‘Rule 34: if it exists,
there is a porn for it’ but now it’s like ‘if it exists, there is a fandom for
it.’”

Tice also reads fan fiction that is related to Harry Potter
— a common activity within a fandom. Fan fiction is literature written by
amateur writers about characters from their favorite movies, books, television
shows and games. This breed of fan club is very popular on the Internet with
over 100 Web sites focused on just Harry Potter fan fiction alone.

Eleanor Roosevelt College freshman Justine Yang participates
in Transformers fandom and dabbles in various others. As one of the officers of
Darkstar, a science fiction and gaming club at UCSD that was formed in 1978,
Yang said fandoms come from the popular culture of TV and video games that
children are exposed to at a young age

For Yang, that TV show was Godzilla, which prompted her to
write a 42-page story and surf every other show on FoxKids.

“I don’t know what it is about fandoms,” she said. “But they
pique my interests through various means like style, story, characters and
sheer creativity.”

While many people close a book or see a show or movie they like and move on,
fandomers are unable to put something they like to rest, Tice said, translating
to looking it up online, then reading summaries, interviews, reviews, then eventually
fan fiction.

Like many others, Yang reads and writes fan fiction because
she likes to express her creativity through this medium and find people with
similar interests.

“What I like about fandoms is that I don’t feel like the
only freak in this world,” she said. “I can talk freely with people who have
the same interests as me that I can’t with ‘normal’ people, whatever the hell
‘normal’ means.”

As a way to showcase many people’s popular culture
obsessions, Fanfiction.net, a Web site where fans can share, read and review
stories, lists fan fictions categories from more than 250 books, movies,
authors, and videogames, ranging from the more popular “Harry Potter” or “Lord
of the Rings,” to “Of Mice and Men.”

While there are millions of fans on the Internet, whenever
Eleanor Roosevelt College freshman Charlotte Harland finds out that a friend of
hers dabbles in fandom, she said it is like an automatic fellowship.

“I was actually surprised to find that a bunch of my
suitemates are fan fiction junkies, too,” she said. “It’s like ‘ooh, yay, someone
who won’t edge slowly away from me if I start talking about such-and-such
pairing or alternate universes or something.”

Yang said that although many of her friends know that she is
interested in fandoms, she tries to express her obsession minimally to avoid
alienating them. Although some people don’t understand the lives of fandomers,
their intense fascination with fiction is what makes them different.

“It doesn’t help that my dorm keys include keychains of
Bumblebee and Optimus Prime,” Yang said. “A handful of my friends are similarly
interested in one or two of my fandoms, but they’re not as devoted or obsessive
as I am. That’s what sets me apart; I sometimes overreact to certain things,
like crappy, poorly written fan fiction. That’s the main difference between me
and them — I have too much of an emotional attachment to these fandoms.”

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According to Steven Schick — new artistic director and
conductor for the community- and student-built La Jolla Symphony — just about
anyone with a musical sensibility can do the things he does before the
orchestra, back to the audience, stenciling out swells of sound in the open air
above the conductor’s stand.

“I could teach you to be a conductor in ten minutes,” he
said Monday, amid the peaceful collection of percussion instruments that
consume his Warren Lecture Hall office. “Not even. I could teach you the motion
in three minutes. I think if you listen and try to make things better, you can
be good — even if you’ve never conducted before.”

Schick defines a conductor’s responsibility as
“communication by gesture” — a kind of sign language for the sonically gifted,
if you will — and most surely underestimates his rare and individual gift for
the art of conducting. Rehearsing in Mandeville on Wednesday night for the
weekend performances that will officially introduce him to UCSD and its
surrounding community, his intuitive interactions with the symphony’s parts were
softly intellectual yet always firm, settling small complications arising in
the sea of music stands and instruments (“Let’s get the string section to slide
back toward the brass”), requesting tweaks to performative interpretation (“At
five, full half notes, so we can really hear the release”) and letting each
instrument — the harp, the oboe, the clarinet — play alone until it’s ready to
become a perfect part of the sum.

And everything must be perfect. After all, the mantelpiece
of Schick’s self-welcoming performance is also the American premiere of “Cello
Concerto,” penned by contemporary legend
Philip Glass, best known for avant-garde minimalism that electrocuted the 1970s
and most popular for collaborations with public innovators like Brian Eno and
Aphex Twin. “It’s very interesting about being starstruck by the people you
work with,” Schick said. “Immediately, you have to get down to work, and it
becomes something very, very different.”

Here at UCSD, Schick is a dorm-room name for one reason more
than others: Up until this year, he’s helmed the wildly sought-after Beatles
course, which has always been more of a stepping stone to 20th-century music
theory than a character study of the Fab Four. “I don’t actually care about the
Beatles that much,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t even like the Beatles — but the
spectrum that they cover is so huge.”

Now, after over 20 years of the same stepping stone, Schick
is moving on to a personal boulder. While starring cellist Wendy Sutter jerked
and sawed through Glass’ surprisingly gorgeous composition during rehearsal — a
bodily visual of the composer’s vigorous repitition — Schick towered above,
finally putting his lecturer’s countenance and percussive background to
all-encompassing use.

Steven Schick will debut as music director for the La Jolla
Symphony on Nov. 3 and 4 at Mandeville Auditorium. The symphony will perform
John Luther Adams’ The Light That Fills the World, Philip Glass’s Cello
Concerto and Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony. Philip Glass is expected to attend.

The American audience has loved characters like Frank Lucas
many times over: He is a man of principle and precision, anchored by his family
but driven by his business. Hollywood’s
crime-centric personas are most successful when softened to a likable level,
where murder is somewhat justifiable — and a hell of a lot more cinematic.

The real Frank Lucas? This smalltime Harlemite killed his
way to the top of the 1960s heroin trade as an innovative businessman, got
caught, then dimed out dirty cops and criminals to cut his own cell time from
70 years to four­ — hardly the gallant man Denzel Washington plays with velvety
guile in “American Gangster,” Ridley Scott’s newest jaunt into violence and
crime.

“Gangster” is based on a New York Magazine piece about
Lucas’ rise to power. His transformation from article to film — from a starkly
gripping page-turner to a murderous urban deity on the silver screen — tells
volumes. The writing, directing and acting are so crisp and honest that the
film bestows an alluring flavor upon its every set, from crack dens to
mansions, from South Asian titty bars to Harlem street corners.

Surprisingly, the film’s embodiment of blunt-force
attraction isn’t Washington — whose affinity
for bad-assery is hardly surprising — but Russell Crowe’s Richie Roberts, the Jersey narcotics cop trailing Lucas. Crowe trudges around
his dank scenery like a broad-shouldered bear, bubbling with a subsurface
brutality that Scott deftly controls to turn every scrap of violence into a
gratifying payoff.

Roberts and Lucas form the film’s centerpiece, both men
acting as commentary on the nation’s standing in the ’60s, the decade-long apex
of U.S.
history — when the hippie faced down the Man, when the little guy faced down
the corporation and when all Americans had to face mass change. The two
mainstay characters stand on opposing sides, but with similar values: Lucas
touts familial honor while Roberts preaches on-the-job morals.

Neither mindset mixes well with its respective milieus.
Lucas’ drug trade, described in-film
like old-school economics, imports the product fresh Asian opium to Harlem’s customers. But even Lucas can’t stop his
formerly understated, family-run hustle from becoming a showy empire.
New-school flash — including Nicky Barnes, personified with pimpalicious zest
by Cuba Gooding Jr. — leaves Lucas worriedly trying to keep his younger
relatives (played by T.I., Chiwetel Ejiofor, Common and others) in line to
ensure the whole family’s safety, but it’s like playing Whack-A-Mole: family,
money and business can’t ever jive.

Meanwhile, Roberts’ headstrong ethics earn him many enemies.
In the vein of “Serpico,” Roberts is all but exiled by his cop buddies when he
turns in $1 million in corrupt cash, instead of taking a taste for himself.
Crowe somberly carries the decision like a concrete block for the rest of the
film, never frantically acting out like Al Pacino, whose many tirades as Frank
Serpico made the character impulsively entertaining. Instead, Roberts
steadfastly holds himself to his moral code, watching as the rest of his life
(wife, kid and job) floats away — there’s a wonderfully played solemnity to the
character.

The rest of the cast is made up of gangster-genre vets, with
the film transplanting bit-part actors of every crime show and film from “The
Sopranos” (Robert Funaro) to “The Wire” (Idris Elba) to “The Departed” itself
(Kevin Corrigan). All of gangster-ism’s stars have gathered around Washington
and Crowe, swirling about to tell one of the most riveting American tales of
drugs, family and the law ever put on the screen.

And while scribe Steven Zaillian’s characterizations are
reason enough to see “Gangster,” Scott’s direction puts the film a cut above
most cops-and-robbers tales. What Martin Scorsese did to stylize and beautify
carnage in “Departed” — the last great crime epic — is undone in “Gangster,”
where Scott preserves Harlem’s violent grit
and grime. Instead of lovemaking to the sounds of Pink Floyd, we get crack
distribution to Sam & Dave. Instead of Howard Shore’s
guitar-plucking score, we get a drum-thumping outing from Marc Streitenfeld and
an awing rendition of “Ave Maria,” played over an end-sequence’s church
setting. “Gangster” is on par with “Departed” in all facets, but delivers in a
more visceral, primitive way.

It’s impossible to say whether Ian Curtis — the young,
tragic voice of Joy Division, born of post-punk’s first rumblings and gone with
the close of the technicolored ’70s — would have progressed and achieved enough
in later in life, had he not hung himself from the kitchen ceiling, to warrant
the now-insatiable fascination with the potential that shrines his long-dead
enigma.

So, though no fan-in-hindsight can help but wring the
details of Curtis’ short life and sudden death for answers, we must keep in
mind that every nuance in his tortured artistry would hold far less weight if
not for the shadow of its looming end. We must consider the possibility that
his miniature legacy — two haunting albums and a handful of shakily videotaped,
volatile performances — was all he had in him, all he was meant to deliver our
mortal world.

“When I’m up there singing, they don’t understand how much I
give,” narrates Curtis, portrayed in “Control” by Sam Riley, during a
tour-induced breakdown. “How it affects me. I never meant for it to grow like
this. I’ve no control anymore.”

A recent explosion of interest in the legend of Joy Division
(especially its suicidal centerpiece) has scattered many an ode to better
remember them by: a re-remastered box set, a prying documentary and now the
black-and-white biopic known simply as “Control,” directed by longtime
photog-to-the-rock-stars Anton Corbijn and starring spitting-image newcomer Sam
Riley. But that certain haziness in the band’s graspability — the mystery that
has always pulled us closer — seems only to deepen with every resurrection’s
attempt at pinpointing the strength of Joy Division’s emotional grip.

It’s not surprising, then, that the only criticism this
festival-favorite seems to receive is for its inability to explain the method
to Curtis and the band’s unlikely genius. In timeline sequence, the film runs a
highly simplistic, unanalytical course between one man’s personal and public
turmoil (mostly set in Macclesfield, England, the no-breathing-room hometown
that Curtis never left). Every monumental life decision — marriage, baby,
mistress — is represented in short, detached clips stripped of all unnecessary
dialogue and score, which does chisel for us all the cold, oft-silent beauty of
Curtis’ world, but pays for its aesthetic with a deficiency in clues as to Joy
Division’s most buried secret: Where on earth did that sound come from? Surely,
no arbitrary sum of influences could have let loose the tumbling, whirring,
scraping obsessions of their loosened strings, stalked by a percussive hunger,
stricken with the untrained voice of human isolation itself — all in the most
minimal, animalistic ways possible, hollow and huge and yet so unassuming as to
seem almost nonmusical in nature. Surely, no accident?

The singular abstracted scene in “Control” is set to the
not-yet-existing electro-paranoia of remaining-member offspring New Order in an
unexplained whirl of psychedelic hypnosis performed by bandmate Peter Hook
(played to bloke-ish perfection by “Across the Universe” talent Joe Anderson).
We learn almost less in taking Corbijn’s filmic journey than we could from
picking through Curtis’ short stock of literal and self-revealing lyrics, used
consistently in the film to illustrate the author’s inner turbulence. “Asylums
with doors open wide/ Where people had paid to see inside/ For entertainment
they watch his body twist/ Behind his eyes he says, ‘I still exist,’” groans
Curtis in “Atrocity Exhibition,” what would be the opening track for his
posthumous sophomore release. And that performative march-twist to which he
refers — essentially an upright, half-controlled seizure to the pulse of his
band’s dark form — is replicated to a sweaty, convulsive T by the talented
Riley, so accurate in his embodiment of Curtis’ every nuance that we almost
feel brushed by the star himself.

So for now, genius — particularly of the musical breed —
stays safely locked in the mysteries of the authorless human blueprint. Perhaps
without such a frustrating void, it would be difficult to even begin to grasp
Curtis’ depression; “Control” lets us feel that it was the lack of answers, the
incurable and side-effecting epilepsy, an idol’s inevitable seclusion — and the
goddamn quiet that blanketed him into nonexistence. And in quiet, he should
rest.

In the movie biz, everything comes in twos. Last week’s
delusion was a man in love with a sex doll, in “Lars and the Real Girl” — a
film that glided through awkward moments and tragic humor with the unimpeded
grace of a ghost through walls.

But this week, we get “Martian Child,” a miserably sappy
melodrama as pointed as a vampire without a dental plan. It’s essentially
“K-Pax” meets “Powder,” minus Kevin Spacey’s talent and the original premise of
the latter: In “Martian,” science-fiction writer David Gordon (John Cusack)
decides to recover from his wife’s death by adopting a child convinced he’s on
a mission from Mars.

Dennis (Bobby Coleman), the oddball orphan, is horribly pale
— he spends most of his time in a refrigerator box — and wears a weighted scuba
belt to keep from floating off our low-gravity planet. David begins well
enough, embracing this love-starved child who copes with others about as well
as a snail with table salt. At first, the surrogate father is captivated by
what everyone mistakes as quirky individuality, only to stumble soon after as
it becomes painfully clear how emotionally disturbed Dennis really is.

Perhaps in the spirit of halloween, this monstrously
abnormal child was intended to frighten rather than endear — but that’s
doubtfully the case. Where Kevin Spacey’s Prot was harmlessly charming and
lovable, little Dennis is downright disturbing. He steals, he lies, he hangs
upside down — and there’s an unending anticipation that, at any minute, his
head will begin to spin out of its socket.

But David’s head is already spinning as he tries to overcome
crippling grief while dealing with the introduction of an adopted child, and
all during a scramble to meet his latest book’s deadline. But these conflicts
are merely cursory, further beached by a limited cast of rangeless characters
that do little else to engage the audience than work themselves into an
emotional mess.

Playing the devil’s advocate to David’s starry-eyed idealism
is his sister Liz, played by Cusack’s real-life sister Joan — because, as we
know, where one goes, the other never fails to follow. Whether out of fierce
dedication to method acting or simply spineless casting, the siblings deliver
their patented squeaky hysterics while Harlee (Amanda Peet) fills the generic
role of best-friend/pseudo-love-interest who complicates everything. David and
Harlee’s moments of accidental intimacy are overwrought and easily overlooked,
while their mutual compassion and unflinching understanding for Dennis comes
too easily to believe.

While the trio struggles to acculturate Dennis to the real
world, menacing adoption-agency rep Mr. Lefkowitz (played by the grossly
talented Richard Schiff of TV’s “The West Wing”) threatens to take Dennis back
for almost no discernible reason — other than, of course, the script’s
submission to orphan-story archetypes. Were it not for such uninspired scenes
and dialogue, this talented cast and unusual plot could have made for a
heartwarming, even enjoyable, story; instead, the movie faceplants on a
Hollywood slab of banality, with the usual tugging of frayed heartstrings and
the endless torture of bloodied clichés, with the only exceptional performances
coming from Schiff and the dopey he-Cusack.

Like toddlers swinging waffle bats, director Menno Meyjes
and his screenwriting team attempt to attach legitimacy to this unlikely
(though unabashedly stolen) tale with brutally obvious symbolism. From the
undisguised metaphor of Dennis’ sunlight sensitivity to his social anxiety, and
his fear of floating away to fear of abandonment, the film is an endless parade
of crudely disguised childhood alienation commentary. The film’s creators show
not even a hint of serious interest in mental disorders — a topic much
deserving of attention — instead keeping the focus as family-safe as possible
by endlessly entertaining the notion that the kid might actually be from Mars.
Cutesy demonstrations like switching on a street light with pure force of will
and guessing an M&M’s flavor while blindfolded — to prove Dennis can taste
colors (except blue, of course) — drive us to the edge. We’re much more ready to strangle the creepy
little albino than see his dilemma to its reassuring end.

Ween
La Cucaracha
Schnitzel

{grate 2}

Ween are completely insane. As if to prove this, La
Cucaracha sounds like Michael Stipe, Boz Scaggs, Steven Tyler, Bob Marley,
Donovan, New Wave, Toby Keith and three hillbillies, all fighting to the death
over a methadone syringe while Dean and Gene Ween shout encouragement,
masturbate and then hold a little pity party.

The album’s only standout is “Learnin’ to Love,” a
foot-stomping acid-country anthem that finds Ween at their best, cruelly
deconstructing every genre they come across, then transforming the detritus
into an impeccable homage and/or sadistic joke. Unfortunately, the remainder of
Cucaracha is neither malicious nor immaculate. “Friends” is a middling disco
loop — watered down from its synthed-out Eurohouse iteration on this summer’s
Friends EP — and “The Fruit Man” is a plodding reggae burner, perhaps
successful only in its imitation of the shallow drudgery churned out by the
Marley pedigree (read: Ziggy to Damian).

Ween’s last tour was canceled due to “an immediate
intervention for the health, welfare and safety of one of its members,” and
three years later, the addiction still shows — Cucaracha smacks of rehab, all
dull introspection and slow soberiety, burnt-out and bland. Gag-rockers Dean
and Gene have lost themselves in a convoluted post-modern maze of parody and
technical earnestness; in other words, Ween have become the punchline to their
own existence.

— Dan Edelstein

Staff Writer

Band of Horses
Cease to Begin
Sub Pop

{grate 3.5}

Throughout their tightly packaged follow-up to 2006’s
half-hearted flyaway Everything All the Time, Band of Horses never once break
an almost intimidatingly naive stargaze, sharpened by a rolling indie-pop
standard to set even the most closeted Brokeback Mountaineer swooning. Each of
the 10 tracks are sold dead-hard to the last breath and lingering minor, an
advertising campaign — certainly in the best interest of timid pussyrockers the
plains over — for the magic in keeping a straight face.

No matter how impossibly innocent (“When I lived alone/ Is
there a ghost in my house?”) or hilariously mushy (“Watch how you treat every
living soul”) this Southeastern sextet reveals itself to be, snide judgments
are much more difficult to aim when up against vocalist Ben Bridwell’s droopy
puppy-dog eyes, so full-mooned that they flash with an unmistakable reflection
of all our own hidden sappy parts. And the longer we’ve stayed quiet, the
bigger challenge it becomes to hurt his feelings — this strained voice that so
loves to be sweet, this vulnerable small town cousin to happy-sad heroes like
the Shins, the Flaming Lips and My Morning Jacket — almost like he’d know if we
said something bad about him; or worse, like we’d really be poking fun at our
own soft spots.

This year, Horses shrug their shoulders of distortional
pretensions for a jangly parade of unabashed emo-pop, nerdier in all its folky,
lovedrunk simplicity but all the more relatable for it. “The world is such a
wonderful place!” Bridwell calls into the “Garden State” canyon, without even
the faintest trace of sarcasm or self-mockery. It’s an endearing shell he’s
been hiding under — one we only wish we had the guts to wear in public.

Band of Horses perform live Nov. 26 at the Glass House in
Pomona.

— Simone Wilson

Hiatus Editor

Senior midfielder Ali Lai led the Tritons with seven goals in 2007 but went scoreless in UCSD’s regular season finale, a 0-0 draw against the Coyotes on Oct. 30. (Sanh Luong/Guardian)

The UCSD women’s soccer team put forth a merciless offensive
attack against rival Cal State San Bernardino on Oct. 30 that yielded no
immediate results. Despite their efforts, the Tritons were unable to scratch
out a game-winning goal, settling for a 0-0 draw. The game was the last of the
regular season, and left the 17th-ranked Tritons with a 12-2-2 overall record
(9-2-2 CCAA).

The team will now travel to Carson, Calif.
to participate in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship.
With 29 standing points, UCSD ended its season as the Southern Division’s
first-place squad, giving them the No. 2 seed in the upcoming championships. In
the first round on Nov. 2, the Tritons will face off against third-ranked Cal
State Los Angeles.

Last week’s fires wreaked havoc on the soccer schedule,
postponing the weekend’s games and cutting into the pre-playoff downtime. The
poor air quality forced the Tritons to shake up their normal routine.

“All of last week we practiced inside the gym and we really
only got one, maybe two good days out on the field,” senior midfielder Ali Lai
said. “It definitely killed our momentum that we have had in the last few weeks,
but we’ll be fine for the playoffs.”

While UCSD was able to play against Cal State San Bernardino
at night, its match against Cal Poly Pomona was canceled. Because the
rescheduled game would have taken place during the week, the Cal Poly Pomona
team was afraid that travel would have affected its players’ midterms, instead
opting to cancel the match.

According to head coach Brian McManus, the Tritons would
have liked the practice.

“The Pomona game was obviously disappointing not being able
to get that game in,” McManus said. “That will be something that gets brought
up at the conference meetings this weekend.”

Although Cal Poly Pomona forfeited its game and UCSD
received zero standing points, the team’s dominance over the first half of the
year guaranteed their eventual place atop the division standings.

It was clear the Tritons did not take the tie against Cal
State San Bernardino for want of scoring opportunities. UCSD outshot its
opponents 21-5 and completely dominated the time of possession. As has been the
case in its past few matches, the team was unable to capitalize on its many
chances and claw across a goal.

The game started with both teams playing at a relatively
slower pace and merely exchanging possessions. Toward the end of the first
half, the Tritons regained their legs and started attacking. Despite
controlling the ball for the whole game, the team seemed unable to create open
looks near the net and could not connect more than a few solid passes deep in
San Bernardino territory.

McManus was proud of his team for quickly readjusting after
its week off and for gaining some good momentum heading into playoffs.

“From the last 15 minutes of the first half on we really
dominated the game,” he said. “The only danger was the breakaway, but that was
only because we were trying so hard to win. Give [Cal State San Bernardino]
credit, they defended well with the keeper coming up with some pretty big
saves. If we had had a few better shots in the box we would have nicked it.”

Per tradition, the last home game of the season was Senior
Night, when all the graduating seniors are honored. Leaving after this season
will be defenders Stacy Johnson, Alie Avina, and Nicole Pepper; midfielders
Lai, Chelsey Campbell, Caitlin Ryan and Rachel Lindenfel; and forwards Kathy
Sepulveda and Lauren Segars. A large crowd turned out for the final home game
of the 2007 season, with many parents visibly — and vocally — in attendance.

“It was a real good crowd for the last game,” Lai said. “We
even got a better crowd than what the guys’ team brought out. It was really
nice to play in front of my family and friends.”

The upcoming CCAA championships and NCAA regionals will
offer these Triton veterans the chance to get at least a few more games in the
Triton blue and white. The teammates will hopefully achieve their goal since
first putting on a UCSD jersey: a national championship.

Senior defender Josh Levy scored UCSD’s first goal in only the 10th minute against the Coyotes on Oct. 30. (Sanh Luong/Guardian)

After a horrible start to the season, the UCSD men’s soccer
team has made a remarkable turnaround in its second half, which was capped off
by a 2-1 win against California Collegiate Athletic Association opponent Cal
State San Bernardino on Oct. 29.

The win improved the team’s overall record to 5-9-3, 4-6-3
in CCAA play and extended its undefeated streak to four games.

In their first game back after the wildfires, the Tritons
took an early lead, as senior captain Josh Levy scored his first career
collegiate goal on Senior Day.

Levy had little to say about scoring his only goal on the
last game of his collegiate career, but it was clear that he had been hoping to
for a while.

“It’s about time,” he said.

The game was tied 1-1 late into the second half and seemed
destined for overtime until junior forward Tom Caplan scored after his shot
deflected off a Cal State San Bernardino player and into the goal with just
under four minutes left in the game.

Interim head coach Paul Holohan praised the team’s effort
during the game and throughout the second half of the season.

“I thought the team did very well,” Holohan said. “Their
commitment has been excellent and I couldn’t ask for any more. The young ones
that we got playing are all doing really well and I just think that there is a
bright future ahead.”

With the squad eliminated from the playoffs last weekend,
the team tried to make the most of its last match by finishing the season
strong.

“Obviously we were pretty bummed,” Levy said. “We all knew
that we should have had the playoffs in our hands and not rely on other teams.”

Holohan echoed his veteran defender’s sentiment.

“We knew that we had to win all our games,” he said. “It was
disappointing at the time but we were relying on other people as well.”

Despite posting a sub .500 record for the second consecutive
season, the team still has a positive outlook toward next season.

“We were definitely a lot better,” Levy said. “We were a lot
more focused and had a goal to win as many games as we could. It was definitely
a great end of the year and — especially for the young guys — they should
be solid next year.”

With the end of a very tumultuous season that included
former head coach Derek Armstrong’s sudden retirement midway through the year,
the biggest question going into the offseason will be the head coaching
vacancy.

Athletic Director Earl Edwards said that while Holohan has
done a good job with the team, the athletic department will still conduct an
extensive search.

“Paul did a good job as the interim head coach and we’re
really pleased with the way we finished at the end of the season, particularly
for the seniors,” Edwards said. “I’m actually really pleased looking at the
future of our program because it’s obvious we have some good athletes, but as
far as the head coaching position is concerned we will do a national search and
see how that plays out for us. But I’m really happy with the way we ended and
the fact that we are going to have a number of good players coming back to the
program next year.”

Edwards did, however, give Holohan a vote of confidence
based on the Tritons’ outstanding finale.

“Paul probably will be one of the candidates,” Edwards said.
“He did a good job at the end of the season. As far as being part of the
process, I’m sure he’ll be one of the top candidates and we’ll see how he
compares with the rest.”

Holohan said he understood the school’s position but added
that he wants the job.

“I understand that they have to do a national search,”
Holohan said. “I would really love the opportunity. On the soccer field, I think
it’s shown that we did really well on the soccer team.”

Holohan certainly has support from his former players to
continue into next season as head coach.

“He did really exceptional,” Levy said. “He took a team that
was shocked after [Armstrong] retired and lost a lot of games. We were kind of
getting down and he brought us up and we won our first game with him. He gave
us great pre-game speeches. It’s great to have a young coach who we can relate
to. It could be a good thing for the program to get fresh faces but Paul did a
great job. The team is a close-knit team, so whoever it is it’ll be a strong
team.”

The UCSD men’s tennis team took the court for the Chandler
Cup on the weekend of Oct. 26 through Oct. 28, a prestigious three-day event
featuring Division-I competition that took place at UC Berkley. The tournament
was comprised of three separate singles and doubles draws, including a
consolation bracket for each. Head coach Eric Steidlmayer sent five of his top
players to fill the four singles and two doubles slots that were allotted to
the Tritons; sophomore Bijan Moallemi and seniors Eric Rubens and Blake Meister
each played both ways, with sophomore Chad Becker making his Triton debut in
singles and sophomore Alex Placek teaming with Moallemi in the doubles
competition.

Rubens and Meister started the season on a roll and looked
to continue their dominance heading into the tournament. Seeded fourth in
flight A of the doubles tournament, the seniors were expecting to face stiff
competition, but the challenge came much earlier than expected. Rubens and
Meister went 0-2 at UC Berkley, losing their first match in the main draw as
well as the consolation bracket. Tobi Obenaus and Patrick Fisher of the
University of Washington eliminated them in the 16th round with an 8-3 score.
Then, in the first round of consolation, the duo fell to Piotr Dilaj and
Stanley Sarapanic of Boise State University by a score of 8-4.

“I came out a bit rusty in my doubles matches last weekend,”
Meister said, pointing out that the fires that ravaged San Diego prevented many
of UCSD’s top players from practicing leading up to the Chandler Cup.

In singles, Meister was dealt a difficult first round
matchup with fourth-seed Artem Gramma of Pacific University who took the
doubles champ down rather quickly, 6-2, 6-0. However, the talented senior won
two matches in consolation before losing a three-set thriller to Stefan Nikolic
of Loyola Marymount University, 7-5, 6-7(5), (10-6).

Rubens, meanwhile, rebounded from a 7-6(6), 6-2 first-round
loss in flight B to take the singles consolation title. After the disappointing
defeat in his opening match, Rubens ran through the losers’ bracket with little
trouble. Starting with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Henri Landes of UC Davis, Rubens
followed up his impressive performance with an entertaining 4-6, 6-3, (10-6)
come-from-behind victory over Holden Ching from Saint Mary’s College of
California. In the semifinal round, Johan Berhof of Loyola Marymount University
offered little resistance as Rubens disposed of him 6-1, 6-1. In the finals,
Rubens made amends for Meister’s loss by serving up a double bagel in a 6-0,
6-0 win to dispose of Nikolic.

Moallemi, designated to flight A in singles, started quickly
by winning his two singles matches on Oct. 26. In the first round, he took out
second-seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of the University of Washington by a routine
score of 6-3, 6-4. In the 16th round later that day, Moallemi faced a stiff
test from Phil Kao of Stanford, but fought hard to score an impressive 6-4,
2-6, 6-1 victory. The sophomore’s singles run ended the next day, however, in a
6-1, 6-1 loss to fifth seed and eventual champion of flight A, Bo Katsarov of
UC Berkley.

Moallemi and Placek had an encouraging run in the flight B
doubles tournament, making it to the semifinals before falling to the UC Santa
Cruz duo of Jared Kamel and Marc Vartabedian at 8-5. Kamel and Vartabedian
would go on to take home the flight B championship. During their run to the
final four, Moallemi and Placek took out Austin Kakar and Vergerd Veskimagi of
Pacific University and Ching and Sven-David Ruff of Saint Mary’s College by identical
scores of 8-3.

In his singles debut, Becker faced some quality action in
flight C of the main draw. After a tough 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 loss to the University
of Washington’s Skyler Tateishi, Becker notched his first career victory by
beating Silvio Chiba of UC Santa Cruz 7-6(6), 6-3. Steidlmayer expects Becker
to continue making strides and help the UCSD tennis team as the year
progresses.

Becker and the rest of the Tritons will look to impress
their Division-I competition at the upcoming 16-team ITA National Indoor Tennis
Chamionship on Nov. 1 through Nov. 4.

Meister is definitely looking to improve on his performance
in the Chandler Cup.

“I like our chances
much better in Ohio at the upcoming Indoor Championships because the indoor
courts really suit me and Eric’s game well.
The key for us in that tournament will be our serve; when we’re serving
well, we are a tough doubles team to beat.”

After the ITA Championships end, the fall portion of UCSD’s
tennis season — considered the individual segment — will conclude and the team
will be out of action for four months before its season begins again with a
trip to UC Riverside to face the Highlanders on Feb. 1.

What ever happened to the Grove Caffe? After years of
neglect, the A.S. Council hired a nonstudent manager to handle the cafe’s
staggering debt and whip the cafe into shape. It’s a sad but common story:
Frazzled parents throw up their hands and farm care-taking responsibilities out
to someone more “qualified.”

But in reality, the council abandoned its quirky
coffee-enterprise child long ago. This debt is only symptomatic of chronic
communication and oversight failures — problems that cannot be solved by simply
adding another step in the bureaucratic ladder, especially because the Grove’s
employees have so adamantly advocated student-only leadership. After all, the
council’s “out of sight, out of mind” attitude is what first pushed the cafe
into debt, when the council’s enterprise office left its student employees to
run a business without any true financial capabilities.

No one can do the enterprise office’s job for it, and
inserting a nebulous advisory committee or a manager who doesn’t even report to
the council will only increase the disconnect.

But blame shouldn’t fall completely on councilmembers. The
Grove’s own employees failed to define their needs as they witnessed their
beloved cafe’s appalling decline firsthand. Rather, the council’s long absence
from the issue has fostered a false sense of importance in student managers,
whose pride now makes them uncooperative.

Just as the council needs to take responsibility for its
dying enterprise, student employees need to set aside their arrogance if they
really want to save the cafe they’re fighting so hard to control.

Frankly, employees had their chance to handle the situation,
but instead allowed the Grove’s financial woes to go unchecked. If anything,
employees should thank the council for finally giving them some attention and
embrace the new manager with open arms.

So while the cafe remains closed, the council shirks its
fundamental duties and the employees pout over the incoming manager, the
Grove’s problems remain, and its future looks painfully bleak. If those
involved really want to solve the debt, their first step should not be to add
more independent figureheads, but to unite the council with its enterprise via
open and clear communication.

With lingering concern regarding the integrity of the
campus’ current course withdrawal policy, members of the Academic Senate’s
Committee on Educational Policy have begun to take a closer look at what some
faculty have deemed a broken system.

Although the senate has yet to introduce an official
proposal on “W” policy changes, senate members are discussing procedures to
restrict abuse and overuse of the system.

One consideration would implement a petition process modeled
after UC Berkeley and UC Irvine, under which students are required to explain
their reason for requesting withdrawal.

This suggestion, however, would dramatically increase
bureaucracy and paperwork, resulting in higher costs for the administration and
reduced accessibility for students who value the system’s flexibility.

While the CEP’s decision to continue researching UCSD “W”
patterns and frequencies is promising, variables affecting trends like drop
deadlines and academic terms are innumerable and as such, the senate should
tread lightly when considering any policy modifications.

For example, when comparing UCSD’s withdrawal patterns to
those of UC Berkeley, the senate should account for differences between the
semester and quarter systems, which offer varying degrees of leniency for
students.

The drop deadline itself may also contribute to increased
withdrawal levels. While administrators typically set the drop deadline during
fourth week, many students don’t have midterms until fifth or sixth week and
therefore cannot foresee possible problems that might force them to drop a
course.

Furthermore, without knowing their midterm grades, students
struggle to judge their class standing. This hinders their ability to determine
if classes match their skills or course and extracurricular activity load.

As administrators consider alterations, they must keep these
factors, as well as the host of others affecting UCSD’s course withdrawal
levels, in mind.

Given that officials acknowledge the need for more insight
before an actual decision is made, it is perplexing that they nixed CEP Chair
Kim Griest’s suggestion to form a subcommittee that would focus on evaluating
the need for policy updates. Instead, they opted to have all CEP members
collaborate on an effort that will likely be much more difficult to coordinate.

But before members break ground on any research, this board
has one request — that they take a long, hard look at why they feel the need to
meddle with student affairs.

Their lofty goal of reducing wasted classroom space caused
by unnecessary withdrawals underscores a longstanding injustice. While students
increasingly foot the bill for their education, administrators still unfairly
bereave them of their ability to control how their money is spent.

If it’s student fees that pay for classroom space, shouldn’t
students be able to use the system as they choose without administrative
interference? (Assuming they are, in fact, abusing it at all.)

Recognitition of inequality by administrators, however, is
unlikely, so until students regain control over their own education they will
be left waiting while the Academic Senate takes the reigns. Students’ only
choice is to hope administrators realize something they already know — the
system is far from broken.