The senior class officers have decided to not offer the usual open bar at the March 1 Senior Cocktails event after disorderly conduct at October’s event caused the bus company to cancel its contract with the University. “We changed the drinking situation and it will vary from event to event,” said Senior Class President Rashida Richardson ’08.
A recent reduction in the amount of New York Times issues available on campus—due to a ten-cent increase in per-paper cost—has not interfered with students’ access to the newspaper. “So far this year it hasn’t seemed like there’s that much paper shortage,” said Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) Vice President Emily Malkin ’08.
When Intisar Abioto ’08 addressed the packed Zilkha Gallery, she used language as a medium of movement as well as of verbal power, exclaiming, “Minority…is not a real word because we’re here!” Abioto spoke to an assemblage of more than 100 students gathered for the February 14 opening of “Skittles,” the second annual art show displaying work by Wesleyan student of color artists.
Whether single, in a relationship, or anywhere in between, students seem less than thrilled about St. Valentine’s Day: it’s a capitalist racket; it puts pressure on couples and ostracizes singletons; candy rots your teeth and Hallmark cards are trite. We sympathize, but would like to counter these complaints by offering a more inclusive notion of Valentine’s Day.
Yesterday, I read about a bride who literally died in the arms of her new husband at her wedding, while dancing to a song called “Love Me.” She was only 36 and she had heart failure. Now, if that doesn’t have irony written all over it, I don’t know what does. And although her now widowed husband will probably be having a miserable Valentine’s Day, I send out a word of caution before you do too.
I’m an Obama girl. You may not find me crooning “I Got a Crush…” in red hot pants like The Obama Girl of grandiose YouTube fame, but I am certainly moved by the guy, and inspired that so many others are inspired. Practically speaking, too, I think he has a better chance of beating McCain---and so I’ll do what I can to ensure that Barack Obama is the forty-fourth president of the United States.
If your Valentine’s Day celebration involved a neon condom decorated with a talking chicken tender, you have Karen Kaffen to thank. Kaffen, co-owner of WesWings, designed the popular giveaway after a conversation with student workers about the restaurant’s suggestive mascot: a chicken tender saying, “Eat me.”
Because going to the Film Series is just lazy. Because Indian Hill will be packed to the gills with couples stargazing and talking about their feelings. Because Thai Gardens is…well…come on…Thai Gardens? Because you spent your best idea on Valentine’s Day, and you’re looking to keep the romance alive all year long. Here are some new and fun ideas for date spots in and around Middletown.
Kari Weil jokes that when she first met Michael Roth she had her doubts. “Sheesh,” she remembers thinking. “Two kids, two books already…” Clearly, however, the man had something going for him. Almost two decades later, the twosome now clinches the title of cutest couple at Wesleyan: President Michael Roth and Visiting Professor of Letters Kari Weil.
The Cardinal Invitational, the last home meet of the track and field team’s indoor season, was a good one for the team, with some very strong performances from athletes across the board. Although a rather small meet, the competition was nonetheless solid, with athletes from the University of Hartford, Coast Guard, and NESCAC rival Williams College on the track.
As predicted, the women’s swimming and diving team dominated Coast Guard Academy at the dual-meet held on Saturday, Feb. 9, ending the day with an overwhelming 60-point victory. The Cardinals celebrated the accomplishment of its four seniors before the meet. “Saturday was a very emotional meet,” said Amanda Shapiro ’08.
On Jan. 26, 2008, Marion Stoj ’74 was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame, along with seven other former players. The ceremony was held in Farmington, Conn., and reunited Stoj with former head coach Terry Jackson and current head coach Geoff Wheeler. Stoj lettered in men’s soccer in each of his four years at Wesleyan, totaling 15 goals and three assists.
Did you ever see the movie “Remember The Titans”? If not you clearly hate America, Denzel Washington, and heartfelt sports movies and you owe to yourself to buy the special edition DVD immediately. Anyways, about halfway into the movie, the black and white players on the movie’s Virginia high school football team resolve their differences and hold a team meeting.
Many rap artists write lyrics that retell their past, a past so mangled that it seems nearly impossible to pull any hope from the wreckage. The African Underground All-Stars, on the other hand, draw their lyrics from a time that allows for more room for change and improvement: the future.
David Konstan, professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition at Brown University, delivered a compelling lecture on Monday at the Russell House on ancient Greek conceptions of animal and human emotion. Konstan’s was the third in this semester’s Center for the Humanities lecture series, “Revision and Translation.”
The second annual Israeli film series opened this past Monday night at the Goldsmith Family Cinema with a screening of the critically acclaimed, 2006 Israeli box office blockbuster film “Aviva My Love.” Following the screening was a brief lecture and Q&A session given by visiting Professor Dr. Miri Talmon-Bohm, currently teaching a class on Israeli cinema.
German new-Romantic Werner Herzog reprises his role as myth-maker meets truth-teller in 2007’s “Encounters at the End of the World.” Inspired by a series of photographs Herzog saw on someone’s desk while in post production for 2005’s “Grizzly Man,” the filmmaker received a grant from the National Science Institute to travel to Antarctica.
Take a walk around the Wesleyan campus, and you’ll likely pass by gender-neutral bathrooms, queer jargon pamphlets and posters for student-of-color art shows, reaffirming the University’s trademark political correctness and multiculturalism. But a peek inside the new Center for Film Studies screening room last Monday night revealed a montage of overt sexism, gratuitous violence and cultural parodies—all to the delight of a cackling room of student viewers.
Chimamanda Adichie, the current Joan Jakobson Visiting Writer, read from her acclaimed novel “Half of a Yellow Sun” this Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the second event in the Distinguished Writers/New Voices series. A graduate of both the University of Nigeria’s Medical School and Johns Hopkins University, Adichie read to a full house of fans at Russell House.
Moisés Kaufman, co-founder and artistic director of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project and co-author of the nationally famous play ‘The Laramie Project,” lectured at the CFA Cinema on Thursday, Feb. 7. Invited by an inter-departmental consortium headed by the Theater Department, Kaufman captivated a small audience in the intimate space of the cinema.
Up until about two months ago, it seemed that 65-year-old British composer Gavin Bryars had practically done it all. From co-founding the deliberately ragtag Portsmouth Sinfonia to creating the found-sound wonder of “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet,” Bryars " who’s been called everything from neoclassic to post-minimalist to avant-ambient " has had an enviable career.
In the vein of one of those old “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels, let’s try a hypothetical scenario about the multimedia exhibit “Lenore Malen and the New Society for Universal Harmony,” showing at the Zilkha Gallery until March 2. We’ll say that, after winding your way through the art installation, you come upon a writing desk with two drawers occupying the back corner of the gallery.
The Top Five failed inaugural Top Five topics.
This is what is going on in my living room right now. 58 Fountain St.: four hot single guys (and one girl) having a happy Valentine’s Day in the living room. “I always wanted to be in the Argus,” explained Brian Colgan ’08. “You could make a good riff on the sexy singles,” Colgan added. “Tell them I’ll be waiting in the back of one of the film series screenings with a….” quipped Mike Litwack ’08.