Category: Arts & Life

By Rob O’Donnell
Columnist

This is a review I have been waiting to write for about two years. No stranger has had more profound an impact on my life than Bob Dylan, and no album has ever captured Dylan’s sound as honestly as “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.” As much as I love to pretend otherwise, this is not 1963, so this album is considered out of date by many of you. But this is the man who would later revolutionize the entire music industry, from pop to rock to blues to folk and others. With one song, “Like A Rolling Stone,” called the best song ever recorded by Rolling Stone Magazine, he completely changed the music scene until this very day. He is even considered the godfather of rap, with his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” These songs are from later albums, but you now understand that Dylan is not only relevant to modern music, he is essential. And it all started with his second album, “Freewheelin’.”

After Dylan’s first album, comprised mostly of traditional folk covers, failed in sales, many people dismissed him. But his next album changed the entire folk scene for years to come, and was a major part of the 1960s folk revival. The scene started becoming mainstream with people riding on his coattails until Dylan himself killed its momentum a few years later by going electric. But this album was before that “controversy,” and so it is not important (I believe he was right, by the way).

The first thing most listeners will say about Dylan is that he cannot sing. Whenever people tell me that, I ask them to listen to this album and then I walk away, never to speak to them again. Songs like “Girl From the North Country” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” completely disprove this claim. He has a very raw and untamed voice, but after you get over the shock of it, it’s hauntingly beautiful. 

The lyrics are obviously the album’s strongest feature. Songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Oxford Town,” and “Masters of War” are topical protest songs that had huge influences on the civil rights movement. He would later dismiss them as “finger-pointing songs,” but they are jaw-dropping. He has songs about broken hearts and nuclear war right next to each other, but they make sense together, since the lyrics can be applied to the human condition in general. Take “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” for example. It is a song that many think is about the atomic bomb, but it is about the poverty of the world and the cold-heartedness of the general public. It encompasses pretty much every topic in a sweeping, seven-minute long song. I can’t think of a more fitting song for the end of the semester than “Bob Dylan’s Dream,” the most heartbreaking song about nostalgia and old friendships coming to an end.

So if you need an album for that long car ride home or to just procrastinate studying for finals, you need this album. If you have any interest in history, you need this album. If you have any interest in music, you need this album. If you have any interest in literature or poetry, you need this album. Basically, if you’re a person and you like things, you need this album. 

By Sonali Basak
Senior Writer

The grand re-opening of the University Environmental Center’s sustainable backyard will take place today (Arbor Day) from 4 to 6 p.m.

The yard was built in 2004 and has grown significantly since then. Former Environmental Club president Becca Shopiro ’12 said they have taken a standard-size backyard and planted native species to make it a sustainable garden that can be recreated virtually anywhere.

“There are so many plants now that they are giving many of them away,” Shopiro said.

The growth seen in perennials planted when the project started shows how sustainable the garden truly is.

“I appreciate how they have so many native species. It doesn’t look like a typical garden. It looks natural,” Shopiro said. 

Cathy Curran Myers, interim executive director of the Environmental Center, will begin the event with a welcome message. Throughout the event there will be tours of the garden and all of its features: native plants, organic vegetable gardens, solar panels, rain barrels for storm water collection and a compost bin.

In the front yard, visitors can find information on woodland plantings and light refreshments. The new walkway reuses flagstones from one of the relocated fraternity buildings. The walkway provides storm water management by retaining rain and snow under the surface with a 16-inch gravel foundation.

The creation of the sustainable back yard was part of the larger Campus Greening Initiative. This initiative sees to create greater sustainable resources on campus and create a residential learning environment. Other parts of the initiative include storm water retention innovations, promoting a walking campus and creating energy efficient buildings.

Shopiro said one of the visions of the initiative is to have outdoor learning labs where students can have better opportunities to learn about storm water retention, civil and environmental learning and restoration of natural habitats.

“It’s a pretty magnificent place, though a lot of people don’t know about it,” said Melinda Thomas ’12, vice president of the Environmental Club.

Thomas interns at the Environmental Center and has seen the cleanup of the garden, the new pathways formed and the many potted plants available for giveaways.

The Environmental Center is located on One Dent Drive across from the Observatory. Today’s event is free and open to the public. The native plant giveaway is first come, first served.

By Sonali Basak

Senior Writer

The Rooke Chapel Choir will embark on its annual tour in Europe on May 21, the day after Commencement. The choir will travel until May 30.

Current seniors are also attending. “I am thrilled to be attending this year as well,” Nicole Lake ’12 said. “It is a perfect way to cap off my Bucknell experience with some of my closest friends sharing beautiful music around the world.”

First-year choir members are equally excited for the tour. Katie Long ’15 said she has already seen photos of the trip and the locations are “absolutely beautiful.” The group is led by professor of music Dr. William Payn, whom the group “loves and adores,” Lake said.

This year, the group will tour Italy, Slovenia and Croatia through the company Encore Tours. Last year, the group toured Poland and the Czech Republic. Two years ago, the group toured the U.K. and Greece.

Lake said there are concerts scheduled, but the group also does a lot of improvisational singing.

“When we were in Greece two years ago, we spontaneously sang in one of the ancient amphitheaters and of course for people who were just curious as to what we sounded like,”  she said.

Becca Nelson ’12 and Matt Micco ’12 were the tour coordinators this year. According to Nelson, the tour was set last March and the group had a choice between going to just Slovenia, or Slovenia, Italy and Croatia.

“We couldn’t imagine passing up the opportunity to perform in Venice,” Nelson said. “I’m most excited to sing in really old venues. Since most of these buildings were built before sound systems were invented, the rooms are designed to have phenomenal acoustics.”

The group will get time to explore each city and sing to different audiences. Their itinerary first brings them to Venice, Italy where they will sing in Chiessa San Rocco, then they will head to Ljubljana, Slovenia and discover Slovenian caves and perform at St. James’ Church. Of all the venues the choir will perform in, Nelson is most excited to sing in these caves.

Next, the group will travel to Dubrovnik, Croatia where they will explore Split, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, and sing at St. Ignatius Church.

“Chapel Choir is so special because we all are capable of creating such beautiful music together and I am really looking forward to being able to do this in an equally beautiful venue. As a first-year, I feel incredibly privileged to have been given this opportunity, and I cannot wait for tour,” Long said.

The choir plans to sing a range of songs it has sung throughout the year. This tour is one of many accomplishments for the choir, which is most well-known for its Christmas Candlelight Service each winter, aired on PBS. The choir sings at Rooke Chapel Protestant Service about three times each month and occasionally at churches in the Lewisburg area. The Chapel Choir Spring Concert will be at 7:30 p.m. this Sunday in Rooke Chapel, when the group will sing what they have prepared for the tour.

“I adore the music that we make together and think that we are one of Bucknell’s hidden gems and that we are so privileged to be able to share this music with the world,” Lake said.

By Heather Hennigan
Contributing Writer

Even on a small campus, it seems students can do anything that they want to.

Earlier this semester, The Bucknell University Fly Fishers, abbreviated BUFF, was formed. The club is open to students, both graduate and undergraduate, as well as faculty and staff members.

Club members don’t just grab a pole and run to the river to fish; members practice new fishing techniques, refine their casting and fly-tying abilities, share stream reports and learn about the most successful fishing patterns and times.

Throughout the semester, the club has met twice a month at the Environmental Center and even offered open fly-tying sessions for those interested in learning how to tie their own flies.

BUFF also explored rod building, knots and leader construction. The club embarked on various fishing trips, listened to guest speakers, took field trips to fish hatcheries and visited stream restoration and habitat improvement sites, all while learning about aquatic ecology.

Members gathered at local places such as Penns Creek, White Deer Creek, Spring Creek and Fishing Creek to fish, and participated in a stream cleanup along with other service projects.

Doing all these projects has already gained BUFF a respectable reputation on campus. Seemingly off the beaten path, this club offers students yet another outlet to do what they love or explore something they have never tried.

For more information about this club, visit www.eg.bucknell.edu/sri/flyfishingclub or follow the fishers on Twitter @ BUFlyFishing.

By Jen Lassen
Arts & Life Editor

Jazz is greatly appreciated at our University. Through efforts like the Jazz at Bucknell series and the Janet Weis Cabaret Jazz series, this genre of music is highly celebrated and valued on campus.

Last Friday, April 20 in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, the Bucknell Jazz Band performed its spring concert featuring guest artist Chris Vadala. Vadala, a soprano saxophonist from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is the director of jazz studies and saxophone professor at the University of Maryland, where he is also a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.

The Bucknell Jazz Band consists of 22 members; five of the current members will graduate this May.

The band is comprised of a saxophone section, a trombone section, a trumpet section and a rhythm section that includes piano, vibes, bass, drums and a vocalist.

In Friday’s concert, the band and Vadala performed 10 selections. The show began with “Manteca,” an upbeat, precise piece that showcased the band’s brass section.

“I’ve been to many of Bucknell’s student concerts and the Jazz Band is always my favorite! They play really fun music,” Chris Jarvis ’15 said.

An uncommon element of the concert included featuring combination soloist performances. Twin brothers Zach Berliner ’15, a saxophonist, and Josh Berliner ’15, a trombonist, performed a collaborative solo during the second song.

“Students this semester performed lots of different combos together; it was a great thing we did,” band director Barry Long said.

After the band performed their set alone, guest artist Vadala joined the stage and finished out the last five songs with the group.

Another part of the concert included the world premiere of “Birdie’s Day.” This piece, a rendition of the popular jazz song “Bye Bye Blackbird” directed by Rick Hirsch, was commissioned by the Bucknell Jazz Band during Vadala’s performance.

“I really enjoy the program. It’s a great way for us to have a ton of fun working on and performing some great jazz charts, improving our chops playing with fellow Bucknellians and getting a break from our other classes. Most of us in the ensemble are engineers, so this is a great change of pace from our daily classwork,” pianist Doug Bogan ’13 said.

“The concert was definitely one of our best, which is all you can hope for as a graduating senior. Having some professionals in the band definitely kept us really positive and high-energy,” Alexandre Apfel ’12 said.

By Carolyn Williams
Senior Writer

This weekend, Ali Keller ’12 is directing Paula Vogel’s groundbreaking play “How I Learned to Drive” in Tustin Studio Theatre. The play, which rocked the theatre world with its honesty, humor and shock value, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998, telling the story of a young girl’s sexual initiation by her uncle at the age of 11 via her remembrances of the driving lessons he gave her.

Our narrator, Li’l Bit (we only ever learn her family’s nickname for her), played by Emily Hooper ’14, is an intelligent but naïve girl whose family and friends acknowledge her only for her prematurely large breasts. Surrounded by a negative and ignorant family unit (her mother had Li’l Bit in her teens, her grandmother is a religious zealot and her grandfather an unapologetic sexist), she turns to her Uncle Peck (Banner White ’14), a traumatized veteran, recovering alcoholic and the only member of her family who is kind to her.

Peck supports Li’l Bit’s plan to go to college, despite the unenthusiastic response of the rest of the family. He hopes that when she comes legally of age, she will allow him to finally have sex with her after years of molestation, but Li’l Bit, finally able to speak up for herself, has other ideas.

Told in fluid bursts of anachronistic plot intermixed with chapter-like headings out of a driving manual, “How I Learned to Drive” tells a story which is all too real, a love story no one wants to hear. The romantic moments in the play are uncomfortable and taboo, but there is real emotion behind them. Li’l Bit is too desperate for affection of any kind to be able to let go of Peck without feeling the loss of his devotion as well. We have a sympathetic portrait of a molester, a confusion inversion of the stereotypical “bad guy,” and a victim who is unsure of the extent of her victimization, an even more confused–and distinctly less calculating–Lolita.

“All I can really ask of people is that they think the show is entertaining and they feel like they’ve had a conversation and a personal connection with the show by the time its over,” Keller said.

The supporting cast includes Eliza Macdonald ’14, Gwenn Gideon ’15 and C.J. Fujimura ’13. Performances are in Tustin Studio Theatre on April 28 at 2 p.m., April 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5.

By Jen Lassen
Arts & Life Editor

Dance as an art form is often expressed by many but only truly captured by some. Fortunately, students at our university encapsulate this art form every single year.

One such moment is during the annual Choreographer’s Showcase. Today at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the Tustin Studio Theatre, come watch the Showcase directed by University students. Tickets are $5 and are on sale at the Campus Box Office, online and at the bookstore for guaranteed seating. There will be tickets at the door for any remaining available seats, but the shows are expected to sell out.

The showcase highlights various types of dance and is a culmination of efforts from many different groups on campus. A majority of the pieces represent the final works of students enrolled in DANC 262: Dance Composition. The show also includes performances by the participants of the Chinese Watersleeves, Modern I and Jazz I technique classes, as well as student groups including Irish Step and The Bisonettes.

“It has been exciting to see how the diverse array of personalities and styles of the students in the class are reflected in their individual pieces,” said Dana Chernock ’12, a dance minor and co-director of the showcase. “The show is very collaborative and highlights the sense of community that runs through the Department of Theatre and Dance. Many of the choreographers are also dancing in their peers’ pieces, so they experience both sides of the creative process and are able to support one another along the way.” 

“The showcases each semester have a variety of styles and ideas, but what makes the spring Choreographer’s Showcase great is that the choreographers from the dance composition class are getting to explore their own personal movement, many of them for the first time. It’s good to see the final product of their learning process and all the creativity they bring,” said co-director Erin Ilic ’12, also a dance minor.

This performance will showcase the variety of talents offered in our University’s dance program, everything from Irish step dancing to modern jazz. Associate professor of dance Kelly Knox said the showcase is “a dynamic journey through the gamut of dance.”

“We have a large, fantastic group of dedicated and talented dancers who work hard and are extremely supportive of one another. Each one of them has their own style and strengths, and by working so well together they make each other better dancers and make for a great show,” Ilic said.