Author: Gabe Rosenberg

Due to the arrival of Winter Storm Juno, the University will close at 6 p.m. today and remain closed tomorrow, Jan. 27.

In an all-campus email sent just after noon on Monday, Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Whaley announced that all classes and events are cancelled through the end of Tuesday. Normal operations are expected to resume on Wednesday morning.

“As you know, we are very reluctant to cancel classes and interrupt our academic mission, but our primary concern must always be for the safety of our students, faculty and staff,” Whaley wrote in an email to the Argus. “We felt that the decision to close was the best course of action given the predicted weather. Public Safety and other Student Affairs staff will be available to assist students throughout the storm as the situation evolves.”

On Tuesday afternoon, a second all-campus email announced that the University will reopen on Wednesday, and classes and events will resume their regular schedule.

The email urged students to continue to exercise caution throughout Wednesday and report slippery condition to Physical Plant at (860) 685-3400.

“It will be cold and windy, and we ask everyone to exercise extreme caution when outside on campus,” the email read. “Although the grounds crew is working to clear parking lots, snowy walkways may be difficult, so please wear appropriate shoes.”

The “crippling and potentially historic” storm was expected to bring 6 to 10 inches of snow Monday night and 10 to 17 inches of snow Tuesday, with gusts of wind up to 40 mph, the Associated Press reports. Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy announced a state of emergency and a travel ban throughout the state on Monday morning, with Middletown Mayor Dan Drew similarly declaring a state of emergency for the city. Live updates of the storm can be viewed below, courtesy of WNYC’s Live Weather Radar.

“We hope that everyone will stay safe and warm as the storm passes,” Whaley wrote.

Usdan University Center will remain open until 11 p.m on both Monday and Tuesday. In terms of dining, Usdan Marketplace, Summerfields, Red & Black Café, and WesWings maintained regular service hours through dinner on Tuesday. Other dining options closed at 5 p.m.

On Tuesday, however, Usdan Marketplace and WesWings were the only dining venues open.

“WesWings will be open regular hours, and the Marketplace will open for brunch 10am–2pm and dinner 5–8pm,” the all-campus email reads.

Late night dining was be closed on Monday, and Freeman Athletic Center will be closed on Tuesday. Both Broad Street Books and Red and Black Café will be closed throughout the day on Tuesday, and the RIDE has been canceled both Monday and Tuesday nights. Libraries opened Tuesday at noon.

“Heavy snow and strong winds are expected late this evening and continuing into Tuesday,” the email reads. “We encourage students to remain in their residences for the duration of the storm. If you must be outside, please exercise caution.”

Updates will be posted as this story develops.

A memorial service for Rex Bernstein ’15 was held in the Nyack Center in Nyack, N.Y. on Sunday, Jan. 25. Bernstein, a Nyack native, passed away on Jan. 10 at the age of 22.

According to a Jan. 15 all-campus email from Vice President for Student Affairs Mike Whaley, Bernstein died peacefully in his sleep while visiting family on the West Coast. The cause of death has not been released. The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life is partnering with Bernstein’s friends on campus to plan an additional memorial service at the University.

“Rex was a big guy with a big heart, a big smile, a big laugh and a twinkle in his eye,” read an obituary in The Journal News from Jan. 18. “Rex had a quick wit and a lot of opinions. He had the courage of his convictions.”

Whaley echoed that statement in his email to the campus.

“Rex was a large person with a large personality, and he will be missed by many here on campus,” Whaley wrote.

A government major with a minor in history, Bernstein was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and a former member of the swim team, competing in the backstroke and freestyle events. As The Journal News recounts, Bernstein was often seen walking his dog, Gato, around his neighborhood.

Whaley reminded students that Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Rabbi David Teva and University Protestant Chaplain Reverend Tracy Mehr-Muska, who will organize the on-campus service, and the therapists at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) are all available to talk to students. CAPS can be reached around the clock at 860-685-2910.

Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs Lorna Scott will be collecting expressions of condolence and remembrance that will be forwarded to Bernstein’s family. These may be sent to lscott@wesleyan.edu.

“They especially asked for photos, memories and stories from his friends,” Whaley wrote.

The comments section of this article is open to students, friends, and family who wish to share their thoughts and memories.

The crowd buzzed with merry conversation in the Davison Art Center’s hallways the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 18. Students, faculty, and art museum employees alike gathered for the gallery’s opening of its newest exhibit, “Create and Curate: Tools.”

Virgil Taylor ’15 curated a similar exhibition with a collection of student art a few years ago. But this exhibit, open until Dec. 7, ties directly into the University, drawing inspiration from the existing collection at the Davison Arts Center.

The curator of the exhibit, Addison McDowell ’16, worked with Friends of the Davison Art Center board member and Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky to plan the show. The two began ideating last spring, working into the summer to sketch out the details. McDowell wanted a theme that was accessible to many student artists but still left room for variation. What they decided upon was an exhibition inspired by the work of prolific pop artist, painter and sculptor Jim Dine. Davison owns nearly 150 of his prints from 1965 to the present, as well as 213 photogravures Dine gave to the University in honor of a friend.

The theme of tools came primarily from Dine’s prints “Toolbox 1” and “Toolbox 2,” and the included pieces centered on not only the utility of tools, but also their intrinsic value and stand-alone beauty. Patrons seemed to be spellbound by this reimagining of familiar objects in new artistic forms.

“It forces you to consider something that you don’t normally,” McDowell said. “You pick up a pencil, you use it every day, but you don’t consider the design of it, the way that you can kind of mess with it, tweak the meaning, how that tool is relevant to everything that you’re saying, because it’s the object that kind of allows you to say that thing.”

The contributing artists, current sophomores, juniors, and seniors, are all studio art majors with unique takes on the themes. “A Primer for Beginning Sewers,” contributed by Molly Grund ’16, used four constructed cubes of wood, cut paper, and LED lights to depict the stages of threading a needle.

The process of depicting tools in different dimensions was also evident in the work by Samantha Ho ’16, who took a traditional representation of Wite-Out tape, originally designed to be flat and invisible, and made it three-dimensional and visible.

For Taylor, the prompt provided a chance to revisit a remnant of a previous art piece and reexamine its meaning. His painted, cream-colored canvas was originally a throwaway component of a painting he did last fall. Covered in abstract designs, the ambiguous work was reminiscent of moving water or the patterns the wind draws in the sand. Although his piece did not literally focus on tools, Taylor instead chose to examine the painting as an artistic tool.

“It’s the idea of repetition and repeating myself as a thing I do a lot in my art, like repeating elements and that kind of device or repetition as a tool,” Taylor said.

Repetition was also central to the piece contributed by Isaac Pollan ’15, “Mise en Place,” which used laser printing to organize a depiction of nails laid one on top of the other, creating a mesmerizing pattern.

McDowell said the beauty of the exhibit was that no artist had to stick directly to the theme.

“[I curated the works so that] thematically they would relate to one another but be different and individual,” McDowell said.

This reimagining of tools and ideas was best illustrated by two separate works that depicted number two pencils. Miles Cornwall ’15 constructed a pencil out of paper, and although its value as a tool was lost, by its colors and shape it was still instantly recognizable. Evan Ortiz ’16 took the opposite approach: by deconstructing a traditional pencil into each of its material pieces, he subtly remarked on the pencil’s endless usefulness through its extended shape.

For her contribution, Alida Blundon ’16 originally considered depicting digital tools, such as InDesign or Facebook, but ultimately decided to focus on the representation of a tool as both a primal object and as an extension of the self. She started with a scrap piece of wood, machine-cut for someone else’s project, and painted a hand and knife slicing a peach on top, suggesting that the wood slab was a cutting board.

“[I wanted] to blur where the peach ends and the hand begins,” Blundon said. “And the tension of the knife going towards the hand is meant to strike the viewer, to make you uncomfortable a little bit.”

Like Blundon, Harrison Carter ’17 also brought in a multilayered depiction of tools: a graphite drawing on paper of 11 tools and their shadows using graphite on paper.

The exhibit was a success, not only for the artists who were able to show their work and for those who came to enjoy it, but for the Friends of the Davison Art Center as well. Friends Vice President Patricia Reville was enthusiastic about the possibilities it created for the community to engage with art.

“It obviously brings a lot of students in to see what we do,” Reville said. “Now, when the people come to look at this exhibition, it will make them more curious about Dine’s work that also includes all these tools.”

If you can believe it, 2015 is fast approaching. And with so much art out there, finding the cream of 2014’s crop can seem like an overwhelming task. Lucky for you, the Argus Arts writers came together and shared some of their favorite movies, television shows, albums, songs, and comics of the year.

 

Drake’s Soundcloud

“Club going up on a Tuesday.” “I go 0 to 100, real quick.” “We made it.” Some of 2014’s most iconic catchphrases are courtesy of the Soundcloud account run by Drake’s record label, OVO. In a disappointing year for hip-hop releases, Drake dominated the rap game without even dropping an album, and it’s not even close. Since ringing in the new year with “Trophies” and “We Made It (Remix),” Drizzy has held Twitter hostage by periodically releasing singles in the dead of the night without any warning.

What’s amazing is that none of the songs, most of which would serve as any other rapper’s lead single, appear to be attached to Drake’s anticipated Views From The 6 album that is supposedly dropping in the spring (although there are rumors of a mixtape in January). Instead, Drake spurned traditional releasing methods and embraced the Wild West atmosphere of the rap blogosphere, showing us that he’s a true visionary. Was it a problem when some fan randomly leaked a new song called “How About Now” a few weeks ago? No way, because Drake, like the generous Canadian he is, responded by dropping that song and two others, “6 God” and “Heat of The Moment.” My personal favorites are “0 to 100” and “2 On/Thotful,” which showcase that, while it’s easy to make fun of Drake, it’s impossible to dismiss him, as he flexes his lyrical acumen and stunts on haters like never before. –Aaron Stagoff-Belfort

 

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a cinefile’s wet dream. Chronological changes in the narrative mark drastic shifts in aspect ratios, lighting setups, and color palettes, moving from pastels (the 1930s) to lush tones full of somber reds and yellows (the ’60s). This is, after all, a Wes Anderson film, which is nothing if not meticulous, bold, and gorgeous. And many of Anderson’s trademark techniques are here: long tracking shots, props, and scenes which evolve like Rube Goldberg machines, and brilliant, luxuriant sets. Here, however, Anderson brings them all to their stylistic limit. It’s Anderson at his, well, grandest.

But Wes Anderson’s great gift is to match his stylistic idiosyncrasies, at times overpowering, with equally idiosyncratic and emotive narratives. And “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is ultimately Anderson’s most overtly funny film, as lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori and F. Murray Abraham) and concierge Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes) scramble across Europe in their desperate attempt to secure a priceless painting. What unfolds contains one of the year’s most thrilling shootouts, absurd chase sequences, and touching romances (between Zero and Agatha, portrayed with poise by Saoirse Ronan). “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is cinema at its biggest and boldest, with all of the glitz, glamor, and gut-busting of a Busby Berkeley musical. It is cinema as only Wes Anderson could bring us. –Dan Fuchs

 

“The Lego Movie”

“The Lego Movie” is unshakable evidence that animation can indeed be perfect for both adult and child. What is astounding about “The Lego Movie” is the extreme maturity with which it handles its immaturity and capitalizes on it to deliver a wonderful message. As adorable and hilarious as the characters are, they continually make powerful points on expression, conformity, and social outcasting, not to mention the eternal human desire to fit in and contribute.

While I usually prefer that artistic messages not be so explicit, I thought the film’s approach was the most appropriate. In some ways, many adults do become a Lord Business; the contemporary obsession with capitalizing on creativity is by far one of the worst social phenomena, given the shallowness that results from suppressing imagination. “The Lego Movie” is now my absolute favorite animated film because it manages to effectively and seamlessly bridge the generational divide, not only by virtue of being a film about Legos, but mainly because of its integration of basic slapstick humor with sharply written and profound wit. In the very same scene in which the protagonist makes me laugh by childishly falling down, he turns around with a clever jab at capitalism. I’m not sure how blockbuster animation can get better than that.  —Hazem Fahmy

 

Mariko and Jillian Tamaki—“This One Summer”

In “This One Summer,” the award-winning creative team of cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki chronicles the friendship of two young girls, Rose and Windy, on their families’ annual summer vacation to Awago Beach. In the process, they explore the girls’ gradual entry into womanhood. The girls’ family members and the townspeople of Awago are just as important to the graphic novel as the main characters. Whereas the Tamakis’ previous graphic novel, “Skim,” focused on the interiority of one teenage girl’s life, “This One Summer” tells the story of two young girls becoming aware of the world around them, dealing with and navigating the unrealistic standards society imposes upon them.

Though “This One Summer” features two children as its lead characters and is marketed as a children’s book, I would argue it is a book about children rather than specifically for them. In its 320 pages, “This One Summer” explores first crushes, slut shaming, teenage pregnancy, miscarriage, marital difficulties, and attempted suicide, and, to its credit, the book is never melodramatic. “This One Summer” maintains an understated tone throughout, with Jillian’s gorgeous artwork perfectly complementing Mariko’s dialogue and narration as she creatively utilizes blank space between and around panels to manipulate the duration of scenes. “This One Summer” is both incredibly heartwarming and heartbreaking. Without a doubt, it is one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. —William Donnelly

 

“Outlander,” Season 1

I really love STARZ’s new show, “Outlander.” Sure, the plot is absolutely ridiculous: World War II nurse time-travels back to 18th-century Scotland. But there’s just so much fun to be had with such a ludicrous premise. For one, the entire show is depicted through the lens of an empowered, fully realized female protagonist, Claire Beauchamp. Claire (played by Caitriona Balfe) delves into the usual historical drama tropes of wearing some really gorgeous period outfits and hanging out with some really dishy men. But at the end of the day, the character also doesn’t take shit. She crawls, bites, and fights her way through whatever situation is thrown her way. She faces everyone, friend or foe, with steely determination, her gaze never faltering.

Even better, there’s so much care given to the show’s setting. Everything is shot on location and does justice to the Scottish highlands. I have never seen a place that inspires such wonder on screen; it actually rivals New Zealand in “The Lord of the Rings.” Not to mention, the show refuses to shy away from history. Set mainly during the early Jacobite uprisings, “Outlander” makes a clear point of showing the clash between English and Scottish people. Dialogue is often conveyed in Scottish Gaelic and never translated in subtitles. Instead, the language barrier reminds the presumably English-speaking viewers that they are onlookers and participants in a culture that is very different from their own. —Jeesue Jamie Lee

 

“Over the Garden Wall”

“Over the Garden Wall” is the best animated series you didn’t watch this year. It consists of 10 eleven-minute episodes, all of which are available for free online via Cartoon Network, so you have no excuse not to watch it. The show stars Elijah Wood as Wirt, who gets lost in mysterious woods along with his younger brother Greg at a most inconvenient time. They are quickly taken under the wing of Christopher Lloyd, who attempts to protect them from the Beast. The Beast, an opera-singing shadow monster reminiscent of Germanic folklore, is one of the most fascinating villains I’ve seen, despite its minimal screen time. This show is efficient. In two hours it gives viewers a fascinating and surreally wonderful world of jazz-singing frogs, an elderly woman (voiced by Tim Curry) who eats turtles, and John Cleese making out with Bebe Neuwirth (or at least their characters do).

“Over the Garden Wall” is endearing, haunting, and brilliant with its simple animation. It’s a gem of a show that came entirely out of left field. I devoured the series in one sitting and cried during the finale. Each episode comes with its own musical sequence that adds to the surreal world, the songs encompassing a variety of styles you wouldn’t normally find in children’s animation. But then again, this show isn’t really meant for children. Children’s shows usually don’t include a monster bellowing, “Are you ready to see true darkness?” and meaning it. —Will McGhee

 

Sharon Van Etten—Are We There

As a songwriting topic, the end of a relationship is about as standard as one can get. Music has always been just as fascinated with the loss of love as the fulfillment, and it’s all too easy for that association to breed complacency. It’s an accusation leveled at many artists every year: Why can’t you write about something other than love or heartbreak?

This summer, Sharon Van Etten released her fourth studio album, Are We There, which uses a recent break-up as its centerpiece. For those fed up with heartbreak as the great equalizer of music, this might have seemed disappointingly banal, but as anyone who listened to the record can attest, Van Etten makes certain her LP is anything but boring. Are We There is instead personal, distinct, brilliant, and excruciating. At 47 minutes, the record is also unrelenting, offering up song after song filled with tenderness, anger, sorrow, and disappointment. It’s immediate and electric, composed of gorgeous limpid orchestral arrangements and carefully observed, mercilessly honest lyrics.

From “Your Love is Killing Me,” whose chorus thunders forward with self-hatred that feels both crushing and prayerful, to “Every Time the Sun Comes Up,” which ends the album with caustic self-reflective humor and defiance, Are We There deftly evades the clichés of its subject matter and charges straight for brutal introspection. The title, according to Van Etten, is not a question but a constant: perpetual, yearning flux. It fits the record well. Are We There, even if the product of a specific time or place, aggressively transcends boundaries. Emotions, persons, and ideas crash against one another like energized particles; the result is apocalyptic. It’s also a special kind of wonderful to behold. —Michael Darer

 

“Transparent,” Season 1

“Transparent” is an original half-hour dramedy series produced and streamed online by Amazon and, let me tell you, one of the best new shows of the year. “Transparent” centers on a Jewish family with divorced parents and three adult children living in Los Angeles. All three children constantly grapple with their sexuality: Eldest daughter Sarah is married to a man, but in the pilot she finds herself making out with her ex-girlfriend; only son Josh, at 14 years old, slept consistently with his babysitter and is now in love with his rabbi; and youngest wild child Ali at one point finds herself in bed with two large bodybuilders, and later with a trans man. Their father, Mort, on the other hand, is quite clear about his sexual preferences: He is sexually attracted to women. And he is a woman.

The series follows Mort’s transition to living as Maura, and it is pure genius. It is visually gorgeous, with impeccable production design and cinematography, superbly written and directed, and most of all, brilliantly acted. Jeffrey Tambor is breathtaking as the patriarch-turned-matriarch, Amy Landecker and Gaby Hoffmann are raw and gloriously flawed as the daughters, and Jay Duplass, in his first big acting endeavor, makes a womanizing character who could be utterly unlikeable completely sweet and honest. Judith Light, the mother of the trio and Maura’s ex-wife, is revolutionary. To add just one more incentive, Bradley Whitford ’81 makes a glorious appearance in multiple flashbacks as Mark, a man who accompanies Mort on a retreat to a camp for cross-dressers. —Beanie Feldstein

 

TV on the Radio—Seeds

There’s a moment halfway through “Love Stained,” right before the chorus, when the drums kick into overdrive and the bass blurts out in such a way that you feel you’ve pushed yourself away from the ground and you’re temporarily suspended, gravity be damned. Seeds, the fifth studio album from Brooklyn-based art-rockers TV on the Radio, spends much of its glorious hour deciding where it wants to plant its feet. In that ambivalence, that uncertainty, emerges TV on the Radio’s most musically subtle and emotionally powerful album yet.

Eschewing the busy background bombast of the band’s previous efforts (2008’s Dear Science and 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain are two musical high points of the 2000s, for just that reason) for something more streamlined, Seeds builds around the loose concept of a relationship’s lifecycle, rising and falling with excitement, hope, resentment, disappointment, and eventually resolve. In their compositions, members Jaleel Bunton, Kyp Malone, Dave Sitek, and Tunde Adebimpe are partial to handclaps, layers of static-y synths, fuzzy guitars, and crystal-clear “oohs” and “ahhs,” like on slow-tempo confessionals “Quartz” and “Careful You,” where entropic drones dominate the airwaves but always keep the articulate vocals and their ghostlike harmonies at the very top of the mix. “Happy Idiot” may be the band’s best single yet, letting the frenetic hi-hat and sharp guitar lead the way. That guitar also cuts through the album’s downtrodden, though never dull, midsection for the post-punk punches of “Winter” and “Lazerray,” giving way to the gentle, determined conclusion (it really does feel like a conclusion) of title track “Seeds.” “Rain comes down / like it always does / This time, I’ve got seeds on ground” is a mantra, repeated, remembered: The next time a rough patch comes around, TV on the Radio knows exactly what is needed. —Gabe Rosenberg

 

The War on Drugs—“Red Eyes”

I do not tend to discover new music on the radio. It’s something that almost never happens to me. Almost. I was on the way home from a doctor’s appointment, and from out of nowhere, an organ sound rose from my car speakers. I saw the name of the band, The War on Drugs, chuckled slightly, and kept on driving. The organ gave way to an impossibly propulsive Springsteen-straddling-a-jet-turbine drumbeat, elastic lead guitar, a keyboard, bass, and saxophone arrangement that resembled a cloud of fog more than a piece of music, and a near-inaudible voice singing for its life low, low, low in the mix. I pulled over, teared up, and cranked up the volume.

At the end of five minutes, I exhaled, and then drove to three different stores that still sell CDs (possibly the last three in America) trying to find this damn song, at one point accidentally stepping into the hot pavement of a construction site while trying to get inside a Barnes and Noble. Eventually I found it and listened to this one song, “Red Eyes,” on repeat for weeks and weeks and weeks. Months have passed, but I still shout along with every “WOO!” and every lead guitar line. “Red Eyes” is faux-classic rock transcendental road trip nirvana (and I mean Buddhist Nirvana). It just rocks. —Dan Bachman

How would you describe the experience of inhabiting your own body? “Renditions of Form,” an art exhibit running from Nov. 18 to Nov. 25 in the Zelnick Pavilion, seeks to investigate that conundrum.

The exhibit—organized by Kate Weiner ’15, Tess Altman ’17, Isabel Alter ’17, Denisse Reyes ’15, Yiyang Wang ’15, and Zia Grossman-Vendrillo ’15—includes photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture. The team released a call for submissions back in September, and the exhibit came together with an opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 20 with performance art by Julia Chanin ’15, Virgil Taylor ’15, and Morgan Hill ’15 as well as poetry readings by Kai Wilson ’16 and Jackie Soro ’14 and a film about bodies by Dandara Catete ’15.

Altman and Alter, two of the event’s hosts, became involved in the project through the Feminist Art and Thought Collective, which they run together. “Renditions of Form” came about as a decision to extend an exhibit put on by the same group of students at the beginning of this year.

On Sept. 2, the activist group FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, which organizes various anti-rape movements, brought the 250-square foot Monument Quilt to Foss Hill in a tour of locations around the country. At the same time as the quilt’s display, Altman, Reyes, Wang, and Weiner coordinated an art show in the Zelnick Pavilion.

“We didn’t have sufficient time to cultivate as much art as we wanted to, so we wanted another opportunity to open it up to a broader community of people,” Weiner said.

This time around, the art has much more variation. The group put out a call for submissions to the entire campus, and Altman said that a lot of submissions came from students who never got involved in the feminist community on campus until now. Alter stressed that many contributors would not have displayed their pieces in a more formal setting, and that the informal nature of this project allowed it to be more inclusive.

The exhibit’s central location in Zelnick adds to its accessibility. During the quilt exhibit, Altman said, students would walk by, notice the quilt, and then simply wander into Zelnick out of interest. This exhibit has the same goal.

The “Renditions of Form” reception coincided with the Transgender Day of Remembrance on Thursday. The day is dedicated to memorializing those who have been killed by violence as a result of transphobia, which Altman said fits well with the “Renditions of Form” exhibit, since much of this violence is located on representations of the body.

“It’s a very broad topic of what it’s like to inhabit a body, which is something everyone experiences,” Alter said. “That’s what gives it a universal application.”

Weiner said she hopes that the exhibit will act as a gateway for wider participation in feminism on campus.

“There are a lot of entry points into feminism on campus now,” Weiner said. “It’s wonderful to have things like the Feminist Art and Thought Collective and the Feminist Co-op, and my hope with this exhibit is that there will be more and more opportunities for students to get involved.”

“Did a lot of shit just to live this here lifestyle.”

We’ve all heard “Lifestyle” somewhere. It may have been on the radio on a drive to class, a party at Psi U, or on the loud side of Usdan last week, where half the students paused their conversations to tilt their head to the sky and moan in Young Thug’s signature southern drawl about the trials and tribulations we’ve gone through in our grind to live the liberal arts lifestyle to which I’m pretty sure Thug was alluding.

When “Lifestyle” blew up this fall, there was no denying that the ascension of Young Thug to rap royalty was complete. After almost a year of bubbling in the Atlanta underground rap scene with a series of bizarre but distinctive mixtapes, Young Thug’s street anthem “Danny Glover” began to gain traction amongst rap’s cultural elite. It had everyone from Drake to Kanye West, and a very confused Kim Kardashian, bouncing in the club, bragging about their dope-whipping prowess. After Young Thug followed up “Glover” with the even spacier and weirder hit “Stoner” and began to be courted by several of rap’s major players, including Lil Wayne, it was clear that this ATLien and his leopard print dresses were here to stay.

I know what you’re thinking, and it’s understandable: Young Thug just flat out sucks. You feel embarrassed because every time “Lifestyle” comes on at a party, you black out for four minutes as you scream the chorus and let everyone know there is “a million five on your Visa card.” But in more sober moments, if someone described you as a Young Thug fan, you would laugh and tell them to get lost.

The objections to Young Thug are obvious to anyone who has been blessed enough to listen to even one of his masterpieces. His grasp of the fundamental concepts of music is questionable. His lyrics are of dubious quality at best, and that’s when you can understand him. His voice is utterly incomprehensible.

Let’s focus for a brief moment on Thug’s most distinctive feature, his voice, and the key reason he emerged to rap superstardom as opposed to the million other homogenous Atlanta trap rappers. Seriously, if you have never listened to the chorus to “Lifestyle,” you are in for a real treat because the first time I heard the track, I burst out laughing. I am a big fan of ignorant rap bangers, but I just couldn’t believe Thug had tricked everyone into believing this was hot music. On “Lifestyle,” Thug whines for half the chorus as if he is an 11-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. His lyrics are so incomprehensible that even Rap Genius could not create a lyrics page for “Lifestyle” until Thug performed the song at the BET Awards without the voice of a pig about to be hauled off to slaughter. When Vibe magazine brought in eight people of different professions, including a paralegal and an electrical engineer, and challenged them to decipher the chorus of “Lifestyle,” not one of them guessed the lyrics correctly.

I guess I really should not have been shocked (after “All Gold Everything” and Chief Keef’s entire existence, I guess I should have been ready for anything), but I just couldn’t believe that rap music had embraced the insanity of Young Thug. But here we are, watching Thug perform on BET, tour with Lil Wayne, and perform for 40,000 people at a “Rock The Vote” demonstration in Atlanta. That’s right: If you hate Young Thug, you hate America too.

I recently realized that I couldn’t be ambivalent about Young Thug anymore. No more half measures. No more slinking around denouncing Young Thug in public, despite feverishly bumping “Danny Glover” in my car alone and becoming so worked up that I would contemplate dropping out of school and starting a life of crime. It was time to embrace Young Thug fully. Here’s how I did it.

When something is a complete parody in rap music, it’s somewhat disingenuous to hold it to a standard of serious greatness. At the same time, there’s a fine line between an effective parody and something that’s just an outright embarrassment (Riff Raff, I’m looking at you). However, it would be a mistake to argue that Thug is knowingly mocking hip-hop culture or creating music that is meant to be laughed at purely for its goofiness like Riff Raff’s “Tip Toeing In My Jawwdinz.”

While his style, a fusion of his iconic flow with hazy and dynamic, dirty south beats, has been praised legitimately for bringing a fresh perspective to a genre increasingly overflowing with generic content, it’s not a stretch to evaluate it as something completely outside the bounds of conventionally critically acclaimed rap music. Songs such as “Lifestyle” and “Stoner” attest to this alternate classification of Thug’s music. In addition, it’s important to remember a salient point T.I. made two weeks ago in an interview with CRWN for all the Young Thug haters out there.

“In his defense, let me ask you,” T.I. said. “Did you understand everything ODB was saying? You did? Y’all from Brooklyn. Did you understand everything Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was saying? Did your momma and daddy understand everything James Brown was saying? Your momma and daddy didn’t understand what James Brown was saying. They just liked it.”

Let’s just pretend T.I. didn’t compare Young Thug to James Brown for a second because I might start throwing heavy objects around my dorm. However, the comparison to Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony seems to make a lot more sense. Once we have understood the partially satirical context in which Young Thug’s music must be evaluated, a standard not based purely on lyrical acumen or an attempt to analyze particularly serious subject matter, there are only two metrics by which we can assess Thug’s music.

First, what’s the quality of his production value? It’s fire. Producer London on da Track has crafted an indelible landscape for Thug’s musings. I only began to listen to Thug in the first place after hearing the beat to “Danny Glover” in a profile about rapper Danny Brown. I had to pause the video and fervently search the web to find out who produced the track. “Glover” is a bruising trap record with booming 808s that would make Lex Luger or Yeezus himself proud.

Second, coming back to what T.I. said, the most important element of the craft of a rapper like Young Thug is the energy his music conveys. “Danny Glover” makes me want to do bad things to good people. “About The Money” keeps me focused on my grind when it’s 1 a.m., and I haven’t started a paper due the next day. And when it comes to carefree and motivational tracks such as “Lifestyle,” it’s impossible to not be motivated to run a marathon or build an orphanage after a few spins.  While it’s evident how much fun Thug is having and how free his voice truly is as it sprawls across “Lifestyle,” it would be a shame to squander such free-spirited music by derisively scorning it. In a way, Young Thug taught me how to love life and save the cynicism for more weighty topics such as Congress and Weshop prices. In that respect, I will always be in his debt.