Month: October 2012

Categories
Arts & Life

A sneak peek into the Day of the Dead celebration

Molly Ford
Writer

The Day of the Dead was celebrated on Nov. 1 in the Vaughan Literature building. Students decorated sugar skulls in the Craft Center with colorful icing on Oct. 30 in preparation.

“I’m from California, so it’s nice to still be a part of the culture while away from home,” Mariah Midyette ’16 said.

The vibrantly designed sugar skulls were presented on an alter set up in Coleman Hall, and Mexican chocolate and Day of the Dead bread was served. The Department of Spanish and members of the Ola club hosted the events.

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Arts & Life Campus Events Music Review

Schwimmer spooks students and faculty with unique music

 

Courtesy of Lisa Leighton
Rob Schimmer, composer, pianist, and thereminist, creatively performs a unique type of music in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts lobby.

Laura Crowley

Writer

Article on Rob Schwimmer

The composer, pianist and thereminist, Rob Schwimmer, had a visible presence on campus earlier this week. Schwimmer, who has worked with Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Willie Nelson and Queen Latifa, brought Halloween spirit to campus by performing his music that Kathryn Maguet, executive director of the Weis Center for Performing Arts, described as “something you would hear in old-school horror movies.”

Rob Schimmer performs for audience in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts lobby.

Schwimmer kicked off his visit on Oct. 30 with a concert in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts lobby. Schwimmer showcased a wide range of his music, spanning from pleasant to unsettling, but never boring. At the concert, which was open to the public, the performer created an intimate and vibrant atmosphere while playing the piano, theremin, Haken Continuum and waterphone. The audience was completely full, and extra seats were provided to accommodate the crowd. 

Schwimmer additionally lectured on Oct. 31 at the Samek Art Gallery when he spoke to professors and students of the physics department about the science behind the many instruments he plays. Schwimmer described exactly how the theremin, an instrument played without direct touch, works by manipulating an electromagnetic field that circles around a metal antenna with the hands.

Also in the Samek Art Gallery was an exhibit on spooky art. The music performance in the art gallery is part of a joint venture between the Weis Center for the Performing Arts and the Samek Art Gallery, called “Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal.”

“[The event] is the first of many things we want to do that combine the visual and performing arts,” Richard Rinehart, director of the Samek Art Gallery, said.

Schwimmer’s last performance featured a film screening of “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey.”

Throughout the first half of this week, Schwimmer visited several classes to explain the science behind various instruments, gave private lessons to music students such as Doug Bogan ’13 and Molly Miller ’14 and visited Lewisburg High School physics classes. Schwimmer’s eerie music set the tone for a festive Halloween.

Categories
Arts & Life Campus Events Review

Vertical Horizon keeps audience dancing and singing to new and old hits

 

Raffi Berberian | The Bucknellian

Kailyn Angelo
Contributing Writer

Whether you came looking for a laid-back good time on a chilly fall night, or you wanted to hear some of your favorite songs from the 90s and early 2000s, the Vertical Horizon concert at Uptown on Oct. 26 pleased many who attended.

“The concert was an extremely worthwhile alternative to those of us not fortunate enough to get Norah Jones tickets, and the smaller venue size of Uptown made the concert all the more memorable,” Drew Yingling ’15 said.

The band’s early hits like “Everything You Want” and “Best I Ever Had” were the obvious highlights of the night. Audience members jumped and swayed along with the music and sang every word so loud that lead singer and guitarist Matt Scannell’s voice became lost in the crowd at times.

“It was awesome!” Nicole Davis ’15 said in immediate response as to what she thought of the performance.

The energy level occasionally faded when the band played songs from its most recent album “Burning the Days,” released in 2009. The same happened when other lesser known songs were played.

Nearer the end, Scannell broke the news that the band would be releasing a new album within the first few months of 2013. They sampled a song that would be on the album and everyone seemed pleased with what they heard because the audience continued to dance.

Categories
Opinion

Parties don’t satisfy all needs of students

Justin Marinelli
Staff Writer

As we pick up and recover from the effects of our good friend Sandy, we also find ourselves faced with the detritus from another disaster: all the hurricane parties we threw while the rain poured down. Let’s be honest, the second we found out that classes were canceled, we started partying. But these parties can’t satisfy us all the time.

Despite how we students sometimes act, we are multifaceted individuals with complex needs and desires that can’t be satisfied by non-stop parties. We might want committed romantic relationships, intellectual conversation or classical music, but we certainly don’t get any of those at registers, mixers and impromptu hurricane celebrations. What we get is a bunch of people crammed into a hot, sweaty basement, and we’re told that this is fun.

Why are we told this? Many theories abound. Here’s mine: Parties are great fun for a lot of people. Sure, they may not satiate all our needs, but they aren’t supposed to. There is no one single activity that can satisfy all your needs. Expecting parties to do so is ridiculous.

We party because it’s a nice release from classes, schoolwork and all the other things we do. That’s all that it’s meant to do. Partying is not the only way of going about getting this release, and its not the only one that students utilize. It’s just another option that can be partaken in if one wishes to relax after a long week.

Yes, we as a campus can party hard at times, but I like to think that we work hard enough to earn it. Between problem sets, papers, clubs, sports, community service and all the other things we do that stimulate and enrich us, satisfying certain needs for accomplishment and intellectual stimulation that we have, we manage to pack a lot of activity into our lives. If partying was the only thing we did, I would probably be writing a scathing article denouncing our lack of involvement. However, it’s not. It’s another piece of the puzzle, another thread in the mosaic that makes up the colorful image of a student at this University.

Some students like to party more than others and take more delight in such activities.  Good for them. Others, not so much. Good for them, as well. This just highlights the need to provide a diverse offering of social opportunities, and if people will participate in something, I see no reason why it shouldn’t happen.

Categories
Opinion

Family bonds grow stronger during college

Caroline Schaeffer
Writer

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. As cliché as that saying might be now, it’s true. For the most part, your relationship with your family becomes stronger once you leave for college, even if only because now a more conscious effort is involved in maintaining the relationship you already had.

College is typically the first time in your life that you don’t live with your family. Mom and dad are out of your hair and siblings aren’t around to steal your clothes or hog the TV anymore. This is all great news; it dramatically cuts down on the things you have to fight about with them on your weekly telephone calls back home. The distance does actually help your relationship with your family get stronger because you’re not constantly around each other and the petty things or minor annoyances that used to cause colossal arguments are no longer present.

Also, the simple fact that so much more effort has to be put into the relationship actually strengthens it. When your only way of talking to someone is over the phone or via Skype, it makes those interactions more important for everyone. To be honest, I share more details about my day-to-day life with my mom now than I ever did when I was still living at home. This includes even the most mundane stories, like what my schedule is looking like for the week. Likewise, I ask my family for smaller details about their lives when I’m talking to them–it makes me feel like I’m less far away than I actually am. When you live in the same house as someone, it’s obvious that you’re not going to sit down together for hours and hash out every detail of what went on during your day, but when you’re miles away from them, you’d be surprised how important those minor details become.

Of course, the downside to this strengthened relationship is the amount of effort you have to put in to it. It’s easy to forget to call someone Monday, then Tuesday and then eventually just put it off until next week. The problem with this is the relationship with your family can only be as strong as you make it. If you put in tons of effort to call, Skype or even text your mom, brother, dad, sister, etc., then you’ll get that stronger relationship easily. But if you get caught up in your own life and forget about those calls and conversations, it’s very possible that your relationship with your family will stay the same, or worse, weaken over time.

No matter how annoying and tiresome your family can be when you live with them, it’s safe to use another cliché and say that you couldn’t live without them. Leaving for college may mean leaving the home you grew up in and the family you grew up with, but it doesn’t have to mean you leave that stuff behind; it just means that you have to try a little harder to keep it with you.

Categories
Arts & Life Movies Review

“Looper” offers a glimpse into a complex and suspenseful future

Carolyn Williams
Writer

Rian Johnson’s latest movie “Looper” is an unusual take on the classic time travel motif. Dark, and uncomfortably more believable than many others of its predecessors, “Looper” is guaranteed to spark conversation.

In 2044, things are not going so well. Poverty and crime rates are higher than normal, and the general attitude towards life seems bleak, but other than that, this close future is pretty plausible. Our hero, Young Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), reveals that 30 years into his own future, 2074, time travel has been invented, but was immediately outlawed. However, future gangs abuse the illegal transportation system to dispose of their victims. They send back their enemies to pre-designated spots where current hitmen are waiting to shoot them. These hitmen, or “loopers,” are well paid, but the work has a heavy price. Every looper must eventually “close his loop,” or kill his own future self, then try to enjoy the next 30 years, knowing exactly what’s coming for him later on. Young Joe himself is a looper.

So when Young Joe finds himself faced with the prospect of his own murder, he hesitates, creating an opportunity for Old Joe (Bruce Willis) to escape. Next follows the requisite “what happens in my future?” scene, where the pair stare at their past and future selves, but it’s not as silly as in some other films–the antagonism between the pair outweighs Young Joe’s natural curiosity, and Old Joe’s disdain for his former life is palpable.

Young Joe knows that if he doesn’t succeed in closing his loop, he will be killed immediately, but Old Joe comes back with a mission. He reveals that his future wife was killed because of his past, and that if he is able to kill the unknown person responsible now, while that person is a child, he’ll stop it all from happening and return to the future and his wife. Young Joe gets in his way, though. Along the way, Young Joe meets a young mother named Sara (Emily Blunt), and learns that her child is part of Old Joe’s hit list. As Young Joe attempts to piece together the best plan of action, the current crime ring starts looking for him as a fugitive, and all of this comes to a dramatic and unexpected head with the film’s ending.

It’s evident immediately that “Looper” is trying to emulate science fiction cult movies like “The Matrix.” Johnson and Gordon-Levitt have worked together before, in “Brick,” but this has none of its predecessor’s film noir style. This is all Hollywood, from the big fight sequences and explosions to Gordon-Levitt’s prosthetic face makeup so that he and Willis look remotely alike. The supporting cast is very solid, with a corrupt Jeff Daniels and a small part for Paul Dano, but overall, the film doesn’t quite deliver. Critics and fans’ opinions were mixed.

“‘Looper’ is a gritty, cold, suspenseful thriller that isn’t for the faint of heart. If ‘Looper’ offers a peak into the future, I think I’ll keep my eyes shut,” moviegoer Mike Williams said.

The film is definitely unusual and gets its audience thinking, but if one thinks about it too much, “Looper” might have a few loopholes too many.

Categories
Arts & Life Campus Events Review

Dr. Counihan discusses gender and food activism

Anna Jones
Writer

On Oct. 25, Dr. Carole Counihan spoke to more than 50 students and faculty in the Willard Smith Library. Her message to the audience was that “food touches everything.” Food is the central item that connects everyone in all different parts of the world, making it something that should be enjoyed as well as protected. She explained that the way to do this is through “food activism,” advancing social and economic justice through food practices, and creating healthy, fair labor conditions as well as fair prices for consumers.

The leading front in food activism today is an organization called Slow Food. It focuses on getting people to slow down and enjoy their food, to make food healthier and to make food practices fairer for everyone involved.

As Counihan discussed Slow Food, her focus shifted to gender in food activism. She pointed out that there are more women working behind the scenes in food activism, yet more men take much of the credit. For example, while at a Slow Food conference, almost the entire board was made up of men, despite the fact that women do most of the actual work.

Although Slow Food has succeeded largely in Italy, with many schools having their own gardens to grow fruits and vegetables, it still faces opposition in other places. Counihan noted that taste versus price is a big issue. If people commit to wanting better tasting food, she said, they’d be willing to pay a little extra. The taste of food is meaningful and emotional, so it’s extremely important to the eating experience.

To conclude her talk, Counihan said that being “honest about your food” is the most important thing in food activism. As long as people are honest about where everything is coming from, food will be better made and people will be able to sit down and enjoy it more.

“This was a topic I’d never considered before, and I believe that more attention should be paid to the Slow Food industry in the United States,” Morgan Houchins ’16 said.

“Everything Dr. Counihan said was relatable to all people on our campus,” Sarah Antonacci ’16 said. “The lengths that some people take to obtain their food and get to know their food are incredible and respectable.”

Counihan is a food anthropologist and professor emeritus at Millersville University. She’s authored several books such as “Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family, and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence” and “The Anthropology of Food and Body: Gender, Meaning, and Power.” She is editor of “Food in the USA: A Reader” and, with Penny Van Esterik, “Food and Culture: A Reader.” She’s also editor-in-chief of the journal “Food and Foodways.”

Counihan studied abroad in Italy directly following college and became fascinated with the differences between Italian and American food consumption. She returned to Italy many years later to intensely study these differences.

Categories
Arts & Life Campus Events Columns Featured Music

Arts & Life Editor Christina Oddo ’14 sat down with Matthew Scannell, lead vocalist and guitarist for Vertical Horizon, before the concert on Oct. 26 at Uptown.

Arts & Life Editor Christina Oddo ’14 sat down with Matthew Scannell, lead vocalist and guitarist for Vertical Horizon, before the concert on Oct. 26 at Uptown.

How did you write the song “Everything You Want?”

“I was living in NYC and money was really, really tight, so it was like a time bomb ticking; when is this all going to crash and burn? One night at around 3:30 in the morning, I was asleep, but I heard this mantra. I thought, wow that’s really cool, I like that. I said I really should, being a ‘song writer,’ get up right now and write this down. But I thought, well it’s so good that I will easily remember it in the morning. I don’t have to get up now. And that never ever happens. You never ever remember anything in the morning. I roll over and I go back to sleep, like you do when you get a great idea. About an hour later, I heard the chords. I thought, I really should get up and write this, but I’m really tired. I’ll remember it in the morning. Then at about 5 o’clock in the morning, I heard the music, the mantra and the chorus all at once, and the lyric was there; everything was there. I said I have to get up now. I thought, this is cool. This is a good song and I need to get up and actually write it down. And it came out very quickly. Sometimes they’re easy like that, or really hard, like ‘Best I Ever Had.’ ‘Best I Ever Had,’ I probably worked on for about six months–coming back to it and going away from it. I knew it was a melody that felt right, but I didn’t know how to get there. And I was experimenting with it in third person. Ben Gross, who was working with us on the record, suggested that I use first person. And he was absolutely right. Instantly the song just came together, and created itself after that I guess.”

How do you prepare for a show?

“Unfortunately, I’m not a natural singer so I have to work at it, and I hate that. I have to rehearse and I have to do warm-up exercises. I take vocal lessons from a vocal coach in LA, and I keep the vocal lessons on my phone. I run down a vocal lesson before I go onstage, so usually about 25 minutes before we go on stage I’m singing and making all kinds of awful noises in the dressing room. And I definitely won’t let you record that!”

What is your favorite part of performing live?

“I love the interaction. I love it when people sing with us. I think that’s the biggest honor. I love the intimacy of that–even when it’s a big group of people. It feels like we’re unified. And the fact that it’s my music is a complete honor; that never fails to amaze me. I love that.”

What is your main inspiration for your music?

“Generally speaking, my experiences inspire me. They are things that I’ve gone through. Every once in a while I’ll write about something I imagine happens out there in the world, more of a story-style song. But most of my songs are first-person experiences, things that have happened to me, whether they are good experiences or bad experiences. They’re all the more real, and the lyrics feel all the more real, because they are things that have been lived. I am able to put a little bit more of my heart into it.”

What was your favorite album to create?

“‘Everything You Want’ was certainly one of the most important for us to create. It was the one that really raised the profile of the band, and made people around the world aware of our music. The latest record we are working on now, which will be out hopefully in the first quarter of 2013, is to me the most enjoyable thing we have ever done. It is the most laid back, the most natural we have felt in the studio. I think we are really comfortable with where we stand as a band. We are not forcing anything; we’re just letting it be. But at the same time, musically, we are reaching new places that are stylistically getting into some fresh territory for us: a little bit more influence from electronic music, dance music and a little more up tempo. Sometimes we tend to be in the mid-tempo songs. And I love quicker songs that really propel you, so this record has been a real thrill for me.”

What’s going to happen after this album comes out?

“We will certainly tour behind this record, and that probably means internationally as well. I know we are going to Asia in January, and maybe we will be able to play some of those new songs then. We will see how far we can take this record. I just plan for us to be able to keep doing this for as long as we can. In the music business it’s easy to make a plan and then realize, oh crap, we need to change the plan. I think for me, we agree to keep the goals very simple; the goal is to continue to play for our fans, and continue to be grateful because ultimately it’s the fans who enable us to play music, and it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do in my life. It’s a please-and-thank-you kind of thing continuously for us. I am getting more into working with other artists as well. I hope to over time become a producer. That’s a really fun thing for me to do. And it doesn’t necessitate me being on a tour bus or in a bunk somewhere. I can be in my own bed.”

What artist would you want to work with in the future?

“The artists I want to work with are probably artists I haven’t heard of yet–that sense of wonder at hearing something brand new and exciting. I’m on a huge Elbow kick. I love that band. I just got the new Miike Snow record. I think that’s very interesting. I love working with women, too, because I am so used to the things I do as a man, that it is really refreshing to hear a woman’s voice. I’ve done it in the past a little bit, but it would be nice to find someone fresh and exciting and see what we could do.”

Categories
Arts & Life Columns Cooking Corner

Fat Free Pumpkin Cupcakes

Katie Mancino | The Bucknellian

Katie Mancino

Writer

Fat Free Pumpkin Cupcakes
75 calories, 0g fat, 20 carbs, 2g protein

I’m a total pumpkin addict, so luckily this is the time of year to make tons of pumpkin flavored things. These cupcakes are filled with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, giving it that delicious pumpkin-pie spice. You could also substitute a pumpkin-pie spice blend for these different spices. I decorated mine with a swirl of fat free Reddi-wip, a dash of cinnamon and some fall themed sprinkles. At only five additional calories (for two tablespoons), fat free Reddi-wip is a perfect low calorie alternative to frosting, and tastes fantastic on these cupcakes!

Makes 20 cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 cup Truvia Baking Blend
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 cup Silk Light Original Soymilk
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lay out cupcake liners.
  2. Blend sugars and pumpkin.
  3. Add egg whites, soymilk and spices.
  4. Mix in flour.
  5. Add two heaping tablespoons of batter per cupcake liner (about 2/3 of the way full).
  6. Bake 20 minutes.
  7. Decorate and enjoy!
Categories
Arts & Life Columns

Trend Report: How To Pull Off Peplum

Trend Report: How To Pull Off Peplum

Kate Jansen

Writer

’Tis the season of Homecoming, Halloween and other festivities. If you fear that you’ve tired your old bodycons and bustiers from last season or your nighttime wardrobe no longer does you justice, then hopefully this column will give you some guidance. In the spirit of going out, I give you the latest not-so-frightening fall trend: the peplum blouse.

Peplum blouses are form-fitting like a corset top, but with added flare. They are definitely a go-to for hiding those post-Halloween pounds that you may or may not have packed on. While doing my research on online stores such as Nasty Gal, Free People and Urban Outfitters, I have come to the conclusion that a solid-colored peplum tank or blouse would be a great investment. A black peplum tank, for example, looks chic with dark-wash or printed skinny jeans. Accessorize with flats or knee-high boots and drop earrings and you’re ready to go out.

Peplum dresses and skirts have also caught my attention. They are excellent wardrobe staples because they are formal and flirty. Urban Outfitters offers a variety of peplum dresses in print, lace and jersey material (I currently have my eye on a black lace Pins and Needles number). On the other hand, peplum skirts (see Nasty Gal for a great selection) can be paired with crop or corset tops or, if you’re attending a more formal event, a tucked-in chiffon blouse. On cool fall evenings, peplum dresses and skirts can be paired with neutral tights or leggings and ankle or knee boots.

The next time you’re looking to breach the fashion status quo or are looking for a wardrobe update, don’t let this fall’s peplum trend spook you.