Category: Arts & Life

Anna Jones

Arts & Life Editor

In his campus-wide email about the new social policy, University President John Bravman stressed that Uptown would have a larger presence on campus, and Uptown is definitely starting off strong with two events this past weekend.

Uptown hosted Jeopardy on Sept. 6. Despite having had many trivia nights in the past, they were not hosted Jeopardy before, so this was a new event. The event was extremely successful; at least 40 people participated in Jeopardy, and many others played pool or watched football at Uptown. One team won a $100 cash prize for answering the most number of questions correctly.

“They were the best group of the night. This group had great strategy for the game, and they definitely used it to their advantage, beating the other groups by a significant amount,” Uptown’s assistant manager, Greta Savickaite ’15, said.

Since the event was so successful, Uptown plans to host many more Jeopardy nights.

“The event is still pretty new, [so] we are definitely working to make it even better,” Savickaite said.

The second event at Uptown, hosted on Sept. 7, was the first Pub Night of the year. Whereas Jeopardy was open to the whole school, Pub Nights are only for students 21 and older.

“The numbers for the first one are usually lower, but we still had a great crowd,” Savickaite said.

Pub Nights are designed to give students a relaxing space to hang out with their friends.  Upon arrival at Uptown, students receive a bracelet that entitles them to three free drinks of beer or wine. They also offers snack foods to their guests.

At Pub Night people can play pool, watch sports games on TV, dance, and sing karaoke.

“[Karaoke] allows people to get on stage and sing their favorite songs while other people dance on the dance floor,” Savickaite said.

Uptown has several upcoming events, including karaoke tonight, as well as another Pub Night and a Poetry Slam on the weekend of Sept. 20. We Brake for Nobody, the University’s improv comedy troupe, will also perform at least once this semester.

Uptown plans to host its first register at the end of September.

“The register events allow various student groups and organizations to hold parties at Uptown,” Savickaite said.

Uptown will be hosting weekend events all semester long, so be sure to check the IN Network or Uptown’s Facebook page to see what’s going on.

Anna Jones

Arts & Life Editor

Fall is the season of pumpkin lattes, cozy sweaters, scarves, and falling leaves. It’s also the season when schoolwork picks up and everyone is stressed about tests, papers, and every activity on campus. Here are a few ideas of things to do around Lewisburg that can help you forget about stressful schoolwork so you can embrace the season.

Things to do: 

Ard’s Farm Market

Everyone knows the fall food at Ard’s is to die for, but not everyone knows that they also have fun things to do every fall. They have a five-acre corn maze that is now open every Saturday from noon-9 p.m. and every Sunday from noon-6 p.m. Admission is only $9 for adults. Ard’s also sells pumpkins and has hayrides to the pumpkin patch, which opens in late September.

Football Games

Football games are another fantastic fall attraction, and it’s always great to go out and support your fellow classmates on the field. Homecoming Weekend is always a fun opportunity to reconnect with alumni, as well as cheer on the Bison. This year, homecoming is Oct. 25-27, and the football game is at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26 against Lehigh. Make sure you head out to Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium for some football before it gets too cold!

Campus Theater

The Campus Theatre downtown usually has several special showings around Halloween.  Last year, they played “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” a few days before the holiday.  Creepy movies at the theatre can help get you into the spirit of Halloween!

Halloween Parade

The Lewisburg Area Recreation Authority sponsors a Halloween parade every year. Local Lewisburg kids dress up and parade through Hufnagle Park. The park is decorated for Halloween and the costumed children are absolutely adorable.

Fall Fest

Tomorrow is the University’s annual Fall Fest. There will be a giant slide, ferris wheel, games, photos, and giveaways. There will also be turkey legs and plenty of other free food. Kingsfoil, Frankie Muniz’s Pennsylvania-based band, will be returning to campus along with 3OH!3, the band that sang the popular song “Don’t Trust Me.”

Food:

The Freez

The Lewisburg Freez is not exactly a fall staple, but it is a campus-wide favorite. The last day of this year’s ice cream season is Sept. 22, just one week away. Make sure to stop in and enjoy your last trip to The Freez…that is, until March 2014.

Dunkin Donuts

Another campus favorite, Dunkin Donuts, has started serving pumpkin donuts, pumpkin muffins, and a slew of pumpkin coffee drinks. These fall foods are perfect for a Saturday or Sunday morning, and Dunkin is less than a mile from campus, so be sure to stop by and fill up on pumpkin food.

Starbucks

Starbucks has also begun to serve their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte, along with their Salted Caramel Mocha and Chocolate Chai Tea Latte. The Starbucks in the bookstore has all three drinks available. It’s well worth the walk downtown.

Elizabeth’s

Although Elizabeth’s is a more expensive option, it is well worth the money. Each season, Elizabeth’s has a new menu and the fall menu is coming soon. This downtown bistro is a perfect place to go with your parents during Family Weekend. Since the food is so good, the restaurant tends to be busy, so be sure to make a reservation if you want to try it out.

Anna Jones

Arts & Life Editor

Most students know the Campus Theatre as the one place in Lewisburg that plays some relatively current movies. What they are unaware of is that the Campus Theatre has capabilities that very few other current movie theaters have—the ability to play movies on 35-millimeter film.

On Sept. 10, the theatre used this capability to show “Paths of Glory,” a 1957 Stanley Kubrick film about World War I soldiers.

This type of film is the actual, physical filmstrip that has been used to record every movie ever created from 1895 until recently. Many film scholars regard this medium of film as the best means of film creation. Nowadays, few movies are created or shown on 35-mm film. This format is extremely expensive to ship and the filmstrips tend to wear out after many uses. Most theaters now show digital films, since they can be easily and inexpensively shipped around the world.

“You can play [a digital file] a thousand times and it’s going to look as good the thousandth time as it did the first time,” Academic Film Programmer Rebecca Meyers said.

Unfortunatly, there are disadvantages to the current digital format. First, many historical movies, including “Paths of Glory,” were created to be shown on 35-mm film. Directors realized that 35-mm film gives a specific texture to a movie and also enriches certain colors, so they specifically used these features to give their movie a certain feel.

“Blacks, for example, are very rich and beautiful on 35-mm film in a way that they’re not in digital cinema,” Meyers said.

There’s also an issue with storing movies in a digital format. Since technology evolves so quickly, there is no guarantee that a movie made today will be watchable in 50 years. Often, computer disks break down in storage or the technology changes so that old films just aren’t compatible with newer projection systems.

Film is one medium that has been used, watched, and rewatched for the entirety of movie history.

“Film prints, if they’re stored carefully, will just last and last and last,” Meyers said.

If theaters have the ability to show 35-mm film, they can show just about any film ever created, which opens audiences up to many new titles and genres that would otherwise have been forgotten.

“If you show a 35-mm film in a digital format … you’re not showing it the way it was meant to be seen,” Meyers said.

The Campus Theatre uses time and money to keep their 35-mm projector in good shape so that they can show historical films the way they were intended.

“Paths of Glory” was shown as part of the BU film series, a group of movies selected and sponsored by professors in the English, philosophy, and other departments. Many of the movies shown throughout this series are 35-mm film, and therefore offer a unique experience. The movies are free and open to the public, so any student can attend any showing.

“I want to offer a place where people can learn about and experience cinema in a way that goes beyond the boundaries of the local multiplex,” Meyers said.

The movies shown give students a deeper insight into a genre that is broad, and Meyers urges students to attend any showing possible.

For more information about the BU film series and upcoming showings, visit the Campus Theater’s website.

Ben Rees

Columnist

This summer the word “twerk” was added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online. It falls in between “twentyfold” and “tweak,” as it probably should due to its popularity among the many tweakers gyrating at astounding velocities. Perhaps if I could whip my hips like a bowl of Jell-O on a tilt-a-whirl I would feel differently about this dance, but in the grand scheme of things, I feel that popular dances have become less impressive over time.

Consider this for a second: at some point, square dancing was the bee’s knees. People would gather in barns and compete in what seemed to be the dance of an era. Now all that we have left of what was once a cultural phenomenon is learning the Cotton-Eyed Joe in elementary P.E. This is no anecdote. This is a warning. What we hold on high today as the be-all-end-all of dancing will not last. It simply cannot.

A quick set of examples will suffice to prove this point. Tchaikovsky did not write his waltzes because he thought that they would be replaced by Victorian ballroom dancing. Throughout time, hegemonies of dance appeared to be everlasting. Unfortunately for those of us who cannot pick up a routine within minutes, with ever-changing fads, we will always be left in the kicked-up dust.

I cannot assert that the twerk has no purpose. Clearly there is an element of showing off latent in how aggressively one can make their ass-cheeks resemble rogue cantaloupes. I can contend that dances have become much lazier. Cherokee war dances had a very distinct purpose, as do traditional religious dances in most every faith. Even dances where fun is the sole goal, like the Charleston and the tango, require a great deal of effort and coordination.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a new thing. Jazz hands are about as lazy as it gets. Nobody looks good flailing their digits to “When the Saints Go Marching In.” I’m not saying that all dancers today lack talent. I’m just suggesting that Cat Daddying takes a little less coordination than swing.

Whether or not I make a point is up to the reader. Perhaps my indifference towards twerking stems from my inability to shake what my mother gave me in any meaningful manner—no matter how much I practice in the mirror.

Andrew Marvin

Contributing Writer

There’s an odd, undefinable allure to the idea of a movie being so bad that it’s good. Why do we enjoy some bad movies but not others? For that matter, why do we enjoy some bad movies at all? Why “The Room” and not “The Lone Ranger?” I think that I have the answer: heart. If a movie has heart, we can enjoy it. A horrible movie can become a cultural landmark if it is made with the best intentions, even if it is not well-made. Maybe that is why “Miami Connection” is such a good “bad” movie: it was made as a passion project, and that passion shows. If our appreciation of certain movies is a measure of the degree to which they affect us, then this might accidentally be the worst masterpiece in the history of cinema.

The title can be a bit misleading. Let’s ignore the lack of articles and go straight to the first word: “Miami.” This movie doesn’t take place in Miami—at least, I don’t think it does. It takes place in Orlando, which in the scheme of things is close, but still not Miami. “Connection” implies some sort of coherence, which this movie also lacks. I’m not sure that you need coherence when the synopsis contains the phrase “roundhouse wreck-wave of crime-crushing justice.” The official summary isn’t much help past that, so I’ll try to decode the plot for your convenience:

A gang of motorcycle ninjas are terrorizing Florida and peddling what one character calls the “stupid cocaine.” They are somehow connected to a gang of bikers who are recruited by a band of newly-unemployed rockers to take down Dragon Sound: a synth-rock band comprised of Taekwondo-practicing college students. When Dragon Sound is attacked by the biker gang, they find themselves wrapped up in the conspiracy and must unleash the aforementioned roundhouse wreck-wave of crime-crushing justice on the syndicate. Looking back on that paragraph, I think that the most astounding thing about it is that I didn’t make any of it up. Even better, it takes itself completely seriously despite the bizarre story.

The plot isn’t important, though. What is important is that when “Miami Connection” gets rolling, it rolls off the rails, past the moon, and into the stars. People fight not because it makes sense for them to fight, but because this is the kind of movie where people should fight for no reason. These fights are all gloriously cheesy. For instance, the scene where Dragon Sound’s token black guy pops out of a barrel and brains a thug with a piece of rebar in a move worthy of Scooby-Doo, or when a hillbilly dances around one band member only to have his jaw pulverized. Grandmaster Y.K. Kim (the star, co-director, co-writer, and producer) takes great pride in the fact that the fights are all live-action, as are the two songs that Dragon Sound performs. One is called “Against the Ninja,” and the other is called “Friends,” and both are worth the price of admission alone.

When everything is so low-quality, why is “Miami Connection” worth watching? I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because of the infectious positivity pervading the movie. There’s no way to watch this and not appreciate the sheer amount of effort that Kim put into it as well as the message that he tries to convey without much success. As a helpful title card informs us at the end of the movie: “Only through the elimination of violence can we achieve world peace.” “Miami Connection” is fundamentally a feel-good movie even though it features a body count somewhere in the hundreds. There’s something stupidly endearing about it, something charmingly naïve, and against all odds, it is a truly enjoyable movie.

This movie was released in 1987 and recently re-released after 25 years of obscurity. Since I doubt that this will play at any local theater, you can either stream it on Netflix or order it from Drafthouse Films on DVD.

Anna Jones, Arts & Life Editor

“Awkward” may be the name of a popular MTV show, but it’s also the title of the hilarious play put on this weekend by Cap and Dagger Theatre Club.

The show was part of the 24-Hour Play Project, a program sponsored by the theatre club.

“The participants get together at the Galloway House on the first Friday night of the semester and work into the night writing the script themselves,” Madison Lane ’14 said.

The writers then perform the show they’ve created exactly 24 hours later. This year, the theme was “first impressions,” so after many hours of planning and writing, the team came up with “Awkward.”

The play began with three couples reminiscing about meeting on a dating show, followed by a flashback to the show. The rest of the play was a mash-up of flashbacks and current scenes between all three couples, with a blind character wandering aimlessly through almost every scene.

Since the show only had 24 hours to be written and practiced, it consisted of mostly short snapshot scenes from each writer.

The play was part of the Arts. Everywhere. weekend, a three-day festival in Lewisburg packed with exhibitions from almost every art outlet on campus, including theater organizations. Cap and Dagger is a theatre and networking club that draws together current students interested in theatre, as well as the University’s alumni who have gone on to pursue professional careers in theater or dance.

Though the whole club doesn’t have to participate, first-years are encouraged to contribute as a way to meet older Cap and Dagger students.

“It’s the first impression for many new Cap and Dagger members and it never disappoints,” Gabe Calleja ’16 said. “It was definitely worth the sleepless night.”

With six upperclassmen joining in on the project this year, the seven first-years were encouraged to forge bonds within the theatre community on campus.

“It’s really fun!” Lane said. “We play theater games, we get late night pizza, and our advisor comes over and helps us make breakfast in the morning.”

“The 24-Hour Play Project is wonderful because it does not focus on acting or directing or tech but … on community collaboration and … live theatre which is what the theatre department is all about,” Sam Gates ’16 said.

The 24-Hour Play Project happens every fall, and Cap and Dagger is active throughout the year. For more information about getting involved with Cap and Dagger, contact Anjalee Hutchinson, assistant professor of theatre and dance.  

1. Put all ingredients in a Ziploc bag.

2. Marinate for at least an hour in the fridge.

3. Divide shrimp evenly among four kabob skewers.

4. Grill 2-3 minutes on each side and enjoy!

 

Senior reflections

Laura Crowley

I have been involved with student newspapers since my first year of high school. I have always enjoyed meeting people through the experience and having a more intimate view of my school.

I got involved with The Bucknellian as a first-year when I started writing for Arts & Life (A&L). I wrote weekly articles and was asked to be the A&L editor my sophomore year and again during my senior year. I’ve enjoyed being a part of A&L because I am able to address relevant and important ideas through a more creative way.

I was very pleased with my section this semester and loved the continuity between issues. I was lucky to have five columnists who were always on their game and delivered solid pieces. I think the consistency of my section attracted a solid readership that enjoyed readings columns week in and week out. I’ve always found A&L unique since it has so many purposes; it brings attention to campus events, tracks trends on campus, suggests good pastimes and its two satire columns make us laugh.

Working with other members of The Bucknellian has always been inspiring to me. No matter the time of day (or night, in most cases), the staff always kept a good attitude and worked hard no matter what. Our faculty advisor, Jim Lee, consistently reviewed our issues with a careful eye and kept me on my game.

My favorite moments on The Bucknellians have certainly been the unexpected ones that often occur when most of campus is asleep. Circa 2:30 a.m. after a long Wednesday night, The Bucknellian staff is at its true peak, as we all “lose it” laughing after hours of working. I will miss being a part of this hard working, creative and smart group of people next year.

Trend Report: Summer Swimsuit Essentials

By Kate Jansen

As the final exam period rapidly approaches and the end of the school year nears, we might find ourselves daydreaming about summertime in class. Luckily I have provided a guide to this summer’s best suits that will make you a standout on the beach!

The one-piece: Do not shy away from this style this season. There are plenty of sleek and sexy one-piece swimsuits out there, you just have to know where to look. My favorite picks this season have been from Nasty Gal, Piperlime and Urban Outfitters. These suits are affordable and flirty. Try on cut out one-pieces for an edgier beach look. 

The fringe: Bohemian chic has finally hit the beach. Neon fringed bikini tops and solid bottoms are wildly popular this season! Slip on a pair of distressed jean shorts, a crochet top and sneakers over your suit for concert-ready attire. 

Color block: For a modern and chic look, stock up on neon color block bikinis this summer. I love color block styles particularly because you can mix and match tops and bottoms for a vibrant, unique look. This summer, whether you’re lounging by the pool or taking a dip in the ocean, definitely buy these swimsuit staples (and don’t forget to apply sunscreen!).