Category: Arts & Life

Categories
Arts & Life

Fall Fest: A look back

Jen Lassen
Arts & Life Editor

It’s that time of year again: the changing leaves, cool and breezy weather, wearing boots and flannels and enjoying warm apple cider all mark the return of fall on campus. What better way to celebrate the arrival of the season than with Fall Fest? This event, one of the University’s annual traditions and a favorite event for students, brings smaller-name artists to campus that still have massive appeal to the student population. In addition to the artists, the Campus Activities & Programs (CAP) Center organizes tons of different activities for students that relate to the theme of the festival each year. Take a look back at the past two years as we gear up for this year’s Fall Fest: Countrified festival!

Content for 2010 Fall Fest Photos:

In 2010, the University “went green” with a reducing, reusing and recycling themed Fall Fest. Performer Sam Adams rocked Sojka lawn and created the perfect autumn afternoon atmosphere. Free aluminum water bottles, eco-friendly crafts and even a cake with leaves made of icing made this Fall Fest a success … and one in support of a good cause.

Content for 2011 Fall Fest Photos:

Fall Fest 2011 got a dose of hip-hop flavor in Lewisburg with performers Chiddy Bang and The Cool Kids. Paired with this infusion of rap talent, students made their own spray-paint t-shirts and spin-art, while they munched on mac n’ cheese and other comfort food favorites. Inside Sojka pavilion, a colorful lights show made the afternoon an exciting and high-energy event for all.

Content for this year’s Fall Fest:

This year’s festival brings country to the heart of Lewisburg … and, truth be told, it’s about time! Country talents Gloriana, Jack Ingram and Tyler Hilton will perform at Fall Fest and create the perfect atmosphere for a laid-back afternoon. Along with listening to these performers, students can ride a Ferris Wheel (right on Sojka lawn!), enjoy delicious turkey legs and other country-themed cuisine, take an old-tyme Western photo with friends or try their hand at many different country-themed activities. So get on your boots, tie that bandana around your head and head to Sojka lawn on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. for a festival you won’t want to miss!

Categories
Arts & Life

Happy Happy Song and Dance Show dazzles Lewisburg’s children

 

Madison Lane | The Bucknellian

Local song-artist Billy Kelly and the Blahblahblahs, accompanied by six Bucknell Dance Company members, performed in “The Happy Happy Song and Dance Show,” a children’s performance. This debut event occurred Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. The performance included 10 dance pieces, one of which was performed by children from the local area.

“I thought the kids were really into it and they got everyone, even Bucknell students and parents, to dance with them,” Kelsey Fletcher ’14 said.

“I went to the show to support my friends and the dance program and I ended up having just as much fun as the kids! It was very funny and entertaining, and I had a great time,” Jackie D’Aquila ’14 said.

Tickets were $10 for adults and $5 for children, with a $15 family rate.

Madison Lane | The Bucknellian
Melissa Dunne ’15 gets hoisted in the air by her fellow dancers. The performance included nine dance pieces by students.
Categories
Arts & Life Rees' Pieces

Rees’ Pieces: May You Have a Short and Low Budget Life

Ben Rees
Writer

I was seriously disturbed after seeing the somewhat recent movie “Chernobyl Diaries,” or rather, the trailer (I’m sure you don’t walk away with much more after seeing the whole thing). It wasn’t the mutated goblin-people that got to me, nor was it the blood and gore. Instead, what truly scared me was the realization that people have a strange fixation, no, obsession with death. This morose obsession does not revolve around the consistent, inescapable encroachment of death; rather, it is fueled by our sick desire to not only see, but also comprehend all of the horrendous ways a human body can be destroyed. The simple Braveheart-esque sword plunge has lost its entertainment factor and now is being replaced by things like putting someone’s limbs in an automatic pencil sharpener, fueled by an electric current from a 1987 Honda battery into his unsuspecting nipples.

According to Spike TV’s last chance at any sort of ratings, there are “1000 Ways to Die.”  Why do we need to know all the obscure ways that our heads can possibly be smashed? It’s because we are constantly undergoing a kind of desensitization. Remember “ER?” The show ran from 1994-2009, making it a program that effectively spanned the equivalent of a millennium in the special effects galaxy. Even when blood looked like nothing more than barbeque sauce, in the early 90s, people grimaced and cringed. Even a few years ago, during the Mel Gibson “sugar-tits” era, “The Passion of the Christ” was thought to be the most graphic thing on the big screen. Since then, we have greatly surpassed anything that was thought up by “Mad Max.”

What happened? Why do we need to see horrible things happen to unsuspecting, innocent people? In these movies, the person who usually gets caught in a paper shredder isn’t even a bad individual. We’ve moved passed karma and have become fans of indiscriminate robo-shark attacks.

I’ll tell you what happened. We are bored. As people, we’ve become so accustomed to immediate gratification that we no longer care about what happens between the start of the movie and when the characters are killed off. We’ve written off all engagement in plot, and all we want to see is when the mutant bats eat someone’s eyes out. The best proof of this transformation I can give is this: when any group of people get together to watch the Oscars, absolutely nobody there has seen even half of the nominated films. I don’t just mean the obscure silent ones from New Guinea, but even the pictures that have a good deal of cinematic quality were unseen, which apparently nobody wanted to because it was over two hours long and didn’t show Channing Tatum’s testicles in 3D.

I don’t mean to accuse these low budget films of being total wastes of space and time, but please do yourselves and the greater American populace a favor: one time this year, just once, go and see a quality movie with a deep plot line. You’ll feel good about yourself and maybe, just maybe, you’ll enjoy a movie without a disemboweling scene.

Categories
Arts & Life Campus Events

Molina-Guzman investigates “Latina y Latino” culture normatives re-defined by today’s media sources

 

Courtesy of Vincent Stephens

Jen Lassen

Arts & Life Editor

Media is a force not limited to words in a newspaper or images on a screen. It has the ability to pervade across cultures and backgrounds, portraying people differently than who they actually are and what they truly stand for. Knowing this, Dr. Isabel Molina-Guzman has uncovered the secrets of mass media and how different forms of media skew our perceptions of Latinos.

Molina-Guzman, a nationally recognized critic of Latinos in the media and author of the best-selling book “Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media,” gave a speech in the Traditional Reading Room of the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. Her talk, entitled “Performing Latina Racial Flexibility in the ‘Post’ Media World,” focused on the portrayal of Latin American persons in the media through images, television shows, interviews and online content. She also focused on how these various mediums collectively paint inaccurate pictures of Latinos in a “post” world, one supposedly looking past racial differences and becoming more progressive as a population.

“We’re being told by politicians in media that race, gender, ethnicity and sexuality don’t matter or shouldn’t play a role in our policies. Reality is, we’re living in a United States that is increasingly diverse,” Molina-Guzman said.

Molina-Guzman pointed out how in the United States alone, Hispanic student enrollment has increased year after year. Connecting this to her points about globalization taking force in the United States, Molina-Guzman’s passion lies in critically analyzing values our culture assigns to ethnic and racial minorities.

“Media functions as a normalizing institution. This means that the media reinforces dominant normatives,” Molina-Guzman said.

Basing her presentation off of these “normatives” about Latinos already present in the United States and the stereotypes possibly associated with these people and/or their culture, Molina-Guzman focused on three case studies of Latina women to enforce her argument. These women included actress Sofia Vergara, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez and model and actress Zoe Saldana.

Molina-Guzman focused on how each woman was pressured to conform in different ways to the American normative for Latina women. For example, she highlighted how the pressures on reality television show “Modern Family” forced Vergara into the normative of a Latina “spitfire,” how relationships with white and black celebrities made Jennifer Lopez conform to different Latina racial connotations and how Saldana’s blackness as a Latina pressured her to fit into–and become defined by–a unique group of Hispanic women.

Her three case studies proved her point that media also constantly feels pressure to conform to a certain standard of normatives present in a country.

“Media is under a constant pressure to conform to the same model,” Molina-Guzman said.

Molina-Guzman also pointed out how there has been a significant increase in Latino actors in media overall. She also makes the point how the demand for these professionals has caused most of them to compromise their cultures for profitable gain.

“Media consumption is more partisan than ever before. This highly selective media consumption influences how we see the world,” Molina-Guzman said.

Students had differing reactions to Molina-Guzman’s speech.

“I disagreed with most of what [Molina-Guzman] talked about. We also need to consider other things like the creative team for a celebrity’s image versus just looking at the artist themselves,” Kiara Huertas ’14 said.

“I liked that Bucknell brought a speaker to talk about Latino culture and social problems. I thought that was very important,” Angel Hernandez ’13 said.

Molina-Guzman concluded by discussing how media portrayal of Latinos leaves us blind to how we should view the reality behind these cultures.

“The poverty levels [of Latino culture] in the United States are striking, and the reality of it all is hard to avoid,” Molina-Guzman said.

If there is one thing to take away from Molina-Guzman’s talk, it is that media has the striking power to distort and deceive.

“I argue that post-media and post-gender and post-ethnic notions matter in our ‘post-race,’ progressive world than ever before,” Molina-Guzman said.

Categories
Arts & Life

Interview with Professor of Education Sue Ellen Henry

 

Courtesy of Sue Ellen Henry

Anna Jones

Writer

Associate Professor of Education Sue Ellen is an anomaly: she not only works inside the classroom, but outside as well, making her love of education known with everything she does.

Henry plays a number of roles at the University. This is her first faculty teaching position; however, she did a little teaching as a graduate student at the University of Virginia. Here on campus, she is a senior fellow of the Social Justice Residential College and takes care of tenure for staff members.

She has been at the University for 16 years and she says she’s stayed so long because of the people and the potential that people have on this campus.

“I experience this place as a place that wants to be better. I appreciate working with colleagues who are dedicated to good thinking, relevant thinking and enduring thinking,” Henry said.

Henry sees many places at the University where students can make an impact, and she appreciates that. 

“I enjoy having really good conversations about a social institution that is so central to our society,” Henry said.

Her view regarding the importance of education classes shows how dedicated she is to professing the value of this privilege.

“In the United States, we don’t all share the same language or the same religion; we don’t all eat the same food or watch the same TV shows. The two things I can say with relative certainty that you’ve experienced, if you grew up in the United States, are going to the mall and public schools,” Henry said.

She feels strongly that the public education system is a central institution of our society that connects people, relating to her role as a Senior Fellow of the Social Justice Residential College.

“Once you’re done with your education in the public schools, you can’t avoid people who have been educated by the public schools,” said Henry.

Henry also discussed the importance of majoring in education and its impact on the people who study the system.

“There are two kinds of education majors: those who have known that they want to be teachers since third grade–and that’s lovely–and those who wish to get involved with education at a different level. The first kind of people see a connection between schooling and society and want to be integrally involved. The other type can get a B.A. and work on education from a policy-making level, a guidance level, a higher education level or a children’s publishing or advocacy level. We still have an opportunity to reach education majors at a lot of different levels,” Henry said.

In addition to her main role as a professor, Henry has been on the University Review Committee for three years, and this year, she’s the co-chair. This committee is a group of elected faculty and administration that conducts university-level reviews for retention, tenure and promotion of the University’s faculty. 

“I believe it is an important function of the University to review faculty and make recommendations to the president and Board of Trustees about something as important as tenure. Tenure is important because it makes sure faculty remain active and free and are available to do the critical thinking that we need in this age,” Henry said.

Categories
Arts & Life

Trend Report: Lace it up!

Kate Jansen

Writer

Trend Report: Lace it Up!

I think the first time I wore anything lace was Easter of 1997. My mom forced me to wear an awful floor-length frock that looked more like a white Christmas tree than it did a dress. With my hair done up in pink ribbons to match my atrocious loafers, I vowed never to wear anything lacy again.

While shopping at Free People a decade and a half later, I was able to put my personal vendetta aside. For those of you who don’t know Free People well, their look is a unique marriage of bohemian chic and edgy designs. I immediately picked out a knee-length frock with lace embroidery. Since then, lace has been one of my favorite materials. It is girly, flirty and, unlike your grandmother’s doilies and decorative curtains, it can be worn many different ways.

If anything, you should have a lace dress in your wardrobe. Lace dresses are yet another hot trend this fall; visit any major department store and they’ll probably have a specialized section dedicated to lacy frocks. I’d definitely advise any fashion-lover to invest in a lace dress, mostly because they’re the easiest outfit to put together. Throw on a pair of flats or loafers and you’ll have an elegant ensemble.

Contrary to my previous perspective, I am now in love with anything lace. Last summer I purchased a pair of lace Toms, which added a feminine flair to my everyday outfit (jeans and a plain t-shirt). I have found that lace shirts are perfect for layering under cardigans or pairing with dark-wash jeans, and scalloped lace shorts are adorable with a solid-colored oxford shirt or simple blouse. Lace scarves are also subtle enough accessories to jazz up any outfit.

So where are the best places to buy lacy clothing? Excuse my bias, but Free People, Urban Outfitters and Nasty Gal probably have the best selections of lace collections. Shop on.

Categories
Arts & Life Books Movies Review

“Safety Not Guaranteed” keeps audience guessing

Carolyn Williams
Senior Writer

Director Colin Trevorrow’s first foray into the realm of feature films makes quite a splash with the irrepressibly offbeat “Safety Not Guaranteed.”

Jeff (Jake Johnson), an irritatingly cocky Seattle magazine editor, encounters an unusual anonymous want ad which inspires a story. The advertisement reads: “Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed.” With the help of two less-than-enthusiastic interns, the dour, sarcastic Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and the meekly disinterested Arnau (Karan Soni), Jeff heads off to Ocean View in search of the ad’s author.

After an unpromising start (Jeff, in his smugness, manages to alarm the target of their investigation within seconds), Darius grudgingly takes the investigative lead, winning the very paranoid Kenneth’s trust (Mark Duplass) with a combination of deadpan and black comedy. Once she passes the test personality-wise, extensive training ensues. Kenneth, who believes he is being followed by government agents, also claims to have built a time machine, and plans to return to 2001 to stop his girlfriend from dying. Scenes of target practice and stamina building between the new partners continue, but even as the pair begins to grow closer, Darius strictly maintains her undercover role.

Jeff, meanwhile, has revealed that the real reason he wanted to go to Ocean View after all was to track down an old high school girlfriend. Though initially disappointed that two decades have aged her, their romance actually serves to humanize the otherwise intolerable Jeff character. He is further improved when he helps the painfully shy Arnau finally get some much-needed action.

Audience members connected with the film’s storytelling and overall message.

“‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ proves that good movies don’t need to have big name actors,” moviegoer Steve Kluemper said.

“[It was] an unexpected and quirky film that had the audience rooting for the underdog to do the impossible,” said Emily Conners ’14.

All that remains to be seen is what happens with the supposed time machine. “Safety Not Guaranteed” keeps you guessing until the very end, successfully utilizing a cast of mainly television actors and a script full of comical dialogue to evoke a real-life sort of science fiction which, like its characters, is definitely worth the benefit of the doubt.

Categories
Arts & Life Columns Cooking Corner

Cooking Corner: Double Chocolate Mini Muffins!

 

Katie Mancino | The Bucknellian

Katie Mancino

Staff Writer

Double Chocolate Mini Muffins!

38 calories, 1g fat, 9 carbs, 1g protein

These little muffins are a perfect healthy snack and will really satisfy that chocolate craving! They’re quick and easy to make in a total of 20 minutes and keep well in the freezer. I like to toss a few mini muffins in small Ziploc bags and freeze them so I always have healthy treats around. They’re excellent when warmed in the microwave, too!

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Land O’ Lakes Light Butter
1 egg white
1/4 cup Vanilla Silk Light Soymilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Truvia Baking Blend
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp mini chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C) and spray mini muffin tin with nonstick spray.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add soymilk, egg white and vanilla.
4. Mix in everything else.
5. Add 2-3 teaspoons of batter to each mini muffin cup (about 3/4 of the way full).
6. Bake for 15 minutes.

Categories
Arts & Life Restaurants Review

Stay Sweet Cupcakery

 

Emily Guillen | The Bucknellian
White chocolate raspberry cupcake from the Stay Sweet Cupcakery.

Emily Guillen
Editor-in-Chief

With cupcakes being all the rage right now, I wanted to try Lewisburg’s latest foray into the fad: the Stay Sweet Cupcakery.

Located next to The Bull Run Inn at 611 Market St., the shop offers cupcakes, ice cream, Italian cream sodas and other sweet treats. There is also a shop located on S. Market Street in Selinsgrove.

I decided to test six cupcakes and an Italian cream soda. Among the many cupcake offerings, my dining partner and I chose to taste chocolate peanut butter swirl, white chocolate raspberry, chocolate with vanilla buttercream frosting, Boston cream, red velvet with cream cheese frosting and black and white.

The chocolate peanut butter swirl was definitely the favorite of the six. The chocolate cake was moist with a creamy peanut butter and fudge swirled icing. The taste resembled a really creamy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Unfortunately, our second pick in the cupcake draft turned out to be a disappointment.  The white chocolate raspberry’s pink icing looked amazing but fell flat. It was way too sweet and neither the cake nor the icing had a strong enough raspberry flavor.

To make it worse, we found the chocolate with vanilla buttercream frosting to be a bit of a disappointment with bland flavor and overly sweet icing.

I didn’t particularly care for the Boston cream cupcake, but my partner in food review crime enjoyed it, except for the slightly stale cake portion.

The red velvet cupcake brought the Stay Sweet Cupcakery back into my good graces.  With red velvet cake and cream cheese icing as one of my favorite combinations, I was pleased to find the cake moist and the icing fluffy.

 

Emily Guillen | The Bucknellian
Black & white cupcake from the Stay Sweet Cupcakery.

The black and white, while fairly traditional (chocolate cupcake, vanilla icing with a small shot of chocolate icing in the middle), kept me interested. The little shot of chocolate gave a nice kick to the classic.

After seeing the Italian cream sodas on the menu, I decided to top off my cupcake meal with a raspberry soda. While delicious, it was a little sweet and its creaminess left me feeling a little heavy.

Overall, the bakery had some highs and some lows, but I recommend you check it out. The only things to note are the prices. For a small, rural town like Lewisburg, $2.55 per cupcake seems a little high. At least the slightly discounted prices of $15 for six and $28 for a dozen are a little more reasonable.

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 12 to 8 p.m.

Categories
Arts & Life

Sweet & Savory

 

Emily Guillen | The Bucknellian

Emily Guillen | The Bucknellian

Jen Lassen
Arts & Life Editor

Sick of the Bostwick Marketplace Cafeteria or the Bison? Want a way to spice up your Friday evening dining plans? Look no further than Downtown Lewisburg!

Recently, some quality eateries have been added to Lewisburg’s restaurant roster. These include: Siam Cafe, Sushi Hanna and Bella’s Bliss Bakery. Also, a fourth dining option will soon join this exciting trifecta: Mercado Burrito will open soon in the much-missed Market Street Deli storefront.

Food trucks are also springing up on Market Street and on our very own campus. The addition of the Flying Bison food truck to the University last semester has given students a quick way to get tasty and quality foods (think spring rolls and turkey pretzel sandwiches) right outside of the engineering buildings on weekdays or Vedder Hall on weekend evenings. Downtown, a Thai food truck has made weekly appearances to offer students and town members food with international flair right in the heart of Pennsylvania.

With all of these new dining options on and around campus, Lewisburg is starting to feel as metropolitan as ever. Seemingly, our little “bubble” is bursting with not only national and international food phenomena, but tons of flavor, too!