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Going to a few Halloween parties this past weekend meant, of course, encountering drunk people. I saw drunken friendship-making, drunken secret-telling, and drunken hook-ups, all of which made me wonder about something: can fictional stories include big emotional beats while the characters are under the influence?

TV has virtually every variety of drunken encounter: the drunken bonding, the drunken hook-up, the drunken fight, etc. There’s one thing I’ve noticed, though: if there’s a central will-they-won’t-they romance, it rarely culminates because of alcohol.

There’ve been some great TV episodes with characters getting drunk together. The 15^th episode of “New Girl,” “Injured,” involves the characters getting drunk after discovering that Nick Miller might have cancer. This leads the funniest and most heartfelt episode of the first season, and it pushes forward the central romantic relationships of the show: Schmidt and Cece, and Jess and Nick. At this point in the show, though, Schmidt-Cece is in a casual hook-up phase; this is merely the first introduction to a real emotional component. And Jess-Nick is still only hinted at in “Injured”; their romance won’t actually become explicit until a full season later. This holds true in other TV shows too, though. Pam gets drunk and kisses Jim in the second season premiere of “The Office,” but fans don’t really consider that a true expression of attraction. They much prefer to single out the second season’s finale, which features their first real, sober kiss.

Based on all this, I’ve come to the conclusion that a huge plot development based on some character relationship can almost never happen just because of alcohol. It’s a cheat. We want to see these characters act on their feelings sober and not have to worry about whether they’re acting a certain way just because of what’s in their system. If Jim and Pam had been blackout drunk during their first kiss, it wouldn’t mean as much, because it’d so clearly be a plot device. Same with Nick and Jess, or Ross and Rachel, or Ben and Leslie, or any of the countless other great sitcom couples. Alcohol can spark connections, but it can’t define them.

Of course, this is more a rule for art than a rule for life. I’ve had friends who’ve had surprisingly positive experiences with alcohol and relationships, whether those relationships are ultimately casual or something deeper. As bad as it might sound, strong friendships and strong relationships in college are sometimes born under the influence. Alcohol is one of life’s many real-world plot devices.

It shows that art abides by different rules than life. In my English class, we read an essay by Philip Roth that essentially pointed out how the stories we read in the news strain credibility – if we wrote a sexting scandal a guy named “Anthony Wiener” into a book, using my professor’s example, people would say Wiener’s name was too on-the-nose. Real life stretches credibility, so we can’t truly tell just any real-life story and expect readers to believe it; we have to somewhat de-sentimentalize some stories, and de-contrive others. If an author wants to retell his story of his first kiss in the rain, he might have to take the rain away, because that sounds too much like a sappy romance novel. Similarly, if the author’s first big romantic moment with his wife happened mostly thanks to liquid courage, retelling his own story verbatim might not have the power and charge it could have with a fictional sober character.

When you watch so much TV and movies and read so many books, you become aware that what comes across as a plot device in stories can be a naturally occurring agent in real life. When you hear from one of your good friends that he really did meet his year-long girlfriend from a drunken hook-up, it’s kind of hard to rule it “contrived and unsatisfying.”

The best part of attending the University of Michigan is the plethora of opportunities which are available in such enormous quantities that it is easy to neglect them. It is easy to assume that there will always be another opportunity, to become numb to the significance of each event as it has become a new state of normal and to miss meeting people & attending performances that students around the world have only dreamed of attending.

One such opportunity will take place this Sunday afternoon at 4 pm. At this time David Daniels, a new faculty voice professor within the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, will present a recital – completely free of charge.

For those of you who are not familiar with opera this may not seem like a big deal, after all, it is simply a recital that is being given by a new faculty member at the university. However, for those who are familiar with opera you will realize that this is David Daniels that we are talking about. The same David Daniels who is credited with reestablishing the countertenor as a major force in opera and is embraced as the world’s greatest countertenor. The same David Daniels that has sung at the biggest opera houses around the world where thousands of patrons have paid hundreds of dollars to hear him sing. And this same man is performing a concert free of charge on campus.

As David Daniels has said his “goal is to try to give this as long a life as possible and perform it in as many places as I can. Careers don’t go on forever, so I would like to do it as often as possible. I’ve sung 20 years as countertenor and I don’t feel like I’m slowing down at all. In fact, I now have a confidence level that I didn’t have 10 years ago. I feel like a deeper artist, a better communicator. I actually prefer that to fireworks. More realness, honesty, and…maturity. Yeah, that’s a good word! Maturity.”

The university is lucky to have such a wonderful, mature artist as part of their staff. Let us not become numb to how extraordinary this opportunity is and I hope that Britton Recital Hall is just as full as the other venues that Daniels is used to singing at.

The Day of the Dead is a holiday that is celebrated all throughout the Catholic world, but the United States is particularly enamored with the colorful celebration in Mexico. There could be many explanations as to why America is so obsessed with this cultural holiday, but I believe the main reason is that our society likes to take things it doesn’t understand, mystify it, and fetishize it. It is extremely unfortunate that our society does this as this is a very important holiday and we only see the shallowest view of it. So in order to try and alleviate the appropriation that surrounds this holiday, I would like to share a brief history lesson of this holiday and its traditions. (Side note: I am not Mexican nor Latinx. If any of this is incorrect, seemingly biased, or misinterpreted, PLEASE let me know in the comments.)

The Mexican celebration of Day of the Dead is a mixture of ideas and traditions from the New World and the Aztec Empire. Originally, Dia de Muertos (the actual name of the Holiday) was celebrated at the beginning of summer before the Spanish colonization. It was dedicated to Mictecachihuatl, a goddess in Aztec religion, often romanticized to the “Lady of the Dead.” During this time, Aztecs would take time to remember the deceased and create alters in their honor. After Spanish colonization, this holiday was shifted to fit the three day celebration of Allhallowtide (All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day) and the traditions were morphed to include the traditional practices of the Catholic holidays.

Today, the holiday is highly respected and enjoyable celebration that involves alter creation, visits to cemeteries, and offerings of food and flowers to the dead in hopes that they will visit. The entire holiday has a humorous tones which stems from the Aztecs’ ability to laugh at death. While I would love to go into all the details of the holiday, I don’t believe I have the authority to truly discuss every important aspect of the holiday. Instead, I will be focusing on three important aspects: ofrendas, calaveras, and La Calavera Catrina.

Ofrendas are alters made to honor the deceased. They are often made for an individual and the most common format is three tiers. They almost always contain orange and yellow marigolds as they are believed to attract the spirits of the dead and are called Flor de Muerto (Flower of Dead). The tiers then often contain different items that are specified to the individual. The bottom alter contains candles, a mirror, and washing items so that the spirit can refresh themselves. The second tier contains items that were important to the individual and let them feel comfortable. These include favorite foods, toys for children, tequila or mezcal for adults, and especially pan de muerto, a sweetbread. The top tier identifies the person the alter is for and may contain religious iconography. These ofrendas may be within one’s house or at the grave of the deceased. They are also highly variable and the one I described in this paragraph is only one of the forms. In addition, they are also created in schools and government buildings (without the religious icons) because of the high respect for the holiday.

Calaveras are probably the most recognizable aspect of Dia de Muertos. They are the sugar skulls that appear everywhere during the month of October. Calaveras did not come about until the 17^th century when the Italian art of sugar sculpture made its way to Mexico. In addition to sugar, they can also be made of clay in order to be solely decorative. Before the colonization, icons of skeletons were used to represent rebirth, whereas now, the popularity is often attributed to Jose Guadalupe Posada and his political caricatures. While some of the sugar skulls are edible, aesthetics are much more important and the skulls are not meant to be consumed. These skulls are placed on the ofrendas as well.

La Calavera Catrina is the caricature by Posada that popularized the heavily aestheticized sugar skulls. She was created to mock the Mexican people who ignored their heritage and emulated Western Europe. Created in the 1910’s, it is an etching of a skeleton dressed in European fineries. She has become an embodiment of death and she is now revered during Dia de Muertos like Mictecachihuatl was in the original Aztec holiday. She is often matched with a male skeleton, but they are not as popular as La Calavera Catrina. This icon heavily influenced the artistry of the calaveras.

As you can see, there is a lot of tradition and importance placed on this holiday. It is incredibly important that we are sensitive to this holiday and do not appropriate the traditions. It is great to want to learn more about the holiday and to appreciate it, nut our society to often mystifies it and we don’t take the celebration as seriously as we should.