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(03/23/10 3:07pm)
The College has showcased student art before — plenty of times. But never like this.
“4x4: The Debut Student Art Exhibition Series,” which runs March 17-April 21, gave each participating student free reign over one-fourth of the new student exhibition spaces — his or her own little corner of the Art and Interactive Multimedia (IMM) Building, to do with what he or she pleased. Exhibits were selected and will be assessed by an “outside professional juror,” according to the exhibition series’ brochure, and student artists will receive recognition and accolades at an April 21 reception and awards ceremony.
The exhibition series is the first of its kind at the College. Sixteen exhibitions will be displayed over a period of four weeks, four per week, thus the series’ title, “4x4.”
Works will materialize on the bare walls as the result of either construction or curation — students will work individually or collaborate. In the spirit of possibility embodied by the new workspaces, few restrictions encumber the student artists. Students were urged to fill the empty spaces as they liked.
This can be an imposing task to face.
“The challenge, and the wonderful thing about the challenge, that the Student Exhibition Spaces … present is that they are not white cubes,” wrote Kate Kraczon, assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania and juror for the “4x4” series, in the exhibition brochure. “They are an opportunity to work within unorthodox parameters as a young artist, to experience early in your career the frustrations and rewards that these spaces offer.”
An annual showcase of student work has been a keystone of the art program at the College for many years, but, as College Art Gallery director Sarah Cunningham noted, this is a “reincarnation” of the traditional exhibition.
“New this year, with the new building, are separate student-proposed and executed exhibitions in the Student Exhibition Spaces,” Cunningham explained in an e-mail, “rather than one big exhibit featuring all of the accepted students’ work.”
This week’s featured artists, whose works will be displayed until March 23, are Patrick Hughes, senior art education major, Keith Kozak, junior art education major, Katie
Rossiter, junior fine arts major, and Lindsey Hardifer, sophomore graphic design major. Hughes’ “Vis-à-vis” offers original abstract paintings, alternately colorful and black and white, full and sparse. He shares an exhibition room with Kozak, whose “Examination: A Look into the Art of the Form” explores, as its title suggests, several traditional forms of artistic expression: his exhibit includes photography, a pen-and-ink drawing, and two sculptures of sorts, “American Dorodango” — a small metal ball placed squarely in the middle of a patch of dirt atop a pedestal — and “Reflected Enclosure,” an intricate 3-D design made of Plexiglas.
Rossiter and Hardifer inhabit the other gallery with their two exhibits, “Untitled (String Room)” and “Things Remembered.” The former is an installation of strings zigzagging the room in a tumult, occupying the entire expanse of Room 119A. The latter is a series of black and white images that conjures a sense of nostalgia with its running theme of lace winding dreamily through the numerous, untitled works.
Sponsored by the Art Department, the Art Students Association (ASA) and the College Art Gallery, the second installation of the series will be put into effect March 26.
(03/16/10 7:05pm)
R. Barbara Gitenstein, president of the College, addressed budget issues during her State of the College update on Tuesday March 2. She discussed how the College plans to responding to the challenges presented by the forthcoming $2 million reduction in state aid to the College.
Before an audience of students, faculty and community members, Gitenstein spoke of the measures the College is considering to help “maintain (its) reputation as a well run, financially stable institution” in the wake of the budget cuts.
Gitenstein mentioned instating certain graduate programs, delving into budget reserves and cutting or consolidating programs for the next fiscal year as possibilities.
She also mentioned that layoffs and tuition increases are likely, though the College will go to great lengths to avoid them.
“We will need to prepare ourselves to make some difficult decisions,” Gitenstein said, “difficult decisions that will be disappointing and painful but are necessary for us to preserve our future and assure our control of our destiny.”
She assured students that she would do all in her power to ensure they do not feel the brunt of the cuts.
“While we will likely have to increase tuition and fees, we simply cannot balance the budget on the backs of our students and their families. They also are struggling in this economy,” she said.
Gitenstein also expressed her commitment to maintaining jobs.
“As I have shown in the past, I will do everything in my power to preserve jobs and pay,”she said. “I much prefer budget management by holding positions open, canceling searches and reorganizing services and offices … I will exhaust these kinds of possibilities before other actions are taken, but, unlike in the past, I believe that such possibilities will be exhausted this year before we finish our budget planning.”
Beyond the drop in state funding, Gitenstein mentioned another drop that has hurt the College financially — the drop in temperature this winter and the mountains of snow that accompanied it.
“There will likely be an increase in the cost for fuel and utilities, a huge increase in planned expenditure for snow removal, and a likely increase in the cost for emergency projects caused by damage to the physical plant,” she said.
Despite the large shadow state budget cuts cast over the speech, Gitenstein did her best to offset the gloom with reflections on the College’s recent successes.
“We have seen the support for New Jersey state colleges drop precipitously over the past decade. During that time at (the College), we have saved a great deal by reorganizing our staff positions, but not made any layoffs. We have directed more institutional resources for underprivileged students. We have … expanded our energy savings programs. At the same time we have made expenditure cuts, we have approached the reserves in a practical and responsible fashion,” she said.
She also made note of the College’s recent accolades – including a nod from Barron’s naming the College as one of the country’s 75 most competitive institutions of higher education.
“Despite all the gloomy news, particularly the lack of financial support from the state, (the College) continues to do extraordinary things,” Gitenstein said.
She ended on a note of measured optimism for how the College will deal with the issues the looming fiscal year presents.
“I do not want to minimize how demoralizing this situation is for all of us,” she said, “but I do want to underline my confidence in our ability to work together to provide an institutional solution in these trying times.”
(03/16/10 6:16pm)
Billy Plastine, executive president of the Student Government Association (SGA), informed the general body of his plans to deliver a “State of the Campus” address within the next several months and looked forward to upcoming events, such as Senior Week and Relay for Life, during last Wednesday’s meeting.
Plastine hopes to utilize print and online sources to make his “State of the Campus” address accessible for all students.
“I will be coming up with a ‘State of the Campus’ address. It’s something the SGA executive president used to do, and I’d like to bring it back,” said Plastine, senior political science and marketing double major. “Instead of actually doing a speech in a room, though, I am going to publish it in The Signal and on our website.”
Plastine hopes that way it will reach all students, rather than simply the ones who would attend the speech.
Plastine also informed the SGA of upcoming events, such as Senior Week. Anthony Lista, senior nursing major and senior class president, extended his thanks to all students that registered.
“We now officially have 581 participants,” Lista said.
The SGA also recognized Kelly Kosch, sophomore English and secondary education double major, as Senator of the Month and Arielle Simonis, class council coordinator and junior English major, as Executive Member of the Quarter.
Plastine acknowledged Simonis’s hard work in assembling the SGA-sponsored “TCNJ’s Got Talent” variety show.
“This quarter, I think Ariel was very dedicated and is very deserving of the award,” Plastine said. “She put together a wonderful event.”
Simonis thanked the class councils for their assistance in putting the talent show together.
“It was a great success, and I’m really proud of all the class councils,” Simonis said. “They did a great job.”
(03/16/10 2:15pm)
The beat began.
Charlie Winkler, senior music education major, sat before the tam-tam, a large, flat-faced metal disc suspended on a wooden frame. His legs were crossed Indian-style. His silence penetrated. Lifting his mallet, he struck the tam-tam lightly and a reverberating sound began to emanate through the Mildred and Ernest E. Mayo Concert Hall.
The beat intensified.
He struck it again, harder this time, faster, more insistent. The sound swelled, enveloping the room in a whirring, cacophonous drone, building as he struck the tam-tam repeatedly, winding up into a nightmarish blur of sound until he was beating the tam-tam furiously with his mallet and then — it ended, no sooner than it began.
Winkler put down his mallet and let the tam-tam settle. Soon the ringing in the concert hall was replaced by its former state of heavy silence, with Winkler at the helm, sitting before the tam-tam for a full 30 seconds before standing up, turning around and leaning into a deep bow. Only at that point was the silence broken — by riotous applause.
Winkler’s goal was not to mutilate the eardrums of the approximately 25 members of the concert hall audience. Winkler was one of six music education majors and students of William Trugg, adjunct instructor of music and percussion coordinator at the College, to perform short pieces at the Percussion Studio Recital on Tuesday March 2.
Winkler’s goal was to execute “Having Never Written a Note for Percussion,” a 1971 piece composed by James Tenney — a goal at which, Trugg said, he aptly succeeded.
“He had been playing around with that for a while,” Trugg said. “This concert hall is extremely resonant. Sometimes it’s hard to get the individual notes to come out. He did play around with it to see where on the stage the notes would best turn out.”
Asked if he was pleased with the performance, the instructor, who conducts and composes pieces for percussion himself, smiled.
“Yeah, I was,” he said.
Winkler’s performance was one of eight played over the course of the 40 minute recital. He followed pieces by sophomore music education majors Travis Knauss, Nick Clipperton and Dani Nudelman, all on marimba, and Marc Chait, on percussion.
Playing pieces such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Allemande, from Partita in D Minor,” and Charles DeLancey’s 1973 composition for percussion “The Love of L’Histoire,” the performances were by turns dark and dramatic and light and charming.
Senior music education major Erik Romero closed the recital, playing “Vivace — in the style of Lenjengo” by B. Michael Williams on the djembe, an African hand drum. The piece was energetic and upbeat, characterized by the loud, insistent thumping of the hollow, skin-covered drum.
William Trugg was happy with his students’ performances.
“I thought they did very, very well,” he said. “I was really proud of them. Some of them have been working on the music for the last semester.”
Students in attendance enjoyed the performances as well — though there was one they couldn’t stop talking about.
“I thought they were all really cool. My favorite was Charlie on the tam-tam,” said Sara Truluck, senior music education major.
“It was a little frightening at first,” confessed Sergio Hernandez, sophomore voice major. “I had to cover my ears at the end.”
“It was almost like a train wreck. You couldn’t bear to tear yourself away from it,” Truluck said.
She compared the performance to what happens “at the end of an epic scene” of the television show “Lost” — the screen goes black, the white show logo flashes and deep within the television, a sound starts to build.
“That sound,” she said. “It feels like your life is ending. And then it doesn’t.”
(03/03/10 8:11pm)
The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution to reinstate ProfRecord and granted four new organizations club status at its general body meeting on Wednesday Feb. 24.
Senators and class council members heard first from members of The Perspective, an on-campus news magazine and TCNJ Holistic Wellness, a club devoted to exploring natural stress-combating methods such as yoga and meditation.
The Magic Circle, an organization focusing on video game design and production, and TCNJ Figure Skating, a club for current and prospective figure skaters to explore their passion and potentially compete in collegiate figure-skating competitions, followed with short presentations about their clubs’ missions and long-term plans.
After some discussion, TCNJ Holistic Wellness, The Magic Circle and TCNJ Figure Skating passed unanimously.
Olaniyi Solebo, sophomore political science and economics double major and vice president of legal and governmental affairs, expressed his support for TCNJ Holistic Wellness.
“There is no commonality between this group and any other recognized group on campus,” Solebo said.
Also receiving praise from the SGA for its originality was TCNJ Figure Skating.
“I don’t think we have anything like them, and I think it’s something that a lot of people could get involved in,” said Trish Krug, junior early childhood education and Spanish double major and vice president of community relations. “It’s interesting and different and fun.”
The SGA was pleased with The Magic Circle’s intention to focus on the design and production of video games rather than the game-play experience.
The Perspective was passed by a majority vote, with some dissent among SGA members about the prudence of putting the College’s name behind occasionally inflammatory press.
“They’re asking to put the name of (the College) behind highly biased opinions,” Thomas Samper, senior engineering major, said.
The club was ultimately passed due to a consensus reached during discussion that the College does not necessarily advocate the opinions voiced in a subjective student publication.
Also passed was a resolution calling for the reinstatement of the course selection tool ProfRecord.
According to R-S2010-03, the resolution’s official title, ProfRecord was “a tool that provided students with grade distributions and student commentary … and has been a valuable tool used by students in (the) registration process.”
It was discontinued in fall 2009 when the amount of data coming into the system made it difficult for ProfRecord’s small staff to continue its upkeep. Since then, the SGA has been searching for a “cost-effective alternative from third party vendors,” according to the resolution, but has failed to find one suitable.
The resolution calls for the Academic Affairs Office and Information Technology (IT) and Enrollment Services to reconsider their decision to discontinue the course selection tool and assist the SGA in relaunching an improved ProfRecord.
Gina Lauterio, political science and philosophy double major and vice president of academic affairs, assisted in drafting the resolution, along with other members of the Academic Affairs Committee.
“Students have told us how it’s a valuable tool,” Laeoterio said.
(03/03/10 6:22pm)
An expectant silence fell over the Library Auditorium. A College representative had just introduced the night’s speaker, rattling off a list of his journalistic and authorial achievements, publications to which he contributed and places to which he had traveled. The audience sat at attention, waiting to see the face behind the cadre of experience — or, perhaps more importantly, waiting to hear the voice.
Chris Hedges, acclaimed journalist, author and war correspondent met a packed library auditorium on March 1 to deliver a lecture based on his latest in a series of political bestsellers, “Empire of Illusion.” Hedges worked for The New York Times as a war correspondent, spending years in El Salvador, South America and the Middle East, before he resigned in 2003 after refusing to heed the paper’s admonition to stop disclosing his political opinions to the public. He has since authored several books primarily concerned with extrapolating upon and sharing those opinions.
Hedges certainly didn’t intend to keep his political musings cloaked at the College. His lecture, “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle,” was publicized as a reflection on the “dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion.”
However, though the lecture was grounded in an exploration of this perceived cultural shift, the author also divulged his thoughts on corporate capitalism, consumerism and governmental deceit, issues he deemed relevant to the United States’s changing society.
He began by discussing Michael Jackson.
“In celebrity culture, we destroy what we worship,” Hedges said.
He described Jackson as a victim of the “moral nihilism and personal disintegration” that our society has ascribed to celebrity culture. “He was a reflection of us in the extreme,” he said.
Hedges talked about how the “lurid drama of Jackson’s personal life” played out on television screens throughout Jackson’s own life and the lives of millions of people. He suggested that celebrity culture devalues human life and “licenses a dark voyeurism into other people’s pain.” He described how Jackson, as a celebrity under constant scrutiny, was objectified.
“Human beings are used and discarded in a commodity culture,” Hedges said. “It is the celebration of image over substance.”
His lecture then took a sharp turn toward the political. Hedges held that a society based on illusion is apt to believe anything thrown its way, and that that naïveté would preclude political and economic progress, especially during times of economic crisis. He believes the root of the problem is what he refers to as “unfettered capitalism.”
“The tantalizing illusions offered by our consumer culture are collapsing as we head towards collapse,” he said. “The jobs we are shedding are not coming back. Freedom can no longer be equated with a free market … It is the rapaciousness and the savagery of unfettered capitalism that is being seen now.”
Hedges’s lecture berated the current state of democracy, the American population’s willingness to buy into what he referred to as “political brands” and corporations.
“We must opt out of the mainstream. We must stand firmly and unequivocally on the side of working men and women. We must become as militant as those seeking our engagement. If we remain passive, we will become serfs,” Hedges said. “If we fight back, we have a chance.”
He concluded his lecture by tying his political opinions back to his thoughts on celebrity culture.
“The fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain us,” he said. “It is designed to keep us from fighting back.”
Students in attendance had mixed reactions to Hedges’s often-incendiary speech.
Some loved it. “I thought it was incredible,” Andressa Leite, sophomore international studies major, said. “I wish everyone got a chance to listen to this guy, besides just the people that agree with him.”
Others admired the lecturer’s storied journalistic past. “I think he captures the political climate in a very nuanced way, with an eloquence that speaks to his unparalleled experiences as a war correspondent,” Mike Tracy, senior political science major, said.
Some were more critical. “It brought to light a lot of things people should be considering. I think the only thing it was lacking was an action plan,” senior accounting major Matt Ravaioli said. “He talked a lot about problems, but he didn’t offer up any solutions.”
“In order to promote his populist agenda, Chris Hedges delivered a sermon that relied heavily on grandiose doomsday rhetoric,” Kyle Greco, freshman open options major, said in an e-mail. “It poorly hid the gaping logical holes in his shocking argument.”
Whatever attendees took from the lecture, one thing is for certain. Chris Hedges had a lot to say, and he is no longer keeping quiet.
(03/03/10 6:06pm)
The blue flyers adorning the walls of bulletin boards all around campus called for a “night of dance-worthy tunes from some of Brooklyn’s best up-and-coming indie rockers.” Advertising the College Union Board (CUB)-sponsored “Sounds from Brooklyn” show at the Rathskeller, the flyers were not shy in their advocacy of the featured bands’ music, calling it “quirky” and “sure to entertain.”
It was a lofty promise to make about a show that had been canceled once due to the snow and was rescheduled to a bleak Tuesday where the snow was still in abundance.
But the two bands, The Bloodsugars and Project Jenny, Project Jan, delivered.
“It’s kinda shitty out there tonight,” shouted Jeremy Haines, lead singer of Project Jenny, Project Jan, “but we’re really happy to be in here with all of you!”
Haines’s band kicked off the night with a rousing set of electro-pop, synth-heavy tunes that relied heavily upon his bandmate Sammy Rubin’s use of a keyboard and a laptop. The keyboard provided the hooks for nearly all of the songs, which were powered by a pounding, insistent beat and keyboard-driven melodies. The computer provided the effects — a slide show of eclectic images that was projected onto a large screen behind Haines, providing a playful complement to his wail and constantly shimmying feet.
Project Jenny, Project Jan has seen its predominantly underground music flirt with the mainstream scene over the past several years. The band’s single “Negative”
appeared on the soundtrack to the 2008 film “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.”
The band assaulted the Rat audience with an onslaught of color, energy and sound. They pulled from their 2007 album “XOXOXOXOXO” to deliver songs such as the bouncy “Summertime” and “Train Track,” a song, Haines announced, “about public transportation.”
They also played “Negative” — but not right away.
About halfway through the band’s high-energy set, the crowd took up a chant.
“Play ‘Negative!’” shouted a voice from the audience, rising above the steady chant of the song’s name.
“Yes! We will play that!” Haines responded enthusiastically. “But not right now!”
They played a well-received cover of Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” before giving the crowd what it wanted.
“This one is by request,” said Haines before launching into the frenetic “Negative” to close Project Jenny, Project Jan’s set.
Next to take the stage were The Bloodsugars. The four-man outfit gave the Rat a dose of their signature rocking, multilayered indie pop. The driving beat and dancing melodies had feet tapping and students dancing in front of the stage.
The band played at the Rat last year, and made a note of it in their introduction.
“We’re called The Bloodsugars, and we’re from Brooklyn. It’s really good to be back here, really good to be back at the Rat,” said lead singer Jason Rabinowitz.
The Bloodsugars provided a lighthearted, fun performance with lots of interaction with the audience. At one point, Rabinowitz sheepishly admitted his failure to bring a keytar — the lightweight keyboard strapped on like a guitar that had been one of the highlights of last year’s performance.
“This is usually the part of the show where I bring out the keytar,” he said. “I failed on bringing the keytar. Just imagine that there’s one — a big, red keytar.”
“A little red keytar,” amended Brendan O’Grady, The Bloodsugars’s bassist.
The Bloodsugars played songs from their 2009 album, “I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On,” and their 2008 EP “BQEP.” They closed the show with a cover of Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science.”
Estephanie Betances, senior psychology major and CUB-Rat co-chair, cited the band’s ’80s influence as one of the reasons she brought the band back to the College.
“The Bloodsugars came last year and I liked the music,” Betances said. “I liked the ’80s vibe. I thought it would go off well with a student crowd.”
She said she was pleased with the overall results of the show.
“We thought we’d expose the campus to something different. We wanted to have one more traditional ’80s-sounding band with The Bloodsugars, and one that was different with Project Jenny, Project Jan,” she said. “We would have preferred to have more bodies at the show, but the bands were very enthusiastic. They enjoyed themselves.”
(02/23/10 7:37pm)
The Student Government Association (SGA) heard a proposal regarding a plan to install surveillance equipment in classrooms, labs and parking garages at the College over the next several years at its general body meeting on Wednesday Feb. 17.
Consultants from Corporate Security Services, Inc. (CSS) of Edison, N.J. spoke to SGA members about the prospect of implementing a security equipment overhaul that would replace the current surveillance in place at the College with new security cameras and install cameras in areas currently without them.
The plan would be put into effect in the hopes of preventing crime, particularly in those areas with problematic histories of theft.
“If it’s a building or area that’s had a history of losses, that obviously will be assessed first,” said William McKool, vice president of business development and consulting at CSS.
John Collins, the chief of Campus Police and director of campus security at the College, also spoke about the potential changes. He emphasized that the plan is still under construction and that students are encouraged to contact him with information about areas they feel are “hot spots” for theft on campus that could benefit from the installation of a security camera.
Though the plan is still in its infancy, Collins hopes to see it put it into effect over the next several years.
The SGA also welcomed one new club to campus at Wednesday’s meeting. The Collegiate Chamber of Commerce (CCC), an organization focused on providing networking opportunities for current and future entrepreneurs, partnered with the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce to attend monthly luncheons in hopes of providing the club’s 30-plus members with experience networking while still in college. The club also holds bi-weekly meetings.
SGA members were pleased by the organization’s goals and current operational success. It was passed by a unanimous vote.
“This club would be a great addition for all those interested in networking,” Gabrielle Fuller, sophomore interactive multimedia major, said.
Namrta Bhurjee, who spoke on behalf of the CCC, was thrilled with SGA’s decision.
“I’m very excited,” the senior accounting major said. “I’m passionate about this club, and I hope we grow to 40 members from the 30 we currently have.”
Valerie Bonczek, senior accounting major and member of the CCC who also appeared before the general body, was just as enthusiastic about the club’s passage.
“I’m ecstatic,” Bonczek said. “This club offers something for everyone.”
Also discussed were the promising results of senior week registration, which saw 575 seniors put in their names for participation.
“We’re very excited,” Magda Minetas, SGA advisor, said. “It was much higher than anticipated.”
(02/23/10 7:09pm)
In celebration of Black History Month, the college’s Zeta Sigma chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority hosted a movie screening and panel discussion to explore the issue of racial bias in American drug raids.
Approximately 25 students and faculty members came out to see “American Violet” and listen to the three panelists discuss their thoughts on both the provincial and universal issues examined by the film.
“I saw American Violet over break and thought it was really influential,” Maurisa Thomas, senior history and secondary education major and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, said. “I’ve actually seen things like what happens in this movie, and I see how many lives it affects. We think we’re so distant, but we’re really not.”
“American Violet,” released in April 2009, tells the story of Dee Roberts, a 24-year-old single mother wrongly accused of selling cocaine after a widespread drug raid in her small Texas town.
Faced with the prospect of accepting either a plea bargain for a crime she did not commit or the daunting task of fighting the charges in court, the protagonist is despondent. That is, until the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) gets involved, bringing her case to the national forefront by suing the district attorney for racial prejudice and unlawful arrest practices. The case resulted in the dismissal of the Texas law permitting the word of a single informant to send an accused person to jail.
The movie, while not claiming to be a documentary, is nonetheless based on true events. The town of Melody is based on Hearne, Texas, a small city in which 31.2 percent of the population was considered living below the poverty line at the time of the drug raids, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
The story of Dee Roberts is directly based on the story of Regina Kelley, a single woman in Hearn swept unfairly into the drug raid and falsely accused of selling cocaine. Kelley fought back against the district attorney, with the help of ACLU lawyers, and won, resulting in the real-life abandonment of the Texas single-informant law depicted in the movie.
Speaking about the film’s relevance to drug raids in New Jersey were Rev. Garrett Thomas, a pastor in Somerville, N.J., and Shirley Tyler, a retired correctional officer from the N.J. Department of Corrections. Dave McAllister, adjunct history and African American studies professor at the College, spoke about the film’s broader implications concerning race relations and the “revolving door” that is America’s prison system.
“You have to get big cases like this brought to the public attention,” Tyler said. “Otherwise, stuff like this continues to happen.”
Rev. Thomas encouraged members of the audience dissatisfied with the current state of the court system in America to get involved.
“If you take anything from this discussion tonight, let it be this get involved,” he said. “If you don’t like the way something’s running, get in the middle of it and change it.”
McAllister said though the film’s protagonist was able to exact a lot of change in her state’s government, the fight for a universally fair justice system is far from over.
“It’s not just one segment of the population that needs to be fighting,” McAllister said. “It’s everyone.”
(02/23/10 2:43pm)
It’s a classic moment. The two friends beam at the camera, bright-eyed and excited. Behind them looms a stately red building with traditional architecture, every brick placed in accordance with the style of its neighboring structures. The two girls grin, elated to be part of the scene. One’s arm is draped lazily over the other’s back. Both are in their early 20s. It is Hamburg, Germany, in the summer of 2009.
It seems like a standard photo when you look at it in late February 2010, tucked into the pages of an old-fashioned scrapbook and bookended by ribbons, stickers and random bits of riffraff. Two friends pose in front of a building, a staple of tourist culture. But a closer look reveals this “normal” photo’s glaring incongruity — one of the friends is not really there.
She is Anne Ruffner, junior art education major, and she did not go to Germany in the summer of 2009. The girl in the photo is actually a lifesize cardboard cutout of her. It was fashioned by German art students as the cornerstone of a conceptual art piece entitled “You Were Here,” a scrapbook featuring pictures of the students posing in various places around Hamburg with the cutout of Ruffner. The scrapbook is one of many pieces appearing in the newest College Art Gallery exhibit, “Hier and There.”
Produced by Hanna Rieß and Katja Keller, “You Were Here” captures the dominant theme running through the approximately two-dozen pieces of art that comprise the exhibit. Produced entirely by students of the German art school and College international sister school Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, the gallery focuses on the relationship between German and American culture.
“The topic was intercultural relations,” Anselm Scheuhluhu, one of 14 German students whose art was displayed in the exhibit, said. “We looked at things like our hometown, Frankfurt, different views on the same facts, the perception of Eastern Europe on contemporary art and the stereotypes from the perceptions.”
Jochen Fischer, chair of Goethe-Universität Frankfurt’s art department and advisor to the students, added, “We were thinking about a theme to connect these ideas. It started with research of cultures in both places, what is the same, and what is different. It started with the Internet before we arrived.”
Though the students’ research for the exhibit began on the Internet this spring, the idea for the exhibit had begun long before. Elizabeth Mackie, associate professor of art and program coordinator for graphic design at the College, taught at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt during the 1996-1997 academic year. During her stay, she struck up a conversation with Fischer, whose art students were studying topics similar to those of Mackie’s American students. A friendship, and soon an idea, were born.
“We really wanted to do something that would be an exchange between the two universities,” Mackie said.
The first half of the professors’ dream was realized when this exhibit was made public on Feb. 17. The second will come to fruition over the summer, when a group of College students travel to Germany to exhibit their work at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.
“We’re going over in late June and coming back in late July,” Keith Kostelny, a junior art education major participating in the exchange, said. “We’re going to install work in Goethe-Universität Frankfurt and spend time in another country, have fun, get experience with another culture. Most of their work is about German culture, so most of our work is going to be about exposing them to American culture.”
It is this exploration of cultural differences and similarities that has made crafting the exhibit such a delight for the exchange’s participants.
Besides the scrapbook, which sits leatherbound and elegant on a small pedestal in one gallery, the exhibit features many pieces that similarly juxtapose the culture of Germany with that of the U.S.
Hanna Rieß’s “1 Quadrameter – 1 Square Yard” is one of those pieces. Rieß’s artwork consists of two large wall sections, one in the Art and Interactive Multimedia Building’s East Gallery and one in its West, entirely covered in pieces of bread. The bread, glued to the wall to form a large square, comprises an area in one gallery exactly one quadrameter, and in the other one square yard. Rieß used rye bread, a staple of the German dinner, to form the quadrameter and white bread, a staple of the American sandwich, to form the square yard.
It is important to realize, Jan Stüben pointed out, that the “1 Quadrameter” and the “1 Square Yard” are in the same position in each gallery.
“You have to see it as a mirror,” he said. “One side mirrors the other.”
Some pieces provide a small glimpse of life in Hamburg. One interactive exhibit involved two or three German students cooking traditional German food and serving it to passersby, speaking kindly but deliberately, and always in German.
“Part of the cooking exhibit is that they only speak German,” Barbara Thormann said. Her piece, titled “Hamburg,” captivated those walking through the East Gallery. It consisted of plush, colored skyscrapers arranged on the floor into a makeshift aerial map of Hamburg. Masking tape zigzagged the floor to create the illusion of streets and rivers.
“As you can see, it is small,” Peter Kasselkus said half-jokingly, gesturing to his small stuffed city. “Sometimes we call it Mein Hatten.”
The art students were captivated by the characteristic blend of cultures that defined the exhibit, and a small group of College art students is thrilled at the prospect of reciprocating the exchange this summer – for a variety of reasons.
“I’m actually going to get to see the lifesize cardboard cutouts of me,” Ruffner said with a smile. “I can’t wait.”
(02/12/10 8:20pm)
The Student Government Association (SGA) swore in new members and sanctioned three new organizations during its general assembly meeting on Wednesday Feb.3.
The College welcomed the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), an outreach organization focused on individuals in the community with developmental disabilities, Pi Sigma Epsilon, a business fraternity primarily concerned with sales and marketing, and the Interfaith Council, a club intended to foster discussion between students of different religious preferences.
CEC and Pi Sigma Epsilon passed unanimously without issue. Members of SGA praised both organizations for bringing new elements to hackneyed arenas. CEC intends to run like a no-strings-attached Best Buddies program, in which students establish relations with disabled members of the community without a weekly time commitment. SGA initially feared Pi Sigma Epsilon would overlap Delta Sigma Pi, which offers members the chance to compete in business competitions in the fields of sales and marketing.
they were pleased with the outcome of SGA’s vote.
Interfaith Council passed by a majority vote. Some dissent arose from concern the club was designed to deal with issues already within the jurisdiction of other religious organizations on campus.
“I would like to stress that we are not a religious group,” said Amtul Mansoor, sophomore biology major, during her organization’s opportunity to address the assembly. “We are more of a forum, to discuss issues pertinent to all religions.”
Interfaith Council hopes to take trips to different sites of worship and hold symposiums, including the flagship event they hope to present within the coming weeks.
“I’m glad they passed this club,” said Kyle Tomalin, freshman English major who helped present the club’s mission to SGA. “I think its right in league with what the college has been going for in its liberal learning program, and it’s great to see that manifest as a club.”
Other chief business included inaugurating new senators and class council members to SGA and reflecting upon the success of the College’s recent “Here for Haiti” event, in which SGA played a major role.
“I was tremendously encouraged by the SGA’s support of this program,” executive president Billy Plastine said. “A huge thank you from me to all of you.”
(02/10/10 12:23am)
Nine hundred and fifty-seven.
Apparently, that’s the College’s answer to the question that has tortured young candy enthusiasts for decades — just how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
This answer was one of several revelations delivered by Peter Boie, the self-proclaimed Magician for Non-Believers, to a packed Rathskeller on Friday night. Others revealed that, given a suitably dramatic background track, it is possible for one to wrangle his way out of a straitjacket in five minutes flat, that an over-the-top Siegfried and Roy impression can amplify even the simplest feat of magic and that the difference between reality and illusion is a matter of perspective.
Boie, whose talent for mystique and knack for showmanship earned him nominations for Best Novelty Performer and Fastest Rising Star by Campus Activities Magazine, delighted the wall-to-wall crowd at the Rat with sleights-of-hand, harrowing escapes from a variety of “lethal” contraptions (notably, the Thumbcuffs of Death) and clairvoyance.
He played all of a traditional magician’s hands — tricks with cards, tricks with scarves, tricks with the assistance of bewildered audience members — but threw in a few of his own as well.
In one instance, he brandished a blue scarf, turning it over and over between his fingers and chatting with the audience until the mood was sufficiently lulled, at which point a single flash of his hand turned it into — snap! — an egg.
“This is a magician’s old favorite,” he said. “What they don’t want you to know is they’ve really got the egg in their hand the whole time. It’s plastic and it has a hole in it.” He reenacted the trick for a bemused audience, revealing how the egg and scarf were strategically placed in the magician’s hand and one was fed into the other while the magician struck up a casual rapport with his crowd.
But just as members of the audience were beginning to feel there was reason for their non-belief, Boie delved into the large box positioned in the center of the stage. He emerged with an eraser, and, flourishing the scarf and plastic egg, added offhandedly, “So we know the egg has a hole in it. That’s how this trick is done. But what happens when you simply … erase it?” With that, he rubbed the eraser three times over the hole, and it disappeared, to awed gasps from the audience. He cracked the egg, no longer plastic, into the cup. “Then, you get magic.”
An unassuming, dryly funny stage presence, Boie knew how to engage a college audience. One stunt found him holding aloft a rope with four knots in it, asking a female volunteer to blow on each knot to make it disappear. After three failed attempts, Boie quipped, “You don’t get a lot of practice with this, do you?”
His persona, not overtly bawdy, ensured that it took the audience a few moments to grasp the double entendre, but when they did, scandalized laughs rippled through the audience.
And then there was the Tootsie Pop. Approximately halfway through the show, Boie asked for a volunteer to help the College crack the riddle that has puzzled our generation since 1969 — the one involving that animated kid, Mr. Owl and a Tootsie Pop. From a throng of volunteers, he called up Lindsay Flanagan, freshman elementary education major, to complete the task of licking a Tootsie Pop to its Tootsie Roll center, and counting her licks on a Tootsie Pop Lick-o-Meter, a device that records the number of “licks it takes” on a small LCD screen. He set up Flanagan with a Tootsie Pop she randomly drew from his bag and the Lick-o-Meter, and sent her back to her seat to tackle her assignment.
At the end of the show, Boie called Flanagan back up. “Lindsay! Are you still licking?”
In fact, she had stopped, recording the number of licks it took her to reach the Tootsie Roll center on the small device. Once onstage, Boie asked her to remove from the Rathskeller stage’s right wall a large envelope marked “finale” that had been taped there since the first trick.
“This was my prediction,” Boie announced, “for the flavor and lick count of this lollipop Lindsay licked tonight. Would you please read it for me, Lindsay?”
Flanagan could barely contain giggles of glee as she read Boie’s predictions for the fate of the grape lollipop she had just finished enjoying: “It will take 957 licks, and the lollipop will be grape.”
“I thought it was unbelievable that he knew exactly how many licks she had and what flavor lollipop she had, because the envelope was sitting there the whole time,” said Stephanie Burdel, sophomore elementary education major.
Burdel captured the sentiment of the audience — awed, delighted and feeling as though they witnessed something that defied reality, something unbelievable.
Or perhaps it is not so unbelievable after all. Maybe it is, as Boie said, magic.
“Whatever you believe,” he told the audience, “just know that reality is the illusion.”
(02/02/10 6:31pm)
To commemorate the memory and celebrate the legacy of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who contributed to special needs advocacy at the College and worldwide, a number of events were held on Jan. 27 surrounding the importance of reaching out to those with disabilities.
Shriver died at age 88 on August 11, 2009. She was the youngest sister of President John F. Kennedy. Her younger sister had mental disabilities.
Benjamin Rifkin, dean of the school of Culture and Society, hopes that the legacy of Eunice Kennedy Shriver will reverberate with those who attended for years to come.
“I think what I’d want students to take from the presentation is the fact that it is critically important for us to respect people who are different, and to value everyone,” he said.
Shriver had ties with the College and the Special Olympics program held annually during the summer. She visited the College in 2006. A documentary made about her visit was shown during the memorial.
Rifkin also said he was “very pleased” with the whole day.
Events began at 2 p.m. with an academic panel discussion on how to best accommodate those of different abilities.
Lorraine Allen, the regional director of the College’s New Jersey Small Business Development Center (NJSBDC), capped off the second session of the two-part panel discussion with her presentation, “Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Creating Self-Employment as an Economic Opportunity.”
Following the academic panel discussion, the Library Auditorium hosted Sheryl Burgstahler, a visiting professor from the University of Washington in Seattle. Burgstahler, who is also the director of two disability services programs at the University of Washington, advocated the practice of Universal Design — the design of products to accommodate all people — on a college campus.
She began her lecture with a nod to the event’s inspiration.
“I’m honored to be here at an event commemorating Eunice Shriver,” Burgstahler said. “She is my personal role model. She truly embodied the idea of a leader as a public servant.”
The events continued at 7 p.m. with the Evening Celebration, a series of spoken and video presentations honoring Shriver’s legacy and extolling the far reach of her work’s impact.
Hosted by Rifkin and Richard Blumberg, associate professor of Special Education, Language and Literacy at the College, the evening featured presentations by those who had been directly or indirectly touched by the work of Shriver.
One of the speakers was Bernard Carabello, a disabilities rights advocate and former resident of Willowbrook State School, an institution for those with developmental disabilities whose abominable living conditions caused New York Senator Robert Kennedy to refer to it as a “snake pit” on his 1965 visit to the school.
Carabello was also part of the famous investigation by Geraldo Rivera, whose published exposé of the true situation at Willowbrook led to a class-action lawsuit and the school’s eventual closure. Rivera interviewed Carabello in secret on numerous occasions while he was a resident of the institution.
Other presenters were Thomas Sullivan, a member of the Board of Directors of the Special Olympics of New Jersey and a 1980 graduate of the College, and several members of the Bonner Center. Both presentations stressed the importance of making time to volunteer with those with developmental disabilities, in the vein of Shriver.
Sullivan, who worked with Shriver as a figure in the Special Olympics which Shriver founded in 1968, spoke of her diligence, compassion and extremely high standards.
“Eunice was an amazing and inspirational person. She made everyone better,” he said. “But she wasn’t easy to work with.”
He also spoke of what he felt was her inspiration for her countless humanitarian undertakings, particularly those that focused on improving the lives of those with disabilities.
“It’s about respect and human dignity,” Sullivan said. “It’s about the basic fact that we are all equal. We might be a little different in terms of our capabilities, but the fact remains, we’re all equal.”
“If we can’t treat people with disabilities with respect, there can be no respect or liberties for anyone,” Rifkin said. “We as citizens have to stand up and protect the rights of everyone in the world, and not just because it’s the right thing to do, in it of itself.”
The event was a collaborative effort between the office of Academic Affairs, the school of Culture and Society, the school of Education, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and others.
(02/02/10 2:49pm)
For a building designed to nurture creative spirit, the new Art and Interactive Multimedia (IMM) Building was surprisingly devoid of color.
That is, until last Wednesday, when the unveiling of a new art gallery exhibit, the first opened in the new the Art and IMM Building, interrupted the drab gray of new concrete walls with a shock of color, warmth and vibrancy.
“Inherited Traits,” which features artwork by Nina Katchadourian and Heidi Kumao and runs until March 2, premiered at the College on Wednesday with a two-hour ceremony, during which the public and campus community were invited to view the works and speak with the two artists.
Also in attendance were Sarah Cunningham, director of the College art gallery and curator of “Inherited Traits,” and Karin Christiaens, senior art history and English double-major and curatorial assistant. The two worked tirelessly for months over the past summer shaping the Art and IMM Building’s inaugural gallery based on a number of inspirations.
“The CCIC (Committee for Intellectual and Cultural Community) theme for the year is family,” Christiaens said, “so we decided to do something related to family, whether it be cultural or generational, something related to various types of inheritance.”
They also wanted to utilize another force guiding the College this academic year — the spirit of embracing new types of media and technological advances embodied by the College’s newest building.
Working as an assistant to Cunningham through the College’s Mentored Undergraduate Summer Experience (MUSE) program, Christiaens spent the summer combing directories, the Web and the streets of New York City, searching for artists whose visions aligned with theirs.
“It was really exciting when we found two artists whose works spoke to each other, as well as to the ideas we had been batting around all summer,” Cunningham said.
Though this interplay between the two artists’ different visions is one of the more fascinating aspects of the exhibit, each artist’s work is firmly planted in its own interpretation of the words “inherited traits.”
Katchadourian’s three pieces, “Genealogy of the Supermarket,” “Accent Elimination” and “The Nightgown Pictures,” celebrate familial legacy. The first is a large-scale wall installation — 90 framed photographs connected by metal rods to take on the likeness of a family tree, accentuated by a background of richly textured red wallpaper. What makes this piece stand out, besides its magnitude, is the photographs. They are not of a family in the traditional sense — they are of supermarket characters.
“‘Genealogy of the Supermarket’ is not so much working with my family,” Katchadourian said, “but, you could say, with our collective family.”
“Accent Elimination” and “The Nightgown Pictures,” on the other hand, are works rooted deeply in Katchadourian’s family. The former is a multimedia presentation — six television sets showing Katchadourian, her mother and her father attempting to acquire or drop a distinctive accent. The latter is a series of photographs taken alternately by Katchadourian’s grandmother and the artist herself that depict, respectively, Katchadourian’s mother in a childhood nightgown on every birthday from infancy to adolescence and the spots, revisited decades later, that those pictures were originally taken.
“Although ‘The Nightgown Pictures’ is rooted in the tradition of the family photo album,” Cunningham wrote in the catalog exhibit’s description of the piece, “Katchadourian transcends the pitfalls of saccharine sentimentality with her stark complements to her grandmother’s images.”
Kumao’s works avoid sentimentality altogether by presenting an unvarnished portrait of both the joys and the horrors of familial inheritance. Focusing on “the family” in just one out of three pieces, the bulk of her work concerns itself with the discrimination and hatred that can arise from one group of people not accepting another’s “inherited traits.” Her first piece, “Transplant,” is a video installment depicting the Japanese internment of 1942, a piece that requires one to consider, according to the exhibit catalog, “inheritance sociologically … (and) at the same time, genetic legacy.”
Kumao calls her second piece, “Translator,” a “‘kinetic sculpture’ — a combination of robotics, video projection and viewer-controlled media.” Without interaction, it is a plastic bowl with spindly metal legs and tiny skates attached, hanging from a rod balanced between two video projector heads seated atop tiny armchairs. With interaction, the viewer can move the “bowl girl” back and forth with a tiny hand-crank, between the two armchairs while the projectors squawk instruction and beam images onto the bowl “body.” Kumao said she wanted this piece to explore how it felt to be “trapped in a family.”
Her third and final piece, “Trace,” thrilled Cunningham and Christiaens upon its arrival at the College.
“Heidi Kumao’s piece ‘Trace’ is being shown for the first time here at (the College),” Christiaens said.
Indeed, “Trace,” a video installment depicting Frederick Douglass’ journey to literacy, makes its debut at the College. Kumao continued to explore themes of being trapped by and escaping from inherited traits brought up in “Translator” in this piece.
Students were awed by the depth of thought that went into the work displayed in the new exhibit, though in some cases it was something simpler that drew them to the gallery.
“The walls have been gray in here for so long,” said Emma Kapotes, a freshman graphic design major who takes several classes in the new Art and IMM Building. “I was just excited to finally see some color.”
(12/01/09 4:12pm)
There was no shortage of hype for Robert Channing’s appearance at the College last Monday, Nov. 23.
Posters adorning the walls of just about every building advertised the “Night of Enchantment,” the College Union Board-sponsored event featuring the world-famous mind reader. White type leapt from a swirling dark blue background: “Witness the impossible … Watch your friends squirm with anticipation and scream with sheer thrill as your mind is read and your future is foretold.”
As if the poster itself could predict the future, that’s what happened.
Channing, introduced to a packed Rathskeller as “the man who knows what you’re thinking,” began his show by assuring the audience that anyone who could prove he was using any form of assistance would receive a $100,000 reward. Knowing he had successfully enticed the cash-strapped College students comprising the audience, he immediately set to work proving no one would receive it.
Channing began his performance with several basic activities to acclimate the audience to the novelty of a mentalist show.
He asked all men to stand up and choose numbers between one and 100 — then rattled off the numbers, to bewildered nods, as if reading from a shopping list.
He called two students up to the stage, a tactic he would employ throughout the night, and asked them to flip to a random page in two lengthy books he provided, pick out a word and not show him. He identified the words within 30 seconds and asked the students to confirm.
“Extended?” he asked the first student to a nervous titter of assent.
“Curiously?” he asked the second. Marisa Gonzalez, junior marketing major, laughed and nodded.
The games had more than sufficiently piqued the crowd’s interest, but Channing had only just begun.
The mentalist called up two members of the audience and asked them to blindfold him. Armed with seven pieces of duct tape, two half-dollars and a double-thick cloth napkin, all provided by Channing, the two students rendered him blind for the next activity, in which he claimed to tap into his “sixth sense” — something more easily accomplished, he said, when another sense is closed off.
He sent his two accomplices into the audience to obtain three items — “the wackier the better,” Channing said — from various students. Once they returned with a small arsenal of items, he correctly identified a ketchup bottle, a woman’s “kitty cat” watch, and a shoe — “a moccasin, from a female’s … right foot? Is that correct?”
Nat Sowinski, freshman international studies major missing a right shoe, called out to confirm Channing’s suspicion.
For what would be the longest activity of the night, Channing asked students to write down a question as well as some other identifying information — nickname, a number and a funny moment in their lives. Without taking off the blindfold, he would draw a card, identify a student based on one of these pieces of information and answer their question.
The results dropped every jaw in the audience. Spellbound, students watched as Channing drew a card, and, though he could see nothing, called out to them.
“Allie Cat?” he said after drawing a card. “You had a dream you were reading a book — about how to pee?”
Allie Axel, junior sociology major, stood to explain her funniest moment with a laugh.
Channing concluded the show by unveiling his prediction for the show, made prior to his appearance. He asked four students to stand up and asked each to name one facet of their dream vacation — the date, the location, the budget, and the person they’d want to accompany them. Students told him they’d want to spend $5,000.23 on a vacation to Antigua on June 15, 2013, with Greg.
Presenting a double-sealed envelope marked “Prediction,” Channing had a student open it to reveal his prediction. A gasp ran through the audience as the student read “5,000.23. Antigua. June 15, 2013. Greg.”
Channing’s “Night of Enchantment” left students baffled, captivated and with the feeling they had truly witnessed something clairvoyant.
“I thought it was awesome,” Axel said. “I love magic.”
(11/17/09 9:26pm)
Professor Larry McCauley began his poetic interpretation with an apology.
“I apologize in advance,” the professor of English said, “for the crimes of interpretation I shall commit during my first analysis of this poem.”
He cited pathetic fallacy and the use of biological references as his offenses, claiming that although he is ardently opposed to students’ use of them, he felt they were necessary to a full understanding of the poem.
“Also, I will make repeated attempts to mitigate my interpretive crimes,” the he said with a smile.
However, McCauley’s “crimes” proved no obstacle to appreciating his comprehensive analysis of Christina Rossetti’s poem “In the Artist’s Studio.” McCauley discussed the poem before 50 members of the staff and student body in the final close reading of the year on Thursday Nov. 12 in the Building Business Lounge.
McCauley discussed the sonnet’s use of ambiguity, the tension between singularity and multiplicity, and fragmentation during the course of the reading.
He focused on the poem’s overarching theme of the woman as an object whose life was sucked from her by the painter’s overbearing gaze.
Though the subject he discussed was weighty, he delighted the audience with flashes of tongue-in-cheek wit that kept the mood buoyant.
Discussing the punctuation in the poem, McCauley referred to the seventh line of the sonnet.
“A saint, an angel; – ” the line begins.
“Then we have that semicolon dash,” McCauley said. “A common Victorian emoticon.”
McCauley also discussed themes of vampirism, chauvinism and struggle for power, themes that students found intriguing and worth closer inspection.
“His connection to vampirism was interesting,” said Meredith Jeffries, freshman English and deaf education major. “I wouldn’t have seen that on the first read-through.”
After the reading, McCauley fielded a number of insightful questions from both students and professors. The questions ranged from further biographical inquiry to conjectures on the use of metaphor, word choice, and poetic technique.
The questions also drew out a number of literary comparisons to “In the Artist’s Studio.” Simona Wright, professor of the modern languages and international studies departments, compared the poem to works of Dante. David Venturo of the English department compared the work to John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale.”
Students were impressed by McCauley’s in-depth analysis of the poem.
“I thought McCauley had an insightful and intriguing interpretation of the poem,” said Andy Gallagher, freshman English and secondary education major. “He also added humorous aspects to his lecture to lighten the mood.”
For his part, McCauley atoned for the interpretive crimes he confessed at the onset of the close reading by presenting a clear and technically correct analysis of the poem.
Those members of the audience who weren’t won over by the jargon assisted interpretation were charmed, as Gallagher was, by the professor’s humor.
When discussing an aptly placed colon in one of the final lines of the sonnet he suggested was there to recall a vampire bite’s puncture marks, McCauley referred back to his crack about computer lingo in the 1800s.
“I wasn’t serious about the Victorian emoticon,” he said, “but I’m serious about this. We’re close reading here.”
(11/10/09 7:04pm)
Thanks to YouTube and the boredom of two community advisors (CA), students were treated to the charming voice of Terra Naomi at the Rathskeller on Nov. 3.
CAs Tamra Wroblesky, senior history and women and gender studies major, and Nicole Lareau, junior chemistry major, were browsing YouTube while on hall office duty when they stumbled upon Naomi, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who got her beginnings as a YouTube celebrity, winning the site’s inaugural “Best Music Video” award for her song “Say It’s Possible” in 2006. The pair was so impressed with Naomi’s down-to-earth persona that they e-mailed the artist to ask if she wouldn’t mind stopping by the College on her current U.S. tour to play for the “Make Miracles Happen” event to benefit local organization, One Simple Wish.
Naomi did not disappoint. She played nine original songs, opening with her hit “Say It’s Possible” and closing with the lovely, guitar-accompanied “Nobody Knows You Anymore.”
The artist played alone, with her own guitar or piano acting as the only accompaniment. Her songs were melody-driven, lyrical and reflective, reminiscent of a stripped-down Joni Mitchell.
Several were intensely personal, including “The Vicodin Song,” sung to a haunting melody played on piano. According to Naomi, she wrote the piece after having a metal plate installed in her arm after a car accident and “basically living on Vicodin, cooped up in my apartment.”
The songs were replete with inspiring lyrics and a message of hope, one that echoed through the entire event.
“She’s a great singer, and I was inspired by how generous she was, donating a portion of everything she sold to charity and everything,” said Christina Bogdanski, freshman biology major.
The concert was sponsored by department of Residential Education and Housing, Prism, Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL), and funded by the Residence Hall Association (RHA). The Trentones, one of the College’s a capella groups, opened for Naomi.
Danielle Gletow, founder of One Simple Wish, also took the stage to speak about her organization. One Simple Wish, launched in 2008, is a charity based in Trenton that grants small requests for items or experiences ranging in value from $5 - $100 to local children.
“It allows everyday people to give small amounts of money, anything they have lying around, to make a wish come true,” Gletow said. “It’s a way for people to help out in small ways that will make a difference in children’s lives.”
Throughout the night, donation boxes were passed around, and the audience was encouraged to donate a small amount of money to the cause. A portion of the proceeds from Naomi’s merchandise also was donated to One Simple Wish.
Naomi said she was thrilled to be a part of the event. She closed her set with a heartfelt thank you to One Simple Wish.
“Thank you guys for doing what you’re doing,” Naomi said. “I think it’s really important, and I’m really happy to be a part of it.”
(11/04/09 2:14am)
Several minutes after 8 p.m., the crowded basement of the Business Lounge showed no sign of the Mixed Signals.
That is, until they thundered into the room in an exhilarating blur of sound and color, clad in an mish-mash of wacky Halloween costumes and singing “It’s A Small World After All.”
The Mixed Signals, the College’s improvisational comedy troupe, seemed an off-kilter, funny and quirky group of individuals — an impression they maintained throughout the night.
In penguin costume was Steve Fingerhut, senior math major, who kicked off Thursday night’s Halloween show with the popular “Good, Bad and Ugly” game. Featuring Steven Avigliano, junior English major, Cat Cosentino, senior communication studies major and Liz So, sophomore self-designed international study of gender major, the game required its participants to give alternately good, bad and ugly advice to questions posed from members of the audience.
The vivacity and impeccable comic timing displayed in the first game continued throughout the night, piloting the comics through 12 improvisational games, including “Pull that Line,” in which the Mixed Signals performed an everyday scene interrupted occasionally by lines written in by members of the audience. In this case, the “everyday scene” consisted of a rambunctious preteen being fried by chemicals after jumping into a neighbor’s over-chlorinated pool.
“Let me know if she surfaces!” cried Jill Hernandez, junior philosophy major, as the mother of the drowned neighborhood punk, prompting howls of laughter from the audience.
Students in attendance appreciated the animated sense of fun that characterized the Mixed Signal’s comedy.
“I was laughing the entire time,” said Joe Montes, freshman biology major. “They put on a great show.”
(11/04/09 2:09am)
Matty Boland, frontman of the trio Matty B and the Dirty Pickles, begins one of his band’s original songs with a jubilant shout — “Get on up! It’s Pickle time!”
Students heeded the singer’s command Friday night during the College Union Board (CUB) sponsored 1950s style band’s performance at the Rathskeller.
The band had been billed on posters advertising the event as a “high-energy assault of ’50s music.” Though its music could be more aptly described as a loving tribute than as an assault, there was no question that the band delivered on the first half of the pledge.
Introducing themselves as “the Dirty Pickles from Erie, Pa.,” the band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Matty Boland (Matty B), drummer Dave Schroeder (Dig !t Dave) and bassist Ben Roemer (Ben Jammin’). The band launched the show with an enthusiastic original song that implored listeners to get up from their seats and dance.
Though students didn’t react immediately, the band’s playful, infectious melodies and rhythm soon changed their minds.
Sampling heavily from its first album, “Picklebilly,” as well as the so-far unnamed new album, the band offered up a healthy share of original material, as well as several well-timed covers. Among the most popular with the Rat crowd were two of Elvis’s hits “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Hound Dog,” as well as the “Monster Mash.”
“We learned it in time for the holiday,” joked Boland.
The Pickles’ spirited cover of Gene Vincent’s 1956 hit “Be Bop a Lula,” saw almost everyone in the audience on their feet. A large group formed in front of the stage, dancing, bopping and swinging to the music.
In addition to Boland’s irresistibly energetic voice, dipping and lurching upward over the music’s many stylistic beats, the singer also put on a show in every sense of the word. He ventured into the audience, playing his electric guitar close to delighted students, jumped off the stage and balanced on the partitioned border between sections of the Rat, walking and hopping one on leg as he sang.
Jared Turner, Rat employee, had never seen anything like it.
“It was awesome,” he said. “The energy was great. We’ve probably had one group here that had the same level of energy. It was definitely a fun show. And I’ve never seen anyone walk across the border like he did.”
Students echoed the sentiment, commenting on the exuberance of the band’s performance.
Nat Sowinski, freshman international studies major, compared the show’s energy level to other performances she’d been to and couldn’t find an equivalent. “I haven’t been to as energetic a concert as this in a long time,” she said.
(10/27/09 4:13pm)
The Rathskeller was host to a diversity of musical genres during the College Union Board (CUB) sponsored Student Band Night. The Brian St. John Quartet, We Set Fires and Attic took the stage Friday Oct. 23 to showcase its talents.
Much anticipation surrounded Attic’s performance. Introduced by CUB co-chair Estephanie Betances as “everybody’s favorite,” the band has performed in numerous past Student Band Nights, and, most notably, opened for last spring’s Ludacris/Lupe Fiasco concert. Consisting of all 2009 alumni, lead vocalist Mina Greiss, vocalist and keyboardist Pierre Miller, Jeremy Bernardo on violin, drummer Dan McFadden and bassist Kyle Macker, the band took instant command of the stage. Its set began with an original piece, “Miss Untouchable.”
Opening the show was The Brian St. John Quartet. The band consists of vocalist Brian St. John of Clemson University, Brian Cornish of William Paterson University on saxophone, senior business major Jon Irizarry on drums, and bassist Randy Sabo, senior psychology major. Highlighting the performance was a spirited cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” featuring a substantial electric guitar riff that dominated the end of the number, as well as a number of enjoyable original songs.
The band exhibited all aspects of their multi-layered style by opening with a sound more in touch with the rock aspect of its three-part genre — rock, jazz and blues — and gradually incorporated elements of jazz and blues with the addition of a saxophone after three songs.
“Their sound was very mature,” said freshman biology major Amanda Costanzo.
Picking up where the Quartet left off was indie/punk band We Set Fires. The band consists of Rowan University’s lead vocalist and guitarist Chris Bratek, bassist Frank Ferro and Dave Leonhardt on guitar and keyboard, and the College’s senior digital arts major Kevin Keane on guitar and drums and senior computer engineering major Brian Schulte on guitar.
It began with a riotous cover of the Pixies song “Where Is My Mind?” on which raucous guitars and drums occasionally threatened to drown out the lead singer. The band’s sound improved on original songs such as “Beers,” where they displayed more cohesiveness on shorter, catchier pieces.
Though the band cites Bright Eyes, Kevin Devine and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists as its influences, these inspirations were nearly undetectable during the band’s heavy power-punk set.