Daily Bruin – Page 233

Budding Los Angeles: Cannabis business meetup, student organization offer connections to industry

Thirty years ago, buying cannabis was difficult, expensive and illegal. Buying cannabis in 2019 is somewhere between picking up a prescription from a pharmacy and buying beer from a liquor store. Join columnist John Tudhope each week as he visits cannabis companies in Los Angeles and discusses the budding industry.

As I reach the end of my collegiate tenure, the phrase “networking event” has forced its way into my psyche.

Such events – hosted for young professionals to find contacts and learn about the latest industry news – are especially valuable in the world of cannabis because the industry itself is young, expanding and in need of talent.

A few months ago, I went to a monthly meetup hosted by the Southern California Cannabis Business Investment Group, and was introduced to a variety of companies and business owners involved in the cannabis industry. The event featured an industrial agriculture technology company, an edible manufacturer and a cannabis waste disposal company.

It was an eclectic group of cannabis professionals in a downtown venue, all vying to meet other insiders and interested consumers. Each month, SCCBIG chooses a group of speakers to discuss their business and to field questions from the audience about the industry.

When I went to their December meetup to learn about the cannabis industry, most people were in collared shirts or nice blouses, casually mulling around and discussing cannabis technology, products and news. The vibe of the room was professional, but did not feel pretentious or exclusive – this was a cannabis event, after all. The event featured a slate of businesses set up with tables, a presentation area and a bar serving grilled sandwiches, wine and beer.

SCCBIG was founded three years ago by entrepreneur James Jordan as a forum to connect cannabis investors with businesses looking for capital. Since then, Jordan said the events have created a tight-knit community of people interested in learning about the industry.

“People would show up and they wanted not just information on investments, but they wanted an education, they wanted to learn,” he said. “What originally started as a meetup group to find investors turned into a teaching platform.”

When I attended, the presentations covered cryptocurrency in the cannabis industry, the role of cannabis waste companies and cannabis insurance. While I didn’t buy what the last speaker had to say about the massive future of blockchain currency, I can see the value in creating a forum that provides important information about such a misperceived industry as cannabis.

“We are trying to predict with our speakers and our conversations where the market is going to head so that people can prepare for that,” Jordan said.

Students on campus have also created networking platforms for the cannabis industry. Eugenio Castro Garza, president of UCLA’s Cannaclub, said the club was created for two reasons – providing objective, science-based information about cannabis and connecting students with job opportunities in the industry.

Cannaclub sets up trips to businesses such as a testing laboratory and gives students the chance to engage with the industry in a hands-on manner. They have had speakers such as a cannabis investor and a government official overseeing cannabis in LA, as well as a panel about women in cannabis.

These groups are invaluable in the infant cannabis industry, where innumerable business deals and opportunities are presenting themselves daily. For me, both SCCBIG and Cannaclub did exactly what they aimed to do – they introduced me to businesses that I have featured in my writing about cannabis and gave me information about where the industry is headed.

As a student journalist, it is necessary for me to get in touch with business owners, and as I approach graduation, they may even become my pathway to employment. Now I just have to figure out how to tell my grandparents I may work with a drug they grew up thinking made people insane.

‘Bodega Run’ reawakens experiences of underprivileged communities in Harlem

Bodegas are being replaced by metropolitan convenience stores.

Concerned, Tschabalala Self said she decided to preserve the ethnic identity and heritage of about 12,000 bodegas local to New York in her recent exhibition.

“If we don’t keep speaking about these things or making work about these things, they’re going to be forgotten or appropriated or not known in the future,” Self said.

Self, a Harlem-born artist who uses the city’s sociopolitical themes in her work, cut and sewed together a series of colorful vintage clothes, prints and everyday household materials in her “Bodega Run” series on display at the UCLA Hammer Museum until April 28.

The immersive exhibition features a subculture of New York bodegas and black pan-nationalist art, she said. Self said she was interested in the importance they had in urban New York’s multicultural landscape.

“The project is a narrative around the store, … looking at New York bodegas as a microcosm for various political and social dynamics,” Self said.

Her recreation of a bodega features the everyday culture of African-Americans in Harlem, she said. However, she said before they became a part of the black community, bodegas functioned to provide a variety of essential household and food items to Puerto Rican and other immigrant families in the 1940s.

Throughout her exhibition, she used the style of cutout art to paint and sculpt female black bodies. Each of the figures adopts confident poses, said Anne Ellegood, a senior curator at the Hammer Museum. The first sculpture visible when walking into the room is a cutout of a woman dressed in a pink latex jumpsuit, bent over and staring straight at the viewer, with her genitals painted in rainbow colors. The piece, titled “Rainbow,” was made in honor of a Harlem clothing store of the same name. The store sells affordable and edgy clothing, such as pink jumpsuits, to young women, Ellegood said.

“Women and women of color are often portrayed by a white male artist depicting them,” Ellegood said. “She is aware of those stereotypical images and taking over. She is the one doing the looking and representation. I think it is very empowering.”

Political movements are also referenced in Self’s work centering around African-American experience. The floor tiles of the “Bodega Run” exhibition are painted in black, red and green – the colors of the Pan-African Flag. She did this to represent black everyday life in Harlem, making references to how the busy New York metropolitan life complicates the lives and day-to-day tasks of the African-American community, Self said.

Self also makes commentary on how these bodegas are surviving by contributing to the poor health of low-income New York communities by selling unhealthy foods like soda and ice cream, Ellegood said. Many of the products sold at these stores are manufactured by New York-based companies like the soda company Tropical Fantasy, which has historically manufactured inexpensive sugary soft drinks for the New York community, contributing to the unhealthy lifestyle of low-income immigrant families in the city, Ellegood said.

“With the proliferation of franchised stores and a lot of the urban development that is happening, there probably have been some bodegas … replaced by these chain stores,” Ellegood said. “(Self) is making commentary on some of the ways the bodega has survived that are not always positive.”

First-year communication student Giselle Littleton works at the Hammer Museum and said the exhibit is very lifelike. It brings the life of underprivileged communities to Westwood, and in this sense, it is unique, Littleton said. Through the bodega-based art, the exhibition immerses viewers into the typical life of an average African-American living in Harlem, she said.

“It’s just a chance to learn about communities different from yours. Communities from different incomes, different backgrounds, different class structures and economic classes,” Littleton said. “Learning about diversity is really important.”

ASUCLA bears responsibility to disclose labor practices behind its clothing

We all have that UCLA souvenir we can’t get over: a free shirt from a basketball game, a cheesy “UCLA dad” shirt your dad won’t stop wearing, a lanyard for your keys. Even those without a great reservoir of school pride often own that blue-and-gold logo on something.

You can thank Associated Students UCLA for providing all that – even its potential unethical labor practices.

ASUCLA sells clothing for practically every purpose. The union, however, doesn’t publicly provide information regarding the ethics and sustainability of its clothing. And the garment production partners on the UCLA Store website, Russell Athletic, Wideworld Sportswear and Under Armour, provide sparse information on their website regarding the origins of the university gear.

Granting agency to UCLA Store customers is crucial: The university has had several issues regarding ethical sourcing in the past. In 2017, for example, the Daily Bruin reported that although UCLA attained fair-trade university status, the coffee it sells didn’t meet ethical production standards. The university has also partnered with Under Armour, which earned a C- rating for working conditions and other standards by corporate responsibility organization As You Sow.

Ethical fashion has a reputation of seeming unfeasible. From raising the minimum wage to giving employees the right to unionize, ethical labor decisions can easily more than double the average price of a UCLA shirt. But the road to sound labor practices begins with transparency and providing data on clothing factory conditions or worker rights.

ASUCLA must be transparent about how its clothing is created and open about any unethical labor practices it might entail. Neither the UCLA Store website nor cashier counters provide information about the origin or the operational details of the various articles of clothing with the Bruin logo. ASUCLA is a student-funded union that owes its students, a sizable amount of whom wish to know about ethical practices, information about where they get their BearWear from.

Across the country, a majority of universities do not rely on eco-friendly or ethical clothing production processes, and the struggle to achieve more ethical practices is prevalent. Ohio State and USC students were rattled in 2011 by their universities’ signing of apparel deals with companies allegedly using sweatshop labor.

The impetus is straightforward: A school’s brand cannot be emblematic of pride while maintaining an underlying tone of obscurity – especially one meant to hide unethical practices.

“I wasn’t even aware of (ethical labor issues) for universities, but the moral obligation of transparency definitely should not fall on the students,” said first-year business economics student Adam Kessler.

ASUCLA has financial resources, a platform and the ability to influence the school’s culture of conscious purchasing, and as with other employers, it has an obligation to let consumers know about what they’re consuming, not the other way around.

“I’m sure if a notice was put out telling me the establishment I was buying from was operating on unethical standards, I would be more inclined to look into (shopping sustainably),” said third-year psychobiology student JD Malana.

Malana added he thought having retailers like ASUCLA provide more information to consumers such as him would more directly affect their ethical shopping decisions than would any sort of cultural shift or student-run initiative.

“I think just the lack of information to begin with is a problem,” he said.

ASUCLA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Unfortunately, this is not the university’s first run-in with ethical questioning. From 1999 to 2017, the school’s athletic garments were provided by Adidas. The German athletic company hosted workers in inhumane conditions, laid them off after strikes and even shut down a factory to flee legal allegations without paying $1.8 million to around 3,000 laborers.

But transparency is far from impossible for a school like UCLA.

Small clothing companies like Klow and Everlane have been able to demonstrate high ethical standards and transparency by producing fewer variations of styles through the seasons and focusing on making clothing that lasts, straying away from a fast fashion business model.

In comparison, ASUCLA has done little, even in terms of transparency. UCLA is the nation’s No. 1 public school, and its visibility to the public enables more resources for its endeavors.

Chris Tilly, a professor of public policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said an institution of UCLA’s size with financial resources and several connections to powerful organizations should have an easier time implementing more sustainable practices.

“In some ways we might expect a public university to live up to higher ethical standards because they are accountable not just to their board of trustees but to the people of California,” Tilly said.

While ASUCLA may not be able to make changes overnight, it can start by including the names of the factories that its third-party suppliers source from so students are kept in the know. Certainly, for all we know, ASUCLA might employ ethical labor practices, but students deserve to have the confidence that their money isn’t being funneled to perpetuating human rights abuses.

Moreover, it’s only to ASUCLA’s benefit to be transparent and ensure its image and intentions are clarified. Otherwise, anything goes in the name of producing a cheap, UCLA-embellished hoodie.

Regardless of our time period and financial abilities, ASUCLA has a responsibility to show Bruins where their representations of pride comes from – especially if it’s off the backs of exploited laborers.

Editorial: Student-athlete facility an unjustified priority given lack of scholarship funds

Chancellor Gene Block was firm when he spoke to the Daily Bruin Editorial Board in December: Raising funds for student scholarships was his top priority for the school year.

That priority lasted all of two months.

A shiny, three-story, 20,000-square-foot academic facility for student-athletes will be gracing campus following a $15 million donation from alumnus Morris “Mo” Ostin. UCLA Athletics is launching a fundraising campaign to secure an additional $20 million in private donations to fund the center – a project that is being tacked onto UCLA’s Centennial Campaign.

The exclusivity of the soon-to-be-raised $35 million has raised a troubling number of eyebrows. But that’s not what the campus should be most worried about; rather, it’s the university’s commitment to pledge its limited resources to raise $20 million to complement Ostin’s $15 million.

It’s almost as if UCLA doesn’t have $524 million in student scholarships it ought to be fundraising.

The university can’t control where its donors want to put their money, but it can influence them to give to certain initiatives over others. The announcement and consequent promotion of the new facility sends a pretty clear message to donors: You can either give to a no-name scholarship fund or to a flashy academics facility for student-athletes.

It’s obvious which way donors will go.

In fact, it has been for quite some time. The university eclipsed its overall $4.2 billion fundraising goal in July, 18 months ahead of schedule, while meeting only 44 percent of its student scholarship subtarget. In the seven months preceding, the campaign got hold of only an additional $38 million – averaging $5.4 million per month – while at the same time receiving individual donations of $15 million to renovate the Botany Building and $25 million to rename the Humanities building and support humanities departments.

Block realized as much, noting in December the difficulty of incentivizing donors to give to scholarships when glossy names on buildings are what sell. The chancellor went so far as to say the campaign’s $1 billion goal was overambitious – most considered it unfeasible – but that the university was seeking out innovative ways to get donors to open up their wallets.

Considering the scholarship fund has lagged behind for years, it should have been abundantly clear to administrators that donations are a zero-sum game: Donors are more likely to give to a single, enticing initiative than spread their money among several similarly themed efforts. Scholarship funding for the general student body has already been caught in the crosshairs of high-profile efforts – academic research, funding entrepreneurial studies in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, plastering names on buildings.

Yet the prioritization of Ostin’s academic facility for student-athletes only diminishes that meager pool of funding by enabling donors to give to an academic cause – albeit one only a sliver of the student population can benefit from.

Put another way, the university has rung the death knell of its student scholarship goal. And the biggest losers won’t be Block or his fellow administrators – they’ll be students.

Sure, UCLA has until December to crack its scholarship goal. Yet its so-called renewed efforts since August have been half-baked: Less than a quarter of the stories featured on the Centennial Campaign’s website promote student scholarships. Information regarding the Chancellor’s Centennial Scholars Match fund – a fundraising initiative Block himself spearheaded – is not easily reachable via the campaign’s site.

Ostin’s academic center undermines what was already a fractured, failing initiative. We can call on administrators to prioritize student scholarship efforts, but Block already showed us what that looks like: two months of stagnation, followed by broken hearts and promises.

The Quad: Jump scares are maligned as a horror crutch, but film history gives a fuller picture

Life after a horror movie is an exercise in paranoia.

Grabbing a late night snack? Michael Myers is hiding in your pantry. Lying in bed checking your phone? Chucky’s lurking right underneath.

Recently, I saw Orion Pictures’ latest horror flick, a yarn about evil kids titled “The Prodigy,” at a late-night showing at Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica. The crowd was thin but energetic; they demanded more after every ridiculous twist and especially after every jump scare.

The film itself was petrifying. Never, since my babysitting days, has a screaming child caused me so much distress. On balance, reviewers conceded the film had some great, memorable jumps; but those jumps weren’t enough to save the film from a mixed reception.

Let’s face it: The jump scare – referring to a filmmaking technique where something jumps into frame to frighten the audience, usually accompanied by a loud noise – is the black sheep of horror filmmaking. Pioneered in movies like “Cat People” and “Psycho,” jump scares have since evolved into an integral part of the horror genre; YouTube is replete with compilations of cinema’s finest “boos,” while sites like “Where’s The Jump?” help prepare easily-shaken audience members for the scares as they come.

As integral as they’ve been to many films, jump scares have been the subject of pushback in recent years, with video essayists and newspaper reviewers alike deriding them as cheap and overused shock tactics.

It’s not difficult to see where they’re coming from – jump scares are often seen as a crutch for poorly made horror, delivering thrills when characters are weak. The list of the “jumpiest” films ever include such less-than-classics as “Scream 3” and “Silent Hill: Revelation.”

Modern re-evaluations, however can very easily tip into the opposite extreme – among some professional critics, jump scares are used as shorthand for uncreative horror-pablum. Some articles on filmmaking simply recommend they not be included at all.

It doesn’t feel fair to issue a blanket condemnation of jump scares without looking at why they’re used in the first place. To understand this, we have to look at the purpose they served when they were first developed.

One of the first jump scares in history is also probably one of the most famous: the shower murder in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho.” The erstwhile main character, Marion Crane, has just checked into a seedy motel. The audience knows the owner is a voyeur who spies on undressed women, and they know the owner’s mother is an overbearing nut. Danger threads its way through the peepholes and lattices of the Bates Motel long before Marion steps into the shower.

Then, it strikes. Janet Leigh and violins shriek in tandem as “mother” rips the shower curtain open and starts to stab. Hitchcock had originally planned the shower scene to be completely silent, but composer Bernard Herrmann convinced him to use the track he composed.

Hitchcock admitted the music helped intensify the scene, but he may not have known the underlying reason for this. Regardless, other popular films – such as “Wait Until Dark,” “The Innocents” and “Repulsion” – began mimicking the tactic for its intensity and shock value.

In 2011, researchers at UCLA’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology discovered that high-pitched sounds, much like Hermann’s score, naturally trigger the fear response in humans due to their resemblance to screaming. Like with many animals, screaming acts as a distress call and a signal of alarm, warning others away from danger.

In general, jump scares work by bypassing the rational part of the brain and activating the reflexive fear response. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that unexpected stimuli – such as a sudden noise – tended to cause greater change in heart and respiration rates in test subjects than something they anticipated.

In this way, the jump scare can be a lazy device. They’re shortcuts to the fear response without the need to painstakingly create sympathetic characters or a believable world. “Insidious” writer Leigh Whannell mentioned on a making-of featurette he had to be careful every jump scare affected the characters emotionally, and weren’t just false alarms. In an interview with the Verge, “Sinister” writer C. Robert Cargill said that without believable characters, jump scares and gory kills are more likely to elicit applause than apprehension.

Maybe that’s where a jump scare’s value lies – in being the downhill section of a roller coaster, generating screams and laughs in equal measure. At the same time, they can be a powerful tool for eliciting emotion from an audience. Some of the most iconic moments in horror – the twins in “The Shining,” the kitchen in “Halloween,” the shark in “Jaws,” the dinner conversation in “Insidious” – use jump scares to punctuate long sequences of dread. They’re used to create narrative intensity in the context of a broader film.

And in the end, maybe shortcuts to emotion have a value of their own. Hitchcock, while musing to “North by Northwest” screenwriter Ernest Lehman, imagined a day when filmmakers could directly manipulate the audience’s mood, no film necessary. “There’ll be electrodes implanted in (the audience’s) brains, and we’ll just press different buttons and they’ll go, ‘Ooooh’ and ‘Aaaah,’ and we’ll frighten them, and make them laugh. Won’t that be wonderful?”

Wonderful indeed – although my sleep schedule begs to differ.

Softball breaks own record for most runs scored in inning, remains undefeated

The Bruins broke a record Sunday.

No. 1 UCLA softball (9-0) scored 16 runs in the first inning of its game against UC Riverside (3-7) en route to a 17-3 victory, followed by a 3-1 win against Loyola Marymount (6-2) to wrap up the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament.

The 16-run first inning broke the previous record of 13 for the most runs in a single inning in UCLA history and is also the second-most runs in a first inning in NCAA history.

“It’s just an opportunity to see what this team is capable of doing,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “We have speed, we have power, we have versatility, we have people in the lineup and people coming off the bench.”

The Bruins started off the scoring frenzy with back-to-back home runs by junior outfielder Bubba Nickles and redshirt sophomore outfielder Aaliyah Jordan to make it 3-0. Five walks, six hits and a pitching change later, the Bruins were up 13-0 with no outs recorded, capped by a three-run home run by redshirt junior pitcher Rachel Garcia.

The Bruins would add on three more runs before they were finally retired, batting around twice, and taking a 16-0 lead on 15 hits. Every UCLA starter scored at least once in the inning.

“We’ve played them a lot, so we know their pitchers,” Jordan said. “And since we got rained out Friday, we were really excited to play today.”

The Highlanders would strike back with a home run on the first pitch of the second inning and a two-RBI double in the fourth against sophomore pitcher Holly Azevedo – but that’s all they got. Nickles’ second home run of the day in the fourth was the cherry on top for the Bruins, who took the five-inning mercy-rule victory 17-3.

UCLA’s second game of the day was much closer. LMU struck first, as infielder Riley Ehlen launched a home run off of Garcia in the third inning to take a 1-0 Lions lead – only the second time the Bruins have trailed this season.

But the Bruins answered in the bottom of the inning, stringing together three singles to score a run, with the RBI coming from Nickles, who had four total on the night.

“When they scored the home run, we scored back. Their ability to have (Garcia’s) back is big,” Inouye-Perez said. “It doesn’t always play out perfectly, but your ability to have each other’s backs is how you win.”

The Bruins would take the lead in the fifth inning, as freshman utility Kelli Godin singled, stole second, then advanced to third on a ground out, followed by a bunt double by sophomore infielder Briana Perez. After a strikeout for Nickles, Jordan came through with a hard hit that got away from the Lions’ shortstop, scoring both Godin and Perez.

“I was just trying not to think too much at the plate, and just do me,” Godin said. “I knew that (Perez) was right behind me and my team had me. I just had to get on.”

The Bruin victory was in danger in the seventh inning, as Garcia loaded the bases on two singles and a hit-by-pitch, but was able to get out of the jam with two strikeouts and a pop up to secure the 3-1 win. Garcia finished the game with 14 strikeouts, no walks and a hit-by-pitch.

With the victories, UCLA remains the only Pac-12 team left that hasn’t taken a loss. The Bruins will go back on the road again next week to the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, starting Thursday with a game against No. 19 Texas A&M.

Wake Forest loss ends men’s tennis’ ITA indoors, prepares players for coming rigors

This weekend’s ITA indoor championship presented high-level competition for the Bruins.

No. 7 UCLA men’s tennis (4-3) lost to No. 1 Wake Forest (12-2) in the quarterfinal round of the ITA DI National Men’s Team Indoor Championship on Saturday to end its run in the tournament. The 3-4 decision came after the Bruins picked up an opening-round 4-1 victory against No. 11 Notre Dame (8-4) Friday.

The decision against the reigning national champion Demon Deacons came down to a deciding match between UCLA freshman Mathew Tsolakyan and Wake Forest’s Melios Efstathiou at No. 4 singles.

Down 3-6, 6-3, 4-1, 49th-ranked Efstathiou rallied to win six of the last seven games and took the third and final set 7-5. Tsolakyan said he is undeterred by the loss and looks forward to getting back onto the courts.

“You just have to forget it and look forward,” Tsolakyan said. “It’s a huge opportunity to get a win, but it’s important to move forward and practice and train to win every day.”

Tsolakyan said playing highly-seeded teams and players this weekend helped with what he knew he needed to improve on in his game to compete with the big boys of college tennis.

“My returns are going to have to improve, because I missed a lot of them this tournament,” Tsolakyan said. “Moving forward on short balls and being consistent with my serve will also help as I work and get better.”

This weekend also presented Tsolakyan with another new challenge. He played at the No. 4 singles position in both matches – not his usual position of No. 5 singles. This was due to sophomore Keegan Smith’s injury in doubles against Notre Dame the previous day.

Coach Billy Martin said the injury didn’t appear severe, but how much time Smith will miss is still up in the air.

“(Smith) just rolled his ankle,” Martin said. “I don’t think it’s going to be anything too serious. He will probably be out for about a week or so, just conservatively, to make sure he will be okay and won’t go out and reinjure it.”

Smith’s absence from the No. 2 spot in the Bruins’ singles lineup opened a hole for freshman Eric Hahn to see singles action for the first time in the dual-match season. Hahn played his No. 6 singles match against Notre Dame to a 6-4, 4-6, 3-2 draw before dropping his match against Wake Forest 6-2, 6-2.

Smith’s injury created a quick adjustment situation for Hahn, but Hahn said he was able to play loose and learn from the experience.

“I felt super pumped because it was a really eye-opening experience,” Hahn said. “In my first match I felt a little pressure, but it went away quickly and I was able to play well and have fun after that.”

Hahn said part of what was eye-opening was for him to see what he needed to improve on to compete with highly ranked players and teams.

“Being more aggressive is one thing for sure,” Hahn said. “I also noticed I definitely need to work on my serve a lot more. It’s okay right now, and it might work in the Juniors, but college is a totally different game.”

Play opened Friday with the Bruins scoring their only win of the tournament over Notre Dame. Winning performances from No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, as well as singles victories by junior Ben Goldberg, freshman Patrick Zahraj and freshman Govind Nanda paced the Bruins.

UCLA ended its ITA indoors with a 0-4 consolation loss to No. 15 TCU on Sunday. That loss dropped the Bruins to 1-3 on their Chicago road trip, with every match coming against teams in the top 15.

This weekend was a new level of competition, in a setting many of the young UCLA athletes had never played.

“Everybody knows how hard we have to play, and how hard we have to work physically to compete with these teams,” Martin said. “We had four freshmen in the lineup at singles not really knowing this tournament, and I was extremely proud of how the entire team competed, but this especially showed how the young kids competed.”

UCLA will continue match play this week at crosstown rival USC on Friday.