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(04/29/14 11:26pm)
The second annual Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student-wide film contest, took the College by storm as the top 16 student-created films were screened on Tuesday, April 22, in the Brower Student Center.
According to the competition rules, student teams were given one week to write, film and edit a five-minute short film. This year, over 80 teams from the College took on the challenge.
The night’s winners included “Iris” for Best Picture, “Twitch Plays College” for Best Comedy, “The Last Stand” for Best Drama, Steve Munoz for Best Actor in “Iris” and Rebecca Wallace for Best Actress in “Blossom.”
Winners of the Golden Tripod Awards were “Forgot My Pants” for Best Editing and Best Soundtrack , “Iris” for Best Special Effects and “Crescendo” for the Audience Award, which was determined by which team brought the most fans to the event.
Best Picture, Comedy and Drama will continue on to a national event in Los Angeles and compete for $30,000 in cash prizes, professional gigs and industry exposure, according to the Campus MovieFest website.
Junior interactive multimedia majors Kenneth Carter, Brandon Noe and Brian Passafaro, worked together on the film “The Last Stand.” The drama showcases the struggles that many children face growing up in violent communities and the sacrifices people make to protect the ones they love.
“We’re so excited to be given this opportunity to go to Hollywood,” Passafaro said. “It’s an honor to have this privilege.”
When “Twitch Plays College” won Best Comedy, those involved were met with similar feelings of exhilaration and utter shock.
Junior history and secondary education double major Kyle Bennion, junior history major Michael Cort and junior international studies major Sean Harshman first thought of their movie idea after following the Internet phenomenon “Twitch Plays Pokémon.”
In the original game, thousands of people type in commands to control the main character and complete missions using Pokémon. Similarly, in the college version, fictional players were able to control Harshman, the lead actor, on his journey around campus.
“We shot one scene at a mixer during Greek Week, but I kept getting bumped into by drunk girls so we couldn’t use the shots,” Cort, director and cinematographer of the project, said about the filming process.
Closing the evening, freshman interactive multimedia majors Ryan Laux and Chris Lundy and junior interactive multimedia majors Andrew Kuserk and Josh Lewkowicz took the stage in celebration of their film “Iris.”
According to the video, Iris is “the newest, most unique and human personal voice assistance to ever hit the market.” Iris is represented by a robot that taunts its victim, Munoz, before downloading him into the system.
Kuserk designed and animated the robot — who was voiced by junior marketing major Garrett Verdone — while Laux and Kuserk matched and edited the robot into the footage with Munoz. Lundy created the original score and sound effects.
The men emphasized that the entire process was a team effort.
“It’s the best job to have because it’s the most fun to do,” Lewkowicz, the project’s cinematographer and editor, said of making movies with his friends. “You put a lot of emotion into a film and you hope others get that emotion out of it.”
(04/29/14 11:02pm)
Phantogram is the latest hipster buzzword. It can be heard around campus, at parties and by some people complaining that they’re becoming too mainstream with all their recent radio play.
But let’s get one thing straight: Regardless of its amount of airtime, Phantogram is putting out some amazing music that deserves all the hype.
Phantogram recently released its album “Voices” delivers a perfect mix of high-energy electronic jams and darker, softer songs.
The duo, originating from Greenwich, N.Y., is comprised of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, both of whom alternate vocals throughout the album. Combined, the two add unique dimensions to the songs.
“Voices” begins with “Nothing But Trouble,” which features booming bass and a blend of highly distorted and electronic noises. Despite Barthel’s soft crooning, “Don’t listen to me, I’m nothing but trouble,” I can’t help but continue listening to its eerily beautiful and magnetic quality.
Their first single, “Fall In Love,” is a synthetic dream. Something about this song just screams the feeling of driving around late at night with your friends. This is a song you should be happy to hear on the airwaves.
“Never Going Home” has a Daft Punk-esque beginning that leads right into Carter’s guitar playing. This is the first time Carter sings on the album, and his echoing voice emerges with a strangely similar quality to Phil Collins’s “In The Air Tonight.”
For a song titled “The Day You Died,” the next track is ironically upbeat. The album takes a turn here, building momentum and gliding into more fast paced songs with groovy, psychedelic pop vibes.
In “Bad Dreams,” Barthel’s wailing is followed by a tug-of-war with your eardrums as the beat bounces back and forth between the speakers of your headphones.
Finally, the album comes to a close with “My Only Friend,” a sweet mixture of whispered vocals and haunting piano. The whispers then turn into full-out singing, as heavy synth and drums accompany the piano.
Overall, this album is the perfect backdrop to your next night-time summer adventure. There’s something about the duo’s new music that’s sultry and mysterious. It has the ability to make you feel equally invincible and vulnerable at the same time.
Previously, Phantogram had released the album “Eyelid Movies” in 2009, which included the singles “When I’m Small” and “Mouthful of Diamonds.”
Phantogram will be playing on Saturday, May 3, at the Piazza at Schmidt’s in Philadelphia as part of the Radio 104.5 Summer Block Party concert series.
(04/22/14 10:07pm)
Fans and friends let their inhibitions go and moshed to their hearts’ content at the Rathskeller while Save Face, Batten Down The Hatches and Major League performed, marking a spectacular end to the CUBRat spring lineup on Friday, April 18.
The College’s own Save Face opened the show, immediately immersing the crowd in their heavy punk sound.
The band consists of Tyler Cranden, a junior marketing major on guitar and vocals, and sophomores Chris Hranj, a computer science major on bass, Shane Dermanjian, an international studies major on guitar, Tyler Povanda, a mathematics major on vocals, and Chris Flannery, an interactive multimedia major on drums.
They rocked out to songs off their recently-released EP “I Won’t Let This Take My Life” and the 2013 EP “Lost At Heart,” including “Teeth In The Floor,” “Clockwork” and “No Harm Done.”
Throughout the set, Povanda threw himself around the stage and put his microphone into the pit for people to scream along the words.
Dermanjian, also a member of CUB and next year’s Rat chair responsible for bringing acts to campus, is excited to continue the tradition.
“My co-Rat Lauren and I plan on making next year’s schedule just as stacked as they have been since we both came to TCNJ,” he said.
Next up was Batten Down The Hatches, a rock group from Freehold, N.J., that was performing at the College for the first time.
Vocalist John McManus, guitarists Joey DiCamilo and Adam Lotfi, drummer Kevin Sardy and bassist Bryan Little powered through a killer set of songs off their 2012 EP “Beginnings” and split EP with Random Holiday.
Their set included “In Case We Haven’t Met,” which led right into “Unique New York” and “Rich Mahogany.”
“This song goes out to everyone that got a cheeseburger wrap like me!” Lotfi joked with the crowd.
The night concluded with the headliner Major League taking the stage.
The punk rock unit from Mantua, N.J., was comprised of Brian Joyce and Matt Chila on guitar and vocals, Kyle Bell on bass and Luke Smartnick on drums.
The crowd burst into excitement as they played songs off their 2012 album “Hard Feelings” like “Walk Away” and “Because Heaven Knows.”
Before the band played “Arrows Crossed,” they dedicated the song to Batten Down The Hatches.
“We’ve been playing together for three years,” Joyce said. “They always have our backs and let us crash at their house.”
The show was certainly the perfect ending to a series of talented musical performances throughout the semester that brought music lovers of all genres together.
Thomas Barr, a sophomore economics major, always enjoys coming to the Rat on his Friday nights.
“The Rat fosters a culture you can’t get anywhere else on campus,” Barr said.
This special feature is what keeps students coming out week after week. Here’s to another year of awesome live music.
(04/22/14 4:03pm)
Kal Penn is not your typical actor. Sure, he can play a variety of roles — from a stoner on an odyssey to find the perfect hamburger, to a suicidal doctor working under Dr. Gregory House — but his best role yet has been in real life, working for the White House. Penn visited the College on Monday, April 14, to give a heartfelt lecture about his transition from Hollywood to Washington D.C. in Kendall Hall’s Main Stage Theater.
The actor-turned-civil-servant proved to the audience that there was much more behind the man than what many fans see in his films and television shows by sharing personal anecdotes about scoring his first major audition and organizing events for the President.
As the Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, Penn has given his all to making a difference in the country where he sees major flaws, like the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the overwhelming student debts. He willingly took a sabbatical from his flourishing acting career following Barrack Obama’s first presidential election and continues to go back and forth between the two jobs.
“It can be done. It (staggers) your career development in your primary career so you just have to be okay with that,” Penn said about juggling his multiple responsibilities in an interview with The Signal.
In October 2007, Penn saw that Obama was down 30 points in the polls. Along with his aversion to the injustices he found around him, he was inspired to volunteer with his then “House” co-star Olivia Wilde, working as campaign surrogates.
Once Obama won the election the following year, there was an open position for the job that Penn had occupied during the campaign. When he was later offered the position full-time, Penn recalled thinking how he could never turn it down.
“I’m sorry, Mr. President. I have another stoner movie to do. I’m going to have to decline,” Penn joked.
Since then, Penn has continued working on getting the nation’s youth to vote as well as promoting Arts and Asian-American outreach.
Of the night’s many White House stories, Penn reflected on one of the first events he had to organize for the President, who would be signing an executive order for the Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Penn could feel the pressure creeping up on him on the days before the event.
“I could only imagine a Politico article coming out the next day with the headline ‘Kumar screws up first White House event,’” Penn laughed.
In his final moments on stage, Penn wanted to give students a few pieces of advice to adhere to, one of them very pertinent to people in the room who have been struggling deciding their career paths and switching majors.
“If your interests change, people will probably call you crazy, and it’s probably a good thing,” Penn said. “It’s okay to find happiness from something other than a steady income.”
So go out there and follow your dreams. Kal Penn told you to.
(04/19/14 11:41am)
Audience members were serenaded with acoustic sets by Hit The Lights and Paper States in the Rathskeller on Friday, April 11.
The show opened with the pop punk unit from Pittsburgh, Pa., Paper States. Ryan Stack and Mike Desmond, both on guitar and vocals, made their debut at the College playing songs off their 2012 EP “Be Alone.”
They performed “Day Spins,” “Be Alone,” “Old Soul” and a song they have not even recorded yet from their upcoming release “Old Fashioned,” which highlighted their slow and soft sound.
The audience especially perked up when Stack crooned about “surviving the semester” in one of his songs.
Stack and Desmond seemed to strum in perfect unison as they did a cover of Taking Back Sunday’s “Decade Under The Influence.”
“If you guys see Major League next week, tell them they suck,” Desmond teased about his close friends.
A music video for their song “Aim To Please” is on YouTube.
Next up was the pop rock band Hit The Lights from Lima, Ohio.
Normally comprised of five members, Nick Thompson was the sole representation on stage, while his bandmates hung out in the back of the Rat and cheered him on.
Everyone sang along as Thompson played the songs “Liars and Cheats,” “Speakers Blown” and “Stay Out” from their 2008 album “Skip School, Start Fights” and 2006 album “This Is a Stick Up … Don’t Make It a Murder.”
He also played “Fragile Eyes,” a song about his sister who was in a coma. She eventually came out of it and graduated from college. Thompson said the song is about being scared of never being able to talk to someone you love again.
In late May of this upcoming summer, Hit The Lights will go on the “Skip School, Start Fights Tour” with Major League, Light Years, Brigades and July.
The band, who took a short break while deciding what direction they wanted to go in, will come out with a brand-new record this summer on a to-be-announced record label.
At one point, Thompson told the crowd that he spent $25 to get his guitar case to New Jersey. Unfortunately, when it arrived, he realized he had left his guitar at home and the case was empty, leaving him to have to borrow someone else’s guitar.
Hit The Lights state their musical influences as New Found Glory, All Time Low and Four Year Strong.
Make sure to come out to the Rat next Friday, April 18, to support a student band at the College, Save Face.
(04/08/14 10:26pm)
The all-female vocalist bands Eisley, Slingshot Dakota and Novelette exuded girl power as they took the stage on Friday, April 4, at the Rathskeller.
Novelette, the project of the Brooklyn-based songwriter Cara Salimando, started the night off with songs off their LP, “Everything Is Happening Now.”
Salimando, on keyboard and vocals, was accompanied by high school friends Matt Keppler on bass, Josh Nussbaum on guitar and Lionel Forrester on drums.
The four performed “The Stars,” “Bookmark” and a new song called “Pyre,” which Salimando wrote this past week.
They list St. Vincent, The XX and Phantogram as some of their biggest influences.
“There’s bags with my face on them if you want to carry my face around campus,” Salimando said referring to the merch table in the back. “Or you can use it for target practice — it’s up to you.”
Next was the indie punk band Slingshot Dakota. Hailing from Bethlehem, Pa., keyboardist and vocalist Carly Comando and drummer Tom Patterson had electric energy on stage.
The duo smiled and stuck their tongues out at each other from across the stage as they played “Cassette,” “Gossip” and “Rasta Bacca” off of their 2012 album, “Dark Hearts.”
The band admits they love to play college shows and wish they were in college still themselves. They wanted to end their set with inspiring parting words for their fans.
“Stay positive,” Comando said. “Do what makes you happy. Do what you love. If anyone is bringing you down, cut them out. You’re all beautiful and awesome.”
Finally, the lights went out and Eisley entered the Rat with colorful neon strobe lights projecting designs across the room.
Following the dramatic entrance, Eisley burst into their songs “Trolley Wood,” “Save My Soul” and “Marvelous Things” off their 2013 album “Currents” and 2005 album “Room Noises.”
The indie rock unit based in Texas is made up entirely of siblings and cousins. Stacy Dupree-King on vocals and keyboard, Sherri Dupree-Bemis on vocals and rhythm guitar, Chauntelle Dupree-D’Agostino on lead guitar, Garron Dupree on bass and Weston Dupree on drums compose the band.
Dupree-Bemis is married to the front man of the alternative band Say Anything.
The band is on tour right now with fellow Texas band Merriment, comprised of Christie and Collin Dupree, the youngest siblings in the musically-inclined Dupree clan.
Collin joined Eisley on stage and played acoustic guitar for the song “Millstone.”
Come out next Friday, April 11, for Hit The Lights and Paper States.
(04/01/14 9:45pm)
Rob Delaney, the 2012 Comedy Central-crowned “funniest person on Twitter” who is widely known for crossing the line on social media, fearlessly dove into taboo topics during his comedy show at the College on Tuesday, March 25, in Mayo Concert Hall.
The show opened with the all-student comedy troupe, The Mixed Signals, who prompted audience members to shout out words that would become the main focus of their completely improvised set.
Following their performance, Delaney flew out from back stage like a bat out of hell and immediately launched into a rant about how New Jersey isn’t all that bad, and the real dump is Long Island.
“I’m not saying this to appeal to you, I don’t care about you as individuals … I probably wouldn’t like a lot of you,” Delaney retorted.
Delaney often interacts with his more than one million Twitter followers, which he notes as sometimes coming with a creepy cost.
“Somebody got a tattoo with like my name, which really upset me. That made me really sad and upset and I hope no one ever does that again,” Delaney said in an interview with The Signal.
The comedian often incorporated his wife and two young children into his set, as many of his jokes stem from personal anecdotes about his life.
When asked if his kids find him funny, Delaney said, “Yes, but that’s not really a good gauge because the oldest one isn’t even three yet … they’re little children, they’ll laugh at anything, they’re little happy fun people.”
Oftentimes it wasn’t what Delaney was saying on stage, rather it was how he was saying it. His comedy was emphasized by his constant physical motion, excessive use of phallic imagery and sound effects.
After divulging intimate details about one of his sexual escapades in college at NYU, Delaney had the audience erupt in equal parts hysterics and repulsion.
The rest of the evening, Delaney tackled racism, homophobia and misogyny.
“Misogyny and sexism make me angry,” Delaney said. “When I was younger I tried them on for size, but then I saw my wife have people come out of her body and I was like ‘you’re fucking magic and I am nothing.’”
Delaney also made note of the strange homophobia featured in beer ads.
“You don’t need to incite hate crimes in your ads,” Delaney said. “Beer commercials should be seven seconds long. Beer. It still exists.”
Delaney is unapologetically himself and uses his blunt honesty to comment on the absurdities of our society.
Delaney will continue his antics this spring on tour and keep shooting vulgarities into the Internet. Here’s to the next million Twitter followers.
(04/01/14 9:45pm)
Students left the Rathskeller with their ears still ringing after watching stellar performances from The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, A Film In Color and Ex Wife on Friday, March 28.
The show kicked off with the Bergen County, N.J., ambient instrumental band, A Film In Color.
Guitarist Alex Lee, bassist Eric Scholz and drummer Josh Alberg played songs off their EP To Scale A Mountain, which was released this March.
The set started with the lights off over the stage and audio playing of muffled hospital noises. An EKG beep grew faster and faster until it flat-lined, causing the lights to go up and the band to erupt in sound.
The music gave off an eerily beautiful vibe with Lee’s heavy use of a distortion pedal and dramatic movements around the stage.
Next up was Ex Wife, a trio from New Brunswick, N.J. The band consisted of Phil Connor on his baby blue bass, Matt Harvey on blood-red drums and Nick Bolton on vocals and black baritone guitar.
The band considers themselves to be shoegaze, a subgenre of alternative rock that uses a significant amount of guitar effects mixed in with indistinguishable vocals.
They played “Rituals,” “Sleepwalker” and “June” off of their 2013 LP New Colors and 2011 EP June.
The set featured numerous guitar solos and in one instance Bolton played so hard his glasses fell off.
The night’s headliner, The World Is A Beautiful Place, got fans out of their seats and flocking to the front of the stage.
The indie rock and emo band has nine members, including Derrick Shanholtzer-Dvorak, Tyler Bussey and Chris Teti on guitar and vocals, Julia Peters on cello, Steven Buttery on drums, Josh Cyr on bass, David Bello on vocals, Chris Zizzamia performing spoken-word poetry and Katie Shanholtzer-Dvorak on keyboard and vocals.
The members seemed to move in perfect unison on the crowded stage, each a vital part of the musical machine.
The band, hailing from Willimantic, Conn., performed the songs “Getting Soda” and “Victim Kin Seek Suit” off their 2013 album Whenever, If Ever and 2010 EP Formlessness, both featuring a slow, melancholy sound.
They will be touring in Europe throughout April with Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate).
(03/25/14 8:25pm)
Students had the chance to hang out with their favorite musicians in the Rathskeller on Friday, March 21, when Paradise Fears and Pentimento performed and connected with their fans.
The first act, Pentimento, was comprised of Jeramiah Pauly on vocals and guitar, Lance Claypool also on guitar, Michael Hansen on drums and Vincent Caito on bass.Hailing from Buffalo, N.Y., the punk rock quartet played songs off their 2012 self-titled LP, the 2011 EP “Wrecked” and the recently-released EP “Inside the Sea.”
The band’s 10-song set included “Conscience (Consequence),” “Almost Atlantic” and “Just Friends,” which showcased Pauly’s passionate singing and Hansen’s hard, fast and loud drum playing.
They just wrapped up the year-long No Country for Old Musicians Tour with Reggie and the Full Effect, the solo project of The Get Up Kids keyboardist James Dewees, with their final tour stop at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, N.J.
The band enjoyed the small, intimate atmosphere the Rat provides concertgoers and performers.
“It was a nice change of pace from the other venues we played at recently where people are there for a specific event,” Hansen said. “Here, everyone can just hang out, eat, do homework — it’s really cool.”
The headliner of the night, Paradise Fears, gave the Rat a more upbeat energy with their alternative pop sound and acoustic guitar and piano playing.
Vocalist Samuel Miller, bassist Marcus Sand, drummer Lucas Zimmerman, guitarists Cole Andre and Jordan Merrigan and keyboardist Michael Walker performed songs off their 2013 album, “Battle Scars,” 2011 “Yours Truly” and EP “Make Them Believe.”
The band played some of their most popular songs including “Lullaby,” “More Than Lust,” “What Are You Waiting For?” and a cover of Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.” The cover song brought back memories of the struggles of adolescence, especially middle school dances, which were described as a “formative time” for Miller.
Throughout the evening, the band engaged the audience by cracking jokes, sharing personal anecdotes and asking questions about life at the College.
Following their cover of R. Kelly’s “Ignition Remix,” Miller quipped, “When it was time to talk about the birds and the bees I said, ‘No, Dad, I listen to R. Kelly, I got this,’” touching on the song’s suggestive lyrics.
Senior women’s and gender studies major Caitlin Bradley considers Paradise Fears to be her favorite band and was thrilled to have the chance to meet them.
“I first learned of them when they went on tour with All Time Low a few years ago,” Bradley said. “(Tonight) they played my favorite song ‘Sanctuary,’ which is like the band’s anthem.”
Check out the bands’ Facebook pages to learn more.
(03/18/14 10:20pm)
The floor in front of the stage became a sea of brightly dyed hair, body piercings and pop punk apparel on Friday, March 7, as excited fans welcomed Citizen and Modern Baseball to The Rathskeller.
The walls were shaking as everyone in the full house was singing and head banging along to the music, in between bites of their cheesesteaks and onion rings.
Modern Baseball opened the night with their feel-good music and it was clear they were having fun on stage.
Brendan Lukens and Jacob Ewald, both on vocals and guitar, Ian Farmer on bass and Sean Huber on drums, played songs off their 2012 debut album, “Sports,” and their recently-released album, “You’re Gonna Miss It All.”
Modern Baseball played the songs “Re-Done,” “Tears For Beers,” “Your Graduation” and “The Weekend,” which the crowd turned into a sing-a-long.
In between songs, the band would talk to the audience — which was comprised of the College students and outside fans — about their favorite television shows, movies and plans for spring break.
“There are some very cool shows here,” Ewald noted of the CUBRat event.
CUBRat co-chair Matthew Mance, a senior interactive multimedia major, has had an incredible experience working with the organization and helping get the acts to campus.
“There’s no other place like the Rat on campus,” Mance said. “A place … where people have the opportunity to let go, where people can make connections with like-minded individuals and actually feel like a part of something — a crowd, a community, a family.”
The Rat was enveloped with chaos once Citizen took the stage, immediately inducing a mosh pit.
Vocalist Mat Kerekes, guitarists Nick Hamm and Ryland Oehlers, drummer Jake Duhaime and bassist Eric Hamm, had kids running around on stage with them and diving into the crowd.
Citizen recently began The Greatest Generation World Tour with headliners The Wonder Years, alongside Modern Baseball, Real Friends and Fireworks.
The hardcore band played songs off their 2013 album, “Youth,” and 2012 album, “Young States,” including the songs “How Does It Feel?,” “Figured You Out” and “I Still Shut My Eyes.”
“If you know the words to the song come on stage and sing along,” Kerekes said.
The energy continued to rise in the Rat as the audience screamed the lyrics almost louder than the vocalist himself. Eric Hamm shredded so hard on his bass that after only two songs he began bleeding from his arm while Modern Baseball’s Ewald and Huber joined in and stage dived into the crowd.
Packed shows like this one make organizers like Mance glad to be so involved at the College.
“Music can change and save lives,” Mance said. “Here’s hoping that we’re bringing that potential experience to everyone we can.”
(03/04/14 8:48pm)
With the recent mass arrest of hundreds in Russia, which included two members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, global feminist and LGBTQ issues were addressed at the College on Wednesday, Feb. 26, in the Library Auditorium.
Irina Aristarkhova, the associate professor of arts and design, history of art and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, spoke on the Pussy Riot phenomenon and shared her insight on the civil rights protests taking place in her homeland.
At the university, the women’s studies program likes to teach what Aristarkhova called “active distancing,” which aims to leave students to make up their own minds about feminism by teaching them multiple truths — not just one ultimate truth.
Following the recent events in Russia, including continued “repression of the freedom of expression,” as well as the signing of legislation against homosexuality by President Vladimir Putin, students have a lot to digest.
Pussy Riot has been hailed in the Western Hemisphere for their music videos showcasing real footage from protest rallies — most recently in Sochi during the Olympics — where they were whipped by several people from a variety of militaristic communities known as the Cossacks.
At home, they are under constant and extreme criticism, being called sell-outs, fake artists and fake feminists.
she also shared what the older generation had to say about the changes taking place. She called her mother in Russia one day and asked if she and her friends talk about Pussy Riot.
“We talk about it all the time,” her mother said. “We all agree that they are very bad mothers.”
Adding to the animosity between the old and new generations, Aristarkhova has overheard members of the Orthodox Church call the band “sinners that have to pay.”
While talking to her mother again, Aristarkhova brought up the topic of homosexuality.
“Why don’t they keep it to themselves?” her mother asked her.
With everything she has studied and believes in, Aristarkhova could not keep these questions to herself, regardless of the answer.
“These cannot become taboo subjects,” she said. “One cannot hope to always be safe.”
Eventually, her mother had a change of heart when she watched anti-gay activists on the television, describing them as violent and rude.
Aristarkhova went on to define the significant historical changes that have taken place with women’s roles in everyday life.
“Everyone must show their loyalty,” she said. “Before, quiet meant approval. Now, keeping quiet isn’t enough. Quiet can mean disapproval. Now (women) must be openly approving.”
The large turnout suggested that the audience seemed to be intrigued in the subject.
As a sophomore history major, Amanda Mastronardi enjoyed seeing aspects of her Soviet Union class play out in modern Russian issues such as feminism.
“It was really amazing to realize that people in Russia right now are so devoted to equality and standing up for freedom that they’re willing to risk their personal safety to fight this cause,” Mastronardi said.
But women, specifically, are standing up.
“The post-Soviet woman demands freedom in the streets and in the church,” Aristarkhova said of the ever-changing cultural and political landscape. For that ultimate goal, “she risks her life.”
(03/04/14 8:31pm)
Avid fans and newcomers alike enjoyed intimate and unplugged performances from the bands Transit and Turnover on Friday, Feb. 28, in the Rathskeller.
Both bands, which are going on major tours in the United States and Europe this spring, changed things up to hang out at the small on-campus venue to meet fans and grab a drink.Turnover vocalist and guitar player Austin Getz, alongside guitarist Eric Soucy, performed songs off their full-length album, “Magnolia,” as well as songs from their self-titled EP.
The rest of the band, drummer Casey Getz and bassist Danny Dempsey, were seen hanging around the merch table and rooting on their fellow bandmates.
The band, hailing from Virginia Beach, Va., recently wrapped up a tour with New Jersey hardcore band Blind Justice and has a new EP out featuring the song, “I Would Hate You If I Could.”
Freshman English major Brooke Schmidt went to the show to try something different.
“I come to the Rat to discover new music,” Schmidt said. “The set definitely made me want to check out more of their stuff.”
In mid-March, they are going on tour with I Am The Avalanche, which had to cancel headlining the night’s show.
In its place, Transit made a triumphant return to the Rat, having played there over a year ago.
Vocalist Joe Boynton and guitarists Tim Landers and Torre Cioffi led the set, strumming away to Boynton’s impassioned singing.
The indie post-hardcore group played songs from their 2013 album “Young New England” and 2011 release “Listen & Forgive.”
“We just came back from Vans Warped Acoustic Basement Tour,” Boynton said. “The snow ended up canceling some of our
shows. In Toronto, it snowed two feet, so we couldn’t play. In Alabama, it snowed two inches, so we couldn’t play.”
The band played hits like “Long Lost Friends” and the so-called drinking anthem “Young New England,” as well as a cover from the New Jersey pop punk band Man Overboard, which played at Ratfest last spring.
“Pick up a shirt, pick up a CD, keep eating that sandwich,” Boynton said, scanning the crowd and sensing the mellow atmosphere of the night.
In one of the last songs of the evening, “You Can’t Miss It,” the band and audience sang the chorus, “you won’t miss us,” in unison. But it seemed that students in the Rat certainly would.
(02/25/14 4:56pm)
The Rathskeller will be packed in the upcoming months, as established artists take to the stage, but not before one last night for students to showcase their own talents. Friday, Feb. 21, marked the last Student Soloist Night of the semester, which will usher in CUB Rat’s exciting spring lineup.
The first of the four performers of the night, Dan Gibson, a senior marketing major, wailed on his electric guitar as he sang both original and cover songs.
Gibson played songs by Bruce Springsteen and Alkaline Trio, as well as a passionate rendition of “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley, which he told the crowd is his mom’s favorite.
Gibson also played original music from the EP “Two Songs One Cup” from his band, The Dundees, who played at a Student Band Night last spring semester with TCNJ punk band Save Face.
The next performer, Allyn Calvis, a senior biomedical engineering major, played an acoustic set.
Calvis pumped up the crowd with two medleys of popular songs that featured “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake and “Thinkin Bout You” by Frank Ocean.
Her second medley combined the works of Bruno Mars, Capital Cities and Macklemore, where the audience clapped and rapped along to “Thrift Shop.”
Calvis dedicated one song to her Barkada family, a Filipino organization on campus, which cheered her on throughout her set.
“Your confidence in me has given me confidence,” she said about everyone’s support for her musical endeavors.
Up next was junior health and exercise science major Selena Seto, who thrashed on her cherry-red electric Santana guitar.
Seto has played a variety of events on and off campus and mainly displayed original songs that she had been working on until she felt they were ready to be shared.
“I wanted to perform tonight, partially because I wanted to kind of see how people liked my songs, partially because there’s something about performing in front of people that I find nerve-rackingly satisfying,” Seto said.
Closing the show was Elizabeth Maricic, a senior international studies major.
The tables at the Rathskeller were packed with her fellow Sigma Kappa sorority sisters who were rooting on one of their own.
Maricic played the guitar while singing Nelly’s “Hot In Here,” in what she called a “rap song gone acoustic.”
Her rendition of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers had the sisters singing and stomping along.
“I always dreamed of being on Broadway, but I never thought I’d make it to the Rat,” she jokingly said with a smile.